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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 ran for Idaho state senate in 2008--didn't win I've written a number of history books, as well as scholarly and popular articles, (see my web page). Relocating to Boise? Use my realtor, neighbor, and friend, Cindy Smith csmith@1realtyone.com.
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Saturday, December 27, 2003
More On the Supposed Change To the National Park Service Video A number of readers have pointed me towards news stories that might be misinterpreted in the way that PEER claims--but they would still be misinterpretations. This article from November by Al Kamen says: The National Park Service, responding to intense conservative criticism, is hoping to unveil next month what a spokesman said was a "more balanced" version of a video that has been shown since 1995 as part of an exhibit at the Lincoln Memorial.No mention of removing video of gay demonstrations. From a gay news site: Footage of gay rights demonstrations will not be removed from a videotape shown at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C, according to spokespeople from the National Park Service and the Human Rights Campaign. Earlier reports in various news outlets said the gay images would be removed.You could read the account and come away with the impression that the NPS bent to pressure from the Human Rights Campaign--but actually, all the article says is that there are no plans to remove the gay demonstrations. PEER, it seems, imagined these plans. This report on Yahoo says much the same thing. Rohnert Park, California, Redesigns the City Seal From the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat, a newspaper that I grew to loathe when I lived in Rodent Park: Judging by the city's new seal, life in Rohnert Park is a bucolic mix of fields and redwood trees, with floating clouds and a mountain backdrop.Now, I can understand why the prayer invocation might offend some people, and if you knew the people that lived in Rodent Park, you would agree that it is quite hypocritical. But it is clearly not contrary to the Constitution, nor is a city seal that includes religious symbols. The 1962 seal was created when Rohnert Park was first incorporated and had fewer than 3,000 people. The town was envisioned as a country club for the working class where schools, swimming pools and churches were within walking distance.The eight-pointed star, however, is almost certainly because of the octagonal intersection just south of Rodent Park, in Cotati--not of Islamic origin. Even then, this would just have made the Rodent Park seal "diverse." UPDATE: Several people have pointed out that the intersection in Cotati is a hexagon, not an octagon. One of the proposed new Rohnert Park city seals (from a friend who lives in Cotati): Traffic jam Thursday, December 25, 2003
How Curious: The Passenger That Didn't Check In Was a Trained Pilot Those Air France flights that were canceled? Not everyone who was under suspicion showed up at the airport: But U.S. officials said they are suspicious about some of the passengers who did not show up at the airport to claim their seats on the ultimately aborted Flight 68 from Paris to Los Angeles. One of those who did not appear for the Christmas Eve flight apparently is a trained pilot, one U.S. official said.The article goes on to point out that The al Qaeda network has long considered Las Vegas to be one of its top targets for a strike because it sees the city as a citadel of Western licentiousness, U.S. officials said. Government officials said they have known for some time that al Qaeda is interested in striking at Las Vegas.Las Vegas isn't called "Sin City" for nothing, but why they would target Las Vegas rather than Hollywood confuses me greatly. Certainly, the bad output of Hollywood (by the definitions common throughout the world) is far more destructive than the bad output of Las Vegas. The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) If you liked Terry Gilliam's Brazil (1985), you might well like Joel and Ethan Coen's The Hudsucker Proxy (1994). My daughter recommended that my wife and I rent it, and I enjoyed it. But let me warn you: if you didn't enjoy Brazil--or even worse--if you couldn't figure out what it was about--you probably will not enjoy The Hudsucker Proxy. Think "parallel universe." It is set in a parallel universe version of 1950s New York--not radically different, but not completely the same as ours, either, and in a few crucial respects (I won't spoil it for you), this is a supernatural tale of greed and moral redemption. You may even find yourself recognizing some of the unique features of Brazil's Central Services in part of the film! The hardest part of the film for me was the rather stylized hardbitten New York accents on the reporters--but then again, this is a parallel universe--one, perhaps, where the Second Anglo-Dutch War didn't take place until the late 18th century, making