THIS is TRUE #819: 21 February
This is True
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o o o
SINCE 1994 and reaching more than 106,000 subscribers in over 200
countries, this is the 819th weekly issue of...
THIS is TRUE: 21 February 2010 Copyright http://www.thisistrue.com
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CASE CLOSED: Ft. Worth's Texas Christian University launched an
investigation. So did the Kappa Sigma Fraternity, and police in
Breckenridge, Colo. A TCU student on a ski vacation to Colorado, Amon
G. "Chance" Carter IV, the great-grandson of the founder of the Fort
Worth Star-Telegram newspaper, got the Kappa Sigma insignia branded
onto his buttocks with a hot coat hanger. The second- and third-degree
burns will need plastic surgery to repair. Carter's family threatened a
lawsuit, but after police reviewed 210 photos and seven videos, they
announced they would not file charges. "All the evidence suggests that
Amon Carter IV was a willing participant" in the mayhem, said a police
spokesman, "and the branding was not part of any fraternity initiation,
as he is already a full member." (Summit Daily News) ...If you think
the plastic surgery is going to be expensive, just imagine the cost of
buying up all the photos and videos.
FRICK AND FRACK, MEET...: Two 47-year-old men were fairly easily caught
after allegedly stealing a $950 postal check from the Hellertown,
Penn., Post Office. The first man took the check, and the second one
signed his own name to it and cashed it for the pair, police say. The
first man was charged with theft, forgery, tampering with records, and
identity theft. The second was charged with receiving stolen property,
tampering with records. and identity theft. Their names: Richard Fluck
and Bryan Flok. (Allentown Morning Call) ...The crime: a typically
flubbed felony.
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DEAR PARENTS: Principal Ron Sterr of Litchfield Elementary School in
Litchfield Park, Ariz., apparently thought a fake "letter to parents"
was funny, so he sent it to teachers. "The math we do is really easy,"
the letter noted. "If your child is either too lazy or too stupid to
finish it in class, I'm sending it home so that you can work with them
and judge for yourself whether it is laziness or idiocy that inhibits
your child's progress." Making fun of kids with physical problems, the
letter notes "one of our students has a nervous tick that causes him to
slap himself in [sic] face several times a minute. In order to help
this child not feel conspicuous, we ask that your child imitate a
crazed masochist for the length of the field trip." A second-grade
teacher thought the letter was real and forwarded it to parents. Their
outrage has led to Sterr being put on administrative leave. (Arizona
Republic) ...Hey: if you think the principal is stupid, how about that
teacher?
THE THOUGHT POLICE: Pennsylvania's Lower Merion School District thought
they were at the cutting edge when they provided every high school
student a laptop computer for "an authentic mobile 21st Century
learning environment." That may have seemed like a good idea until
student Blake Robbins was called in by Assistant Principal Lindy Matsko
at Harriton High School. The boy was reprimanded for "improper behavior
in his home," and Matsko showed the proof: a photo taken of him in his
home through a camera, which was included in the 2,300 computers. She
told Robbins she can activate the camera at will. "Many of the images
captured and intercepted may consist of images of minors and their
parents ... in various stages of dress or undress," alleges the
resulting federal lawsuit against the school. The FBI is assisting
local authorities in investigating possible criminal charges. Robbins,
15, says the school accused him of taking drugs, but he was actually
eating candy. (Philadelphia Daily News) ...Huh: things are just 26
years behind schedule.
