From: Duncan Frissell <frissell@panix.com>
Date: Sat, 17 May 1997 00:14:57 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Dan White & Feinstein
In-Reply-To: <19970515002241.20918@bywater.songbird.com>
Message-ID: <3.0.1.32.19970516110732.02653dd4@panix.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


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>Dan White committed suicide, after a while.  He probably died sooner than
>the state could have killed him, with appeals and all.  Anyway, Feinstein
>has had a fair amount of first hand experience with gun violence -- more
>than most people on this list.  Her stand on gun control is probably the
>most principled and honest one she has made.

Dan White, San Francisco Supervisor and killer of Mayor Moscone and Harvey
Milk (1978) committed suicide after he had been released from serving his 5
years and 2 months maximum sentence for manslaughter.  (Depression which made
him incapable of forming the specific intent required to be guilty of
murder.)  Feinstein had been a friend of his when he was on the Board of
Supes and it is possible that one of the reasons he lost it during the crisis
over his resignation and attempt to get back on the Board was because
Feinstein was in Nepal on her honeymoon (millionaire second husband) and
wasn't there to support him. 

[I may be partially to blame as well.  I was living in Dan White's district
(the oppressed white working class part of SF) at the time of his original
election.  He dropped by the house and solicited my vote.  I voted for him,
in fact.  And he certainly turned out to be a supporter of the revolutionary
aspirations of his community.  The least disappointing politician I ever
voted for.]

Feinstein want to grab your guns because she is an authoritarian.  Not
because of any particular experiences she's had with guns.  She has shown
equal contempt for the First Amendment and the Second.  She's ma woman and a
commie liberal.  What can one expect.

While mayor of San Francisco, she indulged in a number of famous suppressions
of free speech:

1)  She cancelled the appearance of the Turkish Folklorico Ballet because of
demonstration threats from the (no longer starving) Armenians.

2)  She tried to ban the showing of whatever that dumb New York gang movie
was after a stabbing at one of the theaters showing it.

3)  She pressured a clothing store to pull its billboard ad campaign
"Feinstyle" which featured a (fully clothed) reclining, look-alike model
wearing her sort of scarf and business attire.

Her current humorous attempt to ban "bomb plans" from the Net is just part of
the pattern.  [Humorous because such bans went out the door with Gutenberg
about 500 years ago.]

Her administration also attempted to ban handgun sales in San Franciso but
because California gun nuts had long ago enacted one of the state preemption
laws that the NRA used to push, the courts threw her ban out.  [These laws
say that only the state government can regulate guns.]

If I were her, I'd probably "fear the revolutionary justice of the people" as
well.  [If you've ever seen film of these female congresscritters brandishing
assault rifles at a dog and pony show where they are supposed to examine
these "weapons of war", you'd certainly agree that *they* shouldn't be
allowed to handle guns.]

DCF

 
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