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EEllis wrote:

Well the reports indicated that the device was taken by a teacher and was found not to be a bomb by school resource officers. The police were called not on a bomb but a hoax device. It certainly seems to give what many people believe to be the impression of a possible bomb. Then you add in the situation, plugging in the device drawing attention to it in an english class. The refusal to give any explanation. You certainly have the framework for charges. I tend not to second guess people on site unless I have some reason and I haven't seen that here. :shrug: Seems like the kid brought the grief on himself.

I'm not sure that is factual. It certainly doesn't square with initial versions, where the teacher and the officer said that the student repeatedly claimed it was a clock, and only that, that several hours elapsed between the first teacher seeing it and the cops getting a call. Of course, once the press conference with CAIR and lawyers was held, and Obama tweeted an invite, the networks started running with it and asking questions, the stakes got higher and stories refined.

If there was a rational fear of a possible bomb, and no evacuation ordered, that seems like a problem.

I didn't think you have to second guess. The first guess is appalling enough.

EEllis wrote:


So you condemned the adults involved because they thought the clock looked like a bomb and you had no idea what it looked like? Since bombs can look like ordinary items the fact that the clock looks like a bomb should mean nothing? Ok, I don't get your point but it's not something I'm going to get worked up over. Honestly, and I'm not trying to say this is anyone in particular here, but it seems people just enjoy getting worked up. Certainly I have to wonder why the kid was arrested, tho one article seemed to indicate that it seemed like the kid was not acting like someone who just brought a science project to school not realizing the possible consequences, but the instant and absolute certainty that there was no basis for any concern smacks of either faux outrage or naivety.

There was no evacuation of the school, so the clown show was stupidity on the part of the school and then the cops, and the ongoing attempts to "improve their lie" to shift attention to the family, to anybody else, so they would be seen as justified in overreacting.

Either it was dangerous, or potentially so, and everyone should have gotten out on the double, or it was seen to be harmless and calling the cops and the subsequent events were appalling nonsense.

I'm not worked up over this. It happened. I am concerned that people in charge are so ahhh, ehhh, uhhh, disingenuous.

EEllis wrote:

JALLEN wrote:

mrvmax wrote:A former EOD tech I worked with posted this, you experts can brush up on your IED ID.
https://scontent-dfw1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hp ... e=569A8151

Very droll!

There is a huge difference between looking at pictures, and looking at actual devices sitting on the desk in front of you.

I have to say I got a little chuckle out of that because all your comments were based off of you looking at a picture.

Actually, my comments were mostly made before any pictures of the " device" were promulgated. Moreover, the idiots who created this ruckus HAD the device sitting in front of them when they acted, if that's what you want to call it. It wasn't ominous enough to have students and staff evacuated on the double.

The device that brought down the Pan Am flight in Scotland was determined to be explosives packed into an ordinary boom box, detonated by some sort of pressure timing device. My impression is that a great many IEDs are fashioned from ordinary cellphones, wired to explosives. Are we now to ban computers, laptops, tablets, cellphones and all electronic devices, maybe set up a TSA like agency at every school to search the chirren entering and departing, like a bunch of monkeys examining a baritone sax, with elaborate rules about what can be brought onto school grounds?

I think we would be far, far better off to close the public schools and send kids to privately organized outfits where learning is the primary goal, not these various notions of political correctness.

mrvmax wrote:A former EOD tech I worked with posted this, you experts can brush up on your IED ID.
https://scontent-dfw1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hp ... e=569A8151

Very droll!

There is a huge difference between looking at pictures, and looking at actual devices sitting on the desk in front of you.

rp_photo wrote:I don't see this as Islamophobia in "backwards" Texas, but instead another case of runaway Zero Tolerance in schools across the US.

But it does hit a triple sweet spot for Liberals in that it happened to someone who was Black and Muslim in the state they despise most, thus the selective outrage from the President and others.

The kid is not black. He 's Arabic.

This was a job for the Geek Squad, if at all, not the bomb squad.

One of the detriments of enforcing the mantra that "all men are created equal" in the workplace, to the end that employees must be chosen to reflect whatever notions of demographics may be, is that you seldom end up with the most capable, the most competent, caring, motivated.

