December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Rape, death and XS4ALL
by Paul Bradley 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> > The only "nice people" are dangerous anarchists bent on destroying > > governments and buggering poloticians to death. (last part a personal > > preference of course, the author is totally straight but would > > nonetheless be distinctly amused to see any government official > > butt-raped to death) > > I, personally, would have to use a dildo. Even if I were queer, > I wouldn't get it up for a politician or a Cabal supporter. This I can fully understand. > > > "The Internet Watch Foundation forces the provider to remove the > > > illegal content," he added. "This is a fundamentally different approach > > > to responsibilities on the Internet. We think the author of the > > > information is responsible for his own actions, not the provider." > > I hope the IRA blows up these Internet Watch motherfuckers. If I don`t get there first... > Is this Blair guy any saner than the tory bastards? Calling any democratic polotician, especially in the UK, sane, is a big mistake. However, if we may rephrase and ask if he is any less deranged we can safely answer "no". I heard a wonderful comment on the cryptography@c2 list earlier that Jack Straw (the new Labour home secretary, who is in charge of law and order) may be defined as the only person for whom anal sex with michael howard (his predecessor) counts as masturbation. They both even look deranged (Michael Howard looked rather like a serial killer and jack straw looks like a church reject). I don`t know about crypto policy, Labour are supposed to be opposed to mandatory GAK but this is of course a small issue when put in perspective. The new labour administration are a group of anti-drugs, anti-"crime" misfits who I hope go the same way as the previous leader of the labour party, John Smith, who died of a heart attack. Just to give you some overview of the fuck ups we now have governing the UK I present a list of proposals Tony Blair and his motley crew have made in the last year: Mandatory minimum sentencing for repeat offenders regardless of the opinion of the judge. State set curfews for all children under 16 regardless of their parents wishes. Parents to be held responsible for the crimes of their children if the children repeat offend. Several vague allusions towards internet censorship schemes or mandatory web page rating using PICS. Minimum wage for full time employees, regardless of the empolyees skills or the wishes of the employer. Further action to prevent "bias" and "discrimination" in the workplace, eg. "Employ this unskilled bone idle coon and we`ll lower your corporation tax 2%" Further plans for yet more CCTV cameras in public places. Mandatory ID cards for citizens (This one sounds like a joke, believe me it is not). A ban on all handguns even when registered (currently all pistols above .22 are banned and all guns have to be registered in a process whereby if the applicant for a certificate has any history of political dissention or crime (eg. Smoking a joint, the ultimate sin against society) the certificate will be refused. Yet more spending on welfare to support the pieces of shit in the gutter I pass every day. > > And if he chooses not to remove the content you happen to find offensive? > > If you truly believed in the rights of the author and publisher of the > > information you would think about it before sending in your own > > particular brand of thugs to "crush the mutiny". > > Perhaps we should further expose XS4ALL's hypocricy by renting from the > web space and putting up some pages they won't like. I think this is an excellent idea, I`ll call or mail them in a few days to find out their pricing structure. > > > Yet when violation of the law is flagrant, XS4ALL doesn't hesitate to > > > comply, as it did a few weeks ago when it shut down a customer's home > > > page called Neuroroom, which sold marijuana and other soft drugs in > > > Holland and abroad. > > > > Sometimes one really wonders why we bother to set up mirrors to allow > > freedom of information to users, when the owners of these servers, > > supposedly in favour of free speech, do not even have the strength of > > character or conviction to decide for themselves what they will allow on > > their servers rather than bending over for the long cock of the law... > > The ISP is not a court to decide that a web page offering MJ for > sale is "illegal". Absolutely, besides which, even though I believe in the right of people to be as bigotted and statist as they see fit, there are only so many causes we can support and coming in on the side of XS4ALL knowing their record seems ill advised to me. If they truly deserved our support they would retain the pages whether they were legal or not. > > > "Basically any project we like gets free resources from XS4ALL," > > > Rodriquez commented. > > > > And anyone who guarantees to publicly lick the boots of the benevolent > > owners in thanks for their support gets as much free space as they like? > > > > Of course I believe in the right to free expression of anyone and if > > these thugs choose not to allow material they don`t like on their servers > > they have every right to remove it. I just don`t see that setting up > > mirrors to defeat blocks on sites that refuse to carry certain content is > > of any value in the fight for free speech. Sure, create a mirror of > > Radikal, but giving any credit or attribution to XS4ALL seems to be a > > poor choice. > > My understanding is that Radikal is a harmless, toothless liberal rag > that the Germans had no grounds for censoring in the first place. > Mirroring it is no big deal. How about mirroring the MJ page that > the bastards at XS4ALL censored? I actually went to the page once, nearly brought some bud but as I recall they didn`t have an SSL link so I chose not to transmit my CCN. I don`t have a copy, but if XS4ALL have any balls at all they will send us a copy. I`ll get onto them about this later. > Actually, I don't think mirroring is a good technology either. > The "eternal server" posted a few days ago seems VERY VERY promising, > I'm very exited about this technology - many many thanks. No, it isn`t really but was, for all intents and purposes, the best we had. I haven`t yet seen the eternal server idea but I`ll trawl the archives for it. Paul "Can`t really be bothered to re-do his .sig file yet" Bradley

