In 1948 James T. Mangan declared the entire universe to be a country under his protection

[frauenfelder]

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2021/01/14/in-1948-james-t-mangan-declared-the-entire-universe-to-be-a-country-under-his-protection.html

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[peterrisser]

I’m sorry, is his flag the HASHTAG?
Maybe he knew something back then that we didn’t…

[markfrauenfelder]

Yeah, it’s the proofreader’s mark for a space. Clever pun.

[the_borderer]

@frauenfelder

The first four articles of Celestia’s constitution were:

Article One: There shall never be any taxes on property in Celestia

Article Two: No amendment can ever be made to this constitution changing Article One

Article Three: No military conscription, and no conscription of any kind, shall ever be legalized in Celestia

Article Four: no amendment can ever be made to this constitution changing Article three

So, can you make amendments to articles two and four? That might be a bit of an obvious loophole there.

[fromnabulax]

Dang! I wanna be Duke Of The Milky Way!

[flowerchild]

I wonder if Gene Roddenberry took some inspiration from that name? James T. Protector of outer space…

[Jyj]

I can see why the UN ignored his pleas for recognition. Outer space is a subjective definition. From another planet, Outer Space changes to not include that planet.
Also, calling space micro is a bit far fetched. unless it’s that universe that fit in the globe thingy on the cats collar in MiB. The US would be the one that is the micronation, though micro would still be misleading, even yoctonation would still be too big to describe it.
Being ruler of Outer Space would mean Earth governments could sue him for space based events, meteors and even skin cancer. And that would also mean he is responsible for all those mutilated cows, giving the ranchers the ability to recover their losses.

[rob_dobbs]

@Jyj

I can see why the UN ignored his pleas for recognition.

. . . causing him ultimately to abdicate in favor of Emperor Norton.

[Hypoxia]

Merely a legalistic protector? Bah. Long ago, after my ordination and exaltation in the Universal Life Church, I established the Church of the Whole Universe and granted divine status to all live entities within the bounds of space-time, observable or not.

I issued a grave warning: Use your powers cautiously. Sloppy deities are the worst kind. But I’ve never claimed possession or marked a protectorate. You’re on your own.

[billstewart]

Christiania was fun; been there a couple of times. Friends of mine were involved in the cypherpunks project on Sealand.

I don’t know if I still have it, because it’s just a couple pieces of paper and disappeared into my storage boxes years ago, but at one point I had the original incorporation papers from the Nation of Minerva, a libertarian development in the South Pacific, which was soon invaded by Tonga and defeated.

A friend in college had declared himself Duke of West Antarctica. Apparently there was a slice of it that nobody had claimed, so he claimed it himself, wrote to the UN informing them of his claim and requesting membership; they didn’t write back.

And of course there was Helgoland and Vargaland, which claimed an island or two near Sweden, plus all of the borderlines between the countries, and also the High Seas, because Vikings. They sold passports and various government offices if you wanted.