Sunday, January 28, 2007

The land of the free (sic)

Posted by Mickey Z on 01/28 at 07:39 AM

  1. Hello, where is everybody? Snowflakes the size of silver dollars are falling right now. They are kind of pretty to look at but not much fun to shovel.

    Angela Davis has always facinated me. She is an excellent speaker. Every time I hear her, I think how good it would be if she was president.

    About the prison system...Susan McDougal has had some very interesting comments. Not only the prison system, but also the judicial system needs reform, massive reform. Vermont prisons seem to have a high rate of suicides.

    Posted by RMJ from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts  on  01/28  at  12:28 PM

  2. Hello RMJ. it has been slow in the comments section this weekend, huh?

    Anyway, here’s something else to mull over about the American justice (sic) system:
    http://www.fija.org

    Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria  on  01/28  at  12:40 PM

  3. Thanks, Mickey. The topic of juries is an interesting one. I have always wanted to be on a jury but I have never been called for jury duty. I don’t know why. When my jury was being picked, many said that they had been called many times.  At another trial of protesters in another town, some of the jurors were sleeping during important testimony. I also saw a judge reading the sports page of the newspaper during another trial. Now, I have a State Supreme Court Judge on the written record as saying that the State Constitution does not matter. The system is far worse than most people think. Many books have been written on the topic. One is “The Myth of Moral Justice”.  Justice is just one more myth in the usa. Some rules of the Court in China are better than in the usa and that is a fact.

    Posted by RMJ from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts  on  01/28  at  01:20 PM

  4. Barbara Becnel on turning Green, Tookie Williams and the Death Penalty.


    http://tinyurl.com/y55o2f

    Posted by Robert B. Livingston from San Francisco, California  on  01/28  at  04:06 PM

  5. Your blog (and the lively discussions had by the expendables) make my day every day, Mickey.  Yes, the incarceration rate of the US is quite something - it seems that in the late 1970’s the American rate was roughly the same as in other Western countries, but since then the so-called ‘war on drugs’ has caused the prison population to swell to humungous proportions. 

    And ‘hi’ to Rosemarie and Robert B. Livingston - I must be quite early today seeing there are only four expendables (if one includes Mickey) at this moment in time.  Take care, all of you as well as those who might arrive later.

    Posted by Helga Fremlin from Daylesford, Australia  on  01/28  at  05:03 PM

  6. FYI, a radio program that airs on Houston’s Pacifica station Friday evenings. This is the MP3 from last week.

    Posted by sk from   on  01/28  at  05:36 PM

  7. Hello again, everyone. I just got home so I’ll take a look at the above links soon. After such a comment-heavy Friday, this sure has been a quiet weekend.

    Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria  on  01/28  at  06:19 PM

  8. SK: That show looks cool. I’ll have to pay the MP3 later.

    Robert: The link didn’t connect for me.

    Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria  on  01/28  at  06:25 PM

  9. “Fascism is capitalism plus murder.”
    —Upton Sinclair

    Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria  on  01/28  at  06:58 PM

  10. So sorry Mickey-- indybay.org is in the process of moving some servers this afternoon-- hopefully their sites will be working later today or tomorrow.  I only just learned about it.

    When it is back, I hope you check it out-- it was an thinkiinteresting evening hearing about last year’s governor race here in CA, and also Becnel’s description of Williams’ execution.

    I suppose we all imagine what it might be like to live a thousand years into the future (assuming we solve our worst problems)-- and looking back and wondering how we could be such savages.
    Thinking of the future, and looking at it from the vantage of the past-- this is a good link:  Swans has an article by Admiral Rickover about energy and fossil fuel depletion that makes fascinating reading:

    http://tinyurl.com/2a2x4u

    Posted by Robert B. Livingston from San Francisco, California  on  01/28  at  09:19 PM

Name:

Email:

Location:

URL:

Live Comment Preview

TIP: if including URL's, please use TinyURL to shorten links.

Remember my personal information

Notify me of follow-up comments?

Please enter the word you see in the image below:


Next entry: The United States of Equality

Previous entry: He put a cigarette in his mouth and kinda like stared at me