Plea from a parent who wants to keep their kid free of SSNs

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John Bishop wrote:
>Well, seeing how Mr. Treibs is not a Nazi, satan worshipper, or pagan
>fundamentalist, I doubt that the ACLU will want much to do with him.

This slur is unwarranted.  The ACLU has a long tradition of defending
religious rights, even those of Christians.

My personal favorite is the case of the Jehovah's Witnesses in the
1950s.  The Witnesses believe that they cannot honestly pledge
allegiance to the flag.  They believe that they owe allegiance to God.
Were the government to act in a way that was other than God's
intention, they would be unable to cooperate.

This had to go all the way to the Supreme Court and it was the ACLU
that did it when nobody else would.

Be my guest to criticize the ACLU, but you'd do better to pick one of
their weak points.

Monty Cantsin
Editor in Chief
Smile Magazine
http://www.neoism.org/squares/smile_index.html
http://www.neoism.org/squares/cantsin_10.html

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The ACLU certainly deserves criticism for its knee-jerk left-wing view on
some issues. I'd also be interested in seeing them take a stand on 2nd
Amendment issues; right now they don't have a position, as I understand it.
But on free speech and SSN-type issues they're generally good.

I forwarded the original "Plea from a parent" message to some folks at the
ACLU who expressed an interest in helping out.

-Declan

PS: Jane Fonda, of all people, just stopped by the bureau for a
correspondent's birthday party! Sure, we had Newt here on Monday, but Fonda
-- there's a //real// celebrity...



At 22:30 +0200 9/26/97, Anonymous wrote:
>-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>
>John Bishop wrote:
>>Well, seeing how Mr. Treibs is not a Nazi, satan worshipper, or pagan
>>fundamentalist, I doubt that the ACLU will want much to do with him.
>
>This slur is unwarranted.  The ACLU has a long tradition of defending
>religious rights, even those of Christians.
>
>My personal favorite is the case of the Jehovah's Witnesses in the
>1950s.  The Witnesses believe that they cannot honestly pledge
>allegiance to the flag.  They believe that they owe allegiance to God.
>Were the government to act in a way that was other than God's
>intention, they would be unable to cooperate.
>
>This had to go all the way to the Supreme Court and it was the ACLU
>that did it when nobody else would.
>
>Be my guest to criticize the ACLU, but you'd do better to pick one of
>their weak points.
>
>Monty Cantsin
>Editor in Chief
>Smile Magazine
>http://www.neoism.org/squares/smile_index.html
>http://www.neoism.org/squares/cantsin_10.html
>
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-------------------------
Declan McCullagh
Time Inc.
The Netly News Network
Washington Correspondent
http://netlynews.com/