### Apollo BBS Archive - March 10, 1991

    Message: 73641
    Author: $ Jeff Beck
    Category: Politics
    Subject: CNN
    Date: 03/09/91  Time: 05:56:43

    What follows is the text of a letter I am going to send to CNN.  I doubt it
    will get published, since it is critical but does not sound like something
    a redneck scribbled between cross-burnings.

    Message: 73642
    Author: $ Jeff Beck
    Category: Politics
    Subject: A Letter to CNN
    Date: 03/09/91  Time: 05:57:42

    Is there any difference between objectively reporting the news and
    uncritically disseminating enemy propaganda during time of war?  CNN
    speculated freely about the nature of U.S. actions during the war, that is,
    whether or not they were U.S. propaganda tools designed to deceive or
    intimidate Saddam Hussein, yet CNN demonstrated considerable circumspection
    when reporting Iraqi claims of deliberate U.S. targeting of civilians, and
    other obvious lies.

    Did CNN, in its role as "world news organization," feel that it needed to
    establish its objectivity among third world nations, and that by exposing
    Iraqi propaganda, it might tarnish its image among those who suspect any
    U.S. based news agency to be an arm of the U.S. government?  If so, it
    forgot that "objectivity" means reporting the facts as best as they can be
    established, not uncritically repeating the statements of the Iraqi Ministry
    of Information, widely acknowledged even in the Arab world as the "mother of
    all liars," under the impression that equal time and objectivity are
    synonymous.

    Finally, why did certain CNN desk reporters, when reading viewer mail, read
    letters supporting CNN in tones suggesting measured reason, while reading
    letters critical of CNN in tones and with facial expressions suggesting that
    their authors were bombastic louts?

    Message: 73643
    Author: $ Paul Savage
    Category: Question?
    Subject: Gordon
    Date: 03/09/91  Time: 06:23:32

    Where's Lake Prescott?
    =

    Message: 73644
    Author: $ Bill Burkett
    Category: Joke
    Subject: Gordon/Errata
    Date: 03/09/91  Time: 07:30:17

    > They tell you to go to Scottsdale, and shop at the Arizona
    > Biltmore...

    I'm not sure there's any place to shop at the Biltmore, other than the usual
    hotel gift shop.  Perhaps you meant Biltmore Fashion Park, which is across
    24th Street from the Biltmore, and in Phoenix, by the way.

    > We've got the OK Corral down in Tucson...

    Actually it's in Tombstone.

    > People take boats out on Lake Prescott and water-ski and
    > everything.

    Paul already mentioned this, but where the heck is Lake Prescott.  Do you
    mean Lake Pleasant?

            It really irks me when snowbirds move here, then try to change
    everything around to their liking.  Giving the Biltmore to Scottsdale;
    moving the OK Corral to Tucson, home of Terry Goddard; inventing Lake
    Prescott.
            On the other hand, perhaps you were TRYING to give these visitors
    bad directions, frustrating them so badly they'd refuse to move here.  In
    that case, "Good job, Gordon!"  :)

    Message: 73645
    Author: $ Beauregard Dog
    Category: Chit Chat
    Subject: Phone call
    Date: 03/09/91  Time: 10:15:42

    Did someone try to call me at work yesterday?  All I heard on the phone
    message was "Beau?"

    Message: 73646
    Author: $ Beauregard Dog
    Category: Answer!
    Subject: Jeff/CNN
    Date: 03/09/91  Time: 10:21:40

    Perhaps because most of the letter-writer{ critical of CNN _were_ bombastic
    louts?

    Message: 73647
    Author: $ Gordon Little
    Category: Chit Chat
    Subject: Thanks
    Date: 03/09/91  Time: 13:53:55

    Oh, I must thank everybody who liked my piece on age.  I did enjoy reading
    people's own reflections afterwards.  And regarding "experimentation at ten
    years old", yes, it was more along the lines of gadgets and chemicals.  The
    other kind of experimentation doesn't happen until a few years later.

