Re thinking the 1st Amendment

[Torveaux]

Perhaps you should change your name to OldGreyOwl. Your wisdom is showing. Huzzah!

 

 

[Hunt]

OGE, you are so right.

 

I do think fgoodwin's question deserves an answer--would ACLU be "satisfied" if BSA pulls out of government sponsorship? I think there are a few answers to that:

1. ACLU might still pursue more tangential cases of arguable government support of BSA activities (Jamboree is an example). But this is just a matter of drawing the line of where government sponsorship ends. I predict they won't chase PTA sponsorship, for example.

2. There will likely be a series of disputes in which governments try to deny access or benefits to discriminatory organizations--ACLU might well side with the governments in those cases. But the Supreme Court's decision in the Dale case sets a high bar for those cases--ACLU can't simply sue BSA (or, for example, churches) for having exclusive membership requirements, even if there is a state anti-discrimination law.

So, in short, there may still be disputes between BSA and ACLU, but they will involve the degree of government involvement that exists with BSA, and how much (if any) is permissible.

To put it another way, with the current decision by BSA to move out of government sponsorship, there is not much more the ACLU is likely to gain by pursuing BSA, so they are likely to put their resources elsewhere.

 

[fgoodwin]

Hunt writes:To put it another way, with the current decision by BSA to move out of government sponsorship, there is not much more the ACLU is likely to gain by pursuing BSA, so they are likely to put their resources elsewhere.It is my fervent prayer that you are right -- but I'm already on record as saying that it will not end there, and I stand by my prediction.

 

Nothing will satisfy ACLU until they utterly destroy BSA as a youth organization.

[Hunt]

OGE wrote: "Sometimes it better not to play into the hands of one who seeks to manipulate"

 

For a more detailed discussing of this excellent insight, see:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll

 

for a good discussion on "trolling," "flamebait," and why people may do it.

 

[Trevorum]

Hunt,

Thanks for that link! Very interesting reading. However, it doesn't completely address the origin of the word "troll" in internet usage. I personally think it must be a mixing between the noun "troll" (as in "what obnoxious creature is asking me questions from underneath this bridge?") and the verb "trawl" (as in "a long fishing line with many hooks").

[NJCubScouter]

OGE said:

 

Sometimes it better not to play into the hands of one who seeks to manipulate

 

True enough, but in reading some of the subsequent posts, and noting my own reaction to that statement, I have this feeling that different people may see different other people as the "one" in question. Perhaps a different "one" than OGE himself had in mind, if indeed he only had one "one" in mind, about which I am not certain.

[OldGreyEagle]

Certainly !

[Merlyn_LeRoy]

 

For computer slang, the New Hacker's Dictionary is best...

 

TROLL:

http://www.drbbs.com/jsw/jargon/jargon_35.html#TAG1986

(originally from the fishing term "trolling")

 

I'm in it (under my real name, Brian Westley)

http://www.drbbs.com/jsw/jargon/jargon_30.html#TAG1375