December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

No Subject
by Anonymous 18 Dec '03

18 Dec '03

At 02:35 PM 10/27/98 -0800, Michael Motyka wrote: >> Most of nature is a very high quality vacuum, actually. >> >Yup, I did my 100hrs of Physics, Chemistry and Math too. I like the way >the 'vacuum' behaves near very hi-Z nuclei. Fine, lets get into vacuum energy, but not waste cpunk time. >More interesting, though, is this: why would a block cipher use key bits >rather than an LFSR to do input or output whitening? Is it strictly a >performance issue? Is it proven that doing this doesn't leak key bits in >some way? Shift registers are cracked. Good ciphers haven't been. (Love tautologies.) Traditional block ciphers are expensive bleach, take note. Unnecessary.

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1999 U$ budget for facial recognition
by Anonymous 18 Dec '03

18 Dec '03

The committee recommends an increase of $5.0 million for the facial recognition technology program. http://www.dp.hq.af.mil/DP/dprc/SENREPT.HTM Report to Accompany S. 2060 The Department of Defense Authorization Bill for Fiscal Year 1999 (large document)

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personal tracking
by Anonymous 18 Dec '03

18 Dec '03

http://fotlan5.fotlan.army.mil/STRATEGIC/appa.html TITLE: Tracking and Reporting System (TRS) OBJECTIVE: To conceive, design, implement, and develop a small (vest-pocket-size) satellite transceiver that can be overtly (and possibly covertly) affixed to personnel, vehicles, or goods in transit for the purpose of tracking and position reporting of the host.

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airline id
by Anonymous 18 Dec '03

18 Dec '03

At 12:43 PM 10/27/98 -0800, Joel O'Connor wrote: >you flew to. Even with trains, all's it will take is one bomb and you >better believe security will be pumped up as high as it is with >airlines. Naaah, you pull rail-spikes to get trains, no big ba-da-boom required. And it does happen.

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cypherpunk fashion accessories
by Anonymous 18 Dec '03

18 Dec '03

A piece of luggage in the form of an attache case is equipped with destruct means for destroying the contents therein in response to an intentionally given signal. The interior of the case comprises a compartment in the form of a metallic box with a cover, which box when closed serves as a combustion chamber to incinerate the contents therein when so desired. Fuel and electric igniter means are placed within the box and ignition current is supplied by a power pack housed in the attache case. A heat insulation barrier surrounds the box and prevents transfer of combustion heat to the walls of the attache case. The circuit interconnecting the electric power pack and the igniter means includes a number of normally open switches arranged in series; all of which must be closed to initiate and start the destruct cycle. One switch is closed in response to closure of the attache case, and others may be deliberately closed by key means or the like. The final switch is closed by a pushbutton in the vicinity of the attache case handle, whereby the carrier of the case may set off the destruct cycle by manipulating the pushbutton with a finger of the hand around the handle. http://www.patents.ibm.com/details?pn10=US03643609

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No Subject
by research＠hampton.net 18 Dec '03

18 Dec '03

10/29/98 Y2K Solution! 8 Pine Circle Dr., Silicon Valley, Calif. OTC Company "TCFG" 21 st. Century Frontier Group has through several members of their administrative research department leaked vital information about their companies efforts. Everyone was tight lipped and interviews were refused, and through un-named sources we have learned that the technology and software solution are in the process of being patented! In over 1640 trials, using various data systems the use of the new technology and software solved the Y2K problem 100% of the time. This small publicly traded company "TCFG" which is just 3 years old is through various sources now negotiating with the "Big Boys"! "TCFG" the letters to look for!

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one lump or two
by Anonymous 18 Dec '03

18 Dec '03

>(e.g. # Uses/Side Effects/Precuations/Interactions/etc.) > >I'd like info on Zoloft, Zestril, Lithium, & Deprecote (?sp) - orange-ish >liquid capsules - ... and Tegretol and Respiradahl (?sp) Depekote and Tegretol are anti-seizure drugs now being used for certain kinds of bipolar conditions. Zoloft is like prozac but has also a mild stimulating effect. Lithium is a classic anti-bipolar drug. Li, Depekote, probably Tegretol you have to watch blood levels even after stabilization. They probably think he's manic and or depressed, if he's been coherent and dumbed-himself-down enough to avoid a psychotic or schizoform diagnosis. Shrinks don't like rants, especially ones they don't understand.

