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Gasp!

I've just spent 3 hours catching up on sci.crypt here (slow reader I
guess) and I really have to put out a few comments too.  First, let me
flame the famous Dave S. : He's obviously only 10 years old.  Cut him
some slack. :^}

The joke about Clinton/crypto/drugs slammed me thru the roof.  Nice job
guys!  I've been working on marijuana legalization for over 5 years
now, Clinton's actions so far have really helped.  But because of
government action taken against various other groups, I have developed
a 64 bit DES based on public literature to protect my mailing list.
The S-boxes are the critical component, and since I chose 32 out of 57
based on the key, cracking this DES is going to tough.  (The reason it
slows you down a touch is that for each key you try you need to use a
different set of s-boxes, I know it's only a vector, but it sure makes
random search a pain).  Several marijuana legalization groups have had
their mailing lists confiscated when people were charged with drug
use/sales.  It's not a crime to be a member of a legalization org,
*but* you will be watched.

It really is important to write a letter to every official you
personally vote for to explain *why* your privacy is being destroyed by
the "cripple chip".  Amazingly enough they do listen when they get
*enough* mail.  The Doonsbery jokes about NRA postcards are real, and
the IMI (Illinois Marijuana Initiative) has grown to the point where we
*are* seeing some changes.

It's pretty clear that all the hullabaloo is really about the
implimentation decision being made behind our backs.  As Vesselin
points out, this was common practice in communist regimes (and may be
again depending on how the vote goes).  But just as criminals have guns
and "law abiding" citizens don't, and criminals like me have marijuana
and "law abiding" subjects don't, criminals like me will have secure
crypto while "law abiding" robots don't.  PGP is nice, but as time goes
on we all can do better.  And to save our hides we will.

Someone posted an excerpt from Machiavelli.  He's my favorite dude.
500 years ago he saw clearly how people *are*, and tried to explain
that to "princes" who wanted people to *obey*.  One section not quoted
(I've got "The Prince" at home, so I'll just paraphrase :) ) had to do
with conquring a free city.  The only way is to *completly destroy*
it.  Failing that, you must appoint locals to high positions and accept
the people's customs.  Even after 100 years of oppression, a people
will remember their heratige and rise up to overthrow the oppresive
government.  And he gave an example.  And that was 300 years *before*
Thomas Jefferson.

There were questions about watching traffic.  Only *interesting* traffic
is watched: stuff that goes overseas and comes back; stuff with keywords
like marijauana, cryptography, NSA;  certain individuals who are known
subversives, etc.  It is easy enough to store all that traffic.  So if
you know how to be *subversive* i.e. how to be unseen, it's pretty easy
to go unnoticed for a long time.  The stronger your crypto system and the
less you're noticed, the better your chances of developing an organization
which can diseminate truth to the masses.

Which gets me to the thread about a "public encrypted conference".
That's just silly.  The first thing the feds do is send in an
infiltrator (like Dave S.) and they know what you're doing.  It will be
fun for teenagers and college students, but for the real world it's
pretty pointless.  Crypto is useful for more things than hiding where
you get your marijuana.

Guns, drugs and crypto do have some commonality: there are people in
government who want you to *obey* their rules.  As Lundquist says in
alt.drugs "Live free or don't".  Machiavelli pointed out that's just
how most people actually live, inspite of appearences to the contrary.
It's true that the decision to shove the clipper (not the same thing as
Intergraph's!!!) down our throats violates the principles of what the
U.S. was founded on, but the government is full of idiotic robots
called bureaucrats and there's less to worry about than one might
think.  Only really innocent (read naive) subjects of the U.S. will be
hurt by this, the rest of us *criminals* will live in secure freedom.
de Toqueville pointed out 150+ years ago that the tyranny of the
majority will be mitigated by the mediocrity of the government.

And given what I see government officials doing where I work (Argonne
National Lab.) the level of stupidity makes Dave S. look smart.

Patience, persistence, truth,		work: dvader@hemp-imi.hep.anl.gov
Dr. mike				home: mrosing@igc.org

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