The advertising above is just a source of revenue. If the ads get offensive enough, I may drop them.
Clayton Cramer's BLOG |
|
|
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).
PayPal members: to make a contribution
Email me at blogmail at claytoncramer dot com. Sorry to be so indirect, but all spambots must die! But they haven't died yet! Include the word spamIamnot in your subject line to make sure that my spam blocker lets you through. |
Saturday, October 15, 2005
Blast From The Past I really thought this movie might be worth seeing when it came out, but one thing led to another, and I didn't see until just now. It isn't a perfect movie, but its flaws are so minor.... If I tell you the premise, it won't give anything away; the coming attractions for it were clear enough. Brendan Fraser stars as Adam Webber, born in 1962 at the heights of the Cuban Missle Crisis. An implausible set of events causes Adam's father and very pregnant mother to go into their extraordinary fallout shelter, and a plane crash on their house causes them to think that World War III has started. Adam is born shortly thereafter--and every stays in the shelter for 35 years. The reasons for this are bad science, but this isn't a science fiction movie--it's an entertaining examination of the way that our popular culture has changed, and for the worse, since that time. Brendan Fraser is one of my favorite comic actors--in George of the Jungle he managed this same wide-eyed, cow in the headlights character--so innocent, sweet, and decent that he simply can't understand anything else. As Adam Webber, being raised by his brilliant scientist father, he is an exaggeration of 1950s middle class values. When Dad goes back to the surface in modern America, he sees the graffiti, the violence, the styles, the adult bookstores, and assumes that the radiation caused a race of mutants to take over--and Adam has to go out on a shopping trip. I can barely remember the late 1950s, but in some senses, the cultural values of our society in that time survived into the late 1960s--a time that I remember well. I would have to call 1968 the period when everything clearly started down the toilet. By contrasting Adam Webber's exaggerated middle class values with the present, it reminds of what we have lost. The language is generally pretty clean--and the only mildly offensive langugage is there to show Adam's disappointment. There's a gay character, but he's the rather morally scrubbed sort of gay guy that seems to be present more in movies than in real life. I do recommend it. UPDATE: One of my gay readers asked me what I meant by "morally scrubbed." I mean that he isn't the sort who stands naked on top of a float in gay pride parades and... does things. Labels: film reviews Whose Side Are These Jerks On? Fox News is covering the aftermath of a neo-Nazi demonstration in Toledo, Ohio. The neo-Nazi message includes many different offensive ideas, but one dominant theme is that blacks (along with other "non-Aryans") are stupid, emotional, violent, and incapable of controlling themselves. (I sense a little projection go on there.) So what happened when the neo-Nazis held their rally? A crowd of largely black counterdemonstrators showed up, as is their right, to express an alternative point of view. Not surprisingly, some of the counterdemonstrators got angry, and started throwing rocks at the neo-Nazis. Dumb, but somewhat understandable. When the violence started, the police escorted the neo-Nazis out of the area. So what happened next? The counterdemonstrators started looting houses and shops, and kicking in doors of homes in the area. The footage showed them not only stealing stuff from homes, from throwing television sets from second story windows. Theft, while wrong, has a certain logic to it: "You have something that I don't have, and I'm not willing to work to get it." Destroying stuff? That's something that someone who is stupid, emotional, violent, and incapable of controlling himself does. I would dearly love for the police, after they arrest some of these idiots, to ask them this question: "Why did you work so hard to conform to neo-Nazi stereotypes of black people?" UPDATE: ABC News reported the story reasonably correctly--but the headline is completely false: White Supremacists Riot in Toledo Friday, October 14, 2005
Projection, I Think, Explains A Lot Of Media Screeching About Bush They were complaining that some of the soldiers in Iraq talking to Bush had been "rehearsed" on things they were going to say to them. Then there's this reminder that much of what appears on television news is less than it seems: If Michelle Kosinski's canoe had sprung a leak on NBC's "Today" show Friday, she didn't have much to worry about. This Doesn't Help Idaho's Image A couple of years back, I had friends in California who were unemployed--but when I suggested that the software engineering jobs that were open here in Boise might be of interest--they reacted as though I had suggested that they move to Mongolia. I did very best to explain that we have: 1. Indoor plumbing. 2. Electricity. 3. It is not lawful to marry your sister (although I expect the ACLU to get California courts to strike down the incest law one of these days as a violation of "freedom of expression"). Now this clever entrepreneur gets news coverage: SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - There's no room service, no swimming pool, no microwave oven, no coffee machine, no television, no electricity.It is remote--about three hours drive north of here--and it is beautiful. You don't really need to be reduced to the caveman state to visit there, however. More Political Correctness From British Police Oh my, at this rate, witnesses will only be able to describe criminals as "sentient beings": LONDON (Reuters) - A woman struck by a hit and run car driver in northern England said she was told off by a police officer for using the F-word to describe the driver -- "fat." Fossil Noodles I think I found some in the back of the refrigerator once, but they weren't this old: LONDON (Reuters) - Italians are known for them and theories suggest they may have originated in the Middle East but scientists said Wednesday the world's oldest known noodles, dating back 4,000 years, were made in China. Thursday, October 13, 2005
