To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Don't Shoot Till You Can See They're Over the Age of 12
From: <owner-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 04:16:13 -0500
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Don't Shoot Till You Can See They're Over the Age of 12
Haaretz Daily
www.haaretzdaily.com
He doesn't know how many children have been killed in the violence of
the past two months, but he's sure that the army 'shoots everyone who
needs to be shot.' A day in the life of an IDF sharpshooter.
By Amira Hass
You can find soldiers like him at any military post in the West Bank
or Gaza. But we met in an Israeli city. He is the same age as many of
those who are confronting the Israel Defense Forces. He is smiling,
shy but frank, and tends to favor subjects in the humanities. If he
were out of uniform, you might think he was on his way to India or
South America."Every day, the orders for opening fire change,
sometimes several times a day," he says.
Every day before we go out they define the principles for opening
fire. This also changes from place to place. There are places where
the orders are more lenient than in other places. The orders, wisely,
are that we should be very selective, very precise. Or it depends on
the day. After the lynch, for example, the orders for opening fire
were far more lenient than they had been the day before. But usually
the instructions for opening fire are not permissive at all. There
seems to be an impression that I am eager to open fire, but on the
contrary, I'm glad that the orders for opening fire are moderate."
How do you know they are moderate? What are the criteria?
"Sharpshooters are given precise orders to open fire. On people who
throw firebombs, you aim for the legs, but people who pull out weapons
can be shot straight on."
They gave you video cameras.
"They call this a documentation kit, and see to it that every person
killed is photographed. And then it will be confirmed that he was not
under the age of 12, that he was holding a gun."
That is, the Palestinian figures are false?
"It's hard for me to determine, but I can remember a few cases when we
definitely shot at adults and we prayed that the soldier in charge of
the kit had filmed it because there they will accuse us of having
killed a child. It could be that there are mistaken statements, there
are also errors, and a child was killed because of a soldier's stupid
mistake. And I haven't heard them publicizing this (in the Israel
Defense Forces)afterward."
What is a mistake? That the rifle moved?
"For example, someone says to the other forces that he has identified
someone suspicious - we identified a boy who is making strange
movements, maybe he wanted to pick up a stone or something like that.
The one who identified him strongly requests permission to fire in his
direction. The forward command, the brigade commander, definitely does
not allow it, and he continues to plead, and so the commander says, if
you think he is very suspicious, fire a warning shot, and a warning
shot is 20 meters, and fire into an open area. From the debriefing
afterward, it turns out that that he had seen the person's head
through a telescope, took five meters, and the wind ... The rifle
wasn't aimed so precisely, and he hit him right in the head."
Do you know how many children have been killed?
"No. If we ask, they tell. And there are places where they provide the
figures without us asking."
And do you know how many dead there have been altogether?
"No, I've heard various numbers in different places, but I wouldn't
sign on them."
And children?
"I can't estimate at all the number of children who have been killed."
How do you explain that people have been hit in the upper part of the
body? Do you need skill to be on target?
"The IDF shoots very selectively, shoots everyone who needs to be shot
- or at least in 90 percent of the cases. That is to say, everyone who
throws a Molotov cocktail and can kill someone else - so if he's
holding it [the firebomb], we shoot him. We don't fire at him with an
automatic weapon, but we shoot at him with a sharpshooter's rifle, and
in most cases these aren't long ranges. A sharpshooter, from 200
meters, has no problem hitting the head and certainly if he aims at
the head - the upper part of the body - there's no problem. A firebomb
endangers the soldiers in the Jeeps, who are 25 meters away.
"A sharpshooter is like a pilot, his work is very clean, certain, but
there are also other sharpshooters, and then the work is very
dangerous. The real danger for a sharpshooter is another sharpshooter,
a Palestinian. And they have them. There are even some who are not
bad. If you have the weapons and the sights, unfortunately you have a
50 percent chance of hitting the target. In this war the ranges are
short. A sharpshooter is measured at 500-600 meters, then he's a real
sharpshooter."
And when do you begin to get skillful?
"We as sharpshooters have taken good care to look, even though they
haven't told us to, for places where there could be other
sharpshooters - houses, windows that catch someone's reflection -
because this is what is really scary. What is also scary are stray
bullets. Their firing is not aimed. Especially as the IDF is very
afraid that [Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser] Arafat will decide
to deploy the Palestinian police. At the moment, they are acting of
their own accord sometimes, but if he decides, the IDF will have more
of a problem, because they are simply better trained. The Tanzim are
untrained guys, no one has helped [train] them and sometimes when they
say on the radio 'exchanges of fire,' we laugh. This is not Hezbollah
that the IDF trained in the past, this is not Hamas that Iran has
trained and not even Palestinian policemen who received full backing
for their training. The IDF has watched them train and knows how they
practice. They know how to shoot precisely and they have precise and
reliable weapons. This is what the IDF fears.
"I have to say that the IDF was ready in advance for these
disturbances. I remember that about two months before it all began, I
really wasn't thinking in this direction. I was pleased and optimistic
that [Prime Minister Ehud] Barak had been elected, and that the peace
process was moving forward. We had a discussion with commanders, and
they said that unfortunately the IDF is expecting that there will be
disturbances. Then, they said it was because of Arafat's needs in
advance of establishing a state. They told us that Arafat had learned
from Israel that establishing a state by force and with many dead is a
positive thing; it strengthens the leader, a bit, but they said that
mainly it gives values to the inhabitants, esprit de corps, like we
have.
"This is also the case for the State of Israel, after three wars, when
seven armies attacked us. They expected that there would be something,
only they didn't know whether it would be a war, disturbances,
demonstrations. They were hoping it would be demonstrations, but
prepared for the possibility that it would be a war. There are
contingency plans that set out in astonishing detail what happens if
they decide, and if they decide then within a few days we occupy the
territories we have given to them and set up a military government
like in the 1950s, something like that. Of course this is terrible.
Even I, a simple soldier, have heard about these plans."
Do you remember how it all started?
"My father took the trouble to get very angry at [Likud MK Ariel]
Sharon when he visited there [the Temple Mount]. Then I thought this
was an ordinary event."
Didn't you know that on the Friday, four people were killed at the
mosque and another two near Mukassad Hospital?
"I didn't know, no. I think that after the first day, you become a
soldier. On the first and last day (of service) you go back to being
yourself again, to your political ideas, and afterward you try to cut
yourself off. In my opinion, most of the Jewish settlements beyond the
1967 borders are not important. But at the moment you are a defender,
and one hundred percent a defender, and the people are very important
to you. We as Israelis have to decide on a clear line, because if we
decide that we aren't giving back the settlements then we, the
soldiers, will find it much easier to fight. At the moment I am sure
that Arafat also knows this."
Someone who is about to throw a firebomb is in motion all the time, so
how do you aim when someone is moving all the time?
"It depends on the distances. At 100 meters it's not hard, and we also
practice this, and there are also easy targets, it all depends on the
distance. At 500 meters you already know not to aim at the head but at
the middle of the body, because it's easier, and you also have to take
into account the wind, and the deviation, but at 100 meters it's
almost sterile firing, very easy. In Lebanon a sharpshooter has to be
far more skilled, the distances were from 700 to 1,000 meters. Here,
it's 100 meters."
Is it easy to shoot at the head?
"Yes. The guys there, and also those who throw Molotov cocktails, or
even shoot, have an instinct to stop, a second to think where to throw
or shoot, and this second gives the sharpshooter five or six seconds,
and it's no problem. If he stops, and if you're also far away, the
head is no problem."
Behind the Jeeps there is someone standing with a rifle. Isn't he a
sharpshooter?
"He usually shoots rubber bullets."
And what kind do you shoot?
"A sharpshooter fires a lethal bullet, a bullet bigger than an M-16,
but its quality is superior to a submachine gun bullet."
The Palestinians say that the IDF uses a high muzzle velocity. Is that
what ou do?
"The muzzle velocity for sharpshooters is not that high, less than
that of an ordinary M-16. The question is how critical this is. A
sharpshooter's bullet kills if it hits the body. This is a bullet that
is 'metal jacket' - covered entirely in metal. In a regular bullet,
the bottom part isn't covered, and this interferes with the
aerodynamics. On the part that isn't covered, the air eats the lead a
bit - like air can eat a part of a mountain, and gradually it gets
into the inside of the bullet and distorts its direction. In
sharpshooters' weapons this doesn't happen."
That is, the lead is entirely covered in metal.
"Correct, and it's more aerodynamic. It comes to a point and it is
long. What is also important is the weapon itself, the muzzle, that
nothing be attached to the muzzle. Ideally, next to every sharpshooter
there is someone who aims, standing there with binoculars."
Of course you also see.
"You see through the telescope whether you've hit the person, but you
don't see exactly where the bullet is going. And if there is a person
whose job it is to aim, he can even see this. Through regular
binoculars you can see the reverberations the bullet leaves, the dust,
the tin, and then he says that you hit at two o'clock, 60 centimeters
next to the person. If a sharpshooter isn't accurate with the first
bullet - with the second it's almost a sure thing."
Do they tell you to aim for the head, or is it up to you?
"If they tell a sharpshooter to fire his intention will be to hit the
head. Because if a sharpshooter fires, he fires for certain in order
to kill. Unless there are specific individuals - in this war it hasn't
happened much - whom you're told to shoot in the legs, and they also
ask sharpshooters to do this."
Why haven't there been?
"There was a policy that you only shoot at people who are clearly
endangering lives. This decreases the amount of shooting by the IDF
and the number of wounded, and maybe increases the number killed.
Meanwhile, the IDF is trying very hard not to shoot, not to kill, to
let them demonstrate a bit - maybe also because of what they told us
about two months before it all started, to let Arafat have his
demonstrations without giving him and other countries an excuse to get
into a state of war."
Isn't there a danger that a competition will develop as to who will do
more sharpshooting?
"With us, there is no such thing. Somebody told me that at a place
where he was, some guys went by and the veterans were angry because
the young people weren't restrained.
They were keen to fire. But even I, who before the army said I would
try very hard not to shoot, if you're already there and into the
weapon and you go out on an ambush - it's terrible to say this, but
you hope that something will come of it. You sit there at night and
it's very boring and you're very tired, and the last refuge is that
you really will catch the bad guys and teach them a lesson.
"At one place, the older guys arrived to replace us, and they didn't
believe that the young guys were shooting so much. After they say
'stop' you have to stop shooting immediately. And it took them another
minute. Because of the keenness to shoot. These are things, in my
opinion, that make the IDF stumble, the lack of restraint. There are
even soldiers who fire a rubber bullet but load a regular bullet ahead
of it - it increases the force. It usually kills."
Do you know about investigations of errors?
"Every IDF shooting is reported and investigated."
I've been at those places, those demonstrations, where the Plestinians
open fire.
"Are you trying to say that the Palestinian firing is pathetic?"
Yes.
"Correct. I agree. Usually the Palestinian fire is pathetic."
And the army knew it was pathetic.
"Yes. The shooting is totally pathetic. And until there's shooting,
you know that most of it will be into the air.."
Is this showing off?
"Yes. The IDF knows this."
