Somehow, as every day passes, we manage to find bigger and bigger assholes out there:
A ninth grade algebra teacher was suspended from a Texas school district after making offensive comments to a Muslim student in front of the entire class.
“The teacher told the student that ‘I bet you’re grieving,'” the mother of a student in the same class told ABC13. “And she basically looked at him and said what are you talking about? And he said I heard about your uncle’s death and she said wow, because she understood that he was referring about Osama bin Laden being killed and was racially profiling her.”
She added that the teacher “just kind of smirked and giggled and walked away” after the Muslim student ended up crying over the comments.
Sigh.
cathyx
Muslim is the new black.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
That teacher is probably a Becker-head, and probably thinks she struck a blow for medal-worthy blow for “our freedom and values” for bullying a child.
ETA: I misread the pronouns, the teacher was a male, and the student a female. That’s actually what I would have expected, unfortunately.
freelancer
Probably G.O.B. Bluth.
Unabogie
I wonder what channel the jerk gets his news from?
Mike Kay (Team America)
white makes right
cbear
Sounds like Gov Perry has found the perfect candidate for his Secretary of State when Texas secedes from the USA.
pragmatism
lucky for him, the ACLU exists to defend his statements. that’ll make him happy. also, too, the palin version of the 1st amendment may apply in TX. the one that not only permits you to say stupid stuff but be free from all consequences.
Villago Delenda Est
Only suspended, not outright dismissed.
I’m sorry, that sort of treatment of any student is so far out of line that there should be absolutely no question of a dismissal.
Martin
Texas. I’m shocked. Truly.
Does the teacher have a PhD in Physics and twitter a lot?
Just Some Fuckhead
Everything is bigger in Texas!
Apparently, even the crybabies.
BGinCHI
At least if she was crying she couldn’t have been reading her Texas History Book, so maybe she avoided getting stupider.
Jesus what a bunch of fucking assholes.
bemused
The president of the Islamic Society was too kind to say that “some people are just a little off”. The problem is these people who are off their heads are courted not shunned by media and far too many of them are legislators.
dmsilev
Peak Wingnut is a lie.
cathyx
And now the obvious question. Why would a Muslim live in Texas?
Lolis
@Villago Delenda Est:
To be fair, they probably have to investigate it before they can fire him. I hope they do can him. I live in Texas and am always embarrassed by this stuff. Can’t say I am surprised though.
Fred
In Texas! Who’d a thunk….[/snark]
Donald G
“Hey, Teacher! Leave those kids alone!”
Arclite
Wow. Words fail.
Arclite
@cathyx:
If by “new” you mean for the past ten years.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
The school in question: Clear Brook High School, Home of the Wolverines.
I kid you not.
danimal
@dmsilev:
Disagree. We are only a bit more than a Friedman Unit away from Peak Wingnut.
It’s coming, I tell you, and it’s only a coincidence that the GOP primaries begin in earnest this winter.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Unabogie:
Yup. I give a fuck about his countertops, but I’d love to see his bookshelves.
dmsilev
@danimal: Heh.
re: the primaries, it should be pointed out that the first debate is *tomorrow*. Release the clowns!
Martin
@Lolis: Yeah, that’s usually the case. Something similar happened at my daughter’s school (teacher called a student ‘stupid’) and got suspended and then terminated after about a week investigating the incident and doing the required paperwork.
BGinCHI
Who’s gonna check this guy’s countertops?
Edit: Jim beat me to it….
Stillwater
But that teacher was just expressing a very genuine feeling based on honest feelings. Why are liberals so intolerant?
Arclite
@freelancer:
One of the best sitcoms ever made. I could have seriously watched 10 seasons of that, although I’m not sure how they would have dealt with Michael Cera aging. They would have come up with something, I’m sure.
It’s a shame it only got 3 seasons, while mediocrity like “Friends” ended up with 12 or something.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Unabogie:
Obviously one that’s never explained to this particular math teacher the origins of the term Algebra.
Fucking English, how does it work?
pragmatism
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: AVENGE ME!!!!!!!!
Triassic Sands
The teacher should not be disciplined. It is her absolute Christian right to insult every other religion and any heretics who don’t believe exactly what she does. Christians are the world’s most persecuted “minority” group. It’s a wonder any of them have the courage to even identify themselves as Christians, especially considering the anti-Christian Crusade that Imam Obama has been waging since his inauguration. And when are we going to see his long-form birth certificate, huh?
Note: The Baby J demands that his followers be assholes. I’m not sure why, but it’s there in the New Testament someplace. (Or on a random blog on the Intertubes.) But it’s there somewhere.
El Cid
Ha! He sure showed them damn Muslims that time! Be damn if they gon’ be walking up and down those halls, lookin’ all funny and doing their damn Muslim gossip.
