Clayton Cramer's BLOG

What A Surprise: "Jobs Saved" Number Bogus

2009-11-07T07:48:00.002-07:00

What A Surprise: "Jobs Saved" Number Bogus

From the November 6, 2009 Sacramento Bee:

Up to one-fourth of the 110,000 jobs reported as saved by federal stimulus money in California probably never were in danger, a Bee review has found.
California State University officials reported late last week that they saved more jobs with stimulus money than the number of jobs saved in Texas � and in 44 other states.
In a required state report to the federal government, the university system said the $268.5 million it received in stimulus funding through October allowed it to retain 26,156 employees.

That total represents more than half of CSU's statewide work force. However, university officials confirmed Thursday that half their workers were not going to be laid off without the stimulus dollars.
"This is not really a real number of people," CSU spokeswoman Clara Potes-Fellow said. "It's like a budget number."
That certainly was not the way Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger described it at a news event with Vice President Joe Biden late last week, where he focused on people, not budgets.
"Anyone that criticizes the stimulus money should talk to those 100,000 people that have retained their jobs or gotten jobs because of the stimulus money, especially the 62,000 teachers that have kept their jobs or gotten jobs," Schwarzenegger said.

Count on RINO Schwarzenegger to help the Democrats with their campaign of deception.

There's no question in my mind that properly done, a governmental spending package could be a stimulus to the economy. But so would a tax cut, especially if it was targeted to American-made goods or industries. But the porkulus that Congress passed seems to have been neither an honest Keynesian stimulus, nor particularly effective as a Laffer Curve tax cut.

And We Wonder Why They Don't Understand Our Concerns

2009-11-07T07:39:00.002-07:00

And We Wonder Why They Don't Understand Our Concerns

From the November 6, 2009 Politico:

Two-hundred-and-thirty-seven members of Congress are millionaires. That�s 44 percent of the body � compared to about 1 percent of Americans overall.

CRP says California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa is the richest lawmaker on Capitol Hill, with a net worth estimated at about $251 million. Next in line: Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), worth about $244.7 million; Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), worth about $214.5 million; Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), worth about $209.7 million; and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), worth about $208.8 million.

I suppose that it is a bit easier to understand why they don't much care about the illegal immigration concerns that most Americans have. For many working Americans, illegal immigrants are competitors driving down wages; for a big chunk of Congress, a shortage of illegal immigrants would mean having to hire Americans as maids and gardeners.

Watch Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Frank Capra's fable about American government some time. It's a fable. It was a fable when Capra made it. But I would love to see the day when ordinary Americans--not multimillionaires and friends of multimillionaires--were making our laws.

PajamasMedia Publishes Another!

2009-11-07T07:35:00.000-07:00

PajamasMedia Publishes Another!

"Armed and Female"

Guess Who Was On Obama's Transition Team?

2009-11-06T08:50:00.006-07:00

Guess Who Was On Obama's Transition Team?

Okay, not a very important part of it, but still interesting, none the less. World Net Daily found that Dr. Hasan was part of the THINKING ANEW�SECURITY PRIORITIES FOR THE NEXT ADMINISTRATION project. Go to page 29 of the document.

UPDATE: More accurately, he was one part of a team of academics promoting a new strategy for homeland security. It appears to be the usually progressive approaches (p. 4):

The President should:
� employ a strategy that amplifies voices within the Muslim world that seek to counter radicalization and recruitment, and that exercises care regarding the use of lexicon;
� foster respect for and adherence to international law in the form of longstanding, fundamental and widely accepted norms; and
� engage productively with international organizations and institutions to build security abroad

Mass Murder at Fort Hood

2009-11-05T14:25:00.006-07:00

Mass Murder at Fort Hood

According to the first reports, there were at least two shooters, and perhaps a third. This is not typical of the psychiatric mass murder incidents that we have grown accustomed to over the last thirty years. I would be very, very surprised if this doesn't turn out to be a terrorist attack--and if so, you can be sure that the mainstream media will do their best to downplay any connections to Islam.

UPDATE: From ABC News:

The suspected gunman was identified by ABC News as Major Malik Nadal Hasan.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R-Texas, told Fox News that military sources informed her that the gunman was about to be deployed to Iraq.

With that name, obviously part of Aryan Nations.

UPDATE 2: Curiously enough, not a psychiatric mass murder--a psychiatrist mass murder. Dr. Hasan was a psychiatrist, a Muslim, born in Virginia, who became increasingly upset after 9/11 about the prospect of being shipped overseas, at least according to Nader Hasan, a cousin of his interviewed on Fox News.

If he was upset about the prospect of being in danger, I could at least ascribe a non-political motive to his taking such an action. There are people who joined the military in peacetime, and were a bit surprised to learn that the job might be dangerous. But psychiatrists aren't front-line soldiers. It makes more sense to think that he was upset about being part of the war against fellow Muslims.

