From: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
Date: Fri, 14 Nov 1997 00:20:46 +0800
To: cypherpunks@Algebra.COM
Subject: Re: Mad as Hell
In-Reply-To: <v03102801b08ffcdcfb0f@[207.167.93.63]>
Message-ID: <v04002726b090ae3684e1@[139.167.130.248]>
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At 7:56 pm -0500 on 11/12/97, Tim May wrote:


> No doubt Bob Hettinga thinks my mention of this case is dangerous, that
> good little bunny rabbits don't make Big Brother angry.

:-). Actually, Tim, I don't think it's dangerous, at least to me
personally, and to anyone else on this list, for that matter. What I said
was, you're counterproductive to your own cause (you could become a poster
for statism, as I said before), and, if you continued to directly threaten
the lives of people who had the power to hurt you, in public, with direct
attribution including your name, location, and email address, you,
personally, could wind up waking up very surprised one night, consitutional
free speech guarantee or no. Which would be a drag, because, as Monty and
everyone else here knows, you are the backbone of this list. :-). You've
taught all of us a lot over the years, but, frankly, this stuff lately
makes you look like you've lost it.


> Well, I will say
> what I said before: the BATF and LA County Sheriffs responsible and
> involved in this case should be tried in a criminal court, should be
> convicted (based on what I have seen), and they should then be sentenced to
> die in the gas chamber at San Quentin. This is, after all, what they do to
> gang bangers who shoot up liquor stores. Cops should face execution. In
> this case, a mass execution of the dozen raiding officers would send a
> strong message to other cops.)

Though containing a little more due process in it than normal, :-), the
above is mostly the same as all the other public threats you've made
against people who whave many more guns than you do.

Frankly, I agree with what you're saying, to the extent that people who
make armed assaults against innocent people shouldn't get away with it.
And, further, I think that as more people speak out against it, with more
fact and less hysteria than you do, those making armed assaults won't do it
anymore. Heck, if people kept just more firearms in their homes, and shot
back occasionally, those armed assaults would stop. However, that's quite
different from what you're doing, which is more along the lines of "come
and get me, Copper". Top o' the morning, and all that.

Oh well. It's free country. Even hysteria's alright, I suppose, if you want
die for it by using your true name to do it. And, frankly, Tim, who's to
begrudge you your spot on the Brokaw show. You being Mad as Hell, and all
that. I mean, sure: "Tim May. John Brown. Same thing.", right?

I just don't think the apacolypse is coming on January 1, 2001, much less
this Thanksgiving, is all.

The sky is not falling. I agree with Gibbon, below. As attractive as the
conclusion is sometimes, the end of the world has yet to actually happen.

Cheers,
Bob Hettinga


-----------------
Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com), Philodox
e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/
Ask me about FC98 in Anguilla!: <http://www.fc98.ai/>