Rochester Rag JUN95
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ROCHESTER RAG June 1995
(formerly the _News from Detroit_)
Editorial:
Steve Langer sglanger@vela.acs.oakland.edu (Ultrix)
Standard disclaimers apply. In addition, the author makes no guarantees
concerning the grammatical accuracy of his writing. Submitted text files
must be in raw or compressed (.Z, .gz or PK Zip) ASCII. Image files must
be in raw or compressed (see above) GIF89 (or older).
On last month's Fix;
the answer to last month's Fix,
"Given that individual liberty and private militias must be eliminated to
assure peace in Amerika, what are the best means to purge them?"
is
The inverse Bill of Rights, presented at the end of last month's issue,
is a good place to start, and indeed, progress is being made. FBI head
Louis Freah and US Attorney General Jan Reno have cajoled Congress
into crafting bills to ban PGP and all other software encryption methods.
They'd prefer adoption of a chip based encryption scheme that the Feds
would have the backdoor to. HR 1544, also presented last month, would
make it a Federal offense to belong to private militias. Recent applications
of environmental laws have shown that the supreme Court supports the
Constitutionality of denying use of property to the owner without fair market
compensation. And the people can no longer drive past the People's House,
because the stretch of Pennsylvania Ave. that goes past the White House has
been closed for the first time in the nation's history.
Progress is being made in the land of the free.
Last month a reader commented that he'd be proud of me if I could find it
in myself to comment on examples of conservative lunacy. I responded that
for that, all he needed to do was pick up any common news magazine. I have.
>From the May 8, 1995 issue of Time:
- Queen Liz is trying to buy back the colonies by getting British
companies to purchase Burger King and Holiday Inn.
- Global conspiracy to implant newborn babies with microchips. [This is
not so far-fetched. In CA, pet cats are injected with a chip in the scruff
of the neck as a means of licensing. It has been found more reliable than
collars, which cats shrug off.]
- Black helicopters, belonging to the UN, will attack and put the
US under one world govt. - a new world order.
- The OK City bombing was done by the Feds to get the US public to
beg for stiffer laws to disarm the populace.
Time continues its journalistic excellence in an article describing
the background of suspect Timothy McVeigh's relatives,
Some of McVeigh's views are apparently shared by his younger sister,
Jennifer, 21, who wrote a letter to the town paper last month raging
about Waco. Authorities are now questioning Jennifer, a student at
Niagra County Community College and a former barmaid at the Crazy
Horse Saloon in Buffalo, New York, where women, dressed in shorts and
a top, wrestle male customers in a vat of gelatin.
Somehow, Time reporter Nancy Harbert, neglected to mention what
Jennifer's current job is. Perhaps the causal link between her current
job and being a right wing fanatic is not as obvious as the known
causal link between jello-wrestling and fanaticism. But then, neither
was it obvious to those of us not in the media how a bombing justifies further
gun control. But in a sidebar with the completely unbiased and unstigmatizing
title of Psst! Calling All Paranoids, reporter Christine Gorman
ends with the words of Bryn Mawr Psych Prof. Clark McCauley,
If you think these people are crazy, you have to ask yourself if there
is anything the Federal govt. could do that would make you take up arms
against it. If you answer no, then you're entitled to think these people
are crazy. But if you say yes, you have to admit they are human beings,
just like you."
On basic blasting physics;
Ok. I'll admit straight off that I'm not a demolitions expert, but as
a physicist, thinking person, and one whose blasted some duck ponds
with fertilizer for Duck's Unlimited, I have some questions:
- When was the last time you saw steel beams bent in the direction
of an explosion?
- Given 5000 pounds of fertilizer in plastic barrels in a tin can Ryder
truck, there would not have been enough compression in any one axis for
a shaped blast. Therefore, the blast should have been spherically symmetric.
Therefore, if the bomb is a point source centered in front of an plane
absorber (the building), the blast should cut out a semi-circular notch.