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(1048129di) Questions, Round Thirteen, The Dilbert Trivia Game
by dogbert＠yoyo.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

* * * * * * Consultants Wanted * * * * * * * We want to fill up as many binders with as much information as possible, so we're asking Dilbert Trivia Game players to do the Yoyodyne Survey. What's in it for you? Prizes. We'll be randomly awarding stuff to people who do this: http://www.yoyo.com/dilbert/survey.html * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * This memo is to announce that Round Thirteen of The Dilbert Trivia Game has now been implemented. Please file this memo in the appropriate binder, in triplicate. The distribution of cool, official Dilbert prizes is at stake here. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Need a Way Out? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you'd rather write your own performance review than keep playing this game, please visit Yoyodyne's new Customer Service Center at http://www.yoyo.com/service, where your request can be fulfilled automatically. Want to quit all Yoyodyne games? The Customer Service Center can do that too. Just like that. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This Week's Questions ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Question One ~~~~~~~~~~~~ In a meeting with the boss, as captured forever in the pages of "Dogbert's Top-Secret Management Handbook" ("DTSMH"), Dilbert is told to add a sentence to his report saying that micro-robotics is a dead-end technology. When he answers that the statement would make the whole report a confusing and senseless waste of time, the boss says: A -- That's okay. We just won't let anybody else see it. B -- That's part of our strategy. C -- And your point is what? Question Two ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Discussing the quality assurance process with Ratbert (as transcribed in a strip in "DTSMH"), the boss accuses him of finding a huge number of flaws in the prototype, jeopardizing the schedule. The possible results, according to the boss, are: A -- Mass layoffs will result. B -- The entire project will fail and it's all your fault. C -- This could be the end of civilization as we know it. Question Three ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Waxing rhapsodic over the advantages of using temporary workers (as noted in a strip in "DTSMH"), the boss says: A -- I just love hiring these temporary workers. B -- No employee benefits...no union...just throw 'em in the Dumpster when you're done with 'em. C -- Both A and B. Question Four ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Asking the boss to delay the beta trial of a product until it stops exploding, Dilbert is met with resistance, as evidenced by this strip in "DTSMH": A -- You engineers are such pessimists. Just once, try to focus on the positive aspects of the trial. B -- Is that a bad thing? C -- Could we call that a feature? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Productivity Tip ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dogbert absolutely, positively must receive your answers at dogbert(a)yoyo.com before the deadline of 5/11/97 11:00:00 PM Eastern Time or you'll be replaced by a consultant. So give yourself enough time for the mail to get here. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Incentive Plan Update ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Every correct answer earns you an entry into the weekly, quarterly, and annual prize drawings. And even wrong answers count toward the drawing for the annual attendance prize. (No sick days or vacation days if you want to win that one.) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ How to Answer the Questions ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ First off, your player ID -- the letters and numbers in parentheses on the Subject line when you get your questions -- has to be on that same old Subject line when you send your answers. It looks like this example: (123456di) Most mailers will set this up automatically when you use the "Reply" button. If yours won't, then copy the Subject line from the Question message and paste it into the Subject line of your reply. Next comes setting up your answers. Start by picking the LETTER of the multiple-choice answer you like best. Say the answer to a question is this: A -- A coffee cup with a slogan is your answer to the productivity crisis? Your answer would be the letter A, preceded by a single pound sign # -- like so: #A One more thing: Each answer goes on its own line, please. Thanks. To review: Start by opening the original e-mail with the questions, click the "Reply" button, type your answers in the order in which they were asked, on separate lines, and put one of these thingies # in front of each one. There's more about the formatting stuff in the How to Play document, which you can get by sending e-mail to dogberthow(a)yoyo.com. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Fine Print ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *FLAMES*FAN MAIL*FEEDBACK* Please send everything like that off to Laurie, the Quality Obsessed Customer Service Rep for the game. Her address is ratbert(a)yoyo.com (she lives under the copying machine, in a little nest there, right next to Ratbert). Laurie will forward any game feedback to Scott, in neatly tied daily bundles. Scott prefers it this way -- he told us so. Letting Laurie solve your problems will allow Scott to focus on drawing more great comics for us to enjoy. * Official Notice About the Vagaries of E-mail * As you've doubtless discovered if you've used e-mail even once, it usually gets where it's going when it's supposed to, BUT sometimes the e-mail gods divert your message to Elbonia. If your answers to the game questions land in our system after the deadline or fail to make it to us altogether, we can't count them. We send out a message listing the correct answers right after the deadline. The Internet *should* work on time all the time, but it doesn't. The best thing you can do is send in your answers well in advance of the deadline. * Player ID * Your player ID is the collection of digits and letters, enclosed in parentheses, on the Subject line of every question e-mail you receive in this game. It looks like this example: (123456di). We need to have your player ID in every communication to Yoyodyne. Most mailers will set this up automatically when you use the "Reply" button. If yours won't, then copy over the Subject line from the Question message and paste it into the Subject line of your reply. * More Info * For more information about The Dilbert Trivia Game, send e-mail to these addresses: Quality of Life Issues: ratbert(a)yoyo.com How to Play: dogberthow(a)yoyo.com Game FAQ: dogbertfaq(a)yoyo.com The Official Rules: dogbertrules(a)yoyo.com Web site: http://www.yoyo.com/dilbert Tell your friends to play The Dilbert Trivia Game, and see whose score is higher! The sign-up address is dilbert(a)yoyo.com. Like, wow. For info about other free Yoyodyne games you could be playing, send e-mail to win(a)yoyo.com or, even better, visit our Web site at http://www.yoyo.com. And don't forget about our free weekly newsletter. E-mail news(a)yoyo.com to sign up. --- Yoyodyne Entertainment "Where the future begins...tomorrow." win(a)yoyo.com, http://www.yoyo.com Copyright, United Features Syndicate, Inc. 1997

