Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83 based; site hound.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxj!houxm!hound!rfg From: rfg@hound.UUCP (R.GRANTGES) Newsgroups: net.news.stargate Subject: Re: Need for Stargate screening? Message-ID: <831@hound.UUCP> Date: Mon, 14-Jan-85 10:00:05 EST Article-I.D.: hound.831 Posted: Mon Jan 14 10:00:05 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 15-Jan-85 01:24:07 EST References: <494@vortex.UUCP>, <702@cbosgd.UUCP> Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ Lines: 31 [.] I guess drivel is in the eye (ear?) of the beholder. I have intentionally not read anything about "Stargate" until now because it sure sounded like it was going to be a lot of drivel. But when I saw a pronouncement from Mark Horton, I figured I better read it. Wish I hadn't. People who want to censor the activities of others always have good reasons for doing so. What is this stuff about the people who pay the bills having the say? Of course that's true. But who are these people? As I understand it, they are we. Each of us has an account with our comp center. Ultimately that account is billed to some other account belonging to some corporation or gov"t agency or whatever. We have an amount authorized for our account over some period of time, like a year. One of our supervisors has approved that amount. We ourselves are intrusted with how we go about spending the account and for what. I know of no manager who wants to closely follow just how each of his/her people are spending their money. As long as we feel we are spending it in worthwhile ways, and as long as our supervision has confidence in our judgement, thenare, in effect, the ones spending the money, not some comp center person who feels overly self important. For myself, I feel that perhaps 10 to 20 percent of my account for usenet and similar activities (e.g., electronic mail, games)(note seemingly strange admixture) is quite reasonable. If someone can cut these costs while preserving the unique facility, swell. Let them do it. If someone wants to change the facility radically, lets examine his/her authority for doing so. Let's let the bill payers speak for themselves, all thousands of them. -- "It's the thought, if any, that counts." Dick Grantges hound!rfg