Re: Did you know you can buy land on the moon?

>From Scott Lowther:
> OM wrote:

> > >There are no dead on the moon.
> > 
> > ...I think Gene Shoemaker would have something to say about that.
> 
> Point taken. So the moon belongs to the Shoemakers?

The case presented is that the Moon belongs to whoever exerts control
over it.

The first responses in this thread were aligned with the philosophy
that law dictates action.  My rebuttal was to show an overwhelming
lesson of history that action dictates law.

If you don't like what the law states, then simply violate it,
overpower those who oppose you, and then set up your own law (oh yeah,
and write your own history books, too).

The Pilgrims didn't land at Plymouth Rock because the Wampanoag Tribe
invited them over.  Consider all the historical maps with great
expanses of land marked as "DISPUTED TERRITORY".  If you want the
land, just stake the claim and then back that up with staying power.

And you don't even need a government to back you up.  The American
tradition of "filibustering" used to refer to land grabbing long
before the word came to mean time grabbing in the Senate.  Freebooting
pirates led the way to westward expansion with the government
"legitimacy" following those private citizens.

So even if the United Nations and every single country on the planet
were to sign a treaty that states that no one can own the Moon, that
piece of paper would not prevent anyone else from making their claim
to ownership.  Make your own map of the Moon and some day it might end
up in a history book.


~ CT