Who knew? — at Unexpected Tunnel
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Letter from DataPacRat with remarked from L. Neil Smith
Re: “Drones” by L. Neil Smith
I was rather astonished to read that in one of his latest articles for TLE, the esteemed El Neil advocates making drones illegal, particularly given his usual vehement insistence that spreading weaponry far and wide through the population is one of the best political options there is.
The most libertarian solution to governmental use of drones on civilians isn’t to make drones illegal. Instead, it’s to ensure that every civilian has the same right to use drones as they do smallarms, for exactly the same reason: to have the military power to effectively resist a tyrannical government, thus forcing that government to exist in fear an armed uprising, and thus placing pressure on that government to avoid upsetting the citizenry should they infringements too many of the citizens’ rights.
Figuring out how to make such arrangements for such citizen-run drones, whether those drones are to be used for violence, for surveillance of government activities, to use as mobile nodes of un-tappable mesh-network communications, or just for whatever peaceful recreational purposes any individual happens to think up, is left as an exercise for the reader.
Thank you for your time,
DataPacRat
datapacrat@gmail.com
To which L. Neil Smith remarked:
I have never seen anything wrong with passing laws that limit government activity. If I had my way, the three remaining bureaucrats would work from within cages, wearing handcuffs and leg irons, while being gnawed on by fire ants.
Our erstwhile correspondent DataPacRat has surfaced once again to suggest that we counter government drones by having drones of our own. That’a a mighty fine idea if he or she (I have trouble taking people seriously who won’t use their real names) is willing to pay for my first dozen. Otherwise, I’ll stick with forbidding the government to have or use them.
They’re a cowardly weapon, anyway.
L. Neil Smith
lneil@netzero.com
https://xkcd.com/893/ is a rather depressing forecast.
xkcd: 65 Years
xkcd.com
Warning: this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts
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Neil Armstrong: 1930 – 2012 | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine
blogs.discovermagazine.com
NASA | Apollo 11 | The first human to set foot on another world has died. Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong was
Original
Holy smokes, I’ve finally caught up with Homestuck.
MS Paint Adventures
www.mspaintadventures.com
Latest Pages:07/28/12 – “==>” 07/28/12 – “[S] Caliborn: Enter.” 07/17/12 – “Jane, Dirk, Jake, Roxy: E…” 07/17/12 – “Squarewave: Enter.” 07/17/12 – “Sawtooth: Enter.” 07/17/12 – “==>” 07/17/12 – “==>” 07/17/12 – “==>” 07/17/12 – “==>” 07/17/12 –
http://everysaturdaymorning.net/
Everysaturdaymorning’s Blog
everysaturdaymorning.net
Escorts provide support to people obtaining abortions in Louisville KY
Original
Beautiful morning — at Port Dalhousie Pier.
Daniel Eliot Boese shared a link.
15 Old Photographs That Prove The World Used to Be Insane
www.cracked.com
From those bullshit seatbelt laws to Big Kindergarten trying to tell you which preschools you can and can’t take your gun into, it seems like today’s nanny nation is intent on making our lives as safe as possible at the expense of any and all excitement. That’s not how it used to be, though.
For the past two months, I’ve been writing, and posting, roughly two thousand words a day of “Myou’ve Gotta be Kidding Me“, a story set in a “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” fanfic universe, “Chess Game of the Gods“. Outside of the sheer NaNoWriMo-like exercise of pushing out near-daily chapters, I’ve also been trying to keep in mind the various principles I’ve learned from Yudkowsky and LessWrong, and to try to present them in a way that people who like reading MLP fanfics might be able to appreciate.
I’ve just come to something of a minor climax with chapter 60, and while I’ll definitely be continuing the story, this seems like a good time to mention it here, for whatever feedback and constructive criticism anyone cares to offer.
