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Clayton's commentary on news and events of the day. Broadly speaking, I'm a conservative with libertarian sympathies (getting more conservative as my children get older).
 Never forget! I ran for Idaho state senate in 2008--didn't win I've written a number of history books, as well as scholarly and popular articles, (see my web page). Relocating to Boise? Use my realtor, neighbor, and friend, Cindy Smith csmith@1realtyone.com.
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Saturday, March 13, 2004
Gun Control Advocate Admits the 1994 Assault Weapon Ban Doesn't Matter From National Public Radio's March 11, 2004 broadcast: The Violence Policy Center is one of the more aggressive gun groups in Washington, DC, and analyst Tom Diaz is their assault weapons guy. It's his job to emphasize just how deadly these guns are. So how does he feel about the effort to renew the assault weapons ban?And then Diaz explains what NRA said back in 1994--banning guns by brand and irrelevant features just makes the makers change the brand and remove bayonet lugs--which makes no real difference. Banning guns by function affects vast numbers of guns--which makes the law politically impossible. Maybe they need to focus on the person holding the gun, not the gun itself? A convicted felon with a .22 rimfire rifle is far more dangerous than a law-abiding adult with an AR-15. Not Entirely An Urban Legend Remember when you were young the story that, "professional boxers have to register their hands with the police department as deadly weapons"? There are variants involving karate black belts. I've always assumed that this was pure urban legend--I even assumed that back in sixth grade. Oddly enough, there is at least one place where it's true. From the Guam Code Annotated, on the Guam Attorney-General's website: §62100. Registration Required. Any person who is an expert in the art of karate or judo, or any similarThanks to Jon Roland for bringing this to my attention. Part Of Why I Get So Angry At Those Making Excuses For Pedophiles I'll only give you the first paragraph of this story from Northwest Indiana. If you click over to read the details, you are going to be much, much angrier: CROWN POINT -- Sexual abuse may have contributed to the November death of a 3-year-old Merrillville boy who had a history of heart problems, officials said Friday.It gets a lot more ugly. Victoria, Australia Bans Swords This is almost comic, at first glance: SWORDS will be outlawed from July under new laws to curb the growing use of the weapons in street brawls.Unfortunately, the problem that they are confronting is real--a society where civilized behavior seems to be in danger: Last week, a 13-year-old boy was arrested and charged after allegedly charging police with a sword near Castlemaine, in central Victoria.What next? Clubs? Rocks? All of these laws are attempts to avoid confronting the fundamental immorality problem--and banning the weapons doesn't fix this. It just means the victims can't fight back. First Self-Defense Use of a Gun Under New Missouri Statute From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch of March 11, 2004: Man repels 3 robbers by firing hidden pistolIt turns out that the new law, along with requiring issuance of concealed carry permits, makes it lawful for any 21 or older who can lawfully possess a handgun to have one concealed in his car. Friday, March 12, 2004
The Anti-Defamation League Has To Pay Up I will tell you that I have had a bad taste in my mouth about this bunch since the late 1970s. Tom Hayden & Jane Fonda's Campaign for Economic Democracy was pushing for a rent control law in Santa Monica because of the egregious rent increases that were taking place. (After the Rent Control Board set up shop, they actually found out that there had been 6% annual increase in rents during this period--when the local Consumer Price Index rose 13%. Oh well, what's a few lies when you are taking control of the government?) I was a renter in Santa Monica at the time, and I was very, very worried about the "Two Minute Hate" tone of the campaign. I was also concerned about the destructive effects of rent control in New York, as well as the underlying principle that property rights are a human right. I put together a flyer on bright yellow paper expressing my human rights concerns about this, pointing out the parallels between how the Nazis had dehumanized Jews and the way that the rent control advocates were dehumanizing another unpopular minority: landlords. If you think I exaggerate, I understand that for the first year or so that the Rent Control Board met, when a landlord got up to speak at a hearing, the members of the Board would all turn their chairs away, so that they wouldn't have to actually look at him. I walked over a big chunk of Santa Monica, eventually handing out about 5000 flyers, paid for out of my own pocket (at a time when I was 20 years old, and not exactly rich). Within a couple of weeks, I received a letter from the Anti-Defamation League, telling me that I should not distribute flyers like this, because the Holocaust was unique, nothing like it had ever happened before, or would happen again. It was pretty obvious that they had decided to take sides in a political dispute, and hoped to