The Age of Enlightenment (or simply the Enlightenment) is the era in Western philosophy, intellectual, scientific and cultural life, centered upon the 18th century, in which reason was advocated as the primary source for legitimacy and authority. It is also known as the Age of Reason.It is growing ever more obvious here in the 21st Century that Reason has left the building. For example, in the great state of New Jersey, (which sports the word "Liberty" on its flag and seal without the faintest trace of irony,) a 7-year-old boy has been arrested by police officers and faces the full force of the state's legal might, having been charged with the misdemeanor offense of "possessing an imitation firearm in or on an education institution".
I challenge everybody involved in this idiocy to imagine trying to explain to anybody fifty or a hundred years ago that a schoolboy could be arrested by police and charged with a real live crime for bringing a toy gun to school. When I was a child "This will go on your permanent record!" was a joke; now it's a chilling reality.
Billy Beck likes to use the term "Endarkenment" to describe this modern era, one where people are increasingly losing the ability to think, and every day it proves more apt.
34 comments:
Losing the ability to think
It's a welcome advancement by all too many.
Tango Juliet, you're more right than you think.
They're not losing it, it's being actively denied to them.
Hey, they've been passing off "imitation education" as real education for ages, and the "imitation educators" have it on good authority from the "imitation administration" that an "Imitation" is just as good as the real thing, so it's just as if the kid brought a real gun to school.
When everythingnis a fake, even the fake becomes real.
wv: Equal. No comment.
The Age of Idiocy, The Dumbatude
It's not just NJ.
It's like very week some kids get in serious legal trouble with the the autoritehs for : running a lemonade stand, selling baked goods or, good god woman!, have a toy gun somewhere naughty.
(I distinctly remember a primary school teacher of mine having a box of confiscated toy guns. She was cool with the running "gun-fight" at recess/after lunch, but someone got carried away and brought it indoors. The running gun battle continued with sticks, but it was a serious drag. They were returned at parent teacher night, where we all got in sh*t again.)
Check this one In Ok. a 7 yr old susp0ended for pretending he had a gun
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/01/19/year-old-boy-suspended-pretend-violent-act/
I prefer "The New Dark Ages". . .
What's funny is I grew up in central NJ in the early/mid sixties, and one of our main forms of recreation was "playing war". . . I had the Mattel "Tommy" gun, a Winchester. . . among others. .
Some older kids even let me use some Japanese rifle their dad had (sans bolt) one day. I thought that was so cool, that when we took a break for lunch (war is hell, but when you're 8, you gotta eat), I proudly showed it off to my parents. They were not thrilled. Told me to give it back asap.
People are largely excoriatimg the cops. I disagree.
The school, in a maneuver to avoid lawsuits, instituted a "zero tolerance" policy. The legislature thought that so good an idea it made a law. Which forced the school to expand its policy because they are obligated to report "crime."
And the police are obligated to enforce the law for reported crimes.
This just in: 5 year old executed under school's zero tolerance policy for calling classmate a "son of a gun."
I guess NJ has run out of real criminals to go after.
Tam this goes back to our discussion on TJIC. These poeple live in the crap ass state run afowl of the law then expect us to fill sorry for them.
Anyone that doesn't like it needs to move or take as for as they can incourt., but I will say it's getting harder to find a states that doesn't partisipate in this idiotsy in some form.
:-(
Josh
"...And the police are obligated to enforce the law for reported crimes."
And this is a perfect example of the "No Think," that is the Endarkenment.
Someone has to say, "STOP!" and I'm not letting off the cops just because there is a God-Damned prissy fucking law that says they've just GOT to do something.
And I'm talking about the parents not the boy as he has no choice where he lives.
Josh
I say it is religous presecution. And the lord said, he that has no sword, sell his cloak and buy one.
Religous freedon. Worked for the Sikhs. Lets beat them with their own club.
Clearly, the child is not guilty.
1. Anyone who thinks a nerf ball shooter is an imitation firearm is too dumb to live, let alone teach.
2. Therefore, no education was taking place there.
3. Hence, it was not an "education institution."
4. By statute, the child is not guilty.
It will be interesting to see if the jury votes to convict, assuming it ever gets to trial. The good thing here is that what would in the past have been purely local news is now spread across the Intarwebz in the twinkle of the eye.
Sufficient mockery and contempt focused on the jurisdiction might actually have an impact, as it did with that honor student in North Carolina.
Nobody likes public ridicule, and even better, wide spread ridicule encourages the meek to come out in favor of sanity where they would otherwise have kept silent.