some New York City accents even more "interesting" than they are already are. Tim Robbins is in it ("what a hottie," to quote my daughter); so is Jennifer Jason Leigh, chewing up the scenery as a very Katherine Hepburnesque newspaper woman. Paul Newman delivers one of those performances that reminds you how convincingly he can play an evil person in a bizarre comedy. (Yes, it's a comedy, and not quite as dark a comedy as Brazil.) Clear Skies! Finally! I dragged my Photon Instruments 127mm refractor out this evening--stars, finally! The first look at Saturn was a bit disappointing--then I remembered that this is a big piece of glass, and it has to cool. After about 30 minutes of excruciating cold weather (I am from California, remember), I was no longer seeing dramatic changes in image. With a 9mm eyepiece (127x), Cassini's Division was visible, although not spectacularly dark. For fractions of second, I could see a dark gray line all the way around the rings, at the ansae, and in front and behind the planet. At least at times, I could see a dark brown stripe in the planet's clouds. Turbulence seemed to be the limiting factor, not the optics. Going to a 6mm eyepiece (190x) did not improve the image in any obvious way. Trying to go above 190x was a waste of time because I am still struggling a little with balance issues on the mount. Relative to the Ranger, I'm not sure that I am seeing any more detail (in spite of dramatically more aperture), although the image is quite impressively brighter (as well it should be--the Photon has more than three times the light gathering area). Chromatic aberration? Yes. There is a definite purple fringe to Saturn's rings--something that I don't see in my reflector (of course--the virtue of reflectors), and somewhat more noticeable than in the Televue Ranger--but I haven't done a side-by-side comparison yet, so I can't give you anything more precise than "more." I will say that while I can see the purple fringing, I am not sure yet that I would call it objectionable. It is certainly time to try a Minus-Violet filter, and perhaps a Chromacor, to try either masking or correcting the aberration. I looked at the Orion Nebula (M42) as well. I can't say that I saw a lot more through the Photon Instruments refractor than I can see with my Ranger, but then again, I was looking through the Ranger in the backyard, which is considerably darker than the front yard, where I had the Photon set up for observation. One note about the mount: because I have it mounted on a Cave Optical equatorial mount intended for a reflector, the eyepiece on the Photon is down very low--and my neck feels it. The Photon needs an equatorial mount with enough tripod height adjustment to get the Photon up a couple of feet higher into the air. I would say that the Cave Optical mount is certainly adequately steady for the Photon (unlike the 8" reflector that I usually have on it). No surprise; the 8" reflector weighs 31 pounds, and the Photon weighs 14 pounds. I knew that I would need to replace the Cave Optical mount at some point, but perhaps sooner rather than later. I need to polish up the Cave Optical mount, and find someone who is restoring a Cave telescope who is willing to pay for a collector's item like this. Its value to a collector far exceeds its value to someone who needs a working equatorial mount. One aspect of the Photon that was a little disappointing is the 2" diagonal that came with it. I'm not sure if perhaps I need to do some adjusting, but it did seem as though the diagonal was a bit loose in the focuser. This meant that even a little pressure on the diagonal caused significant image shift. I would really like to try using the Photon without the diagonal, but that would require me to lie supine to look through the eyepiece! Don't take this as a slam on the Photon Instruments scope; it isn't built like a Televue or an Astro-Physics, nor is it priced like them, either. I will try to do a side-by-side comparison of the Photon and the Ranger tomorrow night (weather permitting). At least my initial impression is that the Photon, in spite of its clear advantage in aperture, doesn't do an obviously better job of revealing detail on Saturn than the Ranger. (Of course, I haven't had the chance to find out what really good seeing conditions might do for the Photon.) The Ranger is cute and compact, and if it were not for the problem of an equatorial mount, the Ranger would be far more portable. Instead, the Ranger is only somewhat more portable. Still, the Photon will fit into my Malibu, and once I get a more modern mount, I should be able to move the whole collection of stuff to a dark sky site without any real struggle. Labels: telescopes Vancouver's--And San Francisco's--Syphilis Problem From the New Straits Times, a Malaysian newspaper: Vancouver is facing the worst outbreak of syphilis per capita in the developed world, with city health officials fearful of a looming epidemic of the sexually transmitted disease once thought almost