Desire to smash a bureaucrat

Claire Wolfe expresses an understandable "Desire to smash a bureaucrat" when she encounters problems obtaining "something" from one.

I've structured my life so I rarely have to deal with petty government bureaucrats. But today I had to go take care of an ordinary little matter I've been putting off for several years -- something most folk do about once a year or so, but that I've managed to avoid until now.

I thought I had all my ducks in a row, all my information structured so that I could breeze through this process with both minimal hassle and more importantly, minimal database invasion of my very private life. Then I got there and found that the state, in its infinite nosiness, had just adopted a new paperwork requirement. Do I need to mention that it's a highly invasive paperwork requirement?

...something most folk do about once a year or so

I'm going to take a wild guess that Claire's problem involves vehicle registration. This is an easy call since persons of Claire's (and my) persuation only approach the state in a very few circumstances and car registration is the only significant contact which is usually annual.

Things to say in the course of vehicle registration (which may not get your vehicle registered but will make you feel better):

* Can't the homeless register their vehicles in this state?

* Is it the official policy of this state to discriminate against homeless persons?

* My residence has never been assigned a street address or a Rural Route number. [Works best in rural areas.]

* My parents never registered my birth with the government. They chose instead to register my birth with a genealogical organization headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. They felt that government birth registration was the first step to a Communist takeover of the US. In retrospect, I see that they were right.

* I don't have telephone, cable, electric, or gas service. As far as I can determine, one is not required to purchase those services.

* The telephone, cable, electric, and gas service at my residence is not in my name but in the name of another person. Is it the public policy of this state to inquire into the domestic arrangements of its residents?

* My residence does not have mail delivery (aren't government cutbacks terrible?). I receive all my correspondence at an accommodation address at my local UPS Store.

* I never obtained a Social Security number. If you read the application you will note that submitting it is not mandatory. Since it is voluntary, I chose not to volunteer.

* Since fictitious entities such as partnerships, trusts, estates, private and municipal corporations, and even the Government of the United States can register vehicles in this state without birth certificates, photo IDs, or SSNs; why can't I?

* Do you know the Great State of Mississippi manages to survive without even having a DMV. The cops handle licenses and the tax commission handles vehicles. Maybe we should try that approach.

* Maybe I should move to Iowa, New Hampshire, Tennessee, South Carolina, Virginia, or Wisconsin where I don't have to pay off the blood-sucking insurance companies to drive my vehicle.

* How come a Saudi fresh off the plane can rent or borrow a car anywhere in North America and drive it in this state on his Saudi DL without even telling you about it but a loyal American like me has to stand in line and fill out all these nasty forms before I can do so?

* You won't register my car? Fine, I guess I'll break down and pay a lawyer to form a trust or a corporation, register the car to that entity, and then I'll drive it without telling you a thing.

* Back in 1914, my 13-year-old grandfather drove unregistered trucks on the streets of San Francisco without a driver's license (because California had no such requirements). San Francisco survived. This state would survive too.

[Check back for future additions.]

Traditional Treatment of Prisoners in the Region

Since so much interest has been shown, of late, in the treatment of prisoners in the Muslim world, I thought that you might be interested in the traditions that were in place prior to the introduction of corrupt Western practices.

My source is a fascinating work that has been on my bookshelf for many years: Under the Absolute Amir. By Frank A. Martin. For Eight Years Engineer-in-Chief Successively to the Amir Abdur Rahmam and Habibullah, and for the Greater Part of that period the only Englishman in Kabul. Illustrated by the author's drawings and photographs, and by other photographs. London: Harper & Brothers 1907. 1st ed., xii, 330pp. + plates.

It's not necessary to read the whole work. Simply reading the Table of Contents of Chapter X -- Tortures and Methods of Execution is sufficient:

Amir's iron rule--Hanging by hair and skinning alive--Beating to death with sticks--Cutting men in pieces--Throwing down mountain-side--Starving to death in cages--Boiling woman to soup and man drinking it before execution--Punishment by exposure and starvation--Scaffold scenes--Burying alive--Throwing into soap boilers--Cutting off hands--Blinding--Tying to bent trees and disrupting--Blowing from guns--Hanging, etc.

It's too bad that such rich cultural traditions have been (somewhat) replaced by oppressive Western methods of dealing with prisoners.

Sleeping in Interrogation Class

I must have missed the day they taught the slick interrogation technique in which the interrogators have sex with each other in front of the targets to break their will.

"Close your eyes and think of America."

It would certainly cause me to talk.

Abuse in Iraq -- Program Suggestion

Letter I just sent to CBS' 60 Minutes II:

Gentlemen:

Since you first showed the photos of prisoner abuse in Iraq, don't you
think you owe it to your audience to show the full video of the
beheading of Nick Berg?

This would establish your consistency and place the problems of our
current war in their proper context.

If you are concerned about "Program Standards and Practices" you could
at least makes it available on your website.

If neither you nor any other US media company chooses to show the full
video, we can infer that you wish to harm your country but not to harm
the enemies of your country.

Oh Boy! Yet another service that won't find my music.

Now how did I know that AT&T Wireless Services' new Music Recognition Service wouldn't help me.

I've grown accustomed to various CDDB services not identifying my CDs so here was yet another service that would not help me.

So I fired up Sparky and Rhonda Rucker's Battle Cry of Freedom from The Blue and Gray in Black and White and held the phone up to the speakers and, sure enough, immediately received a text message saying, "Sorry, we were unable to identity the song."

I then fired up New York Mining Disaster 1941 by the BeeGees. I immediately received a text message with the correct ID. Likewise Al-Di-La by Jerry Vale.

Unfortunately, I'm usually listening to less popular items.

New Justification for Men

You may recall some years ago that feminists calculated that a housewife's work was worth hundreds of thousands of dollars (if bought at market rates).

A Men's Rights activist group then retaliated by valuing men's domestic services higher (mostly based on the provision of all-night security guard services).

Well mod tech has given men a new household task they can justify their existence with -- network administrator. I spend increasing amounts of time keeping the home wireless network (and the computers attached to it) going. And the ladies of the house get very upset when outages occur.

I wonder what a 12-hours-a-day network administrator costs?

OP Book Search Engines

These are the two OP (Out-Of-Print) book metasearch engines that I use. FYI.

They include searches of most of the other online book services.

http://www.bookfinder.com/.

http://used.addall.com/.

John Forbes Kerry -- Draft Dodger

Citing His Vietnam Service, Kerry Assails Cheney, Rove
Neither Cheney nor Rove served in the military. Cheney received student deferments and later a deferment as a new father during the Vietnam War.

According to the Bush campaign, Rove drew the number 84 in the draft lottery when he graduated from high school in 1969 and received a student deferment upon enrolling at the University of Utah that fall. In the fall of 1971, after transferring to the University of Maryland, he was notified by his draft board in Salt Lake City that his student deferment had been revoked. Rove then was put into the extended priority status, which Schmidt said made him among the first eligible to be called in early 1972, but he was not called.

John Forbes Kerry and other Lefties have been attempting to make the student deferment the equivalent of "dodging the draft" and perhaps it was (though only for a limited period of time) but if so then John Forbes Kerry was also a draft dodger.

JFK (the current JFK) was an undergraduate at Yale from 1962 to 1966. In January 1966, he signed a "delayed entry" contract to join the Navy after graduation and the Summer. He entered the Navy late in August 1966.

But what was he doing from 1962 to the beginning of 1966. He hasn't said but it's obvious that he was a II-S during that entire period.

He was thus -- by the modern standard -- a (temporary) draft dodger.

Of course those who weren't there forget that the student deferment was just that -- a deferment. Draft eligibility ended at 26 in that era but if you took a II-S, your eligibility was extended to 28 or 35.

Ski resorts must return 5 howitzers to the Army

You know we're a bit short of military equipment when Ski resorts must return 5 howitzers to the Army.

Avalanche duty ends with a return to war

Wednesday, April 28, 2004

Associated Press

RENO, Nev. -- The U.S. military is demanding the return of five howitzers that two Sierra Nevada ski resorts use to prevent avalanches, saying it needs the guns for the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Alpine Meadows and Mammoth Mountain received the artillery pieces on loan from the Army and began using them last year to fire rounds into mountainsides and knock snow loose.

