### Apollo BBS Archive - December 2, 1991

    Mail from Pete Fischer
    Date: 12/02/91  Time: 23:42:36

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    The obnoxious neighbors are a major problem. Action is called for. This is a
    matter for a "live" discussion.

    I think there will only be more and more working class and new poor. In part
    fueled by the ever increasing flood of new immigrants, and also in part by
    the constant decline in the number of low skill jobs. Those jobs are all
    being farmed out to the third world. The staggering number of homeless shows
    NO sign of letting up. I'm sorry to say that I am somewhat pessemistic (no
    damn spell checker on this terminal program, rats!). I see no solution. As
    long as the Republicans are up there denying the very EXISTENCE of a problem
    we are loath to find an adequate solution in time.
         Sorry I won't be at VideoWorks this Thursday night, I have to work.
                    Adios, Pete

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     1:Good to hear from you.  I agree with what you are saying about our economic
     2:problems.
     3:
     4:What computer do you use?  I have the Atari ST.
     5:
     6:See you when I see you.  Isn't work wonderful?
     7:end

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    Message: 8723
    Author: $ Gordon Little
    Category: Get-Togethers
    Subject: Cliff
    Date: 12/03/91  Time: 00:16:48

    I sure hope you and Sandy will be able to come to the GT.  Heck, it seemed
    as if you did lots of the work and supplied a bunch of the equipment last
    time -- water bottles, dueling targets and so forth.  Seems as if some free
    ammo ought to be a fair exchange for all that.  I'll bring some spare along,
    anyway.

    BTW, what kinda shells do use use for knocking those clays down?  (I'm an
    absolute rank beginner on that subject.)

    Nick's Music Palace Bulletin Board command:$C

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    Message: 1555
    Author: $ Gordon Little
    Category: Chit-Chat & Sing
    Subject: CD players
    Date: 12/03/91  Time: 00:19:39

    Every time I put a disk into my CD player I have to thump it to get it to
    stay shut instead of making an awful buzzing noise at me.

    Nick's Music Palace Bulletin Board command:EC

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    Subject:Gordon

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     1:My CD would not stay shut most of the time until I put in a new belt.  What
     2:model do you have?
     3:end

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    Message: 80227
    Author: $ Gordon Little
    Category: Answer!
    Subject: Ann
    Date: 12/03/91  Time: 00:21:53

    I don't see why reporters shouldn't go into a classroom and ask kids a
    general question "what do you think about Magic Johnson getting AIDS?"
    Suppose the kids didn't know what it was?  It's easy enough to explain that
    it's a serious illness.  Would anybody have the same problem if Johnson was
    retiring from basketball because he had muscular dystrophy, or multiple
    sclerosis, or something else the kids might not have heard of?  I think most
    people would explain what those illnesses were and what they do.

    OK, so MD or MS wouldn't be his fault.  Suppose he was dying of
    alcoholism...  or he got drunk and killed someone in his car and had to go
    to jail like Ted Kennedy didn't...  or retired through drug addiction...  or
    committed suicide?  Would anyone think these were issues that ought to be
    kept away from young kids?  Or would people say it's a good idea to educate
    kids about getting hooked on chemicals...  or to let them see that people
    often get themselves into a bad state when they don't have to, because there
    is help available or there are better solutions?

    It would be quite inappropriate for a reporter to waltz into the schoolroom
    and say "hey kids, how many of you think Magic Johnson's lying and he's
    really queer?"  That wouldn't be geared to a child's expected level of
    knowledge, or to a child's feelings about the matter.

    If kids *ask* about AIDS, they should certainly be given honest answers.
    The best way to answer a kid's questions is as they come up.

    This is the natural way kids learn.  One question leads to another.  Suppose
    some kid asks why Christa McAuliffe died.  What happened, exactly?  Most
    people wouldn't be put off if the kid asked them, two minutes later, "what's
    an O-ring?"  They wouldn't feel that this kind of detail was too mechanical
    to tell a kid about.  Yet a great many people avoid answering questions like
    "what's a condom?" (just another kind of O-ring?), or going into the
    mechanics of sex.