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My editorial in Oregonian newspaper published today.
by jimbell＠pacifier.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

My editorial appeared in the Tuesday, May 6 issue of the (Portland) Oregonian newspaper, on the editorial page. Fishing Expedition Swims Against Tide According to the maxim, if you invent a better mouse-trap the world will beat a path to your door. Maybe the truth is that, instead, you'll get assaulted by angry cats who are afraid of losing their jobs. Suppose the government discovered a method to make itself obsolete. Or suppose the military learned how to make us all even more secure, for a thousandth as much defense spending. We'd never hear about it because they'd be out of a job, and job security, not national security, is their highest priority. Two years ago I had a revolutionary idea. I was tired of hearing the usual stories about how much harder society's problems have gotten in the last few decades. It's not that the problems are harder, it's just that large constituencies have been built which depend on these "problems" for their income. For example, when the Cold War ended, there was no military reason we couldn't have reduced our military budget by a factor of two or three. "But no!," said the politicians, let's continue buying those expensive Stealth bombers, submarines, tilt-wing airplanes, and other toys. We weren't afraid of getting attacked, the spending continued because of the threat of unemployment on the part of the defense-industry workers. Legalize drugs and turn a vast legal problem into a far cheaper and more manageable health problem? No, because with 70% or more of the prison population there due to drug laws, you'd have to fire most of the jailers, the prosecutors, the police, the judges, and the lawyers, all of whom have come to depend on the involuntary "generosity" of the taxpayer. Two years ago I realized that the whole corrupt system could be stopped. It would be necessary to not only halt pork-barrel politics at all levels, but also to provide a very few necessary services for people, such as defense and justice, although financed inexpensively and voluntarily. You'd have to shut down all militaries and governments, simultaneously, all around the world, while at the same time protecting our security. Impossible? In the summer of 1995 I began to write an essay, half-jokingly titled "Assassination Politics". It occurred to me that if people could defend themselves by anonymously donating money to anonymous people who act to protect us, you wouldn't need militaries or governments anymore. Nuclear bombs would be obsolete, and in fact they will be hopelessly dangerous to anyone who owns them, because the rest of us will be able to donate money to ensure their owners have no choice but to dismantle them. Conventional militaries will be useless, because threats to people's security will be dealt with far more cheaply by large numbers of tiny individual contributions buying the part-time services of a few semi-professional trouble-shooters. Murderous dictators of the past and present, such as Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein, Khadafi, Idi Amin, and so many others simply couldn't operate in such a world, because they (and their replacements, if anyone dared follow them) could be removed for the collective pocket change of a few million angry citizens. There'd be no conventional wars, because anyone who would make war would be a threat not only to his enemy, but also to anyone on "his" side who would be forced to help pay for that war, or even third parties who wouldn't want to see aggression win, for fear they'd be the next target. There would be no draft, because forcing someone else to fight for you makes YOU his enemy, as well: On the other hand, if your cause is just, he will contribute voluntarily, just as you do, to see the bad guy stopped. There would be little crime, because crime will be treated as an attack, and people will be able to donate money to find and stop the criminals. But unlike today, there will be no large constituency (police, jailers, judges, prosecutors, lawyers) who have a vested interest in keeping the crime rate high, thus terrorizing the public into supporting "anti-crime spending" which really just lines their pockets. I've been openly debating the idea on the Internet since then with anyone who will listen. My essay surprises many and shocks more than a few, but I am pleased that such a truly revolutionary concept has been so well received. Even the Columbian newspaper (www.columbian.com) has decided to add a pointer to the essay. The only "threat" in the essay is to the jobs of the people who have been parasites on the rest of us for decades, as well as to the future of tyrannies around the world. But that's why, on April 1, twenty Federal agents burst in and took my computer, told the news media I was "armed and dangerous," and began engaging in a fishing expedition including harassing people simply for knowing me. (No arrest or charges so far.) They may claim that they were looking for something else, but what they are really, desperately hoping to find is...job security. If I'm right, they have none. Jim Bell jimbell(a)pacifier.com Jim Bell jimbell(a)pacifier.com

