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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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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
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Proving that the United States military does more than kill people and break things.
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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!)
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Visiting The Pretty Part of Idaho
Boise, unfortunately, is where the Idaho desert starts. Just twenty miles north of here, around the town of Horseshoe Bend, it starts to look like the Idaho that most people imagine. (Pictures below.) I had been working hard, and my wife is out of town with her band on their first long distance gig, at a wedding almost in Wyoming. My son is 16, which means that other than finding time to play ping-pong with me for a while today, he was off with his friends, so I took the top off the Corvette, and drove north on state highway 55.
Oh yes, first I had to stop at Wal-Mart to get a battery charger for the motorcycle battery that I use for my telescope mount, and I saw a sign that you would never see in the San Francisco Bay Area:
The local Christian radio station, KTSY, shocked me getting out of the rut they have been in recently, and played a whole bunch of Rich Mullins songs that I really like: Awesome God among them. The sun was shining; the wind was blowing through my hair--it was as good as a day can be without my wife with me.
Just north of Horseshoe Bend, on the Payette River. You can still see snow on the top of the high peaks. It was 78 degrees where I was.
Looking south from that same location.
The Payette River.
I think this is the horseshoe bend after which the town is named; it looks like an oxbow lake, where people were fishing.
A little farther north on the highway there's a nice little sandy beach, ground out of the granite that makes up the area.
If you have the bandwidth, and want to hear the rushing water and the chirping birds, click here. My HP 812 camera takes low grade MPEG, but at least it gives you a little of the sound of being there. Space being a bit tight, I may take this file down in a week or two.
Astrophotography
Moon at 1/250th second, ASA 100 film, 25mm eyepiece projection. I think this is about f/28.
Moon at 1/125th second, ASA 100 film, 25mm eyepiece projection.
The longer exposure makes the crater rays look better, but washes out the maria too much, I think. A gibbous or full Moon isn't the best choice as a target, but that's all I had last night.
You will notice some odd color effects on the limb of the Moon--that's my scanner having registration problems, I think, because it's not in the picture.
New Jersey Militia Statutes
I just added several new New Jersey militia statutes, from 1668 and 1679 here. I spent part of the morning reading through the Early American Imprints microprint edition of From Aaron Learning and Jacob Spicer, The Grants, Concessions, and Original Constitutions of the Province of New-Jersey (Philadelphia: W. Bradford, 1752). I was actually hunting sodomy laws--and New Jersey's definitely contradict the Lawrence decision, being quite Puritan in their form--but I found these militia laws as well, and a 1675 New Jersey law prohibiting transfers of guns or ammunition to the Indians, which you can find here.
I really love doing this sort of historical research--unfortunately, no one pays you to do this. (At least, I haven't found a way--other than the contributions you make through the PayPal button--to get anyone to pay me to do this.) I must confess that I took Friday as vacation because I couldn't face another day of hacking Korn shell scripts, when I could be digging through archives. During staff meeting Tuesday morning, the closing lines of one of Harlan Ellison's better known short stories kept going through my mind: "I have no mouth. And I must scream."
The U.N. and Oil-For-Palaces Contracts
To hear some people tell it, the U.N. is part of a vast conspiracy to take away American sovereignty, and put a small cabal of international financiers in control of the world. That's giving the UN too much credit; the news reports about te investigation of the Oil-For-Food program suggests it is just a bunch of conmen: April 29, 2004 -- WASHINGTON - The vast majority of the United Nations' oil-for-food contracts in Iraq have mysteriously vanished, crippling investigators trying to uncover fraud in the program, a government report charged yesterday.
The General Accounting Office report, presented at a congressional hearing into the scandal-plagued program, determined that 80 percent of U.N. records had not been turned over.
The world body claims it transferred all information it had - including 3,059 contracts worth about $6.2 billion for delivery of food and other civilian goods to the post-Saddam governing body, the Coalition Provisional Authority.
But the GAO report also found that a database the U.N. transferred to the authority was "unreliable because it contained mathematical and currency errors in calculation of contract costs," the report found.
The GAO findings, which were aired at a hearing of the House International Relations Committee, raise new questions about corruption and mismanagement in the biggest-ever U.N. aid program - and what has been called the biggest financial scandal in history. An earlier GAO report said Saddam ripped off over $10 billion.
Committee Chairman Henry Hyde said the report raised serious concerns - and could have "a potential impact on the reputation and credibility of the United Nations."
"If these charges prove true, some of the obvious victims are those Iraqis who failed to receive needed assistance," Hyde (R-Ill.) said.
A Rare Occasion When Armed Robbery Is a Good Thing
From the Scotsman: A Hamas suicide bomber blew up two armed Palestinians who tried to rob him at gun point in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas claimed the “stickup men” worked for Israeli intelligence, while Palestinian security forces said the two were ordinary thieves.
Rather than give up his explosives, the bomber detonated them, killing himself and the two robbers near the border fence between Gaza and Israel.
Palestinian security officials said the the gunmen were criminals who were involved in a car theft ring that brought stolen vehicles from Israel to Gaza.
Hamas said the bomber was on his way to try to infiltrate into Israel, accompanied by another Hamas member and a guide, when they were stopped by the armed men.
The robbers forced the bomber to lie on the ground and tried to steal the bomb, but the militant detonated it, killing all three. The other Hamas man and the guide escaped.
There have been cases of rival groups stealing each other’s explosives, but no group claimed the two gunmen, and their families did not go to the hospital to take the bodies, indicating that the two were not militants, who are revered in Palestinian society.
You Can Tell A Lot About A Person's Moral Character...
by how they respond to advocacy of child molestation. This blogger thinks it is really neato that Amazon.com is selling the book Understanding Loved Boys and Boylovers: Thank you Amazon, I will continue to enthusiastically purchase my books from your website.
Since he attends the University of Georgia Law School, and thinks that advocacy of child molestation should be encouraged (which is not the same as encouraging child molestation itself), I expect him to be on the federal bench some day.
Lovely Night: Stable Air
I was out doing some astrophotography, using ASA 100 this time. The Moon, being a bit beyond quarter, is washing out other objects, but I was able to go up to 471x on the Moon--and the image was just beginning to fuzz up a bit. No turbulence; no image burbling, even at that power. Very nice.
Bizarre Story: Armed Robbers With Consciences?
From Salem, Oregon: A 3-year-old girl came face to face with would-be robbers this week — and the robbers blinked.
The incident terrified a clerk at the jewelry, video and gift shop in northeast Salem, but the three men left empty-handed and no one was harmed, police and witnesses said.
The incident occurred about 2 p.m. Tuesday at Joyeria Colima in the Plaza del Sol on Portland Road NE when three men entered the store, Salem police Lt. Dan Cary said.
The robbers changed their minds when one of them spotted the 3-year-old behind a counter, and they refused to go through with the crime.
The man apologized to a female clerk, saying the 3-year-old, Noelia, looked like his daughter. Noelia is the daughter of store owner Victor Guitierrez, police said.
The clerk, Anna Maria Ruelas, was taking care of the girl.
Cary said the suspects fled on foot. They have not been identified.
Why Calling 911 Sometimes Doesn't Work
If this news account is accurate, someone needs to be fired--and someone else probably needs a gun in the house: A Fort Worth family is demanding that a 911 operator be fired after she failed to respond to a potential life-threatening situation.
Sorry, operator, but yes, sometimes strangers do just come bang down your door. And so what if they are looking for the brother or father? Send the police!
Police are now investigating - and taking very seriously - the concerns of the Diaz family. They placed a 911 call while someone was attempting to break into their home, and they now say the operator blew them off during that time.
The kicked-in front screen door provides a sign that someone tried to break into the Diaz home two weeks ago. However, the best evidence may be the terror in the voice of Jeannette Diaz, 14, who placed the 911 call.
"There's people outside with knives," Diaz told the operator. "They are breaking down the door."
Diaz's mother can be heard in the background. Both had retreated to a back bedroom for protection, hoping police could hurry and provide the rest.
"I was scared that they had a gun and I was real scared that they were going to shoot," Diaz said later. "I didn't know what to do."
Her fear turned to anger, though, when the operator began questioning the validity of the call.
"OK, who were they, because strangers don't just come bang down your door with knives," the operator told Diaz. "Do you have a brother or father there who they were looking for?"
