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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'm running for Idaho state senate I've written a number of history books, as well as scholarly and popular articles, (see my web page).
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Friday, November 25, 2005
House Project: Toilets In, Lighting Fixtures & Switches Going In We went by the house today to show my daughter and son-in-law its current state. When they were last down here, there was no driveway--we had to walk from the road to the building site--which at that point was still untouched. The plumber has been up there in the last few days--toilets are now installed in all three bathrooms, and the water heater is now in place. At least if I drag Big Bertha up there for night observing (assuming that we don't get continual cloud cover now), there will be a toilet available. As we were getting ready to leave, the electrician showed up with a bunch of light switches and outlets; he was getting ready to start installing everything. The original plan was to put motion detector light switches in all the bedrooms, but I don't know where we got the notion that these could be purchased for about $10 each. The electrician reports that they are $28 each, so we are having him install conventional light switches. The weather is becoming wintry; there was a light dusting of snow on the north face of the property (the one overlooking Horseshoe Bend). This evening here in Boise we had a real genuine snowfall. Labels: house project Wednesday, November 23, 2005
The History of Thanksgiving The holiday that we celebrate as Thanksgiving has gone through a few permutations along the way. While we think of Pilgrims and 1621 Plymouth, there are those who argue that the first Thanksgiving took place in Virginia: The first Thanksgiving occurred when Captain John Woodlief led the newly arrived English colonists to a grassy slope along the James River and instructed them to drop to their knees and pray in thanks for a safe arrival to the New World.Our knowledge of the first Thanksgiving in Plymouth is surprisingly scant--and my ancestors who survived the terrible starving time of 1620 may not have called it Thanksgiving, but perhaps Harvest Home, a traditional English feast and celebration. William Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation gives us only this description of the 1621 feast: They began now to gather in the small harvest they had, and to fit up their houses and dwelllings against winter, being all well recovered in health and strenght and had all things in good plenty. For as some were thus employed in affairs abroad, others were exercised in fishing, about cod and bass and other fish, or which they took good store, or which every family had their portion. All the summer there was no want; and now begtan to come in store of fowl, as winter approach, of which this place did abound when they came first (but afterward decreased by degrees). And besides waterfowl there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc. Besides they had about a peck a meal a week to a person, or now since harvest, Indian corn to that proportion. Which made many afterwards write so largely of their plenty here to their friends in England, which were not feigned but true reports. [William Bradford, Samuel Eliot Morison, ed., Of Plymouth Plantation: 1620-1647 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001), 90.]Edward Winslow's letter of December 11, 1621 gives just a little more detail (full text also available here): Our harvest being gotten in, our Governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a more special manner rejoice together, after we had gathered the fruit of our labours. They four in one day killed as much fowl as with a little help besides, served the Company almost a week. At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and amongst the rest their greatest king. Massoit with some 90 mne, whom for three days we entertained and feasted. And they went out and killed five deer which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our Governor and upon the Captain and others. [Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation, 90 n. 8.]The Plimoth Plantation website has a detailed discussion about the origins of Thanksgiving, and makes the case that the 1623 celebration is really the first Thanksgiving: While the harvest celebration held in Plymouth Colony in 1621 has been mistakenly referred to as the “First Thanksgiving” since the 1800s, the first Thanksgiving Day as the Separatists understood it occurred in 1623. As with many later New England Days of Thanksgiving, it followed a Day of Humiliation. The events of that summer, described in colonist Edward Winslow’s Good Newes from New England, show clearly how the Separatists saw their relationship with God and used these two holidays to reconcile and affirm that relationship.The term "thanksgiving" is used in a number of