wiped out in North America.The article goes on to say that the problem is primarily among "sex workers" (what a nice euphemism for prostitutes), but what is also interesting is who is getting it: In 2002, the health authority recorded 186 new cases of syphilis, 15 per cent of them among gay men. This year, it jumped to more than 250 new cases and gay men account for a quarter of infections.I don't know what the percentage of gay men is in Vancouver; pretty obviously, gay men are greatly overrepresented among the infections. San Francisco Dept. of Public Health used to figure that 11% of the men in their city were gay, but San Francisco must have the highest density of gay men in the world. Most surveys show, at most, 4 to 4.5% of men are homosexual or bisexual. San Francisco has even bigger problems: Last year, San Francisco recorded almost 500 new cases of syphilis, the highest rate in a generation and a more than tenfold increase over 1998. Of the new cases, 434 occurred in gay men, who now account for about 90 percent of new syphilis cases in the city.Let's see. If gay men are still 11% of the men in San Francisco, that means that about 5-6% of the population in San Francisco are gay men--and they have 90% of new syphilis cases? What does that tell you about gay promiscuity? The article continues: Much of the spike, researchers say, can be linked to the ease of finding sex partners on Internet sites, which have been called the "bathhouses of the 21st century."Yes, I know, that there are a lot of gay men who stay home at night, are faithful to their lovers, and don't behave like rutting dogs. But the very disproportionate gay men syphilis infection rates suggest that gay men are markedly more promiscuous, less careful about use of condoms, or not bothering to clean their needles, than straight men. Those of you who aren't promiscuous, who aren't engaged in casual sex with complete strangers, may be indignant that you are subject to discrimination because of what a minority of gay men do. The very disproportionate syphilis problems among gay men, however, suggest that homosexuality, on average, is not just a difference in "who you love." Clearly, there is a good bit more than that involved--especially in a culture like America, that celebrates homosexuality, instead of denigrating it. Wednesday, December 24, 2003
The Conversations I Overhear... My daughter is down from University of Idaho, and as I sit here, answering email, I overheard a conversation between my daughter and my wife. Since my daughter is majoring in psychology, she often brings a somewhat different twist to politics. My daughter pointed out that one of the reasons that France may have gone off the deep end about 9/11--believing that America "brought it on ourselves" because of our foreign policy--is that France is so similar to America. France is also a First World country, and with a very large Muslim population. What happened to us on 9/11 could easily have happened to France--and almost did, in 1994. What are the alternatives for the French or the Germans? Confront their fears, or blame the victim? In a lot of ways, what France did is the same reason that so many women blame rape victims for being raped. It is easier to blame the victim, than to face up to their fears. I see that at least six Air France flights were grounded today because of fear that al-Qaeda members were going to get on those flights. Tuesday, December 23, 2003
American Christmas Traditions Ah, a traditional American Christmas--neighbors going door to door, sharing the Christmas spirit with...gunfire. During the 1830s, "Christmas shooting" took the same place on the frontier that Christmas caroling did in the America of my youth. Gert Göbel’s description of the Missouri frontier tells us that at Christmas, there were no religious observances, and no gifts exchanged: There was just shooting. On Christmas Eve, a number of young fellows from the neighborhood banded together, and, after they had gathered together not only their hunting rifles but also old muskets and horse pistols from the Revolutionary War and had loaded them almost to the bursting point, they went from house to house. They approached the house as quietly as possible and then fired a mighty volley, to the fright of the women and children, and, if someone did not appear then, another volley no doubt followed. But usually the man of the house opened the door immediately, fired his own gun in greeting and invited the whole company into the house.… After everyone had chatted for a little while, the whole band set out for the next farm, where the same racket started up anew. In this way, this mischief was carried on until morning, and since, as a rule, a number of such bands were out and about, one could often hear all night the roaring and rattling of guns from all directions.