John Gilmore, you have a fan
I was flying home recently from a very quick jaunt out to do a customer install. I went to the back of the plane to stretch, and noticed that (horror of horrors) there were people congregating and talking! Fortunately, they were white Americans, so they weren’t scary.
Anyway, I got to talking with them, and one of them had to share the story of a computer guy who had refused to show ID and was now suing the government. She thought it was astounding, and wonderful, and wished she had more money so she could do the same thing. I mentioned knowing John, and she asked me to pass the message on to him for her. So I am. “You go, John!”
My short reaction is that secret laws are scary. Freedom can’t work if you don’t know the rules bounding your freedom.
My long reaction is that secret laws aren’t really laws. They are something I would expect from a fascist state. They have no place in a democracy.
Then again there are many indications that the current administrations in charge of the USA are proponents of fascism.
It’s the law, but you couldn’t possibly have known that
SAN FRANCISCO — John Gilmore’s splendid isolation began July 4, 2002, when, with defiance aforethought, he strolled to the Southwest Airlines counter at Oakland Airport and presented his ticket. The gate agent asked for his ID. Gilmore asked her…