From: owner-roc-digest@lists.xmission.com (roc-digest) To: roc-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: roc-digest V2 #219 Reply-To: roc-digest Sender: owner-roc-digest@lists.xmission.com Errors-To: owner-roc-digest@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk roc-digest Thursday, March 4 1999 Volume 02 : Number 219 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 1 Mar 99 02:37:55 PST From: roc@xpresso.seaslug.org (Bill Vance) Subject: FCC Public File Auto-FAQ This "FAQ" is auto-posted once a month via cron triggered script, and may be triggered off by hand from time to time in between if the info is requested by someone, such as when the House recently voted down the AW Ban and the Media threw a hissy fit. The purpose of this FAQ is to inform people what they can do about Media generated lies and misinformation. While the FCC only handles Broadcast Media, (TV and Radio), some of these techniques will work for magazines and newspapers too. If I've missed something, or you find errors, let me know and I'll add/fix it. 1.a. Send letters of complaint to the Station Manager every time it happens with all the time, details, other info, and your complaint(s). 1.b. Send an additional copy for their FCC (Federal Communications Commission) Public file. 1.c. Send an additional copy to the FCC itself, in case they don't put it in their Public file. 2.a. Send a letter of complaint to their Station Owner as per above, with copies as per above (1.b and 1.c). 3. Send copies of their replies to you along with yours to them to their FCC Public file, so that it gets nice and fat, again, with copies to the FCC itself. 4. If you can afford it, send all corespondence by Certified Mail with Return Receipt Requested. Send a copy of the Return Receipt with everything that goes to the FCC itself, so that they will have additional evidence if the Station is cheating on their Public File. 5.a. Go to the Public Library and look up "Standard Rate and Data Services" (SRDS) "Directory of National Advertisers." It is found in many major Libraries (in the business/reference stacks), and lists EVERY current advertiser, who the players are at both the company and advertising agency(s), and the appropriate telephone and fax (and probably E-Mail by now) addresses. If your Library doesn't have it, it can be requested. Otherwise you can watch their commercials for a few days to a week, listing all their advertisers. There are other references that have the addresses for the nation's business headquarters too. look them all up and pass the addresses and phone/FAX numbers etc., around so that everyone can bitch to the sponsors. IF enough people do that, it'll get back to the Station. Tell them if the Station continues their nastiness you'll _consider_ changing to brand(X), (otherwise they'll just write you off as a loss). 5.b. The above, (5.a.), can be a lot easier and less time consuming if you're dealing with a newspaper's or a magazine's ads, as they are right in front of you for the listing. 6. If they put on something good or even just more reasonable, call and compliment them on it, but do _not_ send any kudos to their FCC file, or write to them about it. That way they have to keep it up and hope, as there is nothing good in the file or in writing that they can show the FCC to justify their Station's License. 7. Federal Communications Commission, Complaints and Compliance Division Room 6218, 2025 M Street NW Washington, D.C. 20554 FAX: 202-653-9659 FCC Attn: Edythe Wise - -- An _EFFECTIVE_ | The _only_important_difference_ between Nazi-ism, Fascism, weapon in every | Communism, Communitarianism, Socialism and (Neo-)Liberalism hand = Freedom | is the _spelling_, and that the last group hasn't got the on every side! | Collective brains to figure it out. -- Bill Vance - - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 1 Mar 99 04:19:18 PST From: roc@xpresso.seaslug.org (Bill Vance) Subject: Fratrum: The Christian and Civil Government (fwd) On Mar 01, Eugene Gross wrote: [-------------------- text of forwarded message follows --------------------] Hi Folks, Another interesting article on Christians and the Civil Government. En Agape, Gene Christians and Civil Government =93The time has come that Christians must vote for honest men and take consistent ground in politics, or the Lord will curse them....God cannot sustain this free and blessed country, which we love and pray for, unless the Church will take right ground. Politics are part of religion in such a country as this, and Christians must do their duty to the country as part of their duty to God.=94 =97Charles Finney We regularly get letters questioning why we address issues of "politics" and why we try to influence the direction of government. Is this a Christian concern, or not? Let me respond by stating some principles that I believe apply to the matter of Christians, civil government and speaking about leaders. 