On Sat, Jul 19, 1997 at 09:35:41AM -0700, Tim May wrote:
At 8:51 AM -0700 7/19/97, Marshall Clow wrote:
At 7:43 AM -0700 7/19/97, Kent Crispin wrote:
On Fri, Jul 18, 1997 at 10:10:37PM -0700, Tim May wrote: [usual rant deleted]
Kill the key grabbers and all those who support them. Isn't it exactly what Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, and the others would have argued?
Amazing. Patriotism -- the last refuge of the scoundrel.
However, Patric Henry said something like "Give me liberty or give me death." That is really very different from "Kill everyone who opposes me and all their supporters." Tim doesn't seem to understand this nuance.
I think Tim is thinking of:
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
which, of course, was written by Jefferson.
I wasn't giving any specific quote--I was referring to the general principles.
The general principle Tim espouses is, apparently, "Kill all who oppose, and anyone else remotely associated" -- witness his calls to use the "nuclear disinfectant" on Washington, for example. This is not, I believe, what Jefferson had in mind. However, I consider such a sentiment either insane or not intended seriously. Assuming Tim is not insane, then he doesn't intend his statements to be taken seriously.
Apparently Kent Crispin, whom I blissfully killfile, is a literalist. Some would say anal-retentive.
I can't resist pointing out what is usually associated with bliss. :-) I must point out, also, that I agree with Tim that GAK is bad. However, I believe that his rants actually do more harm than good to the cause.
Can there be any doubt what the reaction of the Founders and other patriots would be were they to be transported to our modern era and learn that there are proposals that all citizen-units are to be required to deliver the keys (and hence the contents) for their most private communications to the King? Er, I mean, "the Government."
Since they are just proposals, perhaps their reaction would be words like "I don't agree with what you say, but I will fight to the death to protect your right to say it." Or they might say something like "the antidote to bad speech is good speech". I don't think they would make a general call to anihilate all opponents of their point of view. -- Kent Crispin "No reason to get excited", kent@songbird.com the thief he kindly spoke... PGP fingerprint: B1 8B 72 ED 55 21 5E 44 61 F4 58 0F 72 10 65 55 http://songbird.com/kent/pgp_key.html