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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, May 01, 2004
Visiting The Pretty Part of Idaho Boise, unfortunately, is where the Idaho desert starts. Just twenty miles north of here, around the town of Horseshoe Bend, it starts to look like the Idaho that most people imagine. (Pictures below.) I had been working hard, and my wife is out of town with her band on their first long distance gig, at a wedding almost in Wyoming. My son is 16, which means that other than finding time to play ping-pong with me for a while today, he was off with his friends, so I took the top off the Corvette, and drove north on state highway 55. Oh yes, first I had to stop at Wal-Mart to get a battery charger for the motorcycle battery that I use for my telescope mount, and I saw a sign that you would never see in the San Francisco Bay Area: 
The local Christian radio station, KTSY, shocked me getting out of the rut they have been in recently, and played a whole bunch of Rich Mullins songs that I really like: Awesome God among them. The sun was shining; the wind was blowing through my hair--it was as good as a day can be without my wife with me. 
Just north of Horseshoe Bend, on the Payette River. You can still see snow on the top of the high peaks. It was 78 degrees where I was. 
Looking south from that same location. 
The Payette River. 
I think this is the horseshoe bend after which the town is named; it looks like an oxbow lake, where people were fishing. 
A little farther north on the highway there's a nice little sandy beach, ground out of the granite that makes up the area. If you have the bandwidth, and want to hear the rushing water and the chirping birds, click here. My HP 812 camera takes low grade MPEG, but at least it gives you a little of the sound of being there. Space being a bit tight, I may take this file down in a week or two. Astrophotography 
Moon at 1/250th second, ASA 100 film, 25mm eyepiece projection. I think this is about f/28. 
Moon at 1/125th second, ASA 100 film, 25mm eyepiece projection. The longer exposure makes the crater rays look better, but washes out the maria too much, I think. A gibbous or full Moon isn't the best choice as a target, but that's all I had last night. You will notice some odd color effects on the limb of the Moon--that's my scanner having registration problems, I think, because it's not in the picture. Labels: telescopes New Jersey Militia Statutes I just added several new New Jersey militia statutes, from 1668 and 1679 here. I spent part of the morning reading through the Early American Imprints microprint edition of From Aaron Learning and Jacob Spicer, The Grants, Concessions, and Original Constitutions of the Province of New-Jersey (Philadelphia: W. Bradford, 1752). I was actually hunting sodomy laws--and New Jersey's definitely contradict the Lawrence decision, being quite Puritan in their form--but I found these militia laws as well, and a 1675 New Jersey law prohibiting transfers of guns or ammunition to the Indians, which you can find here. I really love doing this sort of historical research--unfortunately, no one pays you to do this. (At least, I haven't found a way--other than the contributions you make through the PayPal button--to get anyone to pay me to do this.) I must confess that I took Friday as vacation because I couldn't face another day of hacking Korn shell scripts, when I could be digging through archives. During staff meeting Tuesday morning, the closing lines of one of Harlan Ellison's better known short stories kept going through my mind: "I have no mouth. And I must scream." The U.N. and Oil-For-Palaces Contracts To hear some people tell it, the U.N. is part of a vast conspiracy to take away American sovereignty, and put a small cabal of international financiers in control of the world. That's giving the UN too much credit; the news reports about te investigation of the Oil-For-Food program suggests it is just a bunch of conmen: April 29, 2004 -- WASHINGTON - The vast majority of the United Nations' oil-for-food contracts in Iraq have mysteriously vanished, crippling investigators trying to uncover fraud in the program, a government report charged yesterday. A Rare Occasion When Armed Robbery Is a Good Thing From the Scotsman: A Hamas suicide bomber blew up two armed Palestinians who tried to rob him at gun point in the Gaza Strip. You Can Tell A Lot About A Person's Moral Character... by how they respond to advocacy of child molestation. This blogger thinks it is really neato that Amazon.com is selling the book Understanding Loved Boys and Boylovers: Thank you Amazon, I will continue to enthusiastically purchase my books from your website.Since he attends the University of Georgia Law School, and thinks that advocacy of child molestation should be encouraged (which is not the same as encouraging child molestation itself), I expect him to be on the federal bench some day. Friday, April 30, 2004
Lovely Night: Stable Air I was out doing some astrophotography, using ASA 100 this time. The Moon, being a bit beyond quarter, is washing out other objects, but I was able to go up to 471x on the Moon--and the image was just beginning to fuzz up a bit. No turbulence; no image burbling, even at that power. Very nice. Bizarre Story: Armed Robbers With Consciences? From Salem, Oregon: A 3-year-old girl came face to face with would-be robbers this week — and the robbers blinked. Why Calling 911 Sometimes Doesn't Work If this news account is accurate, someone needs to be fired--and someone else probably needs a gun in the house: A Fort Worth family is demanding that a 911 operator be fired after she failed to respond to a potential life-threatening situation.Sorry, operator, but yes, sometimes strangers do just come bang down your door. And so what if they are looking for the brother or father? Send the police! Why Gay Marriage Is Going To Destroy the Minority Advantage for the Democrats I've mentioned this before: Christianity Today (which is well to the left of myself and many other evangelicals) has an article about how especially among African-Americans and Hispanics, the issue of gay marriage takes precedence over bread and butter issues: The Alliance for Marriage (AFM), which advocates a constitutional amendment to protect marriage, released a poll on March 4 showing that 63 percent of Hispanics and 62 percent of African Americans support an amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. AFM has broad support among minorities. "Concern for stronger families trumps jobs," said founder Matt Daniels. "It trumps the environment for all voter groups." Colonial Sodomy & Buggery Laws I've just substantially expanded my online collection of colonial sodomy and buggery laws, as well as the text discussing why the Lawrence decision was wrongly decided. Sorry For The Lack Of Activity Today I've been down at the Idaho State Law Library--digging through books that are stamped, "Property of the Idaho Territorial Law Library." I'm mostly chasing down colonial sodomy and buggery statutes (and I promise not to tell you the difference--at least, not today), but as is often the case, I ran into