Question about private islands

And there is something wrong with self defense? Self defense is a basic human right. Like it or not, there are bad people in the world, I will keep the means to defend myself, without having to rely on a hired gun. But I guess in your world, hiring someone to protect you is more civilized than relying on yourself.

It worked for ancient Egyptians, who couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag.

The legend of the "wild, wild West" lives on despite Robert Dykstra's finding that in five of the major cattle towns (Abilene, Ellsworth, Wichita, Dodge City, and Caldwell) for the
years from 1870 to 1885, only 45 homicides were reported-an average of 1.5
per cattle-trading season.')

In Abilene, supposedly one of the wildest of the
cow towns, "nobody was killed in 1869 or 1870. In fact, nobody was killed
until the advent of officers of the law, employed to prevent killings."'4 Only
two towns, Ellsworth in 1873 and Dodge City in 1876, ever had five killings
in any one year.15 Frank Prassel states in his book subtitled "A Legacy of
Law and Order," that "if any conclusion can be drawn from recent crime
statistics, it must be that this last frontier left no significant heritage of
offenses against the person, relative to other sections of the country."l

http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:a5T_JrPgMikJ:www.mises.org/journals/jls/3_1/3_1_2.pdf+crime+rates+in+the+american+west&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us&client=firefox-a

The simple fact that among white settlers in the Western United states the violence "Wild West" was mostly hype. In fact the legendary figures of the west had their exploits exagerated by East Coasts publishers looking for entertainment value.

The romanticized violence is far more excessive than what really took place.

The same as any Crime related hype, such as the Gangsters of the 1930's. No there were not weekly shootouts in the streets.

Or even the 1980's gangland of LA. Remember the Color's "50,000 strong army in constant war with the LAPD" claim?

Yes societal violence in those periods was a problem, but just like today- the majority violence was domestic. But that reality isnt very flashy.

Hah. It's happening in reverse. Mexico is taking back the US, one state at a time. Canadians better watch out! You'll have to learn to speak 3 languages soon.

No that's not true just ask any black American if he or gets equal treatment.
I will say America does open their legs for anyone, not just the poor except for Haitians.

Wow, I'm guessing America gets a 10 on the slut scale...

You read it on the internet so it must be true.


There is always some "scholars" bucking reality for some purpose. The old west was full of constant bloodshed.

The Mises Institute is affiliated with a major university.

You have offered no evidence to the contrary, except your baseless claims. Care to back up your words with some research?

In a university you can find all kinds of opinions, usually used to promote various agendas.

Any person who thinks the Wild West was not full of violence has a strange agenda

Now why would tiny Abilene considered violent? Because their Marshall, who dared try to create law and order was decapitated.

Spend a Saturday morning hanging out in the tool corral at Home Depot and you will discover that, yes, they do compare sizes of their tools.

Dodge City was an extremely tame town. They had a newspaper though that loved to spew out tall tales for the folks back east, which was true of many western newspapers. The legends of the west occurred way before Hollywood.

Then there are wild and wooly towns, such as Omaha, which was known as the Soddom of the west. Prostitution, drinking and even drug use were common. There wasn't real lawlessness as we know it. If you were white and didn't "cause trouble" then you didn't have any problems. That's why overall things were pretty tame. Not something I'd want to go back to.

Facts please? Citations? Anything but the spaghetti western you watched last night?

Its pretty sad there are so many internet dead, that believe that the flotsam that floats up to the top of the internet is the truth.

You lived in teh Wild West, did you now?

Sorry, Rebecca, I'm new to this conversation but I have never studied any of the information that is being provided on the internet. I have spent more hours than I care to think about in college libraries studying the growth of the midwest and west. The west as a pool of bloodshed, as you suggest, did not exist.

As I said, it was the small town papers that started it all. First many promoted their community as a Shangra-La. Frequently promoting that they "city" would be the new US capital. As people moved out to find the beautiful city in the brochure turned out to be an ocean of white stakes on the prairie things changed. These same small papers started promoting the thrill and excitement of living in a wild dangerous west, which did not really exist, in hopes of encouraging more settlers.

Who ever said advertising wasn't effective?

Not able to find anything to back up your claims? And I have studied the west, it isn't just internet knowledge.

Come on Rebecca, I am sure you can find one source that will back up your claims of blood running in the streets.

+1

Id suggest reading

"Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee"

and

"The American West"

by Dee Brown.

You are basically arguing against the preponderance of modern Historical work on the subject, and therefore unless you lived there or have some revelation I am going to have a hard time believing you.

Just to answer your early question, I have read plenty of "History Books". The reading lists for 300 and 400 level History courses *are* murder.

How does "Bury your heart at Wounded Knee" and "The American West" by Dee Brown, show that the Wild west wasn't a very violent time?


There is NO "preponderance of modern historical work" that agrees that the Wild West was not a very violent time. There are a few people who push the idea to promote an agenda.

It was based on gun-toting meat eaters collecting cows, people fighting over land, water and gold/minerals, and slaughtering Native Americans, rascism, slavery, power hungry companies vying for power and control. It was the lowest, corrupt, common denominator where the most guns in any given gang, won.

''

Abilene's Marshal was decapitated. What more do you want? The argument that the Wild West was not a particulary violent time is just childish, as is the idea that Anarchy works.

I have already mentioned the war waged against the American Indian, and specifically put that in a different category. Since it was US federal policy to push the Indians out of the way with the barrel of a gun.

Normal "White" society in the west was no where near as violent as you paint it.

Typically if you are trying to prove a point in a historical context that goes against consensus it is on you to provide sources.

And whether you like it or not "The ultra violent Wild West" was a myth - is the prevailing consensus.

Errm. You're moving dangerously into the insulting range here.

I live in the West (note the capital W) and am very proud of it. I am a gun-toting, meat eating mining engineer that works for a company that wants power and control (not to mention money.) Just sayin...

Yeah it's all marketing trying to get adventurers to come out west. Even the indians were cool with it. and the Civil War never happened. people were just sharing gold and water. No one wore guns and the cattle were revered as sacred like in India. Tombstone was a paradise of happy people growing daffodils....in fact the town was named after the humanist, Alfred E. Tombstone.

Well nobodies perfect.