On Sun, 7 Aug 2005 21:52:12 -0700, the opaque "SteveB"
clearly wrote:

"Ken Davey" wrote in
:

Is it just me or is the throwing of a large rock in response to being
hit by a water baloon inappropriate.

Fred Reed's column on the incident is quite good, Ken.
http://www.mensnewsdaily.com/archive...reed072605.htm

"The 'Free Cuevas' movement even generated negative international
attention. No wonder the world suspects our abilities in Iraq. A
country that brags about its smart bombs can't manage a rock fight."
From Robert Kirby http://www.sltrib.com/homeandfamily/ci_2922654


It's you. How big of a rock could a child that age throw any distance?

Inappropriate? Let me smack you in the head with a water balloon (water
weighs quite a bit) and see if it rings your clock. Or raises your ire.

Yeah, Steve, it's him. He needs to understand, so let's make it more
like the real thing. Line up 5 guys, all taunting him, then one throws
the first balloon. Now the rest are taking aim. What's he gonna do?

Normal response: First, you cry and tell them all to stop. Then, when
they don't listen to you, you attempt to protect yourself by fighting
back with the first thing around which catches your eye: a rock!
That's human nature and it's perfectly natural. If a stick, a toy, or
a softball had been handy, she probably would have thrown one of those
instead.

For Maribel, survival instinct was used only long enough to stop the
torment. For young Palestinian, Israeli, etc. teens, rock throwing is
suicide. They're trying to kill soldiers, and anyone taking a rock to
a gunfight is a complete (and suicidal) idiot.

--
"I'm sick and tired of having to rearrange my life
because of what the STUPIDEST people *might* do or
how they *might* react."
-- Bill Maher