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Monday, July 21, 2003
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Kobe On Trial
Holy buckets! I checked my referrer rankings today, and found that I was well ahead of my pace, ranking about 11th on the Salon blogs list. My head quickly swelled to hydrocephalic proportions, as I thought: "Of course my hits are up. All of these people who read the Pipeline have been waiting for new content. They are practically begging for new material, checking in each hour on the hour for my latest musings on the world. I pity them for being deprived of me for so long."
Then I looked to see what the links were. It's not Kobe Bryant that people are looking for. No, what people really want are pictures of Kobe's accuser.
I knew it would come that this. Remember when Green Bay Packer Mark Chmura was found guilty of sexual misconduct with an underage girl at a party? It didn't take long for pictures of that girl to find their way around the internet or email. Welcome to America: We trash the identity of the accuser while we ogle her.
Now, the latest bombshell in the case is that Kobe's accuser had OD'd on pills a couple months before whatever happened with Kobe happened.
What does it mean? I think it means that unless the prosecution has very good evidence of a physical struggle or other coercion, Kobe is very likely not going to be prosecuted.
But that's the million dollar question, isn't it? What is the evidence? Until we know, there's no way we can do anything but speculate on the outcome of a trial. To speculate on what really happened seems rediculous to me, still.
Think about what this trial is going to be, if it comes to that. It's he said, she said. They'll have to get into the very nitty of the gritty to determine what really happened. It'll be a circus unlike anything we've seen since OJ.
Personally, I wonder if this thing is going to make it to trial. You wonder if the DA really has the goods, or if this is just a grandstand. Certainly, the revelation about the suicide attempt isn't going to help the prosecution. What is the evidence? Does Kobe even know?
What if this girl really was raped? Imagine, one of your friends dies, then you attempt suicide, then you get raped by Kobe Bryant, and the world wants you to just go away. Given that scenario or the alternative that she might be fabricating this, and the clear knowledge that Kobe has admitted to adultery, there isn't going to be any silver lining in this story, no matter what the outcome.
2:11:45 PM 
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A Request
I received a request recently from someone named Ben Kerschberg, asking that I link to his blog and advertise a book he had written.
His pitch? That he had written a memoir about mental illness and suicide, and that proceeds from the book would be donated to charity.
I went and checked the stuff out, just to get a sense of what I was sending people to. I believe it is as he claimed: He wrote a book about his own experiences with mental illness and suicide, had it published, and now is looking to expand the impact of the book as much as possible.
I wouldn't post a link to just any schmoe who asked me to plug their book, but he seems sincere, the work seems to be of good quality about an important subject, and I sort of admire his willingness to just up and ask people to link to his stuff. Maybe somebody who really needs to hear what Ben has to say will find it through these kinds of efforts.
Good luck with the project, Ben, and here's hoping you don't get enough material to put together a sequel.
The book site.
The blog.
1:46:50 PM
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Costa Rican Adventure Awaits You At Base Camp
I didn't take this picture of of a Costa Rican volcano; I shamelessly ripped it off from Base Camp. I'm telling you, if you want to read a great piece of writing or six, go to Base Camp now. It's the next best thing to being there yourself, and when you have a great writer describing the scene, it might be even better.
1:25:18 PM
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Ooh! Look at that sophisticated bird! So erudite!
Blair Flair
I enjoyed being in DC while Tony Blair was there. Reading the accounts from the Washington Post, it seemed clear enough to me that if Tony Blair wanted to run for President of the United States, pols on both sides of the aisle would be glad to vote for a Constitutional ammendment allowing that to happen. I mean, I have never heard Democrats and Republicans fight so hard to claim someone as their own. Diane Feinstein practically fellated Blair, and guys like Pete Dominici and Rummy were getting in line behind her. The praise was so lavish as to be embarrassing.
What is it about Blair that endears him so much to us here in the States? Part of it, obviously, is the accent. Yeah, I think it's really that simple in some cases. Many of us are suckers for accents. I'm one of them. I think it's OK to admit this. Who among us hasn't faked an accent to get sex or a better job?
Is Blair handsome? I really don't know the answer to that. I suppose he could be. My wife Jane seems to think Tom Daschle is handsome (even calling him Dashing Daschle on occasion), and I guess I don't really see that. But Blair doesn't seem so handsome to me that it would be the centerpiece of his appeal.
