The Birther Issue

Posted on February 27, 2016 by Mark

Donald Trump. When Barrack Obama first ran for president in 2008, Donald Trump claimed that Obama did not meet the Constitutional requirements to be President of the United States. Because that became a major issue in the election, I gave my history students a class on the Constitutional requirements for the job of president. I plan to give that class again later this month because the birther issue is back in the news. Ted Cruz was born in Canada, and because of that, a number of people (including some famous experts on Constitutional law) have questioned whether Ted Cruz is qualified to be president. Here is what I told my students in 2008.

There are 3 requirements for the job of President of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.

The president must be 35 years of age.
The president must have lived in the United States for at least 14 years. (The people who wrote the Constitution put in this provision because they wanted to be sure that the president was someone who understood the American people and was familiar with the country. They didn’t want someone who had spent his life in foreign countries.)
The president must be a natural born citizen.

Birth Certificates. You will notice that there is no Constitutional requirement that the president has to have a birth certificate. You sometimes hear people say that the president has to have a birth certificate to prove that he was born in the United States, but that isn’t true. Although it is now standard procedure for someone to issue a birth certificate when a baby is born in a hospital in the United States, very few people prior to the 20th Century had birth certificates. Most of America’s 18th and 19th Century presidents were born at home, and on farms or on the frontier. There was nobody present when they were born to issue a birth certificate. The first U.S. president to be born in a city was Teddy Roosevelt, and he was a 20th Century president. We know that George Washington did not have a birth certificate. Neither did Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, or Abraham Lincoln. There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution about birth certificates.

Natural Born Citizen. The Constitution says that in order to be a senator or congressman, you merely need to be a citizen, but in order to be president, you have to be a natural born citizen. What’s the difference? Nobody knows for sure. The Constitution does not define the term ‘natural born citizen’. Congress has never passed a law defining this term, and the Supreme Court has never made a ruling on this issue. A number of people have run for president who were born in foreign countries, but none of them won, so the Supreme Court never heard a test case about this question. Below are the names of some of the men who ran for President of the United States, but who were not born in a state.

George Romney, the Governor of Michigan and father of Mitt Romney. He ran for president in 1968. George Romney was born in Mexico. His parents lived in Mexico most of their lives and were married in Chihuahua. Was George Romney a natural born citizen? (I once met George Romney. It was at the Oakland Airport Hilton while he was Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.)
John McCain was the Republican candidate for president in 2008. He born in the Panama Canal Zone, which never part of a state. McCain came very close to getting elected. He got 48% of the popular vote.
Al Gore was born in Washington, D.C., which is also not a state.
Barry Goldwater was born in Arizona, but when Arizona was a territory, not a state.
Lowell Weicker, the Governor of Connecticut, ran for president in 1980. He was born in Paris, France.

Is Ted Cruz A Natural Born Citizen? If Ted Cruz is elected president, the Supreme Court will undoubtedly be immediately petitioned to decide whether he is or isn’t a natural born citizen. Ted Cruz could have a problem. The Panama Canal Zone was under the jurisdiction of U.S. law when John McCain was born there, and Washington, D.C. has always been under the jurisdiction of U.S. law. However, Canada is a foreign country and has never been under the jurisdiction of U.S. law. Also, both of Ted Cruz’s parents applied to vote in Canadian elections. That could be a big problem for Cruz. There is a long established legal principal that says that if you are a U.S. citizen and move to a foreign country and vote in their elections, that is evidence that you no longer consider yourself a U.S. citizen. Is Ted Cruz qualified to be president? A number of famous legal scholars have written articles on this subject. Some say that Ted Cruz is a natural born citizen. Others say he isn’t. If Ted Cruz is elected president, the Supreme Court will have to decide the question.

Snob Appeal Chocolate and Hamantashen

Posted on February 27, 2016 by Mark

SNOB APPEAL CHOCOLATE.

Would you pay $14,000 for a box of 6 chocolate truffles? Believe it or not, that is what Ross Ltd. is charging. Ross is located in Kazakhstan, an oil-rich country with petro-millionaires and billionaires, although most people living there are dirt poor. The prices that some rich people are willing to pay for snob appeal products always amazes me. Have these people nothing better to do with their money? If you want to know what could possibly justify a price of $14,000 for a box of chocolates, the answer is simple – NOTHING! To see what these truffles look like, go to: $14,000 Truffles.

