|
'The
news you and I need
to keep our freedoms.' |
|
|
|
Minnesota Taxpayers Balk At 'Bolshevik Style' Education "Critics charge that the new style of education stresses early vocational training over academics, expressions of feeling over objective standards of learning, federal standards over local control and, ultimately, government control over the workforce. Former Republican gubernatorial candidate and state representative Allen Quist calls it the philosophy of 'nobody is to be educated beyond their station in life.' "Chapman sees many parallels with the old Soviet style work-as-education system and doesn't shy away from labeling it 'Bolshevik.'"
Tuesday, October 2, 2001 - 11:40 a.m. Oh... That whole Air Force One being a target? We lied about that... but everything else we say is true, we swear.. "The fact that top officials, at a time of extraordinary crisis and public anxiety, lied to protect the president’s image has immense implications. If, within 24 hours of the terror attacks, the White House was giving out disinformation to deceive the American public and world opinion, then none of the claims made by the government from September 11 to the present can be taken for good coin. "If Bush lied about his activities on the day of the attacks, why should anyone assume he has not lied about the government’s investigation, the identity of the perpetrators, the motives and aims of US war preparations, and the intent and scope of expanded police powers demanded by his administration to wiretap, search and seize, and detain suspects?" Saturday, September 29, 2001 - 11:59 a.m. New York Times/Washington Post Florida Recount on hold... indefinitely. "In a column that enthusiastically welcomes the dissolution of all political opposition in Washington in the wake of the September 11 terror attacks, Berke writes: 'Until September 11, the capital was riding a historically partisan period, with leading Democrats still portraying their president as "appointed" by the Supreme Court. In a move that might have stoked the partisan tensions—but now seems utterly irrelevant—a consortium of new organizations, including The New York Times, had been scheduled this week to release the results of its ambitious undertaking to recount the Florida presidential ballots. (That has been put on hold indefinitely).'”
Saturday, September 29, 2001 - 11:55 a.m. Papers, please... That National ID card. Britain's Tony Blair "has opted for a voluntary scheme in issuing the card, rejecting a compulsory 'on demand' card because of connotations with Nazi Germany, where lack of proper identity cards could result in instant arrest, according to reports. "However, it will be virtually impossible for anyone to live a normal life without the new ID card in England - possession of a valid card will be necessary for boarding an aircraft, buying gas, opening a bank account, starting a job or claiming government benefits." Obviously Tony Blair has a very good grasp of Orwellian use of words... 'voluntary' indeed. ORACLE's CEO Larry Ellison who is offering support in creation of the ID card noted, "Well, this privacy you're concerned about is largely an illusion... All you have to give up is your illusions, not any of your privacy. Right now, you can go onto the Internet and get a credit report about your neighbor and find out where your neighbor works, how much they earn and if they had a late mortgage payment and tons of other information." Larry of course has little understanding of logic for certainly it begs the question. If anyone can find out anything they want about anyone else.... then why do we need an ID card? Sunday, September 23, 2001 - 04:20 p.m. China OK'd for WTO membership "A deal was reached in the early hours of Saturday at an 'informal' meeting of the 142-nation body. The agreement was rubber-stamped Monday afternoon at a formal session of the team handling China at WTO's headquarters in Geneva." "At a time of the most profound national sorrow, combined with determination and resolve to defeat the deadly menace of terrorism, the United States government will not neglect its other interests," Chief U.S. Negotiator Jeffrey Bader said. "This week's decision on China's WTO entry demonstrates that." What? You mean you didn't hear about this... Surely this was covered on the World-Trade-Center-Blowing-Up-News-Channel, right???? Thursday, September 20, 2001 - 12:30 p.m. The Passengers Were All Disarmed... Commentary by Vin Suprynowicz "Will the Powers That Be conclude, 'Well, we tried disarming law-abiding Americans and running the metal detectors and scanning the bags; that obviously didn't work. So, we might as well try the Archie Bunker plan'?
"Decades ago, leftist series creator Norman Lear had Carroll O'Connor's lead character in the TV show All in the Family propose the best way to prevent airline hijackings was to issue loaded firearms to the passengers upon boarding, collecting them again as the travelers disembarked. 'Norman Lear obviously thought the notion represented the very height of right-wing absurdity,' my friend, novelist L. Neil Smith, wrote to me last week. 'But somebody tell me -- now -- how an aircraft full of well-armed people could be hijacked and used against civilization the way four were today.'
