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2010-03-17T20:36:00.001-06:00

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Other Target Online Sites Besides PajamasMedia?Other Target Online Sites Besides PajamasMedia?

2010-03-17T20:24:00.002-06:00

Other Target Online Sites Besides PajamasMedia?

Unfortunately, PajamasMedia gets a lot of submissions, and many pieces that I think would be a good fits they don't take (such as the one below, about the Koran). Do you know of any other online sites like PajamasMedia that:

1. Pay.

2. Don't require you to be nationally famous for them to publish you?

I've completely given up on print publications. Gun magazines (with the exception of Shotgun News and very occasionally, American Rifleman), simply aren't interested in anything that I have to say, and the only conservative magazines left won't publish stuff by me.

The Koran

2010-03-17T20:14:00.002-06:00

The Koran

When the first reviews of Luxenberg's Die syro-aram�ische Lesart des Koran: Ein Beitrag zur Entschl�sselung der Koransprache appeared, it seemed like an intriguing and potentially revolutionary work. I didn't have the expertise to know whether Luxenberg's claims were valid or not--and some of the negative reviews, because of both location and tone, made me suspect that some of the hostility was driven more by the general pro-Islamic tone of much of the academic world.

Since I am teaching Western Civilization this semester, and Islam is most definitely part of that class, I thought I would go ahead and read the English translation: The Syro-Aramaic Reading of the Koran: A Contribution to the Decoding of the Language of the Koran. This is probably the most exhausting book that I have read since calculus. Whoever translated it from German either was not a native speaker of English, or was trying to capture the fussy, pedantic nature of how I would expect a book like this written in German to be.

Regardless of style or tone, this is intrinsically a demanding book to read--not light entertainment, by any means! It must have been a proofreader's nightmare, because it includes not only sections in Arabic (as well as transliterations into English), but also in Syro-Aramaic. This is another Semitic language, written in Kufic script--in which the very oldest manuscripts of the Koran are also written. In addition, Luxenberg highlights the problems of how to read the standard Arabic version of the Koran by showing how various scholars have translated particularly troublesome passages into English, German, and French.

Now, let me start out by saying that I don't know Arabic, I don't know Syro-Aramaic, and I have no intention of learning either. There is no chance that I will become sufficiently fluent in both languages to know whether Luxenberg is right about his claims. Still, he makes a rather clever solution to what seems to be a very real problem: the Koran is full of bizarre contradictions.

For example, the Koran says that Islamic paradise will have couches with perpetual, black-eyed virgins--and it also says that paradise has "boys of perpetual freshness" or in some translations "boys of eternal youth." (The count of 72 perpetual virgins, while traditional, seems to be extra-Koranic.) Nothing in the Koran says that the boys are there for the sexual use of Islamic men in paradise--but you would have to be blind to the context to not figure that this is reason that the boys are perpetually "fresh." If Islam were reasonably tolerant of homosexuality, this wouldn't be too shocking--but Islam is at least as hostile to homosexuality as Judaism and Christianity used to be.

According to Luxenberg, since at least the 10th century A.D., Muslim scholars have been wrestling over problems with the Koran's text, including words that don't seem to be of Arabic origin, and that do not appear elsewhere in Arabic. Complicating this matter is that there is very little written Arabic before the Koran is traditionally written down in the 7th century (Luxenberg, 23).

One of the core problems is that the earliest Koranic text lacks written vowels�as did other Semitic languages in their earliest forms. The use of diacritical marks solves the problem�but these marks are very easily damaged during copying�and Luxenberg argues that the Koran�s text was perhaps written at least partly in Syro-Aramaic. Trying to read Syro-Aramaic as Arabic produced some of these contradictory verses.

As an example, imagine if Icelandic and Danish were both written with consonants, and only little dots to indicate what the vowels should be. Now, imagine that someone gave an Icelander some Danish text with only funny little vowel dots�and told him, �This is Icelandic.� He would find a lot of words that are the same (because these languages are in fact, quite close). He would find a lot of words that had the same consonants, and some of the vowels would match, and some would not (for example, for fish and bread). It would not take long, however, before the subtle differences would produce something that did not make much sense�and the Icelander would start to modify those vowel dots, and change some consonants to fix the original text�s �mistakes.�

Luxenberg argues that if read as Syro-Aramaic, the Koran�s paradise is not perpetual virgins, but grapes (a symbol of Heaven commonly used in Syrian Christian writings of the time), and not �boys of perpetual freshness,� but iced fruits�which seems like an apt metaphor for paradise if you live in a desert. (Luxenberg, 272-288)

Perhaps most astonishing of all is that Luxenberg argues that much of the text of the Koran appears to have been written as a Christian missionary text aimed at the pagan Arabs of the desert. I find myself wondering if, a century or more later, it was misread, perhaps intentionally, as a method of providing a unifying text for Arab nationalism. (There is considerable scholarly agreement that the Koran�s final text was not codified for at least a century after Mohammed.)

