The Center for Security Policy, a think tank that routinely partners with prominent Republican politicians, including many of the current presidential contenders, is defending the arrest of 14-year-old Muslim high school student Ahmed Mohamed for bringing a homemade clock to school.
Americans across the country expressed outrage at the news that Mohamed was handcuffed by police officers in Irving, Texas, on Monday, suspended from his high school, and accused of making a bomb after the electronic components he had connected to make his own digital clock beeped during English class.
But Center for Security Policy vice president Jim Hanson argued on his organization’s podcast that the clock “looks exactly like a number of IED triggers that were produced by the Iranians and used to kill U.S. troops in the war in Iraq.” He said the clock “was half a bomb.”
Frank Gaffney, the center’s founder and president, agreed with Hanson, while suggesting that there is reason to be suspicious of “what we’re told was a clock” because “the story is not being fully explored and explained.”
Gaffney also said that the entire controversy over Mohamed’s clock appeared to be an “influence operation” by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group that Gaffney claimed is using “professional victim-promoting” to wage a “civilization jihad” in connection with the Muslim Brotherhood.
Listen to the exchange here:
Gaffney, who was an acting assistant secretary of defense for several months in the Reagan administration, has spread a variety of Islamophobic conspiracy theories in recent years, claiming that President Obama is a secret Muslim, that Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan supports Islamic law, and that the redesign of the Missile Defense Agency’s logo revealed a “worrying pattern of official U.S. submission to Islam.” Gaffney has also fueled protests of Islamic mosques and religious organizations, playing a key role in mobilizing protests against a planned Muslim community center in Manhattan in 2010.
The center’s fringe rhetoric has not prevented it from becoming deeply entwined with the conservative establishment. It routinely hosts prominent Republican politicians for events. Earlier this month, the group co-sponsored a rally in Washington, D.C., against the nuclear accord with Iran where Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Donald Trump, and several House Republican lawmakers appeared as speakers. Over the last year, Cruz, Trump, Bobby Jindal, George Pataki, John Bolton, and Rick Santorum have appeared at presidential forums hosted by the center.
The center is also funded by some of the largest defense contractors in the world, including Boeing, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, and General Electric. Jack London, the chairman of the board of CACI International, a major defense contractor that serves the National Security Agency, sits on the Center for Security Policy’s board.
Earlier this summer, the center held a banquet in New York, which I attended, to present the mayor of Irving with an award for raising an alarm about an “Islamic Sharia court” being established in her town. In reality, there was no court imposing Islamic laws on local residents — rather, as Politifact noted, “a few Muslim individuals teamed up to offer Sharia-governed, non-binding mediation services in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, including in Irving, with the declared intent of complying with state and federal laws.”
In a column posted on Thursday, Hanson, the center’s vice president, argued again that Mohamed’s clock looked like “an Iranian-made IED trigger used to kill U.S. troops in Iraq.” He concluded: “We stand with the Mayor of Irving and her police and school officials who acted appropriately.”
[UPDATE: Social media reaction to this story has been intense. See our follow-up story: #Halfabomb Explodes on Twitter After Think Tank Calls Boy’s Clock a Threat]
Photo: Attorney Linda Moreno speaks to the media with her client Ahmed Mohamed and his family during a news conference on September 16, 2015 in Irving, Texas.
Homeland Security’s “See something say something.” And schools “Zero Tolerance Policies” have resulted in numerous laughable situations that have resulted in kids being arrested. It is the norm in the paranoid police state which we now live. Kids have been locked up for pointing a finger gun to a 5 year old having a tantrum.
I doubt if the situation would have gathered much attention had the young man been white.
That said, it does appear that hatred of Muslims played a role. Handcuffing the boy after determining no bomb existed speaks volumes.
so bring that replica to any damn airport while getting checked in and write back when you can.
stroll into your friendly neighborhood mosque with it as well.
let’s see how far you can take it.
you’re special.
and we’re all so stupid, right ?
fu
Actually, no you didn’t build that.
I’m not in love with Obama. In fact, I really don’t like the man. I don’t agree much at all with what he’s done over the term of his presidency. I dislike misinformation even more. So, let’s talk about what Obama said a couple of days ago.
“You didn’t build that.”
And the truth is, no, you didn’t. Not alone. That’s what Barack Obama is saying. You know what? He has a point. His point wasn’t that you didn’t put in the hours of mental and physical work, required to make your success, but you would not have gotten where you were if specific groundworks were not laid out. You didn’t build that alone. You used frameworks other people have created.
Jump at me if you wish, but how many of last years startups would have been successful if they had to create, or recreate the internet? How many of you would get to work without a coherent road or transit system? Or customers for that matter? How could you have worked through the night without the electricity to run the light bulbs? (And before you say candles, do you know to make candles? Really?) Or the boss that paid you before your idea even got off of the ground? While, on your end, much of your success may be tied to your ability, moxxy, business sense, or what-have-you, things had to happen on the other end too, and there’s no way in hell you had a hand in every single step of the process. The scope of getting things done goes beyond yourself. Remember, you can’t even write a note without something to write with or on.
Obama’s words were taken out of context, and that’s what I have an issue with. He even expands upon what he means in his speech moments later.
“When we succeed, we succeed because of our ini-(he stammers for just a second) individual initiative, but also because we do things together.”
So, no. You did not build the roads that lead to your business doors or headquarters. You did not build the internet. You didn’t mint the bills you’re being paid with, or process the opening of your business account. You got there through a network of things that were laid down by other people.
The clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9AZOgWayX8&feature=youtu.be&t=1m13s
The full speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XATy4qhxMUY&feature=related
Think critically, always.
Obama to Ahmed: “Cool clock, Ahmed!”
Obama to U.S. Businesses: “You didn’t build that!”
Obama to U.S. Businesses: “You didn’t build that!”
Obama to Ahmed: “Cool clock, Ahmed!”
Let’s see. A group supports a candidate and that ” ties” them? Grow up and get real. You bow down to anything Muslim, attack Christians shortly after the anniversary of when three good friends of mine ( crew members on United Flight 93) were murdered by this so called “religion of peace”. How dare you.
This is very serious. I think we all need to understand how serious this is. Essentially all the moron did, yes made for TV moron who intercept is ranting and raving about. He took a clock out of its case and put it into a pencil box or some other carrying case. I wonder how much the CIA, Obama or whoever hires such actors paid him to do this :P
SERIOUSLY THOUGH! This means, and it really does, I believe. That if you have a digital clock in your home – you have half a bomb. Everyone knows according to modern law. If it is constitutionally permissible or not. “Terrorists” have no constitutional rights. Anyone with 1/2 a bomb could clearly be a potential terrorist. To make the bomb all they need is the other half. It kind of makes sense now why the media hit so hard on this story. Or more like the government promoted its signal (narrative) so loudly through the media. Anyone who takes apart a digital clock or has a digital clock. The FBI or any other “Federal Agency/Mafia” now has some type of precedent or pseudo “expert opinion” to support their arrest someone. The fact the comparison is worthless & ignorant trite drivel. It can most likely now be used as justification to investigate or arrest humans. I say to the government BRAVO! Well Played! Truthfully, I would have never thought of it. Also, open clocks can also be planted or given to “entrapped” ‘targets’.
If it was half a bomb, then does that make Sarah Palin half the Queen of England?
And what did she do with the other half?
“clearly a hoax, perpetuated by the kid’s family.” Obviously, you have inside information, not available to the rest of us. Please share.
This was clearly a hoax, perpetuated by the kid’s family, and media didn’t question it because they loved the narrative. I can’t blame him this is the best thing that could ever happen to him. He’ll go Disney World on Air Force One and get a full ride to whatever college he wants to go to. In a society that venerates “victims” we should all fake hate crimes against ourselves.
The latest wrinkle.
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/09/20/3703542/the-smear-campaign-against-ahmed-mohamed/
Sarah Palin, Bill Maher and Richard Dawkins. Not a consensus, perhaps three people who thrive on attention anyway, but let’s see if this maim takes off.
Dawkins is smart, but his activist atheism caiuses him to seedemons in anyone who is religious and Islam is the most deminic of all.
Maher is the same way, but not as intelligent.
Palin doesn’t deserve to be mentioned in the same universe.
I’d dismiss all thiem as reactionary ideologues, except Dawkins has done soem good, incisive work on evolution and the general comedy of religious motivations for behavior.
As an atheist, Maher embarasses me and Dawkins makes me sad. He should understand the emotional attachment and the biological underpinnings of religion. Yet he decides to ignore this objectivity when it comes to Islam, exclusively.
“Islam is the msot demonic of all” – according to Dawkins, Harris and Maher. I don’t feel that way, personally.
I know a few Muslims and a few Born-again Christians. I prefer Muslims.
“If you see something, say something” *The POTUS
So if I’m wearing a watch does that make me half a suicide bomber?
I say we sue, Micronta, the original manufacturers of the the clock for mass producing half bombs (and with the quantities they produced of the things, chances are someone must have bought two of them, to enable a full bomb prosecution). That might be a little hard though now with Radio Shack (their parent company) going under though.
http://blogs.artvoice.com/techvoice/2015/09/17/reverse-engineering-ahmed-mohameds-clock-and-ourselves/
And Jim Hanson without his arse would have half a brain.
Yes, we all carry half made bombs around our wrist and in our pockets. Best to lock up the whole fucking bunch of us, because surely we can’t trust ourselves. Up to no good believers in bullshit.
It is possible that the kid was up to mischief. Bringing a homemade bomb like contraption to school. Causing panic. But he has a different story. That could be true also. He knows the truth. Everyone else can only speculate. The cops over reacted. This is not news. Cops are generally always natural born asses. I know of more than one case of non Muslim children being handcuffed for trivial crap.
The law enforcement people that came on the scene, along with the school administration, quickly saw that the electronic device was not a bomb. They didn’t follow any of the protocols for a suspected bomb–calling the bomb squad, taking the device out of the room, etc. etc. But they did arrest the kid for having what they called a “hoax bomb.”
What this ridiculous assertion is supposed to mean is that the young man created a device that looked like a bomb, in order to spread panic in the school. It was for this reason that he was arrested, fingerprinted, and taken to the juvenile facility. Interestingly, however, they didn’t engage in much of an investigation, or ask many questions about his intentions.
This was just an opportunity for some people with power in Irving to humiliate an innocent Muslim kid. The painful fact is, they get pleasure from such despicable behavior, just as European Christians once got pleasure from tormenting Jews.