So why kill, why not just injure?
"If you decide to wound people, more people will get hurt, and the
question is whether this is better. Wounding fans anger even more."
Who told you so?
"This is my opinion. That is, if you wound someone, even the process
of getting hit, when he screams, says that it hurts."
The IDF knew that the Fatah firing was just showing off, and that the
refining of the shooting should be prevented, yet nonetheless
"Palestinian firing has gotten better," that is, the policy of a
severe response hasn't helped.
"I have a friend who's a settler, and for him the firing isn't
pathetic at all. In his opinion, every time they shoot, we have to
warn them by firing back a lot more. If you were to talk to him, this
conversation would be totally different. You are talking to me, and by
my nature I ask myself more whether just to let them shoot, maybe not
fire back. When I am a soldier I don't ask myself; I ask, but there
are orders, and I know in advance that if they shoot, you have to ask
whether I need to shoot again.
"It would be too bad for the IDF if it didn't happen this way. The
mistakes occur because this is not the way it is conducted. One person
decides to shoot, or someone else decides the opposite, not to shoot.
Now I'll be a bit tougher: The IDF shoots because nevertheless there
are cases when soldiers are killed."
Do you feel that this is out of revenge?
"I don't know whether the IDF takes revenge. But every time, after
there's a serious incident, it's political, you can feel it. You as a
soldier know that if in the papers today they have written about a lot
of things that happened to the IDF, then they will allow you to shoot
more. That on that same night I'm going to be shooting more than I did
the night before."
Because you want to, or because they let you?
"Because they let me. I didn't want to shoot that much, though there
are a lot of soldiers who do want to shoot. At first I also wanted to
shoot, and after I shot a few times I said, enough."
You haven't shot children.
"All the sharpshooters haven't shot children."
But nonetheless there are children who were hit, wounded or killed
after they were hit in the head. Unless these were mistakes.
"If they were children, they were mistakes."
Do they talk about this?
"They talk to us about this a lot. They forbid us to shoot at
children."
How do they say this?
"You don't shoot a child who is 12 or younger."
That is, a child of 12 or older is allowed?
"Twelve and up is allowed. He's not a child any more, he's already
after his bar mitzvah. Something like that."
Thirteen is bar mitzvah age.
"Twelve and up, you're allowed to shoot. That's what they tell us."
Again: Twelve and up you're allowed to shoot children.
"Because this already doesn't look to me like a child by definition,
even though in the United States a child can be 23."
Under international law, a child is defined as someone up to the age
of 18.
"Up until 18 is a child?"
So, according to the IDF, it is 12?
"According to what the IDF says to its soldiers. I don't know if this
is what the IDF says to the media."
And children are from 12 down. Is there no order that between 12 and
18 you shoot at the legs and not the head?
"Of course we try to see to it that he really is over 20."
In the 10 seconds that you have.
"In the 10 seconds that I have, I have to estimate how old he is."
And in what direction the wind is blowing, and the deviation here and
there, and which way he'll jump the next moment.
"Yes, but there are hardly any mistakes by sharpshooters. The mistakes
are made by people who aren't sharpshooters."
And it turns out that they happen to hit the children's heads, and all
this is just by chance?
"If you say you have seen children that have been hit in the head a
lot, then it is sharpshooters."
So what you're saying is that our definition of children is different.
"Your definition is different."
Because for you it's someone who is 12.
"Yes."
But a child of 13 doesn't bear arms, no matter what you call him, a
boy or a teenager or an adult.
"He isn't holding a gun but a firebomb, and in certain places it is
possible also to fire on people who throw firebombs."
Do you know how many people were killed yesterday?
"No. To my regret."
>From what you say about the instructions to be cautious that are
>given
to you as sharpshooters, I conclude that all the people who were
killed were armed. But it doesn't look that way to me, because I am
familiar with the events in the field.
"Nor does it look that way to me. There's nothing to be done, if the
IDF decides that it is responding and reacting, a lot of mistakes will
happen and relatively a lot of them will be killed. On the other hand,
a lot more could be getting killed.
I have seen a pamphlet of instructions for opening fire.
"There is no such thing, they don't give them out at all. Everything
is according to orders the commander gives that morning."
I want to persist in the matter of the 12-year-olds. Why was this age
set?
"I have heard that it was important to the IDF to know whether someone
was over 12, so therefore I understood that the age of 12 is a border
line. They haven't told us any age, just that we must not shoot at
children. The IDF doesn't specify ages. We take care not to kill, not
to have incidents with many dead. Six dead is normal, there could have
been a lot more."
What do you mean by normal?
"Because they did shoot at us, and if someone shoots at you, even if
it's pathetic, you have to return fire."
------- End of forwarded message -------
via: 1worldcommunication@topica.com
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To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] (Fwd) BULLETIN: Egypt recalls ambassador from Israel in wake
From: <owner-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 07:42:07 -0500
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Send reply to: <benyosef@torahvoice.org>
From: "Ben Yosef"
To: "ben Yosef"
Subject: BULLETIN: Egypt recalls ambassador from Israel in wake of Israeli retalliation for bombing of school bus
Date sent: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 11:51:22 +0200
BULLETIN
GILO, Jerusalem -- Israeli TV and Radio just interrupted their
regularly scheduled programming to announce that the ambassador from
Egypt to Israel, who has been here 16 years, has been recalled to
Cairo.
The order came directly from Egyptian Prime Minister Hosni Mubarak as
Egypt's response to the Israeli retalliation for the bombing of a
school bus in the Gaza yesterday which killed two Israeli school
teachers and injured 9 others, including 5 children who lost feet and
legs, and the bus driver.
Mubarak said the Israeli strikes at Palestinian Authority locations in
the Gaza was the use of "excessive force" in explaining his action.
For the first time, the retaliatory strikes in Rafah, Khan Yunis, Beit
Layiya and the Jabalya refugee camp by the Israeli Air Force and Navy
came without prior warning last night cutting power lines and plunging
most of the GAza into darkness.
Palestinian radio last night reported at least 50 injured but this
morning the casualty list was upgraded to more than 100 injured.
There is no report of any fatalities at this time.
MORE COMING
Shalom Shalom
ben Yosef
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To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Implant monitors heart online
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 09:49:09 -0500
Implant monitors heart online
DAVE PARKS
News staff writer
11/16/00
Researchers at UAB are studying an implant that allows a doctor to check a
patient's heart over the Internet.
The system is so effective that Dr. Robert Bourge, director of UAB's
division of cardiovascular disease, reported he was able to connect one
heart patient's shortness of breath with eating salty Chinese food.
Bourge discussed the study, which is being conducted at 10 medical
centers including the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Wednesday at
the American Heart Association's 73rd annual Scientific Sessions in New
Orleans.
The small device, called the Chronicle, is implanted in the chest. It monit
ors
pressures on the left and right sides of the heart and in arteries going to
the
lungs. This is critical because these pressures rise when fluid builds up i
n
the body, causing a reaction that can damage the heart. Thus, people with
heart disease are often restricted to low-salt diets because salt retains f
luid
in their bodies. A patient with the Chronicle implant waves a wand containi
ng
a computer chip over the chest. The computer gathers information from the
implant, and the patient sends the data by telephone to a secure Internet
site. A doctor goes to the site and checks on the patient's heart function.
One of the biggest advantages of the Chronicle is its ability to continuous
ly
sense and collect unique and valuable information," Bourge said in a
prepared statement. This is such a milestone because it allows us to
continuously monitor the patient at home; and if their pressures go up, we
can intervene with adjustments in medication before hospitalization is
necessary."
Citing an example of its effectiveness, Bourge said one of his patients was
suffering from shortness of breath every Sunday morning. A readout from the
patient's implant showed a jump in pressure that indicated a buildup of flu
id.
We were able to determine that he and his girlfriend were eating Chinese
food every Saturday night, which has a very high sodium content and caused
the retention of fluid," Bourge said.
The Chronicle is being developed by Medtronic Inc. It is part of a system t
o
help people suffering from advanced heart failure. A study of the implant's
accuracy and safety started in 1999; further study is expected to begin in
2001.
Last year, Medtronic announced the premarket approval by the Food and
Drug Administration of an implantable defibrillator to monitor, detect and
treat
abnormally fast heart rhythms.
=A9 2000 The Birmingham News. Used with permission.
http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/Nov2000/16-heart.html
via: isml@egroups.com
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To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Stem-cells bank to be a pioneer in Europe
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 09:49:09 -0500
STEM-CELLS BANK TO BE A PIONEER IN EUROPE
University Plan Harmonizes Ethics and New Biogenetic Techniques
ROME, NOV. 20, 2000 (ZENIT.org).- Beginning Jan. 1, the Catholic
University of Rome will provide a stem-cells bank which will be used to
regenerate human organs and tissues.
The plan provides for the extraction of stem cells from the blood of umbilical
cords. The program would avoid the grave ethical problems posed by the use
of
cloned human embryos as spare parts.
The blood of the placenta, which has stem cells, will be sent to the bank for
storage. These cells offer extraordinary possibilities for persons whose
umbilical cords have been used, as well as for people of compatible blood
groups. Stem cells are the progenitors of the elements of blood, and, when
developed, can become muscular tissue, cartilage and blood vessels.
News of the stem-cells bank was announced Saturday by Salvatore
Mancuso, director of the University's Institute of Gynecology, during the
congress on "New Frontiers for Bioethics: Biotechnologies," organized for
the 50th anniversary of the scientific journal Medicina e Morale ( see
http://www.centrobioetica.org ).
Mancuso said that the university hopes to demonstrate that it is possible to
make progress in research without having to resort to cloning or to the
indiscriminate use of embryos created solely for this purpose. The bank will
be
the first of its kind in Italy and a pioneer in Europe.
Archbishop Elio Sgreccia, vice president of the Pontifical Academy for Life
and
director of the Bioethics Institute of the Catholic University of Rome, told the
Italian newspaper Il Giornale in its Sunday edition that "the techniques to use
stem cells extracted from the umbilical cord represent genuine scientific
progress."
"Above all, because they offer a kind of preventive therapy and constitute a
precious reserve to combat some sicknesses that could arise in the future,"
the
archbishop said, "however, above all because these techniques offer greater
possibilities for success as opposed to those based on the extraction of stem
cells from embryos."
According to Archbishop Sgreccia, "the scientific hypotheses, on which the
measures promoted by the English and U.S. governments are based, lack
the
necessary foundation, both from the ethical as well as the experimental point
of
view. Research rewards the use of stem cells extracted from the umbilical
cord
and proves that it is not necessary to sacrifice embryos."
The archbishop concluded by explaining that "the use of embryos is ethically
unacceptable not only for those who are Catholic."
