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Clayton Cramer's BLOG |
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Clayton's commentary on news and events of the day. Broadly speaking, I'm a conservative with libertarian sympathies (getting more conservative as my children get older).
 Never forget! I'm running for Idaho state senate I've written a number of history books, as well as scholarly and popular articles, (see my web page).
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Friday, January 09, 2004
Ohio's Governor Has Signed Their Concealed Weapon Permit Law! From the Marion, Ohio Star: Ohio lawmakers have approved it and Gov. Bob Taft has signed it. Now, businesses and sheriffs are getting ready for the new law that takes effect in 90 days to allow people to carry concealed weapons, lifting a ban that Ohio had in place for decades.Here's the text of the final bill signed by the governor. Congratulations to Ohioans For Concealed Carry--and the many other Ohioans who have participated in open carry demonstrations across the state--for pushing this one through! It appears that eventually, Ohio will establish reciprocity agreements with states that have roughly similar training requirements, likely including Florida. That would be greatly appreciated--it's been more than a month since I added another state to my list of places that I am allowed to carry concealed. UPDATE: Here's what passes for intelligent disagreement in Ohio, from what seems to be the Cleveland Morning Journal: Concealed guns soon will be legal on Ohio streets, God help usIt sounds like the editors are about to splatter their oatmeal all over the high chair. Why Fiction Often Makes More Sense Than Reality Fiction has to make sense. If I wrote fiction as tragic as the state of Denmark's laws, it would not be believable. This is from BBC: Mr Hoath befriended 63 year-old, Villy Andersen, whilst on a fishing trip. He claims his daughter later told him that Andersen had fondled her legs after she went with him to fetch a torch from their car. He then discovered that the man was a convicted paedophile who’d spent 18 months in jail for abusing a child a few years before. Hoath then reported the incident to the police but they claimed that there was insufficient evidence to take any action. Labels: child sexual abuse Another Mountain Lion Attack in California I believe in the importance of allowing wildlife a chance to roam free. I believe that the government has a responsibility to make sure that not only edible "game" animals (deer, antelope, moose) are present, but also the predators that prey on them. California, however, went too far when it banned mountain lion hunting a few years ago. It wasn't done because mountain lions were endangered; it was done because they were cute and fuzzy, and bunny-huggers saw it as a chance to prove their moral superiority over the knuckle-draggers who hunted mountain lions for trophies. I'm not keen on trophy hunting. My wife is even less keen on it. I'll say this for it: it keeps the predators afraid of people. That's a good thing, especially in a state like California where in many counties, you can't lawfully carry a handgun for self-defense, and even in the ones where you can carry openly, you are likely to get hassled (or worse) by the police. When the bunny-huggers get their way, you get incidents like this: ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. -- A mountain lion attacked at least one bicyclist in an Orange County wilderness park, critically injuring a woman and possibly killing a man found nearby.Remember: to make a predator endangered, you usually need a government subsidy. California paid an absurd bounty for mountain lions from 1907 to 1963, and even had employees whose job it was to hunt them down. Wolves and grizzly bears were exterminated in many states because federal, territorial, and state governments paid for every one of these magnificent (and scary) animals that a hunter killed. To really destroy the environment, usually takes a government program. Clinton in the Conspiracy to Make Bush Look Good? This news report has the prime minster of Portugal quoting Clinton on Iraq and WMDs: Former US president Bill Clinton said in October during a visit to Portugal that he was convinced Iraq had weapons of mass destruction up until the fall of Saddam Hussein, Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso said.If Bush was wrong about this, it would seem to have been an honest mistake. BBC Now Reports AIDS Cases in Africa Overestimated A few days ago, I linked to an article in the Spectator that claimed that the UN AIDS estimates for Africa were grossly too high. Now BBC is reporting that some African countries doing their own studies are finding that the UN has overestimated the number of AIDS cases. There is definitely a problem with AIDS in Africa--but the doom and gloom estimates that the popular press has been carrying are definitely wrong: A survey by the Kenyan government has found that 6.7% of its people have the disease. Previous official estimates had put the figure at 15%.UPDATE: Here's an article from the Telegraph making the same point, with more data. Thursday, January 08, 2004
