Robert Thanks so much for a truly enjoyable and thought-provoking piece of writing. It gladdens my heart to know that there are still people out there who know what happened to the Romantics! But you do have to be careful about typing behavior with age. I live in Florida and yes, we have a lot of old folks, but a sadly significant number of the moralists are in their 20s and 30s. In Brevard County where I live (and shuttles are launched) they have banned nude sunbathing, even on Federal property (also thong bikinis and male swim wear that "permits discernible turgidity" -- by this standard most of the Olympic finalists in the men's 100 meters would have been breaking the law if Brevard County had been hosting). Much of the ban-the-nudist lobbying was done people well under 40. There was a great moment at the televised County meeting when a frail old man made his way to the podium and we all braced for another "skin is sin" speech. But this is what he said "I'm a nudist and believe me, you have no idea who else is." So, it is not age that makes folks stupid. My mother took me on a ban-the-bomb march when I was 6. I helped disrupt a tour by the all-white South African rugby team when I was 17. But in the town were I grew up we had both hippies and Nazi-loving, Paki-bashing skinheads (I use the term Paki-bashing only because that is what people called it). We also had Young Conservatives, aging beatniks, and leftists who were so far left they actually admired Stalin (they were so screwed up that, despite being atheists, they protested the British government's decision to deny a priest, jailed for helping the IRA blow up parts of Coventry, conduct mass in prison). Me, I'm 45 and hope I will be my own kind of libertarian until I die. My mother is in her 70s and still working for the cause of freedom and dignity. My brother quit banking to write security software, some of which is causing brains to hurt at the UK's DTI. But getting back to prohibition, do the words "when will they ever learn?" strike a chord? It is so damn obvious that prohibition=organized crime I can't believe it isn't genetic already, like not eating things that smell rotten. But I digress. A book worth reading on the subject, if only for the examples and footnotes, is "Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do: The Absurdity of Consensual Crimes in a Free Society" by Peter McWilliams Now available in paperback, published by Prelude Press. Personally, I look forward to reading more of your postings. Stephen Certified Information Systems Security Professional Owner, Cobb Associates: "An independent information technology & security consulting firm...since 1987" "The best weapon with which to defend information.. ..is information." Cobb, Guide to PC & LAN Security 2825 Garden, Suite 7-11, Titusville, Florida 32796 Tel: 1 407 383 0977 Fax: 0336 Email: stephen@iu.net Try http://www.2cobbs.com & http://www.cobweb.co.uk