[Gert Goebel, Länger als ein Menschenleben in Missouri (St. Louis, [1877]), 80-81, quoted in Walter L. Robbins, "Christmas Shooting Rounds in America and Their Background," Journal of American Folklore, 86:339 (1973) 48-52.]Accounts of similar practices—apparently of German origin—appear in many parts of the United States, both on the frontier and in settled regions, in the 1830s.[Robbins, 49-51.] Christmas Day as a time to fire your guns was apparently a widespread practice in the early Republic. Elias Pim Fordham was a British immigrant to America who settled in Indiana in 1817. His account of a Christmas Day village feast describe how the young men celebrated the holiday: The young men had their rifles out, and were firing feux de joi [shots of joy] almost all the preceding night, all the day till late into the evening. It reminded me of Byron’s description of the Moslems firing at the feast of the Ramadan in Constantinople—but we backwoodsmen never fire a gun loaded with ball into the town,—only from all parts of it, out towards the woods.[Elias Pim Fordham, ed. Frederic Austin Ogg, Personal Narrative of Travels in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky; and of a Residence in the Illinois Territory: 1817-1818 (Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark, 1906; reprinted Chicago: Library Resources, Inc., 1970), 147.]At least Fordham’s friends knew that there was some risk involved! In cities, the risks were somewhat higher, and the laws stricter because of it. Two days before Christmas, 1828, Mayor Joseph Gales of Washington, D.C. issued a proclamation: WHEREAS it has been too much the habit of idle and inconsiderate persons, on Christmas and New Year's Day and Eve to indulge in firing off guns, pistols, squibs, and crackers, and burning of gun-powder in divers other ways, to the great annoyance of the peaceable inhabitants of this city, and to the manifest danger of their persons and property--all which practices, where they are not contrary to the express ordinances of the corporation, amount to “disorderly conduct,” and as such are punishable by law: Telling Quote Concerning Brazil's New Gun Control Law From an AP news story carried in the New York Times: President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva signed a sweeping gun-control law Monday in an effort to rein in what he called ``an epidemic of murder by firearms.''Organized crime is going to be disarmed by a gun control law? The same bunch that bribes police officers and legislators, and smuggles drugs, is going to be disarmed by a gun control law? Even more absurd are the exceptions in the law: Exceptions to the no-guns rule can be made as long as an individual is at least 25 years old and can prove he needs a weapon "because his physical integrity is in danger,'' according to the new law. Gun owners have 180 days to petition police for such status.A comprehensive ban isn't going to be obeyed by organized crime--but with these sort of exceptions, how long is it going to take before bribery becomes the standard method of getting an exception? If there is anything that New York City's Sullivan Law has demonstrated, it is that discretionary issuance leads to bribery, both by people that have a good reason for a gun--and by people that shouldn't be allowed to have a gun under any circumstances. Orange Alert: Why Now? The U.S. is increasing air patrols as part of the orange alert. Apparently, the concern is no longer primarily about attacks on major cities, but high value installations in remote areas, such as the Valdez oil pipeline terminal, and nuclear reactors. What concerns me is that al-Qaeda, while extraordinarily clueless about how Americans would react to 9/11 (a strategic fault), are not all that clueless about tactical decisions. Why attack from the air, when they know that our government is expecting that, and is prepared to deal with such an attack? I would worry about truck bombings, or simultaneous suicide attacks on shopping malls, or some sort of chemical weapon attack on a high population, high visibility event. I don't know what to do about most of those scenarios, other than keeping my family's gas masks near by. You do have gas masks for your family, right? I mean, you don't need to assume a terrorist attack. An ammonia tank car overturns on the tracks half a mile from your house and even the Israeli surplus gas masks that used to be available cheap would be better than nothing. I would encourage those who have concealed carry permits to keep armed through the holidays, and if not in violation of your state's laws, be armed at any Christmas Eve services that you attend. Australians living in Indonesia have been warned to stay away from churches on Christmas out of fear that al-Qaeda may target them, as was done on Christmas in 2000. It isn't difficult to figure out why al-Qaeda would launch such attacks. Al-Qaeda sees their campaign as a struggle against "Jews and Crusaders," and causing great loss of life in churches would be consistent with their campaign to demonstrate the superiority of Islam. To do so on Christmas would be especially telling, from their twisted point of