Many additional questions are raised by this story. Why is the Army out of howitzers? Why are the Feds subsidizing ski resorts? Shouldn't they be buying their own artillery? I had always heard gun control advocates say (of semiauto rifles) that, "Civilians have no legitimate need for these weapons of war". I guess they were wrong. Do most Americans realize that private possession of firearms regulated by the Federal Firearms Act of 1938 (barrel<16' or 18', bore >0.5", full-auto, etc.) is legal in most states if you file the paperwork and pay the tax?

Do the resorts have to pay the Federal Transfer Tax (circa $200/round) on the ammunition like the rest of us would or are they exempt? Where do they get the howitzer rounds from? If attacked by ecoterrorists, can resorts defend themselves with artillery?

Howitzers are short-barreled cannons that typically are pulled by a vehicle. They fire three to 10 rounds a minute at a range of about five to 10 miles. Replacing a 119-A -- the type used at the resorts -- would cost around $1 million, Bowen said yesterday.

Howitzers were originally developed to lob rounds over the walls of fortified cities so they would seem to be ideal for operations in mountainous terrain.

The Forest Service said it is working to secure older howitzers for the ski resorts, and the Army's Bowen said he is optimistic that will happen.

Nice to hear that they won't be disarmed for the duration.

Alpine Meadows and Mammoth Mountain are the only ski resorts in the nation using the 119-A howitzer, the most modern model available, said Bob Moore, a U.S. Forest Service specialist in Truckee, Calif. Other resorts have older 105 mm howitzers.

Pam Murphy, senior vice president at Mammoth Mountain just east of Yosemite National Park, said the military has provided the ski resort with recoilless rifles and other guns for avalanche control for 30 years. The howitzers are the most effective, Murphy said.

No kidding! But who knew that this "weapons welfare" program has been going on for so long.

Preempting Iraq

Randy Barnett writes:
"I generally concur with this writer--especially in his assertion that there is a divide between those who think we have been in a state of war since 9/11 and those who do not think we have been at war since then--but I still think that, in this media age, when asserting a controversial doctrine of preemption--which is necessarily based on intelligence of present capability and future intentions--when the capability turns out not to be as predicted, the President or someone in his administration should make some effort to explain why everyone was fooled by the intelligence. "

The Admin has stated that Iraq is not an application of the new Doctrine of Preemption and that would seem to be logically correct.

The US had been in a state of war with Iraq since at least January 1991. They attacked Iraq forces to free Kuwait with the authorization of the UN Security Council, the Politburo of the then Soviet Union, and even the United States Senate. A few months later, the US signed a ceasefire with Iraqi forces, and a few months after that, Iraq violated the ceasefire. Violations continued for 12 years and at any time the US was free to resume hostilities. No preemption.

World War IV Victory Conditions

My cubicle mate (a person of the female persuasion) recently asked me the quite reasonable question, "How will we know we've won the war?" (by which she meant our current religious conflict).

I said, "Wait 40 years, look in the mirror, see if you're wearing a Burka."

Young People Who Don't Drink "Because It's Illegal"

Jonah Goldberg encounters 'youths' who don't drink alcohol because they think it's illegal.
Anyway, while I was imbibing my beverage(s) along with the few young scholars of legal drinking age, a couple of the guys brought an interesting cultural development to my attention. Several of the young squires under the age of 21 informed me that they don't drink because it is against the law. One very bright fellow in particular assured me that when he's 21 he will avail himself of legal inebriants, but until that time he did his very best to eschew the demon rum (and scotch and beer etc). He also assured me that he was not alone in this attitudinal forbearance of illegal imbibition.

I'm shocked by the lack of education shown by today's youngsters. Most of them think that it's illegal for them to drink but the truth is that it's not.

If you carefully read the liquor laws of even so totalitarian state as Massachusetts, you'll find plenty of loopholes.

It is generally illegal for those under 21 to purchase or publicly possess booze in Massachusetts. It is also illegal to "furnish" booze to those under the age of 21 (unless you are the parent, grandparent, or spouse) of the under-age person.

But then the exceptions:

For example it is (or probably is) legal for a person under the age of 21 to drink:

* Booze supplied by his parents, grandparents, guardian, or spouse at home (and in some cases in public).
* Booze manufactured at home by the minor.
* Booze consumed publicly as part of religious ceremonies (ie Communion under both species).
* Booze inherited by a minor that is located in his home.
* Booze sent to a minor by a third party in another state without the minor having requested it. (Perhaps as a political protest against liquor laws).
* Booze purchased (and consumed) by a minor in other countries with lower drinking ages.

The above list is not definitive. Generally, then, as long as the minor finds some way of being at home with booze (without ordering it himself) he can legally drink it. It is not the drinking that is restricted, it is the acquisition and public possession.

Now the State has thrown various barriers in the way of a minor drinking booze but that is just challenge for the dedicated.

Why Mods Have Difficulties Forming Relationships

Because they think that this is a Romance Collection.

Queen Mary 2's First Arrival in NYC

The QM2 in New York Harbor

Circa 0700 hours this AM at Liberty State Park in Jersey City, NJ (formerly the terminal of the Central Railroad of New Jersey).

The haze was natural and not a camera artifact. The Queen Mary 2 is (for now) the world's largest passenger liner.

More photos of this morning's arrival can be seen here.

Unitentional BBC Humor from the Front

The BBC News 24 Live News Summary of this hostage story from Iraq contains the immortal line:

Gary Teeley -- a 37-year-old laundry industry consultant -- was freed with the help of Italian Special Forces.

Punishments of students and teachers for violently themed literature

The Volokh Conspiracy reports:
The quiet freshman from Seattle who sat in the back row had submitted a disturbing short story, a fictitious first-person account of a young serial killer. The story was so rife with gruesome details about sexual torture, dismemberment and bloodlust that the teacher [Jan Richman] panicked, wondering what to do now that she had already handed out copies to her class to take home and read....

After a brief interrogation in his dormitory, the student, who did not respond to The Chronicle's requests for comment, was put on a plane and sent home to his family. The next day, according to Richman, the young man's parents called the university, alleging that their son had been encouraged to write about violence after reading a short story assigned in Richman's Narrative Storytelling class. . . .

The story was "Girl With Curious Hair," the title piece of a 1988 collection by David Foster Wallace, author of "Infinite Jest," one of the most widely acclaimed novel of the 1990s. "Girl With Curious Hair" features a character called Sick Puppy, a yuppie who hangs out with a crowd of punk rockers for cheap thrills. One of the young women lets him extinguish matches on her skin....

[The administration then] sent an e-mail informing Richman that Rowley would not rehire her for the new semester. . . .

Instead of punishment, why don't institutions simply restore their teacher's traditional prerogatives of free comment. A statement like, "Young man, you are one sick puppy" might serve to guide wayward youth onto the right path.

Missing from the UC Berkeley History Page

Is there some hidden reason that Cal Berkeley's History Page neglects to mention who the University (and the City) were named after?

Why are REs Renouncing US Citizenship?

I finally updated my Official Taxpatriates Page. The IRS is a few Quarters behind (as usual) in its listings of those Americans who have renounced their citizenship.

But that's not the story.

The interesting story is that a small number of REs (Reinsurance Companies) have been appearing on these lists:

2Q 2000
RBC Reinsurance Ltd.

1Q 2003
ING Re

2Q 2003
Imagine International Reinsurance Ltd.

Why are these REs renouncing a US citizenship that they presumably never had in the first place and why are they appearing on this list which, according to the statute, would seem to be restricted to individuals? And why REs? Why not other entities?

I have no idea.

An Illegal Alien for 80 Years

Citizen Finnerty, or so she thought

For 80 years, if there was one thing Catherine Finnerty was sure of, one part of her identity there was never any question about, it was the fact that she is an American.

She paid taxes, married a U.S. serviceman and watched him go off to fight in World War II. Her front lawn in Hazlet sports tiny American flags, and a larger flag is draped across the front of her house. Each night, she takes out her rosary beads and prays for the troops overseas.

"I'm an American through and through," she said.

Or so she thought.

Last September, eight decades after she arrived in this country as a newborn in the arms of her Irish immigrant mother, Finnerty was stunned to learn she may not be a U.S. citizen after all.

She was "caught" when she applied for federally subsidized senior housing. Oops!

This is not an unusual story. My wife and I helped a woman establish her mother's citizenship in the same circumstances. A lot of Irish babes in arms entered the country in the 1930s and were accidentally not listed on their parents citizenship petitions because it wasn't seen as vital.

