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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).
Sorry, high pressure isn't included.
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Amitai Etzioni's Blog
Scrappleface -- Dangerously Clever Satire
Michael Williams -- Master of None
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THE MESOPOTAMIAN: TO BRING ONE MORE IRAQI VOICE OF THE SILENT MAJORITY TO THE ATTENTION OF THE WORLD
Specializing in discussions of discrimination and affirmative action
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Impearls: a blog as electic and interesting as mine
Proving that the United States military does more than kill people and break things.
May not agree with this group on everything, but stopping the ACLU is high on my list
A conservative/moderate black blogger.
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Sex, Crime, and Corruption in the Democratic Party
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A blog dedicated to "Documenting Saddam Hussein's support of Terrorism"
The blog of one of my fellow bloggers on the Civilian Gun Self-Defense Blog
J. Norman Heath's Blog--a circus rigger and Second Amendment scholar (really!)
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Neocon Blues
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Adventures in Electronic Repair
My Corvette has one of those remote control key fobs, or in GM parlance, Remote Keyless Entry. A few days ago, it stopped working.
I replaced the battery. That didn't solve the problem, and my wife's key fob for the Corvette worked just fine.
I went through the resynchronization process (since the operation code apparently changes every time you use it). That didn't fix it.
I could go to the Chevrolet dealer, and pay more than a $100 for a replacement fob--but why?
I opened the fob up again, and took a careful look. There seemed to be some sort of goo on the contacts between the battery and the printed circuit board, which I accidentally wiped away, so I went out and bought some electrically conductive goo at Radio Shack. That didn't fix it.
So I pulled out the multimeter, and started checking everything for continuity. Then I noticed one little rectangle in the upper right corner of this picture--the solder joints holding it to the board had failed. I soldered them back in place--and solved the problem. (The new globs of solder are too large--I'm using a crummy Radio Shack soldering iron, and I don't have a solder sucker.)
A Pointless Resistance
A reader pointed me to this story because as originally published, it referred to the shooter complaining about the recoil from a 38mm handgun. Yes, I think I would complain about the recoil as well! To their credit, the newspaper corrected this error in a later edition to .38. The interesting part of the article, however, is the continued unwillingness of the city and county of St. Louis to issue concealed carry permits--even though it is quite easy for residents to obtain out of state concealed carry permits, and use those instead: The blast from the 38 caliber handgun produced a surprisingly strong kick. Audrey Sementilli shook her head as she placed the pistol back on the counter in front of her.
This pretense that not issuing permits will make much of a difference is one of the marks of a fanatic.
"I didn't like that one," said the retired teacher. "I'll stick with my Glock."
...
But fully a year after Missouri became one of 46 states to offer such permits, St. Louis and St. Louis County refuse to issue them.
A bill pending in the Missouri Legislature would force the city and county to fall in line with the rest of the state.
Statewide, about 16,000 background checks have been requested for applications for concealed-weapons permits.
Last year, the city and the county decided against issuing the permits, saying the new law violated the Hancock Amendment, which prohibits unfunded mandates.
...
Hundreds and possibly thousands of people from the greater St. Louis area have received concealed-carry permits from other states, such as Utah, Pennsylvania and Florida. Those permits are honored in Missouri.
Jim Stephens, owner of Bullseye Indoor Shooting Range, is qualified to teach the state's mandatory gun safety course. He estimates that about 10,000 city and county residents have received out-of-state permits.
"I'm guessing that when that bill passes, it won't make much of a difference," he said. "Those who wanted a permit probably already have one."
When You Can't Tell Satire From Actual Legal Decisions
Scrappleface again has a very funny satire--but the reasoning involved sounds right: 2005-03-15) -- A San Francisco County judge, who yesterday struck down California's ban on homosexual marriage, today ruled on the same basis that separate restrooms for men and women are unconstitutional.
Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court decided in Lawrence that homosexual sodomy laws do not meet even the very low "rational basis" standard, the question for me has been, "What constitutes a rational basis for a law?" I can't for the life of me come up with a reason for sex-segregating restrooms and locker rooms.
Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer likened the division of washrooms to laws requiring racial segregation in schools, and said there appears to be "no rational purpose for denying women access to men's facilities and vice versa."
