Monday, September 23, 2002
Should we burn the books?
New York Times has an opinion piece by Nicholas Kristof, suggesting that we ban all those nasties on how to make mustard gas, nerve gases, sarin, etc. He got the books at gun shows (!!!proof, if you ask me, that nuts really do go to gun shows....!!!) and on the Internet. According to the author, while many of the books are "rubbish", they are getting better. And while the author says that "book-burning grates on his soul", his final statement is:
"We have a window now, while terrorists still have difficulty obtaining reliable recipes for bio- and chemical weapons. If we continue to allow these cookbooks to improve, buttressed by helpful articles in professional journals, then over the next 10 years we may empower terrorists to kill us on an unimaginable scale."
Myself, I can't help but think there's some merit in that - and yes, I know that it would never actually succeed in removing such information from the public, and yes, I know that lines are hard to draw - but i'm just having so much trouble identifying any value in having the information out there. anyone?
Miller at Lawmeme claims that it is so wrong on so many levels it is not funny.
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