By Nathan Barton
Popular Science babbles on about how it may soon be legal to mine asteroids, and has this article filled with references to the Outer Space Treaty and how companies might be “given the right” to mine on other bodies in the Solar System. To me, it is the wrong approach, the wrong answer, and the wrong question. The primary question is WHO or WHAT gave ANY of the states that signed that treaty the power to regulate who does what in space? On another planet, at least: they might have SOME claim to regulate things in earth orbit – at least LOW earth orbit. But they cannot, LOGICALLY, not just morally or legitimately, regulate and dictate something that they cannot enforce. No cop cars in space, fellers. No “Space Precinct.” No Solar Patrol, no Gray Lensman.
Sorry (well, no, not really.) And even if the US or China or Russia WANTED to put armed forces in orbit to police the place and enforce the law, well, gee, they just committed a crime against humanity: the same idiots (states) also signed a treaty prohibiting weapons in space. This bill would “give” companies (apparently including the fabled sole proprietor) the “right” to keep whatever minerals they can get from an asteroid; maybe even from Luna or Mars or Venus, too. In other words, all it does is “legalize” the right of private property. And if you can claim that it is a statute that legalizes some property, then ANY property is subject to being made illegal: by the stroke of a pen, ANYTHING you own can suddenly be declared to NOT belong to you.
Mama’s Note: Unfortunately, government already claims “ownership” of everything, including our lives and children. I have no doubt the “rulers” will do everything possible to maintain that in space, including space “police” and weapons. Hopefully, the kind of people who actually manage to get to space to mine anything will reject that government ownership. “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” by R. Heinlein lays out a very good program to achieve just that. In the end, hopefully, those who travel to the asteroids and beyond will find other trading partners. I only wish I was young enough to live to see it, or even better, to participate.
Europe’s collapse speeds up; Germany invaded, according to the Daily Mail tells us of the disaster unfolding in Germany, swamped with and expecting more “refugees” – of which only about 1/3 are from war zones, but 80% are Muslim males. The article discusses rape and forced prostitution, not only in the migrant camps, but of German civilians and school children. Of schools warning students to dress more modestly, and avoid areas near the camps and temporary facilities.
Government-ruined, theft-funded schools once more demonstrate their ridiculous nature. Last Resistance reports that the Mercer Island school district in Washington state has forbidden tag and other games during recess because the students are to “keep their hands to themselves.” The real part of the story is that the school district did this without parental involvement in ANY way. The families learned about it from their children. How many more examples do we need of the dangers and stupidity of government-run tax-funded schools? How many times do we need to beg parents to get their children out of these places? Sadly, too many parents are themselves products of these awful institutions and have been frog-boiled into accepting more of the same and worse for their children.
Standing armies are bad – evil – and we have yet another example. Another killing by cop, and for what? The Guardian reports on a 19-year-old kid shot and killed by a cop after using his finger like a gun, as seen on video. His crime? Trying to pass a fake prescription to a druggist to buy cough syrup with codeine. The Guardian, by the way, is the only location where death by cop in the US is being counted and the numbers and ranking of states is staggering. 862 dead as of Saturday afternoon, Oklahoma is number one (per capita) for 2015, followed by New Mexico and Wyoming (Colorado is #9, South Dakota is #30: only Vermont has not seen anyone killed by a cop – if the Guardian’s sources are complete and accurate. Admittedly, since we only have 1500 or 2000 killings by cop in an average year (I suspect that 2015 will actually be lower than usual for the last several years), and there are, I’m told, about 140,000 cops in the nation, that is ONLY one out of every 70-100 cops that kills someone. That “isn’t bad,” right? Sorry, but I find it insane that we are willing to accept that.
Mama’s Note: Wyoming? I knew there were increasing problems with cops in Cheyenne and Casper, but I have not heard of more than one or two incidents where the police killed someone. Not that many cops in Wyoming to start with. This is sad news indeed, if accurate.
But insanity is part of the system, as this story points out. Muppets, depraved? Yes, thanks to the latest Hollywood production, not at all what parents (many “raised” by TV including the Muppets and Sesame Street) expected, according to the New York Post, as reported by Freedom Outpost, which points out that “nothing is safe when nothing is sacred.” “Edgy,” adult themes and innuendo have replaced the childish play of dead Jim Henson’s creations, and it is indeed sickening. And insane. I find it interesting that “prime-time” cartoons for adults (and sometimes older children) like the original Flintstones and Jetsons, back in the 1960s and 1970s, are now considered strictly “children’s” programming, while adult cartoons have sunk to the disgusting cultural and moral lows of South Park and its ilk, but the Mainstream Media seems devoted to debasing children’s shows to the same level. Next up on Sesame Street? “S-E-X” and hemophilia and “can you say ‘condom’?”
Mama’s Note: If that’s what people want to watch, or have their children watch, it is nobody else’s business. Disgusting, yes. But only they can do anything about it. I’m glad my children never saw much television. We were all too busy raising animals and gardens, hunting and training our bird dogs and riding the horses. We participated in Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, 4H and lots of other things. My boys thought TV “cartoons” were pretty stupid. Even back in the 1970s.
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About TPOL Nathan
Follower of Christ Jesus (a christian), Pahasapan (resident of the Black Hills), Westerner, Lover of Liberty, Free-Market Anarchist, Engineer, Army Officer, Husband, Father, Historian, Writer, Evangelist. Successor to Lady Susan (Mama Liberty) at TPOL.