YES, WELL, KEEP PRACTICING: "Cape Man Shoots Himself in the Leg
Practicing Quick-Draw Techniques" -- Fort Myers (Fla.) News-Press
headline
DID YOU FIND an error? See http://www.thisistrue.com/errata.html
AN EXTRA STORY for you this week: I've pulled it out separately because
it doesn't "really" fit in with TRUE's theme. While it is a bit weird,
it's certainly not about someone doing something stupid. In fact, it's
the Feel Good Story of the Month. You can read it on my blog at
http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-the_life_you_save_may_be.html
THE OTHER HALF of this week's story line-up included: Man's Valentine
date went very, VERY badly. Chinese officials estimate a third of all
condoms used in the country are "fake". No, what the woman was eating
in front of police was NOT a "sugar donut"! In-training 911 dispatcher
gets emergency call from his wife, and.... You can still read all of
these stories: ask for your upgrade to start with the 21 February issue
and stop missing half the content! http://thisistrue.com/upgrade.html
CHECK THIS SPACE NEXT WEEK for a spectacular one-week-only SALE on our
most popular Get Out of Hell Free card items. I don't have the full
details yet, but it's going to be the best price of the year on a great
package of items, with FREE SHIPPING (US/Canada only, but there will be
a special low airmail shipping rate for overseas customers). Look for
it in next week's issue, but you'll need to hurry: the special closes a
week later!
BEST MUG SHOTS OF THE WEEK: the funniest *mug shot* is in "Deposit Slip-
Up" (Smile!); the funniest *story* is "Kester's Keister". You'll find
those and many, MANY more at http://www.MugShotMuseum.com
o o o
SEE http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-1984_in_2010.html for an easier-to-
read online version of the following, with links/etc.
MY RECENT BLOG POST analyzing a Zero Tolerance case (Patrick Timoney's
"Gun") showed just how crazy people can get trying to control others,
and their desire to punish non-transgressions just the same as if the
person was actually doing something wrong. Most people fully got the
point. Others, to my shock, didn't.
One reader commented on that post, "This does not seem like a ZT case
to me. I thought in ZT it was someone following blindly an 'established
guideline.' Based on the information presented here, it seems to be a
person not following established guidelines. Thus not ZT. QEP"
I'm guessing the reader meant "QED" there, an abbreviation for the
Latin "quod erat demonstrandum", which is used to signify that "the
last statement deduced was the one to be demonstrated; the abbreviation
thus signals the completion of the proof." (Wikipedia) Or, in other
words, "Thus I have proven my point."
Except the reader's logic is faulty. Yes, ZT is a policy, but it's also
a mindset, as I've been trying to make clear all along (but I obviously
failed in his case). The whole point is that even if an organization
has a model policy, some people don't follow it, and instead use a zero
tolerance mentality. The question, of course, is Why?
To me, the answer is obvious: kids grow up. And when they grow up in a
school where ZT was practiced, or go to (say) a teacher's college where
it was taught, it simply becomes "what they know". They're not taught
that they must exercise common sense, they literally learn not to apply
common sense; that every situation that seems to go against what they
think must be a transgression. Worse, if it seems to be just a little
bit bad, there are no escalating levels of response -- a transgression
always means the worst it could mean, and (worst of all) the most
extreme response is not only called for, it's necessary. Thus, in the
last blog post, the principal insists a tiny toy gun "is a gun is a gun
is a gun". And since "guns are bad" and forbidden, transgression, no
matter how innocent, is worthy of forcing a written confession out of a
9-year-old, which supports suspension from school, which supports
expulsion, and in many cases, it supports calling in police for
criminal charges. That's what ZT *is*.
But that's insane, you say. Sure: but we have seen case after case
after case of just that. Sometimes, it's school policy. Yet even when
it's NOT school policy (and indeed, New York City seems to have a model
policy), young administrators are practicing what was practiced on
them, or taught to them. They're simply going with what they learned,
"reverting to their training" when faced with something that they're
not sure how to handle.
How far might that go? Very far: how about school officials thinking
that it's OK to activate spy cameras in your home to eavesdrop on your
private conversations? Hey, no problem if you happened to be in view
and are undressed: SURELY they won't capture images and post them to
the Internet, right? Sure -- you can count on their common sense!
