No Sympathy for the Devils

Via Crooks&Liars comes this story of Georgia inmates staging a “strike” and demanding ”getting paid for their work, better nutrition, better medical care and more educational opportunities.”

While I’m certainly against “cruel & unusual punishment,” taking away their cigarettes and not paying union dues for laundry labor is a far cry from having to pound rocks on the chain gang 18 hours a day.  These are not the cream of society, they are people convicted of crimes against society.  Prison is supposed to be punishment, not a model for a new society. 

OT: The commenters on the C&L article really need to get a grip on their comparisons to “Slave Labor.”  Slaves have no rights, if you recall, and could be murdered by their masters without recourse, without cause.  These prisoners made a choice at one time or another that earned them the title of criminal.  These prisoners committed crimes (cause) and have been through the trial process (their path to recourse, should they be innocent).  If they were slaves they’d be hung or shot or worse simply for being “uppity.”  Slaves never had a choice, or a chance to redeem themselves through conduct, free education, training, etc. 

Taking away cigarettes isn’t cruel & unusual.  Burning the name of your crime onto your forehead with lit cigarettes, like a permanent “Scarlet Letter,” now that would be more like it.

DoorQ

Let me help (yeah, right, I get 20o visits on a good day and found this on a megablog) announce a new website: DoorQ.  (Pronounced “dork”)–the new website/blog aims to dedicate itself to gay scifi/horror/fantasy. 

As a writer of the “always a bridesmaid, never published” type, I have to admit this new site has me intrigued and a bit excited.  After all, I’ve always had a soft spot for Yaoi.  Maybe soft isn’t the right word . . .

(h/t Queersighted)

P.S.  Chad Allen is listed as an advisor.  Don’t know what to make of that, really. 

That’s It. I’m Turning Hermit

If this is an indication of how dumb this world is becoming, I’m glad we’re getting closer to being self-sufficient at our house.  If I could only figure out how to make electricity from horse manure . . .

It’s clearly not safe to leave the house anymore.  Not with people like this on the road:

 A 22-year-old carnival worker blames two friends having sexual intercourse in the back seat of his car for an accident in which his Chevrolet S-10 Blazer struck a telephone pole.

Two words: PULL OVAH!! 

Meowch

Last night was quite the adventure.  Skyler, my cat, was on top of the freezer, and I shushed him off of it because, as he well knows, he’s not supposed to be up there. 

Exactly why he chose to try and jump through the flypaper strip hanging there, I don’t know, but after he ran around the house with it wrapped entirely around his body and tail I managed to catch him.  Peeling off the flypaper without leaving bald strips was only the first half of the fun.  Giving him a bath for an hour, using every type of soap I had on hand in an attempt to get the stickyness off of his fur to no avail was the other half. 

Having to trim the sticky fur off of his tail with him meowing at me: well, that wasn’t any fun at all.  Although I have to be fair and say he never tried to scratch me once.  He tried to claw his way out of the tub, yes, but he won’t use his claws on me.  He loves his Daddy, you see. 

Although I did get the cold shoulder for the rest of the night. 

And I don’t think Norm has stopped laughing yet.

This Just In

I don’t know much about fashion, but evidently the teenage hustler look is “in.” 

I used to know people who dressed like this in high school.   You could often find them in the parking lot, getting the crap beat out of them.