From: owner-roc-digest@lists.xmission.com (roc-digest) To: roc-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: roc-digest V2 #321 Reply-To: roc-digest Sender: owner-roc-digest@lists.xmission.com Errors-To: owner-roc-digest@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk roc-digest Wednesday, March 8 2000 Volume 02 : Number 321 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 1 Mar 00 10:20:30 PST From: roc@xpresso.seaslug.org (Bill Vance) Subject: [slick-d] Fwd: SOUTHERN OREGON MILITIA CHARGED AS HATE GROUP (fwd) On Mar 01, Charles F. Nawrocki wrote: [-------------------- text of forwarded message follows --------------------] /////// SENT FYI ONLY////////// Cleaning house, one sweep at a time.//// >Reply-To: "Carl Worden" >From: "Carl Worden" >To: , "Tom Adkins" >Subject: SOUTHERN OREGON MILITIA CHARGED AS HATE GROUP >Date: Tue, 29 Feb 2000 22:04:32 -0800 >X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2314.1300 > >Ladies & gentlemen: > >Just as the state Government Standards and Practices Commission >investigator arrived in Southern Oregon to begin his detailed >investigation into the alleged official misconduct of Medford Airport >Director Bern Case, his assistant Craig Baldwin and Operations Manager >Robert Russell, an obscure group calling itself The Northwest Coalition >For Human Dignity announced that the Southern Oregon Militia was named as >a "Hate Group" in it's annual report. > >What an amazing coincidence. > >Also amazing is the fact this defaming organization named two other groups >in Southern Oregon that may not exist. One is the Oregon Knights of The >Ku Klux Klan in Grants Pass, and the other is the Medford Citizens' Bar >Association, a group that was disbanded ten years ago. Although the SOM >suspects the existence of an Ayran Brotherhood group in or near Grants >Pass, the Ku Klux Klan group faded into obsurity many years ago. That >leaves just us. > >Everyone familiar with the Southern Oregon Militia knows that we are >largely a group of mainstream Christians dedicated to uphold and defend >the Constitution of the United States. Locally, we are known for rooting >out local corruption and exposing it, which we have done with >gusto. Looks like we stepped on a few toes. > >Thankfully, we have cultivated an honest and forthright relationship with >the local media, and Channel 5 News has reported that when pressed for >documentary proof of their allegations, Northwest Coalition For Human >Dignity "researcher" Jonn Lunsford of Vancouver, Washington charged that I >had "posted articles on Web sites with anti-Semitic statements." When >pressed further for documentary proof of such statements, Lunsford was >unable to produce a single article of that nature. > >Lunsford also said the entire militia movement was founded by Aryan Nation >and Ku Klux Klan leaders, so Worden should divorce himself from militia >principles or change the group's name. > >"If he doesn't stand for the principles the militia was founded with, he >should change," Lunsford says. "Then we'll take him off the list." > >Well, well, well. If we change our name from "militia", we will suddenly >emerge from our cocoon as non-racist and non-anti-Semitic and be taken off >their list? How does that happen, and who is the real bigot here? > >The full article that appeared in the 2/29/00 Medford Mail Tribune article >follows. I am in the process of securing legal counsel for the purpose of >bringing a libel and slander suit against The Northwest Coalition For >Human Dignity. Not only did these buffoons name the SOM as a hate >group/white supremacist organization, but they also named me >personally. I intend to eat them alive in a court of law. > >Those of you who have followed my writings concerning racism and >anti-Semitism, including my expose's on Christian Identity, know very well >that we have consistently and thoroughly condemned those ideologies. Had >this so-called "researcher" made any effort to search the Internet news >groups and web pages containing my articles, he'd have no doubt about my, >and our, position on this issue. Obviously, he did not, and it appears he >never intended to. In fact, it appears the Northwest Coalition For Human >Dignity set about to deliberately vilify the Southern Oregon Militia as >racist and anti-Semitic. In terms of journalistic legal jargon, that act >is deemed to be malicious, and subjects the offender to both compensatory >and punitive damages to the parties injured. > >Groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League >have routinely vilified militia organizations with apparent impunity, and >I vowed long ago to prosecute a civil suit against those, or any similar >organizations, who might paint our own group with the same broad >brush. Just because a group of concerned citizens identifies itself as a >militia does not necessarily mean that group espouses racist and >anti-Semitic beliefs, and I am confident that a local jury will secure >that principle with their verdict. > >We'll keep you posted as this lawsuit progresses to it's rightful conclusion. > >Carl F. Worden > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >Hate list tags 3 local groups > >Coalition labels 13 Oregon