So why does the Fed building look like it was sliced by a knife down
the middle?
- Given that blast force falls off with the inverse cube of the distance
from epicenter, columns at the same depth within the building but at the
sides would see much less force than those in the center. Once again, this
leads to a semi-circular notch, yet we see an almost surgical, planar removal
of the front 1/2 of the building. How?
- McVeigh is smart enough to build a bomb that seemingly defies physics,
he's alledgedly killed hundreds, but gets caught for speeding and goes to
jail without offering resistance. This is plausible?
On a New Computer;
You may notice that this issue appears a bit shorter than usual. This is
due to a convulsive realignment in my computing environment. For the past
2 years, I was writing this rag on a DOS laptop. On June 6 I sold that
machine and put through an order to SWT of Texas. For two weeks (gak) I had
no machine of my own. Finally, this past Friday (June 24) my new machine
arrived. It is a custom collection;
- AMD486-100 PCI motherboard
- 8 MB ram
- 1 Gig SCSI II drive
- PCI MAch 64 video
- SCSI II 4x CD Rom
It is running both MS-DOS/Windows and Linux/X-Windows. In fact, it also
has a DOS emulator under Linux, so I am writing this in DOS-EDIT while
running another DOS window with a modem session to a UNIX machine in
Detroit (and they said you can't multitask DOS!) and viewing the
results of my edits under X-Window Netscape. Sure, people ask me why
I didn't get a Mac. Well, when the Mac emulator for Linux is done, I'll
have that on my X-Window desktop also. Sure, you could wait years for
this capability from Apple or Microsoft and pay $1000's, or you could
get it now, under Linux, for free. Me. I'll take Linux.
To further complicate my computing life, the university UNIX machine
which I use to mail the Rag was upgraded to OSF/1 this month. This
would have been fine, except the mailer which I use did not get taken
along for the ride, hence none of my distribution lists worked. This
has now (hopefully) been fixed and next month you should all have
more notice for writing letters to the Ed.
On the pulse of the nation;
OK, the results of the Time (May 8, 1995) poll on right wing wackos.
Question Yes No
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Does the US govt. pose a threat to 52% 44%
your freedoms?
Should US govt. get more power to 33 61
investigate citizens ?
Did radio talk shows create an 33 53
environment that led to bombing?
Are Militias
Dangerous? 80 11
Threat to your way of life? 63 26
Crazy ? 55 33
Well intentioned? 30 58
Patriots? 21 55
Should US govt. spy on 68 26
militias?
-------------------------------------------------------------------
What can we conclude from this? Well, as usual, the average American
is a bit hypocritical, not wanting increased surveillance if it may affect
him,"But dang nabbit Martha, they better watch them weirdos." Sort of
like Congress, "They're all asses except our guy. He's real good at bringing
home the bacon. We better reelect him for a 32'nd term while we're voting
for term limits."
On a Public Service Announcement;
For those of you who would like an inside the beltway newspaper that is
not the Washington Post you can get the weekly edition of the
Washington Times by calling
Subscription costs are $35 (six months), $60 (a year), and $80 (2 years).
Guest Editorial:
from the Detroit Free Press
Taxes are extortion for the good of the few
by Joeseph Sobran
If I still had a sense of humor, I might laugh at those radio ads that
describe retired federal workers as deserving of their fat pensions because
they have "served their country." Are we really supposed to believe that,
say, garnishing checks for the IRS is a form of altruism akin to dying in
the fight to repel an invading army?
Rep. James Traficant (D, OHIO), introduced a bill that would require the
IRS to bear the burden of proof when it seizes assets from tax payers. He
has this idea that Americans should get due process, as in France and Italy,
where the govt. at least has to convict you before it can rob you. That's
the sort of notion that gets into people's heads when they read the Bill
of Rights.
