compared to some of the stories i've heard of rednecks just shooting people because they were pissed under stand-your-ground, zimmerman's actions actually seemed vaguely reasonable
The point is, it sure looks like racial profiling on the part of Zimmerman, especially to the African-American community: Just another white man kills a black man and gets off. "Sure, I shot him. What is that, a crime?"
@Jez That is bullshit. Pure and unadulterated. If you carry a gun and go looking to be a self-appointed vigilante, then you ought to bear the responsibility when shit goes bad.
@Robusto another point is that he was appointed head of the neighbourhood watch. he was meant to call the non-emergency police number if he spotted something suspicious
@Jez "... meant to call the non-emergency police number ..." That's pretty far from "get into a physical confrontation after the police tell you to back off."
Well, a 17-year-old kid is dead because he was black and wore a hoodie. And the man who killed him is free. I don't see how that's any different from what went on 100 years ago in the South.
If you change Trayvon Martin's race to white, nothing in the entire body of evidence changes.
It wasn't a hate crime.
He was head of the neighborhood watch in a community that had had several break-ins. Twice, the perp got away. He wasn't going to let him get away this time. There was a confrontation, the kid got shot and died.
Responding to fists with bullets in the United States is always legal, moral, ethical, and appropriate. There can be no question. A fist might give you an owie. You have the right and indeed the moral obligation to retaliate against owies with deadly force. End of discussion.
2
Which is why we need to arm our ten-year-olds at school.
These things have a way of sorting themselves out.
Race is so commonly a factor in how people perceive other people that it would be weird if it didn't play in this shooting. Zimmerman probably perceived the situation much differently than he would have it the kid had been white.
But I live in a state where most gun deaths are accidental.
One thing I remember from gun class is that owning a gun makes people stupid about safety. They think about the gun first, and how to "protect" themselves, when their first thought should be "how do I get out of here safely?"
Owning a gun usually means that a gun is never going to be a last resort.
@JohanLarsson I am completely not paranoid about random strangers breaking into my house, and although I am licensed to carry a concealed weapon I would never do so. I just don't feel threatened, and I can't think back to a single time in my life where having a gun would have improved a situation.
> The second rule of Robot Club is that you do not talk about robot club. Oh. Sorry no, I misread. That's the first rule again. The second rule is no smoking.
@MattЭллен No, the second rule of Robot Club is that a robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the first rule.
In Mumbai there lived an old man / Whose penis continually ran / He'd gotten those sores / From rent boys and whores / And the flies would creep down from his hand.
I'm trying to remember a conversation I had with an American man, who questioned what he had read - namely that "law" and "lore" are pronounced identically in NZ English. He said - "But that can't possibly be right; one of them is LAW and the other is LORE". Which in his accent sounded different. I think I may be able to remember the difference, but I'm not sure.
A budding young writer named Ed stayed awake when his wife went to bed. He had a quick chat with Robusto and Matt and let KitFox play games with his head.
David Wallace rhymes lim'ricks with ease (Which is surely some type of disease) It's just part of the cost When some bet you have lost And your home is the antipodes.
@MετάEd There lived an old man in Mumbai / Whose dick would drip on to his thigh / He’d gotten those sores / From rent boys and whores: / A feast for each starved passing fly.
I think you have to give the writer the benefit of the doubt, and give KitFox a stressed first syllable and an unstressed second one. (Never mind that KitFox is a veritable ball of stress ...)
There was a young lad named Targaryen
Who hoped that his aunt would soon marry him.
Like lightning he fell
On Storm’s End, they tell,
As quick as Lord Beric Dondarrion.
Long-short-short, long-short-short
Dactyls in dimeter,
Verse form with choriambs
(Masculine rhyme):
One sentence (two stanzas)
Hexasyllabically
Challenges poets who
Don't have the time.
... starting controversies. You want to antagonize me [expletive deleted] , antagonize me [expletive deleted]. Get in the ring [expletive deleted] and I'll kick your [expletive deleted] little [expletive deleted].
@DavidWallace Oh I know all about that. I had a 'friend' once with scansion. Took a month to get over. Couldn't bear to drink milk for a year after that.
@KitFox me? well, caught up in the sense that I read it. But made sense exactly of who said what I don't know. Re lynching, that's just a personal misunderstanding of mine in general, I don't get why lynching is a thing that is some how different than plain murder.
You may think we're infected with rabies,
Or some of you, possibly scabies;
But you really should know
That the true status quo
Is that Earth is afflicted with babies.
@Mitch Oh, I had a web page open in another tab, that somebody sent me a link to. It was trying to sell me free emoticons, probably with viruses included.
@KitFox they both have their place? depends on the kind of pancakes? you need a waffle iron to make waffles so pancakes much easier? Are we talking about lynching vs murder still?
@Mitch It's worse than simple murder because its perpetrators and the general society take it as a matter of course, and even enjoy it as a "good time had by all" (except for the victims, of course). They smile at the events and send postcards bragging about the "barbecues" they had.
Mitch, I'm sorry. I know I promised you a limerick. But the only two rhymes I can think of for your name make me think uncharitable thoughts about a certain somebody. Maybe when I'm in a better mood! :-)
@DavidWallace You did? That's nice. But yes, I used to be tormented as a young child with all sorts of rhymes. And amazingly none of them were female dogs. Because you know, they can't speak.
"Pile in the ditch Mitch" they used to call me.
After that, I'd just shoot a man just to see him die.
Sillier-Fillier
Our local janitrix
Learned about life at the
School of hard knocks.
Schooled though she once was in
Neurobiology
Now she can only be
Pinged as KitFox.
English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…
English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…