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If they didn't ask it's not a legal search, they could've found crack and it would be inadmissible in court as long as you could prove it was a warrantless search that you didn't give permission for.

Good thing I hid all the crack before this happened.

My fortune cookie from earlier that I just now opened: "Human Rights: Know Them, Demand Them, Defend Them."

I am dead serious. Guess it's time to apply for that job at CNN.

There's footage of Nicole Slazar's arrest on youtube if you look around. Here's a small snippet.

P.S. Thanks Jenne

Obstruction of the press is a good point, but I don't think that it's the members of the press that are protected from obstruction but rather the reporting. I could be wrong...

Funnily enough, not 2 hours after I posted that last post I was pulled over for having a "dim" headlight. Entire contents of my stuff and car were searched (they didn't even ask), everyone pulled out of the car, and one of the passengers was taken into a campus police station and then released for the contents of their pockets. About $300, no receipt.

I vaguely remembered something about being careful what I posted here, but still...  Can't wait to get out of NY. 

"Dear Penthouse: ..."

I'm not a fan of cynicism, but the line between what happens to other unfortunate people and what can happen to you is very thin. Every once in a while you get moments that bring this to light, but I try to keep it in the back of my mind just in case.

Yes, I CAN get into a car accident.
No, I am NOT immune to disease or poverty.
Yes, I CAN get arrested for no good reason. 
Yes, there IS a chance that my loved ones will turn Republican.

But, you know, I bet most of those people will be released eventually and not charged with anything substantial. So there is that.

They arrested Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar? 

It still surprises me that people think that they are safe from arrest as long as they're not commiting a crime. I don't think that's been true for a while.

Ever, really.

I understand that there were windows being smashed, but 300 people is a lot of arrests. 

11/10, if only for making "You putrid piles of rancid shit" sound elegant.

The plungers sit adjacent to two overturned rubber duckies (pink, green), the war of bathrooms brought kitchenside and turned to a scrubbing bubbles massacre.

The plungers, victorious and sparkling in that victory and wearing their Bath Center sticker flags with pride, are even now (in their shining hour) slightly bent in the handle, remembering the sacrifice of those who have fallen before them. Sponge, paper towel, bleach stained comrades, all gone now and left to that trashcan wasteland to be buried in time by mass grave landfill machines. Still the plungers look towards the door and the future, hopeful.  

Pink duckie gazes lifeless out of one eye. Once it floated free, a vibrant and delightful guardian of porcelain. Now it's nothing more than a hollow squeaking depiction of defeat encircled in the hula hoop of it's stoic shame. It's brother Green has been thrown a short distance away but they remain joined by death and the bubblebath patina that they still wear around their heads like skewed halos.

It is the end of an era and bathtime.



Don't ask me why these things are in DS#3's kitchen. I don't know WTF either.

God! save the Queen!

What's to get?  

Edited to say: Oh wait. Wow. Now I think it's about Cheetos.

Wow, this is really, really cool. Way too complex for me, but interesting.

I'd like to hear more if you've got it but it might be difficult to follow. What would you recommend as a starting point?

I liked it.

Thanks Bob  

Very good. You've definitely given me a lot to think about. Just a few thoughts:

I've said this before, but there are apparently parts of the brain that are responsible for the "Ultimate Cosmic Meaning" feeling that humans get. Is it the meaningfulness of the object that is viewed/thought about/heard/etc. that causes the feeling, or the feeling that gives these object significance? I don't think it matters, and this to me is incredibly important when we're considering the impact of religion and science on the human race.

You've admitted that the scope of human knowledge is pretty small. Who's to say that there isn't some evolutionary force in action that we won't see the effects of for a long time? I think it's wrong to look at each specific action as either for evolution or superfluous. We're constantly in flux, and something that may seem meaningless now can prove to be essential for the human race later. Humans have evolved to the point that we have by thinking through our feelings. We sense a greater mystery and work to understand it, and while we're doing so we expand our minds and add to the larger wealth of human thought and knowledge. Working through these problems (i.e. contemplating the unknown) can give us the mental chops we need to solve other problems dealing with survival. We think through so that we can understand and then teach others, and preach, and spread knowledge. Communication for the masses has been very instrumental to the human race populating the world, and religion at some key points in time was the only connective and enlightening force. This ability to test and explore and actively seek out or own way of evolving is in and of itself an evolutionary trait.  

I would venture a guess that people seeing spirits is not in opposition to scientific discovery. I think that is a misconception that many dogmatic religions use to explain away various inconsistencies on their part, but dogma is not spirituality. People may have evolved past the religious beliefs of our ancestors and our science may reflect that, but maybe it was the point to actively work on understanding the concept of God ourselves, instead of stubbornly sticking to the perception of what God was and meant. There is something there that humans sense and feel, and despite where that feeling comes from (Christ, God, Krishna, Buddha, Porn, Pop Rocks) it pushes us to explore it.

Science can work for the spiritual realm as well. Newton himself worked on and wrote the Principia Mathematica to solve the greater mystery that he saw, one that for him was entirely spiritual and religious. He believed that if God made the world then we should be able to see and define HOW things work, how he made it. He was trying to understand God through natural phenomenon. That feeling of spiritual connection that was produced by those chemicals in his brain was triggered by scientific exploration, and for him it didn't lesson those beliefs in any way but strengthened them. They have meaning regardless of how they were produced. In terms of ghosties there may be some scientific explanation for the ways we SEE these things, but would that give the phenomenon itself any less meaning? Anything, in my mind, that hints at something to be discovered or explained will trigger humans to push further and ultimately have a changing effect on our culture, which in turn will impact our lives and how humans view and deal with things.

Unless people are stuck on spiritual phenomenon being explained by their own specific belief or explanation, i.e. this image is of a ghost that lived 400 years ago and was murdered and if you try to prove me wrong then you are simply one of those evil scientists who doesn't believe. Or a scientist saying that we can not explain a certain phenomenon but it obviously MUST be fake because of common sense. Bad science. Again, I would consider that dogma vs. spirituality.

My point? It doesn't matter if there is a scientific explanation for spiritual feelings and phenomenon, and spiritual phenomenon does not always disprove science or vice versa. The two can and do work in tandem very well, and religion can certainly play an important role in the evolution of humans as a social/tribal creature. Modern science may seem sterile and indifferent but at it's core it's organic. Scientists are driven by the same feeling that pushes people to be religious. Potatoes Potahtoes. Just because we can be explained in technical and chemical terms does not give our lives any less significance.

Science and spirituality? Ultimately, the same damn thing. I suppose you could call it mysticism. I need to stop now or I'll keep adding stuff  

Bring your Magic: The Gathering cards!

Well when you put it THAT way...

Are we talking dress sock or more of a plain white athletic deal? Calve length or ankle? (oh, the joke possibilities!)

I wouldn't trust this lawyer as I suspect that he accepts semen sock payments.

Without going out of your door, you can know all things on earth.

Alright, we'll make it $30.99 and I'll throw in one of those Igia microdermabrasion kits.