Ohio: Concealed Weapon Permit Law Headed to the Governor From the Dayton Daily News: COLUMBUS -- In a quiet conclusion to a sometimes tumultuous battle, the House and Senate on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved and sent to Gov. Bob Taft legislation that would give law-abiding Ohioans the right to carry concealed handguns. An Amusing Reminder That The San Francisco Bay Area Isn't Tolerant... It's just intolerant of different things. This came out of the San Francisco Chronicle a few days ago: Part of my problem, I've decided, is that I'm easily tagged as a "breeder" by the many folks in the Bay Area who believe in population control or who just dislike children.When I lived in the Bay Area, this wasn't my experience, but then again, I lived in Sonoma County--an area that some Bay Area sorts regard as not really the Bay Area at all. But another part of the article makes a point that does describe Sonoma County well indeed: A couple years ago, The Chronicle ran a series on neighborhoods in Berkeley. According to one longtime resident of the very white, very expensive Elmwood District, "We think of ourselves as being part of Berkeley and don't worry about our neighborhood being diverse." Wow, how nice for them. I guess Hispanic gardeners and African-American housekeepers provide that neighborhood's diversity. Meanwhile, they live in their million-dollar homes, drive expensive Volvos and walk on Oriental rugs that require insurance -- and they still get to call themselves liberals. Prion Infectivity I'm told by a reader who has studied the subject in college that prions may not be infective in the classical sense, but infective in a somewhat different sense: It has been demonstrated that transgenic mice with the human prion-specific protein are susceptible to BSE, while those who do not have it are not. There is a good summary of British research here and the CDC has more US-relevant information at their website. Absurd Lawsuits, Part 103302303022113 From the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: A Mt. Pleasant Township couple wants Wal-Mart to pay for foot and toe injuries they claim were caused by canned goods and condiments that tumbled from an overfilled plastic grocery bag.I was once traumatized by an ice cream container that opened up in the bag. But alas, the statute of limitations prevents me from suing Safeway for eight gazillion dollars for my valuable time, and the emotional trauma of seeing ice cream all over the other groceries. Howard Dean: Not Too Deep a Thinker, I Guess This Washington Post story reports that Howard Dean explained that his decision to support "civil unions" for gay couples when he was Vermont's governor was a result of Dean's Christian faith: Democratic front-runner Howard Dean said Wednesday that his decision as governor to sign the bill legalizing civil unions for gays in Vermont was influenced by his Christian views, as he waded deeper into the growing political, religious and cultural debate over homosexuality and the Bible's view of it.Let's analyze this statement carefully. First of all, the "overwhelming evidence" to which he refers isn't all that overwhelming--more like suggestive, in the same way that a survey showing high rates of child sexual abuse suggests that at least some homosexuality is a symptom of childhood sexual abuse. The more interesting point, however, is Dean's claim, "if God had thought homosexuality is a sin, he would not have created gay people." Let's think about this for a moment: Christianity teaches that all have fallen short--that all humans are sinners. If Dean agrees with those Christians who insist that homosexuality isn't a sin, that's a logical argument. I don't agree with it; it's an argument that I think is wrong; but it is at least a logical argument based on Christian beliefs. To argue that God would not have created people with a predisposition towards sin is absurd. Humans are predisposed to promiscuity, towards aggression, and towards greed. (If this isn't obvious to you, visit your local college campus or day care center.) Christianity teaches that all of these behaviors are sinful. If you want to argue that Christianity is wrong, in general, or with respect to sin, that's another logical argument with which I can disagree. To argue based on Christianity that "God would not have created" people with sinful desires shows a fundamental misunderstanding of Christian doctrine--and these are doctrines at the core of Christianity. They aren't peculiarly fundamentalist, or even Protestant. They represent doctrines shared by Protestants, Catholics, and Greek Orthodox. Dean isn't much of a thinker, I fear. UPDATE: Peggy Noonan mentions this about Howard Dean: I do not know how Howard Dean will do in Iowa, but I am one of those who think the Democrats will nominate Mr. Dean, and so I would like to like him and be able to imagine that many others will. I also would like to like him because now and then he says something that shows promise. Yesterday when asked if he ever wonders what would Jesus do, he replied: "No." This was so candid, I loved it.Candid, sure. But it doesn't say much for how seriously Dean takes his Christianity. Everything is prone to being cliche-ridden, but those bracelets and T-shirts that ask WWJD, "What Would Jesus Do?" express a real and genuine concern. Would Jesus throw homosexuals into prison? I don't think so. It doesn't accomplish anything (except put them in an environment where the only possible sexual partners are the same sex). I also can't picture Jesus telling them that what they do is okay. I would expect him to say what he said to the woman caught in adultery: " "Go now and leave your life of sin." (John 8:11) Somehow, I can't picture Jesus saying the same to the pedophiles that the gay community can't quite decide whether or not to exclude: "But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea." (Matthew 8:6) UPDATE 2: Here's an article pointing out that this seems to be the first time that Dean has made any mention of his religion as a role in making the decision to sign the "civil unions" law. A cynic might conclude that he is trying to play to Christians in America. UPDATE 3: Since at least one reader seems to have misread this: I don't think Jesus was saying that child molesters should be drowned, and I'm not saying that, either. Jesus was talking about a more permanent judgment and sentence than anything that we can do. Labels: child sexual abuse Wednesday, January 07, 2004
New Mexico Supreme Court Upholds New Concealed Weapon Permit Law From a British newspaper, no less: SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - The state Supreme Court on Monday let stand a new law that allows New Mexicans to be licensed to carry loaded, concealed handguns.It will certainly be a more dangerous place for rapists, murderers, and robbers. The argument advanced by "New Mexico Voices for Children" was fundamentally specious. As a New Mexico newpaper explains: The challenge ruled on Monday involves language in the New Mexico Constitution allowing citizens to bear arms, but adding “nothing herein shall be held to permit the carrying of concealed weapons.”Since the Missouri Supreme Court will be ruling on a similar question in the next few weeks, I am hoping that they look at this decision by the New Mexico Supreme Court. This Appeared in a British Newspaper! It's Mark Steyn's column in the Telegraph about the right of self-defense: "Mark Steyn may prefer American hillbilly culture to that of the Swedish nanny state," wrote Ann Widung of Eastbourne on our Letters page last September. She was dissenting from my observations on the remarkable passivity of bystanders at the murder of Anna Lindh. "You may criticise the Swedish police," continued Ms Widung, "for being inefficient in solving murders, but I prefer to live in a culture of peace and solidarity to one of fear and gung-ho mentality. Better a nanny-state baby than Mark Steyn's 'citizen'." Amusing News Story Combination These two news stories were both on Drudge Report simultaneously. From the Salem, Oregon Statesman-Journal: Snow turned from an object of delight into an instrument of gridlock in what climatologists called the worst storm west of the Cascades in a decade.This study's headline about the effects of global warming: Climate Change May Threaten More Than One Million Species With ExtinctionYes, yes, I know, it is possible for global warming to cause extreme weather as well. Still, you have to wonder, when the evidence in support of global warming is so uncertain--and people in western Oregon are suffering from such extraordinarily cold weather--if there might be more of politics than science to the global warming claims. Labels: global warming Everyone's a Victim The good news is that this is so silly that I don't think a practicing lawyer would represent this guy--unless, of course, he was a law professor somewhere: Cable TV made a West Bend man addicted to TV, caused his wife to be overweight and his kids to be lazy, he says. I'm Surprised They Aren't Just Banning Snow From Reuters Odd: TORONTO (Reuters) - A snowball fight is almost a rite of passage for students in Canada but Toronto schools are moving to strengthen a ban on the practice they say is violent and dangerous. I'm Surprised They Aren't Just Banning Snow From Reuters Odd: TORONTO (Reuters) - A snowball fight is almost a rite of passage for students in Canada but Toronto schools are moving to strengthen a ban on the practice they say is violent and dangerous. An Historic Moment: I Am Expressing Sympathy for Senator Clinton Senator Clinton introduced a quote from Gandhi with a joke that poked fun at the prominence of East Indians in running small businesses in America: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton apologized for joking that Mahatma Gandhi used to run a gas station in St. Louis, saying it was "a lame attempt at humor."Yes, it was lame. Yes, like most stereotypes, it is not very accurate. But unlike a lot of ethnic stereotypes, this is a positive one. East Indians, in some parts of America, are very overrepresented in running some types of businesses. I think this says something rather positive about East Indian immigrants--a willingness to engage in the sort of entrepreneurial activity that leads to real wealth, by providing necessary and useful services to our society. I can understand why an East Indian who has become fabulously wealthy as an engineer (as many I know have become) might be insulted by the comparison to a guy running the local 7-11, who isn't a multimillionaire, but for the vast majority of East Indians in America, this sort of stereotype is actually pretty positive. I hope that Senator Clinton's faux pas causes the