"True, much of the dated advice ... is now amusingly camp,
but the potential thrill of being single still saturates each page."
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Thursday, August 29, 2002
July 22, 2002 Mount Horeb, Wisconsin. Dane County Task Force Meeting on Chronic Wasting DiseaseOpposition remained against using the county's landfill as a repository for the millions of pounds of potentially infected deer carcasses from the Deer Wars. While many task force members and technical experts believe properly conducted incineration is the safest means, the DNR persists in pursuing landfills because they don't believe they can afford the cost of proper incineration.
In comments made by Tom Hauge of the DNR, I noted some new spin. The one week a month "summer shooting periods" are now being described as not being conducted for "eradication" but for the purpose of collecting samples for validation of testing procedures. Seems like a case of the goal shifting to be more consistent with their lack of success in killing large numbers of animals.
Hauge also made reference to a lower kill target for the upcoming season (dropping from 25,000 deer to 18,000) without specifically mentioning that Eradication itself had been reconsidered. It seems the DNR is now considering the possibility that killing 25,000 deer is simply an impossible goal and thus is doing early damage control.
A week earlier, another DNR official - deputy director Sarah Hurley - orchestrated another preliminary Protect the DNR Posterior move. An article in the Rocky Mountain News quoted her as indicating that every area in the state is a potential source of the disease-causing prion protein because ". . . people from every county have hunted in the 361-square mile area of southwest Wisconsin where 18 infected deer were discovered." What the department doesn't know is whether those hunters killed any deer infected with chronic wasting disease and, if they did, what happened to parts of the carcass, including the head, that contain the deadly infectious agents, she said.
Thus if this fall or winter the DNR finds Chronic Wasting Disease elsewhere in Wisconsin, deputy Hurley has laid the ground work for a handy theory that allows them to continue to maintain that Mount Horeb is the Garden of Eden for CWD in Wisconsin.
The most interesting presentation of the evening was by John Stauber, an investigative reporter and co-author of "Mad Cow, USA." Stauber has talked to scores of researchers and studied the professional literature on Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSEs) of which CWD is the deer variety of this general disease. The full text of his presentation is available here. Stauber's work with bovine form of TSE (Mad Cow disease) has lead him to investigate the game feed industry and changes in feeding practices. In our zeal to keep costs low and avoid wasting animal tissue, animal parts that formerly were "wasted" are now reprocessed into animal feed. For example, Stauber cited that in 1995 26,000 road-killed deer in Wisconsin were reprocessed into animal feed. Get the picture? How many of these road kill might have had CWD; where did this feed go, etc.?
I found most interesting the following: "The idea that the Eradication Zone is a unique hot spot in Wisconsin or the Upper Midwest is ridiculous, wishful thinking at best, and to proceed with current plans based on this assumption is a huge misstep and waste of time, resources, and public credibility. . . . The DNR has already spent almost a million dollars killing and testing deer in the Eradication Zone. Had that money been spent on testing statewide, we would have much better data on the extent of the problem and how to handle it. Instead, we are likely throwing good money after bad pursuing the myth that the practices that spread CWD in the Eradication Zone are unique, when these practices are widespread."
The Madison Capital Times has an interesting article running parallel to Stauber concerns about animal feed and feed supplements being a source of TSE & Chronic Wasting Disease. Supplemental feeding practices in Vermont township were a possible gateway to the disease and if the theory is borne out, many areas across the state and nation will be at similar risk.
After listening to representatives of the Wisconsin Commercial Deer and Elk Farmers Association defend their position against mandatory testing, defend their membership as a potential entry point for the disease, and then applaud the DNR's extermination/eradication effort, I was struck by an interesting coincidence. All the groups with some culpability for the disease entering Wisconsin are rallying around this idea of "lets come together on this eradication plan and stamp it out in Mt. Horeb." The DNR is culpable for allowing massive deer overpopulation which is a formula for the spread of all sorts of disease. The State Dept of Agriculture is culpable for failing to require adequate CWD testing of private game farms and preserves. The USDA is culpable for sweeping CWD under the rug when they have known about it for years. The Quality Deer Management Association is culpable for their supplemental deer feeding programs which may have been the source of CWD via infected feed. The Game Farm Associations are culpable for resisting mandatory CWD testing procedures that could have prevented an infected animal from being imported into the state.
All these groups are united in one set of related ideas. They don't want to talk about the "cause" of CWD; they want to buy the idea it is only in one place; and they want to kill it in this one place and make it go away.
--Ross Reinhold, Report from Ground Zero in the Hot Zone
The hunters are not going to use the brain and nerve tissue; or internal organs, such as the liver of the deer they kill this year. They normally grind up those body parts to make sausage. Guess where those body parts will be used? In animal food, that is where.
If we are lucky the animal food people will just grind it up and give it to the "domestic" slaughter animals but most likely it will end up in cat and dog food. We could write Science Life Diet or Iams and ask what kind of animal by products they will be using but what's the point? There is no real way to be safe. Any suggestions -please write in the comment section. I don't eat their rotting flesh anymore but I feed it to my companion animals. What else can I do when cats are carnivorous? And then when they get weak and dizzy and die the vets won't have a clue.
The city council, six men, one woman came up with a solution. Do I have to tell you what it was? See below the quote by Albert Einstein. They start shooting on the day the children return to school. Two men voted against the killing. City council member Russ Steeber (a deputy sheriff) wanted to see bows and arrows used! The woman was right there voting with the rest of the killers. If I hear one more idiot talk about how women are innately different from men I will puke all over them. Most women, like most males are vicious mothers.
Therefore, in the interest of human evolution, I present the below information. But first it must be said that despite the used of methods other than killing, the root of the problem is not addressed by these alternatives. It is simply not moral to destroy all the habitat of other species who live on this earth leaving them nothing in the midst of vast stretches of human populations; leaving no wildlife refuge where they could rest on their long travels.
Geese Poop
I heard on Larry's Meiller's Wisconsin Public Radio Show at noon, that golf courses in Madison and the Madison Park Commission were considering using border collies to control the geese; and that they actually had the dogs working at one golf course. Larry Meiller said the geese were all gone in one park and there was no further problem with geese poop. He said it was something to see those dogs, who herd sheep, herding those geese.
When I heard Janesville was shooting in the park, I wrote Larry asking for specifics. Below is the answer he sent me.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Larry Meiller"
To:
Sent: Monday, August 26, 2002 1:20 PM
Subject: GEESE
Hi Virginia:Joy Cardin passed along your request for information about those goose herding dogs! In fact, my wife and I were golfing at Yahara Hills golf course yesterday and witnessed a border collie
chasing geese into a pond. He was with a handler and too far away for us to ask questions but I expect the dog was being trained.
You could call the pro shop at Yahara and ask. The general number is (608) 838-3126.On another recent occasion we were golfing at The Meadows of Six Mile Creek at Waunakee and witnessed essentially the same thing with (probably) another handler and dog. The number out there is (608) 849-9000.
I hope this is what you need. Cheers, Larry
Below is a section of a research paper mentioning that Dow Jones is using dogs to get rid of their geese at their home office. I wrote Dow Jones and their reply is pasted below the original research paper section. Dow Jones has become famous for their dogs.
From the Coalition to Prevent the Destruction of Canada Geese; RECOMMENDATIONS7. USE OF TRAINED DOGS, INCLUDING BORDER COLLIES
Border Collies have proven highly successful in herding geese out of ponds and grassy areas at golf courses and other facilities. Other obedient breeds and mixed-breeds, when trained, have proven successful as well. See Attachment 6 for a report by Dr. Ann Herriott, Cornell Cooperative Extension -
A. Locally, Mary Felegy, offers the services of her dog - a trained Border Collie mixed-breed - to chase off "resident" Canada geese. Among her clients are Camp Venture, Sparkhill (sic), and St. Paul's School,Valley Cottage. Ms. Felegy, a Congers resident, can be reached at 914/268-9371.
B. "Dow Jones and Company Inc. started using two Border Collies (Bert and Bessie) four years ago at their 175-acre corporate headquarters in South Brunswick, NJ. The dogs herd the geese into the pond and then keep circling it. The geese get frustrated because they can't waddle out and eat the grass, so they Ieave. The company is getting inquiries about them from other corporations and from golf courses." (Smithsonian, March 1995).
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "djwebquestions"
> To: "'Virginia Rose'"
> Sent: Friday, August 23, 2002 1:44 PM
> Subject: RE: please help
Dear Ms. Rose,It's not a special program. It's a humane solution that the company came up with to keep the geese under control. Unfortunately, we do not have a video or a speaker that can attend a city council meeting. But if you have specific questions, send them in and I'll try to get them answered.
Regards,
Dear Cynthia:
OK it has happened and I knew it would.
This Sunday night, November 3rd, 2002, the show Nature on WPT was about "Living with Animals" and that show had a segment on the problem and solutions to Geese and their poops in parks and golf courses.
It went all through the problems and false solutions and then showed the trainer of border collies (also named Virginia) who saved the day.
But best of all, it showed how she trained the dogs and the special things she had to do to train them for the geese. I kid you not, this segment was really good and not even 10 minutes.
The training they needed was important because here in Janesville, as a sop to the people who wanted them to use dogs, the City Council allowed people with normal dogs to run through the parks in the morning-like that is what we were talking about when we told them to use dogs to control the geese.
