The Zeroth Amendment

What has been tried before did not prevent recurrence of tragic events like the one in Sandy Hook yesterday, December 15, 2012. The police response was very fast and effective. The shooting ended when the shooter heard the police coming and shot himself to prevent being captured alive to face the consequences of his cowardly act. They and the school had practiced and prepared for such an event. No doubt that prevented the death of many more. At least two adults died trying to subdue the shooter even though they apparently had no weapons more powerful than a blunt nose pair of scissors, not even a knife. They were denied the right to defend themselves, which is what I am calling the "Zeroth Amendment" to the USA Constitution.

The right to defend one's self was so obvious and natural that the founders saw no need to state it in the constitution. Perhaps they thought it was implicit in "The Bill of Rights". I certainly think it is. Don't you?

What could have prevented this tragedy?
The police response could not have been better.  But it was not enough.
Profiling and locking up all potential attackers would probably still miss some and wrongfully violate the rights of many who never would have hurt anyone. It would not be enough.
How about banning the sale of all guns and ammunition and collecting all of the registered guns in the entire country? It would not be enough.
Collect all of the guns and all of the ammunition in the entire country. Welcome to the police state, it still would not be enough.
Encouraging responsible adults to have the training and tools to defend themselves might not have prevented it either but probably could have stopped it sooner.


 

Radiation Hormesis

My memory of the study that showed that very low levels of gamma radiation could be beneficial was flawed. It happened in Taiwan rather than Japan. When I finally did a search without "Japan" it popped right up. This link to Wikipedia can lead you to a lot of information on the subject of radiation hormesis.
High levels of radiation are obviously harmful, even fatal, and the correlation between amount of exposure and harm is high. However, it is not obvious that a given dose of radiation given in a very short time is equally harmful as exactly the same dose given over a lifetime. It may be analogous to losing all of the blood I have donated over the years all at once. On the other hand, it is quite conceivable that a single gamma "ray" of exactly right energy could hit and break exatly the right bond of exactly the right DNA molecule in exactly the right cell at exactly the right time to trigger a cancer that defeats all the repair mechanisms to start.

The limits of tolerance

“Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society... then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them... We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant.”
― Karl R. Popper

To everyone:

I do respect your right to your religion. I do NOT have to respect your religion. Nor do I have to respect you for choosing your religion. I do respect your rights and insist that you also respect my rights.

-- Virgil Fenn

 

Begin Blog

Time travel is so dangerous to the entire universe that the discovery of how to travel in time had to be prevented. It seems that some Time Scout has successfully accomplished that  mission. As the timeline is healing, my memories of life as a Time Scout is fading rapidly. Already it feels like a fantasy. All I remember for sure is that the prime mission of the Time Scouts is to guide and assist Earth to a long future supporting life, especially intelligent life. I will try to continue with that mission. Any help toward that goal will be appreciated.

Virgil, Time Scout