[CTRL] Chomsky
http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/ni/ni-overview.html
[CTRL] Hollywood vs. Selected Religions
-Caveat Lector- Hollywood vs. Selected Religions by Gary North Let's run a quick test. Say that you have been looking through reviews of recent Hollywood movies. You are reading along, trying to get a sense of what a movie is all about, when you see the word "Palestinian." The next word is: A. businessman B. scientist C. student D. terrorist You now read reviews of movies released after 1960. You read the word "fundamentalist." The word preceding it is: A. lovable B. educated C. principled D. bigoted Back in 1994, Michael Medved, the orthodox Jew who had attacked Hollywood in his book, Hollywood vs. America: Popular Culture and the War on Traditional Values (1992), followed up with a PBS documentary, Hollywood vs. Religion. Medved in those days reviewed movies for PBS. I never saw his documentary on PBS, but I own a copy of the videotape, now unfortunately out of print. Medved makes an important point: openly anti-religious movies consistently lose money - lots of money. The classic example is "The Last Temptation of Christ" (1988), whose presentation of a confused, self-doubting Jesus outraged Christians. It lost at least $13 million. Medved says that producing these movies is ideologically motivated. They represent a statement of faith by the liberal community that dominates Hollywood. These people are rich, and they are willing to pour big money down predictable sinkholes "for the good of the cause." He provides a revealing chronology. In 1959, the biggest Hollywood blockbuster was "Ben-Hur," which won a record 11 Academy Awards. The next year brought the break in Hollywood's tradition: "Inherit the Wind," a movie version of a highly inaccurate 1955 play about the 1925 Scopes' trial, although it presented the story as fiction. (Elsewhere, I have presented the story of that trial in its historical context, a still-continuing battle for control over the content of public school education: taxpayers vs. a self-certified academic cartel.) From that point on, says Medved, the industry's self-imposed restrictions on anti-religious movies steadily broke down. In 1961, the Motion Picture Academy awarded the Oscar for best actor to Burt Lancaster for "Elmer Gantry," the movie version of Sinclair Lewis's 1927 novel about a morally corrupt evangelist. It had taken over three decades to get that book onto the silver screen. The best thing I can say for the movie is that Lewis's Gantry was worse. (Rent it. It does not hold up artistically. "Ben-Hur" does.) Medved says that the old Hollywood's Jewish moguls knew that their customers were Americans, and Americans are religious. The Jews who created the film industry, in author Jack Wikoff's phrase, as "an empire of their own," were wise enough and profit-motivated enough not to launch a direct assault on the religious mores of the country. They wanted in on the American dream, not to undermine it. The movies were favorable to American religious and moral values most of the time. Gangsters and adulteresses either died or repented before the movie was over. One exception, from "Gone With the Wind" to "Pretty Woman," has been the familiar theme of "the prostitute with a heart of gold." Belle Watling, the madam in "Gone With the Wind," did not die in the end, nor did she repent, and she was pictured as "basically decent, except for that." This culminated with "Pretty Woman," where the lead character, a prostitute, marries the rich hero and gets social revenge on the Beverly Hills saleswomen who had scorned her. (I was rooting for the saleswomen.) Hollywood has long toyed with the theme of "the prostitute with a heart of gold," which culminated in "Pretty Woman." The character in "Gone With the Wind" did not die in the end, nor did she repent, making her unique in that era. The character in "Pretty Woman" married the rich hero and got revenge on the Beverly Hills saleswomen who had scorned her. (I was rooting for the saleswomen.) When "Chariots of Fire" won the 1981 Oscar for best picture, this blindsided Hollywood. The picture had been produced in England. It, too, holds up. (What does seem strange is that a Catholic actor played the Jew, Abrahams, and a homosexual actor played the Christian, Liddell. But the casting worked. The homosexual's only other memorable role before he died of AIDS was in "Gandhi," where he played a minister - a liberal, fortunately.) Selective Demonization On December 11, I watched a rented video, "Escape from L.A." (1996), starring Kurt Russell. The basic theme has long appealed to me: how to get out of Los Angeles and stay out. This movie was a sequel to "Escape from New York" (1981), which ignited the adult phase of the career of Disney child star Russell - one of the few child stars ever to make the transition. (His 1980 comedy, "Used Cars," was a riot, at least for those of us who were tired of Jimmy Carter's inflation, but it failed at the box
[CTRL] Ten More Things
-Caveat Lector- http://www.nationalreview.com/nr_comment/nr_comment103100a.shtml Ten More Things Inspired by Larry Edler. By John Derbyshire, NR contributing editor alk show host Larry Elder has got himself a modest best-seller with his book The Ten Things You Can't Say in America. I don't think I am violating any laws or honor codes if I list Mr. Elder's ten chapter headings right here: Blacks are more racist than whites. White condescension is as bad as black racism. The media bias - it's real, it's widespread, it's destructive. The glass ceiling - full of holes. America's greatest problem: not crime, racism or bad schools - it's illegitimacy. There is no health-care "crisis." America's welfare state: the tyranny of the status quo. Republicans versus Democrats - maybe a dime's worth of difference. The war against drugs is Vietnam II: we're losing this one, too. Gun control advocates - good guys with blood on their hands. I applaud Larry Elder's efforts to open a crack of honesty in the wall of lies and self-deceptions that forms our public discourse. Now I am going to hammer my own wedge into the crack, in the hope of widening it just a little. 11. American society is increasingly a conspiracy of the smart against the dumb. Who, exactly, do you think benefits from having a 70,000-page tax code? The low-IQ guy trying to run a small business? Or the accountant he has to pay to interpret the code for him? And who benefits from an "open borders" immigration policy? The $350-an-hour lawyer who needs his lawn trimmed and his pool cleaned? Or the low-IQ citizen who'd be glad to do the work . if there weren't 100 Mexican illegals on line ahead of him, willing to do it for half the price? But hey, low-IQ types don't vote much. And they can easily be bamboozled with some scare talk about "racism" or "the rich". True, they have guns and that might turn nasty; but the smart people have a plan to get their guns off them, so things will work out OK. This system is called "meritocracy." 12. Ninety-nine per cent of the stuff exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art is esthetically worthless and will be utterly forgotten 100 years from now. Some similar proportion of the items published in poetry magazines are likewise without any redeeming value and will likewise be forgotten. The last decent opera anybody wrote was Turandot (1926). The last decent symphony was Vaughan Williams Ninth (1958). The human race can no longer paint great pictures, write great poems, or compose great music. We have forgotten how to do these things. Culturally, the present age is a vast stony desert. We are living on the glories of the past. 13. Race is real. Nope, it's not just a "social construct" or a fig newton of your imagination. Races really exist; and they differ from each other in numerous ways, most of which are not visible to the eye. Watch the finals of the Olympic mens' 100-meter dash. Then watch the Asian-American kids pouring into Yale, Harvard, MIT. Oh, and by the way: The Jews are a race. They are, on average, much smarter than the rest of us. They got that way by practicing eugenics for 2,000 years. And it is not anti-Semitic to point any of this out. 14. Public education is a failure. Yes, I know, it's heartbreaking. "Our wonderful public-school system" - the one that Americanized all those immigrants back in Ellis Island days, the one that gave even the poorest kids a flying start in life - is broken beyond all hope of repair. Forget hiring 100,000 new teachers; that would just swell the ranks of the teacher unions, the most reactionary and destructive force in American public life. Forget vouchers; that will just give federal bureaucrats and social engineers a foot in the door of every private and parochial school, so they can wreck them with their asinine schemes. (Remember VMI?) Privatize the whole damn thing. You want your kids educated? We take MasterCard. Can't afford it? Sell your third car, or get married before you have kids, or something. 15. The main thing that male homosexuals like to do with each other is unhygienic, spreads disease, and pushes important body parts past their design limits. Outlaw it? No, it's private; the police have no business in anybody's bedroom. But we should discourage it for all we're worth. Gay is not just as good as straight. It's against nature, unhealthy and antisocial. "Gay marriages" will fail at rates hugely greater than straight marriages, because gay relationships are, statistically speaking, unstable - way unstable. "Homosexuals don't want marriages, they just want weddings" - Steve Sailer. And allowing homosexuals to adopt children is an awful idea. It's like saying: Let's identify the most promiscuous, most unstable subset of heterosexuals, and allow them to adopt. 16. Racial profiling is common sense, and good, fair police practice. A young white guy cruising slowly round in a black neighborhood is looking to buy drugs. Two young black guys cruising around
[CTRL] A Gay Man Decries Gay Rights
-Caveat Lector- A Gay Man Decries Gay Rights By Justin Raimondo The gay activists of yesteryear asked government to leave them alone. Their political program centered on decriminalizing homosexual relations between consenting adults. But today, as tolerance of homosexuality grows, gay activists are increasingly turning to government to impose their agenda on society. Though state power has been used as a bludgeon against gay people since at least the Middle Ages, suddenly todays gay leaders seem to be picking up the club themselves, saying, Now its our turn. This is a great ironyand a potential cause of trouble for homosexuals and turmoil for America. The birth of the gay liberation movement in America can be dated to the evening of June 27, 1969, when patrons of the Stonewall Inn, a homosexual bar in Manhattan, resisted a police attempt to close the place down. For three days a neighborhood rebellion effectively kept the police from carrying on the ancient tradition of shaking down gay bars and busting the ones that didnt pay up. In the official complaint, the operators of the Stonewall were cited for not having a liquor license. But even if they had applied, it is doubtful their request would have been granted: the state licensing bureau was notoriously hostile to gay establishments. The first modern gay protesters, then, were rebelling against regulation. Indeed, liberation from government generally was a central idea of gay liberation. But something happened to divert the gay movement from this original goal. Today, the so-called gay rights movement sees government as the agency, not the enemy, of liberty. From socialized medicine to anti-discrimination legislation to mandatory tolerance lessons in the schools, there is no scheme to increase the power of government these alleged freedom fighters do not endorse. As long as homosexual acts between consenting adults are illegal in some states, I believe organizations dedicated to their repeal have a legitimate place in the constellation of human rights causes. Beyond this strictly limited goal, however, a political movement based on sexual orientation is a grotesque aberration. The fact that the gay rights movement has taken on an increasingly authoritarian style is the inevitable result of basing political allegiances on clan loyalties instead of philosophical principles. In a free society there are no gay rights, only individual rights. For