"It is not necessary to be a believer to recognize, above all, that the embryo
is a human being," he added. "It cannot be tolerated that human beings be
'produced' to be used as simple deposits of cells. This is prohibited by
international codes." ZE00112002
ZENIT News Agency <english1@zenit.org>
Mon, 20 Nov 2000 18:00:50 -0500
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To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] Edupage items (11/20/00)
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 09:49:09 -0500
CIVIL LIBERTIES GROUPS CRITICIZE PROPOSED INTERNET USE LAWS
Privacy advocates are up in arms over the Council of Europe's
international cybercrime laws, which are likely to meet with U.S.
approval. Canada, Japan, and South Africa are also likely to
approve the rules. The rules were drafted in closed meetings,
raising the hackles of the Electronic Privacy Information Center
(EPIC) and the ACLU. The rules are "very much oriented to
increasing government investigative powers at the expense of human
rights and privacy," said EPIC general counsel David Sobel. The
ACLU has characterized the rules as "a significant risk to the
privacy and human rights of Internet users." The rules would force
ISPs to monitor the activities of their customers and give law
enforcement agencies greater access to the data on ISPs'
networks. The laws also crack down on explicitly violent Web
sites but, because of U.S. First Amendment considerations, would
not touch hate sites, which have come under fire in Europe.
(USA Today, 20 November 2000)
POSTAL SERVICE DEFENDS ONLINE BILL-PAYING SERVICE
At least one member of Congress is making noise about limiting
the government's involvement in the e-commerce bill presentment
arena, due to an ongoing dispute between the Postal Service and
bill presentment companies. The Postal Service's eBillPay
service has drawn the ire of the industry, which charges that the
service puts industry players at an unfair advantage. The Postal
Service defended the eBillPay service in a letter to Congress,
arguing that the service is actually beneficial to the private
sector, but Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) was not swayed by the
missive. "The Postal Service in the bill presentment area is
already running afoul of what government policy is, and it's not
good for the country and not good for them," Lofgren said, adding
that Congress may have to be more active on the matter. Several
lawmakers on Capitol Hill would like the government to butt out
of the e-commerce market, Lofgren said.
(Associated Press, 16 November 2000)
SEE. TOUCH. TASTE. CLICK. BUY.
A number of software developers and online retailers are working
to sensualize the Internet shopping experience. One company,
TriSenx, is developing a PC peripheral that "prints" an edible
wafer embedded with FDA-approved chemicals approximating the
taste of a food item for sale online. The goal is to bridge the
gap between the near sensory vacuum of the current online
shopping experience and the in-store experience, where a shopper
can see a product's actual color, feel a fabric's texture, smell
perfume, or taste a cookie. Online retailer Landsend.com, with
Canadian software developer My Virtual Model, offers adult female
customers the option of creating a virtual model with the same
body size and shape, skin tone, and hair color so they can
view--from the front and back--clothing as it would appear on
them. An adult male Your Personal Model is due early next year,
with teenager versions to follow after that. Other online
retailing sensory devices under development include iSmell from
DigiScents, a peripheral that emits the smell of a certain
perfume, or whatever else, and Logitec's iFeel mouse, which can
represent certain tactile experiences.
(Industry Standard, December 2000)
LIBRARIES AROUND THE WORLD TEAM UP FOR NET SERVICE
A group of libraries from around the world began testing the
Comprehensive Digital Reference Service, a free service that
will help users find information on the Internet by directing
inquiries to the appropriate library. The Internet often
provides too many search results or questionable information,
and the libraries hope to bring a higher quality of information
online by providing access to their wealth of research collections
and specialized catalogs. A network will route questions to the
library best suited to provide an answer, based on the libraries'
expertise, hours of operation, and other considerations. Although
the group will initially focus on answering questions in English,
the service should eventually accommodate up to 20 languages. The
group, which expects to launch its Web site officially by June,
has about 60 members, including Yale, Harvard, the National
Gallery of Art, the National Library of Australia, and the Duke
University Divinity School.
(Baltimore Sun, 20 November 2000)
EDUCAUSE <EDUCAUSE@EDUCAUSE.EDU>
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Subject: [bprlist] Resurrection of girl 'will be cloning turning point'
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 09:49:09 -0500
Monday 20 November 2000
Resurrection of girl 'will be cloning turning point'
LYNN MOORE
The Gazette
RICHARD ARLESS JR., GAZETTE / Humans are the result of a genetic
experiment by gods, Raelians believe, and Rael says the cloning of a dead
child next year will turn public opinion around.
The spiritual leader of the Raelian movement is accustomed to ridicule; he is,
after all, best known for his belief in extraterrestrials.
But now that a Raelian-sponsored cloning laboratory somewhere in the U.S.
is said to be preparing to clone a 10-month-old American girl, Rael is
generating another reaction.
"Twenty-seven years ago, when I talked about cloning, they laughed. They
don't any more. Now they are afraid," Rael told about 700 people crammed
into the Theatre du Gesu on Bleury St. yesterday.
On hand for the rare conference given by Rael - who claims to be in regular
contact with the gods, known in the movement as Elohim - were a camera
crew from a U.S. television network and a photographer preparing for a New
York Times magazine story.
Duplicate of Daughter
In 1997, shortly after Dolly the sheep was cloned, Rael announced in Las
Vegas the formation of the first human cloning company, Clonaid. Rael and
the firm's director, Brigitte Boisselier, said Clonaid has evolved into a viable
enterprise that has investors, a staff and a list of about 250 clients.
Rael said a wealthy American family, whose 10-month-old child died
because of a hospital error, is providing major financial support for the venture
and will get the first clone, a genetic duplicate of their departed daughter.
The family's contributions include all the money it will get from a wrongful-
death suit against those responsible for the child's death, Rael said. The
second human clone will also go to a wealthy family who is supplying seed
money, he said.
A fund has also been established for legal fees, said Rael, who expects that
legal challenges to human cloning will eventually take the issue to the U.S.
Supreme Court.
But the cloned daughter will be presented to the world via television before
2001 is over, Rael said.
"Public opinion will turn completely ... (and people) will say this cloning is
perfect," he predicted.
Until he was renamed Rael by the aliens he says first visited him in 1973, he
was a sportswriter named Claude Vorilhon. Rael means "the messenger"
and part of the message is that humans were created in the image of the
Elohim as the result of an intergalactic genetic experiment.
Rael said cloning will not only give "genetic codes a second chance," it will
pave the way to eternal life.
Not everyone will appreciate the thought of life eternal nor have the love of life
and spirituality required for a long voyage on Earth, Rael predicted.
Neither the identity of the family nor the location of the lab, where scientists
are now preparing equipment, can be disclosed, Boisselier said in a brief
interview.
In previous published accounts, Boisselier has been quoted as saying the
cloning will cost about $300,000 and that it will cost $3 million to complete
experiments leading to the first cloning.
The hedonistic Raelians, who believe in liberal sex, are said to number about
500,000. The Swiss-based movement has a substantial following in Quebec
and has a UFOland in Valcourt.
From The Montreal Gazette,
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/pages/001120/4900288.html
via: isml@egroups.com
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Subject: [bprlist] IDF: Summary of Today's Events (11/20/00)
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 09:49:09 -0500
IDF Spokesperson: A Summary of Today's (20.11.2000)Events in the West
Bank and Gaza Strip
21 November 2000
The West Bank
An IDF force on pro-active operation in the area of Alfei-Menashe,
identified an armed terrorist cell on its way to attack a bus on the road
leading to the Alfei-Menashe settlement.
The terrorists opened fire at the bus. There were no casualties but the bus
was damaged. The IDF force responded with accurate fire toward the
terrorists, one of the terrorists was killed from the shooting, a number of
terrorists were wounded and fled the area.
In another pro-active operation, an IDF force identified two terrorists
laying an explosive charge on the road leading to Mount Eibal, south of
Nablus.
The force opened fire at the terrorists. A terrorist was killed from the
shooting, another was wounded.
Two Israeli civilians were lightly wounded tonight from stones and firebombs
thrown at their vehicle near the town of Givon, north of Jerusalem. Another
civilian was lightly wounded from stones thrown at the bus in which he was
travelling, near the town of Shilo. The civilians were treated on site and
evacuated for further treatment at a hospital.
Palestinian carried out shooting attacks at the following sites:
Toward the town of Pesagot, north of Jerusalem; toward Mount Eibal; toward
the Jewish settlement in Hebron; toward an Israeli bus and an IDF vehicle
near Tekoa, south of Beit Lehem; toward the town of Ganim and an IDF base
near Jenin; toward Nahal Elisha near Jericho.
IDF forces returned fire toward the sources of the shooting.
Disturbances (throwing of rocks and petrol bombs) took place in the
following locations:
Rama Junction and the Kalandia refugee camp, north of Jerusalem; Ayosh
Junction, near Ramallah; the Hosen bypass road and the village of Beit Omer
south of Nablus; the Tapoah Junction in Samaria; in the village of Hares near
Kalkillia and in Oja, near Jericho.
The Gaza Strip
Two Israeli civilians were killed this morning, nine were wounded, when an
explosive charge detonated near a civilian bus, heading from Kfar Darom to
the Gush Katif region of the Gaza Strip.
In response, Israeli Navy ships and IAF attack helicopters attacked
installations in the west bank belonging to the PA and its security
apparatus:
1. Headquarters of the Preventative Security and Fatah-Tanzim.
2. Headquarters and a training camp of Force 17.
3. Communications Installations
During the day, shots were fired at an IDF position near the settlement of
Gadid in the region of Gush Katif, toward an IDF position near Neve Dekalim,
toward the southern DCO, toward an IDF force on the Karni-Netzarim road,
and toward a heavy engineering vehicle, near Kfar Darom.
"IMRA Newsletter" <imra-l@lyris.vcix.com>
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Subject: [bprlist] Nova presents "Runaway Universe"
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 09:49:09 -0500
NOVA PRESENTS "RUNAWAY UNIVERSE"
http://www.pbs.org/nova/universe/
Web site premiere: November 20, 2000
Broadcast: November 21, 2000
(NOVA usually airs Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. Check your local listings.)
NOVA presents the first attempt on television to explore the riddle of
quintessence -- the mysterious repulsive force that some scientists
believe counteracts gravity. The program follows the efforts of two
rival teams of astronomers as they search for exploding stars, map out
cosmic patterns of galaxies, and grapple with the ultimate
question: What is the fate of the universe?
Here's what you'll find online.
History of the Universe
This interactive timeline reveals the evolution of the universe from
the Big Bang to the time when burned-out stars and black holes will
have evaporated.
Birth of a Supernova
What happens when a star explodes? This interactive feature
demonstrates, step-by-step, the sequence of events that results in
Type Ia and Type II supernovae.
Tour the Universe (VRML)
This VRML feature allows you to take an extensive tour of our
local universe. Within this three-dimensional world, you can visit
and learn about 2,000 of the galaxies that surround our own.
Moving Targets (Hot Science)
Find out how astronomers use the Doppler effect and redshift to
determine how fast a stellar object is moving away from or toward
the Earth.
How Big is the Universe?
Cosmologist Brent Tully attempts to answer this question while
discussing some of astronomy's latest developments.
Spin a Spiral Galaxy (QTVRs)
Among severa QTVRs in this feature is an object VR that allows you
to spin a spiral galaxy, revealing how a galaxy can appear to be
elliptical, round, or flat in shape, depending on your vantage
point.
