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Wednesday, December
13, 2000
I am trying to get another appointment with a physician. It's not that
I feel all that bad, as that I just can't seem to feel very good, and I
gots no energy. A couple of years ago I had this problem and a subscriber
-- I blush to say I do not recall who -- sent me a package of six vials of
something Chinese which proclaimed that it was made "from the
freshest of snake biles." It sounded horrible, but it didn't seem to
be actually poisonous -- and whether it worked or my long standing
headaches and sinus problems decided to give up and leave me alone just as
I began using the stuff, by the time I had finished the course of snake
oil, I felt wondrously better.
But I don't remember who sent it or what the ultimate source was. We
have a big Chinese community in Los Angeles but I think I would seem an
idiot going there and asking for "snake biles" so I don't think
that route would work. But I admit I am ready to try snake oil again.
The Supreme Court has, sort of, spoken. I agree with the dissent by Mr.
Stevens: the Constitution, and most of the laws, say pretty clearly that
if there is any real question of who is President, it is to be decided by
Congress. It is a political, not a judicial, question, and I believe the
Court ought to have thrown the whole matter out on the grounds that it IS
a political question; let the Florida Legislature decide what it will do,
and if Florida sends two sets of electoral votes, then the Congress
decides which set is valid. That is of course a political act, but then
the whole matter is political, not judicial.
I believe the Florida Supreme Court acted also in a political matter
when it should not have, but it is less important: no one expects judicial
restraint from Southern state judges. One can hope for it, but it is not
to be expected. Had the US Supreme Court stayed out of the picture, the
Florida court would have muddied the waters to complete confusion, the
Florida legislature would have stepped in and named electors, the
Democrats might or might not have sent their own electoral votes to
Washington, and the matter would have been decided where it ought to be
decided, in the Congress. That is clearly what the Framers intended: that
the Congress is the "controlling legal authority" when there is
mess of this type. Let the Courts stand above the matter.
As matters stand now, the Supreme Court has weakened public respect for
it; perhaps no bad thing given the imbecile judicial activism since the
Warren Court. Half the Justices now act like legislators, deciding on an
outcome and then going back to adjust their reasoning to fit; a perfectly
proper thing for legislators to do, but not for a Court. As for instance
the silly notion that the Constitution demands that State Senates
represent one-critter-one-vote when for more than 200 years after the
adoption of the Constitution they did not, nor does the Senate of the
United States do so today. (And if the 14th Amendment demanded
"reform" of 47 State Senates, it is odd that it was one hundred
years before the US Supreme Court found the wisdom to realize it.) That is
one of the more egregious cases of a Court deciding on a desirable result,
then reasoning its way to it, rather than applying accepted standards of
legal reasoning.
Another, just to make more people mad at me, is the drug laws. The
Court held the Volstead Act, forbidding the making or possession of
alcohol, unconstitutional, on the grounds that the Constitution grants no
power to the Federal Government to prohibit alcohol; it says nothing; and
without a grant of power there is no power. Therefore to make it
constitutional required the XVIIIth Article of Amendment. That was done,
and the experiment of Prohibition was tried. That proved both unpopular
and disastrous, and was repealed. So, which Article of Amendment grants
the Federal Government power to make possession of marijuana, or cocaine,
or opium, a crime? The Feds have the authority to prohibit import. They
have the authority to forbid its shipment across state lines. But how in
the world do they have the authority to seize property because it was used
to grow marijuana? This is judicial activism: here is a desired result,
let us find ways to justify it.
But the Constitution leaves political matters to the political bodies,
and for a very long time the US Supreme Court understood that, and refused
to rule on political questions. They should have done so this time.
The odd part is that the Justices who usually vote for judicial
restraint were the majority in this decision, while those who are usually
for activism, and interference, suddenly found a new love for state's
rights. But then politics often produces such inconsistencies; and
inconsistency is precisely what the Rule of Law cannot tolerate; which is
to say, again, that political matters ought to be left to political
bodies. And that's the end of my rant on this sticky matter.
Roland was having so much fun with Microsoft's Crimson Skies that I
thought I'd try it. I found a Logitech Wingman Extreme Digital 3D joystick
in the back room; it's only a few months old, maybe a bit older, but it
has a USB connector. So I tried installing it. First on the new Pentium IV
machine which has Windows 2000. It said it had installed, but when I
installed the game, there was no joystick. OK, install on the Athlon which
has Windows 98.
Heh. The joystick installation locked up the machine. Completely.
Reboot and it was still locked up. Press f8, get to Safe Mode, uninstall
Logitech's software, and that more or less did the job of putting me back
where I was before I started. Time for bed.
This morning before breakfast I went to Logitech's site and downloaded
the 8 megabyte software for the joystick. After breakfast try to install.
Can't. Have to go to the Microsoft site and download installer software.
Now the Wingman software installs and I have a working joystick, so I
presume I will be able to play Crimson Skies, only of course I don't have
time to do that just now. I will also try the new software on the Pentium
IV, which, with a GeForce nVIDIA board ought to just scream....
And there is a LOT of mail to be put up, some amusing, some important.
No rest for the wicked...
The new installation software downloaded worked, the Logitech Wingman Extreme
now works on both Windows 98 and Windows 2000, and Crimson Skies lives...
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