Slashdot Mirror
Unabomber Property Up For Creepy Online Auction
coondoggie writes "Ok this is kind of creepy. The US Marshalls Office today said it will hold an online auction of the personal effects of the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski. The auction will run until June 2 and will include personal documents, such as driver's licenses, birth certificates, deeds, checks, academic transcripts, photos, and his handwritten codes; typewriters; tools; clothing; watches; several hundred books; and more than 20,000 pages of written documents, including the original handwritten and typewritten versions of the 'Unabom Manifesto.'"
Identifying people who are interested in this stuff is good, getting them to pay money to identify themselves is genius.
"We will use the technology that Kaczynski railed against in his various manifestos to sell artifacts of his life. [...]" said U.S. Marshal Albert Nájera of the Eastern District of California in a statement.
Grammar nazis are to this community what excrements are to gold.
What do you expect from a government that doesn't care about you, your rights, or the constitution?
So what's the deal? He was hoarding Halloween decorations and stuff too?
Better known as 318230.
I am disturbed by this as well. Unless Ted Kacynkski signed a waiver to allow the government to auction off what can be considered private records, I don't see how the government should be allowed to do this. Selling off other property to pay restitution to his victims, I don't have a problem with.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
No bombs? At least plans?
Fandroids hate facts.
History Channel should start running "American Pickers" and "Pawn Stars" episodes on murderer paraphernalia. Maybe do an episode on the auction from Bin Laden's TV, shawl and porn stash. Lee Harvey O's toybox. Eventually, America's supply side could glut the market.
Gently reply
Too bad the Montana property isn't included. It's in a pretty part of the state.
Why? Please elaborate.
Perhaps I'm trolling, perhaps I'm not.
...too bad CNN has been crying about the Kacynkski auction for 2 WEEKS now.
Not only behind... 2 weeks behind.
Selling off other property to pay restitution to his victims, I don't have a problem with.
What's sad about this is that Kaczynski was the subject of what I'll argue were some pretty wicked and unethical psychological experiments when he was in school - long before he ever became a danger to the world. Some have suggested that these experiments pushed him over the edge.
Making money off a madman/criminal seems wrong.
And by "making money off of a madman/criminal" you mean selling his stuff to pay restitution to his victims, right? I see nothing wrong with that.
When did it become legal to auction of the property of convicted criminals? I understand we lost this right in drug cases, but terrorism now too?
as opposed to spending money preserving the memory and legacy of a madman, which is SO right.
The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
I want the hoodie and cop sunglasses from the famous police sketch.
-- QED
All buyers placed on theorist watch list.
Just buy this terrorist's effects...
Handy rule-of-thumb for would-be fraudsters: avoid using names of famous, infamous, or fictitious people. It makes you rather conspicuous.
Most of these things should have been donated to psychology or criminology school, or similar scholastic endeavor.
Telll me something, exactly how does a government care or not care?
Instead of giving such criminals a name (or worse, a nickname), it's time we start referring to them as "Moron # (sequential number)" and generally not giving them the attention they crave. No more notoriety!
Where its seriously wrong is its a reinforcement of the personification of a villain who has creepy people who idolize this sort of behavior. This shit should have all ended up in a dumpster some place instead of glorified like this. I would think the victims would recoil in horror at being giving money from creeps who idolize this guy and his stuff. It seems like a slap in the face, if the victims need money, shouldn't someone have helped them by now instead of waiting for this creepy auction to bear fruit?
What this says to future psychopaths is hey, you will be famous and even your crap will become valuable like some weird rock star. Its not only creepy, but I think its highly irresponsible behavior on behalf of authorities. Taunting the criminally insane doesn't seem very wise either. What if the next one decides to ratchet the stakes up out of spite and give us all something to really whine about.
Take the Red Pill.
Why? Please elaborate.
AC seems to be entangled with the is/ought problem while riding a high horse ;)
I am disturbed by this as well. Unless Ted Kacynkski signed a waiver to allow the government to auction off what can be considered private records, I don't see how the government should be allowed to do this. Selling off other property to pay restitution to his victims, I don't have a problem with.
As long as you're not a criminal, you don't have to worry about it too much. The government can't take your stuff away and sell it unless you cause them to by, for example, mailing bombs to innocent victims.
None of the items mentioned can be considered private records. Driver's licenses, birth certificates, deeds, and academic transcripts are publicly accessible anyway, even before they become evidence in a criminal trial.
The other items became public information or government property once they were entered into evidence in the court proceedings against him, unless Kaczynski's attorney won a court order to have the evidence sealed or to have the items returned to him - which he didn't.
Putting moderation advice in your
To be honest, some of that stuff is creepy, but his written documents? That's cool, if i could get my hands on them that would be sweet. I love psychology of crazy humans. It's something very intriguing and interesting. Knowing how they function. I'm guessing people like me would buy such documents, and use it to identify other people who might try to do something similar. It is pretty freaky that they are selling his birth certificate
I think it would be awesome to use his driver's license at the liquor store...
I'm using all of my mod points to mod ancient memes down. Please join me.
And would this also apply to Bernie Madoff's possessions?
I don't see a difference. Both should be sold with the proceeds going to the victims or to the government to help defray the cost of keeping them in prison for the rest of their lives.
Obviously if a museum wanted them, they could bid on them.
Why is there an "insightful" mod and why isn't it "-1"? If I wanted insight, I wouldn't be reading
I agree with the poster that scored low. I think the Unabomber is of historical and academic interest, and that his resources should be put into a format to be used by academics who wish to do further research on this historically significant figure. By auctioning off the items to a private party who will gain exclusive ownership rights, we are commercializing the relevant historical documents and restricting who can have access to them. I guess the question is this: do you feel ownership of information about historical figures should be a private property to be bought and sold, or should a figure who impacted society in general have the information about them available in a open source manner - or is there another alternative I did not think about?