Plus Resources and a Teacher's Guide.
http://www.pbs.org/nova/universe/
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Subject: [bprlist] PA TV airs call for confrontation with US interests
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 09:49:10 -0500
PMW ADVISORY: PA TV AIRS CALL FOR CONFRONTATION WITH U.S.
INTERESTS
PMW SPECIAL ADVISORY NOVEMBER 20, 2000
Palestine Media Watch pmw@netvision.net.il
INTIFADA LEADERSHIP CALL FOR
"CONFRONTATION WITH U.S. INTERESTS USING ALL POSSIBLE
MEANS"
AIRED ON OFFICIAL PA TV IN A SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
The umbrella organization of the intifada, "The National and The Islamic
Forces" issued an announcement of planned activities for the coming week.
The agenda includes a call for confrontation with US interests. It was read as
a special announcement on Palestinian Authority TV (Ramallah), today Nov.
20, 2000 at 12:20. The following is from the text:
THE VOICE OF THE INTIFADA IS HEARD OVER ALL OTHERS
[Planned activities for:]
Tuesday November 21
A day of Confrontations and Mass Marches dedicated to:
+ Exposing the extreme American identification with the occupation
+ Demand the shattering of the American monopoly and hegemony
+ Call upon Palestinian, Arab and Moslem masses to boycott American
products and denounce its policies in the region
+ Call upon the Arab world to enter into confrontation with American
interests using all possible means
GLORY TO OUR RIGHTEOUS MARTYRS
THE INTIFADA SHALL CONTINUE TO VICTORY AND DEFEAT OF THE
OCCUPATION
The Monitoring Committee of The National and The Islamic Forces in the
Gaza Strip. November 18, 2000
"IMRA Newsletter" <imra-l@lyris.vcix.com>
Tue, 21 Nov 2000 10:48:38 +0200
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Subject: [bprlist] The Secret of the Kursk
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 09:52:45 -0500
THE SECRET OF THE KURSK
Over the past month Norwegian seismologists have detected explosions in
the Barents Sea, in the vicinity of the Kursk. After Norwegian officials
announced the detected explosions, Russia's navy responded with an
explanation which raises more questions than it answers. According to
spokesman Vladimir Navrotsky of the Russian Northern Fleet, the
explosions detected by Norway are "preventive." He further admitted the
existence of a "plan" to provide security for the wrecked submarine. "Any
ship in this area may conduct preventive bombardment," said Navrotsky in a
television interview last week.
Standing guard over the Kursk wreckage is the most powerful missile
cruiser on earth, named Peter the Great. Assisted by aircraft and escort
ships, Peter the Great is said to have advanced submarine detection
capabilities. Apparently, the Russians will not tolerate U.S. or British
submarines in the area. It seems they have something valuable to protect,
and they are making it clear to everyone that intruders will be attacked and
sunk if necessary.
It is well known that the Kursk possessed the most advanced technology
available to the Russian Navy. Obviously, this technology cannot be allowed
to fall into American or British hands. Contrary to what some Americans
may think, the Kursk was not a piece of junk that blew up on account of
obsolescence. This submarine was of recent design and construction, built
with one idea in mind: to demolish a U.S. carrier battlegroup.
As reported in the Russian press last week, the Russian air force is also
obsessed with the idea of demolishing U.S. carrier battlegroups. In fact, the
Russians recently demonstrated this ability by overflying the USS Kitty
Hawk in the Western Pacific. Additional details were provided last week
by Russia's air force chief, Gen. Anatoly Kornukov, who stated that
Russian aircraft not only penetrated the U.S. carrier's airspace on Oct. 17,
but also on Nov. 9.
Despite recent claims that Russia has relinquished its status as a
superpower, the military minds behind Moscow's war machine clearly
remain fixated on fighting a future war against America. This is further
indicated by Russia's recent construction of improved fighter-bomber
engines with greater fuel efficiency, added fuel tanks and inflight refueling
ability. The strategic significance of this must not be overlooked. The
conversion of Russian tactical aircraft into strategic aircraft is no small
affair. Not only can these fighter-bombers carry nuclear warheads over
great distances, they can be outfitted with bolt-on plasma stealth devices as
described in the March 17, 1999, issue of Jane's Defense Weekly. It is
moves like these which should be raising questions among Western military
analysts.
Furthermore, if we are no longer in a Cold War situation then why are the
Russians bombarding the ocean itself in the vicinity of the stricken Kursk?
Whatever secret remains on board the Kursk, we can be fairly sure it is
vital to the Russian Navy's mission against America. To further
demonstrate the aura of mystery and secrecy enveloping the stricken
submarine: notes allegedly recovered from the Kursk's crew have not been
revealed in their entirety. Even more curious, a note found on the body of
turbine room commander Lt. Capt. Dmitry Kolesnikov was not even shown
to close relatives -- for whom the note was written.
As if to justify this cruel Cold War approach, Russia's top naval
commander, Vladimir Kuroyedov, said last Thursday that he was 80%
certain the Kursk was sunk because of a collision with a Western
submarine. British and American officials have strongly denied this claim,
which has often been repeated by Russian officials.
The Kursk sits at the bottom of the Barents Sea, sunk in lies as much as
anything. There are numerous unanswered questions involving the
submarine's fate. Having crashed to the bottom in fairly shallow water, why
have so many difficulties arisen in connection with salvaging it or rescuing
the crew? Why is no radiation leaking from the fractured sub's nuclear
reactors?
In this connection, one analyst has speculated about 2 DELTA IV
submarine hulls which were built and canceled. One of the 2 was publicly
scrapped; the other has simply disappeared. Does anyone know where the
missing DELTA IV hull went to? Could it have been towed to the Barents
Sea to mask a secret maneuver by a Russian submarine named "Kursk" --
a maneuver that will later be trumpeted as a victory for the Russian Navy?
The great thing about these lies and deceptions is that anything might be
possible. Whatever secrets may be hidden beneath the Barents Sea,
whatever the contradictory official statements and naval bombardments are
meant to protect, we will probably never know. (WorldNetDaily)
MICHAEL TURNER
(mykelturner@airmail.net)
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Subject: [bprlist] Bus Driver's Job At Risk Over Head Covering
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 10:01:05 -0500
November 21, 2000 -- 9:59 am
Bus Driver's Job At Risk Over Head Covering
PHILADELPHIA, PA (CHARISMA) -- A female bus driver in Philadelphia
stands to lose her job because she insists on wearing a head scarf instead
of a uniform cap. Kim Harris, a three-year veteran, says that the head
covering is important to her Christian faith, but public transport official
s have
insisted she must follow the proper dress code.
Harris, 28, started wearing the scarf after being baptized earlier this yea
r.
She told "The Philadelphia Daily News": "If I don't wear it, I'm dishonorin
g
God: First Corinthians, chapter 11, verses 1-16." Her pastor at the Church
of
Christ, Reginald Young, has supported her stand and spoken to officials at
the city transport group, SEPTA.
"I told [them] that they do not have the authority to tell Sister Kim what
the
Scripture means and what she supposed to believe," he said. "Everybody in
SEPTA's a theologian all of a sudden. If Sister Kim was a nun, they'd
respect her rights."
SEPTA spokesman Jim Whitaker told the newspaper that although Muslims
were allowed to wear traditional clothes to work, Harris' argument had not
been accepted because she had not produced documentation that her
beliefs required her to dress as she did. "I could decide to wear something
tomorrow from my personal interpretation of some passages in the Bible that
would overturn our whole uniform policy. I would not be allowed to do that.
"
=A9 2000 charismanews.com
http://www.mcjonline.com/news/00b/20001120c.htm
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Subject: [bprlist] Prime lunar real estate for sale -- but hurry
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 10:05:26 -0500
Prime lunar real estate for sale -- but hurry
November 20, 2000
By Richard Stenger
CNN.com Writer
(CNN) -- Want to buy a piece of land that promises lots of quiet and great
views of the stars? There's a sale going on that's out of this world. But hurry,
the price will soon rise astronomically.
Hollywood celebrities, ex-U.S. presidents, "Star Trek" actors and NASA
employees have joined in the rush to call a piece of the moon their own.
The brainchild behind the lunar real estate development is Dennis Hope, a
U.S. entrepreneur who asserts he secured legal ownership of the moon and
most other bodies in the solar system.
Hope's celestial ambitions began 20 years ago when he registered with the
U.S. government a claim to the surface of Earth's moon and the eight other
planets and their satellites. The Californian also sent notice of his claim the
Russian government and the United Nations.
'Head cheese' finds loophole
"They had several years to contest such a claim. They never did," said Hope,
who runs the embassy along with six employees from an office in Rio Vista,
California.
Hope, self-anointed "Head Cheese" of the Lunar Embassy, thinks a loophole
in the 1967 U.N. Outer Space Treaty makes his property assertion
legitimate. The agreement forbids governments from owning extraterrestrial
property, but fails to mention corporations or individuals.
Others reject the claim. Martin Juergens of Germany has said his ownership
of the moon dates back to Frederick the Great. The German monarch
bestowed the spherical body on his ancestor in the 18th century, according
to Juergens.
"(Juergens) said his family was given the moon, but he has no paperwork to
prove that case," said Hope of his Old World rival. "He sent me a long letter
in German, which roughly translated said I should cease and desist and
send him all the money I had made."
Experts in space law dismiss Hope's celestial property ambitions as well.
"It's either a hollow claim or a fraud," said Frans Von Der Dunk, co-director of
the International Institute for Air and Space Law at Leiden University in the
Netherlands.
The 1967 outer space treaty said space "was to remain just like the high
seas, free for use by all," he said.
According to Von Der Dunk, the treaty, by forbidding nations from
appropriating territory in space, essentially prevents individuals from doing
the same.
"As soon as you go into private properties rights, you end up in national rule.
The rights of private ownership depend on one national jurisdiction or
another," he said.
Von Der Dunk reasons that without a national system in space, there is no
way for a citizen to authenticate a claim.
Nonetheless, other speculators have laid claim to the moon as well. One in
Texas that peddles moon plots suggests buyers book a ride into orbit aboard
the space shuttle and hitchhike the remainder of the way to the moon.
"Even if you don't want to own your own piece of Lunar real estate, there
must be someone that you would like to see go live on another planet,"
reads the Web site of www.texusa.com.
The Lunar Embassy Web site cautions against such "highly irresponsible"
pretenders:
"You have been luckier. You have found us first. You will not get a fake Rolex
for twice the price. You will get the real thing, at the correct lower price."
The properties are legally considered "novelty gifts," but Hope maintains with
a straight face that his real estate sales are legitimate. Using the novelty
term "can help avoid any frivolous lawsuits from a foreign country," according
to Hope.
Satisfaction guaranteed
Real or not, customers don't seem to mind. More than 300,000 people have
purchased properties from Lunar Embassy.
In addition to their lunar plot, buyers receive a deed, a site map, a copy of
the lunar constitution bill of rights and a copy of Hope's declaration of
ownership filed with the U.S. government. There's also a 30-day money back
guarantee.
New buyers should hurry. The cost of a property roughly the size of
Manhattan, almost 18,000 acres, is currently about $27, including the lunar
tax. But after December 26, Hope will sell only 1-acre plots, for the same
amount of money.
