With very few (and very misguided) exceptions, no country in the world allows a 'free-for-all' in terms of measurement (primarily weights and measures) legislation, regardless of how 'libertarian' they are. W&M has always been decreed and defined (and never on a voluntary basis) ever since the first caveman first tried to put one over on his fellow caveman next door. The only thing that has changed has been the units of measurement used, which have evolved over time, and now culminate in SI.
So freedom of choice is a red herring. There never has been such freedom. What a disaster in the long term for America (not that we in the UK or Canada are that much further ahead - we are a bit, but not as much as we should be). Watch the BRIC countries (Brasil, Russia, India, China) take over in the next 10 - 20 years - and the rest of the (metric) world will be right with them. Obama in his inaugauration speech said: "The world has changed, and we must change with it." Sounds a bit hollow right now. Something about the words 'shoot, foot, yourself' in the same sentence springs to mind.... John F-L ----- Original Message ----- From: Carleton MacDonald To: U.S. Metric Association Sent: Saturday, May 30, 2009 3:15 AM Subject: [USMA:45134] Re: NASA Going English I know this will inflame the libertarians here but the ONLY thing that is going to fix this, fix Arizona, fix the highway departments reverting, etc. is for nationwide legislation, passed by this Congress and signed by this President, to immediately begin a coordinated, concerted and mandatory effort to finish the metrication job in all aspects of American government, commerce, and society, and in a span of time no more than two years. Do not listen to the “freedom of choice” whiners, to those who want this to be “voluntary”, etc. That’s what has put us in the terrible situation we are now in, with reversions all over the place. I really do think they’d get a lot less resistance than they think they would, if only they would get the cojones to just get the job done and stop worrying about or listening to the complainers. Carleton From: owner-u...@colostate.edu [mailto:owner-u...@colostate.edu] On Behalf Of ezra.steinb...@comcast.net Sent: Friday, May 29, 2009 19:20 To: U.S. Metric Association Cc: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:45125] Re: NASA Going English So, this is the "change we need"? Back to the 19th century???? ----- Original Message ----- From: "John M. Steele" <jmsteele9...@sbcglobal.net> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <usma@colostate.edu> Sent: Friday, May 29, 2009 4:11:49 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific Subject: [USMA:45124] NASA Going English Unbelievable. http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=31353 Quoted from link: Subject: New Management Directive on Units All, You've all heard the news that we're going back to English as the primary unit of measure. Attached is the draft Management Directive. We're planning on bring this MD to the CxCB on 6/5/09. Please let me know if you have any issues.
