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Labels: gun self-defense Labels: machining Labels: homosexuality Labels: gun self-defense Ward's attorney said today that the charges are based on incidents that occurred more than four years ago and were part of research for a book. "As everybody knows, Bernie, for over 20 years, has been a progressive, opposed to insensitive authority - he has been a champion of charities, nonprofits for the homeless," said Doron Weinberg, who appeared in federal court today as Ward's lawyer. "More than three years ago, Bernie was doing research for a book he was doing on hypocrisy in America," Weinberg said. As part of the research, Ward downloaded "a few images" of child pornography, and, Weinberg said, "it came to the attention of the government in late 2004." "They investigated and they never found any involvement in child pornography other than this period that he accessed these images," Weinberg said. "The government knows that Bernie was doing this for an investigation he was doing for a book. But the government believes he violated the letter of the law and they have gone ahead and prosecuted him." Labels: child sexual abuse Labels: gun rights The horrible tragedy at the Westroads Mall in Omaha, Neb. received a lot of attention Wednesday and Thursday. It should have. Eight people were killed, and five were wounded. A Google news search using the phrase "Omaha Mall Shooting" finds an incredible 2,794 news stories worldwide for the last day. From India and Taiwan to Britain and Austria, there are probably few people in the world who haven’t heard about this tragedy. But despite the massive news coverage, none of the media coverage, at least by 10 a.m. Thursday, mentioned this central fact: Yet another attack occurred in a gun-free zone. Surely, with all the reporters who appear at these crime scenes and seemingly interview virtually everyone there, why didn’t one simply mention the signs that ban guns from the premises? Nebraska allows people to carry permitted concealed handguns, but it allows property owners, such as the Westroads Mall, to post signs banning permit holders from legally carrying guns on their property. The same was true for the attack at the Trolley Square Mall in Utah in February (a copy of the sign at the mall can be seen here). But again the media coverage ignored this fact. Possibly the ban there was even more noteworthy because the off-duty police officer who stopped the attack fortunately violated the ban by taking his gun in with him when he went shopping. Yet even then, the officer "was at the opposite end and on a different floor of the convoluted Trolley Square complex when the shooting began. By the time he became aware of the shooting and managed to track down and confront Talovic [the killer], three minutes had elapsed." There are plenty of cases every year where permit holders stop what would have been multiple victim shootings every year, but they rarely receive any news coverage. Take a case this year in Memphis, where WBIR-TV reported a gunman started "firing a pistol beside a busy city street" and was stopped by two permit holders before anyone was harmed. There's a benefit to gun ownership as well, as this account from the December 6, 2007 Easton [Pennsylvania] Daily Call points out: Labels: gun self-defense Labels: enviromental lunacy Stanford University has created a $4.5-million, four-year pilot program to promote diversity in its doctoral programs. The project, called Diversifying Academia, Recruiting Excellence, and known as DARE, will provide two-year fellowships to 36 doctoral candidates from groups that are typically underrepresented in academe. Examples include women in science or engineering programs; members of racial or ethnic minority groups; first-generation college students; lesbian, gay, and transgender students; and disabled students. Labels: homosexuality Two big climate conferences have been held in less than a month, both in idyllic, far-flung holiday destinations -- first Valencia, Spain, and now Bali. They were preceded by dozens of smaller gatherings. In Bangkok, Paris, Vienna, Washington, New York and Sydney, in Rio de Janeiro, Anchorage, Helsinki and the Indian Ocean island of Kurumba. The pace is only expected to pick up, prompting some to ask if the issue is creating a "cure" industry as various groups claim a stake in efforts to curb global warming. No, says Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the U.N. Climate Change Conference. "Wherever you held it, people would still have to travel to get there," he said. "The question is, perhaps: Do you need to do it at all? My answer to that is yes." ... The U.N. estimates 47,000 tons of carbon dioxide and other pollutants will be pumped into the atmosphere during the 12-day conference in Bali, mostly from plane flights but also from waste and electricity used by hotel air conditioners. If correct, Goodall said, that is equivalent to what a Western city of 1.5 million people, such as Marseilles, France, would emit in a day. But he believes the real figure will be twice that, more like 100,000 tons, close to what the African country of Chad churns out in a year. Organizers said they are doing everything possible to offset the effects. Labels: global warming SPARTANBURG, South Carolina (CNN) — Fred Thompson wants the government to keep its hands off your dinner plate. That's what he told a questioner Tuesday in South Carolina, anyway. Standing about 15 feet away from a mouth-watering steam tray buffet loaded with fried chicken, creamed corn and macaroni and cheese at Wade's Southern Cooking in Spartanburg, Thompson dismissed the idea that preventative care and wellness education should be central features of a government's health care system. "I'm telling you, I don’t think that it’s the primary responsibility of the federal government to tell you what to eat," Thompson said to applause when asked if his health care plan included any details on preventative care, a priority for Democratic candidates. "The fact of the matter is we got an awful lot of knowledge,” said the former Tennesse senator. “Sometimes we don’t have a whole lot of will power, and I don’t know of any government program that's going to instill that." Thompson, ever a fan of small government, said healthy living should be the responsibilities of families first. Labels: 2008 presidential candidates Labels: immigration Even before their deaths prompted a series of heated debates about the use of deadly force, detectives at the Department of Public Safety had their eye on Diego Ortiz and Miguel Dejesus. The two were shot and killed by Joe Horn, a Pasadena man who thought they were burglarizing his neighbor’s home last month. According to a DPS memo obtained by 11 News, the department was investigating the use of Puerto Rican birth certificates by Colombians seeking to obtain Texas driver’s licenses. Both Ortiz and Dejesus had applied for licenses. Dejesus listed his country of origin as Puerto Rico, but both men were Colombian. Apparently, the DPS is investigating hundreds of immigrants who may have used illegal papers to get Texas licenses. But that’s not all. A much wider probe has been launched into an organized syndicate of Colombians who are engaged in illegal weapons sales and home break-ins – just like the one Ortiz and Dejesus were involved in last month in Pasadena. That day, Joe Horn and a shotgun stood in the way of the suspected thieves, but in many instances the suspects have gotten away. Labels: gun defense aftermath, immigration Labels: freedom of speech, homosexuality Labels: gun defense aftermath Labels: enviromental lunacy Labels: enviromental lunacy Labels: machining Labels: child sexual abuse, politicians behaving badly Labels: gun rights Labels: telescopes Labels: Iraqi WMDs Labels: terrorism Labels: deinstitutionalization, gun rights Labels: homosexuality, politicians behaving badly Labels: fake hate crimes Labels: gun rights
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I ran for Idaho state senate in 2008--didn't win
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J. Norman Heath's Blog--a circus rigger and Second Amendment scholar (really!)
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A Bit More About The Omaha Killer's Mental State
I wish that I could say that this was a failure of deinstitutionalization--like many of the other recent mass murder incidents--but it doesn't appear to be the case. Troubled, depressed, confused, but not by any stretch mentally ill. From the December 8, 2007 Idaho Statesman:Prosecutors say Hawkins had been allowed to walk away from state-mandated care in the summer of 2006 - four years of treatment and counseling, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars - but not because he was prepared to face society on his own.
Some problems, unfortunately, can only be solved by a willingness of victims to fight back. Since there is a definite copycat element to these crimes, I would suggest that for the next couple of weeks, if you have a concealed carry permit, it would be very wise to be armed when going shopping. The life you save may be your own, or that of your fellow shoppers.
"There was really nothing more that we could offer him that he was willing to participate in," said Sandra Markley, Sarpy County's lead juvenile prosecutor.
Hawkins became a ward of the state through Sarpy County Juvenile Court in 2002, after a stay in a Missouri treatment facility for threatening to kill his stepmother.
"They invested a lot of time and effort," in Hawkins, Sarpy County Attorney Lee Polikov said of the state, courts and others who oversaw the troubled young man for four years, "and determined he's not going to respond."
"I suspect, maybe pessimistically, many people in the case thought at the time 'we'll see him again.' I hate to say that, but we do that every day."
The juvenile court system could have maintained oversight of Hawkins for nine more months because he hadn't yet turned 19 - that occurred last May. However prosecutors, defense lawyers and Hawkins' state-appointed guardians all agreed that wasn't worth it.
During his years as a state ward, Hawkins was diagnosed with depression, attention deficit disorder, impulsiveness, hyperactivity, and a disorder characterized by negativity and hostility toward authority figures. He was convicted of third-degree assault and for offering to sell drugs at school.
Yet he did progress from residential treatment in a secure environment to a foster home and eventually to his father. And prosecutors say his criminal record while under court supervision wasn't remarkable.
If Hawkins had been suicidal and indicated that he might hurt someone, he could have been confined for a psychiatric evaluation.
"Unfortunately, we had no evidence that he presented a threat," Markley said.
And I would stay out of any malls that have "We're all victims here!" signs up, too.
Weird Lathe Cutting Tool Question of the Day
I need to bore a .25" wide hole inside a piece of plastic--with right angle shoulders. A cross section would look like this:
The "canyon" I need to make is about .025" deep, and .25" wide.