You may not be able to see if when your eyes is clouded over by all this secular liberalism and Obama worship, but they hate us. Oh, yeah, they’ll say all this nice shit and play like they’re “tolerant” — yeah, “tolerance”, tell that to anybody what don’t believe in Al Gore’s fake ‘global warming’ stuff — but you can see in their eyes that there’s nothing they’d rather do than slowly slit your throat open like the hunted animals they see us as.
I’m surprised that one of these students ain’t already blowed anyone up.
This is America, god damn it, and I ain’t just gonna sit here and let the damn Muslims take over.
rob!
Dear Texas, Please Fucking Secede Already!!
Mike S
The FOX News story has some comments that are very surprising.
Surprising to anyone who doesn’t already know that their fans are disgusting people that is.
General Stuck
We have wingnut run states all over the country passing laws to thwart the insidious wave of Sharia Law taking over. Something like this shouldn’t be a surprise. Our wingnuts are wingnuts like never before, with the hysterical hate set on rock and roll. I don’t know how we’ve survived this long as even a semblance of enlightened existence as a country, part of which is stuck in the dark ages.
Hungry Joe
Apparently, I lack empathy: I have no idea, NO FREAKING IDEA what it’s like to be that teacher. I can’t put myself in his place, walk even ten feet in his shoes. What kind of twisted, gnarled, rotted-out consciousness would come up with behavior like that? Man, I do not even want to know.
Evolved Deep Southerner
@El Cid: You do that very, very well. I could hear my neighbors talking as I read it.
Just Some Fuckhead
She should blow up the school with a suicide bomb. That’ll fucking teach ’em to be hurtful to minority cultures.
El Cid
@Evolved Deep Southerner: Well, maybe once in your damn life you ort to listen to somebody what’s got a lick o’ sense.
Karen S.
Once again we learn that just because someone is a teacher doesn’t mean that someone is not an idiot.
I grew up in a predominantly white Chicago suburb where my family was the second black family to move in. I had a geometry teacher in high school who one day ordered me to “get to the back of the classroom.” He giggled and smirked, too, as did several of my classmates. Hardy-har har. There was also the guidance counselor who insisted that I could not take honors classes because my grades weren’t good enough. When I repeated my name, he shuffled through his folder and realized he had assumed I was the other black girl, the one who was in the National Honor Society, not the one whose grades weren’t so hot. But hey we looked alike to him so he assumed I was the less academically adept one.
These experiences and others taught me to never assume that educators automatically deserved my respect or admiration.
Roger Thornhill
@cathyx
Yes, why? But why would a Muslim live in New York, where Rep. Peter King and his ilk try to prevent mosques from being built?
Svensker
A friend has an Egyptian (Muslim) family living in the apartment above her in rich upper-middle-class NJ burb. The father is here teaching at Columbia for 2 years and there are 3 little kids. The boy, who is 9, came home crying from school because all the kids were calling him “the enemy” and running away from him.
How do you explain to a lonely, frightened, homesick 9 year old boy that not all American kids are assholes? Bankster spawn, of course. (Not very tolerant of me, isit?)
Just Some Fuckhead
@Karen S.: Anyone that ever begins to think of teachers as larger than life figures need only enroll in a semester of community college to disabuse themselves of that notion.
DonkeyKong
Creationism 101’s curriculum includes rightous taunting of Cain’s spawn don’t you know.
Nom de Plume
@Karen S.:
What you said. I find it odd when people are surprised over an act of cruelty by a teacher. I can recall several middle and high school teachers who could fairly be called sadists.
Redshift
@danimal:
Umm, that guarantees that the wingnuttery will increase, but “peak” means that it has to come down at some point.
Unabogie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I’m sure he’s a nice guy under normal circumstances, so long as you’re not some Commie Muslim scumbag like this little girl.
Dennis SGMM
Oh beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain…
Arclite
@dmsilev:
Wingnut will peak once Fox and Rush are off the air. Until then we’ll be at the Wingnut Bumpy Plateau.
General Stuck
@Karen S.:
I used to party hard with former high schoolmates turned teachers in our local schools. Some of the most reserved studious ones would get nekkid and turn into a bunch of rock and roll groupies after a few brewskies and a bong hit or two. Sometimes, I shuddered to know that these people were teaching young children, mostly.
But you’d see em straight and sober and you’d think they were the biggest dedicated bookworm nerds in the world. And they were, until after dark.
MeDrewNotYou
@Mike S: “I don’t want to live on this planet anymore.”- Professor Farnsworth
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
@Lolis:
to be fair, the suspension was probably pending promotion to vice principle, or at least a cushy job in the guidance office.
TaMara (BHF)
I want his name, address and email so I can
tellharass him about his inappropriate behavior. Isn’t that how the wingnuts do it?freelancer
Well-stated. These are the kind of moral quandaries that keep me up at night.
Craig Pennington
@freelancer: I was thinking oldoldtimer was a Poe.
