[Note: This comment comes from reader Dave Hughes. DLH]
At 10:16 -0700 7/19/03, Dave Hughes wrote:From: "Dave Hughes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: RE: [Dewayne-Net] [IP] Gilmore bounced from plane; and Farber censors Gilmore's email
Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2003 10:16:12 -0700
MIME-Version: 1.0
This, of course, is the same John Gilmore - whose wealth from being a original designer of Sun systems permits him to tilt at political windmills by lawsuits - is the same guy who, after I was invited by Glenn Tenney to make a presentation from a West Point military-background point-of-view soon about 9/11 soon after it happened at the Hacker's Conference, in a plenary room full of perhaps 300 hackers, said words to the effect 'We all know that 9/11 was a conspiracy by the Bush Administration who flew the airplanes into the twin towers.'
Which immediately caused such an uproar in the, crowd, many of whom (but only some - since the Hackers Conference is usually in California and dominated by scads of flaming liberals)
Its been my experience that many of my friends who attend these events tend to be more "classical liberals", that is, libertarians.
were still raw emotionally after the massacre of 9/11, and I might even say outspokenly in the support of the Administration in the time of unknown future Terrorists threats, damned near came over the seats in the audience and attacked him. He made lots of those in attendance very angry. (Not me, I learned long ago from my military background to suffer the rantings of fools from either the extreme left or the right without getting upset)
British Airways may have called Gilmore's insistence on wearing the in-your-face badge 'poor taste' - I would simply brand it, as many of Gilmore's outrageous pronouncements, the use of 'very bad judgment.'
Yes, its often 'bad judgement' to express widely held, but seldom spoken, POVs.
Guess he's never heard of US court's limitations against using 'free speech' as a defense against the consequences of falsely yelling 'Fire' in a crowded theater.
Except when there really is a fire, which is certainly the case here.
steve
"There is no protection or safety in anticipatory servility." Craig Spencer