OMG. This empty coke bottle is half of a Molotov cocktail!
But which half? The “BO” or the “OM”?
And the people who made this comment would appear to have half a brain and, apparently, have ties to a lot of similarly afflicted individuals.
This threat to our way of life provides clear evidence of a need to develop and expand a wholly frigging domestic “Potential Domestic Terrorist Watch List” system. Jeh Jhonson
https://theintercept.com/document/2014/07/23/march-2013-watchlisting-guidance/
Using this logic, a 9 volt battery is a 1/4 of a bomb, a bag of fertilizer or can of diesel fuel is a bomb and a cell phone is also half a bomb.
Good God, but idiocy works wonders as a bait for idiots! http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3241485/That-s-clock-m-Queen-England-Sarah-Palin-says-Ahmed-Mohamed-NOT-innocent.html
Half-baked Alaska.
All clocks in the world are a “half a bomb” if you think stupid.
And two clocks make a complete bomb.
Maybe it’s a regression and 2 clocks make 3/4 of a bomb?
More than that, I think the other “half” of the bomb is the more important one.
I suppose we can go back to living without clocks.
That certainly would be interesting.
Wheels make tanks possible. What’s next?
ah yes, the next shiny object, literally.
In the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (state prisons) inmates are not allowed to have digital clocks or watches, only analog, because they can be used as bomb timers, supplying electrical impulse to a detonator device — never mind the fact that a capacitor and resistor can be used as a timer supplying an electrical impulse. –Certified electronics tech since 1994.
According to the regulations (pdf):
So basically any watch which tells the time (‘transfer of information’) is prohibited.
“So basically any watch which tells the time (‘transfer of information’) is prohibited.
Only if it tells the correct time. Devices designed for the transfer of Dis-information are allowed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor?
A capacitor (originally known as a condenser) is a passive two-terminal electrical component used to store electrical energy temporarily in an electric field.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resistor
A resistor is a passive two-terminal electrical component that implements electrical resistance as a circuit element. Resistors act to reduce current flow, and, at the same time, act to lower voltage levels within circuits.
…
Two passive electrical components that have nothing to do with a timer except if used with other components to make a timer.
The tome to charge a capacitor to the supplied voltage is dependent on the resistance of the circuit. The “time constant” of the circuit – the time for the transient voltage on the capacitor tp reach about 63% of it’s maximum value is determined by R * C.
Thus, a simple RC circuit is a rudimentary timer.
What was that about a little knowledge ….?
“””The tome to charge a capacitor to the supplied voltage is dependent on the resistance of the circuit.”””
the time to charge the circuit depends on a power supply.
A resistor and a capacitor are dependant on a POWER SUPPLY.
two components are not enough.
Talk about a little knowledge professor.
No, it doesn’t.
time constant is R*C, that is a function of the resistance and capacitance of the circuit only.
The higher the voltage, then the higher the current (I=V/R) ,so the time to charge the capacitor is independent of voltage.
If you want to compare knowledge, I’ll bid one degree in electrical engineering. Care to call, raise or fold?
possessing a nail or butter knife is not allowed in prison, so those rules only have relevance in prisons.
A trained or untrained individual would see this as a bomb. It is only missing the detonator and explosive package, A trained individual would notice the missing components, but not rule out the possibility that the case is lined with explosive material. If someone opened this next to me on a plane, it would be their last act.
The next time I fly, I’ll remember to ask those sitting next to me if they mind before I open my laptop.
Judge, jury and executioner because TSA let through a curcuit board project that frightens you…?
Trained individual my ass, turn in your badge and gun you complete waste of resources.
I remember in the movie Stalag 17 a delayed detonator was made from a lit cigarette. As a veteran with 17 years experience in electronics, I could make a time delayed detonator from any electronic device around: cell phones, tablets, video games, microwave oven, or even a 9 volt battery and a few random electronic components. What is clear is that neither the police nor school officials ever thought that the clock was a bomb at any point: The school was never evacuated, the EOD bomb squad was never called, and the clock was transported to the detention facility in a regular police car with the child and police on board. All of these hypotheticals about if he’d been on a plane or something is assuming facts not in evidence and irrelevant to this situation.
ComplyDontDie
Name one ticking time bomb scenario.
So anytime someone opens a box next to you, you kill them?
“The Center for Security Policy, a think tank that routinely partners with prominent Republican politicians, including many of the current presidential contenders, is defending the arrest of 14-year-old Muslim high school student Ahmed Mohamed for bringing a homemade clock to school.”
“Gaffney also said that the entire controversy over Mohamed’s clock appeared to be an “influence operation” by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group that Gaffney claimed is using “professional victim-promoting” to wage a “civilization jihad” in connection with the Muslim Brotherhood.”
Sure. If you’re outraged over this arrest then you are under the spell of the civilization jihad via Muslim Brotherhood.
I think “influence operation” and “professional victim-promoting” is a pretty accurate description of the messages delivered to Christian conservatives in this country.
Check out the “About Us” pages of CAIR and Center for Security Policy and see who would more likely be involved in an influence operation. (CSP refers to their organization as “Special Forces in the War of Ideas”)
Also I seriously doubt that these people have any real problems with Islam as they say nothing about the influence of our ally Saudi Arabia in this country.
Their conspiracy theories target Republican political opponents and any person or event that could put neoconservative philosophy into question
CSP talks about Peace through strength on their website but I think peace to them must mean Americans fight when they say fight and the lack of any challenge to their agenda.
Having an organization with a backing of some of the largest defense contractors use their “special forces of ideas” to spread suspicion about a KID in this country (for being intelligent and muslim!) threatening his safety because they see a popular opinion about his outrageous target arrest as points against their “war on ideas” is to me a terrifying change in this country.
And then there’s the disturbing reality that kids can be under surveillance now
(from “Arrest of 14-Year-Old Student for Making a Clock: the Fruits of Sustained Fearmongering and Anti-Muslim Animus”)
“When he was brought into the room to be questioned by the four police officers who had been dispatched to the school, one of them — who had never previously seen him — said: “Yup. That’s who I thought it was.”
Well, what are “we” going to do about it? Open source our know how so they don’t use Iranian technology half way?
Paranoia and doublespeak in “‘the’ land of ‘the’ ‘free’, …” has taken a post-Orwellian drive
// __ New York woman visited by police after researching pressure cookers online
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/01/new-york-police-terrorism-pressure-cooker
Pressure cookers + Bolivian background after Bolivia’s Presidential plane had been denied air rights and had been grounded … So. those must be Evo’s “sleeper cells” cooking something …
I wonder if that Jim Hanson guy is a technical person himself. Maybe that pressure cooker was (5/8) of a bomb?
RCL
I never knew that the defense industry had their own paranoia generating mechanism to feed their BS to the larger American public. Much like the fossil fuel industry, the defense industry maintains a personal network to spread misinformation that, by the way, just happens to help them sell more of their crap to our military.
These companies are simply scumbags who are willing to generate BS stories in an effort to sell more DEATH to our government. A new industry makes my shlt list. Good job, guys!
We seemed to be forced to listen to these idiots!
Cruz, Trump, Bobby Jindal, George Pataki, John Bolton, and Rick Santorum all together make half an ass for supporting this group. Jim Hanson and Frank Gaffney are worse that asses because they’re also making a ton of money off the hate they spew.
Thanks for tracing the money and exposing Boeing, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, and General Electric in this BS, Lee Fang. It’s clear they have a vested interest in stirring up the irrational fear and hatred, but I had no idea they’d be so brazen about it.
I can’t believe George Pataki is one of these freaks, I was surprised to discover he would talk at any meeting organized by these worms.
The statement that the clock resembles “an Iranian-made IED trigger used to kill U.S. troops in Iraq” is a pack of lies. Iran didn’t make IEDs and clock timers weren’t used.
First, there is no evidence Iran built and provided IEDs to Iraqis. The claim that Iran was making IEDs was based upon those IEDs using concave copper plates to focus the blast. For some absurd reason, our military forgot there was a Copper Age, and decided Iraqis couldn’t make concave copper plates on their own, so Iran must be making them. It was about the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.
Second, those IEDs didn’t have clock timers. IEDs were used against moving vehicles. The concave copper plate cover was aimed at a vehicle. When exploded, the copper plate would turn into a molten copper slug that would penetrate armored vehicles. They were ignited by cell phone or wires running to the IED when a vehicle was in front of the copper plate portion of the IED. A timer wouldn’t work because it would be highly unlikely than a U.S. military vehicle would be in front of the copper plate when the timer exploded the IED.
So Iran wasn’t involved and clock timers weren’t used on IEDs. Complete bullshit.
Great comment, and informative.
At the time those allegations were being made, during the Bush Administration, I commented on one article that shaped charges are a well-known technique. The Bader-Meinhoff gang use a shaped charge to kill an executive of Deutchbank decades ago. It was set off with an ingenious electronic switch triggered by the armored sedan itself as it rolled past.
So both shaped charges and the types of detonators that were used in the Iraqi IEDs were well-known technology available to the Iraqi insurgents with no need for help from Iran. Besides, anybody who knew the difference between a Sunni and a Shia knew Iran wasn’t behind it because it was mainly the Sunnis who were setting off IEDs.
I find it close to impossible to take an article that uses “islamophobia” seriously.
Do you take Gaffney seriously? Based on the what was linked to about Gaffeney in the paragraph I’m quoting from the article, how would *you describe Gaffney?
Except HIS ran forward, not counting down…. AND it wasn’t a bomb AND they knew it, by the way they handled the whole situation…. Every company and school now has a ‘Bomb Threat’ protocol and no part of one was exercised…..
Those people have half a brain.
Isn’t it romantic that the people who say this is half a bomb (The center for security policy) receive their funding from those companies and corporate giants which would not think for a second about the consequences of their building bombs every single day with the avowed objective to kill people? These corporate brutes who would not hesitate to recommend dropping bombs on civilian populations? Their hypocrisy is beyond words.
And besides what the fucking hellos half a bomb? So if I have a cell phone (which can be used to detonate a bomb) is that a half bomb? or my laptop? So if the kid had a half bomb why wasn’t he half-arrested? or the school half-evacuated? Why are we discussing half-things? they usually don;t work.
He said the clock “was half a bomb.”
So everyone with a clock could be arrested for having half a bomb?
I keep seeing the reference to his father being an activist. While I might tend overall to side with Terry Jones in that particular dispute, the only argument I see here is that the kid is *uppity*. Should have known better than to go around being *seen*. And that’s not the kind of argument I want to make. The whole *reason* for people to be anti-Islam is out of a desire to uphold what is true and just against some crazy pirate and his minions. Here the Texas government was acting like the crazy pirate… you want to be its minions?
