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Never forget!
I ran for Idaho state senate in 2008--didn't win
I've written a number of history books, as well as scholarly and popular articles, (see my web page).
Sorry, high pressure isn't included.
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Gun Laws Don't Work
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Dissecting Leftism -- By John Ray
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Amitai Etzioni's Blog
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Michael Williams -- Master of None
Another Conservative Blogger
A Group Blog By Iraqis
THE MESOPOTAMIAN: TO BRING ONE MORE IRAQI VOICE OF THE SILENT MAJORITY TO THE ATTENTION OF THE WORLD
Specializing in discussions of discrimination and affirmative action
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Promoting children being raised by their own parents
A federal law clerk opines about the law
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Impearls: a blog as electic and interesting as mine
Proving that the United States military does more than kill people and break things.
May not agree with this group on everything, but stopping the ACLU is high on my list
A conservative/moderate black blogger.
Another sensible American
Sex, Crime, and Corruption in the Democratic Party
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Maggie's Farm: Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
A blog dedicated to "Documenting Saddam Hussein's support of Terrorism"
The blog of one of my fellow bloggers on the Civilian Gun Self-Defense Blog
J. Norman Heath's Blog--a circus rigger and Second Amendment scholar (really!)
Buckeye Firearms Association, for you Ohio gun owners and activists
Click here for a FREE NEWSLETTER on Ohio Gun Rights from Buckeye Firearms Association!
Another conservative.
Neocon Blues
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"Why Don't He Ever Write?"; How A Vertical Mill Is Like A Typewriter
This is the funniest line out of Dances With Wolves--one of those films that was breathtaking when I first saw in the theaters, but has rapidly declined in my perception. Great cinematography can cover a host of other evils.
Some of you are probably asking yourselves, "Gee, why doesn't Clayton respond in a more timely manner (or at all) to my emails?" Well, it isn't for lack of interest, but lack of time. A few days ago, someone emailed me to ask if, instead of a caster set for his Losmandy GM-8, could I build basically a version with a flat bottom? He didn't have a place to roll his mount--but he sure wanted to keep the dirt and bugs out of the hollow legs. I agreed to try and make a set for him--and then I asked on the Losmandy users mailing list if anyone else needed such--and I immediately received three requests for information.
Voila! You can read about it here.
They share some parts with the ScopeRoller 8 product--and they can be field upgraded to the ScopeRoller 8. I intend to do likewise for other mounts as demand arises. (Although at the moment, the Losmandy tripods are the only ones with this dirt and bug gathering problem.)
It looks like a trivial change to make this, but most of the work was figuring out to optimize manufacturing to minimize the number of parts and the number of processes.
Another project that is keeping me busy involves a company that I would rather not name quite yet. They are a manufacturer of high-end telescope tripods, and would like me to offer a caster set for their product. This is a bit different from the other products that I make because it has a rather different interface--in some ways, easier, in some ways, harder.
The big difference is that I am using my vertical mill to make this product. I have to produce a recessed rectangle that will produce a somewhat close fit (say, +- .05") to particular dimensions--and I need to put a hole in the center, again, within perhaps +- .05". The recessed rectangle is about .1" deep.
This is well within the tolerances of this vertical mill, but there's a bit of learning involved. You see, you have to figure out exactly where to drop the cutting bit to start excavating. First you find out where the edge of the plastic is that you are going to be excavating. Then you move the cutting tool a certain distance in from the edge. Then you start cutting. This part wasn't difficult.
The more difficult part--and where a vertical mill is like a typewriter--is figuring out how to exactly center the cutting tool in the middle of the recessed area. For those of you too young to have ever learned to use a typewriter, one of the things that you learned to do in typing class was how to center a title.
"Hey, how hard can that be? You just hit ALT-C--and bang! It's centered!"
Well, on a typewriter, you would see how many spaces there were between the left and right margins, and divide that by two. Then you would count the number of characters in the phrase that you wanted to center. Then you would divide that number of characters by two. Then you would subtract the second number from the first number, to figure out how many columns you had to space over before you started typing the centered title.
Same thing on a vertical mill. If you have a space that is 1.40" wide, and your end mill is .25" in diameter, you start at one side of the space, and move the carriage over (1.4/2)-(.25/2). That's puts you in the center of the space.
Another discovery: there wasn't enough room in the Y dimension of the mill to get the part that I was excavating all the way over, because the vise that holds the part on the mill table was in the way. But there's always a way to get around these sort of problems--I turned the vise 90 degrees from its normal position, and now I have enough room to do the cutting in one operation.
It's The Dictator Book-of-the-Month Club!
I can see it now: every month, a different murdering thug who has impoverished his people presents a book for your enjoyment! Let's see, Mein Kampf, Stalin's Short Course of the History of the All-Russian Communist Party, and this!A Japanese publisher said his company will become the first in the world to put out a novel supposedly completed by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein the day before the US invasion that ended his reign.
No wonder intellectuals and artsy sorts everywhere seem to regard Bush as a bigger threat than Saddam Hussein--he's one of them!
The book, to be titled Akuma No Dance (Devil's Dance) in Japan, will be published by the Tokyo-based Tokuma Shoten Publishing Co. Next Friday, said the company's senior editorial official, Koichi Chikaraishi.