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Re: Controversial Commercial ISP for Remailer?
by Dave Hayes 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Igor Chudov writes: > I am interested in your view, Dave. There are only two reasons that I can see your interest serving. You either wish to support my views or oppose them. Neither case serves your potential enlightement, therefore I shall choose to not answer. ------ Dave Hayes - Altadena CA, USA - dave(a)jetcafe.org Freedom Knight of Usenet - http://www.jetcafe.org/~dave/usenet Test (n.) - 1. A hardship you don't expect. Brave (adj.) - 1. Someone looking for a test.

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Duplicate checking: Ignore
by Paul Bradley 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Test sent via cyberpass.net Datacomms Technologies data security Paul Bradley, Paul(a)fatmans.demon.co.uk Paul(a)crypto.uk.eu.org, Paul(a)cryptography.uk.eu.org Http://www.cryptography.home.ml.org/ Email for PGP public key, ID: FC76DA85 "Don`t forget to mount a scratch monkey"

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Re: The Executive State
by geeman 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Anyone doubting that the center of gravity of world power is shifting would do well to ponder: 100 of the world's top CEO's are going to Bill Gates' house to hear him expound on what the future will look like. IF that doesn't make you nervous nothing will. It's at least as nervewracking as anything Clinton admin. might do. At 07:26 PM 5/6/97 -0400, Robert Hettinga wrote: > >--- begin forwarded text > > >Date: Tue, 6 May 1997 10:46:19 -0700 >From: thomasu(a)mail.auburn.edu >To: misesmail(a)colossus.net >Subject: The Executive State >Sender: owner-misesmail(a)colossus.net >Precedence: Bulk > >The Executive State: >The U.S. Presidency vs. American Liberty > > When President Clinton asked golfer Tiger Woods to join him at an official >propaganda event, and even offered to send Air Force One, Tiger answered as >every freedom-loving American should: he had something better to do. He was >going on a vacation with some college chums. > > Tiger has his priorities straight, but his turndown is another indication >that the presidency is shrinking as an institution. It still commands, but >no longer compels, our undying (or dying) obedience, no matter how many >monuments are erected to despots on the Washington Mall. This trend is all >to the good. > > The legacy of presidential autocracy from the earliest days of the >republic to the present survives in the form of the executive state. But >where can you go in the library to find the truth about the havoc U.S. >presidents have wrecked on the American promise of freedom? Virtually >nowhere. The official history of the presidency reads like the Lives of the >Saints. > > The Mises Institute intends to do something about this. In the Fall of >1998, we're holding a major academic conference on the American presidency. >Our purpose is to debunk the conventional view that the more power he's >usurped, the better off the American people are. > > All the presidents qualify for study, but we are especially interested in >the checkered careers and dictates of Polk, Lincoln, McKinley, Roosevelt I, >Wilson, Roosevelt II, Truman, Johnson, Nixon, and Reagan. > > If you're a scholar and would like to participate with a paper on some >aspect of a presidential power grab (or one of those few occasions when a >president did some good) let us know. An abstract is all that's necessary >to be considered now. > >The Ludwig von Mises Institute >Auburn, Alabama 36849-5301 >334-844-2500; fax: 334-844-2583 > >--- end forwarded text > > > >----------------- >Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) Philodox >e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA >Lesley Stahl: "You mean *anyone* can set up a web site and compete > with the New York Times?" >Andrew Kantor: "Yes." Stahl: "Isn't that dangerous?" >The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/ > > > > >

