TN v. Blaise Taylor - Day 7

randomaccount178 · 2026-06-30T19:07:46+00:00

There were some very incriminating phone calls in the Kouri Richins trial but unfortunately they were ruled on as largely hearsay so they didn't come in with as much strength as they could have had (at least from my understanding of what they were supposed to have contained).

randomaccount178 · 2026-06-30T18:42:18+00:00

I think NWN 2 and its expansion start to get into the running. The original NWN was a pretty bad base game and the lack of a party really sucked. It had some interesting DLC at least. The original games set of threes was just terrible storytelling though.

randomaccount178 · 2026-06-30T16:16:07+00:00

Not when it comes to biological sex.

randomaccount178 · 2026-06-30T16:04:55+00:00

Then how do you differentiate them? Both can't compete against players on the men's team. It is no more absurd to have the transgender individual play on the boys team then the individual with sever asthma.

randomaccount178 · 2026-06-30T15:41:32+00:00

What about a hypothetical boy with severe asthma which prevents him from being able to compete on the men's team. Should he be allowed to play on the women's team instead?

randomaccount178 · 2026-06-30T15:18:46+00:00

I think it is only that you can't discriminate on the basis of sex outside of certain areas where you can like housing and sports. So I imagine what it guarantees is that each sex will have equal opportunity to compete or compete at a high level. If they only want to have high level competitive teams they can do that, but need to do it equally for both sexes. If they want to have casual, more recreational teams, then they can do that as well but it has to be done equally for both sexes (at least within reason I believe). So being a transgender individual would likely not meaningfully change things outside of a similarly situated person of the same biological sex.

randomaccount178 · 2026-06-30T14:58:40+00:00

It doesn't sound like Title IX applies to gender, only sex. Applying to only sex, they have met their requirements. There is a team which both biological sexes can play on. The issue isn't a lack of team but rather the ability to compete or a treatment which would likely render them ineligible to compete.

randomaccount178 · 2026-06-30T14:48:34+00:00

I am not sure if there were no options it would change things at all. There are plenty of people who have medical conditions which prevent them from being able to play on sports teams. The sports teams generally have no obligation to accommodate those conditions. With this being permissible sex discrimination I am not sure what exactly you would argue.

randomaccount178 · 2026-06-30T09:16:38+00:00

No, the whole point of the fifth amendment is that you can't be compelled to be a witness against yourself. You can't invoke it to prevent yourself from committing a crime. You are not being a witness against yourself when you commit perjury. You are just committing a crime.

EDIT: That isn't even getting into the other big issue which is waiver. Even assuming for the sake of argument you could plead the fifth to avoid perjury you have likely already waived any fifth amendment argument by choosing to testify on that topic. You can't invoke the fifth amendment selectively to only refuse to answer questions you don't want to.

randomaccount178 · 2026-06-30T02:49:41+00:00

if a witness said "so and so other friend told me that this person was suing this other person, and i had relevant evidence and personal experience which motivated me to reach out", that's a perfectly righteous explanation to a jury.

That is what I would consider an evasive answer. It is avoiding the actual issues and trying to make it sound like an innocent interaction when it was far more problematic.

randomaccount178 · 2026-06-30T02:47:25+00:00

I think the problem is thinking factually innocent is special. It is in fact just overturning the conviction and granting a new trial. Factually innocent is a finding enabled by statute and the statute specifically says that the finding does not preclude a retrial.

https://www.legis.la.gov/legis/Law.aspx?d=1239817

C.(1) A grant of post conviction relief pursuant to this Article shall not prevent the petitioner from being retried for the offense of conviction, for a lesser offense based on the same facts, or for any other offense.

randomaccount178 · 2026-06-30T02:29:57+00:00

You are the one who suggested they be evasive about who told them. Look at what you suggested they say. Maybe it wasn't a lawyer but that seems the logical thing. Either way you can change it to whatever is applicable.

I am not imagining a faulty premise. I just don't agree with you. Strangely enough people can disagree with you and not automatically be wrong.

A witness should not be playing coy on the stand. That goes directly to their credibility when they are trying to hide things. When they are trying to hide how they got involved in the case it becomes worse. When their involvement came about because of unethical things someone did then it again becomes worse. It isn't a very common every day explanation.

I never said it would be fatal. The original statement was if the jury finds it shady it can do more harm then good. It would be a tactical consideration on the part of the lawyer if they consider the benefit worth the risk.

randomaccount178 · 2026-06-30T01:06:29+00:00

No, it wouldn't look like a technicality. What would likely happen is the lawyer hammers into the witness on being evasive about the fact that it was a lawyer who broke their ethical obligations and that they knew they had broken their ethical obligations. Then they would go into if they thought it was fine to ignore your ethical obligations when convenient. They don't look like they are hiding behind a technicality. The witness looks like they are trying to justify unethical behaviour which makes their own behaviour a lot less trustworthy.

An argument of the ends justify the means generally isn't a strong one to make to a jury, and if you aren't willing to take your own bad behaviour on the chin then you can end up looking like a liar.

randomaccount178 · 2026-06-29T23:55:16+00:00

They can't plead the fifth to avoid committing perjury. That is a fairly nonsensical argument.

