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Theater Professor's Firefly Poster Declared Threatening
ocean_soul writes "Probably because nothing more threatening was happening and they need to prove their usefulness the school police at University of Wisconsin-Stout decided a Firefly poster with the quote: "You don't know me, son, so let me explain this to you once: If I ever kill you, you'll be awake. You'll be facing me. And you'll be armed," was a threat to the safety on campus. Wasn't that a quote about not killing people?"
That whole university system is almost as crazy politically-correct as Berkley. How many times have they tried to ban fraternties and sororities because some emo pussies might get their feelings hurt if they don't get a bid? How many times have they tried to silence *any* dissent outside of the most batshit crazy Che-Guevara-t-shirt-wearing hippies screaming about oppressive capitalism? How many times have they taken liberal stances on matters that shouldn't even be a university's business (like wars, union organizing, etc.)? You're talking about a conglomeration of tens-of-thousands of smug trust-fund liberals pushing each other out of the way to tell you how anti-corporation they are--and then tweeting about it on their band-new Macs and iPads (with absolutely no sense of irony).
Christ, I think Madison was the *birthplace* of the smelly drum circle.
If I offended any Wisconsin alum with this post, my apologies. If traumatized, please have a good cry and seek out your nearest grief counselor for immediate treatment. Remember what they told you at university orientation: Not being offended is a *right*, not a privilege!
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Surely he can hang his poster up in the Free Speech Zone set aside for that purpose. You know, the three square feet way off in the back of the most distant parking lot where you can say whatever you want without fear that anyone will actually hear what you're saying.
-
All free Americans should despise our new so-called "Free Speech Zones". My "Free Speech Zone" used to be called "The United States of America".
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
Chuck Norris does.
"...school police chief Lisa A. Walter..." It's the L.A.W.
s/[stupid comments]/[intelligent discourse]/gi
Who'da thunk that a failed mall-cop would screw up something as simple as english comprehension, eh? I've never heard that quote before, yet even I can see that it's essentially saying that the person will only kill another person if they are presenting an immediate and credible threat to said person's life. HURRR DURRR, that's the only time it's legal, and they'd better have the pistol to your head and their finger on the trigger for you to react like that.
Someone send that guy back to kindergarten so he can learn to understand a sentence properly.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
You know what this means - the next time he wears a bonnet on campus, he'll be threatened by the "Threat Assessment Team".
"I swear by my pretty floral bonnet I will end you."
I got a paper cut from one. I nearly died.
I get the same thing at work. A few friends had a photo op for a school project and the main person decided to do a Shadowrun themed shoot. We dressed up in our gear and I grabbed my fake Katana ($40 at a game convention; yea fake) for some fluff along with my hat and oversized coat over my motorcycle jacket (for bulkiness). Anyway, she took some really good pictures. I printed out one of me with my sheathed sword and posted it in my cube. I got a little "talking to" from my supervisor about appropriate content at work.
I've been talked to a few times about different things. My Zombie t-shirt with the shotgun on the back was one. I'm to the point that I have only one non-work related item up in my cubical. My Zombie calendar. I'm actually surprised it's lasted this long.
[John]
Shit better not happen!
"Wasn't that a quote about not killing people?"
I think that quote was not shooting people in the back.
Heh, Prof. Miller should replace the poster with something from Nathan Fillion's work in Almost Porn.
Although the situation pretty much follows the quote dead-on. I mean, the girl had arms, I guess.
Funniest part was watching Fillion act like he doesn't know how to act. OK, maybe not the funniest.
WTF!? With nothing but minimalistic protections such as adblock and noscript I get nothing but I blank page trying to view the linked site. Seriously, what are they trying to pull here?
They're trying to make sure readers don't steal bandwidth by preventing the display of the ads that pay for the site?
You should probably get used to seeing it, websites are doing it more and more often. I'm surprised Slashdot's comments section doesn't die if you block it's advertisement code.
There would be something to what you say, except that the campus administration appears to be siding with the Rent-a-cop (who happens to be a woman).
Having watched Firefly, I believe that the quote was saying that the individual would only attempt to kill someone who was in a position to defend themselves and know why that person was attempting to kill them. Even with that more hostile reading of the quote, it is not a threat. The sentiment of the quote could be restated, "I won't blind-side you or backstab you. If I decide that you need to be taken down, you will know I'm coming and will have an opportunity to defend yourself."
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
As fun as it is to make fun of the rent-a-cop overstepping his bounds (which he did), the summary is a bit misleading. The quote is more about honor than anti-violence. Mal was just saying that he won't kill somebody in their sleep and the only way he will kill is if his opponent has a fair chance. Mal is in no way against violence (although he doesn't like trouble, which violence usually brings. So he tries to avoid combat if he can). The quote was in no way about "not killing people", neither in nor out of context.
Imagine what their reaction would be if someone taught the complexities of, say, Richard III or Romeo and Juliet or The Crucible or, shock of shocks, DEATH of a Salesman! Whoever did that on campus would have their days numbered. So, who was this guy again? A ...theater ...professor? Uh oh...
It is funny because I understand the poster to be saying exactly what you think it says as well. Except neither the professor nor police chief seem to think it says that at all. The police chief, obviously, sees it as threatening. And the professor? Well, I can not imagine a person who writes this in his e-mail is someone who supports self-defense rights:
I am a committed pacifist and a devotee of non-violence, and I don't appreciate card carrying members of the NRA who are wearing side arms and truncheons lecturing me about violence.
I really do want to know what the professor thinks the poster's quote means.
It tries! :P
I was hopeing there was some steak on these bones, but the articles are incomprehensible and all nonsense. The guy hung up a poster with the word kill on it, the school has an anti-kill word poster rule, so they took it down. Bor-ring. I was hopeing the guy was at least making a stand against Obama's killing of Al Awlaki with a predator drone and missiles, but the story is from 3 weeks ago. If they were doing a school "Firefly" play that would have been better yet. I'm guessing this is also one of those schools that has strict rules against PDA's and you have to get a girls written permission to ask her out on a date.
Ok, thanks for that clarification.
I've never seen Firefly (although I've heard good things, mean to check it out) so all I have to go on is the quoted wording. In and of itself, it is clearly not a threat of any kind based upon even the most cursory of examinations. When taking into account the quoted character's personality it may take on new meaning, but that isn't clear from the poster.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
...this kind of stuff presses into their ego in a way that is disempowering.
For me, watching the bitch get it is like watching the bad die at the end of a movie.
On principle I side with the forces of Post Whatever You Damn Please On Your Office Door, but isn't there a certain amount of hilarity in how far removed from reality both of these people are in how they approached this issue?
The public safety officer is hewing to the absolute letter of the law with no interest in exercising any kind of critical thinking or good judgment, and the prof leaps directly to 'OMG I AM A VICTIM YOU ARE TRAMPLING MY RIGHTS' as if they'd shut down a newspaper or burned books rather than removing a piece of Hollywood memorabilia from an office door.
It seems to me that a dry, P. J. O'Rourke or Jon Stewart style response might have been better suited to pointing out the absurdity of the situation, instead of the 'I am being victimized by the man' clarion call, but as other posters have said, this is Madison.