leftist professional victim class to think a little bit more about their oversensitivity. If a hardcore leftwinger like Hillary Clinton can run afoul of the PC Police, maybe they need to lighten up a bit, and concentrate their energies on malicious stereotyping and overt discrimination. Interesting Results in Texas The Houston Chronicle reports that the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the legality of the Republican redrawing of district lines in Texas: A three-judge federal court today upheld a Republican congressional redistricting plan against claims that it harms minority voting rights, but the court sharply criticized the process of adopting the map as a threat to the system of fair elections.The Democrats, of course, are going to appeal to the Supreme Court. My first reaction to the word that Republicans were going to redraw the district lines was to be a little disappointed. While not law, it is certainly customary that states only redraw district lines every ten years. The more I looked at the results, however, the less uncomfortable I became. According to the news story: The Legislature's new congressional map likely will eliminate the 17-15 Democratic advantage in the state's congressional delegation and replace it with a 22-10 Republican majority after this year's elections.Yes, some of this is because Republicans have done to the Democrats what Democrats have traditionally done to Republicans in Texas--gerrymander the districts to give the majority party in the legislature an unfair advantage. But look at the change! A net change of five seats out of 32 members! This tells me that the lines the Democrats drew a couple of years ago were probably very, very absurd. I still have memories of the absurd district lines the Democrats drew in California for the 1980 elections: a Congressional district that stretched from Malibu to Newport Beach, often only a few hundred feet wide, to make sure that the Democrats would have a millionaires' district. State Senator Diane Watson's octopus--with a central Los Angeles core, and tentacles stretching 40 miles in every direction, to make sure that she had a sizeable black population. Republicans with districts that were literally 200 miles long, but very narrow. It was insane, and the federal courts declined to intervene in that absurdity; they should therefore decline to intervene in the Texas case as well. UPDATE: A reader points out that while the Republicans only get five more seats, the Democrats also get five less seats--so it's really a ten seat change in party control of Congress. Tuesday, January 06, 2004
Telescope Mounts I'm not a doctrinaire "Buy American" sort, but I certainly prefer to do so, and I even give a bit of a preference for American-made goods. I do understand, however, why Americans are buying Chinese-made goods at such frightening rates--they're cheap. Some of this cheapness is related to the quality of the goods: will an American-made shirt last twice or three times as long? I am very, very skeptical, but I will agree that a lot of the Chinese goods that flood the local Wal-Mart are definitely not very well made. Some of this cheapness has to do with currency exchange rates. I understand that there is a good bit of upset in Washington with the Chinese government's policies that prevent a free market exchange of currencies. This keeps Chinese goods cheap relative to the U.S., putting U.S. manufacturers at an unfair disadvantage. I can't get too upset with American consumers, however, because I am confronting this same little struggle. The Losmandy GM-8 is a splendid equatorial mount, made in California. It also costs about $1469. By comparison, I can buy an equatorial mount with somewhat higher weight capacity, but of generally lesser construction quality, made by Synta in the People's Republic of China for $799. That's a huge difference in price that I have to justify in exchange for the piece of mind of buying American--and not putting money in the pockets of a kleptocracy that twenty years from now, might be threatening to nuke Los Angeles. I guess I would even be reasonably happy buying an equatorial mount made in some other free Third World country. In any case, I don't have to make the decision right now--I'm not sure how many months will pass before I have a reliable night sky again. Challenging Ohio's Concealed Carry Law--Again This article by Mary Lou Seymour about the arrest of a well-known New Hampshire libertarian activist in Ohio for carrying concealed creates a rather difficult feeling for me: On January 29, Jeff Jordan, a/k/a "The Hunter," was returning to his home in New Hampshire after visiting relatives for Christmas in Kansas. Unfortunately, his road home led through the state of Ohio. Hunter was in a hurry to get home, as were so many of us over the holidays, and got stopped in Ohio for speeding. The trooper claims he saw one of Hunter's magazine pouches on his belt and searched Hunter and his vehicle, finding "multiple weapons." (Troopers arrest man with multiple weapons in car, Trooper Finds Weapons Stash In SUV).My sympathy is with Jeff Jordan. There is apparently no lawful way to carry a concealed weapon in Ohio, and to my knowledge, no lawful way to have a loaded firearm, even openly carried, in Ohio. Yet the Ohio Supreme Court has ruled that concealed