I think it's the whole package, really. Blair is British. He gets points for that. He's passably handsome, and has all of his teeth. Jolly good. More than that, the guy is smart. He uses big words, as opposed to a certain somebody who might say something like "that was some darn good intelligence". (And that's on a good day.)
I like Blair because he took a major risk with his credibility with the U.S., and he defended that risk face-up against his opponents in Parliament (most notably Bernie Worrell and Bootsy Collins). Part of that is just the bad-assness of the British system, where the leader and Parliament have a knock-down dragout debate, where there is actual accountability, and actual discussion of the issues. A leader there has to have off-the-cuff chops; you can't just be some jackass reading a speech that some people wrote (or didn't write, depending on who you believe today). I have seen Blair in that setting, and the guy may or may not have been wrong about Iraq, but damn if he can't articulate his position well under fire. How pleasant that is.
I just find this American Political Love Affair with Blair to be so odd. Maybe we love him because he's everything Bush isn't. Bush and Blair are such an odd team, both courting such different constituencies. (Notice how much wind left the sails of the African Uranium episode after Blair said he still believes the intelligence statement to be generally correct?)
There was a picture in the Washington Post last week that I have tried in vain to find, and I am truly sad that I can't post it here for you. It was Blair and Bush walking out to meet Congress, side by side. They were both beaming at one another. And the way the picture was taken, although they are really just walking and swinging their arms and hands a bit, it appears very much that Blair and Bush are holding hands. They couldn't look any more like a nice, middle-aged gay couple striding to their Vermont or Canadian alter. It was freakin' hilarious.
As I saw them together, I wondered: How much does Bush benefit from being seen as Blair's friend and sidekick? It hasn't done Blair any favors anywhere but in the U.S. But what does it do for Bush? Does it just provide political cover for Iraq, or does Bush's image benefit substantially as well? I'd love to know.
1:01:03 PM
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Trip Notes
Back from DC. It was a great trip all around. Linus and I had some great father/son bonding, and I got to spend a few days with Jim doing what we do best, which is essentially play games and take in our environment.
I don't know how single parents do what they do.
I lived in fear all weekend that Linus and I would be seperated by an elevator or Metro door closing at the wrong time. (Didn't happen, though...)
The Vietnam Memorial was pretty amazing. We were there on a crowded Saturday, so there weren't as many Vietnam vets around the wall as I had imagined, but it was still powerful. I was taken aback by how understated it is. And, of course, the symbolisim involved in it's subtle placement in the ground. You can't see it from one direction. You wouldn't even know it was there, other than seeing people slowly disappear into the ground as they walk down the path. But I was discouraged when I heard at least three different people, normal, middle-aged American people, say: "Why are all these names on this wall?"
Nothing to be afraid of here, right?
While at the National Zoo, Jim and I discovered that both Linus and Jim's daughter Mercedes have a fear of gorillas. While in the Ape House, Linus demanded that I back away from the glass. Fine. Then we went outside, where there were three adults Silverback Gorillas in their outdoor courtyard. One was in the process of showing the other two who was boss, and so he was doing that thing where they stand on their hands and feet and stick their ass way up in the air, and just generally look tough. Then, the gorilla charged. Ever seen a gorilla charge at full speed? Let me tell you, it was a lot harder to convince our kids that there was nothing to be afraid of when both Jim and I were backing up damned fast. We also saw the pandas. They were sleeping. The highlight of a short day at the zoo was seeing a 2 year old elephant. Very cute.
The trip to the Aerospace Museum was deemed a success because Linus was able to go inside a spaceship. Well, Spacelab, anyway. I remember when I was a kid, and how unimpressed I was with the real space program because it just didn't measure up at all to the Milleneum Falcon. Spacelab was notably short on panache and wookies, but Linus still seemed impressed enough. Still, that museum remains largely untapped for our next trip.
All in all, a great trip. In addition to Jim and Melissa and their two daughters, I saw Friend of Pipeline Brian E. We all sat and wondered when we had last seen each other, and much to our surprise, it was six or seven years ago. I guess that's how it is with friends you share a common history and common interests with: When you do finally see each other, it seems like it hasn't been that long, and you pick up right where you left off, laughing and thinking and talking about the world.
But my, how time flies.
12:36:43 PM
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© Copyright 2003 Doug Hennessee.
Last update: 8/1/2003; 1:13:20 PM.
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