homosexuals and heterosexuals alike, these rights boil down to a single principle: the right to be let alone. Politically, the gay rights movement must return to its early libertarian roots. This would begin the vital process of depoliticizing homosexuality and defusing a dangerous culture war the gay minority can never win. Even the state neutrality that gay centrists like Andrew Sullivan advocate would force government treatment of homosexuality as on a par with heterosexuality, as seen in Sullivans demands for gay pseudo-marriage and open gays in the military. True neutrality, however, would involve not recognition but indifference, inattention, inaction. A neutral state would neither penalize nor reward homosexual behavior. It would neither forbid nor would it grant legal status to homosexual marriage. In a military setting, a neutral state would subject all sexuality to the same rigorous regulation. Gays must reject the nonsensical idea that theyre oppressed by heterosexism, a vile ideology that subordinates and denigrates homosexuals by insisting on the centrality of heterosexuality in human culture. There is no escaping human biology, however much such a project entrances cloistered academics who imagine that human sexuality is a social construction to be altered at will. Homosexuals are and always will be a rarity, a tiny minority necessarily outside of the traditional family. The heterosexual bias of social institutions is not something that needs to be imposed on a reluctant society by an oppressive state, but a predilection that comes quite naturally and inevitably. If this is homophobia, then nature is a bigot. If gays use the power of the state to correct this historic injustice, they are engaged in an act of belligerence which will rightly be seen as a challenge to the primacy of the traditional family. Even many gay liberals recognize that the gay rights model has outlived whatever usefulness it may once have had. The idea of gay people, particularly gay men, as a victim group is so contrary to reality it is no longer sustainable. In economic, political, and cultural clout, gays wield influence way out of proportion to their numbers, a fact which has spawned numerous conspiracy theories. From the medieval Knights of Malta to the mysterious Homintern of more modern times, the idea of a powerful homosexual cabal is a persistent theme in conspiracy literature, one that mimics the form and style of anti-Semitic lore. Overlaid with the victim propaganda of the past 20
[CTRL] Israeli columnist asks for journalists not to use material from attacks onJews in media
-Caveat Lector- Israeli columnist asks for journalists not to use material from attacks on Jews staged for the media Jerusalem, October 22, 2000 The following letter was written by Hanni Luz, a columnist for "Hatzofe" (a Hebrew daily newspaper), to her fellow journalists. * Dear Sir, A new game is being played on account of human lives. It's called: "Shoot the Jew". The stage managers come from two parties. The first are armed and usually masked gunman. The second are troops of cameramen. Both are looking for the daily take. The first party coordinates the time and place. The second party tails behind, striving for headlines, aiding the stage managers with technology's best lenses. Both the parties aim. The first takes careful aim at a Jewish home, a Jewish bus or a Jewish soldier. The second aims carefully at the daily hit, shooting it from the gunmen's point of view. Together the shoot. The actors come on stage, ignorant of the two hungry parties waiting behind the corner. Bus number 160, on it's way home from Jerusalem thru the Ezion tunnels, was shot at on Wednesday evening. At the exit of the tunnel, a CNN camera crew was waiting patiently for the best shot. This incidence was not unique. The same method is being played day after day near the Jewish town of Psagot, and behind the Jewish houses in Hebron. The grotesque truth behind "the picture tells it all" is that democratic media teams are collaberating with killers, and therefore playing an active, if not major, part in pre-planned murder. These are not press reporters. They are terror-pushers, accountable for the worst of immoral war crimes. This ugly phenomenon has to be stopped, if democratic society wants to continue believing in humanistic values. I beg you to boycott pictures from CNN, AP, Reuturs and other agencies, that were abtained by trampling the most basic of human rights -- the right to live. Even a Jew has the right not to be shot at. Hanni Luz A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"www.ctrl.org/A DECLARATION DISCLAIMER == CTRL is a discussion informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html"Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]/A http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/"ctrl/A To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
[CTRL] Nationhood and Jerusalem
-Caveat Lector- -Original Message- From: yair davidi [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: 24 October 2001 10:11 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: A short background to the conflict At 10:44 AM 10/24/00 +0200, you wrote: Nationhood and Jerusalem * Israel became a nation in 1312 B.C.E., two thousand years before the rise of Islam. * Arab refugees in Israel began identifying themselves as part of a Palestinian people in 1967, two decades after the establishment of the modern State of Israel. * Since the Jewish conquest in 1272 B.C.E. the Jews have had dominion over the land for one thousand years with a continuous presence in the land for the past 3,300 years. The only Arab dominion since the conquest in 635 C.E. lasted no more than 22 years. * For over 3,300 years, Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital Jerusalem has never been the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity. Even when the Jordanians occupied Jerusalem, they never sought to make it their capital, and Arab leaders did not come to visit. * Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in Tanach, the Jewish Holy Scriptures. Jerusalem is not mentioned once in the Koran. * King David founded the city of Jerusalem. Mohammed never came to Jerusalem. * Jews pray facing Jerusalem. Muslims pray with their backs toward Jerusalem Arab and Jewish Refugees * In 1948 the Arab refugees were encouraged to leave Israel by Arab leaders promising to purge the land of Jews. Sixty-eight percent left without ever seeing an Israeli soldier. The Jewish refugees were forced to flee from Arab lands due to Arab brutality, persecution and pogroms. * The number of Arab refugees who left Israel in 1948 is estimated to be around 630,000. The number of Jewish refugees from Arab lands is estimated to be the same. * Arab refugees were intentionally not absorbed or integrated into the Arab lands to which they fled, despite the vast Arab territory. Out of the 100,000,000 refugees since World War II, theirs is the only refugee group in the world that has never been absorbed or integrated into their own peoples' lands. Jewish refugees were completely absorbed into Israel, a country no larger than the state of New Jersey. The Arab - Israeli Conflict * The Arabs are represented by eight separate nations, not including the Palestinians.There is only one Jewish nation. * The Arab nations initiated all five wars and lost.Israel defended itself each time and won. * The P.L.O.'s Charter still calls for the destruction of the State of Israel. Israel has given the Palestinians most of the West Bank land, autonomy under the Palestinian Authority, and has supplied them with weapons. * Under Jordanian rule, Jewish holy sites were desecrated and the Jews were denied access to places of worship. * Under Israeli rule, all Muslim and Christian sites have been preserved and made accessible to people of all faiths. The U.N. Record on Israel and the Arabs * Of the 175 Security Council resolutions passed before 1990, 97 were directed against Israel. * Of the 690 General Assembly resolutions voted on before 1990, 429 were directed against Israel. * The U.N was silent while 58 Jerusalem Synagogues were destroyed by the Jordanians. * The U.N. was silent while the Jordanians systematically desecrated the ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives. * The U.N. was silent while the Jordanians enforced an apartheid-like policy of preventing Jews from visiting the Temple Mount and the Western Wall. A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"www.ctrl.org/A DECLARATION DISCLAIMER == CTRL is a discussion informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html"Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]/A http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/"ctrl/A To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
[CTRL] Ig Nobel Prizes Awarded for Feats That 'Cannot or Should NotBe Reproduced'
-Caveat Lector- Academe Today [Daily report from the Chronicle of Higher Education, http://chronicle.com] Friday, October 6, 2000 Ig Nobel Prizes Awarded for Feats That 'Cannot or Should Not Be Reproduced' By TIM SWARTZENDRUBER Harvard University's science-humor magazine, the Annals of Improbable Research, awarded its annual Ig Nobel Prizes on Thursday to winners in literature, physics, public health, and seven other categories. The awards, which spoof the Nobel Prizes, celebrate achievements that "cannot or should not be reproduced." Genuine Nobel laureates were scheduled to participate in the ceremony, which was to feature the annual "Win a Date With a Nobel Laureate" contest. Following is a list of the winners: David Dunning, of Cornell University, and Justin Kruger, of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, received the psychology award for their report "Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments." Jasmuheen (formerly known as Ellen Greve), of Brisbane, Australia, received the literature award for her book Living on Light (Koha Publishing, 1998), which explains that although some people do eat food, they don't ever really need to. Richard Wassersug, of Dalhousie University, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, received the biology award for his report "On the Comparative Palatability of Some Dry-Season Tadpoles From Costa Rica." Andre Geim, of the University of Nijmegen, in the Netherlands, and Sir Michael Berry, of the University of Bristol, in Britain, received the physics award for using magnets to levitate a frog and a sumo wrestler. Donatella Marazziti, Alessandra Rossi, and Giovanni B. Cassano, of the University of Pisa, in Italy, and Hagop S. Akiskal, of the University of California at San Diego, received the chemistry award for their discovery that, biochemically, romantic love may be indistinguishable from severe obsessive-compulsive disorder. The Rev. Sun Myung Moon received the economics award for bringing efficiency and steady growth to the mass-marriage industry, with, according to his reports, a 36-couple wedding in 1960, a 430-couple wedding in 1968, an 1,800-couple wedding in 1975, a 6,000-couple wedding in 1982, a 30,000-couple wedding in 1992, a 360,000-couple wedding in 1995, and a 36-million-couple wedding in 1997. Willibrord Weijmar Schultz, Pek van Andel, and Eduard Mooyaart, of Groningen, the Netherlands, and Ida Sabelis, of Amsterdam, received the medicine award for their "illuminating" report, "Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Male and Female Genitals During Coitus and Female Sexual Arousal." Chris Niswander, of Tucson, received the computer-science award for inventing PawSense, software that detects when a cat is walking across a computer keyboard and ignores the resulting keystrokes. The British Royal Navy received the peace award for ordering its sailors to stop using live cannon shells, and to instead just shout, "Bang!" Jonathan Wyatt, Gordon McNaughton, and William Tullet, of Glasgow, received the public-health award for their "alarming" report, "The Collapse of Toilets in Glasgow." A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"www.ctrl.org/A DECLARATION DISCLAIMER == CTRL is a discussion informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html"Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]/A http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/"ctrl/A To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
[CTRL] Why Is The Nanny State Descending On Us Like A Sack Of Bean Curd?
