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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).
Sorry, high pressure isn't included.
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Gun Laws Don't Work
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Dissecting Leftism -- By John Ray
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Right Thoughts
Final Protective Fire
Amitai Etzioni's Blog
Scrappleface -- Dangerously Clever Satire
Michael Williams -- Master of None
Another Conservative Blogger
A Group Blog By Iraqis
THE MESOPOTAMIAN: TO BRING ONE MORE IRAQI VOICE OF THE SILENT MAJORITY TO THE ATTENTION OF THE WORLD
Specializing in discussions of discrimination and affirmative action
An Iraqi dentist
Promoting children being raised by their own parents
A federal law clerk opines about the law
Michelle Malkin's blog
Impearls: a blog as electic and interesting as mine
Proving that the United States military does more than kill people and break things.
May not agree with this group on everything, but stopping the ACLU is high on my list
A conservative/moderate black blogger.
Another sensible American
Sex, Crime, and Corruption in the Democratic Party
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Maggie's Farm: Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
A blog dedicated to "Documenting Saddam Hussein's support of Terrorism"
The blog of one of my fellow bloggers on the Civilian Gun Self-Defense Blog
J. Norman Heath's Blog--a circus rigger and Second Amendment scholar (really!)
Buckeye Firearms Association, for you Ohio gun owners and activists
Click here for a FREE NEWSLETTER on Ohio Gun Rights from Buckeye Firearms Association!
Another conservative.
Neocon Blues
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Separation of Church & State in Times of Crisis
From Connecticut's Revolutionary government, July 4, 1776: A Proclamation for a Day of Publick Humiliation, of Fasting and Prayer.
From American Archives, 4th series, 6:1277-8.
It being our incumbent duty to acknowledge God in all our ways, and to committ all our affairs, both publick and private, to his all-wise direction and guidance, and especially in a day of singular and general calamity to implore his merciful interposition; and it having been the laudable practice of this Government to recommend and appoint days of publick Fasting and Prayer upon special and solemn occasions; and this Court apprehending the present season to be big with the most important events, not only to this, but to all the United American Colonies, and sensible that these events are at the disposal of the Supreme Governour of the Universe:
We have thought fit, with the advice of Council, and at the desire of the House of Representatives, to appoint, and do hereby set apart Thursday, the first day of August next, to be observed throughout this Colony as a day of solemn humiliation, fasting, and prayer, hereby calling upon Ministers and People publickly to humble themselves under the righteous hand of God; penitently to acknowledge their many heinous and aggravated sins, and the righteousness of his dispensation towards them; with devout and imoportunate applications to implore Almighty God that the frowns of his Providence, manifested by the severe drought wherewith some parts of the land have been visited, and all the humiliating events which have lately taken place in America, may, under the Divine influence, produce a severe repentance and thorough reformation among all orders and degrees of persons....; and that he would spread the peaceful Kingdom of the Divine Redeemer over the face of the whole habitable world.
There's a message here, I think.
More Evidence That Guns Were In Short Supply During the American Revolution
American Archives, 4th series, 6:659, May 18, 1776 meeting of the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety: Resolved, that Mr. Robert Towers make up as soon as possible five hundred thousand Musket-Cartridges and three hundred rounds for each heavy Cannon now in use; that he fill up three hundred thousand of the former and one hundred of each of the latter.
Guns are in short supply, so they decide to actually load 300,000 musket cartridges--for guns that could, at best, fire three rounds a minute. How did any historian familiar with the Revolutionary War get taken in by Bellesiles's claims about severe shortages of guns?
New Jersey Law: You Must Own A Gun!
Obviously, this isn't current New Jersey law. In October of 1775, the New Jersey Provincial Congress revised the existing militia law, and it ordered “all persons… capable of bearing arms, between the ages of sixteen and fifty years” to enroll in the militia “and shall, with all convenient speed, furnish himself with a good Musket or Firelock….” Failure to have a gun would be punished with a two shilling fine. Conscientious objectors were allowed to pay four shillings a month for exemption from militia duty. [American Archives, 4th series, 3:1236-9]
Religious Fanatics, Out To Impose Their Morals On The American Public
No, not Jerry Falwell, and not Islamic clerics. But I'm sure that many liberals will be applauding these Bible-thumper efforts: Since 1983, with the formation of Eco-Justice Working Group, the National Council of Churches has been providing an opportunity for the national bodies of member Protestant and Orthodox denominations to work together to protect and restore God's Creation. A major task of our environmental ministry is to provide program ideas and resources to help congregations as they engage in environmental justice.
Isn't it amazing that the only time that liberals get upset about people mixing religion and politics is when the religious sorts disagree with them?
News! Christian Leaders call on Bush to protect God's gift of Air
In a letter to President Bush released on Earth Day, more than 100 national and state leaders of the National Council of Churches expressed moral concern over the President's stewarship of the environment--particularly on the Administration's "clean air" policies and its implications on public health.
The Power of Lightning
I promised some pictures of what lightning did to a tree just outside my job a few days ago. They are sobering reminders of the power of the natural world. This was perhaps 500 feet from where I sit.
Here you can see the chunks of wood and bark thrown 80-100 feet by the steam explosion as the sap heated up:
This last picture shows how the tree itself was split most of the way to the ground:
The Columbine Anniversary
FreedomSight points out that the gun prohibitionists tried to use the 5th anniversary of Columbine as an argument for the assault weapons ban. Along with several other good points, FreedomSight points out that the assault weapons ban is irrelevant to what happened there: To illustrate even further how little the "assault weapon" character of the guns used at Columbine has to do with what happened, I'll quote from Publicola, who writes,
In other words, there was nothing in the specific characteristics of the guns used (as opposed to some other firearm) which "enabled" a certain level of casualties. Klebold and Harris could have been using single-shot rifles, or lever actions, or single-action revolvers, and still killed and wounded as many people. They chose the weapons they did because of their mindset, and their perceptions. And, more importantly, had those specific guns not been available, they would have used something else. I'm sure that the "cool" factor of having a gun at all was more important than the extra cool factor of having a particular gun. In fact, the most important thing to them was the act itself, rather than using a particular gun, or type of gun, to do it. When you look at it this way, you can see that the problem isn't the gun, it's the mindset of the users.
In fact if you average the number of people killed or wounded at Columbine from the time they started shooting until the time they presumably killed themselves you'll find that the rate of fire was under 3 rounds per minute per murderer.
Good News Concerning Iraq
I received this from Spirit of America: Normally, you won't receive a message from us more than once a week but this a rare week. (To remove yourself from this list please reply to this message and put "unlist" in the SUBJECT line of the message.)
Last night the Wall St. Journal's Dan Henninger was on Nightly Business Report on PBS. He spoke about Spirit of America and the donor response generated in large measure by his recent column. It's a great piece. Please read it below. The impact of Dan's column was augmented mightily by the relatively unsung efforts of bloggers and by many of you forwarding messages to friends and families.
Here are the results. Overwhelming. Incredible. In the last five days we have received $764,408 from 4,088 donors. Most of these funds are earmarked for the request made by the Marines for equipment needed to establish Iraqi-owned television stations in Al Anbar Province Iraq (described here: http://www.spiritofamerica.net/req_12/request.html). Our initial goal for this request was $100,000. The Marines are as stunned as I am. I'll remove the expletives of joyful surprise and forward some of their comments to you next week. They are also developing ideas for the expansion of this initiative. More on that soon.
We are pressing ahead with fundraising. We understand we're at the very beginning of the effort needed to achieve peace and stability in Iraq. The Marines and others serving in Iraq have made clear that all the support we can muster will greatly assist their efforts to win the peace. Rest assured we do not confuse success in donor support with the real results we all seek to achieve. The real work lies ahead. But the funding makes the results possible and we now have a great foundation to build upon.
We are now focused on delivering the basic equipment requested for the first seven stations. Thanks to you we will have everything at Camp Pendleton by next Thursday (April 29). That delivery will make it 21 days from receiving the Marines request to fulfilling it. You can imagine what a response like this means to those on the front lines whose lives are at risk.
I Guess Airport Security Isn't Hopeless
They found a Congressman's gun: LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Rep. John Hostettler of Indiana was briefly detained today when airport security workers found a handgun in his briefcase as he was going through a checkpoint on a trip back to Washington.
It's nice to know that they aren't completely asleep at the wheel, and that Rep. Hostettler knows that carrying a gun is good for his safety.
The five-term Republican congressman was preparing to board a US Airways flight at Louisville International Airport when the gun was found, said his press secretary Michael Jahr.
"Apparently the congressman had left a handgun in his briefcase and forgot it was in there and took it to the security checkpoint, where it was detected and they detained him briefly to make sure he had no ill intent as they should do," Jahr said.
More Reasons Not To Do Drugs
In St. Louis: A woman grabbed her son's Louisville Slugger baseball bat and fatally beat a naked intruder who was attacking her 56-year-old sister, St. Louis homicide detectives said Sunday.
For those who don't understand why support for drug prohibition remains strong, especially among cops-- this is why. Intoxicated people (including those using legal drugs like alcohol) do some incredibly stupid and dangerous things. You might argue (and I would largely agree) that drug prohibition creates an entirely different set of problems as well. But the desire to discourage drug abuse isn't irrational, nor is it some conspiracy to prevent you from having fun.
"He tackled me around the knees, and I was screaming," said Gwen Herndon, in recalling the encounter with the man in her living room. She said her attacker was wearing only socks and had forced his way into her home. "I asked him, 'Who are you and what do you want?' "The only thing he said was, 'I'm dead. I'm dead.'"
Herndon's sister Rochelle Edwards, 41, got her teenage son's wooden baseball bat and struck the man numerous times, killing him, police said. Edwards was not charged and declined to talk to a reporter.