Better she should have ignored his weirdo routine, and let him escalate like a Jared until he got what he was looking for? Attention? What would have been the right thing? Because all I got is to have him call his dad to explain what this game is about, but dad was likely gonna go off like a fired up cracker, himself. Parents HATE when teachers ask them to help with some homework.
I gotta say everyone in Irving is jacked up like a case of Rock Star. Everyone. It’s a spin cycle town with really old rich people hanging on for dear life and those fanatical letters from Newt!
abbadabba … your brain on stupid.
Give me a year, hellfire, and I will have you spitting gold nuggets, dental work. This off the rack stuff is not cuff enough for your collar, dollar store.
Seriously, you got a lot of jet fuel, you just need a better nozzle.
I can’t tell if you’re threatening to punch his teeth out or make him rich… and then you’re calling him cheap like a dollar store. Don’t they most of those sell Asian-rim knock-off food with melamine in it for 99 cents to the poor? Your comment all sounds so terribly un-PC to me (but maybe that’s because I watched South Park the other day, and I’m jealous I don’t have one of those bad Greek tattoos on my buttcheek). I agree he could use a better nozzle, though. Those sorts of improperly pumped missiles are a menace to society.
This makes no sense. :)
Troll or not, addabadda’s argument is a pretty informative reflection of the new totalitarian America. You can’t let a kid get the impression that creativity or eccentricity will go unpunished, or he might go on and do something that *really* gets him in trouble.
I think this kind of thinking is indeed part of the nuts-and-bolts underpinning of a closed society. You can never have a thousand people milling around behind the Berlin Wall constantly thinking about taking a run at the wire; you always have to have some unsung common sense type warnings many blocks back, and a series of gradually escalating penalties for those who stray further in the wrong direction. To remain awe-inspiring, the secret police need to be used sparingly and be in a position to swoop down with overwhelming force.
Just remember folks. Conservatives simply cannot help but believe Ahmed was either:
:: On a dry run.
:: Trolling his teachers with a hoax bomb
:: Part of a larger family conspiracy to provoke such a response
:: Just being a gawdamn Muslim
It’s not their fault that they have a larger right amygdala which makes them generally more fearful and prone to anxiety over perceived (and often imaginary) threats.
I wouldn’t accuse them of having a right amygdala, because I wouldn’t want to accuse them of having half a brain.
In my shed, I have fertilizer. That’s half a bomb right there.
Sigh … ! There’s a better way, baldie! Pedinska might spare a bit of rabbit poo and I’ve got a few extra fish heads.
*i read once, there was enough ammonia nitrate in peoples ‘sheds’ to blow-up a small country … several times over!
But the right-wingers still love these Islamophobes. They don’t need to use any brain as long as they can please their supporters.
If we went to the residence of any of the members of this brain trust I am willing to bet a pay check we would find numerous household items, like household cleaners for example which if assembled properly would comprise an explosive device. Then we can arrest them and since they are obviously insane based upon their comments, we can have them installed in an institution for the criminally insane for the rest of their miserable lives.
I am not a Dem or Rep, “conservative” or “liberal.” I’m also not pathologically PC, easily falling for obvious stunts and spouting off in the typical Internet outrage fests before investigating. I’m “logical” and “scientific.” Always.
The kid’s dad is a Muslim activist who has previously made national news. The first teacher the kid showed the BRIEFCASE clock to, he was referred to as his “engineering” instructor, told him he shouldn’t show it to anyone else knowing how it could be misinterpreted, but he did anyway, including teachers who didn’t teach technical subjects and who probably couldn’t have cared less about it, but who were the technically illiterate types who would think “bomb” after wondering why in the hell the kid bothered to show it to them in the first place! If they DIDN’T report it and something happened…
The poor little abused because he’s brown skinned and Muslim kid now has a free trip to the PR hungry White House (PR hungry regardless of who occupies it), a meeting with Mark Zuckerberg if he wants it, offers to go to any school of his choice, and guaranteed future job candidate recognition. Tough gig, huh?
So ADMIT IT, your typical knee-jerk, always wail before investigating PC victimization assumptions allowed him to played you all for fools. INVESTIGATE before forming an opinion and spouting off.
Even apple now makes a triggering device for a bomb. The story is not about the device it’s the over reaction by the school and the police, What was the point of the handcuffs and the arrest. Secondarily is the way the city of Irving has been primed by the ridiculous rantings of the mayor. The right wing Christians in the Dallas Metroplex outnumber the Muslims 166 to 1, how the hell they ever impose sharia law?. Then of course you have the constitution which would not allow the imposition of Sharia law.
If you pop a bra strap, you should get cuffed. It’s the law, which sometimes looks stupid, but if just one time it was for the right popper, tick tock. Who’s a hero, who’s a cluck?
No kidz fell for his lure? As a teacher I would be disturbed he was trying to start a scene, the drama king. Unfortunately for the players, the bomb squad is automated if alerted, no difffusion system, they only bring the hammers.
I would have made the kid call his own father on my phone and explain why he’s making a scene with a piece of machine that isn’t relevant to the plot of Romeo and Juliet. Kidz, they are a piece of work. That way we know his dad is in on the story, and his ass is on the wire service, too.
Kids are a terrible thing.
I can’t believe the zero tolerance PC thugs are surprised a kid named Mohammed carrying a ticking briefcase in school caused a ruckus.
So if I understand you–
– Ninth grader trolls Texas/American lack of comfort around Muslims and technology.
– Obama, Zuckerberg and the internet join in the troll because this story is simultaneously horrifying and hilarious.
-Everyone but the people who are actually getting trolled are being played for fools.
Seriously?
Dude, we all get the troll–we are all in on it–and we are all laughing about it. And the best part is that when you point out the fact that you are being trolled by a ninth grader, it makes you look even more stupid.
It’s like you can’t help yourself.
You bit on a hook so big that you are going to have trouble getting your brain around it much less your mouth.
This whole thing has been the Internet equivalent of “An idiot says what?”–and you keep falling for it over and over and over again.
“What?”
Your self-introduction means little if/when you proceed to show your biases in the rest of your comment:
The first teacher the kid showed the BRIEFCASE clock to,
Um, no.
http://makezine.com/2015/09/16/this-is-ahmed-mohameds-clock/
his “engineering” instructor, told him he shouldn’t show it to anyone else knowing how it could be misinterpreted, but he did anyway, including teachers who didn’t teach technical subjects
Why do you use scare quotes around engineering? The initial story in the Dallas News identified that person as his engineering teacher, so it seems reasonable to assume that was the case. Or are you trying to insert doubt about that first instructor’s ability to assess the clock?
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/northwest-dallas-county/headlines/20150915-irving-ninth-grader-arrested-after-taking-homemade-clock-to-school.ece
Then you go on to insinuate disobedience – but he did anyway – when the fact is the clock alarm sounded during his English class and the teacher asked him about it. What was he supposed to do, defy her? As for her lack of technical expertise, are you insinuating that he set the alarm off purposefully in an English class because she would be more likely to mistake it for something else and get him into trouble? Really? Because he sure didn’t look like he was enjoying it much while it was happening.
Your entire comment reads like one big massive knee-jerk of the sort you’re accusing others of engaging in. If, in fact, you “investigated”, as you’re telling others to do, then why are you making the above mistakes and mischaracterizations?
Prolly cuz it’s, well, Texas. What are the effn odds of finding a qualified engineering student there? 166 to 1 is my guess …
And the kid kept it in his backpack until the nosy English teacher demanded he show her what a beeping clock looks like.
“Wires are the devil’s work!”
Whoa there. We are talking about a poster who is “logical” and “scientific”. Where do you get off accusing him of a knee-jerk reaction. Don’t you know that’s not possible?
Looking at Ahmed’s “pencil box”, I see a flight style computer shell case. You say banana, I say baloney.
You Winston are an idiot.
Well, I did my research. Here’s what I got. After the first teacher told him not to show it to anyone else, ho obeyed. But in English class, the alarm went off. The teacher made him take it out. And so on. I assume you know what happens next. So what I’m saying, there is a flaw in your information. He didn’t go around showing it off, causing panic. He was forced to take it out when asked.
If this young man were in Saudia Arabia.. they would crucify him on a cross..
http://wemeantwell.com/blog/2015/09/19/saudis-to-crucify-kid-arrested-when-he-was-17-years-old/#comment-55022
Just knowing this depraved, stone age, ass backwards shit hole is a US ally makes me so goddammed outraged I want to spit in every USG scumbag politicians face that supports this abomination. Moreover, why isn’t this story on the front page of every MSM site or publication? Not one fucking word. That speaks volumes. ISIS has nothing up on SA. Nothing. All I know is the next time the US WELCOMES a SA prince or king… I hope someone assassinates their ass.
Now excuse me while I vomit.
You are just realizing now American foreign policy supports brutally harsh dictators? The US has backed so many horrible dictators it’s hard to remember them all.
The Iranians hate us for over throwing a democrat election and help put the Shah in power. Look up “Savak” it the Shahs secret police and it was the equal of anything the Saudis have done. The nice wrinkle is one of the five CIA intelligence specialists who trained the first generation of Savak officers was General Norman Schwarzkopf.
quote”You are just realizing now American foreign policy supports brutally harsh dictators? “unquote
Yeah, well where were you in the last 16 years when I posted over 1000 comments in regards to my governments support of chromasomally aberrant pond scum tyrants such as Saudi kings…hmmm? Now..I suggest you fuck off.
What do Saudis have to do with this boy, his teacher, the principal or the stupid police force?
quote”What do Saudis have to do with this boy, his teacher, the principal or the stupid police force?unquote
Says one who didn’t even bother to read the link URL. ..OR the substance of the link in relation to my statement. In that regard..pal.. your reply doesn’t mean shit.
btw, schmuck.. what part of a CRUCIFIXION of a human being don’t understand.. or the juxtaposition of the object of this article to it?
I know what you mean. I came across a video of a saudi woman being executed publicly for witchcraft. She managed to briefly escape before she was recaptured and held down while she screamed in terror. A few moments later her screaming abruptly stops after her executioner chops her head off. Nothing. No outrage. No mention in the media at all. Saudi Arabia is joined at the hip with the US and Israel so the whole thing is completely ignored. Meanwhile we wag our blood stained fingers at ISIS, Assad and Putin. The hypocrisy is enough to make you vomit.