"No, there will be no restoration of the Second Amendment in once free and fearless America. Instead, fulfilling a pretty good definition of insanity, what they'll do is a whole lot more of what already hasn't worked. " Tuesday, September 18, 2001 - 3:00 p.m. Countless Organisations on Left standing down... Sierra Club says, "in response to the attacks on America we are shifting our communications strategy for the immediate future. We have taken all of our ads off the air; halted our phone banks; removed any material from the web that people could perceive as anti-Bush, and we are taking other steps to prevent the Sierra Club from being perceived as controversial during the crisis. For now we are going to stop aggressively pursuing our agenda and will cease bashing Bush."
Saturday, September 15, 2001 - 01:00 p.m. Who is Osama Bin Laden? "Since the Cold War era, Washington has consciously supported Osama bin Laden, while at same time placing him on the FBI's 'most wanted list' as the World's foremost terrorist.
"While the Mujahideen are busy fighting America's war in the Balkans and the former Soviet Union, the FBI --operating as a US based Police Force- is waging a domestic war against terrorism, operating in some respects independently of the CIA which has --since the Soviet-Afghan war-- supported international terrorism through its covert operations.
"In a cruel irony, while the Islamic jihad --featured by the Bush Adminstration as 'a threat to America'-- is blamed for the terrorist assaults on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, these same Islamic organisations constitute a key instrument of US military-intelligence operations in the Balkans and the former Soviet Union." Friday, September 14, 2001 - 05:00 p.m. Noam Chomsky responds to the "Attack on America" "We should do what we can to influence the reaction towards some civilized direction, instead of towards the kind if fanatic tribalism that is sure to escalate the cycle of atrocities, with dread consequences. Like the attack on Sudan... Considered here [in the US] a triviality, but not by a great many people in the world, who don't find it amusing when the US murders probably tens of thousands of people on a whim." Thursday, September 13, 2001 - 01:35 p.m. K-Mart quits selling guns and ammo in response to attacks... for uh, our safety? "The safety of our customers and our associates is our first priority." Wednesday, September 12, 2001 - 04:15 p.m. Japanese Red Army connection? Strange Rumours abound: "In an unconfirmed report, sources from the Amman offices of Al Jazeerah satellite news channel indicated that a call came in from a caller who was 'speaking Arabic with an accent' claimed that the Japanese Red Army is claiming responsibility for today's attacks against U.S. targets in New York and Washington D.C. "
Still no update on explosions in Afganistan, perhaps we aren't supposed to know about that... meanwhile American Companies plunge in foreign exchanges... fyi: list of tenants at the WTC towers, and a map of the WTC... Tuesday, September 11, 2001 - 04:00 p.m. Explosions in Afghanistan Capital, Kabul "CNN is reporting explosions in the Afghanistan capital of Kabul. Videophone images carried by the cable news network shows flaring bursts of light and flame. "Afghanistan is where suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden is being sheltered. Earlier today, the country's hardline Taliban rulers rejected suggestions that bin Laden was responsible for terror attacks in New York and Washington." Tuesday, September 11, 2001 - 02:00 p.m. nomorefakenews.com asks the questions no one else wants to ask. At least someone is taking the time to question what is going on in New York today... even though, as far as website design, nomorefakenews.com, is about as crappy as they come, there is some appreaciable questions being raised, and some important commentary. "What amazed me was, these buildings, the Trade Towers, were built to withstand a 747 crash in the center of the structures. It was part of the building specs." etc... lots of coverage.. Tuesday, September 11, 2001 - 2:50 p.m. The World Turns to Shit. Tuesday, September 11, 2001 - 11:50 a.m. UN conference on racism on verge of break-down? "With two days left to go, the U.N.'s third World Conference Against Racism seemed on the verge of total collapse Wednesday. Delegates remained deadlocked on its two main aims: a final declaration document and a program of action.
"The final declaration drafted earlier - which labeled Israel as racist, an apartheid state and guilty of 'ethnic cleansing' and genocide - was being held back from publication." "The conference president, South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, has taken over drafting a new chapter of the declaration on the Middle East issue, and the Europeans have told the African group that they had until the end of Wednesday's session to come up with an acceptable draft on the colonialism/slavery issue - or the EU will simply draw up its own statement on the issue." "'They're demanding the forgiveness of all African foreign debt as if it's reasonable for us to pick up the tab for dictators and tyrants who stole the money or are using it to fight wars,' said one disgruntled EU official.
"'And they simply don't want to talk about the slavery still going on in countries like Sudan or Mauritania right now.'" Wednesday, September 5, 2001 - 03:50 p.m. Sept 29 banking meeting, fence to strech for miles to keep out the "anarchists" "Police are mapping plans to build a 9-foot-tall monster fence around the heart of downtown Washington to safeguard the White House and other key sites against bloody anarchist protests when world bankers meet here next month.
"Their goal is to avoid a replay of this summer's violent attacks in Genoa, Italy, where one activist was gunned down while President Bush and other world leaders met.
