A Rolling Stone gathers no lacrosse

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Bill Glasheen
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A Rolling Stone gathers no lacrosse

Post by Bill Glasheen »

With apologies to a fellow UVa grad who came up with this. 8)

If you've been following the news, by now you've heard about the Rolling Stone article A Rape on Campus by Sabrina Rubin Erdely. A freshman woman allegedly at UVa attends a Phi Kappa Psi fraternity party on an October, 2012 weekend as the guest of a brother she met at the aquatic center. After being encouraged to drink, she's brought upstairs and locked in a room where allegedly 7 fraternity pledges rape her on broken glass. When Erdely's narrative was released this year - two years after the alleged incident - the University community is in an uproar. Students vandalize the PKP house. There are protests in the streets. The UVa president - already fired and re-hired by the Board of Visitors - bans *all* fraternity activity until the end of this year.

But wait... there's more!

It seems that neither Erdely nor the editorial staff at Rolling Stone thought it was important to interview the other side before publishing an article which resulted in property damage and a damaged national reputation to Mr. Jefferson's University. The PSP national fraternity conducts an internal review, and releases the following facts: 1) there was no PSP member who was an employee of the aquatic center in 2012 (Oops!), 2) there was no social function at the PSP house on the night that the alleged incident occurred (Oops!), and 3) PSP does not conduct initiation in the fall (Oops!). Minutes before these facts are released to the public, Rolling Stone magazine issues a public apology. Erdely says nothing of substance. Apparently she got what she wanted. Her goal was to expose one of the colleges on an Obama administration hit list (including Ivy League institutions like her own) via a narrative about a gruesome rape. This would create the public outcry that would pave the way for government intervention in University affairs. This feminist, U Penn graduate chose as her subject a genteel, "Southern" university with a long male tradition. So apparently the end justified the means.

Here are my own comments.
  • In the 14 years that I was either student or faculty at UVa, I was never part of the all-white Greek life that Erdely describes.
    .....
  • The subject in question apparently never went to the UVa ER after her "bloody" assault. Why? Under one of my own mentors, UVa pioneered a rape intervention center in the UVA ER (in 1982, or 30 years before the alleged incident). My wife was one of the first 24/7 on-call nurses. If you don't first go to a medical center after a sexual assault, nothing you do afterwards will go well. If you have no need to go to an ER after being raped by 7 on broken glass, well... what's up with that?
    .....
  • The Charlottesville police chief wasn't aware of the rape. This apparently was all being handled by the University after "the story" came out when the Dean was talking to mom and student about her grades. Then according to Title IX, a process had to start. This process went on without any medical or legal guidance.
    .....
  • According to the story, the alleged victim knew her date and recognized one of the attackers. And yet nobody to date has been charged. At a UVa BOV meeting, the Charlottesville Chief of Police was asking for witnesses to the alleged crime. ANY witnesses. SOMEBODY had to know something...
So why am I writing about this now? For a number of reasons.

First... I've had victims of sexual assault as martial arts students. I have in fact intervened in crisis situations with several of these students. Real sexual assault *is* a big deal with lifelong consequences.

Second... Whatever happened to this alleged victim, she needs help. She doesn't need to be someone's political football. That just turned bad to much, much worse. Can anyone be happy about the outcome?

Third... I highly recommend people read Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five. It has nothing to do with rape or assault. But as a sci-fi novel, it investigates what it might be like to live your life in a non-serial fashion. The very ordinary Billy Pilgrim becomes "unstuck in time" and lives pieces of his life (future, past, future, past) in random segments. The reader must create the real Billy Pilgrim from all these snippets. This is what it's like to be a victim of a deadly encounter. The brain doesn't work quite right afterwards. It's a reason to seek medical attention and then get legal counsel before long interviews with the police. Trust me... you don't want to be a victim of a process where you get tortured on a witness stand because your "story" is scrambled. Police in fact advise their own not to talk to anyone in the first 24 hours after a shooting. But they won't give you this privilege.