a few statutes related to gun ownership that I missed the first time through some of these materials. I found a 1729 North Carolina session law that while the title indicates that it is about toll-booths and preventing people from driving livestock onto the land of others, contains a paragraph complaining that great Damages are frequently done, by Slaves being permitted to hunt or range with Dogs or Guns: For Prevention whereof, Be it Enacted, by the Authority aforesaid, That it shall not be lawful for any Slave, on any Pretence whatsoever, to go, range, or hunt on any Person's Land other than his Masters, with Dog or Gun, or any Weapon, unless there be a white Man in his Company;.... John Locke's Genius I was reading through John D. Cushing, ed., The Earliest Printed Laws of North Carolina, 1669-1751, and I found these amusing items at 2:146 from John Locke's 1669 Fundamental Constitution of Carolina. The first is a sunset clause: 79th. To avoid multiplicity of laws, which by degrees always change the right foundations of the original government, all acts of [the Carolina] Parliament whatsoever, in whatsoever form passed or enacted, shall at the end of a hundred years after their enacting, respectively cease, and determine of themselves, and without any repeal, become null and void, as if no such acts or laws had ever been made.And the next provision, which might be called "no law reviews or commentaries" provision: 80th. Since multiplicity of comments, as well as of laws, have great inconveniences, and serve on to obscure and perplex: all manner of comments and expositions, on any part of these Fundamental Constitutions, or on any part of the common or statute laws of Carolina are absolutely prohibited. Thursday, April 29, 2004
Moon Pictures Again I took another roll last night, in a raging windstorm. I am still overexposing, but I'm getting closer, and I'm not getting the weird streaks from that last roll. 
This was taken with ASA 800 film at prime focus, 1/2000th of a second. The limitation here is mostly the grain of the film. (And to think that I once bought ASA 3200 speed film--what was I thinking?) The next step is retry this with ASA 100 film at 1/500th and 1/250th second exposures. An Unbelievable Story--Just Got A Bit More Believable So some woman comes up with an unbelieveable story about Catholic priests using her in Satanic rituals, and not surprisingly, she isn't much believed--and then one of the accused priests is arrested for a murder decades ago that seems to fit her claims: TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) - The Toledo Diocese is taking another look at a woman's previously dismissed claims of satanic sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests now that one of the clergymen has been charged with the ``ritualistic'' slaying of a nun 24 years ago.This should shock the Catholic Church to its very core--not only widespread sexual abuse, but now evidence of priests engaged in Satanism. UPDATE: This seems to be the Catholic Church's day for bad press: The U.S. Roman Catholic priest who has provided the most visible help to victims of clergy sex abuse (search) for the past 18 years has been fired by his archbishop and cannot celebrate public Masses.Maybe there is some other reason that Doyle just lost his job--but let's hope that a really good reason comes out, real soon. You know, I actually agree with the Catholic Church's decision not to include pro-abortion politicians in Communion. Perhaps they could decide not to include child molesting priests as well. Of course, that might lead back to rearguing the Donatist controversy of the fourth century. Labels: child sexual abuse Minnesota's Concealed Weapon Law Is One Year Old Unsurprisingly, the antis won't admit that their worst fears--of permitholders getting into gunfights over trivial matters--hasn't happened. Instead, the antis are busily showing their ignorance--even in their supposed field of expertise: "Nowhere in scripture do I find God telling people to arm themselves," said the Rev. Kim Smith-King of St. Luke Presbyterian Church in Minnetonka. "The more guns that are out there, the more lives are going to be taken. We are here today to simply choose life."Hmmm. Luke, chapter 22: Then Jesus asked them, "When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?" Kansas Concealed Carry Law Veto Override The Kansas House of Representatives is apparently going to try to override Governor Sibelius's veto of HB 2798. Contact your representatives there in Topeka, and let them know that this matters. For Those Of You Think Of Me As Some Sort of Doctrinaire Gun Rights Absolutist And I know that some of my readers do think of me that way--read this guy's take on why I am sort of an apologist for gun control. Another Criminal Too Stupid To Stay Out Of Jail From Reuters: A Texas woman was arrested on Wednesday after a pink dye pack attached to money she is suspected of stealing from a bank exploded when she took the cash to a different bank to open a new account, police said.Great name this gal has: Luck. Luck had nothing to do with it! Stupidity had everything to do with it! Conspiracy Theories Michael Williams has a thought-provoking post about conspiracy theories, and what motivates them. In part, I agree with it--except that he has focused a bit too much on Democrats and their conspiracy theories--there are conspiracy theorists all across the political spectrum. Find the videotape The Clinton Chronicles if you want some proof that you don't need to be a Democrat to be a conspiracy theorist. Mr. Williams does make a very good point, however, about why Democrats, who used to run this country, and still have enormous influence, have to believe in conspiracies: to explain their failures. There's Hillary's classic "Vast Right Wing Conspiracy". John Kerry's recent accidentally-on-mic comment accusing ABC of doing the RNC's work. Bush and Cheney and Halliburton and Iraq and OIIILLLL. The CIA killed President Kennedy. The environmentalists are always blaming conspiracies for everything. And so forth and so on.Where Williams is on more solid ground is pointing out that the far left sees Limbaugh's success with talk radio as some sort of conspiracy involving nefarious forces--it doesn't occur to the far left that most Americans are conservatives or in the middle, and the far left's ideas are regarded as dangerous, or crackpot, or both. Limbaugh's success didn't make America move to the right; America's move to the right made Limbaugh successful. Single Young Men & China's Future Tyler Cowen over at Volokh Conspiracy points to an article expressing concern about what is happening in China--where the intersection of the government's one child only policy and traditional Chinese practices about girl children have resulted in a demographic time bomb: First, by 2040 China will have a higher proportion of elderly than will the United States. This will create fiscal problems, but on the bright side such a China is unlikely to be militarily aggressive. Yet there will be other problems:David T. Courtwright's Violent Land: Single Men & Social Disorder from the Frontier to the Inner City points out that