Air Conditioning Is a Human Right
"And while free citizens should be able to set their thermostat to whatever level they feel comfortable at (the Department of Energy conservatively recommends 78), imprisoning people in buildings where there is no thermostat to keep the temperature below 90 isn’t just uncomfortable, nor is it just dangerous—it’s a violation of a human right."
Give me a break. While I think that prisons have a responsibility to keep the facility at a temperature that is livable (this is for workers as much as prisoners) they do not have the responsibility to provide AC.
My fiancé and I just bought a house and guess what... it doesn't have central air. Is someone going to come out and give us a unit for free because the builder has violated our human rights?
Comfort is not a human right.
Give me a break. While I think that prisons have a responsibility to keep the facility at a temperature that is livable (this is for workers as much as prisoners) they do not have the responsibility to provide AC.
My fiancé and I just bought a house and guess what... it doesn't have central air. Is someone going to come out and give us a unit for free because the builder has violated our human rights?
Comfort is not a human right.
On the other hand I would like to see us try L. Neil Smith's proposal to ban AC in the Capitol -- thus making Congress shut down for at least part of the year.
The same way humans did while living for millennia in the tropics and during the summer seasons on either hemisphere. When has the air conditioner first become available?
EDIT: Inserted two missing words.
The problem with Texas prisons is that the prisoners have no means to provide themselves with cross-ventilation, forest shade, loose clothing, dipping into streams, etc. Prisoners are packed into closed spaces and not only high temperatures but high humidity. They are basically helpless to avoid fatal reactions to their environment.
A famous philosopher and author, with the initials A R, once wrote in response to someones' demands for something they felt was deserved,' " But at whose expense??.
I also don't think it is fair to compare prisoners and military personnel.
"Any alleged “right” of one man, which necessitates the violation of the rights of another, is not and cannot be a right.
No man can have a right to impose an unchosen obligation, an unrewarded duty or an involuntary servitude on another man. There can be no such thing as “the right to enslave.” - Ayn Rand (http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/ind...)
We are not in incaninemane but you can't say we are humane and as Heinlein wrote. treat our dogs better than our kids. Which wouldn't happen in any humane country so why is it happening in the USA?
Could be our last opportunity.
I have to wonder, though, about the Larry McCollum case. They say he received a "short" sentence of two years for writing a bad check. In what universe does that make sense as a just punishment? He was warehoused with no way to make amends or repay his debt, and ended up with a death sentence. Is Texas unique in its combination of fiercely hot weather and gross negligence in their prisons? Who should be held responsible for letting prisoners die?
No, air-conditioning is not a human right. But the right to life is, and prisoners should be maintained in basic survival conditions--neither a country club nor incinerators.
-- CBJ, Las Vegas, Nevada
where the temperature reached a toasty 112 degrees today.
Anxiously awaiting my government air conditioning subsidy (I mean entitlement). :-)
I could probably write a book on this...
Another thing that bothers me is how those on the Government Dole can afford excellent dental care for their kids and themselves but I can not.
release them, like BHO has with the tens of thousands
of illegal aliens! -- j
p.s. for clarity, this is sarcasm, Alex.
.
But don't give them any ideas!
Pan meaning all or whole
Demic relating to people e.g. proctodemic
Just expanding your general fund of knowledge and humor quotient.
For 21 years summer heat was something this now retired Alabama corrections officer never looked forward to.
In my state where air conditioning was located varied.from prison to prison and there are several.
I'll write of where I spent 21 years instead of the first 6 months at a less, less, less air conditioned old fossil for a prison. I transferred to a new one then being built in 1982.
In the midst of my 21-year career, a blowhard politician running for some state office complained of felons in comfy air conditioned prison cells.
Listening to his garbage, I glared at the TV, saying, "What the hell are you talking about, you stupid ignorant jerk?" (Instead of "jerk," I said something more colorful).
Officers assigned to be "rovers" were supposed to stay where inmates lived. Cell block day rooms had fans that only felt good when it was 99 degrees by standing directly in front of them and the cells had nada. Less dangerous inmates (and that's big time relatively speaking) lived in dorm with lined up bunks that were a tad more airy for ventilation.
Better off this time of year were the "cube officers" (who watched the rovers and the inmates) in air conditioned high places in between dorms and the day rooms of cell blocks. It did my heart good to see myself assigned in any cube on, say, a day like July 25, 1985.
There was no air conditioning for the six towers that were, during the late 90s reduced to the only two that operated a gate due to an electric fence being run through two fence perimeter.
