Next from the CPC: senior citizens and ice floes, our new money-saving plan for Canada's elderly

I really don't think it is a stretch to say that only a conservative could come up with something this brazenly evil and stupid and then try to sell it as a way to save taxpayers' money. That it is a member of the Canadian senate proposing it just proves the point that conservatives don't do irony.

"Basically, every killer should (have) the right to his own rope in his cell. They can decide whether to live," Sen. Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu told reporters Wednesday.
A victims' rights advocate and now a senator, Boisvenu also says the death penalty should be considered in certain cases when there's no hope of rehabilitation.
He says limited use of capital punishment could save money.

That is some weapons-grade dumb. Leaving aside the myriad practical problems entailed in giving prisoners ready access to a means of killing, the moral implications and contradictions here are stunning.
Given that Senator Boisvenu is paid $132,300 in taxpayers' dollars plus expenses and office budget and free travel for being a political testicle cosy and yes-man to the party leader  the staggering workload and burden of responsibility that senators take on, I'm frankly amazed he could take his mouth off the public teat long enough to comment.
I know we coddle convicts by giving them three trays of hospital/high school cafeteria food a day, a cot, a warm place to shit, basic medical care and unlimited opportunities to be gang raped, stabbed or beaten by younger stronger inmates and even guards, all while giving up any privacy and personal freedom and being locked away from the rest of the world. White collar thieves like Bruce Carson and Conrad Black aside, for most people a prison sentence of any length means a lifetime of marginal existence and poverty. Institutionalization is a difficult mindset to leave behind. Prison changes people and having done time makes finding a job of any kind a lot more difficult, never mind finding a good job. Ex-cons are about the last group it is still okay to discriminate against.  Most people in prison are there for good reasons, but the idea that we don't treat them badly enough is pretty popular on the right. Maybe in addition to encouraging them to commit suicide so there will be enough money for MP and Senate pensions, we could introduce mandatory daily electrical shocks delivered via heavy iron collars and tattoo the prisoners crimes on their foreheads as an added deterrent just to make sure we are being tough on crime.
At the same times, we make things so very, very hard for Senators. Did  you know that if  they miss two consecutive sessions of parliament that they could lose their seat? They need to show up roughly twice a year until they are 75 to keep collecting a salary. That is pretty arduous - just imagine if you had to sit next to Mike Duffy for a few hours twice a year for a paltry $2500 a week. Mind you, senators can't  just show up any day they want, the Senate only sits about 70 days a year. Sounds hellish, doesn't it?  Of course, on the plus side, when they retire or resign at whatever age, Senators get a nice fat pension, no matter what.  Admittedly, many of the members - who are all free to collect other salaries and pensions while serving in the Senate - work a little harder than just showing up a few times a year, but they are under no obligation to do so. If none of them showed up for work 364 days a year and simply raised a hand to vote through a list of the government's legislation annually, I doubt if anyone would notice the difference.
Prisons cost the taxpayer about $3 billion a year in 2005/2006, with most of that money being paid out in salaries to guards and other corrections staff, and costs for feeding and clothing inmates, money that also goes back into the economy. Prisoners often work at prison workshops, producing goods for the government like licence plates.
Including the costs of maintaining the facilities, paying staff and all other expenses, it cost an average of $259.05 per day to incarcerate a federal prisoner in 2004/2005, none of which is paid to the prisoner. That is what it costs to keep a criminal off the streets.
In addition to the cost of running the senate, paying senate staff, maintaining the facilities, paying senate pensions and senators travel and expenses, senators are paid $363.46 per day, or if we calculate on the basis of working days for a five day week/ 50 week year it comes to $529.20 per working day. If we assume a busy senate year in which they sit for 90 days, that would be $1,470 per day. All of which goes into the pockets of someone who is only required to show up to work twice a year to keep the gravy train running. That is what it costs to keep 105 political water carriers in the regal style to which they have become accustomed and to provide parliament with sober second thought.
If we are so keen on saving money, maybe we should give each senator a length of rope.

Addendum: Yes, I do realize that Senator Boisvenu's daughter was abducted, raped and murdered in 2007. Personal revenge is not a good basis for public policy.

