sundries

[rm]

Apparently, the way to punish tweens for sexting is to threaten to charge them with child pornography and for them to take "re-education classes" on "what it means to be a girl." The boys who passed the photos around, of course, faced no consequences. Thank god for the ACLU.

Meanwhile, schools issued laptops to students and then used the computers to spy on their activities at home, ultimately punishing students for behavioral issues that transpired in their own houses. Thanks to regyt for alerting me to both this item and the one above.

More absurdity in the schools -- you have all heard by now about the 12-year-old handcuffed and escorted out by police for doodling on a desk?

You know, when I was a kid I had intensely overprotective parents. But at the same time, no one had a cell phone. No one had a laptop that was being used to spy on you and partof growing up was learning about lying -- how to get away with stuff ("I couldn't find a payphone.") and the very real consequences of lies when you got busted. Maybe less sneaky kids will make better business leaders. On the other hand, maybe less sneaky kids just produces a generation that expects to be policed into utter conformity. I don't know, but it sure does make me nervous (an aside: is Buffy the last teen-focused show that was a big hit where kids get away with stuff because everyone doesn't have a mobile?).

A small plane stolen from another airport was intentionally crashed into a building in Austin. What new, ineffective and possibly problematic restrictions will be imposed on general aviation as a result of this? Meanwhile we are told this was not a terrorist act (despite the fact that 199 IRS employees worked in the building and may have been the motive) because we all know Americans are never terrorists. Oklahoma City? What?

British broadcast admits on air to suffocating lover dying of AIDS with a pillow. He's subsequently been interviewed by police and released on bail. The whole thing is heart-breaking.

eumelia reports on two high profile rape-related news stories in Israel and the bill being proposed that allows anyone accused or rape to file counter-charges against the victim for provoking the rape. Yeah. Really.

Despite warnings, there is little evidence to suggest that location-based tweets have created a rise in burglaries.

Duane Reade has been sold and New Yorkers care. Mostly because we really, REALLY hate Duane Reade.

Comments

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Duane Reade has been sold and New Yorkers care. Mostly because we really, REALLY hate Duane Reade.

Yup, someone I know who is of necessity a relatively frequent patron is hoping the Walgreens sale might result in some better customer service at the dispensary counter...but isn't optimistic.

I'd heard about the Big Brother laptops, but not about the sexting story. Good grief.

[kdsorceress.livejournal.com]

partof growing up was learning about lying -- how to get away with stuff

"My cell phone is out of batteries"

I know kids who would store formulae in their fancy graphing calculators, rather than memorizing them. I have trouble doing research online sometimes, because the useful information gets buried under a flood of papers-for-sale. When the school computers didn't allow the AIM program, people figured out and passed around the in-browser version.

Facebook is banned at every high school I've ever known. And at every high school I've ever known, kids have figured out how to get past that ban, and told each other. My sophomore year of high school, one of the actually computer-savvy seniors went ahead and hacked every computer in the library so that he could download firefox onto them.

My mom has friends who have grounded their kids because the kids were stupid enough to post about getting smashed in unlocked LJ posts. My favourite math teacher in high school came in one day and read aloud from a print-out of a students MySpace "I totally cheated on Mr. Smith's test". One of the girls in the drama club outed a (straight) boy and caused a total shitstorm that ended in the girl deleting her journal.

I am currently taking a computer course that I hate, but it's about how computers exist and teachers need to know how they work. We talk a lot about how to keep students off the websites that could get us fired, or arrested or worse.

Part of growing up is still learning how to lie, and how to get away with stuff. We just have to come up with more complex lies, and learn how to delete our browser history and set private our facebooks. I myself have livejournal filters that my mom's not on, and a secondary name for use on the internet when Sorcy hits too close to home. The state of childhood hasn't changed, just what tools we get to use.

