damn good idea

strangely, I've felt a greater desire to avoid cursing after cheney told leahy to eff off. ok, not so strange. but silber's entitled.

excuse me-- silbert. darn it.

No, you had it right the first time.

Personally, I worry that Jon's gonna go postal if one more person types his last name as "Schwartz".

Which are you going to believe - your lying eyes, or the shameful Kabuki dance of blame shifting now embodied in the global plea bargain just apparently finalized in the Meyer taser episode at the University of Florida?

Meyer apologizes, withdraws from school for the rest of the term to do some community service work, and in exchange the Florida prosecuting attorney agrees not to criminally charge him with felonies for protesting his false arrest and begging not to be subjected to excessive force. Better still, a 300 page nonpublic investigative report on the incident - with a 17 page executive summary made public - then totally vindicates this flagrant misuse of police taser weaponry on the theory that shooting electricity into a nonviolent arrestee already in full custody was the safest way to end the incident. And you can bet your last dinar that this equitable resolution of such an unfortunate matter includes a covenant not to sue the cops, the Taser manufacturer, Gator Nation, and the horses they rode in on.

Go back and watch the YouTube video again.

Maybe, just maybe, there might be a couple of Bill of Rights violations there?

Recognize that until a few years ago (before the US Supreme Court decision in the Rumery case) it was widely considered very unethical for public prosecuting attorneys to even offer to trade off criminal charges, as part of a resolution of potential civil rights violation claims. Now that the Law says that's acceptable practice, flagrantly hypocritical bullshit like this becomes ever more common place.

But of course none of us should get too worried. I mean, jolting people with a Taser while they beg for mercy isn't really torture in the brave new world of Bushspeak, you see. Since there's no threat of death or organ failure, use of cattle prod technology on human beings no longer raises a Constitutional issue.

Don't get me wrong. I don't blame Mr. Meyer one iota for staring into the belly of this Kafkaesque monster, and deciding real fast to cut his losses early.

The point is, the whole world can watch it happen over and over again on the internet.

And unless someone told you otherwise, you'd never guess who was the criminal here, and who was the crime victim.

Bill from Saginaw

Gotta convince an awful lot of people first that the "rules" are made and interpreted by a few for a few. The kids who took over university buildings in '69 or'72 understood. They no longer do, or don't want to. And Chomsky is no role model for breaking rules, either. Where are they?

Happy Halloween!
Essay for today: What Halloween costume would Jesus wear? Dicuss, with relevant references to his life and words. Counts 25% toward final grade at Rapture.

I don't blame the other Mr. Meyer for admitting to reading Goldstein's book and crimes against the state, after all HE IS GUILTY, HE ENQUIRED ABOUT IMPEACHMENT.(in an angry manner)(I wonder why)
1-202-225-0100 DEMAND IMPEACHMENT.

Personally, I worry that Jon's gonna go postal if one more person types his last name as "Schwartz".

Nah, I'm used to it. If I were going to be broken by that it would have happened decades ago.