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Ray Thomas at Sierra Times - Communism Is NOT Dead: Asks, convincingly, whether communism has really collapsed in the Soviet Socialist Republic, or if it's just a clever ruse. This article will likely reappear here tomorrow. [sierra]
In November, 1987, when Reagan's influence was at its strongest and the USSR was reeling from his sanctions and his scorn, Mikhail Gorbachev went before the Politburo and told them this: "Gentlemen, comrades, do not be concerned about all you hear about glasnost and perestroika and democracy in the coming years. These are primarily for outward consumption. There will be no significant internal change within the Soviet Union, other than for cosmetic purposes. Our purpose is to disarm the Americans and let them fall asleep."...
I don't think communism is dead. It's alive and well and flourishing everywhere else but Russia and I don't know about Russia. Communism is socialism run by communists. And socialism, in the United States, is called "liberalism." Perennial Socialist presidential candidate Norman Thomas once said: "The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But under the name of 'liberalism,' they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened." Nikita Kruschev said something similar with his "we won't need to attack the U. S. It will fall into our hands like a ripe plum" crack.
...
John Swinton, former Chief of Staff for the New York Times, said it best in a toast made before the New York Press Club in 1953: "There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it will never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone. The business of journalists is to destroy the truth; to lie outright; to pervert; to vilify; to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it and what folly is this toasting an independent press? We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."
Two new articles in The Libertarian series by Vin Suprynowicz:
- Of abstinence and the Roman Catholic church - Peyote is legal
for certain Indian tribes just as communion wine was legal for Roman
Catholics during prohibition. The difference here is that to use
peyote, you must prove that your blood is at least 25%
Indian. Catholic priests were taken at their word during prohibition.
If we need a further reference, at www.prolibertate.org/english/narcotics.htm, we find, under the headline: "Should drugs be prohibited? (by Christian Michel -- première publication de cet article sur le site Liberalia)":
"To begin this conference, I would like to recount a true story. From January 1919, American Catholic priests were required to obtain authorisation from the Federal administration to buy Communion wine. Prohibition had begun. During 12 long years, the production, trade and consumption of alcoholic drinks was totally prohibited in the United States. Very soon, there mushroomed numerous, ostensibly Christian, sects for the purpose of celebrating, with administrative dispensation, the Holy Communion in both kinds. Observers noted the remarkable zeal which the faithful showed in taking consecrated wine. ..."
- 'Resolved from each and every legal consideration' - After nine years of legal wranglings, a woman who was partially blinded had her case against the responsible doctor dismissed by the judge. No trial or jury was necessary to satisfy the legal considerations. And the judge seems to think that justice is equivalent to legally crossing all the t's and dotting all the i's.
Leonard G. Horowitz at Plausible Futures - The CIA and the West Nile Virus: This was a bit too complicated for me to follow in a short scan, but frightening if true. My "yeah, right" warning indicators are flashing, so take with a grain of salt. [grabbe]
Time.com - California, Here We Come: a photo-essay on L.A.'s preparations for the communist (er... democratic) convention. [wnd]