The problem is that a standard boring tool makes a nice 90 degree cut on one end of the cut, at the far end of the bore from where you enter the tube. A reverse rake boring tool (which I made one a while back) makes a nice 90 degree cut on the near end of the cut. You can achieve the desired result by using both of these boring tools, one after the other--but that's two setups to do this.
What I find hard to believe is that someone doesn't make a tool designed to make a single .25" wide cut like I need. I tried to build something that would make a single, .25" wide cut in one operation, but it didn't work. Before I could exert enough force to bore that canyon out, there was enough force to knock the workpiece loose from the chuck. The problem is that lathe cutting tools work by exerting their force on a very, very small point--and something that cuts a .25" wide piece of plastic is not a small point at all.
I have this intuitive sense that there might be some way to combine a couple of different lathe cutting tools onto a single boring bar that would achieve the desired results, but I can't quite figure out how. Or is there a part designed to do exactly what I need? Perhaps a very fine point that would make a 90 degree cut when it entered the plastic, so that I could just advance the cutting point either direction and still end up with a 90 degree cut on both walls of the canyon?
UPDATE: A reader suggested making a cutting tool for my reverse rake boring tool holder that is about 1/8" wide with a V. This gives you two right angles, and you just move the tool 1/8" through the workpiece lengthwise. The actual cutting areas are still tiny. I'm going to give this a try.
Merchants Whining
Thomas Jefferson wrote, "Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains." The merchants along the Mexican border are complaining about how enforcing our immigration laws, and making sure that we aren't letting terrorists into the country, is impairing their bottom line. From the December 8, 2007 Idaho Statesman:Unlike past Christmas holidays, Adriana Aguilar won't be joining the festive get-togethers this year with friends and family just across the Texas-Mexico line in Nuevo Laredo.
Except that a nation isn't "any commercial entity." There are national security issues at stake. And yes, if you have gotten used to just smiling and saying, "U.S. citizen" it is certainly a nuisance to have a passport when crossing a national boundary. But to bring back a phrase occasionally used when some people whined during World War II: "You know, there is a war on."
Aguilar, a U.S. citizen living in this bustling border town, simply isn't willing to endure what she expects will be new, agonizingly long waits at security checkpoints along the border.
Stepped-up inspections of border crossers is slowing the ever-growing lines of traffic at the Laredo points of entry. And it could get worse. In less than two months, U.S. citizens will no longer be allowed to enter the country just by announcing their citizenship - they'll have to prove it.
The changes are raising concerns that people like Aguilar will stay away from the border, damaging economies on both sides. Laredo officials say 40 percent of local retail activity depends on cross-border traffic.
Maria Luisa O'Connell, president of the Phoenix-based Border Trade Alliance, said border cities are concerned they'll lose retail sales tax.
"Instead of choosing to travel to come shopping and have dinner four times, they're going to choose to do it only once," she said. "It's a huge income concern for cities in the U.S. ... What we're worried about is the perception that people will say, 'Why bother?' if it is going to be hard to cross."
The Texas Border Coalition, a group of local officials, asked President Bush in a letter last month to do something about the long wait times before Christmas.
Eagle Pass Mayor Chad Foster, the coalition's chairman, said he would encourage the government to operate like any commercial entity and move the lines along: "I'd do everything to be sure the customers come back and visit my store."
Advantages of eBay
I have been trying to find a spare battery pack for my Ryobi 9.6V cordless screwdriver. The one that I have works just fine, but after a couple of hours of intense use, especially if you haven't kept it recharged, it gets a bit weak. So I went to Home Depot. Nope! They have moved up to systems that use 14.4V and 18V batteries. On their web site? Nope! I called one of the local battery specialty stores--they could rebuild mine (which really means taking it apart and putting in new batteries into the pack), but they didn't have any that I could just buy.
But on eBay, I found the exact item that I needed, new, still in the original packaging, in Utah--someone has dozens of them, probably the result of getting a bargain when Home Depot stopped carrying them--and it cost me $17.40 including shipping.
The Omaha Shooter
He left a suicide note--a troubled kid who sounds like he was very depressed. But there were a number of opportunities to step in and cut him off at the pass:Also Friday, those who knew Hawkins most recently in suburban Bellevue said they tried to warn police about his behavior but got no response.
Oh yeah, this kid had a reason for what he was doing--and the news media have done their very best to accommodate him:
A man who lived nearby said he went to police a month ago to report his and other parents' concerns that Hawkins and his friends had easy access to guns, sold drugs and smoked pot with an adult.
Bellevue police said the house where Hawkins lived is in an unincorporated part of the city and not in their jurisdiction. Police Chief John Stacey would not talk about Kevin Harrington's complaint, but said normally officers pass complaints from that neighborhood onto the Sarpy County Sheriff.
Sheriff's officials said they never received the complaint.
Harrington, 45, said he told police in Bellevue about a month ago that one of Hawkins' friends offered to sell Valium to his 13-year-old son. Harrington said he also told police that Hawkins had previously shot at a car during a drug deal gone bad.
"We told them about the drugs, we told them about the guns, and nothing was done," Harrington said. "I've just snapped. I can't take this meaningless existence anymore I've been a constant disappointment and that trend would have only continued."
This is not the first time that this has been a problem, as this Journal of Mass Media Ethics paper of mine some years ago pointed out.
Hawkins added, "I love you mommy. I love you dad," and expressed love for several other people. He told them to remember the good times they had.
"Just think tho I'm gonna be (expletive) famous," he wrote.
Should I Laugh Or Cry?
I can remember some very cynical person (doubtless who had been through a messy divorce) saying that homosexuals demanding the right to marry were making a terrible mistake--soon they could experience the suffering that heterosexuals go through! And it appears to be true, based on this December 7, 2007 Associated Press story:PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - A lesbian couple that married in Massachusetts cannot get divorced in their home state of Rhode Island, the state Supreme Court ruled Friday.
You almost get the feeling that the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court did not do this "couple" a favor by giving them the option of marrying.
The court, in a 3-2 decision, said the state's family court lacks the authority to grant the divorce of a same-sex couple because Rhode Island lawmakers have not defined marriage as anything other than a union between a man and a woman.
"The role of the judicial branch is not to make policy, but simply to determine the legislative intent," the court wrote.
An attorney for one of the women involved complained they have been left in a "legal limbo," but opponents of same-sex marriage said the court correctly avoided taking a step toward recognizing such unions.
Cassandra Ormiston and Margaret Chambers wed in Massachusetts in 2004 and filed for divorce last year in Rhode Island, where they both live.
Massachusetts, the only state where gay marriage is legal, restricts the unions to residents of states where the marriage would be recognized, and a Massachusetts judge decided last year that Rhode Island is one of those states.
No law specifically bans same-sex marriages in Rhode Island, but the state has taken no action to recognize them. The justices said Rhode Island laws contain numerous references to marriage as between a woman and a man.
Nancy Palmisciano, Ormiston's lawyer, said couples married in other states and other countries are routinely granted divorces in Rhode Island, and the same freedom should apply to this couple.
Now Ormiston is stuck in a marriage she doesn't want to be in, Palmisciano said. The women's lawyers have said at least one would have to move to Massachusetts to get a divorce, but Palmisciano said Friday that was not a viable option for her client.
G.I. Joe's Face
Vin Suprynowicz has an absolutely stunning column in the December 10, 2007 Shotgun News which also appeared in the October 28, 2007 Las Vegas Review-Journal. Here's the opening--and you really need to read the full column:Hollywood now proposes that in a new live-action movie based on the G.I. Joe toy line, Joe's -- well, "G.I." -- identity needs to be replaced by membership in an "international force based in Brussels." The IGN Entertainment news site reports Paramount is considering replacing our "real American hero" with "Action Man," member of an "international operations team."
It turns out that G.I. Joe's face was modeled on a real U.S. Marine--a man named Mitchell Paige who received the Congressional Medal of Honor for an exploit that Hollywood would never dared to have portrayed back then--because it would have been too unbelievable. Paige's platoon of 33 men was trying to hold a position on Guadalcanal against two regiments of Japanese soldiers--and by the time morning came, Paige was the only soldier still able to fight. There were at least 2200 dead Japanese soldiers as a result of Paige's unwillingness to give up the fight, moving from machine gun to machine gun to give the illusion that there was more than just one Marine holding the position.
Paramount will simply turn Joe's name into an acronym.
The show biz newspaper Variety reports: "G.I. Joe is now a Brussels-based outfit that stands for Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity, an international co-ed force of operatives who use hi-tech equipment to battle Cobra, an evil organization headed by a double-crossing Scottish arms dealer."
Well, thank goodness the villain -- no need to offend anyone by making our villains Arabs, Muslims, or foreign dictators of any stripe these days, though apparently Presbyterians who talk like Scottie on "Star Trek" are still OK -- is a double-crossing arms dealer. Otherwise one might be tempted to conclude the geniuses at Paramount believe arms dealing itself is evil.
...
According to reports in Variety and the aforementioned IGN, the producers explain international marketing would simply prove too difficult for a summer, 2009 film about a heroic U.S. soldier. Thus the need to "eliminate Joe's connection to the U.S. military."
