A senior prank at Zion-Benton Township High School seemed quite humorous at first. But as a group of students quickly learned, the administration is run by anal-retentives with no sense of humor isn't amused with monkey business.
And so -- after 10 students in larger-than-life banana costumes ran the halls of the high school with an eleventh student dressed as a gorilla giving chase -- the boys are on the raw end of a seven-day suspension.
The prank started innocently. Senior Andrew Leinonen, who will study criminal justice at Carthage College this fall, wanted to do something that wouldn't damage property or hurt anyone, while still being hilarious. "What's funnier than a gorilla chasing bananas through a school? Nothing," Leinonen said. "It was a harmless prank." . . .
The boys entered the school's main entrance around noon last Thursday and made their way through the English and science hallways before running into a crowded lunch room and then out a back door. All the while they flailed their arms and yelled "Seniors '08."
The prank was quick, and almost painless. Four bananas were rounded up by school security and the plan would soon unravel. By the next day, the boys were slapped with a suspension and at risk of missing prom as well as being kept off the stage at graduation. Your school-levy tax dollars at work!
Zion-Benton Township High School Superintendent Deborah Clarke said she couldn't comment on punishment because of student confidentially concerns. Clarke said the school followed guidelines in place for what they consider "serious pranks." "We're basically enforcing our policy," Clarke said. "I'm a rule-bound uptight puritanical petty tyrant. It's in my job description; you can't be a public school administrator without the petty tyrrany."
The same policy led to five-day suspensions for kids caught fighting in school. "The lesson is clear. If the so-called 'Banana Boys' had beaten each other down with blunt instruments, they'd be in a lot less trouble. Oh, and by the way, vote for the school levy so we can continue the important work of overreacting to the follies of exuberant youth."
The punishment was not welcomed at first. None of the "Banana Boys" had ever been in big trouble before. In support of them, other students planned protests. A private group dedicated to "Saving the Banana Boys" was even set up on MySpace.com.
But fearing that the school may carry out its threat to keep them from prom and graduation, the "Banana Boys" said they advised others to relax and agreed to peacefully serve their punishment before returning to class May 2. . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
04/25/2008 17:05 ||
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#1
Petty tinpot tyrants - that principal should be fired for being a fooking idiot.
#2
I shudder to think what they would have done back in the day (pre-sewer) when the school septic field was overwhelmed by a 'sychronized flush', which turned parts of the football field kind of muddy.
#3
Looks like some principal needs to have their car disassembled and then reassembled on the school roof.
But please forgive them - making a call on this would take more then they could possibly assemble (like a halfway functioning brain) so they fall back on 'zero-tolorence'....
New York Internet shoppers, take note: in five weeks, sales tax-free shopping will end on many Web sites thanks to rewritten state rules that are trying to force Internet retailers to collect.
At Chrono Tech Watches in White Plains, Jerry Nally is glad the clock is ticking on many Internet retailers that don't charge New York sales tax. Nally says those so-called "e-tailers" steal his customers. "They'll come in our store, look at our product, touch it, play with it, look at the warranties, then go back to the web and buy it tax free," says Nally.
For years, retailers with "brick and mortar" stores in New York, such as Wal-Mart, have charged sales tax on orders placed through their Web sites. Yet Amazon.com and other e-tailers with no physical stores have not charged the tax, much to the delight of Internet bargain hunters, like online shopper April Cantin.
"Coming here, you have to pay a lot of tax, when you pay on line, you pay nothing, just shipping and handling and the item," she says.
In the midst of a budget crisis, New York is now telling Amazon and certain other large Internet-only vendors they must collect state and local sales tax -- if they allow sales via "click-throughs" from New York-based Web sites. The new rule is set to go into effect on June 1.
The state estimates this new Internet tax will bring in $50 million this year and $75 million next year. The Retail Council Of New York State hopes the new rule is the first step toward collecting sales taxes on all Internet commerce.
But the new rulings aren't sitting well with the Internet giants. Amazon, the largest Internet retailer, is objecting to the decision, saying "this is the wrong time to increase taxes on New Yorkers."
"You will drive people away. People are not going to want to shop online anymore," says Cantin.
