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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).
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Friday, September 16, 2005
Too Stupid To Stay Out of Prison I mentioned a few days ago a guy who called the police to complain that a neighbor stole his marijuana plants. (They hadn't been stolen at all.) I've also mentioned a variety of idiots who videotaped themselves committing various serious crimes. Here's another person unclear on the concept of "illegal": TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese woman called in the police after a hitman she paid to kill her lover's wife failed to carry out the job. I Don't Know That I Believe This Story But it's a great story, especially entertaining for those of us who live in dry climates, and on occasion produce visible electric discharges without even trying: SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian man built up a 40,000-volt charge of static electricity in his clothes as he walked, leaving a trail of scorched carpet and molten plastic and forcing firefighters to evacuate a building. This Month's Winner of The Ann Coulter Award for Most Inflammatory Article You know, I do believe that racial profiling with respect to terrorism is legitimate. If you have a bunch of Middle Eastern men getting on an airliner, it seems quite sensible to give them a somewhat more thorough security check than say, a five year old, or an 80 year old woman. Still, one can get a little carried away with the concept, and certainly how you express it: WASHINGTON — A student journalist accused of misleading those she interviewed for an inflammatory column about racial profiling of Arabs has been fired, the editor said.You know, even Ann Coulter is a bit more restrained than that. Now, if her column had started out, "I want all Republicans to be stripped naked and cavity-searched if they get within 100 yards of a voting booth," I rather doubt that the Daily Tar Heel would have given Bandes her walking papers. I'm Sure That There's A Perfectly Innocent Explanation Oh, absolutely. I'm sure that finding an Egyptian who is unlawfully in the United States with this has nothing to do with terrorism: Prosecutors say F-B-I agents found an airline pilot's uniform, a chart of Memphis International Airport and instructional D-V-D's. One was titled "How an Airline Captain Should Look and Act."Michelle Malkin has more. A search of the web for that name produces some interesting results. Unfortunately, the first page doesn't exist anymore--it would be interesting to see the rest of the text. Air America: Discrediting The Left Everywhere Two of Air America's hosts demonstrating Bush Derangement Syndrome: Two hosts at the liberal radio network Air America are defending Nation of Islam leader Minister Louis Farrakhan - saying he's not wrong to suspect that white people deliberately blew up the levees in New Orleans.I am reminded of PBS documentary some years ago in which Watts community activists insisted that the gun violence problem there was because police helicopters airdropped guns onto the streets of South Central Los Angeles, because otherwise gang members wouldn't have guns. Thanks to Michelle Malkin for pointing to this piece of insanity. IBM Encouraging Career Change IBM is subsidizing a career change for its employees--to become teachers: International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), worried the United States is losing its competitive edge, will financially back employees who want to leave the company to become math and science teachers.Yup. While the math and science problem is most obvious, and perhaps most critical, I am absolutely shocked and horrified at the low competency in lots of other areas. Here's the core problem, however: The company expects older workers nearing retirement to be the most likely candidates, partly because they would have more financial wherewithal to take the pay cut that becoming a teacher likely would entail.Yup. This is the major reason why I can't justify going back to school to get a Ph.D. in History (minimum requirement for full-time employment, even at most community colleges now). It's that vow of poverty that you have to take to teach. I know more than a few teachers who like to complain that the low rate of pay is some sort of conspiracy by conservatives to denigrate education. No, not really. This is a consequence of at least two factors: 1. Americans don't really care that much about education--at least, not compared to important matters, such as football, beer, and Desperate Housewives. Of course, liberals don't like to admit that the masses aren't terribly wise. 2. Education as an industry is dominated by the government, since at least 90% of all primary and secondary school teachers work in government schools. Of course, liberals don't like to admit that government might be part of the problem. Hold On, California's Legislature Did Something Right Hey, a million monkeys with a million typewriters...it was bound to happen: The food served in California schools will be healthier starting next fall under legislation signed Thursday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.Look, I enjoy a Coca-Cola as much as anyone. Speaking of monkeys, I have a bit of a Coke monkey on my back. There's enough time as an adult to pick up bad dietary habits, and there's nothing that prevents kids from bringing poor food choices from home. There's certainly no reason for public schools to be encouraging these bad habits. And yes, a ban on Microsoft software in public schools on similar grounds is tempting, although incompetently written PC software isn't really a public health concern. The Future of Color Laser Printers I can't tell you the details, for obvious reasons--but I saw what the market leader plans to sell color laser printers for in the next two years--and as a consumer, my reaction is, "Wow!" It is perhaps good that color laser printers are too large to fit into cereal boxes as a premium. Bizarre Conspiracy Theories About New Orleans I was reading this poll of evacuees this morning, and I found myself wondering if the failure of New Orleans and Louisiana government to take steps at the beginning of this crisis might have had an ulterior motive: HOUSTON, Sept. 15 -- Fewer than half of all New Orleans evacuees living in emergency shelters here said they will move back home, while two-thirds of those who want to relocate planned to settle permanently in the Houston area, according to a survey by The Washington Post, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health.Hmmm. If worst comes to worst, New Orleans and Louisiana "lose" a big chunk of their poorest, most dependent population, either to drowning or to other states. If liberals can rant and rave with a straight face that Bush didn't care about black people dying in New Orleans, then the, "Nagin and Blanco wanted all these poor people to leave New Orleans permanently" paranoid conspiracy theory makes just as much sense. It Must Be Our Irish Immigrants That Did This Kelly Clarkson, who seems to be some sort of British celebrity, writes a column for a British tabloid that includes this choice statement: America may have given the world the space shuttle and, er, condensed milk, but behind the veneer of civilization most Americans barely have the brains to walk on their back legs.I had a very liberal co-worker from Britain who joked, "Why was the wheelbarrow invented? To get the Irish up on two legs." Isn't liberalism wonderful? The Katrina Economic Crisis Must Be Over That was quick. I see that the 30 year Treasury yield (as of 9:00 AM Mountain time) is now 4.570%! Considering it was around 4.3% a week ago, that's pretty amazing. Investors are obviously discounting the possibility that the economy is going to slowly sink--or they are expecting that Bush's spending proposals for Katrina relief are going to drive up the deficit again. Thursday, September 15, 2005
Separation of Church & State Jim Lindgren, who is an atheist, has a rather interesting discussion of the history of "separation of church and state" over here. A few tidbits to drive your favorite ACLU member crazy: 9. In the last part of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, nativists (including the KKK) popularized separation as an American constitutional principle, eventually leading to a near consensus supporting some form of separation.Of course, that's because "separation of church and state" was originally a mechanism for marginalizing Catholics and preventing Catholic schools from receiving any sort of public funding. Wednesday, September 14, 2005
I'm Number One! Or so a reader tells me that Google thinks I am. He entered "Clayton" in Google's new blogsearch tool, and my blog was the very first item it listed. Click here, and maybe I will still be at the top of the list! Aurora Borealis Tonight? There was a pretty big solar flare yesterday, and there is some possibility that we might see auroras a bit farther south than usual--perhaps even as far south as our property in Horseshoe Bend. While looking for aurora borealis forecasts, I found this utterly bizarre page: How can we protect our homes, families and loved ones from an terrorism and war?You might almost get the impression that someone is more in the business of selling religious artifacts to the hopelessly gullible than spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ. On The Pledge of Allegiance Suit & Soap Opera As you might expect, I'm pretty irritated by Michael Newdow's use of his daughter as a political football in his bizarre crusade to get the Pledge of Allegiance removed from California schools, and I'm not happy about how the Supreme Court keeps dodging these issues, rather than admit that...well, we'll get to what they are doing. A federal judge has just granted Newdow's request for a restraining order against Elk Grove schools and the use of the Pledge. Since the Supreme Court dodged the question, the existing 9th Circuit precedent was still in effect, and the judge in this case did what he was supposed to do: follow precedent. I was pleased to see the judge's remarks about the Supreme Court's recent decisions that upheld the Ten Commandments at the Texas statehouse, but not in a courtroom: This court would be less than candid if it did not acknowledge that it is relieved that, by virtue of the disposition above, it need not attempt to apply the Supreme Court’s recently articulated distinction between those governmental activities which endorse religion, and are thus prohibited, and those which acknowledge the Nation’s asserted religious heritage, and thus are permitted. As last terms cases, McCreary County v. ACLU, 125 S.Ct. 2722, 2005 WL 1498988 (2005) and Van Orden v. Perry, 125 S.Ct. 2854, 2005 WL 1500276 (2005) demonstrate, the distinction is utterly standardless, and ultimate resolution depends of the shifting, subjective sensibilities of any five members of the High Court, leaving those of us who work in the vineyard without guidance. Moreover, because the doctrine is inherently a boundaryless slippery slope, any conclusion might pass muster.Exactly. The Supreme Court's decisions made no sense because they are trying to do something that makes no sense: pretend that the First Amendment requires the government to be completely neutral with respect to religion vs. non-religion--a position that would have astounded the First Congress, who passed the First Amendment. Need Bigger Jaws I discovered that it wasn't possible to turn 2.81" diameter plastic in my lathe. The standard 2.5" 3-jaw chuck is described as able to handle 2.25" stock. You can fit larger material into the chuck, but the jaws don't clamp it down very well. Unless you remove very, very small quantities of material, the torque pulls the stock right out of the jaws, and sends it flying across the garage in a quite energetic and noisy way. I learned to position my head somewhere out of the line of fire. Sherline does sell a larger 3.1" 3-jaw chuck that will handle up to 2.75" stock, which I have ordered. I don't know that I will be turning the 2.81" material--this is for the leg inserts for the Losmandy HGM-150 mount--but I suspect that with a little care, the 3.1" chuck will handle it. No Fat Left In Federal Budget! Oh yeah, I really believe this! House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said yesterday that Republicans have done so well in cutting spending that he declared an "ongoing victory," and said there is simply no fat left to cut in the federal budget.I can believe that no members of Congress can bring him any examples of fat to cut--because one of the jobs of a Congresscritter is to, in the words of my former Misrepresentative, Lynne Woolsey (D-CA), "bring home the bacon." But I am shocked and dismayed that Rep. DeLay could make a statement like that without immediately dropping to the floor in laughter-induced convulsions. More Evidence That Drunkenness Is A Bad Thing It isn't just dangerous machinery that you shouldn't operate while drunk--it is also telephones: An Illinois man made three mistakes earlier this month, according to the St. Clair County sheriff's office.How drunk do you have to be before you forget that marijuana is still technically unlawful to grow? An Ounce of Experience Beats a Pound of Theory An interesting quote from an article about Wal-Mart's decision to stop selling guns temporarily in the areas affected by hurricane Katrina: Smaller stores are eagerly filling the void. Spillway Sportsman, near Baton Rouge, sold 172 guns in one three-day period after the hurricane, when normally it might sell 15. One mother came in to buy her first gun after she and her two children, ages 9 and 12, witnessed a slaying on the streets of New Orleans, said Scott Roe, Spillway's owner.There's a widespread belief that high violence rates promote support for gun control. This is actually not true; the high point in American opinion polls for a ban on handguns was 1959. People that do not perceive that they will personally need a gun for self-defense are generally more willing to go along with gun bans, and this is part of why Britons put up with the Firearms Act of 1920. When violence becomes sufficiently widespread and random that ordinary people think that they might need a gun to defend themselves, they are less willing to tolerate very restrictive gun bans. Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Some Schools Have Problems With Gang Members Hanging Around Outside the Fence But gang members are easy compared to what hazards are outside the fence at this school: Audra Morrow, who grew up in Boulder and spent five glorious and quite cosmopolitan years living in San Diego, never imagined any of this. But here she is in the middle of the wild, rugged and stunningly remote Absaroka Mountains of northwestern Wyoming, flinging open the door of the tiny schoolhouse and leading the entire student body - this year it consists of four second-graders - out for recess.It would appear that the Endangered Species Act has performed its intended function rather well. Alcohol & Machinery Do Not Go Together From the September 13, 2005 Detroit Free Press: According to Troy Police Lt. Gerry Scherlinck, here's what happened:He's lucky that he isn't stretched out on a morgue slab. Drunkenness: there's a reason that the Bible condemns it, repeatedly. It makes you do dumb things. Successful Self-Defense; Still A Sad Result Not every civilian use of a gun in a self-defense goes perfectly. Over at my Civilian Gun Self-Defense Blog, we show not just the perfect examples, but also the situations where the victim shoots the criminal--but still ends up hurt or dead. It isn't ideal, but the criminal who gets killed--even if he wounds or kills his victim anyway--is a criminal who won't repeat his crimes. This is one of those cases where the victim didn't survive, but neither did the bad guy. At least the bad guy won't predate again: Kimberly D. Boyd took her son to preschool Monday morning, then dropped by a bank before heading to her office in north Cobb County.It appears that the carjacker was someone that needed to be removed from circulation, either through the legal system, or an incident like this: Police also were investigating the possibility that the carjacker's gun had been taken in a robbery, rape and carjacking in Acworth last Tuesday, said Cobb robbery squad Lt. Tom Arnold. Avoidable Deaths in New Orleans A few days ago, I had mentioned the deaths of more than 30 people at a nursing home near New