MeDrewNotYou
@freelancer: Just you wait. “BECKLVR101” or “LIMBAUGHPRES2012” will appear in that thread, lay some Ayn Rand down on your ass, and you’ll see the light and convert.
Arclite
@Karen S.:
There’s some interesting research into this phenomenon.
Jay C
@Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal:
Or a seat in the State Legislature….
Violet
@Nom de Plume:
So true. The Sue Sylvester character on “Glee” may be over the top, but I sure recognize more than one former teacher of mine in some of the things she does. I’d guess the writers used their experiences to create the character.
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
to be fairer, an algebra teacher that is an asshole isn’t all that shocking, right here in pa, we just had a, get this, permanent substitute high school chemistry teacher at the performing arts high school get busted for robbing a bank in broad daylight, while being investigated for stealing laptops from the school where she worked. they had an account at that branch until a few months ago, a heroin habit was involved.
JCT
@Svensker:
No reason to be tolerant — we live in a Westchester town FILLED with bankster spawn. Dumb as rocks, entitled assholes — and my youngest was regularly tormented for being Jewish. Luckily that all stopped once he grew big enough that they figured they might get punched. One of his best friends growing up was named Osama — they moved after a year or two. Not surprising.
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: FTW!
Comrade Javamanphil
I think it is very uncivil of you all to point out what a racist asshole this teacher was. Surely we can find some middle ground and agree that the student did not deserve mockery but something less severe like the silent treatment.
Comrade Javamanphil
I think it is very uncivil of you all to point out what a racist asshole this teacher was. Surely we can find some middle ground and agree that the student did not deserve mockery but something less severe like the silent treatment.
freelancer
@Craig Pennington:
Well he misspelled socalism in the OP, so I didn’t even have to deliberately mistype it to get it through the WP filter, so that’s evidence that leans it in your favor.
RSA
The teacher is showing off America’s strength by making young girls cry.
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
@RSA:
some day that girl is gonna be somebody, and somebody is gonna make her have to answer for why she was educated in a madrassa in texas.
Woodrowfan
@Comrade Javamanphil:
I’ve actually heard that argument made several times.
soonergrunt
Speaking of terrorists, we got another one today, right here in Oklahoma!
Tim, Interrupted
I tend to believe the world has always been chock full of assholes and douche bags. It’s just that now the Intertubes and 24/7 media and twitter, etc., magnify the douchebaggery by a factor of 100, so we are constantly aware of new atrocities.
JCT
@soonergrunt: Uh, how can he be a terrorist if he’s not Muslim?
Violet
@Tim, Interrupted:
I agree. When I was in school a couple of things happened that these days would get the school shut down, the police called and would be all over the media. What actually happened was not much. We all went right back into class and my parents never found out until I was an adult and mentioned it to them.
Bad stuff has always happened. These days we’re just a lot more aware of it.
moe99
http://www.dependablerenegade.com/dependable_renegade/2011/05/the-white-house-breaks-out.html
A little humor for a serious day…..
LanceThruster
Hasn’t Texas already seceded?
gelfling545
@Villago Delenda Est: Suspended pending investigation.
gex
@danimal: One thing I learned obtaining my computer science degree is that there is countable infinity and uncountable infinity. The Friedman unit belongs to the latter.
gelfling545
@Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal: Well, it IS hard to get subs.
stuckinred
@LanceThruster: Only until the next hurricane, wildfire or football season.
gex
@Triassic Sands: Blech – this got me to thinking how much bullshit in our politics is caused by certain types of Christians. Our foreign policy is f-ed up by the end of timers, our contract/family law is f-ed up by the homophobes, and our health care policies are f-ed up by the “pro-forced maternity” Christians.
I have a growing hatred for that crap. I’m sure everyone here is sick of me whining about it, but it is going to fucking suck being in Minnesota for the next year and a half while our state clerics in the legislature argue about what God thinks about me.
gex
@Redshift: There is the heat death of the universe….
Little Boots
A stupid teacher can do so much damage. this is a sadness.
on the other hand, damn, Obama, damn. And all your supporters, like John Cole, damn! take a victory lap! This is a happiness. I love the wingnut meltdown on this. Even the Dalai Lama says it’s okay to have killed Osama. But the Wingnuts, no, we gotta think about this. Sadder than birthers tbese newly born pacifist wingnuts. It is beyond hilarious.
Uncle Clarence Thomas
.
.
Speaking of assholes, even lard-ass conservatarians are writing articles like “Judge Politicians By What They Do.”
.
.
gex
@Arclite: I have an amusing story about the “all look alike” phenomenon. I have a Chinese father and a German-American mother. When my brother was 2 we took a trip to Hong Kong. And my poor little two year old brother thought every Chinese man on the beach was his dad.
I guess the differences in white people (hair color, eyes) make people rather bad at recognizing actual faces I guess. I’ve read that modern dentistry is causing problems in facial recognition for some Asian cultures because they keyed off of teeth.
