Online Scribbles By RussJ

Thoughts on our national holiday

2009-07-04T13:38:14Z

Today is the day we celebrate our Independence from Great Britain.

To most of us this is a day off from work. (As an independent contractor, it is an unpaid day off for me.)

I do rejoice in the liberty that I still enjoy in this land, but I fear for the future. I fear because it seems that the majority of my country-men and -women still do not understand the foundation upon which our liberty rests.

With the words "we the people", our constitution begins with the premise that all powers and rights originate with the people, and that the federal government may only exercise those powers which are enumerated in that document.

This idea was radical then, and it is still radical now.

In fact, the reason that no bill of rights was originally part of the constitution is because the founders did not want to give the impression that these enumerated rights were granted to the people by the government.

When the bill or rights (amendments 1-10) were added, the ninth and tenth amendments made this doctrine explicitly clear:

Amendment IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

Yet today we see the government taking ever more power to itself, and many people feel that the rights of the people are questionable--unless they are explicitly stated in the constitution. (Think of those people who assert that the right to bear arms only applies to state militia.)

And our politicians seem to be happy to ignore these facts, as they continue to expand both the scope and the magnitude of government power over the people. When the government confiscates more than 50% of one's income, can that person be said to be free? The scripture says:

"And he laid a tax of one fifth part of all they possessed ... and thus they were supported in their laziness, and in their idolatry, and in their whoredoms, by the taxes which king Noah had put upon his people; thus did the people labor exceedingly to support iniquity."
(Book of Mormon | Mosiah 11:3,6)

When the regulations which are written, enforced and ruled on by unelected bureaucrats (such as the EPA) have the force of law to take away the use and enjoyment of our own property, can we really imagine that we are free? Or do we enjoy our supposed liberty only by the sufferance of an arbitrary power?

When we reach the point where we decline to state our political affiliation, or hesitate to speak our mind in the square of public opinion, then that very fear reveals to us that we are no longer free people, but are only servants of our own government.

Waxley-Markey Carbon Regulation

2009-07-03T14:42:56Z

Senator Bennett/Udall,

Please vote NO on the upcoming carbon regulation which was recently passed in the House.

This bill passage will be disaster for the world, the nation, and the state of Colorado--not to mention your chances of re-election.

It will regulate carbon based on the following false ideas:

1) Climate change is mainly caused by human-created CO2 and methane emissions. It is mostly naturally caused--mainly by solar activity.

2) Climate change is bad. (It will actually have many beneficial effects, such as increased plant growth.)

3) The cost of changing the climate is less than the cost of dealing with the effects of climate change. There is little evidence that mankind can influence the climate, no matter how hard we try.

4) In this time of recession, it will put an undue burden on all Americans--and will provide no measurable environmental benefits.

Coal generates 2.095 lb CO2/kWh
Multiply this by 1 ton/2000 lb * $15 /ton carbon tax = 1.6 cents/kWh
Our current Longmont electric rate is about 5.6-cents/kWh.
This amounts to a 29% rate increase to start with, and this tax is set to increase year by year.

Please do what is right and not what is politically expedient.

Senator Al Franken of Minnesota

2009-07-01T22:31:43Z

Now that Al Franken has been certified as the choice of Minnesota voters, this gives the Democrats enough numbers to form a filibuster-proof majority--should Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid choose to use it. This also requires the Democrats to form a united voting block.

How to pay for ObamaCare Medical

2009-06-17T22:54:15Z

With The Government paying for our health care, it will feel free to enact all kinds of laws and regulations to keep the costs down.
Given the current inclination of our nanny state, it is not hard to foresee the following:

Mandatory exercise regimen
Obligatory diet plan (remember the cafeteria scene in the movie "The Island"?
Extreme sports being completely outlawed
Dangerous sports (like roller blading, skiing, scuba diving, rock climbing) being regulated and restricted to members of the elite class only
Senior citizens required to undergo an annual evaluation to "certify their value to society". Only those persons of high value will qualify to receive expensive medical treatments.

