One of the interesting items revealed today was that an FBI file was opened on the Ohio man when he ordered the bubonic plague culture a few years ago. The Maryland company forwarded his name to the Feds, apparently as part of a regular arrangement to do so. The Feds did an investigation, found he had used his company's name "fraudulently" (whatever that might be), and used this to convict him on fraud charges. (Not on the bubonic plague charges, though, as that wasn't a crime. At least not then.) This is part of a larger surveillance state situation, with buyers of all sorts of chemicals reported to the Feds. With buyers of grow lamps reported. (And supposedly the electric utility companies are reporting unusual power usages in the middle of the night to Feds.) While there may be various good reasons not to have botulism or bubonic plague cultures sold to ordinary folks, this whole situation raises serious issues. And the initiation of FBI investigations of purchasers of many kinds of chemicals raises issues. (One can asssume that with more and more such things being added to the "watch lists" each year, that there will be less acceptance of cash, or anonymous digital cash, for such purchases.) ObMinorNote: I recently tried to buy a bag of ammonium nitrate for my yard...the local yard store says it hasn't been available to ordinary customers since OKC. I had to settle for ammonium sulfate instead. We live in a dangerous world, full of potentially dangerous substances and things. Instead of dealing with the danger on a personal basis, we are using the government as our nanny, and also letting it record our purchases, open files on us for "unusual" purchases, and generally track our actions. Which actually won't have much effect on dedicated terrorists and criminals. --Tim May Just Say No to "Big Brother Inside" ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, ComSec 3DES: 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^3,021,377 | black markets, collapse of governments.