A response to SE...(long)

[wizard -vrccds#125]

Nice one Willow !!!

[Bobbo]

Being the “devil’s advocate” doesn’t mean advocating evil.  It simply means taking an opposing viewpoint (which isn’t necessarily your own) for the sake of challenging a statement.  It is a method of compelling the other person to validate what they are saying.  I took alph’s post as more of a tongue-in-cheek viewpoint, than a serious statement.   

For the record, Bob, I understand the language quite well, including the metaphors and euphemisms.  Please save your condescending explanations for someone who'll pretend to benefit from them.

As an aside, I couldn't care less how you took Alph's post.  Now if Alph were to explain his intent I'd be interested.

If you consider yourself an expert in the English language, please try to conduct yourself accordingly.  Your attempt to garner approval for your expressed high morals was shallow and lackluster.

[fstsix]

Being the “devil’s advocate” doesn’t mean advocating evil.  It simply means taking an opposing viewpoint (which isn’t necessarily your own) for the sake of challenging a statement.  It is a method of compelling the other person to validate what they are saying.  I took alph’s post as more of a tongue-in-cheek viewpoint, than a serious statement.   

For the record, Bob, I understand the language quite well, including the metaphors and euphemisms.  Please save your condescending explanations for someone who'll pretend to benefit from them.

As an aside, I couldn't care less how you took Alph's post.  Now if Alph were to explain his intent I'd be interested.

If you consider yourself an expert in the English language, please try to conduct yourself accordingly.  Your attempt to garner approval for your expressed high morals was shallow and lackluster.

Trolling is a game about identity deception, albeit one that is played without the consent of most of the players. The troll attempts to pass as a legitimate participant, sharing the group's common interests and concerns; the newsgroups members, if they are cognizant of trolls and other identity deceptions, attempt to both distinguish real from trolling postings, and upon judging a poster a troll, make the offending poster leave the group. Their success at the former depends on how well they — and the troll — understand identity cues; their success at the latter depends on whether the troll's enjoyment is sufficiently diminished or outweighed by the costs imposed by the group.

Trolls can be costly in several ways. A troll can disrupt the discussion on a newsgroup, disseminate bad advice, and damage the feeling of trust in the newsgroup community. Furthermore, in a group that has become sensitized to trolling — where the rate of deception is high — many honestly naïve questions may be quickly rejected as trollings. This can be quite off-putting to the new user who upon venturing a first posting is immediately bombarded with angry accusations. Even if the accusation is unfounded, being branded a troll is quite damaging to one's online reputation. And this Troll has all the Qualifications 

[alph]

Alright Carl and Bob!!  Here’s what I really think about the video.  The police had probable cause to search the guy’s house.  Either someone told the police that he had narcotics in his house, or the guy is a bit of a druggie.  There’s not much more to it then that.  The police don’t just barge in to someone’s house with out a reason.  Who knows what his past was, maybe he’s an ex-con, (now someone will pull up the guy’s whole church attendance history and show how great of a guy he is…..), maybe his wife turned him in, who knows.  The truth is, we’re only getting one side of the story, I haven’t read the police report, nor have I read the defending attorneys arguments to prove innocents.  The guy doesn’t get wacked on the head with a club, the wife and kid aren’t arrested, there doesn’t seem to be any abuse, looks to me like a normal routine drug bust, only that apparently a dog gets shot.  I didn’t see the dog in a kennel, did you?  Nor did I see a $10 bag being recovered.  I’m just interpreting what I saw in the video.  I feel that people too often jump to conclusions and make assumptions about something or someone before getting all the facts. 

This ties in nicely with SE.  I don’t know the guy personally, I have been called rude names from him before, but I’m a big enough boy to not let it bother me.  He is entitled to his opinion, and I personally believe that he feels he’s “superior” then the average person.  We all know that the more we learn, the more we realize just how dumb we really are!! Now, if SE feels justified in calling others stupid and ignorant, maybe he needs to reevaluate his level of intelligence, and learn from his stupidity.

[Bobbo]

alph:  I believe I perceived your original post correctly, but thanks for the follow up.  I agree that a video doesn’t tell the whole story.  The recent Alaska State Fair video is a case in point.
As for name calling on this board, there is plenty of that here besides SE, especially from the copy-pasters who apparently don’t even understand the content of their plagiarized post.   

[fudgie]

$10 pot bust? We've had alot more then that here and I aint been raided! 

On a serious note, I dont think they would waste time and money to seize a dime bag. Thats like flushing a toilet and trying to plug it with a turd. 

[9Ball]

If this happened to me personally (not likely), the guys that shot my dog or dogs would have to watch their backs somewhere down the road....just hypothetically of course.

[3fan4life]

But the news reporter said police found
pot with a street value of $10.00,   

"Pot with a street value of $10.00"  sounds suspiciously like something one of the "searchers" would carry in "just in case".

