How do you chaps deal with this sort of thing...?

Yep, each event is an actual true story taken directly from the school days of the fifties.

Of course, the way things would happen now in these events is mostly an educated guess, but I think we all know that it's no great stretch of the imagination to understand that this is really the way they would go down.

Oh, and not being in public schools is not going to help you any, these same things would take place in a private school as well.

The only solution is to go back to using some common sense, and making sure the people who react in the second way in each scenario will no longer have a voice in such matters.

I say send them all to idiot jail and let them sit out the next half century or so in solitary confinement. Maybe they'll wise up.

I wouldn't call it an educated guess to just dream up scenarios that didn't happen.
For instance...calling the ATF because a kid shot of fireworks. Absurd. This is hardly a citation to bolster the idea that somebody can be arrested for kidding around on the internet, it's a fabrication.

You should bill it as such.

I'd say that the idea that the 50's stories are "true" is equally in quetsion.

Apparently, Lin, you take yourself, and life, much too seriously. Hell, buddy, where've you been? We can dream up anything we want to. At least some of us can. Isn't that what writing fiction is all about? If you don't understand that, take notes, maybe you'll see things a bit clearer through our use of some well stated exaggeration. For the purpose of making a case against the stuipidity that is rampant in our society today, especially in cases such as those shown here, over the top is the only way to go.

"For instance...calling the ATF because a kid shot of fireworks. Absurd."

I don't know where you get your news, but things much more absurd than this happen in real life every day. Just keep your eyes and ears open, and you'll find more examples than you can shake a stick at.

What the heck, I looked one up for you, thinking that you may not want to take the time to learn something new. Here you go.

This article came direct from a simple google search, and it proves that what we have posted here is actually very much within the scope of today’s modern scared to death society.

A 16-year-old boy from North Stormont, Ont., Canada, had an assignment in his favorite class, drama, to read a dramatic text aloud.

"I wanted to prove to my teacher that he was wrong," the boy said. "He said my stuff was crap, unrealistic, worthless."

So he recited a story he wrote about a student tormented by bullies who takes revenge by planting bombs at school. His grade was two out of four marks. The principal didn't like the story either: the boy had to deny that he was the story's lead character, and make it clear he had no plans for committing any violence.

Police searched the school and his home but found no weapons or explosives. Still, the unidentified boy was permanently expelled from school and jailed for a month while his family arranged for C$10,000 bail.

He still faces felony charges, and a lawyer has offered to represent him for free.

"I just hope I don't have to go through this kind of hassle every time I write a good story," the boy said. (The Ottawa Citizen)

FYI, there was not even the slightlest bit of firecracker gunpowder involved in this instance, but the result is much the same as what was posted.

Okay, I'm convinced. You have my permission to walk around scared to death something awful is going to happen to you if breathe funny.

Good luck

I've been scared many times in my life Lin, but I've always managed to do what I had to do regardless of that fear. Can you say the same? Besides, the posts in this thread had nothing to do with being afraid, they had to do with some woman giving Gina a really hard time over something she has written, and then it took a slightly different turn. All it all it's been fun, and interesting, and the sad fact is that some pretty stupid things go on every day, especially now that our society as a whole has grown so paranoid. Every imagined threat is reacted to as if it were real, and sometimes innocent people get handed a dose of justice that they don't deserve. And sometimes the simplest of things become blown all out of proportion and become nightmares, and just such things were posted here, not as real happening, but as a bit of a tongue in cheek look at how dumb we've allowed society to become.

It's sad that you can't admit that there are a lot of really stupid things that happen today, more so than at most any other time in our history, but to tell the truth, I just don't care what you can comprehend and what you can't. I think this was a fun post, that could have taken a serious turn due to the mention of a hit man, and for some reason you seem to be the only one who has a problem with it.

Oh, and I gotta tell you that I don't need your permission to do anything.

Okay boys, boxing day was yesterday and now it's over for another year. Boxing Day is traditonally a day of sport in the UK but, originally, it was a day for the rich to bestow money and gifts to the poor, unlike Christmas Day when the wealthy exchanged gifts among themselves -- a tradition that continues today among all social classes.

Don's posts are over the top but they do represent today's growing concerns. In the fifties, children were not shot down in their classrooms by disturbed psychopaths.

Terrorism was not so sophisticated and events such as 9/11 were inconceivable. Now they are reality.

Suicides live online were just as unpredictable, but they have been recorded.

... and then there are forums. Murders have taken place in the UK, US and China that suggest that members of gaming forums have tracked down and murdered fellow forum members:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]A German gamer has been arrested near Frankfurt on suspicion of involvement in the death of a British student, Matthew Pyke.

The unnamed suspect is believed to have had a disagreement with Pyke on Wars Central - a forum for fans of the Advance Wars series that Pyke moderated.
Police allege that the 21 year old man travelled to Nottingham, UK, and gained entry to Pyke's flat where he stabbed the 20 year old student to death. Pyke's body was discovered last Friday by his girlfriend, also a site moderator.