1) God's kingdom in this world begins as the Holy Spirit regenerates the hearts of individuals. Christ's kingdom is most emphatically NOT established through "the arm of government"=97and those who naively think that by electing th= e right man as president we will see righteousness reign in America are forgetting that God's kingdom grows from the inside out (it begins in the heart of individuals) and from the bottom up (godly leaders are a reflection of a godly citizenry). The starting point for renewal in our land is the preaching of the gospel to sinners, not political action. 2) Every disciple of Jesus is responsible to apply God's Word to every sphere of life, including politics. Discipleship is not just accepting Christ for eternal salvation and then ignoring God's will for life in this world. Discipleship is a life of obedience to Christ in every matter about which Scripture speaks. Jesus own definition of making disciples is "teaching them to observe all that I commanded you" (Matt. 28:20). The Bible speaks to issues related to civil government, and it is our responsibility as citizens of this republic to apply God's righteousness to our situation as God gives us opportunity. The substantially Christian character of early America was, in part, the result of believers applying their faith to the civil sphere. We must do the same today. We cannot abandon whole realms of life to the devil by failure to live righteously in those realms. Jesus has "all authority...in heaven and on earth" (Matt. 28:18). Our nation has slipped into wickedness and decline because Christians have failed to live righteously. We have accepted a truncated version of the gospel which reduces our faith to a private matter that is practiced in the home and church but not applied anywhere else. The enemy has had a heyday as Christians have withdrawn into their spiritual ghettos believing that "religion and politics don't mix." We need to heed the warning of Charles Finney, the revivalist of the last century, quoted at the top of this article. 3) A civil ruler is a "minister of God" (Rom. 13:4). He lives in a world where Jesus is king. He is not a neutral moral agent who can do as he pleases. He is no less under God's authority than you or I. 4) Christians must submit to and honor civil authorities as a part of their allegiance to Christ as Lord (Rom. 13:1-7). We must respect the leader because of the position he holds, even if he is himself a wicked person (Matt. 23:2,3). 5) It is not a breach of respect to identify the wrongs of leaders. We are instructed, regarding the "deeds of darkness" to "expose them" (Eph. 5:11). Jesus lambasted the hypocritical leaders of his day (Matt. 23), and the prophets of Israel and Judah were forever naming names and condemning sin among the leaders of the nation. Sensitive Christians sometimes get uncomfortable with others who condemn evil in our nation's leaders, but this is part of the Church's calling. We cannot let our responsibility to love cancel out our responsibility to proclaim God's Word and apply it to God's ministers in civil office. It is not slander to speak the truth about wicked leaders. It is a dangerous notion without basis in Scripture that submission to leaders means never saying anything negative about them. 6) We must guard our hearts and speak with fear and trembling when we condemn the sin of rulers. It is so easy to speak out of fleshly anger and pride and to fall into personal hatred. We must check our motives constantly so that in speaking the truth about others we are not bringing condemnation on ourselves. Any criticisms of our leaders must be accompanied by a deep spirit of submission to the authority they bear. We should weep as we expose evil. The only pleasure that should attend our statements is the pleasure of our God: concerning those rulers who take a stand against him, Psalm 2 says, "He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them" (v. 4). We should expose the reasons for his derision, but God alone should scoff. 7) We must always remember that our ultimate enemies are spiritual and that our weapons of warfare are spiritual weapons. God's kingdom is established in this world "not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit" (Zech. 4:6). Our trust must not be in ourselves as we vote, write a legislator, or speak against a public policy and a wicked leader. Our confidence must be in our God who raises up leaders and brings them down as he wills. Our trust must be in the one who calls us to faithfulness, not success, and who alone is able to bless us with spiritual renewal in our land. [------------------------- end of forwarded message ------------------------] - -- - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ***** Blessings On Thee, Oh Israel! ***** - ----------------+----------+--------------------------+--------------------- An _EFFECTIVE_ | Insured | All matter is vibration. | Let he who hath no weapon in every | by COLT; | -- Max Plank | weapon sell his hand = Freedom | DIAL | In the beginning was the | garment and buy a on every side! | 1911-A1. | word. -- The Bible | sword.