...
The dead man was identified as Timothy Turner, 29, of the 5200 block of Kensington Avenue. Homicide detectives said they suspect that he was under the influence of drugs, probably PCP, and are awaiting autopsy results.
Detectives said Turner had a long police record that included arrests on suspicion of burglary, assault, gun charges, forgery and trespassing, and had a conviction for robbery.
This Is Nauseating
There's a reason that we have a protection against cruel and unusual punishments in the Bill of Rights: OKLAHOMA CITY -- Surgical castration could be ordered for certain sex offenders under an amendment approved Tuesday by the Oklahoma House of Representatives.
No state in the nation now requires surgical castration. A similar proposal was vetoed two years ago by then-Gov. Frank Keating, who called it reckless legislation that could violate constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment.
Current Gov. Brad Henry has not made any public statements on the proposal.
The amendment, adopted on a 68-29 vote, would allow for the castration of offenders who commit first- or second-degree rape or forcible sodomy. Inmates already convicted of those crimes could volunteer for the procedure.
Who Is Trusted More? Iraqis? Or Californians?
This Los Angeles Times story about Fallujah points out: Marines besieging the city agreed not to resume their offensive into the heart of the town if "all persons" turned in their rocket-propelled grenades, mortars, missiles and other heavy weapons. Residents could keep their AK-47 assault rifles for personal protection, the Marines said.
These, of course, are full auto weapons. Isn't it amazing that we trust Iraqis with full auto AK-47s for personal protection, while California doesn't trust its own citizens with semiauto versions?
Al Sadr & Force
Muqtada al-Sadr is counting on an attack by Coalition forces in Najaf to cause a popular uprising by enraged Shiites. I don't know that it will. One of my co-workers is Iranian; he tells me that he recently spoke with an Iraqi Shiite who, like many Iraqi Shiites, thinks little of Al Sadr, doesn't want the mosque attacked--but would be quite willing to bomb the mosque to get Al Sadr.
Fallujah and American Inner Cities
A reader pointed me to a by Fred Reed that appeared in the Washington Times describing Reed's ridealong with a Washington cop: Saturday night in 1-D, riding with Officer Pete Barlow, who after eleven years on the Metropolitan Police has seen most of what there is to see. One-D has a little of everything -- bad projects, upscale stores, small parks that are home to the homeless, regions of offices that lose their population at night. If I were teaching a sociology course, I'd send my students to ride here. They'd lose a lot of their ideals.
Sounds like Fallujah, doesn't it?
...
We drove to Sursum Corda, a project that produces a lot of calls for such things as drugs and shootings. Low buildings, lots of people on the sidewalks, kids running around in droves. It is the kind of place that makes you wonder what the country is doing, and whether there is anything it could do better. Sursum Corda is entirely black, crime-ridden, with unemployment verging on total. Ride through, and the young men stare with undisguised hostility. It's easy to understand why: They deal in drugs, and so they're at war with the police.
What is hard to convey, and most disheartening, is the sense of isolation from the rest of society. The problem isn't poverty per se: People here have plenty to eat, housing, television, what have you. But they don't have jobs, or in most cases enough education to understand the nightly news, or much interaction with the society at large. The thought that comes to mind is, "This is another country."
What to do about it, I don't know. But it's not good.
Barlow talked about the difficulties of policing in Sursum, and in indistinguishable projects nearby.
"They don't like the police. If we tried to arrest somebody, you'd get a lot of people gathering around, real fast. It makes you uneasy. You don't do it without backup."
I've had that happen elsewhere. You have one cop, or maybe two, and thirty angry males crowding around, some of whom are guaranteed have gun or knives. If they jump you, you've had it. Show any sign of nervousness, and they have the psychological advantage. They make a point of getting behind you. The danger is that one will make a fast move for his pocket, maybe just to alarm the officer, and get shot, because he succeeded.
The Sursum Cordas of the country are flash points. You police them, or you don't. If you don't, they fall completely into the hands of the gangs. That can't be the right answer. If you do police them, hostility grows. The police can be good, bad, black or white, or some of each as in most cities. The people will still see cops as an occupying army.
I haven't the foggiest idea what to do about it. Neither do the cops. They see the problem as well as I do. They're in it every night. But they don't have any magic solutions either. All I know is that sooner or later it's going to bite us.
The President Failed Us: His Actions Caused More Death, More Violence, and More Enemies
Don Hewitt, executive producer of 60 Minutes, pretends that there is some question as to whether he will vote for John Kerry or not: "I know why I don't want to vote for George Bush," Hewitt said. "But I don't know why I want to vote for Kerry. I don't know who he is."
Yes, America was shaken, confused, and horrified by a surprise attack. But look what the President did in response. Before, we had one small set of enemies, in one country. After his actions, we had enemies around the world--and groups of terrorists came to America to launch attacks on us in our homes. He allied us with unsavory nations with disappointing human rights records. He created a huge deficit. His actions severely damaged civil liberties, locking up people just because of their national origin, and using military tribunals instead of civilian courts.
Hewitt laments the outbreaks of terrorist attacks that have occurred since the U.S. invaded Iraq 13 months ago. "If I should hold anything against George Bush," Hewitt said, it was that the invasion "created more terrorists."
I refer, of course, to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who used the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (about which there remain questions in some minds as to our government's involvement), to provoke a death match against Germany, Italy, Romania, Hungary, and Slovakia. There were terrorists who infiltrated the United States. They were tried by a military tribunal--instead of in civilian courts. Roosevelt locked up 110,000 people solely because they were of Japanese ancestry. We allied ourselves with Stalin's Soviet Union, providing substantial economic and military aid.
Hewitt goes on to say: The accumulation of bad news appears to have taken a toll on Hewitt's spirits. During the Great Depression and the Cuban missile crisis, he said, "I never doubted for a second that we'd survive. Now I'm not so sure. I'm scared."
The world was as close to nuclear war during the Cuban missle crisis as it has ever been--a war that would have left tens of millions of dead in the U.S., and perhaps a hundred million dead in the Soviet Union. That didn't scare him, but this does?
Progress In The Battle Against Degrading Women
Most self-described feminists seem to be too busy to worry about women being turned into sex objects, but I saw this story, and I was encouraged:
There is nothing more depressing than to see how rapidly the left accepted that "authenticity"--as though hip-hop is authentic to anything but a tiny minority of blacks in America--was more important than sexual equality.
ATLANTA (AP) - Maybe it was the credit card that rap superstar Nelly swiped through a woman's backside in a recent video. Here at Spelman, the most famous black women's college in the country, a feud has erupted over images of women in rap videos, sparking a petition drive and phone campaigns.
Nelly planned to visit Spelman earlier this month for a charity event enlisting students for a bone marrow registry. But the rapper canceled the appearance after hearing that a protest was in the works because of his videos - especially "Tip Drill," the one with the credit card, which also shows men throwing money between women's legs and women simulating sex acts with each other.
Misogyny in pop music, especially hip-hop, has been around for years. What's new, students say, is an explosion of almost-X-rated videos passed around on the Internet or shown late at night on cable channels like Black Entertainment Television, also known as BET.
Never before, students say, have the portrayals of black women been so hypersexual and explicit.
"It's very harsh. This is something we have to see and listen to on a daily basis," said senior Shanequa Yates. "Nelly just didn't want to come here and face the criticism for the choices he's made."
UPDATE: I suppose that I should mention that not only does this garbage degrade women, by turning them into primarily sexual objects, a lot of rap videos degrade men by simplifying them down to sexual predators. Contrary to the image that many rap videos portray, there is more to life than animal-like sex, killing, and drug dealing.
SUVs: Source of All Evil?
UPDATE: Roger L. Simon weighs in on Kerry's "It's not my SUV, it's my wife's SUV" matter--but I will tell you that the comments on his entry are even more interesting.
I do not own an SUV. I used to have a Chevrolet S10 Blazer, back almost 20 years ago. Where I live here in Boise, SUVs and big 4x4 trucks dominate the road. Do most people have a need for them? Not really. Some of what drives the demand for them is the need for snow traction--but there are more efficient ways of doing that. In practice, for most drivers, four wheel drive really doesn't gain them that much safety or traction over snow tire two wheel drive cars. If the snow and ice is really that thick, braking will be the biggest problem, and four wheel drive isn't that big an advantage.
Some people here own SUVs and 4x4 trucks because they genuinely go off-road a lot--but it's a pretty small minority.
Some people own them for the status involved--because I sure can't see any rational purpose in driving a Hummer that has never been in the dirt.
The big reason why people here in Boise (and where I lived in California) buy SUVs and vans is simple: the CAFE rules have effectively wiped out large American station wagons. The problem is that passenger cars are subject to a much higher fuel economy standard than trucks (and SUVs and vans are in the truck category).
Yes, you can still buy a compact wagon, but the dreadnought class of Caprice wagon, Buick Roadmaster wagon, Ford LTD wagon--they are gone. If you want a vehicle that seats eight or nine (as is occasionally useful when taking your daughter and the rest of her birthday party somewhere), or seats Mom, Dad, three kids, and their luggage on a long vacation, there is nothing quite as useful as a big station wagon. Without it, the alternatives are a minivan, a Tahoe, or at the high end, a Suburban.
GM, Ford, and the other traditional sellers of dreadnought station wagons could sell 19-21 mpg station wagons--and pay an enormous penalty for missing their Corporate Average Fuel Economy targets. Instead, they sell SUVs and minivans that get 11-15 mpg instead.
