Computer underground Digest Sun July 6, 2024 Volume 9 : Issue 53 ISSN 1004-042X Editor: Jim Thomas (cudigest@sun.soci.niu.edu) News Editor: Gordon Meyer (gmeyer@sun.soci.niu.edu) Archivist: Brendan Kehoe Shadow Master: Stanton McCandlish Shadow-Archivists: Dan Carosone / Paul Southworth Ralph Sims / Jyrki Kuoppala Ian Dickinson Field Agent Extraordinaire: David Smith Cu Digest Homepage: http://www.soci.niu.edu/~cudigest CONTENTS, #9.53 (Sun, July 6, 2024) File 1--Cap'n Crunch Site Now Moved File 2--Mitnick's computer/wireless ban File 3--DARK SIDE OF FORCE HITS USENET AS STARWARS DISCUSSION BANNED File 4--Common Sense and Cyberspace File 5--If Klingons Developed Software File 6--Re: Purpose of CuD - #9.44, File 7--Creative Writing, Brock Meeks-style File 8--Cu Digest Header Info (unchanged since 7 May, 1997) CuD ADMINISTRATIVE, EDITORIAL, AND SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION APPEARS IN THE CONCLUDING FILE AT THE END OF EACH ISSUE. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 29 Jun 97 14:50 CDT From: Cu Digest Subject: File 1--Cap'n Crunch Site Now Moved Source - TELECOM Digest Thu, 26 Jun 97 Volume 17 :(#164) ((MODERATORS' NOTE: For those not familiar with Pat Townson's TELECOM DIGEST, it's a an exceptional resource. From the header of TcD: "TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu * ======" )) From--John Draper Date--Tue, 24 Jun 2024 20:12:41 -0700 The Cap'n Crunch home page URL has been changed. The new URL is now http://crunch.woz.org/crunch I've made significant changes to the site, added a FAQ based on a lot of people asking me many questions about blue boxing, legal stuff, and hacking in general. The FAQ will be growing all the time, as I go through all the requests for information that many people have sent. "Email me" if you want to add more questions. Our new server is now available to host web sites for anyone who wants to use it for interesting projects. This is for Elite people only, and you have to send me a proposal on what you plan to use it for. I'm open for suggestions, and when you go up to the WebCrunchers web site: http://crunch.woz.org You'll get more details on that. Our server is a Mac Power PC, running WebStar web server, connected through a T-1 link to the backbone. I know that the Mac Webserver might be slower, but I had security in mind when I picked it. Besides, I didn't pick it, Steve Wozniak did... :-) So please don't flame me for using a Mac. I know that Mac's are hated by hackers, but what the heck ... at least we got our OWN server now. I also removed all the blatant commercial hipe from the home page and put it elsewhere. But what the heck ... I should disserve to make SOME amount of money selling things like T-shirts and mix tapes. We plan to use it for interesting projects, and I want to put up some Audio files of Phone tones. For instance, the sound of a blue box call going through, or some old sounds of tandom stacking. If there are any of you old-timers out there that might have some interesting audio clips of these sounds, please get in touch with me. Our new Domain name registration will soon be activated, and at that time our URL will be: http://www.webcrunchers.com - Our Web hosting server http://www.webcrunchers.com/crunch - Official Cap'n Crunch home page Regards, Cap'n Crunch ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 28 Jun 2024 00:55:01 -0400 From: Evian S Sim Subject: File 2--Mitnick's computer/wireless ban Calif. hacker ordered to stay away from computers Copyright 1997 Reuter Information Service LOS ANGELES (June 27, 2024 8:20 p.m. EDT) - A federal judge Friday ordered convicted computer hacker Kevin Mitnick to stay away from all computers, cell phones or software when he is released from prison. U.S. District Court Judge Mariana Pfaelzer said Mitnick is also prohibited from being employed in any job that would allow him to have access to computers without approval from a probation department officer. Mitnick, 33, held in custody since 1995, was sentenced last week to 22 months in federal prison for possessing illegal cellular phone codes and for violating his parole. Mitnick pleaded guilty last year to one count of possession of fraudulent cellular codes that he used to illegally access cellular phone networks. The crime occured while Mitnick was on supervised release for an earlier "hacker" offense. He faces an additional 25-count indictment for alleged computer intrusions and theft of millions of dollars of software during the 2 1/2 year period he was a fugitive. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 22 Jun 2024 18:41:35 -0400 From: Paul Kneisel Subject: File 3--DARK SIDE OF FORCE HITS USENET AS STARWARS DISCUSSION BANNED DARK SIDE OF THE FORCE HITS USENET AS STAR WARS DISCUSSION IS BANNED by tallpaul@nyct.net (Paul Kneisel) Does the right of free speech include the right to cry "Yoda!" in a crowded theater? Does it include the right to publish an risque love story between Princess Leila and a wookie on a crowded Internet? "No," say the UseNet old boys in "group-advice" whose position on UseNet provides them with the de-facto power to block the creation of new news groups by denying those groups the right to formally publish their Request For Discussion document normally needed to create the groups. The pre-publication censorship dispute developed out of an attempt by people around the UseNet "Star Wars" group to reorganize. The group, called or RASS is located in the "Big 8" hierarchy of UseNet and has a proposed subsidiary group called "fanfic" attached. (see Appendix A below) Fanfic is the name given to literature created by fans and modeled on characters, events, and locations mentioned in movies, TV, and the like. It has been especially popular among science fiction affectionadoes. But the forces around UseNet "group-advice" on the global information superhighway have decided that neither you nor anyone else in the world will be able to read any, at least in that part of the Big 8 hierarchy they dominate. David C Lawrence, also known as "Tale," wrote Russ Allbery, Lawrence's associate on "group-advice" "is the moderator of news.announce.newgroups; if you want to create a new newsgroup in the Big Eight, you have to go through him."[1] Lawrence will not officially approve the RASS draft proposal for publication, a process normally required to create the group. "The reason why RFDs for those groups aren't posted is because Tale feels it's in his purview to reject RFDs for groups where the traffic itself would be illegal," Allbery explained. "... Discussion of sex, guns, or illegal drugs is not illegal. Posting fanfiction is."[2] Illegal? Allbery is not a judge or even an attorney. Nor does he appear to be someone who has devoted much time to studying the complex series of legal issues that he and his co-thinkers are using to block the creation of new news groups. We're not talking here about *criminal* behavior like bombing federal buildings, making "kiddie porn," pumping fascist propaganda into Germany, or burning black churches in the U.S. south. Rather, the issue concerns the violation of *civil* law in that class of non-criminal action called "torts." People who violate criminal law go to prison to pay their proverbial "debt to society;" people who commit torts go to their bank to pay monetary damages to the individuals whose civil rights they violated. Allbery argues that fanfic in RASS would violate the property rights of U.S. corporations since Yoda is a trademark of Lucasfilms Inc. The argument follows those previously presented by groups like the Church of Scientology against publication of their trade secrets and copyrighted material on the net. One central difference is that Yoda is well known while the contents of CoS documents are not. Another is that CofS leaders play no major role on the Internet; Allbery and Lawrence do. The Allbery/Lawrence ban of fanfic has an especially broad and chilling character since it also limits publication of purely literary criticism of other fanfic that might have been published off the net in some private hard-copy fanzine. RASS, as the charter indicates, would be open to such literary criticism. But Allbery and Lawrence say "no." It also bans -- before publication -- fanfic on the grounds that it is (or rather would be) illegal. This is an action that even the U.S. Supreme Court has deemed improper when performed by the U.S. government. The Allbery/Lawrence ban thus has a character unsupported -- and indeed condemned -- by the highest court in the United States. In other words, if Lucasfilms themselves went into court to get a pre-publication injunction against RASS they would fail. It doesn't matter. Allbery and Lawrence say fanfic is illegal and they say it's banned. Torts, especially, vary as legal jurisdiction changes. One example is the tort of libel and how different courts define and enforce it. Many countries accept the doctrine of "group libel" where charges that "Jews are dirty" or that "black people smell" are libelous, therefore torts, and therefore the exact category of civilly-"illegal" behavior that Allbery seeks to ban (if only it concerns the alleged property rights of large corporations instead of the breathing-rights of people previously targeted for mass murder.) The notion of group libel has been central to governments seeking to ban certain material from the Internet, as when E. Zundel's "Holocaust Revisionist" web site was shut down or when some German state governments have sought to eliminate fascist material from the net as a whole. And let us not even think of writing about libel laws in Singapore for reasons that we will not even think of writing about. Libel can also occur when unconvicted citizens are accused of criminal behavior like "theft," "hijacking," and "fraud" as Allbery's other political supporters have written about critics elsewhere in -based discussions. Another tort, similar to trademark violation so upsetting to Allbery, is copyright violation. This may occur when copyrighted material in some post to news groups is quoted in a response without the permission of the copyright owner, as occurred when Allbery quoted the copyrighted material by RASS-supporters. UseNet readers also see hate-based material routinely published on the net despite its illegal criminal nature in many parts of the world.