Re: "Protect the children" as passphrase to Constitution

[Duncan Frissell <frissell@panix.com>]

At 05:35 PM 8/10/95 -0700, Timothy C. May wrote:

>Now clearly this strategy will be welcomed by many. It's hard to argue
>against children and against the "protection of children." Arguing the
>Constitutional side is tough when "the children" are at issue. 

I don't know, I find it pretty easy.  All you have to do is say "The
Slickster thinks that kids should be able to get government condoms and
government abortions at will and should be able to copulate with abandon --
so what's a few cigarettes?"  I thought Heillary said that children had a
right to sue their parents?  If the children's rights movement wants all of
the above, it has to allow them to smoke and avoid vaccinations as well.  If
it's wrong to interfere with kids' autonomy in sex and litigation, than it's
wrong to interfere with their autonomy in guns and smokes.

I always say that I want to reduce State power "for the children."  Putting
a really commie-liberal accent on the phrase.  It bugs the opposition.  It's
a null argument since you can argue in favor of anything "for the children."

During the '92 campaign, Clinton said "I wake up every morning and worry
about your children."  I said in one of my .sigs, "Please don't worry about
my children because if you do you might feel compelled to do something about
them and the ensuing fire fight could cause substantial collateral damage in
the neighborhood."

>The potential crypto relevance? Look for arguments about limiting access to
>strong crypto to be more heavily focussed on "pedophiles" and
>"pornographers." Look for calls to have a national I.D. card--which serves
>many State-needed purposes (and I don't mean in terms of Revelations). A
>national I.D. card could then be tied in to GAK/escrow systems.

The current national ID push is for illegal immigration control purposes.
The last national ID push was under the Health Security Act.  They are
certainly anxious to get internal passports, aren't they.  Luckily, as long
as other nations within our passport control zone (like Canada and Mexico)
don't have national ID cards, they will be easy enough to dodge for non work
purposes.

The Jordan Commission recommendations (calling for SS#/True Name matches as
a condition for employment) can be defeated by a direct action program of
publishing valid SS#/True Name matches.  If you get enough valid pairs out
in the public domain (still legal to do), illegal aliens and citizens who
prefer not to participate in the system can use them.  That would corrupt
the control system.

I need practice with HTML forms and databases.  Perhaps that would be a good
project.  Writing a simple form to collect and store SS#/Name submissions
from the general public.

DCF

"Government is not healthy for children and other living things."