From: snow <snow@smoke.suba.com>
Date: Wed, 16 Oct 1996 20:25:38 -0700 (PDT)
To: douzzer@MIT.EDU
Subject: Re: AW: Binding cryptography - a fraud-detectible alternative to key-escrow
In-Reply-To: <199610161120.EAA11108@lechter.chautauqua.com>
Message-ID: <199610170239.VAA00204@smoke.suba.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text


> oh pooh, you've seen this material run through over and over.
> perhaps you respect my "opinion" because you know i am right. i know i
> don't respect your position, because i am irrevocably convinced that
> you are wrong.

     Well, I guess that by the above paragraph, I am perfectly just in 
calling you a nearsighted fool? 

> acceptable:
> 
> -tracking of all chemicals which have been or can be manufactured into
>   poisons, explosives, or psychoactives (cannot buy or sell
>   anonymously)

     <BZZZZT> thanks for playing. Nearly _all_ chemicals can be manufactured
into poisons, not to mention explosives. You wanna register your bottle
of bleach with the feds? I can make a mustard gas clone out of it. You wanna
register your bag of sugar? There are explosives that can be made out of it.

     Hell, **OXYGEN** is toxic in high concentrations. You wanna track THAT?

     Life is %100 fatal. You can't change that.

> -tracking of all automobiles and deadly weapons

     Why? What percentage of murders are _solved_ because the police find 
the murder weapon, and use THAT to track it back to the killer? I'd bet that
it is an insignificant percentage (first person who points out a single case
gets the twit award--a free copy of GNU emacs source code mailed to your email
address--I KNOW it happens, but is it statistically common? No.) 

     And why track autos? Nosy little feds wanna know where I am? 


> unacceptable:
> -restrictions on what i can think, who i can speak to, what i can say,
>   and how i say it, aside from shouting lies in a crowded movie
>   theater or other such crowded public place.

     But by saying MEAN THINGS, you are hurting people, and that is wrong. 

> -restrictions on how i can defend myself when my life is threatened

     Defending yourself isn't necessary, We, the government will do that 
for you. 

> -prohibitions on drug purchase, sale, or use

     Tracking chemicals...

> i'm not ever going to change my position on this. you can drive bamboo
> shoots under my fingernails and toenails, you can megadose me on LSD,

     Sounds like one of these has happened already, and I don't hear you
screaming...

> you can pull my teeth and administer electric shocks to my testicles,
> and i am still going to believe that absolute information privacy, and
> absolute freedom of thought and conversation, are inalienable human
> rights.

     1) Torture doesn't change someones mind. There are other means of 
doing that. 

     2) Very unimaginative. 

> if what you want to stop is airplane explosions, landmines, poisoned
> water supplies, and mailbombs, please PLEASE make it your personal
> mission to see that chemicals are more tightly controlled, airports
> have the latest and greatest nuclear resonance tomographic imagers,
> landmines aren't manufactured or sold any longer, water supplies are
> tested around the clock using the latest technology, and everyone
> knows not to open unsolicited packages.

     Or just make it unnecessary to carry out terrorist acts. 

> i don't trust my government. i don't trust ANY government. government
> is that segment of society that arrogates a monopoly on "legitimate
> violence." it is composed of powergrabbers, and ass-kissers with
> sinecures, who are paid with stolen money, some of it stolen from me.

     You don't trust _any_ government, yet you want them to track _every_
chemical that people purchase? 

     There is crypto relevance in there somewhere I think...

Petro, Christopher C.
petro@suba.com <prefered for any non-list stuff>
snow@smoke.suba.com