Or, you know: A John F. Kerry speech.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqAVvlyVbag[/youtube]
Golly.
You know, not for nothing but when campus cops were a bit burlier they didn’t need tasers to deal with unruly students. And back when a certain degree of civility obtained the notion of campus cops zapping the students they are paid to protect – even boorish, self-absorbed students whose notions of rights and privileges are unencumbered by corresponding concepts of responsibility or mutual respect – would have seemed a little more outlandish than it has of late.
There’s a bit too much of this going around. And blame enough to go around.
Harvested nearly to extinction, the Florida Gulf Ensigns’ pelts were widely regarded by the Spanish settlers of the Western Panhandle for their rich, supple texture that lent itself well to both textiles and industrial uses. Much unlike their northern cousin, the Leopard Seal, the Ensigns’ were not harvested by clubbing but rather by potshots taken from afar via the internet regarding their character and devotion to service. Thanks to the conservation efforts of a few concerned citizens, however, they are making a resurgence in numbers.
What the hell does George Bush have to do with the actions of a few campus cops in Florida. It was funny enough when you Bush haters blamed him for Katrina, global warming, whatever, but this is even funnier.
So, if somebody else were president, cops would just tolerate people confronting them, resisting arrest, etc? If so, heaven help us.
Paul-
I think you missed the point, in fact I’m pretty sure you’re not in the same hemisphere.
LOL
Good to see that Ensigns can maintain their sense of humour, even while under attack.
“Only in George Bush’s Amerika” What does that mean juxtaposed with the story, if not linking the two? Please give me the benefit of your vast intellect Oh Great One.
That’s rich, Sim – considering you’re not in the same hemisphere either
Paul, few have lumped me in the BDS set previously. I favored myself that I was being ironical. One of my little self-deceptions, I suppose.
Ahh yes Lex, but I’m not much enamoured of Bush either
That is not to say I am of the BDS set either….
Before anyone gets all pissy and starts calling me a lefty know that I’m registered Independent and voted for both Presidents Bush. Both Clinton’s make me gag. And, deep thinker that I am, I don’t like Edwards’ hair neither.
That said, in August 2003 the Government Reform Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives assessed the treatment of science and scientists by the Bush Administration. The resulting report Politics and Science in the Bush Administration
Sunday, August 14, 2005 on Face The Nation Dr. Howard Dean (admittedly with a political ax to grind as Chairman of the Democratic National Committee said,
The Feb 4 2006 issue of NY Times reports that scientists have come forward and talked about how political appointees have tried to suppress or alter information from NASA in order to make it conform to the President’s party line.
Maybe Deutsch is just anal about labeling things, since the Big Bang is in fact a scientific theory? Or perhaps this 24 year-old presidential appointee just didn’t know the difference between ‘theory’ as popularly used (I have a theory the butler did it) and properly used (Theory of Evolution, Theory of Relatively, Theory of Gravitation—well proven explanations)?
Nope.
In October 2005, according t the article Deutsch sent an e-mail message to Flint Wild, a NASA contractor working on a set of Web presentations about Einstein for middle-school students. The message said the word “theory” needed to be added after every mention of the Big Bang.
The Big Bang is “not proven fact; it is opinion,” Mr. Deutsch wrote, adding, “It is not NASA’s place, nor should it be to make a declaration such as this about the existence of the universe that discounts intelligent design by a creator.”
It gets worse:
Deutsch’s email continued: “This is more than a science issue, it is a religious issue. And I would hate to think that young people would only be getting one-half of this debate from NASA. That would mean we had failed to properly educate the very people who rely on us for factual information the most.”
‘Course he did later resign after it was discovered that he lied on his resume. Figures.
If you want more read Rewriting History and Lying To The Pubic. Or pick up a copy of Chris Mooney’s The Republican War On Science.
Or read about the Christian Embassy invading the Pentagon.
The ironicity was lost on me too. I wondered about that, him being your boss and all.
You’re correct, Tailspin, this is a thread about a kid at the U of Florida. Beginning a discussion on intelligent design vs. evolution was a error on my part.
However, saying that we just “don’t understand” is to be-little a widely held, complex and scholarly point of view. Those who believe in “ID” are legion, both in number and knowledge. They know we don’t trace our beginning to a “self-replicating molecule” awash in a sea of molecules for millions of years.
You imply that evolution is the way we came to be, whether we believe it or not, it’s just that we “don’t understand”. Pish, Posh!!! It’s a difference in our experience, training and beliefs.
Saying people don’t “understand”? What is that, some kind of debate tactic? Unlike you, it doesn’t fly!
Perhaps another day, a more appropriate venue…
PeterGunn writes: . . . “be-little a widely held, complex and scholarly point of view . . .”
Demonstrably wrong on all three points, especially the last. ID has not offered a single scholarly contribution.
If you’d like to continue this discussion I’ll meet you over at http://www.pandasthumb.org or perhaps take a look at http://wow-really.blogspot.com/2007/09/was-st-augustine-psychic.html and we can carry on there if you’re interested.