official documents in the Colonial and Revolutionary periods--although often without the feasting connotation that it now has. The discovery of an assassination plot against King William in 1696 led to a "thanksgiving" proclamation to be sent to the American colonies. In Maryland, the governor's proclamation directed: I have therefore thought fit (by the advice of his Majesty's honorable Council) to issue this my proclamation, hereby appointing & Commanding that a general thanksgiving to Almighty God for these his Mercies be observed on thursday next within the Port & Town of Annapolis ... strictly charging all his Majesty's loving Subjects within the same to abstain from servile & corporal labour on those days & religiously to keep the same, and that the Ministers of the severall parishes do then Read divine Service & preach, as they will answer the contrary; And to the end due Notice hereof may be given, I do further Command the several Sheriffs of the province to make Proclamation hereof in all Churches, Chapels & other public places of Meeting within their respective Counties;There are similar public proclamations of a day of Thanksgiving throughout Britain and its American colonies in 1759 on the taking of Quebec by the British Army. Unsurprisingly, at least twice during the Revolution, the Continental Congress called for a public day of Thanksgiving which was more religious than culinary: Mr. W[illiam] Livingston, pursuant to leave granted, brought in a resolution for appointing a fast, which (being taken into consideration) was agreed to as follows:A year and a half later: Forasmuch as it is the indispensable duty of all men to adore the superintending providence of Almighty God; to acknowledge with gratitude their obligation to him for benefits received, and to implore such farther blessings as they stand in need of; and it having pleased him in his abundant mercy not only to continue to us the innumerable bounties of his common providence, but also to smile upon us in the prosecution of a just and necessary war, for the defence and establishment of our unalienable rights and liberties; particularly in that he hath been pleased in so great a measure to prosper the means used for the support of our troops and to crown our arms with most signal success: It is therefore recommended to the legislative or executive powers of these United States, to set apart Thursday, the eighteenth day of December next, for solemn thanksgiving and praise; that with one heart and one voice the good people may express the grateful feelings of their hearts, and consecrate themselves to the service of their divine benefactor; and that together with their sincere acknowledgments and offerings, they may join the penitent confession of their manifold sins, whereby they had forfeited every favour, and their humble and earnest supplication that it may please God, through the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of remembrance; that it may please him graciously to afford his blessing on the governments of these states respectively, and prosper the public council of the whole; to inspire our commanders both by land and sea, and all under them, with that wisdom and fortitude which may render them fit instruments, under the providence of Almighty God, to secure for these United States the greatest of all human blessings, independence and peace....[Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, Saturday, November 1, 1777, pp. 854-855]The following March, the Continental Congress is again calling on Americans to observe a day of thanksgiving--but a day not of feasting and fun, but of fasting and prayer: The committee appointed to prepare a recommendation to the several states, for setting apart a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer, brought in the same; which was read and agreed to as follows:There seem to have been rather a lot of these proclamations of Thanksgiving from Congress, such as the one discussed at Annals of Congress, House of Representatives, 1st Congress, 1st Session, 958-9 in 1789 for a "day of general thanksgiving." Indeed, there are so many resolutions for Congress declaring such days before Thanksgiving became a regular holiday that I was astonished at their numbers.Whereas, Almighty God, in the righteous dispensation of his providence, hath permitted the continuation of a cruel and desolating war in our land; and it being at all times the duty of a people to acknowledge God in all his ways, and more especially to humble themselves before him when evident tokens of his displeasure are manifested; to acknowledge his righteous government; confess, and forsake their evil ways; and implore his mercy:And it is recommended to the inhabitants of the United States to abstain, on that day, from labour and recreations.[Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, Saturday, March 7, 1778, pp. 229-230] I am gratified that for all the changes that have happened over the centuries, for all but the most fervent of atheists, Thanksgiving remains a day when Americans reflect on the bounty that God has bestowed on us. Asteroid Landing And Takeoff This is cool: the Japanese space agency did a successful asteroid landing, and then took off again: TOKYO (AP) - A Japanese space probe successfully landed and then departed from the surface of an asteroid, despite an initial announcement that the attempt had failed, Japan's space agency said Wednesday. Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Reinterpreting The Civil Rights Movement There's an interesting Yale Law Journal here by Kenneth W. Mack that argues that the conventional wisdom about the development of black civil rights overemphasizes what is called "legal liberalism"--that the primary method for improving the status of blacks was through lawsuits seeking judicial action to overturn existing laws. I won't claim to have any expertise in this period's civil rights struggle, but I do find his arguments consistent with what I do know about the time. Mack argues that black lawyers in the period before World War II did file lawsuits against discrimination and segregation, and spoke against both practices, but that most regarded legal action as the least important method for improving the situation of American blacks. Instead, Mack argues that black lawyers regarded a better strategy to be voluntarism (intraracial efforts to improve the economics, education, and morals of blacks) and political action (to the extent that this was possible). This doesn't surprise me much; within the constraints of American society at the time, the best hope that blacks had was the self-improvement that black leaders such as Booker T. Washington promoted. Indeed, Mack points out that some black leaders of the time recognized that destroying racial segregation of public schools might actually impair the self-improvement efforts: In fact, the legal status of African-Americans and their participation inI've long wondered if the resources that were spent on eliminating de facto segregation might have been better spent improving the quality of black majority public schools. (De jure segregation was clearly an enormous waste of taxpayer money, in any case--rather like the waste of money that came from building two sets of drinking fountains, two sets of restrooms, and two sets of waiting rooms.) Warning: reading the paper is tough sledding in places. It makes a bit too much use of legal jargon, and suffers from overly complex sentences in others. I am also not terribly impressed with Mack's assertion that: David Bernstein has argued that the judicial doctrines of the Lochner era offered the best protection to African-Americans during the Jim Crow era.... That argument, however, fails to consider fully that the common law baseline of rights was not neutral with regard to race, but was subject to discriminatory decisionmaking. Indeed, both nineteenth- and twentieth-century black lawyers critiqued liberty of contract as validating segregation and coercion by private entities.Bernstein's argument, as I understand it, isn't that Lochner-era doctrines were a perfect protection of African-Americans, but the best available in that time. The Supreme Court was unwilling going to step in and prohibit governmentally mandated racial discrimination in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)--to expect them to take action againt private discrimination would have been unimaginable. Hat tip: Orin Kerr. Boise Inversion Layer One of the down sides of Boise weather is that in winter, it is quite common for an inversion layer to develop. For a few days to a few weeks, you can get this dense, cold fog in the valley--while on top of the mountains, it can be clear and relatively warm. Right now, it is solid gray outside--but click on the Bogus Basin webcam page and you can see that 15 miles away and 4000 feet up, the sky is relatively clear. Even before it settles in fully, we get a lot of gunk in the air--unpleasant to breathe, and unpleasant to look through as well. (The new house will solve this problem.) I managed to find M31 (Andromeda Galaxy) with Big Bertha the other night, but because of the inversion layer and the junk it was holding in the air, the view left much to be desired. Labels: telescopes Elizabethtown College It is in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Why are there so many smart people writing letters to the college newspaper? The editor wrote a piece about why gun control needs to come back as a political issue: When Michael Moore released his "Bowling for Columbine" documentary, gun control was still a rather important issue on the national level. Now, as shown during the 2004 presidential election, gun control is a minor issue.And the letters in response are just startlingly good! Lots of letters--some acidically sharp: Please suggest to Mr. Welliver than he turn down his hearing aid a bit. Then he will not be able to hear those evil guns whispering