Why Gay Marriage Is Going To Destroy the Minority Advantage for the Democrats
I've mentioned this before: Christianity Today (which is well to the left of myself and many other evangelicals) has an article about how especially among African-Americans and Hispanics, the issue of gay marriage takes precedence over bread and butter issues: The Alliance for Marriage (AFM), which advocates a constitutional amendment to protect marriage, released a poll on March 4 showing that 63 percent of Hispanics and 62 percent of African Americans support an amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. AFM has broad support among minorities. "Concern for stronger families trumps jobs," said founder Matt Daniels. "It trumps the environment for all voter groups."
Ruben Diaz Sr. of the Bronx had two brothers who were homosexual. As a pastor in the Church of God (Cleveland, Tenn.) and overseer of more than 100 Pentecostal churches, he knew many other church leaders who had seen members drifting from broken families into drugs, homosexuality, and death.
Ten years ago, Diaz, a Democrat, complained that city support for the Gay Games was taking funding from poor families. His comments drew a torrent of abuse from activists.
"They hit me with a pitcher of water," Diaz said. "They called me 'homophobe,' 'preacher of hate.' I received threatening letters. Publicly, that issue forced me to commit."
Now a state senator, Diaz organized hundreds of Bronx Hispanic churches for the March 14 rally on the steps of the state supreme court. "We are praying, singing, and denouncing gay marriages," he told those attending. "I can be expelled from the [Democratic] Party for what I am saying, but none of that counts before the Lord."
Colonial Sodomy & Buggery Laws
I've just substantially expanded my online collection of colonial sodomy and buggery laws, as well as the text discussing why the Lawrence decision was wrongly decided.
Sorry For The Lack Of Activity Today
I've been down at the Idaho State Law Library--digging through books that are stamped, "Property of the Idaho Territorial Law Library." I'm mostly chasing down colonial sodomy and buggery statutes (and I promise not to tell you the difference--at least, not today), but as is often the case, I ran into a few statutes related to gun ownership that I missed the first time through some of these materials. I found a 1729 North Carolina session law that while the title indicates that it is about toll-booths and preventing people from driving livestock onto the land of others, contains a paragraph complaining that great Damages are frequently done, by Slaves being permitted to hunt or range with Dogs or Guns: For Prevention whereof, Be it Enacted, by the Authority aforesaid, That it shall not be lawful for any Slave, on any Pretence whatsoever, to go, range, or hunt on any Person's Land other than his Masters, with Dog or Gun, or any Weapon, unless there be a white Man in his Company;....
John Locke's Genius
I was reading through John D. Cushing, ed., The Earliest Printed Laws of North Carolina, 1669-1751, and I found these amusing items at 2:146 from John Locke's 1669 Fundamental Constitution of Carolina. The first is a sunset clause: 79th. To avoid multiplicity of laws, which by degrees always change the right foundations of the original government, all acts of [the Carolina] Parliament whatsoever, in whatsoever form passed or enacted, shall at the end of a hundred years after their enacting, respectively cease, and determine of themselves, and without any repeal, become null and void, as if no such acts or laws had ever been made.
And the next provision, which might be called "no law reviews or commentaries" provision: 80th. Since multiplicity of comments, as well as of laws, have great inconveniences, and serve on to obscure and perplex: all manner of comments and expositions, on any part of these Fundamental Constitutions, or on any part of the common or statute laws of Carolina are absolutely prohibited.
Moon Pictures Again
I took another roll last night, in a raging windstorm. I am still overexposing, but I'm getting closer, and I'm not getting the weird streaks from that last roll.
This was taken with ASA 800 film at prime focus, 1/2000th of a second.
The limitation here is mostly the grain of the film. (And to think that I once bought ASA 3200 speed film--what was I thinking?) The next step is retry this with ASA 100 film at 1/500th and 1/250th second exposures.
An Unbelievable Story--Just Got A Bit More Believable
So some woman comes up with an unbelieveable story about Catholic priests using her in Satanic rituals, and not surprisingly, she isn't much believed--and then one of the accused priests is arrested for a murder decades ago that seems to fit her claims: TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) - The Toledo Diocese is taking another look at a woman's previously dismissed claims of satanic sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests now that one of the clergymen has been charged with the ``ritualistic'' slaying of a nun 24 years ago.
This should shock the Catholic Church to its very core--not only widespread sexual abuse, but now evidence of priests engaged in Satanism.
The Rev. Gerald Robinson was arrested last week on charges of strangling and stabbing Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, 71, about 30 times during Easter weekend 1980. Her body, covered by an altar cloth and surrounded by burning candles, was found in a hospital chapel.
Pahl's body was posed to look as if she had been sexually assaulted, but investigators said they found no evidence of sexual activity.
Bishop Leonard Blair announced Tuesday that a seven-member diocesan review board will re-examine allegations made by a woman who told the panel in June that when she was a child she was physically and sexually abused by several priests, including Robinson.
...
The woman described satanic ceremonies in which clergy members placed her in a coffin filled with cockroaches, forced her to swallow what she believed to be a human eyeball and penetrated her with a snake ``to consecrate these orifices to Satan.''
The diocese had decided not to forward the woman's claims to authorities because it could not substantiate them.
However, the allegations were brought to the attention of prosecutors in a letter received in December, assistant prosecutor Gary Cook said Monday. He would not say who sent the letter.
Three other people have said they also were abused by priests in rituals, said Catherine Hoolahan, an attorney who represents about a dozen people with abuse lawsuits against the Toledo Diocese. They all mentioned similar occurrences, she said, but she would not provide details.
...
Hoolahan said the victims, both men and women, could not recall how many priests abused them.
``Remember, they were children,'' she said. ``They were scared to death, but they remember a bunch - a large number.''
...
Louis Schlesinger, a forensic psychology professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City, said people committing ritual crimes seek sexual gratification by posing their victims in certain ways or by making them say certain things or act in a certain way.
It is also common for a sexual offender to kill one of his victims but not the others, he said.
UPDATE: This seems to be the Catholic Church's day for bad press: The U.S. Roman Catholic priest who has provided the most visible help to victims of clergy sex abuse (search) for the past 18 years has been fired by his archbishop and cannot celebrate public Masses.
Maybe there is some other reason that Doyle just lost his job--but let's hope that a really good reason comes out, real soon.
It's the second career disruption for the Rev. Thomas P. Doyle. In 1986, the Vatican embassy in Washington ended his employment as staff canon lawyer after Doyle co-authored a detailed memo sent to the nation's bishops that warned of the molestation crisis.
Doyle became the most outspoken U.S. priest in criticizing the American hierarchy's handling of the scandal. He has provided victims pastoral counsel and expert legal advise in numerous suits against the church.
After Vatican service, Doyle enlisted as a U.S. Air Force chaplain. Last Sept. 17, Archbishop Edwin O'Brien of the Archdiocese for the Military Services withdrew his endorsement as a chaplain, meaning he cannot function as a priest on military bases or celebrate sacraments.
The stated reason was a disagreement over whether military chaplains must provide public Masses every day, but observers charged Thursday that Doyle's advocacy for victims is the underlying reason.
You know, I actually agree with the Catholic Church's decision not to include pro-abortion politicians in Communion. Perhaps they could decide not to include child molesting priests as well. Of course, that might lead back to rearguing the Donatist controversy of the fourth century.
Minnesota's Concealed Weapon Law Is One Year Old
Unsurprisingly, the antis won't admit that their worst fears--of permitholders getting into gunfights over trivial matters--hasn't happened. Instead, the antis are busily showing their ignorance--even in their supposed field of expertise: "Nowhere in scripture do I find God telling people to arm themselves," said the Rev. Kim Smith-King of St. Luke Presbyterian Church in Minnetonka. "The more guns that are out there, the more lives are going to be taken. We are here today to simply choose life."
Hmmm. Luke, chapter 22:Then Jesus asked them, "When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?"
"Nothing," they answered.
He said to them, "But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. It is written: 'And he was numbered with the transgressors' ; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment."
The disciples said, "See, Lord, here are two swords."
"That is enough," he replied.
Kansas Concealed Carry Law Veto Override
The Kansas House of Representatives is apparently going to try to override Governor Sibelius's veto of HB 2798. Contact your representatives there in Topeka, and let them know that this matters.
