On Wednesday, August 29, 2001, at 08:17 PM, Declan McCullagh wrote:
On Tue, Aug 28, 2001 at 01:30:42PM -0500, Aimee Farr wrote:
I would say something, but I've been reminded that you're supposed to let convicts dig their own graves.
Come, Aimee, I've said before that you are educable. You can do more than post repetitive look-out-or-you'll-spend-time-in-prison replies, right? I understand you may want to distance yourself from some folks, but there may be other ways to do it. (Like not replying in the first place.)
There seems to be a feeding frenzy of these "you're going to get in trouble!" posts. Several weeks ago, it was the "spoliation" thread, with Aimee assuring us that using certain technologies must be illegal. She could say why, in real terms (real as opposed to "maybe in the future"), but she implied we would be on thin ice. Oddly, Black Unicorn added a blizzard of cites he claimed showed that using some technologies, even long in advance of a any charges being filed or orders issued, would be "taunting Happy Fun Court." Apparently the First, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments are made moot when Mr. Happy Fun Court decides he is "not amused" by people using encryption. Then we had Sandy Sandfort weighing in with his comment that some Cypherpunks are going to be in deep trouble with The Man. I think Sandy even forecast my death in a shootout. About the same time, Aimee chided _us_ for allowing the "help me make bombz, d00dz!" posts, showing no sense of who is likely posting these formulaic attempts at entrapment. When we told her we can't stop the AOLers and WebTV script kiddies and cops, she said that merely talking about explosives is taunting happy fun court. (One wonders what Aimee thinks should happen to the publishers of "Encyclopedia Britannica" for helping so my pyrotechnics hobbyists and freedom fighters. Not to mention CNN, for reporting in detail how to safely manufacture Oklahoma City-grade Astrolite.) And when we refused to stop the bombz posts to Aimee's satisfaction, she established her own "Bomb Law Reporter." Well, she'd _better_ be a Fed or a Fed helper, as she's connected herself and her newsletter out of Crawford and Waco to the construction of bombs. Ka-Boom! Next, we started seeing sissies like Ray Dillinger, er, "Bear," some sort of polyamoristic wuss-ninny from northern California, urging us to change the subject, to talk about the nurturing and children-friendly aspects of crypto. Fuck that. This is not some list for leftie greens and wuss-ninnies. Choate finds an ally in "Nomen Nescio," who bemoans the libertarian focus. And Aimee is still rambling, talking to her snails, apologizing, blithering, and hinting that she is so worried about out our dangerous ideas that she may have to talk to her SS buddies (her "prime rib") about the threat we pose to the New World Order. (Frankly, I think the odds are better than 50-50 that Aimee's sudden appearance on a bunch of liberty-oriented lists in late 2000, is not just because of her sudden interest in PGP, liberty, data havens, and Cypherpunks topics. Her clueless provocations on several of these lists match the M.O. of past list infiltrators. Whether she's actually a Fed, or is just borrowing the name of one of the Farrs from Waco or Caddo Mills (Hi, Gene Farr!) is not so important. She/he has ZERO, none, nada, nil Web presence prior to her/his sudden activism and encitement on several mailing lists in late 2000, around the time of the actions against Bell and the election. Maybe she's just a cut-out. Maybe she's just free-lancing for the Feds. Maybe she's just what she pretends to be, a twit who says she "represents the Establishment" when she's not talking to her snails. Sure is suspicious, though.) So, bottom line, we seem to have a new faction of about half a dozen singing variants of these songs: "But you can't say things like that!" "Say what you want, it's your funeral." "Do not taunt Happy Fun Court!" "I'm gonna _tell_!" "Tim May is a scary guy with a lot of guns who says he's going to defend his rights. I think you should raid his house and that of all of the other CACLs!" "There are limits to free speech." "Dig your own grave. My friends in Crawford are on to you." "Blacknet is an interesting idea, but only if it used by Steele and his CIA friends. Can you assure us it will not be used except for good uses, such as those by the CIA and DEA?" "I said I was gonna tell. I just did." "This list used to be about peace and brotherhood and community and bliss. Unless Saint Eric returns to save the list, I'm, like, _so_ outta here!" "Do not taunt Happy Fun Court!" --Tim May