The advertising above is just a source of revenue. If the ads get offensive enough, I may drop them.
Clayton Cramer's BLOG |
|
|
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).
PayPal members: to make a contribution
Email me at blogmail at claytoncramer dot com. Sorry to be so indirect, but all spambots must die! But they haven't died yet! Include the word spamIamnot in your subject line to make sure that my spam blocker lets you through. |
Saturday, May 28, 2005
Islamic Violence & Fanaticism A reader points me to this article observing that the Islamic hatred of non-Muslims is not a modern response to America's pro-Israel policies, but goes back for centuries: Teaching Muslim school children anti-infidel jihad hatred is a lengthy, continuous, and ignoble tradition even within the modern era. As the great linguist and scholar E. W. Lane reported after several years of residence in both Cairo and Luxor (initially in 1825-1828, then in 1833-1835), [1]Fascinating. A culture based on murder and theft. No wonder the only significant wealth that the Arab world has created in modern times is based on expropriation of oil fields originally developed by Westerners. Well Drilling & The Caliber Question Jim (don't know the last name--he goes to church with me, so it is strictly first name) the well driller started today. I went out to see how it was going, and as I walked towards the drilling rig, I wasn't sure that it was even going, until I saw diesel exhaust. The rig, once fully erected, stands out.  The second truck carries 1200 gallons of water (used to lubricate the drilling bit as it cuts through rock) and a collection of drill extensions and casing. The drill extensions screw into each other, allowing the drill bit to keep going down. The casings go into the hole to prevent the rock from collapsing in, once the drill is removed. Jim tells me some rock is strong enough that it doesn't require casing, but this sandstone does. I am not surprised--it crumbles very easily. Air pumped to the bottom of the hole forces the mixture of drilling foam, water, and pulverized rock to the surface, where it comes out looking like bad chocolate pudding.  I asked Jim when he knew that he had reached water. Apparently instead of coming out thick, it gets very runny, because the water in the formation overwhelms the small amount of water he is putting down the hole. When I arrived, he was at 67 feet, of which the first 33 feet were this beautiful organic-rich soil with some basalt rocks (apparently from up the hill), and the rest was sandstone (although it is just wet sand when it comes out). While I was there, he added another drilling extension, and went another six to ten feet down. I am expecting water at about 120 feet, based on the experiences of others in similar formations nearby. Here's Jim's assistant, also a licensed well driller, with their miracle child, Pearl--born after sixteen years of trying for children, with all the medical assistance possible, and then giving up. Jim gave a powerful testimony in church a few months back to the importance of trusting God when the desires of your heart aren't being met.  My wife and I returned in the evening, having not heard from him--and we found that the bad chocolate pudding mound was a lot larger and runnier. There were now bags of bentonite (used for sealing around the bore hole at the surface to prevent surface water contamination). The winch was no longer on the drill extension side of the support truck, but on the casing side--and it seemed as though a number of the casings were now missing. I think this means that he hit water within an hour or two of my leaving. I haven't heard from Jim, but I expect to know tomorrow. We climbed the hill to look at the neighboring property--and met our neighbors with the airstrip at the top of the hill. They confirmed that there are predators (other than mosquitoes) in the area. They were chased across a barbed wire fence "over there" by a black bear, and they have seen a cougar drinking at the pond about 300 feet from our property line. Foxes and badgers abound. We look forward to seeing them. We mean them no harm, but we aren't insufferably dense bunny-huggers, so... What are considered reliable handgun cartridges for short range defensive use on black bear and cougar? The Smith & Wesson in .44 Magnum would certainly be sufficient, but it is a bit clumsy for my wife to carry when hiking. Is .45 ACP JHP sufficient for black bear, or would FMJ be required for sufficient penetration to hit vital organs for an immediate cessation of hostilities? What about cougar? I know that these are thin skinned animals, and smaller than the two-legged predators that we usually worry about, but unlike a criminal, who is likely to be deterred from continuing an attack by fear of bleeding to death, a cougar may not. Is there a reliable stopping choice in a handgun caliber? UPDATE: I spoke to Jim this morning. At 127 feet they hit water. He thinks it is only about five gallons per minute--adequate, but he believes that going a little deeper might get us a higher flow rate. Labels: house project Friday, May 27, 2005
