May 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: Washington State Restricts Anti-Cop Videogames
by barabbus＠hushmail.com 22 May '03

22 May '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 At 06:27 2003-05-21 -0700, Major Variola (ret) wrote: >However Washington is a government, and the 14th has something to say: >No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. Too bad the 14th was unconstitutionally ratified and therefore null and void. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Note: This signature can be verified at https://www.hushtools.com/verify Version: Hush 2.3 wkYEARECAAYFAj7NBHgACgkQ3VqOYJkyXhVe1gCgoJLYihk87v/m88lTeQfmh5qAK44A n3IlKa++CSw+WPTu81TGkERejJBo =Kz3K -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- Concerned about your privacy? Follow this link to get FREE encrypted email: https://www.hushmail.com/?l=2 Free, ultra-private instant messaging with Hush Messenger https://www.hushmail.com/services.php?subloc=messenger&l=434 Big $$$ to be made with the HushMail Affiliate Program: https://www.hushmail.com/about.php?subloc=affiliate&l=427

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Just wait until you see the government ads for Jesus...
by Tim Meehan 22 May '03

22 May '03

http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/7867 Buying Initiatives A House committee is marking up a bill on May 22 that could strike at the heart of ballot initiatives nationwide, significantly undermining the efforts of drug policy reformers. A little-known segment of a bill reauthorizing the mission of the nation's anti-drug agency could give the drug czar authority to use taxpayer dollars to pay for media campaigns directly targeting state ballot measures. If the bill passes, and agency chief John Walters uses public funds to hammer initiatives the administration opposes, it would run counter to the whole purpose of ballot initiatives, establish a disturbing precedent for federal electioneering and hobble advocates pushing for saner alternatives to the War on Drugs. [snip]

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ScienceDaily News Release: Birds And Humans Have Similar 'Shopping' Habits (fwd)
by Jim Choate 22 May '03

22 May '03

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/05/030522083303.htm -- ____________________________________________________________________ We are all interested in the future for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. Criswell, "Plan 9 from Outer Space" ravage(a)ssz.com jchoate(a)open-forge.org www.ssz.com www.open-forge.org --------------------------------------------------------------------

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The Register - US anti-terror law used against hackers, thieves (fwd)
by Jim Choate 22 May '03

22 May '03

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/30824.html -- ____________________________________________________________________ We are all interested in the future for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. Criswell, "Plan 9 from Outer Space" ravage(a)ssz.com jchoate(a)open-forge.org www.ssz.com www.open-forge.org --------------------------------------------------------------------

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PCWorld.com - Will Taxing E-Mail Stop Spam? (fwd)
by Jim Choate 22 May '03

22 May '03

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,110837,00.asp -- ____________________________________________________________________ We are all interested in the future for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. Criswell, "Plan 9 from Outer Space" ravage(a)ssz.com jchoate(a)open-forge.org www.ssz.com www.open-forge.org --------------------------------------------------------------------

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HP adds Trusted Computing Module to PC range (fwd)
by Jim Choate 22 May '03

22 May '03

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=9615 -- ____________________________________________________________________ We are all interested in the future for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. Criswell, "Plan 9 from Outer Space" ravage(a)ssz.com jchoate(a)open-forge.org www.ssz.com www.open-forge.org --------------------------------------------------------------------

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Re: Oregon's proposed new class of terrorists
by Tim May 22 May '03

