Choosing one's enemies, I guess
Serious? When I go there, the entire screen is blank, except for the following text, centered and in white:Clicking on either text block connects to the
letter from the lawyers.
ETA that you bastids type too quickly.
ETA more: Now waitaminute here. Wait just a confounded minute. These guys are willing to take on the entire United States government, people whom they beleive are so ruthless that they'll kill 3,000 people in America's busiest commercial center and at the center of the military but they'll cease and desist on the basis of a letter from a bunch of weenie lawyers? What the hell kind of truth-seekers are these guys, anyway?
Back after a weekend of remembering fallen warriors and playing with my family, and I find out that this discussion and debate has gone into 21 innings. YIIIIIIIIIPE
Anyway, while I'm not too good with the physics equations, lawsuits, copyright action, and defamation issues I can understand.
Yes, it's interesting that these folks seem more bent out of shape that a law firm slapped them with paper than the US government supposedly murdering thousands of innocents and forcing or cajoling everyone else to following their dictum. If I was in the LC position, I'd be checking my toothpaste for explosives and my telephone for wiretaps.
But the fact is, the government doesn't particularly care much about "Loose Change" or any of these loose screws. The conspiracy theorists think they and their ideas are the center of the universe, and give themselves an exaggerated sense of self-importance to compensate for their utter unimportance. Yet at the same time, they also know they are not going to be packed off to Lubianka Prison any time soon. If the government attacks, the conspiracy theorist has a number of defenses: he can cry "Free Speech," which brings the ACLU in on his side, with their formidable resources, and he can play himself as the downtrodden activist standing in the face of oppressive government. Furthermore, the government is limited by its own regulations, codes, and the Constitution. For all the rubbish conspiracy theorists spout against the government conspiracy, they know the government is hamstrung by its own laws.
So the theorists not really worried about government reaction and harassment, such as that may be. On the other hand, when a well-heeled law firm, with a real budget, real resources, real knowledge of the legal system, hits them over the head with a real complaint, that gets the conspiracy theorist's attention and reaction. A real law firm with a real lawsuit can shut them down. The conspiracy theorists can't hide behind the First Amendment in a copyright case. They can't hide behind the First Amendment in a defamation case. Or a harassment case.
And these are civil actions, so they can't get the same kind of legal help and public support. Nor can they count on public sympathy. You violated copyright? You defamed some guy? No contributions here.
What's interesting is that their answer is to talk about harassing a legal firm with extra- and illegal measures. If it's exceptionally stupid to send harassing and threatening mail to the President of the United States, it's just as stupid to send such mail to a law firm that is pursuing an action against you. If anything, it wins their case for them. And such behavior breaks a passel of laws. Furthermore, such behavior again cuts off the sympathy...it's one thing to defend somebody for speaking up about 9/11 conspiracies, it's another to defend somebody for threatening a lawyer's life, because he or she is doing the job his firm and clients are paying him to do.
Extremists often regard themselves as being above the law, because of their role as "true believers" and the bringers of great truths. So they engage in the very tactics they accuse their opponents of engaging in. They become what they behold, and try to justify it as doing an evil to achieve a greater good.
Like Hitler and Stalin, unfortunately.
