No, TASER is not all capitalized for emphasis… I’m pretty sure TASER is an acronym (like SCUBA) and should be all-capped…

(Okay, here’s one where you can win friends.. TASER stands for Thomas A. Smith’s Electric Rifle)

I remember Liam especially was interested in the last vid; well here’s a whole new one:

Best/most shameful part? The officer was cleared of any wrongdoing.

There were tons of places where the officer could’ve just given a little bit of ground… sat back and actually talked with the guy, reasoned with him, and maybe disarmed this situation. Every experienced cop (at least in Canada…) will tell you that they use communication skills more than weapons. You can hear the cop in the first minute or so of the video; he’s like those people at fast food joints who just don’t care. Officer: “how you doin’, you were goin’ kinda fast, can I see your license and registration?” Dude: “I just have a quick question, how fast was I going (ininteligeable)?” Officer: “Can I see your drivers license and registration… like now?” Dude: “No, I’m serious, I’m just wondering how fast I was going” Officer: “SIIIIIIGH”

Really? A sigh like that? What, are you 6 years old? The guy wants to know how fast he was going; it should take 2 seconds to say, “I clocked you at 60 in a 40. I’m going to have to write you a ticket. You’re going to have to sign it, but don’t worry - that’s just a promise to appear in court. You’ll still have every opportunity to fight the ticket at a later date”

What was the big risk here? The threat that required such brutal force? You had the guy’s license plate and information - what was he going to do? Fly to a country without an extradition treaty? Even if the guy jumped into his truck and drove away at full tilt, you would’ve been able to get him again. A man with a pregnant wife and a baby in the car isn’t going to start a gun battle.

Let’s take another look at this…. If the TASER wasn’t available, would the cop have pulled his sidearm? Would he have put three in the guy’s back because he was slowly walking away? Probably not.

How about pepper spray? Should the officer have doused him with that? Again, likely not; that seems really disproportionate.

How about using the baton? A few strikes, break some bones, stop him from his masterfully planned getaway? I think not.

This officer was using the TASER as a shortcut because he appears to have the communication abilities of a polar bear (and an ego sized to match…)

NOTES: You’ll notice some cuts in the video. This user page has the uncut video available. Uncut, it’s just shy of 23 minutes long. I believe the video was put up by the man who was TASERd. I looked through it; and nothing particularly notable seems to have been cut - most of what was cut was just the officer sitting in his car writing out the ticket. There were also some cuts when we hear the guy pleading with the officer off-camera. Interesting, but doesn’t change the real focus of the story.

Here’s a Fox news story on it; if nothing else it’ll give you a jumping off point for more info, if you so desire.

In the poking about I did, apparently the signature that the cop was so excited about getting is a promise to appear in court. Without the promise to appear, you’re arrested so that you can be required to appear. At no point do I see that being made clear in the video. I assumed (as the driver probably did…) that the signature was an admission of guilt; so rather then admit guilt, he wanted to explain his side of things. NOTE: No such signature is required in Canada (if memory serves…). You don’t sign anything when you’re issued a ticket. You only sign a document later, at which point you either admit guilt and pay the fine, or declare your intent to fight the ticket in court. One assumes that, if you never showed up to sign and pay or sign and fight that the court would just issue a warrant and require you to appear in court. At that point you’d probably get a nastily worded letter giving a date and time. Failing that I guess an officer would be sent to your house to collect you. That’s how theses things are done in a civilized country.

The side of the road is no place to settle anything. Tempers are running high; nothing productive will happen.

Aaah, a true classic. A demo of Windows 98:

Here’s a more recent video; of Windows Media Centre. I’m not sure which is worse, the utter failure of the presentation, or Conan trying to come up with jokes to fill the giant pauses.

This individual gives us a list of the top 10 screwups he’s been guilty of or has witnessed. My favourite is probably this one:

I once had to run out of a meeting room, across the corridor and into the men’s loo to shut off my co-presenter’s radio microphone as he was, err, availing himself of the facilities there. Those radio mic’s have a surprisingly long range

Now it’s not just for terrorists!

The US basically feels that, under US law, it is perfectly legal for it to go to another country, pick up someone who has committed a crime in the US, and then take him/her back to the US for a trial.

Originally, people thought that laws like that were only on the books for the arrests of terrorists and other “high priority” targets. Apparently the US has confirmed that, no, they don’t feel they’re bound by restrictions like that at all.

Where an extradition treaty exists, I think that should be used. Canada, traditionally, has mandated that if it extradites a criminal to the US it expects the death penalty to not be used. That seems fair to me; Canada’s laws on the death penalty are in line with international guidelines on the topic, and it seems reasonable that the Canadian government doesn’t want to be party to a murder.

Today, I guess, the US thinks it could just swoop in, throw the ALLEGED criminal in the back of a van, and speed off to the US; rather then going through normal channels. Nice.

I saw this somewhere… I suspect that it’s one of those things that are passed around the internet… but it’s just credible enough that it probably happened somewhere, at some point.

Now, I’m sure many of you have encountered little shits in supermarkets. Little kids running about and knocking things over, being rude, walking all over their parents, you know the kind. But the worst are the biters. Yes, those little cunts that feel it is okay to bite you whenever they feel like it.

Okay, here’s the best part. A biter got me today when I was grocery stopping. He broke the fucking skin, too. This was when the gears started turning, the moment I saw a tiny sprickle of blood on the little shit’s teeth as he was grinning at me like the little cunt he is. I made my eyes get wide, and started screaming “SHIT! SHIT!.” Now, my good friend, Tom we’ll call him, was there too, and he instantly picked up on it. He started shouting “FUCK! MAYBE HE DIDN’T GET IT! FUCK!.” By now, the kid is scared shitless and starts crying, and instantly, Mizz Mom appears out of nowhere and starts getting pissy at us for yelling at her kid.

Here’s the kicker, I look her straight in the eye and say, “Mam, get your son tested as soon as possible, he just bit me and I’m”¦ I’m FUCKING HIV POSITIVE.”

And now there is silence. Not a peep in the entire store. The brat knows he just fucked up big time because his mom isn’t defending his ass. She just stares at me wide eyed. I walk away from them, buy my shit from the wide eyed cashier, all the while blood is dripping from my calf, making a nice little trail on the floor. And, just s we leave, we start to hear the mother sobbing. Sobbing like the cunt she is.

I have never felt any more satisfaction than the moment I heard that sob.

I guess Jericho isn’t very good?

Clip from just for laughs.

I gotta say, I’d probably turn around and go back in too… it’d be so surreal!