The Face Of Justice

“The Face is Justice” is the title of Carol Chessman’s fourth and final prison book, as I recall. For the benefit of you internet people, Carol Chessman was convicted of kidnapping, assault, and rape and got the death penalty, but there are people with questions about whether he’s guilty. I’ve been saying that the country has been moving to the left on a host of issues. On gay sex, availability of pornography, and this huge entity we call government regulation- - we are moving way to the left. But there is one issue where we are so far to the right of where we were thirty years ago it isn’t funny- and that’s crime. Thirty years ago I would have been called a hard conservative. Today I’m not sure sure. If you watch these Cops shows you realize Meranda rights have been thrown out the window. They have those suspects singing like cannery’s in minutes. They even say, “Don’t lie to us or we’ll pile on the charges. I don’t know if it all stands up in court but I imagine it does or they wouldn’t do it. It would seem with Cops as proactive as they are on TV the crime rate should drop to zero. The crime rate has dropped markedly in the past fourteen years- and that’s a good thing. But it’s one of those issues like smoking. The faster the rate drops the more people complain about it. Don’t get me started on these City wide bans and bans in all outdoor or public areas including parks and baseball stadiums. The anti smoker laws are becoming so repressive it isn’t funny. We have the three strikes law and I guess it’s worked pretty good over the twelve or so years its been around. As John Kovelt says “Even if you bust them for stealing a pizza slice or cologne- they’ve probably done something to deserve a long prison sentence”. John is a firm believer in ex post facto laws, where you are punished for previous offences you’ve already been tried for. The thing is the Constitution does not agree with John and if the three strikes law were to come before me, you don’t wanna know how I would rule. Of course our children should be a lot safer now. We have all those adds running on how to be a strict parent, if a hypocritical one, on the subject of drugs. I myself, not being a parent am not sure how I’d do at playing the hypocrisy game but I guess I’d have to learn. You’re supposed to keep track of your kids 24 hours a day and give them cell phones to keep tabs on them. Curfews seem commonly to be recommended at eleven PM, which to me sounds like rushing things a bit from a purely logistical standpoint. Back when I was a teenager they had double feature movies where the first show ran from seven to nine and the next show ran from nine to eleven. How are you supposed to get back home after dropping the girl off? Most football games end at ten fifteen or ten thirty. That leaves a half hour to get both the girl and yourself home. Like I say, it’s rushing things. Of course at Leo Le Port’s house it’s “Lights out” at ten o clock sharp. I heard they were thinking of a bill extending the school day till five PM. And they say kids should have two hours of homework per night. I’m just wondering after all that how much computer “chat time” a kid actually has now. Child molesters are rightly given long sentences, but now that basically amounts to a life sentence since experts tell us that is a crime for which there is no Rehabilitation. Now you have to wear an ankle bracelet for life and are tracked by GPS and can’t come within a half mile of any school. Rotsa Ruck on that one. They really ought to give they a cyanide capsule to take the day of their release.

Of course if you heard Ken Galliger today you realize his dream prison in Colorado has just been built. He loves everything about it. Everyone is in solitary and even the staff don’t interact and they slide the food under the door. All of the furniture is made out of concrete. Ken says if everyone went to a prison like that just think how much lower the crime rate would be. I can’t disagree. Just think of what a boondoggle for the concrete industry we’d have. I can’t imagine the costs to build every prison like Pelican Bay here in California. Of course castration has been experimented with child molesters.

Of course the next step beyond global position sattalites and leg anklets is computer chips imbedded in the skin itself. We use them for pets now. I imagine soon some bright guy will suggest we put chips in our children, so they can be found when lost. Of course now failure to spay or nuter your pet is a crime in LA county. It may be a ways down the road but some day we’re going to take a cue from China and go one step further and suggest spaying and nutering human criminals. I predict “Population control” is going to reenter the headlines before too long. Of course they already have psychological profiling for certain jobs. I imagine this will become more wide spread after they generate some statistic saying it makes for better employee selection.

Ken Galliger says that if there is any doubt as to whether to administer the death penalty we should always err on the side of death. Using that John Kovelt reasoning it’s to counter-balance all those people who never get convicted at all of a crime. Of course the Supreme Court is definitely going to move to the right on Civil liberties questions; we know that. Basically people are becoming more fearful about more things. They want to be sure they are “safe” and want to make sure their kids are safe.

You know, Ghandi made non violent civil disobedience a big thing fifty years ago. I don’t know how many people would want to try it now or in the future if we build the kinds of prisons Ken Galliger invisions where every cell is solitary confinement. Of course civil disobedience depends on a free states. Such a method of protest would fall completely flat in a totalitarian country where they drop you in a hole and you’re never heard from again. Jesus Christ preached “Turning the other cheek” but as Gene Scott points out the doctrine is fraudelant if you think that in a non free press it’s “magically” going to work its purpose. It won’t work in a repressive society without a free press to “raise the conscience of the public”. Jesus said blessed are the poor. Yet society today regards poor people as a scourge and something to be swept aside. I don’t think much of the Christian community feels materially different. Jesus said to “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and ye shall find and knock, and the door will be opened unto you”. But we don’t want a society of “seekers”. No. Today’s employers have a very specific idea of the sort of people they’re looking for and they don’t like to be “hustled” by anybody. Today it’s the rich who call the tune. Rush Limbaugh gets treated with kid gloves on his drug bust. Patrick Kennedy wasn’t even tested by the cops for alcohol use. We have two standards of justice today but it’s not the poor who are “Blessed”. (Selah)

