Link Omanda

For some reason, a post I did a couple years ago about the "lying eyes" of Amanda Knox gets more hits than anything else every week on this dopey little website. Lots more. Like ten times more.

So I'm more than happy to see another link-baiting possibility with this story on a new book coming out about the whole spectacle. Just to be clear, this post includes Amanda Knox, sex, rape, murder, Italy, and just for click insurance, even though it doesn't: Kim Kardashian.

There were even rumors that a student serial killer was on the loose. Like any story that lures the press, Ms. Kercher’s murder at face value was enough to rally the troops. 

Then, everything changed with the arrest of Ms. Kercher’s American roommate Amanda Knox. From the moment Ms. Knox was arrested, along with her Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, the media scrum turned into a full blown circus, fed by what, at times, seemed like the audible sound of website clicks as we, the press, fleshed out the new version of the story.

Of all the strange twists in this saga, one of the oddest to me is her current employer. Amanda Knox has been deemed guilty of rape and murder and sentenced to 28 years in prison. She refuses to return to Italy to serve the time (I get that; I wouldn't either). So what is she qualified to do for employment in the U.S.? Oh, yeah, let's hire her as a journalist. Yep, she's working for a Seattle newspaper. Must be part of their Hire a Convicted Felon on the Run Program.

UPDATE: I wrote this post last night and then lo and behold today came the news that Knox was acquitted by Italy's high court. Go figure. I go back and forth on her guilt or innocence and probably, from what I've followed, wouldn't have been able to vote to convict. But I still have my doubts about her innocence and probably wouldn't hire her at my newspaper or want her rooming with my daughter.

Here are some other stories I better link to before they get whacked by breaking news:

*** Don't let facts get in the way of an agenda. U of M prof calls BS on cow book.

My experience shows me that the real truth is that dairy farmers care deeply about their cows. The care of cows is very good and gets better all the time. The milk produced is the safest, most regulated and inspected and wholesome food we consume.

*** Why the war on cancer hasn't been won. Good story.

"The war on cancer will not be won in one dramatic battle, it will be a series of skirmishes."

*** Don't buy any ripe bananas. The end is near.

Physicists predict the universe is primed for a “cosmological collapse” that will cause the universe to stop expanding at its current rate and ultimately collapse in on itself to wipe away all known matter.

*** Reading is hard. Calling people racist is easy.

Unfortunately what gets missed in the fun game of “You’re a racist for disagreeing with me!” is a discussion about how much people should be forced to subsidize the lives of others, whether entitlement programs that disincentivize labor are healthy for individuals or society, whether the explosive growth of disability rolls can be sustained and so on and so forth.

*** Cover design unveiled for Harper Lee's new novel. It's a tree. A moody tree. And we all go: "ooh, ahh."

*** Ellen Conford, an award-winning children's writer, has died.

*** The most anticipated books of Spring 2015, besides Runaway Trane.