Can you imagine who the "elite class" with "high value to society" will be composed of?
Perhaps well-connected bureaucrats and politicians?

(Originally a comment in conservatism

The Longmont Times-Call published my letter today:

2009-06-17T05:26:47Z

Thank you for publishing the insightful article by Star Parker in the Longmont Times-Call last week.
Star Parker is a hero to millions of Americans today.
The Coalition for Urban Renewal and Education, which she founded is working to make a better life for all Americans.
(www.urbancure.org)

Unfortunately, some people feel that Ms. Parker is just too "uppity".
They dislike it that an intelligent and beautiful black woman escaped from Uncle Sam's Plantation of welfare dependence and government servitude.

These people are the current power-brokers in Washington and Denver today.
They are working hard passing legislation which would enslave us all on that hacienda of equal misery--with Big Brother as our overseer.

I would appreciate it if you would run Star Parker's weekly column in the Longmont Times-Call as a regular feature.

Reading update

2009-06-12T04:20:07Z

Last week I finished the Terry Pratchett book "Maskerade". This is the first of the "Witches" series which I have read that features Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg as main characters.

I'm now reading "Monstrous Regiment", which follows "The Truth" and precedes "Going Postal" in the Pratchett Diskworld reading guide.

This week I also finished "Natural Law and Human Nature", The Teaching Company Course No. 4453 (24 lectures, 30 minutes/lecture), Taught by Father Joseph Koterski, S.J., Fordham University, Ph.D., St. Louis University.
This ethical tradition is variously known as natural law, higher law, natural rights, or human dignity. When we talk about "crimes against humanity," we are appealing to this natural law.

Now I'm listening to The Symphony, Teaching Company Course No. 7210 (24 lectures, 45 minutes/lecture), Taught by Robert Greenberg, San Francisco Performances, Ph.D., University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Greenberg is certainly enthusiastic!

Does this kind of life sound interesting to you?

2009-06-06T17:17:44Z

On Wednesday I started work as a self-employed "contractor".
I'll be contracting for Syncroness to work at Baxa, helping to automate tests for one of their products.

This is good news, because I'll be able to support my family. It may also lead to a permanent full time position. (It bites, because I'm driving 122 miles daily to the Baxa work site.)

Still, it is good to be working again, after three months of searching.
What is different about being self-employed? Since this is new to me, you may also be interested in the implications.

One friend told me that contracting means "more job security".
I have a contract to work for 10 weeks.
I get paid for every hour that I work, with nothing withheld.
I do not get paid vacations, holidays or medical coverage.

I am still obligated to pay federal and state income tax, as well as a "self-employment" tax of 15.3%. This tax consists of two parts: 12.4% for social security (old-age, survivors, and disability insurance) and 2.9% for Medicare (hospital insurance), and is figured on Schedule SE (Form 1040).

I've been told that I can deduct my auto expenses (@ 55-cents/mile) and other "business expenses" prior to paying the SE tax, and that I can deduct 1/2 of the SE tax prior to paying income taxes.

For insurance, I have applied for COBRA continuation of my previous medical and dental coverage. This normally costs a family $1185.15 per month, but the government bailout plan will reduce this cost to just $414.81, for up to nine months, and Marvell has agreed to cover the month of June.

UPDATE:
I came up with some rules-of-thumb to figure out how much your hourly wages need to go up when you're self-employed:
Add 8% for SE tax.
Add 8% for 20 paid vacation/holidays.
Add 5-10% for medical benefits.

Obama's First Supreme Court Nomination

2009-06-02T05:10:50Z

In other news, an infamous mass murderer is himself gunned down while ushering at his Kansas church.

The Fifth Elephant (some impressions)

2009-05-28T05:47:08Z

The Fifth Elephant is the 24th novel in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series (but only the 18th that I've read so far). It was published in 2000, so of course it's not news to the old-timers in this group!

