Sorry, No Kobe Rape Pics
I knew something was up this morning when I had twice as many visitors before 9 this morning than I normally get before noon.
And a quick check into the referall logs (oh the referall logs, those most favored histories of the blogger, the lifeblood by which they live) and it would appear that searches for Kobe Bryant rape pics and news has definitely taken over the hit lead from Stripperella+Nude+Pics searches.

[Update: Found out the woman's name, according to Binary Report (which has gone way overboard in printing her home address, phone number, email address and even a link to a satellite pic of her home), her name is Katelyn Kristine Faber and she's 19 years old. My guess is the Binary Report's intent is to allow thousands and thousands of NBA freak lovers to call her up and harass her. I can't condone any of it which is why I won't link to the site. People need to have some boundaries, eh?]

Sorry to say, searching campers, that I've no pics from the whole affair. Though Layne has mentioned that pro atheletes are becoming more and more offensive in their defense against this sort of thing happening. The starstruck hottie who gives it up to the star and then realizes that she had sex with him for nothing and wants a little something something to make it all worth her while.

Remember the good old days of groupies who'd bang the whole band just for the fun of it? Now they'll still bang everyone but now they want money or other forms of compensation.

And it does kind of suck to think about these guys who are the best athletes in their field, getting dogged and chased by gorgeous women who will have sex but only so they can get something in return. And isn't that the textbook definition of prostitution?

I did try and figure out what the "victim's" name is as they mentioned on CNBC this morning that all of this info was available online. But I couldn't find it, just lots of polazized folks who are defending Kobe, defending the woman or attempting to play the race card even though its completely inappropriate. This isn't a race issue as far as I can tell and the ever present race card ploy just knocks even more steam out of the race card ploy, everytime its misused it becomes a little less valuable in the places when it is appropriate to be used.

I guess my take on the whole thing is a little off center. And I'm not polarized at all really. My thinking is that Kobe's admitted the adultery which pretty much wipes out his squeaky clean public image. If his image was based on his being a good and honest family man then that's bullshit because he's an adulterer. So using his image as a defense fails because he's demonstrated and admitted that he's not as clean and honest as he's said he is. So he's both a liar and an adulterer. Did he rape the woman? Maybe, maybe not but the really huge thing right now before the court trial begins is that he cheated on his wife (who is pretty amazingly fine and either impressively or obstinately loyal for standing by him in the light of his despicable behaviour).

And then it becomes an issue of whether he forced her into sex or, as P thinks happened, they were in the act and she decided that she didn't want to be there and told him to stop. I don't think they'd gotten to the actual act but it doesn't matter either way, our laws say that a woman can say "No" at any time and the man has to stop. A law which is really kind of whacked when you get right down to it but let's leave that for another post.

The argument that she went to his room and should have expected some sexing is stupid. I've seen it in several places online and the mere fact that she went to his is implied consent at best. People can and will change their minds. What if he was being an utter asshole, is she compelled to sleep with him still because she already went to his room? What if he says, not only do you get to have sex with me but with my crew here too? Is she allowed to say "No fucking way" then? What if Kobe went to the 5th base (anal sex, come on people) and she wanted nothing to do with it? The problem is that there are far too many what if's.

But the facts are facts. Kobe had sex with her, this is a fact now as its been admitted by both sides. Kobe was married to someone else at the time, again its a fact. The "victim" has a recent history of depression and attempted suicide, fact but may not be particularly relevant here. Kobe has an sterling public image and that should be taken into account in the consideration of his relative guilt or innocence, yes, he had a sterling image but it was based on lies that have been exposed so his image cannot be used for his defense. Sure, he kept his nose clean until now but so what, he's an admitted adulterer and that means he's almost certainly done this more than once considering how long he's been on the national stage.

Do I really care all that much that a basketball player was banging some chick who worked at a snob hotel in Colorado? No, I really don't but I've been compelled to take part in the debate because there's an awful lot of conjecture and just plain idiotic logic being tossed around like it has some validity.

Is Kobe guilty of rape? I don't know. Is he guilty of adultery? Yep. Should he be judged on that aspect as well as the rape? Hell yes, he should. Just the same as if he was charged with murder but also robbed the guy too.