NEW IN MY CHOCOLATE ROOM.HAMANTASHEN. I’ve got handmade raspberry and apricot filled hamantashen in the chocolate room, bottom-dipped in semisweet and milk chocolate. Because they are handmade, no 2 are exactly alike. This is a seasonal item and will only be available for a short time. The word ‘hamantashen’ means ‘Haman’s pockets’ in Yiddish and German.P.S. – I don’t often make make chocolate truffles. They are too time consuming. However, if you are willing to pay me $14,000, I will make up a very nice box of truffles – just for you!

Ants!

Posted on January 31, 2016 by Mark

This is ant season in the San Francisco bay area. Everybody’s got them, including me. Why are ants such a problem at this time of year? First of all, it’s the rainy season, and ants don’t like to get wet. Like you and me, ants cannot breathe under water. Ants would prefer to be in a dry place, like your apartment, rather than a wet ant nest. Ants also don’t like to get cold. In winter, they would prefer to be in a warm place, like your apartment rather than a cold ant nest. Ants are amazing and resourceful creatures, which explains why they have been on Earth, essentially unchanged, for millions of years. Ant nests are complex and wonderfully engineered structures. Ant nests have chambers that are warmer than the outside air, they have food storage, sleeping, and nursery chambers, and they build drainage systems throughout their nests to take away rain water from the chambers in which they live.

So, how do you get rid of ants? First of all, you must take away their source of food. As long as ants can get to an easy meal in your apartment, you will never get rid of them. Ants can get into cabinets, closed boxes, and garbage cans. They have no difficulty climbing up walls and kitchen cabinets. If you have ants, put your food in containers that they cannot get into. For example, transfer breakfast cereal from boxes to jars with tight fitting lids, zip lok bags, or store the cereal in your refrigerator. Take out your kitchen garbage frequently. Keep your floors and countertops free of food. A stale crust of bread can feed a whole colony of ants for a week, and the whole colony will come to get it.

Second, spray places where you see ants with Orange Guard. This product can be hard to find in stores, so if you don’t have it, come to me, and I will give you a free bottle. Most brands of ant killer contain worrisome chemicals, like arsenic. Orange Guard is the only ant killer approved for use by the state health department for use in restaurant kitchens. That is because it is non-toxic, at least non-toxic to people. The active ingredient is orange peel oil, which is very toxic to insects. Oranges produce this oil in their peels in order to prevent insects from boring through to get the juice inside. Orange Guard kills ants instantly, and any ant that crosses an area that you previously sprayed with it will die immediately. Your apartment will smell like oranges for a day or two after you use the product, but your ants will quickly disappear.

The Myth of Nazi Efficiency.

Posted on January 31, 2016 by Mark

I teach history at a junior high school in Orinda. I talk to my students fairly often about widely held historic myths. Some historic myths are harmless, but others are dangerous. When people believe that a historic myth is true, they will sometimes act on that myth with terrible consequences. I think this will be a big year for historic myth making. This is a presidential election year, and presidential candidates are always a major source of historic misinformation – especially when talking about people in the other party.

One of the most persistent and dangerous of all historic myths is the myth of Nazi efficiency. According to this often-told story, the Nazis were ruthlessly efficient. The logic of this myth is that since the Nazis were not constrained by moral considerations, they were able to maximize economic production through a system of slave labor and confiscation of resources. I have heard this story all my life, and I know people who believe that it is true. While the myth of Nazi effciency sounds logical, it is completely wrong. The Nazis were not ruthlessly efficient; they were just ruthless. For the Nazis, economic efficiency never came first. Proving that their racial theory was correct always came first. As a result, a lot of competent workers and managers were removed from their jobs by the Nazis simply because they weren’t ‘pure Aryans’, a term that was never clearly defined. These people were often replaced by incompetent Nazi party members simply because they had ‘Aryan Certificates’ proving their ‘racial purity’, not because they knew how to do their jobs. Incompetent Nazi party officials took positions of power throughout German industry. Graft, cronyism, nepotism, and bribery were so rampant that the economy of Nazi Germany was never really on a wartime footing. Throughout the war, German factories continued to produce luxury consumer goods for people with money or party connections. Incredibly, many German aircraft and tank factories operated from 9 to 5 and were closed on weekends right until the end of the war. In the United States, on the other hand, the aircraft factories never closed. They operated 24 hours a day, every day, 7 days a week. In Nazi-controlled Europe, trains and airplanes badly needed by the German army were used throughout the war to transport luxury consumer goods to Germany from the occupied countries, including perfume from France, lobsters from Norway, and stolen art from all over Europe. Trains transporting Jews and others to death camps had the right-of-way over troop and ammunition trains headed for the front, and millions of Jews Poles, and Russians with valuable job skills, like doctors and engineers, were simply murdered. After the war was over, economists from the United States, England, France, and Russia went to Germany to study the Nazi economic system. They all returned home with the same conclusion – there was nothing to learn from the Nazis about how to run an economy. The reason that the myth of Nazi efficiency is so dangerous is that the people who believe that the myth is true think that the way to stimulate a stagnant economy is to ‘go Nazi’, and that is a terrible idea!

