-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- My problem with the "it's hopeless, politicians are idiots" approach is the same as my problem with Tim May's approach --- it predisposes one to think that a revolution and possibly violence are the only way to change the laws. It is an attitude which constructs an obstacle which may or may not be there. I get really sick of the inane "nuke DC" talk. Call me a naive optimist, or an idiot; I believe there's hope to wage and win the battle politically, and I think there's actually hope for real democracy without the memetics bullshit and the control and the manipulation. I got a personal reply from a Senator to whom I sent that last release (the one interviewing Michael Wilson of 7Pillars). It wasn't one of those autoresponders -- it just said "Thank you for your views" with bad text formatting. At least it did get someone's attention. It might be negative attention, but dammit, if they're going to look Wilson's reputation in the face and not at least consider that they might be wrong then they've obviously all been killed and government programmed clones installed in their place. They're really well educated people, for the most part --- somewhere along the line they must have gotten that stuff about "considering that you are incorrect" and the rest. While skimming their web pages looking for information, I found one or two senators and congress reps who actually offer PGP keys on their web pages! Senator Leahy, for one, is a vocal proponent of strong crypto. There is hope! Some of those people do see "the light" on this issue. It's a matter of getting the heavy-handed ones to just for a second consider the other side's view. I think this particular release hits hard because shit, Wilson's the virtual incarnation of Ares, and the warmongers may listen to him. I think a lot of them know they're being manipulated, but they get only a limited set of information from the "authoritative" defense and intelligence people who give them the "secret classified briefings", and they simply can't confront the spooks because they think they'd get kicked from their positions of power in a few years. If they have in their possession a testimony that a defense and intelligence _scholar_ says that the spooks are wrong, they may be able to start turning the tide. Mostly, I just don't want to get nuked. I don't want the people in Washington to get nuked. I don't want to be ostracized because a disjointed group I'm associated with has members who support nuking political opponents. "Nuke DC" is crap. "Ecash Assassination Politics" is crap. The loss of faith in one's ability to convince other people with rational discussion is crap. That whole attitude reminds me of the guys in early grade school who beat up on me because I was a nerd. I refuse to sink to their level. Mark Hedges -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBNCGn+hVo2SUWMp6NAQH7lwP/dEWDmzEgx9LEs3m68KGWcKNGVUCSjFjd qOjkBKQQo9Ib+8CefheigwRPXh8J5s4aBJPDVvJbTnvJJ2F7Olr1VpvmhzDwMt8g A99iSuvn/Dn7cJUmcc5M9aeVhRtXFcl0LRsfOiHQO4eGXia3fWA6BM1pAybIzHAp 4sj8MyE+ZpM= =8r8K -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----