    I asked the Department of Justice about becoming an unnaturalized citizen,
    but they said I wasn't *quite* unnatural enough, and I would have to do
    something to make myself look a bit weirder, like growing my hair longer.  I
    told them this is as long as it grows.  They said too bad, try again in your
    next incarnation.

    I like your Bio SIG idea, Cliff.  I'll be contributing something to it
    myself, just as soon as I can remember who I am, where I came from and what
    I'm doing here in the first place...

    Message: 73648
    Author: $ Gordon Little
    Category: Chit Chat
    Subject: Jeff/Uncle Bob
    Date: 03/09/91  Time: 13:55:18

    I haven't heard anyone say "Bob's your uncle" for years, but we certainly
    used to say it in England.  I remember one occasion in particular.  It
    doesn't mean "everything's fine", exactly.  It's more an expression of
    surprise when you're about to relate something that happened suddenly or
    unexpectedly, as if by magic -- like "abracadabra!", or "quicker than you
    can say 'knife'".

    When I was a child, my father did photography in a little darkroom upstairs.
    He had a heater device for keeping developing and fixing solutions at the
    right temperature.  The heat was supplied by two electric light bulbs
    inside.  I was poking around in this gadget one evening; my memory tells me
    I was six years old.  One of the light bulbs was missing, and I stuck my
    finger in the empty socket -- with very predictable results since the heater
    was plugged in.  I should add that the electricity supply in England is 240
    volts, not 115 as it is here.  Anyway, I let out a loud yell and promptly
    burst into tears.  I ran downstairs and my parents asked me what on earth
    had happened.  So when I'd recovered a bit I told them.  "I was looking at
    Dad's developer thing and I stuck my finger in the socket -- and Bob's your
    uncle!  I got a shock!"  I have no idea where I picked up the expression
    from, but they thought it was so funny coming out of the mouth of a six-
    year-old that they both burst out laughing.  So I never forgot the
    expression -- probably because my mother still reminds me about it from time
    to time.

    Message: 73649
    Author: $ Gordon Little
    Category: Chit Chat
    Subject: Cliff/backup (1/3)
    Date: 03/09/91  Time: 13:56:53

      >> I hope you people who judge other people NEVER back up your car on a
      >> Glendale street or back out of your driveway as it is against the
      >> written law.

    Interesting, I didn't know that.  It's also somewhat illogical.  Unless you
    have a VERY wide driveway that you can turn around in (or a double carriage
    sweep), then presumably if you want to avoid backing OUT of your driveway,
    you will have to back INTO it beforehand.  And you can't do this without
    backing at least a short distance along the street.

    British law says that you mustn't reverse "more than a reasonable distance",
    without defining exactly what a "reasonable distance" is.  But at least that
    allows some room for commonsense interpretation.  British driving laws are
    not without their own illogicalities, however.  I. D. Hill, who wrote a
    wonderfully funny paper about illogicalities of all kinds, quotes from the
    section entitled "The Law's Demands" in the British "Highway Code":

         Before driving, MAKE SURE THAT...  your speedometer is in working order

    Hill then asks: "Can anybody suggest *how*?"

    Actually the Glendale law would be a very good thing if people tried to take
    notice of it more often.

    Message: 73650
    Author: $ Gordon Little
    Category: Chit Chat
    Subject: Cliff/backup (2/3)
    Date: 03/09/91  Time: 13:58:36

