COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Maybe He Deserved It?



I would like to hear what led up to that. I doubt that teacher would have assaulted the teenager in that manner without extreme provocation. The other adults were not intervening. They obviously saw something that in their eyes justified the action of the teacher.

Of course it was rough but it also may have taught someone a lesson that they will not soon forget.


84 comments:

  1. Let's not rush to judgement...

    Somehow I am sure it's Israel's fault...

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  2. I can think of a few times when I was a kid when I had a teacher or parent whooping on me and it would have not made pretty youtube viewing.

    Did I deserve it?
    Oh yea.

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  3. One should not slam a child's head against the wall that way.

    Inexcusable.

    Brain damage is forever for an injured child.

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  4. Neither of my parents were inclined to "spare the rod".

    I also went to a Catholic school and was used to the nuns handing out a little "discipline" on occasion.

    And I have no problems with a little corporal punishment being handed out in school when necessary.

    That being said, judging by the body language, it looked like this chick just lost it. Kicking the kid? Banging his head against the wall?

    I don't think so.

    I wouldn't want someone like that teaching my kids.


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  5. "Of course it was rough but it also may have taught someone a lesson that they will not soon forget."

    Yea, lesson learned.

    You can hear the other kids laughing as this poor sap gets the shit kicked out of him.

    The lady is quite the role model.


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  6. And we wonder what's wrong the the children today.

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  7. Are you sure that's even the teacher?

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  8. The ass whooping must have stopped by the time I got to school because all I remember about being in catholic school first grade was ear pulling.

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  9. I remember my 7th grade science teacher hated the word hate and had announced in the beginning of the school year that anyone who used this word would get a detention. I was very defiant, yes me, can you believe it, and needless to say I spent many afternoons in detention.

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  10. "The school is still investigating the sixth grader's accusations that other teachers watched while he was attacked and didn't do anything about it."

    Granted it's just hearsay. Should it prove to be the case, however, it will be for me the least surprising aspect of the story.

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  11. Defiance?

    Or, did you have a thing for your science teacher?

    :-)

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  12. I don't believe that would be considered proper disciplining anywhere in the western whirled. She crossed the line, her career, if she had one, is toast and her employer will pay a heavy penalty.

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  13. Well, well, well. Look at this. So...maybe Faisal wasn't a lone agent.

    WATERTOWN, Mass. – Three Pakistani men suspected of providing money to Times Square car bomb suspect Faisal Shahzad were arrested by the FBI in a series of Thursday morning raids across the Northeast, law enforcement officials said.

    The searches in Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey were the product of evidence gathered in the investigation into the Times Square bomb attempt two weeks ago, but there was "no known immediate threat to the public or any active plot against the United States," FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz said.

    The three men — two in the Boston area and one in Maine — were arrested on suspected immigration violations, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Brian Hale said. They were not immediately charged with any crime, including any terrorism-related offenses.

    Attorney General Eric Holder said federal investigators believe there is evidence that the men were providing Shahzad, a Pakistan-born U.S. citizen, with funds, but that "one of the things we are going to be trying to determine" is whether the men knew the funds might have been for an act of terrorism.

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  14. ...arrested on immigration violations...

    More reason/justification for tighter controls.

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  15. Why is it too much to ask to control your borders?

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  16. A bizarre pathology is playing out in China where, in separate incidents, middle-aged men have gone beserk about five times in recent weeks. They attack schools and kindergartens with knives and a meat clever, killing and wounding dozens of children.

    Bizarre behavior.

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  17. The lady is quite the role model.




    That was a woman?

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  18. whit said...
    Well, well, well. Look at this. So...maybe Faisal wasn't a lone agent.

    WATERTOWN, Mass. – Three Pakistani men suspected of providing money to Times Square car bomb suspect Faisal Shahzad were arrested by the FBI in a series of Thursday morning raids across the Northeast, law enforcement officials said.





    Not to worry according to Rat, our resident Islamic Jihad Expert, he claims that it's an "isreali" exaggeration...

    yep...

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  19. In my childhood I always had difficulty deciding which were worse: students or teachers. The little savages or the selectively observant Trunchbulls appointed their tribal overlords.

    Speaking of the former: I was reading last night the wit and wisdom of a particular redhead, who remarked all these redheads running around LA. "They're everywhere. I used to be the only redhead in my dance class, and now there are all these women with hair the color of Ethan Allen furniture. Cherry wood. Mahogany. These fake redheads did not pay their dues."

    Q.F.R.

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  20. Sad to say, but when we've finally got a handle on the Pakistani thing - "thing" - we're off to the races with the Somalis and Yemenis.

    It's one major asshole after another, after another.

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  21. Hold fire, earn a medal
    By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
    Posted : Wednesday May 12, 2010 15:51:31 EDT

    U.S. troops in Afghanistan could soon be awarded a medal for not doing something, a precedent-setting award that would be given for “courageous restraint” for holding fire to save civilian lives.

    The proposal is now circulating in the Kabul headquarters of the International Security Assistance Force, a command spokesman confirmed Tuesday.