Raenelle
That teacher is a fucking asshole and clearly has nothing of value to teach anyone. He. Should. Be. Fired.
Little Boots
@LanceThruster:
If only. A segment of history we call … Choices.
Fergus Wooster
At first I was mildly surprised, as this is beyond the pale even for Houston. HISD would have canned his ass already.
Then I saw “Clear Brook”. Ah, Friendswood. The only surprise is that they suspended the asshole.
Canadian Observer
So now it turns out the “battle” the Pentagon was bragging about was nothing more than the cold blooded assassination of an elderly man in his pajamas and his innocent teenage son.
The Empire sure is “brave”.
The fact that you both have to hide the photos and hide his body to avoid sparking rage is not the action of a confident nation, but a decadent and angry one in decline.
Canadian Observer
So now it turns out the “battle” the Pentagon was bragging about was nothing more than the cold blooded assassination of an elderly man in his pajamas and his innocent teenage son.
The Empire sure is “brave”.
The fact that you both have to hide the photos and hide his body to avoid sparking rage is not the action of a confident nation, but a decadent and angry one in decline.
Little Boots
@Fergus Wooster:
every time I hear about a teacher being a complete jackass, they are from Texas. Even transplanted teachers sucking goat tits, they always turn out to be from Texas. Texas, STOP FUCKING UP THE UNIVERSE. Thanks in advance.
Little Boots
@Canadian Observer:
thank you land of Steven Harper. thank you.
Fitzwili
@Cathyx- actually Houston has a fairly large Muslim population and have since the fall of the Shah. Houston is pretty muliticultural and just elected an openly gay mayor. However, besides our excellent Mexican an Vietnamese restaurants, we have a healthy supply of jerks.
Roger Moore
@Canadian Observer:
Obvious troll is obvious.
WaterGirl
@Fergus Wooster: You are the second commenter here for whom Clear Brook” means something. What have I missed?
Fergus Wooster
@Little Boots: At least we didn’t hold the fake prom to keep Constance McMillan from bringing her girlfriend.
“Texas: At Least We’re Not Mississippi!”
Admittedly not the most inspiring rallying cry.
Montysano
Fuck these knuckleheads. I’d rather watch Michelle Obama dance.
Omnes Omnibus
@Roger Moore: … and obvious, also too.
Fergus Wooster
@WaterGirl: Houston proper is reasonably cosmopolitan and votes Democrat (out lesbian mayor, hurrah). But Houston is a blue island in a sea of fetid red suburbs.
Sugar Land is to the Southwest – high-ish income, gave us Tom Delay. Woodlands to the north, fairly posh new money.
Clear Brook is to the Southeast, nearer Baytown and Galveston. Lower-middle-class, redneck by and large. Not a friendly environment for anyone brown, gay, or non-‘Murkin.
Little Boots
@Fergus Wooster:
True, and as so very often, I’m going over the top, but still, something about Texas, and Texas teachers.
WaterGirl
@Fergus Wooster: Thank you!
Omnes Omnibus
@Little Boots: Over the top, you? No, never.
Fergus Wooster
@Little Boots: Not over the top. We fucking reelected Rick Perry. He was a no-show at his own debate and still won.
We’ve got some angry, hateful crackers who need to die off before we come back to something resembling sanity.
Canadian Observer
@Little Boots
I don’t support Stephen Harper, do you support the assassination of unarmed people in their PJs and their children?
Little Boots
@Canadian Observer:
thank you land of Steven Harper. thank you.@Omnes Omnibus:
whatever do you mean, sir?
(Oh, every comment? well, fair enough.)
Canadian Observer
I see you can’t answer the question, only change the subject from the war crimes of the Obama administration to some irrelevant topic.
Omnes Omnibus
@Little Boots: Just sayin’.
Little Boots
@Canadian Observer:
Fine, I do not support the assassination of people in their PJ’s or their children, with the exception of people in the PJ’s who happen to be Osama Bin Laden. Then I’m flexible.
Little Boots
@Fergus Wooster:
the fact that he’s secretly gay is a mitigating circumstance, but no, not really. what the hell were you people thinking.
ppcli
@Little Boots: And how the soldiers got in Osama’s PJs I’ll never know….
Little Boots
@ppcli:
heh, indeed.
Suffern ACE
@Canadian Observer: Well, if you put it that way. Yes, actually, I do support the assassination of that particular man in whatever clothing he was wearing at the time. I would have supported that act even if, God forbid, it was coming from President Palin. It was actually the sort of action I had long expected and wanted, and had it been done 10 years ago when he was only 46 and much younger, I wouldn’t have lost much sleep over it either. Would have solved the problem of trying to remake Afghanistan, whatever that meant. Too bad about the son, but that’s how it goes.
I support his assassination unequivocally and irrevocably. Good luck changing my mind.
MikeJ
@ppcli: We took some pictures of the native girls but they weren’t developed yet. We’re going back in six months though, and we have high hopes.
sherifffruitfly
I long for the day when we white folks are no longer the majority.
