RE: Please post to the list

["Schmehl, Paul L" <pauls () utdallas edu>]

-----Original Message-----
> From: ratel [mailto:ratel () mailvault com] 
> Sent: Saturday, November 23, 2002 4:01 PM
> To: full-disclosure () lists netsys com
> Subject: RE: [Full-disclosure] Please post to the list 
>
> I didn't say disconnect from the internet, I said don't 
> leave anything you really value on boxes you connect to 
> the internet. As I said, it's all a tradeoff; surely it's 
> within your power to encourage compartmentalization at 
> least a little bit.

Encourage?  Yes.  Change?  Possibly.  But we *have* to have things of
value exposed to the Internet.  After all, the students can't register
online if we can't allow them to access the data online.  We just have
to do the best we can to make it as secure as we can.

> Speaking of stomach acid, I have reason to distrust IRC 
> so profoundly I won't touch it unless I'm personally logging 
> in from a completely separate and clean laptop that doesn't 
> have even one byte of my real information on it. Is all the 
> trouble really worth it to me? yes.  Would I be arrogant and 
> foolish enough to start issuing dares to people I don't know 
> about how secure I am? You must be out of your mind. As long 
> as you're connected to the internet at all you're running a 
> risk. You make the informed choice about how much risk to take, 
> you live with it. We're all in the same boat in that respect.

I don't use IRC or ICQ at all.  Won't touch it.  I consider it the
"badlands" of the Internet.

> I don't know what kind of jobs you've had--but can't you 
> imagine that seeing some serious corruption and rot in your 
> own sector and not speaking out against it (or trying to 
> counter it in some way) would have the distinct possibility 
> of leaving an incredibly bad taste in your mouth? I just 
> can't accept the idea that we're somehow obliged to check 
> our critical faculties and values at the door in the name 
> of getting a paycheck. 

Within my sphere of influence, I speak out constantly, many times to the
irritation of my superiors.  But many of the things you speak of, I am
not knowledgeable of.  I will not speak out simply because I fear
something may be true.  If I find out that it's true, *then* I *will*
speak out.

> That's what most Germans under Hitler said. That's what the 
> Chinese under Mao said, that's what the Russians said under 
> Stalin said. I could sit here all night listing historical 
> examples of people who said that.

Well, you can certainly make it *sound* scary with such hyperbole.  I
don't think the situation in America is nearly as scary as you'd like to
think.  Never attribute to cunning and craftiness what can easily be
explained by greed and clumsiness.

> However, that's not what the Founding Fathers said. Nor any 
> of the other people I respect most.

They spoke out against a clear and obvious injustice.  And are you aware
that less than 10% of the population fought in the Revolutionary War?
The rest sat idly by, in what we would today call apathy, or actively
helped the British.  It doesn't take a majority to have a revolution.
It only takes a committed minority.  And the circumstances of a man's
life will often dictate his actions, many times to cries of "traitor" or
"apathetic" from those who are committed to a cause.

> And I will vote my conscience on the issues.  It is for others to
crusade > on issues that inspire them.  I crusade on the ones that
inspire me.

> As long as you're doing something. I've just come to the point 
> where I feel like I haven't been doing enough.

I don't just vote.  I harrass others until they vote too.  And I argue
constantly for my POV, even with those who vehemently oppose it.  Isn't
that what it means to be an American?

> Irrelevant to your job, maybe, but I have a feeling one of these 
> days sometime soon it's going to become all-too-apparent why it's 
> not irrelevant to your life.

I used to be in to all that conspiracy stuff, the Bilderbergers and the
Council on Foreign Relations, One World Government and all the rest.
Then I came to my senses.  Life is a spiritual battle, not a physical
one.  You waste your time fighting the flesh.  It distracts you from the
real issues of life.

> But will the institutional structures coming into place in the 
> form of the Department of Homeland Security, the Patriot Act, 
> Palladium etc. give them the upper hand? 

No, because the wisdom of this nation is the structure that keeps those
things from happening.  It's worked for over 225 years.  Have faith.

> Someone once said fascism is a condition where laws succumb to 
> lawlessness in favor of the power of the state. If they keep 
> chipping away at the Constitution and rule of law, that's 
> exactly where we're headed.

Life is a pendulum.  It swings one way for a while, and then it swings
back the other way.  You have nothing to worry about.

But this has little to do with a full disclosure list now, so I'll stop
responding here.

> Oh well, it's a start. 
> http://www.lp.org

BTDT.  Even vote for some of them.

Paul Schmehl (pauls () utdallas edu)
TCS Department Coordinator
The University of Texas at Dallas
http://www.utdallas.edu/~pauls/
AVIEN Founding Member 
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