Well, who cares. G.I. Joe is just a toy, right? He was never real. Right?
Does anyone find it even slightly surprising that Hollywood would rather "internationalize" a story, forgetting what country they are in?
UPDATE: I had the wrong to link to Vin's column. Fixed.
UPDATE 2: Another reader pointed out that "won" the Congressional Medal of Honor really isn't the right verb; that makes it sound like a contest.
ScrappleFace's Satire
I'm usually quite amused by ScrappleFace. Here he is trying to make an important point about how gun-free zones aggravate the problem of spree shooters. But it's a bit too tragic of a situation to make light of, I'm afraid.
Photo Permissions
I just received a request for permission to use a photograph in a biology textbook to be printed in Hong Kong. This one, from when my house was being built:
I don't see any reason why not--but would it be considered normal to request some small payment for the use of the picture? I'm not expecting to get thousands of dollars for use of it, of course--but is it typical to get a small payment, and if so, what would be typical for an uninspired picture like this?
Advertising Stacking Higher and Higher
Some of you aren't happy about the amount of advertising that is beginning to stack at the top of my blog. I'm trying to fix this so that there's only one ad at the top of the blog. This may take a couple of days for existing ads to age off that are in those positions.
Of course, if enough money comes pouring into PayPal, maybe I don't need to run ads!
Novel Advertising on My Blog
One of the current advertisers on my blog, and another that are coming up, are promoting novels; one of them has mercenaries with bows and arrows. I suspect that if you enjoyed Jerry Pournelle's Janissaries series, this might interest you as well.
The other novel whose ad has not yet appeared is a bit surprising--an historical romance involving Justice Iredell (of North Carolina), Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice James Wilson, and their wives. The reviews are quite positive.
Bernie Ward's Problems
Those of you who have lived in San Francisco know who Bernie Ward is. He's a very, very liberal (or progressive, depending on your mood) radio talk show host out there. I've never been able to take him seriously--he combines the worst errors of progressivism with the worst of talk show host traits into a very unappealing package.
So you might think that I am crowing about Ward's federal child pornography indictment, discussed in this December 6, 2007 San Francisco Chronicle article. No, I am not. Yes, he's a former Catholic priest, so I don't find the charges implausible. He is a progressive--so I don't find the charges implausible. But the claim that his attorney makes:
This is now known as the Peter Townshend defense, and as with Townshend, I am prepared, in the absence of other evidence, to give Ward the benefit of the doubt. The fact is that there are some subjects that are hard to research without actually seeing at least some examples of the subject. You can write a book or a paper about neo-Nazi hate literature without reading it--but it isn't going to be a terribly impressive piece of scholarship. You can write a book or a paper about child pornography without ever seeing any of it--but it is unlikely to be a very persuasive piece of research.
This does present a real problem: how do you distinguish legitimate research from the purpose for which the child pornography statutes exist? It would be very easy for someone whose interest in child pornography was prurient, not scholarly, to use that as an excuse.
Now, if the federal prosecutor actually believed what Ward's attorney says, why are they prosecuting him? Prosecutors have some discretion on whether to file a criminal charge--and if they have known about this since 2004, why are they only filing charges now? Either some additional information has come to their attention that raises questions about Ward's claim, or the federal prosecutor is showing a distinct lack of discretion.
For now, I'm prepared to give Bernie Ward the benefit of the doubt, until some clear evidence shows up that he was not engaged in research on the subject.
UPDATE: This December 6, 2007 KTVU channel 2 report says something a lot more damaging:San Francisco radio talk show host Bernie Ward has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of using the Internet to send and receive child pornography, his lawyer said.
Exchanging images? Okay, that pretty well blows out Ward's claim of researching the topic.
The indictment is under seal, but the charges were confirmed by Ward's lawyer, Doron Weinberg, and by his employer, KGO radio.
Weinberg said Ward, 56, pleaded not guilty to the indictment before a federal magistrate in San Francisco Thursday.
He said Ward is due to reappear in court in late January before U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker for a status conference and scheduling of a trial date.
Weinberg said the case stems from an "error of judgment" Ward made when he spent a few days in 2004 looking at pornography images and exchanging images with other adults when doing research for a book on hypocrisy.
Idaho Attorney-General Wasden Acts
I mentioned a week or two ago that Idaho Attorney-General Wasden needed to sign on to the amicus brief that the other state attorneys-general are filing in the DC gun control case. And he is! Here's the letter! Thanks to Red's Trading Post for bringing this to my attention!
More Leftist Ignorance
George Soros' Tides Foundation funded this piece of leftist propaganda. It is hard to take seriously something that manages to make two dramatically incorrect statements at the very beginning.
First error: more than 50% of taxes does not go to the military. This is a claim that the left likes to make by only looking at "discretionary spending" and ignoring much of the mandated spending on health and welfare. The book Addicted to War, for example, on page 1, claims that "A huge part of the money that the IRS takes out of our paychecks goes to support the military," and shows a pie chart that claims that 51% of all discretionary spending in 2004 is for the military.
But that's a very misleading statement, because discretionary spending is less than half the budget. I couldn't find the 2004 budget data, but the 2008 budget data is here. On page 4 of that document you can see a breakdown of 2007 federal spending, with 20.1% of the federal spending going to defense spending, 18.5% going to non-defense discretionary, 20.4% going to Medicare/Medicaid, and 20.9% to Social Security. Defense spending is actually less than we spend on Medicare/Medicaid.
Second error (I'm being polite): the claim that corporations are bigger than the government. It is true that there are corporations that are larger than many Third World governments, but the total revenue of Exxon, the world's largest corporation is just under $340 billion. By comparison, the U.S. government's total revenue estimate for 2007 is a bit more than $2.4 trillion. Even combining the ten largest corporations on Earth does not add up to the revenue of the U.S. government. And there are LOTS of other governments--the state and local governments have substantial budgets. California's 2007-2008 budget revenue is $128 billion (see page 73)--or just between the 15th and 16th largest corporations. Japan, Canada, Australia, the various European nations--I would expect all of them to have revenues somewhere between California and the United States.
There's not much point in continuing to watch something that is, at best, grossly wrong about basic facts.
Christmas Gift Suggestions
You could always get someone a copy of Armed America for Christmas! I have a few copies sitting on the shelf here; if you want an autographed copy, they are $26.99 plus shipping. There's still enough time.
I was wandering through eBay and found what looks like a pretty impressive bargain (at least at the current bid) here. It's the Celestron 102mm achromatic refractor on a CG-4 mount. If as described, this would be a decent deal for $250, much less at this price. If you know someone who is interested in astronomy--but not sure whether to go hog-wild and pig-crazy quite yet--this is a good start.
Costs & Benefits
There's a bit of news coverage of that mass shooting in Omaha, of course, but as John Lott points out, what isn't getting covered is that the mall in question had a rule about guns:Rob Pierce Jr.'s walk through Easton's West Ward for dinner at his fiancee's mother's house Tuesday almost cost him his life.
He was mugged by two men, one a self-proclaimed Crips gang member, the other wearing a hooded jacket and carrying a handgun, police said.
''It was like hell,'' Pierce, 27, of Easton said Wednesday night in a brief phone interview.
While being told to be quiet and cooperate, he was dragged across the street in the darkness and told he was going to be shot. But in an instant, the hunted became the hunter.
Pierce, who carries a handgun for protection, pulled out a .357 revolver and shot Maurice Cook of Easton, who had thrust a .45 handgun into Pierce's back and the side of his head.
Cook, 22, who was shot in the abdomen, was taken to St. Luke's Hospital-Fountain Hill, where he underwent surgery and was expected to survive, police said.
He and the other mugging suspect, Tyrone Wright, 22, of Newark, N.J., were charged Wednesday with robbery, aggravated assault and conspiracy. Wright told a district judge he was recently freed from a New Jersey prison, where he had been held on a drug charge.
Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli said the good guy won in a botched armed robbery. But at a news conference Wednesday, he also cautioned against a return to the vigilante days of the Wild West.
He said Pierce violated no law by protecting himself and will face no charges. ''Luckily, this time, the citizen won. I think Mr. Pierce acted responsibly.''
Big Government As Environmental Damager
I am not quite as enthusiastic about the "free markets will solve all environmental problems" idea as I once was, but there certainly plenty of reminders that the government is quite effective at impairing the environment, simply because when it does something stupid, everyone is required to participate in the idiocy.
My eldest sister called me this morning to wish me Happy Birthday (I'm 51 today), and she told me about a couple of truly stupid ordinances that Bandon, Oregon has. It seems that some of the local environmentalists wanted to set up rain barrels to catch water coming down from the roof gutters. These barrels are sealed up so that there's no way for mosquitoes to breed in them, and they have a valve at the bottom that lets you hook up a hose.
The idea is that you accumulate the water during the winter months, when it rains a lot, and then in summer, when water is in scarce supply, you use it for your lawn or garden. This water is free--unlike city water. I rather doubt that most people are going to install rain barrels, and even those that do are unlikely to make a major difference in their water consumption--but if it makes the environmentalists feel a little less guilty, what's the problem?