Instantly a team of IRS agents leapt up to explain that such a law would
require that the IRS become even more intrusive. But, if Traficant's bill
had any support, it would strike a bigger blow for freedom than the entire
Contract with America. Many things today would shock our ancestors, but few
would appall thm as much as the spectacle of govt. turning its guns on its
own citizens and deploying an army of tax agents to keep the entire
population under financial surveillance. Every tax payer is a potential
defendant if he is suspected of keeping too much of his own wealth.
What drives the system is that so many other citizens are not defendants,
but dependants - relying on the Federal govt. for income that must be
extorted from others. The IRS is the chief channel of redistribution. It's
unjust to force one citizen to support another, and it's dangerous to give
govt. the powers of compulsion that such a system requires. Believe it
or not, this wasn't the original idea at all. James Madison assured
everyone in Federalist Paper 45 that the federal govt. would be chiefly
devoted to foriegn policy, treaties and war. The everyday job of running
govt. would be left to the states, as under the Articles of Confederation.
The Federal govt. ceased being federal after the Civil War, when it
occupied the South and began treating citizens as subjects. But is was 50
years later, under the income tax and Prohibition that by degrees, the entire
country, not just the South, has come to be "occupied." Federal courts
have upheld Federal power consistently. They may expand the definition of
free speech to cover pornography, or interpret interstate commerce clauses
to authorize more Federal intrusion, but you'll notice they don't expand
the definition of "involuntary servitude" to cover the taxpayer. Nor do
they interpret "due process" to mean a trial before seizing someone's
assets.
In sum, the whole system has been converted into a conspiracy against the
taxpayer. It operates for the benefit of the dependants, providing
representation without taxation. The Federal govt. violates the principle
of the "general welfare" in favor of special welfare for some and oppression
of the rest.
Letters:
1. Texas Tom is concerned about my lack of fairness;
>From ApogeeTom@aol.com Thu May 25 14:13:15 1995
>Ed: Of course, Clinton neglects to mention that Michigan Dem. Congressman
>John Dingell, who is also a lifetime member of the NRA, appeared in an NRA
>promo video in 1981. In the video, Dingell called the BATF, "jack booted
>storm troopers ...". Curiously, Dingell has not been labelled an unpatriotic,
>right wing, radical.
Stevie, I don't like how Clinton wishy-washy and often disagree with his
choices, but I don't think it's his job to retro-label everyone who's said
something like this within the last 15 years. If some prominent person had
said a similar thing within the last year, maybe. Only someone trying to
attack a statement by a leader they don't like would go back that far. Like
someone had a database of stupid sayings by politicians and searched for the
string "jack boot". I don't think that was remotely fair to say that. In
fact, it was kind of silly. Clinton's a boob, but I don't expect him to
search history for "jack boot" sayings or government bashers. I'm sure he
doesn't pick on a lot of Democrats (or possibly any), but he's picking on
comments now. He wasn't President 14 years ago.
--Tom
P.S. Remind me about bitmaps later, when I'm moved in.
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 1995 14:29:19 -0400
From: LANGER STEVEN C
To: bchapman@ri-exp.beaumont.edu.dgersten@ri-exp.beaumont.edu.bsteiner@ri-exp.beaumont.edu.ltownsen@ri-exp.beaumont.edu,
birkholz@midnight.com.rlanger@soliton.physics.arizona.edu.r-redman@nwu.edu.chem011@uabdpo.bitnet.usmar7d7@ibmmail.com.mdredman@midway.uchicago.edu.donahue.brian@mayo.edu,
cescript@phy.mtu.edu.ronningen@nscl01.nscl.msu.edu.pfaff@nscl01.nscl.msu.edu.jjohnson@ppsa.com.karn@cebaf.gov.mcconville@msupa.msu.edu.rutt@runpmx.rutgers.edu.markowitz@cebaf.gov.scripter.,
thorne@stat.ncsu.edu.apogeetom@aol.com.neef@cig.mot.com,
wilken@phy.mtu.edu.al007@freenet.scri.fsu.edu.dgay@ricx.royal-institution.ac.uk.geza@earthvision.svsu.edu.jnottoli@mcimail.com.martin@ricx.ri.ac.uk.fpotts@mayo.edu
Ed: First off, I'd like to remind you that Clinton made his first tax
increase retroactive to before he was President, so clearly, retroactivity
per se does not bother him.
