Tuesday, February 19, 2002- - -
I’ve noticed that you could graph when everyone on the coasts gets to work and when they take coffee breaks, just by the slowdown on Blogger.
@12:04 PM
Speaking of Cheese-eating Surrender Monkeys here’s a good example from the Northern Wyoming Daily News:
Woody Paige, the irrepressible sports columnist for the Denver Post, yes the one who called Invesco Field at Mile High the ‘Denver Diaphragm,’ (it looks like one and that’s what the people at Invesco called it secretly) has had his article from February 12th yanked. Purged. Flushed. Deleted. February 14th he apologizes, which will give you some idea what the article on the 12th was all about. (He mentioned weird underwear, among other things)
According to the Daily News, the cheese-eaters at the DP say that his article was only published in the first place because of an ‘editorial oversight. Dang! How did we let that get by?’
We called my mother-in-law, who subscribes to the DP and she confirms that it was indeed a nasty cut, but pulling it off the internet does seem a bit much after it’s seen ink. Come on guys, we want to read it too!
@12:03 PM
And now I feel guilty. I see that Bill Quick has his favorites re-organized in alphabetical order. I haven’t updated mine is weeks. Although I’ve purged one that’s defunct, I’ve got a lot of good ones that need to be added.
@12:01 PM
The InstaPundit doesn’t pussyfoot around on this one: “The drug warriors are losers and liars, to put it bluntly. Letting them anywhere near the war on terror is a recipe for defeat.” Nice to know that someone teaching law school is furthering that message.
As an attorney friend tells me, ‘It’s a victimless crime. There’s generally no complainant. Therefore, they couldn’t get a conviction without testilying at some point.’
@8:54 AM
Ah well, as an old Sergeant once told me (no, not that Sergeant, it was MSG Jon King, long, long ago), men are like street cars—there’s another one along every five minutes. Or was that women? It has been a long time. Never mind.
@8:52 AM
Good grief! I’d better have another 500ml of caffeine drip. I’ve been reviewing what I’ve blogged this am and realize that I can’t decide if I’m working with my right mind or not. half of this reads bottom up, and half top down. Tsk.
@8:23 AM
Via Sgt. Stryker, who’s gone on leave[!] comes this strange item:
WASHINGTON, Feb. 18 — The Pentagon is developing plans to provide news items, possibly even false ones, to foreign media organizations as part of a new effort to influence public sentiment and policy makers in both friendly and unfriendly countries, military officials said.
Perhaps that explains this. Looks like they’re working on Reuters [or Tom Tomorrow ... Naah!] already. But remember, you read it in the newspaper. It must be true..
And of course, about the time Reuters realizes they’ve been gooned, certain folks could make it come true and goon them again. On leave, eh?
@8:22 AM
Great minds think alike?
KABUL: Afghanistan's interim administration will establish a a special court to try journalists who violate the country's new media law, Culture Minister Syed Makhdoom Raheen said on Thursday.
"Media persons under no circumstances should stand side-by-side with criminals," Raheen said.
He said the court would start work "very soon."
The new media law also allows Afghan citizens to establish privately-owned television channels, radio stations and news agencies for the first time in history.
Damn, I hate it when that happens.
Now see what you’ve started, Suman? You’ve got me reading the Times of India. Incidentally, note that Suman has a new URL. His redirect is working, but update those links!
@6:40 AM
Ha! The gauntlet is thrown!
"I’ve heard that the emerald in the navel of the golem of Torr is the size of a tea bag. A family-size tea bag. But we’d need the Barbarian to lead that quest..
@5:53 AM
Has everyone gotten into the nitrous this morning? You be the judge:
Thanks to Tom Tomorrow we have this report:
"C-130 planes dropped white-coloured paper envelopes with a photo of President Bush and two bills of $100 each," said Abdul Hadi, a resident of Chaman on the border with southern Afghanistan.”
Says Tom Tomorrow: “Yes, you read that right. Check out the link for yourself. Since today's not April first, this appears to be on the level.
“No wonder Dubya needed to increase the military budget.”
Of course! I always believe what Abdul Hadi has to say. And now we know what all that email of the good Sergeant’s has been about. “Send some my way, Dude!”
But didn’t you see the dateline Tom? There’s a perfectly good explanation—it was Valentine’s Day! Probably more little fibs told that day than any other..
My only question: Do the bills have pictures of Bush?
@5:51 AM
We are the majority, I say! We Are! We Are!
I searched for my daily dose of aggravation in Indian Country but found only a taste of subtle Indian humor. Not much doing on Prez’s Day on Capitol Hill. So I surfed on over to This Modern World. The art of the Permalink isn’t all that seems to be beyond this guy. Yesterday he showed that he can take on the nose-pickers of the world and Win!. But like he says “.. as always, I could be wrong™.”
Isn’t that like patenting the dot in dot com? Truly a humble man with a great deal to be humble about.
Bush is in the Whitehouse. The election was over a year ago. Get over it. Or don’t get over it. Chew chad, dude.
@5:45 AM
In breaking news from Indian Country Tomorrow comes this story filed by their Washington correspondent, Brian Takes-Any-Story.
An angry Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.) challenged National Congress of American Indians President Tex Hall to a traditional Indian rodeo belt buckle contest Friday. The two had exchanged jibes throughout a routine Senate hearing.
Testifying on the new federal budget, Hall insisted that a national task force of tribal leaders be convened to examine the document, which he said was developed without lengthy and meaningless consultation with Indian nations.
"Once again, this administration has ignored our right to slow things down and make sure nothing happens," said Hall, also chairman of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation.
But things turned nasty when Hall said of Campbell: "He was a white man until he decided to run for Congress. .. Then he turned back into a white man when he joined the Republican party."
Issuing the buckle challenge, "Meet me at Blackie's at noon!" responded Campbell, banging his gavel.
"I'm not a betting man," said Osage Nation Chairman Charles Tillman, "but if I were, I'd place my money on Hall. I've seen his stuff and boy, it's monstrous."
They meet today. Onion eat your heart out.
@4:16 AM
Monday, February 18, 2002- - -
I guess I’m just disorganized. The InstaPundit says he gets “.. several hundred emails a day. .. I do the best I can, but I post this stuff in between teaching classes, watching kids, and cleaning up cat vomit. It's not my life, and it shouldn't be yours.”
I don’t get anything like that much email, even counting all the spam about BS the BLTG. And Fred doesn’t do hairballs much. Short hair I guess.
But the SuperPundit might have added: Get your own Blog and you can have your name in pixels all you want!
And did I mention that it’s a lot of fun?
@12:36 PM
I knew there was a reason I liked this guy. He's younger, more clean-cut, and much less cynical, but he even looks like me.
@12:34 PM
Hmmm. I notice that Megan McArdle has gotten 24 comments on this post in less than 48 hours. Perhaps it is time to do that article I’ve been planning on industrial sex toys..
Here’s a good one. The variable speed and reversing trigger switch provides 0-500 rpm, and the 7.2V battery pack allows for longer run-time and charges in one hour.
Unfortunately, I’ve run out of time for now so I’ll have to cover the attachments in a later post.
@11:57 AM
The forward-leaning Perry de Havilland discusses the nature of democracy and sees a bright future:
“The situation has developed in which nation states forcibly appropriate over 50 per cent of a nations wealth and yet this is seen as legitimate due to a 'democratic mandate'. Yet the reality is that not only is it immoral, it is unsupportable in the long run. ..
“I see the disintergration of the politicized legal edifice over which left and right fight as being a long term economic inevitability, not necessarily from catastrophic collapse (though most likely Japan and some of Europe will do just that) but from the gradual technologically driven creeping irrelevance that will see that what follows the current order is something both familiar and excitingly different.”
This is a vision that should be shared by many more. Please go read it.
@11:54 AM
John Weidner waxes eloquent on what is also one of my favorite forms of architecture, CCC rustic. Asks he: “What does it profit us to bestride the whole world, if we can no longer build things like this?”
We could .. but starving help is hard to find these days.
@11:52 AM
Anton Sherwood weighs in on the great gun debate: “I'm not convinced that it's that bad. As I see it, if your thug shows you a knife with the implied threat to use it, he has already escalated to deadly force; if I'm wrong on that point, then your showing a gun is not deadly force either. Either way, you're not obligated to assume that he'll put his knife away if you give in. Disclaimer: That's logic, but I can't promise that it is law!”
True. A ‘reasonable man’ might well feel in immediate and serious danger in this situation. But shoot the sucker and you can be assured that in his death throes he’ll drop the knife down a storm drain..
@8:08 AM
Also from Anton Sherwood: “One of my friends is thinking of organizing an `activities day' for our circle, and invites me to run a workshop relating to my most visible hobby, mathematical beauty. Okay, I said, but what would we do?”
Divide and multiply?
@8:07 AM
Eeeuuww!
Via the ol’ Bird Cage Liner (020218; no link) the AP has this story:
“Noble, Ga. — Distraught families began the wrenching task of trying to identify loved ones Sunday in this rural community where dozens of decomposing corpses were being removed from a crematory.
“Authorities said they had recovered 97 bodies — including one infant — from storage sheds and scattered in woods behind Tri-State Crematory in this hamlet about 40 kilometres south of Chattanooga, Tenn.
“Officials were requesting federal assistance and equipment to help process the remains, a task which has overwhelmed local resources .. Investigators believe the crematory had stacked the corpses for up to 15 years.
The crematory's operator, Ray Brent Marsh, 28, was charged with five counts of theft by deception, a felony, for taking payment for cremations he didn't perform. Walker County and state authorities said other charges are likely against Marsh.
When asked why the bodies had not been cremated, Mr. Marsh said the crematory incinerator was not working, Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman John Bankhead said late Saturday.
“.. authorities suspect Mr. Marsh may have provided ashes from wood chips to clients as the remains of loved ones. Authorities have asked families to return ashes for examination and have established an information center.
“Governor Roy Barnes declared a state of emergency in Walker County. The declaration makes state assistance available to local authorities for the cost of the operation.”
@7:34 AM
Speaking of Snarky and Cranky
Via Kathy Kinsley: Jonah Goldberg says that what makes him snarky and cranky are “.. the hardcore conspiratorialists, mostly on the Left but with growing company on the Right, who believe that the "corporate-controlled media" are censoring the real story ..”
I’m sure this is particularly troubling to Mr. Goldberg considering his recent in depth exposé on racism at the Westminster Dog Show.
@7:10 AM
Also via Kathy Kinsley: Mark Steyn of the National Post Online says “I was in the Canadian VIP pavilion at Salt Lake when Jamie and David were cruelly cut down ..”
They let him in the VIP pavilion? Considering the long list of illuminaries present, I guess they had to make room for one person with some wits.
@7:09 AM
Steven Den Beste asks: “When is this country going to reform product liability law?”
Probably right after all the lawyers leave congress.
@7:08 AM
Amen
I’m not so sure that a huge scoop of arrogance isn’t a necessity for a successful general. If he wasn’t absolutely cock sure of himself he’d probably melt into a weeping puddle the first time he had to make the decision to send a few thousand men out to face the enemy.
But affecting arrogance to hide impotence is a most annoying trait.
@7:07 AM
Via PunditWatch: Can there be many bigger oxymorons than Campaign Finance Reform? And I’m glad that between the axis of evil, looming war in Iraq, OBL still missing, Congress Enron-whacking, the awesome Olympic skating scandal, and Bush II’s blue tie to discuss, there was still room to work in something truly troubling—the condom blowout.
Well, if you’d had a condom blowout you’d find it troubling.
@7:06 AM
How could he keep us in suspense so long?
Barry Harkness makes an interesting observation in his comment to Megan McArdle’s post on unverified reports from Iran that Osama’s right hand man is in custody. Harkness wonders whether the always photogenic and never camera shy OBL could be alive, given how long it’s been since he put out a tape.
@7:05 AM
Suman Palit says he’s broken his writer’s block. I assume this is something like being tongue-tied. As you may have guessed, neither is within my experience. But I’m very glad Suman is over it because he’s come out with an outstanding, in depth piece that rivals anything I’ve seen from professional journalism. It also shows the potential of the blog as an educational device.
Starting with the historic and archaeological record and working up to the present, he details the nature of the Israeli—Indian relationship that explains today’s events. Finally he forecasts that Israel and India will form the two ends of the "Pincers of Democracy", to counter the "Axis of evil".
Someone should tell John Dvorak. In the mean time, read Suman’s article.
@5:05 AM
The agnostic, dyslexic, insomniac
Lying awake at night wondering if there is a dog. If there is I’m sure he looks on our antics as somewhat akin to Silly Pet Tricks, or those Funniest Home Videos programs. Conversely, we probably have as much understanding of him as a cat does of what we’re really about.
@5:03 AM
Silly Statist Tricks
Here’s a good one: The Wyoming Business Council. They must be serious, they have a Five Year Plan - announced in April 1999. The law creating the WBC was enacted with a five-year sunset. It took them two years to come up with their five-year plan, so they sunset June 30th of this year. This is a problem, as their five-year plan was to show results in its last two years.
The WBC has a corporate structure, and employs private business practices. Or at least the statist view of private business practices. Like lining their pockets with the ‘proceeds’: John Reardon, the first “chief executive officer” of the Wyoming Business Council, resigned amid controversy after 16 months on the job. He drew a $135,000 annual salary that was substantially higher than anyone else's on the state payroll, including the governor's. After a few months in office he decided that things were going so well that his staff deserved a bonus—including $35,000 for himself.
And lets not forget that Reardon was such a Wyoming booster that he bought a house in Fort Collins, Colorado and commuted to work in Cheyenne.
Things have changed a lot at the Council since then, but there’s still a few things a little odd about the WBC. For starters, there’s the leader of the organization: Bless his pointy little head, Tucker Fagan, “CEO” of the Council, spent 30 years in the Air Force. Nothing wrong with that, but from his bio I can’t see that he’s ever been employed by a private business, much less managed or owned one.
They do have some highly trained Certified Economic Development Professionals on staff to take up the slack, however. There are two sorts of Certified Economic Development Professionals: Economic Development Finance Professionals and Housing Development Finance Professionals. Each certification program is a rigorous series of four courses, each five days in duration, so you can see that they have the very best on staff.
The high staff quality has resulted in fantastic results. They shovel out the government grants and loans as fast as anyone possibly could. One of the biggest beneficiaries of this largesse is this little outfit, the Sierra Trading Post. It’s easy to see why they’d need a lot of help from Certified Economic Development Professionals, isn’t it?
So if you live in Wyoming and your congresscritter asks, please tell him not to let the sun set on the Wyoming Business Council.
@5:02 AM
Well, my email has gotten completely out of hand. I haven't gotten around to figuring out how to count hits but someone must be reading this stuff. If you’ve emailed me and I haven’t answered I apologize. In some cases it appears I may have missed some notes entirely, or I may just be running a little behind. I refuse to use some auto-answer BS, so bear with.
@4:57 AM
Sunday, February 17, 2002- - -
I protest!
Thanks to Samizdata, who’ve named him (her? It?) Blog of the Week, I’ve found this character, The Blue Button. She’s stolen some of my best rants before I could even write them. If he’d whisper his name I’d curse it out loud!
Of course, she could have hammered on ELF a bit harder. When they spike trees to ‘sabotage economically’ they’re also putting the working folks at the sawmill in deadly danger. ‘Doesn’t harm anyone’ Like Hell! Spiking trees has killed people and maimed more.
Update: According to Fox News, via The Blue Button, this clown is willing to go to jail to protect the organization [ELF] from "political manipulation." Rep. Scott McInnis, R-Colo., chairman of the House Resources Committee's Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health has subpoenaed him. The good congresscritter could make it happen. He should.
@8:14 AM
Megan McArdle has A Modest Proposal that has nothing to do with Irish babies and a lot to do with these babies. Anyone more than a year or so old can be excused for finding this a bit intimidating. But take heart, she’ll earn that wealth. I bet the backaches are setting in already.
Update: Here's the original proposal in case you haven't read it lately.
@8:12 AM
I love Steven Den Beste’s Butyl Mercaptan idea. You know what it smells like, it’s the ‘odorant’ used to make otherwise odorless natural gas stink. That’s why we produce it by the ton. It only takes a tiny bit added to a large volume of gas to accomplish this. Mixed with a heavy oil it could be applied in a coarse aerosol with little danger of fire. Diesel would be a good choice, it won’t burn without great heat and compression. That’s why it’s used as motor fuel in armored vehicles. The mix would eventually evaporate, thus it’s self decontaminating. Spray it from UAV’s and the fool who shot one down would regret his mistake. Oh, and did Steven mention that it really, Really stinks?
And then there’s the air-burst lard bomb.. How insensitive of me.
@6:58 AM
I’ve been following the “Warblogger Brain Trust” analysis of war in Iraq with considerable interest. I was particularly delighted to see that the Hungarian Barbarian has written to Sgt. Stryker. I’ll have to look him up. It’s been a long time, and no one knows better than he what a pain in the butt I can be.. There! I’ve emailed him.
I guess what particularly chaps me about the whole scenario is the well-founded assumption that Saddam will use his own civilian population as a human shield while we catch hell in the ‘court of world opinion’ if we cause any civilian casualties.
Either the chattering classes who scream ’you caused civilian casualties’ are completely ignorant, or they are completely evil. Or, they lie somewhere on the continuum between those two poles. We should treat them as if they were the later.
Regardless, I favor a modified siege scenario, and I realize that this is a gross oversimplification that does not fully answer Saddam’s NBC threat, but I don’t want to go on for pages:
In his comment to Sgt. Stryker, Emory Almasy is correct: We have overwhelming air and ground superiority on the field of battle and that isn’t going to change. Any “Saddamites” that present themselves where we can get at them are target practice. Our ground forces would do well to get to the battle before the Hogs and Apaches had all the fun.
So.. Let Saddam pull his forces into Baghdad and the other built up areas of his choice. As Patrick Phillips notes in another comment to Sgt. Styker, there’s no clean way to dig them out, so don’t try. Build a ‘fence’ around these populated strongholds. Establish checkpoints to let unarmed civilians out and make it clear that we will welcome them with food and medicine. But allow nothing in without serious negotiation. Treat it as the hostage situation it would be. Cut off all food, water, and utilities as Steven Den Beste suggests. And most important, allow the Saddamites no contact with the outside world. Propaganda is his only effective weapon—cut that off completely.
Saddam and any who want to stay in the compounds can do so. In the short-term this would essentially maintain the status quo of containment, only with a much smaller, easier to watch container. It avoids house-to-house fighting in the cities. It wouldn’t be quick, we can expect that food, water, and utilities would be horded for Saddam’s army, but we can console ourselves by looking forward to dealing with Saddam when he comes crawling out on his knees. Missile batteries, artillery, NBC assets, and such offensive capabilities shielded in built-up areas that might strike back would be the only targets in populated areas that we would take out of necessity.
With any luck the civilian population will revolt before they die of thirst and we won’t have to deal with Saddam at all. Or Saddam's army will try to break out and it's target practice.
The downside: If Saddam starts losing his human shield he may get very ugly with his own people and the chattering classes are sure to blame this on us. But we can’t win ‘em all. However..
@6:56 AM
As Sgt. Stryker notes, propaganda is Saddam’s most effective weapon. He wants to fight the war on TV. Somehow, we must find a way to deny this to him. If we can issue a ‘you’re with us or you’re with the terrorists’ ultimatum to entire countries, why can’t we do the same to the chatterers who give aid and comfort to the terrorists with their every word? At the least, broadcasting “Live from Baghdad” would have less allure if it had to be done with a bag over one’s head.
Treat shouting ‘civilian casualties’ just like shouting ‘fire’ in the proverbial crowded theatre. If someone wants to discuss civilian casualties they should put the blame squarely where it belongs.
@6:51 AM
Saturday, February 16, 2002- - -
It looks like Blogger went belly-up about 6am (Blogger local time?) this morning, at least their front page shows that time as the last time a blog was updated. They’re still toast as of 11:30am MST. I note that the independent blogs such as the USS Clueless remain on line, however. Something’s to be said for dropping a couple grand into one’s own server, I guess. At this point broadband isn’t an option here, so I’ll keep dreaming.
In the mean time, I took a look at a couple of on-line columns linked from Blogger.
Describing tech blogs, Carlye Adler of Fortune Small Business says: “Imagine Hunter S. Thompson writing about the new Mac operating system. That's the wacky spirit you can expect when you check out the online narratives known as Weblogs.” After hitting the high spots of the techy blogs, we arrive at the conclusion: “If you need more compelling personal commentary, we're sure it's out there (remember the ugly couch tour?). And it's probably raw, funny-and smart.” But do they conclude by shooting the computer? Thompson on Blogger would be interesting..
Wacky, raw, funny, and smart, eh? Sort of like my favorites <—– over there (but I’m not saying which are wacky and which are smart).
This makes quite a contrast with John C. Dvorak’s rather supercilious comments on the blog phenomenon. Dvorak concludes that there are five general reasons for blogging:
“Ego gratification. Some people need to be the center of attention. It makes them feel good about themselves to tell the world what important things they've been doing and what profound thoughts they've been having. Curiously, while this looks like the most obvious reason for a Web log, I think it's probably the least likely reason, since it's too trite and shallow.
“Antidepersonalization. When people begin to think that they are nothing more than a cog in the wheel of society, they look for any way to differentiate themselves. ..
“Elimination of frustration. Day-to-day life, especially in the city, is wrought with frustration, and the Web log gives people the ability to complain to the world. ..
“Societal need to share. As a cynic who gets paid to write, I have a hard time with this explanation. But it seems some people genuinely like to "share," and this is one way. ..
“Wanna-be writers. A lot of people want to be published writers. Blogs make it happen without the hassle of getting someone else to do it or having to write well—although there is good writing to be found. Some is shockingly good. Most of it is miserable.”
Ok. I’m probably guilty on all counts. On the other hand, I bet my income from 'writing' is more than Dvorak gets.
Mark Kraft, the Business Manager of LiveJournal.com responds, noting that Dvorak failed to mention LiveJournal.com in his article although it is “.. probably the largest weblog/online journal service out there, with approximately 450,000 users.” He goes on to maintain that Dvorak is misinformed in many additional ways.
Kraft notes: “By my estimates, there are now over one million active weblogs on the Internet. .. This kind of "anonymity through numbers" environment creates an ideal atmosphere for the creation of intentional communities based upon shared interests. ..weblogs will allow people to easily create dynamic and compelling online communities, allowing people to interact in a much more efficient and targeted manner.
“Almost certainly, weblogs and the related technologies that are growing around them will find their ways into businesses, bringing the same kinds of advantages, allowing people to easily find and interact with the people (and the information) that effects them.
“So, yeah... we're out to fundamentally change the nature of the Internet by empowering the average Joe and Jane. All revolutions should be so much fun!”
Here! Here! I might add that the distributed nature of web logs creates a situation where there are many more eyes on events than one could ever expect from the mainstream, or even the backwash media. Nor are these eyes driven by advertising revenues to spend their time dwelling on ‘what’s hot.’ we don’t see a lot of bloggers ‘mugging for the cameras’ in hopes of a promotion either.
Tony Adragna makes essentially this same point but says it better than me, in his response to Dvorak:
“This treatment of "blogging" overlooks the most recent trend - the proliferation of web logs that engage in serious critique of the media, analysis of issues, and even some original reportage. There is some good amateur (though not amteurish ) journalism going on in blogland, and I don't understand why every story I've read so far has failed to pick up on this phenomenon. We're not all "diarists" or "journalers" - some of us really have something of value to add to public discourse on important issues. You can find a good sampling of the web logs I'm talking about here on the "Blogs of Note" page of the website/blog run by myself and Will Vehrs - QuasiPundit
“And, lets not forget what "The Hyperblogger" himself -- Glen Reynolds -- has done for the concept.
“Of course, some members of the professional media -- Matt Welch, Ken Layne, Tim Blair, Andrew Sullivan (the list of media professionals is growing) -- have caught on to the potential of "blogging", and have been using the blog format for quite some time. Why does most of the professional media blow off web logs?”
Why indeed? Why would anyone not want to welcome more competition?
@12:58 PM
John Weidner quotes one of my dad’s favorite poems, The Deacon’s Masterpiece, and draws some interesting corollaries..
@12:52 PM
It looks like the Bureau of Reclamation is toast, too. From my morning's email:
----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
----- Transcript of session follows -----
451 gp.usbr.gov: Name server timeout
Message could not be delivered for 5 days
Message will be deleted from queue
@12:51 PM
Also via Sean McCray, according to Yahoo News [how appropriate] an Associated Press computer analysis has found that the Environmental Protection Agency has given more than $2 billion to nonprofit groups since 1993, often without competitive bidding.
Yahoo News: “The AP analysis of EPA grants and grant extensions to nonprofits found that six of the top 10 recipients between 1993 and 2001 weren't environmental groups or researchers, but rather seniors groups that received tens of millions of dollars to hire older Americans as temporary workers for environmental projects. About 1,800 seniors are currently employed under the program.
“The AARP Foundation topped the list with $98.5 million, followed by the National Older Worker Career Center at $90.6 million, the National Senior Citizens Education and Research Center ($74 million), the National Caucus and Center on Black Aged ($72 million) and the National Association of Hispanic Elderly ($43.9 million).
“The grants, created by Congress, cover the workers' pay and benefits as well as the groups' costs for arranging the employment.”
Let’s see. $98.5 million plus $90.6 million plus $74 million plus $72 million plus $43.9 million equals $379 million dollars. To employ 1800 seniors. That’s $210,555 per person. Not a bad wage. Of course, you’re paying for a lot of experience.
But wait. Further along in the Yahoo article: “Larry Anderson ran the seniors program for AARP until the senior lobby dropped out, and he now works for the Career Center. He said workers 55 and older were recruited for EPA jobs ranging from clerk to scientist, but few earned more than $30,000 a year.”
Even if with a mean $30,000, that’s about 85% overhead. That is mean. How could you expect a non-profit organization to get along on that?
@12:50 PM
Sean McCray weighs in on airport security, noting that the feds will be in control soon:
Says the Atlanta Journal-Constitution via Mr. McCray: “The new Transportation Security Administration takes control of screening contracts at most of the nation's 429 commercial airports this weekend [as in today] in a first step toward a fully federalized screening work force. ..
“To gear up for the transition to a federal work force, the TSA has appointed interim security directors at large airports, TSA spokesman Jim Mitchell said. They are mostly security managers from the Federal Aviation Administration, he said. They will serve until the TSA recruits 81 top federal security directors, who will coordinate all aspects of airport security.
