I think it would be interesting to be in solitary for awhile, just to see how much quiet with my own thoughts I could tolerate. Our lives (my life) always has noise, background or front and center, always there. Music, TV, radio, talking, cars, pets, 24/7/365.
I sleep with a pillow over my head, so I can block out the light and noise from my insomniac wife.
I don’t want to be deaf, but a little solitude would be nice occasionally.
Ok. Time to stop whining.
Something about “walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cell”.
“Solitary,” or segregation as it is now known, is not quiet and peaceful.
I worked as a Correctional Officer for a number of years, including a stint in the “seg” and it was never quiet. Depending on the facility, each wing of the unit can have anywhere from 20 to 40 inmates, and though they are in individual cells and can’t make actual contact or see much of each other, the cells are NOT soundproof, so they’re constantly yelling back and forth.
The Federal “Super-Max” units may be different as far as sound-proofing goes, but not your ordinary Segregation units.
And the 4×8 “dog pens outside the close control dorm?
February 14, 2019 at 12:46 am
John M.
The exercise pens? Ten foot high concrete block walls between them, chain-link fencing across the tops and the fronts (also Chain-link) set back into the pen so nothing can be passed around the end of the walls. Whenever possible, we put inmates in alternating cells to help prevent contact. Also, the inmates were in cuffs (in front) for the whole duration of their exercise period.
February 13, 2019 at 5:10 pm
John
Well shoot 🙁
And here I thought there was a way to get away from it all.
February 13, 2019 at 10:59 am
Old Codger
I have a different way of getting the solitude I need. Main ingredients are a tent, a sleeping bag (air mattress recommended but not required) and a state or national park. Since most non-retired people have children and work for a living, weekdays you have the place pretty much to yourself. There’s a state park about 45 minute’s drive from me that is absolutely beautiful. Camp under 30′ tall oaks dating back to before the fall of the Alamo and providing an almost solid canopy. It has a small lake for swimming and fishing and a loop of the Guadalupe River running through it. I hear tell God takes His breaks there. $12/day gets you a tent spot with potable water, a picnic table, barbeque pit and a hanger for your lantern. $3/day for day use fee ($2 for seniors over 65). I just back the Highlander into the parking spot, set up camp and hermit.
When I really REALLY wanna get away I head up into the Gila Mountains National Park. Several campsites with multiple tent spots. All are above 6,000 ft with some above 7,000. No water but no fees either. You may be the only human for 15 mi. in every direction. It is beautiful and the solitude is great.
Interesting thoughts, BW. I’ve more or less been in solitary off and on for the past couple years, (Confined to bed and/or chair) and you’re right – it does encourage introspection. But it can also make you terribly self-absorbed. This time around I have a kitten to talk to, and it’s amazing the difference it makes to have contact with another living creature!
I sometimes wonder if the snowflakes’ real problem is their terror of being alone with what passes for thoughts in those poor, pitiful, empty brains. They need constant contact with the rest of the hive mind, via phones, etc. for self-validation. True, I had wonderful students in my classes before I had to retire, but then as the only conservative in the Poli Sci department and one of the few on campus, I was in high demand and could pick and choose. Occasionally a stray would wander in to get the shock of their lives! Especially when I wouldn’t accept quotations as answers on exams and papers. They had to explain the concept in their own words so I could judge the quality of their comprehension, not their memories. Reduced some of the poor darlings to quivering puddles of pure terror!
For me it’s right there in the “about” blurb on the old dead blog; “…like to read some, write some, be left alone some…”
But on my terms, not with lefturds holding the key to my solitary space. They want men like me and especially men like Zed dead, and it would just be a matter of time until they turned on the gas.
I’ve heard the opinion offered that the reason “progressives” don’t ever get wiped out completely… aside from the fact it ain’t possible to kill all of the rats… is a fundamental one that represents the real difference between to the ends of the political spectrum. Hat-tip to C.S. Lewis…
Liberty-minded and individualists are perfectly willing to leave others alone as they wish to be left alone. They do so with the approval of their conscience because they believe that to be the best hope for stable society.
