[79317] in Cypherpunks
Re: Rejecting Dialog with Government Vermin
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Mac Norton)
Wed Apr 30 21:41:48 1997
Date: Tue, 29 Apr 1997 20:17:48 -0500 (CDT)
From: Mac Norton <mnorton@cavern.uark.edu>
To: Tim May <tcmay@got.net>
Cc: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>, cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
In-Reply-To: <v03007809af8c50d008eb@[207.167.93.63]>
Reply-To: Mac Norton <mnorton@cavern.uark.edu>
On Tue, 29 Apr 1997, Tim May wrote:
>
> That's damning with faint praise indeed. I grew up outside D.C., in
> suburban Virginia. Outside the crater wall, but still inside the pit, if
> you catch my drift.
>
> The "unlivability" for me, confirmed on return visits, is that it's a
> wholly artificial city, a seat of imperial power built solely as a haven
> for bureaucrats and suckers of pork. Outside of the Northwest region, the
> rest of the city is a welfare/ghetto/slum/crime mess...as I'm sure anyone
> who's been there will agree. The suburbs are hot and muggy in the summer,
> and monotonously suburban and flat.
Weather there sucks, about 48 weeks out of the year, and
the four others aren't consecutive.
Most people who live in DC don't live there; they're passing
through for a few years, as Declan apparently is. When I
"lived" there in the 70s the first polite question universally
asked on being introduced to someone at a party or bar was
not even "Where do you work?" but "Where ya from?" cause
*nobody* was from DC or intended to be. From sporadic visits
over the last twenty years, that situation doesn't seem to
have changed appreciably.:)
This "waystation" nature contributes to the artificiality of
the town.
> I repeat: legislators only make things worse.
Worse than what? It might be more fair to say legislators
only rarely make things better.
MacN
