how prisons work, by brian mcfadden


Don't forget to visit Big Fat Whale for more McFadden funnies. Even better, subscribe to his feed in the New York Times' Sunday Review: The Strip.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"you guys": change language, do no harm, but can we please leave space for learning and growing?

Image
First reactions: the language police I've recently learned that calling a group of people you guys  may be considered insensitive to transgender people.  My first reaction to this was an inner eye-roll, and thoughts along the lines of, "Oh come on, that's going too far."  The same reaction I had to learning that the word crazy  is not to be used -- in any context -- because it's insensitive to people with mental illness. Why are people policing my language this closely? Is this really important? Who determined this is now inappropriate speech? I've always thought of guys  as gender-neutral, and you guys  represents a group of people of any gender -- in the appropriate context. Clearly some people say "guys and girls," and in that context guys means men and boys. But words have different meanings in different contexts, and most speakers of any given language are able to distinguish among those contexts.  Is you guys  really so offensive, to the po...
Read more

let them stay reason # 5: because iraq is an environmental disaster

The sixth of a ten-part series: top ten reasons why US Iraq War Resisters should be allowed to stay in Canada. Reason # 5: from Rex Wyler, ecologist, author and Vietnam War resister. Reason # 6 from Naomi Klein , award-winning author, filmmaker, activist, Canadian. Daughter of war resister. Reason # 7 from Olivia Chow , Member of Parliament. Reason # 8 from Bill King , musician, producer, Vietnam war deserter. Reason # 9 from Maude Barlow of the Council of Canadians . Reason # 10 from Alex Neve of Amnesty International . Here's 85,000 more reasons. The Iraqi government has released its first official death toll report. It says 85,000 Iraqis were killed from 2004 to 2008 . Other ongoing sources for civilian death tolls: Iraq Body Count , invasion of Iraq casualties on Wikipedia.
Read more

rtod

Revolutionary thought of the day: I can’t stop looking at Rue, smaller than ever, a baby animal curled up in a nest of netting. I can’t bring myself to leave her like this. Past harm, but seeming utterly defenseless. To hate the boy from District 1, who also appears so vulnerable in death, seems inadequate. It’s the Capitol I hate, for doing this to all of us. Gale’s voice is in my head. His ravings against the Capitol no longer pointless, no longer to be ignored. Rue’s death has forced me to confront my own fury against the cruelty, the injustice they inflict upon us. But here, even more strongly than at home, I feel my impotence. There’s no way to take revenge on the Capitol. Is there? Then I remember Peeta’s words on the roof. “Only I keep wishing I could think of a way to . . . to show the Capital they don’t own me. That I’m more than just a piece in their Games.” And for the first time, I understand what he means. I want to do something, right here, right now, to shame them, to ma...
Read more