RT> I think that we need to punish the abusers of information, not the
 RT> producers of it.  If a book tells how to build a bomb and someone does
 RT> it, killing other people, the guilty party is the one who abused the
 RT> information by building the bomb and using it in an illegal manner.
       All of life involves choices that get made, some good and some not so 
good.  I elected to take the first drink - nobody put a gun to my head.  
Later 
on, when it became a problem, I elected to modify my behavior and to stop.  
Nobody can make a person do something he doesn't want to do - he can present 
at best a series of choices, and the person chooses what the person perceives 
to be best.  Sometimes the choices are bad.
       I have a child who chose to try heroin.  Bad choice.  She's in 
detox/rehab right now.  One of her contemporaries at the institution was due 
for release, and it was suggested that he enter a halfway house and not go 
home.  His family, having endured enough said that going home was not an 
option at that time, that a halfway house was really better for them (the 
family has to survive even if the addict does not - a principle that I now 
understand, which doesn't make it easier) than for him to come home to the 
old 
surroundings, friends, and sources.  He became irate, and said before he'd go 
to a halfway house he'd go onto the street, hoping to shame them or lay a 
guilt trip on them to get what he wanted.  Going on the street is a choice - 
a 
bad choice, but a choice - and the other choice, a halfway house, would be 
better for all concerned.  he is, however, above the age of majority, so 
he'll 
likely get his expressed wish.
       The point being that life is full of choices and some folks do them 
better than others.  With luck, you can teach your kids to make good choices, 
and they'll be tough enough to avoid the pressure of peers.  If you're less 
lucky, you'll join me with one in detox, cursing the existance of various 
substances and the opportunity to acquire them - and knowing full well that 
trying to remove the substances won't help the choice-making mechanism and 
may 
actually harm it bu removing the need to make hard choices.
       When I was in college, I was presented with a hard choice (actually, 
it 
was after they threw my ass out...) - I was draft bait, no longer entitled to 
deferment, and wondering what to do.  My CHOICE was four years in the Air 
Force, and a chance at getting something that I could use when it was done, 
as 
opposed to 18 months face-down in the mud and another 56 months of weekend 
warrior.  The four years made better sense to me even though I knew I'd be 
away from home much longer, and that was what I did.  One of the more 
unfortunate aspects of our life today is that this particular hard choice is 
no longer available - leaving our young men with no really hard choices to 
make - and no opportunity to learn how to make them.
       [soapbox mode off]
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