> criminals and governments

You repeat yourself.

Made me think of a favorite Mark Twain quote.

Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.

Ah, but there's a more apropos one combining the two:

"It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress."

It seems like it should be the other way around.

Suppose you were a member of Congress. And suppose you were an idiot. But I repeat myself.

Otherwise the only idiots in the world would be Congressman.

Pedophiles and terrorists use high-strength crypto to transmit dangerous and illegal information. There's no reason normal citizens need high-strength crypto. Besides, if it came down to it, do you really think your crypto would stand a chance against the government's three letter agencies? You can still protect yourself from passive script kiddies with ROT13.

For those that didn't catch it, Jay is using a mock version of the anti-gun argument in his response here. I'm pretty sure his views aren't that at all (but a part of me is terrified to think that someone will use his response as a defense for crypto to not be in normal users' hands, taking what he said completely out of context)

Wait until they start using words like "assault crypto" or military grade-crypto. Why does any citizen need the crypto that is used in warfare? They aren't in combat, why do they need more than 54-bit keys? Who are they so worried about anyway?

"There is no need in American civilian life for these weapons of war." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigma_machine)

The next time they come for the gun owners (well, that would be yesterday: http://www.pagunblog.com/2013/08/29/obama-issues-executive-o...) you might want to consider that this set of rights is indivisible.

Or better yet: Crypto of mass destruction!

    There's no reason normal citizens need high-strength crypto.

You seem to think that normal citizens have no need to hide things. I deem this assumption to be false. Witness "normal" citizens in various foreign countries with opprosive regimes whose very lives require they hide things.

Poe's law FTW