14 most ridiculous things people today are being arrested for

Obviously we all have some libertarian leanings around here. I think there's an alarming truth in the content of this link, and it's going around on many sites, not just crazy ones.

http://www.pakalertpress.com/2010/12...-arrested-for/

A lot of this silliness has to do with school districts having police in the schools now, and relying on them to control the kiddies. This is an idea that I think should be reconsidered. IMHO if kids get used to police around them all the time they will get too comfortable with fooling with them, and then the police over-react to make it a test of wills.

#8 Back in 2008, a 13-year-old boy in Florida was actually arrested by police for farting in class.

LOL that must have been a horrendous fart Kid should be proud of that one.

When you stop letting kids be kids, you take something away from the life experience gained growing up. A simple fight should be just that, a simple fight. Break it up, sit the kids down, make them shake hands and move on. A kid bringing a Swiss army pocket knife to school should have it taken away and returned to the parents with a warning to the kid not to bring it again, not arrest the kid for it. The problem comes in when gang activity start infiltrating some of the schools etc. How do we stop kids from bringing more dangerous weapons to school? How do we stop active shooters from entering on to the school campus and wreaking havoc? Police used to have much more discretion in whom to arrest and when to arrest. Now Police Departments fear lawsuits more than they fear crime so they have taken much of the discretion away from Officers. All this serves to do is turn the public against the Police and waste valuable resources that the Police could be utilizing fighting "real" crime. Sorry to say there's too much stuff like the below story happening in our schools and college campuses. I'm really not sure what the answer is but it's definitely NOT harassing the public over petty things like lawns and recycling. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110106/...shooting_omaha

Did anyone read Thursday's Chronicle, particularly News of the Weird? There are always some interesting ones in there, but the headliner this week (not criminal, although a crime) is bizzare,

Of course, all the crooks that "go off half cocked" are my faves. Followed closely by "moralists" caught being "immoral".

The flurry of proposed legislation to restrict political speech, gun rights, etc. in the wake of the Tuscon shooting sums it up nicely.

Most Americans have become so docile, weak and feeble, that they look to government action and the police to solve every kind of violent disorder.

More people die from bee stings every year than from terrorists in the United States. There was no need to bankrupt the country, surrender our civil rights and create a police state to counter "terrorism."* But doing so was accepted because of the hysteria created by the media over the idiocy of the "shoe bomber," the "underwear bomber," the "Times Square smoking van," and the occasional young moron who fails to say NO to Federal Officers posing as terrorists and offering to give explosives to people who would otherwise never do anything.

Americans have to grow up and learn to put the threats in the world into some kind of perspective. They need to stop being engrossed and entertained by nonstop media coverage of dramatic though very occasional and rare violent events. They need to learn to accept that government and the police are not the answer to every fear they have in their otherwise insulated lives.

All of this of course is vastly facilitated by government itself, which is composed of empire-building careerists who love the idea of expanding their roles, and promising that they can deliver on conquering such threats. People accept that government cannot save them from mundane threats such as traffic accidents, but they turn to government to save them from "terrorists" because the government holds out they can do a fine job if the public will just give them more money, more power, and let them put their hands down their pants.

The threat of political violence and terror has been very good to the media, the government, military and intelligence bureaus. Without it they wouldn't have their jobs, or the glory of being "heroes."**

*I'm putting terrorism is quotes because it's legal definition has now been expanded to mean any kind of threat or violent crime, whether it's motive has any political agenda or not. Terrorism is only violence that has a political motive, not a personal or financial one. However all threats or acts of violence are now defined legally as "terroristic" to empower the state to react to these other crimes with increased authority which they otherwise would not have.

**This country lived through a bloody revolutionary war, colossal civil war, two world wars and fifty years of cold war sacrifice in places like Korea and Vietnam without the phony sentimentality of calling anyone a "hero," or a "warrior," or referring to this place a our "homeland." The reason for all this Orwellian exaggeration is because there's really nothing going on. If there was really anything going on there would be no need for such distorted language.

