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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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Friday, November 12, 2004
Does Anyone Remember The Murder of "Kitty" Genovese? Reading a news story like this brings it back: CORONA, Calif. — Two men were caught on a mall's security camera as they chased a woman through a parking structure, then grabbed and stuffed her into the trunk of a car.I suppose it is no coincidence that the New York City murder of "Kitty" Genovese in front of 38 witnesses, and a kidnapping in which bystanders took no steps to stop this crime, both took place in places with very restrictive gun control laws. I can't really blame the bystanders; step into a situation like that, and there's a good chance that the bad guys will shoot or stab you. (For some odd reason, people prepared to commit felonies like kidnapping don't pay much attention to laws about concealed carry of guns and knives.) More Wicked Satire at Scrappleface About Arafat Read it all: (2004-11-12) -- U.S. President George Bush today praised Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat for "assuming a new attitude," according to a White House spokesman. Five Months Working Out at the Gym I haven't lost any appreciable weight--but looking at a team picture from last year, I am noticeably thinner. When I gave blood today, they took my blood pressure--and it was 108/80. According to this web site, a normal blood pressure for an adult is 120/80. Since I am still carrying about 35 pounds more than I should (according to this table), I guess that's a pretty good sign of my cardiovascular fitness. Madonna's New Book This news article about Madonna's new children's book contains an illuminating observation: "Lotsa de Casha" (search) will be released next summer, the singer's publisher, Nicholas Callaway, said Wednesday.Shouldn't the greyhound only have one name? Well, okay, Maddona's full name is Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone, but everyone knows her as Madonna; the greyhound should be named Lotsa. If Madonna's obscene wealth, much of it made from music videos that she would not want her kids to see, isn't making her happy, she could give most of it away. (I'll be glad to help her find places to give it.) Thursday, November 11, 2004
Speaking Ill of the Dead I generally avoid speaking ill of the dead, but let's not forget that Arafat was a terrorist. There are some legitimate complaints that the Palestinians had, but Arafat's methods of getting "attention" involved murdering civilians, hijacking airliners, and then blowing them up. See here for a discussion of the absurdity of the nice things that everyone is saying about him now. How To Waste $73 Million From a New York Post Deborah Orin column about why the Democrats lost: Democrats also outsourced a big chunk of their vote and ad operations to groups funded by Soros & Co.I don't know if the number is accurate, but it is a good reminder that Democrats use the same approach in elections that they use in government--just throw money at it, and maybe it will go away. Wednesday, November 10, 2004
Nice To Hear This One of the friends living in Blue State America who asked me to explain the dark force that took over America on Election Day (since he wasn't going to hear it from anyone there): Right now my lefty friends are so hysterical I can't even converse with them. Thank you for being gracious in victory; and thanks for sharing your insights.I'm blogging this just for those of you who watch my blog because you consider me a dangerous lunatic. What If Roe v. Wade (1973) Were Overturned? Blackstone's Commentaries of the Laws of England argues that one of the rights of Englishmen included "the right to life"--but in a considerably more restricted form than would not make the most extreme pro-lifers happy: Life is the immediate gift of God, a right inherent by nature in every individual; and it begins in contemplation of law as soon as an infant is able to stir in the mother’s womb. For if a woman is quick with child, and by a potion, or otherwise killeth it in her womb; or if any one beat her, whereby the child dieth in her body, and she is delivered of a dead child; this, though not murder, was by the antient law homicide or manslaughter. But at present it is not looked upon in quite so atrocious a light, though it remains a very heinous misdemeanor.An original intent argument would recognize that first trimester abortions were a right clearly protected by the Ninth Amendment from federal interference. You could also make a strong original intent argument that first trimester abortion is a right protected from the states as well under the Ninth Amendment as a right "retained by the people." It appears that the states used the common law definition of abortion (see Blackstone above) until at least 1828 (pp. 5-6) when New York adopted a more restrictive measure, and all states had done so by 1900. Still, an