For Those Of You Think Of Me As Some Sort of Doctrinaire Gun Rights Absolutist
And I know that some of my readers do think of me that way--read this guy's take on why I am sort of an apologist for gun control.
Another Criminal Too Stupid To Stay Out Of Jail
From Reuters: A Texas woman was arrested on Wednesday after a pink dye pack attached to money she is suspected of stealing from a bank exploded when she took the cash to a different bank to open a new account, police said.
Great name this gal has: Luck. Luck had nothing to do with it! Stupidity had everything to do with it!
Fort Worth police said Sharon Luck, 43, was arrested on suspicion of robbing a bank in the city early on Wednesday, after a woman gave a bank teller a threatening note and walked out with cash to which the dye pack had been attached.
...
Luck is suspected of taking the money to a bank in Burleson, about 20 miles away. Police said she was apparently going to deposit the stolen cash when things went awry.
"When she opened her purse, the dye pack detonated," said Lt. Abdul Pridgen, a Fort Worth police spokesman.
Conspiracy Theories
Michael Williams has a thought-provoking post about conspiracy theories, and what motivates them. In part, I agree with it--except that he has focused a bit too much on Democrats and their conspiracy theories--there are conspiracy theorists all across the political spectrum. Find the videotape The Clinton Chronicles if you want some proof that you don't need to be a Democrat to be a conspiracy theorist.
Mr. Williams does make a very good point, however, about why Democrats, who used to run this country, and still have enormous influence, have to believe in conspiracies: to explain their failures. There's Hillary's classic "Vast Right Wing Conspiracy". John Kerry's recent accidentally-on-mic comment accusing ABC of doing the RNC's work. Bush and Cheney and Halliburton and Iraq and OIIILLLL. The CIA killed President Kennedy. The environmentalists are always blaming conspiracies for everything. And so forth and so on.
Where Williams is on more solid ground is pointing out that the far left sees Limbaugh's success with talk radio as some sort of conspiracy involving nefarious forces--it doesn't occur to the far left that most Americans are conservatives or in the middle, and the far left's ideas are regarded as dangerous, or crackpot, or both. Limbaugh's success didn't make America move to the right; America's move to the right made Limbaugh successful.
I think a large part of the problem is that many liberals are so convinced they're right that when their actions don't bring about the effects they imagined they can't figure out why. There must be some shadowy conspiracy secretly working against them! It can't possibly be that their beliefs and strategies are simply wrong and irrational.
Single Young Men & China's Future
Tyler Cowen over at Volokh Conspiracy points to an article expressing concern about what is happening in China--where the intersection of the government's one child only policy and traditional Chinese practices about girl children have resulted in a demographic time bomb: First, by 2040 China will have a higher proportion of elderly than will the United States. This will create fiscal problems, but on the bright side such a China is unlikely to be militarily aggressive. Yet there will be other problems:
David T. Courtwright's Violent Land: Single Men & Social Disorder from the Frontier to the Inner City points out that societies in which there are large numbers of single young men are usually very violent places, with all sorts of serious social problems. It is possible that China is opening itself up to very, very serious internal chaos problems in the next few years. On the other hand, it is possible that China could solve this problem the same way that Pope Urban II dealt with quarreling nobles starting wars in Europe--by starting the First Crusade, so all that energy could be expended against external enemies.
"In 1993 and 1994, more than 121 boys were born in China for every 100 baby girls. (The normal ratio at birth is around 105; for reasons debated among biologists, humans seem naturally to churn out slightly more boys than girls.) In India during the period 1996 to 1998, the birth ratio was 111 to 100; in Taiwan in 2000, it was 109.5. In 1990 a town near New Delhi reported a sex ratio at birth of 156.
Parker suggests that too many unmarried young men end up making trouble. Of course this could happen before 2040. So what is the deal, will families see reason to favor having daughters rather than sons? Will dowries kick in and restore the sex ratio to greater balance? Immigration, of course, only transfers the problem to another country. In any case adjustments will take time and clearly voluntary forces are not creating a balanced sex ratio today. If you are looking for a classic externalities problem to teach your class, I will nominate this as a prime example.
Valerie Hudson argues that the shortage of females is not going to self-correct because the females and their parents can not leverage the scarcity of the females for self-benefit and so there is no market incentive to have more female children. If certain free-market Ph.D. economists of my acquaintance (and the rest of you as well) have read this far do you have any comments to offer on this point?"
Minnesota's Year Old Concealed Weapon Law Is Working
Pete Drum, my co-blogger on the Civilian Gun Self-Defense Blog, just blogged this from the Twin Cities Pioneer Press of April 29, 2004: OF THE PEOPLE: Gun law turns 1 year old
David Haagensen drives to work with his gun on the seat next to him, and he says it came in handy one night a few weeks ago.
Haagensen, attending one of two competing events Wednesday that commemorated the passage of the state's new gun law, said he foiled an attempted carjacking as he was on his way to work the late shift at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis.
"I pointed it at his head, because he was trying to open my locked door, and he was pointing a gun at me,'' he said. "He ran away. I drove to work and called the cops.''
Some Things Aren't Worth Killing Someone Over
Even though these people were clearly in the wrong: WOODBURY | A Gloucester County man was charged Tuesday with killing a man he caught breaking into his shed.
Even if Clark is acquitted on the charges, he is going to spend many times as much on his lawyer as it would have cost to replace that ATV. (Assuming that the ATV was insured, the lawyer is going to cost him thousands of times more than deductible.)
Authorities said Robert J. Clark Jr., 33, heard a noise in the back yard of his Franklin Township home around 10 p.m. Monday. When he looked out the window, he saw two men trying to take the all-terrain vehicle he stored there.
Clark tried to call police but had phone problems, so, authorities said, he shot one of the men in the chest.
William Hamilton, 39, of Clementon died from the wound.
The other suspected would-be thief, Dwain Jones, ran away, with Clark shooting at him as he did, authorities said.
Clark was charged with murder, aggravated assault and a weapons offense.
Yes, I agree, these guys shouldn't have been stealing the ATV. Is it worth killing someone over? No. This was just dumb.
This Is The Funniest Ebay Ad I Have Ever Read
Much funnier than the guy trying to sell his soul (I've added some paragraphing for readability): For Sale: One Slightly Used Size 12 Wedding Gown. Only worn twice: Once at the wedding and once for these pictures.
Make: Victoria
Style: 611
Size: 12
Divorce forces sale
I found my ex-wife's wedding dress in the attic when I moved. She took the $4000 engagement ring but left the dress. I was actually going to have a dress burning party when the divorce became final, but my sister talked me out of it. She said, "That’s such a gorgeous dress. Some lucky girl would be glad to have it. You should sell it on EBay. At least get something back for it." So, this is what I’m doing.
I’m selling it hoping to get enough money for maybe a couple of Mariners tickets and some beer. This dress cost me $1200 that my drunken sot of an ex-father-in-law swore up and down he would pay for but didn’t so I got stuck with the bill. Luckily I only got stuck with his daughter for 5 years. Thank the Lord we didn't have kids. If they would have turned out like her or her family I would have slit my wrists.
Anyway, it’s a really nice dress as you can see in the pictures. Personally, I think it looks like a $1200 shower curtain, but what do I know about this. We tried taking pictures of this lovely white garment but it didn’t look right on the hanger as you can see, so my sister says, "You need a model." Well, quite frankly my sister isn’t exactly small, (like a size 12 is?) so she wouldn’t pose for the picture. Seeing as I have sworn off women for the time being and I ain’t friends with any, it left me holding the bag.
I took the liberty of blacking out my face - not to protect the ex-wife but to protect me from my bar buddies and co-workers finding out about it. I would never live it down. Actually I didn’t think my head would fit in the neck hole, but then I figured she got her Texas cheerleader hair through there I could get my head in it. Though, after looking at the pictures, I thought it made me look fat. How do you women wear this crap? I only had to walk 3 feet and I tripped twice. Don’t worry ladies - I am wearing clothes on underneath it.
I gotta say it did make me feel very pretty. So if it can make me feel pretty, it can make you feel pretty, especially on the most important day of your life, right? Anyway, I was told to say it has a train and a veil and all kinds of shiny beady things. I think it's funny that one picture makes it look like the chest plate off an Imperial Storm Trooper. Did I mention that all I want is a ball game and beer? Cheap at twice the price. Ladies, you won’t regret this. You may regret the dude you marry but not the dress.
