CDR: Re: Gov. Bush links Columbine massacre to Internet use

[Tim May]

At 11:20 PM -0400 10/11/00, Declan McCullagh wrote:
>http://www.cluebot.com/article.pl?sid=00/10/12/0326212&mode=nested
>
>    Bush Links Columbine Massacre to Internet Use
>    posted by cicero on Wednesday October 11, @10:25PM
>    from the sounds-a-lot-like-joseph-lieberman dept.
>
>    George W. Bush may have bested Al Gore in tonight's presidential
>    debate, but it sure wasn't because of the governor's tech-savviness.
>    Warned the Texas Republican, in response to a gun-control question:
>    "Columbine spoke to a larger issue, and it's really a matter of
>    culture. It's a culture that somewhere along the line we begun to
>    disrespect life, where a child can walk in and have their heart
>    turn dark as a result of being on the Internet and walk in and
>    decide to take somebody else's life." It was undeniably a good,
>    mushy, appeal-to-the-softhearted line, but the sheer schmaltziness of
>    it is in questionable taste. For instance: Was the Net really to
>    blame? Shouldn't even a "compassionate conservative" want to hold
>    miscreants responsible for their own actions? And would the guv have
>    offered the same warning to millions of Americans if the Columbine
>    killers had, say, been regulars at the public library?
>
>Transcript is at:
>http://www.cluebot.com/article.pl?sid=00/10/12/0326212&mode=nested

This was a very small, and inconsequential, part of the debate/discussion.

Had George Bush called for _Internet licensing_ in some concrete way, 
comparable to the way Al Gore called for gun licensing, I would be 
more concerned about Bush's comments. But he did not.

Throwing in a line about the Columbine creeps being influenced by the 
Internet (or by Quake and Doom and other games, or by "The Matrix," 
or by being spoiled suburban brats) is not the same as calling for 
unconstitutional abridgments of freedoms.

Normally I vote Libertarian. This year I may vote for Bush as a vote 
for who will do me, us, and the Constitution the lesser damage of the 
two. (All voting is about bang for the buck, about effectiveness of a 
vote...an election is not about "voting for the best man," it is 
instead about minimizing damage.)


--Tim May


-- 
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
ComSec 3DES:   831-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
"Cyphernomicon"             | black markets, collapse of governments.