It can't be a matter of privacy, except in the sense of privacy from the opposite sex--and on what basis does this pass the rational basis test? Why should a woman find it acceptable to change into gym clothes in front of another woman, but not a man?
It can't be to defuse sexual tension, because restrooms aren't segregated by sexual orientation. Homosexual men used the same restrooms and locker rooms as straight men, and ditto for women.
It isn't to prevent rape or sexual abuse. We have laws against that already, and I am sure that no one can prove that mixed sex restrooms or locker rooms cause rape.
We sex-segregate restrooms and locker rooms simply as a matter of custom--and this is a practice that has far less tradition, either customary or legal, than the ban on same-sex marriage. I can remember in the early 1970s when Los Angeles County found that it actually had a need to prevent men using women's restrooms that there was no actual legal prohibition on it. No state law; no county or city ordinances. Social custom had been enough.
So here's a point for all of you who believe that same-sex marriage bans has no rational basis to ponder: how, exactly, can laws prohibiting men from using women's locker rooms be justified? How will such laws survive the sort of scrutiny that Lawrence imposes? It is not enough to argue that "no one wants to integrate locker rooms." At some point, someone is going to want to do so, if for no other reason than that the plaintiff likes to make women uncomfortable.
Scrappleface, As Usual, Has It Spot On
I really don't want turn this into a 100% Terri blog, but the insanity of what is happening makes it rather inevitable. I pointed out earlier that if you put the, "My wife said she wanted to die" nonsense into the context of domestic violence, liberals would be furious! Scrappleface, as usual, writes satire using concentrated nitric acid as ink. Just a couple of excerpts--it is worth reading in full: (2005-03-19) -- The National Organization for Women (NOW) today held a jubilant news conference to celebrate the latest advance in women's rights -- the right to have your estranged husband choose to end your life.
"First, it was women's suffrage -- the right to vote -- then abortion, the right to privacy," said an unnamed NOW spokesman. "Finally, a man has led the way in freeing us from the antiquated bigotry that has kept our former husbands from choosing a slow, painful death for us."
The NOW source said the court-ordered removal of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube, based on the testimony of Michael Schiavo alone has "opened a world of opportunities for women to freely die at the hands of the men they love."
"The next time you tell your husband 'I'd rather die than go to that party,' you can rest assured that your words have legal weight and, if the occasion arises, your wishes will be respected," said the NOW source. "What's more, you're free from the worry that your man will be prosecuted for your murder."
It Reads Like An Urban Legend...
But the police have pictures to prove it: A woman said she bit into a partial finger served in a bowl of chili at a Wendy's restaurant, leading authorities to a fingerprint database Thursday to determine who lost the digit.
How could you lose the end of your finger and not raise enough of a fuss to stop the chili production? I've never been a big fan of Wendy's chili, but this definitely puts it on my "don't order" list.
The incident Tuesday night at a San Jose, Calif., Wendy's restaurant left the unidentified customer ill and distraught, said Joy Alexiou, a spokeswoman for the Santa Clara County Health Department.
Employees at the Wendy's were checked and the fingertip didn't come from any of them, officials said, adding that the well-cooked finger may have come from a food processing plant that supplies the company.
Recovering From A Persistent Vegetative State
Interesting interview with a woman named Kate Adamson who the doctors decided was not going to recover, and so they pulled her feeding tube. She describes what it is like to starve to death, before she recovered. (It helped that her husband, an attorney, threatened lawsuits if they didn't resume feeding her.)
I don't know anything about www.rense.com, but I have been able to find that a lot of other people reference Kate Adamson's story.
Adamson's situation isn't the same as Schiavo's--but it does raise some questions about how certain doctors can be about someone's chances of recovery.
Thanks to Patterico for the link.
CAT Scan Of Terri Schiavo's Brain
I don't know that the two images are what they claim to be, but if so, it does suggest that Terri Schiavo is never going to recover, because her body has already removed most of the damaged brain tissue, leaving a large void.
Still, why does she smile when she sees a family member?
I can see why both sides of the abortion struggle have latched onto this case with such ferocity. There is very little difference between an embryo--or even a second trimester fetus--and Terri Schiavo. There is one dramatic difference, however, that tends to argue in favor of the unborn child. Terri Schiavo, if these pictures and the analysis of them are correct, is never going to recover. The unborn child, if allowed to live, will develop into a fully functional person.
What Is The Goal of Law?