view. Obviously, a gun isn't going to do any good against a bomb--but it can't hurt, and you never know if some independent operators not directly tied to al-Qaeda (such as John Muhammad and Malvo) decide to do their part for jihad. So, Did This Really Happen? Instapundit is linking to a DiscountBlogger piece that claims that the National Park Service is altering a video about the history of the Lincoln Memorial to suit the Religious Right: A video retrospective has been running at the Lincoln Memorial since 1995, showing the various protests and demonstrations that have taken place on the mall throughout history. Well, soon all images of gay groups that have protested at the Lincoln Memorial will be removed at the request of Religious Groups who say that they imply that Lincoln would have supported gay rights.DiscountBlogger links to the website of the Advocate (a gay newspaper)--but there's no such story there. There is such a news story at 365gay.com. Their version of the story says: All images of gay gatherings at national sites, including the Millennium March on the Washington Mall have been ordered removed from videotapes that have been shown at the Lincoln Memorial since 1995 according to a civil service group.A number of leftist sites are running similar versions of the story--but all seem to be derived from the original PEER press release. So why aren't any of the mainstream liberal media running this story? Environmental Media Services has a copy of the original press release from PEER here. Among other claims, it says: Last month, the Park Service announced that it would alter an eight-minute video containing photos and footage of demonstrations and other events taking place at the Lincoln Memorial. Conservative groups have asked to cut out footage of gay rights, pro-choice and anti-Vietnam War demonstrations because it implies that "Lincoln would have supported homosexual and abortion 'rights' as well as feminism." The Park Service has promised to develop a "more balanced" version that include rallies of the Christian group Promise Keepers and pro-Gulf War demonstrators though these events did not take place at the Memorial.So if the National Park Service made such a statement (which is actually pretty amazing, when you think about the care that the NPS takes to conform to scholarly standards on history), you would expect to find it on the NPS website, right? Or at least some reference to it? When I searched the National Park Service's website for some sort of press release involving "Lincoln Memorial" and "video" I found nothing that seemed to match. So, is this a real story? Or is the left trying to use the media's well-known soft spot for homosexuals to drum up some more hostility to the Bush Administration? If you can find some evidence that PEER didn't just make this up over a kilo of their favorite herb, please let me know. Right now, it smells like a modern blood libel to me. UPDATE: Instapundit seems to be reading a bit too quickly. My point wasn't that there was no news story being carried by gay news organizations about this (the Advocate story can now be found here); my point was that there didn't seem to be anything behind it but a press release from PEER. The Photon Instrument 5" Refractor Arrived Today: Snow Should Start Falling Shortly All you skiiers in the Boise area should thank me. We had clear skies a couple of nights back, but since the new telescope has arrived, the clouds are solid, and it looks and feels like snow will fall this evening. In terms of bang for the buck--especially impressive bang for the buck--it's hard to beat. It looks good, and what little chance I have had to try the optics so far, seems decent. There's an American flag flying a few hundred yards from us in one of the common areas of our subdivision. I can't count the stitches on the seams, but I am not far from that. A detailed test report is going to have to wait for clear skies. Unfortunately, I have no 2" eyepieces to really try out the wide field capabilities of this scope, but I suppose that I will remedy that situation shortly. Mounting it on the Cave Optical equatorial mount did not turn out to be too difficult. The tube rings use 6mm thumb screws, but they were too short to go through the Cave Optical saddle, so I had to run out and buy some 6mm hex head screws, and I borrowed a couple of washers from the neighbors next door. It is certainly quite sufficiently steady for visual or photographic use. Labels: telescopes Why Homosexuals Are Their Own Worst Enemies Professor Volokh, who many of you know supports homosexual marriage (although through the legislative process, not through judicial activism), made the unforgiveable mistake of suggesting that homosexuals who are "flamboyant" are not the most effective PR for homosexuality. Unsurprisingly, Chris Geidner over at En Banc flamed him to a crisp: He just wanted to let us know that gays who look and act like straights are thought of as better than really gay gays? Honestly, I