A long paranoid rant. Was: Riding t-loads

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <Parpp807-at-aol-dot-com>

Chris, Jonathan and all,

A woman discovers that hot coffee can burn, the shysters go into a feeding 
frenzy, and
McDonalds is out millions of dollars. In Texas, officer friendly stops a 
woman for not using her seat belt. The lady is arrested and handcuffed in 
front of her kid and tossed in the slammer for a $50 infraction. Not a 
felony, not a misdemeanor, but a $50 infraction. And the  US Supreme Court 
goes 5-4 in favor of officer friendly Gestapo agent. Today, when
America celebrates its Declaration of Independence, all across this land of 
the free the
safety Nazis have set up road blocks and random searches to make sure that 
the seatbelts are being used and the children in the car are firmly anchored 
into federally
approved restraints designed to face to the rear of the car.

Like most readers of the Tesla list I have followed Chris and his experiment. 
All who
like to play with mean toys and explore into areas where a loss of control 
can be lethal
can understand why Chris would want to do his dangerous experiment. Jonathan
speaks to the subject with perfect logic and universal truth. But in 
following this thread I have also noticed an undercurrent of concern. Deeply 
felt concern for Chris, but also an
undercurrent of concern for the legal consequences to our hobby should an 
accident
occur. So for both reasons I think we all feel relieved that Chris has 
decided not to do the experiment.

In explaining why he decided against the experiment, Chris recognized the 
legal
danger to our hobby should an accident happen. And he mentioned specifically
what the consequences might be should a 14-year-old be influenced to repeat 
his experiment. I think the 14-year-old kids on the list are a lot smarter 
than that but an
electrical accident involving a young coiler will be all that's needed to 
shut us down. 

I am a certifiable paranoid gun nut. I have been active in Second Amendment 
issues
for more than 20 years. When I first started  to schmooze the local 
legislators
I spoke with the same kind of logic and truth that Jonathan and Terry and 
others have
written. Trust me folks: it does not work. We are dealing with the tyranny of 
a statist oriented agenda. Banning guns or banning high voltage play things 
is just a means to an end. George Patton taught us that if you do not know 
your enemy he will kill you. Coilers do not have a Second Amendment to hold 
up as a shield against what can happen to us if one accident gets caught up 
in the 24-hour news cycle. All the technical explanation, all the logic and 
all the statistics about how safe our hobby really is won't matter; the enemy 
is  agenda driven. He is very strong and he will kill us.

I have ranted on this subject before. Postings to the Tesla List discussing 
safety
procedures are entirely appropriate. Terry, This has nothing to do with open
scientific inquiry or censorship. The First Amendment is not a suicide pact. 

I again urge our moderator to reject all postings promoting a cavalier or 
grandstanding attitude towards high voltage electricity.

Too paranoid to be cheerful on this subject,
Ralph Zekelman