This lady was out of line, commissioned officer or not. There is so little actual threat, they have to create threats.
I read the original exchange [http://thefire.org/article/13592.html], as well as the linked article. From that I get the following:
1. The Campus Police saw a poster on a bulletin board near and removed it due the the reference to killing.
2. They notified Professor Miller that he or someone had posted it and they removed it due to the reference. They asked him to contact them with questions
3. He exploded at them about first amendment rights and called them fascists.
4. They asked to sit down with them and go over the problem and informed him of campus requirements. They also let him know that if he violated campus requirements there may be penalties.
5. He called them "card carrying members of the NRA who are wearing side arms and truncheons" and put up a poster again calling them fascists.
6. The CP contacted his boss who asked him to meet with him ASAP.
7. He went crying to the media about how his rights are being trampled by fascists.
It seems to me that if he had simply talked rationally about this from the start (after the poster was removed) this whole problem could have been avoided. While the Campus Police may have gone too far enforcing campus rules, the prof went way out in the deep end without any concern for sanity.
Nothing the CP did was a terrible fascist crime, if Professor Miller had bothered to think before screaming, this would have been a non-issue.
Well, that's their problem. They could just insert static ads at their pages, but no, they want tracking devices too.
Anyway, I don't need their site, what is evidenced by me not having RTFA and not suffering any inconvenience.
Rethinking email
I pity the fool that says they are threatened by movie quotes. Either that or the have so much time on their hands that they have to make a stink just for something to do. Sure might not be the best thing to let your kids see but they probably have seen worse on Saturday morning TV.
www.Migrainesoft.com - Computer giving you a headache? We can fix that!
You said;
How many times have they taken liberal stances on matters that shouldn't even be a university's business...
and;
You're talking about a conglomeration of tens-of-thousands of smug trust-fund liberals...
So if it weren't for Liberals:
- 9/11 wouldn't have happened,
- there would be no health care crisis,
- there would be no recession,
- America would be a Utopia,
- every student would be carrying a bible and a handgun to school instead of a book on evolutionary biology,
because, according to people like you, Conservatism and the Republican Party are the only good things America has. Correct?
Exactly!
TFA is about the ultimate ad block: the police came and removed the poster!
If it's on a college campus it's a pretty good bet that they're actual commissioned police officers.
Also, assholes like you are a large part of why security officers end up bitter and pedantic.
Yeh, I can't speak for all campuses but mine had real cops -- graduated from police academy, carried guns, could arrest you, etc. They weren't part of a Newark precinct number but were apparently recognized cops in every other way and were recognized as having full arrest authority by the State of NJ.
Though I recall someone saying their school had rent-a-cops that could just "write you up." So I guess it varies.
If you go to the trouble to fund and staff a "Threat Assessment Team", then they have to find threats. Even if none really exist, something will be labeled Threat. Bureaucracy will take it from there.
"Give a woman two glasses of wine and some pad thai, and they'll agree to just about anything." the Sports Guy
What makes you think that the professor had that poster because he liked that quote in particular. Could it perhaps be that he just liked Firefly?
Sounds like all the school administration need a kindergarten refresh then.
I can see the signs posted all over campus now...
"School's closed for the season while we send our faculty back to kindergarten folks!"
He thinks it's a quote from a fictional character and being older than 6 doesn't have to 100% agree with the philosophy of said fictional character in order to enjoy the story or think it has some sort of artistic merit.
I have no problems whatsoever viewing ads! Hell, some of them may even inform me of things I don't know exist. Still, I'd much rather see blank pages then have to worry about cross site attacks.
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
Maybe he thinks it's about a fictional character in a fictional universe? He's a theater professor. He likes the stories. He hung up a TV and/or movie poster. Any movie poster for any movie involving, e.g., guns, is going to be "threatening" by the criteria used in this case.
Actually, the quote wasn't quite that noble. What it's saying is that the person will only kill someone with the ability to defend themselves.
:-(
In a twisted way I see how they could have an argument.
If you dig a little deeper (like looking at the case on the FIRE site) the professor then put up a poster against fascism, indicating that fascism can lead to violence and death. Campus police took that one down too and got the dean involved, which is when this guy got a lawyer.
Seriously, Fascism?! Campus police has a problem with a poster against Fascism?!
Basically, what's going on here is that the professor had a poster that could, by a decidedly UNreasonable (but still sane and literate) person be construed to be a threat. Campus police took it down. The guy got upset and replaced it with a new poster which, while DEPICTING comic violence, constituted real political speech and clearly was NOT a threat of any kind. It was phrased as a warning that Fascism can lead to violence. This is where the story should have ended.
Campus police decided that since this guy was a "troublemaker" they would show him by taking down the new poster too and going after his job. This is where campus police went too far. The new poster was NOT a threat, and campus police knew it, or should have known it.
So, the professor got a lawyer.
And, the moral of the story is: Fear the police, they have public opinion, power, and guns on their side.
Replying to an AC, but hey, I have a little time to burn.
Thanks for the clarification of the likely employment status of the officer. I'm not sure if you're supposed to be somehow protecting other non-police force security officers somehow by making the distinction, or dragging down the already sullied name of "police officer" by including this barely literate individual within that group. Either way, I don't think my assessment of their demeanour was unfair; They fail at basic English comprehension. I'm surprised s/he was capable of filling in the application form.
Regarding your second point, ad hominim and non sequitur; I am not an asshole, I have never met any campus security and therefore would not generalise about them (having referred to only the one in question in my post), and I don't see a cause / effect relationship between my opinion of the officer's obvious lack of basic language skills as being a cause for their bitterness.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
He should have put up the poster with "I swear by my pretty floral bonnet, I will end you."
I'm not sure about how you were raised. But, I was taught to be kind, respectful and accommodating to women far above and beyond the courtesies you would extend to a man. This mode of operation when interacting with females means they get their side of an issue weighted more heavily than the man on the other side. It's not always fair, but it should be taken into account when trying to understand the situation. And, in my opinion, that is why the distinction was mentioned.
The Master (Angelo Rossitto) in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, "Not shit, energy!"
...the second poster he hung up is better than the first. Much better.
Yeah, the quote sounds all manly and tough, but I think it's also pretty stupid. If I am going to kill you, it's because it's important that you be dead. It's not a test of my masculinity, or some kind of honor thing where I'm going to let Fate or our skills with a weapon decide which of us really deserves to be deceased.
If I kill you, I'm going to sneak up on you, and you'll have no idea what's happening until you no longer know that anything is happening. It won't be "honorable", just necessary. If it's not necessary, I won't do it.
The real civility and honor comes BEFORE the killing part, where I try to settle our differences like adult human beings, with language. If you have any honor, we'll settle it then. If we don't find an honorable way to settle it, I won't be looking for an honorable solution, just a solution.
You can't go as far as "only", given this sequence:
The Operative: I want to resolve this like civilized men. I'm not threatening you. I'm unarmed.
Mal: Good. [pulls gun and shoots Operative in the chest, grabs Inara and gets ready to leave]
Fired repeatedly from mainstream fast food restaurants, miss Suzy Q. Munster, head L.A.W. official on campus managed to get both eyes to focus today and horror of horrors actually read a few lines, misunderstanding them and yanked the poster down in frustration. Muttering under her breath as she slithered, leaving a slime trail a yard wide, back to her cess pool to do something about this. When confronted, she stammered and hummed and hawed, falling back on her position of power (head buried in the sand), she detailed the misunderstanding she had with full volume, repeating it over and over as if it were a mantra.
Now the laughing stock of the entire nation, she's working on her memoirs. If only she had anything memorable to write about.
MUST BE REMOVED. This heinous depiction of killing and death might be upsetting to some of the old ladies in the room and must be removed IMMEDIATELY.
You have as many rights in these United States of America as you can afford to hire lawyers to defend.
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
I'm running Ghostery to block tracking and could access the site without problem.
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
UW Stout is basically a joke in the UW system with the unofficial motto of "If in doubt go to Stout". It is basically a party school filled with lily white people from the twin cities suburbs. So to me its not a surprise that the campus security there would take down the poster and make a big issue about it, especially if there weren't any parties on campus that night that needed breaking up since they would have plenty of time.
Time to offend someone
It's hard for me to blame the security people.
If an incident ever occured on the campus, you can bet their would be lawsuits. And it is possible that if posters like that are allowed, it might be considered irresponsible on the part of the institution.
Regardless, this officer is out of line. Only a fucking nimrod would think that this is a threat. Its akin to pulling a fire alarm because a mosquito buzzed by someone's head.
That brings me to an interesting point, / . is just "the ramblings of socially-inept, technology-literate news-mongers".
His next poster should be a quote from Ghandi: "It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence."
Domains, shared and dedicated hosting, SSL certs, and more: ArrowBay.net
Excerpted from a weekly legal newsletter on the matter...
The Star-Spangled Banner comes to mind. We sing it at athletic events in the presence of college students and young children. Doesn't it refer to "bombs bursting in air?" Don't bombs kill people?
More ominously, might this stanza inspire violence by unstable individuals, especially against international students from Great Britain:
Their blood has wash'd out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
from collegepubs.com/the_pavela_report
You can't stop the signal.
Good judgment comes from experience.
Experience comes from bad judgment.
Because women are different than men? This is proven physiologically both in the brain and in the body. Women routinely get treated better in court cases, this is a proven fact. Women have more child rights, women have lower requirements for physically demanding jobs, etc. Only an idealistic idiot thinks otherwise.
That brings me to an interesting point, / . is just "the ramblings of socially-inept, technology-literate news-mongers".
She's not a rent-a-cop or a mall-cop. She's the chief of an actual police department. Many universities have their own police department.
The cop understood the quote just fine, she just disagrees with the message. Cops don't seem to like the idea that normal people should be able (or really even willing) to defend themselves. Partly because they see that as their job, and partly because they don't want ordinary citizens to be able to defend themselves against cops.
Most absolutist pacifists I know, of which this professor seems like one, abhor violence even in movies.
Hey, maybe you're right. It just seems weird that the professor went off on the police chief but did never explained why the quote was not a threat.
Act like assholes and over step their bounds. Anyone that has went to college knows that the step just above a walmart security is a campus cop. They are not cops but wannabe's that a police department will not hire.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
FTFY
There would be something to what you say, except that the campus administration appears to be siding with the Rent-a-cop (who happens to be a woman).
School administration siding with the rent-a-cop doesn't mean anything if it's the safest way to avoid legal problems; it doesn't matter if it's right or wrong. We're a nation of spineless robots who are so terrified of anyone getting their feelings hurt (even if it's due to lack of reading comprehension) that I wouldn't be surprised if the poster is replaced by a wall of nerf foam just to be sure no one hurts themselves.
I'm not really empathizing with the professor either. In an environment where there is even a hint of politics (schools in general) I wouldn't bother putting anything up aside from "neutral" pictures. Certainly nothing with actual words on them. That's the reality of the world we live in.
If I flash you, your mom, daughter or wife, they aren't hurt, are they?
Actually... probably not.
Does it make me old that I can remember a time when things like flashing, mooning, public urination, and streaking, were seen as being disorderly, but not thought of as psychologically damaging? Now a mooning can make you a registered sex offender.
They're trying to make sure readers don't steal bandwidth
And I thought we had gone too far when we called illegal copying "stealing".
Dude, nobody has stolen their bandwidth. Look, it's still there! Look!
I'm surprised Slashdot's comments section doesn't die if you block it's advertisement code.
On the contrary, if your karma is high enough, you even get an option to disable advertisement. Some sites still understand that without readers, they're nothing but a guy wanking in the basement.
Basically, if you want to be paid for your content, put up a paywall. Ads are not payment. Putting them on your site is a bet, not a price ticket. You play a bit of lottery, every ad is a ticket that may or may not yield you some cash. If your business model is based on ads, then you're a professional gambler, nothing more. Sure, with large enough numbers, statistics usually level out in your favour, but never forget that there's no guarantee - getting 100 million page views with zero ad clicks may be a statistical anomaly, but it could happen. If that means you starve, then you've bet the farm on an unreliable business model.
Short version: Your problem, not mine.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
My guess is that the the answer to that question is either nothing, or a complicated answer worthy of a psychology thesis.
I believe the administration was threatened by that quote, because they clearly aren't in the business of giving people a chance at a fair defense.
If this prof is any good at what he does, he should jump ship, immediately, and find work in an institution that actually fosters learning.
That, or have his students prank the dumb rent-a-cop daily until she checks herself into the nearest psychiatric hospital.
-Billco, Fnarg.com
The issue here wasn't that a security person took down the poster, it was rather than call someone higher up and ask "why the hell is a rent a cop touching my personal property?" he decided to go to name calling. That is not how things are done in business if you want to keep your job. You call your boss, he makes a call, a couple hours later either the matter is dropped and you put your poster back up or your boss calls you a douche for putting up a dumb poster. Either way, quick resolution.
But no, let's put up a new poster implying the security people were fascists. Because that will help. Now everyone gets called to the (metaphorical) principle's office because your couldn't handle it like an adult.
Oh and BTW, they took down a poster in your work environment, not beat you for stating political ideals. There's a difference.
- Dan
I reject your reality, and substitute my own.
No, really. This equality bullshit fad needs to end NOW! Reminds me of the Kurt Vonnegut story "Harrison Bergeron", recently made into a movie, where
The strong wear weights, the beautiful wear masks and the intelligent wear earpieces that fire off loud noises to keep them from taking unfair advantage of their brains
That nicely sums up my opinion of political correctness. If the only way to achieve a stable society is to stoop down to the lowest common denominator, I say ship all the weak, ugly imbeciles off to a damn Mars colony so we can have our nice little utopia, and they can have their real-life Idiocracy. Everyone's happy then, right ?
-Billco, Fnarg.com
She's not a rent-a-cop or a mall-cop. She's the chief of an actual police department. Many universities have their own police department.
