My review of David Horowitz's site may have been incomplete. That is one of the problems that you get into when it is 3 AM and you realize that SC Indymedia won't publish a link to the site so we can double check the claims about pictures of activists. I would not worry too much about the activists that are displayed in the picture shown by Bradley. These people have volunteered to appear on Network TV many times before, spouting their leftist views for the world to see. The captions, depicting some of them as totalitarians and the like are missleading. But I wouldn't worry too much. What I would be concerned about is if David Horrowitz took the time and trouble to start collecting pictures of the little guys and gals mentioned on SC Indymedia.

I must retract one of my statements that I made concerning Becky:

"And good journalistic note taking, no matter how photogenic it may appear, is not snitching."

I thought about that some more after I rushed off to work this evening (of the 15th). There are problems with that statement but also I should be carefull not to construct a double standard, as I myself have violations in my past of a simillar nature. Basicly, my conclusion is that it is not good journalism or good practice to take any information off of an activist group contact list if you are not a member of that activist group engaged in activist business.

In a slightly different context, collecting signatures for a state ballot measure, using any of the information obtained for a purpose other than qualifying the measure for the ballot is a misdemeanor. I suppose I may have at one point in time mentioned to someone else that someone famous signed one of my petitions. Is that a crime? I don't know. But it does happen, and not just when you are dealing with Becky.

If one really wants to eliminate the possibility that Becky or someone like her may steal names or contact information off of an activist group contact list, then the list could be made more secure. One possibility that I came up with is to make a "Becky Note-Pad" and a "Becky Box". The Becky Note-Pad would be a pad of 4x4 inch sheets of paper with lines for people's names, addresses and phone #'s as well as some additional lines to indicate the activities that they would like to do for the activist organization. This would be easier to fill out than trying to cram all of your contact info into one line on a clipboard style contact list.

After the form is filled out, it gets placed into the Becky Box. The box is sealed with a slot at the top like a piggy bank. The Box can either be passed arround along with the note pad or people can stuff the box as they leave the back of the room. The box could double as a donation can. Both the contact information and the donations would be secure inside the box. This could result in better rates of participation and more usefull information being recorded if people know that their contact information is secure. Real government agents would still be able to do sneak and peek searches under the patriot act and even scan newsgroup mailing lists without any real hindrance. But at least your neighborhood anti-activist or other unofficial scheming party would be kept at bay.