Until she applied for HUD housing, she had never been asked.

When her brother enlisted in the Navy and went off to fight in World War II, no one said he wasn't a citizen. When Finnerty registered to vote and went to the polls each year for decades, it never came up. When she applied for Social Security benefits in 1985, she was accepted, without hesitation.

It wasn't until this past spring, when she applied for an apartment at Bethany Towers, a federally subsidized senior citizen housing complex in Keyport, that HUD denied her application for lack of legal residency.

So watch out. If you're an illegal alien, don't apply for federal subsidies. If you're not positive you're legal -- don't apply for federal subsidies.

Video of Rush Limbaugh's Hearing before Florida Appeals Court

Fans of state appellate court practice (and/or Rush Limbaugh) can see streaming video of a full hearing from Florida's 4th District Court of Appeal on Rush's petition to quash a search warrant for his medical records.

The above link is on this page of Rush Limbaugh's site which has a great deal of other video, audio, and transcripts related to his case.

The site is a fabulous demonstration of the power of litigants/defendants to publicize their own case arguments in the modern era.

Personal Religious Beliefs

The Roman Candidate:

Kerry has said that, as an elected official, he must separate his personal religious views from his actions as a legislator and that it is not "appropriate in the United States for a legislator to legislate personal religious beliefs for the rest of the country."

But, I assume, it is OK for a communist legislator to legislate his personal communist beliefs for the rest of the country?

Why don't faithless Catholic politicians simply say that they are imposing their beliefs on us but that those beliefs are not the beliefs of their church; that (in fact) they don't share most of the beliefs of their church; and that they only maintain the pretense of faith for crass political advantage.

How Commie are You?

With all the Libertarian Purity Test action in the blogosphere, I thought that someone should give you a chance to figure out how Commie you are. Here's an easy self-scoring test straight from the Communist Manifesto. There are 10 statements. Count how many you agree with. If you agree with 1 you're 10% Commie if you agree with all 10 you're ready to teach at Berkeley. [Note: Cal Berkeley's History Page doesn't inform the readers who the University and City were named after. I wonder why?]

Here goes:

1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.

2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.

3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.

4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.

5. Centralization of credit in the banks of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.

6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the state.

7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.

8. Equal obligation of all to work. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.

9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of all the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the populace over the country.

10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, etc.

Girls, Gays, and the Godless

The Boy Scouts have been permitted to discriminate against the 3 G's in their membership requirements but some think that they should not exercise this discretion.

So Eugene Volokh and Mark Kleinman both have blog posts on the topic of Should the Boy Scouts discriminate against the godless. (See here and here.)

The basic argument is that the Scouts have a constitutional right to discriminate against atheists but shouldn't because religious discrimination is bad. As Prof. Volokh put it: "If the Scouts excluded Catholics -- everyone else, Jewish, Protestant, or what have you is fine, but not Catholics -- we'd rightly condemn them..." And Mr. Kleinman made the same argument at greater length.

There are several possible responses to this argument including such throw away lines as "Harvard discriminates against Catholics without being denounced for it; so the practice is not universally condemned." (The % of Catholics at Harvard is much lower than the general pop.) But that would be too easy.

The real argument being made is that discrimination (of some types) is "bad" and that argument should be addressed directly.

The truth is that "discrimination" is normal behavior for primates like us. Primates normally form "troops" (Scout Troops?) and violently exclude non-troop members that they encounter.

Now my misspent youth consisted of being excluded from various "affinity groups" because I was a Haole, fat, unathletic, and uncool. I suffered because of my exclusion. I never considered wheeling on into federal court to sue the asses my fellow students who were discriminating against me. Luckily for them, I support the right to discriminate. When I picked my wife, I discriminated on the basis of race, creed, color, ethnicity, political philosophy, education, and intelligence as well as other factors I can't even specify.

But we don't even have to go that far in this case. There is a good reason for an organization like the Boy Scouts to discriminate against the three G's (girls, gays, and the godless). [They allow gay male scouts but not leaders.] The American Boy Scouts have tried to remain slightly closer to the founding principles of the Scouting movement than the rest of the politically correct bunch have. There's nothing wrong with a little institutional differentiation:

On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my Country and obey the Scout Law; To help other people at all times; To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.

Proud, Commie, and Port Huron

Port Huron Statement - Students for a Democratic Society
Apparently, the Revolution will be Copyrighted.

This text, made available by the Sixties Project, is copyright (c) 1993 by the Author or by Viet Nam Generation, Inc., all rights reserved. This text may be used, printed, and archived in accordance with the Fair Use provisions of U.S. Copyright law. This text may not be archived, printed, or redistributed in any form for a fee, without the consent of the copyright holder. This notice must accompany any redistribution of the text. The Sixties Project, sponsored by Viet Nam Generation Inc. and the Institute of Advanced Technology in the Humanities at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, is a collective of humanities scholars working together on the Internet to use electronic resources to provide routes of collaboration and make available primary and secondary sources for researchers, students, teachers, writers and librarians interested in the 1960s.

So the founding document of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) is copyrighted? Presumably just this representation.

But the Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) did it first in 1960 and it's not copyrighted.

Lawful Uses of Publishing SS Numbers

Professor Volokh suggests on Page 114 of the draft of his law review article on the
topic of Crime Facilitating Speech that publishing SS numbers might be banned because such publication has virtually no lawful value:

Some public speech conveys information that’s usable only, or nearly only, for
criminal purposes (see Part IV.A.2.b). There are only a few sorts of such information:
The best examples are people’s social security numbers and computer system
passwords. This information is not materially relevant to any political or scientific
debates, or to people’s making decisions about their daily lives; it even lacks value as
entertainment.

I can suggest a few:

Lawful Uses of Publishing SS Numbers.

We know that there are lawful uses of publishing Social Security Numbers
(SSN's) because the Federal Government and other institutions used to do
it regularly.

*  SSN's were published on the mailing label of all blank tax returns
mailed to taxpayers from the start of computer generated mailing labels
at the IRS until a few years ago.

*  SSN's (in the form of Military ID numbers) were published in the
Congressional Record for many years as a part of lists of military
officers (who have to be commissioned by Congressional action).

*  SSN's were published by the SEC in the 10K filings (and many other
filings) of corporations on listings of corporate officers and major
shareholders of those corporations.

*  SSN's were routinely published in court filings, DMV records and
other public records.

*  SSN's were routinely published by educational institutions on public
lists of grades or class members (back when such lists were published).

*  The Social Security Administration publishes the SSN's of the dead --
see for example my father's.

In all of these cases the SSN was used as a unique identifier (which is
a valuable use).

It is technically incorrect to compare an SSN to a password.  An SSN is
an Account Name or Username -- not a password.  It is like the "volokh"
in volokh@law.ucla.edu not like the password one uses.

We note that account numbers or usernames are frequently published to
others.  Thus my bank account number is on all my checks and my many
usernames are on all my e-mails.  I have on my desk a book full of a
particular kind of "account number" of members of the general public
published by Verizon.

Knowing someone's unique identifier or account number does not give one
access to their account.  A further security failure is necessary.

Note that most of the SSN publishing on the Net was done as a form of
political protest (which may be of value).  The publishers were
protesting the misuse of an account number as a "password" and the
oppression of people numbering and the security failures of the design
of the financial and credit systems which made identity theft easy.

Possible Terror Attack Risk

Doesn't this article -- Spousal Benefits for Gays at U.N. Challenged -- suggest another reason we might have to eliminate gay marriage and partner benefits?

A U.N. bulletin outlining Annan's new policy says: "A marriage recognized as valid under the law of the country of nationality of a staff member will qualify that staff member to receive the entitlements provided for eligible family members." It also asserts that "a legally recognized domestic partnership" will qualify U.N. staffers for similar benefits.

The United Nations has recognized polygamy, a common practice in the Islamic world, as a legitimate form of marriage and permits employees to divide their benefits among more than one wife. But the decision to expand that right to same-sex partners has fueled intense opposition.

Iran's representative, Alireza Tootoonchian, speaking on behalf of the 56-member Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), said there was "no justifiable basis" for awarding benefits to same-sex couples. He demanded that the United Nations clarify its position in writing and suggested that a compromise be hammered out among the 191 members of the U.N. General Assembly. The OIC is "seriously concerned about extending the scope of the family definition for the purposes of entitlements," he said.

