December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Merry X-Mas
by nobody＠REPLAY.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Sung to the tune of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" You better watch out, You better not cry, You better not pout, I'm telling you why, Santa Claus is tapping, Your line. He's buggin your room, He's reading your mail, He's keeping a file And runnin a tail Santa Claus is tapping Your line He hears you in the bedroom Surveils you out of doors And if that doesn't get the goods Then he'll use provocateurs. So you mustn't assume That you are secure On Christmas Eve He'll kick in your door Santa Claus is tapping Your line... Merry X-Mas

1 0

Censorious trends: PICSRules & digsigs & anonymity, starring Feather & Templeton
by Information Security 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

12/25/1997 It started out small: PICS, a simpleton rating language. And "for a good cause": ideas about everyone needing digital signatures to use the Net. Then came Clive and others: let's expand PICS to be world-wide, and start reporting items politically incorrect to the police. In comp.org.eff.talk Clive D.W. Feather <clive(a)on-the-train.demon.co.uk> wrote: : I'll declare my affiliations up-front: : * One of the authors of the PICSRules proposal. : * Chairman of the IWF Management Board. : * Member of the IWF Policy Board. : * Associate Director of Demon Internet. : * Managing Director of CityScape Internet. : * Member of the LINX Content Regulation sub-committee. : * Parent of three children. : * Primary school governor. : * Free-speech advocate. Free speech advocate? As long as it has been reviewed first. The FBI has come out in favor of mandatory Key Recovery on all *domestic* encryption in the USA. Reason? : * "Above the Law", by David Burnham, ISBN 0-684-80699-1, 1996 : * : * [ Al Bayse was assistant director of the FBI's Technical Services : * Division, in charge of spending more than half a billion dollars : * for research, development and computer operations. ] : * : * "Sure", said Al Bayse of the FBI, "I believe there is an absolute : * right to privacy. But that doesn't mean you have the right to break : * the law in a serious way. Any private conversation that doesn't : * involve criminality should be private" : * : * In other words, as the debate was framed by Bayse, the right to : * privacy is at least partly contingent on a determination by an FBI : * agent or clerk that the conversations they already intercepted and : * understood do not involve a crime. PICSRules takes it a step further: review all material, report everything politically incorrect to the police, allow each country to censor to its own tune. An information infrastructure to do so. It will make us long for the days of false hits by current filtering programs, where a White House page was censored because the word "couples" was on it. Decrees will control what we see. In Australia: # From: bobb(a)acslink.aone.net.au (Bob Bain), re: PICSRules # # There are some here in Canberra who seem to view the Internet as an # extension of the "computer game" laws. There isn't a single computer # game that can be marketed in Australia which would be suitable for # adults - due to the fact that somebody in Canberra has decreed it. Can't make an effect decree without a mechanism in place. More on decrees later. ---- Clive Feather wrote: : Information Security writes: : Speaking as one of the authors of the proposal in question, I can quite : confidently say that the *only* purpose of PICSRules is to provide a : convenient and standard notation for writing such rule sets and passing : them around. : >The only stated purpose is to "protect" kids. : Right. : Suppose that there is a secret government plan for "mass global : censorship" of material... Yes, let us suppose there is...what would be a good innocuous name for it? Oh, let's see, how about "Internet Watch Foundation"? One big Evil Eye of Mordor, watching all. Sorry, I'm ahead of myself... It's all for a good cause, right? "Protect the children" ---Clive Feather Clive Feather wrote: : As for a "global rating system", the whole point : of PICSRules is to make one *less* needed. Wrong: PICSRules will allow each country to censor to its own satisfaction. By labeling all content far beyond the control even keywords in the original document would give you. You're not a censor of pornography? # From the Lapdance News Service (a division of ASSCnn)....12/1997 # # LONDON, ENGLAND -- Demon Internet, which claims to be Europe's # largest Internet service provider (ISP), has begun testing an # automated scanning system for Usenet pornography. # # The system relies on data from the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), # a UK association of ISPs, which has set up telephone and online # hotlines for members of the public to advise on suspect Usenet # newsgroups and Web addresses. # # "The aim of this new system is to help streamline the process of # finding duplicated illegal material on the Internet and reduce the # number of abusers of the Internet by reporting and removing the # material that has been sent," he said. # # "The software takes an MD5 format fingerprint of each sexually # explicit image that has been posted to the Usenet and has been removed # for legal