Instapundit observes, about the Schiavo situation: Congress enacted a procedural statute, in the hopes of getting a substantive result. But this point keeps getting missed. It's also worth noting -- as Ann does -- that the parents' case was simply quite weak on the law. I thought conservatives were supposed to care about the law, but I see a lot of people being as result-oriented as, well, liberals are supposed to be . . . .
What should be the goal of law? I would argue that the goal of law should be justice. As an example, the law prohibits stealing--and yet few people raised in the Judeo-Christian tradition would punish a starving man for stealing a loaf of bread to feed himself and his family. (In practice, this is almost unheard of--I have only once seen someone steal food.) In this respect, both "result-oriented" liberals and "result-oriented" conservatives share a common perspective that justice is the goal, not the mechanical functioning of the legal process.
I would argue that there is nothing just about killing a woman simply on the word of her husband, who has reasons to want her dead, apart from his supposed concern for Terri's welfare. Recast this situation in domestic violence terms, and watch how quickly liberals would be justly angry at allowing Michael Schiavo to beat his wife.
Now, I understand that law is necessarily an imperfect attempt at justice, and I agree that there are going to be situations where following legal procedures exactly is going to produce unjust results. But the sentiments of Instapundit, and many others, seem a little more concerned about the following of legal procedure, and not enough concerned about the injustice of the results. The law exists to serve mankind, not the other way around.
Eyepiece Review
Astromart.com has posted my review of the Russell Optics 85mm Super-Plossl.
Interesting Last Names
I blogged a week or so ago about interesting last names. I saw an interesting last name today that makes you wonder if the last name caused the choice of occupation, or if there is some genetic predisposition involved: Lisa Dockter, M.D.
Ward Churchill Is In Trouble
Colorado University is going to investigate him for academic fraud and falsely claiming to be an Indian--not for his offensive but constitutionally protected comparison of the 9/11 victims to Himmler. This is as it ought to be.
Non-Violently Saving Terri Schiavo
I see that another ten people have been arrested for attempting to take food and water to Terri Schiavo. Right idea; wrong scale. As long as the number of people prepared to break the law (and in this case, apparently just a trespass charge--the FACE Act only applies to places providing "reproductive health services" and religious worship) is small enough for the police to arrest, this isn't going to save Terri Schiavo's life. The use of violence would be politically unwise, and risks injury to others.
What if 1000 people attempted to take water to Terri Schiavo? How many police officers are there present to make sure that Michael Schiavo finds out "when is this bitch going to die"? If there are 25, they can arrest the first 50 or 100 protesters--but at some point, the number of police officers will not be sufficient to either transport arrestees to the police station, or to keep them under control once arrested. If 1000 people make this attempt in a period of ten minutes, someone is going to get through with a water bottle.
At a minimum, it should be possible to overwhelm the capacity of the local police department to process arrestees when they get to the jail.
I suppose by that point the ACLU will be demanding that the police start shooting people indiscriminately so that their bloodlust gets satisfied.
Fascinating Interviews on Hannity & Colmes Last Night
I was watching Hannity & Colmes on Fox last night, and my rage just grows at how liberals pretend that there are no serious issues with the Schiavo case. One of the guests was a nurse who cared for Terri Schiavo for more than a year. She has given a sworn affadavit (more than a year ago) that:
1. Terri speaks words such as, "Mommy," "help me," and "pain." She laughs at jokes.
2. Michael Schiavo, her husband, would ask, "When is this bitch going to die?"
3. On one occasion when she went into Terri's room after Michael Schiavo had been visiting her, she found an insulin bottle. (If you don't know this, one of the more clever ways to kill someone so that it won't usually show up in an autopsy is insulin injections.) Here's some discussion of this.
4. She claimed that at least two other nurses had filed sworn affadavits as to Terri's non-vegetative state--and Hannity confirmed that he had seen them.
They showed a videotape of Terri--and at one point, when she saw the face of her father, she smiled. This is a permanent vegetative state?
They interviewed one of the seven doctors who declared that Terri is in a permanent vegetative state. Hannity asked him if he had really made two statements. (I'm working from memory on this, so I may not have the wording exactly right.) "Patients in a permanent vegetative state have no constitutional rights." "Patients in advanced stages of Alzheimer's should not have feeding tubes inserted." This doctor confirmed that had indeed written both statements.
