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Clayton Cramer's BLOG |
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Clayton's commentary on news and events of the day. Broadly speaking, I'm a conservative with libertarian sympathies (getting more conservative as my children get older).
 Never forget! I 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).
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Saturday, July 05, 2008
Gutsy Briton This is beyond gutsy. Of course, there was a time, not that many years ago, when the idea of allowing any law-abiding adult to get a concealed carry permit was considered sheer lunacy in America. But if you are a Briton, I can't think of any better way to show your support for a darn good idea. Remember: what Graham Showell is proposing is more restrictive than British handgun laws were from 1870 (when they adopted a license to carry concealed weapons) to 1920 (when the Firearms Act pretty well limited pistol ownership to those with a really, really good reason). Labels: gun rights Friday, July 04, 2008
Brownies Before Bedtime... combined with a computer nerd's brain yielded dreams in PostScript last night. Seriously: part of the dream involves being berated by a boss for not getting something working, and then the rest of the dream is PostScript. Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Wall-E My daughter and son-in-law really enjoyed this, so my wife and I went to see it this afternoon. It answers the question that philosophers have been pondering for many centuries: can a robotic trash collector find true happiness with a heavily armed and trigger happy robotic explorer? This being a Pixar film, it is about as family friendly as any film can be. I can't recall a single moment that was even slightly worrisome. At the same time, it was funny, touching, and cute, with a bit of social commentary thrown in as well. And this is probably my only grumbling objection to an otherwise very fun animated film: poor Wall-E (an acronym that describes what this robot is supposed to do--and it involves picking up trash) is one of the only working robots left on an Earth that has been abandoned after an environmental disaster. There are echoes of Silent Running (1972) here, with some not terribly subtle jabs at a very Wal-Mart like company that seems to have played a major part in making Earth uninhabitable. Now, Wal-Mart is indeed a powerful (and sometimes destructive) force in our economy, but they aren't that powerful. The plot is perilously derivative of The Story of Stuff, one of those "rich people making everyone else feel guilty about wanting to live well while blaming the capitalists for it all" ideas that seems to be very popular among people with more education than sense. The harsh reality is that capitalism isn't to blame; human nature is to blame--and the production of material goods really isn't a problem. It usually takes a government somewhere pushing down on the scales with a heavy thumb to turn production of genuine needs and wants into an environmental problem. I suppose that I should be glad that Pixar didn't engage in a heavy-handed global warming subplot. Another part of the story involves soft drinks, cell phones, and laziness, and while played for laughs, looks like a script writer somewhere may be suffering from the health consciousness equivalent of reformed smoker syndrome. There are a lot of sequences that are clearly intended as humorous jabs at other movies, especially Star Wars--and some of these actually work quite well. The graphics are quite good--especially the outer space sequence involving the Pillars of Creation. And make sure you stick around for the closing credits--you'll see the re-creation of human civilization, expressed in a cartoon form of art history. (Of course, if you aren't familiar with Egyptian tomb art, Greek vase art, pointillism and impressionism, a lot of it may be lost on you.) Labels: movie reviews Help For a Friend in Need An uninsured friend here in Boise had a rather serious accident involving a horse recently, and now has a pile of medical bills. As a result, he has to sell off a lot of rather interesting collectible firearms and related materials. If you are interested, let me know, and I will put you in touch with him:
The ACLU & Heller For many years, the ACLU (Anti-Christian Litigation Unit) claimed that the Second Amendment didn't protect an individual right--only a collective right. They held that position based on U.S. v. Miller (1939). Okay, wrong, but at least they had a fig leaf that they could wear to hide their intellectual nakedness. Now, of course, the Supreme Court with D.C. v. Heller (2008) has recognized that the right is individual. So what is the ACLU's position now? The ACLU interprets the Second Amendment as a collective right. Therefore, we disagree with the Supreme Court’s decision in D.C. v. Heller. While the decision is a significant and historic reinterpretation of the right to keep and bear arms, the decision leaves many important questions unanswered that will have to be resolved in future litigation, including what regulations are permissible, and which weapons are embraced by the Second Amendment right that the Court has now recognized.And in response, there are 130 comments on their blog about it. Not a single one defends the ACLU's position--and large numbers indicate that money that used to go to the ACLU will be going to the Cato Institute or the NRA-ILA in the future. Many of the comments are very well thought out: And this one: And this one:
