Founded 1983: Liberal Mindset; Conservative Morality

April 17, 2026

The Claim I Filed in 2006

This week I published The Claimed Body: How American Institutions Divided the Human Organism Among Themselves. Fifteen chapters, 559 pages in paperback, 349 in the web edition, a Kindle ebook, and a wraparound cover that took the shape of a parcel map of the body. The book is out on Amazon and through BolesBooks.com. Readers who have followed the constellation for any length of time will recognize the argument before they finish the first chapter. I have been writing toward this book since December of 2006, when I first used these pages to ask a question I did not yet have the vocabulary to answer.

Continue reading → The Claim I Filed in 2006

April 13, 2026

Carceral Nation: Twenty Years from Blog Post to Book

In December 2006, I published an article on this blog about mass incarceration, racial disparities in the American prison system, and a concept I was trying to name: the carceral citizen, the person whose freedom exists in a state of permanent conditional revocation. The article was one entry among many in the Boles Blogs Network, which at its peak ran fourteen blogs across a range of subjects. One of those fourteen was called Panopticonic.

Continue reading → Carceral Nation: Twenty Years from Blog Post to Book

March 29, 2011January 21, 2013

How to Create a Carceral Nation with a Private Prison System

It’s discouraging to see the steady progression of the prison population in America. Instead of dealing with social issues, we prefer to put people behind bars for smaller and smaller offenses in a blighted attempt to keep the peace. We take our national cue from Obama who, too frightened to proactively move, leaves Guantanamo an open and seeping sore on our national visage.

Continue reading → How to Create a Carceral Nation with a Private Prison System

December 1, 2008January 27, 2016

Announcing Panopticonic, Carceral Nation and Memeingful

The Boles Blogs Network is delighted to announce the creation of three new blogs for your reading pleasure that focus on news, commentary and analysis of three important themes that run throughout this Urban Semiotic blog. The first — Panopticonic — concerns us watching those watching us. Jeremy Bentham invented the idea of a “panopticon” in 1787: