Crime and Punishment- Criminal Justice

During the time of Charles Dickens London had become a big city and crime was running rampant.  The cure was to make punishment so severe that it would deter the criminals from committing the crimes.  I believe that over a hundred crimes were punishable by death.  One of those crimes was pick pocketing!  In order to maximize the punishment and the deterrence there were public executions of the pick pockets.  These drew huge crowds because executions in this period of time were particularly grizzly.  There were no trapdoors.  No hoods.  The noose was placed around the neck while the victim stood on a large box and then the box was kicked away.  The poor devil kicked and struggled until he passed out and then slowly died.  The executions were very popular.

They were discontinued after a fairly short period of time though.  You can probably guess the reason.  Too many people were getting their pockets picked at the pick pocket hangings! Read the rest of this entry

Matt Shea is a firearms nutcase.  We can’t wait to see him arm himself again when the traffic is not to his liking.

But Matt is not a one event talent.  His ability to hyper ventilate while abusing his former wife and his anger at fellow legislators has made a real reputation for this political radical.

We are waiting to see him refuse to pay his income tax like his Sovereign Nation conspirators.  Shea’s radical belief systems compel him to challenge any commonly accepted political principles and make him forget to get a concealed weapons permit or maybe he was doing that on purpose!

We can probably regard Matt Shea as an extreme Libertarian with a fascist streak running through the middle.  But he may go beyond that though with the gun fetish.  The gun in the car was loaded so he may be seeing “boogymen” that are out to get him.  We are looking at rather psychotic behavior here.  Has he lost his empathy?  That is the real test of who is a psycho.   Can he love?  Can he imagine the feelings of others?  Is self interest his main focus?  Can he play with others?

It is time to call him out as either a sociopath or a real psychopath.

Our moral mission is to spread the word that government is to protect and empower all citizens equally!  And it must be a deeply held MORAL MISSION.  It must have feeling and emotion behind it.  We think too much and feel too little.  You have to have the emotional commitment to your philosophy in order to connect with others at an emotional level.  That is the only way you can reach them!

The conservative take is that Democracy is to provide citizens with maximum liberty to pursue their self interest with little or no commitment to the interests of others.  Citizens are free to sink or swim on their own.  YOYO  You’re on your own! Read the rest of this entry

The Little Blue Book

“Traditional American democracy has brought beauty to the world.  The idea of citizens caring about each other and taking responsibility not only for themselves but also for their fellow citizens has a moral beauty.  The mission of government is to protect and empower all equally through the use of the public realm, defined as resources for the betterment of life provided by all. That is also beautiful. It has made for civilized and humane private lives and prosperous private enterprise”.

That paragraph opens the sixth chapter of The Little Blue Book by George Lakoff and Elisabeth Wehling.  But while the book is touted as a guide to thinking and talking Democratic it is more of an explanation of how people can persuade and influence others by understanding the theory of the mind.  While the emphasis is on empathy and caring for others the Lakoff and Wheling stress the need for doing it from a moral perspective.  In other words, it needs to be done on a very ethical and emotional plane to be effective. Read the rest of this entry