Anyway, the “preponderance of the evidence” standard is weaker than the “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard, and the “lots of people said it on the internet” standard is even weaker than that. However, does anyone else read this sentence:

“She learned of other girls who also complained about the aggressive physical nature of the guy…”

… and get a bad feeling? (Assuming the sentence I quoted is, like, substantiated and stuff.)

But to turn to the (alleged) victim, this:

“I think that we’d like to believe that we treat victims of sexual assault as though they are completely free of blame, but I am not confident that I can expose myself without being afraid of the excess anxiety it might cause me to experience on what is as much my campus as it is his.”

amounts to saying that she would like the guy to be convicted without her going to the trouble of having him charged. Not that one doesn’t sympathize with her (alleged) situation, but there are very good reasons why that won’t fly. (And excess anxiety, for God’s sake?)

“The nature of sexual interactions and the sexual politics of campus social events mean that this is an issue that won’t go away,” says Kimberly Brodkin, a gender studies professor at Lewis&Clark.

smart lady.

I tend to think the WW is Portland’s best paper, when its muckraking reporting doesn’t devolve into sleaze, or when it doesn’t completely overplay stories (which it does constantly … gotta keep striving for that next Pulitzer, I guess.)

http://www.cdapress.com/articles/2007/12/17/editorials/letters/letter02.txt