I'm sure you know that this is a three-day weekend; the last of the summer to boot.  Which means a lot of people--even die-hard fans--will be thinking, "Boy, I could get a head-start of I leave now, but then I'd miss TRMS."  That last part is hard enough.  But now you had to go an tantalize folks with the "butt-breathing turtle".  How, I ask, can anyone even think of going off without having heard Rachel's and/or Kent's  (ahem) "poop" on that one?

The best-laid plans, mice, men, aglay, all that.

:cheese:

"We are here on Earth to fart around.  Don't let anyone tell you different."--Kurt Vonnegut
"I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world."--Socrates
Dulce bellum inexpertis

The Apparent Trap: Were Craig's civil rights violated?

Let me be clear from the start: I'm not advocating or condoning sexual behavior in public. But setting up a sting operation in a public  men's restroom and pressuring the suspect/victim to confess when no overt sexual behavior was committed would appear to be a violation of Larry Craig's civil rights....

By defining any sort of homosexual activity as immoral behavior, homosexuals were presumed guilty before being proven innocent just by being homosexual, whether or not anyone could prove any sort of same-sex contact had taken place. Such presumption is reflected in the airport officer's (mis)leading interrogation while attempting to obtain a "confession" from Larry Craig.

Here's former attorney and Air America host Lionel's intelligent take on the Craig "entrapment": WELL, IT'S OFFICIAL; LARRY CRAIG IS GUILTY OF NOTHING : "Whether Craig’s gay and whether he may have solicited someone before are irrelevant considerations.  This “prior bad acts” evidence would most probably be excluded via a pretrial motion in limine.  As far as this case goes, Craig was guilty of nothing.  Nada.  This cop should be reprimanded for, er, blowing the case.  His hastiness in, er, pinching Craig in this ex-prosecutor’s opinion was an indicium of shoddy police work.  No jury or trier of fact could or would have found Craig guilty of anything.  Again, why he pleaded guilty is a mystery.  As far as I’m concerned, the last time I checked, an acquittal was a good thing and rather dispositive of the matter.  So go figure. ... As ol’ Elliot Ness, the men’s room stall centurion, quipped (I swear): He didn’t want to turn this into a, er, pissing match.  Well, too late."

If you weren't already aware, all airport areas, including restrooms, now have 24/7 camera surveillance. If Craig indeed committed some sort of sexual misconduct, why didn't Karsnia tell him, "We have you on camera"? And why not produce the actual video of the purported activity, instead of the audio of the arresting officer's leading interrogation? Because there was no crime committed.

If you just want to prevent cruising in men's rooms, put up a prominent sign saying THIS AREA UNDER VIDEO SURVEILLANCE. That's enough to make any man's woody go south – well, except the most severe voyeurs, perhaps. On the other hand (the one not waving under the stall divider), if you want to trap closeted queers, put undercover cops in toilet stalls when they should be attending to more important security matters in an international airport.

So, while Larry Craig's case may not then construed as entrapment, he would appear to have been trapped. The difference is in the intention of the law officer. But in either case, it appears that Craig's civil rights were violated.

Whether or not Larry Craig is heterosexual, he has the opportunity for a whopper of a lawsuit against Officer Karsnia. If he pursues that, GLBTQ activists might find themselves in the very queer position of having to defend Senator Craig's civil liberties to be (and behave like) a homosexual, whether or not he actually is homosexual.

Labor Day reading: Design and Analysis a Researchers Handbook 4th edition. By Keppel and Wickens.

I hope that your reading is more on the lighter side, say Armed Madhouse or Screwed.

Cui bono
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Maron Double Master Blogger #7

LOUISVILLE CARDINALS TOMAHAWKED MURRY STATE 73-10

The crooked NBA ref said "Don't look at me, I didn't do it!"

On another note Danny Glover (Sgt. Murtaugh) said after the clip Rachel played " DIMPLOMATIC IMMUNITY!" "It's just been revoked!"

Paraphilic infantilism is a paraphilia characterized by the desire to wear diapers and be treated as a helpless infant. One who engages in infantilistic play is known as an adult baby (AB). About one in three adult babies is also a diaper lover (DL) so they are collectively known as AB/DLs. The majority of infantilists are heterosexual males.

This from wikipedia

This what David Vitter was into when he went to the D.C. Madam. We studied this psyche class, some who engage in this have mother fetish. They liked to be taken care of.

O.k., I promise, no more 1st-day-of-school anecdotes ... after this one (and, well, until the next one):

This past week, I met my 4 new first-year advisees and discussed their academic programs for the start of their college careers.  Our students don't declare a major until the end of their 4th semester, so the first-years only have academic "preferences," per se.  But our Dean's Office does a good job of matching first-years interested in science with advisers from science depts. 

Anyhoo, in what may be a world record, one of my advisees emailed me this morning (time stamp, 2:22am) with a stream-of-consciousness message -- the train of thought is priceless -- saying she wants to transfer.  I should add that this student has been on campus for FIVE days and has not yet even set foot in a single classroom or lab.  Ah, 18-year-olds, they crack me up.  :)  

Neo-cons and their progenitors have been using it for years to tar "lib'ruls" with the brush of hypocrisy.  Bun now we have Ed Gillespe stating:  "The fact is that Sen. Craig pled guilty to a crime, and therefore was convicted of a crime. Sen. Vitter has not been charged with a crime, let alone convicted of one. So there's a pretty big distinction here."  Pretty big if you're talking to Fox "News", anyway.  It would seem that fine legal distinctions do indeed take primacy over questions of ethics, at least when the GOP is involved.

Or, to put it another way, apparently what matters is, to quote the much-maligned (by the right) ex-VP Al Gore: "controlling legal authority".

"We are here on Earth to fart around.  Don't let anyone tell you different."--Kurt Vonnegut
"I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world."--Socrates
Dulce bellum inexpertis