Do You Feel Lucky?

(and feel free to comment! My older posts are certainly no less relevant to the burning concerns of the day.)

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Cruel and/or Unusual...

The ban on cruel and unusual punishment is oft-misconstrued. People seem not to realize that a punishment can be cruel - just as long as it's not also unusual! By the same token, a punishment can be unusual - just so long as it is not also cruel. The prohibition is on "cruel AND unusual", not "cruel OR unusual."

I'd argue in favor of a greater range of whimsical-and-unusual punishments, backed up by a suite of cruel-but-usual punishments that will be implemented so thoroughly across the board that their usuality can't even be questioned.

Just as a general reform measure.

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