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