Curtis Institute hires Cozen O’Connor to investigate sexual abuse claims

[violinnewb]

37 minutes ago, A432 said:

Doublethink 101 : We must value and embrace diversity of opinion. But we ensure that our voices are the only ones heard -- by force (physical, economic or social).

Orange Man bad.

There is nothing wrong with playing Devil's Advocate and I have no problem with you doing so here.  I do have problems with the fact that you are taking your opinions and asserting them as fact to support your position.  How do you know St. John needs a career revitalization?  DO you know her income or lack of opportunities?  Same goes for your comment equating old age to ability to commit assault.  I'm sure I have been pushed in this forum to make a statement with a lack of foundation, although I try not to, but c'mon...really?  Paganini with a file?  I'm sure you will reply with some dissertation that makes you sound profoundly intellectual.  ANyways, I do value your opinion, just not your method of belittling others' opinions.

[Blank face]

It’s always hilarious when those occupying the biggest space and making the loudest noise are complaining about how everybody’s trying to suppress their opinion. Probably poor Jeffrey didn’t read the Fingerboard for a while now.

[A432]

1) I don;t know L StJ's motivation, and don't pretend to. But let's play qui bono.

Not being female, I can't say for sure (and even if I were, my experience wouldn't necessarily be that of another one, so that whole approach is a wash). But we are told, at every opportunity, that the biggest factor inhibiting women from disclosing that they have been sexually assaulted is that it would come to public attention.

The one inevitable result of digging this whole thing up, after such along time, is  . . . wait for it . . . public attention. No other purported rationalization holds water. (If my car is stolen, would getting this widespread publicity keep anyone else's car from being stolen ? Or even less likely ?)

Public attention is what else ?

It is the lifeblood of every performer's career. Without it, nobody has one. With enough of it, all kinds of subsidiary commercial opportunities open up -- Talk show bookings. Book deals. Public appearances. Commercial endorsements.

I posted before (to no apparent effect) an anecdote, widely known in Hollywood in years past. A film star (possibly Rock Hudson) calls his agent one morning, beside himself.

"Have you seen what Hedda Hopper (a gossip columnist) wrote about me this morning ?"

"Relax -- she spelled your name right."

As for equating old age with ED (as its called in advertisements for sexual potency drugs), see if you can find reliable stats on how many men on the far side of 70 are able to keep "performing" without such pills. And this incident was long, long before that. A better question would be how informed people can assume he could function sexually at his age then.

As to my belittling people (when not responding in kind), another illustrative anecdote. This one concerning a prison chaplain I knew. In the course of a counseling session, he noticed that the inmate across from his desk was describing ailments that were symptoms of advanced diabetes.  A call to medical got him tested and, the med staff said, possibly saved his life.

Malfunctions in thinking have symptoms too. And not everyone who notes them is "trying to be superior."

 

[crazy jane]

6 minutes ago, A432 said:

1) I don;t know L StJ's motivation, and don't pretend to. But let's play qui bono.

Not being female, I can't say for sure (and even if I were, my experience wouldn't necessarily be that of another one, so that whole approach is a wash). But we are told, at every opportunity, that the biggest factor inhibiting women from disclosing that they have been sexually assaulted is that it would come to public attention.

The one inevitable result of digging this whole thing up, after such along time, is  . . . wait for it . . . public attention. No other purported rationalization holds water. (If my car is stolen, would getting this widespread publicity keep anyone else's car from being stolen ? Or even less likely ?)

Public attention is what else ?

It is the lifeblood of every performer's career. Without it, nobody has one. With enough of it, all kinds of subsidiary commercial opportunities open up -- Talk show bookings. Book deals. Public appearances. Commercial endorsements.

I posted before (to no apparent effect) an anecdote, widely known in Hollywood in years past. A film star (possibly Rock Hudson) calls his agent one morning, beside himself.

"Have you seen what Hedda Hopper (a gossip columnist) wrote about me this morning ?"

"Relax -- she spelled your name right."

