Thoughtful Neutrino

[Thoughtful Neutrino @stitchphysics]

@guypbenson New Fad: States passing laws banning cell phones during the school day.
Old Habit continues: Nobody has the time or interest in enforcing the cell phone ban.
Nothing changes.

[W. C. Collier @WCCollier1]

@InsideLucysHead There is no universe in which no one in UK carries a gun. There is only a guaranteed future in which your oppressors carry guns.

[Thoughtful Neutrino @stitchphysics]

@WCCollier1 Thinking about this explanation of the source of empathy burnout. Reread your 2nd paragraph, but for high school teachers instead of police officers. Fights, cheating scams, vandalism, intimidation. Wish I could have the training you get.

[Thoughtful Neutrino @stitchphysics]

@ao3atmidnight yeah, the first couple of Reacher books are full of these

[W. C. Collier @WCCollier1]

I can tell you how this encounter would have gone in our little town, with our quintessentially American police force…

Something interesting to note: Aside from a rule, American police are doctrinally far more heavily armed and also far more aggressive that British police. By that I mean the doctrine itself is more aggressive. We are more apt to detain, more apt to use force, and more apt to use deadly force as a matter of doctrine.

Yet in my experience, at least in conservative towns, those same American police are far more laid back in their interaction with non-violent offenders. And they are far more likely to laugh in someone’s face when he tries to report a “speech offense.” So we get a report of a disturbance and racist language. Two units are dispatched. We roll up.

“Hey, what’s going on, guys.”

“He was calling me this that and the other thing.”

“Okay, bud, we’ll get to that. You want to step over there with this officer right quick? You can give him your statement. Hey, man, what about you. You okay?”

“Help. I’ve been stabbed.”

“Okay, where have you been stabbed?”

“My chest. I can’t breathe.”

“Let me look at that. … Oh, wow. You have been stabbed. Three forty, detain that male. Dispatch, I need EMS for an adult male with multiple stab wounds, reporting trouble breathing. Say right here, bud! Keep your hand on that!” And the officer runs to grab a first aid kit and begins the MARCH algorithm, to include chest seals.

Meanwhile, 340 is drawing his gun. “Turn around and put your hands on your head! Do it now! Get on your knees! Both of you, down on your knees now! Face away from me! Do not ****in’ move!”

And every patrol unit not on a call converges on the scene at maximum Mach, to join in detaining everyone nearby and securing the scene for EMS.

Would that have saved Nowak’s life? Potentially, with some allowance for geography. Our little town has a typical EMS response time to a call like that of merely a few hundred seconds. Despite the severity of his pulmonary hemorrhage, EMS might very well have been able to drain and reinflate his lungs sufficient to preserve his life.

What I would draw your attention to, though, is the contrast in police attitude. The police of the UK, despite being largely unarmed and tactically useless, are bullies. They present from the first moment in gestapo-like fashion, as the face of a not only oppressive but disdainful government, very reminiscent of the agents described by Solzhenitsyn (in Gulag) in the early stages of the autocratic takeover, who, though haughty with power, are nonetheless at that stage few, and probably could have been resisted and counter-bullied by a mass-aligned population. But, as Solzhenitsyn describes, the population succumbs to the prisoner’s dilemma. No one wants to be the first to stick his neck out, the first to put his head before their batons. So, weak as they are in fact, they bully successfully.

American police are the same way in liberal enclaves, bullies, highly corrupt, but my point is that it is not their armament, or even their aggressive use of force doctrine, which makes them so. It is ideology. In countless towns across America you have police forces which are orders of magnitude more heavily armed, and orders of magnitude more violent in nature, who revel in a good fight, who yearn for it and itch for it, and yet are far less violent in practice because they aren’t bullies. They are, as Grossman calls them, sheepdogs. They like to hunt wolves, not bully sheep.

And because they fancy themselves dangerous, like Great Pyrenees among coyotes, generally, they tend to be much more relaxed even around potential offenders. The hand is ready, but the demeanor is easy. Even investigating family, we usually don’t handcuff as quickly as these officers handcuffed a man lying on the ground accused of words. We separate parties. We deescalate, we get everyone’s side of the story. We invite the suspect to surrender himself to arrest peacefully…

[Thoughtful Neutrino @stitchphysics]

@WCCollier1 Beautifully said.

