From: Mike Duvos <enoch@zipcon.net>
Date: Tue, 19 Aug 1997 09:11:05 +0800
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Subject: Bell, etc
Message-ID: <19970819005657.29906.qmail@zipcon.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Tim "What you mean *WE*, white man" May writes:

 > Whom are the "we" in this "We really need to put something
 > together..."?

 > I certainly don't plan to be part of the "we," and this
 > sounds perilously close to the notion that members of this
 > mailing list are part of some sort of collective entity,
 > with goals, charters, action plans, officers, oh my.

Horrors.

 > As for info on Jim Bell, the article by Declan is widely
 > available, and is quite informative. As for elaborating it
 > further, or including more boilerplate, this seems
 > pointless. Anyone knew to the story can read Declan's
 > article. Anyone seeking even more information presumably
 > knows how to use search engines and should be able to find
 > the various essays and articles directly.

Well, as I have often said, "There is no such thing as objective
market-driven journalism." As much as I admire Declan's
expository skills, we both know he isn't going to deliberately
bite the hand that is holding his paycheck.

 > Sounds good to me. Let us know when you've finished it.

 > (If I sound testy, sorry. It's just that it's been a while
 > since I've heard this "we should get together and so
 > suchandsuch" stuff. The notion that Cypherpunks are some
 > sort of collective is not real useful. Nor is building a
 > page devoted to Bell's "one trick pony" terribly
 > interesting. Yes, people are clueless and ask "Who is Jim
 > Bell?"

Jim Bell is an example of an individual screwed by the government
using overly vague statues for alleged crimes which amounted to
little more than a few high school type pranks.

He took names of assholes who harrassed him, gave a made-up
number to a few people, and made the IRS doormat smell bad.  How
much, if any taxes, were evaded as a result of one of these
charges isn't even an issue.

 > So? Tell them to use search engines; a HotBot search on
 > "James Dalton Bell" just returned 1078 matches, several of
 > them on the first page directly applicable. Obviously
 > various Boolean searches on AP, Bell, IRS, etc. would act in
 > the predictable way.)

It is in the collective interests of Crypto-Anarchists that
information depicting the government's true colors should be
available in a form which can be accessed by even the terminally
innumerate.  This means a hyperlink with the words "Jim Bell" on
it, in a frequently browsed location.

--
     Mike Duvos         $    PGP 2.6 Public Key available     $
     enoch@zipcon.com   $    via Finger                       $
         {Free Cypherpunk Political Prisoner Jim Bell}