An Amusing Extension of the Oregon Supreme Court Decision I found this editorial in one of the small town Oregon newspapers, and I found myself quite amused--and I can't say that the argument doesn't make a lot of sense: In the latest rulings, Judge Michael Gillette wrote for the majority: "It appears to us to be beyond reasonable dispute that the protection extends to the kinds of expression that a majority of citizens in many communities would dislike — profanity, blasphemy, pornography — and even to physical acts, such as nude dancing or other explicit sexual conduct that have an expressive component." Boise Housing Market Derangement I love it! The cheapest five bedroom or greater, three bath or greater house that I can find in my zipcode is about 8% large square footage, and about 38% less land--and the asking price is $295,000. Now, if we can keep the frenzy going until next summer, maybe I can wipe out the mortgage on the new house. Michael Yon Reporting About Reporting From Iraq We have all been assuming that the reason that so much of the press coverage from Iraq has been promoting a, "We're losing, pull out now!" agenda was political. After reading Michael Yon's well-written description of the dangers, expenses, and nuisances of being an embedded reporter, I wonder if it could be something as simple as, "The sooner the U.S. leaves, the sooner we can leave this hellhole." The Bird Flu It is becoming an increasing subject of concern in Europe, because of an outbreak of the H5N1 strain in Turkey. You can see the level of concern reading news accounts like this one from a Swiss newspaper discussing how our government is planning around the possibility of 1.9 million dying in the U.S. alone. There are gobs of interesting articles (in German) about the U.S. research efforts to understand and reconstruct the virus that caused the 1918 epidemic. Now remember: right now, this strain seems to only be jumping from birds to people--apparently not from people to people. It could mutate to a form that does makes it communicable from people to people. If so, I'll be stocking up food at my house in the mountains, keeping my LP gas tank topped off, and looking for excuses not to drive into town. But until that point is reached, there's no reason for panic. The Hinrichs Suicide By Bomb This Wall Street Journal article says that the FBI is just about done with the investigation and found no evidence of terrorist intent or involvement, and that claims that Hinrichs was a Muslim convert were wrong. The Wall Street Journal isn't an apologist for Islamofascism (unlike many of media organization), so I am going to need a bit more information to persuade me that Hinrichs was something other than a very depressed person who decided to commit suicide in a very gruesome way. Even Lunatic Fringe History Gets Published I was in a book store at lunch, and there was a book whose cover at least got my attention: it showed the famous "Uncle Sam Wants You!" poster with Hitler in the red, white, and blue suit. The title of the book was Saving Private Power: The Hidden History of "the Good War"--a mildly entertaining parody of Saving Private Ryan. (Make sure you read the positive reviews of Saving Private Power, especially the ones that explain why Steven Spielberg makes pro-war movies, "Being an American Jew, we must consider Speilberg's bias.") The book's thesis is that World War II was not in any sense a "Good War," but was actually how the Fascist-controlled government of the United States allied itself with the Soviet Union not to destroy Fascism, but simply to take away the Fascist powers colonial lands and wealth. Now, if you are one of the small number of people who doesn't find that premise laughable, let me explain: by the time World War II started, Germany had no overseas colonial possessions. The Treaty of Versailles took away the few that it had acquired in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Italy had Libya and Ethiopia--neither country desireable enough for any other European power to bother taking. Japan had a few colonial possessions, but it is rather difficult to imagine the U.S. going to war to capture Korea, Taiwan, or Manchuria. The series of arguments in the introduction were so obviously flawed that I found myself wondering what sort of education the author had received to make such obvious mistakes. The back cover describes Michael Zezima as "self-educated in history." This doesn't necessarily discredit a book; there are people that do a very creditable job of being self-educated, in a variety of fields. But based on this book, I would say that he should sue himself for malpractice. Since I can't get a serious, scholarly history book published, my first thought was, "Who published a book this obviously defective?" Why, the aptly named Soft Skull Press--the same guys who went on to publish the revised edition of Michael Bellesiles's thoroughly discredited Arming America. I guess that even clearly discredited and lunatic