Digest Post 5/3

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By BitcoDavid

OK, today’s digest post is huge. Let me start with a quick anecdote vis-à-vis this ear bud thing. A woman who fights at my gym, Kim – for whom I have a great deal of respect – is involved with the Team Blood project, and therefore contributes to numerous charities. She’s been holding a piece of gear for me, so I could make a small contribution. OK, now today – I wanted to tell her that I would be ready to make the purchase on Monday – but she was wearing her Walkman. I called her name twice, and upon getting no response, tapped her lightly on the shoulder. Now when you want to speak to a Deaf person, you lightly tap them on the arm or shoulder to get their attention. Not a good idea with Hearies – especially not trained, combative Hearies. Well, it was no problem once she realized it was me, but in a different situation, I could have expected a jab or two. Deaf people are used to touching and being touched. Hearies consider that a violation of personal space. Anyway, the point is ear buds do make you essentially deaf, but without the life history to prepare you to deal with that.

Adam Mordecai (Mordecai), Advomatic

Adam Mordecai (Mordecai), Advomatic (Photo credit: B.G. Johnson)

We have written a lot about the phenomenon of false confession. People really don’t understand what would prompt someone to confess to a crime they didn’t commit. New research shows that 25% of DNA exonerations involve false confessions. This link will take you to a video about Adam Mordecai, a young man who confessed to a murder he didn’t commit.

NJ.com, a news aggregator site for New Jersey, reports that the crisis of elderly inmates is becoming a tax burden on that state. They sat that the number of prisoners over 50 has jumped 90% in the past decade, now sitting at 3,000 individuals. They site mandatory minimums and 3 strike laws as the reason. Here’s the link to that article.

In Arizona, a residential community for the Deaf is coming under fire for discrimination. Yup, you read that right. Apparently, HUD, the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development is alleging that Apache ASL Trails, is discriminating against the non-Deaf. Here’s the link to NYT’s story.

A story that’s been all over the Web this week, is that prisoners are now creating reviews of their particular facilities on Yelp.com. Some of the reviews are actually quite good, while others – obviously – are not. And of course, one must bear in mind that you don’t get any choice where they send you, so a review isn’t going to make much difference. I mean it’s not like shopping for a used car. Here’s the story on WaPo.

The War on Drugs

The War on Drugs (Photo credit: Jason Verwey)

The NYT Editorial Board did a remarkable piece on drug treatment. They decry the inane War on Drugs®, put forward a cogent and reasonable argument for detox and other forms of non-destructive treatment. It’s really worth the read.

CCA has found it’s way back into the news again. Go figure. According to AlterNet, Corrections Corporation of America‘s latest act of unmitigated evil is referring to themselves – for tax purposes – as a real estate trust, and their unwilling charges as tenants. No really. I wish I was making this up, but its true. Nowadays, you don’t serve time for committing crimes, you relo to a loft space with roommates. This story would be almost funny, except that the IRS has allowed the exemption. Here’s the AlterNet coverage.

Jean Trounstine, with whom I collaborated on some Supporter Contributions a few weeks ago, published this article today, about death row inmates studying Plato. Plato, you may recall, was one of the 1st death row inmates, and now his writings and teachings are helping others to cope with the unimaginable angst of facing execution. Here’s that link.

BitcoDavid is a blogger and a blog site consultant. In former lives, he was an audio engineer, a videographer, a teacher – even a cab driver. He is an avid health and fitness enthusiast and a Pro/Am boxer. He has spent years working with diet and exercise to combat obesity and
obesity related illness.

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