Comments on Racine Post: Another inmate has died at Racine County Jail

Amen!

2009-12-01T21:36:39.298-06:00

Amen!

For our own sakes and the well-being of society, w...

2009-12-01T07:38:07.437-06:00

For our own sakes and the well-being of society, we must neither harden our hearts nor coarsen our minds with cruelty.

Because cruelty and inhumanity are contagious. Onc...

2009-11-30T17:22:44.341-06:00

Because cruelty and inhumanity are contagious. Once you've descended to the criminals' level, it's very difficult to regain lost moral ground. That's why good men soon turned into brutes subsequent to becoming chain gang guards and abusing the prisoners in obedience to their superiors' orders.

3:14 - Why, when you are dealing with inhumane peo...

2009-11-30T15:22:59.469-06:00

3:14 - Why, when you are dealing with inhumane people?

Even so, a decent society has humane jails and goo...

2009-11-30T15:14:55.173-06:00

Even so, a decent society has humane jails and good COs.

Hey - don't break the law and you will encounter a...

2009-11-30T08:39:03.685-06:00

Hey - don't break the law and you will encounter any jail issues - it's as simple as that.

The trick is to find humane and just solutions to ...

2009-11-30T07:10:53.488-06:00

The trick is to find humane and just solutions to our problems. Usually, when we set aside our biases and drop our adversarial approach to life, we can come up with solutions which benefit everyone. (Some folks--including corporate motivational writers and speakers--call this concept the "win-win" approach. Let's use it early and often.)

Most COs are decent people. If we didn't incarcera...

2009-11-30T07:03:26.857-06:00

Most COs are decent people. If we didn't incarcerate so many non-violent offenders and thereby over burden our COs, they could do a better job of caring for the inmates.

Amen!

2009-11-29T11:07:35.537-06:00

Amen!

Until we get rid of capitalism and help our disadv...

2009-11-29T10:23:00.450-06:00

Until we get rid of capitalism and help our disadvantaged people, poverty and crime will flourish in our country. In the meantime, we can find humane alternatives to incarceration for our non-violent offenders. This should prevent jail overcrowding and make it easier for our COs to take good care of the inmates.

http://mises.org/article.aspx?control=905

2009-11-29T09:27:48.828-06:00

http://mises.org/article.aspx?control=905

If we had a Danish-style social safety net here, o...

2009-11-29T08:03:29.778-06:00

If we had a Danish-style social safety net here, our poor people wouldn't be driven to commit petty property offenses and we'd have far fewer inmates in our jails.

Dear 3:25 P.M., Although it may seem strange to yo...

2009-11-29T04:58:32.681-06:00

Dear 3:25 P.M., Although it may seem strange to you, many Europeans DON'T resent paying what you'd call high taxes. In fact, some of them get upset when Americans make negative remarks about their system. If you can obtain a book by Michael Powell entitled "Behave Yourself!" you'll learn that the Danes dislike American visitors' comments on the touchy topic: "Avoid criticizing high Danish taxes; they've heard it all before and they are proud of the social welfare system and social infrastructure that these taxes provide." This quotation appears on page 35 of the 2005 edition.

As bad as our jail may be, it looks almost decent ...

2009-11-28T19:46:32.003-06:00

As bad as our jail may be, it looks almost decent alongside similar establishments in Texas. Even so, we ought to improve our jail and make sure that our inmates receive good medical care and kind treatment.

Heck--forget about breaking the law. You'd better ...

2009-11-28T19:41:30.030-06:00

Heck--forget about breaking the law. You'd better be rich and white if you just want to live in one of those places!

Don't forget the racism--you'd better be lily-whit...

2009-11-28T17:50:59.071-06:00

Don't forget the racism--you'd better be lily-white and loaded if you run afoul of the law in those states.

My pals in Europe don't see themselves as governme...

2009-11-28T17:49:28.103-06:00

My pals in Europe don't see themselves as government slaves. On the contrary, they're glad they have regimes which serve them and care about their needs. Anyone who's got free health care, free to low-cost higher education and job training, adequate unemployment checks,a workweek capped at forty hours and several weeks of paid vacation each year is way ahead of most Americans. If you want to see slaves, visit most of our factories, offices and fast food places. There you'll find worn out and downtrodden toilers whose lack of economic security has rendered them servile as can be toward the almighty boss and his snooper-visory personnel. Getting back to our jails and bad conditions in them, America has a sick tradition of prisoner abuse which is especially evident in the South and our Western states. My Danish friends can't believe that a purportedly civilized state such as Texas has so many scandals involving the mistreatment of inmates. The same applies to most of the Sunbelt. Because those places were either slave states or territories settled by ex-Confederates after the Civil War, their old tradition of cruelty toward vulnerable people remains alive and sick.