fringe books are publishable, somewhere. I was spending a bit of time these last few weeks trying to figure out why I can't get any publisher to take my next book. Okay, I told myself, there isn't necessarily a market for every book. Perhaps the publishing industry's standards are so high that a book like mine just doesn't stand a chance. And then I see that a book like Saving Private Power can get published--and it makes realize that my book (first five chapters are available here) must be beyond even the lunatic fringe category. That's a discouraging thought: a calm, carefully reasoned book about an important aspect of social history, based primarily on primary sources, involving substantial research in unpublished papers, is beyond the pale of the publishing world--but a book like Saving Private Power is not. Once Again, A Devastating Criticism From Ann Coulter Yes, I do sense a little resentment from Coulter, who is a lawyer, that if Bush's requirements for a Supreme Court justice are so low--a woman who worked as a lawyer--that Coulter didn't get considered, because she's at least as qualified: The only sexism involved in the Miers nomination is the administration's claim that once they decided they wanted a woman, Miers was the best they could do. Let me just say, if the top male lawyer in the country is John Roberts and the top female lawyer is Harriet Miers, we may as well stop allowing girls to go to law school.I must confess, as much as I hate to sound like a snob, I find Coulter's argument compelling--was there really not another highly qualified conservative woman lawyer willing to run the gauntlet of the Senate to be on the Supreme Court? Especially because the stuff that keeps popping out suggests that Miers might be another Souter-in-waiting. Drudge Report say that Miers testified in 1990 that she wouldn't join the Federalist Society because of being "politically charged" but the NAACP was okay. Single Motherhood: Not Recommended There are definitely some negative correlations: A Census Bureau study being released Thursday found many regional differences in the marrying habits of Americans, with those near the East and West coasts generally waiting longer to get married than those in Middle America. The study also found that Southerners are the least likely to live together without getting married.Now, this is only a correlation. I'm sure that if the average lawyer or doctor decided that she wanted to have a child without a father, it wouldn't plunge her into poverty. But it is important to get the message across to the more situations that you really do not want to be an unwed mother. Contraception and abstinence are both good ideas if you aren't married--and men should think long and hard about what happens if the woman (or girl) with whom they having sex gets pregnant. You may be condemning them to difficult choices. Vertical Mills I missed buying a Sherline vertical mill by $5 on eBay a couple of days ago--I was willing to go to $300, and someone else got it for $305. This was disappointing. There's always some risk when you buy a used machine tool that it may have been abused, and since I could buy a new Sherline mill for about $600 with all the accessories I need, I am reluctant to go too high on something that might require significant components replaced. The $325 I paid for the Sherline lathe turned out to be cheaper than buying new, but because there were a few items missing that would have been present on a new one, I only saved about $200 by buying used. In any case, eBay always has new stuff popping up. If you become aware of a small vertical mill (not one that weighs 18,000 pounds) for sale somewhere else, let me know. I don't desperately need a vertical mill, but it would be nice to move at least one more subcontracted activity in house--and right now, I am having the part made with a planer. A mill would produce a more precise part and more attractive finish. Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Who Is Worse Off? South African Blacks Or Kenyans? My wife and I got into a discussion the other day, and she was quite insistent that Kenyans must be better off than South African blacks, what with all the oppression of so many years of apartheid. After all, Kenya is, for Africa, a pretty well-off country. The figures for black South African income are in figure 18.2 of the South African State of the Union report. It's just a graph, but it shows for the year 2000 a per capita annual income for blacks of less than 10,000 rand. I'll be charitable, and guess that it is about 9,000 rand. That converts to about $1200 a year. This BBC report about Kenya says that the average Kenyan has an income about a dollar a day. That would be about one-third of the victimized South African blacks. You would have to go back to the early 1970s, at the heights of apartheid, to find black South Africans that desperately low in income. Shocking: A Democrat Arguing Against Racism James Carville, of all people, spoke to the Northwestern (University?) College Democrats, and made this absolutely astonishing suggestion: For example, the political consultant suggested taking the specific issue of racial affirmative action and helping those of all races with income-based affirmative action.He might as well be a Republican if he going to say things like this. Income-based instead of race-based affirmative action has several substantial advantages: 1. If the goal is to help blacks because they are multigenerational victims of a racist society, and the effect of this racism is that it disproportionately impoverishes blacks, then basing affirmative action on family income would still primarily benefit black Americans. 