Author Archives: skipper

Visiting the Folks

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The mariner returned recently from the Southwest. It was important to see his children again; that was a fulfilling experience. Mariner also went to the Southwest to visit the Sonora desert. He has never been to a desert biome and that experience, too, was fulfilling.

Now, about a week back in Iowa, he had time to absorb the impact of the visit. The desert experience reminded him that it has been a long time since he visited the planet he lives on.

Perhaps a visit to our home – our planet – is something each of us should do on a regular basis. Homo sapiens pushed aside Earth to make room for human-specific priorities. This is our prerogative; evolution has provided humans with propensities that encourage redesigning our environment to fit our needs and that enable us with technologies that can create new potential for our species. Wrapped up in our concrete cities, our electronic gadgetry, our quest for comfort and privilege, we forget that we are offspring of our planet.

Many people, of course, feel they return to nature to camp, jog, walk, and other human purposes. This is not the same thing. This is like visiting one’s invalid great grandfather not to restore the bond between the two of you, or to look genuinely after his needs but to impose on him your own personal accomplishments and interests. Truth be told, wise old grandpa couldn’t care less; he has his own reality to deal with. And so it is with the wise old parent of all of us: Earth.

Had we, over the millennia, considered our planet and its biosphere to be part of the formula for success, perhaps we may not be causing the sixth extinction, we may not have allowed Carbon imbalance, we may not have been so destructive that we have our own epoch – the Anthropocene, created because our trashiness has literally changed the surface of the Earth.

Every one of our species should visit Earth every few months. The visit entails setting aside human interpretations of what we see. This is a good time to practice empathy and imagination; empathy is something humans should exercise frequently anyway because empathy is not used when it should be.

Hello, field mouse. You seem busy. Why do you scurry so much? Is the space you live in adequate and satisfactory to your needs? You caught a cricket. Will you carry the cricket back to a nest? How can I help you defend your environment?

Hello, hawk. How far do you fly to find your meals? What do you eat? Are there places for you to nest safely? How can I help you defend your environment?

Hello, turtle. Hello, opossum. Hello, bluebird. Hello, frog. Hello, monarch butterfly. Hello, bee. Hello, rain forest. Hello, bat. Our fellow inhabitants suffer for our lack of empathy and respect for their environmental needs. We humans have the ability to push aside any life form and any ecological presence so we can build Interstates, convert hundreds of acres from open land to super malls with room for us to park our cars. Our capability to overrule nature is a power. Power corrupts. Homo sapiens is so corrupt, in fact, that we don’t provide proper habitat even for our own. Millions starve to death. War, an antiquated tool, is used too easily.

Recently, Stephen Hawking proposed that Homo sapiens will be extinct within 10,000 years. The first signs of human ritual occurred about 10,000 years ago. We are halfway through our time on this planet. No doubt, many other residents are cheering that day.

Mariner urges you to spend a half day in the wilderness – meaning more than ten blocks from a sidewalk and paved street. As you walk, take your time to find tiny little environments, small creature environments, and wide-ranging environments. Stop and empathize. The other inhabitants will appreciate the rare, good vibes.

Ancient Mariner

 

A last piece about The House that Tom Built

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It was mentioned that Tom never misses an opportunity to visit closeouts and auctions. Below is a collection of products provided by Tom’s ingenious skill with what most would pass up as useless items.

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Figure 1 Balusters are old bed frames.

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Figure 2 Recognize an antique hay rake?

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Figure 3 These connection brackets took some thought.

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Figure 4 Some things one can’t build by one’s self.

