Is it really hard to fathom why many people despise the US?

[biffvernon]

A US court order to free Albert Woodfox, held in solitary confinement in Louisiana for 43 years, might be a victory for justice. But it is also a sharp reminder of the prevalence of this cruel practice throughout the US, in which inmates are shut away without human contact for 23 hours a day.

Legal wrangles continue over the fate of Woodfox, accused with two other inmates of the killing of a prison guard in 1972 – a conviction twice overturned. Collectively known as the Angola Three after the jail’s name, their case became a focus for humanitarian campaigners.

His may be the longest stretch in isolation, but the fact is more than 80,000 prisoners are in solitary on any given day in the US, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Of those, 25,000 are in super-maximum security prisons designed for this very purpose.

Significant trauma
Several decades of research into the psychology of supermax prisoners has found that the majority suffer significant trauma as a result of being isolated. Up to 45 per cent suffer serious mental illness or brain damage.

This shouldn’t surprise us, since psychologists have shown that just a few weeks in “the hole” can trigger panic attacks, anxiety, loss of control, irrational anger, paranoia, hallucinations, excessive rumination, depression, insomnia, hypersensitivity to external stimuli, obsessive thoughts, cognitive dysfunction, self-mutilation and a host of social pathologies that would make it hard to function in normal society.

Little wonder that a disproportionately high number of supermax prisoners kill themselves: in 2005, 70 per cent of prison suicides in California occurred in solitary confinement. The longer the confinement, the more damaged the inmate and the longer they take to recover – if at all.

Geneva Conventions
The US’s view that solitary confinement is an acceptable punishment runs counter to almost all international agreements on human rights. Where it causes “severe mental pain or suffering” – which it does in almost all circumstances – it violates the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law.

https://www.newscientistbeta.com/articl ... -the-mind/

[RenewableCandy]

Never mind all that:

VT, how's Bernie getting on??

And if you lot don't manage to vote him in as Prez in 2016, can we have him ?

[biffvernon]

Another thing the USA got wrong:

This dome in the Pacific houses tons of radioactive waste – and it's leaking
The Runit Dome in the Marshall Islands is a hulking legacy of years of US nuclear testing. Now locals and scientists are warning that rising sea levels caused by climate change could cause 111,000 cubic yards of debris to spill into the ocean

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/j ... tive-waste

[vtsnowedin]

Never mind all that:

VT, how's Bernie getting on??

And if you lot don't manage to vote him in as Prez in 2016, can we have him ?

Bernie is doing quite well, drawing crowds of 5000 to 10,000 and making the Hilary campaign have nightmares.
But he is a one hit band and before the convention, people (ie. voters) will figure that out.
I think it is just that average voters have had their fill of Hilary and are looking for alternatives vs. any real determination that Bernie is right for the office.
I expect Hilary to flame out between new Hampshire and super Tuesday and a mad scramble to ensue finding a plausible replacement that might win the general election. Bernie won't win that one.
And yes you can have him. I've been listening to his "Outrage" for forty years and even though he has been consistent it has got very very Very old and you are welcome to what years he has left.

[biffvernon]

Yet another
http://www.houstonpress.com/news/hundre ... ne-7570228

[vtsnowedin]

Yet another
http://www.houstonpress.com/news/hundre ... ne-7570228

Yes if you want control of your children's lives you should stay in Mexico. Once you cross the border the liberal US government that "Knows what is best for you and your children" will be making all the decisions.

[emordnilap]

Sigh. Again.

[Snail]

f***ing retards getting their thrill from killing. A manifestation of psychopathy.

[vtsnowedin]

Have you ever met a dentist that wasn't a money grubbing despicable person?

[Catweazle]

I've written about bow hunting before - this doesn't change my position.

[vtsnowedin]

I've written about bow hunting before - this doesn't change my position.

I wouldn't expect it to.
But there is much more wrong here then just the choice of weapon.

[Catweazle]

I've written about bow hunting before - this doesn't change my position.

I wouldn't expect it to.
But there is much more wrong here then just the choice of weapon.

Agreed.

[UndercoverElephant]

Have you ever met a dentist that wasn't a money grubbing despicable person?

Yes, lots of them. We have a National Health Service, which makes it much harder for them to be "money grubbing despicable people" and get away with it. And prices are fixed by the government. Only once have I seriously suspected a dentist of telling me I needed work that didn't actually need doing, and that was a brand new practice.

Just one of the reasons why our health system, even in its dilapidated state, is vastly superior to yours. Sounds like you are saying that dentists in the US are in a similar position to lawyers, and that is bad news. And it's already clear that there are similar problems with your hospitals, whose first priority is making money rather than treating patients efficiently.

[emordnilap]

Have you ever met a dentist that wasn't a money grubbing despicable person?

Yes. My current and last dentists is/was everything I'd want dentists to be.

Both are women, which often makes a difference. Especially if lions are involved.

[biffvernon]

My dentist is excellent [momentarily suspending deep hatred of the whole profession and all its works as it is always associated with pain] and he comes from Hungary.