University of California campus police are real police, state police in fact so they may have wider jurisdiction than the local police department. I recall that every fall quarter, and often in the winter and spring quarters, the same story appeared in the campus paper. A student new to campus ignores instructions from a UC police officer while saying something to the effect of "I don't have to listen to a rent-a-cop", the stories then continues with that student's arrest.
I also recall that UC Police often responded to emergencies near campus, not just on campus. An armed bank robbery occurred near campus, the UC police were first on the scene and "contained" the robber. A local Sheriff's deputy was shot during a "routine" traffic stop 10+ miles away, the suspect fled into an industrial park. While various SWAT teams from the region maintained a perimeter around the park three K-9 teams searched the complex, one was from the UC police.
So much for next season's production of "To Kill a Mockinbird."
Can you guys imagine why anyone in Europe almost dies laughing when Americans claim they live in the world's freest country?
Imagine if he posted a different poster, with less ambiguity. Imagine a picture of Clint Eastwood holding a gun, with the quote "GO AHEAD, MAKE MY DAY!"
Much less ambiguous, and much more threatening. The poster suggests that angering the owner of the poster will cause deadly violence. Yet.... the poster or something similar is posted in probably millions of American work places and schools. Just about everyone knows someone who's got that or something similar in their cubicle. Nobody feels threatened because it's a MOVIE POSTER.
So yes, the Campus Police have committed a fascist crime. Especially since the Campus Police supervisors didn't make those rent-a-cops to go back and apologize to Professor Miller and kindly return his poster to him. And you're about as far removed from reality as you seem to think Professor Miller is.
Depends. Does going blind hurt?
I declared rent-a-cops threatening
As a decorated war hero, Mal can't really be called anti-violence, especially when you consider that earlier in that particular episode he had blown someone away on reflex and then thrown his still-warm corpse out of the cargo hold doors just before his ship took off and left him there to rot. Of course, that person had two guns at the time - one pointed at one of his crew and the other pointed at that crew person's sister whom he was using as a human shield...
Awake, facing him, armed. Yupyup, that's fine. Oh, and I should probably point out this person was also an undercover law enforcement officer. Maybe that's why this rent-a-cop found it threatening...
I see comments on "Free Speech" and "Public" University so Free Speech applies.
I'm sure if you went to any government institution and saw racist posters or biggoted posters few would defend whoever hung them with "free speech". Sure, if it were at their home- but if you went to update your Soc Sec card and saw a KKK poster hanging on some office door- you'd want the biggot fired - it would be inappropriate.
Heck- I'd be annoyed if I saw a cop-car with a political affiliation bumper-sticker on it- and those arn't offensive (necessarily).
The question is- was the poster appropriate? I can see both sides of the coin here. I personally wouldn't be offended or threatened by it.
However,in this day and age where the media has mass-published stories of shootings at schools and universities- and following one man in Norway massacring innocent teens stuck on an island... I can see how some parents might be a tad paranoid on unhappy if their child was going to a university where a professor had on his door a poster casually discussing killing.
Thus, no the poster isn't reay offensive (to most) or threatening (to most)- but given the context is inappropriate. I don't know that the police should be involved... but I don't run the school
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
If the poster was of 1940's Ronald Reagan dressed as a cowboy with the same quote, people probably would've been leaving flowers and candles at the door.
And how is that different from a rent-a-cop ?
Is she a public servant ? Did she graduate from a police college ? Does she roll around in a modified Crown Vic ? Does she hide behind an overpass with a radar gun ?
Anyone can wear a shiny badge, act like a self-righteous prick and boss people around - still doesn't automagically make them a real cop.
-Billco, Fnarg.com
These are NOT "rent-a-cops." Any campus of the UW system that has a police department has a state-certified police force. They are armed and have all the powers that any other city/municipal police department does, including the ability to arrest you or cite you under UW system administrative code or state or local statute, depending on their mood.
http://www.uwstout.edu/police/about.cfm
http://nxt.legis.state.wi.us/nxt/gateway.dll?f=templates&fn=default.htm&d=code&jd=UWS
Why does he seem to be one? It would be very difficult to function as a theatre professor with a complete aversion to fictional violence...
Hate to say it, call it flamebait if you want, but it appears to be true. Facts have nothing to do with the case when we're talking about looney leftists (or looney right-wingers for that matter, see Pat Robertson).
In the leftist handbook, the NRA is a racist (although it has supported the rights of blacks against the KKK) right-wing (although it supports pro gun-rights Democrats) fascist (although it believes in the right to bear arms partly to oppose fascism) organization that supports violating all of your rights.
No, I don't say "except the right to keep and bear arms" because that isn't recognized as an individual right in the leftist handbook. Even the ACLU, supposed defender of our rights, doesn't recognize it as an individual right. Somehow it's the only right in the Bill of Rights to be considered collective in nature.
What is *truly* offensive to me:
We're talking about a quote from a mainstream sci-fi series. A quote. . . posted on the door of a theater professor's door.
Yet, no one would blink twice about Mao Tse Tung quotes/posters (which I've seen, not to mention occasionally repeated by Government officials), Che posters (which are common place in academia), or Holocaust deniers (Google it, these roaches are present at several American academic institutes). There are also a fair number of "academic" North Korea lovers, a locale with ongoing state-sponsored mass murdering.
Yeah, that Firefly poster is totally something to panic about. But ululation of mass murdering communist/fascist goons? Totally fine in the name of free speech.
I'd think that Holocaust deniers, or Che-lovers, or Kim Jong-Il lovers are *far* more likely to cause psychological harm and terror.
WhiteWolf666 an exBush supporter. All you new-school,compassionate,save the children Republicans can rot in hell
She is still a jack-booted thug bent on suppressing speech...
No I don't accept the statement it is her job. She has likely taken an oath that she violated the moment she decided to suppress speech. Orders and policies are irrelevant.
Even though I don't agree with his liberal bashing, he is right about the offending part.
Its not just people's interpretation of offending behavior, it their interpretation of threatening behavior. I knew a professor who did computer vision research and had a round bulls-eye target (*not* a silhouette target, ie it was the type of target you would find in the Olympics not on a police or military range) shot full of holes on his wall. This target was used in a computer vision project and the professor would occasionally glance at it while thinking of algorithms to apply to its image. He joked he'll have to complete the project quickly because someone will invariably walk by in the hallway and see the target on his *interior office wall* and file a complaint saying the target created a threatening environment. He was serious, he was quite confident he will eventually be asked to take it down.
Right, unless they are NY's finest, issuing the beat down to protesters concerned that our country is being destabilized by the increasing concentration of wealth at the top. Right?
Awesome furniture, accessories and cabinetry in Santa Rosa, CA: http://humanity-home.com/
It's javascript they're requiring in this case, not ad viewing. Noscript alone means you don't see it; with javascript enabled and ad blocking enabled, you do see it.