original intent argument would leave first trimester abortions protected from state regulation, based on the state of abortion laws in 1789. By the time the Fourteenth Amendment was passed in 1868, at least some states were definitely prohibiting first trimester abortions, but I'm not sure that it changes anything. The Fourteenth Amendment arguments based on incorporation (selective or full) and equal protection would seem to leave the existing protection of first trimester abortion untouched. (This section is here mostly because I found it interesting, and because I found it before I found other parts that demolished the argument that I was going to draw from this.) Examples: Archives of Maryland, 142:2652 passim, which explicitly includes abortion at any stage: That any person who shall knowingly advertise, print, publish, distribute or circulate, or knowingly cause to be advertised, printed, published, distributed or circulated, any pamphlet, printed paper, book, newspaper notice, advertisement or reference containing words or language, giving or conveying any notice, hint or reference to any person, or to the name of any person real or fictitious, from whom ; or to any place, house, shop or office, when any poison, drug, mixture, preparation, medicine or noxious thing, or any instrument or means whatever ; for the purpose of producing abortion, or who shall knowingly sell, or cause to be sold any such poison, drug, mixture, preparation, medicine or noxious thing or instrument of any kind whatever ; or where any advice, direction, information or knowledge may be obtained for the purpose of causing the miscarriage or abortion of any woman pregnant with child, at any period of her pregnancy, or shall knowingly sell or cause to be sold any medicine, or who shall knowingly use or cause to be used any means whatsoever for that purpose, shall be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary for not less than three years, or by a fine of not less than five hundred nor more than one thousand dollars, or by both, in the discretion of the Court....This was apparently a re-enactment of an existing abortion statute from 1867. Certainly, there is plenty of history of prosecutions for procuring abortions in Maryland, perhaps as early as 1657, where a "jury of women" examined "Elizabeth Robins": We found the Said Elizabeth in a very Sad Condition and in a Condition not like to other women, & Confessed that She had twiceThe Texas abortion statute passed in 1854 that was the ancestor of the statute challenged in Roe v. Wade (1973) clearly establishes that such laws were on the books in at least two states when the Fourteen Amendment was ratified. So what if the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade? What would the practical effect be? Remember that when the Supreme Court made this decision, elective first trimester abortions were available in five states, four by legislative action (New York, Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii) and one by judicial activism (California). An overturning of Roe would have no impact on those five states, and it seems likely that most of the other Blue States would retain their current laws. Remember that some states, such as California, have laws that are far less restrictive on abortion that Roe allows. To see an example of a Red State with an abortion law that is just about up to the bumper stops of what Roe allows a state to do, look at Idaho Code Title 18, Chapter 6. I suspect that even without Roe, some of the Red States would not change their current laws, simply because a complete ban on elective first trimester abortions would create too many difficult cases. Writing a statute that allowed the "popular" exceptions, such as rape, incest, severe deformities, would open up a hornet's nest of political questions. Still, let's not pretend that everything would be status quo; I have no question that at least some Red States would ban most elective first trimester abortions, ban partial-birth abortion, and probably ban second trimester abortions. But what, realistically, does that do? It means that abortion rights activists, instead of spending money on political campaigns and legal fees, could be spending it on transportation. The cost of a bus ticket from Las Vegas to Los Angeles isn't going to be that much, or Kansas City to Chicago. The only places where transportation costs to another state will be really high are Hawaii and Alaska--and both of those already allowed elective abortions in 1970. Yes, it will be a darn nuisance for women that want an abortion to take a day or two off work or school to get an abortion, but these aren't like getting a wart removed: I would expect that most women who have an abortion are expecting to spend a day or two recovering, anyway. I would also hope--unless the pro-choice forces have been misleading us about how often abortions are really needed--that this would be a once in a lifetime event. Unlike a lot of