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As quoted from <nate.1504.735838830@psygate.psych.indiana.edu> by nate@psygate.psych.indiana.edu (Nathan Engle): What laws did they circumvent? Being "frightening" isn't a crime. Some people are afraid of young Black males. That doesn't make the mere status of being a young Black male a crime. The BATF itself admitted leading off by throwing handgrenades. There is no evidence that they properly identified themselves as law enforcement personnel. Under those circumstances, other persons have been found to be acting within their legal rights to exercise self defense against unidentified armed intruders. The charges are irrlevant anyway, since the BATF has absolutely no jurisdiction in such matters anyway. Of course that hasn't stopped them from making other such spurious charges, such as the existence of mythical "meth labs". Of course they whole "cult" thing indicates the level of contempt that they have for the 1st amendment. That armed resistance, at least initially, may well have been LEGAL.
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For those who didn't figure it out, the below message was a reply to another in sci.crypt, for which the poster put t.p.g. in the Followup-To line. I didn't notice that. Apologies to those who were confused. The substance makes little sense unless one reads the prior messages. However, I don't wish to enter into this discussion here, as it will be yet another rehearsal of a long-tired set of arguments. Suffice it to say that I disagree both with the interpretation of "well-regulated" in the Second Amendment offered by gun lovers, and what I think to be their distortion of the same phrase in the associated Federalist papers. My Webster and my reading of the language convinces me that the word meant both under control, and disciplined, and not 'of good marksmanship'. I think the latter a special interest pleading. No one has yet shown a contemporateous reference in which "well regulated" unambiguously meant 'of good marksmanship', and not under control/disciplined, etc. Thus I continue to believe the Second Amendment is a militia clause and not an 'arming everyone' clause. Others are welcome to disagree (as I know many do) and little would be served by rehashing this topic in this particular forum. To avoid flames, or unproductive rehashings, I note that I've come in here to post this one message, just to clarify the one below. I'm now outta here again though I'm available via e-mail. David
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Ok, you don't like what I have to say. Would you care to demonstrate how the above list, or any expanded version of it you chose to post, demonstrates fairness in the actions of the UN wrt Israel? You make the odd assumption that I read Israeli papers, not European ones. My main source of news is the Economist, a London based magazine. Also, I do on rare occaisons, read Arab papers, but its hard to find English language papers from Arab countries here. Have I ever claimed to be objective? I pointed out, with a 27 item list, that Israel is condemned for actions that other nations are not condemned for. You go off and attack me for reading only Israeli newspapers. If you'd like to debate this, please do. If you'd like to make ad hominum attacks, feel free to do that too. But try not to mask one as another. Adam Adam Shostack adam@das.harvard.edu
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Not due to race. Due to membership in an organization which publically proclaimed it would destroy the state which expelled them -- and furthermore kill a large segment of the citizens of that state, based on race.
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(sic) Oh, you're really bright. As if nobody would have understood it was a typo. Several parents with children who either had at one time or currently were inside the compound made the aforementioned charges. One parent actually spoke about said charges (in reference to his 13-year old daughter) WITH Koresh on the phone. You missed my point entirely. Since you're unable to formulate a cogent response, you make a lame joke. Anti-social. Normally meaning a response against societal norms. Stealing is sociopathic behavior. It's not an oxymoron to have a GROUP of SOCIOPATHS. I guess you're NOT a psychologist. Oh well... Maybe YOU should get an education, my man. Why won't some assholes use a sig so I can send them mail instead of wasting bandwidth?
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I am not a paranoid, nor a government toady, nor even am I the guy you were talking to originally, but I think you are simply NOT PAYING ATTENTION. A bunch of people living off by themselves with a lot of guns nearby is not that wierd in Texas. My own family, very quiet taxpayers with extremely con- ventional views, has something like 10 rifles and shotguns in a two-person home. Some of them were mine, but I don't live there anymore. I now have my own shotgun in my apartment. Texas Child Protective Services (which loves to find child abuse) found no, I repeat NO, evidence of abuse when they first looked at the BD, and is saying that they see none in any of the kids who were released. There is no evidence that Koresh was banging anyone but his wives. It is not against the law to stockpile (most) weapons or campbell's soup. Nor is there any hard evidence in the form of actual hardware (as I write this) to prove the BD really had any *proscribed* weapons. I feel they were all loonies, but there is no indication that they ever bothered anyone. They were gone after in the wrong ways for the wrong reasons, and the BATF and FBI who are so busy trumpeting this child abuse angle hasn't got a leg to stand on or any right to be involved in such abuse cases anyway. If there was any real danger of the BD's going out on a rampage, then that is up to the officers of the state of Texas, who are probably getting a per- verse bit of pleasure at getting to torque the Feds for fucking up something in their state. semper fi,
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This can be turned around. The Austrians who should feel guilty about their actions during WWII, but don't, justify their anti-semetism by making every Israeli action into an atrocity. The Austrians, Germans and other Europeans have extensive trading relations with the Arab block; being pro-Arab is good for business. I don't think that ethics has a thing to do about it.
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Another name for this region is Cis-Jordan.
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None of you guys noticed my "Gross Mistake" 'cause you don't have a clue. I noticed the misspeaking myself and corrected it. I doubt you would have ever noticed. Actually I've read books and taken courses on the subject. Ah yes and like you lived in the greater Deutschland. You guys are funny. It's funny to see people lose control and start the name calling when they realize they have no point. Could have fooled me. I understand how individual liberties (freedom of speach, religion etc.) could be a thing you "never heard about". Actually, Civil Libertarians believe in the fundamental freedoms that belong to human beings. They would support the Jews against the Nazis or anyone else who tries to oppress them and they would support the Arabs against the Israelis and any other such oppressive regimes (Iraq etc.) Well actually now that you mentioned here are a few things I appreciate: 1. Politeness 2. Stimulating conversation 3. A red rose 4. New York in june and a good Gerschwinn tune 5. A chocalate Sundae 6. Really angry out of controll funny people
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NO SURRENDER! Delivered by Lenda Jackson at the RKBA Rally in Denver, April 18, 1993 It is a fact of modern life that urban residents, particularly women, feel threatened. A certain number of them actually are threatened. There are immediate threats, the things that women will tell you they're afraid of. The noise downstairs at night. The lonely walk to the car. The stranger at the door. The abusive husband, finally kicked out of the house as he threatens to hurt her and their children. The burglar... The mugger...the rapist. And what are we told is the solution? Move. Get a dog. Keep the door locked. Call the police. as a next-to-last resort, learn martial arts. and always, there's the implied question "what's a pretty little thing like you doing without a husband around to protect you? But what if you don't like dogs? Like living alone? Don't have 10 years to devote learning judo? What if, after examining the facts, a woman learns that "rape victims using armed resistance were less likely to have the rape completed - and were less likely to be injured(Kleck,124) than those using any other form of resistance (Kleck,126) (also true for robbery/assault)(Kleck,123) What if, to our horror and despair, we find that citizens cannot depend on the police for effective protection - they usually respond after a crime has been committed. In truth, the Supreme Court has held that the police are not responsible for protecting any individual, only the whole community. As a society, are we going to ask women, once again, to sacrifice themselves? Are we going to continue to deny women the ability to help themselves? Here's a thought. Neil Smith, in his book The Probability Broach, says "no 220 pound thug can threaten the well being or dignity of a 110- pound woman who has two pounds of iron to even things out." But if a woman decides to protect herself, with the easiest, most efficient means possible, people - especially other women - are horrified. "Eughh, how could you? I'd be terrified!" they ask. How could you hurt someone? They'll repeat the lie: it'll just get taken away from you. In truth, 1% of "defensive gun uses" result in the offender taking the gun away from the victim.(122,Kleck) Well, despite the lies, and the social pressure, some of us have already made that hard choice. We've decided that we are not going to be victimized by the muggers, burglars or rapists. We're buying more guns than every before. We're learning how to use them - and teaching others, women and men, how to use them. Most importantly, we are preparing ourselves mentally to use our firearms for our own defense. We're taking our own security, literally, into our own hands. We're going to stop begging and pleading and marching and WHAT WE INTEND IS TO REALLY TAKE BACK THE NIGHT. But there's another threat, more insatiable than any mugger, more secretive than any burglar, more soul-destroying than any rapist. That menace is government, and it threatens us all. We know that governments, throughout time, have suppressed rights and oppressed people. It's the way they survive. In our names and with our money, it interferes with innocent people both at home and abroad. It lies to us, cheats us, steals from us and threatens us with violence. No one knows exactly what it'll do next - what freedom we will lose because some government goon decides "it's for your own safety" or "we know best". Any person who acted like government does would be psychoanalyzed within an inch of his life and locked up as a habitual offender. But this monster called government persists, and grows. And we, who should be its masters, have become its unwilling slaves. Do you doubt me? Then why did you file your income tax? Like any reasonable person, I believe that being afraid of something that can hurt you is smart, and that paranoia isn't crazy if someone's really after you. And make no mistake, they're after you and they're after me. Their names are familiar: Brady and Reynolds, Groff, Metzenbahm, Moynihan, and Clinton. If we're lucky, they'll settle for our assault rifles, our shotguns, our handguns and our ammunition. As citizens, we have only two choices. They are the same two choices given to women: to surrender or to fight. Surrender leads to the gulag, to the genocide of Pol Pot, to the disappearances, to Dachau. I do not intend to surrender. A battle can be philosophical or political: in the main, the people keep the government honest by threatening to vote it out of office. But if they have to, they will keep in mind the words of Thomas Jefferson: "the tree of liberty must be well watered with the blood of patriots." As a patriot, I will point out the error in the government's ways. I will do my best to vote the villains out of office. I will protest, and write, and speak, and teach our children justice, honor and truth. And always remember that Rebellion can lead to Bunker Hill and Saratoga......or it can lead to Tiananmen Square. When the time comes to stand up, if I have to give my life to keep them from going too far, if there is a Tiananmen Square in our future, I intend to be there. And no matter what lies they tell and no matter what laws they pass, I intend to meet them with something more substantial in my hand than a brick.
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What is this "Gaza"? Are you purposely separating it from the "West Bank"? If so, why separate the people and territories? If not, why are you just addressing "Gaza" here? By all means, continue to list the "etc." The reason I particularly bring this up here is that there are **many** from middle eastern and west asian countries. That fact in itself **adds** an important element to any consideration of "resolution" of the Arab-Israel conflict. You explained what "sea" meant with regard to the Israelis/jews, please do so in this case. "Just"? You better not ask for that because that would mean North American tribes would be returned their lands, the pre-Islamic tribes would take back their lands from the Islamic invaders, the Saxons get to kick the Normans out of the UK, the central and south american tribes get to kick the spanish descendents out of thier lands..... And, once we have returned the land to those who last possessed it, we have to find out from whom **they** stole it. At some point, *every* culture stole the land they are on from previous occupants. But wait! Now you refer to "Palestinians", so what happened to "Gaza"? As we both know, most people would choose the third alternative. And, since you have done so in the past, perhaps you would initiate things by presenting your vision of "resolution". In doing so, however, the worries (not paranioas, *worries*) and resonable expectations **of both** parties should be considered.
