His appendix ruptured because he was punched. And you seem to have the completely wrong idea about an "eggshell head" victim; the principle of law is that you must take your victim as you find him, not as you wish him to be. If he has an eggshell skull, that's still on you (because you didn't have to punch him.) But,…

Sure, if you gun him down after the fact, that's revenge, not justice.

Surely you jest. The store owner just gave him a box of cigars? The store owner verbally consented to being assaulted?

He's pretty clearly on the video. Nobody's come forward to say "no, that's not him." And the cigars were recovered at the scene. Again, none of that is to say "he deserved to be shot" but you're acting…

But why would you trust that kid with your safety? What's the "safe" way to hold a knife to your throat? Even if that kid didn't want to kill you, isn't he putting your life at risk anyway? Just in terms of causing an accident that kills you?

But it's not exactly "gunning down an innocent kid" if the "kid" turns out to be not so innocent, is it? I mean are we just supposed to let 6'-4" 300lb guys beat up whoever the hell they want?

It's not petty theft, it's actually felony theft. Not because of the value of the item taken, but because force and the threat of the use of force was used to steal. Mike Brown didn't just slip some cigars under his coat, he assaulted a store owner to take them.

I agreed with his point, yet was left oddly cold by his delivery, mostly because of the self-contradiction - he accuses CNN of wanting to start the narrative "in the middle", yet he insists that the narrative starts with a kid being shot in the street, and not earlier, when that kid was fighting a cop, or earlier yet,…

Sure, it could all be bullshit. That's a possibility. But it beggars belief that Mike Brown would go from strongarm robber to model citizen in the space of less than an hour, just as it beggars belief to suggest that Ferguson PD would go from charging their beating victim with bleeding on them to staunch defenders of…

Let's say he charged the officer - even then, shouldn't the standard procedure to be to use a taser on the attacker?

Why does it matter that it's a "few idiots" shooting at police? Is it your contention that bullets are harmless when they're fired by only a small number of people, or by people who are idiots?

We know that the policeman's injuries sent him to the hospital. You're right, we know nothing for sure save the placement of Mike Brown's wounds, but it's not unreasonable at this point to suggest that the officer genuinely had reason to believe deadly force was warranted. It's also not unreasonable to suggest that he…

Police in Ferguson, though, are being shot at.

People in Europe are probably less likely to turn an encounter with a cop into a life-threatening one. For whatever reason, in the US, that's a risk.

"Unarmed" doesn't mean "harmless", though. More people in the US are killed with bare hands than with assault rifles. Though I don't think this is that case, in principle…

I agree the term is pretty racially loaded, and I'd never myself use it, but "thug" actually is a pretty apt word for someone who decides to use their bulk and strength to take what he wants from people. Didn't deserve to be shot, but I wonder why anyone would think you could start a physical altercation with police,…

That toy gun looked real

Not saying I don't agree with your point, but why does everybody like you forget this guy?

http://patrick.net/forum/content/…

Isn't he exactly who you're talking about? The black open-carry enthusiast you're certain can't exist? Remember how this guy was lauded by police, conservative tea partiers, and Fox News? I do,…

JavaScript is the most widely used language at the moment. Java's cool, but compiled languages introduce an unnecessary level of complication for the beginner programmer.

I suspect we have a really different idea about what constitutes "the basics" of programming (because I think Python is the best language for…

Python is the most painless first language, simply because it installs easily on any platform, can be used in both an interactive ('read-evaluate-print') and programmatic ('write-parse-interpret') mode. It comes with an incredibly featureful set of standard libraries, supports a wide variety of programming styles…

Plenty of tutorials about how to code out there, but not a lot of information about how to be a coder. What would your advice be for the proficient, self-taught programmer who is now in a position to work with, and for, other programmers? How do programmers typically work together? How do they document, design, divy…

I'm aware of the stigma; it just can't fully explain the deficit. For instance, we see women having a preference for less sex in areas where the "good girl" stigma wouldn't apply - what, are two lesbians going to worry about each other thinking they're "good girls"? And even if they were, why would that explain their…