From: Bruce Baugh <bruce@aracnet.com>
Date: Fri, 9 Feb 1996 10:57:06 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Tell me whats wrong with this
Message-ID: <2.2.32.19960209015903.0069ba94@mail.aracnet.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 07:49 PM 2/8/96 -0600, Avatar wrote:

>You probably had no problem with seat belts being manditory eqiupment ,
>because they 
>protected YOU and the people YOU cared about. 
>You probably had no problem with manditory airbags, public building smoke
>alarms, unleaded
>fuel, restaurant health codes,etc....Because they protected you and or
>people you care about,
>even though they cost YOU more money.

Gee, there's nothing like false speculations as a basis for attack. I, for
instance, have a friend who's been in two serious car accidents in recent
years. In one she was belted in, and survived a nasty tumble that otherwise
almost certaily would have killed her. In the other, she was in a truck from
the pre-mandated-belts era, and was thrown free before the car collided with
a pole that pierced all the way through the driver's seat. The mandate could
have killed her.

Sure, that's rare. I always belt up, or virtually always. Do I approve the
mandate? No. ditto with all of the others. I want _information_, not
_behavior control_.

So. For those of us who do not generally approve of pushing responsibility
for our morals (or health needs, for those of us with severe immune
problems) onto others, how do you justify compelling us to spend money to
make your life easier?

>It's obvious that you watch a lot television your an excellent sensationalist.
>Besides, we both no that the cost of the chip is insignificant. This device
>hurts no one!

In the first place, we don't know anything of the sort. Show the chip
implemented in a mass-market TV or VCR, and back up your claims. Second, by
putting more rating power into the hands of the State, it does emphatically
threaten freedom of expression. And remember: anyone with your sig file,
assuming you believe its sentiments, has no great ground for confidence that
his views, rather than those of the worst and best-organized busybodies
around, will prevail.

Bruce Baugh
bruce@aracnet.com
http://www.aracnet.com/~bruce