Wouldn't such actions upset Al Quida? I mean, if we're supposed to surrender to these people, to find out what upsets them, and to change our policies to conform to their desires then I guess we'll just have to give up this whole gay marriage thing. We wouldn't want to upset them would we?

$270/hour worth of luxury

The hospital was run down. The city was a working-class city in the Northeast. The patient was there for 6 days. He paid one visit to Radiology. He was not receiving IV fluids. He had a few blood tests. He was given Tylenol and iron pills. The stay was over a holiday weekend and he saw few doctors. The power failed on the floor for 2 hours. He acted as his own Case Manager to remind the nurses to take blood, tell a doctor that a biopsy had been cancelled, and get the specialists together to agree to OK his release. The bill totaled $270/hour.

Why I became an Engineer

Not me but my native informant.

Some years ago, when I was building nukes (the power plant; not the bomb) I worked with an older engineer who told me the story of how he came to practice his profession.

After The Big One -- WW2 he was working road construction in Oklahoma. In that less advanced era there was still a lot of manual work involved and one day he found himself spreading asphalt in temperatures that rose above 100 degrees F. Long about noon, a big car pulled up to the worksite. It attracted the crew's attention because its windows were closed which said only one thing -- this was one of the very rare cars in that era equipped (at vast expense) with auto air conditioning. Out of the vehicle stepped some civil engineers who spent a few minutes looking at the progress of the job. Then one of the group remarked, "That's enough, let's go to lunch." They got back into the car and drove away.

At the end of the day, my friend told the foreman that he was quitting to go to engineering school.

Mel's Milllion Stories

HERE COME THE MEL'S MILLION STORIES [Tim Graham]
The Washington Post reports today that Gibson could make hundreds of millions off 'The Passion.' The story has also been promoted as a feature of Thursday's 'Entertainment Tonight.'

PS: The Post adds Gibson told ABC Radio that there were several 'R-rated' Old Testament stories that 'fired his imagination,' most notably the tale of the Maccabees, who overthrew an idol-worshiping Syrian king in 164 B.C. 'They stood up for their beliefs and made war and came out winning,' Gibson said. 'It's like a western, you know.' "

Of course this wasn't said to "ABC Radio" but to talk radio host Sean Hannity in this long interview posted on Sean's website. Start at about 27:00 minutes if you want to find the money quotes.

On Hearing that Spain Has Capitulated to the Terrorists

Classical verse on World War IV.

First read Frederick Turner's original here at Tech Central Station.

Then if you're interested in the author's many references to Spain's millennium of war with Islam, read my annotated version of the poem here.

All annotations are my responsibility.

Ted Turner is an MCP

Just ask the little woman:

Fonda, 66, said she had had to take a back seat in each of her three marriages.

"Behind the closed doors of my marriage, I would give up all my power. I would silence my own voice to be accepted," she said.

"My whole life was about pleasing my man."

Fonda's last marriage was to Ted Turner, the billionaire media mogul who set up satellite TV service CNN. They married in 1991 but divorced 10 years later.

What Martha Should Teach You

Poor Martha! She didn't know that Title 18 USC 1001 makes it a crime to lie to "Federal Investigators". But her sad experience has a great deal to teach the rest of us:

1) Don't lie to federal investigators. Sure they can (and in many cases are professionally required to) lie to you but since they are your social superiors, you can't return the favor. You are not even allowed to merely say you didn't do it. In Brogan v. US, the defendant falsely answered "no" when federal agents asked him whether he had received any cash or gifts from a company whose employees were represented by the union in which he was an officer. He was indicted on federal bribery charges and for making a false statement within the jurisdiction of a federal agency in violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1001. A jury in the District Court found him guilty. The Second Circuit affirmed categorically rejecting his request to adopt the so-called "exculpatory no" doctrine, which excludes from Sec. 1001's scope false statements that consist of the mere denial of wrongdoing. The Supremes upheld his conviction. So one simple no is enough to send you to the Big House.

By the way, even if you didn't lie but the jury thinks you did, you can go down so keep the next point in mind:

2) Don't talk to federal investigators. Since one word can hang you, you shouldn't have any words with federal investigators. And this advice applies whether you're the target of an investigation or just a witness. As Martha now knows, innocence of the offense you're lying about is not enough to get you off on charges of lying to federal investigators. So if you happen to go to your newsstand tomorrow and buy a paper from the new owner who you recognize as Osama, don't tell the Fibbies. You're not required to and any communication with them opens you up to 1001 liability.

Unfortunately, federal investigators have been known to make errors in their questioning of witnesses and targets so:

3) Don't be alone with federal investigators. Most interrogations are not recorded and investigator's notes can contain errors. So you should try and avoid spending any time alone (or much time at all) in the presence of federal investigators. Just say "I have nothing to say" (oops, that may be a lie!) and leave.

But it's not just federal investigators:

4) Don't talk to or spend time with any federal employee. Any lie to a federal employee can be punished under Sec 1001:

Except as otherwise provided in this section, whoever, in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the Government of the United States, knowingly and willfully -

(1) falsifies, conceals, or covers up by any trick, scheme, or device a material fact;

(2) makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation; or

(3) makes or uses any false writing or document knowing the same to contain any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry;

shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.

And as we all know, any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the Government of the United States, covers a multitude of sins these days. So it's safer not to communicate with or be in the presence of any federal employee. Rough if you happen to be married to one.

The advice may seem extreme but broad criminal statutes often lead to perverse results. See for example Prof. Volokh's article Duties to Rescue and the Anticooperative Effects of Law discussing the effect of laws mandating the rescue of victims and the reporting of crimes on people's willingness to help others. He writes, When a law turns people into outlaws, even only modestly punishable ones, it naturally makes them less likely to cooperate with the legal system that is threatening to prosecute them, especially when their cooperation can alert the legal system to their misdeeds. This is an inevitable cost of using the threat of force to coerce people's conduct; while it may often have to be paid, it ought not be ignored, and for some laws, such as duty-to-rescue/report laws, it may be dispositive.

Martha's Jurors -- Were they paying attention?

ProfessorBainbridge.com: Yin spots a problem

One of the jurors in the Martha Stewart trial told reporters that the panel felt Stewart's background as a stockbroker played a part in the verdict and decided early on the second day of deliberations that she was guilty. "She should have known her moves were illegal," he said.

And yet another. At 0800 hours this morning the ABC Radio news carried a juror's comment along the lines of: it was obvious that she was guilty of perjury.

Now the difference between perjury (lying under oath) and a Title 18 USC 1001 violation may seem merely rhetorical but it's another example of jurors not paying attention to their instructions. Andrew Sullivan made (and corrected) the same mistake over the weekend. Likewise, the word perjury was repeated by a guest on the Bob Brinker "Money Talk" radio show hosted by Larry Kudlow. The guest (whose name escapes me) works for the Chicago tribune.

One major difference between perjury (one of Clinton's sins) and a 1001 violation is that the speaker has fair warning that she should tell the truth. The other difference is that oath breakers sin against God and can suffer the fires of eternal damnation for it. Slightly beyond the federal sentencing guidelines.

Now non-believers may not worry about such punishments but oath breaking was also considered the most serious crime that a man could commit under many traditional legal systems (a lot worse than mere murder). It's important to maintain the distinction.

Why do jurors (and commentators) have problems with details?

The Jet Set

Eugene Volokh writes: JETSETTING: I was just thinking about this word, and how much things have changed. Once upon a time, flying a lot on airplanes -- no, not just airplanes, but jets! -- was expensive and thus exclusive and glamorous; hence the word. Nowadays, being in the literal "jet set" is not something most of us would want . . . .

Just to put things in context.... My wife wanted to go to Europe in 1963. Pan Am's 707 service out of Idlewild (IDL) to London cost about $625 (one way). She went Third Class on the Queen Mary for $125 instead.

Datapoint on SSN Regulation

Those of you who might be concerned about the dedication of the US authorities in SSN enforcement will be happy to know that (so far) the IRS has ignored
26 US Code 6039E which provides for a $500 fine for those who decline to enter their TINs on their Passport Applications.

I know many people who've declined to include their SSNs/TINs on their passport apps and no one's been bothered. One good reason to do so -- the Feds are supposed to yank the passports of those owing more than $5K in child support. Lack of an SSN makes it a little harder to match.