After I left in 2003, I was told of people running out of the surrounding woods to toss drugs into the unguarded prison yards. Glad I never had to rove a prison yard with no one with a rifle and a hand radio watching over me.
The only air conditioned places at that prison were administration, the visiting room, the infirmary, the chapel, the maintenance station, the kitchen area of the cafeteria, the inmate law library assorted schools for obtaining a GED or learning a trade and the cubes or cubicles.
Even when you had to worry with someone on suicide watch (two special cells of that), it was always nice to catch an infirmary post during the summer save for two days in a row.
That's the problem for being known not to whine. For two days straight I caught the infirmary when the GAG! air conditioning was broke. Guess what post I caught after that? I was a GAG! freaking cell block rover.
Rovers were supposed to stay out of the cubes but we all at times snuck into one to cool off, rest our feet and/or to chat with the cube officer.
Such I was doing one hot and humid summer day when a fight broke out. As I rushed out to break it up, my glasses immediately fogged up.
I broke up the fight with help on the way, but it took me a little longer to get there.
I'll never forget the day I was assigned to the back gate during the mid-90s. Work was unusually busy out under a hot sun. Left with a migraine headache. Had to tell the carpooling driver to stop because I thought I going to throw up. Instead I had dry heaves. At home I took a cold shower and then took my aching head straight to bed.
I damn well earned my pay that hot summer day.
However a prisoner is not a free individual. When the state incarcerates someone, they assume the responsibility for providing for them since they have utilized force to prevent them from providing for themselves.
Does this include air conditioning? Probably only to the extent that life is threatened by the temperatures in the prison -- where the individual is being held against their will.
Yes you have a natural right to air conditioning, which means that if you can acquire it the government should not stop you from doing so. We also have a right to health care, which means the government has no right to interfere with our attempt to obtain health care. It does not mean someone else has to pay for it.
Go find your own planet to complain on. Not willing to do that? Adapt. Either get used to fluctuating temperatures or build yourself a self-powered suit to always keep you in the height of comfort.
On a serious note, however, I've been to prison to visit people there and I can see why the recidivism rate is so high.
(The serious part. Think Polly Klass. )
Does anyone complain? Of course not. The watermelon is untainted and besides what was the name of the last fly you executed?
If your point is on the uselessness of capital punishment, a little more elaboration would help me frame a response. (I have no idea what Polly Klass refers to).
Polly Hannah Klaas (January 3, 1981 – October 1, 1993) was an American murder victim whose case gained national attention. On October 1, 1993, at the age of twelve, she was kidnapped at knife point during a slumber party from her mother's home in Petaluma, California. She was later strangled. Her killer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard...
had been frequently arrested and then paroled or released for the same type of crimes over a five decade period. Last I looked he is still alive with a antisocial personality disorder diagnosis" - No chit charley chan iyou think. Outliving his victims 12 years by 50 years
Richard Allen Davis in 2007
Born June 2, 1954 (age 62)
San Francisco, California, U.S.
Criminal penalty Death
Conviction(s) Murder with special circumstances (robbery, burglary, kidnapping and lewd act upon a child)
The California Three Strikes law first in the nation was based on the Klass murder and many other similar instance. It led to the Amber Alert system
Air Conditioning??
This nation can't protect itself, it's people, it's childrena nd in fact as Heinlein predicted treates it's dogs better than it's children.
I'm a firm beleiver in the Fly Swatter Theory of Executions Doesn't do a bit of good except that particular fly will never kill, kidnap, rape, or molest again.
(And just a suggestion, but the forum does have a spell-checker native to the reply boxes. "No chit charley chan iyou think." ????? Clarity to me is far more important than speed in a discussion.)
On he other subject the nation does up hold cruel but not unusual punishment. Go look at the old folks care giver homes where they are waiting and ready to die but kept alive against there will - artificially Not only does the nation treat it's dogs better than it's children it treats it's dogs better than it's Senior Citizen.
So I'm not surprised it keep s serial killers alive.
Carbon, CFC's and methane! OH MY!!! the sky is falling and it's...all YOUR FAULT!
What is the Hottest for your CFC&CM needs? Check out the NEW post and move over Dave's
There are natural CFC's and those released from the ground do not go up to the Ozone layer. Just like all things, the holes are a natural thing and part of a cycle.
Just chicken little liberal the sky is falling stuff and it's your fault...
(Texas citizen)
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