intimidate a political activist into shutting up. So when I see that the Anti-Defamation League has been ordered to pay $12 million to a couple that they falsely accused of being anti-Semites (based on illegally tapping their phones), all I can say, "Good!" The Anti-Defamation League's payment of more than $12 million for defaming them has been transferred to their bank, according to a Thursday press release from their lawyer, Jay Horowitz of Denver.Abraham Foxman at the Anti-Defamation League keeps screeching that Mel Gibson's The Passion promotes anti-Semitism--a position that many Jews who have seen the film quite emphatically dispute. There are some very serious anti-Semites in the world today, and certainly some in America. I guess they must be pretty well hidden, however, because the Anti-Defamation League seems to be putting too much effort going after people that aren't anti-Semites at all--and stirring animosity that doesn't need to be there. Interesting Coincidences On The Spanish Terror Attack From an AP news story, this makes you think al-Qaeda, not ETA (which has apparently denied involvement): "March 11, 2004, now holds its place in the history of infamy," Aznar said Thursday.I recall that September 11th was picked for the World Trade Center attacks because the date has some significance in the Arab world. Maybe the selection of March 11 for this horrifying crime is a coincidence--but it would fit in al-Qaeda's traditions, and the number of deaths suggest a level of competence and barbarism that ETA has apparently not shown in the past. (ETA usually attacks politicians and police--not civilians.) There can be no compromise with whoever does crimes like this. I don't call it an "act of war," because there are rules in civilized warfare. UPDATE: This article in the Guardian presents evidence that argues this might well be the work of ETA--perhaps of a younger generation that perceives that ETA's increasing weakness required a barbarous proof of their strength. The article also points out: Last night the newspaper El Mundo reported that the EU's police agency reported in December that Eta was changing its operating method. It warned of a scaling up of attacks, and talked specifically of attacks in the capital in which several devices would be successively detonated in strategically important locations. It also warned of possible attacks in France.In addition, the explosive used is fairly distinctive, and is of a time stolen by ETA in France a while back, and used in previous explosions. 400 Horsepower V8; 0-60 in 4.6 Seconds; Seats Five; 25 mpg Highway Yes, it's a Cadillac: BMW has its M cars, Mercedes has AMG and now Cadillac has its V-Series. That's the name of its upcoming lineup of high-performance models recently announced for production. The first model to get the V-Series treatment is the CTS entry-level luxury sedan, a move that has made this already agile four-door a force to be reckoned with among the world's great sport sedans. The transformation begins with the installation of the drivetrain found in the ultrahigh-performance Corvette Z06 that includes the LS-6 V8 good for 400 horsepower and 390 pound-feet of torque and a six-speed manual transmission. The Cadillac's limited-slip rear axle gets a short 3.73-to-1 final drive ratio to optimize acceleration. An enlarged dual-exhaust system allows the driver and surrounding motorists to appreciate the full-bodied rumble of this superb V8. Cadillac claims a 0-to-60-mph in just 4.6 seconds. Suspension upgrades include new shock absorbers and stabilizer bars, along with 27-percent firmer spring rates compared to the standard CTS. South Koreans Take Politics Seriously The National Assembly impeached President Roh Moo-hyun. The parliament voted to impeach Roh after hours of scuffles and protests that included one Roh supporter setting himself on fire and another man trying to drive his car up the parliament steps and into the building.If only Bill Clinton's supporters had felt so strongly during his impeachment hearings. :-) I recall reading a P.J. O'Rourke essay about South Korean politics a few years ago where he described how one protestor cut off the end of his finger to write his candidate's name in blood. They take politics a little too seriously. Here's a Clue for Detainees From Gitmo Learn to tell more plausible lies. Everyone knows that Gitmo isn't a summer camp--although at least some released detainees indicated that it wasn't really all that bad--but this story from the London Mirror is so absurd that I can't take it seriously: Medical treatment was sparse and brutal and amputations of limbs were more drastic than required, claimed Jamal.UPDATE: The Telegraph reports a bit more about the detainees--and the money they were paid for their story: Ruhal Ahmed, 22, was facing re-arrest over a charge of stealing a set of wheels and tyres from a Honda car in Tipton in March 2001, as well as driving without insurance and an MoT. He faced a two-year jail sentence if convicted.Hmmm. Their credibility seems a bit weak. Rewriting History Concerning Marriage Licenses I see that the latest attempt to justify gay marriage comes from a newspaper called the Desert Dispatch, for the California high desert: The founders of our nation were as unfamiliar with marriage licenses as we are with