This book was interesting and I would probably recommend it, but it wasn't good enough to really get me interested in the topics beyond the book. Unlike Fast Food Nation which played a small role in my becoming Vegan, this book didn't motivate me to change my lifestyle or start to care about things that I didn't care about before. So it was nice entertainment for the moment, but doesn't really have any lasting effects on me because I knew where I stood on the topics beforehand and the book didn't change my opinions, it only qualified them.
Pretty much, my entries say it all.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Section 4: Out of the Underground
Ok, confession. I didn't read this section very carefully because I was in Jamaica and a guy was teaching me Patois while I was trying to read.
But what I did see was a lot about Coolidge and Clinton and Reagan's ideas on small government. And nothing very good about it either. A lot of economic talk about how the black market saps money out of the real market and how the areas of the U.S. that are seedy areas full of black market activity resemble those of poor, chaotic, crime-ridden countries instead of one of the richest nations on Earth. This part is where Schlosser puts forth a real opinion calling for fewer laws regarding regulation and restriction of drugs, goods, porn, whatever else the black market provides with combined strictness enforcing the rules. And consistency.
I suppose that since Schlosser is pretty much pro at this economic/government stuff his theories are right, but I'm not sure I agree with them. I think laws need to be more lax and more logical. I mean, use your brain here, referring to the case again about the 1.6 grams and the fines of ridiculous proportion. What kind of judge is going to go that far to punish a lawyer smoking a J? A judge who isn't working on anything important with his life, that's who. It's just plain stupid. I call for laws that are rational, fair, logical, and flexible from case to case. No more minimum punishments. No more idiots working in the system. (ok that's too much to ask, sorry.) NO MORE RELIGION IN THE GOVERNMENT! Smart people is what I'm asking for. Normal people. People who don't have personal vendettas and personal agendas. GOOD, FAIR PEOPLE. Isn't that who is supposed to be running the system anyways?
Idealistically I would call for an entire remodeling of the justice system, meaning the laws and the people working inside it. Complete review. Strip it down like Schlosser suggests, but also make it more relevant to the times and the average person. Then add the other stuff I call for in the previous paragraph and maybe you've got a system that isn't plain stupid.
But what I did see was a lot about Coolidge and Clinton and Reagan's ideas on small government. And nothing very good about it either. A lot of economic talk about how the black market saps money out of the real market and how the areas of the U.S. that are seedy areas full of black market activity resemble those of poor, chaotic, crime-ridden countries instead of one of the richest nations on Earth. This part is where Schlosser puts forth a real opinion calling for fewer laws regarding regulation and restriction of drugs, goods, porn, whatever else the black market provides with combined strictness enforcing the rules. And consistency.
I suppose that since Schlosser is pretty much pro at this economic/government stuff his theories are right, but I'm not sure I agree with them. I think laws need to be more lax and more logical. I mean, use your brain here, referring to the case again about the 1.6 grams and the fines of ridiculous proportion. What kind of judge is going to go that far to punish a lawyer smoking a J? A judge who isn't working on anything important with his life, that's who. It's just plain stupid. I call for laws that are rational, fair, logical, and flexible from case to case. No more minimum punishments. No more idiots working in the system. (ok that's too much to ask, sorry.) NO MORE RELIGION IN THE GOVERNMENT! Smart people is what I'm asking for. Normal people. People who don't have personal vendettas and personal agendas. GOOD, FAIR PEOPLE. Isn't that who is supposed to be running the system anyways?
Idealistically I would call for an entire remodeling of the justice system, meaning the laws and the people working inside it. Complete review. Strip it down like Schlosser suggests, but also make it more relevant to the times and the average person. Then add the other stuff I call for in the previous paragraph and maybe you've got a system that isn't plain stupid.
Section 3: An Empire of the Obscene
As much as I enjoyed the weed chapter, this section was the most riveting. It was about the rise and fall of a man named Reuban Sturman. Innocently, he started the pornography industry which today is worth A LOT of money. Sturman faced a lot of trouble from the government legally. A lot of obscenity trials, which I think are bullshit because there is no definition of what is obscene and what is not. No one really has the right to decide and a lot of this was about a bit of religious prosecution. THIS COUNTRY IS NOT RELIGIOUS. How many times does that fact have to be ignored!? Christian values have no place in the justice system and therefore Christian values should not be used to figure out what's decent and what's not. As long as porn isn't being displayed in plain view for ch- no hold that thought, I think porn can be distributed anywhere, but it's the parents who must take responsibility for what their child is exposed to. The government is not responsible for what children are exposed to, that's a parent's job.