Orleans after the staff ran away from rising waters--and left the patients behind. I don't know if this story is about the same event, but if so, it is worse than the earlier account: The owners of a New Orleans-area nursing home where 34 patients died in Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters were charged with negligent homicide Tuesday.If this account is correct, it was not that they could not move the patients, but would not. If the facts are as stated, criminal charges seem completely appropriate. Why would you refuse to move patients? Were they afraid of losing revenue? How Can We Blame Bush For This? Somehow, I just know he's responsible! PORTLAND, Oregon (Reuters) -- A large, slow-growing volcanic bulge in western Oregon is attracting the attention of seismologists who say that the rising ground could be the beginnings of a volcano or simply magma shifting underground. What Would Overturning Roe Do? Over at Volokh Conspiracy, Professor Orin Kerr was making some interesting observations about Judge Roberts's responses to questions about his judicial philosophy--and of course, one of the hot button issues for members of the Senate Judiciary Committee is where Roberts stands on stare decisis, because the Democrats want him to commit that he won't overturn Roe v. Wade (1973). Down in the comments section, a couple of people have expressed concern that if Chief Justice Roberts ends up as part of a future Supreme Court majority that overturns Roe, that it will make the Republicans a minority party again--presumably as enraged pro-choice voters re-register to express their disapproval of living in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaids' Tale. How would overturning Roe change the abortion laws in the U.S.? I happen to think that part of the result in Roe (limited state authority to regulate first trimester abortions) can be reached by a proper application of original intent, since first trimester abortions were apparently lawful when the Ninth Amendment was ratified. You could make the argument that this was a right reserved to the people, since most states apparently did not prohibit first trimester abortions in 1791. Overturning Roe would mean restoring authority to the states to regulate abortion. In practice, this would mean that the legislatures (presumably reflecting majority will in each state) would again be writing abortion laws, except for those states where the judiciary has found a right to abortion within the state constitution. If there is really a majority in most states in support of abortion, then why would overturning Roe change the status quo on abortion? A slim majority of Americans support overturning Roe. There is a majority that reluctantly supports keeping abortion legal, at least in the first trimester (when it is just a blob, and doesn't have eyes, fingers, toes, etc.) but isn't keen on partial birth abortion, abortion without parental knowledge or consent, abortion for sex selection, or abortion on a whim. They want some substantial restrictions on abortion, but not necessarily a ban. I don't know that this majority is going to write terribly sensible abortion laws with such a contradictory set of concerns, but such a majority isn't going to be writing laws that ban all elective abortions, either. Remember that before Roe, several states had already substantially liberalized their abortion laws (in California, after judicial action striking down an existing restrictive law). Even in states such as Oregon that had theoretically very restrictive abortion laws, abortion was actually quite common--with higher rates than some states had post-Roe. Unless you think that there is an extraordinarily powerful pro-life movement--one that is either a majority of the voters, or such a powerful minority that it is going to walk all over the supposed pro-choice majority--overturning Roe is not going to dramatically change state laws on this subject. Of course, if you think that abortion is going to suddenly become nearly unavailable in much of the United States because of overturning Roe, then you are taking the position that, in Ann Coulter's clever phrase, Abortion – like other liberal priorities over the years including forced busing, gay marriage and removing "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance – is an issue liberals believe is best voted on by groups of nine or fewer.If you want to argue that abortion is a fundamental human right, and not subject to abridgement by the majority, that's a plausible position, and worthy of legitimate debate. But don't then claim that support for unrestricted abortion is a majority position in the U.S.--but if Roe is overturned, those majorities are going to suddenly ban abortion. Labels: abortion Monday, September 12, 2005
Do You Suppose This Will Bother The Left? I frequently hear the claim that Palestinian objections to Israel are just disputes about land, not some sort of irrational hatred of Jews. But what shall we make of this? GAZA CITY — Palestinians surged triumphantly into demolished Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip early today, torching empty synagogues and firing shots into the air, as the last Israeli soldiers withdrew after 38 years of occupation.Can you imagine the upset if Israelis had torched mosques in the Occupied Terroritories? There is something unnerving about this--rather like Krystallnacht translated into Arabic. I can understand if the Palestinians decided to use the buildings for some other purpose, or simply demolished the buildings because the land was needed for a very different sort of structure--but burning them? Why? Demolishing an operational building is a pretty crazy thing to do. A lot of material and labor went into making that building. If you wonder why the Arab world is so desperately poor, you don't have to look very hard to figure out why. Sunday, September 11, 2005
