poojagupta

Hi All, Thank you so much for your wishes, picture, tune, animation and poem ! It is so nice to be wished happiness by all of you, who know what you are talking about, when you say "happy" ! B.Royce, that was very touching ! Consider it to be printed on fine paper, framed and hung on my wall ! -Pooja

Thank you guys for your wishes, I had a wonderful birthday and these posts by you added icing to the cake

My one hope of the world is that there more men like Stephen in it...so the news of his passing away is a personal loss. I am so glad though that I knew him through the forum and will greatly miss his always objective, rational and enlightening, say in the matters. Betsy, I wish you all the strength and courage it takes to get through the times and find new reason to live. (...hearing 'What a wonderful world' [through links provided by Rose-lake] in the background while I spend minutes mourning Stephen, helped me take in the shock and despair...) Stephen, I am glad you lived, -Pooja

Betsy, How is the list of prospective willing blood donors looking ? Unfortunately my blood type is +ve. But can we help in others ways like post messages in forums/lists/clubs etc. ? -Pooja

Betsy, we can't thank you enough for taking the time, in your trying times, to update us about Stephen's health. I am sure his love of life and you, is helping him to recover from this massive attack on his health. -Pooja

Thanks Scott, for capturing Personality 1 and Personality 2 so well in words.

Just making a standalone point here about "raising one's self-esteem"... You raise your self-esteem by not ignoring your reasoning of the world and not trying to evade reality. The (subconscious) knowledge that you are acting in conformance to reality, gives you a certainty that raises your self-esteem and keeps it intact even in face of failures or losses or errors.

The truth is out there.

...So if I were a budding enterpreneur who wanted to provide an "Anonymity over the Internet" service, it would be in my best interest to have some way of tracing back to a guilty party when a law was violated.

Stephen, you are right, that's what I meant...that even law enforcers could not trace (IP addresses) back to who posted what. And you offered that the person who ran that website would be responsible...that's something I never thought of.

Ed, Thank you for a good checklist on checking premises, I will use it henceforth in resolving any issues in my mind. And just to clarify, the arbitrary claim was that anonymity is essential to free speech...and (the debate went on...) since anonymity would not allow copyrights to be protected, it would help in violating property rights...a weird derivation of free speech being in conflict with property rights ! (that set my alarm off ) Boyce, Thank you for the punch line : Use of anonymity is not essential to free speech, rather it illustrates lack thereof. ...And if anonymity is to be used as a work-around for lack of complete free speech, it has to be carefully deliberated and employed in an controlled environment (or for specific conditions, a point which Phil already made earlier).

Thanks guys, good points raised here...but I still need help with the punch line. If somebody is making a case for (providing) anonymity (let's say over the Internet) by bundling it with right to free speech, what is the proper defense/offence to this argument ? What is the proper rebuttal when somebody says "anonymity is essential to maintaining free speech". Well, it's not, is it ? Further, a "truly" anonymous service (a technological feat) might make it difficult to enforce copyright laws, a violation of property rights. I was listening to this Computer Security talk and when right to free speech seems in conflict with right to property I knew I had to start a thread here (i.e. put things in proper place in my mind) More comments ? pleaseeee...

The single short question to ask and gauge most of everything above from her/his answer would be : "Do you believe in God ?". (Now, where did I get that idea from ? )

So talking in terms of absolute or ideal situation, there can be no "right" to anonymity...right ? Right of free speech is all you need, rationally. It is only because in our current culture, we have a "compromised" right of free speech, that you could stand up for (or demand) anonymity...is that what you guys are saying ? And of course anonymity brings with itself a whole set of new issues and problems, that we took on, by getting into a slippery slope when we violated freedom of speech. Do I have it right ? Or is there more to consider ?

Does right to free speech necessarily entail right to be anonymous ? Is it incorrect to say that freedom of speech can fully exist only if choice to be anonymous is respected ? How do they correlate ? How can one properly define the relationship between the two: freedom of speech and anonymity ?