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Clayton Cramer's BLOG |
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Clayton's commentary on news and events of the day. Broadly speaking, I'm a conservative with libertarian sympathies (getting more conservative as my children get older).
 Never forget! I'm running for Idaho state senate I've written a number of history books, as well as scholarly and popular articles, (see my web page).
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Friday, November 01, 2002
This Makes Me MAD! These are very serious accusations from the Sacramento Bee--not only is the FBI suggesting that these doctors performed unnecessary (and in some cases lethal) heart operations, but they defrauded the government in the process. The accusations aren't that they were performing surgeries for marginally necessary cases: Barr, the attorney, said the Rev. John Corapi had concerns about inheriting heart problems, so he sought a cardiologist in June.Nor was economic necessity driving these two doctors: Realyvasquez, a University of California, Davis, Medical School graduate, is the top biller to Medicare of 50 in similar practices in all of California except Los Angeles and San Diego counties, according to the affidavit. Moon is second on a list of 50 in practices similar to his in the same region.A while back, when it turned that doctor mistakes killed three times as many people annually as guns, gun rights advocates suggested (tongue-in-cheek, of course) that instead of banning guns, perhaps we should ban doctors. These are the sort of cases that make you wonder.... Liverpool's Tunnels Here's an interesting item from BBC about a vast network of tunnels under Liverpool, built almost two centuries ago: Tycoon Joseph Williamson dug a vast, bizarre network of tunnels under Liverpool almost 200 years ago. Were they the city's first job creation scheme, a rich man's whimsy or a shelter from the end of the world? Okay, Admit It: You've Forgotten Some of the Fine Details of Arithmetic... Now you need to help your kids with their arithmetic homework. This has all the rules for doing arithmetic with positive and negative numbers on one page, and free of all the number line theory stuff that math teachers think make it easier for kids, but really make it more confusing. UPDATE: One reader asked if this was really wise, suggesting that kids need to learn the number line theory so that they don't need to learn a large body of rules. Yes, they do need to learn it. But for most kids learning to do negative and positive number arithmetic, the number line and its application are too abstract. Instead, they hear theory that they don't really learn, and therefore can't use. Then, they try to do arithmetic, don't ever get the right answer, and soon develop math anxiety. (I speak from experience, both as student and parent.) Kids need the ability to do arithmetic accurately enough, and fast enough, that they aren't scared off by it. The helical theory of learning means that they will get exposed to number line theory again, after they are intellectually more mature, and can make use of it. My suspicion is that the people that develop math curricula are math professors--the sort of kids that "got it" immediately in math class, while the rest of us alternated between confusion and boredom. It is difficult for people that immediately pick these things up to understand what the rest of us need to learn. For some, the number line theory will work just fine. For many others, it won't. "Many learners, many learning methods." Thursday, October 31, 2002
Newspapers Don't Trust Their Readers This is a very disturbing report about how the New York Post left out some information about some killers. Much like the horrifying murders in Wichita that the national mainstream media are ignoring, apparently because the savages in question are black, many newspapers are engaged in a campaign of making black murderers vanish. I understand the Portland Oregonian made a similar conscious decision several years ago not to identify the race of murder suspects, but at least they had the honesty to admit that they were doing so. If they were simply ignoring murder, I would be irritated, but there seems to be an intentional effort to hide horrific black murderers from public view. Are journalists afraid that lynch mobs are going to form as result of their covering these crimes? Iraqi Ballots I received this one in my email: 
but I'm told that this is the actual Iraqi ballot used in this recent 100% vote: 
Saddam Hussein Isn't Stupid From an interesting USA Today article about the upcoming urban battles in Iraq: Saddam also has not armed his civilian population, intelligence experts say, for fear that the population would turn on his regime.Of course, now you know why the richest Americans (liberal Democrats) don't want our civilian population armed. Was Mental Health Treatment Available For Flores? According to this article in the Daily Star, yes, it was. Being a veteran and out of work it should have been free. It sounds like Flores either didn't know that, was rationalizing why he wasn't seeking treatment, or had some fear of what might happen if he sought it. If you are reading this blog, and you are feeling suicidal, please call 1-800-SUICIDE (1-800-784-2433). Don't become a headline. Your pain is temporary; the grief you'll cause to others will be permanent. As much as you might think no one cares whether you live or die, there are more people around you than you know who are going to be startled, heartbroken, and upset if you kill yourself. Catholic Priest On The Run First convicted of child molestation in 1973--but not defrocked. A bunch more charges have now been filed, and he is running. Why wasn't he thrown out in 1973? These bizarre stories of the Catholic priesthood as a child molesting homosexual cabal start to sound more and more plausible. Wednesday, October 30, 2002
Incredibly Cute Kitty... My daughter is away at college in northern Idaho, and impulsively got this kitten. But she can't keep it, and can't bear to take it to the pound. (He is a feisty, incredibly playful male.) 