societies in which there are large numbers of single young men are usually very violent places, with all sorts of serious social problems. It is possible that China is opening itself up to very, very serious internal chaos problems in the next few years. On the other hand, it is possible that China could solve this problem the same way that Pope Urban II dealt with quarreling nobles starting wars in Europe--by starting the First Crusade, so all that energy could be expended against external enemies."In 1993 and 1994, more than 121 boys were born in China for every 100 baby girls. (The normal ratio at birth is around 105; for reasons debated among biologists, humans seem naturally to churn out slightly more boys than girls.) In India during the period 1996 to 1998, the birth ratio was 111 to 100; in Taiwan in 2000, it was 109.5. In 1990 a town near New Delhi reported a sex ratio at birth of 156.Parker suggests that too many unmarried young men end up making trouble. Of course this could happen before 2040. So what is the deal, will families see reason to favor having daughters rather than sons? Will dowries kick in and restore the sex ratio to greater balance? Immigration, of course, only transfers the problem to another country. In any case adjustments will take time and clearly voluntary forces are not creating a balanced sex ratio today. If you are looking for a classic externalities problem to teach your class, I will nominate this as a prime example. Minnesota's Year Old Concealed Weapon Law Is Working Pete Drum, my co-blogger on the Civilian Gun Self-Defense Blog, just blogged this from the Twin Cities Pioneer Press of April 29, 2004: OF THE PEOPLE: Gun law turns 1 year old Wednesday, April 28, 2004
Some Things Aren't Worth Killing Someone Over Even though these people were clearly in the wrong: WOODBURY | A Gloucester County man was charged Tuesday with killing a man he caught breaking into his shed.Even if Clark is acquitted on the charges, he is going to spend many times as much on his lawyer as it would have cost to replace that ATV. (Assuming that the ATV was insured, the lawyer is going to cost him thousands of times more than deductible.) Yes, I agree, these guys shouldn't have been stealing the ATV. Is it worth killing someone over? No. This was just dumb. This Is The Funniest Ebay Ad I Have Ever Read Much funnier than the guy trying to sell his soul (I've added some paragraphing for readability): For Sale: One Slightly Used Size 12 Wedding Gown. Only worn twice: Once at the wedding and once for these pictures. The Invisible Adjunct Has Left The Building A lot of people were big fans of a blog named The Invisible Adjunct. She was anonymous. She had a Ph.D. in History, and taught at a university in New York. Ralph Luker over at Cliopatria was a fan, and that's part of how I became aware of her blog--and that she has finally faced reality, and decided to leave academia completely. As an adjunct myself (and one with only a lowly MA in History), I am very sympathetic to her concerns. This article over at the Chronicle of Higher Education mentions: About 45 percent of all faculty members are now part-timers. Each year thousands of people with new doctorates in fields like history and English fail to find the tenure-track jobs they are chasing. In English, for instance, fewer than half of the new Ph.D.'s win tenure-track jobs initially, according to the Modern Language Association.Well, why? Read through a year's worth of Invisible Adjunct posts and you will get a good glimpse at what's happening in higher education, at least in terms of graduate school, the job market in the humanities, and the adjunct world.You might well ask the question, why are there so many people getting Ph.D.s if there aren't many teaching jobs for them? I can think of one obvious reason: what happens if you reduced the number of slots in graduate programs to a level appropriate to the likely number of jobs? The number of grad students in crowded fields like History and English would drop--and class sizes would drop as well. Universities would then reduce the number of professors teaching those grad students, and supervising their theses and dissertations. This would reduce the number of teaching positions open. Within a year or two or three, someone in the administration would look at the student count, and argue for reducing the number of grad students a bit more, because there are less teaching positions nationally for these grad students to eventually fill. This sort of feedback loop would not continue ad infinitum, but it almost certainly would dramatically shrink the number of faculty in these fields. Considering the gullibility of a lot of history professors (the ones who were taken in Bellesiles, many of whom seem to have been taken in by the laughable claims in the Lawrence decision about colonial sodomy laws), it is hard to see this as a big problem. My wife, who is in much the same position as myself (adjunct, MA in English) pointed out another reason why reducing the number of slots in grad school wouldn't fly: the schools would have to either raise their standards--and thus fail to meet their affirmative action goals--or keep the standards the same, and make more blatant that academic standards are less important than racial and sexual orientation quotas. I Guess I'm Not A Nutcase After All... Or at least I have good company. Senator Zell Miller (D-GA) is proposing repeal of the 17th Amendment, and a return to legislatures selecting their U.S. Senators: Miller, who is retiring in January, was first appointed to his post in 2000 after the death of Paul Coverdell. He said Wednesday that rescinding the 17th Amendment, which declared that senators should be elected, would increase the power of state governments and reduce the influence of Washington special interests.I've written before that one objective of a bicameral Congress was to balance opposing interests. The House of Representatives was popularly elected, because it had the authority to introduce revenue bills. The assumption was that because ordinary people would pay most of the taxes, they would have an incentive to keep government spending under control, since government spending was generally for the benefit of the wealthy. (This hasn't changed.) The Senate was selected by the state legislatures, and would thus represent the interests of the wealthy, who in general would have different interests from the middle class. This would tend to discourage some of the more brainless wealth redistribution schemes. The 17th Amendment fundamentally broke this balancing of interests arrangement. For reasons that I discuss here, we have unbalanced the structure. This is why we have buffoons like Teddy Kennedy and John Kerry in the Senate--the wealthy pander to majority will--which means that the stupid half of the population plus one gets to elect whoever tells them the most persuasive lies. The Human Cost of Dealing With Savages Michael Moore thinks the thugs who are using women and children as human shields are heroes. Read this account of the death and escort home of a real hero, Lance Corporal Chance Phelps. But make sure you aren't somewhere that