Besides the Lunar Embassy in the United States, prospective customers
can contact authorized ambassadors and agents in a growing number of
countries, including Canada, the United Kingdom and Sweden.
Reaching for more than the moon? Hope sells or plans to sell properties on
most all the planets and their moons, with one exception, a moon orbiting
Jupiter thought to possess a vast salty ocean.
"Europa will not be for sale. We're going to create the whole thing as a
celestial reserve."
http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/space/11/20/lunar.land/index.html
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To: bprlist bprlist <bprlist@egroups.com>
Subject: [bprlist] We're studying out thinking
From: Shophar_Sho_Good
Date: 21 Nov 00 12:40:32 EST
(How you can attribute life to random chance and inter-specie evolution seems
very 'unscientific' in my mind...)
SCIENCE MUSINGS
We're studying out thinking
By Chet Raymo, 11/21/2000
''It is not easy to live in that continuous awareness of things which alone is
true living,'' writes the naturalist Joseph Wood Krutch. And, of course, he is
right. Our brains are separated from the world by a permeable membrane.
Attention flows outward. Sense impressions flow inwards. Of this two-way
traffic we create a soul.
At this moment, as I sit at my desk, I try to be aware. Sunlight streams
across my computer keyboard; eight minutes ago these photons were on the
surface of the sun. A ladybug crawls across the window sill; why so many
ladybugs this time of the year? Outside the window, a congregation of jays
jabber in the trees.
Continuous awareness: It can be exhausting. Which is why, I suppose, that
sometimes one just wishes for the mind to go blank, the windows of the soul to
close, the darkness to fall.
Fortunately, the one thing we don't have to attend to is awareness itself. The
brain does its thing without the least bit of conscious awareness on our part.
And a good thing, too; if we had to attend to what is going on in the brain
when we attend to the world, we'd ...
We'd go nuts.
Nothing we know about in the universe approaches the complexity of the human
brain. What is it? A vast spider web of neurons, cells with a thousand
octopuslike arms, called dendrites. The dendrites reach out and make contact
at their tips with the dendrites of other cells, at junctions called
synapses.
A hundred billion neurons in the human brain, with an average of 1,000
dendrites each. A hundred trillion octopus arms touching like fingertips, and
each synapse exquisitely controlled by the cells themselves, strengthening or
weakening the contact, building webs of interlinked cells that are knowledge,
memory, consciousness, self.
A hundred billion neurons. That's more brain cells than there are grains of
salt in 1,000 1- pound boxes of salt. A roomful of salt grains, floor to
ceiling. Each in contact with hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of
others. The contacts flickering with variable strength. Continuously.
Unconsciously. Never ceasing. Remembering. Forgetting. Feeling joy. Feeling
pain. Thinking. Speaking. Lifting a foot, moving it forward, putting it down
again. Flickering. A hundred trillion flickering synapses.
Just thinking about it is draining.
Neuroscientists are busy trying to figure it all out. Some folks would say
that bringing the scrutiny of science to bear upon the human soul is the
height of presumption. Others would say that the more we learn about what
makes our brains tick, the more we stand in awe at the mystery of soul.
The sheer complexity of the human brain makes any adequate description a
daunting task. Which is why some neuroscientists choose to work with simpler
organisms - sea snails, for example - to get a grip on the basic structure and
chemistry.
In recent years, new scanning technologies enable neuroscientists to watch
live human brains at work. Active neural regions flicker on the screens of
computer monitors as subjects think, speak, recite poems, do math. Continuous
awareness, displayed on the screen of a scanning monitor, can look like a
grass fire exploding across a prairie.
Still other scientists attempt to model the brain in silicon, building
electronic circuits called neural networks that mimic the activity of the
brain as it creates constantly changing webs of neurons. So far, no electronic
network begins to approach the complexity of the human brain, but the time is
not far off when silicon brains will rival fleshy ones. Just trying to make it
happen teaches us a lot about how human brains work.
Perhaps the most exciting research is that of the scientists who study the
biochemistry of human neurons: How do the cells regulate synaptic connections
to build new neural webs? A recent issue of the journal Science had a special
section outlining advances in neural biochemistry.
The big surprise is just how much of the ''thinking'' of neurons is done by
the dendrites, those hundreds of spidery arms that connect neurons to one
another. DNA in a neuron's nucleus sends messenger RNA down along the
dendrites to active synapses, where they are translated into proteins that
regulate the strength of synaptic connections. Tiny protein factories in the
dendrites are apparently key to learning and memory.
Once the regulation of these protein factories is understood, drugs that
ameliorate some kinds of hereditary mental retardation might be possible. As
will drugs that help all of us to learn and remember. Are we ready for ''smart
pills?''
What all this amounts to is awareness of awareness. For the first time in the
history of consciousness, the machinery of awareness has been turned on
itself. As neuroscientists will attest, thinking about thinking is not easy.
Thank God we don't have to think about thinking to think.
Chet Raymo is a professor of physics at Stonehill College and the author of
several books on science.
This story ran on page E02 of the Boston Globe on 11/21/2000.
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Subject: [bprlist] Apocalypse not now
From: Shophar_Sho_Good
Date: 21 Nov 00 12:41:52 EST
Apocalypse not now
http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/searchresults.cfm?id=TS00191629&d=Commentary&c=columnists&s=0&keyword=the
DENNIS O'DONNELL
LAST WEEK, I received a junk fax which promised, among other things, to tell
me when the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse started to ride - if I sent for a
free book, called The True Bible Code. But I didn't send for it; I read it on
the Net.
Astonishing! It says the First Horseman of the Apocalypse started riding on
the 26th of September last year. Worse, the Second started riding in September
of this year. (A staggered start, obviously.) However, Revelation tells us the
first rides a white horse, wears a crown and carries a bow. The second rides a
red horse and carries a great sword. Well, where are they?
You'd have thought folk like that would have attracted a bit of attention by
now - at traffic lights, say, or tethering their cuddies to the hitching-rail
outside a Little Chef. Maybe they fell at the final fence at Uttoxeter. "And
here, in the End of the World Sweepstakes, it's Famine on the outside, moving
three lengths clear of Pestilence, as they head towards the last ..." Yep.
With War and Death, the joint favourites. 666 to 1 Bar. Some folk should never
read symbolic or apocalyptic literature.
I'm sorry. I just can't take this stuff seriously. But let me make it plain.
I'm not slagging off the Bible. I am, however, deeply suspicious of fruitcakes
who think they are God's chosen in the last days. They never end up doing us
any good. Does the name Waco ring any bells?
Coincidentally (or was it?), this happened in the same week I completed a task
I set myself some time ago: to read the King James Bible, including the
Apocrypha, from cover to cover. I did it after a Holy Willie taunted me with:
"Have you even read the Bible?" I had actually; I'd read a lot of it but,
flippantly, remarked: "I started it, but couldn't get into it so I flicked to
the end. The Devil dunnit." That amused me rather more than my listener. So I
decided that, the next time anybody asked, I'd be able honestly to say yes.
Well, I've done it. Quite apart from its religious importance, it's great
literature. But the man who wrote this guff thinks he has done nothing less
than cracked its "code". In 1992, he says he realised he was a "priest of some
sort". Okay, maybe; but he's not the cheeriest one I ever met. I don't see him
rattling a tambourine and shouting "Good News!" He claims that there will be
war in six months and famine from next August. The world will end in March
2008. Happy clappy, he ain't.
He's worked all this out, using some exegetical abacus of his own devising.
His sums are, to say the least, suspect. He doesn't show his working and his
rationale is bizarre. He states that Jesus was born on 9 October, 2BC. Mind
you, he doesn't say whether it's significant that Jesus was born exactly 1,942
years before John Lennon. (Missed that one, Zadoc.) He argues: "We have
assumed that Jesus was a full term baby but he was a sinless son of God ... so
the concept of his being either late or premature is a non-starter." Hardly a
watertight argument. Typical of the whole thing, though. Marks off for style,
too.
Och, forget this stuff. Read the Bible by all means; it's well worth it. Just
don't have any truck with latterday seers and prophets of doom.
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Subject: [bprlist] Christian website warns 'wicked' rock stars die early
From: Shophar_Sho_Good
Date: 21 Nov 00 12:42:33 EST
Christian website warns 'wicked' rock stars die early
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_121463.html?nav_src=newsIndexHeadline
A Christian website has set about disproving the adage 'only the good die
young' by showing that hard living rock stars tend to die prematurely.
Dial the Truth Ministries has put together a list of 317 rock stars and their
cause of death - asking readers to admit that those who indulge in sex, drugs
and rocks 'n' roll end their days earlier than God-fearing Christians.
The site, headed 'The fear of God prolongeth days, but the years of the wicked
shall be shortened' claims rock stars die, on average, at the age of 37. The
average life expectancy for Americans is almost 76.
The site, described as a Christian resource, cites names such as Karen
Carpenter, who died aged 33 of anorexia, Sam Cooke, who was murdered at 33,
Jimi Hendrix who died at 27 from a drugs overdose, and Buddy Holly who died at
22 in a plane crash.
The website quotes bible passages which it says back up the theory and it
includes other essays on topics such as the evil behind Britney Spears' lyrics
and a 'genuine' recording of the screams of the damned in hell.
Last updated: 17:54 Monday 20th November 2000.
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Subject: [bprlist] Hate group arrives in New England
From: Shophar_Sho_Good
Date: 21 Nov 00 12:43:53 EST
Hate group arrives in New England
Monday, 20 November 2000 14:50 (ET)
http://www.vny.com/cf/News/upidetail.cfm?QID=137515
EXETER, N.H., Nov. 20 (UPI) -- A group of anti-gay demonstrators from
Kansas moved into New Hampshire and Vermont Monday, preaching a message of
hate against homosexuals.
Led by the Rev. Fred Phelps and a dozen parishioners from the Westboro
Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., the group taunted Phillips Exeter Academy in
Exeter, N.H., for its decision to allow homosexual faculty and staff to
serve as dormitory parents.
At Montpelier, Vt., the group protested in front of the State House
against the state's first-in-the-nation law that permits civil unions
between homosexual couples.
The Phelps group on Sunday had picketed five mainline churches in
Kennebunk, Maine. They carried signs proclaiming "God Hates Fags." "Your
Pastor is Lying," and "AIDS Cures Fags."
By a narrow margin, Maine voters on Nov. 7 rejected a referendum on gay
rights. The Kansas group aimed at thwarting any attempt to extend equal
rights to homosexuals under Maine's Human Rights Act. They chose Kennebunk
as their first target, in part, they said, because it is near the summer
home of former President George H. W. Bush and because they believed Texas
Gov. George W. Bush has not forcibly condemned homosexuality.
The Christian Civic League of Maine, which had led the protest against the
referendum, condemned the Kansas contingent as "an abomination," The Roman
Catholic Diocese of Portland deemed the demonstrations a "tragedy and a
scandal."