Somethings Trads can do about Marriage

Trads who are upset about Homosexual Marriage (or governments screwing up marriage in general) can actually take direct action to fight the problems. I can think of at least two steps they can take:

1) Refuse Civil Marriage. Unmarried Trads who plan to marry can have a religious wedding but refuse to apply for a marriage license and use their church wedding certificate as proof of marriage. Married Trads can obtain a civil divorce and continue to live as husband and wife. Most churches do not oppose divorce merely remarriage after divorce.

The opposition can hardly force Trads to marry and they can hardly refuse to recognize Trads religious marriages when they recognize a host of other much less formal relationships. Trads can call civil marriage "Queer Marriage" and their marriages "God's Marriage". This will serve to "personalize" their opposition to government action on marriage just as gay weddings have "personalized" the other side.

Back in the 18th & 19th Centuries when the new Nation States were feeling their oats and taking over the Law of Domestic Relations from the churches (who had heretofore controlled it) it was predictable that they would screw it up. And they did. While established monopoly churches are not a good idea, there is nothing wrong with returning Dom Rel to such private institutions that compete freely. They can enforce their decrees with disfellowship and economic retaliation (job loss for example). That was Christ's preferred method of jurisprudence; see Matthew Chapter 18 verses 15-17.

2) Fun test cases can be run in Mass. and SF. Trad lawyers can find (unmarried) brothers and sisters, brothers and brothers, sisters and sisters, fathers and daughters, mothers and sons, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters and a host of other relationships on The Table of Kindred and Affinity and have them apply for marriage licenses. If granted -- publicize. If turned down -- sue.

Remember, it's not a sin to apply for a marriage license when the couple is within the prohibited relationships, it would merely be wrong to actually marry.

Automation killing jobs

With all the attacks on international trade as a job killer has anyone noticed something interesting?

For more than 200 years, agoraphobics have argued that technological advances will kill jobs. As late as the '60s or '70s of the last century this whine was still being heard.

So where are we now. The last 20 years have featured the fastest technological advance in human history and the US workforce has increased dramatically in size. Oops!

Subpoenas for Antiwar Protesters

Judge: School must tell feds about war protest
DES MOINES, Iowa - In what may be the first subpoena of its kind in decades, a federal judge has ordered Drake University to turn over records about a gathering of antiwar activists.

In addition to the subpoena of Drake, subpoenas were served last week on four of the activists who attended a Nov. 15 forum at the school, ordering them to appear before a grand jury Tuesday, the protesters said.

I've wondered how subpoenas work in the modern era. A subpoena is an order to show up at a particular place and time (usually a courthouse). But the modern high security era raises a possible defense of impossibility to such orders.

If one happens not to possess any photo ID, one can't enter any public buildings (including courthouses). If one has never obtained or destroyed photo IDs and the precursor documents used to obtain them, it is possible that you will not be able to obtain such ID.

I guess you could contact the party ordering you to show up, inform them of the problem, and ask them to solve it. They might have to escort you into the building.

Of course since you won't have ID to show them, they might not have any way of knowing it's you.

Hayek on gay marriage

Virginia Postrel in the Boston Globe -- Hayek on gay marriage
The real Hayekian question is not "WWFD?" (What Would Friedrich Do?) but when and how social institutions should change, and when and how the law should reflect that evolution. In a 1996 article in Reason (I was editor of the magazine at the time), Gillespie pointed to employers' recognition of domestic partnership benefits as an example of Hayekian evolution. State and local policies, as well as competing religious standards, offer similar models of decentralized experimentation and discovery.

I didn't realize that "State and local [government] policies" were an aspect of libertarian decentralized experimentation and discovery. I thought that voluntary interactions alone constituted libertarian decentralized experimentation and discovery.

State seizure of the law of domestic relations from the church was part of the unfortunate power grabs by that institution during the 18th and 19th centuries. The law of domestic relations should be under private control -- since it covers the most private (intimate) aspects of human existence.

Cubicle Culture Not Created Equal

I gather that those of you who are less than about 1.9 m tall have a different experience working in the cubicle farms of the Modern World. You can't see over the walls and thus avoid the claustrophobia involved, can you? I wonder how you stand it.

I've always found it very difficult to understand the world view of those who are shorter than I am.

USATODAY.com - Science panel urges universal U.S. health insurance by 2010

USATODAY.com - Science panel urges universal U.S. health insurance by 2010
One path to universality:

• Requiring individuals to obtain coverage and providing tax credits to help them pay for it.

I wonder how the enforcement mechanism would work on this one? Cops pulling you over and checking your health insurance card in addition to your driver's license and auto insurance card?

Avoiding bureaucracy by Shopping Around

Don't like privacy invading regulations -- go elsewhere.

Here's a heart-warming story from the Big City.

Recent graduate. First "real" job. Finds job on Monster, sends CV, gets interview, gets second interview, gets job. Small firm. Deals directly with owners. Hired based on CV and interview alone. No references, no transcript, no blood test, no urine test, no credit check, no criminal records check. Shows up for first day of work. Fills out W4 form (this is not Heaven.). No mention of I9 form. No ID check.

Print This Story and Give it to Your Daughters

Two Arrested in Woman's Fall From Balcony

KAANAPALI, Hawaii Jan. 14 — Two California men were arrested in the death of an 18-year-old New Jersey cheerleader whose naked body tumbled from the ninth floor balcony of a Maui hotel.

This is what happens to you if you run with a bad crowd. So watch it!

Jonah Goldberg on Doing Something About ...

In an interesting column about Bush's La Migra proposal (He's not upset about it) Jonah Goldberg of NRO has an aside about The Homosexual Question:

To me, it's actually a bit like the gay-marriage issue. Conservatives very often talk about homosexuality as if it were a problem coming down the pike rather than something that's been here for decades or centuries. If you start from the premise that, for the foreseeable future, gays aren't going anywhere -- that they are going to continue to do their thing, live their lives, form their relationships, go to their jobs, make their political demands your policy options -- legal or cultural -- become extremely limited. You may oppose gay marriage -- as I do -- but you still need to answer the question of what should be done about gays. Because saying nothing will only result in your having nothing to do with the answer. Same goes for saying they should just keep to themselves or disappear from the radar screen. You have to talk about things inside the realm of the possible.

I wonder why? As a member of a number of very small and very deviate social groups (see list to left in the frame of this Blog), I am not disturbed that there is no government policy to deal with those groups and, hence, with me. I'm damned glad. I would hate to be dealt with.

Government agencies do attempt to deal with me in only two aspects of my life -- as a motorist and as an international traveller*. I wish they would neglect me a bit more there, I do not enjoy the experience.

It must take a truly bizarre and twisted soul to actively seek out interaction of some kind with a coercive bureaucracy. There are many worse things than neglect.



*Spelling fans - That's my preferred British spelling.

Should you answer when Cops ask?

Here is a canned answer you can give when questioned by cops or anyone in (government) authority:

"Sorry, I'd like to help but if I answer you I could later be found liable for obstruction of justice whereas if I say nothing, I avoid all possible liability for obstruction of justice. I, therefore, choose to say nothing."

Unasked Question

We know what Sodomy is; but what is Gomorrhamy?

TRAC: IRS - New Findings on Tax Collection and IRS Criminal Enforcement

Good news from the invaluable Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse. TRAC: IRS - New Findings on Tax Collection and IRS Criminal Enforcement says:

Criminal enforcement of the nation's tax laws by the IRS has plummeted to an all time low, according to an analysis of very timely Justice Department data obtained by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC).

Tax prosecutions brought as a result of IRS investigations currently are running at about half of what they were only ten years ago. (See graph.) This sharp decline has continued at the same time that the nation has been swept by a flood of reports about corporate crime studded with such names as Enron, Arthur Anderson, WorldCom, Adelphi Communications and Health South.

The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse is the invaluable service which obtains actual Federal investigatory and litigation databases (sans target names) and makes them available to the public.

Not much action on the tax enforcement front.

Last Wounded (US) Veteran Of World War I Dies

Last Wounded Veteran Of World War I, Alfred Pugh, 108
Alfred Pugh, the last known combat wounded U.S. veteran of World War I, died Wednesday. He was 108.

Pugh, who often told visitors the key to a long life is “keep breathing,”joined the Army in 1917 and fought in France during World War I with the 77th Infantry Division. In 1918, he was wounded during the Meusse-Argonne offensive, one of the war’s bloodiest battles.