~Sor

[gallo-de-pelea.livejournal.com]

A small plane stolen from another airport was intentionally crashed into a building in Austin. What new, ineffective and possibly problematic restrictions will be imposed on general aviation as a result of this? Meanwhile we are told this was not a terrorist act (despite the fact that 199 IRS employees worked in the building and may have been the motive) because we all know Americans are never terrorists. Oklahoma City? What?

Motherfucker set his own house on fire before getting on the plane. 100 bucks says he's not gonna get labeled a terrist 'cause he's white.

I will be pleasantly surprised if this is not the case.

ETA: this is all about a mile northwest of where I am sitting. The smoke's drifting down past my window, actually.

I've bypassed scared entirely and just gone straight to spitting mad.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Hello neighbor!

My first thought was that this guy must be losing his house and totally lost his shit. (His wife was inside, and the local news is reporting a neighbor pulled her out of the burning home.) :/

[rm.livejournal.com]

This is apparently the suicide note from the guy:

http://embeddedart.com/

[malle-babbe.livejournal.com]

Now now, white people can't be terrorists; they're *Freedom Fighters*. Saviors of Real Americans from the scourge of competence! Because everyone knows that clean drinking water and timely pothole repairs are gateway drugs to becoming a Stalinist police state!

Re: the girl arrested for doodling. So, before Columbine, adults ignored violently unbalanced teens, and thought that letting kids fend for themselves against said violently unbalanced teens was a Wonderful Character-Building Experience. After Columbine, they presume every student is a violently unbalanced teen?

I can see some of zero tolerance as a means of avoiding being accused of favoritism by parents, but I also wonder if it is also a sign of how much Columbine (and later, 9/11) were such profound shocks to American society that paranoia has arisen as a coping mechanism.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Art Acevedo, our police chief, just said that reports the plane was stolen are false.

i don't even

[gallo-de-pelea.livejournal.com]

Because clearly the best way to handle that sort of anger and despair is to try to kill a bunch of people


oh okay

Also I like how he bawls about being so poor and downtrodden and then torches a $230+k house and GETS INTO HIS PRIVATE PLANE. Really tugs at the heartstrings.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Gods above - do they think that is real? The police chief refused to answer any questions about that.

My local news is talking about that blog entry now.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

I got my first mobile phone when I was 15 and learned how to lie, get away with thing, just fine. It's was mainly because I was a "goody two shoes" and dutifully phoned my parents to let them know where I was and who I was with... I just, ya know, lied to them about it.
They trusted me, so there was no harm done, right?!
And generally speaking I never got into too much trouble that I couldn't get a cab out of it.

It also helps to have older siblings, but that's the privilege of being the youngest in the family.

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

It also helps to have older siblings, but that's the privilege of being the youngest in the family.

I'm the youngest of five, but only lived with my next-oldest sibling.

For whatever reason--his popularity, the fact he was a boy, the fact he was a 6'2 boy--I never felt I had the same reign of freedom he did.

I really didn't start pushing the limits of the rules until I was almost through with high school.

That isn't to say I didn't kick up shenanigans when I was younger, it just necessitated sleeping at a friend's house.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

The CNN story has this in the sidebar: '"Criminal or terrorist activity" not indicated, Homeland Security spokesman says:'

If nothing else, vandalism is a crime

I don't even know how to respond to the stuff about the sexting case and the whole "boys will be boys" attitude. If MY boys were involved with that, I'd have Very Strong Words With Them.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

I'm the youngest of five, but only lived with my next-oldest sibling.
I'm the youngest of four and also only lived with my next-oldest brother, my other sibs are sisters.
He is a very protective brother, but I could rely on him to pick me up if I was in trouble (which happened only twice, thank god, one time my dad came along and that was mortifying).

And dittoy on the sleeping at friends. Many shenanigans were had in that way :)

[gallo-de-pelea.livejournal.com]

Hey, it's just horrible violence aimed at forwarding a particular ideological goal and causing fear, not "terrorism" :B

[jendaby.livejournal.com]

As a parent of two children in public school, I am very concerned about the way some administrators are behaving, and very glad that we don't live in PA.