It is the 5th "watch novel", following after "Jingo" and before "Night Watch".
As such, the characters of Commander Vimes and his wife, the Lady Sybil are most prominent. Cheery the dwarf and Detritus the troll accompany Vimes and Sybil to Uberwald as official representatives of Ankh-Morpork at the coronation of the Low King of the Dwarves.

Gaspode the wonder dog, Captain Carrot and Angua the werewolf have prominent roles--and we actually meet Angua's family. I hereby nominate her brother Wolfgang as the most hot-blooded villain of the Discworld series--and Teatime as the most cold-blooded one.

The Watch becomes completely disorganized with Colon and Nobby in charge, while Uberwald proves to be an extremely dangerous place for the others. A major theme in this novel is the how the more tradition-bound dwarves dislike the ways of the "city dwarves". (Ankh-Morpork is called "evil" by several people.) The same theme is a major plot element in the novel "Thud". Even the Igors see the city as a place to send their disaffected youth.

Questions: Is this the novel where Igors were first introduced? Where vampires first pledge to abstain from human blood?

Quote:

'This, milord, is my family's axe. We have owned it for almost nine hundred years, see. Of course, sometimes it needed a new blade. And sometimes it has required a new handle, new designs on the metalwork, a little refreshing of the ornamentation . . . but is this not the ninehundred-year-old axe of my family? And because it has changed gently over time, it is still a pretty good axe, y'know. Pretty good. Will you tell me this is a fake too?'

Next in line to read: Monstrous Regiment; Maskerade

Crossposted to discworld

Good news if you live in Minnesota ...

2009-05-23T05:43:41Z

Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota kept voicing three simple principles throughout the legislative session:

1. We must have [because of the constitution] and should have a balanced budget.
2. The state government needs to live within its means, just like everybody else.
3. We shouldn't raise taxes in the worst recession in 60 years.

Nevertheless, the Democrat-dominated legislature sent Mr. Pawlenty one large spending bill after another, assuming that he would veto them, and then the process of compromise would begin.

Instead, he announced that he would exercise the power of "unallotment," which has been on the books since 1939 and which has been used four times. Under it, the governor is allowed to "unallot" (take away) any state spending for which there is no money to pay.

Panicked, the legislature passed tax legislation to cover its blowout spending bills, 10 minutes before the session's end. Too late. The governor said he'd veto the bill and would not be calling back the legislature to do any more mischief.

Click on photo to read more...

Crossposted to conservatism

...and Tyler, too!

2009-05-22T23:36:00Z

Yes, the John Tyler dollars came out on Thursday, and were easy to find at my local branch of Chase Bank.
The Lincoln Bicentennial cents still elude me. A couple of local banks claim to have gotten a few of them, but they disappeared fast. They tell me that they cannot order them. Yet some people are doing a brisk business selling large quantities of these highly sought-for coins on ebay.
Perhaps the folks in Kentucky and Indiana who attended the release ceremonies are the lucky ones.

Just finished "The Truth"

2009-05-21T04:02:58Z

Yesterday I finished reading "The Truth", which fits somewhere in between "Moving Pictures" and "Going Postal" on the industrial revolution storyline from the reader's guide.

The ongoing adventures of Gaspode the wonder-dog are featured, along with the founding of the Ankh-Morpork newspaper.

I rate it as one of the better discworld novels.

The two major themes here are class consciousness and media skepticism. Relevant quotes:

--ing
A lie can run around the world before the truth has got its boots on.
William's class understood that justice was like coal or potatoes. You ordered it when you needed it.
The truth shall make ye fret.
... see, if all a human thinks about is gold, well, he's a miser. If a dwarf thinks about gold, he's just being a dwarf. It's diff'rent.
It must be right, otherwise they wouldn't let them put it in.
...people who spend their day mincing meat or sawing wood and basically leading little lives that are controlled by other people, do you see? They've got no say in who runs the city but they can damn well see to it that cockatoos aren't lumped in with parrots!
You can tell as many lies as you like if it's advertising. That's allowed.
"...are you sure it's all true?" "I'm sure it's all journalism," said William. "And what is that supposed to mean?" "It means it's true enough for now."
It just has to be true until tomorrow.