Nally is hoping online businesses will comply, however, telling CBS 2 "it's about time!" "I have to pay tax, and Amazon should pay tax, it's as simple as that," he says. "There's no reason for a difference."
#2
Interstate commerce is federal not state regulated. Now if they wish to tax businesses within NY that have web generated income, they may. Those business can also leave the state and conduct business elsewhere.
#3
Louisiana has had a de facto internet sales tax since long before the internet. They logically regard internet sales as equivalent to catalog sales, which have been taxed since 1949 or so. They do what lawmakers so often do - play semantic games to get around prohibitions (like calling gambling 'gaming' and allowing cock fights by defining fowl as 'not animal') and call it a use tax instead of a sales tax.
#4
If just a few major online retailers decided to boycott the state, the resultant screams would shake the state legislature to it boots. Amazon, Ebay and Wal-Mart could put a stop to this nonsense right now, before it spreads.
I am curious as to how it works. Is payment to the state made by the purchaser or the seller? If the seller, how does the state compel compliance? If the purchaser, how does the state find out?
#6
My state, Tennessee, is considering much the same thing with the added tax on digital downloads including music and software. I hope it gets defeated.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/25/2008 9:50 Comments ||
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#7
Nimble, most big companies collect the tax and remit to the state but if the tax was not collected by the seller then the buyer is supposed to send it in with their state income tax. Honor system, and I don't know how well it works, but for the small stuff it is not too important to the state anyway (or so I think, until I forget something and get audited and go to jail.)
#8
Non-resident catalogue and internet retailers voluntarily remit sales tax to LA? If so, I'm astounded every other sales taxing state has not jumped on the band wagon.
#11
Last I heard, visitors to NYC had to pay a 21% hotel room tax. What gouging.
Posted by: Marilyn Omerese3326 ||
04/25/2008 13:59 Comments ||
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#12
New Yorkers amaze me. If they don't have something to bitch about on any given day you can be darn sure they'll create their own problem and blame someone else.
#13
MO3326 - most tourist-destination cities have Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) on hotel rooms. It's a good way to raise revenue without gouging local voters and, (somewhat), help with advertising for/securing more tourism which contributes even more sales tax...
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/25/2008 18:20 Comments ||
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#14
Constitutionally speaking, lets see NY enfoirce collection. Amazon does NOT do business in NY, it does it from wherever it is. NY'ers do the equivalent of visitign them, not the other way around.
#4
Also ~12000 BCE (est. 70,000 left over), and then ~1500 BCE (est. ~500,000 left over). ~700 BCE was another reduction, with about 50% survivors, so not as bad, although some peoples disappeared altogether. Those are worldwide figures.
Some recent research, based on statistical, genealogical and microbiological factors point to a period between 500-1200 BCE, with a paltry pool of ancestors.
#5
And then a PRE-MADONNA FAN came along, and like any good He-Ape began arguing wid his relatives and "the Babe" over dev a better Spearpoint and other weapons.
THERE GOES THE PROFESSOR AND THE KIDS AGAIN, RUNNING WID THE DINO HERDS IN "JURASSIC PARK"!
Posted by: no mo uro ||
04/25/2008 21:44 Comments ||
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#8
Two,
Yeah, but there is a massive difference between 2,000 and 70,000.
With the factors of the time, you are probably approaching the min number of humans to sustain ... hence why we are still here today; there were just enough.
#9
bombay, it seems like a diff. But pulling through with 70K is almost as much of a sheer luck as with 2K. It depends on circumstances--like stability of the environment in the days after and how fast people faned out in smaller groups to prevent pandemic conditions taking a toll.
One thing with the 2k @ 60,000 BCE...
