Mind rape [was: Re: INTERCEPT THIS]

Tim May tcmay at got.net
Fri Aug 10 09:12:02 PDT 2001


On Friday, August 10, 2001, at 08:05 AM, Trei, Peter wrote:

>> Tim May[SMTP:tcmay at got.net]  wrote:
>> 5) Fewer things criminal, but punish real crimes harshly. Instead of
>> letting an arsonist off with a stern lecture while putting a kid 
>> selling
>> blotter acid at a Dead concert in prison for 10 years, don't prosecute
>> the kid and kill the arsonist. For thieves, put them on a work gang for
>> several years. For murderers and rapists (real rapists, not Wimmin's 
>> Lib
>> victims), kill them.
>> 6) For cops found guilty of inserting toilet plungers into detainees,
>> kill them.
>> 7) For those involved in burning the Waco compound, kill them.
>> And so on.
>>
> [This is really a separate and off-topic issue] I object to all killing
> except in immediate and urgent defense of life and limb. I won't
> attempt to persuade you here. But even if I were a serial killer
> like Dubya, I would stop shy of killing rapists and other
> non-murderers. If rape as well as murder carried the death penalty,
> rapists (the real rapists you refer to) would be strongly motivated
> to murder their victims - doing so eliminates the best (and usually
> only) witness against them, and even if they are convicted, carries
> no additional penalty - it's tough to make someone serve two
> death sentences consecutively.

Rape and murder both carry the death penalty in Saudi Arabia, Iran, and 
many/most other Islamic nations. Not a lot of rapes or murders in most 
of these countries (Indonesia a special case, some war-torn terror 
states are also special cases).

There is some chance for what you describe, but the overall suppression 
of both will make for fewer cases than your analysis hints at. People 
fearing death if they rape will avoid the act in the first place, not 
rape...and then worry about getting rid of the witness. (Besides which, 
technologies are coming which make it harder for perps to get away with 
crimes like this. Encrypted WiFi escrow records of chemical scents and 
sounds, even images. Vastly better forensics, with rubbed-off DNA or 
deposited DNA linked to smells and fluids in public places....)


>> But stop manufacturing police state thoughtcrimes and then using the
>> courts to rubber-stamp hunting expeditions for more crimes revealed in
>> papers and diaries and computer discs.
>>
> Agreed.


Two other trends:

1) More use of laptops, tablets, and PDAs under personal control at all 
times, or most times. Locked up when not under personal control. Case 
design which makes it much harder to insert hardware bugs (pretty 
difficult to do so in a Palm or Visor...).

2) Working papers encrypted, even stored offshore, regardless of what 
Mr. Happy Fun Court is or is not amused by.


The publicity about his Mafia guy having his computer bugged is 
probably  helping others to think about security again.

--Tim May





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