My sister tells me that Bandon has a city ordinance that requires water coming from the roof gutters to go into the sewer system. (Bandon, like a lot of small towns, still has a combination sewer and storm drain system.) Apparently this was originally because when it rains hard there, it is very easy for water to accumulate on the property of others. If you have an older house without roof gutters, you don't have to install gutters and hook up to the sewer system--but this idea of hooking up rain barrels to the roof gutters is unlawful.
I suppose if there's really a legitimate public purpose to requiring the gutters not to spill water onto the ground, they could rewrite the ordinance to allow people to use rain barrels, or some other method storing rainwater for later use. But it seems hard to believe that the public safety reasons explain this. Apparently a big chunk of the city's revenue comes from utilities--including the providing of water! (Be glad that they don't sell sunshine--they might require your house to be covered by an opaque covering.)
Not only is this stupidity a problem for the rain barrel enthusiasts, but it also strikes me that it increases demand on the sewage treatment plant as well. I don't know how much extra water goes through the treatment plant during heavy rainstorms, but I know that was one of the reasons that Los Angeles created a separate storm drain system some years back--because during heavy storms, the sewage treatment system would be overwhelmed, and they would often be forced to dump raw or partially treated sewage into the Pacific because of this.
I keep saying to myself, "Forget about ideological solutions--can we just have governments employ some common sense?" But alas, I don't think common sense is in very strong supply.
Yes, The Academic Community Is So Homophobic
There was a time when American universities regularly engaged in discrimination against blacks, women, and Jews, and I am quite prepared to believe that they discriminated on other grounds as well. They were--and are--the ultimate examples of non-free market institutions--almost completely insulated from the competitive forces of the free market.
As Thomas Sowell has repeatedly pointed out, a company that arbitrarily decides that 11% of the workforce isn't worth hiring thereby increases the wages that it has to pay the 89% of the workforce that it is willing to consider. Unless all of its competitors engage in that same discrimination, one of those competitors is going to hire that 11% at a lower wage, and outcompete the discriminatory firms. The only way to make arbitrary discrimination work in a free market system is to prohibit that competition.
South Africa's apartheid system got its start in the 1920s when poorly educated Afrikaaners insisted that the largely British-owned firms reserve the best paying jobs for whites. (The companies, being greedy, preferred to hire the cheapest workers, and didn't feel any racial solidarity with the Afrikaaners.) The Afrikaaners used their political dominance to impose this discrimination system on all employers.
Of course, times change. Universities today are awash in the desire to hire people who are victims--or who the university chooses to see as victims. There can't be more than a handful of blacks working on their doctorates now who have ever seen a whites-only restroom or drinking fountain--and even those have only seen them in a museum or a history book. The days when women went to college (if they went at all) to find a husband, not get a degree, have been over for some decades.
So I see this article in Chronicles of Higher Education linked over at John Rosenberg's Discriminations about Stanford's new program to encourage victim groups to work on their doctorates, and I am just floored:I wonder how Stanford knows that “lesbian, gay, and transgender” people are “underrepresented in academe.” Are they equally “underrepresented” in all fields? If not, will Stanford take care to promote sexual “diversity” only in those academic areas that need it? It would be quite helpful if Stanford would make available the data that informs its decision to give some fellowships and other benefits based on sex, gender, and sexual preference.
There are four very serious problems with this effort:
1. Unless someone chooses to identify themselves as "lesbian, gay, and transgender," how will the university know that members of this group are "underrepresented in academe"? I would expect that there are some gay faculty who decide that it is no one else's business what their sexual orientation is. They might decide this because of concern about discrimination (although this seems most unlikely for a reason that I am about to mention), or because they have the good taste not to make a public issue of what is really a rather private matter.
2. To be blunt about it, does anyone seriously think that American universities, on the whole, are not profoundly pro-gay? They make Hollywood look like a bunch of homophobes by comparison. If homosexuals aren't going into academia, it can't be because of widespread hostility or discrimination.
3. It's pretty difficult to pretend to be female, or pretend to be black. (Pretending to be American Indian, however, isn't difficult at all. Ask Colorado University about that!) But having these fellowships available sounds like a recipe for fraud. You don't have to actually demonstrate your gayness--and indeed, since there are plenty of gay men who don't meet the swishy stereotypes, I wonder how long it will be before fellowship applications start coming in from very straight-acting "gay" men?
4. If the argument for this is that academia benefits from diversity, why aren't Republicans on the list? As Joel points out, why aren't any of the conservative Christian denominations on the list? I'm sure that a Stanford Faculty Republican Club could meet in the office of one of the economics professors--and for all I know, it wouldn't be crowded.
Instapundit Is Right
He points to the headline on this December 4, 2007 Seattle Post-Intelligencer news story, and observes, "You just can't make this stuff up."
The news story itself actually raises the question:More than 10,000 jet into Bali for global warming conference
Haven't these guys heard of teleconferencing? But there wouldn't be any lobster or shrimp cocktail served that way.
Q. How can you tell that global warming activists have been in your city for the weekend?
A. They've produced as much carbon dioxide as an entire African nation does in a year.
The only thing that would be better would be: "Secret police, torturer reserve units mobilized to protect human rights conference."
George Bush, Human Being
Jenna Bush was taping the Ellen DeGeneres show (probably promoting her new book), and Ellen asked her how hard it was to call her parents--with the implication that since he's the President of the United States, it might be rather difficult. So Jenna picked up the phone, and called home--and in about ten seconds, she was talking to Mom and Dad--and it struck me what a normal person he is. Since Ellen sort of sprung this on Jenna, there was obviously no chance to let Bush know in advance that this was going to happen.
Very impressive.
The Government is Not Your Mother
I'm not sure that saying sensible things is a path to the White House, but I'm glad to see Thompson make this statement:
There's no question that many Americans don't eat as healthy of a diet as they should. (Even myself, on occasion.) But I am more worried about a government that does the dietary equivalent of the mandatory exercise program in 1984 than I am about poor health.
Los Angeles: Third World City
Some years back, I worked for a company that built digital loop carriers. A loop carrier is a type of telephone company transmission equipment that bundles the signal from dozens to thousands of phone lines, combines it into a single single, and then transmits it over either a copper cable or a fiber optics cable. Among the odd little products we sold was a wireless loop carrier known as Airspan. Instead of multiplexing dozens of signals together and sending them over a chunk of wire, they were sent as radio signals to a receiver that captured them, then demultiplexed them into individual signals.
What was the attraction of a wireless system? At the time, much of the demand for Airspan was in the Third World because copper cables (even buried ones), got stolen. People who are poor, with plenty of time on their hands, would repeatedly steal the copper telephone cabling. Hence, Airspan--no copper to steal! But fortunately, only in a Third World country would you find people with enough poverty, ambition, and contempt for property, to do something like this. (Americans with that much poverty and contempt for property usually aren't that ambitious.)
Then I heard about a stretch of freeway in Florida that was starting to have problems with thieves stealing the wiring for the streetlighting--and after enough thefts, the government just gave up, and decided to leave it dark.
Now I see this depressing December 5, 2007 Los Angeles Times article:Thieves have disabled about 700 streetlights in Los Angeles, making off with 370,000 feet of valuable copper wiring over the last four months.
Now, I'm all for dark skies, but even without streetlights, Los Angeles is in no danger of being a dark sky location--not even close. And while I think much of America is irrational in its desire to set the sky aglow based on crime, Los Angeles may have a legitimate basis for these fears. It is a pretty bad sign about the Third Worldization of Los Angeles, however.
L.A. officials said it is a twist on copper thefts that have plagued new home sites and even some office buildings in the last few years.
With some lights pilfered during the summer still out, city officials Tuesday expressed concerns about the safety of passing drivers, pedestrians and bikers. The Los Angeles Public Works Department has already spent nearly $1 million repairing the lights.
"When we have to go out and replace that wire, it takes away from other city services," said Public Works Commissioner Cynthia Ruiz at a news conference on a downtown street corner near samples of copper streetlight wire. "If I had an extra million dollars I could put 10 graffiti crews on the streets."
Among the hardest hit areas are Boyle Heights, the east San Fernando Valley and Wilmington, as well as a three-mile stretch of the Los Angeles River Bike Path between Los Feliz Boulevard and the L.A. Zoo. Police in other cities, including San Bernardino, Redlands, San Jose, San Francisco and Pasadena, are struggling with a similar spate of streetlight wire thefts.
Some large blocks in the Eastside have not had street lighting since August. At the corner of 12th and Soto streets Tuesday, Mary Rivera worked in darkness loading furniture she had just bought from a warehouse store into her truck.
"When you don't have light in the streets you can have an accident, especially when you have people who are drinking liquor and walking in the street," Rivera said.
Simcox Speaks at Boise State University
Obviously, this was something that the College Republicans organized; BSU, like nearly all universities, is far too PC to do something like this. From the December 3, 2007 Boise State Arbiter:He came. He spoke. He nearly started a riot.
It sounds like a more accurate description of that first paragraph is, "He came. He spoke. Hotheads who object to immigration laws nearly started a riot."
