Michael Schearer's Blog, page 2

A few thoughts on Jack Ryan, Season 2

This post includes spoilers so if you haven't watched Season 2, you might want to stop reading now.

After having been reasonably satisfied with Season 1, I raced through season 2 over the past week. A few random thoughts:
After initially alluding to Jack Ryan's "Boy Scout" image (which is the quintessential feature of his character), he immediately sleeps with an unknown woman but likely to be (and in fact is) an intelligence agent of a foreign government. I just can't imagine Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan ever engaging in such reckless personal behavior.Speaking of sleeping with a foreign intelligence agent, whatever happened to Jack's girlfriend/fiancée/eventual wife Cathy Mueller? In season 2, Jack is portrayed as single with no hint of Cathy anywhere within the season.The ambush scene in the first episode was a complete rip-off of the ambush scene in Clear and Present Danger, to including the death of a close friend of Jack which serves as his motivation for the rest of the movie/season.It was immediately obvious to me (someone who doesn't necessarily do well in picking up on signaling or foreshadowing) that Senator Chapin was going to be one of the bad guys.It was even more obvious that when Matice split up with his team he was going to be killed. I suppose this shouldn't have been much of a surprise but this is an overused trope.Here's a comparison of the Rotten Tomatoes scores for the first two seasons. Although critics were slightly less favorable in their Season 2 reviews, audiences were much less impressed.

Who I am: Liberty University edition

This is one in a series of posts on the search for my biological family.

I was adopted soon after birth and have known from the earliest memories of that fact. I was always curious about my biological family but I really didn't have any way to find out who they were. That changed a little over three years ago as I began a new search for my biological parents based on some potentially new information.

I started with a blog post that included just about everything that I knew at the time. That post included some notes (probably from a caseworker) that were given to my adopted parents. At the time I had no idea how accurate or potentially valuable these notes would be. In 1975, these notes may have been considered non-identifying information but that probably would not be the case today.

Besides the notes, the two best potential sources of information for me were DNA testing (which had become relatively inexpensive) and a new law in Pennsylvania that would allow adoptees to have a copy of their original birth certificate (my official birth certificate has my adopted parents listed).

The DNA tests I took were very helpful and included information on relatedness, ethnicity,  and paternity. Unfortunately, because I did not know what I was looking for, the DNA tests by themselves did not give me what I needed. At this point, with the assistance of friends for whom I will be forever grateful, I hired an investigator who was able to take all the disparate pieces of evidence and find my birth mother.

I eventually connected with my birth mother online and we have chatted quite a bit but have not met yet. Through information she provided, I was eventually able to locate my birth father and
The best sources of information in finding my biological family and filling out the family tree came from Ancestry.com. The best resources on Ancestry are available through a paid subscription. Other sites of particular interest are FindAGrave.com (which is integrated into Ancestry but also available as a standalone site), and Newspapers.com (another paid site associated with Ancestry). Finally, digital scans of many old newspapers are available through the Proquest Historical Newspapers database which is available in many academic libraries such as the Jerry Falwell Library (and the source of Video DB forum 6). The family of my biological father lived in Baltimore for many years so the Baltimore Sun was a key resource for me. In sum, if you already know a lot about your family, you may be able to find good resources in print via libraries or a particular historical society. But for me and my investigator, the best resources were all online.

For DNA testing, I used a combination of Ancestry and FamilyTreeDNA.com. These tests are usually less than $100. To be sure, many people have ethical concerns about sharing their DNA with a private company so if you have those concerns, be sure to read the terms of service before you decide. If you're in a position like me, the potential benefits outweighed the costs.

Finding my birth parents is something that has taken me virtually all of my life. For many years I made no progress because the information I needed was not available. The proliferation of genealogy information online and the availability of inexpensive DNA tests has made the process much easier. And just to tie up a few loose threads: I did eventually get a copy of my original birth certificate. Only my mother's name was on it, but I had already located her by them. But for many others, this law is a crucial step for adoptees in finding their birth parents. And those original notes from the caseworker? Although I could not have known at the time, they were dead-on accurate.

