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View 738 Saturday, August 25, 2012

Neil Armstrong, RIP

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, –and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of –Wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air…
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark or even eagle flew —
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

John Gillespie Magee, Jr

People said things like that when I was growing up, and all the astronauts knew it in the old days at Edwards. I suppose they still know that poem at the USAF Academy, but perhaps not; but I have heard it recited by X-15 pilots at Pancho’s after a day of miracles, and no one laughed. And I am sure that Neil Armstrong knew it. Test pilots were tough guys with the right stuff, but all of them I knew had a romantic streak.

And of course they all had the right stuff, and they knew it, and they knew that Armstrong had more of it than most. During the Apollo Lander Simulation flight – the trainer was dubbed the flying bedstead with good reason – in Arizona the computers glitched or the gyros tumbled so that the platform tumbled ninety degrees. If Armstrong had ejected with it in that attitude he would not have achieved enough altitude to allow the parachute to open. He kept his nerve and slowly rotated the platform as it fell, and when the angle was right – about 45 degrees I am told, I wasn’t there – ejected. Everything worked and he landed without injury. They’ve calculated that he had about three seconds to spare.

The computers overloaded during the Apollo 11 landings, and Armstrong came through again. This time he had twenty seconds of fuel to spare. The right stuff came through. The Eagle landed as the world watched, and the world would never be the same. Those of us who had a part in that can be sure of that. When I was growing up I knew from the first day I read Willy Ley’s book that I would live to see the first man on the Moon. I had not expected to outlive him, but Mankind’s conquest of space is not over. We’ll be back.

In September, 1962, President John F. Kennedy said that within the decade we would put a man on the moon and bring him home. We would do it because we choose to do it. I was part of the space program and I had my doubts. I kept my reservations secret, but the astronauts never had any. They were sure that America could do it.

We chose to go to the Moon in 1962, and seven years after making the choice we heard “Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” With 1962 technology. With primitive computers, unreliable rocket motors, with little understanding of the Lunar surface and less understanding of space weather. What is it that we cannot do now? But we must choose to do it.

From a statement by the Armstrong family:

“While we mourn the loss of a very good man, we also celebrate his
remarkable life and hope that it serves as an example to young people
around the world to work hard to make their dreams come true, to be
willing to explore and push the limits, and to selflessly serve a
cause greater than themselves.

“For those who may ask what they can do to honor Neil, we have a simple
request. Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty,
and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon
smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink."

There’s a waxing half Moon out there tonight.

Tom Brosz reminds me that I may outlive the last man on the Moon as well as the first. Eugene Cernan, the last man to stand on the Moon, is 78. Younger than me, but not by much.

View 738 Wednesday, August 22, 2012

1048: the saga continues. Yesterday I spent the day driving my newly repaired car 60 miles while doing other errands, then got the smog certification. Unfortunately, since I had already paid the registration fee to DMV back last fall, the smog certifier couldn’t give me license tag stickers – he could if I had to pay the fee, but since I didn’t have to pay the fee —

Anyway, in a few minutes I will be off to AAA, which may have a remedy for me. My fear is that the rapacious city parking enforcement people, having already issued me one ticket (which I’ll pay) for not having that sticker will be watching with telescopes to find my car in a vulnerable place.

We’ll see what happens next. When the state is out of money – it estimated that it would get a billion dollars from taxing the Facebook IPO, and the Pension Fund still estimates it will get 7% on investments it is losing money on – then any revenue source is needed…

And I’m off.

1600: Done, and done. I have a big red sticker thing pasted on the inside of my back window that gives me King’s X until the DMV mails my permanent license plate sticker on the 29th of this month; this according to the AAA. I have to say the AAA has been greatly helpful in all this, and the only inconvenience was about 5 minutes wait for a human being on the phone on my first call when this all started, and perhaps that long waiting in a pleasant waiting room area for the agent who dealt with the whole matter for me. Which is to say no problems at all. It would be hard for them to have been more efficient.

There was one good outcome. The AAA office is out in Encino, most of the way to the Pizza Cookery, where they make excellent gluten free pizza, meaning that I could get a pizza that Roberta could eat. So I got her one, and I got one for me, and for once we had all the pizza we wanted. And now that the car registration drama is over I can get back to work.

Fred Reed has an insightful observation in his current Fred on Everything. The title Sauron’s Eye should be a clue. I should have something more substantive shortly. Technology marches on, and things change.

The Media Rule is that if a Democrat says something silly, he my be forgiven or may not, but if a Republican says anything eccentric it is a sign of his total unfitness for public office. In the case of Akin he seems to have been told some nonsense about female physiology that comes from wishful thinking.  There is no evidence that women do not conceive after violent rape, and a rather large amount of history says otherwise.  We might very well wish there were such a mechanism, as one might wish that the Lord tempers the wind for the shorn lamb, because a woman made pregnant by rape presents a moral dilemma of great magnitude. One cannot blame Mr. Akin for wishing such moral dillemae did not occur. I wish it myself. But for all the wishing we are faced with the moral dilemma: the rapist ought to be punished, but what has the unborn child done to deserve execution? Or if that’s too blunt, then to deserve our withdrawing the protection of the law on its very life? The unborn are innocent. The law should protect the innocent.