Update: The answer to the question "Who watches SUN-TV News?"  - the missing information of course is how many messages did he get saying he was a bloodthirsty jackass?


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All in all, they're all just bricks in the wall

"When we grew up and went to school, there were certain teachers who would hurt the children any way they could"

So many authoritarian nitwits, so little time to blog. This kid is probably lucky they didn't taser her when she started crying. Almost as disturbing is the reaction of America's least favorite conservative law professor and box-wine sommelier (as noted by Pandagon). Obviously, the teacher cannot ignore a student writing on their desk and must instill respect for the property of others blah blah blah, but I think handcuffing and arresting a12-year-old teaches another lesson - fear your teacher! Don't step out of line! fear school!


Way to put the "Pal" in "Principal" Ms. Grant! What do you do if the kids chew gum in class, waterboard them? I was a fairly well-behaved kid in school, and my high school shenannigans tended to the bizarre and comical, rather than the destructive, but if I had a principal like this running my school, there definitely would have been major problems. It may be that by completely overreacting and responding in a way that would be considered child abuse if a parent had done it, Principal Grant may have done 12-year-old Alexa a favor and taught her a lesson she won't soon forget. Not the lesson she intended, but a lesson nonetheless: The people in charge aren't here to help you. The people in charge will abuse you any chance they get. Property is more important than people to the people in charge. The people in charge are a vicious bunch of hysterical fools more intent on showing they are in charge at all costs than actually doing their jobs.
Twelve is pretty early to learn a lesson like that, but at least there is time for her sense of idealism and trust to grow back.
I don't mean to malign all teachers and school administrators, far from it. I think teaching is a noble profession and that teachers get too little respect, too little credit and too much blame in our society. The vast majority are hardworking,nurturing souls who care about the kids they are trying to educate. Hurrah for teachers.
That said, as in any profession, there are those who have gone into it for the wrong reasons, those who have been defeated by the challenges of the job and now just coast and most dangerous of all, those who abuse their authority. In teaching, as in the police, there is no one more dangerous than a petty tyrant. Bullies suck in any line of work, but one with a badge, gun and taser who has been given a licence to hassle people is dangerous, not only for the abuses of power they commit, but for the effect it has in undermining respect for the law and police.
The same is true of authoritarian principals, vice-principals, coaches and teachers who think that they are entitled to bully and abuse the children entrusted to their care. Not only do they traumatize the individual kids they "discipline," but they also destroy the trust of the other students and parents in the system. They teach kids not to ask questions, not to stand up for themselves, not to think independently. Ditto for those petty dictators who insist on enforcing ill-considered "zero-tolerance" policies to the absolute letter, even while completely ignoring the spirit of the rule. They teach kids that being tolerant, reasonable, flexible and even merciful is wrong and that the kid bringing a plastic butter knife in his lunch to spread cream cheese on his bagel has committed the same crime as a kid who brings a machine gun to class.
Principal Grant may think that by having a kid arrested and jailed for writing her desk that she is sending a message to the other kids that she and the school will not tolerate any misbehaviour, but the message the kids will take to heart is that if they are to be hung for a sheep, why not take the whole flock? If just writing on the desk gets you sent to jail, you might as well set fire to that sucker, and the classroom as well, since you are going to be treated the same way for any offense, no matter how small.

why Canada's murder rate is lower than the United States'

Two words: Drive-by knifings.

Three hots and a cot --Not!

Apparently feeding prisoners is become too expensive for some prison systems in the U.S., so they've decided to cut back a bit, by dropping lunch from the program.

Georgia now only feeds inmates lunch on the four days a week that they work. The state prison system switched to ten hour work days four days a week as a money saving move. Here is the menu for no-lunch Fridays Since this is the menu released by the prison system I think its safe to assume that this is as good as the menu gets for inmates. (parenthetical comments are mine)

Breakfast:

• Scrambled eggs (probably safe to assume these would be powdered eggs)
  
• Grits
  
• Corn Muffins
  
• Bran cereal
  
• Pineapple beverage ( the linked article notes that many states are cutting back on fresh fruit to save money. In Alabama inmates get an apple or an orange once a week.)
  
• Margarine (this is a menu item? Is ketchup a vegetable again?)
  
