Burglary

[Dr.Teufel Geist]

Yay! Thanks TG!  I can now leave my house armed with a checklist   I see tons of trucks with rebel/confederate flags around here! I just smile and try not to make eye contact. But the part about the cinder blocks cracked me up big time. I live in a subdivision, but out on the main road there are so many creepy houses complete with rusted cars all around. We refer to them as the "Wrong Turn" houses. I mean how many cars on blocks do you need???  We always assume they belonged to travelers that didn't make it back alive.....

lol....and I bet those rusted out cars/trucks on cement blocks had some old mangy looking mutt lying underneath them,or inside them.
Some old melted or tarnished Christmas decorations barely hanging on the house, and some nasty looking rusty hook swaying from a tree limb with the remains of some type of carcass dangling from the hook. 

Hey, call me Doc...all my friends do...among other things, but we'll just stick with Doc for now

[darkmonkeygod]

It is a sad indictment of how socially bankrupt my country has become that I and every other civilised person I know want nothing more than to flee abroad or win the lottery and buy a house in the country. It's not all doom and gloom however, I am lucky to have the love of a good woman and a beautiful daughter, and I still have hope for a better future.

That last sentence warms me. Here in the states it is a dizzying mix.  Many sentenced into the prison system (federal, as opposed to state, county or city -  which are less 'serious' in listed decension) literally speak of it as "college". Many go in on mandatory sentencing for repeat petty crime and come out having learned how to run crime as a business and having made lasting bonds with like minded individuals. Everything from fencing stolen goods to mass production and distribution of illicit drugs to hired enforcement and or murder is 'taught' there. Our entire "justice" system is predicated around the stupidest idea possible: punishment. The whole point of Hammurabi 's code and therefore the rule of law we as the human civilization know it is deterrence. I would much rather have someone NOT break into my home that be forced to harm them in order to keep my possessions or life. Would not we all? Our laws, court a penal systems are almost unfathomable until you get a good look at the corn fed veal that comprises so many of the individuals who have changed or enacted these systems (3 strikes is a rule in baseball, not a concept to apply to humans, for f's sake!),all in the guise of taming uncivilized behavior. To me, that is the real crime, and is plain madness in the face. So many "lawmakers" are quite simply casual fascists. The worst sort of Nazi: one that is so deluded they don't recognize that they are a Nazi, beleiveing they are doing 'right' or 'good' or, my favorite excuse to hear, just blithely following orders. I'll not get started on the business aspect of the prison system. It's more sickening than the health care 'industry' (no pun intended) in terms of monetizing misery. It is nearly enough to make you forsake faith in others, and even sometimes look cut-eyed at your own reflection. Yet, thank everything, still only nearly.

Also, even though the odds of a violent crime ever happening to any of us are slight, and even lower that if it did and any of us were victorious in a bodily-injury or mortal situation that the investigation would be involved enough to look toward message board posts from your IP address, the last thing in the world any of us should want is written testimony that we'd commit murder and have a level one plan to cover it. Just sayin'. I've been very lucky in life in that there have only been two events during which I thought I would have to draw a weapon on someone -  and via teachings knew that if it escalated to that point there would only be a hair before blood. Both events (individuals) de-escalated, but the experiences were so terrifying that I remember them still with great clarity. While I'm trained (albeit limitedly) in a handful of defensive methods, the adrenaline rush was near enough to stunning that I will always be grateful that life did not 'test' me further on those points. I could live with being forced to take the life of another in defense of others or self and, given the right circumstances perhaps even property, but I don't know that I would ever live with it well and prefer to never have to find out. OK, I think we have a "don't yap on politics" request if not rule here, and I wanna remain civil, so I'm going to get off my soapbox after this one. That said, I dig reading my fellow enthusiasts views on all this, and am again and still quite gladdened that nothing more destructive happened to Gillfan.

P.S. Born and raised in Atlanta, GA. Live out West now (and took a while to do it, oddly enough), and there are MANY areas of the States - N, S, E & W - that give me the "squeal" creeps. I stop only for gas in many states, a "don't mind me, just passing through" sticker in my mind if not on the bumper.

[long live kong]

This talk of prisons has reminded me of a great book I read a few years back about an undercover journalist's time as a guard at Sing Sing. It was a cracking read and made a lot of the points you mentioned. If I remember right it was titled 'Holding The Key' but I forget who wrote it.
I remember being shocked at the disproportionate numbers of black, hispanic and white inmates in the US penal system. If I remember right it was something ridiculous like 70% 20% and 10% respectively.
He (the author) also explained that the fashion of black youths and gangs is linked to prison, apparently to reduce costs the inmates are all given the same size extra-large clothing, and this 'look' of baggy clothing found it's way onto the streets, and the kids here in the UK have adopted this style too.
He also said that during a full moon the prison would become unusually rowdy with inmates literally howling in there cells! If you haven't read it I recommend it.  

[Scatter]

Rednecks own Muscle cars that are jacked up and have the Rebel Flag somewhere pictured on the car..
Hillbillies own Muscle cars that are jacked up on cement blocks in their fields, and all the glass has been shot out.

Rednecks wear shoes with duct tape wrapped around the holes..
Hillbillies are barefoot....

Rednecks have Mullets...
Hillbillies have Bigfoot Fros...

you get the picture

LOVE IT!!

[Scatter]

Ha Ha!!! I always thought a red neck will happily shoot you, but a hillbillie will happily rape you, shoot you then eat you

Are you SURE you're not American?? LOL!!