...
I also have received TONS of email. I don’t have the time to reply to all of them but I just want to let everyone know that I appreciate the well wishes.
...
Most were thanking me for the laugh. You’re entirely welcome. Five years of misery was well worth the hearty guffaw that was my pleasure to give you.
Oh, yeah. I also got three marriage proposals. Yes, you read it right - three marriage proposals. I feel like one of those mass murderers on death row. I never understood how the hell they got more chicks than I did. Now I know. They sold crap on eBay.
...
Holy Moly!
The hit counter is starting to look like the odometer in my truck!
...
I now have five marriage proposals. You would think my speaking of the ones I already got yesterday would have put a damper on it, but you women sure are persistent. One woman actually said she doesn’t want to marry me, but wouldn’t mind being my ex-wife. Hmmm. Let me think about that. Nope. No thanks, already got one. (Pssst. Didn’t I mention I had one? Who wants an ex-wife that can’t read? Now, I know what you guys are thinking - "If she can’t read, then the divorce would be smooth sailing." Well, that would be all well and good but I didn’t say her ATTORNEY couldn’t read. You following me on this?)
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This has also been a learning experience for me. I got a lot of messages correcting me about the color of wedding dresses. For Russian Orthodox, they are blue. For Chinese they are red. Mexico has multi-colored ones. All I know is, for my next wedding I will be wearing a hairy, flesh-toned ensemble because I will be buck naked with a toe tag lying on a slab in the morgue because I would have killed myself.
The Invisible Adjunct Has Left The Building
A lot of people were big fans of a blog named The Invisible Adjunct. She was anonymous. She had a Ph.D. in History, and taught at a university in New York. Ralph Luker over at Cliopatria was a fan, and that's part of how I became aware of her blog--and that she has finally faced reality, and decided to leave academia completely. As an adjunct myself (and one with only a lowly MA in History), I am very sympathetic to her concerns.
This article over at the Chronicle of Higher Education mentions: About 45 percent of all faculty members are now part-timers. Each year thousands of people with new doctorates in fields like history and English fail to find the tenure-track jobs they are chasing. In English, for instance, fewer than half of the new Ph.D.'s win tenure-track jobs initially, according to the Modern Language Association.
Well, why?
When confronted with those numbers, the apologists, as the Invisible Adjunct calls them, maintain that there will always be jobs for the good ones.
But if someone with a Ph.D. from a top-tier college, publications, and writing skills good enough to get thousands of people to start their day by checking what she has to say -- if she isn't one of the good ones, who is? "She has jumped through all the hoops that the profession set for her," says Ralph Luker, a former professor at Morehouse College and a regular participant in the Invisible Adjunct blog. "And we failed to find a place for her."Read through a year's worth of Invisible Adjunct posts and you will get a good glimpse at what's happening in higher education, at least in terms of graduate school, the job market in the humanities, and the adjunct world.
You might well ask the question, why are there so many people getting Ph.D.s if there aren't many teaching jobs for them? I can think of one obvious reason: what happens if you reduced the number of slots in graduate programs to a level appropriate to the likely number of jobs?
Her advice in a nutshell: Think long and hard before going to grad school in the humanities. Then think some more.
She believes that academe's cheerleaders should stop pretending that the Ph.D. is good preparation for other types of careers. It's not, she says. Being smart and stubborn enough to get through a Ph.D. program may mean you're smart and stubborn enough for lots of other things, but the actual Ph.D. is peculiar to an academic career. (She would, however, support redesigning master's programs to create practical graduate education for nonacademics.)
Speaking of programs, the Invisible Adjunct says there are simply way too many of them. Many graduate programs in many fields -- even beyond the humanities -- should be curtailed, and some should be eliminated entirely. "There's certainly a supply component to the problem," she says. "It's doing incredible damage to the profession. ... An undersupply of English literature Ph.D.'s would be the best thing to give them leverage."
The number of grad students in crowded fields like History and English would drop--and class sizes would drop as well. Universities would then reduce the number of professors teaching those grad students, and supervising their theses and dissertations. This would reduce the number of teaching positions open. Within a year or two or three, someone in the administration would look at the student count, and argue for reducing the number of grad students a bit more, because there are less teaching positions nationally for these grad students to eventually fill. This sort of feedback loop would not continue ad infinitum, but it almost certainly would dramatically shrink the number of faculty in these fields. Considering the gullibility of a lot of history professors (the ones who were taken in Bellesiles, many of whom seem to have been taken in by the laughable claims in the Lawrence decision about colonial sodomy laws), it is hard to see this as a big problem.
My wife, who is in much the same position as myself (adjunct, MA in English) pointed out another reason why reducing the number of slots in grad school wouldn't fly: the schools would have to either raise their standards--and thus fail to meet their affirmative action goals--or keep the standards the same, and make more blatant that academic standards are less important than racial and sexual orientation quotas.
I Guess I'm Not A Nutcase After All...
Or at least I have good company. Senator Zell Miller (D-GA) is proposing repeal of the 17th Amendment, and a return to legislatures selecting their U.S. Senators: Miller, who is retiring in January, was first appointed to his post in 2000 after the death of Paul Coverdell. He said Wednesday that rescinding the 17th Amendment, which declared that senators should be elected, would increase the power of state governments and reduce the influence of Washington special interests.
I've written before that one objective of a bicameral Congress was to balance opposing interests. The House of Representatives was popularly elected, because it had the authority to introduce revenue bills. The assumption was that because ordinary people would pay most of the taxes, they would have an incentive to keep government spending under control, since government spending was generally for the benefit of the wealthy. (This hasn't changed.)
"The individuals are not so much at fault as the rotten and decaying foundation of what is no longer a republic," Miller said on the Senate floor. "It is the system that stinks. And it's only going to get worse because that perfect balance our brilliant Founding Fathers put in place in 1787 no longer exists."
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Miller said that balance was destroyed in 1913 with the ratification of the 17th Amendment. He has introduced a resolution, which he acknowledges has no chance of passage, to repeal the 17th Amendment and again let state legislatures pick senators.
The Senate was selected by the state legislatures, and would thus represent the interests of the wealthy, who in general would have different interests from the middle class. This would tend to discourage some of the more brainless wealth redistribution schemes.
The 17th Amendment fundamentally broke this balancing of interests arrangement. For reasons that I discuss here, we have unbalanced the structure. This is why we have buffoons like Teddy Kennedy and John Kerry in the Senate--the wealthy pander to majority will--which means that the stupid half of the population plus one gets to elect whoever tells them the most persuasive lies.
The Human Cost of Dealing With Savages
Michael Moore thinks the thugs who are using women and children as human shields are heroes. Read this account of the death and escort home of a real hero, Lance Corporal Chance Phelps. But make sure you aren't somewhere that might be embarrassed to cry. I doubt that many of you will be able to read it and not have your eyes fill with tears.
It would still be a very sad story of sacrifice if the cause were something mundane or even sleazy--if Operation Iraqi Freedom was really about oil. Knowing that the cause was cleaning out a nest of monsters makes the sacrifice a little more bearable--and it makes Michael Moore's defense of the monsters even more reprehensible.
Amusing Parody of Nature Documentaries
Over at INDC, "INDC Science Series: Seasonal Moonbat IMF Migration, Part One": Note: This INDC Science Series is best appreciated if read aloud with an Australian or Queen's English accent. Thank you.
One of my sisters just returned from participating in the march that INDC chronicles. I shall have to ask her about the hammer and sickle flags.
Spring is in the air here in Washington, DC. The cherry blossoms have come and gone, the sun is shining, the air is thick with pollen and representatives of the IMF and World Bank are gathering, factors that all combine to form a perfect storm of seasonal moonbat migration in the downtown area of the District. As a research scientist dedicated to documenting the behaviors of the order Chiroptera, I considered this a miraculous opportunity, especially since my recent efforts to find these fascinating creatures had been met with rather disappointing results.
Make sure you read INDC's previous coverage of moonbat migration about the Padilla hearings and an International A.N.S.W.E.R. protest in early April--it's actually even more revealing about the role the media play in magnifying what is really a pretty tiny bunch.