Americans are extremely stupid and primitive…
Aha!, I knew it, Ahmed didn’t invent the clock, I looked it up, the clock was invented hundreds of years ago, I’ve got to get this information to FOX news!!!!
(This lame joke was inspired by a real tweet about Ahmed with a link to a conspiracy site)
People are trying to make the most speculative and irrelevant points:
He must have had help making the clock
His sister was helping him with questions from the media
His father is good at dealing with the media.
Ahmed should have done….something… to avert this event from happening.
Normally I would mock each of these individually, but they are coming in too fast and furious.
Put together, if that were possible, it would amount to :
Bright promising 14 year old student with good record and history of tinkering, risks years in prison by cleverly hoping that for no reason the school and police would improperly arrest and interrogate him over one of his projects, and then, just as he is expelled and probably joining the many minority group members over-represented in US prisons, a photo of him in handcuffs tweeted by his sister at the last moment will go viral on twitter, and he will be the exception, no charges will be laid, he’s invited to the white house, and to the best schools.
…Now if Ahmed were Asian, well those people are inscrutable, and way too good at math, so it would have an air of believability.
I personally reject the organized effort to encourage bigotry against brown people of the Muslim faith. Fifteen years of brainwashing has failed. And who is behind this effort? The government who would benefit most is the Likudnicks who currently wield power in Israel and the U.S.
Resist the manipulation….think New Testament. Only understanding can break the unending cycle of retributive violence. Those who are manipulating you are anathema to peaceful coexistence of mankind. Ignore them. They are nothing.
Just a question, however, if the school was truly under the belief that his clock was a bomb, why did they not evacuate the school? Why did they place him and his clock in a room, by himself, if they thought it was a bomb?
“if the school was truly under the belief that his clock was a bomb, why did they…”
Let me try to give a Bill Maher answer – “Why did the school even allow a student who looks exactly like a Muslim into the school, when there are Muslims blowing shit up all over the world????”
good point, if they really though it was a bomb where was the bomb squad? If there is even a rumor of a gun wielding person on a school or a college the whole place is locked down. A month so back there was a news story about a unattended bag on a local campus caused the lock down for a couple of hours.
the police must have known right away there was no explosives. So everything afterwards was theater
Not really, dummy. Texas Law also covers “hoax bombs” which do not need to have explosives, be actually dangerous, or even be claimed as such.
Right. They just have to have clocks.
In 7th grade shop class, we made digital clocks. This was not in Texas.
But for it to be considered a hoax bomb, shouldn’t it look more like a hoax bomb? Like have more than a few wires, a digital display, a battery pack, and a motherboard? Shouldn’t it have something that might look like it could go BOOM? Maybe some toilet paper tubes painted red? Some playdough with wires sticking out of it? Maybe some plastic bottles with coloured liquid in them?
Because if this is a hoax bomb, it’s a pretty shitty one.
Right, In Texas, anything that makes any asshole, I mean Texan, piss their pants is a “hoax bomb”.
I still think the school and cops should be investigated for creating a “hoax bomb hoax”.
At least the WSJ tries to wrap the racism with a veneer or mock compassion:
Yeah, put your affectated support for Ahmed right next to a claim that Islamophobia is a myth, well done Wall Street!
– “Stand With Ahmed
But against the “Islamophobia” myth-makers.”
http://www.wsj.com/articles/stand-with-ahmed-1442597070
The WSJ article is actually quite hilarious, to demonstrate that Islamaphobia is a “pernicious myth” they reference the fact that non Muslim kids have also got into trouble and gotten arrested over the years.
In the next issue of WSJ, they will prove that slavery never happened in America because non-black people have been held captive, sold by human traffickers, hanged. They’ll even provide anecdotes!!!
Why is the Wall Street paper, concerned that the Ahmed story will help combat Islamophobia?
Bill Maher, again, makes the news for saying something racist. There is something very wrong as he and a panel blame the 14 year old for what was done to him. This is probably the most disgusting segment I’ve seen of his. There’s too many facts wrong and too much bigotry in this clip for me to reproduce it all here.
“there’s nothing wrong with being a little suspicious when there’s a young Muslim student with something that “looks exactly like a fucking bomb” and there are young Muslims “blowing shit up” all over the world.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGit-XltUB4
With Maher, Trump, Palin, Coulter becoming “the centre”, Pretty soon ultra-war-monger Clinton will soon be referred to in the US press as the far-left:
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/fools_fascists_and_cold_warriors_take_your_pick_20150918
The ultimate question:
Are you smarter than a ninth grader?
Now that everyone is crawling back out of their half bomb shelters, it may be worthwhile to reflect on the real nature of this half farce, half tragedy. It appears no one had actually told Ahmed to make this clock. In other words, he did it on his own initiative. How could this happen in a Texas public school? They have a clear mandate to stifle intellectual curiosity and to teach students to obey the rules. So this should be a wake up call that schools are failing in their mission to produce model future citizens.
Many of those in denial are probably thinking, “that’s Texas, our own school system would never let this happen”. And it’s true that loading up the kids with homework will prevent them from developing outside interests. But it’s also possible that intellectual curiosity is much more insidious and difficult to destroy than we imagined. So I hope that schools across the United States take this opportunity to re-examine whether they have truly been as successful as they believe. There may be other Ahmeds out there, tinkering away, creating a future which is uncertain and unpredictable.
“intellectual curiosity”
“tinkering away, creating a future ”
Nonsense:
“So there you have it folks, Ahmed Mohamad did not invent, nor build a clock. He took apart an existing clock, and transplanted the guts into a pencil box, and claimed it was his own creation. It all seems really fishy to me.
If we accept the story about “inventing” an alarm clock is made up, as I think I’ve made a pretty good case for, it’s fair to wonder what other parts of the story might be made up, not reported factually by the media, or at least, exaggerated.”
http://blogs.artvoice.com/techvoice/2015/09/17/reverse-engineering-ahmed-mohameds-clock-and-ourselves/
I’m going to go out on a limb and say he didn’t invent a clock because I have seen and used a clock before this story broke.
Nice story, bro. Your link leads to such intellectual commenting genius gems like:
“Did the little psycho get bored with torturing stray cats and decide inducing panic was more fun?”
Yeah, let’s worry about this kid because there’s obviously a Muslim conspiracy, right? I bet Obama’s behind it too.
USA!
USA!
USA!
Oooh……oooh……I read it on a blog! Therefore it’s true! And every other report is false!
Um, dumbo, that may be acceptable as a counter-argument in your Quranic Science class, but you are among rational adults here.
Too bad you’re not one of them.
Fortunately you are right – Ahmed did not actually invent anything – and the Texas school system can derive some comfort from that fact. But the alarm is still justified. Many people recognize that taking something apart and then reassembling it to figure out how it works is indicative of a tendency towards independent thought. So this is a wake up call. It’s too late to turn back the clock on this unfortunate incident but there’s still time act to ensure it doesn’t happen with other students. I fear, however, that the nation will just press the snooze button, go back to sleep and do nothing.
I disagree–people are getting too wound up over this.
What are you suggesting, that the pendulum has swung too far?
It wasn’t a pendulum clock either.
Seems the bucket is over-flowing.
I think the people have been led astray.
It wasn’t a wind-up clock!
The only thing you eve make a good case for is your own reactionary asshattery.
I don’t think he took an existing clock apart. That’s one big-ass display and the boards aren’t designed well for a compact, aesthetic ,marketable clock. But I doubt he baked the chips, designed timing circuits and translation chips or PCM modules for the display in his kitchen.
He says he put it together in 20 minutes, so he most likely bought off-the-shelf modules and wired them together with some spare parts anyone may have about the house. You can see commercial ribbon cables for the modules attached to that big-ass digital display, for one.
It’s not the work of genius, but it does display competence in electronics and something he could definitely feel a sense of accomplishment over.
I put together a charcoal grille when I was 8 without even knowing there were instructions in the box, and no one thought ( invented the thing, or was planning to set fire to to the house
Yeah, because it’s not no kid ever learn how something works by taking stuff apart and putting it back together again. That never happens.
You walk dangerously close to the edge, my friend. If you are not more careful, someone may see you for who you really are.
Judging by the title, this group is saying that every household in the world with a clock, has half of a bomb in their homes. How stupid does that sound?
America is the cause of its muslin problem.
“muslin problem”
Shame on those vile, heinous, despicable Muslinophobes, prejudiced against this marginalized – and often brutalized – plain-woven lightweight cotton cloth.
Living in fear is no way to live, only in America could such a thing be blown out of portion like this gollie gee he’s a terrorist with a clock I wonder if American sales of bullets spiked after this terrorist scare
The kid is NOTHING compared to me when I was 12! My Estes model rocket was, like HALF an ICBM and my house had TWO smoke detectors which had radioactive material in them and combined those could have been easily seven-eighths of a 20 megaton thermonuclear warhead!
hahah^
I, too, was a consistent violator of the model rocketry code. Not only did I install various warheads in my rockets, I also launched them into the country club’s golf course, which was about .25 miles away.
Never actually made a warhead but did put red water colour paint powder in the section with the chute so that a big red cloud would puff out when the chute ejection charge went off. Oh damn! I just realized that I was launching chemical warfare rockets! After all, the paint powder WAS a chemical!
The following is a reply to an exchange commenting on yesterday’s article;. I think it deserves a wider audience so I am reprinting it here. The original comments are below the “==============”
I stand by what I am saying here. School personnel and police acted ridiculously. But Ahmad Mohammed’s project does not demonstrate electronic genius for a 14 yr old in 2015. He’s no threat by that basis alone, which I think is the reason he is viewed as dangerous:
“My God, a 14 yrs old built a digital clock, what is he capable of!”.
Why – ordering things on EBAY and following simple instructions!
In reality, he’s just lucky – good or bad, depending on your perspective and the outcome in regard to his future, Based on the construction of a simple digital clock, he’s nothing special, talented or dangerous.
All reactions have been disproportionate to the circumstance.
I don’t know of the link goes to the relevant comment at this time, but the exchange is below.
phineas -to- karl
I welcome your comments.
phineas ? karl
Sep. 18 2015, 9:57 p.m.
Agreed. Hysteria ruled the day.
What’s the real issue, in the end?
It’s the attempt to justify hysteria in a way that makes the knowledgeable seem marginal, instead of the other way around.
it is akin to someone whose car backfires being charged with terrorism because some people thought it was gunfire. And then being declared a “genius” because he couldn’t time his engine correctly.