References

Ancestry.com

FamilyTreeDNA.com

FindAGrave.com

Newspapers.com

Proquest Historical Newspapers

William Adams and Religion Beyond the Walls of the Church

Ever since the founding of the American Republic, authors have contemplated the relationship between Christianity the world outside of the church, whether it be government, the arts and sciences, or other intellectual pursuits. The Sabin Americana database at the Jerry Falwell Library provides a number of insightful examples of historical works that elaborate on the myriad of discussions regarding this relationship. The purpose of this blog post is to highlight two of them as a roadmap to further research regarding the importance of Christianity in early American history. Our focus will be on William Adams, the pastor at the Central Presbyterian Church in New York City.

Our first example is Adams's Christianity and Civil Government: A Discourse Delivered on Sabbath Evening, November 10, 1850. According to Adams, the purpose of this discourse was to "explain the duties of citizens according to Christian ethics." Adams outlined what he believed were important doctrines of the New Testament as they related to government. First, government was ordained by God and therefore the people should respect their government. And second, while God ordains civil government, He does not advance or prescribe a particular method of government. Despite this, Adams concedes that there are appropriate circumstances in which it is permissible to resist government, and cites the American Revolution as an example. According to Adams, a patriotic Christian citizen should be required to show that "the authority of God requires that resistance." To do this, people must discern God's will through their conscience:

We arrive at that high conviction by the calm exercise of our own reason; by intelligent thinking; by honest judgments, and by the use of all human and inspired wisdom which we can command. It will not be communicated to us miraculously. We must think; we must study; we must compare; we must judge; we must pray. 

Adams concedes that Christian ethics cannot give weight to a judgment of the constitutionality of any particular law. That is the province of the courts. Adams concludes that Christian ethics support the right of the people to revolution when they believe that God's will requires it, but that they should not do it rashly. Rather, they should come to that determination.

The second example is an address that Adams gave to his alma mater (Yale) in 1847. Entitled "Christianity the End and Unity of All Sciences and Pursuits," Adams argued that Christianity is the basis upon which everything else is built. According to Adams:

[The Cross of Christ] is the one fact which is central to all other facts; the one knowledge which is ultimate to all other departments of knowledge. We announce it here not merely as the Sabbath-day religion of the pulpit ; but as a great intellectual truth before an university of scholars, that the true philosophia prima is the knowledge of Christ; that the only object which gives relationship, harmony, unity, connection, to all this world's affairs, is the grand purpose of God to diffuse a stable and substantial happiness over the world, through the all-pervading beneficence of Christianity, as the central power ; and consequently, that our true interest and duty, in all the variety of our pursuits, is to devote ourselves to the service of our race, in seeking to make the world better.

According to Adams, the Enlightenment philosophy in continental Europe (especially in France) presaged an antagonism between science and religion. But in the United States, science and religion worked in concert and this would be the basis for intellectual advancement.

These two examples are representative of Adams's larger body of work which stressed the importance of Christianity beyond the walls of the church. Adams saw a larger role for religion in both civil government and in the advancement of arts and sciences.

References

Adams, William. Christianity and Civil Government: A Discourse Delivered on Sabbath Evening, November 10, 1850. New York: C. Scribner, 1851. Sabin Americana: History of the Americas, 1500-1926 (accessed February 13, 2020).

Adams, William. Christianity the End and Unity of All Sciences and Pursuits. New York: Leavitt, Trow & Company, 1847.

Adams, William, and New England Society in the City of New York. An Address Delivered Before the New England Society in the City of New-York, December 22, 1852. New-York: J.F. Trow, 1853. Sabin Americana: History of the Americas, 1500-1926 (accessed February 13, 2020).

Why Study History?

When people ask why I study history, the most often response I get (even from my kids) is that "history is boring." If history is taught as an endless succession of dates and facts to memorize, then that may well be an understandable response. When I think about this question more fully, I am reminded of the famous quote by the philosopher George Santayana who wrote in The Life of Reason that "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." It's a witty comeback when asked why history is important, but perhaps it's not as accurate as it seems. Instead, upon further reflection, I think the more appropriate answer is a (probably apocryphal) quote attributed to Mark Twain, who reportedly said that “History doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes.” Whether Twain said it or not, here now is a clever but also nuanced answer to the question, "Why Study History?"

