Hope is an obligation.

"I'm from the government, and I'm here to help you recover your keys."
Inspired by a remark of Jim Ray (liberty@gate.net).

The net interprets Congress as system damage and routes around it.
With apologies to John Gilmore.

Anarchy doesn't mean "no rules"; it means "no ruler".
A saying of Jef Poskanzer.

How the world works isn't a secret.

"Our greatest fear is that the Internet will become a vehicle of free distribution of information."
- Ken Wasch, president of the Software Publishers Association
Several people have asked me about this one. The quote appeared in the Wall Street Journal of either 9/6/95 or 9/7/95, in an article concerning the status of copyright online.

"The information superhighway is a revolution that in years to come will transcend newspapers, radio, and television as an information source. Therefore, I think this is the time to put some restrictions on it." - U.S. Senator James Exon (reported by Peter Lewis in the New York Times)

Clipper: Just Say No - as many times as it takes.
This one was prompted by the Clinton administration's "Son of Clipper" proposal - or maybe it was "Clipper Strikes Again" or "Mutant Teenage Bride of Clipper". It's hard for me to keep all the trial balloons straight.

"Well, I mean, to answer your question, I mean, encryption is - the political equivalent of encryption is you ask me a question, I give you an answer and you don't understand it. I mean, I intentionally garble the answer frequently. I intentionally garble the response so that you can't understand what I'm saying. And that's - you notice that I've got the ability to do that." - Sen. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska (reported by Wired News)
Uh, yeah, Senator, we certainly do notice that.

"The Internet is a challenge to the sovereignty of civilized states and nations to decide what is appropriate and decent behavior." - Rep. Bob Goodlatte of Virginia (reported by Associated Press, August 28, 1997 11:22 a.m. EDT)
Watch C-SPAN for a few hours and then tell me you want these people deciding "what is appropriate and decent" for us all. (For that matter, watch the government in the ugly totalitarian regime of your choice and then tell me etc.) Most of these quotes just amuse me, but this one I find outrageous: just who does Goodlatte think he is?

What part of "make no law" don't you understand?
An homage to the memory of the first amendment to the United States constitution, a document to which most of Congress apparently needs its attention called.

What part of "shall not be infringed" don't you understand?
Ditto, except for the number of the amendment. I could probably do two dozen of these and they'd all be ironically topical. Sometimes I despair of this country.

"Like it or not we're a free society because we control the behavior of our citizens." - Patrick Trueman, director of governmental affairs for the American Family Association (quoted in the Netly News)

"Stop thinking about it as the Information Highway and start thinking about it as the marketing superhighway. Doesn't it sound better already?" - Don Logan, CEO of Time, Inc.
God in heaven.

Jeanne A. E. DeVoto jaed@jaedworks.com