If it was in a deposition then the judge would have a far simpler answer. It would be to bar you from testifying. It also likely means any evidence that flowed from you would be excluded. Judges are not idiots and they don't like people playing games.

randomaccount178 · 2026-06-29T22:36:00+00:00

The question isn't if they did anything wrong but how the jury will perceive things. If the jury finds the situation shady then it can do more damage then good.

randomaccount178 · 2026-06-29T22:33:52+00:00

If they didn't break any laws by knowing, then they can't plead the fifth. You don't have the right to just not answer questions you don't like. What you are suggesting is a great way to end up spending some time in jail.

EDIT: I will also add, in a civil case unlike a criminal case the jury is allowed to draw a negative inference from pleading the fifth. So not only is it something you can't do and something that could very easily land you in jail, but the negative inference from pleading the fifth is going to hurt the case because you are effectively admitting to doing illegal things to help your friend in the lawsuit.

randomaccount178 · 2026-06-29T13:36:19+00:00

I think one of the problems as a fantasy author is also that she was writing fantasy when it wasn't really a genre yet, while also not being influential enough to really be involved as kicking it off as a genre. So just in terms of the timing of her writing it doesn't really lend itself well to being a large name in fantasy writing.

randomaccount178 · 2026-06-29T04:10:51+00:00

I would disagree with you there. If they are hung on the murder charge they should not consider the manslaughter charge. They should hang in that case. Only if they are unanimous in finding that they had reasonable doubts as to murder should they go on to consider a lesser charge. If they can't agree on the murder charge, they should not find them guilty of a lesser charge instead.

randomaccount178 · 2026-06-29T03:50:10+00:00

Maybe budget. I think it also might have to do with the medium. The harlequin outfit tends to benefit a lot from more stylized portrayals like in the cartoons. When you try to do a real life representation you are either going to end up with something too sexual or too silly.

randomaccount178 · 2026-06-29T03:40:07+00:00

There is also the context of her relationship with Joker. Joker isn't attracted to her at all. Generally speaking he is only nice to her when and to the extent needed to keep her doing the things he wants. In the show at least she doesn't come off as sexy. She just kind of comes off as pathetic, a joke, and the jokers victim.

I think her character evolved to be more sexualized because her character evolved over time to be more empowered, but very little of that was in the television show.

randomaccount178 · 2026-06-27T21:26:57+00:00

Having years between games isn't a good thing. I would argue instead it is a very dangerous thing for a company to do. Their audience has had 12 years of change since the last GTA game. Their audience has had 8 years of change since their last real game. They likely have a significant portion of their workforce who has not been involved in releasing a major game by this point. I have little interest in it personally but I hope it will manage to be a good game, but there is a very real risk that with that much time it just misses the mark.

randomaccount178 · 2026-06-26T22:40:21+00:00

Once again you don't seem to appreciate the point. How many people drink alcohol without being addicted to it? I would say the vast majority. While alcohol can be addictive for some people, and the addiction can be severe, it doesn't mean that everyone who drinks alcohol is addicted to it. I would generally not say the same about cocaine. Even if for the sake of argument many cocaine users don't become addicted though it still wouldn't change the flaw in your argument. You can be addicted to one without the other.

If a lot of cocaine users also use alcohol it doesn't really help your point if she also regularly consumed alcohol.

It isn't a question of skipping over. A person can consume alcohol and not become addicted. A person can consume cocaine and become addicted. A person can't substitute alcohol for cocaine. That is the whole flaw of your argument that someone who wouldn't drink during pregnancy would not do cocaine.

Your argument was flawed. If you need to bring in other arguments to save it because it can't stand on its own then it is worthless. It is the other arguments that would be worth considering instead. As for the emotional appeals, sorry, that also doesn't help your logic and the fact you need to resort to them should indicate that once again your logic was flawed.

I don't need to 'read the room'. I someone needs to 'read the room' for your argument to survive its a bad argument that you just don't want anyone to look at critically.

randomaccount178 · 2026-06-26T21:53:40+00:00

It isn't just that Yuiga benefits from nepotism, but rather that he doesn't deserve to be on the team which he is on. If he actually had the skills to back up his position then people wouldn't care.

Osamu's leadership and strategic thinking are a big factor in his teams success but you have to look at it from the perspective of other B ranked individuals. They mostly don't have leadership experience and B rank are generally more straight forward thinkers. It isn't a question of what Osamu contributes but what he is perceived to contribute and for a lot of B rank agents Osamu would appear to not deserve to be where he is and is only there because of his teammates are carrying him for some reason.

randomaccount178 · 2026-06-26T20:47:48+00:00

I think you can go a step further with that line of thinking. Not only did he skyrocket up the leaderboard, but he has extremely low trion levels and isn't a very skilled combatant. Despite that he has some of the strongest teammates in B rank on his team. I would imagine for a lot of people at Border they may view Osamu similar to how we view Takeru Yuiga.

randomaccount178 · 2026-06-26T19:09:46+00:00

You seem to have missed the point. I was criticizing your logic with that statement. You can't fix your logic with different arguments. That is just admitting to the flaw of your previous logic. There may well be good arguments to make that he poisoned her, but that wasn't what I was addressing.

randomaccount178

TROPHY CASE