L. Neil Smith's
THE LIBERTARIAN ENTERPRISE
Number 390, October 22, 2006

"Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, baked beans and Spam."

Letters to the Editor

Send Letters to editor@ncc-1776.org
Note: All letters to this address will be considered for
publication unless they say explicitly Not For Publication


[Letters to the editor are welcome on any and all subjects. Sign your letter in the text body with your name and e-mail address as you wish them to appear, otherwise we will use the information in the "From:" header!]



The October issue of SFP News is now on the web:

freestateproject.org/news/fspnews/oct2006

Free State Project
info@freestateproject.org


Hi Ken,

Nice rant. Now, let us calmly look at the facts.

First, an overview of the domain:
http://www.dnsreport.com/tools/dnsreport.ch?domain=ncc-1776.org

(When I first tried the above URL, I got the following error message:
[ERROR: I was unable to get an answer from the parent servers
[tld2.ultradns.net],
when I tried to find the NS records for ncc-1776.org.]
So you may have a (possibly intermittent) problem with your host's nameservers timing out. I don't think that problem is caused by Spamhaus.)

Let's get your MX record:
http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/mail.ch?domain=editor%40ncc-1776.org :
ncc-1776.org. - 207.210.95.34
(This sometimes times-out too.)

Let's get your A record:
http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/lookup.ch?name=ncc-1776.org&type=A :
ncc-1776.org. A IN 86400 207.210.95.34

Okay, so now we have the IP address in question, as well as determined that your mailserver and your webserver are on the same IP address. (Now you can see why having separate IP addresses for web and mail servers is the recommended practice, not to mention hosting your outgoing mailserver in 'clean' IP space to begin with.)

Let's look up your IP address at Spamhaus.
http://www.spamhaus.org/query/bl?ip=207.210.95.34 :
207.210.95.34 is listed in the SBL, in the following records:

* SBL47357

http://www.spamhaus.org/sbl/sbl.lasso?query=SBL47357 : [enable cookies]
insurance-solutions.info 14400 IN A 207.210.95.34

Aha. So your servers' IP address appears to be co-located with that of a site which appeared in spam (and may yet, for all we know).

You did exactly the right thing, though, in contacting your hosting company about this, because they are the cause of this problem, not Spamhaus. Spamhaus is an indicator of the problem. Spamhaus is vital feedback about the quality of your hosting company WRT its degree of spam-support. And speaking of that:
http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/whois.ch?ip=207.210.95.34 :
OrgName: Global Net Access, LLC

http://groups.google.com/group/news.admin.net-abuse.email/search?q=gnax.net&start=0

Might I suggest doing your due diligence on a given ISP's IP space before signing the contract?
http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/ip4r.ch?ip=207.210.95.34 [enable JavaScript]

(BTW, I don't use the SBL-XBL, so your e-mail will not be blocked here.)

Mark Odell
modellus@pathlink.com


Re: "Musings on Truth-Avoidance", by L. Neil Smith

    "And by the way, Mr. C., you are a "pinko, anti-american asshole"."

Neil—Not only is Mr. Cocksucker a "pinko, anti-american asshole". He's also one of those execrable, hand wringing, cowardly, morally relativist, passive-aggressive, Marxoid cretins who take pride in the fact that he's helpless and dependent when it comes to preservation of life and liberty.

He's the kind of liberal who equates helplessness with the moral highground and sees no difference between those who kill in defesne of life and those who kill because it's in their predatory nature.

BTW, I suspect the reason this mouth breather chose the name "Chris Cocksucker" is because—by stupidly trading his essentail liberties for the gov't's (historically proven) false promise of all encompassing safety, he's completey dependent on the State for "protection".

As such, he is willingly sucking the State's dick after it's been up his ass. His moral indigantion stems from the fact that folks like us refuse to stick out asses in the air for the gummint much less give it post-rape fellatio.