“The agency has already received 9,500 applications for the $150,000-a-year positions. ”
Says Sean McCray: “Same screeners, same companies doing background checks, with a huge dose of government incompetence. Feel any safer?”
No. This is a fortress built of smoke and mirrors.
@12:48 PM
Last night I visited friends who live on a farmstead south of town. As I was leaving a Great horned owl dropped by. I couldn’t see it in the dark, but the sound is unmistakable. It’s an improbable noise, more like someone blowing across the top of a beer bottle to imitate an owl than a sound an actual bird might make.
Grab your beer bottle. Blow across the top: “Hooo oo’o ooo ooo!” With a little stutter on the second syllable. But don’t do it outside in the dark—they’re very territorial.
@12:46 PM
Fritz Schranck at Sneaking Suspicions! asks: “What’s all this talk about Champaign Finance Reform? What's so important about a small Illinois city that the rest of us should care so much? .. What? .. It’s Campaign Finance Reform?” .. What a scam“.
I wish I had the finances for Champagne, but someone keeps picking my pockets..
Farther along, Fritz Schranck explains “.. what some call The Law of Continuous Dealing.
“It’s not really a law; it’s more an expression of enlightened successful dealmaking.
If I’m in a situation where I’m sure I’m only going to have to deal with you once, and you feel the same way, either of us may decide it’s in our interest to screw the other person. Think of what happens at used car lots, for example.
“At the other end of the spectrum, where you both know you’re going to have to deal with each other many times, perhaps over a course of years, there’s a tremendous incentive to be honest and straightforward. ..
“There’s a saying at The Hall--the first time you lie to a legislator is the last time you’ll ever get anything from them.”
Probably true. But the issue usually isn’t us lying to them.
And what’s all this about a $2 million government funded poultry waste facility? ‘Millions of tons of pungent stuff’ indeed. So they’ll be installing one in DC soon?
@12:44 PM
Yesterday’s NYT has a correction: “An article yesterday about a court- ordered shutdown of Interior Department computers to safeguard an accounting system that manages money for Indians misspelled the surname of a woman who initiated the lawsuit that resulted in the order. She is Elouise Cobell, not Cabell.”
Sigh. The issue is sure getting a lot of attention when they can’t be bothered to get the name of the plaintiff right. No wonder I didn’t find anything at the Times when I did a keyword search on Cobell+Norton.
Says the misspelled Times:
“The Indians point out that the checks are not government handouts, but money owed individual Indians from land leased to outside business interests and managed by the Interior Department. ..
“The tribes say the government has lost up to $100 billion over the last century because of mismanagement and poor accounting. ..
“In ruling three years ago for the Indians, Judge Lamberth [presiding in Cobell v. Norton] wrote, "It would be difficult to find a more historically mismanaged federal program." His ruling was upheld last year by a federal appeals court in the District of Columbia, which wrote, "The trusts at issue here were created over a hundred years ago, and have been mismanaged nearly as long."
So by some accounts there’s ‘up to $100 billion’ missing. But still no one asks why, in this new millennium, these paternalistic trusts continue to exist at all, why the DOI is fighting so hard to retain control of them [obvious I suppose], and most important:
Where did the money go?
@12:42 PM
From the InstaPundit, Ken Lay may have been duped by the other Enron execs. My nomination of him to head the investigation into government corruption in the Indian Trust case is looking better already. If this is true, his righteous indignation wouldn’t have to be faked. No, not at all.
@12:41 PM
Friday, February 15, 2002- - -
I see in the latest edition of the Society for American Archaeology Editorial Policy, Information for Authors, & Style Guide produced in 1999 (I believe) that they request electronic submission of papers in “.. DOS-compatible formats (WordPerfect 6.1 or lower, or WordStar 4.0 or lower) ..” I knew there was a reason I kept those old WordStar Disks.
Incidentally, their own written policy doesn’t follow their required style. And where is section 3.11, guys?
@1:42 PM
My two favorite books as a child were Lost in the Barrens by Farley Mowat and Secret Sea: Close-hauled adventure in a search for sunken gold by Robb White. What these two books have in common is people acting alone in a hostile environment and thriving. I guess I was brainwashed early.
@8:47 AM
Pondering further Bill Quick’s post objecting to laws limiting the use of deadly force:
“This raises all sorts of libertarian warning flags with me. The notion that one cannot protect one's property with deadly force, if necessary, essentially means that the entire concept of property ownership is a farce. It means that if a man with a knife demands my car, even though I am armed with a firearm, I must allow him to take my vehicle. Even worse is the enshrinement of state-ordered cowardice inherent in the notion that you have a "duty" to retreat from "situations that might escalate into using deadly force." This places the balance of social power entirely in the hands of any lawless desperado willing to threaten to use deadly force.”
It would appear that this places the balance of social power in the hands of those who made the law. Probably the intent.
@8:46 AM
From Steven Den Beste, ASIMO is way too cool.
But what if the atom bomb hadn’t been invented, Steven? I guess this is why a lot of historians say there are no ‘what ifs’ in history. There’s no point to wondering about what didn’t happen, it leads to reductio ad absurdum..
The Thai word for an armored unit is Mammuk. However you spell it, it means literally ’elephant.’ There’s very little we can teach the Thais about bringing terror to the battlefield, the historic role of armor.
A styrofoam-filled oil tanker to troll for mines? How ingenious. And I bet a big tanker could take a lot of hits.
@8:45 AM
Virginia Postrel has a very few copies of her book left for sale. If you haven’t read it you should.
Update: I see she’s also advertising CDs of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes. How appropriate. Ms. Postrel has taken on more than her share of vampires.
@8:44 AM
An interesting bit on EU noise regulations from Samizdata. Unfortunately, the regulators would probably just walk up to the owner of the establishment and threaten him with loss of permits & licenses & such. It would become the establishment owner’s job to tell the bands to turn it down.
Of course, someone handy with a soldering iron could start selling those stereo sound-amplification ear muffs that shooters use, with the auto-cutoff excised. They even have a tech look that might appeal.
@8:42 AM
Incidentally, when the northern lights get cranking they are an incredible sight. Woke me up one night during hunting season last fall. I thought the cabin was on fire for a minute. Nope. Just bright shimmering curtains and swirls of green and red dancing among the stars on the peaks to the north.
@7:00 AM
From Megan McArdle, I wonder if this is where the nature lover’s ‘tread lightly’ came from?
@6:47 AM
Further proof of speciation
Here’s an excerpt from another poem with an astral theme:
“There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Labarge
I cremated Sam McGee. ..
[in the boiler of an ice-locked steamboat]
.. And the greasy smoke in an inky cloak went streaking down the sky.
I do not know how long in the snow I wrestled with grisly fear;
But the stars came out and they danced about ere again I ventured near;
I was sick with dread but I bravely said: “I’ll just have a peep inside.
I guess he’s cooked and it’s time I looked”; . . then the door I opened wide.
And there sat Sam looking cool and calm, in the heart of the furnace roar;
And he wore a smile you could see a mile, and he said: “Please close that door.
It’s fine in here, but I greatly fear you’ll let in the cold and storm -
Since I left Plumtree, down in Tennessee, It’s the first time I’ve been warm.”
Robert Service The Cremation of Sam McGee
@6:45 AM
Suman Palit sounds more like one of those forward-leaning* libertarians every day! I enjoy reading about anything I know very little about and I know nothing about politics and the general doings in Asia. Thus, I greatly enjoy Suman’s blog.
*We don’t lean to the left, we don’t lean to the right..
@6:44 AM
Damned if you do..
“Bearing in mind all these things, then, I praise anyone who builds fortresses and anyone who does not, and I criticise anyone who relies on fortresses, and does not worry about incurring the hatred of the people.” Machiavelli The Prince
And to think that airplanes hadn’t been invented yet.
@6:05 AM
For what it’s worth, I think the ISU (International Skating Union?) should say: ‘There’ve been allegations made and we’ll thoroughly investigate. Until then, you don’t get your way by throwing a tantrum. And no do-overs either.’
Anything else and the protests will become an inevitable part of the competition in that cutthroat sport. As if they weren’t already. The whole press conference business reminded me of a bunch of little league parents grilling their kids’ coach: ‘How could you let our darlings lose?’
Update: I see that the medal of the Canadian figure skaters was upgraded to gold— through one of the most outrageous displays of poor sportsmanship I can recall. Not on the part of the competitors or their team, but on the part of the Little League audience, mostly grandstanding news media talking heads.
This little squabble allowed the media personalities to embark on an orgy of camera mugging that would make Fox’s Bill O’Reilly proud. Why show actual sports when we can enjoy their mock gravitas. At least one or two of them probably expect to get promotions back at the studio by turning a minor whine into a major ‘scandal.’
Update to the update: The worst part? All this camera-mugging took so much time that we didn’t get to see the US men take on France in Curling!
@5:50 AM
If you’re like my wife: wondering where to get a ‘stone,’ check out this site and follow the links to everything you ever wanted to know about curling.
This link was sent in by Warren Szkolnicki of Ottawa, who says he’s never curled himself. Umm .. well .. Never mind.
@3:53 AM
Top 10 Reasons Why Curling Is Better Than Sex
In curling, you don't have to fake it when you're not having a good time.
In curling, when it gets out of hand, you can quit.
It's OK to curl on national TV in front of millions of people.
In curling, you can score up to 10 times in one night.
A really good curling game lasts two and a half hours.
In curling, size, looks and age are all irrelevant.
In curling, you don't regret a mistake nine months later.
When you're finished curling, someone else has to clean the sheets.
In curling, you're expected to yell, "hurry, hurry, hard all the way!"
In curling, there are four positions to know, but you only have to be good at one of them.
Cheers and Best Regards,
Warren Szkolnicki
Ottawa, Ontario Canada
@3:40 AM
Thursday, February 14, 2002- - -
A little Outrage, please
From the InstaPundit: “WHILE EVERYONE'S FOCUSING ON ENRON, this major accounting scandal has gotten little attention, even though it seems to involve the systematic fleecing of the less-fortunate. Wonder why?”
Is it? Could it be? Why yes, it is. It’s Cobell v. Norton! The Indian Trust Case.
Says Norton in District Court Wednesday: ‘In general terms, trying to piece together all the information since 1887 is going to be a very difficult job. It will be blocked in some cases because a particular piece of information has been destroyed. .. In some cases, documents were not stored properly and they “crumbled with age.”’
She says her agency has tried to follow a judge's order to fix management problems with the trust fund system. Progress has been made, though more needs to be done.
"We have tried to use appropriate standards and aspire to a high level of accounting responsibility," Norton said. "I'm not sure if in every instance we have met that standard."
Does anyone besides me notice the outrageous Paternalism inherent in the very idea that the government should hold the Indian’s funds ‘In Trust’??
@12:01 PM
I remember it well
Years ago I worked on a project inventorying the archaeological sites in a small area of the south Black Hills, in South Dakota. I remember one of the sites we found very well. It was a Middle Archaic (+ 4000 BP) McKean Complex campsite that contained many interesting artifacts. We found the site one evening just before time to head for the barn, so we left everything where it was until the next morning. Unfortunately, a grass fire burned through the area that evening and through the night, pretty well destroying everything we’d found. This shows that you can’t have your Archaic and heat it too.
@10:38 AM
Great Priorities in Reviewing our Nation
And to think that Jonah Goldberg finds dog shows Repugnant and Racist.
These folks are chapped! Is anybody listening to them? The problem extends far beyond one lawsuit. This is a huge cookie jar with no visible lid.
Where does the money go?
@7:25 AM
We’re all Indianz to the feds
I try not to hammer on the same topic every day, but I’ve been following this one for awhile now and I think I’ve finally boiled over. Here’s a summary of the situation from the Denver Post:
“More than a century ago, the government took control of Indian assets such as oil royalties and grazing leases, promising to manage the properties on the Indians' behalf. But the government never kept proper records, so the Indians understandably believe they have been shortchanged by billions of dollars.
“Over five years ago, the Boulder-based Native American Rights Fund and former Denver lawyer Dennis Gingold sued the government to get a thorough accounting of the trust funds. Yet under two presidential administrations, Interior has chosen to fight the lawsuit rather than fix the problem. [emphasis added]
“About three years ago, Interior officials told U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, who is hearing the case in Washington, D.C., that it was cleaning up the mess. It wasn't. Two and a half years ago, Lamberth issued a strong order to blast Interior into action. Nothing changed. In the meantime, Interior got significant sums from Congress to implement a new computer system to do the work. The system failed miserably.
“At every turn, Interior has lied to the court and misled Congress, all the while dragging its feet on trust fund reform.”
Yes, folks, they’re missing Billions and Billions of Dollars. It’s not paper money. It’s money that ranchers and energy companies and all the other developers in Indian Country have been paying in to the system. This isn’t a Bush Administration problem. It isn’t a Clinton Administration problem. It is a problem that has been on-going at least since the Grant Administration.
The DP: “If Interior sincerely wanted to fix the Indian trust fund mess, it would have engaged in this basic bookkeeping work long ago. As it is, Interior's broken promises and wasteful expenditures have demonstrated plain bad faith.
It looks like the Indians may win their law suit.
Yet no one in authority asks the really pertinent question: Where did the money go?
Suman Palit asks: “Has anyone suggested an IRS audit of employees who may have been directly or indirectly misappropriating some of this money ?”
That would be a good start. Unfortunately, the problem probably isn’t just low-level federal employees buying yachts. We’re talking Billions and Billions of dollars over a period of 100 years or more. I suspect high level systemic corruption. I suspect that the IRS solution would be another round of the government investigating itself and announcing a clean bill.
How about Ken Lay? He’s unemployed, or nearly so. He and Andersen could convene an inquiry and call a few congressmen on the carpet. I bet they’d enjoy that.
There’s still a lot of rocks to be turned over in this case. And there’s still a lot of sandbagging going on.
@6:50 AM
A good blog header from Anton Sherwood:
"If nobody said anything unless he knew what he was talking about, a ghastly hush would descend upon the earth." ---Sir Alan Herbert
I know I certainly resemble that remark.
And Anton gets referrals from me??
@6:46 AM
Happy VD, all!
@6:45 AM
Wednesday, February 13, 2002- - -
John Weidner is righteously indignant and certainly with good cause.
“I'm painfully angry and bitter thinking about the Indian Trust Fund Scandal. I got angrier as I wrote about it, and then Charlene read my post and hit the ceiling (she hadn't heard about the mess), which set me off again...
It makes me furious to think of our government self-righteously dragging Enron bosses over the coals, probably sending them to jail, while at the same time losing billions of dollars belonging to some of the poorest people in the country. And here's our President blathering about the Mother Of All Volunteer Programs, so we can be led by wise bureaucrats out of our squalid selfishness into the ways of charity. Phoooey. If I ran the circus a whole bunch of Interiocrats would be heading out to the reservations for some real volunteer work. Let 'em live in a hogan for a while. (And I might contract with Fidelity Funds to handle the trust.)"
It would be very nice if a few Interiocrats found this a hair-raising experience.
But what, pray tell, is the Washington Monument ploy?
@9:54 PM
Bill Quick objects strenuously to the idea that we should not be allowed to use deadly force to protect property:
“This raises all sorts of libertarian warning flags with me. The notion that one cannot protect one's property with deadly force, if necessary, essentially means that the entire concept of property ownership is a farce. It means that if a man with a knife demands my car, even though I am armed with a firearm, I must allow him to take my vehicle. Even worse is the enshrinement of state-ordered cowardice inherent in the notion that you have a "duty" to retreat from "situations that might escalate into using deadly force." This places the balance of social power entirely in the hands of any lawless desperado willing to threaten to use deadly force.”
I agree. It’s a shitty situation. But this isn’t a question of competing ideals. It’s real life. It happens all the time. In real life, it’s not enough to survive the confrontation with the cretin. Then you have to survive the confrontation with the state’s prosecutor, and the very real possibility of a civil suit by the cretin or his survivors.
The state is very jealous of its prerogatives—particularly its monopoly on the use of force. They may argue that car theft is not a capital crime. By shooting some goblin stealing your car you are exacting a far greater penalty for car theft than would any court in the US.
If my or someone’s life is genuinely and immediately threatened I would far rather ‘be tried by twelve than carried by six.’ I think a human life is worth that. But my car isn’t worth potentially being impoverished by legal fees, and/or spending time in lockup. Neither is some C-store’s cash bag. If that’s cowardly, then I’m a coward.
It’s up to each of us to decide how far we will go in such situations and the issue is a very complicated one. For some more horror stories you might want to consult another book by Massad Ayoob: The Truth About Self Protection.
@9:25 PM
#1 Red Dye #5!
February 11th, Sgt. Stryker announced his Red Dye #5 award for “.. week's most noteworthy blog.” This morning he tells me I’m the first awardee! See what a little sucking up* can do for me??
*Incidentally, I meant what I said. Thanks Sarge, and good luck on that Tech test!
@9:10 AM
Bill Quick says the Bush whackers may meet their own Waterford. .. or something like that. “Sometimes a stogie is only a petard and, as everyMonica knows, it's the exploding cigars that make the deepest impression.”
@8:55 AM
Don’t forget the bonus in the Big Bambu album!*
There are so many issues in this post by Steven Den Beste that I don’t know where to start.
Wonderful old typist-friendly and compatible WordStar* used to offer ‘pardons’ for pirates. ‘Want the new upgrade at a discount? Send in your pirated copy.’ Who knows what they did to anyone who’d been so foolish as to register their copy before they copied it..
Vinyl was becoming expensive to produce. CDs are incredibly cheap by comparison and the cost in unadjusted dollars of a music CD today isn’t substantially more than the cost of vinyl 20 years ago. In adjusted dollars, music has never been so cheap. I too miss the jacket art, but the digital quality more than makes up for this.
Of course, when I say that music has never been so cheap, I’m not a starving student anymore. At the moment anyway.
*What ever happened to WordStar? I suspect it had something to do with the feds picking the abominably typist-unfriendly WordPerfect as government standard.
*I've still got mine..
@8:36 AM
You wondered why I lean forward?*
There are many considerations that may be in play here.
One of them: For several years now the DOI has been increasingly restricting ‘signatory authority,’ the number of people in each office who may sign and send out official letters on agency letterhead. It is understandable that the DOI does not want every flunky in the agency putting out documents that appear to have the weight of official writ.
That I know of, they have not restricted their employee’s access to email, nor have DOI employees been required to seek approval before sending out emails. I’ve received a few emails myself that were very interesting. Several very nasty flames, and at least one that was probably legally actionable as libel, or possibly just slander depending on the weight given email as a written document (it wasn’t meant for me, someone hit the wrong key ‘Big Time’). Of course, I'm still terribly traumatized by this and the statute of limitations hasn't nearly run out..
How convenient.. A lot of government employees are chapped at the Indians for cutting off their access to the internet and email. But it wasn’t the Indians that pulled the plug, was it?
*libertarian
@6:37 AM
This is the new millennium?
It was a Gale Norton Christmas in Indian Country. The US Department of the Interior “.. has not only shut down all Internet access to its web sites. It has frozen payments to individual Indian trust beneficiaries - just in time for the holidays. At the moment, Interior is sitting on 43,000 checks that a lot of people in Indian Country were counting on at this time of year.
“Why?
“Because Interior wants to shift the blame for its own gross mismanagement of the trust onto the Cobell plaintiffs - those of us who have been fighting for five and a half years to force Interior to clean up the mess. Interior Secretary Norton also seems to want to embarrass the judge in the Cobell v. Norton case.
“What's going on? A recent investigative report to U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth demonstrated that there is no computer security in place to protect IIM trust accounting data from hackers or other unauthorized intrusions. In fact, tests done by the Special Master, Alan Balaran, revealed that from the Internet - essentially anywhere in the world - any mediocre hacker could break into the database that holds trust information and modify, corrupt, delete or otherwise compromise that data. What's more, any such manipulation would not be detectable - the computer system leaves no audit trail.”
What’s doubly odd is that instead of throwing up a firewall around this database, the DOI has taken themselves almost entirely offline. This causes problems far beyond Indian Country.
There’s an entire web site devoted to this issue from the Native American point of view. It’s sponsored by the Blackfeet Reservation Development Fund, Inc ©.
Across the country, these folks have the poorest education, highest unemployment, highest alcoholism, and highest suicide rates of any ethnic group in the US. They have their reasons. If you’ve been looking for something to get outraged over, this is it.
Update from yesterday’s LA Times:
“The Interior Department will issue checks to tens of thousands of Indians for royalty payments from oil and gas leases which have been hung up since a judge ordered the department to shut down its computers.
Interior Deputy Secretary J. Steven Griles told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday that the checks will go out "as soon as the system can cut them."
February 12th they're getting ready to issue checks 'one of these days'? I guess Christmas was just a little late this year in Indian Country.
@6:02 AM
Even the Socialists hate Gray Davis
From Ken Layne, via Richard Bennett: The Socialist Worker says California Governor .. “Davis received more than half a million dollars in campaign contributions from power companies--and they’ve been getting their money’s worth. He recently signed long-term contracts with power generators that will lock in rates for the next 10 years. But these rates are twice what was being paid last year--and will cost the state $40 billion.”
Layne goes on to say that Davis took $119,000 from Enron. Then he offered to introduce Ken Lay to ‘Butch.’ Isn’t that pandering?
@6:00 AM
Richard Bennett explains the game of curling.
Kari Erickson, skip of the US women’s team, is from Bemidji, Minnesota. Home of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. This explains a lot..
It is cold up there.
@5:58 AM
We’re losing a valuable resource!
According to the Miami Herald: "The recent redesign of Miami.com and Broward.com does not allow us to post more than three months of past columns by Herald Columnist Dave Barry. Please excuse the inconvenience. Thank you."
I guess I’ll have to rely on Yahoos like these (via Virginia Postrel; no permalink):
“British scientists said Monday they had discovered what they believed to be the world's oldest fossilized vomit from a large marine reptile that lived 160 million years ago.”
Sounds like a hairball to me. Can you imagine the sound effects?
Hhaa Hhaaaaaa Hhaaaaaaccckkk!!!
@4:50 AM
Bon Mot for the day:
‘Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach. And those who can’t teach organize teachers unions.’
While people vote as they do for a variety of sometimes inexplicable reasons, I don’t find much mystery in the fact that most academics, who are predominantly public employees employed by taxpayer-supported state colleges and universities, vote for the political party that promises to collect the most taxes and steer the most money their way.
Politicians appeal constantly to the self-interest of their constituents. They are publicly triumphant when they bring home the pork. And I suspect they are correct that most people vote their own self-interest.
@4:49 AM
Tuesday, February 12, 2002- - -
The telemarketeers have been making the phone ring off the hook lately. I never really begrudge someone trying to make a buck. Calling centers also employ a lot of people, although such work has got to be close to my idea of hell on earth. But do they really have to use the computer dialing that rings your phone and then hangs up if no operator is immediately available?
@8:50 PM
This via Suman Palit: While I’m normally all for privatization of services, it is ironic that we’re federalizing airport security while simultaneously privatizing a substantial portion of the duties of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Perhaps this is due to the fact that many in our government have no problem playing the petty thug, while actually performing a duty that requires attention to detail, such as tracking the many foreign students in this country, is patently beyond them.
@8:49 PM
I thought the Olympic Curling was very exciting. The US men clobbered Sweden. A huge upset. Then the Canadians returned the favor. It's not flashy like figure skating or exciting like ski racing. It's more like watching a good game of pool. Note the red noses and beer bellies on some of these guys. My kind of athletes. Much like bowling, when they curl ‘for fun’ there’s a certain assumed handicap.
@6:07 PM
According to Steven Den Beste, it sounds like German Chancellor ‘Dinky’ Shroeder has a problem keeping his mouth shut. So now Saddam knows that he can just relax. He has nothing to fear. His Guards Regiments can stand down. His borders are secure. No one is going to bother him. He can sleep securely at night. You are getting very sleepy..
@6:05 PM
After reading this, one wonders why Megan McArdle isn’t on Microsoft’s defense team. This is also an excellent brief explanation of fixed and marginal costs. I don’t think I’ll start any debates with her over economics, but maybe I should grovel a little anyway..
Naah!
It does sound like Megan and I may have some mutual friends though. Sometimes a quick slap is an appealing answer. Too bad we’re such gentlemen.
Better yet, let’s just purge ourselves of the UN.
@6:04 PM
Hmm. I didn’t get a single spam about BS the BLTG. What’s the matter with those guys? Don’t they recognize a sales opportunity when they see one?
@6:03 PM
When are you legally justified in shooting someone?
From the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle, this story has been in print for several days and it’s finally available on-line. The story raises a number of issues that should be carefully considered by everyone who owns a gun.
There are conflicting accounts of what happened at an alleged armed robbery on Jan. 26, 2002 of a Mini Mart on Yellowstone Road in Cheyenne, Wyoming. James McNeil, 24, of Cheyenne was apparently a witness to the robbery. District Attorney Jon Forwood says McNeil fired nine shots from his 9-millimeter semiautomatic. One bullet hit robbery suspect Leamon Jefferson in the lower back. Jefferson was hospitalized but is now in the county jail on attempted robbery-related charges.
Here, the story starts getting complicated:
Says Forwood: ‘The car apparently backed up in the direction of McNeil, so he fired at it. One was a warning shot; others apparently were fired at the car.
Leonard Munker, an attorney who has talked to McNeil, says ‘McNeil chased the suspect when he was outside the store. The suspect threatened McNeil with a knife at least twice. McNeil fired a warning shot and also fired at a car tire before he shot at the car.’
But Forwood says investigators haven’t found a knife and that there is no knife on a surveillance tape. Munker responds that the suspect could have disposed of the knife. “The fact that they didn’t find a knife doesn’t bother me,” says Munker.
Says Munker: ‘McNeil has years of experience in the military and knows how to use a gun. He doesn’t want to be branded as some kind of suspect. He doesn’t want to be branded as a vigilante or someone who’s done something wrong. But if he hadn’t fired the gun, the robbery suspects would have gotten away. He saw something going down that was a felony. And he took the action he did. He may have overdone it, but I can assure you if it was a cop, the suspect would be dead.’
Forwood responds that McNeil did not have a concealed weapons permit, adding that McNeil also had a cell phone. McNeil chose to insert himself into the situation.