As I said at the beginning, I don�t have the expertise to know whether Luxenberg is right or wrong. But I do know that there are parts of the Koran that are shockingly contradictory�and Luxenberg�s theory is certainly thought provoking. If Luxenberg is right, Islam is built on at best a severe misreading�and at worst, a cynical manipulation by Arab political leaders more than a thousand years ago. It would certainly force a great many Muslims to rethink their faith�and wonder if Mohammed was actually trying to Christianize the polytheistic desert dwellers of Arabia.

Those Boxy Little SUVs

2010-03-14T08:59:00.001-06:00

Those Boxy Little SUVs

The Scion started this fashion trend. Some people find them cute; I don't agree. I did get a good laugh, however, on the way to the work. I saw one of these little cinder-block shaped vehicles with the bumper sticker, "AERODYNAMICS ARE OVERRATED."

Ugly Parts of History

2010-03-13T22:26:00.002-07:00

Ugly Parts of History

There are many aspects of the High Middle Ages that are really quite nice. But there are some ugly parts, too. The Inquisition. The blood libel. And worst of all--the blood libel is still being passed around by Muslims who must (or should) know better. At least well educated Europeans recognized it for garbage at the time, such as the commission Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II organized to look into the claim, and Pope Innocent IV.

Things That Make My Blood Boil

2010-03-13T20:20:00.002-07:00

Things That Make My Blood Boil

I was looking for some drawings illustrating strappado, one of the torture techniques of the Holy Office (popularly known as the Inquisition). I have seen woodcuts from the medieval period that illustrate it well enough to capture the cruelty of it. (That this, and other methods even more barbarous were approved and done at the direction of the Catholic Church should cause it enormous shame.)

It's disgusting--but what disgusts me even more is that when I searched for such medieval illustrations, what I found, outnumbering such, perhaps 10:1 or more--are images of strappado being done today, very clearly for the sexual excitement of people who find this exciting. (And yes, the text associated with the pictures, and that the women are all naked, leaves no question.)

When someone conflates torture, pleasure, and sex, they are profoundly sick. Yeah, I guess that I am just hopelessly old-fashioned and narrow-minded.

California Really Is Getting Poor

2010-03-11T21:39:00.001-07:00

California Really Is Getting Poor

From the March 10, 2010 Idaho Statesman:

THERMAL, Calif. � They say crime doesn't pay. For one robber in California, it did - but not much. Authorities in Riverside County say a woman with a gun robbed 11 customers at a market and got away with $6.

Salt Ban

2010-03-11T21:30:00.002-07:00

Salt Ban

From March 11, 2010 Fox News New York:

MYFOXNY.COM - Some New York City chefs and restaurant owners are taking aim at a bill introduced in the New York Legislature that, if passed, would ban the use of salt in restaurant cooking.

"No owner or operator of a restaurant in this state shall use salt in any form in the preparation of any food for consumption by customers of such restaurant, including food prepared to be consumed on the premises of such restaurant or off of such premises," the bill, A. 10129 , states in part.

The legislation, which Assemblyman Felix Ortiz , D-Brooklyn, introduced on March 5, would fine restaurants $1,000 for each violation.

"The consumer needs to make their own health choices. Just as doctors and the occasional visit to a hospital can't truly control how a person chooses to maintain their health, neither can chefs nor the occasional visit to a restaurant," said Jeff Nathan, the executive chef and co-owner of Abigael's on Broadway. "Modifying trans fats and sodium intake needs to be home based for optimal health. Regulating restaurants will not solve this health issue."

Look, there are people that use too much salt. I suspect that if you eat out all the time, salt might be a problem. But if you eat out that much, you have bigger problems. There are items that people eat/smoke/drink that in moderation, are not a problem. A beer a day won't endanger your health. Lightly salting your food won't be a problem either. On the other hand, I doubt that there's a safe level of tobacco use, and so far, the evidence suggests that there isn't a safe level of marijuana use (I mean, if you want to remain sane). Salt is is definitely in the "use in moderation, not a problem" category.

Education Comes From the Barrel of A Gun...

2010-03-11T21:26:00.002-07:00

Education Comes From the Barrel of A Gun...