Collectivists are perfectly willing to keep badgering & pestering & tormenting others without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience as they are convinced they do so for our own good.
Slowly, collectivists build bureaucracy and pile on the laws & regulations until things boil over…. they lose control…. people die… and then we go back to being left alone again… mostly…
A better explanation of the differences between lefties and conservatives is found in Thomas Sowell’s book A CONFLICT OF VISIONS and as long as people think differently, one side or the other will not go away.
This is at the heart of the dilemma for Marxists. One can’t pass through Socialism to achieve Communism until every last vestige of alienation and bourgeois thought is eradicated. They truly do believe in the concept of “One Truth” and that it is possible – and desirable – to reduce society to only those who are no longer tainted by past, present, or future association with bourgeois capitalist thought. That includes simple contact, by the way, not just belief. The paradox is that the only way to recognize someone “infected” by these “impure” thoughts is to know what they are, which means Communism can never be achieved unless the one trained to identify them kills himself after turning out the lights and closing the door.
Oh that’s funny right there, I don’t care who ya are! 😉
Git’r done!
February 13, 2019 at 3:57 pm
Pamela
It’s a nice kitty 😉
February 13, 2019 at 5:01 am
Rick
I retired several years ago after a 25 year career with the Federal Bureau of Prisons. SHU – Special Housing Unit, also called Z Unit, is solitary. Rarely is it quiet, except at night during Morning Watch.
Midway through my career I was on our HNT … we had a weeklong training operation at a newly constructed federal prison out in the dessert. All of our region’s special operations teams, HNTs and Emergency Command Center personnel were there to train at a new maximum security facility before any inmates arrived. To save money the organizers put each one of us into our own brand new prison cell, doors kept unlocked of course. Just spending time alone in that cell was monotonous enough. By the second day I felt like I had been there for a month …
Wait a moment. Progressives are pushing their Green New Deal and want to abolish privately-owned cars. While pushing for evermore worthless gun control on the way to abolishing private ownership of weapons.
…
They’re trying to cut down on bicycle lane road rage incidents. “Hey, it’s the same for every one of us, we’re all in this together!” So after they hit you on the street they can safely tell you to f-off and ride away without reprisal…
What’s wrong with solitary? You have time to meditate, construct whole worlds in which you can wander, with no one to stop you. Peace and quiet with no one but guards occasionally staring at you, if you’re in prison.
The Birdman of Alcatraz spent his time in solitary studying canaries. During his over five-decade tenure in prison, he became a respected ornithologist who authored two books on canaries and their diseases. He was a diagnosed “psychopath”, a murderous slug who murdered a prison guard, but he produced something useful during those 50 years.
Solitary has its advantages and disadvantages. Depends on what your mind set is. I”d use time like that constructively. I’m sure that Zed did the same thing.
Its interesting that collectivists, socialists, etc are either arrogant elitists who feel they must direct the lives of the incompetent masses, or they are unaccomplished failures who feel that the accomplishments and wealth of others should be shared equally with them. Both conditions reflect immaturity at best, and devious selfishness shrouded in mental illness .
Think of the entertainment we would loose in DC if we could incarcerate stupid. Just the idea of replacing private air-carriers with high speed rail is ridiculous and should get Alexandria Occasional Cortex 10 to 20.
It’s 1,004 miles between Denver and Chicago, the track alone will cost $88 BILLION dollars, ($88 million per mile is the cost) and that doesn’t count signals, crossings, and purchasing the land. And just the mention of “Eminent Domain” in the New Green Deal tells me that the left has no intention of purchasing the land for their New Deal Choo-Choo, they intend to take it, steal it from the owners for “The Greater Good” Everyone who signed on to this should be put in the Colorado super-max for conspiracy to defraud the American public and collusion with George Soros.
I mean lefty elites couldn’t do it in Cali but I have full faith and confidence in no-nothing socialist twits to git ‘r done…I’m sure it will work out fine in the long run, like 30 or 50 years, or when we’re all broke and starved and dead. And isn’t that really the goal?
the fact he said it wasn’t affordable gets me.
most likely moving the money somewhere else.