to everyone ... (evil whisper voice) Pick me up and use me to kill someone … (end evil whisper voice).Others focus on the failure of gun control: The jurisdictions that ban firearms have the highest crime rates in the country (also in the world). Washington D.C. and Chicago have some of the most restrictive gun laws and they are the murder capitals of the USA.And this one: If you were a criminal, and you were in a state where, say 35-percent of the adult populace regularly carried a gun, was trained in its use, and was prepared to use it, what would you do? Obviously, you would move to California, where you have a much better chance of living longer, where victims cannot strike back.And this is a college newspaper. I didn't see any letters agreeing with the editorial. Clumsy Criminals Department It rather sounds like a Monty Python skit, doesn't it? A man has been charged with robbery after allegedly snatching a woman's handbag and then running into a wall and knocking himself out. Death Penalty: There's No Undo Option Regular readers will know that I am opposed to the death penalty because, unlike your favorite word processor or spreadsheet, there is no Undo button. When a judge in Colonial America handed down a death sentence (and they did it a lot), a not uncommon sentence was this: That he goe from hence to the place from whence he came and from thence to the place of Execucon and there to be hangd by the neck vntill he be dead dead dead and soe the Lord haue mercy on his Soule.Saying it three times really emphasizes the irrevocable nature of it, doesn't it? I don't have any sympathy for the liberal claim that the death penalty is unconstitutional because it is "cruel and unusual punishment." The Constitution specifically references capital punishment in the Fifth Amendment, recognizing that it was lawful. I am more sympathetic to the claim that capital punishment has been applied capriciously, and disproportionately based on race. But I notice that now that we have a very complex and sometimes rigid system to make sure that this is no longer the case, liberal opponents of the death penalty continue to pretend that it is unconstitutional. Cases like this one, however, are the strongest argument for why the death penalty is a bad idea: HOUSTON -- A decade after Ruben Cantu was executed for capital murder, the only witness to the crime is recanting and his co-defendant says Cantu, then 17, was not even with him that night.At one time, a number of states required two eyewitnesses to a murder before the state could impose the death penalty. Why? Because America was a Bible-believing nation at the time of the Revolution, and reformed many of its criminal statutes in that era to conform to the Bible. Numbers 35:30 says: Anyone who kills a person is to be put to death as a murderer only on the testimony of witnesses. But no one is to be put to death on the testimony of only one witness.Even though I disapprove of the death penalty, using the Bible's standard on this would certainly have prevented the execution of Ruben Cantu for a crime that he apparently did not commit. Liberals, unfortunately, would never tolerate writing a law with Biblical input today. The Social Utility of Guilt It has become conventional wisdom that guilt is a bad thing. Why? I think, primarily, because it interfered with people having sex with whomever (or whatever) they wanted. I was therefore startled to see Instapundit's wife (who is a psychologist specializing in violent teens) make this statement in a discussion of the Borden/Ludwig murder case: It does not help that we have infused kids with a lack of guilt--trying our best to raise their self-esteem to the point where the normal social sanctions against murder no longer apply to some kids. According to a study by a George Mason University professor, guilt has been found to possibly predict later behavior. Kids who were more prone to feeling guilt were less likely to try drugs and alcohol, less likely to become criminals, less likely to commit suicide and more likely to practice safe sex.This must lead to some pretty amusing discussions about child rearing in the Reynolds home! Monday, November 21, 2005
What Is This? "Leftists, Make A Fool Of Yourself" Day? First it was Chris Matthews suggesting that people who blow up mosques and behead teenagers on their way to school aren't evil, they "just have a different perspective." Now it is Kurt Vonnegut defending suicide bombers: ONE of the greatest living US writers has praised terrorists as "very brave people" and used drug culture slang to describe the "amazing high" suicide bombers must feel before blowing themselves up.As James Lileks points out, there is something worse than depriving someone of "their self-respect": Personally, I think it’s a worse thing to deprive someone of their own self-life. While I grant that people who go to a wedding party in a Jordon hotel are just asking for it (Insert obligatory come-back about the US mistakenly