Dr. Hasan claimed that he was being harassed by fellow officers because of his Middle Eastern heritage. When the Fox News anchor asked Nader Hasan about that, Nader suddenly had to get off the phone because a family emergency. (Sounds suspicious, but can you think of anything more likely to provoke a family emergency than having a relative commit a crime like this?)

I would like to think that Dr. Hasan's fellow officers would know better than to harass him because of his ancestry. (Suspicious, especially in light of his anger about having to deploy to Iraq, I can understand, but harassment is utterly not okay.) I would like to think that they would know better, but I used to go to church with a woman of Lebanese Christian ancestry, who grew up on a military base in the South, where she and the other Arab-Americans were commonly called "sand niggers." It is also possible that Dr. Hasan's problems with his co-workers had more to do with Dr. Hasan; it is very easy to imagine other motivations when the alternative is to look within yourself.

One odd aspect: Dr. Hasan was apparently not married (maybe never married). That seems a bit odd for a 39 year old Muslim man.

Fox News also reported that AP had just reported based on anonymous sources that the other two soldiers taken in for questioning had been released, and that Dr. Hasan was the only shooter. That makes it double hearsay (triple, by the time you repeat this to someone else) from anonymous sources. If this fact were currency, it would have been depreciated down from one dollar to two cents by that much indirection.

UPDATE 3: From Associated Press:

FORT HOOD, Texas � Soldiers who witnessed the shooting rampage at Fort Hood that left 13 people dead reported that the gunman shouted "Allahu Akbar!" � an Arabic phrase for "God is great!" � before opening fire, the base commander said Friday.

Lt. Gen. Robert Cone said officials had not yet confirmed that the suspected shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, made the comment before the rampage Thursday. Hasan was among 30 people wounded in the shooting spree and remained hospitalized on a ventilator.

Definitely not in any way related to Islamofascist terrorism. No question about it.

UPDATE 4: From the November 6, 2009 Kileen Daily Herald:

Neighbors described Hasan as a quiet man who began wearing "Arabic clothing" in recent weeks.

Dr. Hasan isn't an immigrant. He was born in America. Is this clear enough?

Continuing Progress on the Job Front

2009-11-05T13:01:00.003-07:00

Continuing Progress on the Job Front

I have an interview for an adjunct history position Friday afternoon, and a phone interview for a software engineering position Thursday afternoon. If it works out, I might end up as a gypsy professor like my wife, who ends up teaching full-time--but of course, it is never all at once school, where one might be eligible for benefits.

Talk about weird: the history position interview almost didn't happen. For some reason, the department chair kept calling my home number, never got an answer, never got our answering machine, and his emails to me didn't get to me, didn't bounce, and didn't end up in my junk folder. I could get paranoid from such technological failures, I suppose.

UPDATE: The engineering job interview didn't go so well. It was one of those questions about finding two or three adjacent values in an array of longs that are not sorted, and returning true or false depending on whether those numbers sum to zero or not. I suggested that sorting the array by using a binary tree might be wise, so that you can rebalance the tree with zero (or as close as you can get to it) at the base. Then it is a matter of working left and right sides of the tree, seeing if you can find the two or three values that sum to zero.

For some reason, I was thinking that a binary sort would be faster than qsort (it isn't), and I couldn't remember the formula used for calculating the number of operations required to produce a binary tree for an array of k values. I knew that natural log k was part of it; I guessed it might be 2 ln k, but that's actually the worst case number of steps required to find a particular number in a list of k values.

I may be too old to do software engineering anymore.

Why So Late?

2009-11-05T12:31:00.002-07:00

Why So Late?

I saw on Fox News last night that the Republicans in Congress finally put out a health care reform proposal. Why did it take them this long? It is apparently only about 200 pages long (and only in comparison to the continually growing Democratic bill could this be considered a virtue), and the Congressional Budget Office's "scoring" suggests that it might be the right starting point. From the November 5, 2009 Washington Examiner:

The Congressional Budget Office Wednesday night released its cost analysis of the Republican health care plan and found that it would reduce health care premiums and cut the deficit by $68 billion over ten years.

The Republican plan does not call for a government insurance plan but rather attempts to reform the system by creating high-risk insurance pools, allowing people to purchase health insurance policies across state lines and instituting medical malpractice reforms.

"Not only does the GOP plan lower health care costs, but it also increases access to quality care, including for those with pre-existing conditions, at a price our country can afford," House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said.

According to CBO, the GOP bill would indeed lower costs, particularly for small businesses that have trouble finding affordable health care policies for their employees. The report found rates would drop by seven to 10 percent for this group, and by five to eight percent for the individual market, where it can also be difficult to find affordable policies.

The GOP plan would have the smallest economic impact on the large group market that serves people working for large businesses that have access to the cheapest coverage. Those premiums would decline by zero to 3 percent, the CBO said.

The Republican argument is that by cutting costs, there is some possibility of expanding coverage in the future.