I can't say with 100% certainty, but IIRC all public colleges/universities in NJ have actual police departments, meaning that the officers are real cops (although they may supplement a campus PD with security guards in addition to police officers). Keep in mind, at least in NJ, a cop is a cop anywhere in the state, not just within the town/county/campus/institution where they're employed (assumes actual police officers, not security officers). A cop from Mahwah can arrest you if he sees you vandalizing a car in Cape May while he's on vacation without any particular jurisdictional issues (although he'd be turning you over to the local PD once they arrived, and it'd be a pain in the ass for him as he might have to go to court over it), and actually may be obligated to do so (been a while since I was in school for CJ, but my recollection is that an off-duty officer is still obligated to act if he sees a crime in progress anywhere within the state, any Jersey cops/lawyers out there who want to confirm/deny this?).
Some bring out the best in others, some the worst. Some bring out far more.
NoScript is now considered "minimal"? Last I checked, a whitelist is hardly "minimal."
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Hm, except in that situation the operative was definitely at the level of not needing a gun to kill both of them. He himself was the "gun" Mal talks about in the quote in the article.
He was absolutely massacring, Mal in hand to hand combat and it was shoot or die. He could defend himself, and even did.
In fact here it is:
Law Enforcement Oath of Honor
On my honor, I will never
betray my badge, my integrity,
my character or the public trust.
I will always have the courage to hold
myself and others accountable for our actions.
I will always uphold the
constitution, my community, and the
agency I serve.
You can see here: http://www.wichiefs.org/oath.cfm that this oath of Honor is taken by officers at UW-Stout. If the chief finds her oath so utterly meaningless, I think the whole department is in trouble.
Because women are different than men?
I think it was because the GGP post referred to the mall cop as a guy, "he", "him", etc.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
...So you're saying you want to bring back segregation?
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Because with a little research - you'll find that the professor proclaims himself a complete pacifist in an email he exchanged with the Cop.
Have you compiled your kernel today??
Just watched Serenity again yesterday, the sequence nedlohs quotes takes place *before* Mal and the Operative start fighting hand-to-hand, and before the massacres were ordered.
But, the Operative was already established as someone you can't truly reason with (through dialogue with Shepherd Book)--it's his way or not at all. He's a believer and willfully ignorant of why he's been ordered to do something.
With its sheer awesomeness!
OK, I missed that part. The prof would seem to be an idiot and not understanding the situation either. Most cops are more anti-NRA than the politicians in California. The cops want to be the ONLY ones with guns. The NRA opposes this. Suggesting that a cop would support the NRA in any way illustrates his complete ignorance to any real issues.
I've always read it as an unusually realistic view on killing people, at least as far as a US based TV drama goes. I'd read the statement along the lines of "I will kill people if I have to defend myself, but it'll be when the other person is directly threatening to kill me."
It ties in quite nicely with the UK's "reasonable force" laws. If you kill another person then they need to be trying to kill you, ideally armed, and giving you no other option (eg running away). If somebody is right in front of you, armed, and trying to kill you then you can do whatever you need to to protect yourself. If you hit them over the head and they die, that's not a problem. Hit them over the head, wait for them to fall over unconcious, and then kill them and it's considered murder.
So, to summarise, UK law very roughly says that if you kill somebody they better be facing you, awake, and armed. Then it's self defence and you're the good guy.
Please consider this account deleted, I just can't be bothered with the spam anymore.
Yep, context is important. In this case, Mal was answering Simon's question: "I'm trying to put this as delicately as I can... how do I know you won't kill me in my sleep?"
The campus police have to be hyper-sensitive about this kind of stuff.
When some kid goes off his rocker, and shoots a few people,
someone is always out there to put the blame on. "How could you not
see this coming?! Where were the police? How could you let posters like
that glorify violence? etc..."
and let's not forget Crow, Adelai Niska's lieutenant
I'd be shocked if there wasn't a Scarface poster somewhere in the campus cop office area. For some reason I can't grasp Al Pacino saying "Say hello to my leeetle friend" is an obsession with law enforcement types.
-- QED
You are allowed to protest pretty much anywhere if you do so peacefully. At certain big events where there is expected to be disruption and not peaceful protest (like the anti-WTO protests) there are designated free speech zones.
Yes, these free speech zones are far out of the way and not conducive to protest.
You thinking that in the US you cannot protest anywhere else would be equivalent to me looking at the Speaker's Corner article on wikipedia and concluding there is no free speech or protest legally allowed outside a few tiny regions of England.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speakers'_Corner
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
School administration siding with the rent-a-cop suggests that the rent-a-cop did not overstep her bounds.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
It could, but to be fair, "You'd better do what I say. Accidents happen every day." could be restated as a fun factoid.
You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
[quote]"You don't know me, son, so let me explain this to you once: If I ever kill you, you'll be awake. You'll be facing me. And you'll be armed."[/quote]
Having never seen Firefly, I read the quote like this: "It doesn't matter if you're armed and aware, I will kill you. In fact, I am so sure of my skills as an assassin, I won't even attempt it until you are armed and aware. And I will still kill you."
Rent-a-cop = Private security, rarely allowed to carry weapons, subject to local jurisdictions.
Actual cop = Public security, required to carry weapons, run the local jurisdiction. The Chief in question is an actual cop.
She is a public servant by oath. She graduated from Metropolitan State University and the FBI National Academy (210th session). I don't know what she drives, though a modified crown vic is a good assumption. She doesn't hide under overpasses with a radar gun (she would have her officers and corporals do that).
You're right, anyone can wear a badge and act like a prick and that doesn't make them a real cop... they have to be certified and hired, first. She was certified, hired, and promoted to Chief over many years of service. She's definitely a cop.
Speaking only for my city, but most of the college campuses around here are just basic security - typically with phones around campus that are direct lines to nearby police stations, or even 911.
Also, a large part of why we (security officers - and thank you for using the correct term for us) end up bitter and pedantic is because people ignore us and treat us like we're not people - much like those who work in menial customer service positions. If someone's a fucking idiot, it doesn't matter what their job is - they're still an idiot.
They would of jumped at the opportunity to outline, discus, and teach the importance of media, and how it effects their everyday life. Amazing of how a few people could ban this poster, without even giving the public the opportunity to discus the importance of the ban. I thought College was a means to prep young minds for the real world? Apparently not. So the poster will not have the opportunity of teaching a life lesson. Students once again lose.
The former are, for most campuses at least, a legitimate police force, Of course their badges don't make them real police... but what they have the lawfully recognized authority to do and their responsibilities does.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
I have this:
http://pics.lateapex.net/smile1.jpg
tacked up on the wall next to my cubicle. It's never generated anything more than laughter as well as a few comments of disbelief. Of course if anyone were to run to their manager or HR about it, I'd take it down. Thankfully, that hasn't happened.
Have a nice day.
jas
Jason Van Patten
I say ship all the weak, ugly imbeciles off to a damn Mars colony so we can have our nice little utopia, and they can have their real-life Idiocracy. Everyone's happy then, right ?
You want to waste Mars on them?
I think you have it the other way around. Leave the bozos on this bus.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
But, the Operative was already established as someone you can't truly reason with (through dialogue with Shepherd Book)--it's his way or not at all. He's a believer and willfully ignorant of why he's been ordered to do something.
I'm not sure how much it had to do with Mal thinking the Operative couldn't be reasoned with, as much as knowing that he was a threat to them who intended to drag River back to their little medical torture lab.