I am reminded of the Nazi doctors exterminating the feeble-minded, the severely deformed, and other "useless" members of society in the T4 projects at the beginning of the Nazi era. I am also reminded of a problem a little closer to home: the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. A good friend of mine, Peter Buxtun, played a critical role in getting this monstrous project exposed and ended. He told me once about a white-haired doctor at CDC who argued with him that it was very important for this pointless study--which was causing old men to go blind and insane--to continue until all the men were dead.
There is so much legitimate reason to wonder if Michael Schiavo is telling us the truth, and if Terri Schiavo is really in a persistent vegetative state--and yet the courts are insisting on sticking to this. It makes no sense, except as part of the liberal campaign to create a culture of death (except for convicted murderers).
A Carefully Thought Out Publicity Stunt, I'm Sure...
But what does it say about how insane the Schiavo situation is that someone is arrested for trying to give water to a person who is being intentionally starved to death? St. Francis Catholic worker Lana Jacobs (R) is arrested by Pinellas Park, Florida police officers and is handcuffed by Pinellas Park Sheriff deputies for trespassing. Jacobs tried to take a bottle of water into the Woodside Hospice for Terri Schiavo in Pinellas Park, Florida on March 22, 2005.
I have exchanged email with professors who argue that the involvement of Randall Terry (of Operation Rescue) on Terri Schiavo's behalf makes the case for starving her to death stronger. I've never had much use for reactionary politics; the case for whether to starve Terri Schiavo to death or not is not affected in the least by who is for or against it.
Terri Schiavo is not dying--except by the actions of the courts. She is clearly incompetent. She can't talk. She can't walk. She can't take care of herself in even the most basic elements of bodily hygiene. Neither can a six month old baby. Would we allow a mother or father to starve their baby to death? Of course not. It would be child neglect, at least. Preventing someone else from feeding that child would lead to charges more serious than neglect.
This is shameful to America as a nation.
And make you sure read this account by someone with a brother that she was being encouraged to allow to "die with dignity." He's home now, buying books, and recovering.
Democrats: Party of the Rich
Michael Barone has a column in which he discusses what I have long observed: contrary to conventional wisdom, if you look for people with extravagant wealth and no need to work, they are generally Democrats, not Republicans: Examining the political map of America, as I am obliged to do as I write the chapters of "The Almanac of American Politics 2006," reveals a previously unidentified segment of the American electorate, one which has been growing for some years now but has reached a critical mass and become a major force in one of our two great political parties: the trustfunder left.
Barone gives a number of other examples of places where people who do not need to work--and whose great-great-great-grandchildren will not need to work, if the intervening generations are not completely foolish.
Who are the trustfunders? People with enough money not to have to work for a living, or not to have to work very hard. People who can live more or less wherever they want. The "nomadic affluent," as demographic analyst Joel Kotkin calls them.
These people tend to be very liberal politically. Aware that they have done nothing to earn their money, they feel a certain sense of guilt. At the elite private or public high schools they attend, and even more at their colleges and universities, they are propagandized about the evils of capitalism and globalization, and the virtues of environmentalism and pacifism. Patriotism is equated with Hiterlism.
...
Where can you find trustfunders? Not scattered randomly around the country, but heavily concentrated in certain areas. Places with kicky restaurants, places tolerant of alternative lifestyles, places with lots of art galleries and organic food stores and Starbucks competitors. The heaviest concentration is in the San Francisco Bay area, which, Kotkin says, has the largest percentage of trustfunders of any major metro area in the country.
The Bay area stands out in stark relief on the political map. It voted 70 percent to 29 percent for John Kerry in 2004, up from the 64 percent to 30 percent margin it cast for Al Gore in 2000. Without the Bay area's 1.15 million-vote margin for Kerry, California would have come within 82,000 votes of voting for George W. Bush.
Trustfunders stand out even more vividly when you look at the political map of the Rocky Mountain states. In Idaho and Wyoming, each state's wealthiest county was also the only county to vote for John Kerry: Blaine County, Idaho (Sun Valley), where Kerry stayed at his wife's imported Cotswold farmhouse on his much photographed skiing and snowboarding vacation, and Teton County, Wyo. (Jackson Hole), where Dick Cheney has a house and where Bill Clinton took a pre-election holiday after his pollster Dick Morris reported that a trip to the mountains focus-grouped better than Martha's Vineyard.