“It’s an extremely difficult issue,” Says Cheyenne attorney Rocky Edmonds, a city prosecutor and NRA certified firearms instructor. ‘There apparently are no state statutes that say exactly what residents can and cannot do when it comes to defending themselves. Wyoming does not have a self-defense statute. Measures that speak to the use of deadly force in self-defense are largely governed by case law, handed down by state Supreme Court decisions. They also are based on English common law, which came about hundreds of years ago.’
Edmonds goes on to say that ‘there are some obvious rules about the use of force. You cannot use deadly force to protect property. There is a perceived duty for a person to retreat from situations that might escalate into using deadly force. If you have the ability to retreat, use it.’
‘Generally, the yardstick to measure whether private citizens can use deadly force to defend themselves is if a “reasonable person” in a similar situation would react the same way. They must believe they are threatened with imminent danger of death or serious injury to themselves or others,’ adds Edmonds. ‘You need to be very careful about the circumstance before you start pulling out a gun. You need to be real sure about the situation you are walking into. The first thing to do is call the cops.’
Cheyenne Police Chief John Powell says he hopes residents will not use such deadly force unless there is no other option. ‘Law enforcement officers are supposed to put their lives on the line.’ “What we would like from a law enforcement standpoint is a good description of the suspect. We would much rather (witnesses) provide that information than get involved and be hurt of killed or cause someone else to be hurt of killed.” ‘Although it varies by cases, the department’s policy on the use of deadly force typically does not allow police to fire on someone fleeing the scene.’
Some analysis:
In a lot of places, James McNeil would be in a lot of trouble. Police are generally charged with apprehending suspects. Private citizens are under no such obligation. If the police will not fire on a fleeing suspect, where does that leave Mr. McNeil?
There is considerable question whether McNeil was in immediate threat of life and limb. ‘Warning shots’ and shooting at tires endanger bystanders. They also raise the question whether McNeil was truly in immediate danger, as he had time to fire a warning shot and shoot at the tires, supposedly before he shot the suspect. Shooting at the tires won’t save you if a car is about to hit you. This also makes it sound like McNeil was shooting ‘to apprehend.’
If at all possible, the police call for backup before they charge into such situations. McNeil had a cell phone. Apparently he didn’t use it. Nobody was being actively stabbed or beaten when, as observed by District Attorney Jon Forwood, McNeil apparently chose to insert himself into the situation. It could be easily argued that a ‘reasonable man’ would have sat tight and called the police.
It’s up to District Attorney Forwood to decide where to go from here. This is not the old west. ‘Cowboys’ with itchy trigger fingers are generally frowned upon. Forwood is frowning. The Chief of Police is frowning. Many places McNeil would be crucified. Twice. Once for having the gun and again for using it. But this is Wyoming and we shall see.
Massad Ayoob is a nationally recognized expert on the use of deadly force. He has written an excellent book that covers all this and more in excruciating detail, in 130 brief pages. In the Gravest Extreme: The Role of the Firearm in Personal Protection. It’s published by the author and available from him through the Police Bookshelf, P.O. Box 122, Concord, NH 03301 USA. It’s also available from Amazon. I strongly recommend that anyone who owns a firearm read this book. It could save your life. More important, it could save someone else’s life.
@6:18 AM
Monday, February 11, 2002- - -
I’ve linked to this in an update below, but it’s too good to miss.
Joe Soucheray has something to say about airline security: “.. can we end the dog-and-pony show? And give me back my damn nail clipper. It is costing billions and resulting so far only in a new victim class, women groped by security guards.”
I include the ‘groping’ part to send you right on over there. It is a very important read. And see what a low opinion I have of anyone who would read me? I am just kidding of course. Sometimes if I couldn’t joke I’d just scream.
@9:01 AM
Say, have I mentioned Britney Spears, lately? I believe she qualifies as a BLTG. And now we’ll see if I get a rash of email with ‘Britney Spears’ in the subject line.. It’s the scientist in me, you see. And from now on, it’s ‘BS the BLTG.’
Come to think of it, I think I do a pretty good job of parodying a blog. Maybe I’d get more traffic if I were less obvious about it? But I have no idea how much traffic I get, except I get a lot of email from very interesting folks.
@8:08 AM
This is what I get for neglecting Sgt. Stryker. About the time I was pontificating on NATO he had something significant to say. I suspect that NATO ‘exercising’ is like lawyers ‘practicing.’ It’s not practice, it’s the whole point of the exercise. Go read the good Sergeant.
@7:22 AM
Actually, I believe the origin of the expression was from the Vietnamese* dinky dou. However it’s spelled, it meant ‘crazy’. Of course, being under-endowed might make you crazy. Couldn’t prove it by me, of course. I have other reasons. Perhaps you could ask Dinky Soliman.
I did know a guy once whose wife called him ‘Dinky.’ I don’t know why. I didn’t want to know why.
And once again Sgt. Stryker goes to the heart of the matter when he asks: My only question is, "Can I drink beer?"
The ever-perceptive Ben Franklin said something to the effect that ‘Beer is proof that god loves us and wants us to be happy.’ If I were in the Philippines I’d say Una mas cervesa, con limon, por favor!
*No, I’m not a Vietnam vet, although I was in the service in time to be one.
@7:21 AM
Excellent!
There’s a new blog on the block: Plato’s Cave by Anton Sherwood. He blames me. I blame Geraldo. Now that I think about it, Geraldo and I do have something in common: We do like a soap box. So here’s one from the soap box:
Sorry Anton. I had no idea how consuming this opportunity to speak my mind could become. I shouldn’t inflict it on others. But misery loves company. And interacting with other blogs is a lot more fun than howling at the moon.
This is what tripped Anton’s trigger—I’d blogged: The real reason we should dislike the driver's license model: Driving is not in the Bill of Rights. The right to keep and bear arms is.
Anton responds: “Are you sure that driving is not in there?”
“Freedom to travel is as fundamental as self-defense; it's near the top of the Articles of Confederation ("the people of each state shall have free ingress and regress to and from any other state", Art.IV); and therefore is covered in the Ninth Amendment if anything is. Just as the RKBA does not go away with new technology, neither does a 9A right to exercise the normal means of travel.”
I won’t repeat the snarky response I gave him at that point except to say ‘it worked.’ Welcome to the Bear Pit, Anton!
I’m not a constitutional scholar by any means. I’ve read a lot of comment and interpretation of the Constitution and I’ve observed that just about anything can be read into, or out of it. But that is beside the point.
‘Freedom to travel’ is an issue we should all be considering right now. In the Reflections in the most recent Liberty (0203; no link) Paul Rako says “.. The men with guns at the airport were there for the sole purpose of getting the American people used to identity checks and interstate border crossings. That these efforts are succeeding is even more depressing than the success of the terrorists.” Says he: “Welcome to East Germany”
Aside from the fact that we’ve all had to go through border checkpoints to drive into the Peoples Republic of California since I was a kid, this does appear to be a disturbing trend. I find it very disturbing that some have suggested we could avoid the hassle by submitting to a background check and getting a ‘frequent flyer ID.’
The Commerce Clause (Art. I, Sec. 8) of the US Constitution reads: [The Congress shall have power..] To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
In the Cato Institute’s Preface to their publication of The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America they say: “.. the Commerce Clause was meant primarily to restrain state power: to ensure the free flow of goods and services among the states..” Rather than giving the feds power to regulate everything, as the clause is now often used.
So yes: Driving, as a fundamental part of the ‘free flow of goods and services,’ should be protected from undo interference by the authorities. Anton suggests that the 9th Amendment does that. I’d point to the Commerce Clause. Obviously, the good folks in the People’s Republic of California haven’t given much credence to either in a long while.
It's not about guns, it's about control.
Update: Via the InstaPundit this morning, Joe Soucheray has something significant to say about this situation.
@4:38 AM
Rand Simberg remembers Reagan and waxes philosophical. “Until we recognize that there is both more, and less, to life than respiration, digestion, and metabolism, until we solve the puzzle of how to liberate ourselves from this ephemeral bag of meat and bone, we will make little true progress in our inevitable journey toward life eternal, or at least as eternal as the universe allows.”
An excellent read.
@4:33 AM
Some enterprising individual should make a list of those congresscritters who Enron considered so unimportant that they didn’t give them contributions.
@4:32 AM
Sunday, February 10, 2002- - -
RE: Steven Den Beste’s comments on Military Science (which is at least as much a science as anthropology) I was about to say “What! The .50 Browning Model 2 HB was around before the Wehrmacht arrived on the scene.” I believe it was used in WWI and it is an American Browning design.” I can’t vouch for the origins of the M85 .50 machinegun, however. I was going to check and see if they’ve changed machineguns on me, as my experience with such is much dated. But before I could google it up from my notes, I see that Steven has corrected himself in an update.
The .30 M240 is a Belgian FN-manufactured gun. I wouldn’t be surprised if it were a Wehrmacht design. I assume that’s what Steven was referring to. I didn’t like it much, as it was too light to fire from the shoulder accurately. However, on a pintle or other solid mount it does shoot very reliably and it’s fast. For us grunts I thought the M60, manufactured by our own Maremont Industries, was the better weapon. Although it was very heavy to hump, about 34 pounds empty, the extra weight made it much more controllable. Dig in your toes, get a good grip, and lean on it, and it would put two out of three rounds of a three round burst into a human-size target at 600 yards, as fast as you could select the targets. Very, very effective against troops in the open.
I’ve heard that the troops in Desert Storm didn’t like the M60 because ‘it jammed.’ I found this odd, because I can’t recall an M60 ever jamming on me. Another 20 years of hard use might have something to do with that. The gas system would clog up on occasion. The bolt locking lugs were susceptible to cracking. Like most US weapons it was tightly fitted and a little dirt would tie it up. Also the ammo feed system was sensitive and a bonehead could screw that up pretty quickly. But a clean M60 in good repair with clean, good-quality ammo was a wonder to behold in the hands of someone who knew how to use it.
Ed Collins writes:
“The M2 HB is indeed older than WW2, but it just missed WW1.
“The M60 was indeed patterned after the German design of the MG34 and MG42, with the feed mechanism in the top tray, which so far as I know was unique to those three weapons.
“I used to have problems with the things, but it might have been for the reasons you cite: old guns with a lot of wear and tear. The M240 is a simpler design with fewer parts, and first made it's appearance in US forces as a co-ax on the M60 tank*. It introduced a lot less gas into the vehicle than the older design weapon it replaced. I forget the nomenclature for the smaller weapon, called the SAW [squad automatic weapon, in .223], but these are both the same FN design.”
*Yep, that’s where I have the most experience with them. It beat hell out of the old, worn, and very cranky (M?? ‘jammomatic’) coax we’d had. I never noticed the gas in the turret from either model. I was probably too busy fighting with the also old and cranky M85 .50 up in the M60A1 cupola. I do hope they’ve replaced that as well, although it made a fine, accurate single shot.
I didn’t know that the M60 MG was also a knockoff of a German design, but I’m not surprised. This again reinforces Steven Den Beste’s thesis, that we learn from studying our enemies as well as our friends. Our military is extremely pragmatic when it comes to finding ‘what works.’
@2:41 PM
Farther along, Steven Den Beste predicts: “.. that this is the death-knell for NATO.” I certainly hope he’s right. We’ve got to have some priorities and defending Europe from the Soviet Union begs to be a low one. The SovUnion doesn’t exist any more and it would seem that much of Europe is hardly worth defending.
Actually, that’s not true. The European people are and always will be worth defending. Some of their leaders and pundits should shrivel.
@2:40 PM
Via Steven Den Beste, Samizdata has a photo caption contest, or is it just a funny caption for a photo? Whatever. I missed it, until I saw it just now noted by Steven, but I did just send out another photo that would make a good caption contest subject. Perhaps someone who can figure out how to post pictures can stick it up..
@2:39 PM
The USS Clueless is on a roll today (actually, yesterday and the day before too). I could say something about churches with lightning rods instead of crosses, but I wouldn’t touch that topic with someone else’s ten-foot pole.
@2:38 PM
Steven Den Beste asks of Europe: “What in hell have they been doing over there for the last forty years? Basically, not much in the way of innovative technology.
Perhaps it was too much beaujolais nouveau? That stuff will cripple your head.
@2:37 PM
Speaking of spam and other email, I forwarded an email to a bunch of folks this morning, including several government employees. No one’s server has rejected it yet, although messages addressed to more than half a dozen people are one of the things often bounced as spam.
However, I see that the Dept. of the Interior people are still off-line. The DOI was ordered to shut down the internet connection to their ‘computers containing Indian Trust Fund info.’ It appeared to me that they could have cut the line at any number of locations. They chose to shut down all their internet connections, apparently agency-wide. This was on December 7th. They’re still gone. Over two months now! That is more than strange.
@1:22 PM
I notice I’m not the only one who’s gotten a spam spike on the topic of BLTGs*. One of those oh so intelligent AI programs trolling for customers?
*That should slow them down, at least until such time as ‘BLTGs’ becomes part of the general vocabulary. I won’t hold my breath.
@12:12 PM
The Loon Speaks!
From the Red Star Tribune (020210; no link): Charles Levendosky says: “We cannot ignore provisions of the Geneva Conventions.” .. in our treatment of Taliban prisoners. “That isn’t how a treaty works. That isn’t how the law works..”
The Taliban weren’t signatories to the Convention. They were not uniformed troops. If you don’t sign the convention you don’t get to complain when you’re not treated according to it. That is how the Geneva Convention works, Charlie. And it doesn’t sound like they’re complaining anyway.
We can ignore the Geneva Convention in our treatment of Taliban prisoners. Whether we should or not is another issue.
Update: What's so odd about this rant is that he starts by acknowledging that we are treating the Taliban prisoners according to the Convention. But he's bent anyway. Go figure.
My dad writes: The best way to get even is to forget... Yes, and this guy is best forgotten. But it’s so easy..
@12:11 PM
North Korea isn’t Iran!*
From the NYT, which does have links: "There are many things the president said that are true," said Wendy R. Sherman, who was the Clinton administration's North Korea policy coordinator. "That it presents a danger to its neighbors and to the world. That it exports missiles to lots of countries that we wish they would not export them to, and that they probably have biological and chemical weapons.”
"But North Korea is not Iran," she said, "and it is not Iraq. It is a place where bad things are going on, but it has reached negotiated agreements with us, and it has principally abided by them."
Let’s see. They also starve their own people. When they got the chance they tortured ours. But I guess I have to agree. North Korea isn’t Iran. Pretty astute for a Clinton administration official.
*Does this count as a ‘no shit, Sherlock?’
Update: Steven Den Beste has some comments on famine in North Korea today. Says he: “There's good reason to believe that prior food aid was being diverted by the government, who was not delivering it to the starving in the countryside.”
Megan McArdle has a bit on North Korea, as well. Hers comes from ‘inside info.’
@9:52 AM
From the Red Star Tribune (020210; no link): President Bush was in Jackson Hole, Wyo. Friday night and Saturday. He departed Salt Lake immediately after presiding over the Olympic opening ceremonies. Air Force One was able to touch down at the Jackson airport despite inclement weather, but a plane-load of paparazzi were diverted to Idaho Falls.
That was a good trick. I bet if there’d been any danger whatever AF1 would not have landed. Must have been one of those ‘eye of the storm’ things. Can’t be too careful with our news folks though.
@9:51 AM
Help Wanted:
From the front page of the Buyer’s Guide Mini Paper (020208): Single Girls who have never been married, between the ages of 18 and 23, and who are Park County, Wyoming residents. To represent Cody, Wyo. as Miss Cody Stampede. Contact Judy Allshouse for more information @ 307-587-5602.
Can they do that?? I should apply. I look pretty good in a big hat. I’m a little (Ok, a lot) over-age, I’m the wrong sex,* I’m married, and I live in Washakie County, but what if I needed a job? I could relocate.
*Assuming there is such a thing as ‘wrong sex.’
@9:51 AM
All Roads Lead to Yellowstone Drug!
From the Red Star Tribune (020210; no link): For any aspiring entrepreneur who wants to get out of the city, the World Famous Yellowstone Drug in Shoshoni, Wyoming is for sale. They claim the best malts and shakes in the [west? country? world?] and they may be right. Of course, these anti-capitalist pigs wouldn’t help out the owners by printing their phone number. That would be free advertising. Can’t have that. But I’ve got a phone book.
The owners are: Bev and Ted Surrency
Phone the store: 307-876-2539
Did I mention that Shoshoni is booming? Bring your travel trailer, housing is hard to find in Shoshoni, Wyo.
Update:A quick google of “Yellowstone Drug” drew about 97 hits, including several travel and gourmet sites. They really are World Famous!
@8:19 AM
Yep, it’s self-importance in operation. Check out the Truth Alert. But at least she’s done something to be self-important about. Unlike this guy.
@8:17 AM
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has an excellent article covering the chilling effect that the anti-terrorism campaign is having on free speech. Particularly noteworthy is the list of people and organizations who have self-censored in some way:
Barbie Streisand has taken down some ‘anti-Bush’ pages at her web site. Does anybody visit her web site? If it’s anything like her, it’s probably a study in self-importance that would make Cornel West blush.
Dino Ignacio, has taken down his “Bert is Evil” site, made famous by an Osama comedy routine.
The Flag-burning Page is down, or up? I haven’t checked these links.
Google has offered to remove self-censored web pages from their cache. MSNBC has removed info from an article. Planned Parenthood has temporarily removed its RoevBush.com website. The WhatDemocracy.com website has temporarily removed its content critical of "right-wing politics.
“Steven Aftergood, who administers the Project on Government Secrecy for the Federation of American Scientists, has pulled from more than 200 pages of previously posted information out of concern that terrorists might find them useful, including floor plans of National Security Agency and Central Intelligence Agency facilities and images of foreign nuclear weapons plants ..” This makes sense, I guess.
A long string of government agencies have pulled content, including: The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Energy, the Department of Transportation, the EPA, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Geographic Information Services, the International Nuclear Safety Center, the Los Alamos National Laboratory, NASA, the National Atlas of the United States, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the U.S. Geological Survey. Note that only two of these outfits are referred to by their acronyms in the EFF article.
Some folks have found that their speech wasn’t free at all. It cost some their jobs. The list includes several professionals: Managing Editor Jean Ryan and City Editor Dale Seth of the Oneida Daily Dispatch, conservative columnist Ann Coulter of the National Review, and columnist Dan Guthrie of the Daily Courier. A number of others have been suspended or stifled in some way.
Note that Ms. Coulter is identified as a conservative. The rest must be from the other wing of the turkey.
And this is only the beginning of the EFF article. Well worth a read.
@7:41 AM
Where is that caffeine drip? I think I’ll have needles in both arms this morning. Just to tease the Carnivores.
@7:38 AM
Eeeeuw! The Nouveau Flu. What I get for howling at the moon.
@6:03 AM
Saturday, February 09, 2002- - -
Via the InstaPundit, this is ‘pretty cute’. No point in picking a fight with these tiny-whackers, either.
@10:03 PM
Wow! Megan McArdle just got another audience with the King. Thirty Minutes of Fame? It’s not fair, I Say!! (Way to go, Megan!)
@7:58 PM
Excuse me!
According to the AP the European Union has a proposal to tax goods and services delivered digitally over the Internet:
“EU finance ministers are expected next week to consider a plan that would require U.S. sellers to register in Europe and charge the value-added tax on digitally delivered products that applies in the consumer's home country.”
“Deputy Treasury Secretary Kenneth Dam said in a statement that the administration has "serious concerns" about the proposal, which he said could allow EU companies to charge lower tax rates and would impose "onerous administrative and compliance burdens" on U.S. companies.”
“In addition, he said the value-added tax on digitally delivered products such as magazines, books and newspapers would be higher than for their counterparts that are delivered in physical form.
Am I a good, or a service? I try to give good service, but I’ve never charged anything, so what’s the tax on nothing? Do I have to fill out more forms?
@7:44 PM
MommaBear speaks! And don’t forget the Beringer Nouveau. It’s a silly little wine but it has my fingers all tangled up.
@7:09 PM
“.. government programs never, ever die.” No kidding. Perhaps if we’re very, very lucky we can drive a stake through some of their black little hearts.
@7:08 PM
Dum Vivimus, Vivamus! (Heinlein) What a great motto. I’ve yet to make a blade worthy of the etching, however.
@7:07 PM
Dang! It was me all along.
@7:07 PM
These guys would shit their britches if they spent a week in Germany, much less Russia.
@3:46 PM
Letters to the editor, from Doug Thorburn*, in the March Liberty: “.. Early-stage alcohol addiction is marked by an inordinately large sense of self-importance. This translates into a need in the afflicted to inflate their egos..” Thank you, Ann Landers.
*Thorburn is author of: Drunks, Drugs, and Debits: How to Recognize Addicts.
@3:42 PM
R. W. Bradford in “From the Editor” in the March Liberty: “The war against terrorism is winding down. In its conquest of Afghanistan, the United States has killed thousands of people and suffered one more casualty than it did in its war against Serbia. It’s a sweet victory, though the enemy escaped and it looks like Americans have lost a lot of liberty..” [Sigh] Even the anti-Butt Weasels can be Butt Weasels when they really try..
@3:40 PM
Don’t get me wrong. I love watching North America clobber the World in Hockey. But are there any amateurs on the US or Canadian teams?
@3:38 PM
OK. Forget all this stuff. And this. Find a Norwegian. Hand him the fire axe. Tell him the man up front with the box cutter just called him a Swede. Stand Waaay Back.
The Axe. It’s probably genetic..
@3:37 PM
Now wait just a darn minute! Megan McArdle says that “Some guy just tried to hijack a plane going from Miami to Buenos Aires. The passengers and flight attendants subdued him with a fire ax.” They confiscate tweezers and the passengers had access to an axe? Whatever..
@1:10 PM
Bumper sticker on a passing pickup: “Help fight inbreeding, ban country music.” I guess there’s a statist solution for everything. I wouldn’t argue with this guy though. He looked like he knew something about inbreeding.
@1:09 PM
In good right-brain order, a few more from my dad and Disorder in the Court by Bob Terrell and Marcellus Buchanan, while I wait for my IP to get it together:
Judge: "Well Sir, I have reviewed this case and I've decided to give your wife $775 a week."
Husband: "That's fair, your honor. I'll try to send her a few bucks myself."
- - -
Q: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?
A: Yes.
Q: And in what ways does it affect your memory?
A: I forget.
Q: You forget. Can you give us an example of something you've forgotten?
- - -
Q: What was the first thing your husband said to you when he woke up that morning?
A: He said, "Where am I, Cathy?"
Q: And why did that upset you?
A: My name is Susan.
- - -
Q: Trooper, when you stopped the defendant, were your red and blue lights flashing?
A: Yes.
Q: Did the defendant say anything when she got out of her car?
A: Yes, sir.
Q: What did she say?
A: What disco am I at?
That air of gravis must effect everyone..
@1:09 PM
Where’s the Beef?
Via the Northern Wyoming Daily News (020209; no link): President Bush was in Denver yesterday on his way to Salt Lake. There he spoke to the National Cattleman’s Beef Association “.. and he called on Congress to pass a $73.5 billion federal farm bill.”
What was that again about re-distributive lefties?
Ok, Ok, there was this from Ward Connerly, via Sean McCray: Gray Davis wants tuition breaks for illegal aliens! I wonder if he’s discussed this with Dianne Feinstein? Of course, illegals don’t have visas..
@1:07 PM
Hmm. My dad sent me this same pension issue letter February 5th. To think I could have scooped the Great One.
Of course, my dad also sent me this (from Disorder in the Court by Bob Terrell and Marcellus Buchanan):
Q: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
A: No.
Q: Did you check for blood pressure?
A: No.
Q: Did you check for breathing?
A: No.
Q: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
A: No.
Q: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
A: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
Q: But could the patient have still been alive nevertheless?
A: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law somewhere.
Update: Oops! Actually my dad sent it February 7th. Still would have been a scoop though.
@8:53 AM
More from Munchkin Land, via the Northern Wyoming Daily News (020209; Motto: “Internet, we don’t need no stinking Internet.”; luckily the Chicago Tribune doesn’t agree): “The Forest Service willfully disregarded employee safety at a wildfire last summer in which four firefighters were killed, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Friday.”
“OSHA said the Forest Service did not provide a place of employment that was "free of recognized hazards that could cause serious harm or death."
Um, guys, they were fighting a wildfire.
@8:52 AM
Via the Northern Wyoming Daily News (020209), here’s a good idea from Diana West of the Washington Times (sorry, no link w/o subscription; ‘Motto: “Why get it for free when you can buy it from me?”):
Let’s declare a moratorium on student visas. That will keep all those benighted peoples from stealing our technology and using it against us. Of course, it will keep them from using it to help themselves as well. No wonder! She steals the idea from Dianne Feinstein.
@8:50 AM
Is it safe to mention guns, again?
John Weider expands on a comment by Megan McArdle on the elitism of anti-gunners. This mentality is far from uncommon. That’s why we have the Rosie and Dianne show: Neither would allow you to carry a gun, or even possess one. Both have armed bodyguards and I understand that Feinstein has a CCW.. But of course they’re Important People who need protection from us filthy masses.
And they need Our Love, too..
@6:33 AM
Excellent! We have a definition of ‘snarky’! I suspected it was from the Outer Qwghlm dialectic all along. I feel much better now.
@6:29 AM
Hey! I’ll retire if I find a Genius!
@6:28 AM
All kinds of good stuff Live from the WTC. I must take exception to one statement however. I don’t think too many lefties have been pushing asset forfeiture laws. It’s not that lefties are anti-liberty and righties are pro-liberty. It’s more a question of which liberties they want us to give up, and how they go about it.
There seems an inherent tension between the left wing and right wing philosophies in the Game of Princes:
“A controversy has arisen about this: whether it is better to be loved than feared, or vice versa. My view is that it is desirable to be both loved and feared; but it is difficult to achieve both and, if one of them has to be lacking, it is much safer to be feared than loved.” Machiavelli The Prince
Or as Phil Ochs put it: “Love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal.”
My reaction: “What? You want a kiss, too?”
@6:25 AM
There’s been a lot of flap over the ‘ENRON scandal’ but at least ENRON was a very large cookie jar with major international economic influence, not some tawdry shopping mall development. This, as much as anything, probably gripes the trailer trash.
“You can take the trash out of the trailer but you can’t take the trailer out of the trash.” And you can quote me on that.