"'They're treating this very seriously this time. They're anticipating a higher level of violence than in the past,' said an FBI official looking ahead to the Sept. 29-30 sessions.
"Officials say 100,000 anti-globalization protesters could swarm into town. Most are likely to be peaceful, but Genoa showed that a few thousand masked anarchists bent on trouble can create a major mess." Friday, August 31, 2001 - 02:45 p.m. The Palestinians' great crime: A brief summary for the uninitiated "What is the great, unforgivable crime of the Palestinian people? Simply put, it is to ask for their rights. It is to ask the international community to implement and guarantee their right to live a free and dignified life on their own land as other people do in the world.
"What are their references? The Palestinians are not asking for something they cooked up from thin air, but for rights enshrined in the United Nations Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the League of Nations mandate before them. In their specific case these rights have been applied to them by numerous UN General Assembly and Security Council Resolutions." Tuesday, August 28, 2001 - 01:37 p.m. The Non-Hollywood of the future... "So the self-publishing revolution that gave us zines and home-brewed CDs is now producing movies as well, and the number of D.I.Y. filmmakers is big enough for a major computer company to view them as a mass market worth pursuing. Yet these micro-auteurs have virtually no presence at the cineplex (except, sometimes, as an influence -- witness The Blair Witch Project). Hollywood itself is becoming subtly indie-fied: The mammoth studios still rule the industry, but much of the work is now subcontracted to tiny, independently owned high-tech workshops, some of which have themselves become part-time mini-studios. Yet movie distribution has grown tighter, more centralized, and less open to outsiders.
"Many articles have been written about one sort of indie-film success story: the 'young,' 'scrappy' 'maverick' whose Internet short or ultra-low-budget tape gets viewed by the right Hollywood exec, allowing the fresh-faced filmmaker to vault over those barriers and land a job assembling dream-widgets. This is not such a piece. This is about the moviemakers who don’t want Hollywood jobs, or at least don’t want them on Hollywood terms -- about people trying to find ways around the distribution bottleneck, and the audiences that are tentatively coalescing around them.
"Outside the blockbuster-oriented pop-music mainstream, there are musical subcultures devoted to bluegrass, techno, classical, punk, hip hop, folk, and jazz -- smaller worlds where one can be a success without even grazing the top 40. One day, perhaps, the same will be true of film." Tuesday, August 28, 2001 - 01:03 p.m. Why Bush's School voucher program wouldn't have worked anyways. "In practice, few Florida students have actually received the promised vouchers. In the first year that students were eligible to receive vouchers under the program, a total of 53 students from two schools statewide got tickets to go elsewhere. In 1999, there were 78 public schools that received a failing grade based on their FCAT scores. If those schools got the same grades in 2000, they would have been sanctioned with vouchers. Miraculously, by year two of the A-Plus program, every school in Florida (including the 78 schools that had a failing grade the year before) managed to pull test scores up enough to avoid the voucher sanction.
"Apparently, the public school establishment in Florida sensed an end to their monopoly and reacted accordingly. Dr. Jay P. Greene, an education researcher at the Manhattan Institute, recently analyzed FCAT test scores covering the initial two years of the A-Plus program. He found that "schools that received F grades in 1998-1999 experienced increases in test scores that were more than twice as large as those experienced by schools with higher state grades."
"All of this suggests that the public school establishment will react to the threat of a club, particularly the voucher sanction. But, beyond the minimal threshold of sanction, inertia seems to set in. The never-mentioned tragedy is the fact that, despite improvement, hundreds of thousands of students are still attending inferior schools."
Tuesday, August 28, 2001 - 1:00 p.m. Music Sales down 10%, singles down 38%! Lets not beat around the bush, the internet is killing music sales. This is just the tip of the iceberg. But is it a bad thing? Tuesday, August 21, 2001 - 01:40 p.m. The "TWA 800" of the 70s: Skolnick reports on why a plane full of watergate witnesses fell out of the sky. This report is in four parts: 1 2 3 4 "In November, 1972, Richard M. Nixon was re-elected President. One month later, on behalf of the Nixon White House, America's secret political police, the American Gestapo, the FBI, and the American CIA, arranged to sabotage a commercial airplane headed for Chicago. On board were twelve Watergate figures, including Dorothy Hunt, wife of the Watergate burglar, E.Howard Hunt. They had reportedly blackmailed two million dollars out of Nixon threatening, among other things, to publicize documents they had showing Tricky Dick, along with top officials of the FBI and the CIA, had planned and carried out the political assassination of President John F. Kennedy. . ." Tuesday, August 21, 2001 - 01:00 p.m. Anthrax Outbreak in Minnesota Cattle When foot-and-mouth is found in british cattle, this is really big news here in the states. Why is it that when ANTRHAX, a disease that is much more deadly and, unlike foot-and-mouth, can be contracted by humans by eating tainted meat, this is no news at all? Thank god for local papers and their websites.