[3] Cyherpunks believe that "National boundaries are just speedbumps on the information superhighway." That may be true for Holocaust Revisionism, calls to lynch blacks, publish Church of Scientology documents, or "kiddie porn" from Denmark. It might be true when the speedbumps are created by laws in Germany, Finland, Singapore, China, Iran, or international conventions like those that created the international war crimes tribunals held at Nuremberg 50 years ago. It may be true when people call for the thermonuclear destruction of the Moon of Endor because they don't like teddy bears. It might cover publishing articles that wookies smell bad, that you don't want one of them to move into your virtual.neighborhood, or that they bring down property values of adjacent ISPs. But the opinions of two non-lawyers in have a different view when the dispute is about allegedly violating property rights with a limerick about Jedhi Knights. Damn! And just when I was going to send off a RASS fanfic story about how the Emperor wears no clothes! May the Farce Be With You! APPENDIX A: CHARTER: rec.arts.sf.starwars.fanfic The posting of works of fanfic and discussion of ideas, characterisation, and works in progress. Posts indicating the location of websites archiving fanfic would also be welcome. Constructive criticism of the Fan-fiction posted to the group is welcome, however personal attacks or flames of an author, for whatever reason, will not be tolerated. All fanfiction stories should be tagged with one or more of the following: [EMPIRE] Stories dealing with officers or government officials (namely the Emperor and Darth Vader) of the Galactic Empire, or other stories closely related to the Empire. [NEWREP] Stories that take place after the Battle of Endor that are not primarily about the Empire. [OLDREP] Stories that take place before the rise of the Emperor. [REBEL] Stories based on the officers or leaders of the Rebel Alliance. [ADULT] Stories that include primarily adult situations and might be considered offensive to some people. [author -- JamesG , "PRE-RFD: RASS groups reorg," 11 Jun 2024 18:46, post to et al.] END CHARTER. FOOTNOTES [a] Russ Allbery , "Re: PRE-RFD: RASS groups reorg," 13 Jun 2024 17:48, post to . [b] Russ Allbery , "Re: PRE-RFD: RASS groups reorg," 12 Jun 2024 11:16, post to . [3] see Associated Press, "German High Court Rules Against Jailed American Neo-Nazi," 13 June 2024. "KARLSRUHE, Germany (AP) - Germany's highest court ruled today that a lower court did not violate the rights of an American neo-Nazi by convicting him of disseminating hate propaganda and sending him to prison for four years. "Gary Lauck, once German neo-Nazis' main source of anti-Semitic and xenophobic literature, was convicted by a Hamburg court last August of inciting racial hatred and other counts. "Lauck filed an appeal, arguing his right to free speech had been violated. "But the Federal Constitutional Court, Germany's equivalent of the U.S. Supreme Court, said without comment today it has rejected the appeal." ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2024 11:59:51 +0100 From: "Richard K. Moore" Subject: File 4--Common Sense and Cyberspace This was written more than a year ago, but seem even more timely today, as the consequences of the Telecom Bill have become more widely apparent. Perhaps it would be of interest to CuDigest readers. -rkm ________________________________________________________________ Common Sense and Cyberspace Richard K. Moore 20 March 2024 NOTE: This piece was submitted to a U.S. Senator, at the request of a staff member. -rkm Telecom backgrounder -- what preceded the "Reform" bill ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ What we had under the old Ma Bell monopoly was a vertically- integrated marketplace, where phone-sets, local calls, long distance, and other services, were all obtained from a single vendor. This was not an altogether bad arrangement: under this regime the U.S. telephone system was the envy of the world, and offered top quality product for bottom dollar, by global standards. But there was a problem -- advancing technology had the potential to support new kinds of services, but