The advertising above is just a source of revenue. If the ads get offensive enough, I may drop them.

Clayton Cramer's BLOG

Clayton's commentary on news and events of the day. Broadly speaking, I'm a conservative with libertarian sympathies (getting more conservative as my children get older).




Never forget!

I ran for Idaho state senate in 2008--didn't win


I've written a number of history books, as well as scholarly and popular articles, (see my web page).


HostRocket.Com - Web Hosting

Relocating to Boise? Use my realtor, neighbor, and friend, Cindy Smith csmith@1realtyone.com.
Sorry, high pressure isn't included.
My nephew Shippy makes very pretty ceramic items. Click here to visit his online studio. Give someone one of these, and you can be sure that they don't already have one!


Click here to find out why the Amazon.com Honor System paybox is no longer here.

PayPal members: to make a contribution


RSS feed
Other blogs you may enjoy:
My civilian gun defense use blog
My daughter's blog
Pete Drum's Web Page
instapundit.com

Dissecting Leftism -- By John Ray

A courageous Briton arguing for relaxing Britain's gun control laws

Right Thoughts

Final Protective Fire

Amitai Etzioni's Blog

Scrappleface -- Dangerously Clever Satire

Michael Williams -- Master of None

Lt. Smash is Again Citizen Smash

Another Conservative Blogger

A Group Blog By Iraqis

THE MESOPOTAMIAN: TO BRING ONE MORE IRAQI VOICE OF THE SILENT MAJORITY TO THE ATTENTION OF THE WORLD

Specializing in discussions of discrimination and affirmative action

An Iraqi dentist

Promoting children being raised by their own parents

A federal law clerk opines about the law

Michelle Malkin's blog

Impearls: a blog as electic and interesting as mine

Proving that the United States military does more than kill people and break things.

May not agree with this group on everything, but stopping the ACLU is high on my list

A conservative/moderate black blogger.

Another sensible American

Sex, Crime, and Corruption in the Democratic Party

Music, Politics, Motorcycles

Maggie's Farm: Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

A blog dedicated to "Documenting Saddam Hussein's support of Terrorism"

The blog of one of my fellow bloggers on the Civilian Gun Self-Defense Blog

J. Norman Heath's Blog--a circus rigger and Second Amendment scholar (really!)

Buckeye Firearms Association, for you Ohio gun owners and activists

Click here for a FREE NEWSLETTER on Ohio Gun Rights from Buckeye Firearms Association!

Another conservative.

Neocon Blues

Other Idaho Bloggers
Bubbleheads is a retired submariner

An Idaho State University student. A Democrat. Someday, she'll start paying income taxes and change.

A retired Las Vegas stagehand, of all things.

archives
Search only this site: Click here and enter your search string at the beginning of the search field.

Email me at blogmail at claytoncramer dot com. Sorry to be so indirect, but all spambots must die! But they haven't died yet! Include the word spamIamnot in your subject line to make sure that my spam blocker lets you through.

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

Saturday, March 15, 2008
 
Vacationing in D.C.

We had dinner last night with Professor Bob Cottrol of George Washington University School of Law, and Professor Joe Olson of Hamline University to discuss possible strategies for after the Heller decision (assuming that we are going to win--which looks very promising). Bob was on my master's thesis committee--even though my M.A. is from Sonoma State University--there just weren't enough experts in the issues of early Republic, black history, and weapons regulation to make up a full committee at SSU.

We had a lovely evening, discussing the curious decline in academic standards over the last 30 years, gun regulation, black history--and then gun rights attorney David Hardy arrived, and joined the discussion. Hardy, who has written several interesting books, mentioned a book that he has written about the lawsuits filed by Columbus's heirs against the Spanish crown--which took over three hundred years to resolve!

Today, Joe Olson, my wife, and I, went and did the tourist thing. We walked around the Capitol--too late to get in on the tour. Then we went to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum--and then the Library of Congress. My feet and ankles are worn out, and I'm not quite prepared to put up the pictures right now--we're about to go get some more dinner. So you will just have to wait!

Pray for Alan Gura, the attorney representing us before the Supreme CourtHeller. He is carrying a considerable responsibility, and this is his first case that he will argue before the Supreme Court.

Labels:


posted by Clayton at 4:11 PM permalink

Friday, March 14, 2008
 
In D.C.

We attended a Moot Court this morning--which is basically a dress rehearsal where lawyers and law professors pretend to be the justices, and subject our side's attorney to demanding and difficult questions designed to expose flaws in arguments and ability to respond to questions. I'm told that after a sessions like this, the real oral arguments aren't so bad. ("I've been hammering my hand for weeks. I can barely feel any pain anymore!") I also had dinner with Alan Gura (the lead attorney on the Heller case), Professor Joe Olson of Hamline University Law School, and Dave Kopel last night.

We also wandered by the Supreme Court building today. I should have photographed the couple sitting in front with their suitcases--it had not occurred to me that they might be the start of the line for oral arguments on Tuesday.


Click to enlarge

I rented a Toyota Prius--it was the same price as the standard car size. I've never driven one before. It does feel like driving a car in a science fiction movie! When it is running in electric mode, it is astonishingly quiet and smooth. They also went way out of their way to make the user interface as unlike a standard car as they could--which might be good for those looking to be cool, but is likely to be off-putting to anyone who is just looking for an economy car. In particular, the weird gear selection mechanism--and that you have to press a completely separate button to put it in Park--is really silly.


Click to enlarge

One irritation: for some reason I have to turn it on at least twice to put it into Drive.

Labels:


posted by Clayton at 1:24 PM permalink

Wednesday, March 12, 2008
 
My Respect for Harvard Just Went Up

And my contempt for the mainstream media just went up, too. A couple of Harvard economists have produced a paper about media support for withdrawal and insurgent attacks. The abstract:
Are insurgents affected by information on US casualty sensitivity? Using data on attacks and variation in access to international news across Iraqi provinces, we identify an “emboldenment” effect by comparing the rate of insurgent attacks in areas with higher and lower access to information about U.S news after public statements critical of the war. We find in periods after a spike in war-critical statements, insurgent attacks increases by 5-10 percent. The results suggest that insurgent groups respond rationally to expected probability of US withdrawal. As such counterinsurgency should consider deterrence and incapacitation rather than simply search and destroy missions.
Hmmm. Or perhaps the search and destroy missions need to take place at the New York Times and NBC? I'm just kidding about that!

