← Previous Post: | Next Post:

 

“[Whitney] Howard’s criminal history includes arrests in June and August on suspicion of driving under the influence, both being drug-related.”

On the road again! UD trusts the courts of Athens Georgia will once again very quickly put Whitney Howard behind the wheel. So far she’s only killed one person, whereas it’s obvious she’s got the potential to produce far more carnage than that.

Margaret Soltan, December 13, 2016 5:23AM
Posted in: high as a kite

Trackback URL for this post:
https://www.margaretsoltan.com/wp-trackback.php?p=54008

4 Responses to ““[Whitney] Howard’s criminal history includes arrests in June and August on suspicion of driving under the influence, both being drug-related.””

  1. Greg Says:

    I have a strange reaction –maybe not so strange among you and your readers–to these stories that reminds me of Jastrow’s bistable duck-rabbit figure, familiar to readers of Philosophical Investigations:

    https://www.google.com/search?q=jastrow+duck+rabbit&rlz=1CASMAE_enUS588US588&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=631&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwisv4fb7_HQAhVBD5AKHRhPAHQQ_AUIBigB#imgrc=iyn6q48e6GkX9M%3A

    I see one contemptible person and one admirable victim and then I see two people in sad situations.

    It’s hard to choose. I understand your comment is more utilitarian — stop the likely future harm — than a condemnation of a person. But my gut reaction is to always see the two things I described — one of them endlessly after the other — but not both at the same time. Except for real monsters then I just allow myself to react in a visceral human way.

    One level beyond this, I think I’m a determinist — who is just blissfully able to forget most of the time that we are all, in some sense, wind-up toys.

  2. Margaret Soltan Says:

    Greg: The judges who let her get back on the road are the contemptible people here. I agree that this woman is unlikely to be a monster. She is a menace who desperately needs to be off the road. Only jail time, I think, will have any effect. She’ll keep getting into cars whether or not she’s been told she can’t.

  3. Greg Says:

    That’s exactly how I understood you.

  4. theprofessor Says:

    It’s not unusual in these parts to read about a 30-something with 10+ DUI convictions, usually accompanied by tons of other offenses, being caught yet again. I keep wondering how they get out so easily–most of these people are not rich, by the way–and who is crazy enough to let them have a set of car keys.

Comment on this Entry

UD REVIEWED

Dr. Bernard Carroll, known as the "conscience of psychiatry," contributed to various blogs, including Margaret Soltan's University Diaries, for which he sometimes wrote limericks under the name Adam.
New York Times

George Washington University English professor Margaret Soltan writes a blog called University Diaries, in which she decries the Twilight Zone-ish state our holy land’s institutes of higher ed find themselves in these days.
The Electron Pencil

It’s [UD's] intellectual honesty that makes her blog required reading.
Professor Mondo

There's always something delightful and thought intriguing to be found at Margaret Soltan's no-holds-barred, firebrand tinged blog about university life.
AcademicPub

You can get your RDA of academic liars, cheats, and greedy frauds at University Diaries. All disciplines, plus athletics.
truffula, commenting at Historiann

Margaret Soltan at University Diaries blogs superbly and tirelessly about [university sports] corruption.
Dagblog

University Diaries. Hosted by Margaret Soltan, professor of English at George Washington University. Boy is she pissed — mostly about athletics and funding, the usual scandals — but also about distance learning and diploma mills. She likes poems too. And she sings.
Dissent: The Blog

[UD belittles] Mrs. Palin's degree in communications from the University of Idaho...
The Wall Street Journal

Professor Margaret Soltan, blogging at University Diaries... provide[s] an important voice that challenges the status quo.
Lee Skallerup Bessette, Inside Higher Education

[University Diaries offers] the kind of attention to detail in the use of language that makes reading worthwhile.
Sean Dorrance Kelly, Harvard University

Margaret Soltan's ire is a national treasure.
Roland Greene, Stanford University

The irrepressibly to-the-point Margaret Soltan...
Carlat Psychiatry Blog

Margaret Soltan, whose blog lords it over the rest of ours like a benevolent tyrant...
Perplexed with Narrow Passages

Margaret Soltan is no fan of college sports and her diatribes on the subject can be condescending and annoying. But she makes a good point here...
Outside the Beltway

From Margaret Soltan's excellent coverage of the Bernard Madoff scandal comes this tip...
Money Law

University Diaries offers a long-running, focused, and extremely effective critique of the university as we know it.
Anthony Grafton, American Historical Association

The inimitable Margaret Soltan is, as usual, worth reading. ...
Medical Humanities Blog

I awake this morning to find that the excellent Margaret Soltan has linked here and thereby singlehandedly given [this blog] its heaviest traffic...
Ducks and Drakes

As Margaret Soltan, one of the best academic bloggers, points out, pressure is mounting ...
The Bitch Girls

Many of us bloggers worry that we don’t post enough to keep people’s interest: Margaret Soltan posts every day, and I more or less thought she was the gold standard.
Tenured Radical

University Diaries by Margaret Soltan is one of the best windows onto US university life that I know.
Mary Beard, A Don's Life

[University Diaries offers] a broad sense of what's going on in education today, framed by a passionate and knowledgeable reporter.
More magazine, Canada

If deity were an elected office, I would quit my job to get her on the ballot.
Notes of a Neophyte

Archives

Categories