    It's funny how Americans invariably drive nose-first into driveways and
    parking spaces, whereas I persist in the British habit of backing in.  You
    back into the pub car park before you go in for a drink, because the
    trickier task of backing is best done while you're sober.  When you come out
    of the pub you only have to drive out forwards, which is a lot easier.  This
    is a joke, of course, but there are serious advantages to doing it this way
    round.  First of all, it's easier to get into a tight space by reversing
    than by driving in forwards; in fact, some spaces are so tight you can't get
    into them any other way except backwards.  Secondly, it's when you drive
    *out* into a street or the aisle of a parking lot that you're likely to hit
    passing traffic or pedestrians, so it's a good idea to drive out forwards,
    which gives you a much better view.  Lastly, you can drive out forwards more
    quicly than you can backwards, and you're more likely to be in a hurry
    coming *out* of your driveway to go to work in the morning than when you're
    coming home at night.  So it annoys me to hell when I come across occasional
    signs in parking lots actually *telling* people to drive into the spaces
    forwards, thus reinforcing what I think is a bad habit.  I don't know why
    they do this.  It may be because they think people are too incompetent to
    back in without hitting a car, a wall or a pedestrian, but I don't see how
    this is very different from hitting a car, a wall or a pedestrian while
    backing *out*.  Or it may be so that some little minion of authority can
    read (rear) license plates easily while walking down the outside of a row of
    parked cars.  I don't see that I have any duty to make it easier for some
    bureaucratic twerp to keep surveillance on my car.

    Message: 73651
    Author: $ Gordon Little
    Category: Chit Chat
    Subject: Cliff/backup (3/3)
    Date: 03/09/91  Time: 13:59:38

    I don't know why it is that people here always drive into parking places
    forwards.  I do have some theories, though.  One is that they may not be
    *trained* to back in.  The British driving test specifically includes things
    like backing around a corner, whereas not all American states even include
    parallel parking as part of the driving test.  (Arizona does, for example,
    but Massachusetts doesn't.)  A second theory is that since this country is
    generally more spacious, parking places are often more generous in
    dimensions and there is less need to squeeze in backwards.  (Tight parallel
    parking is a frequently needed skill in Europe.)  A third theory is simply
    the lower standard of skill in many American drivers, encouraged
    unfortunately by the lower standards of the driving tests.  If people see
    backing up as a "difficult" thing to do, they will put it off as long as
    possible, instead of tackling the hard part right away so that everything is
    plain sailing later.  (Just another human trait!)  The last theory is that
    people here might be more aggressive about grabbing parking places.  About
    the only time I drive into a parking place forwards is when I see someone
    else making for the same spot, so I have to grab it as quickly as possible.
    If I drive past it and back up, then I'll lose it.  It's possible that
    British people might be better about queuing up politely for scarce
    resources, having gotten used to doing it during two world wars.  But I
    don't attach too much importance to this last theory.  Competition and
    polite cooperation both work as systems.  The only important thing is to
    remember where you are and play by the house rules.

    Message: 73652
    Author: $ Gordon Little
    Category: Answer!
    Subject: Bill/errata (1/2)
    Date: 03/09/91  Time: 14:56:55

    You're quite right, there *is* a Lake Pleasant (and a Bartlett Reservoir
    besides), but no Lake Prescott.  You have to remember that this was an
    extemporaneous speech, and I couldn't very well ask my listeners to wait
    around while I checked the map of Arizona for a name that had momentarily
    escaped me.  It was much quicker to grab whatever name came to mind.  We do
    *have* a Prescott, but it lacks a lake.  So what?  As you pointed out,
    they're all snowbirds anyway, so they ain't gonna know any different.

    I hope that sixteen years of living in Massachusetts hasn't branded *me* a
    "snowbird".  Where I really come from, we only get a couple or three inches
    of snow a year.  Besides, I *live* in Phoenix now, summer and all, and I'm
    not complaining about it.  Better to sweep a swimming pool than to shovel
    snow.

    Yes, it was the Biltmore Fashion Park I had in mind.  Again, a matter of
    artistic license and telescoping ideas together.  All this stuff written for
    out-of-towners seems to push Scottsdale.  That sentence, by the way, didn't
    *literally* place the Biltmore in Scottsdale.  "They tell you to go to
    Scottsdale, and [also, in a similar vein] to shop at the Biltmore..."