parent licenses. The very thought that government could license your marriage was as repulsive then as a parent licensing is today. Even well into the 1800's the idea of obtaining a license to have a spouse was unheard of. The government simply did not have that authority to intrude into the private lives of American families.The article then goes on to claim that marriage licenses were introduced in the 1800s as part of the scheme to prevent interracial marriage. Nope. Completely false (although you will find a lot of people making this claim around the net, as part of the campaign to discredit the state monopoly over defining marriage). Here's a list of Maryland's colonial marriage laws from Archives of Maryland 75:686, that show that "authority to intrude in the private lives of American families" goes back a long ways: 4. All Persons, desiring Marriage, shall apply to a Minister for contracting thereof, and cause due Publication to be made, according to the Rubric of the Church of England, at some Church or Chapel belonging to the Parish wherein the Woman is resident. 1717, ch. 15, §. 1.Of course, the interracial marriage laws were already present during the colonial period, and were not dependent on marriage licensing: 12. No Minister, Pastor or Magistrate, shall, upon any Pretence join in Marriage any Negro whatsoever, or Mulatto Slave, with any White Person, on Penalty of 5000 lb Tobacco; one Half to the Use of Free-Schools, the other Half to the Informer. 1715, ch. 44, §. 25.The 1777 laws from Archives of Maryland 203:166 are even more clear about the need for a marriage license: XII. And be it enacted, That all licences for marriage shall be issued by the clerk of the court of that county where the woman shall have her usual residence, under the seal of his county, in the following form, to wit:Marriage licenses were apparently required in England; here's a reference to a 1628 marriage license in Durham, and another reference to a marriage license in 1629 England. There are a number of books that make reference to colonial marriage licenses in their title: The Marriage License Bonds of Northampton County, Virginia, from 1706 to 1854 by Stratton Nottingham. New Jersey also licensed marriages: "A marriage license was recorded at Piscataway, N.J., on December 19, 1670, between Hugh Dunn and Elizabeth Drake...." Since the Lawrence decision was based on false statements about the history of sodomy laws, I guess that I shouldn't be surprised that efforts to justify gay marriage are also being made based on false history. Labels: homosexuality Gay Marriage Updates Both houses of Wisconsin's legislature have passed a state constitutional amendment that bars both gay marriage and civil unions. Another vote is required in January, and then approval by the voters in 2005. Wisconsin! The Cheese state isn't quite as liberal as Minnesota, but it is still pretty liberal. The Kentucky State Senate has also passed a state constitutional amendment to the same effect; still waiting for action from the lower house. I guess there's no great surprise on that, but the lopsided vote, 33-4, gives some idea of the magnitude of sentiment even among legislators. I am disappointed to report that the Idaho State Senate killed a state constitutional amendment to prohibit gay marriage here. It looks like homosexuals have sunk their cause with lawlessness in San Francisco, New Paltz, and Multnomah County. Thursday, March 11, 2004
Viagra & Methamphetamine No, it's not the punch line to a vulgar joke. (But if it were, the question which the punch line answers would be, "What did you give him?") It's from the headline to a New York Times article (registration required) about those people that are just like you and me, "except for who they love": The expanding recreational use of crystal methamphetamine and Viagra is apparently fueling increases in syphilis, H.I.V. and other sexually transmitted diseases among gay and bisexual men in the United States, according to new studies reported here on Wednesday. Condoms & HPV I've mentioned before that there is serious question about the effectiveness of condoms for preventing the spread of HPV, a virus that appears to cause cervical cancer. The Bush Administration is now considering requiring a warning on condoms: The Bush administration is considering requiring warning labels on condom packages noting that the contraceptive devices do not protect users from all sexually transmitted diseases, a Food and Drug Administration official said Thursday.Oh I know, you are probably thinking, "those Religious Rightists in the Bush Administration are trying to stop people from having fun." California--hardly in control of the Religious Right--already has such a labelling requirement with respect to condoms & HPV. Why is HPV "little-known"? Because it does not do any harm to men--they just pass it on to their next female partner. I remember well when this connection was first discovered, and a biology professor explained to our Biology of Aging class that as the number of lifetime sexual partners went above three, a woman's risks of cervical cancer increased quite dramatically. You could hear the gasp from a number of girls in the class. Back when cervical cancer epidemiology was first being studied, early in the 20th century, they noticed