[Wicked Lester]

Nuff said.
Cool,my 1600th post and look what it is.

[Scatter]

Nuff said.
Cool,my 1600th post and look what it is.

Synchronicity, thy name is Lester.

[Dr.Teufel Geist]

Lester, nice pic...but,the guns are too small...try this on for size...




Every redneck needs one of these....

[long live kong]

"Why don't y'all come down and meet old painless?!"


"I'm going in the woods to shoot me some squirrels!"

[darkmonkeygod]

This talk of prisons has reminded me of a great book I read a few years back about an undercover journalist's time as a guard at Sing Sing. It was a cracking read and made a lot of the points you mentioned. If I remember right it was titled 'Holding The Key' but I forget who wrote it.
I remember being shocked at the disproportionate numbers of black, hispanic and white inmates in the US penal system. If I remember right it was something ridiculous like 70% 20% and 10% respectively. 

Ted Conover wrote it, I have read it, and agree that it is a fascinating and fact filled insight. The racial disparity per capita is true, and there are many, many elements which factor into it. Most people see those numbers and immediately jump to the conclusions that the US judicial system is inherently racially. Closer to the truth is to examine it based on class structure.  Tumble upward to questions of class and race and an already complex (and heated) topic becomes Gordian for most.

[long live kong]

Ted Conover wrote it, I have read it, and agree that it is a fascinating and fact filled insight. The racial disparity per capita is true, and there are many, many elements which factor into it. Most people see those numbers and immediately jump to the conclusions that the US judicial system is inherently racially. Closer to the truth is to examine it based on class structure.  Tumble upward to questions of class and race and an already complex (and heated) topic becomes Gordian for most.

Yes, and I think many would argue that the class structure (with the upper and middle classes being predominantly white) are a result of racism in American history. As with most countries prisons in the UK are filled with members of the working class yet racially they are quite evenly matched, as Blacks/Asians etc are still very much a minority, despite what far right groups will claim.
  It would be interesting to see how the social structure worked inside communist prisons and 'reeducation camps' of regimes such as Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge and during the Stalin era, when academics and political opponents etc where rounded up and sent to prison. Though I suspect it would be a dog-eat-dog environment like any other prison.

[ICEMANN333]

 SQUIRREL STEW.....I WILL HAVE THREE BOWLS.........BIG-JOHN........OH YES SAVE ME THE HEAD.....

[Fester]

It would be interesting to see how the social structure worked inside communist prisons and 'reeducation camps' of regimes such as Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge and during the Stalin era, when academics and political opponents etc where rounded up and sent to prison. Though I suspect it would be a dog-eat-dog environment like any other prison.

For an answer to your questions, might I suggest two books:
The Gulag Archipelago (three volumes) by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers by Loung Ung.

As regards Solzhenitsyn's massive books:  If you can survive the first half of volume one, you'll have a pretty clear picture of the next several thousand pages.  The books are brutal in the descriptions of life in Stalin's prison system.

One thing to bear in mind: These  were NOT prison systems in the western sense.  The inmates were not necessarily there for any crime, and there was no real attempt at rehabilitation.  For the Soviet Union, the prisons were a way to eliminate any and all political opposition. to an increasingly paranoid Stalin. 
The exact number of Soviet citizens who went through the camp system will never be known.  Soviet officials destroyed much of the documentation as the USSR was collapsing. Figures based on remaining documents, show that a total of 10 million people were sent to the camps 1934 to 1947. Western estimates of the total number of deaths in the Gulag in the period from 1918 to 1956 range from 15 to 30 million.

In Cambodia, literacy; a job with the previous regime; owning a shop; teaching school; wearing glasses; all were cause enough to be rounded up for the "reeducation" camps. In 1975, when Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge came to power, in Cambodia, there were about 100,000 Vietnamese in the country. almost all were removed by deportation to Vietnam. The Chinese community lost about 225,000 people in four years. The rest were ethnic Cambodians.  The earliest and lowest figure for the Cambodian genocide is: 740,800 people out of about 7 million died due to disease, overwork, and political repression. 
Other estimates suggest approximately 1.7 million. After 5 years of researching some 20,000 grave sites, The Documentation Center of Cambodia's estimate suggests that the death toll was between 2 and 2.5 million, with a "most likely" figure of 2.2 million.

[long live kong]

Thanks for the pointer Fester! I have read quite a bit on Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge, including 'the killing fields', it's amazing how many people have no knowledge of this episode in history. It has even been dubbed 'the forgotten holocaust'. It is ironic that Cambodia was 'liberated' by another communist force - the Vietnamese (although sadly it did come rather late). I only have a very general understanding of Stalin's Russia so I will definitely get a copy of that book.
Speaking of Russia, here are some figures from another conflict, World War 2 that might surprise some people:
WW2 death count (approximate, military and civilian) for the following countries were;
United States: 413,000
Great Britain: 495,000 
Germany: 5.69 million
Poland: 6.27 million (a large proportion being Polish jews)
Russia: 29 million.

[darkmonkeygod]

WW2 death count (approximate, military and civilian) for the following countries were;
United States: 413,000
Great Britain: 495,000 
Germany: 5.69 million
Poland: 6.27 million (a large proportion being Polish jews)
Russia: 29 million.

Not to make lite but...

NEVER fight a land war in Russia, especially in the winter!

Paraphrase from the Princess Bride, one of Goldman's best.