Get the video 1-800-336-1917-make an excerpt of just the segment on geese in the parks and show it to bodies like the Janesville city council. Especially Janesville, because then it will be on the public access TV channel as well. Also send the segment to the editor of the Janesville Gazette, as he came out against shooting in the park.
Points of Interest
1. The union betrayed the women.
2. The landmark appellate decision in this case limits the defendant's discovery into the medical/mental health background of the victim, specifically how far into the past they can go for such material.
Of course my question is, why can they do it at all? There is a rule in tort that the tort feasor takes the victim as he finds them. Meaning, too bad if you happen to cripple someone who already had a bad back - if your act is what crippled the victim (the proximate cause).
The original trauma and fighting legally for justice often does destroy the individual plaintiff(s) but we all know,the things an individual does at great personal cost may change the collective reality for the better.
But this telling and insisting on justice should not be viewed as a heroic sacrifice on the part of the victims, a la the christ on the cross romantic notion of suffering. The heroism is in the choice to be a survivor rather than a victim.
The truth is that the victim has no choice if they are ever, ever to recover but to assert their reality in the face of establishment lies about that reality. (see my comments on the Winter Solstice text box).
3. The case made it easier to do these disputes as a class action instead of as individual lawsuits thus increasing the amount of damages that can be awarded
4. Their description of the survivor's post traumatic shock syndrome confirmed my belief that I have been suffering from this disorder ever since the kittens were shot and that the police behavior in supporting the cat killer Dombecks instead of myself, deepened and compounded the disorder until it totally disabled me.
From the No Child left behind Act (being used in Ohio to discredit Darwinism)
....when subjects deemed controversial are taught such as BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION the children shall be exposed to all sides of the controversy
"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."
- Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)
Gov. Jeb Bush introduced Oklahoman Jerry Regier as new head of the Department of Children & Families.Written by CAROL MARBIN MILLER, LESLEY CLARK AND PETER WALLSTEN in the Miami Herald on and posted Fri, Aug. 16, 2002
TALLAHASSEE - The man named Thursday by Gov. Jeb Bush to head Florida's notoriously inept child welfare agency is an evangelical Christian who views spanking that causes ''bruises or welts'' as acceptable punishment.The revelation did not come to Bush's attention until hours after the governor introduced Jerry Regier, a former Oklahoma Cabinet secretary and aide to Bush's father, as the new chief of the state's Department of Children and Families.
Regier, 57, was named less than 48 hours after the resignation of DCF Secretary Kathleen A. Kearney. He takes over an agency that has been embroiled in scandal since 5-year-old Rilya Wilson disappeared.
In a 1989 essay entitled The Christian World View of the Family, Regier and co-author George Rekers railed against abortion and gay couples forming families, and emphasized that husbands have ``final say in any family dispute.''
And the essay declares that ''biblical spanking'' that leads to ``temporary and superficial bruises or welts do not constitute child abuse.''
The essay also said Christians should not marry non-Christians, that divorce is acceptable only when there is adultery or desertion and that wives should view working outside the home as ''bondage.'' The ''radical feminist movement,'' the essay adds, ``has damaged the morale of many women and convinced men to relinquish their biblical authority in the home.''
Asked if the governor was aware of Regier's writings before they were raised by The Herald, Bush spokeswoman Katie Muniz said: ``I have a simple answer. No.''
But, she added, ``Mr. Regier has been an outstanding public servant for over a decade serving two presidents and a sitting governor. His record speaks for itself. Many of our nation's finest public servants past and present have been men and women of faith.''
''However, Mr. Regier understands there is a clear distinction between fulfilling the duties and responsibilities of your office and promoting religious views,'' Muniz added.
But Regier's essay raises questions about the suggestion that he would keep beliefs and government duties separate.
He and Rekers at one point urge Christians to take ``whatever actions we can, within our biblical and constitutional limits, to realign county, state, and federal legislation regarding family issues in order to make it conform to the Bible's view of reality and morality.''
Though praised by many as a strong administrator in Oklahoma, Regier also has a long line of detractors. Critics say his devotion to conservative Christian principles could run afoul of long-standing Florida child welfare practice -- and perhaps law.
''He'll turn that agency basically into a theocracy,'' said Oklahoma state Rep. M.C. Leist, who serves on that social services appropriations subcommittee. ``You need to watch out with Jerry.''
Deborah Schroth, an attorney with Florida Legal Services, a statewide public interest law firm in Jacksonville, said state law specifically forbids corporal punishment that results in bruises and welts.
The new DCF chief's ''view of what is not child abuse is contrary to Florida law,'' Schroth said.
Regier, who was in Tallahassee on Thursday morning for the announcement of his appointment, was on his way back to Oklahoma City on Thursday night and could not be reached for comment.
Regier, who called the DCF job ''a daunting task,'' was recommended by Bush's fellow Republican governor, Frank Keating of Oklahoma, who suggested to Bush in a letter that Regier ''could be of immense help to you.'' Keating noted he called in Regier during a ''similar crisis'' in Oklahoma, asking him to root out phantom employees on the health department payroll.
Regier, who will be paid $150,000 a year, will take over a staff of more than 25,000 employees statewide who oversee more than 45,000 children, most of whom have been abused or neglected by their parents. He said his first task will be to meet with agency employees.
He will work with a budget of $844 million, a significant reduction from the $1.2 billion at his disposal in Oklahoma.
Regier steps into the shoes of former Broward judge Kearney, who resigned Tuesday after more than three months of turmoil, beginning with the April announcement that 5-year-old Rilya had disappeared from Florida's foster care system.
In subsequent days, the agency faced down serious allegations that several children -- from Miramar, Lakeland, Fort Myers, Riviera Beach and Crestview -- already known to be at risk, died from abuse or neglect.
Regier said he's confident the agency can be turned around. The father of four said he met with DCF staff several weeks ago to offer advice, but ''was not looking for a job,'' until Bush called him Wednesday to offer him the position.
''We're going to open the windows of this department,'' he said. ``We want to restore confidence in the department and I believe that's possible.''
Steven Novick, a Tulsa attorney who has fought with Oklahoma over children's issues, said Regier won kudos for his cleaning up the corruption in the Department of Health and Human Services.
''That was generally regarded as good work,'' Novick said.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill McBride was surprised to hear about Regier's stances on child abuse and working women.
''That just sounds crazy to me,'' McBride said. ``The worst thing we can have is some philosophical thing that suggests we need to put kids more at risk of abuse.
``If the governor wasn't deliberate enough to have found the best, then he should be held accountable for this.''
Janet Reno, the leading Democratic candidate for governor, said she was not familiar with Regier's record and declined to comment on it.
Some Oklahoma lawmakers said they wished Florida well but said there was a darker side to Regier's reputation as a hard-nosed administrator.
''The best way I've heard him described is that he considers himself a self-made man -- and he worships his maker,'' said Democratic Sen. Gene Stipe, dean of the Oklahoma Senate with 54 years of service. ``He'll be extremely partisan, you can expect that. He will really champion all the right-wing causes.''
Though Regier boasted he had saved taxpayers more than $1 million by rooting out patronage and corruption in Oklahoma's health department, Stipe said Regier ''busted'' his budget at the state's Office of Juvenile Affairs, a position he held before taking over at the department of health.
Leist, a Democratic state House member, said Regier's $10-million effort to curb divorce -- which used unspent welfare dollars primarily intended for poor people -- did little to improve the welfare of troubled families.
''It stunk,'' Leist said of Regier's Marriage Initiative, which was warmly embraced by Keating, and much of conservative Washington. Contrary to Regier and Keating's proclamations, Leist said, Oklahoma's divorce rate was lower than surrounding states.
''He's good at fighting problems that don't exist,'' Stipe said.
In 1999, while Regier was secretary for health and human services, Oklahoma ranked 40th among the 50 states for several key indicators of child well-being (Florida ranked 36th). The rankings, the most recent available, are compiled by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a private charitable organization for needy children.
Regier is a founder and former president of the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group that bills itself as championing ``marriage and family as the foundation of civilization . . .''
Regier called himself a ''preacher's kid'' and said he would promote the involvement of faith-based organizations in social services.
''My faith certainly plays a role,'' he said. ``We're not going to solve this problem by ourselves.''
Herald staff writers Steve Rothaus, Jay Weaver, Oscar Corral and Tyler Bridges contributed to this report.
This woman, an earth first activist and organizer, survived a bomb planted in her car in the 90's.
Now she has won a landmark verdict in a lawsuit against the Feds. Read the trial brief click here
Jury's message to feds in $4.4 million verdict for Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney
(revised 6/19/02)On June 11, a federal jury returned a stunning verdict in favor of Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney in their landmark civil rights lawsuit against four FBI agents and three Oakland Police officers.
The jury clearly found that six of the seven FBI and OPD defendants framed Judi and Darryl in an effort to crush Earth First! and chill participation in Redwood Summer. That was evident in the fact that 80% of the $4.4 million total damage award was for violation of their First Amendment rights to speak out and organize politically in defense of the forests.
"The jury exonerated us," said Darryl Cherney. "They found the FBI to be the ones in violation of the law. The American public needs to understand that the FBI can't be trusted. Ten jurors got a good, hard look at the FBI and they didn't like what they saw."
