THE MASK SLIPS IN SANTA BARBARA:  In dealing with the plastic straw crisis, city councilman states, “Unfortunately, common sense is just not common. We have to regulate every aspect of people’s lives.” 

THE TRAGIC BEGINNINGS OF MODERN FIRE SCIENCE: On this day in 1949, the infamous Mann Gulch Fire claimed the lives of 13 young firefighters.

Lewis & Clark had stopped by Mann Gulch and given it its name on their westward journey in 1805. One hundred and forty-four years later, its location in the wilds of Montana was almost as remote as it had been then.

The fire had been spotted by James O. Harrison, a college student working over the summer as a ranger and fire lookout for the National Forest Service. Harrison had been a smoke jumper—a firefighter who leaps out of airplanes to stop remote wildfires—the previous year, but he had decided the job was too dangerous. Once Harrison alerted the Forest Service, a crew of elite smoke jumpers was dispatched from Missoula to fight the fire.

At first, the fire didn’t seem that impressive. Fifteen smoke jumpers, led by 33-year-old Wagner “Wag” Dodge, parachuted out of a Douglas DC-3 into what had become one of the hottest days of the year. Harrison was already on the scene to help. Despite the wind and heat, with their backs to the Missouri River, their position seemed relatively safe as they moved in to bring the fire under control.

But the fire crowned. Now it was in two places. And suddenly, their escape route toward the river was cut off. To get away from the rapidly advancing flames they would have to run up a steep hill toward a rocky ridge. Fire runs much faster uphill than it does on level ground.

Only four made it to the top. Of those, only two—Walter B. Rumsey (21) and Robert W. Sallee (17)—managed to scramble through a crevice in the rocks to safety. Meanwhile, Wag Dodge had a different idea. Recognizing that he could never make it up the hill in time, he lit the grass around him in an effort to create a safe zone that the main fire would pass over. He yelled to the crew to lie down with him inside the zone. But they didn’t understand him. Or they thought him a fool. They kept running.

Dodge survived (only to die a few years later of cancer). But 13 died—including Robert J. Bennett (22), Eldon E. Diettert (19), James O. Harrison (20), William J. Hellman (24), Philip R. McVey (22), David R. Navon (28), Leonard L. Piper (23), Stanley J. Reba (25), Marvin L. Sherman (21), Joseph B. Sylvia (24), Henry J. Thol, Jr. (19), Newton R. Thompson (23), and Silas R. Thompson (21).  Many were WWII veterans who had survived the war, but not the peace.

There was a public outcry over the tragedy. We need to know a lot more about how fires behave and how to best control them, people argued. We need better training and better equipment. And, of course, they were right. We needed all those things; we’d always needed them.  And soon after Mann Gulch Fire, we started getting them. In that sense, the deaths of these young heroes were not in vain. Our willingness to study fire in a serious manner took a giant leap. So, in time, did our knowledge. While fighting wildfires remains frighteningly dangerous, no doubt lives have been saved as a result of that willingness to learn from tragedy.

(My gentleman friend knows that over the last couple of years I have become a bit obsessed with Cry, Cry, Cry’s song about the fire—entitled Cold Missouri Waters. I blame Powerline’s Scott Johnson for this. Scott posted a video of the song a couple of years ago. I’ve probably played it 150 times since them. The Mann Gulch Fire was also immortalized in Norman Maclean’s Young Men and Fire.)

KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON:  In general, I am not a fan of royalty (being an American and all).  But I am willing to make a tiny exception for Elizabeth, the late queen mum.  Today, August 4 (at least it’s still August 4 here on the West Coast), would be her 118th birthday.

The reason for my willingness to make an exception is her statement during the London Blitz.  Asked whether she was going to have the princesses removed from London for their safety, she is said to have replied:  “The girls will not leave unless I do. I will not leave unless the King does. And the King will not leave under any circumstances whatsoever.“

THE LITIGIOUS LEFT: Transgender employee sues the University of Georgia, because insurance doesn’t cover “gender affirmation” surgery.

A NEW STUDY FINDS STRONG EVIDENCE THAT THEY DO:  Do law schools discriminate against conservative and libertarians in faculty hiring?

THAT WAS FAST:  The College of Charleston rejects race-preferential admissions policies.  No wait!  The College of Charleston embraces race-preferential admissions policies.

