-Caveat Lector-
RadTimes # 62 - October, 2000
An informally produced compendium of vital irregularities.
"We're living in rad times!"
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Contents:
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--Anti-IMF Riots Sweep Developing World
--A Culture Of Rage
--Legislation To Expand Tax Breaks for America's Weapons Dealers
--The NRO Declassified -- NSA
--FDA advisers tied to industry
--Crusading for the kisan of the Third World
--Protesters besiege IMF meet, dozens hurt in clashes [Prague]
--Grateful Dead Fights Music Pirates
--Bark, Bite, Stun -- All in a Police Dog's Repertoire
--Burma classifies caffeine as narcotic drug
Linked stories:
*FCC Suspends Last Elements of Broadcast 'Fairness' Rules
*The Death Factory [Texas]
*Burned by the Man [Burning Man]
*Alabama may allow interracial marriage
*Britain tightens gun laws
*Home and away: a college for homeschoolers
*Supreme Court Rejects Assault Weapons Ban Appeal
*Americans View Mentally Ill as Violence-Prone
*A History Of Secret Human Experimentation
*Eco-Heroes Or Terrorists?
*Opinion: The coming Internet depression
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Begin stories:
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Anti-IMF Riots Sweep Developing World
<http://www.wdm.org.uk/presrel/current/anti_IMF.htm>
IMF policies are linked to widespread protests in poor countries
25 Sept 2000
A new report today reveals that protests and riots against the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) and its policies, are taking place in poor countries
around the world. Since the Seattle protests ten months ago there have been
at least 50 separate episodes of civil unrest in 13 poor countries, all
directed at the IMF. Half of these protests have ended in violent clashes
with the police or military. In one country the protests led to a military
coupe.
The report uncovers a previously undocumented pattern of protest against the
policies of the International Monetary Fund. It links these policies to a
catalogue of riots and civil unrest in poor countries around the world.
The World Development Movement publishes its report, called `States of
Unrest: Resistance to IMF Policies in Poor Countries', on the eve of massive
protests against the IMF at its annual meeting, in Prague.
Jessica Woodroffe, co-author of the report said: "Attempts by the World
Bank and IMF to dismiss protesters as `rich students' are naïve and
insulting. Millions of people around the world have been brave enough to
protest against IMF policies. From Argentina to Zambia, farmers, priests,
teachers and trade unionists have called for an end to IMF imposed economic
reforms.
"Millions of people around the world have seen the IMF attempting to
undermine their national governments. It is seen as forcing countries into a
one-size -fits-all blue print of economic development.
"It is significant that all these protests have happened since the IMF
announced its new commitment to poverty reduction at its Annual Meetings
last September. The depth of opposition reveals just how far the IMF has to
go if its new poverty reduction rhetoric is to be anything more that a
re-branding exercise."
States of Unrest details examples where IMF policies are threatening fragile
and newly established democracies. It quotes Adams Oshiomhole, a Nigerian
trade union leader: "We are on a mission to rescue the president [who has]
been hijacked by the IMF and the World Bank. This country belongs to
Nigerians."
For full text of report click:
<http://www.wdm.org.uk/cambriefs/DEBT/unrest.htm>
For summary of report click:
<http://www.wdm.org.uk/cambriefs/DEBT/unrest_summary.htm>
For map of protests click here:
<http://www.wdm.org.uk/cambriefs/DEBT/unrest_map.htm>
Notes for editors:
1. Protest map: WDM have produced a high quality map to illustrate the
findings of the report. It plots the 50 anti-IMF and structural adjustment
protests since November 1999. A high resolution electronic version for
reproduction is available on request.
2. A summary of the report's findings and copies of the full report are
available on request from the WDM office in London (020 7274 7630).
3. States of Unrest catalogues 50 separate protests in 13 countries in the
last 10 months. Conservative estimates indicate that more than half of these
protests ended in the deployment of riot police or the army. A total of 10
people have lost their lives, and over 300 injured in protests against the
IMF and its policies. In Ecuador, IMF protests lead to the storming of the
legislature. States of Unrest makes extensive use of IMF and World Bank
policy documents, newspaper reports and testimony from NGOs and
campaigners in poor countries.