The Australian Aborigines seem to have a continuous presence in Australia for at least 75,000 years. It seems that whatever happened to the rest of humanity, it passed them by. They never were present in great numbers, but enough to sustain themselves. In fact, they had something of a small "population explosion" roughly 50,000 BCE and some moved eastward in their sturdy boats, reaching South America. There they lived happily and spread as far as the northern glacial edge, only to be wiped out, gradually, by newly arriving Amerindians from about 10,000 BCE onward. A small group of caucasian stock folks that arrived earlier did not seem to be as ambitious and despite their larger physical frame, and a superior quality of stone industries, they left the original inhabitants largely alone. For the most part, they were concentrated in a Great Lakes area where copper nuggets (aye, even several ton copper boulders) were found readily on the ground. They later dug shallow mines, too. These red haired folks may have had a solid presence until the middle of second millennium BCE. Thence they appeared only in small numbers, found buried in some of the mounds with scores of Amerindians, until about 300 BCE, depending on dating that may be not exactly accurate.
The later scarce caucasoid burials are probably related to new intruders from east, first Phoenicians (they preferred Central America region) and later Vikings from about 600 CE to 1100 CE.
And the band played "Waltzing Matilda,"
As the ship pulled away from the quay,
And amidst all the cheers, the flag waving, and tears,
We sailed off for Gallipoli.
Posted by: Mike ||
04/25/2008 08:12 ||
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On April 25, 1976, during a game at Dodger Stadium, two protestors, a man and his son, ran into the outfield and tried to set fire to an American flag they had brought with them. Monday, then playing with the Cubs, noticed they had placed the flag on the ground and were fumbling with matches and lighter fluid; he then dashed over and grabbed the flag off the ground to thunderous cheers.
When he came up to bat in the next half-inning, he got a standing ovation from the crowd and the big message board behind the left-field bleachers in the stadium flashed the message, "RICK MONDAY... YOU MADE A GREAT PLAY..."
Posted by: Mike ||
04/25/2008 08:08 ||
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#1
If you watch the video closely, you can see the protesters hurling the fluid can at Monday. They missed.
In a less formal interview on the subject, Monday said that "I went to a good university; I knew what they were pouring on the flag wasn't holy water...If I could just get the flag away from them, they couldn't burn it." (source: Ron Luciano, "The Fall of the Roman Umpire, I think).
#2
What were they protesting? They look kinda swarthy, but the vid isn't clear.
Posted by: Marilyn Omerese3326 ||
04/25/2008 13:58 Comments ||
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#3
I tried to find that out last week when this was here. About all I found was that they were father and son from Missouri who's wife/mother was supposedly in a mental institution there and wasn't being released. Pops pulled a sixty dollar fine for trespassing and him and sonny disappeared into oblivion.
#6
disappeared, did they? The mighty reach of Bowie Kuhn was indeed powerful
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/25/2008 18:23 Comments ||
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#7
"This wouldn't have happened if Judge Landis were alive. Or Bowie Kuhn." Originally said about the 1972 strike, but it fits.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
04/25/2008 19:13 Comments ||
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#8
Takes me back - saw the event on TV. My group was mostly expecting somebody in disco clothes to sneak in and quickly take 'em off ala STREAKING, since the latter was the fad in mainland USA at the time.
The self-proclaimed "toughest sheriff in America" has been making forays into Phoenix and nearby Guadalupe and sweeping up illegal immigrants, drawing howls of protest from the cities' mayors and other community leaders.
While Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has legal authority to enforce the law in cities within his county, politicians and activists are accusing him of grandstanding and, worse, racial profiling.
A total of 150 people73 of them illegal immigrantswere arrested by Arpaio's deputies in the raids on heavily Hispanic sections in late March and early April.
Civil rights advocates said Arpaio is spreading fear among Hispanics, illegal or not. "You have cooks, landscapers, nannies afraid to drive," said Hector Yturralde, president of the group Somos America.
Weeks after the crackdown, 20 Spanish-speaking day laborers gathered at a dusty intersection to wait for people to offer them work. Ramon Arajon Contreras, a laborer from Mexico who has lived in Guadalupe for eight years, said the sweep frightened him so much that he hid out in his house until it was over. He said he is still afraid.
"If I see immigration officers," he said, "it's like I see the devil."
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A senior prank at Zion-Benton Township High School seemed quite humorous at first. But as a group of students quickly learned, the administration 
New York Internet shoppers, take note: in five weeks, sales tax-free shopping will end on many Web sites thanks to rewritten state rules that are trying to force Internet retailers to collect. 
And the band played "Waltzing Matilda,"
