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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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Saturday, August 19, 2006
Global Warming: The Mainstream Media Are At Least Admitting That Scientists Differ About This This Washington Post article at least admits that there is considerable disagreement among reputable scientists as to whether global warming (even if it is anthropogenic) is increasing hurricanes: Scientists Disagree On Link Between Storms, WarmingThree or four years ago, I don't think you would have seen a paper like the Washington Post admit that this is a matter under serious debate by scientists--and the environmentalists (such as the Environmental Defense Fund) are running television ads that are just lies--pretending that there is no serious debate about this matter. (I'm thinking of the ad with the locomotive approaching a guy standing on the tracks who says, "It's 30 years away--it won't affect me." Labels: global warming What Causes Vigilantism? A Lesson From The Recent British Airliner Incidents America has a long history of vigilantism, and contrary to how some on the left try to confuse vigilantism with lynching, they are quite different institutions. In incidents such as the South Carolina Regulators of the eighteenth century, of the California gold fields, in San Francisco in 1851 and 1856, vigilantism has often been more a form of popular tribunalism than lynching. Historians who have examined the California gold fields vigilante movement found that these courts were comparable to the legally constituted courts of the time in protecting the rights of the accused. While the left is currently revising the history of the San Francisco Vigilance Movement to turn it into a "evil Republican vs. good Democrat" matter, most sensible people can correctly identify that when a county supervisor shoots to death a newspaper publisher in front of many witnesses because the supervisor didn't like bad press--that's a criminal matter--and in a city where the corruption was as serious as San Francisco, reaching throughout the elected government (some things never change), what's the alternative? Vigilantism in American history has been a popular response to governments refusing to do their primary job: public safety. Vigilantism isn't perfect (although neither is the legally constituted system), but it should serve as a warning bell to the government that the public is beginning to lose confidence. A recent example involves British tourists who have stopped pretending that the British government--which seems to be infested with the same paranoia of "racial profiling" as our government--is doing what it is supposed to do:
But they were just two Asian men speaking Arabic? Isn't this a bit of an overreaction? A little deeper in the article: The trouble in Malaga flared last Wednesday as two British citizens in their 20s waited in the departure lounge to board the pre-dawn flight and were heard talking what passengers took to be Arabic. Worries spread after a female passenger said she had heard something that alarmed her.The article reports other incidents that show a distinct lack of confidence in the official procedures--this is the government's alarm bell. The Cult of the Breathe Right Strip Grows My wife completed her second night using them this morning--she's had some problems getting the "delicate skin" version to stay on because of oily skin--but she reports that she slept through the night last night. For her, this is pretty remarkable--indeed, she couldn't remember the last time that happened for her. Great Moments in Car Alarms My wife was in the Wal-Mart parking lot a few months back, and she heard this odd, somewhat muffled robotic sounding voice. She wasn't close enough to clearly understand what it was saying--just the indignant tone. As she approached it, she was finally able to make out what it was saying: I have been violated! I have been violated!Well, yes, I suppose so, but it rather sounds like something that a personal security alarm would say--or perhaps something that a female robot might scream in a future that is too perverse for me to think about. Democrats Running on the "Economic Suffering of the Middle Class" Theme I see Democrats trying to use the "George Bush has forgotten the middle class and its economic suffering" card as part of the elections. Perhaps this will fly somewhere, but we were approaching gridlock in the Wal-Mart/Old Navy mall complex parking lot this afternoon at Eagle and Fairview in East Meridian today. And no, they weren't at the mall to hold out "Will work for food" signs. It was crazy! Now, we've been living up here in the wilderness above Horseshoe Bend for a couple of months now, so perhaps I've lost perspective, but I can't remember feeling so much unabashed affluency-driven crowding since I last lived in Orange County. Friday, August 18, 2006