"State agriculture officials say anthrax is to blame for the deaths of 85 cattle from 12 different herds in northwestern Minnesota. Most of the deaths occurred in the last seven weeks, but the disease was diagnosed in two more herds and at least one white-tailed deer last week, officials said.
"'So it' s not over,' said Roseau County extension agent Curt Nyegaard. The affected cattle are located within a 15- to 20-mile radius shared by Roseau, Kittson and Marshall counties, officials said."
Tuesday, August 21, 2001 - 03:55 a.m. UnknownNews.net appears to be back up and running After about a month of being absent, due to a move, it looks like UnknownNews.net is back up and running. This is a really great website if you haven't ever checked it out, its probablly the single best news portal for alternative and unknown news stories (hence, the name, duh... ;) Monday, August 20, 2001 - 03:00 a.m. Anchorage shop owner wants his bongs--er, pipes back after city police stole them. "Some 31 boxes of goods were taken by Anchorage police from The Black Market in March, after the Anchorage Assembly made it a criminal offense to sell 'drug paraphernalia.' City attorneys later determined something was wrong with the search warrant and didn't charge Myers with a criminal offense.
"But they also didn't return his stuff, including scales, plastic Baggies, water pipes, also known as bongs, other kinds of pipes and tubing. Earlier this summer, the city agreed to return some of the items but refused to give back the pipes, arguing their sole use is to smoke marijuana." Sunday, August 19, 2001 - 03:45 a.m. China hands out prison sentences for 5 Falun Gong members "As Chinese authorities intensified efforts to eliminate the banned spiritual group, five Falun Gong members were sentenced to as much as 13 years in prison for arranging gatherings, a state newspaper said Sunday." Sunday, August 19, 2001 - 03:45 a.m. Israeli Ambassador to Denmark's role in 1994 Cave of Patriarchs massacre. "We had hoped that Shimon Peres' seemingly irrational appointment of Carmi Gillon as ambassador to Denmark would open up his role in the Rabin assassination. So far, that has not happened, but it will. Instead, and from the most unexpected source, Gillon's role in the planning and execution of the Hebron massacre of February 1994 is being raised. Read what Dr. Linda Efroni writes in the highly influential but staid Israeli business daily, Globes..."
Sunday, August 19, 2001 - 03:33 a.m. Canadian Gun laws to be the cause of starvation for thousands of eskimos this winter? Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated is suing the federal government over Bill C-68, the controversial Firearms Act, alleging the federal Justice Department's showpiece legislation is in violation of the land claims agreement that carved the new territory of Nunavut out of the Eastern arctic. "The Canadian Firearms Centre has failed to provide newly mandated gun licences to thousands of Inuit, some of whom have been waiting more than year since they first applied, according to James Eetoolook, the president of the powerful Nunavut land claims organization. "'They cannot buy bullets and cannot feed their families,' Mr. Eetoolook said. 'We estimate that as many as 40% of [Inuit] who applied for permits have not received them yet.'"
Ah... but if the gun laws save just the life on one single child... right? But why should we give a shit if those same laws actually end up killing those same children by starving them to death? Sunday, August 19, 2001 - 03:15 a.m. Oooops... Us Admits to losing Nuke, quits looking for it when they lose another one... "A nuclear bomb, 100 times more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima, is lying 10km off the east coast of the United States... near Tybee Island, close to the mouth of the Savannah River. Pentagon officials, though admitting they do not know the bomb's exact location, insist it is safe. "Documents reveal [a] search was called off when another hydrogen bomb was accidentally dropped near Florence, South Carolina." Sunday, August 19, 2001 - 03:00 a.m. Gore Vidal and Tim McVeigh "The American man of letters became an unlikely soulmate for McVeigh, a self-styled anti-government warrior, when he published a 1998 essay in Vanity Fair magazine lamenting the Government’s assault on Americans’ liberties and the “shredding of our Bill of Rights”. McVeigh, already in prison for the worst terrorist attack on US soil, wrote to Vidal to commend the piece, initiating what would become an off-and-on three-year correspondence that culminated in an invitation to witness his execution.
"The kinship between the two men is apparent from the start. Writing with perfect grammar and spelling in a slanting hand, McVeigh tells Vidal in his second letter that he had read his 'political musings' and 'I think you’d be surprised at how much of that material I agree with'.