    And yes, I do know that the OK Corral is in Tombstone.  I could even tell
    you who fought there, given a moment's thought.  Though if I had to do it in
    the middle of a speech, I would probably blurt out that it was the Clancy
    Brothers, a well-known singing group from Ireland.

    Message: 73653
    Author: $ Gordon Little
    Category: Answer!
    Subject: Bill/errata (2/2)
    Date: 03/09/91  Time: 14:58:12

    But this was not an error so much as following the common practice of
    assigning a location to the nearest large city that everybody knows, instead
    of saying precisely where it is.  Again, this will mean more in fewer words
    to ignorant out-of-towners than saying "it's in Tombstone", which only makes
    people ask themselves "where the hell is Tombstone?", thus losing their
    attention.  It's expedient at times, but as a matter of fact I concur with
    you in not liking this practice very much.  Bull HN has offices in
    Billerica, Massachusetts, but everybody here refers to it as "the Boston
    office", although it's pushing thirty miles away from Boston.  People would
    say to me "you used to work in Boston (or live in Boston), didn't you?"  To
    which I would respond: "No.  I worked in Billerica, and I lived in Westford,
    just south of the New Hampshire state line."  I never lived *in* Boston, nor
    did I have any wish to.  As usual, when I have an irrational dislike of some
    habit, there's usually a deeper motive underlying it.  In this case it's a
    dislike of people being lumped together as if they were all the same; or of
    large cities trying to take control of everything and everybody around them,
    regardless of their independent identities.

    Speaking of Ireland again, I visited there with a girlfriend in 1968.  When
    people there asked where we came from, she followed this obnoxious habit and
    told them we lived "in London".  I suppose she thought they wouldn't have
    heard of "Hemel Hempstead", twenty-five miles from London.  The trouble was
    that these people, used to small villages, would follow up with questions
    like "Oh, I have some friends in London named Murphy.  Do you know them?"

    Message: 73654
    Author: $ Jeff Beck
    Category: Chit Chat
    Subject: Gordon/traffic
    Date: 03/09/91  Time: 17:37:14

    Another thing which annoys ME to hell are the stoplights you occasionally
    find at the on-ramps to I-17.  What kind of moron engineer decided that only
    one car at a time should be allowed to enter the freeway, and from a full
    stop, at that?  Cars should be accelerated to freeway speed BEFORE they
    enter the freeway.

    Message: 73655
    Author: $ Jeff Beck
    Category: Question?
    Subject: Beau Dog/CNN letters
    Date: 03/09/91  Time: 17:39:35

    How do you know that?

    Message: 73656
    Author: $ Apro Poet
    Category: Politics
    Subject: Trumbo
    Date: 03/09/91  Time: 22:24:00

      You can always hear the people who are willing to
    sacrifice somebody else's life.  They're plenty loud and
    they talk all the time.  You can find them in churches and
    schools and newspapers and legislatures and congress.
    That's their business.  They sound wonderful.  Death before
    dishonor.  This ground sanctified by blood.  These men who
    died so gloriously.  They shall not have died in vain.  Our
    noble dead.
      Hmmmm.
      But what do the dead say?
      Did anybody ever come back from the dead any single one of
    the millions who got killed did any one of them ever come
    back and say by god I'm glad I'm dead because death is
    always better than dishonor?  Did they say I'm glad I died
    to make the world safe for democracy?  Did they say I like
    death better than losing liberty?  Did any of them ever say
    it's good to think I got my guts blown out for the honor of
    my country?  Did any of them ever say look at me I'm dead
    but I died for decency and that's better than being alive?
    Did any of them ever say here I am I've been rotting for two
    years in a foreign grave but it's wonderful to die for your
    native land?  Did any of them say hurray I died for
    womanhood and I'm happy see how I sing even though my mouth
    is choked with worms?