2. It would not benefit blacks from middle class and upper class families (which are a majority of the black population). Why should Bill Cosby's kids benefit from a program designed to help poor blacks? 3. Poor people, regardless of race, would get a helping hand up--which is ostensibly the purpose of affirmative action. 4. The stigma of "You're only here because of your race" would go away. When I attended Sonoma State University, about 1/3 of the black students were admitted through the affirmative action program, because they didn't meet the standards for admission. But the 2/3 of black students who were able to get in on their own merits had this hanging over their heads, quite unfairly. Amusing Gloss On The Al-Zawahiri Letter You may have seen mention in the news media of a letter released by the Director National Intelligence that was apparently sent by al-Qaeda number 2 al-Zawahiri to Iraq's al-Qaeda chieftain, al-Zarqawi. The full English translation is here. As I was reading through it, I found myself reading certain things into al-Zawahiri's remarks--and this amusing set of comments on the letter lined up well with my reading of it: 1-Dear brother, God Almighty knows how much I miss meeting with you, how much I long to join you in your historic battle against the greatest of criminals and apostates in the heart of the Islamic world, the field where epic and major battles in the history of Islam were fought. I think that if I could find a way to you, I would not delay a day, God willing.Well worth reading both it and the unimproved translation. Important points of the letter: al-Zawahiri is telling al-Zarqawi: 1. Killing rank and file Iraqis isn't making them love us, and it looks bad to Muslims elsewhere in the world. 2. You are going to have to participate politically to be effective, because the masses want a democratic government. Al-Zawahiri specifically gives Taliban Afghanistan's decision to limit the government to fellow fanatics and members of one tribe as a big mistake: We don't want to repeat the mistake of the Taliban, who restricted participation in governance to the students and the people of Qandahar alone. They did not have any representation for the Afghan people in their ruling regime, so the result was that the Afghan people disengaged themselves from them. Even devout ones took the stance of the spectator and, when the invasion came, the amirate collapsed in days, because the people were either passive or hostile. 3. Winning the war is as much in the media as on the battlefield, and beheading hostages--and then putting the video online--just makes you look bad, when a bullet would do the job with less bad PR: However, despite all of this, I say to you: that we are in a battle, and that more than half of this battle is taking place in the battlefield of the media. And that we are in a media battle in a race for the hearts and minds of our Umma. And that however far our capabilities reach, they will never be equal to one thousandth of the capabilities of the kingdom of Satan that is waging war on us. And we can kill the captives by bullet. That would achieve that which is sought after without exposing ourselves to the questions and answering to doubts. We don't need this. 4. Al-Zawahiri is counting on a U.S. withdrawal ala Vietnam--and it doesn't sound like he expects al-Qaeda to win the war in Iraq unless that happens: You might ask an important question: What drives me to broach these matters while we are in the din of war and the challenges of killing and combat?I presume that is why so many leftists around the world want us out, immediately--to make sure that al-Qaeda can set up Iraq as the center of the caliphate--a sort of Super Taliban World Government. 5. The clear goal is for the whole world to be Muslim. They aren't looking for us to just leave them alone, and vice versa. Two-Headed Rattlesnake Apparently two-headed snakes (a form of conjoined twins, I think) aren't that unusual, but rattlers are: Angelo State University is getting an unusual addition to its collection of reptiles and amphibians: a two-headed rattlesnake.I think I would have labeled it as a "double-barreled rattlesnake," to reflect the true nature of such a creature. Abraham Lincoln's Religious Beliefs Atheists like to claim Lincoln as one of their own: Although a political moderate, Lincoln held some advanced ideas about religion. For example, he once proclaimed "The Bible is not my book, nor Christianity my profession." According to his law partner William Herndon (1818-1893), Lincoln "was an infidel of the radical type," and he "never mentioned the name of Jesus, except to scorn and detest the idea of a miraculous conception." Lincoln's own wife, Mary Todd, said that "Mr. Lincoln had no hope and no faith in the usual acceptance of those words."But what did Lincoln actually write in private letters, before he was famous? here's a letter to his good friend Joshua F. Speed in 1842: I always was superstitious; and as part of my superstition, I believe God made me one of the instruments of bringing your Fanny and you together, which union, I have no doubt He had fore-ordained. Whatever he designs, he will do for me yet. ``Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord'' is my text just now.You can discount his public speeches as playing to the masses--but this letter to Joshua Speed is probably as close as you can get to a heart-felt statement of belief, unrestricted by the needs of politics. Fortunately, They Have Very Strict Gun Control in Britain A very sad story that a gun control advocate might want you to believe happens