"Because children read forums, I agree that obscene language should be banned....
There's excellent essay on obscenity in Kurt Vonegut's _Psalm Sunday_ which I recommend to anyone who doesn't find this statement horrendously offensive.
...
P.S. I can't _believe_ a Cypherpunk is actually advocating censorship.
... Gee Tim... I think we might have to send you back to the indoctrination center for some vocab' rehabilitation. After all, there are probably children reading this list. If I recall (and it's been a couple years since I read this), Vonnegut makes the argument that the whole concept of obscenity and it's censorship is a Victorian thought control device. Whether it's TV executives putting per hour quota's on forbidden words, or yokeles getting _Lysistrada_ pulled from highschool classics courses, it's censorship and it's obscene.
As for kids reading this list or the Net in general, and seeing "obscenity" on it, how is this any different or any worse than kids sneaking a look at their Dad's "Busty Babes" (times have changed since I was a kid) or tuning in to a shot of naked butts on "NYPD Blue"?
Heaven forbid!
What about young and impressionable children being exposed to atheism on the Net? Or to cultural values that offend their families? Or to any of a hundred other horrors?
The only solution to this "problem" in a free society is for _parents_ to control their own children, not to apply censorship and obscenity laws.
Indeed, chain them to the bed and put bricks on their heads.
And practically speaking, it's impossible anyway. The Internet is worldwide, with no centralized point of censorship. Tipper Gore can no more hope to censor the publication of "dirty" music lyrics on the Net than the Ayotollah can hope to stop publication of recipes for pork.
It's a whole new world out there.
Kurt Vonnegut: welcome to the monkey house. If Kurt really called for censorship, I'll have to reevaluate my respect for him. Too bad Frank Zappa isn't available to have a chat with him about the nature of censorship.
Think about it Tim... When I saw Vonnegut speak at C.U. in the 80's, he spent the majority of his speech damning the christian right for it's neo-victorian book banning activities. brad P.S. Thanx for the correction, it's Vonnegut (two n's) and _Palm Sunday_, not "Psalm". All other spelling errors are deliberate can be placed with extreme prejudice in the offended readers genitalia.