On Fri, 2 Feb 1996, Bruce Baugh wrote:

While talking with Alan Olsen about the impending Telecommunications Decency Act, a thought struck me: one of the groups that's really going to be hurt by this is pagans. Me, I'm one o' them Christian types; it's my anarchism that'll get me on lists. But insofar as cypherpunks have contact with pagans (and aboriginal American groups and the like), probably there are a lot of folks who should be ramping up for privacy right away.

I agree: and in addition to that, I'd like to say that contrary to the beliefs of some people on this list, I don't think the CDA is representative of a legislative body's spiteful action against general free speech and information; it's far to simple a motivation for computer-illiterate, re-election minded professional politicians. They simply don't know enough about the nature of the internet itself to conspire to something as abstract as all that. I believe that every congress critter had a specific social enemy in mind when he/she voted for that bill; somebody who they've been using as their banner, whom they vow to fight against when re-elected. Pagans are a good example of a group likely to be the victims of such political action. I, as an activist in the field, ask you to imagine the consequenses for the gay civil rights movement, when even discussing the issue is viewed as 'indecent or immoral' by some of the more conservative lawmakers. Remember when Canada banned the import of pornography, even the news-oriented gay and lesbian publications were halted at the border. The crypto relevance in this post is the value of examples such as these when explaining to your friends why they need non-government-escrowed crypto so badly in electronic discourse. People tend to see the need for it a bit more when they see the threat more clearly. I'm a college student, and while not all my friends are involved in the same pursuits I am, most of them are at least loosely associated with groups which are considered undesireable by some government types (Black Activists, Jewish Activists, Pro Life/Choice advocates, etc). In college, who isn't? I don't post too often to cypherpunks, so if this view is overly simplistic, right on the mark, or completely wrong, send me some mail, and we'll discuss. Kathleen M. Ellis http://zeus.towson.edu/~kelli/ kelli@zeus.towson.edu Diverse Sexual Orientation Coll. Towson State University DSOC@zeus.towson.edu "I can't help it, I'm a born lever-puller" -Ringo from "Yellow Submarine" "Your friends are really just enemies who don't have the guts to kill you" -J. Tenuta "Obscenity is a crutch for inarticulate motherfuckers." -Fortune Cookie Courtesy of Linux 1.3.45