From: pat@rwing.UUCP (Pat Myrto)
Newsgroups: sci.crypt,comp.org.eff.talk,alt.privacy,talk.politics.guns
Subject: Re: Registered Keys - why the need?
Date: 8 Nov 92 19:55:07 GMT
Organization: Totally Unorganized

In article <1992Nov8.094014.20105@genie.slhs.udel.edu> starr@genie.slhs.udel.edu (Tim Starr) writes:
>In article <1992Nov6.134822.5000@news.yale.edu> watt-alan@net.yale.edu (Alan Watt) writes:
>}True.  But no government where cars are registered has (yet) promoted
>}a policy to restrict or ban private automobile ownership.  When one
>}does, you can bet the registration lists will be used to aid enforcement.
>
>Just give the environmentalists enough rope.  They've already started to try
>to pull us down the slippery slope with gas taxes, emissions controls,
>"alternative" energy policies...  I can just hear them now: "No one has the
>right to endanger the Planet by the anti-environmental act of driving their
>own vehicle.  Let them take public transportation."

And if the past is any index, such policy would also include words to
the effect "members of the police, military, or other government agencies
and their employees or representatives are exempted from the restrictions
outlined above".  Such is sure commonplace with the various gun bans in
effect, so that the Ted Kennedys, etc., can retain their hired guns
...er...  guards...

You can BET that the environmentalists (at least a major part of them)
would arrange for themselves to be included in the exemptions (for the
purpose of catching others violating this wonderful law, of course)...

It is one reason I generally oppose laws that give the government a
large amount of discretionary power, limited only by their good will.
First, gov't has never demonstrated anything remotely resembling good
will, except to themselves and expanding their power.  Second, gov't
personnel virtually never walk their talk -- meaning live by the same
limitations that they so willingly impose on the rest of us.  They always
provide that exemption for themselves...

And, for what other purpose is registrion really good for, except to limit
who can legally have the item under consideration, to tax it because they
know who has the item(s) and where, and finally to confiscate the item(s)
as contraband when they finally get around to banning that item.
Using registration of cars is a poor example, because it tends to
be probably the most benign example of the use of a registration
database by various governments.  More realistic examples would
be governments requiring the registration of members of various
ethnic groups, registration of items the governments can possibly
consider a threat to their power (ranging from typewriters, printing
presses, copiers, as was done in Soviet states, to guns, as is done in
all totalitarian/authoritarian states).

Registration of ANYTHING that can be a means of maintaining a degree of
privacy from Big Brother is a frightening precident.  And for those that
claim monitoring is so labor intensive, how come organizations like the
NSA manages so easily?  Because its done by MACHINES, which are set to
trigger on certain key phrases or sequences to either save the following
information, or cause a human operator to start monitoring and interpreting
it.  The scenareo of 2 or 3 guys wearing hats, sitting by the reel-to-reel
tape recorder in a dark and dusty room or basement bugging some suspects
line is strictly movie fare, or perhaps an investigation in its later
stages once a specified 'target of interest' is identified.  Such direct
methods are not needed to identify that 'target of interest', only a
criterea, which can change from day to day, depending on the political
as well as the legal climate.  One who is willing to give the government
carte blanche on such things is amazingly naive as far as I am concerned.

>And it bears repeating: the power to tax is the power to destroy.

I'd say that is an understatement!!

>Tim Starr - Renaissance Now! - Think Universally, Act Selfishly
>starr@genie.slhs.udel.edu
>
>"True greatness consists in the use of a powerful understanding to enlighten
>oneself and others." - Voltaire


-- 
pat@rwing.uucp                                  (Pat Myrto),  Seattle, WA
                      If all else fails, try:
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WISDOM:    "Travelling unarmed is like boating without a life jacket" 
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