Most Ridiculous Item Of The Week (so far)
You know, there’s a reason that Singapore used to be the cleanest and most polite city in the world. Set your way back machine to a few years ago and a story about a young American boy who got in trouble for vandalism. We (the US) said, no, don’t cane him...the Singapore gov’t said, whoops, we already did.
I know it’s all anti-Libertarian (and I am one, albeit a conservative one) to say this, but I kinda liked the who scenario in the film version of Starship Troopers. Public or even televised lashings or canings. The news clip from the movie was especially nice: “A murderer was caught today, tried and executed”. No sensationalized trial with every grimace or grin caught on tape and the accused or the victims families subject to invasive or exploitive news coverage.
We can’t spank our kids anymore because it’s “child abuse”, we’re drugging them if psychologists say they’re ‘hyper’, we tolerate ridiculous behaviors from them because to scold or discipline them would harm their ‘self-esteem’.
I say cane the little shits. In public. Charge admission. And make the parents pay to have the damage repaired or graffitti removed. I’d even go so far as to bring back the stocks. A little public humiliation might go a long way.
Of course, that’s just my opinion...I may be full of shit.
I agree, Ryan. Public canings and whippings might do more to discourage crime than anything else, especially a comfortable jail cell with all the amenities. The stocks with public humiliation (throwing tomatoes and rotten vegetables) is also a good idea. Bethumbing people is not a good idea though. We don’t want to disfigure the perps, just make sure they remember the lesson. Public humiliation worked quite well for millennia before we became so sensitive of criminal’s feelings.
Well, in my opinion (for whatever it’s worth)...prostitution should be legal. It seems to work in Nevada, as well as overseas. Cuts down on the criminal element and the disease factor.
And I would turn the child molesters and rapists over to the families and women for punishment.
A very libertarian themed novel entitled “Snow Crash” had criminal characters with forehead tattoos. Stuff like “Poor Impulse Control”.
Cutting off one’s appendage may be a little harsh for some juvenile offenses but I seriously believe a little buggy-whipping is in order.
Posted by piccalo
11/05/2005 at 06:06 PM
HOORAY!!!! Someone else besides me reads Neal Stephenson’s books ("Snow Crash”, “Cryptonomicon”, The Baroque Cycle, Vols I, II, III, etc.).
Stephenson is the closest thing we have to Heinlein in modern authors.
Here is a review of “Snow Crash”:
From the opening line of his breakthrough cyberpunk novel Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson plunges the reader into a not-too-distant future. It is a world where the Mafia controls pizza delivery, the United States exists as a patchwork of corporate-franchise city-states, and the Internet--incarnate as the Metaverse--looks something like last year’s hype would lead you to believe it should. Enter Hiro Protagonist--hacker, samurai swordsman, and pizza-delivery driver. When his best friend fries his brain on a new designer drug called Snow Crash and his beautiful, brainy ex-girlfriend asks for his help, what’s a guy with a name like that to do? He rushes to the rescue. A breakneck-paced 21st-century novel, Snow Crash interweaves everything from Sumerian myth to visions of a postmodern civilization on the brink of collapse. Faster than the speed of television and a whole lot more fun, Snow Crash is the portrayal of a future that is bizarre enough to be plausible.
When you’re finished with that, pick up a copy of “Cryptonomicon”. Nearly 1000 pages of “way too much fun”. There is a character in the book that has always reminded me of OINK by the name of Bobby Shaftoe.
This man needs to be removed from office!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by Dottie
11/05/2005 at 10:47 PM
Yeah and bring back public Hangings and the guillotine for murderers… and figure out a way to exempt MURDERERS from protection from Cruel and Unusual Punishment.. actually I don’t really think there is a punishment that should be cruel and unusual for a murderer, They are getting their sentence carried out alot better then what their victims got.. they didn’t have this choice of having a lethal injection that is basically like putting a dog to sleep… besides public hangings, maybe instead just put the murderer through what they put their victims through..(the majority of criminals who get the death penalty didn’t just kill 1 person)… But ohh well I got off on a little tangent.. sorry.. and I’d like to strangle the appeals judges that prolong it… guess quite a bit of this is due to growing up in Gainesville and being here during the Student murders by Danny Rolling, I used to work with the Sister of 1 of the victims.. he was convicted back in 1994, and still no execution Date...automatic appeals.. even after he has tried to drop further appeals.. Skumbag Lawyers… It’d be different if there was any doubt as to if he was guilty maybe..
as for cutting off fingers of graffiti Artists im not sure about that.. i think it would be best to make them have to go around cleaning up the graffiti and make them wear really embarrassing outfits.. maybe neon pink shirts and shorts for the majority(most are boys) who knows what to do for the girls..
That’s what the Romans did. A convicted thief had FVR branded on his forehead. ("fur" = Latin for thief.) There were people who covered them up with wax, giving rise to the phrase “sine cera” (without wax), which comes down to us as the word “sincere”. Stephenson was definitely copying history. Made me laugh when I read that in the book.
Do you know the story of why use of the stocks was stopped in England? It was when it backfired on the government of the day. Sir Thomas Cochrane, the Earl of Dundonald, who was a Naval hero in the Napoleonic wars, and then became a radical Member of Parliament, was sentenced to a day in the stocks after he was framed for insider dealing or some such shenanigans on the London Stock Exchange. In the 1840’s I think. The general populace took his side, and presented him with flowers and presents as he sat there in the street. There’s nothing that moves faster than a politician who’s been made to look a fool.
Skipper, I would have thought you knew this story - Cochrane was the template for all the Naval History fictional heroes since the 19th century: Hornblower, Aubrey, Bolitho, etc. In fact the real story of the man is far superior to any fictionalised account of his adventures.
We need more men like this in the world today. It would be safer, brighter and fairer.
11/05/2005 at 03:12 PM
11/07/2005 at 10:39 AM
