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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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Re: idea for OTP system, comments desired
by Nomen Nescio 21 May '03

21 May '03

John Bethencourt writes: > Here's the protocol in a more concise form: > > [first authentication] > > Client --> username --> Server > Client <-- 'initial password?' <-- Server > Client --> initialpass --> Server > Client <-- r_0 <-- Server > Client --> h(h(s.r_0)) --> Server > > [subsequent authentications] > > Client --> username --> Server > Client <-- r_x <-- Server > Client --> h(s.r_x) --> Server > Client <-- r_y <-- Server > Client --> h(h(s.r_y)) --> Server One thing that is unclear in your protocol is whether s, which I think is the same as initialpass, is stored permanently on the server. If so, then when the server receives h(s.r_x), it can do two checks. The check you described is that the hash of this matches the value the client sent previously, h(h(s.r_x)). The other is that the server can construct s.r_x since it knows both of these values, and then compare h(s.r_x) with what the client sent. This has two problems. First, it makes the sending of h(h(s.r_x)) unnecessary since the server can verify the client's response just using s. And second, s is a sensitive value which if stolen could be used at some later time to impersonate the user. So I will assume that the server doesn't store s, in which case I don't see why it needs to see initialpass in the first place. In that case the protocol basically says, each time you log on you provide a hash value for which you will provide the hash input next time you log on. The purpose of the r_x values is to keep the user from having to save state; he can compute h(h(s.r_y)) and then forget it, because next time he logs on the server will remind him of what r_y is. The main security problem I see is that an eavesdropper sees r_x and h(s.r_x), allowing him to do a dictionary attack on s. You could use a really slow hash function to slow this attack down, but it is a serious vulnerability. Given that you are using client software to authenticate, I suggest pursuing SPEKE-style password-authenticated key exchange. There are a number of these systems (some patented) which feature immunity to dictionary attacks on the password.

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As if we didn't already know Barney was torture
by Tyler Durden 21 May '03

21 May '03

Sesame Street breaks Iraqi POWs > > >'Culturally offensive' music is being used to break prisoners >Heavy metal music and popular American children's songs are being used by >US interrogators to break the will of their captives in Iraq. > >Uncooperative prisoners are being exposed for prolonged periods to tracks >by rock group Metallica and music from children's TV programmes Sesame >Street and Barney in the hope of making them talk. > >The US's Psychological Operations Company (Psy Ops) said the aim was to >break a prisoner's resistance through sleep deprivation and playing music >that was culturally offensive to them. > >However, human rights organisation, Amnesty International, said such >tactics may constitute torture - and coalition forces could be in breach of >the Geneva Convention. > >Sergeant Mark Hadsell, of Psy Ops, told Newsweek magazine: "These people >haven't heard heavy metal. > > This is an issue that seriously concerns us. If there is a prolonged >period of sleep deprivation, it could well be considered torture > >Amnesty International spokesperson > >"They can't take it. If you play it for 24 hours, your brain and body >functions start to slide, your train of thought slows down and your will is >broken. That's when we come in and talk to them." > >Sgt Hadsell's favourites are said to be 'Bodies' from the XXX film >soundtrack and Metallica's 'Enter Sandman'. > >The theme tune from the US children's programme Sesame Street and songs >from the purple singing dinosaur Barney are also on their hit list. > >"In training, they forced me to listen to the Barney "I Love You" song for >45 minutes. I never want to go through that again," one US operative told >the magazine. > >'No lasting effect' > >Rick Hoffman, vice president of the Psy Ops Veterans Association, told BBC >Radio 4's Today programme that such a tactic would have no long-lasting >effect on prisoners. > >"The use of this kind of audio-technique is rather new in interrogation," >he said. > >"There have been other kinds of non-lethal, non-harmful techniques, such as >sleep deprivation... which leave no long-lasting effects but do have the >end result of breaking down the individual's will to resist questioning." > > >The TV theme tunes are repeated over long periods > >Amnesty International told BBC News Online that at least one Iraqi captive >- a civilian, later released - had reported being kept awake for up to four >days by loud music. > >"This is an issue that seriously concerns us. If there is a prolonged >period of sleep deprivation, it could well be considered torture," said a >spokeswoman. > >"It is a very difficult line to draw between what constitutes discomfort >and what constitutes torture - that line will vary for individuals and it >would depend on each particular case," she added. > >She said they were looking into whether the US and UK were abiding by their >responsibilities under the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners >of war. > >The UK's Ministry of Defence has said all its prisoners are being held >under the terms of the Geneva Convention and are visited by members of the >International Red Cross. > > > > _________________________________________________________________ Tired of spam? Get advanced junk mail protection with MSN 8. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail

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RE: Oregon's proposed new class of terrorists
by Trei, Peter 21 May '03

21 May '03

> Tim May[SMTP:timcmay@got.net] wrote: > > > On Wednesday, May 21, 2003, at 02:37 PM, Trei, Peter wrote: > > >> May[SMTP:timcmay@got.net] wrote: > >> > >> The Oregon law makes a very broad class of forms of civil > >> disobedience--including unscheduled gatherings which disrupt traffic, > >> sit-ins in colleges, marches, etc.--the same as blowing up buildings > >> or > >> crashing airliners, and carries a mandatory, no parole, minimum of 25 > >> years incarceration. After 25 years, the possibility of being a slave > >> laborer (in effect) picking up trash and cutting brush for the state > >> of > >> Oregon. > >> > > What the hell is it with Oregon, anyway? More idiotic legislation > > seems to come out of that state, in proportion to its population, than > > any other place except the District of Columbia. > > > > Peter Trei > > > > Disclaimer: My opinions, no one elses! > > > > I lived there for two years, 1980-82. Intel requested that I move my > lab up to where the memory division, so I went. Went I moved to a new > project, they moved me back to California...and I was able to dry out. > > My theory is that Oregon is a mixture of: > > -- backwoods rednecks ("We don't need no stinking jobs up here...we got > the mills.") > > -- former Californians anxious to replicate Marin County in the > Willamette Valley (the famous map showing Interstate 5 veering _around_ > Oregon, and the famous saying "Don't Californicate Oregon," a slogan > written by ex-Californians) > > -- the most extreme of the back-to-Nature crowd (Eugene, Medford, etc.) > > -- inner city ghettoes (in Portland, notably) which are the equal of > any back east > > 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. Peter

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Re: Oregon's proposed new class of terrorists
by Tim May 21 May '03