That last opinion mentioned does not make sense. A...

2009-11-28T15:25:01.115-06:00

That last opinion mentioned does not make sense.
Are you saying we didn't help Europe (so-called financial aid)?
Only the wealthy didn't want communism? Everything is not a conspiracy produced by the wealthy.
Again, and the last time, we do not want to use a failed method to fix what ails this country. We should work together to find a method that works for the long term and has proven to work. It is quite obvious socialism is not the answer. Do the math, look at history, use logic to determine a method. Don't use something that makes you feel good but doesn't work.
Please note socialism just converts wage slaves to government slaves. Nobody wins.

Our so-called financial aid arrived in Europe beca...

2009-11-28T15:10:48.447-06:00

Our so-called financial aid arrived in Europe because our wealthy class worried that post-WW II Europeans would support communism. That's why we had the Marshall Plan. Now we need a socialist plan to rebuild our nation's economy and free our wage slaves.

"Most cruel joke of all, however, has been played ...

2009-11-28T12:55:31.520-06:00

"Most cruel joke of all, however, has been played by Hitler & Co. on those German capitalists and small businessmen who once backed National Socialism as a means of saving Germany's bourgeois economic structure from radicalism. The Nazi credo that the individual belongs to the state also applies to business. Some businesses have been confiscated outright, on other what amounts to a capital tax has been levied. Profits have been strictly controlled. Some idea of the increasing Governmental control and interference in business could be deduced from the fact that 80% of all building and 50% of all industrial orders in Germany originated last year with the Government. Hard-pressed for food- stuffs as well as funds, the Nazi regime has taken over large estates and in many instances collectivized agriculture, a procedure fundamentally similar to Russian Communism."

(Source: Time Magazine; Jaunuary 2, 1939.)

And the capitalist pigs cleaned up after this fella's socialist dreams came to an end. Don't want to go there again. Too many innocent lives lost. Too much financial aid to rebuild after this (from capitalists I might add). Where would these happy Europeans be today without our blood and capitalism?
History, in so many instances, has shown socialism fails everyone. These are facts, not opinion.

Holy brainwashing, Batman!

2009-11-28T12:39:15.474-06:00

Holy brainwashing, Batman!

Dear Graham, Why is anyone who doesn't like your b...

2009-11-28T12:27:10.728-06:00

Dear Graham, Why is anyone who doesn't like your beloved capitalism a "crybaby"? Victims of foreclosure, under-employment, poverty, poor health and a host of other capitalist by-products have legitimate reasons to complain. And why do we stigmatize protesters as whiners? Could it be that the rich don't want us to compare notes on our misery? Are they afraid that we may organize to change the system and elect men who'll nationalize some of the oligarchs' loot? Here in America we've been fools who've grinned while the rich oppressed us in the futile hope that if we were good sports about our pain, they'd toss us some nice crumbs. Meanwhile, the smart workers in Europe and other enlightened parts of the globe have whined and won their battle for economic security. When they look at our outrageous college tuition, our ruinously-expensive health care, our sixty hour work weeks, our extreme disparities in wealth and our horrendous incarceration rate, the progressive people on this planet laugh at us. No sane European, Canadian, Aussie or Kiwi toiler would tolerate that bunk for a second.

Anyone who wants to lift our people out of poverty...

2009-11-28T12:03:53.754-06:00

Anyone who wants to lift our people out of poverty and end our country's sick punitive practice of routinely incarcerating low income petty offenders should work to build a socialist America. As for the rich and their greedy little emulators, they can relocate in the Third World, where--alas--they'll be allowed to exploit the toilers for another generation. (Memo to monetary monarchists and treasure tyrants: when the Third World poor finally wise up and rise up against their capitalist oppressors, it may not be pretty. Historically, Third World countries have cultures which fail to value human life and do not understand the concept of a peaceful and orderly transition of power. Although the rich may reap obscene profits in those places for thirty more years, the Third World revolutions --once they erupt--could be ghastly.)

The question of sustainability or lack thereof hin...

2009-11-28T11:51:24.063-06:00

The question of sustainability or lack thereof hinges on how people look at themselves and society. If they believe in Horatio Alger fairy fibs and see capitalism as a positive force instead of the war of the rich against the rest of mankind, they won't like socialism. Also, if somebody taught them an egotistical philosophy of life and they crow about how overcoming obstacles supposedly made them into great people, they won't endorse a system which spares ordinary folks from the extraordinary stress which privileged plutocrats inflict on workers in the noxious name of profit. Then, again, if they're capable of seeing the misery which corporate capitalism dumps on the disadvantaged and want to protect the non-monied majority from the moolah mutts, they'll support socialism.

That depends on what the definition of is, is. Wh...

2009-11-28T11:44:23.824-06:00

That depends on what the definition of is, is. What a joke.