might be embarrassed to cry. I doubt that many of you will be able to read it and not have your eyes fill with tears. It would still be a very sad story of sacrifice if the cause were something mundane or even sleazy--if Operation Iraqi Freedom was really about oil. Knowing that the cause was cleaning out a nest of monsters makes the sacrifice a little more bearable--and it makes Michael Moore's defense of the monsters even more reprehensible. Labels: terrorism Amusing Parody of Nature Documentaries Over at INDC, "INDC Science Series: Seasonal Moonbat IMF Migration, Part One": Note: This INDC Science Series is best appreciated if read aloud with an Australian or Queen's English accent. Thank you.One of my sisters just returned from participating in the march that INDC chronicles. I shall have to ask her about the hammer and sickle flags. Make sure you read INDC's previous coverage of moonbat migration about the Padilla hearings and an International A.N.S.W.E.R. protest in early April--it's actually even more revealing about the role the media play in magnifying what is really a pretty tiny bunch. Let me emphasize that I think there are some serious and legitimate questions associated with Jose Padilla. Can the U.S. use "unlawful combatant" status for a U.S. citizen arrested within the United States? I am really, really uncomfortable with this, because it creates the potential for serious abuse of power once the Democrats get back in power (as they inevitably will). Understanding Fallujah Operations The Belmont Club has a very detailed description, derived from news accounts, of what seems to be the U.S. strategy in Fallujah. It would appear that the author has a detailed historical knowledge of warfare. I won't even try to summarize or quote from it; it is simply too detailed for that. If you are at all interested in understanding what is going on in Fallujah, however, read it in full. If A Bircher Said This, He Would Be Called An Anti-Semite But a liberal appellate judge says it, so I guess it's okay. In the course of explaining that judges make law, they don't interpret it, Judge John T. Noonan of the 9th Circuit says this: According to Noonan, every working judge has come to the conclusion that "he who interprets the law, makes the law" and that interpretation gives the Constitution vitality. He also compared the Constitution's balanced perspective to the biological balance within a human being.Oh yeah, that's a useful thing to say: Noonan says that this corrupt practice of judges making themselves into legislators--someone who "makes the law" instead of interpreting it--is really Jewish in origin. Thanks to Discriminations for the link. The Ideal Interim President For Iraq Over at Iraq the Model (a group blog by Iraqis), Ali lists the ideal qualities for an interim president: 1-He should not be a cleric.You get the idea! I have also added Iraq the Model to my blogroll. Those Courageous Equivalents to the Minutemen Michael Moore calls the insurgents fighting in Fallujah the equivalents to the Minutemen. I was watching Fox News this morning, and they interviewed a Los Angeles Times reporter who is there. He said the insurgents are using women and children as human shields while they fire at the Marines. Can you imagine the Minutemen doing that? Tuesday, April 27, 2004
Those Top-Notch Journalists At The Los Angeles Times and the New York Times OxBlog has an amusing point about recent articles in two newspapers that think that they are top-notch journalism--you know, careful and factual: With regard to an amazing medley of factual errors in pieces in both the LA Times and NY Times,My feelings exactly. On almost anything on which I have any detailed knowledge, either because of my education, work experience, or eyewitness knowledge, the mainstream journalists are factually wrong almost as much as they right. They could flip coins and not do much worse. But I guess if you are on the left, little details like which party Wilson was the prime minster of, and which government fell--those are just piddling details.Just as a minor correction to an interesting piece (Thomas Corbally, 83; Figure of Mystery Was Reputed Spy, April 26, 2004 Home Edition, Section:California; Metro; Metro Desk; Part B; Pg. 11), PM Wilson was actually not a Conservative but rather a lifelong member of the Labour party, and is still regarded by many non-Blairites in Labour as representing the high point that party reached.My, with this degree of neglect for detail in just one small matter of British parliamentary history I happen to know something about, I must say I'm starting to have some doubts about these people. Or as a reader rather eloquently puts it: "Whenever I read anything in a newspaper about which I know something, I find they get it wrong. So why should I believe them on subjects about which I know very little?" How Well Armed Was The Continental Army? One of Bellesiles's claims was that the Continental Army was pitifully armed at the beginning of the war, and claims that General Washington ordered issuance of pikes to officers because there were so few guns. Actually, Washington's reason for ordering pikes was because they were simpler to operate than guns, didn't require reloading--and the officers were supposed to be leading the men, not being infantry soldiers. One document at American Archives, 4th. series, 6:1121-22, records the number of firelocks and bayonets present in each regiment of “the Army in and near New-York, June 24, 1776.” Of 9,088 (or perhaps 9,072—the columns do not agree with each other) men, 76% are described as having “firelocks good,” another 15% have “firelocks bad,” and 9% are “wanting.” By comparison, 57% have “bayonets good,” 1% have “bayonets bad,” and 42% lacked bayonets. It is unclear if firelocks described as “bad” are completely useless, unreliable, or perhaps of such a low caliber as to be better suited to bird hunting than combat. It is clear that much like the New England colonies, Americans were better supplied with guns than bayonets. Blunt Words About The War These are remarkably blunt words about the war: We published pictures Thursday of burnt American corpses hanging from an Iraqi bridge behind a mob of grinning Muslims.The problem is that Islam is about in the same state as Christianity was several centuries ago: unprepared to tolerate difference. In theory, Islam respects "People of the Book": Jews and Christians. In practice, it has always imposed substantial economic, civil, and social disabilities on Jews and Christians, some significant, some petty. The Ottoman Empire, for example, not only imposed a 10% net wealth tax--annually--on non-Muslims, it also prohibited non-Muslims from carrying weapons, or from riding horses. (Horses were too noble for non-Muslims to ride.) I do not doubt that if the West occupied all of the Islamic world today, and imposed a 10% net wealth tax annually on Muslims, Islam would wither away in just a few generations, just as Christianity did in what had been the Eastern Roman Empire. (UPDATE: the tax on non-Muslims is actually quite a bit more complex of an issue, with little uniformity as to the rate and method of computation. This