He spoke French and was used overseas as an interpreter until the battle in the Argonne forest, when he inhaled mustard gas that left him unconscious and with chronic laryngitis.

I guess that even weapons of mass destruction are not 100% effective! I wonder if he smoked as well?

Spelling on the Net

So when I was preparing my previous post on an anti-Catholic sculpture, I encountered the eternal spelling conflict. I spell a bishop's hat 'mitre' while Prof Volokh and Blogger's spell checker prefer 'miter'.

So I fire up the spell checker called Google. I Google mitre and get about 767,000 hits. I Google miter and get about 415,000 hits. I Google "bishop's mitre" and get about 1,560 hits. I Google "bishop's miter" and get about 741 hits.

The American Heritage dictionary (which I use for my modern dictionary) has the usual weasel words about mitre "Chiefly British -- Variant of miter." But then its entomology entry says:

Middle English mitre, from Old French, from Medieval Latin, from Latin mitra, headdress of the Jewish high priest, from Greek.]

This suggests that mitre is closer to the word origin.

The online Catholic Encyclopedia prefers mitre.

The OED likes mitre as well.

So I guess it's mitre for me.

Lawsuit over anti-Catholic sculpture

Prof Volokh points to a controversy regarding an allegedly anti-Catholic sculpture on a state college campus in Kansas. The statue is a bust of a slumped over bishop wearing a mitre resembling an (uncircumcised) penis.

[T]he caption says "The artist says, 'I was brought up Catholic. I remember being 7 and going into the dark confessional booth for the first time. I knelt down, and my face was only inches from the screen that separated me and the one who had the power to condemn me for my evil ways. I was scared to death, for on the other side of the screen was the persona you see before you.'"

I suggest that the artist is being a bit artistic with the truth. I seriously doubt that he ever had his confession heard by a bishop much less a bishop dressed in full bishop's regalia. It's just not done.

And unless he was born before 1950, I doubt that he's spent much time in confession. That sacrament has declined quite a bit since Vatican II. I suggest that the artist (like many today) is in rebellion against an image rather than an institution. Images of the Church, of Social Aristocracy, of WASP culture persist as objects of rebellion long after they have disappeared in reality.

If Mods admitted that there were no Standards to rebel against, they'd be forced to justify their acts on their own terms rather than referentially.

Illicit Drug Transaction in the Big City

I wandered into an independent pharmacy in the Big City, today, in search of relief for mild symptoms of rough throat. Among the items tendered for sale, I spotted (Original) Strepsils. Although at $7.95 the 24 lozenges were about twice as expensive as the Strepsils I usually bring back from the UK, they were here and this season has greatly diminished our smuggled supply so I took it up to the counter.

"Imported directly from the UK?" I asked the clerk. "No, they contain some unapproved antiseptics," she said. "We obtain them from another pharmacy."

As the official Strepsils site says: This site is intended for residents of the UK only.

Perhaps the "unapproved antiseptics" are why I've always found them more effective than US throat lozenges. Transaction completed.

Gender Discrimination at the NYT BR?

Boy, Girl, Boy by Cynthia Cotts: The New York Times Book Review overwhelmingly favors books and book reviews written by men, according to a new study from Brown University. Over the course of a year, the study reveals, 72 percent of all books reviewed in the NYTBR were written by men, and 66 percent of all reviews also carried a male byline....

As for the attention to male authors, he explained, "more books are written by men than by women".

Men write more books than women? Caplan and her co-author searched for evidence to support that claim, but found none. When asked for a source, McGrath did not reply.

Here's one. Just count the Amazon.com 100. I did this recently and got 73 men, 25 women, and 2 other (the World Almanac & a dictionary). Tracks the NYT percentages pretty well. Unless the NYT BR author population is dramatically different, I suggest no gender discrimination. This is just at the review level, of course -- publishers and book buyers may still be guilty of invidious discrimination.

Since book reviewers are almost always authors themselves, the numbers point to a lack of gender discrimination in the selection of reviewers as well.

They've finally gone too far...

The NYC smoking ban doesn't only ban smoking (or holding burning smoking materials) it even bans possession of ashtrays. See this article on Chris Hitchen's latest article in Vanity Fair.

Here's the New York City Smoke-Free Air Act (Chapter 5 of Title 17 of the New York City Administrative Code) on the topic:

§10-11 Ashtrays.

(a) Ashtrays offered for sale. Ashtrays shall not be used or provided for use in any smoke-free area. Ashtrays which are offered for sale in a smoke-free area other than a retail store shall be kept within a display case or in an area visible but not otherwise accessible to a customer (such as a shelf behind a cash register).

(b) Ashtrays in hotels and motels. Ashtrays are prohibited in all smoke-free areas of hotels and motels, except that ashtrays may be placed immediately adjacent to hotel and motel public entrances and elevators.

Where can I buy some plastic ashtrays to leave around?

Hawaii State Flag at Risk

High court will weigh Muslim's flag suit
Lower courts rejected religious argument
By JACK ELLIOTT JR.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

JACKSON - The U.S. Supreme Court will discuss Jan. 9 whether to hear arguments in a case in which a Muslim claimed the Confederate battle emblem in Mississippi's flag is actually a Christian symbol.

Lower federal courts had rejected John Ellis Briggs' argument that the Mississippi flag contains the St. Andrew's Cross and that the symbol represents state endorsement of a particular religion.

If this case succeeds, there goes the Hawaii State Flag since it definitely includes the Union Jack which definitely includes the crosses of St Patrick, St George, and St Andrew.

Thanks to SCOTUS Blog for the pointer.

Padilla vs Rumsfeld

Prof Volokh writes: The Court will agree with the dissenting judge, and hold both that the President had Congressional authorization here, and that Padilla was entitled to a civilian court hearing on whether he was indeed an enemy combatant.

Is this because he was arrested in the ZI (Zone of the Interior) instead of Afghanistan or Iraq?  Presumably you would not have required a status hearing for the 210,000 US citizens detained during the American Civil War (because they were Confederate Soldiers).   I assume that some of those POWs were arrested off the battlefield by civilians when attempting to escape and evade after a defeat.

The court seemed to establish a bright line between a foreign battlefield and ORD (where Padilla was arrested).  Is that bright line sustainable when 70%+ of the combat casualties suffered in this war were suffered in Zip Code 10048 one mile from where I'm sitting right now?  Isn't NYC a battlefield in this war?  And isn't the civilian air transportation system (including ORD) a battlefield?

Got.net narcing out its customers

On Mon, 8 Dec 2003, [the famous] Tim May wrote:

> It happened in one of the "movies" groups (rec.arts.current-movies),
> when the thread was on DVD copy protection and the (claimed) illegality
> of making DVDs of movies.
>
> I explained how I was cheerfully making an average of a DVD a day of my
> favorite current movies.
>
> A couple of "nyms" went ballistic and foamed that they had forwarded my
> "admissions" to the RIAA and how I would face civil penalties and jail
> time, oh my!
>
> Then one of them claimed he had arranged to have my account yanked, for
> "violation of the DMCA." He claimed he had sent copies of my "criminal"
> admissions to Got.net, to the RIAA, to "law enforcement" (shudder!),
> and so on.

I gather that the denizens of alt.video.dvd have yet to read the Betamax
case. Perhaps they should expand their reading before they opine on the
state of IP law.

This is one of several times that the readers of Tim's posts have reported
him to the authorities. I recall the Santa Cruz sheriffs's office call of
the early '90s occasioned by a simple admission that Tim legally possessed
weapons at home.

I'm constantly amazed by the things that people think are illegal that
aren't.

Reporting people to the authorities is such an impolite thing to do. In a
less enlightened era it would have led to an unfortunate breach of the
peace. If you have a problem with someone's behavior speak to him nicely,
first. And make damned sure that he's doing something wrong before you
complain.

Remember -- "Since Sodomy is a Virtue, can anything be a Vice?"

Leviticus and the Law

Jim Davila fisks David Klinghoffer's Beliefnet article on Leviticus and homosexuality.

What bothers me is his arguing for a political goal on the basis of assumptions many citizens of the polity don't share...

