View 737 Thursday, August 16, 2012

The silly season continues. Biden is having lunch with the President as I write this. Biden will now demand Romney’s tax return. In exchange he’ll bring the chains, but he’ll pronounce Romney clean and articulate. Or clean anyway.

There are long lines of dreamy applicants for exemptions from the immigration laws. The exemptions are given in a Presidential Rescript, which apparently has the force of law. For three years he sent no immigration reform law to Congress – including during the two years when his party had majorities in both houses – and now he has issued a rescript proclaiming the prerogative of suspending the law, but which will expire if he is not reelected. At which point the undocumented will have filed documents admitting their illegal status – and that of those who brought them here. And many lawyers will be employed.

I am willing to entertain the notion of a “Dream Act.” I would certainly support a law that says that anyone who serves 8 years in the US military and leaves with an honorable discharge should be eligible to apply for citizenship. I can think of other such obvious qualifications. But these are legislative mattes, not Executive perks to be delivered by imperial rescript.

Khan academy has a new computer science introduction series. http://www.khanacademy.org/ My experience with Kahn Academy is that they have about the best introductory courses in the world, and even if you are enrolled (at enormous cost) in an accredited credentialing so called institute of higher education, you will probably learn and understand more if you take the Kahn Academy approach in addition to what your expensive credentialing outfit teaches. Of course a few institutions of higher learning have actual professors teaching introductory courses, rather than frantic graduate students who may or may not speak comprehensible English, and it is possible that you’ll learn more from them than from Kahn. When I was at the University of Iowa back in the stone age they had some of the best teachers in America doing introductory lessons, and the History of Western Civilization introduction lectures – a required course for all freshmen – by George Mosse were a life changing experience. It is still possible for US institutions of higher learning to do good education. Mostly they are so busy raising their fees and spending money that they haven’t time or attention to spare for teaching, but there are some exceptions; and of course they have a monopoly on credentialing. The Kahn Academy lectures are one form of insurance against wasting all your college education time and money on buying a credential without much understanding. And of course there are other excellent lectures and courses available on line for serious students.

The government continues to pump money into the ‘institutions of higher learning’ and of course they continue to take the money, take in more people, and make accommodations for the increased load and staff and reduced quality of students. Like many US institutions they are addicted to ‘growth’ over quality and consistency – and since they have ‘accreditation’ and thus a monopoly on selling credentials needed for survival, they get away with overpriced inferior products that saddle the middle class with life long debts.

If the goal is to learn a subject, the means for learning are increasingly available for free. Once you know the subject, you can shop for a credentials, determining what you think you should pay for certification of what you know.

The United States of America cannot try the US Army officer literally caught with a smoking gun after killing his comrades at Fort Hood. So far have we come.

Nearly three years after being called the triggerman behind the worst shooting ever on a U.S. military post, Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan filed a statement with the court Wednesday saying he was guilty.

Wearing a scruffy beard that has prompted the judge to fine him five times, Hasan entered a motion stating that he wished to plead guilty for religious reasons.

The defense submitted a written motion that the judge, Col. Gregory Gross, quickly denied. Gross, who is barred by military law from accepting a guilty plea in capital cases, said he’d enter a not-guilty plea instead.

Before arguments could be made from both sides on that, a military appeals court intervened, delaying proceedings while it resolves a dispute over Hasan’s beard. The court-martial was to start Monday.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/military/article/Hasan-tries-to-plead-guilty-in-Fort-Hood-massacre-3791152.php

And of course he can’t be tried until the beard question is settled.

The trial for a US army psychiatrist charged in the deadly Fort Hood shooting has been put on hold while an appeals court considers his objections to being forcibly shaved.

All court proceedings for Major Nidal Hasan were put on hold on Wednesday (local time). He had been scheduled to enter a plea.

According to a defence motion, Hasan indicated he wanted to plead guilty for religious reasons. Hasan is an American-born Muslim.

But the judge, Colonel Gregory Gross, said he could not accept a guilty plea on the 13 charges of premeditated murder.

The trial that was to start Monday will be on hold until the army appeals court rules on Hasan’s objection to being shaved.

Gross had previously ordered Hasan to shave his beard or be forcibly shaved before trial.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/7489132/Shave-fight-delays-Fort-Hood-massacre-trial

O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave, O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

I understand the need for procedures as a means of implementing rights. But is it possible that they can be carried a bit too far? I think there may be a new Iron Law in here somewhere. Expenditures rise to exceed income. Bureaucracies expand without regard to the actual work. Regulations multiply without regard to their purpose. Parkinson codified the first two.