Labels: ,


posted by Clayton at 5:06 PM permalink

 
A Fascinating New Marketing Model?

Or a Green Enron? (Of course, Ken Lay, Enron's CEO, was pretty Green himself--hence his connections to John Kerry.) It is certainly different.

The company is called Citizenre, and instead of selling you solar panels, they rent them to you. The plan, according to this page, is that you sign a lease agreement with them for the solar system, which they come out and install. If I understand how it is supposed to work, the rent is supposed to be equivalent to about 20% of what you are currently paying for the amount of electricity that the solar system will produce. (They used $100 a month rent as an example.) And it looks like you also get the credit from your electric utility for any power that you produce in excess of demand.

If you expect electricity costs to go up in the future (which seems pretty near certain, unless someone locks up the environmentalists, and nuclear power plants go up everywhere), then signing a 25 year lease on the solar panel system is a pretty good deal. The worst that you lose if you decide to drop out of the plan is your security deposit on the equipment--which in their example, was $500.

My first reaction was: Where do I sign? (The answer is, here.)

My second reaction was: How can they do this, unless the system rent is pretty outrageous? A large enough system to make even a part of my electricity requirements is tens of thousands of dollars.

My third reaction was: They haven't actually started manufacturing the systems yet:

Q. I understand that your manufacturing plant is not completed yet, is that right?

A. Correct. The first systems will be ready to install in late 2008 and throughout 2009 our facility will continue to grow. This means that our supply of panels and equipment will increase steadily in parallel with the growth of our installation network throughout 2008 and beyond.

Since you aren't asked to write a check until the system is almost ready to install, it doesn't sound like there's much of a way to get scammed by this. But I do worry that some starry-eyed environmentalists may be in over their heads with this plan--which means, if they ever actually get these systems built and installed, they will all get taken away in the ensuing bankruptcy.

Or maybe there's something sneaky that they have buried in the fine print that I am missing.

UPDATE: I just heard from one of their representatives. Apparently, it only makes business sense if electricity from the local utility costs more than seven cents per kilowatt-hour--which is not the case here, yet. I suppose it might be better to wait for the, any day now, $0.99/watt photovoltaic cells to come on the market. At that point, I can justify the capitalization myself.

Labels:


posted by Clayton at 3:30 PM permalink

 
I'll Be in D.C. Thursday Through Tuesday

I am headed to D.C. in the event that I am needed for any last minute assistance preparing for oral arguments for Heller. I'm hoping to get in line early enough for the Supreme Court to get into the courtroom, but it sounds like this is going to be one of the great public events of the year, so maybe I won't be so lucky.

Desperate for someone to come and speak at your event in the D.C. area? Email me; I'll have my notebook with me.

Labels:


posted by Clayton at 3:25 PM permalink

 
Warning: Time Machine In Use!

The March 12, 2008 Idaho Statesman also has an article about the high rate of STDs among American girls 14-19, and it includes one rather amazing statement:

Only about half of the girls in the study acknowledged having sex. Some teens define sex as only intercourse, yet other types of intimate behavior including oral sex can spread some diseases.

Among those who admitted having sex, the rate was even more disturbing - 40 percent had an STD.

"This is pretty shocking," said Dr. Elizabeth Alderman, an adolescent medicine specialist at Montefiore Medical Center's Children's Hospital in New York.

"To talk about abstinence is not a bad thing," but teen girls - and boys too - need to be informed about how to protect themselves if they do have sex, Alderman said.

The overall STD rate among the 838 girls in the study was 26 percent, which translates to more than 3 million girls nationwide, researchers with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found. They released the results Tuesday at an STD prevention conference in Chicago.

"Those numbers are certainly alarming," said sex education expert Nora Gelperin, who works with a teen-written Web site called sexetc.org. She said they reflect "the sad state of sex education in our country."

"Sexuality is still a very taboo subject in our society," she said. "Teens tell us that they can't make decisions in the dark and that adults aren't properly preparing them to make responsible decisions."

Huh? They used a time machine to interview someone from the 1950s?

Our society discusses sex endlessly--but seldom discusses the risks associated with it. There is almost no discussion of HPV--some strains of which cause cervical cancer, and are thus a major killer of women. And condoms, while better than nothing, are not sufficient to prevent the spread of HPV.

There is a reluctance to point out that a lot of girls are pressured into premature sex, and many are, if not forcibly raped in a legal sense, are still cajoled and badgered into sex a lot earlier than they are quite ready.

There is very little discussion of how widespread sexual abuse of girls is--and how this premature sexualization plays some part in later promiscuity and acceptance of themselves as sexual objects.

While less common, sexual abuse of boys is a problem, because where girls may turn inward in their destructiveness, boys often turn outward.

Sexuality isn't a taboo subject in our society. It is perilously close to an anti-taboo--where you are pretty much required to discuss it, endlessly. Honest discussion of the risks of premature or casual sexuality--that's the taboo.

Labels:


posted by Clayton at 1:25 PM permalink

 
Courage

From Associated Press:

CAMP SALERNO, Afghanistan (AP) — A 19-year-old medic from Texas will become the first woman in Afghanistan and only the second female soldier since World War II to receive the Silver Star, the nation's third-highest medal for valor.

Army Spc. Monica Lin Brown saved the lives of fellow soldiers after a roadside bomb tore through a convoy of Humvees in the eastern Paktia province in April 2007, the military said.

After the explosion, which wounded five soldiers in her unit, Brown ran through insurgent gunfire and used her body to shield wounded comrades as mortars fell less than 100 yards away, the military said.

"I did not really think about anything except for getting the guys to a safer location and getting them taken care of and getting them out of there," Brown told The Associated Press on Saturday at a U.S. base in the eastern province of Khost.

Brown, of Lake Jackson, Texas, is scheduled to receive the Silver Star later this month. She was part of a four-vehicle convoy patrolling near Jani Kheil in the eastern province of Paktia on April 25, 2007, when a bomb struck one of the Humvees.

"We stopped the convoy. I opened up my door and grabbed my aid bag," Brown said.

She started running toward the burning vehicle as insurgents opened fire. All five wounded soldiers had scrambled out.

