I cannot help but think that having the gov looking in on us will be good. I know, get my head shrunk, but look: It gives us something to fight for. Look at me: Somewhat of a slacker who for a long while thought there was nothing worth fighting for... now there's the government to fight! What better entity to wage war against? It's the classic "valiant fight" the "good guys against the bad guys" fight. It's the kind of fight you may even feel yourself _wanting_ to fight. I can't help thinking what a kick I'll get out of seeing my kids in the future saying, upon them finding my "Cypherpunk Criminal" T-Shirt in the attic, "Gosh! Dad was a Cypherpunk! Wow!" I'm not (obviously, look at my track record) advocating the Clipper/Capstone/ blah/blah/blah standards or the new draconian legislation proposals... I'm just saying that it's easier to fight when there's something tangible to fight... it's hard now, since there are no laws keeping me from having a copy of PGP on my Mac (yet), to see what we're fighting. Maybe in a year or two there will be. Who knows. This National ID Card *really* scares me. It floods my mind with images of me standing in line to buy a CD (or whatever) and getting to the front of the line, being asked for my National ID card (So the proper taxes can be assesed, and since they cannot sell to non-citizens... blah blah blah) and me saying "Gosh... I must have left it in my other pants" or me pulling out a card with a very obvious blowtorch hole in the center (imagine little semi-toasted copper wires hangin out from behind the melted plastic case) and saying "I had a little accident" To be honest, if given the chance to get a job after I graduate (blessed be that day) that involves me moving to some non-USA (or non-Police State) location, I would be inclined to take it... fast. I have been leaning towards the "Let's overthrow the government!" crowd lately, what with reading all this shit from the FBI, etc... but it's rather pointless to want to overthrow a government as vast and powerful as our own, so I think it's best to just plot a guerilla underground haven for myself. Sorry to waste the bandwidth, but I had to get this off my chest... (Oh, and sorry for not making it to the last Colorado CPs meeting, all hell broke loose at work and I had to fix just about everything...) -nate -- +--------- | Nate Sammons <nates@netcom.com> PGP Key and fingerprint via finger. | Clipper == Big Brother Inside. Question Authority. Encrypt everything. +---------