in America because of our "lax" gun control laws. But this happened in Nottingham, England: Two gang members have been jailed for life for shooting a schoolgirl in the stomach during a feud in Nottingham.He filmed himself? Some people are too stupid--and too evil--to live in civilized society--or in Britain, which is fast losing the right to call itself civilized. Thanks to Michael Williams for pointing me to this sad story of a society that is in collapse. Jobs For Historians Outside The Academy I keep my eye on federal government jobs for historians, mostly out of curiosity--and I am pleased to see that the federal government actually pays pretty well for these positions. For someone with a BA or MA in history, who would be unable to get a full-time teaching job (even at most community colleges), these are an alternative. Here's a position at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska that pays $45,239 to $58,811 per year, plus a 25% cost of living adjustment for Alaska's higher prices. Here's a position at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware--although you may find yourself joining the unit overseas. The pay range is $50,541 to $65,704 per year. Now, those aren't spectacular salaries, but for the person who completes a history degree and then discovers that there aren't many jobs in teaching--these choices are certainly better than asking, "Would you like fries with that, sir?" Smoking May Lower Your IQ And I always assumed that it was the other way around: Researchers found long-term cigarette smoking was associated with diminished thinking skills as well as lower IQ among a group of alcoholic and nonalcoholic men.When I was active in Santa Monica politics in the period 1977-82, I found it quite astonishing how many of the hard left's activists and candidates were smokers--even the Rev. Jim Conn. I am beginning to understand why they couldn't figure out how supply and demand worked.... Los Angeles Archdiocese Releases Limited Records The Los Angeles Archdiocese has acknowledged the depth of their historical problem with child molesting priests--but why has it taken so long for them to release this information? LOS ANGELES — Newly released records of sex abuse claims against 126 priests that are at the core of hundreds of lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Los Angeles show that church officials for decades moved accused priests between counseling and new assignments.Privacy rights? There's a privacy right when you are accused (apparently with good reason) of child molestation? I'm glad to see the appellate court gave that argument a Bronx cheer--but it shows how much the ACLU's molestation of the Constitution has perverted its meaning that the lawyers for the priests could make that argument without embarrassment. The documents offer details in numerous cases, though much of the information has already been published. In many of the files, there was little mention of child molestation. Instead, euphemisms such as "boundary violations" were used to describe the conduct.I am trying to imagine how screwed up the Catholic Church must have been that a priest could have an accusation like that in 1959 (a year that predates the Sexual Revolution) and it took 35 years to relieve him of his duties. Many bishops have said they were misled by therapists to believe that a sexual attraction to young people could be cured.I'm not sure exactly when the psychiatric community figured out that fixated pedophiles (the category who tend to go into teaching, clergy, Scoutmaster as a way to get access to little boys) are not usually repairable. I guess that I can understand why the Catholic Church might have been prepared to give the benefit of the doubt to someone that a therapist pronounced "cured." But a lot of these pedophile priests were repeatedly "cured" and then went out and did it again. How long does it take to start to see a pattern? Labels: child sexual abuse The Miers Appointment: Is There Something More Clever Going On Here? Instapundit observes: IS THIS A CIRCULAR FIRING SQUAD, OR WHAT? While out running errands at lunchtime, I heard Rush Limbaugh calling Harriet Miers an underqualified affirmative-action candidate, and reacting angrily to being called an "elitist, sexist conservative" for being critical of her choice. Similar acrimony is evident in many quarters of the blogosphere.He goes on to suggest that this was a terrible mistake, damaging Bush's ties to the conservative base. I've been mystified by how the split has developed. There seems to be no consistent pattern on which conservatives are prepared to give Miers the benefit of the doubt, and which are not. I find social conservatives on both sides of the divide, and the more libertarian-oriented conservatives similarly split--with John Fund managing to be on both sides (depending on which week it is)! I just had a "Karl Rove is an evil genius" thought: what if all the conservative screeching was set up by the White House to cause most Democrats to decide, "If the conservatives aren't happy with Miers, then she can't be much of a threat, can she?" I could see Rove passing the word to three or four conservative columnists to badmouth Miers, knowing that this would be enough to get a serious food fight going. Or am I giving Rove and Bush too much credit for deviousness? Director of Central Intelligence: Closet Hippie? This is a surprisingly friendly article from the Guardian about Porter Goss's hobby: ORANGE, Va. (AP) - Just like his spies, the CIA director lives a double life. Porter Goss, the head of the nation's leading intelligence agency, moonlights as a farmer at his 575-acre