--Jesus Christ - ----------------+----------+--------------------------+--------------------- - - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 1 Mar 99 04:20:19 PST From: roc@xpresso.seaslug.org (Bill Vance) Subject: Fratrum: Excellent Article (fwd) On Feb 28, Ed Wolfe wrote: [-------------------- text of forwarded message follows --------------------] >The John Doe Times > "Sic Semper Rodentia" > >"A Letter From Hagood's Crossroads, Alabama" > >28 February 1999 > >"What I Have Learned From The Twentieth Century" >(With Thanks to Schoolmasters Josef Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Benito >Mussolini, Mao Tse-Tung and Pol Pot for the Teaching.) > >By Mike Vanderboegh > >As an amateur historian of this sad century whose time is almost up, I >would like to reflect upon six lessons I have learned in my studies. >Folks who wish to live free and prosperous in the next century would do >well to understand the failures of the last. > >Lesson No. 1: If a bureaucrat, or a soldier sent by a bureaucrat, comes >to knock down your door and take you someplace you don't want to go >because of who you are or what you think-- kill him. If you can, kill >the politician who sent them. You will likely die anyway, and you will >be saving someone else the same fate. For it is a universal truth that >the intended victims always far outnumber the tyrant's executioners. Any >nation which practices this lesson will quickly run out of executioners >and tyrants, or they will run out of it. > >Lesson No. 2: If a bureaucrat, or a soldier sent by a bureaucrat, comes >to knock down your door and confiscate your firearms-- kill him. The >disarmament of law-abiding citizens is the required precursor to >genocide. > >Lesson No. 3: If a bureaucrat tells you that he must know if you have a >firearm so he can put your name on a list for the common good, or wants >to issue you an identity card so that you may be more easily identified-- > tell him to go to hell. Registration of people and firearms is the >required precursor to the tyranny which permits genocide. Bureaucrats >cannot send soldiers to doors that aren't on their list. > >Lesson No. 4: Believe actions, not words. Tyrants are consummate liars. > Just because a tyrant is "democratically elected" doesn't mean that he >believes in democracy. Reference Adolf Hitler, 1932. And just because a >would-be tyrant mouths words of reverence to law and justice, or takes a >solemn oath to uphold a constitution, doesn't mean he believes such >concepts apply to him. Reference Bill Clinton, among others. The >language of the lie is just another tool of killers. A sign saying >"Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work Makes You Free) posted above an execution camp >gate doesn't mean that anybody gets out of there alive, and a room >labeled "Showers" doesn't necessarily make you clean. Bill Clinton >notwithstanding, the meaning of "is" is plain when such perverted >language gets you killed. While all tyrants are liars, it is true that >not all political liars are would-be tyrants-- but they bear close >watching. And keep your rifle handy. > >Lesson No. 5: Our constitutional republic as crafted by the Founders is >the worst form of government in the world, except when compared to all >the others. Capitalism, as well, is a terrible way to run an economy, >except when compared to all other economic systems. Unrestrained >democracy is best expressed as three wolves and a sheep sitting down to >vote on what to have for dinner. The horrors of collectivism in all its >forms-- socialism, communism, national socialism, fascism-- have been >demonstrated beyond dispute by considerable wasteful trial and bloody >error. Leaders such as Bill Clinton who view the Constitution as >inconvenient and ignorable are harbingers of tyranny. > >Lesson No. 6: While nations do not always get the leaders they deserve, >they always get the leaders they tolerate. And anyone who tells you that >"It Can't Happen Here" is whistling past the graveyard of history. There >is no "house rule" that bars tyranny coming to America. History is >replete with republics whose people grew complacent and descended into >imperial butchery and chaos. Dictators count on the assistance of people >who are complacent, fearful, envious, lazy and corrupt. While ther is no >"Collective guilt" to the crimes of a regime (all such crimes being >committed by specific criminal individuals), while there is certainly >"collective responsibility"-- especially for those who watch the >criminals at work without objecting or interfering. > >A French journalist of the last century wrote: "I must speak out for I >will not be an accomplice." Evil tyrants require, indeed they depend >upon, willing and unwilling accomplices-- good people who would never >think of harming a soul themselves. Lenin called such people "useful >idiots". DeTocqueville observed that "America is great because America >is good. When America ceases to be good, she will cease to be great." >As related in the Old Testament, God judged nations based upon the >immorality and criminality of their leaders. Entire peoples were >scourged because of their failure to remove corrupt leaders. As we move >from the Twentieth Century into the Twenty-First, we should take care to >remember the ancient story of Sodom and Gomorrah. If we wish to avoid >the butchery of the Twentieth Century and the righteous judgement of the >God of our antiquity, we would do well to keep our Bibles, our >Constitution and our firearms close at hand. > > >Mike Vanderboegh >P.O.Box 926 >Pinson, AL 35126 >jdtimes@juno.com [------------------------- end of forwarded message ------------------------] - -- - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ***** Blessings On Thee, Oh Israel! ***** - ----------------+----------+--------------------------+--------------------- An _EFFECTIVE_ | Insured | All matter is vibration. | Let he who hath no weapon in every | by COLT; | -- Max Plank | weapon sell his hand = Freedom | DIAL | In the beginning was the | garment and buy a on every side! | 1911-A1. | word. -- The Bible | sword.