Skeptic Friends Network

Username:
Password:
Save Password
Forgot your Password?
Home | Forums | Active Topics | Active Polls | Register | FAQ | Contact Us  
  Connect: Chat | SFN Messenger | Buddy List | Members
Personalize: Profile | My Page | Forum Bookmarks  
 All Forums
 Our Skeptic Forums
 Politics
 Police with gas masks for children riding bikes?
 New Topic  Reply to Topic
 Printer Friendly Bookmark this Topic BookMark Topic
Author Previous Topic Topic Next Topic  

JEROME DA GNOME
BANNED

2418 Posts

Posted - 07/03/2007 :  20:41:56  Show Profile Send JEROME DA GNOME a Private Message  Reply with Quote
When others are oppressed no one is truly free.


Do we live in a police state?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmhU2597PCM




What a man believes upon grossly insufficient evidence is an index into his desires -- desires of which he himself is often unconscious. If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way. - Bertrand Russell

Ricky
SFN Die Hard

USA
4907 Posts

Posted - 07/03/2007 :  21:59:09   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Send Ricky an AOL message Send Ricky a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Don't you see the real conspiracy, Jerome? Bikers are starting to rise up and overthrow the oppressors: skateboarders. For too long they have had to have their parents pay tax dollars so that the skateboarders could have their private parks. Well no more!

And did you see, they even infiltrated the skateboarder ranks! Why else would a skateboarder help out a biker? And the police too! And not just the low level cops on the beat, but the ranking official. He released the biker! This thing might go all the way up to the White House.

Why continue? Because we must. Because we have the call. Because it is nobler to fight for rationality without winning than to give up in the face of continued defeats. Because whatever true progress humanity makes is through the rationality of the occasional individual and because any one individual we may win for the cause may do more for humanity than a hundred thousand who hug their superstitions to their breast.
- Isaac Asimov
Go to Top of Page

JEROME DA GNOME
BANNED

2418 Posts

Posted - 07/03/2007 :  22:13:35   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send JEROME DA GNOME a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by Ricky

Don't you see the real conspiracy, Jerome? Bikers are starting to rise up and overthrow the oppressors: skateboarders. For too long they have had to have their parents pay tax dollars so that the skateboarders could have their private parks. Well no more!

And did you see, they even infiltrated the skateboarder ranks! Why else would a skateboarder help out a biker? And the police too! And not just the low level cops on the beat, but the ranking official. He released the biker! This thing might go all the way up to the White House.



This is politics, not conspiracy.

Why do you think the police need to arrest children for riding bikes in the wrong place?


What a man believes upon grossly insufficient evidence is an index into his desires -- desires of which he himself is often unconscious. If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way. - Bertrand Russell
Go to Top of Page

Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26020 Posts

Posted - 07/03/2007 :  22:57:05   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by JEROME DA GNOME

Do we live in a police state?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmhU2597PCM
Not any more.

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too.
Go to Top of Page

JEROME DA GNOME
BANNED

2418 Posts

Posted - 07/04/2007 :  01:02:14   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send JEROME DA GNOME a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by Dave W.

Originally posted by JEROME DA GNOME

Do we live in a police state?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmhU2597PCM
Not any more.



The point is not the restriction. The action taken by the government in response to the infraction of the restriction are in question.


What a man believes upon grossly insufficient evidence is an index into his desires -- desires of which he himself is often unconscious. If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way. - Bertrand Russell
Go to Top of Page

Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26020 Posts

Posted - 07/04/2007 :  07:29:51   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by JEROME DA GNOME

The action taken by the government in response to the infraction of the restriction are in question.
No, it's actually the reason behind the action that's in question, and addressed in part by the article I linked to.

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too.
Go to Top of Page

Mycroft
Skeptic Friend

USA
427 Posts

Posted - 07/04/2007 :  09:30:48   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Mycroft a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by JEROME DA GNOME

When others are oppressed no one is truly free.


Do we live in a police state?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmhU2597PCM






If not being allowed to ride a bike in a skatepark is, in your opinion, an example of "oppression", then there is something seriously wrong with your world-view.
Go to Top of Page

Kil
Evil Skeptic

USA
13476 Posts

Posted - 07/04/2007 :  10:21:08   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Kil's Homepage  Send Kil an AOL message  Send Kil a Yahoo! Message Send Kil a Private Message  Reply with Quote
One way the system works is by protesting a law that you think is unfair or bad in some way. Most often you do that by breaking the law and testing it in court. Or, like these kids did, break the law in a more or less organized way to bring attention to the problem.

Civil disobedience is a tried and true method to change some things. Of course, doing that means you must be willing to accept the consequences for taking part in such an action.

What I see here is one method for bringing about change working. The cops were sworn to uphold the law, stupid as it was, and were just doing their job. I bet they hated every moment of it. And no one got gassed…

Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.