Approximately 200 hundred people filled the Lookout Room at the Boise State Student Union Building Tuesday evening to hear Minute Men Civil Defense Corps founder Chris Simcox speak.
Simcox was invited by the Boise State College Republicans to speak about his organization and its view on securing our borders. More than half of the audience wore red shirts symbolizing their protest to Simcox' message.
"We want to let him know that his hate speech is not welcome," Lucia Venegas said. Venegas, a Boise State graduate student in counseling said she feels his presence made some students feel unwelcome at BSU.
The animosity began before the speech even started. Faculty, students and community members gathered in the Cultural Center beforehand, where Student Union Director Jack Rahmann spoke to the protestors about rules concerning conduct at events held in the SUB.
Despite disagreements interpreting these rules, the protestors quietly made their way to the Lookout Room. The protestors purposefully filled every other seat to accentuate their presence.
Simcox began by thanking the College Republicans for inviting him to tackle this controversial issue.
"There seems to be growing friction and ethnic strife," Simcox said.
He claims this is the result of government inaction. Simcox expressed that both Northern and Southern borders have security problems and that this is the fault of the U.S. government.
"We challenge federal authorities to do their job," Simcox said. "We are leading a reform movement."
The Minute Men were founded in October 2002 to address the issue of illegal entry to the United States. There are 117 chapters across the nation and 10,000 volunteers.
Simcox emphasized that some groups of the Minute Men split from the original organization; he apologized for their extreme rhetoric and stressed this is not what he represents.
"I admire the messages on your shirts," Simcox said to the protestors. "No human is illegal, no oppression should be tolerated in our country."
The shirts worn by the protestors were purchased by the Associated Students of BSU for the event "No Oppression Tolerated," held last spring. Many of the protestors added additional messages to their shirts such as, "BSU is too great for hate," and "Take your hate and get off our campus."
I could understand if Simcox was promoting racial hatred why there might be some upset. But he is quite careful to emphasize that this is problem of border security--that we are unable to keep OTMs (Other Than Mexican) illegals from crossing our Southern border--some of whom are Middle Easterners. There are similar problems (although on a smaller scale) across our border with Canada. Remember that the Millennium bomber was arrested coming in from Canada.
More About the Joe Horn Shootings in Houston
I mentioned this incident yesterday. It turns out that there's a bit more to the story of the two burglars that Joe Horn shot to death. From December 4, 2007 KHOU channel 11:
That's it! Doing jobs Americans won't do! Thanks to Lone Star Times for the pointer to this intriguing and worrisome information.
Freedom of Speech, Homosexuality: Pick One
From November 30, 2007 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation:A former pastor and the Christian group he belonged to broke Alberta's human rights law by writing an anti-gay letter published in a Red Deer newspaper, a panel ruled Friday.
I rather doubt that if atheists wrote letters to a newspaper that compared Christianity to Naziism that the Alberta Human Rights Commission would have a problem with that.
In 2002, Stephen Boissoin wrote a letter to the editor of the Red Deer Advocate that compared gay people to pedophiles and drug dealers. It was published under the headline "Homosexual agenda wicked."
Darren Lund, a high school teacher in Red Deer at the time, complained to the Alberta Human Rights Commission that the letter was a hate crime after a gay teenager was attacked in the city.
On Friday, a commission panel decided Boissoin and the Concerned Christian Coalition of which he was executive director violated human rights law because the letter likely exposed gays to hatred and contempt.
"I find that there is a circumstantial connection between the hate speech of Mr. Boissoin and the CCC and the beating of a gay teenager in Red Deer less than two weeks following the publication of Mr. Boissoin's letter," wrote panel chairwoman Lori Andreachuk.
Reasons Why Using a Gun in Self-Defense Is Very Serious
This December 3, 2007 Houston Chronicle article is about a man who shot two burglars who had broken into a neighbor's home--and he claims came at him in his own yard after he called the police. Not surprisingly, the New Black Panther Party decided that he didn't have good reason for it, and that he must be a racist:HOUSTON — Protesters critical of a homeowner who fatally shot two suspected burglars were confronted by hundreds of the man's supporters during a rally on the street where the killings occurred.
Did Horn do the wrong thing? Hard to tell--but the article goes on to indicate that Horn has not been charged, and that the case will be turned over to a grand jury within a few days. If Horn was clearly in the wrong, you wouldn't know it from the news story. But those who who engage in the politics of race are quite prepared to make him an example of the evils of interfering with burglary.
Yard signs declaring support for Joe Horn, 61, lined nearby streets Sunday in the Pasadena neighborhood where Miguel Antonio DeJesus, 38, and Diego Ortiz, 30, were killed Nov. 14.
Horn's supporters parked motorcycles along the block Sunday and jeered protesters who called for Horn to be prosecuted. The supporters waved American flags and hoisted signs reading, "We love our neighbor for protecting our neighbors" and "Burglary is a risky business."
Police officers in riot gear monitored the activities, but no arrests were made.
Horn's attorney has said his client believed the two men had broken into his neighbor's home and that he shot them only when they came into his yard and threatened him.
But that description is partly at odds with Horn's call to 911 in which Horn threatens to kill the men despite the dispatcher's urging that Horn stay inside his house.
"I support our rights as Americans to protect ourselves and support our Second Amendment rights," said Aaron Morrow, 43, one of dozens of bikers who revved their engines each time activist Quanell X attempted to speak.
Quanell X has said that Horn, who is white, should be charged with murder for shooting DeJesus and Ortiz, who were black. After Sunday's counter-protest, he said he doesn't know if the shootings were racially motivated but said he "wouldn't be surprised."
The families of the shooting victims were present Sunday.
"Our position is that we do not condone their actions. We condemn their actions," Quanell X said. "But Horn acted as police officer, judge, jury and executioner all at the same time."
Michelle Howell, who lives down the street from Horn, said she was in disbelief that the event had taken on racial overtones.
"First of all, this is a quiet place, secondly we've got neighbors of all different races. This has nothing to do with race," she said.
Maritza Munoz marched with the members of the New Black Panther Nation.
"Yes, they broke into people's houses, but it wasn't his right to kill them. What he (Horn) did was criminal," she said.
The Golden Compass
I saw the trailer when I went to see Beowulf. I knew that there were some concerns about the novels upon which it is based being ferociously anti-Christian. The trailer looked pretty impressive; someone spent a lot of money on creating an alternate universe with a very odd mixture of technology and style that resembles late Victorian, but at the same time, clearly is not.
Anyway, I've seen a few critical comments about the books, and that the movie is an attempt to package a fiercely New Age, anti-Christian perspective into a form that would be appealing to children (kind of like liberals learn from Big Tobacco and create the New Age equivalent of Joe Camel). There's a very articulate and entertaining criticism of The Golden Compass's novelistic origins over at the Right Coast which is well worth reading in full. A few excerpts that I thought especially insightful or amusing:There really isn't any way you can tell a story which involves the Church (called the "Magisterium" in the book, which is the Catholic canon legal term for the teaching authority of the Church, and for the doctrinal content of what is taught) kidnapping children, taking them to a sinister medical facility/concentration camp in the arctic, and performing bizarre and mutilating experiments on them, and not have it be anti-Catholic. But it is not as if this is any big secret, either. Pullman has averred that his His Dark Materials trilogy is about "killing God," who turns out to be an old senile man much in need of offing.
He goes onto to point out that Pullman, the author of this series of novels, is part of a grand European tradition:
Now such reliable organs as The L.A. Times are coming out to say it is just more of the same old Catholic intolerance and bigotry that is protesting against the depiction of the Church as a bunch of crazed Nazis. Pullman has helpfully elevated the debate by calling offended Catholics "nitwits."
One might complain that had an author written a book about an alternative universe in which thinly disguised Jews tortured children, and, say, manipulated the world through their control of finance, the MSM would find more to protest about. But in today's climate, especially in the UK, one wonders whether even that would do more than get a few rabbis exercised and earn some positive reviews from the BBC. (Catholics used to complain that anti-Catholicism was the Antisemitism of the intellectuals, but this was before the intellectuals went back to antisemitism.)The main point of this post, however, is to point out an irony. The villains in the Golden Compass and sequels are the Catholic-Nazis -- a fair characterization of the book's point, since anytime you have villains running concentration camps with medical experiments, that is psychic charge you are invoking. But in fact, if you want to experience the flavor that contemporary fascism would have when translated into first rate children's literature, you cannot, in my view, do better than Pullman's series.
The trailer shows us that in this alternate universe, every person has an animal spirit guide that accompanies him everywhere. As one of the commenters over at The Right Coast points out:
To be fair, I am not saying Pullman is some sort of neo-Nazi. I think his invocation of fascist themes and memes is probably unconscious. It is just that similar jobs tend to call forth similar tools. The European fascists generally and the Nazis in particular very much wanted to cut off the influence and ultimately destroy the Judeo-Christian God and the Church in particular. They had political reasons for wanting this, but also ideological and (weirdly) religious reasons. Not all of the Nazis were devotes of the occult, but many of them were, and the ones who were not very much understood the importance and power of building a fascist mythos which could motivate and inspire people. To put together their ideology, the Nazis pulled out of the great cesspool of European ideas a lot of nasty things that would have been much better left alone, but among them was the idea that Christianity, which they saw as nothing more than a kind of Judaism, severed people from their inner Nature spirit, their pagan, let's run through the woods naked sort of thing. When Pullman has the Church taking children to camps to sever them from their daemons -- their animal- embodied-soul-mates that every whole person in his alternative universe has -- he is just parroting in kid lit form the old canard you could have picked up in a hundred disreputable places in Bavaria or Vienna in the 1930's.