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I've yet to meet a group of Baptists who were stockpiling Cambell's soup and M-16's/AR-15's and banging/marrying thirteen yuear olds. You're a sorry son of a bitch if you can't draw a distinction between these two things. People like you cheapen our constitution by using it to defend sociopaths who aren't deserved of it. Get a life and chill on the paranoia.
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Why? He, Reno, and the FBI got what they wanted -- a reminder of who is the boss in America -- the thugs who work for the government.
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Please, read my post carefully, I am saying that lift the arms emargo and let the MUSLIMS defend themselves. The point is these Europians "civilized countries" neither want to get intervene militarily themselves and nor they like to see the muslims of the world to help the oppressed. (Remember what happened almost one year ago when the so called UN discovered some riffles in an Iranian jet in Bosnia!). The west is not indifferent in this matter they are siding with Serbs by keeping this embargo on only muslim side (okay on-paper on both sides). -Khalid
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From: Center for Policy Research <cpr> Subject: Zionists reject non-Jews. News Ethiopian Jews and not-quite Jews The Israeli press has published items about Ethiopian Jews waiting in camps in Addis Ababa for immigration to Israel, who are dying of starvation. The following are excerpts from an interview with the former general director of the JDC project for development and welfare of Ethiopian Jews, Kobi Friedman (Hadashot, 21 April 1993), who has stated that "there are people dying in Addis Ababa, but they are converts to Christianity": "Hadashor published the item about the dying Jews after viewing a video tape filmed last week in Adis Ababa. How do you know that they are actually converts to Chritianity ? "If there are Jews on the tape, then I don't know what to say. I am speaking from experience when I say that those who remained in Ethiopia are Christians. I know that there have previously been things published in the press by interesting parties, and there is no connection between them and reality." "What interested parties ?" "Ethiopian immigrants who want their Christian relatives to come here." "What to you recommend that Ethiopian children in Israel do, when their parents and the rest of their relatives remain in Ethiopia ?" "I ask if it is the job of the State of Israel to bring in the 40 relatives who stayed in Ethiopia. Well, my answer is that it is not. It would be a better solution, economically as well, for that young man to buy a one-way ticket to Ethiopia and reunite with his family there."
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Why not try to eliminate discrimination from existing laws instead of trying to add discrimination that favors your group.
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Or, did anyone notice that when Clinton referred to the Davidians as 'religious fanatics' that a round of spontaneous applause burst forth from the reporters ? To me this was not only in poor taste, but it showed the media's bias and hostility to anyone not of the politically correct stripe. No wonder they have been cheerleading for the kgBATF and the FBI during this whole affair. Rod ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "It [collectivism vs individualism] is an ancient conflict. Men have come close to the truth, but it was destroyed each time and one civilization fell after another. Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men." -- Ayn Rand : 'Roark's speech from the _Fountainhead_' ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I don't speak for my company. We hire the 'Politically Correct' to do that.
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Perhaps I failed to make myself clear: Minorities in the U.S. *correlate* with poverty. This isn't good and we should address it, but we shouldnt' ignore that minorities and poverty *do* tend to go together. *Does* Vancouver have a consistantly poor population drawn along racial lines? If it doesn't, then assumptions of being able to compare minority vs. majority in both cities is questionable at best. If the *rate* of increase over a period of several years remains unchanged, or increases, I think it's not a far jump to say that the laws are not effective. No, you can't sit down and say that things wouldn't have been worse. I don't have a crystal ball and neither do you. However, that road leads us to a place where it is impossible to critique *any* action. If it gets down to be, "It might have been worse without them," then there *is* no valid objection, which I'm sure would amuse certain people to no end. So we've got a situation where we have several options: 1) The crime rate decreased: Obviously gun control worked. 2) The crime rate remained the same: It would have been worse without gun control. 3) The crime rate increased: Perhaps the laws prevented an even bigger increase. Cute testing ground we've got. All responses support the proposition that gun control works. The question is this: Did Washington D.C. experiance an increase in its violent and/or gun crime rate which was greater than the pattern indicated prior to the implemented gun control laws. If it did, then the suggestion that the problem the gun control laws were designed to "control" did not exist in their entirety prior to the gun control laws.
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Ah, those poor genocide apologists. Such quaintly charming habits of the Armenian barbarism and fascism. No swinging of lies will be enough to cover up the crimes of the x-Soviet Armenian Government. Not a chance. Now let the Kurdish scholars speak for themselves. Source: Hassan Arfa, "The Kurds," (London, 1968), pp. 25-26. "When the Russian armies invaded Turkey after the Sarikamish disaster of 1914, their columns were preceded by battalions of irregular Armenian volunteers, both from the Caucasus and from Turkey. One of these was commanded by a certain Andranik, a blood-thirsty adventurer. These Armenian volunteers committed all kinds of excesses, more than six hundred thousand Kurds being killed between 1915 and 1916 in the eastern vilayets of Turkey." Sources: (The Ottoman State, the Ministry of War), "Islam Ahalinin Ducar Olduklari Mezalim Hakkinda Vesaike Mustenid Malumat," (Istanbul, 1918). The French version: "Documents Relatifs aux Atrocites Commises par les Armeniens sur la Population Musulmane," (Istanbul, 1919). In the Latin script: H. K. Turkozu, ed., "Osmanli ve Sovyet Belgeleriyle Ermeni Mezalimi," (Ankara, 1982). In addition: Z. Basar, ed., "Ermenilerden Gorduklerimiz," (Ankara, 1974) and, edited by the same author, "Ermeniler Hakkinda Makaleler - Derlemeler," (Ankara, 1978). "Askeri Tarih Belgeleri ...," Vol. 32, 83 (December 1983), document numbered 1881. "Askeri Tarih Belgeleri ....," Vol. 31, 81 (December 1982), document numbered 1869. "Those who were capable of fighting were taken away at the very beginning with the excuse of forced labor in road construction, they were taken in the direction of Sarikamis and annihilated. When the Russian army withdrew, a part of the remaining people was destroyed in Armenian massacres and cruelties: they were thrown into wells, they were locked in houses and burned down, they were killed with bayonets and swords, in places selected as butchering spots, their bellies were torn open, their lungs were pulled out, and girls and women were hanged by their hair after being subjected to every conceivable abominable act. A very small part of the people who were spared these abominations far worse than the cruelty of the inquisition resembled living dead and were suffering from temporary insanity because of the dire poverty they had lived in and because of the frightful experiences they had been subjected to. Including women and children, such persons discovered so far do not exceed one thousand five hundred in Erzincan and thirty thousand in Erzurum. All the fields in Erzincan and Erzurum are untilled, everything that the people had has been taken away from them, and we found them in a destitute situation. At the present time, the people are subsisting on some food they obtained, impelled by starvation, from Russian storages left behind after their occupation of this area." Source: "Adventures in the Near East" by A. Rawlinson, Jonathan Cape, 30 Bedford Square, London, 1934 (First published 1923) (287 pages). (Memoirs of a British officer who witnessed the Armenian genocide of 2.5 million Muslim people) p. 184 (second paragraph) "I had received further very definite information of horrors that had been committed by the Armenian soldiery in Kars Plain, and as I had been able to judge of their want of discipline by their treatment of my own detached parties, I had wired to Tiflis from Zivin that 'in the interests of humanity the Armenians should not be left in independent command of the Moslem population, as, their troops being without discipline and not under effective control, atrocities were constantly being committed, for which we should with justice eventually be held to be morally responsible'." p. 177 (third paragraph) "Armenian troops, who, having pillaged and destroyed all the Moslem villages in the plain...." "Caravans of refugees were in the meanwhile constantly arriving from the plain, from which the whole Moslem population was fleeing with as much of their personal property as they could transport, seeking to obtain security and protection..." p. 178 (first paragraph) "In those Moslem villages in the plain below which had been searched for arms by the Armenians everything had been taken under the cloak of such search, and not only had many Moslems been killed, but horrible tortures had been inflicted in the endeavour to obtain information as to where valuables had been hidden, of which the Armenians were aware of the existence, although they had been unable to find them." p. 181 (first paragraph) "the Armenians from the plain were attacking the Kurdish line with artillery, with probably a large force in support." p. 175 (first paragraph) "The arrival of this British brigade was followed by the announcement that Kars Province had been allotted by the Supreme Council of the Allies to the Armenians, and that announcement having been made, the British troops were then completely withdrawn, and Armenian occupation commenced. Hence all the trouble; for the Armenians at once commenced the wholesale robbery and persecution of the Muslem population on the pretext that it was necessary forcibly to deprive them of their arms. In the portion of the province which lies in the plains they were able to carry out their purpose, and the manner in which this was done will be referred to in due course." Serdar Argic
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The FBI says that some of the survivors claim to have seen the leaders of the cult talking about setting a fire, and to have smelt kerosene. I assume this will come out at any trial that occurs as a result of these events.
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<cpr@igc.apc.org> (in real life, Elias DAvidson) quotes A nutcase quoting a crackpot. Next time, post this to rec.humor, or perhaps alt.conspiracy.
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Mark Ira Kaufman writes
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I have a joint House-Senate conference committe report (i.e., crime bill) for the 102rd Congress which contains a "Brady Bill -- 7 day waiting period" within it. I believe it just died and never came up for a vote in either house. They got four years of Clinton's support to pass it.
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Apparently needing to clarify his comments from Thursday, Dr. Nizam Plawaby (spelling?), the Medical Examiner for Tarrant County, Texas, who has authority in the Waco deaths, stated that since no autopsies had been performed, there is no evidence for bullet wounds, or evidence against bullet wounds. Janet Reno also stated that she had never been told of bullet wounds by anyone in the Justice Department.
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Today the Texas ME found two people, a man and a woman shot in the head inside the burned compound. But these were not the people that the FBI described a few days before. The FBI said that the person found in front of the compound had been shot and several children were also. The two people found today were on top of the main inside concrete bunker that provided the most protection during the fire. So the comment that children were shot is still not proved.
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And just where is the evidence for this? FBI sayso. The Texas Medical Examiner refuted 2 of their lies today. Let me put you in a building, pump in CS, knock the walls down around you and see how fast you find an exit. I don't know why either, you're willing to swallow everything fed you. Good boy. Oh a Clinton apologist, why didn't you *say* so. The kgBATF was expecting a quick victory while the cameras rolled, however, they were the only ones with a script. Hey, you're the apologist, *you* tell us.