"I assessed the patients to see how bad they were. We tried to move them to a safer location because we were still receiving incoming fire," Brown said.

Pentagon policy prohibits women from serving in front-line combat roles — in the infantry, armor or artillery, for example. But the nature of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, with no real front lines, has seen women soldiers take part in close-quarters combat more than previous conflicts.

The best of America is in places like Afghanistan, and Iraq, and more than a few hellholes that you don't even hear about--and probably won't, unless you have the right clearance.

Labels:


posted by Clayton at 11:33 AM permalink

 
The Establishment of Religion Clause

I don't normally respond to the childish insults from 43rd State Blues. Along with being strictly petty, junior high insults, the language is usually quite vulgar. If this bunch, which calls its blog "Democracy for Idaho" is indicative of the Democratic Party here, I can see why Republicans dominate this state's politics.

Here is an actual substantive issue that they raise--and it provides a useful opportunity to discuss an important question. They have decided to accuse Bryan Fischer of violating the establishment of religion clause for speaking in a public school classroom at the request of a teacher:

I'd like to know where I can bring up charges of violating the Separation of Church and State against Bryan Fischer:

I had the privilege last week to spend two hours with accelerated biology students at a Treasure Valley public school, invited by an open-minded science teacher. I reviewed with these students the evidence for intelligent design and against the theory of evolution.

Along the way, I pointed out the dramatic differences that occur in society if we believe that man is merely an advanced ape rather than someone created in the image of God. Surely Planned Parenthood’s racism is one of the logical consequences of the embrace of evolution by our cultural elites.

I would also like for someone to point me to the school or the teacher him/herself that violated the trust of the public.

They are excitedly talking about suing Fischer for this--which just shows how little they really understand about this matter.

1. Fischer is not a governmental official. Even accepting their claim that Fischer presenting an alternative point of view is improper, Fischer, being a private citizen, did not violate the establishment clause. At most, someone who asked him to speak might have violated the establishment clause, but Fischer clearly did not.

Even aside from the legal question, it says quite a bit about where liberals stand that they object to students hearing more than one side of an issue. If public schools taught a conservative perspective in government class, and a teacher decided to have a liberal come in and challenge those assumptions, 43rd State Blues would be praising the teacher for giving the students the chance to hear a diverse range of ideas. If you really think that hearing Intelligent Design espoused for a couple of hours is going to damage the ability of these students to make up their own minds, it really shows a contempt for the students--and a lack of confidence that the orthodox teachings of evolution are clearly right.

2. The basis for their claim that having Fischer speak in a science class is a violation of the establishment clause is Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, a suit in which the school board had directed that biology teachers include discussion of Intelligent Design. The school board, as a governmental body, directed that this discussion take place. Unless 43rd State Blues can find some evidence that Fischer was speaking to that science class because some school board or other governmental agency directed it, there is no establishment violation.

3. The idea that presenting a religious point of view in a public classroom is an establishment clause violation is a position that would have been unimaginable to the Framers. As I point out here, religion and government were joined at the hip throughout the Revolutionary period. Presidents Thomas Jefferson (among the most freethinking of the Framers) and James Madison (the primary draftsman of the Bill of Rights, including the establishment clause) both regularly attended church services that were held in the Hall of Representatives in Washington, D.C. Government buildings were regularly used for church services during their terms. Congress set aside section 29 of every township in the Ohio Territory for the support of whatever church the majority of the township selected.

The establishment clause had a narrow purpose: to prohibit any particular religious institution or denomination from receiving preferential (or dispreferential) treatment from Congress:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,
The word "respecting" doesn't mean in the positive sense of "Give me some respect" but in the sense of "having anything to do with." Congress could make laws that generally supported religion (as they did throughout the Revolutionary, Constitutional, and early Republic periods) as long as no particular "establishment of religion" enjoyed any special benefits. As Supreme Court Justice and Harvard law professor Joseph Story pointed out:
The real object of the amendment was not to countenance, much less to advance, Mahometanism, or Judaism, or infidelity, by prostrating Christianity; but to exclude all rivalry among Christian sects, and to prevent any national ecclesiastical establishment which should give to a hierarchy the exclusive patronage of the national government. It thus cuts off the means of religious persecution (the vice and pest of former ages), and of the subversion of the rights of conscience in matters of religion, which had been trampled upon almost from the days of the Apostles to the present age. [Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, 5th ed. (Boston: Hilliard, Gray & Co., 1833), 701]
They were assuming Christianity, since for practical purposes, this was an entirely Christian nation. There were small numbers of Jews (who could not hold public office in many states), and a few Muslims among the enslaved black population, but this was a Christian nation. Some of the Framers held what were fairly liberal ideas about religion at the time (e.g., Ben Franklin, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams in his later years), although most still thought of themselves as Christians. Consider this 1790 letter from Ben Franklin to Ezra Stiles, shortly before Franklin's death:
I believe in one God, creator of the universe. That he governs it by his Providence. That he ought to be worshiped. That the most acceptable service we render to him is doing good to his other children. That the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental principles of all sound religion, and I regard them as you do in whatever sect I meet with them.

As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of morals, and his religion, as he left them to us, the best the world ever saw, or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupting changes, and I have, with most of the present dissenters in England some doubts as to his divinity; tho' it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an opportunity of knowing the truth with less trouble. I see no harm, however, in its being believed, if that belief has the good consequence, as it probably has, of making his doctrines more respected and better observed; especially as I do not perceive that the Supreme takes it amiss, by distinguishing the unbelievers in his government of the world with any particular marks of his displeasure.


But even freethinkers like Franklin tended to be pretty reticent about their beliefs, because they knew that they were out of the mainstream--and it would not be good for their reputations if they revealed this:

P.S.... I confide that you will not expose me to criticism and censure by publishing any part of this communication to you. I have ever let others enjoy their religious sentiments, without reflecting on them for those that appeared to me unsupportable and even absurd. All sects here, and we have a great variety, have experienced my good will in assisting them with subscriptions for building their new places of worship; and as I have never opposed any of their doctrines, I hope to go out of the world in peace with them all.
The Supreme Court has made a pretty serious botch of the establishment clause, partly because they were looking for a way to remove religion from the public square, and partly because at one point they were trying to stomp out the Mormon practice of polygamy without admitting that the problem with it was that it was anti-Christian.

