| Tuesday, March
14, 2000
This showed up today.
Subject: A Nation Under God
This prayer was given in Kansas at the opening
session of their Senate. It seems that prayer upsets some people. When
minister Joe Wright was asked to open the new session of the Kansas
Senate, everyone was expecting the usual generalities, but this is what
they heard:
"Heavenly Father, we come before you today to
ask Your forgiveness and to seek Your guidance and direction. We know Your
Word says, "Woe to those who call evil good" but that is exactly
what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our
values. We confess that.
We have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your word
and called it Pluralism;
We have worshipped other gods and called it multiculturalism;
We have endorsed perversion and called it alternative lifestyle;
We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery;
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare;
We have killed our unborn and called it choice;
We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable;
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building
self esteem;
We have abused power and called it politics;
We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition;
We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called
it freedom of expression;
We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and
called in enlightenment.
Search us, Oh, God and know our hearts today;
cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless these men and
women who have been sent to direct us to the center of Your will, to
openly ask it in the name of Your Son, the living Savior, Jesus Christ.
Amen"
The response was immediate. A number of legislators
walked out during the prayer in protest. In 6 short weeks, Central
Christian Church, where Rev. Wright is pastor, logged more than 5000 phone
calls with only 47 negative responses. The church is now receiving
international requests for copies of this prayer from India, Africa and
Korea.
Commentator, Paul Harvey aired this prayer on
"The Rest of the Story" on the radio and received a larger
response to this program than any other he has ever aired. With the Lord's
help this prayer may sweep over our nation and wholeheartedly become our
desire so that we again can be called one nation under God.
What is interesting is not what is said, but that
it is now considered bold and different. This is pretty well what you
heard at nearly every civic function when I was young. It's more
penitential than most were, but there is little in it that would have
excited much comment prior to WW II if said at the opening of a
legislature. Perhaps this is as well. We don't want to offend people.
> With the Lord's help this prayer may sweep over our nation and
wholeheartedly become our desire so that we again can be called one nation
under God
I was rather surprised at your response. The United
States never has been "one nation under God" no matter what the
Pledge of Allegiance might say. The Founding Fathers, many of whom were
Deists rather than Christians, were careful to take steps to prevent the
establishment of a theocracy, which is what the author of this message
seems to advocate. Nehemiah Scudder may yet have his day.
Robert Bruce Thompson thompson@ttgnet.com
http://www.ttgnet.com
Let's take that in order. First, are you
saying that it was not rather usual to have statements like that at public
functions when I was young? I only went to unusual ones? So did Mr.
Heinlein then, since he acquired a lot of his distaste for organized
religion as a result of such experiences (including chapel at Annapolis,
which was compulsory, as it was at West Point). Or do you think Heinlein
found Scudder a sympathetic character?
I take it I have been accused of not being
politically correct.
As to the rest of what you say, the Framers left
religion TO THE STATES. CONGRESS shall make no law respecting AN
ESTABLISHMENT OF RELIGION; a curious wording, no? It was that way to
prevent the Federal Government from establishing any church but also to
prevent the Federal Government from disestablishing the by law established
churches in seven of the thirteen Colonies that became the first 13 States
of the Union. Over the course of time all those churches were
disestablished by state action, and many state constitutions now forbid
established religion, but to argue that the Constitution of the United
States does reads more into the Fourteenth Amendment than those who wrote
it, and those who ratified it, ever intended. For good or ill,
religion is a state matter, and it is only recently that we get emanations
from the penumbras that make it a Federal matter.
I continue my heresy: I think most people ought
to live under laws to which they have consented, and that governments
derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. (Wonder where I
heard that one?) That means that many places will have laws I would not
consent to; but I don't have to live there. If on balance most laws are
acceptable to my neighbors they probably are to me, or I'll get new
neighbors. Federalizing matters ramrods a majority view of what's right
down everyone's throat; that may sometimes act to expand liberty, but
mostly what it does is make those matters the business of the Federal
Government, which can then reverse itself on the subject very easily.
Those who think making a matter the business of the Feds a good idea
because they like what the Feds will do about it this year may discover in
another year that the mood has changed.
I believe in a Federal Republic. I think that if
a state wants to establish a religion it is that state's business, and if
a town wants to have a manger in a public square, or set a menorah up in a
city park, that's up to that town; not to a Federal Court to determine if
it's OK so long as they have a Santa Claus and elves nearby as well. I
didn't mind when the City of Los Angeles used to leave the lights on in
the City Hall Tower in a cross-shape for Christmas and Easter, nor when
the City put up money for Jewish festivals and their security. I wouldn't
on the other hand insist that San Francisco do the same, much less New
York.
