- cypherpunks-legacy - lists.cpunks.org

McVeigh's death spurs outcry against poetry, by Mad Cow Culture
by Declan McCullagh 24 Jun '01

24 Jun '01

----------- Forwarded message ----------- To subscribe to the low-volume Mad Cow Culture email announcement list: http://www.madcowculture.com/list.html ====== http://www.madcowculture.com/madcow-00077.html MCVEIGH'S DEATH SPURS OUTCRY AGAINST POETRY By Mad Cow Culture (madcowculture(a)madcowculture.com) June 17, 2001 By misappropriating as his death bed chant "Invictus," the famous poem by W.E.Henley, mad cow bomber Timothy McVeigh has created an infamous stink, raising important legal, philosophical and academic issues. W.E.Henley IV, great-grandson of the poet, is furious that a mass murder would pervert lines written by a relative who overcame enormous suffering to excel as a magazine writer. The great-grandson, who has threatened to sue the McVeigh estate for "malicious misappropriation of iambic pentameter," thinks authorities should have at least amputated one of the bomber's legs so he, like the poet, "could be one with the poem." The original Henley lived to have quite a future. Robert Louis Stevenson used Henley as the prototype for Long John Silver of "Treasure Island." Rodin sculpted Henley's bust which is now found at the National Portrait Gallery in London. Great-grandson Henley said "McVeigh committed another crime by appropriating the poem without the suffering. Even the right wing wackos understand this. No one is even buying bogus McVeigh memorabilia on Ebay. The guy is history." McVeigh might be history but not the fuss caused by his deathbed invocation of "Invictus." The Dallas School Board has opted to remove all literature textbooks which contain the poem from its classrooms. Board President Dr. Jerry James said in a prepared report "We will not expose impressionable students to a poem that has been used by a mass murderer to justify and celebrate his wicked acts. We are firm in our conviction that we will not be party to making this fiend a cult hero. In fact we intend to be master of our fate, and captain of our soul. I realize there are some First Amendment issues involved, but the primary concern for the Dallas School Board is the health and welfare of our children." The Dallas News has reported that the Board's edict might go further. Internet chat rooms are suggesting that during his high school years and during his service in the Gulf War, McVeigh was actually an avid reader of poetry. His high school sweetheart Jane Jones has allegedly claimed that McVeigh was an avid reader of Dylan Thomas "Do Not Go Gentle," Hamlet's soliloquy, and Robert Frost's "Out, Out--". Military friends have indicated that McVeigh had read "Atlas Shrugged" at least six times and had a fascination with Ahab in "Moby Dick." There is some speculation that McVeigh was secret admirer of Walt Whitman and has a particular love for "Song of Myself". These post-mortem finding have dismayed members of the now defunct, bankrupt and disgraced "McVeigh Fan Club" who lament that the "bomber should have gone out showing his sensitive, compassionate side." The Dallas School Boards, however, according to the Dallas News, is dismayed that this reading list, whether apocryphal or not, will become tainted by an association with a murderer. According to Dr. James, "The last thing we want is for students to be thinking that characters in Melville, Whitman, or Shakespeare are to be admired and emulated because a mass murderer embraced them. Frankly, we'd rather our students not read these works that are even more likely now to contaminate their minds." The Dallas School Board has not yet decided on a broader textbook ban but already textbook companies are getting the message and without any apparent coercion, are significantly reducing the amount of Thoreau, Emerson, Hawthorne, Melville, Whitman, Crane, and Twain in American Literature textbooks. Some textbook companies are simply creating entire literature texts around excerpts from the Bible, which has met with the quiet approval of school boards in Texas. In Dr. James opinion this effort "serves as a reasonable extension of President Bush's faith-based initiative. After all, there are no surprises in the Bible, and we are reasonably certain the murderer never read this book." Not everyone is so sanguine about these developments. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has already sought an injunction in Dallas Superior Court against this "flagrant violation of First Amendment Freedoms." The ACLU has lost the first round the court, which invited further briefs, wrote that "local school boards have the right to decide curriculum content. It is not the court's job to find motive." The ACLU has vowed to fight this "creeping religious hegemony that threatens our schools." Whatever the legality of the Dallas decision, school boards across America are looking intently at the drama and the court's response to date. School boards in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Mississippi and Florida who have already removed "The Exorcist', "Huck Finn," "Black Like Me," and other books from school libraries seem more emboldened. City schools in Detroit, Michigan have already removed most of the Great Books of Western Literature from school libraries and seem certain to complete the task, given the mood of the country. The American Library Association ALA) realizes it has a major battle on its hands. Dr. Gertrude Green, ALA President, said "We must resist punishing our literature and authors for the despicable acts of a mass murderer. Surely I don't have to remind people of the book burnings in Nazi Germany. Books were seen as the cause of Germany's problems." "Even school boards that act within the law will end up with a curriculum filled with antiseptic literature written by second rate authors. That is surely not what this country wants. After all, America is a multicultural society." ### ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- End forwarded message -----