Let me emphasize that I think there are some serious and legitimate questions associated with Jose Padilla. Can the U.S. use "unlawful combatant" status for a U.S. citizen arrested within the United States? I am really, really uncomfortable with this, because it creates the potential for serious abuse of power once the Democrats get back in power (as they inevitably will).
Understanding Fallujah Operations
The Belmont Club has a very detailed description, derived from news accounts, of what seems to be the U.S. strategy in Fallujah. It would appear that the author has a detailed historical knowledge of warfare. I won't even try to summarize or quote from it; it is simply too detailed for that. If you are at all interested in understanding what is going on in Fallujah, however, read it in full.
If A Bircher Said This, He Would Be Called An Anti-Semite
But a liberal appellate judge says it, so I guess it's okay. In the course of explaining that judges make law, they don't interpret it, Judge John T. Noonan of the 9th Circuit says this: According to Noonan, every working judge has come to the conclusion that "he who interprets the law, makes the law" and that interpretation gives the Constitution vitality. He also compared the Constitution's balanced perspective to the biological balance within a human being.
Oh yeah, that's a useful thing to say: Noonan says that this corrupt practice of judges making themselves into legislators--someone who "makes the law" instead of interpreting it--is really Jewish in origin.
Noonan pointed to several Supreme Court cases -- Marbury v. Madison, Chisholm v. Georgian, Hans v. Louisiana and Ex Parte Young -- that he said reveal the judicial precedent for loose interpretations of the Constitution to maintain the balance of the law.
The appeals judge also noted that many of the greatest constitutional scholars, such as Freund, Gunther and Wechsler, have been Jewish. According to Noonan, they came from a tradition that valued moving away from narrow interpretation and toward the spirit of the text.
Thanks to Discriminations for the link.
The Ideal Interim President For Iraq
Over at Iraq the Model (a group blog by Iraqis), Ali lists the ideal qualities for an interim president: 1-He should not be a cleric.
You get the idea!
2-He should be at least 84 years old with life expectancy of no more than 90 for his family.
3-Should have no criminal record.
4-He should have at least 2 chronic illnesses (organic) with no possible cure.
5-He should have NO sons.
6-He should not be able to make a speech longer than 15 minutes.
7-He should have an IQ that can be measured
8-His birthday should not be known.
9-He should not have been seen wearing a military uniform.
10-He should have no interest in nerve gas, mustard gas, abdominal gas…etc.
11-He should have no experience whatever with guns.
12-He should NOT be a war hero.
13-He should not have a history in using words like conspiracy, historical, mother of all …., the day of days…..etc.
14-He should speak at least 6 languages beside Arabic AND English (French, German, Russian and Chinese are NOT needed)
I have also added Iraq the Model to my blogroll.
Those Courageous Equivalents to the Minutemen
Michael Moore calls the insurgents fighting in Fallujah the equivalents to the Minutemen. I was watching Fox News this morning, and they interviewed a Los Angeles Times reporter who is there. He said the insurgents are using women and children as human shields while they fire at the Marines. Can you imagine the Minutemen doing that?
Those Top-Notch Journalists At The Los Angeles Times and the New York Times
OxBlog has an amusing point about recent articles in two newspapers that think that they are top-notch journalism--you know, careful and factual: With regard to an amazing medley of factual errors in pieces in both the LA Times and NY Times,
My feelings exactly. On almost anything on which I have any detailed knowledge, either because of my education, work experience, or eyewitness knowledge, the mainstream journalists are factually wrong almost as much as they right. They could flip coins and not do much worse. But I guess if you are on the left, little details like which party Wilson was the prime minster of, and which government fell--those are just piddling details.Just as a minor correction to an interesting piece (Thomas Corbally, 83; Figure of Mystery Was Reputed Spy, April 26, 2004 Home Edition, Section:California; Metro; Metro Desk; Part B; Pg. 11), PM Wilson was actually not a Conservative but rather a lifelong member of the Labour party, and is still regarded by many non-Blairites in Labour as representing the high point that party reached.
My, with this degree of neglect for detail in just one small matter of British parliamentary history I happen to know something about, I must say I'm starting to have some doubts about these people. Or as a reader rather eloquently puts it: "Whenever I read anything in a newspaper about which I know something, I find they get it wrong. So why should I believe them on subjects about which I know very little?"
With regard to the Profumo affair, it also was not Wilson's government, but Harold Macmillan's which fell. And further contrary to the author, it did not fall in elections at all, but by the collective resignation of the government in Commons, to be replaced by another Conservative government under Sir Alec Douglas-Home.
with all best wishes, yours faithfully,
Patrick Belton
Trinity College, Oxford
How Well Armed Was The Continental Army?
One of Bellesiles's claims was that the Continental Army was pitifully armed at the beginning of the war, and claims that General Washington ordered issuance of pikes to officers because there were so few guns. Actually, Washington's reason for ordering pikes was because they were simpler to operate than guns, didn't require reloading--and the officers were supposed to be leading the men, not being infantry soldiers.
One document at American Archives, 4th. series, 6:1121-22, records the number of firelocks and bayonets present in each regiment of “the Army in and near New-York, June 24, 1776.” Of 9,088 (or perhaps 9,072—the columns do not agree with each other) men, 76% are described as having “firelocks good,” another 15% have “firelocks bad,” and 9% are “wanting.” By comparison, 57% have “bayonets good,” 1% have “bayonets bad,” and 42% lacked bayonets. It is unclear if firelocks described as “bad” are completely useless, unreliable, or perhaps of such a low caliber as to be better suited to bird hunting than combat. It is clear that much like the New England colonies, Americans were better supplied with guns than bayonets.
Blunt Words About The War
These are remarkably blunt words about the war: We published pictures Thursday of burnt American corpses hanging from an Iraqi bridge behind a mob of grinning Muslims.
The problem is that Islam is about in the same state as Christianity was several centuries ago: unprepared to tolerate difference. In theory, Islam respects "People of the Book": Jews and Christians. In practice, it has always imposed substantial economic, civil, and social disabilities on Jews and Christians, some significant, some petty. The Ottoman Empire, for example, not only imposed a 10% net wealth tax--annually--on non-Muslims, it also prohibited non-Muslims from carrying weapons, or from riding horses. (Horses were too noble for non-Muslims to ride.) I do not doubt that if the West occupied all of the Islamic world today, and imposed a 10% net wealth tax annually on Muslims, Islam would wither away in just a few generations, just as Christianity did in what had been the Eastern Roman Empire. (UPDATE: the tax on non-Muslims is actually quite a bit more complex of an issue, with little uniformity as to the rate and method of computation. This pro-Islamic source claims that it is because non-Muslims are exempt from military service. This source demonstrates, however, that it was very heavy, and for the purpose of crushing religious dissent.)
Some readers didn’t like it.
Mothers said it frightened their children. A woman who works with Muslim physicians thought it might offend or endanger them.
Well, we sure don’t want to frighten, offend or endanger anybody, do we? That’s just too much diversity to handle. I mean, somebody might get hurt.
We could fill the newspaper every morning with mobs of fanatical Muslims. They can’t get along with their neighbors on much of the planet: France, Chechnya, Bosnia, Indonesia, Spain, Morocco, India, Tunisia, Somalia, etc. etc. etc. Can anybody name three ongoing world conflicts in which Muslims are not involved? Today, where there is war, there are fanatical Muslims. We might quibble about who started what conflicts, but look at the sheer number of them.
One thing is sure. Muslim killers started the one we are in now when they slaughtered more than 3,000 people, including fellow Muslims, in New York City.
A slight oversimplification, but not much. Arab armies invaded the Eastern Roman Empire, giving soldiers the choice of Islam or death, and then taxing the civilians until the choice was desperate poverty or Islam. The Crusades were a reaction not to Islamic Arabs, but to the Islamic Turkish invasion of the remnants of the Eastern Roman Empire. Unlike Arab Islam, which was cultured, educated, and eventually, somewhat tolerant of other religions, Turkish Islam had all the zeal of the fresh converts, with the savagery of Central Asian marauders.
Madeline Albright, the former secretary of state and feckless appeaser who helped get us into this mess, said last week Muslims still resented the Crusades. Well, Madame Albright, if Westerners were not such a forgiving people, we might resent them too.
Let’s recap the Crusades. Muslims invaded Europe and when they reached sufficient numbers they imposed their intolerant religion upon Westerners by force. Christian monarchs drove them back and took the battle to their homeland. The fight lasted a couple of centuries, and we bottled them up for 1,000 years.