Here's something scary: my source for this week's story, the
Philadelphia Daily News, ran a survey of site visitors asking whether
schools should be allowed to spy on students and their families, as was
done in the above story. "Is there any scenario where a school district
is justified to monitor students at home?" It's not a "scientific"
(statistically valid) survey since the respondents are self-selected,
but look at the results as of this posting:
(See graphic online)
Yes, there's hope in the massive "no", but don't let that blind you to
the rest of the data. Of just over 7,000 people, 181 of them (2.6
percent) think that's just fine "if the webcam captures illegal
activity." And 99 more (1.4 percent) think it's OK "if the webcam
captures a student suffering physical abuse." And 127 more (1.8
percent) are "not sure"! Consider that most people who go to read that
article are there because they're outraged over the school district's
actions; I think it's likely that if the respondents actually
represented a statistically valid cross section of Americans, the Yes
and Not Sure answers would be significantly higher -- an Orwellian Big
Brother scenario is acceptable to them! Or, at the very least, they're
"not sure" if that would be bad. The only correct answer in a free
society is of course "No, there is no scenario where this would be
okay." Yet people brainwashed by ZT and the lack of common sense are
starting to think that self-appointed thought police officers SHOULD be
peering into people's homes just in case there maybe, perhaps, is
something illegal going on there. The end justifies the means.
And this is in the "land of the free" and the "home of the brave",
where our forebears (successfully, or so they thought) fought to the
death for individual rights, including the right to be presumed
innocent until proven guilty (not to mention the right "to be secure in
their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable
searches"). But now we're moving toward being fine with government
agents secretly looking in "if the webcam captures illegal activity" or
"if the webcam captures a student suffering physical abuse"?!
Incredible!
Yet isn't that exactly the next step in the ZT mentality? "No drugs"
means "no life-saving medications" means "no help for teen menstrual
cramps" means "no candy" means "nothing anything like drugs" at off-
campus school functions (because it's a school function, after all!)
means "no candy at home" when you're sitting at the school-provided
computer -- or you get hauled into the vice principal's office and
accused of "improper behavior" at home because some idiot can't see the
box of "Mike and Ike" you're eating from (a well-known gateway to Hot
Tamales), so it's *probably* drugs, and LOOK! We have the photographic
evidence right here, and we're adding it to your personal disciplinary
file!
But that's what we can expect to get when we don't say NO to zero
tolerance, whether it's an official policy or "just" the mindset of
school officials.
Kids grow up. We must demand that they're taught common sense, and that
something that "looks wrong" isn't necessarily actually wrong, and that
there are degrees of propriety and mitigating circumstances (a toy gun
is NOT a gun is NOT a gun), and therefore, there are appropriate levels
of response depending on the situation and the facts at hand. Because
those kids are going to grow up and become the next generation of
teachers, school administrators, doctors, cops, construction workers,
mechanics, lawyers, engineers, paramedics, judges and more, and they'll
NEED common sense to do their jobs right. We must demand common sense!
If we don't, there will continue to be a "natural" progression toward
the worst George Orwell can imagine, and if you didn't read "Nineteen
Eighty-Four", let me tell you his imagination was pretty horrific.
Comments? http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-1984_in_2010.html is the place.
o o o
AND AMONG THE LATEST postings to Jumbo Joke: A Hall of Fame CLASSIC
sample from Mug Shot Museum. http://www.JumboJoke.com
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NEXT YEAR I -WILL- HAVE A FIREPLACE!
Time to install a fireplace? Or get accessories for yours?
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to contractors and salesmen.
New Articles Posted: http://www.FireplaceWonk.com
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TOP ON GROXX TODAY: "'Toyota Defense' Might Rescue Jailed Minnesota Man".
He SAID he tried to stop his car, but he's been serving an eight-year
prison sentence for a 2006 Toyota crash. Submit stories and vote on
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TEN YEARS AGO IN TRUE: A poll of E.U. schoolchildren brought out some
interesting holes in their knowledge: http://thisistrue.com/7045
And don't forget http://i.thisistrue.com for a new story every day on
your iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, or other web-enabled phone!
BONZER WEB SITE OF THE WEEK: http://www.cagle.com -- Political
Cartoonists Index. OK, so you probably gave up on newspapers long ago.
You may follow your favorite cartoon strips online, but what about the
particularly thought-provoking panels? That would be, of course, the
political cartoons. Daryl Cagle collects the best of the best, posting
them where you can find them. Nothing's sacred, but then, you're a TRUE
reader: you don't want anything held back!
-- Bonzer Sites archive: http://www.BonzerSites.com
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