-Caveat Lector- Why Is The Nanny State Descending On Us Like A Sack Of Bean Curd? Random Reflections On The New America (1) Easy. We are getting the Nanny State because we want it. Most people want to be taken care of. If asked, they might genuflect to residual self-respect, to the largely imaginary American virtues embodied by Davy Crockett, and say they favored self-reliance, initiative, and independence. They don't. They want nurturing, want to shed the burden of personal responsibility. The mothering can be accomplished through welfare, social security, nationalized medicine, maids, union contracts, immigrant grounds-keepers, police, or workman's comp, but they want it. Most people who don't want to be taken care of by the state are rich enough not to need it. The increase in wealth occasioned by technology makes the Nanny State affordable. Since we want it, and we can pay for it, we will have it. (2) The upcoming election is of little importance. Either candidate will move the country in the same direction, toward the Nanny State, toward extension of entitlements, and with it increased governmental intrusion into the lives of the citizenry, and the dissolution of conventional morality, which gives people fun things to do while being taken care of. Al Gore would promote these things a bit faster than George W. Gore. (3) We do not have candidates, neither Al nor George. They are illusions. Each is in reality the aggregate of two speechwriters, a gestures coach, three pollsters, an ad agency, a make-up man, a holder of focus-groups, and several political technicians. They test one position -- Al is going to be a centrist -- and take a poll. If the polls drop, they take a new position -- now Al will be a left-liberal and compassionate, or conservative and manly. In fact, Al doesn't exist. (4) People do not want the things they say they want. Most, for example, do not want freedom. They want security, prosperity, bowling, television, and vacations. Having these things, they will accept without demur, without really noticing, the tightening control over the press, the narrowing of political choice, the diminution of influence over schools, the reduction in independence. The trick is to bring these about gradually, by imperceptible steps, in the name of compassion or some similarly marketable virtue. It's working. (5) People care no more about education than they do about freedom. The deepest human drives other than sex are, first, to obtain prosperity; second, to avoid work; and, third, to escape their sense of inferiority. Schooling both requires work and produces invidious distinctions between those who have it and those who don't. Consequently, most people are happy with schools that provide the forms of education without requiring the substance. Thus the resentment of standardized tests, and the inflation everywhere of grades. Soon everybody will go to college, nobody will have to learn anything, and everybody will get a diploma. (6) People are not opposed to welfare, but to welfare for others. Whites object to welfare for blacks, imagining that they themselves embody the ideals of hard work and self-support. Actually most whites don't like work any more than blacks do. A chief aim of civilization has been the avoidance thereof. If whites could continue to receive their salaries without again going to the office, they would spend their lives fishing. Which would be sensible. (7) There will be no election in November. To elect is to choose, but we barely have a choice. We do not have two political parties, but rather one party with two divisions. The principle of American politics is to allow the electorate to decide between Candidate A and Candidate A, which encourages them to believe that they have determined who is to be President. It is a system that keeps the incumbents in power, though they take turns being in the minority. Your choices are to vote for either of two largely identical candidates, to throw your vote to a fringe candidate in a gesture of romantic futility, or to preserve your dignity by staying home. (8) The genius of our system lies in maintaining the appearance of representative government without actually having it. One technique for doing this is the election-without-a-choice. Another is the concentration of power in distant bureaucracies that in principle are subject to democratic influence, but in practice are not. If, for example, fundamental educational decisions were made at the local level, parents would wield influence. But if policy is made far away, in the state capital and in Washington, parents will have no influence at all. The effect is to keep power in the hands of unions and the ruling elites. They understand this perfectly. (9) We do not have a free press. We maintain the illusion, because the government does not control the press. The trick is that the press and the government are in the hands of the same people -- or, if you will, the
[CTRL] religion and politics
http://www.trincoll.edu/depts/csrpl/religame.pdf A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"www.ctrl.org/A DECLARATION DISCLAIMER == CTRL is a discussion informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html A HREF="http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html"Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]/A http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/"ctrl/A To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
[CTRL] Drugs watch on web users
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ Electronic telegrapgh ISSUE 1855 Friday 23 June 2000 Drugs watch on web users By Toby Harnden in Washington News and public affairs - Office of National Drug Control Policy What's new - Drug Enforcement Administration THE White House has been secretly tracking the internet activities of people who have been surfing the net for drugs-related topics. The Office of National Drug Control Policy has inserted a trace known as a "cookie" into computers that have visited its anti-drugs websites while searching for topics such as "cannabis" or "grow pot". The cookies are able to monitor internet activities and match them with other online information to identify the user. Joe Lockhart, a spokesman for President Clinton, admitted that the cookies could gather "information about consumers and their internet use". He said: "We will take all steps necessary to halt these practices now." Richard Smith, who discovered cookies on his computer while conducting research for pharmaceutical companies, said: "It's really creepy and Big Brotherish." 20 June 2000: China and US may link up in drug war 23 March 2000: Drugs 'kill 44 Americans a day' Sausage firm boss kills inspectors A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"www.ctrl.org/A DECLARATION DISCLAIMER == CTRL is a discussion informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html A HREF="http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html"Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]/A http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/"ctrl/A To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
[CTRL] Robofish
--- The Telegraph 6/8/2000 Lamprey is brains behind 'robofish' By David Derbyshire, Science Correspondent IT may bear little resemblance to Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator but, according to its inventors, a newly created part-fish, part-machine is one of the world's most advanced cyborgs. The creature has a mechanical body fitted with wheels, motors, circuit boards and light sensors but is controlled by the brain of a sea lamprey. Although the robot contains only a few nerve cells from the eel-like fish, it has learned to follow or avoid lights. Robotics experts are convinced that it marks an important step towards a new type of biological robot. The research could pave the way for artificial limbs or other body parts connected to the user's brain. The fish-robot is the creation of a team led by Dr Ferdinando Mussa-Ivaldi, from Northwestern University in Chicago. They removed the brain stem and part of the spinal cord from a primitive salt water fish under general anaesthetic and kept it alive in a cold, salty solution, New Scientist reports today. The team then isolated a group of large nerve cells called Muller cells. These help lampreys to orientate themselves in water. Electrodes attached to the neurons allowed them to be stimulated with frequencies they would normally receive in the fish's body. When lights were flashed at the robot, the lamprey brain cells learned how to control the motors. The cyborg was able to follow and dodge a moving light source and move in a circle. Researchers were confident that there could be medical benefits. Dr Mussa-Ivaldi said: "We will be able to build better prosthetic limbs for disabled people." Until now, the fish's biggest claim to fame was Henry I who was killed by a surfeit of lampreys in 1135. -- A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"www.ctrl.org/A DECLARATION DISCLAIMER == CTRL is a discussion informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html A HREF="http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html"Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]/A http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/"ctrl/A To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
[CTRL] soon it will be a crime to look
The government can now dictate morality. Thou shalt not covet was a religius law...now it is a state defined law of existence. John FYI one sex based difference is that women have wider peripheral vision than me and hence can evaluate possibilities without the stare. The Telegraph 6/8/2000 EC plans equality law that puts women first By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Brussels UK News: Men 'skive off' the most, say working women THE European Commission yesterday proposed a gender equality law allowing "positive action" to promote women ahead of men at work. The new code, which amends the EU's equal treatment directive, says women should have "automatic priority" in jobs where they are "under-represented", except in cases such as the Royal Marines, where male predominance is justified. The law will also make it easier for women to win sexual harassment cases in court by reversing the burden of proof. The onus will be on men to prove their innocence when accused of "unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct". The definition of sexual harassment covers anything that affects the "dignity of women" and includes staring lasciviously, making sexist comments and talking about a woman's figure. Anna Diamantopoulou, the Greek social affairs commissioner, said that a man accused of such misconduct "would have to prove that he was not guilty", but she stressed that the plaintiff would have to produce "clear-cut proof" to begin the complaint in the first place. A commission study found that a fifth of British women claimed to have been subjected to "unsolicited physical contact", and 30 per cent complained of being "looked up and down obviously". --- This is a message from the Upstream mailing list. Visit the Upstream Website at http://cycad.com/cgi-bin/Upstream/ Visit the Upstream Mailing List archives at http://cycad.com/upstream-list-archive To subscribe to this list send email to the address [EMAIL PROTECTED] with just the subject subscribe To unsubscribe from this list send email to the address [EMAIL PROTECTED] with just the subject unsubscribe A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"www.ctrl.org/A DECLARATION DISCLAIMER == CTRL is a discussion informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html A HREF="http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html"Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]/A http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/"ctrl/A To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
[CTRL] feminism---will men be able to sue
Sunday Times--London June 11 2000 FOCUS Quick, discreet DNA tests to establish paternity have become a boom industry. A swab inside the cheek can resolve doubts that have lingered for years. All too often, however, the results bring heartbreaking news. Lois Rogers reports Who's your Daddy? The news that his little blond son Rauli had cystic fibrosis came as a devastating blow to Morgan Wise, a Texan railway engineer. He was eager to help when doctors asked him to undergo a genetic test to determine the origins of the boy's illness. Wise's results, however, came back negative. Both parents must have the gene for a child to contract the disease, and tests showed Wise was not a carrier of cystic fibrosis. To his astonishment, Wise was told this meant it was highly unlikely he was Rauli's biological father. Already separated from the mother of his four children, Wise, tempted by the paternity testing clinic offer of a cut-price DNA test deal, underwent genetic analysis to establish whether he was the father of Rawli and his other three children. It was a decision that would change his life. The results revealed that only his daughter, the eldest child conceived during his 13-year marriage, was fathered by him. The three boys were not his sons. "I can't begin to describe how I felt," said Wise, 38. "It was like experiencing a sudden death. I could not believe she had deceived me so completely, and for so long. I just fell apart. "How a mother can do this to her marriage, her husband, her children, and live a lie, I don't understand." Wise, who says he still regards himself as the boys' father, is now locked in a destructive legal battle with his former wife. He is arguing he will help support the children, but not through her. Three weeks ago, Texan courts ruled he should have no access to the children until the maintenance dispute is settled. The boys he believed to be his sons are among thousands of innocent victims of the growth in the DNA testing industry. In both Britain and America, suspicious men can now take advantage of laboratories offering quick and easy proof of paternity. Genetic relationships can be established using a home testing kit available over the internet. All it requires is a swab sample of cells from the inside of the cheek of both father and child, which can then be posted off to a laboratory. The results are delivered within five days, no questions asked. More than 250,000 tests a year are now conducted in America, and about 15,000 in Britain. Some of the testing is done to settle legal disputes about child maintenance between unmarried couples, or to answer questions on rights to inheritance. Many of the customers, however, are married men who are suspicious. All too often, the results bring shocking and unwelcome news: roughly 30% of men taking the tests discover that they are not the fathers of the children they regarded as their own. In the wider community, social scientists say up to 1 in 20 children are not the offspring of the man who believes himself to be their father. Caroline Caskey's Houston-based company Identigene, which offers DNA test kits, processes 250 cases a week, and averages one a month from British clients who have contacted the firm over the internet. "These secrets don't keep," said Caskey. Allan Gelb, who describes himself as an immuno-haematologist, though not a doctor, runs a bustling genetic testing service from his office in New York City. "I am doing a great deal of business with the UK," he said. "I should think we have had 40 to 50 people in the past two years." DNA tests have made Gelb into something of a television celebrity. Bearded and bespectacled, he makes regular television appearances on talk shows giving people their test results. The more devastating the news, the better the ratings. One show recently featured a married couple who were told by Gelb, live on air, that their tests revealed they were brother and sister. Family split: Wise found he was not the father of his 'sons' IN BRITAIN, on-air DNA test results may not yet be the stuff of Kilroy, but scientists have been swift to capitalise on the paternity-testing business. There are seven government-approved laboratories offering the service. About 70% of the business currently comes through the courts from the Child Support Agency (CSA) trying to track errant fathers to pay maintenance for their children. However, private demand is growing as more people become aware of the service. People who have lived their lives with a nagging doubt, agonising over their parentage or their progeny, are opting to take the plunge. Customers receive full counselling - they are asked how they will react if the result is not what they had hoped for, and warned they cannot "unknow" it. John Burn, professor of clinical genetics at Newcastle University, set up North Gene to provide private paternity testing at £450 per family. Profits are ploughed back into the university.