ON THIS DAY IN 1912, MILTON FRIEDMAN WAS BORN: Here is something I find interesting about his birth:

The hand that rocks the economist’s cradle rules the study of economics for generations. His mother—Sarah Ethel Landau Friedman—emigrated from Carpathian Ruthenia (a flea-bitten part of what was then considered the Kingdom of Hungary) when she was 14. She started out working as a seamstress in a sweatshop—an opportunity she was delighted to have. She later went into business with her husband in a dry goods store and an ice cream parlor (both of which she ran). Contrast that with John Maynard Keynes’s upbringing in a prominent British family.   His mother, Florence Ada Keynes, who, like Sarah, was a formidable woman, is most often referred to as a “social reformer” or a “politician.”

It’s fun to imagine how the study of economics (and maybe the world’s economy) would have been different if Sarah had gotten her first job with the government (or if the Keynes family’s fortunes had gone seriously south, forcing Florence to open a rooming house).

THIS WAS BOUND TO HAPPEN, YOU KNOW:  Gender Fluidity Has Its Advantages.

FOUR FIREFIGHTERS NOW DEAD IN CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES:  And fire season has just begun.

CIVIL WAR NEWS:  University of Georgia dean apologizes for calling his childhood friend–now a GOP candidate–a “nice guy.”

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO NASA:  On this day in 1958, President Dwight Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act into law, thus creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

DOES THE 13TH AMENDMENT’S BAN ON SLAVERY AND INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE GIVE CONGRESS THE POWER TO BAN HATE CRIMES?:  Here is a quick version of the argument that it does not.

HOMICIDE RATES ARE STARTING TO RISE AGAIN:  Beginning just a few years ago, I started regularly hearing arguments about crime and punishment that I hadn’t heard much of since the 1960s and 70s.  Lessons learned then have evidently been forgotten.  Prediction: This won’t end well.  

“WHO DO THEY EXPECT TO BELIEVE THIS STUFF?”:  This really is a cute video of Mitch McConnell.

LYFT WILL BE BEEFING UP BACKGROUND CHECKS AFTER DRIVER ARRESTED FOR RAPE: This is a real land mine area for employers (or anything that looks like an employer). You can be damned if you do or damned if you don’t. If you check into a job applicant’s criminal record, you may end up being held in violation of Title VII. (Somehow we got ourselves into the position of believing that an employer who wouldn’t dream of discriminating on the basis of race is engaged in race discrimination if he or she checks into whether job applicants have criminal records.)   If you don’t check, and something bad happens, you may be liable for negligent hiring or for the underlying harm via respondent superior.

If you are interested in just how messed up the law is here, I wrote about it in connection with a report of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights a few years ago.

AND THE NINTH CIRCUIT ISN’T EVEN IN CHICAGO:  The Dead Can Vote–At Least on the Ninth Circuit.

HOT OFF THE PRESS: A few days ago, my colleague Peter Kirsanow and I filed this amicus curiae brief requesting the Supreme Court to take the case of Metcalf v. United States. It argues that part of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 is unconstitutional. I am pretty confident that under any fair reading of the Constitution, we are right: Congress’s authority to prohibit slavery under the 13th Amendment does not give it the authority to criminalize bias crimes untethered to the goal of eliminating slavery and preventing its return.  Of course, being right doesn’t always get you Supreme Court review.

If you want to know how it feels to advocate on behalf of someone found by a jury to have committed a heinous crime, the answer is that it feels okay: When fighting the good fight, advocates of limited government do not always get to choose their allies.  There’s a principle involved here.

ERIC HOFFER’S BIRTHDAY: On this day in either 1898 or 1902, depending upon whom you ask, Eric Hoffer, the only longshoreman-philosopher ever to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, was born in the Bronx. Hoffer was the author of The True Believer, an inquiry into the nature of mass movements. His other works include The Ordeal of Change and The Temper of Our Time.

Hoffer wrote one of the greatest lines I’ve ever read, “Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.”

He wasn’t thinking of the Southern Poverty Law Center when he said it. But, alas, the shoe fits.

If you know one of those poor souls who still thinks of the SPLC as David against the Ku Klux Klan’s Goliath, have him or her consider this: The SPLC has accumulated an endowment of about $477 million. Meanwhile, for all practical purposes, the KKK was vanquished decades ago. The remnant isn’t even a remnant.  It’s just a handful of thugs who adopted the name, knowing that it would shock people. To keep the SPLC’s gravy train rolling it has had to frighten well-heeled donors into believing that the country is crawling with other hate groups. Not a pretty picture.

