Eugene Leitl writes:
> Declan McCullagh writes:
> > "Child pornographers could distribute their
> > filth unimpeded," the House Permanent
> > Select Committee on Intelligence said.
> Doesn't that one slowly start to backfire, since ringing hollowly even
> among non-cluebies? Gosh, pedophilia, the threat to world peace and
> ender of civilisation as we know it.
No, it doesn't seem to backfire among Americans, anyway.
The populace is so de-clued that even obvious privacy
violations don't raise eyebrows. Did you hear the massive
outcry when States started requiring SSN's on driver's
license renewals with the ostensible goal of tracking
down deadbeat parents? Or when the Feds mandated a
national "join" on SSN-keyed driver's license databases
to help with the same goal? Of course they've promised
it won't be used for other purposes and then only with
properly constituted authority. Besides, what do you have
to hide? If the government were your enemy, wouldn't that
mean something was very wrong with the country?
If the Constitution were Unix, invoking deadbeat parents
is already enough to get the root password, and invoking
pedophilia would be enough to justify replacing it with
Windows.
--
Jim Gillogly
Highday, 4 Wedmath S.R. 1999, 21:24
12.19.6.7.2, 7 Ik 10 Xul, Seventh Lord of Night
