It's been long since I posted something, and I'm having second thoughts about keeping the blog altogether. But for now I'll try to push through.
So here are a few news items and thoughts that were of note to me:
-California Sues Automakers
It says here that California is suing the 6 largest car makers in the US (including japanese ones with operations in the US) over global warming seeking millions of dollars.
Now regardless of how green I try to be, I just can't see the logic in this (other than it being an election year).
Even if you disregard the ongoing debate about global warming, whether it is actually happening, or what its causes are. Even disregarding all that and looking at the distribution of sources that contribute to producing greenhouse gases, fuel for transportation comes 3rd after industrial processes and power stations. Agricultural processes come a close 4th. Why doesn't California sue all factories and power stations, and after those maybe farmers as well?
-Crime and Punishment
The topic seems to pop in my head quite often for reasons beyond me.
The more I think about it, the more prison seems like a really bad idea. If someone who knows how to pickpocket goes to prison he'll graduate with a doctorate in serial killing. If there is such a thing as bad influence then it really doesn't get any worse than prison.
Only "solution" I could think of is solitary imprisonment and apart from the increased costs I think over any significant period of time it'll turn the prisoners all crazy. So we might as well just kill all criminals while we're at it.
Expulsion sounded like a good idea while it lasted, society gets rid of a bad seed and the bad seed is deprived of something that should be of value, but I can't think of somewhere you could expel criminals to nowadays.
Any ideas?
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Here I will post random thoughts of mine, for no reason whatsoever except that I can
3 comments:
Hey Chris, To blog or not to blog, well I think you should blog, but then I am biased because I like your blog. Anyway, about the prison thing: not all prisons are bad & evil I think, I've heard the ones in Enlightened Scandinavian States are quite cool and so presumably don't make prisoners come out even 'harder' than before. But then would systems like that work in other countries with different societies? I don't know but torturing prisoners isn't cool, and neither is killing people off. Ok, clustered it and found blog entry that discusses very briefly Finland's penal system... basically they treat prisoners like human beings, and since I don't know how to link here... I guess it'd be easy to google/cluster. And I suppose you have to change the structure of certain societies to develop a better prison system... which should be changed anyway.
That's Funny
California going after car manufacturers when Mr. Shwarzneger was one of the first adopters of the Very Very thirsty Hummer H1
Now He has one running on Hydrogen
Amazing how green you get when it's time for people to elect.
The duke has never been lost nor forgotten.
It's good to "see" you around man :)
Yasmin, thanks for the encouragement, it means a lot to me.
As for penal systems, I don't really know. I believe there is such a thing as being too soft on criminals, the penal systems should not only live up to the intended effects on criminals(punish, rehabilitate), but also serve as a deterrent for others on the fence.
Of course, killing people leisurely is not cool, I was being ironic :)
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