• Coffee
  
• Milk (as noted in the linked article, may states are cutting back on milk to save money. In Alabama inmates get three servings a week, in Tennessee they have gone from twice a day to once a day)
  

Dinner:

• Chicken and biscuits (I'm betting on a drumstick and a thigh and no more than two bicuits - and I notice there is no margarine for the biscuits on the menu. Update - via email I learn that chicken and biscuits is more likely a chicken stew with dumplings and chunks of processed "chicken-like" meat product - a h/t to the best book page editor I know)
  
• Turnip greens
  
• Tossed salad (I'd have thought this came later in the privacy of one's cell, not right there in the dining hall)
  
• Vinegar and oil dressing
  
• Mashed potatoes (again, I have no doubt these are the powdered type)
  
• Spice cake
  
• Iced tea
  

Portions are supposedly larger on days when only two meals are served.

Now, I'm not saying that inmates should eat like kings or anything, but there should be some sort of minimum standard. In the Georgia State Prison system male inmates get 2,800 calories a day and female inmates get 2,300, but I suspect most of those calories come from powdered mashed potatoes and the like.

Still, it sounds better than some of the country lock-ups:

Federal Judge Arrests Ala. Sheriff Over Jail Food
DECATUR, Ala. (AP) ― A federal judge ordered an Alabama sheriff locked up in his own jail Wednesday after holding him in contempt for failing to adequately feed inmates while profiting from the skimpy meals. U.S. District Judge U.W. Clemon had court security arrest Morgan County Sheriff Greg Bartlett at the end of a hearing that produced dramatic testimony from skinny prisoners about paper-thin bologna and cold grits.

Bartlett had no comment as he was led from the courtroom. His attorney, Donald Rhead, said he believes the sheriff will be kept away from other inmates and hopes he will be quickly eleased.The sheriff, who showed no emotion when his arrest was ordered, had testified that he legally pocketed about $212,000 over three years with surplus meal money but denied that inmates were improperly fed.

Sheriffs in 55 of Alabama's 67 counties operate under the system allowing them to make money operating their jail kitchens. The law pays sheriffs $1.75 a day for each prisoner they house and lets the elected officers pocket any profit they can generate.

(snip, snip, snip)

The law doesn't require the money to be spent at the jail or within the department; sheriffs can keep it as personal income. They historically have provided little information about profits, so the hearing offered a rare look into a practice that dates back to the Depression.
At the hearing, 10 prisoners told Clemon meals are so small that they're forced to buy snacks from a for-profit store the jailers operate. Most of the inmates appeared thin, with baggy jail coveralls hanging off their frames.Some testified they spent hundreds of dollars a month at the store, which Bartlett said generates profits used for training and equipment.
Inmates told of getting half an egg, a spoonful of oatmeal and one piece of toast most days at their 3 a.m. daily breakfast. Lunch is usually a handful of chips and two sandwiches with barely enough peanut butter to taste..

From the CNN version of the story:

However, Clemon wrote in court documents that a typical breakfast for county inmates was a serving of grits or unsweetened oatmeal; half an egg or less, sometimes cold; a slice of white bread; and unsweetened tea or a beverage such as Kool-Aid.
Lunch was either two peanut butter or bologna sandwiches, "with a small amount of peanut butter or an exceedingly thin" slice of bologna between two slices of white bread; a small bag of corn chips; and flavored water or unsweetened tea.
A typical dinner was two hot dogs or meat patties; a slice of bread; and mixed vegetables or baked beans, the judge wrote. At times, when chicken was served, it was undercooked and pink, Clemon said. Salt, pepper, sugar or other condiments were not provided; they must be purchased by inmates at the jail store.
Inmates never receive milk, Clemon said, and receive fruit only three or four times a year.

Both stories make mention of the Sheriff bragging about how he tried to offer the inmates some variety in their diet. He split the $1,000 cost of a truck load of corn dogs with another country sheriff and the inmates were apparently fed corn dogs morning, noon and night until they had eaten their way through the tractor-trailer load. If a parent fed a child like this to save money to spend on themselves, it would be considered neglect.
And lets not even get started on privately run prisons.
I bet Conrad Black is eating a lot better than this.