That's not exactly the subject of this Rolling Stone hack-job, but a real victim of sexual assault may appear very "screwed up" if (s)he doesn't get immediate and consistent medical attention. PTSD is the operative diagnosis here.

And finally... Don't let the world around you elicit the emotional hijack in you. If there's one thing I'm proud of in this incident, it's that I calmly got online in various news organizations and began to highlight inconsistencies in "the story." My goal was not to counterattack, but rather to smoke out "The Truth" - whatever that was. As it turns out, it was even more fantastically messed-up than my gut suspected. But I calmly trusted my gut, kept a steady mind while pushing for facts, and could look in the mirror at the end of the day.

Don't let the femiNazis screw this up. Victims of sexual assault need help. They don't need misandry.

- Bill
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Re: A Rolling Stone gathers no lacrosse

Post by fivedragons »

What can one expect from a magazine who puts a murderer on their cover (the P.O.S. who set off a bomb at the Boston Marathon.)

This world is an ongoing hack job of incredible proportions.
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Bill Glasheen
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Re: A Rolling Stone gathers no lacrosse

Post by Bill Glasheen »

fivedragons wrote:What can one expect from a magazine who puts a murderer on their cover (the P.O.S. who set off a bomb at the Boston Marathon.)

This world is an ongoing hack job of incredible proportions.
Indeed.

I figured our New England audience would "appreciate" yet another shockingly stupid move by the editors of Rolling Stone magazine.

- Bill
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Re: A Rolling Stone gathers no lacrosse

Post by fivedragons »

The only guiding principle is to sell more papers. Aside from the other guiding principle, which is to further the business interests of the people who own the media, through propaganda.

George Orwell has left Mr. Jefferson in the dust.
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Re: A Rolling Stone gathers no lacrosse

Post by Bill Glasheen »

Just in case someone doesn't get the pun/allusion...
Wikipedia wrote: A rolling stone gathers no moss is an old proverb, credited to Publilius Syrus, who in his Sententiae states, People who are always moving, with no roots in one place, avoid responsibilities and cares. As such, the proverb is often interpreted as referring to figurative nomads who avoid taking on responsibilities or cultivating or advancing their own knowledge, experience, or culture. Another interpretation equates "moss" to "stagnation"; as such the proverb can also refer to those who keep moving as never lacking for fresh ideas or creativity.
Wikipedia wrote: Rolling Stone is a biweekly magazine that focuses on popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner, who is still the magazine's editor-in-chief, and music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was known for its musical coverage and for political reporting by Hunter S. Thompson. In the 1990s, the magazine changed its format to appeal to a younger readership interested in youth-oriented television shows, film actors, and popular music.[2] In recent years, the magazine has resumed its traditional mix of content.
Wikipedia wrote: The Duke lacrosse case was a 2006 criminal case resulting from what proved to be a false accusation of rape made against three members of the men's lacrosse team at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, United States. The fallout from the case's resolution led to public discussion of reverse racism, among other things, and the resignation and disbarment of lead prosecutor Michael Nifong.
- Bill
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Re: A Rolling Stone gathers no lacrosse

Post by Bill Glasheen »

A "gem" from Rolling Stone's recent past.

..... Rolling Stone defends cover featuring Boston Marathon bombing suspect
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Re: A Rolling Stone gathers no lacrosse

Post by Bill Glasheen »

Vandalism to the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity article after the release of the article and before their apology. Note the blacked-out word in the second photograph. The suggested act is disturbing to say the least, and an example of the misandry elicited by careless journalism.

Many thanks to WVIR (NBC Channel 29 in Charlottesville) for the poignant photographs documenting the vandalism.

- Bill

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Van Canna
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Re: A Rolling Stone gathers no lacrosse

Post by Van Canna »

Well, the world has always been a sh*itty place...and all this confirms more and more.

