From: Paul Bradley <paul@fatmans.demon.co.uk>
Date: Fri, 27 Jun 1997 23:22:55 +0800
To: Steve Schear <azur@netcom.com>
Subject: Re: Bomb Making Info to be Illegal
In-Reply-To: <v0310280bafd83fcea0f8@[10.0.2.15]>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.3.91.970626193506.152D-100000@fatmans.demon.co.uk>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain




> >The reasoning was that while offensive, unorthodox, or hateful ideas
> >are protected by the 1st, they, unlike pornography, have at least *some*
> >redeeming social value.  The court noted that laws enacted after the
>
> I can't see that anyone, including the courts, should use redeeming social
> value as a yardstick.  This term has all the hateful aspects of one group's
> mores being used to limit the freedom of their neighbor in the privacy of
> their home and thoughts.  After all, one man's ceiling is another man's
> floor.

I agree, besides the argument rests on direct democracy: The idea that 
something revolting or distasteful to a majority of people is therefore 
inherently wrong. Any idea or form of speech, even if 100% of a social 
group dislike it, is not criminal.  

> What if we create religion who's practice requires use and possesion of
> child porn?  Wonder how the SC would rule, given its rulings allowing use
> of peyote by certain native American tribes and against the Mormons on the
> issue of bigemy.

Maybe this would be a good test case, where is kibo when you need him ;-)...

> I think resistance to such limitations should go beyond legal avenues.

This and other issues should elicit such a response from reasonable 
people, the law is a useful tool in some cases but is not the right way 
to go about removing an unjust law, civil disobediance and, in extreme 
cases, even violent revolt are the best methods.

        Datacomms Technologies data security
       Paul Bradley, Paul@fatmans.demon.co.uk
  Paul@crypto.uk.eu.org, Paul@cryptography.uk.eu.org    
       Http://www.cryptography.home.ml.org/
      Email for PGP public key, ID: FC76DA85
     "Don`t forget to mount a scratch monkey"