While the SUV-driving elite would like to think that car companies are being irresponsible and manipulating the masses into buying SUVs, the fact is that Americans in large numbers buy SUVs because they fill the need for dreadnought class station wagons. It would make more sense for CAFE to either be stricken completely, or revised so that the fuel economy target was dependent on the number of seats. An eight-passenger station wagon should count towards the same target as trucks and SUVs.
I have great confidence that Chevrolet's Impala (21 mpg city) would appear in an eight passenger station wagon model getting 20 mpg selling for about $24,000--and a lot of potential Suburban buyers would decide to save $6000 and a lot of gas.
A Gay Newspaper Publishes a Column Against Judicial Imposition of Gay Marriage
A column by Bruce Carroll from the Washington DC Blade: THE BACKLASH OVER gay marriage during the past few weeks doesn’t come as a surprise to me. I predicted it months ago to a group of friends who are rabidly in support of pushing the issue.
Carroll goes on to argue that gays should have tried to educate Americans to support gay marriage instead:
I told them that while there was a gay-marrying frenzy breaking out in San Francisco, Oregon, and New Paltz, N.Y., most Americans were not at a place to accept this change.
Since two-thirds of Americans oppose gay marriage, and the same percentage support legal protections for gays in the workplace, then why, I asked, are the radical gay groups forcing marriage down the throats of America at this time?
But it wasn’t the “religious right” or President Bush who started this round of the culture war. It was us.
...
But we need to step up and admit that the responsibility of the gay marriage debate, good or bad, is squarely on the shoulders and the consciences of the so-called leaders of the Human Rights Campaign, National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, Log Cabin Republicans and their ilk.
Now the dominoes are falling against us, in Georgia, Kentucky and Mississippi. A state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in those states will be put before voters. Georgia, Kentucky and Mississippi — not surprising, right?
But in Massachusetts, far from a bastion of the religious right, the state legislature adopted a constitutional amendment, though it still must survive additional legislative votes next year before it goes on the ballot there.
SO THERE WE have it. This decision by our supposed leaders to push gay marriage onto center stage in America at this time and in this election year has resulted in a colossal setback that is solely the fault of those same groups. Gay leaders will scratch their heads and wonder what went wrong, but the fact that they don’t “get it” is proof enough that we need to find a new way and new leadership.
I doubt that such a campaign will work, but at least if it did, there wouldn't be this smell of elitist judiciary tyranny. I would argue against legislatures recognizing gay marriage, but they certainly have the authority to do so if they wish, and there would be no constitutional question that the states may pass such laws.
Instead we get Rosie O’Donnell who says she’s getting married in front of TV cameras merely because President Bush says he’s opposed to it. Well, that’s one sure way for opponents to question the sincerity of the true commitment to gay marriage, isn’t it?
THE PATH TO gay marriage is not to force Americans to accept a morality they are not prepared to embrace. Instead of radical gay groups spending their precious few dollars, time and resources engaging in court fights and street battles, it’s time to turn our attention to the hearts and minds of mainstream America.
Carroll goes on to argue: What is needed is a fundamental and, most importantly, mature awareness campaign across the country about what it is to be a gay or lesbian American today. We all need to be willing to come out of our closets — proverbial or not — and let our friends, family and work colleagues know who we are.
What Carroll seems not to realize is that part of the opposition to gay marriage comes from homosexuals coming out of the closets in large numbers. For every one relatively well-adjusted homosexual that I've met face-to-face, or online, I've met several more that were clearly profoundly damaged, and at least one that argued for why it's okay to have sex with minors (sometimes willing to let the law draw the line at 12 years old, sometimes not).
Let them know that we pay our taxes just like them. Let them know we experience the ups and downs of daily life just like them. Let them know that we want the same financial, job and relationship security that they enjoy. Let them know that we want to be as tolerant of their long-standing religious beliefs as we want them to be tolerant of ours.
Mr. Carroll seems to think the radical gay leaders are unrepresentative of homosexuals. I'm not so sure. Mr. Carroll may hang around with monogamous gay couples that want the house with the white picket fence. The leadership seems to be listening more to the crowd that regards marriage and monogamy as bourgeois values to hold in contempt, not to celebrate. Of course, the ultimate expression of what the radical gay leadership is up to was the ACLU's argument for the Constitutional right of 14 year olds to have sex with adults--which, in practice, means the right of adults to manipulate kids into sex.
John Kerry: Nominee of the Stability Party?
I saw another blogger (Oxblog, actually) mention this, and I was so flabbergasted by it that I went to read the original story: Kerry said withdrawal of U.S. forces should be determined by whether Iraq has been stabilized, not whether it has achieved democracy.
The U.S. has a long history of withdrawing troops as soon as "stability" was achieved--and these are not proud moments. As an example, consider the Somoza regime in Nicaragua. Kerry is spouting the sort of realpolitik that you might expect from a very cynical Republican at the heights of the Cold War (when it at least had a certain understandable pragmatism).
Democracy "shouldn't be the measurement of when you leave," Kerry said. "You leave with stability. You hope you can continue the process of democratization -- obviously, that's our goal. But with respect to getting our troops out, the measurement is the stability of Iraq."
If there is anything that reflects the worst of American foreign policy in the Cold War era, it was considering it acceptable to leave a thug in charge, as long as it was a thug on our side.
Kerry's Continues to Dukakis Himself
Discriminations points out that John Kerry's bizarre argument that he doesn't own an SUV, but his family does, shows that Kerry just doesn't get it:
Also, this post by Discriminations is pretty entertaining on the subject of what Kerry stands for, if anything.
"I don't own an SUV," said Kerry, who supports increasing existing fuel economy standards to 36 miles per gallon by 2015 in order to reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil supplies.
The Suburban aside, he's right. He doesn't have it.
....
Kerry thought for a second when asked whether his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, had a Suburban at their Ketchum, Idaho, home. Kerry said he owns and drives a Dodge 600 and recently bought a Chrysler 300M. He said his wife owns the Chevrolet SUV.
"The family has it. I don't have it," he said.
There Are Lots Of Heroes Putting Their Lives On The Line...
I have to be careful how I say this. I know that there are lots of young men and women who are in the armed services primarily because of the sense of duty to country. I know that there are lots of young men and women who are in the armed services because it provided them with training and educational opportunities that they might not otherwise get--although I suspect that even many of these enlistees could do better, from a dollars and cents standpoint, than putting on the uniform of the United States. Pat Tillman's combat death, however, is a reminder that some people put country above life and wealth: Pat Tillman, a former NFL player who swapped a glamorous football career to enlist in the U.S. Army, has been killed in action in Afghanistan, ABCNEWS has learned.
Let me be very clear on this: Tillman's death doesn't deserve special attention because of his fame before joining the military. Nor should we pay less attention to the deaths of the other courageous young men and women in uniform. All sacrificed their lives in defense of our nation, and every one of those lives lost shows that the virtues of honor and duty, in spite of the best efforts of the Left, have not been wiped out of the American character.
The 27-year-old former football player was killed in direct action during a firefight in Afghanistan, Pentagon sources told ABCNEWS. But there were no further details available.
A former member of the Arizona Cardinals, Tillman, along with his brother Kevin, enrolled with the U.S. Army Rangers after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
...
Tillman, an unrestricted free agent, spurned a $9 million, five-year offer sheet from the St. Louis Rams in 2001 to join the Army. The 5-foot-11, 200-pound Tillman was an exceptional student with a 3.84 grade point average through college and graduated summa cum laude with a degree in marketing.
I am a little tired of those whining leftists who insist that the reason that young men and women are in the armed services is because there were no other options open to them. Pat Tillman is an extreme example of someone who had everything to gain from staying a civilian--and nothing to gain by joining the military. No wonder the Hollywood Left is so angry about the War on Terrorism. Duty; patriotism; honor: all of these are virtues that the spoiled brats of the entertainment industry don't understand.
UPDATE: Here's a Peggy Noonan column of a couple of years ago about Tillman's decision.
Do You Have a Bandsaw and Drill Press? Would You Like To Make Some Money With It?
I need someone who can drill 1/8th inch holes into a 2" diameter Delrin tube, and then cut that tube into 0.25" slices in between the holes. If you can do this accurately, and would like to make some money doing this, email me--there's an opportunity for both of us to make some money.
Astronomy Stuff (With Good News For American Manufacturing)
I mentioned a few days ago that I had purchased an 85mm eyepiece from Russell Optics in Arizona--and yes, they make them in America, they aren't just an importer. I received the eyepiece yesterday, and the sky was clear enough last night to make use of it.
My first impression of the eyepiece was not favorable--the body is made of Delrin, not metal, and the label is a little on the cheap side.
However, the use of Delrin means that the eyepiece weighs about seven ounces--really very light for a 2" diameter eyepiece. There are some monsters made by Televue that weigh a lot more than this, leading to astronomers talking about "Al Nagler's Hand Grenade."
Being a very low power eyepiece, it revealed that my diagonal was dirty, so I had to clean it. When I finally put the eyepiece into use last night, however, wow! I should be seeing something close to three degrees of sky with my refractor, and it was apparent that this was the case. The image of the Moon was breathtaking--and there were stars visible around the Moon--showing reasonably good light baffling in both the telescope and the eyepiece.
One problem that a lot of widefield eyepieces have is inconsistency across the field; objects at the edge require a slightly different focus than objects in the middle; there are often distortions at the edge of the field. The Russell 85mm exhibited none of these behaviors; objects at the edge were just as sharp as they were in the center of the eyepiece. This will make a fabulous dark sky eyepiece--as soon as I get a dark sky in which to use it. (I had a long conversation with the Boise streetlight engineer yesterday--perhaps I will blog about that soon.)
Best of all, this monstrous eyepiece cost me $70 with shipping. (He was having a sale this week--ordinarily it is $75.)
