[extropy-chat] Re: White House To Seek Ban On Gay Sex On The Moon

[Adrian Tymes]

--- David Lubkin <extropy at unreasonable.com> wrote:
> Where I agree with him, I find he articulates my
> thoughts more effectively 
> than I can. Where I disagree, the columns are still
> a joy to read. When I 
> discovered them, I found it worth going back and
> reading his archives, in 
> chronological order.
> 
> He recently presented his case against gay marriage
> in
> 
>
http://www.ornery.org/essays/warwatch/2004-02-15-1.html

Hmm.  Interesting quote:

> We will once again be performing a potentially
> devastating social experiment on ourselves without
> any attempt to predict the consequences and find out
> if the American people actually want them.

So...what, don't perform any experiment until it's
proven safe?  As in, the grand American "experiment"
(which it was, technically, in part, from 1776 on) is
to be shut down because it runs afoul of the
precautionary principle?  (As a matter of fact, the
social "experiment" being conducted here is a
consequence of the law, which is at least some sort of
reflection of the will of the voters.  This has been a
standard way to make sure that government actions,
including social experiments, aren't too far away from
what the government wants, and it's mostly worked for
the past two centuries.)

One seemingly logical conclusion of that is that, in
the strictest nationalistic sense, to follow the
precautionary principle is unamerican.