That this is occurring has everything to do with young Ahmed Mohammed’s ethnicity and not any facts of the situation. Regardless of what side you are on.
He’s a “terrorist” because a simple digital clock he built from off-the-shelf components was not understood by those who can’t understand.
And the clock was simple, not some profound piece of electronics it has been purported to be – even for a 14 yr old in 2015. His “ability” is mundane, not some threat, or demonstration of genius, even for a 14 yr old. All the necessary parts could be order on EBay for probably $40 and put together by anyone that could insert connector A into socket B.
Yeah, I have “a bit of electronic training” A BS in electrical engineering. His “feat” would be profound when I was his age, merely because the components were just being developed by guys with engineering degrees 40 yrs ago.
Now, it’s as if I wired together a photocell and a light bulb in 1974, when I was his age. Crowing about that would have got me laughed at.
Things spun out of hand because instead of getting a little pat on the back and told not to disrupt class with a “beeper:” again, some “Lilliputian-brained” English teacher freaked about a make-shift clock in the hands of a “terrorist”
And now a kid with a marginal accomplishment as an electrical tech (for 2015) is going to be rolling in dough and teaching at MIT when he is 20.
“Good Grief” as Linus Van Pelt would exclaim.
]========================================
karl ? coram nobis
Sep. 16 2015, 1:50 p.m.
Actually, the video shows the lad holding a circuit board which presumably matched the timing circuit of the video display. Such circuits are identical to those used in IEDs. However, I agree with your summation that official hysteria seems to have been afoot that day. Personally, I would have sized the situation up as the mischievous act of a precocious, attention starved kid. Certainly, the engineering instructor would have been able to easily recognize the benign nature of the circuit and digital display. Yet, it appears that he chose to take it to the next level nevertheless.
phineas ? karl
Sep. 16 2015, 7:22 p.m.
“Such circuits are identical to those used in IEDs.”
They are also used in the digital clock on your night table. Anyone with half a brain can tel there was no explosive material in that case and a clock/timer in itself does not constitute a bomb or an attempt to make a bomb or bomb parts.
It’s the lengths you people go through to justify your own prejudice and stupidity that is the danger, not a 14 yr old with a 555 timer chip and a LED display board in a box.
karl ? phineas
Sep. 16 2015, 9:40 p.m.
@ Phineas
I have already agreed that the school teachers and administrators were hysterical in there response.
It sounds like you have a bit of electronic training, as do I. What may be obvious to your trained eye is not the issue. It is my understanding that a beeping tone coming from a closed box in the possession of Ahmed Mohamed during class first alerted the teacher who sounded the initial alarm. The level of her response might be arguably justified, but it seems that things spun quickly out of control at the administrative level.
But Ahmad Mohammed’s project does not demonstrate electronic genius for a 14 yr old in 2015.
The kid did not buy a Heath-Kit on Ebay. He scavenged components and he demonstrated his knowledge of electronics by physically paraphrasing a clock. His demonstration is not genius but it is strong intellectually.
(remember, half the engineers out there graduated in the bottom half of their class, don’t be so obvious …)
should be
Are you saying I’m just half an engineer? I rigged up airplane remote controls from AM and FM radio parts when I was 14, maybe I’m just jaded
What I was trying to say was wherever he got them, the parts must have come from already established digital clocks, though I am sure he didn’t just take a desk clock apart and mount the parts in a case, so he didn’t do anything fundamentally innovative, just understand how already configured the digital clock parts work together.
With all the worrying about this kid, where is the concern about a dirty bomb? What about the nuclear waste we have stored around the world? What about hitting Chernobyl? Fukushima? Hell, even in the airport there is a sign saying that if you are under 12 you do not have to remove your shoes through security. Okay, why not just hand it to the terrorist to have their 8 year old be a shoe bomber? Leave this kid alone and censure this teacher!
Just think, your (our) tax dollars are paying Frank Gaffney’s salary. That’s not right.
Half a bomb? Asserted by people with, half a brain.
These horrid people make me want to vomit. That young man needs to get out of Texas now. Texas is crazy-land.
Even the muslim need to be very vareful with false front organization that are working in desguise with the corrupt because such statements coming from supposedly on their side are basically a front to manipulate and worst. ….The school system and the USA-law enforcmenet was so concern to violate not just this kid constitutional rights during the whole ordeal left and right that neither the school system nor the usa government decided to evacuate the school because that is proof and proves how they violated all the constitutional rights of this kid and with that all the domestic population gets treated the same kosher hitlerian, stalinist way. The kosher neoliberalism running rampant in the usa governance is worst than all the totalitarian and authoritarian regimes in deguise while dressed in democracy clothing. – Alejandro Grace Ararat.
Even a regular cellphone can be arranged to only display a clock and even as we speak all who carry cellphones anywhere including school systems are carrying now half bombs as per the ignorant false front organizations. Disgusting is short.
If they thought it was a bomb, they would of evacuated the school. Not placed the clock with the principal. And placed the clock in the car with police and student. They new it was not a bomb. So what do we learn? this was about shaming a Muslim-American.
If this isn’t an epiphany for America… nothing is…er.. wait.. Miley Cyrus just signed up for ISIS.
I’m wearing half a bomb on my wrist right now.
I’ve got half a bomb in my pocket.
I feel like a walking halfabomb.
When I explode will I go boom or half-boom?
This shit is NOT funny.
Careful, that shit is a bomb in itself.
I’m pretty sure the idea of a ticking or beeping bomb comes from the movies. Why would a real terrorist put a noisemaker on a bomb to possibly alert someone that there is a bomb around?
It stems from the old dynamite bombs that were hooked to an old alarm clock that was set to go off at a particular time. Since they ticked, it was discovered that focusing on the ticking noise would help to build a sense of anticipation and suspense. It was a movie trick used to create a mood of mounting tension.
It has become a cultural idiom and thus, continues today. At some point, technology was such that you didn’t need the ticking of a clock to help measure time, electronics could do the counting for you. Still, however, the story remained the same. Though the alarm clocks were no longer being used in movies, bomb scenes continued to have some sort of audible mechanism to reference the bomb, and maintain that same effect of tension.
Hence, now when something beeps, and is somehow keeping time, we are conditioned to understand this as being a bomb.
I love idioms. :)
In 1963, Texas gave us this:
http://www.prosebeforehos.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/wantedfortreason.jpg
Now they give us this again?
Didn’t Texas vote for jfk? It was pretty blue up until Ronnie.
There was a ton of anti-JFK hysteria in the Dallas-area media in the days leading up to Nov 22.
Ahmed’s clock was “half a bomb”. Then so are the digital clocks on these @$$h0lL3$ night stands.
Exactly, everyone has half a bomb (or a few half bombs) in their home.
– Your honor I know my rights, I saw a few clocks through the window so I did have probable cause to break in and take them down.
– Your honor he had a clock on his person.
– Yes, that’s correct I heard a clock ticking and so did my friend chuck.
– Your honor, we had to wiretap him, he had a few clocks and if that isn’t actionable evidence and probable cause I don’t know what is.
– Your honor, I know he’s a clock maker but that many clocks! come on it’s highly suspicious.
quote”Gaffney also said that the entire controversy over Mohamed’s clock appeared to be an “influence operation” by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group that Gaffney claimed is using “professional victim-promoting” to wage a “civilization jihad” in connection with the Muslim Brotherhood.”unquote
Gaffney is a certifiably delusional psychopath.
“Gaffney is a certifiably delusional psychopath.”
That is why Ronnies group only kept him around for a few months.
When I saw the image, I thought “there’s no BCD-to-7-segment display translator chip. He did it all in firmware. Industrious kid.”
If that’s half a bomb, then the detractors are half an ass.
….”half a bomb” only for those with half a brain…
Texas should be studied like a scientific experiment….
The point is: bomb half was missing,
The stupid….it burns..
IED triggers… cell phones.
IED triggers… digital watch.
I think the school needs to have the entire student body arrested, then.
… And the entire administration, too.
Gotta love the Iranian reference to IED’s in Iraq. Never mind that we were halfway around the world in an illegal invasion/occupation, it’s always Iran’s fault(or Russia) that our miserable imperialistic adventures don’t turn out as planned.
He was going to bring the bomb part, but his dog ate it!
Abraham Lincoln once told a story about explosives, and half a dog.
http://www.civilwarbummer.com/lincoln-defends-grant-or-the-story-of-the-yellow-dog/
And OXYGEN is half of a poisonous gas.
Given enough of it, it’s ALL of a poisonous gas. Given too little and it produces …. conservatives!
Idiots like this stay in the public arena because normal, thinking Americans don’t ridicule them enough. If rooms full of people burst into laughter when these gasbags spout their idiotic garbage, they would soon disappear from the public eye.
Obama says he supports Ahmed Mohamed, but his policies don’t.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/09/18/obama-says-he-supports-ahmed-mohamed-but-his-policies-dont/
– ‘If Ahmed could be legally profiled by countless federal, state and local authorities based solely on his faith, why should we expect anything different from the teachers and police officers of Irving?”
Why indeed.
And to think that 60 police departments around the country have put in for drone certification with the FAA!
Do you seriously know any police personnel you’d want controlling one of those?
Oh my, ABSOLUTELY NOT. Wish we would ground every single drone —- period. At least Fargo has said “no” to them
And this years award for best commentary on Potus Contradiction …goes to…
Pedinska
111
Credit goes to Arjun Singh Sethi, who wrote it. But thanks. :-)
texas…again.
can we have a study of the relative costs of texas remaining a state as opposed to giving it back to mexico? with an apology for ever stealing it?
we could still have a border fence, just put in on the oklahoma border.
Hon. Enrique Peña Nieto
Palacio Nacional, Mexico, D.F.
Estimado Sr. Presidente,
Would you like to take back Texas? We’d like to admit it was a mistake and to forget the Alamo. We’ll even throw in Oklahoma as compound interest. The place does need work, but on the plus side, it comes with the Dallas cheerleaders.
Sincerely,
Barack
Hahahahahahahahahahahaha !..
Trumps new strategy.
Mexico has enough problems already, without burdening them with Ted Cruz.
“we could still have a border fence, just put in on the oklahoma border.”
Why stop there?
Cant think of one reason that Mexico would want that empty hat back,
Thanks to Center for Security Policy vice president Jim Hanson, we now know what “half an idiot” sounds like.
Here is a suggestion for any parents in Irving who want to
show their disapproval of this perversity –
Start taking your kids to school whenever you feel like doing so and
then explain to the school that you will not abide by the use of
terrorist “half-bombs” in your household.