Southern Beale
Small consolation I know but the good news is that the teacher was immediately fired. That’s something.
Omnes Omnibus
@sherifffruitfly: I am just in favor of a decrease in the asshole population, race immaterial.
JCT
@ppcli: Maybe facilitated by the repeal of DADT? That Obama really is a genius.
Arclite
@gex: It’s interesting. My wife is Japanese, and I am Caucasian. Our children are mixed of course. But half the children born in Hawaii are mixed, so when you get a bunch of half-asian, half-Caucasian children together, they all look similar as if they are from the same race, but you can’t place the race they might be.
PurpleGirl
@Canadian Observer: an elderly man
Ah, no… he was 54. That is not elderly. (1957 — 2011, FYI.)
Canadian Observer
Assassination IS ILLEGAL, you are supporting an international crime.
The German magazine Der Spiegel says:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,760358,00.html
Fergus Wooster
@Little Boots: Not so mitigating. His handlers have been holding his wife prisoner ever since she caught him in a compromising position.
But Bill White looked like Wallace from Wallace & Gromit, so I guess we voted for the hair.
eemom
I haven’t read the comments, but let me just say that I see nothing to snark about here. This is 100% proof “I’m ashamed to be an American” horror.
This is a CHILD, ladies and gentlemen. A child who was the victim of a “teacher.”
Baron Jrod of Keeblershire
@Canadian Observer: You’re right. The commandos should have waited until the terrorist mastermind who killed thousands was fully dressed before popping a bullet into his worthless brain.
Omnes Omnibus
Hey guys, did you know that an op-ed in a German magazine said something?
Barb (formerly Gex)
@Arclite: The human race. I can’t wait until we just consider ourselves the human race.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baron Jrod of Keeblershire: I am more concerned about why the unarmed people were in their children. That sounds bad.
Barb (formerly Gex)
BTW – there’s no way Osama lets us take him alive.
1) Martyrdom
2) We torture now
3) We’d give him the death penalty in the end
Just Some Fuckhead
@eemom: Yawn. When you learn how to treat others respectfully, you can lecture the rest of us. Until then, you can FOAD.
Joel
I did a quick google and it appears that the teacher in question might be someone named Paul Pearce, but that’s based only on a single review on a school reviewing site.
http://www.greatschools.org/school/parentReviews.page?id=1354&state=TX#from..HeaderLink
Canadian Observer
Read the Der Spiegel article before mouthing off ignorantly.
Kyle
Every state has its assholes, but Texas always seems to have a bigger share.
If only the kid had a tax cut and was allowed to carry firearms at school, all would be well.
MattR
I have to quote this comment from the Houston Chronicle article about this story because I cannot figure out if it is real or satire. (the last paragraph makes me lean towards the latter)
Suz
I’m wondering where this Osama as a decrepit old man thing I keep seeing is coming from?
I get that he was in poor health, but 56 is hardly elderly.
Anne Laurie
You get what you pay for & it sounds like Texas got exactly what it was paying for in this algebra teacher. A thug in a tie, paid to inculcate ‘the herd’ with all the local prejudices… and if there was time to spare, enough math to fill in the right circles on the state standards ‘Seldom Is It Asked: Is Our Children Learning?’ NCLB multiple-choice tests.
Mike G
@Canadian Observer:
A lecture from GERMANS on respecting sovereignty and international law.
Historical Fail.
Carrie
@Canadian Observer:
(psst, Dude, your nuts are showing…)
hamletta
@PurpleGirl: If 54 is elderly, I’ve been missing out on those early bird specials at the Belle Meade Cafeteria!
Pudding, here I gum!
eemom
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Treat others respectfully.
Ladies and gentlemen, FUCKIE of all people is gonna preach the gospel of treating others respectfully, right before your very eyes.
The misanthropic, misogynistic, all-hating asshole whose highest rhetorical achievement is “I was here FIRST so STFU”, is gonna lecture me about respect.
My cup runneth over.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike G: “We did not start it.” “Yes, you did. You invaded Poland.”
handy
@Joel:
Those Smeltics are all assholes, and Pierce is the worst of them.
eemom
@Just Some Fuckhead:
srsly. You drunken, worthless piece of shit.
Fergus Wooster
@MattR: It’s real. Par for the course, for Chronicle comments.
The true crime here is that now this little Muslim girl won’t become a Christian.
These people are why I drink.
Cliff
@Arclite:
Why did I click on the Time.com link? I should have known better.
Anymore, their site makes me want to claw my eyes out.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:
Every morning is a Red Dawn and that teacher was just getting the kids psyched up for the fight! I wonder if he teaches things like pissing in a radiator?
The important things in life, ya know!
I’m sure that the teacher is a local hero now. He’ll probably win Texas Teacher of the Year next.
Everything is Texas really is bigger. Ok, at least when it comes to assholes.
