Absurd Terrorist Threat charges

The problem with that is it is not being anti-American to criticize what is going on in our country. Anyone who believes so, I don't necessarily mean you BTA, just making a point, needs to go back to our constitution and read the bill of rights. Also, these usually aren't isolated cases. If the police are supported in this case, it will happen again. It really makes me mad when the "moral majority" start screaming about a person who makes a valid criticism of our country being unpatriotic, supporting terrorists, or whatever else takes their fancy at that moment.

 

Blackthorne TA certainly has a point. The only thing that I would note in posters from other countries defence is that many of us are just not used to the idea of a state/province etc. having the level of authority that the states in the U.S.A. have.

If you take Canada for instance, our provinces have a bunch of laws that they set (drinking age, taxation, vehicle licensing etc) but pretty much everything that we would think of as crime falls under the Criminal Code of Canada and applies equally wherever you happen to live within Canada.

Thus, when we hear about this case our instant reaction is to think that the specific police officers involved in Clark County were being over zealous in enforcing the law but we assume that if the law is there then it is an American law.

Still, that doesn't change the fact that I feel that, if the details of the article are correct, this law is way too strict. Personally, I have a great deal of difficulty believing that the facts and law are being properly presented here. I can think of any number of t.v. shows, movies or books that deal with violence in a school setting - are they illegal in Kentucky too?

 

Only Bowling for Columbine -- it is a red state after all.

 

I have noticed a change in the national climate since 9/11 and other tragic events, such as Columbine. Nationally, we have always valued civil liberties and human rights, almost above anything else. As you point out, that has not been the case in all fifty states (some states in the South, with their racial segregation come to mind).

Nevertheless, there is a sense that this is changing. It's easy to blame one person (George), yet it seems way more complicated than that, at least to anyone who is seriously considering these changes in the national climate. But I see your point - "only in America?" I think not. But America seems to be, for various reasons, drifting away from its love of civil liberties, IMO.

 

Hear hear, I am not above bashing America but the excess and unnescessity of many of them annoys me. If not only for them putting water on the wheel of those who wave away the founded and thought through criticism of the great land in the west as unfounded and fueled by ignorance or even hate.

 

Ok that arest is the stupiest thing I ever heard about.

 

In response to BTA, and the twist the topic got ...

I, too, certainly, am not above bashing the U.S., or what is perceived as that. Many criticisms on the U.S. are well founded in facts, not in hatred.

Much of the frustration *I* feel is because of disappointed initial admiration - call it disillusionment.

If you study international law you come to understand the international system. It is so that for half a century America stood as a sort of godfather to most of the legal developments there - they founded the UN, they held up the rule of law, held up the fundamental legal principles so violated by the Nazis in Nuremberg and all that.
As an occupying power in Germany they performed mostly admirable and that they led the occupation was about the best thing that could happen to Germany.

Today it is a country whose administration and it's rightwing claqeurs openly boast they no longer need all this 'quaint and obsolete' stuff - international order, international law, humanitarian law - and they do their best to display what can in all fairness be described as utter contempt and complete disregard.

When I'm frustrated with America's policy, and the admistration conducting it, then because I see her current behavior as treason on that the U.S. has stood for for half a century, nothing less.

And when it comes to generalizing - try to put yourself in an observer perspective.

Americans, as they live in America certainly perceive their place as a free and great place to be, and of course as totally normal, so the astonishment or criticism of the Euros here must sound odd and over the top.
But then, let's just get back on topic: American criminal law is pretty draconic, if not excessive, by European standards, just take jail sentences of 137 years, three-strikes-and-you're-off and such.

I cannot even imagine a German law indicting someone for writing a school zombie story, much less seeing such a story interpreted as planning an act of violence. I mean, I failed when trying to construct a case for a crime after german criminal law in this case.
This is not only a victimless crime, but at worst a crime in thoughts, and probably not even that. The point is: This kid *is* in jail, and *is* going to be indicted. Why I wonder? IMO this is due to the public climate, because simple law enforcement concerns cannot explain it.

For me generalising is part of a process in trying to explain something you don't really understand. You try to make out trends in all the fog, try to find a pattern. You, of course, is me here

'Some Americans are bla-bla, some Americans are la-la-la' are mere observations that bring you not really further. What's interesting is the 'why' part. Generalising can result in some good working theories, as long as you're willing to correct them when you recognise you've been wrong.

Maybe you can find comfort in that I still haven't given up on the U.S.

 

Alright, everyone get of the 'this is the dumbest thing ever' bandwagon, because if you're gonna take that Lex*news for idiots*18 seriously, you've lost some wires yourself.

I've been checking google with the query "terrorist Poole zombies -Lex18 -Lex" *note* - means remove any site mentioning Lex *disnote* and i could only find one newssource that looks more credible than Lex, (that is, they are not trying to shove dubious stories down your throat) mentioning this whole affair: Winchester Sun.

Even if it was a true story, that his grandparents, the police and a judge, think he is a danger to society, should tell you that there is more to it than Lex*news for idiots*18 is telling you, but no, you just enjoy the cushy pillows Lex18 installed on the dubious-story-bandwagon hmmm?

 

Morgoth is correct. There does seem to be more to the story. Until the boy's trial we may not know what was in the story he wrote.

 

Sounds as if the patronizing attitude of someone has found a "cushy pillow" of his own. But by all means, let's believe everything our government tells us. We know that they have never made any absurd arrests in the past.

 

If the arrest is really that absurd, why is only a dubious newsstation owned by a large newscoorporation mentioning it?
Or is Lex18 America's freest newsstation?

As I've said, there is more to the story than is told, but still everyone is taking this story for true. huh?

 

Student jailed for alleged school takeover threat

I just cut out the tasty bits. It sounds like they found more than just a zombie story.

I can not, of course, verify the credibility of the, Winchester Sun.

 

These are depressing days we live in. The simple act of reviewing previous posts on this thread was enough, in and of itself, to put me in a foul mood.

[snip - off-topic overgeneralizations responding to other off-topic overgeneralizations removed. / dmc]


As for the story itself, it would seem that the media chose a creative fashion (I.E. Questionable) with which to report this story. I can't really comment, the facts are conflicting and incomplete.

[ March 07, 2005, 20:31: Message edited by: dmc ]

 

I opened a thread on this topic--now blocked--not realizing it had already earned two pages of comments. One point I made is worth repeating: that the detectives investigating the case, in their court appearances, have invariably referred to Poole's writings as "stories". Unless something more than "stories" is involved, we seem to have reached the Orwellian state of "thought crime", and all which that implies.

 

I´m gonna kill you all!!! And when I do so, you will die knowing that I´m happy that I don´t live in Kentucky!!!
Would that be perceived as a terrorist threat? If yes.... then.... well..... forget I said anything! I luv u guys! Damn, looks like I can´t take it back, now that it´s been written down.
Seriously, we do live in a straaaange world.