If you live in northern Idaho or eastern Washington, please email me and take this playful creature off her hands. An Australian University Professor Speaks Out On Gun Control This is real courage. Read it. Read it now. And marvel at the guts of a professor willing to make this argument in Australia. It would take real guts to say this on almost any campus in America: The shooters in these events generally desire to kill as many people as possible and often do not plan to live through the attack. Criminal penalties will not deter them, and it would be impossible to eliminate the possibility of them obtaining a gun. The only effective deterrence appears to be the prospect of failure. Why Did He Do It? And What Could We Have Done To Prevent It? Unlike many of the mass murderers of the last 20 years, Robert Stewart Flores Jr. left us a detailed suicide note explaining why he did what even he called a "horrendous" crime. But like many of the mass murderers of the last 20 years, Flores had given a lot of indicators that there was trouble coming--and those signals were either missed, or dismissed. Let's try to learn something from what happened here. 1. As I mentioned in a previous entry, teaching people that their problems make them "victims" encourages a lashing out at others. That certainly seems to be the case here. The picture that Flores's suicide note paints is of a reasonably articulate, reasonably intelligent person, quite aware of how his actions and his note would be examined: "To the sociologist, it wasn't the Maryland sniper," he wrote. "I have been thinking about this for awhile."Flores blamed at least two of the professors he murdered for not treating him fairly: Throughout the letter, Flores railed against the UA: "After the fact, the University of Arizona will attempted (sic) to portray me as a misanthropic, marginal student who was undisciplined and could not follow instructions."Flores perceived his problems to be the result of discrimination against him for being male and "non-traditional age" for a nursing student. Anyone that claims that they can tell, one or the other, based on the evidence now available, is kidding himself. But there are subtle hints that Flores wasn't the Hispanic version of the "angry white male" that certain leftists imagine broods about affirmative action. This story from the Tucson Citizen reports The couple's custody dispute fills hundreds of pages in a Superior Court file. Included are statements from Flores accusing his ex-wife of training their daughter to believe sexist ideals.The Daily Star article about his suicide note also reports that he complained that his ex-wife refused to look for work when they moved to Tucson--no stay at home mother for Flores. 2. In many respects, Flores is like many recent mass murderers. He was a guy at the end of his rope because of depression. Those who are looking to blame Prozac are going to have to keep moving. From the Daily Star "I am tired, tired and weary," he wrote. "I realize that I am depressed but even with treatment it will not change my future."He was also in pain, a lot of debt, broke, and had lost his job. Now he was about to be kicked out of the nursing program. 3. Also, like many other mass murderers, the alarm bells had been ringing for some time, and it seems that they had been missed. A heart-wrenching quote from the husband of one of the professors murdered by Flores: "When a friend called me and told me to turn on the TV, as soon as I heard 'disgruntled student,' I knew who it was," said Walter McGaffic, husband of one of the victims of the shooting rampage by Robert Stewart Flores Jr.Another indicator of problems that led to a police report--but nothing else: Yesterday, campus officials defended their dealings with Flores over the years, starting with an April 2001 conversation they had with him after nursing faculty said they thought he might be dangerous.If I had to pick a single item worth pursuing out of this tragedy, it is that here was a guy making statements that gave a lot of people reason to be afraid of him. It does not sound like Flores was a stable guy who just felt wronged; the impression I get from the quotes out of his suicide note is a guy looking for someone to blame for his failure to do what he clearly wanted to do--nursing. He blamed his ex-wife. He blamed professors at University of Arizona. He seems to have blamed just about everyone but himself. It is time to encourage everyone to be responsible for their own failures. There is way too much "it's not my fault" mentality out there. It also sounds like someone that desperately needed mental health treatment. He was depressed, and perceived that going for mental health treatment was something he couldn't afford, and something that would get him kicked out of the nursing school. What about confidentiality of mental health records? No More Mr. Nice Guy Republicans? I have, for a long time, been mystified why Democrats engage in the most ruthless and shameful tactics at election time, while Republicans (with a