don’t think that’s it. It reads more like “Advice to the Gays,” and it is offensive. It encourages those gay men who are naturally “butch” to come out and be themselves, but it likewise discourages more “femme” guys from being completely themselves – and says that if they do, they might be hurting the movement for lesbian and gay equality (hmmm . . . just like the Massachusetts marriage ruling).The rest of Geidner's remarks continue to play up the notion that homosexuals engaging in offensive opposite-sex caricatures are helping "destroy rigid gender roles...." No, they aren't. They are providing more evidence that homosexuality isn't just a matter of "who you love," but an indication of some very, very serious emotional damage. Spend some time actually living in the San Francisco Bay Area, and you see that this is not about destroying "rigid gender roles" at all. The effeminate gays who lisp, mince, and behave like emotionally frozen children aren't acting feminine--they are acting like pre-pubescent boys. The gal who wears a chain for a belt and smokes big fat cigars, while her "wife" dresses feminine--this isn't destroying rigid gender roles--it's identifying with an insulting stereotype of blue collar masculinity. Yeah, yeah, I know that lots of homosexuals don't do these things. But people like Chris Geidner clearly think that these emotionally damaged expressions are a fundamental part of homosexuality. He's pretty typical of gay activists in that respect. There was a time, not that many years ago, when most of the time that some representative of the San Francisco gay community appeared on local television, it was a lisping, not quite mincing guy. Why? Could they not find an emotionally mature homosexual man to speak for them? Or did they think this was "cute"? Professor Volokh On Bogus Greetings Professor Volokh has made a point that has long irritated me: the bogus "Seasons Greetings" phrase that appears almost everywhere now, except out of the mouths of real people: I've always hated the phrase "Season's Greetings," which strikes me as a classic example of leaching all the vigor and familiarity from an American tradition in the name of inoffensiveness. It grates on my ear on so many levels. First, no-one celebrates the season as such. No-one gets warm feelings when they hear about a "season" in the abstract as opposed to a particular concrete holiday."Seasons Greetings" is something that a corporation says, because it doesn't want to offend anyone--and rather than keep its mouth shut, the corporation wants to pretend that it is full of some sort of genuine emotion or feeling. It is bogus--a false emotion, and a false feeling. Many years ago, it was late December, and I was in getting my weekly allergy shot in Beverly Hills. (Yes, they helped for a while, and then became ineffective.) My doctor was Jewish, and as we were finishing up, he shook my hand, and I could see a brief moment of indecision on his face, as he tried to figure out whether to wish me Happy Hannukah or Merry Christmas. (Yes, my last name is one that is shared by both Gentiles and Jews. One of the more startling experiences of my life was standing in a hotel lobby in Provo, Utah, all dressed up in my gray pinstripes in preparation for a job interview--and a woman with a stereotypical New York City Jewish accent approached me from behind, and addressed me as "Rabbi.") Somehow, my doctor guessed correctly, and said, "Merry Christmas"--not "Seasons Greetings." And that is what distinguishes a real human being, with a genuine human feeling, from a corporation's pretend feelings. I see that one of Professor Volokh's readers told him to "chill out." I don't think Professor Volokh was making any point except the falseless of "Seasons Greetings"--nor is there any reason to see anything in his post but an observation about the absurdity of it. Sunday, December 21, 2003
And I Thought I Was a Dangerous Science Nerd in School Back in the early 1970s, going to Santa Monica High School, my friends and I were doing what science nerds have always done: 1. Hacking into ARPAnet (the Internet's Dept. of Defense predecessor). 2. Inflating eight foot surplus balloons with hydrogen gas. We received a postcard back from Arizona. (We attached a strip of magnesium ribbon to the balloon, but we couldn't keep it lit.) 3. Building mortars out of butane tanks, and firing projectiles out to sea. 4. And there were the amusing incidents with nitrogen triiodide. I'm always amazed that we experienced no injuries in these adventures. (Don't try this at home, kids, or you will find out why some teens lose fingers, toes, and eyes at young ages.) But hey, at least we stayed away from radioactivity! Golf Manor, a subdivision in Commerce Township, Mich., some 25 miles outside of Detroit, is the kind of place where nothing unusual is supposed to happen, where the only thing lurking around the corner is an ice-cream truck. But June 26, 1995, was not a typical day.And it gets more bizarre from there. |