However, my point was not to beat up on Clinton (any 5'th grader could do
that), but to once again point out the convenient memory lapses of the press.
Look, Clinton gives a speech in the aftermath of an NRA ad which in
turn came after the OK City bombing. NRA Veep Wayne Lapierre says there may
be more bombings because the public is getting pissed about things like WACO
where civilians are killed by "jack booted thugs" of the BATF. Wayne did not
pick this phrase lightly. He used it because in a 1981 NRA promo video Dem.
Dingell used the exact same phrase when he decried Reagan's use of BATF and
DEA agents during the War on Drugs. I agreed with Dingle, then and now, that
these Fed agents are out of control. But Bill sees a chance to make political
hay at the expense of the gun lobby and says,
"No one has a right to denigrate the law enforcement officers who put
their live's in harm's way, least of all radical right wing groups."
In the same speech Bill calls on the NRA to give back the money which was
donated after the ad. Well gee, neglecting for a moment this trifling thing
called the 1'st Amendment, does anyone recall the language used by Bill when
he sent Jan Reno to investigate the LA cops who were aquitted in the Rodney
King beating? Or does the phrase, "No one has the right ..." have a loophole
for Dem Presidents?
The take home point is, when Dem Congressmen call Federal law enforcement
working at the behest of Ronald Reagen "thugs", the media oblige with hour
long news shows showing the impoundment of yachts for having a single
marijauna seed on board. But let a group that is widely regarded as
conservative dare use _exactly_ the same language against Fed agents
working for a Dem Pres. and the media join Clinton in demanding more gun
control to somehow save us from fertilizer.
Tom, in all seriousness, doesn't this hypocrisy scare you a little?
And it was only a year ago, not 15, when the Congress was
debating hearings on Waco and Dingall again called the BATF "jack-booted
storm troopers." I don't usually find myself agreeing with Dingall, but
when the guy is right - he's right. Only conservatives who say the same
thing are unpatriotic.
Ah well, perhaps the Press can be allowed one lapse. Ooh, but wait,
didn't they also accuse G. Bush of creating those nasty videos of Willie
Horton when Bush ran against Dukakis even though it was Al Gore who first
created the spots during the Dem primary? And wasn't it Hillary and Donna
Schalala who, as heads of the Children's Defense Fund, said that kids have
the right to sue abusive parents for divorce and live in safe govt.
controlled "homes", long before the Evil Gingrich mentioned orphanages?
Ah well, one certainly cannot expect the media to have access to the
gargantuan data bases which I have, me being a full time journalist and all.
Interesting though, how Jeff claims I have insufficient historical
perspective, and you think I have too much. Darn, but you're a tough bunch
to please.
2. Rooster from MSU, in the aftermath of last month's comment on the need
for a police state, expresses his concern for my mental health;
>From MCCONVILLE@pa.msu.edu Thu May 25 12:33:49 1995
Steve,
Have you fallen and bumped your head recently?
Rooster
3. As another Public Service I'm posting this note for Los Alamos John
in case I may reach some folks that he does not. I'm including the
To: list for a convenient archive of msu email addresses.