reasons," he said, adding that, when the software spots the # same fingerprint anywhere else on the Internet, it alerts staff at the # ISP, so they can take appropriate action. # # Plans call for the new software to be used in conjunction with the # IWF's program of identifying, reporting, and removing illegal material # from newsgroups. # # The association is an independent organization to implement the # proposals jointly agreed by the government, the police... Oh, my. Clive Feather is a liar. He is bending over backwards to give the government and the police exactly what they want, just as if it had been legislated. Clive's excuse: this way _newsgroups_ won't be dropped by government decree. Oh, big improvement, Clive. ---- The political whims of the moment will be accommodated. This is quite different from user-local filtering, or allocating just one bit for labeling everything as "child-only" or not. It's not close to something for merely providing user-level filtering. # http://www.internetwatch.org.uk/p040797.html # # IWF PROPOSES A GLOBAL RATING SYSTEM # # David Kerr, IWF's Chief Executive, is addressing government # ministers from Europe, United States, Canada, Russia and Japan at # the Global Information Networks Conference in Bonn on "rating and # filtering Internet content". # # It is advocated in the EU's latest policy paper on # "Protection of Minors and Human Dignity in Audiovisual and # Information Services" and has been suggested as an alternative # approach to protecting children in the USA following the fall of # the Communications Decency Act. # http://www.internetwatch.org.uk/stats.html # # September 1997 statistics: # # o 1600 items reported to other ISPs # o 1800 items reported to the police You reported 1800 items to the police in one month already? Wow. Sounds like you _are_ the police. Their eyes. # http://www.internetwatch.org.uk/legal.html # # The first role of the Internet Watch Foundation is to operate a # hotline service for users to report illegal material on the Internet. Oh, right: enforcing whatever governments pass as law, taking responsibility for content passing through the Net (WWW/Usenet). No matter how silly, stupid, or censorious. -------------------- Begin Cryptography Manifesto excerpt -------------------- Also, there seems to be a disagreement between citizens and the Government over what even constitutes child pornography. * The New York Times, 1995 * Newark, NJ, Jan 12 (AP) * * A judge ruled today that a father must stand trial for taking nude photos * of his six-year-old daughter, despite the man's claim that the pictures * were art, not pornography. * * The judge ruled they were not art, despite Mr. Feuer's instructor, Susan * Klechner of the International Center of Photography in New York City, * submitting an affidavit saying the pictures were taken for the course * and were consistent with the assignment. * * After his arrest, Mr. Feuer was ordered not to have contact with his * daughter and could not stay at his home while the prosecution's * investigation continued. * * The order was lifted last April, but David Ruhnke, Mr. Feuer's lawyer, * said "It's really difficult to overstate what a nightmare this has * been for him." * * Mr. Ruhnke further complained that the judge revealed Mr. Feuer's name * in court papers while he was still making motions to dismiss the case, * to protect the girl. Parents charged with child pornography for taking photos of their children. Thought Police. -------------------- End Cryptography Manifesto excerpt -------------------- Even respected photographers are hassled. -------------------- Begin Cryptography Manifesto excerpt -------------------- We netizens are rightfully paranoid of the American government, because it has no scruples. What the FBI did to photographer Jock Sturges was criminal. Excerpt from 'TO: A Journal of Poetry, Prose + the Visual Arts', Summer 1992: * Hounded by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in a bizarre witch-hunt * at an expense to the taxpayers of over a million dollars, Sturges had * survived an attempt to destroy his life and his work and was now * countersuing the agency. * * Recapitulated briefly, Sturges, who's based in San Francisco, has for * years been photographing young people whose families practice nudity. * * He's done so with his subjects' permission, as well as that of their * parents, who often appear in the photographs along with their offspring. * Rejecting the use of standard model releases, with their blanket * permissions, the photographer chooses instead to request approval * from his subjects for each and every exhibition and publication * of each and every image --- an exemplary scrupulousness. * * Then, in 1990, alerted to the "questionable" content of some of his * images by a local processing lab, the FBI arrested Joe Semien, Sturge's * assistant, invaded the photographer's San Francisco studio without a * warrant, and seized all his prints, negatives, records, and equipment; * thereafter, without arresting Sturges, or even charging him with * anything, they refused to return his property and did everything * possible to destroy him personally and professionally by branding * him a child pornographer On September 15, 1991, The New York Times reported that the Feds took the case to a grand