bombing a northern Iraqi wedding party here) you have to admit that it’s better to be alive, even if you have to deal with VOA satellite transmissions telling you your race is nothing – so worthless, in fact, that it deserves a democracy like Iowans and Britons and Japanese. Oh, we could just nuke your cities and take your oil, but we hate you so much we’re going to stay here and bleed and force your warring factions to hold subcommittee meetings on the constitutional process. It's bored our people to tears; now it's your turn.I rather enjoy some of Kurt Vonnegut's novels. They aren't the finest writing, but they aren't half-bad either. But "One of the greatest living US writers"? That's laying it on a bit thick, isn't it? I'm glad to hear Mr. Vonnegut thinks so much of people that blow up civilians, behead teenagers on their way to school, and crash airliners into office buildings. Perhaps some of these courageous sorts can meet Mr. Vonnegut somewhere soon, so that he can appreciate their courage at blast wave range? Patents It turns out that while you can expect to spend $6000 to $8000 with a patent attorney on a simple patent ($10,000 to $15,000 if you are in California), Nolo Press publishes materials that let you do your own patent. Now, I will agree that if you think that you have invented something that is going to make you a billionaire (or even a millionaire), it probably makes sense to spend the money to have professionals do this. But if you have a clever idea that might be worth (at most) a few tens of thousands of dollars, it is arguable whether investing several thousand dollars with a patent attorney makes sense. What does make sense is to file a Provisional Patent Application right now--which is relatively simple and relatively cheap. This gives you a year to figure out whether you want to spend the money on a proper Patent Application, and prevents anyone else from grabbing your idea in the meantime. Also, if you are a very small business or individual inventor, you pay about half the fee for patent search, application, and related costs, that the big guys do. The Left Is Losing It I have long thought that part of why the left doesn't trust ordinary people with guns is that they are projecting their own irrationality onto others. Posts like this one over at Democratic Underground--which received a number of very positive responses--really captures the problem--people who, in a world where there are monsters running around beheading teenaged girls because they attended a Christian school in Indonesia--start comparing Republicans to things out of science fiction movies: We have finally reached a point where even 10% support for these people is sheer insanity.And on and on it goes. Punnery & Dumb One-Liners This arrived by email. Like any communicable disease, it needs to be spread: 1. Two antennas met on a roof, fell in love and got married. The ceremony wasn't much, but the reception was excellent. Two Dangerous Habits Combined... Smoking is really, really dumb. Drunkenness is really, really dumb. Now combine them with an airliner for the triple crown of dumbness: BRISBANE, Australia (AP) -- A French woman who is terrified of flying admitted in an Australian court Monday that she drunkenly tried to open an airplane door mid-flight to smoke a cigarette.She is very lucky not to have become a Darwin Award winner. Moral Relativism At Work We are talking about people that kidnapped and beheaded a bunch of teenaged girls because they attended a Christian school in Indonesia. We are talking about people that blow up mosques. But Chris Matthews doesn't see this as evil: Four years after 9/11 and the "crazy zeitgeist" that permeated the United States, most Americans have still not learned to know their enemies instead of just hating them, U.S. political journalist Chris Matthews says.Yes, just "a different perspective"--one that says that kidnapping some teenagers and cutting off their heads is okay. Sunday, November 20, 2005
Is There a Patent Attorney Reading This Blog? I may need your professional services--initially, to tell me whether an invention of mine qualifies as patentable. It is, to my knowledge, new (invented by me), purely mechanical in nature, and at least to my current customers, useful. The invention is extremely simple, and has only one moving part. UPDATE: I've just searched the U.S. Patent Office's online index of issued patents and patents applied for--no one else has patented my clever idea. I guess I need a patent attorney. Lots of Positive Feedback From ScopeRoller Customers They also suggest that I put my creative energies to work on developing new products for the Losmandy mounts. This is a very good idea; as I was looking at Mars this evening, and shivering, I found myself wondering if I can invent something that makes these temperatures tolerable. Mars was showing some detail--but not much. Unfortunately, there still enough turbulence in my suburban setting from cooling concrete to be a