-- that guy was mousetrapped, basically. That was a debacle! Who
was briefing that guy? Are they utterly unaware? How on earth
could they miss the fact that Clipper and Digital Telephony are
violently detested by every element in this community -- with the
possible exception of one brave little math professor this high?
Don't they get it that everybody from Rush Limbaugh to Timothy
Leary despises this initiative? Don't they read newspapers? The
Wall Street Journal, The New York Times? I won't even ask if they
read their email.
That was bad politics. But that was nothing compared to the
presentation by the gentleman from the NSA. If I can do it without
losing my temper, I want to talk to you a little bit about how
radically unsatisfactory that was.
I've been waiting a long time for somebody from Fort Meade to
come to the aid of Dorothy Denning in Professor Denning's heroic and
heartbreaking solo struggle against twelve million other people with
email addresses. And I listened very carefully and I took notes and I
swear to God I even applauded at the end.
He had seven points to make, four of which were disingenuous,
two were half-truths, and the other was the actual core of the
problem.
Let me blow away some of the smoke and mirrors first, more
for my own satisfaction than because it's going to enlighten you
people any. With your indulgence.
First, the kidporn thing. I am sick and tired of hearing this
specious blackwash. Are American citizens really so neurotically
uptight about deviant sexual behavior that we will allow our entire
information infrastructure to be dictated by the existence of
pedophiles? Are pedophiles that precious and important to us? Do
the NSA and the FBI really believe that they can hide the structure of
a telephone switch under a layer of camouflage called child
pornography? Are we supposed to flinch so violently at the specter
of child abuse that we somehow miss the fact that you've installed a
Sony Walkman jack in our phones?
Look, there were pedophiles before NII and there will be
pedophiles long after NII is just another dead acronym. Pedophiles
don't jump out of BBSes like jacks in the box. You want to impress
me with your deep concern for children? This is Chicago! Go down
to the Projects and rescue some children from being terrorized and
recruited by crack gangs who wouldn't know a modem if it bit them
on the ass! Stop pornkidding us around! Just knock it off with that
crap, you're embarrassing yourselves.
But back to the speech by Mr. Baker of the NSA. Was it just me,