--Jesus Christ - ----------------+----------+--------------------------+--------------------- - - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 1 Mar 99 04:20:57 PST From: roc@xpresso.seaslug.org (Bill Vance) Subject: Fratrum: Quote from Lex Rex (fwd) On Feb 28, Eugene Gross wrote: [-------------------- text of forwarded message follows --------------------] Hi Folks, Okay, this will take some time to read and decipher the old English, especially since Rutherford was Scottish and tends to use the Scottish spelling of words. However, please take the time to work through this quote: "I lay down this maxime of Divinitie; Tyranny being a worke of Sathan, is not from God, because sinne either habituall or actuall, is not from God; the power that is, must be from God; the Magistrate as Magistrate, is good, in nature of office, and the intrinsecall end of his office, Rom. 13:4. for he is the Minister of God for thy good; and therefore a power ethicall, politick, or morall, to oppresse, is not from God, and is not a power, but a licentious deviation of a power, and is no more from God, but from sinfull nature, and the old serpent, then a license to sinne."=97Samuel Rutherfurd, Lex Rex (1644). The reason that I posted this and the previous two messages is that I think that the patriot movement, or whatever you want to call it, has been in danger of losing the philosophical basis for its stand against tyranny. There was at one time a Black Brigade in this nation, but I fear that the Brigade might have trouble filling a full squad any more! So, I'm bound and determined to post those things that set the tone and the philosophical grounding for our forefathers! And since all of this is based squarely upon the Bible, what better philosophical foundation could you ask for!? En Agape, Gene [------------------------- end of forwarded message ------------------------] - -- - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ***** Blessings On Thee, Oh Israel! ***** - ----------------+----------+--------------------------+--------------------- An _EFFECTIVE_ | Insured | All matter is vibration. | Let he who hath no weapon in every | by COLT; | -- Max Plank | weapon sell his hand = Freedom | DIAL | In the beginning was the | garment and buy a on every side! | 1911-A1. | word. -- The Bible | sword.--Jesus Christ - ----------------+----------+--------------------------+--------------------- - - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 1 Mar 99 04:22:49 PST From: roc@xpresso.seaslug.org (Bill Vance) Subject: Fratrum: Resistance to Tyranny (fwd) On Feb 28, Eugene Gross wrote: [-------------------- text of forwarded message follows --------------------] Hi Folks, Here is an article that I thought might give us more grist for the mill. En Agape, Gene ========================================================================= Principled Resistance to Civil Tyranny: One Man's View by Andrew Sandlin I 'm going to set forth briefly and simply my view regarding resistance to civil tyranny. I don't profess that it represents a majority view among Reformed Christians, or even in the NRA, or in this present symposium. I don't claim that the Bible is unwaveringly clear on this issue, particularly in its specifics. But I think it's correct, and hard to refute. At least it's workable. It may be accurate to label my view specifically Calvinistic, inasmuch as it conforms largely to John Calvin's view expressed in the concluding chapter of his Institutes of the Christian Religion. Several theses comprise this view. 1. Civil government is a divinely ordained institution, a ministry no less legitimate than that of the church, an institution no less valid than the family (Rom. 13:1-3). It is charged with suppressing external evil in the civil sphere. By implication this requires protection from molestation by foreign powers. While principally an American phraseology, the protection of life, liberty and property is basically a Biblical description of the role of civil government. Civil government is not inherently evil; the godly may-and should-serve as civil magistrates. This, of course, is in contradistinction to the Anabaptist notion. 