Mal doesn't really stick to the whole "Only if you're facing me and armed" thing. He regularly takes whatever advantage he can against people he knows are out to harm him or his crew. The sentiment was more that it would be a matter of self-defense. "If someone tries to kill you, you kill them back!" might be a more accurate and succinct way of putting Mal's philosophy on violence. :)
The enemies of Democracy are
No that's not what they're saying. They're saying they don't want to deal with artificial constraints on their self-proclaimed awesomeness. They're wrong in their belief that they are an artificially constraint super-hero waiting to happen. Cases like this are bad and symptomatic of an unhealthy structure of authority present in the academic ecosystem, but also not some sort of engineered conspiracy to keep the brilliance of the GP at bay.
There's no need to ascribe racism to an idea that's perfectly flawed on its own. It legitimatizes the argument by giving a trivially wrong rebuttal to reject. The core flaw here is not an attempt to classify people deeply by a shallow trait like race, but rather to assume a much more complex and malevolent plan than actually exists.
So, to summarise, UK law very roughly says that if you kill somebody they better be facing you, awake, and armed. Then it's self defence and you're the good guy.
Mal does subscribe to a self-defense-only view of applied violence, but it is definitely not one that that matches the U.K. laws on the subject, or the U.S. ones for that matter. It's much more broad and open-ended.
In the 2nd episode, Mal kicks Niskas' henchman through Serenity's engine while the man was tied up, because he merely promised to track down and kill Mal at some point in the future (and obviously wasn't joking since he really had tried to kill Mal just prior). While I would certainly say it falls in the category of self-defense, both U.S. and U.K. law would still view that as murder since he was not in any immediate danger. Someone merely threatening you with no opportunity to carry out that threat should be reported to the authorities, not killed.
Obviously Mal didn't really have that luxury. :)
The enemies of Democracy are
Way better quote:
Mal: This report is maybe twelve years old. Parliament buried it, and it stayed buried till River dug it up. This is what they feared she knew. And they were right to fear because there's a whole universe of folk who are gonna know it, too. They're gonna see it. Somebody has to speak for these people. You all got on this boat for different reasons, but you all come to the same place. So now I’m asking more of you than I have before. Maybe all. Sure as I know anything I know this, they will try again. Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground swept clean. A year from now, ten, they'll swing back to the belief that they can make peoplebetter. And I do not hold to that. So no more running. I aim to misbehave.
. . .
Jayne: Shepherd Book used to tell me, "If you can't do somethin' smart... do somethin' right."
He should just post the same poster over and over, forcing the idiot campus police chief either to cite him for disorderly conduct or to capitulate. If he doesn't call their bluff, what good does all this do?
Uh, you might want to watch the movie again. The Operative WAS threatening him, and was heavily armed. The threat was that the Operative would kill everyone that Mal holds dear, and he was armed with an entire armada of war ships to do it.
From the same scene.
The Operative: I have to hope, you know you cannot beat us. Mal: I've got no need to beat you. I just want to go on my way.
and:
Operative: I have a war ship in deep orbit. We locked on to Serenity's pulse becon the moment you entered atmo. I can speak a word and send a missile to that exact location inside of 3 minutes.
The scene you quote is quoted WAY out of context. The conversation took place in a hostage situation. The operative was an assassin that was holding one person hostage with the demand to deliver another person for execution. The violence had already started, and the assassin was not unarmed.
So, the quote "If I ever kill you, you'll be awake. You'll be facing me. And you'll be armed" described the situation.
Exactly. The quote essentially means "I would never stab you in the back".
I'm not trying to imply that it's racism (well, not much, anyway). Segregation doesn't have to be by race, that's just what we've taken it to mean.
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It's the Economies fault. This is what happens when people lose jobs. they stop shopping. This in turn causes the malls to go out of biz. This in turn causes the newly unemployed Mall Cops to seek new employment. The new job? Security at a trust fund school unaffected by the economic bubble. The Mall Cops have risen to power.
"Computers are a lot like Air Conditioners" "They both work great until you start opening Windows"
Fillion was about 30 years old when Firefly was filmed, so who is he calling "son"? A 15 year old? An 18 year old? That would make Fillion 11-14 years old when he fathered a child. Such indiscretion is the real threat to our communities! Kudos to the police!
Mal never was the most consistent character. He was looking him in the eye though! Although technically, the Operative was still a threat even without any weapon. Mal didn't know that yet.
Oh for fuck sake.
How often do you hear of women wanting to be treated equal in "a man's world" and then suddenly when you do treat them as an equal you get lambasted for being sexist.
Fuck em, stupid bitches.
Yup, welcome to litigation-friendly USA.
So, there are two possibilities here - at some point in the future the professor in question either will kill somebody associated with the university, or he will not (that is a tautology).
Suppose he doesn't kill anybody - then nothing bad will happen to the administration whether they make the guy take down his poster or not.
Suppose he does kill somebody - then if they don't make an example of the guy the administration will be blamed for not spotting his "violence problem" or whatever and doing something about it.
Now, there might be only a 0.000001% chance that he will kill somebody some day. But, for a bureaucrat with a job that is impossible to lose, then that is a 0.000001% chance of losing their job vs a 0% chance, and it is easy to compare the two.
Modern courts don't employ common sense - they're just looking for a reason to ruin you. The only people who stand up to lawyers are people like company founders, since they have guts to take risks with their own well-being since otherwise they wouldn't be founding companies.
In what sort of dystopia does a university have a police force?
Yes, and ask the local city police department what they think of the university police department, and they'll basically say "mall cop." It wouldn't surprise me if some malls have their own police departments.
Because it's a Western. Frontier justice is all about doing for yourself and yours because you can't count on "civilization" to help.
The type of dystopia that allows for universities to grow into massive entities that may have 40,000+ in high density on the campus at any time in addition to specialized infrastructure and needs.
This doesn't represent all university PDs, but it's *a* list.
California Colleges and Universities Police Chiefs Association
http://www.ccupca.com/ccupca-members.shtml
Academy of Arts University
Azusa Pacific University
Berkeley Community College District
Butte Community College District
California Baptist University
California Institute of Technology
California Lutheran University
Cal Poly State University
California Polytechnic State University
CSU Bakersfield
CSU Channel Islands
CSU Fresno
CSU Stanislaus
Cal Tech Pasadena
Carrington College California
Chabot Community College
Chaffy Community College
Chapman University
Culinary Institute of America
College of the Desert
College of Sequoias
Concordia University, Irvine
Contra Costa Community College District Police
El Camino College
Fresno Pacific University
Fullerton College
Holy Names University
Imperial Valley College
Loma Linda University
Los Angeles Community College District
Marin Community College
The Master's College
Mills College
Mt. San Jacinto College
North Orange Community College District
Occidental College
Pacific Union College
Rancho Santiago Community College District
Riverside Community College District
Saint Mary's College of California
San Bernardino Community College District
San Diego Community College District
San Francisco Community College District
San Joaquin Delta College District
San Mateo County Community College District
Santa Clara University
Santa Clarita Community College District
Santa Rosa Junior College
Sierra College
Solano Community College District
Stanford University
State Center Community College District
UC Berkeley
UC Davis
UC Hastings
UC Irvine
UC Merced
UC San Francisco
UC Santa Cruz
University of Nevada, Reno
University of Redlands
University of San Diego
University of Southern California
Ventura County Community College District
Victor Valley Community College
Westmont College
"We've become so politically correct that we've become politically wrong"
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
People have stopped thinking about the spirit of a rule and applying it appropriately, but just following the letter of the rule blindly with no sense towards common sense.
