Comments on: Pennsylvania kindergartener uses Hello Kitty bubble-gun at school, suspended for "terrorist threat"

By: Kimmo

Kimmo — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 03:36:00 +0000

I think this bloke really gets to the crux of this and many, many other issues here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty–HHErH4Q

It’s the guy who did the excellent Moon hoax not vid, if you saw that.

By: allenels

allenels — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 16:22:00 +0000

So nice to know that the inmates are solidly in control of, well everything. Poor, poor baby!

By: acousticbob

acousticbob — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 12:55:00 +0000

Did the gun fire one bubble for each trigger-pull, or was it a fully-automatic weapon, capable of firing a stream of multiple bubbles as long as the trigger is held?

By: corydodt

corydodt — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 03:34:00 +0000

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a comment with 80 likes. Well done, sir.

By: That_Anonymous_Coward

That_Anonymous_Coward — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 00:15:00 +0000

People stand in lines to get on flying metal tubes and have their privates fondled over cries of terrorism…
This is not a nightmare… this is our reality.

Sadly things will not change until you can convince the masses there isn’t actually a lone wolf terrorist hiding under their bed that they alone could stop if only the secret muslim leader of the country wasn’t trying to steal their guns.

By: That_Anonymous_Coward

That_Anonymous_Coward — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 00:12:00 +0000

And here I bet he was hoping the internet would forget him violating the law and then crying about it.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 22:46:00 +0000

What was the TSA doing at your school? And does your mommy know that you’re on Boing Boing?

By: ohbejoyful

ohbejoyful — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 21:01:00 +0000

Vaccinations, yes. Injections, most certainly. Shots? Never.

By: ohbejoyful

ohbejoyful — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 21:00:00 +0000

Punctuation is your friend. Use it, and readers will be able to understand what you are trying to say.

By: IronEdithKidd

IronEdithKidd — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 19:04:00 +0000

I think your expectations are too high. :-(

By: donniebnyc

donniebnyc — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 17:22:00 +0000

Every time I read a story like this I picture Bin Laden sitting on the ocean floor laughing and laughing and laughing.

He terrorized us once. His real accomplishment is getting us to terrorize ourselves every day.

He may be dead but he definitely won.

By: Michael Crumpton

Michael Crumpton — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 17:10:00 +0000

This kind of nonsense is old news, I had a purple and orange hot glue gun confiscated by the TSA 5 years ago because it was deemed a gun.

By: Gyrofrog

Gyrofrog — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 16:04:00 +0000

Surprisingly, no one else has mentioned this:
♫Hel-lo Kitty♫♫Hel-lo Kitty♫♫She’s the kitty♫♫What’s got no mouf♫

By: Gyrofrog

Gyrofrog — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 15:57:00 +0000

“Gyrovagues”… The Gyrofrog approves

By: Lucretia

Lucretia — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 15:44:00 +0000

This is the most rediulious thing I ‘ve ever heard of. In the first place , the child didn’t even have the TOY with her. Now are parents suppose to lock their children away for being children and only give the little cuddly TOYS. 2sd, Children at this age don’t even have a clue what is going on in the world, let alone their neighborhood.
Now if you want to stop child violence get rid of the violent games they can get to on the internet and at arcaids. Start monoriting their scocail net working. limit computer time.
If this was my child I’d also be suing someone.

By: Felton / Moderator

Felton / Moderator — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 13:52:00 +0000

Bubble gum? That’s plastique!

By: donovan acree

donovan acree — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 13:38:00 +0000

As an educator, I’d expect the school administrator would at least have a working understanding of the word ‘terrorism’.

By: euansmith

euansmith — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 13:06:00 +0000

Hitler? He was no better than a Nazi!

By: Bill McGonigle

Bill McGonigle — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 13:05:00 +0000

per usual, when we see people who ought to be rational acting in a way that seems irrational, we have to ask, “who benefits?”

In this case, the administrator(s) wants to have zero risk in any situation that could cause him to loose his job. He probably has many years in the system, is well-salaried, well-benefited, and has a pension coming fairly soon.

Being fired by a jumpy school board over some kid he doesn’t know with a Hello Kitty toy? No way, screw her, there’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

There are multiple perverse incentives in this sort of system, but given those incentives, it’s not surprising behavior.

By: Ray Perkins

Ray Perkins — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 11:55:00 +0000

I keep misreading that as “bubble-gum”. Might as well consider that a threat also.

By: brighton deepthroat

brighton deepthroat — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 09:37:00 +0000

“….bureaucratic hacks and worrywarts…”In other words ‘parents’. If they’re lucky.

By: brighton deepthroat

brighton deepthroat — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 09:36:00 +0000

A five year old using ‘myself’ correctly?

There’s still hope for the English language after all.

By: L_Mariachi

L_Mariachi — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 07:28:00 +0000

The government doesn’t have to enact statutes in order to restrict speech.

By: robuluz

robuluz — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 05:42:00 +0000

Thats what Hitler said!

By: orabji

orabji — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 05:19:00 +0000

You have to be connected. Greedspan got away with blowing bubbles…

By: benher

benher — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 04:15:00 +0000

Welp, at least she can get her youthful idealism about the fairness of the justice system out of her head early and skip straight to teenage cynicism.

By: redesigned

redesigned — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 03:48:00 +0000

I guess the National Bubble Association doesn’t have a strong enough government lobby.

By: s2redux

s2redux — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 03:44:00 +0000

I’d be happy if we followed a software update model — the current CFAA social firmware has a glaring security bug, and should be patched as soon as possible. Then that bug can be added to the list of issues that are being closely studied for the next major point-release. (And yeah, one danger of that model is that the folks who build the patches will do as great a job as Oracle Guess that’s why social firmware should be Open Source.)

By: ImmutableMichael

ImmutableMichael — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 02:27:00 +0000

Some people just want to step on butterflies.

By: That_Anonymous_Coward

That_Anonymous_Coward — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 02:06:00 +0000

And this is why they are doomed to fail… they don’t think.