    Message: 73657
    Author: $ Apro Poet
    Category: Politics
    Subject: Trumbo
    Date: 03/09/91  Time: 22:35:31

      Nobody but the dead know whether all these things people
    talk about are worth dying for or not.  And the dead can't
    talk.  So the words about noble deaths and sacred blood and
    honor and such are all put into dead lips by grave robbers
    and fakes who have no right to speak for the dead.  If a man
    says death before dishonor he is either a fool or a liar
    because he doesn't know what death is.  He isn't able to
    judge.  He only knows about living.  He doesn't know
    anything about dying.  If he is a fool and believes in death
    before dishonor let him go ahead and die.  But all the
    little guys who are too busy to fight should be left alone.
    And all the guys who say death before dishonor is pure bull
    the important thing is life before death they should be left
    alone too.  Because the guys who say life isn't worth living
    without some principle so important you're willing to die
    for it they are all nuts.  And the guys who say you'll see
    there'll come a time you can't escape you're going to have
    to fight and die because it'll mean your very life why they
    are also nuts.  They are talking like fools.  They are
    saying that two and two make nothing.  They are saying that
    a man will have to die in order to protect his life.  If you
    agree to fight you agree to die.  Now if you die to protect
    your life you aren't alive anyhow so how is there any sense
    in a thing like that?  A man doesn't say I will starve myself

    Message: 73658
    Author: $ Apro Poet
    Category: Politics
    Subject: Trumbo
    Date: 03/09/91  Time: 22:39:47

    to death to keep from starving.  He doesn't say I will spend
    all my money in order to save my money.  He doesn't say I
    will burn my house down in order to keep it from burning.
    Why then should he be willing to die for the privilege of
    living?  There ought to be at least as much common sense
    about living and dying as there is about going to the
    grocery store and buying a loaf of bread.

    Message: 73659
    Author: $ Beauregard Dog
    Category: Chit Chat
    Subject: JB/CNN letters
    Date: 03/09/91  Time: 23:00:49

    Well, they certainly sounded like that type of person, given the way the
    letters were read...

    Message: 73661
    Author: $ Gordon Little
    Category: My Dinner with...
    Subject: Crystal R.
    Date: 03/10/91  Time: 05:39:22

    Is that the same Crystal R. who's here with me right now?

    ...oh, sorry, I don't think she wanted me to say that...

    Message: 73662
    Author: $ Paul Savage
    Category: Chit Chat
    Subject: Gordon/geography, et
    Date: 03/10/91  Time: 05:54:56

     Actually Gordon, Prescott does have a lake, just within the city limits.
    It's called Lynx Lake. Water skiing would be rather difficult, though, since
    the only motors allowed are electric trolling motors. Nice little lake, but
    a bit too crowded to suit me.
     Strange, but when you mentioned the Clancy Brothers in your post, it
    reminded me of that old Irish tune of Clancy lowered the boom, boom boom
    boom.........How these old minds work some mornings!

    Message: 73663
    Author: $ Paul Savage
    Category: Chit Chat
    Subject: Jeff/entry speed
    Date: 03/10/91  Time: 05:59:03

    Indeed a car should be up to speed upon entering a freeway. That's why
    there's a long enough entry lane at the on ramps. The on ramps are metered
    only at rush hours, when there are a large number of cars trying to enter at
    once. It does help to space them out a bit, at least if those cars already
    in the right hand lane give them enough room to meld into traffic.

    Message: 73664
    Author: $ Bill Burkett
    Category: Answer!
    Subject: Jeff/Traffic
    Date: 03/10/91  Time: 06:21:58

    I see Paul's already touched on this but...

    > Another thing which annoys ME to hell are the stoplights you
    > occasionally find at the on-ramps to I-17.