The Price of Liberty 
Libertarian Commentary on the News, 28 September 2015, #15-39B: Mining in space and other fun things
By Nathan Barton
Popular Science babbles on about how it may soon be legal to mine asteroids, and has this article filled with references to the Outer Space Treaty and how companies might be “given the right” to mine on other bodies in the Solar System. To me, it is the wrong approach, the wrong answer, and the wrong question. The primary question is WHO or WHAT gave ANY of the states that signed that treaty the power to regulate who does what in space? On another planet, at least: they might have SOME claim to regulate things in earth orbit – at least LOW earth orbit. But they cannot, LOGICALLY, not just morally or legitimately, regulate and dictate something that they cannot enforce. No cop cars in space, fellers. No “Space Precinct.” No Solar Patrol, no Gray Lensman.
Sorry (well, no, not really.) And even if the US or China or Russia WANTED to put armed forces in orbit to police the place and enforce the law, well, gee, they just committed a crime against humanity: the same idiots (states) also signed a treaty prohibiting weapons in space. This bill would “give” companies (apparently including the fabled sole proprietor) the “right” to keep whatever minerals they can get from an asteroid; maybe even from Luna or Mars or Venus, too. In other words, all it does is “legalize” the right of private property. And if you can claim that it is a statute that legalizes some property, then ANY property is subject to being made illegal: by the stroke of a pen, ANYTHING you own can suddenly be declared to NOT belong to you.
Mama’s Note: Unfortunately, government already claims “ownership” of everything, including our lives and children. I have no doubt the “rulers” will do everything possible to maintain that in space, including space “police” and weapons. Hopefully, the kind of people who actually manage to get to space to mine anything will reject that government ownership. “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” by R. Heinlein lays out a very good program to achieve just that. In the end, hopefully, those who travel to the asteroids and beyond will find other trading partners. I only wish I was young enough to live to see it, or even better, to participate.
Europe’s collapse speeds up; Germany invaded, according to the Daily Mail tells us of the disaster unfolding in Germany, swamped with and expecting more “refugees” – of which only about 1/3 are from war zones, but 80% are Muslim males. The article discusses rape and forced prostitution, not only in the migrant camps, but of German civilians and school children. Of schools warning students to dress more modestly, and avoid areas near the camps and temporary facilities.
Government-ruined, theft-funded schools once more demonstrate their ridiculous nature. Last Resistance reports that the Mercer Island school district in Washington state has forbidden tag and other games during recess because the students are to “keep their hands to themselves.” The real part of the story is that the school district did this without parental involvement in ANY way. The families learned about it from their children. How many more examples do we need of the dangers and stupidity of government-run tax-funded schools? How many times do we need to beg parents to get their children out of these places? Sadly, too many parents are themselves products of these awful institutions and have been frog-boiled into accepting more of the same and worse for their children.
Standing armies are bad – evil – and we have yet another example. Another killing by cop, and for what? The Guardian reports on a 19-year-old kid shot and killed by a cop after using his finger like a gun, as seen on video. His crime? Trying to pass a fake prescription to a druggist to buy cough syrup with codeine. The Guardian, by the way, is the only location where death by cop in the US is being counted and the numbers and ranking of states is staggering. 862 dead as of Saturday afternoon, Oklahoma is number one (per capita) for 2015, followed by New Mexico and Wyoming (Colorado is #9, South Dakota is #30: only Vermont has not seen anyone killed by a cop – if the Guardian’s sources are complete and accurate. Admittedly, since we only have 1500 or 2000 killings by cop in an average year (I suspect that 2015 will actually be lower than usual for the last several years), and there are, I’m told, about 140,000 cops in the nation, that is ONLY one out of every 70-100 cops that kills someone. That “isn’t bad,” right? Sorry, but I find it insane that we are willing to accept that.
Mama’s Note: Wyoming? I knew there were increasing problems with cops in Cheyenne and Casper, but I have not heard of more than one or two incidents where the police killed someone. Not that many cops in Wyoming to start with. This is sad news indeed, if accurate.
But insanity is part of the system, as this story points out. Muppets, depraved? Yes, thanks to the latest Hollywood production, not at all what parents (many “raised” by TV including the Muppets and Sesame Street) expected, according to the New York Post, as reported by Freedom Outpost, which points out that “nothing is safe when nothing is sacred.” “Edgy,” adult themes and innuendo have replaced the childish play of dead Jim Henson’s creations, and it is indeed sickening. And insane. I find it interesting that “prime-time” cartoons for adults (and sometimes older children) like the original Flintstones and Jetsons, back in the 1960s and 1970s, are now considered strictly “children’s” programming, while adult cartoons have sunk to the disgusting cultural and moral lows of South Park and its ilk, but the Mainstream Media seems devoted to debasing children’s shows to the same level. Next up on Sesame Street? “S-E-X” and hemophilia and “can you say ‘condom’?”
Mama’s Note: If that’s what people want to watch, or have their children watch, it is nobody else’s business. Disgusting, yes. But only they can do anything about it. I’m glad my children never saw much television. We were all too busy raising animals and gardens, hunting and training our bird dogs and riding the horses. We participated in Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, 4H and lots of other things. My boys thought TV “cartoons” were pretty stupid. Even back in the 1970s.
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About TPOL Nathan
Follower of Christ Jesus (a christian), Pahasapan (resident of the Black Hills), Westerner, Lover of Liberty, Free-Market Anarchist, Engineer, Army Officer, Husband, Father, Historian, Writer, Evangelist. Successor to Lady Susan (Mama Liberty) at TPOL.