UPDATE: I found an article The Atlantic (about as establishment liberal as they get) that gives a bit more about Pullman's objectives, and compares it to other fantasy movies:
I, for one, am fairly sure we all do have a personal demon. I'm also pretty sure it's not a pet, and it's a bad idea to try to get in touch with it. One of my principal personal demons is Drink, and he is not a cuddly fellow at all.In the past, Pullman has expressed mainly contempt for the books on which the other movies were based. He once dismissed the Lord of the Rings trilogy as an “infantile work” primarily concerned with “maps and plans and languages and codes.” Narnia got it even worse: “Morally loathsome,” he called it. “One of the most ugly and poisonous things I’ve ever read.” He described his own series as Narnia’s moral opposite. “That’s the Christian one,” he told me. “And mine is the non-Christian.”
Pullman’s books have sold 15 million copies worldwide, although it’s difficult to imagine adolescent novels any more openly subversive. The series, known collectively as His Dark Materials, centers on Lyra Belacqua, a preteen orphan who’s pursued by a murderous institution known as “the Magisterium.” Or to use the more familiar name, “the Holy Church.” In its quest to eradicate sin, the Church sanctions experiments involving the kidnap and torture of hundreds of children—experiments that separate body from soul and leave the children to stumble around zombie-like, and then die.
The series builds up to a cataclysmic war between Heaven and Earth, on the model of Paradise Lost (the source of the phrase his dark materials). But in Pullman’s version, God is revealed to be a charlatan more pitiable even than Oz. His death scene is memorable only for its lack of drama and dignity: The feeble, demented being, called “the ancient of days,” cowers and cries like a baby, dissolving in air. The final book climaxes, so to speak, in a love scene that could rattle the sensibilities of an American culture that tolerates even Girls Gone Wild, because in this case the girl is still a few years away from college. (More on this later.)
A Serious Suggestion For How To Save Mother Earth
Mounting refrigerators in houses on big lazy susans so that you could rotate the fridge outside at night and during the winter months. Where I live, the outside temperature from December 1 to about March 15 varies from 20 degrees to about 40 degrees (unlike the inside of the house, where it is usually 65 to 70 degrees). This substantially reduces the amount of work that the compressor has to do to keep the food at either icebox or main refrigerator temperatures.
Perhaps the complexity of providing an adequate seal to keep outside air from entering the house makes this impractical, but whatever money the government spent on this absurd study could have been better spent figuring out how to make this work.
Saving Mother Earth By Not Divorcing
When you can't tell Washington Post articles from The Onion, it's a bad day. From the December 4, 2007 Washington Post:Divorce is not just a family matter. It exacts a serious toll on the environment by boosting the energy and water consumption of those who used to live together, according to a study by two Michigan State University researchers.
Is this like a surprise to anyone? Is there anyone so shallow and foolish that saving Mother Earth is the argument for staying married?
The analysis found that cohabiting couples and families around the globe use resources more efficiently than households that have split up. The researchers calculated that in 2005, divorced American households used between 42 and 61 percent more resources per person than before they separated, spending 46 percent more per person on electricity and 56 percent more on water.
Their paper, published yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, also found that if the divorced couples had stayed together in 2005, the United States would have saved 73 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity and 627 billion gallons of water in that year alone.
Married households use energy and water more efficiently than divorced ones because they share these resources -- including lighting and heating -- among more people, said Jianguo Liu, one of the paper's co-authors. Moreover, the divorced households they surveyed between 1998 and 2002 used up more space, occupying between 33 and 95 percent more rooms per person than in married households.
"Hopefully this will inform people about the environmental impact of divorce," Liu said in an interview yesterday. "For a long time we've blamed industries for environmental problems. One thing we've ignored is the household."
Over at Volokh Conspiracy, one commenter cheekily observed that this is doubtless an argument for gay marriage. Another observed that it was an argument for polygamy. I think it's an argument for communal living. Underground. In caves. Wearing skins.
Idiots.
And What Date Did They Leave Off?
Spokane schools sent out a newsletter with "important dates" for December. They included Human Rights Day. They included winter break. They included the first day of winter. They included all the important religious holidays as well, like Kwanzaa (made up in the 1960s by a man convicted of torture), and Hanukkah, and "the Islamic holy day Eid al-Adha...." Did they leave anything other important dates out? Hmmmm. December 25? No, that's not important.
From the November 30, 2007 Boston Herald:"It was absolutely an error of omission," district spokeswoman Terren Roloff said. "In our efforts to be inclusive, we missed the obvious."
Who are they kidding? This was no oversight. It was an intentional reminder that some religions matter in America (and thus were included on the "important days" list)--and Christianity isn't one of them.
The omission drew complaints from some parents that Christians are being overlooked in favor of other cultures and beliefs.
Greater Spokane Association of Evangelicals Executive Director John Tusant said the error surprised him.
"The stores have been decorated for the last month. How do you overlook that?" Tusant asked.
Bending 1/8" Aluminum
I need to make a couple of 90 degree angles out of 1/8" aluminum sheet. These aren't big pieces--like 1" on one arm of the L, and 3" on the other arm, and about an inch wide. Is a bending brake really necessary for this, or will putting something this thick in a vise and pounding it with a rubber mallet do the job?
The Scum of the Earth...
seem to collect checks from the government. I don't just mean polygamists living off welfare checks, or guys who can't keep their hands in their own stall. There's also this charming news story from December 4, 2007 KOMO channel 4 in Seattle:WASHINGTON (AP) - A former aide to Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., was in federal custody after being arrested on a charge of attempting to sexually exploit a minor.
James Michael McHaney was fired Friday from his job as a scheduler for Cantwell, hours after he was arrested by FBI agents. The FBI said in court papers that McHaney is accused of trying to set up a meeting with a witness posing online as a teenage boy.
McHaney, who appeared in federal court on Saturday, was being held without bond pending a court hearing on Wednesday, said Channing Phillips, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office for the District of Columbia.
According to court papers, McHaney, known as Mike, tried to arrange a lunchtime meeting with an unidentified person posing as a 13-year-old boy. When the witness, working under the supervision of the FBI, asked whether McHaney was interested in sex with a 13-year-old, McHaney allegedly replied, "I'll be there," the court papers said. He later asked for a photo of the child, the FBI alleged.
New Articles Up
These appeared in the November 1 and December 1 issues of Shotgun News: "Assault Weapons and Identity Theft," November 1, 2007, pp. 32, 34. A tragic killing in Florida, and what it tells us about the so-called "gun show loophole," and a real problem with the national background check system.
"Guns, Alcohol, and Laws," December 1, 2007, pp. 26-27. Laws regulating the carrying of guns while drinking--what works, what needs fixing.
Shear Stress of Bolts
Big Bertha's rebuild will be mounted on what is called a dovetail plate, which slides into the saddle of the Losmandy mount. There are then two large screws (on the CI-700 mount) that tighten down against the dovetail plate, preventing motion.
How does the dovetail plate attach to the telescope? Usually, this is done with some screws that go up through the bottom of the dovetail plate, and screw into the telescope tube, or a ring that holds the telescope tube. For Big Bertha 2.0, this is going to be screwed into a tapped hole in the square aluminum tubing that holds the components in place.
But these are typically 1/4"-20 screws that hold telescopes to the dovetail. Will that be strong enough? I have become intoxicated with the power of computing this stuff, like a mechanical engineer would do, and so I decided to try and compute it.
The definition of shear stress is the force per unit area that will cause a material to fail and that "act over an area which is in line with the forces." To compute the force that will cause a bolt or screw to fail, you compute its area, and then compare the force applied across that screw to the shear strength.
For a 1/4" bolt, that's roughly (.00635^2) square meters. The shear strength of stainless steel is approximately 186 MPa (megapascals). This means that to shear a stainless steel bolt of that size would require about 7500 Newtons. (A Newton is one kilogram accelerating at 1 m/sec^2. Use 9.8 m/sec^2 as the force of gravity to compute the force on this planet.) For weight alone to shear the bolt would therefore require a bit more than 765 kilograms (or about 1684 pounds).
There are two bolts that will hold Big Bertha 2.0 to the dovetail plate, and from what I have read, the stress is divided by the number of bolts (although I can see how in some positions, one bolt might get all the load).
Big Bertha 2.0 is only going to weigh about 60 pounds. I think I'm safe using two 1/4"-20 bolts!