These eight words provide a potent response. So let's unwrap them. Santayana's quote supposes that you can prevent bad things from happening in the present if you understand the missteps that people made in the past. Twain's “History doesn’t repeat itself" is a tacit rebuke to Santayana. These words suggest that studying history is important, but not because you can simply learn what happened in the past as a precise guide to understanding the present and future, or simply change the course of history by avoiding the mistakes of the past. To be sure, there is certainly value in this suggestion. The English philosopher and theologian G.K. Chesterton wrote about the value of understanding past:

In the matter of reforming things, as distinct from deforming them, there is one plain and simple principle; a principle which will probably be called a paradox. There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, "I don't see the use of this; let us clear it away." To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: "If you don't see the use of it, I certainly won't let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it."

Chesterton's fence is an inherently conservative outlook that supports change only when the past is understood. In this sense, remembering the past is part and parcel of understanding the present. But as to repetition, there are few examples of history repeating itself. Writers have long discussed the idea of historic recurrence but the "striking similarity" between supposedly reoccurring events is lacking.

This is where the second part of Twain's quote shines through: "but if often rhymes." This sounds so Twain that it is entirely understandable why a quote like this would be attributed to him (whether he actually said it or not). Rhyming suggests that historic recurrence has some validity to it, but that it is not so simple as Santayana would have it. Instead, history is more complicated than an endless succession of dates and facts to memorize. History is a story about the past involving events and personalities and complex relationships that are open to interpretation. If we allow it, history teaches us important lessons about human nature that resonate across generations and centuries. So while history may not repeat itself, we can assuredly learn something when history rhymes.

References

Chesterton, G.K. The Thing: Why I am a Catholic. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1930.

Edmondson, Michael. "Why Study History?" OAH Magazine of History 9, no. 4 (1995): 45-47.

Santayana, George. The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress. New York: Dover Publications, 1980.

Who I am: Ancestry.com and Geographic Granularity

So, this is really cool. AncestryDNA just released another update to their analysis which provides considerable more geographic granularity. In my case, they've broken down Ireland into 92 (!) smaller regions, and placed my origins into North Roscommon, which is a smaller area in County Roscommon centered around the small town of Elphin. Ancestry will then link you to DNA matches who are also from that small region. In my case, there are 124 matches (and several that match my birth surname). Add to this the fact that a number of historical records show that my ancestral family is from this very region.

Pennsylvania child sex crimes law reform and statutes of limitations

Pennsylvania State Rep. Mark Rozzi (who graduated from Muhlenberg High School several years before I did) has spent much of his time since his election in November 2012 advocating for reform of the state's child sex crimes laws. Rozzi himself was the victim of child sexual abuse by a priest at the age of 13.
However, reform efforts have been blocked, as this article indicates, by groups representing the Catholic Church and its insurance companies. According to the article, "[v]ictims say it’s clear that money talked in the Capitol last week because Senate President Pro Tempore Joseph Scarnati’s words were too familiar to be coincidental." The article then quotes Scarnati, Matt Haverstick (a Philadelphia lawyer representing the Harrisburg diocese and Greensburg diocese), and Sam Marshall (CEO of the Insurance Federation of Pennsylvania), all who voice concerns about the constitutionality of the proposed reforms, specifically those involving retroactive changes that would re-open previously lapsed statutes of limitation for civil lawsuits and even criminal charges.
The article points to state campaign finance records and suggests that insurance industry contributions to Scarnati and Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman are part of a insurance industry effort to sway the votes of legislators. That's a fair concern.
But what is also true is that at least some of the contemplated measures in the proposed reforms of the state's child sex crimes laws are in fact likely to be unconstitutional. As this article explains:

The bill, which has moved to the state Senate for final consideration, would specifically reform the state's statute of limitations laws.
Currently, survivors of child sex crimes have until age 30 to file a civil claim and until age 50 to file criminal charges against their abusers. Legislation to reform the law, which has been pushed to the Senate for final consideration, would give victims until age 50 time to file lawsuits and eliminate the statute of limitation entirely for criminal prosecutions.
He has also included an amendment to the bill that would create a two-year "window to justice," during which those survivors for whom the civil window has already closed could file a retroactive civil claim.