Tom Austin tells me that “Jacket hollowpoints are the single most common bullet design for police and civilian defensive use. They will penetrate less, stop an attacker faster, and pose less danger to bystanders. Advertising and political hyperbole aside, JHP’s do not "explode" – a .357-inch diameter bullet will expand to about .6 inches. They’re very simply the modern standard defensive round, particularly in handguns.”

I am startled to realize that it has been nearly twenty years since I last gave serious thought to such matters.

And we have

Subj: Hanson: No California

http://townhall.com/columnists/victordavishanson/2012/08/16/there_is_no_california/page/full/

View 737 Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.

Harry Harrison, RIP. There will be many obituaries, and he will be missed. We were once fairly close friends, which is odd given our political differences were vast and probably irreconcilable, but I haven’t seen him for years. When I was in NYC promoting Lucifer’s Hammer, Harry was in town staying at the Player’s Club on Grammercy Park, and invited me to lunch with him there. Those were the only times I’ve ever been in there, an elegant place. Of course Harry then invited me to play pool with him. For money. At which he was far better than I would ever be. Which meant that I actually paid for the lunch. But it was worth it.

I liked Harry. Haven’t seen him in years but I will miss him. Harry and Joan used to get to Los Angeles more often in the old days after they made Soylent Green out of Make Room! Make Room!

Way back when not long after I was President of Science Fiction Writers of America Cal Tech had a three day festival on science fiction and literature. Harry and I were on a panel with Sir Fred Hoyle, and, I think Richard Feynman although I may be mistaken in that memory. It was in a big well shaped lecture hall with a slate top table for speakers and high motorized blackboards behind us. Just after the introductions were done one of the blackboards began to rise, revealing the blackboard behind it, where someone had chalked in bold letters GET SCIENCE FICTION OUT OF THE CLASSROOM AND BACK IN THE GUTTER WHERE IT BELONGS. Of course Harry had arranged that.

I had thought to write some observations about the election, and perhaps I will later, but mostly it’s still the Silly Season.

Thanks to Roberta we got out for a walk this morning before it became too hot. Sable was happy to get home and find a cool place to lie down. This is no weather for a snow dog, but we’re all well, if a bit under this weather.

And I note in today’s LA Times that of 29 new TV Series opening this Fall, precisely 2 of them will be filmed in Los Angeles. It used to be that 90% of television one-hour shows were filmed here, but Los Angeles city, Los Angeles County, and the State of California decided to raise taxes and raise taxes, and, oh, by the way, we’re raising taxes, so that even New York City – New York City! – is a more attractive environment for filming big name TV series than Hollywood. Which means that the huge set crews, makeup people, caterers, retired policemen, gaffers and grips, and of course writers won’t be working here any longer. All I can tell my neighbors, many of whom are in what we used to call The Industry, is cheer up, things can be worse. I don’t add that they probably will be. It’s grim out there, and I live in Studio City which was less affected by the crash than a lot of the city.

And meanwhile , the radio tells me that a hearse driver was found dead at the wheel not far from the Beverly Hills Hotel. Inside there was a casket complete with body. No other details released. We still live in Los Angeles.

Fish and wildlife bullets

Dr. Pournelle:

I have little experience with firearms, but the webpage referred to jacketed hollow point bullets. Isn’t that more bullet than necessary even for self defense?

jomath

I haven’t thought about such matters in years. When I was involved in such matters I recommended wad cutters as being effective while less danger to neighbors, for the same reasons I recommended #4 birdshot as the default for a home defense shotgun. But that was long ago. I can understand that game wardens – I’d presume that’s why Fish and Wildlife needs ammunition – may need to be armed in these times, but I would think only for self defense: I am still in favor of having most federal arrests being made in concert with the local sheriff as they should have been in Waco. If game wardens need a SWAT team they should call on the Marshals or preferabl9y the local authorities. 

View 737 Tuesday, August 14, 2012

The heat wave continues. My office telephone is acting up. I managed to replace a feed line and it is now more or less working properly, but one gets overheated doing anything in this weather. Ah well. Sable finds a cool part of the floor to lie on, and probably wonders why we aren’t taking her for walks. Actually, it’s very nice out at 6AM. We’ll have to think about that.