"Nothing expressed by the Westboro Church bears any resemblance to the
Gospel of peace which the Christian churches treasure," said a diocese
spokesperson to Monday's Portland Press Herald. The group spared the
Unitarian Church in Kennebunk because, one Kansan said, Unitarians are
beyond salvation. She said trying to send a message to Unitarians would be
"like if you go to a fag bar."
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Subject: [bprlist] Nepal Town May Reveal Origins of Buddhism
From: Shophar_Sho_Good
Date: 21 Nov 00 12:46:35 EST
ARCHAEOLOGY & PALEONTOLOGY
http://www.ngnews.com/news/2000/11/11202000/wirbuddha_3332.asp
Nepal Town May Reveal Origins of Buddhism
By The Independent
November 20, 2000
The mysterious origins of one of the world's great religions may soon be
revealed.
In a remote area of Nepal, archaeologists - including a British team - are
excavating the remains of Tilaurakot, the home town of Gautama Siddhartha, the
Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, followed by 320 million people worldwide.
The excavations are likely to settle the dispute about when the founder of the
religion lived, and also whether his early followers really did lead a life of
simplicity and poverty or whether that tradition was a later development. At
present, the best historians can say is that Buddha lived sometime between the
seventh and fifth centuries BC. The archaeologists also hope to unearth the
remains of Buddhism's first monasteries - potentially founded by the Buddha
himself. The town, then known as Kapilavastu, was ruled by his father and it
was from there that he set out on his quest for enlightenment.
So far, the archaeological team, led by Nepal's chief archaeologist, Kosh
Acharya, and the British archaeologist Robin Coningham of Bradford University,
have found iron furnaces, terracotta crucibles, pottery beads and fragments of
very fine painted bowls dating from around the time of Buddha.
"Seldom has archaeology had such a superb opportunity to uncover the origins
of one of the world's great religions," said Dr Coningham.
It had been known that Tilaurakot was a flourishing town by the second century
BC. Monumental buildings had been discovered from the first two centuries AD
and there was a Hellenistic-style grid layout. But the recent finds suggest
that Kapilavastu was founded in the seventh or eighth century BC.
It is likely that the town grew up around a shrine dedicated to an holy man of
the Shakya people, the tribe to which Buddha belonged. TheShakya religion,
which may not have had a concept of God, does not appear to have been
Brahmanical like much of the rest of the northern part of the subcontinent, so
Buddha would have grown up in a relatively unconventional religious and
philosophical atmosphere.
The excavations could shed rare light on the cultural, religious, political
and economic forces which helped shape his philosophy. They should also help
settle a historical dispute between India and Nepal over the precise location
of the ancient city where he grew up. Indian archaeologists have long
maintained that the site was at Pipprahawa in India, 10 miles south of the
Nepalese border. On the other hand, Nepalese archaeologists have always said
it was at Tilaurakot, 15 miles north of the border.
The new discoveries have swung the balance of evidence in Nepal's favour.
Together with historical evidence from ancient religious texts in China, the
archaeological proof showing that Tilaurakot was indeed flourishing in
Buddha's day has clinched the argument.
The discoveries are likely to have an economic impact on both Nepal and India.
Until now, tourists from the West and Buddhist pilgrims from Japan, Korea,
South-east Asia and Sri Lanka have flocked to Pipprahawa, where the earliest
remains are those of a third- century BC monastery. Now the focus is likely to
shift across the border to Tilaurakot.
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Subject: [bprlist] Suit claims `choose life' plates are unconstitutional
From: Shophar_Sho_Good
Date: 21 Nov 00 12:49:34 EST
Published Monday, November 20, 2000, in the Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/content/today/news/broward/digdocs/086712.htm
Suit claims `choose life' plates are unconstitutional
Palm Beach County has sold the most tags
BY JOHN PACENTI
Palm Beach Post
WEST PALM BEACH -- James Chesser couldn't wait to get one of the state's
``Choose Life'' specialty license plates.
In fact, his family bought three.
He was one of the first to buy the bright yellow plates after Gov. Jeb Bush
allowed the controversial tags in August. A lawsuit by the National
Organization for Women contends the plates are unconstitutional because they
are essentially a state-sponsored political message.
The distribution itself has prompted questions because the state would have to
cancel the tags if the lawsuit succeeds.
It turns out Chesser wasn't alone in wanting the tag in Palm Beach County, the
birthplace of the NOW lawsuit. The county leads the state in purchases of the
controversial tag. As of Nov. 11, 478 of the 7,249 plates sold in Florida had
been sold in Palm Beach County.
A number of motorists who wanted the plate didn't even wait until their car's
registration was up for renewal, according to the county tax collector's
office. Like Chesser, they came to the office only to buy the tag.
``I have a definite moral issue with taking the life in the womb,'' said
Chesser, who works at Community Christian Church in West Palm Beach. ``Ijust
felt like it was a way of saying we need to think more about life and less
about convenience.''
His wife and teenage daughter also have the plates on their cars.
He said he didn't buy the plate because of his views on abortion but because
he and his wife, Sandy, have three adopted children, now grown. He liked the
idea that money from the sale of the tag would go to organizations that help
people adopt children.
``I know how difficult it is not only to have infants available, but how
expensive it is to adopt them,'' he said.
That's the same rationale the plate's supporters are giving. They say the tag
supports adoption and is not meant as an anti-abortion message. NOW's
attorney, Barry Silver, doesn't buy it. He said the plate uses a slogan pushed
by anti-abortion organizations, some of them violent. The state has no
business in promoting political rhetoric, he said.
Silver, who practices out of Boca Raton, says the phrase ``Choose Life'' is
also found in the Bible, and thus the state is mixing church and state. Choose
Life Inc., the Ocala-based group that pushed the Legislature to approve the
plate, recently deleted the mention of God on its website because of the
litigation, he said.
``I've heard from people who have seen these license plates on the streets of
Florida. They feel like I do: the license plate is the wrong vehicle to convey
a religious message,'' he said.
The money for adoption groups comes from a $19.50 surcharge on top of the
regular registration renewal cost. Counties will decide how to distribute the
money they raise. A spokesman for the Department of Highway Safety and Motor
Vehicles said he didn't think any money had been passed out yet.
Palm Beach County is followed in ``Choose Life'' tag purchases by Okaloosa
County in the Panhandle, with 410, and Duval County, which includes
Jacksonville, with 405.
Neighboring counties lag far behind: Martin has sold 68, St. Lucie, 108, and
Okeechobee, 11.
NOW's lawsuit, which was filed a year ago, should be heard in Tallahassee in
January. If the organization wins, the state would force ``Choose Life'' tag
owners to get different tags when their renewal dates come up. The yellow
plates would become mere souvenirs.
Patty Morris, past president of Palm Beach County Right to Life, said she
believes a majority of county residents support the tag.
``The other side is just a very vocal minority,'' Morris said.
Morris said she has anti-abortion bumper stickers to convey her feelings on
abortion, but she bought the plate to show her support for adoption. Seven
children have been adopted in her extended family, she said.
``I want mothers to realize they can put their baby up for adoption. There are
so few who realize that,'' she said. ``It's not `keep it or kill it.' ''
Morris and Chesser said other motorists have not criticized them for
displaying the plate. Chesser said he expected his bumper to be bashed in, but
nothing like that has happened.
Still, the plate makes abortion rights supporters very uneasy.
Sheila Jaffe, vice president of Florida NOW, said that it upsets her to see
the tags on the street because the governor allowed them to be sold despite
pending litigation.
``They are shoving it down our throat,'' Jaffe said.
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Subject: [bprlist] VOTE OVERSEER FINDS BIBLICAL GUIDANCE
From: Shophar_Sho_Good
Date: 21 Nov 00 12:50:33 EST
VOTE OVERSEER FINDS BIBLICAL GUIDANCE
Sunday,November 19,2000
By MALCOLM BALFOUR
http://www.nypostonline.com/campaign2000/16204.htm
WEST PALM BEACH - Embattled Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris
revealed in an e-mail to a well-wisher yesterday that she is relying on the
biblical Queen Esther "for comfort and guidance."
"I re-read a book about Esther last night. She has always been the one
specific character in the Bible that I have admired," Harris wrote.
According to the Old Testament parable, the beautiful Jewish Queen Esther of
Persia risks her life to thwart a plot to destroy the Jewish people.
The Jewish festival of Purim celebrates the victory over that attempted
genocide centuries ago.
"Esther has always been one of my favorite role models," Harris wrote while
answering an e-mail from a couple who sent her a verse from the Bible last
week.
In response to a public-records request, her office released more than 4,000
e-mails that have been sent to her in recent days.
A multimillionaire heiress to a citrus and cattle fortune, Harris has been
under attack from Democrats, some of whom call her "Cruella De Vil," the
villainness in "101 Dalmatians."
Outspoken lawyer Alan Dershowitz called her "a crook" on CNN this week.
Relying on advice from her lawyers, Holland and Knight, a firm known for
supporting Democrats - and whose alumni include Janet Reno and federal Judge
Don Middlebrooks, who last week ruled against the GOP - Harris decided not to
accept the results of manual recounts.
"Please pray for me and our nation - for wisdom and understanding," Harris
wrote to J.R. Knight of Pensacola, who had told her how much he admired her
courage.
"You are a great Floridian," wrote Libbe Teague.
"History will show it took a woman to have the guts to stand up to those who
are attempting to steal this election from Gov. Bush. God bless you!"
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Subject: [bprlist] Faith, hope, charity
From: Shophar_Sho_Good
Date: 21 Nov 00 12:51:22 EST
Faith, hope, charity
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/weekend/story/0,3605,399077,00.html
At face value, Christianity would seem to have but a peripheral role to play
in the cut and thrust of modern life. So how do we explain why this age-old
religion is as recognisable and influential today as any multinational brand,
asks Cristina Odone
Saturday November 18, 2000
Voluptuous, delicious and mysterious: it's time to uncover the sensual face of
Christianity. Tradition paints the churches as goody-goody worshippers of
purity, strict adherents to a legacy of hair shirts and denials; but
Christianity walks provocatively between the sinful and the celestial, and
draws its beauty from rites that please the senses while promising to satisfy
the spirit. This is a no-holds-barred religion that speaks easily of "ecstasy"
and "adoration", and in superlatives such as "King of kings" and "Holiest of
Holies".
Even in our prosaic times, take part in a Christian ritual and you step into a
world of wonders that celebrates what God gives rather than what He withholds;
abundance, not abstinence, inspires our practices, colours our palette and
strengthens our faith. I can shut my eyes and relish memories of certain
Christian celebrations. Easter service in the Russian Orthodox cathedral in
Washington DC, where the rich brocades of the altar cloth and the scarlet and
gold-leaf icons blurred in the sweetly potent clouds of incense that filled my
eyes, nose and lungs. A Sunday service in the Comoro Islands, in the Indian
ocean, where villagers in boldly coloured cotton turbans and caftans fill the
whitewashed, sun-filled church, swaying in the aisles as their voices rise in
a joyous rendition of a Ladysmith Black Mambazo gospel song. A holy procession
in the backstreets of Naples, where housewives at their windows cast down
notes upon the pastel-coloured plaster Virgin that two black-haired altar boys
carry between them.