Jordan last year banned publication of the novel, known there as Get Out, Damned One, due to political concerns. It depicts a tribe living on the Euphrates River 1,500 years ago that succeeds in ousting an invading tribe through resistance.
The Senate Seems Intent on Passing Immigration Reform
But a kind that the House will probably not accept: WASHINGTON (AP) - A prominent congressional opponent of sweeping immigration legislation conceded Friday the measure is likely to pass next week, adding "The Senate should be ashamed of itself."
Let's see: the House wanted to make illegal entry into a felony (which I think is excessive); the Senate wants to make illegal entry into a short-cut to citizenship. Do you suppose that there might be some philosophical disconnect there?
At the same time, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., predicted that without significant changes, no final compromise would emerge from House-Senate negotiations this year.
...
The Alabama Republican made his remarks at the end of a week of maneuvering on the Senate floor that left the fundamental provisions of the legislation intact. The bill calls for tougher border enforcement, new guest worker programs and an eventual chance at citizenship for most of the estimated 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants already in the country.
In some ideal world, the bill would be dead in the water. House members who voted for the more serious bill (including many Republicans and some Democrats) would be able to return to their districts and get re-elected. Senators who are up for re-election and voted for this non-amnesty amnesty bill would, in most states, have to work to get re-elected. The next Senate might well have the guts to get serious about this. But at least in the meantime, President Bush would get the message, and enforce the existing laws, which are sufficient.
But that would require that Bush enforce the existing laws. It appears that he is either unwilling to offend Presidente Fox, or unwilling to offend the corporate bigwigs who want the cheap and docile labor supply.
This really upsets me, because over all, I think Bush has done an okay job as President--not perfect, by any means, but okay, in spite of some disturbing willingness to bend to liberal desires. But his immigration policy just drives me crazy.
$34 Per Hour; No Experience Necessary; Can't Find Workers
Some bloggers are expressing disbelief about this Los Angeles Times story: Cyndi Smallwood is looking for a few strong men for her landscaping company. Guys with no fear of a hot sun, who can shovel dirt all day long. She'll pay as much as $34 an hour.
Okay, I know that Southern California is a very expensive place to live. But $34 per hour isn't enough to attract unskilled workers? The article goes on to claim that one of the problems is that Americans are just too rich to need a job like that:
She can't find them.
Maybe potential employees don't know about her tiny Riverside firm. Maybe the problem is Southern California's solid economy and low unemployment rate. Or maybe manual labor is something that many Americans couldn't dream of doing.
"I'm baffled why more people do not apply," Smallwood says.
President Bush is not. In his speech to the nation Monday night, he referred to "jobs Americans are not doing," echoing a point he has been making for years. To fill these spurned jobs and keep the economy humming, Bush says, the U.S. needs a guest worker program.
Otherwise, the logic goes, fruit will rot in the fields, offices will overflow with trash and lawns and parks will revert to desert.
Countering that view, opponents of a guest worker program say that Americans would find the jobs more enticing if there wasn't foreign competition to swell the labor pool and push wages down.
Smallwood is ambivalent on immigration reform, saying demands for immediate citizenship by those who entered the country illegally are offensive. But without a guest worker program, she says, her company probably will not survive.Thirty years ago, those in the landscape industry say, white crews were common. Now, says Jim Newtson, a San Diego contractor, "if you see a white guy, you do a double-take, like when you saw an interracial couple back in the 1960s."
If this is really true, then there shouldn't be anyone collecting an unemployment check within ten miles of Smallwood's job site. There shouldn't be any unemployed Americans hanging out on street corners, whining about a shortage of jobs. At those sort of wages, even the teenager who becomes a drug dealer because he lacks any other job skills should be applying. I rather doubt that the hourly rate for a street drug dealer is dramatically higher than $34 per hour, once you include the costs of doing business: bail; bribes to cops; lawyers; ammunition for your 9.
Managers in the business explain it as a cultural shift, saying that native-born, middle-class Americans of all races and ethnic backgrounds tend to look down on manual labor. That leaves immigrants to do the work.
"The people I grew up with 40 years ago expected to work hard physically," says Bob Wade of Wade Landscape in Laguna Beach.
"This is a pretty pampered little town. The kids don't expect to work hard," Wade says. "A lot don't expect to work at all. They just float."
UPDATE: A reader tells me that he heard an interview with Ms. Smallwood on the radio: I heard a dialog between Ms. Smallwood and Laura Ingraham this morning.
It turns out the $34/hour job requires a few skills, such as the ability
to read a landscape plan, the ability to handle smaller pieces of
earthmoving equipment, and two years' experience in landscaping.
Laura asked people willing to take the job, to relocate to California if
necessary, to call in. She was flooded with calls.
Badges For Jews and Christians
I mentioned a few days ago that a liberal French Jewish acquaintance was blathering in email about Iran is not really a threat, and how Bush's extremism is at least as much of a concern to Israelis as that of the President of Iran. I'm sure that he will see this latest legislative action by the Iranian government as a sign of their warm and supportive view of Jews and Christians--why, they want to make them "special": Human rights groups are raising alarms over a new law passed by the Iranian parliament that would require the country's Jews and Christians to wear coloured badges to identify them and other religious minorities as non-Muslims.