    “The idea is consistent with our approach,” explained Air Force Lt. Col. Tadd Sholtis. “Our young men and women display remarkable courage every day, including situations where they refrain from using lethal force, even at risk to themselves, in order to prevent possible harm to civilians. In some situations our forces face in Afghanistan, that restraint is an act of discipline and courage not much different than those seen in combat actions.”

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  22. LT, I can honestly say I never had a crush on any of my teachers throughout school. Not one.

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  23. Melody when I went to school, miniskirts were the in-thing. I grew up at exactly the right time. ;-)

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  24. T, they were for me, too, but father wouldn't let me wear them. So, I did what any teenager would do and kept a packed bag in my car with all the required necessities. I had a special spot on River Rd behind a warehouse that closed early and revamped there.

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  25. The case against the "War on Drugs"

    "US drug war has met none of its goals"

    Martha Mendoza

    "After 40 years, the United States' war on drugs has cost $1 trillion and hundreds of thousands of lives, and for what? Drug use is rampant and violence even more brutal and widespread.

    "Even U.S. drug czar Gil Kerlikowske concedes the strategy hasn't worked.

    "In the grand scheme, it has not been successful," Kerlikowske told The Associated Press. "Forty years later, the concern about drugs and drug problems is, if anything, magnified, intensified..."


    Are We Losing the War on Drugs?

    While I don't see any alternative to continuing to fight the war on drugs in general, I think I'm ready to capitulate on marijuana and cut the battle in half.


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  26. Make it a NATO gimme. Everyone who doesn't fire a weapon in theater - and that's the vaaaaaast majority - gets an award!

    Almost as good as the travel mug or baseball cap.

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  27. Some private schools for socially and emotionally disturbed children have forms to sign to give them permission to restrain your child by professionally trained people if necessary.

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  28. They used strait jackets at one point.

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  29. No child deserves to be beat like that regardless of the circumstances. It's unacceptable and that manwoman deserves severe consequences.

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  30. I'm not saying its right; I'm just stating a fact.

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  31. "No child deserves to be beat like that regardless of the circumstances."

    Well, no child deserves to be beaten. Period.

    Childhood is quite brutal enough, especially in its perilous approach to adolescence.

    As someone put it, "We fall out of the womb, crawl across open country under fire, and drop into our graves."

    Whoever thinks this hazardous journey excludes those years of well-meaning, collective incarceration in our youth, simply does not remember.

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  32. I agree, Trish. But sometimes a good crack in the mouth for back talking does a child good.

    My husband never laid a hand on my daughter until she was in 9th grade when she raised her voice to me in disrespect. He was standing at arm's length and within a split second he backhanded her on the mouth. I thought I would die. But she never once till this day has talked to me like that again.

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  33. Although, the bar of soap I got crunched between my teeth for swearing didn't help. Maybe for the ten minutes it took to get the suds out of my mouth but after that it was back to the good old bad words. It funny neither of my parents swore.

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  34. "I agree, Trish. But sometimes a good crack in the mouth..."

    Oh, good God. No. Nonononono.

    I'm a firm believer in torture by way of the long-winded discourse.

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  35. One must never strike a child about the face and head. The proper place is the buttocks and back of upper legs and then it must be done with the utmost caution and restraint.

    It's got to be severe enough to hurt but not injure.

    At times, I tormented my poor mother until she lost all patience and then, I got the switch. I drove the poor woman so mad that one time she switched me across the ear. That was bad for her and me. I had a welt and she had to live with what she had done.

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  36. The long-winded discourse is torture and counterproductive.

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  37. "...torturous and..."

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  38. I can't recall receiving the long-winded discourse but many times I listened as our daughter suffered silently through them. In other words, you know who subscribed to the Trish School of juvenile justice.

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  39. Nowadays, you would have to closet a child for days rather than send them out into the world with a switch welt.

    Better to leave switches in the past. For the most unruly child, a leather belt or light paddle is best and then only as a last resort.

    Thank God child-rearing is behind me.

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  40. I don't consider a back hand to the mouth a strike to the face or head.

    Let me tell you something, I taught preschool for nine years. Do you know how many four year olds passed through my hands? Do you know how many of those four year olds needed a crack in the mouth or a spank in the ass? The kids today are so disrespectful and really the ones at fault are the parents. But there's absolutely, no talking or reasoning with children.

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  41. "I'm a firm believer in torture by way of the long-winded discourse."

    In Trish's case, I can see how this might work.

    For most, not so much.


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  42. My mom used a piece of wood shaped into a hand that said mom's helping hand until it broke over my ass.

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  43. "The long-winded discourse is torture..."

    Yes, whit, it is.

    But corporal punishment in my book for offenses that are not - corporal, that is - makes no sense. Whatsoever.

    And we have been host-of-last-resort to boys who have endured no end of it.

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  44. Quirk: "Even U.S. drug czar Gil Kerlikowske concedes the [drug war] strategy hasn't worked."

    He's all over the map on that, changing his mind more often than an Elephant Bar patron "leaves for good".

    In 2003, a ballot measure in Seattle was proposed that would have directed the police department to consider marijuana possession (for personal use) a low priority. Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske opposed the ballot initiative.