jury after 17 months, and they immediately threw it out. And that "this was unusual because only the prosecution's evidence is presented to a grand jury and they generally return indictments at the Government's request". Excerpt from 'TO: A Journal of Poetry, Prose + the Visual Arts', Summer 1992: * Jock Sturges: * * It took another month to get the U.S. Attorney to admit they had * finished the investigation and that the case was closed. * * Before they were through they had interviewed forty-four families in * France to whom they lied outrageously. * * It seems the Feds were unable to get the French interested because * the French Police thought the photographs were just lovely. So the * French were given the impression by the U.S. government that I had * been convicted of incest in the United States and that I was a * dangerous individual. * * And based on this assumption, the French Police conducted their own * interviews, but my friends happily knew me well enough. When they * found out they had been misled, the French Police called everybody * back and apologized. * * Nevertheless, an enormous amount of effort was put out in France to * go and talk to all these people and a similar thing was done in * Germany. This was not all free. It was hideously expensive. And the * repercussions --- I don't know what they are yet. I haven't talked * to all the families. * * In the end, everything I received back was essentially destroyed. * * My computer was broken. * * All my prints were badly damaged. * * Some of them had been wadded up and thrown away and then taken out * of the waste basket and flattened out again. It cost Sturges $100,000 in legal fees, loss of major clients, much income, seizure of his life's work, the tools of his trade, and made him feel depressed about his life's work. Our government uses Orwellian terror tactics to control the politically incorrect: Jock Sturges: At my lowest point in this affair, I almost decided to jump from the San Francisco bridge. I had stopped my car. -------------------- End Cryptography Manifesto excerpt -------------------- Where have I heard that "Human Dignity" stuff before? Oh yeah: Congress passed a law (overturned by the US Supreme Court) called something like "Decency and Honor in the Military", which outlawed selling Playboy and Penthouse magazines from military base stores. And... In comp.org.eff.talk Dave Bird <DevNull(a)xemu.demon.co.uk> wrote: : The European Commission today adopted a proposal for an Action Plan on : promoting safe use of the Internet. [snip] : The Action Plan is closely linked with the Commission Communication and : proposal for a Recommendation of 18 November 1997, which outlines : political measures on protection of minors and human dignity in the : audiovisual services (http://europa.eu.int/en/comm/dg10/avpolicy/new_srv : /comlv-en.htm). # telematics crimes Ooooh, new terminology for Internet crimes. Your are a telematic criminal. Must have laws to control telematic criminals. Porno bad. Nudity bad. Pretrial publicity bad. (Illegal in England & Canada? Not the USA!) Copyright violations bad. Bad bad bad. http://www2.echo.lu/legal/en/internet/wp2en-chap.html#2A # 4. FINLAND # # d. Other initiatives # # 27. The report holds the view that anonymous use of the Internet should # be allowed, however, traceability of persons using the Internet # should be ensured. Oh, great, the Usenet II definition of "anonymous". Anonymity will be under direct attack next. Next thing you know, Chris Lewis will be recommending to the NNTP standards people that each and every user should be identified via a "Sender:" line. # From owner-ietf-nntp(a)academ.com Fri Dec 19 18:43:15 1997 # Cc: ietf-nntp(a)academ.com # From: "Chris Lewis" <clewis(a)nortel.ca> # Subject: re:ietf-nntp Minutes from the WG # # Once authenticated, the server SHOULD generate a Sender: line # using the email address provided by the authenticator if it # does not match the user-supplied From: line. Yep. Chris says he merely wants it for "statistics". Chris Lewis has declared I am on his content-based NoCeM list. I apparently profess views he doesn't appreciate, so I am labeled as "bad" so I can be "filtered". People couldn't possible choose to killfile me on their own. It's just a "global killfile" said someone. Same goes for the whole PICSRules deal...completely unnecessary. PICSRules wants to "objectively" label content. A Senator Feinstein here in the USA keeps introducing a bill to outlaw "bombmaking information on the Internet". * C-SPAN Television, Wednesday June 5th, 1997 * * Andrew Grove, Chairman & CEO of Intel Corporation, is asked whether * bomb-making information should be censored from the Internet. * * "No. The same information is available in libraries, and we don't * censor libraries, nor should we. When I was thirteen I built a * nitroglycerin bomb. It was an incredibly stupid thing to do, * and I knew someone who had their hand blown off, but I am * adamantly against censoring such material." * * "And unlike a library, a parent can buy a program that uses keyword * monitoring to disallow Internet traffic per the parents' wishes. * Such a program is available now, and costs only $29." Mr. Grove was just awarded Time magazine's "Man of the Year". So, one day there's material labeled "adult/bomb info", and