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That includes suicides. Since it has been shown in other countries that suicide rates are pretty much independent of the means available for doing oneself in (studies include some done/published in Japan, Canada, Austria, Norway), suicides ought not be included in the count. If this is done, the number of vehicle-related deaths greatly exceeds that of firearms-related deaths in Texas. Certainly not. Why? Unless it's doing something that directly hurts someone else, what's the point? (Otherwise, you'd better stop operating all motor vehicles, since the price of operating them *greatly* exceeds the cost in lives of firearms. WEll, it's been done at least twice. South (North?) Carolina did it a few years back...and watched its crime rate relative to the rest of the country rise quite a bit. Virginia just passed the law...no word yet on what the results will be, but I'd be willing ot bet that a reduction in crime rates won't be one of them. Self-defense doesn't "inflict" on other people (except perhaps the criminal who's tried to do you damage, and maybe indirectly on future potential victims who might not become victims). --
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[Posting the text of H.R. 711 ...] [ ... ] [ ... ] Note that this is a "licensing bill," pretending to be a "training bill."
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Because the Gun loonies were firing on vehicles with 50mm amunition that has a range of 3000 meters. Next question. The problem is of course the laws that allow a bunch of raving nutters to collect a huge stack of arms in the first place. The sequence of events meant that there really was no option but to attempt some sort of breakthrough via an intervention. If the FBI had had the stomach for it they could have mounted a commando type raid and attempted to save the children by shooting all the adults. It really was a no win situation. Koresh had plenty of opportunity to give up and stand trial for the murder of the 4 ATF officers. Instead he ordered the murder of the children. In order to reject the word of the FBI and BATF it is neccessary to beleive the words of a man who has just murdered 17 children and ordered the suicide/murder of his other 80 followers. According to the account given the BATF attempted to serve a warrant upon Koresh at the ranch and were met by gunfire in a deliberate attempt to murder them. The Koresh/gun supporter claim that the BATF started shooting simply does not stand up. If the AFT had gone there to start shooting they would have gone with heavier grade weaponry than standard issue handguns. For all practical purposes they were unarmed, the B-D followers had automatic weapons. The B-D seige could not be allowed to go on indefinitely. The B-D were quite capable of commiting mass suicide and murdering the children at any time. A commando assault was the only other likely action that could have achieved that objective, that would have been very risky, orders of magintude harder than Antebbe or the Iranian Embassy Seige. Airplanes and Embassies are not designed for defense against attack ranch apocalypse was. 6 terrorists are far easier to disloge without casualties than 80. Allowing the siege to go on was not an option either, besides the serious risk that Koresh would proclaim armageddon at any moment there was the question of the difficulties of keeping the emmergency team on standby over a prolonged period. The longer the siege went on the more mentally prepared Koresh and his followers would be for a prolonged siege. Rather than go in prematurely the mistake was probably to go in too soon. Can you think of a better way of getting the children out? A 100% certain way? The people who do not want gun control must obviously discount the entire government story. This is simply rationalisation. It is not enough for them to simply dismiss the government as incompetent. That would require them to come up with a solution themselves. Instead they have to come up with a government conspiracy theory whereby the government decided to set out to murder 80 people just to set up some sort of scare to alow them to get gun control legislation through. This conspiracy theory assumes that the BATF deliberately got 4 of its agents killed and that the FBI etc actually enjoy sitting out in the middle of Texas being shot at by religious nutters. Still the conspiracy theory is comforting, it allows them to pretend that WACO proves nothing except about how incompetent the government is in resolving a hostage crisis. No govt in the world has ever faced a comparable situation, quite probably there was no manner in which it could be peacefully resolved. The blame does not rest on the FBI, it rests on the fact that Koresh was allowed to get so far, in particular the person who tipped the B-D off in advance has the murder of 4 ATF agents and 17 children on his or her conscience. There are a large number of people in the US who predict the end of society preach salvation through armed security. The fact is that these are the very people who pose the threat to society in the first place. The next WACO may not be religious nutters but a political movement. A splinter group of the Klu Klux Klan taking over a schoolhouse in a black area for example and holding several hundred children hostage. The only possible solution to such situations that can work is to prevent them arising. No other government in the world has faced such a situation. this is because no other government has so carelessly allowed high power weaponry to become avaliable to any little Hitler or would be Messiah to set themselves up as dictator in their own little empire.
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My reference is a 4 page essay in our local Star Tribute newspaper putting the whole conflict in perspective. I will readily admit that I am no authority in this area; however, other posteers asserted that *some* Muslims did join hands with Croats and Nazis in persecuting Serbs. In any case, past actions do not in any way validate or legitimize what is happending there now. I sincerely do apologize to the extent the author of the essay was wrong in making the assertion he made. Maybe, some student of history may put this in perspective. Satya Prabhakar
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Just saw a new commercial(?) by the NRA. It starts out with a bunch of politicians talking about how to get rid of crime. They finally realize that they need to put criminals away longer but there isn't enough jail space so they decide on another gun law.( During this whole seen there quoteing various statistics on how easy criminals get off ) In the next seen the politician is announceing on tv how this gun law will get rid of crime and there is this grungy looking guy (criminal) watching him on tv just laughing his ass off. Classic.
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I think there are some generally accepted criteria according to which one can evaluate whether certain policies or practices constitute racial discrimination. These criteria are to be found for example in the 1. International Convention for Abolition of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ratified by most countries) 2. The International Covenant of Political and Civil Rights 3. The Human Rights Charter 4. The European Convention of Human Rights If one reads carefully how racial discrimination is defined in these legally binding instruments, and does not resort to sophistry, it is obvious that the State of Israel is guilty of racial discrimination. The people suffering the most extreme form of racial discriminatnion by the Zionist regime are the Palestinian refugees, some of whom live under Israeli military control and others who live in the diaspora. They are not entitled to return to their homeland for the sole reason that they are not Jews. International law does not include any provisions which permits such denial of rights, under any circumstance. Israel's actions of denial are totally illegal and immoral. By allowing the return of the refugees and permitting them to settle in Tel in any area of the State of Israel, the State would finally gain its legitimaty under international law and could be justified in asking to be recognized. It would facilitate the peaceful integration of Israel into the Middle-east and constitute the best guarantee for permanent Jewish presence - in the area. Any attempt to create a separation, formal and human, between the Israeli Jewish and Palestinian Arab communities, is fraught with genociadal implications. I hope that U.S. Jews, who sincerely wish that peace prevail in Israel/Palestine, will finally realize this fact. Elias Davidsson
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CHEERS Brandon. That's the best suggestion I have seen that. !!!
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You deliberately deleted a line! I don't remember how wrote it, but I remember what he wrote. He wrote Happy 45 birth day of Israel! and I worte: Is this means that the number of the people have been killed by Israel are so high that you can not keep the track of, or this is also a part of Zionism ideology that you don't need to keep the track of the people you kill? Just kill! Hamid
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Let's go to the videotape. Here's exactly what you posted: So if you weren't saying that the deaths of "bastard children of a sacreligious zealot" was no big thing (and I know I am not the only one who read it that way), just what the hell WERE you saying? So who brainwashed YOU into believing that whatever the government says it the truth? Or that Koresh was any actual threat to you and the rest of the US? Haven't you ever stopped to wonder WHY the government raided this farm? This raid was NOT ABOUT RELIGION, SEX, OR CHILD ABUSE. To the best available evidence at the moment, this raid, psychological torture, and group death was about Koresh's failure to PAY A $200 TAX on ONE grenade launcher that he may or may not even have had! That's why it was the BATF doing the raiding in the first place. Do you think a $200 tax evasion justifies an armed assault by the government with 100 armed men in trailers, orchestrated character assassination, noise torture, and a holocaust? Then think before you post. --
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# : # Can someone tell me why when Mr. Cramer spouts on about homosexuals, # : # he only addresses homosexual men, and never, in any post I've read, # : # addressed lesbians? # # : I can't really speak for Mr. Cramer here, but I can say that a # : homosexual [male] is an entirely different animal than a lesbian. # : There is virtually nothing that is analogous or related between the # : aberrant behaviors practiced by these two groups of deviants. # # The last time I checked homosexual men and women were both human. I think Mr. Kaldis was using the expression in the slang sense, though I agree it is NOT an appropriate expression to use in this context. # They both prefer to engage in sexual acts with people of the same # gender. There is nothing inherently wrong with the "trademark behaviour" # of either homosexual men or homosexual women, except in the minds of # misinformed folk, clueless folk, and bigots. # # So what makes homosexual men and homosexual women different animals? # # Michael D. Adams (starowl@a2i.rahul.net) Enterprise, Alabama 1. That homosexual men are extremely promiscuous, and homosexual women are, if any more promiscuous than heterosexual women, it's not by much. 2. That homosexual men are overrepresented among child molesters (about 30% of child molestation is done by homosexual or bisexual men), while homosexual women don't appear to be similarly over- represented.
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Wait a minute. The story being pushed here is that the fire started in ONE PLACE. This is not consistent with the story that they were TRAPPED by the fire (particularly in a building that all of a sudden had many more exits). Choose one, please. Well, for everyone besides Koresh and his blood children, we can assume independent choice: Ah, they chose to stay in the face of an assault which clearly endangered their lives. Or, alternatively, they were not permitted to leave. Choose one.
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((fluffy bi fantasy squelched)) Dear Mr. Elf,
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From article <pdb059-220493112512@kilimanjaro.jpl.nasa.gov>, by pdb059@ipl.jpl.nasa.gov (Paul Bartholomew): #> A very well put together post. I disagree with several key points, but the #> post is an excellent one with which to "engage in discourse": I agree wholeheartedly. Paul, you have handled this so well, I think that you could write ballot materials. No, don't stop! #> Right to Equal Opportunity (lets call it REO) involves coercion in all cases #> (by definition). Good question. It just depends. How's that for an answer? :-) Seriously, I believe that it depends on wether or not you are talking about a governmental employer or not. In this case, I believe that there should be absolutely no discrimination, direct or indirect, period. I feel this way not because it would offend my moral sensibilities (which it of course would), but because the government is a coercive entity which we cannot escape. It boggles my mind that in my lifetime, there were "whites only" drinking fountains in some parks, but no fountains for others, yet the taxes garnished to support those fountains certainly were not applied to "whites only." In essence, we cannot escape the coercive state. Even Randy Weavers have to pay property tax. On the other hand, private employers are not a monopoly, and their businesses should be run by them, and not by the government, unless they elect to turn their affairs over to that government. #> Why? Says who? Why can mom & pop have FOA, but IBM be forced, and force is #> the correct word here, to have REO? But if the mom & pop store is affected by who they hire, isn't IBM? There is a slippery slope here. In Santa Cruz (where a number of loony anti-discrimination laws exist), a guy sued a restaurant for not hiring him because he had every imaginable kitchen utensil dangling from his earlobe, and his tatoos were very distracting. #> Suddenly, by arm waving, by magic, a landlord does not have FOA. And on #> what basis does the FOA of the landlord "disappear"? #> It seems that vague terms like "no contact with tenants" suffice. I have a lot of interaction (all positive) with my tenants, so I guess that that isn't an issue. But say I were to buy a unit in another town, and have it managed by a third party. Let's say that I have a real aversion to Christians because of the stuff that they buy into hook line and sinker, and because of the lunatic schmucks that they try to get elected. I don't want any of those fish symbols hanging in the window of a house that I own. Should the government intervene? If I was Elie Weizel and the only rental applicant was Tom Metzger, should I be forced to rent this distant unit to him? #> The companies on the Fortune 500, for example, are all privately owned. They #> can give you a list of all of their owners. They have no "anonymous", #> unknown to them, owners. Yes, and the neat thing about this is that unlike the mom & pop store, you and I can buy shares in IBM, and have influence over their decision making policies if we don't like them. Anyway, Paul, keep up the good work.