European motivations for the Crusades were mixed: religious zeal; a desire of Pope Urban II to send all these quarreling knights to go fight somewhere else; and lunatic proto-populists like Peter the Hermit, anti-Semite and cannibal. Crusader actions once they arrived did not reflect well on Christianity, and there were atrocities against Muslims that remain embarrassing today. Islam is in no position, however, to pretend that the Crusaders were dramatically worse than the Islamic Arabs who overran much of the Eastern Roman Empire, or the Islamic Turks who provoked the Crusades. Islam hadn't ended up in control of the Levant because of charm or the strength of their arguments, but by armed force and punitive taxation.
Now, a millennium later, Muslims have expanded forth again. Ask France. Ask England. Ask Manhattan. Two-and-a-half years ago fanatical Muslims laid siege to us. We woke up to the obvious. Our president announced it would be a very long war, then took the battle to the Islamic homeland. Sound familiar?
Here is where I may have my biggest argument. There are a lot of different factions of Muslims in the world. It seems clear to me that most of our enemies are operating well outside the limits of what Islam--even quite fundamentalist Islam--would consider legitimate methods of warfare.
Let’s consider the concept of a “long war.” Last time it was 200 years, give or take.
UPDATE: A reader argues that the slaughter of non-combatants really is a basic part of Islam, and gave me pointers to several URLs. It is certainly true that there is a very dangerous crowd that espouses Islam engaged in rape, murder, and slavery in the Sudan, and in Indonesia. It is still not clear to me that this is part of the mainstream of Islam--or even, necessarily, of the fundamentalist factions of Islam. I am open to persuasion on this point.
Repeat After Me: "I Will Not Take Photographs Of Myself Breaking the Law"
Some people should be too stupid to reproduce. This couple took pictures of their 2 year old smoking pot. "Isn't that cute? Like mother, like son!" Then they took the pictures to be developed--where someone called the police. Duh!
Maybe habitual marijuana use doesn't make you stupid; maybe it just disproportionately attracts stupid people.
I suppose that they could argue "medicinal use": but is there really a recognized beneficial effect of marijuana on IQ?
The Democrats Must Be Depressed
Consumer confidence took another rise: The Conference Board, a business group based in New York, said on Tuesday its index of consumer confidence rose to 92.9 in April from 88.3 in March, its highest since January.
and "The job market, which has a major impact on confidence, appears to be gaining strength. The percentage of consumers claiming jobs are hard to get is now at its lowest since November 2002, and more consumers expect this trend to continue," said Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board's Consumer Research Center.
Economic growth is robust, company earnings have improved dramatically, the long-beleaguered manufacturing sector is experiencing its best growth in 20 years and the last piece of the recovery puzzle, the jobs market, appears to be falling into place with the expansion in hiring.
Mandatory Gun Ownership Laws
I blogged a few days ago about New Jersey's 1775 law requiring gun ownership--and I was surprised at how many bloggers linked to it. Let me emphasize that New Jersey's law isn't unusual--it is the norm. Every colony by the time the Revolutionary War started had a mandatory gun ownership law. I've been gathering them for several years now; if you want to see images of these statutes, go here for images of all colonial militia statutes.
If you want to see just the laws that specifically required gun ownership: Connecticut (1650) reiterated in 1665 here and here, in 1696, in 1724, and in 1741 here and here.
Delaware (1742).
Georgia (1755) and again as part of slave patrol in 1757. This 1770 law required all Georgians to come to church armed, with provisions for inspecting them as they entered to make sure they are armed. This 1778 law and the 1784 law also impose a requirement to own a gun.
Maryland (1641) seems to impose gun ownership as a requirement for purchasing land. The 1642 law requires all householders to have guns for members of the militia (including servants). The 1658 law imposes fines as well for failure to own a gun.
Massachusetts, of course, required gun ownership, in this 1632/3 law, having already required you be armed when traveling in 1630/1. A 1636/7 law required everyone to come to church armed.
New Hampshire (1716) required gun ownership here and here.
I'm getting tired of this cutting and pasting of links. As I said, every colony had a law requiring most white men to own guns, with fines for failing to do so.
One Reason Why I Don't Allow Comments On My Blog
Eugene Volokh points to CalBlog, where the blogger has been served with an order from a Canadian court ordering him to identify name and location of people who commented on his blog: I was served by registered mail. I got the slip last night and picked it up this morning. The hearing is Friday. Did I mention in Montreal, Quebec?
So it isn't just the United States suffering from creeping imperialism and delusions of globalism!
People Who Plan Way Into the Future
This company plans much too far into the future: Currently Underdevelopment
Please try again in May 3003.
Thank you and sorry for any inconvenience.
OFFICIAL 2004 DNC CONVENTION PROGRAM
6:00pm - Opening flag burning ceremony.
6:30pm - Anti-war rally no. 1. (Moderated by Jane Fonda)
6:40pm - Ted Kennedy proposes a toast.
7:00pm - Tribute theme to France.
7:10pm - Collect offerings for al-Zawahri defense fund.
7:20pm - Ted Kennedy proposes a toast
7:25pm - Tribute theme to Spain.
7:45pm - Anti-war rally no. 2. (Moderated by Michael Moore)
8:00pm - John Kerry presents one side of the issues
8:25pm - Ted Kennedy proposes a toast.
8:30pm - Terrorist appeasement workshop.
9:00pm - Gay marriage ceremony.
9:30pm - * Intermission *
10:00pm - Flag burning ceremony no. 2.
10:15pm - Re-enactment of Kerry's fake medal toss.
10:30pm - Cameo by Dean 'Yeeearrrrrrrg!'
10:40pm - Ted Kennedy proposes a toast.
10:50pm - Pledge of allegiance to the UN.
11:00pm - Double gay marriage ceremony.
11:15pm - Maximizing Welfare workshop.
11:20pm - John Kerry presents the other side of the issues
11:30pm - 'Free Saddam' pep rally.
11:59pm - Ted Kennedy proposes a toast.
12:00am - Nomination of Democrat candidate.
The Owyhee Foothills Southwest of Boise
My wife and I went out fossil hunting Sunday afternoon. We didn't find any fossils, but we did find some wonderfully scenic and empty desert.
Boise Street Gang
I go for walks at lunch, and I am subject to harrassment and threats from this rough looking bunch:
Any Idea What Caused This Film Problem?
The Moon is obviously overexposed here--this was 1/30th of a second, and it looks like 1/60th or 1/125th might have done the job better.
But what is with the color streaks? I've done other astrophotography without these streaks of blue and red, so I don't think it is a light leak in the camera (unless just developed with this roll). The film has a May 2005 expiration date. There was certainly like light like this in the sky. This appears on all the pictures.
So, should I stop storing the film so close to the nuclear reactor? It almost looks like something mechanical happened to the film as it rolled. Or could this be a developing flaw?
Is Pro-Choice Fanaticism* An Old People's Thing?
That is at least what Michael Williams is suggesting. He points out that the leaders of the militant pro-choice movement are generally pretty old. (This doesn't surprise me; one of the comments points out that of course, these are the leaders, they will be older.) But it is certainly true that much of passion for the pro-choice position is among women who came of age when abortion was severely restricted. This really should not be a surprise. There were a lot of really unfortunate consequences for women who grew up in that era, got pregnant, and found marriage, single motherhood, or giving up the baby for adoption, really, really unpleasant choices.
For a younger generation, it does seem as though that wild enthusiasm for abortion isn't quite as widespread. I wish that I could say that it was because the younger generation is so much more responsible, but I think it is because they haven't been radicalized by having to make hard choices like that.
* I used that word "fanaticism" for a reason. Lots of people in America are pro-choice, some right up to three seconds before birth, some only during the first trimester, some only for fairly limited circumstaces, such as rape, incest, or serious birth defects. I would consider Rep. Lynne Woolsey (D-CA) to be an example of a pro-choice fanatic.
Oh Dear! Another Reason For Self-Control!
Bad news from the Centers for Disease Control: ATLANTA -- There's word that the government is likely to recommend that other drugs be used against gonorrhea, because common treatments against the sexually transmitted disease no longer work.
Hey guys and gals! The party's over! There are very, very serious consequences to changing sexual partners weekly--and condoms aren't 100% effective at stopping the spread of STDs.