Ford's Problems I am concerned about Ford's continuing problems, both because they are a major American employer and manufacturer, and because I own a fair amount of Ford bonds (fortunately, much of which matures in 2007, well before I expect any default could happen). Ford isn't the only American maker being hit by rising gasoline prices, of course--but articles like this one suggest that they are getting hit harder than GM and Chrysler: Ford Motor Co. said Friday it would temporarily halt production at 10 assembly plants between now and the end of the year, blaming high gas prices for pushing many consumers away from its pickups and SUVs and toward higher-mileage models.Okay, it is possible that Ford failed to respond as quickly as GM and Chrysler to all this--but there is a pretty major boycott of Ford under way at the moment--and I see no discussion of whether this might be contributing to their problems, relative to their American competitors: When Ford responds to those who write concerning their promotion of homosexual marriage, the response they get from Ford's Customer Relationship Center says their support "is a strong commitment we intend to carry forward with no exception." For Ford, that support also includes homosexual polygamy.Now, the AFA is going to take credit for this damage to Ford, both to make themselves look powerful, and to use it as leverage against Ford to remain neutral in the culture wars. I've never been a Ford fan; let me tell you about the Mercury Capri I owned, long, long ago. But in a lot of Red State America, you buy Chevy or you buy Ford. Ford's continuing insistence on being the gay car company can't be sitting well. Liberal Democrat Civil Rights Leader Spews Racial Hatred; Wal-Mart Fires Him It really tells me a lot about the rarified atmosphere that liberals live in that they say things like this, and don't realize as they say it that...whoops! Andrew Young, the American civil rights leader who was hired by Wal- Mart Stores to improve its public image, has resigned from that post after telling an African-American newspaper that Jewish, Arab and Korean shop owners had "ripped off" urban communities for years, "selling us stale bread, and bad meat and wilted vegetables."And to think, Andrew Young, back when he was Jimmy Carter's ambassador to the U.N., claimed that Britain practically invented racism. Projection, perhaps? Watch How The Left Spins This Pardon The left was full of excuses for the Marc Rich pardon--and quite a number of other pardons given by President Clinton to the rich and connected. This pardon, however, is to a no one: WASHINGTON (CNN) -- By granting absolution to a convicted moonshiner, George W. Bush also earned the unique distinction of becoming the first president to pardon a cast member of the 1972 Academy Award-nominated movie "Deliverance."I'm sure that the left will find some way to turn this into, "George Bush is soft on drug dealers!" or something equally ridiculous. I suppose if George Bush found a cure for cancer, the New York Times would report it under the headline, "Bush forces tens of thousands of doctors out of work." Headstones My wife is rather partial to visiting old graveyards, and I guess that I have picked up the habit. It sounds rather morbid, or at least Victorian-era sentimental (did I mention that my wife's specialty is Victorian British literature?), but it is often quite interesting what you find on gravestones. For example, you can tell something of the wealth of the family of the dearly departed by how elaborately carved the headstone was. Here's the stone of Josiah Soule, a distant relative who died sometime in the late 17th century in Duxbury, Massachusetts. (I could actually somewhat read the date when I visited there last year, but it is certainly not readable in this picture.) It is a rather powerful feeling to find yourself standing atop the graves of your first ancestors in America.  Click to enlarge A bit less than a century later, another relative of mine has a considerably nicer carving--and this is actually pretty typical of the Duxbury gravestones of that era.  Click to enlarge You will notice on both headstones there are weirdly extraterrestial looking faces. In the 17th century, Puritans often put skulls on headstones as a reminder, in the words of Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard": The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow'r,Life (at least this life) is fleeting, and be prepared to meet your Maker. By the time of the Revolution, this depressing reminder is starting to give way to angels--which comes from the Greek word angelos for messenger--a reminder that while this life is fleeting, there is hope. See this 1774 headstone from the same graveyard. It's primitive art, but at least you can see the wings!  