other rights, you don't need to exercise this every day, every week, or even every month. Now, the pro-choice forces insist that this is a right, and it should not be restricted in any manner at all. Gun rights activists have been making the same argument (and with a much stronger textual basis), and yet, we have generally accepted that as much as we might dislike the insane gun control laws of New York, California, and Massachusetts, it is better to have a patchwork of state laws, and Americans can move if they find a particular state's laws too burdensome, than to have a single federal law (or lack thereof) that fails to satisfy Californians for being too lax, and irritates Idahoans because it is far too strict. Labels: abortion This Went Out of Fashion More Than A Century Ago From an upset Democrat: I would like to fight a Bush supporter to vent my anger. If you are one, have a fiery streek, please contact me so we can meet and physically fight. I would like to beat the [expletive deleted] out of you.I'm hoping that this is parody, but I fear that it is not. Interesting headline on that web page: Straight male seeks Bush supporter for fair, physical fight - m4mWhy does his sexual orienation matter? I thought he was looking for a fight. Color Me Green With Envy Combining two telescopes to make binoculars has become all the rage among amateur telescope makers the last few years. The most outrageous example I have seen involved two 25" reflectors. This ad, however, may take the cake for most money spent, and best taste in equipment: The 130 f/6 is renowned as the best all around 5" scope made. Unparelleled for performance, quality and workmanship, the Astro-physics 130 f/6 has been the standard that all other brands strive to match. The f/6 is the perfect combination of fast focal length for photography and wide field views and yet still perform to unmatched high power visual observation. As most of you know, these are now out of production. I have two scopes from the same run, with the same batch of glass, same coatings, only ten serial numbers apart and are virtually identical. ... I was considering making these a phenomenal pair of binoculars, but have decided my viewing conditions just don't warrant equipment like this.And you can have the pair for $10,800! Labels: telescopes More Wicked Satire From Scrappleface Concerning Senator Specter's "warning" to Bush about pro-life nominees: Sen. Arlen Specter, R/D-PA, today retracted previous remarks on judicial nominees which "may have been ill-conceived." All Michael Moore Fans Need To Explain This To Me Michael Moore has called the Fallujah "insurgents" the moral equivalent of the Minutemen. Odd. But I don't recall reading about the Minutemen taking relatives of General Gage hostage, and threatening to kill them: BAGHDAD, Iraq — Two members of the Iraqi prime minister's family were abducted from their Baghdad home, his spokesman said Wednesday, and militants said they would be beheaded in two days if their demands are not met.Michael Moore's defense of terorrists has gone on long enough. When will the American left repudiate this sort of behavior--and Michael Moore? Apparently never. Clouded Judgment There is a legitimate argument for decriminalizing various drugs, and then there is the oversimplified form of the argument that these drugs don't cause harm to anyone but the user. But how do we explain arguments like this? Madison County Attorney Joe Smith had argued that no killer on Nebraska's death row had so many victims as Galindo and his accomplices.The fact of the matter is that quite a number of intoxicants (including legal ones, like alcohol) do have very obvious effects on behavior, causing people to take actions that they might otherwise not have done. There is an argument that says that the damage done by criminalization is more serious than the destruction caused by impaired judgment. This might well be true (a question of fact that needs to be proved)--but the libertarian and liberal arguments for decriminalization would be both more accurate, and less effective, if they included these complicating details. Extraordinary Arrogance Michael Williams describes something that is so Blue State: When I get home from work I want to go inside and relax, I don't want to collect hundreds of papers from my front porch advertising products I could easily find for myself if I had any desire for them. If I want to buy a house, sell a house, install new windows, paint my house, order pizza, order chinese food, or vote for something I certainly don't need a door flyer to empower me. Normally I just leave the crap there and throw it away the next morning when I leave for work. I don't even like checking my mail when I get home, and most of that's crap too.This is not a way to get someone to buy your service. Remember The Woody Allen Movie Sleeper? Remember the "Orgasmatron" in that movie? A doctor in North Carolina using a spinal cord stimulator to help female patients with