gpgsm and expired certificates

[Robert J. Hansen]

> I wish to extend my sincere and unreserved apologies to all the people
> I unintentionally offended.

Thank you for this.  (Seriously.)

There's an American movie that probably hasn't been seen much in Europe.
 _High Noon_, starring Gary Cooper, which may be the finest Western ever
made.  In a nutshell, the Frank Miller Gang comes to town intent on
bloodshed and violence, and to protect the town the retired police
officer, Marshal Will Kane, puts on the tin star once more.  The Frank
Miller Gang does something violent and Kane gets in the way -- the gang
retaliates and does something else violent, and Kane gets in the way and
stops that, too.

After a while the townsfolk, who were begging Marshal Kane to come out
of retirement at the beginning of the movie, are screaming their outrage
at him.  "If you'd just quit, the Frank Miller Gang would leave us
alone!  Can't you see that your meddling is just making them angry and
making the problems worse?"

In a climactic showdown Marshal Kane shatters the Miller Gang.  All the
townsfolk, who had begged him to save them and then screamed at him that
he was the problem, come around to praise him for his courage and valor.
 Marshal Kane looks them over in disgust, then tears off his badge,
throws it in the dirt, and rides off into the sunset with his
girlfriend.  The townspeople have finally done what the Frank Miller
Gang couldn't do: they've made a good and decent policeman stop caring
about his town.

I can't help but think, as I see the tenor of the discussion about the
NSA, that there are probably thousands of good and decent people in that
agency who are concerned with following the law and respecting civil
liberties -- and they probably feel an awful lot like Marshal Kane right
now, wondering whether it's even worth it.

> Which would mean police who interview people who had contact with a
> suspect, in order to "eliminate them from their enquiries," are either
> not grown-ups or are practising something in which they do not
> believe.

They are not practicing guilt by suspicion.  They are practicing, "hey,
let's collect as much information as possible on this crime so that we
can find the truly guilty person."

Police do not determine guilt.  Courts determine guilt.  Police are in
the business of collecting information.  In a very real sense, police
are a domestic intelligence agency.

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