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This is the personal web site of Richard Stallman.
The views expressed here are my personal views, not those of
the Free Software Foundation or
the GNU Project.
If you want to send me GPG-encrypted mail, do not trust key servers! Some of them have phony keys under my name and email address, made by someone else as a trick. See gpg.html for my real key.
The largest part of the site is the political notes, and they are typically updated every day.
I'm looking for people to…
Please email rms at the gnu site if you want to volunteer for any of those activities. For the Grav-mass decorations, please write if you come up with a good way.
Anyone: donate bitcoin to the legal defense of a Russian activist.
Here is background information:
in Russian describes the predicament. I can't read it, but a friend read it for me and says it this is on the level.
They are asking for bitcoin donations at 1MCTLYKSAmBSjk8Tg32YcaUF9bKifHVA6N.
US citizens: call on Congress to save the Endangered Species Act.
US citizens: call on the EPA to preserve clean air standards.
US citizens: tell Congress to ban trade in shark fin.
US citizens: call on all states to help parents keep military recruiters away from their children in high school.
It works to sign with Javascript disabled if you use the Salsalabs method.
Citizens of Massachusetts: Support the Safe Communities Act, which would block state funds from being used to help deportation (or a possible "Muslim registry").
US citizens: call on Ajit Pai not to cut off old people from internet service.
US citizens: call on your congresscritter to reject the NRA's plan to neutralize all states' regulation of guns.
Everyone: tell Amazon to stop advertising in Breitbart.
US citizens: Demand that Congress reject the Republican "healthcare" plan.
Please sign this one, too.
US citizens: defend the rule that retirement investment advisors must be loyal to their customers.
US citizens: support bill to make hard work pay once again.
Signing this petition with Javascript disabled does work, so disregard the statement that it won't work.
US citizens: call on the Senate not to defund Planned Parenthood.
EU citizens: use savethememe.net to phone your MEP to oppose plans for stricter copyright restrictions on material posted on a web site by users.
US citizens: defend funding of the EPA.
US citizens: sign call to protect federal regulation from SCROTUS.
US citizens: support providing lawyers to anyone held while entering the US.
US citizens: oppose union-crushing "right to work" laws.
Everyone: tell Wells Fargo, Citibank, US Bank and SunTrust Banks to stop funding the Dakota Access Pipeline.
US citizens: call for a special prosecutor to address the relationship between Sessions and Russia, and related matters.
US citizens: endorse Sanders's progressive agenda.
Everyone: call for returning Kiarre Harris's homeschooled children to her.
US citizens: call for continued funding of Planned Parenthood.
US citizens: Support the Endangered Species Act.
US citizens: support legalization of importing drugs from Canada.
Everyone: Call on Nissan to stop advertising in Breitbart.
US citizens: phone your local thug department and say, don't cooperate with deportations.
The page has phone numbers for the Boston area, but you can look up the number for your town wherever you are.
US citizens: call for ending military aid to Honduras.
In the US: join the People's Climate March on April 29.
US citizens: call on Sessions to resign.
US citizens: phone your senators to oppose "concealed carry reciprocity".
This is a tricky and disguised legal scheme to make every state allow lots of unvetted people to carry guns.
The Capitol Switchboard numbers are 202-224-3121, 888-818-6641 and 888-355-3588.
Here are some quotations that I particularly like.
See the current pol-notes page for more.
(You may need to scroll down for more text if there is blank space in this column.)
Copy this button (courtesy of R.Siddharth) to express your rejection of Facebook.
Non-oppressive Commercial E-books
Facebook's face recognition demonstrates a threat to everyone's privacy. I therefore ask people not to put photos of me on Facebook; you can do likewise.
Of course, Facebook is bad for many other reasons as well.
I'd like to make a list of countries that do not require a national identity card, and have no plans to adopt one. If you live in or have confirmed knowledge of such a country, please send email to rms at gnu.org.
Here's my list of countries with no national ID cards and no plans for one: Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, UK, the Philippines. Australia's previous government tried to institute national ID cards, but the Labor government dropped the plan.
India is now trying to institute national ID cards.