House Project: Electrical, Green Submarine, & Master Bathroom I went up Saturday morning to confirm the positions and numbers of outlets, switches, telephone, television, and Ethernet cabling. (Yeah, there are a couple of items where I can't use wireless, so I am making sure that there are CAT-5 cables from my office to my son's bedroom.) I had mentioned previously that the LP gas tank, which looks like a green submarine, was now in the ground. Here's a picture.  Click here to enlarge If a device travels underground, is it a submarine or a subterrane? If you bail out of a subterrane, do you worry about land sharks? Here's the trench from the tank to the house, where the LP gas line feeds the kitchen, the water heater, and the outdoor barbecue spigot. I'm not quite sure where the backup generator will get its connection yet.  Click here to enlarge Here's the master bathroom--in case you ever wondered what a bathroom looks like before it is fully dressed.  Click here to enlarge If it looks a bit crowded--yeah, we may be overreacting to our current master bathroom, which is just wasting space. You spend all of about 30 minutes a day in there, at best. It doesn't have to be spacious. Here you can see the east end of the house, where the exterior outlets are going to go, and the east hose bib. Our current house has two hose bibs, both set in very useless locations, so I was a bit specific about number and location.  Click here to enlarge The weather has definitely changed here. I put on a jacket for a walk last night. It was positively brisk up at the new house Saturday morning--a welcome change after this long hot summer. Last house project entry. Labels: house project An Interesting Gun Misfire I've read of cases like this before--where the gun simply refuses to work, for no apparent reason. The woman in question was way down on her luck--perhaps why she was so willing to risk death: She had been with friends that night at Mad Dog's Wisconsin Tap, 1918 N. Wisconsin Ave. At 1:45 a.m., she walked into the back lot, getting ready to leave and waiting for her pals.I can see why she puts a divine intervention spin on it. Three times in a row, the gun fails to fire--when any shot would certainly have killed her. Then the gun starts working--and she's not at risk. It makes you wonder, doesn't it? Discovery Channel's "93: The Flight That Fought Back" I watched it this evening. I do hope a lot of others were watching as well. There's a lot of leftists who are prepared to make all sorts of excuses for what al-Qaeda did: they were victims of the West; American culture is destroying indigenous societies by exporting McDonald's; Jews really run the world. It is good to reminded that the people that al-Qaeda killed on flight 93 were not neo-conservatives, "little Eichmanns," members of the international capitalist conspiracy, and many of them weren't even Jewish! I was expecting a dramatic presentation, but it was a surprisingly effective mix of interviews with family members and friends, dramatic re-enactments, and actual video and audio from radio transmissions, phones, and surveillance cameras. In some places, the narrator (Kiefer Sutherland) was careful to tell us that we don't know exactly what happened, but this is one possible reconstruction, based on the cockpit voice recorder, and what loved ones tell us was consistent with the personalities of those involved. My wife chose not to watch it; she thought it would be too painful. She was probably right. I found myself in tears in places. These were ordinary people put into extraordinary circumstances, and they responded in an extraordinary way. They sacrificed their lives (which they suspected were probably already lost) to make sure that flight 93 wasn't used as a missle. Brave men and women should not be forgotten. Almost Human; Lathe Work I still have a bit of a sore throat, but I'm feeling almost human now. I had mentioned a few days ago an "Aha!" moment about how to machine one of these parts. I spent the weekend on this, and discovered that there were only two problems when I tried to use that technique: 1. Relieving the holder for the 3/8"-16 bolt head wasn't necessary, because the bolt head fits into the three jaw chuck's through headstock hole just fine. Not only was it not necessary, but relieving it made it easier for repeated clamping of the jaws to chew up the surface of the holder. Leaving it solid prevents it from deforming. 2. It isn't really practical (at least with the Sherline) to put a tap into the tailstock chuck and tap a hole in the workpiece under power--it would just bore a hole. Tapping a hole by hand, or with the tap in an electric drill, wasn't accurate enough. I would end up with a workpiece that, once screwed on the holder, wasn't turning exactly aligned with the headstock. The solution was to put the tap in the tailstock chuck, and then turn the headstock by hand, while rotating the tailstock advance at about the same rate. I can now make what I consider a perfectly acceptable ScopeRoller Quick Release Toe Saver body all by myself! I shipped one to Britain and one to Spain on Saturday as part of other ScopeRoller orders! |