We can retreat from the dilemma by denying that the unborn is not yet a child, is not yet human, and for some number of hours or days or even weeks after conception there are good arguments for that, and indeed the doctrine of quickening was part of the common law for centuries. (Quickening held that until the woman felt the child move within her womb it was not legally an unborn child.) Quickening – religiously, ‘ensoulment’ – was held to take place 40 days after conception. This was believed by the ancient Greeks and came down through the ages. Legally, I guess, ensoulment takes place at the first breath, but that isn’t consistent since we have had convictions of manslaughter for causing involuntary abortion. And we are not going to get any agreement on these matters, which is why I don’t discuss them here. It has all been said many times.

But if the worst thing Mr. Akin has ever done is to wish for some relief from a moral dilemma by believing something untrue, and he has been willing to be convinced that his belief was incorrect and should not only be abandoned but apologized for, he is nothing like the worst candidate for Senate I have ever heard. Or even met. There are many Senators who endorse and pretend to believe things they know damned well aren’t true about economics and the effects of stimulus spending, and there are many who have to be pretty sure that the budgets they vote for are built around ludicrous assumptions.

Mr. Akins believes that in the case of rape the rapist ought to be punished, but the child should not be. This isn’t really a federal matter to begin with, and much as I wish it were, it is not the major danger facing these United States in this year of grace. We may all wish Mr. Akin hadn’t said what he did. But if the fate of the Republic rests on that, God has a very strange sense of humor indeed. And my guess is that Mr. Akin may not have as much trouble raising money as his opponents think he will. His position is that of most of the bishops in the United States.

I have variants on this letter from many subscribers and readers:

There have been a few military members recently getting into trouble for expressing their political views. No matter how truthful certain observations are, they simply can’t be made (and reasonable conclusions drawn) by military members.

But this we can say: FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING YOU HOLD PRECIOUS PLEASE VOTE THIS YEAR

That is all.

Serving military member

View 738 Monday, August 20, 2012

Today will be eaten by errands. Friday a neighbor came to the door to tell us that I’d got a ticket put on my parked car. I went out and discovered that Lo! he was correct, I had a ticket for expired license tabs. Since I remembered paying the registration fee I wondered how that happened but a call to AAA revealed that while I had paid the registration, I had forgotten to get the smog certification, and I was now months past the due date. OK, so I’ll pay the ticket and get the smog certification and go to AAA to get the license tab.

Only it was just too late to do that Friday. I drove to my smog certification place to discover that his machine had just broken down. I went to the place I used to go to and discovered they no longer do that. He directed me to a place much closer to my house, and indeed to go to it I had to go past the place that does my annual auto maintenance. They don’t do smog certification, and they couldn’t service my car anyway because their experts were all busy come back Monday. So I went to the local smog place, and they said it’s too late come back Monday.

So it is Monday, If all goes well I’ll get my smog certification, notify DMV that I will pick up my tab at AAA, go to AAA, get the tab, go to the grocery store and pick up some stuff, drop that off at the house, and take the car to the garage for annual servicing. Which leaves me a lot of time for thinking but Heaven knows what can go wrong. I don’t figure I’ll be done before late afternoon.

The silly season drones on. President Obama faces two problem: his enthusiasts are no longer enthusiastic and may not turn out to vote. Those who don’t like him are saying they will definitely vote. The remedy according to some strategists is to poison the election. Pox on both houses! It don’t matter, they’re all bums. Make everyone disgusted with the process, and use organizations to turn out just enough votes to win.

It could work. At least they hope so.

But the executive decision to choose Ryan has changed some of that. At least there is now an issue. We’ll see.

Meanwhile I have a day to think while I run errands. And I’d better be off doing them.

Now I wait. Friday after I found the place I usually take my car for smog certification was not operating and I was driving to what I thought was a smog certification place, for the first time in the decade I have had the my Ford Explorer the “Check engine” light went on. Actually, it has been on before, but that was because I had left the gas cap off after filling the car, and it turned itself off after I closed the cap. Never otherwise though. But this time it came on. So I went to the usual smog certification place and they had four people in line before me, so I went to another which is actually closer to he house. Went to the local Pinkberry yogurt place for a yogurt with fruit lunch, back to the smog place, and things went weird again. I’ve never flunked a smog certification before. They showed me the forms. The car has to pass ‘visual’ meaning that the technician doesn’t see anything wrong, such as having the smog stuff removed from the car. It has to pass the emissions test, weaning that it’s not making smog. And it has to pass some kind of computer certification, meaning that the car’s internal memory system hasn’t detected a smog problem, but what it really means is that the ‘check engine’ light isn’t on. In my case the computer was telling me that the car was randomly stalling, which it wasn’t and never has been so far as I know.

