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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, March 27, 2004
Just Returned From An Anniversary Weekend Away March 29th is our 24th anniversary, so we went away to stay at the Ashley Inn in Cascade, Idaho, about two hours driving distance according to Yahoo, but more like ninety minutes as the Corvette flies. This is a very nice place, just opened. The bathroom in our room had polished granite floors, a room-for-several shower stall (including the ceiling) also of polished granite, and a jetted tub designed to seat two. (And that's all you get to hear about that.) If you live in the Boise area, and you have discovered that there are relatively few bed and breakfasts in the area, this is a reasonably nice compromise between a Victorian B&B and a regular hotel. Friday, March 26, 2004
Tenth Circuit Decision On The Second Amendment U.S. v. Parker (10th Cir. 2004) is out. Some of this won't be surprising; some of it has some twists that I haven't seen before. Once again, we are reminded that most federal judges need to be replaced. What makes this case especially interesting is that the defendant was prosecuted under federal law for violating a Utah gun control law. I don't know when this federal law was passed, but something called "Assimilative Crimes Act (ACA), 18 U.S.C. § 13" makes it a federal crime to violate a state gun control law on a federal military reservation--even though that military reservation (in this case, Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah) is not actually part of the state of Utah. In this case, defendant Parker drove into Dugway Proving Grounds with a loaded revolver under the seat of his truck. A random search of his truck (not surprising, post-9/11) found the revolver. He claimed to have forgotten that it was there--a plausible claim. Parker was convicted in federal court. On appeal, Parker argued that the federal law violates both the Second Amendment (right to keep and bear arms) and Tenth Amendment (reserving to the states authority to regulate gun ownership). The Court of Appeals decided that the Second Amendment does not protect an individual right, based on both previous Tenth Circuit precedents that have taken (wrongly) U.S. v. Miller (1939) as the authoritative statement, and based on the preponderance of other circuits that have taken this view. They decided that the Fifth Circuit's decision in USA v. Emerson (5th Cir. 2001) really shouldn't be followed. One could still make a case that U.S. v. Miller (1939) doesn't allow such a prosecution: Miller has been interpreted by this court and other courts to hold that the Second Amendment does not guarantee an individual the right to keep and transport a firearm where there is no evidence that possession of that firearm was related to the preservation or efficiency of a well-regulated militia.The decision goes to make the highly arguable statement: Third, putting aside the fact that Miller requires that a party have some connection to a state-run militia, even the Fifth Circuit’s most narrow interpretation of Miller does not support Parker’s claim. To the extent Miller only stands for the rule that a sawed-off shotgun is not a military firearm and therefore not covered by the Second Amendment, Parker has presented no evidence that his revolver would come within the category of arms used by the military. To the contrary, at trial, Officer Michael Palhegyi, who was part of the military police unit that took Parker into custody, testified that Parker’s firearm was “not considered a military grade weapon” and, instead, more commonly was used for personal defense or target practice.Whoops! It was not that many years ago that the United States Air Force commonly issued .38 revolvers to flight crews, and at one time, even USAF security details used them. Judge Kelly wrote a dissenting opinion in which he agreed with everything the majority said--except concerning the Second Amendment: Concerning the Second Amendment, I would affirm the conviction by simply noting that the obvious purpose of this prosecution–restricting concealed weapons on a military base to identified military personnel–is a reasonable restriction and thus does not contravene the Second Amendment. I write separately because I disagree with the analysis in the court’s opinion and because neither Supreme Court nor Tenth Circuit precedent relied upon by the this court adequately addresses the question asked and answered: “Whether a federal prosecution pursuant to the ACA [Assimilative Crimes Act] for violating a state gun control statute violates an individual’s Second Amendment rights.”After pointing out that the Emerson decision had raised some significant and legitimate questions--without denying that reasonable restrictions (such as the one involved in this case) could be imposed without insisting on a "collective rights" theory, Judge Kelly observed: Like this court, the Fifth Circuit recognized reasonable restrictions on the Second Amendment right are constitutional. This case also can be decided on that narrow basis–there is no need to dilute prematurely what many consider to be one of the most important amendments to the United States Constitution. Labels: gun rights Thursday, March 25, 2004
It Took Long Enough... Radiological and explosives scanners are now in place in New York and New Jersey ports: Addressing concerns that terrorists could bring nuclear weapons or traditional explosives into the country in containerized cargo, federal customs officials said Monday that New York and New Jersey ports would be the first to have technology to scan every truck leaving American ports. No, This Isn't From The Onion--But It Should Be From WAFF, channel 48 in Alabama: It's called Hello Sailor. The book is about a gay relationship between a lighthouse keeper and a sailor. While the book doesn't spell out the nature of the men's relationship, it's already brewing a storm.Is there anyone besides me that is a little indignant that elementary school books now have to be promoting gay marriage? It just amazes me the kind of power that 2% of the population seems to have. Scientology For those interested in knowing more about Scientology--the only "established church" in America (which has a special tax treatment that others do not get), there's a three-part history of the organization starting here, with part two here, and part three here. I have read a bit about the organization, and find nothing that is new to me, but it may well be new to you. One item not mentioned that I found while reading Helter-Skelter (a history of the Tate-LaBianca killings by Charles Manson and friends) was that Manson at one point claimed to have achieved the "Theta Clear" state, which is one of the steps towards freeing yourself of all the garbage inflicted on mankind 75 million years ago. This was before Manson went into the mass murder business. It really does make you wonder how screwed up he must have been before Scientology "helped" him. (There's more here about Manson's involvement with first Scientology, then one of