"It's really beyond our wildest dreams," said Darlene Comingore, Judi Bari's friend and executor of her estate who stood in for her as co-plaintiff in this suit. "We hope the FBI and Oakland and all the police forces out there that think they can violate people's rights and get away with it are listening because the people of the state of California and Oakland today said, 'No, you can't. You can't get away with it.' "
Lead attorney Dennis Cunningham said the message he hopes the verdict sends is that: "Ashcroft is doing precisely the wrong thing to abandon the (Levi) guidelines and let the FBI go after dissent with a free hand. It's clear that their intention is not about fighting terrorism, it's about suppressing dissent. That's what the FBI has always been about. Hopefully it will make Congress think twice about giving them a free hand."
Martha Bari's statement for the Bari family (read by Martha Bari on Pacifica's Democracy Now! on June 12, 02)
My family is grateful to the jury and wants to thank them for their courageous decision. They have affirmed our faith in the justice system. We're only sorry that my sister Judi is no longer alive and able to share this sweet moment.Before and after my sister's bombing in 1990, law enforcement that we normally turn to for protection was not there for her. When the call went out over a Fort Bragg radio station to kill Judi Bari, no one stepped in to diffuse the situation. When she received even more death threats, the local police cold-heartedly dismissed her pleas for help. And after she was viciously bombed, the system failed her again.
When her family and friends came to her side at the Oakland hospital, they found her critically hurt and in horrific, obscene pain. Yet Judi was also in a state of panic. Not only could she receive no police protection from the anonymous bomber who was still at-large, but the Oakland Police wanted to pull her from her room and place her in handcuffs in the hospital's prison ward for supposedly bombing herself. She suffered further indignities when she heard herself characterized as an eco-terrorist bomber by the news media, and when her house was publicly searched by the FBI as she lay helplessly in her hospital bed. Thereafter, she lived in constant pain and anxiety, and spent the rest of her life trying to clear her name.
The ripple effect of a violent crime is enormous. When the authorities are against you rather than on your side, all the problems are magnified. Judi suffered, her two young children suffered, her family suffered, and her wider community of friends and supporters suffered. Now that the Oakland Police and the FBI have been brought to justice, they owe it to my family to explain what cause they had to hold my sister's civil rights in such contempt.
Judi's political message was adamantly nonviolent. Yet, for 12 long years she has been wrongly connected with terrorism. After Sept. 11th and the threatening of many of our rights in the name of homeland security, I'm afraid that this scenario will occur more often. My family has seen up close how much harm can result when rights are ignored. In Judi's case, the authorities stepped outside the law, and yesterday they were found guilty of false arrest, defamation of character, and illegal search and seizure. The verdict reminds us that protection against terrorism should never outweigh the protection of our own civil rights. Otherwise, like my sister Judi Bari, we will be made to suffer the consequences.
The DNR is planning to exterminate thousands of deer, eventually the entire herd. They tell us that this will stop Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). CWD spores live in the earth where the deer have been, especially deer in overcrowded conditions.
Killing all the deer in Wisconsin will not stop CWD. As soon as they have wiped out the current herd the DNR will import a new herd and we will be expected to pay for that as well. But the spores will still be in the ground.
All those big brains at the DNR yet, as the animal rights people have noticed in the past, they are just idiot killers who learned to speak a polished form of BS in college and graduate school. They did acquire all kinds of important skills that might have benefited all of us. But they never learned to think critically about the assumptions and values absorbed in their childhood.
The DNR has over built the herd through a variety of methods in order to feed the $$$$ big bucks $$$$$ hunting industry in Wisconsin. It employs most of the university's elite so called experts as long as they have the "animals were put on earth for humans to exploit" mentality. The DNR's only answer to every animal condition is - kill it. Kill it with guns, kill it with arrows, kill it with historic weapons, kill it with dogs, kill it with clubs, kill it with traps, kill it when it is caged; kill in the dark; shine it; bait it, trap it and kill it.
Even hunters are disturbed by these last orders and one third of the farmers in the kill zone don't want to participate, others are not going to shoot deer they cannot eat. It is the ethics of the best of them. No problem-the DNR just hires more mercenaries. The world is filled with killers who would do it for free and who are certainly available for pay. This job could last five or six years.
It is interesting that the DNR Kill Zone encompasses Dane and Iowa County where the DNR headquarters are located. Although they have not tested any other areas of the state, they are insisting that the infected deer are located only in this kill area and if we quick kill all the deer in this area, we can eradicate all of CWD in Wisconsin. Many people think this is just their usual stupidity, but I wonder. I think they know something we do not. I think they know where it came from but for some reason they do not want us to know. One of their disgusting programs probably, dragging animals in and out of Wisconsin for profit.
With Spring here, the baby fawns are being born, just to become motherless because the DNR wants a hysteria hunt. As a solution to this problem, guess what the DNR proposes? Oh come on, its' the DNR, you can guess. Kill the fawns naturally. What a surprise.
Their "sharpshooters" and goons stooges are doing just that and having a good time on their genocidal group hunts, that we are funding. Trucked back and forth to the sites, killing every night and killing as much as they want. Ah, the good life.
But unfortunately, the DNR never thought about disposing of the bodies. Details, Details, those pesky details. With a little more information from sources other than the DNR, Wisconsin counties refused to allow the DNR to dispose of the headless bodies in their landfill. (Spores;Soil; duh)
Normal people and children wanting to take advantage of summer activities will not be safe in the public parks. However, they have not been safe there for a while. Now, the risk is increased with hunters shooting left and right at deer in public land and on private lands. Gradually, the park areas in Wisconsin have been narrowing for non-hunters. People have been killed by hunters. But it seems not enough to wake the sheep people to the stench of thousands of rotting carcasses.
Well the tax bill is going to wake up everyone. The DNR is going to build crematoriums and state labs to "test" the deer; it is going to hire medical personnel for the labs and this on top of the sharp shooters, veterinarians, wardens, hunt coordinators and public relations persons, trips to other states to "conference", overtime and on and on. The sale of hunting licenses will drop as mothers are not going to feed their children poison.
And the shumck taxpayers are going to shovel and shovel up their money for the boy's fun kill at the same time the sheep politicians are removing the cap on teachers salaries.
The people working at McDonald and in the supermarkets and at Walgreen, and in the restaurants, at the car wash, and malls, at the pizza places, in day care centers, the people who wash floors, people who do not live in Madison or work for the government; people without medical insurance or 401k retirement funds; single people living on one income; older Americans living on fixed incomes going without medication to pay their property taxes;the people you never really notice; they are going to break under this.
The DNR should not be allowed to drag the more rational people in Wisconsin into this expensive quicksand but only the politicians can stop them. I guess you know where that leaves us.
No justice-just us.
But we are fighting the State. If you would like to help, donate to finance the legal work. A petition is being drafted to stop the DNR by Attorney David Mandell (608) 256-7765.
The Alliance for Animals is co-ordinating the legal defense fund. All donations are tax-deductible and donations will go towards the "Deer Conservation Project" if marked for that purpose. Your money can help pay for the injunction and the legal work going into it.
For more information on how to actually get involved; circulate petitions and speak or write on the issue; please contact Veterinarian and Wildlife rehabilitator John Barnes at: 608-845-6026. But first, read what is on the website of Citizens Against Irrational Deer Slaughter (CAIDS)is a great place to volunteer to become active in the campaign to stop the deer slaughter. The site contains articles, research, petitions, and contact people.
Alliance for Animals offers spay/neuter discount vouchers!
(06/18/2002)
To help curb pet overpopulation in Dane County, Alliance for Animals is offering Spay/Neuter discount vouchers from participating veterinarians. If you need financial assistance with a spay/neuter operation, call us at: 608-254-6333. Also, help us spread the word by teaching others about pet overpopulation and how to make positive changes.
See the Doris Day Animal League
Francione ( one of the people on this earth I most admire) Issues Challenge to AR Advocates Concerning Chronicle's Saunders: Engaged Debate is Crucial
Dear Animal Rights Advocates:
The San Francisco Chronicle has published a series of editorials written by Debra Saunders, who is critical of the animal protection movement. Her columns have been reprinted on various news and discussion lists with accompanying calls to animal advocates to write to the Chronicle in order to lodge complaints about Saunders, who is labeled on AR News as an "animal enemy."
When journalists oppose animal rights, we clearly disagree with them. At the same time, however, we ought to take notice when their criticisms identify some of the many inconsistencies that have plagued modern animal advocacy in the United States. Consider some of the questions that have come up in Saunders's editorials.
Do Animal Rights People Think It's Okay to Have Sex with Animals and Kill Babies?
In one of her editorials, Saunders condemned the essay "Heavy Petting," in which Peter Singer argued that we had to rid ourselves of our "taboos" and recognize that certain "mutually satisfying" sexual activities between humans and nonhumans might be morally acceptable if they do not involve "cruelty." Quite remarkably, most animal advocates did not condemn Singer's outrageous and offensive support for bestiality; indeed, there was an outpouring of support for Singer from the animal protection community.
Those animal advocates who did criticize Singer were reprimanded for being "divisive." Such a response is more indicative of a cult than a social movement. Saunders was dead right to call the movement on this issue.
Saunders also noted that Singer supports infanticide. She is correct. Singer has, for many years, advanced the idea that it is morally acceptable -- indeed, morally obligatory -- to kill disabled human infants whose lives are, in Singer's view, not worth living.
Again, those few animal advocates who have criticized Singer's support for infanticide have been labeled as "animal enemies" just as Saunders is now labeled, and the animal protection movement as a whole continues to regard Singer as a leading spokesperson and theorist. It is neither surprising nor inappropriate that the media would expose Singer's neo-Nazi views, given that most animal advocates did not.