Weasel Zippers reports on a new federal procurement contract from the U.S. Department of Education:

(FedBizOps.gov) The U.S. Department of Education (ED) intends to purchase twenty-seven (27) REMINGTON BRAND MODEL 870 POLICE 12/14P MOD GRWC XS4 KXCS SF. RAMAC #24587 GAUGE: 12 BARREL: 14" - PARKERIZED CHOKE: MODIFIED SIGHTS: GHOST RING REAR WILSON COMBAT; FRONT - XS CONTOUR BEAD SIGHT STOCK: KNOXX REDUCE RECOIL ADJUSTABLE STOCK FORE-END: SPEEDFEED SPORT-SOLID - 14" LOP are designated as the only shotguns authorized for ED based on compatibility with ED existing shotgun inventory, certified armor and combat training and protocol, maintenance, and parts.

Okay, okay, I know that the educrats need to be able to kick in doors and wave short-barreled shotguns around when they investigate fraud involving federal education funds, but it doesn't exactly sound like what you were expecting from the National Education Association's Cabinet department, does it?

The Virtual Senator?

2010-03-10T20:59:00.001-07:00

The Virtual Senator?

I'm more amused at the prospect than think it is really what is going on, but this piece at Hillbuzz raises an intriguing question:

Can someone research the question of what happens when the public suspects a sitting US Senator is not able to make informed decisions and is instead being kept in hiding while agents of his party make all decisions for him?

This is, obviously, in regards to Robert Byrd, whose recent statements in support of not only Reconciliation but Cap & Trade are so polar opposite to the positions he�s maintained for the hundred years he�s been in the Senate that we do not believe he�s writing them.

Or even dictating them.

Or aware they are being written.

Or, quite possibly, even still alive.

When�s the last time anyone saw Robert Byrd?

Is there some mechanism of government whereby the people of the United States can demand to see whether or not a sitting Senator is still alive?

Does the public have any recourse in the event a brain-dead, comatose, or otherwise incapacitated Senator is being kept cloistered away so something like Healthcare Rationing can pass�whereby Democrat party representatives issues letters supposedly written by the unseen Senator, doing the opposite of what can reasonably be determined to be what the Senator has always done before?

Can we research this and make some noise with it today?

More Signs That Pot May Not Be Good For History

2010-03-09T22:10:00.004-07:00

More Signs That Pot May Not Be Good For History

One of the many self-righteous comments at that article of mine was this:

George Washington and Thomas Jefferson occasionally exchanged �hemp smoking mixtures�.
�Some of my finest hours have been spent on my back veranda,
smoking hemp and observing as far as my eye can see.�
- Thomas Jefferson
August 7, 1765: ��began to seperate (sic) the Male from the Female Hemp at Do�rather too late.�
- George Washington (from his diaries)

I�ve searched for all occurrences of �hemp� in the Thomas Jefferson Papers at the Library of Congress. There is no such quote from Jefferson, and only six references to hemp, all concerning its commercial use for rope. Nor is there any reference to the phrase �hemp smoking� in the George Washington Papers. Washington certainly did separate the male from female hemp plants, but at 1:340 in The Diaries of George Washington, the notes explain:

HEMP: Cannabis sativa, a highly profitable fiber crop, providing work in the off-season. After the 1720�22 sessions, the General Assembly offered a bounty of 4s. for every �gross hundred� of hemp, water-rotted, bright, and clean, to encourage production (HENING, 4:96�97). GW speaks of separating the male and female plants. �This may arise from their [the male] being coarser, and the stalks larger� (CALENDAR [1], 457). In the 1790s he experimented with a variety from India.

Got that? Not to smoke them. (One sex, I guess, is preferable for smoking.)

Some guy named Bill Perron's comment was a worship of marijuana that almost reads like a joke:

Wait there is more, hemp is also a fantastic food, has all the essential amino and fatty acids the body needs in a very easily digestible form. Both Washington and Jefferson farmed hemp, Ben Franklin published his newspapers on hemp, Betsy Ross made our first flag from hemp, Guttenberg printed his bibles on hemp, and both the U. S. CONSTITUTION and DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE were written on hemp. Anything that can be made from wood or petroleum can be produced better and cheaper from hemp. Our country needs new home grown industries, hemp grows in all fifty states, it can help to save the forests, clean our air, create new industries and hundreds of thousands of new jobs.

I'm waiting to see the 2x4s made of hemp. Perhaps if you smoke enough of it, you can persuade yourself that the house stands up, instead of falling over.

