Gyroscopic Investing

moda0306 wrote: MT,

Given that observation what's your opinion on the following two matters:

1) Should we, as a population, try to get our government to pursue ever-more deadly & "sneaky" weaponry as a defensive tool, given your view that it eventually could & likely will be used on us?  At what point do we say to our government, "no, we don't want you attempting to engineer a nuke or whatever."

2) What should our rights as individuals be to possess weaponry with which we can defend ourselves against a tyrranical government?  This ties in with the anti-gun-control view that one of the main reasons to own weapons is to defend ourselves against our government (something German jews weren't able to do), and therefore create a natural control on government.

I tend to be torn on this.  On a general level, if our government can develop advanced military hardware in a cost-effective way, I tend to be in favor of that, but I guess I don't totally disagree that there's the risk that it will be used on us in some way.  Further, I don't want people to be able to freely purchase bazookas, much less anti-aircraft missiles or a fighter jet, as private citizens.  I tend to think inconvenience of purchase is one main reasons more crazies don't blow crap up.

So I'm completely inconsistent on all this and would like to see if there is actually a line of philosophy that I feel is consistent and reasonable.

craigr wrote: Article I Section 8:

"To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be
for a longer Term than two Years;"

TennPaGa wrote: FWIW, my opinion on this used to be pretty close to moda's, but I'm far more skeptical now.

My view of the trustworthiness of people with power can be summarized in a quote from Dr. Cox in Scrubs:

"People aren't chocolates.
Do you know what they are mostly?
Bastards.
Bastard coated bastards with bastard filling."

Present company excluded, of course.

MachineGhost wrote: But how much longer will these dying values last, I wonder?  We now have at least two or three generations consisting of the most clueless and ignorant idiots.  These Great Unwashed are so large in number, I fear that that very small minority teaching their children all the classical values is akin to plugging a finger into the hole of the dyke.

Some say the end is near.
Some say we'll see armageddon soon.
I certainly hope we will.
I sure could use a vacation from this

Bullshit three ring circus sideshow of
Freaks

Here in this hopeless fucking hole we call LA
The only way to fix it is to flush it all away.
Any fucking time. Any fucking day.
Learn to swim, I'll see you down in Arizona bay.

Fret for your figure and
Fret for your latte and
Fret for your lawsuit and
Fret for your hairpiece and
Fret for your prozac and
Fret for your pilot and
Fret for your contract and
Fret for your car.

It's a
Bullshit three ring circus sideshow of
Freaks

Here in this hopeless fucking hole we call LA
The only way to fix it is to flush it all away.
Any fucking time. Any fucking day.
Learn to swim, I'll see you down in Arizona bay.

Some say a comet will fall from the sky.
Followed by meteor showers and tidal waves.
Followed by faultlines that cannot sit still.
Followed by millions of dumbfounded dipshits.

Some say the end is near.
Some say we'll see armageddon soon.
I certainly hope we will cuz
I sure could use a vacation from this

Stupid shit, Silly shit, stupid shit...

One great big festering neon distraction,
I've a suggestion to keep you all occupied.

Learn to swim.

MediumTex wrote: If you look around the world through all of history, what you find is that for every time a standing army is used to defend a nation from a foreign attack, that same standing army is normally used 99 times to keep the domestic population in line, including the populations of the colonies of the nation maintaining the standing army.

This trick of using a standing army in this way is just Tyranny 101.  The Founding Fathers addressed all of this in their writings from many different perspectives.