42 lines
2.4 KiB
Plaintext
42 lines
2.4 KiB
Plaintext
THAT'S DRIBBLE, TRIBLE!
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By Robert Brooks
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If conservative Republican U.S. Senator Paul S. Trible, Jr. (Virginia) has
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his way, the FBI may be watching when you log onto THE NATIONAL SATIRIST.
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According to the Washington Post, Sen. Trible has introduced a bill that
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calls for federal monitoring of contacts that personal computer users make with
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electronic bulletin boards which carry "offensive material." Clearly, in some
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eyes, that would include THE NATIONAL SATIRIST.
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Sen. Trible got started with a well-intentioned premise: he'd heard that
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some kiddy porno producers and buyers use BBSs to list their sicko products.
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Following the one-rotten-apple-in-the-barrel guideline, he has introduced
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legislation that could have most of us PC users in varying degrees of hot water.
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Why, there is hardly a BBS around that doesn't have something on it that
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someone will find offensive. You should have heard my accountant's reaction
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when I told him he'd been replaced by downloaded a tax program. Ditto the fast
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talking mortgage-broker who didn't realize that I can run off those 30 year
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amortization charts, too. ("And the difference is ONLY a quarter of a percent
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more!) Can you imagine how some federal BBS investigator's knee will jerk the
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first time he scans through some of the personal messages exchanged among
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consenting adults?
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Even the huge database services like CompuServe, Dialog, and Lexis/Nexis won't
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be immune to charges of carrying "offensive material" if Trible's dribble
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becomes law. While you are online with CompuServe, GO HSX (Human Sexuality) and
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look around a bit. Why, if J. Edgar was still around, he would have blushed
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first -- probably spent an hour online -- then sent in a SWAT team. If you want
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to see something REALLY offensive, pull up Federal Register Abstracts on Dialog
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and read the price tags on some of the pork barrel military procurements in Sen.
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Trible's state, or pop over to Lexis and be offended by the proliferation of
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legal actions that seem to do no one but the attorneys any good.
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As soon as I upload this column I am going to write off for some offensive
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material ... a copy of Senator Trible's proposed bill. You may want one, too.
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Drop a note to the Judiciary Committee, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC 20510. Ask
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for a copy of S-1305.
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Call The Works BBS - 1600+ Textfiles! - [914]/238-8195 - 300/1200 - Always Open
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