I didn't give my view of that prayer, which is that I wouldn't have walked out, but I
doubt I would have voted that man to be the permanent chaplain of the
legislative chamber either. (But then Henry VIII chose Cranmer to be
Archbishop of Canterbury because Cranmer kept the services short....) And
I repeat: what's astonishing is that anyone cares that much one way or the
other. We are a great deal
more correct now. Is this good?
Dr. Pournelle:
I may well be the 3,467th person to mention this,
but the .gif at geek.net~rhayden has been removed, as the AMA sent the guy
a cease-and-desist.
There is no humor left in the world.
I seem to remember a pile of flak when the AMA was
planning to endorse a line of consumer items in return for financial
considerations.
I guess they've repealed the first amendment.
Mark Thompson More
likely they've mislaid their sense of humour. Has anyone seen it? It's not
very large...
Anyone know about this:
Worth a look: http://www.e-gold.com.
Impliments effective micropayments, gold backed
internet currency, four or five years old, $3m in circulation.
Trivially simple setup for a "click here to
send me 25 cents" type micropayments.
Oh yeah: transaction costs are 0.5% of the total,
max $0.50.
Good system. Might even be worth a story.
best,
Vinay Gupta
PS: I don't work for e-gold but I do like them and
their system.
I will indeed look into it. Thanks.
And once in a while I post letters like this because I like
them:
Since I became intrigued by computers I was a light
show artist in the late 60's and early seventies, and read
Ted Nelsons's Computer Lib Dream Machines, I was
fortunate to find your no-nonsense columns on computer technology.
I believe that among the computer industry
columnists your efforts are best due to the plain speaking and down to
earth approach.
I have migrated in the mid eighties to computer
graphics and like the bulk of my peers have found something of the new
world off WWW as a place to build my families college funds.
I just wanted to drop you a note, and say as a
computer user since the TRS-80s, and atari 400's and so on and so on, and
so on It's been great to have your experiments and frustrations to laugh
along with on this extremely bumpy ride.
I teach web construction and system analysis at our
local community college in Homestead, Florida. (MDCC) And if you ever find
your self down east here, I'd like to buy you a cup of coffee. And get you
to address my computer students.
Richard W. Spisak Jr. rick@omalas.com
Omalas? Wasn't that the name of the
odd city in an Ursula K LeGuin story (a very disturbing story)? Or has it
another significance? Thanks for the kind words.
(Clark Myers informs me this is
Salem O(regon) spelled backwards. LeGuin did use the name in one of her
stories, but whether that has anything to do with the domain name is
something else again.
EFFector Vol. 13, No. 2 Mar. 1, 2000 editor@eff.org
A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424
IN THE 150th ISSUE OF EFFECTOR (now with over 23,000 subscribers!):
* 10th Anniversary of USSS Raid on Steve Jackson Games &; Illuminati
BBS + Intro + Background + Links to More Information * Call for
Nominations: The Ninth Annual International EFF Pioneer Awards + Intro +
The Year 2000 Awards + How to Nominate Someone + Past Pioneers of the
Electronic Frontier + About EFF * Administrivia
For more information on EFF activities &; alerts: http://www.eff.org
_____________________________________
10th Anniversary of USSS Raid on Steve Jackson Games &; Illuminati
BBS
Landmark case established limits to police power in Cyberspace
Intro
On March 1, 1990, the United States Secret Service (USSS) nearly
destroyed Steve Jackson Games (SJG), an award-winning publisher of
roleplaying games in Austin, Texas.
Today marks ten years to the day since that fateful search and seizure
operation, which led to one of the most important precedent-setting
lawsuits in online history, the Electronic Frontier Foundation-backed case
of Steve Jackson Games, et al. v. US Secret Service.
"I'm very glad to see that the EFF is still here with us and and
fighting the good fight. Back in 1990, [EFF co-founders] Mitch Kapor and
John Perry Barlow said that this new organization would be in it for the
long haul. After ten years, I think we can see that this's true,"
remarked Steve Jackson on the anniversary of the infamous raid. "The
EFF is a permanent part of the civil liberties landscape. Technology is
changing faster than ever, bringing new opportunities, but new hazards to
freedom and fairness as well. It's good to know the EFF will always be
here when it's needed."
Background
In an early morning raid with an unlawful and unconstitutional warrant,
agents of the USSS conducted a search of the SJG office. They seized and
removed, all in all, 3 computers, 5 hard disks and more than 300 floppies
of software and data, and a book manuscript being prepared for
publication. Among this equipment was the hardware and software of the SJG-operated
Illuminati BBS (bulletin board system). The BBS served as a small-scale
online service for gamers to participate in online discussions and to
supply customer feedback to SJG. The BBS (today, the Internet service
provide Illuminati Online) was also the repository of private electronic
mail belonging to several of its users. This private e-mail was seized in
the raid.