the offshoots founded by a Hubbard disciple.) A few other odds and ends about the tax case. This is a copy of a Los Angeles Times article about what happened when the 9th Circuit ruled against Sklar--and suggested that Scientology has received an unconstitutional special treatment. Here's the text of the secret agreement that was leaked--and it's pretty damning. Scientology seems to be capable of suing the IRS into giving up. I have to wonder what sort of political pressure was being applied to make this happen. (Let's see, Clinton was President, and he represents Hollywood. Coincidence?) UPDATE: Here's a very complete collection of documents relating to the 1993 special status for Scientology. Jay Leno On Working Man Kerry I'm told that Jay Leno claimed that this election isn't between the "haves" and the "have-nots" but the "haves," and the "really, really haves." Oh well, the working man's candidate has left Idaho; the average net worth has probably fallen by $20,000, and the waffle factor has fallen by at least 5%. Interesting Story Out of Oregon: County Stops Issuing Marriage Licenses From AP: In Oregon, the county that was poised to become the state's second to allow gay marriage backed off until courts intervene. Commissioners in Benton County, home to Oregon State University and the liberal city of Corvallis, decided to stop issuing all marriage licenses until there is a court ruling on whether gay marriage is legal in Oregon.Oregon is somewhat interesting because, I've read, their state law does not explicitly limit marriage to one man, one woman. (Probably for the same reason that their murder statute probably doesn't explicitly include cloned humans as human, or criminalize eating sentinent extraterrestials--no one thought about it.) I'm sure that homosexuals will just say, "See? This is what we have been suffering under for thousands of years!" In practice, it will probably cause straights that were planning to get married to get a little more exasperated by this street theater that is going on. You Want Satire That's A Bit More Belly Laugh Than Scrappleface? I really enjoy Scrappleface, but it's clever, witty, while this site is more laugh out loud, belly laugh sort of satire, such as this item concerning The Passion: (London)-In his homily yesterday during a memorial service for Palestinian suicide bombers, the Right Reverend Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, denounced Mel Gibson's film "The Passion of the Christ" as being "overtly pro-Christian."And it continues. And make sure you read the item under, "KERRY NAMED SPOKESMAN FOR NATIONAL WAFFLE COUNCIL" as well. The Last Temptation of Christ Screenwriter Talks About The Passion Paul Schrader, who wrote the screenplay for The Last Temptation of Christ, with its...interesting...revision of the Gospels, has some words about The Passion: "It's a well-made movie but it's very violent and infused with a great sense of self-flagellation," Paul Schrader, screenwriter for "The Last Temptation of Christ," told Reuters.How is, "they think they have a religious experience" distinguished from "have a religious experience"? Does Schrader have some special device that lets him distinguish the real thing from faux religious experiences? Can you imagine? Gibson makes a move about this subject, and turns into an evangelical experience! The Dangers of Home Schooling Time is running an article about how home schooling may be a danger to our society. Parts of the article are unintentionally quite funny: "Home schooling is a social threat to public education," says Chris Lubienski, who teaches at Iowa State University's college of education. "It is taking some of the most affluent and articulate parents out of the system. These are the parents who know how to get things done with administrators."Hmmm. The smart ones--the ones that would have the most chance to make the system work--are choosing to educate their kids at home? What does that tell you about these districts, their schools, and their administrators? "A third of our support for schools comes from property taxes," says Ray Simon, director of the Arkansas department of education. "If a large number of a community's parents do not fully believe in the school system, it gets more difficult to pass those property taxes. And that directly impacts the schools' ability to operate." Says Kellar Noggle, executive director of the Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators: "We still have 440,000 kids in public schools, and some 12,000 [in home schooling] is a small number. But those 12,000 have parents and grandparents. Sure, it erodes public support."No, stupid, the public support erodes because of the state of the schools, and the parents decide that they can do a better job home schooling. You have the sequence backward. I really, really regret that my wife and I didn't home school our kids. We had the illusion that we were sending our children to school with kids from civilized homes. Unfortunately, we were in Sonoma County, where intoxication, sexual promiscuity, and boorish behavior are a way of life among the wealthy. And the kids, not surprisingly, aren't any better than the parents. This quote, however, captures the essential problem that is causing home schooling: But for now, home schooling is still growing at about 11% a year, and it's no longer confined to a conservative fringe that never believed in the idea of public education anyway. "Very different people are entering home schooling than did 20 years back," says Mitchell Stevens, author of Kingdom of Children, a history of home schooling to be published next month by Princeton University Press. According to the Federal Government, up to three-quarters of the families that home school today say they do so primarily because, like so many of us, they are worried about the quality of their children's education. A recent report by the state of Florida found that just a quarter of families in that state practice home schooling for religious reasons. The new home schoolers haven't completely given up on public education, at least not the idea of it. "The problem is that schools have abandoned their mission," says Luigi Manca, a communications professor at Benedictine University in Lisle, Ill., who home schools his daughter Nora, 17. "They've forgotten about educating." West Virginia: The Anti-California And not just because they are on the opposite coast: The West Virginia Legislature voted Sunday evening to give WVU $100,000 as part of the university's higher education budget, as long as the money goes toward reinstating the WVU Rifle Team.Thanks to the Bitch Girls blog for the link. Time Magazine Uses Clarke's Book To Discredit Clarke's Interviews No, really. I might even have to put Time on the list of magazines that actually puts the pursuit of truth above Democratic advantage if they keep publishing articles like this: Since his appearance on 60 Minutes last Sunday, Richard Clarke has faced a barrage of attacks from Bush Administration officials over his claims that the White House ignored the threat posed by al-Qaeda