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A Culture Of Rage
by Margaret Randall
This week's mail brought a letter quite suddenly and
unceremoniously informing me that my health insurance
provider is discontinuing my group policy. "Your existing
QualMed health care coverage will end on October 31, 2000. .
. this is the only notice you will receive" is the way the
company's account representatives put it. I am one year and
three months away from 65, the age I will be eligible for
Medicare (if Medicare still exists). And if HMOs still have
senior plans by then, I may be able to draw on some
combination of government and private coverage. Last year I
earned $11,000. My partner is our household's main provider,
but I cannot be on her health plan because she is a teacher
and the Public School System for which she works does not
recognize domestic partners as families. For the past good
many years we have been spending an additional two to three
hundred dollars a month on my individual coverage. Now this
cost will no longer be an option.
I am one of the lucky ones. The same mail that delivered the
above letter brought another telling me that longtime peace
and justice activist Marv Davidov is currently fighting
prostate cancer, diabetes, and a broken ankle. The letter
asks for donations to help a man older than I am and with
neither health insurance, a 401(k) plan, stocks and bonds or
even a guaranteed job. I put what I could in the enclosed
envelope, hope many others will be moved to do the same, and
made a mental note to call my old friend.
Still, I am not representative of the millions of U.S.
Americans currently living below the poverty line, without
health insurance, often even without adequate shelter and
food. When compared with these citizens of the richest
nation on earth, I have little about which to complain. Yet
I am complaining. I am furious. A cursory look at either
presidential candidate's campaign promises in the area of
health care and prescription drug accessibility shows cheap
promises of "caring and commitment." Never mind that neither
major party has placed our nation's health high enough on
its political agenda to insure the coverage enjoyed by
citizens of all other industrialized countries and some
countries that have nowhere near our level of
industrialization. Attention to people's health, education,
and other basic needs is forever subordinate to maintaining
the U.S. death machine.
Those in power, whether they be our elected officials, the
CEOs of tobacco companies, manufacturers of automobile
tires or insurance industry magnates, continue to seduce our
support and then, when we need them, tell us they just can't
afford to help or that they want to "apologize to the
American people" or say sorry: the coverage you've paid into
all these years will end on such and such a date. Quite in
spite of whom we vote into office, it is clear that
corporate interests rule our lives. Further, increasingly
sophisticated handling techniques are aimed at giving us the
sense that our disempowerment is our fault. Any reassignment
of priorities is our responsibility.
The ever widening gap between those in power and those whose
needs are not being met, the rhetoric that describes
promises never intended to be kept, and the subtle and not
so subtle shifting of blame from those in power to the
victims of such a system, is creating a culture of rage
whose effects upon our way of life are impossible to
compute. But we can make some predictions. If we continue to
spend more on prisons and the military than on people's
health and education, if corporate CEOs continue to draw six
figure salaries while one fourth of our country's children
live in poverty, if more and more U.S. Americans swell the
ranks of the homeless, the downsized, the throw-away elderly
and those without healthcare, we cannot be surprised by the
social rage that is everyday more evident.
Road rage. Telephone rage. Massive depression and despair. A
sense of disenfranchisement that forces people who care, in
one election after another to swallow hard and cast their
vote for whomever they presume to be the least damaging of
the available "choices". This rage has been palpable for
years in poor minority communities, inner city ghettos, on
Indian reservations and in areas of rural poverty. The only
change is that it has now invaded middle America: white
middle-class suburbia. We are no longer surprised or even
shocked by the teenager who goes on a killing spree or the
presidential candidate who lies about his opponent's and/or
his own record and intentions. Still saddened, but not
shocked.
An impotent rage courses through the nation's veins, all its
veins. Whether or not we as a people have a future with any
degree of dignity and peace depends upon our collective
ability to channel that rage into constructive action.
Through lesson after painful lesson we are learning that
this constructive action will not work if it is within the
framework of electoral politics as we know it.