These rituals blend scent and colour, song and texture to celebrate life - not
just here on earth, but beyond. Any attempt to define Christians today must
pay homage to this rich beauty; to chronicle their world with a collection of
black-and-white photographs is to short-change its technicolour brilliance.
In his book The Faces Of Christianity: A Photographic Journey, Abbas, the
Iranian-born photographer, does just this. The gently glowing gaze of a
Benedictine monk in Fleury and the serene beauty of a young mother, her baby
at her breast, dressed up as Madonna and Child in a pilgrimage in Mexico City:
these are the images that for Abbas define the Christian aesthetic - an
aesthetic he views as rooted, predictably, in serenity and innocence. His
"photographic journey" is often one of sombre beauty. The rites he records and
the people he depicts are appealing, and often haunting; but to hem in
Christianity by duotoned piety is to misrepresent it.
Nothing new in that. Ever since the carpenter's son started agitating for
change almost 2,000 years ago, his message has been twisted or manipulated,
and his followers have been made into scapegoats. Yet if history is a
catalogue of attacks on Christianity, to this day the religion holds us in
thrall, informing our laws and social code, our education and the arts. The
story of Jesus Christ remains our single greatest narrative; Christian
signposts - from Genesis through the Garden of Eden, from his birth to his
crucifixion and resurrection - are familiar to believers and unbelievers
alike; Christian symbols - the cross, the communion wafer, the fish -
instantly recognisable.
In terms of branding, Christianity is up there with Coca-Cola, Walt Disney and
Gap - but it will not subside into mood music, or a pair of Mickey Mouse ears
we can pick up and wear to entertain. Even today, snug in an atheism that has
become commonplace, we come across Christians who give us pause for thought
and leave us wondering whether Freud, Nietzsche and Russell really did get it
right.
A young volunteer, sitting on the floor of a Catholic home for the disabled,
feeding a handicapped child whose head rests in her lap; a middle-aged
missionary, who lives and works alongside the villagers in remote Senedongo,
Mali, celebrating an al fresco Mass at a makeshift altar of straw; a monk
helping Serb refugees in Kosovo load a lorry with their belongings as they
prepare to set off on their lives of exile: even two-dimensional and on a
page, their wordless sacrifices are unsettling, for the nurses, schoolchildren
and farmers, as well as the nuns and priests, whom we see through Abbas's
lens, are busy turning our world upside down.
The outcast is embraced, the marginalised moved centre-stage, the voiceless
given a megaphone. These subversives are working for a truly "inclusive
society": forget the political catchphrase peddled from podiums in Bournemouth
and Brighton - theirs is the real thing, an uncomfortable, relentless quest to
place others above me-myself-and-I. It's an outrageous message that goes
against the grain: don't seek the successful, the A-list celebs, the profit
motive or the bottom line; look out, instead, for the weak and the misfit, for
the occasion to give everything and to love without bounds.
No wonder Christianity is so unpopular. To paraphrase GK Chesterton, it has
been tried, and found too damned difficult. And too damned irreverent.
Christians, like the little boy who told the Emperor he was naked, are forever
puncturing our self-importance, hinting that, actually, there is something
missing from our lives.
That connection with others, the reaching out to the less fortunate, this is
their imperative - one that, in the west at least, sounds so foreign now.
Foreign, but also alluring, as Abbas - who in the text accompanying his
photographs labels himself a "Shiite Muslim sceptic" - clearly shows. He is at
once intrigued and impressed by the do-gooders' silent protest at our selfish
ways; the heroes of his book are the volunteers who work with the disabled in
Lourdes or the malnourished in Mali. His lens rests lovingly on their figures,
captures the compassion in their gaze, turns even their pedestrian activities
- sharing a meal, packing a lorry - into lyrical statements of a profound
humanity.
Onward, Christian soldiers, has always been the churches' marching order - and
its Bible-thumping troops have obeyed and colonised the globe. As a result,
the world has been transformed; but Christianity, too, has changed its accent,
if not its language. From Egypt to Mexico to South Korea, the native
communities that have embraced this religion have coloured it with their
home-grown rites and rituals - and even superstitions. Thus, in Cape Town you
can find a shaman burning money as an offering to the gods in a Baptist
church; Christians in South Korea make the pilgrimage to the stone buddhas of
Ch'ilburam, near Kyongju; and, in Mexico City, Catholics celebrate the Aztec
spirit in a primitive dance.
Its more exotic manifestations will make a vicar in Tunbridge Wells gulp -
though, interestingly, Pope John Paul II, who forbids even the discussion of
women or married men becoming priests, has no difficulty with some of the
pagan practices being incorporated in Christian services. But this liturgical
globalisation reveals the appealing self-confidence of a successful and adult
religion that can live cheek-to-cheek with local divinities and native devils
without feeling threatened.
And yet the marriage of the voodoo doll and the crucifix conveys an ease with
multi-ethnicity that the experience in Northern Ireland, say, or Serbia
belies. Christianity bestows identity - here I stand, this is what I believe
in - but Christian identity has been hijacked by extremists time and again,
manipulated to divide and conquer. The tribalism fuelled by Rev Ian Paisley
and Slobodan Milosevic finds its impetus in the Old Testament notion of the
chosen people - a notion that the New Testament, alas, did not dislodge.
Armed with this mentality, you can promote an us-against-them apartheid of the
kind in which factionalism thrives. The ugly Christian, like the ugly
American, combines imperial ambitions and a self-righteousness that can
justify any abuse - even killing - in the name of their Ideal.
Abbas captures this dark side of Jesus's followers, too, in a succession of
troubling portraits: the chin-jutting arrogance of a uniformed member of the
Black Order as he steps out of his car in Ulster; the white Seventh Day
Adventist family in Ficksburg, South Africa, who attend Saturday service
holding a gun and a Bible in the same hand; a demonstrator against abortion in
California, eyes closed in pious prayer, while his fellow members sanction the
bombing of abortion clinics and the gunning down of doctors who perform
abortions. These damning vignettes speak of the intolerance that can pass for
authority when the Christian ethic is perverted by bigots. The religion of the
powerless here becomes a dangerous weapon in the hands of the power-hungry.
Yet Christian identity can also promote security and order. When their
husbands died, my great aunts, then in their 50s, decided to return to their
native village and share a house there. In that small Italian village, the two
childless women, who had neither a husband nor a fortune to ensure their
status, found their identity in their faith. Their Mass attendance (every
morning and on Sundays), their membership in the rosary group (which used to
pray before the little shrine of San Rocco, the village patron saint, once a
month), the endless dinners they offered the parish priest, gave their lives
form and substance - and placed them squarely within the village hierarchy
(one rung below Signora Gandini, who was married and who had paid for the
stained-glass window in the church; one rung above the baker, Rina, who was
married and had children, but who never gave more than a few coins to the
Sunday collection).
Their religion rooted my aunts in a clearly defined spiritual space as well.
They had no doubt that there was life after death, and that they fitted into a
divine scheme whose confines were the glorious bliss of heaven and the
terrible torment of hell. My great aunts' certainty is echoed in many of the
Christians whom Abbas encounters: from the evangelical enthusiasm of the
born-agains to the deep-seated calm of the village elders who accept without
question all that He brings them, there are endless witnesses to the soothing
strength of faith.
I suspect that, like my aunts, these men and women never suffer the
existential fears that characterise so many secular lives today. And their
example suggests that our state of almost perpetual anxiety stems from our
questioning the spiritual order that they accept unblinkingly. We feel
vulnerable because we have turned our back on their ancient Christian atlas,
which placed us in a universe in which God was firmly in the heavens above;
and in the midst of a life that stretched into eternity.
In our harsh new world, instead, we doubt the presence of a guiding spirit,
and that our existence goes beyond the here and now. We play out our lives
against a backdrop that has been reduced from the eternal to the earthbound.
Boxed in this new, man-made landscape, we peer at a world where everything
looms larger and more menacing - where talk of a fuel shortage produces chaos,
and the sight of a flooded city panic. There is not much room here - as the
two young boys who murdered James Bulger have discovered - for forgiveness or
the possibility of redemption. And who can blame us? We no longer see
ourselves as part of a big picture, or stakeholders in an everlasting
community; we are reduced instead to a cluster of individuals wandering
aimlessly over a small corner of the universe.
It's a shallow, finite world that we have created, and one that makes us feel
precarious as we proceed, terrified of losing our footing. Little wonder,
then, that we cast a curious, almost envious eye upon those who, wrapped in
their certainties, led by their beliefs, journey forth so determinedly.
In the two millennia since Jesus Christ, theologians and philosophers have
devised "proofs" with which to convert the unbeliever. Abbas's book is a small
contribution to this tradition - it offers us a glimpse of a people who are
not so much chosen as making choices, every day, that bravely reject our
so-called truths: that I am at the centre of the universe, that reason is my
only guide, and that now alone counts for anything. These Christians' bold
conviction animates Abbas's book as it does their lives - and calls our own
into question
____________________________________________________________________
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To: bprlist bprlist <bprlist@egroups.com>
Subject: [bprlist] 'I killed my children for Kali'
From: Shophar_Sho_Good
Date: 21 Nov 00 12:52:07 EST
21/11/2000 10:03 - (SA)
'I killed my children for Kali'
http://news.24.com/News24/World/Asia/0,1113,2-10-20_943335,00.html
Dhaka - A Hindu mother in northern Bangladesh slaughtered her two young
children inside a temple to please the goddess Kali, newspaper reports said on
Tuesday.
The widely circulated national daily Ittefaq quoted police as saying
27-year-old Shibani Mullik had confessed to killing her children after she was
ordered in a dream by the goddess of power to offer human sacrifices to her.
"I have only complied with the divine order," she was quoted as telling police
in Tarash town in Sirajganj district, 230km north of the capital Dhaka.
The human sacrifices at the altar of the goddess took place last weekend after
a local festival marking the autumn rice harvest.
Neighbours found the bodies of Avinash, 5, and Swapna, 7, inside the temple
where Shibani, in a blood-splattered sari,e was seen praying before the image
of the goddess.
Shibani told police that she was all alone in the temple when she killed her
children with a sharp knife.
The newspaper said police had arrested the mother and were investigating the
murders.
Shibani belongs to the Hindu minority in Muslim-dominated Bangladesh. -
Sapa-DPA
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To: bprlist bprlist <bprlist@egroups.com>
Subject: [bprlist] Toilet-seat gods anger the Hindu faithful
From: Shophar_Sho_Good
Date: 21 Nov 00 12:53:07 EST
Toilet-seat gods anger the Hindu faithful
http://www.iol.co.za/html/frame_news.php?click_id=29&art_id=qw974549461853G320
November 18 2000 at 02:11PM
New Delhi - The radical Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) has
strongly criticised an American toilet fittings company's marketing of toilet
seats fitted with pictures of Hindu gods and goddesses.
VHP official Acharya Giriraj Kishore said his organisation was demanding the
withdrawal of the toilet seats with pictures of Hindu gods Ganesha and Kali
from the market.
He some websites had been asked to withdraw advertisements for the toilet
seats.
Kishore warned of a major protest movement and legal actions if the
Seattle-based company did not withdraw the seats.