Each and every individual should be able to make his/her own decision on how he/she feels about the decency of porn and then he/she can choose to buy it or not. Or endorse it. Or support it in any way. But the feeling I get is that there are a lot of freaks out there who are just uncomfortable with how much of a pervert he/she is and so he/she feels he/she must vehemently oppose porn to prove how unpervy he/she is. Just because a person is uncomfortable with personal feelings doesn't mean that Reuben Sturman should be punished for virtually nothing. Except tax evasion. Which he was. Justice.
The injustices were that he was also charged with obscenity counts. It's not in the judge's jurisdiction! it's subjective! That's really the one thing I had a problem with. Why does the government get to decide what's obscene and what's not? It's not fair. It's not right. The people have the freedom. Well, should have the freedom.
Each and every individual should be able to make his/her own decision on how he/she feels about the decency of porn and then he/she can choose to buy it or not. Or endorse it. Or support it in any way. But the feeling I get is that there are a lot of freaks out there who are just uncomfortable with how much of a pervert he/she is and so he/she feels he/she must vehemently oppose porn to prove how unpervy he/she is. Just because a person is uncomfortable with personal feelings doesn't mean that Reuben Sturman should be punished for virtually nothing. Except tax evasion. Which he was. Justice.
The injustices were that he was also charged with obscenity counts. It's not in the judge's jurisdiction! it's subjective! That's really the one thing I had a problem with. Why does the government get to decide what's obscene and what's not? It's not fair. It's not right. The people have the freedom. Well, should have the freedom.
Section 2: In The Strawberry Fields
This was the shortest section of the book. I found it to be quite boring and it felt like Schlosser did as well. He makes the case for the workers in the California strawberry picking industry. Their work is extremely difficult and does not provide any real benefits, stability, or good pay. The only reason the industry isn't updated is because it is cheaper for the employers to trap non citizens who in some cases can't even speak any english and have no other choice but to take what is available. It is unfair to take advantage of the situation that illegal immigrants are in. Schlosser mostly talks about how the big corporations abuse the small time workers and how the farmers are forced into tons and tons of debt because the market is so unsteady for fruit that can go bad within a week of being picked.
From the description of how difficult it is to grow strawberries and the amount of risk there is in that industry I think that maybe the strawberry industry in California should just give up. It's obviously not working for anyone other than the big wigs so if the people actually doing the work just up and quit, strike, then the larger corps would have nothing to profit off of. Maybe that's naive, but doesn't it make sense that if there's no production then there is not profit?
Again, this section was really short and didn't talk about much other than the fact that people coming in from this country, specifically from Mexico, are being taken advantage of because they are desperate for work. There even was an instance of one man 'rising' in the ranks and becoming a sharecropper for the big fruit industry who loaned him money to start a farm, had him sign a contract that he couldn't even read (he didn't know how to read English) and then he was put in a high position of crippling debt. He was unable to pay his workers, unable to harvest strawberries because of the crap weather, and left attacked by the companies that exploited him. This was an outrage. Just because he is not a citizen doesn't mean he should be treated anything less than one. We're all humans here, but the corps just want money.
Naturally greed is the root of all the issues in this short section. It's disgusting. No human being should be subjected to grueling physical labor day after day only to go home.....oh wait most of them were so impoverished because they weren't paid properly that they were homeless! So basically the point is that not only do we need working regulation and protection for legals and illegals, but we need to take care of any person in and out of this country.
From the description of how difficult it is to grow strawberries and the amount of risk there is in that industry I think that maybe the strawberry industry in California should just give up. It's obviously not working for anyone other than the big wigs so if the people actually doing the work just up and quit, strike, then the larger corps would have nothing to profit off of. Maybe that's naive, but doesn't it make sense that if there's no production then there is not profit?
Again, this section was really short and didn't talk about much other than the fact that people coming in from this country, specifically from Mexico, are being taken advantage of because they are desperate for work. There even was an instance of one man 'rising' in the ranks and becoming a sharecropper for the big fruit industry who loaned him money to start a farm, had him sign a contract that he couldn't even read (he didn't know how to read English) and then he was put in a high position of crippling debt. He was unable to pay his workers, unable to harvest strawberries because of the crap weather, and left attacked by the companies that exploited him. This was an outrage. Just because he is not a citizen doesn't mean he should be treated anything less than one. We're all humans here, but the corps just want money.
Naturally greed is the root of all the issues in this short section. It's disgusting. No human being should be subjected to grueling physical labor day after day only to go home.....oh wait most of them were so impoverished because they weren't paid properly that they were homeless! So basically the point is that not only do we need working regulation and protection for legals and illegals, but we need to take care of any person in and out of this country.