Incidentally, Alph, the Devil, has plenty of advocates already.  We're more desperately in need of advocates for what's right.   

+1 

So the BIG BAD POLICE OFFICERS shot and killed the dog in front of the kids during a middle of the night raid and they found a whopping $10 worth of pot.

If this doesn't convince you that the American public is under assault by the so called "authorities" nothing will.

BTW if the dog was in a cage the officer or officers that shot it should be charged with a crime.

The intentional killing of someones pet is a felony in many states now.

Even if he wasn't in a cage it sounds like he was only barking, which is what a dog is susposed to do when someone invades his house in the middle of the night.

Maybe PETA should get involved over the dog.

[Willow]

... please try to conduct yourself accordingly.  ... your expressed high morals was shallow and lackluster. 

Sorry, Bob, been out of town and off the board. 

This is a little slow in coming but,  "?????????" 

[Bobbo]

... please try to conduct yourself accordingly.  ... your expressed high morals was shallow and lackluster. 

Sorry, Bob, been out of town and off the board. 

This is a little slow in coming but,  "?????????" 

I take it you didn’t recognize the subtle reference to this part of your original post:

We're more desperately in need of advocates for what's right.

That appears to be an attempt to rouse your cheerleader section on this board, which it did with minor success.  The combination of your reference to the Devil having enough advocates, and “what’s right” needing more leads the reader to believe you don’t have a grasp of the phrase alph used.   Considering my post condescending (which it wasn’t intended to be) seems to reveal some paranoia on your part.  I have never regarded you as generally ignorant, although we all can’t know everything!
 

[Valkahuna]

Looks like the guy shouldn't complain about the price of pot anymore!!  Seems to me like the guy he bought his dope from turned him in.  It’s hard to say he didn't deserve the search; he did by the way have a controlled substance in his house?  Didn’t he?  Hard to tell from the video what the whole commotion is about, but, if I had dope in my house, the kids wouldn't be there!  Why would I subject my wife and children to the possibility of a search like that?

Always look at both sides of the story.  As far as we know, the police may have just saved his life from years of drug abuse. 

(I am playing the devils advocate you know….)

Alph,

You usually make a lot of sense, but in this case I hope that you are not serious!!!!! If someone can invade our homes, violate our privacy, and do this all based on an "annonymous tip" then the good Lord help us all.

[alph]

I have personally seen police brutality in action.  So, I know that not all police are angels, in the same respect they are not all devils either.

Here’s what I witnessed as a 14 year old in my parents restaurant 29 years ago. 

There was this guy named Sam.  Sam was a HUGE guy!  Very very intimidating!!  One Saturday night, after bar closing the drunks would come to our restaurant and have a late night snack before going home.  Sam was drunk.  Sam also drove to our restaurant.  As Sam ate his meal the cop that followed him into our parking lot knew that he needed assistance so he called the county police to assist in arresting Sam.    Sam saw the cops out side then asked my father to allow him to go out the back door.  So, as Sam went out the back I saw two cops one cracked his baton on his head so hard it sounded like he hit a home run on the baseball diamond.  There was blood squirting out of Sams head!  They tackled the guy, dropped him to the ground, cuffed him (hog style) and put him into the squad car.  It took all four of those cops to lift him into that back seat. 

It was several months later that I saw Sam again.  He reminded me of Jack Nicholson in “one flew over the cuckoo’s nest” after he got his lobotomy.  Sam was never the same.  All because of some chicken chit cops. 

Here’s the rest of the story.

Sam use to abuse his wife.  He put her in the hospital a couple of times.  The police had run ins with him before.  Sam was no saint.  He was always a good customer though.  If I were the police that night, I’d probably do the same. 

There’s always two sides to every story.  Don’t just focus on the one that gets you mad. 

Al..

[Valkahuna]

There’s always two sides to every story.  Don’t just focus on the one that gets you mad. 

Al..

Alph, while I agree that there are always two sides to every story, the video only presents one, and that is all I can judge, since that is all I can see. You must agree that these Cowboy cops had guns bigger than their private parts. To shoot a dog in a cage.... come on!!!

What scares me though is that they did all this because of a tip. That means that if you pi$$ off your neighbor, they can cause this to occur to you with a single phone call. Believe me, I am never one to coddle the wrong doer, but somehow common sense has to prevail!

IMHO, I felt that in this case you jumped to a bunch of conclusions that just were not justified or indicated! Sorry if that rubbed you the wrong way, but I prefaced my statement with saying that I feel that usually you make a lot of sense and that I agree with you on many things.

[bigvalkriefan]

This is one time that I'm glad someone highjacked my original thread.
You all are right about you know who. He is dead to me.

[Valkahuna]

This is one time that I'm glad someone highjacked my original thread.
You all are right about you know who. He is dead to me.

Who is dead? Oh well, we probably didn't know him anyway!