Recently I was reading Paul Theroux’s Ghost Train to the Eastern Star. Naturally he spent several days in Singapore, where he had been more or less fired from a teaching job in the 1960s. He really doesn’t like much of anything about it, including the people. One thing he reminded me about was that caning is still used there as punishment for certain crimes. My guess is that the reason Lee Kuan Yew hangs on to this form of punishment is that the humiliation is even greater than the physical pain. Wikipedia has the whole sordid story. Even as I read, I was daydreaming about appropriate uses for caning in our society. I thought of only three things:
1. Phony Medal of Honor winners.
2. The mortgage brokers who sold those mortgages they knew home buyers couldn’t afford.
3. Gregg Williams.
No I didn’t include Newt Gingrich, but I thought about it.
Note: After this was posted, I was chastised (not by caning) for omitting Rush Limbaugh, truly a major oversight.
Note: After this was posted, I was chastised (not by caning) for omitting Rush Limbaugh, truly a major oversight.
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