This is not "DivineBeingPunks"

At 1:52 AM 1/26/96, Perry E. Metzger wrote:

>I'm sure that most people seem to believe in this quasi-Divine Being,
>of course. A lot of people seem to have constructed temples to some
>Holy Being that they refer to as "The Government", made of marble and
>steel and glass (often in the manner of temples constructed in ancient
>times to Jove or Apollo). There are strange rites associated with the
>worship and sustenance of this Divine Entity, such as the ritual
....etc. etc. etc.

Since Perry has on several occasions said he does not want to hear about
politics and other "off-topic" posts, and since he has written at least
five of these posts just today (the "Gentleman do not" thread), I suggest
he heed his own advice.

I was skipping most of these posts that Perry, Rich Graves, and others are
writing, but the hypocrisy of calling for others to not engage in
"off-topic" posts while writing five of them himself...well, it speaks for
itself.

Debating basic libertarian theory, including the rights of Divine Beings,
quasi-Divine Beings, Secular Beings, etc., is best done on another list, or
in private e-mail.

What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

--Tim

Boycott espionage-enabled software!
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^756839 - 1  | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

Timothy C. May writes:
> Since Perry has on several occasions said he does not want to hear about
> politics and other "off-topic" posts, and since he has written at least
> five of these posts just today (the "Gentleman do not" thread), I suggest
> he heed his own advice.

Well, the topic was initially quite cryptography related -- a
discussion of the question of whether government cryptanalysis efforts
are a "good idea". However, in my last message on the topic you
probably saw that I noted that the issue had certainly slipped
sufficiently from the local agenda that I personally noted that it was
no longer appropriate for me to post on the topic. I don't intend to
say anything more about it since it no longer was merely a discussion
of whether we need an NSA.

However, redirecting the topic, I will note that Phill's assertion
that U.S. cryptographic intelligence versus the Japanese at the start
of World War II was inadequate is just plain wrong. We had already
broken virtually every important Japanese diplomatic and military
code, including perhaps the greatest feat of cryptanalysis of all
time, the breaking of PURPLE. See "The Code Breakers" for details.

And yes, discussing historical cryptanalysis efforts is indeed part of
the charter.

Perry