I also had a chance to use my 8" f/7 reflector, now that I have rings to mount it on my Losmandy mount (also American-made). Yes, this is a giant leap up from the Cave mount--although it still wouldn't hurt to knock a bit more weight off this telescope. I had a chance to show Saturn, Venus, Jupiter, and the Moon to a passing pedestrian with the reflector--and as these objects usually do, they absolutely dazzled him. Cassini's Division was easily visible, and perhaps because of my care in remounting the mirror during the recent rebuild, I had no problem seeing cloud bands on Saturn itself.
A Powerful Email About What Is Happening Iraq
Andrew Sullivan reproduces an email he received from a chaplain in Iraq who he knows and trusts. For those whose notion of military chaplains is Father Mulcahy in MASH, this is pretty startling in its level of political knowledge: A) Why is it in the news almost every night? Because it is one of the FEW places in all of Iraq where trouble exists. Iraq has 25 million people and is the size of California. Faluja and surrounding towns total 500,000 people. Do the math: that's not a big percentage of Iraq. How many people were murdered last night in L.A.? Did it make headline news? Why not?
Well worth reading in full.
B) Saddam could not and did not control Faluja. He bought off those he could, killed those he couldn't and played all leaders against one another. It was and is a 'difficult' town. Nothing new about that. What is new is that outside people have come in to stir up unrest. How many are there is classified, but let me tell you this: there are more people in the northeast Minneapolis gangs than there are causing havoc in Faluja. Surprised?
C) Then why does it get so much coverage? Because the major news outlets have camera crews permanently posted in Faluja. So, if you are from outside Iraq, and want to get air time for your cause, where would you go to terrorize, bomb, mutilate and destroy? Faluja.
Obviously, Andrew Sullivan and I don't agree on the gay marriage issue, but I do largely agree with him that Stanley Kurtz's criticisms of gay marriage based on what is happening to straight marriage in Scandinavia are not persuasive.
Who Says A Pretty Woman In The Picture Can't Sell Telescopes?
This ad on Astromart.com is offering an Astro-Physics refractor with a Losmandy GM-8 mount. I'm sure that the very pretty woman in the picture is just a coincidence.
Lightning Strike
There was a lightning strike close enough to the building in which I work to feel the shock wave. The tree it hit threw bark for hundreds of feet, and the trunk was split nearly to the ground. I'll put some pictures up this evening. The power of nature!
Treating HIV Like Other STDs
Well what you do you know? A California government is finally treating HIV like other sexually transmitted diseases, with mandatory reporting and tracing: Investigators for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services obtained on Wednesday a list of the legal names of 53 adult-movie actors who were known to have had sexual contact with two actors infected with the AIDS virus or with someone else who had sex with the two.
Talent? How much talent does it take to have breast implants, take your clothes off, and have sex?
The investigators obtained the list in a visit to a clinic in the San Fernando Valley that tests 1,200 adult-film performers a month for sexually transmitted diseases.
Health Department officials said the list of legal names, as opposed to stage names, would make it easier to track down both the actors and anyone outside the industry with whom they might have had sex.
Sharon Mitchell, the director of the clinic, which is run by the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation, said she had handed over the names only at the insistence of a pair of investigators.
"We're not happy about this," said Dr. Mitchell, a former adult-film actress who holds a master's degree in public health and a Ph.D. in human sexuality. "The legal names of our talent have always been held in the strictest confidentiality and privacy. We've been persuaded to cooperate."
Still, I suppose that we should consider this a positive sign. At one time, efforts to treat AIDS the same as other STDs led to protests and whining from the gay community about being stigmatized. The article also mentions: The focus on the San Fernando Valley's pornography industry, which is said to generate several billion dollars a year, comes on the heels of renewed efforts to regulate and monitor bathhouses where men meet to have sex, often anonymously. County officials were aghast last month when a study financed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 11 percent of customers at two bathhouses in Los Angeles tested positive for H.I.V. Officials are considering requiring testing at bathhouses for H.I.V. and other sexually transmitted diseases.
Hmmm. Ah yes, gay men are just like everyone else, except for who they love.
Dr. Fielding said that in a few weeks he would submit to the county's board of supervisors new recommendations for regulating bathhouses and sex clubs.
Another article repeats what I blogged about a few days ago: Roughly half of the actors in gay pornographic films are HIV positive, health officials estimate, but that reflects the population the actors are drawn from, not the practices on the films, according to producers and AIDS activists.
"For them to say 'The sky is falling, the sky is falling!' Well, it's not the case," Ged Kenslea of the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation said, referring to the producers who oppose condom use. "There may be an adjustment period, both culturally and from a business model, but in no way, shape or form should safer sex be the death knell to the industry."
But gay-film producers, a couple of whom met with county health officials Tuesday, concede that their experience points to another lesson as well: A consensus in favor of condom use is hard to maintain.
A small number of producers, catering to customers who eroticize risk, have begun to produce so-called "bareback" videos that feature actors without condoms. Industry insiders say this market — though still a niche — is growing in popularity.
Michael Moore Outsources
Drudge Report is reporting that www.michaelmoore.com is actually hosted and created by Canadian companies! So much for Michael Moore's concerns about American workers!
What Do Iraqis Think?
Here's an Iraqi blogger who talks about his feelings: Today is a special day for me, it's my birthday I woke up early, had many things to arrange, it was a lovely sunny day. One should enjoy looking at April flowers and not stay at home at all, and I will celebrate it just as I should.
Another blogger from Iraq reports on the accuracy of Arab media:
Then I heard the news; tens of people killed in terrorist attacks in Basra with many children among them. Omar, my brother, is still in Basra, and we were very worried and didn’t rest until we called a friend there to have some information about the attacks. We still haven’t heard from him, but that's because he doesn't have a telephone or access to the internet in the small town where he works, and we know that he doesn’t usually go downtown at such times.
This is my daily ‘routine’ thoughout 35 years; wars, meaningless death of innocent people, armed people terrorizing us, relatives and friends get killed or disappeared, close gunshot or explosions awaken me from sleeping, our laughs and talks get lost amid sounds of jetfighters in the sky and noise of tanks in street reminding me where I’m I and where I live. It seems that it’s not allowed for me to live a normal life like others do.
...
The hardest thing is that I have to fight more, and I will, but God, please give me the strength. Why should I be strong while watching others run away; Spain, Honduras, Thailand, human organizations, the UN and all the others who want (and it’s their right I must say) to avoid the dangers. But why did they disappoint us? Why abandon us in this moment when we really need them? Will they come back when conditions improve? Most likely, but who will need them then!!? We don’t need doctors and engineers. We have enough of those and large numbers of Iraqi doctor, teachers and engineers are working abroad. We do export minds, and some of those have returned and are doing their job and some are on their way back. We need political, financial and military support, and once we get rid of the terrorists, WE will show you what we can do, and we will not forget those who helped us, they will remain as friends and allies, that’s from a political point of view. As for me, they will remain as my real family, my brothers and sisters.
...
Others ask me to demonstrate and show my support to the coalition. Ok I’m with the coalition but I can’t do it my friends. I’m surrounded by armed criminals who wouldn’t hesitate for a minute before shooting me for just speaking out, yet I do speak, and not only on this page.
You, there in the free world, cannot witness against criminals without witness protection programs. We have nothing of this. Just under trained and half corrupted policemen and few newly graduated army soldiers and the law system, we inherited from Saddam and haven’t really changed it yet, is far from being efficient.
Why do others get discouraged easily? Don’t mistake me. I’m upset but will NEVER run away like some people did.
I wasn’t like this before. I was afraid most of the time. I have always looked for safety above all. I lost faith in the whole world and I wasn’t ready at all to make the slightest sacrifice for the sake of others. I was trying to leave my country and find a better job in a safe place, BUT, The brave solders (who don’t hold shares at Halliburton or Bechtel) who crossed seas and oceans and came to my country to fight for our freedom -and don’t anyone dare say the opposite, as I met so many of these soldiers and had hundreds of letters from them and there families and I know their motives; they fight for their country’s safety and for our freedom and they are proud of what they are doing- gave me the faith and showed me that man should not care only about himself, his family or his country, these are not enough to make a human being. These guys are MUCH better than me because I have to fight for my issue and they fight for me. They deserve the respect of the world and so do the people who support them. They always give me hope to go on no matter how difficult it seems.Arab satellite channels reported today that Al-Mustansiriyah university was under siege by US troops. We have a neighbour who is a professor there, so as expected we raced to his house when we had heard about it. We congratulated him for his safety, but he looked significantly surprised and asked us what was up? We told him about the siege. He chuckled at us and said "Oh, you mean that". It turned out there was no siege at all, there was an American patrol in the vicinity of the university, and they had witnessed someone climbing on the clock tower trying to paste a large poster of Muqtada Al-Sadr. The patrol called for backup, entered the campus and hollered for the fellow to come down. They teared the poster and removed a few others close to the university's main entry gates. According to our friend, the whole process didn't take any more than 20 minutes. Just to show how the Arab media conveniently distort events.
And yet another Iraqi blogger:
...
It is becoming increasingly evident from all the violence we have witnessed over the last year, that a proxy war is being waged against the US on Iraqi soil by several countries and powers with Iraqis as the fuel and the fire, just like Lebanon was during the late seventies and eighties. The majority of Arab regimes have a huge interest in this situation continuing, not to mention Iran, and Al-Qaeda. I am not trying, of course, to lift the blame from Iraqis, because if Iraqis were not so divided the way they are, these powers would have never succeeded. I never thought that Iraqis would be so self-destructive, I thought that they had enough of that. But with each new day I am more and more convinced that we need our own civil war to sort it all out. It might take another 5, 10, or even 20 years, and hundreds of thousands more dead Iraqis but I believe it would be inevitable.All problems we have these days are the heavy armed gangs who tries to terrorize people for political reasons or just for money, and the good thing that the majority of Iraqis knows that fact and trying to reduce it by all means. And the speeches of our new internal affairs minister are very encouraging.