pro-Islamic source claims that it is because non-Muslims are exempt from military service. This source demonstrates, however, that it was very heavy, and for the purpose of crushing religious dissent.) One thing is sure. Muslim killers started the one we are in now when they slaughtered more than 3,000 people, including fellow Muslims, in New York City.A slight oversimplification, but not much. Arab armies invaded the Eastern Roman Empire, giving soldiers the choice of Islam or death, and then taxing the civilians until the choice was desperate poverty or Islam. The Crusades were a reaction not to Islamic Arabs, but to the Islamic Turkish invasion of the remnants of the Eastern Roman Empire. Unlike Arab Islam, which was cultured, educated, and eventually, somewhat tolerant of other religions, Turkish Islam had all the zeal of the fresh converts, with the savagery of Central Asian marauders. European motivations for the Crusades were mixed: religious zeal; a desire of Pope Urban II to send all these quarreling knights to go fight somewhere else; and lunatic proto-populists like Peter the Hermit, anti-Semite and cannibal. Crusader actions once they arrived did not reflect well on Christianity, and there were atrocities against Muslims that remain embarrassing today. Islam is in no position, however, to pretend that the Crusaders were dramatically worse than the Islamic Arabs who overran much of the Eastern Roman Empire, or the Islamic Turks who provoked the Crusades. Islam hadn't ended up in control of the Levant because of charm or the strength of their arguments, but by armed force and punitive taxation. Now, a millennium later, Muslims have expanded forth again. Ask France. Ask England. Ask Manhattan. Two-and-a-half years ago fanatical Muslims laid siege to us. We woke up to the obvious. Our president announced it would be a very long war, then took the battle to the Islamic homeland. Sound familiar?Here is where I may have my biggest argument. There are a lot of different factions of Muslims in the world. It seems clear to me that most of our enemies are operating well outside the limits of what Islam--even quite fundamentalist Islam--would consider legitimate methods of warfare. UPDATE: A reader argues that the slaughter of non-combatants really is a basic part of Islam, and gave me pointers to several URLs. It is certainly true that there is a very dangerous crowd that espouses Islam engaged in rape, murder, and slavery in the Sudan, and in Indonesia. It is still not clear to me that this is part of the mainstream of Islam--or even, necessarily, of the fundamentalist factions of Islam. I am open to persuasion on this point. Repeat After Me: "I Will Not Take Photographs Of Myself Breaking the Law" Some people should be too stupid to reproduce. This couple took pictures of their 2 year old smoking pot. "Isn't that cute? Like mother, like son!" Then they took the pictures to be developed--where someone called the police. Duh! Maybe habitual marijuana use doesn't make you stupid; maybe it just disproportionately attracts stupid people. I suppose that they could argue "medicinal use": but is there really a recognized beneficial effect of marijuana on IQ? The Democrats Must Be Depressed Consumer confidence took another rise: The Conference Board, a business group based in New York, said on Tuesday its index of consumer confidence rose to 92.9 in April from 88.3 in March, its highest since January.and "The job market, which has a major impact on confidence, appears to be gaining strength. The percentage of consumers claiming jobs are hard to get is now at its lowest since November 2002, and more consumers expect this trend to continue," said Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board's Consumer Research Center. Mandatory Gun Ownership Laws I blogged a few days ago about New Jersey's 1775 law requiring gun ownership--and I was surprised at how many bloggers linked to it. Let me emphasize that New Jersey's law isn't unusual--it is the norm. Every colony by the time the Revolutionary War started had a mandatory gun ownership law. I've been gathering them for several years now; if you want to see images of these statutes, go here for images of all colonial militia statutes. If you want to see just the laws that specifically required gun ownership: Connecticut (1650) reiterated in 1665 here and here, in 1696, in 1724, and in 1741 here and here. Delaware (1742). Georgia (1755) and again as part of slave patrol in 1757. This 1770 law required all Georgians to come to church armed, with provisions for inspecting them as they entered to make sure they are armed. This 1778 law and the 1784 law also impose a requirement to own a gun. Maryland (1641) seems to impose gun ownership as a requirement for purchasing land. The 1642 law requires all householders to have guns for members of the militia (including servants). The 1658 law imposes fines as well for failure to own a gun. Massachusetts, of course, required gun ownership, in this 1632/3 law, having already required you be armed when traveling in 1630/1. A 1636/7 law required everyone to come to church armed. New Hampshire (1716) required gun ownership here and here. I'm getting tired of this cutting and pasting of links. As I said, every colony had a law requiring most white men to own guns, with fines for failing to do so. One Reason Why I Don't Allow Comments On My Blog Eugene Volokh points to CalBlog, where the blogger has been served with an order from a Canadian court ordering him to identify name and location of people who commented on his blog: I was served by registered mail. I got the slip last night and picked it up this morning. The hearing is Friday. Did I mention in Montreal, Quebec?So it isn't just the United States suffering from creeping imperialism and delusions of globalism! People Who Plan Way Into the Future This company plans much too far into the future: Currently Underdevelopment Monday, April 26, 2004
OFFICIAL 2004 DNC CONVENTION PROGRAM 6:00pm - Opening flag burning ceremony. 6:30pm - Anti-war rally no. 1. (Moderated by Jane Fonda) 6:40pm - Ted Kennedy proposes a toast. 7:00pm - Tribute theme to France. 7:10pm - Collect offerings for al-Zawahri defense fund. 7:20pm - Ted Kennedy proposes a toast 7:25pm - Tribute theme to Spain. 7:45pm - Anti-war rally no. 2. (Moderated by Michael Moore) 8:00pm - John Kerry presents one side of the issues 8:25pm - Ted Kennedy proposes a toast. 8:30pm - Terrorist appeasement workshop. 9:00pm - Gay marriage ceremony. 9:30pm - * Intermission * 10:00pm - Flag burning ceremony no. 2. 10:15pm - Re-enactment of Kerry's fake medal toss. 10:30pm - Cameo by Dean 'Yeeearrrrrrrg!' 10:40pm - Ted Kennedy proposes a toast. 10:50pm - Pledge of allegiance to the UN. 11:00pm - Double gay marriage ceremony. 11:15pm - Maximizing Welfare workshop. 11:20pm - John Kerry presents the other side of the issues 11:30pm - 'Free Saddam' pep rally. 11:59pm - Ted Kennedy proposes a toast. 12:00am - Nomination of Democrat candidate. The Owyhee Foothills Southwest of Boise My wife and I went out fossil hunting Sunday afternoon. We didn't find any fossils, but we did find some wonderfully scenic and empty desert. 