This poster had the word "kill" in it, therefore it must go. If the other tenured professors had any balls, they'd put this poster on every door in campus and tell the police to actually do their job and catch real criminals.
Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.
If you equate PC with the Harrison Bergeron story, I think you're woefully far down a "slippery slope" argument. In case you hadn't noticed, nobody is being forced to wear weights, masks, or be fitted with earpieces.
PC definitely has flaws, but its general goal is behavior modification, not ability modification.
--Jeremy
Jesus was a liberal
I'm thinking we should show solidarity by buying a massive number of these posters and hanging them up in our living and working quarters. Just to piss off the easily offended. Because it's our duty to piss them off. And it's so cute to watch them run around wringing their hands.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Chief Walter's phone number is 715-232-2266.
Really?
If I'm using up 90% of their bandwidth, that crowds out other people. Their upstream may charge them for that bandwidth usage, because there's only so much to go around at any one time.
If a site has ads but they're not obnoxious, the non-selfish thing to do is to allow their ads so they can make some money.
Short version: you sound like a dick.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
"Nothing the [campus police] did was a terrible fascist crime..."
This is where your argument falls flat on its face. He didn't put up the same poster. If he had and they removed it a second time, I could see your point that he's just a troublemaker. What he did was post a second poster and that second poster decried fascism. You may think the man a child having a tantrum, perhaps you think he is unworthy of his post as a professor, but that's not the issue at hand. The issue isn't the original poster or how idiotic Professor Miller's reaction was.
The issue at hand is the reaction of the campus police to the second poster. See it here: http://thefire.org/article/13588.html
They went after his job for this. This is protected speech. Their actions are a clear abuse of power.
I hope that is clearer.
The problem isn't that some rent-a-cop failed reading for comprehension, the problem is that any such person has enough authority to cause a problem and isn't immediately ordered to desist.
Sounds like UW-Stout needs a campus wide Dress Like Mal Day to liven things up a bit. It wouldn't have take my fraternity more than 30 seconds to start organizing something like that.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
If this had been a PLO poster condemning Israel and calling for the death of all Jews it would have been defended to the last dime of the ACLU legal fund. We don't have free speech any more, just protected and non-protected speech.
Consider the irony of the rent a cops statement. If you put up what the rent a cop considers a threatening poster the rent a cop will arrest you.
Now consider the violence inherent in arresting someone. Two armed and trained for violence individuals, will approach you and threaten your life. If you resist in any way or even hint at resisting at minimum they will shoot you with a "less lethal" weapon, which will cause you to collapse to the ground possible resulting in fractures and or heart arrhythmia or strike you about the head and shoulders with a truncheon or even pull out their hand guns and empty the clips into your chest. If you do not resist you will be forcefully bent over desk, in a humiliating and sexually provocative position, whilst in that position you will be groped and prodded to the satisfaction of the arresting officers. Then you will be taken to the commanders office and subject to further humiliation and degradation and detained at the pleasure of the commander until you arrange for a lawyer at your own expense to pay the kidnappers fees. Your employment will now be threatened whilst you attempt to legally defend against the charges and should you sue the commander that initiated the assault and kidnapping will not suffer but the students and lecturers will suffer fiscal losses.
So where is the real and emphatic threat of violence, where is the violent coercion occurring and who does truly owe a apology to whom. Arrest in the US in no joking matter and often does result in death ie in you own home, woken up wearing nothing but under wear pick up a golf club and you will be executed without warning or notification of police presence (issuing the warning as you pull the trigger does not count for shit).
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
Police most certainly do not have public opinion on their side in these cases. They only have jingoistic alarmists on their side, which tend to heatedly yell over those with reasonable speaking voices, who make rational statements which take slightly more time to parse and absorb than the knee-jerk reactions provoked by the noisy hyperbole.
Twinstiq, game news
The fact is they need to find someone who has more than a tenuous grasp of reality. Police are supposed to protect and serve, not harass and aggravate. They need to react to concerns, not cause them.
What makes you think that the professor had that poster because he liked that quote in particular. Could it perhaps be that he just liked Firefly?
As a theater professor, it's more likely he liked Nathan Fillian.
that crowds out other people.
Yes. But crowding out != stealing.
upstream may charge them
Yes. But increased costs != stealing.
If a site has ads but they're not obnoxious, the non-selfish thing to do is to allow their ads so they can make some money.
No. Where do you even take that from? You make it sound as if it would be an obligation. It isn't. You put your content out there, freely accessible. You don't get to complain if I access it. Ads or no ads isn't even the point.
Let me explain from a different direction: The question changes if you ask for payment in advance. If you put up a paywall, only sell your content as a book, or even tell me up front that in order to read, I have to click on or view ads - that's a consensual deal (aka I can refuse and walk away) and I'm fine with that.
But throwing unsolicited advertisement my way and then complaining when I filter it out? Sorry, not my problem. You don't get to change the terms of the deal after the fact. If you think the deal is that I watch ads in order to read your content then do as any honest businessman does - say it up front and give me an option to say "no deal".
My adblocker simply is my way of taking back the part where I get to read and agree to the terms first. You can detect it and send me to a page that explains the deal and tells me that I need to enable ads to continue - then I can think about whether or not your site is worth being annoyed by ads or not. I have a choice, and I'll make it (and I do have the adblocker disabled for a few sites).
Not giving me the choice but simply assuming that we have a deal is what pisses me off.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
This is not really about what is and isn't acceptable speech. This and similar stories (e.g. "don't taze me bro!") are about the shifting role of campus police forces. In America, university cops have gone from being the servants of civil institutions to being a parallel power which rivals them.
The problem is that while the University offers an institution of education and higher learning, the police offer nothing but authority and control. If the cops can tell university profs what they can and can't say on their own campuses, it's not a school. It's a police state. Plain and simple.
All I'm hearing is "I'm selfish". The non-selfish thing to do is to not visit those sites if you don't like that they're paid for by ads.
But no, you want it all, and the rest is simply rationalization. You could at least be intellectually honest with yourself and admit it.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
A theater professor? When i look at some Shakespeare plays i can only say that i did not want to meet people in a dark alley who find fun in directing something like king Lear.
Do we care? Are we caring about that?
Just put a couple of post-it notes over the offensive words
"You don't know me, son, so let me explain this to you once: If I ever [CENSORED] you, you'll be awake. You'll be facing me. And you'll be [CENSORED],"
http://www.aclu.org/organization-news-and-highlights/second-amendment
From the horse's mouth, 2A is "collective" meaning it doesn't exist.
It is better for the administration to err on the side of caution, then to let the message send some student over the mental cliff and have him/her do something that would go down in history.