I expect that 43rd State Blues will again return to calling me an ignorant yahoo. For those in doubt, compare the quality of the material here and there.

Labels: ,


posted by Clayton at 10:18 AM permalink

 
Natural Selection

When I first heard about the Channel Islands mammoth (now called the Pygmy mammoth), I was quite intrigued--rather like what you might have in the back yard, if you wanted a mammoth, but couldn't afford the space or the food supply for the version that stood 14 feet high at the shoulder:
Found only on the California Channel Islands and nowhere else in the world, the pygmy mammoth was probably a small form of the Columbian mammoth found on the mainland. Pygmy mammoths varied from 4.5 to 7 feet high at the shoulders and may have weighed only about 2,000 pounds, compared to the 14-foot tall, 20,000 pound Columbian mammoth. In other respects, they were probably similar, with short fur, a typical mammoth body form, and a relatively large head.

The first remains of "elephants" on Santa Rosa Island were reported in 1873. Additional excavations over the years have given a basic understanding of a population of mammoths on the islands which became smaller in body size through time and which perished as the Pleistocene ended. Paleontological excavations on Santa Rosa Island in 1927 and 1928 resulted in the retrieval of a significant collection of a new species described as Mammuthus exilis. Philip Orr of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History recovered additional materials during archeological and geological work on Santa Rosa Island during the 1940s and 1950s.

Remains of mammoths are most common on Santa Rosa and San Miguel Islands, with smaller numbers recovered from Santa Cruz Island and from San Nicolas Island, outside the park. The recovered specimens range in size from 4 to 8 feet at the shoulder, compared to the 12 to 14 foot height of mainland mammoths.

This was apparently a population that became isolated from the mainland mammoths at the end of the last Ice Age:
Approximately 40,000 to 20,000 years ago, a small group of 14-foot tall, 20,000-pound Columbian mammoths embarked on a journey that would eventually end in the development of a new species—the Channel Islands pygmy mammoth. Leaving the heavily grazed mainland behind, these Columbian mammoths swam towards the scents of abundant vegetation from the huge, mountainous island of Santarosae.

Approximately 20,000 years ago when sea level was about 300 feet lower than it is today, the four northern islands joined together to form an Ice Age “superisland” known as Santarosae. This island was only 6 miles from the mainland at its closest distance. As the ice sheets and glaciers melted and the sea level rose, only the highest parts of Santarosae remained as modern islands.

But how did they reach the island? With their snorkel-like trunk and buoyant mass, elephants, living relatives of mammoths, are considered excellent distance swimmers, among the best of all land mammals, and skilled at crossing watergaps. Documented accounts demonstrate that Asian elephant swim to islands they cannot even see – some up to 23 miles away—guided by the odor of ripening fruit and vegetation. There is no reason that Pleistocene mammoths were not just as seaworthy, and just as good at swimming.

Where I think they may be stretching a bit is when they make this claim about a different species:
Once on the island, the population of mammoths increased and, eventually, the food supply became scarce as the island decreased in size due to climatic changes – glaciers and ice sheets melting, and sea levels rising. Those mammoths that were smaller and could survive with less food and water were at an advantage, especially in times of seasonal shortages. Over time, smaller animals that required fewer resources became the norm. In addition, the absence of predators on the islands also may have contributed to this downsizing: large size was no longer needed for predator avoidance and defense.

Within less than 20,000 years, natural selection favored smaller-sized mammoths that stood less than 6.5 feet tall at the shoulder, less than half the height of their mainland ancestor. Thus, the small mammoths became a new species, the Channel Islands pygmy mammoth.

Unless they have enough DNA to do a comparison to the mainland mammoths, saying that it became a new species is a stretch. Pygmy humans are substantially smaller than other races of humans--not quite as dramatic a disparity as the Pygmy mammoth is to the Columbian mammoth, but close. And yet we don't call them a different species. As I mentioned a while back, DNA analysis of the remains of 50 species and subspecies of North American horse revealed that there were just two species. There was a lot of natural selection that caused significant differences in different regions, but just two species. I wonder if someone is making a similar mistake in assuming that the Pygmy mammoth was a different species from the Columbian mammoth.

posted by Clayton at 8:55 AM permalink

 
Unsurprising, But Still Depressing

This March 11, 2008 BBC report:
One in four teenage girls in the United States has a sexually-transmitted disease, a study has indicated.

The study, by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), found an even higher prevalence of STDs among black girls.

Researchers analysed data from a nationally representative sample of 838 US girls aged 14 to 19.

A virus that causes cervical cancer - HPV - was the most common, followed by chlamydia, trichomoniasis and herpes.

The CDC says the study is the first in its kind to examine the prevalence of common sexually transmitted diseases among adolescent girls.

It found that nearly half of the African-American girls surveyed had at least one STD, while the rate was 20% among white and Mexican-American teenagers.

Human papillomavirus, or HPV, affected 18% of the girls surveyed, chlamydia 4%, trichomoniasis 2.5%, and herpes simplex virus 2%.

Liberals are crowing that abstinence education (which this April 16, 2007 U.K. Guardian article indicates the Clinton Administration actually started) doesn't work. I find when I search scholar.google.com that there are some studies that show that it does make a difference, although sometimes with mixed results, such as this one:
Results: Intervention students reported increases in knowledge and abstinence beliefs, but decreases in intentions to have sex and to use condoms. Intervention did not influence sexual initiation or condom use; however, intervention students who had sex during the evaluation period reported fewer sexual episodes and fewer partners than did controls. Conclusions: Abstinence-until-marriage interventions can influence knowledge, beliefs, and intentions, and among sexually experienced students, may reduce the prevalence of casual sex. Reduction in condom use intentions merits further study to determine long-term implications.
More typical are the results of studies like this, evaluating ten different state programs--only five of which actually tried to measure changes in sexual behavior:
Sexual Behavior—Five programs measured long-term impacts on sexual behavior.

No evaluation demonstrated any impact on reducing teens’ sexual behavior at follow-up, three to 17 months after the program ended (Arizona, California, Minnesota, Missouri, or Pennsylvania’s LaSalle Program).
I will tell you that as much as I would like to think that abstinence-only education can work, it is sailing into a hurricane. The mass media strongly, strongly promote early sex. The very high rates of infection among black teenaged girls tells you that there is something terribly broken in the black community (as Bill Cosby keeps saying). Even if the media weren't promoting it, teenagers don't need any encouragement towards sex--that's pretty much the default setting for human beings. I've read studies of Puritan New England that demonstrate that 16% of brides were pregnant by the time they married.