[CTRL] Rabin assasination
Rabin Assassination/Commentary: YOUR BROTHERS BLOODTHE FIFTH HONEST RABIN ASSASSINATION BOOK by Barry Chamish [[EMAIL PROTECTED]] MODIIN, Yom Rishon (Day OneSunday), 15 Sivan, 5760 (Gregorian Date: June 18, 2000) (Hijri Date: 15 Rabi Awal, 1421), Root Branch: Just a year ago, there was only one truthful book about the Rabin assassination, mine, entitled, Who Murdered Yitzhak Rabin. Now there are five, listed at the end of this review. Michael Raz Steinkrycer, better known as just Michael Raz, is a former police investigator, whose book Your Brothers Blood traces the Rabin assassination back to 1924, when a religious leader named Dahan was murdered by the socialist Haganah for arranging a peace track with Arab religious leaders. Since then, anyone who challenged the authority of the Bolshevist founders became a candidate for murder by the enforcement arm of the Labor Zionists, the Shabak. Razs book has precisely the same theme as David Morrisons Lies: The Rabin Assassination and the Israeli Secret Service and covers some of the same ground; i.e. Bus 300, the false arrests of 17 soldiers in 1994 for allegedly stealing army weapons to be used by a non-existent right wing underground. However, Your Brothers Blood enters realms where Morrison feared to tread, such as the wrongful imprisonment of Amos Baranes to cover up for a Shabak officers murder of the soldier Rachel Heller, the corrupt dominance of Yossi Ginosar and his perjury which led to the long incarceration of a Druze army officer Izat Nafso, and the ugly suppression of Rabbi Uzi Meshulum and his congregation who dared to expose the kidnappings of thousands of, mostly Yemenite, infants in the early days of the state. Razs approach is invaluable to understanding how the mechanism of the Rabin murder coverup works. Take the Baranes case. Though it was obvious that Rachel Hellers boyfriend, a Shabak agent named Bichovsky, was the murderer, a stooge was set up to take the fall. None of this could have happened without the approval and authorization of State Attorney General Meir Shamgar, who was later called on by the Shabak to cover up, first the truth of the Hebron massacre and turn Baruch Goldstein into the fall guy and then the Rabin assassination, this time making Yigal Amir the victim for another Shabak murder. Like Morrison, Raz relies heavily on documentation supplied to him by me and Natan Gefen but comes up with some powerful new evidence as well. Here are a few examples of how each Rabin book injects vital new information into the investigation. First, Raz finally sheds light on the mystery man of the murder operation, Yekhezkiel Khezi Kalo. While it is universally known that Shabak provocateurs Avishai Raviv and Yigal Amir were employed by the Jewish Department based in Hebron, the chain of command is still fuzzy. Their immediate superior was Eli Barak, head of this department, and we know lots about him. He is a wife swapper, stalker, drunk driver, wife beater and liar. In his most publicized act of debauchery, he stalked the reporter Carmela Menashe. One of his group of wife swappers in the suburban town of Kochav Yair was murdered in New York at the same time Barak was visiting there. After smashing his car while drunk, Barak lied to the police and testified that his passenger was behind the wheel. All in all, we have a picture of a violent misfit, just the type of personality who would murder for peace. But, of Kalo, we knew next to nothing until the publication of the Raz book. We knew he was head of the Non-Arab Anti-Subversive Department of the Shabak and that he was Eli Baraks superior officer. How this department differs from Baraks is still covered in mystery. A year and a half ago, a terrified Kalo went public and in radio interviews and an infamous newspaper article, claimed he didnt know Avishai Raviv and was separated from him by eight officers in the Shabaks chain of command. Being kind, the approach didnt wash. No matter how many underlings dealt with Raviv on a continuing basis, he was their commander. Now look what Raz reveals about Eli Barak. He is not merely religious, but a graduate of a Bnei Akiva yeshivah, the very organization which supplies Judea and Samaria with many, if not most, of its Jewish residents. In fact, the principal of Kalos yeshivah was the fiery Knesset member, Rabbi Ba-Gad. So far, Kalo is merely a betrayer of his community. But let the following fact sink in deep. While Yigal Amir was in Riga, Latvia receiving Shabak training in 1992, Kalo was the Shabak officer in charge of security for the region!!! It sure looks like he was in on the Amir recruitment and subsequent exploitation from the very first day. Then there is the dilemma of Health Minister Dr. Ephraim Sneh. In one of the most damning incidents of the murder, Sneh, then Health Minister, announced Rabins murder on television truthfully, saying, He was shot three times; in the
[CTRL] Mighty Cyberengines Spew Health Myths
prefer to use the term fallacies myself rather than myth. John Mighty Cyberengines Spew Health Myths By JANE E. BRODY NYT, 0.5.30 When my sons were in the first grade, a rumor circulated through New York City elementary schools that cockroaches often contaminated canned tuna. Though the boys liked other fish, including sardines, they refused to eat canned tuna in any form and still avoid it more than 20 years later. Like alligators living in the sewer, many urban myths assume a life of their own despite a total lack of supporting evidence. The alligator myth is more a source of amusement than a problem for anyone, since very few of us venture into sewers. But when myths involve health issues, they can result in needless anxiety, avoidance behavior and inconvenience. In years past, these unsubstantiated rumors about health hazards lurking in our midst spread relatively slowly from person to person by word of mouth, unless some radio or television program happened to give them national airing. Now there is a new rapid-fire means of transmitting misinformation nationwide, even worldwide, via e-mail and the Internet. And since these communications appear in writing, rumors about health hazards floating around cyberspace seem to acquire an undeserved validity that makes them more likely to be believed than any oral warning. Of course, not everyone is equally gullible. Still, some people react with fear, even panic, when a cybermyth about health appears on their computer screens. Several of these "urban health myths" are exposed for what little they are worth in the May issue of Mayo Clinic Women's HealthSource, a newsletter published by the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. I have added one of my own, on aluminum, that predates cyberspace but refuses to die. MYTH: Cooking in aluminum pots causes Alzheimer's disease. The sick brain cells of people with Alzheimer's disease have been found to contain high amounts of aluminum. This prompted people to point a guilty finger at aluminum pots and pans as a source of this element that they believe damage brain cells, resulting in senility. Countless people tossed out all their aluminum cookware, replacing it with stainless steel and enameled cast iron. But what those who panicked failed to realize is that sick cells tend to accumulate toxic metals because they are unable to eliminate them. Despite numerous investigations, there is no scientifically reliable evidence that aluminum is the cause, rather than the result, of a diseased brain. MYTH: Antiperspirants cause breast cancer. A persistent Internet myth is that since antiperspirants block sweat glands, those in the underarm are unable to eliminate toxic substances, sending them instead into nearby lymph nodes, where they cause genetic mutations that result in cancer. First, sweat glands do not eliminate toxins and are not connected to the lymph system. Rather, toxins are processed through the liver and kidneys. Second, breast cancer does not arise in lymph nodes. It may spread to underarm nodes, but it starts within the breast tissue, usually in milk ducts. Third, there is no evidence linking breast cancer to not sweating. Fourth, no ingredient in antiperspirants is known to cause cancer. Finally, among countless studies of risk factors associated with breast cancer, not one has pointed to antiperspirants as a remotely possible cause. MYTH: Costa Rican bananas carry flesh-eating bacteria. Whenever a frightening, mysterious illness gains widespread attention, myths tend to abound as to its source. Hence the myth that touching the skin of bananas grown in Costa Rica can expose a person to the bacteria that cause necrotizing fasciitis, a potentially deadly disease caused by bacteria that attack the flesh in science-fiction fashion. Necrotizing fasciitis is caused by various bacteria, including Group A streptococcus that is found on people's skin and in their throats. It is transmitted from through saliva or mucus or through sores on the skin to another person who broken skin. The bacteria cannot infect intact skin. Nor are they carried on bananas. MYTH: Aspartame causes . . . you-name-it. According to the Mayo Clinic, one woman is the source of the belief that the artificial sweetener aspartame causes everything from obesity to manic depression to multiple sclerosis. The woman maintains that the Food and Drug Administration, in cahoots with commercial interests, has suppressed evidence of aspartame's risks and that all the studies indicating its safety are tainted because they have been financed by the company that produces it. One study
[CTRL] Music on the Brain
I used to have voices in my head telling me I was the reincarnation of Napoleonbut I changed psychiatrist and now I hear 1812 overture instead. John Music on the Brain TIME, 0.6.5 Experts still don't know how and why tunes tickle our fancy--but new research offers intriguing clues BY MICHAEL D. LEMONICK It's hard to exaggerate the effect music can have on the human brain. A mere snippet of song from the past can trigger memories as vivid as anything Proust experienced from the aroma of his petite madeleine. A tune can induce emotions ranging from unabashed joy to deep sorrow and can drive listeners into states of patriotic fervor or religious frenzy--to say nothing of its legendary ability to soothe the savage beast. Yet in spite of music's remarkable influence on the human psyche, scientists have spent little time attempting to understand why it possesses such potency. "We tend to think of music as an art or a cultural attribute," notes Robert Zatorre, a neuroscientist at McGill University in Montreal, "but it is a complex human behavior that is as worthy of scientific study as any other." That's why Zatorre helped organize a conference, "The Biological Foundations of Music," sponsored last week by the New York Academy of Sciences, at which experts in disciplines ranging from neuroscience and neurology to brain imaging and psychology met to exchange notes about what's known--and, more important, what remains to be learned--in this small but growing field. What seems clear is that the ability to experience and react to music is deeply embedded in the biology of the nervous system. While music tends to be processed mostly in the right hemisphere of the brain, no single set of cells is devoted to the task. Different networks of neurons are activated, depending on whether a person is listening to music or playing an instrument, and whether or not the music involves lyrics. Specific brain disorders can affect the perception of music in very specific ways. Experiments done on epileptics decades ago showed that stimulating certain areas of the temporal lobe on both sides of the brain awakened "musical memories"--vivid re-creations of melodies that the patients had heard years earlier. Lesions in the temporal lobe can result in so-called musicogenic epilepsy, an extremely rare form of the disorder in which seizures are triggered by the sound of music. Autism offers an even greater puzzle. People with this condition are mentally deficient, yet most are proficient musicians; some are "musical savants" possessed of extraordinary talent. The opposite is true of the less than 1% of the population who suffer from amusia, or true tone deafness. They literally cannot recognize a melody, let alone tell two of them apart, and they are incapable of repeating a song (although they think they are doing it correctly). Even simple, familiar tunes such as Frere Jacques and Happy Birthday are mystifying to amusics, but when the lyrics are spoken rather than sung, amusics are able to recognize the song immediately. "This goes way beyond an inability to carry a tune," observes psychologist Isabelle Peretz of the University of Montreal. "They can't dance, and they can't tell the difference between consonance [harmony] and dissonance either. They all appear to have been born without the wiring necessary to process music." Intriguingly, people with amusia show no overt signs of brain damage or short-term-memory impairment, and magnetic-resonance-imaging scans of their brains look normal. There is evidently no way to help these unfortunate folks (though, admittedly, they don't know what they're missing). But for instrumentalists, at least, music can evidently trigger physical changes in the brain's wiring. By measuring faint magnetic fields emitted by the brains of professional musicians, a team led by Christo Pantev of the University of Muenster's Institute of Experimental Audiology in Germany has shown that intensive practice of an instrument leads to discernible enlargement of parts of the cerebral cortex, the layer of gray matter most closely associated with higher brain function. As for music's emotional impact, there is some indication that music can affect levels of various hormones, including cortisol (involved in arousal and stress), testosterone (aggression and arousal) and oxytocin (nurturing behavior) as well as trigger release of the natural opiates known as endorphins. Using PET scanners, Zatorre has shown that the parts of the brain involved in processing emotion seem to light up with activity when a subject hears music. As tantalizing as these bits of research are, they barely begin to address the mysteries of music and the brain, including the deepest question of all: Why do we appreciate music? Did our musical ancestors have an evolutionary edge over their tin-eared fellows? Or is music, as M.I.T. neuroscientist Steven Pinker asserts, just "auditory cheesecake," with no biological value? Given