Maybe the Rent-a-Cop has seen Serenity where Mal happily shoots the apparently unarmed Operative while rescuing Inara.
Uh, he was unarmed. And after he said so Mal promptly shot him several times.
Operative:" I'm not armed but I'm not a fool, I'm wearing full body armor."
He then proceeds to kick Mal's ass handily and is only saved by Anora's Incense which is actually a flash bang weapon.
There are good number of idiots in the world. Some even have PhDs. Sometimes they are put into positions where they can do stupid things. This is an instance of this. It could have been much worse.
Well, Mal does mean bad.
You're semantically arguing about the size of the weapon.
Is holding a knife being armed? Yes
Is holding a sword being armed? Yes
Is holding a gun being armed? Yes
Is holding bazooka being armed? Yes
Is holding the power to suddenly give a command that brings death and destruction through the use of a circling warship being armed? No?
Really? What twisted logic is that? Here's a clue, the operative didn't lie, but didn't chose his words to the full appreciation of the current situation.
He was most definitely armed, if not by virtue of the circling warships, then by the fact that several armed people ran into the room at the first sign of trouble to help him.
It would be very difficult to function as a theatre professor with a complete aversion to fictional violence.
You seem to think that the definition of a pacifist is someone who sticks their fingers in their ears, covers their eyes, and cannot cope with violence.
In fact, of course, a lot of art is created by pacifists, and they are rather more likely to show the reality of violence (nstead of the glorification and romanticism of it that you generally get in Hollywood movies) than to shy away from it.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
All I'm hearing is "I'm selfish". The non-selfish thing to do is to not visit those sites if you don't like that they're paid for by ads.
Your hearing is impaired. :-)
One, I was talking about unsolicited advertisement - how am I to know that a site is paid for by ads prior to visiting it?
Two, I was talking about using an adblocker - even if I visit a site, I don't see any ads and I don't know (and don't care, that is the one point where you are right) if they rely on ads to pay for their operations. And no, you can not simply assume that they do - all of my own sites are ad-free, and cover their costs of operation either by donations or out of my pocket.
Three, I was talking about basic contract law, which requires a two-sided agreement. If you run your site on ads and expect visitors to see the ads, thus paying for your site, that is a one-sided agreement. As I have not agreed to anything, I am under no obligation to follow your plan.
Once again, the part you completely ignored: If you put up a paywall, or a "please disable your adblocker, I need the money" wall - I withdraw my argument and will decide on a case-by-case basis if I accept your ads and visit your site, or don't consider it worth it and leave. At that point we do have a two-sided agreement.
Heck, even a notice saying "This site paid for by advertisement, please disable your adblocker" would be a step forward.
What I reject utterly is the attitude you are trying to ascribe to me - that running a site and putting ads on it somehow gives you a right. That the visitors of your site are obliged to follow your plan, that you can somehow create an implicit contract simply by putting ads on your site.
Again, before you twist my words around: I mind the unsolicited part of advertisement, and the assumption that your act of putting them on your site somehow creates an obligation for me to watch them. If you want to create an obligation for me, the least you need to do is tell me about it. Everything else is ridiculous and dishonest.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
He obviously choose the wrong character from the series..
Quote Jayne Cobb:
Hell, I'll kill a man in a fair fight... or if I think he's gonna start a fair fight, or if he bothers me, or if there's a woman, or if I'm gettin' paid - mostly only when I'm gettin' paid.
It's The Golden Rule: "He who has the gold makes the rules."
So because you're selfish you want webmasters to do extra work by setting up such a paywall, and it is extra work because nobody else is going to require that.
Still: "I'm selfish!".
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
Exactly. So I was left to wonder what this pacifist professor saw in the quote that made it "show the reality of violence", rather than glorify and romanticize it.
"the right of the people to peaceably assemble..." The goons have clear instructions. If the assembly is peaceful they just stand by and enjoy the show. If the assembly is not peaceful, they move in. The Constitution does not give the government the right to decide when, where, or how. This is wrong. Slashdot is a great community, thanks! Johnny the Greek
Dear Microlimp: I give you 2 valid product keys for win7 and you reject both of them. Piss off you wankers!!!
You're still reading what you want to read.
I don't care if webmasters do extra work or not. I'm fine.
However, if you want to make money from me, then yes, you should be doing the extra work, not me. After all, you're the one who wants to profit from me.
For the rest - I've laid out my argument in length, you're not even trying to refute any of it.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
Because simply put, you're being selfish and are rationalizing it away. There's no need to refute your rationalizing.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
We are a new charity organization trying to help all the brain dead mall cops in the U.S. This terrible affliction appears to affect the majority of this job profession and is a horrible thing to behold. A mind is a terrible thing to waste. Please donate so that we can eradicate this terrible disease in our lifetime. If you know someone with this life threatening disease please notify us at www.braindeadbozos.org. Thank you.
I'm old, not dead. Well that's my 2 cents worth, your mileage may vary. I say what I think, not what you want to hear.
Can you guys imagine why anyone in Europe almost dies laughing when Americans claim they live in the world's freest country?
Well, in my case I was going to a University in a city with a bad reputation. Not insanely so, and the parts of the city where the University exist aren't as bad as other parts of it, but Newark doesn't have the reputation for being the friendliest place on Earth..
Though all things considered, I felt better off knowing the cops at my college in Newark were *also* armed. If I went to University in a quiet town with low crime, then it might be a bit off-putting.
I don't mind having armed police... though I really don't want to get into the whole banning guns / gun control thing. I have luke-warm feelings either way.
Uh, you might want to watch the movie again.
The quote was at the end of the pilot, not in the movie. Simon's line right before was "I'm trying to put this as delicately as I can... How do I know you won't kill me in my sleep?"
You are confused. This segment of the thread was initiated by the comment in the movie about the assassin claiming to be unarmed (even though he was heavily armed) and Mal shooting him anyway.
This http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2457310&cid=37589492 is the post that we are discussing.
... I think this mistreatment would keep any conscientious vampire up all night with worry.
As you've set your mind in stone, any argument is wasted.
Our goddess is probably ashamed of you, and has gone drinking the pain away somewhere.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
I assume UW-Stout considers themselves an institution of higher learning, so I wonder what the hell they are thinking. Maybe they would like the campus police to teach this guys class. I mean they've already decided the execution of police duties is more important than letting this professor teach students. Why not go the whole hog and just have the campus police teach? They could ensure the students are only exposed to non-violent messages.
The administration really failed to take the opportunity to train these campus police better and instead decided to make the campus a hostile work environment for professors. I would say they've shot themselves in the foot, but people are desperate for opportunities to make a better life for themselves. These guys could probably have all classes under armed guard and still increase enrollment and tuition payments.
We don't wear weights, masks or noise machines, no, but mentally the effect is quite similar. You can't be exceptional at what you do, next to people who are borderline zombies, because the zombies will gang up and pull you down to their level, whether through legislation or sabotage. Crabs in the bucket...
All the best intentions in the world are so quickly spoiled by an angry uninformed mob of cretins. The larger the society, the stronger the cretins.
-Billco, Fnarg.com