Damned Texans

[I_am_not_mafia]

Basically I find that explaining things in terms of non-equilibrium thermodynamics to be more enlightening. Central to any form of government is how effectively it uses the available energy in order to maximise entropy. 

I LOVE that. In fact, although you may or may not agree with my take-away, I have used a very similar argument to justify space exploration- I believe capitalism is the best form of government our species is currently capable of maintaining, and if you accept that, then we must expand or die. 

I agree. I think space exploration is the key to our future, specifically asteroid mining. Things will turn very ugly if we don't crack that now the Long emergency is taking place. Fusion power is unlikely to work, at least on Earth. Doing it in space might be a different matter. Capitalism is the form of government most suited to the very nature of life, that is to consume resources and to expand. Not that I want unfettered capitalism that privatises the rewards and socialises the risks. I actually see corporations as a higher form of life. In the same way that a single cell is made up of different bacteria that were consumed many generations ago (e.g. mitochondia) and each cell is alive, or a brain is made up of many different neural cells, each one being a live. A corporation is made up of people. Companies can breed and spawn off new companies, consume other companies. They use energy and create waste products. I consider myself a cancer cell.

You have disarmed everyone, including the police other than special units, and people are stabbed and shot in London all the time, no one can defend themselves against these thugs, and yet you claim all is well. For an American, particularly a Texan...all is NOT well. The liberals I have thus far encountered on this site make it sound like Texas is alone in it's gun loving craziness...but research how many concealed carry permits have been issued nationwide, and where they are. Americans, more often than not, love their guns.

The comedian Doug Stanhope made an interesting observation about violence in the UK. Because we don't have many guns but we do have free health care, it's far less risky to actually just slug it out. In Glasgow for example, owning a gun is a sign of weakness. I think there's a similar attitude to using knives. It's certainly not a wise thing to do bringing a knife around with you because if the police stop and search you and find you carrying a knife then the consequences are quite severe. Also a knife can just as easily be used against you. I personally used to learn a whole load of martial arts. My favourite being Thai boxing. But before that I used to carry a pot of pepper with me that I could throw in someone's face. The only time I used it on someone, they had just been released from jail the previous day having served time for violent assault. He was with a group of mates and were trying to rip up my parent's conifers. That's when I realised that the pepper should be fresh. We didn't start the fight though. My granddad threw the first punch.

I put qualifiers in, just for you.

Thank you

I'm curious, knowing something of your views...what is your take on the "Muslim Invasion" of the UK?

I'm not particularly fearful. The UK has a long history of accepting other cultures as a result of going out and conquering most of the world. I don't like Islam, or any Abrahamic faith but I distinguish between that and the majority of people who just want to get on with life. We've successfully neutralised Christianity here in the UK, the same will happen with Islam. If you have a decent education system and an open dialogue then it just takes time. But I do worry that the far right and the militant Islamists will feed off each other and cause problems. This won't happen in Scotland though because the Scots naturally want to distinguish themselves from the English by doing the opposite. So the more the English become xenophobic, the more the Scots will welcome others.