UPDATE: And I think it does some harm to the software responsible for searches in books.google.com! I searched for the word "marijuana" in books published before 1920, and a surprisingly large number of the matches are actually to the name "Marquand." How do you get software stoned?

UPDATE 2: Of course, as a reader points out, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are written on parchment, not hemp. Hemp-based paper was widely used into the 20th century, and was very high quality paper--but hemp good for fiber is generally not so good for getting high, and vice versa.

A Great Quote--But Bogus?

2010-03-09T21:51:00.003-07:00

A Great Quote--But Bogus?

Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. -- George Washington

The problem is that when I search the George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress--it isn't there. Searching books.google.com, the earliest example is from Christian Science Journal in 1902--and there's no citation.

On Decriminalizing Marijuana

2010-03-06T07:51:00.003-07:00

On Decriminalizing Marijuana

I wrote a piece for PajamasMedia on why I no longer support decriminalizing marijuana, because of the large number of studies demonstrating that marijuana use precedes schizophrenia, and the enormous social costs that this imposes. Not surprisingly, there are several groups commenting:

1. People arguing (sometimes quite calmly) that the social costs of prohibition are higher than the social costs of having it legal.

2. People arguing that this is all lies, marijuana isn't a problem at all! (Acolytes of the herb god, I think.)

3. People arguing that we should let mentally ill people die in the gutters if marijuana causes them mental illness problems. The libertarian ideal is so strong to such people that they do not realize that most Americans do not buy this argument.

4. People arguing that marijuana laws don't have any influence on behavior--no matter what the laws are, the same number of people will smoke pot. Yet, at the same time, they acknowledge that having it illegal drives up prices, attracting the violent criminals into the trade. Somehow, rising prices don't affect demand or consumption.

One of the strongest arguments for keeping marijuana illegal is to prevent it from getting such a strong toehold that, like alcohol, it becomes impossible to keep from becoming dominant, with the negative consequences of widespread use. It would appear that perhaps it is too late--that is already, like alcohol, a fundamental part of our culture.

UPDATE: By the way, this recent article in Archives of General Psychiatry, "Association Between Cannabis Use and Psychosis-Related Outcomes Using Sibling Pair Analysis in a Cohort of Young Adults," also concludes that marijuana use, especially prolonged use, increases the risk of psychosis:

Compared with those who had never used cannabis, young adultswho had 6 or more years since first use of cannabis (ie, whocommenced use when around 15 years or younger) were twice aslikely to develop a nonaffective psychosis and were 4 timesas likely to have high scores on the PDI. Further analyses demonstratedthat these findings were not due to a small group of individualswith psychotic disorders nor to individuals who were acutelyintoxicated with cannabis when completing the PDI.

While the study agrees that there are people with mental illness problems who use marijuana for that reason, it also points to a feedback loop:

The nature of the relationship between psychosis and cannabis use is by no means simple. In keeping with previous findings,33 we confirmed that those with early-onset hallucinations were more likely to have longer duration since first cannabis use and to use cannabis more frequently at the 21-year follow-up. This demonstrates the complexity of the relationship: those individuals who were vulnerable to psychosis (ie, those who had isolated psychotic symptoms) were more likely to commence cannabis use, which could then subsequently contribute to an increased risk of conversion to a nonaffective psychotic disorder.

McDonald v. Chicago Oral Arguments Today

2010-03-02T22:30:00.003-07:00

McDonald v. Chicago Oral Arguments Today

The oral arguments were held today. You can read it here. It's pretty clear that "privileges or immunities" isn't going anywhere with the Court--but the Second Amendment is likely to be incorporated through the due process clause instead. From reading the questions, it is pretty clear to me that:

1. A number of the justices recognize that Slaughter-House Cases (1873) was wrongly decided, but are reluctant to overturn all the existing precedents that are derived from that.

2. Even those justices who don't like the Heller decision don't want to rock the boat on due process incorporation, preferring to come up with a narrower definition of the right for the states.

Why? My guess is that the conservative members of the Court recognize that declaring that Slaughter-House was wrongly decided would unleash more lawsuits trying to relitigate questions that have already been decided under due process than there are enough lawyers in America to handle--and in many cases, no net change in result. The liberal members of the Court may be reluctant to challenge incorporation for fear that if a fight turns this into a "P or I" dispute, with the generally more conservative tendency of courts now, a lot of the liberal causes decided under due process reasoning (Roe v. Wade, Lawrence v. Texas, among many) would get relitigated and perhaps not do as well.