Crossposted to discworld

New sillcock works!

2009-05-17T02:48:02Z

Well, it took all afternoon, and I burned my finger with the torch, but the new sillcock (that's what they call an outdoor hose tap) is now working.

Three solder joints, and a shutoff valve, all in a small corner of the basement ceiling.

Sugar Killed by Unleashed Dog

2009-05-08T20:08:40Z

After attending a networking event and purchasing some hardware to repair our hose faucet, I came home at noon. As I turned into my street I noticed a bulldog sitting in the yard on the opposite corner. He didn't appear to be tied up and no one was around, but I didn't think much about it.

When I entered the house, our dogs all wanted to go out in the back yard, so I let them out and went downstairs to check my email. Since our yard is fenced, this had never been a problem before. Having been gone since 6:30 AM, I wanted to see if a prospective employer had contacted me. Suddenly the doorbell rang wildly. I then heard running upstairs and I ran up to see what was happening.

A neighbor had seen a dog attack our dog, Sugar, shaking her in its mouth like a rag doll. He stopped his car and yelled at the dog, which dropped Sugar and ran off. He then rang our bell immediately. When I arrived, Sugar was dead, and my wife was crying. Sugar was her favorite dog--very gentle and affectionate. We think that Sugar must have been sticking her head under the gate to bark at the stranger, who latched onto her jaw, pulled her under the gate, and killed her.

Learn from our sad experience. When you see a dog loose in the neighborhood, call your local animal control person. Its owner may be worried, but it also may be an aggressive animal which can injure children or pets. Even strong adults have been killed or seriously injured by aggressive dogs.

I found a nice, peaceful place to bury her up in the mountains.

While this is just an image from google image search, this dog looks like the animal that killed our dog.

Barack Obama: Dreams From My Father

2009-05-08T00:57:12Z

This week I finished the audio book "Dreams From My Father" (abridged), read by the author, Barack Obama.

This book was interesting, and very helpful to understanding our current president. Before he was elected, I could safely ignore the man. Not anymore.

The first thing I noticed is the way he speaks--typically using a downward inflection at the end of his sentences. Whether this speech style is unconscious or studied, it communicates confidence, authority and certainty. And Mr. Obama is known to be a persuasive speaker.

A major theme of the book is his search for belonging. Since Barack Obama is of mixed-race (his mother was white; his father was black) he did not feel that he really belonged to either community. I recalled the old Cher song "Half Breed" from the 1970s:

My father married a pure Cherokee
My mother's people were ashamed of me
The Indians said I was white by law
The white man always called me Indian Squaw

Half-breed, that's all I ever heard
Half-breed, how I learned to hate the word
Half-breed, she's no good they warned
Both sides were against me since the day I was born

Barack expresses his own personal shame several times in the narrative. He is shocked that a Black man would want to bleach his skin. He invents the story that his father is a prince, and then is mortified to hear that his father has been invited to speak to his class at school.

The book's title refers to the fact that Obama was raised by his mother and her parents, while his father was largely absent from his life. He didn't know much about his father until his late twenties, when he visited his father's relatives in Kenya.

In the meantime, he has many life-enriching experiences with his mother and his stepfather in Indonesia, and with his grandparents in Hawaii. He goes to college in California and in New York. He becomes a community organizer in Chicago, where he meets with the ministers of many churches, but joins none of their congregations.

He doesn't mention any contact with his mother's extended family, while his visit to Kenya occupies the last quarter of the book. In one chapter of the narrative, he muses on what defines a family--does it consist of your blood relatives, or does it include a greater community, or even a nation?