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Well, that was an easy decision. No more Bianchi anything for me.
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Yes the govt handled it in the Rambo Hollywood type style with extreeme Machismo. Perhaps thats not the way to handle it. It is a completely different thing to start asserting as many have done that the government is primarily to blame. The comparisons with the NAZIs in particular are purely gratuitous. Since you have provided a constructive opinion on the issue your post desreves to be taken seriously. Peter Nelson also made some very good points about how a low key approach might have been more effective. The point is though that you learn through mistakes. The govt played the wrong card and lost. Thats not a big deal. They had had four guys murdered at the begining and maybee they just were not prepared for wuite this situation. Who could be? If the same thing were to happen all over again we might perhaps be able to castigate the Govt if they used the same tactics and failed in the same way. As it is I can't say that I would not have made the same mistake. Maybee I wouldn't because I don't as a rule go in for a confrontational situation if I can avoid it. Maybee I would because with all those press about its very difficult not to try the macho stuff. The FBI had information from within the compound we had no access to. They may have calculated that the B-D followers resolve was cracking based on their listening devices within the compound. They knew that Koresh had chickened out of one suicide attempt. This may have been the reason why they considered that fear might have been a weapon for breaking his resolve. Again in Panama they had used the heavy rock music to great effect during Bush's invasion. Funny that few of the Koresh supporters and appologists complain much about the death of several thousand Pananmanian civilians while the US govt attempted to arrest their former ally. Koresh negated his civil rights the minute his followers fired on the police helicopter. No matter whether the warrant was or was not technically valid the guys who were carrying it out thought that it was. Thus the assault on them was completely inexcusable no matter what rationalisation people might wish to employ. Of course we have to consider the guns issue. That is the whole core of the question. Everything else is a diversion.
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It is not a matter of dis-belief but a matter of which of their constantly (and radically) changing stories we are to believe. Steve B.
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Israeli nationalism (also known as Zionism) is the nationalism of the Jewish people. The Jewish people are not a new phenomenon at all. Palestinean nationalism is the nationalism of Arab people. Arabs have been around for a long time. They already have some 2 dozen states, large and small, covering 98% of the Middle East. More specifically, Palestinean nationalism is the nationalism of Arabs from the region of Palestine, just as Egyptian nationalism is the nationalism of Arabs from the region of Egypt. One Palestinean state already exists in what was once known as Palestine: - it is called Jordan. There is no justification in carving out a second and tiny Palestinean state out of the only Jewish state, itself very, very small, just as there is no justification in carving out another American state out of Mexico.
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Which number is that? Zero? Please present "a number" of authoritative works which "suggest" that "homosexuality is a form of mental disorder, caused by childhood sexual abuse." Don't present your own biased conclusions, based on a collage of tidbits you've extracted from a few hours' research, as the conclusions of people who study mental disease and sexual abuse professionally.
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From what I saw of the videotape, there was an explosion which looked more like one due to propane rather than (official version) ammunition. If only we could be certain that the hard evidence will be released.
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And now he is posting lies about Benjamin Franklin in talk.politics.misc. Seems our Mr. Salah will stoop to any level (or is that *climb*) to spread his hate.
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First of all, I wouldn't have gone after the Davidians for a firearms violation which I object to in the first place. Second, I wouldn't have executed a search warrant via an armed assault when all the Davidians were sure to have been there. Third of all, I wouldn't have cut off all outside communication to Koresh. And I certainly wouldn't have gone in with a tank-- time was on the FBIs side. Since they had outside resupply, they could wait indefinitely.
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Those of us who questioned the mass suicide line may still have wondered, "If it wasn't suicide, why did so few get out?" The answer is now available - the gas the government had been pouring in on them is so disabling that its use in wartime is banned by the chemical weapons treaty. The U.S. had agreed not to use this gas against enemy soldiers in wartime, but used it in peacetime against civilians, including nnocent children. For confirmation see Friday's CLINTON:AM press briefing by George Stephanopoulous, posted in alt.news-media and other locations. (When questioned about it, his reply was that the treaty did not forbid its internal use by law enforcement agencies. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This posting from Stephen F. Austin State University's ANONYMOUS account. Please report abuses to newsmgr@ccsvax.sfasu.edu
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... If we are indeed talking about CS, then this is not quite accurate. CS is "just" tear gas--albeit the worst kind. It isn't a nausea gas, and doesn't have direct CNS effects. However, it's quite bad--much worse than CN gas. I was briefly exposed to it once (during an engagement in Berkeley circa 1968 8^) and it's not the kind of thing you forget. It seems to be moisture-activated--it not only made my eyes sting and water, but attacked my breathing passages and lungs. Breathing was painful, and my entire face felt as if it was on fire. These effects persisted for hours after exposure, and I was coughing for days afterwards. If I was exposed to a dense concentration of this stuff in a closed space for several hours, I doubt whether I could find the exit. Indeed, I can't imagine living through it.
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[...] Mr. Kuo: I don't recall seeing your byline around much before (at least on t.p.m). Let me clue you in on this newsgroup. t.p.m is populated largely by people whose hatred for the U.S. government, especially the government of Mr. Clinton, is literally boundless. To these people, the suggestion that agents of the U.S. government would carry out a spectacular massacre of its own citizens, in full view of TV cameras, is not an 'extraordinary claim'. It's just another day in the life of these United States. They don't have to suggest any reason why the FBI would want to publicly massacre citizens. Have you seen 'The Crying Game'? "It's in their nature". Don Pajerek
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Shooting those .44 cal. blanks, I suspect. Them movie guys is dangerous. Practice with them, I hope. --
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This is a very impotant update, I will omit just a few lines, and add some "overhead" for the sake of the copyright :-) I say despite all the bad news for Muslims around the world, things are shaping up very well, a lot of killings might happen in the near future, though (as if Bosnia is not a lot). Right now, I feel like saying what Martillo said : "the stage is set". I don't think that things will be the same in ten year, On the pessimistic/realistic side, we can only see the stage set for more wars imposed on our people, and governments being remote controlled. to fight each other and to oppress their own people, but I am confident they will all fall: I venture to list the order: Sudan/Yemen alliance, Algeria/Libya in 5 years, Tunisia one year later but Egypt may face direct colonization very soon to prevent an Islamic government which might take over after Egypt attacks SUdan and is envolved in atrocities there as it fails to achieve victory. Meanwhile Saudia faces a civil war and goes to war with Yemen/Sudan over it, The new North African Alliance (Algeria/Tun/Libya) goes to war with Morocco who attacks it. U.S/France involved everywhere but cannot concentrate on one place, especially that Syria/Jordan/Iraq have to be kept under control. After the cloud clears, I do not know what the end result will be, O.K back to reality: CAIRO, Egypt (UPI) -- The Cairo-based Arab Organization for Human Rights (AOHR) Sunday called on King Fahd of Saudi Arabia to order the release of members of the kingdom's first human rights group.
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Is anyone out there knowledgeable on drug issues in Japan? I'm interested in knowing if Japan has or has ever had a problem with drugs, and how they dealt with it. I've heard, undocumented, that Japan years ago used heavy legal penalties to end a serious heroin problem. I'd like to know both sides of the story. Does anyone recall such a problem? What were laws at the time relating to drug use, drug dealing, and drug trafficking? What are the laws now? What other anti-drug measures, like education and treatment has Japan used? How are drugs regarded by the Japanese people? How effective have anti-drug measures been in Japan? Thanks for your help.
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( I AGREE ! ) I think the problem here is that Mrs. Reno strikes me ( After watching NightLine Last night ) as a person who is incapable of understanding OR dealing with a great number of things.
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This is the AP story from Fri morning. As the walls came tumbling down and tear gas filled the air, cult leader David Koresh sprang into action. He left his third-floor bedroom and began looking around the house, making sure women and children were secure and checking that everyone had their gas masks on properly. Within hours, the compound became an inferno. Nine Branch Davidians excaped. This is their story, gleaned from lawyers who spoke with six of them who are jailed on charges that include conspiracy and murder. That day the six said a portable radio offered the only contact with the outside world since Koresh's right-hand man, Steve Schneider, ripped out the compounds's phone line after FBI agents called before dawn Monday saying this was the cults last chance: Come out or prepare to get forced out. They kept their word. By dawn, tanks were battering the Mount Carmel compound, punching for hours to creat holes for tear gas to enter. The BD meanwhile proceeded with their daily routines. Strapped into gas masks, the women did laundry. Others read Bibles in their rooms. The 17 children, all under 10, remained by their mothers' sides. Still, it was hard to ignore what was happening around them. Each time a tank rammed the poorly-constructed building it shook violently. Cult members dodges falling gypsum wallboard and doors. Hundreds of gas canisters hurled in from the armored vehicles were filling the air with noxious fumes. The flying canisters were more frightening than the tanks. At least one man was hit in the face. The gas began filling the air, driven by heavy gusts of wind coming through windows and the holes the tanks made. Scattered throughout the house, the cult members made no efforts to gather. Then the FBI sent in its biggest weapon -- a massive armored vehicle headed for a chamber, lined with cinder blocks, where authorities hoped to find Koresh and Schneider and fire tear gas directly at them. Here the cult members' story diverges from the government's version. The FBI says cult members set fires in three places. But each of the six cult members, in separate discussions with lawyers, consistently gave versions at odds with the FBI's account. They say the tank flattened a barrel of propane, spilling its contents. And as the tank thundered through the house, it tipped over lit lanterns, spitting flames that ignited the propane and other flammables. The home of used lumber, plywood, and wallboard tacked together with tar paper was vulnerable. The building erupted. Nine BD's escaped jumping through windows and dashing through other openings. Others died groping in the blackness.