I have made something of the same argument with respect to the Democratic proposal, which is full of items that are supposed to cut costs, and that could have been passed separately months ago. So why wasn't it? And why didn't Republicans pass something like their proposal when they controlled Congress? They could have made real progress on a real issue, perhaps made it harder for the Democrats to get control of Congress in 2006 (and the White House last year)--but pretty clearly, the Republican Party was too busy chatting up teenage boys about sex, having trouble with their "wide stance" in public restrooms, and spending money like drunken sailors. This may be too little, too late to save the Republican Party.

I wish there were a serious opposition party to the Democrats.

There Aren't Too Many Books That I Stop Reading In Disgust

2009-11-04T20:10:00.004-07:00

There Aren't Too Many Books That I Stop Reading In Disgust

Darby Penney and Peter Stastny, The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases From a State Hospital Attic (New York: Bellevue Literary Press, 2008). The premise of the book is quite interesting. When Willard State Hospital, a New York State mental hospital closed some years ago, a team looking through the buildings found a number of suitcases in the attic of one building that had belonged to various patients who had died while hospitalized. For whatever reason, these suitcases were not sent to next of kin (perhaps because there were no next of kin). The authors picked several suitcases where the contents seemed quite intriguing, or where it was possible to find information in the hospital records about the owners.

There's plenty of sorrow in each story. Any time you have someone hospitalized against his or her will because of mental illness, it is a tragedy. When they are hospitalized for life, it is even more of a tragedy. If they spend their whole lives inside because they have such severe mental illness that they needed to be there, you want to cry. If they spend their whole lives inside for no good reason, you want to scream in rage.

This book tries very hard to persuade you that at least some of these people were hospitalized for life for no good reason. There have doubtless been such cases. Some persons were hospitalized for no good reason, and held against their will because the bureaucracy refused to admit that someone made a mistake. There are persons who were hospitalized with good cause, but who recovered (either because of treatment, or spontaneously), and yet someone failed to recognize that it was time for such a person to be released.

There is absolutely no question in my mind that both of these situations must have happened, simply because human beings make mistakes. They fail to recognize errors in classification; they become insistent on covering up their own mistakes (or those of predecessors); persons get lost in a large institution. Yet when I have looked into the legal cases associated with such improper commitments, and the work published by lawyers making this claim, I have been struck at how few such examples are clearly in this category. I've mentioned some of these claims made by Bruce J. Ennis, an ACLU attorney, in his book Prisoners of Psychiatry, and the reasons why his presumably strongest examples turn out not so strong upon examining other evidence. I've mentioned that as late as 1963, the ACLU's representative in Congressional hearings about mental illness commitment couldn't give a single example of improper commitment in the D.C. system. I'm sure if there were a lot of examples from outside D.C.'s system, she would have cited them as examples.

The Lives They Left Behind gives examples clearly intended to persuade that such persons were improperly hospitalized at Willard, or who were left in well past the point that they needed to be there. Yet the examples that the authors are hardly confidence inspiring. One of those hospitalized back in September 1917 was a young Filipino man they call Rodrigo Lagon (last names have been altered to protect the privacy of those long dead) who was hearing voices. While they acknowledge that hearing voices is a "first-rank symptom of the disorder called schizophrenia" (p. 52), the authors then spend several pages explaining that auditory hallucinations are actually quite common, and "not a symptom of an illness." (p. 53)

You can make a case that in the bad old days, there was perhaps a bit too much willingness to hospitalize people for odd behavior, or symptoms of mental illness, in the absence of any imminent danger to self or others. Inevitably, our legal system has to draw lines. We may have drawn them too far one direction before; we draw them too far the other direction today. But the authors' decision to imply that Rodrigo Lagon's symptoms were an inappropriate basis for hospitalization seems a bit odd.

Therese Lehner's story similarly leaves me cold. She was a Catholic nun, and at some point, started to have problems that caused her to be removed from one nunnery, and put in some poorly defined state of not being considered a nun--but not released from her vows. Her hospitalization and commitment was apparently the outgrowth of "excited, noisy and destructive" behavior and running around in the nude. She was apparently unable to provide sensible answers to questions. (p. 63) The authors, who have to this point at least acknowledged that there is such a disease as schizophrenia, now refer to it as "so-called schizophrenia," and appear to reject the biological model of schizophrenia that now has a very clear genetic basis to it. (p. 64)

Once hospitalized at Willard, Lehner's behavior conforms to the apparent schizophrenic symptoms she exhibited that led to her commitment: violence against attendants--and the authors tell us, "Such attacks are rarely unprovoked." (p. 66) Based on what? I've talked to people who work in mental hospitals, and they will tell you otherwise. Lehner also started to claim that she had children, including a dachshund. (p. 68) Yet the authors would have us believe that her odd behavior in the hospital and that led to her commitment (both consistent with schizophrenia), were really caused by being in a hospital. (p. 66) You know: sane people get sent to mental hospitals, and become crazy as a result. It isn't that people in mental hospitals end up there because they have mental illness problems.