I found it interesting that he mentions that the family gathering he attended in Kenya was similar to those he had seen in the Chicago projects--mostly women and children, with the men usually absent.

I also came away with the impression that he remained a religious skeptic--at least to that point in his late twenties. He mentions that he believed in himself, but felt a need to believe in something higher. Nevertheless, he doesn't describe a conversion to either Muhammad or Christ.

He does mention one sermon by the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, called "The Audacity to Hope" which brought him to tears, if not conversion. You will note that this is very nearly the title of Obama's second book, which he wrote after his election to the U.S. Senate.

In summary, this audio book helped me to better understand our current president. But it did not reveal whether he ever found the belonging or the faith that he had been seeking. It leaves open the question about whether his seemingly supreme self-confidence is real, or merely a mask for insecurity.

Interesting footnote: I am about three years older than Barack Obama. I was living in Chicago during the time that he worked there as a community organizer (June 1985 to May 1988). During this time I met and married my wife, we bought our first house (next to the Ravenswood elevated tracks), and our son Steven was born. In May, 1988 we moved to Colorado, and Barack also left to tour Europe and Africa, prior to entering Harvard law school. I don't think that we ever met, and I have never been to Hawaii.

Science Wars: What Scientists Know and How They Know It

2009-05-02T18:49:22Z

Last week I finished the Teaching Company audio course Science Wars: What Scientists Know and How They Know It, taught by Steven L. Goldman of Lehigh University.

This course is timely, because science occupies such an important place in our society today.

Professor Goldman defines three criteria of a successful scientific theory:

It explains the things that we see
It helps us to make predictions that can be tested
It gives us control over our environment (technology)

For many people, the "scientist in a lab coat" has replaced "the priest in a purple robe" as the only source of knowledge.

Professor Goldman first asks what we mean by "knowledge", stating that there has been an ongoing debate about this for thousands of years.

In Plato's dialogue The Sophist, he describes two views of knowledge. Plato takes the side of the gods, and he attacks the Sophists, who take the side of the fictional "earth giants".

The Gods Say Knowledge is	The Earth Giants Say Knowledge is
Universal Necessary Certain	Specific Contingent Probable
That about which we cannot be mistaken.	Not being willing to put that something in question.

I think that you can see where this debate is going. Philosophers have always wanted to have certainty about things, and epistemology is the branch of philosophy which deals with this.

Natural Philosophers (what scientists were called until about 100 years ago) have always known that our senses can deceive us. How can we be certain that what we "know" is real and true? In the scientific community, the debate was expressed as between the two "camps" of the "rationalists" and the "empiricists".

One rationalist was Rene Descartes, who insisted that only the mind could grasp reality, using its tools of reason, deduction, and mathematics.

On the other hand, the empiricist Francis Bacon declared that the key to knowledge is observation--that we are subject to certain prejudices (that he called "idols of the mind"), which obstruct correct reasoning.

The Rationalists	The Empiricists
Tools are reason and proof	Tools are experience and evidence
Deductive process, going from a universal concept to our particular experience	Inductive process, going from particular observations to a universal theory

In reality, there has never been an approved "scientific method". Researchers accumulate and study data. How much data is needed before formulating a hypothesis or proposing a theory? There is no standard. Can universal principles be produced automatically by processing raw data? Or is intuition and inspiration involved in formulating a theory which the data will support?

The philosopher David Hume stated the "problem of induction" by stating that we cannot propose a general theory based on a finite number of experiments or observations. To do so is to assume that what we have not observed is like that which we have observed. Yet this is an tacit assumption of empirical science.

Even the claims of the rationalists are suspect, when you realize that even their reason must start from a set of "first principles", "self-evident truths", or postulates. The field of mathematics was once seen as a true science based only on reason. But by only changing Euclid's 5th postulate, a new geometry has been created which produces different, equally rational results.