February 13, 2019 at 4:23 pm
kadaka
But he will be finishing the little section already started so he doesn’t have to send the federal money back to DC (and to Trump and then his wall). Much like when you get some federal grant money to build a house and pocket it after only putting in the driveway.
February 13, 2019 at 5:06 pm
GWB
($88 million per mile is the cost)
Egad, that’s ludicrous!
My experience with solitary (in training) was that it’s often used to propagandize and to break down the will. Playing music and speeches is a great way (for the indoctrinator) to spend your solitary time.
I’m intrigued by the suggestions that the CIA intervened on Zed’s behalf. Do you think they’ll expect him to carry out a new assignment as some sort of “quid pro quo”, or are they just protecting the program and a past asset?
MAY lead to mental retardation? Well, in addition, soybeans are loaded with phytoestrogens (female hormones produced by soy plants), which may have a link to breast cancer in Western society.
“Soy isoflavones have long been a staple in Asian diets, and there appears to be an increase, albeit modest, compared to Asian populations, in soy consumption among Americans. Isoflavones are phytoestrogens that have antiestrogenic as well as estrogenic effects on breast cancer cells in culture, in animal models, and in clinical trials. : Study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5590054/
48 Comments
I know several politicians I’d like to gift with some alone time. But they’d spend it all wondering why it’s happening when they did nothing wrong.
“Why meeeeeee? I didndu nuffin.”
I think it would be interesting to be in solitary for awhile, just to see how much quiet with my own thoughts I could tolerate. Our lives (my life) always has noise, background or front and center, always there. Music, TV, radio, talking, cars, pets, 24/7/365.
I sleep with a pillow over my head, so I can block out the light and noise from my insomniac wife.
I don’t want to be deaf, but a little solitude would be nice occasionally.
Ok. Time to stop whining.
Something about “walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cell”.
“Solitary,” or segregation as it is now known, is not quiet and peaceful.
I worked as a Correctional Officer for a number of years, including a stint in the “seg” and it was never quiet. Depending on the facility, each wing of the unit can have anywhere from 20 to 40 inmates, and though they are in individual cells and can’t make actual contact or see much of each other, the cells are NOT soundproof, so they’re constantly yelling back and forth.
The Federal “Super-Max” units may be different as far as sound-proofing goes, but not your ordinary Segregation units.
And the 4×8 “dog pens outside the close control dorm?
The exercise pens? Ten foot high concrete block walls between them, chain-link fencing across the tops and the fronts (also Chain-link) set back into the pen so nothing can be passed around the end of the walls. Whenever possible, we put inmates in alternating cells to help prevent contact. Also, the inmates were in cuffs (in front) for the whole duration of their exercise period.
Well shoot 🙁
And here I thought there was a way to get away from it all.
I have a different way of getting the solitude I need. Main ingredients are a tent, a sleeping bag (air mattress recommended but not required) and a state or national park. Since most non-retired people have children and work for a living, weekdays you have the place pretty much to yourself. There’s a state park about 45 minute’s drive from me that is absolutely beautiful. Camp under 30′ tall oaks dating back to before the fall of the Alamo and providing an almost solid canopy. It has a small lake for swimming and fishing and a loop of the Guadalupe River running through it. I hear tell God takes His breaks there. $12/day gets you a tent spot with potable water, a picnic table, barbeque pit and a hanger for your lantern. $3/day for day use fee ($2 for seniors over 65). I just back the Highlander into the parking spot, set up camp and hermit.
When I really REALLY wanna get away I head up into the Gila Mountains National Park. Several campsites with multiple tent spots. All are above 6,000 ft with some above 7,000. No water but no fees either. You may be the only human for 15 mi. in every direction. It is beautiful and the solitude is great.
Interesting thoughts, BW. I’ve more or less been in solitary off and on for the past couple years, (Confined to bed and/or chair) and you’re right – it does encourage introspection. But it can also make you terribly self-absorbed. This time around I have a kitten to talk to, and it’s amazing the difference it makes to have contact with another living creature!