property in the rolling hills of central Virginia, where he raises cattle, sheep and chickens. Syria's Interior Minister Commits Suicide In His Office The news story is here, and suggests that he may not have been given much choice, since a UN report is coming out shortly concerning possible Syrian involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri. This German account indicates that he died of a bullet wound through the mouth and out the back of the head: Ein Krankenhausarzt sagte: «Er starb durch eine Kugel, die im Gaumen einschlug und durch den Hinterkopf austrat. Er lebte noch, als er in die Klinik gebracht wurde, konnte aber nicht gerettet werden.»This would suggest that if it wasn't his decision, at least he wasn't murdered. Of course, embarrassing revelations often cause suicide in that part of the world. This news story from 2002 is instructive, especially because first reports indicated that Nidal committed suicide by shooting himself twice (which takes rather serious levels of commitment): Abu Nidal, the Palestinian terrorist, was murdered on the orders of Saddam Hussein after refusing to train al-Qa'eda fighters based in Iraq, The Telegraph can reveal. There's Probably Less To This Than It Appears... To quote Dogbert, "On the Internet, no one knows you are a dog." Still, I suspect that some of these chat rooms are facilitating exactly the activities that their names would suggest: NEW YORK (AP) - Internet service provider Yahoo! has agreed to bar chat rooms that promote sex between minors and adults, the attorneys general of New York and Nebraska announced Wednesday.I suspect that the same creeps will find ways around Yahoo's new rules; when dealing with cockroaches, you can only discourage them, never wipe them out. I expect the ACLU, which has already taken the position that NAMBLA should be free to encourage adults having sex with children: It is easy to defend freedom of speech when the message is something many people find at least reasonable. But the defense of freedom of speech is most critical when the message is one most people find repulsive.What the ACLU doesn't understand is that there is a rather critical difference between "repulsive" and "criminal." If you want to make abstract arguments against age of consent laws, that is protected free speech. But that's a bit different from active assistance and encouragement to commit crimes, such as the one that led to the rape and murder of 10 year old Jeffrey Curley: NAMBLA is "not just publishing material that says it's OK to have sex with children and advocating changing the law," says Larry Frisoli, a Cambridge attorney who is arguing the Curleys case in federal court. NAMBLA, he says, "is actively training their members how to rape children and get away with it. They distribute child pornography and trade live children among NAMBLA members with the purpose of having sex with them."I've gotten a lot of negative email from people who fancy themselves defenders of the First Amendment because I have pointed to Rice v. Paladin Enterprises (4th Cir. 1997), which reversed a lower court decision, and held that a detailed, non-fiction, technical description of how to commit murder for hire was not protected by "freedom of the press." (In this case, Paladin's book Hit Man was actually used to commit murders for hire--hence the lawsuit.) Law professors in particular seem rather upset about the fact that Paladin Press went ahead and settled out of court a week before the suit went to trial, thus preventing a chance for the Supreme Court to step in and protect the First Amendment from those narrow-minded busybodies who don't like having family members murdered. Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Romania and Gun Self-Defense I mentioned a few days back that maybe someone needs to start a European version of my Civilian Gun Self-Defense Blog. Here's an interesting English-language version of an editorial from a Romanian newspaper. The English is a bit clumsy and stilted (but I shudder to think what would happen if I tried to translate something into Romanian), but it gets the idea across: The thief shot dead inside the home of fashion designer Romanita Iovan should be granted a post mortem medal for having contributed to the promotion of the new Penal Code. Bogdan Iancu, a recidivist, has ended his mission on Earth after having stolen a handful of jewels from the home of Iovan family. He was just getting ready to return to Ferentari base. The operation was a half success as the owner of the villa in Primaverii St. no longer waited for the hare hunting season to begin and discharged the weapon for such game into the body of the 27 year old man.Yeah! Getting Past Narrow Definitions of Self Ann Althouse points out that the next step after gay marriage is going to be redefining one's gender as you find convenient. (She's not too happy about this, largely because it means sharing the women's room with people who choose to identify themselves as female, regardless of the narrow definitions that our oppressive society imposes.) One of the comments from someone clearly too clever to have a future in academia: As Prof. Althouse has already demonstrated with respect to age, identity fluidity should extend to all aspects of life and be truly fluid, static identities are the oppressive tools of the evil majoritarian culture. Labels: homosexuality California Bans Torture of Artificial Intelligence? Michael Williams points to a new California law that, because of how it is worded, seems to prohibit video games in which the player tortures characters--but as written, it only prohibits torturing characters that