Mold.

Posted on December 31, 2015 by Mark

Mold is a very common problem here in the San Francisco Bay Area, especially in the rainy season. Mold is not dirt. It is a living organism. Mold produces stains on walls and makes clothes smelly musty There are a lot of myths about mold. First of all, there is no such thing as a ‘mold-free’ apartment. Mold is everywhere. It is in every room in your house. It is in your car, it is in your clothes, it is in your drawers. There is mold in every restaurant, coffee shop, and doctor’s office that you have ever visited. If you have cheese in your refrigerator, then there is mold in your refrigerator because adding mold to milk is how they make cheese.

The most important thing to remember is that mold needs moisture. That is why there is a lot more mold here in the bay area during the winter rainy season than in the summer. To reduce or kill mold, you must address the conditions that allow mildew to grow.

AIR. Mold likes moist, stagnant air. Let in fresh air, particularly in high humidity areas, such as the bathroom and kitchen. Keep a window ajar or use an exhaust fan, if there is one, to allow the air to circulate. Mold and mildew can grow quickly in wet clothes and towels. Don’t let wet clothes or towels sit on the floor or in a pile. Wash and dry wet clothes and towels frequently.

LIGHT. Mold grows in dark places. Let in sunlight. Don’t keep your window shades closed all the time. There are many unhealthy micro-organisms in addition to mold that thrive in dark places that are killed by sunlight. This explains why green mold grows on the north side of trees but not on the south side. Living in a perpetually dark room is very unhealthy. That is why it is illegal in California to use a room without a window or skylight as a bedroom.

HEAT. Mold likes heat. Don’t overheat your house.

Mold Remover. There are many mold removal products sold in supermarkets and drug stores. Make sure that the product says that it disinfects. Be sure that you are not buying soap scum remover, which is often placed next to the mold remover in stores and often comes in very similar containers. If you want a free bottle of mold killer, you can pick one up in my chocolate room! I always keep it in stock. Read the label. To remove mold on a bathroom ceiling, use a sponge mop on a stick. That way, you can clean the ceiling without getting on a ladder.

Bleach. Don’t use bleach to remove mold or mildew. While bleach will kill mold, it is much less effective in preventing mold from returning than mold remover. Bleach may damage your walls, and your room will smell like an over-chlorinated swimming pool when you are done.

The Dangers of Clutter and Hoarding.

Posted on December 31, 2015 by Mark

On December 27, 2015; a fire destroyed a house near where I live on the 2800 block of Acton Street near Russell. The house was occupied by its owner, Billy Carroll. Firemen were unable to enter the house through the front door because there was a pile of stuff placed up against the door making it impossible to open. The firemen eventually found another way into the house, but Carroll was in the center of the house by that time, and the firemen could not reach him because piles of storage boxes blocked their way. By the time the firemen were able to get to Mr. Carroll, he was dead.

This story is not unique or even unusual. Excessive clutter is responsible for countless fires and deaths every year. Hoarding and the accumulation of stuff is a danger to the health, safety, and lives or everybody living in that building and the neighboring buildings. Are you storing stuff in your hallways, on stairs, or near exits that people have to walk around or avoid? If your apartment was full of smoke, would firemen be able to navigate through your place without falling down or tripping over stuff? Are you storing stuff near furnaces? What happened to Billy Carroll is more common than you might think. Just within 1 block of my house, I know of 2 other houses that were destroyed by fire in which people died as a result of their clutter. There are a lot of reality TV shows about hoarding. Perhaps you have seen one. In these shows, no one dies as a result of their hoarding, but reality TV is not reality. In the real world, hoarding and clutter is dangerous, and people die as a result of it every day. When is the last time you looked over your house or apartment objectively and asked yourself what would happen if your place was on fire and filled with smoke. Would you be able to get out? With limited visibility, would firemen be able to get in and move around inside your place to rescue you?

Do Tenants Have A Right To Party?

Posted on November 30, 2015 by Mark

The short answer is – NO. There is no such thing as the ‘right to party.’ It is just wishful thinking on the part of tenants, especially college students, that as American citizens, you have a right to party. The ‘right to party’ is not a recognized legal concept. There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution about the right of citizens to have parties. There is no place in the United States where federal, state, or local laws protect the right of citizens to have parties. There is also nothing in the Bill of Rights or U.N. Charter about it. Partying is not a human right.