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No Subject
by Anonymous 18 Dec '03

18 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Being paid to be paranoid, I prefer to use averages instead of absolutes. So your numbers would then be: 56 bits -- ( 2^56 / 3.88E12 )*0.5 = 2.6 hours 64 bits -- ( 2^64 / 3.88E12)*0.5 = 27.5 days 80 bits -- ( 2^80 / 3.88E12)*0.5 = 36.5 years 128 bits -- ( 2^128 / 3.88E12)*0.5 = 1.4E18 years. So a brute force on a 56 bit key would take, on average, 2.6 hours-- using your computational power assumption below-- with half of all keys brute forced being found before that time and half being found after that time and most being found around 2.6 hours. This is assuming a fairly random distribution of keys within a large set of keys to be attacked. You can meter your level of safety by changing the minimum average percentage of keys found (50%, 25%, 75%) to your taste (or management's taste) or by increasing the key size. me. - -----Original Message----- From: Harvey Rook (Exchange) [SMTP:hrook@exchange.microsoft.com] Sent: Wednesday, October 28, 1998 11:01 AM To: cypherpunks(a)cyberpass.net Subject: Speed records, and brute force state of the art. - From the New York Times... WASHINGTON-The Energy Department will take delivery on Wednesday of what the Government says is the world's fastest computer, capable of a peak performance of 3.88 trillion calculations, or teraflops, a second. Just to simplify things, let's assume that 1 flop == 1 decryption. I know that's not true, but it's very close, and it's certainly less than one order of magnitude off. So, with this assumption how long does it take to break various key sizes? 56 bits -- 2^56 / 3.88E12 = 5.2 hours 64 bits -- 2^64 / 3.88E12 = 55 days 80 bits -- 2^80 / 3.88E12 = 9873 years 128 bits -- 2^128 / 3.88E12 = 2.8E18 years. And now you know. Harv. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGPfreeware 6.0 for non-commercial use <http://www.pgp.com> iQA/AwUBNjcVv3UkEFXvH2ZAEQJRJQCeOPXRZpMwlFKHjUWktgBMRSL626sAnR/m TJAfMTXEdf5pYW+rLiACRlWD =WYHJ -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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IP: Microsoft Enters Smart Card Market
by Robert Hettinga 18 Dec '03

18 Dec '03

--- begin forwarded text Delivered-To: ignition-point(a)majordomo.pobox.com X-Sender: believer(a)telepath.com Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1998 11:31:51 -0600 To: believer(a)telepath.com From: believer(a)telepath.com Subject: IP: Microsoft Enters Smart Card Market Mime-Version: 1.0 Sender: owner-ignition-point(a)majordomo.pobox.com Precedence: list Reply-To: believer(a)telepath.com Source: New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/yr/mo/biztech/articles/28card.html October 28, 1998 Microsoft Enters Smart Card Market By BLOOMBERG NEWS PARIS -- The Microsoft Corporation introduced a tiny computer-operating system for smart cards Tuesday as well as support for the system from 20 hardware makers. Smart cards contain microchips that store personal or financial data, allowing access while securing the information from unauthorized use. They are already used widely in Europe in digital mobile phones, pre-paid telephone cards and bank cards. Microsoft is betting that smart cards will take off as the growing use of hand-held computer devices and electronic commerce creates demand for more secure ways of accessing computer networks. The company, which is based in Redmond, Wash., is competing against Sun Microsystems Inc. in the smart-card market, pitting its Windows system against Sun's Java programming language. "We brought back our work on smart cards a year-and-a-half ago when we saw increasing demand for authentication of a user's identity to access a network and an explosion in demand for on-line electronic commerce," said Craig Mundie, senior vice president for consumer platforms at Microsoft. He presented the new product at the Cartes 98 Smart Card conference in Paris. He said test versions of the product would be ready in the first quarter of next year and the final product by mid-year. The Windows operating system for smart cards will have memory capacity of 4.5 kilobytes, compared with 300 kilobytes for Windows CE, which is used in hand-held computers. Windows cards will cost issuers about $3 each, compared with $20 for Java-based cards. Sun officials could not immediately be reached for comment. The worldwide market for chip cards will jump nearly fivefold, to $6.8 billion, in 2002, from $1.4 billion in 1997, according to Dataquest Inc., a unit of Gartner Group Inc. ----------------------- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ----------------------- **************************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo(a)majordomo.pobox.com with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address or (un)subscribe ignition-point-digest email@address **************************************************** www.telepath.com/believer **************************************************** --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)philodox.com> Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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IP: CHAOSTAN
by Robert Hettinga 18 Dec '03