the business structure of Ma Bell was not appropriate to exploit those opportunities effectively or aggressively. What was needed was _competition_ to stimulate new-market development. But in order to enable competition, there needed to be an appropriate restructuring of the communications industry -- the creation of one or more "playing fields" in which market economics could be allowed to operate -- even while many phone services (eg. local loop) continued to be provided by natural monopolies. The result of this transformation was a brilliant new regime, even though it seemed to dribble out as a series of distinct anti-trust actions. The communications market was divided into a number of layers, with each layer operating as a marketplace in its own right. AT&T kept the long-line layer and the long-distance business (later shared with MCI et al), while the Baby Bells got the regional networks and the local-call business (later to be diluted by cellular). But this was only the beginning. On top of these "commodity backbone network layers" other products and services could be devised and markets developed. Entrepreneurs could develop gadgets to add-on to the network (eg. modems, multiplexers, and in-house switching systems), while other entrepreneurs could resell communications bundled with "value-added" services such as database access, timesharing services, wirephoto distribution, or whatever. The telcos got no "cut" of these value-added businesses, they just got their leased-line rentals: this is what's meant by "layered markets". Out of this entrepreneurial activity evolved the technologies which enabled the Internet, and many other more special-purpose networks, both public and private. Just as the Ma-Bell regime served well to build up America's basic telephone network, so the "layered marketplace" regime has served well to pioneer and develop digital networking. The post-Reform-bill regime - a playground for robber barons ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ But that's all history now -- the new Reform bill has essentially scrapped the whole layering paradigm, and thrown us back into the kind of laissez-faire regime that spawned the Ma Bell monopoly in the first place. Once again, we will see monopoly domination of communications, only now there will be several Majors (as in Oil or Television), rather than one single dominant vendor. And "communications" now includes so much more than phone service -- it subsumes cable and satellite and will serve as the primary distribution channel for films, live entertainment, news, and whatever cyber-experiences Hollywood is able to fabricate. As the Telecom bill wended its way toward enactment, merger-mania swept the media industry as players positioned themselves to participate in the anticipated feeding frenzy. Examples: Westinghouse / CBS Disney / ABC GE / NBC Gulf+Western / Paramount Time-Warner / Turner Now that the bill has passed, we're beginning to see RBOC mergers (eg. SBC and Pacific Telesis), and we'll see many satellite, cellular, and cable operators gobbled up by deeper pockets. Given the Spectrum Auction, we now have a regime where monopolistic control is possible over: - ownership of content (films, live sports, syndicated productions) - access to the home (wires, broadcast, cellular, and satellite) - distribution facilities (wire & satellite backbones) The communications Majors will be integrated conglomerates, with assets distributed between content and infrastructure, and they will fight for market share a bit like airlines or television networks do today. This is indeed "competition", but sterile and unproductive compared to what we had under the layered regime. The Cyber-Baron club -- the masters of our information future -- will be the telecom companies, the cable operators, and news & entertainment conglomerates -- together with the more general corporate community which will be involved through cross-ownership, interlocking directorates, advertising, and underwriting. In other words, cyberspace will be run by more or less the same Corporate Establishment that runs today's news & entertainment industries, which is why I refer to that future environment as Cyberspace Inc. It is abundantly clear from today's television programming what the political landscape of Cyberspace Inc will be: corporate-slanted propaganda in place of news, skillful promotion of laissez-faire globalist agendas, careful management of voter perceptions re/ politicians and elections, and the use of propagandistic entertainment to instill consumerist, pro- corporate values. In other words, Cyberspace Inc, besides delivering monopolist profits to its operators, will accomplish the corporate elite's goal of controlling the public mind and preventing the possibility of genuine democracy. The lost opportunity for democracy - the