In the words of principal Strickland, "SLACKERS!"

I don't have a problem with GMOs on principal. If we can develop safe disease and insect resistant foods then I'm all for it. It's easy for people in the west to dismiss GMOs and tell people to grow their own veggies, etc. That's a laudable aim, but it's not practical for everyone. Some people work long hours or don't have the space.

That said, I am wary of it being controlled by the likes of Monsanto.

In short, I trust the science, as long as it is conducted rigorously and used ethically. The jury is still out on both those counts.

Others mentioned the term, but how is this not textbook entrapment?:

"In criminal law, entrapment is conduct by a law enforcement agent inducing a person to commit an offense that the person would otherwise have been unlikely to commit.[1] In many jurisdictions, entrapment is a possible defense against criminal liability."

OK, the kid had the charges dropped after a court appearance probably based largely on that defense, but it is disgusting that it ever got that far.

And how did the school not only go along with it at first, but they continue to?! Any principal or superintendent for a school district should see that for what it is -- complete bullshit. Then again, I guess that "no child left behind" and the almighty tax dollars being linked to test scores has already removed common sense and human decency from the list of prerequisites among such school administration figures. Sell-outs in pocketbook and soul.

This guy reminds me of the principal on Community.

@enoch

Well, note that the "governs best, governs least" quote IS Thoreau speaking, and although I think it's nonsense (I don't personally want to live completely outside any social structure, I don't think it's practical to separate myself from all of the advancements of society), I DO still think that Thoreau was a brave and noble person for believing in something and seeing that belief come to fruition. That's freedom.

But, when you're constantly putting down a system that you seem to wholeheartedly disagree with, but still support, that's hypocrisy, again, acc to me.

I brought up the issue of taxes because that's what Thoreau did. It's not terribly complicated. He felt that the system of government he was a part of was corrupt and restrictive, so he chose to not participate in it by not paying his taxes. He was jailed because of it, and when his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson bailed him out of jail he was upset. He WANTED to remain in jail because he didn't want to contribute to the social system he disagreed with so.

So when blankfist compared himself to Thoreau: http://videosift.com/talk/Gov-t-stopped-funding-charity-private-donations-surge-500#comment-1185054

I felt, and am reminded every time I see this type of propaganda, that there are a few ways of looking at this american libertarianism and those who follow it:

1) They don't believe in the government, but still support it through taxes.
2) They don't actually believe in the principles outlined in their own philosophy, and that's why they support what they affirm is a corrupt, freedom crushing, system, and that explains their support of it.
3) They believe in their ideas, but want to change things through the current system of government, which seems like a bit of a weird Catch 22.
or
4) They just want to have a theoretical discussion.

I've asked and asked, but he maintains that he's a freedom fighter who supports the government that he hates (through the payment of taxes, etc.)

There are other options I've probably considered along the way that aren't mentioned here, but I really put more thought into this than trying to tear blankfist down. It's genuinely confusing to me for someone to seemingly believe something so strongly and not act on those feelings.

Let me give you an example of what I mean. My first teaching job was in a very rural part of the US. Word got out quickly to the principal that I didn't say the pledge of allegiance in the morning (I have a variety of reasons for this, but the main one is that I am an atheist and don't agree with the phrase "under god"). I was brought into the principal's office after his stooge assistant "stopped by" my room several days in a row before and after the announcements. He wanted to know why I wasn't saying it and the conversation was respectful but went something like:

"Well, I choose not to, and I make sure everyone, including myself, is respectful during that time of the day, but I make it clear to the students that they don't have to as well."
"But don't you think you're setting a bad example for the students?"
"Well, no...? (at this point I knew they basically wanted me to just fall in)"

Long story short, at the end of the year, my job no longer existed. They moved the journalism teacher to another building and my position went from Eng teacher to Eng/Journalism teacher (I don't have a journalism license). Since I didn't have a license for that, I couldn't stay. :-/

It was hard to deal with, impossible to prove, but I'm better off 7 years into my career not being surrounded by those people anyway. They REALLY wanted me to just say the pledge, but it wasn't in my job description that I had to say the pledge every morning, and today, I'm happy to be in an inner city school with a more diverse and understanding population where I don't have to.

That's one BIG example from my life, and I'm no Thoreau, but neither is Blankfist. Now if he would just admit it.

Logan is working for the Principal!

It may be a bogus scandal, the fact remains who cares? The laws are written by the cunts who run the show-The show is theirs, the president they placed in position is theirs.....Who are they and why are they still breathing and breeding?