chronic back pain accidentally invented it: In a surgical procedure done in his office, Meloy implants the electrodes from this device into the back of the patient, at the bottom part of the spinal cord. When the electrodes are stimulated with a remote control, the brain interprets the signal as an orgasm, he said. The device is about the size of a pacemaker and can be turned on and off with a handheld remote control. Marks of Fanaticism It's when you lose the election by 3.5 million votes, even prominent Democrats admit that they lost--and you still insist that there was fraud: WASHINGTON, Nov. 9, 2004 -- There were minor voting irregularities on Election Day — long lines, voting machine breakdowns, shortages of provisional ballots — but some people are now leveling charges of voter fraud.To their credit, ABC News is treating these conspiracy theories as nonsense, and quotes Kerry campaign officials as agreeing that there is nothing to these claims. But the Democrats have their own equivalent of the "marks on the back of road signs to tell the UN soldiers where to go" lunatics. One of the dangerous moments in any political movement is when the activists get so out of touch with America that they start to think that they are the majority. Pauline Kael's famous 1972 remark comes to mind: "I don't know how Richard Nixon could have won.... I don't know anybody who voted for him." The Weather Underground and similar leftist revolutionary groups of the 1970s had the same problem: they were spending too much time talking to their professors and other grad students, and not enough time talking to ordinary people, and they imagined that the masses were ready to rise up against the government, with a little encouragement. Tuesday, November 09, 2004
The Scientology/IRS Lawsuit Again I blogged a while back about the bizarre situation where one religious institution has a special (and officially secret) tax break--and it isn't one of the churches that the left hates, but one that Hollywood loves. The lawsuit challenging this--well, actually asking if other religions can get in on this benefit--has gone to court: LOS ANGELES – An Orthodox Jewish couple believe the Internal Revenue Service should allow tax deductions for their children's religious schooling, a lawyer argued during the opening of a nonjury trial.Hey, good enough for Tom Cruise, good enough for the rest of us, right? Benighted Fundamentalists Suffering Consequences of Their Ignorance At least, I used to be told that almost every significant problem involved with sexual behavior (unwanted pregnancy, STDs, emotional damage, etc.) was caused by America's severe Puritanism that prevented us from being properly educated about sex. But this problem is in London, sophisticated post-Christian place that it is: The number of Londoners suffering sexually transmitted diseases has risen by more than a third, new figures reveal.Oh, and here's the solution: "Ministers have dithered and delayed," said the Liberal Democrat MP for Brent East. "The NHS needs to focus on prevention, not just treating symptoms. The answer has to be better education about sex within the context of relationships, and more accessible sexual health clinics."As a reader observes, Um, what's that popular definition of insanity? Something about "doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result"? Post-Election Mental Problems I had to check this article to make sure that it wasn't a parody from those fine folks at The Onion: More than a dozen traumatized John Kerry supporters have sought and received therapy from a licensed Florida psychologist since their candidate lost to President Bush, the Boca Raton News learned Monday.Now, I know how depressing it can be when the other side wins the election. I can remember it well, in 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996. (Yes, my candidate lost in every one of those elections. I've moved markedly to the left since 1992, now voting pretty consistently Republican.) But to the point where you need therapy to avoid suicide? This is not a good sign. UPDATE: This news story indicates that the man from Georgia who committed suicide at the World Trade Center was assumed to have done so because of the election, but the detailed suicide note gives no such indication. Floating Rate Bonds You are probably aware of TIPS (Treasury Inflation Protected Securities), which are U.S. government bonds whose capital value adjusts with inflation. I've always found the mechanism--adding to the value of the bond, rather than changing the interest rate paid--a little strange. Obviously, in an environment like we have now, where interest rates are going to be rising, you don't want a fixed-rate bond, unless it is very close to maturity; the capital value of the bond will drop as interest rates rise. GMAC (General Motors Acceptance Corporation, which does car financing, and I think real estate as well) is just starting to offer what seems like a more sensible floating