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Legislation To Expand Tax Breaks for America's Weapons Dealers
<www.clw.org/cat>
Arms Trade Insider # 37
September 26, 2000
Contact: Erik Floden - 202.546.0795 x-110
Luke Warren - 202.546.0795 x-127
Who Wants to be a $300 Millionaire? Arms Exporters Do!
Legislation in Congress Expands Tax Breaks for America's Weapons Dealers
This week the Senate will likely consider legislation recently passed by
the House that doubles the tax break for the U.S. defense industry's arms
exports. The tax break will provide an additional $300 million annually in
corporate welfare for the defense industry - an unnecessary subsidy for an
industry that already controls over a third of the world arms market. It is
incumbent on the Senate to give this bill its full attention and strike the
provisions that will line the pockets of some of America's richest and most
undeserving corporations.
The bill, H.R. 4986, replaces an export tax system created in 1976 that
placed a 50% limit on tax breaks for arms exports sold through off-shore
tax havens. Recently, the World Trade Organization ruled that the existing
system provided U.S. defense corporations with an unfair advantage over
their European competitors. In doing so, the WTO granted U.S. arms dealers
a long-awaited opportunity to expand the already generous tax break they
receive for weapons exports. Under intense pressure from the defense
lobby, Congress gave them the full 100% tax break they requested.
The tax break, which may appear to promote United States exports, is
nothing more then blatant profiteering by an industry that already
dominates the world market. According to the Congressional Budget Office
(CBO), "U.S. defense industries have significant advantages over their
foreign competitors and thus should not need additional subsidies to
attract sales." The CBO position is supported by data from the
Congressional Research Service, which noted in a recent report that the
U.S. overwhelmingly dominates the world arms market. In 1999, U.S. defense
contractors exported $18.4 billion worth of weapons, more than the rest of
the world combined. Why then is Congress giving the defense industry a $2
billion export subsidy over the next 10 years?
For years, the defense lobby has actively lobbied for an increased tax
break, arguing that their European counterparts enjoy a competitive
advantage because of subsidies from European governments. While critical
of European government support, American weapons dealers conveniently gloss
over the fact that the U.S. government provides nearly $3 billion to U.S.
allies to purchase U.S. weapons. In addition, U.S. military and embassy
personnel provide to weapons exporters with substantial marketing and sales
support.
The U.S. should be taking the initiative to curb conventional weapons
proliferation, not promote it by easing the tax burden on weapons
exporters. Over the next ten years $2 billion could be better spent in a
number of other areas of greater public value than to further fatten the
wallets of American weapons exporters.
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The NRO Declassified -- NSA
<http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB35/>
The latest electronic briefing book from the National Security
Archive (NSA) features 23 declassified or unclassified documents
related to the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), established in
1961 but only acknowledged by the Department of Defense in 1992. The
NRO was created to "manage the development and operation of the
nation's reconnaissance satellite systems" in the wake of the capture
of U2 pilot Gary Powers and problems in the fledgling CIA and Air
Force satellite reconnaissance programs. This collection of annotated
digitized documents traces the development of the NRO from its
inception in 1961-2 to the first major outside review of the NRO
conducted during the Clinton administration in 1996.
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FDA advisers tied to industry
<http://www.usatoday.com/news/washdc/ncssun06.htm>
09/25/00
by Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY
More than half of the experts hired to advise the government on the safety
and effectiveness of medicine have financial relationships with the
pharmaceutical companies that will be helped or hurt by their decisions, a
USA TODAY study found.
These experts are hired to advise the Food and Drug Administration on which
medicines should be approved for sale, what the warning labels should say
and how studies of drugs should be designed.
The experts are supposed to be independent, but USA TODAY found that 54% of
the time, they have a direct financial interest in the drug or topic they
are asked to evaluate. These conflicts include helping a pharmaceutical
company develop a medicine, then serving on an FDA advisory committee that
judges the drug.
The conflicts typically include stock ownership, consulting fees or
research grants.