21 May '03

On Wednesday, May 21, 2003, at 02:37 PM, Trei, Peter wrote: >> May[SMTP:timcmay@got.net] wrote: >> >> The Oregon law makes a very broad class of forms of civil >> disobedience--including unscheduled gatherings which disrupt traffic, >> sit-ins in colleges, marches, etc.--the same as blowing up buildings >> or >> crashing airliners, and carries a mandatory, no parole, minimum of 25 >> years incarceration. After 25 years, the possibility of being a slave >> laborer (in effect) picking up trash and cutting brush for the state >> of >> Oregon. >> > What the hell is it with Oregon, anyway? More idiotic legislation > seems to come out of that state, in proportion to its population, than > any other place except the District of Columbia. > > Peter Trei > > Disclaimer: My opinions, no one elses! > I lived there for two years, 1980-82. Intel requested that I move my lab up to where the memory division, so I went. Went I moved to a new project, they moved me back to California...and I was able to dry out. My theory is that Oregon is a mixture of: -- backwoods rednecks ("We don't need no stinking jobs up here...we got the mills.") -- former Californians anxious to replicate Marin County in the Willamette Valley (the famous map showing Interstate 5 veering _around_ Oregon, and the famous saying "Don't Californicate Oregon," a slogan written by ex-Californians) -- the most extreme of the back-to-Nature crowd (Eugene, Medford, etc.) -- inner city ghettoes (in Portland, notably) which are the equal of any back east The politicians are bought and paid for by the various special interests, as in most places. When I was there, it was mainly the timber and fishing industries, with high tech just starting to make a big difference (the major high tech employers were Tektronix (Beaverton), H-P (Corvallis, the calculator division back then), and Intel (memories in Aloha, a couple of wafer fabs, systems in Hillsboro). Since then, the high tech industry has boomed dramatically. Oregon legislators are always looking to appear important and busy. Hence the proliferation of laws. And Portland has always had a kind of inferiority complex when it compares itself to Seattle (and San Francisco to the south). It tries to get the big conventions, but fails to. I surmise that one of the reasons for the "Be in a protest which disrupts things, go to prison for the rest of your life" proposed legislation is to make Portland a G7/GATT/NAFTA/WTO-friendly venue, which Seattle clearly was not a couple of years ago. Portland has also had a bunch of incidents where cops were on the take, where cops were rooting through people's garbage, etc. In a hilarious incident, a newspaper took the same tack the cops were taking, that "items left at the curb have been abandoned," and published the contents of the trash cans of the Chief of Police and several other burrowcrats. They were not amused and had the editor arrested. Portland is also where the cops partly finance their department by seizing the cars of _suspected_ customers of prostitutes and selling them. No convictions needed, the American way! And Oregon is where the ex-Intel software guy was busted for committing the crime of allegedly thinking about going to Afghanistan to possibly help repel the American invaders and of allegedly knowing some other Muslims who were allegedly shooting guns in the woods. (This was a Fed action, but Oregon cops helped. And certainly the Oregonians are atitter that thought criminals are living amongst them.) And let's not forget the Bhagwan, who had his Rajneeshi followers spreading biological agents (salmonella) at restaurants near his ranch. Perhaps if all 60,000 residents of Rajneeshpuram (or whatever the spelling) had been sentenced to life imprisonment under Senate Bill 742, it would have sent a message! (Actually, that happened about 19-20 years ago, so in a few years they could be on the verge of being released into the Oregon Forestry Rehabilitation Brigade. "Arbeit Macht Frei--And Our Forests Benefit, Too!") My hunch is that some burrowcrats in Salem are convinced the state is under attack by terrorists and weirdoes and that they'd better issue themselves new aluminum foil hats and pass a bunch of draconian laws to make Oregon safe for its Stepford residents. Oregon has pretensions of being an important state, thinks of itself as being a leader in all things environmental and social, but is actually the ultimate NIMBY state.

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RE: Oregon's proposed new class of terrorists
by Trei, Peter 21 May '03

21 May '03

> May[SMTP:timcmay@got.net] wrote: > > The Oregon law makes a very broad class of forms of civil > disobedience--including unscheduled gatherings which disrupt traffic, > sit-ins in colleges, marches, etc.--the same as blowing up buildings or > crashing airliners, and carries a mandatory, no parole, minimum of 25 > years incarceration. After 25 years, the possibility of being a slave > laborer (in effect) picking up trash and cutting brush for the state of > Oregon. > What the hell is it with Oregon, anyway? More idiotic legislation seems to come out of that state, in proportion to its population, than any other place except the District of Columbia. Peter Trei Disclaimer: My opinions, no one elses!

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NRO to poke others' eyes out
by Major Variola (ret) 21 May '03

21 May '03

http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20030519S0030 Beginning next year, NRO will be in charge of the new Offensive Counter-Space program, which will come up with plans to specifically deny the use of near-Earth space to other nations, said Teets. If allies don't like the new paradigm of space dominance, said Air Force secretary James Roche, they'll just have to learn to accept it. The allies, he told the symposium, will have "no veto power." "Negation implies treating allies poorly," Robert Lawson, senior policy adviser for nonproliferation in the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, said at a Toronto conference in late March. "It implies treaty busting."

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