that Jewish women in America had much lower rates of cervical cancer than Gentile women. There was a theory for a while that circumcision (still not so common among American Gentiles at the time) played some protective role. What Professor Benko told us was that it now appears that at the time, Jewish women were far less likely to have had multiple sexual partners than Gentile women, and that was the reason for the difference--not circumcision. Unsurprisingly, Democrats--the party that cares about women, unlike those uncaring Republicans--seem intent on keeping the silent epidemic going forward: But some lawmakers feared that such labels could turn people away from using condoms, thereby increasing the risk of contracting diseases such as AIDS, chlamydia and gonorrhea.Except that properly warning people that condoms aren't 100% effective at stopping the spread of HPV, and therefore thousands of cervical cancer deaths a year, isn't "undermining" their effectiveness at all. Waxman is probably scared that if women realized the risk that they are taking by trusting in condoms--instead of reducing their number of sexual partners--things would get very, very unpleasant on Capitol Hill. This would also be a serious problem for the entertainment industry, which lives on selling the idea that casual and promiscuous sex has no serious consequences. California Supreme Court Tells San Francisco To ... "stop issuing marriage licenses as queer as a three dollar bill." Well, no, but they did tell Mayor Newsom to stop issuing marriage licenses not in conformity with California law. I suppose that we should regard this as a victory, but I think of it more as a statement of how weird American politics has become that the mayor thought he could just ignore the law. In other good news, the Massachusetts legislature has passed a proposed amendment that allows them to ban gay marriage, but allow civil unions. House Votes To Increase Fines For Indecent Broadcasts The vote was surprisingly lopsided: 391-22. Those who are upset about this can thank Howard Stern, Janet Jackson, and "Bubba the Love Sponge." The courts have generally not taken the position that broadcasting enjoys all the same protections as newspapers under the First Amendment. But shouldn't radio, television, and movies enjoy the same protections as print media, under an original intent theory? Even if they did, the First Amendment was not understood by the Framers as a shield against all punishments for what you published. You could be prosecuted criminally for libel back then (and you still can, in a number of states); you could be sued for libel; you could be criminally prosecuted for publishing obscenity. What the First Amendment protected you from was prior restraint, and punishment for publishing the truth. There's one other point worth considering. I don't buy the argument that some conservatives have made, that the First Amendment's protections were only intended for political speech. I just don't see the evidence for this claim. It is, however, the case that broadcasting, for most broadcasters, isn't being done because of their concern for the public good, but because it is a very profitable business. I am reminded of the Supreme Court's decision upholding Ohio's film censorship law in Mutual Film Corporation v. Industrial Commission of Ohio (1915): It cannot be put out of view that the exhibition of moving pictures is a business, pure and simple, originated and conducted for profit, like other spectacles, not to be regarded, nor intended to be regarded by the Ohio Constitution, we think, as part of the press of the country, or as organs of public opinion.Obviously, this is no longer good First Amendment law. It does, however, make a point that people like Larry Flynt and Howard Stern, when they wrap themselves in the flag and the First Amendment, are hypocrites. They aren't pumping sewage into the public arena because of high ideals; they are in it for the money. (Hugh Hefner at least pretended that he was trying to free America from its Puritanism, but it was still about making money, producing a more refined form of sewage than say, Hustler or Howard Stern.) Paying fines to the FCC is just one of the costs of pumping sewage: an effluent charge. It is somewhat amusing to see the same liberals who are upset about "rich people" defending people like Howard Stern as though he is a modern Tom Paine or Margaret Sanger. Canada is Generally a Peaceful Place... But when a serial killer gets to work there, Canadians give up nothing to Americans. I won't give you any details on this story--it's horrifying, and repulsive. If you read Unintended Consequences, this won't be a surprise. Alias Star Makes CIA Recruiting Video My daughter, before she went off to college, was a big fan of Alias: WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Jennifer Garner, who plays spy Sydney Bristow in the television series "Alias," has turned her talents to recruiting real-life spies to work for the CIA in a video on the agency's employment Web site.Here's the part that surprised and pleased me: Garner was not paid for the recruiting video, a CIA spokesman said. "She did this out of a sense of patriotism." The Passion As Teen Slasher Movie? This article in Variety about the audience demographics mentions that while