The net effect is that Alan Gura did a nice job of defending what I think most justices know is the right argument (PorI), but they are going to incorporate the Second Amendment through the due process clause. Feldman, representing Chicago, presented his case very poorly. Admittedly, he's trying to defend an absurd position.

Justice Breyer, however, when he starts arguing that the Second Amendment should be subject to a less level of protection than freedom of speech because there are human lives involved in contest with an abstract concept of rights--where, exactly, did Justice Breyer go on the abortion cases? Oh yeah, that's right.

The Guy The FBI Thinks Did The Anthrax Mailings

2010-03-01T22:00:00.002-07:00

The Guy The FBI Thinks Did The Anthrax Mailings

Remember, shortly after 9/11, someone was mailing anthrax to government offices? A few people died, a lot of people were scared witless, and many people assumed (and not without reason) that it might be al-Qaeada related. It is beginning to look more it was liberal pervert related. From The Smoking Gun:

MARCH 1--After the Department of Justice last month formally closed its probe of the 2001 anthrax attacks, the FBI released the first batch of documents detailing the years-long investigation that ended with officials concluding that Bruce Ivins, a government scientist who committed suicide in July 2008, was responsible for the mailings that killed five victims. The records, released pursuant to Freedom of Information Act requests, portray Ivins as becoming increasingly unhinged as it became clear that he was the principal target of the FBI's "Amerithrax" probe. Additionally, the memos--a selection of which you'll find on the following pages--reveal how agents examined every aspect of Ivins's life, monitored his e-mails, searched his trash, and were even surveilling his Maryland home at the exact time he was inside overdosing. Despite being an FBI target, Ivins was often forthcoming about the details of his strange obsessions and private life. For example, as seen below, when agents executed search warrants in late-2007, an FBI supervisor asked Ivins if he was worried about those raids. Ivins said he was, noting that he did things a "middle age man should not do," adding that his actions would "not be acceptable to most people." He then noted that agents searching his basement would find a "bag of material that he uses to 'cross-dress,'" according to an interview report. During a January 2008 meeting with agents, Ivins described his bizarre decades-long "obsession" with the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, and detailed how he broke into two KKG chapters to steal ritual books used by the group. He also told of "another of his obsessions, blindfolding or bondage." Three months before his suicide, surveillance agents sifted through trash Ivins left at his curb and discovered that the beleaguered scientist was disposing of pornographic magazines, fetish titles, and 15 pairs of stained women's panties.

...

In a July 2008 e-mail, Ivins wrote that "Dick Cheney scares me. The Patriot Act is so unconstitutional it's not even funny." He added, "I'm voting for Obama!"

The 1849 California Constitutional Convention & The Right To Keep and Bear Arms

2010-03-01T19:44:00.003-07:00

The 1849 California Constitutional Convention & The Right To Keep and Bear Arms

Back when I was writing Black Demographic Data, 1790-1860, I spent a lot of time trying to find the 1849 California Constitutional Convention debates. (If that seems a leap--the same guy that got Oregon the add a "no free blacks" provision to the 1857 Oregon Constitution tried, and failed, to get one added to the 1850 California Constitution.) I never could find it--no matter how many dusty library shelves I tried. But now I see by reading the comments over at Arms and the Law that the debates are available online--and there was actually discussion of whether to add a right to keep and bear arms provision. From John Ross Browne, ed., Report of the Debates in the Convention of California on the Formation of the State Constitution... 47:

Mr. Ord offered the following :

Sec. 16. Every person has a right to bear arms for the defence of himself and the State.

Mr. McCarver moved to amend by saying, " provided they are not concealed arms." He did not think, however, that this was a proper subject for the Constitution. No attempt should be made to prevent the Legislature from regulating matters of this kind.

Mr. Sherwood was of the same opinion. To make a positive declaration that a man has not this right would be null and void, inasmuch as it would be in opposition to the Constitution of the United States, which provides that " a well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right o� the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."

Mr. Botts was surprised that the gentleman from New York (Mr. Sherwood) should object to any provision here, because it was contained in the Constitution of the United States. After taking half-a-dozen provisions from that Constitution, word for word, such an objection came with rather a bad grace. He (Mr. Bolts) would himself prefer having this provision under the legislative head. A bill of rights is a general declaration ; the Constitution is a specific declaration. It is an admitted rule of construction that the bill of rights, or preamble, is of inferior force, and succombs to the Constitution. If there be in the Constitution a clause which conflicts with the bill of rights, the latter falls to the ground. He (Mr. Bolts) desired to see all great principles involving the rights of citizens brought into direct operation in the body of the Constitution. He saw no necessity for mere declarations which could have no force or effect. For this reason he had voted against the subject of monopolies ; and for the same reason he would vote against this.

