1 What took them so long?

2 I can't cash apologies.  Lifetime employment damages? That I can cash.

3

Apologies go better with checks.

It must be the margaritas I've had tonight. I read apologies go better with chicks. No I don't know what that means, that's just what I read, ok? sheesh

4 You'd think our betters in the hallowed Ivory Towers could have figured something this simple out in under 19 months.

5
That was a beautiful non-apology.

More weasel words than you can count.

And none of the 88 have apologized...

Duke may as well be Columbia as far as I'm concerned.

6 A prediction?  That's old news.

It's already happened.  Duke settled with all of the victims.

7 The NC AG basically declared the three players to be victims of a rogue prosecutor, and innocent beyond a shadow of a doubt, back in April. By my count September is five months later. I genuinely question the timing, and not just in the semi-silly way that we throw that phrase around here at AoSHQ. Apologies also go very well with resignations and firings. The Duke board of regents ought to direct President Brodhead to fire about 88 professors and then whisper in his ear after turning in his resignation that he's to follow them out the door.

8

1 What took them so long?

New Fiscal Year.

9 Don't forget, these people are more sensitive and adaptable than we are.  More slippery too, I would hazard a guess.

10

Totally OT: Geek stuff. That You Can Use Interlude. (I know D-in-T won't mind).

Adobe Flash had been crashing IE7 occasionally (google it) on my system; dunno about yours. Being a major geek, I deleted the damn thing (edited Registry, etc.). Gone. No more crashes. And. Wonder-of-wonders: a major lack of those damn annoying advertisements on sites. Teh bad? - No more YouTube.

So, this being Trek Weekend on NRO (as per Ace link) with a Turkish Star Trek link in YT, I decided to reprise my Adobe Flash hiatus status.

First I set a restore point (JIC ...well, actually first I googled the damn problem for some solutions: you can too, don't have to, as I'll give 'em here ...yep, it's a semi-major problem).

Next, I located, downloaded and installed [LDI] the older Macromedia Flash (v7.61); I got YouTube back (as I suspected, Turkish Star Trek is a major hoot).

Last I LDI'ed IE7Pro (which I'd never heard of before), and installed it. Which add a little "E" icon down on the status bar. Right click that, and choose "Enable Flash Blocking".

Heh. No more ads (well, fewer at least). I almost don't mind all the times Adobe Flash 9 crashed my damn system (otherwise, I'd have never googled the issue/solution). You can thank me later.

Std. Disclaimer: YMMV.

...hey, even AOSHQ moron-istas can use a little Geek-love occasionally.

 

11 Are any of you people dancers?

Because I got this great "get rich" scheme that involves %100 clover honey, a receipt from and ATM, and a pathological D.A.

Let me know if your interested.


ASW

12 "We weren't supportive" when we gave you and your parents hydraulic wedgies.

13 "Brodhead said the university is planning a national conference of
lawyers, educators and student affairs leaders to discuss how schools
should deal with students facing serious criminal charges."

Uh, what?  Well, maybe they want to explain how *not* to do it lest you be sued for a lot.

14 What kind of geek uses IE?

15

Heh. A lazy ass ex-FF user? Or

...the kind that has to support masses of non-geeks with real lives who use IE, of course.

 

16 Haven't you guys ever been sued???  You can't apologize while the suit is in process as it is an admission of guilt.  The suit has probably settled and the apology is likely part of it...I'm not a lawyer but I have been picked on by a couple of the bottomfeeders in lawsuits.  I'll have to wait to break their legs in hell...I can't get away with it up here.

17 I would hardly regard Brodhead's remarks as the formal apology that this matter required. I'll believe he's sincere when I see sackcloth and ashes.

As for the text of his "apology", it's a pure concatenation of weasel, meant to deceive rather than enlighten. The Duke "community" not only was "not supportive", it was openly hostile. Radical faculty and students alike assumed the players' guilt and did their very best to torment them. If Duke had merely left them alone, it would have been a long stride in the right direction.