the audience is generally older than average for a movie, it also has a lot of 18-30 year olds coming to see it as well: "It looks surprisingly like the audience for a lot of our films," said Rick King of AMC, nation's second-largest chain. He said the heaviest demographic for "Passion" shows was ages 18-30. "Most of the people I'm seeing look like they've been in a theater before," he said.Now, here's the part that startled me a bit--but also heartened me as well, because this unexpected audience probably needs the message more than most: Young males who flock to slasher pics seem to be taking an interest in "The Passion," which has been widely characterized as gory by reviewers. U.S. Citizen Charged With Espionage For Iraq From AP: An American citizen was arrested Thursday on charges she acted as an Iraqi spy before and after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, accepting $10,000 for her work, prosecutors said Thursday.Well golly gee, what happens when you google Susan Lindauer? You find her name and city listed as a signer on PEACE PLEDGE: TO STOP SPREAD OF ANTI-TERRORIST WAR TO IRAQ. You find that she gave a deposition claiming to know for a fact that Libya wasn't involved in the Lockerbie bombing--but that it was done by the Syrians (who have a long-standing enmity with Hussein's Iraq). There's a Susan Lindauer listed (perhaps not the same person) involved with one of the gun control groups here. Very interesting. UPDATE: Here's the indictment at The Smoking Gun. Walter Williams on Gay Marriage I'm impressed. First Thomas Sowell, well-known libertarian economist weighs in on why gay marriage is a bad idea, now Walter Williams (not quite so well-known) libertarian economist weighs in with almost exactly the same arguments that I use: Here's my question: Are homosexuals the only Americans permitted to change the definition of marriage, or do people with other sex orientations have that right as well? Improving Teaching at the High School Level Greenspan says that the job recovery should be coming along soon, but he made some other important points about problems that may be holding us back as a nation: Instead, Greenspan said the country needed to explore avenues to make sure that all Americans had the opportunity to get a good education and then be able to return to school to improve their job skills.Yes. I've blogged in the past about how teaching credentials, especially at the secondary level, are keeping a lot of skilled professionals out of that job market. I understand why, especially at the lower grades, where most learning disabilities are discovered, there is a strong case for specialized training. By high school, however, it seems unlikely that this specialized training is really necessary. For a lot of people who are currently working in private industry, they simply can't afford the one to two years attending school full-time to get a teaching credential. In this last recession, after the dot-com bust, there were a lot of people with degrees in math and science who were suddenly out of work. In some ideal world, they could have taken jobs teaching math or physics--and probably improved the quality of high school education. Spending two years in school full-time just wasn't an option--they needed jobs now. Two states, Idaho and Pennsylvania, have now adopted a fast-track approach to this problem. The American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence has a testing procedure for those with a bachelor's degree, including a background check. Both Pennsylvania (search for REG 3752) and Idaho have decided to accept the ABCTE certificate as a substitute for a teacher's credential. Unsurprisingly, the Idaho teachers' union is not happy. UPDATE: Here is an absolutely devastating discussion of the problem of teacher certification by retired physics professor Donald E. Simanek. Along with demonstrating that education majors are near the bottom of the heap in academic capability, he also argues that much of what makes a good teacher does not require specialized training: Ross Perot was asked what can be done to improve education. He responded "Torch the teachers' colleges." That's one of the few things he's said with which I can agree. Don't hire teachers who wasted their college years in fluff education courses purporting to teach them how to teach. Hire teachers who concentrated on learning and understanding what they teach.[3]He also has some unpopular things to say about the level of preparation of students entering college, relative to previous years--and what he says I have heard from many professors with similar experience: When I began teaching college physics nearly 30 years ago, we could count on perhaps 5 to 10 percent of the students in freshman physics being well-prepared, bright, intellectually curious, and hard working--capable of earning an honest A grade. About as many more were not so bright, but still hardworking, and earned Bs. Teachers wrote off the rest as hopeless. They would never really learn physics. They'd probably 'get the picture' soon and change to a major that didn't require physics, so no great harm would be done. One could confidently bet that they weren't doing well in their mathematics and chemistry courses either. Enslaved Europeans It isn't exactly news that Arab slave