Federal law generally prohibits the FDA from using experts with financial
conflicts of interest, but the FDA has waived the restriction more than 800
times since 1998.
These pharmaceutical experts, about 300 on 18 advisory committees, make
decisions that affect the health of millions of Americans and billions of
dollars in drugs sales. With few exceptions, the FDA follows the
committees' advice.
The FDA reveals when financial conflicts exist, but it has kept details
secret since 1992, so it is not possible to determine the amount of money
or the drug company involved.
A USA TODAY analysis of financial conflicts at 159 FDA advisory committee
meetings from Jan. 1, 1998, through last June 30 found:
At 92% of the meetings, at least one member had a financial conflict of
interest.
At 55% of meetings, half or more of the FDA advisers had conflicts of interest.
Conflicts were most frequent at the 57 meetings when broader issues were
discussed: 92% of members had conflicts.
At the 102 meetings dealing with the fate of a specific drug, 33% of the
experts had a financial conflict.
"The best experts for the FDA are often the best experts to consult with
industry," says FDA senior associate commissioner Linda Suydam, who is in
charge of waiving conflict-of-interest restrictions.
But Larry Sasich of Public Citizen , an advocacy group, says, "The industry
has more influence on the process than people realize."
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Crusading for the kisan of the Third World
<http://www.timesofindia.com/today/27mban8.htm>
by Paawana Poonacha
BANGALORE: Thirteen years ago, after kicking up her job as professor at the
Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, she landed in a cow shed at the
``backyard of her house.'' From here Vandana Shiva began her crusade not
just for sustainable development but also for justice for the Third World
farmer.
Today, as the director of Navdhanya Sanghatan, Vandana has farmers across
the globe listening to her in rapt attention as she speaks of food rights.
``It was a shiver down my spine that changed my life,'' she said in an
exclusive interview with The Times of India on Tuesday. She recalls that at
a conference on Biotechnology in Geneva in 1987, a multi-national company
declared that only five companies on biotechnology and life sciences would
survive by the turn of the century.
``Our planet cannot be the property of five companies alone,'' she says,
reiterating her stand over the years of not allowing a monopoly of biotech
industries.
``I have been associated with the Chipko movement since childhood and that
came handy in gathering agriculturists from hilly and rural areas in my
crusade,'' says Vandana, who holds a doctorate in Quantum Theory. She senses
a threat to the farmers and living resources due to corporate monopolies and
manipulation through anti-life technologies. ``The corporations were
designing technologies like the `terminator' to prevent germination of seeds
and force farmers to buy seeds every year.''
She points out that for a farmer, whose land is an extension of his family,
seed selection, saving and replanting cycle has continued since the
beginning of agriculture. Patents and property rights on seed imposed by
Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) agreement of W.T.O are
similar to the draconian Salt Laws of the British which forbid the farmer
from saving, exchanging and reusing seeds for a good harvest.
``The farmers will be left high and dry unless they are backed constantly.
The seeds at the grain banks of Navdhanya Sanghatan are conserved with
sustainable agricultural growth traditions ensuring both good food and
protection of farmers' livelihood,'' Vandana adds.
Many local groups have been trained to set up similar units by Navdhanya
Sanghatan. The association is also into assessing the ecological impact of
genetically modified seeds and legal research in biodiversity. They have
started good food campaigns throughout the country. The centre grows over
400 varieties of rice, wheat, legumes and other crop varieties.
Vandana is unhappy with government policies which according to her, is
curbing the freedom of farmers. ``No doubt technology must grow and it has
to be implemented, but this should not allow unreasonable destruction of
food security by free trade rules of W.T.O,'' she says.
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Protesters besiege IMF meet, dozens hurt in clashes
By Radek Narovec
PRAGUE, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Black-clad demonstrators hurled cobblestones torn
from Prague's historic streets and torched police with Molotov cocktails on
Tuesday as they made good on vows to besiege the annual meetings of the World
Bank and IMF.
A steady stream of delegates, including ministers, headed for the metro
station at the end of the conference where special trains had been brought in
to take delegates away, under heavy police protection. The station had been
shut during the day.