before Sept. 11 because of its obsession with Iraq.What is driving Clarke's actions? Is he angry about being demoted? Is this simple partisan gameplaying? Is he hoping to sell a milion copies of his book and get rich? When even Time is taking this guy apart, it means he is in big trouble. Thanks to Instapundit for the link. Top Ten Reasons For Third World Poverty... Well, actually not, but here's the top ten list of government officials pocketing the wealth of a country from some group called Transparency International. There's no big surprises here--although I am a little surprised that Hussein didn't make it (it looks like he is too recently deposed), and I am also surprised that Haiti had enough wealth for Baby Doc to pocket $300 to $800 million. Of course, Haiti's poverty might well be because of the Duvalier family's theft. The Passion Must Be Very Powerful This news story tells of a man who turned himself into police for murder after watching it: Detectives say the death of a 19-year-old woman originally ruled a suicide has turned into a murder case after a repentant man who'd watched The Passion of the Christ confessed to killing her because she was carrying his child. William J. Murray's My Life Without God Professors Volokh and Bainbridge have blogged about the problems that Michael Newdow may be creating for his daughter by making her the reason for his suit against the Pledge of Allegiance, and mention William J. Murray, the kid on whose behalf Madelyn Murray O'Hair sued in the early 1960s against Maryland's requirement that teachers open the school day with a reading of the Lord's Prayer. William J. Murray grew up to become a Christian, and an evangelist--and wrote a very remarkable and interesting book, My Life Without God, which I read some years ago. His story of the events leading up to the suit, and his mother's borderline insanity, are quite interesting. His account of what happened when his mother decided to "defect" to the Soviet Union makes for a very funny chapter. She sold their home, bought one-way tickets to Paris, and then went to the Soviet embassy to ask for asylum in a country that shared her views about atheism. After quite a bit of delay, some minor functionary could be found to talk to her. As Murray tells the tale, this guy asked her if she spoke Russian. No. What sort of work experience did she have? Social worker, and political activist. "We have no need for either in the Soviet Union." Then, having been told that the Soviet Union didn't need her, she gathered up her kids, and returned home, to profound embarrassment. Murray's account of how his teacher conformed to the requirements of the Maryland law should make every Christian shudder. It was a perfunctory step, done to the letter of the law, and with no religious significance whatsoever. Unsuprisingly today, he opposes any sort of mandatory prayer in public schools. In this respect, he is completely in the mainstream of evangelical Christians. I can't recall meeting too many evangelicals who think that mandatory prayer--especially in schools where Christians are, at best, a narrow majority--is a good idea. Murray also describes the problems that he encountered as a result of being the kid on whose behalf mandatory prayer was removed. He describes abuses by police in Texas, and discrimination when he was in the military, because of who he was, and who his mother was. While Murray wrote My Life Without God some years ago, before some of these issues had gone through the courts, his primary goal was to end the absurd situation where football games may not open with a student-led prayer, and where high school commencement may not have an invocation. Murray also paints an unflattering portrait of his mother. According to Murray, her fierce hostility towards religion in general, and Christianity in particular, was the result of an affair that she had before Murray was born. The man with whom she was having this affair was married, and since he was a Roman Catholic, he did not feel that he could divorce his wife to marry Murray's mother. (But I guess he could have an adulterous affair--perhaps this was just an excuse to avoid marrying a nutcase like Murray's mother seems to have been.) Murray also mentions that right after his mother saw that Lee Harvey Oswald had been arrested for the assassination of John Kennedy, his mother went down to the Baltimore office of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee (of which she was an important officer, at least locally), and went through the files, searching for all documents that mentioned Oswald. Murray also has some pretty telling remarks about how in the early years of the American Atheist Association, much of the membership came from socialist and communist organizations, but by the late 1970s, he was beginning to see a fair amount of neo-Nazis and similar racists showing up at their meetings. Murrays says that he asked his mother (with whom he was still barely on speaking terms) why, and she replied, "It's the money, dear." You get the distinct impression that Murray's mother was a fanatic--one of those people who, five centuries ago, would have been burning heretics at the stake, or a century ago, would have been leading lynch mobs--a person consumed by hatred and the need for a cause. Two Words That I Never Expected To See in the Same Headline Much less side-by-side: "colonoscopy" and "parties." Yup! A new method of encouraging people to get a procedure done because, "Colon cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer death in the United States." Read the article, if you dare. Thanks to Stop the Bleating! for the link. Gadgets That No One Needs, But Will Sell Well Andrew Stuttaford over at National Review simply said, "Words fail me" to describe this device. Not to worry, it's work-safe, unless your employer regards good taste in personal oral electronics as an essential component of the workplace. Dick Morris On Why The Presidential Race Isn't Going To Be Close Now remember, Morris is a Democrat. He's a centrist Democrat, which is rather like being a gay Republican, or a pro-life Democrat--definitely out of the mainstream of his party. He's also a very knowledgeable political operative, and he's saying what I have been seeing: If Bush were simply gaining because of good news or a bump from the recent focus on terrorism, he could go down as easily as he went up. Let the news turn bad, and Bush would go back to the low ratings of a few weeks ago.There is still a bit to worry about from the shadow Democratic Party campaign, which has the advantage of billionaires like George Soros funding what is perhaps an illegal operation: Led by veterans of presidential and congressional campaigns, a coalition of Democratic Party interest groups, armed with millions of dollars in soft money, is rapidly constructing an unprecedented political operation designed to supplement the activities of Sen. John F. Kerry's campaign in the effort to defeat President Bush. Has Anyone Run A Bed & Breakfast? There are days that the temptation to open an astronomy bed & breakfast (a B&B in a very dark sky area with lots of big telescopes) gets very strong. There are already several such organizations, most in the Western U.S., but not in Idaho, so perhaps there is still a market opportunity here. If you have experience running a B&B, or can point me to typical financials for such an operation, please do so. Wednesday, March 24, 2004