@6:23 AM
Yes, we smug rubes in flyover land sometimes get a little exasperated with the great democratic Masses who can and do vote themselves bread, circuses, and pretty playgrounds, not to mention dirt-cheap gasoline, electricity, and heating fuel, and the cheapest, most plentiful food on earth, and then sneer at those who produce such things. Our exasperation doesn’t make us terrorist sympathizers, however.
"One of the sad signs of our times is that we have demonized those who produce, subsidized those who refuse to produce, and canonized those who complain." --Thomas Sowell
@6:21 AM
Speaking of endangered rats, I bet a lot of Norway rat habitat is being lost too. Perhaps we could do something to protect what little is left. You know, dump some trash in the alleys. No more remodeling old tenements and warehouses into Yuppie condos. If your sump pump quits voila! wetlands. No more traps or poison either. We must let nature take its course.
The Norway rat isn’t native to North America you say? So? Neither is the ‘wild’ horse and we provide habitat for them.
@6:19 AM
OK, I’ll bite: "guns"+"babes"+"full auto" - Mmmm. I think I may have found a new hobby.. But now I’m dying to know: Why was Ms. McArdle googling “babes”?
Oh! It’s a thing with Barely Legal Teenage Girls. That’s understandable..
@6:18 AM
Hey! Where did everybody go?
@6:16 AM
I’m reminded of my days as a ‘Beaver Control Officer’ (long ago and far away and the statute of limitations has run out) every time I drive down I-76 headed east out of Denver. I understand that the good folk in Colorado couldn’t wait for the black-tailed prairie dog to be federally listed as a ‘threatened’ species and went ahead on their own.
Now they have rat colonies growing all along the Interstate right-of-way. They burrow into the roadway and under the pavement. It can only be a matter of time before the integrity of the roadbed is destroyed. The last time I looked, many years ago, construction of Interstate highways cost considerably more than $1 million per mile. It’s probably many times that now. But we wouldn’t want to consider the costs and benefits of protecting 3,000,000 rats as an endangered species, would we? That could put some Munchkins out of work.
@6:15 AM
Chris Smith has been working overtime. With his new look, he certainly wins the prize for most colorful blog. Also a lot of interesting content not seen elsewhere.
@6:12 AM
Friday, February 08, 2002- - -
I see I’ve made the favorites list over at William Quick’s too. I’m honored once again. I don’t know quite what it is I’m doing but I’ll try to continue to do it. Perhaps it’s time to start shaking the cup? Well, maybe not.. I think I’ll hold out for a Genius.
@4:54 PM
Via William Quick, here’s an excellent idea for those of you headed to the Olympics.
@4:53 PM
My dad has been reading the blogs and sends a list of ‘Rules to Remember.’ No. 3: There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."
Hobby? What hobby?
@4:52 PM
Sgt. Stryker comments on a variation of the old shell game.
@4:51 PM
Via the InstaPundit (where else?), Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) asks the Enron management: “Was it worth it? Was the selling of your morals worth it? Was the selling of your souls worth it? I suspect some of you may answer yes."
We could ask that same question of Congress with the same suspected result, couldn’t we?
@4:51 PM
We had an interesting day yesterday. It started when the spousal unit was getting her coffee and looking out the kitchen window. ‘Did you leave the window down on the truck?’ No. ‘Well it is now.’ No it wasn’t. It had been shot out. Windshield too. By one of those harmless air rifles that even the most rabidly anti-gun usually concede to us.
Call the police.. I think there was a squad car outside before I could hang up. ‘A Crime?! Oh Boy!’ And ‘Oh no, there hasn’t been any vandalism in the neighborhood.’ Oh, oh. Me thinks: ‘Is this something personal??’ There’s a couple of creeps who’d probably like to shoot me but neither has the cohones to do anything and one of them moved far away.
Well no. It wasn’t personal. According to the glass man and the insurance man I wasn’t nearly alone. Just mindless Orcs out cavorting. Mindless twice: They forget that one car window can trip the $500 felony property destruction trigger. And because they’re mindless they usually get caught. I say: “Good job doofus. Now you’re in a lot of trouble. For an evening of yucks.”
But there’s a silver lining to every cloud. Out of all my foaming and ranting yesterday I met MommaBear! A treat and a pleasure.
@9:52 AM
What a delightful time we live in.
I note a certain ‘blog saturation point.’ I can barely read as fast as the InstaPundit writes. Then I start following the links from there. There aren’t enough hours in the day to follow all the links from Glenn Reynolds and PunditWatch. I find myself neglecting blogs that I like very much, if I spend much time searching out new and different views. Yet I find someone worthy of the Den Beste list almost every day.
It’s not really an ’information superhighway.’ More like an information super-mall.
@9:48 AM
Boulder, Mordor of the Rockies!
Ed Collins writes that Boulder is like the Mordor of the Rockies. He must mean that they attract and export* a lot of Orcs.
When we were last down at the Crossroads Mall, out in the foothills below Boulder, we struck up a conversation with a Boulder newcomer. She’d been there only a year, but she wished that somehow all this growth could be stopped! ‘You wouldn’t believe how things have changed since I got here!’ No kidding.
Tree-house environmentalism. ‘OK, I’m in. Pull up the ladder.’ Come to think of it, this sentiment probably stems from pretty much the same mindset as anti-Globalism.
*’You can tell when it’s springtime in Wyoming. All the license plates turn green.’ Are they Orcs? Well no, but it is hard to ‘tread lightly’ when you bring your 3 million best friends.
“Welcome to Wyoming. Have a great time. Spend lots of money..”
@9:47 AM
There’s nothing conservative about this sort of Puritanism any more than many ‘social’ programs are liberal. It seems to me that the left wing and the right wing are attached to the same turkey and the bird is becoming too fat to fly.
@7:03 AM
Via the InstaPundit, Andrew Hofer has some comments on Mindles Dreck at MoreThanZero, along with a link to the ‘Den Beste debate challenge’:
Says Den Beste: “Resolved: The United States is correct to be fighting this war and should not stop doing so.
That is a tough one. I have yet to see a good counter-argument, only a lot of Mindles Dreck. I love a good debate. I usually dive right in. But I’ll have to think about this one.
If you want to take the challenge, bring your own soapbox.
@7:01 AM
“.. Extra-legal arrangements exist because people want them to.”
Suman Palit has done an in-depth piece on “Hawala,” apparently an established, extra-legal system of monetary exchange in Asia. He quotes Dr. Sam Vankin:
“.. the age-old, secretive, and globe-spanning banking system developed in Asia and known as "Hawala" (to change, in Arabic). It is based on a short term, discountable, negotiable, promissory note (or bill of exchange) called "Hundi". While not limited to Moslems, it has come to be identified with "Islamic Banking". ‘
Says Suman Palit: “The key here is the absence of expedient, reasonably priced and reasonably regulated banks, which are absent because much of the political and legal elite of developing world refuse to accept that extra-legal arrangements exist because people want them to. The law often needs to bend to the will of the people, otherwise they become unenforceable.”
What I don’t know about international monetary and exchange systems fills several large books that I just can’t bring myself to read, so there’s not much point in my commenting further. Hawala would appear to be a corollary of many other ‘extra-legal’ systems. The law does need to bend to the will of the people. This is all very interesting and well worth the lengthy read.
@6:58 AM
Via PunditWatch: According to Tom Friedman, “If President Bush gets the defense budget increase he asked for in his State of the Union address, U.S. defense spending will equal the defense budgets of the next 15 highest countries — combined.”
Of course, we defend the next 15 countries..
@6:55 AM
Here’s something strange. I opened a new 12oz bag of Western Family French Roast ‘in the bean’ and dumped it into the glass jar we keep in the fridge. I glanced in the bag to see of I’d gotten every last bean and behold! There was one of those little magnetic anti-shoplifting buttons. Yuppie shoplifters? Street people with coffee grinders? Next time I go to the store I’m going to look to see if they’ve got the saffron under guard..
@6:55 AM
St. Patrick: Another Story
The potato famine got worse the farther north you trace it. It hit Ireland hard, but it hit Norway harder. The Norwegians started moving south and a lot of them settled in caves along the northern coast of Ireland. They raided the Irish fields and generally made a nuisance of themselves—singing loudly and off-key in the pubs.
The Irish tried many schemes to get rid of them, but nothing worked. Finally, in desperation, they consulted St. Patrick—he did chase the snakes out of Ireland after all.
St. Pat told them: “Sneak into their caves tonight and unplug their refrigerators. Nobody can live on rotten fish. It didn’t work. This is how Kvitsøyball was invented. The Norwegians were writing their relatives ‘come on down, the Irish food is delicious!’
Now even more desperate, with shiploads of hungry Norwegians arriving every day, the Irish again consulted St. Pat. He told them: “Sneak back into their caves and sprinkle lye all over their rotten fish. Nothing can eat something covered in lye.” Of course, this is how Lutefisk was invented. It’s still one of the most popular foods in Norway.
Now the Norwegians were truly pouring in. There was hardly elbowroom left at the better pubs. The whiskey was running out fast. They had to do something. Again the Irish consulted St. Patrick and this time he decided to handle the problem personally. Putting out the call, he assembled all the Norwegians in Ireland. He told them in no uncertain terms that they should all go to Hell!
That’s why so many Norwegians live in North Dakota today.
@6:53 AM
Thursday, February 07, 2002- - -
I’ve been neglecting Sgt. Stryker of late. I shouldn’t. I’ve never met the good Sergeant (he’s only got 87,600 hours in, a mere pup), but I’ve worked very closely with his gang at MACC.
UPS delivers overnight. MACC delivers when you can’t wait overnight. They deliver to places where the delivery men sit on flak jackets for the final run. CYA, indeed. Don’t stand there with your mouth hanging open looking up when they fly overhead with that back door open. Run!! They’re about to rain food and ammo on you and sometimes the ‘shutes don’t open or a pallet breaks. Blame those last on me.
It was me and my merry band of dog robbers who scrounged up the gear (several stories there—that’s why they called us robbers), packed and palletized it, weighed it (Hmm. That must weigh about..), calculated the load plan, hauled it to the airfield, and provided the grunt labor to get it on board and tied down. The good Sergeant and his cohorts provided the training to do all this and the supervision while we did it. And the planes, of course. Then they took it away. Considering the cargo, sometimes I didn’t want to know where it was going. But I had great faith that it would get there. Usually in one piece. If it didn’t you may blame that on me as well. Better yet, file an insurance claim. You’ve got to expect some loss in the shipping and handling dept.
The moral of this story is a simple one: The best army in the world won’t last long without logistic support.
The fighter jockeys go very fast and high in small craft that are heavily armed and hard to hit. They get the glamour and promotions, and their mechs get to stay home. MACC lumbers along in craft you could hit with a slingshot ( I exaggerate, but not much) flying low in the DZ with their butts hanging out while their mechs crawl out on a wing to tape something back on. ‘In-air maintenance.’ Must be why they call it ‘100-mile-an-hour tape.’
It’s not a pretty job. It’s not glamorous. Promotions are few and far between. They get all the respect due a hillbilly truck driver. It shouldn’t be that way.
Keep on truckin,’ Sarge.
@8:39 AM
Last month, Nick Gillespie wrote in his editor’s note: “Write what you know.” This month (not yet on line) he writes about ‘nipple twisting.’ Ouch! See what you’re missing by not subscribing to Reason? Besides, you can’t read blogs while you’re walking from one room to the next, unless your computer is a lot smaller and lighter than mine. Hard to hold the computer in one hand while you eat, too. And be careful when you’re reading about nipple twisting, you could sprain a thumb.
@8:35 AM
Having never been very well house-trained, I threw myself at the couch last evening and missed. Sprained my (luckily) non-spacebar thumb. Live in a place 10 years and then somebody moves the couch 5 inches to the left. Dang. But it doesn’t slow me down much. All I did with that one was suck on it occasionally and sit on it a lot at govmint meetings.
@8:34 AM
I do get some of the damnedest email. “Young girls and dogs.” Is that legal? Do I care? They're not really that young. I’ve read that sex is a hot commodity on the net. I’m scarcely a prude. My libertarian instincts tell me that as long as all participants are willing, human sacrifice might be acceptable. I am willing to be argued out of that opinion, but remember, I said all participants that includes the one sacrificed. But some of the things that pop up unbidden when I check the email would gag a maggot. One must wonder if some of these things aren’t the early trolls of the vice patrols.
I also understand why my friends who are ‘rents sometimes don’t want their children exposed to the internet. I don’t agree—the benefits of the ‘net far outweigh the downside, even if I’d sometimes like to hit ‘delete’ with a long stick. I’ve thought of installing a filter. Judging from the number of my (quite innocent!) emails that come bouncing back from such, I don’t trust any machine’s judgment and I don’t want my mail censored, e– or otherwise. I can ‘take it’ too, Lola.
I’d written earlier about a passage penned by John Weider that tripped my trigger. Rubes indeed! But it was meant in fun and he has a very good point that I’d intended to expand upon.
Says he: “A good thing about [electronic commerce] is that more people will be able to have good jobs without migrating. One of the drawbacks of capitalist prosperity is that it is corrosive. It melts things. Old established towns can just die if the jobs go elsewhere and young people move away. Now it may become more common for people to just stay in their little hick towns and work for some company on the other side of the globe.” Hick Towns! We resemble that remark!
It’s true. On one hand, I’m glad that so many are so enamored with the bright lights of the big city. It leaves more room out here for the coyotes and I prefer my mountaintop, thanks. But most of the kids do move away. There aren’t a lot of good jobs to be had here and most are taken. Most of the bad jobs are taken too, but they change hands more rapidly.
Most of our in-migration is retirees looking for a place where they can live on their SocSec and this is the place. The cost of living is delightfully, ridiculously low. We also get a portion of the shell-shocked who flee the cities. And a few folks like me who do the e-commerce bit.
I suppose I could live anywhere in the Rocky Mountain west without changing what I do for a living. My fieldwork is often a day-long drive to spend 20 minutes inspecting and photographing 10 acres of land where someone wants to site a well. Then I spend the next day writing about that 20 minutes in minute detail. The truck seat and my behind are close friends who’ve grown together over the years.
I’ve never met half of my clients face to face. Probably better for me: Would you hire someone who looks like an evil Santa Claus? Some of them have met me and hire me anyway. That’s what I find odd (and another story). But I give good phone, and I can push paper with remarkable speed and volume. I may never dazzle with my brilliance, but I do baffle with BS. To be on the safe side I also bury ‘em in paper.
On my end, all that paper is random electrons until in print it out and stuff it in the envelope. More and more of my business is conducted over the internet, or was until the DOI leapt back into the stone age! Yes, they’re still off-line. What is with those guys? It was all just too easy I guess.
Regardless, I see e-commerce as a potential savior of our small towns. Worland can’t compete with Denver if you must dress in Gap Crap (Wait! Yes we can. UPS and FedEx deliver overnight here too). On the other hand, if you have your own unique ideas on fashion (or commerce) this is the place to try them. At least you won’t embarrass yourself in front of a large audience.
Ah! I knew there had to be a moral to this story somewhere..
@8:33 AM
Wednesday, February 06, 2002- - -
I’m finding that as I research current events and issues I appreciate the blog format more and more. I would much rather have a link so that I may immediately read cited articles in full, rather than be given a print media-like citation to a publication that must be googled down. If it’s not available on the net of course, it’s unlikely I’ll be able to find it here, unless I go through interlibrary loan. The nice people at the local library groan when they see me coming and I usually reserve such extreme measures for work-related references.
@10:09 PM
The Kolkata Libertarian want’s to know “What’s a Coyote doing at a dog show?” I’ve often wondered that myself.
My wife’s mom lives in northeastern Colorado and we often pass through Denver on the way to and from, take in a Rockies or Avalanche game, do a little shopping, or whatever. Recently, we went to the new Mall (Crossroads? Something like that) in Westminster. Fancy place. We spent a ton on Williams Sonoma and Crate & Barrel stuff we never knew existed. And I noticed that we were getting a lot of stares from the mall crawlers. Now this was a remarkably urban urbane crowd by Denver standards. I figured that it was probably the White’s boots, Levi’s, Filson’s oilskin, and Stetson. To them I probably looked like a stray coyote that had wandered into the dog show.
Considering the overwhelmingly urban outlook of the blogorific, that seemed a good metaphor here as well.
@10:08 PM
Hey Guys! I’ve been picking on the commies, too! Of course, in my case it’s rather like shooting very slow fish in a nearly empty barrel. That is a good analogy: Slow Fish.
@10:07 PM
Natalie Solent says that when she went to Oxford.. “.. Suddenly I was surrounded by people at least as clever as I was. On the one hand, a bit of a blow to my ego. On the other - how wonderful to strike this unsuspected lode of people who saw nothing odd about wishing to talk about Olbers' paradox..”
That’s about how I feel about discovering blogs. ’Where have all these clever people been hiding?’
@10:06 PM
The Chilean Walnut Crest chardonnay, 1999 and 2000, is excellent. Slightly metallic, medium full, fat legs, and a long finish. And a bunch of other gibberish that means ‘it’s really good.’ And it’s about $5 a bottle, in Wyoming. Comparable to a good Californian for $15. On the other hand, the Walnut Crest cabernet is short. No finish to speak of.
They must have over-planted the chardonnay grape in Chile. Their loss, our gain. Try some and help them out.
@10:04 PM
It is interesting that the hot button issue seems to be guns, the carrying thereof, and self defense in general. I suppose that’s not surprising given current events, but something I wish would stay an issue until most of those 20,000 odd laws have been repealed. Of course, gun laws aren’t the half of it. It would be nice if a few more folks remembered the 4th, 5th, and 10th amendments as well, not to mention the rest of the Bill of Rights.
I’ve often thought that there should be an amendment to the Constitution (for all that matters in the Game of Princes) requiring that two laws be repealed for each law passed.. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t slow them down a whit for a long time. There’s a lot of redundant and just plain dumb laws.
@10:04 PM
I notice that I’m now a ‘Commuter blog stop’ at Samizdata! I’m flattered! And I guess you have to try harder for ’Posh.’ But I’ll try to be properly libertarian. With a little ‘L’. I’m mostly a pragmatist. Really.
‘What once we craved so quickly seems our due.’ This too shall probably pass. Probably too soon for my tastes.
Update: The Kolkata Libertarian says he’s been upgraded to Posh for his ‘uniformly high quality of postings.’ Ah ha. I’ve been reading his blog and noticed that. Not much hope for me then. I can’t resist the occasional pun, jibe, jape, guffa, and chortle.
@10:02 PM
I hope Larry Ellison is no relation to Harlan Ellison. Although they are both quite mad.
Larry Ellison has never considered himself a poorly educated SHON shon nah*?
@10:01 PM
I don’t find this odd at all. Iranians aren’t evil. Their government is evil. And perhaps the Euro yak pack.
@9:59 PM
I grew up in Williams County, ND, of which Williston is the County seat. By some odd accident of world disorder the first wave of immigrants to this area were Scandinavian (actually I’ll blame it on St. Patrick, another story). Today they make up about 50% of the population of the County. So there’s a bunch of Swensons & Hansens and Olsons in the phone book. Patronymic names, like the ‘-ovich’ in Russian. Literally, ‘son of Swen’ (actually in my case: grandson).
This caused great hilarity when I lived in Kentucky: “Hello Mr. Swineford.” That’s Swenson.” “Oh, I’m sorry Mr. Swineson.” It was the ‘Swen’ that caused the confusion.. Wonderful folks, Kentuckians. North Dakotans with a funny accent. And their weather is worse.
But I digress. The second wave of immigrants to Williams County, now comprising about 40% of the population, were from the middle east. Lots of Syrians, Lebanese, and what all.
When the Swedes showed up (chased by a few Norwegians) there weren’t many folks there other than the Indians. They settled in to dry-land farming, scratching out a living on the glacial till. You can raise a fine crop of rocks about anywhere in Williams County.
When the middle-easterners arrived in the second wave a few years later, they wanted to fit in. So now we have Omar Olson and Amed Larson. As a child I remember thinking ‘Omar, what a funny name. Not at all like Larrs or Ole.’ I guess I thought that half the Norskes had black, curly hair and olive skin. And .. cough .. very aesthetic women. Why would you make them wear a bag over their heads?
Unless you’re such an insecure weenie you’re afraid the next guy who comes along will steal your wife? I know, it’s religious, but that would be a good functionalist interpretation of the custom —I am an anthropologist at heat.
Dang spell-checker didn’t catch that one. Hmmm. Was that Freudian? (Really. That’s what my fingers typed.) The human mind: Stranger than we know. Stranger than we can know..
@8:32 AM
Whew! I seldom dream much, at least that I recall. It’s been a long time since I had a real sheet-soaking, wake up gasping nightmare. But I dreamed that I’d been retained to do what some anthropologists have been reputed to do before: spy on the neighbors. I’m not sure which middle-eastern country I was in, and I wasn’t posing as a mild-mannered archaeologist. I was posing as a sheep herder. ‘Which sheep herder? The big blond one.’ Good cover, eh? Very vivid. Full color, sound, and smell. I woke up backed into a corner with my crook in one hand and a knife in the other.. But I woke up.
Be careful out there, gentlemen—ladies too.
@8:29 AM
I never intended to set myself up as a gun pundit. Now, I’ve received several emails asking for my advice, all on one topic: What should I carry? Guys, I live in Wyoming. The crime of the year is a gas station drive-off. Although we did have a rather nasty robbery turned triple murder here in Worland a few years back. Sigh. I live here at least in part because I don’t like to live in fear for my life. Although I do try to maintain a constant ‘Yellow.’
I rarely carry a gun unless I’m in pursuit of dinner. Even then I prefer a bow—I make my own—since guns are just too easy. When I do carry a gun, I strap it on my hip and I’m more likely I carry a long gun if I actually want dinner. I enjoy hunting. I enjoy anything that gets me out of the house on a nice day. But I don’t particularly enjoy killing anything. It’s not pretty. I don’t like it. I am not a trophy hunter.
However, I know where meat comes from and somebody’s got to do it. I don’t think it does a thing for your karma to pay someone else to do the dirty work. I’ve also studied some comparative anatomy and our teeth are not particularly suited to a diet of fruits and nuts. We are omnivores, or at least I am. I will eat anything, but let’s not get into last night’s dinner. My turn to cook..
On the other hand, considering some of the schlock I’ve read in the gun mags lately, I suppose I can’t do much worse*. At any rate (On the other hand.. I’ve got to get rid of this sort of empty excess verbiage. That’s one of the reasons I’m doing this). I’ve received a number of emails raising some very interesting issues. I’ve been trying to address them on the side with emailed responses but I’m getting a bit flooded. So..
@8:27 AM
My email policy*
As of now, if you email me with a response to anything you’ve read in my blogs, I’ll consider it fair game for a post, unless you ask not to be posted. Then I’ll get back to you when I’ve the time.. I’d better put a notice next to my email address yonder.
*Who’d a thunk I’d have to worry about an email policy? Certainly not me.
Hey! Two posts in ‘logical’ left-brained order. I must have gotten up on the wrong side of bed..
@8:24 AM
Virginia Postrel has an interesting piece on the ‘Whirl-Mart’ anti-capitalist protest movement (posted 2/4/02: Permalinks. Wonderful things..). Quotes she: “The ritual consists of interested humans arriving at a predetermined Wal-Mart at 12 noon on the first Sunday of every month and proceeding to push empty shopping carts slowly and silently through the aisles. Eventually, all of the participants locate one another and form a single-file chain of anti-shoppers which weaves, wanders, and whirls throughout the different departments of the store for about an hour.”
Empty shopping carts, eh? I wonder how many of them buy something before they leave?
@8:22 AM
Tuesday, February 05, 2002- - -
navel gazing ‘big time’
I’ve been sitting here trying to get on the net but the pipe is clogged. So I’ve been reading farther down in the blogs I last downloaded. I came across an interesting discussion by Steven Den Beste about the frustrations of blog advertising and the rationales behind favorites lists.
Says he: “Most sites will have a list of other sites to visit, either on their front page or elsewhere. The criteria by which they are selected is as varied as the people who select them. Sometimes it's "these people are friends." Sometimes it is "these people are VIPs and I'm trying to suck up." Sometimes it's "I really like these." Sometimes, pathetically, it's "Everyone else links to these guys so I probably should, too."
Hmm. Those folks over to the left are my favorites list, although not necessarily in order of favoritism. The blogs I visit regularly. Some I’m sure everyone recognizes and some are probably more obscure. At least a couple brought themselves to my attention. How they found me, I don’t know. But I liked what I read and now I go back.
Steven goes on to say: ”I have an extensive list of outside sites elsewhere here, but for the sidebar I've decided that what I want to do is to keep a short list of sites which are not heavily trafficked but which I think are high quality. In other words, I'm trying to do what I wished others had done for me last year. So you won't find Glenn Reynolds over there, because he doesn't need my help. By the same token, periodically I'll be dropping names off the list again as new ones are added, so as to keep it short and selective.”
That makes sense. I’ve often thought ‘what if I decide I really don’t like one of these blogs.’ Then what? Cull the herd? Carry someone whose ideas I find I don’t personally care for, or find actually repugnant? Obviously a lot of folks put a great deal of work into their blogs and deserve some consideration before they’re summarily dumped. On the other hand, to avoid hurting someone’s feelings, I’d wind up with an awfully long list of blogs. Keeping the addresses current could become a pain. I haven’t been doing this long enough to have a problem yet, but I can see the time coming when decisions should be made. I don’t know what I’ll do.
But I did take a look at the Den Beste list (is that redundant?). I’m on it. I’m not sure what to say. Thanks! I’m honored! I’ll try not to disappoint.. Sucking up does work sometimes?? The pressure’s on now.
I never considered the possibility that I’d be noticed much at all. Not enough to consider putting up a counter that would only tell me how many times I’d hit my own site to find a permalink. This blog was meant to break the ice, shake off the nerves of throwing my mouth around the euniverse, and learn how to do the mechanics of what I see as a promising public outreach tool (something I’m supposed to do professionally). I’d intended to do the crashing and burning here and put the good stuff over there. I think I’ll still use the little humanitarian* as a public outreach site, once I figure out photos. But frankly I’m having an awful lot of fun right here.
Then there was the gun thing yesterday and it got a little nuts for awhile. I was very gratified by the response. I still haven’t gotten any adverse comments, unless you count one weird and very cryptic note about ‘hanging dogs,’ with a link to a very sad tale. I’m not sure what that was about. Whatever trips your trigger, I guess. I was braced for fangs and claws if I got any response except from Ms. McArdle.