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[pseudo-letterhead deleted -- dcs] # While Israeli Jews fete the uprising of the Warsaw ghetto, they # repress by violent means the uprising of the Gaza ghetto and # attempt to starve the Gazans. Why do I detect the faint scent of bias here? Could it be because the Israelis aren't feasting? Perhaps because the Gazans aren't starving? # The Gaza strip, this tiny area of land with the highest population # density in the world, Oh, oh. I hadn't realized that the Chinese had wiped out Hong Kong, or that Singapore had sunk into the sea, or that several other cities had vanished. Either that, or this is a taste of the quality of 'Research' we're about to see. # has been cut off from the world for weeks. So I suppose that the footage on CNN last night was archival, and Ted Turner was faking it after the NBC style? Or is this another wee little exaggeration for the sake of a Greater Truth? # The Israeli occupier has decided to punish the whole population of # Gaza, some 700.000 people, by denying them the right to leave the # strip and seek work in Israel. Hey! You forgot that Israel has also denied Syrians the same 'right'. Come to think of it, Mexico is denying me that 'right' evan as I write this! Or are you ever so gently suggesting that Israel, unlike every other country on Earth, shouldn't be allowed to control traffic across its borders? # While Polish non-Jews risked their lives to save Jews from the # Ghetto, no Israeli Jew is known to have risked his life to help # the Gazan resistance. The only help given to Gazans by Israeli # Jews, only dozens of people, is humanitarian assistance. This sounds like a parallel, but it isn't. Tell us how many Poles went into the Ghetto to join the Jews there. Oops! For a moment there I forgot that in Poland, 'humanitarian assistance" could get you killed. Come to think of it, humanitarian assistance to the Gazans can get Israelis killed, too. Except that in Gaza, it's likely to be by a Gazan death squad in your own office. So let's keep the parallel. Since the gross numbers aren't the same, we'll need a proportionality value. Should we use: * Gazan vs Jewish initial population? * Gazan vs Jewish death rates? * Gazans vs Jews who survived five years of occupation? * Israelis vs Nazis attacked by the 'resistance'? * Israelis vs Poles charged with aiding the victims? Since the two cases are so comparable, it shouldn't matter which we pick, they'll all be about the same, right? ------------ Contrary to popular hyperbole, the IDF *could* quite easily kill off the entire population of Gaza in hours if they wanted to. (No, I'm not exaggerating. And I really don't want to discuss how.) Note that a million dead Gazans don't get much more headline space than a dozen, and are just as soon forgotten -- and once exterminated, they can't keep popping up as headlines. So if a "Final Solution" for Gaza would be so much better from a *Realpolitik* standpoint, why doesn't Israel go for it? A difficult question to answer for those who can't believe anything good about Jews, and probably why they keep trying to force-fit the facts into the theory.
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Subject: RE: Europe vs. Muslim Bosnians From: f54oguocha Date: 13 MAY 93 02:28:53 GMT Serbs. 1929). Islam not who Croats? has childhood was You've asked a crucial question that underlies much of the genocide. Bosnian Muslims are slavic in ethnicity. They speak Serbo-Croatian. But there is a Christo-Slavic ideology whereby all true slavs are Christian and anyone who converted to Islam thereby must have changed ethnicity by changing religion. See the poems of Ngegos or the novels of Ivo Andric who brilliantly displays these attitudes on the part of what he calls "the people" (i.e. Christian slavs). For this reason, the war-criminals call all the Bosnian Muslims "Turks" even though they are not ethnically Turk and do not speak Turkish as their first language. For this reason, what is actually a genocide labeled against those who are ethnically identical but religiously "other" is called, paradoxically, "ethnic cleansing" rather than "religious cleansing." Thus, while a war rages between Serbs and Croats as a continuation of WWII, and older agenda, the annihilation of Islam and Muslims from Bosnian, is being carried out under the cover of the Serbo-Croat war. Regards, Mike.
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Doesn't seem like those responsible for the assault were very concerned about the welfare of the children inside. Seems like they were more interested in flexing their muscle before the media. My reasoning? Just ask yourself this one question: Suppose the scenario was slightly different and we had Chelsea Clinton being kidnapped by terrorists, holed up in a compound for 51 days. Do you think Clinton, Reno, the FBI, and the ATF would be so eager to use a show of force? Nuff said. -- Richard Mulac ck347@cleveland.freenet.edu
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And And Bejing = Peking, who cares about native tongue, as long as we all understand each other. Oh, not more than a few feet, I wouldn't think. I'm sorry IF your paternal grandparents died in Oswiecym or Aushwitz, which is easier to say than prove, but if so, the lesson they paid thier lives for was wasted on you. You are the expert. I often feel compelled to brag about the circumstances of my grandparent's death. 8-} A BATF offense, if true. A LOCAL offense, if true. Totally outside the BATF's domain. I didn't know the man. Just what the TV chose to tell me. I thought there were prejudicial undertones here. I would trust my daughter's judgement. I don't believe either side blindly. IF they fired first, without announcing in a beleivable way who they were ( I can pound on your door and claim to be the police, will you just lay down and take it if I do?), then he could be justified in firing on the ATF in self-defense. "His background"? What law has he been convicted of breaking in the past? Jim -- jmd@handheld.com
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Local media hasn't said much, if anything, about the MOW. Also, when I called a straight friend in Arlington to tell him I would be on his doorstep this weekend, he didn't know anything at all about the march. This is a gay-sympathetic person who notices things like this. I thought it was strange that he was unaware of what was happening. It made me wonder just how much coverage is getting to "mainstream" America.
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Sealing off the Gaza Strip has the interesting side-effect of demonstrating the non-viability of Gaza as an independent state. Where are all of these people going to go to find work if they are separated from Israel? If they complain about having to show id cards on the way to work, how will they feel about showing passports on the way to work?
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It is indeed different usage of the word Muslim . In Bosnia , it is more or less used as an ethnic term not as religious one . There are people in Bosnia who refer to themselves as "Christian Bosnian Muslims" if you can make sense of that . Bosnian Serbs and Bosnian Muslims have the same language. Bosnian Muslims are mainly beleivers of Islam. I got this from Bosnian Muslim friend of mine who goes to University of Texas in Austin.
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As David Veal points out, this sort of "promotion" would be used against gun owners by the mass media. However, here is my proposal: offer gun safety classes in your area, free, as a community service. Such a class would normally cost $40 or $50, so offering it free is a good promotion. Our Gun Club has organized several of these (we just finished teaching another one last night, in fact) and they have been very well received. We get a lot of people who are novices interested in guns. We even get a few who are anti-gun, but feel they should know something about "gun safety" since members of their family keep guns at home. Teaching such a course gives us many desirable benefits: (1) We have the chance to teach gun safety rules; this increases firearm awareness and may help to reduce gun accident stats. (2) A "gun safety" class is Politically Correct, and likely to be viewed positively by the public and the media. (3) Most of the students are 'normal people' (not gun enthusiasts) and this kind of class gives us the chance to give them a gentle introduction to firearms. (4) Some of the students are enthusiastic, and will purchase a gun and become more involved in shooting or personal defense. (5) It improves the public perception of our club and gun owners in general. Our students see that we are all reasonable, non-aggressive, soft-spoken people, which helps to mitigate the standard image of a hardcore gun owner. Even anti-gun students sometimes tell us they have "something new to think about" with regards to personal gun ownership. (6) Sharing our experience with others is a lot of fun. Our course is the standard NRA-certified "Home Firearm Safety" class, and our students pay only $5 for materials. We also teach the NRA's "Personal Protection" class, although the cost is higher for that one since we have to purchase range time. I think firearms safety classes are an excellent response to gun buy-backs.
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Here in Georgia, the state legislature in 1992 "accidentally passed a law lobbied for by Opthamologists prohibiting anyone but a licensed MD from giving shots. They were trying to limit Optometrists from competing with them. They inadvertantly forbade nurses, EMTs, dentists, and tattoo artists from "piercing the skin." (probably diabetics too). The Secretary of State's office announced on June 30th that they wouldn't enforce it pending reconsideration in the 1003 Legislature. In the hassle over the state flag I heard nothing about repealing it.
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But of course it does. It's certainly a legal matter. If it's not a legal matter that interest *you* you may simply put it in your kill file.
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16. What is the condition of the propane tank mentioned by the BD survivors? I.e. is it crushed and does it have tread marks on it? -- Dave Feustel N9MYI <feustel@netcom.com>
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Is your stomach all right? Unable to digest your lunch? Cool down... In the context of Bosnia muslims are a nation. And nobody talked about them being a race. And Yugoslavia was a recognized nation. If you apply the principle of self determination to Yugoslavia then you should apply it to Croatia and Bosnia. Of course, you might want to apply again to Kossovo.
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James Madison, Federalist Paper 41: "It has been urged and echoed, that the power ``to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts, and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States,'' amounts to an unlimited commission to exercise every power which may be alleged to be necessary for the common defense or general welfare... "No stronger proof could be given of the distress under which these writers labor for objections, than their stooping to such a misconstruction. Had no other enumeration or definition of the powers of the Congress been found in the Constitution, than the general expressions just cited, the authors of the objection might have had some color for it; ... But what color can the objection have, when a specification of the objects alluded to by these general terms immediately follows, and is not even separated by a longer pause than a semicolon? ... Nothing is more natural nor common than first to use a general phrase, and then to explain and qualify it by a recital of particulars. --
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What if we remove one zeron and make it "the genocide of two hundred thousands Muslims in Bosnia..", would that make it any better..? And how about the 2,000,000 Muslims who were driven and continue to be driven out of their homes..? is that "utterly ridiculous claim"? And how about the rapes (over 60,000 women) and the concentration camps..? The us delegation which visited them reported yesterday on CNN that the serbs are giving the muslims detainees 4 biscuits and a cup of water a day..!!?? That sure also sounds like an "utterly ridiculous claim".!