2. The ultimate code of civil justice is Holy Scripture. This means that civil magistrates should enforce the law of God appropriate to the civil sphere. This implies, further, that civil magistrates may not introduce or implement legislation beyond the explicit or implicit law of God apposite to the civil sphere. For example, the magistrate is required to suppress murder, kidnapping, stealing, and blasphemy, but is not permitted to suppress backsliding, heresy, smoking, or refusal to wear bicycle safety helmets (yes, it is a law here in California). The civil magistrate, I believe, is not merely forbidden to introduce legislation at variance with the Biblical civil code; he is also prohibited from legislating on matters the Bible does not address either explicitly or implicitly. To my way of thinking, the civil magistrate cannot simply make up laws. For an expansion of this theme, see my The Christian Libertarian Idea: Maximum Freedom Under God's Law, Christian Statesman, September-October, 1996, pp. 16-20. 3. Citizens should obey civil magistrates unless required to do what the Bible forbids or forbidden to do what the Bible requires. Civil anarchists-even sometimes under the guise of Biblical Christianity-make the illogical leap from the fully valid conclusion that the civil magistrate may not require what the Bible indicates it may not require, and may not forbid what the Bible indicates it may not forbid, to the conclusion that if the civil magistrate does transcend his Biblically prescribed limits, they are not under compulsion to obey him. That is, these misguided individuals hold that they are not bound to obey the laws of unjust civil government. Few notions could be more severely mistaken. Both St. Paul (Rom. 13:1-7) and St. Peter (1 Pet. 2:13) plainly require us to obey the civil magistrate-even if the civil magistrate is unjust. We may disobey him-and his law-only when that law requires that which the Bible forbids, or forbids that which the Bible requires. For example, if the civil magistrate in the so-called Peoples Republic of China requires a mother to undergo an abortion, she and her family should do everything in their power to disobey that murderous edict. Christians in China, however, cannot refuse to obey the civil government in other matters simply because that civil government countenances or requires murder. That notion is anarchic. And anarchy is never appropriate. The supreme law of the land in the constitutional republics of most modern Western democracies is, of course, the state's constitution. Most of these states furnish adequate means of peaceful political change-this is perhaps the supreme advantage of sound republics and democracies: we usually don't need to fight a civil war to change law or administrations. Now then, Christians are required to render to Caesar what is his. In the context of the first century that meant to pay lawful taxes and in general obey the law of the civil government. In his masterly work Christ and the Caesars, Ethelbert Stauffer points out that the great conflict between Christians and the Roman government in the first few centuries of the church was not a conflict between church and state but between emperor worship and Christ worship. The early Christians were not political revolutionaries, and Jesus Christ disappointed the expectations of these revolutionaries in teaching the notion of a kingdom that begins in the heart of man and gradually alters society by means of regeneration, not revolution (Col. 1:13). To render to Caesar what is his in Western democracies (and, increasingly, in the rest of the world) as we approach the third millennium means to conform ourselves to the constitution to the extent that it does not violate God's law, and to work diligently for the adoption of Biblical law and the recognition of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Please understand: in the modern situation, to be politically inert is to refuse to render to Caesar what is his. Representative civil government means we should work to assure that we are properly represented. For Christians, this means pressing the claims of Jesus Christ in the public sphere. For this reason, Christians in the United States, for instance, should spend more time practicing civil obedience (writing, voting, petitioning, working precincts, preaching, praying imprecations, etc. ) than civil disobedience (sit-ins, tax revolts, revolutionary militias, and so forth). I repeat: the Bible does indeed justify civil disobedience, but only when civil government prohibits what the Bible requires or requires what the Bible prohibits. We must meet injustice with justice, not greater injustice. 4. Since civil government is a minister of God, the Bible does not permit anarchy or revolution. Here I think, especially, Calvin's view is right on track. Individuals may not resist unjust civil government, but lower civil magistrates within the civil government may protect those citizens under their charge by resisting higher territorial magistrates. This constitutes principled, Biblical resistance. Mayors may protect cities from the tyranny of counties. Sheriffs may protect counties from the tyranny of states. Governors may protect states from the tyranny of the federal government. This is a system of checks and balances that avoids civil tyranny on one hand and civil anarchy on the other. This is lawful resistance. Under this practice men are not a law unto themselves but act according to the specific directives of lawful authority. Calvin speaks eloquently: For though the correction of tyrannical domination is the