I have heard from a lot of very interesting people, including several of the name pundits, a bunch of the fellow obscure, and a couple of folks who should be bloggers.. And I haven’t nearly read or answered all the email I got yesterday and today. I understand much better now why some folks have auto-response systems. I can’t imagine how many electrons must pile up in the basket at the InstaPundit’s place. It seems rude not to answer at all but without an auto-answer I can’t imagine even the InstaPundit could type fast enough to answer his mail himself. Hire a staff & make ‘em work for tips? I still don’t quite believe in the tip jar bit. I’ve got to agree with the Samizdata Crew. If you need the money, get a job.
Where am I going with this? Rambling on.. Thanks again! You are aptly named Mr. Den Beste.
*A vegetarian eats vegetables..
@10:27 PM
Oh lord. I’ve gotten a missive from the Munchkins. Help us! We might not get all the govmint funding we asked for, for all the new positions we need.. Please call your congresscritter, etc.
What can I say to that? I used to work in Munchkin-land and they really did get to work at one, take an hour for lunch, etc. On the other hand, they’re horribly underpaid and the on-call whipping boys any time anything goes wrong, anywhere. Office morale has never been a big selling point of the job. If they serve no purpose other than whipping boy they do perform that function relatively well.
The libertarian in me says ‘sure I’ll call my congressman, but you won’t like what I’ll tell him.’ Basically that every time I look they’ve got twice as many people and they’re doing half as much total work. On the other hand, Munchkins have to eat too and in many cases it really is a sort of welfare for the otherwise unemployable.
It doesn’t look like they’re going to get the money, no matter what I say. I could write a glowing letter and be a ‘really good guy.’ Or I could add one more stone to the sack. Or I could just keep my mouth shut. Hypocrite, creep, or coward, anyone?
@10:16 PM
My blasted archives has bitten the dust again..
@10:14 PM
Finally, the InstaPundit says Matt Welch is demonstrating ‘his subtle tip-jar-whoring skills.’ Actually, he’s looking for some Genius to give him $500,000. Where do I get in line? To be a donee that is. I bet that kind of Genius is hard to find, though.
After the snarky* note I emailed Virginia Postrel .. a year ago tomorrow .. I’d be embarrassed to put up a tip jar myself:
“As opposed to the honor system, tip, and charity models, let's hope the micropayment does not devolve into the electronic version of the wildly shaken tin cup.
That said, thank you for a pioneering effort. A dollar is far too little for your site. I certainly hope it works out and allows you to invest in even more townhouses! I promise I'll put something in your cup often =);-}”
Promises, promises.. That’s a ‘Cowboy Winkie’ BTW.
*I’m still not sure what ‘snarky’ means but I suspect that’s got to be definitive.
@10:07 AM
The InstaPundit had dinner with Clinton and a few hundred others. Says Clinton: ‘if he were still in office, North Korea wouldn't have a nuclear program and we'd have peace in the Middle East’. Do tell. Why does anyone listen? Why did any of us ever listen to that .. that .. SHON shon nah*?
I even voted for him the first time. I thought he’d be different. I was right. And very Very wrong.
Concludes the King: “For a guy who's so concerned about his legacy, Clinton just can't seem to do the one thing that would help most -- keep his mouth shut.” Truer words were never spoken. But Prof, I hope you didn't pay for the ticket.. let's not encourage him.
*Literally, it means ‘donkey’ in Nakotah. Figuratively it’s .. doubly appropriate.
@10:04 AM
The instaPundit wonders why, if handing out condoms is so anathema to conservatives, they aren’t “.. more upset at all the condom-less sex being pushed on TV shows, in movies, etc.” Good golly Prof, where have you been?
Of course they hate TV. They hate movies. They hate music and dancing. They’re not really conservatives, they’re unreconstructed Puritans. They do lay awake in their hard, narrow little beds agonized that somewhere, someone is having fun. They’d stop it if they could. I hesitate to use the T-word, but the difference is only in degree, not in kind.
@10:02 AM
I see I'm being right-brained again..
@9:07 AM
In the midst of that 15 minutes I did get some very interesting email.
One asks for advice on ammo selection for his CCW .44 magnum. Sure, I like the .44. I like the .50 Browning too. And a lot of folks believe in the astute ‘beware of the man with one gun he knows how to use’ philosophy. But I’ve got to agree with Megan McArdle on this one. There probably is a point where you cross into ‘too much of a good thing’ territory. Yes, wear those ear plugs! And please use Magsafes or Glasers.
Another writes to say ‘I went to UW. Is it still there?’ Well yes. Sort of. I particularly admire their new President. He’s a letters to the editor and OpEds kind of guy too. I only hope they mangled a recent letter of his as badly as they’ve always mangled mine. He recently wrote: ‘UW is in danger of losing its academic preeminence. That’s why we had to replace the great old Brown and Gold with .. tan(?), change the bucking horse logo, fire Cowboy Joe (the school mascot), and spend more money on athletics!’
Talk about fiddling while Rome burns.
It’s not like I’m the only one who doesn’t like it either. I read somewhere that the UW bookstore is ticked: Their logo apparel sales are off something like $30,000 (a month, a semester? A lot). And Cowboy Joe? Say it ain’t so! One of my greatest recent memories was last year’s UW-Tennessee bowl game with Cowboy Joe and the Volunteer taking pot shots at each other on the sidelines. Talk about politically incorrect!
I wrote a while back that we’re not really isolated out here –TV, newspapers, why we even have airports! The stage lines are howling for government support. But it seems we are a little behind the times. Leave it to us to be getting seriously PC about the time everybody else dumps those foolish notions.
But free market economics rules! I just saw a window display downtown and you can now get UW apparel with the old brown on gold and the real bucking horse logo again. There’s also the little matter of that popular alumni association—remember the Cowboy Joe Club, Phil? This too shall pass.
Update: I stand corrected and covered with embarrassment. Pistol Pete (Cowboy Joe’s alter ego perhaps?) is/was the UW sports mascot. Couldn’t have pistols on campus. Had to go. Sorry. Now we have a .. moose? .. wait one .. My wife, the actual alumnus and sports fan of the family doesn’t know what that thing is either. 'Cowboy Joe, Say it ain't so.' Dang, that sang!
@9:04 AM
Interesting. In the eWorld 15 minutes of fame really lasts about 15 minutes. My email is back down to the usual ‘make 45% secure’: Sure. I bet everybody’s doing it. And, ‘visit Lola on her webcam’: Don’t hold your breath Lola .. better yet, do hold your breath Lola.
Ah well, I guess we all have to make a living somehow.
@9:00 AM
Bob Milek
Hmm. Guns are hot, eh? Unfortunately, there hasn’t been a decent gun writer around here since the late Great Bob Milek. He worked at it. He could write, he was a scientist at heart, and he was ultimately practical. He rarely wrote about the rare, bizarre, or ridiculously expensive. I can’t think of anyone of his caliber writing today. He lived 30 miles away, in Thermopolis. I used to pass him on the street. I deeply regret that I didn’t just stop him to say ‘Hi.’ I guess you don’t do that with your heroes. “Don’t tug on that cape, son.” And who’d have thought that cancer would take him so young?
I don’t flatter myself that I could fill those boots. I also know I don’t want to turn a hobby into a profession. Takes the fun right out of it.
Of the current writers, I suppose Ross Seyfried comes closest to Milek. Except perhaps for the practical* part. Although I seem to recall that he’s finally decided that a .270 will do most all that needs to be done in the hunting department.
*But who am I to talk about practical? If it needs wheels to move it around so much the better!
@8:59 AM
The wolves are eating each other again.
@8:58 AM
We’ll call this one on a technical: Piling On. And the winner by default and popular acclaim Megan McArdle.
She says she noted a huge spike in hits and email and suspected that .. yes! She’s received an audience with the King of the Bloggers. Says the InstaPundit “MEGAN MCARDLE explains the whole gun-licensing vs. car-licensing thing. Brian Linse, take note.”
Oh.. Not only is this great news for Megan, it probably explains why my mailbox has been running over all day. Ah! Reflected glory, I’ll bask in it while I can.
OK, times up.
Oddly, I haven’t received a single negative comment. Not even a well deserved ‘lighten up.’ I expected at least one doofus to weigh in with a good blast of ‘trust the statism.’
@8:51 AM
Monday, February 04, 2002- - -
It’s Round Four!
@6:01 PM
By the way, just what does ‘snarky’ mean? I don’t speak Yiddish, or Jaberwock for that matter.
We are sometimes fluent in Munchkin however:
"We get up at noon and start to work at one,
Take an hour for lunch and then at two we’re done,
What fun!"
Sigh.. One can only wish..
@4:01 PM
Oh, man! Whitetail venison philly steak sandwiches for lunch! Trot down to the local deli and order one up..
@4:00 PM
And speaking of beginners in 18-wheelers, what has become of the trucking industry? It used to be that the safest place you could be was between two semis. Now, every time there’s a serious accident on I-80 there’s a semi on top of the pile..
@4:00 PM
Hey! Sometimes the magic works..
@8:44 AM
And now we shall see if Blogger is back on line..
I’ve been having an interesting email give and take with Megan McArdle—well mostly give on my part and take on hers, since her blog seems to be broken .. hic .. broken .. hic .. and taking a lot of her time. .. Yeah, she’s back! Maybe I’ll wait a few days to leap into Blogger Pro.
It all started with Megan’s response to Myria. Megan says she’s ‘committed to the citizen's right to bear arms (along with anything else that doesn't bother the neighbors)’ but she goes on to suggest that maybe a few ‘reasonable restrictions’ are in order.
Round One
Megan: “I think good gun law would also restrict certain types of guns from public places. High penetration rounds -- not in high density areas. You don't get to protect yourself by drilling one through the walls into some poor kid's bedroom.”
To which I respond: With the exception of two very specialized rounds, the Glaser Safety Slug and the Magsafe, all rounds are high penetration and will punch through most residential walls. If they wouldn't punch through a couple of layers of plywood and sheetrock they wouldn't take down a goblin wearing a heavy jacket. There is no good solution to this other than to make sure that your bullet stops in a cretin.
Megan: “Ditto automatic weapons. Whether or not you think that people should have a right to own machine guns, I think most sensible people would agree that a right to carry around a fully automatic weapon in crowded public places is an invitation to disaster.”
Swen: For all practical purposes full auto weapons have been outlawed for civilian ownership in the US since 1934. The only people who legally carry full auto weapons on the street are police. I agree that this is an invitation to disaster.
Round Two
Megan: “There are a number of rounds (allegedly) that won't go through an apartment building. A house is a different matter, but the buildings here have about two feet of stone between you and the street.
Swen: No small arms ammunition of which I'm aware will penetrate 2 feet of stone, or even half a foot of stone. Not even the monstrous .50 Browning armor piercing. Most small arms ammunition is designed to penetrate one critter, two or four-legged, and efficiently expend all its energy therein. Anything more is useless. Anything less is worse than useless. Only the Glaser and Magsafe are designed to penetrate less. Only a few specialized rounds are designed to penetrate more and, sigh.. they are already illegal for civilian ownership.
Any law that further restricts the penetration of ammunition would logically go after the most penetrative ammunition, that used in high-powered rifles. The stuff hunters use. I'm told your gangbangers don't use the '06 much but hunters do. Let's not go there. The 'high-penetration rounds' bit is a red herring. It's intended to go after hunters, not gangbangers.
Megan: "I just think that men of goodwill can agree that just as a beginner shouldn't get in a 18-wheeler and tootle down the highway, some restrictions to keep the ignorant from killing their neighbors are in order."
Swen: You've got to understand where we gun nuts are coming from. All of the gun control laws - some 20,000 of them - were proposed as 'reasonable restrictions' - 'just between us folks of good will.' We are rapidly running out of patience with that argument. As with the 'high penetration rounds' issue, the folks who propose such things are often not acting in good will. One example: Gun control laws were the backbone of Jim Crow, it took the Deacons arming themselves to put a stop to the Klan. You won't read much about that in our PC history books. Now, they certainly have you fooled if you are afraid of those 'high penetration rounds' coming through 2 feet of stone!
Unfortunately, there is no way to keep the ignorant from killing themselves or their neighbors. They do it every day in many, many ways - only infrequently with guns. We can train those willing to be trained in safe gun handling and most folks who regularly handle guns have received such training. Frankly, firearms accidents are not much of a problem. There are fewer and fewer gun accidents every year. Civil liability insures that those with any common sense keep their guns locked up and away from children and the uninformed. If sheer number of deaths is the issue, then we should lobby against bathtubs and bicycles - they kill far more people accidentally, particularly children, than do guns.
The malevolent, ignorant or not, will not obey restrictions, reasonable or not. If you could take away all their guns, and you can't, they would use machetes, clubs, or ball bats, or sharp sticks, or rocks, or.. airplanes. You are far better off defending yourself with a gun than you would be going mano e mano with ball bats against some 250# goblin. Disarming the general population doesn't work any better than disarming airline passengers, it only makes them easier to victimize.
Living in NYC you have about as much chance of legally owning any gun as I do of legally owning a machinegun. Slim to none at all. Your ".. right for all practical purposes does not exist even though it's there on paper" as Myria pointed out. Yet, by all reports gun crime and crime in general is much higher in NYC than it is here, where everyone has guns. How can that be?
Perhaps Heinlein was right: 'An armed society is a polite society.'
Update: Now I see someone else is double-teaming Ms. McArdle. She has an excellent argument .. but:
Round Three
The real reason we should dislike the driver’s license model: Driving is not in the Bill of Rights. The right to keep and bear arms is. When it’s licensed by the state it’s not an unalienable right, it’s a privilege granted by the state. This is why I don’t like CCW laws either.
And please, do you really think that the gun controllers would go along with the elimination of all discretionary laws? That was what the 2nd amendment was supposed to do—’shall not be infringed’, remember? They might go along for awhile, but only until they had the licensing part firmly in place. “Because the fundamental aim of the more prominent groups is to outlaw handguns entirely, and in some cases long guns as well.” Right?
Oh, and howitzers and rocket launchers were outlawed back in 1934 too. Like machineguns, they’re considered ‘destructive devices.’ They’re also a lot of fun..
Round Four
Megan: As an NRA safety instructor, you must be well familiar with the ignorance out there.
Yes, it scares me no end to see some jokers with a gun. Unfortunately, some of them are highly trained. We can all go brain dead momentarily and that's Very Bad when you have a gun in your hands. Likewise, until you've been under deadly stress it's hard to imagine how badly your brain will seize up. I'm not sure any amount of training can prepare for this. The Dialo incident is a case in point. I'm not picking on the cops, god knows I wouldn't want to fill their shoes for one night shift, but I'm sure those guys were very well trained, at least compared to the training civilians are required for CCWs. Yet in crisis they went into 'spray and pray' mode.
Licensing one's rights is obviously a very sore spot with me and the reason I'm not now actively associated with the NRA. When those jokers saw the chance to 'legally carry' (CCWs) in the short run they quickly forgot their principles, not to mention the 2nd amendment, and have seemingly failed to consider what might come of this in the long run. Likewise, they thought the 'instant check' system was just hunky dory (they’ve even claimed it was their idea). Now we see how Ashcroft was excoriated for not violating the law and using that system as a form of federal gun registration.
We've been trying for a long time to be 'people of good will.' We are the good guys after all. Unfortunately, all it ever gets us is bent over, over and over and over.
And now, since I see that the highly esteemed Eugene Volokh has weighed in over at Ms. McArdle’s blog and cited David Kopel (why didn’t I think of that? Because I like to argue that’s why.) I’m outclassed and concede the field.
Megan wraps this all up nicely here. And please don’t grovel, I love a good argument. Especially when we agree almost completely. I promise we can argue economics and I’ll do all the groveling next time..
@8:41 AM
Yes.. and then the next time I look the archives are gone again. Sigh.
@7:23 AM
Yep, just keep hitting the 'republish' key and they come right back from wherever they went.
@6:08 AM
I can't seem to win for losing here. About every third time I check the blog to see how it looks 'did the magic work?' The magic didn't. I've lost my archives twice today. Ah well, in the immortal words of John D. McDonald 'it's not so amazing how well this bear dances, but that it dances at all.' In the less than immortal words of my dad - 'what do you want for nothing, eh??'
@6:06 AM
Sunday, February 03, 2002- - -
I’ve been remiss in adding links to my favorite blogs and I’ve built up quite a backlog. Please note the 'newcomers' to the left.
@10:33 PM
So what’s his complaint now?
My favorite pathetic old commie is at it again. From today’s OpEd’s (sorry, no link, they’ll get to that in a few days) at the Red Star Tribune we have Charles Levendosky: “On public lands, energy production is king.”
“To reinforce the primacy of energy-related activities, the national BLM office sent state BLM directors a set of rules regarding decisions or actions that would adversely impact energy development.”
“According to a Dec. 12 memorandum from Hatfield [acting director of the BLM], state BLM offices must justify in writing any decision that denies an oil or coal permit. They must explain why the “energy-related use cannot co-exist with other multiple uses of the land.” The state offices must consider alternatives to the decision that precludes or limits energy production.”
“.. With a heavy hand, the memorandum tilts the balance of competing uses of the land and protection of wildlife habitat toward energy production.”
There’s a lot more blather in that same general vein. Bear in mind that when an energy company applies for a permit they must often submit reams of paper to justify the action. These reams of paper must include detailed assessments of all potential environmental impacts. I know, I generate a lot of that environmental paper myself. Chuck apparently feels that the feds should to be able to sit on applications as long as they want and/or dismiss applications out of hand and potentially put dozens or hundreds of people out of work with no express justification?
It seems to me that demanding that the government explain its actions, or lack thereof, is part of maintaining that the government works for us. This is the difference between public servants and apparatchiks.
I ought to write a letter to the editor. Oh yeah, Chuck is the letters editor.. never mind.
@5:03 PM
That was interesting. I’d thought that right before the Superbowl kickoff would be a good time to dump some posts to Blogger. Think again. I’ve never seen it so slow. I dumped a couple of posts before my IP locked up solid. I guess I’m not the only one who doesn’t give a rat who wins this one..
@5:00 PM
I’ve no idea how many blogs there are out there now. I’d suggest that some enterprising individual create an index, but given the number of times I’ve had to update my short list of favorites that would be a sisyphean task.
However, I’ve found several excellent blogs through the simple device of their authors emailing me and saying ‘Hey, read this!’ I’m about to expand my short list to include several more of these folks. In the mean time, keep those emails coming!
@3:05 PM
According to PunditWatch Barney Frank said: “I think a kinder and gentler approach to regulating accounting than what we've had would violate the sodomy laws of most states.”
Um, .. well .. .. Never Mind.
@3:04 PM
Vegetarian
An old Indian word. It means lousy hunter.
David Carr at Libertarian Samizdata says: “Have you ever been more than a little aggravated by the snotty moral superiority of vegetarians?” Yes. And the only people more annoying are organic vegetarians.
The principal cause of extinction of species is loss of habitat. All else being equal, it takes more land, more habitat, to grow food organically than with optimum use of modern agricultural methods. The plants can’t tell the difference between chemical fertilizer and ’organic fertilizer’ and the chemical fertilizer can be applied much more efficiently, with less run-off. Bottom line, organic agriculture causes unnecessary loss of habitat and water pollution.
There may be some argument for organic foods, but I just bought a shirt mail-order to find that a tag on it proudly proclaimed that the cotton was ‘organically grown.’ I’m sure these things are very popular with the sort of folks who protest globalization. Have your cotton organically grown and feel good about yourself while you contribute to unnecessary environmental destruction and third world poverty.
@3:03 PM
Odd. I thought that ten minutes before the Superbowl kickoff would be a good time to post some blogs. Apparently I'm not the only one who thought that..
@3:00 PM
Good Help is hard to find..
Interesting. A correspondent writes the InstaPundit about unsanitary procedures at Red Cross blood drives. This problem seems to extend beyond the Red Cross. Twice in the last few years I’ve had blood drawn for tests and had the tech, an RN in one case, fumble the bandaid while holding the cotton ball on my arm. Each time the tech picked the blood-spotted bandaid from the floor, straightened it with her teeth, and tried to plop it on my arm. “Excuse Me!!” “Oh, .. you want a clean bandaid?”
@2:58 PM
These sinistral proceedings:
Being left-handed, I often browse a magazine or catalog from back to front. I find that the blog format fits the way my brain works. I do wonder how the ’most recent first’ format affects the left-brained though. John Weidner comments: “Swen does rather tend to assume you already know what's going on, which makes things a bit confusing.” I imagine so. Perhaps I’ve embraced the format to too great a degree and should use more links to past thoughts as background. But much like googling oneself, I find self reference oddly unnatural.
@2:56 PM
Trolling, trolling, trolling..
The hook is sharpened and baited, the line is set, I've checked the drag.. There's some big ones out there.
@8:32 AM
Dang! He’s on to us..
Random Jottings: "Perhaps being a rube will become cool. I just had this Sci-Fi vision, set in one of Clifford Simak's small idyllic Wisconsin towns; neighborly and sleepy and old-fashioned. But the people are actually manning the global economy from their home offices, and then just playing at being down-to-earth countryfolk when they are in public. Maybe secretly reading stories by Simak to get their parts down. Scary.”
“In fact, soon there won't be any countryfolk; not in the sense of people isolated from fashion and change and urban life.”
Hmmm. Actually, I believe TV took care of the isolation a while back. We’re not ‘isolated from fashion and change and urban life.’ For the most part we’re refugees from all that. I’ve lived in Big Cities. I’m not enamored of them. But I’m glad so many of you are.
There’s a bumper sticker that says a lot about the local attitude: “Welcome to Wyoming. Have a great time. Spend lots of money. Then Go Home.”
We don’t really worry about that last. Jackson, Wyo. is a tourist paradise. Very scenic. Right outside the south entrance to Teton and Yellowstone NPs. Huge expensive second homes and ski chalets going up like mushrooms everywhere you look. Yet this paradise has the highest real estate turnover rate in the state. It’s a great place to visit, but you soon learn why no one wants to live there. “-40° keeps the riffraff out.”* Three feet of fresh powder is fun to ski in but less fun to shovel out of your driveway. Bumper to bumper Winnebagos at rush hour probably get annoying.. And who wants their kids to grow up selling rubber tomahawks to the tourists for minimum wage?
Whatever the reason, all those rich proctologists buy a half-million house and spend an average of something like 18 months before they bolt back to ‘civilization’. My greatest worry: That these folks will learn not to try to live in the mountains in the winter—that’s why we all live in the foothills and basins. Then they’ll learn that you can telecommute back to the ‘real world.’ Then perhaps enough of them will move to Worland that we can get a fresh vegetable or two that hasn’t been tailgated by every grocer between here and Salt Lake.
*That’s minus 40 Celsius, of course.
@8:29 AM
This blog monster is taking on a life of its own.
This morning I received: ”By general acclamation amongst the anarchic Samizdata Team, your site 'A coyote at the dogshow' has received the dubious honour of a permanent link on our blogsite.” Thanks Guys! I’m dubiously honored, and ‘U’ impaired.
Again this am: “Hi, I just wrote about your blog at Random Jottings. John Weidner.” He says he found me through More than Zero. Hmmm. I can’t find me at More Than Zero.. He probably found me through one of my favorites, the USS Clueless, where I’ve been linked a couple times—I guess the occasional snarky rejoinder does pay.. The ‘annoying little sister’ method of garnering attention, perhaps?
Whatever. I’ve always enjoyed throwing in my 2¢. I shall continue.
@8:26 AM
Saturday, February 02, 2002- - -
OK, this is just too awful to resist. Especially today. I’ll apologize in advance to the unknown author, it seems that attribution is the first thing to disappear when something hits the email rounds:
Three blondes died and are at the pearly gates of heaven. St. Peter tells them that they can enter the gates if they can answer one simple question.
St. Peter asks the first blonde, 'What is Easter?' The blonde replies, 'Oh, that's easy! It's the holiday in November when everyone gets together, eats turkey, and are thankful...'
'Wrong!,' replies St. Peter, and proceeds to ask the second blonde the same question, 'What is Easter?' The second blonde replies, 'Easter is the holiday in December when we put up a nice tree, exchange presents, and celebrate the birth of Jesus.'
St. Peter looks at the second blonde, shakes his head in disgust, tells her she's wrong, and then peers over his glasses at the third blonde and asks, 'What is Easter?' The third blonde smiles confidently and looks St. Peter in the eyes, 'I know what Easter is.'
'Oh?' says St. Peter, incredulously. 'Easter is the Christian holiday that coincides with the Jewish celebration of Passover. Jesus and his disciples were eating at the last supper and Jesus was later deceived and turned over to the Romans by one of his disciples. The Romans took him to be crucified and he was stabbed in the side, made to wear a crown of thorns, and was hung on a cross with nails through his hands. He was buried in a nearby cave which was sealed off by a large boulder.'
St. Peter smiles broadly with delight. The third blonde continues, 'Every year the boulder is moved aside so that Jesus can come out... and, if he sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter.'
I warned you it was BAD.
@5:15 PM
Dear Tony..
Dear god, another one. If you see that someone’s name is William do you presume to call him Billy? How about ..Johnny? ..Jimmy? ..Bobby? No, you don’t. Most folks are allowed to grow out of their diminutive nicknames. So why do so many people see ‘Anthony’ and presume the diminutive nickname, even for people they’ve never met and don’t know at all?
Salesmen do it. Bankers do it. Educators, usually so, so concerned with the self-esteem of their charges, do it. Even job seekers do it (that’s Mr. Swenson to you, bozo). No one seems to consider for a moment that this might really tick some Anthonys off—not to mention Swens. Obviously this is a major peeve with me. But it is weird.
@5:14 PM
Steven Den Beste explains why America is exceptional. In part: “The Congress of the United States cannot touch our right of trial by jury because it is established by the Sixth Amendment.”
Hmm. You mean like Congress can’t touch our right to keep and bear arms because it’s established by the Second Amendment? Tell that to all the folks in NYC who live under the Sullivan Law, or those folks who naively registered their ‘assault weapons’ in California.
It is one thing to state what our rights and ideals are. It is entirely another to maintain those rights and ideals in the Game of Princes.
@4:01 PM
I’ve been watching the hockey Allstar Game on and off this afternoon. North America against the World. There’s got to be a metaphor there somewhere.
@4:00 PM
Lander Lil saw her shadow. Let’s hope it’s six more weeks of snowy winter..