‘We are fighting for our right to party!’ I am writing this piece because on October 31, 2015; there was a huge riot in Berkeley. It was Halloween and the night of the big UC Berkeley – USC football game, both considered by some students to be good reasons for getting drunk. Between 3,000 and 5,000 students participated in the ensuing riot on Frat Row. Car windshields were smashed, people were physically assaulted, police were assaulted too, gunshots were fired by unknown persons, and there were several arrests. Some of the students who were arrested, and I assume drunk, told police and that they were ‘fighting for our right to party.’ See: Frat Row riot.

Lease and other contracts restricting or banning parties are legal and enforceable. Many leases restrict or ban tenants from having parties. In college towns like Berkeley, nearly all leases restrict parties in some way. Many leases ban partying outright. In many places in the U.S., homeowners are also banned from having parties. It’s true. Many condominium CC&Rs (Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions) prohibit parties or limit the number of people who can come to a party or set an ending time for parties. There are also a lot of planned communities in the United States where individual homeowners are prohibited from having parties by deed restrictions. Leases and other contracts restricting and banning parties are enforceable in court everywhere in the United States.

Notifying the neighbors in advance. There is a widely held myth that you have a right to have a loud party late at night, providing that you notify your neighbors in advance. That is not true! This too is just wishful thinking. Simply announcing in advance that you intend to do something that is illegal does not give you the right to do it. For example, it is not O.K. to rob a bank providing that you give the bank advance notice that you intend to rob them. Somebody idiot actually did that here in Berkeley. Many years ago, there used to be a Bank of America branch near my house across the street from the Ashby BART station. It was once robbed by a lone gunman. The bank robber was quickly caught. At his trial, the bank robber told the court that he sent a letter to the branch manager a week before he robbed the bank informing him of his intention to rob the bank. The bank manager acknowledged that he received and read the letter but didn’t do anything about the it because he thought the letter was a prank. The bank robber was found guilty and sent to prison. He did not get off because he told the bank in advance that he planned to rob them. The idea that it is legally O.K. to have loud parties late at night providing that you told the neighbors in advance is an old myth that gets college students into trouble, sometimes big trouble.

Disturbing the peace. Preventing your neighbors from going to sleep at a reasonable hour, is illegal. You can be cited and fined or even arrested! In addition, Berkeley has one of the toughest noise pollution laws in the United States. Berkeley policeman have decibel meters in their patrol cars. People having loud parties at night are regularly issued fines and sometimes arrested. The minimum fine in Berkeley for this is $750.00! Plus you could wind up with a arrest record and/or a criminal record.

Host responsibility. If you are going to have alcohol at a party in your home, remember that hosts are legally responsible for the consequences of their guest’s excessive drinking, whether you provide the booze or whether your guests bring their own. If someone gets drunk in your home, gets in his car, and has an accident while driving under the influence, you can be held responsible for the accident, even though you weren’t there. A lot of people think that drunk driving is a victimless crime, providing that nobody was hurt. Some people even think that drunk driving is funny, like in the ‘Arthur’ movies. I am not one of those people! According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control), 4,000 people are arrested every day for driving under the influence in the United States, and 1,000 Americans are killed every month by drunk drivers. When I was in college, I was nearly killed by a drunk driver myself. I was a passenger in a vehicle that was hit hard by a drunk driver who passed out at the wheel. Since that experience, I have had no sympathy for drunk drivers. If someone is unfit to drive a car, don’t let him!

Please remember – regardless of what you hear to the contrary – there is no such thing as the ‘right to party.’ You will just get into trouble if you believe it’s true.

Free Firewood.

Posted on November 30, 2015 by Mark

If you would like free firewood and have a fireplace or wood-burning stove, give me a call! I give firewood to my tenants when I have it, and right now, I have lots of it. Its mostly redwood and fir cutoffs left over from construction projects. The wood is unpainted and cut to fireplace size. Remember, never burn painted or varnished wood, plywood, or particle board. These products give off dangerous chemical fumes when burned. And never use your fireplace as a trash burner.

California Bans ‘Redskins.’ So What About Confederate Heroes?

Posted on October 30, 2015 by Mark

Last month, Governor Jerry Brown signed a law making California the first state in the nation to ban public schools from using the term ‘redskins” as a team name or school mascot. As a result of this law, 4 high schools in California will have to change the names of their teams. They will have a year to come up with new names. All 4 of the schools are in poor communities in the Central Valley. The principals of all 4 schools said that the only reason they hadn’t already changed the names of their teams was because of the cost. They say they don’t have the money to buy new uniforms. This new law raises a question in my mind: “What, if anything, is California going to do now about the many public buildings, monuments, parks, etc. in this state that are named after Confederate heroes?” (I teach Civil War history at Orinda Intermediate School.)