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Test, Ignore
by Paul Bradley 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Test message send via algebra.com Datacomms Technologies data security Paul Bradley, Paul(a)fatmans.demon.co.uk Paul(a)crypto.uk.eu.org, Paul(a)cryptography.uk.eu.org Http://www.cryptography.home.ml.org/ Email for PGP public key, ID: FC76DA85 "Don`t forget to mount a scratch monkey"

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Interactive Week exclusive - Clinton Admin. to announce new Crypto regs. this PM
by Will Rodger 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Something you might find interesting.... By Will Rodger Washington Bureau Cheif Inter@ctive Week The US government will announce later today that will soon lift controls on technology crucial to doing business over the Internet, White House advisor Ira Magaziner said yesterday evening. Under plans expected to be outlined at a noontime press briefing today, the federal government will require that producers of specialized, narrowly focused data scrambling products submit only to one-time government approval before they sell powerful encryption products abroad. Current policy requires case-by-case approval in most instances. "Basically it will say that for basic financial and electronic applications there will be no export restrictions and no requirement for key recovery," Magaziner said. US Undersecretary of Commerce William Reinsch is expected to give details of the plan. Reinsch could not be reached for comment. Computer industry executives and public interest groups said the new arrangement, though far short of deregulating all encryption, was a step in the right direction. "This is evidence that the administration acknowledges that manufacturers of foreign encryption products do exist," said Peter Harter, public policy counsel at Netscape Communications Corp. "Their policy has put American industry in the back seat and now were trying to catch up." David Banisar, policy analyst at the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center, called the move a "small step forward." Nonetheless, "it still doesnt reach the needs for secure e-mail or other purposes," he said. Computer software and hardware eligible for decontrol under the proposed regulations must fit several criteria, said Kawika Daguio, a public affairs specialist with the American Bankers Association who helped hammer out an agreement for the new regulations. .Though products designed for use by the general public may be unlimited in the strength of the encryption techniques they employ, they must also be strictly limited in use, he said. Software written for home banking, for instance, must be usable only for bank transactions and not easily modified for general use. Most programs handed out by banks for PC banking at home fit that criteria, he said. Programs that use the industry SET standard for credit card purchases over the Internet should easily meet Commerce Department criteria, too, since the SET standard encrypts only those data essential to making online purchases; the limited uses of the standard render it all but useless for general use. Visa, MasterCard and American Express developed the standard. "Id expect programs written with SET to get very rapid approval - within weeks," Daguio said. In addition, US companies will have leeway to export any kind of encryption to any bank as long as that encryption is used only for legitimate, internal bank functions. Products designed for merchant-to-merchant transactions without a bank in between would still be subject to stricter controls, including use of weak software routines that make decoding by law enforcement easy, or deposit of decoding keys with law enforcement bodies prior to export. Commerce Department regulations will spell out details this month or next, Daguio said. Though more sweeping in nature than past government regulations, the US banking industry has long enjoyed more freedom to use powerful encryption technologies abroad than other industries. Successive administrations have granted banks that leeway since by definition they must have greater safeguards over employee behavior than all but a handful of industries. In addition, financial applications have long been easier to design for export since they typically require encryption of only a few standard data fields. If sufficiently limited in design, the reasoning goes, they pose no threat to law enforcement concerned about smugglers or terrorists who may want to evade detection by law enforcement. The government and the computer industry have for years been locked in disputes over the relative importance of encryption technologies and their potential for misuse. Since encryption encodes sensitive information like credit card numbers, voice traffic over public networks and anything else that can be converted into an electronic stream of ones and zeroes, proponents of electronic commerce have insisted the technology must be widely deployed to assure the security of computer networks worldwide. Absent US encryption exports, they claim, American companies will soon lose their leadership role in a technology crucial to the countrys competitiveness. Federal officials, on the other hand, have said export of the technology threatens global security, since terrorists and criminals in outlaw states like Libya and North Korea could easily use the technology to defeat wiretaps and data searches increasingly prized by law enforcement and national security agencies. In response, they demand that exports of powerful encryption include so-called key recovery - a method by which law enforcement can gain access to the encryption keys used to encode messages. Many public interest groups have condemned the plans, however, saying such a transfer of power to law enforcement threatens to usher in an era of ubiquitous and illegal eavesdropping. Several bills pending in Congress would do away with nearly all controls. Reinsch was expected to testify at congressional hearings on one of the bills this morning. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQEVAwUBM3HngkcByjT5n+LZAQHL+Af/WdDoOuORps0gkZQmI4B6mgY63HeTzKZH kW19knlqU6SMC/GSdFrZLiWZhkDec2/wLzq57wdzlPjdPd+5wCvTYWmJAX68Kf6b 9g6cm3AbhZSKmaOtUtwOmUwAtuS5DPaGiPejAc9716K0/U9+0YBNKMZ/qVYAhrLc yR4yxLqpXd68zhirYIxtjHcB1fDzRO6F91stxvvDsg2bg2pPvLidWOBoknMZmCQt ALV5Z1yuik6tNOIPx+4ty7kWMMIQ0E3DqVKPxVAbFchCTohcee55U6Pmg3pbYtVg rrhYr4W8s/juv/9JrVa99+usyt/ohe+N3HcYtJ5WVLF2ED3UT/YDBg== =Q3/z -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: AP --> AR
by Casey Iverson 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 11:02 PM 5/6/97 EDT, you wrote: >nobody(a)huge.cajones.com (Huge Cajones Remailer) writes: > >> >> Tim May verily saith [paraphrase]: >> >> > I would cry few tears if D.C. got nuked >> >> This will be an historical event of importance comparable to the >> American Revolution and the fall of the Berlin Wall. > >I'm all for it! > Me too. Especially if the collateral damage reached Forest Hills and the degenerate Russian scumbag Vulis.