Just Some Fuckhead
@eemom: It was YOU that started preaching. I just pointed out you don’t have the moral standing to do so.
Is that too difficult for your tiny mind to comprehend? Let’s see if we can break it down for your razor like legal intellect:
1. eemom preaches about what is acceptable in comment #118
2. fuckhead points out eemom doesn’t really have the track record to mandate the behavior of others in #125
3. eemom self-righteously accuses fuckhead of preaching in #135
As I understand it, this is the brilliant legal strategy of “I know you are but what am I?”, right?
Just Some Fuckhead
@eemom: Maybe you could use some alcohol to help you with the wild mood swings and inability to maintain a consistent thought across more than a few comments.
Arclite
@Canadian Observer:
While the leaders of an opposing force are a valid military target, I am uncomfortable with how this went down from both a moral and legal perpective. But there is another reason to capture OBL alive:
Robert K. Ressler, in his famous book Whoever Fights Monsters always opposed the death penalty for serial killers. After they were imprisoned for life, he would visit them in jail, form relationships, and get them to provide information so he could solve outstanding murders and form techniques for tracking and apprehending future serial killers. The killers were much more valuable alive than dead, and almost every killer provided some valuable information. To imprison OBL and interrogate him seems much more valuable than killing him. I think it was a wasted opportunity.
Caz
This sort of racial profiling is just plain wrong.
However, racial profiling does have its place – airports, for example, where all arab-lookinge persons should be searched thoroughly. To search a 6-year girl from Kansas merely to keep up the political correctness is ridiculous. Are we not honest enough to base our actions on facts and reality? The reality is that the terrorists are almost exclusively arabs and muslims, so those are the people we should focus our efforts on. You can’t search everyone 100% thoroughly, so we should focus our resources on those who are most likely to be the terrorists.
But this teacher’s comment is not based on fact or reality, and is merely aimed at hurting the student. The teacher should be severely reprimanded, if not terminated.
Unfortunately, the teacher is probably in a union and is therefore fairly untouchable. Perhaps they will fire the teacher, who will then be relegated to reading magazines in a separate room for 40 hours a week and still receiving a complete paycheck every two weeks. But that is an issue for another day.
Arclite
@Barb (formerly Gex):
I meant it more in the sense that you can look at this group of children and not tell what country they originated from.
PS
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: Indeed. Not just the term Algebra, the concept, also, too. A certain amount of teaching (not to mention learning) the history of math would be an appropriate part of this person’s community service.
eemom
@Just Some Fuckhead:
I think I’ll just stick with my assessment at #138. That’s really the maximal level of effort that something like you is worth.
Just Some Fuckhead
@eemom:
Well, sure ya will. I never expected otherwise. Prolly sorry now you lost control of yer emotions and opened this whole can of worms.
Here’s a thought experiment that will allow you to determine the level of your concern for the young lady in question versus your desire to manufacture outrage and control others: It’s 3 years later. This young Muslim girl is persuaded by her older college mates to participate in a humanitarian aid effort to the residents of Gaza. Their ship is intercepted and they are all killed by Israeli commandos.
Does eemom have any fabulous crocodile tears left for the young lady?
Josie
@Caz: Texas teachers don’t have unions, fyi. Never have.
Suffern ACE
@Canadian Observer:
That is very unlikely.
… but hardly clear.
were it true. Weren’t there warrants out for the arrest of Osama bin Laden well before September 11 that could have been honored by the Pakistanis, Sudanese, or Afghanis, to name a few? Just something about that bin Laden just isn’t normal.
Those Pakistani’s…should have forced our hand by turning him in to the Dutch. That would have confused us to no end.
Hmmm. This much I would agree with. It is questionable. If only there were a place to raise such questions and get some kind of determination.
Although, it could be said, that he had the opportunity and the forum to announce his retirement from that business in his annual video messages. I don’t think his claim for being a former anything would stand up to scrutiny. Let alone an innocent old man in his PJs.
Svensker
@Caz:
Way off your game on that one.
Canadian Observer
@Suffren ACE–
The Taliban offered to turn bin Laden over to an international tribunal in October 2001, if Bush could provide proof that he committed 9/11.
Of course, September 11th, if done by the US military to a Muslim capital, would be described as “targeted strikes” to take out economic and military “command and control centres”, the dead people “collateral damage”.
Setp. 11 was more of a military operation than this assassination.
Omnes Omnibus
@Canadian Observer:
What does that have to do with Sunday?
Canadian Observer
@Omnes
Suffren ACE was remarking that there were “many warrants” out for bin Ladedn’s arrest but those dastardly brown people dared question God’s Favorite Country ™ for proof before they turned him over (how DARE they question The Empire!)
lacp
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: Outstanding, Red Team!
Omnes Omnibus
@Canadian Observer: That’s Mr. Omnibus to you.