Protesters, many armoured with padding and wielding sticks, closed in to
within metres of the congress centre, pelting police and stray delegates with
a hail of bottles, rocks and Molotov cocktails.
The scene was reminiscent of the so-called 'Battle in Seattle', where violent
demonstrators halted a meeting by the World Trade Organisation, the first in
a spate of disruption at meetings of international financial organisations.
Police tried to force the rioters back with water cannon, tear gas, dogs,
thunderflashes and even threw cobblestones as they were at times overwhelmed
by hundreds of masked youths shouting anti-globalist slogans.
Early on, several police were set alight when a Molotov cocktail exploded
among them. Their colleagues extinguished the flames using a water cannon.
The worst threat to those at the conference occurred when protesters stormed
a hotel just across the road from the congress centre. They pelted financiers
and journalists with stones until police pushed them back with dogs and
truncheons.
Officials said one Russian and one Japanese delegate were hurt.
UNDER SIEGE
Security officials said the activists, who had pledged not to use violence
and to blockade the delegates inside the building until they abolished the
World Bank and the IMF, had managed to put the congress centre under siege.
``The centre has been cut off. All roads (accessible by cars) are blocked by
protesters,'' said the congress centre's traffic and security officer Lubomir
Brychta, adding that he hoped police would open a corridor out later.
A delegate inside the conference centre said those inside were not allowed to
leave the building at all.
Host Czech President Vaclav Havel, who led the bloodless revolution that
toppled Communist rule in 1989, condemned the clashes and called on
protesters to end the violence, his spokesman said in a statement.
Officials said at least 65 people had been injured, mostly police. Many were
hurt by projectiles, and emergency services also treated burns from the
petrol bombs. A British journalist was also hurt.
There were no reliable estimates of the number of demonstrators arrested, but
Reuters correspondents in the city saw dozens detained.
PROTEST ORGANISERS DISAPPOINTED
Police called reserves from all over the country to add to the 11,000
officers already guarding the city, and the umbrella protest group INPEG,
which organised marches that began Tuesday morning, said it disagreed with
the violence.
``We're really disappointed... We were really hoping for a non-violent
protest on the basic issues of the IMF and the World Bank... but instead now
the focus has shifted to the streets of Prague,'' said INPEG organiser
Chelsea Mosen.
At the back of the congress centre, a water cannon drove through ranks of
activists who wielded sticks, rocks, and bottles. Police helicopters
clattered overhead.
One protester smashed the back window of a limousine with a stone as the car
raced inside the venue's perimeter, and elsewhere others rained down rocks on
waiting ambulances, which eventually fled the crowd.
Other groups roamed the streets randomly smashing windows of stores and
hotels and torched at least one car.
But many more marchers, most of them foreign, kept their cool, waving banners
that demanded the cancellation of debt to poor countries and the shutdown of
the IMF. Some shouted ``No Violence, No Violence.''
Police said there were up to 9,000 activists, less than half the 20,000
organisers had hoped to attract to Prague.
The rest of Prague was unusually quiet with schoolchildren enjoying an extra
holiday officials proclaimed recently in anticipation of trouble hitting the
streets of this picturesque city.
But to one local the disturbances represented a business opportunity. He set
up a makeshift stall next to the closed Vysehrad metro station and was
selling cold beer and snacks to police and delegates -- at a 100 percent
mark-up.
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Grateful Dead Fights Music Pirates
September 26, 2000
By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Business Writer
MILL VALLEY, Calif. (AP)
The Grateful Dead's communal spirit
is part of rock 'n' roll lore, but the band is just as merciless as
the next capitalist when a digital pirate tries to make money off
its music.
``They have always been vehement about this: If someone is going
to make money, it should be them,'' said Eric Doney, the Dead's
attorney. ``The music belongs to the creators, not someone else.''
The Dead's no-nonsense stance underscores the depths of the
music industry's anti-piracy sentiment as computer technology makes
more recordings available for free over the Internet.