 Boise Street Gang I go for walks at lunch, and I am subject to harrassment and threats from this rough looking bunch: 
Any Idea What Caused This Film Problem? The Moon is obviously overexposed here--this was 1/30th of a second, and it looks like 1/60th or 1/125th might have done the job better. But what is with the color streaks? I've done other astrophotography without these streaks of blue and red, so I don't think it is a light leak in the camera (unless just developed with this roll). The film has a May 2005 expiration date. There was certainly like light like this in the sky. This appears on all the pictures. So, should I stop storing the film so close to the nuclear reactor? It almost looks like something mechanical happened to the film as it rolled. Or could this be a developing flaw?  Is Pro-Choice Fanaticism* An Old People's Thing? That is at least what Michael Williams is suggesting. He points out that the leaders of the militant pro-choice movement are generally pretty old. (This doesn't surprise me; one of the comments points out that of course, these are the leaders, they will be older.) But it is certainly true that much of passion for the pro-choice position is among women who came of age when abortion was severely restricted. This really should not be a surprise. There were a lot of really unfortunate consequences for women who grew up in that era, got pregnant, and found marriage, single motherhood, or giving up the baby for adoption, really, really unpleasant choices. For a younger generation, it does seem as though that wild enthusiasm for abortion isn't quite as widespread. I wish that I could say that it was because the younger generation is so much more responsible, but I think it is because they haven't been radicalized by having to make hard choices like that. * I used that word "fanaticism" for a reason. Lots of people in America are pro-choice, some right up to three seconds before birth, some only during the first trimester, some only for fairly limited circumstaces, such as rape, incest, or serious birth defects. I would consider Rep. Lynne Woolsey (D-CA) to be an example of a pro-choice fanatic. Labels: abortion Oh Dear! Another Reason For Self-Control! Bad news from the Centers for Disease Control: ATLANTA -- There's word that the government is likely to recommend that other drugs be used against gonorrhea, because common treatments against the sexually transmitted disease no longer work.Hey guys and gals! The party's over! There are very, very serious consequences to changing sexual partners weekly--and condoms aren't 100% effective at stopping the spread of STDs. Another Of Those "I Couldn't Make This Up" Stories From the Sydney Morning Herald: Israel's first sadomasochist restaurant is set to open today, claiming however, that only the surroundings, not the food will be a painful experience, the Israeli Yediot Ahronot daily reported yesterday.It reminds of a news story from the early 1990s. The San Francisco Chronicle reported on San Francisco Police Department's efforts to increase the number of gay police officers, and the news account described their recruiting efforts in a leather bar. They quoted one of the police officers who was cruising for recruits as saying, "At least we don't have to teach them use of restraint devices." Lovely. Some Encouraging News On The Book Front I queried the University of Massachusetts Press, and their response was quite interesting: Thanks for your inquiry. I downloaded the sample materials you linked to your e-mail and enjoyed reading them. You write well, and I think you have the makings of an interesting book on a very timely topic. Unfortunately, we recently signed up a similar study of guns in early America (i.e., from the colonial period through the War of Independence), and the consensus here is that there would be significant overlap between the two projects. To put it another way, you would be better served by a publisher that doesn't have -- or plan to have -- a book in direct competition with your own.You see, for quite a while I have been told that there is simply no market for a book like mine--now it appears that the field may be rather crowded by the time I get this to market. UPDATE: A long-time reader emailed me expressing concern that, like other blogger who are obssessed with particular issues (I like to think it is more a matter of specialization), I am a little obssessed with this publishing problem--and that I sound embittered at the publishing industry. Now, I will admit that I am a little embittered, but I didn't think that this particular entry sounded very bitter. Of course, I'm used to emails telling me that I am "obssessing," but usually it's not about the book business. Gun Owners Might Sit Out This Election? The Hobbesian Conservative says what I have said before: "no compromise" gun rights activists who talk about "sitting out the election" because Bush isn't 100% on our side are fools. This isn't a race between a mildly pro-gun candidate and mildly anti-gun candidate. It's a race between a candidate who got himself elected Governor of Texas by promising to sign a non-discretionary concealed weapon license bill--and signed it--and a Senator who showed up for one of the few votes he's made during this campaign to vote against the rights of gun owners. Germans Have a Reputation For Being Very Fastidious Sorts... But leaving German off the list of languages? BERLIN (Reuters) - Berlin has introduced five talking waste bins which say thank you in three different languages or scream "goal" to help promote a cleaner city. Gives A Whole New Meaning to the Phrase "Shooting One's Mouth Off" From Reuters: AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A Dutch artist has used a flap of her own skin to make a replica pistol to be shown at an Amsterdam art show next month, she said Friday.I could not make up nonsense this bizarre. How Do Our Soldiers Feel About Operation Iraqi Freedom? You may be surprised by the survey results, here. Very large majorities believe Iraq is better off than before the war, one question just flabbergasted me: "7. If it were possible to volunteer for this deployment and you had not been assigned, would you have volunteered?" An astonishing 47% of the active military said either "Definitely Yes" or "Probably Yes"--and even 34% of National Guard members gave one of those two answers. Confused Rhinoceros How to be