22 May '03

On Wednesday, May 21, 2003, at 04:03 PM, Trei, Peter wrote: > The feeling I get is that Oregon combines the worst of California and > the 'classic Western' states. > > California has a highly intrusive, interventionist government, but this > is leavened by the liberalism of many of the positions it holds. Thus, > while California is really bad for some individual rights (such as the > RKBA), it's fairly libertine on others (such as lifestyles). > > In the 'classic Western' states (I'm thinking of Wyoming, Montana, > Nevada, Idaho, etc, and I don't claim to be really well informed on > this), > while the general population holds pretty rightwing views, this is > leavened by a strain of semi-libertarianism in the government, in the > 'don't intevene' sense. > > Oregon seems to combine the worst of both, along with none of the > good points - a highly intrusive California style government, with > very rightwing views. My recollection is that Oregon has legalized/recognized homosexual "marriage" and "right to die" schemes. The Willamette Valley, where most of the population is, is fairly libertine. Most San Francisco types fit in quite well in Eugene, Portland, Beaverton, Corvallis, etc. The coastal fishing and logging areas are now more dominated by tourism and retirement (from California). The eastern half of the state is largely high desert, and is sparsely populated. I would not class Oregon with Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, etc. (and Montana is becoming more like California and the Pacific Northwest, as wealthy Californians buy ranches and retirement homes there--too cold for me, but they like the "Big Sky Country," until too many people move in, that is). I think Ernest Callenbach had it about right when he described the region from British Columbia down through most of coastal California as "Ecotopia." (Or maybe this was the book called "The Seven Nations of North America"...I lent my copy to someone and never saw it again. Extreme southern California has more of a Mexican flavor and is dubbed "Aztlan" or somesuch word and is lumped in with Arizona, southern Nevada, New Mexico, etc.) The meta-issue is of course that all of these states, and all of the nations of the world, have set up machines for producing more and more laws and more and more priests to interpret the laws. Didn't we basically have enough laws 40 years ago? Granted, some new situations came up, and new legislation was needed, but not in proportion to the numbers of new laws and the nearly year-round meeting of legislators to pass more laws. The mischief that all the new legislation about Patriot Acts and Terrorist Information Awareness and Bill 742 is creating will never be undone. The Supreme Court lacks the guts to take on sweeping cases and strike down thousands of very similar and very unconstitutional laws across the country. A good example, one of many, being the bullshit about the "incorporation doctrine" and whether the Second Amendment prevents _states_ from violating the Bill of Rights in the same way--it has been accepted--that the states may not establish official churches or deny due process, blah blah. Not being a law student, it has always seemed clear to me that the states agreed to support the Constitution of the United States as a condition for joining the Union and they clearly cannot impose their own press censorship, official religions, etc., nor can they violate the Fourth Amendment and just raid houses as they wish. Nor can their courts ignore jury trial and other constitutional issues. So, somehow the Second Amendment is deemed to be "unincorporated" (??). How con-veeeenient! The Supreme Court should issue a simple and concise statement: "The Second Amendment is no different from the First, Third (quartering troops), Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, etc. amendments. Some of the states do not seem to have grasped this. And we have been remiss in not making this abundantly clear a long time ago. .... We hereby instruct the Federal Marshals Service to visit the various prisons in states which have gun laws violating the Second Amendment and release the prisoners. We further order...and we order...and those officials which ignore this order shall be charged...." But of course the Supreme Court is unwilling to rock the boat. And now that we have the Colored Person Slot, the Jewish Person Slot, the Female Slot, the Jewish Female Slot, the Italian-American Slot, various groups are clamoring for the Queer Slot, the Hispanic Slot, the Hispanic Woman Slot, and, of course the Asian Person Slot. Once the last of the whitemales has retired, the Supreme Court can be our true Rainbow Coalition and the rest of the Bill of Rights can be further shredded. --Tim May By the way, I usually have my .sig randomly rotated from about 25 of them. Look at what just happened to pop up this time: "The whole of the Bill [of Rights] is a declaration of the right of the people at large or considered as individuals... It establishes some rights of the individual as unalienable and which consequently, no majority has a right to deprive them of." -- Albert Gallatin of the New York Historical Society, October 7, 1789

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Slashdot | William Gibson on Movies, Music, Media (fwd)
by Jim Choate 22 May '03

22 May '03

http://slashdot.org/articles/03/05/22/0022204.shtml?tid=188 -- ____________________________________________________________________ We are all interested in the future for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. Criswell, "Plan 9 from Outer Space" ravage(a)ssz.com jchoate(a)open-forge.org www.ssz.com www.open-forge.org --------------------------------------------------------------------

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[eff-austin] Anti-Censorship Tool Would Evade Porn Filters (fwd)
by Jim Choate 22 May '03