are conscious. We haven't reached that point yet with virtual reality! In any case, the video games industry is planning to file suit against this. I'm sure the ACLU will be happy to assist. After their recent success finding live sex shows to be protected under Art. I, sec. 8 of the Oregon Constitution, I'm sure that getting this law struck down will be a piece of cake. I am really repelled by the notion of video games where you torture characters. Still, it is quite clear that this is a protected form of free speech. Repugnant, but protected. Unlike the live sex shows question in Oregon, where there is considerable nineteenth century evidence of what would have been considered outside the legitimate notion of "freedom of speech," I'm not sure that there are any laws from the Framers' generation, or from the Fourteenth Amendment period, that clearly put such video games outside the realm of entertainment. There are simply too many pieces of fiction in which horrifying things are done to the characters to call this trash novel, even if the technology is quite new. This Is For You, Andre A friend of mine who subscribes to the "No oil for blood" theory of the Iraqi invasion has steadfastly insisted that there could be no corruption involved in the decision of the Axis of Weasels to oppose the U.S. led coalition's invasion of Iraq. Part of the reason, he explains, is that France has perhaps the cleanest, least corrupt government in the world. (He's French, so he is perhaps forgiven for having a blind spot.) So how interesting to see one of the left-wing papers in Britain reporting this: PARIS (AP) - France's former U.N. ambassador has been taken into custody as part of an investigation into allegations of wrongdoing in the Iraq oil-for-food program, judicial officials said Tuesday.I'm sure that this wouldn't have influenced French or UN policy about Iraq, of course. Terrorist Training Camp in Virginia? Gates of Vienna has a very interesting account of what sounds like a group that deserves FBI surveillance--and what happened when he went by to ask some questions and take some pictures: During the Beltway Sniper crisis, back in the fall of 2002, a series of articles in The Washington Times described John Allen Muhammad’s conversion to Islam, and his later break with the Nation of Islam (the articles are no longer available, but extracts have been preserved here). Apparently the NOI was not militant enough for Mr. Muhammad, and he left it to become involved with a group called Jamaat ul-Fuqra (Arabic for “community of the impoverished”), a terrorist organization founded by a notorious Pakistani cleric, Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani.Gates of Vienna goes into considerable detail about the organization's history of terrorist acts in the United States, going back decades. Obviously, we don't let little things like that get in their way. Their most recent behavior, according to locals who Gates of Vienna talked to, is rather interesting: Two or three weeks before 9/11, the members of the compound constructed a guard house and a gate at the entrance to their commune. After 9/11 and the FBI arrests, they kept a lower profile. According to the store owner, they still come in from time to time, but he doesn’t see them very often. The men dress in normal clothes now, but when the women come to the village they still wear the hijab.Well worth reading in full. Thanks to Michael Williams for the link. Labels: terrorism The Oregon Supreme Court In Its Own Alternate Reality The Oregon Supreme Court has ruled that a state law prohibiting live sex shows is contrary to Art. I, sec. 8 of the Oregon Constitution: No law shall be passed restraining the free expression of opinion, or restricting the right to speak, write, or print freely on any subject whatever; but every person shall be responsible for the abuse of this right.Not surprisingly, the Oregon Supreme Court took the ACLU's position on this--that just because there were already laws in effect limiting freedom of expression in a sexual form when Oregon's Constitutional Convention drafted Art. I, sec. 8, we should not assume that the Convention intended to those laws to be consistent with the new Constitution: Those critics of Robertson focus exclusively on the words of the oft-quoted test from Robertson (29) and, from that standpoint, assume that a "historical exception" is made out by showing that laws prohibiting the expression at issue were more or less widespread at or before the adoption of the federal Bill of Rights and continued to exist in this state after 1859, when the Oregon Constitution was adopted. They do so in spite of the admonition against such thinking in Henry.This really captures what is wrong with the ACLU and its wholly owned subsidiary, the judiciary. As even the decision acknowledges, while fumbling around for a way to justify striking down the state law, this "anything goes" view of freedom of speech is not part of the American tradition: In fact, it now is widely accepted that, in adopting a prohibition on laws "abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press," as the First Amendment phrased it, many, if not most, of the framers of the First Amendment were thinking in terms of the English common-law notion of freedom of speech, which prohibited prior restraints on the press but did not preclude civil or criminal prosecution, after the fact, for obscene, blasphemous, libelous, or seditious speech. See generally Leonard W. Levy, The Emergence of a Free Press 220-81 (1985) (setting out that view).Instead, the decision attempts to rationalize the "live sex shows are protected freedom of