The fact that this spineless, petty tyrant of an asshole is volunteering to be a helpless meal on the hoof for any predator who comes along is his perogative. And when he ends up as a statistic because of his chosen helplessness that will be more than just Darwin or evolution in action. It will also be [b]progress[/b]. The fact that he wants to use the force of law to render the rest of us as helpless and pathetic as him is both unforgivable and a declaration of war.

Regards,

Mark Quon
tompainemaru94702@yahoo.com


To whom it may concern,

I would like enquire as to who was involved in the placement of the following web content sites onto your list as 'spam' generators:

lneilsmith.org

ncc-1776.org

I will take it on good faith that you maintain accurate records, revealing both the name(s) of the complainant(s), and the related ISP(s), along with times and dates associated, as to when the above listed organizations were identified as 'spam' generators, as well as describing the content of said 'spam.'

Additionally, I will request that the complainant(s) ISP provide a copy of their server logs describing both the time and dates for each and every alleged 'spam' regarding the above listed organizations.

I will also take it on good faith that you have properly executed and notarized documents, and sworn depositions signed by both a witness or witnesses, and the complainant(s) attesting to the accusation regarding the matter of said 'spam.'

Additionally, I request the name(s) of your legal representatives, phone numbers they may be reached at, and if possible, their e-mail addresses.

I thank you in advance,

E.J. Totty
ejt@seanet.com
Everett, Washington USA


Sir,

I have recently read with outrage your article against Spam. I have been on the Internet for years and enjoy spam. My favorite is Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, baked beans and Spam.

sincerely,
outraged at lunch
Robert Sheets
captainbobo1998@sbcglobal.net


I think there's some confusion over what Spamhaus does. They don't block email. They offer a service that provides a list of possible spammers. This is a long, long way from a bad thing. As a former email server administrator, I can tell you that Spamhaus provides a tremendously valuable service.

You may think that spam is just a nuisance, in which case, your email address either has a very low public presence (so far), or you're already protected by good spam filters. People with a prominent web presence may find themselves getting hundreds of spam messages per hour. Without services such as Spamhaus, they might as well throw in the towel.

What administrators do with the information Spamhaus provides is, of course, up to them. Some will use the information in an intelligent way. Others will shoot their own feet off with it. If someone says you're being blocked "by Spamhaus", they're lying to you. Spamhaus doesn't block email.

The proper way to use Spamhaus data is to apply it as part of a weighted formula. Just being tagged by Spamhaus alone is not nearly enough to consider an email as "spam". A normal email server will just consider that as one factor among many others. There are certainly some email servers out there that are configured in stupid or perverse ways, to be sure, and your ISP's may be among them.

Spamhaus is just a tool. Think "Spamhaus doesn't kill email. Email server administrators kill email."

Tom Hanlin
tom@sortanly.com


Dear Neil,

I am writing to remind you of the Chris R. Tame Memorial Prize, which is generously funded by the Promif Unit.

By the 19th November 2006, contestants are invited to submit essays to Dr Sean Gabb, Director of the Libertarian Alliance.

Essay Title: "The Achievements of Ayn Rand"
Essay Length: 2000 excluding notes

The prize will be £1000.

The winner will be announced at the Libertarian Alliance Conference, which will take place in London this coming 25-26 November 2006 at the National Liberal Club in London:

www.libertarian.co.uk/conf06.htm

Send entries by e-mail to [email protected]

Here, by the way, are some more sound files recently uploaded to the LA web site:

www.libertarian.co.uk/multimedia/2006-10-03-sig-guns.mp3
www.libertarian.co.uk/multimedia/2006-10-01-sig-web.mp3
www.libertarian.co.uk/multimedia/multimedia.htm

Do please pass this message on.

Many regards to all,

Sean Gabb
[email protected]
Director, The Libertarian Alliance
www.seangabb.co.uk
www.libertarian.co.uk
www.hampdenpress.co.uk/


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