And I can’t believe Lander Lil doesn’t have a web site.
@3:59 PM
“The Skeptical Environmentalist”
Via the InstaPundit comes this report in the Economist about the flap surrounding Bjorn Lomborg’s new book, “The Skeptical Environmentalist”.*
Says the Economist: “Dr Lomborg's critics protest too much. They are rattled not because, as they endlessly insist, Dr Lomborg lacks credentials as an environmental scientist and is of no account, but because his book is such a powerful and persuasive assault on the central tenets of the modern environmental movement.”
And later in the Economist article: ““The Skeptical Environmentalist” delivers a salutary warning to conventional thinking. Dr Lomborg reminds militant greens, and the media that hang on their every exaggerated word about environmental calamity, that environmental policy should be judged against the same criteria as other kinds of policy. Is there a problem? How bad is it? What will it cost to fix? Is that the best way to spend those resources?”
Lomborg’s critics in the professional environmental movement are understandably outraged at this, or any suggestion that the costs and benefits of environmental protection should be weighed. Aside from the general ‘how dare you question my religion’ tone of the criticism, we shouldn’t find this resistance to cost-benefit analyses surprising. Everyone would like to be funded as if cost were no object and environmentalists aren’t immune. If we were to consider the cost of removing those last few parts per million of heavy metals from drinking water, we might decide that other priorities take precedence. Then what would happen to funding for ‘experts’ to direct clean water efforts?
While there is a great deal of ideological zealotry evident in the responses to Lomborg, I suspect that there is a far greater element of self-interest. None of these folks wants the public to know or ever consider that environmental protection can reach a point of diminishing returns. That would be bad for business. The environmental business.
Says the InstaPundit: If [the environmental lobby] wants to disprove Lomborg's work, it will have to engage in the kind of careful, well-documented criticism that amateurs (later followed by professionals) engaged in with regard to Michael Bellesiles' work, and it will have to make those criticisms, and their documentation, publicly available just as the Bellesiles critics did. So far, I haven't seen that.
I wouldn’t hold my breath, Prof. They can’t argue with Lomborg’s message. Any attempt to do so would almost certainly reinforce the message and give Lomborg more publicity in the process. That’s why they’re trying so hard to discredit the messenger.
*Update: I've just checked Amazon looking for a copy of Lomborg's book. It's out of print! Not surprising considering it was printed in 1901 - boneheads.
@3:58 PM
The InstaPundit notes that Blogger is running slow. I’ve always thought it was pretty slow during prime blogging hours, evenings and weekends. But then my internet connection is always slow during those hours. I try to save up a bunch of posts and dump them to Blogger either in the wee hours when I first get up, or during the work day when the gainfully employed are busy elsewhere.
Being self-employed, I’m told I can work when I want, take time off whenever I want, and pay myself whatever I want. I guess this is true, as long as I want to work all the time and pay myself very little.. But it does have its rewards. When I get pissed at the boss I can tell him so and he can’t fire me. When I get really pissed at the boss I can drag his butt down to Goose’s and fill him full of beer.
@3:55 PM
Fix those links!
I finally got around to updating my favorite links, opposite. I was getting quite a backlog of outdated addresses and I'm intending to email a friend - an actual, if part-time journalist - to encourage him to get onboard Blogger. He is a lot of fun to wrangle with..
@12:07 PM
It's always astonishing to find that someone is reading what I've written and this post brought an especially pleasant and unexpected response:
'John Stryker' replied: "I was just having fun with the "you're always on the job" philosophy, which has proven to be true many times. I really wish I just worked 40 hours a week. :)" He reads my blog?!
I can vouch for the long hours, I've flown many weary miles with MACC. A lot of dedicated folks that get too little recognition. I hope the good sergeant gets his AC-130 assignment. Those critters are awesome! The picture attached to this link shows an AC-130 firing in daylight. At night you would swear that it's the hammer of god at work.
Sarge, we're damn grateful that you're always on the job!
@11:55 AM
Decadence, Decadence
We returned home to find a message on the machine inviting us to a feed. A friend’s brother FedEx’ed 40# of crawdads from Louisiana—live. A few didn’t make it, but about a dozen of us ate the survivors in one extended feeding frenzy. Fresh crustaceans in February in Wyoming, a rare treat. By PETA standards I’m sure we burned several lifetimes-worth of karma. It was worth it.
Now I see that Mrs. Coyote has a nice venison roast thawing for dinner tonight. Not rare, but a treat nonetheless.
@11:50 AM
Just another shitty day in paradise..
The rewards of a long trip—a great lunch at the Depot, tons of food that we wouldn’t know existed if it weren’t for Super WallyWorld, 500 cast .357 148gr wadcutters without paying to ship lead, and a variety of other stuff. But the trip to Riverton is a reward in itself. This time we saw two bald eagles, a variety of hawks, a coyote, and many huge flocks of ducks and geese, in addition to the usual antelope and deer.
There seem to be a lot of bald eagles the last two or three years. I’m not sure if their population is increasing, if the drought is driving them closer to civilization, or some combination of these and other factors. But they are beautiful.
The drive through Wind River Canyon was spectacular, as usual. Picture driving down the bottom of the Grand Canyon. The river is full of ducks and geese this time of year, as all other available water sources are frozen over.
@11:49 AM
Friday, February 01, 2002- - -
Off to Riverton, Wyo. 120 miles to buy groceries. But I get there faster than my sister-in-law gets to work in downtown Manhattan.
@7:19 AM
Now it’s time to read the Instapundit. By this time of the morning he’s probably blogged more than I do all day.
Update: Great news! they’ve cloned a kidney. I’ll suspect I'll be shopping for a new liver soon..
@7:19 AM
020201
Since I've started this blog I've been composing off-line and dumping to Blogger. Broad band internet is not an available option and even phone time starts to cost when you live with the coyotes. Regardless, I've been keeping a running log off-line with a date in the above format for each entry.
And tomorrow is 020202. That's too, too, too cool. I'll have to think of something portentious to say. As opposed to merely pretentious..
@7:02 AM
Is there an afterlife?
Many years ago my cousin and I visited Lava Beds National Monument in northern California. At the time you could check out Coleman lanterns and explore the lava caves on your own. Fascinating! We were teenagers. We spent hours and hours crawling into every hole we could find and there were a lot of them.
Finally, we visited a cave that was accessed by a sink hole on one end and extended as a tube for about ¼-mile before taking a dogleg turn and ending abruptly. The walls, floor, ceiling, and end of the tube were as smooth as the inside of a huge bubble, essentially what it was, I suppose.
By this time the fumes from the lanterns were getting oppressive and it was near lunchtime, so we set our two lanterns down side by side on the flat, smooth floor near the end of the tube and returned around the near corner toward the entrance to have lunch. We still had plenty of light. We had just pulled our sandwiches out when we heard a huge crash from the direction of the lanterns.
Jumping up to investigate, we found one of the lanterns lying on its side with the globe broken and the thick bottom of the pressure bottle bashed in. It was as if someone had swung it by the bail against the floor. We had been between the lanterns and the entrance. The floor was smooth and flat. There was no rubble or anywhere to hide. I would have bet that a mouse couldn’t have gotten by us or hidden there.
With only one functioning lantern, we decided to return to the surface and gathering up the lanterns and our lunch, we headed out. We hadn’t gotten 100 meters when the other lantern went out.
By striking matches we could see that the collar that holds the mantle had come unscrewed and dropped off, mantle and all. By working very carefully and mostly in the dark, we managed to get the collar screwed back on a little way without totally destroying the mantle, reassembled the lantern and got it lit, although it didn’t give much light. But we managed to get out of the cave.
We returned to the visitors center expecting to catch hell for destroying one of their lanterns and fully prepared to pay for it. Instead, the lady at the visitor center asked us which cave we’d been in. We told her. With a very odd look on her face she asked if we’d visited their museum. Of course not. We were teenagers. The holes in the ground held much more appeal.
So we visited the museum. It was only tangentially about the lava beds. Most of the displays were about the Modoc War. One of the displays explained how a group of Modocs had been chased into a cave. A guide for the cavalry, perhaps a Modoc himself, was familiar enough with the area to know that the cave was small and had only one entrance. So they filled the sinkhole with brush and torched it, sucking the oxygen from the cave and killing the Indians inside. The cave we had been in..
@6:54 AM
The Answer is ‘42’!
Megan McArdle ponders life, the universe, and everything. One of my favorite topics..
@6:50 AM
Those who cannot remember history are condemned to watch reruns.
By way of Megan McArdle comes a delightful history quiz from John Tierney, in the NYT. My business card says I’m an ‘archaeological and historical consultant.’ I’ll admit I got two or three wrong.. The dates.
Dr. Anders Hendriksson, who developed the quiz, maintains that “Our culture doesn't put a high emphasis on history." I disagree. Quick, name the Three Stooges. Who was the ‘Rebel without a Cause?’ Who said “Ward, you were awfully hard on the Beaver last night?” Run down the rest of the Trivial Pursuit categories and see how well you do. We do fine on the history that’s relevant to us.
Which is more relevant to the average American, movie trivia or remembering the date of the Battle of Waterloo? Which was more fun to learn? I’m afraid that a focus on rote memorization of dates has been the biggest downfall of academic history. What does it matter that the 1700’s were the ‘age of discovery,’ if you don’t understand that it was the fluorescence of astronomy, thus navigation, and transportation technology, particularly ship building, that allowed this to happen? If you understand the 'what' and ‘why,’ the ‘who’ and ‘when’ will follow. Otherwise, dates are nothing more than the Trivial Pursuit of history.
Now I’m sure some historian will email me that the age of discovery didn’t really start until the 1750’s. Sigh..
@5:04 AM
I started all this on January 19th, twelve days ago. In that time I’ve blogged 47 200-word pages. I haven’t made a nickel and didn’t ask for anything. Does this count toward my 4000 hours? If I’d been writing something productive I’d have a tenth of an unmarketable novel. Surely that’s equivalent to Barbara Streisand’s contribution to the war effort..
@5:01 AM
I’m crushed. I’ve just received my new hardbound copy of Virginia Postrel’s excellent book. It’s inscribed "Best Wishes.” Perhaps I should post a picture of Robert Nozick..
@5:00 AM
Thursday, January 31, 2002- - -
The Queen’s English, Please! And now, answer the question..
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, via the USS Clueless: Jane Margolis, a social scientist at the Graduate School of Education and Information Systems at the University of California at Los Angeles, and Allan Fisher, former associate dean for undergraduate education in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, have interviewed more than 100 computer science students to find out why women comprise less than 20 percent of the nation's computer science research graduates. They recently presented their results at the University of California at Berkeley to an audience of computer science students -- most of them women.
From the SF Chronicle: “The culture of computer science has been built around male preferences," Fisher said, pointing out how introductory courses in computer science hone in on very technical aspects of the field.
Hmm.. You mean technical aspects like the difference between homing in on a certain aspect of the field and honing a fine point of your argument? But seriously..
The rarely Clueless Steven Den Beste maintains that there are several problems with this study. Among them: These folks sample of ‘more than 100 students’ at one university is scarcely adequate. It seems flaky to suggest that it is somehow a disservice to introduce students to the technical aspects of technical fields. And finally, Steven feels that Margolis’ and Fisher’s findings are blatantly sexist.
Now please remember that the intent of the study was to determine why women comprise less than 20 percent of the nation's computer science research graduates. Margolis’ and Fisher’s research and findings are certainly flaky. Statistically speaking, given the inadequate sample, the significance of their findings approaches zero. Thus, their conclusions are rank speculation. But it would seem that sex was the dependent variable of the study. I would find it odd if they didn’t focus on sexual differences in their ‘culture of computer science.’
The unstated assumption and fundamental conclusion of Margolis’ and Fisher’s study seem to be that all else being equal, about 50% of computer science students and 50% of computer science graduates should be women. Because this is not the case there must be something fundamentally wrong with computer science education.
Being a computer scientist, this leaves Steven understandably livid: “Is anyone surprised to learn that this study was conducted by two women?” Allan Fisher is an unusual name for a woman. “The goal of a technical education is to give students the specific knowledge that they need to perform in the field.” Indeed. “There's a place for "gender socialization in education." It's over in the Lit department.” At least he didn’t sic ‘em on the anthro department..
But none of this addresses Margolis’ and Fisher’s question: ‘Why do women comprise less than 20 percent of the nation's computer science research graduates?’ Once they’d asked the question, Margolis and Fisher were bound to find some reason for this dichotomy that is attributable to gender. Are women ‘more concerned with the usability and usefulness’ of computers, and ‘more easily intimidated by technical topics,’ while men ‘tend to geek on computers for computers’ sake,’ the essence of Margolis’ and Fisher’s arguably sexist and unarguably predictable conclusions?
To speculate that women are intimidated by tech-savvy males certainly sounds sexist. To speculate further, and less specifically about computer science, one might suggest that male students in our society are conscious, correctly or incorrectly, of the stereotypical ‘male as bread-winner’ role, and thus may apply themselves more diligently to difficult technical subjects that promise to make them economically successful.
But since this is all speculation anyway, I'll argue that it’s more fun to speculate that women are a distinct species, and only distantly related to another distinct species: computer scientists.
Update: Steven Den Beste responds..
“As to why a minority of CS students are women, there may well be fascinating reasons for that, and it is almost certainly not random.”
“What I do know is that changing the curriculum is not the way to deal with it.”
I agree. Whatever the problem, it does appear real and it appears to extend well into many other technical fields. However, it is silly to expect to receive a degree in a technical field without mastering the technical subject.
Perhaps what I find most scary in this: Margolis and Fisher are associated with the Graduate School of Education and Information Systems at the University of California at Los Angeles, and a former associate dean for undergraduate education in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, respectively. Presumably both these folks are still associated with educational institutions in some fashion. Thus, they potentially have to power to make silly shit happen.
My field, anthropology, can handle a lot of dilettantes and navel-gazers. We have no choice, we're saddled with them. Here’s a case in point. But heaven help us all if these folks get their way..
@8:28 AM
Notice that the photo accompanying this article depicts Daniel Pearl against a blanket backdrop. Shortly after it was revealed that the geology depicted in a post-September 11th video of Osama bin Laden gave away his location these neutral backdrops began to appear. No more unintended intelligence to be mined from that vein. Obviously the terrorists are learning. I hope our news agencies are as well..
@8:21 AM
Wednesday, January 30, 2002- - -
The super-pundit is a clone! And here’s the proof. Look at the two photos in this article closely. Notice the part in his hair? Mirror-image twins! I bet one is left-handed too. I’m calling the National Inquirer right away..
Update: Well! I called the Inquirer, but you know how those people are. They said it's probably just a reversed negative or a doctored photo. Either way it doesn't meet their high standards for publication..
@6:02 PM
Wow!
In his state of the union address, President Bush challenged all of us to “.. commit at least two years – 4,000 hours over the rest of your lifetime – to the service of your neighbors and your nation." Sgt. Stryker has “.. roughly 87,600 hours so far.”
Let’s see, 40 hours per week times 50 weeks (surely we can allow a 2 week vacation) is 2000 hours per year. Divided into 87,600 hours is 43.8 years, full time. A diligent chap! And older than he looks too.
@6:00 PM
If it weren’t for the environmental laws I’d have to get a real job, so I may be a little biased. However, I can’t imagine another set of regulations that have had so many unintended and outright perverse consequences.
‘Grandfather clauses’ such as the new source standard written into the Clean Air Act, [recently mentioned by Gregg Easterbrook (via Andrew Sullivan)], can be a real problem. The intent of the new source standard would appear to be to avoid shutting down every power plant that could not immediately meet the new Clean Air standards. However, as pointed out by Easterbrook, “The rule essentially exempts from regulation some refineries and a large group of antiquated, high-pollution power plants in the Midwest, as long as they don't undertake any significant improvements.”
On one hand, it would be very difficult to find investors for major new energy development, or indeed any energy facility existing or proposed, if the next set of bureaucrats to come along could gore you with some new requirement that you could not meet. Thus, it would seem to be common sense to have a Grandfather clause in such regulations that says ‘you’ll play by the rules in effect when you join the game.’
On the other hand, as Easterbrook notes, this can have the effect of allowing, or even requiring some facilities to continue to pollute, as they can not make any improvement without being forced to come completely into compliance.
While I’m not familiar with VP Cheney’s proposed changes to the Clean Air Act, I’m not sure how Easterbrook comes to the conclusion that allowing grandfathered industries to modernize gradually constitutes ‘letting them off the hook’. If the alternative is the present grandfathered ‘pollution as usual’, it would seem that they are off the hook.
Easterbrook favors another proposal: “This alternative, being pushed by Christie Todd Whitman at the Environmental Protection Agency, would actually strengthen regulatory standards and rapidly cut Midwestern pollution, while simplifying rules and reducing costs.” As he notes, Whitman’s proposal “.. has been under discussion for months and is expected to become public soon ..”
It’s hard to argue with a proposal that’s not yet public, but I can’t wait to hear how we can ‘strengthen regulatory standards, drastically cut pollution, and reduce costs simultaneously. This sounds a lot like ‘less taxes and more spending,’ a logical impossibility, but a great rhetorical device. Sure, Whitman's polution trading plan would shift costs, making the older plants less economically sustainable, but reducing pollution overall would certainly seem to increase costs overall. Perhaps that Whitman’s proposal is receiving little attention even from environmentalists is a sign of environmental realism in our post-PC world.
@7:31 AM
Enron and the Game of Princes
With Enron going down we’re seeing a lot of puffery from DC. Bottom line, politicians writing government ethics laws are like thieves writing laws on burglary. There’s just too much self-interest involved.
You can look at the campaign contributions of businesses two ways: The public sees the business trying to buy favors, influence, access, whatever. Businessmen often feel like we're being shaken down - 'if you don't contribute you will be ignored.' From that point of view it's safest to hedge your bets and contribute to any likely candidate. The Bush Cabinet officials supposedly told Enron 'no', but at least the calls got through. Believe me, that's 90% of the battle.
I've got a great idea. How about making all politicians responsible for the actions of every one of their campaign contributors? Talk about a small government initiative! Perot and Forbes and Bloomberg could run the country. On second thought..
@6:20 AM
Speaking of lawsuits, one of my clients had the misfortune to retain a consultant who had gotten established in business with money won in a lawsuit. It became apparent that this person wasn’t running a consulting business, but rather trolling for the next lawsuit. Within three months my client had been threatened with legal action at least twice. In the mean time the consultant was doing a lousy job—’Fire me, I dare you!’ seemed to be the business philosophy in operation.
@6:19 AM
Between the ambulance chasers trolling for ‘victims’ - “Have you been injured? Before you see a doctor call Shifty, Shyster and Crony..” and all the many employee protection laws that seem to serve mainly to create clients for them, I’ve decided never to hire employees.
The Cato Institute Daily Commentary for Jan. 22nd has an excellent outline of the problems with the ADA: “At the time of its passage, only about one-third of individuals with disabilities had jobs. Today, unfortunately, that number has not changed significantly. This is probably because the ADA discourages companies from hiring the handicapped. What if an employer hires a person with a disability and, for reasons unrelated to the handicap, that worker just doesn't work out? If the employer dismisses the worker, the worker is likely to sue under the ADA for discrimination.
And if you try to dismiss a woman or minority you will be sued under EEOC. And if ..
@6:17 AM
It started snowing night before last and kept it up for over 24 hours. We had barely a skiff on the ground before but we’ve picked up about 4¾ inches of fresh powder. Not a lot by ski slope standards but very welcome. The soil was so dry in the hills last summer that some of the vegetation didn’t appear to germinate. The grass was crunchy under foot.
@6:15 AM
Monday, January 28, 2002- - -
Print Punditwatch quotes Tom Friedman “… while America has won the war in Afghanistan, it has not won the hearts and minds of the Arab-Muslim world. The cultural-political-psychological chasm between us is wider than ever.”
As H.S. Thompson noted: “Grab them by the balls and their hearts and minds will follow.”
@10:05 PM
Oh yes! The bit in Jurassic III where the lead character plays a tune for the raptors on a reproduced resonating chamber? I know a lot of turkey hunters who would love to be able to play a tune that sweet. And we’re just trying to fool a bird. Not a critter that’s ‘smarter than a Primate!’
But they did have a .50 Barrett. Although they just had to mis-represent it as a 20mm. The .50 Browning cartridge would be my choice if I ever get the chance to hunt T. rex. But the rounds aren’t explosive.
@6:39 PM
OK, I had decided to spend less time commenting on other blogs. But I’ve got to spring to the defense of the home boy. If you follow all the side bar one paragraph ‘events’, you’ll note that VP Cheney hasn’t been in hiding at all. He’s been hunting pheasants in South Dakota (gateway to North Dakota; thanks, Dave Barry).
The pheasant season just ended. That explains his re-appearance. Now if I had the VP’s influence over the seasons I’d still be in SoDak..
@6:38 PM
I’m in charge of the taco meat tonight. last operation: Chop habanero, decontaminate hands, stir with long-handled spoon.
The habaneros from our garden are so hot they’re positively radioactive this year.
@6:08 PM
Success is in sight. I’ve got my web page set up, I actually had one all along, it was established when I started my internet account. Now I can start up-loading photos!
@6:08 PM
We finally watched Jurassic Park III last night. Much better graphics and special effects that Jurassic II. But..
Velociraptors: “Smarter than a whale, smarter than a dolphin, smarter than a Primate.” Aside from the Primate who wrote that line .. I think not. There’s just not enough room in that cranium for that much brain. Remember, chickens live in flocks and vocalize constantly..
@6:08 PM
Say what?
Again in Sunday’s Casper Star, “The grand champion steer at the National Western Stock Show junior livestock auction sold for $57,500 Friday night..” That’s mighty expensive hamburger. You can’t breed a steer.
And the price is down from last year. Go figure..
@6:07 PM
Someone must be feeling the heat:
From Sunday’s Casper Star, Democratic state party Chairperson Linda Stoval is passing out bumper stickers that say “I’m a gun-totin’ Wyoming Democrat.”
@6:06 PM
Sunday, January 27, 2002- - -
And speaking of interesting weapons, I wish (again) that I could show pictures of the ‘letter opener’ I’m currently making. I started with the blade from a bayonet, available from Sportsman’s Guide. It is 15” long with a 9½” double-edged blade “.. made in 1957 by Wenger, the famous maker of Swiss Army Knives.” I removed the hilts and replaced them with brass cross-hilts and pommel, and a carved bone handle from Dixie Gun Works (no illustrations on-line). Incidentally, order the Dixie catalog! For $5.00 it’s full of absolutely fascinating stuff you never knew existed. The only known source for authentic 1700's chastity belts. And I hesitate to even mention the 'brank'..
As the blade was a bayonet, it is very blunt on the edges and as is, will make an outrageous letter opener. However, Wenger makes fine steel and sharpened it would make a great BIG dagger if one had use for such things. The total outlay is about $50 and a couple evenings of time. With careful work, the final product will be incredibly cool. If anyone is interested I’d gladly email photos and instructions..
Say .. I wonder if they’re confiscating letter openers at airports yet??
@8:01 AM
Incidentally, if you look closely at the fletching (feathers) of the arrows used by the elves in The Lord of the Rings, you will note that they are spirally bound to the shaft. This is authentic to the European Neolithic, and was the method used by Ötzi to attach his fletching. This was noted by Konrad Spindler in his book The Man in the Ice and was covered in considerable detail in the April/May 1999 issue of Traditional Bowhunter, which isn’t available on-line. Someone went to a great deal of trouble to make this small detail of the movie very authentic.
Another interesting piece of Ötzi trivia: His arrows had distinctly tapered shafts. I’ve recently examined the arrow shafts curated at the University of Wyoming from Wortham Cave, a dry cave with excellent preservation not far from here in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming. These shafts are also tapered. Konrad Spindler in his book The Man in the Ice explained that ‘this taper insured that the arrows would be nose-heavy during flight, which improves stability.’ However, once the stone point is applied about any arrow will be nose-heavy.
Some bend is necessary in an arrow to allow it to flex around the handle as it is shot. The amount of flexibility required is dependent on the draw weight of the bow. Too little flex and the arrow will scrape along the side of the bow and shoot wide to the side away from the bow. Too much flex and accuracy suffers. Archers who make and use wooden arrows are very conscious of the ‘spine’ or degree of flex of their arrows. Supposedly, the taper allows a wider tolerance in ‘spine’ and increases accuracy. I’ve recently made a couple of dozen tapered ash shafts but I haven’t personally used them enough to vouch for this.
@7:59 AM
It looks like Pro Blogger is the way to go to put graphics in my text. Hey guys, how about a free trial run? The Pro Blog This! also looks very promising.
@7:56 AM
While researching the Iceman article over at A boy and His Blog, I also ran across this gem: “In 1995, The Mountain Institute expedition [sic], with anthropologist John Reinhart and Miguel Zarate, set out to climb Mount Ampato, Peru, in search of sacred sites. They thought they saw a backpack, but it turned out to be a small body wrapped up in cloth. The Ice Maiden was 12 to 14 years old and was sacrificed to the mountain gods. Tied to Reinhart's backpack, she made her trip down the mountain.”
Folks, don’t try this at home. Archaeologists don't go wandering in the hills randomly picking up whatever we find. In the US, except in rare instances where graves in danger of destruction must be exhumed and re-buried elsewhere, we generally call this Grave Robbing.
Native Americans in the US frequently take a very dim view of such behavior. Although there remains considerable controversy within the archaeological community due to the loss of data, across the US efforts are being made to re-enter human remains that have been collected in the past. In consideration of our Native citizens, it is also considered very poor form to widely disseminate photographs of Native burials when it is necessary to exhume them.
Another interpretation: Academics who constantly propose largely unfounded but controversial ideas could be likened to bloggers trolling for hits. The ‘no such thing as bad publicity’ concept. It may be better to be dissed than to be forgotten in some circles.
@4:45 AM
I’ve intended to spend less time rehashing what I’ve read on other folks blogs and start putting up more content that’s not currently discussed on the internet. But I must link to this, just in case anyone thought I had the worst puns.
@4:44 AM
OK, I’ll admit it. I made my first bow, and my first atlatl long before I became an archaeologist. I was taught how to make arrowheads by an old Indian, when I was about seven or eight. I still have a couple of arrowheads that I made back then. I’ve always been fascinated by weapons of all kinds. If anything, I probably became an archaeologist because of this interest, although I’ve always been fascinated with archaeology as well.