And the previous day:
I do like Iraq of these days and I am sure that we are going to be a peaceful advanced civilized nation again. And that wouldn’t be true without the help of the coalition and all the patriotic Iraqis who are cooperating to make our wishes and hopes to come true. I hope the prosperity we are going to gain is enough to make us and the coalition to forget about all the dark days we have been through and make us all remember those who gave their lives for that with pride and make us feel that their souls wasn’t for nothing. Being ungrateful is not a habit in Iraqi personality and time will prove that. I didn’t think that I will need to publish any thing today after the normal day we had in Baghdad yesterday. But when I took a drive in Baghdad today I had to tell you what I saw, and I think it’s important to tell you that Baghdad today was more normal, more crowded, more traffic jammed than ever……. Just like the people were imprisoned home for few days ago and they were trying to make it up for them selves. Schools were opened also universities and ministries offices, proud IPs every where to secure people. And if I have to tell you about the electricity devices market in Karada, then we won’t finish till tomorrow. I haven’t seen it so crowded all my life.
I am really proud with Iraqi people, because they can’t hate each other for the few days passed then they go to work as usual, it was a real harmony, it really proves they didn’t accept the actions of the terrorists took place in Iraq all the passed week. And it proves that we won’t need much time to rebuild the beloved country of ours. We are ready to start again and again till we find a real prosperity to live in.
I am sorry for our losses and casualties all over the country, and really hope it will be the last to happen and our people to live in peace from now on. And I really give many thanks to the Governing Council members and the parties and tribes they represents and to all other Iraqi parties and people who courageously took the initiative to calm down the fight between the coalition forces and the other involved fighting groups. I hope at last they all came to reason.
We can still hear and see some blown ups as the one I saw in Jadiriyah targeting Saeed Abdulazeez Alhakeem ( GC member) and another in Ameriyah targeting an American convoy. But I assure you those are only the tail of trouble makers and they will stop soon.
More On Hate Crime Hoaxes
Interesting article about the prevalence of hate crime hoaxes on college campuses: More than 20 hate crime hoaxes have been suspected or confirmed at college campuses nationwide in the past seven years as students draw on the socially conscious atmosphere of a college campus to perpetrate their fraud.
Obviously, these aren't all manufactured for political reasons--some people just want a new roommate--but it does make people understandably skeptical.
"A person who is a victim of a hate crime can probably expect to get almost universal sympathy on a college campus. Out in the world at large, that's not necessarily true," said Mark Potok, who has researched hate crime for the Southern Poverty Law Center.
"But on a college campus, you are very likely to get the support of the administration, the faculty and virtually all the students. It tends to put you in the limelight very quickly."
...
At least 20 cases of suspected or confirmed hoaxes have occurred since 1997 nationwide -- and many may go unnoticed, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Several researchers also said the liberal atmosphere at many of the nation's colleges creates an environment ripe for deception.
"There's the preconception that if a charge is made, it's true," said John Perazzo, author of "The Myths that Divide Us." "One common thread running through many such incidents is the accuser's sense of victimhood."
Sometimes hoaxes are staged for what seem like relatively trivial reasons. A San Francisco State student, Allison Jackson, now 21, reported to police in September that someone wrote a racial slur on a dorm room door.
After being confronted with a handwriting analysis, Jackson said she faked the incident, according to a campus police report, because she wanted "a roommate change" and housing officials were taking too long to respond.
Jackson, who is black, wrote on the door, she told police, "because that was the drastic event that was going to get us moved."
...
Actual or suspected hoaxes can have lingering effects.
At Miami University in Ohio, a display of racist and homophobic fliers six years ago -- a suspected hoax that was never solved -- still bothers President James C. Garland. People come away believing that "racial incidents and race relations are really not an issue, that it's all a trumped-up hoax or manufactured to make political points," he said.
"From My Cold, Dead Fingers" In Eighteenth Century Form
In American Archives, 4th series, 3:912, Major William Williams reports back to the New York Committee of Safety about his attempts to disarm Tories in Jamaica and Hempstead: The people conceal all their arms that are of any value; many declare they know nothing about the Congress; and say that they would sooner lose their lives, than give up their arms, and that they would blow any man's brains out that should attempt to take them from them.
Just Found Another 550 Muskets
Those poor colonial Americans--desperately short of guns. I keep finding more and more records that show that guns weren't spectacularly expensive, and there were lots of them. At American Archives, 4th series, 4:882 is a September 7, 1775 report of the New York Committee of Safety: Mr. James Beekman brought into the Committee a Certificate, signed by Isaac Stoutenburgh, certifying that five hundred and twenty-two Muskets, belonging to the Corporation of this City, were taken out of the City-Hall, and twenty-eight Muskets left at Mr. Isaac Stoutenburgh's were also taken by sundry persons, at the time of receiving the account of Lexington battle. The each of the said Muskets, with their Accoutrements, were well worth three Pounds five Shillings.
Now, that's New York currency; converting to pounds sterling, that's the equivalent of 1 pound, 17 shillings, and 11 pence. Not cheap, but not hideously expensive, either. Not surprisingly, New York patriots knew better than to leave guns around where irresponsible sorts (such as the royal governor) might be able to get hold of them!
An Interesting Argument Against Late Abortions
This by Eric Scheie over at Classical Values. I am always frustrated at how pro-choice fanatics insist on portraying any opposition to abortion as being either some form of Christian fascism or "sex is naughty, you must be punished" reasoning. There are a lot of opponents to unrestricted abortion like Eric who are not Christians, and certainly not members of the blue nose brigade. (Eric is gay, but seems to understand that the privacy defense implies that a bit of discretion in how you live your life is wise.)
The Ultimate Insult to East Germany
I can't imagine anything more insulting than this for a communist state: A western German businessman who bought the rights to the official emblem of communist East Germany defended his move Tuesday, saying critics were jealous they hadn't thought of it before he did.
The rest of the article talks about nostalgia for the good old days of East Germany. I am sure that this explains much of recent German hostility towards the U.S.
Manfred Jansen paid the German patent office $330 for the right to demand royalties from anyone who puts the emblem -- a hammer and compass set into a wreath of rye -- on T-shirts, cigarette lighters, belts and a host of other products.
"I'm just a businessman with an agency dealing in nice logos. I have no political motives," Jansen told Reuters as news of his purchase sparked criticism that he had no right to cash in on a national symbol.
Jansen said even though no one can claim a patent on emblems of countries that still exist, there was no such protection for the emblems of defunct states, such as East Germany, which vanished with German unification in 1990.
"I have good friends from the east and we laugh about this," Jansen said. "I'm sure there are people in the east who would have done the same thing if they had had the idea."
The Terrorists Must Be So Proud
From AP: BASRA, Iraq (AP) - Five suicide attackers detonated car bombs against police buildings during rush hour Wednesday, killing 68 people, including kindergartners and middle school girls burned to death in their passing school buses.
You know, I can understand why fanatics might see the presence of infidels in their country as a bad thing, and attack Coalition soldiers. I can see why Baathists, upset about losing their good jobs as torturers and thugs, or fearful of prosecution for their crimes, would want to attack Coalition soldiers and Iraqis working for them. I could admire their courage in fighting Coalition soldiers face to face, even if it was courage in support of a misplaced goal.
This sort of savagery, burning children to death--this is just cowardly evil. Even if there were no U.S. interest in a democratic Iraq, there is a strong argument that monsters like this need to be locked up forever, or wiped off the face of the Earth.
USA Network recently ran a remake of Spartacus. In some ways, it was superior to the version with Kirk Douglas. Kirk Douglas's acting left much to be desired, and the writing was definitely better. While neither version is going to win any awards for historical accuracy, the new version is definitely better, showing that Spartacus's slave army was often not morally that much superior to the Roman society it rebelled against.
One startling and discordant tone: in the remake, Marcus Crassus, who is clearly an evil, power-mad guy, keeps giving George Bush's speeches: "You are either with us, or against us." Crassus refers to Spartacus's army as terrorists. He keeps talking about Rome's Founding Fathers--which I am pretty sure is not a term that a Roman would have used.
Now, I know that in Hollywood, bin Laden is something of a hero--because anyone that George Bush is against must be a good guy. It was still pretty bizarre.
Sorry for the Lack of Activity Here
I've spent the last several evenings digging through American Archives, verifying some Revolutionary War firearms purchase records--and finding some that I missed on the first time through. As of last night, I have found either purchases or appraisals of 720 "guns" "fire-arms" or "small-arms" just in Massachusetts in the first few months of the Revolutionary War. I have reason to believe that nearly all the "small-arms" are actually guns; the average price difference between those that are explicitly guns and those that are "small-arms" is about one pence sterling, where the average prices are one pound, thirteen shillings.
Rain & Memories
My wife and I went for a walk yesterday evening, and what started as a few occasional drops pretty soon became a pouring, wind-driven rain. For some odd reason it brought back a very nostalgic memory of junior high.
Most of the time I took the bus home from Lincoln Junior High in Santa Monica. I would walk a block down to 14th Avenue and Wilshire Blvd., and catch the #2 bus down to Berkeley and Wilshire, then walk four blocks south to my home. But sometimes on days when it was raining cats and dogs (and yes, even in Southern California, this occasionally happens), my older sister Marilyn would drive over and pick me up in front of Lincoln. When I got home, there would be cinnamon rolls in the oven. At the time I appreciated it--and in retrospect, the memories are even warmer.