Your words make sense, but when you criticise His actions you indeed support the system (which is bad) by not committing yourself to a serious position against the bad,horrible system (because you can just brush that aside for the sake of some leftist ideal like how everyone deserves to live (like glen beck)). You can't separate the good from the bad -- unless, of course, you want to get laid and get paid. The system will appreciate such weakness. The system appreciates the same weakness in the women,children of conquered nations (hint: they are less likely to try to stop Your attempts to 'stabilize' their region and bomb it with Your democracy). Not everyone is okay with being a domesticated dog. Soon, when the population of more 'intelligent people' (i.e., those who are not willing to hand the world over to you excessive progeny) increases, it will no longer be possible for the system that you support to effectively handle dissent individually. When that happens, the human race evolutionary experiment will be complete.
Ok, quick question.
Why are the US Martials auctioning off his property? Doesn't it belong to his estate?
What is a creepy online auction and how does it differ from a non-creepy one?
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Everybody who doesn't agree with the dominant power structure in the US, imperialistic capitalism, and the culture around it, is ultimately "insane". Sane is increasing the control of capitalism and its technology even more - leading to ever-increasing global warming, alienation and isolation, video cameras and the like everywhere and an increasing 1984 surveillance state etc.
Kaczynski got a PHd and was considered something of a math genius. He didn't like the rat race so he moved off to live in a rural area. So did J. D. Salinger and so have others. He just wanted to be left alone in the wilderness, not to be a puppet of modern wage slavery and capitalism, but capitalism's need to valorize itself necessitated the forests of Montana to be cut down, for airplane's traffic to increase more and more over his home and the like. So he mailed out bombs to a Commentary and Weekly Standard writer like David Gelernter, United Airlines president Percy Wood, a Burson-Marsteller executive like Thomas Mosser , timber lobbyist Gilbert Murray and so forth. These people are backed by the violent authority of the corporate-runned state so that they can exploit workers, dominate people and the like, Kaczynski simply used violence against the people he felt (rightly) were trying to interfere and dominate him, backed by the violent authority of the state.
The idle class elite is having the US government kill working people in Colombia, Iraq, Afghanistan and a host of other countries on a daily basis. This is considered good, sane and normal. Kaczynski knocking back at those he felt were forcibly dominating him is considered criminal and insane. Well, I guess its like that old St. Augustine story, the difference between a pirate and emperor is the size of his fleet. Predator drone attacks killing civilians weekly in Pakistan and Afghanistan is OK, Kaczynski maiming miserable pricks like Gelertner, and sleazy PR and corporate executives is "horrible".
One interesting note is why stopped. What happened is he found out there were others who believed as he did. In fact they were even more radical, although less militant. Kaczynski just wants to roll back the powers of the ruling class that have been gained since the Industrial Revolution, John Zerzan wants to roll back before the Agricultural Revolution of 10,000 years ago. While Kaczynski never went that far in ideology, he was certainly more militant than any of these people. I guess the logging and airline companies picked the wrong guy to log around and fly over.
Personally, I don't think Kaczynski is that great of a writer, you're better off reading some other primitivist literature to get an idea of what they're about. Much of it is by primitivists for primitivists, so even then it can be unintelligible if you're not steeped in it. Zerzan went from the 1960's Marxist left to a rejection of Marxism and into primitivism and anarchism. So you kind of need to be familiar with much of the Marxist canon, as well as the anarchist and primitivist canon, to really understand what he is saying. And how many people have that? Thankfully, *you* are a normal American, paying taxes so Predator drones can go kill people in rural Asia, not a crazy like Kaczynski who just wanted to live in the woods in peace.
You've clearly never signed up for something with a fake name. Today's CS reps, even government staff, are so freakin' ignorant, they actually believe any name you give them.
I've a few friends who get a kick out of doing just that, registering phones, government services, and in one epic stunt a complete set of ID using celebrity or made-up names including:
- Pablo Escobar
- Cosmo Kramer
- LaToya Jackson
- William Shatner
- Tony Montana
- Travis Bickle
- Buck Futter
- Ron Jeremy
- Charles Manson
Whether you attribute these slip-ups to apathy or cultural differences, the fact remains that it is too damned easy to fake one's identity. Your friends will get a chuckle, but no respectable public servant would dare challenge a funny name on your driver's licence - well, except maybe a cocky police officer, but hey I did say "respectable"...
-Billco, Fnarg.com
What I think is that this douche is not an historical figure. He's a plain-old contemporary criminal, though famous. Nothing more, nothing else. His shit is of no value outside criminal records and the sensationalist press. The content of his papers can be digitalized and the actual papers burned. Nothing of value is lost. If someone wants to make a buck out of that crap, and someone is crazy enough to pay for it... they're all welcome to it.
Perhaps I'm trolling, perhaps I'm not.
Not so much for itself, as for a font I would like to offer to the world for filling in any IRS forms.
Hmm. Perhaps someone has already done this, based on published exemplars?
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
The violence can not be discounted or ignored but this man did have some very valid concerns and had a certain value to society. At the very least we can agree that he consumed very few resources in his personal life and we must admire that part of him.
This is another individual that may need confinement but should be given study tools and allowed to progress as best he can in his mental activities. He might be able to teach us all a bit and at the very least we do need to understand that people with very special abilities sometimes jump the rails and crash hard. We need not show disrespect for the man, only for his crimes.