From: tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)
Date: Fri, 9 Feb 1996 07:46:30 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Tell me whats wrong with this
Message-ID: <ad3fbfd51f021004ca84@[205.199.118.202]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 11:06 PM 2/8/96, avatar@mindspring.com wrote:
>Tell me whats wrong with this section of the telecom bill.  I have a six
>year old boy I am trying to raise
>and it is hard enough to teach him respect and values without explaining why
>Ned Beatty is being
>bungholed in the woods by Billy Bob or why the Terminator splattered this
>guys brains all over the
>wall.
>        Tell me why parents should not be able to censor their OWN
>television so that they may raise their children the way THEY see
>fit...................Did your dad give you his old
>playboys?.........NOOOOO............
>Did he take you down to your grandmothers autopsy before her
>funeral?...................I Don't Think So.....
>        Honestly, don't you believe that what a child is exposed to effects
>his judgement, perception,
> attitude,and character??

I think Avatar is having some kind of fit here, but I will attempt to
answer his questions.

First, most televisions and VCRs are currently equipped with the
"O-Switch," which parents have long been using to turn content on and off.

Second, assuming you have televisions and VCRs at this time, you surely
must realize that these will not be affected by the V-Chip? There is no
retrofit plan (thankfully) and so it will take well over a decade at
current replacement rates for most households to have only V-chipped sets.
(Perhaps Avatar is different from most of us, and plans to dump his
existing televisions and VCRs and replace them with V-Chipped machines.)

Third, the main objection most of us have is to the _coercive_ aspect. I
have no objection to you and your 6-year-old son buying a V-chip type of
gadget, but I don't want to be told in a free society that this is the only
choice *I* will have. (Amongst other things, I don't believe the $2 per
machine estimate, and neither do the set makers.)

Fourth, there are major ambiguities in ratings. Will "Schindler's List" be
rated as more violent and sexually explicit than "The Terminator"?
Probably, by objective standards (my objective standards, that is). Imagine
the uproar.

Fifth, there is the general notion that government must screen material
and/or act as babysitter. This leads to all sorts of problems.

>All I'm saying is it's tough to raise a child these days without the added
>distortion of modern
>programing and parents need not be denied any tool that can help them
>achieve success.

"Need not be denied" = "Put this chip in your machines and adopt a ratings
service or we will shut your factory down and close your network."

Some opinion for a Cypherpunk to have. And quite a contrast with your own sig.

In any case, your 6-year-old son will be 8 before the first V-Chip-equipped
sets appear on the market, at the earliest (no technical standards have
even been proposed, no ratings services proposed, etc., so I doubt V-chips
will appear before 1999). However, unless you dump all your existing sets
and VCRs (remember that all VCRs act as tuners...that's how I watch t.v.,
through my VCR tuner), little Johnny will still be able to tune in to Bad
Thoughts.

And even if you get all V-chipped equipment, by, say, 2002, when Johnny is
12, he'll undoubtedly be able to find some of his buddies who have their
own VCRs, DirectTV dishes, etc. They'll have a blast watching "Debbie Does
Fort Meade."


>
>||The government  is my shepherd I need not work. It alloweth me to lie
> down on a good job. It leadeth me beside stilled factories. It destroyeth
> my initiative. It leadeth me in the path of a parasite for politics sake. YEA,
> though I walk through the valley of laziness and deficet spending I shall
> fear no evil, for the government is with me. It prepareth an economic utopia
> for me by appropriating the earnings of my grandchildren. It filleth my head
> with false security. My inefficiency runeth over. Surely, the government
>should care for me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in a fools
>paradise
>forever.................AMEN!   || nuke'm if ya got'em||

You believe this about the government, and yet you want the government to
mandate a chip in receivers to stop Bad Thoughts?

Jeesh.

--Tim May

[This Bible excerpt awaiting review under the Communications Decency Act]
And then Lot said, "I have some mighty fine young virgin daughters. Why
don't you boys just come on in and do em right here in my house - I'll just
watch!"....Later, up in the mountains, the younger daughter said. "Dad's
getting old. I say we should do him." So the two daughters got him drunk and
did him all that night. Sure enough, Dad got em pregnant....Onan really
hated the idea of doing his brother's wife and getting her pregnant while
his brother got all the credit, so he whacked off first....Remember, it's
not a good idea to have sex with your sister, your brother, your parents,
your pet dog, or the farm animals. [excerpts from the Old Testament, Modern
Vernacular Translation, TCM, 1996]