Jury Trials and standards

On the Internet suicide case.

...and rejected three other felony counts of accessing computers without authorization to inflict emotional harm.

Instead, the panel found Drew guilty of three misdemeanor offenses of accessing computers without authorization.

Now, let me get this straight. They found that Drew had accessed the computers three times, but not that she had intended to inflict emotional harm? When the whole fake ID thing was about pretending to be a boy and loving her and dumping her?


Okay, I understood the results of the O.J. trials: it was pretty clear that the police had loused up the evidence and screwed the prosecution, so O.J. had to walk free under the "beyond a reasonable doubt" standard. Then later, the civil trial was able to convict under the "preponderance of the evidence" standard, leading to his long "search for the real killers" on all the golf courses in the world.

Hopefully, this one will have similar results. Tina Meier should be able to collect from Ashley Grills and the Drews on a wrongful death suit. Won't bring the girl back, but should bring some satisfaction.

Welcome to TraumaDrama with Obama

Interesting Political Commentary at the Telegraph:

The President-elect's campaign was tightly controlled, with very few uncoordinated leaks. The candidate was known as "No Drama Obama." David Corn, Washington Bureau Chief of the left of centre magazine Mother Jones, summed up the problem: "The presidential transition of no-drama Obama became infected by the never-ending soap opera of the Clintons. And it really is time to turn that programme off."

The Washington Post columnist and Clinton sceptic, David Ignatius, added: "The idea of subcontracting foreign policy to Clinton, a big, hungry, needy ego surrounded by a team that's hungrier and needier still, strikes me as a mistake of potentially enormous proportions." It is a view that many around the President-elect now share.

Lots more traumadrama in the story. But look at this quote:

Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, the dean of Washington's foreign policy writers, warned: "When it comes to appointing a secretary of state, you do not want a team of rivals. Foreign leaders can spot daylight between a president and a secretary of state from 1,000 miles away."

Hmmm. So I guess we only have to worry about whether Canada or Mexico tells anybody.

4 Questions About Writing

I found these questions on Erica Ridley's Blog, and I thought they were a fun little exercise for the day. What about you?

1) Why did you decide to write romance novels?

I'm a bit cross-genre at the moment. There's romance in pretty much everything I write, but there's also suspense and fantasy and/or scifi. I know, sucks to sell, but at least it's written. I'm thinking paranormal romance or romantic suspense may work as a primary genre for me. We'll see.

2) Do you believe in Happily Ever After?

Yep. Once you learn to live in the Happily Ever Now, the After part comes naturally. Helps to pick good people for your life. Leave the trauma-drama to the characters in the books.

3) Who/what inspires you?

Oh, dag, everything. The sky. NPR. music. Talk radio. People in the next cubicle. People at the bus stop. Everything.

4) What is it about blogs, anyway?

For me, as a writer, it's the equivalent of being on stage. Although I'd rather be in my living room with a glass of wine and a few close friends, talking about the solutions to the world's problems--or how to make them worse--this is a close substitute.