Barone ends his column with this observation, which largely fits my experience dealing with multimillionaire fans of Noam Chomsky: The good news for Democrats is that they have found a new source of votes and money. The bad news is that an important part of their core constituency has the characteristic that the British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin ascribed to the press, "power without responsibility, the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages."
Not Your Standard College Literature Class
My wife is teaching "Literature of World War I and the Lost Generation," so she has decorated the classroom with World War I propaganda posters, flags of the combatants, and I am supposed to help the guy who is bringing over two World War I belt-fed machine guns. (Operational--hey, this is Idaho--but no live ammo.)
No, not a boring class, when my wife teaches.
I'll update with some pictures this evening.
UPDATE: The star was an MG08 made in 1918.
Yeah, that's my wife. The other two people brought the machine guns.
Here is a belt with a few dummy rounds loaded up:
Here is a French chau chat light machine gun--one of those good ideas that did not really work.
Some propaganda posters around the room, like this French one proclaiming that Alsace-Lorraine "is ours".
And a Belgian relief poster, and a post-Lusitania poster that is powerful in its simplicity.
Here's a German submarine recruiting poster.
And one asking Germans to subscribe to the sixth war bond.
I believe that this is a post-war poster reminding Britons that, "once a German, always a German."
If it isn't obvious, the upper right drawing of that is a reminder that Germans are drunken rapists.
Another Victory Over Common Sense
This is a sexual assault case out of Arizona--and there were suspicions for some time that this male nurse was behaving inappropriately with female patients who were unconscious or sedated. But when questions were raised, "racism!" was the response, and no one looked into what turned out to be a serious problem: During the quiet early morning hours at University Medical Center, a sexual predator worked for 23 months, preying on vulnerable surgery patients while convincing his supervisors nothing was amiss.
Daniel Lugo Perez, a former UMC patient-care technician, was sentenced this month to 57 years in prison for using his fingers and fists to sexually assault three bone-surgery patients.
Though Perez's criminal case is over for now, police are investigating two more possible attacks at UMC and allegations he assaulted a 6-year-old girl in South Tucson.
...
At least three UMC nurses thought Perez was staying too long in female patients' rooms. Just as many became suspicious of his behavior. But little was documented or communicated - even after a patient repeatedly accused Perez of assault and the hospital investigated.
One nurse who spoke out was pegged a racist. Her observations the night of an assault last June - the attack that led to Perez's arrest - were twice discounted by a supervisor. Another supervisor recorded the nurse's account, but his notes were not given to a prosecutor until five days before Perez's trial.
More Discussions of Bigotry and Prejudice
Of course, this article from the Athens Banner-Herald (free registration required) is discussing its presence on a college campus, at the University of Georgia: Tuesday, Boston College philosophy professor Peter Kreeft addressed UGA's Christian Faculty Forum about the culture war. After the talk, he told the group he has always felt comfortable as a member of Boston College's philosophy department.
Some professors said that they had not experienced any overt prejudice, but:
But some members of UGA's faculty say they have not always felt comfortable and accepted in the university environment.
"It's odd for Christian professors, because their views represent the majority of Americans at large, but in a university it is a very eccentric position to represent," said Tom Lessl, a speech communication professor.
"There's a kind of institutionally sanctioned divide, where authorities who represent a secularist world view often have an inordinate amount of power over those who don't embrace a secularist view point," he said."Sometimes there are odd discrepancies between the general perspective of tolerance and the kind of intolerance expressed against religious people," he said. "It's a bit worrying at times that people think of themselves as being very open-minded, but when it comes to the subject of religion, they become very closed-minded," he said.
The problem shows up in rules that effectively ban certain topics in the classroom:
The degree of intolerance exists not for all religious groups, Evans said, but specifically for fundamentalist Christians.
"If supposedly open-minded intellectuals made the kind of remarks about people of Jewish faith that they make about Southern Baptists, they would be penalized, if not sued, for libel or slander, or denounced for their bigotry," Evans said.Trying specifically to avoid religion can become difficult and even inappropriate in some classes, Evans said, specifically in courses that focus on novels and writers with strongly religious backgrounds.
At some point, the universities are going to have to make a serious effort to promote diversity--and not just of race and sexual orientation, but of ideas.