Why I Probably Won't Go See Star Wars: Episode 3 This review by the Daily Spork captures both the repellent politics that have completely inverted what made episodes 4-6 so attractive when they came out, and the declining powers of the scriptwriters: Suicide or Episode III: The Choice Made EasyFrom all the reviews that I have seen, George Lucas took the many themes that made Star Wars such a refreshing and powerful hit in 1977--and turns them upside. These themes in 1977 had been completely destroyed by Hollywood's 1960s obsession with antiheroes and moral relativism. Films such as Star Wars, The Wind and the Lion (1975), and Death Wish (1974), were all wildly popular, to the horror of film critics, because they bucked this trend. What were the themes that Lucas has apparently abandoned, now that he is filthy rich, and is therefore obligated to move hard left? 1. Good and evil are real. Few people are completely good, and few are completely evil, but you don't have to go far from the middle of the bell curve for the difference to become apparent. 2. Violence is best avoided, but there are things worse than violence in a righteous cause. 3. Don't be terrified of death--it is one of the most powerful tools of tyrants. A hero risks death because he knows that it is not an end--and those who become evil to add another day to their lives might as well be dead already. Wireless Broadband Services I am a little frustrated that there is no broadband service available at the new house. There is no cable TV, so no cable internet service. The phone company can't offer DSL (too far from the central office)--but they can offer T1 service, for about $900 a month (a bit much, I think). Even though most of the wireless broadband providers have their antennas on top of Bogus Basin ski resort, which is line of sight--no one apparently has their antennas pointed in our direction. I'm told that the only satellite broadband service that works well is the Hughes service--and it is expensive and slow. Any suggestions? Broadband access isn't quite as critical as water, electricity, or roads, but the prospect of working through a dialup connection just makes me less inclined to go online. Why Are Republicans Taking Over The United States? Because they are marrying, with plans of having kids. For example, these two prominent troublemaking bloggers (Master of None and The Daily Spork) announce their engagement. Knife Control: What's Next? Britain already has pretty strict laws on the carrying of knives, and quite a number of controls on the sales of particular types of knives. This isn't too surprising; the effect of strict gun control laws (along with causing a large market for smuggled guns) is to increase the percentage of murders committed with knives. (You might almost think that the problem has to do with the people holding the weapons, not the weapons themselves.) Still, progress continues: A team from West Middlesex University Hospital said violent crime is on the increase - and kitchen knives are used in as many as half of all stabbings.Wouldn't it be simpler to require all food be sold in bite-sized chunks? Of course, once they take away all the long pointed knives, there are still hands, feet, frying pans, etc. I rather doubt that it is illegal to buy or even carry a frying pan in Britain. I used to have a very nice little cast iron frying pan that was small enough to carry concealed--and I'm sure that it could be used to kill someone quite easily, if swung with some enthusiasm. I think the only real solution is to mandate "public safety suits." These would be a modern version of the chastity belt. These would enclose your feet, hands, and head with approximately one foot of soft foam rubber, which would prevent you from causing any harm to another person by the use of personal weapons. To make sure that you didn't strangle someone, the foam would cover the entire hand like large and very clumsy gloves. Because they would prevent you from holding heavy objects, we wouldn't have to ban frying pans, large desk telephones, portable typewriters, or any of the other "weapons" suited to creating blunt trauma. Now, I recognize that there is danger remaining from all those teeth, and I think even Britons might object to mandatory face masks in the style of Hannibal Lector's prison garb. Still, it is very difficult to bite someone to death, so I think we can safely leave the mouth free. UPDATE: As a reader points out about the dangers of teeth: "I believe the general standard of dental care in the UK has already taken care of the last problem you mention." Seriously: when I was there in 1999, I was utterly dumbfounded how so many people could have such crummy teeth. It was like an only slightly milder form of the Ozark redneck stereotype. Unlike the BBC, the Scotsman actually went out and asked chefs if long pointed kitchen knives could be banned: Restaurateurs and chefs reacted angrily to suggestions of banning kitchen knives. Malcolm Duck, chairman of the Edinburgh Restaurateurs Association, said: "Kitchen knives are designed for a