Where Ideology Takes You
An interesting quote in an Ann Coulter column. Assuming that the quote is accurate, it suggests where you go when ideology takes precedence over common sense: Last week, 9/11 commissioner John Lehman revealed that "it was the policy (before 9/11) and I believe remains the policy today to fine airlines if they have more than two young Arab males in secondary questioning because that's discriminatory." Hmmm ... Is 19 more than two? Why, yes, I believe it is. So if two Jordanian cab drivers are searched before boarding a flight out of Newark, Osama bin Laden could then board that plane without being questioned. I'm no security expert, but I'm pretty sure this gives terrorists an opening for an attack.
The next part of Coulter's essay, however, I have no question is correct:
In a sane world, Lehman's statement would have made headlines across the country the next day. But not one newspaper, magazine or TV show has mentioned that it is official government policy to prohibit searching more than two Arabs per flight.Meanwhile, another 9/11 commissioner, the greasy Richard Ben-Veniste, claimed to be outraged that the CIA did not immediately give intelligence on 9/11 hijackers Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almihdhar to the FBI. As we now know -- or rather, I alone know because I'm the only person in America watching the 9/11 hearings -- Ben-Veniste should have asked his fellow commissioner Jamie Gorelick about that.
Well, that's a bit much. Gorelick's misguided policies probably made sense to her, and to others, in 1995. We paid a high price for that honest mistake. I notice that a lot of leftists and liberals want to repeal the Patriot Act in full. Doing so would restore the wall that played a major part in causing these intelligence failures.
In his testimony this week, John Ashcroft explained that the FBI wasn't even told Almihdhar and Alhazmi were in the country until weeks before the 9/11 attack -- because of Justice Department guidelines put into place in 1995. The FBI wasn't allowed to put al-Qaida specialists on the hunt for Almihdhar and Alhazmi –- because of Justice Department guidelines put into place in 1995. Indeed, the FBI couldn't get a warrant to search Zacarias Moussaoui's computer -- because of Justice Department guidelines put into place in 1995.
The famed 1995 guidelines were set forth in a classified memorandum written by the then-deputy attorney general titled "Instructions for Separation of Certain Foreign Counterintelligence and Criminal Investigations," which imposed a "draconian" wall between counterintelligence and criminal investigations.
What Ashcroft said next was breathtaking. Prohibited from mounting a serious search for Almihdhar and Alhazmi, an irritated FBI investigator wrote to FBI headquarters, warning that someone would die because of these policies -- "since the biggest threat to us, OBL (Osama bin Laden), is getting the most protection."
FBI headquarters responded: "We're all frustrated with this issue. These are the rules. NSLU (National Security Law Unit) does not make them up. But somebody did make these rules. Somebody built this wall."
The person who built that wall described in the infamous 1995 memo, Ashcroft said, "is a member of the commission." If this were an episode of "Matlock," the camera would slowly pan away from Ashcroft's face at this point and then quickly jump to an extreme close-up of Jamie Gorelick's horrified expression. Armed marshals would then escort the kicking, screaming Gorelick away in leg irons as the closing credits rolled. Gorelick was the deputy attorney general in 1995.
An HPV Vaccine Coming?
This report indicates that Merck is in phase III trials. I hope so. But I've talked to homosexuals who regarded STDs (in the late 1970s) as just a minor nuisance--something you get penicillin for--and so it didn't make them stop and think about the consequences of their actions.
Another One Of Those Examples Of Why Guns Are Sometimes Useful: And Why Drugs Are Bad For You
From the Kansas City Star (registration required): ST. LOUIS - A woman using her son's baseball bat fatally beat an intruder who forced his way into her duplex and attacked her sister while he was clad only in socks, police said.
Or he ran out of change for the laundromat--what do you think?
"I asked him, 'Who are you and what do you want?' The only thing he said was, 'I'm dead. I'm dead," Gwen Herndon, 56, said after being attacked about 1:30 a.m. Sunday before her sister, 41-year-old Rochelle Edwards, intervened.
Edwards was not charged in the death of Timothy Turner, a 29-year-old man investigators suspect was under the influence of drugs.Turner's criminal record included arrests on suspicion of burglary, assault, gun charges, forgery and trespassing, police said. He also had a robbery conviction.
According to police and Herndon, Edwards heard a man banging on her door and leaned on the door to keep it closed, hoping to keep the man at bay. Herndon, her sister's neighbor in the duplex, heard the commotion, opened her front door, and retreated into her living room moments before the attacker grabbed her around the legs.
"I kept screaming, " Herndon said.
Edwards then entered, bat in hand.
"We're peaceful people, calm people," Herndon said after she spent much of Sunday cleaning up Turner's blood. "You ask yourself, 'Why does something like this happen?'"
Some Ideas Never Go Out of Fashion
It is only how they are expressed that changes. A resolution of the South Carolina Provincial Congress, January 17, 1775, found at American Archives, 4th series, vol. 1, p. 1118: Resolved, That it be recommended by this Congress, to all the inhabitants of this Colony, that they be dligently attentive in learning the use of Ar ms; and that their officers be requested to train and exercise them at least once a fortnight.
Vote unanimously by the New Hampshire Provincial Congress on May 19, 1775:
Resolved, That it be recommended to the inhabitants of this Colony, to set apart Friday, the 17th February next, as a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer, before Almighty God, devoutly to petition him to inspire the King with true wisdom, to defend the people of North America in their just title to freedom, and to avert from them the impending calamities of civil war.
Resolved, That the several Ministers of the Gospel throughout the Colony be requested to prepare and deliver suitable discourses upon this solemn occasion.
Resolved, That every Member of the present Congress who may be in Town, do meet at the Commons House of Assembly, and proceed from thence in a body, to attend divine service in St. Philip's Church; and that the President do request of the Rev. Mr. Robert Smith, that he will prepare, and preach on that day, a Sermon suitable to the importance of the occasion.That in these times of general distress, it is recommended to the inhabitants of this Province, that they encourage all Religious Worship, and that they, by all means, discountenance all manner of vice, and especially the profanation of the Sabbath, which is and has been a growing evil, and that all officers exert themselves for the above purpose.
Discrimination Based On Sexual Orientation!
I don't find this story hard to believe, since I've seen jobs advertised "gay or bi preferred": KEY WEST, Fla. -- Three heterosexual couples said they were turned away from a hotel in this gay-friendly tourist destination because of their sexual orientation, which would violate city law.
UPDATE: Just to be clear on this: I would be offended at not being told in advance about this policy, and I think you could even make a good case that Big Ruby's should be financially responsible for the inconvenience that they caused these guests by kicking them out after one night. I do think it is completely legitimate for a business to discriminate based on sexual orientation--as long as that right swings both ways.
The six were vacationing with a gay couple and had reservations at Big Ruby's in downtown Key West when the three straight couples were turned away.
"The manager literally said, 'We don't want you here,"' said Jim Pirih, who had vacationed at Big Ruby's last year with his partner, Jason Williams.
The group, most of whom are from San Diego, was already settled in their rooms Wednesday when the manager told the straight couples they would have to leave, citing a policy of not allowing heterosexuals on the property, Pirih said.
"He said he had to appeal to the majority, and the majority of guests wouldn't want straight people there," Pirih said.
The six were allowed to stay one night, but had to check out Thursday morning and were told they wouldn't be compensated for the inconvenience, Pirih said.
I have talked to people who had the misfortune to book a bed and breakfast where they were the only straight couple present--it was a bit disconcerting. I do not find it hard to believe that some homosexual couples might be uncomfortable having straight people around them during a romantic weekend. I have stayed in a bed and breakfast where the innkeeper clearly did not want the lesbian couple to join the rest of us for breakfast--although she was careful not to say anything that might have led to legal action. It is unfortunate that an innkeeper has to watch what they put in print on this, however, for fear of lawsuit.
And no, the analogy to racial discrimination in public accommodations just doesn't fly. In the abstract, I don't see that the government should be in the business of telling private businesses with whom they must do business. I don't disagree with the Constitutional justification of it in Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. U.S. (1964).
In a free market, there's no reason for such discrimination to be common. In practice, racial discrimination in public accommodations was widespread because many governments required it, reinforcing racial prejudices that would have been there anyway, and punishing businesses that put profits above racial discrimination. I suppose that you could regard public accommodations laws as excessive governmental power balancing another excessive governmental power.
When you check into a hotel, no one knows that you are gay--unless you make a big point of letting the innkeeper know it. The same isn't true with respect to race. There was a time, not that many years ago, when cheapskate IBM expected its salesguys to share a hotel room. I've shared hotel rooms with other guys, and I don't think anyone made any assumptions based on that.
The Oklahoma City Bombing Case
Warning: This just gets uglier and uglier--and some of the trial testimony below about spare legs is pretty unpleasant. There's nothing romantic about what happens when you blow up a building. It now appears that the Secret Service had security camera video of the Ryder truck that was never made available to the defense, and there seems to be another person involved besides McVeigh: An entry a day earlier on the same log reported that the security video was consistent with a witness' account that he saw McVeigh's getaway car in the lead before a woman guided the truck to its final parking spot in front of the Murrah building.
One of the ugly aspects to this whole matter is that there has been a spare leg left over from the bombing for some time:
"A witness to the explosion named Grossman claimed to have seen a pale yellow Mercury car with a Ryder truck behind it pulling up to the federal building," the log said. The witness "further claimed to have seen a woman on the corner waving to the truck."
A Secret Service agent named McNally "noted that this fact is significant due to the fact that the security video shows the Ryder truck pulling up to the Federal Building and then pausing (7 to 10 seconds) before resuming into the slot in front of the building," the log said. "It is speculated that the woman was signaling the truck when a slot became available." Q. Would you tell me, please, how large P71 is.