"It is never appropriate to compel belief or non-belief," he said, but it is also inappropriate to avoid the topic of religion in some instances.
Lessl agreed, citing the example of speech courses in which professors outlaw speeches about religion.
"They are supposed to talk about what they care about, but sometimes they can't talk about the things they care about the most," he said.
More Discussions of Bigotry and Prejudice
Of course, this article from the Athens Banner-Herald (free registration required) is discussing its presence on a college campus, at the University of Georgia: Tuesday, Boston College philosophy professor Peter Kreeft addressed UGA's Christian Faculty Forum about the culture war. After the talk, he told the group he has always felt comfortable as a member of Boston College's philosophy department.
Some professors said that they had not experienced any overt prejudice, but:
But some members of UGA's faculty say they have not always felt comfortable and accepted in the university environment.
"It's odd for Christian professors, because their views represent the majority of Americans at large, but in a university it is a very eccentric position to represent," said Tom Lessl, a speech communication professor.
"There's a kind of institutionally sanctioned divide, where authorities who represent a secularist world view often have an inordinate amount of power over those who don't embrace a secularist view point," he said."Sometimes there are odd discrepancies between the general perspective of tolerance and the kind of intolerance expressed against religious people," he said. "It's a bit worrying at times that people think of themselves as being very open-minded, but when it comes to the subject of religion, they become very closed-minded," he said.
The problem shows up in rules that effectively ban certain topics in the classroom:
The degree of intolerance exists not for all religious groups, Evans said, but specifically for fundamentalist Christians.
"If supposedly open-minded intellectuals made the kind of remarks about people of Jewish faith that they make about Southern Baptists, they would be penalized, if not sued, for libel or slander, or denounced for their bigotry," Evans said.Trying specifically to avoid religion can become difficult and even inappropriate in some classes, Evans said, specifically in courses that focus on novels and writers with strongly religious backgrounds.
At some point, the universities are going to have to make a serious effort to promote diversity--and not just of race and sexual orientation, but of ideas.
"It is never appropriate to compel belief or non-belief," he said, but it is also inappropriate to avoid the topic of religion in some instances.
Lessl agreed, citing the example of speech courses in which professors outlaw speeches about religion.
"They are supposed to talk about what they care about, but sometimes they can't talk about the things they care about the most," he said.
This Is Going To Be An Unpleasant, Gruesome Entry
If you are sensitive, horrified by slasher movies, or find it unpleasant to watch war footage, what I am going to tell you here may cause you more trauma than you need. On the other hand, if you are one of the people who did not just disagree with Professor Volokh about torturing to death child rapists, but thought he was crazy, evil, or deranged for making the suggestion, you really need to read what I am about to say. By the time you are done, you will still disagree with Professor Volokh (even he has recanted), but you will at least understand why good and decent people get a little carried when discussing these monsters. To boil down what these monsters do to the phrase "child rape and murder" does not even begin to convey the horror of their crimes--rape and murder are practically benign compared to what happens.
A few years back, PBS (of all organizations), ran a very, very grim documentary titled, "Monsters Among Us," about how Washington State was dealing with a very serious problem: child molesters who were completing their sentences--and the sentences were clearly too short. The Washington legislature came up with a scheme for holding them as public safety hazards--and as much as I could approve of the sentiments behind this (and you will see why in a moment), I didn't see how the courts were going to uphold this administrative sentencing of people who had completed their sentences.
One of the monsters that they profiled in graphic detail preyed on little boys. He did not just rape and murder them. He castrated them while raping them, so that they bled to death while in excruciating pain. He kept their underwear as trophies.
I've mentioned a monster who raped and murdered a two year girl a couple of decades back in southern California. The last I heard, he was still on Death Row, as the ACLU and the rest of the liberal establishment tried to save his life. I have not mentioned the details of how he was convicted. He used channel locks to crush down on this toddler's leg bones to increase her pain as he raped her. These monsters derive pleasure from the pain and suffering of their victims. The prosecution matched tool marks on her bones to tool marks on the monster's channel locks. They used diary entries in which he fantasized about raping and murdering little children.
If you know what these monsters do, you can better understand why someone with small children (as Professor Volokh has) might get just a bit emotional on the subject. Even those of us who disagreed with him found it easy to be civil, because we understand the rage.