UPDATE: Interesting remarks about the history of such insignia here:
"This is reminiscent of the Holocaust," said Rabbi Marvin Hier, the dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. "Iran is moving closer and closer to the ideology of the Nazis."
Iranian expatriates living in Canada yesterday confirmed reports that the Iranian parliament, called the Islamic Majlis, passed a law this week setting a dress code for all Iranians, requiring them to wear almost identical "standard Islamic garments."
The law, which must still be approved by Iran's "Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenehi before being put into effect, also establishes special insignia to be worn by non-Muslims.
Iran's roughly 25,000 Jews would have to sew a yellow strip of cloth on the front of their clothes, while Christians would wear red badges and Zoroastrians would be forced to wear blue cloth.The Iranian people are far more tolerant than their leadership, but it is unfortunate that Ahmadinejad could cite ample precedent if he so desired: The Nazi practice of forcing Jews to wear a yellow star had its origins in what is now Iran and Iraq when a ninth century caliph forced his Jewish subjects to wear yellow patches. From time to time, subsequent rulers revived the practice. Shiite clerics long deemed any food touched by Jews to be unclean. While blood libel only took root in Iranian society after the sixteenth-century arrival of European ambassadors, as Iranian society wrestled with modernity, violent anti-Semitism grew.
I know that pre-World War I Vienna required Jews to wear yellow insignia on their clothes when out in public; I don't know if that was borrowed from the Iranians, or represents independent invention. Hitler lived in pre-World War I Vienna, so I guess there's no great surprise about the Nazis adopting this strategy. Wikipedia has a detailed list of such laws.
UPDATE: Israpundit (who is apparently not a sympathizer to Iran's deranged government) says that there are some questions about whether this news report is accurate. This news report from Iran certainly confirms that a national dress code law has been passed (which is, in itself, pretty disturbing), but says nothing about badge requirements based on religion. Some commenters here point out that the Canadian National Post article seems a little weak on sourcing of this story.
UPDATE: I can't quite believe--but a liberal now seems to blaming this on Bush.
If I Made This Up, You Wouldn't Believe It
The Seattle public schools have a website that defines racism in terms that should scare you witless: Racism:
Which means that if a group of blacks beat the crap out of a white guy--or for that matter, an Asian--just because of the victim's race--that's not racism.
The systematic subordination of members of targeted racial groups who have relatively little social power in the United States (Blacks, Latino/as, Native Americans, and Asians), by the members of the agent racial group who have relatively more social power (Whites).
This convenient definition of racism isn't new. The left has been using variants of this definition for a number of years, precisely because it allows them to excuse racism that is going in the Politically Correct direction.Cultural Racism:
In short, saying that the individual is more important than his collective (you know, like his race) is racist.
Those aspects of society that overtly and covertly attribute value and normality to white people and Whiteness, and devalue, stereotype, and label people of color as “other”, different, less than, or render them invisible. Examples of these norms include defining white skin tones as nude or flesh colored, having a future time orientation, emphasizing individualism as opposed to a more collective ideology, defining one form of English as standard, and identifying only Whites as great writers or composers.
So if you correct a white Southerner about using "ain't" or "y'all" in an essay, that's racism!
If you don't know what "future time orientation" is--that's the notion of putting off immediate gratification because of something that you have as a future goal--you know, like doing homework so that you can go to college instead of getting wasted.Institutional Racism:
Again: there can't be institutional racism that creates advantages and benefits for any other race. This will doubtless be a surprise to Malaysians of Chinese ancestry.
The network of institutional structures, policies, and practices that create advantages and benefits for Whites, and discrimination, oppression, and disadvantages for people from targeted racial groups.
Now, what's really sad about this is that over at Volokh Conspiracy, there were plenty of commenters prepared to defend this garbage. I expect that many of them will be law professors and judges in twenty years.
Sleazy & Misleading: Sheila Sorensen
A few days back, I received what appeared to be an NRA endorsement postcard for Sheila Sorensen, who is one of the Republicans trying to get the nomination for the open First Congressional District seat here in Idaho. I say "appeared to be" because I didn't look at for very long--just long enough to see that she had been rated A or A+ by NRA in a number of state elections. It was printed on the same "safety orange" stock as NRA endorsement postcards, and arrived at the point where these usually arrive--just before the election. Perhaps I should have looked it over more carefully.
Today, I received one of those annoying recorded messages from Idaho State Senator Gerry Sweet, complaining that Sorensen was a liberal (with just the right tone to how he said it), sending out materials falsely claiming to have been endorsed by the NRA, and urging me to vote for Bill Sali instead.
So, what's the truth? According to the NRA Political Victory Fund website (which you can't see unless you have your NRA membership number), NRA didn't endorse anyone for Congress in Idaho. My guess is that there was no clear advantage to doing so. The race for First Congress is hard to predict, and none of the front-running Republicans is even remotely anti-gun. Endorsing anyone will alienate those who aren't endorsed, and without any real benefit.
