LeSellers

I hope you recall my limerick: A faithful home teacher named White Could travel much faster than light. He set one 1 May In a relative way, And did April's Home Teaching that night. Lehi

I'm sinistral* and take no joy in living in a dextral world. But I make a point of taking the sacrament with my right hand. It's a point of submission and of obedience in my mind. Whatever the original of the practice makes no difference at all. Even though it's no longer taught in the Temple, I still dress myself "right side first", from the inside out, because that was part of the covenant I made in 1967. * The formal word for being left-handed. "Dextral" pertains to being right-handed. Lehi

My point has nothing to do with the police!* There are bad cops, there are good cops. It doesn't matter. It's the fact that governance is always by (threat of) lethal force. Politicians and bureaucrats demand, under ultimate threat of death, that we obey their edicts, diktats, laws, regulations, and other infringements on the natural rights we have. That some of the laws are useful (thou shalt not murder, thou shalt not steal, etc.) allows them to put other laws, etc., that are immoral and unnecessary and we, recognizing the power they have in the former case, permit them to ride rough-shod over our God-given freedoms and privileges. * The police are usually tasked with enforcing the laws, and may end up applying that ultimate pressure, but it is not their fault (in most cases). I have not attacked the police in this, and it is not my contention that cops go around, willy-nilly, killing people. I'd like to ask a question: Can anyone name a single law that the cops or anyone else in law enforcement would say, "Well, it's not worth it. We'll just let this ride. Go on about your business."? I give you John Singer. He broke a lot of laws. None of which affected anyone but those in his family (and not against their wills, either). He schooled his children in the family. A woman came to him and his wife and asked to marry him, as well, and he took her in. He went out one morning to get the mail, and Utah "peace officers", under the direction of the AG (as I recall, it's been fifteen or more years since I read the book), shot him dead. They claimed he was carrying a weapon, but there is absolutely no evidence to support this contention. Singer was not harming anyone, but the law must be obeyed, however irrational, however immoral. And Singer paid with his life for not hurting anyone, but offending the powers that be. Singer resisted, he had to die. I give you Ruby Ridge. Randy Weaver did not want to saw off the shotgun, but an undercover Peace officer" put enough pressure on him that he did it to get the man off his back. Then another "peace officer" shot and killed his wife and son. Weaver did not hurt anyone, but they killed his wife and son anyway because the law must be obeyed, whether the law is irrational or immoral. The powers that be must feel secure in their power, so they kill people. They resisted, they had to die. I give you Waco. No one there had hurt anyone outside the "compound". Everyone, except the little children, was there of his own accord. But 76 people died because the powers that be must be obeyed without question. They resisted, they had to die. This is not about the police, it's about irrational and immoral government. It's about the loss of freedoms. It's about living as peaceful people without what Jefferson called "swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance." Lehi

Automatic, no. Possible, yes. Even if the final "cause" of the death, it is a necessary (albeit not sufficient) cause of this kind of death. Washington told us "Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master." As you said (and as I have said dozens of times) all laws are backed up by (the threat of) lethal force. That is the point. Government is dangerous. Lehi

I've written more than enough for most people. Our grandson gets it, but he's not terribly self-absorbed. Lehi

Read it a long time ago, and it wasn't a major part of the story; just backdrop. So I have no idea. Hypothetically, though, since we experience up to 2Gs in an elevator, and assuming it takes 26,000 miles to orbit, how long would it take at that same 2Gs the whole trip? Lehi

No, NT, you've simply decided to act thick. Lehi

Perhaps it is. That doesn't change the fact that people die as a result of traffic stops. Most traffic stops are not important. Lehi

Look up the word "continuum". People start at the trivial end, and resist (my point), and , if they resist enough, they die. Lehi

None of those is trivial. The contact with the police (and higher ups in the law enforcement community: prosecutors, judges, and so on) may have been entirely trivial. Selling loosies, jaywalking, simply lying in bed when the cops break down the wrong door, even selling drugs or having a broken tail light, these are all trivial reasons, based on incredibly stupid and immoral laws. Lehi

And each of these "examples" is an example of resisting aggressively, and obviously, aggressively enough. The problem isn't "bad cops", the problem is that the law forces cops to kill people for what are, all too often, for what are, at the base, trivial reasons. Lehi

Do it better, then. Lehi

I was a bit put off, too. Lehi

Possibly because Netflix isn't showing it now. Lehi

Et tu, Carborendum? Lehi