The Virtues of Being A Mafia Princess A new reality TV series is coming. If I made this up, you would accuse me of defaming the entertainment industry. They are giving enormous publicity to a woman whose claim to fame is that she is Mafioso John Gotti's daughter: Mob daughter and author Victoria Gotti, described as a cross between Carmela Soprano and Danielle Steele, will be the subject of a new TV series on the A&E Network.I know (or at least presume) that Victoria Gotti wasn't involved in her father's business of organized crime, murder, and extortion. Still, why should she be made the center of attention by A&E? Can't they find someone who is interesting, other than for the sheer blind luck of having been the child of a thug? There are those who argue that our culture doesn't reward virtue enough; instead, it seems to reward vice. Here's your example today. Interesting Report About Mutations, Jaws, Apes, and Man A team of biologists and plastic surgeons at the University of Pennsylvania and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia claims to have identified a specific mutation that is why humans have small jaws relative to the other primates--and claims that this mutation is why our brains grew: The Pennsylvania researchers said their estimate of when this mutation first occurred - about 2.4 million years ago - generally overlaps with the first fossils of prehistoric humans featuring rounder skulls, flatter faces, smaller teeth and weaker jaws.Not all scientists are buying this explanation: "Such a claim is counter to the fundamentals of evolution," said C. Owen Lovejoy of Kent State University. "These kinds of mutations probably are of little consequence."Interesting question: is Wood right? I think his point is that unless this mutation happened at the same time as these other changes, our ancestors would have starved, because they would have been poorly adapted to their environment. At least, small jaws would have provided no advantage, and therefore no reason for this mutation's percentage of the gene pool to increase. And yes, "What are the chances of that?" One of the arguments that the "irreducible complexity" crowd makes is that some of the cellular mechanisms (cilia, for example) require multiple simultaneous mutations. If one of these mutations happens, it provides no advantage to the cell, and therefore that mutation will remain rare in the gene pool. The other mutations, if they accumulate in the gene pool, have to end up in the genetic strains as that first mutation--and again, each individual mutation, or even two or three of them together, provide no advantage to the organism. It takes a lot of mutations to make cilia, and all of them, or nearly all of them, have to appear in the same individual creature to give those mutations an advantage in the gene pool. And yes, "What are the chances of that?" Do not confuse "irreducible complexity" with the various "Creation Science" groups. Irreducible complexity raises some serious questions that I have yet to see adequately answered. Most of the "Creation Science" stuff is obviously wrong. UPDATE: Let me clarify what I mean when I say that most of the "Creation Science" stuff is obviously wrong. I've been reading stuff from various "Creation Science" groups for close to thirty years now. The big divide within this movement is between Old Earthers and Young Earthers. Young Earthers insist that the Earth is at most 6000 to 10,000 years old. They stick to this silly claim because of Bishop Ussher's 17th century use of Old Testament genealogies to derive the date and time of Creation. Even 19th century opponents of Darwin's claims for evolution were smarter than this, pointing out that the word translated in the King James Version as "begat" doesn't mean "son of" but "descendant of." The names in these geneaologies indicate people of importance, not necessarily a complete list. There are often other significances to these lists. The New Testament book of Matthew has a geneaology of Joseph, with fourteen generations from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to Josiah, and fourteen from Josiah to Jesus. Fourteen is two times seven--and seven was a number rife with meaning to the Jews, signifying perfection. Coincidence? Or symbolism? Hey, maybe the Young Earthers are right, and everything around us has been falsely structured to look very, very old. Somehow, I doubt it. My bigger problem, however, is that the Young Earthers seem not to understand very well the evolutionary theories and the radiological dating methods that they criticize. For every interesting point that they raise, I find dozens of examples of grossly erroneous misunderstanding of the science that they believe that they are demolishing. Old Earthers, perhaps because are not so focused on proving nonsense, tend to be a lot more interesting. Some are promoters of "theistic evolution." Some believe in evolution within class, or within order, but insist that God created kingdom or phylum. These are at least interesting positions to discuss and argue. I have one big objection to the Creation Research Institute (or whatever name they are using today). In a number of court cases about the teaching of Creationism, they have insisted that this is just an alternative scientific theory, not necessarily religious in nature. Yet they send me fundraising letters that emphasize that this is part of preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Are they lying in court (which is perjury) or are they lying in their fundraising letters? Either way, I'm not impressed. "the I.R.S.'s chosen people" You know for all the screeching we hear from the ACLU about Ten Commandments monuments giving some sort of special favor to Christians (since no other religion in America regards the Ten Commandments as religiously significant [UPDATE: this was sarcasm, referring to this article here]), why is that we aren't hearing them complain about what seems to be a specially favored tax treatment for one minority religion--and that tax treatment is officially a secret? From the New York Times: LOS ANGELES, March 21 - A trial is to begin here on Wednesday morning to determine whether a Jewish couple can deduct the cost of religious education for their five children, a tax benefit they say the federal government has granted to members of just one religion, the Church of Scientology.I've highlighted a couple of profoundly disturbing items. Only a receipt from the Church of Scientology qualifies? A secret tax ruling that grants members of one religion a tax deduction not available to others? Why isn't the ACLU pursuing this case? Or would too many of their members in Hollywood (where Scientology, unsurprisingly, is very big) see an