I sometimes wonder if the snowflakes’ real problem is their terror of being alone with what passes for thoughts in those poor, pitiful, empty brains. They need constant contact with the rest of the hive mind, via phones, etc. for self-validation. True, I had wonderful students in my classes before I had to retire, but then as the only conservative in the Poli Sci department and one of the few on campus, I was in high demand and could pick and choose. Occasionally a stray would wander in to get the shock of their lives! Especially when I wouldn’t accept quotations as answers on exams and papers. They had to explain the concept in their own words so I could judge the quality of their comprehension, not their memories. Reduced some of the poor darlings to quivering puddles of pure terror!
I feel ya Z…but don’t fall for it.
For me it’s right there in the “about” blurb on the old dead blog; “…like to read some, write some, be left alone some…”
But on my terms, not with lefturds holding the key to my solitary space. They want men like me and especially men like Zed dead, and it would just be a matter of time until they turned on the gas.
Never again, you filthy fascist fuckers.
Triple F! I like it! 🙂
All echoes of my thoughts so far.
Might be good time for some contemplative reading, The Interior Castle, Imitation of Christ, etc.
Know thine enemy. I heartily recommend Darkness at Noon to get a chillingly accurate picture of the mind and thoughts of a committed Marxist.
Did I miss something about what happened to the SWAT team at the ranch?
They were outed and subpoenas served
I’ve heard the opinion offered that the reason “progressives” don’t ever get wiped out completely… aside from the fact it ain’t possible to kill all of the rats… is a fundamental one that represents the real difference between to the ends of the political spectrum. Hat-tip to C.S. Lewis…
Liberty-minded and individualists are perfectly willing to leave others alone as they wish to be left alone. They do so with the approval of their conscience because they believe that to be the best hope for stable society.
Collectivists are perfectly willing to keep badgering & pestering & tormenting others without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience as they are convinced they do so for our own good.
Slowly, collectivists build bureaucracy and pile on the laws & regulations until things boil over…. they lose control…. people die… and then we go back to being left alone again… mostly…
A better explanation of the differences between lefties and conservatives is found in Thomas Sowell’s book A CONFLICT OF VISIONS and as long as people think differently, one side or the other will not go away.
This is at the heart of the dilemma for Marxists. One can’t pass through Socialism to achieve Communism until every last vestige of alienation and bourgeois thought is eradicated. They truly do believe in the concept of “One Truth” and that it is possible – and desirable – to reduce society to only those who are no longer tainted by past, present, or future association with bourgeois capitalist thought. That includes simple contact, by the way, not just belief. The paradox is that the only way to recognize someone “infected” by these “impure” thoughts is to know what they are, which means Communism can never be achieved unless the one trained to identify them kills himself after turning out the lights and closing the door.
Hence, they will never achieve any semblance of equilibrium.
Slavers never change. Just the name they call themselves.
They’ve always called themselves the champions and saviors of the slaves, even that has never changed.
Gives new meaning to alone time
https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/national-international/Pot-Smokers-Find-Caged-Tiger-in-Abandoned-Houston-House-Werent-Hallucinating-Police-505711841.html
TV reports said it was well fed. Did local dealers notice they had fewer crack and meth buyers?
No but the tiger was kinda edgy….
Oh that’s funny right there, I don’t care who ya are! 😉
Git’r done!
It’s a nice kitty 😉
I retired several years ago after a 25 year career with the Federal Bureau of Prisons. SHU – Special Housing Unit, also called Z Unit, is solitary. Rarely is it quiet, except at night during Morning Watch.
Midway through my career I was on our HNT … we had a weeklong training operation at a newly constructed federal prison out in the dessert. All of our region’s special operations teams, HNTs and Emergency Command Center personnel were there to train at a new maximum security facility before any inmates arrived. To save money the organizers put each one of us into our own brand new prison cell, doors kept unlocked of course. Just spending time alone in that cell was monotonous enough. By the second day I felt like I had been there for a month …
The Feds made a sniper spend time alone. ‘Nuff said.
“Please don’t throw me in the briar patch!”
Was it someone commenting on Concentration Camps? Or maybe Solzhenitsyn? Who commented that solitary was the only way to be alone in those hellholes?
Wait a moment. Progressives are pushing their Green New Deal and want to abolish privately-owned cars. While pushing for evermore worthless gun control on the way to abolishing private ownership of weapons.
…
They’re trying to cut down on bicycle lane road rage incidents. “Hey, it’s the same for every one of us, we’re all in this together!” So after they hit you on the street they can safely tell you to f-off and ride away without reprisal…
What’s wrong with solitary? You have time to meditate, construct whole worlds in which you can wander, with no one to stop you. Peace and quiet with no one but guards occasionally staring at you, if you’re in prison.
The Birdman of Alcatraz spent his time in solitary studying canaries. During his over five-decade tenure in prison, he became a respected ornithologist who authored two books on canaries and their diseases. He was a diagnosed “psychopath”, a murderous slug who murdered a prison guard, but he produced something useful during those 50 years.
Solitary has its advantages and disadvantages. Depends on what your mind set is. I”d use time like that constructively. I’m sure that Zed did the same thing.
Its interesting that collectivists, socialists, etc are either arrogant elitists who feel they must direct the lives of the incompetent masses, or they are unaccomplished failures who feel that the accomplishments and wealth of others should be shared equally with them. Both conditions reflect immaturity at best, and devious selfishness shrouded in mental illness .
Think of the entertainment we would loose in DC if we could incarcerate stupid. Just the idea of replacing private air-carriers with high speed rail is ridiculous and should get Alexandria Occasional Cortex 10 to 20.
It’s 1,004 miles between Denver and Chicago, the track alone will cost $88 BILLION dollars, ($88 million per mile is the cost) and that doesn’t count signals, crossings, and purchasing the land. And just the mention of “Eminent Domain” in the New Green Deal tells me that the left has no intention of purchasing the land for their New Deal Choo-Choo, they intend to take it, steal it from the owners for “The Greater Good” Everyone who signed on to this should be put in the Colorado super-max for conspiracy to defraud the American public and collusion with George Soros.
I mean lefty elites couldn’t do it in Cali but I have full faith and confidence in no-nothing socialist twits to git ‘r done…I’m sure it will work out fine in the long run, like 30 or 50 years, or when we’re all broke and starved and dead. And isn’t that really the goal?
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/california-s-new-governor-slams-brakes-san-francisco-los-angeles-n970851
the fact he said it wasn’t affordable gets me.
most likely moving the money somewhere else.
But he will be finishing the little section already started so he doesn’t have to send the federal money back to DC (and to Trump and then his wall). Much like when you get some federal grant money to build a house and pocket it after only putting in the driveway.
($88 million per mile is the cost)
Egad, that’s ludicrous!
When I read Zed’s remark about Solitary being the only place the left leaves us alone, my first thought was “Give ’em time,Z, give ’em time.”
My experience with solitary (in training) was that it’s often used to propagandize and to break down the will. Playing music and speeches is a great way (for the indoctrinator) to spend your solitary time.
I’m intrigued by the suggestions that the CIA intervened on Zed’s behalf. Do you think they’ll expect him to carry out a new assignment as some sort of “quid pro quo”, or are they just protecting the program and a past asset?
But will Travis accept his share of the blame for helping draw the Proggies’ attention to the ranch with his ‘q?
Vegan Cory Booker Says Meat Eaters’ Days Are Numbered
Wasn’t Hitler a vegetarian?
He ate beans. Lots and Lots of beans.
Beans in a bunker! No wonder he killed himself!
This explains much:
https://voiceofeurope.com/2018/12/danish-doctor-warns-vegan-food-may-lead-to-mental-retardation/
MAY lead to mental retardation? Well, in addition, soybeans are loaded with phytoestrogens (female hormones produced by soy plants), which may have a link to breast cancer in Western society.
“Soy isoflavones have long been a staple in Asian diets, and there appears to be an increase, albeit modest, compared to Asian populations, in soy consumption among Americans. Isoflavones are phytoestrogens that have antiestrogenic as well as estrogenic effects on breast cancer cells in culture, in animal models, and in clinical trials. : Study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5590054/
The combination of low D3 and low thyroid contribute to breast cancer. The sucky part is a lot of D3 vitamins are soy based.