the next day: it's illegal in the USA. Only way to do it: require PICSRules filtering at the ISP level. Nothing else scales. : Demon Internet: : "The aim of this new system is to help streamline the process of : finding duplicated illegal material on the Internet and reduce the : number of abusers of the Internet... Filtering software will reduce "the number of abusers"??? # http://www.gilc.org/speech/ratings/gilc-pics-submission.html # # PICSRules 1.1 go far beyond the original objective of PICS to # empower Internet users to control what they and those under their # care access. They further facilitate the implementation of # server/ proxy-based filtering thus providing a more simplified # means of enabling upstream censorship, beyond the control of the # end user. You aren't fooling anyone, Clive. Except maybe yourself. ---- And what was that about getting rid of anonymity, by - at the least - guaranteeing traceability even through anonymous remailers? Brad Templeton, EFF director, has a few ideas of his own: "no fake addresses is one of my non-negotiable requirements...eventual Usenet will require digital signatures" --- Brad Templeton Funny, how MLM companies (yes, ISP accounts are an MLM-able product) including Brad's Clarinet company would like to get rid of short-term ISP accounts too. Brad states he wants commitment and accountability. This EFF director wants all email and Usenet posts signed by your digital signature, a massive control-freak change in the status quo. This twists some of the very technology netizens hoped would protect us to being used against us. *** Brad is emphatically for digital signature authentication, #1: # I am not talking about law. I am talking about practice. # You want to mail me, you put a digital sig on your mail. # You want to send a posting into my news server, # you put a digital sig on it. *** Brad is emphatically for digital signature authentication, #2: Brad Templeton emailed: * Information Security emailed: * > Nor does your digital signature idea do anything to prevent * > throw-away accounts from doing major spams; you'll have to * > put even MORE controls on people. * * Correct, no throw away accounts. It's coming. * * > The digital signature idea is an astonishingly bad idea, that * > only frustrated control-freaks will accept. * * You are mistaken. I surveyed a roomful of usenet admins at a * conference last year. They were 95% in favor of it. [I replied that those were the control-freaks I was talking about] *** Brad is emphatically for digital signature authentication, #3: Brad Templeton emailed, formatted by guy: > As far as I am concerned, no fake addresses is one of my non-negotiable > requirements, because > > the eventual USENET is going to have digital signature requirements. > > It's the only way to stop [people from] posting under fake addresses > where we can't find them, and that means stopping honest users from > doing it too. *** Brad is emphatically for digital signature authentication, #4: http://www.clari.net/brad/spam.html [snipped] Solutions... First, improve internet mail systems and protocols to identify mail with a fake or forged return address. There are some simple steps to do this, and eventually digital signature allows complete verification of the sender. http://polka.clari.net/usenet-format/cert.html Q: What about anonymous remailers? A: A person with an anonymous address that sends mail back will probably be able to get a certificate. They can post without revealing their name, except perhaps to the person who gives them a certificate. Digital signature works fine to prove the same person sent two messages without saying at all who that person is in the real world. Forced to authenticate they are the same person, even through the anonymous remailer. A certificate by another person needed. I call that traceable. No comment by the EFF. ---- PICSRules is just the first step in putting the entire Net under government control. See how important it is to Brad that ~"people can be found"? Everyone with power becomes a control freak, apparently. ---- Clive Feather wrote: : Modern special effects are quite capable of producing such films : without requiring a real murder. Consider a wide range of recent : cinema releases. No good enough for our rulers, Clive. Video & drawings suddenly considered illegal here in the USA... No new law was passed... -------------------- Begin Cryptography Manifesto excerpt -------------------- The law refers to "lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area". The FBI takes that to mean naked. Obviously. A poorly written bill, interpreted by predatory pinheads. Guess what? 1/18/95 NYT: In a case that did not involve nudity or genital visibility, Attorney General Janet Reno filed a brief with the Supreme Court that said it was not necessary for a child pornography conviction. That is how she interprets the language of the bill. Wow. And I thought Ed Meese was a bad Attorney General. Meese had written to companies like the owners of 7-11 and told them selling Playboy and Penthouse could get them Federal obscenity charges. That was his attempt to get around the First Amendment. 