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Politics : The Castle -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (4702)	4/13/2005 7:49:09 PM
From: TimF	Respond to of 7936

The Death Of a Physicist Posted by Butler Shaffer at April 10, 2005 12:56 PM I just read an obituary of William Bade, a physicist who had - among his other accomplishments - worked with the Nobel laureate Hans Bethe to develop the Bethe-Bade theory of the x-ray effects generated by nuclear explosions in space. The obituary noted that, as a youngster, Bade had a chemistry lab in his basement where he created explosives. This man was a few years older than I, but of the same generation. A chemistry set and a .22 rifle were at the top of the Christmas lists of most boys of that era. I had a chemistry set, and I did what most boys - Mr. Bade included - did: create small amounts of gunpowder, take it into the backyard, and ignite it. It produced an effect much like a small firecracker (which, in those days, it was also lawful for people to use). I remember a neighbor boy doing similar experimenting in the basement of his house, who caused a minor fire that necessitated the calling of the fire department. Today's politically-dominated culture fears such power - limited as it was - in the hands of boys. While occasional school shootings are carried out by teenagers on Prozac or other anti-depressants, the institutional order prefers to find causation in guns. Many teenagers of my era owned guns without school shootings taking place. Of course, they were not on anti-depressants. The modern political establishment is terrified at the thought of individuals having any source of power in their own hands. People even accept fireworks being taken from them, and let the state celebrate their "independence" for them on July 4th! I suspect that if a young William Bade was creating explosives in his basement today, you would know about it: CNN would have endless stories about a youthful "terrorist" who, it would be alleged, was probably plotting to blow up his school; but thank god that the ATF intervened in time to protect the public! Nor would his parents escape criminal liability for the irresponsible act of having bought their son a chemistry set for his birthday. Today, young Mr. Bade would probably end up in a juvenile prison, rather than becoming a respected physicist. blog.lewrockwell.com