traders enslaved Europeans; our word "slave" actually comes from "Slav," peoples that were often enslaved in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. But here's news coverage of Ohio State University historian Robert Davis's new book that puts some numbers to this: In a new book, "Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast, and Italy, 1500-1800," Mr. Davis calculates that between 1 million and 1.25 million Europeans were captured by pirates called "corsairs" and forced to work in North Africa during that period.It is unfortunate that from the rather narrow view of history that Americans learn, we think of slavery as something rather peculiarly American--a special sin staining the American experience. It really isn't. Throughout human history, slavery has been more the norm than the exception. It has often been a sign that a society has moved from a primitive state, to a civilized one, that it held slaves. Savages don't take prisoners of war; they build mountains of skulls, instead. Enslaving your defeated enemies was often a sign of a relatively humane and enlightened commander. John Locke, who we now think of as an enlightened thinker for his time, was quite clear on this: Indeed, having by his fault forfeited his own life by some act that deserves death, he to whom he has forfeited it may, when he has him in his power, delay to take it, and make use of him to his own service; and he does him no injury by it. For, whenever he finds the hardship of his slavery outweigh the value of his life, it is in his power, by resisting the will of his master, to draw on himself the death he desires.I do wish that when American history is taught in the lower grades, that a little more effort would be made to emphasize that slavery is really the norm; the efforts of Christians in the West to abolish slavery, and then Western imperialism driven in part by a desire to abolish slavery elsewhere, is the shining exception. STDs & Anonymous Sex This Reuters article discusses a new survey of the spread of syphilis: The Internet was one of a number of factors contributing to the rise in syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases among gay men, Aynalem said. Other contributors included the increasing use of the recreational drug crystal methamphetamine and the erectile dysfunction medication Viagra.So 60% of all syphilis cases are happening in a population that represents, at most, 2.25% of the U.S. population? (About 4-4.5% of men are homosexual or bisexual, and men are just under half the population.) Obviously, it could be that only a tiny fraction of homosexual men are part of the anonymous, random sex crowd--but it does suggest that there is a dangerous pathology in behavior present when syphilis is so disproportionately homosexual. If Viagra is also part of the explanation for this, then it doesn't say much for the maturity of this crowd--guys old enough that they need Viagra, but so emotionally immature that they are engaging in promiscuous and risky sex. Libertarian Purity Test David Bernstein over at Volokh Conspiracy pointed to this online libertarian purity test. Okay, I scored 45--but there's a reason, and it is the problem with tests filled with binary answers. As an example, the question asking whether Social Security should be abolished, my answer was NO. I think Social Security is a very bad program in almost every respect, but a lot of people have retired, or are about to retire, based on the belief that Social Security would be there. They paid into the program, and made financial decisions based on the assumption of getting a check every month when they retired. To abolish Social Security without some sort of phase-out would cause enormous chaos and suffering--enough that it would completely discredit the entire government. The same is true for many other government programs: overnight abolition would cause problems so severe that they would make the liberals look like prophets. I was surprised that the test didn't have more questions about the programs that redistribute wealth from the poor and middle class to the very wealthy, such as the National Flood Insurance Program (which subsidizes people with beach houses), or farm price supports. These are programs that from a simple justice standpoint should be abolished overnight, and for whom any disruption and chaos this caused would be a good thing, because a lot of the superrich liberals would have to dip into their own bank accounts to pay for their luxuries. In case you are curious: the question asking whether all laws prohibiting consensual sex between adults should be abolished, I said YES, assuming that this didn't include the laws against sex in public places. I don't think that laws regulating adult sexual relations are a good idea, although many of them are certainly Constitutional. Wednesday, March 10, 2004