organizations racist, anti-Semitic > >By MARK FREEMAN > >A Seattle-based coalition charting hate groups across the West labels >three Rogue Valley groups as harboring white-supremacist views, a charge >one local militia leader vehemently denies. > >The Northwest Coalition for Human Dignity says the Southern Oregon >Militia, the Medford-based Citizens Bar Association and the Oregon Knights >of the Ku Klux Klan in Grants Pass are all extremist groups whose views >include anti-Semitic or racist views. > >In its first annual "Hate by State" report, the coalition drew a regional >map, using iron crosses as symbols, showing 52 white supremacist groups. > >They range from several chapters of the World Church of the Creator and >other religious entities to Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi organizations to >militias. > >Seventeen of the groups were in Washington and 13 in Oregon, all but a few >arrayed along I-5. There also were 11 in Idaho -- all but one in the >Panhandle -- five in Montana and three each in Wyoming and Colorado. > >Southern Oregon Militia spokesman Carl Worden, of Eagle Point, says making >Monday's "Hate by State" list will lead to a lawsuit against the coalition. > >"They shouldn't flag us, because it's going to cost them a hell of a lot >of money," Worden says. > >"I'm getting a little tired of being vilified just because we use the term >`militia,"' Worden says. > >But Jonn Lunsford, the Vancouver, Wash., researcher to helped create the >coalition's report charges that Worden has posted articles on Web sites >with anti-Semitic statements. > >Worden denies the anti-Semitic labeling, and says his group does not >tolerate anti-Semitic or racist members. > >Lunsford also says the entire militia movement was founded by Aryan Nation >and Ku Klux Klan leaders, so Worden should divorce himself from militia >principles or change the group's name. > >"If he doesn't stand for the principles the militia was founded with, he >should change," Lunsford says. "Then we'll take him off the list." > >Neither members of the Grants Pass KKK group nor members of the Citizens >Bar Association could be reached for comment Monday. > >These groups, Lunsford contends, keep an extremely low profile. > >"They, like many other groups, have been a little more stealthy, more >guarded at putting out things for public consumption," Lunsford says. > >The coalition says Jackson County's militia and tax groups are "not of the >extreme end" of the hate-group spectrum that includes the Aryan Nations >and KKK. But militia actions behind the Oklahoma City bombing and other >actions show militia groups "still have an agenda that harbors extremism," >Lunsford says. > >"There are a lot of people in Southern Oregon who still have patriotic, >constitutional and racist views," Lunsford says. "They're just more >unaffiliated than they were in the past." > >Terre Rybovich, coalition executive director, said the numbers for each of >the 52 groups are likely small, since those in the white supremacist >movement have learned the best way to avoid detection is to work locally, >using small meetings and e-mail. > >Where they do show up, she said, is at public schools or other places they >believe are ripe for recruiting. > >"Whenever a racial disturbance breaks out at a high school there seems to >be a member of the World Church of the Creator or neo-Nazi skinheads who >are at the ready to leaflet white kids at the school," she said. > >Rybovich said some of those attracted to the white supremacist movement >are from economically disadvantaged ranks. But while economics explains >part of it, "some white people feel we have lost our culture, our nation, >and that really resonates with people of all ages and all economic >backgrounds.' [------------------------- end of forwarded message ------------------------] - -- - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- RKBA! ***** Blessings On Thee, Oh Israel! ***** RKBA! - ----------------+----------+--------------------------+--------------------- 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: Wed, 1 Mar 00 15:59:14 PST From: roc@xpresso.seaslug.org (Bill Vance) Subject: McGehee's News & Comment SPECIAL EDITION - March 1, 2000 (fwd) On Mar 1, The McGehee Zone wrote: [-------------------- text of forwarded message follows --------------------] McGEHEE'S NEWS & COMMENT * SPECIAL EDITION * (c) 2000 KEVIN McGEHEE Newnan, Georgia mail@mcgeheezone.com http://www.mcgeheezone.com/ Permission granted to anyone wishing to forward, redistribute, or broadcast this article WITH FULL ATTRIBUTION. ================================================================ THANK YOU, SENATOR McCAIN In his effort to deny the Republican presidential nomination to Texas Gov. George W. Bush, Arizona Sen. John McCain has done a tremendous service to the Republican Party and the American voter. Perhaps the most striking thing he has done is to bring to the surface the previously unseen degree of intolerance held by members of his wing of the Republican Party for the so-called "Religious Right." So hysterical has McCain become in denouncing Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, that he has actually begun to alienate Catholic