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Tuesday, November 24, 2015

A Controvery Of Timepieces

Controversial Timepiece From Dallas


I started out looking for some information on Ahmed Mohamed's father. Ahmed is the "clock boy" who was suspended from his school in Dallas for bringing a homemade clock to school, and the school authorities suspended him because they thought a timing device was a bomb.
I suppose it was because most movie bombs prominently display the timing device, usually in the act of counting down to zero. One could get the idea that a timing device was indeed a bomb... sort of synecdoche for the masses: a part stands for the whole, the timer is the bomb.

The size of the timepiece is in question. I have seen it described as a clock placed within a pencil case - a dandy bit of miniaturization, no doubt. However, the photos I have seen show it in some sort of briefcase. Such a briefcase would be large enough to store a bit of plastic explosive in.
A bit largish for a pencil case... unless you have quite a slew of pencils.

The family is now living in Qatar, and they are suing the Dallas school district for $15 million.

I wanted to learn more about the father of this interesting clan.

I did not find anything of interest to me. Oh, there was a lot about his participation in Sudanese politics and the fact that he was a "9/11 Truther", which took me off on a tangent to find out what possibly a 9/11 truther could be.
It turns out a 9/11 truther asserts that 9/11 was an inside job, and lets Al Qa'ida off the hook. I did not find that especially telling. I did not suddenly expostulate "Aha!"

There is something here, but I have not been able to find it.
I have no idea why the conservative blogs find 9/11 trutherism to be so interesting. I mean, why would a blog that esteems "birtherism" find flaws in "trutherism"?
I don't get it.

Anyway, there was plenty of time for gasps and chuckles as I read along... plenty of shaking of the head, too. My favorite post was one that seems to explain Tea Party conservative views on race relations in the USA:



Young Conservatives:
Ben Carson backs Donald Trump, says he saw American Muslims Celebrating Twin Towers Collapse
John S. Roberts
November 23, 2015 6:50 pm
http://www.youngcons.com/ben-carson-backs-donald-trump-says-he-saw-american-muslims-celebrating-twin-towers-collapse/ 
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Just yesterday, presidential contender Donald Trump said he witnessed American Muslims celebrating the falling of the Twin Towers on 9/11.

Now, fellow GOP candidate Ben Carson is backing Trump…

From Washington Post via RS:

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson said Monday that he has seen highly disputed footage showing thousands of Muslims in northern New Jersey celebrating the collapse of the twin towers following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

GOP front-runner Donald Trump has made the same claim, but no such video has emerged and fact checkers and news anchors on assignment at the time have said such footage does not exist.

“I saw the film of it, yes,” the retired neurosurgeon told reporters Monday during a news conference at the Pahrump Nugget casino and hotel.

“There are going to be people who respond inappropriately to virtually everything. I think that was an inappropriate response,” Carson added. “I don’t know if on the basis of that you can say all Muslims are bad people — I really think that would be a stretch.”

Interesting.

What does everyone make of this?

Is it possibly Carson’s way of letting “The Donald” know that he’s willing to be his VP?
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Now this post gave me a good deal of information, much more than I ever dreamed of wanting.

(1)Ben Carson is the sidekick.
Trump is Prez, Carson is VP.

(2) Ben Carson is smiling.
Trump is serious, Carson provides some comic relief.

It reminds me of the ancient TV shows My Little Margie and Trouble With Father (or The Stu Erwin Show), both of which had memorable comic relief supporting actors.

 Stu Erwin

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