From: Albertus Magnus Area: Metaphysical To: All 2 Apr 94 13:15:54 Subject: The Duds Heard Round the World UpdReq From uunet!zodiac.rutgers.edu!MCELROY Wed Mar 30 00:29:31 1994 Date: Tue, 29 Mar 1994 17:15:56 -0500 (EST) From: uunet!zodiac.rutgers.edu!MCELROY Subject: Ireland: from The Village Voice (NYC) The Duds Heard Around the World by James Ridgeway from The Village Voice (New York City) March 29, 1994 ***** While the IRA may have lost some ground among republican partisans who fought successfully in the U.S. for Gerry Adams's recent, brief visit here, the guerrilla strikes on London's airport with dud mortars must be deeply disturbing to the British, who have seen the siege of London grown from attacks on the financial district last year to such prized targets as its world- hub airport at Heathrow. Within the republican movement in Northern Ireland, the mortaring of Heathrow has strengthened Adams's hand considerably, especially among the hardcore rank and file among the border in areas like County Tyrone and among the prisoners at the Maze, who were leery of a sell-out. The hardcore believes the British initiatives only came because of last year's bombing of the City of London, costing the British more than 1 billion pounds in damages, forcing the conservative establishment to begin negotiations. The attack on Heathrow was more of the same, followed by Adams's signals that the IRA still wants to be flexible, desires to deal and will play ball if the British will say what they have in mind behind the mystification of their Downing Street Declaration. The IRA and its political wing, Sinn Fein, want the British to commit themselves to leaving the North. The British are ambiguous on the circumstances under which they would withdraw. Politically, Adams wants to open the crack between the British and Irish governments by demonstrating the British have no intention of quitting the North and thereby drive nationalist groupings together into a sort of pan-Irish movement. That could take some time, but the Irish government has nowhere else to go, lest it join the British as an enforcer of Her Majesty's counterinsurgency program in the North, eviscerating what little authority and esteem it has left there. The attacks are devastating to the British for other reasons. After Scotland Yard failed to penetrate the IRA, and the embarrassment of the financial district bombings, the Tory government handed over the responsibility for dealing with the IRA to MI5, a sort of super FBI. But the MI5 spooks fared no better, and not once but three times did th IRA attack the prize target of London's--indeed the world's--major airport with dud mortars. In doing so, the IRA has added to its ingenious arsenal of homemade weapons. In Northern Ireland they fired big, unwieldy "barracks busters" mortars--the size of beer kegs or oil drums--out of the back of trucks 300 feet into the air and into police stations and army barracks. It was here that they also introduced small, slender mortars fired not from a truck but out of a family car or a brush-covered hole in the wasteland--for a distance of one kilometer. And from an unmanned firing position. In at least one case, the mortars were fired with timing devices that were set at least three days before the launch, which adds to their operational safety. This means the IRA can hit virtually any target in London, form Buckingham Palace to a train station to the airports to a bridge. This is a first in guerrilla warfare and it must be disturbing to the British to have such weaponry unleashed on their doorstep. 201434369420143436942014343694201434369420143436942014343694718 From: Albertus Magnus Area: Metaphysical To: All 2 Apr 94 13:23:00 Subject: Out of my mind UpdReq ********************************************************* * Michael R. Burhans - Out Of My Mind * * A Weekly Electronic Column * * March 24, 1994 * ********************************************************* " Let Us Pray " or We Must Force Feed The Kids Our Dogma! Once again the armies of the religious right are one the march. The very same groups that are spending millions of dollars on banning books, censoring the media, stopping free speech and legislating bigotry have suddenly tried a new tactic. It seems they would have us believe that they suddenly have discovered the first amendment and are converts. They would have us believe that they are exceptionally concerned with the rights of free speech for students in the public schools. One can only wonder how they can have the gall to expect the rest of the country to believe this in the face of their virtual assault on the civil rights of so many other groups. Their ploy is this: The Supreme Court rightfully banned school prayer on the basis that public schools are an arm of the government; and prayer as a school policy was nothing less than a government establishment of that religion as an officially state sanctioned one. The religious right was therefore left with the quandary of how to force others to pray to their god without appearing to use the government to do so. They have seized on the idea that as long as it is "supposed" to be a student lead prayer it is merely a matter of free speech. They feel that if they call it "non-sectarian" prayer (which to them means a non-denominational Christian prayer) then nobody could possibly object. However, the mere mention in one of these public school prayers of Buddha, Mohammed, Shiva, or Satan would no doubt make them apoplectic. You can bet money that they will feel quite free to mention Jesus in their prayers. The obvious double standard of their position is yet another glaring example of the sickening hypocrisy displayed by the right wing religious fundamentalist movement. I for one cannot believe they really see this as an issue of rights. For if the rights really concerned them, why would these groups spend millions on crusades to remove the rights of homosexuals? If they are really concerned with rights why are they advocating book banning? If they are really concerned with rights why are they working to restrict the rights of non-christian worshipers? If they are really concerned with rights why do they work to remove the right to burn the flag? If they are really concerned with rights, why do they spend so much money to censor art galleries? If they are really concerned with rights, why do they spend so much time and effort trying to censor the media? How can they expect us to suddenly believe they want to be a great force for freedom? Any citizen or elected official that falls for such an obvious and cynical ploy almost deserves to live in the theocracy these people would like to create. Since there is no way to do this without forcing the rest of us to also live in this freedomless state we must oppose this policy. As it stands now, every person has the right to pray in school as long as they don't force it upon others. That policy is sound and should not be changed. I find it disingenuous at best when people claim that they cannot pray properly unless they get to use the public address system and force everyone else to join in or listen. That is nothing less then a form of brainwashing by rote repetition. There is no possible prayer that can accommodate all of our nation's diverse religious beliefs. Even the mention of "God" would tell atheists, agnostics, deists, and polytheists that their s is not the officially state sanctioned system of beliefs. This is blatantly unconstitutional, and needs to remain illegal. If you want to or need to pray, do so, but do not try to force me or my children, or anyone else to join along. ******************************************************************* * (c)1994 Micheal R. Burhans\24th Century Society Publishing * * Permission for unaltered reproduction and dissemination is * * granted as long as it is not for profit & with this notice * ******************************************************************* 201434369420143436942014343694201434369420143436942014343694718 From: Paul Seymour Area: Metaphysical To: ALL 3 Apr 94 16:59:16 Subject: time check UpdReq Drummer Copyright 1990 by Sam Duckworth Let the measure of my footsteps be the drumbeats for my soul ******* and the measure of another's, the drummer for them to follow, a different beat, a different tune, for drawing down the moon. On a walk thru the woods of life the path split, and I took the road less traveled, a winding, woven, wiccian way, that has brought me here to say. Blessed Be the Goddess, God and the Lord of the Dance, saidhe. Dance, Dance, the ways a mystery. I can not lead, and I may not follow, I will show my way, and then its tomorrow... a new start, a new tune, for drawing down the moon. SEEN-BY: 102/943 128/101 309/73 382/7 502 9000/9 10 30 40 9001/0 9003/0 SEEN-BY: 9004/0 9005/0 9007/0 9010/0 9020/0 9030/0 9040/0 9060/0 9080/0 SEEN-BY: 9090/0 9200/0 9300/0 9400/0 9500/0 2 5 20 40 9510/0 9550/0 9580/0 SEEN-BY: 9600/0 2 9603/0 9604/0 9607/0 9608/0 9610/0 9620/0 9630/0 9640/0 SEEN-BY: 9650/0 9680/0 9697/0 9800/0 9900/0 201434369420143436942014343694201434369420143436942014343694718