Re: Ray Just doesn't get it.

[Ray Arachelian <sunder@brainlink.com>]

On Fri, 13 Jun 1997, William H. Geiger III wrote:

> Ray you seem to be missing the point here.

Bzzzt:
 
> Any state issued permit is public record. This includes your drivers
> license and your auto registration.

Should it include your address and phone number?

> It is imperative that in a democracy that the public know who and what the
> state is giving permits to (there whole other issue of wether the state
> should be issuing permits at all but that should be left to another
> thread).

> In a free and open society the public must be able to review the actions
> of its government.

Then we don't live in an open and free society.  Do we have open records
into what the CIA and NSA and such do? etc.?  Very few. 
 
> If Joe Sixpack has run over 20 people because he gets his kicks out of it
> and the DMV still issues him a license the public has a right to know.

But should the public know Joe's phone number and address and date of
birth?  Gee, weren't we screaming this sucks to easily accessible Texas
DMV records a few days ago?

> If the state is going to issue permits on what people can and can not do
> the it is crutial that the public can examine these records to insure that
> the state is not abusing this power.

See CIA comment above.  What of the likes of TRW, and health records?
Should these be open knowledge to anyone who is a credit card agent or
health insurance co?  If it is vital to have this info to keep the
governments in check, why does the government have privacy?  If the
government has privacy, why shouldn't we?  Neither do we, nor the
government have absolute privacy, however, the government controls the
information it deems to keep private.  Why should we not do the same?

Should detailed building plans be made available of all buildings so that
theives can look at them and break into banks more easily?  Perhaps there
are reasons some of these things are available to the public.  Perhaps
there are reasons why not all should be.

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