Then, express indignation that the school district allows “half-bombs” on the
walls of their classrooms.
quote”Then, express indignation that the school district allows “half-bombs” on the walls of their classrooms.”unquote
Hallelujah.. give this man a prize.
Meanwhile, let’s hope Ms. Irving Tx Dimwit, while fixing dinner, discovers her microwave is half a bomb away from destroying Texas and half the states around it. God forbid.
Well, of course. Can’t pay your quarterly dividends if Oceania isn’t always at war with Eurasia. Need to create market share, you see. And as for CACI, some background —
http://ccrjustice.org/sites/default/files/assets/files/PMC%20factsheet%2012.03.pdf
All this time, I thought we were at war with East Asia!’
DOH!
Not this semester.
Does that mean I blew my independent study credits?
Here’s another profile in moral courage, the Texas governor:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2015/09/17/texas-gov-ahmed-arrest-not-cool.html?source=socialflow&via=twitter_page&template=cheat&account=thedailybeast&medium=twitter
In Texas the arrest, handcuffing, interogation without a lawyer or parents present, of a 14 year old for showing his teachers a clock he built, means… “the the commitment to law enforcement may have gone too far”
Who’s to blame? The school teachers, principle called the police because of a clock a student showed them. The police, even though it was obviously a clock, and the boy said it was a clock, arrested and interrogated him improperly. The Mayor of Irving supports all those actions, but, according to the Texas governor, it is the fault, or let me correct that, it MAY BE the fault of “the commitment to law enforcement”.
Ahmed still wants his clock back.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/sep/17/ahmed-mohamed-is-tired-excited-to-meet-obama-and-wants-his-clock-back
It also seems that he had a longtime reputation for making gadgets, something of a young Tom Edison, so it wasn’t anything new. And it seems the city of Irving had a reputation for Muslim-baiting.
Plus, the POTUS wants to see the ‘cool clock’… that ought to count fir sumpin’?
As Glenn twiterered the other day … they really picked the wrong kid to dump their fears on imo!
*thought this was interesting from the Gruan article …
Well, it is kind of a shock. You send your boy off to school, and over two days he’s been arrested, been all over the Internet, makes his hometown a national laughing stock, gets a tweet from the President and has his own Wikipedia page. Must have been a bit of a shock. On the plus side, he has driven Kim Davis off the front page, so that’s something.
“(he) makes his hometown a national laughing stock.” No, the people of Irving make it a laughing stock.
….and, then there is the free ride Ahmed will be getting to go to MIT….
Yes, and we should all be grateful for “driving” Kim Davis almost anywhere except where I live….
If this had happened to me in 1974, my parents would have sent me to bed without any supper and apologized to the nation. And they were Catholic Italians. Damn! Islam IS dangerous!
If this had happened to you in 1974, you wouldn’t have been arrested, and the teacher would have told you to enter it in the school district science fair with a suitable display. You might very well have won.
In 1974 my mother freaked because i was collecting sulfur and potassium nitrate from the HS science lab to make my own firecrackers . A girl who liked me was helping!
Irving police graciously willing to examine the shitpile they helped create then stepped in to ensure that they are wearing the proper personal protective equipment next time they decide to manufacture controversy:
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/9/18/police-to-review-handling-of-student-handcuffed-over-homemade-clock.html?utm_content=nobylines&utm_campaign=ajam&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=SocialFlow
One wonders if the school district will do the same…..after all, they’re the ones who truly wallowed in it.
– “One thing is clear to me, regardless of what we did, no matter what decision was made, there would’ve been people who agreed with it and people who disagreed with it,” police Chief Larry Boyd told CNN.
Errrr, so as long as there are people that agree with what the police do wrong….um, what is the chief’s point again?
Which reminds me, half of Texas scientists have discovered that two plus two equals three, and the other half have gotten the result five, so they’ve decided that at least half of them must be correct. Because, which ever decision they made, there would have been people who agreed and people who disagreed.
Half clock, half racism detector.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2015/sep/18/ahmed-mohamed-its-a-clock-with-a-built-in-racism-detector
Brilliant!!! Thanks for that link :-)
The Irving police fallback postion that it was a “hoax bomb” falls apart as fast as their story that they thought it was a real bomb (which they casually treated as a clock and not as you would a real bomb):
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/09/irving-police-chief-admits-cops-knew-ahmed-mohamed-didnt-have-a-bomb-when-they-arrested-him/
That is equally hilarious. Why not handcuff and interrogate the students bringing, I don’t know, Ipods to school, who refuse to admit their Ipods are bombs, because, you know, hoax bomb makers would not likely admit that their Ipods were bombs.
Well, of course. Anybody with half a brain would think that.
That’s why I’m offering homemade Sun dials at half off for the half-witted. .. it’s the American way; one must strike while the iron is hot coram!
#SunDialsforDummies
The sundials only tell time half a day, so look for them to complain that your product won’t tell time at night.
Of course, this kid might find a way to make it work.
That’s why, for another $5, I’ll send you this complimentary moondial. Shipping and handling only $8, while supplies last.
Half a brain is being generous. In this case, it’s shit fer brains.
Welp. So much for “Land of the free and home of the brave”.
All you knicker-twisted pants-fillers need to get together and pool some money for some incontinence products. Because if there’s anything worse than the resulting mess from overhyped fearmongers running around shrieking “OMG! Half a bomb!!!1!1″, it would have to be what happens when a bunch of tiny-peen arm-wavers drop a load into half a pair of Depend®s. :-s
After reading this thread I feel the urgent need to modify FluffytheObeseCat‘s descriptor from the other thread. Henceforth, chickenshitism has now become chickenlittleshitism.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO04VXBIS0M
I guess this means every smart-phone is also ‘half a bomb,’ since smartphones are frequently the trigger device for smartTV-bombs.
A simple question for all the laughable dummies on here, including the author of this silly article:
If this “inventor” (n.b. nothing was invented here) brought his “clock” – which looks nothing like any clock ever, but very much like a bomb/IED at first glance ->
http://streetcarnage.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/CPL3K-mXAAIh3UU.jpg-large.jpeg
to the gate of the White House, do you think it would be investigated, or simply waved through, and he would then cheerfully proceed to meet the “cool clock” President?
If ANY of the people commenting had ever set foot in an industrial electronics store, they’d recognise a toolkit briefcase as being the worse choice over the myriad of plastic junction boxes available at less than half the cost which are made specifically for such a project. This was built for the response it received.
People believe the child is smart? It’s the father who needs to be applauded. This was brilliantly done.
Nah – he just used what he had. A tiny 5.5X8.25 inch pencil box and an old alarm clock. He broke it down, and put it back together. He’s 14. I’m sorry your kids aren’t as inventive, or don’t have a school system that encourages this type of activity. I have a feeling all of these people who want to take a big dump on a 14 year old for making a clock will probably be ecstatic in 10 years when he decides to give their kids a job at his company.
I don’t know about your “worse case” comment, but the facts of the actual story are, in part, he put the clock together in 20 minutes on a Sunday night. He didn’t spend time ‘setting foot in an industrial electronics store’ shopping for parts for your devious hoax bomb project, cheered on by his devious father. If your version of the story were a rubber band, it would have stretched beyond its breaking point.
Typical. No actual response to the actual question by Interceptistas.
Because they know just how ludicrous their “arguments” against the prudent course of action taken by the authorities are, and just how fake their dumb outrage is.
If you brought this contraption to the White House gate, you’d be blown away faster than you can scream “Allah Akbar”.
Excellent point.
Father is a local Muslim activist, who goes to Sudan to take part in Presidential elections (how American of him), and has been trying for several years to make his bones as a warrior against “Islamophobia.”
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/09/video-robert-spencer-debates-clockmaker-ahmed-mohameds-father
paranoia – noun
para·noia \?per-?-?no?i-?
a serious mental illness that causes you to falsely believe that other people are trying to harm you
No one said he was an inventor, of course it’s not gonna look like a real clock, the young 15 yr old built it from scratch. And if it did look like a bomb why didn’t they evacuate the school, why d didn’t they call the bomb squad or FBI? These people saying it looks like half a bomb are idiots. Anything can look like a bomb if you want it to. Obviously you must be anti Muslim to believe this article that exposes an organization that anti Muslim is silly. The police sidestroke the minor without his parents, or a lawyer present these Irving cops are buffoons and those defending them are too.
ran out of your meds, again Geez Louise?
No answer, eh dhumbeas?
No, it was all the answer you deserved.
There is well-justified security paranoia surrounding the president – but keeping unrecognized electronics away from him is different from arresting the person who has them. I would hope they wouldn’t have *arrested* Muhammad. Also note the exclusions apply to all sorts of stuff that they don’t allow in, that would be legal anywhere else. Heck, if you ever want to change the route the president takes into a place, all you need is to station a protester in a wheelchair. It’s politically incorrect to take it apart looking for bombs, but he sure isn’t going to ride past it either. :)
Try not to encourage her.
Of course the school thought it was a bomb that’s why they evacuated the school, called in the bomb squad, transported the bomb in a police car to the police station so they could take an electronic picture of it for evidence and of course detonated in a controlled enviorment. Isn’t obvious it was a bomb?
And LOL at “sounds like you hate white people because you don’t have what they have.” Is that what they teach you at your KKK meetings, Chuck? Brainless rednecks like you WISH you had the talent and abilities that kids like Ahmed have.
This was supposed to be a reply to the hillbilly called “Chuck” below.
“This was supposed to be a reply to the hillbilly called “Chuck” below.”
What’s happening….my comment is being hacked by hillbillies…help!
Well, Woooooeeeeee, Zeke! It’s colder than a mother in law’s love in this here I N T E R C E P T
Sounds to me, somebody don’t like hillbillies, well that just dills my pickle.
Alana, is that there, like alah? You are not from around here are ya? I can’t believe you people are making excuses for this mohamad feller. Were you all born yesterday, go pick up a DVD of MacGyver at the video store, and then you’l see that a muslum with some blinking lights and wires, would be happier than a tornado in a trailer park.
This is just one of the things that happen in the pilot episode:
“MacGyver creates a bomb to open a door using a gelatin cold capsule containing sodium metal, which he then places in a glass container filled with water. When the gelatin dissolves, the sodium reacts violently with the water and causes an explosion which blows a hole in the wall. (On the popular TV show MythBusters, they disproved that this can be achieved with sodium.) ”
http://macgyver.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_problems_solved_by_MacGyver
Now Alana, I’m going to pray for your soul, and for your deportation
Sorry, is it “The Center for Security Policy” or “The Center for Stupidity Policy”?