[InfantryDort @infantrydort]

This take is VERY American. And that’s why our country has a history of only getting serious about threats after it’s been surprise attacked with a high casualty count.

In the post nuclear age, we as the world’s super power are in a Catch 22 of sorts.

>Ignore threats to make citizens happy. Opening ourselves up to a mass casualty event.
>Proactively engage threats and make citizens angry.

Americans HATE war. We are at our very best when we are drug into them by providence.

Anything beyond that looks like a war of choice. And coming off the heels of two REALLY shitty ones in Iraq and Afghanistan, I get it.

But you guys don’t know how bad Iran really is. Most people don’t. I mean what I say when I say that it was only a matter of time before a “sum of all fears moment” happened in the U.S.

But you, me, and every other American are never gonna know that. Because it was prevented. All you get now is the higher gas prices and frustration that we’re still entangled there.

I won’t lie, it’s messy. But what’s messier? This or a ground burst low yield nuclear detonation in a mega city?

Up to you, but I know what my answer is.

[Thoughtful Neutrino @stitchphysics]

@sherpassoltions I would work in one of those schools if I could afford it.

[Thoughtful Neutrino @stitchphysics]

@AnitaBGreen @DrCamiloOrtiz Get them to play a game where the loser of each round has to eat one of those foul-tasting jellybeans. My high school kids have been playing a card game called Secret Hitler. I think they just enjoy shouting fascist to each other.

[InfantryDort @infantrydort]

A man who is kind, compassionate, humble, and respectful without possessing the capacity for danger is not virtuous. He’s merely harmless.

A lamb is not moral because it doesn’t kill wolves. It just becomes food.

[US Oil & Gas Association @US_OGA]

Hello Congressman.

You of all people should know the National Mall including the Lincoln Memorial and Reflecting Pool is managed by the National Park Service.

This restoration project is exactly the type of project the Great America Outdoors Act and Legacy Restoration Fund was created to address - maintenance backlogs.

You voted for it.

We support it because the oil and gas royalties we pay are directed into both of these funds.

Not entrance fees.

Oil and gas royalties from federal lands.

In other words, this awesome upgrade to the National Mall is brought to you by your friends at the US Oil & Gas Association.

And yet you have never thanked us.

Here is a report from the Congressional Research Service the intern who wrote this tweet can read to learn more.

https://t.co/CEQ7ELgNTi

[Thoughtful Neutrino @stitchphysics]

@LeboTeacher Mad respect for English teachers grading essays. And they've said the same to me about grading physics problems. I have to decipher their math and figure out what they did wrong. Meaningful feedback is the only way they learn and grow.

[Thoughtful Neutrino @stitchphysics]

@ZillennialApple This reminds me of the elimination of memorized multiplication facts in lower grades. Those kids struggle in high school when they can't solve more complex problems.

[Thoughtful Neutrino @stitchphysics]

@StatisticUrban I had 2 Amethysts in the same class period one year.
Recently had a pair of simultaneous Hudsons.

[Thoughtful Neutrino @stitchphysics]

@C_Hendrick I choose font with a clear difference between the number 1, a capital I (symbol for iodine), and a lowercase l. Trying to be as fair as possible to my chemistry students while they learn formulas.

[Thoughtful Neutrino @stitchphysics]

@Notwokenow yeah, her friends lied to her

[Thoughtful Neutrino @stitchphysics]

@itsme_urstruly I don't see the problem here.

[Thoughtful Neutrino @stitchphysics]

@TheBuddyCSM Accidentally bought decaf coffee beans a few years ago. It was several days before I realized it. Meanwhile, the caffeine withdrawal headache was so severe I thought I had a brain tumor.

[Thoughtful Neutrino @stitchphysics]

@ZillennialApple I'm only on board with SmartPass if the teacher enters all sign-out and sign-in data. Kids will use their friend's name and ID numbers if they sign themselves out. I never let my students sign themselves out for RR. Too much lyin' going on.