REFERENCE SECTION

Reporting on the monkey head transplant, mariner can understand that many readers considered this story as something out of the fringe crazy folks. From all efforts to confirm the story, mariner is confident the head transfer was made. A similar transplant occurred as early as the 1970’s. However, in a BBC article, a rational (if judgmental) evaluation is made by a mainstream neurosurgeon. See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1263758.stm

Cybernetics

Here and there, page six articles are appearing that suggest a contraction in DotCom investment. Hyperbolic headlines predict another ‘bubble’ collapse similar to that in 2000. Indicators are that the big old giants (IBM, Oracle, etc.) have eroding markets; further, there are only so many incremental improvements in Apple products and only so many market-worthy apps before app integration emerges. The mariner’s career was in the era of system integration at the customer level – that is taking discombobulated subsystems and developing new integration efficiencies primarily through the development of super databases. Today, that solution has evolved into cloud solutions; the era of customer-based data centers is over. The big IBM operation in the basement of a corporation is on its way out – just plug into a cloud.

The same is true of home-based processing. New 4G devices press subscribers to store data on proprietary clouds rather than on independent, home-based hardware. Very soon, as individuals upgrade their home operating systems, they will discover that owning operating system disks is no longer possible. The home user will have to rent operating systems and integrated programs like MS Office, Photoshop, and utility software like Norton and Firefox from the owners of the clouds – a marketplace more akin to Amazon.com than to an independent retailer. It is similar in function to the mariner developing new integration efficiencies in 1990-2010.

As any technology ages market pressures require that investment cash flow remain high. This is accomplished by functional integration. It happens in every industry. At the moment, there is a pause as automated information industries look for the next integration. Many prognosticators suggest that 3-D will be the next innovation: the TV screen will become your room – not just a screen – dress decently before you answer your deviseless voice from somewhere phone; a 3-D pad will float in front of you so you can punch emoticons; are you a gamer? Prepare to be your own warrior – electronic champions will be passé.

The mariner postulates simplistic examples that require huge processing capabilities – beyond even the latest in memory processing technology. To the chagrin of the mariner, privacy and security may be a memory as each of us becomes an amalgamated function to create integrated information.

Today, perhaps it is not a bubble collapse but just a gathering of the troops for the next invasion.

Ancient Mariner

Of Monkeys and Metamorphosis

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It’s too bad Joseph Campbell did not live to see a metamorphosis performed in a hospital operating room. Campbell had a clear understanding about consciousness, and its ability to press for life beyond duality. Metamorphosis is the experience of Jesus on the cross; Jesus is able to disassociate consciousness from the body – simply a container to feed the spirit. Pain, human history, and self-centeredness fall away.

A few days ago, it was announced that surgeons successfully transplanted an entire skull from one monkey to another. Immediately, so many questions filled the mariner’s head:

Given the first head’s disassociation from its body, did the first head experience metamorphosis?

Did the replacement head experience metamorphosis when it was removed from the contributing body? Was there confusion about the consciousness of self when it was associated with another body?

One can hope both monkeys were very close in size and confirmation else the replacement brain would assume that, more or less, this is like the other monkey and would issue muscle memory instructions apropos of the previous body. One can imagine that picking the nose may well be difficult.

It is common knowledge that both nurture and nature constitute the conditions of a primate body, brain, genetic propensities, and psychological behaviors. Is handedness not an issue for the new body of the transplanted skull? Monkeys grab things with all four limbs; this could be a life or death situation high in a tree.

But mariner squanders questions on the mechanics of brain-to-body management. What would Aristotle want to know? What would Freud want to know? If the new body was addicted to alcohol or good cigars, how would the transplanted brain deal with this?

If the contributing monkey liked parsnips but the new body didn’t, how would this be resolved?

We’ll have to wait for the interviews.

Not that the previous subject brings politics to mind – well, actually it does. Donald is joined by Sarah. Oh my, oh my! Sarah associates with Glenn. Oh my, oh my, oh my!!