Like I said, I didn't hold onto the faux NRA endorsement postcard, and perhaps I should have. It might well be that it was carefully worded--and the color was chosen--to give the impression that Sorensen had been endorsed by NRA, without actually saying so. Sorensen wasn't on my list of candidates to consider, because she is apparently a liberal--and moved to Hawaii in 2004, before moving back to run for office. This endorsement of Sorensen by the "Republican Main Street Partnership" also makes my blood run cold, since they are committed to electing "centrist" Republicans--the ones that aren't locked down by ideology, so they can go whichever way the PAC money tells them with a clear conscience. Sorensen's deceptive attempt at claiming NRA endorsement, all by itself, is a strong argument for voting against Sorensen.
This article claims that Sali is the front runner, and emphasizes that he is just as strong on immigration issues as Canyon County Commissioner Vasquez. I wish that I was sure of that; some of Sali's materials, while they say all the right things, have given me the impression of being a bit squishy on this, especially with respect to sanctions against employers who hire illegals. Vasquez certainly isn't, having the unmitigated gall to try and get Canyon County to file suit against such employers under RICO.
Some bloggers have observed that the real problem here is five conservatives and one "centrist" fighting it out for the nomination means that Sorensen could win the nomination because all the liberal and centrist Republicans (which aren't many, even here in Boise) would vote for her, while the 65-70% of Republicans who are conservatives would split their vote. Obviously, the four weakest conservatives should drop out of the race, and let the strongest conservative stomp all over Sorensen. But who is the strongest conservative candidate?
It is something of a toss-up whether Sali or Vasquez is the strongest candidate. Both have been the subject of ferocious smears by the Idaho Statesman. Reading how liberals see both of them suggests that Sali upsets them more, although you can almost hear the liberals thinking "race traitor" when they gets steamed about Vasquez. It is the prospect of watching the Democratic nominee engage in race-baiting in the general election that makes me most inclined to vote for Vasquez. (Yes, I'm thinking of the Democratic Party ad in 2004 that implied that the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate was a gay hairdresser.)
House Project: Air Conditioning & Drainage Done
We went up to the house Tuesday evening, and it was actually rather warm inside--about 80 degrees. So why didn't the air conditioning come on?
Circuit breakers okay? Sure. Thermostat claims to be working.
Electrician reports that some of the wiring interfacing the compressor to the rest of the system wasn't hooked up. Supposedly I can hang meat in there now.
The French drains are complete, and covered over. All that's left is a satisfactory solution to the concrete problem. My builder has gone to the maker of this stuff, in the hopes of getting satisfaction that he can't seem to get from the local concrete guy.
Last house project entry.
Machining Lessons Learned
I started a (for me) pretty large scale assembly line process yesterday morning, with a four foot length of UHMW polyethylene, intending to make 13 leg inserts for the ScopeRoller 11 product. As expected, the efficiencies of not having to change tooling or setup meant that it went very quickly. A couple of observations:
1. Even more so than Delrin, UHMW polyethylene wants a very sharp tool. I wasted quite a bit of time facing the first cylinder because my lathe cutting tool wasn't as sharp as it could be.
2. Always check the material before you start cutting. Plastics are usually a bit oversize from the nominal size. I bought two four foot lengths of 3.375" UHMW--and when I started measuring them with a micrometer, once I was ready to turn them, I was dismayed to find that the first piece I had cut was only about 3.64". I was supposed to turn these down to 3.355", but because you never get everything exactly centered, this turns out to not be quite enough material to get both the right size, and nice finish. When done, they average 3.355" diameter, but they are not perfectly round. They are a tight fit, but the finish is disappointing.
The other four foot length (not cut yet) is even smaller--3.35" diameter, so it is simply too small to use. I am requesting that the vendor replace it with one that is at least at the nominal size.
I Really Am Not Trying To Offend My Gay Readers
Yeah, I have a few, generally the crowd that wants white picket fence stability, not members of the, "What strain shall we risk getting tonight?" crowd. Still, news stories like this demonstrate that the "live fast, die young, leave a beautiful corpse" subculture isn't just vicious stereotypes: Infectious syphilis -- rarely seen in New Zealand for decades -- is back with a vengeance, doctors said, warning it has the potential to become a serious public health threat.
Gay men are about 3-4.5% of the male population--so or about 1.5-2.5% of the total adult population. This means that in the Auckland study, gay men are about 30-49x more likely to have syphilis than the general population. This is a startling disproportion--and it tells us that gay men must be dramatically more promiscuous than straights to explain this differential.
The clinical director of the Wellington Sexual Health Service, Jane MacDonald, said all sexually transmitted diseases were on the rise, but the sudden explosion in the number of infectious syphilis cases was "particularly worrying."
"In the last two years in Auckland and Wellington, we have seen four times the number of infectious syphilis cases than in the previous 20 years," she said.
...
A study published in the New Zealand Medical Journal in March revealed that the number of people attending the Auckland Sexual Health Service with infectious syphilis more than doubled, with a total of 40 cases recorded between January 2002 and September 2004.
The majority of cases -- 74 percent in the Auckland study -- were among gay men who had casual sex, while in the Pacific region, syphilis is endemic in the heterosexual population.