"What If He Takes The Gun Away From You?" One of the recurring methods by which gun control advocates discount the possibility of a mere woman defending herself with a gun is to say, "What if he takes the gun away from you? You'll be in more danger than if you didn't have a gun at all!" Here's a story where a woman is in jeopardy, someone takes away a gun--but it doesn't end quite the way the gun controllers would like to think: Sheriff's Lieutenant Rich Maricelli says the woman parked her pickup truck in a lot on campus, and a man asked if she could give him a lift to his vehicle and maybe jump-start it for him. She agreed. But the man pulled a handgun out of his jacket and told her to drive up Deer Creek. [overly graphic description of removal of clothes, being bound, raped, deleted] He set the gun down between the seats; and she managed to free her hands, get the gun, leap from the truck and roll down an embankment. She later told detectives she was prepared to use the gun if the man came back for her. Awesome Picture From Hubble 
It really makes you realize how tiny you are, when you see a picture with that many galaxies in one field! One Kilometer Asteroid Hit: 1500 AD Interesting article in Science News: Scientists may have discovered the impact site of one big space rock that smacked into the South Pacific just a few hundred years ago. In eastern Australia, researchers have found jumbled deposits of rocks more than 130 m above sea level that they propose were left by a tsunami. That debris has been dated to about A.D. 1500—a date that matches when the Maori people inexplicably moved away from some areas of New Zealand's coast, says Stephen F. Pekar, a sedimentologist at Queens College in New York. On New Zealand's Stewart Island, two sites sport possible tsunami deposits at elevations of 150 m and 220 m, respectively.I'm glad that I live up high enough not to worry about tsunamis. Thanks to Instapundit and A Voyage to Arcturus for the links. The Death of Marriage in Scandinavia Stanley Kurtz's article in the Boston Globe claims that gay marriage (or rather its equivalent) in Scandinavia is destroying heterosexual marriage there. You may be surprised to find that I am a bit skeptical of his claim: Data from European demographers and statistical bureaus show that a majority of children in Sweden and Norway are now born out of wedlock, as are 60 percent of first-born children in Denmark. In socially liberal districts of Norway, where the idea of same-sex registered partnerships is widely accepted, marriage itself has almost entirely disappeared.There are a lot of changes that have taken place during this time, and I don't see that Kurtz's article really shows a causal connection there. He does point out that homosexual marriage caused a purge of conservative clergy from the Lutheran Church in Nordland County, Norway, a hotbed of same-sex marriage, but I don't quite see that Kurtz's explanation of how one caused the other makes much sense. Kurtz also observes: Clearly, in a place where de facto gay marriage has gained almost complete acceptance, marriage itself has almost completely disappeared.Doubtless, but I find myself wondering if the decline of traditional marriage and the rise of same-sex registered partnership (what Kurtz calls "de facto gay marriage") both reflect the underlying moral decline of the population--not that gay marriage causes the collapse of marriage. I think the bigger issue that needs to be confronted is the underlying factor--moral decline. CBS News Playing to the Rich Again, Trying To Hurt Bush I was watching CBS Evening News tonight, while doing the bench press, and they carried a report about the Bush tax cuts, saying that for many taxpayers, the "Bush tax cut" really hasn't turned out to be that big, because of the Alternative Minimum Tax. They then interviewed one of those typical working class Joes who has been snookered out of his big tax cut by AMT: a financial planner. Oh yes, that's a typical working person. What just amazes me is the nerve of this claim. The Alternative Minimum Tax, which the reporter characterized as an unfair and antiquated part of the tax code, was originally put there to prevent high-income taxpayers from paying no federal income tax at all. Let me quote from the IRS's history of the AMT: Taxpayers who are not required to pay tax under the regular tax system may still be liable for tax under the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) laws. These laws create an equity in the system, requiring higher income individuals with certain deductions to pay tax. Without the AMT laws, these individuals would pay little or no tax while those with lower income levels and no deductions would pay higher tax.I have never had to pay AMT, although I came close one year. I exercised my stock options with great care (10,000 shares one year, 6,000 the next) to avoid this. I would guess that AMT is almost never an issue for people making less than $100,000 a year. Yet CBS News wants us to believe that large numbers of Americans are losing their "Bush tax cuts" because of AMT? If so, these are almost certainly the "rich people" that John Kerry claims got the lion's share of Bush's tax cut. Oh yes--these rich people are also disproportionately found among the millionaire talking heads that do network broadcasting. What a coincidence! Yet Another Wrinkle in the Bond Market Larry Kudlow's National Review column is about how, in spite of the recent drop in bond yields, he doesn't believe that this can continue much longer: If you are among the pessimists who believe the U.S. recovery is going to sink, or that the China boom is on the verge of collapse, then buy bonds. But if you stand with the optimists and expect a world economic