@4:43 AM
Much of archaeological interpretation involves a good deal of speculation. I believe that if one wishes to avoid becoming a ’one trick’ pony, a broad knowledge of ethnography and history is necessary. I also believe that if one ever hopes to understand prehistoric hunters, you must have a knowledge of hunting, the behavior of animals, and intimate knowledge of the tools and techniques required for hunting success.
Archaeologists are often enamored of ‘replication’ experiments. It has become common practice to replicate stone tools and then use the tools to gain an understanding of tool use, butchering practices and the butchering marks left on various bones, and use wear, breakage, and discard patterns of various artifacts. But few archaeologists hunt. Fewer still hunt with primitive weapons such as the bow and atlatl.
Too often, archaeologists base their concepts of hunting, as practiced by hunters and gatherers, on the modern European and American concept of ’fair chase.’ Modern hunting, with it’s limited seasons and selective bag also gives a common false impression that prehistoric hunters set out of a morning with the idea that they would hunt .. rabbits for instance, while passing up opportunities to take other game. Many of the statistics on hunting practices stem from Game and Fish Agency studies of hunter success. Thus we have Optimal Foraging theorists who will tell you that prehistoric hunters would never have bothered with jackrabbits. ‘According to our statistics, it takes 16 hours of hunting to bag one rabbit! The calories expended exceed the calorie return.’
OK, then why is it that rabbit bone is so very common in prehistoric sites in Wyoming? Hmmm? I believe it’s because you don’t ‘hunt’ rabbits. You take them as targets of opportunity whenever they present themselves while you are conducting other activities. I spend a lot of time walking in the hills. I’ve encountered many cottontails and jackrabbits. Sometimes they run and one would be hard-pressed to take them with primitive weapons. Sometimes they freeze. Then you can whack them with a rock. You would indeed get very hungry exclusively hunting rabbits but they would supplement the diet nicely. You must also consider that it doesn’t take a ‘mighty hunter’ to take rabbits. Anyone can, and probably did do it.
I hunt with primitive weapons whenever I can. I also make a variety of primitive weapons including atlatls and bows. I abide by the game laws, of course, but it still gives me some insight into what it was like to subsist with these weapons. An insight I don’t believe can be acquired through arm chair theorizing.
I’m still working on adding photos, but it’s going to take a bit more effort than I’d thought. Photos will be necessary in order to begin the discussion of rock art interpretation over at A Boy and His Blog. They would also be nice here. It’s about impossible to explain an atlatl without pictures and drawings. I would love to put up pictures of my bows.
@3:39 AM
Saturday, January 26, 2002- - -
Le belle dame sans merci. Hmm. My phrase book doesn't say, but I wonder if that's where we get the euphemism "White Lady." A person could get in a lot of trouble with one of these phrase books..
But it's fun to tease the Carnivores. And I doubt they're that sophisticated.
@10:05 PM
Someday I’ll have to share Mrs. Coyote’s theory of Faulting in detail. Basically there are two kinds of faults in this construction: Normal faults and Reverse faults*. If it’s your fault its a Normal fault. If it’s my fault then it’s a Reverse fault and it’s your fault anyway. Convenient!
*These are actual geology terms. But you’ll have to ask Mrs. Coyote, she’s the geologist in the family.
@10:02 PM
Of course, after I talk all bad about them, they stick up something like this. An excellent discussion of basic HTML for boneheads like me..
@9:59 PM
There's some new stuff out on the 'Iceman.' Wild speculation in the latest National Geographic..
@9:56 PM
And now for something totally different.. I’m going to attempt to use the ‘Create Website’ function of MS Publisher to make a bloggable photo..
@5:13 AM
Say, what's this new Pro Blogger?
@4:58 AM
There’ll probably be a lot fewer posts for the next few days, I’ve got deadlines looming. My eyes can only take so many hours a day of staring at this screen and I must beat the keys.
@4:36 AM
The only statewide newspaper in Wyoming is a .. to be blunt, it’s a commie rag. Go figure. This is one of those big square Red states out in the heartland. We didn’t have a single county go for the Gore. Big surprise, eh? Where is the VP from again..
But the statewide newspaper has a relatively small circulation, not that many people to read it, the print media are suffering from increasing costs across the board, and consequently I suspect the Star Tribune is pretty cash strapped. They seem to hire a lot of folks fresh from the tender ministrations of academe, regardless. The normal academic tilt shows in their student product.
By the time we beat some sense into them, if that’s even possible in some cases, they’ve got a little experience and they’re looking for a bigger paper elsewhere. If they don’t arrive with too much pre-installed slant, they seem to become so frustrated with their colleagues that, like Paul Krza, they just quit. They’re probably a good place to look for work), if you are desperate and have great patience.
@4:33 AM
From the Left Brain:
Oh Ho!! There’s nothing wrong with my link. Links to oneself don’t work when I’m off-line. That’s why I couldn’t find this. The look-ups must consult the Archives. I guess that’s why they call them archived files. How clever.. Oh well, I wanted to pollish that piece a little anyway before I threw a permalink to it from the opposite side of the page.
Don’t say it en garçon. And take heart, I’m sure you will find le belle dame sans merci. A fine woman to make you miserable..
@4:30 AM
Yep, that’s me.
@4:29 AM
Friday, January 25, 2002- - -
Now why does my Webster’s define en garçon but not engarde?
@8:57 AM
I am. Therefore I write, I think. I’m compulsive about it. I must write or the pressure of all this stuff charging around in my head might become too much.
The OpEds and Letters sections of the print news have always been my favorites. Although OpEds often leave me howling at the moon. Either they’re terribly biased on the left, or they’re just as badly biased to the right and goofy to boot. It’s not hard to figure out the lean of the folks who usually pick the OpEds. I can almost hear them say ‘we’ll show how balanced we are by running this crazy Cal Thomas screed.’ Hmmm. I bet Thomas does google himself excessively. There’s got to be some explanation..
At first, when something really horribly bad would trip my trigger I’d write a polite letter to the editor. As polite as I can be anyway. I’d point out that, for instance, Charles Levendosky was completely misrepresenting someone with an axe to grind as an ‘impartial expert’ again. (Yes Chuck, ‘we can fact-check your sorry, tired old unreconstructed commie ass!’ Being Letters Page editor won’t save you any more..) Oddly, my letters were often either mangled beyond recognition—without the ‘this letter was edited’ disclaimer, printed with just a subtle twist to look like praise and agreement, printed under a ‘The Loon Speaks’ caption, or printed opposite a cartoon contradicting my general point of view. Don’t pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel. It’s cliché. It’s also true. And I’m pretty sure Levendosky googles himself. And now the folks at my IP will be gunning for me.
Jeez. I promised myself I wouldn’t be rude and now I’ve done it twice in one post. Tsk. Bad Coyote! No bunny rabbit!
So I gave up writing letters to the editor. I don’t need any help looking like a buffoon. I guess that's a large part of the reason I'm writing this blog..
Shortly after September 11th Mrs. Coyote and I were ranging out in the desert a ways beyond the phone lines and paper routes. But we have the trusty [non-internet, pout.] satellite dish. In these situations our only access to news is the dish.
Good god. I’ve never seen such a bunch of totally egocentric blather and falsely earnest camera mugging. ‘Everyone is scared to death about these anthrax attacks!’ Sure. Everyone you know. Media personalities wetting themselves in living color with digital sound. Each and every one convinced that he’s next. And then there’s Geraldo.
Remember media coverage during the Gulf War? Reporters live and on-the-spot, outside in the dark while tracers and rockets lit up the sky behind them? Very dramatic stuff. I turned on Fox one morning while I was preparing the caffeine drip. There’s Geraldo. Live, outside in the dark, hair ruffled, collar turned-up, half crouching and glancing nervously over his shoulder, breathlessly telling us that he’d just arrived in Pakistan. Pakistan! There was nothing out there but dark. He wasn’t on-the-spot. Not even close. The setting was all for dramatic effect. He’d might as well been reporting from a studio in Burbank. I was expecting Jerry Springer to be the next ‘war correspondent on the scene’.
Poor Geraldo. Leave it to him to overdo it even by the standards of those network pants-wetting times.
And no baseball. We were reduced to old movies. I haven’t watched TV news since, and I never watched much of anything else on the tube—no stomach for it. And that’s why I’m particularly grateful to all the blogocracy that sprang up by the time we got home. [spring, sprang, sprung, had sprung? Is sprang a word? The spell checker likes it. It looks wrong. It’s early on-set Alzheimer’s for sure.]
Not one in the bunch so pretentious as to think that the 5th letter would have their own personal name on it. Of course, that was before Pravda designated the super-pundit the New York Times of the Bloggers. An insult to the power-blogger to be sure. Be afraid. Be very afraid Mr. [Dr.? Professor?] Reynolds. They’ve heard of you all the way to Russia.
They have the internet in Russia?? Do tell.
If anyone in Russia ever reads this be sure to send me a note. In Russian. It would do me good to refresh my sadly neglected language skills and force me to figure out how the cyrillic alphabet works on my computer. Don’t expect a particularly intelligent reply. An intelligible reply is about all I could muster.
@8:16 AM
Now that is very odd. I've lost one of my favorite rants and a good part of the reason I'm doing this at all. I'll repost it now.
And I think I know what happened: The people who design computer keyboards put the Insert key and the Delete key right next to each other. Silicon Valley Roulette?
@8:09 AM
Why do we live in Worland, Wyoming? That’s a long story. It’s much easier to explain that I moved to Wyoming from North Dakota to get away from the winters. No seriously: I woke up to the radio alarm one morning in early March, 1984, in Grand Forks, to hear the announcer say ‘The cold spell has broken! It’s already –25°F! That’s the warmest it’s been so far this year. Since January 1st the high has been –37°F.’ Yes, it got all the way up to -37°F (roughly –37°C) once in 65 days. I started packing that day.
But why Wyoming then? I got a job. I came down here to work on a project for three months. I’ve worked my way up on that job from WOG to Principal Investigator. I should have the project done by April.
@7:05 AM
Hmm.. ☼! The aesthetic one thinks Robert Nozick “.. was not just brilliant but extremely good looking.”
Then she laughs out loud at Jeff Bezos’ epiphany: "It's Adam Smith economics that volume will go up when prices go down," he said, "but we didn't know how fast it would take."
He’s just now figured this out? Doesn’t he .. stand by, I’m googling .. Oh, it usually loses money. What does he do—make it up in volume? Never mind.
Oh, fine. Now she tells us to specify to whom you want the autographed hard cover of her excellent book inscribed. Too late now.. Please make mine ‘To the Old ‘Yote.. You are howling at the moon.’
Autographed photos, Virginia. I see a vast market there..
And yes, when do you take down those flags? It seems they’re playing more patriotic than thou in Utica. Well, Jerry, if it’s outdoors I believe you’re supposed to take it down at dusk unless it’s lighted. But no one seems to bother anymore. Out here the problem takes care of itself: The wind will blow the butt off a buffalo*. It does a number on the US flag too.
Ms Postrel reports that Paul Krugman is backing off from political scandal. Or at least American political scandal.
*Worland is the only place fit to live in that respect. But don’t tell anyone. I’ve always felt population and elevation should be closely equivalent.
☼ Maybe I should post a picture. Not of me though. I scare children and small dogs.
Hmm again. Blogger didn't like my little lightbulb character..
@6:58 AM
By way of Virginia Postrel, Matt Welch got the message: ‘No degree? No job for you ..’
Wait, what’s the dateline on that? I hope he’s not still looking..
If you insist on multiple degrees, you should hire thermometers.
@4:50 AM
What a snorefest!
A small glass of a nice Chilean Chardonnay finally pulled the rug from under my consciousness [none too soon as some will note], although it tangled up my fingers pretty well there at the end.
Incidentally, Chilean Chardonnays have been an excellent value of late..
@4:18 AM
Thursday, January 24, 2002- - -
Bill Quick: liberal judges may not whack the Shoebomber and the Taliboy as hard as we’d like. He predicts ‘a backlash against liberal judges.’
One can only hope.
The San Francisco Treat: channeling Greenspan - “Translation: Alan Greenspan today predicted a Republican triumph in the upcoming November elections.“
See last pithy comment..
Moving right along, he casts a stern eye on those who would not salute, seeing only bondage and degradation..
And then he reviews a judge’s ruling outlawing prayer at VMI: “Rub-a-dub-dub, Thanks for the Grub, Yeah god! .. Let’s eat.”
Finally, he covers Jonah Goldberg, dissing AndrewSullivan.com and Kausfiles.
@11:07 PM
No paucity of pithyness around here tonight, eh?
@9:19 PM
The Samizdata Folks are batting 1000 tonight: Johnny Student asks:
“.. why do colleges hate capitalists?
Because most everyone at a college belongs to the taker class. It’s easier if you can despise those upon whom you prey.
Somehow I think Bill Gates was always a filthy capitalist, although his stuff does spend a lot of time ‘in the ditch’. But remember John D. McDonald: ‘It’s not so amazing how well the bear dances but that it dances at all.’
If all you’ve got is rice and wheat and you need an alarm clock.. Well, a good capitalist would know what to do: Sell the rice and wheat, and ..
Of course, we Intellectuals still sit around and chat all day but we’re trading the coffee houses for blogs..
@9:17 PM
Over at Libertarian Samizdata, David Carr has some choice comments on the UN: “.. these posturing pompadours in cheap suits are working overtime to impose global wealth redistribution.
Yes. Here you have a ‘democracy’ where a substantial percentage of the voters are from under-developed countries. Of course they vote for more for themselves. Consider what this says about the political proponents of the welfare state in this country: It is not in their best interests to actually increase the general welfare. They will rapidly lose the votes of those who move from the taker to the donor class. Like me.
Therefore, it would seem to follow that we should work to increase the economy and general welfare in these under-developed countries, as well as working to increase the economy and general welfare of the ‘under-developed’ in this country. I’m not talking about handing out more money, but rather providing good jobs with training that leads to advancement and greater recompense—the basic assistance and incentive for self-betterment. By doing this we donors increase the voter base of the donor class. Not to mention reducing the relative demand on the class.
If we can’t beat ‘em they should join us.
@9:15 PM
Another comment on Pat Robertson and his isolationist ilk:
As Perry de Havilland says: “Eliminate [welfare] and the only people who will be willing to emigrate to another country under those conditions are self selecting high initiative folks who want to avail themselves of employment and entrepreneurial opportunities…”
Illegal emigrants can’t generally avail themselves of the welfare state. These folks often leave their homes and travel 2000 miles into a strange country where they don’t speak the language, searching for the most menial of jobs. They are commonly the most ‘self selecting of high initiative folks’. Too bad we have to make them run this gauntlet, as we can use all of this sort we can get.
On the other hand, if we did have completely open borders this screening process would no longer function..
@9:13 PM
We had Zatarain’s filé gumbo with shrimp for dinner. As we were dishing up I slopped some of the gumbo down the outside of the pot. It took the tarnish off the copper bottom. Not only is this good stuff, it will clean out your pipes.
@9:11 PM
The sinuses are draining and the Sudafed is releasing its vicious grip on my brain. I think I could sleep .. NOW.
@6:43 PM
The Clueless hits warp 11 and returns to the age of the dinosaurs..
Steven, if you crave the strange, check this out!
@6:43 PM
The USS Clueless fires a salvo at John Walker [Butt Weasel!!] Lindh:
“.. even without any confessions Lindh may have made, they've got him cold. It's not like there's any doubt that he was serving in a foreign army against the US, which is what he is charged with.”
But did he know that he was fighting the US before he found his scraggly butt [Weasel!!] in that POW facility?
Now I see.. This won’t be the first time that a prosecution has been tied in knots over the dread ‘what did he know and when did he know it?’
@6:42 PM
Via the InstaPundit, Slate quotes CNN’s Aaron Brown asking if Osama Bin Laden anticipated the post-9/11 events:
"Do you think that he anticipated, given what we saw on the tape last week that he knew in advance and all of the rest, do you think he anticipated what has happened in Afghanistan, that the Americans would come in the way they came in and all the rest?"
A clear mind clearly at work.
@6:40 PM
I’d like to call your attention to the time stamps on these two posts from the InstaPundit. Two-and-a-half hours between posts! The man is human after all. Or, he and his clone were out playing a fast nine holes..
@6:38 PM
DNA evidence caught the supposed culprits in the lynx case. They could have easily gotten away with this until recently. Microscopic examination of the hair with comparison to known specimens was the accepted practice prior to the development of DNA testing*. But this is odd: According to Ms. Strassel, Mr. Weaver's findings [of lynx hair] were wrong; the samples he'd found were from bobcats or coyotes.
Coyote hair looks nothing like either bobcat or lynx, and bobcat and lynx hair should also be easily distinguished under magnification*. And who should know better than me, eh?
*See Figures 46, and 64 through 66, in Moore, Spence and Dugnolle’s Identification of the Dorsal Guard Hairs of Some Mammals of Wyoming. William G. Hepworth, ed., Wyoming Game and Fish Department, 1974.
@5:31 PM
Pat Robertson is at it again, according to Samizdata. I’ve said it before but it’s worth saying again:
“Education, n. That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding.”
Ambrose Bierce The Devil’s Dictionary
@5:29 PM
‘Don’t take your guns to school boy, leave your guns at home son, don’t take those gun’s to town..’ Sing it ,Johnny Cash! I’d like to share my philosophy with those folks. Sounds more like the Shining Path.
I was making a muzzleloader in the high school shop when I got a call that the principal wanted to see me ‘and bring that project.’ Shit. .. He liked it.
@5:27 PM
I used to like reading Samizdata but now it downloads darn near as slow as some of those sites I get emails about.. Hey! What happened to the picture of Natalija?
Chris, is grilled lawyer on your list? That must be the lawyer on the right..
@5:22 PM
Via the InstaPundit:
Even Peace Activists like the .50 Barrett. Well of course they do. To paraphrase Kent Flannery: 'That’s about as much fun as you can have with your pants on.'
“Paul Robinson conceded Monday that the Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifle is "pretty damn cool."
Paul, buddy .. you need to shoot it faster, then it’ll be Hot!
@4:09 PM
Chris Smith is discussing the delights of cigars and diets, and damning lawyers for their money-grubbing ways. But of course, he is a victim. How many Big Mac & beer commercials can you watch before you’re driven to a feeding frenzy? Sue the food manufacturers? Hell no. I say sue the TV producers. They’ve got all the money.
Put down those Chicken McNuggets Chris! After all, I’ve got to take care of my favorite reader.
Speaking of which, we had those delicious Original Vegan Boca Burgers for lunch. I thought it was chic’n. I shall be running a little ad right over <—there, as soon as they contact me..
Chris says hanging’s too good for John Walker [Butt Weasel!!] Lindh. Better to lock him up and feed him three catered Halal meals a day—for the rest of his life. Is rat Halal if you slaughter it properly? Looks like Chic’n is.
Now that’s Mean Cuisine.
Note: You have no idea how many times I reworded that sentence to get the arrow in the right place..
@4:07 PM
Over at USS Clueless, Steven Den Beste is discussing the plots of such fine classics as Debbie Does Dallas.
Porn films have plots? I can honestly say I never noticed.. I did noticed Bambi’s big ambitions though.
@4:06 PM
The BLM is psychic! Or .. they’re watching this blog very closely*. I’ve just this minute gotten a call from ‘Laurie’ and my payment will be on it’s way on about two days. Good enough for government work..
*I flatter myself. But then if I don’t do it..
@11:48 AM
Howling at the Moon:
Hey! I like wildlife. Especially bunnies—they’re tasty!
But seriously folks, here’s More on the lynx ‘scandal’, via the InstaPundit:
As much as I’d like to agree down the line with Ms. Strassel and point out the close parallels between this and problems in the historic preservation field, perhaps Ms. Strassel is too quick to throw stones at the agency for the actions of a few individuals. Do some people put ideology ahead of science? Yes. No doubt. Many more simply go through the motions to collect a pay check, little caring for ideology of any stripe. By Ms. Strassel’s reasoning, it was Bush the I-era culture that brought us Ruby Ridge. It happened on dad’s shift after all. And with folks like Leon Kass aboard Bush the II-era culture has it’s share of those who put ideology ahead of science as well.
Ms. Strassel makes some very good points however: “When the species act was passed in 1973, it was a bipartisan effort to save animals truly on the brink of extinction. The law charged the government with making decisions over which species to list, using the "best scientific and commercial information" available. But environmental groups with an antidevelopment agenda quickly realized how easy it was to exploit the law. Getting an animal or plant listed meant putting large areas of rural America off limits to industries they hated.”
The Black-tailed prairie dog business is a good example of this. There are about three million of these rodents. According to one of the folks I know who’s involved in their attempted listing as ‘threatened’: Given sufficient habitat, it would take these rodents about ten years to regain their historic population levels. Their habitat is Iowa and Kansas. It’s been plowed and the habitat is gone, so that’s not going to happen any time soon. but in the mean time you should see what they’re doing to I-76 east of Denver. The ‘best scientific and commercial information available’ isn’t enough. A little judgment please.
And would we be so concerned if they had been more accurately named—not prairie dogs, but prairie rats??
@11:34 AM
And speaking of North Dakota humor - from today’s Casper [Wy] Star, sorry no link:
Dave Berry dedicated the new “Barry Lift Station No. 16” sewage plant in Grand Forks [yesterday?] saying: “If anything ever goes wrong with this station, call the mayor.”
Florida humor and North Dakota humor? I’m running hot and cold on this..
@11:32 AM
From today’s Casper [Wy] Star, sorry no links:
Jeff Gearino reports from Green River that the Department of the Interior computer shutdown has delayed royalty checks on the Wind River Reservation. But they finally got them.
Good, maybe they’ll pay on that invoice I sent them November 17, 2001!!
And they’re still not available for consultation according to this bounce back I received a few minutes ago [email address has been changed to protect the guilty]:
The original message was received at Thu, 24 Jan 2002 10:54:28 -0700
from mail.trib.com
----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
Dumb_Shit@blm.gov
----- Transcript of session follows -----
Dumb_Shit@blm.gov... Host unknown (Name server: blm.gov: no data known)
@11:30 AM
From Fox News this am: Should the feds bail out the Enron Investors?
I don’t think it matters whether the Enron investors are the victims of fraud on the part of Enron management, or victims of their own foolishness as investors. Where do you stop with this? What about all the other people who have lost life-savings through fraud or foolishness? Does the government help them? Only if there’s enough of them to form a significant voting block. This is not right.
See? I can mug and look suitably earnest just as well as Bill O’Reilly. Oh, right .. pictures! I need pictures!!
@8:08 AM
More on Bellesiles from the InstaPundit
I suppose that it’s always possible to be correct even though your data don’t support your conclusions. However, when in doubt, I’d go with the numbers.
Of course, I do statistics..
@8:08 AM
Warning: North Dakota Humor
From my dad: Ole was just shot over in Minnesota!
He was cutting trees up by the Canadian border. The Border Patrol anti-terrorist team spotted him. Using a loudspeaker, they shouted "Who are you and what are you doing?" Ole shouted back "OLE .. BIN LOGGIN'!"
A little goes a long way..
@8:07 AM
So is the Dog-faced Boy saying that he’s against free market solutions?
No. Absolutely not. My client’s complaints with the present system are very valid. They spend a tremendous amount of money to satisfy various state and federal mandates. In many cases, neither they nor the general public receive much value in return for all the cash. On the other hand, the environment is cleaner than it was, although you could certainly argue that this is more in spite of many government programs than due to them.
I would dearly love to see this change. I don’t have any solutions, any more than I have any new insight into any other aspect of the human condition. A more libertarian, constitutionally constrained government is something worth demanding and working toward. Bureaucrats who remember that they are the servants would be a great place to start. Perhaps the mood is changing and I think it will change more as more people become more frustrated with the current silliness.
In the mean time, the pie-in-the-sky, ‘I’d change everything and make it better overnight if I were in power,’ Harry Browne [Butt Weasel!!] solutions don’t make it. We got into this mess gradually and I don’t see any other way to get out, if for no other reason than that there are far too many people and institutions dependent on the current system to simply ‘abolish the IRS’ [Butt Weasel!!], or some such. Many of the government’s programs do amount to little more than latter-day WPA welfare, but public servants have to eat too.
On the other hand, academics who say ‘our science is valuable’ had better have something more to back that up than loud assertions. Repeating the assertion does not prove it. I do think that a knowledge of prehistory and history is important. It places us in context. However, sometimes I wonder how much more ‘context’ we can afford. We are well into the realm of diminishing returns in Historic Preservation. I do think that the arts [and letters!] are worth supporting and I support them as a private citizen. I don’t demand that the government pick your pockets to support these things.
But we live in the world that is, not the world we wish for.
@8:06 AM
The ‘Spin-free zone’. Fox News with Bill O’Reilly. I knew I shouldn’t turn on the TV. Perhaps it’s because of the ‘All Anthrax All The Time’ coverage when Talking Heads wet themselves 24/7. It was .. I think the Colonel* would call it being ‘unmanned’. At any rate, I can’t look at those clowns now without being disgusted by their phony earnestness. Some of those folks look like they’re practicing their mugging in a mirror and just don’t quite have it down. O’Reilly’s not the only one, just one of the most obvious. Not a good actor I guess.
*Colonel Jeff Cooper was a Pundit long before Al Gore invented the internet. A very tough old bird. The grass-eater/meat-eater metaphor is his, I believe.
@8:04 AM
Ah!! That's way easier on the eyes..
@5:59 AM
Speaking of drugs .. I’m an early bird. Not this early however (I’m writing this a 2am, I’ll post when I’ve got enough material together). I’ve a mild allergy to something that pollinates in mid-winter. It doesn’t bother me often or badly. Never bothered with being tested, it’s not bad enough to bother spending the $$ on some bozo to tell me what I’m allergic to.. whatever. This isn’t rocket science. I suppose it’s practicing empirical medicine on myself, but sudafed works - the cheapest generic little red pills you can pick up at WallyWorld are OK. Why pay someone to prescribe them? And then pay more for the prescription version. But sudafed and the like are also the source [a source?] of the ephedrine HC that’s cooked down for crank. A drug with no appeal for me. I’m too hyper naturally. I don’t need help pinging off the walls.
And now I’ll stand by and see how well Carnivore works.. No knock yet.
As I was saying, sudafed works, it’s cheap, but I find it impossible to sleep after I’ve taken one. Two? Forget it. I’m fighting the urge to go for the second now. Usually the first one works. My hands are so jiggly from the first that typing is difficult. I can’t sleep but I can’t keep my eyes open.