voters in New York, the very same voting bloc he was trying to win over. Perhaps if the Senator had first stopped to wonder how Catholics feel about "holy wars," he might have realized that he was going to get in trouble. He has also driven some of his more prominent supporters into the Bush camp. McCain also caught himself in the kind of predicament only Bill Clinton could survive, the sudden substantive one-eighty. While campaigning in Michigan he declared that he would accept votes from anyone -- conservatives, liberals, moderates, Trotskyites -- and less than a week later he makes it clear that there is indeed one type of voter whose support he doesn't want: the Christian conservative. Although this was clearly intended to paint Gov. Bush into a corner that would leave the whole rest of the Republican base to Senator John McCain, it instead cast McCain himself in a bad light, making him look the opposite of how he had previously been perceived: tolerant and inclusive. The Senator will undoubtedly seek to repair this damage over the next few days as Super Tuesday looms, but it will be difficult because the new negative perception of him is closer to the mark than the older one that he recently demolished -- and because the attempt to portray Bush as intolerant and exclusive strains even the credulity of the certifiably insane. Bush, who won two gubernatorial elections in a state far more diverse than Arizona, did so with a diverse support base that McCain never had any hope of carrying in November, in the unlikely event that he had won the nomination. There has long been a divide between McCain's wing of the GOP and the more conservative coalition that rallied around Ronald Reagan in 1980. Gov. Bush's father was, and today is regarded by many as still being, a member of that other wing despite his eight years as vice-president under Reagan -- and it was by making the elder Bush his running mate that Reagan was able to bring that other wing onboard for his 1980 victory. But the divide remains, as any involved Republican can testify from the like-clockwork efforts to remove the party's abortion plank. These efforts have been ongoing since the plank was first put in, and the plank is still there. Naturally those who want the abortion issue to go away completely, have become somewhat frustrated. To some extent their embrace of McCain represents for them what the liberal Democrats' embrace of Bill Clinton represented: a pact with a devil whom they mistakenly regard as lesser in comparison to the "barbarians" who not only brought about twelve unbroken years of Republican presidency, but a Republican-led House of Representatives. Nor do they realize that the article of faith on which they base their promise to "save the GOP" is 180 degrees out of whack. They have been trying for two decades to exclude movement conservatives from having any substantive input to the party -- to relegate them to fund-raising and bloc-vote delivery in the way the Democrats count on African-Americans -- by arguing that even if the movement types get mad, they'll have no choice in November but to vote Republican because they couldn't stand to let the Democrats win. Yet it is the country-clubbers who have demonstrated that they have nowhere else to go. Every time they try and fail to remove that hated abortion plank, they nevertheless troop faithfully to the polls in November and vote Republican, something that many movement conservatives *didn't* do in 1998 because of the rudderless 105th Congress -- with the result that the GOP came entirely too close to losing its congressional majority. Why would moderates be so much more loath to let the Democrats win, than are their more conservative counterparts? This is the dirty little secret about many moderate GOP voters: they detest "those people" who make up the Democrats' support base at least as much as they detest movement conservatives. That's why, even if the nomination goes to the candidate supported by the hated Pat Robertson, these blueblood country-club moderates will stampede to the polls and vote for him, so that Al Gore and "those people" don't get another four years. By contrast, many movement conservatives openly regard a Gore presidency as undesirable, but no less survivable than eight years of Clinton. McCain's hysteria is perfectly in harmony with the moderates' desperation. Thank you, Senator McCain. - -30- March 1, 2000 ================================================================ **Visit the McGEHEE'S NEWS & COMMENT archives** http://www.mcgeheezone.com/news&comment/ The views expressed herein are entirely those of the author(s), and do not reflect those of any person or group with whom the author(s) may be affiliated, unless explicitly labelled as doing so. - --... ...-- -.. . -.- .-.. ----- - -.