# Omnibus Stupid MFers in the news thread (Part 2) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 5, 2024, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657 "2024-01-05T16:15:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 424
**Author:** ![aurora\_maire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aurora_maire/32/328_2.png) [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2026, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/8461 "2026-09-21T00:12:58Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > No, it’s not. The team is Oxford United Football Club. Oops. Sorry. I forgot it’s not called soccer over there. 😁 ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2026, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/8462 "2026-09-21T00:22:40Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > probably you mean that because they were delayed the other planes hit while that one still had a significant distance to go. Exactly. > **[Frequently Asked Questions - Flight 93 National Memorial (U.S. National Park...](https://www.nps.gov/flni/learn/historyculture/frequently-asked-questions.htm)** > > Frequently Asked Questions at Flight 93 > The plane left the gate just one minute late, at 8:01 am, and ordinarily would have taken off about 15 minutes after pulling away from the gate. However, take-off was delayed because of the airport’s typically heavy morning traffic. When Flight 93 left the ground at 8:42, the flight was running more than 25 minutes late. The first plane hit the tower just four minutes later. > In New York City, the beautiful morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, was transformed instantly at 8:46 a.m., when a hijacked airliner crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. [https://www.nationalguard.mil/Resources/Image-Gallery/Historical-Paintings/Heritage-Series/Ground-Zero/](https://www.nationalguard.mil/Resources/Image-Gallery/Historical-Paintings/Heritage-Series/Ground-Zero/) ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2026, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/8463 "2026-09-21T01:02:50Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > NY high school suspends the student body president on the first day of school for showing up to class with a cup of coffee - which she did to deliberately protest a rule the school district had adopted in violation of state law. The state law in question had nothing to do with coffee, but rather open records and the need for a public hearing before instituting a policy change. That’s great, and I’m all for the student. What bothers me is the change to the policy. The policy they had instituted precluded outside food and drink in a classroom. The change is that it is now up to the teachers on a case-by-case basis. So you take a rule that is consistent and enforceable and assist it to the responsibility of the individual teacher. Yeah, that’s a fair, even-handed way to deal with it. If a teacher doesn’t like the disruption that, say, someone slurping on a straw from a nearly empty cup, they get to be the bad guy. And they limit one student’s Red Bull but not another’s OJ? And the district had clean hands - it’s policy. Lawsuit? That’s on the teacher. So how much support will a teacher get if they decide no? Zilch. Trachers now find themselves de facto required to allow outside food and beverages. Because if they don’t, they open themselves up for a lawsuit on grounds that other classes allow it and there’s no policy against it. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2026, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/8464 "2026-09-21T01:37:35Z")
Hey, I’m definitely on the “her body, her choice” side of the metaphorical fence. What I’m against is [the quackery of facilitated communication](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facilitated_communication). This [story is what has me SMH](https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/articles/mom-boy-non-verbal-autism-123000005.html). > [@](#): > > To communicate with her 11-year-old son Hunter, who has nonverbal autism, Jessica Fletcher generally uses an [Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) device](https://www.handscenter.com/5-communication-devices-for-nonverbal-children), which, in her case, is an electronic tablet with a speech app. Fletcher and Hunter’s reliance on the AAC device was tested this past May when the device unexpectedly stopped working while the two were at a restaurant. > > “He couldn’t tell me what he wanted to eat,” Fletcher, 32, who resides in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, recalls to PEOPLE. “So I asked the waitress for a pen and paper, and I wrote the alphabet because I’ve seen him finger point to letters, to spell things before. He got really frustrated and upset. I didn’t know what was wrong till he took the pen out of my hand, flipped the paper over, and started writing the keyboard layout. So I helped him finish it, and then he used that to finger type what he wanted to eat.” > > The incident gave Fletcher, a stay-at-home mom, an idea to have an image of a computer keyboard tattooed on her arm so that Hunter can use his finger to indicate what he wants to say. > > Fletcher’s ingenuity has since inspired an online video that went viral and launched an apparel line featuring a keyboard drawing so that other kids with nonspeaking autism can communicate when an AAC device is unavailable. Question: If the kid can spell already, why would he be drawing a keyboard instead of simply writing out what he wanted to eat? Answer: IT DIDN’T HAPPEN! That’s why not. It’s nonsense and it peeves me this is filed by Yahoo as a “feel good” story. Let’s dive back into the story and see what’s really happening there. The **bolding** is mine. > [@](#): > > He started using an AAC device when he was in 1st grade, though he was initially reluctant to do so. “Before then we kind of had our own natural language,” Fletcher says. “He did a little bit of sign language. He made up his own signs and gestures. **So when he was at home, he didn’t want to use it because he thought, ‘Mom knows what I want anyways.’