14-year-old Texas boy arrested for bringing homemade clock

[Sam]

That was my point with the "uninitiated" beeswax.

Electronics experts excluded... ;-)

[Could you have discerned it wasn't a bomb with case shut and cabled?]

Um ... could you discern it wasn't just a pencil case when it closed with a cable?

[lilpixieofterror]

That was my point with the "uninitiated" beeswax.

Electronics experts excluded... ;-)

[Could you have discerned it wasn't a bomb with case shut and cabled?]

I don't know of any bomb that would have a 110 VAC American electrical cord sticking out of them either, but again... I do work on aircraft generators too. I can't blame anybody for asking questions.

[Jaecp]

Try going back and reading the thread for content, this time without your ideological filter applied. "Broadly speaking," you're only seeing what you want to see. Ironic, considering your opening admonition.

Without ideological filters this thread wouldn't exist because the shenanigans involved should have gotten a "oh, wow, that's terrible" from everyone without an ax to grind. The response from the school, around the time the police were called and onward, was terrible. The police response was terrible. The various defenses have been terrible. Making this a liberal v conservative thing is stupid, but the people trying to defend the school and cops reactions so far have, for various institutional reasons that I don't want to get into, has been almost overwhelming conservative. Plus Richard Dawkins weirdly pedantic comments about Ahmed calling it an invention.

[lilpixieofterror]

A 9-volt battery can in fact give one a good shock.

Try getting shocked by 115 VAC at 400 Hz.

[Teallaura]

I think the point, now, is too see how many side issues, weird comparisons and claims of "I'm done with you, Sam" we can get to before people stop trying to defend the indefensible simply because, for some reason, a 14 year old nerd being arrested for bringing a project to school isn't something that conservatives can get the outrage machine behind when the kids brown

What a complete load of BS. You just have to hate someone, don't you? I mean, seriously, that's what this is about - a 'reason' to hate 'conservatives', isn't it?

If you wanna see hatred, take a good look in the mirror.

[Jaecp]

What a complete load of BS. You just have to hate someone, don't you? I mean, seriously, that's what this is about - a 'reason' to hate 'conservatives', isn't it?

If you wanna see hatred, take a good look in the mirror.

How 'bout you leave the dimestore Psychology where it belongs, eh Teal?

[Teallaura]

How 'bout you leave the dimestore Psychology where it belongs, eh Teal?

Quit pretending - there's no 'psychology' necessary. You can't even let conservatives agree with you in part - you have to find some way to call them 'racist' no matter how contrived.

It speaks for itself - and it has nothing nice to say.

[Jaecp]

Quit pretending - there's no 'psychology' necessary. You can't even let conservatives agree with you in part - you have to find some way to call them 'racist' no matter how contrived.

It speaks for itself - and it has nothing nice to say.

This is pathetic Teal.

Noticing the increasingly strained lengths that people in this thread have gone to to defend this stuff is not me "hating conservatives."

Oh and who did I say was racist? Or did I say that the conservative outrage machine isn't getting behind a brown kid?

[Teallaura]

This is pathetic Teal.

Noticing the increasingly strained lengths that people in this thread have gone to to defend this stuff is not me "hating conservatives."

Oh and who did I say was racist? Or did I say that the conservative outrage machine isn't getting behind a brown kid?

Oh please - you didn't take an interest until MM mentioned what the bomb looked like and the kid's ethnicity. Since the rest of us were of the opinion that the school over reacted (I'm still unclear why they even called the cops) and MOST STILL question the thing at one point or another what are you actually proving? It was the race issue that attracted you, judging from your entry and that particular post. Sam is off on some crazed tangent that can't admit the possibility that the kid made a pretend bomb just because it looked cool to him (Sam had a sheltered childhood or he's lost his mind, one of the two} and you egg him on. The hysterical part is CP is offering a plausible explanation to the kid's actions that doesn't involve him being a terrorist wannabe or a media hound, but Sam can't concede that maybe the kid didn't help himself, let alone that he did anything that might have been unwise.

Basically, no one was seriously arguing that the kid deliberately did anything wrong (excepting the possibility of seeking media attention but that is supposition) and you accuse us all of racism (albeit indirectly). Trashing an alarm clock in a pencil case (which seems to be the consensus about the thing) doesn't strike me as genius at work and if the original story is true, the teacher was an idiot for not keeping it until after school, but please 'it's a clock' is not an appropriate response to 'why did you bring it to school'. You do realize Sam is making the kid into some kind of moron - something none of the rest of us have even alluded to.

Sure, Jae, I noticed the strained lengths - hard to miss Sam making that big of a fool of himself, or you helping him. You are sure doing something and it sure looks like hatred, because the allusion was utterly unwarranted.

[Sam]

Oh please - you didn't take an interest until MM mentioned what the bomb looked like and the kid's ethnicity. Since the rest of us were of the opinion that the school over reacted (I'm still unclear why they even called the cops) and MOST STILL question the thing at one point or another what are you actually proving? It was the race issue that attracted you, judging from your entry and that particular post. Sam is off on some crazed tangent that can't admit the possibility that the kid made a pretend bomb just because it looked cool to him (Sam had a sheltered childhood or he's lost his mind, one of the two} and you egg him on. The hysterical part is CP is offering a plausible explanation to the kid's actions that doesn't involve him being a terrorist wannabe or a media hound, but Sam can't concede that maybe the kid didn't help himself, let alone that he did anything that might have been unwise.