-- [------------------------- end of forwarded message ------------------------] - -- - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- RKBA! ***** Blessings On Thee, Oh Israel! ***** RKBA! - ----------------+----------+--------------------------+--------------------- 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: Sun, 5 Mar 00 13:11:10 PST From: roc@xpresso.seaslug.org (Bill Vance) Subject: David Horowitz: Racial Killings & Gun Control (fwd) On Mar 5, ataylor@NMSU.Edu wrote: [-------------------- text of forwarded message follows --------------------] -- DAVID HOROWITZ Racial Killings & Gun Control A SIX-YEAR-OLD African American shoots and kills a six-year-old white girl in Michigan. The six-year-old shooter has been suspended before for stabbing another child with a pencil. Police discover that he lives in a crack house with his criminal uncle with outstanding warrants for arrest. The boy's father is in jail. His mother is a drug addict. The President of the United States responds to the tragedy by summoning leaders of Congress to the White House to pass a new law, requiring trigger locks on guns. If ever there was a case revealing the moral bankruptcy (or is it idiocy?) of liberalism, this is it. Of course, Clinton and Democratic leaders are calling for trigger locks on guns because they are planning to make this a major Democrat issue in this year's political campaigns. But that only makes the point stronger. So far not a single liberal has publicly dissented from the idea that gun control is the lesson to be drawn from this tragedy, let alone questioned the Democrats' sick exploitation of it for political ends. Since the point is evidently not obvious to liberals, let me make it clear: Clinton might as well be calling a conference to develop a Voodoo spell to stop incidents like the Michigan tragedy as propose a new gun law. Why would a family of criminals, like the one actually responsible for the murder of Kayla Rolland observe a trigger-lock law if it was passed? The inhabitants of this crack house do not observe laws. They live to break laws. Child abuse is against the law. The little emotionally disturbed six-year-old who committed the murders was abused by his mother, his criminal father, his criminal uncle, and every adult that entered that crack house. That is already against law. Calling for a law to require parents who stash their kids in crack houses to put trigger locks on the stolen guns lying around is a sick joke. An even sicker joke would be to expect liberal Democrats or the liberal press to acknowledge this obvious fact. Democrats' use of the inter-racial killing of a six-year-old to attack lawful gun owners and to beat up on the National Rifle Association is obscene. But better than that, it is an exercise in the very denial that provides liberalism with a reason to exist. The purpose of the cry for gun control is to allow liberals once again to close their eyes (and the nation's) to the serious moral problems in the inner city that create these tragedies, and to avoid holding the individuals responsible accountable for their crimes. We don't want to blame the "victims" do we? If there are important lessons in the Michigan killing that need to be looked at, they are these: 1) Why were authorities unable to rescue the six-year-old murderer from his abusive environment, particularly since he had already shown himself to be a severely disturbed child? 2) Why were the felons in the crack house able to have guns at all, including a shotgun that was stolen? 3) Why did it take the press days to reveal that the shooter was black and his victim white? This last question applies with a slight twist to the shooting that occurred days later in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, where a black racist named Ronald Taylor went on a rampage that took the lives of three people. After three days of investigation, the FBI finally charged the racist killer with a "hate crime." What took so long? Why did the media, which normally promote not only the idea of "hate crimes," but of hate-crime legislation, have to wait for the FBI to make this designation? Why is the White House silent about this racial outrage? Why has no black leader denounced this hate crime? Where are Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, and their racially sensitive friends Bradley and Gore? The answer is they're too busy calling for a new gun law to add to the 20,000 already on the books, which the Justice Department refuses to enforce. They're too busy making political hay out of a Confederate flag which may be offensive to some, but which hasn't killed anyone so far. Mr. Sharpton is too busy persuading black Americans that a New York jury, whose foreman was black, administered "no justice" in the trial of four police officers acquitted of all counts of criminal misconduct in the case of Amadou Diallo. If any individual in America could be reasonably held responsible for the distrust and hatred of whites manifested in the Wilkinsburg rampage it is Al Sharpton. But it will be a long time before any "liberal" in the media or in the Justice Department makes that point. Instead, Justice Department officials in charge of racial issues are meeting with delegations of black leaders and deliberating among themselves as to whether they should invoke the civil-rights laws to re-try the acquitted New York policemen. Why is the Justice Department even looking at this case? Is there a shred of evidence that the acquitted policemen were racist? Is there the slightest indication that a jury, which included four African Americans, was