** So I had to model it and use it myself for a year or two before he started to use it independently.” > > **Hunter has the keyboard layout memorized, and Fletcher can predict what he generally wants. “After the first two letters, I usually know what he’s about to say. But one thing that’s really cool, if he’s standing on the opposite side, he can type upside down,” she explains.** Wow. Just wow. _I wanted to look at that video on FB so I can post here my highlights from it, but Feeb’s down worldwide right now._ ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2026, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/8465 "2026-09-21T01:56:22Z")
Now starring in _Keyboard, She Wrote_. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2026, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/8466 "2026-09-21T03:56:18Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Wow. Just wow. > > _I wanted to look at that video on FB so I can post here my highlights from it, but Feeb’s down worldwide right now._ Facebook is up again and I just checked that video. It’s worse than I could ever have imagined. The child is just tapping somewhere on the tattoo. At one point, his finger tap wasn’t even on it. Yet, the mother was sounding out the letters she has convinced herself he tapped. > [@](#): > > SPRSSHPSD Let’s pretend (because I’m not delusional and I am willing to accept I may be mistaken) I missed one or two vowels, which can only have both been _A_ because of where the toddler’s finger tapped. There’s no way whatsoever including them would make even one word out of that gibberish. It certainly cannot make a sentence. That poor child. > [@Ludovic](#): > > Now starring in _Keyboard, She Wrote_. Wrong show. The one you must have meant is _Keyboard, She Wished_. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2026, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/8467 "2026-09-21T04:07:44Z")
_QWERTY Rotten Scoundrels_ ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2026, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/8468 "2026-09-21T04:27:59Z")
_Bravo!_ 👏 ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2026, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/8469 "2026-09-21T09:06:22Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > I’m pretty sure, though, that there was a closet space at the back of the grade school classrooms that we called a cloakroom; though we put our coats in it, not cloaks. 65 year old here. That’s what we called them too in grade school. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2026, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/8470 "2026-09-21T09:43:42Z")
Yes, absolutely (77 years old here). Also for boots, hats, umbrellas, packed lunches, and anything else required to be at hand at any point during the day that wasn’t directly involved with school work. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2026, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/8471 "2026-09-21T10:24:27Z")
> [@Jihi](#): > > I’m glad I’m not the only one who finds the whole “eating and drinking” in class thing strange in a general sense. > > On a related note, I was in highschool in the late 90’s and I still remember seeing vending machines popping up on campus, outside of cafeteria settings, for the first time. I took notice of them at least. > > Currently I work on staff for a local college, (and yes I know there’s a difference between highschool and college students), and there are multiple vending machines scattered around campus in what seem like random areas. To the point where you’re never more than a minute or two walk away from one. It makes me wonder if there’s some sort of corporate/profit motive involved. What’s the point of buying a 20 oz. on your way to your next class if you’re not allowed to bring it with you? > > I’m not against the idea of adults bringing a bottle of water to class. But the whole practice does seem a little ‘off’ to me. I recognize though that could just be my “I’m getting old” gene kicking in. When I was an undergrad and in my first years as a grad student, not only I, but a lot of students ate lunch in class. I had the dining service make up a bag lunch (why not? I was paying for the food anyway, and it didn’t cost extra) and got a soda. I had such a full schedule that I had no time free for lunch. I assume it was the same for everyone else eating in the lecture hall. (Later on, when I got off the dining service and prepared my own food, I either made a lunh early or got stuff from the vending machines.) The professors never complained, and appeared to take it as a given that people would be eating in the noontime classes. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2026, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/8472 "2026-09-21T13:13:54Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > WA high school bans students from having their backpacks or purses with them during class, because that’s apparently easier than just confiscating phones if they go off. That’s not stupid or evil. You’ve got a 40 min class. How much of that should be spent confiscating phones that ring, buzz, chime, or otherwise signal their presence? Every day. What method do you recommend to keep students from having their phones in class? Confiscating every phone when students enter the school? Giving detention to any student that smuggles a phone in despite the ban? Bag searches at every classroom door? This policy is having the desired effect - students are less distracted and more engaged in class. Grades are up. Because the phones aren’t in the bag under the desk or at their feet. Bags are easier to detect than phones, making enforcement much easier and less time consuming. It cuts way down. Phones carried in pockets or otherwise can still be confiscated, but that’s going to be a lot fewer and easier to detect at the door. Versus every student every day getting the TSA treatment for every class. > [@Smapti](#): > > Me, I’d start coming to class with a briefcase. Smarmy little loophole student, "bag"is going to be interpreted loosely and enforced broadly. Adding “briefcase, or any other container” to the rule for rules lawyers is a waste of effort. “That’s a bag,” is going to be the answer. > [@PastTense](#): > > While I have never worked retail I have my doubts as to whether this is the best way to handle a conflict with a customer: Holy Jesus, that’s fucked up! Stupid employee is “distraught” for getting chastised for being unsafe and nearly hitting a customer with a cart? That’s a safety violation that should have gotten her a stern lecture or a write up. Then her parents come and assault the guy? Fucking world we live in. I fully support the charges for the former employee and her parents. That’s what those laws are for. They assaulted the guy and he died from it. They did so because he yelled at their daughter? Fuck them. Fuck their lawyer for that “simple misdemeanor assault” defense. He should get tazered in the balls repeatedly. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2026, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/8473 "2026-09-21T13:45:50Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > What method do you recommend to keep students from having their phones in class? There’s more than one way to skin a cat. Kids who go to school have to carry things like notebooks, chromebooks, pens, books, money, personal care items, etc. between classrooms. My town’s school has an “off and stowed” policy for phones, now that NJ has gone full ban on phones in the classroom. What’s most important is consistency and support of the program. If phones “keep going off” even with a phones away rule, as suggested in the article, the problem is enforcement. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2026, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/8474 "2026-09-21T13:49:56Z")
I disagree. It’s obviously a great solution, but it doesn’t go far enough. My own modest proposal - don’t just ban bags in classes. Take violators into custody, chop them up, and serve them in the cafeteria. That’ll solve the problem of excess students and any food budget shortfalls at the same time. That goes for their parents, too. Take care of all the problem people at the same time ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2026, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/8475 "2026-09-21T13:56:37Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > _QWERTY Rotten Scoundrels_ 🏆 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2026, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/8476 "2026-09-21T14:04:59Z")
Well, that would bring a Swift conclusion to the issue… Press On. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2026, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/8477 "2026-09-21T14:21:08Z")
At my daughter’s school (middle school in Washington State) they aren’t allowed to bring backpacks. But they don’t have books; all books are electronic and every kid is assigned a laptop. The laptop comes in a bag that kids can put other stuff in. All kids also have a binder, and we got her one that’s built into a little carrying case of its own with a strap and handle. It’s not a big deal and she just ends up not having to carry around nearly as much as I did at her age. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2026, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/8478 "2026-09-21T14:21:54Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > I fully support the charges for the former employee and her parents. That’s what those laws are for. They assaulted the guy and he died from it. They did so because he yelled at their daughter? Fuck them. Murder charges for all. It’s the only way to be sure. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2026, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/8479 "2026-09-21T14:24:11Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > My own modest proposal - don’t just ban bags in classes. Take violators into custody, chop them up, and serve them in the cafeteria. That’ll solve the problem of excess students and any food budget shortfalls at the same time. That goes for their parents, too. Take care of all the problem people at the same time I see no flaws in this proposal. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2026, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/8480 "2026-09-21T14:24:15Z")
Sheesh, all this cloakroom talk and no love for cubby holes? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657.md?page=423) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657.md?page=425)