    Kids *should* be told about the danger of AIDS and how to avoid it *before*
    puberty, and this means leaving a minimum safety margin of time because you
    don't know exactly when puberty is going to happen.  There are other
    beneficial side-effects of keeping kids well informed about sex.  One is
    that they don't get scared or put off by bodily changes happening to them --
    especially girls.  I also think kids should know about the nature of
    homosexuality before they reach puberty, because some percentage of those
    kids will turn out to be homosexual themselves, and at least we owe it to
    them to let them know that they're not alone.  But sex, unfortunately, is
    not completely irrelevant to the lives of even young children, because there
    are some adults who prey on them.  Forewarned is forearmed.

    I don't say we should start in on kids of six or seven with a long lecture
    about promiscuity or anal coitus.  What I do say is that Magic Johnson's
    AIDS, and other similar events, are visible results that people can't help
    seeing, just as a baby is the visible result of other processes.

    If we bring it to kids' attention that these obvious things happen, and
    encourage them to ask their own questions in their own way about how they
    happen and why they happen, then answer those questions honestly, they
    should learn everything they need to know.

    I have no doubt at all that the media do smell profit in anything to do with
    sex.  The media also recognize the profit in anything controversial; but
    then, presenting controversy is the job that the media are there to do.  If
    there wasn't any argument, there wouldn't be anything worth reporting.  Only
    I don't condemn a business just because it happens to be making a profit out
    of something.  It depends on what the end results are.

    On and off, and especially for the past 150 years, our culture has found it
    advantageous to some people to sweep sex under the rug.  Usually, doing that
    has been to other people's disadvantage.  Including women, I'm sure.  So now
    that honest and open discussion of sexual issues (and moral ones too) has
    finally become profitable, I can't do anything but cheer.

    Message: 80230
    Author: $ Rod Williams
    Category: Chit Chat
    Subject: AIDS, AIDS, AIDS.
    Date: 12/03/91  Time: 00:31:47

    Okay, so more and more people are getting AIDS and are dying from it.
    The number of cases seem to be doubling and all our favorite stars are
    dropping dead due to its effects.  So, what the hell?

    I personally think that AIDS is the cow's revenge and how sweet it is.
    Isn't it about time that the human beast was put in its place?  How
    long can we go around screwing up the lives of millions of other
    animals and get away with it?

    According to some 'facts' on this board, it seems apparent that in
    twenty years, nine-tenths of the human population will have died from
    AIDS.

    I can handle that.  In fact I will volunteer.  At least land will be
    cheaper and there will be full employment to those survivors who have
    the natural immunity.

    What in the hell, I ask, is so god-awful great or important about
    being a human animal on this planet or for that matter, any planet?
    It sure passes me by, whatever the reason.

    Could it be because it is the only life form we are conscience of?
    Well, I can handle that because I know that the possibilities of what
    life can achieve and become are completely endless.

    Message: 80231
    Author: $ Rod Williams
    Category: Chit Chat
    Subject: AIDS (2/2)
    Date: 12/03/91  Time: 00:32:40

    Life is energy.  Flesh is just so much junk food and fat, something
    for the maggots.  The entire universe is teaming with great amounts of
    raw energy and there will always be energy in existence.  So will
    there be mass but who needs or even wants it?  No, not I, least not in
    this form.

    We tear flesh with our teeth.  We eat eyeballs and balls.  We eat
    eyelids and cockroach and rat ka-ka.  We spend lots of time on the
    toilet getting rid of mass.  We get sick, we get tired, we get cold, we
    get hot.  We each have developed our own fantasy that allows our minds
    to go on living.  We are controlled by a fire breathing machine that
    makes us prisoners, (auto) both economic and physically.  We are a
    cruel species to say the least.

    In my own special laboratory I am quickly developing a virus that
    will make AIDS look like Capt'n Crunch Cereal.  Why, you ask?  Because
    I am the avenger sent from a mass of energy that roams the universe
    looking for such f### ups as you people.  Go drop some more bombs on
    the babies of Iraq.  Spend another 28 billion dollars on your toys of
    war.  Go ### yourself, but don't forget the condom.  Get the
    lubricated kind with the special laboratory chemicals.  They will get
    rid of you all the quicker.                  -Rod

    to be continued.