The 'Net will not by any means be a Universal Solvent for stupidity, but transparency is a powerful weapon.
Then again, you know I tend to run optimistic.
Had to look up Hammonton, NJ - it's a sothern suburb of Philadelpia which is part of the problem. (I live in the conservative Northwest corner of the state). Never heard of that nonsense out here in Warren County.
If it did happen to me, there certainly would be a lawsuit - as the state and town try (and fail) to extract taxes to pay for the school my kid was kicked out of. Just got my 2011 real estate tax assessment: $11,500. That's just about the annual tuition at the local Catholic school.
in the great state of New Jersey, (which sports the word "Liberty" on its flag and seal without the faintest trace of irony,)
I remember one day in one of my college classes, I walked in and the prof had a tape of Bruce Springsteen playing live somewhere. On the portion of the tape that was playing, Springsteen was orgasmically rhapsodizing about the fact that the Statue of Liberty was in New Jersey. Apparently the concept of irony is completely lost on him too.
Hey, our official state song is a tune about getting the hell out of here. What keeps NJ afloat is the fact that NY is so much worse. CT and MA are also worse.
When I finally escape this death trap - suicide rap, I'll be running Southwest.
So a toy gun just like the one listed in Tam's Stuff You Need pane will get you arrested in New Jersey.
I'm so close to not being surprised.
Anyone involved in this other than the child and his mother should be ashamed.
Gee, I wonder what the status of my 1970's High School Rifle Team would be classified today? Gang-related activity? Militia? Wait a minute, since it was run by the High School, I guess that would make me and my Teammates State-Sponsored Terrorists! Boy, I'm sure glad the PC Crowd came in and disbanded it. Now I feel much safer, don't you?
I like how the article had to go out of their way to mention "Nobody has been threatened" ...with the plastic toy that shoots foam ping-pong balls at two feet per second.
Looks like a case for "Does Not Apply" in the jury box. Afterward, use the ballot box to avoid this nonsense in the first place.
Ulises from CA, 70°
Yes, I KNOW we're broke and run by loons, but I can hope you'all move here to vote them OUT!
If the local cops wanted to nip this bullshit in the bud, just stop first in the staff parking lot, and start examining every vehicle there. Then have all the drivers report there for an examination of their papers, and perhaps a search of the interesting ones. Pretty sure this would be "legal", and if done every time they get a similar call, they will stop.
Glad I no longer live there.
It's child abuse in this case.
But look at the bright side; if you want maximum control over the maximum number of people, you make the maximum number of them into criminals. Then it's parole time - a personal "case worker" monitoring this kid's everyday activities... Eventually, we can all have a personal case worker. -- Lyle
According to Shea and Wilson, and their Illuminati! trilogy, this is "Beamtenherrschaft", the bureaucracy stage of civilization.
Grummet ( aftermath ) is next.
Expect an unbearable load of Beamtenherrschaft, until stuff finally breaks.
My dad is 70 now, but he tells me of the middle boys at school leaning their .410 shotguns up in the coat closet so they could shoot rabbits on the way home.
Keep in mind that schools are prisons for people who have not yet committed crimes. At age 5 you are sentenced to 12 years of hard labor. That is why they have fences around them.
Or you can be homeschooled.
I do have to mention NJ did elect Kristy so it is starting to get back on track.
So keep up the good work NJ.
See I can be positive.
;-)
Josh
They need to spend less time incarcerating kids and more time incarcerating the idiots that pass the laws making this crap possible.
WV: sionaut; an exasperated astronaut.
Most of this crap is less that 20 years old and the bulk of it less than 10!
The problem with bad laws is that honest people have to obey it and the police have to enforce it. The criminals don't give a sh!t.
The stupid, it hurts.
Eck!
And then there's Hawaii, where they are trying to ban all toy guns. No water pistols, Nerf (R) guns or little things that launch monkeys (thank you ThinkGeek)? No way!
LittleRed1
I find these happenings a simple result of the people that YOU eleced to office that make these laws/rules and the starvation wages that YOU pay for teachers that drives away almost anyone with real learning or talent. That and the moronic demand that locals know more about education than anyone else.
go look in a mirror - that's who is responsible. Well, OK the NRA too for having it's collective thumb up its butt there inside the circled wagons.
Charles,
1) I have never voted for anybody in New Jersey, at least that I am aware of...
2) Unless I am gravely mistaken, not even in New Jersey do local school boards write state law.
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