A spokeswoman said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plans to make the announcement this Thursday but would not get into specifics.
The CDC says the class of antibiotics commonly used to treat gonorrhea, including the popular Cipro, is no longer effective. Two health officials who worked with the CDC on its new gonorrhea guidelines told the Associated Press that a different antibiotic will be recommended.
Another Of Those "I Couldn't Make This Up" Stories
From the Sydney Morning Herald: Israel's first sadomasochist restaurant is set to open today, claiming however, that only the surroundings, not the food will be a painful experience, the Israeli Yediot Ahronot daily reported yesterday.
It reminds of a news story from the early 1990s. The San Francisco Chronicle reported on San Francisco Police Department's efforts to increase the number of gay police officers, and the news account described their recruiting efforts in a leather bar. They quoted one of the police officers who was cruising for recruits as saying, "At least we don't have to teach them use of restraint devices." Lovely.
The restaurant, appropriately named the "Dungeon", is to open its doors in the old southern Tel Aviv suburb of Yaffo, with a hostess dressed in a black vinyl outfit welcoming guests by flashing her whip.
Waiters and waitresses in similar outfits serve the diners, who must be 18 years or older, from a French bistro menu.
The diners can tie themselves to the restaurant's metal tables if they like, using the shackles provided.
If they dare to complain about the food or the service, however, they risk being whipped or hung in an iron cage from the ceiling.
Some Encouraging News On The Book Front
I queried the University of Massachusetts Press, and their response was quite interesting: Thanks for your inquiry. I downloaded the sample materials you linked to your e-mail and enjoyed reading them. You write well, and I think you have the makings of an interesting book on a very timely topic. Unfortunately, we recently signed up a similar study of guns in early America (i.e., from the colonial period through the War of Independence), and the consensus here is that there would be significant overlap between the two projects. To put it another way, you would be better served by a publisher that doesn't have -- or plan to have -- a book in direct competition with your own.
You see, for quite a while I have been told that there is simply no market for a book like mine--now it appears that the field may be rather crowded by the time I get this to market.
UPDATE: A long-time reader emailed me expressing concern that, like other blogger who are obssessed with particular issues (I like to think it is more a matter of specialization), I am a little obssessed with this publishing problem--and that I sound embittered at the publishing industry. Now, I will admit that I am a little embittered, but I didn't think that this particular entry sounded very bitter.
Of course, I'm used to emails telling me that I am "obssessing," but usually it's not about the book business.
Gun Owners Might Sit Out This Election?
The Hobbesian Conservative says what I have said before: "no compromise" gun rights activists who talk about "sitting out the election" because Bush isn't 100% on our side are fools. This isn't a race between a mildly pro-gun candidate and mildly anti-gun candidate. It's a race between a candidate who got himself elected Governor of Texas by promising to sign a non-discretionary concealed weapon license bill--and signed it--and a Senator who showed up for one of the few votes he's made during this campaign to vote against the rights of gun owners.
Germans Have a Reputation For Being Very Fastidious Sorts...
But leaving German off the list of languages? BERLIN (Reuters) - Berlin has introduced five talking waste bins which say thank you in three different languages or scream "goal" to help promote a cleaner city.
The talking waste bins -- which curiously say thank you in French, Japanese and English but not German -- are located in an area popular with tourists at the central Potsdamer Platz and at the Zoo train station in the west of the city.
Gives A Whole New Meaning to the Phrase "Shooting One's Mouth Off"
From Reuters: AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A Dutch artist has used a flap of her own skin to make a replica pistol to be shown at an Amsterdam art show next month, she said Friday.
I could not make up nonsense this bizarre.
"I made a pistol to express my concern about violence in society and to show the connection between what a pistol does and the human body," said Joanneke Meester said of the replica, which is about the size of a matchbox.
Meester said she made the tiny replica pistol with a piece of skin -- 20 centimeters (8 inches) long and four centimeters (1.6 inches) high -- surgically removed from her abdomen. The puckered skin was stretched and sewn over a plastic and fiber pistol mold.
How Do Our Soldiers Feel About Operation Iraqi Freedom?
You may be surprised by the survey results, here. Very large majorities believe Iraq is better off than before the war, one question just flabbergasted me: "7. If it were possible to volunteer for this deployment and you had not been assigned, would you have volunteered?" An astonishing 47% of the active military said either "Definitely Yes" or "Probably Yes"--and even 34% of National Guard members gave one of those two answers.
Confused Rhinoceros
How to be polite about this... This news story reported by The Bitch Girls indicates that a male rhinoceros became convinced that a Renault was a female rhino interested in making more rhinos. The comments are the funniest part: Maybe Sharka just has bad eyesight or as the quote says "rhinos are not particularly intelligent animals".
andCreativity is a good thing in matters of love, but only the French could design a car that sexually stimulates a zoo animal.
The Diaperless Baby Movement
Professor Volokh points to the latest environmental idiocy: the "diaperless baby movement." As environmentalists celebrate the 34th annual Earth Day, some in the green movement are now advocating "diaper-free" babies to help save the planet.
Yup, it works great in tribal societies where everyone lives in dirt floor shacks, the population density is about ten per square mile, and no one minds getting cholera or dysentery from contaminated water supplies.
Citing concerns about plastic disposable diapers clogging landfills and the amount of washing and detergents that cloth diapers require, many environmentalists are taking a page from tribal cultures and seeking to eliminate the use of the baby diapers altogether. . . .
Some of the claims made by the "diaperless baby" movement tell me that we are dealing with dangerous fanatics. I saw no sign that either of my children were "aware" that they were about to open fire, at least in the first year or two. In addition, children get diarrhea. My wife and I used the expression "thermonuclear meltdown" to describe some of these Chernobyl-rivalling results--often so overwhelming that the only solution was to drop them directly into the tub. The prospect of this happening in a public place, or near a public water supply, reveals what raving lunatics these fanatics are.
Kansas Governor Sibelius's Veto Message
Sorry I haven't been paying enough attention on this--she vetoed a shall-issue concealed handgun permit law over a week ago, and I just got around to noticing. Believe me, I really do care--I don't want to have to do wild detour around Kansas while heading East from here:
States That Trust Me To Carry a Concealed Handgun
Governor Sibelius's excuse for vetoing the law: I do not believe the widespread legalization of concealed firearms that House Bill 2798 would allow would make Kansans safer. I do not believe allowing people to carry concealed handguns into sporting events, shopping malls, grocery stores, or the workplace would be good public policy. And, to me, the likelihood of exposing children to loaded handguns in their parents' purses, pockets, and automobiles is simply unacceptable.
Yes, unlike most other states which have passed similar laws without problems.
"Perhaps most troubling, though, is the untenable position in which House Bill 2798 would place law enforcement. If House Bill 2798 became law, police officers, highway patrolmen, sheriffs, and deputies in Kansas would be forced to assume that any person they stop could have a firearm. This would make their already dangerous job even more difficult.
Dirty Harry As A Lifeboat Ethics Argument
As hard as it may be to believe, I had never seen Dirty Harry before. When it came out in 1971, I think it may have been R-rated, and thus not available for me to see. Not that I would have wanted to see it, anyway. Police dramas aren't high on my list.
The History Channel must have been short of documentaries or serious historical fictions to run, because they ran Dirty Harry as part of their "Films in Time" series, with commentary by John Milius, who was one of the screenwriters for Dirty Harry (and I think, one or two of the sequels).
One of the points that Milius made was that Dirty Harry was something of a breakthrough film: Inspector Harry Callahan isn't a knight in shining armor, as police dramas had traditionally portrayed them. Nor does Dirty Harry portray him as evil, or lost in the shades of gray "criminals and police are pretty much the shame" view that was becoming popular with intellectuals at the time. Instead, the film is an attack on the ACLU's view of civil lberties with respect to law enforcement.
Now, I happen to think the ACLU is way off the deep end on many issues. A later film, The Star Chamber is actually more thought-provoking because it confronts the same problem, using some of the absurd case law that came out of Rose Bird's California Supreme Court & Lunatic Asylum (example: police can't search trash cans until the trash has been mingled with the trash of others). The Star Chamber is more thought-provoking because it shows both sides of the problem of "how sure are we?"