few exceptions), operate under Marquis of Queensbury rules. There are times it seems like the Republicans don't really want to win. I found this amusing line in this report about how Republicans think that they might pick up 1-3 seats in the House. It suggests that some Republicans are actually playing to win this time around! DeLay’s Strategic Task Force to Organize and Mobilize People (STOMP)...And here's an ad that, if they actually run it in South Dakota, could make a difference. It's shallow, unsubtle, and clearly assumes that voters are driven by emotions not intellect. Of course, this is a democracy we're talking about--where just under half of the eligible voters are, by definition, below average in intelligence. Does An Employer Have a Duty to Not Hire Advocates of Child Molestation? I mentioned a few days ago that Father Shanley's boss has now acknowledged that he knew Shanley was an advocate of sex with children when he promoted him to head a Boston area parish. This is an issue because some of Shanley's victims are now suing the Catholic Church, arguing that they were negligent in employing Shanley, in light of knowing about his preferences. Eugene Volokh is arguing that requiring an employer to investigate an employee or potential employee's opinions is unconstitutional. His argument is that if a civil suit allows an employer to be held liable for the actions of an employee based on the employer's failure to explore the employee's statements, it is a violation of free speech rights. Now, Professor Volokh has a pretty substantial body of precedents to point to for this argument. But I notice that many of these precedents come from workplace harrassment law, from laws restricting the number of non-citizens working for an employer, and laws requiring segregation of a restaurant. None of these examples seem appropriate to this case. Workplace harrassment law concerning offensive behavior is entirely different from the felonious molesting of a child. The law restricting non-citizens economically injure an employer and non-citizens, but this is nowhere near as serious a matter as child molestation, a felony. The laws requiring segregation of a restaurant, while offensive, were blatant and obvious to all, and the injuries suffered were relatively small compared to child molestation. In none of these cases are we talking about felonies committed against third parties. I don't find the parallels terribly strong. The First Snow Flakes of the Season... fell as I reached the parking lot this morning. It's beautiful. It's cold. It's Boise. I Made Wall Street Journal's "Best of the Web" Column! See? "I am somebody!" Also worth reading is Pete Du Pont's column about Oregon's Measure 23 on next week's ballot. Oregonians, pay attention! This isn't just socialism--it's remarkably stupid socialism. Even the National Health Service in Britain has a modest copayment to keep lonely little old ladies from wasting the doctor's time. Internet Based Digital Clock Exactly as I received this text: "After years of work, computer science graduate students at University of Washington have finally finished their Internet-based digital clock." I presume that this is a comment by their rivals elsewhere! Tuesday, October 29, 2002
Soon To Be a Movie Starring Ahhhnold? It reads like science fiction, but this article from the Philadelphia Inquirer says that Ruben Gur, a neuropsychologist at the University of Pennsylvania, says new kinds of brain scans can reveal when a person recognizes a familiar face, no matter how hard he or she tries to conceal it.Pretty chilling--unless you believe that governments never abuse their power. Bellesiles as Poster Boy For Post-Modernism Nice commentary on Bellesiles and post-modernism by someone who earned her MA from a far better university than mine. In Sonoma State University's hopelessly old-fashioned History Department, truth was still the goal. (If that link doesn't work, try going to the top of her blog. Blogger has some weird archiving problems, and I think that's the problem here.) A Sobering Reminder Where Victimology Takes You This article from the Tucson Citizen discusses the personal problems of Flores, who murdered three professors at the University of Arizona yesterday: Flores was divorced and lived alone in a small apartment.Unfortunately, our whole society has turned itself into a pity party the last few years, with entire political movements built around the notion of being a victim. People sometimes are victims. They are sometimes mistreated. But by creating a climate that encourages people to wallow in being victims, it makes this sort of thing a bit more likely, doesn't it? Your Tax Dollars At Work? This might be a disgruntled employee who was fired and is now taking revenge--or it might be a good indication of how your taxes are being spent in the war on AIDS. You decide: A gay-porn movie actor stripped and engaged in sexual contact with guests during a "safer sex" event sponsored by a local AIDS agency, which paid for his appearance with federal money, two former agency employees said Monday. Monday, October 28, 2002