problem. The good news is that this 5" refractor's optics are good enough that if could solve the turbulence problem, I could easy use 381x on it. Venus is now in a crescent phase, which is at least mildly interesting. Unfortunately, Venus never shows anything to a telescope but white clouds. Labels: telescopes Machining Fun I was having a pile of difficulties a few days ago, because I was suddenly no longer able to machine the parts that I needed for ScopeRoller. This was worrisome, because I am expecting a number of orders over the next week. The particular symptom was that Delrin parts would simply not smoothly machine--and it almost looked like the problem was that I couldn't get the workpieces to lock into the chuck evenly. While there was some slight misalignment of the headstock to the tailstock, that wasn't the real problem. The real problem was that I tried to machine some aluminum last weekend as part of expanding my product line. The instructions with the Sherline lathe are very explicit about not trying to turn material too quickly, because it dulls the cutting tool. I suspected that this was the problem, so I ordered up some replacement cutting tools from Sherline (all of $7 each), and the problem went away. Actually, "problem went away" is a bit of an understatement. I had been using the cutting tool that came with the lathe when I bought it used. That tool was in very, very bad shape by comparison to new ones--which cut through Delrin like a hot knife through butter, and do a pretty decent job cutting aluminum (at an appropriate turning speed). There's a good bit of wisdom in the Sherline basic operation manual. It mentions that trying to machine stainless steel as a first project is just about always a mistake, and suggests that if every mechanical engineer were given a block of stainless to use for his first project, demand for stainless steel would doubtless fall. A former boss likes to tell the story of first summer job in college, where he was given a drill and told to run down a stainless steel food preparation line, drilling a hole every foot, as part of some project. The first one was a little difficult. The second hole was much harder. Oh yes, I now know understand his feelings, because of my own stainless steel experience a couple of days ago! Part of the manufacturing process for the ScopeRoller leg inserts involves making a 30 degree cut after I have machined the Delrin or UHMW to the right diameter. I do this cut with a miter saw. You can't just clamp the insert and cut, because the insert is round--it just doesn't clamp well. When I was starting with a 4.5" long cylinder, holding the cylinder in place with one hand and then bringing down the blade with the other wasn't difficult. When I switched to a 3.5" long cylinder, my fingers were getting close enough to the blade to make me slightly nervous. I am currently experimenting with a 3" long cylinder (cost reduction engineering)--and to be honest, I really don't want ScopeRoller to be like the title of that new movie with the rapper 50 Cent in it: Get Rich or Die Tryin'. One of ScopeRoller's other products is something called a Toe Saver. How apropos that I found myself making a Finger Saver as well. I went next door, and borrowed a flat of stainless steel, bent it into an L-shape, and then I drilled and tapped a 3/8"-16 hole in it. Now I can use a 3/8"-16 bolt through the L to hold the cylinder in the miter saw. I don't have to get my fingers anywhere near the blade, and I can hold the stainless steel against the fence of the miter saw quite solidly. But drilling and tapping that hole through a relatively thin sheet of stainless steel! What an experience! I was having a heck of a time drilling a hole through a 3/4" rod of aluminum this evening--and it turned out that the problem was my 1/4" drill had been dulled (perhaps going through the stainless steel). I was pleased to report that I was able to sharpen the drill to a useful condition against with my belt sander--something that I do not think I would have attempted a year ago, before I became familiar with the angles used for drills. Joni Mitchell Are you old enough to remember Joni Mitchell? I confess that I haven't thought of her in a very long time--probably because even on oldies stations, you don't hear anything that she did back in the early 1970s. On the way up to the new house today, I flipped on KBSU, the Boise State University NPR affiliate. On weekdays, it plays classical music. On weekends, it plays all sorts of odd stuff--in this case, one of those Joni Mitchell songs that make me suspect that you don't hear much Joni Mitchell anymore because all of her fans have committed suicide. If you weren't depressed when you started listening to her stuff, you would be when you finished. There are some performers that are part of their time--and the odds are against them being part of anyone's nostalgia for that era. Why would anyone want to listen to music that makes you this sad? |