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Oh my…

Ancient Mariner

 

The Morning Line

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Here’s the morning line out of Vegas:

Hillary Clinton 10/11 91%
Donald Trump 5/6 83%
Bernie Sanders 8/1 12%
Marco Rubio 10/1 10%
Ted Cruz 12/1 8%
Jeb Bush 35/1 3%
Chris Christie 50/1 2%
Joe Biden 70/1 1.5%
Michael Bloomberg 125/1 Less than 1%
Carly Fiorina 250/1 Even less than less than 1%
John Kasich 250/1 Even less than less than 1%
Ben Carson 275/1 Even less than less than 1%
Martin OMalley 500/1 Even less than less than 1%
Rand Paul 500/1 Even less than less than 1%
Mike Huckabee 2000/1 You’ll have an affair with your favorite movie star first
Rick Santorum 2000/1 You’ll have an affair with your favorite movie star first

 

The significant shift this week is Donald. Bettors are moving money behind him to cover bets on other candidates that are more likely to lose. More and more, bettors think Cruz has too many negatives; note that bettors think Rubio has a better chance than Cruz. Despite Chris Christie’s feisty style, beating on Hillary doesn’t seem to be paying off. Are we ready for Hillary v Donald?

The Iowa Caucuses are ten days away. It’s time to fill in your dance card!

your_vote_counts copy

Ancient Mariner

The House that Tom Built – 2

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After removing several hellish stumps and after pouring a massive concrete pad and waiting a good while until it dried, Tom began putting together columns, beams and trusses. This is not a standard frame; columns are six by six inches with a few eight by eights; columns are bolted to iron brackets buried in the foundation wall (see Fig. 1). Figure 1 steel posts that will be buried in concrete to receive weight from posts. Note the bolt hole that assures the posts will never move even in a tornado!

Beams and tr0004AA Support for exterior postsusses are six by eight or ten depending on the load. An intricate truss structure strong enough to support two homes will rise into place with the help of a giant crane.

When the house is completed, this massive truss and beam will come to life as a work of art. One can watch stress and load move across this superstructure as though it were flowing water – a poetic edifice that induces wonderment.

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The entire house is encased in wood: ceilings, walls, nooks and crannies, and floors except for the main open space. The mariner counted at least eight kinds of tree lumber in the house – including a hackberry wall in one of the baths. One doesn’t use hackberry very often because its markings tend not to be stable. Tom pulls it off, however, in a striking pattern.

Anyone who has built a house from scratch knows it is not a one step forward experience. There are one or two steps backward as well.

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Tom had just raised the trusses over the kitchen and bedroom on the first floor when a severe Arkansas storm leveled the superstructure – 6×8 inch beams and all. Further, as anyone knows who has taken on a similar project, there are those days… A few photographs to show backward steps:

 

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Finally, one can see the end in sight, er, not 4 or five years – more like 11 and counting. Being a guest in the home is a breathtaking experience mariner is unable to represent in this post. It is a piece of art in the Arkansas backcountry.

batts on boards

Ancient Mariner

The House that Tom Built

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Think first of someone with the talent of an artist: that intuitive awareness that most of us can appreciate but never emulate; think da vinci; think the Statue of Liberty by Bartholdi and Eiffel; think Eiffel Tower by Eiffel; think the Vietnam memorial by Maya Linn; think Frank Lloyd Wright. These artists have intuitive creativity enriched by a requirement for function – Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol need not apply. Now you understand the intuitive genius of Tom.

Tom is not famous; his artwork is not easily reproduced nor, perhaps, not widely wanted in an age when upscale homes must flaunt expensive materials, artificial elegance, Pier One decor, and look-alike neighborhoods. Tom never considered himself an artist. That awareness probably would have restrained his creative eye and certainly would have affected his enjoyment. Tom’s career as a PhD in soil microbiology and working for large agricultural chemical manufacturers similar to PPG and Uniroyal also was creative when he was presented with a new biological chemical to analyze or sent to a golf course or a farm or park because someone had to identify an unknown cause for poor plant performance. It was Tom who sent mariner a bottle of “stuff” to keep his Poinsettias from growing lanky after Christmas.