Last year an American was accused of murdering a university student whom he met on an internet gaming site. John Delling, 21, told the FBI that he used the internet to track down his victim, Bradley Morse, 25, to Boise State University in Idaho.

In 2005, an online gaming player in Shanghai was given a suspended death sentence for murdering a rival over the use in a game of a “supreme weapon."

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

We live in violent times and the world is a much smaller place. The murders that resulted from arguments on the 'net serve as reminders of how futile it is to argue with irrational people -- since words can be as inflammatory as physical threats. That doesn't mean forum members shouldn't have healthy debates -- forums are dull without them. It does mean disagree by all means but don't insult one another.

I bet you didn't expect such a lively discussion when you started this thread, Gina!

Shelagh wrote:

I bet you didn't expect such a lively discussion when you started this thread, Gina!

No... indeed. And I agree with everyone, which has left my brain slightly discombobulated.

The world is a place of so many contradictions these days though... a student can be jailed for writing a fictional story about bombs, and yet my neighbour tried to run me down and the police told me to come back when he'd actually managed it. There seems to be no balance.

I don't have the greatest amount of faith in the legal system over here, having been let down by it in the past. I imagine the legal eagles will tell me to ignore the emails, delete comments and then hope she goes away. The last time I hired a solicitor, his answer to my situation (years of living with problem neighbours) was to stay indoors. After all, if you will insist on going out you must expect to be hit over the head with a rubbish bag... everyone knows that.

Gina,
Shelagh's post brings reality in today's world. There is much evil out there.
The thing we must refuse to do is to become a slave to fear. Intimidation is a tool to gain control over us and is used widely. It takes courage to act in the face of fear. I'm not suggesting that one should be foolhardy but rather to continue to live your life doing what you know is right.
Enjoy life. It's the only one we have as far as I know.

Abe F. March wrote:

I'm not suggesting that one should be foolhardy
but rather to continue to live your life doing what you know is right.
Enjoy life. It's the only one we have as far as I know.

I completely agree.

It's a strange thing, but when I was in the thick of dealing with my neighbours I was forever being told to keep my head down in case they did something terrible to me. Well, they were already doing that (or at least trying to), so how was keeping my head down going to help?

I won't fight with this new friend of mine, but that doesn't mean I won't fight her. And if she is hoping that I'll slink away and never write another book on the subject she's going to be disappointed... there's another in the pipeline.

I do hope that Amazon are more responsive when it comes to removing malicious reviews than they are when it comes to most other things though. After having a two month email relationship with their customer support team, I've come to the conclusion that they don't have one.

I can't imagine getting so thoroughly vexed about someone else's book... it's beyond me.

"I can't imagine getting so thoroughly vexed about someone else's book... it's beyond me."

There's your answer. I tend to not allow anyone in cyberspace to vex me. You cannot choose to ignore your neighbours because they are going to make sure you are aware of them, but you can ignore people on the 'net. Always delete comments and never reply. Silence is a wonderful tool -- make good use of it.

Shelagh wrote:

"I can't imagine getting so thoroughly vexed about someone else's book... it's beyond me."

There's your answer. I tend to not allow anyone in cyberspace to vex me. You cannot choose to ignore your neighbours because they are going to make sure you are aware of them, but you can ignore people on the 'net. Always delete comments and never reply. Silence is a wonderful tool -- make good use of it.

Yes, that's very true. I do think she's looking for attention, so not giving it to her is most likely the best course of action. I'd never had anything to do with her prior to this and I don't want to have anything to do with her now. As long as she just keeps on posting comments that I can delete or remove before they're ever posted then she's just a little bit more admin... and extra hits on my sites, which is good for the old google rankings.

If she goes further then I suppose things will become more complicated, but she may just tire of having a one-sided conversation. Having said that, I've been talking to myself for years and don't seem to have the intention of stopping any time soon.

... ah, but then you are talking to someone on the same wavelength!

Shelagh wrote:

... ah, but then you are talking to someone on the same wavelength!

It's very hard to win an argument though.

... but you never lose!

Shelagh wrote:

... but you never lose!

Indeed. It's rather like arguing with my husband in that respect.

I still say your best bet is her servers, and mods of forums.

However... the most effective and DEFINITELY cost-effective approach to legal problems in the US that I've ever used is simply having an attourney write a letter threatening litigation.

Many people, even if they think they're in the right, will desist rather than having to spend money on a defense. Especially in a case like this, where she really doens't have anything to lose or give up other than harrassment.

If you KNOW a US lawyer, you've got it made. If not, you'd find them easy to locate and deal with by email.

But, again, look into dealing with it at the internet server level.

By the way, if she's sending you harrassing mail on hotmail after being asked not to mail you, getting her hotmail box removed is really easy, quick and likely.

I actually got setup to have a hotmail account yanked once. Some people sent me some rotten mail and when I responded in kind they sent it to hotmail and they pulled my account.