Sunday, June 19, 2011

Can't Believe the WaPo Published This

I've had some problems posting on certain blogs (lookin' at AK and Exford!), but I wanted to comment on a piece that I found out about at Mr. Edroso's place. I can't believe that the Washington Post printed Peter Moskos' call to bring back the lash. I can't believe that this piece isn't satire- Mr. Moskos proposes lashings as a humane (?...!) alternative to incarceration, while paying lip service to criticizing the prison-industrial complex and draconian drug policies. Of course, he couches his op-ed in terms of humanitarian concerns, but it's hard not to hear the heavy breathing of the torture-porn fan in the background. How would "impartial" lashings be administered, would a Lash-O-Matic be used to ensure that racial or other animosities would not come into play when lashings were meted out? What kind of follow-up care would one receive after a lashing? Damn, this article is a repugnant piece of garbage, unworthy of a serious news organization. Besides, any new written argument for corporal punishment (and, for that matter monomachy) pales when compared to Gene Wolfe's magnum opus.

1 comment:

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

Whatever discredited wingnuts the Post didn't actually put on their staff have been given prime real estate in their op-ed page (including Dick Cheney).

The paper has no shame in the Donald Graham era.
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