purpose. It would be like asking a surgeon to perform an operation with a bread knife instead of a scalpel. Anything in the house like a cricket bat could be used as weapon in the hands of an idiot."Oh, and this quote from those who would be responsible for enforcing the kinder, gentler police state: Chief Superintendent Tom Buchan, president of the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents, said although a ban on sharp, pointed kitchen knives would be welcome, it could be difficult to enforce.Really? I don't know Scotsmen ended up with daggers before factories were invented. Viagra & Blindness This report indicates the FDA is investigating a connection: Federal health officials are examining rare reports of blindness among some men using the impotence drug Viagra.To paraphrase the punch line from joke that I suspect most men of my generation know: "Can I use Viagra until I need glasses?" Thursday, May 26, 2005
The House Project: I Think We Have Finalized The Floor Plan It has transformed into a four bedroom, three bath house with a four car garage (two wide, two deep, so really two cars and a lot of storage). It turns out that while we do need some pit run to make a road base for part of our driveway--we won't have to buy any. The rock dredged up while grading the house platform is exactly what we need. This knocks several thousand dollars off the driveway. Labels: house project You Can't Take It With You... But you can leave it for someone else to enjoy: THOMPSON FALLS - The distance between Thompson Falls High School and the sun is about 93 million miles. Labels: telescopes The End of Free Speech Oriana Fallaci is an aged leftist journalist. Unlike many of her ideological compatriots of the 1970s, she has remained true to her vision of what the world should be--and it isn't a world where women are reduced to second-class citizenship, or where mass murderers deserve excuses and apologetics. Not surprisingly, the modern left is doing its best to suppress her writings against Islamofascism: ROME (Reuters) - A judge has ordered best-selling writer and journalist Oriana Fallaci to stand trial in her native Italy on charges she defamed Islam in a recent book.If this reeks of the college speech codes that leftists love so much, yes, exactly. Here is a translation of the eighteen passages that the left now wants suppressed by criminal prosecution. Do these statements "incite religious hatred"? Well, probably. But so does knowing that if terrorists set off a WMD in an American city, killing tens of thousands of people, the odds are pretty high that at least one member of the cell will be named Mohammed. Which do you think incites more religious hatred of Muslims? Fallaci's book? Or 9/11? Or the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993? Or the attack on the U.S. embassies in East Africa (which killed and wounded thousands--most not even Americans)? Or the hell of Muslim slums in France? Or the genital mutilation of Islamic women (and not just in the Third World, either)? I guess one of the most startling aspects of Islamic fanaticism is the extent to which the fanatics can't tolerate criticism. One of the tipoffs of how radically different our worldviews are is this demonstration by followers of an Iraqi cleric whose turban is wound too tight: NAJAF, Iraq (AP) - Thousands of Shiites, many waving Islam's holy book over their heads, protested the U.S.-led occupation in Iraq on Friday, setting off clashes in at least one southern city as they answered a call by an anti-American Shiite cleric to paint Israeli and American flags on the ground and stomp on them.Am I happy to see these idiots insulting our flag? No. It stirs strong feelings in me, so much so that I just have to...laugh. Clearly, this flag stomping was designed to enrage U.S. forces and American public opinion so that they would overreact--in the same way that Newsweek's bogus claims of Koran desecration caused Muslims to start rioting--and killed other Muslims. In the U.S., liberals were just thrilled at having the government fund art intended to offend Catholics (the crucifix in urine, the Madonna in elephant dung). These are about the same level of offensiveness as the supposed flushing of the Koran. These art exhibits made Catholics upset--so much so that these narrow-minded sorts wanted the government to stop taxing them to fund insults. I must have missed the Catholics who, incensed over these insults, started riots that left scores dead. There comes a certain moment when you find yourself asking one simple question: Is there something about Islam or Arab culture that prevents little boys from growing up? This level of rage over symbols suits an eight year old better than an adult. UPDATE: A reader points me to a table excerpted from a book titled IQ and the Wealth of Nations that uses intelligence test results from many different nations, and finds a correlation between average intelligence and national wealth. The correlation isn't perfect, and you can read a discussion of the inevitable flaws and problems of such a study here. Still, it is interesting that