Scouring the internet produced records of some rich S(c)hreckengost history. Below is a snippet of what I found regarding the Shreck gunsmiths of PA:

It was also during this time, during the 1840s and 50s, when the most well-known Schreckengost family gunsmiths, descendents of Conrad, William (1821-1894), Levi, and Lincoln Schreckengost (1865-1949), started to create their particular firearms. William Schreckengost of Putneyville, Wayne Township, owned a general store/inn/gunshop along Mahoning Creek, although tax lists “consistently show him as a gunsmith.” His guns are frequently encountered. He was an unusually good engraver. He lived in Putneyville, Armstrong County, all his adult life. He married three times: to a Miss Nulph; to Pricilla Potts, mother of gunsmith Levi Schreckengost; and to Mary Heller. His tools, guns, and gun parts were sold at public vendue on 8 October 1894. A number of guns, ranging from a heavy barrel target model to a double barrel rifle (over-under) were offered.

The sons of William built distinctive and affordable rifles ($28) for the local population. They purchase their locks and imported German silver for inlay work from a Pittsburgh firm. The butt-stock design of the rifle is a “roman nose” pattern and was designed to be fired from the upper arms, and not the shoulder, for better accuracy. As was already noted above, William and Lincoln also built exotic guns such as “over-under” rifles, heavy target rifles, or short sporting rifles. All rifles build by William, Levi, and Lincoln Schreckengost were percussion cap.

I can’t even begin to guess what a rifle in this fine a condition would be worth… and as such this family treasure is kept in an undisclosed location. This rifle is in the family of rifles called Pennsylvania-Kentucky rifles, crafted in those and surrounding states by German settlers beginning in the 1700s. You can read more about these rifles here:

http://johno.myiglou.com/kyrifle.htm
http://patentpending.blogs.com/patent_pending_blog/2004/11/the_kentucky_ri.html
The Pennsylvania-Kentucky Rifle, by Henry Kauffman

We stopped at Rock City Park while we were there. Here’s some details from their website:

Rock City Park, located in the Enchanted Mountains of Cattaraugus County, south of Olean, New York on Route 16, is sometimes called one of the Eighth Wonders of the World. This prehistoric ocean floor is the World’s largest exposure of quartz conglomerate (also called ocean spar or puddingstone) and attracts thousands of visitors yearly.

Visitors are astounded by gigantic boulders several stories high with huge crevices sometimes referred to as “streets.” Rock City Park is believed to have been a fortress for the Seneca Indians at one time. “Three Sisters”, “Balancing Rock (a 1000 ton boulder), and “Indian Face” rock are just some of the natural rock formations found along Rock City’s scenic trails. From “Signal Rock,” once used as a signaling point by Indians, visitors enjoy the 1,000 square mile panoramic view of the Enchanted Mountains.

Rock City Park features a three quarter mile natural trail consisting of various steps and paths necessitating comfortable clothing and good walking shoes. During spring and summer you will see a variety of wildflowers, ferns, moss, Mountain Laurel (which blooms late in June) and of course enjoy the quiet serenity of the forest nestled among this geological wonder. Leaf peepers enjoy Rock City Park’s spectacular fall foliage.

On the trek back to Albany we spent a few relaxing days in the Finger Lakes… including Watkins Glen and Taughannock Falls.

As always you can view all my recent pics on my online photo gallery.

• Allows you to fetch all of your Flickr photosets as albums inside your gallery
• Allows you to fetch any Flickr user’s public photosets, recent photos, “favorites”, and/or “most interesting” photos (according to Flickr) and load them as albums inside your gallery
• Allows you to fetch an album of photos from a Flickr group
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The final result is a Flickr photo gallery wrapped in a premiere Flash-based slideshow interface that is delightful to your web visitors.

Visit the official Fetchr4SSP homepage!