>From jjohnson@ppsa.com Thu Jun 29 10:04:53 1995
To: jjohnson@godiva.nis6.Lanl.GOV, GBENNIS@UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU,
birkholz@midnight.com, sglanger@vela.acs.oakland.edu, debbie@aps.org,
fauerbach@nscl01.nscl.msu.edu, gaff@nscl01.nscl.msu.edu,
dgay@ricx.royal-institution.ac.uk, hill@bushbaby.alfred.edu,
jeffers@msupa.pa.msu.edu, karn@cebaf.gov, kelley@nscl01.nscl.msu.edu,
rlanger@soliton.physics.arizona.edu, lisa@csa5.lbl.gov,
long@mps.ohio-state.edu, markowitz@cebaf.gov, mccann@msupa.pa.msu.edu,
mcconville@msupa.pa.msu.edu, nelson@msupa.pa.msu.edu,
pfaff@nscl01.nscl.msu.edu, ramak@nscl01.nscl.msu.edu,
rutt@runpmx.rutgers.edu, cescript@phy.mtu.edu,
steiner@nscl01.nscl.msu.edu, rls@uihepa.hep.uiuc.edu,
70254.723@compuserve.com, yokoyama@nscl01.nscl.msu.edu,
hendrije@cnsvax.uwec.edu, dorsey1@nrlfs1.nrl.navy.mil
From: jjohnson@ppsa.com (John Johnson (505)665-4054)
Subject: *** PPSA Update!!! ***
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Hi there fellow PPSA'ers, God Emperors and Minor Deities!
I hope you get this message, because I haven't updated email
address in awhile. If this gets bounced to you at a new
address, please email me with your new one, even if you don't
have anything to say.
Well, it's been awhile since the last newsletter in print now.
This last Winter I decided to go electronic - after all, PPSA
should be a leader in new technologies and not wait around.
We have an official PPSA web site at: http://ppsa.lanl.gov/index.html
however this site may soon be moving. There are two reasons
for that, first off they will be putting up firewalls at LANL
one day soon... Second, I don't think I will have easy access
to a LANL account when I am LIVING IN A CARDBOARD BOX come this
December when my postdoc ends for good.
On that note, I'd like to hear from you guys. Have any luck in
finding jobs, postdocs? Changing careers in order to avoid the
bill collector? I want to find out for myself, and I'm sure
that everyone wants to know what you are up to. If it's not
all that positive, just let me know and I won't pass it on
to the rest of the world.
So if ANYTHING at all is happening, or if you are just curious
and haven't visited the web site yet... WRITE ME! Articles would
be great, and photos are encouraged. My own articles have been
a bit depressing and bitter lately, so if anyone has anything
mildly exciting or upbeat - we'd all like to hear it! I would
especially like addresses and info on LOST PPSA MEMBERS! If
you know anything about college friends that haven't been
heard from in awhile, or who have kept a low profile -- pass
it along to me!
I hope you are doing well, and I hope to hear from you soon.
Best wishes to you and your families for a great 4th of July!
(I'll try not to blow anything up this year!)
Take care,
John
---
---------------------------------------------------------------------
John D. Johnson
Home: 505 Oppenheimer Drive #516, Los Alamos, NM 87544 800/863-7772
Work: Adv. Nuc. Tech., J562, LANL, Los Alamos, NM 87545 505/665-4054
Quotes(s) of the month:
These United States needs one grand national Vigilance Commitee, composed
of the body of the people, to watch over the govt. in Washington."
- Walt Whitman, 1856 in the aftermath of a Vigilance Commitee
taking over the corrupt San Francisco city govt.
Fix of the month:
Well, the obvious choice this month would be the Bosnian situation, but
since we've already solved that problem last year (get the UN out and
lift the unilateral arms embargo, if only Congress would pay attention to
our prescience), I thought we'd address something truly important, to whit;
"If you were Clinton's campaign advisor for '96, how would you win? "
News:
Minnesota;
1. May 30: Here in Minnesota, the land of the soon to be banned evil musical
ice cream truck, the land where the God fearing (or Atheists for that matter)
cannot buy liquor on Sunday, the land where Sqauw Lake and Squaw River will
be renamed in the interest of gender harmony, we are once again gearing up for
the great fireworks border patrol. This is that clever game where Wisconsin
troopers observe the parking lots of fireworks stores and radio the numbers
of all Minnesota plates observed back to their buddies on the Minnesota
side where even sparklers are verboten. Then, when those sneaky
Minnesota smugglers cower back across 'ole Miss, the rightous fury
of Minnesota's finest descend upon them them and confiscate the booty - no
doubt selling it back to the Wisconsin peddlars and using the funds for
worthy police charity work.
