At 05:20 PM 3/31/01 -0500, Seth Finkelstein wrote:
Tim May wrote:
them. I now understand why Jim Bell is advocating the assassination-by-lottery of judges and prosecutors. Fuck the State, Man!"
Um, he's not *advocating*. He pointed out that such systems were inevitable. He was pointing to a primitive culture that had just discovered metal smelting and gunpowder and remarked that the the petty feudal barons who intimidated the sheeple with swords and horses were going to see interesting times.
views, I'd say it's extremely useful to understand those views of yours. The number of times you, personally, have talked about who "needs killing", is amazing. In fact, "needs killing" is virtually a running joke.
"Reminds me of when a sociologist was interviewing a southern farmer: Why do you think the murder rate is higher in the south? I guess more southerners need killin'." (as told by Aaron Evans) A primer on Rand and initiation of force for a jury of proles? Hoo hah.
Thus my take on some of this, is that there's an aspect of "It's all fun and games, until someone's eye gets put out" (or someone takes it too far, and gets arrested).
Most of us would say that stink bombing the IRS (which got Mr B noticed) was inappropriate. Or at least inadequately covert, as he got caught. Some would even call for something more brisant or acetylcholinesterase inhibiting than a stink bomb. Whatever. JB's troubles aren''t about AP except that it sounds scary. Maybe the stinkbomb was a publicity stunt for AP.
. Does that mean you, or anyone else, are responsible for what Jim Bell did?
Its possible that even Jim Bell wasn't responsible for his actions, which might have been a good defense once, but folks don't like to consider themselves (in the words of Teddy K.) "sickies".
As to "Assassination Politics", many people get way too focused on the technical details in relation to the case. If Bell's overall actions are examined, it look a lot like he's soliciting murder of Federal agents. Maybe his implementation wouldn't be anonymous, and wouldn't pay off. Hypothetically, trying to soliciting murder anonymously and failing, and not paying, aren't mitigating to the crime involved.
He hasn't set up a site. He wrote a whitepaper, a technical report. IIRC someone else (Toto?) set up an inert mock site.
I suppose, given the tenor of the times, I should state that I've never met Jim Bell, never had any contact with him (personal or
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