The Seasteading Institute

Reply To: Jeff Chan

[quote=Jeff Chan]

[quote=libertariandoc]The National Guard in the US (and the Armed Forces Reserves) are civilians.[/quote]

Actually the national guard, when called to duty are federalized and under the same command as the regular military. See Perpich v Department of Defense. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpich_v._Department_of_Defense

Many U.S. states have their own militias which are state entities and not normally federalized the way the National Guard are. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_State_Military_Reserve

After reading your comments above, I'd guess you may be aware of the latter but not the former.

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Actually, I'm aware of both. The attitude of the people in the various components (active, reserves, guard) is interesting: The active component individuals generally consider themselves to be soliders (airmen, marines, whatever) first. The reserve components (guard, reserves) generally consider themselves to be civilians temporarily working as soldiers, whatever.

There are some "full time" or career reservists, who make it their full employment and focus their lives on it. But generally, not.

I've dealt with the Cal SMR. We called them 'smurfs'....and didn't think much about them besides that. From what Iv'e seen of other SDF members or organizations, thats about standard.

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I won't be wronged. I won't be insulted. I won't be laid a-hand on. I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them.

Reply To: Jeff Chan

[quote=Jeff Chan]

[quote=libertariandoc]Hmm. Got an example of national defense being provided privately AND successfully? I can't think of one. Even the vatican guard is a national military (of the Vatican)[/quote]

...which hires Swiss soldiers.

I advocate individuals defending themselves as a much more practical basis for security than police or military.

At U.S.police staffing levels, there are approximately one officer on patrol at any given time for every 2 thousand people:

http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius_04/law_enforcement_personnel/index.html

(1 officer per four hundred people, three shifts per day, say 40% in desk jobs.)

Not exactly a personal bodyguard who can protect each individual from all crime 24/7/365, is it?

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I too advocate people defending themselves...however, that only works against threats with approximately the same level of threat: I can defend myself quite well against a person armed with handheld weapons (firearms or whatever) but not so well against someone armed with a nuclear missile.

However, while the Swiss guards are indeed mercenaries, what exactly have they defended against? Did the Swiss Guard prevent the Nazis from invading anything? They can prance around in their jumpsuits designed by Michaleangelo with their halberds, but given any enemy with any weapon designed in the last 100 years and they'd be toast, espeically any enemy with more than 135 in their force.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I won't be wronged. I won't be insulted. I won't be laid a-hand on. I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them.

Reply To: Jeff Chan

[quote=Jeff Chan]

[quote=libertariandoc]Why would UN recognition be at all desireable, or even necessary? No nation that matters gives a care about what the UN says, they will do what they want to do anyway. The UN is not some sort of international supercop that gets to impose it's will on anyone [/quote]

No, but it would like to be: http://rkba.org/federal/state/freedom_war.html

Note that the U.S. State Department currently disavows their 1961 document, but it's pretty clear where the intentions lie: world government supremacy over all people.

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Scary stuff. That is like the ultimate expression of hoplophobia.

Reply To: Jeff Chan

[quote=Jeff Chan]

[quote=OCEANOPOLIS]But the real reason that every house in America doesnt have the roof covered w/ solar panel and a couple of wind generators is Big Oil, Big Coal, Big Utilities, Big Goverment and other thousand of Small Interest Groups feeding off the leftovers of the Big one's feast. Why would any of those want alternative enegies?[/quote]

I expect that the reason is that buying solar panels is like paying for electricity many years in advance, up front. The payback time is around 7 years. In other words, the barrier is the high up front capital expenses. Financing that through a loan can help. There are other schemes that will install panels on your roof for free, but they own some portion of the electricity produced.

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The reason is that even with when its nearly completely subsidized, it still doesnt make economic sense.

http://www.youngausskeptics.com/2009/05/the-economics-and-usefulness-of-domestic-rooftop-solar-pv-installations/

You could live on solar completely in sunny places, but with the tech on the market today, youre going to have to be willing to foot a bill thats many times more expensive.