1 0

��X�@EMAIL��Ф��d��ʸU�W��o��I�D�D�D�D�D��X�@EMAIL��Ф��d��ʸU�W��o��I�D�D�D�D��X�@EMAIL��Ф��d��ʸU�W��o��I�D�D��X�@EMAIL��Ф��d��ʸU�W��o��I�D
by r720240320＠hotmail.com 24 Jun '01

24 Jun '01

1 0

Amazon now shipping Ludlow's _Crypto Anarchy, Cyberstates...
by John Doe #2 24 Jun '01

24 Jun '01

Amazon now shipping Ludlow's _Crypto Anarchy, Cyberstates, & Pirate Utopias_ In any case I received my copy. FWIW

1 0

Re: crypto flaw in secure mail standards
by Riad S. Wahby 24 Jun '01

24 Jun '01

Derek Atkins <warlord(a)MIT.EDU> wrote: > The problem is not at all with the crypto. The problem is with the > integration of the crypto with applications like e-mail. In this spirit, I have produced a patch for Mutt that adds an option to include the To:, From:, CC:, and Subject: headers at the end of PGP signed messages. This patch happens to interact somewhat with a previous patch I produced that allows Mutt to optionally send PGP messages as content-type text/plain for broken mail clients like nmh and Eudora, so I have integrated both into a single patch. It applies against mutt-1.2.5i; I haven't tested it against others, but I suspect it should work fine. http://positron.mit.edu/pub/plaintextappend.patch ftp://positron.mit.edu/pub/plaintextappend.patch -- Riad Wahby rsw(a)mit.edu MIT VI-2/A 2002 5105

1 0

The Register: 'Chinaman' dethrones 'Hacker' on cyber-terror hit parade
by Jim Choate 23 Jun '01

23 Jun '01

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/19922.html -- -- ____________________________________________________________________ Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent. Ludwig Wittgenstein The Armadillo Group ,::////;::-. James Choate Austin, Tx /:'///// ``::>/|/ ravage(a)ssz.com www.ssz.com .', |||| `/( e\ 512-451-7087 -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- --------------------------------------------------------------------