UPDATE: A reader points out that another explanation could be that homosexual sex is more effective at transmitting syphilis than heterosexual sex. Sodomy is more effective at transmitting AIDS, so this is at least a possibility.
I Guess Ian McKellen Doesn't Get Enough Mail...
And it won't be fan mail, I'm guessing! NBC reporter Melissa Stark yesterday dipped a timid toe in the sea of controversy when she interviewed Code director Ron Howard, asking how he reacted to the controversy the movie has created . . . for the Church! Sounding more like a sensitivity trainer than a Hollywood director, Howard offered up some ambiguous prose about it being healthy thing for people to engage their beliefs.
Mark Finkelstein goes on to observe:
Lauer took the bull of controversy more directly by the horns when he interviewed the cast and director Howard today. Said Lauer:
"There have been calls from some religious groups, they wanted a disclaimer at the beginning of this movie saying it is fiction because one of the themes in the book really knocks Christianity right on its ear, if Christ survived the crucifixion, he did not die for our sins and therefore was not resurrected. What I'm saying is, people wanted this to say 'fiction, fiction, fiction'. How would you all have felt if there was a disclaimer at the beginning of the movie? Would it have been okay with you?"
There was a pause, and then famed British actor Ian McKellen [Gandalf of Lord of the Rings], piped up:
"Well, I've often thought the Bible should have a disclaimer in the front saying this is fiction. I mean, walking on water, it takes an act of faith. And I have faith in this movie. Not that it's true, not that it's factual, but that it's a jolly good story. And I think audiences are clever enough and bright enough to separate out fact and fiction, and discuss the thing after they've seen it."McKellen's stunning bit of blasphemy is likely to test the adage that all publicity is good publicity.
What Causes Hostility to Homosexuality?
Stunts like this: Port Washington - Parents are angry and school leaders are promising action in response to a "Heterosexual Questionnaire," approved by two teachers, that asked students questions such as: "If you have never slept with someone of your same gender, then how do you know you wouldn't prefer it?"
When homosexuals argued that what they did in private was none of the government's business, I agreed. The important words there are "in private."
Hundreds of Port Washington High School students were told to submit written answers and discuss the survey.
The questionnaire was distributed by a student organization, which then led a full class-period discussion. Two teachers approved distribution of the survey. The principal did not.
Parent Lisa Krier on Monday called for the two teachers to be disciplined, saying the survey was a form of sexual harassment by teachers against students.
"If somebody doesn't call them on it, it will continue," she said.
Both Principal Duane Woelfel and Patty Ruth, president of the Port Washington-Saukville School Board, said the survey was inappropriate and that proper authorization was not given before it was brought into classrooms.
Ward Churchill Found To Be a Serial Liar and a Plagiarist
But there seems to be some concern that punishing him too severely would send the wrong message: The Committee’s investigation of the seven allegations before us has unanimously found, by a preponderance of the evidence, that Professor Churchill committed several forms of academic misconduct as defined in the policy statements of the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of Colorado system:
What "due freedom" is that? The freedom to lie? Oh my!
1. Falsification, as discussed in Allegations A, B, C, and D.
2. Fabrication, as discussed in Allegations C and D.
3. Plagiarism, as discussed in Allegations E and G.
4. Failure to comply with established standards regarding author names on publications, as discussed most fully in Allegation F but also in Allegations A, B, and D.
5. Serious deviation from accepted practices in reporting results from research, as discussed in Allegation D.
We did not find plagiarism in Allegation F.
We note additionally that Professor Churchill was disrespectful of Indian oral traditions when dealing with the Mandan/Fort Clark smallpox epidemic of 1837. He did not mention native oral sources in his published essays but adduced them only retrospectively and disingenuously in an attempt to defend himself against charges of academic wrongdoing, as discussed in Allegation D.
...
Professor Churchill has, on more than one occasion, claimed that certain acts that appear to have been his were instead the responsibility of some other actor: his editor or publisher, his assistant, or his former wife and collaborator. In some cases we have not found these claims credible; in others we were unable to arrive at a judgment about their veracity. But apart from their plausibility, we have come to see these claims as emblems of a recurrent refusal to take responsibility for errors (whether or not abetted by some other person’s act or omission), and a willingness to blame others for his troubles. In our view, this repeated behavior bears on a proper judgment about the seriousness of his misconduct.
If there is one crucial pattern that most affects our assessment, however, it is a pattern of failure to understand the difference between scholarship and polemic, or at least of behaving as though that difference does not matter. There are some signs that Professor Churchill does recognize the distinction: he correctly segregates the portion of his Curriculum Vitae that lists his publications into such categories as Books, Scholarly Essays (unrefereed), Scholarly Essays (refereed), Book Reviews, and Polemics. None of the writings discussed in this report appear as Polemics; it is the work he claims as scholarship that is the subject of this investigation. But the Committee has found repeated instances of his practice of fabricating details or ostensible written evidence to buttress his broader ideological arguments.... While his general claims may be correct, it is unacceptable scholarship to create fictitious support for them.
...