I think that there were two different incidents which got conflated in some peoples’ minds, even in Jerry Pournelle’s mind. That said, what I wrote above, quoting him, still applies.
To paraphrase: Don’t be obnoxious to get a rise out of a cop, trusting that he’ll stick with the rulez.
Gaming the system is sometimes justifiable, gaming the cop is just stupid.
Oh, and ARRR!
First, I’ve spent too much time in Alachua County/Gainesville. UF may have had the best football team and basketball teams and may be an outstanding university (it is), but it is still in Gainesville which is redneck like you would not believe. I’d not mess with a Gainesville cop anymore than I would mess with any other small town redneck cop. That would go hand in hand with the campus police as well.
Ya just… don’t. If you are smart anyway.
Second, my husband and I both watched this on the news, he having received his doctorates from said fine institution, and we both said,”Wow, that seemed kind of excessive, didn’t it?” I would think that going to speak at a college campus automatically lends itself to the thought you are going to get boorish behavior, over privileged children who think they are right all the time, the ‘man’ is out to get him, and who think they are doing everything for the FIRST time ever… having the FIRST THOUGHT ever. Because… you know… we’ve never been in those young shoes.
I just figured that would be expected and it would be lined out already on how to handle that and I just didn’t expect tazing would be in the manual.
Third, and I hate to admit this, but when I heard the play back as they’re playing it on ALL our radio stations in the morning, I called my sister and laughed. She did not laugh like I did, as I suspect she is higher on the evolutionary scale than I, but I still thought the “Don’t taze me, bro! OW! OW!” was funny, in a childish black humored way. Ow? Heh.
The whole thing is very gray to me. Idiot college kid and cops in Gainesville… wish I could say it surprised me, but it did not.
Sim, #50, they’re there if you choose to look, but I stand with PeterGunn, #58 (well said, sir) on this one.
d
Peter Gunn:
Everything in the quote above is wrong, as matters of fact. Not sure where you’re getting your information, but you’d better double check your claims. ID is a view held by a very few hard core miscreants who have lied under oath about their substance-less ideas and have contributed nothing to scholarship. That’s not my opinion, that easily discovered fact.
If you’re interested in learning more head over to Panda’s Thumb.
Peter Gunn wrote: “You imply that evolution is the way we came to be, whether we believe it or not, it’s just that we “don’t understand”. Pish, Posh!!! It’s a difference in our experience, training and beliefs.”
Not to interject logic into this discussion, but Genesis is quite silent on the form of Man that was created, not to mention completely silent on the other animals inhabiting this mud-ball spinning about the comos, with the exception of what we believe is a snake and some vague reference to fishes.
So what? Can anybody here read Genesis and honestly state that the Creator didn’t create Man via a long evolutionary process and started the whole chain of events with a single-celled organism in that primordal ooze eons ago?
Now one might have to be A Believer to think that the planet was created in 6 days and life as we know it now existed from that time forward, and I’d do nothing to dissuade you from those beliefs. Such beliefs are harmless enough, they do not serve to interfere with my life in any way or form, in fact all in all they’re only fodder because somebody else thinks them a point of ridicule. As if believing in Santa Clause or the Tooth Fairy were suddenly Important. Doesn’t matter what you’ve done in this world, doesn’t matter who you are, you believe in Santa? Well, color you an idiot, and we’ll ignore all that other evidence indicative to the contrary.
Which brings me back to religion, and I understand Lex is a believer. In practical matters, all this means is that I cannot fly with him. I do not want to fly with anybody who beleives in an after-life. When it’s engines-out, flight control only a fond memory, and ejection seats a mere wish, I want an athiest at the controls, so he knows he only has one shot…
You’re describing “Intelligent Design”, Max; the guiding hand of God the Creator, it was He who caused the elements to come together and injected them with life itself. Not the remotest of chances one molecule may meet another, perhaps an entire world apart, but Him, at work.
Your point is exactly the same my biology and chemistry profs espoused in college: God was there and created where there had been a void.
BTW, Genesis 1:27 says, “God created Man in His own image…” just so you know, that’s what it says. Man’s form was, indeed, established by the Creator.
The time period? Unimportant! 6 days, but what is the length of God’s day? No one knows. The scripture doesn’t say, nor does it fly in the face of geological or zoological science. Eons of time, millions of years, trillions of fossils; it wasn’t evolution but rather all in God’s time and plan.
I’m just saying… as long as you asked, that’s what I “understand”!
PS: Max, what happened to that long standing military cliche? You know the one… “there aren’t any athiests in foxholes.” For me, the affirmation of God is a necessary trait! You know it’s benefits because you use it every time you fly! It’s called FAITH.
PSS: I loved your Leghorn bit!
For some reason some of Tailspin’s comments got sucked into a spam trap. I’ve recovered them, but I’m entirely too tired of the discussion to try to determine which among them, or which inside them, are inadvertant dupes and therefore edit.
Cops, jackasses and tasers. I believe that is what we were discussing.