rate bond. Instead of changing the capital value of the bond, the interest rate is the three month T-bill rate plus 200 basis points. At current rates, that would be 1.75% + 2.00%, or 3.75%. These are seven year bonds, with an S&P rating of BBB-, so compared to more conventional bonds, this isn't a spectacular return--but it does make an interesting alternative to having your money in money market funds, and with the added security that even the Fed dramatically raised interest rates over the next 6-12 months, you wouldn't be at much risk on the capital value of these bonds. Allstate is offering what I consider a much inferior floater as well. It matures in 2016, and guarantees 7.375% coupon for the first year--then the interest rate becomes 150% of the CPI change, adjusted monthly. Since the September 2004 CPI change was 0.2%, if rates stay like this, the yield would be 2.4% a year--really disappointing. I don't know who they expect is going to buy these. Monday, November 08, 2004
I'm Not Ordinarily Keen on Incitement to Riot Laws... But this certainly seems to cross the line, doesn't it? Detectives from the Metropolitan police's racial and violent crime taskforce have been analysing the lyrics of Sizzla, real name Miguel Collins, along with seven other dance hall artists, for several months over claims his songs incite people to kill gays and lesbians. Those Brits: Not Prudish At All Warning: An R-rated news story about at least an R-rated TV show. A new reality series on broadcast TV: 'I'm trying to wean myself off younger men'The gap between Europe and America seems to be widening all the time. It is beginning to remind me of science fiction stories I used to read where Earth people would find themselves having to adjust to radically different cultures on other planets. I Want To Put Up These Signs At The Borders... Welcome to Red States America. Don't demand that we recognize your "marriage", and we won't ask if you really want just one bed at the Motel 6. Welcome to Red States America. You don't want to come to church Sunday morning? Fine. We don't want to pay anyone that thinks a crucifix in urine is fine art. Welcome to Red States America. We don't have much gun control here. We don't really need it. Welcome to Red States America. Main Street is not a clothing optional zone. Welcome to Red States America. Utah gave up polygamy in 1890. Don't you be giving them any ideas. Taking Off the Straitjacket I am so pleased to see that narrow-minded sorts are taking the restraints off their history teachers, allowing a broader range of perspectives to be taught: GRANTSBURG, Wisconsin (AP) -- School officials have revised the history curriculum to allow the teaching of revisionist perspectives on American foreign policy, prompting an outcry from more than 300 elected officials who urged that the decision be reversed.Finally! The reactionary sorts are getting their comeuppance! Oh whoops! Some mischievous person changed a few words in that news story. I'm sorry. Here's the correct version: GRANTSBURG, Wisconsin (AP) -- School officials have revised the science curriculum to allow the teaching of creationism, prompting an outcry from more than 300 educators who urged that the decision be reversed.Hmmm. Suddenly, taking off the straightjacket that prevents teachers from examining "diverse perspectives" is a bad thing, isn't it? Now, I'm sure that some of you are going to point out that unlike history, where there is really is no objective truth, biology is quite different. Well, there is objective truth in biology--and in about the same way as there is in history. There are certain facts that are clearly true. FACT: Most animals have blood using hemoglobin, which shares the essential porphyrin ring of chlorophyll (but chlorophyll has a magnesium ion in the middle of the ring, not an iron ion). FACT: The Republican Party pushed for the abolition of slavery after the Civil War. The interpretations that you bring to these facts, of course, will be controversial, at least to some people. The evolutionist would say that the shared porphyrin ring is because of a common ancestry, or perhaps that this particular structure is so well-suited to the processes of distributing oxygen and dividing carbon dioxide back to oxygen and carbon, that random processes caused the same structure to be used in both cases. This is certainly a plausible explanation, if you buy the idea that this could have happened at random. The creationist would insist that God liked the design so much, that he re-used it. This is certainly a plausible explanation, if you buy the idea that there is a God who created life. Trying to prove that either is certainly correct is going to be rather difficult! The Republican Party's involvement in the abolition of slavery is also subject to differing controversial interpretations. Some would argue that Republican interest in abolishing slavery was because a significant faction of the party, the abolitionists, had done an