Background

This project started for me just trying to finagle my own way of getting all my Flickr photos organized into album photosets and all available in an easy-to-use interface on one of my WordPress-driven websites. A tall order… but I knew it was doable. After fumbling with some WordPress plugins and such, nothing really worked smoothly enough. A Flash solution was needed, so purchased a license for SlideShowPro (SSP) and I couldn’t be happier!

The next task was putting together a PHP script that would build the complex XML needed to properly load all my Flickr photos organized into photosets into SSP. I tried an existing one with some success, but it lacked a few vital functions I needed… and it wouldn’t handle certain SSP abilities. Soooo, I coded my own. And after some polishing decided to put together a sharp website to peddle my fine creation to the masses.

As always you can view all my recent Cape Cod pics on my online photo gallery.

Thanks to Siberian Grinder for the heads up on this camera.

Of the suspect benefit concerts there was one that stood out. A local man named Bruce Martin is having a benefit as a “fallen firefighter” for medical bills and from “on the job” nerve damage while serving as a volunteer. Apparently, though, this benefit concert might be a sham. Those close to the situation say that many people who know Bruce Martin have called the music venue to voice concerns about the veracity of Martin’s claims. There’s even talk of Martin being kicked out of his old firefighting unit for cause. Increased speculation grew of how “debilitating” Martin’s condition really is if he intends to perform on stage at his own concert, and if he has the mobility to make a YouTube video.

Anyways… here’s an excerpt of a comment I made in response to someone questioning the critique of local benefits, and to assigning responsibility on the venue for determining “worthiness”:

@Bob
I agree with you that there are many legit benefit concerts. Just last year there was one in this area, and one in Rhode Island (I think), for my wife’s god-daughter who has leukemia. This was a VERY legit cause and the little girl’s family received some welcome assistance.

I disagree with you on a few points, though. I don’t think it’s the venue’s responsibility to verify benefits. Why would it be? They get hired to provide or donate a service just like everyone else involved. It’s EVERYONE’s responsibility to keep a sharp mind and a critical eye on EVERYTHING and EVERYONE that asks for money… from benefit concerts to bums. The event organizer’s should be held accountable for the legitimacy of an event. I will agree with you that the venue may take on some of the potential blame to whatever extent they personally use the charitability of the event to boost attendance (and by extension their own alcohol sales).

I also don’t think blogs like this do any harm in making people aware of crooked benefit events. It may cause people to be a little more wary… but that’s a GOOD thing. People should always be wary… they should ALWAYS be paying attention to where their money goes. Sure, you may dissuade lazy-minded curmudgeons who decide to never give any money anymore… but in the end legit and worthy causes have only to BENEFIT by people carefully choosing to give money to where it’s really needed.

Speaking of benefits for medical costs… the biggest reason why medical costs (including drugs) are so ridiculous is because of the liability on doctors, hospitals and drug companies by trial lawyer firms… firms similar to that of Martin, Harding & Mazzotti. Another reason for high drug costs are that drug companies don’t fear dumping billions into research because they know they’ll recoup it through indirect subsidy via medicaid and medicare. So one of the BEST LONG-TERM things you can do for loved ones with high medical costs is to push for Tort reform (including medical liability caps) and medical entitlement reform.

Catch the whole Bill Bucher article and all the comments here.

It is of note that Bruce Martin is the son of Martin from local big-name law firm Martin, Harding & Mazzotti. That has the making of a whole new blog post, doesn’t it?

The “Big Three” of Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and team captain Paul Pierce proved an unstoppable force this season in the NBA. I have waited since the 80’s to see my team back in its glory. Indeed, with all the flash-slappy style of play since the 90’s I haven’t watched much pro ball… but this whole series felt like a nostalgic blast from the parquet past. What a treat… and what a sweet victory!

From FoxSports:

Boston Celtics claimed their 17th NBA title, and first in 22 years, with a stunning 131-92 blowout over the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday.

On a new parquet floor below aging championship banners, the Celtics won the first title — at last — for Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen — their Big Three for a new generation.