carry is not a right, but seemed to recognize that open carry is a right protected by the Ohio Constitution. Jordan is not a scofflaw in the conventional sense; there was no lawful way, as near as I can tell, for him to protect himself without breaking Ohio's law. But--and this is an important problem--the Ohio Supreme Court has already ruled on this. If Jordan hopes to challenge the constitutionality of Ohio's law on concealed carry, he has picked an extraordinarily poor time to do so. The Ohio Supreme Court has just made their decision in the last few months, and they aren't likely to reconsider it. He could attempt to challenge his arrest in court by using the affirmative defense that a "reasonable man" would be armed under those circumstances--which is a provision of the current Ohio law prohibiting concealed carry. That has been an historically difficult defense to win in court. He might have a chance of challenging the ban by arguing that it is contrary to the Fourteenth Amendment's privileges and immunities clause--except for the inconvenient precedents that the Supreme Court has created to effectively gut that clause. As the discussion here points out: Unique among constitutional provisions, the privileges and immunities clause of the Fourteenth Amendment enjoys the distinction of having been rendered a ''practical nullity'' by a single decision of the Supreme Court issued within five years after its ratification.... This expansive alteration of the federal system was to have been achieved by converting the rights of the citizens of each State as of the date of the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment into privileges and immunities of United States citizenship and thereafter perpetuating this newly defined status quo through judicial condemnation of any state law challenged as ''abridging'' any one of the latter privileges.I recently had occasion to check citations in a law review article about the Fourteenth Amendment and full incorporation. I've never looked up all the various citations on this before, and I was pleased to find that every citation I checked was correct, and in context. There is no question that the authors of the Fourteenth Amendment--including Rep. John Bingham of Ohio--intended to impose all the protections of the first eight amendments of the Bill of Rights onto the states. That would include the Second Amendment. Unfortunately, the chances of getting the federal courts to follow the Constitution are fast approaching zero. Labels: gun rights Jayhawkers: Time to Contact Your Legislators From the January 3, 2004, Lawrence, Kansas Journal-World: Missouri lawmakers last year passed a concealed-carry law despite a governor's veto, and several Kansas lawmakers said they expected a similar battle this year in Topeka. If such a bill were to pass, it faces a likely veto from Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who supports concealed-carry permits only for retired law-enforcement officers.Let's ask Rep. Davis how he thinks good economic policies are going to make people safer. Does he think that abusive ex-spouses, bank robbers, and rapist-murderers are doing these things because they can't get jobs? Thanks to packing.org for the link. Canadian Police Union Calls For End To Gun Registry From the January 5, 2004 Calgary Herald: The union head of Calgary's front-line police officers is calling for the federal government to scrap the billion-dollar gun registry because it has been a colossal failure in reducing violent crime in the country.Of course, what does he know? Especially when the same article quotes an "expert" on the subject: Mahfooz Kanwar, a criminologist and sociologist with Mount Royal College, said the legislation will certainly have an impact on crime, especially murder.If your culture is peaceful (and generally, Canadian culture is pretty peaceful) why do you need controls on guns? In a violent culture, gun control might make some sense (if you could figure out how to make it work), but in a peaceful culture, why bother? Arguments Against a Corvette I have called around to a number of tire stores, and one of them gave me by far the best price on the rear tires for my Corvette. These are the Goodyear F1 Eagle GS EMT in 275/40YR18. These are $457. Each. Why are they so bloody expensive? And what's the alternative? They are expensive because they are runflats. You can drive 250 miles on them with zero air pressure without damaging them. This means that you don't need a spare tire taking up your entire trunk space. (Not to mention, the front and rears are completely different sizes.) They are expensive because they are Y speed rated--which means that they are designed to be driven at 186 mph indefinitely without problems. They are expensive because they are a massive piece of rubber. The alternative runflat was the Michelin Pilot A/S--just a little cheaper, and I've read somewhat mixed reviews as to their merit relative to the Goodyears. On the plus side, the rear tires on the car now are original, and have more than 30,000 miles on them. As it is, they seem to have worn out prematurely in the center of the tread because they were inflated to the maximum pressure of 35 psi, instead of the recommended inflation level of 30 psi. (I've only had the car about 7,000 miles.) I suspect that with a