increase in their taxes? UPDATE: Professor Volokh brought to my attention Hernandez v. Commissioner, 490 U.S. 680 (1989), a Supreme Court case that seems to be completely contrary to the secret 1993 IRS ruling. UPDATE 2: Some more links about the history of Scientology and the secret deal between IRS and the Church of Scientology here. NAS Asks For Discriminatory Policy Documents Discriminations reports on efforts of the National Association of Scholars to obtain documents from public universities concerning how they discriminate based on race. Not surprisingly: Sheldon E. Steinbach, vice president and general counsel of the American Council on Education, calls the request for this information “patent, senseless harassment.”Yup. Next thing you know, someone is going to ask public universities to actually justify their racial discrimination. How unfair! As Discriminations points out: Steinbach stated in a press release about his brief that ACE and hefeel very strongly that each institution should be able to decide for itself what the best path to diversity is, and then to take that path without interference. The outcome of this case will tell colleges and universities if they will be able to continue to make these decisions individually, or whether restrictions and guidelines will be imposed from the outside.As an observer (I confess: it was I) said of this comment at the time, “George Wallace couldn’t have said it better.” Cool Historical Source Back around 1909, a guy named Francis Thorpe collected all the old constitutions, charters, and related documents for the United States and the individual states, and published them. It is a marvelous resource, and now there is a group going through, checking for errors (and Thorpe made a few), and putting them online, here. It's not yet complete, but there are some nice search tools available. Either Richard Clarke Is Lying Now, Or He Was Lying Two Years Ago The White House has released a transcript of a backgrounder that Clarke gave to reporters two years ago. Read it. Either he was lying then, or he's lying now. Either way, he's obviously not a person of particuarly high morals. Rep. Barney Frank On The Analogy Of Race and Sexual Orientation Frank was, I think, the first openly gay member of Congress, and he shows at least some awareness that the illegal marriages being conducted around the country were a serious tactical mistake. To his credit, Frank also recognizes that the analogy to bans on interracial marriage that sixteen states still had when Loving v. Virginia (1967) struck them down, is overwrought: In less than four years, support for civil unions has gone from being a radical notion to the default position. In less than a month, the percentage of Americans who think Bush has mishandled the gay marriage issue has tipped to more than half. Pledge of Allegiance Poll Michael Newdow, the lawyer/doctor/non-custodial parent who filed this suit, and is arguing it before the Supreme Court today, is concerned that the Pledge is "divisive": "It's indoctrinating children," he said. "The government is supposed to stay out of religion."A public opinion survey finds that: Do you think the phrase under God ...I don't know how many questions you could ask in this country that would be so lopsided in their answers. If there is anything that is "divisive" on this subject, it is probably Michael Newdow's campaign to remove "under God" from the Pledge. I could understand if this involved some actual injury. I could understand if kids were being required to say the Pledge. (They aren't required to say it--teachers in California are required to lead the Pledge, although in the People's Republic of Sonoma County, my daughter tells me that none did so by middle school.) I could understand if kids were being singled out for not saying the Pledge. But Newdow is making a big fuss over something that practically speaking, does nothing at all. More Proof That "Gun Control" Really Means Victim Disarmament Here's a news account from Scotland that shows where gun control advocates want to take us: A man who stabbed to death an armed intruder at his home was jailed for eight years today.Let me get this straight: four people, one of them armed with a gun, force entry into your home for the purpose of robbery, you defend yourself, and one of the bad guys dies, and you go to prison for eight years? UPDATE: There's a bit more detail on this case here. The victim was a drug dealer, and it appears that this, plus that he attacked the robbers as they ran away, might have worked against him. It still doesn't seem right to me. Use the "if not for" approach on this: "If the dead man had not tried to rob the victim, he would not be dead today." Perhaps Scottish law regards the victim here as at least partially responsible for this confrontation because he was breaking the law by being a drug dealer. UPDATE 2: Of course, the killing wasn't in Scotland, but Manchester, which is in England. Senator Kerry Isn't Really a Limousine Liberal He's too rich for that. I think a better term is "Lear Jet Liberal." I Guess Staying Out Of Iraq Isn't Quite The Solution That The New Spanish Government Thinks From AP: PARIS (AP) - A French railroad worker found an explosive device buried in the bed of a railway line heading from France to Switzerland on Wednesday, the Interior Ministry said.No surprise. Al-Qaeda has learned that you can make some governments do whatever you want; you just have to kill lots of civilians. The Bias of the News Media Is Getting More Blatant Instapundit points out that an MSNBC report on the 9/11 Commission blames Bush for failing to take action against bin Laden in 1998. I wondered if perhaps Instapundit had misread the report, or missed some piece of context, but no, they are blaming Bush for actions taken more than two years before Bush was elected: The report revealed that in a previously undisclosed secret diplomatic mission, Saudi Arabia won a commitment from the Taliban to expel bin Laden in 1998. But a clash between the Taliban's leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, and Saudi officials scuttled the arrangement, and Bush did not follow up. Tuesday, March 23, 2004