While there is a Works Consulted section, there are no footnotes, so tracking down the origins of many of the factual claims that might be of real value to someone studying the problem of involuntary commitment is going to be a bit of work. I also notice a few obvious factual mistakes that suggest a certain lack of scholarly care. Lehner was born in Germany, and her father was still there. "In the spring of 1918, with the war over, she once again tried to get in touch with her father, but the letter was never sent." (p. 62) The war wasn't actually over until November of 1918. This is something that almost anyone familiar with the period should know--and it makes me disinclined to trust that the authors put more energy into verifying the more controversial claims.

I then looked at the author bio on the dust jacket, and I began to understand why this book has such a strong bias against the mental health system: "Darby Penney is a national leader in the human rights movement for people with psychiatric disabilities and a former state mental health official who has experienced the mental health system inside and out."

Now, just because she has been inside the system doesn't immediately discredit her opinions. But when someone discounts the biological model of schizophrenia with the quite overwhelming evidence of a biochemical origin we now have (such as I mentioned here), it is rather difficult to take a book like this seriously.

Bathtubs, Guns, And Children

2009-11-04T14:25:00.002-07:00

Bathtubs, Guns, And Children

This isn't a great combination, of course. A reader told me of a discussion in a law school class involving a question of liability. It was one of those very typical situations:

a crack addicted wife getting a hold of a her husband's gun resulting in the wife's attempted suicide. I responded that I didn't think the husband had a legal duty to secure the gun from his wife and he responded "what about a child?" I said, in an off the cuff way, "a child is is more likely to drown in a bathtub than accidentally by a fire arm."

The professor didn't believe this, so I told the student how to go about finding the data--and went looking for it myself, at the Centers for Disease Control's wonderful website, http://wonder.cdc.gov/mortSQL.html. You can request data on accidental drowning deaths by calendar year and by age (and yes, specific to bathtubs) and accidental firearms deaths of children by calendar year and by age.

In the years 1999-2006, there were 300 drownings in bathtubs for children <1 year, 294 for 1-4 years, 59 for 5-9 years, and 69 for 10-14 years (722 total). By comparison, firearms accidents for those same years and ages, nationwide: 0 deaths <1 year; 7 deaths for 1-4 years: 30 for 5-9 years; 81 for 10-14 years (118 total).

The answer is clear: there need to be mandatory bathtub safety classes before parents are allowed to rent or buy a place with one of those porcelain dealers of death.

More Evidence That Alcohol & Advanced Technologies Don't Mix

2009-11-04T13:34:00.003-07:00

More Evidence That Alcohol & Advanced Technologies Don't Mix

You know, advanced technologies like matches. From the November 4, 2009 Harvard Crimson:

A recent Harvard Law School graduate has been accused of setting fire to a New York City chapel that houses the remains of unidentified victims of the 9/11 attacks, leading to public outrage from the victims� families.

Brian A. Schroeder, who graduated from the Law School last spring, turned himself into the police Monday on arson charges after a fire broke out at the chapel the morning of October 31.

Schroeder�whom The New York Daily News branded as �New York�s newest Public Enemy #1��was arrested on counts of third degree arson, first degree reckless endangerment, second degree criminal mischief, and third degree burglary, according to the New York Police Department.

Schroeder was reportedly drunk at the time of the incident, and Schroeder�s attorney has claimed to media outlets that his client may have been drugged during a night of partying over Halloween weekend.

The fire left victims� remains unscathed but damaged mementos placed by victims� families on wooden benches in the chapel. The remains of unidentified victims of the 9/11 attacks are stored in the chapel while they await DNA identification and transfer to their permanent resting place at the 9/11 memorial, which is currently under construction.

According to media reports, Schroeder�s mother claims that he does not remember anything from the incident. Other reports indicate that the act was done as part of a drunken dare.

Schroeder has now been fired from his position at Sidley Austin, a prestigious, multinational law firm with offices in World Trade Center North, where he was due to begin work this coming January. The firm lost one of their employees, a switchboard operator, in the 2001 attacks.

I'm sure that Law & Order's scriptwriters are busily churning out a thinly fictionalized version of this incident as we speak!

George Mason Law Review Will Be Publishing This

2009-11-04T13:25:00.002-07:00

George Mason Law Review Will Be Publishing This

Clayton E. Cramer, Nicholas James Johnson, George A. Mocsary, "'This Right is Not Allowed by Governments that are Afraid of the People': The Public Meaning of the Second Amendment When the Fourteenth Amendment was Ratified," George Mason Law Review, Vol. 17 (2010).

Some very important law professors and gun rights attorneys had some very, very nice things to say about this on a private mailing list where we conspire in favor of the Second Amendment. While George Mason Law Review isn't one of the top 20 most cited law reviews, it was a bit late in the year to get this into that elite list--and then again, past experience is not necessarily an indicator of future results.

I'm Feeling Loved

2009-11-04T13:07:00.002-07:00

I'm Feeling Loved

Thanks to all who have made cash contributions, or offered job pointers. Not a substitute for a regular job, but boy, it helps, and it makes me feel like I am doing something useful.

