https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/05/does-being-tough-on-crime-actually-deter-crime/

Interesting bit on Ars. Especially in the comments section. The actual article (and study) states what most of us are already aware of. Essentially prison sentences don't rehabilitate. It isn't 100%. But 99% is in the ball park. Alternative sentences don't rehabilitate either. But prison sentences do reduce crime, at least for as long as the criminals are in prison.

Is anyone surprised by this?

https://twitter.com/robbystarbuck/status/1126875161125253120

Yeah, he looks like *checks notes* a terrorist? seriously?

But when Mr. Malamud’s group posted the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, the state sued for copyright infringement. Providing public access to the state’s laws and related legal materials, Georgia’s lawyers said, was part of a “strategy of terrorism.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/13/us/politics/georgia-official-code-copyright.html

The greatest positive effect of prison is that the prisoners grow older. Especially for the younger prisoners (and most criminals start young), age tends to confer better impulse control and thinking through the consequences before acting. That would show a strong rehabilitative effect if prison changed nothing else.

But since the actual rehabilitative effect is small to zero, prison sentences must be offsetting the effect of aging by making released prisoners more likely to re-offend than their age and pre-prison character would indicate. Not that this is a mystery: A prisoner spends years associating mainly with other criminals, and being forcibly held to strict rules rather than developing self-discipline. He'll learn more criminal skills than job skills. If he ever knew how to function in normal society, he is not practicing those skills. And then he is released and has to make a living - while excluded from most jobs by his record.

She's like the 'deep state' of the diet industry or something.

Keto is like bad mkay you should be like hungry all the time n stuff

Hmm..

https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2019/05/15/support-for-same-sex-marriage-us/

When looking at religious affiliations, support for same-sex marriage has fallen across the Christian denominations polled. Even among those who do not express any religious affiliation support for marriage equality has fallen from 85 percent in 2017 to 77 percent in 2019.

Are you telling me that getting Christian people fired, their businesses ruined, and then gloating about it on social media is not convincing them to support same-sex marriage?

I know what can work! Let's do what CNN does and harrass their children too!

Oof, this has got to be some not-so-subtle trolling from Calvin Klein

https://www.clashmusic.com/fashion/calvin-klein-debuts-mycalvins-campaign-starring-noah-centineo-billie-eilish-more

From Ask Amy.

https://www.baltimoresun.com/features/ask-amy/ct-ask-amy-05152019-story.html

Dear Amy: I’m a Trump fan. I just started a new job. Every single TV at work is playing CNN, even though Fox (three times the ratings) and MSNBC (two times the ratings) have more followers.

I knew this coming in. However, now I have heard one teammate consistently speak up against Trump.

I, like many conservatives, have a hard time rebutting him, not because of any physical reaction, but because it could hinder my position within the company.

How should I handle this situation?

(snip)

Hint: She points out, in her longish response, that a ban on discussing politics in the workplace SHOULD go both ways, at least. She also said: "Unless you work in media, I don’t see why it is necessary to have any television on at work."

Via Hawk: https://twitter.com/PageSix/status/1128712666804101120

Real-getting— drinks, burgers.

Lenona, I can't think of a single job I've worked at that had TV playing. You are there to work not relax watching the boob tube.

"But since the actual rehabilitative effect is small to zero, prison sentences must be offsetting the effect of aging by making released prisoners more likely to re-offend than their age and pre-prison character would indicate."

I wouldn't be so sure of that Markm. Yes in general criminality goes down with age. But just like the discussion the other day about why men predominate in the nobles when you are dealing with people sentenced to prison you aren't dealing with the general populace. This is a very highly filtered subgroup. With or without prison you usually see very little reduction in criminality in this cohort.

Pilot

> I can't think of a single job
> I've worked at that

> I wouldn't be so sure of that

Planet Ben: People are always wrong.

I can't think of a single job
> I've worked at that

> I wouldn't be so sure of that

Planet Ben: People are always wrong.

Crid at May 15, 2019 5:29 PM

Probably works at the airport, or a business with a waiting room.

Lenona, I can't think of a single job I've worked at that had TV playing. You are there to work not relax watching the boob tube. ~ Ben at May 15, 2019 4:42 PM

There are numerous customer-facing jobs in which the television is generally playing for the customer's entertainment - bars, restaurants, stores, nail salons, hair salons, barber shops, etc.

Isab beat me to it.

I see James Woods is booted off Twitter again - this time for paraphrasing Emerson.

WTF, Dorsey.

I agree Isab and Conan. But those are some of the few jobs I can think of where a TV would be on at work. You also have stock pickers, and they would be watching various news shows. Advertisers in some positions too.

But in the very vast majority of jobs there wouldn't be a TV on. The letter writer doesn't say what the new job is. So I found it rather odd is all. Like Isab the only place I can think of where CNN is always on would be an airport for some reason. Bars and restaurants usually have ESPN or some other sport thing on.

As for Crid he's just trolling again. Of course there are always people who are wrong. I'm one of them sometimes.

> She also said: "Unless you
> work in media, I don’t see
> why it is necessary to have
> any television on at work."

Even those of us who work in the industry (by which I mean, of course, the business) readily concur in this perspective.

Y'know, Raddy works with nuclear wastes. He doesn't therefore want some scattered around the house, or served in a little sauce-tub with lunch.

Like that.

The model/motivation for prison is debt slavery or restitution, not rehabilitation. Used to be called "the work house".

There is no prison in Jewish law except for temporary holding during legal proceedings. If you can't compensate for the damages you caused, you are placed in a form of indentured servitude to pay it off.

Advantages of this system:
No concentration/isolation of a self-perpetuating criminal element.
Young criminals learn a trade.
Young criminals learn how normal people live, and must start comporting themselves accordingly.

Messages:
Nobody escapes the obligations of adulthood.
Neither you nor us are going anywhere.

= rehabilitation.

> WTF, Dorsey.

This podcast discusses people who implore these industrialists to smother this or that voice.

Sorry— THIS podcast.

Also here.

I have to admit I am still really curious where the CNN troubled lady works. I really can't think of a place other than an airport that fits. Thanks for that suggestion Isab.

"There is no prison in Jewish law except for temporary holding during legal proceedings. If you can't compensate for the damages you caused, you are placed in a form of indentured servitude to pay it off."

And if you cause further damages in that indentured servitude? Or are simply so bad a worker that it's not worth your supervisor's time? There are people with negative value as an employee, so inept or uncaring that adding them to the workforce will reduce the work completed.

I suspect that the old-time solution for these problems was the death penalty, or exile from your society. Usually this weren't really alternatives - exile meant they drove the offender into the wilderness to die out of their sight. A solitary man or woman has a pretty poor chance of survival in most places in the natural world unless gifted with a small fortune (and a wagon load) in tools, shelter, and clothing, and exiles often didn't even get to leave with what they could carry. Nor were they likely to survive by joining a different community. In a world where most people were always one crop failure or one infestation of the food storage bins from starvation, there were very few people so generous as to take in a complete stranger, least of all one who arrived in a way that suggested his own people drove him out.

"There are people with negative value as an employee, so inept or uncaring that adding them to the workforce will reduce the work completed."

This is hidden from discussions about minimum wage and other employment policies, and about the homeless.