There are many other horrifying examples. One case working its way through the courts right now involves a civil suit against the North American Man-Boy Love Association. The claim is that NAMBLA's literature, by promoting adult men pursuing little boys for sex (and there's a reason that NAMBLA's newsletter is titled the BulliTEN), encouraged the two monsters in question to rape, torture, and murder a little boy. The ACLU, of course, is defending NAMBLA, because this is "free speech."
I do not find the ACLU's rationalization very persuasive; I see no reason why advocating a felony, and especially a felony that involves a crime against children, deserves the ACLU's active assistance. True, NAMBLA does not advocate torture and rape of children, but child molestation is definitely on a continuum, and because children (including a lot of teenagers) are remarkably guileless, it is fairly easy for the monsters to manipulate children into tolerance of sexual contact.
Of course, the ACLU has also argued that age of consent laws are unconstitutional--which, while it would not legalize violent rape of children, would certainly make it easier for molesters to rationalize their actions, and perhaps avoid punishment for their actions. To the extent that the ACLU works to strike down all age of consent laws, they are giving aid and comfort to pedophiles who are taking the exact same course as homosexuals did to "come out of the closet." Here's an example of newspaper coverage only slightly less sympathetic than the stuff that I would read about homosexuals, 25 years ago. If the ACLU gets its way in striking down age of consent laws, how long before they argue that minimum age marriage laws discriminate against minors? Why shouldn't adults be able to marry six year olds? Any argument that you can make against age of consent laws, or laws against same-sex marriage, works just as well for striking down minimum age marriage laws.
Child molestation is not new. I was disappointed to read accounts of child molestation in colonial Plymouth and Massachusetts--and in both cases, because sexual intercourse did not take place, the authorities were unable to pursue rape charges, much to their disgust. What is new is that organizations like the ACLU are assisting pedophiles to not feel like weirdoes.
I want pedophiles to feel like weirdoes. I want them to feel like they need counseling, or assistance. I do not want them to feel like they are legitimate members of society. I want them back in the closet--and I want the door nailed shut.
Amusement From Reflections, Reflections
I really like Alessandra's blog, and I've had some really entertaining conversations with her by email. (Some lucky guy is going to end up as her husband.) She has this amusing description of newspaper readership, revised from another such collection elsewhere: Your Newspaper Reveals Your Place in the Totem Pole
1. The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who run the country.
2. The Washington Post is read by people who think they run the country.
3. The New York Times is read by people who think they should run the country and who are very good at crossword puzzles.
4. USA Today is read by people who think they ought to run the country but don't really understand The New York Times. Moreover, they do find the NYT crossword puzzles a bit strenuous, so they prefer USA Today's daily trivia questions.
...
6. The San Francisco Chronicle is read by people who aren't sure there is a country ... or that anyone is running it; but if so, they oppose all that they stand for, unless the country will now sponsor free, public saunas.
Dean Calls For Starving Republicans To Death
Okay, okay, he didn't really say that--but you might get that impression. The argument for starving Terri Schiavo to death is that she is "brain-dead" (to hear some characterize her condition), and then Howard Dean gives a speech: "Keep it simple" is the key to the White House, failed Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean told members of his party from around the world last night.
Yup! Those "brain-dead" Republicans just keep cleaning the clock of the Democrats! What would happen if Republicans weren't "brain-dead"? Would they have 99 Senate seats and 430 House seats?
One major reason his party lost the 2004 race to the "brain-dead" Republicans is that it has a "tendency to explain every issue in half an hour of detail," Dean told the semi-annual meeting of Democrats Abroad, which brought about 150 members from Canada and 30 other countries to the Toronto for two days.
Do You Have A Drill Press and a Saw? Would You Like To Make Some Money?
Here's the part that I need. Yes, I could have a machine shop do it, but I'm looking for someone who has labor and equipment already sitting idle, who wants to make a little money--but not like a machine shop.
It can be black Delrin or black acetal, or stainless steel. You will cut a 1" length from a 1.200" to 1.250" rod. (Anything in that diameter is fine, if you can consistently get it in that diameter. It can't be any larger than 1.250".)
On one of the flat faces, I need a hole that is centered (within 0.01" of exact center), 0.5" deep, tapped for 3/8"-16, and exactly right angle to the face. (I don't have a drill press--that's why I am looking for someone who does, and wants to put their capital and labor to use.)