prejudiced? How unbelievably insulting it is to those four jurors that the Justice Department (backed by the President) should even agree to consider this case. What the Justice Department is, in effect, saying to those four African-American jurors is that "the United States Government thinks you may be too stupid, too brainwashed, too weak to stand up for your race. Even if you believed that four white cops murdered a black man in cold blood, you would not have the brains, the balls, or the racial self-esteem to say so." Think about that for a moment. This, my friends, is the only really rampant racism in America. It is what liberalism has come to. That said, the decision of the FBI to declare the killing in Wilkinsburg a black-on-white hate crime is a courageous act. The decision of the press to report the race of the six-year-old killer in Michigan, however belated, is a step in the right direction. The honesty of the jury in the Amadou Diallo case is to be applauded. Perhaps the tide has begun to turn. The next step would be for Jesse Jackson to step forward and publicly denounce the racism of blacks like Ronald Taylor. Perhaps a day will come when academic leftists will no longer teach that "blacks can't be racist." Perhaps Harvard will announce a policy dissociating itself from evil doctrines like this that are taught in its classrooms. But don't hold your breath. This battle is a long way from over. http://www.frontpagemag.com/dh/2000/default.htm [------------------------- end of forwarded message ------------------------] - -- - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- RKBA! ***** Blessings On Thee, Oh Israel! ***** RKBA! - ----------------+----------+--------------------------+--------------------- 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: Tue, 7 Mar 00 07:25:27 PST From: roc@xpresso.seaslug.org (Bill Vance) Subject: Fw: Man Caused Global Warming a Hoax - new scientific study (fwd) On Mar 7, The McGehee Zone wrote: [-------------------- text of forwarded message follows --------------------] - ----- Original Message ----- From: Dave Williams To: David Williams Sent: Monday, March 06, 2000 2:41 PM Subject: Man Caused Global Warming a Hoax - new scientific study Holes In Sun's Corona Puts A Hole In Climate Science Brooklyn - March 2, 2000 - An unusual interdisciplinary study by astronomers and climatologists has found a striking correlation between holes in the outermost layer of the sun--or the corona--and the globally averaged temperature of the Earth, suggesting that the Earth's atmospheric temperature may be strongly linked to solar magnetism changes over months or years. In a paper that appears in the February 28 issue of the journal New Astronomy, climatologist Eric Posmentier of Long Island University's Brooklyn Campus, solar physicists Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and physicist Pius Okeke of the University of Nigeria chart temperature anomalies seen in the Earth's lower troposphere (i.e., the region of atmosphere in which we live) using Microwave Sounding Unit (MSU) radiometers aboard weather satellites. The scientists compared the Earth's temperature with the size of coronal holes reported on the Sun during a two-decade period, starting in January 1979 and ending April 1998. Results show a clear drop in terrestrial atmospheric temperature after the Sun's magnetic field activity is most intense. At this point, there is a dropping off of magnetic activity and an enlargement of the coronal holes. "This is the first time anyone has combined these modern, reliable data sets to link solar activity and climate, and to cite several alternative mechanisms that might explain this link," Posmentier explained. Coronal holes are, literally, gaps in the Sun's outer atmosphere through which the stream of hot, supersonic particles known as the solar wind pours out into space to engulf the entire planetary system. At Earth, this hot bath of charged particles produces the aurorae (i.e., the aurora borealis), interferes with electrical and radio transmissions, and may threaten passengers aboard high-flying airliners or astronauts aboard unshielded spacecraft. The solar wind has also been long suspected as a possible indirect contributor to terrestrial climate change. Posmentier and colleagues think that the connection between the solar wind and climate may be more direct, suggesting that the charged particles hitting the Earth's atmosphere may affect the properties of terrestrial water clouds, particularly the percentage of those clouds covering the Earth. In turn, significant changes in the cloud cover influence the temperature of the lower troposphere, with temperatures falling with increased cloud cover. Another possibility is that the charged particles change ozone chemistry in the upper atmosphere, in turn affecting the dynamics of the climate. The scientists note, however, that the charged particles hitting the Earth could come from either the Sun, or from galactic cosmic rays that are modulated by the solar wind. Or, from a combination of both sources. Regardless, the percentage of the Sun's surface covered by coronal holes seems to be a fairly accurate indicator of temperature in the Earth's