A better system of punishment

If you read this article (link), you'll read a story about a judge in Pennsylvania who gave a bunch of drug dealers the choice between a full 2 year stint in prison and 1 year followed by parole if they learned English in the first year.

I read a while back that the number one predictor of recidivism is whether or not the convict learned something while in prison. You're much less likely to show up back in the dock if you pick up your GED or an Associates while in prison.

At the time I was in grad school, and sort of loathing it. I thought then that it would be a good idea to have sentences measured by degrees instead of years. If you get brought up on minor charges, you have to learn a new skill; felonies require an associates, bachelor's, masters or PhD depending on the severity. As long as you're planning to let people out at the end, you could match the current sentencing with how long it takes to get a degree.

You'd just have to find a way to provide education and then stop numskulls who want an education and can't afford it from committing crimes to get into college. I think, though, that if even a good school like UM had a serious risk of bum-rape on campus, I would have declined to go, so perhaps you wouldn't need a lot of discouragement to keep it from seeming as though crime was being rewarded.

I guess the wisdom of this plan hinges primarily on whether the criminal system is primarily designed to rehabilitate or punish. Actually, this does both, so maybe not.

Ow

I just got finished being manhandled by a much smaller dude. Granted, he's my martial arts instructor, but still, wow.

I was the only one who showed up for class today so we did some trapping. It's a very particular range of fighting that you use to bridge the gap between punching and either grappling or more punching. It's elegant and artistic and doesn't work very well if the other guy is throwing boxing punches.

However, it transitions really well to take-downs, so we did some of those. Well, once you take a guy down a few times, as any male friend will tell you, you have to wrestle. Those are the rules made up in the time of Adam or Jesus or someone and there's no way around them unless someone gets hurt. Even then there'd better be some blood.

Anyway, wrestling at a dojo quickly becomes ju-jitsu.

I'm not very good at ju-jitsu.

I'm a fair wrestler because of all the time Dad spent throwing me and my sisters around during our youth, but I have talent rather than skill. I countered a couple of his maneuvers thanks to being about 8 inches taller and 30 pounds heavier, but now my ribs have bruised ribs and portions of my lower back seem to have seceded. Seriously, is it possible to prolapse your spine?

Man I miss being young and made of Nerf.

Fired!

Or more accurately, "let go", though semantics seem a bit thin at present.

I actually wasn't fired, because it wasn't like I was doing a crap job. The funding is just thin and they needed to tighten the belt, so to speak.

Anyway, I'm looking for a new gig and if you're reading this blog, you probably know me and know people who are looking to hire. I'll move as far as England if the opportunity is right, but I'm looking mostly in the NYC area.

I'm not bummed, so don't worry about me. The job was beginning to get on my nerves. I don't regret it, because I learned a lot about how not to run a business as well as a good deal about how to. This turn of events just lights a fire under a job search that was already under way.

Aetna can suck it too

Funny story, the caduceus pictured above in the hand of Hermes - god of trickters, thieves and commerce - is occasionally confused with the rod of Asclepius, which represents medicine.
It's simply impossible to figure out why.

I've been trying to deal with Aetna, and the frustration is palpable. I've made the terrible error of signing up for the HMO my company offers. No I don't know why. It was a mistake. Leave me alone.

I wish someone had caught me. I was looking at the deductible for the pharmacy visits which is marginally less on the HMO than the PPO. I didn't realize that an HMO requires a referral from a primary caregiver for any non-emergency trip to a specialist. So I'm late in getting round to this, but frankly in the last 10 years of my life my endocrinologist hasn't really done much for me except to prescribe insulin and hassle me.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. I called Aetna to see if they'd waive the referral for me since they've covered my diabetes for the 8 years I was at Consumer Reports. I surmise that demanding a referral is a safety measure for them so that people don't abuse access to specialists for crazy reasons. If that's the case (maybe it's not?) then as long as I can demonstrate to Aetna that I'm not just making this whole diabetes thing up, they can save money and I can save money and time by waiving this referral necessity one time.

No. No they most certainly cannot. I called and got nowhere with a customer service rep who clearly had as much latitude to make executive decisions about, you know, customer service as I do about Pakistani parliamentary procedure. I asked to talk to her boss and got this wonderful dialog out of her (paraphrased from poor memory, but the gist is right):

Me: So it saves money for me and you both if you can waive this referral. If you look at your records it'll show you that you've been paying for my diabetes treatment for years.

Her: Yes, but it's a new company and a new policy.

Me: Yes, of course, but do you think I was making up the diabetes at the other job for almost a decade?

Her: No sir (she did seem apologetic), but those are the rules.

Me: So, am I just a rule-bound number in your database or a real person with medical needs?

Her: (pause . . .) Yes. Those are the rules.

It must be nice to be in a business where your "customers" can't go anywhere and your clients' representatives don't really care how you treat their employees. At this point I'd vote for a candidate who would just legislate that health insurers have to do a passable job being sensible human beings - or perhaps letting their employees be sensible human beings.