I get your point, but it’s dangerous to underestimate the power and reach of organizations that are aligned with the parties responsible for providing us with our so-called “leadership”. Truly, it is.
These people have agendas, toxic ones, and they have proven to be persistent and patient in working toward their goals. All one needs to do is look around – even just in this comment thread – to see the fruit of their efforts.
For those here who would like to insinuate – or even state directly – that a 14 year old is right up there with adults in the conniving department, I offer these additional observations by Reginald Braithwaite:
https://twitter.com/raganwald/status/644642937825923072
This is a very good point, and it’s maladapted reasoning is seen in arguments made here (especially by CraigSummers) and throughout the media, on online blogs, etc.
These rationalizations are harming our society because they have been driving our foreign policy overseas, to the extent that we’ve extra-judicially invaded, bombed, and droned countries and citizens (including Americans) without due diligence.
This same warped mindset is also taking over our internal politics: as can be seen with the discredited war on drugs, the over-militarization and over-reaction of our cities police towards their own fellow citizens; the over-incarceration of low-level criminals and the lack of incarceration for corporate crimes; and, as in this case, the displacement of rational responses to occurrences in our public education system with hysterical overreactions instead.
Pedinska made an excellent point here about not discounting these irrational fear-mongers – because the primary reason we suffer from these idiocies is due simply to the fact that the people who bow to this irrationality and warped reasoning are the people who have been setting our public policy for decades – whether explicitly as irrational policy makers, or by default due to the actions and/or inaction of irrational or disheartened electors.
Want that to change? Get out and vote.
“He said the clock “was half a bomb.”
Which is why it was reasonable for school authorities to review the device, and speak with the student, Ahmed, in the first place. It was, however, the rest of what ensued that was ridiculous and worthy of the public humiliation that has Hanson all butt hurt.
Almost any timing device can be ‘half a bomb’. Making mention of this fact in no way excuses the behavior of the public authorities in Irving, TX.
Fluffy! Good to see you here, raising the sanity quotient, as always. ;-}
Why didn’t the authorities arrest all the other students with cell phones claiming they are half a bomb, (cell phones have been used for bomb triggers a whole bunch of times) ? Have civil rights been suspended for this extreme form for the”war on terror”? I just wonder when or where it will end, The country I grew up in is gone and turned into a version of “1984” on acid with a big dose of crack tossed in and no pot tossed in to mellow it out. Is this ever going to end? I watched some of the comedy called the debate the other night and then realized it wasn’t a show but people running for a chance to lead this country. Then I collapsed into a sad heap of despair, sigh…
Half a bomb, he says.
Well give me a cell handset and 20 minutes in a kitchen and I’ll MAKE you a bomb! Give me a Casio wristwatch and it, too, can be a timer for a bomb.
Give me a 5 pound sack of white sugar and I HAVE half a bomb.
All as a result if training provided to me and thousands of soldiers by the government!
Let’s face it, the ignorant teacher planted a seed in the ‘minds’ of the cops and it grew from there. The teacher should have called the FBI and they would have turned it in to a Sudanese terrorism plot!
quote”Let’s face it, the ignorant teacher planted a seed in the ‘minds’ of the cops and it grew from there.”unquote
Indeed, it’s easy to grow things in a container full of fertilizer.
quote” The teacher should have called the FBI and they would have turned it in to a Sudanese terrorism plot!”unquote
Ding ding ding!!! Give this man a prize.
It could be argued that Jim Hanson sounds like half a person – but even that would be stretching it a bit
These people are joyously marinating in hate.
“the story is not being fully explored and explained.”
is really nothing more than the same coded speech the police offered up,
“…the boy was unable to give a ‘broader explanation’ as to what it would be used for.”
all mere excuses to keep their little nasty fest fully fueled and chugging along.
This publication, omg. Just, wow.
I also thought it was a bait but you just can’t say so. Some things are like that. Anyway, the general response of the community was totally appropriate, and if it was bait, it was sick.
EVERYONE needs to read this. #TheyNeverThoughtHeHadABomb
https://mobile.twitter.com/tyler_tully/status/644640342185127936/photo/1
They just wanted to humiliate a Muslim child. But the racist Islamophobes didn’t expect it to backfire.
Why call the police then? Why were the police even involved with a kid bringing a science project to school?
Jfc. Are you seriously asking that question even after reading everything in that link?
Ok um, let’s try: he’s a smart Muslim kid and they’re raging racists and Islamophobes who were looking for a way to break him, including violating his rights by interviewing him without his parents or a lawyer and trying to get a fake confession out of him.
Also, why don’t you go ahead and ask every brown and black person in majority white communities that question and then come back here if things still aren’t clear for you. Christ, some people are drowning in white privilege.
I think I may have misunderstood/replied a little harshly to your comment. Sorry.
Considering his activist dad, this was obviously a stunt to sucker the school and cops into doing exactly what they did, thereby inspiring the instant, typically uniformed online outrage fest. Knowing the potential problem that might be experienced from exposure of the _briefcase_ clock to the technologically impaired, his engineering teacher that he first showed the clock to told him that he shouldn’t show it to anyone else, but he did anyway.
http://www.vox.com/2015/9/16/9339063/ahmed-mohamed-elhassan
When Florida pastor Terry Jones put the Quran on trial and later burned it in 2012, Mohamed ElHassan Mohamed (the kid’s dad) was the Muslim holy book’s defense attorney,
In 2012, Florida pastor Terry Jones said he was putting the Quran on trial. Jones had threatened to burn the Quran before, around the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, before eventually being talked out of it by Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
This time, he wanted to stage a trial at his Florida church, and he needed a defense attorney. Mohamed volunteered: “[The church] put an ad on their channel: ‘Whoever feels in himself he has the power to defend Quran is welcome,'” he told the Dallas Observer.
Mohamed, who leads a small congregation of Sufi Muslims, a mystical sect of Islam that is generally more liberal, told the Dallas Observer that he was grateful to have a chance to defend Islam, including his own interpretation of the Quran.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/muslim-at-koran-trial-says-he-didnt-know-the-holy-book-would-be-burned/2011/04/05/AFKNR3oC_story.html
Mohamed Elhassan, a 50-year-old computer store owner who leads a tiny Sufi congregation in Irving, Tex., readily agreed to defend the Koran. He’d debated Islam with Jones’s supporters before and wasn’t put off by the prospect of interacting with Jones himself, though he knew that the pastor had threatened to burn the Koran in September.
“I thought it would help other Muslims, other Christians and Terry Jones himself. I thought we were just going to discuss the Koran. That’s why I went there,” Elhassan said.
A photo of the clock in the briefcase:
http://static4.techinsider.io/image/55f9b6e29dd7cc14008bad60-1280-960/fullsizerender.jpg
Any remotely electronics savvy person would know this isn’t a bomb. Many wouldn’t, “knowing” from movies that “bombs” have digital time displays, usually red, right?
And that’s exactly why his electronics teacher told him NOT to show it to anyone else! His school said they’d have done this to anyone and I believe them. If they overreacted, it wasn’t because he’s from a Muslim family or because his skin is brown.
They clearly didn’t for even a split second think it was a bomb. If they thought it was a bomb they wouldn’t have carried it around, kept it in their principal’s office, put it in their police car, never call a bomb squad, never evacuate the school, etc., etc. etc.
And to laughably blame the kid’s father who, if you believe is a known for exposing anti-Muslim bigots, then that is one more reason why both the school officials and the police are too clueless and inept to be in a position of authority.
Any sensible, normal, rational person would know that isn’t a bomb. Fuck me, you are dumb
No Alex you are dumb. That is half a bomb. Timer circuitry with an output to detonate explosives that are not present. I’m sure in the future we will see this boy again as a man who successfully detonated a bomb and kill many people with it. You better wake up. ISIS is just 8 miles south of the Texas border with a training camp with help from Mexican drug cartels. Hope you don’t live close to any borders because they are coming and I’m sure you aren’t ready.
Or as sane people would describe it: A clock.
I’d be interested to know where you get these insane delusions, or did you make it up?
“they are coming and I’m sure you aren’t ready”
FEAR! FEAR! FEAR! FEAR!
BE TERRIFIED OF YOUR OWN SHADOW!! EMBRACE COWARDICE! CRAP YOUR PANTS WITH PRIDE!
Don’t you people every get tired of being such terrified cowards?
Considering all the threats that this country has faced that could have ACTUALLY brought about it’s demise, to be crippled with never-ending cowardice, fear, and paranoia about such an extraordinarily MINOR threat as terrorism is beyond pathetic.
What must it be like for children of parents so pants-shittingly SCARED all the time as the “They Are Coming And I’m Sure You Aren’t Ready!” crowd?
So Chuck… CIA? Or Raytheon?
There is nothing in your screed worth replying to, but I thought it might help you out a little if I bothered to point out that your quote above is you getting a basic and simple fact of the story about Ahmed’s experience at the school incorrect. He didn’t show the clock to another teacher until forced to by that teacher.
Yep.
dipshit squared…
“Considering his activist dad, this was obviously a stunt to sucker the school and cops into doing exactly what they did”
Assuming this was true, it would be telling that they stepped right into it.
Either way, they prove themselves to be non-critically-thinking, stupid, reactionary, easily duped racists who shouldn’t be in the positions they hold.
And this year’s award for the Dumbest, Most Bigoted Town in the Union goes to….
“We stand with the Mayor of Irving and her police and school officials who acted appropriately.”
Says one while on his head in the cesspool known as Irving Texas.
sheezusHfuckingchrist.. just when you think Texans can’t get any dumber.
However, I am curious about this..
quote”Earlier this summer, the center held a banquet in New York, which I attended, to present the mayor of Irving with an award for raising an alarm about an “Islamic Sharia court” being established in her town.”unquote
This is satire, right? If anything, this insidious cunt needs to be charged with Practicing Stupidity without a license. or at the least..fraud for masquerading as a human being.
Let’s be careful about painting with too broad a brush. I am absolutely certain that there are many very nice people living in Irving Texas, even if the mayor is a fascist. After all, the US has had two war criminals in succession as President, both having been reelected after showing their true selves, but not all US citizens are war criminals.
