[Coco] OT - Kid gets arrested for building a clock

[Gene Heskett]

On Thursday 17 September 2015 19:34:03 James C. Hrubik wrote:

> On Sep 17, 2015, at 6:49 PM, Gene Heskett <gheskett at wdtv.com> wrote:
> > On Thursday 17 September 2015 11:38:31 Brian Blake wrote:
> >> The last thing I'll say on this subject:
> >>
> >> Nobody knows the full story - only what the media reported. People
> >> are demonizing the school and police for acting on something they
> >> saw suspicious, and maybe 1 ot of 10 people might recognize for
> >> what it was - a clock. None of us are qualified to sit in judgement
> >> of these people. We are neither judge nor jury.
> >
> > OTOH, Brian, I'd say at least 1/3rd of us on this list could
> > pronounce it "just a clock, what the hell is the fuss all about
> > anyway?" with only a rather quick and cursory inspection of it.
> >
> > The real problem is getting TPTB to recognize, and accept the
> > expertise carrying persons pronouncement, and then go on about their
> > daily tasks, which should not include sending out for more dirt so
> > they can make a mountain the size of K2 out of a pimple.
> >
> > Cheers, Gene Heskett
> > --
> > "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
> > soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
> > -Ed Howdershelt (Author)
> > Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>
>
> Well, Sir Eugene, I would hope that more than 1/3 of the folks on this
> list would know what a clock looks like. 

Of that I am sure, but how many would have what it takes to note a 3rd 
wire leaving, which could be the trigger for a bomb.

> We have a general epidemic 
> of undereducated educators in this country.  If the average age of a
> primary school teacher is 35, that means the average teacher has never
> seen a rotary phone in use.  Give a kid a yo-yo nowadays, and you
> could be accused of supplying a terrorist weapon to a minor.

Point taken, unfortunately too true for my comfort.

I am impressed with the level of intelligence that A.C.Clark once tried 
to calibrate when he said "any sufficiently advanced technology is 
in-destinguishable from magic."

We have advanced that technology so fast in the last 100 years, that 
there is simply no way that anyone willing to work as a school teacher 
because they do not have the technical know how to get a job in industry 
that pays 3 or 5 times what the teacher can make.

So its self-perpetuating.

And here I sit, preaching to the choir, married to a now retired school 
teacher for 26 years this December, taught grammar school level music.  
But 95% of the time, she has no clue what it is that I am doing around 
here.  To her, the gun cabinet I made 15 years ago now, that locks every 
door on it by closing the one drawer with a lock on it, is magic.  And 
she explains it to visitors as "after all, he IS an engineer".  The fact 
that I have been doing broadcast engineering since 1962, is based 100% 
on my electronics knowledge, but the only "diploma" on the wall is a 
degree from the University of Hard Knocks, given by a group based at 
Alderson-Brodus University (she is a graduate of their music school) to 
anyone with the sheckles to make a donation to the student loan fund AND 
whose education did not go beyond high school.

She is after me to go see a lawyer and get us some wills made, because 
she has no clue what to do with the stuff I have amassed over the 26 
years we've been together.  Its on my bucket list.  But first I've made 
preps for about $1150 in Mahogany to be delivered tomorrow afternoon, 
and Saturday morning I head up to the public library in Morgantown and 
give then $40 to sit for their test and see if I qualify for a Mensa 
membership.

Then I have 2 or 3 days to fine tune the last mills software, clear off 
the table saw, and start cutting up that Mahogany to make 3 more of the 
cedar lined blanket chests that were featured on the front cover of last 
Decembers issue of Fine WoodWorking.  The aromatic cedar lining is my 
addition to the magazine design.  My youngest son and his lady were here 
in July when the first one was about done, looked it over and pronounced 
that it was "wood porn".  So I am making 3 more, so there will be one 
for each of my surviving children, all boys now.

Then I'll have to load 3 of them up and deliver them to the Nebraska and 
Kansas territories.  The last one goes to the east coast, but I will 
probably meet that son at a state line to make the transfer since Md has 
hacked the CWP registries of most of the states east of the river, 
connecting license plate numbers with the fact that I also have a CWP.  
The last guy they stopped spent a considerable amount of time in custody  
and money before they would believe that his weapon was locked in a safe 
at his residence in FL since he knew he was coming north. They 
dismantled his car looking for it, doing several thousand in damages & 
left it that way when they gave it back to him, with no apologies for 
the damage. So I will not enter Maryland if I can help it.

Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>