Thursday, I got a reply to my request for information on visitation. There’s no exemption for the pandemic to the rule that if you don’t visit for a year you have to start over with a new application. But I was provided with an email address, and I was prepared for that answer, so I emailed the application off as – actually, as three attachments – and got my email returned by the mail system. The error message included the phrase “too many hops,” and just in case that had anything to do with attachments, I started over with the app and credentials, got them into a single pdf, and re-sent – and got it back again. To make a long story shorter, yesterday I asked around, and part of the problem ended up being that DOC email addresses can’t read caps. Anyway, the application is at DOC now, and, since this is not my first rodeo, I’m confident it includes enough (possibly more than enough) information to sail through. And the DOC will notify me by email when it has.
Cartoon –
Short Takes –
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/exclusive-qanon-shaman-plea-negotiations-after-mental-health-diagnosis-lawyer-2021-07-23/
Reuters – Exclusive: ‘QAnon Shaman’ in plea negotiations after mental health diagnosis
Quote – In an interview, defense lawyer Albert Watkins said that officials at the federal Bureau of Prisons, or BOP, have diagnosed his client Jacob Chansley with transient schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression and anxiety. The BOP’s findings, which have not yet been made public, suggest Chansley’s mental condition deteriorated due to the stress of being held in solitary confinement at a jail in Alexandria, Virginia, Watkins said. “As he spent more time in solitary confinement … the decline in his acuity was noticeable, even to an untrained eye,” Watkins said in an interview on Thursday. He said Chansley’s 2006 mental health records from his time in the U.S. Navy show a similar diagnosis to the BOP’s.
Click through for details. This is a situation of a type which explains why I don’t score a 9 or higher on being anti-authoritarian. The point of appealing to mental illness as mitigation is – though it’s seldom stated – the feeling we all share that a person should not be punished for something which is not, or not entirely, his fault. I feel that too. I feel it as a moral principle, not just as an emotional response. But the corollary is, if it is caused by a condition which is inseparable from the person, that person still meeds to be restrained somehow for the safety of the public. No, it shouldn’t be a prison. But – as, thanks to Ronald Reagan and other Republicans is currently the case in the US – prison is the only option, then prison it needs to be. Yes, we need to find better ways. But until and unless we do, that remains the hard truth.
Politico – Alabama governor says ‘it’s time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks’ as pandemic worsens
Quote – [T]he remarks from the governor grew more pointed when she was pressed on what it would take for greater numbers of Alabamans to get their shots. “I don’t know. You tell me,” Ivey said. “Folks [are] supposed to have common sense. But it’s time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks, not the regular folks. It’s the unvaccinated folks that are letting us down.”
Click through for more. Here’s proof there are still Repuiblicans who have not completely lost it. Just not enough of them. And they are still Republicans.
Daily Beast – Liz Cheney Is Saving Pelosi, the GOP, and Maybe America From Themselves {OPINION}
Quote – In applying this analogy to Jan. 6, Cheney represents one legitimate political worldview and Democrats represent the other. If Pelosi should name Rep. Adam Kinzinger—a Republican, Air Force veteran and member of the Air Force National Guard—to the select committee, as she is reportedly considering doing, she would be reinforcing this function and adding an additional check on Democrats who might be tempted to exploit the situation for their own political agenda. (And if you think Dick Cheney’s daughter is some sort of RINO now, that probably says a lot more about you than it does about her.)
Click through for his full argument. No, she’s not a hero. But I can respect a person who holds their beliefs with integrity, even if they are wrong. m And in this case – in this case – she is not wrong.
Food for Thought:
