You're right. Criticizing you understanding of the English language is what I was doing, and I totally thought that clock meant bomb. If a 14 year old kid, at a school where the adults are in charge, had answered an adult's yes or no question with a yes or no, that wouldn't have helped the situation at all.
Alright, this will be my last post on this topic as I do not want to beat a dead horse. With our current understanding of the situation's timeline: - Ahmed showed the engineering teacher his clock, which he was told looks nice but to keep it to himself the rest of the day. - Clock beeped during English class and his English teacher confiscated it - School administration decided not to enact bomb protocols because they did not believe it was a bomb and kept it in an office - Police was notified and arrived on scene - Clock was still determined to not have been a bomb as no evacuation took place and all parties (students, school staff, officers) all remained in the same building as the clock - Ahmed pulled into the principals office for an interrogation without his parents being notified. Please note by the time that Ahmed was pulled into his principals office for questioning, there was no doubt in the adults mind (teacher, police, principal) that the clock/device was not a bomb. This was not like an episode of 24 where they had seconds to determine what that thing was or else the lives of everyone is in imminent danger. So why would they question the student repeatedly whether or not the clock was a bomb when they themselves have already determine that it isn't a bomb? Why was he coerced into writing a written statement? Why were they not satisfied with his answer that the device was just a clock that he built? Why did they deny him access to his parents? Ultimately since they threatened to charge him with bringing a hoax bomb to school in juvenile detention, I believe they were trying to gather enough evidence during the interrogation to bolster that case. They were not worried that the device was a bomb. But then again it's Texas so maybe I'm assuming too much and they reeaaallllyy thought it was a bomb but eff it, safety precautions be damned. Rush, I've been lurking on this board for a long time now and I've always enjoyed your presence on this board. Thank you for discussing this with me because without differences of opinions, this board will die an early death. So how about that migrant crisis in Europe.
I don't ever mind reading another opinion from mine on any topic. It makes me a better person to understand other viewpoints. Although, I'm old as dirt, so we're running out of time.
Reports coming out that the clock kid just took a commercial alarm clock out of its casing and pretended he made it. If this is true, this is sad. Can't really be angry at the kid (in as much as an adult should ever be angry at the kid) because -- again, if it is true -- he likely just did it to impress a new teacher and, when all the publicity happened, felt he was in too deep so just ran with it.
Here is an engineer dissecting the clock: http://blogs.artvoice.com/techvoice...gineering-ahmed-mohameds-clock-and-ourselves/
Yep, looks fake as shit. Wonder if Obama is still going to have him over at the white house. Still that's not even the funniest part of all this. They held a prayer vigil for this kid. Why exactly? He was arrested, questioned and immediately released. When I was a kid I got a five day in school suspension from one of these school bullshit overreactions and a police report describing me like a homicidal lunatic on the verge of snapping and I had to fight to get it rewritten. I never got a prayer vigil. *Sniff*. Fyi a hoax bomb is very much a crime. Police can't question a minor alone but im not sure why so few of you seemed to acknowledge that. That's why they questioned him but didn't evacuate. I doubt that was his intention but his display choices for his fake weren't the brightest.
Well, I certainly fell for it hook line and sinker. Though I was angry at the fact the school didn't follow basic protocols in that situation, this certainly calls into question what we even know about that. The media looks horrible in all this, and everyone who made him internship offers and the like (I'm looking at you, Twitter, MIT, and the White House) has egg on their face. So does the kid. No one will come out of this looking good.
Mmmyeah, I don't think some nobody making a YouTube video from his home office and a guy that posted on a low budget blog without a last name count as "reports." Loose Change has really intense and obsessive research behind it too. It's one thing for a bunch of posters on a message board to consider those solid sources, but holy shit does this discredit Richard Dawkins.
And on that note what is a 'solid source' these days? Last I checked they were all terrible. Anonymous bloggers often actually do a better job than the media giants. Not that that's saying a lot.