Where I lived in Sonoma County, to my surprise, the school districts promoted something that the county schools superintendent called "abstinence-best" education. The theory was that it was good to tell kids to wait--and also to tell them what to do if they weren't going to wait.

You don't have to be religious to see that there are some significant advantages to delaying sex.

1. Think of how organized and clean the average 14 year old keeps his or her room, and then ask yourself, "Would you trust this kid to take birth control pills or use a condom correctly?"

2. A friend made the observation once that teenaged boys are willing to trade intimacy for sex; teenaged girls are willing to trade sex for love. There's a lot of truth to that. Teenaged years can be terribly confusing, with enormous highs and lows. Even waiting a couple of years to mature can make a huge difference, especially because contraception's availability has created a difficult situation for many girls, who are badgered into sex earlier than they really want to be.

3. From a health standpoint, waiting is a good thing. I was shocked to see even Planned Parenthood admit this:
Women who abstain until their 20s — and who have fewer partners in their lifetimes — may have certain health advantages over women who do not.
The harsh reality is that in a culture that glorifies sexuality, relatively few kids are going to wait until marriage. Relatively few even wait until they are 18. They need to be aware of contraceptive techniques. They also need to be aware that there are risks, and that no method of contraception works as well as abstinence. Condoms break; condoms fail to stop the spread of HPV; non-barrier methods create risks of potentially lethal STDs; and many of the alternatives to sexual intercourse include significant risks of disease and pregnancy.

This is definitely an unpleasant situation. You don't want to encourage kids to be sexually active--but contraception is better than abortion. Contraception is also better than a shotgun marriage, or illegitimacy.

Labels: ,


posted by Clayton at 7:31 AM permalink

Tuesday, March 11, 2008
 
"Ooops, There Goes Another Rubber Tree Plant!"

Frank Sinatra sang a song in a movie called A Hole in the Head (1959) that includes a number of verses about how if you have "High Hopes" you can do almost anything:
Just what makes that little ole ant
Think he'll move that rubber tree plant?
Anyone knows an ant can't
Move a rubber tree plant

{But he's got hi-i-igh hopes, he's got hi-i-igh hopes}
{He's got high apple pi-i-ie-in-the-sk-y-y hopes}
So, any time you're gettin' low, 'stead of lettin' go, just remember that ant
Oops, there goes another rubber tree plant
(Oops, there goes another rubber tree plant)
{Oops, there goes another rubber tree plant}

I was looking through the Craig's List for Boise section on computers and electronics, and I found an ad that is either a scam, or someone who has taken that song to heart:

needing lap top computer 4 school

Reply to: sale-600878041@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-03-09, 4:57PM MDT


single mother living in a shelter wants to start on line vet tech school and would like a cheep or a donated lap top
I'm a bit skeptical that this is all she needs to be a success, but talk about "High Hopes." She's not sitting around feeling sorry for herself. She has a plan, and she's going for it.

posted by Clayton at 10:23 PM permalink

 
Rabid Mountain Lion Attacks Boy, Gets Shot

This news story from the March 10, 2008 Arizona Republic went up on the Civilian Gun Self-Defense Blog earlier today. It isn't the first animal attack foiled by gunfire that we've put up there.

Every once in a while, when debating gun control, some clueless sort will say, "Well, if there were no guns, you wouldn't need a gun for self-defense." At that point I usually remind them that:

1. A society with "no guns" is right up there with Santa Claus, leprechauns, and the Tooth Fairy for believability. The best that you can hope for is a society with fewer guns--and in a society that actually tries to make guns disappear, the people most likely to still have guns are the ones least likely to obey the law.

2. A society with "no guns" usually has knives, baseball bats, fists, and feet. If you are 20, 6'4", and rippling muscles, yeah, you might do okay in the "no guns" society. But guess what? Some day you are going to get old. And most Americans aren't built like a Mack truck.

3. There are enough of these animal attack incidents that happen that even if we had a society as peaceful and gentle as some parts of Idaho are--there's still a need for guns, at least occasionally.

"Rabid mountain lion": that's one of those phrases only slightly less frightening than "irritated grizzly bear" or "nearsighted, confused rhinoceros."

Labels:


posted by Clayton at 10:10 PM permalink

 
Why Didn't I See This Mentioned Anywhere?

You would think will all the discussion of the murderer at Northern Illinois University, this worrisome aspect would have deserved some attention, too. From the February 20, 2008 Chicago Sun-Times:
BY RASMIEYH ABDELNABI

I met Steve Kazmierczak in an introductory political science class in 2002 as a freshman in college. He was inquisitive, smart, respectful and nice.

But now I find myself wondering if I ever knew Steve, the man who shot and killed five people and then himself in a lecture hall at my alma mater, Northern Illinois University.

...

When I found out it was Steve, I forgot to breathe for a minute. I saw the name and kept saying over and over, “It isn’t him.” The man who declared himself a pacifist wouldn’t own a gun, much less kill several people in cold blood.

...

We would also see each other on campus during the semesters we didn’t have any classes together and catch up.

Our topics of choice: foreign policy and the Middle East. He would especially enjoy practicing his Arabic on me. In 2004, NIU decided to offer a year’s worth of Arabic classes. Steve took both classes without hesitation, excited as could be.

“Assalamo Alikum,” he would say to me, which means “peace be with you” in Arabic. He would proceed to ask me how I was doing and what I was up to, all in Arabic with a thick accent and a huge, excited smile.

Sometimes I was his walking dictionary and he would ask me, “What does this word mean in English?” or “What is this word in Arabic?”

We would debate on issues, sometimes argue, but he would always back his arguments with facts. It was about logic and things adding up to him.

Once we took a course called “The Politics of the Middle East.” At the beginning of the course, our instructor informed us a research paper would be due by the end of the semester. Steve decided on Hamas, which is known mainly to the world as being a Palestinian terrorist group, which was the first thing that interested Steve about the group. But he also heard Hamas funded many social services, which also interested him. How could one group be put into two completely different categories, Steve would ask.