2. St Paul, June 20; The state courts have decided that someone who kill's
a pregnant women can be sentenced to _consecutive_ life terms. In other
words, to kill a fetus in the mother is considered murder. Hmmmm.
Michigan
1. Cold Water, June 26: A 37 year old biker father, upon learning of
the molestation of his stepdaughter, took justice into his own hands.
Driving to the home of the 27 year old molester, another biker, the
father offered the man three choices;
- a bullet in each butt cheek
- a beating
- a scarred face
The molester opted for the bullets. The father, who is now on trial, has
put out an appeal to fellow motorcycle enthusiests to help pay his
legal fees and has raised over $100K.
Washington State;
1. Redmond, June 23: Microsoft Chair Bill Gates again has earned the angst
of users who have read (in MacWorld) about a new feature that will come
with Windows 95. The feature, called Registration Wizard, will make a survey
of a user's hard disk, compiling info on all resident applications and
download this info to Microsoft marketing when the user tries to use
Microsoft's 30 day free trial internet service. Gates has reported that
he doesn't understand the brouhaha, since the Wizard can be over-ridden.
Ed: And didn't you want to spend more on your long distance bill to help
Gates anyway?
Wash D.C.;
1. June 26: In a move that suprises no true student of the Court, the
supreme court yesterday upheld the "right" of high schools to have random
drug tests of student athletes, thus denying them the 5'th amendment right
of "... protection against unreasonable search and seisure." The Court felt
that since athletes already exist in an atmosphere of communal nudity,
privacy arguments are specious. Furthermore, Justice Scalia opined that
since children by definition have not reached the age of majority, they
do not posess full citizen's rights.
Net News;
1. Arizona Matt forwards some info.
>From birkholz@primenet.com Thu Jun 8 05:28:16 1995
From: "Guillermo J. Rozas"
>From the San Jose Mercury News, Monday June 5th, 1995
>From an opinion column titled "Elderly are big winners in tax
>benefits", by Timothy Taylor, an economics consultant to the Mercury
>News editorial board.
Generational Accounts
The table shows lifetime "net taxes" for people of different ages in
1993.
Positive numbers indicate that more taxes will be paid than benefits
received; negatives indicate that more benefits will be received than
taxes paid.
Age in 1993 Men Women
0 $87000 $53000
10 $130000 $77000
20 $189000 $109000
30 $195000 $109000 [ Of course, at the top ]
40 $158000 $76000
50 $68000 0
60 -$57000 -$101000
70 -$108000 -$140000
80 -$86000 -$111000
90 -$68000 -$65000
Selected paragraphs from the article:
"In fact, the findings of generational acconting are so provocative
that the Clinton administration suddenly decided this year not to
publish generationa accounts as part of the budget, even though they
had appeared in the special appendices of the budget during the last
three years."
...
"One response to such striking figures is to quarrel with the
calculations. After all, questions can always be raised about the
assumptions behind long-term projections.
But the three economists most responsible for generational accounting
-- Alan Auerbach of the University of California, Jagadeesh Gokhale of
the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, and Laurence Kotlikoff of
Boston University -- have spent years refining these projections and
responding to criticisms. Under any plausible assumptions, an
enormous generational imbalance remains."
[Of course, without seeing the assumptions and alternate
computations, this cannot really dispel criticisms and doubts. -- GJR]
...
"As a matter of arithmetic, the current level of taxes simply will not
collect enough money to cover health and retirement benefits that have
been promised. Our society has overpromised what it can afford to
provide to its elderly in the future. Something will have to give."
Last Updated 05/29/95.© 1996 PPSA Consulting
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