poli-sci (07/30/82)
>From JoSH@RUTGERS Thu Jul 29 17:42:49 1982 Poli-Sci Digest Fri 30 Jul 82 Volume 2 Number 158 Contents: Habib and Bechtel (2 msgs) Elections (3 msgs) Mit area announcement Read on, Scarecrows Gun Ban in Frisco Anarcho-Propertarian Science Fiction ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 27 July 1982 08:32-EDT (Tuesday) From: K. Shane Hartman <Shane at MIT-XX> Subject: [BECHTEL: WDOHERTY at BBNG] [And to think that we used to worry about division of church and state...] (1) Considering that some of the best (in some sense) negotiators in the past have been drawn from the ranks of business, I see no particular evil in a man's being employed. The academe rarely provides effective negotiators [my opinion]. (2) Habib's involvement with Bechtel was *not* related to the middle east as the NY Times article stated. No particular reason for suspecting conflict of interest on Habib's part. (3) Habib was recalled from retirement (he has suffered 3 or 4 heart attacks). He has been serving as a special envoy *without* pay for the last month (his combined salaries exceeded the allowed maximum). [Boston Globe] Shane Hartman ------------------------------ Date: 28 Jul 1982 0529-EDT Subject: BECHTEL From: WDOHERTY at BBNA Excerpt from WIN mag [August 15, 1982 p.15 article by Patrice Wagner]: "In a society based on production for profit, the nuclear and military build-up is extremely profitable. At least half of the defense budget will go to well-connected defense corporations, McDonnell Douglas, General Dynamics, Boeing and Rockwell, who benefit from nuclear proliferation. The manned bomber, the ABM, and the MX are dollars in their war chests, and they have a long-range stake in perpetuating the arms race. Half of this country's nuclear power plants, for instance, were built by the Bechtel corporation. Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger was general consul and Vice-President of Bechtel and George Schultz, Alexander Haig's replacement as Secretary of State, was president of Bechtel. More than one-third of Bechtel's projects are in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. So perhaps it isn't so surprising that the US government spent one thousand three hundred billion dollars of taxpayers money between 1946 and 1976 on defense while the standards of living and well-being of Third World people declined considerably." So far we have Cappie, Schultz and Habib's paws in the Bechtel jar of honey... Who's next? ********************************************************************* Also of interest in the same article: "More than half of all of the people killed by police in this country...are black and Hispanic.... "...According to Ruth Sivard in 'World Military and Social Expenditures', of the 125 or more military conflicts which have occurred since World War II, 95% have been in developing countries. In most cases foreign forces have been involved, with Western powers accounting for 79% of the interventions. The United States government has been responsible for a number of these 'undeclared wars,' which have the express purpose of halting people's movements towards independence. "Most of the nuclear threats the United States have made have been against the Third World. They offered the French the use of nuclear weapons at Dien Bien Phu; during the 1954 CIA-engineered coup in Guatemala, President Eisenhower deployed nuclear bombers in Nicaragua as a backup; in 1958, the US sent 14,000 troops with nuclear rockets to Lebanon. The US government considered using the Bomb against the peoples of Korea and Indochina many times and it has been US private and government interests which have been responsible for equipping South Africa with nuclear technology." [End of excerpts.] Will Doherty (WDOHERTY@BBNG) ------------------------------ Date: 27 July 1982 09:40-PDT (Tuesday) From: KING at KESTREL Subject: elections (see Poli Sci of 7/27, Feldman's article) It wouldn't be all that difficult to maintain an "N endorsements gets you a seat, <M endorsements loses it" if a few small changes were made and if forgeries and thefts of documents could be prevented. A person who has no outstanding endorsements could only vote on well-defined election days (which could take place every few months - not may people would actually do their voting on election days). At the polling place you would receive a card that would say who you had endorsed. They would not that you had an active endorsement, but of course they wouldn't know who it was. Whenever you wanted to revoke your endorsement, you would go to City Hall and put your card into a machine that looks like an automatic teller machine at a bank. It'll invite you to make a new endorsement. If you don't do so it'll give you a blank endorsement card which you can "revoke" to make a new endorsement; if