Oh yes. Previous coverage mentioned his deep commitment to social justice.

This, by the way, isn't the first time that someone going on a mass murder spree has decided to identify in some way with our enemies. Patrick Purdy, the madman who murdered five children in a Stockton schoolyard in 1989, and wounded dozens more, had carved "Hezbollah" into the stock of his rifle.

I don't think either of these killers were al-Qaeda operatives. I think a better description is that people who are insane and intent on causing a lot of suffering identify with our enemies.

If not for Atlas Shrugs and WorldNetDaily, I would never have known about this.

posted by Clayton at 4:43 PM permalink

 
Need To Swap Obsolete Notebook DIMMs for Obsolete Desktop DIMMs

It's a match made in heaven! I want to upgrade the obsolete Linux desktop that I use for a backup server. I've got 256 MB in it now (2x128 MB DIMMs). If I could get a couple of 256 MB PC100 SDRAM DIMMs, that would max out its capacity. I just know some of you have these lying around a desk drawer, gathering dust.

At the same time, I have some obsolete DIMMs that you might need to repair an existing notebook or desktop for someone who is grateful to have a computer at all. I have two 64 MB PC100 SDRAM DIMMs that, when I removed them, were still working.

I also have some only slightly obsolete notebook memory--two 512 MB DIMMs that came out of a fairly recent Compaq notebook. Again, these were working when they came out of my son-in-laws notebook. They aren't worth much, but I would be happy to trade them for the 256 MB PC100 DIMMs I need for the Linux box.

posted by Clayton at 4:16 PM permalink

 
On Self-Defense

I found this interesting quote concerning self-defense from Cato's Letters, one of the early 18th century English defenses of classical liberalism:
The two great Laws of humane Society, from whence all the rest derive their Course and Obligation, are those of Equity and Self-preservation: By the First, all Men are bound alike not to hurt one another ; and by the Second, all Men have a Right alike to defend themselves: Nam jure hoc evenit ut quod quisque ob tutelam corporis sui fecerit, jure secisse exitstimetur, says the Civil Law; that is, "it is a Maxim of the Law, that whatever we do in the Way, and for the Ends of Self defence, we lawfully do;" all the Laws of Society are entirely reciprocal, and no Man ought to be exempt from their Force; and whoever violates this primary Law of Nature, ought by the Law of Nature to be destroyed. He who observes no Law, forfeits all Title to the Protection of Law. It is Wickedness not to destroy a Destroyer; and all the ill Consequences of Self defence are chargeable upon him occasioned them. [John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon, Cato's Letters (London: W. Wilkins, T. Woodward, J. Walthoe, and J. Peele, 1723), 2:256-7]
There's nothing terribly radical there (unless, perhaps, you are on faculty somewhere), but it is amusing that the Cato Institute, named after Cato's Letters, is one of the players in bringing the Heller suit to the U.S. Supreme Court.

posted by Clayton at 9:35 AM permalink

Monday, March 10, 2008
 
Perfume Is Not a Substitute For Showering!

The French were leaders in the perfuming business some centuries back because they didn't bathe much. Even into the 1970s, Europeans had a reputation for bathing less often than Americans. This news report from Associated Press at Yahoo at first sounds like more nanny-statism:
ST. PAUL, Minn. - Those all-over body sprays that promise to turn teenage boys into babe magnets? Instead of attracting girls, they could be making them sick.

A Minnesota lawmaker proposed a bill Monday urging a fragrance-free educational campaign to discourage students from dousing themselves in scents that aggravate classmates with asthma and other health problems.

Odors that fill hallways come mostly from boys who douse themselves in body sprays like Axe, said Mikolai Altenberg, a senior at Minneapolis South High School. He said the smell is "indescribable" and unavoidable.

"You can smell it from 10 feet away," Altenberg said. "Mostly it's just guys who just think that putting Axe all over them is a substitute for showering."

Rep. Karen Clark, a Democrat, first proposed banning fragrances in Minneapolis schools, one of the state's largest school districts. The bill she introduced Monday scales that back to an awareness campaign in Minneapolis and in other districts that volunteer. The campaign could include letters to parents, fact sheets, signs in schools, e-mail and Web sites.

One in eight Minneapolis students has asthma, and school nurses have treated students for wheezing and headaches brought on by the fragrances wafting from classmates, said Mary Heiman, a nursing service manager who runs the district's asthma program.

I will say, an awareness campaign is far better than passing more laws on the matter. And while the Axe commercials don't actually suggest that it is a substitute for showering, they do suggest that spray this stuff on your body, and it'll knock the girls dead. Perhaps a bit more literally than the commercials intend.

posted by Clayton at 9:02 PM permalink

 
Hard At Work on the Deinstitutionalization Book

I'm at the point where I am doing three things simultaneously:

1. Going through and polishing the sentences, looking for bad transitions, and the like. This is a boring but necessary action.

2. Adding more personal accounts of both what went wrong with my brother's spiral down into mental illness, and that of other people I knew. This is sometimes quite painful as it dredges up memories.

3. Using books.google.com to search for additional sources, especially in the nineteenth century, to either fill in material or verify the accuracy of secondary sources. For example, Albert Deutsch's Mentally Ill in America characterizes Morgan Hinchman's 1849 civil suit for wrongful commitment in a way that didn't make much sense to me. Paul S. Appelbaum and Kathleen N. Kemp, “The Evolution of Commitment Law in the Nineteenth Century: A Reinterpretation,” Law and Human Behavior, 6:3-4 [1982], 345 argues that Deutsch was completely wrong about the role of the Hinchman decision in causing the development of Pennsylvania's commitment due process changes. I dug around a bit, and found Hinchman v. Richie (C.P. 1849) available in full. And yes, not only was Deutsch wrong about this, but way wrong.

Labels:


posted by Clayton at 8:08 PM permalink

 
Oh Goodie! Jaguars Are Back On The Approved List!

Although I probably wouldn't buy one, anyway. Jaguar's corporate overlords have finally agreed to back off on the most egregiously offensive behavior. American Family Association announces that Ford has agreed:
Your support of the boycott played a key role in convincing Ford to cease its significant support of the homosexual agenda. During the 24 months the boycott was in effect, Ford sales dropped an average of 8% per month. The boycott was not entirely responsible for the drop in sales, but it played a very significant role.

