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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
This is Britain; we're good at NIMBYism. Ultimately, Central Government approves the building of new power stations, and it is Serious Business, especially for Local Politics.
Keep Rolling Onhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/27/teenager-justin-carter-facebook-comment-jail_n_3512025.html
God Bless America, land of the free.
I saw that on SourceFed. Shameful that our law enforcement officials and judicial system seem to be incapable of distinguishing sarcasm from an actual threat.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Eight years in jail for a bad murder joke on Facebook. Who among us can say we haven't said similar things, honestly? I recall Barkey making jokes at least that tasteless on this very forum - as is his right under freedom of speech to do so. Besides being a complete waste of taxpayer money and a completely irrational emotional response to a perceived problem, it's a terrifying world for us to be living in. A world where Facebook and every other social networking medium is perceived as equivalent to the 'crowded theater' in the 'can't shout fire in a crowded theater' analogy.
I also appreciate the comment that noted how completely unnerving it is that a woman in another country took the trouble to search up the kid's real life address and related geographical information.
Furthermore, I think Guantanamo must be destroyed.A person reading a comment online that sounds like it might be a legitimate threat when taken out of context is not wrong to want to bring it to the attention of authorities. It is, however, incumbent upon the authorities in question to exercise sound judgement as to whether a threat was real, sarcastic, or whatever.
As even a cursory examination of the evidence should demonstrate that the threat was not meant to be taken seriously, the fact that this teenager was prosecuted and sentenced is astounding and a very real example of how "blind justice" can be taken too far.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
What about the money that might have been spent on a lawyer? What about the four months he spent in jail for no good reason? What about the fear and emotional turmoil he and his family suffered.
Even if he gets acquitted, it's too little, too late. This shouldn't have happened, period.
edited 28th Jun '13 11:40:14 AM by Robotnik
I'm not saying that it's a good thing that he's being charged in the first place, I'm just saying that there's a world of difference between "charged" and "convicted". The way the system works is that if you're charged with a crime, you get your day in court. If he's found guilty, then I'll start talking about a miscarriage of justice. But for the moment, an overzealous prosecutor notwithstanding, the system's operating as intended.
edited 28th Jun '13 11:50:24 AM by NativeJovian
Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.It's tough. You'd have to prove some kind of malfeasance on the part of the police; after all, he did issue a threat, and the laws are explicit about taking those seriously.
I find it somewhat amusing that his father publicly claimed that his son was ignorant about things like school shootings such that he didn't have any notion why what he said might upset people. The obvious counterclaim is that he could not have known to say those things if he didn't know about school shootings in the first place. So, we need a big *cough* bullshit *cough* for the dad.
edited 28th Jun '13 11:51:46 AM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"It's worse than than a brainteaser — at least those have unambiguous correct answers. I remember being given this exact test in my history class, and many of those questions had more than one answer. When a correct one was given, the proctor would just say they wanted the other one and mark it wrong.
For instance, the fill in the blank with the "next number": 3 6 9 _ 15. If you said 12, they'd mark it wrong and say the correct answer was 10 and you're stupid for not knowing how to count. And vice versa.
Another one was the one to cross out whatever word. You'd get it wrong unless you actually used a vertically aligned "cross".
edited 28th Jun '13 1:42:40 PM by Pykrete

Well, clearly you want to make it possible to build new plants to replace older ones. That veers into Captain Obvious territory, but of course nothing is obvious in politics. Part of it is regulatory burdens, environmental reviews, and the like; and part is good old NIMBY.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"