Archive for August 26th, 2020

Things I enthusiastically and wholeheartedly agree with.

Wednesday, August 26th, 2020

The first two panels of today’s “Dinosaur Comics”. Having extensively studied listened to the first 112 or so episodes of “The History Of Rome”, I am confident in stating that the decline and fall of the Roman Empire began when the Empire proscribed setting off fireworks whenever you felt like it.

All of this Babylon Bee op-ed. (Hattip: MtM.) Yes, I am aware that they are a satire site, but everything in that piece is correct: everything did start going downhill when men stopped wearing hats.

“The best thing about kids’ soccer being canceled this year”. Although I quibble slightly with this: the best thing about kids soccer being cancelled isn’t the renewed socialization, it is the fact that kids aren’t playing soccer.

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“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 149

Wednesday, August 26th, 2020

More history today. And again, I’m running a bit long. I know.

British Army Documentaries has posted a three part series: “Falklands: The Land Battle 1982”.

Here’s part 1: “The Landings”.

I understand if you don’t want to watch all 46 minutes of this. Not everybody is that interested in the Falklands War. But at least listen to the first 45 seconds or so: is that literally the most 1980s music you’ve ever heard?

Bonus video: if you’re interested, part 2: “Towards Stanley”.

Part 3, “The Final Countdown Battle”.

And part 4, “In the Light of Experience”.

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Obit watch: August 26, 2020.

Wednesday, August 26th, 2020

For the historical record: Gail “Passages” Sheehy.

Justin Townes Earle, singer, songwriter, and son of Steve Earle. He was only 38.

Norman Carlson. He ran the Federal Bureau of Prisons from 1970 to 1987.

Starting in the early 1980s, government policies like the war on drugs and mandatory minimum sentencing had led to mass incarceration, swelling inmate populations in both state and federal systems. Aiming to ease the stress on penitentiary inmates and staff, Mr. Carlson favored building more prisons; during his tenure, he created 20 new facilities, nearly doubling the existing number.
And in Marion, Ill., he established a tough new system of solitary confinement that became the model on which future supermax penitentiaries were based. These included the United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence, Colo., known as the ADX; it is the toughest prison in the federal system, housing those who have been labeled the “worst of the worst.”

…

Mr. Carlson was credited with professionalizing the Bureau of Prisons. He disciplined officers who beat inmates, setting a policy of zero tolerance for prisoner abuse. Guards were to call themselves corrections officers, and assistant wardens were to wear suits and ties. He often ate with prisoners and brought along his wife and children, to show that prison food was good enough for his own family.
And he was a stickler for cleanliness.
“Mr. Carlson viewed a dirty prison as a sign of poor management; consequently floors were highly polished and walls kept painted,” Mr. Earley wrote. He said that one warden was so eager to please the director that when the snow outside had turned muddy and brown, the warden had his staff sprinkle flour on it to make it look whiter before Mr. Carlson arrived.

…

“We have to divorce ourselves from the notion that we can change human behavior, that we have the power to change inmates,” Mr. Carlson told Mr. Earley. “We don’t. All we can do is provide opportunities for inmates who want to change.”

(Pete Earley’s The Hot House is a swell book about Leavenworth specifically, and to some extent about the Federal prison system in general. I enthusiastically recommend it if you’re interested in prisons or criminal justice issues.)

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