In addition, several nonprofits, while unable to offer me a full-time job, are discussing things that I can do for them to bring in some money. Again, not a substitute for a regular job, but it makes it easier to limp along until one does come along.

I've made a sufficiently good impression on the deans and assistant deans that have been watching me teach State & Local Government at a local technical school that I have been offered an Introduction to Personal Computers class for the next term--and there's a strong chance that I will teaching a course in programming microprocessors as well. Again, it's not a substitute for a full-time job, but with enough money dripping in from various sources, to quote Gloria Gaynor, "I will survive."

Another Opponent of Concealed Carry Concedes

2009-11-04T12:54:00.002-07:00

Another Opponent of Concealed Carry Concedes

I've been very pleased at the number of people--journalists, sheriffs, politicians--who initially opposed "shall-issue" concealed weapon permit laws, and later admitted that they were wrong. Here's another. The October 20, 2009 Springfield, Missouri News-Tribune carried an editorial in which they listed two recent gun self-defense cases:

In the second incident, the assailant was shot by someone who qualifies under the conceal and carry law.

Sheriff Greg White is a proponent of the conceal and carry law, passed by lawmakers in 2003 after Missouri voters rejected a similar law in 1999.

The law requires people to attain a standard of proficiency with weapons before they are permitted to carry a concealed gun. Proponents of the law believe it offers a greater sense of security and decreases crime by prompting felons to consider the consequences of armed confrontation.

We confess to harboring some reservations about the concealed carry law. Our fear was an increase in guns in public would result in more guns being displayed prematurely and/or more accidents.

White said recently: �All the fears over conceal and carry have never manifested.�

We concede the point.

Anecdotal evidence does not suggest an increase in accidents or unprovoked gunplay.

The evidence, however, does show people defending themselves from harm.

The message being sent to felons is don't bring a weapon to a crime unless you're prepared to accept the risk.

Let's hear it for journalists with the honesty to admit that they were wrong.

So The Government Doesn't Even Get The Deal That I Get?

2009-11-04T12:31:00.002-07:00

So The Government Doesn't Even Get The Deal That I Get?

Several years ago, I made a serious mistake: I bought $25,000 face value of 7.85% coupon bonds that I thought were Citigroup. They weren't. CIT, in spite of the name, isn't Citigroup. (I fear that my enthusiasm for the yield and bond rating may have overcome my usual caution.)

The Democrat-induced financial disaster threw CIT to the edge of bankruptcy--and now, they are offering bondholders the chance to exchange our very nice, high coupon bonds for bonds that (in my case), are worth about 70% of the face value of the old bonds--and we get a small amount of stock in CIT, as well. It's a disappointing result, but the first time that any bond that I have bought has actually reached such a poor condition.

But now I see that I may come out ahead of the federal government on this deal. David Freddoso tells us:

Black specifically faults Geithner for negotiating an arrangement in which CIT can repay its senior creditors 70 cents on the dollar in bankruptcy, but taxpayers are completely left out in the cold for their investment.

I am at least getting a little stock on this (assuming that the exchange deal goes through).

Never Bring A Knife To A Gunfight

2009-11-04T11:21:00.003-07:00

Never Bring A Knife To A Gunfight

And a tire iron isn't much, good, either. From the October 27, 2009 Sarasota Herald-Tribune:

PORT CHARLOTTE - Two men, armed with a knife and a tire iron, reportedly forced their way inside a Port Charlotte home Saturday night, only to find the occupants had guns.

The botched home invasion robbery ended quickly when one of the suspects sustained a nonfatal gunshot wound to the stomach, according to the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office.
Authorities have arrested one man and intend to charge the other upon his release from a Fort Myers-area hospital in connection to the attempted robbery at the 21000 block of Beaverton Avenue.
The incident occurred around 10 p.m. at the home of Peter L. Gilmore, 69, and his 25-year-old son, James S. McGlone.
Two men, later identified as Keith Sowers, 32, of Punta Gorda, and Port Charlotte resident Joshua Eugene Becerril, 29, wearing stockings over their faces, kicked open the front door, deputies said.
Becerril reportedly held Gilmore at knifepoint. McGlone ran into his father's bedroom, where Gilmore kept several guns, and was chased by Sowers, toting a tire iron.
Sowers allegedly hit McGlone over the head with the tire iron before being shot in the stomach.

Aggression and an impact weapon works fine, until you meet a higher technology.

"V" Returns

2009-11-03T19:29:00.003-07:00

"V" Returns

I remember the original two miniseries in the 1980s--any show with that much revolutionary activity against an oppressive government was enough to get my attention. I was a bit concerned that they might be intending parallels to Iraq, but no, it appears from this Chicago Tribune review, it's a bit closer to home:

Imagine this. At a time of political turmoil, a charismatic, telegenic new leader arrives virtually out of nowhere. He offers a message of hope and reconciliation based on compromise and promises to marshal technology for a better future that will include universal health care.

