By Nathan Barton
Can government preserve itself in space? Can the “new frontier” be more reliably controlled than the frontier of the Old West or the Seven Seas for centuries?
Among other things, it is a matter of scope. Which is one reason that liberty, freedom, survived as long as it did in the American West and a few other places (like the Gobi and Sahara and the Outback and Amazonia). (Open space is not an absolute guarantee of freedom, as Siberia and the Northwest Territories demonstrates, but that is another discussion.) The vastness of space even just here in the Solar System is a daunting challenge to government control. (You might not be able to hide in space, but it can be pretty hard to get to you.)
Indeed, governments have always had a difficult time keeping control of wilderness and frontier areas – with or without technology. For millennia, governments could not “keep the peace” even a few miles out to sea. You could see the ships of smugglers, pirates, rebels, and just ordinary folks for leagues and leagues, but… Catching them was a very different matter. Continue reading
The Price of Liberty 
It’s stupid – but is it government’s business?
By Nathan Barton
Should it be illegal?
The Atlanta Journal-Constition tells us that in Georgia, bureaucrats are telling a couple what name they can NOT give their child. “An Atlanta family is at odds with the state over their right to give their daughter the last name of their choosing. Elizabeth Handy and Bilal Walk, claim that Georgia officials are refusing to grant their daughter — ZalyKha Graceful Lorraina Allah — a birth certificate. … State officials, however, said the child’s name… does not fit the naming conventions set up by state law. They say that ZalyKha’s last name should either be Handy, Walk or a combination of the two.”
First off, let’s note that these parents are incredibly stupid, giving this poor baby girl such a ridiculous name. They are saddling her for life with constant misery; a life of constantly having to spell her name out for people, for trying to fit her name into everything from employment applications to contracts to buy anything. And to stereotyping; regardless of her race or ethnic background she will be prejudged and probably identified as a ghetto-dwelling urban Muslim black. I suspect that she will have to fight and get most people to call her Grace or perhaps Lorrie (Lori) or Lorraine, all common girls’ names. Her names will be an especial burden if she turns out, for example, NOT to be a graceful woman. And she may find that a lot of people are very offended at her last name.
Mama’s Note: I very much agree that names are no business of the state, in any case. If these parents are indeed Muslim, I can’t see how they would want to use the name of their “god” that way, and if they are not, some actual Muslims may well take such umbrage that the child would be in serious danger. The term “stupid” doesn’t begin to cover the insanity of this whole thing. Continue reading →