- cypherpunks-legacy - lists.cpunks.org

Terminating Arnold's Presidency
by Major Variola (ret) 10 Aug '03

10 Aug '03

At 07:42 PM 8/8/03 -0700, Eric Cordian wrote: >In response to a question about whether she would favor a Constitutional >amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman, Maybe they'll screw up the specs (by omitting quantity) and make polyamory protected.. >Watch for this President Arnold movement to gather steam. Clinton wants to interpret the "only 2 terms" amendment as "consecutive terms". Sometimes you just have to thank the less-exercised Amerndments..

1 0

Re: How can you tell if your alarm company's...
by John Young 10 Aug '03

10 Aug '03

The alarm and security specialists we've talked to claim the greatest threat to systems are authorized users: the property owners, their children, employees, servants, nearly all of whom fail to arm and disarm the system properly not matter how carefully instructed. A false alarm is feared by these users more than an attacker, for they are more often traumatized by an errant signal, and the outpouring of security personnel and police, than by an actual attacker. (Like the US security and law enforcement systems.) The security responders are so pissed, or so condescending, that the users are in a state of panic about the systems going off falsely. Answer to that is to leave the system off. And claim they forgot to arm it. Thus, self-censorship to keep the cops from attacking. Then there are panic room backups which freak the users due to its capability of killing them with false threats like the gentleman, Safra, was killed on the Mediterranean coast when he believed he was under attack as responders tried to rescue him. Responders are a genuine threat when they think you are an AIDS carrier. It's worth keeping in mind, that protective and security systems can do you great harm, like friendly fire and security agencies of all kinds -- banks, doctors, accountants, in-house guards, most trusted associates. Gun owners, and nations, being killed by their own weapons is a kissing cousin threat. Technology is a gun most often in the hands of those will to fire first then question who's there. WMDs are the biggest threat to the US and ilk, those owned by the panic-room trapped users. North Korea, say, or the Joint Chiefs, aided and abetted by the low-credibility spooks. Back to failure of home security systems: its the back-up batteries that don't get replaced, rather the monthly bill for service is neglected by wayward servants while the owner is vacationing on a yacht being tracked by IRS.

1 0

Re: A 'Funky A.T.M.' Lets You Pay for Purchases Made Online
by Sampo Syreeni 10 Aug '03

10 Aug '03

On 2003-07-23, Sunder uttered: >If you want to do electronic payments that are non-anonymous you can >simply use a credit card or debit card (or something like paypal, egold), >or for larger quanitities you can do wire transfers - so why would we >need yet another a non-anonymous "cash" that isn't cash? I only objected to the notion that all digicash needs to be anonymous in order to be desirable. I didn't say this particular system amounts to desirable weak digicash. To that end it would likely make far more sense in the short term e.g. to marry Visa Electronic to PayPal. In the long term multiple cooperating PayPal-like entities could then be used to build mixnets, making the digicash strongly anonymous. As for Morlock Elloi's objection, what you have on your bank account *is* money, and debit cards simply a technological quirk which allows us to access it. Furthermore, any medium of indirect exchange is by definition money and at least Merriam-Webster defines cash as "ready money". So we might define cash as the most liquid form a money available. After that we can claim that in the presence of ubiquitous debit capability and a steadily growing aversion towards those using paper money, the latter is not in fact cash at all, but a less liquid cash (bits on a mainframe) substitute used when we're willing to pay a premium (in convenience and depreciation) for anonymity. -- Sampo Syreeni, aka decoy - mailto:decoy@iki.fi, tel:+358-50-5756111 student/math+cs/helsinki university, http://www.iki.fi/~decoy/front openpgp: 050985C2/025E D175 ABE5 027C 9494 EEB0 E090 8BA9 0509 85C2

10 18

On our oncoming future dystopia (fwd)
by Jim Choate 10 Aug '03

10 Aug '03

I'd say it pretty much hits the nail on the head, one of my favorite poems to boot. http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=10953 -- ____________________________________________________________________ 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 --------------------------------------------------------------------

1 0

Re: President Terminator
by R. A. Hettinga 10 Aug '03

10 Aug '03

At 12:13 PM -0400 8/9/03, Sunder wrote: >As Reagan prooved, Or George Washington... Cheers, RAH -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.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'

1 0

President Terminator
by Eric Cordian 09 Aug '03

09 Aug '03

In response to a question about whether she would favor a Constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman, a Fox Fake News Channel bimbo responded, "I want a Constitutional amendment so Arnold can be President." Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center has characterized Arnold as having "done more to further the cause of Holocaust awareness than almost any other Hollywood star." Rabbi Hier also points out that Arnold makes regular substantial constributions to the Wiesenthal Center, and has raised millions for the Holocaust Memorial Trust in Los Angeles. So how exactly, one might ask, does Arnold's view of America's Manifest Destiny to rule the world and his unconditional love of the Jewish people and Israel differ from Bush's view of America's Manifest Destiny to rule the world and his unconditional love of the Jewish people and Israel. Or the view of any other major Neocon? Watch for this President Arnold movement to gather steam. Who knows, once the naturally born restriction on Presidents is removed, Ariel Sharon could be the US President after Arnold, bringing the Neoconservative nonsense full circle. -- Eric Michael Cordian 0+ O:.T:.O:. Mathematical Munitions Division "Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law"

2 1

In the matter of Mr. Fuq
by Roy M. Silvernail 09 Aug '03

09 Aug '03

When I suggested a few weeks ago that someone would eventually argue for a constitutionally guaranteed right to be heard, members of the list both reminded me (quite correctly) that no such right does or can exist, and opined that because of the obvious fallacy of the claim, no one would make that argument. It would seem that Mencken [1] was correct, as well as Costello [2]. [1] http://www.bartleby.com/59/3/nooneeverwen.html [2] http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/e/q108965.html

3 2

Distributed Denial of Existence, the makings of an AP opportunity?
by Steve Schear 09 Aug '03

09 Aug '03

One of the most frequent sights on kuro5hin is that of one user or group of users complaining, often loudly and viciously, about another. One need not look very hard in order to find scores upon scores of users who absolutely loathe each other. Thanks to this pre-existing community of people who hate each other passionately, I believe that we stand on a potentially lucrative and far-reaching social experiment: the Distributed Denial of Existence. http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/7/31/16429/1028 A foolish Constitutional inconsistency is the hobgoblin of freedom, adored by judges and demagogue statesmen. - Steve Schear

1 0

Superpowers distribute 750,000 shoulder-fired missiles, cook their own gooses
by Tim May 08 Aug '03

08 Aug '03

Reports today that commercial aviation is in dire danger of being grounded as freedom fighters deploy even a small fraction of the (estimated) 750,000 shoulder-fired missiles to down commercial airliners. (Having sat on Pacific Coast Highway below the takeoff path of LAX jumbo jets, I can attest to the fact that they are literally just a few hundred feet above. Any van with a moonroof could trivially be set up to allow a pop shot at one of these 747s or 767s, leaving every couple of minutes.) The U.S. and U.S.S.R. were handing these SFMs to any freedom fighter group that would temporarily swear allegiance to the CIA or KGB. Now the chickens are coming home to roost. I stopped flying in 2000. --Tim May "That the said Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms." --Samuel Adams

5 5

The Declan McCullagh Fatwa.
by Jim Choate 08 Aug '03

08 Aug '03

> "Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is a > merger of state and corporate power." > > -- Benito Mussolini What a person to agree with...the epitome of God $$$ Fascism. Them trains, they do run on time. Or is that 'spam'... -- ____________________________________________________________________ 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 --------------------------------------------------------------------

2 1