Estragon’s kitchen…

So, I read this article on the NYT yesterday about this woman Amanda Knox, and I’ve spent a good amount of time since then reading up about this case.  It’s absolutely crazy.

To sum up as quickly as possible the facts of the case:

American girl, Amanda Knox, studying abroad in small town Italy, was arrested and is now on trial with her ex-boyfriend (an Italian student) for the murder of her roommate, a British university student, back in 2007.  The prosecution is arguing that the British student was killed when she refused to participate in a drug-fuelled orgy.

This article sums it up pretty well.

Now, the NYT blog post is crazy, because most of the guy’s argument is that she can’t have done the murder because she was Jesuit educated, American, and young.

I read a similar article in the Guardian which claims that she couldn’t have done the murder because she’s a woman:

No other woman has been found guilty of a frenzied sex attack, leading to the death of the victim, in which she was the instigator and main protagonist. Of course, this does not mean she is necessarily innocent, but I would wager that she probably is.

And reading people’s comments on these newspaper articles is mind-boggling.  People are eager to rush to judgment about her case, either thinking she’s guilty or innocent.  Some people say that we wouldn’t be interested in the case if she was black.  Others arguing that Americans are never held responsible for anything (re: Iraq, Gitmo, etc.).    I think my favorite comment on the NYT blog was from someone who was arguing that she wasn’t guilty, but he kept calling her Fox instead of Knox.  You’ve got to think that really says something about the Internet….

Anyway, the girl took the stand today in Italy, in her own defence.  Did you know they don’t make you testify under oath in Italy, if you’re the defendant?

The case is absolutely fascinating, and the tabloid press has had a field day.  I don’t blame them.  There’s a large number of lurid and strange details (she was apparently doing cartwheels and the splits whilst at the police station waiting to be interrogated the day after the murder; she claimed she was at her boyfriend’s house when the murder happened, then at her own house when the murder happened, covering her ears while her roommate was killed (though she didn’t bother to check on her roommate since the body wasn’t found until 1 pm the next day), then she’s back to her original story of being at her boyfriend’s house).

Feel free to read up on it.  I’m sure it’s a made-for-TV movie waiting to happen.

Saw this article in the Guardian about Scientology in France.

They’re on trial for “preying on vulnerable people for financial gain”.  Isn’t that what all religions do?  I mean, duh.

Or have we never heard of Lourdes?  I guess the 350,000 sick (vulnerable?) people a year who visit don’t provide any financial gain.

I guess those Lourdes people lucked out that they’re not in Frace.  Hey, wait a second….