Yet Jackson, his business, and his BBS's users were not only innocent
of any crime, but never suspects in the first place. The raid had been
staged on the unfounded (and later proven false) suspicion that somewhere
in Jackson's office there "might be" a document allegedly
compromising the security of the 911 telephone system.
The Secret Service did not return the equipment, though legally
required to do so and requested to do so many times, until sometime in the
end of June of that year. When the equipment was returned more than three
months after the raid, it became clear that someone at the USSS inspecting
the disks had read and DELETED all of the 162 electronic mail messages
contained on the BBS at the time of the raid. Not one of the users of the
BBS was even under investigation by the Secret Service, and many of the
messages had never even been read by their intended recipients.
In the months that followed the raid, Jackson saw the business he had
built up over many years dragged to the edge of bankruptcy. SJG was a
successful and prestigious publisher of books and other materials used in
adventure role-playing games. Jackson had to layoff nearly half of his
work force. Publication of at least one of his gaming books was delayed,
resulting in loss of revenues to the company. He was written up in
Business Week magazine as being a computer criminal. Jackson decided to
fight back.
On May 1, 1991, Steve Jackson, the Steve Jackson Games company, and
three users of the Illuminati BBS, with the help of the Electronic
Frontier Foundation, filed a civil suit against the United States Secret
Service and some indivdually named agents thereof, alleging that the
search warrant used during the raid was insufficient, since Steve Jackson
Games was a publisher (publishers enjoy special protection under the
Privacy Protection Act [PPA] of 1980), and that the protections against
improper surveillance in the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA)
had been violated with regard to the electronic mail on the system.
ECPA consists of a series of amendments to the federal Wiretap Act. It
prohibits law enforcement officers from intentionally intercepting, using
and/or disclosing the contents of private electronic communications
without a warrant. The statute offers similar privacy protection for
communications that are stored "incidental to the electronic
transmission thereof" (e.g. on the hard drive of a BBS). The users of
the Illuminati board claimed that their unread e-mail required a warrant
specifically describing the messages to be searched. The Secret Service
claimed that no special warrant was required under ECPA - in essence
asking the court for license to go on uncontrolled "fishing
expeditions" through citizens' private communications, in violation
of Fourth Amendment principles. The court sided with Jackson and the other
plaintiffs, berating USSS Agent Tim Foley - on the witness stand - for 15
minutes straight.
According to Mike Godwin, EFF Senior Policy Fellow, "the Steve
Jackson Games case was the first case to underscore the intersection
between civil liberties and the Internet. Our victory in that case sent a
signal to the law-enforcement community that the days of unregulated
searches and seizures of computers, and shut-downs of online publishers,
were over.
The judge's official decision was announced on March 12, 1993. District
Judge Sam Sparks awarded more than $50,000 in damages to Steve Jackson
Games, citing lost profits and violations of the PPA. In addition, the
judge awarded each BBS-user plaintiff $1,000 under the Electronic
Communications Privacy Act for the USSS seizure of their stored electronic
mail. The judge also ruled that plaintiffs would be reimbursed for their
attorneys' fees. Plaintiffs filed an appeal, seeking to hold the USSS
liable for "interception" in addition to "seizure" of
the e-mail, on the grounds that e-mail still "in transit" if it
has not yet been received by its recipients. This clarifying appeal was
not successful, as the appellate court held, on a technicality, that
"in transit" essentially means only "in transit,
momentarily, across communication wires", not "in transit, by
whatever medium, between sender and recipient". But the case remains
a victory, establishing that at the very least, "stored" e-mail
cannot be seized, examined or destroyed with impunity by law enforcement
officers, and affirming, by clarifying the meaning of "in
transit", that e-mail cannot be eavesdropped upon by police as it is
being transmitted from system to system without a proper warrant.
"It's hard to imagine, but the raid on Steve Jackson Games took
place years before the World Wide Web even existed. Ten years may not seem
like much, but it's an eternity in 'Internet time' The SJG case is still
cited as the seminal precedent explaining the Electronic Communications
Privacy Act. It was exciting being a part of it," commented Shari
Steele, then Director of Legal Services at EFF when the SJG case came to
its conclusion. (Steele is presently Co-Director of the allied nonproft
organization Digital Bridges).
Godwin added: "The most important factors in our success in the
case were Steve Jackson's courage and determination, the resolve of Mitch
Kapor and other EFF backers to go the distance, and a excellent and
committed legal team."
Representing the plaintiffs in this suit were Harvey A. Silverglate and
Sharon L. Beckman of Silverglate &; Good (Boston, MA); Eric Lieberman
and Nick Poser of Rabinowitz, Boudin, Standard, Krinsky &; Lieberman
(New York, NY); and James George, Jr. of Graves, Dougherty, Hearon &;
Moody (Austin, TX).