“'As to your letter, I fully recognise that "the general rebellion against what our government has become is the most interesting (and I think important) story in our history this century",' he wrote. 'In the four years since the bombing, your work is the first to really explore the underlying motivations for such a strike against the US Government and for that, I thank you. " Sunday, August 19, 2001 - 02:00 a.m. Jamaica set to LEGALIZE. "A government commission recommended Thursday that marijuana be legalized for personal use by adults - a move the government will likely endorse despite opposition from the United States, which has spent millions to eradicate the crop on the Caribbean island. "The National Commission on Ganja also said Jamaica should allow the use of marijuana for religious purposes. This is important to the Rastafarian minority, who worship deceased Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie as a prophet and use marijuana as a sacrament. "Over the last 20 years, the United States has worked with Jamaica to burning marijuana fields and carry out other anti-drug efforts. It has also provided aid to fight drug trafficking in Jamaica, the Caribbean's largest marijuana exporter and a major transshipment point for cocaine bound for Europe and South America." Friday, August 17, 2001 - 11:30 p.m. UN orders Guatemala to legalize abortion "The United Nations Human Rights Committee concluded its seventy-second session last Friday and issued its final conclusions and recommendations, including a demand that Guatemala legalize abortion. "In its recommendations to Guatemala the committee said the Central American country 'must guarantee the right to the life of pregnant women who decide to interrupt their pregnancies.' The committee also ordered the country to provide pregnant women with 'the information and the means necessary to guarantee these rights.' Finally it said that Guatemala must protect the right to life of women by 'amending the law to establish exceptions to the general prohibition against all abortion, except where the mother is in danger of death.'" Saturday, August 4, 2001 - 01:45 p.m. Court denies Govt. move to have Library Filtering case thrown out. "The law at issue, the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), was passed last year as part of a massive funding measure. It requires all libraries that receive federal funding to install the pornography filters or forgo millions of dollars in federal subsidies and grants. "Earlier this year, the American Library Association and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed suit to overturn the law on the grounds that it muzzles constitutionally protected speech. The groups claim that most filtering technologies block material that is not at all related to pornographic content or hate sites, and that almost all filters let at least some of that content through. "The case will be heard in the same court that overturned two similarly controversial laws on Internet content. In 1996, the court overturned several aspects of the Communications Decency Act (CDA), which sought to ban many different types of speech on the Internet based mainly on its sexual or graphic nature." Saturday, July 28, 2001 - 12:55 p.m. Georgia Man faces half-million dollar fine for installing screen-savers on computers at work. "McOwen worked at DeKalb Technical College, Georgia, and installed Distributed RC5 client software onto hundreds of computers - allegedly without permission. "The 38-year-old did this as part of a contest run by Distributed.net, which started the scheme to try and crack an encryption code by using power from dormant computers worldwide. In order to attract as many participants as possible, a $1,000 reward was offered to the person whose computer actually cracked the code. "Little did McOwen know, but under state law what he had done was considered misuse of the state's computers, classed as a felony in Georgia." Saturday, July 28, 2001 - 12:45 p.m. Singaporeans must register political websites like Americans register guns. "Singapore has tightened its grip on Internet content in the run-up to the next election by ordering a current affairs portal, sintercom.org, to register as a political Web site. "'Limits are necessary because, while the Internet has great potential and utility, it also has its dangers,' Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said. 'On the Internet, information and disinformation are disseminated equally quickly and are not always easy to distinguish.' "Besides Sintercom, a variety of sites host forums for political chat, including Think Centre (www.thinkcenter.org), the National Solidarity Party (www.nsp.org.sg) and Singaporeans for Democracy (www.gn.apc.org/sfc)." Oh yeah, Singapore is quite the bastion of freedom, eh? Good thing we here in the USA don't have to put up with the nonsense of having the register with the government to exercise our basic rights... right? Saturday, July 28, 2001 - 12:00 p.m. New Software can read body movements, looks for suspicious behavior. First we have software which can recognize a person's face. Now we have software which can read your body movements. "Singapore scientists have created new software which may beef up surveillance efforts in the future by distinguishing between a person's normal activities and suspicious behavior. "The software created by researchers at the Nanyang Technological University can tell the difference between people walking, talking and acting normally, and abnormal behavior such as a fight or someone collapsing."
