From: Tim May <tcmay@got.net>
Date: Mon, 17 Nov 1997 04:37:28 +0800
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Subject: Re: the art of fighting without fighting
In-Reply-To: <199711161959.UAA14136@basement.replay.com>
Message-ID: <v03102828b094f81bd564@[207.167.93.63]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



At 12:59 PM -0700 11/16/97, Amad3us wrote:

>Anonymous decries talk of violence on list.  Understand
>anonymous, we are not the aggressors, we are the aggressed.
>It is annoying being on the receiving end of aggression
>especially where the aggressor is the local force monopoly
>and you have no recourse.  Hence talk of nuking DC, and of
>capital punishment for criminal government officials.  There
>is certain poetic karmic value to these expressions of
>annoyance.  Helps spread the dissatisfaction with
>government.
>
>However, the fact that criminal officials deserve punishment
>does not mean that any of us are interested to actually
>deliver that punishment.  There are more efficient methods
>of utilising our available resources: write crypto code,
>hasten crypto-anarchy.  Have the government collapse through
>lack of funding, have it's power eroded.

 Just so.

Hettinga seems to think I am criminally liable in case some terrorist
decides to spend $10 million or so (the going rate, I hear) to buy a nuke
so that he can make me happy in my, Hettinga claims, "will no one rid me of
this city of pesitlence and vermin" entreaties.

"As if." (to quote the GenXers)

While I believe the odds are increasing that a nuclear or biological weapon
will be used against the centers of oppression--Washington, New York, Tel
Aviv, etc.--I certainly can't imagine any self-respecting member of Abu
Nidal's team, for example, spending this kind of bread just to make Tim May
happy.

But people like Hettinga and Crispin believe in guilt by viewpoint, and in
keeping quiet so as not to make the authorities mad.

Me, my actions have been to move away from "soft targets." Even in a major
nukewar with the Evil Empire, I'm 30 miles _south_ of the major targets in
Silicon Valley, like the Satellite Operations Center at Onizuka/Moffet in
Sunnyvale and Mountain View. (The famed "Blue Cube.") The Blue Cube is now
mirrored at Falcon AFB in Colorado, and may by now even be the main site
for satellite tracking.

Hint: Given the prevailing winds and jet stream in this part of the world,
and given the mountain range between my location and Silicon Valley, I'm
almost certainly completely safe. Except from the aftereffects of a
nukewar, namely, human vermin spreading out through the mountain passes
trying to steal what they can. Hence my "other measures."

A bio weapon is more troublesome, where I am, but I doubt any CBW agent
could have toxicity to cover even those of us in fairly isolated ocean
valleys.

I expect one day to hear that some major world capital has been nuked or
devastated with botulinin toxin. I doubt I'll be crying.

(Hettinga plans to call the cops because of this comment.)

--Tim May

The Feds have shown their hand: they want a ban on domestic cryptography
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
ComSec 3DES:   408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^2,976,221   | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."