The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by Stephan Brun:

Indeed, part of being good is being good towards others, even when they themselves behave viciously. Protection, for a time, as long as they are a danger, is justified. But, like you say, prisoners have to be dealt with ethically. I agree fully.

I am a big fan of reason and rhetoric, and I have had occasion to observe the power of the latter up close.^*)

I have long been of the opinion that imprisonment as currently implemented is just slavery by another name. Torture is the idea that violence makes one tell the truth; treating prisoners badly is the idea that violence makes one behave ethically. (I understand that most people do not think that far, but I think this nicely illustrates the problem with the model.)

Rights are those which it would be a vice to break. That is: people have a right to do virtuous things, and also the indifferent things, including those that are ill-advised, such as those detrimental to one's health, but not the vices. I therefore have to agree with Terry Karney: rights cannot ethically be revoked. There is no way to revoke a right and remain a good person. That evil people revoke rights is not an argument for revoking them oneself.

I would argue for a reform of prison, where prisoners are trained in reason (for easy convincement) and ethics (preferably accepted by ethical philosophy; Westboro-style ethics is ill-advised) and in which discussions are held debating the ethical status of the crime committed. It ought to be possible to have the sentence commuted or revoked based on such discussion, e.g. in the case of narcotics laws. Ideally it should even be an option to have the law repealed, should the discussion end unfavourably, by having a judge present, for instance. Otherwise, the convict becomes convinced that what he did was wrong, and should never do it again, in the same way a rational person does not kick electrical appliances when they fail: because they knows it will do no good.

eric @84: I tentatively agree, but with one proviso: voting rights revocation should be for a limited time only. A newly good person should not be prevented from voting. Hmm, the more I think about it, the more it seems it is just revenge-based. I withdraw my agreement.

*) Because of my current disability, I currently live in a building for people cared for by the council, a category that includes former drunkards and drug addicts. I have been able to prevent a break-in, and make a neighbour return stolen property, solely through the use of my limited powers of persuasion. The attempted break-in was conducted by a man distraught at the loss of his wallet in the flat he was breaking into, and I persuaded him the wallet would still be there in the morning, and that he wouldn't need it anyway until my neighbour had awakened. The other neighbour, having somewhat weak skills at reasoning, actually turned the property over to the police after I convinced him that stolen property was not something one did not care about, and he apparently now considers me something of a mentor.

(By the gods, wall o' text)

I originally thought: pnh remembers Roy Orbison in clingfilm? Then I checked, and it was tnh's post. Ah well.

Random thoughts:

ObGay: Porn pride!

Lee @17: Seconded.

Also: OMG I'm turning gay and I never knew! All those years of porn is corrupting me! Thank goodness that I now know! (I actually think along these lines about carbs; grrr)

(It's all explain'd in the origin story (where the two team up and fight the alien invasion.))

Also, Fragano, in the panel you are referring to, Lady Ada is wondering whether puns are poetry, so she can smite the punster (Babbage, incorrigible, as it happens). Having little exposure to poetry, having been raised by wolves mathematicians, she truly doesn't know (but suspects).

Great comic. I did some checking, and it seems Sydney Padua is a friend of Suw Charman, sometime commenter hereabouts.

Ah, an opportunity to correct an earlier omission. While Lucy is staked with wood, Dracula is indeed staked (stabbed?) with a steel weapon. Sorry for being misleading.

Thyroid, above.

(Gets up, puts sheepish grin on face)

I wasn't fooled, no ma'am. I knew all along you were trying to fool me. I wasn't had at all!

(Looks at audience)

Thank you, thank you. You are most kind. We shall be here all week. Do try the... Well, I don't know what they are, but do try them.

Whe hey! I just found Drow Tales and Moonless Age again! Thank you, Google, you're my bestest friend! ('xcept for you guys, of course...)

Tomorrow, when the flu abates, I'll search for the other web comic I'm missing (The one about the young female elf running about in the forest (ca 2003). I think she had a bow and some kind of bird, and the author/artist kept writing about graphics tablets and other tools)

(Shivers in fear and redoubles effort (precisely the wrong thing to do.).)

Thank you, most Evil One, for giving us the chance to prove ourselves!

(falls down.)

(claps furiously, but shows signs of tiring...)

Xopher: And what is more, it would not even be caught by a capable grammar-checker, since it is grammatically in the correct place...

Dave Bell @568: I see that I was not the only one who, when reading the list of things to do to disguise oneself as a frenchman, immediately thought "string of onions", but your response is much better than mine would be.

You'll want to be careful of this Michelle girl. She is likely the kind of woman who talks too much while constantly promising to shut up, and the kinds of things she'll want you to do shall be fraught with danger.

TomB: That one made me laugh out loud, worrying my coworkers.

Steve Zillwood @260: Er, yes. That's it. That's the ticket.

Well, actually, no. It was the description of the pair of druids, one bumbling and the other competent, along with the sizes of the originals, that made me think they were dead ringers for Obelix and Asterix (which Ajay's original joke was so obviously about (to me, anyway)). I didn't stop to consider that Carrie might not have read it, I mean, they had to be Obelix and Asterix.

I was linking menhir to the comic Asterix, in which the menhir-carrying Obelix does not like to be called fat. Sorry if I was being obscure...

Carrie @232: I seem to remember, for some reason, that Saig Treppio is emphatically not fat. Are we thinking of the same work?

Howard, I checked, and Stoker had Lucy staked with a wooden stake, at least in PG's electronic version.

I can, however, confirm that in Norwegian folk lore iron, steel, and silver are used to magical ends, most notably to dispel glamours. (This is the way they are used in folk tales, anyway.)

Niall, unless R'Lyeh qualifies as part of the US, I think there's a case for identifying Cthulhu as an alien.

I am, however, not a lawyer.

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