The advertising above is just a source of revenue. If the ads get offensive enough, I may drop them.
Clayton Cramer's BLOG |
|
|
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).
PayPal members: to make a contribution
Email me at blogmail at claytoncramer dot com. Sorry to be so indirect, but all spambots must die! But they haven't died yet! Include the word spamIamnot in your subject line to make sure that my spam blocker lets you through. |
Saturday, June 14, 2003
What Happened? I Just Watched An Adequate Steven Seagal Movie! Yes, I was very tired from cleaning up my office, so I clicked on the TV, and ended up watching something called The Patriot, made about 1998, if I recall correctly. It's set in a little Montana town surrounded by breathtaking scenery. Unlike most of Seagal's movies, which have lots of actions, preachy dialog, and cartoon-like characters, this was actually watchable. There's a bad guy, a militia leader with neo-Nazi tendencies--but he has some good qualities as well, and as it turns out, his paranoia about the government is only somewhat misplaced. There's a doctor who works for one of the three letter agencies, and he's not a good guy, but he's not a bad guy, either. There is, of course, the worship at the moral and cultural superiority of being Native American, but it's far less belabored and preachy than On Deadly Ground. Subtlety and complexity from Seagal! What next? Alaska Repeals Its Concealed Weapon Law I mentioned a couple of days ago that Alaska has repealed its law regulating the carrying of concealed weapons. If you can lawfully possess a firearm in Alaska, you can now carry it there--no permit required. They are still issuing permits for Alaskans who visit other states, and need a permit that shows that they are a good idea. This might seem like a radical change, but it wouldn't be the first time that an American state has repealed a concealed weapon regulatory law. California, for example, passed a ban on concealed carry during the 1863-4 session, and then repealed it in 1870. It was 1917 before California against passed a law about concealed of handguns. I would love to know the reasons for the 1863-4 passage, and the 1870 repeal. That's just one of those curious pieces of history I don't have the time to chase right now. Higher Speed Connection to the Internet! Cable data service is finally available in my neighborhood, so I signed up for it. It's much faster than IDSL (1 MB downstream, 200KB upstream, vs. 144 KB up and down on IDSL), and cheaper ($45 a month vs. $110 a month). The only frustration was that the cable router would only support three IP addresses on its DHCP server, whereas the IDSL router supported enough IP addreses that I never had to think about it. I've got three PCs and an HP 4100 laser printer/scanner combo unit (which, of course, needs an IP address as well), so I went out and bought a Linksys Etherfast Cable/DSL Router to sit between my network and the cable router. The Linksys box came with a reasonably pleasant installation wizard that stepped me through the process. Everyone is happy. Now, if I could just find someone to buy the Motorola Vanguard IDSL router.... I don't need it, and I think they cost a couple hundred dollars new. I am busily trying to clean up the disaster that is my home office. My wife has been complaining about the stacks of papers on the floor and the desk, and she's right to be concerned. Things could be living under all this junk. I have finished rewriting my book Armed America: Firearms Ownership and Hunting in the Early United States, and I have a few people reading it before I go back to the literary agent who rejected it earlier this year. In the meantime, I am scanning in vast quantities of paperwork leftover from this book, plus several others that I intend to write when I get around to it. Friday, June 13, 2003
One Of Those Reminders Of The Effectiveness Of French Intervention A very disturbing article about the massacres in the Congo from the Chicago Sun-Times. BUNIA, Congo--The tribal militia controlling the Congolese town of Bunia is carrying out nightly massacres, executing civilians and burying them in mass graves, despite the presence of a French-led European Union combat force, a Daily Telegraph investigation has established.Laws and resolutions are wonderful things. But I am reminded of something that Cassius Marcellus Clay, the former slaveowner turned abolitionist newspaper publisher had to say about appeals to high ideals in a somewhat different context: We say, that when society fails to protect us, we are authorized by the laws of God and nature to defend ourselves; based upon the right, “the pistol and Bowie knife” are to us as sacred as the gown and the pulpit; and the Omnipresent God of battles is our hope and trust for victorious vindication. “Moral power” is much; with great, good, true-souled men, it is stronger than the bayonet! But with the cowardly and debased it is an “unknown God.” Experience teaches us, common sense teaches us, instinct teaches us, religion teaches us, that it loses none of its force by being backed with “cold steel and the flashing blade,” “the pistol and the Bowie knife” [Cassius Marcellus Clay, The Writings of Cassius Marcellus Clay, edited by Horace Greeley (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1848; reprinted New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969), 257] "Drag $8 million through a trailer park and there's no telling what you'll find." Click here for a very sharp criticism of Hillary Clinton's new work of fiction. The Osbournes of politics are back. Democrats need them. A new Zogby Poll found three-fourths of voters said Dubya will be re-elected.The title line about the trailer park? Well, you know the $8 million refers to the campaign contribution^H^H^H^H^Hadvance that she received for her book. Remember when one of Clinton's attack dogs responded to the accusations of attempted rape with, "Drag a hundred dollars through a trailer park...." (The Clintons, once again, demonstrating their respect and concern for the poor.) Interesting Article About Homosexual Murder Victims If you are looking for some deeper meaning to my linking to this article from the San Francisco Examiner, you're mistaken. I have spent a lot of time studying the problems of violence, and this is just one group whose murders are being studied in depth: In the general population, most murder victims are shot with a gun.One concern that I have is that the study is apparently based largely on FBI statistics involving murdered homoseuxals: The heart of their national data so far comes from FBI supplemental homicide reports, with 1,119 recorded LGBT homicides from 1974-97. That's the data policymakers are using to fund prevention programs, they say, and it's far from complete.I'm a little confused what data they are using. The FBI has been gathering hate crime statistics (including homosexuals) for several years now, and in their victim/murderer relationship data, they have long had a box the investigating police officer can check "Homosexual Relationship." But extracting data based on this relationship is necessarily going to bias murder data; victims with very flamboyant lifestyles are going to have this box marked. Discreet homosexuals--or those murdered by someone who was obviously not in a relationship with the victim--are much less likely to have this box checked off by a police officer. One of the proofs of the deficiency of this method for finding murders of homosexuals, is that 1,119 murders over a 23 year period is less than 50 murders a year. Thursday, June 12, 2003
Interest Rate Cuts Coming; Get Ready to Lock Your Loans The only real disagreement among Fed watchers is whether they will cut the federal funds rate by 1/4%, or 1/2%. Everyone agrees that they are going to cut interest rates to levels that haven't been since 1958. Interest rates are going down, down, down! So if you are currently refinancing your mortgage, as I am, be ready to lock. Why? Because another drop in short-term interest rates will energize the economy (which is beginning to shown signs of life). What will bond traders do in response? They will less willing to buy long-term (30 year) bonds, because a revived economy, especially with the current deficits we are running, means long-term interest rises. It's rather like a seesaw. I do not expect fixed mortgages to stay low for long after the Fed cuts interest rates again, and even adjustables are probably going to start creeping back up. I have moved my 401(k) money that was in medium and long term bond funds into conservative stock growth funds (because there's no taxable event when I do so in such an account), and I have encouraged others to start thinking about this as well. Remember that when interest rates start rising again in response to a rising economy, the value of long-term bonds will start to fall, and the stock market, especially dividend paying stocks that are getting goosed by the recent reduction in the maximum dividend tax rate, will rise. Wednesday, June 11, 2003
Those Sophisticated Europeans I keep hearing that America suffers from a puritanical view of sex, and that this is the cause of our horrifying problems with STDs and teen pregnancy. So what should I make of this report from Britain? Britain faces a public health emergency caused by the failure of ministers over many years to confront the issue of sexual disease, MPs say today.Ah, here it is! Now we get to the problem of puritanical approaches to sex: He blamed the spread of sexual disease on people being unwilling to talk about sex openly, resorting instead to a nudge and a wink, the so-called "Benny Hill" culture.Oh, never mind. I guess "Benny Hill" doesn't qualify as puritanical--more like Playboy's "Party Jokes" section. (Do they still publish these dirty but not very funny "jokes"? It's obviously been quite a few years since I've read it.) MPs also criticise sex education for placing a "mistaken emphasis" on sex at the expense of young people's wider concerns about relationships.Hmmm. So the focus is on sex, instead of discussing the problem that sex is only one part of a good relationship. I'm beginning to see a pattern, here. According to today's report, syphilis rates in Britain have increased by 500 per cent in the past six years and rates for gonorrhoea have doubled. Rates for teenage pregnancy remain the highest in Europe.The article goes on to talk about how the cost of drugs for treating AIDS are destroying the British public health care system. That, of course, is one of the problems. Unlimited freedom and government health care are naturally going to be in conflict. Monday, June 09, 2003