Two members of the Committee conclude and recommend that Professor Churchill should not be dismissed. They reach this conclusion because they do not think his conduct so serious as to satisfy the criteria for revocation of tenure and dismissal set forth in section 5.C.1 of the Law of the Regents, because they are troubled by the circumstances under which these allegations have been made, and because they believe that his dismissal would have an adverse effect on the ability of other scholars to conduct their research with due freedom. These two members agree and recommend that the most appropriate sanction, following any required additional procedures as specified by the University’s rules, is a suspension from University employment without pay for a term of two years. [emphasis added]
If you want to know what was really troubling those "two members," look in the previous paragraphs: People without formal training in a particular field of scholarship are able to assert just as forcefully as specialists that someone has falsified or misused evidence or has offered unwarranted interpretations. In this case, both the University administration and Professor Churchill relied at times on assertions made by “researchers” with no formal qualifications, background, or training about the topics under consideration. A recent book that discusses instances of alleged academic misconduct emphasizes that the outcomes of such accusations are heavily influenced by the extent of media/web/internet involvement.252 Another analysis stresses the power of political groups and advocacy organizations in promoting charges of scholarly wrongdoing.253 Focusing on historians, its author suggests that publications that question traditional American values may be scrutinized with particular intensity by people in the wider community. If any evidence of misconduct is found, scholars who critique accepted views are far more likely to be fired from their jobs—not just reprimanded—than are academics who support familiar interpretations.
They are talking about the Bellesiles scandal, and footnote 253 cites Jon Weiner's defense of Bellesiles. I guess that I am one of the examples of "no formal qualifications, background, or training about the topics under consideration" because I only have an MA in History, which makes me a complete amateur. As a commenter over at Volokh Conspiracy observed: If repeated, intentional fabrications and plagiarism aren't enough to get the guy fired, what is? Raping a student? Voting Republican?
Well, certainly voting Republican would.
The Reality Optional Zone
A French Jewish acquaintance informs me that:
1. Muslims and even Arab Muslims really aren't anti-Semitic--just anti-Israel.
2. Muslims are full of talk, but not much action, and so the remarks of Iran's president really aren't as worrisome as they sound.
3. The real problem isn't the extremism of the Iranian president so much as the extremism of George Bush.
4. Israelis are as much concerned about what George Bush will do, as with what Iran will do.
5. Iran and Israel actually have historically good relations, and have a cooperative arrangement today.
6. Iran has never really taken any actions against Jews or Israel. I pointed to the Buenos Aires bombings that Iran funded. His response was that the U.S. government has funded terrible groups, too.
My mind boggles at the insanity that passes for liberalism.
The Road To Moscow
If all you have ever seen of Idaho is Boise and the southwestern part of the state, you can be forgiven for thinking of Idaho as Nevada with fewer casinos, no brothels, and no nuclear testing sites. (Although the only known murder committed by intentionally blowing up a nuclear reactor happened in Idaho, about 1960 or so. Never get into an adulterous relationship with a co-worker who works the same shift as you in the nuclear reactor control room.)
It is amazing how beautiful Idaho becomes a few miles north of our new house.
Some of these pictures were shot through windshields and while the car was moving, because my wife was interested in getting home. (Or perhaps I was trying for an artistic effect, one that conveys how much modern life unnecessarily hurries us.)
These are at a rest stop somewhere between Cascade and New Meadows along State Highway 55. 
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These are along the Salmon River heading towards Riggins--one of those places that suffers from an excess of scenery--rather as though tornadoes had ripped all of Oklahoma's rightful share of the stuff, and dropped it somewhere else.
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This is where the white water pictures start. I can't imagine ever being so crazy or depressed that I would intentionally raft through waters as rough as these became.
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Of course, when you aren't looking at white water, you are looking at forests.
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In Moscow, my daughter insisted on showing us a house that is locally known as "the castle." This is not an exaggeration.
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This was apparently built by a medievalist who teaches at the University of Idaho, and his wife the doctor. The interior is reputedly even more lost in another century.
My Daughter Graduates From the University of Idaho
There was a time when I would have regarded this as unlikely. When she was 12, I was figuring out how to pay for Stanford and medical school. When she was 15, I was wondering if she was going to survive to adulthood. (Teenaged: the period when a child ages from 12 to 20, and her parents age far more.) But Saturday she graduated with a B.S. in Psychology, and something above a 3.7 GPA.
Already to head out the door to the graduation, wearing her "cute shoes." (You know: the kind of shoes that women, as they mature, realize aren't worth all the pain they cause.)
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Standing in front of the fountain at the south entrance.
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Interesting effect of the camera not having enough light, so you get these ghostly images of the University of Idaho seal floating in space.
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Here's what happens when you try to use a zoom to make up for being too far away--and there isn't enough light, so the camera takes a time exposure. You can tell that the blur (which, for much of her life, described my daughter's usual level of activity) is actually my daughter, because of the "cute shoes."
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My daughter has much of my tender concern for animal rights activists. Hence, this apron that she uses when coooking.
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She knows how to smile!