Lifted by ear-splitting chants of “Beat L.A.” from their adoring crowd, which included Boston greats Bill Russell, John Havlicek and JoJo White, the Celtics concluded a shocking rebound of a season with a resounding win over the Lakers in Game 6.

Well, the final 10 episodes are going to commence - horror of horrors - in the first quarter of 2009!?!? Are you frakkin’ kidding me!? What kind of sick game is this? It’s not even officially summer yet and I have to wait until after Christmas?! ARGH!

Now, that GGW guy Joe Francis is scum for sure… but Dupré is suing him for $10 Million dollars partly for falsely advertising that she performed for their cameras. Except that - wait for it - she DID perform for their cameras. In fact I read that he has TONS of footage she willingly did for GGW (for some cash) back before she was infamous.

Anyways, Dupré’s lawsuit says that Francis “ruined her reputation”. What? Are you serious? Gee… I would have thought that it was taking your clothes off in front of a camera (and a crowd of drunk guys, also with cameras) and dancing around naked groping yourself that would have ruined your reputation. I would have thought that getting busted prostituting yourself out to strangers would have ruined your reputation… but what do I know? I think Francis (the scum) said it best:

It’s hard to imagine how anyone could actually ruin a hooker’s reputation.

This almost reminds me of Monica Lewinsky who after the VERY famous Bill Clinton scandal found refuge from various media questions by saying that comment on it wasn’t “appropriate”. Hmm… I wouldn’t have thought for her propriety was on the table… apparently neither would she, having spent so much time under it.

Now I’ve used some straight-forward language here… and it’s not because I think I’m immune to the pitfalls of this rock. But what I am big on is personal responsibility. My libertarian leanings tell me that we should be free to make choices, and then be responsible for the consequences… whether gain or pain, treasure or pleasure, shame or fame, embarrassment or harassment. [admit it, how many of you just pronounced harassment like the Brits so that it rhymed! ...I love this too much] Well, since I’ve taken so much flak for not being compaaaaassionate lately I’ll add the following disclaimer.

Compassionate Disclaimer: Jesus loves everyone mentioned in this post.

And speaking of… did anybody besides me notice that Stark Industries was a completely un-subtle spoof of Lockheed Martin Corporation, the United States’ biggest defense contractor? Not only does the Stark Industries logo (complete with bold-italic capitals and elongated angle-point) look strikingly like Lockheed Martin’s, but they even make the same F-22 Raptor fighter jets!?

I checked Google and my blog was the first to make the direct connection between the two (albeit obvious). Since then, it has popped up on a few other blogs and the Stark Industries entry on Wikipedia has been updated to reflect the company logo’s peculiar likeness to Lockheed Martin’s.

I would say “you be the judge”, but is there any doubt?

Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?
- Adolf Hitler… while persuading his generals that a Jewish holocaust would be tolerated by the West

…the Armenian massacre was the greatest crime of the war, and the failure to act against Turkey is to condone it … the failure to deal radically with the Turkish horror means that all talk of guaranteeing the future peace of the world is mischievous nonsense.
- Theodore Roosevelt… in a May 11, 1918, letter to Cleveland Hoadley Dodge

I am confident that the whole history of the human race contains no such horrible episode as this. The great massacres and persecutions of the past seem almost insignificant when compared to the sufferings of the Armenian race in 1915.
- Henry Morgenthau, Sr. US Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire

On this day, we pause in remembrance of one of the most horrible tragedies of the 20th century, the annihilation of as many as 1.5 million Armenians through forced exile and murder at the end of the Ottoman Empire. This terrible event remains a source of pain for people in Armenia and Turkey and for all those who believe in freedom, tolerance, and the dignity of every human life. I join with my fellow Americans and the Armenian community in the United States and around the world in mourning this loss of life.
- George W. Bush, April 24, 2004

Armenian Genocide // Armenian Genocide Map // Armenian Genocide Photos // genocide1915.info // never-again.com

Heston was the quintessential iconic male… using his rugged face and deep voice to play all manner of heroes and leaders - Marc Antony, John the Baptist, Moses, Ben-Hur to name a few. Of course, Heston was better in known later in life as being a staunch supporter of the right to bear arms as granted by the Constitution of the United States of America. He was president of the Nation Rifle Association from 1998 to 2003.