18 Dec '03

--- begin forwarded text Delivered-To: ignition-point(a)majordomo.pobox.com Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1998 00:26:49 -0800 To: ignition-point(a)majordomo.pobox.com From: "A.C." <angie(a)computerhut.net> Subject: IP: CHAOSTAN: EARLY WARNING REPORT. Sender: owner-ignition-point(a)majordomo.pobox.com Precedence: list Reply-To: "A.C." <angie(a)computerhut.net> Richard was a reporter for the US Army, in Germany, until recently. I hope I recall the correct branch of the military, Richard, that you served as a reporter with. Richard ran into a whole lot of trouble when he began to expose some rather "controversial" things he saw, that involved US troops in the former Yugoslavia. See also the article below Richard's brief missive, written by Richard Maybury, editor of EARLY WARNING report newsletter. It is probably one of the best written essays on the subject of our now universal dillema. Maybury's handle on history makes it all the more credible, especially as he shows the parallels with the present. AC --------------------------------------------------- >Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 22:00:38 -0800 >From: Richard=20 >To: Angie Carlson <angie(a)computerhut.net> >Subject: Richard Holbrooke > >Angie, >Did you see Richard Holbrooke on the PBS Newshour With Jim Lehrer on >Tues. Oct. 27? He talked about sending more troops to Macedonia because >of the Kosovo situation and that "It's been a plan for years." But he >also says they have "an emergency evacuation plan for every person." >I was surprised Judy Woodruff mentioned the danger of taking U.S. troops > >hostage. This had previously been something of a taboo subject in U.S. >media. >This "plan for some years" of sending more U.N./NATO troops to Macedonia > >may be what I came up against in January of 1994. The planners didn't >want Americans to learn about the threat to U.S. troops in this region >of the world. >Best wishes, >Rick Haverinen >----------------------------------------------------------------- Richard Maybury's U.S. and World EARLY WARNING REPORT Free Articles http://www.stockscape.com/newsletters/maybury/free1.htm NEWSLETTER FREE ARTICLES SUBSCRIBE CONTACT Chaostan, the Full Story Dear Reader, Having invented the Chaostan model, I'm embarrassed to admit I have never written a complete explanation of it. Investors found it so valuable that Henry-Madison Research and EWR began to grow rapidly and I have been unable to find time to give you the full story until now. Chaostan is pronounced Chaos-tan, with the emphasis on Chaos. In Central Asia, the suffix "stan" means "the land of." Uzbekistan, for instance, is the land of the Uzbeks. I coined the term Chaostan to mean the land of the Great Chaos. It comprises the area from the Arctic Ocean to the Indian Ocean and Poland to the Pacific Ocean, plus North Africa. This is roughly a third of the earth's land surface. To understand Chaostan, we must first understand these two lines; they are the most important you will ever see. They represent the "standard of living" or, if you prefer, "quality of life" of the typical individual in western civilization. This can be measured however you wish to measure it -- quantity of food, number of bathtubs, warmth of clothing, number of telephones, speed of transportation, amount of entertainment or medical care, and so forth. Line 1 is the line we have all been taught. We leave school thinking civilization advanced slowly but steadily over thousands of years until we reached our present high level. This line is false. Line 2 is the real line. Nearly all progress happened recently and suddenly. The typical individual in 1500 AD lived little better than in 1500 BC. He had little food, little clothing or shelter, and so much disease, filth and ignorance he was lucky to survive till age 30; most died in childhood. Until recently, poverty was so awful that even royalty lived in conditions we would regard as horrifying. What happened to cause this sudden, dramatic takeoff? What year did the sharp escalation begin? 1776. You can verify this yourself and I urge you to do so. Walk around your home and make a list of everything you have that was developed after 1776. Electricity, indoor plumbing, plastic, aluminum, central heating, air conditioning, plywood, refrigerators, nylon, jogging shoes, inner spring mattresses, rayon, facial tissue, stainless steel, corn flakes, underwear, radio... Then make another list of everything developed before 1776. Do the same in a hospital and dentist's office. Compare the lists and ask yourself what your life would have been like if you had lived before 1776. For thousands of years up until the American Revolution, our ancestors lived just barely above the base line of human existence. Destitution had been the normal condition since Adam and Eve. The past two centuries -- a mere eyeblink in the vast span of history -- have been a spectacular exception. I do not exaggerate when I say that at least once a week I give thanks that I was born when and where I was -- in America after 1776. Why did the American Revolution have this wonderful effect? The answer is the story of Chaostan. It begins, as almost everything in today's political world begins, in ancient Rome. After Roman civilization in Europe fell apart around 500 AD, Europe was