Vaary in-teres-tinggg

This is yesterday's news, but I just stumbled on it this morning (shows how far I've fallen in staying current). A University of Florida student was tasered at a John Kerry town meeting after asking a series of questions. I saw the AP video on the Los Angeles Times website, and CNN has relatively the same thing, though very edited. Here's a link to the raw, amateur footage on YouTube, and here's the link to the CNN story.

After seeing it for the first time my mind was swirling with anger and frustration. I was confused, too. I've read the microphone was cut because he used his allotted time, which is understandable, but I don't know why he was taken away by the police. Frankly, his competent questioning had degraded into an angry interrogation (gotta love the Skull and Bones question), but was that any reason for campus officers to force him out of the room? He was later charged with resisting an officer and disturbing the peace.

I bet the conspiracy theorists are having a grand old time with this one. Even I can’t help but imagine a web of totalitarianism here. The student’s questions were very legitimate, and the talking piece of wood…err, Kerry…said he’d answer, but did he? I haven’t read anything saying he did, but that — “Just the facts, mama” — isn’t what the story’s about.