polite about this... This news story reported by The Bitch Girls indicates that a male rhinoceros became convinced that a Renault was a female rhino interested in making more rhinos. The comments are the funniest part: Maybe Sharka just has bad eyesight or as the quote says "rhinos are not particularly intelligent animals".and Creativity is a good thing in matters of love, but only the French could design a car that sexually stimulates a zoo animal. The Diaperless Baby Movement Professor Volokh points to the latest environmental idiocy: the "diaperless baby movement." As environmentalists celebrate the 34th annual Earth Day, some in the green movement are now advocating "diaper-free" babies to help save the planet.Yup, it works great in tribal societies where everyone lives in dirt floor shacks, the population density is about ten per square mile, and no one minds getting cholera or dysentery from contaminated water supplies. Some of the claims made by the "diaperless baby" movement tell me that we are dealing with dangerous fanatics. I saw no sign that either of my children were "aware" that they were about to open fire, at least in the first year or two. In addition, children get diarrhea. My wife and I used the expression "thermonuclear meltdown" to describe some of these Chernobyl-rivalling results--often so overwhelming that the only solution was to drop them directly into the tub. The prospect of this happening in a public place, or near a public water supply, reveals what raving lunatics these fanatics are. Kansas Governor Sibelius's Veto Message Sorry I haven't been paying enough attention on this--she vetoed a shall-issue concealed handgun permit law over a week ago, and I just got around to noticing. Believe me, I really do care--I don't want to have to do wild detour around Kansas while heading East from here: States That Trust Me To Carry a Concealed Handgun Governor Sibelius's excuse for vetoing the law: I do not believe the widespread legalization of concealed firearms that House Bill 2798 would allow would make Kansans safer. I do not believe allowing people to carry concealed handguns into sporting events, shopping malls, grocery stores, or the workplace would be good public policy. And, to me, the likelihood of exposing children to loaded handguns in their parents' purses, pockets, and automobiles is simply unacceptable.Yes, unlike most other states which have passed similar laws without problems. Dirty Harry As A Lifeboat Ethics Argument As hard as it may be to believe, I had never seen Dirty Harry before. When it came out in 1971, I think it may have been R-rated, and thus not available for me to see. Not that I would have wanted to see it, anyway. Police dramas aren't high on my list. The History Channel must have been short of documentaries or serious historical fictions to run, because they ran Dirty Harry as part of their "Films in Time" series, with commentary by John Milius, who was one of the screenwriters for Dirty Harry (and I think, one or two of the sequels). One of the points that Milius made was that Dirty Harry was something of a breakthrough film: Inspector Harry Callahan isn't a knight in shining armor, as police dramas had traditionally portrayed them. Nor does Dirty Harry portray him as evil, or lost in the shades of gray "criminals and police are pretty much the shame" view that was becoming popular with intellectuals at the time. Instead, the film is an attack on the ACLU's view of civil lberties with respect to law enforcement. Now, I happen to think the ACLU is way off the deep end on many issues. A later film, The Star Chamber is actually more thought-provoking because it confronts the same problem, using some of the absurd case law that came out of Rose Bird's California Supreme Court & Lunatic Asylum (example: police can't search trash cans until the trash has been mingled with the trash of others). The Star Chamber is more thought-provoking because it shows both sides of the problem of "how sure are we?" It struck me, however, that Dirty Harry is in some ways the conservative equivalent of the lifeboat argument that liberals have exploited so successfully to defend abortion on demand. Like the lifeboat scenario (ten people in a lifeboat; there's only enough room for eight; which two do you throw out?), Dirty Harry's plot justifies warrantless searches and torture of a defendant in order to prevent the death by suffocation of a kidnapped little girl. Situations like this do arise--but infrequently. Like the lifeboat case, and like the anacephalic fetus, these are not common--but once you have accepted that it is legitimate to throw out a legal principle to deal with a rare hard case, it is just too easy for that rare exception to swallow up a principle that makes good sense for 99.99% of the situations. Labels: abortion Randy Barnett Is Again Defending His Libertarian View of the Constitution Here And he needs to. Nelson Lund and John O. McGinnis's recent paper on the Lawrence decision points out that the many serious and dangerous consequences of this sort of judicial legislating. Barnett's argument is essentially: Much state legislation restricting liberty cannot plausibly be characterized as the protection of the rights of others, and by this criteria, the "antisodomy" statute in Lawrence is an easy case.Libertarian ideas are a fine public policy argument to make, but they are not the Constitution. The U.S. Constitution provided limited authority to the federal government, limited the authority of the states in a few specific areas (see Art. I, sec. 10, and Art. IV), but left states otherwise free to pass all sorts of laws: good, bad, and silly. Later amendments have narrowed state authority, but to claim that the U.S. Constitution was ever intended as a blueprint for a narrowly libertarian limiting of the authority of state legislatures is laughable. The states have used (and abused) a nebulous authority known as "police power" from the very beginning. They have engaged in all sorts of economic regulation, much of it absurd. They have passed all sorts of laws intended to punish vice and promote virtue. You can argue, as many have, that the states should not have had this much power. You can argue that legislators should use these powers sparingly. You can argue for amending state constitutions to limit the power of the government to regulate--and I will generally agree that this is