Asshole
@Triassic Sands:
Is there any topic that can’t be shoe-horned into an attack against Christianity? What the Hell did Christianity per se even have to do with this asshole in Texas berating his student?
Asshole
@Canadian Observer:
I read that whole Der Spiegel article. It’s offensively stupid, shoddy “journalism.” One “expert” on international humanitarian law, NO cites to international law of any kind, and America is somehow conclusively evil and engaged in criminal conduct.
If America did something illegal, cite some treaty or other source of international law that it violated. Shit or get off the pot.
Cliff
@Caz:
You best be trollin’.
eemom
@Just Some Fuckhead:
I see incorporating by reference is too sophisticated for you.
Therefore, let me reiterate.
You drunken, worthless piece of shit.
Xenos
@Canadian Observer: Pakistan would have released bin Laden if we provided proof? The levels of stupidity packed in to that claim are too deep to be worth sorting out.
Just Some Fuckhead
@eemom: lolz
Shorter eemom: I suck at being human.
Non-Existent Patricia
@Fergus Wooster: What is your definition of “lower middle class”? The median household income of Friendswood is $86,000 according Wikipedia.
Mnemosyne
@Canadian Observer:
Wow, you’re still buying into that urban legend? What’s next, telling us that the call is coming from inside the house?
Suffern ACE
@Asshole: Be fair, there were “most experts” quoted as well. I can even agree with the article in principal. It would be better if the normal approach would be to hand someone over to an international criminal court. But most experts would probably agree that the reasons these legal issues aren’t settled is that no one, except for legal experts, has ever been much interested in testing that system. The ICC has been around since what? 2002?
But hey, in 2001 – BEFORE there was even a Baghram or Guantanamo – when the US had a justice system that didn’t need extra-special places for terrorists – the Afghanis decided that it was in the best interest of all parties to develop an international tribunal on the fly after September 11.
Steeplejack
@Mike S:
C’mon, some of that stuff over there has to be snark:
Just Some Fuckhead
eemom, you sane enough to realize yer sending mixed messages by dismissing me here as a worthless drunk and not worthy of your time while bringing me up in the other thread completely unbidden as the great racist satan, enemy of Obama and by extension, all people of color?
It seems..
…………………. weird.
And so you.
Corner Stone
Ok.
ETA, I’ve tried to add stats to this a couple times and it keeps breaking. FYWP.
Suffern ACE
@Corner Stone: Keep trying. Stats are always appreciated.
Asshole
@Suffern ACE:
That part pissed me off even more. I know a number of experts in the field who’d say this attack was perfectly legal. The best part is, the article is so badly written that what I just said there has every bit as much credibility as it did.
Far as I know, the US is still not a part of the ICC, either. That was never ratified by the Senate, was it?
But hey, in 2001 – BEFORE there was even a Baghram or Guantanamo – when the US had a justice system that didn’t need extra-special places for terrorists – the Afghanis decided that it was in the best interest of all parties to develop an international tribunal on the fly after September 11.
The other thing that pisses me off is that Obama could’ve just had the entire site flattened with a drone strike. He could’ve killed dozens of people, including every non-combatant in that compound and possibly several people in nearby residences. He took a huge risk by trying to make this raid as surgical as possible. And even that’s not good enough for some anonymous, uncited “experts” (and one asshole, Kress, whose credentials involve sitting in a college in Germany lecturing the rest of the world about evil) who say our actions were criminal. No treaties are cited, no customary international law is cited. Nothing is cited at all. If a cop arrested you for breaking the law, and never even told you which law you broke, would that be acceptable? What if a judge found probable cause that a crime had occurred, and didn’t say what the crime was? Would that be due process?
Same thing applies here. Just because America’s the evillest thing in the history of the world and just because every action we do is illegal until proven otherwise doesn’t mean that some German shithead and his anonymous, possibly-imaginary friends get to try and convict this country for a “crime” whose existence is so tenuous that they can’t even cite any treaties or other documents (or even fucking customs!) to prove it.
Corner Stone
@Suffern ACE: 60% of the time, it works every time.
Triassic Sands
@Asshole:
Like I said, Christians are the most persecuted group on the planet. Fortunately, they aren’t responsible for their own behavior.
You’re kidding, right?
I was going to write a long response, but that’s a waste of time. I’ll stick with “You’re kidding, right?”
@gex:
I’m not. Christians, especially fundamentalist Christians, are at the root of some of our country’s worst problems and they, and their narrow-minded, bigoted thinking stand in the way of solutions. After all, they are instrumental in getting many of our worst and most dangerous legislators elected. By definition, fundamentalist religion is totalitarian and is probably the greatest threat of all to our personal liberties. One fundamentalist religion is as bad as another — the flavor of poison is less important than the fact that it’s poison.
If Christians don’t want to be criticized, they should stop trying to have their religious beliefs written into secular law and taught in public schools. When they quit doing that, I’ll throw out the shoehorn. Until then, if the shoe fits…
Note: sorry about the gender typo in my earlier post — I wrote she when I should have written he.
opie_jeanne
@Asshole: Do I hear a cudlip?
