While it can be fun to engage in snappy comments, like the poll claiming to show that a majority of Republicans don’t believe in evolution, both sides of the political / ideological spectrum have their share of people who fall into that kind of unreasoning mind set. I’d say Laura’s remarks are a good example of the kind of thing that makes many people feel that ‘liberal’ is a dirty word. There is a reality. The real, empirically based understanding of this case, reached by the North Carolina AG, and most fair minded people, is that the three players did not commit any crime except possibly under-age drinking. The crimes that were committed in this case were committed by the DA, enabled by left wing faculty who rushed to conclusions before there was any evidence to support conclusions, and a bottom feeding media that saw a sensational story that would make them a handsome profit.

There is plenty of blame to go around. Too many people who are otherwise intelligent, reasonable folks jumped to a conclusion that fit a world view they are comfortable with – i.e. that because they were white, male, and athletes, they were most likely guilty of any crime charged. That included a substantial number of faculty members of Duke University, and its administration and trustees. Duke seems to have utterly failed to defend the constitutional rights of its student athletes. The media failed to exercise responsible judgement as well.

Nifong got what he deserved, and he still is getting off light. If Duke had honorable people as trustees, they would fire the president, all of the administrators who facilitated this disaster, and all of the non-tenured faculty who signed the listening statement. That will never happen, but we can hope. Duke’s administrators, and some of their faculty, like Mr. Nifong, are clueless bigots.

Apparently you don’t let facts and evidence get in the way of your opinion, do you? I bet you think that “innocent until proven guilty” is a bunch of foolishness that should be tossed out the window too.