little care, I can get 35,000 or 40,000 miles out of the replacements. Cars like the Corvette are one of those silly luxuries that you can afford once you have become mildly wealthy, and can afford to spend too much money on tires. I suspect that in another 30,000 miles, my good sense will take over, and I will say farewell to this midlife crisis extravagance for something just a little slower, and a little more sensible. But for right now, it's good. Part of Why I Enjoy Historical Research I was digging through Colonial Records of Pennsylvania, looking for Revolutionary War firearms purchase contracts. and I found this intriguing reference to a telescopic sight. It is from September 7, 1775: "Mr. Owen Biddle is desired to procure a Rifle that will carry a half pound Ball, with a Telescope sight...." [Colonial Records of Pennsylvania, 10:332] This was a surprise to me, to see a telescopic sight mentioned this early. Monday, January 05, 2004
Myths About AIDS in Africa, and the Funding Shell Game A reader pointed me to this interesting article in the Spectator about the AIDS epidemic in Africa--and why it appears that there is quite a bit less to it than everyone assumes: It was an article from The Spectator describing the bizarre sex practices that contribute to HIV’s rampage across the continent. ‘One in five of us here in Zambia is HIV positive,’ said the report. ‘In 1993 our neighbour Botswana had an estimated population of 1.4 million. Today that figure is under a million and heading downwards. Doom merchants predict that Botswana may soon become the first nation in modern times literally to die out. This is Aids in Africa.’The rest of the article goes on to point out that the numbers just don't add up. Heterosexual AIDS Professor Volokh is still trying to defend that the disproportionate funding of AIDS research could be because of the risk of AIDS spreading into the heterosexual population. He points to a table that shows 10,611 heterosexual contact infections. Of course, what the table doesn't show is the exposure category. Take a look at this table from 1998, showing heterosexual contact broken down a little more finely. For female cumulative AIDS cases, under heterosexual contact: sex with injecting drug user: 17,548 sex with bisexual male: 3,009 sex with person with hemophilia: 371 sex with transfusion recipient with HIV infection: 553 sex with HIV-infected person, risk not specified: 19,263 Suddenly, out of 40,744 "heterosexual contact" cases, we see that half are yet again the results of homosexuality and IV drug abuse. We don't really know for sure about that 19,263 cases, but it seems likely that at least some of these are women who don't know from whom they acquired AIDS, and it seems very likely that most of those are from the two groups at greatest risk: IV drug abusers and bisexual men. It is also the case that the AIDS problem is largely concentrated among prostitutes, who have the greatest risks of infection because of pre-existing STDs (which seem to present open pathways for infection, and some suspect that they may have already compromised immune systems because of this), and because of the large number of male with whom they have sex. And again: most of the risk is to the prostitute. She can infect men with AIDS, and that's part of why they ask that question when you donate blood, but the nature of heterosexual sex means that she is vastly more likely to get AIDS from a man than to give it to one. Ten Commandments Monument in a Boise Park I just received this email: Subject: Ten Commandments Monument in Julia Davis Park/ newspaper poll - please vote Colt AR-15 Prices I was just looking here, and I am absolutely shocked at the prices that original Colt AR-15 Sporters are fetching! (Shocked, but pleased.) Perhaps I will finance the new telescope mount by selling one. (Yes, you can have too many assault rifles--I know that for a fact.) Clear Skies At Least! But of course, after I had turned in for the evening, on a night when I could not get up late the next morning. The other side effect was that it was crisp this morning--2 degrees Fahrenheit. The Corvette hasn't had much use the last week and a half, and I guess I was not surprised that the battery wouldn't start the car this morning. After a full recharge (and a test restart in front on the Wal-Mart auto repair facility), I decided that the problem was just that the little driving I have done recently wasn't enough to keep the battery recharged. Sunday, January 04, 2004
The Martians Must Have Missed One The U.S.'s Mars Rover seems to be working and sending message images. We got one past Marvin the Martian! More About Snow Yesterday's aerobic exercise was shoveling snow off the driveway and sidewalks. As aerobic exercise, it was quite effective. Some of the neck and back muscles that don't ordinarily get enough exercise are expressing an opinion this morning, however. Another interesting discovery was looking outside last night--and seeing the entire landscape lit up to a level that I was not expecting. I know that somewhere up above the clouds there is a nearly full Moon--but this still seemed like an extraordinarily bright evening. I would love to see what this is like with snow on the ground, no clouds, and a full Moon! Cabin fever is beginning to set in, but snow is still magical. |