Do Animal Rights People Support Humane Vivisection?
Saunders ridicules humane education bills that propose general "be kind to animals" language. Although we would probably disagree with Saunders on the bottom line, she is quite correct to point out that these "humane" initiatives are completely meaningless. As long as animals are our property, as long as we can buy them, sell them, kill them, and eat them, it does not matter whether we call ourselves "guardians" or how much we ramble on about "humane" treatment.
In reality we are still their masters, and they are our slaves. We have had "humane" laws for 200 years now and we are using more animals in more horrific ways than ever before. Animal welfare simply does not work.
What Do Rights Mean?
Saunders also derides advocates who argue that animals ought to have the civil rights that humans have. Again, Saunders raises a legitimate concern. When animal advocates talk about "animal rights," what do they mean? Many advocates maintain that animals ought to have all of the same rights that humans have. But that is silly.
Many rights that we have that would make no sense when extended to nonhumans. For example, we regard adult humans as having the right to travel where they please. Could we extend this same right to nonhumans and let all the dogs, cats, cows, chickens, and other domesticates wander at large? Of course not. To do so would create enormous safety hazards for them as well as for us. Recently, certain lawyers have argued that we should give legal rights to animals and allow animals to sue their owners in court.
Again, this is a silly idea that misses the point. As long as humans own animals, then animals will never have any meaningful legal recourse against humans -- just as human slaves had no meaningful legal recourse against their masters. It is our view that animals should not be brought under the control of human owners in the first place and that humans should stop producing domestic animals for human use.
In other words, we should take the position that it is wrong to have the lion in a zoo in the first place, and not that we ought to give the lion standing to sue the zookeeper for some reason or other.
In any event, Saunders's concern about the meaning of "animal rights" should cause us to stop for a moment and contemplate what we mean by a phrase that many of us throw around every day.
What Do Animal Rights People Really Want?
Saunders expresses suspicion about the real goals of animal advocates. She says that although "animal rights people like to argue that they only want to ensure that rats and mice are treated well," they really want the complete abolition of animal research. Once again, Saunders has -- perhaps unwittingly -- touched on a real inconsistency in the animal protection movement.
Some -- and it appears as though an increasing number of -- animal advocates really do want nothing more than the "humane" treatment of research animals. Indeed, the modern American animal rights movement has, for the most part, collapsed back into the animal welfare movement of the 1950s.
This "new" movement supports such insidious -- and ultimately counterproductive -- legislation as the CHIMP Act (see http://www.friendsofanimals.org/chimp.htm) and amendments to the wholly useless federal Animal Welfare Act. Some animal advocates ironically support "humane" behavioral research on chimpanzees and other nonhuman primates in order to show that they can communicate in English and deserve "rights."
On the other hand, some advocates really do support the abolition of vivisection. The problem is that many of those in this second group do not articulate their positions publicly for fear of offending others -- including those in the first group -- and this allows journalists like Saunders to observe correctly that at least some animal advocates are not straightforward about their views and goals.
There are important moral and scientific reasons why vivisection should be abolished. But we are never going to have that debate as long as one segment of the animal community thinks "humane" vivisection is a great idea and another segment disagrees but is reluctant to say so because its members do not want to be vilified by others who will label them as "animal enemies" for not supporting more "humane" vivisection.
Do They Want to Take Our Hamburgers Away?
Saunders's writing indirectly touches on yet another interesting inconsistency in the modern animal protection movement. For the most part, the focus of that movement for the past hundred years has been on vivisection and the movement has very much avoided, or relegated to a secondary or tertiary position, the matter of eating animals, which involves a much larger number of animals than does vivisection or any other animal use. The reason often given for this choice of emphasis is reluctance to offend people regarding matters of diet.
There is nothing offensive about asking people to think! We live in a culture that claims to embrace widely the principle that imposing "unnecessary" suffering on animals is morally wrong. Although we may disagree about what "necessity" means as a general matter, in this context it must surely exclude imposing suffering on animals merely for human amusement, pleasure, or convenience.
But we have no better justification for eating animal products than human amusement, pleasure, or convenience. It is 2002. No one maintains that it is necessary to eat animals or animal by-products to lead an optimally healthy life. Indeed, an increasing number of mainstream health care professionals are arguing that animal foods are detrimental to human health.
And it is hard to find an ecologist who will not agree that an animal-based agriculture is a disaster for the planet. In short, the only justification we have for continuing to eating meat -- and imposing the consequent suffering on animals -- is our pleasure.
Although we believe that vivisection should be abolished, there are some who claim that vivisection is "necessary" in that without the practice, certain data will be impossible to obtain. But no one can maintain that the numerically much more significant activity of eating animals is "necessary" in any sense.
So why hasn't the animal protection movement focused more on the meat issue?
The answer is simple -- and reveals yet another inconsistency. Many so-called "animal rights" advocates are not vegans.
Indeed, many of the "leaders" of animal protection organizations are not vegans. For example, the late Cleveland Amory of the Fund for Animals proclaimed that "animals have rights, too" while he ate his chicken. Jane Goodall, who is relentlessly promoted by animal advocates, serves meat at functions that she sponsors and has been a spokesperson for a dairy company.
Moreover, the failure to promote veganism as a baseline issue allows animal organizations to engage in endless fundraising campaigns to promote "pink veal," to regulate the "humane" treatment of "downed animals," and to praise fast-food chains for their more "humane" treatment of "food" animals or their adoption of a "veggie burger" (that is not even vegan).
The result is that the animal protection community has actually made an industry of making the general public feel better about eating meat.
Can we blame journalists for pointing out that animal advocates rant and rave about vivisection while they eat their chicken parmesan, bacon and eggs, fish fillets, or yogurt? Surely not.
Conclusion
Animals do not need people breaking "taboos" and seeing them as potential sex partners. They do not need to be able to communicate in a human language in order to be members of the moral community.
They do not need the meaningless gestures of laws that characterize animal owners as "guardians" or that require "humane" treatment.
All sentient beings -- irrespective of their particular mental characteristics -- need one right and only one right: the right not to be treated exclusively as means to human ends.
So instead of burying the San Francisco Chronicle under an avalanche of indignant letters, the most productive response to media critiques might well be to use them as starting-points for discussion, in order to develop a coherent and serious approach to animal rights.
Gary L. Francione, Professor of Law & Nicholas Katzenbach Distinguished Scholar of Law and Philosophy
Rutgers University School of Law
...and Ginny Rose says AMEN
Remember that we have a president whose family and friend's business profits depend on the free flow of Saudi oil.
Remember that all the Towers terrorists were from Saudi Arabia;
that the Saudi fund suicide bomber's families to the tune of $25,000 to $50,000 but offer no money to their victims:
that the Saudi fund terrorist fundamentalists through their charities;
that the Saudi make slaves of women;
that the Saudi expect U.S. service women to act like those slaves;
that the Saudi import Indian and Cambodian children to become sex slaves and servant slaves; and,
that the Saudi enforce authoritarian religious laws to silence dissent while impoverishing their people.
And after you remember all this, think about the fact that we are going to invade IRAQ.
Not because of what Saddam did or will do. We supported him after he gassed the Kurds.
We are going to invade, because Iraq, a secular state, is a threat to the Saudi princes religious state. We are the hired guns who protect the Saudi Arabian princes.
Iraq, has claims on some of that oil rich Saudi land. Ask yourself why we have men and women stationed in the desert outside Saudi Arabia long after Kuwait is secure. Hell, ask yourself why the Saudi's did not defend Kuwait.
Why should you remember the slander of the corporate spin machines against lawyers, when you think about the Saudi Arabian princes? Because when you hear their self-serving lies, you need to know that the lawyers will go against big money on behalf of the victims when the government is in bed with those interests.
Lawyers are all normal people have to defend them against those who kill for money because we lost the government and the independent judiciary. Click here to read the lawsuit brought by 600 families of people who died in the towers on 9/11/2001. The list of plaintiffs goes to page 37 where the list of defendant Saudi princes and businesses and charities begin.
And read the book of the lead investigator for that lawsuit, Jean Charles Brisard:
Forbidden Truth: U.S.-Taliban Secret Oil Diplomacy and the Failed Hunt for Bin Laden by JEAN-CHARLES BRISARD and GUILLAUME DASQUIÉ (Nation Books)
You can work to change the laws but if your opposition is to the war on drugs (poor people) or to the torture of animals you will become a target for destruction by your government. Those who want to know how I came to believe this should see my own story by;
going back to my home page (click the graphic to your left at the top of this blog)
or go to the Index at the bottom of this blog,
and click on the words, "Higher Consciousness".
You can click off the pictures of the cats in order to better read the story.
Why is drug or animal social change work guaranteed to bring out the forces of oppression?
Because you are messing with the big exploiters-the profiteers-and the man is going to unleash the Hounds from Hell against you. Don't mess with their right to control what you take into your body - they've got ownership rights on drugs they want to $ sell $.
Do not mess with their right to torture and kill animals for $ profit $. Especially, do not mess with the elite university educated "researchers" right to torture and kill.
There is no freedom of speech in America unless your speech is harmless. If you disagree look up your state's disorderly conduct laws.
Remember, the ALF has NEVER harmed, in any way, a human being. If the Boss tells you humans have been physically harmed by actions of the ALF- he is lying. Ask him to prove it and send me the proof.
