Re: FCPUNX:FBI calls for mandatory key escrow

At 07:40 AM 9/4/97 +0200, Anonymous wrote:
>  Who is going to stop them? They have the guns! When our elected
> officials in Congress delved into the INSLAW affair, the Department 
> of Justice told them to "Fuck off." and refused to cooperate with 
> those who represent the citizens. Congress's reaction was to say, 
> "Yup. They're defying us."
>  Ipso facto--Congress is not running the country. The LEA's are running
> the country. Go figure...

It used to be that normal federal agencies did not have their own goons.

They relied on the fibbies.

Now every federal agency is creating their own goon squad.  Sometimes
they send in the goons to illegally enforce the laws that they are 
lobbying for.  Congress then has to make it legal, or crack down on
illegal use of force by a federal agency.  Frequently they make it
legal

This is reminiscent of the latter days of the Soviet Union.

Towards the end in the Soviet Union, armed government agencies
would raid other agencies for valuables, and set up road blocks
at random times and places, and confiscate anything valuable
being trucked through by another government agency.  No kidding.

A government factory would be working on producing widgets, and
suddenly guys with guns would come in and take their stuff for
another government factory.

The west is beginning to show the same symptoms, though as yet
not nearly as severe.  The state is visibly losing cohesion, and
at the same time, through improved communications, the citizenry
is gaining cohesion.
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
              				|  
We have the right to defend ourselves	|   http://www.jim.com/jamesd/
and our property, because of the kind	|  
of animals that we are. True law	|   James A. Donald
derives from this right, not from the	|  
arbitrary power of the state.		|   jamesd@echeque.com

On Fri, 5 Sep 1997, James A. Donald wrote:

> At 07:40 AM 9/4/97 +0200, Anonymous wrote:
> >  Who is going to stop them? They have the guns! When our elected
> > officials in Congress delved into the INSLAW affair, the Department 
> > of Justice told them to "Fuck off." and refused to cooperate with 
> > those who represent the citizens. Congress's reaction was to say, 
> > "Yup. They're defying us."
> >  Ipso facto--Congress is not running the country. The LEA's are running
> > the country. Go figure...
> 
> It used to be that normal federal agencies did not have their own goons.
> 
> They relied on the fibbies.
> 
> Now every federal agency is creating their own goon squad.  Sometimes
> they send in the goons to illegally enforce the laws that they are 
> lobbying for.  Congress then has to make it legal, or crack down on
> illegal use of force by a federal agency.  Frequently they make it
> legal
> 
> This is reminiscent of the latter days of the Soviet Union.
> 
> Towards the end in the Soviet Union, armed government agencies
> would raid other agencies for valuables, and set up road blocks
> at random times and places, and confiscate anything valuable
> being trucked through by another government agency.  No kidding.
> 

There is an interesting analysis of this process in the book, "The
Sovereign Individual".  They point out that during the end of one
mega-political age and the beginning of the next, the agency with a force
monopoly becomes corrupt in the extreme.  The authors define a
mega-political age as a fundamental change in the balance of power between
human predators and human prey. 

For example, hunter-gatherers to agricultural to industrial to 
cypher/network/informational.

Lets just hope the transition is as quick and painless as
possible.

Anyone have any background on the author's of this book?

Lord Rees-Moggs (and someone who I can't remember)

Jim Burnes

Jim Burnes writes:
> There is an interesting analysis of this process in the book, "The
> Sovereign Individual".
> [...]

Yes, I saw this in a bookstore.  It looks interesting; if and when I
wade through my current stack of unread books, I intend to pick it up.
I'd be interested in hearing the opinions of any c-punks who have read
it, if you think it's relevant to the list.

> Anyone have any background on the author's of this book?

> Lord Rees-Moggs (and someone who I can't remember)

It's Lord William Rees-Mogg.  His co-author is James Dale Davidson,
the founder of the U.S. National Taxpayers' Union.  The two of them
previously wrote "Blood in the Streets" and "The Great Reckoning",
and publish a newsletter called "Strategic Investment".  Davidson also
wrote a pamphlet called "The Plague of the Black Debt" (!), which
appears to be intended as an advertisement for the newsletter.

(I sent away for a sample copy of SI a couple of years ago, and found
it to be a rather odd bird as far as investment newsletters go.  As I
recall, it did have a fair amount of investment analysis and advice --
presented in a rather breathless, hyperbolic style, IHMO -- but it was
mixed in with numerous articles dealing with Whitewater, Vince Foster,
and so forth.  I didn't subscribe.)

Here are a few links, courtesy of Alta Vista:

http://www.amazon.com (search for ISBN 0684810077; includes reader reviews)
http://www.strategicinvestment.com/sample.html (see it for yourself)
http://www.worth.com/articles/Z9611F08.html (the world of newsletter marketing)
http://www.free-market.com/zychik/1996/10/15.html (mentions SI, unfavorably)
http://cybersurfing.com/hfd/profl.html (caveat emptor)

--
Martin Janzen
janzen@idacom.hp.com