This is an odd coincidence.

The last episode of Weeds featured a ‘plastic (bobbing head) Jesus’ which of course brought this thread to mind.

I liked the film Cool Hand Luke and I’d be lying if I said that song didn’t stick in my head as a kid when I first saw it. But it’s another one of those “Catcher In The Rye” type stories to me; i.e. I never understood why so many people rave about it.

Then again, I may be jaded; since I think the two best films Newman did were ‘The Hustler’ and ‘The Sting.’

SIYOM,

Bob

I have had a great deal of trouble with this site. It is slow go and glitching like crazy. Hope you are well and drinking your coffee!

Jill

Great video from Cool Hand Luke. My favorite lines:

Boss Paul: That ditch is Boss Kean’s ditch. And I told him that dirt in it’s your dirt. What’s your dirt doin’ in his ditch?

Luke: I don’t know, Boss.

Boss Paul: You better get in there and get it out, boy.

Well, if I hadn’t already made an exit from christianity over 25 years ago, this latest assault would have definitely been cause for getting the heck out of Dodge. Frankly, this guy Freshwater sounds like a lunatic!

“And this is what ya get for using the public school as a platform for your fanatical religious beliefs …”

Plastic Jesus
Platic Jesus, ridin’ on the dashboard of my car…

He don’t slip & he don’t slide
cause his a$$ is magnetized….

ridin’ on the dashboard of my car.

That is an interesting point. In this case I believe branding was the teacher’s way of having total control over his students. It would also give him visible proof of that absolute control. Many cult leaders ask that people hurt themselves on his/her say so to show their complete fealty to the “leader”. It also makes the victim feel “special”, further tying the victim to the perpetrator. They have formed (really she or he has imposed) a bond with the special marking or action. This also silences a victim. The victim may feel ashamed in addition to feeling special. Shame keeps them silent. They went along with it didn’t they? Of course a child did not freely choose to go along with this in any way, but look at the idiots even now saying that the children “choose” to be branded. So shame and specialness work together to close the victim off from help. This teacher, and others like him cement their power very effectively in this manner. This was such a cruel thing to do. It is heartbreaking.

Jill

Long as I got that Almighty power…

I am puzzled by this concept of “branding.” We know that paramilitray groups have mandated or encouraged it for years. Uniforms, tatoos, war paint, and insignias have always been a part of military life that was justified for reasons of identifying members on a battlefield and preventing desertions. I think the religious right wackos have adopted the practice to stop the apostacy they see happening around them. What better way to insure piety than a body mark that is permanent.

Mt Vernon is also a high school in Northern Virginia,and when I first looked I thought the story was about that school. Thankfully it wasn’t, but the fact that I wasn’t shocked after living here all of my life, says something too.

http://www.fcps.edu/MtVernonHS/

I was thinking the same. This man is obviously disturbed, to put it mildly. The fact that his bizarre and destructive actions were allowed past one notification does seem to be the result of religious delusions. It seems many defenders of his actions hold these same delusions. I don’t really see how claiming a teacher branded his students with an X instead of a cross improves things.

Thank you both for your insights into this and other postings.

Jill

Mt. Vernon in Virginia is a historic site. George Washington slept there!

I have seen people defending this teacher online, saying that this mark “was an X, not a cross”, or that these students voluntarily “asked for it” as some kind of affirmation of their beliefs.

These same defenders are the ones who use pseudoscience to legitimize creationism and blunt the tools our students need to advance science education and their own global competitiveness… the same defenders who endanger teenagers with STD’s and a lifetime of poverty by compelling abstinence education… while constantly repeating the construct that fanaticism’s dangers are virtually exclusive to Islam, and using religious conviction and its moral infallibility as a justification for war.

“If you gave Falwell an enema, he could be buried in a matchbox.”
– Christopher Hitchens on the death of Jerry Falwell

I’d like to see society wake up and bury this whole movement for the sham it is.

I am surprised Mr. Turley would print garbage that is so baseless of an accusation. But then again he has been hanging around the LIE-FEST at Countdown with WoodTICk Keith Olbermann.