Myspace Haberdashery

Sometimes I follow the news...very rarely really since I've grown tired of hearing how the United States has been defended against the Muslim malefactors of the third world yet AGAIN and therefore the threat level is now some form of chartreuse color and for all intents and purposes the only significance of this is that the security checkpoint will be a touch more enervating for the following month but not to worry, gas prices will soon be down to 6 dollars a gallon due to our shock and awe but I digress into some really absurd nonsense....

Today I stumbled, ambled really, across THIS old article where a 16 year old asshat posted pictures of himself surrounded by rifles on his myspace page. Ok, so this clown gets a Darwin award for being twitmaster supreme by posing a picture where:

"One photo allegedly showed him lying on a floor surrounded by nine rifles with the caption, “Angel o’ death on wings o’ lead.”

Ok - sounds like a lame angst ridden teen - perhaps I still remember those days vividly, and perhaps I had more style, but those are they years of supreme retardation and ass-hattery so chances are the mope is some kinda emo-loser rocking out to lame-ass music like Avenged Sevefold yammering mindlessly about bats, twits, vampirisim and sex he isn't having in the 'burbs. This gets a big whatever in my book.

However, I must also mention that the Principal ALSO deserves the Ass-haberdashery award for the simple reason that he suspended the boy for alleged actions the kid did within his own home. Now, I will happily admit that the young buffoon needs a slapping for poorly ripping off the often quoted Simpson's line (click for sound!) but damn - was he a legitimate threat? How much investigation was done before disciplinary action was taken, and the young asshat's life changed forever?

and quote

“The photos were very disturbing, and while the content was not a direct threat, we just felt it was important for us to take appropriate disciplinary action,” Kaufman said, adding the student could be expelled.

WTF over? After reading the article certain things struck me - the people you share your home with may very well be the reason your home is searched. In this situation, the people of age in the home did nothing wrong, but were STILL subject to a search/seizure of goods in their home due to their asshat-clown son's actions. Here's another factodal thought - the asshat's schoolassmasters took on the role of more than educators - they became pop psychologists while analyzing the teen-angst ridden myspace page. If high-school administrators are doing this, I have to wonder how much social-network analysis is going on higher LE levels...

Anyway, the lessons seem to be "Don't be an asshat", use nyms, use TOR, use strong crypto, do not publish gibberish about yourself online, and remember that what you post online lives forever in the hearts of Carnivore and Echelon. Just because your freedom is speech is protected by the 1st amendment, that does not mean that ex post facto legislation cannot be revised in the future and suddenly all of your present-day protected speech can and will be used against you in a court of law where due process may not be a function of the times.