you do, you get a new real revocation card. All blank endorsements expire next election day. The reason I don't propose to give everyone a blank endorsement card when they register is that they could be purchased. I judge this less likely to happen with endorsement cards, because they represent the holder's active desires. Although purchasing can be more effective with these endorsements then with an ordinary secret ballot (where a bought vote can be cast contrary to the purchaser's wishes), the price to make people give up active desires would probably be expensive. In addition, this problem could possibly be solved by technology; say that an uninvertible hash encoding of your retinal pattern was put on your blank (and true) endorsements. Then all you would need is the machines (although it would probably be a good idea to hold an "election day" the first time for education, and every few years to correct unavoidable small errors that would creep into the system and to allow for people who lose their cards). ------------------------------ Date: 27 July 1982 12:48-PDT (Tuesday) From: Gary Feldman at CMU-10A Subject: Re: elections (see Poli Sci of 7/27, Feldman's article) I'm glad you think your proposal is not difficult-- we must be using different scales for measuring difficulty. I trust banking machines because I have all the information I need (namely, the dollar amounts of my transactions) to verify the machines. Obtaining fraud proof voting machines may not be terribly hard, but convincing me (and everyone else) that they are indeed fraud proof (within reason) is very hard. Gary ------------------------------ Date: 27 July 1982 12:51-PDT (Tuesday) From: KING at KESTREL Subject: [KING: Re: elections (see Poli Sci of 7/27, Feldman's article)] The "machines" need be little more complex than a locked box, for holding revocation cards, plus a simple mechanical mechanism for punching an endorsement card (which goes into the hopper) and a revocation card (which goes to the voter) simultaneously. We trust existing mechanical voting machines, and they are actually quite complex. (Originally Edison tried to sell these machines and people who ran elections wouldn't buy them because they were too fraud-proof! This story may be apocrophal but you believed it when you read it, didn't you?) There would be a rule that any registered candidate (they would have to be registered if for no other reason than to give them a number of some sort) could inspect the machine at any time. ------------------------------ Date: 26 Jul 1982 14:11:35-EDT From: wdh at mit-cipg Subject: Palestine/Cyprus/Lebanon teach-in The Hellenic Student's Association of MIT/Harvard and the Palestine-Lebanon Crisis Coalition are presenting a teach-in on Saturday, July 31 at 7pm in MIT Room 54-100. For more info call 484-3701. I saw the poster for this, and thought folks in the Boston area might find this interesting. -Bill ------------------------------ Date: 27 Jul 1982 16:12:25-EDT From: mhuxm!rabbit!sola!frodo at CMU-EE1 at CMU-10A Remailed-from: WOHL at CMU-20C A Marxist Analysis of The Wizard of Oz A newly emerging nation (Dorothy) and its loyal peasantry (Toto) are seeking a rational social order (Kansas). Advised by the bourgeoisie (Munchkins), they take the capitalist path (Yellow Brick Road). They meet a labourer (Tin Man) destroyed by class oppression (rust), a soldier (Cowardly Lion) exploited by imperialism and a philosopher (Scarecrow) beguiled by Ayn Rand. They are confused by religious dogma (poppies) and attacked by the US (Wicked Witch of the West) and its CIA agents (flying monkeys), but defeat them with the cool clear logic of Marxist analysis (water). They seek the answer from capitalist economics (the Wizard) but discover it to be an empty facade. With the selfless aid of the USSR (Good Witch of the North) they discover that the true answer has been with them all along--the dictatorship of the proletariat (ruby slippers). Maybe Walter Winchell was right when he said that Hollywood was full of communists! 29-Jul-82 08:10:58-EDT,3865;000000000001 Mail-from: ARPANET site BBNG rcvd at 29-Jul-82 0809-EDT Date: 29 Jul 1982 0804-EDT Sender: WDOHERTY at BBNG Subject: SF HANDGUN BAN From: WDOHERTY at BBNG To: poli-sci at RUTGERS Cc: wdoherty at BBNG Message-ID: <[BBNG]29-Jul-82 08:04:53.WDOHERTY> >From the Boston Globe AP story of 7/28/82: SAN FRANCISCO GUN BAN BEGINS Residents have 90 days to turn in pistols to avoid a 90-day jail term San Francisco--A city handgun ban took effect today, giving citizens 90 days to turn in their guns or face a 90-day jail term. Residents may still own rifles and shotguns, and the ban allows pistols to be kept by shopkeepers, private detectives, policr officers and others who have a need for them [???]