Prison inmates banned from playing Dungeons & Dragons

The inmates of a prison in Wisconsin have so far failed to mount a successful legal challenge against their being banned from playing Dungeons & Dragons. According to the article, the staff of the prison deemed Dungeons & Dragons inappropriate because "one player is denoted the Dungeon Master... [who] is tasked with giving directions to other players... [which] mimics the organization of a gang."

Seems pretty silly to me. The prison banning Dungeons & Dragons, that is. I just can't see how a game like this is going to encourage gang activity. If anything, Dungeons & Dragons might be quite a productive use of the inmates' free time, since it constantly engages skills such as creative thought and mathematics.

Or maybe the guards are simply afraid that the prisoners are going to use Dungeons & Dragons as a "gateway" to some legit black magick!

Worth noting again that Gary Gygax, the creator of Dungeons & Dragons, was a devout Christian. Bet he wouldn't have any problem with his game being used like this.

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Gun-loving teacher's Facebook photo gets her suspended by Stasi-ish school officials

Betsy Ramsdale of Wisconsin apparently likes guns. Nothing wrong with that. And she likes them so much that she posted a picture of herself aiming a rifle on her Facebook page. Nothing wrong with that either: it's her own account, she gets to do with it on her own time whatever she likes and if Facebook doesn't think it violates the terms of service, nobody else should hassle her about it.

Except that Betsy Ramsdale is also a teacher employed by what is all too often the modern monstrosity of public education. And when officials at Beaver Dam Middle School were "alerted" to the photo, they immediately placed Ramsdale on administrative leave.

So what it all comes down to is that Betsy Ramsdale is being punished for practicing her freedom of speech and right to privacy, by her implied advocacy of the Second Amendment. That's a heckuva civics lesson to be teaching the kiddies, ain't it?

Some of the comments in the linked article are downright hysterical. One parent says that "With the way things are going these days, with the kids bringing guns to school and bomb threats, (photograph) is something to be concerned about."

Funny thing: I used to go to a private school and the head of its board of education once put a picture of himself with a shotgun in our yearbook 'cuz he was an avid hunter. To the best of my recollection, nobody from that school ever killed anyone with a shotgun. And I'm also kinda reminded of what Dick Cavett once remarked: there's more comedy on television than there is crime... so how come comedy isn't breaking out in the streets?

This kind of harassment of teachers, parents and students for asserting their Constitutional rights, on the part of public school administrators, has got to stop! All it's doing is breeding more - I'm not sorry for saying this - cowards who are now intimidated by even the suggestion of a thing!

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Christian radio attacks harmless student dress-up day

Wasn't there an episode of King of the Hill about this?

An elementary school in Wisconsin is under fire by a Christian radio network - the head of which seems to have nothing better to do with his time - because it hosted an event that encouraged students to dress as members of the opposite gender.

As part of Wacky Week at Pineview Elementary in Reedsburg, students were encouraged to dress as either senior citizens or members of the opposite sex. Which was all good and fine... until some busybody told the Voice of Christian Youth America about it. The radio network's director and host of nationally-syndicated show "Crosstalk" Jim Schneider promptly took to grandstanding. He said that "Our station is one that promotes traditional family values. It concerns us when a school district strikes at the heart and core of the Biblical values. To promote this to elementary-school students is a great error."

This move by Schneider was a cheap stunt that (a) demonstrates his ignorance and (b) makes Christians out to be a bunch of loons. What does it show the world when followers of Christ get this kind of honked-off angry about elementary students having some innocent fun?

Because in spite of what Schneider is claiming, this kind of thing has been going on since time immemorial. And with no ill effects, I might add. There has never been any "deviant agenda" in mind behind it. It's just a way for students to have fun and share in some camaraderie. I even remember it happening at my high school back in the day...

Johnny Yow, in drag for "Turn About Day" as part of Spirit Week at Rockingham County Senior High, circa 1991

(By the way, Johnny is one of the strongest and most sincere Christians that I've ever known.)

Between this, and the un-Christlike hatred one program on a "conservative Christian" radio station I found last week had for Barack Obama, I cannot but be convinced even more that too much of the Christianity around us is too obsessed with earthly matters. It is just as C.S. Lewis noted that some people go warning against "hobgoblins" that aren't really there, just to scare others into doing what they're told.

Well, if Christianity and western civilization is going to topple, I can assure you it won't be because some second-graders played "powder puff". And if some Christians are seriously afraid of that, then there was something very wrong with their faith to begin with.

(And there's something wrong with believing that unless we elect the "right politician" that Christianity is going to be destroyed, too. Yeah I'm looking at y'all over at WPIP, now that I know y'all are reading this blog...).

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Sheriff's deputy goes "berserk" and kills 6 innocent teenagers

And the death toll might be 7, if another hospitalized victim loses the fight for his life.

Here's one story that I've found so far about Tyler Peterson, a 20-year old off-duty sheriff's deputy in Wisconsin who, overcome with anger after an argument with his girlfriend, stormed her house with a gun and opened fire on ten teenagers, who were having a party with movies and pizza. At least seven were hit, with six dead including Peterson's girlfriend.

I'm hearing some reports that in spite of his age, Peterson was already a member of the sheriff's department's SWAT team. Which if true would add an even worse angle to this story. Nobody that young and inexperienced needs to be put into the situation of being a SWAT member. Personally, I think that SWAT teams are something that lend themselves toward tremendous abuse anyway: the trend is that we see these ninja-suited thugs with way too much weaponry, who don't think anything about shooting first and asking questions later. A lot of innocent people have died at the hands of these goons in the past few years ("rack 'em stack 'em", some SWAT types call it) during supposedly "official" business.

It just comes with the nature of being given too much power: something that most people can't adequately handle without being corrupted by it. So giving it to a 20-year old kid - if Peterson indeed was a SWAT member - who lacks the self-discipline to understand not only how to use that power but how not to use it, is only asking for trouble.

Sadly, this reinforces my arguments from a few days ago, when I wrote that without law enforcement officers (another thing that is wrong: calling them "law enforcement" officers, which automatically suggests that an empowered government is of utmost priority over all else) being as much in fear of common citizens as the citizens have been led to be in fear, then there becomes something worse than a state of anarchy. There is no reason at all why Peterson shouldn't have been made to wonder if any of his intended victims might be able to strike back at him. As it is, it took another law officer to take him down (Peterson is now dead also).

Either we are all equal, or we are not. Either we have the right to defend ourselves, or we are forced to rely on officers of the law who cannot guarantee that they will be able to immediately heed our call for assistance. Either we depend on our own ability and initiative, or we depend on a government which in spite of its promises cannot possibly provide for our safety and well-being.

As I said in that earlier post, there is a role for duly-sworn officers of the law in our society. And the ones who understand that role and the responsibilities that come with it do deserve our full respect. But the fact remains that we can't depend on them to keep us entirely safe. And to expect that would be no more fair to them than it would be to ourselves.

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