UPDATE: A reader whose signature line indicates that he is a mechanical engineer working on commercial jetliner landing struts points out that:
1. A fully thread bolt's shear cross section is a smaller than the nominal diameter. I presume that this is because the minor diameter of the thread (the bottom of the threads) is a good bit smaller than the major diameter of the thread (which is about the nominal diameter).
2. He thought the numbers above for the shear strength of stainless bolts was a bit low--although he also pointed out that most of the bolts that you actually buy at a hardware store are less than perfect chunks of steel.
3. Apparently it is considered good rule of thumb to assume that only half the bolts holding an assembly in place actually are carrying the load. This is not surprising; as I pointed out above, depending on position and angle, the load may be disproportionately on one bolt, instead of evenly distributed.
He still thinks that two 1/4"-20 bolts will more than do the job.
UPDATE 2: Another reader points to these two pages for finding strength of various bolts, one of which shows strengths for various grades of bolts, and the other shows minor diameter of various threads, and area. The weakest grade of bolt (ASTM A320 Grade 8) in 1/4"-20 shows a yield strength of 954 pounds. It might be tempting when the time comes to buy two of the higher grades of bolts, which will take the yield strength in that size up into the 2000 pound range.
UPDATE 3: The shear strength of bolts is typically about 55% of the yield strength.
A Short Sigh of Relief
The latest National Intelligence Estimate concludes that Iran, which was working on developing nuclear weapons some years back--stopped in 2003. From the December 3, 2007 New York Times:WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 — A new assessment by American intelligence agencies concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the program remains on hold, contradicting an assessment two years ago that Tehran was working inexorably toward building a bomb.
Instapundit suggests that something else happened in 2003 that might have changed Iranian ambitions. Perhaps he means, "We invaded Iraq, and scared Iran witless."
The conclusions of the new assessment are likely to be major factor in the tense international negotiations aimed at getting Iran to halt its nuclear energy program. Concerns about Iran were raised sharply after President Bush had suggested in October that a nuclear-armed Iran could lead to “World War III,” and Vice President Dick Cheney promised “serious consequences” if the government in Tehran did not abandon its nuclear program.
The findings also come in the middle of a presidential campaign during which a possible military strike against Iran’s nuclear program has been discussed.
The assessment, a National Intelligence Estimate that represents the consensus view of all 16 American spy agencies, states that Tehran’s ultimate intentions about gaining a nuclear weapon remain unclear, but that Iran’s “decisions are guided by a cost-benefit approach rather than a rush to a weapon irrespective of the political, economic and military costs.”
“Some combination of threats of intensified international scrutiny and pressures, along with opportunities for Iran to achieve its security, prestige, and goals for regional influence in other ways might — if perceived by Iran’s leaders as credible — prompt Tehran to extend the current halt to its nuclear weapons program,” the estimate states.
Or perhaps (and this is my guess), Iran was developing WMDs because they were afraid that Iraq was doing so (just like we thought Iraq was doing). Without the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iraq, Iran might well have decided that they had better things to spend their money on.
Of course, if Iran did stop development of nuclear weapons because we invaded Iraq, this would be an example of a positive unintended consequence. But Bush, the U.S., and the Coalition of the Willing, won't get any credit for it, you can be sure.
Idaho Soldier Welcomed Home
This is one of those news stories that just takes your breath away. Not because the people of his hometown, Sandpoint, organized a big celebration for his return. That's a good thing, but not surprising. From the December 3, 2007 Idaho Statesman:SANDPOINT - Christin Anderson, a longtime resident of this North Idaho town, has never met U.S. Army Sgt. Brandon Adam.
No, what takes your breath away is how this young man has responded to a catastrophic loss. If there is anyone who has a right to be bitter, or angry, about the Iraq War, it would be this guy:
But that didn't stop her from standing alongside U.S. 95 Sunday in below-freezing temperatures, waving an American flag while her husband, Andrew, held up a sign that read "Thanks Sarge and Welcome Home."
The Andersons were among hundreds of Sandpoint-area residents who lined up along city streets with red, white and blue balloons to celebrate the homecoming of 22-year-old Adam, a Sandpoint High School graduate and Purple Heart recipient who lost both of his legs in May while on a second tour in Iraq.
"It's so moving to know that he is one of the many willing to do so much for us," Anderson said.
Adam's Thanksgiving trip home to see his parents, Doug and Karen Adam of Post Falls, is the first since the accident.
"It's pretty overwhelming and humbling," Adam said of the community's response.
Adam was a combat engineer stationed with the 2nd Infantry in Fort Carson, Colo. He was in the middle of his second tour and had recently signed up for a third when the accident occurred.
The Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks inspired him to enlist; he reported for duty right out of high school.
Sandpoint resident Marsha Ogilvie and Adam's sister, Trish Small, were the driving force behind his homecoming celebration. Ogilvie said she saw a program on television about a group of World War II veterans that started meeting injured soldiers coming home from Iraq at the airport.After the roadside bomb explosion in Baghdad that claimed both of his legs below the knee, Adam was evacuated first to Germany, then to the Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston near San Antonio, Texas, where he has been recovering since.
I hear far more anger and bitterness from antiwar activists who have given up nothing.
In early November, Adam had the opportunity to meet President George W. Bush, who toured the Center for the Intrepid, a new $50 million physical rehabilitation center at the hospital.
"I was in therapy and then they said we couldn't leave," Adam said. Then the press arrived, as did the secret service.
Adam described Bush as a "regular guy" who made small talk with the soldier and seemed "compassionate" about the injured men.
...
Adam hopes to be up and about again soon. His prosthetic legs are being fit in increments, and Adam said he's nearly back to his 6-foot stature. He's working with legs that make him 5-foot-6 right now.
Adam wants to join Olympic wheelchair events, has a ski trip planned and recently went surfing in Pismo Beach, Calif. He wants to go to college to study business or film editing.
His disability is not going to hold him back, he said.
"It did for a minute, then I thought about it and got over it," Adam said. "You can't let anything dictate your life."
One of the most troubling aspects to war is that we lose--or damage--our most idealistic and courageous people. Some die; some lose limbs; a fair number come home with PTSD or lesser mental disturbances caused by war.
Over time, these individual costs turn into an enormous cost to the society. I don't just mean the costs of rehab and artificial limbs. I mean the costs to a society that rewards those who don't answer the call to duty. I still can't support a draft--but I do think that raising the pay for military would be a good thing, to more properly reward those who are doing a very risky and necessary function.
CNN had a special recently about the problems that veterans are experiencing with the Veterans Administration. There was one guy with a missing arm who had been fighting with the VA about how much of his injuries were service-related. Now, there are times where it is difficult to figure out whether a particular psychological problem or long-term illness is the result of military service--or might have happened anyway. They showed a letter from the VA that claimed that this guy's "shrapnel all over his body" was not "service-related." Huh? Even worse, whoever was responsible for sending out the letter had cut his name and signature block out of the letter--almost like someone was ashamed to send a letter this absurd. (He should have been ashamed--enough to make him rethink sending out a letter like that.)
There was another guy who had been severely burned as a result of an IED. It was obvious that a lot of plastic surgery had been done on the guy's face--and he was still grotesque. (World War I was the first war to produce large numbers of veterans without faces--much worse, by the way, than this guy.) All I could think was, "Is this the best job that the VA's plastic surgeons could do?"
If the Democrats are all hot to raise taxes to keep upper middle class people from competing with them for land in Sun Valley (where billionaires are pushing out millionaires), spending a bit more on military pay and helping returning veterans would make a lot more sense.
Additions to the FBI's Gun Background Check System
Nikki Fellenzer points to this Washington Post article about the expansion of the National Information Background Check System:Justice officials said the FBI's "Mental Defective File" has ballooned from 175,000 names in June to nearly 400,000, primarily because of additions from California. The names are listed in a subset of a database that gun dealers are supposed to check before completing sales.
Nikki doesn't see that this expansion of the list does much good:
The surge in names underscores the size of the gap in FBI records that allowed Seung Hui Cho to purchase the handguns he used in April to kill 32 people and himself at the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg.
A Virginia state court found Cho to be dangerously mentally ill in 2005 and ordered him to receive outpatient treatment. But because Cho was not ordered into hospital treatment, the court's order was never provided to the FBI and incorporated in its database. Two gun dealers checked the list before selling Cho the 9mm Glock 19 and the Walther .22-caliber pistol he used in the shootings.
For nearly four decades, federal law has prohibited gun sales to people judged to be "mentally defective," but enforcement has been haphazard. A 1995 Supreme Court ruling barred the federal government from forcing states to provide the data, and 18 states -- including Delaware and West Virginia -- provide no mental health-related information to the FBI at all. Both Virginia and Maryland do provide the data. How easy is it to get one's hands on a gun if 80 percent of the ones used in crimes are obtained illegally? Ever heard of a black market?
She has a very good point with respect to convicted felons, who have all sorts of sources for guns--for a price. But people who have been declared mentally incompetent (usually for psychosis, not retardation) are in a rather different situation.
Some of them are so obviously crazy that a gun store wouldn't sell them a gun, no matter what. My guess is that relatively few of the black market sources for guns would do so either--for fear that such a person might use the gun on the seller.
