I was the one who jokingly used the term "wicked witch of the East" in reference to D.D., though I am almost 100% certain it was only to this mailing list, and not to sci.crypt in general. Perhaps I let my enthusiasm for my wit take precedence over judgment. And in other places, such as sci.crypt, I have in fact defended Denning against ignorant comments along the lines of "Who is this Dorothy Denning person? I can't find her name anywhere in "The Codebreakers." She must not know anything about crypto." Whatever we may think of her position on Clipper, criticizing her personally and imputing motives to her that cannot possibly be known to outsiders, is foolish.
I was the one who called Denning a "fucking idiot". Perhaps I should have said "fucking naive idiot" and been more specific, because while it might make sense for her to be "in bed with" the intelligence community to *her*, it makes no sense to anyone else I've talked to. In my view, she's either being criminally naive in being a mouthpiece for the NSA, being bought off by them, being threatened by them, has a personal/financial interest in the whole Clipper fiasco, or sees a political advantage in aligning herself with them. As has been discussed (to death, probably) in sci.crypt, alt.security*, etc., Clipper has several apparent flaws, none of which I'll go into here. Why would someone who is supposed to be some sort of "expert" be endorsing such a scheme is beyond me, unless she is being motivated by one of the above. In any case, the endorsement of such a scheme is naive in the extreme and almost criminally irresponsible of her, given the nature of Clipper/Capstone and the history of the intelligence community using such technology to spy on its own citizens in illegal operations. *That's* what I meant by my "fucking idiot" remark.
comments about the motives of Denning, of Bidzos, of Sternlight, and of
Bidzos is just trying to make a buck. Sternlight seems to be anally retentive in the extreme, and believes his own bullshit.
"Demonizing" our opponents, or making them look like dunces (as with the many "I've never heard of Dorothy Denning before" posts), does not help our cause. In fact, it probably weakens our cause, for two reasons. First, it cuts off dialog with those we disagree with. Second, we tend to underestimate people we have written off as stooges or dunces.
The first rule of most martial arts, as the first rule of combat, is "never underestimate your opponent". However irresponsible I may think Dorothy Denning, Jim Bidzos, or David Sternlight are, I don't underestimate them. If any one of those three (or anyone else, for that matter) has something to say, I will listen and judge it on its own merits. -- Ed Carp erc@apple.com, erc@saturn.upl.com 510/659-9560 For anonymous mailers --> anonymus+5300@charcoal.com "I've met many thinkers and many cats, but the wisdom of cats is infinitely superior." -- Hippolyte Taine (1828-1893)