Given how our educational industry is structured, it is not surprising that these incidents occur, government jobs, heavily unionized, political correctness mandated, and Equal Opportunity rigidly enforced, among other factors. Thinking for oneself is rigidly discouraged, which right there courts disaster.

"All men are created equal" is a legal fiction, a presumption of how we want people treated before the courts, and other government officers, not unlike "every man is presumed to know the law," or "the land of the free and the home of the brave," more akin to statements of goals and aspirations rather than a reflection of actual reality. Every woman who has had more than one boyfriend knows it isn't true.

When we insist that it is really true and impose it in other situations, some peculiar, often hilarious and occasionally disastrous results ensue.

I don't think you get very far trying to analyze the circuit from this rather poor picture, even if you know what you are doing. If you don't, it is hopeless.

There is a 9 v battery connector, as well as a 110VAC plug which might drive the transformer in the foreground. I'd guess it was not a particularly efficient circuit, probably cobb'd together with what was on hand rather than how it could be done the best.

That doesn't excuse the silly over reaction of the school staff, or the police.

I saw in the Fox News scroll just now the kid is still suspended.

Come on, man!

It's hard to see details in the photo, but it has AC power, a couple of circuit boards, a display. It could be a clock, a digital voltmeter, or both, any number of things, not including a bomb or baritone sax, or a left handed IWB for a Glock, either.

I enjoy and try to exercise my sense of the absurd as often as possible, but this one will wear me out.

Oh, please!

It looks no more like a bomb than a baritone sax.

Good grief!

EEllis wrote:I haven't seen a pic of the clock. Is it possible that the kid made a "Bomb" clock? We have all seen those novelty clocks and I wouldn't be shocked if a 14yo kid just didn't think it through and made something similar as a joke. I would expect the press to mention it if so, but considering that would mean there was no story, the fact that the clock really does look, and was designed to look, like a bomb might just be left out. Why report the truth when you can make people look stupid and racist.

These people need no help.

My guess, having not seen the picture, is that there is nothing remotely sinister about this device, except to the profoundly superstitious and ignorant.

What does a bomb look like?

An update:

Update at 11:20 a.m. Wednesday: At a press conference this morning, Irving Police Chief Larry Boyd said Ahmed Mohamed was arrested for bringing "a hoax bomb" to school -- and not a clock, as Mohamed said he repeatedly told his teachers.

But, Boyd said, "we are confident it's not an explosive device" intended to cause "alarm." Rather, he said, officers determined it was "a hoax bomb" and a "naive accident."

As a result, he said, no charges will be filed against Ahmed, and "the case is considered closed." He also said "the reaction would have been the same regardless" of the student's skin color.

Irving police released a photo of the clock during the press conference.

Shortly after the announcement, President Barack Obama extended a Twitter invitation for Ahmed to bring his "cool clock" to the White House. "We should inspire more kids like you to make America great," the tweet read.

This seems to be the applicable statute:

(a) A person commits an offense if the person knowingly manufactures, sells, purchases, transports, or possesses a hoax bomb with intent to use the hoax bomb to:
(1) make another believe that the hoax bomb is an explosive or incendiary device; or
(2) cause alarm or reaction of any type by an official of a public safety agency or volunteer agency organized to deal with emergencies.
(b) An offense under this section is a Class A misdemeanor.

- See more at: http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/txstatutes/ ... f7Uuc.dpuf

VMI77 wrote:
However, I think you're looking at the purpose of the public school system from the wrong perspective. Their ostensible purpose is education and from that perspective they're actually worse than a waste of money. However, they're part of the left's long game and their primary purpose is actually political indoctrination and obedience training, and from that perspective they're a pretty good investment.

I have no quarrels with that.

I have long advocated closing the schools. Private organizations would spring up to offer education that parents could chose in the marketplace, everything from Rhodes Scholar prep to hog butchering, and if they didn't deliver, they would "take their business elsewhere."

I haven't figured out how to handle Friday night football, yet.

I just hope he doesn't want to take flying lessons. There were some Arabic teenagers taking flying lessons in San Diego who were, ahhh, discouraged, and frankly treated like a bunch of Japanese Americans in WWII about 14 years ago.

Many feel we have gone way past the Salem Witch trials, but until people start being willing to use their heads, this stupidity will persist.