effective job of appealing to the moral revulsion of Americans about slavery. A Marxian interpretation might argue that Republican opposition to slavery was because it was interfering with capitalist development of the South, preventing capitalists from fully exploiting the black workforce. Trying to "prove" either of these theories clearly right or wrong is going to be somewhat difficult. Just as we would be appropriately indignant at a school district that prohibited the teaching of evolution, we should be appropriately indignant at a school district that refuses to allow any other models to be discussed, considered, or taught. My guess is that any biology teacher that gave a fair presentation of the evidence for evolution vs. other models would persuade the students that evolution is clearly the most appropriate scientific model to use--but I would also expect that the less than overwhelming proof of the evolutionary model would be obvious to most of the students. Discussion of why some students cling to the theistic models could, depending on the students and the teacher, lead to some useful and illuminating discussions of how Darwin's idea were misused, producing really monstrous results. A little humility goes a long ways--and putting a white lab coat doesn't reduce the need for it. The Election Is Not Worth Killing Yourself Over It's a bit depressing being on the losing side of an election (been there, done that, most of my life) but this is quite sad and irrational: New York, NY, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Families of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks responded with shock after a Georgia man killed himself at Ground Zero over President Bush's re-election.Remember: if you kill yourself, you can't vote in the next election. (In Chicago, however, someone else may vote for you.) Dropping Oil Prices I've mentioned before my suspicion that George Soros may have intentionally manipulated oil prices to throw the election to Kerry--in particular, because Soros's Quantum Fund has a history of damaging national economies to satisfy Soros's greed, and Quantum Fund used to be a player in oil futures. Now I see this news report about dropping oil prices with an interesting statement: NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices dropped further from record highs on Monday, as easing concern about winter supplies prompted big-money hedge funds to switch money away from oil and into other financial markets.Gee, which hedge funds? It would be very interesting to see if one of those hedge funds--say, Quantum Fund--was out ahead of the rest, wouldn't it? Shocking Discovery: Professors Lie! A professor encourages lying: Marching order #1, therefore, is this: No matter whom you talk to outside our circles, begin to perpetuate the (false, exaggerated) notion that George Bush's victory was built not merely on values issues, but gay marriage specifically. If you feel a need to broaden it slightly, try depicting the GOP as a majority party synonymous with gay-haters, warmongers and country-clubbers.Professor Volokh is shocked--and apparently not in the "I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!" sense--to discover a professor intentionally spreading lies: A public call urging people to consciously, deliberately spread falsehood; and it turns out that the author is Tom Schaller, "associate professor of political science at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County," who has written for "the Baltimore Sun, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post and Salon."Professor Volokh's naivete on this (and a number of other issues) has always been a little perplexing to me--but this really makes me scratch my head. The Bellesiles scandal--and the many others that have popped up over at the last few years--are reminders that professors are definitely human, with some willing to lie for political or professional advantage. Does Professor Volokh think that the professional training of an academic takes away the human propensity towards sin? No Atheists in Foxholes Oddly enough, this comes from a French news service: With US forces massing outside Fallujah, 35 marines swayed to Christian rock music and asked Jesus Christ to protect them in what could be the biggest battle since American troops invaded Iraq last year. Sunday, November 07, 2004
