As far as gun-control arguments go, I've always found the "Yeah, but should private citizens be allowed to own nukes?" straw-man to be particularly specious.
If I own my own nuke, you and what army are going to take it away from me?:-)
See the link in my reply to Bruce. It's odd how the ACLU takes such a strong (albeit relatively secret) stand on an issue unrelated to the charter most of their members signed up for.
... some folks consider owning guns to be a civil liberty, while the ACLU, for their part, doesn't want anyone except the government to own guns. See this link on their site, for example. Amusingly, you won't find "Gun Control" to be one of the topics on their front-page "The Issues" list.
I don't recall asking the ACLU for their opinion on gun control. Once they have conquered all of the threats to the First Amendment in our society, then, and only then, should they consider themselves free to use their members' contributions to denounce and distort the Second.
This is why I'm a member of the EFF, but not the ACLU.
You're saying "No one is going to think what these guys did was wrong, really." That isn't true. I've spent a couple of hours over on alt.video.dvd trying to convince people that DeCSS is more than just an electronic lockpick.
With the MPAA and CCA throwing around terms like "piracy," "copyright violation," and "theft," it's pretty clear that the geeks have lost control of the relevant memes. In assuming that the rest of the world sees through their rhetoric, you couldn't be more wrong.
I worked with Richard Garriott at Origin back in the halcyon Apple ][ days (was lead programmer on Ultima V, actually), and I remember grousing about the androgynous white guy on the U4 box cover. The official Origin position, established by no less a personage than L.B. Himself, was that they didn't want to alienate anyone. They wanted any Ultima player, male or female, buff or otherwise, to be able to see him/herself in the Avatar's guise.
My argument was that by going with the long-haired epicene dweeb look, they were actually guaranteeing that practically no one would identify with the character.
So in a sense, I guess I'm putting my 2 cents in favor of portraying player-character figures as heroic, sensual archetypes, of one gender or the other. Of course, I lost this argument back in '87, and I fully expect to lose it now.:-)
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As far as gun-control arguments go, I've always found the "Yeah, but should private citizens be allowed to own nukes?" straw-man to be particularly specious.
:-)
If I own my own nuke, you and what army are going to take it away from me?
-- jm
See the link in my reply to Bruce. It's odd how the ACLU takes such a strong (albeit relatively secret) stand on an issue unrelated to the charter most of their members signed up for.
... some folks consider owning guns to be a civil liberty, while the ACLU, for their part, doesn't want anyone except the government to own guns. See this link on their site, for example. Amusingly, you won't find "Gun Control" to be one of the topics on their front-page "The Issues" list.
I don't recall asking the ACLU for their opinion on gun control. Once they have conquered all of the threats to the First Amendment in our society, then, and only then, should they consider themselves free to use their members' contributions to denounce and distort the Second.
This is why I'm a member of the EFF, but not the ACLU.
-- jm
You're saying "No one is going to think what these guys did was wrong, really." That isn't true. I've spent a couple of hours over on alt.video.dvd trying to convince people that DeCSS is more than just an electronic lockpick.
With the MPAA and CCA throwing around terms like "piracy," "copyright violation," and "theft," it's pretty clear that the geeks have lost control of the relevant memes. In assuming that the rest of the world sees through their rhetoric, you couldn't be more wrong.
I worked with Richard Garriott at Origin back in the halcyon Apple ][ days (was lead programmer on Ultima V, actually), and I remember grousing about the androgynous white guy on the U4 box cover. The official Origin position, established by no less a personage than L.B. Himself, was that they didn't want to alienate anyone. They wanted any Ultima player, male or female, buff or otherwise, to be able to see him/herself in the Avatar's guise.
:-)
My argument was that by going with the long-haired epicene dweeb look, they were actually guaranteeing that practically no one would identify with the character.
So in a sense, I guess I'm putting my 2 cents in favor of portraying player-character figures as heroic, sensual archetypes, of one gender or the other. Of course, I lost this argument back in '87, and I fully expect to lose it now.
-- jm
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