At 12:20 PM -0800 1/19/98, lcs Mixmaster Remailer wrote:

Be careful what you wish for. This Congress is far more likely to pass amendments nullifying the 2nd, the 1st, the 6th, the 4th, and others. And they'll probably rewrite the 13th to read "no involuntary servitude...unless we say so."

Indeed. The last thing we need is a "Constitutional Convention." Very few liberties would survive a vote by the herd and their designated top steers. We already have growing restrictions on the First ("hate speech"), an almost complete gutting of the Second (bans on guns, licensing, confiscations), and the Fourth has become a joke (try reciting the 4th to the ninja raiders bursting into your bedroom at 4 a.m., with no knocks and no presentation of a search warrant). I guess we're still protected from troops being quartered in our homes, though. (But look at the emergency powers FEMA has acquired and notice that hotels, offices, and even private homes may in fact be comandeered in an increasing number of situations.) As for the 13th, if "the draft" (forced conscription of young men to be cannon fodder, to help rebuild inner cities burned down by residents, to "be all that they can be") is not involuntary servitude, what is? And if the forcible placement of persons with certain genetic backgrounds into concentration camps during World War II was not involuntary servitude, what is? And if the sequestration of 18 innocent citizens in a special hotel for the 10 months of a bullshit trial is not involuntary servitude, what is? (The jurors each did about the same time O.J. did, and collectivelly, 15 times more.) And if the imprisonment of some for eating an unapproved food item or for the growing of an unapproved crop is not involuntary servitude, what is? (And I don't necessarily mean drugs, although marijuana was of course grown and consumed by Jefferson, Washington, etc. I could also be referring to the various farm laws which "regulate" who can grow peanuts, who can grow rice, and how much, etc. "Grow a peanut, go to jail.") And if working for the government for the first six months of every year ("tax freedom day" is now in June) is not involuntary servitude, what is? With perhaps locally good intentions for each of these various laws, this creaping featurism of American government has vitiated the original Bill of Rights. Not completely, but getting there. The Founders and their friends in the colonies would be shocked to learn that half of all earnings go to fund various government boondoggles, that the "King's Men" are free to raid homes in pre-dawn hours without presenting the occupants with search warrants, that various Emergency Powers have been acquired (though not constitutionally) by the Executive to seize control of transportation, communication, production, and distribution systems, and that persons of certain ethnic makeup can be imprisoned for several years without due process. They would call for the nuking of Washington as the first step in the New American Revolution. --Tim May The Feds have shown their hand: they want a ban on domestic cryptography ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- 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: 2^2,976,221 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."