troposphere over months or years. The correlation comes with some caveats. As Posmentier and colleagues note, other major climate factors are also at work concurrently, thus complicating attempts to correlate Sun-Earth phenomena. Most notable in the past two decades have been the warming effects of the 1997-98 El Nino and the general cooling that followed the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991. According to Posmentier, their results do not rule out the possible climate influence of man-made fossil fuels, which have caused the atmosphere's CO2 levels to rise. "During some parts of the last century, as the amount of CO2 increased, the temperature increased," he explained. "I don't dispute that, and I'm not saying that CO2 can't have significant effects in the future. "What I am saying is the data do not unambiguously support the contention that CO2 increases are the dominant cause of climate variability," he added. "There are other reasons for climate variations that are significant. In fact, we've found that the strongest correlation is the one between the area of the Sun's surface covered with holes and the globally averaged temperature of the Earth." Support for this research came from the Mount Wilson Institute and the Electric Power Research Institute, with additional funding from the Massachusetts Space Grant Consortium, the Smithsonian Institution, the Richard C. Lounsbery Foundation, and NASA. http://www.spacedaily.com/spacecast/news/weather-00c.html [------------------------- end of forwarded message ------------------------] - -- - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- RKBA! ***** Blessings On Thee, Oh Israel! ***** RKBA! - ----------------+----------+--------------------------+--------------------- 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: Tue, 7 Mar 00 08:21:26 PST From: roc@xpresso.seaslug.org (Bill Vance) Subject: Citibank caves in--Gun owners should use economic muscle more often (fwd) On Mar 7, David Hannon wrote: [-------------------- text of forwarded message follows --------------------] >If gun owners needed an effective wakeup call about how to push back, >rather than shoot back, this is it. > >Public pressure, threatened (and actual) boycotts, as well as an >unreasonable banking policy, got Citibank to 'review' it policies. >Review? The 'review' comment was nothing more than an effort by the >minions of Citibank to cover their horrendous public relations blunder. >Citibank wanted to buy into the leftist/liberal claptrap of the world, >the Klintonistas especially, and decided to do their share. To say a >little, the policy was 'misguided' and Citibank was being hurt >economically. The Citibank management wisely decided to avoid a pending >economic and public relations disaster, which was brought on, almost >entirely by the international publicity given the issue by >WorldNetDaily.com. > >How many are the millions of gun owners? Many, many known. Many more, >unknown. All gun owners should consider themselves brothers and sisters >and use their economic clout to push back. The economic vote works. > >Charles - ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > >=20 TUESDAY >MARCH 7 >2000 =20 > >Citibank kills >firearms policy >Gun businesses to be treated >like others, says spokesman > > > By Jon E. Dougherty >=A9 2000 WorldNetDaily.com > >After intense public pressure and a threatened boycott, following a=20 >series of WorldNetDaily reports exposing Citibank's practice of=20 >denying banking services to firearms business, the global financial=20 >giant has now reversed its "longstanding" policy. > >Yesterday, Mark Rodgers, a public relations specialist for the New=20 >York-based mega-banking firm told WND the corporation "went out and=20 >looked at our policies across (all Citibank branches) and found that=20 >(they) were inconsistent." > >After reviewing several policy "areas," Rodgers said, "we decided we=20 >must have uniform policies across the U.S." Consequently, he said,=20 >Citibank "decided that moving forward the practice of assessing a=20 >small business account will apply uniformly in small businesses,"=20 >including those "engaged in the manufacture or sale of small=20 >firearms." > >Rodgers said the firm would rate firearms businesses "the same as=20 >any other small business, using the same standards such as=20 >creditworthiness, the number of years in business, and so on." > >Rodgers faxed a confirmation copy of the new policy to WorldNetDaily. > >The policy reversal comes on the heels of a controversy that began=20 >Feb. 7, when a Las Vegas branch of Citibank closed a three-day-old=20 >checking account opened by the Nevada Pistol Academy, a local=20 >shooting club. At that time, local area branch managers told the=20 >academy's director, Chris Lorenzo, in a letter, "Due to Citibank not=20 >maintaining accounts for businesses that deal in weapons," the=20 >account would have to be closed. > >Lorenzo, who spoke with WorldNetDaily after the closure, said that=20 >while the corporate banking giant was "free to do business with=20 >whomever they choose," he also felt it was important to let other=20 >gun-business owners "know where they stand." > >Lorenzo could not