demise of Internet ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The fact is that digital networking has the potential to connect people in new and exciting ways, and at very low cost. That's what the lesson of Internet is all about. An underlying broadband network is relatively cheap to provide -- modern technology makes it cheaper to provide than was standard phone service only a couple decades ago. The natural course of events would have been for bandwidth to become ever cheaper, and the Internet ever more responsive. The "digital revolution" would have blossomed forth as a flowering of independent media productions (community theater available state-wide?), political organizations, "town- hall" meetings, cross-national hobby groups, etc. ad infinitum. This "people's infrastructure" -- which is what Internet has been rapidly becoming -- will be "cleared from the land" as the cyber developers come to town. The current Internet culture has as much relevance to the media conglomerates as the Red Indians did to the U.S. Calvary and the westward-moving real-estate interests. This whole public-participation phenomenon will be bundled under the heading "public access" and will be relegated to some peripheral, politically impotent corner, like late-night public television is currently. Economically, Internet culture is merely irrelevant to the soon-to- be corporate owners of cyberspace -- they don't need it, but they could permit it and continue to support it if they wanted to. But politically, Internet represents a credible threat to elite corporate hegemony over the American political process. Internet's phenomenal recent growth was threatening to connect _most_ U.S. households and businesses to a free-for- all communications network which could be used for who-knows-what political organizing, mobilizing of boycotts, and for spreading who-knows-where- obtained information about government activities, covert operations, on- site documentary evidence of news-event cover-ups, etc. The threat of net-enabled, PGP-endowed, militia terrorists is a real one, although tracking such operations is not a difficult problem for the likes of the NSA and FBI. But the threat of millions of citizens communicating openly, sharing information, and creating new kinds of political organizations and parties -- this is not a political landscape that the corporate elite desires to tolerate, especially as public dissatisfaction with the political status quo continues to grow apace. Thus we can expect the screws to be tightened on Internet as the commercial "alternative" is geared up to replace it. Seemingly disparate forces are converging on the Internet from all sides. The Christian Coalition provides the public cover for CDA censorship, while the corporate media demonizes the net (eg. Time's Cyberporn article), the Church of Scientology pushes the envelope of over-restrictive copyright, ACTA strikes against the media-enhancement of Internet discourse, the FBI raids various BBS operators, and Newt himself leads the troops for the structural Reform- bill coup that underlies the whole nip-Internet-in-the-bud campaign. Strategy options for politicians ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The safest course for any politician is to simply go along with the corporate steamroller, echo the lies about the Reform bill bringing "increased competition", and queue up to receive a share of the campaign funds available from the industry. Only if a politician REALLY cares about the future of democracy -- and is willing to risk ridicule by colleagues and the media -- would it make sense for him or her to take a responsible position on the nation's communications infrastructure. For such a rare quixotic politician, willing to do battle for democracy, here are my thoughts regarding a regulatory/legislative agenda: I see the central cyber issues as: (1) Beyond CDA: the Bill of Rights (as a whole) and Cyberspace (2) Cyber economics: the monopolist pirate raid on the wired future. re/ (1) ^^^^^^^ I believe that cyber "rights" are a consequence of how cyberspace is "modelled". The corporatist position, which is all but a fait accompli, is that cyberspace is an info-distribution channel like television, and hence has no inherent rights of access, privacy, free speech, etc. -- concerns of children etc. are supposedly central (although we all know that's BS -- what could be more harmful to children than the television trash they're subjected to?). I see the "battle" as making a case that we should look at First Class Mail as the proper precedent for private email, and Public Gatherings as the precedent for email lists & conferences, etc. In other words, we should demand that our standard civil liberties be mapped onto cyberspace appropriately. We're not asking for new rights, simply the proper legal