Mr. Sherwood was not aware of having voted in the bill of rights for any provision which was directly secured to the people of California by the Constitution of the United States. But �f he had done so, it was with the good example before him of the gentleman from Monterey, who had voted for a provision in regard to the law of attainder. That provision he would find in the Constitution under the limitation of the powers of Congress. It was introduced here to limit the powers of the Legislature. But Mr. Ord's proposition directly touches the rights of every citizen.

The question was then taken, and both the amendment, and amendment to the amendment, were rejected.

I had always thought that the reason California's Constitution had no right to keep and bear arms was because so many of the early settlers were Iowans--and Iowa's state constitution did not have (and still does not have) a right to keep and bear arms. But apparently it wasn't just an oversight.

It is rather interesting that some delegates argued that it was inappropriate, apparently because it was too broad (and needed to leave authority to the legislature to regulated concealed carry), and others thought that it was superfluous. But it would also appear that some delegates thought it was wrongly placed in a Bill of Rights, and perhaps some felt that the state legislature needed authority to regulate the bearing of arms.

This isn't going to be very useful for those arguing for a right to keep and bear arms under the California Constitution--especially because debates on the 1879 Constitution did not even get around to rejecting such a proposal--but still quite interesting, nonetheless. I suspect that the McDonald decision, when it comes down, is going to make the whole question about a right under the California Constitution moot.

Cuss Free Week

2010-02-27T22:03:00.002-07:00

Cuss Free Week

It's nice to know that the California legislature has nothing more important to do. From the February 25, 2010 San Jose Mercury-News:

SACRAMENTO � Feeling a little salty, Californians? Better get it out of your system while you can.
Amid the ongoing � and occasionally tense � debate over how to clean up California's budget mess, lawmakers are trying to tidy something else, almost as unmanageable: our language. Thursday morning, the Assembly approved a ceremonial resolution turning the first week of March into "Cuss Free Week."
With the Senate expected to follow suit next week, all Californians will be asked to bite back on four-letter words and a few choice compound phrases. WT (bleep)?, you ask. Don't sweat: Police officers won't be waiting with soap. That's not the point.

Oh dear. I'm old enough to remember when the California legislature repealed the law that prohibited swearing in front of women and children--and thought that they were being hip and progressive for doing so.

Wow! The Population is Waking Up!

2010-02-27T21:56:00.000-07:00

Wow! The Population is Waking Up!

From February 26, 2010 CNN:

Washington (CNN) � A majority of Americans think the federal government poses a threat to rights of Americans, according to a new national poll.

Fifty-six percent of people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Friday say they think the federal government's become so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens. Forty-four percent of those polled disagree.

A Curious Origin for the Jury

2010-02-27T21:17:00.003-07:00

A Curious Origin for the Jury

Germanic criminal codes had something called "compurgation," where a person accused of a crime could be found innocent if a group of "oathhelpers" (usually 12 or 25 men) were willing to swear an oath that the accused was innocent. If later it turned out to be that the accused was guilty, the oathhelpers were in danger of being punished for the crime. From Sir William Searle Holdsworth, A History of English Law: The Judicial System (1922), 1:305-6:

If a defendant on oath and in a set form of words* will deny the charge against him, and if he can get a certain number of other persons (compurgators) to back his denial by their oaths, he will win his case. If he cannot get the required number, or they do not swear in proper form, " the oath bursts," and he will lose. Though oaths were used in the Roman law of procedure, this institution of compurgation was not known to it. It was, however, common to the laws of many of the barbarian tribes who overran the Roman empire. Because it was so common and so widespread the church adopted it. Churchmen who could command the services of their fellow ecclesiastics as compurgators found it to be a system "admirably suited for their defence in an age of brute force."

According to the older formulas the compurgators took the same oath as their principal. They swore that he did not owe the debt, or that he was not guilty. And therefore they were liable to the penalties for perjury in just the same way as their principal. But, in the course of the twelfth century, it came to be thought that the compurgators should only be required to swear to their belief in the truth of their principal's assertions ; and to this opinion legal sanction was given by Innocent III. This was due to a wish to remove the temptation to commit perjury; but it destroyed much of the efficacy of this method of proof, because it prevented any effective punishment of a compurgator who swore falsely. Partly for this reason, partly because the revived study of the civil law was teaching men more modern ideas about procedure and evidence, compurgation about this period began to be looked on with disfavour. But it still had many centuries of life before it, and it was in the two succeeding centuries that precise rules were laid down by the common law as to the forms which must be used in carrying out this process. For instance, there does not seem to have been originally any certain rule as to the number of compurgators required. Three to six compurgators were generally thought sufficient in the manorial courts; and Fleta thought that their number should always be double that of the secta. It was not till 1342 that it was settled that the number must be twelve.