Tom had a dream. Long before he retired, Tom began drawing his dream house. Drawings that eventually had detail like how many square-nut half inch bolts he would need. He kept his drawings on laptop software to retain measurements and scale and how many two-by fours are needed – as if Tom knew what a 2×4 was. If he needed one, he would cut down a tree, cut the tree into large planks, dry the wood for a year in a specially heated school bus AKA wood drying kiln, run the plank through a planer and jointer, and then cut 2×4-inch pieces (real 2x4s, not 1 5/8 by 3 5/8).

Tom has a loving and extremely forgiving wife. She asked, as Tom finally retired and committed himself to building the house, “How long?” “Oh, about 4-5 years,” he said. Tom didn’t mention that first they would have to build and live in a small house and giant workshop. Tom quickly gained a reputation for identifying a project – which, one discovered, required another project before that one, and another before that one, and another before that one. The reader and mariner will go to a lumber yard on Saturday to buy some materials. When Tom said he was ready to start framing, that meant he had to build a sawmill, buy a school bus, retool the front-end loader so it could function like a fork lift, cut down and square 20 acres of trees, dry the bulk lumber for a year, cut the rough wood into framing pieces, and make massive steel plates to hold trusses together.

Tom is a skilled welder. By welding this and welding that, he has created, resurrected or modified tools from broken angle iron to major equipment like forklifts, front-end loaders and jeeps – redesigned to achieve unique tasks. The home handyman envies Tom’s collection of used and restored heavy duty saws, planers, jointers, sanders, routers, endless jigs and drills. Mariner wanders Tom’s workshop in awe of the nameless tools and devices made to accomplish unique tasks on a grand scale. For example, to turn the bus into a kiln, he welded steel drop down covers for the bus windows. These allow regulation of temperature; he installed a large heater – some would say a small furnace – to achieve the high temperatures needed.

Tom also is a perpetual visitor to auctions, sellouts of closing stores, lumber yards, farms and private sales of lumber, steel, plumbing supplies (Tom could start a museum about plumbing and heating), and, as his wife, the reader, and the mariner might consider – junk. One must admit that it is junk but Tom sees in it an artful reuse for a future project. Artful, indeed, as his artist’s eye will transform it into a tasteful creation or a needed function.

1-Sharp Tailed Grouse with skink for breakfast; Serengeti in background.

 Tom is blessed that he owns 120 acres as his share among his siblings. The house site sits on a high hill overlooking a large field that once had grazing cattle but now has an idyllic Serengeti appeal. Wildlife abounds in this remote region of Arkansas. Deer families roam the ‘Serengeti’ as if they were Thompson’s Gazelles. An unexpected visitor for those not familiar with this part of Arkansas is the domestic but feral hog; not the razorback or the peccary – but a relative of Wilbur. They are destructive as hogs tend to be and willingly tear up gardens much worse than Iowa rabbits. Tom converted his father’s cattle trailer – made from cattle fence and metal posts – into a hog trap that catches them alive. Tom and his wife make sublime smoked pork!

The project began in earnest around 2003-2004 when Tom laid spray paint lines on the location. (More in another post.)

REFERENCE SECTION

  • Stephen Hawking is doing a series for BBC wherein he says the human race will disappear sometime between 100 and 10,000 years but not to worry: the human seed will live on in space – if we make it through the next 100 years! Buy your ticket now. See:

http://www.cnet.com/news/stephen-hawking-were-about-to-wipe-ourselves-out-but-dont-worry/

  • The reader may be aware that for years US News magazine has ranked US colleges and Universities using an elaborate set of conditions; the effort has drawn general praise by readers and education pundits. Now US News has applied its research model to nations ranked from the best country to live in to the worst country to live in. It ranked 60 nations. The US came in fourth behind Germany, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The website is interactive so the reader can drill down into a country’s stats and history. See:
  • http://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/overall-full-list
  • Fareed Zakaria has a Sunday show on CNN (Global Public Square aka GPS). Mariner has recommended GPS in the past. This past week (1/17), he focused on radicalism and how social media is the hotbed of radicalization. Zakaria points to a recent personal experience where atrocious lies about him were posted and went viral (called trolling). See Fareed on CNN https://twitter.com/FareedZakaria/status/689238727818932228 or read about his recent attack from social media in his column in the Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/fareed-zakaria

Ancient Mariner

The Iowa Caucus Cometh

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It is probable that Mariner has harped too often about how important the 2016 election is. However, it is true. And in a few days Iowan readers will participate in phase I of the election process – the Iowa Caucus. Soon thereafter until July, all other states and territories will participate as well.

