I will give Andrew Branca credit where it’s due for what he’s done in the legal defense world for gun ownership.
We owe him a great deal for that.
Outside of that narrow field of expertise, fuck him 100%.
Whenever I (or Miguel or any other gun blogger who isn’t a lawyer) write about gun related legal issues, we always preface it with IANAL (I am not a lawyer).
I have never seen a lawyer ever preface an opinion with IANA[X], where X is whatever the expert is on the topic on which they are opining.
Take this thread from his Twitter:
Well, that person will arrive at Mars dead, having during the voyage been exposed to the ultra-fatal levels of solar radiation that routinely exist outside the Earth's Van Allen belt. https://t.co/nJd2ycIuKU
— Law of Self Defense (@LawSelfDefense) January 1, 2023
Yes, easy to get sufficient quantities of light-weight water into space. #eyeroll Nuclear propulsion doesn't exist. Meaningfully faster travel doesn't exist. Etc., etc., etc.
It's all nonsense in our lifetimes. https://t.co/b1BV4Yu5CM
— Law of Self Defense (@LawSelfDefense) January 1, 2023
Proposed: Solar radiation will kill travelers to Mars.
A: No, we'll protect them with water.
Q: Where will the water come from?
A: The asteroid belt.
Q: Where's that located?
A: Just past Mars.Oofah. https://t.co/I1crwNgMc5
— Law of Self Defense (@LawSelfDefense) January 1, 2023
Seems that men discussing travel to Mars have the same abrupt loss of the ability to do simple math and reason as do single women in their 30s calculating marriage.
WANT it bad enough & the math and other practicalities are hardly worth considering, barely an inconvenience. https://t.co/nRTH9KV2ji
— Law of Self Defense (@LawSelfDefense) January 1, 2023
And that is only part of it..
NASA other nations’ space agencies, and a number of private space companies are throwing an army of engineers and scientists at this nut to try and crack it.
I know, I was one of them.
I was working on thermal spray of boron and boric acid for radiation shielding. Boron and hydrogen are some of the best shielding elements against cosmic radiation.
But some lawyer sarcastically explains on Twitter why it will never work so we should all just quit, pack up, and not bother with deep space exploration.
And the fact that I was applying my materials engineering PhD to this is no different than some 30-something woman looking at her douche bag boyfriend saying “I can fix him.”
I know enough to know that my amateur opinion on a topic of just that, an amateur opinion.
Lawyer, especially this lawyer, need to learn that same fucking lesson.
Once I receive a credential in one field, I become an expert in all fields. Right?
Microsoft certification comes to mind…
“Statements” like this from a supposedly educated person makes me start to doubt his legal advice…. Hey mr lawyer, stick with what you know- better to be thought an idiot than open thy piehole and remove all doubt…
Being exceptionally great at a trade or art can intoxicate the ego to the point where the person’s character flaws become front and center before the public forum. And it’s always amazing to witness such an individual’s blindness to this unfortunate circumstance. Doctors, and more specifically Surgeons, develop a God Complex arrogance which alienates them from…..just about everyone, even people with similar achievements.
If Andrew did indeed type those words, the only explanation is a super inflated ego to the point he doesn’t care about anything but his own opinion, whether or not it’s his forte, doesn’t matter. He believes it or he wouldn’t write it. He views himself as having something intellectual that the rest of us can’t acquire. Again, I find it difficult to believe he wrote those words, but who else would have access to his account?? Damn!
But if I ever find myself needing his services in a court of law for a Use-of-Force case, I want such an ego fighting for me using the very trade that created the God Complex Ego in the first place.
When the heart surgeon hears the patient praying to God to save his live, he believes the patient is talking to him, because if God gets involved, He’ll be using that surgeon’s brains and hands to answer the patient’s prayer.
I have a personal hatred for God Complex doctors’ arrogance, but that doesn’t stop me from respecting them when it comes to saving my life on the operation table.
Got a better one. A Texas based lawyer duo I follow on youtube just put a a video saying you should NOT carry an IFAK for legal/liability reasons. They were dragged pretty hard in the comments.
You see something similar with doctors. Any field that more or less requires a “presentation of confidence” (e.g. never saying or otherwise admitting “I was wrong”) will engender similar attitudes outside the bounds of the profession itself.
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This is one reason doctors have a high fatality rate as private pilots, both doctors and lawyers tend to suck at investing (as per Mrs B, a one-time financial planner), and the really smart ones hire a business manager to run their practices.
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Scientists such as physicists and chemists can suffer from this also, but at least the early training tends to encourage acknowledging mistakes when they’re made.
Is Mars doable? Yes, absolutely.
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Are there major challenges that need to be overcome? Hell yes! Can they be overcome? Yep.
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I remember when making a rocket reusable would make it so heavy it would never lift off. Curiously, several companies are now building reusable rockets. If SpaceX figures out a way to refuel a rocket in orbit, their plans for a Starship tanker will make travel to the Moon/Mars and beyond achievable. Why? Because if you can travel to Mars in three days, instead of three months, the effects of radiation will be reduced to a non-fatal level, or eliminated altogether.
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But, why should a lawyer know any of that?