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House Project: Drainage Installation Underway; Strange Story of Broken LP Gas Line
We stopped at the house Sunday afternoon on the way back from my daughter's graduation in Moscow (more about that tonight or tomorrow), and I am gratified to report that the builder is back, both doing some minor fixes to exterior paint (we could have done that ourselves, but nice nonetheless) and installation of the drainage pipes front and rear of the garage seems to be under way (something that would have been outside our area of expertise, but we might have muddled through, while cursing the builder's name continuously).
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Here you can see the strangely insect-like device used for the excavation.
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One thing the builder ended up using the broken up chunks from the driveway for was to fill in the space behind the garage, upon which we are going to pour more road mix, to create a dry walkway that won't form puddles.
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There's another interesting story. We received a phone call from Suburban Propane on Tuesday or Wednesday informing us that they had repaired a gas leak. We were pleased, wondering how they could have become aware of a gas leak with no one in the house. Is there some telemetry on the LP gas tank?
We found out Thursday evening, when a bill arrived. Apparently, the contractor digging the trench for the permanent phone line hit the gas line that ran to the backup generator, and promptly called Suburban Propane. Anyway, after playing phone tag, the contactor told us to send the bill for the repairs to his employer. Apparently, it is common practice (perhaps even required--he wasn't sure) to bury an electrical wire next to the gas line which is a "locator wire." This is what the gadgets that detect buried utility lines look for--and which was present from the LP gas tank to the regulator, but not from the regulator to the backup generator. I'm not quite sure why it wasn't buried with the gas line, but I have requested an explanation from the builder.
Last house project entry.
A Letter To Our U.S. Senators
You can send one, too. Go here. Or here to send one to Senator Crapo.
Dear Senator Craig:
We are absolutely astonished both at President Bush's inaction, and at the Senate's willingness to consider amnesty for illegal aliens. There are plenty of immigrants who followed all the legal procedures, waited, in some cases, years--and now, it appears, that a lot of Senators, looking out for the interests of corporations that have grown addicted to cheap and docile labor, are prepared to offer amnesty to illegal aliens. We've done that once before, with predictable results--lots more illegal aliens, hoping to take advantage of the next amnesty.
This problem is multifold: national security; state and local government expenditures; economic injury to unskilled U.S. citizens and legal immigrants. Any of these three reasons would be a good argument for taking action to close the border to illegal aliens, and make a serious effort to locate and deport illegal aliens that are already here.
We find ourselves shocked to watch the Republican Party actively cooperating in assisting the Democrats take control of Congress this November--and this is what the actions of Senate Republicans seem intent on doing. Support for a serious effort at enforcing our borders and stopping illegal aliens from working in the U.S. is very strong, with large majorities in support of both. These majorities include not only large majorities of Republicans, but a slim majority of Democrats, and a large minority of Hispanic-Americans. It includes huge majorities of black Americans (who are being more injured by competition from cheap illegal immigrant labor than anyone else).
This could be the issue that would turn the Democrats into a minor party--if Republicans decide to really make an issue of this.
1. Build a wall.
2. Punish employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens.
3. Simplify the process of verification so that employers have no excuse for hiring illegal aliens.
4. Deport illegal aliens when arrested.
This isn't that difficult.
Very Truly Yours,
Clayton & Rhonda Cramer
Bush's Speech Tonight
I really want to believe the best of this major policy speech this evening--because I want Bush to lead the Republican Party into victory in November. If Bush continues down the open borders path he has been taking, the Democrats may well win the November Congressional election, because Republicans aren't willing to differentiate themselves on an issue about which most Americans strongly care--and most Americans oppose open borders.
Initial hints suggest that Bush is looking to throw a bone to his conservative base (by putting a few thousand National Guardsmen on the border "temporarily") in order to get the Senate's version of the immigration bill through, with some sort of amnesty or amnesty plus fig leaf, for illegals that are already here.
No. This is not acceptable. It is better to have no bill passed at all, and let this matter fester, rather than grant amnesty. Who knows? We might even end up with a future president who will decide to haphazardly and infrequently enforce the law against hiring illegal aliens. That would be a giant improvement over the Bush Administration's apparent active resistance to enforcement of the existing law.
UPDATE: Karl Rove says that Bush is doing poorly because of Iraq (and there's some truth to it), but then says that Republicans are going to do fine in the November elections--and here's the statement that makes me wonder if Rep. Patrick Kennedy and Karl Rove are hanging out in the same places: ultimately the American people are a center-to-right country, presented with a central-right party with center-right candidates (and) will vote center-right.
What is "center-right" about President Bush when his appointees are actively preventing enforcement of existing immigration laws?
Jobs Americans Won't Do
Scrappleface has a very funny explanation of what President Bush is going to actually do with all those National Guardsmen he is sending to the border--put them on the northern border, to make sure that the illegal aliens don't get away from doing the jobs that Americans won't do. As one of the commenters over there points out: Wouldn’t it just be easier to hire Mexicans to secure the borders? After all it is one of those jobs Americans just won’t do.
A Massive Database of Personal Information Has Being Created...
And in violation of the rules that are supposed to govern this. Even worse, people in this agency that have spoken out about it have been gagged. No, I'm not talking about the NSA, but the ACLU. Okay, the situations aren't exactly analogous; the ACLU isn't a government agency (although you might not know it, at times, from the influence that they have over the judiciary).