10/3/96 NYT: Because of computers, a bill was passed that changes the definition of child pornography to include generated images that do not involve actual children. Thought crime. Law enforcement child pornography hysteria. Sturges incident: attacked by the FBI Thought Police Squad. Massive corrupt use of governmental law enforcement authority to enforce mere political correctness. Due to its size: by definition not an aberration. It cost one million dollars of our tax money. -------------------- End Cryptography Manifesto excerpt -------------------- That's right: the laws can be re-interpreted at any time by the police. In the above mentioned case, Janet Reno's Department of Justice had first filed a brief with the US Supreme Court AGAINST a child pornography conviction for the person involved. During election year politics, over 200 Senators wrote to her and said they'd make a big campaign issue of it if she didn't change her mind. She changed her mind and filed an OPPOSITE brief in the Supreme Court. Sheesh. The "law" is a shifting sand...quicksand for those "on the edge"... "Protect the children" ---Clive Feather Oh, how quickly people forget all the manipulation involved in "protecting children"... -------------------- Begin Cryptography Manifesto excerpt -------------------- On June 19, 1997, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain introduced his own bill (Senator Kerrey co-sponsor) which parrots the Clinton administration's position and forced it to replace the Pro-Code bill. He banged the Drum of War against Child Pornography. * http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly, By Declan McCullagh * * In the end, it was child pornography that derailed encryption legislation * in the U.S. Senate and dealt a bitter defeat to crypto supporters. * * Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), committee chair and chief sponsor of the * measure, led the attack, saying Congress must "stop child pornography * on the Internet." * * He warned that "allowing encryption to be exported would permit child * pornographers to use it." * * "If it's being used for child pornography? Are we going to say * that's just fine? That's it's just business? I don't think so." * * Sen. John Ashcroft (R-MO) tried to disagree. "It's like photography. We're * not going to [ban] photography if someone takes dirty pictures." * * At this point, one of the more deaf committee members asked, * "Pornography? Are we going to ban pornography?" * * The Senate Commerce Committee then approved McCain's bill. * * For a committee whose bailiwick is commerce, the senators seemed somewhat * detached from their mandate with business taking a backseat. * Thank you once again, oh Free World Leaders, for that intelligent discourse. * The New York Times, June 15 1997 * * "Washington Kidnaps Dick and Jane - See How Washington Uses Dick and Jane" * * These days much of the nation's political debate focuses on children - or * on the needs and interests of children as defined by politicians. * * Mr. Horn, who was chief of the Childrens Bureau in the Bush Administration * added, "A cynic would say that children are being used as props or proxies." Color me cynical. * "WHITE HOUSE IS SET TO EASE ITS STANCE ON INTERNET SMUT" * The New York Times, By John M. Broder, June 16 1997 * * Administration officials, in a draft report dated June 4 1997, have been * quietly fashioning a new communications policy that leaves most regulation * of the Internet to industry and people themselves, due to an expected * repudiation of the Communications Decency Act by the Supreme Court. * * Reno's people, [beating the Drum of War] told the Supreme Court "the * Internet was a revolutionary threat to children rendering irrelevant all * prior efforts" to protect them from pornography. * * "We all knew at the time it was passed that the Communications Decency Act * WAS UNCONSTITUTIONAL," said an anonymous senior government official [yea * anonymity!]. * * "This was purely politics." * * "How could you be against a bill limiting * the display of pornography to children?" -------------------- End Cryptography Manifesto excerpt -------------------- Ah, yes, how could anyone be against a mega world-wide organization for labeling all WWW and Usenet so it can be reported to the police when the law is reinterpreted for the moment's politically incorrect information? Er, I mean, for protecting children? ---- Anyone wishing a copy of the 'Cryptography Manifesto', email guy @panix.com using subject line 'Requesting Cryptography Manifesto'. It's 519K (about 75 double-sided pages). It documents world-wide spying by the US National Security Agency. Merry Christmas kudos to cypherpunk John Gilmore for putting himself at risk by publishing RSAREF source code on the Net recently. http://www.toad.com/~dnssec He is directly taking on the US National Security Agency. Fred Salchli <fjs(a)mcs.net> wrote: : I heard a brief report on BBC World News last evening that an internal : report has been issued by European Union criticizing the NSA for : bugging ALL of their communications. (Yes, ALL was the word used in the : report!). The BBC mentioned that all communications were being filtered : (voice and data) for key words and phrases, and the EU had some compelling : evidence to support this. Interesting to see what, if anything comes of : this. Awww, the EU is upset the NSA is spying on it... ---guy Just don't say anything illegal, what's the problem? ;-)

