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Clayton Cramer's BLOG |
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Clayton's commentary on news and events of the day. Broadly speaking, I'm a conservative with libertarian sympathies (getting more conservative as my children get older).
 Never forget! I ran for Idaho state senate in 2008--didn't win I've written a number of history books, as well as scholarly and popular articles, (see my web page). Relocating to Boise? Use my realtor, neighbor, and friend, Cindy Smith csmith@1realtyone.com.
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Saturday, April 24, 2004
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. 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? 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. 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.) 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. 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. 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. 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? Friday, April 23, 2004
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. 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. 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: 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. 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). 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). 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. 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. 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. Labels: telescopes Thursday, April 22, 2004
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. 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? 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. 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. 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: 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: 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 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. Wednesday, April 21, 2004
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. Labels: fake hate crimes "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.) Labels: abortion 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. 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. Tuesday, April 20, 2004
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: 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. Monday, April 19, 2004
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? Turner's criminal record included arrests on suspicion of burglary, assault, gun charges, forgery and trespassing, police said. He also had a robbery conviction. 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 |