The smog certification people can’t fix your smog system. That’s part of the California law. It happens that this particular place is very close to a Shell station I have dealt with for years, and which has been recommended to me by neighbors, and it’s a hot day, so I left it with them and walked home. It’s about 100 out there. And of course they called, and there were problems – my car was overdue for its annual checkup, so I fold them to go ahead to do that as well as take care of the smog computer thing – and now I ‘m waiting. I suspect the whole mess will run more than a grand, but since that will include what I usually pay for the annual checkup and fixup, I don’t suppose I can complain. My Explorer is old but it hasn’t got all that many miles on it. I don’t drive a lot any more. When I got it I still thought in terms of driving out to Fort Apache or taking the Scouts to rifle practice in the Mojave, but I don’t turn out to have done much of that. I don’t really need a full size SUV any longer, but I like this one even though it doesn’t get great gas mileage. It’s built like a tank, it still looks all right, everything works, and this is the first serous problem I’ve had with it. My car philosophy has always been to get something I like and drive it until it stops working, and this fixup should keep mine going a few more years.

I suppose this would be no bad time to remind people that this is the rational discussion site, and it operates on the Public Radio principle, which is to say it’s free but it won’t stay open if I don’t get subscriptions and renewals. I also have to say that we do all right on subscriptions, so I’m not claiming poverty, but if you’ve been thinking about subscribing this would be a great time to do it.

I can’t quite understand what is going on, but it looks as if the leading Republican candidate for Senate in Missouri may have just done himself in. He was considered an odds on favorite for taking the seat which is now held by a Democrat. Republican Congressman Akin was apparently trying to avoid answering a question about abortion rights of rape victims without quite saying that he’s against abortion under essentially all circumstances with the possible exception of a choice affecting the survival of the mother. Instead of saying that, which he has in fact said many times in his Congressional campaigns, he rambled on with some odd theory of female physiology and used some of the most unfortunate language one could devise. He said something to the effect that if it’s really real rape the woman probably won’t conceive. I don’t know much about reproduction physiology, but historically that certainly hasn’t been the case.

Akin later stated his real position, which is that rapists ought to be punished, but it’s not the child’s fault.

Akin is running for a federal office, and this ought not be a federal matter. The US Supreme Court made a wrong decision in Roe vs. Wade, assuming some kind of constitutional basis for federal interference in state law on abortion, and the country has been suffered from this ever since. I don’t intend to get into the substance of the debate, which has to do not only with both science and religion, but with the very basis for believing in the law. If the purpose of law is to protect the innocent, there are few creatures more innocent than the unborn. Innocent humans should be protected, not killed. If that seems clear enough, nothing else really is. Precisely when human life begins is not agreed upon by science or religion. Is a fertilized egg human? Is an 8 month old unborn child human? Is a newborn child human? Those questions will produce different answers from different people, and we will never get universal agreement. I see no point in the discussion since everything about the subject regarding faith and morals has been said many times and for a very long time, and there is no disagreement about scientific fact.

We can discuss the constitutional issues, but there isn’t much to be said about that either. Abortion was not debated at the Convention of 1787 because none of the delegates would have for a moment considered it a matter for the federal government, and the states were pretty well agreed in forbidding abortion under any circumstances whatever. Most educated people in the United States were agreed in forbidding abortion as late as 1950: that was the year when the Broadway play Detective Story closed after a highly successful run; the play very well expresses the national view on abortion at the time.

I’ve written more on this than I intended to. For single issue voters Akin’s consistent belief coupled with his addled expressions will probably be decisive. I have no idea what the people of Missouri statewide will think. His constituents in his Congressional District have probably not been surprised about either his beliefs or his expressions and they continued to elect him.

My car is fixed, the “Check Engine” light is off, and tomorrow I have to drive it fifty miles, then get the smog check again. After which I can pay the ticket and this mess will be over. The car runs fine. While they were fixing whatever caused the check engine light I had them do the annual maintenance which turned out to require new brake linings all around. They did a good tune up, too. The whole mess cost more than I expected.  A good reminder not to forget the smog check after I pay the registration. At least it’s almost over.

And last night I recorded the opening episode of the new TV series “Copper” about 1864 New York City. We watched a bit less than the first half of it tonight. It was unrelievedly depressing, and I don’t expect to see the rest of the first episode much less spend any time watching any more of them. On the subject of time wasting, I still watch the series Bunheads although I can’t possibly say why I like it. I suppose I like perky actresses, and the dialogue is often – not always, but often – sparkling. My first impression of the show was that they didn’t know whether they were doing high comedy, broad farce, or melodrama. I’ve since decided that they know very well what they are doing, and it’s an odd mixture of all three, presented by people more experienced in stage plays than television — and all having a great time. 

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/