Posted 4:14 PM by Floyd

Here's a great link from Hit and Run: Footnotes to History: The nations you didn't learn about in high school. Footnotes is James Erwin's collection of every small, temporary, and failed nation conceivable. For instance:

Jefferson- Northern California and southern Oregon have long been dissatisfied with their respective governments. This exasperation erupted over the failure of the government to provide funding for new roads. A number of border counties sent delegates to demand better treatment at a November, 1941 meeting in Yreka, California. The local board of county supervisors, urged on by the Chamber of Commerce, allocated funds to further the cause of independence and designated Yreka the temporary capital of the State of Jefferson. On December 4, Judge John Childs was elected governor of the new state. National opinion was favorable, but fate was not; three days later, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The inhabitants of Jefferson put aside their bid for the sake of national unity. All ended well; the government built a number of roads through the area to transport timber during the war.

Posted 3:57 PM by Floyd

I was going to blog about the weather anyway when I saw this lament from a transplanted Canadian:

I just held a thermometer out the window, and it registered 94 (aka "35"). Ninety-four! It's 5:30 PM! That's about 35 degrees warmer and 1100% sunnier than it's supposed to be in this city at this point in the year. I knew something was nuts when we opened the window and the apartment got warmer.

It's even hotter here in Mountain View at 99 degrees (37 for those of you reading in Canadia). June has been a weird month for weather. It reminds me of my sojourn in West Lafayette, Indiana, where if you didn't like springtime weather you could just wait a few days for something different. Drastically different. Most of the month has been on the cool side, especially at my house in Sky Londa at an elevation of 1300 feet. On a hot day like today, Sky Londa will also be hot, maybe five degrees cooler. But when the Valley has a temperate day with a high of 70, my place will be overcast and much cooler. Two weeks ago there were several days when the temperature did not get above the high 50's. (I have a 24-hour thermometer that records highs and lows.)

One feature of Bay Area weather is the cool nights. Summer nights in the hills are usually too chilly for me, but they're perfect for this weather. Even on a scorching day where it tops 100 degrees at my house, the low is around 70. (The highest overnight low I have ever recorded is 74 degrees.) For example, yesterday I sweltered through Mountain View's mid-90s heat . When I got home at 7:30 the temperature was below 80. Later last night my wife and I went on a drive down to the coast; south of Half Moon Bay the local temperature was Evan's San Francisco ideal of 59 degrees.


Achewood-style disclaimer: We apologize for this collection of meaningless statistics. Please do not commit suicide or take other offensive action based upon your boredom after reading this post. Please erase your browser's back history.

Posted 12:52 PM by Floyd

You may remember M. Simon's articles on drugs and addiction. Here's the latest in the series: What is Addiction?

Posted 12:42 PM by Floyd

Christopher Hitchens, leftist-cum-Clinton critic-cum-pro-war anti-idiotarian, has been writing articles for Slate Magazine. In his latest article, he takes John Kerry to task:

So, the junior senator from Massachusetts has finally come up with a winning line. "Vote for me," says John Kerry. "I'm easily fooled." This appears to be the implication of his claim to have been "misled" by the Bush administration in the matter of WMD.

I don't disagree, but I regret to note that later in the article, Hitchens takes on the role of pot to Kerry's kettle when he writes:

Indeed, Ho Chi Minh in 1945 modeled his declaration of independence on the words of Thomas Jefferson, appealed for American help against France, and might have got it if FDR had lived. Uncle Ho shared in the delusion that there could be an anti-colonial and anti-dictatorial empire. If that is indeed a delusion. …

Kindly, sainted Uncle Ho. He wanted to be a democrat so badly that he spent a decade working for democracy behind a desk, in the Kremlin. (And when he left the USSR to direct the revolution from close range, he went not to Saigon or Hanoi but to ... Hong Kong.) Later Ho showed his enthusiasm for Jefferson's ideal of the citizen-farmer that he set execution quotas of 5% for certain villages. And it was undoubtedly his respect for America that caused him to eliminate 85% of the original cadres of the North Vietnamese communists. When Ho gained control of South Vietnam, everyone knew what a libertarian he was. So a million people fled hundreds of miles over open sea in small coastal craft.

Now who is it that's easily fooled?

It's a shame to see Hitchens smooching up to totalitarian monsters, because on balance he has done a lot for civilization and liberty. I followed Aaron Haspel's link to a Michael Lewis interview by Robert Birnbaum, and on the same site there was an interview of Hitchens. Here's how Hitchens sticks up for Western values of freedom in the face of Islamic terror:

RB: You discuss simplicity in this book and one example you cite is the fatwa…and that if an adversary can not disavow the murder of writers for what they write then you can have no further debate…

CH: I did that on Crossfire…

RB: Who was your adversary?

CH: Some American Muslim leader. You see, for me, this battle has been going at least since…Some scumbag from some verminous mosque came on …I said, "Let's get one thing out of the way, you are opposed to the offer of money for the murder of my friend [Salman Rushdie] then we can discuss anything you like?" He appealed to Pat Buchanan, who was his defender, of course. "Islam's feeling have been very much hurt." I said, "We'll get to that, I promise you. But first I want your assurance…" And he said, "For Muslim peoples, it is the feeling…" I said, "Look, hold it right there, you are not getting past me. You're just not. I'll waste your whole hour if you want." And I did. And at the end I came right up to him. I know where you live. I have your home phone number. It's the only way.

Lots of people argue for liberty. Hitchens gets an award for extra effort.

Posted 10:59 PM by Floyd

So the Supreme Court ruled that the University of Michigan's law school can discriminate against white people as long as they don't quantify the exact amount of this discrimination. (Oh, and don't think they'll get away with it in 2028!) This is rather ... interesting ... given the usual handling of accusations of discrimination in our court system. One can imagine the following cross-examination of XYZ Corp by an attorney representing employees who claim -- on no evidence but actuarial data -- to have been discriminated against:

Q: Please state your name and occupation.

A: I am Charles Happyman, head of Human Resources for XYZ Corp.

Q: And please tell the court how you handled the charges of discrimination when made aware of them by our plaintiffs.

A: In each case the managers accused of discrimination were thoroughly investigated. We interviewed their employees and reviewed their past history.

Q: Did you read their minds to see if they were racists?

A: No, excuse me?

Q: Did you read their minds to see if they were racists?

A: No.

Q: Why not?

A: Because -- because mind-reading machines haven't been invented?

Q: Did XYZ Corp attempt to invent a mind-reading machine?

After which the jury would convene for an hour and award the plaintiffs thirty billion dollars.

Posted 10:37 PM by Floyd

Last weekend was the Bay Bridge Series. I watched the whole game Saturday night, and kept an eye on yesterday's game while doing chores. Both games were somewhat sloppy but they were both exciting, especially Sunday's contest in which Andres Galarraga came within 20 feet of winning the game on the final out.

Submariner Chad Bradford pitched on Sunday. Watching his weird underhand delivery is cool, but I had seen that in person the week before. What's really cool is watching him intentionally walk Barry Bonds. Yes, underhanded.