Before we can diminish our sufferings from the ill-controlled aggressive assaults of fellow citizens, we must renounce the philosophy of punishment, the obsolete, vengeful penal attitude. In its place we would seek a comprehensive, constructive social attitude—therapeutic in some instances, restraining in some instances, but preventive in its total social impact.
In the last analysis this becomes a question of personal morals and values. No matter how glorified or how piously disguised, vengeance as a human motive must be personally repudiated by each and every one of us. This is the message of old religions and new psychiatries. Unless this message is heard, unless we, the people—the man [and woman] on the street—can give up our delicious satisfactions in opportunities for vengeful retaliation on scapegoats, we cannot expect to preserve our peace, our public safety, or our mental health.
Can we? Will we?
I must stop here, leaving this unfinished. The whole subject is an area of accelerated change. This in itself is heartening.
—Karl Menninger
The Crime of Punishment, 1966
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Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2005—House, Senate approve 2006 budget: is Arctic drilling inevitable?:
Now that the House and the Senate have confirmed the federal budget, it looks like oil drilling in the Arctic is closer to reality:
After decades of trying to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil exploration, backers of drilling said Friday that they were closer than ever now that Congress had adopted a budget.
The $2.56 trillion federal budget for 2006, adopted late Thursday night by the House and Senate,includes a provision that Congress can open the refuge by enacting a particular kind of legislation, called "a reconciliation," that is not vulnerable to Senate filibusters, which have been used to kill such drilling measures in the past.
Majorities in both chambers have already voiced support of Arctic drilling this year. The House approved broad energy legislation last week that includes a drilling provision. In the Senate, lawmakers voted narrowly in favor of drilling last month, when the issue came up in connection with the budget.
"A majority in the Senate support it and a majority in the House support it," Representative Richard W. Pombo, Republican of California and the chairman of the House Resources Committee, said on Friday. "So I think it's going to happen, after 25 years of fighting over it."
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Tweet of the Day:
OUR Kids are going to be Saddled with Enormous Debt so the 1%ers can enjoy low tax rates and leave the Wealth they Grabbed to THEIR Kids.
— @randyprine
On
today's Kagro in the Morning show,
Greg Dworkin brings us
The Upshot's "Who Will Win The Senate?" simulation, the latest polling on approval ratings, 2016 contestants, ACA, foreign policy, the economy, etc. Reactions to the Sterling ouster. Pediatricians: high-deductible plans are crap.
Joan McCarter reviews the week's craziness, the demise of "repeal & replace," and the millions more with insurance. Rick Scott gets his bald head handed to him on Obamacare. FBI trouble for Sam Kickback, er, Brownback. Scalia muffs it. And, the
Daily Kos endorsement of Daylin Leach in PA-13. Finally, the role of the player's union in Sterling's ouster.
High Impact Posts. Top Comments.