            Actually, Jeff, those are designed to help traffic flow onto the
    freeway more smoothly.  The idea is that during rush hour, when the signals
    are programmed to be active, traffic on the freeway has slowed anyway, so
    it's not necessary to accelerate on the ramp quite as much.  Making cars
    enter the freeway one at a time spaces them out, making the merge go much
    more smoothly.
            I suppose the fault in this scheme is that the signals come on at
    inappropriate times, preventing you from accelerating when you sometimes
    need to.  All in all, though, I was working for the Highway Patrol (as a
    dispatcher) when those things first went into operation and we saw a
    dramatic decrease in rush hour accidents.

    Message: 73665
    Author: $ Bill Burkett
    Category: War!
    Subject: Gordon/Snowbirds
    Date: 03/10/91  Time: 06:22:32

    > You have to remember that this was an extemporaneous speech...

    Ah!  I don't think you mentioned that before.  In that case you did quite
    well -- for a snowbird (see below).

    > I hope that sixteen years of living in Massachusetts hasn't
    > branded *me* a "snowbird".

    As a true Arizona native (one of four left in the state, I believe), I can
    assure you that anyone not born in Arizona is a snowbird.  A friend from
    Florida used to insist she was not a snowbird, but she was.  Another friend
    was brought here when he was six months old.  It was easy to tell, though,
    that he was a snowbird, too.

    > All this stuff written for out-of-towners seems to push
    > Scottsdale.

    Scottsdale.  Ha!  Everything east of about 32nd Street (until you get back
    into the desert) might as well be in California.  Except for Cubs spring
    training and that railroad park.  They're okay.

    Message: 73666
    Author: $ Jeff Beck
    Category: Answer!
    Subject: Paul/ent speed
    Date: 03/10/91  Time: 06:54:55

    Sure they're long enough...if you own a Porche!  Otherwise, you end up stuck
    behind things like 1972 Ford Galaxy's, which make about 40 (if they're
    lucky) by the time it's time to merge.

    Message: 73667
    Author: $ Jeff Beck
    Category: Answer!
    Subject: Bill/traffic
    Date: 03/10/91  Time: 06:58:38

    Bill, your naivete is nearly infantile (just kidding).  They don't help
    traffic flow onto the freeway more smoothly: they slow traffic trying to
    access the freeway, creating lines of a dozen or more cars, which often back
    up far enough to block the other lanes of the service road, thereby further
    inhibiting traffic, and they also impede traffic already on the freeway by
    forcing them to slow or change lanes to avoid cars entering the freeway at
    sub-freeway speeds..

    As for a "dramatic decrease in rush hour accidents," who says so, and how do
    they know?

    Message: 73668
    Author: $ Mike Carter
    Category: Answer!
    Subject: Jeff / Freeways
    Date: 03/10/91  Time: 09:10:55

    We all know that 3 lanes of I-17 isn't nearly enough. In fact, it's like
    trying to drink a milkshake from a hypodermic needle. So what is truly
    amazing to me at this point is people *still* try to take I-17 anywhere
    during the week at say, 4-6pm. Jeff, it's not the traffic light, it's the
    _cars_ that make the traffic jams. All those doddering buffoons in a rush
    hour mass free-for-all demolition derby who leave work ** DAILY ** and
    willingly, with prior knowledge, go sit in line and cuss at the next guy
    for being there in front of him.

    A telling factor into the traffic problems Phoenix faces is this new
    chain of freeways. Already the silly things are at max capacity. It just
    goes to show you that our traffic engineering department is more than
    likely comprised of snowbirds from Deluth Minn.

