OT: Fear and helpfulness on classiccmp

From: James B. DiGriz <jbdigriz_at_dragonsweb.org>
Date: Fri Nov 16 07:33:39 2001

Ian Koller wrote:

>
> Sellam Ismail wrote:
>
>>Nevertheless, this does go on. Don't act so naive ;)
>>
>
> Sellam,
>
> I was actually telling you the truth. There were some
> irregularities going on in the defense department surplus
> program that people did jail time over. A scrapper I've
> bought items from in the past told me about it. Since it
> wasn't of current importance to me at the time, as I'm
> not in that line of work, I promptly forgot the details,
> but definately remembered the "gist" of it. I could try to
> get in contact with that fellow and get those names again,
> and maybe a google search might show up the court case
> abstracts. I know those things do occasionally go on, but
> I'm just suggesting it not be mentioned in a public newsgroup
> which gets archived ( permanently? ) to the google search engine.
>
>


Subscribe to the NASA OIG list. Makes for very interesting reading
sometimes.

Sometimes the best appearance to affect is indifference or even
blatant disregard for these niceties. Sometimes, even, it's more
honorable to actually be a blatant outlaw or an honest thief. There'd be
a lot less old computers out there, for instance, if it weren't for
freaking trash that suddenly turns into valuable stolen property the
minute it's removed without ass-covering authorization in triplicate
from a dumpster. Or stuff that was sold or traded and then creatively
reported after having been written of off taxes as "depreciated" or
"obsolete" and supposedly destroyed. But all this gets into the screwed
up tax policy in this country and other off-topic political matters.

I didn't take Sellam seriously, though. His comment was clearly
tongue-in-cheek. His later comment was dead on, though, even if great
pains are taken to provide respectable justification, even laws, for the
really big-time stuff.

Parting thought from pop music.

"That which you fear the most will meet you half way".

More than enough of this kind of thing going around these days, if you
ask me. I never got any sympathy whenever I've had to deal with it
personally in the past, and I'd much rather discuss old computers.

Best,
jbdigriz
Received on Fri Nov 16 2001 - 07:33:39 GMT