Posted on 05/19/2007 10:29:42 PM PDT by dr_lew
The article paraphrases a colleague, "he said the circumstances of her death don't diminish the life she led."
I think they do. She prosecuted at least one high profile DUI case. Reading various other local commentary, you can see the way a DUI confirms the depravity of a "low life", but is excused as a mistake for someone highly regarded.
Lawyers practice a very stressful profession. A lot have substance abuse problems.
I might mention some of the circumstances. There was a bomb threat at the Dupage County Courthouse that day, and Radostits went to lunch with a bunch of others, and presumably drank too much there. She was driven back to the courthouse, and was killed on the way home. I believe there’s going to be a lot more to come on what others knew or understood of her condition after this extended lunch hour, although the news coverage barely hints at this.
There was a feature article today in a local paper about a wedding that was interrupted at the Courthouse by the same bomb threat, but was nevertheless successfully concluded.
“It’s all part of the cosmic unconsciousness.”
This forum has had a few discusssions on DUI and blood alcohol levels before, so I'll just repeat briefly what I've learned. To get a BAC of .25, you can't just have a few drinks too many. Even if she was a very small woman, she would have needed at least a dozen drinks to get there, and probably more than that. She almost certainly must have been in the habit of regular heavy drinking, and must have been pouring them in that day.
I have a feeling Birkett has been covering up since the beginning. He is not very popular with the Chicago press and I bet a scandal is brewing- like how many other county employees took the day off as well.
“Lawyers practice a very stressful profession. A lot have substance abuse problems.”
Too many lawyers live to blunt or prevent true justice. No pity from me to those who choose a career of half-truths, wherein success depends on what the meaning of “is” is.
She either drank alone in the middle of the day or the people she drank with were not her friends.
“Lawyers practice a very stressful profession. A lot have substance abuse problems.”
I doubt if they drink as much as house painters.
That’s a very interesting remark. I think you are correct to identify the “cosmic” as an essentially liberal idea, but I would take issue with the idea that the laws of physics have to be bent to suit it. The laws of physics are very accommodating to liberal cosmicity, and are in fact an important inspiration to it, as we may note from the observation by a ( liberal ) Manhattan Project scientist , Robert Wilson ( IIRC - AIBID ) that the bombs “treated human beings as matter”.
I’ve always thought it interesting that DUI is probably the only crime where at least 10 of the jurors have been guilty of it themselves.
Almost everybody has at some point in their life driven when over the legal limit.
“She almost certainly must have been in the habit of regular heavy drinking, and must have been pouring them in that day.”
So true. I wish people who drink like this would just buy a bottle, take it home and tie one on there. Then they could pass out in private and not endanger themselves or others.
Well, me too, but people with enough judgment to respect their fellow humans like that are not likely to reach 25 clicks on the drunk-o-meter.
Captain Picard is running a Wire Service in his retirement? (Start Trek - Next Generation)
“I doubt if they drink as much as house painters.”
You’ve been watching “Blackadder”.
I would be willing to wager, she had a “To Go Cup” too.
No. The life she led was documented by her death.
Bingo. Most of us would have passed out with a BAC of .25. Hearing that someone has that BAC pretty much tells you they were the victim of a college fraternity hazing, or they're alcoholics.
Here's a quote from Wikipedia (for those of you who hate Wikipedia, look it up somewhere else - the following is pretty accurate):
Unless a person has developed a high tolerance, a BAC rating of 0.20 represents very serious intoxication (most first-time drinkers would be passed out by about 0.15), and 0.35 represents potentially fatal alcohol poisoning. 0.40 is the accepted LD50, or lethal dose for 50% of adult humans. For a long-time, heavy drinker, those numbers can at least double.
Had he not crashed, and simply been pulled over by the cops, we never would have heard of it.
Judges, prosecutors, other cops... they all drive drunk and they all get a free pass - unless they die.
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