Why not question something for a change?

Genetic Literacy Project
Go to Top of Page

JEROME DA GNOME
BANNED

2418 Posts

Posted - 07/04/2007 :  11:26:36   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send JEROME DA GNOME a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by Mycroft

Originally posted by JEROME DA GNOME

When others are oppressed no one is truly free.


Do we live in a police state?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmhU2597PCM






If not being allowed to ride a bike in a skatepark is, in your opinion, an example of "oppression", then there is something seriously wrong with your world-view.



When the smallest infractions of law by children are met with police prepared with gas masks and helicopter surveillance, no citizen is free from the potential oppression of the State. When laws become innumerable all become lawbreakers, the selective enforcement of unknown laws is not freedom.




What a man believes upon grossly insufficient evidence is an index into his desires -- desires of which he himself is often unconscious. If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way. - Bertrand Russell
Go to Top of Page

Kil
Evil Skeptic

USA
13476 Posts

Posted - 07/04/2007 :  11:49:32   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Kil's Homepage  Send Kil an AOL message  Send Kil a Yahoo! Message Send Kil a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Jerome:
When laws become innumerable all become lawbreakers, the selective enforcement of unknown laws is not freedom.

That might be true, were this an example of that. But in the meantime:

When my aunt grows nuts, she will be my uncle…

Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.

Why not question something for a change?

Genetic Literacy Project
Go to Top of Page

JEROME DA GNOME
BANNED

2418 Posts

Posted - 07/04/2007 :  12:20:05   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send JEROME DA GNOME a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by Kil

Jerome:
When laws become innumerable all become lawbreakers, the selective enforcement of unknown laws is not freedom.

That might be true, were this an example of that. But in the meantime:

When my aunt grows nuts, she will be my uncle…



http://blogs.chron.com/cityhall/archives/2007/06/well_that_licen.html

"But I hadn't before noticed the dealer bracket around the license plate -- until I realized other officers were ticketing thousands of local motorists for the same "obstruction" on their vehicles."

Police Chief Harold Hurtt said officers might still be issuing the $98 tickets until September.

They've done so at a rate of roughly 2,000 per month, according to a database of citations from Jan. 1 to June 1 obtained under the Texas Public Information Act.

"It's the law, and it's our job not to interpret but to follow," Hurtt said. "When that law takes effect in September, then we will abide by the changes."

"So, I asked, should the mayor get a ticket?

Hurtt joked:

"We have discretion, and we use discretion. In this case, we use discretion."



Looks like your aunt in growing some balls.

What a man believes upon grossly insufficient evidence is an index into his desires -- desires of which he himself is often unconscious. If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way. - Bertrand Russell
Go to Top of Page

Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26020 Posts

Posted - 07/04/2007 :  21:17:37   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Here you go, Jerome.

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too.
Go to Top of Page

moakley
SFN Regular

USA
1888 Posts

Posted - 07/05/2007 :  05:18:43   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send moakley a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by JEROME DA GNOME

When the smallest infractions of law by children are met with police prepared with gas masks and helicopter surveillance, no citizen is free from the potential oppression of the State. When laws become innumerable all become lawbreakers, the selective enforcement of unknown laws is not freedom.
Kil nailed this one. And the Young fellow in the video offered a reasonable alternative. Separate times for use by boarders and bikers. Otherwise, boarders and bikers using the facility at the same time at different speeds, on different equipment, accidents will happen. Accidents with the potential to result in something much greater than a "Scar Story". Who owns that liability? Seems to me that the best the city can do is to just fill it in and plant grass.

Life is good

Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned. -Anonymous
Go to Top of Page

JEROME DA GNOME
BANNED

2418 Posts

Posted - 07/05/2007 :  09:40:07   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send JEROME DA GNOME a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by Dave W.

Here you go, Jerome.



I have seen that. Amazing is it not.


What a man believes upon grossly insufficient evidence is an index into his desires -- desires of which he himself is often unconscious. If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way. - Bertrand Russell
Go to Top of Page
  Previous Topic Topic Next Topic  
 New Topic  Reply to Topic
 Printer Friendly Bookmark this Topic BookMark Topic
Jump To:

The mission of the Skeptic Friends Network is to promote skepticism, critical thinking, science and logic as the best methods for evaluating all claims of fact, and we invite active participation by our members to create a skeptical community with a wide variety of viewpoints and expertise.


Home | Skeptic Forums | Skeptic Summary | The Kil Report | Creation/Evolution | Rationally Speaking | Skeptillaneous | About Skepticism | Fan Mail | Claims List | Calendar & Events | Skeptic Links | Book Reviews | Gift Shop | SFN on Facebook | Staff | Contact Us

Skeptic Friends Network
© 2008 Skeptic Friends Network Go To Top Of Page
This page was generated in 0.11 seconds.
Powered by @tomic Studio
Snitz Forums 2000