Re: UMich student arrested for rape story

["Richard F. Dutcher" <rfdutcher@igc.apc.org>]

> 
> The July `94 issue of Harper's described the case of a Menlo Park city 
> employee who claimed in 1993 to be harassed by some paintings of female nudes
> hanging in a hallway. The city removed the paintings the following day. It
> used to be that when the majority of people in some state/county/town 
> disapproved of some instance of expression, they could suppress it. This was
> bad. Nowadays, it takes just one zealot to suppress it. This is much worse.
> As far as I can see, anyone can claim to be harassed/threatened/offended by
> just about anything, and get away with it.  Just the other day, I heard that
> in Vermont (or was it New Hampshire ?), they're still talking seriously about
> an amendment to the state constitution against burning the U.S. flag. Between
> the censors on the left and the censors on the right, there's precious little
> room remaining for those of us in the middle who believe in tolerating
> divergent views.
> 
Toleration of divergent views is not one of those issues that breaks 
out well along left-right polarities.  E.g., Andrea Dworkin's closest 
aliies on porn are on the xtian right, not among her fellow radical 
feminists [contrary to the image promoted in some mass media].  
Threats to Catcher in the Rye in libraries are far more common than 
incidents like the one in Menlo Park.

> > Violence against women is too real, 
> 
> Strongly agreed, but a newsgroup article is not an act of violence.
> 
Legally, that's a question yet to be resolved.

In any case, this is hardly cyrpto-related.  I would far rather lurk 
as the mathematicians discuss factoring.  I learn more [even if I 
only get one word in three :-]


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Rich Dutcher, San Francisco Greens
P.O. Box 77005, San Francisco, California 94107 USA

"That's libertarians for you - anarchists who want police protection from their slaves."
                          Kim Stanley Robinson, "Green Mars"

Greens, of course, only enslave plants - so weed-whackers work better than cops ...
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