Many scientists were upset with the uncertainty principle in quantum theory. They had assumed that if you could "know" the state of the universe at any point in time, it would be possible to "calculate" the state of the universe at any earlier or later point in time. Rebellion against this non-deterministic view of reality led Einstein to famously write "I, at any rate, am convinced that He [God] does not throw dice."

In short--we cannot accept the claim that scientific knowledge is uniquely true, or that it actually describes reality--especially when the modern instruments of science are themselves "theory laden". But we can use the scientific criteria of explanation, prediction and control as a guide in making policy decisions and in using this knowledge to improve our lives.

For example, Einstein's theory of relativity has successfully explained phenomena, predicted things which were have been tested and verified, and enabled us to control nature and create new technologies. Dmitri Mendeleev's periodic table of the elements not only explained nature, but it also predicted the existence of yet undiscovered elements. On the other hand, our biological taxonomy of kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species seems to be a construct of our own mind--not one of nature. For example, it does not predict yet undiscovered organisms--rather the discovery of new organisms have resulted in changes to this model. Likewise, Darwin's theory of evolution gives an explanation of fossils, etc, but it has not given us testable predictions, nor has it given us control of nature.

History shows that what science "knows" has always been changing. When existing theories are falsified, we then create newer, better theories to replace them. I have always felt that each new theory may be a closer approximation to true knowledge, or "reality".

On a humorous and cynical note, I provide the following:

"Piled Higher and Deeper" by Jorge Cham
www.phdcomics.com

Lying Liberal Loser in Limelight: Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

2009-04-26T03:42:45Z

Nancy Pelosi, was briefed several times during the past few years about USA "tough" interrogation techniques (including "water-boarding". As a member of the Intelligence Committee, she only expressed disapproval of these techniques when she felt that it would score political points for her party.
She receives the "Lying Liberal Loser in Limelight" award this week. She should be kicked off the Intelligence Committee, because she lacks the minimal qualifications.
Now you can't receive this award for one simple lapse of judgement. It requires you to consistently put party above principle, and self-interest above country.
Pelosi has shown time and time again that she uses her office to enrich her own family--not to represent her district or to serve her country.
http://newsbusters.org/node/12598
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/oct/01/pelosis-pac-pays-bills-for-spouses-firm/
In short, she is why the approval rating of the U.S. Congress dropped to a record low of 14% last year.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/114670/Congress-Approval-Rating-Jumps.aspx
For comparison, President George W. Bush's approval rating never dropped below 25%.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/113770/Bush-Presidency-Closes-34-Approval-61-Disapproval.aspx

Ann Coulter on Liberals and the Financial Meltdown of 2008

2009-04-13T15:48:52Z

You know what really irritates me about liberals? (Besides the fact that they're spineless little girls in pretty dresses who can't play rough because it musses up their hair...)

They always think liberalism fixes the problem -- even when it was liberalism that caused the problem in the first place!

Case in point, the Financial Meltdown of 2008 (and counting). To hear liberals tell it, it all goes back to Ronald Reagan -- who with his seductive "B-actor" charm fooled America into thinking that by slashing taxes, regulation, and government spending we could unleash free enterprise and create a new wave of prosperity.

Sure, liberals concede, that seemed to work for, oh, the better part of three decades, but now we're paying the price for all that "greed." The solution? A return to the pre-Reagan policies of Jimmy Carter, LBJ, FDR... Speaking of which, what will victory look like in the "War on Poverty"? When are they going to produce an "exit strategy" from that quagmire?

Unfortunately, the facts -- as always when you're talking about liberal theories -- tell a different story. A story in which all the major villains, it turns out, have one thing in common: government.

That's right. From the "Community Reinvestment Act" that pressured banks into affirmative-action lending, to those "government-sponsored enterprises" Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- who bought up all the resulting subprime loans and repackaged them as "investment grade" securities -- the greasy thumb-prints of government were all over this fiasco from beginning to end.

But those, as I say, are facts. And facts have no place in the fantasy world of Democratic policy-makers. Nor does history -- true history, that is, as opposed to the public-school propaganda that teaches, for instance, that FDR's New Deal got us out of the Great Depression, when in reality it only deepened and prolonged it.

