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I read today about the California prisoners who've gone without food for 45 days now to protest the practice of keeping people on solitary for a year or more. A judge decided that the prisons can force feed them. This is barbarism. Their rationale is that some of the fasting prisoners have been mislead. I almost expect to hear the Shrubism: "wrongheaded" applied to the prisoners. But it is our practices of incarceration that are wrong.
First of all, it is entirely inhumane to keep any person locked away in solitary for any time at all. We are not designed to be all alone, and left all alone for too long almost any human will loose their mind. A whole year in isolation is enough to make a very sane and functional person completely mad. It is very reasonable for prisoners to protest against this practice with every tool they have.
Second of all, even prisoners should have the right to refuse food if they want to. Everyone should have the right even to end their life if they so choose, especially adults. After all, if a person cannot decide what to do with their life, is it their life at all? This kind of prison practice makes capital punishment look humane.
First of all, it is entirely inhumane to keep any person locked away in solitary for any time at all. We are not designed to be all alone, and left all alone for too long almost any human will loose their mind. A whole year in isolation is enough to make a very sane and functional person completely mad. It is very reasonable for prisoners to protest against this practice with every tool they have.
Second of all, even prisoners should have the right to refuse food if they want to. Everyone should have the right even to end their life if they so choose, especially adults. After all, if a person cannot decide what to do with their life, is it their life at all? This kind of prison practice makes capital punishment look humane.
QotD: Being a Geek
Mar. 30th, 2012 10:55 pmBeing a geek is all about
being honest about what you enjoy and
not being afraid to demonstrated that affection.
It means never having to play it cool
about how much you like something.
It's basically a license to proudly emote
on a somewhat childish level
rather than behave like a supposed adult.
Being a geek is extremely liberating.
--Simon Pegg
(Thanks![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
indigo_forest.)
being honest about what you enjoy and
not being afraid to demonstrated that affection.
It means never having to play it cool
about how much you like something.
It's basically a license to proudly emote
on a somewhat childish level
rather than behave like a supposed adult.
Being a geek is extremely liberating.
--Simon Pegg
(Thanks
indigo_forest.)Tags:
Ruminations by a Generation X Parent
Dec. 7th, 2011 09:00 amWelcome to the Age of Overparenting
How I learned to let my kids be kids.
By Katherine Ozment
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/scripts/print/article.php?asset_idx=329920
( text )
How I learned to let my kids be kids.
By Katherine Ozment
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/scripts/print/article.php?asset_idx=329920
( text )
QotD: Freedom
Nov. 1st, 2011 11:02 amPeople demand freedom of speech
as a compensation for
the freedom of thought
which they seldom use.
-Kirkegaard
as a compensation for
the freedom of thought
which they seldom use.
-Kirkegaard
Tags:
Tags:
NYT opinion
Jun. 8th, 2011 09:00 amThe author here point out that the new generation of US college grads are ill-prepared for the world that they are confronted with. And he explains it in generational terms. The theme of the Boomer era was self-discovery, freedom and expression. The theme for this new generation of graduates will be different, but it is not clear that any of their teachers are preparing them for success. The successful young adult is beginning to make sacred commitments — to a spouse, a community and calling — yet mostly hears about freedom and autonomy.
It's Not About You
by David Brooks
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/31/opinion/31brooks.html?_r=3
It's Not About You
by David Brooks
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/31/opinion/31brooks.html?_r=3
Tags:
QotD: on Defeat and Growth
Dec. 3rd, 2010 11:17 pmWinning does not tempt that man.
This is how he grows:
by being defeated, decisively,
by greater and greater beings.
--Ranier Maria Wilke (1875-1926)
This is how he grows:
by being defeated, decisively,
by greater and greater beings.
--Ranier Maria Wilke (1875-1926)
Tags:
One Great Love
Aug. 13th, 2010 11:49 amI would like to think that there is time for me in this life for one adult love, one conscious love, one blessed with great joy, and more truth than words. I've heard tales of such loves. My loves have been young ones. I am ready for the love of my life.
Here's an article in the Missoulian about him and his discoveries after boating for the last 20 years. I can't find his new book online yet but I'm a philosopher and a river lover so I'll be looking for it. Ammon's philosophy is refreshingly humanistic.
Tags:
- adulthood,
- aging,
- baby boomers,
- books,
- flow,
- generosity,
- heroes,
- kayak,
- montana,
- philosophy,
- river,
- whitewater,
- writing
We are accustomed to repeating the cliché, and to believing,
that ‘our most precious resource is our children.’
But we have plenty of children to go around, God knows,
and as with Doritos, we can always make more.
The true scarcity we face is of practicing adults,
of people who know how marginal, how fragile,
how finite their lives and their stories and their ambitions really are
but who find value in this knowledge, even a sense of strange comfort,
because they know their condition is universal, is shared.
that ‘our most precious resource is our children.’
But we have plenty of children to go around, God knows,
and as with Doritos, we can always make more.
The true scarcity we face is of practicing adults,
of people who know how marginal, how fragile,
how finite their lives and their stories and their ambitions really are
but who find value in this knowledge, even a sense of strange comfort,
because they know their condition is universal, is shared.
--Micheal Chabon
pp 236-237 Manhood for Amateurs
Tags:
Autobiography in Five Chapters
Mar. 29th, 2008 02:56 pmAUTOBIOGRAPHY IN FIVE SHORT CHAPTERS
( a favorite poem )
( a favorite poem )