expression" by arguing that there was a divide between the Blackstonian view, and the emerging "natural rights" perspective. So where is the evidence that the "natural rights" crowd believed that freedom of expression included live sex shows? The Oregon Supreme Court at best points to this: According to the natural rights theory, inalienable rights, such as freedom of conscience and speech, were bounded, as they were in the state of nature, by the equally fundamental rights of other individuals. If the state had any authority at all to act in these protected areas, it was to enforce the fundamental rights of other individuals, not to protect society as a whole from undesirable "tendencies" or to promote the majority's idea of the greater good. That is decidedly different from the Blackstonian notion of "abuse", (12) which extended to everything that Parliament had identified as contrary to the public good (a notion that included purely social values like order, morality, and religion).The footnote provides no plausible basis for this notion that live sex shows were constitutionally protected speech. It quotes from St. George Tucker's edition of Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England--but St. George Tucker, who supports what the Oregon Supreme Court calls a "natural rights" theory approach, also claims, In 1694, the parliament refused to continue these prohibitions any longer, and thereby, according to De Lolme,‡ established the freedom of the press in England.It seems clear from reading the context of this paragraph that Tucker was referring to prior restraint--not that English law had no punishments for obscene or seditious speech or publishing: from the time of the long parliament to the year 1694, the liberty of the press, and the right of vending books, was restrained to very narrow limits, by various ordinances and acts of parliament; all books printed were previously licensed by some of the great offices of state, or the two universities, and all foreign books were exposed to a similar scrutiny before they were vended. No shopkeeper could buy a book to sell again, or sell any book, unless he were a licensed bookseller.The decision also tries to argue that the Oregon Constitution reflects a fundamental mistrust of legislative power as part of its argument for this very broad, ahistorical reading of Art. I, sec. 8: As to the question whether the original Oregon Constitution reflects a Blackstonian view of individual rights or, instead, has a natural rights focus, the evidence also is mixed. This court previously has noted that the original constitution, as a whole, reflects a basic distrust of legislative power. See Smothers, 332 Or at 113 (so stating). Such distrust would be more consistent with a natural rights-based world view. Certain comments made by delegates to the constitutional convention support that theory. One delegate argued for inclusion of a bill of rights in the constitution on the ground that it would limit the "fractious" spirit of the majority if it tried to "infringe on the rights of the individual citizen." See Carey, The Oregon Constitution and Proceedings and Debates of the Constitutional Convention of 1857 at 102 (comments of delegate Delazon Smith). Another delegate suggested that a bill of rights was necessary only to control a despotic ruler and was irrelevant when the people are sovereign. Id. at 102-103 (comments of delegate George Williams). The fact that the framers ultimately opted to include a bill of rights suggests acceptance of the view that at least some individual rights should not be subject to the whims of the majority.Of course. That doesn't mean that every idea that the ACLU pulls out of its...briefcase is constitutionally protected against majority will. The Court argues concerning how to interpret Art. I, sec. 8: In fact, the words are so clear and sweeping that we think that we would not be keeping faith with the framers who wrote them if we were to qualify or water them down, unless the historical record demonstrated clearly that the framers meant something other than what they said. As our recitation of the historical circumstances shows, we have found no such demonstration. Thus, it appears to us to be beyond reasonable dispute that the protection extends to the kinds of expression that a majority of citizens in many communities would dislike -- profanity, blasphemy, pornography -- and even to physical acts, such as nude dancing or other explicit sexual conduct, that have an expressive component. Thus, we have little trouble in concluding that the people who framed and adopted Article I, section 8, as part of the original Oregon Constitution intended to prohibit broadly any laws directed at restraining verbal or nonverbal expression of ideas of any kind.At least Justice De Muniz's dissenting opinion recognizes how absurd the results of this are: I cannot conclude that masturbation and sexual intercourse in a "live public show" prohibited by ORS 167.062 is a form of speech that the drafters of the Oregon Constitution sought to protect in Article I, section 8. ... The Dangers of Selective Enforcement Different River points to a recent incident in which a woman was arrested for being in a park without a child. While the intent of the law was good--to provide a way to keep child molesters out of New York City parks (since the criminal justice system certainly isn't going to keep them in prison)--it seems that the police should enforce such a law based on its purpose. I Did Not Stage This Picture Our cat with delusions of lionhood just positioned himself around the little plastic lion cub.  Monday, October 10, 2005
|
