Weekend

Saturday

I never did get to the beer festival. I prefer summer anyway, winter is so crowded and hot, ironically. I met Risa and AJ and satanicsocks and friends in the Maypole (cocktaisl!) and caught up on old times a bit and got to go "Awwww!" :) And then went to relativity afterwards, when I had to put my innuendo engine into reverse, and spot statements that could plausibly be interpreted as *not* refering to bondage or mathematics :)

Firefly

Well, it's hard to list episodes that aren't my favorite, but Mrs Reynolds and Janyetown have to be two of the funniest, conveniently right next to each other.

I cooked, um, something with vegemince, onions, mushrooms, etc, and rice, with a few bits on the side. Something between bolognese and stew? Curry without the meat or the curry? How would you describe that? Anyway, it was quite nice. It was the first time I did that exactly, and I'm glad it was ok. Though I thought it could have done with some change, I'm not sure what -- maybe tomatoes? Certainly more spices for me :) Different veg? While the others didn't have any suggestion.

Scratch

I have a short vertical scratch on my forehead. And no idea why. I'm not sure if I knocked it against something when I was concentrating on something else and didn't notice, or scratched it with a fingernail while asleep, or kicked in the head and had my nuclear wessels stolen while I had amnesia, or was kidnapped by aliens and a spore put into my brain.

Bike

On sat I put the bike back together, and it's cyclable, but there was still something wrong. AJ nailed it first thing -- the wheel wobbles; peddling hard tilts it and rubs it on the frame.

Cat

Apparently our street's little wandering friend was hit by a car, I don't think he's coming back :(

Punishment substitution

( Cut for violence in hypothetical moral situations )

But I was curious about the premise, when can someone else substitute for a punishment?

Sentences for crimes are generally justified in a few ways (mostly by a combination, occasionally someone says one is pre-eminent):

* Prevention -- lock someone up, or cut a hand off, or kill them, and they can't do it again.
* Deterrent to them -- don't do it again, or this'll happen to you.
* Detterent to others -- don't do it at all, or this'll happen to you.
* Justice -- a crime deserves a punishment, or it isn't fair.
* Consistency -- there are many ethical and practical reasons to sometimes make punishments consistent even at the expense of not matching the crime perfectly, to prevent unfairness between two cases, or prevent normally useless arguing about it.

Obviously there are lots of standard examples where only some of these apply, I won't go into here. And for any rule there exist extreme cases that have exceptions.

In our system, you can pay someone else's fine, or bail -- you couldn't be prevented. And that's about it, though you may be punished incidently, for instance, if a relation is locked up.

Would we ever lock you up in someone's place involuntarily? It could make sense -- if a spouse were reasonably assumed to know what you were doing, lock them up until you give yourself up, for instance. Though it gives me heeby-jeebies on the justice stakes (not one I normally invoke). Torture? Not so much, imho. And voluntarily?

Does it fit the checklist? Justice? Not really. Prevention? Definitely inferior. Deterrent? Somewhat -- most of the time, either no-one would volunteer, or a parent/spouse would bail someone out whatever they did, so it doesn't really work. Consistency? Could be arranged, especially if you feel justice is a quantity which must be preserved.

I wonder -- how does Jesus' crucifiction as normally told fit into this? Under which of the grounds was Jesus punished for other people's sins?

And if justice, is justice universal? If so, did God create it, or is it trans-universal? If not, how can this apply to all people?