Front spokesperson by David Barbarash North American A.L.F. Press Office Aug. 18, 2002On Tuesday July 30, 9 members of the RCMP, Canada's national police agency led by Cpl. Derrick Ross of the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (see sidebar article, "Insidious INSET" below),
executed a Search Warrant and raided my home and office in Courtenay, British Columbia. The search and seizure was carried out on behalf of law enforcement from two counties in the State of Maine, under the auspices of the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Treaty.Although no one was home at the time, and access to the house could easily have been gained by breaking a window or picking a lock (the latter of which they would normally do to install electronic
eavesdropping devices), the RCMP felt it somehow necessary to kick in the door. The wood was shattered, the window was cracked, and the doorframe and wall were damaged, all of which made the door completely unusable. When the police completed their search at 6:30 pm, ten and a
half hours after they began, they screwed in a sheet of chipboard over the doorway, leaving behind ransacked rooms, scattered files and garbage, and probably a few more bugs in the walls and ceilings.Seized from my home were both my computers, dozens of computer disks, hundreds of videos, miscellaneous photos, files, and papers, four U.S. postal mail bags, plus documents and files seized (and later returned) from previous RCMP raids. One might reasonably suspect that there was some recent ALF action of immense and costly proportions in which I was suspected of having some
involvement to warrant such a cross-border raid, but in fact the incidents Kennebec and Sagadahoc County Sheriffs are investigating took place three years ago in the summer of 1999, and the damages from the relatively minor actions total no more than $8700. From May through Sept. 1999 the Animal Liberation Front took credit for four actions against hunting clubs and one action against a Food and
Drug Administration building in Maine. The actions essentially boil down to break and enter, spray painted walls, broken windows and doors, and stolen stuffed animal heads, which were returned to their natural environment to rest in peace according to the Communique received by the Press Office.Chronology
In July 1999 I took over the ALF Press Office and became the North American spokesperson. The actions in Maine were some of the first I worked on in my new role, giving interviews to Maine media outlets in Sept. 1999.
Four months later on Jan. 23, 2000 Kennebec County Sheriff Everett Flannery made a request for a search to be conducted against my home. On Oct. 11, 2000 and on May 14, 2001 supplemental requests for a search were made by U.S. authorities to the Canadian Minister of Justice.
Almost one year later, on May 07, 2002, the Canadian Justice Minister approved the request, and two and a half months after that on June 25 RCMP Cpl. Derrick Ross swore out an Information to Obtain a Search Warrant which was approved and signed by Associate Chief Justice Patrick
Dohm of the BC Supreme Court. (Dohm was recently in the news regarding another search warrant he
signed against a former Premier of British Columbia. In that instance, RCMP officers traveled to California where Dohm was vacationing at the time to obtain his signature for the warrant, apparently wanting to ensure they got the warrant signed. Dohm is known for being extremely conservative; perhaps another Justice might have refused their request.)(Perhaps not-so-coincidentally, Dohm was also the Justice who authorized wiretaps to be placed in my home and vehicle back in 1996 in regard to an RCMP investigation of mail bombs sent to fascists and razor-blade letters sent to hunters. Charges of sending razor-blade letters to BC guide outfitters were laid in 1998 but dropped in 2000 for lack of evidence and because the RCMP did not want to disclose critical information as ordered to by a judge.)
On July 30, 2002 the Search Warrant was executed by four INSET members and five Vancouver Island based RCMP members. It must be noted that I am neither charged nor under investigation for
any actions or crimes in either country. "I have no real interest in Barbarash at all," said Sheriff Flannery. (Comox Valley Record, Aug. 09, 2002)Information to Obtain
To secure a Search Warrant an officer must swear out an Information to Obtain, upon which a judge will make the determination if he/she will authorize a search and seizure. The Information will spell out the crimes being investigated, the connection the person to be searched has to the investigation, the list of items to be searched and seized, and all supporting documentation. Usually there must be fairly strong evidence to suggest the person to be searched is connected in some way with the actual crime, and there must be strong supporting documents and/or affidavits included, as the Information to Obtain is the only report the judge looks at to make a decision. In this situation there is only one document connecting me to the events in Maine: a single newspaper article published by Blethen
Maine Newspapers on Oct. 05, 1999 after I gave an interview to reporter Dennis Hoey.That's all there is - one newspaper article, which quotes me as saying basically the same things I've said hundreds of times in the past three years in my role as ALF spokesperson. This was apparently enough to get an authorization for a search warrant.
The Grounds for Belief in the Information to Obtain as presented by Cpl. Ross consist of twelve paragraphs: eight lay out the minor offences being investigated, two deal with my current address and phone numbers, and two read as follows:
"In Sept. 1999, Dennis Hoey of the Blethen Newspapers in Brunswick, Maine wrote a newspaper article about the attacks. Attached hereto and marked as Exhibit "B" is a copy of Mr. Hoey's article. In that article, Mr. Hoey writes that David Barbarash relies on Animal Liberation Front anonymous letters and videotapes to publicize the groups activities. "Furthermore, Mr. Hoey advised Detective Sergeant Turcotte that David Barbarash had sent a press release claiming that Barbarash had received some form of communication from the Animal Liberation Front activists in Maine relating to the criminal activities that they had committed at the Rod & Gun Clubs in Maine." My role as spokesperson means that I will usually receive some form of communication from ALF activists following an action or raid where a claim of responsibility is made, which is what happened with these Maine incidents. I then draft a press release, which would include the Communique, and send it out to local media where the action took place.
I am then available for media interviews to discuss the tactics and philosophy of the ALF, and the animal abuse being highlighted in the action. And that's it, end of story.
The newspaper article submitted as Exhibit "B" states, in part: "David Barbarash, North American spokesman (sic) for the animal rights organization, said Monday that acts of vandalism should be expected for groups that harm or torture animals. "'I think they will continue their activities, but not necessarily against sportsmen's clubs,' said Barbarash, who lives in Vancouver, B.C. 'Sportsmen's clubs are just one target of many.' "Barbarash, who says he never communicates directly with activists, relies on their anonymous letters and videotapes to publicize the groups activities.
"Barbarash said the Maine activists told him they stole stuffed animals from one of the clubs so they could be 'returned to their natural environment to rest in peace.' "The group targeted the sportsmen's clubs because - as Barbarash said the group told him in its recent communique - 'they are hangouts for
killers and must be destroyed.'"It is an outrage that the type of invasion and harassment which I've been subjected to can take place against a spokesperson, the messenger, who has nothing at all to do with any illegal direct actions in the role as media liaison. I am neither aware of any action prior to its occurrence, nor am I aware of the identities of any ALF activist. The type of communication I receive from activists is anonymous and one-way. It is even more of an outrage that the actions warranting this type of harassment are nothing more than minor property destruction offences, and it is pouring salt deeper into the wound to discover that a solitary newspaper article can stand alone as the sole supporting document giving
a judge enough of a basis to issue a search warrant. Indeed, the apparent crimes in Maine are of a political nature and are more appropriately classified as economic sabotage, a political strategy
used by social justice activists for centuries. In this era of "smoking out the terrorists," economic sabotage, or non-violent property damage done for political reasons, is now egregiously led "terrorism."B.C. Civil Liberties Association spokesperson Murray Mollard commented, "It raises the question what is terrorism? This would not be the kind of action we consider terrorism. (The raid) appears to be using a criminal matter to permit the United States to come into Canada. It's an expansion of authority on what is essentially a criminal issue." (Comox Valley Echo, Aug. 09,2002)
Search Warrant
The Search Warrant called for a shopping list of items to be seized, including:
- photos, negatives, videos, and cameras,- computers, computer disks, software and hardware
- paper files, address books, phone records, lists of names of ALF activists - maps of past or future ALF targets and ALF members' residences - records of disposition of funds between myself and ALF activists The key to this list is that all items to be seized must be related to "activities or members of the Animal Liberation Front in the State of Maine." How then, one might ask, are the following seized items related to the investigation or covered by the Warrant:
- notes from the kitchen table with instructions to friends on feeding our cats and watering our garden while away on vacation - an address book belonging to my housemate - U.S. postal mail bags received as "M Bag" mail) - A.L.F. 2001 Direct Action Report, a publicly available document - numerous videotapes of publicly available documentaries regarding animal rights, environmental, and social justice issues - videos, documents, and computer files seized by the RCMP in a previous raid in 1997 and later returned after the conclusion of the previous campaign of harassment - a report I produced for my lawyer in 2000 documenting a covert RCMP/NSIS (National Security Investigation Section) undercover operation used against me from 1995 - 1997 (an operation documented by personal notes and videos, and RCMP documents and reports, which attempted to set me up to burn down a building).In a Briefing Note filed by INSET member Sgt. Frank Martino on July 31, 2002, he lists upfront some of the items seized, seemingly indifferent to their apparent disassociation from the criteria listed in the Search Warrant. In fact, the only item that might have any connection are phone bills from 1999 showing calls made to Maine. Now the RCMP have an extensive collection of fax and phone numbers for Maine media outlets!