I think you may be right about Buffy being the last pre-cell teen show. The teen show that was on when I was in high school was Twin Peaks, and that would've turned out much differently if they'd had phones.

I get really sick of people trying to impose their values on other people's children. I try to make what little difference I can on a local level, but it feels like swimming upstream.

[angstzeit.livejournal.com]

Most of the school administrators I encountered (with some major exceptions), were ignorant and paranoid and the last people to be trusted with such technology. The schools are run more and more like prisons and the students treated like inmates. And many people seem to think this is fine.

[laura47.livejournal.com]

Thank god for the ACLU

donation made!

[thatwordgrrl.livejournal.com]

Heh - I was an only child and managed just fine with Getting Away With Shit.

Mostly, I suspect, because my parents are the age of most of my friends' grandparents (now 87 and 76, respectively), so they were just doubly naive.

[maryling.livejournal.com]

the bill being proposed that allows anyone accused or rape to file counter-charges against the victim for provoking the rape. Yeah. Really.

You're going to pay for my unemployment, right? Cuz reading that just caused my head to explode so I'm not going to be able to work anymore.

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

Same and same.

\O/

[jackolantern.livejournal.com]

The shit that power-mad authorities (almost, in this case) get away with regarding kids just blows my mind. My ex-girlfriend's kid got suspended without being asked his version of things because he's a goth and some other kid accused him of making threats. I remember being pissed in high school, in the early eighties, because we had to start wearing our photo IDs (I pasted a picture of the comic book character Machine Man over mine, in protest; I'd probably end up in jail these days for that).

[tintop-lizzy.livejournal.com]

Thanks for putting all this together. I read and learn. many thanks

Re: i don't even

[morinon.livejournal.com]

Stole the plane.

Re: i don't even

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

No - it was his plane. The police press conference given this afternoon confirmed the plane was not stolen.

[nicoli-dominn.livejournal.com]

Okay, I know I wrote and deleted two other comments...sorry. Yes, the IRS related plane crash is terrorism...but I still think it's worthwhile for people to read the pilot's suicide letter. Just because his actions was primarily self-serving doesn't negate the possibility of terrorism. I was so focused on the fact that I sympathize with his woes that I completely overlooked the fact that he targeted a government organization with the intent to make a threatening statement.

[nicoli-dominn.livejournal.com]

Actions "were." Fuck, I can't think straight.

[catatonic-cats.livejournal.com]

snagged from artlung : so called manifesto-cliff notes (http://rimbosity.com/writings/joe-stack-translated.html)

[nicoli-dominn.livejournal.com]

Most of that was true, but I also did spend over an hour looking into Section 1706 and admittedly, it is a SUCKTASTIC amendment to a sucktastic law. While most of the other crap in his life could have been avoided (the piano thing?), I can see how that would drive a person in that profession to insanity. And I also see the injustice in it.

Truly, this guy was disturbed. He was depressed. He likened himself to the same people who threw themselves from office windows when the great depression hit, and I can kind of see that. The huge difference is that this guy probably took some other people down with him, which is unforgivable.

[gallo-de-pelea.livejournal.com]

From reports so far, there've been no fatalities, though one man was sent to the burn ward in a San Antonio hospital; he's expected to recover fully. The rest of the injuries were smoke- or burn-related and were treated on-site or in short ER visits.

Also good news: contrary to earlier speculation, his wife and kid weren't in the house when he torched it; they'd spent the night somewhere else.

[nicoli-dominn.livejournal.com]

That's good to know.

[nicoli-dominn.livejournal.com]

Sorry, hadn't seen this edited reply...but I'm also relieved to hear that. I had been wondering about her. I feel awful for his wife. Very likely, she's going to face a lot of harassment from angry, unsympathetic people in the years to come.