2013 August 5

What should public-sector workers do if they can’t strike?

The proper role of unions is to fight for safe workplaces, fair wages and decent job security (like sick days, etc.). That’s it. Wages should include only money, not any of the benefits like health insurance, or any other deductions.

2013 August 4

Venice boardwalk rampage driver was “out for blood,” witness says

If there were more video cameras to record the event, it would be much easier account for all the charges against the man. There would be far less wasted time in court asking people what they saw and all of that.

2013 August 3

Texas is running out of execution drug pentobarbital

They should use carbon monoxide instead. Maybe a bullet or two. We don’t need to use expensive drugs.

Actually, a better way is to make sure that the criminal is used for something productive. Society should put the criminals’ labor and talents to use. Or we could use them as testing platforms for new drugs or procedures.

2013 August 2

Rise in violence ‘linked to climate change’

As this article states, the linkage between the two is tenuous, but there definitely could be a connection. A changing climate means that human activities need to adapt, changing rainfall patterns mean that crops need to be cared for differently, or even different crops need to be planted. Change is hard and causes lots of stress. People react to stress by migrating towards the angry end of the behavior spectrum.

While we could freeze CO2 emissions at today’s level at a cost of trillions of dollars and cause the poor islander in the Maldives to become flooded by the rising ocean in the year 2106 rather than in 2100, we should focus our mitigation efforts elsewhere. But I digress.

There are many causes of stress, of which climate change is only a minor one. Here is a long list of proposals for dealing with stress.

2013 August 1

Ariel Castro to be sentenced this morning, expected to make a statement

Among the many punishments he must face should be one that is determined by the total number of person hours that he held these women in captivity. If the average was 10 years of captivity for each woman, that would mean that about 262,800 hours were spent in captivity. The minimum penalty for the unjustified detainment of any person should be equivalent to the minimum wage at the time of sentencing. Assuming the minimum wage was $8 an hour, then the total fine should be $2,102,400. In other words, each victim would receive $700,800. However, a multiple of perhaps 2 should be applied to these figures to compensate for pain and suffering. This would bring the total compensation per woman to $1,401,600.

Of course, there are other charges, like kidnapping, rape, and who knows what else. There should be a separate financial penalty scale for these as well. Perhaps these charges cannot be denominated in financial terms, but attempts should be made to quantify them as such. Prison time is definitely required for these actions because of their directly threatening nature to the safety of others.

Handing him a sentence of 1,000 years in prison is useless and stupid. I understand that all these charges cannot be served in one lifetime, but another form of punishment must be introduced if prison all the required prison time cannot be served.

Torture is a good option. But it should be done with a greater purpose in mind to serve the public good.  For example, he could be used as a ‘guinea pig’ for experimental drugs or medical procedures.  Not that we should design anything that would specifically deliver him pain, but if pain is the byproduct of necessary research, people like him should be the people that are the first to be selected.

Maybe he should write a book and make a movie (perhaps not with him actually acting in it) but all the proceeds would go towards paying these bills.

He could perhaps also use his twisted talent to inform police about other such people or any other crime that he knows of or even other crimes that he committed (earning himself the rewards that would otherwise have been given to another informant) or he could help create a profile that would help police find such people.

Of course, Castro should get the death penalty, but he should meet these prerequisites first.