Dogs in the Courtroom | Female Baboons On Attack | Saving a Marriage

Support System or Menace to Justice?

Dog Helps Rape Victims NYTimes

Rosie, who comforts traumatized children and aided a teenager on the stand in a rape trial, outside the Dutchess County Courthouse in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., with Dale Picard. Kelly Shimoda for NYTimesRosie won’t be on the witness stand in the appeals conviction of a New York man convincted of rapng and impregnating his 15-year-old daughter.  Rosie is a dog named for the civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks and she has special skiils in helping children testify on difficult subjects — such as being raped, then pregnant by one’s own father.

The father’s lawyers are crying ‘foul’, protesting that they can’t cross-examine a dog who undeniably sways jurors.

Service dogs have long been permitted in courts. But in a ruling in June that allowed Rosie to accompany the teenage rape victim to the trial here, a Dutchess County Court judge, Stephen L. Greller, said the teenager was traumatized and the defendant, Victor Tohom, appeared threatening. Although he said there was no precedent in the state, Judge Greller ruled that Rosie was similar to the teddy bear that a New York appeals court said in 1994 could accompany a child witness.

Before Hatred Sets In, Taking A Marital Sabbatical

To Save a Marriage, Split Up WSJ

A trial separation can be a way of saving a marriage, although it should be the decision of last resort, reports today’s WSJ. If infidelity is involved, therapy should occur first.

The question is: what would happen if couples with a deeply-troubled marriage took a break before the hatred set it? With no real research to support the anecdotal evidence, marriage therapists suggest that perhaps half of marriages could be saved with an organized, thoughtful trial separation.

Sex in Nature

Female Baboon Beauties Bullied AOC Sex & Nature

Today’s topic is baboons; and it’s not only males who are cornering the sexually desireable female in heat. Scientists tracking the number of aggressive exchanges between 27 wild female chacma baboons from two different groups in Tsaobis Leopard Park in central Namibia over 18 months have recorded 1027 interactions among the females.

Honoring Farrah Fawcett Foundation

Farrah Fawcett Barbie Slimmed Down to Today’s Size 0 Fashion Appropriate AOC Body & Culture

Mattel has released a Farrah Barbie $34.95, already sold out on several sites reports the Daily Mail. All proceeds from the doll will go to the Farah Fawcett Foundation, devoted to fighting cancer. Farrah Barbie is inspired by her 1977 Charlie’s Angel poster in which the star saw red.