be reached for comment Monday. > >However, the Second Amendment Foundation, a Washington state-based=20 >pro-gun group, is calling the decision a "sweet victory for all=20 >law-abiding gun owners." The group had called for a nationwide=20 >boycott of Citibank because of the policy. > >Alan Gottlieb, the group's founder, said the decision "ends more=20 >than a decade of silent discrimination" against lawfully licensed=20 >firearms-related businesses. > >"I couldn't be more pleased," Gottlieb said. > >In the early 1980s, Rodgers said, Citibank began buying a large=20 >number of independent banks all over the country, noting, "for many=20 >years, they operated pretty much independently, with their own=20 >policies, services and products." > >In the past few years, he said, "we've been bringing those together=20 >so that we are consistent and uniform across the business units and=20 >geography" at all Citibank branches. > >What the treatment of the Nevada Pistol Academy proved, Rodgers=20 >said, "is that we had an inconsistency in the policy in business=20 >units, so we moved to bring those together so that they were in=20 >agreement." > >On Feb. 24, WND reported a major inconsistency in Citibank's policy=20 >in that the firm conducts business with and has close corporate ties=20 >to major military contractors that produce jet fighters and other=20 >defense equipment, while refusing -- until now -- to offer services=20 >to small gun businesses. > >Jon E. Dougherty is a staff=20 >reporter for WorldNetDaily. =20 > >=A9 2000 WorldNetDaily.com, Inc. [------------------------- end of forwarded message ------------------------] - -- - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- RKBA! ***** Blessings On Thee, Oh Israel! ***** RKBA! - ----------------+----------+--------------------------+--------------------- 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: Wed, 8 Mar 00 10:32:06 PST From: roc@xpresso.seaslug.org (Bill Vance) Subject: Fw: I was a teenage communist. (fwd) On Mar 7, The McGehee Zone wrote: [-------------------- text of forwarded message follows --------------------] I don't consider the Libertarian Party a significant force in electoral politics by any means, but philosophically they are certainly the vanguard of the glorious counterrevolution -- so it makes sense to pay attention to articles like this. Kevin McGehee Newnan, Georgia mail@mcgeheezone.com http://www.McGeheeZone.com/ - --... ...-- -.. . -.- .-.. ----- - -.-- - ----- Original Message ----- From: Dave Williams To: KL7DW Sent: Tuesday, March 07, 2000 2:52 PM Subject: I was a teenage communist. March 2, 2000 Tale of a teen-age communist by Peter Orvetti I was a teenage communist. Well, that is a slight exaggeration. But by the time I enrolled at an oh-so-liberal college in all-too-lefty Amherst, Massachusetts, I was prepared to join the revolution and make the world safe for redistributionism. Instead, I received an unexpected four-year lesson in the insidious nature of leftism that led to my discovery of libertarianism by graduation. That wasn't the lesson my professors intended me to learn. As early as matriculation -- before classes even began -- dean after dean told the assembled first-year class how to vote in the coming 1992 presidential election. That first semester, one professor told the class she considered herself an "activist" and not an educator; though I supported her cause, it irked me that she took pay from an ostensibly objective institute of education to support partisan action. And, on the day before Election Day, one professor took half an hour of class time performing a strange, quasi-mystic ritual, complete with burning candles, to secure the gods' support for the Clinton-Gore ticket. Through all this, I kept my mouth shut and went about my daily affairs. Though hardly poor, I was unable to afford the school's $25,000 annual tuition and so I worked a job on campus to pay my way. It was because I knew how hard it was to earn that much cash that I indulged in liberal politics. But I discovered that others, with more money and much farther to the left than I'd ever dream go, had no such work ethic. One student "revolutionary" decided to subvert the dominant paradigm through a campaign of guerrilla graffiti. Straight out of the 'hood of Greenwich, Connecticut, this Caucasian Communist could be seen strutting around campus in African colors, clutching a black permanent marker and scrawling collectivist slogans on dormitory doors, library walls, and everywhere the ink would take. Her revolutionary act set janitors to work scrubbing away, and gave less-advantaged work-study students more to do for their meager wage. When she was finally punished, how did she defend herself? "I pay full tuition," she said. This Neiman-Marcus Marxist proved her true colors at that point, not Red but old-money green. Despite her rantings about the revolution, in her heart she felt that because she'd been born rich she had a right to trash the campus, and that the poorer students should be glad to have the financial aid scraps that were provided by her tuition. This was not an isolated case. Each day I'd walk past students in Castro fatigues toting fancy new laptop