What you’ll see from the life of someone like Heston is somebody who’ll stand up for what he thinks is right, period. Indeed it seems he chose the correct side of every issue he addressed. He was marching for civil rights, as he says, “long before Hollywood found it fashionable.” He stood for racial equality and against affirmative action, which is the only stance on those issues that make sense together - but the logic of which still seem to escape the left-leaning elite. He was against infant-murder for any reason, let alone convenience sake. He faced opposition by those who would render American citizens helpless to government tyranny - the crazy left-leaning gun-prohibition lobby and its cronies like Michael Moore and George Clooney, but that never deterred Heston who always seemed to maintain an air of class in the face of Hollywood idiots.

Indeed Heston was a man’s man… a conservative’s conservative. America has lost a patriot.

Parting words from Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice President of the NRA:

Today, my heart is heavy with the loss of Charlton Heston. America has lost a great patriot. The Second Amendment has lost a faithful friend. So have I, and so have four million NRA members and eighty million gun owners. And so has every American who cares about the Bill of Rights, individual liberty, and Freedom.

My heart is heavy, but not without a sense of pride. Pride in a man who devoted his life to his profession with grace and dignity. Pride in an American who devoted himself to civil rights, to correcting injustices around him, and to standing up for what he knew was right. Pride in a friend who stood with me and stood with fellow NRA members to preserve our freedom for future generations. Pride in a patriot who believed with every fiber of his being that our Bill of Rights is the foundation of our freedom that makes Americans singular among the masses of nations.

And now, Charlton Heston has passed that duty to us - the next generation. I am as proud to continue his cause as I am to have known him as my friend.

But today, my thoughts cannot leave the Heston family. They have always had my utmost respect and admiration and, today, they have my deepest sympathy and most earnest prayers, And they will always have my friendship.

Charlton Heston, rest in peace.

hacked// asite NEGATIVE99 infidel

negative99 infidel hav hack pages ha ha

w. bush = 666 and satan _must disembark away the holy peoples oh to glorious allah

And when you go to Negative99 you see a page that has most certainly been hacked! Oh no! But all is well… it’s April 1, and this blog - which sat out the last few April 1’s - decided to celebrate this one.

April 1 is a day of fun on the internet… when websites will post fake stories and feature special surprises. For example, Google started taking volunteers today for its Mars colonization program in partnership with Virgin Airways.

So after I posted yesterday on my blog about the recent Fitna movie controversy (which was critical of radical Islamism) I decided that a GREAT April Fool’s Day joke would be to hack my own site! I opened up Photoshop and went to town putting together what I would do if I were to hack someone’s page (a weird feeling indeed). One of the hardest things about pretending to be a Muslim extremist - incredulously enough - was finding extremist material on the web to use on the site!? Indeed… what I thought would take 30 seconds actually took 30 minutes of pouring through google search results to try and find SOME terrorist website. I had to settle for grabbing images off of the terrorist groups’ MySpace pages (you can’t make this stuff up). I can’t even imagine what it’s going to be like the next time I try and fly in an airplane after all the colorful search strings I sent through Google.

So, I took the hacked-site-image I created and made a special site theme (called “Infidel”) which would ONLY show a “hacked” webpage of my creation, but that would allow my RSS feed to continue to work. This morning before work I initiated the hack.