average IQ scores for Egypt, Iran, and Iraq, are all noticeably below the average for the rest of the world. Before you accuse me of "racism," let me point out that some societies do a fine job of encouraging smart people to move to them--like the United States. This is why if I go for a walk in the evenings, I will large numbers of East Indians with degrees in computer science and electrical engineering playing cricket in Boise parks. Other countries do a fine job of encouraging smart people to leave. Imagine that you were a smart person who lived in Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Unless you enjoyed torturing people, your opportunities for advancement in that society were somewhat limited compared to moving almost anywhere else. What Is A Human Life Worth? I like to use this as an example of the problem of health care: Are you willing to spend $1 to save someone's life? Very few people would refuse a dollar to save a life. What about $10? At this point, a few people will start to ask questions. Who is this person? What is their problem? At $100, the hemming and hawing starts. At $1000, most people will say, "Who is this person? And why isn't their insurance company handling this?" At $10,000, you need a strong case, and at $100,000--well, most people simply can't afford this--even for a loved one. This isn't a abstract example, at least in Britain: life- prolonging treatment to every patient who demands it because that would mean a crippling waste of resources, the Government said yesterday.So much for the superiority of government-run British health care. Still, this is the problem that the dramatic improvement in medical care the last few decades raises: extraordinary health care leads to extraordinary expenses. What is a life worth? The House Project: Beyond Dreams I mentioned earlier today that I managed to drive all the way to the house site on my rather steep property because the excavators now have a driveway roughed in. Here are some pictures. My friend Jim the well driller managed to get his drilling rig almost all the way up the hill to my property line before the mud won.  Big boy toys: a Caterpillar D7 that hauled the well drilling rig out of the mud, and cut a nice little spot where we are going to drill for water.  Yes, this is the West. There's my general contractor, Scott Fenwick, headed off on his environmentally friendly all terrain vehicle to get some wire cutters.  Here they have started excavating the pad for the house. You can see the mixture of basalt rock and clay.  And looking north towards Horseshoe Bend. This is about where the kitchen will be--but it will have more of a view than this, being up a bit higher.  The floor plans that we keep altering--probably until they start putting in the floor joists.  Looking down the driveway from about 2/3 of the way up to the house:  Wildflowers. Lots of wildflowers.   The orange-yellow daisy looking flowers are called Arrowleaf Balsamroot. Another flower that I've shown you in the past is called the Foothills Death Camas, for what it does to cattle that eat its pods. Labels: house project Wednesday, May 25, 2005
The Hate Crimes Fallacy Classical Values makes a reasoned argument against "hate crimes": where the government makes a minor crime like murder more serious because it is motivated by prejudice: First of all, common sense tells us that a swastika on a synagogue is not the same thing as graffiti scrawled on a downtown wall. Any judge who did not sentence the swastika painter to the maximum term would be derelict in his duty. But that is a sentencing consideration; it doesn't change the nature of the crime, which (fortunately) manifested itself as graffiti instead of violence. If the legislature made it a crime to paint a swastika on a synagogue (without the consent of the synagogue, of course), that law would not violate equal protection. But criminalizing conduct based on the political beliefs of the offender does. Let's assume the swastika was painted by a street anarchist or agent provocateur with a view towards turning people against each other, or a Communist hoping the swastika would be blamed on neo-Nazis. Would not the synagogue's congregation be just as terrorized and oppressed? Suppose it was a Muslim who believed passionately that Israel is the moral equivalent of Nazism. Should he be treated differently than another Muslim who believed Hitler and the Holocaust were right? And further, should these Muslims be treated any differently than a white American skinhead? For the life of me, I cannot understand why.He goes on to point out one interesting case that I had not considered in this regard: I think it is better to punish the crime, and not get into the politics behind it. To give another illustration, the ACLU defended the right of uniformed Nazis to march -- in full Nazi regalia, with Nazi flags, through the heavily Jewish retirement community of Skokie, Illinois. I would be willing to bet that some of the elderly Jews felt just as terrorized and oppressed as they would have felt had one of those same Nazis spray-painted a swastika on their