Retroactive changes to statute of limitations laws should set off constitutional alarm bells. Depending upon how it is enacted, the elimination of the statute of limitations for criminal prosecutions would almost certainly run afoul of the Supreme Court's ruling in Stogner v. California, 539 U.S. 607 (2003), which held that "a law enacted after expiration of a previously applicable limitations period violates the Ex Post Facto Clause when it is applied to revive a previously time-barred prosecution."
And while the U.S. Constitution's Ex Post Facto Clause only applies to criminal laws, Pennsylvania's state constitution has a remedies clause that prevents retroactive changes to both civil and criminal statutes of limitations. Regarding this legislation, most experts agree the changes would be unconstitutional (although at least some would disagree). Some have suggested that in the face of uncertain constitutionality, the legislature should pass the law and let the courts decide:

Sen. John C. Rafferty...said it was incumbent on the committee to consider the legislation before it. He said should issues of constitutionality arise, it was best left up to "people in black robes."

But I'm not sure this is right, either. The legislature (and the governor) play important roles in determining the constitutionality of proposed legislation. Deferring constitutionally questionable legislation to the courts is an abdication of responsibility by elected officials.
Reform of the state's child sex crimes laws is an important issue. It is also a highly-charged, emotional one. Finding a solution requires compromise between those who seek justice for victims of child sexual abuse and the restrictions set forth by the U.S. Constitution and Pennsylvania state constitution.

Tax Day Rant

When people tell me, "taxes are the price we pay to live in a civilized society," do you mean the society where:the President, without even consulting with Congress, much less getting authorization from them, launches 66 Tomahawk cruise missiles and 19 JASSM-ER's at a cost of $119M at a country that does not threaten the national security of the United States?the government uses civil asset forfeiture to seize property of people who are never convicted or even charged with a crime?the government continues to lock people up for minor drug offenses, then prevents them from getting a job or from voting because they have a felony on their record?the government is projected to spend a TRILLION more dollars than it collects just this year?unelected bureaucrats in administrative agencies write regulations, enforce those regulations, and then rule on those same regulations?the government (through the Federal Reserve) steals from you every day through inflation of the currency--a dollar in 1913 has lost over 96% of its value?This is the same government that enforced the Fugitive Slave Act until the Civil War. This is the same government that rounded up Japanese American citizens during WW2 and a Supreme Court of the same government who said it was constitutional. A Supreme Court who also legitimized compulsory sterilization with the most infamous of words, "Three generations of imbeciles are enough."
When you tell me taxes pay for a "civilized society," those are the things I think of. What about you? I don't want any part of it. I'm sure you can come up with a list of all the great things government does for you. But if you want to claim those things you also get the baggage of mine.

Podcast subscriptions, February 2018

Here is my list of podcast subscriptions as of February 2018:

Arms Control Wonk Podcast
The Brion McClanahan Show
Cato Daily Podcast
Contra Krugman
EconTalk
Grammar Girl
The Libertarian Podcast
Quality Policing Podcast
RadioLab Presents: More Perfect
Serial
Tech Policy Podcast
This American Life
The Tom Woods Show
The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe
The Week in Review at Abbeville Institute

Podcast subscriptions, December 2017

Here is my list of podcast subscriptions as of December 2017:

Arms Control Wonk Podcast
Cato Daily Podcast
Contra Krugman
EconTalk
Emperors of Rome Podcast
Grammar Girl
The Libertarian Podcast
RadioLab Presents: More Perfect
Serial
Tech Policy Podcast
The Brion McClanahan Show
The Tom Woods Show
The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe
The Week in Review at Abbeville Institute
This American Life

FYI: I recently switched to Pocket Casts for podcasts and some audiobooks.

Who I am: Meeting my birth father

This is one in a series of posts on the search for my biological family.
In a previous update, I had mentioned that I had (finally) identified both my birth mother and birth father. I have since reached out to my birth mother and we have chatted some online. It remains to be seen if we will meet, but I hope that we will eventually.
She also helped to identify my birth father. I reached out to him, and he responded. We talked on the phone several times, and eventually met in Baltimore a few months ago. I also found out that he was engaged to be married; and that I was invited to attend the wedding. How cool!!!
Fast-forward to this weekend: My family attended the wedding in Baltimore at the Sagamore Pendry Hotel:

It was an amazing weekend. We had a great time, and I was able to meet many new relatives that I never knew about!