SOMEONE IS THINKING JUST LIKE ME.

The following is a cut and paste job from yours truly. (I am getting a little lazy so sue me)

Anyway, anyone who reads this blog knows how I feel about the Dukies. I have no love for them, and I am sick of everyone crying a river about how they were "railroaded", and what a terrible guy Nifong was, and their lives are ruined.....and on and on. Give me a break! The Dukies will be just fine. And articles like the following from Jonathan Zimmerman in my local paper, The Philadelphia Inquirer, makes me realize that other people are thinking like I am.

"About 30 years ago, I heard a statement in a musty college lecture hall that has stayed with me: 'The most important thing you'll learn from history is that victims are not always angels.'
I thought of my professor's remark last week as I read about the ugly denouement to the rape case against three Duke University lacrosse players. Local district attorney Michael B. Nifong resigned and gave up his law license shortly before an ethics panel charged him with "dishonesty, fraud, deceit and misrepresentation" in his prosecution of the case. Nifong still might face criminal penalties and civil lawsuits from the three players, who were cleared of all charges earlier this year.

If the panel's report is correct, Nifong deserves everything he gets, and more. The panel found that Nifong played up the racial dimensions of the case - three white men accused of raping a black woman - to win a tight election. Worst of all, he misled defense lawyers and a judge about DNA evidence that could have absolved the accused.
So the students are the victims here, railroaded by a devious prosecutor with a political ax to grind. But that doesn't make them angels, as my professor warned. These kids didn't break the law, but they did behave like fools. And none of us should pretend otherwise.
Consider the forthcoming book by Mike Pressler, the good-guy coach who was forced to resign following the scandal. To their credit, Pressler and coauthor Don Yaeger don't sugarcoat what Pressler's players did on March 13, 2006. And it doesn't make for easy reading.

Our story begins in the afternoon, when somebody proposed that the lacrosse players go to a local strip club. But when several underage team members were denied entry to the club, they decided to bring the strip club to them. "Every guy that we know in every fraternity and on every sports team had had strippers to their house," one player explained. "We thought, 'What's the downside?' "

So team captain Dan Flannery got on the phone, using the name Dan Flannigan, and hired two strippers. But when they appeared, they were not as young or attractive as the players had hoped. Even more, one of them was so intoxicated that she could barely dance.
Now it gets really ugly. After the intoxicated dancer collapsed, the two women simulated a sex act on the floor. But that wasn't to the players' liking, either, and one of them asked if the dancers had brought any "sex toys." They replied with a joke about the size of the player's genitals. Then another student grabbed a broom handle and said, "Well, how about this?"
Visibly shaken, the dancers retreated to the bathroom and locked the door. Here's where prosecutor Nifong said three men raped one of the dancers.

But that's not what happened. Instead, students slipped bills underneath the locked door to encourage the dancers to come out. The dancers emerged and announced they were leaving; then they quarreled loudly with the students, who demanded a refund.
As the women drove away, one white student yelled at a black dancer, 'Tell your grandfather I said thanks for my cotton shirt.'

So let's do a little experiment. If you have a son, raise your hand if you'd like him to act like these students did. And if you have a daughter, ask yourself if you'd like her to date them.
No volunteers? I didn't think so.

That's because the Duke lacrosse players were exhibiting the very worst of aspects of American male conduct: crude, sexist, violent, and - in at least one instance - racist. As we now know, they didn't attack the dancer who accused them. But their words and deeds help fuel a culture where attacks of this sort are routine, expected and acceptable.
And they're even more acceptable in fraternities and on sports teams, the epicenters of college bad-boy behavior. As a slew of social-science research has demonstrated, fraternity members and varsity athletes are more likely than other students to engage in violence against women and also to agree with "rape-supportive statements" such as "about half of women who report rapes to the police are lying."
In this case, ironically, the woman who charged rape was lying. But that doesn't make the general statement true. Some drivers are falsely accused of speeding, after all, but no one suggests that half of the tickets issued on our highways are invalid.

So, why do so many of us think it's true that so many women lie about rape? Why do we ignore, downplay or deny violence against women? The answer is complicated, but it must start with the boorish, misogynistic conduct that young men learn in school.
Let's be clear: None of the Duke lacrosse players deserved to have their names and reputations dragged through the mud by a zealous, deceitful prosecutor. But they should be ashamed, anyway. And so should the rest of us, for teaching them all the wrong lessons about the right way to behave."

Co-sign with you Mr. Zimmerman, except we didn't teach them anything. These supposedly educated children of privilege learned their behavior all by themselves.