vengeance of God, we are not, therefore, to conclude that it is committed to us who have received no other command than to obey and suffer. This observation I always apply to private persons. For if there be, in the present day, any magistrates appointed for the protection of the people and the moderation of the power of kings ... I am so far from prohibiting them, in the discharge of their duty, to oppose the violence or cruelty of kings, that I affirm, that if they connive at kings in their oppression of their people, such forbearance involves the most nefarious perfidy, because they fraudulently betray the liberty of the people of which they know that they have been appointed as protectors by the ordination of God. (Institutes, Bk., 4, Ch. 30, Sec. 21) Civil magistrates-like everyone else-are called to obey. And obedience includes protecting citizens from tyrannical civil magistrates. I consider this to be the foundation of principled resistance to tyrannical civil magistrates. Others have different ideas, but I believe that what I have set forth briefly here tends to protect society from civil tyranny on the one hand, and revolutionary anarchy on the other. [------------------------- end of forwarded message ------------------------] - -- - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ***** Blessings On Thee, Oh Israel! ***** - ----------------+----------+--------------------------+--------------------- An _EFFECTIVE_ | Insured | All matter is vibration. | Let he who hath no weapon in every | by COLT; | -- Max Plank | weapon sell his hand = Freedom | DIAL | In the beginning was the | garment and buy a on every side! | 1911-A1. | word. -- The Bible | sword.--Jesus Christ - ----------------+----------+--------------------------+--------------------- - - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 1 Mar 1999 14:32:26 -0500 (EST) From: John Curtis Subject: Re: SLICK: Petition No ---"Know Your Customer" Banking Regulation (fwd) Re: "Know Your Customer" rule. A recent case appeared in Mass. in which a State employee tried to abscond with $6.5 million from an escrow account. He and his partner were caught by bankers applying "Know Your Customer" standards to a funny request for a huge cash withdrawal. The guy sounded incredibly stupid in his actions, there were a dozen ways of setting this up to transfer the money - he was just stupid and had control over the account and asked for it all in cash. A couple of blind accounts in private corporation names, transfers in small amounts over a period of months. He was home free and just too stupid to do it. (not that I'm advocating embezzeling funds, mind you). This is all over the Boston papers, don't know if it has hit the national news at all. Looks like banks are playing by "Know Your Customer" rules, regardless of the state of the regulation. Jack Curtis - - ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 1 Mar 99 22:33:59 PST From: roc@xpresso.seaslug.org (Bill Vance) Subject: Fw: EIA Communique - 3/1 (fwd) On Mar 1, Kevin McGehee wrote: [-------------------- text of forwarded message follows --------------------] - -----Original Message----- From: EducIntel@aol.com To: EducIntel@aol.com Date: Monday, March 01, 1999 2:27 PM Subject: EIA Communique - 3/1 The Education Intelligence Agency COMMUNIQU=C9 =97 March 1, 1999 + The war is on over public sector collective bargaining in the state of Missouri. There may be a vote as early as today in the Missouri House. Th= ough the state has a Democratic governor and a Democratic majority in the Legislature, passage is far from certain. On one side is the Missouri NEA= and the AFL-CIO. On the other is the independent Missouri State Teachers Association, the Missouri School Boards Association, and a host of daily newspaper editorial boards. MNEA has been running phone banks and legislative contact campaigns for several weeks. A union handout lists "some issues that have been successf= ully addressed through collective bargaining." Strangely, pay and benefits are= not on the list. In fact, pay and benefits don't appear very often in MNEA's literature. Collective bargaining is about "kids," "choice," "local contr= ol," and "collaboration." However, MNEA President Donna Collins told her local leaders passage of the bill would be "Christmas in March." On the other side, MSTA has also been running phone banks and legislative contact campaigns. Their handouts cite a Tennessee study that claims teac= her pay is higher in districts without collective bargaining. And, of course, exclusive bargaining would probably signal a slow death for MSTA, current= ly the largest teacher organization in the state. No unaffiliated state teac= her association has ever threatened NEA-AFT dominance in a collective bargain= ing state. MSTA believes there aren't enough votes to pass the bill as writte= n, and are expecting some amendments will attempt to push it over the top. O= ne idea is to remove teachers from the bill. EIA will continue to monitor ev= ents. + Maryland has me baffled. Today's Washington Post reports that the Prin= ce George's Board of Education will boost teachers' salaries by $42 million = next year. To pay for the