1 0

[v-nv-mobilize] Gap's New Image (fwd)
by Jim Choate 23 Jun '01

23 Jun '01

----- Original Message ----- To: "v-nv-mobilize" <v-nv-mobilize(a)yahoogroups.com> Sent: Friday, June 22, 2001 1:10 PM Subject: [v-nv-mobilize] Gap's New Image > Gap's New Image > > On Monday, June 18th Gap unveiled a new promotional > display at stores nationwide. > > Faded black jeans hanging in front of an anarchist-red > banner, the words "INDEPENDENCE," "FREEDOM," and "WE > THE PEOPLE" scrawled across display windows in fake > black spray paint. > > Despite the fact that Gap makes their clothes in > sweatshops, and have been subject to many > demonstrations across the nation, they believe that > the growing movement against corporate power is now > large enough to begin marketing on. Now the protest > itself can be essentially sold to consumers as an > image. > > However ridiculous this new marketing scheme seems at > first, due to the tremendous power of corporate > advertising over consumers, Gap just might pull it > off, trivializing the movement against free trade, and > selling jeans at the same time. > > The effect that this new marketing could have on the > movement is tremendous. If Gap succeeds, it will mean > that every protest that is staged will be building on > their new image, in effect turning protestors and > activists into living, walking ads for Gap. Further, > if Gap succeeds it may become a trendsetter, and other > corporations might follow. > > Currently, the majority of consumers are unaware of > how Gap stands on "independence" and "freedom." > > Gap inc. is the corporation under which Gap, Old Navy, > and Banana Republic exist. All three companies have > been notorious for paying sweatshop workers as little > as 11 cents per hour in the third world, denying them > basic health care and the right to form unions, as > well as harassing, beating and forcing contraceptives > on them. Sweatshop workers generally work 12-14 hour > days (although sometimes 24) and can be as young as 12 > years old. > > Although many of Gap's clothes say "Made in USA" they > are actually produced in Saipan, a US territory where > normal US labor laws do not exist. > > The Fisher Family that owns Gap also owns Mendicino > Redwood Company, an active logging company that is > deforesting the valuable redwood forests in Mendicino > County, California. The Fisher family also has a > notorious reputation for lobbying for privatizion of > education and other public works in their home state > of California. > > It appears that to Gap inc., "Freedom" and > "Independence" only applies to the market, not the > people. > > For more info visit: gapsucks.org, globalexchange.org, > and sweatwatch.org -- ____________________________________________________________________ Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent. Ludwig Wittgenstein The Armadillo Group ,::////;::-. James Choate Austin, Tx /:'///// ``::>/|/ ravage(a)ssz.com www.ssz.com .', |||| `/( e\ 512-451-7087 -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- --------------------------------------------------------------------

1 0

Re: The Art of Submarine Warfare
by Jon Beets 23 Jun '01

23 Jun '01

Randomly checking for a drivers license which you are required to have when driving. Many people who have had their drivers license suspended often drive their vehicles anyway. I would assume most states (if not all) require you to surrender you drivers license to the police when asked. I believe the law actually views the drivers license as the property of the state which would be where they have the right to revoke it. Jon Beets Pacer Communications ----- Original Message ----- From: "Reese" <reeza(a)flex.com> To: "Jon Beets" <Jon.Beets(a)pacer.com>; <cypherpunks(a)cyberpass.net> Sent: Saturday, June 23, 2001 12:32 AM Subject: Re: The Art of Submarine Warfare > BUT - what are they randomly checking for? The officer only asks for her > ID, to establish her identity, that's a law enforcement function, he never > asks for her registration, which would marginally be a safety/compliance > function. > > At 04:01 PM 6/22/01, Jon Beets wrote: > >Random roadside checks have been legal in many states for years.... I can > >remember them as far back as 1982 in Texas. > > > >Jon Beets > >Pacer Communications > >

1 0

Boost Your Windows Reliability.
by achaney423＠bugjuise.net 23 Jun '01

23 Jun '01

1 0

Re: Critiques of Libertarianism
by a3495＠cotse.com 23 Jun '01

23 Jun '01

Jim wrote: http://world.std.com/~mhuben/libindex.html The "FAQ" is a joke, right? You know this is strictly a bush-league effort when you read: "This diversity of libertarian viewpoints can make it quite difficult to have a coherent discussion with them, because an argument that is valid for or against one type of libertarianism may not apply to other types." ....you mean you actually have to LISTEN to people before you stick them in a conceptual box and slap your two-bit pre-made labels on them??? Say it ain't so!!!! Moron. You can take any philosophical position under the sun and always find idiots and straw men who "support" it to knock around, why should libertarianism be any different. There's plenty of room for real debate here, too bad he's not up for it. Oh well! (You got me to take the troll bait though, not bad... ;) ~Faustine. *** The future science of government should be called "la cybernitique". Andri-Marie Amphre, (1843).

3 2

Re: No panties?
by John Doe #2 23 Jun '01

23 Jun '01

At 05:28 PM 6/15/01 +0000, Steve Thompson wrote: >For many reasons, we have been perusing the archives in order to resolve a >number of burning questions. One such question revolves around the the >erstwhile entity, Blanc Weber. Despite much heated discussion on the subject, >a first-order analysis of the archives clearly shows that we may not be >certain on the question of whether or not Blanc wore panties. Odd, we had the same feeling at the time; in fact we suspected that BW was JG. However Declan has a picture of an older woman captioned Blanc Weber, so perhaps not.

2 1