In Reading, Pennsylvania, a woman shoplifts a watch. The government retaliates by seizing all the watches in the city.

In Altoona, a man robs a mini-mart. In retaliation, the conservative government puts everyone in the city into jail for several days.

In Scranton a man drives his car into a school bus. In retaliation, the conservative extremists that we foolishly put into power revokes the citizens' "privilege" to own cars.

In York a woman shoots her husband. In retaliation, the extremist government shoots everyone in the town.

Since the days of the Inquisition, up through the madness of the "Reign of Terror" and then the fanaticism of the Nazis, conservative extremists have been a disease blighting successive cultures. Their insanity is a form of social suicide; cultural self-destruction! It's an unfortunate mania caused by an obsession with greed, control and the oppression of others. It exploits fear and hate.

The conservative obsession is like any other self injuring addiction. It is rabid and hypocritical. But it's far worse than simple drug or alcohol dependency. It is more like a sadist's addiction to causing pain.

The few monguls who possess the wealth and who are in power, are insane to get even more wealth and power. The conservative addiction is so vicious that it sacrifices everyone else in order to satisfy the conservative manias. In the conservative delusion, everybody must be controlled and everybody must pay homage to the same twisted ideology, the same value -system and the same gods. Everybody must conform to that which will most benefit the conservatives.

Starting in the late 1980s the conservative micro-minority schemed its way into political power in more and more districts. With money and lies and fear, they suckered us into surrendering to the worst taint in the social personality.

In Pennsylvania, Thomas Ridge, being both intellectually and morally slow, didn't establish his infamous Ridge Reich until the mid 1990s. It quickly consolidated into an extremist police-state where everybody's liberties were rapidly contracted.

The more extreme of the conservative policies of police control needed some time to be introduced and perfected. The public had to be duped into believing that the neurotic measures were "good" or "necessary." More importantly, the public had to slowly be gotten adjusted to the police-state controls.

Following the example of other dangerous conservative governments, the Ridge Reich used prisons as laboratories and proving grounds for their schemes. "Criminals' were his guinea pigs and then the examples conservatives would use to con the rest of us into surrendering our liberties. After the prisons, the police-controls were introduced into the schools. Like prisoners, children have few rights and can do little to fight for their liberties. More importantly, the schools are where the conservatives are manufacturing the next generation of dutiful, robot-like followers.

To introduce more cruelty into the general public, it was first imposed in the prisons. Prisoners, were, after all, expendable sub-humans and mostly just black or Latino. It was easy to get an already callous and self-absorbed electorate to rally to the Roman-games of cruelty to prisoners.

Fanatic Tom Ridge came to power on a simple conservative axiom: "if one person does something I don't like, I'll punish everyone." The Ridge "punishment for all" strategy started off with the conservatives revoking the centuries-old compassion of commuting prisoner's sentences.

A man who had been commuted was accused (and may actually have committed) another offense. Ridge ran for governor (and we saps - or 20% of us - elected him) on the platform that in retaliation for that supposed offense by a commuted prisoner, there would be no more commutations of prisoners or pardons for former offenders.

Conservatives detest mercy (except for themselves). They care for self benefit.

The Ridge "punishment for all" strategy worked so well and was so extreme that he and other conservatives relied on it more and more. Some prisoners escaped from the hellhole of State "Correctional" Institution ("SCI") Pittsburgh. In retaliation, the clothing of ALL prisoners was seized. Then schools in Pennsylvania restricted students' clothing to only the approved uniform.

When a guy escaped from the SCI-Dallas in Northeastern Pennsylvania, Ridge retaliated by punishing ALL prisoners. (See also the Norman Johnston escape.) 

The conservative extremists rely on he reality that you don't care about prisoners because you're not one yourself. Wise up. What the conservatives are doing to prisoners one year, they will be doing to the kids the next year and then, to the whole society a few years later. You're next.