What Does "Reality-Based Community" Mean? You aren't really cool on the left unless you pretend to be part of a "reality-based community." Over at Classical Values, Eric Scheie has an amusing description of what this latest piece of nonsense means to the left: Regular readers know how much I loathe labels, slogans and code-language. Perfectly good words are borrowed by various sorts of ideologues (left and right), with the result being that it's tougher and tougher to use once-ordinary words. "Family" is a perfect example which I have discussed before. A couple of years ago, some people started using the word "bright." "Choice" is another one. (Don't get me started on the word "values......") When this happens, my only resort is to tear out my hair (which is thinning, so I'd rather not), or complain to anyone who'll listen.Some of the comments from readers are even more amusing: My sister considers herself to be in the "Reality Based Community." I consider her delusional. I present as evidence the following exchange. My sister has refered to Bush as Hitler. In a series of e-mails I patiently explained that Bush couldn't be Hitler since Hitler was dead. He also couldn't be a "new Hitler" since the two men have policies almost diametrically opposed. Most significantly, Bush is attempting to replace genocidal dictatorships with secular democracies. Hitler did everything he could do to destroy democracies and replace them with genocidal dictators. I thought my sister might understand the difference. I also pointed out that Hitler was a starving artist who joined the National Socialist Party, supported gun control, abortion, government control of corporations, was an athiest with an affinity for paganism, hated Jews and allied himself with radical Muslims. I then noted that the Democratic Party, not the Republicans, had a platform which came closest to Hitler's. In other words, using objective reality, not delustional rantings, Hitler is closer politically to the Democrats than to Bush.And this one: As above commenters note, the term is used by Suskind and other secularists to slander Christians, who are seen as believing in the Iraq invasion, not because it makes sense, but because they think God wants us to invade Iraq. A more un-real view of conservative Christians would be hard to formulate. It is more of the in-your-face hypocrisy of the left, like lying that Bush lied. Bush Considering Former Black Panther For The Chief Justice Seat Yes, really. And he's considering one of those gun nuts who thinks the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms. So how many seats is going to fill? Just one. He's considering Clarence Thomas for the Chief Justice position. Labels: gun rights Colonial Bread Prices and Relative Wages I am preparing an article on the price of guns in Colonial America, and I find myself quite amazed at how much cheaper guns are today. The average value of a gun in Colonial America varies from around 13 shillings to as much as one pound, 16 shillings (depending on colony, year, and whether this is from probate inventories or purchase records). These are equivalent to four to eighteen days wages for skilled laborers (typically earning three shillings a day). This suggests that guns were relatively expensive compared to today. (Take a look at what the average skilled worker in America grosses, then multiply by four to eighteen--there will be few used guns--and few new ones--that you can't buy for that.) But when I start comparing the price of guns to bread back then, I get some very interesting results. I found a transaction involving a ship leaving Boston 1649 that bought 4200 1/4 pound loaves of bread, for £42, 5s. This calculates down to ten pence per pound of bread. That means that a skilled worker would have worked 1/4 of a day to buy a pound of bread--or half the day to buy a modern two pound loaf. It would appear that bread is far less expensive today than it was back then. Intelligent Design I am impressed how many of my readers worked all the way through my recent very long blog entry in order to politely and intelligently dispute my remarks about intelligent design theory. (Of course, since these are my readers, they are polite and intelligent.) Let me make a couple of points about this: 1. I have read some of the criticisms of Behe's intelligent design argument concerning organelles, and I have found them unpersuasive (although they are at least headed down a road that could become persuasive, with enough evidence). 2. As I pointed out some months back: I have had a very interesting exchange with a reader about this subject. If the advocates of the intelligent design argument are correct (that certain basic components of life do not appear to be the result of random processes, but show "intelligent design"), is this science? My answer is a qualified no.Intelligent design theory advocates have something of an unfair advantage; all they have to do is demonstrate that one aspect of life suggests a designer. We would still teach evolution in biology classes as a way to make predictions (because the vast majority of biological change would still be unintelligent), but it would impose some humility on how we teach biology. One of my readers tells me: Well, I am from the era when they were "certain". The newer speculation(s)about the mechanism (punctuated equilibrium for instance) had not been proposed yet. I went to school in the Houston Independent School District in the '60's and our proximity to NASA made our classes very thorough in all math and science subjects.It's a troubling problem, because