[Ansteorra] just read the link

[Chris Zakes]

At 12:32 AM 12/18/2006, you wrote:

>Each year I start out the school year with the Stupid People lesson. 
>Why do we have ____ rule...because someone was not smart enough to 
>know not to do ___ so we had to create a rule to stop a stupid 
>person from doing a stupid thing. Sadly that also means that we are 
>not allowed to something that is not stupid, but falls into the same area.
>
>   I drive my car the speed that I am comfortable. Strangely it does 
> seem to be around the speed limit. But that limit is there to stop 
> at least slow some of those who do not know their controlled 
> comfort speed and would otherwise exceed it drastically. But sadly 
> also slows that person down whose controlled comfort speed is 
> higher than the posted limit.
>
>   Yes, sometime we are giving up freedoms to help keep others safer.
>
>   I am one of those who must enforce it in the classroom...and I 
> have dealt with guns, knives, kids beating on the back end of live 
> bullets, .... and I have only taught up to 8th grade.

Yes,  but... is someone with a *picture* of a sword, knife, gun or 
live bullet the same as *having* that weapon? Do you remove or black 
out all such pictures from your textbooks? What about the words 
themselves? To my mind this is verging into thought crime.

And it still doesn't address the double standard of having a school 
mascot who carries a gun, or allowing prop weapons in school plays.


>If we could give one person a rule that only affect them...life 
>would be a lot different, but people would say that that was just 
>not fair. Thus zero tolerance...for all, not just for some.

There's a perfectly good rule for such cases: Tivar's Rule #10. Don't 
be stupid.

         -Tivar Moondragon