From https://twitter.com/istandwithahmed: At this point, I'm just going to say it. Leave. I don't give a shit if the clock is real or not. If you're such a victim, if you face injustice at every turn, if you're such a fucking cry baby you just can't take it anymore, then just leave. Go. Stay gone. I'm sure there's plenty of shit holes out there that will take you. I don't care what religion or skin color you are, I'm sick of hearing about it. If I'm so unsympathetic then go somewhere where they want to complain about American injustice all day every day. Most of those countries are just fucking awesome. Go to one of them.
Ultimately, this is my complaint. I've referenced it before, but the fact that American media - especially including the news - has become corporatized is dangerous. Throw in the fact that with the rise of the internet and 24 hour news cycle, and you have a dangerous mixture that leads to often lousy reporting as clicks and getting it out there first trump getting it right. I'm not really sure what the answer is, but I do know that as a society we need access to an unbiased media that reports facts, and doesn't dress conjecture up as facts. Maybe it's my legal training, or just my general disposition, but I usually try to judge slowly because I know from experience you rarely get the correct facts right away. It takes time and the willingness of those investigating a story to set aside their bias in order to follow the facts.
Probably, because no Texas attorneys have weighed in here. The internet (which is hardly ever wrong) tells me they can, as I pointed out earlier. I believe that Texas is one of those states, but I'm not positive.
It seems clear that the kid just took a clock apart and put it back together in a case. I'm not surprised the kid uses words like "invent" or "built" because he's a 14 year old who thinks he did something awesome or wants people to think he did. Just because it's not as cool as it first seemed doesn't mean you can infer his motives. And it doesn't mean American culture hasn't turned into one of fear over everything and it doesn't mean the police acted appropriately. I know Americans aren't that bright, but can we not expect teachers to be a little more discerning about what they freak out over? And maybe not call the cops based on what they have seen in shitty Hollywood movies? I don't think Dawkins' tweets discredited him at all though. He seemed to be trying to figure out what really happened and whether it was justified.
Quite honestly, as more facts are becoming known, this whole situation stinks. His father is a politician and Islamic activist. The woman always by his side? Alia Salem https://twitter.com/aliarsalem?lang=en family friend/Islamic activist. A few months ago Irving, Texas outraged the Muslim world by passing an Anti Sharia law. http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2015/04/02/tempers-flair-at-irving-city-hall-over-anti-sharia-law/ Remember the "Draw Muhammed" event that was shot up and two jihadist killed a few months ago? Just outside of Irving. http://theconservativetreehouse.com...hammad-day-free-speech-event-two-people-shot/ So, this kid with ties to Islamic activists just happens to bring something to school that resembles a bomb, and shows it around after he was told not to,. until he gets a reaction. When questioned about his "Invention" he's evasive and just says "It's a clock." Mark Cuban said when he talked with the kid on the phone he could hear his sister coaching and giving him answers to questions. The whole thing is starting to look real suspicious.
Unless the story has changed, the thing beeped in his backpack and the teacher heard it and made him show it to her. This was after he showed the engineering teacher who told him not to show it to any other teachers. Is that not the case?
I've heard several different stories about the actual timeline. However, if it did beep it means he had taken it out, plugged it in to the wall, and set the alarm so it would beep. Yes, I know the clock had a battery back up, but in the pictures of it, there is no battery. Maybe it was removed? I don't know.
I feel like this is a pretty good example of how every issue becomes a yelling match between the extremes. Right: Looks like a bomb to me, Ahmed!! Left: Clearly this is the greatest kid in the history of the world being a victim of RACISM! Horrible, horrible, RACISM!!! Let's invite him to the White House and give him scholarships to everywhere. At this point I think it looks like a 14 year old, who's maybe not that great with electronics, put a clock in a suitcase. In his 14 year old mind maybe that was cool, and he wanted to show it to people. It wasn't. Done, case closed. I have a hard time believing this is some conspiracy for attention, or anything else.