synagogue. In fact, a good argument could be made that a uniformed marching group is far more oppressive than a lone coward wielding a spray can at night. Yet the elements considered off limits and irrelevant as protected free speech become an integral element of a new crime even though they are otherwise protected by the First Amendment? Am I alone in thinking this is an anomaly?I think the real problem is that if all violent crimes were treated as serious matters--say, 15 years in prison for 2nd degree murder, seven years in prison for manslaughter, one year for assault with a deadly weapon, 90 days in jail for assault and battery--then there would be a good bit less violent crime. Why? Because the people that commit these crimes would be sitting in jail cells. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, liberalism applied the following syllogism to its theory of criminal justice: 1. Violent criminals are disproportionately black. 2. Being black is not something that you choose. 3. Blacks are victims of individual racism (not anywhere near as true as it used to be, but still depressingly often true). 4. Blacks are victims of institutional racism (not true at all anymore, but it was very true back when liberals constructed this explanation). 5. Black violent criminals are therefore victims of individual and institutional racism, and should be given a break when it comes to sentencing. 6. It is unlawful and immoral to treat white violent criminals more harshly than black violent criminals. 7. Therefore, we will do our best to make sure that violent criminals, regardless of race, are not subjected to severe punishment. This was a terribly absurd set of results. This is why someone like Richard Alan Davis could commit so many serious felonies, and yet keep getting released--until he murdered Polly Klaas. So what happened when the liberal belief that criminals shouldn't be punished severely ran into situations where the crime was against members of specially designated victim groups? Rather than admit that murder, rape, and aggravated assault deserve severe punishment, liberals decided that these horrible crimes deserved severe punishment if they were against groups that liberals cared about. Now, for the same reason as #6 above, liberals couldn't enhance the punishment for crimes just against blacks, or just against homosexuals. Instead, they had to make these into "hate crimes," where prejudice based on race, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation (real or perceived) was given an enhanced punishment. It was not because state legislators believed that there was something especially heinous about attacking a person because he was straight, or because he was white, or because he was a Protestant. They just couldn't figure out a way to punish a "hate criminal" without making the law equal in its protections. Wouldn't have just been simpler to make violent attacks on anyone into a serious crime? Consider if some criminal attacks me on the street because of one of the following reasons: 1. he hates white people; 2. he hates Republicans; 3. he is an idiot and thinks I'm gay. Why is it any more frightening or dangerous than if he attacks me because: 1. he thinks I have $500 in my wallet; 2. because the Martians are sending him signals that tell him to kill me; 3. because he is drunk out of his mind, got fired this morning, and can't punch out his boss? It doesn't matter. This criminal needs to be locked up because he isn't civilized, sensible, or sane enough to be outside a cage. Instapundit Needs to Get Out More In the midst of calling the filibuster compromise a political turning point, Instapundit argues: Americans, for the most part, don't share in the reflexive hostility to religion found in the upper reaches of journalism and the academy. On the other hand, Americans don't like self-righteous busybodies -- whether of the PC left or the religious right -- telling them how to live, either.Now, the definition of "far more religiously determined lines" is somewhat imprecise--but I would think that constitutional amendments defining marriage as "one man, one woman" and banning same-sex marriage would fit that definition rather well. Isn't it interesting, then, that in every state where such amendments were before the voters last year, these measures passed, often by 50 point margins? Even in states like Oregon, which are notoriously socially liberal, this measure passed, and it wasn't even a close vote: 57-43. If Instapundit means that most Americans don't want to live in Nathaniel Hawthorne's Puritan Boston, well, sure. But that's not quite the same as the libertarian idea that all moral values are equally valid. Recovering Rapidly I'll have pictures from the house building project later today. I was able to drive the Corvette up the just roughed in driveway to the house site. (The vehicle ahead of me--a Caterpillar D7--was very impressed!) Labels: house project Monday, May 23, 2005
Sick There won't be any activity here today (or maybe even tomorrow). I've come down with some sort of flu or nasty cold. Everything hurts. |