Big Brother Is Watching... I was a little skeptical that this could be a real government poster in Britain. It's just a little too obviously a leftover from the 1984 version of 1984. But my friend Brad found identical artwork on the official government mass transit website for London. If this wasn't intentionally self-deprecating, then someone in Britain needs to read 1984. Is This An Appropriate Activity on Public School Grounds During Class Time? A religious group comes on campus. They go to a number of the classes, and are given class time to explain that they need money, and asking students to give it. Shocking! Horrifying! Where is the ACLU? Oh, but it's not a Christian group. It is the local Islamic community here in Boise. I guess that's okay, isn't it? Did Gray Davis Engage in Unethical Behavior As State Controller? A federal judge has unsealed some documents in which a corrupt member of the California Coastal Commission alleges that then-state controller Gray Davis approached him looking for favors for powerful friends. Davis's campaign, of course, disputes this:Davis spokesman Roger Salazar said: "These are baseless charges made by a man who is a convicted felon, admitted perjurer ... in an attempt to get his sentence reduced."Prosecutors at the time didn't believe the charges. Let's see, who to believe? A convicted felon, admitted perjurer? Or that paragon of fundraising virtue, Gray Davis. Hmmm.... For those of you who wonder what the California Coastal Commission is--well, I confess I supported its creation. It was going to stop evil nasty developers from building horrible buildings along our beautiful coastline in the pursuit of their evil, capitalist, greedhead ways! In practice, the people that were disproportionately stopped from building were individual property owners and small developers. The fat cats just needed to spend a bit more money to bribe and sue their projects through to completion. I lived about four blocks from the ocean when I was young. The owner of the apartment building next door wanted to convert it to condominiums because of the threat of rent control. He needed approval from the Coastal Commission to do this--a change that would not have built anything at all, just made some changes to the interior of the building. If you want to know why my sympathies lie with free markets, it is partly because of this sort of nonsense. I Don't Really Want To Believe The "Homosexual Cabal" Claims About the Catholic Clergy... But what's the alternative explanation for this admission: BOSTON (AP) - The man who is now the bishop of New York's Brooklyn Diocese knew the Rev. Paul Shanley endorsed sex between men and boys when he promoted Shanley two decades ago to head a Boston-area parish, according to a sworn statement made public Monday. Another Mass Murder in a Place Where Guns Aren't Allowed See here for a picture of the sign declaring that the University of Arizona does not allow guns on its premises. And here's an opinion piece in the University of Arizona student paper by a fetching young lady named Rachel Alexander arguing that this is a bad policy. Unfortunately, mass murderers don't pay attention to those signs. Only their victims do. I'm not saying that for sure repealing this policy would have prevented this crime. But it certainly the case that the situation could not have been any worse. If a student or a professor with a concealed weapon permit had shot this guy in the first five seconds of this spree, at least one or two of the dead would still be alive. Bellesiles's Nonsense Lives On... From Garry Wills's new book, A Necessary Evil: A History of American Mistrust of Government: Guns for both militias and the Continental Army were so scarce that George Washington fills page after page with laments for his inability to get them -- and he meant muskets as well as the even scarcer cannon and artillery. If guns were not omnipresent, then obviously the skill in their use was not widespread either. Why were so many guns broken or unusable in the probate records?More evidence that the publishing industry is awash in dishonesty and stupidity. UPDATE: Apparently just a reprint of an older book. Still disappointing, but not quite as bad as I thought. Public Attitudes About Islam Interesting article at abcnews.com about how--even before the Islamic connections of the DC killer became known--public attitudes about Islam in the U.S. have become much harsher. What is amazing is that this increasingly negative view of Islam is even relative to the immediate post-09/11 period. The percentage of Americans having an unfavorable view of Islam has jumped from 24 percent in January 2002 to 33 percent now. Sunday, October 27, 2002
Bellesiles and St. Crisipian's Day Those of you familiar with the St. Crispian's Day speech in Shakespeare's Henry V will appreciate this modern revision posted by William A. Levinson in talk.politics.guns on Friday: He that shall live this day, and see old age, |