We hear that Iran’s plans to get the Bomb are right on schedule. Ken Galliger’s schedule, whatever that is. I don’t know what to think. It would seem that we better transfer troops right out of Iraq and into Iran quickly. This Iraq thing has been some kind of a joke, but with Iran we’re got a real Nuclear threat and we don’t even realize it. According to Ken, Iran is playing a game of “Beat the Clock” in counting on the fact that this country will drag its feet in doing anything about Iran’s nuclear development. No. According to George Bush “we are just at the beginning of the negotiation process and not the end of it”. No. First we have to get Russia and China on board at the UN and then we will obtain “permission” to “ask” Iran to stop working on the Bomb. But by then it may be too late. You’ve heard the saying “a stitch in time saves nine” and that applies to an awful lot of things. World War III or at least some mini version of it might be closer than any of us think. Most of us think war can’t happen now; we on planet earth are beyond that sort of thing. The only thing we are “beyond” is an objective weighing of the facts. Perhaps “God” will bail us out. But I wouldn’t count on that.

Below are just a few more albums of ours. We can put both "Radar Screens" together to make a two-pack out of that one. The other title comes from "All Hail The American Night", which Jim Morrison utters at the beginning of side two of "American Prayer". It was originally a two-pack but we could combine a single with it and let's make it a three CD box. OK?

BELOW THE RADAR SCREEN

Shaking All Over (Guess Who)

If You Gotta Go, Go Now (Bob Dylan)

It Ain’t Me, Babe (Turtles)

I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better When You’re Gone (Byrds)

Heart Full of Soul (Yardbirds)

Diamonds and Rust (Joan Baez)

Whittier Boulevard (artist)

Treat Her Right (Roy Head)

Stepping On Me (Paul Revere & the Raiders)

Highway 61 (Bob Dylan)

Get Off of my Cloud (Rolling Stones)

I’m A Man (Yardbirds)

It’s Just Like You It’s Just Like Me (Paul Revere & the Raiders)

These Boots Are Made For Walking (Nancy Sinatra)

I Ain’t Gona Eat Out My Heart Any More (Young Rascals)

Secret Agent Man (Johnny Rivers)

Little Red Book (Love)

Good Loving (Young Rascals)

Sunshine Superman (Donavin)

Stop Stop Stop (The Hollies)

96 Tears (Question Mark & the Mysterians)

Set Me Free (Supremes)

World of Time (Yardbirds)

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BELOW THE RADAR SCREEN PART TWO The Cultural Revolution

Good Vibrations (Beach Boys)

C. C. Ryder (Eric Burden & The Animals)

Here Comes The Night (Them)

I’m A Boy (longer version from album) (The Who)

Rock and Roll Star (The Byrds)

The Beat Goes On (Sunny & Cher)

Sock It To Me, Baby (Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels)

All Your Love (John Mayol)

Dandy (Herman’s Hermits)

Dedicated to the One I Love (Mamas& Papas)

Blues Theme (Davie Allan & the Arrows)

When I Was Young (Eric Burden & the Animals)

In The Morning (from “Early Flight”) (Jefferson Airplane)

Friday On My Mind (The Easybeats)

The Happening (Supremes)

Live For Today (Grass Roots)

Baby, Baby, Baby I Love You (Aritha Franklin)

Higher and Higher (Jackie Wilson)

Words (The Monkees)

Expecting to Fly (Buffalo Springfield)

Strange Days (The Doors)

Outside the Gates of Cerdies (Procol Herem)

We Love You (Rolling Stones)

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THE AMERICAN NIGHT

Disc One

A Touch of Gray (The Grateful Dead)

When We Was Fab (George Harrison)

Bicycle (Queen)

I Can’t Stand Losing You (The Police)

Know when to Hold ‘em (Kenny Rogers)

Another Brick in the Wall (“Dance” version with lead in) (Pink Floyd)

Dancing Fool (Frank Zappa)

I’m Your Pain (Alice Cooper)

YYZ (Instrumental) (Rush)

Something Big (Tom Petti)

Bad Boys Get Spanked (Pretenders)

Mr. Crowley (Ozzy Osborne)

Rock the Kasbah (The Clash)

Abracadabra (Steve Miller)

Disc Two

Dirty Laundry (Don Hendley)

Domo Origato Mr. Robato (Styx)

Teenage Enema Nurse (Killer Pussy)

Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) (Eurithmics)

License to Kill (Bob Dylan)

Pink Cadillac (Bruce Springsteen)

Good Rocking At Midnight (The Honeydrippers)

One Night in Bancock (Maurie Head)

Rain on the Scarecrow (John C. Mellencamp)

Christmas at Ground Zero (Weird Al Yankivic)

The Thing That Should Not Be (Metallica)

Thai Quan Leap (Frantics)

Dead Or Alive (Bonjovy)

Star-trekking (The “other” Firm)

Disc Three

Into Money (Bruce Lordman & Trower)

Stop Dragging My Heart Around (Stevie Nicks & Tom Petti)

Burning For You (Blue Oyster Cult)

Over the Mountains (Ozzy Osborne)

ABACAB (Genesis)

California Uber Alles Part Two (Dead Kennedys)

Mexican Radio (Wall of Voodoo)

Should I Stay or Should I Go (The Clash)

Riding on the Metro (Berlin)

Rainbow in the Dark (Ron Dio)

What’s Love Got to Do with It? (Tina Turner)

Valotte (Julian Lennon)

Pride In The Name of Love (U2)

I Drink Alone (George Thorogood)

Inner Track Riff (Def Leopard) not listed on CD