I was very heartened by the outpouring of concern today via cellphone and email. Many friends and colleagues picked up on the “hack” quickly and started calling me. I was also very flattered that most (about 80%) thought the hack was legit! Cool! And really… in the hustle and bustle of the daily grind who has time to pay attention to the fact it’s April 1? I don’t always… and in fact one year a local radio station’s morning show (Wakin’ Up With the Wolf on PYX106) had me convinced they were bought out and replaced with a Spanish-only show. Oops.

So rejoice, for what it’s worth Negative99.com has survived the clutches of fake Islamist ‘l33t h4×0rs.

Of course, I shall not forget what this day really means (and I care not whether this is the EXACT day of Christ’s birth… for those who dwell on such things miss the whole point - and are a little slow of mind if I might add). I shall not forget how safe and sound I am on this day of epicurean materialism… thanks to the great freedoms that have become commonplace to the point of contempt. And let’s not forget the men and women in military uniform who sacrifice more in a week than most Westerners do in an entire decade, and who maintain our freedom.

So eat your eats, down your ‘nog, exchange your retail commodities, frolic with the family, slap any grinches (j/k… sorta), and have a very merry Christmas!

• I have nearly completed the new design for the blog… but it’s still weeks away because my schedule’s too tight.
• I am reading The Golden Compass and will be posting my commentary on it, on the book series, on the movie (when it comes out and I see it right away), and on the whole controversy.
• I read a very interesting piece from The Skeptic (a non-religion friendly magazine) on the four possible origins of the universe, and it was very well written and worthy of commentary.
• I spent Thanksgiving in Virginia visiting my new nephew - there are a few pictures below.

Anyways, take today… I started by watching a little Giants/Lions football and sucking down some hot Buffalo wings (one of God’s gifts to Men - ranking up there with air and water). With the sound of butting helmets still in my ears, and Frank’s Red Hot coursing through my veins, I went to my local gym. There, I lifted some iron (my back-bicep-shoulder routine) while watching more football on the multiple TV screens in the free weight area. Something about watching sports can really get the testosterone going… it’s just a better workout that way. Hit one muscle group until it’s dead… then hit another related group until it’s dead… then another. After about a half hour I reached muscle failure in all my target groups, so I moved from the room of iron to the room of cardio-contraptions. I hopped on an elliptical machine - equipped with cable TV - and promptly turned on… wait for it… football! Thirty minutes of nasty sweat production while flipping between Steelers/Jets and Cowboys/Redskins. I can already sense the amino acids from the formerly Cayenne-kissed poultry-protein rebuilding my muscle tissue. Nice.

Take a quick shower and I feel like a million bucks, and my iron-lifting had successfully removed any calorie-guilt carried over from bleu-cheese-lifting. I was left in just the perfect state-of-mind for watching the Patriots continue their reign of dominance.

I have to say it was a good day.

My state, New York, wants to give legal state driver’s licenses to illegal aliens. Yep… you heard me correctly. That should be a twisted joke, but it’s a twisted reality. Among the ir-rationale is the standard drivel about “they’re just here to work” and “this will let us keep better records on them”. Better records? Why would we need better records… are we going to be using these “records” to arrest them? Then why not just arrest them when they apply for the license? How is it that the laws requiring known illegal aliens to be detained and deported don’t apply at the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles)? This is lunacy… yet elected cronies taking in high salaries (compliments of the taxpayers) support this madness because it BUYS THEM VOTES.

And of course this issue runs much deeper, but let me say that there is no comparison between a United States citizen from Mexico, and an illegal alien. They are two totally different people. They both may be hard workers, but one is duly and lawfully eligible for all the rights, freedoms, and opportunities of every other American citizen - while the other has not only disrespected our borders, our immigration rules, and broken our laws, but is also stealing health care, welfare, and pretty soon driver’s licenses. Mexico doesn’t tolerate illegal border crossings INTO Mexico (just as no country does, nor should they)… but Mexico gets on us for protecting our border. And why? Follow the money… Western Union money transfers from the US are Mexico’s third highest source of income!