The news media swoons in admiration -- one simpering anchorman even shouts at a reporter who asks a tough question: "Why don't you show some respect?!" The public is likewise smitten, except for a few nut cases who circulate batty rumors on the Internet about the leader's origins and intentions. The leader, undismayed, offers assurances that are soothing, if also just a tiny bit condescending: "Embracing change is never easy."

So, does that sound like anyone you know? Oh, wait -- did I mention the leader is secretly a totalitarian space lizard who's come here to eat us?

Welcome to ABC's "V," the most fascinating and bound to be the most controversial new show of the fall television season.

So that's why Obama is hiding his long form birth certificate! Under race, instead of "Colored" or "Negro" it says, "Carnivorous Lizard."

Milton J. Slocum Manhattan Country Doctor (1986)

2009-11-03T14:43:00.004-07:00

Milton J. Slocum Manhattan Country Doctor (1986)

This is a memoir by Milton J. Slocum, who practiced medicine in Hells Kitchen, New York City, from 1934 to 1968. He then moved to Santa Monica, California, to be my family physician. Well, okay, he moved there to be close to his grandkids, but I was fortunate to have Dr. Slocum as my doctor from about junior high until I moved to northern California in 1982.

This book reminds me much of Dr. Slocum--who I would assume, since he was born in 1905, has since passed. He was a calm, gentle, affable guy who was never harsh, but still managed to convey how he felt about things without making you feel looked down upon. It's a series of vignettes of life in New York City (and Vienna) at the time--and some of them are quite surprising, even to me.

I knew that he started practicing medicine at a time when there were few drugs that actually did anything. He reminds you, several times, that when he started practicing medicine, not only were there no antibiotics (which Dr. Slocum regarded, rightly, as one of the most wondrous inventions that mankind has ever created), but even sulfa drugs were introduced after he started his practice. Imagine trying to treat infections when the best that you could hope for was that the patient's own immune system would win the battle.

After completing medical school, and while waiting to find out if he had passed his board exams, Dr. Slocum and his wife went to Vienna for a few months. The Depression was on; Vienna was a relatively cheap place to live; and some of the world's most renowned doctors were teaching there. But the visit was short--only four weeks--because the emerging Austrian Nazi Party was beginning to throw its weight around, attacking Jewish doctors at the medical schools, and starting a campaign of encouraging businesses to refuse "Jewish business." Dr. Slocum and his wife Belle, being Jewish, found this increasingly disturbing, and returned home, just in time to start his residency.

Much of the book gives a slice of New York City life that seems positively civilized compared to today--even though where Dr. Slocum lived was a seedy part of town. The landlord persuaded the residents of a street level apartment to move upstairs so that Dr. Slocum could operate a combination residence and medical office at street level--and the residents were more than happy to do so, since it made them a bit safer. It was a brothel.

Dr. Slocum's patients included a collection of people that sounds like they walked out of Damon Runyon's stories. The madam upstairs, for example, worked for Lucky Luciano, who Dr. Slocum actually saw once--and who Dr. Slocum upset because he wasn't willing to let his offices be used as part of Luciano's prostitution operations. Fortunately, Luciano's legal problems arrived just in time to prevent Dr. Slocum from having to deal with Luciano's wrath.

There are a lot of stories here, some of medical successes, some of medical tragedies--and throughout, I find myself remembering this wonderfully sweet man. He is careful not to throw in medical terminology without explaining it. I was also surprised to find that Dr. Slocum, in his earlier days, was a neurosurgeon.

There is considerable mention of his first daughter, Susan Hope Slocum--but no mention of what became of her. Dr. Slocum once, while talking about the tremendous change that penicillin had made in the practice of medicine, told me that he had lost a daughter to a minor ear infection. "These days, we would have put her on penicillin for a few days and she would have been up and about." Perhaps he didn't want to add such a shadow to an otherwise upbeat book.

If you want to know a bit about how medicine was practiced back then, or how life was lived in New York City--you might want to read this book.

New Article at PajamasMedia

2009-11-03T08:18:00.001-07:00

New Article at PajamasMedia

"Compartmentalizing Morality: �Christian� Slave Owners and �Green� Polluters"

San Francisco Just Doesn't Change, Does It?

2009-11-02T18:39:00.002-07:00

San Francisco Just Doesn't Change, Does It?

From George Augustus Sala, My Diary in America in the Midst of War, 2nd ed. (London: Tinsley Brothers, 1865), 2:316:

And, concerning pistols and bowie-knives, I know perfectly well that English travellers have fallen into very absurd errors as regards the American habit of carrying deadly weapons. I know that the warning as to the expediency of either shooting or skedaddling so soon as the adversary with whom you are holding an argument puts his hand in his coat-tail pocket, or begins to scratch his neck in the vicinity of his vest collar, is a bit of fun, and nothing more. There are cowardly ruffians all the world over who will shoot or stab an unarmed person unawares ; but in the settled part of the States such dastardly bravoes are not more plentiful than they are in Europe. Even in San Francisco, the habit of carrying firearms is dying out; and a gentleman, recently arrived from thence, told me that in the course of a year's sojourn he had not fired a pistol in anger half-a-dozen times.