Switzerland has national ID cards which are optional, but they or some other government ID card are needed for some purposes.
Iceland doesn't have ID cards as such, but they have ID numbers that citizens are forced to use frequently. For example, the national ID number is often required to rent a video or use a gym.
Denmark issues non-photo ID cards with a "person number", and many services use this card to identify people.
Norway will impose a national biometric ID card.
Wikipedia has a list of identity card policies by country.
Stay away from certain countries because of their bad immigration policies.
Avoid flight connections in these airports because of their treatment of passengers.
People often ask how I manage to continue devoting myself to progressive activism (such as the free software movement) for years without burning out. The best way I can answer is by recommending a book, The Lifelong Activist by Hillary Rettig.
I disagree with the book on one theoretical point in the last part of the book: we shouldn't think of political activism as being marketing and sales, because those terms refer to business, and politics is something much more important than mere business. However, this doesn't diminish the value of the book's practical advice about borrowing techniques from marketing and sales.
Disclosure: I am friends with the author.
The Mimi and Eunice book by Nina Paley is great.
Personal Declaration of Richard Stallman and Euclides Mance on Solidarity Economy and Free Software.
These are my political articles that are not related to the GNU operating system or free software. For GNU-related articles, see the GNU philosophy directory. You can also order copies of my book, 'Free Software, Free Society, 3rd edition', signed or not signed.
"Those who profess to favor freedom, yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."Frederick Douglass, American Abolitionist, Letter to an associate, 1849
Here are notes about various issues I care about, usually with links to
more information. The current notes are
here. For all previous
notes, see this page.
Political notes about the 2001 G8 summit in Genoa, Italy are being archived on their own page
Richard Stallman's bio and publicity photos, and other things of interest to the press, have been moved to a separate page.
Earth under attack from planet Koch.
On doxing, and how to spell it.
A Spanish cartoon: La Ruleta
Española.
Here I am wearing my "power tie".
Here I am struggling to open a bottle of water.
My application to an join Marian Henley's Ex Boyfriends List
My funny poetry and song parodies
New song (06/2016) - Si la face ay pale.
My Puns in English (Catholics, January 2017).
My Puns in Spanish (New pun: El jaguar muerde December 2015)
My Puns in French (new pun: la peine et Le Pen February 2017)
My Puns in Italian (New 09/2014)
My Puns in German (New 02/2016)
Linguistic Swifties (Now with: Wintu, Penutian, Cochiti, Taos, and Towa.)
--Saint
IGNUcius-- The Church of Emacs will soon
be officially listed by at least one person as his religion for
census purposes.
There are no godfathers in the Church of Emacs, since there are no gods, but you can be someone's editorfather.
Stallman Does Dallas: "I have to warn you that Texans have been known to have an adverse reaction to my personality . . . "
The Dalai Lama today announced the official release of Yellow Hat GNU/Linux.
I found A funny song about the Mickey Mouse Copyright Act (officially the Sonny Bono Copyright Act) which extended copyright retroactively by 20 years on works made as early as the 1920s.
If you are a geek and read Spanish, you will love Raulito el Friki, who said "Hello, world!" immediately after he was born. Here's an archive of this now-defunct comic strip.
Sleeping with Stallman at MIT.
ESR's favorite programming language: Objectivist C.
The huns and the writs. I don't know who wrote this, but I hope he does not object to sharing it here.
No Kludges in Cluj (June 2014)
A science fiction story: Jinnetic Engineering (in Portuguese, Farsi, Spanish, Armenian, Russian, French, and Italian).
Made for You (December 2012) (local copy)
My book of essays about the philosophy of Software Freedom, is available from the GNU Press.
Avec des chapeaux French song parody.
My radio program of Music from Georgia, originally broadcast on WUOG in Athens, Georgia on Oct 13, 2014.
Quantum Theory and Abortion Rights
A proposal for gender neutrality in Spanish, suitable for both speech and writing.
On Hacking: In June 2000, while visiting Korea, I did a fun hack that clearly illustrates the original and true meaning of the word "hacker".
Predicting the attack on Pearl Harbor
I would like to thank:
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Richard Stallman
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