Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Articles of Impeachment against Dick Cheney

loquitur · 05-15-2007, 05:41 AM

>>>>>>>>>>> [from willravel] I'm still left wondering which is worse, removing the hand of a thief or spending millions on the asshole and sending him to a place that will harden him as a criminal and that will make him MORE likely to break the law again. Do you think one handed Frank is going to steal again?

Interesting issue. Back in law school I had some long late-night debates with people over whether our criminal punishment system was seriously broken. I was troubled by the fact that there are poor people and middle class people working hard and playing by the rules, but struggling to get by, while criminals who are convicted get room, board, medical care and recreation courtesy of the state, plus enormous devotion of resources. My proposal was to remove a whole category of crimes from being eligible for imprisonment, primarily nonviolent ones, and either converting them to torts or imposing financial or other penalties like work. One of the people I used to argue with thought that even some violent criminals shouldn't be imprisoned, but instead should be subjected to corporal punishment (e.g., electric shocks or lashes), with a doctor present to ensure lack of permanent physical harm. What do you think of that?

Host, as for Saudi Arabia, given my druthers I'd have a crash program to come up with alternative energy sources and tell the Saudis to go drink their oil. Our need for petroleum-based energy has seriously distorted our politics and foreign policy. The only reason anyone in this world gives a shit about the two-bit dictatorships, theocracies and kleptocracies in that part of the world is that many of them are sitting on what we use for energy, so if they tell us we need to care, we don't have much choice.

As a national security strategy I'd slap a $2/gallon tax on gasoline, immediately. Of course, it will never ever ever happen. But that would be the single best thing we could do to straighten out our foreign policy. It would bring many alternative energy sources suddenly within the realm of economic feasibility.

05-15-2007, 05:41 AM	#231 (permalink)
loquitur Junkie Location: NYC	>>>>>>>>>>> [from willravel] I'm still left wondering which is worse, removing the hand of a thief or spending millions on the asshole and sending him to a place that will harden him as a criminal and that will make him MORE likely to break the law again. Do you think one handed Frank is going to steal again? Interesting issue. Back in law school I had some long late-night debates with people over whether our criminal punishment system was seriously broken. I was troubled by the fact that there are poor people and middle class people working hard and playing by the rules, but struggling to get by, while criminals who are convicted get room, board, medical care and recreation courtesy of the state, plus enormous devotion of resources. My proposal was to remove a whole category of crimes from being eligible for imprisonment, primarily nonviolent ones, and either converting them to torts or imposing financial or other penalties like work. One of the people I used to argue with thought that even some violent criminals shouldn't be imprisoned, but instead should be subjected to corporal punishment (e.g., electric shocks or lashes), with a doctor present to ensure lack of permanent physical harm. What do you think of that? Host, as for Saudi Arabia, given my druthers I'd have a crash program to come up with alternative energy sources and tell the Saudis to go drink their oil. Our need for petroleum-based energy has seriously distorted our politics and foreign policy. The only reason anyone in this world gives a shit about the two-bit dictatorships, theocracies and kleptocracies in that part of the world is that many of them are sitting on what we use for energy, so if they tell us we need to care, we don't have much choice. As a national security strategy I'd slap a $2/gallon tax on gasoline, immediately. Of course, it will never ever ever happen. But that would be the single best thing we could do to straighten out our foreign policy. It would bring many alternative energy sources suddenly within the realm of economic feasibility.