To let the mariner rest assured he has done all he can to help voters understand the importance of their vote and the issues that the voter is actually deciding, whether directly or by inference, the mariner provides the final countdown list for casting the voter’s most influential impact in the caucus/primary and in November.

  1. Identify the key issue that you want to promote in this election. The broader it is, the better it is. For example, a narrow issue is whether to provide a path to citizenship for resident immigrants. Many voters stop here and cast an emotional opinion based on racism or on conscientious treatment. Mentally step up a level and think about cultural, historical and economic ramifications; how will the immigration issue help or hinder each of these; what subsequent issue may emerge; will that subsequent issue be on a path to improvement for our country?
  2. What legislation, government attitude, or new action must be changed to help the key issue in number 1?
  3. Quickly research each candidate on websites, news sources, and use your computer search engine to search the candidate’s history and future commitments that will affect you key issue. This task, though a quick one taking minutes to an hour, is not usually used. Instead, a voter usually listens to friends, talks with co-workers and family. In 2016, however, it is true information about the candidate, not gossip or news broadcasts that will magnify the accuracy and influence of your vote.
  4. Disregard incumbency, appearance and popular personality. Too many popular, attractive, schmaltzy incompetents are elected on these characteristics alone. Avoid evaluations like “With which candidate would you feel more comfortable having dinner?” Instead, ask a similar question: “With which candidate would you feel more confident when you hand your key issue to them?”
  5. Consider political ramifications. Any elected President will need at least one Congressional house to successfully adopt your issue; on the state level, which candidate will address gerrymandering, or infrastructure, or unions, or health care – all are local issues that will promote or defeat your key issue as the near future plays out.
  6. Finally, ask yourself whether a candidate wants to promote new, modern solutions that will move the US and your key issue forward or whether the candidate berates current conditions with a desire to stabilize or remove ‘troublesome’ programs to return to solutions that have existed in the past and denies exploratory opportunities for uses of budget, civil service, and unanimity among classes, races, education – and perhaps your key issue.

The last point is the key issue for the mariner. The broadest level is addressing all our nation’s antiquated solutions that have not helped the nation to date and likely will block progress when progress is the answer. At this moment in US history, the only important question is “Will the nation and its population experience a fresh wind in the decade following 2016?”

Ancient Mariner

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REPORT TO READERS

This is a quarterly report of transactions on iowa-mariner.com for the last ninety days. A reader in each city has read the mariner’s website at least once each month; the exception is Phoenix where the mariner’s family spent several days. Many readers read several posts on each visit.

Readers were from 15 nations:

United States (240 readers)             Belgium (1 reader)                Kenya (1 reader)

Brazil (14 readers)                            Canada (1 reader)                Cambodia (1 reader)

United Kingdom (2 readers)             Algeria (1 reader)                  Philippines (1 reader)

India (2 readers)                              Ecuador (1 reader)                 Sweden (1 reader)

Italy (2 readers)                               Indonesia (1 reader)               Venezuela (1 reader)

 

Readers were from the following cities1

 