He seems to be saying that, not the whole Mosaic law, but specific parts of it that he has seized on (using poor and inconsistent exegesis even on his own terms - see above) are so important to God that if we don't follow them we can expect the downfall of our civilization: God will "disgorge" us. The implication is that Americans must make - or refrain from making - their laws on the basis of Klinghoffer's version of biblical morality and his beliefs about biblical authority or else they're doomed. The argument isn't internally consistent in the first place and it doesn't work for anyone who doesn't share his religious presuppositions. It amounts to wanting the state to make political decisions on the basis of a narrow interpretation of a particular scripture, which strikes me as a very bad idea.

Mr. Klinghoffer, if you want to convince anyone who doesn't share your starting assumptions, you need to try again.

One might wonder if Davila would make the same argument against Marxists or Republicans who base their political arguments on premises most people don't share or indeed anyone else. Aren't all arguments made from presuppositions everyone in the polity doesn't share or else there would be no argument.

As for the application of parts of Mosaic law and not others (no on sodomy, yes on eating unclean animals) this is long established Christian Theology. See for example Article 7 of the Anglican 39 Articles of Religion:
VII. Of the Old Testament.
THE Old Testament is not contrary to the New; for both in the Old and New Testament everlasting life is offered to mankind by Christ, who is the only Mediator between God and man, being both God and man. Wherefore there are not to be heard which feign that the old fathers did look only for transitory promises. Although the law given from God by Moses, as touching ceremonies and rites, do not bind Christian men, nor the civil precepts thereof ought of necessity to be received in any commonwealth; yet, notwithstanding, no Christian man whatsoever is free from the obedience of the commandments which are called moral.

Pretty standard stuff. As is Klinghoffer's belief that chunks of Jewish Ceremonial and Civil Law is in suspense pending the rebuilding of the temple. One cannot offer sacrifices in a building that doesn't exist.

Religious believers are just like everyone else. They get to use their beliefs for political arguments just like communists, environmentalists, or others.

And unless one spends a lot of time attacking almost everyone for making stupid arguments based on personal assumptions, to concentrate on religious believers suggests unwarranted discrimination. There is a thread of belief on the Left (which I don't know if Davila shares) holding that religious beliefs have little or no place in politics or governance. But they should actually be treated like any other beliefs.

"Historically driver's license prove(s) citizenship"

U.S. may have to rethink ID cards

By Shaun Waterman
UPI Homeland and National Security Editor
Published 12/1/2003 5:37 PM

WASHINGTON, Dec. 1 (UPI) -- A senior homeland security official said Monday that if states continue to issue driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants, the country will have to re-think the way licenses are used as de facto identity cards by government and the private sector.

"Historically, we've looked at it that (applicants for a driver's license) ought to be able to prove citizenship, because we've relied upon those driver's licenses," Homeland Security Administration Undersecretary for Border and Transportation Asa Hutchinson told reporters. "If the states are going to change the historical context and say they don't need citizenship ... then we have to change our whole reliance upon them."

I don't know what history Asa grew up in.  I remember a history in which licenses were issued in many states by AAA offices without proof of anything.  In which they were merely a form of taxation of drivers.  Then ID started to be required to prove age.  Citizenship was never an issue.  Then they started testing drivers for driving skills -- again, citizenship was not an issue.  Finally they started to require ID to get ID and some states required citizenship or legal residence.  I know for a fact that as recently as 20 years ago California didn't require citizenship for DLs since I helped an Iranian tourist get a license.  They wanted proof of age and identity.  Her passport worked fine.

The citizenship requirement (which has never been universal) is a recent innovation.  One cannot use tradition to justify it.  It is not a tradition.  It's merely another example (as with the SS#) of a system devised for one purpose (paying for highways) being mangled to serve another purpose (security).  And all because our rulers lack the courage to advocate internal passports.  They should be chicken of course because internal passports would be resisted.

'Gay' as a bad wurd

Eugene Volokh on school behavioral intervention for talking about homosexuality:
"Marcus decided to explain to another child in his group that his mom is gay. He told the other child that gay is when a girl likes a girl. This kind of discussion is not acceptable in my room. I feel that parents should explain things of this nature to their own children in their own way."

I think, though, that to fully understand this, you need to look at the forms themselves, which the ACLU has put up here and here. It's just shocking, seeing the words there, not just in the teacher's own writing, but worst of all in the poor little boy's own (obviously prompted by the teacher). They can think whatever they please about homosexuality -- but what kind of schoolteacher and assistant principal would take this out on a seven-year-old, for heaven's sake? Utterly shameful.

Now you know how a Southern Baptist child feels in a New York City public school. Lafayette is the "Capital of Acadiana" and full of Cajuns and Creoles who have their own "cultural heritage".

The incident is a good argument against government schools but doesn't prove much else.

America's government schools are much more likely to preach against and punish Christian children or conservative children than the children of homosexuals. Banning religious expression by children, teaching earth worship, promoting left-wing political letter writing by children, teaching left-wing economics goes on every day in schools throughout the US without causing much negative reaction.

Why is all of that worse than this?

Separation of Church and Times?

Good news for Christians -- He lives!

Today's New York Times confirms the Historicity of Jesus on the front page no less (registration required):

Jerusalem Holy Site a Tense Crossroads Again

By JAMES BENNET

...Known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, the holy site had been closed to non-Muslims since September 2000, when Ariel Sharon, then a candidate for the post of prime minister he now holds, paid a visit there in the company of hundreds of armed policemen.

That visit, and the riots that ensued, provided what Palestinians consider the provocation and Israelis consider the pretext for the Palestinians' uprising, the Aksa Intifada. It is named after the mosque on the 35-acre plaza, which is framed by imposing stone walls built by Herod the Great in the decades before Jesus walked there....

Fox Searchlight Pictures: Thirteen

So tell me. Does a photo of two young ladies showing their tounge studs
encourage movie patronage? I'm sure that their great dedication to
performing fellatio on men (to the extent of body modification) would be
interesting in a clinical setting; but would it in an entertainment setting?

http://www2.foxsearchlight.com/thirteen/

Religious Numerology

Has anyone noticed that the Alabama Ten Commandments monument weighs the
same number in pounds as there are feet in a mile -- 5,280 in both
cases. Does this mean anything?

Jury of One's Peers

Eugene Volokh on a Jury of One's Peers:
Jury of one's peers: One hears a lot about how people are entitled to "a jury of their peers," and how this-and-such trial is unfair because the jurors weren't really the defendant's peers in some significant way (race, class, or what have you). What does the law really say about the right to trial by jury of one's peers?

     Well, U.S. law actually uses this phrase pretty rarely -- it doesn't appear in the U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, or statutes -- and for good reason. In England, the phrase apparently referred to a right of nobles to be generally tried by nobles, and commoners by commoners.

Dan Klerman, who teaches law at USC and who is an expert on (among other things) English legal history, puts it this way, ":Basically everyone got jurors from the same pool, except members of the House of Lords ("peers"), who were tried by the House of Lords itself."

The concept does make for great drama in Dorothy L. Sayers' novel Clouds of Witness.  Here, her detective - Lord Peter Wimsey - defends his brother - The Duke of Denver - who has been accused of murder and faces a trial in the House of Lords.

TWIC Cards

MAXIMUS Awarded $3.8 Million Smart Card Project by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration

RESTON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 9, 2003--The U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has awarded MAXIMUS (NYSE:MMS) a five-month, $3.8 million contract to assist TSA in field testing various technologies that will lead to a common and universally-recognized Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) that could potentially be used by 12 million transportation workers at seaports, airports, and land transportation hubs.

Radicals Pleading Guilty

Glenn Reynolds on the Sherman Austin case:

You also see in this case the way in which threats of "terrorism" are allowing prosecutors to extract plea bargains in dubious cases. One consequence is that when the Justice Department gets a plea bargain, you can't automatically assume that it's proof the underlying case was especially good, just that the accused was afraid to roll the dice.

You can't protect cowardly radicals from pleading. This happens a lot in political cases. See the case of Jim Bell or the case of Michael Milkin or the case of Bill Gates.

In these political cases, it's quite common for the defendants to plead and in some cases get longer sentences than they would have got with a straight conviction.

