🚀 go-pugleaf

Writes curt@oasys.dt.navy.mil (Curt Welch):

> Why are you so scared ...etc.?   Did your parents beat you with a 
> phone.... etc.?   Or is it just the thought of having a stranger 
> call you that scares you ...etc.?  You really should work on 
> overcoming your fears.

I had no fears when I posted my response, but I am beginning to have 
some, now that I read yours.  My post was strictly *apersonal*, and 
referred to the Caller ID problem that the Telephone Companies have 
unleashed on the public. 

Your reply, however, is directed mainly at my person, rather than my 
ideas.  You demean yourself (and your organization) by replying this 
way.

As I said before, the problem with Caller ID is not that it tells 
others who you are, but that it allows others to call when you never 
intended to allow that to happen. 

Caller ID is strictly a revenue-producing scheme for the Telephone
Companies - it either serves no *demonstrable* need or, if it serves 
any purpose at all, it does so at the extremely high cost of violating

people's privacy. This leaves the Telephone Companies totally 
unconcerned.

When you publish your telephone number, you are ASKING to be called.
By anyone.

When you DON'T publish your telephone number, you are saying you 
DON'T WANT to be called. By anyone except those you want.

You even paid the Telephone Company for the privilege.

Now the Telephone Companies are offering to the public the privilege 
of bypassing (AT A PRICE!) that privacy you are paying them for, and 
simultaneously they are telling subscribers that they must pay still
more to maintain the privacy they paid for in the first place! 

In this Caller ID matter, no matter who you are nor which way you 
turn, you end up paying more - to the Telephone Company!

Sure, money has nothing to do with it. It's a social service, right?