I certainly agree with some of your points. DHS (Department of Homeland Security) is the biggest fraud ever perpetrated on the American people. I also agree that the words "hero", "warrior" and others are thrown around much too loosely these days. Our government has certainly profited in many ways by these wars. No doubt about it.
I would caution however to think of the war in Afghanistan as "unnecessary".
The flip side of the coin is that there are plenty of individuals and governments using their people in much the same way you accuse our government of profiting from and using these wars to further their agenda.
There are hundreds of thousands of uneducated, ignorant and unemployed males roaming around the Middle East, Southwest Asia etc.
These young men are easily brainwashed, easily misled and easily used by the likes of Osama Bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri,Mahmoud Ahmadinejad etc.
If you think for one second that these "leaders" want these young men to get a "normal" education and live productive lives raising their families and living in peace, you would be mistaken. You see, that would leave people like Bin Laden, Zawahiri and Ahmadinejad powerless. They will always need an "enemy", real or imagined, to push their OWN agenda. It's debatable if we withdrew all our troops from the Middle East and withdrew every penny of financial support from Israel whether or not these leaders would loose their focus on the United States. Personally, I feel that as long as our nation prospers and has a standard of living higher than their own, these men will always demonize us as the "bad guy" to their people. It serves their purpose to stir the pot of hate because without it, they would be exposed for what they are. Poor leaders with no real answers as to how to move their countries forward in peace.
So yes, out government at times over exaggerates, it creates useless agencies and spends billions on unnecessary expenditures under the false pretense of security (I took part in just such a futile "show" of security the other night here in Afghanistan). At the same time, there is a real threat out there. As stated above, it's the hundreds of thousands of brainwashed, uneducated and jobless young men who are being told that Islam is the ONLY answer, that the West IS the enemy and that the only answer is the eventual destruction of the West. That's what they are being told. You can disagree with most of my points but the last point is fact. The preaching of hate against us has been going on for decades and it is reaching it's zenith at this moment in time.
DHS is a waste of money and resources. The way we're currently fighting the war in Afghanistan... we just may loose. Iraq is still a question mark in regards to it's future. But to deny that a threat exists or to minimize it's potential for harm to our Nation does not place the situation in its proper context.

There was an article in Sunday's paper in which a speaker was slamming "the wussifcation" of America. He says that we are afraid to take risks, unwilling to explore boundaries and won't let others take the same risks. And there are stupid rules that at the same time try to protect you and make you more at risk. You know what? If you try to drive on car on the streets wearing a helmet (SA2005 approved) you'll get a ticket. Four or five point seatbelts won't cut it, it's got to be that stupid lap & over the shoulder.

Okay, different point, different post. Everybody is saying about how obvious this guy was as to his instability and outright schizophrenia, and the public way he did it. Buy did "Homeland Security" (Motherland? Fatherland?) catch him? Yes, they couldn't predict exactly what he'd do, but before he did it he should have been on a diet of meloril and thorzaine.

But if I were to say here, or in an email I space space am blah blah blah going la la to more space to screw carny kill block Obama I'd be saying hi the the feebs by 3. I used to be paid to pick locks, crack computes and place computer related bugs. "They" do monitor. But not very well.

Completely agree with you that liberalism/progressivism is a cancer that is killing this country. Note original liberals where not as they are today they were taken over by progressives over the past 100 yrs.

I don't agree with you when you say "most Americans". I firmly believe the vast majority are not at all supportive of the constant nanny control government continues to force feed us. The problem is we're all trying to work our asses off and make a living and are wanting these politicians to do their jobs and they aren't. It's changing and ppl are having to speak out more on this and add these issues to their already full lists of issues to deal with. It's very aggrivating.

This country has been moving towards a police state since JFK was killed. Ask yourself - why was he killed? The agenda in the middle east and southeast Asia (the stans) is not about "nation building" its about building an Empire. Afghanistan is all about oil and drugs. DHS is just another step in the process. Its not about our "safety", the government could care less about us, its about money, power and absolute control. Oh and these are just "my opinions".

When this country was founded the only men who were INTENDED to be really free [and to which the Declaration of Independence was referring to]* were men who made their own living in some way rather than as someone else's employee. This included people who worked their own farms, as well as craftsmen, artists, professionals [esq.] and businessmen entrepreneurs.