The laws protecting unlicensed use of copyrighted material face
another litmus test Oct. 2 when a federal appeals court is
scheduled to review a ruling that banned a music-swapping site run
by San Mateo-based Napster Inc.
While the Dead officially remains neutral in the Napster
controversy, the service violates a policy the band established a
few months before the immensely popular Web site started last year.
As digital audio files such as MP3 emerged as a viable format,
the Dead reiterated its long-standing commitment to allowing fans
to trade recordings of the band's 2,300 concerts.
Under the April 1999 policy, though, the Dead declared that ``no
commercial gain may be sought by Web sites offering digital files
of our music, whether through advertising, exploiting databases
compiled from their traffic, or any other means.''
Doney said the Dead's digital policy is a natural extension of
the band's longtime commitment to sharing its music with its fans
without compromising its intellectual property rights.
``We have never ever allowed anyone to sell a tape of a concert
_ not even for the price of just the tape itself,'' Doney said.
During a 30-year touring career that ended with the 1995 death
of lead guitarist Jerry Garcia, the band encouraged its fans _
known as ``Deadheads'' _ to record concerts and swap the tapes
among themselves. The band has never authorized bootlegged copies
of its studio recordings.
Despite the thousands of Dead tapes circulating around the world
since the 1960s, piracy never was much of a problem for the band
until technology made it easy to swap digital recordings.
Doney, a pioneer in software piracy law, employs three or four
people who scour the Internet for copyright and trademark
violations of his firm's clients, which include major corporations.
Keeping tabs on the Grateful Dead's copyrighted music and
trademarks _ including its famous ``Steal Your Face'' skull logo _
requires about three or four hours each day, Doney said.
When violations are flagged, a warning from the Dead's attorneys
usually is enough to stop the illegal activity.
If necessary, the group uses the powers of the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act to force the Internet service provider or,
in the case of online auctions, the Web site operator, to remove
the offending material. The Dead so far hasn't had to resort to
lawsuits.
Doney believes there are relatively few violations because most
Deadheads ``don't want to steal from the band. They love this band
and just want to be able to enjoy the music, not profit from it.''
Geoff Gould, a San Francisco Deadhead who runs a Web site
dedicated to the band, said he often fields e-mails from fellow
fans who spot copyright violations. He passes them on to the Dead's
business headquarters.
``There are still a few, mostly younger fans who don't like this
policy,'' Gould said. ``They say stuff like, 'Man, music should
always be free and Jerry wouldn't have liked this.'
``But ... most fans have a general understanding of this honor
system, even if they don't completely understand intellectual
property issues.''
Ultimately, the Dead realizes that continuing advances in
technology probably will enable determined pirates to find a way to
illegally obtain and profit from the band's music.
Doney believes these kinds of threats will force more artists to
cultivate goodwill by making some music available to fans for free,
as the Dead has for years. ``If the majority of people can enjoy
the music without incurring costs, then there will be no reason to
pirate it,'' he said.
On the Net: <http://www.dead.net>
Fan site: <http://www.gdforum.com>
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Bark, Bite, Stun -- All in a Police Dog's Repertoire
LONDON (Reuters) - Not content with having police dogs bite
criminals, law enforcement agencies in the United States have
fitted dogs with stun gun muzzles -- but what they really
wanted was dogs that could both bite and stun criminals.
Their wish has come true. Researchers in the United States
have developed stun muzzles which can be fired or discarded by
radio-control, New Scientist magazine said on Wednesday.
Stunmuzzle of Orange, California, has patented a
quick-release muzzle that also carries a radio-controlled stun
gun, the magazine said.
The device allows a police dog to approach criminals and
nuzzle up to them. Once the dog locates exposed flesh or thin
clothing, a police officer can then activate the stun gun.
But if the dog cannot find a suitable place to stun the
villain, the police officer can release a latch on the muzzle
by remote control allowing the dog to bite the criminal.
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Burma classifies caffeine as narcotic drug
Wednesday, 4 October 2000
RANGOON, Burma, Oct. 4 (UPI) -- Burma's state-controlled media Wednesday
published new government regulations declaring caffeine a narcotic drug.