increases, administrative salaries and costs will be= cut, as will spending for technology and transportation. Everyone involved in = the push for the money cites the same reason =97 it's needed if the district = hopes to compete for top teachers. Lewis Robinson, executive director of the Pr= ince George's Education Association, told the Post the county loses 500 to 750 teachers a year strictly because salaries are higher in nearby jurisdicti= ons. Now stay with me. Today's Baltimore Sun reports that one nearby jurisdict= ion, Baltimore County, is studying a plan to pay 100 teachers $3,500 annual bo= nuses to work in 23 low-performing schools. The Teachers Association of Baltimo= re County is strongly opposed to the idea. In fact, it's so strongly opposed= it commissioned a poll of 700 district teachers, equally divided between the= low- performing schools, comparable schools, and high-achieving schools, to ge= t their opinion of the plan. The results? They oppose the plan by wide marg= ins. According to the Sun, "Teachers in all three groups consistently said mon= ey was far less important in deciding where to teach than factors such as sm= aller class size, strong discipline policies, adequate supplies and supportive school administrators." Prince George's and Baltimore Counties are comparable in size, geography, per-pupil spending and teacher salary. Are we to believe that higher pay induces teachers to change cities (or states), but cannot induce them to change schools within their own district? + The California Assembly passed peer review funding, making $413 millio= n available for districts that institute a program. Currently, the only dis= trict in the state with a full-fledged program is the Poway Unified School Dist= rict in San Diego County. Many California teachers, and union representatives,= are leery of the idea. Looking at Poway's figures, it's hard to see what they= 're afraid of. The Poway program is strictly voluntary for veteran teachers, as is the current statewide program moving through the Legislature. In the nine yea= rs the Poway Federation of Teachers has run its program, a grand total of ei= ght veteran teachers have participated. Six returned to the classroom, one re= tired and one took disability. Not a single veteran teacher was fired, suspende= d or asked to resign. + Amid the sound and fury of California Gov. Davis' education reform pac= kage are the distant rumblings of what's yet to come. Says Assembly Speaker An= tonio Villaraigosa about the state's public schools: "Clearly, at some point th= e people are going to have to make a decision whether they are willing to s= pend more and obviously... heresy, I'll say it, maybe even tax themselves to d= o it." + The 1997-98 California Safe Schools Assessment was released, revealing (surprise!) school crime is down in the state from its already low levels= . In Howard County, Maryland, a school violence task force reported schools ar= e "largely secure and safe," according to the Baltimore Sun. Nevertheless, = ten schools will install closed-circuit TV cameras. In Missouri, the Blue Val= ley School District and the Shawnee Mission School District will also install video surveillance systems "to keep an ever-watchful, if dispassionate, e= ye on students," reported the Kansas City Star. Some Maine schools utilize lockdowns. "Sometimes I get confused," Maine principal Frank Keenan told = the Bangor Daily News, "I think I must be a police officer." The Virginia Gen= eral Assembly passed a bill that mandates jail time for anyone convicted of hitting, pushing or attacking a teacher. New York Lt. Gov. Mary Donohue t= old the New York State Parent-Teachers Association that "school violence is a= n escalating problem," according to Reuters. On the flip side, the College of Lake County Federation of Teachers filed= a grievance against the school's use of hidden surveillance cameras, statin= g, according to the Chicago Tribune, that the use of such cameras "violates = the educators' rights to academic freedom." Preschool aide Jessica Kantes was fired from her job of 21 years in Escondido, California, schools. Both sh= e and her union representative from the California School Employees Association= say it was in retaliation for Kantes' reporting a teacher's inappropriate beh= avior with a child. Former Fort Worth teacher Joel Lopez was sentenced to 22 ye= ars in prison for sexually assaulting an 11-year-old student on school proper= ty. Lopez had been forced to resign his teaching position in 1981 because of molestation allegations, but police were never informed and his personnel= file is missing. He was rehired as a substitute in 1989, and subsequently hire= d full-time. He was arrested in 1996 and suspended from teaching in 1997. Several teachers testified on Lopez' behalf. A Washington Education Association publication on "Criminal Abuse of Students by School Employee= s" tells local union officials "It is important not to encourage any media coverage" and provides a tip to "acknowledge the seriousness of the event= and put the association on the =91right side' of the issue." WEA also wants i= ts officials to know "The way we handle things in a crisis determines not