[117783] in Cypherpunks
Re: Everyone is a felon
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Tim May)
Fri Sep 10 13:17:06 1999
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Date: Fri, 10 Sep 1999 10:00:40 -0700
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
From: Tim May <tcmay@got.net>
Reply-To: Tim May <tcmay@got.net>
At 9:01 AM -0700 1999-09-10, James A. Donald wrote:
> --
>At 08:27 PM 8/29/1999 +0200, Anonymous wrote:
>> What are you talking about? What were "a majority of us" doing
>> which would have violated the provisions above? Were cypherpunks
>> engaging in the commission of felonies, and encrypting information
>> relating to that felony with the intent to conceal?
>
>Almost everyone is a felon. The definition of felon is expanding as
>fast as the definition of "interstate commerce" expanded. Just as you
>now commit interstate commerce merely by being alive, you will soon be
>committing a felony merely by being alive.
Yep, one of my .sigs a few years ago read "I'm a felon in an increasing
number of ways," or somesuch. Ayn Rand pointed out that governments seek to
felonize more and more behaviors as a leverage point, a way of increasing
their power. Rent-seeking behavior. The whole legal establishment, on all
sides, likes this because it generates more work for all. The prison
establishment likes it because it generates jobs for them.
The only constituencies who _don't_ like the situation have no influence.
>
>Most of my encrypted messages are concealment of felonies. Almost
>everything that anyone would wish to conceal is a felony, and almost
>all of us are felons whether we know it or not.
>
>My son is currently facing a federal felony charge for possession of a
>pocket knife with a blade 2 and 5/8th of an inch long on a university
>campus. Go measure your pocket knives.
Your son will likely be encouraged to plea bargain to a lesser charge.
Maybe only a misdemeanor. Let it be said that I carry my folding knives
when I am on the UC Santa Cruz campus...and mine are 4-inch blades. Usually
I remember to unclip them from visible view and move them into my pocket
(this act alone has recently been a felony, that of "carrying a concealed
weapon").
Everytime I take my assault rifles within 500 yards of a public school I'm
committing a felony. (Some of us have figured out that if we are stopped
for a traffic stop in one of these "safe school" zones the logical thing to
do is to shoot the cop in the face and hope he hadn't logged the license
plate beforehand.)
The liberal nitwit will say: "So don't take your assault rifles within 500
yards of a school. Better yet, get rid of all of your guns. It's for the
children."
And these are just a few of the obvious "felonies" which are "evil by law,"
not "evil unto themselves." That is, my carriage of assault rifles is not
harming anyone...it's just a violation of some laws that burrowcrats and
their junior interns in Washington and Sacramento cooked up to "save the
children." As if felonizing my transport of my rifles will stop some whacko
from shooting up a schoolyard.
The whole system needs a low-level reformatting.
--Tim May
Y2K: It's not the odds, it's the stakes.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
ComSec 3DES: 831-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
"Cyphernomicon" | black markets, collapse of governments.