Section 1: Reefer Madness
This entire section seemed to have a bias in favor of marijuana and its users. Drug dealers and big scheme growers were portrayed as harmless midwestern type men. Just average farmers and people. Not criminals. I thought this was a little weird because I normally picture big time drug dealers as criminals and crazies. no offense. But Schlosser deals with the large scheme that got taken down by making it seem like less of a criminal offense, but as more of an unfortunate situation. The people involved were innocent victims who were hardly aware of the crimes. This is something I didn't quite agree with. Yes, the DEA should spend more time busting meth labs and crack dens instead of seeking out weed farms in corn fields. But the men involved in the operation should have expected punishments. Yes, the punishments are much too severe for weed (death sentences! no parole! life in maximum security!), but those guys in the business should have been aware of the risk.
In other news, the stories about small time drug users were very agreeable because Schlosser explored how average people are facing ridiculous sentences for things such as 1.6grams of weed in a fat joint. It's costing normal people copious amounts of money and time (and sometimes jail sentences) just for smoking/possessing very minute amounts of drugs. I believe there was one instance in the book where a man was charged more harshly for pot than a person caught with cocaine would have been. This is no way to handle marijuana use! Schlosser does a good job of pointing out how stupid some of the laws regarding weed are and how harmless it is and how harmless most of its users are without being really forward and saying, "I support recreational use of marijuana." He puts the facts out there, mostly facts about overly strict punishments etc, and shows the reader versus telling the reader.
In other news, the stories about small time drug users were very agreeable because Schlosser explored how average people are facing ridiculous sentences for things such as 1.6grams of weed in a fat joint. It's costing normal people copious amounts of money and time (and sometimes jail sentences) just for smoking/possessing very minute amounts of drugs. I believe there was one instance in the book where a man was charged more harshly for pot than a person caught with cocaine would have been. This is no way to handle marijuana use! Schlosser does a good job of pointing out how stupid some of the laws regarding weed are and how harmless it is and how harmless most of its users are without being really forward and saying, "I support recreational use of marijuana." He puts the facts out there, mostly facts about overly strict punishments etc, and shows the reader versus telling the reader.
Reefer Madness
Reefer Madness is a book I chose to read for school. Initially I chose this book for the oh-so catchy title, but then I realized that it's written by Eric Schlosser who is the also the author of another book that I love called Fast Food Nation. Anyways Reefer Madness was not only about reefer and madness, but it was also about pornography, illegal immigrants, and the big bad corporations. The atrocities of the government. etc.
It's divided into a few large essays with embedded mini-tangents on the subject of the essay. The first section is on marijuana, the second section is on the injustices of strawberry farms in California employing illegals, the third section is on the growth of the pornography industry, the fourth is on the general black market, and the afterword goes back to reefer. So the book opens and closes with the title. All four of these subjects are very interesting and they relate to Issues in that we talked about drug policies, we talked about........well, we've talked about drug policy therefore the book is relevant.
Regardless of what we have or haven't gone over in class the book was very relevant to me and I was interested in all of the topics and they were all well written and well researched.
It's divided into a few large essays with embedded mini-tangents on the subject of the essay. The first section is on marijuana, the second section is on the injustices of strawberry farms in California employing illegals, the third section is on the growth of the pornography industry, the fourth is on the general black market, and the afterword goes back to reefer. So the book opens and closes with the title. All four of these subjects are very interesting and they relate to Issues in that we talked about drug policies, we talked about........well, we've talked about drug policy therefore the book is relevant.
Regardless of what we have or haven't gone over in class the book was very relevant to me and I was interested in all of the topics and they were all well written and well researched.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Death Penalty 3 via Dad's Ipad (so cool!)
I didn't even have to read more than a few sentences in the stages of a Death Penalty Trial before I saw something that makes me doubt the guilt of the accuseD. It was something along the lines of death cases being ones where there is immEnse pressure on the police toncatch the murderer. The more pressure there is, the more rushed the police will be and therefore they will take shortcuts or flat out cheat the system by putting innocent people to their deaths.
Uckily, the jury has to sit on these caseS for a month so ther is plenty of time to really contemplate the severity and the necessity of this punishment, although who knows what kind of people are in this jury and if they care or are invested in justice at all. In theory these steps of process seem like they would work really well, but I feel that when deciding whether or not to give the death sentence the jury will not presume a defendant innocent until proven guilty. I think the jury is most likely to presume guilty and wait to find out just HOW guilty the defendant is. The jury is only human after all, and I don't blame them for thinking this way because anyone would, it's just that a human with flAws shouldn't get to pick death.