The human race is a virus worst than ebola.
Van
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Bill Glasheen
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Re: A Rolling Stone gathers no lacrosse

Post by Bill Glasheen »

Van Canna wrote:Well, the world has always been a sh*itty place...and all this confirms more and more.

The human race is a virus worst than ebola.
The good news, Van, is that writers everywhere have gone in deep on this story, and basically put a wooden stake in its heart. The LA Times, the Wall Street Journal, Slate... The best is by T Rees Shapiro from The Washington Post. This is one of the finer pieces of investigative journalism I've seen.

..... U-Va. students challenge Rolling Stone account of alleged sexual assault

Apparently as the story is unfolding, "Jackie" had a crush on one of the three who came to see her the night that "something" happened. He rebuffed her, so she makes up this story to get sympathy. The lies kept getting deeper... and deeper... and deeper... Two years later she's used by a misandrist journalist who needed a story to match her preconceived narrative, and the "UVRape" article is born. Unlike the Duke Lacrosse case though, this one took all of a week to collapse.

Ann Coulter was a bit more... uh... brutal. And funny as heck. Only Ann can say stuff like this.

..... THE COLLEGE RAPE CLUB

- Bill
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Van Canna
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Re: A Rolling Stone gathers no lacrosse

Post by Van Canna »

Well, that sort of proves the point that there are many sex starved females the world over who are going to get it no matter what it costs :wink:

I could tell you some stories.
Van
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Re: A Rolling Stone gathers no lacrosse

Post by Van Canna »

In my specialty investigations, I did get some cases of rapes that were interesting...ending up in settlement money of over one million dollars.

One particular one involved this woman in her thirties living alone in an apartment building on Marlboro street Boston...you know how exclusive the area is.

The rapist, an alleged black male of 'industrial proportions' apparently gained entry into her second floor apartment via a stationery back fire escape ladder, the apartment window's lock non functional despite her many requests to management that it be fixed for security reasons.

Her statement revealed the following:

1. She awakened by the rapist tapping on her shoulder with a knife while masturbating with the other hand. She went hysterical and told him she had cancer and was going to die and to leave the apartment.

2. The rapist tells her that since she was dying she should relax and enjoy what he was going to do to her.

3. Around the corner from her bed was a corridor about 12 feet long by 5 feet wide leading to the exit front door of her apartment.

In the same area, about 10 feet away, was the bathroom.

4. The rapist rapes her seven times...each time using a condom...and each time after finishing...getting out of bed, going to the bathroom to pee and to flush the condoms down the toilet.

5. After the 7th time, the rapist falls asleep next to her in bed, at which point she gets out of bed and flees out the door, screaming rape.

6. Responding neighbors rush the apartment but the rapist had bolted out the same way he had come in...through the rear window.

7. Immediately after and before the police arrived, the woman showered and douced.

8. The rape kit was legally barred from discovery for the protection of the victim.

~~

Do you see anything suspicious with this story?

She retained the best city rape attorney...and on the 'court house' steps the building's insurer decided to settle it for $1, 267.000_

Another case you would have enjoyed investigating with me was the alleged rape of a prostitute by a circus worker whom she had approached on the street ..shared cocaine with and ended up in the worker's trailer where the rape occurred.

The circus worker ended up in jail and that's where I interviewed him...you would have loved the questioning approach process.
Van
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Bill Glasheen
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Re: A Rolling Stone gathers no lacrosse

Post by Bill Glasheen »

If I was the UVa president, I'd make the following story required reading for next year's entering freshman. This should turn the whole "narrative" on its ear, and that's exactly what we should do to Erdely and her noxious trash journalism.

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Yin needs yang, so this would be a great companion to go with it. ;-)

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The third piece of reading should be Erdely's Rolling Stone garbage - after digesting the harm that such a piece can do. Rolling Stone should supply online access without advertising - unless proceeds go to the Phi Kappa Psi house.

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Critical analysis paper to follow in English 101.

;-)

- Bill
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