Click to enlarge JonBenet Ramsey It was overcovered when the murder was discovered, and it is overcovered now. Should the arrest of this guy Karr in Thailand have made the news? Sure. Should it be a news story bigger than North Korea's nuclear weapons development, and comparable to what is going on in the Middle East? No way. It isn't just Fox News, but also CNN, that have given way too much attention to this story. But the perversion involved (this is just too disgusting to call salacious) is way too attractive to a lot of viewers, and the cable networks are playing this story way too loud. Question About Ruth Gikow's "Psychosis--Two Napoleons and a Josephine" This is a mildly famous art work from the 20th century. I believe that it portrays what used to be a pretty common situation in European mental hospitals--patients who believe themselves to be famous historical figures--and when there are two Napoleons in the same hospital, that's a problem. Two Napoleons and one Josephine in the same hospital would even be more of a problem. Can anyone tell me any more about Gikow's painting? Crazy Woman With Screwdriver on Airplane I'm resisting the urge to quote this...nah, I've stopped resisting the urge: Aug. 17 - A woman on a trans-Atlantic flight diverted to Boston for security concerns passed several notes to crew members, urinated on the cabin floor and made comments the crew believed were references to al-Qaeda and the Sept. 11 attacks, according to an affidavit filed Thursday.She's definitely a peace activist--but at least this description doesn't make her sound mentally ill--just "crazy" in the "Bush=Hitler" sense of the word: Mayo does have clear connections to Pakistan. The Daily Times of Pakistan has published columns she has written, including one on March 18, 2003, in which she criticized President Bush.On the other hand, later parts of the story do suggest someone who is very disturbed--a terrorist would know better than to say these things: In the affidavit, Choldin says flight attendants noticed Mayo about 90 minutes into the flight because she was pushing against the aircraft bulkhead. When the attendant told her to return to her seat, Mayo said she wanted to speak to an air marshal and made statements about knowing that people wanted to see what was in her bag.The more I think about this, and her age, I wonder if Alzheimer's might be an issue. What Does The Fourth Amendment Protect? Jim Lindgren asks a question over at Volokh Conspiracy about the original meaning of the Fourth Amendment, in the context of the wiretapping case that is currently in the news. One of the comments observes: Just wanted to throw in that strictly as an original matter, there is strong evidence that the framers of the Fourth Amendment did not want there to be a warrant requirement for any kind of search. The test was whether the search is reasonable.From my book For the Defense of Themselves and the State: In discussing the need for a Bill of Rights, Jefferson recognized that a general principle was occasionally a mixed blessing:The few cases wherein these things may do evil, cannot be weighed against the multitude where the want of them will do evil.Jefferson then discussed how the suspension of habeas corpus had been abused so often by the government of England that the few times it haddone real good, that operation is now become habitual, & the minds of the nation almost prepared to live under it’s [sic] constant suspension... If no check can be found to keep the number of standing troops within safe bounds, wile they are tolerated as far as necessary, abandon them altogether, discipline well the militia, & guard the magazines with them... My idea then is, that tho’ proper exceptions to these general rules are desirable & probably practicable, yet if the exceptions cannot be agreed upon, the establishment of the rules in all cases will do ill in very few. I hope therefore a bill of rights will be formed to guard the people against the federal government, as they are already guarded against their state governments in most cases.In response to Jefferson’s letter, Madison’s letter of October 17, 1788, described his thoughts on how a Bill of Rights should be drafted:Supposing a bill of rights to be proper the articles which ought to compose it, admit of much discussion. I am inclined to think that absolute restrictions in cases that are doubtful, or where emergencies may overrule them, ought to be avoided. The restrictions however strongly marked on paper will never be regarded when opposed to the decided sense of the public; and after repeated violations in extraordinary cases, they will lose even their ordinary efficacy. Should a Rebellion or insurrection alarm the people as well as the Government, and a suspension of the Hab. Corp. be dictated by the alarm, no written prohibitions on earth would prevent the measure. Should an army in time of peace be gradually established in our neighborhood by Britn: or Spain, declarations on paper would have as little effect in preventing a standing force for the public safety. The best security agst. these evils is to remove the pretext for them... Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Hollywood Is Not A Monolith It's nice to see actors and directors that you've heard of prepared to take a stand: NICOLE Kidman has made a public stand against terrorism.Wow. To oppose terrorism in Hollywood takes a lot of courage. Your Tax Dollars At Work And I don't mean that in a cynical way. Spend a bit of time reading through the abstracts of some of the research being done on schizophrenia and LSD through this link or "schizophrenia genetic predisposition" through this link. I know enough (just barely) about the biochemistry and genetics of this stuff--and where some of this basic research could easily lead--that it makes me proud to be heavily taxed. Now, I know that some of this basic research isn't government-funded--but I'm sure that a lot of it is. It's money well-spent. This Shouldn't Be a Surprise It's just a tragedy. Did the increase in use of LSD and other hallucinogenic drugs in the late 1960s affect the rate of mental illness? Nashaat N. Boutros, Malcolm B. Bowers, Jr., and Donald Quinlan, "Chronological Association Between Increases in Drug Abuse and Psychosis in Connecticut State Hospitals," Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences [February 1998] 10:48-54 examines statistical correlations between drug-related hospital admissions and psychotic/mood disorder first admissions to Connecticut mental hospitals. They make a pretty strong case, based on the time lag (three to five years) and the gender and age characteristics of the two groups, that the drug abuse led to increased mental illness. Because there was a substantial time lag between the two events, there's no question about the direction of causality: an increase in drug abuse could have caused the increase in mental illness; the reverse is clearly not possible. Now, in some circles, this is a very nasty thing to point out. Some people, rather than admit that perhaps the drug warriors might have had a point, insist that illegal drugs, at least used in reasonable quantities, really aren't destructive. While the study linked above isn't conclusive in a "proved in a court of law" way, it is certainly persuasive--especially when you read some of the methods that they used to determine if this might have been a coincidence. Mental Illness & Civil Commitment: Primary Sources Online A practice that I have started since the Bellesiles scandal is to do a quick sanity check on an historian's claims. If there are primary sources that he or she cites, and I can easily check some of those cites, I do so. The Bellesiles scandal demonstrated that even checking 5% of the citations would have identified serious dishonesty problems. One of the commonly cited examples of civil commitment for insanity is a 1759 account from Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, 11:313: Upon the memorial of Benajah Humphry of Symsbury, representing to this Assembly that his son Roger Humphry having while a soldier in the army in the year 1757, become delirous and distracted and in his distraction killed his mother, and thereof upon tryal for murder before the adjourned superior court held in Hartford in June last was found not guilty altogether on the account of his distraction, and thereupon cost of prosecution not being paid was by said court committed to goal [apparently a misspelling of gaol, the English spelling of jail] in Hartford, where he now lies by virtue of such commitment, and still is distracted; praying for relief and the direction of this Assembly, as by the memorial on file: Resolved by this Assembly, that the memorialist have liberty to take the said Roger out of said goal, and that the chief judge of the said court with one of the assistant judges of said court are desired to give orders for the release from goal and delivery of the said Roger to the memorialist; and the memorialist is hereby directed and ordered to take and safely keep said Roger and provide for him.The Symsbury government was directed to "see to it that said Roger be safely kept at the expence of the memorialist." The Assembly granted forty pounds to Roger's father to assist in caring for Roger. This must have been a very painful situation--Benajah's wife is dead; his son is insane; and he has taken it upon himself (with a little help from the colonial government) to maintain, effectively, an insane asylum for one. In 1761, at 11:590-1, Benajah again requested assistance from the Assembly in caring for his son, and they gave him twenty pounds more. An account that I had not seen cited, at 11:111-2 involves Mary Hall, whose behavior had become so worrisome as she wandered "from town to town and place to place, to the great disquiet of many people whoere she goes by reason of her ill behaviour" that the Assembly directed that if she was found outside her home town of Wallingford, she was to be arrested and returned to Wallingford--and Wallingford would be charged the costs. There's no detail on exactly what Mary Hall did as she wandered, but considering that most people aren't terribly afraid of women, I suspect that it must have been pretty frightening. Ten Commandments in Boise You may recall that to make the Rev. Fred Phelps ("God Hates Fags") happy, the Democrats on the Boise City Council voted to remove a Ten Commandments monument from Julia Davis Park. The rationale was that the Ten Commandments monument was almost certainly a violation of "separation of church and state" and Boise wasn't going to waste money defending a suit that they would probably lose--even though there were advocates willing to pay for the defense. As it turned out, when the Supreme Court finally made a decision in a case quite similar to this--the