Others may go through episodes where they are obviously psychotic, interrupted by periods of apparent sanity. Someone like Cho Seung-Hui was not obviously psychotic--and yet was, even before the massacre, severely enough disturbed that it was obvious to those who knew him that he was not right in the head. I suspect that many of the informal sources of guns that we lump together as "black market" (which includes friends, relatives, someone you met at a party) would have been reluctant to sell to Cho Seung-Hui simply because he was a bit odd.
Let's not kid ourselves that the background check system works perfectly. Like all systems, it works at the margins. It may prevent 10-15% of the mentally ill from buying a gun from a dealer. It may slow down how rapidly another 5-10% of the mentally ill obtain a gun. Is this a good thing? Yes. A system doesn't have to work perfectly to still be of value. As long as the system prevents some prohibited buyers from getting guns, and delays some prohibited buyers from getting guns--without impairing lawful purchasers from buying guns--that's a good thing.
There comes a point where you have to look at the costs. If keeping a gun out of a mental patient's hands costs the government $1, I think we can immediately see this as a reasonable expenditure. If it costs $100,000 for every gun we keep out of a mental patient's hands, I think we can spend the money more wisely. Perhaps that $100,000 could be more usefully spent fixing our incredibly broken mental health system, for example, so that psychotics receive treatment, instead of wandering the streets until they decide that they are Emperor of Colorado, and try to stage a coup using a handgun. But the mere fact that some states are actually beginning to report those who have been involuntarily committed is not necessarily a problem.
Wanted: Scratched or Broken 48mm Camera Filters
Since I can't seem to find a tap for cutting 48mm camera filter threads, if you have any scratched or broken 48mm camera filters (as long as the threads are okay), I would love to have them. I can buy new filters for about $2.50 each, but it seems silly to break perfectly good filters if you have four or five of them that have damaged glass.
Senator Happy Feet Needs To Go
The December 2, 2007 Idaho Statesman has this sad little report:David Phillips. Mike Jones. Greg Ruth. Tom Russell.
The rest of the story is full of sordid materials that I won't quote here--but it is the sort of casual sex with strangers that is a big part of gay life, as much as Hollywood wants you to believe otherwise.
Four gay men, willing to put their names in print and whose allegations can't be disproved, have come forward since news of U.S. Sen. Larry Craig's guilty plea. They say they had sex with Craig or that he made a sexual advance or that he paid them unusual attention.
They are telling their stories now because they are offended by Craig's denials, including his famous statement, "I am not gay, I never have been gay." Those words, spoken on live national TV on Aug. 28, are now memorialized on a just-released-for-Christmas Talking Senator Larry Craig Action Figure.
David Phillips is a 42-year-old information technology consultant in Washington, D.C., who says Craig picked him up at a gay club in 1986 and that they subsequently had sex.
Mike Jones is a former prostitute who told the world he had sex with the Rev. Ted Haggard last year. The former Colorado Springs evangelist at first denied it but eventually confessed. Jones says Craig paid him for sex in late 2004 or early 2005.
Greg Ruth was a 24-year-old college Republican in 1981 when he says he was hit on by Craig at a Republican meeting in Coeur d'Alene.
Tom Russell, now 48, is a former Nampa resident who lives in Utah. Russell said his encounter with Craig occurred at Bogus Basin in the early 1980s.
A fifth gay man, who is from Boise but who declined to be named for fear of retaliation, offered a recent and telling account: He was in a men's restroom at Denver International Airport in September 2006 when the man in the next stall moved his hand slowly, palm up, under the divider. Alarmed, the man said he waited outside the restroom and then identified the man in the adjoining stall as Craig, whom he had met in Idaho.
Senator Happy Feet needs to go.
Another Fake Hate Crime
From December 1, 2007 WJZ channel 13 in Baltimore:BALTIMORE (AP) ? The Baltimore Fire Department has suspended a paramedic apprentice who admitted placing a threatening note and a rope shaped like a noose inside a firehouse.
There are so many of these hate crimes that turn out to be fakes--it makes you wonder how many of the rest are just better done fakes.
Fire officials say the paramedic, Gary Maynard, is the one who initially reported finding the note and the rope. Fire department spokesman Kevin Cartwright says Maynard confessed to city police that he left the note and the rope.
A statement from Fire Chief William Goodwin says Maynard's scheme was "meant to create the perception that members within our department were acting in a discriminatory and unprofessional manner."
The New Chief Judge of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals
It is Alex Kozinski--a conservative judge who grew up under Communism, and not surprisingly, is strongly in support of the individual rights view of the Second Amendment. The November 30, 2007 Los Angeles Times describes his new responsibilities:he chief judge has overall responsibility for circuit operations -- basically ensuring the expeditious, inexpensive and fair disposition of appeals -- and is the court's public face. The chief judge also heads the Circuit Judicial Council, the court's policymaking arm; represents the 9th Circuit on the Judicial Conference, which makes policy for the entire federal judiciary; and represents the 9th Circuit in its dealings with Congress. The chief judge is the only one of the circuit's judges who always serves on the court's "en banc" panels that rehear many of the most controversial and important appeals.
This article from Capitalism magazine reprints part of one of Kozinski's dissents in 2003:
...
Kozinski, nearly a decade younger than Schroeder, enjoys a well-deserved reputation as an iconoclast or, some would say, eccentric. Born to Holocaust survivors in Bucharest, Romania, Kozinski came to the U.S. at age 12. He grew up in Los Angeles, attending Marshall High School and UCLA before clerking for then-9th Circuit Judge Anthony Kennedy and U.S. Chief Justice Warren Burger. In the early 1980s, President Reagan appointed Kozinski as chief judge of the new U.S. Claims Court, and in 1985, Reagan appointed him to the 9th Circuit, making him the nation's youngest appellate judge.
Still, the "conservative" label does not quite capture Kozinski's jurisprudential views. He has said that a conservative president appointed him and that he tends "to have conservative instincts" but also believes strongly "in important principles of freedom" -- freedom of speech, religion and personal privacy. He once famously explained the 9th Circuit's judicial independence by remarking that its judges were three time zones away from the Supreme Court and the nation's capital.Judges know very well how to read the Constitution broadly when they are sympathetic to the right being asserted. We have held, without much ado, that "speech, or . . . the press" also means the Internet, and that "persons, houses, papers, and effects" also means public telephone booths. When a particular right comports especially well with our notions of good social policy, we build magnificent legal edifices on elliptical constitutional phrases--or even the white spaces between lines of constitutional text. But, as the panel amply demonstrates, when we're none too keen on a particular constitutional guarantee, we can be equally ingenious in burying language that is incontrovertibly there.
It is wrong to use some constitutional provisions as spring-boards for major social change while treating others like senile relatives to be cooped up in a nursing home until they quit annoying us. As guardians of the Constitution, we must be consistent in interpreting its provisions. If we adopt a jurisprudence sympathetic to individual rights, we must give broad compass to all constitutional provisions that protect individuals from tyranny. If we take a more statist approach, we must give all such provisions narrow scope. Expanding some to gargantuan proportions while discarding others like a crumpled gum wrapper is not faithfully applying the Constitution; it's using our power as federal judges to constitutionalize our personal preferences.
The able judges of the panel majority are usually very sympathetic to individual rights, but they have succumbed to the temptation to pick and choose. Had they brought the same generous approach to the Second Amendment that they routinely bring to the First, Fourth and selected portions of the Fifth, they would have had no trouble finding an individual right to bear arms. Indeed, to conclude otherwise, they had to ignore binding precedent. United States v. Miller (1939) did not hold that the defendants lacked standing to raise a Second Amendment defense, even though the government argued the collective rights theory in its brief. The Supreme Court reached the Second Amendment claim and rejected it on the merits after finding no evidence that Miller's weapon--a sawed-off shotgun--was reasonably susceptible to militia use. We are bound not only by the outcome of Miller but also by its rationale. If Miller's claim was dead on arrival because it was raised by a person rather than a state, why would the Court have bothered discussing whether a sawed-off shotgun was suitable for militia use? The panel majority not only ignores Miller's test; it renders most of the opinion wholly superfluous. As an inferior court, we may not tell the Supreme Court it was out to lunch when it last visited a constitutional provision.
The majority falls prey to the delusion--popular in some circles--that ordinary people are too careless and stupid to own guns, and we would be far better off leaving all weapons in the hands of professionals on the government payroll. But the simple truth--born of experience--is that tyranny thrives best where government need not fear the wrath of an armed people. Our own sorry history bears this out: Disarmament was the tool of choice for subjugating both slaves and free blacks in the South. In Florida, patrols searched blacks' homes for weapons, confiscated those found and punished their owners without judicial process. In the North, by contrast, blacks exercised their right to bear arms to defend against racial mob violence. As Chief Justice Taney well appreciated, the institution of slavery required a class of people who lacked the means to resist. See Dred Scott v. Sandford, (1857) (finding black citizenship unthinkable because it would give blacks the right to "keep and carry arms wherever they went"). A revolt by Nat Turner and a few dozen other armed blacks could be put down without much difficulty; one by four million armed blacks would have meant big trouble.
