Should World Peace’s previous offenses lead to harsher punishment this time? It depends on your theory of punishment. If the goal is deterrence, than extra severity probably is warranted. World Peace’s previous record proves that he is an unusually difficult guy to deter, which suggests that greater severity is needed for him to get the message. Moreover, he is notorious around the league and the sports community generally. So punishing him is likely to have a strong example effect, because the punishment will be so widely publicized. It would thereby achieve general deterrence, as well as specific deterrence.

On the other hand, if the goal of punishment is retribution, then Peace’s past offenses are irrelevant. Yes, he was at fault for the 2004 brawl at Auburn Hills and other incidents. But he has already been punished for them, and should not be penalized for them again. For a retributivist, what matters now is the appropriate punishment for offense currently at issue. And the latter should be determined solely by the seriousness of the rule violation, not by what we think of the offender’s past record

My grandmother never trusted calculators.
She would crunch numbers in a spiral notebook
at the kitchen table, watching her news.
Work harder and I’d have more to count,
she’d snap at my father. And so my father worked
harder, fixed more mufflers, gave her receipts

but the numbers seldom changed.
There were silky things my mother wanted,
glorious dinners we could not afford.

Grandma would lecture her: no more garbage,
and so our house was clean. The attic spotless.
In fact, it wasn’t until after she died

that my parents found out how much she had saved us.
What hidden riches had been kept in those notebooks,
invested in bonds, solid blue digits
etched on each page. She left them
in the kitchen by her black and white television
we tossed a week later, though it seemed to work fine.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2010 by Jared Harel, whose chapbook, The Body Double, is forthcoming from Brooklyn Arts Press. Reprinted from Cold Mountain Review, Volume 39, no. 1, Fall 2010, by permission of Jared Harel and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2012 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.
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American Life in Poetry provides newspapers and online publications with a free weekly column featuring contemporary American poems. The sole mission of this project is to promote poetry: American Life in Poetry seeks to create a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. There are no costs for reprinting the columns; we do require that you register your publication here and that the text of the column be reproduced without alteration.

Fish Fry Daughter

Holiday Inn kitchen, the day I am born:
My father is frying fish for a party of seventeen
when the call comes from the hospital. He stays
until the batter is crispy, cold salads scooped
on platters, rye bread buttered.

Dad never told me this story.
He told my boyfriend, one short order cook to another.
Mom doesn’t know why Dad was late
for her screams and sweat on the hospital bed.
Once, when she was angry with him, she told me:
When your father finally got there, the nurse had to tell
him to get upstairs, “Your wife is having that baby now.”
I hope that when Dad first held me,
it was with haddock-scented hands, apron
over his black pants still sprinkled with flour,
forehead oily from standing over the deep fryer,
telling the fish to hurry hurry.

The above link shows what I think is a horse fly larvae, and a crane fly larvae. I’m not entirely sure. It was at Little Ocmulgee state park. And yes, having those on my hand freaked me out a bit.

I was reading aloud to Pam, laying on my back on the bed, holding my ereader above my head. I was reading “The wee free men” by Terry Pratchett. Max was curled at my feet. Below is the bit I was reading

“Someone bit ma leg! Someone bit ma leg!”

“Come here! Ach, yer fightin’ yersels, ye eejits! Ah’m fed up wid’ the pairy yees!”

When I got to the “Come here!” part – well, my ereader was knocked from my hand, and I had a furry max face about two inches above my face.

Silly old dog.

Plus, the main character has a fairly unique trait. She is a shapeshifter, but not a were, and not limited to one specific form. In addition, her animal side has a name and distinctive personality. Its not all Jane here, its part “Beast”.

On Amazon, you can get a kindle example of the first chapter of each book.

“Lauren spent 20 percent of her money on a dress. She spent 2/5 of the remainder on a book. She had $72 left. How much money did she have at first?”

Being able to do that sort of Math is useful. At first, I couldn’t even figure out where to start cracking into the above. Then I watched Pam work it, using Algebra. After watching her do it, I looked at it again, and figured out how I would it. (Sans Algebra).

72 dollars is 3/5ths of something, what? Divided 72 by 3. Get 28. Double it to 48. Add 48 to 72. Get 120. 120 is 80% of something, what? Divided 120 by 8. Get 15. Double it to 30. Add 30 to 120, get 150. So, Lauren started with 150 dollars. Pam says this is the most back assword, hard way of working this problem that she has seen.

Anyway, despite my weak math, I’m going to improve it. I’ve got a couple of books ordered, and I’ll sit down and work through them. I expect it will be fun. And, what is equally amusing to me, is that I am faster at basic math than many people. Including Pam for several things (like figuring percentages).

The above is the originator of SOPA (the stop online piracy act) propaganda piece on his piece of crap bill. He includes the problem with the bill within it

The activity these foreign websites are engaged in is already illegal in the U.S. But because they are operated overseas, the sites are out of reach of current U.S. laws that protect intellectual property. The Stop Online Piracy Act simply applies to foreign illegal websites similar standards that are already in place for domestic sites.
This is a constitutional bill that protects free speech and America’s intellectual property. It’s not censorship to enforce the law and stop criminal activity.

Here is the deal. The U.S. laws apply online to activities within the borders of the U.S. If a website is operated oversea’s, then its not within the borders of the U.S. Thus our laws don’t apply to it. It IS censorship to enforce a law on someone, or something to which that law doesn’t apply.

For years, doctors around the country taking an exam to become board certified in radiology have cheated by memorizing test questions, creating sophisticated banks of what are known as “recalls,” a CNN investigation has found.
The recall exams are meticulously compiled by radiology residents, who write down the questions after taking the test, in radiology programs around the country, including some of the most prestigious programs in the U.S.
“It’s been going on a long time, I know, but I can’t give you a date,” said Dr. Gary Becker, executive director of the American Board of Radiology (ABR), which oversees the exam that certifies radiologists.
Asked if this were considered cheating, Becker told CNN, “We would call it cheating, and our exam security policy would call it cheating, yes.”
Radiology residents must sign a document agreeing not to share test material, but a CNN investigation shows the document is widely ignored. Dozens of radiology residents interviewed by CNN said that they promised before taking the written test to memorize certain questions and write them down immediately after the test along with fellow residents.

Look, memorizing a question and then sharing it later, is not cheating. Considering it cheating is a crutch, for the reason outlined below

In a statement, Dr. Christine Cassel, president and CEO of the American Board of Internal Medicine, said, “Sharing test questions from memory is a serious problem that threatens the integrity of all standardized testing. Test takers need to know that this kind of ‘brain dumping’ is grossly unethical and the American Board of Internal Medicine will not tolerate unethical behavior from physicians seeking board certification. ABIM will take appropriate action against anyone who seeks to compromise the integrity of our examinations.

Above bolded by me. Its a crutch to give some validity to a dumbass testing methodology. Multiple choice questions don’t test knowledge. It tests your ability to memorize. Knowledge is the ability to take facts and apply it to the real world – which standardized tests can’t do.

Morons.

Anyway, me and Pam are participating in Frog watch, to help map changing frog ranges and populations. So, I’ve been studying my frog and toad calls. Well, when I came in to work this afternoon, there was a lone Upland Chorus frog calling out behind the building.

I didn’t even know about Upland Chorus frogs until I started this.