taken over by hundreds of independent cutthroats called feudal lords. Each set up his own little kingdom of a square mile or so, with a castle at the center. The people on this tiny estate were the lord's property--his serfs--to be taxed, regulated and killed as he saw fit. This was the Dark Ages, a time of starvation, endless war, ignorance and bottomless misery. The Roman legal system had died along with the Empire, so Europe had no law. Two people embroiled in a dispute had to work it out on their own. The feudal lord seldom paid much attention; he didn't care as long as the taxes kept rolling in. When a dispute occurred, there was often bloodshed. To avoid this, participants in disputes increasingly called on neutral third parties to hear both sides of their stories and make decisions. Usually, the most trusted person in a community was a clergyman and some clergymen made careers of hearing disputes and making judgments. They became judges. Being clergymen, these judges' decisions in each case were based on religious principles such as "Thou shalt not steal," and "Thou shalt not kill." Decisions were preserved in writing as precedents for later decisions. This collection of precedents became a body of "case law" (law derived from actual cases). One problem. Often people were from different religions. Which principles should a judge apply? Judges hit on the idea of using the principles all religions hold in= common. There are two: (1) Do all you have agreed to do. This became the basis of contract law. (2) Do not encroach on other persons or their property. This became the basis of tort law and some criminal law. These two laws taught by all religions were held to be common to all persons and they became the foundation of the body of precedents called Common Law. (All this is fully explained in my Uncle Eric book WHATEVER HAPPENED TO JUSTICE?) Another problem. Governments hated the two fundamental laws. They wanted the privilege of breaking agreements, stealing, killing and doing whatever else they= pleased. Right from the beginning, there was conflict between governments and Common Law judges, and these judges were under extreme pressure to make exceptions for public officials. This is the meaning of the so-called divine right of kings. Governments declared that, although they were as human as everyone else, God had given them the special right to violate the two fundamental laws. The modern version of the divine right of kings is what I call the divine right of the majority. In democracies it is held that the government can do anything it pleases if the majority or their representatives vote for it. Thanks to the divine right of kings, the heavy taxes, regulations and wars kept the people in crushing poverty. In England, a huge underground economy sprang up to escape the taxes and regulations. Finally, after 1492, shipbuilding advanced enough for people to cross the ocean to America to escape their governments, and thousands did. England's underground economy was transplanted to America, where it flourished. Virtually every adult was engaged in smuggling or tax evasion of one sort or another. The early Americans hated the government's political law, but in regard to Common Law, were probably some of the most law abiding people ever to walk the earth. They were not perfect, but they had, after all, risked their lives crossing the ocean to live under the principles of this law. These principles came not from a legislature of crooked politicians, but from their religions. By 1765, enjoying very little taxation or regulation, Americans had become the wealthiest population on earth. Here it is important to note that the American Revolution was a revolution. These were Englishmen fighting their own government. They did not split from England until July 4, 1776, which was fifteen months after the war started. Government officials in England decided to tap into the colonists' wealth. They sent tax collectors. The tax collectors were tarred and feathered. They sent troops to protect the tax collectors. At Lexington and Concord in 1775, the troops arrived to confiscate the American colonists' guns, and the colonists decided to fight. Then, in 1776, the colonists overthrew their government and, in their Declaration of Independence said, "All men are created equal." No special privileges--everyone obeys the two fundamental laws. After the 1776 revolution, the American founders set up a new government with a Constitution and Bill of Rights based on the two fundamental laws. [The Common Law orgins of the American system are traced in the Pultizer Prize winning book THE IDEOLOGICAL ORIGINS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION by Bernard Bailyn, Harvard University Press, 1967.] The size and power of this government was severely limited and its ability to steal ("tax") was reduced almost to zero. Until the 20th century, the tiny US government was supported only by import taxes and taxes on liquor and tobacco; there was no income tax. America became a haven for flight capital as people all over the world began investing their money here. With this mountain of capital to work with, new businesses sprang up like mushrooms, and inventors such as Robert Fulton and Eli Whitney were able to acquire funds to develop a vast array of new machines to make life