John & Joseph LeConte. California was always a free state, and it was a Union state in the Civil War, but nevertheless, there are monuments to Confederate heroes all over California, including right here in Berkeley. The biggest building on the U.C. Berkeley campus is LeConte Hall, named after the brothers John and Joseph LeConte. John LeConte was an early president of the University of California, and Joseph LeConte headed the university’s physics and natural history departments. The LeConte brothers grew up in Georgia on their father’s plantation, where the family owned over 200 slaves. During the Civil War, the LeConte brothers volunteered their services to the Confederacy. The Confederate government gave the LeConte brothers the job of solving their most urgent chemical problem – making gunpowder. When the Civil War began, there was very little gunpowder in the South, and they had no way to make it. All of the gunpowder and chemical factories in the United States were in the North. The Confederacy also couldn’t import gunpowder because the Union navy was blockading southern ports. The leaders of the Confederate government knew that unless they found some way to make large quantities of gunpowder, the South would quickly lose the war.

Gunpowder is a mixture of 3 ingredients: sulphur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate, which is also known as niter or saltpeter. The South had plenty of sulphur, and it is easy to make charcoal. However, the South didn’t have much potassium nitrate. Potassium nitrate is a basic ingredient in gunpowder, and there is no substitute. You can’t make gunpowder without it. The LeConte brothers conducted experiments trying to find a practical way of producing potassium nitrate from materials commonly available in the South. Their experiments were successful, and as a result, they wrote pamphlets which were distributed to Southern farmers explaining how they could extract potassium nitrate from the urine of farm animals. Because of the LeConte brothers, the Confederacy never ran out of gunpowder during the Civil War.

Both of the LeConte brothers were committed to the principles of the Confederacy and were openly racist. Joseph LeConte wrote extensively on the subject of race. He wrote that “the enfranchisement of the negro was the greatest political crime ever perpetuated.” He found Reconstruction intolerable. In order to avoid teaching black students at the University of South Carolina, Joseph LeConte gave up his professorship and moved to Berkeley, where his brother John was already running the university. The LeContes are honored all over the city of Berkeley. LeConte Hall is gigantic. It is the largest academic building on any public university campus anywhere in the United States. In addition, there is a LeConte Avenue in Berkeley, a LeConte Elementary School, LeConte Apartments, and a LeConte Park. According to AirBnB’s website, I live in Berkeley’s ‘LeConte District.’ Plus, there are statues, busts, and plaques of the LeConte brothers scattered all over campus.

Now What? O.K. California has banned ‘redskins’. So what should we do now about the heroes of the Confederacy? My own opinion is that, at the very minimum, we shouldn’t name anything else for the LeContes. They have more than enough stuff named for them scattered around town already. Admittedly, the LeConte brothers held obnoxious racial views, but their views were common among wealthy white men in America 150 years ago, both in the North and the South. If we rename everything in Berkeley that is now named for the LeConte brothers, then what do we do about all the other stuff in town that is named for other slave owners and racists. For example, Berkeley has both a Washington and a Jefferson elementary school. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were both major slave owners.

Jack London. And what should the city of Oakland do about all the stuff there that is named for Jack London? Jack London was very racist. His 1904 essay ‘The Yellow Peril’ is full of ugly anti-Chinese stereotypes. Even worse is Jack London’s ‘The Unparalleled Invasion’, a science fiction novel in which the author gives his approval to a plan to exterminate of the bulk of the population of China by biological warfare as the “only possible solution to the Chinese problem” and then resettling the country with Westerners. Renaming everything in Oakland that is currently named for Jack London would cost a ton of money. There is a lot of stuff in Oakland named for Jack London. So what do you think Berkeley and Oakland should do?

Kitchen Smoke Detectors.

Posted on October 30, 2015 by Mark

Do you have a smoke detector in or near your kitchen that goes off while you are cooking? If so, I can replace it with different kind of smoke alarm, one that is much less likely to do that. There are 2 different kinds of smoke detectors. One kind works by ionization, and the other is photoelectric. Most smoke detectors work by ionization. They are generally recommended for use in bedrooms. Photoelectric smoke detectors work on a different scientific principle and are far less likely to go off from normal kitchen cooking. More than 50% of Americans admit that they have silenced a false alarm by removing a smoke detector from the wall or by taking out the batteries and not replacing them. That is a pretty shocking number! If you would like me to replace a smoke detector in your kitchen, hall, or living room that is annoying you with false alarms while you are cooking, contact me, and I will replace it with a photoelectric smoke alarm.