Links to More Information
Steve Jackson Games: http://www.sjgames.com Illuminati Online: http://www.io.com
The Electronic Frontier Foundation: http://www.eff.org EFF's SJG Case
Archive: http://www.eff.org/pub/Legal/Cases/SJG US Secret Service: http://www.treas.gov/usss/
___________________________________
Administrivia
Seeking Pioneers of the Electronic Frontier
Call for Nominations: The Ninth Annual International
EFF Pioneer Awards
Please redistribute this notice in appropriate fora
Intro
In every field of human endeavor, there are those
dedicated to expanding knowledge, freedom, efficiency, and utility. Many
of today's brightest innovators are working along the electronic frontier.
To recognize these leaders, the Electronic Frontier Foundation established
the Pioneer Awards for deserving individuals and organizations.
The Pioneer Awards are international and nominations
are open to all. The deadline for nominations this year is March 15, 2000
(see nomination criteria and instructions below).
The Year 2000 Awards
The Ninth Annual EFF Pioneer Awards will be
presented in Toronto, Canada, at the 10th Conference on Computers,
Freedom, and Privacy (see http://www.cfp2000.org). The ceremony will be
held on the evening of April 6, 2000. All nominations will be reviewed by
a panel of judges chaired by Dave Farber, FCC Chief Technologist and long
time EFF Boardmember, and chosen for their knowledge of the technical,
legal, and social issues associated with information technology.
This year's EFF Pioneer Awards judges are: * Herb
Brody (Senior Editor, Technology Review) * Dave Farber (Chief
Technologist, FCC; Boardmember, EFF) * Moira Gunn (Host, "Tech
Nation", NPR) * Larry Irving (CEO, UrbanMagic.com) * Tara Lemmey
(Executive Director, EFF) * Peter G. Neumann (Principal Scientist, SRI
Intl. Computer Science Lab; Moderator, ACM Risks Forum) * Susan H. Nycum
(Partner, Baker &; McKenzie) * Drazen Pantic (NYU Center for War,
Peace, &; the News Media) * Barbara Simons (President, ACM)
How to Nominate Someone
There are no specific categories for the EFF Pioneer
Awards, but the following guidelines apply: 1. The nominees must have made
a substantial contribution to the health, growth, accessibility, or
freedom of computer-based communications. 2. The contribution may be
technical, social, economic, or cultural. 3. Nominations may be of
individuals, systems, or organizations in the private or public sectors.
4. Nominations are open to all, and you may nominate more than one
recipient. You may nominate yourself or your organization. 5. All
nominations, to be valid, must contain your reasons, however brief, for
nominating the individual or organization, along with a means of
contacting the nominee, and your own contact number. Anonymous nominations
will be allowed, but we prefer to be able to contact the nominating
parties in the event that we need further information. 6. Every person or
organization, with the exception of EFF staff and board members, is
eligible for an EFF Pioneer Award. 7. Persons or representatives of
organizations receiving an EFF Pioneer Award will be invited to attend the
ceremony at the Foundation's expense.
You may send as many nominations as you wish, but
please use one e-mail per nomination. Submit all entries to:
pioneer@eff.org
Just tell us: 1. The name of the nominee; 2. The
phone number or e-mail address at which the nominee can be reached; and,
most importantly, 3. Why you feel the nominee deserves the award;
You may attach supporting documentation in Microsoft
Word or other standard binary formats.
Past Pioneers of the Electronic Frontier
1992: Douglas C. Engelbart, Robert Kahn, Jim Warren,
Tom Jennings, and Andrzej Smereczynski; 1993: Paul Baran, Vinton Cerf,
Ward Christensen, Dave Hughes and the USENET software developers,
represented by the software's originators Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis;
1994: Ivan Sutherland, Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman, Murray Turoff
and Starr Roxanne Hiltz, Lee Felsenstein, Bill Atkinson, and the WELL;
1995: Philip Zimmermann, Anita Borg, and Willis Ware; 1996: Robert
Metcalfe, Peter Neumann, Shabbir Safdar and Matthew Blaze; 1997: Marc
Rotenberg, Johan "Julf" Helsingius, and (special honorees) Hedy
Lamarr and George Antheil; 1998: Richard Stallman, Linus Torvalds, and
Barbara Simons; 1999: Jon Postel, Drazen Pantic, and Simon Davies.
See http://www.eff.org/awards for further
information.
About EFF
The Electronic Frontier Foundation
(http://www.eff.org) is a global nonprofit organization linking technical
architectures with legal frameworks to support the rights of individuals
in an open society. Founded in 1990, EFF actively encourages and
challenges industry and government to support free expression, privacy,
and openness in the information society. EFF is a member-supported
organization and maintains one of the most-linked-to Web sites in the
world.
_____________________________
Administrivia
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