better. This is where we get the term "American ingenuity." When he died in 1931, Thomas Edison had more than a thousand patents. This mountain of capital also enabled industrialists to produce and sell these new items at prices everyone could afford, while paying the world's highest wages. America still had a lot of flaws, the worst being slavery and the genocide of the Native American Indians, but it was the freest, most prosperous land ever known. The Old World remained so wretchedly poor that archaeological evidence from American slave dwellings shows Europe's heavily taxed and regulated middle class did not live as well as America's slaves. The rest of the world saw America's great wealth and liberty and wanted it for themselves. In the 1800s, millions came here, and millions more stayed at home and fought to limit their governments. Now we come to three questions that are crucial for understanding Chaostan: (1) Why was the Battle of Lexington called the Shot Heard Round The World, not the Shot Heard Round America? (2) When the French gave us the Statue of Liberty, why did they name it Liberty Enlightening the World, not Liberty Enlightening America? (3) Why does the statue face outward toward Europe, not inward toward America? The principles of the 1776 revolution began to spread around the world, and the nations where they became established came to be known as the Free World. These nations are also the richest. Liberty is the source of prosperity. This, incidentally, is the meaning of the Henry-Madison Company's logo, a Liberty Bell with an economic chart showing rapid advancement. (The company is named after Patrick Henry and James Madison.) America is the only country in history that has been, not so much a place, as an idea. Unfortunately, the mid-1800s brought catastrophe. The economic philosophy that had destroyed the Roman Empire was revived. This was socialism. Bread and circuses. The all-powerful state. This old Roman system legitimatized covetousness and claimed "redistribution of wealth" is not stealing if it is done with good intentions. It began to spread like a prairie fire and quickly became so popular that it overwhelmed the philosophy of America's Founders and buried the principles of Common Law. This is why today few know anything about the original American philosophy or the two laws which gave it birth. The spread of liberty was halted. This map shows the lands where it had become established before its progress was reversed. As we would expect, liberty had sunk its deepest roots in regions with the strongest British Common Law heritage -- America, Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand.= In a few areas, liberty was introduced forcibly, as when Douglas MacArthur imposed it on Japan after the second world war. The jury is still out as to whether the Japanese will retain it or revert to their old statist ways. India was a British colony and liberty did take root there, but socialism was too popular for it to grow. India remains poor, with a per capita gross national product (GNP) of only $1,300 per year. (In the US it is $24,700.) For a while in the early 1800s, Latin America appeared to be on the verge of adopting liberty. Instead, these countries got sidetracked and went for democracy -- majority rule -- and the majority liked socialism. The richest Latin country is Mexico with a per capita GDP of only $8,200. In Africa, liberty never had a chance. Nearly all the African revolutions were 100% socialist, and today Africa is the poorest place on earth. Zaire's per capita GNP is $500, which is not unusual in Africa. In Europe, liberty had become well established as far east as Vienna, and to a lesser extent in the east European nations of Czechoslovakia, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Some knowledge of it reached Moscow under Kerensky in 1917, but the movement was quickly snuffed out by socialists. Today, East Europe, Russia and Asia remain almost entirely ignorant of the system of liberty. They are mired in unworkable statist systems and hundreds of millions of people live only slightly above the base line. In other words, Chaostan -- the land of the Great Chaos -- is the main area that never developed legal systems based on the two fundamental laws. (Or if they did, they allowed government officials the special privilege of violating these laws.) This schematic is derived from a map in the 10/95 EWR. It shows that the Balkan peninsula has long been one of the bloodiest parts of Chaostan because this is where three major religious cultures collide. Since the beginning of history, this area has been inhabited by hundreds of nations, tribes and ethnic groups that have hated and fought each other incessantly. Russia alone contains some 250 of these groups and they know nothing of the legal principles that make an advanced, peaceful civilization possible. Worse, there is no one to teach them, for the West has forgotten these principles, too. The importance of all this was hidden by the Cold War. From 1945 to 1990, the US and Soviet governments divided the world into two "spheres of influence," and Russia sat on its sphere like a lid on a pressure cooker. Peace in Chaostan was artificial; the hundreds of fractious groups under the Kremlin's thumb had not been civilized--they had only been suppressed. Now