The defense brought forth an expert witness who testified that this spare leg might have been someone who at the scene of the bombing--and the rest was vaporized. This particular expert witness has published work about an IRA bombing which left remains of eight men--and nine penises. From the testimony of Dr. Thomas Marshall, State Pathologist for Northern Ireland:
A. P71 weighs a little over 8 kilograms, and I believe it was 16 inches. I -- that might not be absolutely correct, but it involves the lower part of the thigh, the leg itself, and the foot.
Q. All right. So it is below the knee?
A. No, just above the knee.
Q. I'm sorry. Just above the knee?
A. Just above the knee.
Q. And you said it weighed how much?
A. I think it was a little over 8 kilograms.
Q. And what would that be in pounds?
A. If we multiplied by 2.2, it would come out to perhaps 18 pounds, or something.
...
Q. And Ms. -- and the -- I don't want to mention the person's name, but the person who was buried without the leg -- that leg has still not been recovered?
A. The person buried without the leg --
Q. Not talking about the person that we exchanged legs with, but the other person -- you know who I'm talking about --
A. Oh, yes.
Q. -- that was buried without a leg? That leg has never been recovered?
A. That's right. We have one buried without a leg that we have never recovered a leg for. That's correct.
Q. Now, you have done some examination and testing and work on the leg that you have as P71?
A. That's correct.
Q. Based on the work that you've done, you believe that leg belongs to a female?
A. We don't have any good scientific evidence to prove that at this point yet, but that is the impression that Dr. Balding and I have. But it's an impression; it's not a scientifically quantifiable thing.
Q. I understand. And you've also measured the bones in the leg, this P71?
A. That's correct.
Q. And based on the measurement of the bones, can a scientist such as yourself estimate the height of the person that the leg belongs to?
A. Yes.
Q. And have you done that?
A. We -- yes. We took the measurements of the bones done by an anthropologist and looked at the tibia and put it into standard formulas that you can look up, and it comes out to be about 5' 4" to 5' 6" maximally. It depends on whether it turns out to be male or female, black or white as to what statistically one would expect the height to be, but it's short.
Q. A relatively short person?
A. If it's a woman, it's not too short. If it's a man, it probably is. [OKC Bombing Trial Transcript - 05/22/1997 15:24 CDT/CST]Q. Based on your review of the forensic medical evidence in this case which you have reviewed, have you drawn a conclusion concerning P71?
Perhaps the leg described as P71 is all that is left of the woman on the video.
A. I have.
Q. And what is that conclusion?
A. The conclusion is that this is an extra left leg.
Q. Which the ultimate result of that is what?
A. The -- until shown otherwise, this must be an extra victim.
Q. 169th victim?
A. 169th victim.
Q. Do you have an opinion concerning the proximity of the 169th victim to the bomb truck?
A. It falls into the category of finding a portion of the body and nothing else that is identifiable.
Q. What is the significance of that to you?
A. To be disintegrated so completely, you have to be near the bomb.
...
Q. What would happen if a person were standing close to the bomb site but a portion of the body was shielded in some way?
A. Well, this is one way in which a part of the body could remain intact and the rest of the body disappear.
Q. Can you give an example of that?
A. Well, there's a case I -- I've published that -- where a bomb went off as a terrorist carried it into a shed, and eight people were killed and others were injured. And as we were doing the eighth autopsy, our attention was drawn to some parts of body -- unidentifiable parts, little bits of muscle and skin which had been collected into a -- a bag. And at the end of the eight autopsies, I started to examine this, and most of it was quite unidentifiable apart from saying this is a strip of skin and that's a bit of muscle. But in and amongst this, I eventually came across a penis, and none of the eight bodies had lost a penis and neither had any of the injured; and the only conclusion was that that was a ninth victim. And the only conclusion was that he was carrying -- touching the bomb when it went off to be so badly disintegrated. [OKC Bombing Trial Transcript - 05/22/1997 21:09 CDT/CST]
How much else did the prosecution suppress in their effort to keep this case neat and tidy?
UPDATE: A number of people have linked to this because of Instapundit doing so; Classical Values has done a bunch of searching to fill in some more details about the leg question.
Condom Effectiveness
I've mentioned before that condoms are not an adequate protection against HPV. Michael Williams points to a website touting the advantages of condoms--and without question, they are safer than unprotected sex--but points out that the risks are still so high that no rational person should rely on condoms unless they are prepared for the consequences of failure: pregnancy; HIV; and HPV: With typical use, 14 percent of women relying only on the male condom, and 21 percent relying only on the female condom, will experience unintended pregnancy within one year. With perfect use (meaning couples make no errors in the way they use the condoms and also use condoms consistently at every act of sexual intercourse), only five percent of women relying on the male condom, and three percent on the female condom, will experience unintended pregnancy within one year.
I can tell you that even with perfect use, condoms fail. I have experienced it myself; I also know a couple whose marriage plans were accelerated by a condom failure. Fortunately, the worst that happened to them is a baby, an earlier than planned marriage, and a somewhat longer degree completion. Let me hasten to add that I think it is a very good idea to wait a couple of years after marriage before having kids; my wife I spent three years being a happy, unrestricted married couple before starting on kids. I think adding the stress of children to a marriage too early is not wise.
By comparison, 85 percent of women relying on no method of contraception will experience pregnancy within one year.[footnotes deleted]
Relying on condoms for protection against STDs--especially lifelong or life-ending STDs--can be a lot worse: In a two-year study of sero-discordant couples (in which one partner was HIV-positive and one was HIV-negative), no uninfected partner became infected among couples using condoms correctly and consistently at every act of sexual intercourse (vaginal or anal). In another study, two percent of such partners became infected after using condoms consistently over two years. Among couples who used condoms inconsistently, 10 and 12 percent of uninfected partners, respectively, became infected. [footnotes deleted]
So condoms help--but a 2% infection rate with HIV is playing Russian Roulette with a revolver that has 50 chambers.
Other Anniversaries Today, A Lot More Somber Than Lexington and Concord
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began today in 1943: On April 19, 1943, the Warsaw ghetto uprising began after German troops and police entered the ghetto to deport its surviving inhabitants. Seven hundred and fifty fighters fought the heavily armed and well-trained Germans. The ghetto fighters were able to hold out for nearly a month, but on May 16, 1943, the revolt ended.
This revolt started with a handful of rifles and few dozen handguns. Imagine what might have happened if the Jews of Warsaw had been as well armed as the average American!
Today in 1993, the FBI attacked the Waco compound of David Koresh and his followers. By the time it was over, 80 people were dead. There remains considerable dispute about exactly what happened, because so much evidence was intentionally destroyed or "lost" by the FBI in the aftermath. Let me recommend Dave Kopel and Paul Blackman, No More Wacos: What's Wrong with Federal Law Enforcement, and How to Fix Itand Waco: The Rules of Engagement for some sobering, eye-opening, very depressing evidence of at least a cover-up of negligence by federal officials, if not intentional murder.
Today in 1995, Timothy McVeigh and others (perhaps many others) blew up the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in retaliation. This event murdered at least 168 completely innocent parties--without killing the BATF agents that McVeigh apparently sought to kill, because they were conveniently out of the building that morning. Gandhi is reputed to have said, "An eye for an eye will blind the world." That describes what happened that morning perfectly. It also rejuvenated Bill Clinton's sagging presidency, and discredited the emerging conservative/libertarian alliance against the police state. My comments on what happened that day--and the lessons to be learned from it--are here.
Soccer At The North Pole
From Reuters: LONDON (Reuters) - Two nuclear submarines, one British and one American, surfaced near the North Pole on Monday for an impromptu game of soccer, Britain's Royal Navy said.
The two vessels surfaced through two naturally occurring gaps in the ice about half a mile from each other after completing a joint underwater exercise.
"The crews of HMS Tireless and USS Hampton are gearing up for a game of football," Commander John Parris said.
"It will probably be English football (soccer) since I doubt our lot know much about playing American football," Parris told Reuters from Portsmouth in southern England. "I expect there will also be the mother of all snowball fights."
Canada's Attempts to Suppress Free Speech
David Bernstein has a very thoughtful essay about Canadian efforts to suppress free speech about homosexuality, responding to this blogger who believes in free speech--except when it involves disapproving of homosexuality. It is true that if you despise homosexuality, and if you want to freely express that view, especially on religious grounds, you're better off in the U.S. It's also true that if you're skeptical about U.S. motives in Iraq (and elsewhere) and think the invasion was on a par, morally, with the Soviet invasion of Aghanistan; if you believe nationalized health care is preferable to a system which caters to the needs of the insurance industry; if you think redistributive taxation is a requirement of justice; if, in short, you dissent from the neoliberal paradigm and chauvinist nationalism that dominate the public sphere in the United States, you will have far more freedom of speech in Canada: for example, your views might be expressible outside your living room, perhaps, say, in major newspapers, or even on television.
In short, Brian Leiter believes in free speech to oppose U.S. foreign policy, but he doesn't support free speech in general. Amusingly, he thinks that these ideas of his aren't "expressible outside your living room" and would not appear in major newspapers or on television in America. This tells me that Leitner doesn't watch television or read major newspapers, or he would know that all the ideas that he expresses are widely expressed in major newspapers and on television in the U.S.
But how could this compare to the right to declare homosexuality a moral disorder based on divine revelation? Any country that wouldn't allow that would clearly have left the bosom of human liberty.
Bernstein points out: (1) It's a fallacy to assume that speech restrictions are motivated primarily by moral rather than political considerations. It's a fallacy to assume that law in general is motivated by moral rather than political considerations. Right now, gays and others have sufficient political power in Canada to achieve protection from their critics. Who and what gets silenced next depends not on Canada's level of civilization, but on what groups manage to organize themselves into powerful lobbies with the strength to get politicians to silence their enemies.