Kerry's Campaign Trying to Get Witnesses to Change Their Story I mentioned yesterday this curious, almost unbelievable story about Kerry having been present when Vietnam Veterans Against the War took a vote on whether to pursue a campaign of assassinating U.S. Senator. Now, it appears that Kerry's campaign is trying to get people who were present to change their story about whether Kerry was there or not. Even worse, the Kerry campaign is no longer disputing that Kerry was there: A Vietnam veteran who said he remembers John Kerry participating in a 1971 Kansas City meeting at which an assassination plot was discussed says an official with the Kerry presidential campaign called him this month and pressured him to change his story.Whoops! There goes Kerry's viability as a candidate. There's Enough Blame To Go Around From AP: The independent commission reviewing the Sept. 11 attacks said in a preliminary report that the decision to use diplomatic rather than military options against al-Qaida allowed the Sept. 11 terrorists to elude capture years before the attacks. Should We Have Safe Storage Laws for Marijuana? Surprisingly enough, this story is from Miami, not Sonoma County, California: MIAMI -- Police say a 5-year-old boy brought a bag of marijuana to school and was sprinkling it over a friend's lasagna at the school cafeteria before a monitor intervened.When I lived in Sonoma County, one drug rehab counselor I talked to was treating 2nd graders with marijuana addiction problems. They knew where Mommy's stash was, and in the same way that a previous generation played dress-up when the parents weren't around, the rising generation pretends to be adult by smoking pot. Please: store your drugs in a responsible manner. UPDATE: Oh yeah, and here's a story from Indiana, where a 4 year old brought $7500 worth of crack to his Head Start program. Well, yes, I guess he is getting a "head start" on the other kids. The pseudo-parents are in hiding. Please: if you can't store drugs responsibly to protect your kids, at least do so to protect yourself! Monday, March 22, 2004
Is This For Real? I found the link over at Instapundit, who talked about serious spin at the Los Angeles Times, but what's here is actually far, far more dramatic than media bias. You read this section, and tell me: Is this nonsense? Or is there a major news story being covered up? Kerry is claiming that he had left Vietnam Veterans Against the War before a 1971 meeting in Kansas City, that FBI surveillance records say Kerry attended. Why does this matter? Kerry's presence at that meeting is critical to understanding his past association with VVAW. At that meeting, in November of 1971, VVAW members discussed and voted on a radical plan to target and assassinate US Senators who supported the war in Vietnam. Scott Camil, VVAW member and now a member of Kerry's campaign, dreamed up the plan. Witnesses say Kerry was there and voted against it, later resigning from the group. They also say he delivered an emotional speech in which he declared his intention of going into politics. Whether Kerry resigned from the group because of the plan or for other reasons isn't clear, but either way, if Kerry was there and was part of discussions regarding any plan to kill American officials, he had a legal obligation to report that plan to law enforcement. He never did. He could say "I was there but voted against it," but that's uncomfortably similar to "I voted for it before I voted against it." And now he denies even attending the meeting at which the discussion and vote took place.This blogger says pretty much the same thing about Camil and what, with great irony, was called the Phoenix Project. (For those who don't know, this was the name for a CIA program of assassinating Viet Cong political leaders in South Vietnam. Don't feel too bad for the targets; think of the leader of Hamas who just got killed by the Israeli Army.) There are items all over the web about Camil and Project Phoenix, like here, and here. UPDATE: If it isn't for real, why is Kerry's campaign trying to get witnesses to change their story about that meeting? Civil Rights Leaders Speak Out Against Same-Sex Marriage The analogy of same-sex marriage to the overturning of laws against interracial marriage is beginning to generate significant backlash from the black community: ATLANTA (AP) - From the cradle of the civil rights movement, several dozen black pastors are voicing their opposition to the gay marriage movement and rhetoric that equates it with the struggle for racial equality.As I mentioned a few days ago, members of the Congressional Black Caucus are resisting the comparison to the civil rights movement, and admitting that there is very sizeable opposition to same-sex marriage in the black community. Liberals are taking some comfort in public opinion surveys that show that young people are more supportive of same-sex marriage than the older generations: CHICAGO (AP) - Blake Wilkinson was puzzled when he saw the young 20-something mixed among a group of graying anti-gay marriage protesters.The article goes on to suggest that young people are more supportive because they have been exposed to positive homosexual role models in the media. (We all know how accurately television portrays real life, of course.) I am quite sure that if you had asked most of my generation, back when we were under 30, what our feelings were about homosexuality, we would have been a lot more liberal than today. I know that in the late 1970s, when I was that age, homosexuality was generally accepted by most of my peers as an alternative lifestyle. Homosexuals weren't terribly visible, so the general perception of my generation was, "If it feels good, do it." I remember that my girlfriend had a neighbor named Gary who was bisexual. Everyone knew it; no one had a problem with it; it was no different than if Gary had been black. Different; not for us; both no one of our generation thought less of Gary because of his preferences. Of course, as with most things, getting older gives you more experience with the real world and real people. Like a lot of other idealized forms, the idealized homosexual gives way to real ones that you meet in work and social settings. (I didn't need a lot of conversations that started out, "Of course molesting children is bad" and then turned into "but young teenagers aren't children" to start to get a real bad feeling about the integrity of this bunch.) I suspect that this replacement of ideals with real world experience is the reason that so many of the sharp and crisp ideologies of youth get rounded and smoothed as you get older. The liberal belief that the government should look out for every person in want doesn't survive too many encounters with people for whom government assistance is just another way to prevent work from getting in the way of a drug habit. The skinhead neo-Nazi movement is largely a young people's movement. I would suspect that it doesn't take a lot of real world experiences with "non-Aryans" to destroy the idealized negative image that these skinheads have been raised to believe. This may be why that movement remains youth-oriented. The libertarian enthusiasm for an unregulated economy starts to dim when you see how many people are simply too economically weak to stand on an even plaing field with a large employer. It's hard to keep these charming beliefs intact when you see how many people are so stupid that they spend their 401k fund when they change jobs--instead of leaving it in place for retirement. I think liberals are going to be terribly disappointed as the 18-30 year olds get married, have kids, and get some real world experience. They will be shocked to discover that a lot of the liberals are going to become surprisingly conservative about lifestyle choices such as drugs and sex once their own children are growing up. They may not be quite as conservative as the generation that grew up in the 1950s, but even now. a majority of 18-30 year olds oppose gay