Great Music for a Happy Easter!

2009-04-11T21:54:55Z

In celebration of Easter, I have placed the audio from the 2004 performance of Leroy Robertson's "Oratorio From the Book of Mormon" on the web in mp3 format. As far as I know, this performance has never been officially released, but BYU-TV occasionally broadcasts it.

This is suitable for your Ipod or other audio players. Just use the HTML links below.
(I suggest that you save the files to your local hard disc before attempting to play them--otherwise it probably won't sound very good.)

If you don't know about this sacred work, here's an interesting article about it:
http://www.farmsresearch.com/publications/jbms/?vol=8&num=2&id=195

Leroy Robertson: The Oratorio From The Book of Mormon
2004 Performance with the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square

01-Applause.mp3
02-Behold, I Samuel, a Lamanite.mp3
03-For behold, and angel of the Lord.mp3
04-O ye wicked and ye perverse generation.mp3
05-Behold, I give unto you a sign.mp3
06-How beautiful upon the mountains.mp3
07-Again, another sign I give unto you.mp3
08-And there were many who heard.mp3
09-Epilogue.mp3
10-The angels did appear and declare glad tidings.mp3
11-But they who believed not hardened.mp3
12-Now there was a day set.mp3
13-And the words which came unto Nephi.mp3
14-Andante.mp3
15-Now the people began to forget.mp3
16-A multitude gathered about the temple.mp3
17-And they cried Hosannah!.mp3
18-Old things are done away.mp3
19-They brought forth their lame and blind.mp3
20-The Lord's Prayer.mp3
21-They saw the heavens open.mp3
22-He did expound all things.mp3
23-The Lord hath made bare his holy arm.mp3
24-Applause.mp3

This week I finished reading the biography of Leroy Robertson, which I enjoyed very much.
(If you would like to get a copy, I mistakenly bought two of them, so I'm willing to part with one of them (without dust jacket). I'd be happy to trade it for an official CD of one of Robertson's compositions--thus far I only have three different recordings of the Oratorio.)

It is frustrating...

2009-04-10T02:04:44Z

I spent an hour calling various banks in town, asking them if they have the new Lincoln Bicentennial pennies. So far I've heard that two banks did get some, but they are all out now. And I've heard various stories:

The Federal Reserve ships them out to banks alphabetically, so Wells Fargo is last on the list
The Federal Reserve is not making it easy for us to order them.
We get whatever they ship us.
We never order pennies--we just roll what customers bring in.

Right now these pennies are selling at 15x face value or more on ebay, partly because the U.S. mint has discontinued online sales of the first (log cabin) design.

I'm sure that the Federal Reserve has plenty of pennies on hand, but you never can tell. Various articles say that distribution is slow this year because of the economy. Some say that people are bringing their jars of change to the bank to cash in. Others say that banks and stores don't need new coins because business is slow. Mintage quantities were down even last year--but scarcity is the main factor that drives the price of a coin up.

So right now, those people who have been able to acquire quantities of these highly collectible coins are making a good profit on them. It remains to be seen whether prices will drop dramatically as collectors can get them cheaply at the bank, or if the Federal Reserve will let this speculation continue.

And the next (rail-splitter) design is scheduled for release on May 14th.

I was astonished and surprised ...

2009-04-06T19:42:58Z

During the past two weeks, I have been listening to The Teaching Company, Course No. 8530, Civil Liberties and the Bill of Rights, taught by John E. Finn, Wesleyan University.

I'm now on lecture #23, but what I learned in the early lectures on property rights surprised me.

Mr. Finn explained that the Supreme Court decisions of the past century have established that the right to property is no longer "fundamental". This means that property rights cases today are not subject to the "strict scrutiny" test, but to the "rationality" test.