Ten Commandments monument on the grounds of the Texas legislature--they ruled that it was okay. The decision was Van Orden v. Perry (2005). This decision wasn't popular with the people of Boise, and a local group attempted to put this matter to a vote of the people. The Boise city government, of course, being dominated by Democrats, certainly isn't going to allow democratic decision making, and found a judge prepared to accept that while a legislative action by the city could be subject to referendum, an administrative action could not. The Idaho Supreme Court has recently ruled 4-1 that no, the people really do get to vote on this matter. The decision of the Idaho Supreme Court is here: Article III, Section 1 of the Idaho Constitution reserves power to propose and enact legislation to the people independent of the legislature. It provides in part:Got that, liberals? The people are supreme--not judges, not the ACLU, and not the American Atheist Association. There are limits on the power of the government, and it can be legitimate to overturn a popular vote if it clearly violates the federal or state constitution, but to prohibit the voters even being given a chance to express an opinion--that's the sort of high-handed elitism that I have come to expect from liberals. As the Idaho Supreme Court decision went on to point out:The people reserve to themselves the power to propose laws, and enact the same at the polls independent of the legislature. This power is known as the initiative, and legal voters may, under such conditions and in such manner as may be provided by acts of the legislature, initiate any desired legislation and cause the same to be submitted to the vote of the people at a general election for their approval or rejection.The manner in which the initiative power may be exercised is set forth in I.C. § 34-1701, et seq., and § 34-1801, et seq. Idaho Code § 50-501 states, “[t]he city council of each city shall provide by ordinance for direct legislation by the people through the initiative and referendum.” The City of Boise City achieved this when it enacted Boise Municipal Code § 1-22-01, et seq. Section 1-22-01 provides, “The People of this City shall have the right to enact ordinances through the initiative process, and to repeal ordinances through the referendum process, according to the procedures set forth herein.” The language of I.C. § 50-501 indicates that initiatives and referenda are to be used for legislation. This Court has held, “referenda and initiatives in Idaho are constrained to addressing ‘acts’ or ‘measures’ passed by a legislative body. Doubtless there may be a cost in conducting an election on an initiative that ultimately fails, or is ruled invalid, or set aside by the legislature. However, the initiative process arises from the Idaho Constitution, Article III, Section 1, and extends to the cities by legislative mandate. I. C. § 50-501. It is not an inconvenience created by rabble rousers and malcontents to vex established authority. The initiative process is a mandate, significant enough to be embodied in the Idaho Constitution, that enables voters to address issues of concern. Sometimes it compels authorities to listen when nothing else will. Labels: establishment of religion Democrats: Now That We've Help Destroyed Your Electoral Hopes, Give Us More Power! I received a press release that must have been shotgunned to every political blogger, in which homosexual activists, having played a minor contributing role to marginalizing the Democratic Party, ask for more power: This Friday in Chicago at the biannual Democratic National Committee (DNC) meeting, Gov. Howard Dean, Chairman of the Democratic Party, will hopefully have his political players, senior staff, and chits lined up to give the LGBT community increased representation within the Democratic Party process by requiring that all fifty state parties include local LGBT politicos and activists in their delegation that is sent to the largest Democratic party around, the Democratic National Convention. The Democratic National Convention is where lifelong political alliances are made, state political networks sealed, not to mention where the party¹s candidate for President is selected. Now it¹s the LGBT community¹s turn to take part in American Democratic politics by being fully represented. This could be a first step to Gov. Deans¹ queer version of "The 50 State Strategy", leaving no state behind. Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Have You Heard The Joke About the Multiculturalist Who Committed National Suicide? Unfortunately, it may not be a joke. This disturbing article from the Times of London is about how anti-Semitic humor is becoming fashionable: Wandering through the streets of Edinburgh during the world’s largest arts festival, you never know what sight or sound you will be bombarded with next. Half-naked men on 6ft stilts meander by, half-naked girls rush to sell you their show, troops of Japanese acrobats tumble past. But I wasn’t prepared for the verbal assault I got when I wandered into a comedy gig this week.For those leftists who like to pretend that the emerging intellectual fashion is only "anti-Zionism" or "anti-Israelism," note: not "Arabs and Israelis" but "Nazis and Jews." Clear enough? Some of the rest of this account makes me wonder if "comic" is the right word: I’ve seen two comics so far who have been happy to amuse their crowds with Holocaust gags. I’m not sure which to be the more concerned about.Multiculturalists pretend that there is no genuinely "right" or "wrong," and therefore Western nations should not treat our national cultures as preferable to say, Muslim immigrants who insist on sex-segregated beaches, or who defend "honor killings" of wayward daughters. Somehow, their cultures are just as good as ours--but we have to change our traditions to accomodate them--when Muslim countries are often not even willing to change their laws to allow Christians to proselytize. But what is this sudden rise of anti-Semitism as an intellectually acceptable practice? It isn't "all cultures are equal" but "Muslims hate Jews, therefore we must accommodate their preferences." Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership has always struck me as just a bit...extreme in their rhetoric. I didn't disagree with their principles, but I used to think, "The next time genocide happens, it won't be a civilized Western government exterminating Jews--it will be something else." I'm not so sure about that anymore. Humor Cruel humor sent by a reader: Engineer #1: Implementing this Arabic stuff has caused me to learn the darnedest things. Did you know that "al-" is the root for alcohol?I am reminded of something that happened to a co-worker some years ago. He went to the post office to pick up a package. He had a book in his hand that had the word "algorithms" in it. Another person standing in line looked at the title and asked, "Is that a book of the sayings of Al Gore?" Labels: humor Cue The Jetsons Theme When I went to the dentist this morning for my semiannual cleaning, instead of sticking a piece of film in my mouth for the X-rays, they put in a digital sensor instead. Yup! Digital X-rays! The technician said that along with the obvious advantage that they had the image up in a second or two (so they knew immediately if they had a useable image) and no film costs--it also has about 1/3 the radiation exposure of film. UPDATE: A reader tells me that his dentist has done likewise, and reports that the resolution of the pictures is much higher than film, so he can do much more detailed examinations. My reader also reports that the digital sensor is smaller and less sharp than the film commonly used--a major source of pain and upset when he was a child. Why I Get Upset When I See Gun Control Advocates Argue That Rape Doesn't Justify Gun Ownership I've seen gun control advocates argue that rape really isn't such a serious matter that it justifies a potential victim owning a gun. (Not every gun control advocate, of course. I am going to assume that most gun control advocates aren't this evil, although I am sure that some just know it would be bad politics to take this position.) Do they really believe this? I don't know. They may just have engaged in the ultimate form of reductionism--that if guns are bad, then any use of a gun, no matter for what purpose, must be bad. I read a news account like this one, and I just get very, very angry when I think of some of these morons that I have argued with over the years: MIDDLETOWN - When Cathy Lindsey's youngest son handed her a .380-caliber pistol a year ago, he gave her a word of advice.Of course. One of the reasons that I encourage women to buy guns, is this: Lindsey has suffered nightmares of being snatched away by the trio and brutalized all over again - a flare-up of the post traumatic stress disorder she has suffered for 23 years. Lindsey is afraid to drive or leave her house alone, even to her job as a licensed practical nurse at a nursing home.She's armed. She's trained in self-defense. She hasn't recovered from what happened to her, and she may never do so. If she owned a gun 23 years ago, it might not have done any good. It sounds like they entered her apartment without making enough noise to wake her. But of this you can be sure: if she, or some other victim of these animals had been armed, there's a good chance that they wouldn't be getting out of prison. House Project: Enforcing Warranty Compliance The builder sent an email asking to know when he could pick up the final check. We have been waiting for several months for the plumber to show up to tighten up the kitchen faucet and replace the broken hose bib handle. Amazingly enough, the morning after I told him the check would be available, "after all the warranty work has been finished," the plumber showed up, and did his tasks. (He also removed the very expensive Harmsco stainless steel lead filtration housing. We don't need it; we aren't using it; I'm hoping to find someone who doesn't want to pay $1100 for a new one.) Anyway, all that is left is one cracked tile (not badly cracked, but still visible) and the screens that need to be redone in aluminum, so the grasshoppers don't continue eating them. With luck, this should be done by Monday. Last house project entry. Labels: house project Monday, August 14, 2006