Basically, no one was seriously arguing that the kid deliberately did anything wrong (excepting the possibility of seeking media attention but that is supposition) and you accuse us all of racism (albeit indirectly). Trashing an alarm clock in a pencil case (which seems to be the consensus about the thing) doesn't strike me as genius at work and if the original story is true, the teacher was an idiot for not keeping it until after school, but please 'it's a clock' is not an appropriate response to 'why did you bring it to school'. You do realize Sam is making the kid into some kind of moron - something none of the rest of us have even alluded to.

Sure, Jae, I noticed the strained lengths - hard to miss Sam making that big of a fool of himself, or you helping him. You are sure doing something and it sure looks like hatred, because the allusion was utterly unwarranted.

You're too kind. Not to me, of course, but to the people who were most certainly not arguing the possibility of the kid having intentionally made his electronics project to look like a "movie bomb" but were, in fact, either arguing that he did intentionally do so (Cow Poke) or that it was highly plausible that he did so (Adrift). The argument has centered around the confidence of others that the kid did act improperly and the assertion that there is sufficient evidence to show this. Evidence which, we gather, extends as far as posting cat videos and no further.

I don't see how anything I've written makes the kid into a moron. Please elaborate on that, since I'm pretty sure I've explicitly made it clear that I think his project was commendable, required some skill, and that the kid complied with his teacher's request to not showcase the project after he had showed it to her.

[Teallaura]

You're too kind. Not to me, of course, but to the people who were most certainly not arguing the possibility of the kid having intentionally made his electronics project to look like a "movie bomb" but were, in fact, either arguing that he did intentionally do so (Cow Poke) or that it was highly plausible that he did so (Adrift). The argument has centered around the confidence of others that the kid did act improperly and the assertion that there is sufficient evidence to show this. Evidence which, we gather, extends as far as posting cat videos and no further.

I don't see how anything I've written makes the kid into a moron. Please elaborate on that, since I'm pretty sure I've explicitly made it clear that I think his project was commendable, required some skill, and that the kid complied with his teacher's request to not showcase the project after he had showed it to her.

No, Sam, you are just wrong this time. You are insisting on seeing evil where it isn't. I have never seen you this bad - even when your arguments have annoyed the crap out of me, they weren't irrational. This is.

Okay, make sense of: 'Why did you bring it to school?' 'It's a clock' This is what you have been arguing because that was the question asked and the answer offered. Either he's a moron because he failed to respond with the obvious (going from version one) 'I wanted to show my teacher' or he was irrationally fearful (which doesn't fit with any account) or he had another reason for being obtuse - which was what CP was offering as supposition. Two doesn't fit the evidence (and should be disallowed as supposition based on how you've argued against CP) and you assert that CP is wrong to even suppose the kid might be a kid, so that leaves us with moron.

[Sam]

No, Sam, you are just wrong this time. You are insisting on seeing evil where it isn't. I have never seen you this bad - even when your arguments have annoyed the crap out of me, they weren't irrational. This is.

Okay, make sense of: 'Why did you bring it to school?' 'It's a clock' This is what you have been arguing because that was the question asked and the answer offered. Either he's a moron because he failed to respond with the obvious (going from version one) 'I wanted to show my teacher' or he was irrationally fearful (which doesn't fit with any account) or he had another reason for being obtuse - which was what CP was offering as supposition. Two doesn't fit the evidence (and should be disallowed as supposition based on how you've argued against CP) and you assert that CP is wrong to even suppose the kid might be a kid, so that leaves us with moron.

You have to show me where the question was literally "Why did you bring it to school?" and the answer was literally "It's a clock." You can't do that; what we know is that the kid's answers weren't impressing the police officers and what we've heard on the converse side is that the police officers were rude and accusatory. So unless you've got a transcript of the conversation I haven't seen, you're speculating facts from a general understanding of the conversation's tenor and then treating that speculation as what literally happened.

Cow Poke is wrong because he has become increasing set in the conviction that the kid did

[Teallaura]

Sad, Sam.

The entire thing is thus far media accounts - as you well know. You can't demand a higher standard than you have used yourself - and you were perfectly content to argue that the kid was giving a sensible response to the questioning long after the officer's account came into the discussion - that account has the question 'why did you bring it to school' and you argued thereafter that 'it's a clock' was a sufficient response - to be fair you picked it up from SoR but that is in fact what you have been arguing the last ten pages or so. Are you now planning to argue - sans any evidence - that the officers never asked the most basic of questions despite the accounts that they did?

No, CP never made that statement - go find it if you think he did. By my count he has denied making such a categorical claim five or six times in posts addressed to you.

Like I said, irrational.

[Sam]

Sad, Sam.

The entire thing is thus far media accounts - as you well know. You can't demand a higher standard than you have used yourself - and you were perfectly content to argue that the kid was giving a sensible response to the questioning long after the officer's account came into the discussion - that account has the question 'why did you bring it to school' and you argued thereafter that 'it's a clock' was a sufficient response - to be fair you picked it up from SoR but that is in fact what you have been arguing the last ten pages or so. Are you now planning to argue - sans any evidence - that the officers never asked the most basic of questions despite the accounts that they did?

No, CP never made that statement - go find it if you think he did. By my count he has denied making such a categorical claim five or six times in posts addressed to you.

Like I said, irrational.

plausibility (not possibility) that the kid intended to make a hoax bomb.

You're depiction of all parties involved to this point has been twisted around, creating a much worse version of what I've been arguing and a much less hardened version of what CP has argued.

[Cow Poke]

That's why I also added the part about going to school as well -- which you ignored.

I have never seen Sam in such "ignore anything that doesn't fit my screed" mode.