The Most Jumbled Fraudulent Email Yet

2009-11-01T19:56:00.003-07:00

The Most Jumbled Fraudulent Email Yet

Some of these Nigerian spammer-scammers write in at least plausible English, even if it is obviously not American English. But what can you say when someone sends you something this bad?

Hello

Kind attention,Am here by introduce my self an ex-service man(retired army force)of the USA army force..my name is Mr George Cameron the general manager of mr.groegecompany from wustiontin DC.We dial mainly in manufacturing and selling all kinds of guns and their bullets.We write to you to have gun business with peoples whom are interested in buying of gun.We are capable of supplying large quantity of guns full of container and in stocks and we can produce any quantity you request to buy.

All guns leaving the company have all necessary documentary with good invoice.We have been in gun business and exportation of guns close to two decades and we have a very good track records which we have achieved over the years.All our guns leaving our company are Properly tested before departing our warehouse storage and our Prices are relatively affordable and way below the world market Price, With decades of experience you can count on us for quality Service and Safety delivering to your location.

We here by to hear from you back with any information's that you will like to know and if you will have intres in buying guns and counting on your quick response you can write to via email:groegecompany@gmail.com

hope to hear from you soon..

Regards,
Mr George

From "wustiontin DC" no less!

More On Medi-Share

2009-11-01T19:52:00.001-07:00

More On Medi-Share

I updated the entry on Medi-Share with information that I found in various places.

It Just Keeps Growing

2009-11-01T12:03:00.004-07:00

It Just Keeps Growing

The health care reform bill is now 1990 pages. When last I linked to the bill, it was 1502 pages, and that was less than two weeks ago. I pointed out that there were a lot of provisions in it that could have been separated and passed individually--and didn't seem particularly controversial. But putting all of these completely separable provisions into a single bill looks like Congress has something to hide.

Big Government points to what might one of those "something to hide" provisions, section 2531, which provides for incentive payments to states related to what are called "alternative medical liability laws" intended to make "the medical liability system more reliable through prevention of, or prompt and fair resolution of, disputes"--but then defines what those laws include:

CONTENTS OF ALTERNATIVE MEDICAL LIABILITY LAW.�The contents of an alternative liability law are in accordance with this paragraph if�
(A) the litigation alternatives contained in the law consist of certificate of merit, early offer, or both; and
(B) the law does not limit attorneys� fees or impose caps on damages. (p. 1432)

Look, I suspect that those claiming that medical malpractice awards are a big part of the problem are exaggerating. But this section is obviously yet another chance to reward the trial lawyers, one of the Democratic Party's most important constituencies.

UPDATE: Just in case anyone decides to argue that this is just the Democratic Party's commitment to free markets, and making sure that states don't interfere with the right of contract between plaintiffs and their attorneys: I'll buy that, as long as the rest of the health care system is similarly returned to free markets. Otherwise it is like the "market reform" for electricity that California embarked on about the time that I moved out some years ago, where wholesale electricity was turned over to a pseudo-market based system, while retail customers continued to be stuck with regulated utilities with guaranteed profits--the worst of free market greed with the worst of regulated control.

Primo Levi's Survival in Auschwitz

2009-11-01T05:18:00.002-07:00

Primo Levi's Survival in Auschwitz

This is one of those books that I have known about for a long time, and of which my wife spoke very highly. Now that I have lots of free time, I added it to my reading list.

I've read a lot of books about the Holocaust; it is one of the great sobering events of the 20th century; a reminder that all those antique ideas about human nature being essentially flawed, were right. But I have never read such a personal account by a survivor.

Levi was a Jewish Italian chemical engineer. That he survived the Holocaust is one of those combination of fortuitous events. Italy, as long as Mussolini was running it on his own, was relatively tolerant of Jews. For Mussolini's Fascism, nationalism meant that being an Italian was what mattered, regardless of religion or ancient origins. Only after the collapse of Mussolini's government, and Germany's creation of a puppet Fascist government in the north of Italy in 1943, were Italian Jews rounded up for extermination. Levi managed to hide out as a member of a guerrilla organization until 1944, when he was arrested and deported to Auschwitz.

Levi was also fortunate that labor shortages in the German war machine were becoming sufficiently severe by this point that he was kept alive to work. It is terrifying to imagine what would have been the outcome of World War II if the Nazis had decided that winning the war was more important than exterminating Jews, Gypsies, and Poles. The Nazis wasted enormous resources killing people that could have helped them win the war.

Because Levi was a chemical engineer, at one point he was moved from the enormously physically demanding labor outdoors into a laboratory, where he worked on the development of synthetic rubber. Just the reduced calorie demands of being inside where it was warm, I suspect, played a major part in Levi's survival.