marriage. The pro-homosexual media campaign is one of the most overwhelming propaganda campaigns that I can remember, comparable to the forty year media onslaught against gun ownership. Incest Declared Legal In Massachusetts Okay, not quite the same way as they declared same-sex marriage constitutionality protected. There may actually be a valid point--that the incest statute was not broadly enough worded to include a stepfather. Still, it's not like the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and Society for the Promotion of Perversion lets a little thing like the text of a statute get in their way: ''While the idea that this form of 'incest' may not be criminal may be repugnant to many, 'the words of [a ] statute cannot be stretched beyond their fair meaning in order to relieve against what may appear to be a hard case,''' the court said, citing a phrase from an earlier ruling.Oh yeah, the defendant sounds like a real charmer: Defendant Dawud Rahim faces a number of other charges in addition to incest, including rape and illegal wiretapping. He has been in jail for more than two years awaiting trial in Suffolk County, said his lawyer, Robert Zanello.The interesting point, however, is at the end of the article, where Professor Wendy Murphy points out the inconsistency in how the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court made this decision: Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley said he was disappointed by the court ruling. He said state laws dating back to colonial days prohibit incest with a stepdaughter, and he plans to push for legislation to prohibit sexual relations between stepparent and child.This is, of course, one of my big objections to this sort of judicial activism. It isn't driven by a consistent application of a principle, but a simple desire for the judiciary to impose its will on the majority. So, when are the people of Massachusetts going to remove these depraved morons from the bench? Before or after they finish playing Woody Allen with their stepdaughters? UPDATE: Here's the decision. As I suggested above, this appears to be technically correct--the statute prohibiting incest was not broadly enough worded to cover a stepfather having sex with a stepchild. Some of the language of the decision, though, shows that there were some other possible concerns that motivated this decision: In Smith, the defendant was charged with having sexual conduct, but not penile-vaginal sexual intercourse, with his daughter. Commonwealth v. Smith, supra at 418. The defendant argued that he could not be prosecuted under § 17 because, at the time, it criminalized only "sexual intercourse," not other sexual activities. Id. This argument was based in part on his contention that the incest prohibition was designed to prevent genetic abnormalities, and the prohibition did not therefore extend to types of sexual contact that could not lead to pregnancy. Id. at 421. In rejecting this argument, we stated, without analysis or explanation, that the prohibitions in § 17 extended to "affinal" relationships, thus indicating that the purpose of the incest prohibition is broader than simply eugenics. Id. at 421-422. Ultimately, however, we concluded that no matter what the purpose of the statute, its language did not extend to prohibit sexual activities other than penile-vaginal intercourse. Id. at 425. Plainly, the determination that the language of § 17 did not extend to penile-vaginal intercourse rendered the statement in Smith "language which was unnecessary" to the outcome of the case.(21)Huh? Maybe in the circles where the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court socializes, stepfathers have sex with their adult stepdaughters (and stepsons), but not in civilized society. "One Nation, Under God" How Appealing! provides a collection of links concerning the upcoming oral arguments by Michael Newdow, who is representing himself in his challenge to the constitutionality of the inclusion of "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. Long-time readers of my column will recall this collection of primary sources that demonstrates that Newdow's position is historically indefensible. The Supreme Court, however, doesn't let little details like that get in their way. Let's Hope This Lawyer Doesn't Really Mean What He Said In West Virginia, two women are suing to get a marriage license: Link and Chambers, a lesbian couple for 23 years, say the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional.What, no restrictions at all? What if Joe Bob wants to marry his 13 year old granddaughter? Or Toothless Jethro wants to marry his sister, or his widowed mother? Wait a minute! Why should Toothless Jethro not be able to marry his mother, who is still married to his father? Does Mr. Forman believe that the laws that prohibit adults from marrying six year olds violate a fundmental right "guaranteed to every West Virginian"? Perhaps Mr. Forman's legal argument is more precise and narrow than his statement quoted in the press. It does raise the question as to what the limits of this "fundamental right" are, and what may the legislature do to restrict these rights. Thanks to How Appealing! for the link. Richard Clarke's Criticism of the Bush Administration Concerning Al-Qaeda Powerline has a pretty complete discussion of Richard Clarke's criticisms of the Bush Administration's failure to do something about al-Qaeda before 9/11. I think the most powerful point is: The press is abuzz with reports that former Clinton staffers are set to testify before the September 11 commission next week that "they repeatedly warned their Bush administration counterparts in late 2000 that Al Qaeda posed the worst security threat facing the nation — and how the new administration was slow to act." The Clinton officials expected to so testify include Sandy Berger, Madeline Albright and Richard Clarke.This is a powerful criticism. Bush may well have failed to take action against al-Qaeda between January and September. But Clinton failed to do much about al-Qaeda from 1993 to 2001. Why? It's not like al-Qaeda suddenly popped up in 2000. Anti-Depressants & Suicide This AP story reports on FDA's concern about anti-depressants and suicide: WASHINGTON (AP) - Patients on some popular antidepressants should be closely monitored for warning signs of suicide, the government warned Monday in asking the makers of 10 drugs to add the caution to their labels.As the article points out, did the anti-depressant cause the suicide attempt? Or was the anti-depressant unable to solve the depression, and the patient went ahead and did something that they might have done anyway? Another point that the article did not make--and that you should be aware of, especially if the person suffering from depression is a child--is that fast-cycling bipolar disorder may lead a well-meaning family physician to prescribe anti-depressants. If the only time that the doctor sees the patient is when they are depressed, it would be tempting to prescribe one of the SSRI anti-depressants, and see if it solves the problem. I've been