From: lucifer@dhp.com (lucifer Anonymous Remailer)
Date: Fri, 6 Jun 1997 12:50:08 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Webpage anti-abortion picketing...
Message-ID: <199706060347.XAA23758@dhp.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Jim Choate wrote:
> 
> I no more want to slap more spin doctor
> output in front of others than to have to look at it myself. I was mainly
> trying to make a prediction about the future and then seeing, if reasonable,
> how long it took.
> 
> It occurs to me that somebody with the right
> motivation might want to claim that they have a right to put a box on such a
> backbone (ie stand on the sidewalk in front of the store) and scrape for
> particular addresses (ie the business they want to picket). 

  This is precisely why we should fight all efforts of the government
to get their foot in the door in regard to control of the internet.
  I have no doubt that the government will at some point bestow upon
some element of the internet a "gift" of funding of some type that they
will proclaim is for the public benefit. Their true purpose, naturally,
will be to give Joe Grapepicker legal standing to apply to a judge to
uphold his "right" to picket the Safeway website.

  The fact of the matter is, we are currently free to do much as we 
wish to on the internet. Some call this freedom. Unfortunately, it can
also be called "freedom from government interference," which is an
anathema to those in power.
  As long as cypherpunks Timothy McMay and Dimitri Nichols conspire only
to promote electronic freedom on the list, then the rest of the decent,
law-abiding cypherpunks are probably relatively safe. Should they choose
to begin promoting abortion on the list, however, this could change
rapidly.

(It just occured to me that censorship promoters could be considered to
be "Electronic Abortion Activists." Perhaps we need a new censorship
ASSociation to be formed, called the EAA, with Jerry Falwell, et al, 
as its TITular HEADs, and with chapters throughout the CoUNTry.)

TruthMonger