Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

It is logical however that increased gun control only reduces the number/type of guns owned by honest people. And also contributes to a lack of defensive measures someone can employ against criminals. Criminals can always get guns...

I'd imagine gun control helps prevent things like highschool/university shootings like happen in the US but would have 0 impact on criminals per se. I very much doubt armed robberies went up though. While Australia allowed handguns I don't think we ever had a concealed carry style system like the US

I like this...

I really believe that Government Gun Control is only good for controlling the civilians. When you read about the other countries that had instituted gun control it led to the gov killing lots of its own citizens that were called dissidents. If you don't agree with the gov you are a dissident. That makes me a dissident in the first place as I am a conservative, not a liberal. I believe in less gov not more. I like freedom. I also believe that the criminals should be dealt with seriously not childishly. That makes more sense than current laws.

Enough Ranting.

My system is in trouble these days. I did some testing and found the PH at 8.6+. The plants were doing lousy and dying.

Testing of the well water shows the PH is 8.2 and I had expected the PH to drop with time not increase. Since I have changed my water supply to after my sand filter the PH is a bit less but not much. I put two socks filled with Sphagnum Peat Moss in the return lines but the PH is still staying up. This has also taken much of the excess iron out of the water. The first test was 2.7. The water test says it is still 1.75. Should be less than .3 to be good. I don't know what more to do about that.
I have put in several kinds of new seeds and only a few of them are growing so far. I think the Sphagnum Moss is doing its thing slowly. I guess I will have to wait.

Any Ideas for the iron problem?

I totally agree Don, less governement is always better than more. Unfortunately we are going the wrong way, Its always getting bigger and the burden on the people is always getting bigger as well... but we are not really allowed to talk about that here



Are these iron tests ? I didn't even know you could test for that easily..
Feeding and nitrification should bring the ph down.. unless it is buffered in your system somehow ?

Some where in the pages back, way back I changed out all the gravel because it had lime stone in it. Plastic tank for fish, plastic barrels for beds, PVC piping, and cast iron pump. And water, 2 channel cats and 85 blue gills so nothing I know of for buffer. Ph was down to 8.3 about mid day today. still too high.

Aahhh freedom allows one to bitch about the government without worry of retribution most of the time.

A good book to read is "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand 1957.... Some how she hit the current political problem in the center. Much of the Internet businesses run by the rules of Gaults Gluch. Pay you own way or else. There are no gimmie's.

I'm impressed
Mind you I have not read that book yet. Ayn Rand is probably responsible for creating more libertarians than just about any other person... maybe with the exception of Ron Paul recently.
I'm currently tied up with reading/listening to anything and everything by Murray Rothbard (in my opinion one of the greatest writers on the subject). I did just buy this though:
The Evil Princes of Martin Place: The Reserve Bank of Australia, the Global Financial Crisis

I figured I also need some Australia specific background

I don't really know what you mean... ?

To explain quickly there are three kinds of people in the world. First is the Industrialist, He is the man who has an idea and he has the will and gumption to build it doing what ever is necessary to produce a product. He will sell his product to make a profit and do it better than any one else. He does this for himself not for any one else. Second is a group of people who are willing to work for wages and help build the product with honest values. They give a good days work for a days pay. Third group are the gimmies who want something for nothing. They want to get a paycheck with out doing any labor for it. they want to take it from the rich cause they got more than them.

Do a search for John Gaults speech and listen to it carefully.

The Internet businesses are using the values described in the book. It really is a good read and will change the way you look at the world.

I think this is it
http://amberandchaos.com/?page_id=106

As for gun control and crime stats, I found a few seemingly legitimate articles supporting your view.
http://johnrlott.tripod.com/op-eds/Nati ... 61504.html

http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd0210e.asp

http://www.justfacts.com/guncontrol.asp#background (very long list of facts/stats, didn't read much, FYI)

To be fair, a police officer can also make use of a taser etc to arrest rather than shoot and kill.
Also to use your numbers, police accidentally shot 29 innocent civilians as opposed to the general public's 57.

How many taser deaths were there?

I'd imagine considerably less than if a 9mm had been employed. Is a cop more likely to use his taser than his gun? Probably... I wasn't trying to argue either way as I don't see how either side of this argument can ever be "won"; I was just extrapolating on the numbers given.

So true....

There was a town in Iowa a few years ago that instituted a law that said every property owner in their town had to have a gun on the premises to own property and had to prove it before they could buy property there. Five years later when I heard about it there crime rate was almost zero and the do gooders still were violently opposed to having guns in there houses but were happy with the very low crime rate.
There was no question whether there was a gun in the house or not. The question was would they shoot or not?

My thought is to expand that to the whole country. Every property owner should be armed. What criminal would risk his life to break into houses after that. Crime rates would go down quickly..........
Gun training classes would probably be necessary as well. That would help the people who get hurt by untrained hands on guns. Most of the injuries here that I know about that are accidental are from people who are untrained or not allowed to handle guns so they are very unfamiliar with guns.

I thought every shop owner owned a gun anyway.. and most property owners...

The question is... not whether or not to shoot.... but will they shoot first...