That's My Job, To Improve The Health of My Readers I've mentioned my positive experiences with the Breathe Right strips--and some of my readers have profited from it: Reading your blog prompted me to try these strips for about a week now.Another reader had a somewhat different experience as a result--and from reading about my screen-eating grasshoppers: After reading your blog note on Breathe-Rite strips, I located a couple of strips left over from when I used to use them regularly some years ago and put one on last night. (I had stopped using them because the adhesive was removing too much of my nose skin.) Result: who knows if I had better sleep or not, but I sure had a weird dream. I had a dream that a massive swarm of grasshoppers or locusts had been spotted, and that people were warned to take refuge in their houses. I did so, and somehow developed the idea that I urgently needed to turn off the HVAC system to keep them from entering that way. At that point I woke up.And: I know this may come as a surprise, but my purpose for writing is to thank you for your "sinus surgery' article.I spent Friday through Monday visiting some friends in the Reno area, and photographing antique guns as eye candy for the next book. Unfortunately, I took the small/medium sized Breathe Right strips, which do not work quite as well for me. I'm sure whatever progress I was making on weight loss was completely defeated by a couple too many excellent meals in some of the Reno casinos. (One of the friends we were visiting had made some four digit wins the previous day on the slot machines, and insisted on buying us dinner.) UPDATE: Another blogger reports on taking my advice: Clayton tried Breathe Right Nasal Strips. Reading of his success, I tried them and had three of the best nights of sleep, I have had in the several years. Labels: sinuses Understanding Mental Illness Everytime I think some real progress has been made in educating members of the chattering classes about the complex problems associated with mental illness, I see one of those reminders that there's a lot of work to go. Bill O'Reilly's style irritates me a lot, but he often has as at least a basic command of the facts--even when he playing to his populist (not conservative) base. I have often wanted to say, "Mr. O'Reilly, yes, I agree that this is outrageous, but just because a majority wants something, and just because the ACLU often creates the most absurd arguments to subvert majority will, does not make majority will automatically right." I was watching The O'Reilly Factor the other night, and O'Reilly and Geraldo Rivera were discussing the Andrea Yates re-trial for the drowning murders of her five children. O'Reilly and Rivera were both horrified that she was found not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI). Now, there are some very serious problems with NGRI--which is why a number of states, in the last few years, have replaced NGRI with "guilty, but insane." You don't get out any sooner, but you end up in a hospital for the criminally insane--not a prison. But O'Reilly and Rivera were insisting that Yates was not insane, because of the level of premeditation involved. This shows that O'Reilly and Rivera have not the least understanding of the basis of NGRI, or paranoid schizophrenia. I suppose if Andrea Yates had murdered her children because she had life insurance on them, or because they were a hindrance to her wanting to go back to work, or they preventing her from getting a boyfriend (as happened with a case in South Carolina some years ago), you could make a pretty strong case that Yates was evil, but not insane. But she had no rational reason (outside of the schizophrenic delusions from which she was suffering) to murder her children--and for a mother to murder her children without any reason, good or bad, is about as irrational as it gets. I think that state laws that provide for NGRI need to be reformed--and this very extreme example, shows it too well. Thanks to blogger Lone Star Times for bringing this double tragedy to my attention. Here's the latest tragedy: SAN ANTONIO - A jury Thursday took about six hours to sentence Kenneth Lee Pierott Jr. to 60 years in prison for the murder of a 6-year-old Beaumont boy.Why is this a double tragedy, and why am I picking on NGRI? Because this isn't the first time that Pierott has murdered someone: According to a police affidavit, Pierott placed the boy in an oven and left him there all night on April 15. Pierott had been dating the boy's mother.The book that I am starting to work on is not, primarily, about criminal insanity. But tragedies like this are part of what has gone terribly wrong. Pierott was released after beating to death his sister. In a more sane world, he would not have been released so quickly. His psychiatrist's opinion--and that of his family--would have carried more weight: Beaumont psychiatrist Dr. Edward Gripon, who has known Pierott more than eight years, testified that while on medication, Pierott tends to do well, but he has a history of non-compliance. |