Corner Stone
@opie_jeanne: What is the sound of one cudlip clapping?
Only then will you truly be ready.
Suffern ACE
@Asshole: Well, you know who else hasn’t used the ICC to try terrorists? Seriously…pretty much everybody.
http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/hrj/iss16/goldstone.shtml
Here’s an article from 2003 on whether or not the ICC could handle terrorism
So when he says…:
We’re wondering…which international court could we be using for that? The one that has no jurisdiction? Under a treaty that hasn’t been ratified? Well that’s just not very normal at all.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Criminal_Court
Uloborus
@Arclite:
I actually think this is correct. We ARE at the Wingnut Plateau. It hasn’t gotten any crazier in the last year, year and a half. The crazy has just moved around a bit. Sure, it hasn’t gone *down*, but I figured we’d hang around at the peak for quite some time before the merely asshole contingent of the GOP found a way to wrest control of primaries from the schizophrenic howler monkey contingent.
pattonbt
@Canadian Observer: For the record, I hate one note haters (whatever side they may be on) like you. But you take the cake. You come on here and bemoan every action of the US as the height of pure evil (and yes, I will say unequivocally that the US has done evil in the past, present and will in the future – humans and all their organizations kind of suck that way) and you bash all Americans with glee. “How can you support such evil?” and such. And when people try and provide balanced counter points with the good and bad of the real world you simply fall back on “LA LA LA LA I’m not listening you’re American so you must support and own whatever America does shut up thats why”.
Yet someone points out to you Canada just re-elected their own GW Bush, Mr. Harper, and you glibly say “I don’t support Harper” as if it somehow exonerates you and expect us to let you slide on that?! Fuck that noise. Harper is Canada. You love him like all Canadians. No excuses now, can’t have it both ways. Why do you love Harper? Why do you support the wars like Harper does? Why do you support state sanctioned assassinations like Harper does? Canada sucks you own Canada LA LA LA LA LA LA infinity.
Either learn nuance and shades of gray or just STFU.
JR in WV
@Canadian Observer:
Not what you said! Execution of self-confessed mass murderer planning still more mass murder, with co-conspirators helping protect him. All fully justified as delivery of long-delayed justice.
Fuck you, asshole troll!
JR in WV
@Caz:
I hate the TSA as much as the next human, but you are wrong. McVeigh was middle American, and the best/worst terrorist in America until Osama came along. And terrorists use children to deliver bombs and other nasty things all the time.
A 12 year old child killed a bunch of people in a suicide bombing in Iraq just the other day, partly thanks to the job President Bush and his team did after the successful military action allowed us to take control of the country, and they didn’t do it very well at all.
So, no, sorry, the little girls from Kansas need to be treated just like the little girls from Kansas who are brown. I don’t like it, but there it is.
Asshole
@Triassic Sands:
Okay, asshole. Let’s just talk about what an asshole you are into every single thread. Until you stop being an asshole, we’ll shoehorn you into every topic whether you’ve posted about it yet or not.
This topic is not about Christianity. It’s about a teacher being a right-wing racist prick. Do you have an autism-spectrum disorder or something? Stick with the fucking topic. Or should we infer that you’re objectively pro-Nazi (Stalin, dinosaur, Zoroastrianism, cockroach, etc.) because you forgot to work Hitler (Stalin, velociraptors, Zoroastrian, cockroaches, etc.) into your pointless little rant?
Triassic Sands
@Asshole:
I guess you’ve been skipping the anger management classes again.
It’s ironic that you criticize me for bringing Christianity into a thread where Christianity isn’t mentioned and then you go and call the teacher a “right-wing racist prick.” Funny, I don’t see anything that identifies the teacher as “right-wing,” and if you think there aren’t lefties who are bigots you’re asleep.
Further, being biased against someone for being a Muslim is not “racism;” the last time I checked a religion was not a race (or even an ethnicity).
You didn’t like my reference to Christians, but the reason behind this teacher’s behavior is almost certainly rooted his own religion and since 80% of Texans identify themselves as Christian, it’s a reasonable, if not foolproof, assumption the teacher is also a Christian. (We can probably safely assume that other Muslims and atheists are probably not going to make this kind of attack; that kind of leaves us with, sorry Asshole, Christians. Note: Jews make up less than 2% of the Texas population, so statistically, there is a much better chance, about 40x better, that the teacher is a Christian than a Jew.) Further, this kind of behavior is every bit as characteristic of some Christians as it is of some right-wingers, and it has nothing to do with racists.
Also note that in referring to you as “Asshole,” I’m simply using the screen name you selected for yourself. Goodness knows you had your own reasons for that choice and I’m sure you know yourself better than I do. I’m certainly not going to argue that you did a bad job in choosing how you want to be addressed.