🚀 go-pugleaf

in article <1749@hoptoad.uucp>, gnu@hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore) says:
> 
> In article <305@tifsie.UUCP>, kent@tifsie.UUCP (Russell Kent) writes:
>>     3. You are bringing yourself to the attention of the Intelligence
>>        Agency.  Believe me, THIS IS NOT WHAT YOU WANT TO DO.  Those
>>        people are _dead serious_, and more often than not, DO NOT
>>        PLAY UNDER THE SAME RULES THAT YOU AND I DO.  They have powers
>>        and abilities (albeit infrequently used) that you don't even
>>        want to have nightmares about being used against you. (Ever
>>        thought about what a cramp in your lifestyle it would be if you
>>        just disappeared without a trace? :-)
> 

My first impulse on reading '3.' above was to post a followup saying:
"LISTEN TO THE GUY!"

> I heard a rumor that we have laws and a Constitution around here.

You know, I heard about that, too.  And it turns out that, yeah, we do
have laws against drunk driving.  And you know what?  People are killed
by drunk drivers every day and they are just as dead as if there
weren't any laws against it.  Isn't that amazing?  And the Constitution
sure protected all those Nisei during WWII that had their property
confiscated and were shipped off to internment camps.  All they had to
do was wave that piece of parchment at the marshals who whisked them
away and all the barbed wire disappeared and they got their property
back.  Right?

> If I suddenly disappear due to my net postings I hope that some of you all
> will raise a big enough stink to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Why should we notice?  I'm not being flippant.  People come and go on
the net all the time, and most of us don't keep track of more than a
few of the thousands of netters.  Probably the only persons who would
notice are your close family and your intimate associates.  Unless they
are successful at mobilizing publicity by adding some element of
sensationalism to your disappearance, the world will little note your
passing.  And even then, the world would manifest curiousity only as
long as the subject provided gossipy entertainment value.  Note that
they must be successful in the face of highly trained personnel whose
job it is to stifle and discredit such publicity.  What do you think
they're going to do?  Post news that says, "John Gilmore's postings
offended us, so we switched him off"?

> I would rather risk myself (in an effort to rid our society of people who
> think they have these obscene "powers and abilities") than have the whole
> population held hostage, terrified to complain about what our government is
> doing.
> -- 
> John Gilmore  {sun,ptsfa,lll-crg,ihnp4}!hoptoad!gnu   gnu@ingres.berkeley.edu
> Love your country but never trust its government.
> 		     -- from a hand-painted road sign in central Pennsylvania

I'm sympathetic to your cause, but I think there are better ways of
turning a bull into a steer than by strutting up to it in the middle of
its pasture, dropping your pants, and betting you don't get a horn up
your ass.
-- 
________________________________________________________________________

Harry E. Barnett      {hplsla,uw-beaver}!tikal!slovax!harryb

Brittanius (shocked):  Caesar, this is not proper.
Theodotus (outraged):  How?
Caesar (recovering his self possession):  Pardon him, Theodotus:  He is
a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and islands are
the laws of nature.

		--Caesar and Cleopatra, Act II, George Bernard Shaw