Back to Black, For Good.

Rest in peace, Amy.
And peace upon her poor family.

Two years ago I prayed she would survive her twenties.
She didn't.

There's nothing to say that wasn't already said better by Russell Brand. I couldn't even say this, until now, four days later.

So I'm just going to remember her astonishing talent. For instance, here's a song she wrote and recorded when she was nineteen. A 50-year-old blueswoman would be proud of this.


Thank you, Amy, and goodnight.

Portrait of the Lecher as an Old Man

Here's a telling photo of transatlantic rapist Dominique Strauss-Kahn (DSK) at the 2009 G-20 summit in Pittsburgh. Saw it today on the Daily Beast. Points of interest:

• The president's expression of mild disgust or disapproval;
• The president's hand on DSK's forearm, as if to keep him from going further into Michelle Obama's personal space;
• Michelle's expression of surprise (is that a "WHAT did you just say?!" smile?) and the slight backwards tilt of her torso; and last but not least,
• DSK's lunging posture and a facial expression that looks like, shall we say, intense approval of what he's looking at (namely, Michelle Obama). All his attention and energy is directed towards her; it looks like he barely notices that the President of the United States (and the lady's husband) is right next to him.

Here's how my brilliant brother put it:

Obama's like: "Settle down there tiger. And by 'tiger' I mean 'asshole'."
And Michelle is like, "Wow, that was technically a compliment, but wildly inappropriate."
And DSK is like: "This smile means you can't get angry at what I just said, because then you're the jerk for taking seriously what I obviously meant as a joke. Except I didn't mean it as a joke, but this smile means you cannot prove that."
Sometimes a picture really is worth 1000 words.

And remember, folks, this is what DSK is like with the PRESIDENT AND THE FIRST LADY of the United States, IN PUBLIC, at a major international event covered by the international press.

So what do you suppose he's like with the average attractive woman, alone, in private? Ask the hotel maid. Ask Tristane Banon. Ask Piroska Nagy, a subordinate of his at the IMF, whom he relentlessly harassed. They'll tell you.

Rapist + Lily-Livered DA = Shameful Shitstorm They'll Never Live Down

I saw an awesome bumper sticker the other day--it just said:

Ask Me About
My Opinions!

So I'm going to pretend that someone asked me about my opinions on the recent developments in the DSK rape case (the New York rape case, not the French one). My first thought was that this is exactly why women (and men) who live on the margins of society make such excellent crime victims: because by virtue of living on the margins there are almost always going to be a few things in their background and a few people in their social circle that are alien to "normal" middle-class people, and those things can always be used to cast doubt on the woman's character. In other words, with such victims it is almost always possible to engage in criminal defense via character assassination. Here's that tactic in action: "Strauss-Kahn's legal team has hired the world's best private investigators to ferret out every detail about the accuser's past."

But the worst thing here is that DSK is being aided and abetted by the New York City DA. It is appalling that the DA's office leaked information like "she is personally associated with drug dealers and money launderers" (see one of many articles here). That means she knows people who make money that way. So? I doubt there's anyone in this country who lives under the poverty line, and/or in the urban ghetto-ish housing that a Manhattan hotel maid could afford, who does NOT know anyone who sells drugs. I'm a lawyer with graduate degrees and a nice salary, and I haven't touched pot or anything else since college, but I know dealers (no, I'm not referring to my clients), and so do most of my friends and family members--at least pot dealers, and that's the drug in question here (the guy she was speaking to who's in prison is in prison for dealing pot). This hotel maid lives in public housing for HIV-positive people, and New York has not legalized medical marijuana; how much do you want to bet that some of her HIV-positive neighbors use marijuana for pain, appetite, etc., despite the fact it's not legal there yet? Oooh, she's personally associated with her neighbors who use and her neighbors who deal! That must mean she didn't get raped!

As for the money laundering, that could be duplicative of knowing drug dealers, in that drug dealers "launder" (disguise the illegal source of) the money they earn, or it could be a phenomenon sometimes seen in the social circles of immigrants from poverty-stricken countries: some people in those circles launder money for other people in those circles who do things like deal drugs, get paid to help smuggle illegal immigrants into the US, or--the most innocuous reason--try to get money back to their families in their home countries without declaring it to customs (you have to declare anything over $10k that you take out of the country), and/or without going through normal banking channels because they are illegal immigrants and thus cannot safely use normal banking channels. Oooh, she knows people who launder money! That must mean she wanted Dominique Strauss-Kahn's withered old dick in her mouth!

And could someone please explain to me how knowing drug dealers and money launderers, and being reluctant to disclose that fact to cops and prosecutors, makes you less credible about accusations of rape? Accusations that, by the way, are supported by DNA evidence and--well, let me quote the headline: DA Has Evidence Strauss-Kahn Bruised Maid's Vagina.

My mom has a way of seeing straight through nefarious political machinations and coming up with theories that are proven correct years later. I think her theory on this is right on the mark: the prosecutor's office and DA Cyrus Vance in particular were put under intense pressure by DSK's powerful friends and allies, such as former DA Robert Morgenthau, who helped Vance with fundraising for his election campaign, stumped for him on the campaign trail and was his mentor for years, but froze him out after DSK was charged. And then, once Vance publicly threw the rape victim under the bus, what happened? "Influential former DA Robert Morgenthau weighed in... to praise successor Cyrus R. Vance Jr.'s stewardship of the case," says NPR. My mom points out that the head of the NYC DA's sex crimes unit, Lisa Friel, who spent 30 years with the New York DA's office, resigned for unexplained reasons a few days before the DA leaked all this crap about the hotel maid. Mom's theory is that Ms. Friel knew the DA was going to publicly humiliate the hotel maid, couldn't prevent it and didn't want to be part of it.

I don't know what else, apart from pressure from DSK's friends, could have motivated such outrageously unprofessional behavior from a DA's office. You just do not leak all kinds of grotesque allegations about the victim ("alleged" victim, if you want to be neutral) in a rape case. Saying there are "problems with her credibility"? Sure, that's what you would say in such a situation. But this is outrageous: "when doubts arose about the accuser's credibility because she hadn't told the truth in other aspects of her life--primarily on her immigration application and her income statement to live in low income housing--before even going to the judge to ask that bail be allowed, DA Vance called in two New York Times reporters to tell them about the accuser's other lies."

Excuse me, but what the fuck?!

And to pile outrage upon outrage, the media is spinning Vance's totally unprofessional leaks like so:

DSK ACCUSER PERSONALLY ASSOCIATED WITH CRIMINALS!
Major credibility issues emerge because she spoke about DSK accusations in recorded prison phone call with pal jailed for dealing 400lbs of marijuana!!!!
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah!!!!!
Oh by the way when she spoke to the guy in prison, what she told him about the DSK incident is exactly what she told prosecutors: that he attacked her and forced her to perform oral sex...
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah!!!!!

What a wretched situation.
And what a lowlife coward the DA is.
And what a scumbag DSK is.
Sorry, but you asked my opinion. Or at least, I'm pretending you did.