The "Right to Discriminate"

David Bernstein on The Volokh Conspiracy

Hmm. I don't know of anyone in the Federalist Society orbit who advocates a constitutional right to discriminate, as such. Richard Epstein advocates a constitutional right to liberty of contract, a right that would include the ability to discriminate, among many other things. Eugene has vigorously argued that much of the "harassment" part of antidiscrimination law conflicts with, and is a violation of, the First Amendment. And my forthcoming book (which I know Judge Calabresi has seen, and I hope got his attention), argues that the scope of antidiscrimination law must be limited so that it does not conflict with vigorous protection of the constitutional rights to freedom of speech, free exercise of religion, expressive association, and the right to petition government. But none of this is the same as supporting a "right to discriminate."

I don't know why Prof Bernstein is hiding the fact that libertarians believe that enactments such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 are major human rights violations. That's certainly what I argued back in 1964 during a 7th grade class debate. I think that those who look to the Constitution for validation of this view (rather than to Natural Law) could point to the 5th, 9th, 10th, & 14th Amendments; the Contracts Clause; and the principle of Substantive Due Process.

Indeed, since discrimination is a fundamental aspect of the application of human intelligence and that of the lesser creatures (this is food, that is danger); genuine outlawing of discrimination would be madness.

I must admit, for example, that I practiced many forms of invidious discrimination in the selection of my wife.

Federal Protections and Responsibilities

Sign the Petition || MillionforMarriage.org

There are more than 1,000 federal protections and responsibilities denied to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender couples because they cannot legally marry in this country.

Whoa! If there are that many federal protections and responsibilities the Feds have way too much power. They're mucking about with too many things they shouldn't be. Personally, I try and avoid as many federal protections and responsibilities as I possibly can.

The Gods of the Copybook Headings

In honor of the 74th General Convention of the Domestic and Foreign
Mission Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the USA:

The Gods of the Copybook Headings

by Rudyard Kipling

I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of
Mankind.

We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out
in Rome.

With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.

When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes
would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."

On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards
withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will bum,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return.

Unregulated Surgery

I'm shocked and appalled that the Feds are not protecting us from rogue surgeons.  From a New York Times feature on how to develop a new surgical procedure:

Surgeons who want to try something new have a great deal of leeway, because new operations, unlike new drugs, are not regulated by the government. As a result, many surgical techniques have simply been brought into practice by doctors who invented them, started using them and then taught them to colleagues.

Government Services

As an inveterate reader of the popular press, I understand that many
people approach public institutions and request services. I find this
hard to believe.

I approach public institutions rarely and resent most of those few
contacts which are forced in some fashion.

I suppose the Post Office is the only public institution I regularly
patronize.

Every four years, I apply for a driver's license (whether I need one or
not).

Every year I register my vehicles (whether they need it or not).

When I cross international borders, I chat with La Migra and Customs.

Every 10 years I renew my passport.

I drive on "public streets and roads" when that it the only way to get
somewhere.

I consciously avoid seeking out the services of peace officers, fire
fighters, and public hospitals.

I would no more send my child to a government school than I would mail
that child to California via Parcel Post.

That's about it.

So why do others feel the need to approach government with their begging
bowls out? I don't get it.

Seabiscuit

The Book

The Movie

The PBS Documentary

The Race (Seabiscuit vs War Admiral in Real Audio)

The Story of Seabiscuit, 1949 (starring Shirley Temple)

New Legal Argument

Since the Supremes have spoken on the topic of Sodomy, they have birthed a brand new legal argument.

In future conflicts over public policy, whether practical or theoretical, anyone who cares to will be able to say:

Well the Supremes have elevated [insert Anglo-Saxon phrase for anal intercourse here] to the status of a Constitutional right; so how can you possibly tell me that I can't do X?

Very convenient! The opposition will have to argue that X is more worthy of regulation than [insert Anglo-Saxon phrase for anal intercourse here]. Public interactions will become livlier.

Preview of The Order

Saw a preview of The Order last night.  Usual Vatican-centered conspiracy of rogue priests seeking world domination plot.  Behind the disguise of good hides the soul of evil.  Seen it all before.  I've got a hot plot idea for Hollywood.  How about a conspiracy  of Marxists to achieve world domination under the guise of helping the downtrodden.  Seems unlikely but stranger things have happened.

At that the preview was better than the feature The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.  Never see a film "based on the graphic novel by ...".  And when even the hoity toity Hollywood Reporter observes that the League "includes no gentlemen and one questionable lady" you know you've got trouble.

I don't like SF or Fantasy sans logic, plot, and respect for just a few physical laws.

DIA Beacon

The Volokh Conspiracy's Tyler Cowen on the new DIA museum in Beacon, New York.

Let's not argue about the art, the point is simpler than that. If a large number of intelligent viewers (listeners, etc.) find that the stuff moves them, in a deep and lasting way, doesn't it have to be good? If not objectively good (whatever that means), at least 'pluralistically or relativistically good enough not to be knocked down in objective terms' good.

Esthetics is, of course, a branch of philosophy.  There are a host of other philosophies out there.  One would not generally say, for example:

"Let's not argue about the politics, the point is simpler than that. If a large number of intelligent people find that Marxism moves them, in a deep and lasting way, doesn't it have to be good? If not objectively good (whatever that means), at least "pluralistically or relativistically good enough not to be knocked down in objective terms" good."

One still has to defend one's philosophical or esthetic choices straight up rather than simply counting noses.

I listened to the WNYC piece on the new museum and I thought that I might preder the aritechture to the art inside.  I'll have to see.

DCF

Wired News: Gaming the Safeway Club Card

Libertarians who have been concerned about those who provide false information to obtain shopper's discount cards (or swap the cards or barcodes after obtaining them) can relax.  At least as far as Safeway is concerned, there's no contractual breach.  A spokesman with apparent authority to bind the Corporation has informed us that Safeway doesn't mind how creative its card users get: 

http://wired.com/news/print/0,1294,59589,00.html

For its part, Safeway isn't concerned about Cockerham's project and shrugs off any Big Brother accusations. "It's an odd sort of prank with not any significant impact at all on the operation of our card business," says Safeway spokesman Brian Dowling. "We work hard to protect the privacy of our customers, and don't believe there is any sound rationale behind what (Cockerham's) doing. But he can do whatever he wants."

One can assume (in the absence of contrary evidence) that other companies share the same attitude towards their customers.  So I don't want to hear any more lectures about how we have to provide truthful info on card applications or forgo the discounts.

Airlines use Soundex to match passengers with terrorists

The SF Chronicle reports that airline res systems use an ancient name indexing system that guarantees masses of false positives.

No-fly list ensnares innocent travelers

"SORTED BY SOUNDS

Many airlines rely on name-searching software derived from "Soundex," a 120- year-old indexing system first used in the 1880 U.S. census. It was designed to help census clerks quickly index and retrieve sound-alike surnames with different spellings -- like "Rogers" and "Rodgers" or "Somers" and "Summers" -- that would be scattered in an alphabetical list.

Soundex gives each name a key using its first letter and dropping the vowels and giving number codes to similar-sounding vowels (like "S" and "C"). The system gives the same code, L350, for "Laden" and all similar-sounding names: Lydon, Lawton, and Leedham."

Soundex is well known these days to genealogical hobbyists. Here is an article laying out the Soundex coding scheme:

"Every soundex code consists of a letter and three numbers, such as W-252. The letter is always the first letter of the surname. "

The Soundex code for my last name is F-624.

Here is an automatic Soundex calculator.

It was a great system when one had to index long lists of names by hand. It was designed to group large sets of names together to reduce workload. It's madness to use it in a modern computer system to check for matches with the names of terrorists.

Public Employee Productivity

Star Search

But JDAMs weren't the brainchild of crack scientists toiling in some defense contractor's generously funded skunk works. The person most responsible for their development was a 57-year-old Department of Defense program manager named Terry Little. ..Smart bombs, it turns out, require smart people.

Course if the Feds would let all of us play with explosives, maybe we too could come up with more efficient ways to kill people. For free. Open Source munitions anyone?

Down with Love

Boy, it's sure easier to make a 50's/60's sex comedy set in Manhattan since the WTC was removed from the skyline.

Thinking about the liquidity trap

Worried about that old Devil Liquidity Trap? Want to stimulate the economy without cutting taxes, increasing spending, or cutting interest rates? There is a 4th way. And best of all it's free.

Radical Derugulation. If you want more economic activity, just stop outlawing it. Every reg from NYCs rent control, to every town's taxi monopoly, to land use controls acts to outlaw some economic activities. With the regs in place, some economic activity that would otherwise have happened won't. You want more economic activity -- then legaliz it.