Diddy & Fort Dix FCI - Sounds Like Nothing Changed In 5 years

 The media has discovered what prison life is like if you have money.

Diddy’s pampered life in prison: Massages, nude photos, Hennessy

Diddy Headed Back to Solitary Confinement After Pampered Prison Life Claims

Diddy placed in solitary following NBC News report on his VIP prison life

When I was at Fort Dix, there were cell phones. When during the pandemic and staff did not come up to the floors with prisoners, the cell phones came out. We were never sure what they were doing down in their air-conditioned offices, but that suited us. People walking down the hallway talking on them. There were enough to stock an AT & T store.

People were watching the latest movies. They did FaceTime. Reports that came out after I left, a call was made to a contract killer. Much money was made in renting out phones. If I recall correctly, a regular cell phone cost $1200. That was when they were fewer. But if anyone was brining them, a single propbably meant better Christmas gifts.

Drugs? It was as easy to get high in prison as it was on the street.

How did the drugs and phones get in? There are grounds for suspicion, but I can avoid all that by mentioning there are reported drone flights into the prison. 

Alcohol? When the decision was made to close one stairwell in each building so that the unit guards would not have to be running from floor to floor after someone with a cell phone, the booze trade boomed. The restroom on the far side of the close stairwell became a brewery, a distillery. We had to patted down leaving the mess hall so that fruit did not get back to them. The commissary went to sugarless hard candy for the same reason. Cocoa was used because that still had sugar. Hundreds of gallons were found; how much got sold is up in the air. I was told the main booze guy in my building was making $10,000 a year.

 Food was stolen by the pound from the mess hall while the guards on the meal line made sure not an extra ounce landed on a prisoner's tray. Then it was cooked back at the different unit building. The microwaves were being used from opening bell to lights off making cakes, pizzas, and mufungo. When I left, the world going around was that the BOP would not be replacing the microwaves.

Before that, when cooking oil could still be removed from the mess hall, there was cooking in the plastic waste cans provided to each room. I remember coming back to building 51, and there was such a smell of fried foods blowing over from 52 that I thought I was at a county fair. The guys in 52 were serving guys in their building and mine. A serious business came to an end when management started drilling holes in the waste baskets.

If you had enough money, you never went to the mess hall. Besides the cooking in the unit buildings, they bought copious amounts of supplies from the commissary. People made money for themselves by letting the guys with money use them to buy even more supplies. They would also pay for people to bring their commissary to them. We called them sherpas. Not that anyone wearing BOP colors objected to this. First, the money coming into the commissary paid BOP salaries. Second, the mess hall could not feed everyone, so people eating in the unit buildings kept them within budget.

 The only thing the P. Diddy stories show is that the media pays absolutely no attention to federal prison conditions because they, like the American public, do not care how our prisoners are treated.

sch 10/4 

Showing off Plus A Rejection

 Showing off, again:  William Faulkner Literary Competition 2026 Winners (Okay, they misspelled my first name; that happens.

A rejection I forgot to post from several weeks ago. 

Thank you for your submission to The Georgia Review. We have read your manuscript carefully and decided against publication. 

We appreciated the opportunity to consider your work.

Sincerely,

The editors of The Georgia Review

   http://thegeorgiareview.com

sch 10/4 

Todd Rokita Fighting Ethical Problems

I do not know the specifics of the underlying case and my i will keep my anti-Rokita bias in check, but most lawyers do not go to federal courts to fight disciplinary complaints. Indiana AG Todd Rokita sues disciplinary officials, alleging retaliation over political speech (News From The States).

All I can say is that Democrats do not dominate Indiana's judiciary, including the Disciplinary Commission. The Indiana Supreme Court is filled with Republicans; that is the final arbiter of  attorney ethics questions. Which leaves me wondering how one person can pose such a threat to Indiana's Attorney General. 

sch 10/4 

Lizard Brains Endangered!

 Admit there is something tempting about having a lizard brain. Like you might tempt Eve with an apple. That you can slither around and stick your tongue out. That under the fat and the sagging muscles you are a secret T. Rex.

If this is how you feel, then do not read Do humans really have a ‘lizard brain’ lurking beneath our rational minds? from The Guardian.

Neuroanatomically and behaviourally, if not yet in the popular consciousness, the idea that we all have a lizard brain has been thoroughly discredited. Yet despite the mounting evidence, and the success of more recent frameworks, the triune brain endures. Shockingly, it is still being widely taught in introductory psychology textbooks (as one journal article mischievously titled “Your Brain Is Not an Onion With a Tiny Reptile Inside” showed). The study also highlighted some of the pitfalls of allowing the hypothesis to go unchallenged, which include giving students a false sense of how evolution unfolds, and promoting the idea that human beings have a monopoly on “rational” actions such as deferring gratification – sacrificing a short-term reward for a longer-term gain.