    No, the only _real_ answer to our traffic problems is getting rid of the
    single driver and replacing his / her selfish carcass with multi passenger
    car pools and work vans. Mass transit in this fashion can work without the
    atypical Liberalist method of throwing money at a problem.
         So the folks driving those '72 Galaxies and the rest of you single
    rider types can ease your own problem...car pool. I drive one week out
    of three..it saves me gas money, wear and tear on the vehicle and I can
    look at other things on the way home, than just the guys bumper in front
    of me.
            -Mike

    Message: 73669
    Author: $ Apro Poet
    Category: Politics
    Subject: Trumbo
    Date: 03/10/91  Time: 14:10:04

      And all the guys who died all the five million or seven
    million or ten million who went out and died to make the
    world safe for democracy to make the world safe for words
    without meaning how did they feel about it just before they
    died?  How did they feel as they watched their blood pump
    out into the mud?  How did they feel when the gas hit their
    lungs and began eating them away?  How did they feel as they
    lay crazed in hospitals and looked death straight in the face
    and saw him come and take them?  If the thing they were
    fighting for was important enough to die for then it was
    also important enough for them to be thinking about it in
    the last minutes of their lives.  That stood to reason.
    Life is awfully important so if you've given it away you'd
    ought to think with all your mind in the last moments of
    your life about the thing you traded it for.  So did all
    those kids die thinking of democracy and freedom and liberty
    and honor and the safety of the home and the stars and
    stripes forever?
      You're goddam right they didn't.
      They died crying in their minds like little babies.  They
    forgot the thing they were fighting for the things they were
    dying for.  They thought about things a man can understand.
    They died yearning for the face of a friend.  They died
    whimpering for the voice of a mother a father a wife a child.

    Message: 73670
    Author: $ Apro Poet
    Category: Politics
    Subject: Trumbo
    Date: 03/10/91  Time: 14:19:48

    They died with their hearts sick for one more look at the
    place where they were born please god just one more look.
    They died moaning and sighing for life.  They knew what was
    important.  They knew that life was everything and they died
    with screams and sobs.  They died with only one thought in
    their minds and that was I want to live I want to live I
    want to live.
      He ought to know.
      He was the nearest thing to a dead man on earth.
      He was a dead man with a mind that could still think.  He
    knew all the answers that the dead knew and couldn't think
    about.  He could speak for the dead because he was one of
    them.  He was the first of all the soldiers who had died
    since the beginning of time who still had a brain left to
    think with.  Nobody could dispute with him.  Nobody could
    prove him wrong.  Because nobody knew but he.
      He could tell all these high-talking murdering
    sonsofbitches who screamed for blood just how wrong they
    were.  He could tell them mister there's nothing worth dying
    for I know because I'm dead.  There's no word worth your
    life.  I would rather work in a coal mine deep under the
    earth and never see sunlight and eat crusts and water and
    work twenty hours a day.  I would rather do that than be
    dead.  I would trade democracy for life.  I would trade

    Message: 73671
    Author: $ Apro Poet
    Category: Politics
    Subject: Trumbo
    Date: 03/10/91  Time: 14:30:33

    independence and honor and freedom and decency for life.  I
    will give you all these things and you give me the power to
    walk and see and hear and breathe the air and taste my food.
    You take the words.  Give me back my life.  I'm not asking
    for a happy life now.  I'm not asking for a decent life or
    an honorable life or a free life.  I'm beyond that.  I'm
    dead so I'm simply asking for life.  To live.  To feel.  To
    be something that moves over the ground and isn't dead.  I
    know what death is and all you people who talk about dying
    for words don't even know what life is.
      There's nothing noble about dying.  Not even if you die
    for honor.  Not even if you die the greatest hero the world
    ever saw.  Not even if you're so great your name will never
    be forgotten and who's that great?  The most important thing
    is your life little guys.  You're worth nothing dead except
    for speeches.  Don't let them kid you any more.  Pay no
    attention when they tap you on the shoulder and say come
    along we've got to fight for liberty or whatever their word
    is there's always a word.
      Just say mister I'm sorry I got no time to die I'm too
    busy and then turn and run like hell.  If they say coward
    why don't pay any attention because it's your job to live
    not to die.  If they talk about dying for principles that
    are bigger than life you say mister you're a liar.  Nothing

