I am not sure exactly what your notion of the Wild West was (if it was what you saw on the movie screen, then, like everything else that is on the silver screen, it was likely wrong) but the reason why it took so long to straighten itself out was it was such an enormous place that bad people could always find another place to come take over with guns until someone was able to come in and stop that from happening. That took an effort to modernize our police forces and our state police, in case that sort of corruption was beyond them.

As far as a libertarian dream, I would say yes, from what I understood. Certainly the Scots who did most of the civilizing of the West were libertarian and the bulwarks of democracy: mainly because we don't trust anyone else to rule over us: taking turns being the mayor was probably as close as we were likely to get of allowing anyone power over us.

I'm not really sure how the notion that I was pro-child murder; I was saying that terminating the pregnancy was the best option before that birth happened.

My family is a large one because my sister and her daughter decided to make another decision out of what I think is a misguided belief in happy endings but I and all our huge family give them all as much love as humanly possible, because they will need it when the day does come, that foundation.

The problem is that modern science is now uncovering that there are many hereditary diseases and it may be a long, long time before gene therapy can deal with those problems, which means that our moral choices for our offspring are more informed, but so much more difficult.

However, it is, I think, a better choice, if you have a problem like this, to just adopt some children than insist on trying to have one that is likely to be sick, simply because you think God has a happy ending in store for them because that isn't the way the world works.

What I know is that what I find appalling is that I am the only one who thinks allowing a child that is already going to die to be born to suffer and die as opposed to putting its out of its misery is so beyond the pale while you don't recognize this is not about me.

Its about letting a child suffer needlessly.

Its about mercy. It will die anyway.

HD causes us to be so fertile that I have not had sex since I was 18 and I am 43 now, because it is so unlikely birth control would work. That is what I mean by curing HD by not having children who have it. However, the people here, as you can see, do not recognize the risks of not having children.

THIS is the problem.

Having the child was a mistake that they will pay for themselves. I am sorry for all of them.

I also know that to dismiss this as her choice when it is that suffering child who will pay as well an appalling coldbloodedness and one you have no way of knowing, having no notion of what you are talking about.

What this is about is people who figure God will take care of them when will not.

He helps those who help themselves, but if you expect any happy endings, you need to read the Bible again.

HD causes us to be so fertile that I have not had sex since I was 18 and I am 43 now, because it is so unlikely birth control would work. That is what I mean by curing HD by not having children who have it. However, the people here, as you can see, do not recognize the risks of not having children.

THIS is the problem.

Having the child was a mistake that they will pay for themselves. I am sorry for all of them.

I also know that to dismiss this as her choice when it is that suffering child who will pay as well an appalling coldbloodedness and one you have no way of knowing, having no notion of what you are talking about.

What this is about is people who figure God will take care of them when will not.

He helps those who help themselves, but if you expect any happy endings, you need to read the Bible

There is no real treatment for HD and likely to be no cure. Working from the only thing that does come of it is you can learn whether you are likely to have it and, it being hereditary, at least you have some idea what is coming. Logically I did not want to raise any children even on the assumption I was going to have it simply because that is a responsible position to take. My father tortured me and my sister and I did not want to take that chance in any way, shape or form, because I knew what it had been like and I had enough empathy for what children I may have had not to chance that.

Juvenile HD, however, is different from normal HD, though it too can be tested whether you are going to give it to your children or otherwise, and knowing that your child is going to have it and allowing that child to be born would tantamount to coldblooded torture and murder. There is such a thing as mercy....

Sometimes that is the best you can ask for.

It is simple. It is just hard.  That hurts to die like that and your children will suffer horrible agony and never understand why on earth they are suffering simply because we think we know better.

What is a worse affront than that?

Are there no orphans that need families? They are already here.

This is dangerous thinking, since by the notion of us playing God it could just as easily be that since I should not play God,  I should then give everyone syphilis.

What I have is worse than that; it is Huntington's Disease and I watched it turn my father into an abusive lunatic who beat me and my sister simply because it occurred to him and then watched him very, very slowly lose so much control of himself that he choked on his own tongue and that was not only him but three of his siblings.

It was, and I know for sure, RESPONSIBLE of me to have played God and not had anymore children.

I would suggest anyone who believes God wants them to have a baby should go look at family's with juvenile HD.

Tell them that no child wished they had been born.

I would have put a hole in my head if I had been responsible for subjecting that awful agonizing death on my children.

Some hereditary diseases can only be cured by not having any children with that problem.

Really? At Groom  Lake?

I happened to come across most of this information accidentally, but the depth of  ingenuity that came out of that place (make the spy planes look like UFOs so no one will think they are ours and how they used to steal Soviet planes and the sneak them back in) to be absolutely fascinating.

I probably could have known more because I knew some people who worked at GD and LTV, but when I would ask them what they did there, they would so geek me out I gave up. I noticed that, when my nephew went into Army Intelligence, they background checked everybody in the family and I wondered why they didn't me.

I guess they figured: oh him? He's an idiot. We've been leaking state secrets to him for decades and he doesn't understand a word of it.

Thank you so much for linking that; I was somewhat conflicted, since I also have an nephew in Army intelligence as well and really didn't want to risk him too.

I was at the NRO before (they had been ordered to come forward) and there was literally nothing more than a website that said: "THE NATIONAL RECONNAISSANCE OFFICE," with nothing more than a link to an ancient satelitte photo Area 51: no address, no phone number, nothing...

Actually, there are more than just a few, since an agency that technically does not exist was behind most of these decisions and I have in laws who report to that agency in their job in the aerospace industry, and, since they did not tell me any of this themselves, I don't want them called in and asked just who the hell they have been talking to; I have fudged a few facts.

The larger point is that most people don't know where most of the innovating technologies come from and, while I am the last person the want to the government any larger, we actually do get a fair amount of investment back from the defense and aerospace industries.

Funny you should mention that, since, it was an accidental lookup for DARPA on Wikipedia and them dissing poor Lileks on the podcast that brought this on.

Look at this link: this is DARPA's entry on Wikipedia, for God's sake-- it reads like a brochure for them.

They do look cool to work for though...

Technically he is right.

Jesus was not afraid and much of his life was occasioned by angels, even his own.

We would not have killed him had we not been afraid of him...

I would nominate Roberto Calasso, whose work, for all intents and purposes, is nothing but book reviewing. A fine, fine writer in his own right and a man of remarkable intelligence, someone who seems to have read every book in existence; I was still heartened to know, when he was interviewed for his book on Kafka, that his means of working was he would read a book and wonder: What the heck was that about? and proceed from there.

Since much of my education came from wondering, after reading Calasso's work, had been much the same thing, it does help with one' s self esteem enormously..

Almost anything with remote guidance can be hacked into. What is important is the military is at least testing to see how easy it can be done with their own birds so they can figure out how to keep it from happening. Which, for a government operation, is saying something.

They put a new mint up outside of Fort Worth and there was this tiny, ancient airfield nearby that guys used to like to fly their remote control planes off of and the Feds told them they would pitch them in jail for using them nearby, because it screwed up their sensors so badly.

Thankfully the RC guys told them that if their perfectly innocent controllers screwed up their sensors; they needed to get some new ones...

Aw Dave, we're so proud of you, disturbing the staff at the Village Voice and all... next Barbara Streisand will be writing a letter to the paper unsubscribing from it just for bring your pretty face to her attention and you'll even beat out Jonah Goldberg.

It's funny, they see the hat and think you are the village idiot; what I always saw first was the medals on it.

Funny me,  I guess.