On Fri, Jan 02, 2004 at 04:54:12PM -0500, David Boyes wrote: > > >Perhaps Richard Stallman and Linus Torvalds next? Let us hope that some > > >real achievers are knighted!
Torvalds, certainly, but not Stallman. > Since neither is a citizen of the United Kingdom, I'm not sure that they are > eligible. Accepting merit honors from foreign royalty is a kinda gray area > for our screwed up American "allegiance to foreign powers" laws, and I don't > know anything about Finnish law. The Finns seem a generally sensible sort, > but these days, who knows? Americans can accept honors from foreign countries with the permission of Congress. It's not unheard-of, but not very common either. For a sufficiently meritorious case, it would probably be handled by the person's Congressman as a private bill and go through without much, if any, debate.