    Message: 73672
    Author: $ Apro Poet
    Category: Politics
    Subject: Trumbo
    Date: 03/10/91  Time: 14:35:19

    is bigger than life.  There's nothing noble in death.  What's
    noble about lying in the ground and rotting?  What's noble
    about never seeing the sunshine again?  What's noble about
    having your legs and arms blown off?  What's noble about
    being an idiot?  What's noble about being blind and deaf and
    dumb?  What's noble about being dead?  Because when you're
    dead mister it's all over.  It's the end.  You're less than
    a dog less than a rat less than a bee or an ant less than a
    white maggot crawling around on a dungheap.  You're dead
    mister and you died for nothing.
      You're dead mister.
      Dead.
    ...

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     1:Thank you very much for your comment but I am only dropping in on occasion
     2:when I have something to say.
     3:
     4:The next message is for you.
     5:                                        Rod
     6:end

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    Subject:NutraSweet & etc.

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     1:  From that I know it was filled
    22:February, 18, 91, in Phoenix (D) at 07:09.
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    Subject:last

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     1:nol is a poisonous liquid.  -Rod
     7:end

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    Message: 73636
    Author: $ Rod Williams
    Category: Chit Chat
    Subject: Theory
    Date: 03/08/91  Time: 23:59:34

    I came upon a theory the other night, Peter Petrisko being my sounding
    board.  It deals with the concept of heaven and hell, in a sense.  It goes
    something like this:  There exists positive energy.
                          There exists negative energy.
                          Upon release of the energy from the body,
                          at that time we call death
                          the negative charged energy from us
                          is discharged into the earth.
                          (like a fiery devil.)
                          Positive energy is drawn into the
                          atmosphere.  (sort of like an angel.)

    Thus, that which is negative goes deep into the core of the earth only to
    be spewed out by some fissure later on and then as positive charged energy.
    The positive that goes into the atmosphere is later ionized into negative
    charges and they strike the earth as lightening.

    So, energy which is trapped in earth's atmosphere goes through constant
    change.  I somehow doubt that these processes would be painful to that
    which experiences them.  We are, as a planet of life, ready to go where
    mother nature cares to take us.  And I suspect that there are a lot of
    interesting events awaiting each of us.

    Message: 73637
    Author: $ Rod Williams
    Category: Chit Chat
    Subject: It's worth a try.
    Date: 03/09/91  Time: 00:00:40

    I hope there are different dimensions of reality that can be achieved by
    working out the necessary sums.  I find that the more people I communicate
    with the more pieces of the puzzle I can visualize.

    There are many different traps which lead away from life but death is a
    mighty equalizer and its recycling processes are always in evidence.

    Perhaps if I were charged with enough positive energy at death I'd be able
    to escape earth's atmosphere altogether.  I could then roam the universe and
    meet all sorts of positive people, so to speak.

    My dictionary.  DRAG:  Being aware that you are stuck on a dirt planet in
    a covering of flesh.  Positive thought:  Knowing that it's only for a little
    while.  Another positive thought:  Knowing that life has the capability of
    being fun and rewarding.  I wonder if it is possible to change one's own
    reality to reflect this?  Or will there still be a melting-pot of humanity
    being set upon by organized forces?

    Message: 73638
    Author: $ Rod Williams
    Category: Chit Chat
    Subject: P.S.
    Date: 03/09/91  Time: 00:02:56

    Thanks for the space.   By the way, if planet earth were to shatter into
    small bits and pieces would this constitute an important event in the
    universe, given the size of the universe and the length of eternity?

    Have a nice forever, all.
                                    Rod

    Message: 73640
    Author: $ Jeff Beck
    Category: Chit Chat
    Subject: Rod/theory
    Date: 03/09/91  Time: 05:51:07

    Perhaps that finally explains geomagnetism, eh?

    Hello again, dude!  Nice to see you again.  Not to demean the newer users,
    but it is a little like tasting classic coke again after New coke.

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