Gregorian Chant, the Orthodox liturgy, and such are the things I use to deal with “leveling out”, part of anger management. I think the forms have a more direct line to the human mind, than the more complex forms of the Baroque and forward.

(For the uninitiated: countertenor = male alto. Natural baritones or [more rarely] tenors, still able to sing as such when they wish, countertenors train themselves to sing in their “false” voice, which yields approximately the range of a female alto, but with a completely different tone color. Contrary to uninformed popular myth, a countertenor is not a castrato… it’s a technique, not a physiological change. The more traditional British choirs use boy sopranos and male altos to this day.)

As for Texas and Florida, I think it’s a lack of contratenors that makes it unlikely. You really need a contratenor to have a realistic evangelical preacher.

I would assume the defense is going to attack the credibility of the two main witnesses, former associates of Jefferson. That’s the procedure in Louisiana, but I doubt it will fly in a Virginia courtroom. We both know that politics in Louisiana is “different”.

I don’t believe he’s on the Homeland Security committee. I think an attempt was made to place him there, but he is not on the current list on the official web site.

“Dollar Bill Jefferson” enjoys a presumption of innocence… and you’ll forgive me if I break out laughing at the appearance of “Dollar Bill Jefferson” and “innocence” in the same sentence. I’d really hate to see an incompetent prosecutor screw up what looks like it should be a fairly easy job.

Any recent word on questions of evidence-gathering methods? will that be his defense?

Mitch, every politician needs a little cold cash for “walking around” money. He had an election coming up, and you need to pay those “volunteers” in cash.