In the early days of the jury system, jurors were your peers who knew you, and would judge whether you could have done the crime based on their knowledge of your character. Today, of course, it is quite the opposite: no juror would be selected if he knew the defendant, because then his knowledge of the defendant's character would impair his ability to make a judgment of the facts.

Tax Policy & Collection Never Changes

2010-02-27T19:51:00.002-07:00

Tax Policy & Collection Never Changes

Some aspects off tax policy and collection never seems to change. I'm preparing my lectures on the fall of the Roman Empire and its replacement with the Germanic kingdoms (often inaccurately called "the Dark Ages"). I knew that Diocletian was responsible for adopting maximum wage laws, and sometime thereafter, many jobs were made hereditary, because workers evaded these maximum wage laws by changing jobs. The textbook we are using also mentions that the tax burden increasingly fell on the lower classes, as the population declined, and the wealthy had themselves exempted. In looking for more detail on Roman tax policy and collection, I found the following quote from Arnold Hugh Martin Jones' The Later Roman Empire, 284-602: A Social Economic and Administrative Survey (1964), 1:457-8:

The technique of the canonicarii of the praetorian prefecture is vividly described by Valentian III. The produced 'alarming demands for numerous different taxes'; they put out 'a smoke screen of minute calculations involved in impenetrable obscurity'; they demanded 'receipts for a long series of past years, receipts which the plain man, confident that he owes nothing, does not think to preserve'.

Some things never change.

George Soros At It Again

2010-02-27T10:27:00.002-07:00

George Soros At It Again

From the February 27, 2010 Daily Mail:

A secretive group of Wall Street hedge fund bosses are said to be behind a plot to cash in on the decline of the euro.
Representatives of George Soros's investment business were among an all-star line up of Wall Street investors at an 'ideas dinner' at a private townhouse in Manhattan, according to reports.
A spokesman for Soros Fund Management said the legendary investor did not attend the dinner on February 8, but did not deny that his firm was represented.
At the dinner, the speculators are said to have argued that the euro is likely to plunge in value to parity with the dollar.
The single currency has been under enormous pressure because of Greece's debt crisis, plus financial worries in Portugal, Italy, Spain and Ireland.
But, it has also struggled because hedge funds have been placing huge bets on the currency's decline, which could make the speculators hundreds of millions of pounds.
The euro traded at $1.51 in December, but has since fallen to $1.34. Details of the secretive dinner emerged days after Mr Soros, chairman of Soros
Fund Management, warned in a newspaper article that the euro could 'fall apart' even if the European Union can agree a deal to shore up support for stricken Greece.

How typical: progressive Democrats--the crowd that put Obama in office--figuring out ways to get rich while destroying a national economy.

The End is Near!

2010-02-27T08:05:00.002-07:00

The End is Near!

At least, of the Introduction to Personal Computers class that I teach. One more session, during which I will teach them the rudiments of IP addresses, net masks, DNS, how routers translate addresses, and then the final exam. Then I grade the final, enter their grades, and get a bit of my free time back!

The Corvette developed a bit of a leak at the rear differential, so I took it to the Chevrolet dealer. I was expecting this to cost several hundred dollars--but the estimate took my breath away. It would be either $485--or, if they couldn't get the differential off the transmission shaft without dropping the transmission--$1985. At that point, I found myself wondering if it was time to sell it. Unfortunately, you can't just keep adding oil to the rear differential--it's not like it is easy to access, and if it goes dry, it's a major problem.

However, it would be difficult to sell except at a greatly reduced price, because even if a buyer didn't ask me if it had any problems, only a fool would buy a car this expensive without an inspection first, and I haven't meant too many fools buying Corvettes. So I called around a bit, and I found an independent Corvette specialist who said that he could indeed remove the differential without dropping the transmission--and even if he did, his labor is only $55/hour, so it would be about $525 to replace the two leaking differential seals. (The seals, of course, are just a few dollars each--it's almost entirely labor.)

Anyway, the Corvette is in the shop until Wednesday. But I just for amusement looked to see what the used Corvette market is like--and I was surprised! There are some amazing deals, at least in some of the more depressed parts of the Northwest. A 2007 with 12,000 miles and the GM extended warranty out to 70,000 miles--for $34,900. Astonishing.