I love my country, Americas' the shit- Her government needs a douche that involves blood again-The charlatans with the brass balls the size of Volvos who have run this game on the nation and the world have fucked the planet long enough-Wake the fuck up, take names and inscribe them on bullets perhaps?? The talking about it does shit-Start by not making purchases for anything but food, using gas and utilities sparingly, dump your cable packages and take your fucking heads out if the television-Proactive is to cut-off their money supply AND THEIR MEANS OF PROGRAMMING-Suffer yourselves a bit for a change, real suffering brings real change, everyone on the planet is either worked to exhaustion, too uneducated/uninformed (street-wise included), and too lazy from poisonous foods and habits to be of any effect-Get healthy, body follows the mind-

Uhhh, we need to impeach this fucking cunt on principal alone.

bravo for this kid stating a very serious issue with teaching and one i agree with but i think his ire may be directed at the wrong person as @Yogi suggested and @JiggaJonson implied.

i substituted for a brief span a few years ago.
the reason my time was brief was not due to the kids,they were fantastic but rather it was the draconian and administrative bullshit i had to put up with.the school system was not looking for a substitute "teacher" but a babysitter.a warm body to sit in class and watch kids become catatonic. reading "packets" and qwell any form of disruption.

i was "officially reprimanded" three times due to actually engaging the classes i was substituting.my crime was not the fact i was covering material the absent teacher had already gone over recently but rather that i was talking and engaging the students.

seriously? it still boggles my mind.the teachers who i covered were appreciative of my efforts but the school only wanted me to keep the seat warm.

interestingly enough,those very same teachers convinced me to volunteer my time to tutor troubled teens who are constantly in ISS (in school suspension).thanks to a new principal who helped push through the massive paperwork and help from these teachers this may become an actual program.we have enlisted two more teachers who have come out of retirement and hope to have more tutors soon who are willing to donate their time.

the irony in all this is that the we (the tutors) have huge latitude in how we teach these troubled teens while vetted teachers have huge restrictions.

so generally speaking:its not the teachers.its the system.

I love how Jon points out that we are a nation of overreactors while at the same time he too is overreacting (along with the rest of the media). Guns are used in less than 10% of violent crime, yet that's all the media is concerned about. Jon and the media are both overreacting about so called assault rifles as well. Only 3% of crimes are committed with any type of rifle, and "assault rifles" are only a small sub-category of rifles. Why is the media only focusing on less than 10% of violent crimes (those that only involve guns), and why put so much of that focus on the least used type of gun to commit violence? Mass shootings barely make up 0.1% of all murders, yet it gets constant media coverage for weeks after it happens. If we do something to cut down on ALL violence, gun violence will also drop.

Jon also gets a lot of his "facts" wrong. The CDC has an average (1999-2010) gun homicide rate of 12,807 per year and an average accidental gun death of 758 per year, that doesn't add up to 30,000. There is no epidemic of gun violence either. Violence, including gun violence has been on a steady decline every year.

He was almost about to make a good point about gun control with the comparison to drunk driving. Drunk driving deaths were reduced through common sense laws, stricter sentences for drunk driving offenders and educating the public, not by banning alcohol or cars, or imposing ridiculous limits on cars like reducing the size of fuel tanks so drunk drivers would have to stop and refuel more often. When has banning anything ever solved a problem? We tried that with alcohol already, it didn't work. Drugs are illegal, and hows that war on drugs going? I don't use drugs, but I'm all for legalizing and regulating them. It's our generation's prohibition and it needs to end because all it's doing is causing more crime than it's preventing.

The argument that muskets were all that was available when the constitution was written is ridiculous. When the constitution was written they also didn't have radio, TV or the internet, so should we limit free speech and freedom of the press to only newspapers and soap boxes?

I'm willing to have a common sense discussion on how to reduce not just gun violence but all violence, but I'm waiting for the "anti-gun" side to show up with some common sense instead of fear and ignorance.

Guns are already highly regulated, but I'm not opposed to any new regulation as long as it will keep guns from criminals, include harsher punishment for criminal use of guns, and doesn't put any added burden on responsible gun owners. The current legislation being cooked up (what little has been revealed so far) is completely insane.

And by the way (since Jon brought up Mr. Belding), in 1997 at the Pearl, MS high school, it was the school's assistant principle with a gun that stopped the shooter. This was reported only in local papers. Only one national media network covered it, NBC, they mentioned it only twice, and then it was forgotten. Under the law the assistant principal was considered a criminal for having a gun in a gun free zone, yet if he didn't have his gun in his car that day to stop the shooter, the shooter would have been able to carry out his plan to drive to the junior high and kill more students while police were responding to the high school.

"Run, hide, call 911."
You forgot "concede everyones death in the vicinity of the shooter." And, "Wait 20 minutes for the first responders." Principals and deans having guns locked in the office is far less scary than what happened in CT.

On Oct. 1, 1997, Luke Woodham, 16, part of a satanic cult, stabbed and bludgeoned his mother before driving her car to Pearl High School in Pearl, Miss., where he shot dead two students and wounded seven others with a rifle he made no attempt to conceal. He then got back into his mother’s car and planned to go to Pearl Junior High School to kill some more. But assistant principal Joel Myrick retrieved a .45-caliber pistol from the glove compartment of his truck and subdued Woodham.