Incorrect Information: NWS Not Buying Ammo

Dr. Pournelle,

I read with dismay the posting you made today about the National Weather Service buying ammo, primarily because it’s not true and a couple of minutes of research would have shown this. The solicitation for ammo at the link https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=bfd95987a1ad9a6dfb22bca4a19150cb&tab=core&tabmode=list& is filled with errors. There is no such thing as "DOC NOAA National Weather Service – Western Acquisition Division – Boulder". The Department of Commerce has a Western Acquisition Division in Boulder. Further reading of the solicitation clearly indicates that every round of ammo is destined for the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), which is part of NOAA. Why the NMFS needs the ammo I cannot say.

Obviously the individual preparing the solicitation used some previous solicitation as a boiler-plate and didn’t completely excise the no longer relevant data.

I agree with your sentiments that the Federal government should be smaller than it is, but with posts like this, you make yourself sound more anarchist than rational. Perhaps I’m being unfair to you. Maybe Mr. Martin is a trusted correspondent of yours so you felt little need to trust but verify. This touched a sore spot with me because I for one think the Weather Service is actually good value for the tax dollars spent but in the rush to universally condemn everything the Federal government does (a theme that is more and more prevalent in your postings), I’m afraid the legitimate things the Feds do will not get the protection they deserve.

Jay Smith

No, I thought the story was screwy, and possibly satirical, but I saw no great harm in posting it: the horror is that it might be true, just as my fanciful tale of TSA SWAT teams appearing at your house to arrest you for putting out too much CO2 might be thought possible with just a bit of belief suspension. When a guitar company is raided by a guns drawn team of federal agents because it might have illegally imported wood, what is actually impossible? Weather bureau bureaucrats shooting fish seems unlikely, but is it impossible? Presumably someone is going to fire those cartridges.

We still have bunny inspectors, and armed agents still raid vitamin companies. After all, we would have thought it impossible that the Federal Government would arrange for assault weapons and ammunition to be fast and furiously delivered to Mexican drug cartels, or at least that there would have been some kind of adult supervision by constitutionally responsible officers – or that once this came to light the constitutionally responsible officers would be concerned – or something. Yet the response of the constitutional officers seems to be defiance of the Congress. It’s all a puzzlement.

In any event, I haven’t lost my mind, and I don’t think I have deceived anyone. One of the advantages of being me is that if I do post a bit of questionable mail, someone will tell me. Quickly. Thanks. Readers may now be warned.

As to the less whimsical part of your letter, of course the Federal Government does some things well, and some are quite necessary. Adam Smith noted that there are great project whose benefit to any one person is small but which have enormous benefits to all, and those are a proper concern of government. The Framers thought so. They had in mind roads and canals, but I doubt that Franklin would have objected to government research laboratories. I am hardly an anarchist.

On the other hand, transparency is generally desirable.

And aha:

: NMFS Office of Law Enforcement

Dear Jerry,

The National Marine Fisheries Services has an office of law enforcement that deals with poachers, illegal imports of seafood and other laws that the agency is charged with enforcing.

http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/ole/

Best regards,

Bob Kawaratani

Which makes a fair amount of sense, although I continue to worry about the multiplication of law enforcement agencies. Why can’t the US Marshals take care of such matters? I can understand having an enforcement counsel to coordinate with the Marshals, or the Revenoors, or whatever, but I am not really sure that the Marine Fisheries Service needs armed game wardens. Perhaps so. It is a dangerous world out there and even the game wardens may now need to be armed although they certainly were not when they inspected fishing licenses from those fishing in federal waters (TVA created lakes) on the Tennessee River when I was a kid.  I had a shotgun but the warden was unarmed, and neither of us was afraid of the other. But that was a different world in a different time. Still, both for economic and liberty reasons, perhaps some rethinking of enforcement of federal regulations is in order. Did we learn nothing from Waco?  But now I am rambling.

Recently a US Marshal (prisoner escort) was allowed through TSA with his weapon and ammunition, but they had to confiscate his bottle of cologne which was too large to take on an airplane. At least that’s the story he tells on the air. Of course the teller may not really be a US Marshall, or he may be making up the story, or – but does anyone believe it is impossible?

Firefox has started another of its rounds of updates, worries, compatibility checks, and general annoyances. Coupled with Adobe’s insistence on updates when and how it feels like. And were I not conscientiously complying with the frantic please for energy conservation by trying to operate without air conditioning I would probably not notice. It’s the dog days of the silly season.