1 0

Re: Best Cypherpunk War Text
by Secret Squirrel 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>><A HREF=http://www.atsc-army.org/atdls.html> Army Manuals</A> >> >>go to field manuals >> >>you can find all you want and more >> >>igor > >They've restricted it and want full names, addresses, military unit, SSNs, >phone numbers, etc. Anyone have a mirror of it somewhere? Baaaaaaaah humbug. Let me rephrase that: They've restricted some of them and want full names, addresses, military unit, SSNs, phone numbers, etc. Does anybody have a mirror of *those* specific documents somewhere?

2 1

Re: Digital Revolutionaries
by bureau42 Anonymous Remailer 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On Wed, 24 Dec 1997 at 21:47:09 +0100 (MET) TruthKidMonger wrote: "If this is the revolution, why are the drink prices so high?" ~ Patron at New York City guerilla bar "'Cause There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Revolution, kid." ~ Patron's host and tour guide, coiner of TANSTAAFR

1 0

Re: Best Cypherpunk War Text
by Anonymous 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

><A HREF=http://www.atsc-army.org/atdls.html> Army Manuals</A> > >go to field manuals > >you can find all you want and more > >igor They've restricted it and want full names, addresses, military unit, SSNs, phone numbers, etc. Anyone have a mirror of it somewhere?

2 1

Cypherpunks IRC Christmas Eve Party
by Secret Squirrel 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>If anyone wants to drop by #Cypherpunks on EFNet this evening, myself and >others will be around to chat. I suggest we schedule another one for New Year's Day. New Year's Eve is when everybody parties and gets drunk. Also, is there any way to IRC anonymously? The situation is complicated by the fact that IRC, like any real-time communications system, requires real-time stream connections which are traceable back to their sources. CROWDS isn't advanced enough or designed to hide arbitrary TCP/IP traffic, though it could have been.