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Ilyess sez: >So how would have *you* defended Saudi Arabia and rolled >back the Iraqi invasion, were you in charge of Saudi Arabia??? All Muslims knew that the whole thing was set up to destroy Iraq, not to "Liberate Kuwait", The people who were killed by the invasion are more (many many more), than the ones that were killed by the Iraqis in their smaller invasion. I lived in the west, and I have seen how your media prepared you (helpless naive Americans) for a war against ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ No doubt you plan on exploiting "helpless naive Americans" for your own purposes. Hmm...let's see: Iraq even before the artificial conflict between Iraq and Kuwait that led to the invasion, as the CIA correctly predicted (and pretended to be surprised not to know). It just happened that Saddam was so predictible and so arrogant and stupid. What would I have done: Most Muslims would choose 300 dead Kuwaitis over 200,000 dead Iraqis and 1000 dead Kuwaitis. The first case would happen if no western intervention happened, and the second case was a direct or indirect result of western envolvement. Possibly, if 200,000 Iraqis had indeed died, but this number is based on Greenpeace estimates. Greenpeace had compromised its alleged impartiality during the war by condemning the potential environmental consequences of Allied miiltary action, while initially *completely* ignoring Iraq's horrible environmental crimes, starting with the dumping of millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf at Ahmadi to the blowing of over 700 oil wells. What is the real number? There has been a lot of work on this in the last two years, none of it reported as the Greenpeace figure seems to get continuously bandied about. The real number seems to be around 10,000, on the same order as the number of Kuwaitis killed, tortured and kidnapped during the occupation. I've included an article I recently posted below, but this is really old news. Independent Television News reported a figure around 15,000 only a few months after the war, but it was hardly reported. For the Allies to have killed 200,000 Iraqis, they would have had to kill twice the *total* number of Iraqis in Kuwait. The favored image of the hysterics is the last battle of the war at Mutla'. This was yet another example of the American and European media playing into the hands of Iraq and its de facto allies. The destruction of the Iraqi convoy at Mutla' was portrayed as an all-out slaughter. This is simply not true. The head and tail of the convoy was bombed initially, resulting in a lot of casualties at these points. Before bombers came back, most of the rest of the Iraqi soldiers fled on foot. Furthermore, your estimates of Kuwaiti war dead if Allies hadn't invaded is completely ridiculous. You have acknowledged (certainly implicitly) that Saddam is a barbarous brute. You have acknowledged the hundreds of thousands he has been responible for killing *in his own country*. You *know* that the man he appointed as governor of Kuwait, Ali Majid, was his most brutal henchman, presiding over the near genocide of the Kurds in the late 80's and, more recently, the Shi'a. Yet, when it comes to his treatment of Kuwaitis, he is an angel. In your estimate, he would've killed *fewer* than he already had when the war started. What a joke! APn 03/09 0006 Iraq War Dead Copyright, 1993. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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The IRS doesn't need to rely on the Federal Marshall's Services; the IRS has its own Swat teams. I saw a picture of one in an article on the IRS in some magazine or other. -- Dave Feustel N9MYI <feustel@netcom.com>
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+>1. There is no such thing as non-toxic tear gas. Tear gas is non-breathable +> remaining in it's presence will cause nausea and vomiting, followed eventually +> by siezures and death. Did the FBI know the physical health of all the people +> they exposed?? Any potential heart problems among the B-D's?? They certainly knew that there were pregnant women in there plus children. I could not believe when they said that the gassing was an attempt to "save the children" yesterday. I can't think of a much worse sort of child abuse that pouring tear gas into a building. +>2. Have you ever seen a tear gas canister?? Tear gas is produced by burning a +> chemical in the can. The fumes produced are tear gas. The canister has a +> warning printed on the side of it. "Contact with flamable material can result +> in fire." Now, how many of these canisters did they throw inside a building +> they admited was a fire-trap?? I have heard two things recently explaining this: 1. They pumped the gas into the building from outside via some sort of pipe rather than by canister. 2. The sort of tear gas they are using was described as some sort of powdery material that sticks to things. Kind of like a powder cloud. And once again, these are government lacky explainations and since government stories always change, none or all of the information might not be true. +>This whole thing was a case of over-reaction by the officials at every step. +>I hope it is thoroughly investigated and the responsible parties are held +>accountable. But that is highly unlikely when you figure they are going to +>be investigating themselves.
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Post all you want, foreigner. We'd rather hear from you than those "I'll support the fascist who writes the hecks for my salary" .edu site types! Should you expect the Police to come in and assault you, lay siege and refuse to help when they (yes, let's give them the benefit of the doubt) accidently burn down your ranch home? Even though ey have emergency vehicles nearby? Is this a proper response when you just keep to yourself? Even if you DON'T hurt anyone? And you 're cooperative with cops when you occasionally come out?
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My sig has generated more mail than any of my posts. Robin Hood is a school financing plan wherein property rich school districts will have a portion of their tax revenue taken from them and given to property poor districts. The laudable plan is to equalize the per student spending. IMHO, however, it is a disaster waiting to happen. Taxes will go up in 50% of the districts and we will lose control of how OUR tax money is spent. It penalizes districts that have excelled. And the election is Saturday. Along with city council, school board and the unfinished Senate term. And after I exercise one right, I'm going to exercise another!
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Macedonia said yesterday it had neither requested or needs such forces. This is sort of like sending the National Guard to Bel Air when the riot is in South Central! Obviously, Clinton is again trying to make policy for image purposes in America rather than to try to deal with the real problem and assume a share of responsibility for the problem. He obviously didn't even consult with the Macedonians...he was just looking at the map of the former Yugoslavia for the safest place to put American troops so he could say to the Europeans...hey, look, we have troops on the ground in the former Yugoslavia too...now let me bomb so I can make it look like I am doing something in the American media. The problem is that the blue berets in Bosnia are dead meat if Clinton starts bombing, but Clinton doesn't have the courage to ask that the blue berets leave, because then he becomes primarily responsible to the Bosnian policy of the UN and the allies. Clinton wants to have his cake and eat it too...he wants to feel free to use American military power for the sake of domestic US politics and his domestic image, but he doesn't want to assume the primary international leadership role in the UN and among the allies, like Bush, for all his faults, did in the Gulf War... because with leadership comes responsibility, and Clinton seems to want to retain the Europeans as scapegoats. Clinton wants to leave the Europeans in charge and responsible, but wants to freelance on the side...and if his freelancing gets too hot, he wants to be able to cut and run...the American public may be easily fooled...European leaders aren't.
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According to an AP report (from Texas, written by Jaime Aron) this morning, in addtion to the gas pumped in by hoses from CS generators, canisters of tear gas were thrown into the building from armored vehicles, one of the canisters hitting a man inside in the face. This was in the part of the article *before* going into differences in the stories told by BD survivors and the gov't. Tear gas canisters *used* to be able to start fires... --
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: Oh? Then why did the smoke and flames start from three different places? : In particular, three different places where there were no APV's? The crushed remains of a PRESSURIZED propane tank were found in the ruins of the BD compound. The key word is PRESSURIZED. When that baby was crushed, the gas would have gone all over the place. And when ignited, would look just like the pictures of the explosion we saw on the TV news. Ammo doesn't go up all at once - kind of like fireworks going off. Propane gas goes off in a big fireball. Gee, that's kind of consistent with what the pictorial history shows. Hmmmmm... : And if the government did start the fire, then why weren't people trying : to get out of the compound? Remember, PRESSURIZED gas. People all over the building. Conflagration in less than a minute. Huge explosion. Gas masks being worn by the inhabitants. Makes a lot of sense that very few of those on the inside would even know that the tank was damaged. If they thought it was just a normal fire, they would probably be trying to put it out. Then - BOOM - the fireball. After that explosion and concussion, I doubt anybody on the inside of the building was capable of moving. : And besides... oh, I don't know why I'm even bothering. Good question. Take an objective look at what happened, listen to the things that the FBI said ("The BD's started the fire." "The BD's bodies were found with gunshot wounds.") that are now being refuted by the evidence being recovered. Seems that the FBI is deliberately making statements that have no rational basis in fact, and trying to make them sound like fact. : I find it tremendously chilling that so many people seem eager to believe : a murderous, heavily-armed religious cult, despite much evidence to the : contrary. Thought Experiment: Suppose this exact same thing happened under : the Bush administration. What would your answer be then? Would you still : prefer to believe the cultists? Yes, I would still believe that the FBI and the BATF were on a non-stop string of lies and half-truths. This is consistent with their operations on numerous occasions. And as for the BD's being murderous, they did not cause any problems until they were assaulted by the BATF. So now a thought experiment for you: If the BATF had never stormed that farm, would four agents and 90 BD's be dead today? : (No, I don't really expect a response to that challenge.) : >But then : >again, that is how Mr. Clinton was elected, by people who believe that : >his campaign promisses would be respected by him once he got into office. : Um, isn't that how all politicians are elected? Yes. That is how politicians are elected. Kind of scary, isn't it. Now if we as a people actually held Mr. Clinton to his promises instead of apologizing and denying that he ever made them, and actually expected accountability by our government, I doubt that debacles like Waco would happen as often as they do. : So is there any particular reason the gummint decided to slaughter eighty : people? Are they, like, just plain evil, or what? Did they just wake up : one day, stretch and yawn, and throw a dart at a map of the United States : to figure out who to oppress that day? I'm eager to know. Acutally, no. THe BATF has a rather checkered history of staging raids of this sort just prior to the time when their budget comes up for review. Oddly enough, their budget was about to be reviewed just two weeks after the initial raid on the BD's. "Coincidence? I think not!" And as for the fire, what happened was caused by the act of knocking over walls with an armored vehicle of destruction. The FBI tried to convince the world it was suicide, but all of the facts that are coming out by the investigation of the Texas rangers and medical examiners point to a gas explosion and quick fire that decimated all of the occupants of the building. Sounds to me like a law enforcement agency that is trying to cover its ass. : And does Bill Clinton have cooler theme music than Darth Vader? How is he : on diabolical laughter? Does he look good in a cape? These things MUST be : investigated. You first. Oh, please. If you want to argue, argue. If you merely want to demean those who see this differently than you, then please go somewhere else. : Mark Sachs IS: mbs110@psuvm.psu.edu
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Good. Another liberal converted by Waco! If Dave had had something realistic, there would have been none of this "Bradley" vehicle crap.
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Utopia is a myth (although we can do a lot better than what we have today). But I think that you must pitch Libertarianism as a progressive agenda (ie You can do better under our style of system). I'm flattered by your invitation, but I'm afraid you have the wrong person. Although I completely agree with your civil liberties agenda, I'm not in support of your economic agenda. What I DO like about the Libertarian party is that you guys are so good at shaking up the tired ideas of the past. I encourage you guys to continue your crusade, but I'm afraid I can't ride along. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Nothing is as inevitable as a mistake whose time has Garrett Johnson come." --Tussman Garrett@Ingres.com "The probability of someone watching you is proportional to the stupidity of your action." - Unknown
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Let me remind all of those Muslim-haters out there who like to mention the Mufti's cooperation with Germany as a reason to let Muslims be slaughtered everywhere in the world of the following facts: 1)Why blame the Muslims for what the Nazis did and FORGIVE ITALY, THE CROATS, AND MANY OTHER EUROPEANS FOR BEING REAL ALLIES TO HITLER? 2)Why blame Muslims for supporting Germany the enemy of their enemy at the time (Britain who colonized most of the middle east and was responsible for most atrocities against Muslims in the region) and FORGIVE GERMANY ITSELF EVENTHOUGH IT IS THE ONE WHO CREATED NAZISM? 3)As far as Muslims are concerned : THERE WAS NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN NAZI GERMANY, AND ANTIMUSLIM COLONIALIST BRITAIN/FRANCE IN 1940. They were all racist, anti-arab, and full of arrogance and hate. WWII and the wars in ALgeria, Sudan, and other places proved that very clearly. Even anti- semitism was not more spread in Germany than in France or Britain, it just happened to be official policy in Germany. And we will forgive you, just set our countries free.