Al Gore wins the Nobel Peace Prize. For what? A documentary? A movie of questionable science? For parading an entourage around the globe in private jets to talk about the dangers to the environment from parading around the globe in private jets? And the rationale why global warming would have ANYTHING to do with peace is that global warming will “eventually start conflicts”? How about the conflict between “An Inconvenient Truth” and the actual truth? How about Al Gore preaching that society needs to start living more simply and efficiently - while Al goes and buys another mansion to visit in his private jet (read mega-petroleum-guzzling sky-beast). The Nobel prize has become a bit of a joke, I guess. I actually think Borat was a much more accurate documentary… we should have given the peace prize to Sacha Cohen.

I’m already done with the Presidential campaigns. They have used up my entire allocation of bicker-absorption. I can’t listen to it any more. Does that make me “disenfranchised”? I think it does. I think in the name of all that is good and right I shouldn’t have to see Hillary’s, Osama/Obama’s, Rudy’s, or McCain’s face for another 12 months. At the very least I want to see the candidates actually work for their air-time… like perhaps in a “Survivor: Washington DC” or “Fear Factor” style reality show where Hillary would have to drink monkey snot while wearing a slinky little bikini in order to earn 5 minutes of sound bites. Obama and McCain would have to wrestle in a tub of broken glass while eating scorpions to see who gets to speak next. Or how about the Price is Right? That would be sweet… watching politicians who haven’t shopped for their own groceries in decades try and guess the price of baking soda or cooking spray. Ha!

And again… on my recent trip to Chicago… I got to watch airport screeners hassle aged World War 2 vets and little old Asian ladies so that the TSA doesn’t look “insensitive” towards male 18-34 year-old Arabic-speaking non-US-citizens who have legal support agencies ready to sue the city, county, state, and federal government at the drop of a Koran. Another example of how not having the moral courage to be a jerk to non-citizens means having to be a jerk to EVERYONE… which then quickly erodes into usually just being a jerk to people who you know aren’t carrying bombs (e.g. World War 2 vets and little old Asian ladies).

Fatigue.

I received on Facebook the pictured request above… go ahead and click for detail. It was a request from my wife’s Facebook account to confirm that indeed we are married. This is what we would call a “no-brainer”… but it just struck me as quite exceptional to be asked by my wife - via social network - to confirm our marriage. It must be the 21st century.

This also got me thinking about my days as a civilian supervisor/instructor at a nuclear training platform. We would have to train and nuclear-qualify sailors to go out and operate the nuclear fleet. In the training process we graded students on a 4.0 scale, with a 2.5 always being the “passing” grade.

Long story short, an instructor questions a student on some topic to determine if they demonstrate at least a passing level of knowledge. Sometimes (or quite often) the instructor feels like they are having to pull the knowledge out of a student… perhaps because the student doesn’t really have all the facts tied together in their mind as nicely as they should. Eventually the instructor can get to the point of straight out “telling” the student the right answer to see if they at least recognize it as correct… to see if their face brightens but a little… the slightest gaze of familiarity… no attempt at refutation.

If the student can muster enough where-with-all to recognize the correct answer when it’s placed right in front of them, then an instructor will (usually) pass them with the minimum 2.5 and write down on their grading sheet, “Knows right answer when told”.

Among graduates of the Nuclear Operations Program it becomes a colloquialism of sorts, when faced with a decision where the right answer is obvious and the wrong answer is not desirable, to spout out, “Two point five - knows right answer when told”.

“Shall I take your wallet out of your jeans before I throw them in the wash?” “I’ll have to upgrade your seats to first class for free, okay?” “Do you want to take your keys out of the ignition before locking the car?” “Would you like to confirm your relationship with your wife?”