recovery, then it's time to take profits off the table in the bond market.Without anywhere near Kudlow's expertise, I am betting on the same--that we'll see 10-year Treasuries with yields above 5% within a year or so, and 30-year Treasuries above 6%. That's why I am only buying bonds with short maturities, expecting to throw a lot of money into long maturity A-rated corporate bonds when they start giving yields of 7.5% to 8.5%. (Hey, I can dream about 9%.) What I found really fascinating about Kudlow's column, however, was a scheme that I didn't know about: Economist Victor Canto makes a good case that the current bond rally is a function of the "carry trade." This is where the purchase of a long bond ? in this case the 10-year bond, which holds a higher yield than a short-term maturity ? is financed by taking out a short-term loan, allowing the investor to keep the difference in rates between the two maturities.Sure enough, there isn't much risk here. The only way that this becomes risky is if the short-term interest rates rise so quickly relative to the 10-year Treasury that you can't sell the 10-year bonds in time. It's quite rare for bond prices to fluctuate that quickly. You do have to pay careful attention to the bond yields to make sure that you are making money, and you also need to be borrowing in big enough chunks to get the federal funds rate on your loan. It does seem like a pretty safe way to improve your return on capital, assuming that you can go borrow a few million dollars without too much hassle. "Did You Know the Pro-Gay Marriage Crowd Has No Sense of Humor?" "No, but hum a few bars and I'll try and fake it." Two days ago, I posted a pretty serious item about Senator Hatch's proposal for a federal marriage amendment that solves some of the federalism concerns that many people have expressed about the version that is currently under consideration. I made one statement that was a mixture of serious and attempted humor, and as often happens when I attempt humor--or for that matter, anyone attempts humor in a text-only medium, not everyone "got" it. If the point is reached where a majority of a state wants gay marriage, they'll probably legalize polygamy, bestiality, and then combine them into polygamous bestiality.For those who are humor-impaired, "and then combine them into polygamous bestiality" was attempted humor. But this raises a serious question that the pro-gay marriage crowd seems to run from: what makes marriage intrinsically between two people? Why not three, or five, or eight? Why do they have to be humans? France, a while back, allowed a woman to marry a dead man (her fiancee died in a motorcycle accident). I can see the following arguments that the pro-gay marriage crowd might advance to defend why what they are wanting is okay, but polygamy, and interspecies marriage is too weird to argue seriously against: 1. "That's disgusting." And how does that differ from the majority view of homosexual marriage? We are back to a "that's icky" argument. Sorry, but the Supreme Court has spoken--simple prejudice has no place in the law. 2. "Animals aren't humans." Okay, we are on our way to a tautology. Why is this a problem? You could make the same statement about two men getting married: "One of them isn't the opposite sex." 3. "We love each other. Why shouldn't we be able to get married?" Love is a many-splendored thing, and to be blunt, I've seen married couples whose relationship wasn't markedly more loving than most pet owners have for their pets. Our society has many expressions of love, some erotic (as between husband and wife), some fraternal in nature, some Platonic. Yet we do not expect everyone who has a very close friend to get married to them, and I think that even most of the pro-gay marriage crowd would find it ridiculous to get married to every really close friend. 4. "What harm does it cause to the society for us to get married?" What harm does it cause to the society for Ed and Janet and John and Lisa and Mark and Fido to get married? Almost any argument that you can make against polygamous bestiality can be applied with equal validity to gay marriage. 5. "But homosexuals are just like everyone else, and we shouldn't be discriminated against." This is the only argument that has a ghost of a chance of surviving the giggle test. If you accept that homosexuals are just like everyone else--no different from heterosexuals--then you could make this case. Guess what? There is certainly no consensus in support of this claim; there's not even a majority (except on the federal bench, probably) that buys this claim. However, you can certainly find animal rights theorists who say the same about animals. "A boy is a pig is a rat is a dog," as Priscilla Feral of the Animal Liberation Front likes to say. Princeton professor Peter Singer says the same thing, and about sex with animals--and he is considered a great intellectual by the same crowd that is defending gay marriage. What makes Feral and Singer wrong, and you right? Oh dear, we're getting back to that question of absolutes and universals again--and once you go down that road, where do you get those absolutes and universals from, if not a theistic base of some sort? Then what happens to gay marriage--a position that none of the world's major religions has ever supported? |