22 May '03

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 22 May 2003 05:11:40 +0000 From: Carl Webb <webbcarl(a)hotmail.com> To: eff-austin(a)effaustin.org, tlc-discuss(a)lists.cwrl.utexas.edu Subject: [eff-austin] Anti-Censorship Tool Would Evade Porn Filters Education Week: American Education's Newspaper of Record Anti-Censorship Tool Would Evade Porn Filters By Andrew Trotter Less than a year after a federal law began requiring school districts to protect their Internet connections from pornography and other objectionable materials, a new software tool offers a loopholecourtesy of Uncle Sam. The software, called Circumventor, can be installed on any Windows-type computer with unfiltered access to the Internet, such as a home computer. That machine then can be a springboard for Web requests from computers, such as those in schools, that have filters. Such a setup makes it possible to retrieve unauthorized Web pages and rebound them to the requestor, past the filter's outstretched arms. A student on a school computer, for example, would start the process merely by typing the Web address of the unfiltered computer into a Web browser, such as Internet Explorer. Circumventor wasn't meant to help youngsters download porn in the school library. It was developed by the federal government to allow people overseas who live under repressive governments to get news and information online. "Various hostile governments like Cuba and China are blocking Web siteswe're looking at technologies that can help," said Ken Berman, the program manager for Internet anti-censorship at the International Broadcasting Bureau. The bureau, which oversees the radio and Web services of the Voice of America, in Washington, paid software programmer Bennett Haselton to develop the tool. Mr. Haselton is better known as the founder of Peacefire, a nonprofit, Seattle-based group opposed to censorship on the Web, even for schoolchildren. And he has been touting to the news media and on Peacefire's Web site that, in addition to defeating "the great firewall of China," the anti-censorship software can evade the Internet filters in nearly all schools and many homes. "We know that millions of teenagers have uncensored Internet access anyway and are clearly handling it responsibly," Mr. Haselton said in an interview. "Why isn't it right for all of them, not just for those lucky enough to have it?" Clearing the Filter Circumventor takes a task usually requiring an expertcreating an "anonymous proxy server"and automates it so it can be done in a few minutes by someone with modest computer skills, Mr. Haselton said, and the software is available for free on the Web. However, Mr. Berman of the International Broadcasting Bureau noted that the software is still a test version. He added: "We don't want to put taxpayer dollars into helping people browse porn." Even so, one filtering-company executive acknowledged that the method is effective. "It does work to get around filters," said David Burt, the public relations manager for the Seattle-based N2H2 Inc. Still, he said the company's Bess filtering system, which is widely used in schools, would detect a Circumventor-equipped computer if "a substantial number of people" started using it. "But you can set it up in your home for 10 of your friends, and they can probably get around the filtering," Mr. Burt conceded. Nancy E. Willard, the director of the Responsible Netizen Institutea private group based in Eugene, Ore., that promotes safe and responsible use of the Internetcalled Circumventor "very significant" because it exposes filtering as a "quick fix" that is unreliable and fails to teach children to be responsible Internet users. She cited a 2002 study by the Kaiser Family Foundation that tested the six filtering products that are most widely used in schools. The study concluded that filters block access to valuable health information on the Web and let objectionable materials slip througherrors that increase at the more restrictive settings. "Given that environment, there's going to be really strong interest, especially among technically sophisticated students, to set up these [anti-filtering] systems for themselves and their friends," Ms. Willard said. In many cases, she said, "this is not at all badthey're doing it to get to the [appropriate] sites that they're being blocked from." Schools would be better off responding to the Web's inappropriate content by emphasizing education and supervision, she argued. Why Schools Care No reports have surfaced that Circumventor has been used in schools, but some school technology officials are talking about the software. In the 7,000-student Mankato, Minn., school district, Doug Johnson, the director of media and technology, said the potential use of the software highlights the issue of "overblocking" of valuable information. "I'm always worried that schools are going to be increasingly irrelevant to kids, who'll say, 'Why should I bother to do my research at school?'" he said. The Mankato district filters at a minimum level to comply with the federal Children's Internet Protection Act of 2000, which requires that schools that receive federal technology funds equip their computers with filters. The law's identical mandate for public libraries has been put on hold by a federal court, pending the outcome of a legal challenge. Mr. Johnson said Internet filters do spare students and teachers the nuisance of accidentally running into porn during Internet research, but he believes filters "provide a false sense of security." What's more, every Mankato school has a computer in its media center in a supervised location that is left unfiltered for teachers and students to use, he said. Mr. Haselton, meanwhile, said the software companies that make filters can come up with ways to defeat Circumventor, but the process would take "a few months" and require that their customers install software upgrades. Plus, he predicted, more filter-evading tools will be devised in the not-too-distant future. In fact, the Peacefire Web site solicits ideas from visitors on better evasion techniques. "We will continue to do stuff like this, helping to defeat Internet censorship in Chinaand Stateside," Mr. Haselton promised. On the Web -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Peacefire, the organization founded by Bennett Haselton, posts "Instructions for Setting Up a Simple Circumventor." http://www.peacefire.org/circumventor/simple-circumventor-instructions.html _________________________________________________________________ Add photos to your messages with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail

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Suggested Reading
by Jim Choate 21 May '03

21 May '03

Mathematical Fallacies and Paradoxes B. Bunch ISBN 0-486-29664-4 (Dover) $9 US -- ____________________________________________________________________ We are all interested in the future for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. Criswell, "Plan 9 from Outer Space" ravage(a)ssz.com jchoate(a)open-forge.org www.ssz.com www.open-forge.org --------------------------------------------------------------------

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