1. Grinnell  21. Sioux Falls  41. Las Pinas
2. Phoenix (n/a)  22. Casas Adobes  42. Boras
 3. Hyattsville  23. Edegem  43. Coachella
 4. Carney  24. Fortaleza  44. Irvine
 5. Fort Madison  25. Curitiba  45. San Diego
 6. Los Angeles  26. Londrina  46. Chicago
 7. Denver  27. Porto Alegre  47. Hays
 8. Donnellson  28. Cacador  48. Seneca
 9. Branson  29. Imbituba  49. Kansas City
 10. (not set)  30. Campinas  50. New York City
 11. San Antonio  31. Sao Paulo  51. Oklahoma City
 12. Crestline  32. Pickering  52. Houston
 13. Glendale  33. London  53. Salt Lake City
 14. Centerville  34. Reading  54. Madison
 15. Great Bend  35. Jakarta  55. Caracas
 16. El Paso  36. Mumbai  56. Iguatu
 17. Lawrence Township  37. Kolkata  57. Itapevi
 18. Rio de Janeiro  38. Ancona  58. Lagoa da Prata
 19. San Francisco  39. Francavilla Fontana  59. Sumare
 20. Las Vegas  40. Phnom Penh  

The highest daily access was 120 readers with an average of 87.

1 23% of readers were not included because they did not access the website three months in a row.

REFERENCE SECTION

The mariner has been searching for a reasonable voice to add to coverage of this strange 2016 campaign. There are many who qualify but the mariner has settled on Tavis Smiley. Smiley is a voice inadequately heard on mainstream news analysis (if one considers PBS not mainstream). Tavis is not a name in the book world; he has published none save a biography that was ghost-written. However, he has made short subject videos about many issues and hosts his own daily show on PBS as well as a weekend show. Periodically, Tavis Smiley may appear on CNN and MSNBC. To those who are unaware of his political/cultural contributions, his claim to fame is that he is married to Fredricka Whitfield, an anchor on CNN.

For example, as a pundit Smiley offers insights that dig into the rhetoric of Donald, he leaves the candidate looking like the empty box he may be. Tavis is African American; many of his topics reflect African American priorities but not out of context with the larger citizen issues of our time. He states as a matter of fact that Donald will carry “few if any black voters.”

Tavis Smiley is sensitive to the cultural crisis that exists in politics today and judges candidates on their intent actually to break the many roadblocks and step into the future. For sample shows and website, see:

Website: http://www.tavistalks.com/

PBS videos: http://www.pbs.org/show/tavis-smiley/

Smiley comments about campaign: http://www.bing.com/news/search?q=PBS+VIDEO+Tavis+Smiley&qpvt=pbs+video+tavis+smiley&FORM=EWRE

Ancient Mariner

In Another Port – Day 2

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The Van is docked for three days near san Antonio – south of San Antonio to be precise; a different biome from the one above San Antonio that shares weather with Dallas. Drop in latitude to Corpus Christi (Latitude 27.7°N) and one approaches the influence of the equatorial zone (Latitude 23.5°N). The Equatorial zone includes the Caribbean, Jamaica, Cancun, Mexico, and Costa Rica. When warm leaves Iowa, it turns up in the Equatorial zone similar to the monarch butterfly.

The mariner and his wife are resting under blue skies, temperatures near the seventies and a wafting breeze. The first mate was able to return to her tradition of walking while talking on her cell. The grounds at this Hyatt Residency encompass a golf course and 400 acres full of trails. The first mate was nearly bonked by a golf ball. It is as winter should be.

Tomorrow we weigh anchor and head to Greater Dallas (Latitude 33°N) to visit relatives. Sadly, this is the first leg of our journey back to the frozen north.

On to another subject, mariner is disturbed that the media cannot be sued for donating its air time to Donald’s campaign. Donald has a role, of course, and likely, it is a needed role if the US is to shed the remnants of a political culture incapable of leading the country forward. Nevertheless, the mentally retarded news media will take a nickel instead of a dime every time because a nickel is larger than a dime. In other words, the candidates, both republican and democrat, are virtually unknown as to what they stand for because Nazi campaigner Donald is entertaining – if not substantive. God forbid the news media would want to share substantive news.

Even so, Donald can brag that he doesn’t have to buy ads on TV. They already are paid for. The real cost is a public that remains confused about the real issues and how each politician will deal with them. Meanwhile, we watch a Donald event cheerfully abuse and throw out a Muslim. Now that is news – or it should be. Donald’s retort, dutifully reported by news media without noting underlying, serious consequences, is “They really hate us!”