    On May 13, 2009, Kerlikowske signaled that the Obama Administration would no longer use the term "War on Drugs", as it is counter-productive and it would demonstrate a favoring of treatment over incarceration in trying to reduce drug use.

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  45. Melody about the miniskirt thing, I meant to say I started attended school when the teachers were wearing them. By the time I hit high school it was Reagan's Morning in America and the party was over for those who would crush on their teachers.

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  46. You're incorrigible, T. Incorrigible!

    Was up, Mel? How's it going?

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  47. Hey Trish, I see you've been reading up on Margo Kaufman.

    Are you ready to pen those globe-trotting, undercover, femme fatale bodice rippers? I think they could be big sellers if done as a female Vince Flynn.

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  48. Make that a female Mitch Rapp. The hero of Flynn's novels.

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  49. : )

    Bathtub reading, whit. An "old" book off the shelf: Return Of The Portable Curmudgeon.

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  50. Well Whit, I disciplined my children by means of corporal punishment and now I have resorted to drinking on the days I feel guilty about it. (;

    What's up with you?

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  51. Drudge has a link to a story saying that Kagan was not sympathetic to a plaintiffs argument that DC abridged his right to carry a handgun. Now, though, she says “There is no question, after Heller, that the Second Amendment guarantees individuals the right to keep and bear arms and that this right, like others in the Constitution, provides strong although not unlimited protection against governmental regulation.”

    The problem I have with this is that she did not recognize the right until the Court had ruled on the case. I find it disturbing that she seems to believe that the rights come from the Court as opposed to the plain wording of the Bill of Rights.

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  52. Just chillin', Mel, watching the whirled go crazy.

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  53. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  54. Some of our fellow barflies appear to be anything but chill.

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  55. T, I don't think it really matters what the teacher is wearing a crush is a crush.

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  56. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  57. Jesus Christ, it must be something about big cities. Gets the nerves raw. As far as I can see, you are all nuts. You need some work, on the farm, it's fun. About human sacrifice, child or men, recall, none of the paleolithic hunters did this, it was from the tropics, seen broadly, that living green hell, where man thought about the miracle of plant life, how life comes out of death, in their view. First the hunters, trancified by that, then the living green hell of the plants, and trancified by that, from whence rises human sacrifice--life is monstrous, but prolific--then man put to work by the stars--this indeed reflected in the undercurrent of the Jewish writings--the ages of the Patriarchs--now hopefully we should put ourselves to the task of studying ourselves....with insights from ancient literature. Good G-d Almighty, if rats ass had one thought about religion or spirituality, which he doesn't, ( Rufus is saveable) he'd be blaming the JEWS for KILLING GOD!!

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  58. Quirk are you talking about the last link he put up? When I click on it it brings me to my dashboard. What's up with that?

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  59. My mistake then I guess.


    I told you I wasn't computer literate Melody.



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  60. So everyone that clicks on that link brings them to their dashboard even if it is private?

    Hm...

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  61. I don't know Melody. One of Whit's little jokes I guess.

    But I don't like it on the off chance that e-mail addresses are getting out to the web.


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  62. As long as you're seeing what you're seeing and I'm seeing what I'm seeing I think we're good.

    It's not the email I'm worried about.

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  63. I see that Bob al-Harb is still around, posting online what he's scribbling on his closet walls with that black crayon.

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  64. The Tripoli-based Afriqiyah (Arabic for "African") operates flights to four continents and has flown two flights per week from Johannesburg to Tripoli since September. The airline was established in 2001 and is privately owned.

    The planes in the fleet carry the logo 9.9.99: the date when the African Union was formed.

    The plane that crashed was one of three Airbus 330-200s that the airline owns, although airline officials said they anticipated the delivery of four Airbus 320s this year.


    Arriving in Tripoli

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  65. Whit, I'm asking you to take down the post.

    Just to make us all feel a little more comfortable.




    Oh by the way Mel, I'd like to talk to you a little more about the "It's not the email I'm worried about" comment.


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  66. Oh and what would that be, Quirk?

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  67. What is "Occupation" said...
    Allen,

    As usual you make great points, somehow my use of the Prophet Lenny Bruce is not effective in the cyber world as it is in person in a crowd...

    Thu May 13, 12:59:00 PM EDT



    :) Yes, I do get it, my friend. They did not understand Lenny and they are not going to understand you.

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  68. Sorry, here's the link to Florence King

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  69. Just kidding, Mel (although the comment does leave a lot to the imagination).

    I can sympathize with WiO's frustration with the limitations of the written word in transmitting humor without the benefit of body language and facial expression (or my bright piercing eyes and rakish smile).


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  70. No you're not, I can see you squirming to know what's behind the closed curtain. You know curiosity killed the cat so if you're not around tomorrow I'll send out the rescue team.

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  71. By the way, that wasn't my rakish smile.



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  72. You could have fooled me. You can't get anymore rakish than that. I guess you can't hide things as well as I can.

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  73. Not my style Mel. I'm an open book.


    (Especially when Whit starts opening up profiles to the web.)



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  74. Is that why your profile is not available?

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