The methods of execution disgust me. I was literally wrinkling my face up as if there was a terrible smell coming from the screen.
1. Hanging: This is terrifying. It's so medieval I can't believe it's still a choice in some states. It's inhumane because it will cause severe emotional damage because of the nerves and anxiety upon getting the black bag over his head. It's completely unreliable and everything has to be perfect or else the person will be in a lot of pain and anguish before he dies. This is not ok to put a human being through.
2. Firing Squad: Imagine if that first shot was the blank shot? How would one feel, unable to see, practically dying of anxiety and hearing the shot fire, but not knowing why one is still living? That is something that is traumatic enough to literally gray the hair on one's head. This technique is inhumane.
3. Electrocution: While reading the passage explaining this method of murder I thought about the Green Mile and the execution scene in that movie. Seeing it fictionalized with special effects is bad enough even if I know it was fake, but to think that it actually has happened in reality blows my mind. How do the executioners and the people who set up the chair and the sponge and the witnesses feel when witnesses this graphic death? Real people have gone through that pain, and no one deserves to have to die such a painful and cruel death. Not even a criminal.
4. Gas Chamber: What are we, Nazis? Who in their right mind would employ this method? It obviously puts innocent people at risk when they have to clean up the body and there are still fume remenants in the chamber. It seems like the trend of these execution methods are to 'accidentally-on purpose' put the death row inmates in the most amount of pain and terror as possible. That's cruel and unusual and it puts everyone who condones it on the same level as the murderer.
5. Lethal Injection: I'm still anti-death penalty, but this method seems like the most humane. At least the inmates are anesthitized, but there is still that emotional anxiety of going to the injection room, being strapped down,and being prodded by untrained people who may inadvertently cause extreme pain. To top that all off, we saw in the documentary about Clifford Boggess that sometimes inmates are sent to the injection room, strapped down, and then at the last second delayed only to come back again and again not knowing if they're going to die or be saved temporarily. It's torturous. Some would probably say the prisoner deserves that turbulent emotional damage for his crime, but I still think that it is not ok to treat people that way, guilty or not. We have brains that allow us to rise above the primitive natures of the Amygdala, but we sometimes choose not to use our given capacity for empathy. It's sad.
California, Texas, and Florida (in that order) have significantly higher amounts of inmates on Death Row than the other states. Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Masschusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin do not have the death penalty (and are therefore are lead by rightheaded people). Only 11 states have more black inmates than white inmates. That surprises me, actually. California has the most women on death row, which isn't surprising because they have the most inmates anyways. There are hardly any women on death row, there are mostly only men. There are some juveniles that have been executed, but only 16 and older. There can't be many statistics about them because their identities have to be protected since they were minors. 4 states do not have an option for life without parole. The most commonly used method of execution is largely lethal injection. Curretn Illinois policy says it's ok to execute people with mental retardation, one must be 18 or older to get death, and life without parole can be given. As of 9/08 I think Texas has executed the most people, second most is Virginia. Mostly whites have been exectued, in Virginia it's pretty even between blacks and whites. In both other ethnicities don't compare. Texas only uses injection and Virginia uses electrocution and injection.
After considering this data it seems to me that the death penalty is definitely sexist, but less racist than i thought it was. Hardly any women are ever executed or put on death row whereas many men are. I don't know if this is because men commit more violent crimes than women or if juries are more likely to vote for men to get death. Surprisingly, though, more white people than any other minorities are executed and sentenced when just averaging out all the results. Thankfully, most states choose lethal injection as the method of execution. This is not humane, but it is the best of all the evils.
The updated data reconfirms my belief that the death penalty is racist. If a white person is killed by a black person, the black person is much more likely to get the death sentence than a white person who kills a black person. Economically, the death row and executions cost more than tax dollars than the life sentence costs. Therefore, the death penalty is a waste of money. Race plays a huge part in the sentencing. There is not enough minority representation in the courts. This data says that as a country, we are pretty much equally in favor and not in favor of the death penalty. And there is a percentage of people with no opinion. The opinion is a mere 1 percent higher for not in favor of the death penalty. I think the death penalty center is against the death penalty judging by their reports and the facts they choose to represent. I think it is very convincing because it confirms my own previous beliefs. I like most anything that will qualify my views. I don't think anymore information is necessary because this data is very thorough.
