From: perry@imsi.com (Perry E. Metzger)
Date: Thu, 12 May 94 13:25:06 PDT
To: editor@wired.com
Subject: The Wisdom of Stuart A. Baker
Message-ID: <9405122024.AA09857@bacon.imsi.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Says Stewart A. Baker, Chief Counsel for the NSA, writes in Wired:

   MYTH NUMBER TWO: Unreadable encryption is the key to our future
   liberty.
   
   Of course there are people who aren't prepared to trust the escrow
   agents, or the courts that issue warrants, or the officials who
   oversee the system, or anybody else for that matter. Rather than rely
   on laws to protect us, they say, let's make wiretapping impossible;
   then we'll be safe no matter who gets elected.
   
   This sort of reasoning is the long-delayed revenge of people who
   couldn't go to Woodstock because they had too much trig homework. It
   reflects a wide -- and kind of endearing -- streak of romantic
   high-tech anarchism that crops up throughout the computer world.

Don't you just love the finely tuned reasoning here? The absense of ad
hominem attacks? This is obviously a rapier sharp logician we have
here. I, for one, doubt I could ever produce any counterarguments.

We must implement a police state, ladies and gentlemen, because its
opponents were more interested in studying than in goofing off at a
famous rock festival.

I see no possible counterargument.


Perry Metzger

Who's bothered to read his history books instead of making fun of
people who know how to read.