In addition to stealing items they didn't even have the authority to take by their own rules, a callous and ruthless attitude was evident in the wake of the raid. Aside from the unnecessary smashing of my front door, several rooms were literally upturned. Files and garbage were strewn about my office and personal letters were removed from files and placed open around the room. Our friends were questioned, threatened, and harassed when they arrived to feed the cats, and our indoor cats
were let outside to fend for themselves.The day following the raid the RCMP released my name and address to the media even though I had not been charged with any crime, contrary to their own policy. They did this knowing I had previously filed a complaint when I received implied death threats (bullets left on my car) and verbal attacks and threats from hunters in the Fall of 2000 after hunters invaded an animal rights video night I was hosting in Courtenay. One of my biggest fears then, and now, and which I made very clear in my
complaint, was that these hunters would discover my home address. It seems the RCMP are not concerned with threats of violence against people they don't like, and are apparently willing to help facilitate such violence.There is little doubt in my mind that the real reasons behind this raid have very little to do with minor actions in Maine three years ago. The RCMP, now with the overt complicity of U.S. law enforcement, are continuing their campaign of harassment against the ALF's most vocal and visible supporter.
The police know that I don't have any information to help identify ALF activists; this is nothing more than a case of shooting the messenger. Although the bullets being used are in the form of search and seizures, the real damage is in the form of attempting to disrupt my life and my work, and attempting to increase the stress in my life.
B.C. Supreme Court Hearing
On Sept. 24 a hearing will take place in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver to discuss the Warrant and its execution. As well, an order will be sought by U.S. authorities to send the seized items to Maine. Through my lawyer I will be fighting back, and I will be seeking an order to quash the Warrant based on flimsy and non-existent grounds for conducting the search, and also, an order will be sought for the return of all my property.
In addition, I'll be making a formal complaint to the RCMP Public Complaints Commission concerning the raid and its execution, the needless and inappropriate damage to my residence, the seizure of items
not listed in the Warrant, the harassment of my friends, the release of my cats into the outdoors, and the release of my name and address to the media.In the meanwhile, the ALF Press Office is seeking monetary donations to help cover our legal expenses, and to help cover the cost of replacing computers and software.
Donations and requests for more information can be sent to P.O. Box 3673, Courtenay, BC V9N 7P1 Canada, or write us at naalfpo@tao.ca or call 250-703-6312.
On a final note, there is one thing that we must be clear on. This raid was not about animal rights issues or actions, this raid was about how we all have lost a large chunk of basic civil liberties and human rights. It's about how we really do live under the rule of a police state where it's no longer allowable to speak your mind or express beliefs which oppose oppression, and which challenge the
corporate/military governments. To do so risks police raids, possible arrest and lengthy jail terms.For many of us, we've understood and watched the erosion of our freedoms for many years, and we've become very alarmed at how this deterioration has increased drastically since Sept. 11, 2001. And yet, still it takes a major police action, like this latest raid, for the concept to really sink in. Our "western civilization" is nothing more than a glorified prison.
This is it. The time is now. This is our life, and how events unfold in our lifetime will be the difference between a life of freedom for all or a life lived under the boot of fascism. The police state is here; do we live, and fight, on our feet? Or do we die on our knees? Drastic words, perhaps, but what kind of world do we really want to live in?
SIDEBAR: Insidious INSET
By David Barbarash
The RCMP used a post-Sept. 11 newly formed anti-terrorist team to raid the home of Animal Liberation Front spokesperson David Barbarash on July 30, 2002.
Formed in June, less than two months before the raid, four multi-agency Integrated National Security Enforcement Teams (INSETs) will use the premise of "national security" to invade people's homes and attempt to disrupt lives even when no crimes have been committed. From an RCMP Press Release issued June 18, 2002:
"(INSET) will help ensure early detection and prevention of any potential threats to national security. The importance of greater integration of resources and intelligence has been heightened by the reality of terrorism since the tragic events of September 11th, 2001.
"Through shared federal, provincial and municipal resources - the INSET members will be better able to track and put a stop to the criminal activities (major or minor offences) of terrorist groups or individuals who pose a threat to Canada's national security.
This type of increased capacity will enable INSET members to work with their partners nationally and internationally towards the common goal of detection and disruption of potential terrorist threats.
"The Integrated National Security Enforcement Teams (INSETs) will apply Canada's laws, acts and regulations, and the new anti-terrorist legislation to assist in the early detection and disruption of any actual or intended terrorist acts.
This integrated approach between intelligence and enforcement groups at the early stages of criminal activity has proven to be a highly effective model for successful prosecution."
INSET has field offices in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa, and integrates law enforcement officers from the RCMP, provincial police in Ontario and Quebec, and major metropolitan police forces. It will share information with CSIS (Canadian Security and Intelligence Service), immigration officials, and international police forces.
RCMP Superintendent Wayne Pilgrim says the new agency is also ready to use new counter-terrorist laws, including the power to make preventive arrests to stop terrorists from carrying out attacks.
"We basically operate on the premise of prevention, and that's either through prosecution or disruption.... whatever means are provided to us within the legal framework that we can operate," he said. (CBC, June 20,2002)
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This raid is the ALF's latest effort to liberate all non-human captives from torture, confinement, and murder. This marks the 6th raided fur farm in Iowa; of these, 3 have closed forever. This campaign to rescue Iowa's victims of science and agriculture will continue until every animal confinement operation is empty and every slaughterhouse is burned to the ground.
In the fight for the freedom of these animals, all is justified. To echoing screams of the living and images of the dead, we raise our boltcutters for their freedom - by any means.
For their lives, we lay down our own,
The ALF
This is a case about wealth built on the back and from the sweat of African slaves, said plaintiff's lawyer Roger Wareham. The lawsuit is the first of its kind and accuses insurer Aetna, railroad firm CSX and financial-services firm FleetBoston of profiting from the slave trade before it was abolished in 1865.
Deadria Farmer-Paellmann, a 36-year-old lawyer who has campaigned for reparations for several years, filed the lawsuit on Tuesday in a Brooklyn federal court.
"The practice of slavery constituted an 'immoral and inhumane deprivation of Africans' life, liberty, African citizenship rights, cultural heritage' and it further deprived them of the fruits of their own labor," the 21-page suit reads.
The Accused:
Insurer Aetna
Railroad company CSX
Financial-services firm FleetBoston
Ms Paellmann's complaint contends CSX, FleetBoston and Aetna were "unjustly enriched" by "a system that enslaved, tortured, starved and exploited human beings".
Some 35 million African Americans are the descendants of the eight million men and women who were enslaved from 1619 to 1865.
Aetna has considered the possibility of issuing an apology and making restitution for profits made from insuring slaves during the 1850s.
In a written statement, the company expressed deep regret for issuing insurance policies that paid the owner in the event of a slave's death.
But on Tuesday, it issued a statement saying that it had not been served with a lawsuit and that it did not "believe a court would permit a lawsuit over events which, however regrettable, occurred hundreds of years ago."
Aetna said in a statement on Monday it had invested $36m (£25.2m) in the African-American community, targeting areas such as education, health and other areas. The firm said it embraced diversity and supported diverse causes.
CSX, which was created in 1980, stands accused of benefiting from slave labor used to construct rail lines for predecessor companies.
CSX has issued a statement, saying the lawsuit was without merit and that "courtrooms are the wrong setting for this issue".
Spokeswoman Kathy Burns said: "It is an unfortunate misuse of the legal system to attempt to address issues well over a century old at the expense of today's workers and stockholders."
The suit against FleetBoston alleges that the founder of the predecessor firm, Providence Bank, made much of his fortune in the slave trade.
According to the complaint, Rhode Island businessman John Brown owned slave ships and benefited from loans made by Providence Bank to help finance the voyages.
FleetBoston has yet to issue a public statement
The lawsuit seeks a jury trial among other matters, including the appointment of an independent historic commission, restitution of the descendants' slave labor, and compensatory and punitive damages to be determined at trial.
"This is a case about wealth built on the back and from the sweat of African slaves," said the plaintiff's lawyer Roger Wareham at a news conference.
"We expect those companies that are targeted to stand up," he said.
Ms Farmer-Paellmann's complaint alleges that the disparities that currently exist between blacks and whites in the US are a product of 250 years of enslavement and more than a century of institutionalized racism.
Successive generations of African Americans have failed to persuade the US Government to apologize or offer compensation.
The lawsuit further alleges that dozens of other corporations benefited from the labor of slaves in a variety of industries, including tobacco, coal and textiles.
In a similar legal maneuver, survivors of the Holocaust secured $4bn in reparations from firms that used Nazi-era slave labor.
Those companies included Deutsche Bank, conglomerate Siemens and carmakers Volkswagen and DaimlerChrysler.
What they are asking for:
For an Order certifying the Plaintiff-Class herein;
For compensatory damages in an amount to be determined by a jury at trial together with interests;
For an Order immediately mandating the Defendants to label its individual products with the fat, salt, cholesterol and other dietary content, thereby warning the users of said products of the health affects thereof;
For the funding of an educational program to inform children and adults of the dangers of eating certain foods sold, marketed, produced by Defendants and containing high levels of fat, salt, sugar and cholesterol content;
For Attorneys Fees;
Analysis of suit by uninvolved law professor
the consulting professor's other site
the links to obesity lawsuits by the professor
Have you watched Soul Train on WGN Saturdays? It is NOT a current version of American Bandstand. This TV show sexually exploits the teenage children who dance on it. The girls stimulate sex acts in their dancing and the camera focus is on their breasts, buttocks and genitals. Why aren't the producers and everyone involved in the filming prosecuted?
Why doen't the D A interview the girls to find out the name and age of their first sexual partner?
You tell me.
Maybe it is because the supreme court ruled that simulation of children having sex wirh their peers or adults was protected speech . But more likely it is because the boys, from Clarabell the clown Thomas to the local D A enjoy the show.
What is the difference between guilt and responsibility?
Why don't juries find people responsible or not responsible for the crime?