Nd Vwls!

2010-02-22T14:19:00.002-07:00

Nd Vwls!

I am in one of those weird situations where I am trying to make sense of table names that have been disemvoweled--or almost completely disemvoweled. As an example, "ovrdrsns" might make some sense if I added some vowels. Somewhere, someone must have written a program for inserting likely vowels into disemvoweled words, keeping in mind that some consonantal dipthongs and tripthongs are common in English, so that "shll" would be re-emvoweled as shall, shell, shill, sholl, shull, shyll. Ditto for "mstwt" becomes mastwat, mastwet, mastwit, mastwot, mastwut, mastwyt. Because some vowel combinations are also common, you would get mastwait, mestwait, mistwait, mostwait, mustwait. (The last, of course, is the most common re-emvoweled combination.)

So, do you know of such a program? Or do I need to write it myself?

The Julio-Claudian Emperors

2010-02-21T18:48:00.002-07:00

The Julio-Claudian Emperors

It has been 35 years since I took a Roman history class--and I know that I have forgotten a bit of what the Julio-Claudian emperors did, but I know that I didn't forget this much. While the theory that lead leached from pipes caused their bizarre behavior seems to be pretty well disproved, the explanation that lead leached from the pots in which grape juice was concentrated for fortifying wine poisoned them, and drove them insane, seems to be rising.

Suetonius's accounts of the misdeeds of these creeps are so shocking that you really want to believe that he is mistaken, repeating horrendous gossip. This account from Suetonius of Nero's dressing up as an animal and what he did while so dressed is so weird that I can't imagine anyone inventing it--something that so weirdly warped that today, you would have to go to San Francisco to find. And Suetonius also tells us of history's first same-sex marriage to Sporus--but so gross and barbarous that even San Franciscans might say, "Wait a minute, that's just wrong! (Did I say that?)"

But what will people of the year 4000 say when they read of the Holocaust, or the tortures of Saddam Hussein's government, or a myriad of other horrifying crimes?

That Linda McMahon Is Running For U.S. Senate?

2010-02-20T08:23:00.004-07:00

That Linda McMahon Is Running For U.S. Senate?

I never connected the "McMahon" running for U.S. Senate in Connecticut with the family guilty of producing WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment, or whatever you call it). So it was a shock to see this piece from the February 16, 2010 Hartford Courant:

I do not want Linda McMahon representing the good state of Connecticut in the U.S. Senate. Her business, legal, money-making and successful, at its center, sells soft-core porn. Now, that's not to say there isn't a place for soft-core porn in the world. The hard-core stuff is a little too much for most people, so soft-core offers just enough titillation without causing a person to lose control. Some may even find WWE romantic.

I don't. I'm not a wrestling fan, obviously. I used to be when I was around 13 years old, about the age level WWE is aimed at. It was vastly different then. Dick the Bruiser and Vern Gagne were dominating. Women wrestlers put on a good show, but there was virtually no sex involved. It was all muscle, even for the girls. My friends came over on Saturday morning while I was baby-sitting my brother and we'd watch it on TV, but after a couple years, we grew out of it. By the time we were driving, the interest was gone.

...

But, since that time, WWE has descended into the darkest regions of human behavior, purely for exploitation. I don't know what the audiences look like now, but I've seen clips of what they're watching and I'd be embarrassed to take anyone in my family.

I've never actually watched WWE. The promos so off-puttingly low-brow that even if I were interested in wrestling, I would find have preferred staring at a blank wall instead. I would also have assumed that someone putting together trash like this would be a Democrat, rather like Jerry Springer. I guess that McMahon is running as a Republican shows what a big tent we really have.

I don't have any strong opinion about Rob Simmons, who is also trying to get the Republican nomination, but from visiting his campaign's web site, I think the contrast is pretty dramatic. Simmons is retired CIA operative--and to hear the left holler about him, he sounds closer to Jack Bauer than I would expect anyone running for office in Connecticut to be.

UPDATE: A reader suggested that I look into Linda McMahon's campaign contribution history. While it turns out that she has been contributing to Republicans over the years--she has also been contributing to a lot of Democrats, too. Like $2300 maximum legal contributions to the campaign of Rep. Rahm Emmanuel (D-IL). Yes, that Rahm Emmanuel. And the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee ($10,000 in 2006, $5,000 in 2007). And individual Democrats running for Congress. Like most corporations, she gives to both sides in the hopes that no matter who wins, when it comes to getting favors from the government--she wins.