Uckily, the jury has to sit on these caseS for a month so ther is plenty of time to really contemplate the severity and the necessity of this punishment, although who knows what kind of people are in this jury and if they care or are invested in justice at all. In theory these steps of process seem like they would work really well, but I feel that when deciding whether or not to give the death sentence the jury will not presume a defendant innocent until proven guilty. I think the jury is most likely to presume guilty and wait to find out just HOW guilty the defendant is. The jury is only human after all, and I don't blame them for thinking this way because anyone would, it's just that a human with flAws shouldn't get to pick death.
The methods of execution disgust me. I was literally wrinkling my face up as if there was a terrible smell coming from the screen.
1. Hanging: This is terrifying. It's so medieval I can't believe it's still a choice in some states. It's inhumane because it will cause severe emotional damage because of the nerves and anxiety upon getting the black bag over his head. It's completely unreliable and everything has to be perfect or else the person will be in a lot of pain and anguish before he dies. This is not ok to put a human being through.
2. Firing Squad: Imagine if that first shot was the blank shot? How would one feel, unable to see, practically dying of anxiety and hearing the shot fire, but not knowing why one is still living? That is something that is traumatic enough to literally gray the hair on one's head. This technique is inhumane.
3. Electrocution: While reading the passage explaining this method of murder I thought about the Green Mile and the execution scene in that movie. Seeing it fictionalized with special effects is bad enough even if I know it was fake, but to think that it actually has happened in reality blows my mind. How do the executioners and the people who set up the chair and the sponge and the witnesses feel when witnesses this graphic death? Real people have gone through that pain, and no one deserves to have to die such a painful and cruel death. Not even a criminal.
4. Gas Chamber: What are we, Nazis? Who in their right mind would employ this method? It obviously puts innocent people at risk when they have to clean up the body and there are still fume remenants in the chamber. It seems like the trend of these execution methods are to 'accidentally-on purpose' put the death row inmates in the most amount of pain and terror as possible. That's cruel and unusual and it puts everyone who condones it on the same level as the murderer.
5. Lethal Injection: I'm still anti-death penalty, but this method seems like the most humane. At least the inmates are anesthitized, but there is still that emotional anxiety of going to the injection room, being strapped down,and being prodded by untrained people who may inadvertently cause extreme pain. To top that all off, we saw in the documentary about Clifford Boggess that sometimes inmates are sent to the injection room, strapped down, and then at the last second delayed only to come back again and again not knowing if they're going to die or be saved temporarily. It's torturous. Some would probably say the prisoner deserves that turbulent emotional damage for his crime, but I still think that it is not ok to treat people that way, guilty or not. We have brains that allow us to rise above the primitive natures of the Amygdala, but we sometimes choose not to use our given capacity for empathy. It's sad.
California, Texas, and Florida (in that order) have significantly higher amounts of inmates on Death Row than the other states. Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Masschusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin do not have the death penalty (and are therefore are lead by rightheaded people). Only 11 states have more black inmates than white inmates. That surprises me, actually. California has the most women on death row, which isn't surprising because they have the most inmates anyways. There are hardly any women on death row, there are mostly only men. There are some juveniles that have been executed, but only 16 and older. There can't be many statistics about them because their identities have to be protected since they were minors. 4 states do not have an option for life without parole. The most commonly used method of execution is largely lethal injection. Curretn Illinois policy says it's ok to execute people with mental retardation, one must be 18 or older to get death, and life without parole can be given. As of 9/08 I think Texas has executed the most people, second most is Virginia. Mostly whites have been exectued, in Virginia it's pretty even between blacks and whites. In both other ethnicities don't compare. Texas only uses injection and Virginia uses electrocution and injection.
After considering this data it seems to me that the death penalty is definitely sexist, but less racist than i thought it was. Hardly any women are ever executed or put on death row whereas many men are. I don't know if this is because men commit more violent crimes than women or if juries are more likely to vote for men to get death. Surprisingly, though, more white people than any other minorities are executed and sentenced when just averaging out all the results. Thankfully, most states choose lethal injection as the method of execution. This is not humane, but it is the best of all the evils.
The updated data reconfirms my belief that the death penalty is racist. If a white person is killed by a black person, the black person is much more likely to get the death sentence than a white person who kills a black person. Economically, the death row and executions cost more than tax dollars than the life sentence costs. Therefore, the death penalty is a waste of money. Race plays a huge part in the sentencing. There is not enough minority representation in the courts. This data says that as a country, we are pretty much equally in favor and not in favor of the death penalty. And there is a percentage of people with no opinion. The opinion is a mere 1 percent higher for not in favor of the death penalty. I think the death penalty center is against the death penalty judging by their reports and the facts they choose to represent. I think it is very convincing because it confirms my own previous beliefs. I like most anything that will qualify my views. I don't think anymore information is necessary because this data is very thorough.
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