See my comments in response to the predictable reaction to this lawsuit on The Big Fat Blogfirst July 26, and then Aug 2.
Whopper of a Lawsuit Fast-Food Chains Blamed for Obesity, IllnessesBy Geraldine SealeyN E W Y O R K, July 26 — An overweight Bronx man wants four famous fast food chains to pay for serving him the finger-licking food that helped make him fat.
Caesar Barber, 56, a maintenance worker who weighs about 270 pounds and stands 5-foot-10, claims McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's and KFC jeopardized his health with their greasy, salty fare. He filed a class action lawsuit on Wednesday in the New York State Supreme Court in the Bronx on behalf of an unspecified number of other obese and ill New Yorkers who also feast on fast food.Barber's lawsuit is the first broad-based action taken against the fast food industry for allegedly contributing to obesity. He claims the fast food restaurants, where Barber says he used to eat four or five times a week even after suffering a heart attack, did not properly disclose the ingredients of their food and the risks of eating too much.
"They never explained to me what I was eating," Barber said on ABC's Good Morning America.
His lawyer, Samuel Hirsch, said the multibillion-dollar fast food industry has an obligation to warn consumers of the dangers of eating from their menus. "It's a question of informing the consumers," he said. "[The companies] profited enormously."
The fast food chains were negligent in selling food high in fat, salt, sugar, and cholesterol content, the lawsuit claims, despite studies showing a link between consuming such foods and obesity, diabetes, coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, strokes, elevated cholesterol intake, related cancers, and other health problems.
As a result of the fast food companies' actions, Barber suffered injuries — he has had two heart attacks and is diabetic — and is entitled to unspecified damages at a jury trial, the complaint reads.
A food industry spokesman says he is surprised Hirsch can make his legal argument with a straight face.
"He must be aware that fully two-thirds of all foods consumed in America are consumed in people's homes. Is he proposing that we sue America's moms?" said John Doyle, co-founder of Center for Consumer Freedom, a restaurant industry group.
More troubling is the implication the lawsuit makes about the abilities of Americans to choose what they eat, Doyle said. "To win his suit he has to convince a jury or a judge that people are too stupid to feed themselves or their children. If people are so stupid, should they be allowed to vote or go to work in the morning?"
Fast Food on the Run?
Still, nutrition advocates and some doctors' groups insist that the food industry, which spends billions of dollars each year on advertising for junk foods and sugary drinks, should at least share some blame for the creeping problem of obesity.
The U.S. surgeon general said in a report last December that obesity kills an estimated 300,000 Americans each year and costs $117 billion in health-related costs.
Lawyers have been working on strategies to hold the food industry at least partly responsible for obesity, just as plaintiff's attorneys have successfully sued tobacco companies for smoking-related illnesses.
"This lawsuit has the potential to put the fast food companies on the run," said John Banzhaf, a professor at George Washington University Law School, who has worked on tobacco litigation and will serve as an adviser to Barber.
There have been at least three previous, narrower lawsuits alleging negligent or misleading practices in the food industry.
McDonald's just settled a $12 million lawsuit and apologized for wrongly describing its French fries as vegetarian. A similar lawsuit was filed against Pizza Hut for allegedly using beef fat in its Veggie Lovers' Pizza.
Another class action law suit claims that the makers of the corn and rice puff snack food "Pirates' Booty" under-represented its fat content by more than 340 percent.
A Hard Sell
But Barber's lawsuit is the first known legal action to claim that the fast food industry has contributed knowingly to the problem of obesity in America.
"This is no doubt just the first of many lawsuits holding the food industry at least partially to blame for America's diet-related epidemics," Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine president and nutrition researcher Neal D. Barnard said in a statement.
Even Banzhaf, who has led the charge against the food industry so far, realizes the high hurdle he and plaintiffs such as Barber face in convincing a jury, and the general public, that fat is the fault of corporate America.
"We know from the tobacco litigation that initial suits have real difficulties because the public has real problems accepting new ideas and new concepts," he said. "It took us many years to get us to the point of educating juries about tobacco, so now they are. [Barber's suit] has a great deal of potential."
For its part, McDonald's released a statement calling Barber's lawsuit frivolous.
"Common sense tells you that it makes no sense. McDonald's serves quality food. Our menu features choice and variety with lots of options for consumers," reads the statement.
Comprehensive nutritional information is available at the fast food restaurants and on the company's Web site, the statement read.
Before my husband and I purchased a small ranch in Idaho that included fifty head of Herefords, I never really knew much about cows. I used to think that they were large, not particularly bright creatures who spent peaceful uncomplicated lives grazing in the green fields or napping in the sunshine. But once we started living on the ranch, I started to pay closer attention and learned to appreciate them on a deeper level.
I soon began to recognize the cows by their different markings, personalities and habits. I gave them all names, and they became my "pets" - in a wild sort of way. Two of my favorites were Freckles and her calf, Spunky.
Freckles first came to my attention early one spring. The cattle had spent the winter months on our lower pasture along the river, but when the cows started calving, we decided to move them to one of the upper pastures near the house.
The move was uneventful, except that we discovered that one cow was missing. It was Freckles. We weren't alarmed because we assumed that she had probably given birth and was hiding in a thick patch of willows near the water. The birthing process is a private matter for most cows, and when labor begins they are quite clever at finding a hiding place away from the rest of the herd.
As we got near the bottom of the hill, Freckles came running out of the willows and headed across the field. A look of fury flashed in her eyes, as if to scold us for intruding. Her belly was considerably smaller since the last time I had seen her and her udder was swollen with milk. These were both signs that she had calved. My husband went after Freckles to coax her back, and I headed toward the willows to find her baby.
The calf was so still I almost tripped over her. Nestled in a soft hollow of sprig grass was the most beautiful little creature I had ever seen. The calf was a dark russet color with a white spot on her tail. She was curled up like a fawn and looked up at me with enormous brown eyes. I slowly knelt down and spoke softly as I reached out to stroke her velvety coat. She quivered under my touch, but she didn't move. She wouldn't even raise her head. She couldn't have been more than twenty-four hours old, but she had already learned how to stay put and be quiet.
My husband managed to guide Freckles back toward the willows and when she saw me, she bellowed for her baby. In a flash, the little calf understood the command, bolted from her nest and ran bawling toward her mother. We stood back to watch as they came together. The calf reached for the comfort of warm milk while her mother licked her reassuringly.
Once they had calmed down, we walked them up the hill to join the herd. With her head held high and her tail bobbing like a pump handle, the calf pranced behind her mother. We laughed and christened her Spunky - a fitting name, as she turned out to be our liveliest and most mischievous calf that spring.
As we got closer, the other cows started calling to Freckles. They bellowed back and forth, again and again, as if to guide her back to their new location, and they were all waiting by the fence when we arrived. As soon as we closed the gate behind them and moved away, they surrounded Freckles, and with nodding heads and soft lowing sounds they gently greeted her and inspected Spunky. Apparently satisfied, they slowly drifted apart and began to graze. A sense of peace and harmony was restored to their community.
I was puzzled the first few times I saw a single cow surrounded by several little calves, until I learned that cattle herds establish unique baby-sitting co-ops. Once again, I was amazed at their ability to communicate. How did they decide who would be the baby-sitter? And how did the mothers tell the babies not to move while they wandered away, sometimes for several hours?
One day, I glanced out my kitchen window and was astounded to see Red Man, our huge twenty-five-hundred-pound bull, lying in the pasture with a group of calves. The cows had somehow persuaded him to baby-sit that day. At least fifteen tiny calves surrounded Red Man, all of them content to lie lazily in the sun, except for Spunky, who had obviously grown tired of naptime. She slowly stood up. Her rump came up first, followed by a long stretch extended to the tip of her tail. Then she shook her head, flicked and seemed about to go romping across the field when Red Man lifted his massive head and gave her a disapproving glare. I watched entranced. Would the tiny calf defy the giant Red Man? Not that day. Spunky gazed at the bull for a long moment and then her legs seemed to melt back into the ground, once again the docile baby waiting for her mother to return.
One night, we woke up to the terrifying sounds of a pack of coyotes on the hunt. Barking and howling, they raced down the hill behind our ranch and into the pasture where the cattle had settled for the night. Young calves were their favorite prey. The cattle stampeded in their panic to escape from the pack. My husband grabbed the shotgun and ran outdoors. A few shots fired into the air were enough to scare the coyotes, and we stood there listening to them yip and howl as they disappeared into the night. The heard had been badly frightened and their restless bawling went on for hours. But other than that, all was well.
Or so we thought. At daybreak we went out to check. All of the animals were
unharmed - except for one. We found a dead calf near some rocks, apparently killed in the stampede. My heart nearly stopped beating when I saw the white spot on its forehead, but it wasn't Spunky. It was a younger calf with similar markings. We carried the little body close to the gate and covered it with a tarp until we could bury it.
A while later, I heard a cow bawling. I looked around and saw the mother of the dead calf nudging it with her nose. Then I watched as Freckles and eleven other cows slowly walked over and formed a circle around them. One by one they began to bawl with the mother. The low, mournful tones of their lamentation drifted across the land as the morning sun rose.
As I watched them, I, too, became a member of their circle; I was one with them in their grief for the little life that had been, and was no more.
The cows stayed in that circle of love for over an hour. Finally, the mother backed away, turned and walked to a far corner of the pasture. Only then did the others end their vigil and move quietly away.
