Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!ucbvax!hoptoad!tim From: tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney) Newsgroups: news.misc Subject: Re: Jonathan Richmond vs. USENET Message-ID: <5999@hoptoad.uucp> Date: 6 Dec 88 05:12:25 GMT References: <33065@bbn.COM> <4355@pbhyf.PacBell.COM> Reply-To: tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney) Organization: Eclectic Software, San Francisco Lines: 21 Does anyone happen to know what offenses Richmond hopes to interest the authorities in? Perhaps unfortunately, the dissemination of anti-Semitic and other racist literature is perfectly legal in the United States, and the only authorities he mentioned were American. In Canada, there are laws against the dissemination of "hate literature"; even there, I doubt that jokes, even stupid, unfunny, offensive and pointless jokes like these, would qualify for prosecution. The press already has most people who've heard of bulletin boards convinced that only white supremacists and child molesters use them; we need this kind of publicity like a hole in the head. It may be time for the racist-joke addicts to lay low temporarily on pragmatic grounds. (I'd prefer permanently, but let's be realistic....) -- Tim Maroney, Consultant, Eclectic Software, sun!hoptoad!tim "The negro slaves of the South are the happiest, and, in some sense, the freest people in the world. The children and the aged and infirm work not at all, and yet have all the comforts and neccessaries of life provided for them." -- George Fitzhugh, CANNIBALS ALL! OR, SLAVES WITHOUT MASTERS, 1857