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Showing posts from January, 2013

The Conditions of Weapon Ownership

The conditions necessary for an armed citizenry are largely caused by having an armed citizenry. I’ve heard the argument that if a given group of unarmed and massacred people had been armed, that the results would have been different.  What is usually meant by that is that the massacred group would have been able to defend themselves and their families from their government or from their enemies.  But given the same conditions an influx of weapons might have only meant that the massacres were multiplied.  That is, “given the same conditions,” but would the conditions have remained the same? A culture of gun ownership, of supporting an armed citizenry, changes the conditions.  In the way that actions “say” things or send messages, it’s impossible to have, within a population, a systematically oppressed sub-group that is also legally armed.  Arms are an absolute endorsement by the government and by the rest of the citizens stating that members of the population su...

My Second Amendment Rights

Mars: About Animals

What I've seen about having a colony on Mars tends to assume that everyone will be vegan because bringing animals is too much trouble.   But being vegan doesn't solve any problems if people go crazy.   Humans seem to get a great deal of emotional help from animals.   Sure, maybe you don't, but in general it seems like, when we can't abide people any more, or if we're feeling isolated or lonely, having an animal to pet helps us emotionally.  That will be important.  Because we're going to be crammed together and bound to feel like we can't abide people any more, from time to time, and bound to feel exceedingly isolated and lonely from time to time. Here's a little bit that Instapundit linked about therapy llamas visiting a nursing home.  Llamas may not be the first choice to bring to Mars, but it still illustrates something important.  We probably ought to plan on bringing a couple cats or dogs or have a couple of the individual "farm" animal...