As for what Brodhead will say at that seminar of his, I can sum up what he should say in three sentences:

1. Don't assume they're guilty.
2. Wait for all the facts to come in.
3. Tell the leftards to shove a sock in it.

18 I have only apologized to chicks. It is always followed by a trip to the jewelery store. So, yeah this was part of a settlement

19

"Duke needed to be clear that it demanded fair treatment for its students," he said. "I took that completely for granted. If anyone doubted it, then I should have been more explicit, especially as the evidence mounted that the prosecutor was not acting in accordance with the standards of his profession."

 

They basically declared them guilty prior to any trial.  Duke was a willing participant in the lynch mob. No, that’s not right, Duke was a leader of the lynch mob.  The apology is (maybe) a little better than the ‘I’m sorry you misunderstood me’ kind of thing, but not much better.

20
hutch1200,

May I recommend a trip to the florist's instead? Cheaper, and just as effective.

21

Brodhead also said the school could have done more to show that some members of Duke's faculty who were openly critical of the lacrosse team did not speak for the university as a whole.

Done more then?  Perhaps now Brodhead could suspend the Duke faculty and staff indefinitely until they publicly retract their previous statements, pay the New York Times market rate for a one page ad apologizing to the defamed students and their families, make a one-year's salary contribution to the monetary settlement due the falsely accused, and successfully complete a course on intellectual honesty and ethics to be taught by their victims.

22 Haven't you guys ever been sued???

Actually, no.

But I think your point is valid, anyway.

I have a friend of a friend whose land slid off down a hill in a mudslide following torrential rains, killing several members of a family in a house downhill, no fault of his, but he wanted to contact the family, apologize, do what he could for them, etc.  But his legal counsel told him, no, you shouldn't do that, any action like that on your part constitutes an admission of guilt which will be used in court when the inevitable lawsuits are filed.

So sometimes our legal system prevents us from doing the right thing.

23

As a lawyer, I bet the legal department at Duke has been putting together nice new employment contracts for all faculty and staff, with explicit language regarding these circumstances, and also stating that if the undersigned violates these standards their employment will be summarily terminated.

Money talks and B.S. walks, professor.  And alumni donations are something the school administration won't screw with.  And massive settlement checks are a reality that cannot be deconstructed.

24 You can read the text of Brodhead's speech at K. C. Johnson's invaluable Durham In Wonderland blog (scroll down a few entries). He calls it "powerful" and "emotional".  I dunno, maybe you had actually hear it to get the full impact, but just reading the words, I didn't come away with that impression.  To me, the speech reads like one of those "non-apology" apologies that are so common nowadays. Brohead whined about the "complexities" of the case (didn't seem too complex to most anyone else) and how it would have been inappropriate for the University to "attack a District Attorney" (uh, no one asked you to, idiot).

Here's the lamest paragraph of the whole speech:

Second, some of those who were quick to speak as if the charges were
true were on this campus, and some faculty made statements that were
ill-judged and divisive. They had the right to express their views. But
the public as well as the accused students and their families could
have thought that those were expressions of the university as a whole.
They were not, and we could have done more to underscore that.

Listen to this crapulent clown: "we could have done more..." Yeah, jackhole, in response to the Gang of 88's organized lynch mob tactics, you sat on your hands and didn't do a f'n thing.

I will say it is not one of those infuriating "I'm sorry if you misunderstood me" type apologies. It doesn't go quite that low. However, it is a "mistakes were made" non-apology and falls way short of being an actual apology. It's pretty weaselly.

25 Yeah, OregonMuse:  "Mistakes were made - and our lawyers are reminding me of that every time I see them!"

26 May I recommend a trip to the florist's instead? Cheaper, and just as effective.

Um, no.    (On the other hand, it doesn't have to be super-expensive jewelry.)

27 When you f?*k up as bad as I usually do, only the good jewelry will do. I make the "Jake" apology to Carrie Fischer in "the Blues Brothers". You know the one in the tunnel? I always use the same jeweler, and basically have him hold the shit between bimbos.

28 I also have the Florist on speed dial for the pre-apology. Send flowers 1st. Let the happiness of the unexpected gift set up the "honey, something I've done has been bothering me"............  

29

30 Didn't notice any of this until the players were proven completely innocent.
If he's so... so... sorry, then why doesn't the SSoSSS resign!

SSoSSS (sorry sack of siberian sheep excrement)

Tarheel

31 thanks for sharing

32 thanks

33 admin tenku

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