[CTRL] Fw: pharmacogenomics
As a means of control(plus potential testing of IQ, personality bias, cancer tendenies, mental illness) the potential is enormous. John Jun 6, 2000 - 06:33 AM HEALTHBEAT: New Science to Help Patients Get Safest Drugs for Their Genes By Lauran Neergaard The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) - Doctors accused her of being a hypochondriac: The woman suffered dizziness and a racing heartbeat from each antidepressant she tried, even though she was taking doses normally far too low to cause side effects. The desperate woman finally saw Dr. Raymond Woosley, who scanned her DNA with a special "gene chip" and discovered she actually has a genetic quirk that makes her super-sensitive to certain medicines. She's lucky: Some people die while taking some of the world's most popular drugs - from antibiotics to heartburn remedies - all because no one knew their genes made them uniquely susceptible to devastating side effects. That's about to change. A new science called "pharmacogenomics" aims to curb the problem by replacing today's one-dose-fits-all culture with simple tests to help doctors customize prescriptions, picking the safest, most effective drug for each patient's DNA. Already, Woosley and colleagues are testing the new technology at Georgetown University Medical Center. Just swab the inside of a patient's cheek for a DNA sample, and run it over a tiny glass gene chip the size of a postage stamp. The chip detects an errant enzyme system called p450 that affects how safely people metabolize dozens of popular medicines. P450 testing is so successful that Woosley just launched an international registry, closely watched by the Food and Drug Administration, to investigate other gene variations that make some people collapse with a lethal irregular heartbeat after taking any of 50 common drugs. And some companies are poised to begin offering, possibly within the next year, the first direct-to-consumer pharmacogenomic testing. The idea: Instead of waiting for gene chips to reach your doctor's office, just send a cheek swab to a gene-testing laboratory to see if you're at risk from certain drugs, explains Josh Baker, president of PPGx Inc., one company hoping to offer consumer testing. Then give the test results to your doctor. "It's very clear this concept works," says Woosley, a clinical pharmacologist and heart specialist. New research to pinpoint who's at risk "is some of the most exciting stuff I've ever seen." Even the best medicines don't help everyone. Drugs are sold after they prove an effect on the average disease sufferer, not every individual. So there's little way to know who's wasting time on treatment that will fail, and who will suffer side effects. Some 2 million Americans are hospitalized annually for side effects, and 100,000 die. Pharmacogenomics aims to improve that. This is not your standard gene test. It doesn't reveal disease-causing gene mutations. Instead, tests hunt subtle genetic variations called polymorphisms that can determine reactions to medications. Take p450, the best-known family of drug-processing enzymes. An estimated 7 percent of Americans lack certain p450 enzymes, allowing some drugs to climb to toxic levels in their bodies. Other people's p450 enzymes work too fast, clearing a drug out of the bloodstream too fast for it to fight disease. P450 isn't the only concern. Leukemia specialists are starting to test patients for another enzyme deficiency that makes the standard dose of a children's leukemia therapy called mercaptopurine far too high for their bodies. Also, 50 common drugs occasionally cause a lethal irregular heartbeat. Patients' hearts first exhibit a rhythm change called "long QT interval" before going into the arrhythmia with the unwieldy name "torsades de points." Some genes can spur this problem by making drugs 10 times more potent at blocking heart relaxation channels, Woosley said. His lab just launched an international effort to research survivors and create gene chips to test patients for the risk before they take a new drug. Doctors, or torsades survivors, can check http://www.qtdrugs.org to participate. Gene chips will take several more years to hit the market. But PPGx and other labs today can find gene-drug interactions through standard, cheap gene-test methods - they already provide p450 and other enzyme tests for drug manufacturers. Consumers very soon will demand such tests, too, Baker predicts. "If they shouldn't take a drug, they should know. I know I would want to know." - EDITOR'S NOTE - Lauran Neergaard covers health and medical issues for The Associated Press in Washington. AP-ES-06-06-00 0612EDT © Copyright 2000 Associated Press. A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"www.ctrl.org/A DECLARATION DISCLAIMER == CTRL is a discussion informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many
Re: [CTRL] THE AGE OF DISCOVERY DISPELLING MYTHS [Monsanto/Cow's Milk]
You have fallen for a fallacy . At the time of columbus scholars new that the world was a globe and knew how big it was. which is why they oppose columbus as they said the gap between india and europe was too big to reach. The fallacy that people thought the world was flat was put out at the end of the last century in order to discredit the church and show that the church was holding everyone in the dark age. Since the intellectual elite were antichristian, this became the accepted view. - 6) "I don't go so far as to think that the only good Indians are the dead Indians, but I believe nine out of ten are, and I shouldn't inquire too closely into the case of the tenth." Theodore Roosevelt, "The Winning of the West," 1896 Considerred racist today-the book gives an account of how the indians gave as good as they got. History has 3 sides...my side your side and the truth - 7) "I do not consider Hitler to be as bad as he is depicted. He is showing an ability that is amazing and he seems to be gaining his victories without much bloodshed." Gandhi, 1940 Naziism contains much of Hinduism(including the swastica) and hence it is quite natural for ghandi to have been soft on Hitler. Also they had a common enemy. - A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"www.ctrl.org/A DECLARATION DISCLAIMER == CTRL is a discussion informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html A HREF="http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html"Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]/A http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/"ctrl/A To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
[CTRL] BBC: New targets in Zimbabwe
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/newsid_78/780172.stm Tuesday, 6 June, 2000, 17:28 GMT 18:28 UK Zimbabwe fear spreads The "war veterans" have now turned their attention to teachers Schoolteachers and judges in Zimbabwe fear they are becoming the latest targets of President Robert Mugabe's government and party. In the last fortnight, supporters of the ruling Zanu-PF party have attacked schools, after a cabinet minister accused teachers of "polluting the minds" of young people. And the government has told white judges that they are not qualified to preside over Zimbabwean courts - a comment which has prompted fears of interference in judicial independence. The Zimbabwe Teachers Association says at least 200 schools have been disrupted by intimidation and attacks. In the Eastern Highlands town of Chimanimani, the self-styled war veterans who support President Mugabe moved into secondary and primary schools, dragging the teachers from their classrooms. Several teachers were beaten, some to the point of unconsciousness, and needed hospital treatment. Other teachers, accused of being opposition MDC supporters were stripped naked in front of their students. In previous Zimbabwe elections, schools have been used as polling stations and teachers employed as polling officers. Some commentators believe that teachers are perceived to be capable of influencing the outcome of the election - which is why Zanu-PF supporters are targeting them at a time when a crucial election is approaching. 'Barbaric' attacks A teacher at a Midlands school which was the target of an attack said the only way to remain safe was to feign support for the ruling party. "Our school head advised us to cover ourselves, so we all bought Zanu-PF membership cards," he said. The Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe blames the government for what the union calls "unwarranted, barbaric and nefarious" attacks. Recently Justice Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa accused teachers of "polluting the minds" of young people. Staff at health clinics have also been targeted, with opposition supporters who have been injured in political violence being prevented from entering clinics. Judges under fire The government used the state-owned media at the weekend to attack the white judges who comprise a substantial proportion of Zimbabwe's still independent judiciary. The government's relationship with the courts has deteriorated over the past year, to the point where it disregarded two court orders to act against the illegal occupation of farmland by Zanu-PF supporters. Government spokesman Jonathan Moyo said white judges who held foreign citizenship were not qualified to preside over Zimbabwean courts. "No sane Zimbabwean should expect the judiciary to be headed by a foreigner - especially a British - 20 years after our independence, just like it would be insane to have a foreign or British president or speaker of parliament," he said in the state-owned Sunday Mail newspaper Two of Zimbabwe's five supreme court judges are white, including Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay. Four of the 20 high court judges are white. Mr Moyo's remarks have prompted speculation that the government might move to remove the white judges from their posts - an action which would destroy the principle of an independent judiciary. A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"www.ctrl.org/A DECLARATION DISCLAIMER == CTRL is a discussion informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html A HREF="http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html"Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]/A http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/"ctrl/A To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
[CTRL] hypnosis
http://www.btinternet.com/~neuronaut/webtwo_features_hypnosis.htm The secret of hypnosis Hypnosis can be explained as a form of self-induced sensory deprivation well perhaps. (Copyright, John McCrone, March 1991) Hypnotists with swinging fob watches are out. Far more effective ways of putting people into a trance have been discovered which, with their employment of confusion and word twisting, are not too far removed from brainwashing techniques. Yet while the practice of hypnosis has made considerable strides of late, science is still uncertain whether the phenomenon even exists. Hypnotism has been studied for over 200 years. For a long time, the only way known of putting subjects into a trance was to get them to focus on a spot on the ceiling or a monotonous pendulum while the hypnotist commanded them to fall asleep. However, this "authoritarian" method has since widely been replaced among hypnotherapists by an indirect technique pioneered by the US therapist, Milton Erickson. Today, a hypnotist uses a careful manipulation of the conversation they have with their clients to "lead" them into a trance state. As Stephen Brooks, director of the training group, British Hypnosis Research, explains it, there is none of the traditional mumbo-jumbo that used to be the hypnotist's stock in trade. Instead, the aim of modern techniques is to drop hypnotic suggestions casually into the conversation. The patient's attention is first directed inwards by asking them out of the blue if their hands feel heavy or if they can remember some pleasant holiday. This relaxes the subject and the hypnotist can then drop hints into the conversation about the sort of experiences the patient should expect to feel under hypnosis; sensations such as weightlessness and involuntary behaviour. Finally, when the patient has been led into a deeply relaxed state - one so relaxed that the critical faculties have been dulled to a small point of consciousness - the hypnotist starts confusing the patient with non sequiturs and apparently pointless remarks. Confused, but too relaxed to struggle for understanding, the patient's tendency is to seize hold of almost anything the hypnotist then suggests as their new hypnotic reality. The technique is much like brain washing in relying on confusion followed by the planting of a new belief system. However Brooks stresses that brain washing relies on much more brutal confusion techniques such as terror and isolation, and is carried out with quite different aims in mind than those of a therapist! That at least is the modern practice of hypnosis - and a method highly successful at overcoming resistance as most patients never realise that the therapist has switched from ordinary conversation to the hypnotic induction. However, what about the science behind hypnosis? There is a strong body of scientific opinion that would say the many people experiencing Ericksonian hypnosis - or its more highly packaged derivative, Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) - are merely feigning a trance state to please the hypnotist. A combination of social pressure to perform and everyday knowledge about the way hypnotised people are suppose to behave, are enough for cooperative patients to fake the experience. Like being drunk, even people who have never touched a drop usually can do a good job of acting tipsy. This hypothesis that hypnotic trance states are merely feigned was taken up enthusiastically by researchers in the 1980s, particularly in Canada. Their methodology was to take two groups of subjects, one whom believed themselves hypnotised and one whom had been told to fake a trance, and then test them for how similarly they behaved. Astonishingly, the fakers could even match the hypnotised in demonstrations where they had to ignore pain - although it is true the fakers were never tested with something like the tooth root canal extractions which some hypnotised patients can withstand. The non-state theorists - researchers such as Nicholas Spanos of Ottawa and Graham Wagstaff of Liverpool University - did much to dispel many of the old myths about hypnosis. It was found that apparently vivid memories recalled under hypnosis were as liable to be imagined as real. Proof of this led to a Home Office warning in 1988 against the use of evidence gained under hypnosis. Other evidence, such as experiments showing that subjects with induced deafness or amnesia could still respond normally in carefully designed experimental tests, seemed to prove the non-state theorists' case that no special trance state exists. But a few years ago, neurologists using brain scans and other monitoring devices started coming up with support for the belief that hypnosis is a genuinely altered state of awareness. A key feature of the trance state is the ability of subjects to experience intense hallucinations at the suggestion of the hypnotist. These visions have none of the paleness of ordinary imaginings and are as vivid as dreams. David