the reaction to Revealed Truth evolution has been either Young Earth Creationism, or nothing at all. My wife taught at a fundamentalist Christian middle school in California--where, if the textbook had been the entire basis for teaching biology, she wouldn't have bothered. It was full of insulting and often inaccurate portrayals of Darwinian evolution. What she and I did to handle this was to get students started on a discussion of the purpose of science. Our goal was for the students to understand evolutionary theory (because they were certainly going to need to understand it when they went to college), and also to understand that a theory may be a useful predictive model, without necessarily being 100% correct. As a chemistry professor of mine at USC suddenly and inexplicably pointed out during a lecture about electron clouds: "We really have no idea what's going on at the subatomic level. There could be angels dancing on the heads of pins, for all we know. But it's a model that works for predicting what's going to happen, and that's all that science really is: a method of predicting things." Unfortunately, there are people out there for whom science is Truth with a capital T--and they are as troubled by teaching evolution as a predictive model, as Young Earth Creationists are by the prospect that our planet is more than 10,000 years old. Labels: intelligent design Be Careful The Analogies You Draw Professor Lindgren points out that the liberals who are imagining that they are getting ready to refight the Scopes trial of 1925--in the words of David Brooks: It's ridiculous to say, as some liberals have this week, that we are perpetually refighting the Scopes trial, with the metro forces of enlightenment and reason arrayed against the retro forces of dogma and reaction.have it wrong. Lindgren quotes from the textbook that Scopes was teaching from--and some of it is so offensive that no liberal would even allow it in a classroom today, much less allow a teacher to use it as a textbook: The Races of Man. — At the present time there exist upon the earth five races or varieties of man, each very different from the other in instincts, social customs, and, to an extent, in structure. These are the Ethiopian or negro type, originating in Africa; the Malay or brown race, from the islands of the Pacific; The American Indian; the Mongolian or yellow race, including the natives of China, Japan, and the Eskimos; and finally, the highest type of all, the caucasians, represented by the civilized white inhabitants of Europe and America.Now, Lindgren makes the observation that Here 1920s science was right about the basics of evolution, but was wrong about social Darwinism and white genetic supremacy and was immoral to advocate eugenics.I am always amazed at the strange and often racist role that evolutionary theory has played in Western civilization. From my book Black Demographic Data, 1790-1860: A Sourcebook p. 36: Reginald Horsman’s Race and Manifest Destiny: The Origins of American Racial Anglo-Saxonism describes how Enlightenment notions of the essential equality of mankind declined between 1800 and 1850. Where the Enlightenment had seen national differences as historical accidents of relatively minor importance, Romanticism glorified nationalism and localism; Enlightenment rationalism gave way to Romantic glorification of emotion. [Reginald Horsman, Race and Manifest Destiny: The Origins of American Racial Anglo-Saxonism (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1981), 158.] These changes in European belief merged with the American need for an ideology to justify slavery, the removal of the Indians, and the Mexican War. The emerging “science” of phrenology (i.e., determining personality and intellectual capacity by measuring the shape of the skull) also encouraged this belief in racial difference.Creationists often attack Darwinian evolution for promoting Social Darwinism, and its activist offspring, eugenics and the Holocaust. If evolution is true, it does not matter if it gives birth to ugly and evil theories. But it is a bit amusing to consider the same crowd that argues that truth is a social construct reflecting the dominant class's race, economic interest, and ethnicity defending evolutionary thought, with the really dark results that it has sometimes produced. The experience of my wife and I going through California primary and secondary schools was that teachers often taught evolution in a dogmatic manner, as a Revealed Truth. Even today, there are some serious questions from serious scientists, such as Biochemistry Professor Michael Behe, that simply do not get taken seriously in how evolution is taught. Confronting some of these questions would not only get away from this Revealed Truth approach to teaching biology, it would also bring a little humility into this subject--a recognition that there remain some significant and important questions about the mechanisms of evolution. Labels: intelligent design |
