Crime & Justice News reports on this story: As Congress debates border-security funding and as governors demand more assistance, the Associated Press investigated what taxpayers spend securing the U.S.-Mexico border. Using White House budgets, reports obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, and congressional transcripts, the tally is $90 billion in 10 years. For taxpayers…
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In the Crime Report: The Crime Report:A lot of people have compared your book to Jonathan Swift’s essay, “A Modest Proposal.” But Swift’s work was pure satire, where yours is an honest look at a possible alternative punishment. Does the comparison frustrate you, or is it apt? Peter Moskos:Neither. I like the comparison. True, I…
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I like this line from Time Magazine: Reading In Defense of Floggingis a lot like reading Woody Allen’s classic “My Speech to the Graduates,” in which he declares, “More than at any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us…
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The Timeshas a story about Samuel Battle, one of New York’s first black police officers. But what is reallyinteresting is his oral history. In his own words. “They had riots. Many riots.” Worth a read: I went on down, and we got there, with my squad. The whites and Negroes were battling. I saw the…
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Cops and bicycles and a good cause… what’s not to like?
In the New York Timestoday, there’s an article extolling the benefits of introversion. I love reading pieces like this, which make it clear that introversion is a personality trait and not a medical problem that needs to be “cured” or treated with drugs. My understanding of introversion began after I realized that being introverted is…
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A friend and former roommate writes: By the way, and I mean this in the most flattering way – In Defense of Flogging: great toilet read! Coming from him, I know it isa sincere compliment. He says he’s averaging 10 pages a day, not that I asked, and not that he used the word “day.”
If you have $35,800 to casually drop on dinner, you have too much money. Rich Democrats should be taxed more, too. More productive uses of $35,800? How about paying the tuition of seven students for a year of study at my public university. Obama’s dinner also cost me$12, because I had to hop off a…
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For their review: Imagine that you–or, if you prefer, a younger, more reckless version of you–committed a crime. … And say you were offered a choice: you could either spend those years behind bars, or you could get ten lashes. … You may think flogging is barbaric, but is there any question which you would…
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In an attempt to get health care. What a country! I am curious to see how this will play out. He probably won’t be sentenced to the three years he wants. Will he then commit more crime? And he might disappointed about the quality of health care in prison. But it is better than nothing.