[CTRL] Forgotten aspect of slavery
COMPLICITY 101 BY DENNIS RAITT Although the "politically correct" academia, the NAACP and its Hate-the- South media allies continue their quest to revise and sanitize Southern history, it is refreshing to find an individual like Larry Koger. Mr. Koger holds an M.A. in history from Howard University where he researched his book: Black Slaveowners, Free Black Slave Masters in South Carolina, 1790-1860. "Most Americans, black and white, believe that slavery was a system exclusively maintained by whites to exploit black people. But in fact black Americans played a role in the annals of the peculiar institution as slave masters. Many blacks of the antebellum period believed that slavery and the exploitation of their own people was a viable economic system for profit. In Louisiana, Maryland, South Carolina, and Virginia, free blacks owned more than 10,000 slaves, according to the federal census of 1830. Many black masters were large planters who owned scores of slaves and planted large quantities of cotton, rice, and cane sugar. Not all black masters were planters, many were craftsmen and artisans. The institution of black slave owning was widespread, stretching as far north as New York and as far south as Florida, extending westward into Kentucky, Mississippi, Louisiana and Missouri. Many black masters were former slaves, many being emancipated for meritorious military duty, faithful service, saving a life, and other such reasons. Basically stated, they arose from slavery to freedom to slaveowner. Once freed, they obtained slaves through inheritance or purchase, including those of their immediate families. Free blacks not only used slave labor to work in farming, but also purchased slaves to work in their businesses as skilled and unskilled laborers. Others hired out their slaves to non-slaveowners and appropriated the proceeds to help themselves. The attitudes and actions of black masters were much the same as white slaveowners. From the U.S. census, just around Charleston, South Carolina, the percentage of free black slaveowners increased from 25% in 1830 to 92% in 1860. Just between 1800 and 1820, the number of black masters increased by 411%. Another census showed an increase and then a decline in the percentage of female black slaveowners from 71% in 1820 to 58% in 1864. Perhaps the most striking fact about the statistics complied from the federal census is that 42% of the slaves held by free blacks were females between the ages of 10 and 54. In short, the economic benefits of slavery stimulated ex-slaves to buy slaves to be utilized as laborers or hired out. In a society where slavery was an accepted form of labor, not the racism blamed today, it was not surprising that former slaves exploited the vast reservoir of slave labor. They viewed slavery as a viable and legitimate institution which could be used for investment purposes in producing more wealth. Like the white man, black masters had to deal with all types of disciplinary problems which required the need to place advertisements in local newspapers for the return of their runaway slaves, placing disobedient slaves in the city jail or workhouse, flogging, and sale on the auction block. Life of the slaves under black ownership was not much different from the life of slaves held by white planters. In either case, the slaves usually worked from 8 to 10 hours a day, with Sundays and customary holidays off. Although the black planters did not pay their slaves, they provided food, clothing, medical care and shelter as did the whites. Also the mandatory slave tax was paid yearly. In the antebellum south, a network of personal relationships developed between the black elite and the whites. Often the face-to-face, person-to-person contacts permitted Southern whites to see each other as men and women. Free blacks not only attended church with whites but often lived a few doors down. Many of the well-to-do free blacks owned homes, plantations and slaves. They made legal contracts and filed lawsuits to protect their property. As the antislavery movement in the 1850s intensified, many black slaveowners began to doubt the continued existence of slavery. Rather than bequeath the slaves to their children, they began to liquidate their human chattel and gave the proceeds from the sales to their beloved ones. By 1863, as the War for Southern Independence began to worsen, it was becoming apparent that it was only a matter of time before their valuable slave property would be freed. By this time it was hard if not impossible to find a willing buyer. Thus after the war, like their white counterparts, the newly freed slaves would work the land, not for wages, but for food, shelter and clothing. In essence the only major difference between the antebellum arrangements and the Reconstruction contracts was the distinction between forced labor and a quasi-voluntary system which developed after slavery." So the next time the NAACP and the leftist-media
[CTRL] Thought control
Columnist Dan Walters' (www.sacbee.com) article in the San Mateo County Times 6/5/00, alerts us to California Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg's method of asking "private" questions of school children by requiring that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations be incorporated into existing health screening programs operated by the county government. It passed. Example of questions: 1. Whether the childs family had a history of mental illness, domestic violence or drug use. 4. Whether the family or neighbors own guns. 5. Whether ...involved with gangs. 7. Whether the child had signs of poor self esteem. etc. It passed. The Cal. Assembly also included, in a different bill, that the Museum of Tolerance (Simon Wiesenthal Center in LA) should be consulted in developing hate crime prevention in schools, etc. They are putting into Law that their policies etc. are reasonable and to be part of our government. A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"www.ctrl.org/A DECLARATION DISCLAIMER == CTRL is a discussion informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html A HREF="http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html"Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]/A http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/"ctrl/A To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
[CTRL] The effect of Aids in Africa-scientific american
Scientific American CARE FOR A DYING CONTINENT In Zimbabwe--where AIDS is prematurely killing a generation of adults--counselors and researchers struggle against social customs, viral resourcefulness and despair. By Carol Ezzell, staff writer Photographs: Karin Retief/Trace Images/The Image Works "If the younger generation does not change, we are going to perish." Millicent Tigere perches expectantly on the edge of the sofa, her hands folded in the lap of her simple black skirt. At the age of 20, she has already been married for two years and has a one-year-old baby girl, now strapped to her back with a white terrycloth towel. One of her relatives died a year ago, and she suspects the cause was AIDS. She has come to the clinic today to find out if she herself has a future--or if her child is destined to become an orphan like the estimated 10 million others on the continent of Africa. Millicent lives in a town on the outskirts of Harare, the capital city of the southern African nation of Zimbabwe. Her husband, who is 26, has a job as a bank teller--a feat, considering the country's unemployment rate of roughly 50 percent. Millicent speaks a little English, which is Zimbabwe's official language, but she prefers to conduct her AIDS counseling session primarily in Shona, her tribal tongue. Chiratidzo Muyaka, Millicent's counselor, is a motherly figure in her 40s with glasses and big brown eyes. Her past experience as a schoolteacher shows as she guides Millicent through the "pretest" questionnaire that will prepare her for her blood test for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the cause of AIDS. Does she know how the AIDS virus is spread? Millicent confidently and correctly identifies unprotected sex, sharing hypodermic needles and childbirth as the major means through which HIV is transmitted. THE GOMBEDZAS Has she had sex with anyone other than her husband? She shakes her head no. Has her husband had sex with other women? "I don't think so," she answers, laughing nervously behind her hand. Has she thought about what might happen if she tests positive? Her smile fades. She pauses to reach back and pull up one of her sleeping baby's flower-patterned socks before answering. "I get worried if I am positive, because I would be divorced [by my husband], and I worry about breast-feeding." Nevertheless, she declares, she plans to share the results of her test with her husband. Although she says she and her husband have never used condoms because she takes birth-control pills, Millicent agrees to discuss condom use with him before she returns in two weeks to receive the results of her HIV test. She takes a dozen free condoms because, she says, she and her spouse have sex nearly every night. Then she leaves the counseling room for the clinic's examining room to have her blood sample drawn. The chances that Millicent is not already infected with HIV are not good. Zimbabwe's National AIDS Coordination Program (NACP) estimates that between 20 and 25 percent of the population carries the virus. The likelihood that one in every four people I meet is infected with HIV haunts me as I walk the streets of Harare. The face of HIV is everywhere: on the taxi driver who drove me to my first appointment this morning, on my waiter last night, on the woman selling roasted corn on the cob at the side of the road, on the businessman emerging from his Mercedes. I have come to Zimbabwe because it represents one of the best of the worst. As in other sub-Saharan African nations, the AIDS problem here is so severe that it eclipses the often-used term "crisis." AIDS is destined to alter history in Africa--and, in fact, the world--to a degree not seen in humanity's past since the Black Death. But unlike some other African countries, Zimbabwe is not riven by tribal violence. If any behavioral intervention against AIDS will work in Africa, one of its best chances will be here. But that one-in-four estimate of Zimbabweans infected with HIV is likely to be optimistic, based on scanty data and wishful thinking. The statistic derives from blood samples collected periodically from pregnant women who show up at a dozen maternity clinics around the country--a system that even Evaristo Marowa, director of the NACP, acknowledges is inaccurate. Workers at the clinic to which Millicent has come see HIV infection rates that are much higher. Nearly 40 percent of the women presenting themselves for HIV counseling and testing have turned up positive, according to epidemiologist Nancy S. Padian of the University of California at San Francisco. Padian is collaborating with Z. Michael Chirenje, Tsungai Chipato and Michael T. Mbizvo of the University of Zimbabwe's department of obstetrics and gynecology on studies to find ways to prevent the spread of HIV, which in Africa is transmitted largely through heterosexual sex and from mother to newborn. Like many other AIDS researchers, they are focusing on women instead of men in part
Re: [CTRL] John Taylor was Elizabeth Taylor