If you haven’t been keeping up with the latest news on the SPLC, try here, here, and here. For the most recent news of Hoffer, you’ll have to be satisfied with this.

DON’T FIGHT, GUYS.  I MAY NOT HAVE THAT MUCH TIME:  Human Longevity sues genome pioneer J. Craig Venter, alleging theft of trade secrets.

HEY, BARN:  Don Knotts was born on this day in 1924 in Morgantown, West Virginia.

BUT WE STOPPED GOING BACK A FEW YEARS LATER:  On this day in history, July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon with these words from Armstrong,  “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.”

Technically, the first steps on the moon were taken hours later on July 21st, not July 20th.  But that is only because Greenwich Mean Time was used to measure the time.  For Americans, it was still the 20th.

TWO, THREE, MANY CALIFORNIAS … OR MAYBE JUST ONE:  John Fund has a few things on the vote that won’t happen in the Golden State.

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY: THE FAILED PLOT TO KILL HITLER: The July 20^th Plot was not the first attempt to assassinate Nazi Germany’s Führer or even the first by the particular set of conspirators. But unlike most previous efforts, this one came close.

By 1944, the war was going badly for Germany. Victory seemed impossible. A number of German military officers and civilians decided they’d had enough of Hitler and Nazism. Rather than suffer another devastating defeat at the hands of the allies, they wanted a negotiated peace. Hitler’s death, they felt, was a necessary step to get there.

The leaders among the military officers—including General Friedrich Olbricht and Major General Henning von Tresckow—tended to have in common that they were German nationalists, conservatives, and aristocrats. The civilians included former Leipzig mayor Carl Friedrich Goerdeler.

Opposition to Nazism’s policies towards Jews may have been secondary in their minds to just ending the calamitous war by any means necessary. But it was a factor–at least for some. Both Tresckow and Goerdeler expressed such opposition. Some of the participants were part of the Kreisau Circle.

The key figure in the plot was a 36-year-old career officer, Col. Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg—a serious Catholic, conservative and aristocrat. It was he who carried the briefcase containing the bomb into Hitler’s secret headquarters in East Prussia where daily briefings were held. Stauffenberg set it down near where Hitler was to sit and excused himself for a telephone call.

Stauffenberg thought he’d been successful. He headed straight to Berlin, where he had hoped to help execute an elaborate plan to take over the reins of government. But he was mistaken. The bomb killed four individuals in the room. An additional 20 were injured, some seriously. But Hitler’s injuries were only slight. The briefcase is believed to have been moved a bit before it went off.

The conspirators—often including those with only remote connections to the plot—were rounded up. Stauffenberg, Olbricht, and Tresckow were dead by the next day. Altogether, more than 7000 were arrested, and 4980 executed.

Among the dead was Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, who may or may not have been an active participant of the plot. He was reportedly given the option of (1) pleading his case to Hitler himself; (2) being tried by the so-called People’s Court; or (3) suicide. He chose suicide. The public was told that he had died of a heart attack or a cerebral embolism. He was given a state funeral.

Footnote to history: Stauffenberg’s son, just a boy at the time, went on to become a general in the West German army. “For me,” he said, “there is no question that the plot has saved a little of the honour of Germany.”

SLOWLY BUT SURELY AMERICA IS RE-LEARNING THE LESSON I THOUGHT IT HAD FIGURED OUT DECADES AGO: RAISING THE MINIMUM WAGE CAN HURT THOSE WITH THE LOWEST SKILLS. Here are several recent articles on the subject.

Mostly it’s the young who get hurt. If you can’t get your foot on the first rung of the employment ladder, it’s really hard to get to the second.

Another problem for the young (especially college students) may be well-meaning laws that make it harder for employers to select the employees they want and to dismiss employees who aren’t working out. Too much protection can be worse than too little for job applicants with no track record. Hiring them can be high risk for employers. As a result, they don’t get hired. The rise of unpaid internships is likely in part a market response to this problem.

EVERYTHING IS ILLEGAL:  Laws that presumptively prohibit “disparate impact” require employers, landlords, and recipients of federal funds to justify to a government agency just about EVERYTHING they do.  Maybe even everything.