@4:01 AM
If I were a terrorist, where would I strike next? I hesitate to discuss such speculation, if only that it appears the folks responsible for September 11th weren’t that bright. No point in giving them any ideas. On the other hand, we’ve got Fox News saying a terrorist group could break into a nuke storage/processing/reactor facility such as Rocky Flats, set off a conventional bomb and spread radiation over the countryside. I should plead that ‘everyone’s doing it.’
The plane highjacking routine worked pretty well. The authorities have responded by confiscating tweezers. Sure, there’s National Guardsmen with M16s standing around the airports, but I’ve got to wonder whether they give some of those folks live ammo.
So here’s what I’d do.. A Frontal Assault.
I’d start by impersonating National Guardsmen. That would get me quite a ways into the airport. I’d hit the Cav Store and load up on standard-issue cammies, insignia, web gear, shiny black boots, etc. As much as I’d hate it if I were a Taliban sort, I’d have at least one woman in the cell—because the US has women in the Guard. Any detachment without one would look odd. Any detachment with one will look very authentic.
I be a 1st Lt. Not high enough rank to be odd that I’d be in charge of a small armed detail. Too high for the real guardsmen to be anxious to challenge me. I’d wear a scowl that said I wasn’t having fun, ‘I’d rather be at the football game, and you’d better not mess with me.’ I’d get standard-issue M16s, or the civilian AR-15 equivalent, it’s impossible to tell the difference at any distance. I’d march into the airport .. hup! hup! .. rifles at port arms, and keep right on going until I was on a plane. Or someone tried to stop me. At that point all I’d have to do is fight my way onto the plane. I’d have the advantage of surprise. Oh yeah, and bring someone to fly the plane. I’d pick a small airport so there’d be less chance of a large security detail. I would try for an empty plane. No point in bothering with a bunch of folks who’s been reading this.
From all reports airport security is a sham. No bunch of minimum wage newly-minted government employees would give me much trouble. The Guardsmen stationed around would probably leap to attention and salute, especially if I looked to be in an ugly mood. By the time anyone figured out that there was a problem it might be too late to resist.
I’m afraid it would work..
@3:57 AM
Wednesday, January 23, 2002- - -
Incidentally, the aesthetic one has a real point. There is a significant quantity vs. quality issue here. If I had to produce even one of these per week my head would soon be sucked flat.
@10:38 AM
From the vocational lobe:
A Boy and His Blog are currently dining on Cato and academia. This is a work in progress. .. I would very much like to share this with several of my colleagues, for their expertise on the law and economics of historic preservation, and for general comment. Unfortunately, the DOI internet shut-down is holding many of them pretty effectively incommunicado at present. ..
While producing this, I discovered that I very much like links as a method of referencing one’s technical discussions. As I had suspected, it makes the entire topic more accessible to the lay person. Relatively obscure materials, particularly the professional ’gray literature’, can be made available with very little effort. This will be very handy..
As you can see, I must have photos!!
@10:25 AM
From the left brain:
Curiouser and curiouser.. Why do I have two archives files for the same week? I can't imagine that Blogger has so much drive space that they want duplications. But first .. Pictures. Bwaahahaha!!
@5:18 AM
From the left brain:
By George, I think he's got it. The permalinks may not be pretty but they do seem to be working. I can pretty them up later.
@5:02 AM
Still waiting for that ad to go away guys..
@4:05 AM
Why by the cow when you can swim in milk for free? What can I say. I wouldn’t pay to read what I’ve written. So far.. I might for some major content, but when AP, NYT, WP, DPO, DT, and the PDQ are available for free, when would I have the time to read what I’d paid for?
Steven hits the nail on the head when he says there are “.. millions of dilettantes with delusions of being as good as the pros ..”. I resemble that remark.
Update: Yes, those homonyms are still cropping up. It only seems to happen when I'm typing very fast. Odd. I think, my fingers type. There's a disconnect somewhere.
@4:02 AM
This has also given me an idea for another blog. I’ve since googled “A Boy and His Blog” and found that it’s hardly original. What a surprise. Too cute? I would never use ‘cute’ to describe anything that has sprung from the mind of Harlan Ellison. But I do agree that it’s difficult to find a good name for a blog. An inspired name is tougher yet.
Note: For my first post over there I think I was still channeling a bit. I’ll try not to do that any more. At least not in this vein.
@3:42 AM
OK. Step back from the keyboard and stop channeling Harlan Ellison.
If you’re enough of a compulsive reader to be following this you must have read some Ellison. But have you ever seen him read one of his works, in person? This person thinks he gives ‘lively lectures with his gravelly voice’. Hmm. That’s like saying we’ve ‘bitch slapped the Taliban’.
I saw him give the first reading of his “Laugh Track”, which he’d written for a writer’s conference at the U. of No. Dak. .. sigh .. 20 years ago, more or less. He started by explaining that when he’d arrived in Grand Forks [the night before?] he’d had no idea what to write. But that’s not a problem for him. He sat down in front of the keyboard and started to write and he blacked out. He didn’t regain ’consciousness’ until he was done writing and then he had to read it to see what he’d written .. and here it is.
And he proceeded to .. well, if he’d been using a microphone he would have entangled the room. Several times. I’ve spent a lot of time studying cognitive anthropology and ecstatic states of consciousness ala Felicitas Goodman. I think that is what Ellison did for us that afternoon. He seemed to achieve some sort of ecstatic state. His skin got pale and white. He appeared to be hyperventilating slightly. To say he became animated is an understatement. I think this is the original meaning of the term inspired. It was awesome.
And now I think I’ve had a little taste of what he was talking about.
@3:40 AM
Tuesday, January 22, 2002- - -
And speaking of grass eaters: Michael Bellesiles whole thesis is nutty. Since deepest darkest prehistory a man’s weapons have always been his most cherished possessions. No other class of object has received such frequent and elaborate ornamentation. No other class of object is so frequently found as ceremonial grave goods. The possession or gift of no other class of object so often marks the right of passage from child to adult. This should not be surprising. Until very recently, humans have relied very heavily on hunting for subsistence.
@8:58 PM
Some folks simply will not be able to handle this stuff. There are grass eaters and there are carnivores. In such situations the grass eaters die.
@8:58 PM
Good god. That was not pleasant. But it is necessary to think about such things often.
@7:43 PM
Steven Den Beste is discussing depressing topics again. Today, hand-to-hand combat with highjackers in the airways: how to fight for your life.
An excellent overview and everyone should read it before you read this. ..
Now, a few additions and clarifications:
A pen or pencil is probably the weapon of choice at this point—at least until the airport security folks figure out that they are pointy on one or both ends. Until then, carry one that’s pointy on one end only. Remember the Bic commercials where they shot a 19¢ Bic pen through a board? Get one of those—they are very strong. Carry it with you always. This works on the streets too.
Use a ‘palm re-enforced grip,’ i.e. brace the non-pointy end in the center of your palm so you can apply serious force to the pointy end without the pen slipping backward in your hand. This will also extend the maximum ‘working length’ of pen beyond your hand to stab deeply. Pad your palm with a kerchief or other cloth if possible—this will greatly increase the force you can apply. Extend the pen between thumb and forefinger as Steven explains. Do try this at home—do it now! Punch a chair cushion or some such a few times gently just to get the feel of it. See?
Do this properly and you can stick that pen into someone’s eye or ear until you run out of pen. It will go in easy once you crunch through the thin bone. If you can get it through the bone, shove it in all the way. This will almost certainly kill. Until you hit the sweet spot: Punch and Repeat and Repeat and again…. As fast as you can. Don’t stop. Find your rhythm. If you can’t get at the eyes, ears, or head at all, any exposed part of your opponent’s body will do. It will really hurt and you will get his full attention. Keep it up until the guy quits the fight by fainting or expiring. Preferably expiring.
Alternately, you can do a lot of damage with a big key. Leave it on the ring, held in the same palm re-enforced padded grip but with your hand in a tight fist with the key extending straight out between third and fourth fingers. Then punch. Repeat. Repeat. Faster. Faster. Etc.. Speed is important to do maximum damage.
Now here’s something that won’t be confiscated until we really do fly naked. A newspaper. Fold and roll as if you were delivering them, but roll it as tight as you can. Then roll it a little tighter. About 1 to 1.5 inches in diameter is good. Keep rolling it. One end should expose folded paper and the other should expose the cut edges of the paper. Hold it like a club by the folded paper end. Now, remember paper cuts? Stab and twist at the face and eyes with the end with cut edges. Use it as a club to parry return stabs and slashes. If you have time, use a rolled up paper in your off hand to parry while you stab with your pen or key. Less awkward than a seat cushion if you can only use one hand.
If you don’t have anything else or he gets hold of you, stick a thumb in his eye. Your thumb is much stronger than a finger. Better—stick one thumb in each of his eyes. Hard as you can. All the way to the back of the sockets. You want him permanently blind. Then hammer him in the face with your forehead. Repeat. Repeat. ..
And kick him as often as you can while you’re at it. Stomp on his hands and feet. Bite his ear. Bite anything else that presents itself. Hurt him as badly as you can, any way you can.
Through all of this, if the opponent is determined and armed with an edged weapon expect to be cut it is nearly impossible not to be cut unless you are very skilled - remember if you don’t do this you will die. Make sure he loses more blood than you do. Don’t hesitate when you attack and don’t stop attacking for any reason. If he knocks you down, get up. Repeat. Repeat. Make him think he’s tangled with an insane, screaming animal.
Most important is to make your attack completely all out. Don’t hold back at all. Scream with every punch, it concentrates your force—just like the karate guys. Screw your feet into the floor and try to drive your pen or keys or paper or thumb or finger or .. clean through the guy with every ounce of force in your body. Put your back into it. By trying to drive through the target you will insure that you don’t pull your punches. If he falls down, kick him. Repeat. Repeat..
Don’t trust the opponent to give up until he is completely unconscious. Be sure he isn’t faking. Stick your finger in their eye, hard. Unless the opponent is completely out this will get a reaction.
Serious athletes practice visualization as part of their training routine. It works. Run all this through your mind. Over and over. No it’s not pleasant. Visualize you cutting and stabbing and hammering and kicking the living shit out of someone hateful while you scream as loud as you can. Visualize being knocked down and getting back up. Visualize being cut and continuing the attack without hesitation. Visualize winning the fight. Visualize the rest of the passengers dragging you screaming and kicking off the terrorist’s bleeding dead carcass. Visualize this until you feel an adrenalin rush.
Your Mind is the Most Deadly and Only Necessary Weapon. Use It.
@7:39 PM
While we’re on the topic: Actor Danny Glover says he is certain that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. would have endorsed Glover's anti-death penalty message. Now that’s channeling.
‘Appealing to authority’ to support one’s arguments is not a new rhetorical device. Perhaps Dr. King was opposed to the death penalty and said so—I don’t know. He was a religious man and it would not surprise me if he were opposed. But that’s not what Nando is suggesting. At least from their report the claim would appear to be more on the lines of a divine revelation. And divine revelations are hard to fact check.
Now remember: ‘You read it in the newspaper. It must be true.’ To paraphrase that zany kitty, Garfield.
@2:33 PM
Now that you know why I’m torturing the electrons with all this, I’ve got paying work to do..
@2:32 PM
I agree. This blog is rather lame so far. It’ll probably stay that way. Ms. Postrel has pointed out the analogous problem in her comments yesterday (1/21) regarding the NYT’s Paul Krugman: “.. he writes too often to do a good job.” If someone of Krugman’s caliber can’t do a good job of covering the current events because he writes twice a week, how well could anyone cover the details when they write all day, every day? Some do it very well. I’m not in that class.
I’ve got an opinion on everything. Not necessarily an informed opinion, however. But this blog isn’t really meant to be anything but writing and coding practice and maybe a place to blow off some steam. This is what it’s all about:
First task: Learn how to use Blogger; that’s what I’m doing now. And it’s not that difficult. Though it takes time to learn anything new and I’m a naturally impatient lad.
Second: Figure out how to place an indelible mark on photos and text.*
Third: set up another blog and start posting my research materials and text in a publicly accessible format ala the astonishing Stephen W. Hawking. Some of the materials I’ve accumulated and some of the things I’ve learned in the last 25 years will rock your sox. Guaranteed.
The fourth and final object: get my materials together, polish well, and find a publisher.
That doesn’t sound so difficult, does it? Bearing in mind that I’m still at the early stages of Task 1.
*I’m tired of having my original materials show up in someone else’s publications or being used for commercial purposes without so much as a ‘by your leave’. About 3 months worth of my original, unpaid research - photographs, notes, maps, etc. that I’d archived for reference by other researchers—once showed up as an MA thesis, with absolutely no reference to me anywhere in the document. Not even a ’thanks for your help’. I went back to my original files and low—they were gone, along with all the stuff I’d archived. Someone knew they were being bad and covered their tracks. Now that’s .. well, probably not plagiarism, I suppose it’s theft. I could still prove it: The first Mrs. Coyote appears in some of the pictures in that thesis. That would be very hard to explain. Besides, you don’t write something like that without field notes, so I hope someone’s recopied all of those. There is also an independent witness. But it doesn’t matter at this point. I’ve long since replaced what I had with far better and the culprits are fading into obscurity. And one of them is enough of a bozo egomaniac to call and say ‘I am not’ - aren’t you?
I’ve also had my original illustrations show up in commercial applications. Imagine that. Also provable - I've got the original and art is almost impossible to copy that well. You've got ot copy the mistakes too.
No, plagiarism isn’t nice. On the other hand, it is almost impossible to avoid ‘channeling’ those whose work you admire. I have no intention of weighing in on the Ambrose business. Plagiarism is nasty business. Accusations shouldn’t be made lightly or by the uninformed.
@1:18 PM
OK, I’ll stop thinking out loud now..
@9:31 AM
Incidentally, a good part of the reason I’m creating this blog monster is because I’m a technical writer. You would not want to read most of what I crank out. In fact, other than the occasional snide comment [ scroll down to Anthony Swenson] it’s hard to find much I’ve written referenced on-line at all [actually, there is quite a bit on-line, most all of it considered proprietary and confidential by the govt, and not available to the filthy masses, sorry]. Or maybe there’s simply not that much storage on even the superest computers?
If you did read one of my .. stand by while I google myself.. aaah.. reports [that was about designing multivariate stats analyses of archaeologically recovered prehistoric ceramics BTW. Well, it’s interesting to me.] and then read the next report, you would find that it sounds very familiar.
I don’t get points for originality. Quite the opposite. The folks that read and review these things get to know your style and layout and they expect to see exactly the same thing in exactly the dame place, every time. Damme, that had to be Freudian. Some things just turn my mind to mush. Awfully cold outside to be dressed like that..
OK, I’m back. Don’t tell Mrs. Coyote!
Now, as I was saying: Writing that stuff gets very boring. Fill-in-the-blanks reports and government forms don’t stretch one’s writing abilities much either. I enjoy writing and the mental discipline required to say exactly what you mean in a way that doesn’t put people to sleep. I stand in awe of Stephen W. Hawking. It’s hard to explain that stuff to people who already understand most of it. He makes it accessible and even interesting to people like me who haven’t a clue.
I’ve greatly enjoyed verbal sparring over the years and I greatly enjoy written debate as well [ Thanks again, Steven!], but sometimes I get the impression that I’m not expressing myself very clearly. Of course, I plead the Red Queen’s defense, ‘when I say something, it means exactly what I intended it to mean—nothing more, nothing less’ [right, JC? OK, OK, I said I wouldn’t be rude].
So, this is practice. I’m not getting any younger. As Kent Flannery once quipped ‘the legs go first’.- Young Turk! I believe he’s retired now.. I guess I shouldn’t feel too bad, by those standards I am a young pup. If I get any feedback, fine. If I don’t, I’ll console myself with the thought that it wasn’t the point to spout to the masses, but rather to write something other than the same old crap, day after day after day.
If you read this and think it’s funny drop me a line. If you think it’s lame definitely drop me a line [and explain, in 5000 words or less—Why?]
That’s a trick question. In philosophy the proper response is .. Why Not? Appropriate here as well..
I notice I’ve got some quirks from writing as I speak—leading a sentence or paragraph with ‘and’ can probably be overdone. Too many asides and interjections too. I’ll be glad to listen if anybody wants to critique farther..
@9:28 AM
Ah! Blogger automates it for my convenience. Ooooh! Aaaah! That’s how you insert italics into a link. That was obvious. It may look like #$%^# but at least it’s consistent #$%^#.
Yes, I do talk to myself when I’m struggling. But I don’t answer [yet, stand by]. Better than throwing things..
And I’m still fascinated [too fascinated to focus on permalinks as I should] by seeing my very own words appearing on the net. It is magic! And ‘sometimes the magic works’.
How odd. The link I created below links to a version of a post that I thought I’d dumped when I saw it was ungrammatical.
@9:24 AM
Let’s try this..
And do keep those brackets balanced. Getting there. But I still don't have an archive [or do I?] and download time is getting lengthy.
@7:33 AM
“Smile when you call me that.” Owen Wister The Virginian
The old ‘yote thinks he’s a wit. He knows he’s at least half right.
So I have to set up an Archive before I can use perma-links. Si?
Dang it!! I double-posted to boot. But it looks like Blogger didn't object to the cuss words - it did post them eventually. Must have been running slow. Patience meat-eater..
@7:11 AM
Whoa Nellie! I thought that I'd crashed Blogger for a minute there. Don't ever repeat those cuss words in your text - unless you really, really mean it.
@6:54 AM
And again for those less fortunate than we:
“Unless you want to have a blog the length of a football field, you're going to have to keep your archives in order.” Oh. That probably causes lengthy downloads too..
Why, it’s a simple as the BlogItemArchiveFileName tag. Why didn’t I think of that?
And you use it in conjunction with the BlogItemNumber tag. Obvious, obvious..
Who said “The reason computer programs aren’t written in English is because programmers can’t write in English”? I don’t remember butt it wasn’t me. I don’t want to be accused of plagiarism. And there’s another homonym—or maybe that one was Freudian?
Be back shortly, I hope..
@6:52 AM
Perma-links. OK, hear we go. And why do my fingers type homonyms? How do our brains work, anyway? Magic? Cognitive Anthropology..
I’ll steal a bit of code from the Great One and see what happens when I post it.. Dang it! Don't forget to fix the double quotes. And don't click on that link below, it's not working..
Posted 1/22/2002 07:41:07 AM
Hmm. We're back to concatenating my blog address with Glenn's. Think, think, think......
@6:11 AM
Speaking of those less fortunate out there in reader land: my dad could read what I wrote, but he emailed me anyway. It seems that logging-on to blogs makes his computer run real slooowww. How old is that thing now, dad? I’ve often wished for a printer with a hand-crank..
If I hadn’t just sent more to the IRS than SocSec gives him to live on in a year..
@5:52 AM
Hmmm. I like using the link to highlight the word or phrase I want to emphasize. Elegant. I’m starting to get the hang of this.
However, I must get one of those 21” screens like Steven has. Then I could read this stuff without going all googly-eyed on my poor little laptop.
@5:51 AM
Remember—the Masters of Verbal Abuse are practicing their trade on our citizens. They say “Marine Corps recruits are trained not only physically and mentally, but morally as well.” They talk about transformation, that’s putting it mildly. There is a point to it. It is not gratuitous. I’ve known a lot of DI’s and former DI’s [ mostly Army] personally. None [except those who worked on me] were sadistic pricks.
Out at the Boy’s School the little cretins march around with stiff backs and 1000-yard stares, looking more than a little haunted. They’re our citizens too. And I know that none of the guys out at the Boy’s School are sadistic pricks—well except KJ. And I hope he knows I’m joking.
I probably out-weigh KJ by 75% - I don’t think I’d like to tangle with him. Besides, I’m trying to dicker him out of a certain .410.. Come on KJ, that thing didn’t sell for $250 new. How about $600?? Please, Please??
We [the institutional royal we] do this to our own citizens all the time. When the situation warrants it. Perhaps a few folks from Amnesty should visit with the Masters of Verbal Abuse—preferably as recruits. They would be transformed. And they might begin to understand.
@5:50 AM
Stand by for those 15 minutes of fame .. Glenn Reynolds mentioned me last night! Well, sort of. He did say: “Remember: there's always another blog out there, somewhere, waiting to be read.” That’s me all right! I bask in reflected glory.
OK, times up.
Glenn notes earlier that ‘even the prisoners aren’t complaining about their treatment.’ Well .. do you suppose they think it would do any good? “I want my Amnesty International! Waaa!” Those poor, poor Talibaners have got to be wondering about their survival right now. They would be if it were me leaning over their shoulders. And I was a punk compared to the masters of verbal abuse.
And remember—the Taliban didn’t stint in handing out the abuse of their own citizens. I haven’t been following the Camp X-ray business very closely, but it’s my understanding that these guys aren’t the run-of-the-mill Talibaner dogfaces. If not, we can be assured that they’re tough guys. They know better than to piss off someone who has them by the short hairs. They’re wondering right now just how much worse it’s going to get. When they do start whining we’ll know that our MPs are getting through to them.
@5:48 AM
But Why Cuba? Didn't we have detention facilities somewhere? Or didn't we want their flea bit carcasses in our nice clean POW camps? This bears further investigation..
@3:37 AM
I’ve read about the terrible torture being inflicted on the Taliban in Cuba—from the photos I’ve seen it doesn’t look like a day at the beach to me. Some sensitive souls [like me] might feel a bit tortured were they in that position. Squatting on the ground, shackled, masked, and goggled while big ugly Marines lean over me? No thanks. But in this case, It couldn’t be happening to a nicer bunch of guys.
This is interesting. I have a friend who works here at the Boy’s School [is that a great euphemism or what?]. He’s an ex-Marine. I also worked TRs for Marine units now and then, way back when. And I was once told by a crusty old Marine Colonel that I had a mouth like a Marine—I think he meant it as a compliment [a compliment from a Marine Colonel? I probably flatter myself]. But I took it as one.
My point [do I have one? Is that caffeine ready yet? Yes, wait one..]:
Camp X-ray isn’t a church social. Neither were our TRs—we had live ammo, running exercises in the woods. Not for the faint of heart or the inattentive and I made damn sure the culprits knew—knew deep down in their souls—that they were dog shit. I hope they still remember me. Neither does the Boy’s School in any way resemble a summer camp.
These guys are pros. They're not exercising their lungs or taking out their pent-up frustrations on the poor Talibaners. I'm sure it's not gratuituous in any way.
@3:36 AM
A couple of notes while I wait for my caffeine drip.
I've made a point of not going back and changing what I'd written here, after each entry is posted. I guess that follows from my rant on the emotional investment inherent in putting words to paper. But I did just fix a badly split infinitive. I couldn't stand it. I plead googly eyes from too many tables of numbers.
And now I must figure out perma-links and pictures..
@3:01 AM
Monday, January 21, 2002- - -
And now it's been a long day. Time to hole up for awhile.
@7:40 PM
Howling at the Moon:
"Everyone knows how praiseworthy it is for a ruler to keep his promises, and live uprightly and not by trickery. Nevertheless, experience shows that in our times the rulers who have done great things are those who have set little store by keeping their word, being skillful rather in cunningly deceiving men; they have got the better of those who have relied on being trustworthy."
Machiavelli The Prince
Does any of this sound familiar?
@7:38 PM
Steven Den Beste has been trying to explain to a Finn the difference between a US Citizen and a Finnish subject:
“The government of the United States serves the citizens of the United States; it does not rule us.” [emphasis in original]
Here! Here! In principal I certainly agree. There are those in our government who don’t see it that way however. Certain petty bureaucrats on power trips spring immediately to my mind. Unfortunately they often win by default. I can’t afford to sue every time we tangle, nor would that necessarily be appropriate. Sometimes they do get to play the tyrant simply by default. If it costs $3000 extra to comply or $5000 to sue, what would you do?
Then four paragraphs later:
“If any US government tries to restrict our rights, the citizens of the United States will rise in revolt, and you will see a terrorism campaign that makes al Qaeda look like pussies.”
I’m not so sure. If our government suddenly turned the screws and there was no clear justification, I agree, people would scream. But that’s not the way our pols work. Please remember how frogs are boiled. How many laws are there on the books now? Federal, state, and local? Gun control laws are an excellent example of the gradual approach to tyranny. Under the Sullivan Law how many citizens of NYC can legally exercise their 2nd amendment rights? Not as many as would like to right now, I’d wager.
The mood is changing [I hope] and perhaps we will roll back some of these laws. We shall see.
@7:35 PM
To torture or not to torture, or to torture and not tell. A moral trilemma worth some thought. The question has been bouncing around, appearing yesterday (1/20) on The Scene.
What if I knew that a September 11th-size attack were coming and I knew this guy had information? What if I wasn’t sure whether the schmuck knew anything or not? What if I knew that one of these ten guys knew something but didn’t know which one??
Would it make me feel any better if I had a court order authorizing the torture? Then I could say ‘I was only following orders!’
What if I had some whiz bang truth serum that would get the answer out of each one, with a 50% risk of burning their brains out?
Does the good of the many over-ride the good of the few? I’ve pretty much decided that concept doesn’t wash, at least in the abstract. But this isn’t abstract, we’re talking immediate threat of major disaster here. Does that make a difference?
That’s a question I’m very glad I won’t be called on to decide..
@7:32 PM
The Marvels of Modern Technology: You Reap What You Sow..
You will note in the post two below this, an error becoming more common as we all rely more and more on electric editors. Mostly they’re cause for a sigh and a silent meditation on the costs of skilled labor. Sometimes they’re a hoot. From the local paper a couple years ago:
ASK THE GAME AND FISH
“Do I need to wear a life jacket when fishing from a float tube?”
No, you don’t. Under Wyoming law, float tubes, inner tubes, air mattresses, sail boards or even logs are classified as “water sport toys” and are exempt from the life jacket requirement for watercraft. The exception is if the water toy is being towed by a boar. Then an approved Personal Flotation Device (PFD) must be worn.
Logs?
@7:29 PM
Whew! Still a few lines out of order but I don't think I lost anything. A success declared.
@7:28 PM
From the Department of Fine Whines:
In case you though you were having all the fun today: I’m spending the day translating an ancient DOS-based dBase III database file into a format that can be edited with MS Publisher. The resulting table (of numbers) will be about 80 pages long. dBa | |