computers, Mercedes cars in the student parking lot bearing "Eat the Rich" bumper stickers, and organizers of left-wing cells wearing $300 sneakers. There was a schizophrenia to it; this would-be Red Army saw no contradiction. Even the campus distributor of the New York Times, who made a healthy profit, had a poster of Mao on his door. I started to question the prevailing tide, but was met with blank stares. I noted that a popular professor made admittedly well-reasoned arguments for socialism in class each day, but then retired to a comfortable suburban home in a town with a sizable homeless population. Why, I wondered aloud, wasn't he down at the shelter dishing out food or offering his couch to a street person with no place to sleep? If he believed in redistribution, why wasn't he redistributing his own salary, which was far above the national average? "But this isn't a socialist country," came the reply. The implication: There's no need for leftists to engage in voluntary charity; the government will coerce it when we win. In another class, I said it bothered me that Newt Gingrich, then Speaker, would not be permitted to present his views on campus. "I wouldn't mind," more than one student replied. I noted that it is important to respect divergent views. "I don't think about 'respect,'" I was told. That was certainly true. One night, a mob of activists flanked the campus and chalked violent anti-rape slogans on every sidewalk, words that called every man a suspect, guilty until proven innocent. I was used to this sort of thing by that point, and I only took offense at the aesthetic crudity of the action. But others were not so milquetoast as I, and responded the next night with a wave of "anti-anti" chalkings, condemning the Inquisition mood the activists had set. Controversy erupted, and, as colleges are wont to do, a campus-wide discussion forum was called. At this meeting, I pointed out that, regardless of one's feelings about the second wave, the students had the right to express their views. The school clearly had a policy that allowed political chalkings. I said they'd broken no rule, to which one of the anti-rape activists shot back, "Don't be so sure." They had the "anti-antis" called up on hate crimes charges before the school tribunal, and they were penalized. I found it harder and harder to have a serious political dialogue. I was once called a racist because I accidentally mispronounced a Hispanic name; I was called "evil" for arguing in support of free trade. Interestingly, the campus itself provided a microcosm that proved communism a failure, despite the views of its inhabitants. Most students lived in on-campus houses of five or six students. They shared cooking, cleaning, and financial arrangements. While some were autonomous, most were collectivist. And importantly, they were voluntary -- everyone chose to live under a collective system. Still, they failed miserably. I lived with four other people. We agreed to share the cost of food and to take turns cooking and cleaning. But each week, the funds came up short as one person or another failed to ante up. At least twice a week there was no food. Only two people ever cleaned up. And by the end of the year, a self-described "radical socialist" resident had seceded, refusing to contribute any more money because she had not received a share of the purchased goods commensurate to her financial contribution. So much for "to each according to their need." By the end of college, I realized that the goals I had striven for -- more goods for all, a society of free expression and free will -- could only be achieved under free markets and never under collectivism. Quite simply, socialism is about acquiring the ability to get more stuff, just like capitalism. But socialism is about getting more stuff through government coercion -- picking your pocket through taxation. Leftism's methods made little sense for the children of hippies and pacifists. In their socialist "utopia," if you don't pay up, big goons with guns will come to your house and drag you away. This is pacifism? And how could these flower children who lionized Kent State want to seize guns from law-abiding owners, letting only the military and the cops have them? No wonder they felt the need to create a campus where dissent was not tolerated. Their ideology was built on sand. Only fear could keep it standing -- while just a hint of freedom would knock it all down. While it wasn't what I'd expected, I finished my four-year immersion course in political ideology with honors. And I left my campus comrades to happily fly their red flag from atop their ivory tower, where they play at "liberating" the world. --30-- Peter Orvetti is the Deputy Director of Communications for the national Libertarian Party, has written for National Journal, and authors the daily Orvetti Political Report. [------------------------- end of forwarded message ------------------------] - -- - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- RKBA! ***** Blessings On Thee, Oh Israel! ***** RKBA! - ----------------+----------+--------------------------+--------------------- 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 #321 *************************