Although I don't know the specifics here, and I understand that ignorance of the law is not a valid defense, it seems flat out insane to criminally prosecute the guy.

I give him the benefit of the doubt that they are telling the truth and this at least started by bailing rainwater out of a boat. That's a very normal activity, no reason to presume that any harm could come of it.

Then, first bucket gets tossed in and he sees that big splash. It's Florida, so there could be lots of potential explanations. It might be bigass catfish. It might be alligators. Could even be dolphins, depending on where they are in Florida. ...And, it might be manatees, although that probably wouldn't be the first thing I would think of.

So, big splash. I'd be surprised. My first reaction would be: "I wonder if it will happen again after another bucket." NOT "Oh dear, perhaps I am frightening some poor defenseless little creatures and should immediately cease what I'm doing." If I came the the conclusion that it was gators (which seems more likely/reasonable than manatees to me, although I don't live there), it would even stand to reason that frightening them off would be a good thing to do -- encourage them to move away from populated areas.

Given all that, it seems very unlikely to me that the dude had any malicious intent. If he knew they were manatees and knew that stressing them out like that could negatively impact their health, perhaps punishment would be in order. But if he thought they were anything else (fish / gators / whatever), or just plain didn't know, continuing to bail the boat in an attempt to get whatever they might be to swim away seems like a very reasonable thing to do.

Educating people that "hey, if you see something like this happening, it might be manatees and you should try to avoid stressing them out" seems like by far a better and more rational option than "throw the animal torturer in the slammer!"

I think by "altimate" what @bobknight33 really meant to say is "alt-right" - AKA the bullshit propaganda he sees on Alex Jones etc.

I like how, massive scandal, obstruction of justice, possible treason, like god-damnit, it's possible that people at the highest levels committed outright TREASON and Bob's worried about semantics. Where was your sense of moderation for Obama, Bob? You were ready to hang him for enjoying spicy mustard (I know, that's so much more un-American than selling your soul and country to the Russians so they can bail-out your bankrupt ass like Trump, right?

So, I'll stop asking if you're getting tired of winning. Joke's growing old. Instead, I'll ask. Do you think this is winning? Do you think America is winning under Trump? Do you think Trump is winning? Do you think Trump makes your life better and Obama made your life worse?

I'm just curious to gauge the level of your delusion here, but I'd genuinely love to hear your answers. Not that I think you're brave enough to admit the truth, but it would be nice to get it from you at least once.

ehmmm, how do you stop? The board won't ride outside the rail and you can't turn to scrub off speed.

Do you just hope for a kind run out and then bail?

1:10 - BAIL OUT MAN!!! BAIL OUT!!!

Yep, for $100 a room they could fix this, but they don't? That would make it intentional torture, right? The prisoners have nothing to clean with, and the jailers aren't providing anything. Besides, bleach doesn't fix leaks or humidity that makes the walls sweat, so $100 of bleach and paint wouldn't do shit after a few days, and does nothing about overcrowding.

This is jail, not prison. Most of these people are not convicted of anything yet. You call them repeat criminals, but you have no idea if any of them are repeaters or even criminals. Jail is where you wait for trial if you can't afford bail.

Just wow.

I was educated in chemical engineering (bailed out of a PhD). Currently I work in embedded software.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/bail-set-pokemon-shootout-suspect-las-vegas-40938442

From the article:
"Police say Campos demanded items before dawn Monday from several people playing the popular smartphone game that sends players to physical locations to "catch" virtual Pokemon characters.

"One game player who police say had a concealed weapon permit drew his own gun and exchanged fire with Campos. Both were wounded with what police said were not life-threatening injuries."

Unfortunately communism is ran by *government* elected leaders that always stay in power and has the same flaws that humans have so that system will also be crap and there will be no incentive to change for the better.

At least with competition at the very basic level you have to change or go bye bye.

Bail outs makes companies think they can continue to get away with bad stuff and in the GM bailout all the money went to the union leaders not even the workers benefited.

...actually, after thinking about it, Oliver has just forced the federal government to bail out those debtors. Their debt is now shared between all Americans.

@eric3579 Thanks for the quality!

My mom is president of a district school board in Kansas, so the "education" parts of the cuts have hit really close to home for her (and by extension me, even though I'm not living there). Very very tight budgets. Most music programs got drastic cuts years ago, and are effectively gone now. AP programs for college credit? Gone. Good teachers for academic subjects? Usually bail for greener pastures very quickly.

...But, being rural Kansas, plenty of money gets spent on bus / coach / equipment / facilities for the football team. To be fair, a good chunk of that comes from booster clubs rather than gov't. Still shows where the priorities are.

Black Flag "Police Story":

This fucking city
Is run by pigs
They take the rights
Away from all the kids
Understand
We're fighting a war
We can't win
They hate us
We hate them
We can't win, no way!
Walk down the street
I flip them off
They hit me across the head
With a billy club
Understand
We're fighting a war
We can't win
They hate us
We hate them
We can't win, no way!
Nothing I do,
Nothing I say
I tell them to go get fucked
They put me away
Understand
We're fighting a war
We can't win
They hate us
We hate them
We can't win, no way!
I go to court,
For my crime,
Stand in line pay bail,
I waste my time
Understand
We're fighting a war
We can't win
They hate us
We hate them
We can't win, no way!

I found that oddly mesmerizing.

I do wonder about the wrap. Does it allow the moister out or would the bail develop rot?

Jesus you two... I made a joke about Star Trek because I had to 'bail out' of what, a plea for everyone to agree and get along? I don't think it's a horrible thing for people to disagree, at least if they have genuinely differing viewpoints and respect each other enough to argue about it.

There is an actual conversation here, and some points are getting resolved and others will be more entrenched when it's all over - one star trek joke one way or the other doesn't change that.

Which points did you want to actually adress? "Instead of agreeing that certain things are wrong and need to be changed, we argue about who got it worst"? It helps to figure out which large groups of people are getting the worst treatment, because if we want to improve society we need to start with the ones who get it worst.

Every single person on earth has shitty things happen to them at some point, and every society will always fail someone at some point - but if we are going to change those societies we need to start figuring out where we're failing the worst, and start adressing that. It will probably take some arguments to agree on those things, but once we do we can slowly move forward.

Being dismissive and pretending that everybody who disagrees with you is angry or 'bailing out' will not get us closer to agreements. I don't think.

Because admitting (or even addressing) your points means admitting that you have points, and that they are relevant and mebbe even right. /shock horror

Bailing out with a wannabe funny/realistically nothing comeback is far easier than an actual reply, which might even start a conversation.

And we obviously can't have that.

It's even worse when one is the type of person who thinks the best compliment they ever got was 'Newtboy doesn't think the way normal people do.' That's certainly not helpful when attempting internet communication, and maddening for all when people invariably expect you to read into their posts and understand some unwritten or miss-written parts...something I am completely incapable of doing properly.
Thanks for not bailing just because I'm a sesquipedalian pain in the ass.