And speaking of lizards, Jacob Rees-Mogg accuses Tucker Carlson of ‘verging on defending Hitler’ (The Guardian).

In the lengthy debate on foreign policy and global tensjons, the US commentator repeatedly goaded Rees-Mogg over the smallness of the UK armed forces and suggested Russia was more powerful. Rees-Mogg explained that the UK economy was bigger and made the case that Britain and western allies had to support Ukraine and deter Russian aggression.

***

The interview has raised eyebrows in the US as well as Britain, with Mike Huckabee, the Republican and US ambassador to Israel, posting on X: “When it seemed impossible for Toxic Tucker to descend deeper into the sewer here he goes opining that UK should have let Nazis take over. Forget that Hitler murdered 11 million people? I thought Tucker was against killing? He needs help. Serious help.” 

 That Tucker Carlson does need.

But between simplistic ideas about the brain and simpletons like Carlson, I want to bring up something that has been bothering me. That is that size matters always. Carlson seems to equate Russia's size with might. Ukraine has shown size is easily turned into the status of stumblebum. 

It is all about how you use that size. Trump and Hegeseth are just as confused by that idea as was Stalin about the pope's divisions. If size were all that counts, the Spanish Armada would have beaten the English; the Persians defeated the Greeks; and the English would never have ruled India.

 sch 10/4

Proof, Church; Ups and Downs, A Layabout's Blues

Yesterday morning, I attended morning Liturgy. It was a good start of the day. Chruch centers me spiritually and mentally. No backsliding into the old negative thinking born of depression. 

Then I went to Proof, the literary festival in Indianapolis. Upon arrival in Indianapolis, I got a little lost. However, I saw some interesting places.

Then I got there:

 

Hosted by and partially at Indiana Humanities:

 

 

The building has historical/literary significance:

 But registration was across the street:

 What I discovered were mobile bookstores:

 

I left in a hurry and didn't take a second set of photos. So, sorry about the quality. I was a bit too shy to ask if I could take photos of the inside. 

The first time I had been in a real bookstore for an age (the White Rabbit, last year). I went mad, spending money like a drunken sailor on leave in Bankock. This is my haul:

Besides, I used up my time. I managed two halves of two lectures.

 

The last panel was Maurice Broaddus & Januarie York. I may have a crush now on Ms. York, an Indianapolis poet. She made a point like this: there are things that are her that encourage her to write, and then there are the negative things that would keep her from writing but for believing that creativity comes from God and it is her job to be creative. It struck sparks with me. And I need to read  Maurice Broaddus. He, they, were brilliant.

 There was a break in the fiction offerings, so I decided to make a run for food and fishing supplies. I missed the one brick and mortar bookstore being open.

having blown a bundle on books, I skipped my plans to visit The Whispering Shelf. 

By the time I got to Flymasters I was tired of Indianapolis and traffic. Again, I spent too much money.

 When I got home, I worked on my latest project for a couple of hours. I decided to nap for an hour, thinking I could make Vespers, only it became two hours and no Vespers. I went back to the project.

Missed Liturgy this morning. I am afraid I becoming an infidel. Especially since I did not get to Vespers, either. Around 4 pm, just after eating dinner, the back locked up. I keep telling myself I should take a hot shower instead of lying down, I can feel the proof of that right now. Earlier I was already flat and it hurt too much to get up. 

I spent the morning with the story. Then I did a few more blog posts that are scheduled now for this week.

 After the nap and shower, I started on this post. I need water for the CPAP machine, so I am off to Payless shortly.

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Just Checking In

I am more convinced that I need to get out of here more often.

Yesterday afternoon, I was tired after class but I did not nap. Neither did I go grocery shopping. Instead, I stopped at Pit Master BlueBird & Sons BBQ. Finally satisfied the pulled pork urge I have been having this past week. I ate it at home before starting on Chapter Three of “A Rock and Roll Fanstasy”. It was a great sandwich, pork smoked to perfection.

I spent the rest of the evening doing that with an interruption for Vespers. I passed on the prostrations for the grocery shopping.

I talked to CC. Maybe a road trip next week. 

The work on the novel was started on Wednesday and continued on Thursday. I am cutting so much from what I wrote in 2010. It is better for it, but it is also shortening the work.

I got a shock yesterday at the class. The instructor who keeps repeating that he has played guitar for 20 years, so I assume he is a musician, did not recognize the name Doctor John. Oh well.

Liturgy in 43 minutes. I need to get ready for that and for going to Indianapolis. 

 

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An Eugene O'Neill Fest

 

sch 9/29