Rand Simberg wrote:

On Thu, 29 Apr 2004 03:58:48 GMT, in a place far, far away, Matt Giwer
<jull43@tampabay.rr.REMOVE.com> made the phosphor on my monitor glow
in such a way as to indicate that:

CeeBee wrote:

Andrew Nowicki <andrew@nospam.com> wrote in sci.astro.seti:

If we ever
receive their message it will say something
like: "Life is absurd. Have a happy suicide."

The last message I received from them was: "we mean no harm to you earthlings". 

    That is what the US has been saying to Iraqi civilians for over a year now.

What's your point?  It was true then, and now.

    You left out the clarification.

We mean you no harm. By that we mean it is not our specific intention to cause you harm. We cannot be held responsible consequential damages which we know will happen but which we really and truly wish would not occur even though they are inevitable.

    That which is forseeable is intended. We don't let out children get away with saying they did not mean what they knew would happen. I see no reason to excuse adults using the same lame excuse.