BLOG POSTS

• China has 119
• Iran has 222
• Russia has 628
• France has 91
• Britain has 147
• Iraq has 54 (2006 figure)

The United States of America tops them all with a mighty 751.

What do these figures mean?

They are prison population rates per 100,000 of national populations.^[1]

2.3 million American adults were in prison at the start of 2008: 1 out of every 100 Americans.

As if that is not bad enough, it gets worse:

“While one in 30 men between the ages of 20 and 34 is behind bars, for black males in that age group the figure is one in nine.” ^[2]

This is a society supposedly leading the free world, yet far less of its populace are free than nations it roundly condemns for repression and human rights abuses.

Where, one has to ask, is the reasoning?

Could it, perhaps, have something to do with the fear? Americans live in fear. They arm themselves against their neighbors; they form themselves into cliques and sects for protection. The slightest suggestion of taking away their guns sends them spinning into virulent frenzy.

Anyone who threatens the social structure must be locked away; sentences way out of proportion to the crimes. No-one seriously considers rehabilitation, or improving the lives of the lower classes who often are forced into crime because drugs are their only way to a less stressful, if very temporary, existence.

Incarceration is big business in America. The corporates control, and make their profits from this trade in human misery. They are as happy with high prison populations as is Exxon-Mobil with record oil prices.

Shame on you, America.

Yet again you’ve exposed yourself as a pariah of the world.

^{[1] World Prison Brief, University of London.}

^{[2] International Herald Tribune, February 28, 2008}

Filed under: Trades in human misery

I know it’s a great American tradition but, can they be serious? The George W Bush Presidential Library? Is this the guy who sat reading, “My Little Goat”, upside-down, during the 9/11 attacks?

Are we talking the same person who bragged he’d managed to read Camus’s, “The Stranger” by the time he was fifty-seven? It is, after all, required reading in most secondary schools.

His Library? What’s he going to put in it? The complete works of Dr Seuss and Thomas the Tank Engine?

And the choice of position could have been better – the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas?^[1]

I always thought that was where they assassinated presidents, not honored them.

It’s one of God’s universities, of course, which is good given that George W Bush has devoted his presidency to doing God’s will: slaughtering pagan Iraqis, overseeing torture and rape, denying global warming in the sure knowledge it was the beginning of the End Times……etc, etc, etc…

In a letter to SMU, George W Bush wrote:^[2]

““I look forward to the day when both the general public and scholars come and explore the important and challenging issues our nation has faced during my presidency—from economic and homeland security to fighting terrorism and promoting freedom and democracy.”

Although the Iraqis penned it slightly differently:^[3]

“By giving a veneer of academic respectability to torture, rape, looting, hostage taking, bribery, corruption, child killing, using chemical weapons, using starvation of entire civilian populations as a weapon, denying water to entire civilian populations as a weapon, internment of children, collective punishment of entire civilian populations, bombing civilian populations (see: collective punishment of entire civilian populations,) bombing hospitals, bombing schools, looting of museums, destruction of libraries, making academics and teachers particular targets, ditto doctors and nurses, running death squads, open viciousness, blatant racism, and naked greed…..the Center’s resources and programs will be invaluable to national and international researchers and scholars, including those at SMU.”

Come to think of it – I couldn’t have put it better myself.

^{[1] SMU Dallas.}

^{[2] White House letter.}

^{[3] Gorilla’s Guides – George W Bush Presidential Library.}

Filed under: Manure by any other name……

Carried in a British newspaper is the tale of Craig O’Connor, furniture maker, of Pennsylvania, who found Jesus in a tree trunk.^[1]

Being an ardent Christian church-goer, Mister O’Connor immediately recognized it as a “sign from God” and tried to flog it on eBay.

Sadly, he was only able to enthuse his bidders to the tune of $500, so he decided to keep it himself and incorporate it into a piece of furniture.

        

Personally, I’d have snatched the $500.

^{[1] The Sun Newspaper.}

Filed under: Wooden Jesus