This is the problem with the current liberal and leftist focus on suppressing speech of which they don't approve--while claiming to be advocates of free speech. They do not believe in freedom of speech itself; they just want to control which ideas the government suppresses.
(2) Brian's post reveals one of the major differences between libertarians and our friends on the left: libertarians tend to believe that the government cannot be trusted with too much power, whereas leftists tend to believe that the wrong people cannot be trusted with too much power. They put their faith in politics to put the right people in power. But, even if you are sure you know who the right people are, how can you predict in advance whether the right people will be in power in the future? The genius of the Framers of the American Constitution was to establish a system of government that assumed the untrustworthiness of whomever would take power in the future, with a system of checks and balances and constitutional restraints to limit their power. Much of this system no longer exists, but the First Amendment preserves the ideal of limiting government authority in the sphere of communication.
Jamie Gorelick Investigates Self, Finds Herself Not A Contributor to 9/11
That's the only way that I can read this column by her in the Washington Post that seeks to spread the blame around for creating the wall that prohibited different branches of the FBI from sharing information about terrorists. This particular sentence gave me quite a laugh: Sept. 11 united this country in shock and grief; the lessons from it must be learned in a spirit of unity, not of partisan rancor.
Yeah, right. It's pretty clear that there is plenty of blame to go around, and I don't necessarily fault Ms. Gorelick for the 1995 memo that set up a wall higher than the law required. I'm sure that her motivations were to protect civil liberties from the abuses of the Nixon era. But there is something unseemly about an architect of what went wrong being on the commission investigating what went wrong.
UPDATE: Here's an article by a former federal prosecutor who says that Gorelick is not playing completely straight about this.
Here's Your Chance To Catch Diseases That Will Haunt You For The Rest of Your (Perhaps Short) Life
From Reuters: "Toothing" is a new craze where strangers on trains, buses, in bars and even supermarkets hook up for illicit meetings using messages sent via the latest in phone technology.
This makes the sexual excesses of the Disco Era seem positively romantic and quaint.
"Toothing is a form of anonymous sex with strangers -- usually on some form of transport or enclosed area such as a conference or training seminar," says the "Beginner's Guide To Toothing" on a Web site dedicated to the pursuit.
It is made possible by Bluetooth technology which allows users to send phone contacts, pictures and messages to other Bluetooth-enabled equipment over a range of about 10 metres (yards).
Users discovered they could send anonymous messages to people they didn't know with Bluetooth equipment, spawning a craze dubbed "bluejacking".
Jon, aka "Toothy Toothing" and the guide's author, explained toothing was born after he was "bluejacked" by an unknown girl while commuting to work in London. After a few days of flirting, she suggested a brief encounter in a station lavatory.
"The meeting wasn't a romantic thing -- it was purely sexual. Barely anything was said," he told Reuters via e-mail.
He said potential toothers begin by sending out a random greeting -- usually "Toothing?".
"If the other party is interested, messages are exchanged until a suitable location is agreed -- usually a public toilet, although there are tales of more adventurous spots such as deserted carriages or staff areas," his guide adds.
The Rising
Today is the 229th anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord--usually regarded as the opening of the American Revolution. Remember that the proximate cause of this battle was the attempt of the British Army to confiscate arms and ammunition from a bunch of what the British government seemed to think were tax protestors. Yes, they were that, but there were larger issues involved than just taxes--issues such as the authority of the voters to pass their own laws, and to protect colonists from being dragged across the ocean to be tried in England for crimes committed in America.
Every April 19th, I encourage Americans to read this. This is how American history used to be written. It is a chapter from George Bancroft, History of the United States of America from the Discovery of the Continent (New York: 1886), vol. 4, chapter 9. It's patriotic in a way that no historian would write today. Is it good history? Not really--at least in the nuanced, carefully balanced way that we write history today. But it's rousing stuff, and I like it.
More On The HIV+ Porn Industry Problem
A reader points me to coverage of the story with this telling line: James, the first porn actor to test positive for the virus since 1999, had a “stellar record” of tests — negative every three weeks for the past seven years, she said.
As my reader observed: "In other news, hitting yourself in the head with a hammer really does hurt."
Mitchell said James may have contracted the virus about four weeks ago while filming in Brazil on a “non-condom” set.
The Los Angeles-based industry, which normally films three to four films a day, must now wait 60 days to learn whether the deadly virus spread to 14 actresses who had onscreen sex with James, or to the 35 sex partners the women subsequently had.
It would be stupid to have unprotected sex with a person that don't know well, even if you are a porn star. But having unprotected sex with someone who gets paid to have sex with strangers? This is beyond stupid.
UPDATE: A reader asks how Darren James caught AIDS--since men normally catch AIDS from sharing needles or being the recipient of sex with a man. A man can catch AIDS from heterosexual sex, but from what I have read, this is quite a bit more difficult. Sure enough, Darren James does make gay porn (definitely not a work-safe link). However, this gay porn news site (very, very definitely not work-safe, with advertising on it showing two men having sex) reports: Yes, people sero-convert every day and it's sad that anyone should catch the disease. Darren James assumes that he contracted the disease from unprotected sex with a woman in Rio March 10, and has worked with up to twelve porn actresses since that date.
Well, maybe. But you will forgive my skepticism?
UPDATE 2: Another reader describes himself as I'm a libertarian. I'm pro-gay marriage. I'm comfortable with people having diverse sexual morals. I don't mind having a diverse and thriving porn industry, and have even been known to partake of its wares from time to time.
But he expresses his shock and amazement at this item that he found on the subject (April 14th entry, no permalink and way, way not work-safe--pictures of hardcore sex): About 50% of the performers I know in the gay porn genre are infected with HIV. Do we stop them from working? Do we splash it all over the front pages of every adult news medium? No. We slap a condom on them, tell them we love them, and say, “Get back to work.”
UPDATE 3: Another reader points me to a blog that has no pictures, but the very graphic description of how Lara Roxx was exposed to AIDS is not fit family reading. The cleaned up summary is that Lara Roxx was an 18 year old who arrived by bus ticket from Canada, hoped to make a quick killing in the porn industry, and then go home rich. The sexual acts in which she engaged were about as risky as a woman can take, short of sharing a dirty needle with an HIV+. This particular blog is by a guy who makes independent (not porn) films, and generally hates government regulation of the film industry--but thinks that this is the sort of abuse of innocent and ignorant people that calls for it.
...
I’ve read reports from journalists in the straight porn world that say this should open the eyes of gay porn companies to start requiring tests on every set like they do. I say no. I say it should be a lesson to straight porn performers to require condoms if they’re so concerned about their health. It is true that most gay porn studios don’t require testing, but what they do require condoms. You tell me what is safer -- having sex with a condom or having sex with someone who shows you a test that is at least less than 30 days old?
Oh yeah, Flemming quotes a close friend of James as saying that James isn't gay. Maybe not. He just makes hardcore gay porn.
Yet Another Reason To Work Until You Die
Apparently, in Nevada, if you receive Medicaid, your health care costs are actually a loan to you, recovered by a lien against your property: LAS VEGAS April 15 — Some Nevada senior citizens say they fear losing their homes to the state after the Nevada Supreme Court upheld state liens on the estates of people who received Medicaid health care costs.
All this time I thought Medicaid was a grant. I guess not. Of course, this makes the program effectively means-tested, since only people who own a home are going to have a lien against it.
"They should warn people when they receive Medicaid that they are given a loan," said Henry Ringel, 79, of Las Vegas. "I love this country, but when we pass away we won't be able to leave our son anything. I worked for our home and now they can steal it away."
...
Justices ruled April 1 that the Welfare Division can continue to put liens on homes of widows and widowers to ensure the recovery of some health care costs provided for their spouses.
State Human Resources Director Michael Willden said taxpayers should not have to cover medical costs to enable a person to pass valuable property to descendants.
"The taxpayers are putting out this money and we have an obligation under federal regulations to try recover it," he said.
You can't take it with you, but a lot of people would like, understandably, to leave it to their kids. It makes me more inclined to think that there are virtues to remaining employed as long as you can, just for the health insurance benefits.
It Has Been a Busy Weekend
Sorry for the lack of content, but I spent a big part of Saturday going through American Archives, on interlibrary loan from UC Davis. I was double checking some Revolutionary War firearms purchase records--but as often happens in these matters, I chanced onto all sorts of stuff that I was not expecting--some of it quite interesting. In the next few days I will be posting the 1776 equivalent of "from my cold, dead hands" from a New York Colony report, and the 18th century equivalent of "God, Guns, and Guts made America" from a colonial proclamation that manages to combine them.
Americans Are Still Making Telescope Stuff!
I've mentioned that I bought a Losmandy GM-8 mount a while back, used, and I am as pleased as I can be with it. It's a beautiful piece of equipment, well made, and made in California.
I mentioned that I needed some rings to mount my 8" reflector on the Losmandy mount. I ordered them from Ken's Rings and Things, and yes, Ken makes them in Louisiana. I ordered this set about a week ago, and they arrived on Saturday. Of course, the weather has been awful, so the reflector is sitting in the rings, on the Losmandy mount, tapping its fingernails on the table, waiting for good weather.
Finally, I have been looking for a wide angle 2" eyepiece for my refractor--something that lets me get at least two degrees on sky, for the diffuse objects such as the Andromeda Galaxy. I found a very attractively priced 85mm eyepiece--one that should get me close to three degrees of sky, offered by Russell Optics. To my surprise, Russell Optics in Arizona is not an importer, but makes the eyepieces themselves. I expect to have it this week, and should be able to report on the results.