A total of 780,365 individuals signed AFA's Boycott Ford petition.

The original agreement contained four items:
  1. Ford would not renew current promotions or create future incentives that give cash donations to homosexual organizations based on the purchase of a vehicle.
  2. Ford would not make corporate donations to homosexual organizations that, as part of their activities, engage in political or social campaigns to promote civil unions or same-sex marriage.
  3. Ford would stop giving cash and vehicle donations or endorsements to homosexual social activities such as Gay Pride parades.
  4. Ford would cease all advertising on homosexual Web sites and through homosexual media outlets (magazines, television, radio) in the U.S. with the exception of $100,000 to be used by Volvo. The Volvo ads would be the same ads used in the general media and not aimed at the homosexual community specifically.
Bizarre tangential remark: if Jill Wagner, the incredibly cute brunette in the Mercury Milan commercials, wouldn't straighten out a gay man, what could? As this blog observes:
I’m not about to start a shrine, but I have to admit: I’m smitten with the spokeswoman in the current Mercury Mariner and Montego commercials. At least, as smitten as one can get from a TV commercial.

Labels:


posted by Clayton at 4:42 PM permalink

 
Title Nining The Sciences

Professor Volokh pointed to this very interesting article by Christina Hoff Summers at the American Enterprise Institute which provides a useful overview of the effort now underway to use Title IX's approach to college athletics as a method of increasing the number of top researchers in the physical sciences:

Women now earn 57 percent of bachelors degrees and 59 percent of masters degrees. According to the Survey of Earned Doctorates, 2006 was the fifth year in a row in which the majority of research Ph.D.’s awarded to U.S. citizens went to women. Women earn more Ph.D.’s than men in the humanities, social sciences, education, and life sciences. Women now serve as presidents of Harvard, MIT, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, and other leading research universities. But elsewhere, the figures are different. Women comprise just 19 percent of tenure-track professors in math, 11 percent in physics, 10 percent in computer science, and 10 percent in electrical engineering. And the pipeline does not promise statistical parity any time soon: women are now earning 24 percent of the Ph.D.’s in the physical sciences—way up from the 4 percent of the 1960s, but still far behind the rate they are winning doctorates in other fields. “The change is glacial,” says Debra Rolison, a physical chemist at the Naval Research Laboratory.

Rolison, who describes herself as an “uppity woman,” has a solution. A popular anti–gender bias lecturer, she gives talks with titles like “Isn’t a Millennium of Affirmative Action for White Men Sufficient?” She wants to apply Title IX to science education. Title IX, the celebrated gender equity provision of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, has so far mainly been applied to college sports. But the measure is not limited to sports. It provides, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex...be denied the benefits of...any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”

While Title IX has been effective in promoting women’s participation in sports, it has also caused serious damage, in part because it has led to the adoption of a quota system. Over the years, judges, Department of Education officials, and college administrators have interpreted Title IX to mean that women are entitled to “statistical proportionality.” That is to say, if a college’s student body is 60 percent female, then 60 percent of the athletes should be female—even if far fewer women than men are interested in playing sports at that college. But many athletic directors have been unable to attract the same proportion of women as men. To avoid government harassment, loss of fund­ing, and lawsuits, they have simply eliminated men’s teams. Although there are many factors affecting the evolution of men’s and women’s college sports, there is no question that Title IX has led to men’s participation being calibrated to the level of women’s interest. That kind of cal­ibration could devastate academic science.

Summers goes on to point out that there is a fair amount of evidence that the gender disparity in the physical sciences reflects gender differences with respect to interests. In the veterinary sciences, which are also quite demanding, women are rapidly becoming dominant in research, at least partly because its connection to medicine goes well with a female tendency towards caring and concern. She also points out that this may not be just a cultural thing:

Harvard psychologist Marc Hauser has what seems to be the appropriate attitude about the research on sex dif­ference: respectful, intrigued, but also cautious. When asked about Baron-Cohen’s work, Hauser said, “I am sympathetic…and find it odd that anyone would consider the work controver­sial.” Hauser referred to research that shows, for example, that if asked to make a drawing, little girls almost always create scenes with at least one person, while males nearly always draw things—cars, rockets, or trucks. And he mentioned that among primates, including our closest relations the chimpanzees, males are more technologically innovative, while females are more involved in details of family life. Still, Hauser warns that a lot of seemingly exciting and promising research on sex differences has not panned out, and urges us to treat the bio­logical theories with caution.

Nevertheless, it is hard not to be attracted to theories like Simon Baron-Cohen’s when one looks at the way men and women are distrib­uted in the workplace. After two major waves of feminism, women still predominate—some­times overwhelmingly—in empathy-centered fields such as early-childhood education, social work, veterinary medicine, and psychology, while men are overrepresented in the “system­atizing” vocations such as car repair, oil drilling, and electrical engineering.

The real danger here is that using the Title IX approach--as both Democrats and Republicans in Congress seem inclined towards doing--might have the same effect as it has in college sports--largely wiping out male athletics, because there simply aren't that many college women for whom athletics is a major focus. And unlike athletics, our nation's ability to defend itself and innovate is dependent on the physical sciences.

As one of the commenters over at Volokh Conspiracy points out:

Veterinary schools have over 75% female students, medical schools are over 50% female, I would guess the grad student enrollment at many schools of education is over 70% female and I heard 90% female percentages of grad students are not uncommon in English departments.

Imposing gender preferences in STEM using Title IX would seem to further unbalance the female/male overall student ratio.
And I rather doubt that anyone is going to require those female-heavy departments to "do something" about the shortage of men.

Labels:


posted by Clayton at 2:52 PM permalink

 
Interesting Conference Coming Up

Susan Mazur has a column here about an upcoming conference--and she interviews a number of prominent scientists and philosophers about why it is necessary:
It's not Yasgur's Farm, but what happens at the Konrad Lorenz Institute in Altenberg, Austria this July promises to be far more transforming for the world than Woodstock. What it amounts to is a gathering of 16 biologists and philosophers of rock star stature – let's call them "the Altenberg 16" – who recognize that the theory of evolution which most practicing biologists accept and which is taught in classrooms today, is inadequate in explaining our existence. It's pre the discovery of DNA, lacks a theory for body form and does not accomodate "other" new phenomena. So the theory Charles Darwin gave us, which was dusted off and repackaged 70 years ago, seems about to be reborn as the "Extended Evolutionary Synthesis".

