Re: Turing's belated pardon
In 1912514778140765.wa.paulgboulderaim@listserv.ua.edu, on 12/24/2013 at 03:01 PM, Paul Gilmartin paulgboul...@aim.com said: http://boingboing.net/2013/12/24/queen-elizabeth-pardons-turing.html In my view, the Queen should have pardoned every man and woman persecuted under the cruel and unjust law that ruined so many lives. Indeed. Likewise, some gay rights advocates have complained that the British government might better have expended its resources not in such a symbolic gesture but in the more fitting memorial of broadening legal protection for living gays. I won't hold my breathe. For that matter, we (USA) have our own list of people punished under dubious laws. -- Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz, SysProg and JOAT ISO position; see http://patriot.net/~shmuel/resume/brief.html We don't care. We don't have to care, we're Congress. (S877: The Shut up and Eat Your spam act of 2003) -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Turing's belated pardon
From: John Gilmore jwgli...@gmail.com To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Sent: Tuesday, December 24, 2013 5:05:06 PM Subject: Re: Turing's belated pardon that the Turing pardon establishes that a sufficiently valuable individual should be above the law which applies to everyone else, is a silly one. It is indeed silly. The Turing pardon did not establish this concept. This concept was established long ago whenever the first sufficiently valuable individual established himself in control of the government where he lived, whether his control was overt or covert. It has been this way ever since, and will always be this way. Bill Fairchild Franklin, TN -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Turing's belated pardon
From today's New York Times: Alan Turing, the British mathematician regarded as one of the central figures in the development of the computer, received a formal pardon from Queen Elizabeth II on Monday for his conviction in 1952 on charges of homosexuality, at the time a criminal offense in Britain. Turing (1912-1954), was in fact convicted of 'gross indecency', whatever that may be; and it is appropriate to have that conviction, which dishonoured British Justice, expunged. His suicide at 42 nevertheless deprived computing of one of its seminal figures, and there is no making that loss good. John Gilmore, Ashland, MA 01721 - USA -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Turing's belated pardon
On Tue, 24 Dec 2013 14:03:14 -0500, John Gilmore wrote: From today's New York Times: Alan Turing, the British mathematician regarded as one of the central figures in the development of the computer, received a formal pardon from Queen Elizabeth II on Monday for his conviction in 1952 on charges of homosexuality, at the time a criminal offense in Britain. Turing (1912-1954), was in fact convicted of 'gross indecency', whatever that may be; and it is appropriate to have that conviction, which dishonoured British Justice, expunged. His suicide at 42 nevertheless deprived computing of one of its seminal figures, and there is no making that loss good. But: http://boingboing.net/2013/12/24/queen-elizabeth-pardons-turing.html Queen Elizabeth pardons Turing (but not the 50,000 other gay men the law unjustly criminalised) ... But I agree with Turing's biographer Dr Andrew Hodges, who says that the idea of a pardon for Turing establishes the principal that a sufficiently valuable individual should be above the law which applies to everyone else. In my view, the Queen should have pardoned every man and woman persecuted under the cruel and unjust law that ruined so many lives. Likewise, some gay rights advocates have complained that the British government might better have expended its resources not in such a symbolic gesture but in the more fitting memorial of broadening legal protection for living gays. (Not too political, I hope; advocacy thread *not* invited.) -- gil -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Turing's belated pardon
The occasion of Turing's pardon was certain to be used by people on every side of the issues raised by his prosecution to ride their own horses into the fray, arguing that something else or something more should have been done. That said, the view attributed to Andrew Hodges, that the Turing pardon establishes that a sufficiently valuable individual should be above the law which applies to everyone else, is a silly one. What it establishes, if anything, is that the law in q On 12/24/13, Paul Gilmartin paulgboul...@aim.com wrote: On Tue, 24 Dec 2013 14:03:14 -0500, John Gilmore wrote: From today's New York Times: Alan Turing, the British mathematician regarded as one of the central figures in the development of the computer, received a formal pardon from Queen Elizabeth II on Monday for his conviction in 1952 on charges of homosexuality, at the time a criminal offense in Britain. Turing (1912-1954), was in fact convicted of 'gross indecency', whatever that may be; and it is appropriate to have that conviction, which dishonoured British Justice, expunged. His suicide at 42 nevertheless deprived computing of one of its seminal figures, and there is no making that loss good. But: http://boingboing.net/2013/12/24/queen-elizabeth-pardons-turing.html Queen Elizabeth pardons Turing (but not the 50,000 other gay men the law unjustly criminalised) ... But I agree with Turing's biographer Dr Andrew Hodges, who says that the idea of a pardon for Turing establishes the principal that a sufficiently valuable individual should be above the law which applies to everyone else. In my view, the Queen should have pardoned every man and woman persecuted under the cruel and unjust law that ruined so many lives. Likewise, some gay rights advocates have complained that the British government might better have expended its resources not in such a symbolic gesture but in the more fitting memorial of broadening legal protection for living gays. (Not too political, I hope; advocacy thread *not* invited.) -- gil -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- John Gilmore, Ashland, MA 01721 - USA -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
Re: Turing's belated pardon
. . . [that the law in question] was wrong-headed. John Gilmore -- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