"The Ministry of Health of the Union of Myanmar (Burma) proclaimed caffeine
a narcotic drug or a chemical used as a precursor in making psychotropic
substances, in exercise of sub-section (b) of Section 16 and sub-section (b)
of Section 30 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Law," said
the brief announcement.
The announcement in the English language New Light of Myanmar newspaper did
not say whether coffee drinkers would be prosecuted under the law or what
the penalties for possession would be.. Burmese law carries tough
penalties, including death, for the possession of narcotics such as heroin
and opium. It also classifies amphetamines, the production of which are
rampant at clandestine laboratories along the Thai border, as narcotics.
The U.S. government has accused the ruling junta in Burma of widespread and
systematic involvement in the production of opium, heroin and amphetamines.
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Linked stories:
********************
FCC Suspends Last Elements of Broadcast 'Fairness' Rules
<http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/04/politics/04CND-ATTA.html>
"The federal government today suspended two long- established rules that
had required television and radio broadcasters to provide free reply time
for opponents of political candidates endorsed by the stations, and for
candidates and others whose integrity is attacked on the airwaves."
********************
The Death Factory
<http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/02/opinion/02HERB.html>
"By the end of the year Texas will likely have set a record for executing
people."
********************
Burned by the Man
<http://www.sfbg.com/SFLife/35/01/lead.html>
A critical look at how America's premier art party copes
with cops and the quest for utopia.
********************
Alabama may allow interracial marriage
<http://www.salon.com/mwt/wire/2000/10/04/marriage_law/index.html>
Alabama is the last state whose constitution forbids marriage
between blacks and whites. A ballot proposal may remove that
prohibition (section 102) and allow "mixed" couples like Henry
and Alison Penick to live together in peace. (10/4/00)
********************
Britain tightens gun laws
<http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=2000/10/4/202649>
Britain is tightening its already oppressive gun laws
and putting even more limits on the ownership of firearms,
including imitation firearms for youngsters. The measures
are intended to curb the development of a "gun culture"
in the country. (10/5/00)
********************
Home and away: a college for homeschoolers
<http://www.edweek.org/tm/tmstory.cfm?slug=02home.h12>
The first Monday in October, notable as the starting date
for Supreme Court terms, also marks the debut of Patrick Henry
College, the nation's first college for homeschoolers. (10/00)
********************
Supreme Court Rejects Assault Weapons Ban Appeal
<http://www.jointogether.org/jtodirect.jtml?U=83952&O=264667>
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal by two gunmakers
who claimed the U.S. Congress overstepped its authority when
it banned the manufacture, sale and possession of
semiautomatic assault weapons.
********************
Americans View Mentally Ill as Violence-Prone
<http://www.jointogether.org/jtodirect.jtml?U=83952&O=264669>
A study that traced public perceptions of the mentally ill
over four decades found that Americans associate mental
illness with violence, despite evidence to the contrary.
********************
A History Of Secret Human Experimentation
<http://www.healthnewsnet.com/humanexperiments.html>
********************
Eco-Heroes Or Terrorists?
<http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=9813>
Benjamin Chadwick, E Magazine
Activists who sabotage the operations of environmental
aggressors are often labeled as terrorists. However, they never
harm other humans -- much less animals or the environment.
********************
Opinion: The coming Internet depression
<http://www.msnbc.com/modules/exports/ct_infobeatBIZ.asp?/news/472396.asp>
Americans are hooked on financial markets and enthusiasm for the new
economy is high, writes Michael J. Mandel. But there's a downside, and
the tech stock bubble could burst anytime.
********************
======================================================
"Anarchy doesn't mean out of control. It means out of 'their' control."
-Jim Dodge
======================================================
"Communications without intelligence is noise;
intelligence without communications is irrelevant."
-Gen. Alfred. M. Gray, USMC
======================================================
"It is not a sign of good health to be well adjusted to a sick society."
-J. Krishnamurti
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