Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!gatech!mcnc!wolves!ggw From: ggw%wolves@cs.duke.edu (Gregory G. Woodbury) Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk Subject: Re: I have here.. Message-ID: <1990Nov4.035527.20292@wolves.uucp> Date: 4 Nov 90 03:55:27 GMT References: <1990Oct31.210211.7436@lavaca.uh.edu> <1990Nov1.035026.28575@wolves.uucp> <15685@paperboy.OSF.ORG> <1990Nov1.165809.19604@ccad.uiowa.edu> Organization: Wolves Den UNIX and Usenet node Lines: 50 X-Checksum-Snefru: 16ef66cf c637aca4 7ab2ce0c ced757cb Scorecard: JET J. Eric Townsend @ karazm.math.uh.edu GGW Greg Woodbury (me) %wolves@cs.duke.edu MB Mark Brown @ tonic.osf.org EM Ed McGuire @ ccad.uiowa.edu JET: >I have here a list of 214 individuals on USENET who are admitted system GGW: If this is your idea of a joke, go crawl in bed with Joe GGW: Abernathy of that area of the country. GGW: If this is even halfway serious, triple the punishment. MB: Some folks just have *no* sense of humor, or even irony. EM: Or history, for that matter. Commentary by GGW: I caught quite quickly the stylistic references to Senator McCarthy (and his young lawyer assistant Richard Nixon!) and JET's neat satire. In a different context (or even in a different mood) I would think it quite hilarious, since I am no great respecter of conventions myself. The historical reference is PRECISELY why I did not find this particularly funny or amusing. A lot of people I respect and admire were hurt and almost destroyed by McCarthyism; a fair number of people I know and admire have been injured and almost destroyed by modern equivalents. Whether it is the Secret Service raiding SJG, harrasing Len Rose; or if it is AT&T working with various agencies in Operation SunDevil; or whether it is Jesse Helms and his ilk attempting to impose their narrowminded views on the rest of us, I will object and complain. JETs article is fine satire, but it strikes a particulary raw nerve and prompted a very pointed flame. I will appologize for the roughness of the response, but to me the original was in very bad taste. I also am quite sure that JET finds being classed with Joe Abernathy just as distasteful, and that I also apologize for. (Even after 10 minutes of cooling off, I want to send this. I can see that several people besides me were offended in some manner by JETs comments. Humor, by its nature, is basicly offensive, in this case, and with this person, it just rubs me wrong.) -- Gregory G. Woodbury @ The Wolves Den UNIX, Durham NC UUCP: ...dukcds!wolves!ggw ...mcnc!wolves!ggw [use the maps!] Domain: ggw@cds.duke.edu ggw%wolves@mcnc.mcnc.org [The line eater is a boojum snark! ]