Re: Michigan First With A Law That Could Outlaw VPNs

Hi Nick,

[This was going to be an incisive, thoughtful relpy, but I got distracted and lost all my work on that prior to sending . . . ]

Re: " . . . the intent of the law is not to eliminate NAT in general, and no prosecutor would use it that way, if they even understood NAT."

1. "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions."
2. Intentions don't matter. Outcomes do.
3. Police and prosecutors don't benefit themselves by being fair and open-minded. They do by pandering to people's baser instincts for conformity, safety and revenge. Judges hang out with them and affiliate with them. No wonder they think and act like them.
4. Law doesn't come from law books. It's what you come out of the courtroom with: rulings by judges, and the juries they instruct. (see #3).
5. In the struggle between security and freedom, security always wins in the end.
6. Americans finally have so much power relative to the rest of the world, that they can do whatever they want to, whenever they want to, to anyone they want to. And they use it. Why? Because they can.

Re: "Talking about it here won't change much, though."

"In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. They came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up."

• Martin Neimoeller

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• Original Message ----- From: "Nick Holland" <nick@holland-consulting.net> To: "Misc @OpenBSD" <misc@openbsd.org> Sent: Monday, 2003 March 31 19:29 Subject: Re: Michigan First With A Law That Could Outlaw VPNs

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