I plead not guilty. I have an alibi. Being at least 10 000km away in south africa makes it difficult to commit a crime in the usa. (the only shot i have made in anger was after I had been bound and a gun held against my skull. whilst working late one nighti got away and fired a shotfortunately I am a bad shot and missed. John H Taylor (there are lots of taylors.none of us being alien clones...i hope -Original Message- From: Tenorlove [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: 30 May 2000 08:38 Subject: [CTRL] John Taylor was Elizabeth Taylor A man named John Taylor has been arrested for the Wendy's massacre in New York City. Isn't there a John Taylor on this list, too? I would imagine it's a rather common name. My local phone directory has three John Taylors, 1 John F. Taylor, 1 John H. Taylor, 1 John T. Taylor, 2 Jonathans, 3 Jeans a Jeannie, and 15 J. Taylors with various middle initials. Not to mention 2 more columns of Taylors. __ Do You Yahoo!? Kick off your party with Yahoo! Invites. http://invites.yahoo.com/ A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"www.ctrl.org/A DECLARATION DISCLAIMER == CTRL is a discussion informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html A HREF="http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html"Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]/A http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/"ctrl/A To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"www.ctrl.org/A DECLARATION DISCLAIMER == CTRL is a discussion informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html A HREF="http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html"Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]/A http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/"ctrl/A To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
[CTRL] Chinese demographics
When Demographics of a country become scewed toward Men, then often the response is "since we cant make love lets make war." This tied with america's sale(gift) of nuclear technology to china and the massive build up of the military indutrial complex of china (encoraged by western banks) could(will?) lead to very dangerous situation in a few years time. (it should also be remembered that western gajin are not quite human and only given grudging respect---but as a competing thought is that the chinese have not been an imperialistic country and find it difficult to rule other population groups---where they have done it as they did in Tibet they have carried out genocidal activities where 1-2 million Tibetans have been killed by chinese rule at the beginning of their rule and where they are now carrying out a policy of genetic and cultural overwhelment) PS Purvin and gertz did a study on the likely crude price in the new millenium and came to the conclusion that it will depend almost entirely on one factor- chinese growth rate. If the chinese economy doesnt grow then crude is likely to remain in the 10-20$/bl range that exists at the moment but if the chinese economy continues to grow at the present 8%pa then a crude shortage is likely to develop and then the sky becomes the limit for the crude price--and the same is likely for other commodities BASE HREF="http://www.economist.com/editorial/freeforall/current/xm0018.html" !-- Start EcoScript tags -- !-- End EcoScript tags -- head titleSpecial Features/title /head script language="JavaScript" !-- function donothing(msg , url , line) { return true; } window.onerror=donothing; function keepUpdated() { if (self.parent.navigation.ecoBlipUpdate!=null) self.parent.navigation.ecoBlipUpdate("8"); setTimeout("keepUpdated()",1000); } //-- /script body onLoad='keepUpdated();' text="#00" bgcolor="#FF" link="#00" vlink="#33" alink="#CE0031" a name="top" table border="0" width="446" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" tr tdimg src="/0KhAc0hZ/editorial/editorial_gifs/null.gif" width="92" height="10"/td tdimg src="/0KhAc0hZ/editorial/editorial_gifs/null.gif" width="10" height="10"/td tdimg src="/0KhAc0hZ/editorial/editorial_gifs/null.gif" width="341" height="10"/td tdimg src="/0KhAc0hZ/editorial/editorial_gifs/null.gif" width="3" height="10"/td /tr tr td/tdtd align="center"nbsp;/td td align="center" valign="top" !-- Economist Special Head -- table border=0 width=100% cellspacing=0 cellpadding=2 tr td bgcolor="#CC0033" align="center" valign="middle" font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#FF" bCHINESE DEMOGRAPHICS /b /font /td /tr tr tdimg src="/0KhAc0hZ/editorial/editorial_gifs/null.gif" width=5 height=35/td /tr!-- start article -- tr td align=center FONT face='Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif' SIZE=+2b 6.3 brides for seven brothers /b/FONT /td /tr /table !-- end Special Feature head -- /td tdnbsp;/td /td/trtrtdnbsp;/tdtdnbsp;/td td align=center valign=bottomfont face='Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif' size=-2 BEIJING AND SHANGHAI br/font /td tdnbsp;/td /tr tr td colspan=4 align=center valign=bottom img src="/0KhAc0hZ/editorial/editorial_gifs/null.gif" height=5 width=446!-- found rubric --/td/trtrtdnbsp;/tdtdnbsp;/tdtdbrimg src=/0KhAc0hZ/editorial/freeforall/current/editorial_gifs/null.gif' width=1 height=7brBfont face="Times, Times New Roman" size=2centerLife is going to be lonely for millions of men in the world#146;s most populous nation /font/B/center /td/trtrtdnbsp;/tdtdnbsp;/tdtd/td/trtrtd valign=top!-- Economist Further Reading -- table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" trtdimg src=/0KhAc0hZ/editorial/editorial_gifs/null.gif width=7 height=1/td/tr tr td/td td img alt='Further reading' src="/0KhAc0hZ/editorial/editorial_gifs/h_further_reading.gif" width="92" height="18" IMG SRC="/0KhAc0hZ/editorial/editorial_gifs/null.gif" WIDTH=1 HEIGHT=7BR font size=-1 face="Helvetica, Arial" A HREF="/0KhAc0hZ/tfs/archive_tframeset.html" TARGET="_top"Search archive/AP /font /td /tr /table/tdtdnbsp;/tdtdfont face='Times New Roman, Times, serif' size=3THE cheeky eight-year-old son of the local restaurateur in a village not far from Beijing is already well informed on the facts of life, Chinese style. He has, he announces, a two-month-old baby sister. #147;The fine was 15,000 yuan,#148; he adds proudly. A second child for a mere $1,800 is quite a bargain#151;if the family had lived closer to Beijing, they might have had to pay 50,000 yuan. And her birthplace was not her only stroke of luck: her parents already have a son. China is not a good country in which to be conceived as a second daughter. brimg src=/0KhAc0hZ/editorial/freeforall/current/editorial_gifs/null.gif' width=1 height=7brOn
[CTRL] FW: BIG OIL'S CANNIBALS HUNGRY FOR MORE.
-Caveat Lector- 1998-12-17: UK: YEAREND - BIG OIL'S CANNIBALS HUNGRY FOR MORE. (REUTR) By William Maclean LONDON (Reuters) - Oil majors will stampede for new trophy deals in old Middle East haunts in 1999 while pursuing a merger spree back home to cut costs and raise market share. Battling low prices and weak demand, Big Oil's herd instinct will drive companies into each others' arms and fire a parallel race for the world's cheapest and biggest reserves in the Gulf. Both trends gathered pace in a redrawing of the world's energy map in 1998, spurred by a disastrous 40 percent price crash born of Asian economic collapse and rising Iraqi exports. As the century closes, hungry corporate cannibals will dine again on Wall Street for more mega-merger economies of scale. "We think that there is more consolidation to come - alliances, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions," said Jay Wilson of bankers J.P. Morgan. Prospects for an early oil price recovery are remote with a stubborn stock overhang and rescue efforts mired in bickering inside producer club OPEC. GOLIATHS OFFER BETTER FINANCING, TECHNOLOGY, REACH Sweeping budget cuts forced on oil firms by the price rout will take a good two years to provide big falls in crude supply - too late to save weaker explorers and even some large integrated companies. A Reuters poll of experts projects an average price for benchmark Brent crude of just $13.50 a barrel in 1999, unchanged from this year after a 30 percent slide. "The only thing you can conclude is that there is going to be more consolidation," said Exxon chairman Lee Raymond. The Texas-based firm is merging with Mobil to form the world's largest company by revenue, reuniting the largest successors from the 1911 breakup of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil. The $240 billion giant will dwarf a proposed $110 billion British Petroleum and Amoco combination created to nip the heels of the larger Royal Dutch/Shell. Already earning pre-merger incomes greater than those of many countries where they operate, such new goliaths will have the muscle to grab the lion's share of the best upstream prospects and widen downstream access to the consumer. Such titans don't want only multi-billion dollar savings. They target more leverage from new technology by spreading it over a wider base, improving returns on capital to shore up a must-have status with institutional investors. They also want sheer size to attract Middle East countries seeking capital from foreign partners to expand their reserves, the world's most plentiful and the cheapest to extract. Rod Peacock of J.P. Morgan, a banker involved in Exxon and BP's respective mergers, says oil super-giants offer Gulf states unrivalled technology, financial strength and global reach. GULF REOPENING PRESSURES SAUDI, MEXICO TO FOLLOW SUIT And mergers may simplify the Gulf states' choice. "Being big wins you a seat at the table. It means people pay attention to you," said Bob Maguire, a managing director at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter . That seems to be the case in Kuwait, seeking to boost its output capacity in an undeclared race for foreign capital with other Gulf states as well as Venezuela, Nigeria and the Caspian. "I think it made our life much easier," said Kuwaiti Oil Minister Sheikh Saud Nasser al-Sabah. "Instead of negotiating with BP and Amoco separately, we have both of them in one. Instead of Exxon and Mobil, we have them both in one." The Gulf reopening signals the return next century of Middle East OPEC powers to their former position at the heart of the global oil industry after 20 years as nationalised backwaters. Dusting cobwebs from some of the oldest oil relationships, the reopening also pressures state giants Saudi Arabia and Mexico to join the investment race or risk losing out. It also means that the upside-down world of international oil exploration, where the bulk of development has occurred in costly areas like the North Sea, will see a return to commercial normality as investment shifts to t he Gulf's low-risk fields. "I suspect that by 2005, 2010, we will see the normal laws of economics reasserting themselves, with the volume increases going to the low-cost producers," Royal Dutch/Shell chairman Mark Moody-Stuart told Petroleum Intel ligence Weekly. "And if that happens it almost certainly means lower oil prices," said Moody-Stuart, whose company is the latest to confirm talks on possible post-sanctions projects with Iraq. Maguire says being huge gives companies the financial clout to make a big bet on a sole risk basis upstream rather than settling for the syndicated returns earned by smaller rivals. MEGA-MAJORS COULD SHRUG OFF TAKEOVER PRESSURE A possible additional motive for OPEC states inviting in foreign capital is to divert that money away from non-OPEC areas that are the source of competing production, he said. "For that reason, you'd rather bring in the guy who's spending a lot rather than spending a
[CTRL] Not really conspiracy but Ian Smith's quote is very apt
-Caveat Lector- "What I learnt from British politicians was that diplomacy is just a polite word for deceit" SUNDAY TIMES December 13 1998 Smith defies Mugabe's land-grabbers by R W Johnson Harare THOUGH 80 next year and a little gaunt, Ian Smith has aged well. He is instantly recognisable as the man who issued Rhodesia's unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) in 1965, a rebellion he finally surrendered in 1980 when one-man, one-vote elections brought President Robert Mugabe to power in what is now Zimbabwe. Today Smith's farm at Shurugwi is on the list of 841 properties that Mugabe has designated for state seizure in order, he says, to allow resettlement by landless Africans. "It's got nothing to do with land for the poor," said Smith. "The state's already taken over 2m acres of land, but it's not been distributed to the landless. The gangsters have got most of it." By the gangsters, he explains, he means the government and its cronies. "I can take you out and show you 20 farms within a 40-mile radius of Harare that were once productive, flourishing enterprises, homes where people brought up their children and provided employment for many hundreds. Mugabe pushed those people off their land and today it's just sterile," he said. What Smith says is true enough. The head of the army, General Rex Nhongo, who as a guerrilla led the first attack on a white farm, is a member of the Zanu politburo. Despite his claimed socialist views, he has Zimbabwe's biggest land holding, with 17 farms. Joshua Nkomo, the vice-president, has interests in 16 farms. Abandoned farmhouses around Harare have been looted and the termites are now at work - a sad scene of devastation. What will Smith do? "I got their letter. I told them I wasn't interested. The agreement was that they wouldn't take over family farms or highly developed ones and mine is both those things," he said. "Janet [my wife] and I have farmed there for 50 years and we've invested millions in it. We're not going to be pushed off. I'll go to the appeal court and with so many cases pending it'll take them 10 years to hear them all. I don't expect to be around by then anyway. Meanwhile, I'm not budging. My children are here and so are my grandchildren. I'm not going anywhere." Is he not afraid that the government will single him out for exemplary treatment? The telephone is tapped, of course, Smith says. "Janet and I have been arrested three times and they've confiscated my firearms and papers. But I just ignored them, and when they realised they were getting nowhere they stopped. I've always spoken my mind and I always will," he said. In Mugabe's first year in power, Smith helped him. "We got on like a house on fire. I was very impressed. But then he started all this nonsense about wanting a one-party state, and I told him I'd have to criticise him publicly for that. He hasn't spoken to me once in the 17 years since then." Does he not feel partly responsible for the mess now? Was it not the long guerrilla war following UDI that produced Mugabe? Rubbish, Smith says, the fault lay with the British politicians who sold the country down the river. "Rab Butler promised us independence but refused to write it down, saying it was unnecessary because 'we were all part of the family'," said Smith. " The most two-faced of the lot was that Lord Carrington fellow. The Tories would put their arm around you and say, 'You're one of us', and then betray you. What I learnt from British politicians was that diplomacy is just a polite word for deceit." Many Zimbabweans are horrified at the scale of their country's deterioration. Inflation is 45%, unemployment 50%, the currency has collapsed, no investment is coming in and as the economy spirals downwards, Mugabe simply tries to blame it all on the whites. Does Smith realise that many South Africans look at Zimbabwe, their northern neighbour, and worry that Thabo Mbeki, their next president, could follow the Mugabe model? Smith will have none of this. He has the greatest admiration for Nelson Mandela and Mbeki, he says. They are not gangsters and they know much better than to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. "White South Africans have to face up to the bad things they did. It will take time to get apartheid out of that system. You've got to allow for that, but South Africa is the hope of Africa and I have confidence in it," he said. Smith is not without hope for Zimbabwe. "The most hopeful thing is that their own people are fed up with them now," he said, pointing to recent riots over food and fuel price rises. More and more black people are complaining to him about how their children go to bed hungry at night. The denouement of the Zanu party leadership is becoming clear. Mugabe has sent 6,000 troops to war in the Congo without even asking parliament. The country cannot afford the war and most believe that the troops are there to protect the financial interests of
