NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/rec/games/chess/11823

Internet Message Format | 1992-12-21 | 3.6 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!linac!att!bu.edu!cvbnet!prime.com!fdeming
From: fdeming@[e-mail] (Frank Deming {x6088})
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
Subject: Re: Pardon Fischer?
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 21 Dec 92 15:47:16 GMT
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail]
Organization: Computervision, A Prime Computer Company, Bedford, MA, USA
Lines: 63

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail]|> So what you are saying is that by being a citizen of the US, you are
|> are basically its property and must abide by its whims even in areas where
|> it has no jurisdiction whatsoever??? You believe that simply by having lived
|> in the US you are subject to ALL of the wishes of a few political leaders
|> even when you leave the borders and fly to another country?
|>

I believe no one has indicated Bobby Fischer is the property of the US
goverment.

|> Can you honestly say you believe that the authority of the US government
|> to exercise its powers extends to the entire WORLD???
|>
|> If you go to a free park in Holland (Denmark) and smoke pot, should the US
|> have the right to jail you upon your return because you violated its
|> zero-tolerance edict? (Sure, swill the beer in Germany, or Vodka in the UUSR,
|> but no grass in Holland!)
|>
|> If you are in Peru on Vacation, and buy a Havanna cigar and smoke it, should
|> you be jailed for aiding Fidel Castro upon your return?
|>
|> If you are in Australia, where at 16 you are legally allowed to make porn
|> films, and you watch New Wave Hookers on the hotel cable, should you be
|> prosecuted for violating the American child-pornography laws??? (New Wave
|> Hookers had the delicious Ms. Lords in it, when she was 16.)
|>
|> And, if perchance you should happen to be in Bali, and get lucky and screw some
|> wild and willing 17 year old, should you be prosecuted for stutory rape upon
|> your return to the U.S.
|>
|> Lawn Jarts can not be sold in the US anymore. If you buy a set while in
|> England, and give them to a friend, should the US reserve a place in Federal
|> prison for you upon your return?
|>
|> Dude, just because it is on the books does NOT mean it is valid. Wake up and
|> smell the coffee...
|>
|> DMC

In the counterexamples above, I seriously doubt that the laws as written,
attempt to make it illegal, for a US citizen, to commit those acts in other
countries. So as couterexamples they do not wash. However trade laws are
written to govern actions and behaviors of individuals, corporations, etc. with
and in foreign contries. Does not the US constitution give the Federal gover-
ment the mandate to regulate such commerce? Are the reasons for this because
commerce with foreign countries affect us all, in small ways and sometimes
great and grave? Do we regulate commerce with foreign countries as not to
aid and abet.

Over the course of months Fischer began to negotiate a contract, finalized the
contract, fullfilled the contract. If Fischer began the negotiations in the
US, which apparently he did, was he violating the spirit of the Presidental
order?

Commerce with the Serbian goverment and its peoples are being reviewed and
acted on for a reason, one that has been highly visible and much debated in
the US. The resultant actions by the US goverment( and the UN)  is not
merely the whim and the wishs of a "few political leaders". There
has been a process, however flawed, to deal with the problems in former
Yugoslavia.

Frank Deming
[e-mail]