2 1

Chodorov (was Freedom Forum)
by bureau42 Anonymous Remailer 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On Sun, 21 Dec 1997 23:19:36 -0500 Duncan Frissell wrote: > I sort of like Tim's reasoning. > > It's reminiscent of Frank Chordorov's remarks back > during the McCarthy Era. "If you're worried about > Communists in government jobs; get rid of the > government jobs." Required reading for revolutionaries of the digital era, from a very bright light of the 1950's and one who did much to shape the movement that became libertarianism. Following are two excerpts, the first from commentary on a current Web page, the second from Chodorov's 1954 book. "The Sixteenth Amendment passed because the country thought only the rich would pay. In 1910 William Shelton, a Georgian, wrote that Southerners favored ratification 'because none of us here have $4,000 incomes, and somebody else will have to pay the tax.' This view proved shortsighted. As Frank Chodorov noted in The Income Tax: Root of All Evil: 'At first it was the incomes of corporations, then of rich citizens, then of well-provided widows and opulent workers, and finally the wealth of housemaids and the tips of waitresses. This is all in line with the ability-to-pay doctrine. The poor, simply because there are more of them, have more ability to pay than the rich.'" - www.elibrary.compuserve.com/qotd/10087/fetch/philk_04.htm "Author's Introduction: Argument "Tradition has a way of hanging on even after it is, for all practical purposes, dead. We in this country still use individualistic terms -- as, for instance, the rights of man -- when, as a matter of fact, we think and behave in the framework of collectivistic doctrine. We support and advocate such practices as farm-support prices, social security, government housing, socialized medicine, conscription, and all sorts of ideas that stem from the thesis that man has no rights except those given him by government. "Despite this growing tendency to look to political power as the source of material betterment and as the guide to our personal destinies, we still talk of limited government, states' rights, checks and balances, and of the personal virtues of thrift, industry, and initiative. Thanks to our literature, the tradition hangs on even though it has lost force. "But there are many Americans to whom the new trend is distasteful, partly because they are traditionalists, partly because they find it personally unpleasant, partly because reason tells that it must lead to the complete subjugation of the individual, as in Nazi Germany or Communits Russia, and they don't like the prospect. It is for these Americans that this book is written. They are the "elite" -- the questing spirits who in all times effect revolutionary changes. For a revolution now is certainly in order. And by "revolution" I mean the return to the people of that sovereignty which our tradition assumes them to have. I mean the return to them of the power which government has confiscated by way of the Sixteenth Amendment. "When you examine any species of government intervention you find that it is made possible by revenues. A government is as strong as its income. Contrariwise, the independence of the people is in direct proportion to the amount of their wealth that they can enjoy. We cannot restore traditional American freedom unless we limit the government's power to tax. No tinkering with this, or that, or the other law will stop the trend toward socialism. We must repeal the Sixteenth Amendment." - F. C. "XII. For Freedom's Sake [excerpted] "Whether there are any mystic forces pushing men along a path from which there is no escape, is a moot question. But there is no questioning the fact that throughout history men have regularly made excursions in quest of freedom, and that every one of these excursions was identified by its leadership. It is a logical inference therefore that when men of that stripe appear on the scene the cause of freedom is not neglected. Perhaps, after all, the present plight of freedom in America is due to lack of leadership. "If, for instance, those who prate about 'free enterprise' were willing to risk bankruptcy for it, even as the men of the Declaration risked their necks for independence, the present drive for the collectivization of capital would not have such easy going. Assuming that they are fully aware of the implications of the phrase they mouth, and are sincere in the protestations, the fact that they are unwilling to suffer mortification of the flesh disqualifies them for leadership, and the case for 'free enterprise' is hopeless. "The present low estate of freedom in this country must be laid to lack of the proper leadership -- to men who know that freedom is and who do not equate it with their own 'standard of living.' Whether or not leadership could have averted, or can still stop, the trend toward socialism, may be open to question; that a glorious fight for freedom might yet enliven the American scene is not. Whether a fight for freedom will be crowned with success, is less important than the fight itself, for if nothing comes of it, the improvement in the spirit of the fighters will be a gain, and they cannot help but keep alive the values that will make America a better climate for their offspring to live in. "There is no accounting for the emergence of these superior men, these "sports of nature," who sporadically shape the course of mankind. They come, as it were, from nowhere, and nobody has yet conclusively explained their advent. But, they come. When in her own time and her own pleasure Nature deems America ready for and worthy of them, she will give us the men who will make the good fight. It seems reasonable to assume that their first objective will be -- Repeal of the Sixteenth Amendment." _the_income_tax_ (subtitled _root_of_all_evil_) by Frank Chodorov, foreword by J Bracken Lee Copyright 1954 by Frank Chodorov The Devin-Adair Company, Old Greenwich CT 06870 Second printing Feb 1963 Third printing Jun 1974 (no ISBN) Although I don't know, I think it likely this precious little book is out of print. We Jurgar Din

1 0

actual, on-topic post (tm)
by jkthomson 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

does a large number of 'bounces' between randomly selected remailers increase security/untraceability? what if you made each message go through ALL remailers, or nearly all? be gentle... I'm just a lurker. -------------------------------------------------------- james keith thomson <jkthomson(a)bigfoot.com> ICQ:746241 PGP 263i keysig: 85C6 F156 5F8E 1457 F613 AA3A 5E69 E873 public keys availible at <pgp.mit.edu> -------------------------------------------------------- The Whispered Rule: People will believe anything if you whisper it. ========================================================

1 0

Size Doesn't Matter
by nobody＠REPLAY.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SOMETHING small IS GOING TO HAPPEN !!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Little Peter |<--------------------------------------------------->| 2" ----

1 0

Little Things Mean A Lot
by nobody＠REPLAY.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SOMETHING small IS GOING TO HAPPEN !!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Little Peter |<--------------------------------------------------->| 2" ----

1 0