At that time anyone who had to take orders from an employer, his authority, to pay his bills was little more than a "wage slave," who had to grovel and do whatever his "employer" told him to do.

Today almost everyone is an employee.

This is a product of industrialization perhaps, and we're all pretty used to it, but the dark side of it which our eighteenth century founders recognized has been forgotten by us.

When someone looks to some authority to issue him a paycheck as his only means of paying his bills he's gonna get pretty used to following OTHER PEOPLE'S ORDERS AND AGENDA.

When someone has a corporate or government job they get used to entering into a social contract where all their MATERIAL needs are met if they follow very specific rules.

This is the problem.

The employee/employer relationship is inherently authoritarian, hierarchical and absolutist. What's really pernicous about this system is that it yields such material prosperity. It's hard to criticize such as system as morally unsuitable when those who belong to it mostly live in huge houses, drive new cars, and enjoy tremendous health insurance coverage. Their kids are well clothed, decadant, and have no real worries in the world. Their kids become obsessed with what Kloe Kardashian will do, what colllege they will attend for their career goals, and who will be their employer. Once they become employed their chief concern is only how to please their boss, and how to get that next big promotion.

However when people accept this authoritarianism too much, and without reservation, they seek the same from our other institutions [principally government]. They fall into patrimonialism, collectivism, and other doctines destructive of any form of individualism. They adopt whatever the interest of their employers may be, and are brainwashed into believing that the interests of their employers are also their own and that of society at large. They come to believe that their employers, their government, and all authority is benevolent in all that they might do. Anyone who dissents is villified as malicious, crazy or criminal.

*many modern historians have tried to assert otherwise, and that Jefferson intended that "all men are created equal" meant all people, including women, indentured servants, slaves, men under arms, etc...
However there is no evidence of such, and it's very clear that Jefferson and almost everyone else considered women, slaves, men-under-arms, etc., to be of different status by birth or contract. Modern people who consider anyone with prejudices to be malevolent will never accept that the founders had such prejudices but possessed a sense of honor nonetheless...albeit a different sense of honor.
It was because their honor was disgraced as MEN by the crown that they put their own necks into a royal noose for reasons of honor. Honor was for them the most important thing in their lives because it made them different from the second class status which slaves, women, and others possessed. They lived in the world which had always been for thousands of years. Our standards have only been around for a hundred years or so therefore how can we blame them? It would have been impossible for them to have thought any differently.

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a monied aristocracy that has set the government at defiance. The issuing power (of money) should be taken away from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs." — Thomas Jefferson, U.S. President.

"Some people think the Federal Reserve Banks are the United States government's institutions. They are not government institutions. They are private credit monopolies which prey upon the people of the United States for the benefit of themselves and their foreign swindlers" — Congressional Record 12595-12603 — Louis T. McFadden, Chairman of the Committee on Banking and Currency (12 years) June 10, 1932

A new thread on the role of the Federal Reserve would be interesting.

I've seen central banks in underdeveloped countries used criminally to loot whole economies exactly as many in the U.S. saw the potential for. Anyone familiar with the boom-and-bust of the Mexican economy can see how that's happened there. When I did government work I had a window into the manipulations of the Mexican currency, who was doing it and how they profited thereby. It was totally rigged.

The fact is that the power to create a national currency by a privately-owned bank that could give money away to favored persons was the central national issue in American politics until the twentieth century.

The Federal Reserve may be accomplishing things better than if the currency were made by the Congress [as the Constitution states], but it's pretty clear that the friends of those who own the Federal Reserve are getting TRILLIONS in credit [free money] that no one else can get.

IMHO the owners of the Federal Reserve have misused their power to benefit themselves at everyone else's expense, and it's time we look for some alternatives. The fact that they insist on operating in secret should tell us all something.

I know it's hard for the rest of us to understand, but to the owners of a central bank there is no such thing as a shortage of money for themselves. Whenever they want more of it they just print it up and hand it to themselves or their buddies. It's the ultimate opulence, and achieved without any effort whatsoever, as if by magic. But it's not magic, but rather the ability to get a concession from the government to be the only source. It's like having a gold mine that never gives out...ever.

And the people of the country have no idea what's going on...