1 in every 100 Americans is behind bars!

This story just goes to show what a retribution centered country we live in. In stead of trying to solve problem we "declare war on it" The farce that is the "war on drugs" is only making our prisons bigger and with more prisons being turned over to the private sector, rather than funding more rehabilitation and prevention, we are investing millions in incarcerating addicts.

RawStory article on the latest Pew Report!THAT'S INSANE AMERICA!

Report: 1 in every 100 Americans behind bars Total is far more than any other country in the world

By DAVID CRARY Associated Press

NEW YORK — For the first time in history, more than one in every 100 American adults is in jail or prison, according to a new report tracking the surge in inmate population and urging states to rein in corrections costs with alternative sentencing programs.

The report, released today by the Pew Center on the States, said the 50 states spent more than $49 billion on corrections last year, up from less than $11 billion 20 years earlier. The rate of increase for prison costs was six times greater than for higher education spending, the report said.

Using updated state-by-state data, the report said 2,319,258 adults were held in U.S. prisons or jails at the start of 2008 — one out of every 99.1 adults, and more than any other country in the world

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Sam At Impression Five

Took the Family to Impression5. It been so long since I had been there, I am not even sure if I have ever been there. I may be confusing it with a place in Washington D.C., the Children's Science Museum, that is similar. My parents took my brothers and I there in the 1980's. Both places have that thing that freezes your shadow on the wall. Sam had fun as you can see.

Injun Prairie Farm

U2 3D

Awesome concert and it did not coast me $100 and I got to watch it sitting down. See Bono attempt to be Bono blind folded. See his Ego come straight at you in 3D!!! Can not wait for the next album. Now lets get down to some good old fashion CoeXisTing-!! Drove to GR saw my brother and two of my best GR friends.

We saw some terrible trailers also. Looks like Jodi Foster just does not care anymore. She is going to be in this weird slapstick kids movie which plot looks way convoluted to follow. Even worse is an CG film titled Fly me to the Moon about three flies that get stuck in a rocket to the moon. Judging by the painful preview it should be called Fly me to the Cliche.

I took some cool photographs on the way to the West Michigan, will post soon!

Adele with Bonnet

Ignorance is not bliss

Many Americans are hostile to knowledge and intellectuals. One of the reasons I think John Kerry lost in 2004 is that he used too many big words. Unfortunately many in the United States want their unawareness to be praised and view people who seek knowledge as "worldly" and would rather live in a very small bubble. These days ignorance is mistaken as happiness.

Dumb and Dumber: Are Americans Hostile to Knowledge?


By PATRICIA COHEN
From The New York Times

A popular video on YouTube shows Kellie Pickler, the adorable platinum blonde from “American Idol,” appearing on the Fox game show “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” during celebrity week. Selected from a third-grade geography curriculum, the $25,000 question asked: “Budapest is the capital of what European country?”

Ms. Pickler threw up both hands and looked at the large blackboard perplexed. “I thought Europe was a country,” she said. Playing it safe, she chose to copy the answer offered by one of the genuine fifth graders: Hungary. “Hungry?” she said, eyes widening in disbelief. “That’s a country? I’ve heard of Turkey. But Hungry? I’ve never heard of it.”

Such, uh, lack of global awareness is the kind of thing that drives Susan Jacoby, author of “The Age of American Unreason,” up a wall. Ms. Jacoby is one of a number of writers with new books that bemoan the state of American culture.

Joining the circle of curmudgeons this season is Eric G. Wilson, whose “Against Happiness” warns that the “American obsession with happiness” could “well lead to a sudden extinction of the creative impulse, that could result in an extermination as horrible as those foreshadowed by global warming and environmental crisis and nuclear proliferation.”

Read the rest here

Adele & Sam B&W

I think these turned out very well I will try to post a link of a larger album on Flickr, Myspace, and Facebook. I have way too many sites!!!

Snow

I am tired of it, but it is nice to look at from inside. This photograph was taken late December I think. I look like one of the crooks from Home Alone. I am a Wet Bandit

Hypersonic Jet and Other Issues

Reaction Engines a U.K. based company is designing a hypersonic aircraft that will run on liquid hydrogen. I thought it looked cool so I posted it here. For more pics and an article check out C/Net News.

Weekend Wind-Down

We had a pretty good weekend. Anne was getting stir crazy so we went to the Mall. There is nothing left in theMalls for me anymore. Overpriced CD stores are gone, Suncoast is going away and I am way too old to even step foot into a Hot Topic. It is freaking cold outside. Stayed inside most of the weekend working on thank you cards and baby announcements. I have been so far behind on stuff and friends and Family keep sending such nice things.

My good friend Chris called we are hoping to see the U2-3D movie on Imax in GR near the end of this month. That woul be awesome since I have not affored to see them live since 1997.

I have been taking B&W snapshots of the baby hope to post them soon.

More Primary News

Obama made some ground this weekend, that has been fun to watch. Mitt Romeny dropped out earlier this week, but not before giving a weepy eyed speech including one of the most assinine things I have ever heard.

"If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror."

This is the kind of Chickenhawk malarkey that drives me insane. Mitt gave this speech at CPAC, the same place where Ann Coulter called John Edwards a "Fag". Screw them and their free market agenda too. There is talk that this ram-rod will run again in 2012, if I see him running for dogcatcher in 2050 it will be too soon. So long Mitt for Brains.

Super Fat Tuesday!

Also known as Paczki Day. (pronounced "Poonch-key") Got our Paczki and some Thai food, they go well together, and anticipate the outcomes of todays big contest. I shamelessly but Sam in his Obama '08 shirt for good luck, it was under a long sleeve shirt so I was not totally politicizing my son. Things are not going well for Mitt, I hope he does not cry, because he would probably rust. (He is a Robot). I love how McCain is not right-wing enough for the Rushes and Dobsons. I think McCain is delusional about the war, but he does not make my stomach churn like ROMney and the Huckster. It continues to be an interesting race with no clear frontrunner on either side.




image from jasontudor.com

My Kids Break the Cuteness Barrier

John Hagee Warmonger for Christ

Defending Israel to the 'End Times'

by Bill Berkowitz at Media Transparency

Christian Zionists organize to stymie any Israeli/Palestinian peace agreement that would divide Jerusalem while Netanyahu waits for Olmert's government to collapse
These are busy days for Christian Zionists. While President Bush recently returned from his trip to the Middle East "optimistic" that a peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians could be reached by the end of the year, Pastor John Hagee's Christian United for Israel (CUFI) is setting forth plans to put the kibosh -- if not on the entire peace process -- on any agreement that would sanction the division of Jerusalem. And Dr. Mike Evans has launched a "Save Jerusalem Campaign” while Joel C. Rosenberg's Joshua Fund is planning a major celebration in Jerusalem in honor of Israel's 60th anniversary.

I know I have posted about Hagee many times, but the reality that someone this irrational as has such influence and political power, not just in the USA but in a place as volatile as Israel is beyond any of the "near future" he envisions. The "Biblical Prophecy" he preaches is just a rehashing of John Nelson Darby's crackpot Dispensationalism Theology that was dreamed up in the 1820's. It is one thing to anticipate the world's end it is another to make millions trying to produce it.