0.375" from the other end, I need a 0.250" to 0.254" hole that going through the diameter of the rod. (This hole is perpendiclar to the hole centered in the flat face.) A standard 1/4" drill works fine for this.
These holes do not touch, of course.
Every Disease or Perversion Needs An Advocacy Group
And now, apparently, it is anorexia nervosa: Theirs is a militant battle of the bulge waged with "thinspiration" photos of waiflike actors and models, extreme diet and exercise advice, fasting tips and contests, diet pill and purging information and discussion forums.
I had trouble finding some of these sites still operational--I presume because their HTML got smaller and smaller, until they simply disappeared--but I guess I am not surprised. In a world where there is no right or wrong, it is very easy for those who are starving themselves to death to adopt the same rhetoric of victimization and empowerment that worked for homosexuals, and is beginning to work for pedophiles.
With names like "Anorexic Nation," "Art of Reduction," "Skinny WannaBe," "Totally in Control," "Starving for Perfection," "Pro Choice," "Ana by Choice" and "The Mirror Never Lies," some solicit money and names for petitions to fight any legal attempts to take them down. Others strive to double the number of anorexics, and some want to start radio and television shows devoted to their point of view.
Other Withholding of Care Cases
Mark Kleiman blogs about two other cases that are superficially similar to the Schiavo case that aren't receiving the same attention: Sun Hudson, a six-month-old boy with a fatal congenital disease, died Thursday after a Texas hospital, over his mother's objections, withdrew his feeding tube. The child was apparently certain to die, but was conscious. The hospital simply decided that it had better things to do than keep the child alive, and the Texas courts upheld that decision after the penniless mother failed to find another institution taht would take the child during the 10-day window provided for by Texas law.
The article that Kleiman references, however, doesn't say anything about a shortage of money being a factor in the Hudson case. It does indicate:
Where, I would ask, is the outrage? In particular, where is the outrage from those like Tom DeLay, who referred to the withdrawal of Terry Schiavo's life support as "murder"? If it's appropriate to Federalize the Schiavo case, what about the people being terminated simply because their cases are hopeless and their bank accounts empty?Texas Children's contended that continuing care for Sun was medically inappropriate, prolonged suffering and violated physician ethics. Hudson argued her son just needed more time to grow and be weaned from the ventilator.
I am not comfortable with this decision. Yes, there is a distinction between the two cases--Sun Hudson was terminal, while Schiavo is not--but I can see why a mother would not want to give up on her son.
The other case that Kleiman points to does seem to be related to a reluctance of a hospital to care for a patient whose medical benefits are about to run out. This really bothers me. Yes, there is a need to recognize that there are limits to how much medical care we can afford to supply. Should the government spend one billion dollars to keep a terminally ill patient alive for another day? No way. There are lots of other people who are not terminal where that billion dollars would be better spent. But this is still disturbing--that the loss of medical benefits seems to be driving this decision.
Kleiman goes on to say: 1. Schiavo is in a persistent vegetative state, but isn't terminal. The two Texas patients were terminal but not vegetative. It seems to me that the distinction between a patient who is aware and a patient who isn't aware is the morally relevant one, while the disctinction between a death that is sure to occur soon and a death that is sure to occur eventually is morally irrelevant. (Try pleading as a defense to a murder charge that the victim had a terminal ailment.)
Uh, no. The distinction between a "patient who is aware and a patient who isn't" is not the morally relevant one. Try pleading as a defense to a murder charge that the victim was in a coma, or unconscious, and see how far it gets you.
Legitimizing Evil
The crime itself is horrifying, but unfortunately, not terribly unusual. The criminal's justification for it, however, is the reason that I get very upset when groups such as NAMBLA propagandize in favor of this, and when the ACLU argues that there is a constitutional right of minors to have sex with adults: A Queens sicko who masqueraded as a "good neighbor" raped, sodomized and molested at least seven children - and may have preyed on dozens of other kids, police said yesterday. Michael Flory, 48, an out-of-work auto mechanic, confessed to the horrific crimes after being arrested yesterday, telling cops there is nothing wrong with adults having sex with little boys and girls, law enforcement sources said.
If you advocate that age of consent laws are wrong or unconstitutional, you have to expect that some of the monsters will start to use this rhetoric.
"He is unrepentant," one high-ranking police source said.