REFERENCE SECTION

Mariner has a sweatshirt that says “eschew obfuscation.” He laments the demise of clarity and specific meaning in our English language. Every day words disappear that would have helped clarify. Mariner suggests that the reader reference the dictionary more often; the mariner double checks the nuance of words several times while writing a single post. Perhaps Donald has latched on to something: It isn’t content that matters – it’s just easier not to bother.

Buy a dictionary.

Ancient Mariner

Obama-Cruz and the Donald Interpretation

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Listening to Donald (with only one ear, mariner promises), it seems he is using the original Constitutional language defining “natural born citizen” and disregarding centuries of footnotes attached to this language by Congress and the Supreme Court. Providing a very general interpretation of his own, the mariner finds that the mindset of the founding fathers – freshly independent of European and especially British oversight – wanted to assure that only an American born on American soil would be eligible to be President. Section 2, Article 1 states simply and directly:

“No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.”

Strictly interpreted, Donald may have a slight chance at defending his opinions with a Supreme Court case on the subject. However, the Supreme Court (we hope) will take into account the subsequent “clarifications and exceptions” For example, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

“The Citizenship Clause of Section 1 in the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which states that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” This clause represented Congress‘s reversal of a portion of the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision which had declared that African Americans were not and could not become citizens of the United States or enjoy any of the privileges and immunities of citizenship.

The Civil Rights Act of 1866 had already granted U.S. citizenship to all persons born in the United States “not subject to any foreign power”. The 39th Congress proposed the principle underlying the Citizenship Clause due to concerns expressed about the constitutionality of the Civil Rights Act during floor debates in Congress. The framers of the Fourteenth Amendment sought to entrench the principle in the Constitution in order to prevent its being struck down by the Supreme Court or repealed by a future Congress.”

In the abstract, African American issues aside, the United States has been a magnet for waves of immigrants since the Puritans. Continuously, even today, citizenship continues to be an issue between liberals (Send me your poor…) and conservatives (Send your poor back where they came from). Modern commerce has a way of amalgamating necessary skills and education in the US regardless of citizenship via green cards and work permits – which is a different issue but still clouds citizenship for the likes of German scientists moved to the US at the end of the Second World War (only one of many obfuscating examples). Further examples are rampant in show business – Trevor Noah from South Africa, John Oliver from Britain, and Craig Ferguson from Scotland just to mention late show comedians.

Strictly speaking, one must be born in the US and its territories to be President. The point in all this is that citizenship in the US is a changing phenomenon as the nation has changing needs. For the moment, several significant world organizations have said that the West has aging populations to the point that economic futures will be affected (consider our concern about the solvency of Social Security). Perhaps the US should welcome as many immigrants as possible to protect the future economy of our nation. That’s one way to assure solvency in our Social Security system.

To wrap it up, Donald is wrong about Obama’s citizenship although one’s political party weighs in: A poll finds that 53 percent of Republicans still doubt Obama’s citizenship. At the same time, an overwhelming 70 percent don’t have any doubt Cruz is American and eligible to be president.

The Naturalization Act of 1790, which didn’t deal with presidential eligibility but provides that “the children of citizens of the United States, that may be born beyond sea, or out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural born citizens.” They argue that Congress was clarifying what “natural born citizen” meant.

But University of San Diego School law professor Michael Ramsey says no one in Congress at the time said that the purpose of that statute was to define the term used in the Constitution.

“If children born abroad to American parents were natural born citizens, there would be no need for the 1790 statute,” Widener University law professor Mary Brigid McManamon, who agrees with Mr. Trump, told Law Blog. For a full accounting of the subject see:

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2016/01/13/the-cruz-eligibility-question-legal-scholars-weigh-in/

Donald has raised a pesky legal issue for Cruz. Given the conservative nature of the Supreme Court, this case may never reach the Court or the Justices will patch-quilt a decision in Cruz’s favor based on the ever changing definition of “natural born citizen.”

Ancient Mariner