. Critics of the ban say it would only encourage San Franciscans to swap pistols for rifles. Sponsors have advocated the prudence of keeping handguns out of the reach of both criminals and law-abiding citizens. Three lawsuits challenging the ban are pending. Plaintiffs include the National Rifle Association, four city supervisors and a 77-year-old woman who says she's afraid to leave her home. Gun control has been controversial here since 1978, when Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk were shot to death with a handgun by Dan White, a former policeman and ex-supervisor. White is serving a seven-year, eight-month manslaughter sentence. The city-county Board of Supervisors voted 6-5 on June 30 to enact the ban. Supervisor Carol Ruth Silver, one of the dissenters, said she'll put her handgun in storage outside the city and will buy a shotgun. "My home will not be defenseless. I want every criminal in town to know that," she said yesterday. "I will tell you that all of the bums and all of the teenage crooks and muggers who hang out in my neighborhood will not give up their guns." City Attorney Don Kates said "there are a lot of elderly residents in the city that are not going to turn in their handguns." The 77-year-old lawsuit plaintiff, for example, needs the gun to defend herself, he said. She is identified as Jane Doe and involved in the law suit filed by the four supervisors and about 30 citizens. Other plaintiffs represent a "broad spectrum" of San Francisco residents including a black minister, homosexuals, Hispanic activists and blue-collar workers, he said. National Rifle Association members contend state law pre-empts the city in firearm regulation, spokesman John Atkins said in Washington. "We find it very doubtful that very many San Franciscans are going to turn in their handguns," he said. District Attorney Arlo Smith has said he won't prosecute anyone until the state appeals court decides whether the ordinance is constitutional. Mayor Dianne Feinstein, who was given a gun when she succeeded Moscone in office, plans to hand her .38-caliber Smith and Wesson over to Police Chief Cornelius Murphy on Friday. Feinstein proposed the ban this spring after a similar measure took effect in Morton Gorve, Illinois. She was backed by Supervisor Richard Hongisto, a former sheriff. Hongisto said the ordinance will keep handguns out of the hands of law-abiding residents, which he called a good ideea. "Non-criminal people account for about three-quarters of the deaths with handguns," including homicides and suicides, he said. A Bellvue, Washington, group called the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms started an "I Hate San Francisco" campaign to keep tourists and conventions from the California city. The committee is providing financial backing to anti-gun control politicians in California, said executive director Mike Kenyon, who called the handgun ban an "unnecessary infringement on the civil rights" of city residents. Brought to you by Will Doherty (WDOHERTY@BBNG) ------------------------------ Date: 29 Jul 1982 1748-EDT From: JoSH <JoSH at RUTGERS> Subject: new "hard" sf Is there some law that libertarian science-fiction writers have to have the middle name "Neil"? Believe it or not, that's what first caught my eye on the cover of "Alongside Night", by J. Neil Schulman. I bought it on the reccomendation of Jerry Pournelle (to "anyone interested in freedom") on the cover, and then realized what it was. What it is is a good first novel. Although I was unable to read it with an unbiased eye, I believe it stands quite well on its own as an adventure novel. Indeed, though one would expect any awkwardnesses to stem from forced references to his libertarian-inspired background scheme, they don't: about the worst writing I can find is where he describes the Weaver stance twice, making it somewhat distracting the second time around. Indeed, libertarian references can be marvelously subtle: at one point the protagonist is given a sample cigarette by the proprietor of a cannabis shop--on the cigarette is embossed a small gold dollar sign. And it is entirely believable that the proprietor would have done that with full knowlege of his antecedents, when you do catch the reference. So even taken straight at face value, this is better than average fare. Though not as spellbinding as Heinlein, it would be enjoyed by anyone who liked early Heinlein. But, like J.P., I would especially reccomend this one to "anyone interested in freedom". Its working out of the principles of an "anarcho-propertarian" organization which is still surrounded by a hostile State is more firmly grounded in reality than some libertarian writing, which seems to assume that the State has to vanish for any of this stuff to work. This is the best book I've read this year. --JoSH ------------------------------ End of POLI-SCI Digest - 30 - -------