Labels: ACLU, gun rights Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Reno: What a Depressing Place I would not ordinarily ever go to Reno. I don't gamble. But we have some good friends, left over from the 1982 campaign to stop the California handgun freeze initiative, who live outside of Reno, so we stopped in for a couple of days. 1. We stayed at the Sands Regency, which wasn't the Hilton, but it wasn't bad. The only real disappointment was that I had asked for two beds (to keep the snoring machine away from my wife), and for some reason they gave us a king bed instead. I've stayed in nicer places, but I've stayed in much worse, far more often. 2. The only way to get to the rooms is to go through the casino--which is a sensory overload chamber. Lots of lights, lots of noises, all designed, my wife thinks, to prevent you from thinking carefully and realizing that it all exists to suck money out of you. At 7:00 AM this morning, I walked through the casino on the way to the car, and I realized that there were people eating breakfast sandwiches while playing slot machines, with the most desperately miserable look that a person can have when supposedly having fun. I at first wondered why anyone would be hitting the slots that early--but my friend who lives there says that no, they are up late. I have more fun solving programming problems at work than these people seemed to be having gambling. Not everyone who gambles has a gambling problem--but these people didn't look happy. Hell may turn out not to be a lake of fire, but something perilously similar to a casino--a place where you can't leave, or feel that you can't leave--and with an eternity of misery. 3. It is even more true of Las Vegas, but Reno at night with all the blinking lights is somewhat alluring--like an overpainted, underdressed working girl--but in the daylight you can see that either of these towns is like the prostitute Winston visits in 1984--aged, miserable, and not something that anyone would find attractive in the light of day. It looks like a lot of people who live there, and work there, are struggling to get by, perhaps because so many of the jobs are in the "hospitality" business--which really means unskilled jobs where you can be replaced with another unskilled worker on a moment's notice. We saw a billboard outside of Reno on I-80 that made the claim that Elko has the highest paying jobs in Nevada. I don't know if this is true, but if it is, it probably because Elko has a lot of jobs that aren't tied to tourism or gambling. [UPDATE: Here's the agency that put up the billboard--apparently gold mining has a lot to do with the high paying jobs in Elko.] 4. On the plus side, the National Automobile Museum (formerly the Harrah's collection of cars) is there. I'll be blogging about that separately. Various Aspects of Why I Hate To Fly 1. Several of our connections were through San Francisco International, and the combination of brush fire smoke (some days) and a low cloud layer (today) meant that our flights kept getting delayed, with consequent connection problems. 2. This morning we arrived a little later than we should have for the flight out of Reno--and for the first time in memory, a United Airlines employee was rude. Maybe it's Reno. (More about that in a later posting.) The net effect was that they couldn't check our luggage, so we had to drag it through security--where my Swiss Army knife and a can of shaving cream were confiscated. 3. By the time we reached the gate, we were informed that because of the problems at SFO, our flight would be delayed a hour or so--meaning that there was time to get our luggage checked. But by then TSA had already put the Swiss Army knife into a locked disposal box to which they do not have the key. (I presume to make sure that employees didn't loot the good stuff for themselves.) If we didn't think our flight was about to leave, I would have gone back downstairs and arranged to have it mailed. I don't know why it is so hard for TSA to have some provision for victims to pay $10 to have everything stuffed into a Priority Mail box and mailed to your home. 4. Flying--almost as much fun now as dental surgery. I'm Back From Vacation Which really means, because my employer strongly encouraged everyone to take this week off, that I am frantically trying to fill ScopeRoller orders, and get some some law review articles that Don Kates and me have been writing, polished up n the aftermath of Heller and submitted. (And yes, I'm resuming work on the next book--and starting to do research in support of the suit against Chicago.) So there may not be a lot of activity here the next few days. And thanks to all you who expressed your appreciation for my work on Heller with contributions through PayPal. A few dollars here, a few dollars there, after a while it adds up to enough to take my wife out to dinner! Labels: gun rights Sunday, June 29, 2008
Family Reunion & Heller My wife was a little nervous about me mentioning my part in the Heller decision to her cousins at the family reunion--one of them is an attorney, another is a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy. But one of the other cousins, when finding out we were now living in Idaho said, "Idaho: where good people carry guns." So I figured it was safe to talk about getting cited in Heller--and what an outpouring of gratitude from all! There are certainly many Californians who want restrictive gun control--but I sure didn't find any yesterday! Labels: gun rights |