Saturday, July 28, 2001 - 11:55 a.m. Amnesty for Illegal Immigrant Workers? "Last week the Bush administration floated the possibility of an amnesty for all Mexicans in the US. The following day, as conservative groups responded with hostility to the idea, the government was distancing itself from the plan. Now there is uncertainty as to how far a legalisation process will actually go. "Ari Fleischer, a spokesman for Mr Bush, indicated this month that the administration is aware that there will be opposition. When Mr Fleischer was asked how Bush intended to deal with any possible backlash from anti-immigrant groups, he replied: 'Proudly.'" Some have argued Bush is just doing this to swing the Latino vote. But, does that really matter? I mean, shouldn't Bush do the right thing, either way? Saturday, July 28, 2001 - 11:45 a.m. China sentences US-based Sociologist to ten years in prison "Gao is one of five Chinese-born academics or writers with U.S. ties detained in the past year in an anti-spying crackdown. "She was accused of helping an American business professor, Li Shaomin, who was convicted July 14 of spying for Taiwan. "Gao's lawyers have said she gave Li photocopied book and magazine articles about Taiwan and its relations with China. They said Gao knew some were not meant for widespread distribution, but said she had no reason to know they were secret. They described the exchanges as normal scholarly cooperation." Monday, July 23, 2001 - 11:30 p.m. IRS Hunger Strike ends as IRS agrees to meet. "U.S. Assistant Attorney General Dan Bryant and Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett, R-Md., signed a written agreement yesterday that commits the government to send their top tax and legal experts to a two-day September hearing to be conducted on Capitol Hill.
"'The American people are entitled to answers. It is in our nation's interest that we participate and answer these questions,' stated Bryant.
"On Tuesday, Rep. Bartlett initiated a formal congressional inquiry to the IRS demanding official government responses for Schulz." Monday, July 23, 2001 - 12:00 p.m. 34,000 Students to Lose Financial Aid Under New Drug Law "The Bush administration's strict enforcement of a 1998 amendment to the Higher Education Act will deny federal loans to more than 34,000 students this coming school year, the Associated Press reported this week. "The provision withholds grants, loans or work assistance from anyone convicted of a drug offense, including the misdemeanor possession of marijuana. Those convicted of other crimes, including violent offenses, remain eligible. "'What kind of message are we sending when we deny aid to students whose only "crime" is that they smoked marijuana?' asked Keith Stroup, Executive Director of NORML." Friday, July 20, 2001 - 09:00 p.m. Britain's hardline gun-ban utter failure. "The controversial ban on the ownership of handguns which was introduced after the Dunblane massacre has failed to halt an increasing number of crimes involving firearms. "An independent report, Illegal Firearms in the UK, to be published by the Centre for Defence Studies at King's College in London tomorrow, says that handguns were used in 3,685 offences last year compared with 2,648 in 1997, an increase of 40 per cent. Will the limeys learn anything from this? Probally not, this report merely parrots news reports from 7 months ago that concluded the same thing: Gun bans don't prevent gun crime. Tuesday, July 17, 2001 - 12:55 a.m. Klamath Falls farmers bypass headgates with irrigation pipe. "Farmers sent water down an irrigation canal Sunday that has been parched since water was shut off last April to protect threatened and endangered fish. About 100 farmers used an irrigation line to bypass a canal head gate in a move officials called 'symbolic.'" Tuesday, July 17, 2001 - 12:30 a.m. British Schools begin indoctrination on the subject of Intellectual Property "If members of the U.K.'s Creative Industries Task Force have their way, British teenagers will soon be cramming for tests on intellectual property law and the legal implications of file-sharing. Schoolkids who download illicit MP3 files, cut and paste newspaper articles or e-mail them, or exchange JPEG files of Britney Spears will learn the error of their ways -- at least according to the copyright officials. "Classroom indoctrination is one way of targeting the Napster demographic. But can it work?
"To get a glimpse of this possible future of British elementary education, one must wade through a study produced by the task force's Intellectual Property Group, which includes representatives from British broadcasting, the music industry, publishers and others with an interest in protecting copyrighted material. The Report of the Intellectual Property Group of the Creative Industries Task Force recommends... that copyright be brought into the classroom... "If controversy over intellectual property can be managed into a school curriculum, will students learn the lesson? As with the American DARE program, will educators find that telling students what decision to make might actually backfire? "According to James Davison Hunter, professor of sociology and religious studies at the University of Virginia and author of 'The Death of Character,' 'Moral education programs have little or no positive effect upon moral behavior, achievement or anything else.'"
