Re: Cryptography banned in the Netherlands....

[dmandl@panix.com (David Mandl)]

>> I have always thought that the Netherlands was a very liberal country.
>> But now the government is proposing a law that totally outlaws the use
>> of encryption methods.
>
>Actually, these are quite consistent.  Much of the ``liberal'' agenda
>relies on government, whether to impose taxes to support welfare, or to
>enforce political correctness, or whatever.  But the continued
>effectiveness of government (and other large institutions) is threatened
>by strong cryptography.
>
>        John E. Kreznar         | Relations among people to be by
>        jkreznar@ininx.com      | mutual consent, or not at all.

Right, as opposed to conservatives, who are happy to have people "threaten
the effectiveness of government and other large institutions."  So, among
"liberals" we can include Reagan, J. Edgar Hoover, Joe McCarthy, and Nixon,
all of whom took some pretty extreme steps to silence critics of
"government and other large institutions," up to and including political
assassinations.  Tell CISPES (Committee in Solidarity with the People of El
Salvador) that the hundreds of break-ins and phone taps by the FBI in the
mid-80's were intended to make sure that the former didn't increase the
effectiveness of the U.S. government too much.

Refresh my memory: which country has been destroying lives and seizing
millions of dollars' worth of private property for over a decade in a
fascistic "War on Drugs"?  In which country can people buy, sell, and smoke
pot openly without police harrassment of any kind?

Which "politically correct" president forbade a Canadian filmmaker who made
a film critical of the U.S. government to show that film here unless it had
the label "Propaganda" attached to it?

I'm no lover of "liberals" (though for very different reasons from you, to
be sure), but this is utter nonsense.  Do people really believe this stuff?

--
Dave Mandl
dmandl@panix.com