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american and european universities were full of Angry Young People(tm) that wanted to overthrow the government, and wouldn't think twice about lobbing a molotov cocktail at the national guard (military police in Europe.) Certainly, it would have been very bad form to take anything the System(tm) said at face value. This was in the end of the sixties and the begining of the seventies, I'm told. I was too young to remember. Something wrong happened along the way, I'm afraid. Maybe the west became just too comfortable, or maybe I was born too late :( Yours, disappointed with with the youth of today, PS: 1) Half smilies implied. 2) There *is* a difference between lining up 90 people against the wall and executing them, and causing their deaths through negligence/ imcompetence. I honestly hope we witnessed the latter. As they say, the alternative is too horrible to contemplate. 3) I'm sure the Abused Children(tm) from the compound are much safer now. --
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It is 'Serdar', 'kocaoglan'. Just say so. The SUNDAY TIMES 8 March 1992 Morgues fill as Azeris head for all-out war ------------------------------------------- Thomas Goltz, the first to report the massacre by Armenian soldiers in the worst violence since the breakup of the Soviet Union, reports from Agdam ------ Khojaly used to be a barren town, with empty shops and treeless dirt roads. Yet it was still home to thousands of people who, in happier times, tended fields and flocks of geese. Last week it was wiped off the map. ....... As sickening reports trickled in to the Azerbaijani border town of Agdam, and the bodies piled up in the morgues, there was little doubt that Khojaly and the stark foothills and gullies around it had been the site of the most terrible massacre since the Soviet Union broke apart. ....... I was the last Westerner to visit Khojaly. That was in january and people were predicting their fate with grim resignation. Zumrut Ezoya, a mother of four on board the helicopter that ferried us into the town, called her community "sitting ducks, ready to get shot". She and her family were among the victims of the massacre on February 26. ....... "The Armenians have taken all the outlying villages, one by one, and the government does nothing." Balakisi Sakikov, 55, a father of five, said. "Next they will drive us out or kill us all," said Dilbar, his wife. The couple, their three sons and three daughters were killed in the assault, as were many other people I had spoken to. ...... "It was close to the Armenian lines we knew we would have to cross. There was a road, and the first units of the column ran across then all hell broke loose. Bullets were raining down from all sides. we had just entered their trap." The azeri defenders picked off one by one. Survivors say that Armenian forces then began a pitiless slaughter, firing at anything moved in the gullies. A video taken by an azeri cameraman, wailing and crying as he filmed body after body, showed a grizzly trail of death leading towards higher, forested ground where the villagers had sought refuge from the Armenians. "The Armenians just shot and shot and shot," said Omar Veyselov, lying in hospital in Agdam with sharapnel wounds. "I saw my wife and daughter fall right by me." People wandered through the hospital corridors looking for news of the loved ones. Some vented their fury on foreigners: " Where is my daughter, where is my son ?" wailed a mother. "Raped. Butchered. Lost." Azerbaijan has said as many as 1,000 refugees were killed as they tried to flee. The Armenians have denied this, saying the civilians were caught in "crossfire". ....... Are you idiot for real? 'After all, who remembers today the extermination of the Tartars?' (Adolf Hitler, August 22, 1939: Ruth W. Rosenbaum (Durusoy), "The Turkish Holocaust - Turk Soykirimi", p. 213.) You must be the only moronian left on the net to believe those ASALA/SDPA/ARF forgeries. What a clown... 'Kill Turks and Kurds wherever you find them and in whatever circumstances you find them. Turkish children also should be killed as they form a danger to the Armenian nation.' (Hamparsum Boyadjian - 1914)[1] [1] M. Varandian, "History of the Dashnaktsutiun," p. 85. Serdar Argic
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The above statement ignores reality. The BD WERE provoked. Damn, Phil. You must have seen a different tape of the initial raid than I did. Your `doorbell' happened to include lobbing percussion grenades and attempting to storm the compound through the windows. I can honestly say I have never seen a `doorbell' that works like that. THINK, man. The BATF are serving a warrant on someone who they feel might have illegal automatic weapons. If they expected, as you state, that `the B-D to be anything other than peaceful citizens' they could have sent one, maybe two agents up to the front door, knock, and attempt to serve the warrant on the person answering the door. Scenario one, that person lets them in to perform the search and no one gets hurt. Scenario two, the person answering the door pulls a weapon aand kills both officers. Now you have two dead BATF agents instead of four, the BATF knows exactly where they stand with regards to the BD and began to formulate a plan of action to arrest those responsible without harm to the innocent people/children within the compound. No, the stupidity was the attempt to serve the warrant SWAT style. Sure, do it within the law. The BATF is there to uphold the law, not circumvent it to fit their needs..... <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Paul R. Busta Busta@vicki.enet.dec.com Salem, N.H. 603-894-3962
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First, a tank drove through the wall into the living room. I can't stop thinking about the children who were inside the house (the room?) at the time. How many people got killed during the Tiannamen Square events? -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are mine, not my employer's.
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Serdar, I have been told that you are not real, your account is fake (which I confirmed by trying to E-mail you) and advised not to waste my time writing to "you". But, I get pleasure from watching you make a fool of yourself. So you stand by the statement that all Armenians are barbarians. OK, I see. Lets not even act as if there is a chance they are human. See Serdar, when you judge people because of their race this is called racism. I tend to frown on this sort of thing. Obviously you don't. When you label an entire race the way you do, it is easy to stop thinking of them as human beings, and this can make GENOCIDE possible. But I guess (and this is where Serdar will fill the page with quotes taken out of context) you know that, huh? Don't you find it weak that all of Serdars enemies are Fascist/NAZI/barbarian/_________fill in the blank with any catch all bad term. Public knowlege? I was not aware of that. NOW I see, the ARMENIANS decide to kill the Israeli athletes in 1972 as PRACTICE. I was confused, but thanks for clearing that up. Wow, you are on a roll with the accusations today Serdar, so how did the Armenians steal from the Turkish children? Was it their lunch money? This is very cute how you inserted children in this fill in the blank accusation sheet you fill out every day. It really touches my heart. Oh and thank you for letting me know that Kurds and Armenians hate each other. I was not aware of this. The only time I have ever talked about Kurds it was about the WONDERFUL treatment they were recieving in Turkey. They must have a high incedence of insanity because there sure are a lot of them fighting against the non-oppresive Turkish government that has let their culture flower over the past 70 years. Thanks for the unbiased TURKISH MEDIA SOURCE. I am sure the Milliyet is rated number one for accuracy and truth. Innocent? Is that what terrorists call their victims? I have never heard of terrorists calling their victims innocent. "Yes, folks in other news the IRA public relations department reported that it had killed 20 innocent victims in a car bombing... " Nope Serdar, I don't think so. Oops you almost forgot to fill in the "Say something about Turks being killed by Armenians here" section of your note.
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. re. own. s. Will do! I appreciate the thoughtfullness of the Post to not be an intermediary for such sales. The "Right to bear arms" is one of the most misapplied rights in our Constitution, and assault weapons go way beyond what is, or rather should be (imho), a "natural" right in America. Just ask the family of that boy shot back in September - the papers are full of stories about a child with an assult weapon with a "angelic face" (Post) who committed the murder without ever thinking. This has all got to get under control. I applaud the Post for their bravery
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No crime here. No crime here. No crime here. Also no substantiation of your claim that Koresh said this. I for one have never heard this mentioned before. Where did you hear it? Up to which moment? The one where you decided that anyone who claims to be God no longer has the protection of the Constitution? What happened to the separation of church and state? I have yet to see any evidence of *this*, either. From what I hear the *original* warrant (the reason for the Feb. raid) is still sealed. What are "unsealed" seem to be warrants taken out after the initial raid. Funny, I haven't seen any of these "interviews." Interesting that when the social services agencies investigated Koresh on these previous charges, they found absolutely no evidence of abuse. Funny, I don't remember hearing anything about childrens' statements, either. Where did you say you heard all this? What *I* heard was that none of the children who left the compound early in the seige exhibited any signs typical of abuse, physical or mental. This from the newspaper and national TV news. Did you also hear that it's the job of the BATF and the FBI to lay siege to homes where child abuse is suspected? I thought you did. "Clearly?" Please tell us what Koresh was doing that can be construed as other than "minding his own business" before the BATF raided the place. Your logic just amazes me. I think your grandparents who died in Auschwitz would be turning over in their graves if they could hear how cavalierly you throw away people's protection of law because you think they're "scary" and "not the sort of person you'd want your daughter to date." What sort of people do you suppose the Nazis thought your grandparents were? Probably not the sort they'd want their little frauleins dating... And next I suppose you'll tell us exactly WHO these "well-trained killers" have killed? Because you said so, right? Right. So someone with a different background, say someone who didn't claim to be the Messiah, in your book COULD shoot and kill Federal Law Enforcement officials WOULD be a good citizen whose crusade enjoys our support? Worth the paper it's printed on. You're amazing, simply amazing.
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From: harelb@math.cornell.edu (misc.activism.progressive co-moderator) Subject: F<O>CUS/HEALTH: How U.S. compares... Children/Elderly in Poverty F<O>CUS/HEALTH: How U.S. compares... Children/Elderly in Poverty ================================================================== Percentage of children and elderly living in poverty 1984-1987:(3) ================================================================== ================================================= CHILDREN ELDERLY COUNTRY IN POVERTY IN POVERTY ================================================= United States 20.4 10.9 Canada 9.3 2.2 Australia 9.0 4.0 United Kingdom 7.4 5.2 France 4.6 4.5 Netherlands 3.8 3.4 Germany 2.8 2.8 Sweden 1.6 4.3 Source: Timothy M. Smeeding, "U.S. Poverty and Income Security Policy in a Cross National Perspective, October 1991, Luxembourg, October, 1991, Luxembourg Income Study, working paper 70. ****************************************************************** ===================================== Of the 19 Western Industrial Nations: ===================================== Western Industrial Countries having a National Health Insurance plan providing universal coverage: Australia YES Sweden YES Canada YES United Kingdom YES Denmark YES Austria YES Finland YES France YES Ireland YES Switzerland YES Italy YES Spain YES Japan YES Belgium YES New Zealand YES Germany YES Netherlands YES Norway YES - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Western Industrial Countries NOT having a National Health Insurance plan providing universal coverage. United States NO - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ****************************************************************** From page 74 of: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - _We're Number One, Where America Stands -- and Falls -- in the New World Order_ by Andrew L Shapiro. New York, May 1992, Vintage Books, a division of Random House. $10 paperback. ISBN 0-679-73893-2 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [Transcribed by jhwoodar@well.sf.ca.us (Joe Woodard)] ``America is becoming a land of private greed and public squalor. This book is an indispensable road map through the wreckage. The facts it reveals will startle you. They may depress you. But ideally they'll fire you up to help rebuild this nation.''