I stood rapt and motionless in the now-silent pasture, feeling the depth of their compassion in my own heart. Filled with awe and admiration for these animals, I turned back towards the house - that rare and tender scene firmly etched in my mind.
CNN.com - 45 children removed in Web porn ring bust - August 9, 2002WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- U.S. and European law-enforcement officials have arrested 20 people who sexually abused their own children and traded photographs and tips over the Internet, the U.S. Customs Service said on Friday.
The cross-border sweep removed 45 children from their abusive parents, 37 of them in the United States, Customs said.
Authorities say the parents traded photos of themselves sexually abusing their own children and shared tips in online chat rooms.
Half of those arrested lived in the United States, while the rest lived in Denmark, Switzerland, Germany, England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Sweden and France.
#25-02 UN Children's Summit. Time: 29:00 Pacifica airdate Monday August 12.The United Nations held a summit in New York to review the world's efforts at fulfilling the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. (May 2002).
A rich documentary by Susan Wood showcases a variety of issues reviewed, opinions and voices,
from children who held their own summit event and addressed the General Assembly; to UN officials such as the High Commissioners for Human Rights and Refugees; to activists working on AIDS, child marriage, child soldiers, child abduction and rape.The United States, one of only two UN member countries that has not ratified the children's rights convention, was characterized by many summit participants as obstructionist. The Bush administration's chosen delegates and advisors took extreme positions such as abstinence-only sex education, and a general opposition to any mention of children's rights (which they interpreted as opposed to the rights of parents).
Other US objections focused on a ban on the death penalty for minors, and on induction of soldiers under age 18.
As Somalia announced during the summit that it will ratify the Convention, the US will soon be the only holdout against the Child Rights treaty.
#25-02 Dr. Abla Amawi: Women & Politics in Jordan. Time: 29:00 Pacifica
airdate Monday August 19.Abla Amawi of Jordan works with the UN Development Program and researches gender and power. Her book about political women in Jordan, published by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, is called "Against All Odds." On KCSB-FM in Santa Barbara, Dr. Amawi talked to Elizabeth Robinson and Avery Gordon.
She says obstacles to women's electoral success in Jordan include the weakness of political parties, the need to raise individual campaign funds, and tribal competition for government services. Surprisingly, the strongest advocates of women's real participation in Jordan's politics include the Islamic Brotherhood, and the King.
However, the King passed up a chance to put political quotas for women in the new electoral code. King Abdullah dissolved Jordan's Parliament in June of 2001, and has not yet called new elections. The constitution allows him to put off the next election 'til fall of 2003. Since democratization in 1989, only one woman has won popular election to Jordan's parliament, but several are preparing to run when the next election is called.
CDs and cassettes of these two programs are available from WINGS: "Today's News Is Tomorrow's History -- Let's Get Women's Actions on Record."
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Phone (512)416-9000 wings@wings.org http://www.wings.org
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The entry begins with a discussion between three women of whether a joke letter addressed "to men the writer will not be seeing again", is funny or cruel. I quote from the body of the entry, there is more that came before this and more after J speaks:
D: ....just want to say that it wasn't something I posted out of anger or spite, or to be mean. It's simply what I'd call humor in truth. So many times when we end up no longer want to dating someone and they're totally oblivious as to why.Even when we think the reasons should be obvious enough, alas, sometimes we really do need to muster up the guts to tell someone the truth flat out. I dated a guy once who didn't tell me until the second date that at age 30, he still lived with his parents.
Worse yet, he never cooked for himself other than opening a can of "Chef Boyardee" and he never did any grocery shopping for himself either, because his mom did all of the cooking and shopping for him. And even worse then that, he collected little boy stuff like stuffed animals, comic books and sci-fi memorabilia.
Mind you, this guy had a high salary job, a new car, and big money saved up, and yet he almost never treated me on a date, and when he did treat me it was to _half_ a Subway sandwich he made me split with him to save money... yeah, because he just thought it wasn't worth it to buy me my own sandwich. Oh yeah, and one day he did actually buy a whole pizza pie, and I even though I said "thank you," he made a huge deal about it and expected me to jump in glee over the fact that he bought it!
... Men need to get their shit together too and stop perpetuating the same mistakes onto women.
And it's not about being poor, its about selfishness and not being a generous person.
I've dated a poor guy who'd share what little he had with me and I've dated other guys who took me to McDonalds and then hoarded the rest of their money so that they could go out and buy themselves a DVD player. It's a big difference!
And if there was a list letter like that for women and I was categorized on it somewhere, I'd seriously think about working on whatever it was that qualified me for such "rejection." Hell, I do that even now!
G: "What if you got fired tomorrow? What if you could not hold a job because you were filled with rage over childhood beatings? What if you were so depressed you could not even keep yourself clean much less your house? Do you think this could never happen to you? What were you like after Ray left?"
D: And the answer to all of this is very simple. When these things happened to me and I didn't have myself together, I usually didn't seek out men to date.
J: "I can certainly understand that a person could be filled with rage over terrible events in childhood. I can understand being depressed. I've also been unemployed and poor and lived at home.
And you know what? I DIDN'T DATE.Just because a guy can put on a suit and tie, that doesn't mean he's ready to be out there dating. Tere are other things in life they should be addressing, like their rage, or their bad credit, or their sexual identity crisis, or their child custody proceedings.
I know that everyone wants to find love and attention, and some people just like to get out there and date and meet people, but so what? ......You and I are single women who've weathered our own childhood storms and subsequent setbacks.
We know that the real problem is that too many men have these issues, realize it, will even admit it aloud, but still very few will actually do something productive about it. They'd rather inject their poison into my life. Well, sorry pallie:
No way in hell am I dropping my standards to open my life to someone who wants the best from me and isn't ready, willing, and able to give the best back to me. And believe me, they want your best. I've been there, done that, and on both sides of the coin.
AND THERE IS MORE..to listen in, click on the link above...this is a really good talk from single women who have been around the block and back and have gained some wisdom along their way.
This comes from one of my favorite reads, Behind the Mask
All the children were warned not to touch him, the adults threw rocks at him, hosed him down, squirted him when he tried to come in their homes, or shut his paws in the door when he would not leave. Ugly always had the same reaction. If you turned the hose on him, he would stand there, getting soaked until you gave up and quit. If you threw things at him, he would curl his lanky body around your feet in forgiveness. Whenever he spied children, he would come running, meowing frantically, and bump his head against their hands, begging for their love. If ever picked up he would immediately begin suckling on your shirt, ears, whatever he could find.............
Go read Ugly's story. It will do your soul good.
I took this test and recommend it-don't be afraid. It is interesting and defines many disorders briefly.
Imagine my disgust at getting these results for my own county:
Based on EPA's most current data, this county ranked among the dirtiest/worst 20% of all counties in the US in terms of the number of people living in areas where cancer risk from hazardous air pollutants exceeds 1 in 10,000.147,535 people in ROCK County face a cancer risk more than 100 times the goal set by the Clean Air Act.
79% of the air cancer risk is from mobile sources
20% of the air cancer risk is from area sources
0.61% of the air cancer risk is from point sources
What's Your Risk?
Learn more about hazardous air pollutants in your community
Air Quality: Does Your Community Meet Clean Air Act Standards?
In 1999, this county ranked among the dirtiest/worst 20% of all counties in the U.S. in terms of volatile organic compound emissions
Y'know, this makes perfect sense I think almost everyone (me included) just had this kind of mental block about who were the most logical people to protect us, Clint Eastwood style, from any hijacker-wannabes onboard a plane.The discussion seemed to spontaneously settle on whether to trust pilots with guns--or maybe just have several armed air marshals fly on every flight, just to add another layer of complexity to the whole airline security mess.
Why were the flight attendants unconsciously (or perhaps not) passed over? I hate to think that maybe the reason that no one thought of this before is...sexism and homophobia. [cue the ominous music, as a pall falls across computer screens, with perhaps a few rolled eyes]
Well, slapping those labels on the phenomenon is probably way too facile, but I don't think it's wholly without merit. I don't think it's coincidental that members of the groups everyone right away considered arming--that is, pilots and air marshals, as opposed to the flight attendants--are far more likely to be men.
And they're especially likely to be men with military (ex-Air Force pilots) or law enforcement backgrounds. Y'know, strong and butch and so therefore the perfect people onboard to be armed--as opposed to the mainly female and disproportionately gay male flight attendants.
The trouble is that this assumption, while understandable, is absolutely backwards and potentially.....
[remember to scroll way way down](anyone who can tell me how to link directly to a specific entry, please do)
With airline officials searching grandmothers and children, this blogger decided to remind them what terrorist look like. It is a good idea. We should all be reminded; take a look.....
What Does A Terrorist Look Like?
Friday, July 5, 2002
.....[this court's decision is just a]
formalization of the state consensus by election that sets a standard for medically-sanctioned marijuana users to not be prosecuted in state court.
In a way, this does not represent the news we really want to hear - the Feds still stress they'll bust, still claim that marijuana has no medical value, never mind that morphine does, never mind that other drugs without "medical value" such as alcohol and tobacco are legal.Of course, we all know how sane most of the Feds are these days...i.e. not very.
It's pretty hard to bask in this state court decision as a victory when we've got things like this horrendous "Stukachi Amerikanskya" TIPS thing to mull over. Next month they start recruiting Joe Utility Guy to spy on our "societal patterns" looking for "unusual" things, for "breaks in the rhythm".
Gosh, wouldn't ......
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