On Jan. 16, 2002, Peter Odighizuwa, 43, of Nigeria, went to the Appalachian School of Law campus in Virginia with a handgun and killed three and wounded three others. At the sound of gunfire, two other students – both police officers – retrieved guns from their cars. Meanwhile, another police officer and former Marine jumped Odighizuwa and disarmed him by the time the other officers got to the scene.

On Aug. 23, 1995, a band of crack cocaine addicts entered a store in Muskegon, Mich., with a plan to kill everyone and steal enough cash and jewelry to feed their habit. One member of the gang shot store owner Clare Cooper in the back four times. He still managed to grab his shotgun and fire on the gang as they fled. They were all apprehended.

On Dec. 9, 2007, a 24-year-old gunman named Matthew Murray launched an attack on the congregants of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs that left two victims dead. A former police officer, Jeanne Assam, a member of the security team for the church, shot Murray 10 times, killing him, as he was shooting at her. Murray had killed four others at a church 70 miles away earlier in the day.

On July 24, 2012, Richard Gable Stevens rented a rifle at a shooting range in Santa Clara, Calif., and herded three employees out the door, saying he intended to kill them. One of the employees, however, was carrying a .45-caliber handgun and shot the assailant.

On Dec. 17, 1991, two men armed with stolen pistols herded 20 customers and employees of a Shoney’s restaurant in Anniston, Ala., into a walk-in refrigerator and locked it so they could rob the establishment. However, one customer was armed with a .45-caliber handgun hidden under a table. He shot one of the gunmen dead. The other robber, who was holding the manager of the restaurant at gunpoint, began firing at the customer. But he was wounded critically by return fire, ending the incident.

On July 13, 2009, an armed man entered the Golden Food Market in south Richmond, shooting and wounding a clerk while firing at store patrons. He was shot by another customer who had a concealed-carry permit, likely saving the lives of eight other people in the store.

On July 29, 2012, Charles Conner shot and killed two people and their dogs at the Peach Tree RV park in Early, Texas. Vic Stacy got a call from one of the neighbors, got his .357 magnum and shot Conner as he fired upon the first police officer to arrive at the scene. Stacy was credited with saving the life of the officer.

The truth is that every single day mass murders are averted by armed civilian

Yet, every time there is a horrendous slaughter like we saw at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, there is a knee-jerk outcry for stricter control of guns.

taken from http://www.wnd.com/2012/12/how-to-stop-the-slaughter-of-the-innocents/#oA9kiFClUvLJ8gIK.99

I've never heard of the Abbeville institute. Apparently it's a neo-confederate think tank with interest in secession according to wiki and the SPLC.

Abbeville Institute (wiki)

In 1998, Livingston was instrumental in the founding of the Abbeville Institute.[citation needed] According to its website, the Institute is "an association of scholars in higher education devoted to a critical study of what is true and valuable in the Southern tradition". Its principal activities are a summer school for graduate students and an annual scholar's conference.[4] It focuses particularly on issues of secession which are kept out of mainstream academia.[5] The Institute is named for the South Carolina hometown of John Calhoun, and a pre-Civil War hotbed of secession.[6]

http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2004/winter/the-ideologues


As for the argument itself, I don't know what size has to do with democratic principles. Either you believe in them or you do not. As the world gets bigger, the need to work together is increased, not decreased, IMO.

It's the same principal as the Virgin Galactic Spaceship 2 and White Knight. Rather than the cargo hold, it's the spaceship portion.

Dear Prudie got this letter today. Couldn't help but think of this vid. Yeah, Christianity is a philosophy, BillO. (What an asshole.)

Q. Bigoted Mom: My son's second-grade class is having a "Holiday Month" where they learn about Christmas, Kwanzaa, Chanukah, Ramadan, and other holidays during December. One of the mothers is threatening to sue. She claims that since we live in a Christian country, only Christmas should be taught. She attended the Christmas session last week and said some unbelievably anti-Semitic and racist comments in front of the kids. Some of the kids were in tears. The principal called it a free speech issue and is considering cancelling the rest of the Holiday Month to avoid a lawsuit. He more or less agreed with her that Christmas should be the only holiday discussed. I live in a suburb to a major city in the South, so I've seen this before, but I'm puzzled as to what I can do.

>> ^Ickster:

I literally witnessed a miracle because despite the fact that the train destroyed the truck, the men inside were okay and they are alive, . . .
Actually, you witnessed a driver not paying attention, and being saved by 50 odd years of safety legislation and good engineering.


Heh. I was going to say, seeing as how the actual cabin the drivers were housed in was a good five or so meters from the point of impact, this hardly seems like the appropriate time to bust out the prayer beads.

Unless, of course, one felt like worshiping the mechanical engineers. The cathedrals could operate on the Rube Goldberg Principal.