on= ly our public image, but can also affect the way future allegations are hand= led and perceived. It also establishes our ability to positively affect the m= edia in other situations." Liz Seymour of the Los Angeles Times appears to be the first reporter to leave the school crime reservation. Her Feb. 24 story, "Getting Too Tough= ?," questions the expansion of zero tolerance policies. EIA's latest report, Rotten Apples: School Crime from a Different Angle, = is still available free by contacting EIA at any of the numbers listed below. Please provide your snail mail address. + Quote of the Week: "We must work together with a display of unity that declares, loudly and clearly, that we, the professional educators, know w= hat is best for our students; that we know what is best for our schools and colleges; and, yes, that we know what is best for ourselves." =97 Massach= usetts Teachers Association President Stephen E. Gorrie. # # # The Education Intelligence Agency conducts public education research, ana= lysis and investigations. Director: Mike Antonucci. Ph: 916-422-4373. Fax: 916-392-1482. E-Mail: EducIntel@aol.com [------------------------- end of forwarded message ------------------------] - -- - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ***** Blessings On Thee, Oh Israel! ***** - ----------------+----------+--------------------------+--------------------- An _EFFECTIVE_ | Insured | All matter is vibration. | Let he who hath no weapon in every | by COLT; | -- Max Plank | weapon sell his hand = Freedom | DIAL | In the beginning was the | garment and buy a on every side! | 1911-A1. | word. -- The Bible | sword.--Jesus Christ - ----------------+----------+--------------------------+--------------------- - - ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 Mar 99 08:41:47 PST From: roc@xpresso.seaslug.org (Bill Vance) Subject: Fighting Back Had a days power outage due to all those trees being blown down on the power lines all over the State. I'll send this off, and start playing catch up. I heard something on KVI Radio, (Seattle), this morning that sparked this off. Someone called in to the Kirby Wilber show to suggest that all those Enviro- Wackos' should be sued for the cost of fixing the power lines because of their anti-logging stand/Legislation. I have doubts about the viability of this kind of suit, but someone should probably try it anyway, just to take some of the wind, (money), from their sails. However, like the Enviro-Wackos', most Anti-Gun/Hunting/Self Defence folks are Big City Liberal-Socialist types, who haven't got the slighest concern, care, or knowledge, about what their drechk Legislation does to the rest of us. The above kind of melded into some thoughts about how we could carry the fight back to where it belongs, in such a way as to put the kibosh on some of their sillyness. First, if we're such great Hunters, then we should consider taking up a new challenge: Bringing 'em back alive. Now if someone were to capture say a bunch of Spotted Owls and breed up a few hundred/thousand of them, feeding them their natural diet, they could then be brought into our Local Liberal Bastions at night and released just prior to breeding time. A whole lot of folks could then benefit first hand from being told they have to move out of the neighborhood so as not to disturb the Owls. While they mostly have the good sense to try to steer clear of even the Bambi-ists, deer can be pretty nasty critters. Releasing small herds of three to six Deer about town in the appropriate places could have a similarly educational effect. As a child in Anchorage, Alaska, I and the other sutdents in my class once witnessed a Moose chase a guy down the street, and around his house three times as he put in the key on the first time, turned it the next, and dived in the third. It chased him in, back out and around the house once more, and almost got back in when he finally got the door closed in the Mooses face. (Phew!) About 20 years or so ago, in the Ft. Lawton part of Seattle, we had a Cougar running around. He never hurt anyone, and mostly gourmandized on the food people put out on their porches for their pets. It took some 3-4 months for them to track him down and capture him, during which time he became known affectionately as, "DB Cougar", after, "DB Cooper". Now if the above mentioned idiots are going to insist that the rest of us have to put up with, "Endangered Species", like Bears, Cougars, and Timber Wolves, then it's only fair that they begin to have first hand educational experiences with them as well..... - -- - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ***** Blessings On Thee, Oh Israel! ***** - ----------------+----------+--------------------------+--------------------- An _EFFECTIVE_ | Insured | All matter is vibration. | Let he who hath no weapon in every | by COLT; | -- Max Plank | weapon sell his hand = Freedom | DIAL | In the beginning was the | garment and buy a on every side! | 1911-A1. | word. -- The Bible | sword.--Jesus Christ - ----------------+----------+--------------------------+--------------------- - - ------------------------------ End of roc-digest V2 #219 *************************