that the lid is off the pressure cooker, the explosion has begun. The area is returning to its original condition of poverty and war. Saddam Hussein was the first to realize the Kremlin's weakness was an opportunity to settle old scores. Since the fall of the Soviet Empire, no less than 17 wars have broken out in Chaostan. Travel around the world and study the economies of the countries you visit. You will see a pattern. The more socialistic a country is, the poorer it is. The former USSR is the textbook example. It was poor when the Soviet Empire was at its peak and it remains poor today. A degree of advancement can be achieved through force, by telling people to work or die, but slaves do only the minimum necessary to escape punishment and have little interest in progress. The mighty USSR was a Third World nation with missiles. After the USSR broke up, the Russians were deceived. They were taught democracy. When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, they were led to believe that if they got majority rule like America, they would get rich like America. It did not work because it cannot work. In all the thousands of years of human history, the only thing that has been found to work is liberty -- the two fundamental laws. When these laws are widely obeyed by everyone, including government officials, life gets better. When they are disobeyed, life gets worse; it is automatic. We don't know why our species is made this way, we only know we are. These principles cannot be established by a government, for governments claim the special right to violate them, and hypocrites are laughed at. The principles must exist in the hearts and minds of the people, which means they must be anchored in the peoples' philosophical beliefs. Unfortunately, even in America these principles have been almost totally erased, so there is no one to teach the principles to the inhabitants of Chaostan. These people have learned only the simplistic notion of democracy -- majority rule. Wait a minute, you say, if the principles are so important, and if America has forgotten them, how does America continue? Momentum. This great land and all the rest of the Free World still have the principles embedded in their legal systems, but few know or care about this. When the momentum runs out, we will head down the same road as the former USSR. This is why I write the Uncle Eric series of books: to help reverse this decline. Look again at Line 2. Perhaps the twenty most important words you will ever read are these: When the two laws are not widely obeyed by everyone, including the government, a civilization returns to the base line. This was demonstrated over and over again in Africa. Colonialism was bad enough, but after Africans threw off their European rulers, they jumped from the colonial frying pan to the socialist fire. The result was a descent into poverty and war reminiscent of the Dark Ages. This descent is what is happening now in Chaostan, and what will happen to us if we do not revive the two fundamental laws. At bottom, there are only three possible political conditions -- liberty, tyranny or chaos. All political systems are variations of these. For the people of Chaostan, liberty is not an option. They are condemned to either tyranny or chaos, for they have never known anything else and there is no one to teach them. Until 1989, the former USSR had tyranny. Since then they have had chaos, and now I believe they are ready for a return to tyranny. But not all the hundreds of groups originally conquered by the Kremlin will submit. We can only guess at what will happen, but it will not be pretty. SUMMARY War, tyranny and poverty have been the normal conditions of mankind throughout history. My personal estimate is that 99% of everything good that ever happened to our species happened in one fell swoop, in the brief two centuries since 1776. This was due to the discovery and application of the two fundamental Common Law principles that make liberty and prosperity possible. After 1776, these principles began to spread around the world. Unfortunately, by 1900, this movement had been choked off by the revival of socialism. Large parts of the earth never got the principles, and the largest, which I call Chaostan, is now reverting to its original condition of war, tyranny and poverty. The principles of liberty are being rediscovered and if we all do our best to spread the word, I believe we have a good chance to rescue the Free World. But Chaostan is too far gone. The area is so huge, it will continue causing major changes in the world economy and investment markets. This will mean big losses for those who do not understand, and big profits for those who do. I will keep you informed. Created by Stockscape Stockscape Technologies Ltd., All Rights Reserved **************************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo(a)majordomo.pobox.com with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address or (un)subscribe ignition-point-digest email@address **************************************************** www.telepath.com/believer **************************************************** --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)philodox.com> Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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