America the Caged

Adam Gopnik writes about the modern-day shame of the American Prison State:

For a great many poor people in America, particularly poor black men, prison is a destination that braids through an ordinary life, much as high school and college do for rich white ones. More than half of all black men without a high-school diploma go to prison at some time in their lives. Mass incarceration on a scale almost unexampled in human history is a fundamental fact of our country today—perhaps the fundamental fact, as slavery was the fundamental fact of 1850. In truth, there are more black men in the grip of the criminal-justice system—in prison, on probation, or on parole—than were in slavery then. Over all, there are now more people under “correctional supervision” in America—more than six million—than were in the Gulag Archipelago under Stalin at its height.

The main thrust of the article is this:  The detached bureaucracy -- and all its professional procedures -- lends itself to the brutal inhumanity and gross injustices of our prison system.

Sure, you can buy a cigar in Boston...if you're rich enough.

The city of Boston has quietly banned all cigars which cost less than $2.50.  

Translation:  Blunts, no.  Fancy Habanos, yes.

Second translation:  Poor people smoking, no.  Rich people smoking, yes:

The ban is effective February 1, 2012.

But for those upper class cigar aficionados, the elite few who are still allowed to smoke indoors at their pricey cigar bars, will still be able to purchase single cigars. A stipulation in the city ordinance allows tobacco shops to sell individual cigars, as long as they retail for $2.50 or more.

The city agency responsible for the ban, the Boston Public Health Commission, is composed of a seven person board.  I hardly need mention, of course, that the board members all appear to have careers which have undoubtedly kept them far from poverty.  

It is grimly ironic, though, that one of the board members specializes in “racial and ethnic disparities in health care.”  Evidently he isn’t equally bothered by what will amount, thanks to higher levels of poverty among minorities in America, to a ban which will limit the purchasing abilities of minorities at a disproportionate rate.

Third translation:  Government is not a friend to the poor.

TSA Illegally Detains Senator

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky was detained for four hours at a Nashville airport on Monday, January 23rd, after declining a TSA request for a pat down. Believing that his first attempt at the scanner had triggered a false alarm, he asked if he could walk through the scanner once more. He was then denied a second attempt and briskly escorted by local police into a detention cubicle where he remained for four hours, missing his flight as well as his commitment that day to speak in front of a crowd of 200,000 at the March for Life rally in D.C.

 
After his release, he was allowed to board another flight after he went through the scanner again without setting off the alarm a second time.

Though the TSA argues that it acted properly and objects to the use of the word "detainment" to describe Paul's treatment, according to Article 1, Section 6 of the Constitution it is illegal to hold in custody Congressmen who are traveling to and from Congress: 

They [the Senators and Representatives] shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same.

This is not to say that members of Congress are above the law and are not subject to the same security measures as non-office holding citizens while traveling under regular conditions.

Why SOPA Doesn't Matter

SOPA (and its equally dangerous cousin PIPA) could if passed be the death of the internet as we know it. As such they have sparked a massive viral campaign of "Friday"esque proportions. Every site which allows any sort of user uploading, or commenting is in a mad frenzy. Finally it seems that the general population has realized that our government has to be stopped.

Too bad it'll be all for nought. I'm not saying the bill will pass; that's actually rather irrelevant in this case. The seas will be calmed as the millions of once furious internet users return to their daily routine of listening to illegally uploaded copies of Justin Bieber and torrenting poorly translated copies of the Romanian release of "Tropic Thunder."

This is all good fun and the general population will surely remove themselves from the nasty world of politics. And this is where we will fail. 

Last month the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was signed into law allowing for the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens without trial. The internet barely let lose a hiccup in contrast with what SOPA has caused. Why is this, you ask?