Oscar Pistorius??

[cariad]

Well? Did he or didn't he? Any thoughts?

I've gone back and forth myself. This article details what he said happened in his sworn statement:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/19/oscar-pistorius-weeps-riveting-testimony

We were at the cottage in Studley when the paraolympics were on, so while I never watch that sort of thing, I saw him use his interview after one of his races to claim that the other runner cheated. It was awkward to say the least. Stunningly ungracious, but who could have seen this coming. I'm glad my kids (especially Dyl) followed and admired Johnny Peacock and never really got into the South African. Tragic story, waste of so much potential, his and hers....

[MaryD]

A friend and I went the The Museum of Modern Art at Heide this morning.  I had been there often before mainly to look at the vegetable garden and the plantings down by the river.  There is a lot of Australian art history there (almost a commune).  I'm very picky about modern art, but the the woman from next door is/was an art teacher and had never been there before.  The main exhibition was of the works of a recently deceased New York artist and one of them involved a textile shape of a man with an old-fashioned prosthetic leg.  My neighbour remarked loudly to the attendant that that work had obviously come from South Africa.  The attendant had never heard of Oscar or the trouble he was in, so the gory details were loudly explained to him.  Another attendant (a woman in her 50's) came over to join the discussion.  Her son apparently had trained with Oscar about two years ago.  His opinion was that he is a bit of a hothead, but that is about third hand.

He's certainly got himself into a bit of a mess.

[okarol]

His story sounds plausible. But add the neighbors heard fighting, and the prosecutor says he did have his legs on, then it gets confusing.
Very sad.

[MooseMom]

And they're just at the bond hearing!  The actual trial hasn't even started yet!

Pistorius claimed he didn't have his prosthetics on but that he is still mobile even without them.

And the lead prosecutor has now been dismissed because HE's up on 7 charges of attempted murder.

A terrible story but a fascinating one, too.  It's SA's version of the OJ trial.

[rocker]

I'm just surprised I'm not hearing "'roid rage" mentioned more often.

That said - in Western cultures we do have an unfortunate tendency to classify people as "good" and "bad".  When a "good" person does a "bad" thing, our startlement that we have apparently misclassified them causes us to look around to find signs that they were "bad" all along.

I really wish we could get past that.  (I wish I could get past that.) There aren't good and bad people, there are just people. We all do good and bad things. It's perfectly possible for a mass murderer to really truly love his dog.

Just musing.

  - rocker

[cariad]

There aren't good and bad people, there are just people. We all do good and bad things. It's perfectly possible for a mass murderer to really truly love his dog.

Rocker, this reminds me of one of my favourite quotes:
"There's so much good in the worst of us
And so much bad in the best of us
That it ill behooves any of us
To talk about the rest of us."

However, this is a devilishly compelling case, so I'm going to talk away! 

Last headline I read, the prosecutors were "walking back" the claims that he was injecting testosterone.

I think Mary had it right. He's got a hair-trigger temper. Even that episode I mentioned where he accused the other runner of cheating, within an hour he apologised and said he chose the wrong time to bring it up. He seemed to act rashly in the moment and then cool off and realise that what he did was wrong. He's a mid-20s superstar athlete who, not surprisingly, seems to have impulse-control difficulties. I think he was blinded by rage (not necessarily chemically induced) for a few fatal minutes and now probably does deeply regret what he's done.

Yeah, MM, I've said to Gwyn that this is another OJ trial. Only with a much more topsy-turvy cast and plot. I keep thinking I'm reading it wrong. When I saw that he had been charged with murder, I later thought I had dreamt that. When I saw that the prosecutor was also charged with murder, I thought I had to be misunderstanding the sentence because that is just too bizarre. If this were a film script and I were critiquing it, I would say to the writer "Whoa, slow down! You don't need to pile on all this drama. Develop a few points a bit more before going on to the next shocking revelation."

Karol, I think his story has a few too many holes. If you were worried for your girlfriend and thought she was sleeping in the bed, wouldn't your instinct be to wake her and tell her to hide, run out of the house, or call for help? How would your first thought not be that the person who is staying at your house is probably the one in the loo? He claims he did not turn the lights on, but if it was so dark, how did he get the fan inside from the balcony? He also states that he shouted at the presumed-intruder to get out of his house before firing, but wouldn't the girlfriend have responded before he started shooting?

There is a bloody cricket bat and a spent cartridge found in his bedroom, as if an altercation took place there first. More intrigue. It looks bleak for Oscar.

[Poppylicious]

Well? Did he or didn't he? Any thoughts?

I've gone back and forth myself. This article details what he said happened in his sworn statement:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/19/oscar-pistorius-weeps-riveting-testimony

We were at the cottage in Studley when the paraolympics were on, so while I never watch that sort of thing, I saw him use his interview after one of his races to claim that the other runner cheated. It was awkward to say the least. Stunningly ungracious, but who could have seen this coming. I'm glad my kids (especially Dyl) followed and admired Johnny Peacock and never really got into the South African. Tragic story, waste of so much potential, his and hers....

I think he did it.

As an aside, Johnny Peacock comes from my neck of the woods but I haven't yet been to see his gold post box.  I really should, before some nutters desecrate it. 

[cassandra]

Didn't I also read that his wife was admitted to the ED about. 7 times in the last few years?

[cariad]

As an aside, Johnny Peacock comes from my neck of the woods

I have the coolest Dyl story about Johnny Peacock. Shortly after we moved here, Dyl asked me what disabled meant since he saw signs on the bus about giving up seats for people with disabilities. I forget how I defined it, something along the lines of "it means certain things are harder for them than most people" and then I said something about how everyone in the Paralympics had a disability. He thought for a moment and then commented on my definition in his calm, intellectual way "Well, Johnny Peacock's a champion, so that surprises me."

I remember there being some noise about someone tweeting that the paralympics redefine what it means to be disabled, and people were furious with him for the comment. I can't say I understand that. It seemed a thoughtful and true statement to me.

Cas, she wasn't married to him, and far as I recall they'd only been dating since last November. Still, there was that ominous remark that police had been to the property before to investigate matters "of a domestic nature".

I read that a neighbour claimed that he/she heard a single shot, then more shots about 17 minutes later. I find that hard to believe. It seems to me that if he shot her in anger, he would not have stayed enraged that long. If he did shoot her once and then deliberated over what to do for a full 17 minutes, finally deciding to kill her as she cowered in the w.c. in pain, that's unfathomably vile and despicable and they should hang him high (figuratively).

They granted him bail at one million rand, which is only $112,000. The rand has really tanked since I was in South Africa.