"'Clock boy' Ahmed Mohamed's lawsuit against Irving ISD, city dismissed."

My clock says that took too long.

"Qatar is nice, but it is not Texas. That is their attitude toward this."

"They are citizens of Irving, Texas, USA, first. Are they devout people devoted to their faith? Absolutely. But they are Texans, too, and they want to come home. What we are seeking is for them to be able to do that with their heads held high."

Says the lawyer representing Ahmed Mohamed (the "clock kid") who wants $15 million.

"Less than 24 hours after Ahmed Mohamed met President Obama, his family decided it’s time to leave America for good."

"The 14-year-old Texas boy who was arrested for bringing to school a homemade clock that authorities said resembled a bomb will soon be living in Qatar." They're leaving next week.

According to the article, in The Washington Post, he family weighed various offers relating to the boy's education and career path, and Qatar's Young Innovators Program in the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development seemed best. And they liked Doha. Ahmed said praised it as "so modern," with "many amazing schools... many of them campuses of famous American universities." And his sister said: "Qatar is in the Arab world, but it also feels like Texas. It’s like Texas in Qatar."

One of the most-liked comments over there at WaPo is: "Qatar 'feels like Texas' because both are God-forsaken desert hellholes with obscenely rich oil barons and religious fundamentalists out the wazoo. You couldn't pay me enough to live in either." Another is: "'Young innovator'? He took the housing off of clock and put it in a box. A toddler could do this. WaPo, your political correctness blinds you!"

Should there be any discussion of whether Ahmed Mohamed actually "invented" his clock and what his true motives might have been?

I've avoided that discussion because I think the authorities, by egregiously overreacting to what was at worst a minor disciplinary problem, have drawn the exclusive focus on themselves.

At some point, I'm willing to criticize other adults for using a child to further their own political agendas, even as they celebrate the boy. The moral lodestar here is the welfare of the child.

I'm posting to explain my position because I'm seeing the famous know-it-all Richard Dawkins losing his bearings:

In a tweet, the scientist linked to a YouTube video entitled Ahmed Mohammed [sic] Clock is a FRAUD, in which user Thomas Talbot alleges Mohamed’s clock “is in fact not an invention. The ‘clock’ is a commercial bedside alarm clock removed from its casing”.

In his tweet, Dawkins said: “If this is true, what was his motive? Whether or not he wanted the police to arrest him, they shouldn’t have done so.” His next tweet said of the video: “This man seems to know what he’s talking about.”...

Dawkins eventually retreated.... “Sorry if I go a bit over the top in my passion for truth. Not just over a boy’s alleged ‘invention’ but also media lies about J[eremy] Corbyn.”

Dawkins seems awfully emotional in his posturing over his love for truth, so let me proclaim a greater love for truth. Here are 2 truths for which Dawkins showed insufficient passion:

1.  The question whether the clock was an "invention" should be recognized as a debate about the meaning of a word. It's ridiculous to badger a 14-year-old about a linguistic point.

2. The annoyance at calling the clock an "invention" should be recognized as a dispute with the adults who overplayed their enthusiasm over the child's brilliance and technological prowess. A child whose self-esteem is not perfectly aligned with the level of his accomplishments might have a problem, but, if so, it's nothing for strangers to be sticking their nose into.

"The British appear to have developed some sort of giant bomb, possibly attached to a rocket."

BREAKING: The British appear to have developed some sort of giant bomb, possibly attached to a rocket. pic.twitter.com/KMAltDZvP7

— Danger Guerrero (@DangerGuerrero) September 16, 2015

14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed, arrested for bringing to school something that, to teachers, looked like it might be a bomb.

It was "a circuit board and power supply connected to digital display)" — what he explained was a clock that he'd made and brought in to impress the teachers.

Here he is explaining his story:



His engineering teacher said, according to Mohamed: "That’s really nice... I would advise you not to show any other teachers." In English class, "the clock beeped, annoying his teacher. When he brought the device up to her afterward, she told him 'it looks like a bomb.'" None of that sounds as though either teacher thought there was any chance it could actually be a bomb. But the English teacher confiscated the device, and later he was questioned and then arrested for bringing in a hoax bomb.

“I really don’t think it’s fair because I brought something to school that wasn’t a threat to anyone,” Mohamed told NBC. “I didn’t do anything wrong. I just showed my teachers something and I end up being arrested later that day.”...

“We always ask our students and staff to immediately report if they observe any suspicious items and/or suspicious behavior,” [Irving Independent School District spokeswoman Lesley Weaver wrote]. “If something is out of the ordinary, the information should be reported immediately to a school administrator and/or the police so it can be addressed right away. We will always take necessary precautions to protect our students and keep our school community as safe as possible.”...

“He just wants to invent good things for mankind,” said the [the boy's father], who immigrated from Sudan. “But because his name is Mohamed and because of Sept. 11, I think my son got mistreated.”