It struck me, however, that Dirty Harry is in some ways the conservative equivalent of the lifeboat argument that liberals have exploited so successfully to defend abortion on demand. Like the lifeboat scenario (ten people in a lifeboat; there's only enough room for eight; which two do you throw out?), Dirty Harry's plot justifies warrantless searches and torture of a defendant in order to prevent the death by suffocation of a kidnapped little girl.
Situations like this do arise--but infrequently. Like the lifeboat case, and like the anacephalic fetus, these are not common--but once you have accepted that it is legitimate to throw out a legal principle to deal with a rare hard case, it is just too easy for that rare exception to swallow up a principle that makes good sense for 99.99% of the situations.
Randy Barnett Is Again Defending His Libertarian View of the Constitution Here
And he needs to. Nelson Lund and John O. McGinnis's recent paper on the Lawrence decision points out that the many serious and dangerous consequences of this sort of judicial legislating. Barnett's argument is essentially: Much state legislation restricting liberty cannot plausibly be characterized as the protection of the rights of others, and by this criteria, the "antisodomy" statute in Lawrence is an easy case.
Libertarian ideas are a fine public policy argument to make, but they are not the Constitution. The U.S. Constitution provided limited authority to the federal government, limited the authority of the states in a few specific areas (see Art. I, sec. 10, and Art. IV), but left states otherwise free to pass all sorts of laws: good, bad, and silly. Later amendments have narrowed state authority, but to claim that the U.S. Constitution was ever intended as a blueprint for a narrowly libertarian limiting of the authority of state legislatures is laughable.
One final point to preempt some email responses: I am not asserting the need to distinguish activities that "harm others" from those that do not. We are entitled to harm others in a variety of ways. For example, when I open a restaurant across the street from yours and attract all your customers, I harm you, but are within my rights. If I were to blow up your restaurant inflicting the exact same loss of trade, I am not just harming you, I am harming you by violating your rights. Preserving the limits on government power requires that this distinction be maintained.
The states have used (and abused) a nebulous authority known as "police power" from the very beginning. They have engaged in all sorts of economic regulation, much of it absurd. They have passed all sorts of laws intended to punish vice and promote virtue. You can argue, as many have, that the states should not have had this much power. You can argue that legislators should use these powers sparingly. You can argue for amending state constitutions to limit the power of the government to regulate--and I will generally agree that this is a good idea. But that isn't what the Constitution established, and even the 14th Amendment was not intended to prohibit states from passing all sorts of stupid laws.
Unfortunately, Lund and McGinnis's paper, as good as it is, seems to accept the Lawrence decision's false claims about the history of sodomy laws in America: B]ecause sodomy laws traditionally applied to heterosexual conduct as well as homosexual conduct: “[T]here is no longstanding history in this country of laws directed at homosexual conduct as a distinct matter.”80 By the Lawrence Court’s logic, the traditional proscription against prostitution must be quite compatible with a fundamental right to engage in homosexual prostitution, or heterosexual prostitution for that matter, since the law has generally not singled out either of them “as a distinct matter.” That is absurd. Let us assume, furthermore, that Lawrence is right to claim that Bowers overstated what the Court calls its “historical premises” about anti-sodomy laws.81 Even if this were true, it would be no more than a red herring. The Court’s perfectly plausible claim that the states have not aggressively and consistently punished homosexual conduct does not advance one whit the argument that a right to homosexual sex specifically, or nonprocreative sex in general, is deeply Rooted in the Nation’s history and tradition.
The Lawrence decision's claims are, however, false. One of these claims is that laws prohibiting homosexual sodomy separately from heterosexual sodomy are of recent origin, and that colonial laws prohibited all non-procreative sex equally. This is simply not true. See here for several examples.
If Rush Limbaugh Ran This Story...
Liberals would call him a racist for making it up. But no, an NAACP official is making the case that blacks should have different property tax rates than whites: RALEIGH -- Civil rights lawyer Alan McSurely argued before the state Court of Appeals on Tuesday that Orange County's colorblind assessment of property taxes discriminates against his client, who traces his roots to the slaves owned by the family of a state Supreme Court justice.
Thanks to Discriminations for pointing out this insanity.
McSurely argued that the tax methods need to take into account the history of discrimination against the family of Fred Battle, a leader in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP chapter and a retired Chapel Hill employee. McSurely said also that current methods for determining property values will push more blacks out of Chapel Hill.
McSurely contended that the county's tax methods violate the state constitution, which he argues goes beyond the U.S. Constitution, obligating government to take into account historical discrimination as well as the potential for future inequalities.
"We want for this court to find that this method is unconstitutional," McSurely told the three-judge panel. "It doesn't look backward, and it doesn't look forward."
In Chapel Hill's pricey housing market, the effect of colorblind tax assessment will be fewer blacks in Chapel Hill, McSurely argued. More black residents will be squeezed out, and it's unlikely they will be replaced by other blacks, he said.
I Guess There Is A Member of Congress Less Intelligent Than Lynne Woolsey (D-CA)
Maxine Waters (D-CA), makes the case for abortion rights thusly: Waters told the rallied, “I have to march because my mother could not have an abortion.”
Okay, okay, she might have meant, "Life was hard growing up because my mother couldn't get an abortion, and there were too many of us kids for her to support all of them." But it was still pretty funny to imagine Maxine Waters with access to a time machine, bringing her mother of 50 years ago into a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic and then POOF! Maxine Waters disappears in the present.
Thanks to Instapundit for the link.
Toyota's "They Grow Up So Fast" Commercial
You've probably seen it. A little girl of about 8 or 9 is saying, "Before you know it, you'll be walking me down the aisle." A little boy of about the same age is saying, "Before you know it, I'll be away at college." The narrator reminds you that the trips that you go on with your children will be the sort of trips on which they will take their children. It is a commercial that puts a big lump in my throat. Toyota is trying to sell us on the virtues of buying one of their SUVs for family vacations. (Helpful financial hint: You can rent an SUV or minivan for three weeks vacation for about the amount of two car payments, and drive a more reasonably priced and fuel efficient car the rest of the year.)
The commercial is true. They do grow up so fast. I'll be walking my daughter down the aisle this July. My son is still at home, but he has reached the age where he really doesn't want to go on trips with his family. (Around 13 or 14, most kids go through a stage where they pretend that they were hatched, and don't know who you are.)
I can't say that I have a lot of regrets on this score. We took our kids on some pretty neat vacations: across the Southwest; across the Northwest; to Britain in 1999; Washington DC, Colonial Williamsburg, Philadelphia, New York City, Plymouth, and Niagara Falls in 2001; to Hawaii in 2002. We did traditional vacations, like Hawaii, and Yosemite, and Yellowstone. We did untraditional ones: camping in the middle of Nevada to the sound of coyotes; submachine gun class at Front Sight. We went to the places that every family goes (at least in movies): Old Faithful; Grand Canyon; Niagara Falls; Disneyland; the Smithsonian. We went to places that represent our somewhat unconventional approach to things: the Great Meteor Crater in Arizona; ghost towns in California and Nevada.
The only real regret that I have is that we never did a cross country trip like the 1967 vacation that I went on with my parents and my sister Marilyn. We drove from Los Angeles to Expo 67 in Montreal, visiting (sometimes rather hurriedly) 37 states and 4 Canadian provinces in 17 days. Still, I was able to take my kids to Britain, and that's one trip my parents didn't really have the resources to do.
They do grow up so fast. Don't let anything get in the way of vacations with your family. Don't tell yourself, "We can do this next year." Yes, you might, but there are magic ages in your child's life. I remember when we visited the Grand Canyon, my kids were just a little too young to really appreciate the majesty of it--they just wanted to get back to the motel with a pool. (So two years later, we bought a house with a pool--and I used it more than they did.) Your kids will reach an age faster than you imagine where they will look for ways to stay home with their friends instead of going anywhere with their parents.
Don't tell yourself, "This startup is going to make me so rich that I won't have to work, and we can spend more time on vacation." This is a delusion, one that I had, a long time ago. Even among engineers, the number that get that rich is tiny--perhaps one out of a thousand. This time that your children are small is fleeting and precious; don't kid yourself that you are going to have a lot more time while they remain young. The chances are essentially zero that this will happen to you.
Don't miss those opportunities; you won't get a second chance. There are going to be enough regrets as you look back on those years; don't add any that you can avoid.