Levi's account describes the tremendous brutalization that camp life created--a society where deprivation of essentials (such as soap, for examples), and the absence of any legal system for resolving disputes created. For those who read Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and have been ever since thrilled at the prospect of a spontaneous, self-governing order without the ugliness of government--sorry, but I'm skeptical. Levi's book describes a society that internally was free to engage in spontaneous, self-governing order--and where you did not dare leave your spoon or cup unattended, because another inmate would likely steal it.

To be fair, there were aspects to the way that the SS enforced rules that would certainly encourage the worst in people: severe deprivation; severe punishments for theft--except from other inmates. I wonder how much of this was simply a consequence of SS unconcern for the inmates, and how much was an intentional effort to promote the worst possible behavior, so as to justify treating inmates like animals. It strikes me that if the hard left in this country ever achieves full control, they will do their best to create a system that will consciously seek to destroy Christian values by creating a system that promotes greed, sexual immorality, hurting family members, and theft. Before you say, "Oh, too late! They already have," consider how much worse it would be if the hard left were completely free to set all the rules and laws. It could be much worse.

Finally: AGW Scientists Admit That There's Some Exaggeration Going On

2009-11-01T05:07:00.003-07:00

Finally: AGW Scientists Admit That There's Some Exaggeration Going On

From the October 30, 2009 Times of London:

Exaggerated and inaccurate claims about the threat from global warming risk undermining efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions and contain climate change, senior scientists have told The Times.

Environmental lobbyists, politicians, researchers and journalists who distort climate science to support an agenda erode public understanding and play into the hands of sceptics, according to experts including a former government chief scientist.

Excessive statements about the decline of Arctic sea ice, severe weather events and the probability of extreme warming in the next century detract from the credibility of robust findings about climate change, they said.

Such claims can easily be rebutted by critics of global warming science to cast doubt on the whole field. They also confuse the public about what has been established as fact, and what is conjecture.

One of the experts warning about the importance of not engaging in exaggeration is Professor David King:

�I worry a lot that NGOs [non=governmental organisations] are very much in the habit of doing exactly that,� said Professor Sir David King, director of the Smith School for Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford, and a former government chief scientific adviser.

�When people overstate happenings that aren�t necessarily climate change-related, or set up as almost certainties things that are difficult to establish scientifically, it distracts from the science we do understand. The danger is they can be accused of scaremongering. Also, we can all become described as kind of left-wing greens.�

So go back to the May 2, 2004 Independent, and what was King saying?

Antarctica
is likely to be the world's only habitable continent by the end of this century if global warming remains unchecked, the Government's chief scientist, Professor Sir David King, said last week.

Antarctica is likely to be the world's only habitable continent by the end of this century if global warming remains unchecked, the Government's chief scientist, Professor Sir David King, said last week.

He said the Earth was entering the "first hot period" for 60 million years, when there was no ice on the planet and "the rest of the globe could not sustain human life". The warning - one of the starkest delivered by a top scientist - comes as ministers decide next week whether to weaken measures to cut the pollution that causes climate change, even though Tony Blair last week described the situation as "very, very critical indeed".

I'm so glad that the experts are counseling against exaggeration and hysterics...now. I wonder how much longer it is going to take before they start arguing, "Well, we don't know for sure what is going to happen, but perhaps we should be cautious."

There Aren't Many Days More Discouraging Than This

2009-10-30T12:30:00.002-06:00

There Aren't Many Days More Discouraging Than This

The county commissioners held a hearing this morning at 9:30 to decide who to appoint to the Treasurer's job. Even though I was number three on the recommendation list, I figured that perhaps I could make such a good impression that it just might overcome my deficiencies for the job.

I left before 8:00 AM to drive to the county seat of Idaho City. The road from Horseshoe Bend to Idaho City is only 19 miles long, but much of it is unpaved, so you have to drive very slowly--but I still had plenty of time. About ten miles up, I was informed by someone coming down the road that a trailer had jack-knifed, and the road was completely blocked. There was no certainty about when the road would be cleared. So I turned around, and took the longer road through Boise.

I arrived about 10:15--walking in the door quite literally as the commissioners voted. I explained about the jack-knifed truck, and that, "Bad roads delay more than economic development." But it was too late. One of the commissioners apparently had really hoped to hear from me before voting--so perhaps this was a job that I might have had a small chance at getting if not for that jack-knifed trailer.

At times like this, I try to take some solace in Romans 8:28: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." I wasn't thrilled at the prospect of more than hour drive each way to work, but at least there are health insurance benefits--and I am increasingly concerned that when COBRA continuation runs out for me in May, there may be no health insurance available for me, at any price. (Perhaps because of the health care reform bill, it seems that insurers are getting increasingly restrictive about who they will take.)

In some ideal America, my research experience and effective scholarship for gun rights would be of some economic value to someone. If there were a national organization committed to gun rights, they could hire me, even at a very, very tiny salary (as long as there was health insurance), to do the type of research and writing that I have been doing very effectively for a number of years as a part-timer. But alas, there are no such national organizations.