Papers are in. MIT will publish the findings in 2009 – the 150th anniversary of Darwin's publication of the Origin of Species. And despite the fact that organizers are downplaying the Altenberg meeting as a discussion about whether there should be a new theory, it already appears a done deal. Some kind of shift away from the population genetic-centered view of evolution is afoot.
Part of what has long bothered me about the way in which evolution is taught as Revealed Truth--and the questions that Intelligent Design advocates raise are falsely portrayed as repackaged Creationism--is that, as Mazur's column points out, evolutionary theory is recognized even by some prominent evolutionists as inadequate. A little humility goes a long ways.

Labels:


posted by Clayton at 1:47 PM permalink

 
New York Governor Spitzer May Be In Trouble

I can only say "may" because where this would have been the kiss of death for a politician some years back, perhaps today it would be a sign of his liberation from traditional morality. (He is a Democrat, after all.) From the March 10, 2008 Idaho Statesman:
NEW YORK — The New York Times is reporting that Gov. Eliot Spitzer has told senior advisers that he had been involved in a prostitution ring.

On its Web site, the newspaper cites an anonymous administration official as the source and says Spitzer was meeting with his top aides.

Spitzer officials wouldn't immediately comment on the story to The Associated Press. An announcement was scheduled for 2:15 p.m. at his Manhattan office.

In light of how Spitzer's staff misused state police and resources against a political rival, nothing surprises me anymore. Even better: Spitzer has played a major role in promoting restrictive gun control.

Labels:


posted by Clayton at 12:38 PM permalink

 
Too Cool

A friend forwarded me this Dutch department store website. Someone had way too much fun with this! Go ahead, click over.

Labels:


posted by Clayton at 12:35 PM permalink

 
Nanny Statism Reaches a New Low

It reads like something that might appear in The Onion as a satire on liberalism's desperate desire to make the whole world a soft, gentle place where you can't hurt yourself. But it comes from the March 4, 2008 Daily Mail, thanks to The Smallest Minority bringing it to my attention:
Britain's first 'Safe Text' street has been created complete with padded lampposts to protect millions of mobile phone users from getting hurt in street accidents while walking and texting.

Around one in ten careless Brits has suffered a "walk 'n text" street injury in the past year through collisions with lampposts, bins and other pedestrians.

The 6.6million accidents have caused injuries ranging from mild knocks and embarrassing cuts and bruises through to broken noses, cheekbones and even a fractured skull.

Almost two thirds - 62 per cent - of Brits concentrate so hard while texting that they lose their peripheral vision, researchers found.

Given the apparent dangers of "unprotected text", over a quarter of Brits - 27 per cent - are in favour of creating a 'mobile motorway' on Britain's pavements.

Texters could follow a brightly coloured line, which which would act like a cycle lane, steering them away from obstacles.

And 44 per cent of those surveyed wanted pads placed on lampposts to protect them while texting. The study found that busy city streets were the worst for "walk 'n text" accidents.

The research showed that Brick Lane in East London was the top spot for texting injuries.

Now Brick Lane has been made the country's first “Safe Text” street, with brightly coloured padding, similar to that used on rugby posts, placed on lamp posts to test if it helps protect dozy mobile users.

If the trial is successful, the idea could be rolled out to other London blackspots, including Charing Cross Road, Old Bond Street, Oxford Street and Church Street, Stoke Newington.

Across London, it is claimed there were more than 68,000 such accidents last year, with victims' injuries ranging from minor bruises to fractured skulls.

What makes this scary is that the article suggests that large numbers of British sheep want to be protected from their own inattentiveness and compulsive text messaging.

posted by Clayton at 11:36 AM permalink

Sunday, March 09, 2008
 
Wow! SR-71 Pilot Describes A Mission Over Libya

Major Brian Shul describes his love affair with the SR-71, including a mission over Libya. Worth reading in full. The picture over there of the SR-71 shows the shock diamonds in the exhaust from the SR-71's engines--I'm counting ten of them. My recollection from my junior high readings is that the number of shock diamonds that you can see in a rocket exhaust roughly indicates how fast the exhaust is moving--with each diamond representing Mach 1 (the velocity of sound). If so, the exhaust of these engines was moving at about 6600 miles per hour--which wouldn't surprise me, considering that the plane regularly set speed records above 2100 miles per hour.

posted by Clayton at 9:43 AM permalink

 
The Wolf Returns To Massachusetts

I was very much struck when researching my book Armed America how much energy Colonial and State governments put into exterminating species such as the wolf--often with enormous bounties to incentivize Americans to go out and hunt them down. I found this March 5, 2008 Fox News report a reminder that much of America is still wild enough for these creatures to return to their ancestral ranges:

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — When more than a dozen lambs and sheep were slaughtered on a Shelburne farm last fall, wildlife officials suspected either a wolf that had escaped from captivity or a rogue mutt on a hungry rampage.

But after the culprit animal was killed and examined, they found themselves with a bigger mystery: How did a wild eastern gray wolf, an endangered species absent from the state for more than a century, find its way to western Massachusetts?

Thomas J. Healy, head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Northeast regional office, said Tuesday recent DNA tests at the agency's Oregon labs confirmed it is the first gray wolf found in New England since a 1993 case in upstate Maine.

The discovery of the 85-pound male wolf may help solidify experts' theories that the endangered species has been migrating south from Canada and repopulating rural parts of New England.

This wolf, though, was found farther south than any other reported spottings, and nothing indicates it had escaped or been set free by someone keeping it as a pet, authorities said.

"This posed more questions than it answered," Healy said. "The only thing we were able to answer was that it was an eastern gray wolf. The history of where it came from and how it got here, we may never know."

According to the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, the wild gray wolf was considered extinct in Massachusetts by about 1840. One was recorded in Berkshire County in 1918, but was believed to have escaped from domestic captivity.

A handful of confirmed spottings have been reported over the past decade of wolves being found in parts of Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire, but determining if they were wild or had been kept as illegal pets was difficult.

New England's large stretches of interconnected woods, mountainous regions and rural farmland offer good north-south corridors for wolves on the move.


posted by Clayton at 9:23 AM permalink

HOME