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Re: FC: Responses to Tim May's criticism of SAFE, and a rebuttal (fwd)
by Declan McCullagh 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 1 May 1997 18:44:47 -0400 (EDT) From: Charles Platt <cp(a)panix.com> To: fight-censorship(a)vorlon.mit.edu Cc: Charles Platt <cp(a)panix.com> Subject: Re: FC: Responses to Tim May's criticism of SAFE, and a rebuttal > From: Jonah Seiger <jseiger(a)cdt.org> > However, despite our concerns about the criminal provisions, we believe > strongly that the SAFE bill, and the bills in the Senate sponsored by Burns > and Leahy, are vitally important and should be passed. This kind of "pragmatism" is precisely why I have no faith whatsoever in CDT. There's a slippery slope, here, that really IS a slippery slope. As soon as you agree with the principle that the legislators can and SHOULD pass laws in a certain area, you risk losing large chunks of freedom. Conversely, so long as the area remains sacrosanct, free of legislation (e.g. the content of private mail), the situation remains clear and clean. Once you have one law, naturally some special-interest group will complain, some lobbyists will have their own ideas, some other legislators will see an opportunity to extend/clarify/amend/expand the legislation, and before you know it, you've got the war on drugs or something similar, costing billions, depriving relatively innocent people of their liberty, and achieving nothing. I absolutely agree with Tim May. There is no excuse for introducing legislation to control something fundamentally harmless that is not currently controlled. More legislation is absolutely the LAST thing this country needs. > Congress needs to stand up to the Administration and say, with a strong > voice, "your policy is a failure - we need a different solution". That's > what SAFE, Pro-CODE, and ECPA II do. For some reason I have difficulty trusting Congress to protect my rights in this matter, or in any other matter. Those who seek help from government should recall Barry Goldwater's famous quote, which went something like this: "When you have a government big enough to give you everything you want, it's big enough to take it all away."

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