a good idea. But that isn't what the Constitution established, and even the 14th Amendment was not intended to prohibit states from passing all sorts of stupid laws. Unfortunately, Lund and McGinnis's paper, as good as it is, seems to accept the Lawrence decision's false claims about the history of sodomy laws in America: B]ecause sodomy laws traditionally applied to heterosexual conduct as well as homosexual conduct: “[T]here is no longstanding history in this country of laws directed at homosexual conduct as a distinct matter.”80 By the Lawrence Court’s logic, the traditional proscription against prostitution must be quite compatible with a fundamental right to engage in homosexual prostitution, or heterosexual prostitution for that matter, since the law has generally not singled out either of them “as a distinct matter.” That is absurd. Let us assume, furthermore, that Lawrence is right to claim that Bowers overstated what the Court calls its “historical premises” about anti-sodomy laws.81 Even if this were true, it would be no more than a red herring. The Court’s perfectly plausible claim that the states have not aggressively and consistently punished homosexual conduct does not advance one whit the argument that a right to homosexual sex specifically, or nonprocreative sex in general, is deeply Rooted in the Nation’s history and tradition.The Lawrence decision's claims are, however, false. One of these claims is that laws prohibiting homosexual sodomy separately from heterosexual sodomy are of recent origin, and that colonial laws prohibited all non-procreative sex equally. This is simply not true. See here for several examples. If Rush Limbaugh Ran This Story... Liberals would call him a racist for making it up. But no, an NAACP official is making the case that blacks should have different property tax rates than whites: RALEIGH -- Civil rights lawyer Alan McSurely argued before the state Court of Appeals on Tuesday that Orange County's colorblind assessment of property taxes discriminates against his client, who traces his roots to the slaves owned by the family of a state Supreme Court justice.Thanks to Discriminations for pointing out this insanity. I Guess There Is A Member of Congress Less Intelligent Than Lynne Woolsey (D-CA) Maxine Waters (D-CA), makes the case for abortion rights thusly: Waters told the rallied, “I have to march because my mother could not have an abortion.”Okay, okay, she might have meant, "Life was hard growing up because my mother couldn't get an abortion, and there were too many of us kids for her to support all of them." But it was still pretty funny to imagine Maxine Waters with access to a time machine, bringing her mother of 50 years ago into a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic and then POOF! Maxine Waters disappears in the present. Thanks to Instapundit for the link. Labels: abortion Toyota's "They Grow Up So Fast" Commercial You've probably seen it. A little girl of about 8 or 9 is saying, "Before you know it, you'll be walking me down the aisle." A little boy of about the same age is saying, "Before you know it, I'll be away at college." The narrator reminds you that the trips that you go on with your children will be the sort of trips on which they will take their children. It is a commercial that puts a big lump in my throat. Toyota is trying to sell us on the virtues of buying one of their SUVs for family vacations. (Helpful financial hint: You can rent an SUV or minivan for three weeks vacation for about the amount of two car payments, and drive a more reasonably priced and fuel efficient car the rest of the year.) The commercial is true. They do grow up so fast. I'll be walking my daughter down the aisle this July. My son is still at home, but he has reached the age where he really doesn't want to go on trips with his family. (Around 13 or 14, most kids go through a stage where they pretend that they were hatched, and don't know who you are.) I can't say that I have a lot of regrets on this score. We took our kids on some pretty neat vacations: across the Southwest; across the Northwest; to Britain in 1999; Washington DC, Colonial Williamsburg, Philadelphia, New York City, Plymouth, and Niagara Falls in 2001; to Hawaii in 2002. We did traditional vacations, like Hawaii, and Yosemite, and Yellowstone. We did untraditional ones: camping in the middle of Nevada to the sound of coyotes; submachine gun class at Front Sight. We went to the places that every family goes (at least in movies): Old Faithful; Grand Canyon; Niagara Falls; Disneyland; the Smithsonian. We went to places that represent our somewhat unconventional approach to things: the Great Meteor Crater in Arizona; ghost towns in California and Nevada. The only real regret that I have is that we never did a cross country trip like the 1967 vacation that I went on with my parents and my sister Marilyn. We drove from Los Angeles to Expo 67 in Montreal, visiting (sometimes rather hurriedly) 37 states and 4 Canadian provinces in 17 days. Still, I was able to take my kids to Britain, and that's one trip my parents didn't really have the resources to do. They do grow up so fast. Don't let anything get in the way of vacations with your family. Don't tell yourself, "We can do this next year." Yes, you might, but there are magic ages in your child's life. I remember when we visited the Grand Canyon, my kids were just a little too young to really appreciate the majesty of it--they just wanted to get back to the motel with a pool. (So two years later, we bought a house with a pool--and I used it more than they did.) Your kids will reach an age faster than you imagine where they will look for ways to stay home with their friends instead of going anywhere with their parents. Don't tell yourself, "This startup is going to make me so rich that I won't have to work, and we can spend more time on vacation." This is a delusion, one that I had, a long time ago. Even among engineers, the number that get that rich is tiny--perhaps one out of a thousand. This time that your children are small is fleeting and precious; don't kid yourself that you are going to have a lot more time while they remain young. The chances are essentially zero that this will happen to you. Don't miss those opportunities; you won't get a second chance. There are going to be enough regrets as you look back on those years; don't add any that you can avoid. |
