Intent is kind of a weak distinction, though I get you are imagining the minds of the prosecutors. The boy aims the gun at another and has no intent of at least making it sting a bit? They were playing around, yea he didn't mean to kill anyone, but he definitely meant to shoot him with it. He says he didn't think there was a BB in it, but come on, how do they repeatedly fire the gun and then all of a sudden a BB magically appears in it? They were shooting BBs at each other, just like most boys do at some point, to make it sting. Boys do that. On the other hand, the girl was conducting a science experiment to see what would happen and no one else was around. There was less intent to harm in her case than with the BB gun. But neither case warrants prosecution, of course.

Furthermore, it's ridiculous that anyone can think that NaOH and Al mixed with water in an 8 oz plastic water bottle could possibly result in an explosion that would come close to hurting anyone. First of all, a plastic water bottle could not possibly hold enough pressure to allow the hydrogen to reach flash point, but even if she had somehow ignited the hydrogen it would not have created a big enough explosion to hurt anyone (8 oz is not enough room to create a sufficient quantity of hydrogen). The "explosion" was the bottle popping under the pressure. It's no different than mixing Alka-Seltzer and soda, or baking soda and vinegar, in a plastic bottle and watching as the pressure "explodes" the bottle.

Apparently we should be jailing kids the world over for their scientific curiosity, particularly the dark ones.

And to GPs, seriously there is no need to "inject" race into the debate. We are not beyond race, by God I wish we were. Look at incarceration rates...if you think the colour of skin somehow genetically makes people more predisposed to crime, then you ARE the problem. There is no way to intelligently deny the prevalence and impact of racism, and the only people that try are those who wish to maintain their privilege in society. See GPs for examples.

I'm more talking to GPs than you, as you are clearly highlighting the absurdity of our litigious society rather than defending any of it.

Furthermore, policies that require constant password changes encourage people to use the same password with an incrementally changing number.

I use strong and varied passwords for important services (email, banking etc) and shitty repeated passwords for every stupid forum that wants me to sign up to participate.

Our ability to identify and quarantine disease is obviously what it was at the beginning of the 20th century. No big breakthroughs since then.

Exactly. We have the right bear secret compartments after all!

Well hopefully you're not telling present immigrants to go back to where they came from, then you don't have a problem. :)

Being a mutt (I am too) and coming here a couple hundred years ago doesn't give you entitlement over first nations and it doesn't give you entitlement to tell other immigrants like you that they should "go back to where they came from" or the right to complain about immigration.

No doubt. Good answer to all those who bitch about immigration now, because they probably aren't ready to move back to their country of origin.

Big difference is that now, the North American immigrants of today aren't committing genocide in their new homes. The comparison doesn't really hold up for that reason.

LOL

In other words: god damn immigrants! Go back where you came from!

Oh, Alberta. Canada's Texas.

Also your hawk/dove example is based largely on American tendencies. Religion and guns don't necessarily go hand in hand in other parts of the world.

I still prefer circle (or sphere if you must) over compass because it recognizes that communism and fascism are basically just the same sort of tyranny, but maybe with different propaganda.

I prefer to use a wheel rather than a line for the political spectrum, because at the extreme "ends" (fascism/communism) it basically looks the same.

North Korea is not socialist. The US is more fascist than NK is socialist (not that the US is actually fascist, but that's the point).

Isn't that exactly it? What to climate researchers have to gain by making up a conspiracy theory about global warming? Follow the money.

YESSSSSS!!!!! shut up and take my money!!!!

Also: http://www.ikea.com/

I'm a lifeguard, can I apply for royalties of the future earnings of every person I save? Same should apply for doctors/nurses/paramedics etc.

Getting paid repeatedly for the same work is fun!!1!!