Press reports said the company "Sittin' Pretty Designs" had outraged the Hindu
community in United States with its toilet seat range with Hindu gods.
The seats are reportedly being sold for $130 (about R988) each. - Sapa-DPA
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To: bprlist bprlist <bprlist@egroups.com>
Subject: [bprlist] Wiccans Suing for Tax-Exempt Status in Fla.
From: Shophar_Sho_Good
Date: 21 Nov 00 12:55:19 EST
Sales Tax Begone!
Wiccans Suing for Tax-Exempt Status in Fla.
http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/us/dailynews/wiccasuit001101.html
By Melanie Axelrod
Nov. 1 - Wiccans are associated with witchcraft and white magic, but there's
one organization they can't cast a spell against: the Florida Department of
Revenue.
The Wiccan Religious Cooperative of Florida can, however, file a lawsuit, and
that's what it did on Halloween, accusing the state's taxation agency of
improperly denying the group a religious exemption from the state sales tax.
The problem, according to the state, is that whether or not it considers Wicca
a religion, the group does not meet all of Florida's standards to get a tax
break.
Among those requirements is having a permanent address and a building where
worshippers gather regularly. Or, as state law puts it, exemptions are
available to "churches, synagogues and established religious institutions at
which nonprofit religious services and activities are regularly conducted and
carried on."
"The statute says we can extend certificates for religious, customary,
nonprofit activities, but [the organization] has to have an established
physical place for worship," says David Bruns of the Florida Department of
Revenue.
To the state, that means renting or owning a space for regular religious
services, he says, adding that courts have upheld that interpretation on
several occasions
The Wiccans say that interpretation - besides denying their members a break on
the 7 percent sales tax on religious books and other materials - denies their
rights.
Tax-Exempt on Federal Level
They note the Wiccan Cooperative is tax-exempt on the federal level, where the
standard is that a group must qualify as an organization that is "advancing
religion," as well as qualify as a charitable or educational organization.
"The Wiccans have a federal tax exemption, but how the state laws are set,
[the cooperative] needs to rent or own a permanent space," says Heather
Morcroft, a Wiccan and the attorney representing the cooperative. "To us this
is impermissible."
At one point, Morcroft says, the organization did have its own space - thus
meeting the state's requirement - but because it was only used for special
festivals, the cooperative thought it was a waste of money and stopped renting
it.
"I would assume that the state's argument for [having an address] was an
argument to prevent fraud," she says. "But there are plenty of other ways to
prevent fraud without infringing on people's freedom."
Discriminating Practices?
Morcroft also maintains the state discriminates when it comes to disseminating
texts and literature associated with the religion - which, she says, violates
the Constitution.
"The law does not just say you are not a religious establishment because of
permanent location," she says. "Under the law, people can buy Bibles, hymn
books and prayer books sales-tax free. But frankly, looking at the statute, I
think it excludes Korans. People outside of that, including the Wiccans,
should be concerned because it leaves the state to define what religious
literature is."
Bruns said he was unable to talk about any other specifics about the case
because the court documents had not been served to his office as of late
today.
He also says state law bars him from discussing anything that may reveal
information about taxpayers' returns. "We're not able to say boo about the
Wiccan case."
____________________________________________________________________
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=======
To: bprlist bprlist <bprlist@egroups.com>
Subject: [bprlist] Wiccans Suing for Tax-Exempt Status in Fla.
From: Shophar_Sho_Good
Date: 21 Nov 00 12:55:19 EST
Sales Tax Begone!
Wiccans Suing for Tax-Exempt Status in Fla.
http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/us/dailynews/wiccasuit001101.html
By Melanie Axelrod
Nov. 1 - Wiccans are associated with witchcraft and white magic, but there's
one organization they can't cast a spell against: the Florida Department of
Revenue.
The Wiccan Religious Cooperative of Florida can, however, file a lawsuit, and
that's what it did on Halloween, accusing the state's taxation agency of
improperly denying the group a religious exemption from the state sales tax.
The problem, according to the state, is that whether or not it considers Wicca
a religion, the group does not meet all of Florida's standards to get a tax
break.
Among those requirements is having a permanent address and a building where
worshippers gather regularly. Or, as state law puts it, exemptions are
available to "churches, synagogues and established religious institutions at
which nonprofit religious services and activities are regularly conducted and
carried on."
"The statute says we can extend certificates for religious, customary,
nonprofit activities, but [the organization] has to have an established
physical place for worship," says David Bruns of the Florida Department of
Revenue.
To the state, that means renting or owning a space for regular religious
services, he says, adding that courts have upheld that interpretation on
several occasions
The Wiccans say that interpretation - besides denying their members a break on
the 7 percent sales tax on religious books and other materials - denies their
rights.
Tax-Exempt on Federal Level
They note the Wiccan Cooperative is tax-exempt on the federal level, where the
standard is that a group must qualify as an organization that is "advancing
religion," as well as qualify as a charitable or educational organization.
"The Wiccans have a federal tax exemption, but how the state laws are set,
[the cooperative] needs to rent or own a permanent space," says Heather
Morcroft, a Wiccan and the attorney representing the cooperative. "To us this
is impermissible."
At one point, Morcroft says, the organization did have its own space - thus
meeting the state's requirement - but because it was only used for special
festivals, the cooperative thought it was a waste of money and stopped renting
it.
"I would assume that the state's argument for [having an address] was an
argument to prevent fraud," she says. "But there are plenty of other ways to
prevent fraud without infringing on people's freedom."
Discriminating Practices?
Morcroft also maintains the state discriminates when it comes to disseminating
texts and literature associated with the religion - which, she says, violates
the Constitution.
"The law does not just say you are not a religious establishment because of
permanent location," she says. "Under the law, people can buy Bibles, hymn
books and prayer books sales-tax free. But frankly, looking at the statute, I
think it excludes Korans. People outside of that, including the Wiccans,
should be concerned because it leaves the state to define what religious
literature is."
Bruns said he was unable to talk about any other specifics about the case
because the court documents had not been served to his office as of late
today.
He also says state law bars him from discussing anything that may reveal
information about taxpayers' returns. "We're not able to say boo about the
Wiccan case."
____________________________________________________________________
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=======
To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: [bprlist] News you won't hear on CNN
From: "research-bpr" <research-bpr@philologos.org>
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 12:59:20 -0500
NEWS YOU WON'T HEAR ON CNN
ISRAEL SEARCHES FOR HUMANE RIOT CONTROL
Israeli officials have visited 26 countries searching for less-than-lethal
weapons effective at ranges over 100 meters but came up empty-handed,
Col. Daniel Reisner, head of the IDF international law department said. He
denied charges by international human rights organizations and others that
Israel has been using excessive force in dealing with Palestinian violence. He
estimated that there has been an average of less than one Palestinian
casualty per violent incident since the outbreak of disturbances on
September 29.
Nevertheless, he said, Israel has been looking for ways to increase its
arsenal of less-than-lethal equipment, which currently includes tear gas and
rubber-coated metal bullets. He said that the problem with these and other
methods of riot control, such as plastic shields and water canon, is that they
are only effective at a range of 50 to 100 meters. This distance is too
dangerous for soldiers because the rock-throwing demonstrations are often
interspersed with gunfire. "You're not supposed to die when you disperse
riots," said Reisner.
He said that one country had developed a less-than-lethal riot-control weapon
that was effective at longer distances, but refused to sell it to Israel. He said
the IDF is now developing its own long-distance techniques. Nonetheless, he
said, troops operating in the territories are still bound by police rules of
engagement, which are far more restrictive than the rules of engagement in
warfare. The only additions to the existing rules have been the use of
helicopter gunships and the license given to soldiers to open fire before they
are shot at if they see their lives are threatened.
Courtesy of:
http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2000/11/16/News/News.15629.html
* * *
ARAFAT: 21ST CENTURY GEORGE WASHINGTON??
The Boston Globe ran an excellent column by Jeff Jacoby on 20 November
2000.
Excerpts:
"In a full-page ad in The New York Times, the ADC (American-Arab Anti-
Discrimination Committee) proclaimed that the Arabs killed while attacking
Jews 'all died in the pursuit of liberty and independence.' Boxed in the center
of the ad was the credo from the Declaration of Independence: 'We hold
these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these
are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' And below Jefferson's words, in
boldface, this demand: 'Stop the aggression against the Palestinians / End
the Israeli occupation.'
"It surpasses grotesque to suggest that Arafat's war against the Jews is
about 'liberty and independence' or that the Palestinian violence is driven by
the Spirit of '76. Thomas Jefferson and his colleagues did not urge
Americans to massacre civilians or destroy places of worship. They did not
encourage children to throw themselves into the line of fire and promise large
cash rewards to the parents of every youthful 'martyr.' Nor did their children's
schools and textbooks promote blind hatred of all Englishmen or depict
Great Britain as a fascist horror that God wanted them to destroy.
"America's revolutionary Patriots did not celebrate terrorists and suicide
bombers. Their maps did not show a Europe wiped clean of England. They
did not assure their followers that any peace accords signed with London
were but steps in a 'phased plan' to destroy Great Britain piecemeal. And the
men of 1776 would not have walked away from the negotiating table if the
most dovish prime minister in British history had offered them -- as Ehud
Barak offered the Palestinians -- virtually everything they had demanded,
including land, sovereignty, and shared control over the capital city."
Write letters of support to the editor at: letter@globe.com, and to the author
at: jacoby@globe.com.
(Submitted by www.camera.org)
* * *
THE BLOOD LIBEL IS BACK
A full-page article entitled, "A Jewish Matzah made from Arab Blood," was
published in "Al-Ahram," the government-sponsored, leading newspaper in
Egypt. Following are excerpts from the article (28 October 2000).
"Every time I see the children of the stones in occupied Palestine as they
spring like blood from the arteries, I remember my grandfather who used to
gather all the neighborhood children in his home in Alexandria to give them
candy and tell them the tale of the Jew who slaughtered a boy and made
Passover matzah from his blood. Then, drunk with lust and barbarity, they
devoured it...
"According to the Talmud, Jewish souls are more precious to God than other
souls, because the souls of non-Jews are devilish and resemble animal
souls. They believe the non-Jews are like dogs, donkeys, and bulls -- and
that their homes are mangers and that they are profane souls whose lives
are worthless. Which is why it is permitted to murder, slaughter, cheat,
deceive, steal from, and beat them, rape their wives and mock them...
"This also explains what we see on TV screens where Israeli occupation
armies kill children mercilessly while chewing gum as if they are on a trip or
at a dance. Not as if they kill human beings, rather as if they were killing
stray animals in accordance with the religious law set forth in the Talmud.
"The bestial drive to knead Passover matzahs with the blood of non-Jews is
[confirmed] in the records of the Palestinian police where there are many
recorded cases of the bodies of Arab children who had disappeared -- later
found torn to pieces without a single drop of blood."
(Translation by www.memri.org)
Israel Update <Israel-Update@aish.com>
Tue, 21 Nov 2000 11:29:55 +0200
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To: bprlist@egroups.com
Subject: Re: [bprlist] Resurrecti