[Az-Geocaching] Yahoo! News Story - Bush Prepares for Possible GPS Shutdown

[John Starta]

On Dec 16, 2004, at 8:59 AM, David Thompsen wrote:

> You know, if we're under terrorist attack, the ability to find 
> geocaches probably ain't real high on my list of priorities at that 
> time anyway.

What is frightening about the current attitude is that everything is 
evaluated in terms of its utility for "terrorists" rather than its 
benefits.

This is reminiscent of banning cryptography on the Internet which I 
compare with banning door locks in New York. It also treats education 
as munitions that must be kept from those who might possibly harm us.

Perhaps there is a benefit in forcing the rest of the world to become 
far less dependent upon the US (i.e. EU's Galileo system). But will we 
go back to the days when US scholars had to go to universities in 
Germany, for example, to learn physics?

A static, anti-evolutionary, world is zero-sum and either you have it 
or your enemy does. Knowledge increases with participation and those 
who horde and fear others wind up with less for themselves.

Yet another reminder that Roosevelt was right -- fear is our real enemy.

jas