Judge Reinhardt of the Ninth Circuit Learns About Limits on Federal Power To my surprise, Judge Reinhardt has written an opinion that correctly recognizes that our Constitution created a government in which some powers were reserved to the states, and others to the federal government--and just because it gives Bill Clinton a good sound bite isn't enough reason to pass a federal law criminalizing a purely local affair. Okay, maybe Reinhardt isn't really concerned about the Constitution's distribution of power; maybe he just needed a way to strike down a conviction for an arsonist. It is still nice to see a liberal figure out that "interstate commerce" isn't a magic phrase that makes every action into a federal matter. Thanks to How Appealing for the link. Where America Is Headed Britain, of course, is a lot more liberal about homosexuality than the U.S. (Of course, I mean the government and the media, which is who runs Britain--not necessarily the people.) Hence, this little drama going on in Parliament: Tories in the Lords are spearheading the campaign against sex in public lavatories, and claim they have huge public support behind them.Make no mistake about it: a fairly sizeable fraction of homosexuals consider that they have a right to cruise for sexual partners in public restrooms. If you think that's a bizarre claim, explain this from a pro-sodomy law repeal website: BOSTON – Attorneys for a state mental health coordinator from Cape Cod yesterday asked a judge to order state troopers to stop harassing the gay state employee when he cruises for sex at local rest areas.Just one kooky site? Read this article, from GLAD, one of the homosexual legal advocacy groups: Moreover, in a key part of the ruling, the court affirmed that neither the Attorney General norWhy does this article refer to "rest areas" if it it involves sex in private? Because the case in question involved men having sex back in the bushes behind the restroom. I can't find a copy of the decision online anymore, but the decision held that homosexuals, because what they did was illegal, had a right to have sex outdoors. The Idaho Shakespeare Festival My wife and I attended the Idaho Shakespeare Festival last night, for their production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Generally, I was pleased with the quality of the performance; most of the actors did a fine job, and the setting in an outdoor theater really captures how Shakespeare's plays were first performed. I don't generally approve of updating the setting of Shakespeare's plays, because the results are sometimes nonsensical. My favorite example is The Merchant of Venice moved into late Victorian times. It makes no sense because the ferocious and legally mandated anti-Semitism of Renaissance Venice simply doesn't fit into the Victorian period. If you really want to make Shakespeare "relevant," rewriting the Elizabethan language into a more modern form will do far more than redressing the characters into inappropriate costumes. In this case, they reset the period as the psychedelic 1960s, with Puck dressed suspiciously like Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters, Oberon dressed as the Maharishi, Hermia looked like Nancy Sinatra from the "These Boots Are Made For Walking" era. A variety of well-picked Beatles' songs provided accompaniment, and a VW Beetle provided the transport for the Pyramis and Thisby players. Oberon's fairies looked suspiciously like 1960s San Francisco fairies--but at least they limited this to choice of clothing, not effeminate behaviors. (Yes, I'm thinking of one film version of The Tempest that looks like they recruited Ariel and all of his helpers from the London Center For Stereotyped Gay Men.) It worked better than I would have expected. There was one aspect of the performance that disappointed me, however. Shakespeare's plays often have a bawdy side to them, but the changes in slang mean that much of this goes right over the heads of a modern audience, both adults and kids. This being Family Night (when children under 6 are admitted), the actors, I guess, were afraid that there wouldn't be enough offensive sexual content if they played it straight. Helena expresses her devotion to Demetrius with I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius,Helena gets down on all fours, and starts to wiggle her rear and thrust back in a manner that was clearly intended to be sexually suggestive. The Pyramis & Thisby scene at the end has Thisby speaking the lines about "My cherry lips have often kiss'd thy stones" to the actor playing the wall--while down on her knees, face up very close to the actors groin. There were several similar examples of what would be mildly risque motions to an adult audience, but in an audience that they knew was going to be awash in kids? The Looting of the Baghdad Museum That Wasn't The Washington Post has an article about the looting of the Baghdad Museum: In the first days after Baghdad fell to U.S. forces, condemnation rained down on U.S. military commanders and officials in Washington for failing to stop the pillage of priceless art, while tanks stood guard at the Ministry of Oil. It was as if the coalition forces had won the war, but lost an important part of the peace and history.So, did the director "misspeak" or did the news media get careless about reporting? Unfortunately, the enormous "loss" of priceless antiques was widely covered; few newspapers are going to cover the correction--because it doesn't reflect poorly on the U.S. or George Bush. |