Still, if the ACLU isn't analogous to the NSA because the ACLU isn't as much of a potential threat, the analogy falls down for another reason: the NSA is responsible for protecting us from terrorist threats. The ACLU's ostensible goal is to protect our civil liberties, but they seem to have largely lost interest in that mission some years ago.
Proof The Left Is Out of Touch With the American People
Part of why the NSA traffic analysis story was leaked--and made a major news headline--was that the left are convinced that the average American would be incensed, worried, and fearful about it. Nope! A majority of Americans initially support a controversial National Security Agency program to collect information on telephone calls made in the United States in an effort to identify and investigate potential terrorist threats, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.
Now, the article goes on to say that this is an initial reaction:
The new survey found that 63 percent of Americans said they found the NSA program to be an acceptable way to investigate terrorism, including 44 percent who strongly endorsed the effort. Another 35 percent said the program was unacceptable, which included 24 percent who strongly objected to it.
A slightly larger majority--66 percent--said they would not be bothered if NSA collected records of personal calls they had made, the poll found.
Underlying those views is the belief that the need to investigate terrorism outweighs privacy concerns. According to the poll, 65 percent of those interviewed said it was more important to investigate potential terrorist threats "even if it intrudes on privacy." Three in 10--31 percent--said it was more important for the federal government not to intrude on personal privacy, even if that limits its ability to investigate possible terrorist threats.
Half--51 percent--approved of the way President Bush was handling privacy matters.Those views that could change or deepen as more details about the effort become known over the next few days.
However, since the initial leak was designed to make the Bush Administration look evil, it is hard to imagine that increased details will reduce support.
UPDATE: This USA Today poll shows 51% disapproving, and 43% approving of the NSA's gathering of data. Why this enormous difference in results? The USA Today poll has a larger sample, but the differences seem to be too large to explain as a result of the sample size difference. It was taken a day or two later, after the news media have had a day or two to screech.
This Case Reads Like A Hypothetical Used In Law School
There are so many conflicting questions here that have to be teased out, and some of them have obvious First Amendment issues (the religious question, for example). Think of this as Heather Has Two Mommies Who Hate Each Other, And A Daddy, Who Lives Overseas, And They Can't Agree on Religious Instruction: The Supreme Court refused Monday to block a gay woman from seeking parental rights to a child she had helped raise with her partner.
And this legal case from Britain is just very, very sad:
Justices could have used the case to clarify the rights of gays in child custody disputes stemming from nontraditional families.
They declined, without comment, to disturb a ruling of Washington state's highest court that said Sue Ellen Carvin could pursue ties to the girl as a "de facto parent." The girl is now 11.
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Lawyers for the girl's biological mother, Page Britain, told justices that the state court decision in this case and others around the country "pave the way for children to have an unlimited and ever- changing number of parents."
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Carvin and Britain had lived together for five years before they decided to become parents. Britain was artificially inseminated and gave birth in 1995 to the daughter, known as L.B. in court papers. The girl called Carvin "Mama" and Britain "Mommy."
The couple broke up in 2001 and the following year, when the girl was 7, Carvin was barred from seeing the girl. After Carvin went to court, Britain married the sperm donor. Justices were told that the father lives in Thailand.
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The case paints a nasty battle between the two women. Britain says she wanted to have the girl baptized in a Catholic church and that her former partner wanted to take L.B. to a Buddhist temple.
Carvin contends she was the active parent. A transsexual whose 17-year marriage to an heiress was nullified when the wife discovered her husband was a woman is not legally a "parent" of her 14-year-old daughter born from donor sperm, the Court of Appeal ruled today.
The female-to-male transsexual, referred to in court as Mr J, is now in law a man under the 2004 Gender Recognition Act and can lawfully marry a woman if he wishes.
But three appeal judges held that, because at the time of his "marriage" to Mrs C in 1977 he was still a woman, he had no parental rights.
The law required that when a woman conceived and gave birth through artificial insemination by donor (AID), the other party to the marriage must be a man in order to qualify as a parent, the judges said.
Mr J was still a woman when the child was conceived by AID in 1991 and, since there was no legal marriage, he could not be "a party" to it.
Mr J, born with gender dysmorphia, underwent hormone treatment and had breasts removed before, at the age of 30, he met and married Mrs C, then aged 20 and from a wealthy background.
He concealed his true gender from her for 17 years, using a home-made part of the anatomy for sex. At a Court of Appeal hearing in 1996, Mr J failed in a bid for a share of the marriage wealth, including a £400,000 home.
At that hearing, Lord Justice Ward described the marriage as a "travesty" and said that many people would find it quite astonishing that in 17 years of life together Mrs C did not realise she was living with a woman.
Rising Interest Rates & Foreign Treasury Sales
Interesting article explaining that the decline in the value of the dollar relative to other currencies (which is good for American exporters, like ScopeRoller) also means that foreign investors are losing money on dollar-denominated currencies. As they sell off Treasurys, and decline to buy new ones, the net effect is to reduce aggregate demand, driving down prices--and this means that yields rise. Good for those of us looking for high yields, good for U.S. exporters, bad for foreign holders of bonds.
