Open Thread

“bullet” Communities that feed on prisons. Jeralyn at TalkLeft talks about the New York Times article. Unions, the prison industry, and prison communities are fighting to keep prisons open and stocked because they’ve got their entire existence pegged to prison income.

Count me among those with no sympathy. America’s over-incarceration policies mean corporations make billions and the federal government throws millions to these communities in subsidies.

“bullet” Careful with the hand sanitizer. They purposely make that stuff to smell good. But if you’re 14 and you put some on your hands in school, don’t notice that it smells good, or you may be fingerprinted and charged with delinquency for inducing “a condition of intoxication, hallucination and elation.”
“bullet” Mark Draughn riffs off my FEAR card post and creates his own FEAR credit card.
“bullet” A man wins the lottery (just $1,000) and the police seize the ticket, saying it was purchased with drug money. This could be quite a scam — if they get away with it, you can bet that the big lottery winners will be getting some major scrutiny from police.