Apparently the English teacher did not evacuate the classroom and just put the clock in her/his desk drawer waiting for the police. So it was known this wasn’t a bomb, and this was just giving the kid a hard time for making a “mock” bomb, a.k.a. making a digital clock while Muslim in Texas (especially Dallas, which is far less diverse and more fundamentalist Christian than much of the rest of Texas.)
Yes, the charge of QWB (driving while Black) is now being augmented by a new charge: TTWM (telling time while Muslim) in the Texas Criminal Code.
This morning my alarm clock woke me up.
Sorry, I mean “half a bomb” woke me up.
It’s a clock, with no explosives;so half a bomb, right?
I’m relatively sure (I haven’t tried) if I remove the wires from the speaker; and wire them to a blasting cap (add some TnT for push) I have a bomb.
So my alarm clock is “half a bomb”. So is yours, and every other alarm clock out there.
Oh, your cell phone is also “half a bomb”. Just not the part that acts like a bomb… which seems the relevant part to me.
If I had some TnT and blasting caps, but no clock; I bet that’s a problem.
If I have a clock, but no explosives, that seems less problematic.
While we are listing bomb components, any switch is half a bomb. The ignition switch in your car or truck or motorcycle, the light switches in your house, the on-off switch on your computer, your TV remote. I think the logical thing to do is to ban all such devices. Although white anglo Christians and good Jews could be counted upon to be reliable, what would happen if such a fine person were to unknowingly sell their house, or car, or TV to a Muslim?
Oh, and while we are at it, I would be negligent not to mention that any computer or microcontroller can be programmed to initiate an explosion. For that reason, we need to also get rid of any device that has a computer or microcontroller. That would include all currently produced refrigerators, microwave ovens, dishwashers, washing machines, and thermostats. Perhaps we can retrofit some with switchless controls, but that would have to be strictly overseen by someone with immense technical expertise, like the FBI.
What a typically half hearted liberal compromise!
The real problem here is clearly electricity. If we don’t take immediate steps to ban any conductive material (metals, salt water, storm clouds etc.) and outlaw teaching of this dangerous so-called ‘science’, then the terrorists win.
Are you Benito’s separated-at-birth sibling? Because that sounded very Mussolini-ish. ;-}
What a typically half hearted conservative response!
Thinking the problem through completely, you would see that the banning of electricity is yet another half measure. Clocks can be powered by steam, mechanically, and worst of all, by gravity. Certainly it would not be difficult to also outlaw steam engines and mechanical energy storing devices such as springs and torsion bars, but gravity will be a bit more challenging. Perhaps if we want gravity to go away, and pray hard enough, that tool of the terrorists will also disappear. Should we fail in this endeavor, it will only be a result of a lack of purity in our prayers.
Why is a fake bomb so much scarier than a real gun? Probably because there’s a simple countermeasure to a gun – get your own gun. Hollywood has conclusively demonstrated that good guys are faster on the draw, so the threat is eliminated. However, carrying your own bomb does not work as well. And, as everyone who has seen a movie knows, you cannot disarm a bomb by shooting it. Carrying a wire cutter might work, but no one can ever remember which color wire to cut, so that fails too. Therefore bombs induce a panic reaction because nothing can be done against them. Fake bombs produce the same reaction.
Fortunately, there is a solution. Students can attend classes remotely over the internet, from the safety of their very own bomb shelter. There is really no excuse, given present technology, for assembling potential targets of violence (students) into a single location where they can easily be attacked. Basic security dictates that you do not put all your eggs in one basket. So the debate about whether a clock constitutes a quarter of a bomb, half a bomb or 90% of a bomb really misses the point. Schools are just too dangerous.
The Texas Education Agency understands this and has been trying to implement a curriculum that makes it obvious to everyone that school has no real value. But it’s taking too long, and in the meantime, students are exposed to the risks of fake bombs. So the legislature should just pass a measure to outlaw schools, mandate everyone under the age of 16 to read one Wikipedia article a day and be done with it.
“So the legislature should just pass a measure to outlaw schools, mandate everyone under the age of 16 to read one Wikipedia article a day and be done with it.”
There you go again, minimizing the danger. What have we gained if we go from 50 percent bomb to a wikipedia 100 percent full of bomb making training manuals?
A cursory glance at Wikipedia turns up articles on plungers, wires, matches, timers, “integrated circuits”…(my scare quotes), need I go on?
Remember, everything the student reads on Wikipedia will be monitored. So if they start looking up articles on time keeping devices, appropriate countermeasures can be taken. Students who have been designated from pre-electronic cultures can be directed towards articles on sundials and water clocks. So you wouldn’t have to call in the SWAT team in every case.
Are you saying we’d all be safer if we all had our own”half-bombs”?
I’ll defer to the fascists to make sure they all “go off” on time.
And where the fuck is my train. My half-bomb says it is late!
Ha, ha, ha, ha! ;-)
Jokes aside. This is exactly what our rulers feared after the 60’s so they changed curricula to talk about European kings and that kind of [email protected], instead of “justice” and “freedom”
Well, yes! During the so-called cold war we had less wars and better music and even sex I would say (at least we didn’t have constant reminders about what sex is, should do to you)
RCL
We’ve taken MAD to a new level
Mutually Assured Demonization.
Or is it
Mutually Assured Demoralization?
Or
Mutually Assured Dementia?
This “Security Policy vice president Jim Hanson” said that even though: The law is clear: Juveniles in Texas may have a parent, guardian, or attorney present during interrogation. Mohamed was repeatedly denied this request.
…
“A child may not be left unattended in a juvenile processing office and is entitled to be accompanied by the child’s parent, guardian, or other custodian or by the child’s attorney,” Section 52.025 (PDF) states.
Has someone asked “Policy vice president Jim Hanson” about that? I’m using the quotation marks because those are the words Lee Fang wrote, and because Hanson’s title as VP just screams jackass in position to perform public jackassery.
I hate all the people accusing Ahmed of being a terrorist, and I agree with most of what’s been said here. But I do get the feeling he intended to provoke the right wing reaction we see happening. The whole episode just seems a little choreographed and I don’t entirely believe the kids stated intention of “impressing his teachers” by bringing a clock–which indeed would raise alarms if it was discovered in an airport–into his classroom, beeping (among people who he describes as already holding prejudiced views on his religion/race). Sorry I just don’t buy his total innocence here–but I hope I’m wrong.
If it were choreographed, you’d have to be able to predict that the North Texas teachers, administrators, police and city officials would act in stereotypical fear-based, racist, fundamentalist Christian and ignorant ways. Come to think of it … it is fairly predictable, but in any case you’re wrong.
I’m with ya Danny. The principal and cops goofed here no doubt, but 14 year old boy shouldn’t be that clueless either. Obviously a very smart kid, but maybe trolling for attention, and got in too deep, is my guess.
And The Intercept spinning any contrary thoughts/sound bytes into an “hey look Rs are dumb” (we know) article is on par with the rest of the media. Zzzzzzzzz.
14 year old boy shouldn’t be that clueless either.
Really? Amazing that someone who participates in and, presumably, reads comment sections where there is no dearth of evidence for the fact that a far too high percentage of adults in our society are clueless finds it suspicious in a teenager.
“hey look Rs are dumb” (we know)
Is there some reason that this bit of factual background, which tells us something about the company kept in high political circles of this country, is inappropriate? Have you really missed the coverage at TI that accuses democrats of foolish and/or suspect political relationships as well? Why do you find it boring to be provided with material proof of the influences involved with the political process? Especially such heinous ones as this. :-s
Correct!
Because, according to Freud, sometimes a clock is an objectification of repressed, pseudo-paranoid, race-baiting, attention-seeking behavior to impress authority figures.
In short, Ahmed wanted to kill your father and sleep with your mother.
Here we go, again.
This twisted dimwitted pseudo-nation of insecurity-obsessed predators
is leaking its ever-growing bloated store of toxins which will
be increasingly released into the world
for the private monetary profits of warmongering contractors.
This release of toxins will not be limited to the perverts on the republican
team.
Just as with the Project for the New American Century’s (PNAC)
design for the illegal brutality of the war with Iraq,
the democrats will provide more than enough support
for the necessary LIES which will precede the next major assault
(which will most likely be against Iran).
If you think this is just an example of republican perversity,
you are forgetting the importance of Joe Biden, John Kerry, and Hillary Clinton
in starting the war of aggression against Iraq.
Each of them was rewarded with the highest levels of power for
their roles in making money for the war contractors.
This perverse bullying of a kid in Texas is just a tiny hint of what is coming
when Obama’s “deal” with Iran (which is based on LIES)
will be used as a way to start a more aggressive
assault in the not too distant future.
The republicans are openly pushing for what the democrats
will help make happen for the benefit of
private corporate profits,
upon which they all depend.
Yes, the half without any explosives attached.
I never really appreciated how much paranoia will destroy you, or your society, until recently.
Quite the trick to get people that f’ed up.
The Dallas Morning news has good details on this event. They report his tech/engineering teacher was like “cool, but keep it in your bag.” Which is a reasonable reaction given the “see something say something” fear mongering directive we’ve been provided with from the Obama Admin. The English teacher is the one to later escalate it. Why she didn’t connect with the tech teacher or someone who knows the character of the kid (assuming she didn’t given early in school year) first is a fair question. The principal should have done the same. Maybe the kid brought it in to purposely get attention? Maybe he’s a loner that has had trouble connecting. We are supposed to flag that type right and step in? I’d suggest most American kids that age know what a bomb looks like from video games, tv, internet. Especially if they are researching the Internet for circuitry how-to, soldering, etc. Still, the adults should have been like “dude…cool but…” and ended it there. Ultimately, when you call the cops you get cop.
Come on. Everyone knows Ahmed was half a terrorist – he is a Muslim, after all. Or should that fraction be larger? (Not serious, in case you are wondering.)
What has this country become?
The “ignorance” of so called “Think Tank Pundits” is scarier and more worrisome than the alleged threat from a “home made clock”, invented by a 14 year old brilliant student!
Not just ignorance – – if you ever have difficulty getting to sleep at night, just peruse the membership file of various so-called think tanks, then compare to the previous CIA-involved foreign administrations of blood dictators (e.g., Pinochet in Chile) and learn that they end up in America with those think tank jobs!
Sure and so is every damned digital watch ever made, every phone, tablet, or kitchen timer capable of time keeping. The push for ignorance and bigotry is so sad, but we can’t seem to find any politicians willing to really call it out for what it is.
Exactly. Anything with a clock or timer could potentially be a bomb. So, by their logic, virtually everyone, including themselves, should be arrested on suspicion of planning a bombing.