At 7:56 pm -0500 on 11/12/97, Tim May wrote:
No doubt Bob Hettinga thinks my mention of this case is dangerous, that good little bunny rabbits don't make Big Brother angry.
:-). Actually, Tim, I don't think it's dangerous, at least to me personally, and to anyone else on this list, for that matter. What I said was, you're counterproductive to your own cause (you could become a poster for statism, as I said before), and, if you continued to directly threaten the lives of people who had the power to hurt you, in public, with direct attribution including your name, location, and email address, you, personally, could wind up waking up very surprised one night, consitutional free speech guarantee or no. Which would be a drag, because, as Monty and everyone else here knows, you are the backbone of this list. :-). You've taught all of us a lot over the years, but, frankly, this stuff lately makes you look like you've lost it.
Well, I will say what I said before: the BATF and LA County Sheriffs responsible and involved in this case should be tried in a criminal court, should be convicted (based on what I have seen), and they should then be sentenced to die in the gas chamber at San Quentin. This is, after all, what they do to gang bangers who shoot up liquor stores. Cops should face execution. In this case, a mass execution of the dozen raiding officers would send a strong message to other cops.)
Though containing a little more due process in it than normal, :-), the above is mostly the same as all the other public threats you've made against people who whave many more guns than you do. Frankly, I agree with what you're saying, to the extent that people who make armed assaults against innocent people shouldn't get away with it. And, further, I think that as more people speak out against it, with more fact and less hysteria than you do, those making armed assaults won't do it anymore. Heck, if people kept just more firearms in their homes, and shot back occasionally, those armed assaults would stop. However, that's quite different from what you're doing, which is more along the lines of "come and get me, Copper". Top o' the morning, and all that. Oh well. It's free country. Even hysteria's alright, I suppose, if you want die for it by using your true name to do it. And, frankly, Tim, who's to begrudge you your spot on the Brokaw show. You being Mad as Hell, and all that. I mean, sure: "Tim May. John Brown. Same thing.", right? I just don't think the apacolypse is coming on January 1, 2001, much less this Thanksgiving, is all. The sky is not falling. I agree with Gibbon, below. As attractive as the conclusion is sometimes, the end of the world has yet to actually happen. Cheers, Bob Hettinga ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com), Philodox e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/ Ask me about FC98 in Anguilla!: <http://www.fc98.ai/>