Monday, July 16, 2001 - 11:45 p.m. Gun Registration leads to Gun Confiscation in Illinois "The Chicago Police Department and the Illinois State Police have teamed up to make good on Mayor Daley's pledge that, if it were up to him, nobody would have a gun. Daley and his elite 'CAGE' unit are apparently taking advantage of gun privacy loopholes to pinpoint certain individuals for inclusion in the confiscation program. "Thanks to a ruling by a liberal federal judge, the CAGE unit now has the name of every single person in the United States who, since 1992, lawfully purchased more than one handgun in the period of a week. The CAGE unit also has all the makes, models and serial numbers of those guns. In essence, the Chicago Police Department is now registering guns and gun owners nationwide. "The ISRA has also learned that the CAGE unit has compiled a list of families where more than one person in that family holds a FOID card. Acting on that information, the CAGE unit is now contacting gun shops where those families have shopped, and is illegally registering all guns purchased by those families. "Now, it appears that the CAGE unit is scrubbing Chicago's gun registration list against the list of FOID card holders. Indications are that folks who have let their registrations and FOIDs lapse will have their guns confiscated. We have to wonder how long it will be until state troopers show up at the doors to confiscate the guns of non-Chicago residents who have let their FOIDs expire." Monday, July 16, 2001 - 11:00 a.m. UN Gun Grab steams along, Commentary and Report by Ollie North "If the utopian do-gooders at the United Nations have their way, between now and July 20 the members of this august body will adopt a 'non-binding Protocol' to, among other things, 'require member states to complete a registry of all Small Arms within their borders,' and to redress 'the excessive and destabilizing accumulation of, and illicit trafficking in, small arms and light weapons' by ''limiting the sale of such weapons only to governments.' "While most Americans agree that the U.N. has no business meddling in the U.S. Constitution, it is also disingenuous for the U.N. to mislead other member states in the belief that 'gun control' as it envisions it will somehow prevent more blood soaked killing fields. The facts say otherwise. "While the striped-pants set listened to each other pontificate about 'guns in the hands of more than 305 million people,' the citizens of Srebrenica, Bosnia, were honoring more than 7,000 people who were murdered in genocidal violence five years ago. Do the conference participants believe this massacre, Europe's worst since World War II, could have occurred if the citizens were legally armed? "Rwanda and Sierra Leone ban private ownership of guns. Would lawfully armed people in these places have allowed a million or more people to be hacked to death over the last seven years?" Monday, July 16, 2001 - 1:00 a.m. Feds, locals clash over water supply in Klamath Falls "The oldest tactic in the world for successful siege of any population is to cut off their water supply. It shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that this is exactly what is happening to the population of the Klamath Falls farming community. "Reports from the site indicate that, minute by minute, the throng of ordinary citizens grows to protest this siege by the very government that is sworn to defend the people from just such abuse. The American flag that was placed on the dam, upside down in the universal signal of distress, has been removed at the request of the protesters as of noon today. In a previous article John Lehto of the Sierra Times gives his opinion:"One might think these farmers, ranchers, loggers, and city folk are just looking out for their own interests. All water flowing through the A canal at this time is by a concentrated and orchestrated plan being sent to the Wildlife Refuge Area to provide water for the wildlife. Deer are roaming within the city limits of Klamath Falls looking for water and people have been putting out buckets of water to save the wildlife. Hey! Do you see any of the liberal environmentalist or animal rights activist out trying to really help the wildlife? NO, you just hear their continual whining about how the rest of us must save the wildlife and the forests while they are destroying not only the wildlife and forests but the lives of all Americans."
Saturday, July 14, 2001 - 08:15 p.m. Brady's ugly propaganda swf movie I found this via GeeksWithGuns.com, and I just don't know how to comment on it. Its just a really silly piece of propaganda. It starts out with "In 1776 a brave new nation took flight", and then it cuts to a stars and stripes airplane with George Washington in the pilots seat, with the plane taking off.First, I find it really suprising that they would even mention the date 1776, as it will obviously cause people to recall the war that we had to fight against an oppressive governemnt, and it will cause us to recall the fact that we used GUNS in that war. But the irony will be lost on most of the sheep who watch this stupid video. Anyways... it then says something like "since then our country has soared high and become a symbol of freedom", but they miss the obvious point that for most of that time organizations like the Bradys' have not existed. It is the freedom to bear arms that has allowed our nation to become a "symbol of freedom". The clap-trap continues to show Charlton Heston taking hostage of the plane, guns in each hand. "Tragically our nation has also become a symbol of violence." A malady I would blame on the War on Drugs, not the proliferation of arms. Unfortunately since we are living in a world where no one is allowed to carry weapons, especially on a plane, none of the other passengers has a gun to protect themselves. Instead the sheep-people merely lean over to one side of the plane and the manacing Charlton Heston goes flying out the door. Then then talk about something about organizing to strip us of our rights, simply on the grounds that the "majority" agrees with it. And then they go on to cite the usual bogus statistics "10 young people die each day", even tho most of these "young people" are 17-18 year olds involved in, guess what, THE DRUG WAR... yeah, it's the usual bullshit. I linked up to a copy on Geekswithguns.com instead of the copy on bradycampaign.org because I am certain once the Bradys realize how embarrassing this piece of crap is, they will remove it immediately. Saturday, July 14, 2001 - 08:00 p.m. Israel Bulldozes over Refuge camp, but since its a bunch of Arabs, so no one really gives a shit. "'This is an Israeli war against all Palestinian people. Where are human rights organisations, where is the international community?' Fatima Radwan, 45, asked after seeing her house destroyed. 'They are trying Milosevic, why not Sharon?" she demanded, referring to Yugoslavia's former president Slobodan Milosevic and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, as her daughter Iman, aged six, tried to retrieve what was left of their belongings."