told (and I watched it happen), SSRI anti-depressants without a mood stabilizer can take a mild bipolar disorder and make it into a severe one. The depression leaves--and the mania phase takes over. The higher mania then swings back into an even more severe depression. A good introductory work on bipolar disorder in children is The Bipolar Child. If you have a child that you have always thought of "strong-willed," especially a really, really smart child, and it seems like they are getting more and more out of control--read this book. You may save a lot of grief for you and your kid. Obviously, I would prefer you to buy it from Barnes & Noble, not Amazon, at least as long as Amazon is selling books that promote sexual abuse of children. Very Nearly The Perfect Self-Defense Shooting Pete Drum, my co-blogger on the Civilian Gun Self-Defense Blog, just posted this nearly textbook example of what a defensive gun use should be--and that the gun prohibitionist like to claim either doesn't happen, or happens very, very rarely. From the Springfield News Sun of March 22, 2004: Woman kills intruderShe was alone at home. Two guys force entry. She retreats. They try to force entry into the room into which she has retreated. She fires. Bad guy dies. Sunday, March 21, 2004
I'm Skeptical From AP: SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - Osama bin Laden's terror network claims to have bought ready-made nuclear weapons on the black market in central Asia, the biographer of al-Qaida's No. 2 leader was quoted as telling an Australian television station.I'm skeptical because I can't imagine why they haven't used them. Even the 1.5 kiloton "backpack nukes" (or Special Atomic Demolition Munition) that the U.S. used to keep in West Germany for Green Berets to carry, set off even close to the Coalition Provisional Administration compound would kill enormous numbers of our people, and destroy our credibility. I can't believe that al-Qaeda couldn't smuggle such a weapon into the United States, and set it off at the Capitol. This isn't a criticism of Homeland Security Department; they seem to have done a pretty good job of preventing al-Qaeda from engaging in more conventional attacks on the U.S. It is just that I am sure that if al-Qaeda had weapons like this, they would have used them by now. We aren't dealing with people that care about the loss of innocent lives; indeed, al-Qaeda seems to relish the opportunity to cause suffering. If they do have such weapons, and yet have not used them, I would have to guess that the only restraining influence might be fear of what the United States would do after such an attack. After Pearl Harbor, without any evidence of disloyalty by Japanese resident in the continental United States or Hawaii, the U.S. rounded up 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry. We launched bombing raids that killed 200,000 people in a few hours (and no, I don't mean Hiroshima or Nagasaki)--and Pearl Harbor was a military base. I think it says a lot for President Bush that after 9/11, we exercised enormous restraint in our use of military force in Afghanistan, and in Iraq. A nuclear attack on the U.S. would probably be the end of that level of restraint, both in use of military force abroad, and in domestic policy towards Muslims. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Japanese internment, because of the exigencies of war. A nuclear attack on the U.S. would almost certainly lead to mass deportations of non-citizen Muslims, a constitutional amendment to abolish religious freedom for Muslims, and really extreme use of wiretapping and warrantless searches. If you think I exaggerate, remember the level of rage and sorrow on 9/12, 9/13, and 9/14. Then imagine a catastrophe much larger than 9/11, and ask yourself what would happen. Wanted: Someone to Machine A Telescope Dovetail For Me I'm so enamored of this Losmandy mount that I have decided that I would like to mount my 8" reflector on a dovetail that can go into this. Unfortunately, no one makes exactly the dovetail plate that I need. I know that there are some machinists out there who read my blog. If you are interested in building a fairly simple aluminum block for me, and the price isn't too outrageous (say, under $100), please email me. It is 18" long; 1.5" thick; 2.92" wide. On the bottom, it needs a 45 degree cut that rises 0.5". It also needs two 3/8" holes, centered, 10.75" apart, with one hole recessed 0.75" and the other recessed 1.00" on the bottom. Lived by the Sword, Died by the Sword It's hard to shed a lot of tears about this--and keep in mind that until the suicide bombings started, and Palestinians decided to celebrate 9/11, I had some sympathy for the Palestinian complaints: GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the founder and leader of the Hamas militant group that targeted Israelis in suicide bombings, was killed by missiles fired from Israeli helicopters as he left a mosque at daybreak Monday, witnesses said. Terrorism as War Out on the left end of the American political spectrum, there were many who argued that going to war to end terrorism was wrong, that everything should have been handled through the criminal justice system, requesting extradition of bin Laden from the Taliban government, rather than overthrowing the Taliban. This AP article points out some of the difficulties with this approach:
Who Made All Those Statutes of Saddam Hussein? And What Does He Do Now? This is really a touching story. An Iraqi sculptor named Kalat was responsible for casting the statues of megalomaniac Saddam Hussein that were all over Iraq. After the collapse of the old government, Kalat recast some of the Hussein statues into a statue of an American soldier, overwhelmed with grief by the death of his comrades. UPDATE: Like many touching stories, the full details are a bit less inspiring. According to this Wall Street Journal article (subscription only), the sculptor remains an ardent partisan of Hussein, enemy of the Americans, who only did it for the money: The officers didn't question Mr. Alussy further about his political views. Had they pressed him, they might have learned that he's harshly critical of the U.S. and bitter over an American rocket attack during the war that killed his uncle. In an interview, he says he thinks the war was fought for oil and holds the U.S. responsible for the violence and unemployment that have plagued Iraq since. The Rising Gun Murder Rate Yes, in gun control Britain: A year-on-year comparison between the murder rate in 2003 and that in 2002 is not available because the Metropolitan Police is currently "revising" its figures for the first four months of last year. The total, however, is expected to be significantly up on 2002.Now, the gun murder rate in Britain is still quite low--but if restrictive gun control laws (including a complete ban on handgun ownership since 1996, very restrictive licensing of rifles, and licensing of shotguns) really make a difference in the use of guns in murder, then some other factor must be far, far more important than gun control. |