State of Global Warming

Ha! It’s hard to believe anyone is still taking this seriously, but for those keeping score at home - it now appears that in addition to cows… moose are contributing to global warming more than automobiles?! You can’t make this stuff up. Some braintrust of researchers in Norway are concerned that moose are belching and tooting the environment into potential catastrophe. This instantly conjures scores of pointed questions targeting the validity of the research and the sanity of the researchers, not to mention the dubious scientific conclusions.

One question I might ask is… then why is it also getting warmer on Mars? Are moose belching there, too? And why does your comparison regarding the larger carbon footprint of a moose, compared to a car, lead you to the conclusion that moose are even a BIGGER threat… rather than the conclusion that, “Oh, maybe cars aren’t doing as much as we thought.” And why haven’t we seen the effect from moose before now… because surely with all of man’s atrocious macho-paternalistic pillaging of the world’s natural habitats wouldn’t there logically be FEWER moose today than there used to be? And better yet, how are the PETA crazies going to take this… do we wickedly hunt down and eat these tasty yet evil beasts of voluminous anal gas?… or do we honor their natural existence as it starts to boil the oceans?

See… it’s those Catch-22’s that make it so hard being on the left.

State of Sports

It’s great when the highlights of every major sportscast right now includes footage of Michael Vick. Actually that’s not great. Actually it’s a horrid picture of the journalistic sensationalism that consistently manages to displace actual news with repetitive drivel. And doesn’t it warm your heart to know that organizing dog fights is yet another act society scorns more than the plunging of cold steel into the base of a baby’s skull?

State of the Blog Spam

82,382 spam comments blocked… and counting.

State of the Blog Design

This may not mean much to some… but the new design will be a labor of progressive enhancement. So basically, I’m going to put up a new design that will function adequately and will look different… but will not be in its final state, nor will it have any bells and whistles. After I begin this process I will be tweaking the design over the next few weeks to “tune” it to what I want. This is in contrast to the usual design reboot that most sites do where the entire design is completed in a sandbox environment and deployed immediately in a near-finished state.

State of the Prison System

As much as the geographic snobs here in the Northeast love to snoot their beaks at anyone with a southern twang (which to us is everyone from Pennsylvania down), I can’t help but be reminded that folks down south got themselves a better way of gettin’er done. Take this story about a jail in South Carolina that is making inmates who sexually misbehave wear a pink jumpsuit for three months of their “stay”. I love that idea. I love every part of it. Here you got these inmates who are exposing themselves (and worse) to female prison guards… and the prison has thought up a very clever way of “marking” them as the deviants they are for the rest to see. Shame. Shame - used appropriately - is a great thing.

Of course, there’s a lawsuit against making inmates wear the pink jumpsuit. This lawsuit was filed by a current inmate serving time for assault & battery with intent to kill… and he thinks wearing a pink jumpsuit will unfairly “label” him and cause others to make derisive comments. [cue the violins] Somehow I don’t feel sorry for this felon… and somehow I don’t feel sorry for a criminal being shamed for acting like an animal. In fact, if anything, it blows my mind that inmates can expose themselves and throw semen on female guards without fear of punishment… and even in “progressive” South Carolina. Holy smokes… how in NASCAR’s name do inmates get away with that to begin with?

I mean seriously… let’s say an inmate throws a urine/feces mixture (which is common) on a female prison guard - you would/should whack them with your nightstick. If they do it again (for whatever insanely idiotic reason) you would/should whack them twice… and they do it a third time and you whack’em thrice… and so on and so on… you get the idea. Logically the greater the pain inflicted by strikes with a nightstick the less “attractive” the urine/feces throwing becomes. And again, logically the more severe and numerous the nightstick strikes the greater time will pass between urine/feces throwing events. One could even postulate that there is a critical number of nightstick whacks that would preclude any repeat urine/feces throwing events for the remainder of their sentence.

Now, the above reads a little totalitarian with a dash of sadistic fascism… and a pity it does. But it certainly puts the pink uniform in a better context. And we can only wish for the day when they’ll bring back the stocks.