Saturday, July 14, 2001 - 07:30 p.m. Mom gives Medical Marijuana to 7-year old son, County threatens to take him, now that he is well "For more than four years, the child had been a terror at home, unmanageable at school and a challenge to doctors and nurses who had ministered to him during three psychiatric hospitalizations. "According to a Web site published by his mother [which has since been taken down], she has tried everything to stabilize his illness, administering 19 drugs prescribed by 16 doctors over a span of four years. When all failed, the mother turned to a home remedy approved by her son's pediatrician: muffins flavored by a pinch of marijuana.
"'My son for the first time in his life is laughing and loving life,' the 30-year-old Rocklin woman wrote. 'He has very little to no angry outbursts, he is compliant, is doing great in school, and actually is making friends.' "Placer County's Child Protective Services has 'taken me to court, with accusations of me abusing my son.' Authorities have filed a petition that, under Welfare and Institutions Code Section 300, could result in the boy's removal from his home and placement elsewhere as a dependent of the court." Saturday, July 14, 2001 - 07:00 p.m. Aiken, SC Church holds book-burning I used to live in Augusta, which is local to this church, so I'm not suprised something like this would happen there. I posted some remarks to the (Augusta) Metropolatain Spirit Whine Line: "Okay, is the Pentecostal Church in Aiken not the tackiest church in the whole CSRA? I mean, who are they trying to attract to their congregation by having Nazi-like book-burning sessions. Burning copies of Harry Potter! and the movie Titanic?! Because of the nudity and the swearing, heavens! The only types of people that would be attracted to this church are the type who lead very sheltered shallow lives indeed. So, if thats the kind of people you want making up your congregation, go for it. I for one would rather spend my time with more tolerant types." Saturday, July 14, 2001 - 06:45 p.m. St. Petersburg Police accidently burn down house they raided "The search was supposed to result in the seizure of some marijuana, and likely not in an amount worthy of photographs. What the search actually resulted in was embarrassment for the St. Petersburg Police Department. The house was destroyed and no one was arrested as the hypothetical evidence went up in smoke." The long article also includes a very well documented arguement against the racist War On Drugs. Saturday, July 14, 2001 - 06:30 p.m. I Love Big Brother Well, I finally archived Big Brother, and I did an overhaul on the design. Let me know what you think. While you are at it, maybe someone could tell me why Big Brother experienced such a large volume of traffic two days ago, on the 12th. I got 227 page views which is about 200 more than normal. Obviously someone linked me up, but who? Anyways, I also added a newsfeed from the website FirearmNews.com, which is a really great place to steal links from ;) Keep up the good work, guys. -- Sir Mildred Pierce Saturday, July 14, 2001 - 06:00 p.m. |
bigbrother@popamericana.com required reading:  |
pitas.com gave me an excellent way to publish this website, and the webspace to do it, and all they got in return was this stupid link. archives Libertarianism and Libertarians An Introduction to Libertarianism The Libertarian Party The World's Smallest Political Quiz American Civil Liberties Union Advocates for Self-Government The International Society for Individual Liberty Miss Liberty's Film and Television Review Harry Brown Michael Reagan Neil Boortz The Drug War and Police State Marijuananews.com Operation Overgrow The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws Media Awareness Project Narco News The November Coalition antifa Students for a Sensible Drug Policy Ya-Hooka.com Free Hemp in Alaska Peter McWilliams Free Expression The Freedom Forum Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting The Free Expression Clearinghouse The Institute for First Amendent Studies Project Censored The First Amendment Handbook Reporters Without Boundries Gun Rights Jews for the Preservation of Firearm Ownership Ask a Rabbi Keep and Bear Arms Geeks with Guns Women Against Gun Control Gun Owners of America The Second Amendment Foundation The Citizen's Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms National Rifle Association Other Activist Links Fully Informed Jury Association The Seperation of School and State Alliance Dr. Breggin's Drugs John Taylor Gatto 2600 The Truth about TWA 800 sexuallymutilatedchild.org My Other Sites popamericana.com bananadine.com ichiban and crunk 76 76 undersounds Sir Mildred Pierce is the Rubber Dancer Kobayashi More Weblogs Mister Pants Windom Earle Waterloo Wide Web Unknownnews Rebecca's Pocket Doldrums General Diversion and Perversion The Violent Nation Superbad jodi.org The Music of Windom Earle |
Two airplanes slammed into the World Trade Center in New York City today, as almost everyone knows by now. Already calls for tighter security are being made from highest. Saw Dan Quayle on MSNBC calling for "extraordinary powers" to be given to the president. 