As for equating old age with ED (as its called in advertisements for sexual potency drugs), see if you can find reliable stats on how many men on the far side of 70 are able to keep "performing" without such pills. And this incident was long, long before that. A better question would be how informed people can assume he could function sexually at his age then.

As to my belittling people (when not responding in kind), another illustrative anecdote. This one concerning a prison chaplain I knew. In the course of a counseling session, he noticed that the inmate across from his desk was describing ailments that were symptoms of advanced diabetes.  A call to medical got him tested and, the med staff said, possibly saved his life.

Malfunctions in thinking have symptoms too. And not everyone who notes them is "trying to be superior."

 

Who ever said "rape" is penile penetration? Just read Sanctuary for a case in point. Nor is rape an exclusively male capability. But you seem kind of fixated on the issue.

https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/blog/updated-definition-rape 

[A432]

Ah yes -- the magic of words.

Years ago, when tomato ketchup was listed (with a straight face) in a government nutrition program report as a "vegetable," the laughter that resulted was loud and long.

Sadly, there's been no similar response to the linguistic scorched earth policy that's completely re-written reality in criminal justice. Thus sexual contact between an inmate and a staff member, no matter how consentual, is legally "Institutional Sexual Assault" (Rape), because, in legal fiction, an inmate is legally incapable of giving consent. Ditto draconian age restrictions with young people -- so many and so silly that many peoples' grandfathers would have been (statutory) "rapists."

The whole thing's sick beyond the power of description.

I can call my front yard "Australia," and my back yard "New Zealand" if it amuses me. But without a thousand goons with a thousand guns to enforce my edict, this remains a private fiction rather than case law.

[crazy jane]

You seem to think that I am playing fast and loose with language. But "rape" is from the Latin, to seize or take without consent--a very broad term. Even in the 30's, when Faulkner wrote Sanctuary, Popeye's actions were commonly described as rape. And Alexander Pope's "The Rape of the Lock" (1717) has nothing to do with sexual intercourse but everything to do with violation and seizure. 

You are the one using the word in accordance with your own understanding to try to impugn Ms St. John's claim. 

And, once again, we will never know since Curtis failed to investigate her original complaint. So believe what you will. It ultimately says much more about you than about Ms St. John.

[A432]

Quote

You are the one using the word in accordance with your own understanding to try to impugn Ms St. John's claim.

Ask twenty people, chosen at random, what "rape" is. My "own understanding" has nothing to do with it --- any more than that the word "conversation" can connote carnal connection (Shakespeare, if I recall rightly) has with its sense in general conversation.

Figurative sense is not literal sense.

 

[Stephen Fine]

5 hours ago, A432 said:

Orange Man bad.

Is this a reference to the tabloid trash US President whom 20 women have accused of sexual assault?  At least you're on-topic.

Given the rate of false reporting of sexual assault, 1 or 2 of these women are likely liars.  That leaves (*checks math*) 18 or 19 women.  Orange Man bad, indeed.

 

At this point, A432 is just doing a weird piece of mediocre performance art or Lack-of-Virtue Signaling.  I'm done.

[A432]

I'm done.

Welcome news.

[Blank face]

This is a very serious topic and now sadly hijacked by a troll with a dark agenda, meant to insult. Sometimes I have to quote myself.

On 11/13/2019 at 7:38 AM, Blank face said:

It is giving room for every irresponsible internet moron to put dirt upon the face of victims and should be closed or deleted immediately by the moderator.

[A432]

Insisting that one's personal belief about it be accepted with the kind of fervor appropriate to a religious event is, IMHO,  an exceedingly arbitrary demand.

This is not the martyrdom of Saint Joan of Arc being discussed, but a problematic incident with no clear resolution possible.

.

 

[martin swan]

55 minutes ago, A432 said:

a problematic incident with no clear resolution possible.

.

 

Indeed - thanks for your empathy and humanity.

I am also done.

[sospiri]

Me too. He obviously gets a kick out of shit stirring and then playing the victim when "the mob" doesn't agree with him trying to intellectualize child sexual exploitation.