Under "strict scrutiny", the government must

have a "compelling state interest" to restrict a liberty
the restriction must be "narrowly tailored" to achieve that interest
the regulation must be the "least restrictive means" of of meeting that interest.

Under "rationality", the government must merely have a "legitimate state objective" to restrict a liberty. The rationality test is satisfied for almost any state purpose.

He goes on to explain that the "privacy" is now well established as the "fundamental" right which has taken the place of "property" as a protector of liberty.

It astonishes me that property is not considered a "fundamental" right but privacy is--although the former is explicitly grounded many places in the Constitution, while the latter exists only implicitly.

Update:
In olden days, the principle of "economic due process" was applied.

Crossposted to conservatism.

They call it "equality"

2009-03-26T05:00:02Z

I find it curiously inconsistent that so many politicians who voted to tax away bonuses from AIG managers, also voted to save their company from bankruptcy.

Let’s suppose for a moment that the owners of the Denver Broncos started hiring players because they were friends or relatives—not because they performed well on the playing field.

How long would the Broncos remain profitable paying millions to players who lose every game? Would the fans keep supporting a losing team every year? Should the AFC award them with a Super Bowl “bailout spot” despite a losing season?

Then why should AIG and those other losing companies be spared the price of failure, while the hard-working taxpayers and their children pick up the tab for their incompetence?

If the AIG managers do not deserve a bonus, then their company never deserved a bailout.

So what can we say about the majority in Congress who voted FOR the AIG bailout and AGAINST the AIG bonuses?

Their votes reveal what they won’t say—that they want a society that neither punishes you for your incompetence, nor rewards you for your hard work.

And they call it “equality”.

I call it “socialism”.

Cross-posted to conservatism

Published in the Boulder Daily Camera, March 25th.

"Indoctrinate U" on DOC channel 3/17 @ 7pm MST

2009-03-17T05:08:21Z

I was checking the program schedule for the Documentary channel, and they are showing "Indoctrinate U" on DOC channel 3/17 @ 7pm MST.

This is the 2007 film about censorship and liberal bias at major U.S. colleges.
I've seen this film and it's very good. Click on the icon to see the trailer.

DOC is channel 197 on Dish-TV, and channel 12-2 on broadcast digital in the Denver area.

Digital-TV Update

2009-03-10T02:08:50Z

After returning the crappy Apex DT250A converter, I was able to purchase a Channel Master CM-7000 converter box, with S-video output.
Not only is this box more responsive, but its "info" display provides the signal strength, the video resolution, the languages supported, and whether captions are available.
So here is the latest update of the terrestrial digital TV channels available in Longmont, Colorado, which is about 25 miles North of Denver.
I'm using an ordinary FM/VHF/UHF antenna in my attic, which is pointed generally towards Denver (which may not actually be where the broadcast antennas are).

Channel	Station	Sig	Picture
2-1	KWGN-DT	100	1080i
4-1	KCNC-DT	100	1080i
6-1	KRMA-DT	70	480i
6-2	V-me (Spanish)	70	480i
6-3	Create	70	480i
6-5	Reading (audio only)	65	no info
7-1	KMGH-DT	100	720p
7-27	KZCO-SD (Spanish)	100	480i
9-1	KUSA-DT	100	1080i
9-2	Wx-plus	100	480i
9-3	NBC Uni	100	480i
12-1	KBDI-DT	70	480i
12-2	KBDI-DC documentaryChannel.com	70	480i
12-3	KBDI-WV	70	480i
14-1	KBDI-DT (Spanish)	100	480i
20-1	KTVD-DT	100	1080i
25-1	KDEN-DT (Spanish)	100	480i
31-1	KDVR DT (Fox)	100	720p
40-1	KRMT-40 (DAYSTAR Network)	48	480i
50-1	Univision (Spanish)	100	480i
53-1	KWHD-DT mykwhd.com	98	480i
59-1	ION	100	480i
59-2	Qubo	100	480i
59-3	IONLife	100	480i
59-4	Worship	100	no info