interpretation of existing rights (such as they are). re/ (2) ^^^^^^^ I believe the so-called Reform bill is a modern Enclosures Act -- the theft of the Public Commons by greedy promoters. And this public commons is a grand one indeed, being essentially the central nervous system and perceptual organs of our future society. The law doth punish man or woman That steals the goose from off the common, But lets the greater felon loose, That steals the common from the goose. Anon, 18th cent., on the enclosures. (courtesy of John Whiting) The main problem here is that the public at large understands neither the wonderful potential of cyberspace for "people's networking" (to give it an inadequate moniker), nor the true consequences of the new telecom regime. The public is saturated with a porn-terrorist-hacker image of Internet -- when possibly a majority of messages sent are day-to-day corporate and governmental inter-department mail. And the public is told the Reform act is only to their benefit, with promises of cyber gadgets and virtual entertainment -- with no discussion of what a digital infrastructure _could_ make available to them if it were open and cheap (which the technology should, by rights, provide). It seems to me the first step here is purely educational -- until there's more general understanding of the real issues, it would be pointless to attempt to rouse any sizable constituency around any actions or agenda. We have some natural allies in this field of battle, and ones with significant economic self-interest involved. These include all the small independent operators in the communications, media, and publication industries, together with everyone in public-sector-related businesses (education, municipal governments, etc.). There are also probably some professional associations who would have an identifiable commonality of interests, plus consumer groups and the like. Specific legislative agenda ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 1) Amend the Reform bill to re-instate layered markets, most particularly isolation of the transport layer (wires and spectrum) as a commodity infrastructure. 2) Seek constituency-support among independent operators in the communications and media industries, public- interest groups, and the existing online community. 3) Insure that public-interest groups, government, and independent operators have full and equal access to communications facilities, including the local loop and backbone infrastructure. 4) Keep price-controls in place until and if effective, diverse competition actually occurs in a given market layer. 5) Prohibit cross-subsidies of any kind between the transport and value-added businesses of operators. 6) Apply the precedents of private-communications and public- gatherings to digital communications, and insure that the Bill of Rights is applied to cyberspace as regards privacy, freedom of expression and assembly, and protection against unreasonable search and seizure. ~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~--~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~ Posted by Richard K. Moore - rkmoore@iol.ie - PO Box 26 Wexford, Ireland Cyberlib: ftp://ftp.iol.ie/users/rkmoore/cyberlib | (USA Citizen) * Non-commercial republication encouraged - Please include this sig * * Please Cc: rkmoore@iol.ie directly on forwards & replies * ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2024 12:06:50 -0700 From: Jonathan Hirshon Subject: File 5--If Klingons Developed Software I thought you all might appreciate this -- enjoy :) cheers, JH _____________ Top 10 things likely to be overheard if you had a Klingon on your software development team: 10) "This code is a piece of crap! You have no honor!" 9) "A TRUE Klingon warrior does not comment his code!" 8) "By filing this bug you have questioned my family honor. Prepare to die!" 7) "You question the worthiness of my Code?! I should kill you where you stand!" 6) "Our competitors are without honor!" 5) "Specs are for the weak and timid!" 4) "This machine is a piece of GAGH! I need dual Pentium processors if I am to do battle with this code!" 3) "Perhaps it IS a good day to Die! I say we ship it!" 2) "My program has just dumped Stova Core!" 1) "Behold, the keyboard of Kalis! The greatest Klingon code warrior that ever lived!" ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2024 12:05:50 +0600 From: RHS Linux User Subject: File 6--Re: Purpose of CuD - #9.44, In response to Mike Oar's recent submission as File 5 in #9.44 I'd like to respond. Mike, I have been reading CuD for, I don't know, at least 3 years, and I find many of the articles I read to not be in sync with my personal feelings or beliefs. Some of the people I don't particularily care for and content as well. However, forgive me for being ignorant, but in a way isn't that the point?? The Net is filled with tens of millions [think about that a minute] of people from nearly every country and culture in the world [this too]. I suppose from our protected and (perhaps justifiably in rare situations) self rightious American point of view this is both its curse, and its beauty. To believe even for a moment that as a moderate to heavy Net users that one's fragile sensibilities will not be offended on a regular basis in this environment is naive. To make my point. CuD is a E-Rag that is designed, implemented and effected to present to an interested audience a wide range of views on commonly contraversial issues, it can be used as a way to gain a certian literacy about viewpoints that perhaps you don't share, perhaps after reading some you find you should, or do, but in a different way. To me, this entails the very essence of being a good American, indeed, a good human. To be able to learn and understand other viewpoints so that when we speak, or otherwise offer our own opinions we don't regurgitate what some high school teacher or parent, etc. taught us to say, but speak our own mind based on our own experiences and interactions. Basically, I guess, your note could be considered, in and of itself, to be an affront to free speech. Not because you didn't like Meeks statements, but because you have, in public, berated CuD for carrying articles that you don't personally care for. Much the same that Sen. Exon and friends don't like information being distributed that they do not agree with, or even the US Criminal and Spy orginizations don't like information being distributed in an encrypted format. In the end, nobody really feels hurt that you left the list (nor elated for the most part). It is just another activity that took place, but please try and consider opinions that differ from your own, I'm not telling you to agree with them, or like them, I don't. But as one of my music professors in university said, "I don't care if you like a composer, performer, etc., but it is important to APPRECIATE and KNOW each for what they are." A statement that I try to measure my own literacy against. Thinking about it, wasn't there a statement in the Art of War or somewhere that made a similar remark about knowing your enemies? Thanks, Gerald D. Anderson P.S. Stuff: Please don't respond to the list, as I will most likely not respond again. Also, these of course, represent my personal opinions, nothing else should be interpreted. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Jun 97 01:29:18 -0400 From: Rogier van Bakel Subject: File 7--Creative Writing, Brock Meeks-style Brock Meeks -- that take-no-prisoners cybermuckraker, that gallbladder eruption waiting to happen -- turns out to have a soft spot after all. The object of his affection: a censorious intellectual dwarf from Nebraska called Jim Exon. Without apparent irony, Meeks tells us: > Second, love him or hate him, former Sen. Jim Exon, the father of >the CDA, deserves to be recognized for bringing a legitimate issue to the >national stage. He energized a host of forces, from advocates to industry, >and in the wake of turmoil he left behind, many good things have happened Ah! Talk about Creative Writing! Anyone else care to give Meeks' reasoning a try? How about: "Love 'em or hate 'em, the Ku Klux Klan deserve hugs for bringing to the table the issue of racism and lynchings. (Not to mention the great contribution the group made to the South's economy by purchasing more than its reasonable share of rope and white cotton sheets.)" Hey, this isn't hard at all! Let's see: "Love him or hate him, Jesse Timmendequas, Megan Kanka's killer, made an entire nation face the threat that repeat sex offenders pose to our kids. (Besides, how bad can a guy be who gave tough-on-crime lawmakers the best approval ratings ever?) Three cheers for Jesse!" Perhaps Meeks would like to finish this exercise with Pol Pot and the wonderful boost the Khmer Rouge provided to arms salesmen in South-East Asia; or the once-in-a-lifetime job opportunities senator Joe McCarthy created for non-blacklisted actors and writers. The possibilities are endless. ------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 May 2024 22:51:01 CST From: CuD Moderators Subject: File 8--Cu Digest Header Info (unchanged since 7 May, 1997) Cu-Digest is a weekly electronic journal/newsletter. Subscriptions are available at no cost electronically. CuD is available as a Usenet newsgroup: comp.society.cu-digest Or, to subscribe, send post with this in the "Subject:: line: SUBSCRIBE CU-DIGEST Send the message to: cu-digest-request@weber.ucsd.edu DO NOT SEND SUBSCRIPTIONS TO THE MODERATORS. The editors may be contacted by voice (815-753-6436), fax (815-753-6302) or U.S. mail at: Jim Thomas, Department of Sociology, NIU, DeKalb, IL 60115, USA. 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