[CTRL] The developing NWO- a marxist critique
-Caveat Lector- The South African Revolution in its International Context 1. The End of Isolation? From its launch in 1921, the Communist Party in South Africa has committed itself to an internationalist perspective. We have always sought to understand the interconnectedness of our own struggle with socialist, working class, democratic and liberation struggles around the world. We have also seen the propagation of the values of internationalism within our country as a core Communist Party task. The SACP is, today, convinced that internationalism is more relevant than ever before. A strategic understanding of present international forces is central to developing a clear programme for the South African transformation struggle. A failure to develop such an understanding will lead to many illusions and mistakes. Coming to terms with the place of the post-1994 South Africa within the world has proved to be an area of considerable uncertainty, if not plain confusion. Justified pride in our successful political transition and the genuine respect it has inspired around the world have also instilled illusions about global realities, and our place within them. In many quarters the ending of apartheid has been presented, unproblematically, as an "end to our international isolation". There is much that is mistaken in this way of presenting matters. For most of its existence, the apartheid regime (like the minority regimes before it in South Africa) was not isolated from the world. On the contrary, it was, in its way, an integral part of a broader world system. For many decades our Party, and the wider ANC-led liberation movement, characterised minority-rule in our country as a variant of colonialism - as colonialism of a special type (CST). By invoking the concept CST we were not just referring to the colonial origins of modern South Africa in the phase of industrial imperialism. We were referring to the specific path of capital accumulation pursued in South Africa, which was forged, with the active backing of British imperialism, around the colonial alignment of class forces and the national oppression of the majority. It was around this colonial alignment of class forces that South Africa was integrated into a wider imperialist system that was, at once, economic, political and military in character. As late as the 1970s, successive United States administrations pursued the deliberate strategic decision to back white minority rule in South Africa, in the context of intensifying a Cold War struggle in Southern Africa. The apartheid regime was seen as an important regional gendarme, as a component, therefore, of a broader imperialist bloc. Partial sanctions were only imposed, reluctantly and belatedly, on the apartheid regime by the major imperialist powers following all-round international popular pressure, and also a growing perception that apartheid was no longer a necessary or even viable regional political dispensation from an imperialist perspective. These perceptions were reinforced by: * the growing instability within South Africa, including the systemic failure of the imperialist inspired coercive-reform measures, introduced by the apartheid regime through the late 1970s and 80s; * the weakening political and military capacity of the Soviet Union and its broader bloc in the 1980s; * and the increasing capacity of imperialist forces to dominate Africa through the management and manipulation of the debt crisis. In the course of the 1980s, * by way of harsh structural adjustment programmes, many post-independence development gains were rolled back in progressive African countries. African economies were opened up to the predatory incursions of transnational corporations - in a very real sense Africa was re-colonised, not by armies, but by financial institutions. In short, the usefulness, for imperialism, of a white minority-based regional gendarme had diminished by the late 1980s. South Africa is not emerging from decades of isolation. Moreover, insofar as there were partial sanctions on the apartheid regime, they were imposed at the behest of the liberation movement and with the support of active anti-apartheid solidarity movements around the world. It is patent nonsense to speak of the ending of these partial sanctions, as if "we" were now emerging from that isolation. Failure to correctly characterise (or even vaguely remember) the recent past, produces many distortions in the way in which our present place within the international system is understood. The word "imperialism" has virtually disappeared from the vocabulary of our liberation movement, as if the collapse of the Soviet bloc, and the ending of the Cold War, also resulted in the evaporation of the powers and consequences of imperialism. In fact, the global power of the most developed capitalist countries and of the major capitalist transnational corporations has grown
[CTRL] The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
-Caveat Lector- Pro McClelland of Harvard once stated that childerns stories are where the values imparted from one generation to the next are the most clearly seen. John TheDawning of the the new age new world order D L Cuddy Chapter Four The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Masons are supposed to be engaged in a search for "light" (Ahura-Mazda is the "spirit of light") with all of their"heart, mind, and strength."ln L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the tin man wants a heart, the scarecrow a mind, and the lion wants strength or courage (the master Mason uses the "strong grip of the lion's paw"). In the occult, the heart represents the female (or emotion), the mind represents the male (or reason), and strength stands for action. L. Frank Baum (possibly a Buddhist) was interested in Theosophy (which he and his wife joined in 1896), and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is on page 36 of the Theosophical University Press 1989-90 catalogue, which features "the principle source-writings of the modern Theosophical movement and seeks to provide a comprehensive presentation of the ancient wisdom-tradition." Concerning Theosophy, Baum pronounced, "God is Nature, and Nature God, " and in the Aberdeen, South Dakota Saturday Pioneer (January 25,1890), he wrote of "an eager longing to penetrate the secrets of Nature - an aspiration for knowledge we have thought is forbidden. " The Theosophists are "searchers for truth" and "admit the existence of God - not necessarily a personal God. "He believed in the theory of "elementals' (invisible, vapory beings) popularized in Madame Blatavasky's Isis Unveiled(1877), and like the Rosicrucians' belief in the combining of God and nature, and not unlike William Butler Yeats' (Mason and Fabian) search for a new mysticism. Baum believed in reincarnation, in karma, that there was no Devil, and "that man on earth was only, one step on a ladder through many states of consciousness, through mans 'universes, to a final state of Enlightenment, "according to Michael Patrick Hearn in his book, The Annotated Wizard of Oz (1973). Hearn is also quoted in Children :s Lirerarure Review, (CLR), vol. 15, as saying: "The author of The Wonderful Wizard of 0Z was well read in the occult sciences. .Paracelsus, the sixteenth century) Swiss alchemist and physician, divided all spirits into , four categories: Air, sylphs; Water, nymphs or undines; Earth, gnomes; Fire, salamanders. These could be expanded to the ancient idea' of the four states of matter - gas, liquid, solid, and energy.. A quick glance at Baum 's fairy tales reveals rhat he wrote about each Paracelsian classification of spirits. His sylphs are rhe 'winged fairies'(Lulea of Queen Zixie of Ix; Lurline of The Tin Woodman of oz); the undines are the mermaids (Aquureine of The Sea Fairies; the wonder fairies of the first chapter of The Scarecrow of 0z)); the gnomes are the Nomes (the Nome king of The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus und Ozma of Oz); and the salamanders are the ,fairies of energy' (the Demon of Electricity of TheMaster Key; the Lovely Lady of light of Tik-Tok of 0z). Baum seems to have created a highly sophisticated cosmology by interpreting this theory of spirits of elementals' in terms of tradirional fairies. This is basically a religion of Nature. Modern science itself has its origin in The Wonder full world of Oz the occult sciences, in the search for the secrets of nature. It is nor by mistake that the Shaggy Man in The Patchwork Girl of Oz refers to Oz as being a fairyland where magic is a science. 'Both science and magic have the same ends. " In many of Baum's works, there are revealing references. In The Master Key, a boy summons up the "Demon of Electricity," and A Kidnapped Santa Claus refers to a "Demon of Repentance." The Tin Woodman of Oz has a giantess skilled in transformations, and in Dorothy and the Wizard Of Oz, there is a climb up "Pyramid Mountain." Baum was a pacifist, and in Ozma of Oz, Dorothy is shipwrecked, and Princess Ozma (close friend of Glinda, "the greatest of sorceresses") is threatened by an attack from the Nome king, but he is powerless in the face of her faith and love as she states, "No one has the right to destroy any living creatures, however evil they may be, or hurt them or make them unhappy. I will not fight - even to save my kingdom. " In the Saturday Pioneer (October 18, 1890), Baud wrote that "the absurd and legendary devil is the enigma of the Church, "and in the Oz books, he said there were both "good and "bad" demons and witches. (Baum also wrote a play, The Uplift of Lucifer, or Raising Hell in 1915.) Remember when you read Revelation 4:3 (". there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald"), that in life Satan tries to imitate God. Could this be why Dorothy sings "Somewhere Over the Rain-bow," while the rainbow looks green in some Oz books
[CTRL] Shakespeare
-Caveat Lector- Shakespeare (Independent, 5 xi '98) A new computer analysis of stylistic features provides fresh testimony that all but the more obscure Shakespeare plays (Merry Wives of Windsor, etc.) were written by Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford (1550-1604). The supply of astronomical references in the plays dries up after 1604; and the last ten years of actor-manager William Shakespeare's own life -- though he by then enjoyed great affluence and leisure -- produced only Pericles, Cymbeline, Winter's Tale, The Tempest and (with John Fletcher's help) Henry VIII. Just how William Shakespeare (1564-1616) could have written the world's greatest plays has long puzzled historians and psychologists. There is no documentary evidence that William ever attended Stratford's excellent Grammar School -- though the civic status of his father [a glover and wool dealer] would have entitled him to do so. At age 18, William married his pregnant girlfriend, Anne Hathaway, 26. By age 20, he had become the father of three children, including two twins [a boy and a girl] so sought work with a theatrical touring company which took him to London. Essentially, the question has been one of whether largely untutored Shakespeare could have been sufficient to the writing of plays involving a good knowledge of Greek, Roman, Italian and English history -- together with awareness of the latest advances in astronomy (as in Hamlet, where a starburst is mentioned that had only just been observed by English courtiers). The Italianate Englishman, Edward de Vere, came from a distinguished military family. Though violent and spendthrift, he was a highly regarded Elizabethan courtier-poet. His lyric poem 'What cunning can express' is the best of those securely attributed to him (Chambers Biographical Dictionary). DECLARATION DISCLAIMER == CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substancenot soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om