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Does the phrase "Innocent until proven guilty" have ANY meaning anymore? -- jmd@handheld.com
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[SB] Oh yeah, Israel was really ready to "expand its borders" on the holiest day [SB] of the year (Yom Kippur) when the Arabs attacked in 1973. Oh wait, you [SB] chose to omit that war...perhaps because it 100% supports the exact [SB] OPPOSITE to the point you are trying to make? I don't think that it's [SB] because it was the war that hit Israel the hardest. Also, in 1967 it was [SB] Egypt, not Israel who kicked out the UN force. In 1948 it was the Arabs [SB] who refused to accept the existance of Israel BASED ON THE BORDERS SET [SB] BY THE UNITED NATIONS. In 1956, Egypt closed off the Red Sea to Israeli [SB] shipping, a clear antagonistic act. And in 1982 the attack was a response [SB] to years of constant shelling by terrorist organizations from the Golan ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ [SB] Heights. Children were being murdered all the time by terrorists and Israel ^^^^^^^^^^^^ [SB] finally retaliated. Nowhere do I see a war that Israel started so that [SB] the borders could be expanded. I agree with all you write except that Terrorist orgs. were not shelling Israel from the Golan Heights in 1982, but rather from Lebanon. The Golan Heights have been held by Israel since 1967, and therefore the PLO could not have been shelling Israel from there, unless there is something I am not aware of. Tsiel
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<< <<< <<<Anybody got Arlen Spectre's address? I want to write to him and thank him <<<for showing the leadership to demand a Congressional investigation <<<into the Waco mess. << <<If I had Arlen's address, I would go to his house (Do weasels live <<in houses or in holes?) and personally tell him what a pathetic idiot <<he is. Arlen is the personification of the word "jerk". [snip...] << <I'm no fan of Arlen Spectre's, but he did the right thing, and attacking his <motives in this case is wrong. Pardon me, here, but I don't trust Spectre's motives here at all. Spectre was a major part of the Warren Commission, (remember the magic bullet theory?) and is NOT to be trusted if there's even the tiniest chance the guv'mint may have done something wrong. If he gets a chance I'm afraid he will satisfy the public outcry with another whitewash. <Unfortunately, if some of us get our wish and the BATF is disbanded or folded <into the FBI, etc., we may end up with a "more efficient" agency than the <bumbling and competition we have today. Some agents should be fired. Some <should be prosecuted. But keep them as bumbling as possible -- we retain more <of our liberties that way. < Right on the money here. We should certainly applaud the disbanding of the BARTF but we must stress the personal responsibility of the goons who set up the assault on American citizens. We must NOT count on Spectre, though, to get it done. RJL
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I do not want to convince anyone. This is just USENET, not the real world. I just read the opinions others have about a subject, and sometimes I present my opinion. I think that this net is only useful to exchange ideas. I never wanted nor I want now to convince anyone of anything. First, and I repeat it, I never said that the idea of Jews having the right to have a State is racist. Zionism, as a movement, is more than just that idea. I think that Zionism in the way it defines who is a Jew, for example, is racist-like. In the same way I believe that Irish have a right to nationalism but I do not support the bombing and killing of the IRA, I believe that Jews have a right to nationalism but I do not support Zionism as it is right now. That is what makes the basis for Zionist movements. However, I am not considering just that, but the rest of it. Which makes an interesting point. People living in a Jewish State have shown that Jewish culture includes in it Jewish religion but they are not the same. So, the Jewish people living in the Jewish State have shown us that there are some problems in a State where 80% of the people is secular but Judaism is define according to religious standards, or where marriage is a religious stage, or where the Law of Return defines a Jew according to a religious standard. Did those Israelis who do not believe in god and will never do become non-Jews? Why should they still define then a Jew based on what is a religious definition? According to Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Inc, Publishers, Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.A., 1986, page 593, hy-poc-ri-sy: A feigning to be what one is nnot or to believe one does not. So, saying that one believes in Zionism as a simple matter of people having the right to nationalism, but disregarding the right of the Palestinian people to do the same, according to this dictionary, is hypocrisy. I know what my words mean. I do stand by what I said I believe: Zionism is a form of racism. Of course, I tend to talk about things as they are and not as they are defined in a broad sense.
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Not according to reports I have read. It seems that the Somalis think of our African American Marines in less than complimentary terms, using gestures that signify a word I refuse to use. Seems that even when you try to help people, they still insult you.
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Very narrow. Very, very narrow. If you'll recall, I was the nut that advocated the possibility of tactical nukes being militia weapons in certain situations. How can you possibly define what is a weapon and what isn't is only the start of this. And you've just described any civilian reactor because your definition fails to note what energy is being considered. Reactors blow with a steam explosion, but the majority of energy still comes from fission or fusion because that is what heated the coolant. See what a can of worms this is? Last I heard, Ft. Calhoun station just north of Omaha, Nebraska wasn't considered a weapon. Given the sodium-cooled breeder designs on the blocks now, I can easily envision reactors being household appliances in under twenty years. With the PRISM design, there is *no* operator input needed on the reactor itself, and it is not unreasonable to assume the secondary side can be made equally as automatic in the future. So your definition is flawed in a few respects already. Typhoid Mary would likely fit this bill if she sneezed. If you don't mind extrapolation, any HIV-positive person also fits this bill if they interact with others in a way that stands any chance of spreading the virus. Finally, that manure pile I mention below fits this definition, as does, say, releasing a pet rattlesnake to the wild. And I can show where any such gas has other uses. For example, perhaps we would like to rid the hay field of gophers. Calcium Carbide is a rock that dissolves in water to produce aceteylne gas. It can be used for welding, in miners lamps, for gassing gophers, or for making carbide bombs and doing some illicit fishing. Toss some in a toilet and leave a lighted cigarette on the seat and you'll see that it can also be a weapon, just like any other flammable substance. So, now my miners lamps won't work, I can't do any welding, and I still have those pesky gophers. The basis for, but I'm sure you see that the problem is not in writing a law, it is in writing a law that cannot be abused and extended beyond the point where it does any good. It is under your proposed law. So is a silage pit if there is run-off. So are underground fuel tanks. It meets all the criterion of a weapon. It is an instrument that can be used for fighting, even though that is not its intended purpose, and despite there being better weapons around. Given that the aquifers supply a significant part of the country with drinking water, mass destruction is rather a given. It's not that certain weapons aren't something I'd rather not see a lot of people having. The problem is that it is nearly impossible to write a law such that it cannot be abused upon some pretext or another. The looser your definition, the more ripe for abuse that law is. Furthermore, if you get specific then the old standby is to insert a clause allowing the list of banned things to be added to, generally without going through the hassles of another vote and public reading of the law. Again, ripe for abuse.
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Boston Globe, Wednesday April 21 1993 col. 4 "Bodies found in ruins as FBI defends raid on cult ranch" col. 5 "Clinton blames Koresh, orders probe of siege" col. 2 "The children: panws in a horrifying game" pg. 18, col. 1, Editorial page "Judgment at Waco" Now the scientific and political scrutiny of the horror show in Waco begins, though nothing can undo the tragedy that might have been prevented there. Forensic experts will study the rubble and ashes of the Branch Davidian compound, where at least 85 people, including 24 children, perished in smoke and fire caused by theapocalyptic visions of a manipulative madman AND A STUNNING LAPSE IN JUDGMENT BY FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS. [emphasis added by me] Investigators will re-create conditions at the compound and identify accelerants and other fac- tors fueling the inferno. That is their strong suit. But the public must question why agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation lacked the oper- ational skill and teh behavioral insight to resolve the 51-day standoff free of flames and fury. The loss of life most clearly reflects the demen- tia of cult leader David Koresh, whose personal delusiosn are now seared on the public conscious- ness. His assembly of Davidians had stockpiles of arms--and had used them. LIttle in the way of rationality could be expected from Koresh, a self- confsesed "sinner without equal." What continues to mystify are th eactions of federal agents, who bungled the case from the start. The misadventure began on Feb. 28 when 100 agents of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, To- bacco and Firearms storemd the compound, intent on seizing Koresh and a cache of automatic weap- ons. Four agents and an estimated six cult mem- bers died inteh ensuing gun battle. Earlier oppor-tunities to isolate and arrest Koresh outside the complex had not been adequately explored. Authorities prepared a siege and resolved that those deaths would be the last. Fifty-one days into the siege there was no public outcry to storm the compound. It had been correctly perceived that the chil- dren inside "Rancho Apocalypse" were essentially hostages. With their lives at stake, there was no reason for the government to be impatient. The government's superior firepower, control of water and utilities and freedom of movement created the conditions for a belated but bloodless resolution. Neither Attorney General Janet Reno nor the FBI has provided a sigle compelling reason for abandondoning the course of patience. If intelligence was accurate and Koresh was growing increasingly violent and bizarre, it is diffi- cult to see how a tear-gas attack launched by an M-60 combat vehicle would clear his mind. If re- ports of escalating child abuse were accurate, they would have to be weighted against the potential for eve ngreated hamr. etc etc tec.... [paragraphs, 2.5 paragraphs deleted] But some of the responsibility rests with Clinton, and inexperienced president who did not pay enough attention to the life-and -death decisions being made on WAco. If Reno is to be faulted for anything, ti would be for her overreliance on the judgment of law en- forcement officers--a common problem among prosecutors. Full investigations into th eWaco tragedy must be conducted by both the executive and legislative branches. The first step is to verify how the blaze started. Though apportioning blame will play a role, it is of greater importnace to find strategies to elude the fire next time.
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I don't want to attack anyone's personal opinions and thus have not included any articles - but it seems to me incredibly ridiculous and pompous for someone to sit back with the benefit of hindsight and point fingers at Clinton, Reno, the FBI, or whomever. First of all, it is a knee-jerk judgement. The facts are quite muddled at this point and will likely be for quite a while. Secondly, things do not improve by pointing blame and accusatory fingers. Pointing fingers is a destructive action. If everyone sat around pointing fingers all the time, nothing would get done and nothing would ever get any better. And despite the tragedy, we can learn something from this - if it is approached in a constructive manner. Doesn't it seem that working together is more productive than working against one another? Thirdly, it seems incredibly hypocritical to place blame given the benefit of hindsight - something that those who made the decisions did not have the benefit of. Why not give them the courtesy of acknowledging that they did the best they could with the data they had - in a very, very difficult situation. Some responses have gone so far to suggest that the actions were done without regard for the lives of the people in the compound - give me a break. Be part of the solution - not the problem. And that's MY opinion -
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