I spent my Thanksgiving Day pretty much alone. I did have some hamburger and a piece of chicken. My relatives in the cult have been ordered to have nothing to do with me unless I agree to become part of the cult.
When my relatives have something to say to me it is usually to insult me, falsely accuse me of something or to insult my kids and tell me my kids are no good. My kids are good kids and I love them very much. I've been treated like this since I came back from being on active duty in 1984. In my opinion it is a shameful way to treat somebody, especially a veteran just back from active duty, but the people in the cult are so consumed with hatred, jealousy, envy and delusions that they have no sense of shame.
Unlike the control freak patriarchy of the cult, I like to let my kids intereact with the world and to let them figure out things for themselves. I want my two daughters to grow up learning to think for themselves and to be independent, unlike the females in the cult who can't even go to the bathroom without the permission and supervision of the control freak patriarchs of the cult.
I believe voting is a personal decision one must make and one should not threaten or pressure a person into voting this way or that way. It's ok to try and persuade a person to vote this or that way, but to apply any kind of coercion is, in my opinion, illegal.
However, when a person is in the cult one must vote the way the control freak patriarchs tell you to vote or risk threats and intimidation. Some of the threats are weird, like the one my mother, Neta Hays, told me, which was, "If you don't vote the way we tell you, you are going to hell!"
The cult knows how to get some people hot and bothered and hysterical. One of the ways the cult has caused people to get hysterical about me is to tell people I'm gay and have AIDs. You wouldn't believe how strangely some people act when they think you've got AIDs. (I'm not gay and I don't have AIDs.) The cult has called a couple of my employers and told them I'm gay and have AIDs and this has caused a couple of my employers to act extremely foolishly.
Another ploy used by the cult is to tell people I'm a psycho and that I go around shooting up neighborhoods. This also causes people to lose touch with reality and act hysterical.
Jim Bell is the author of Assassination Politics, a lonely cry for help in a world gone mad. Bell's plan is where people bet on the date of the death of a public official, giving assassins a motive to make the kill.Bell sat on the King's Bench, presided over by Chief Justice Charles Stewart of the Multnomah County Common Law Court (MCCLC), with such luminaries of the common law as Roger Weidner, the deputy district attorney for fraud, the man who discovered it in the system and went mad, forcibly interred at the state hospital for the insane by Judge Dorothy Baker, of the Multnomah County District Court, who, 13 years ago was in the same office Bell is suspected of bombing.
And on the other side of Bell, on the King's bench, sits Lunch, Dick Lancial, who the editor met in the back of a donut shop, magnificent guy, clerk for the MCCLC, charged with simulating court process, rousted from bed in his underwear and his computer seized by Portland city police the same moments the Feds were kicking in the door of Bell's elderly parents in their sweet Vancouver, Washington home to seize his computer.
A document found on Bell's computer reportedly bragged about bombing the
editor's office 13 years ago.Twelve angry men. Some quiet, reserved, others open and talkative. Some
with grievances. Some with quieter agendas.All of them white men. Calvinist Jeff Weakly, pastor for the court, who
the editor met in a bookshop, standing behind a counter expounding on the
true lost tribes of Israel.
The following is what they believe:
Christian Identity beliefs
St. Louis Post-Dispatch/March 5, 2000
And Joe Holleman
- White Anglo-Saxons, the supreme race, are God's chosen people because they were created by God and are the descendants of the lost "12 Tribes of Israel."
- Jews of today are false Jews and not the chosen people; instead they are the offspring of Satan as a result of Eve mating with the Serpent in the Garden of Eden. Some preachers say Jews "must be killed."
- God will send another savior to restore the state of Israel to the rightful people; all others will be condemned.
- Nonwhites are soulless "mud people."
- Isolationism and segregation are required; socializing with Jews or people of other races is condemned.
- Interracial marriage, or mating with a non-white, is a sin.
- In some parishes, pastors call for the death penalty for homosexuals.
- Other religions gloss over the true meaning of the Bible, therefore assisting in the erosion of society's morals.
- The mass media, controlled by the Jews, further erode our society's moral standards.
Even more of the cult gets convicted:
NEWS FROM U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICEJune 7, 2002
[1] Assistant Attorney General Eileen J. O'Connor and United States Attorney Michael W. Mosman announced today that a federal jury in Portland, Oregon, convicted six defendants, Richard George Flowers, Dorothy Lenore Flowers, Jeffrey Allen Weakley, John David Anderson, Ronald William Stacey, and Dan Romaine Kirkham, of conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). All defendants were associated with the Christian Patriot Association, a warehouse bank located in Boring, Oregon, which provided anonymous banking for 900 members nationwide. According to proof at trial. this warehouse bank was operated for the purpose of impeding and impairing the Internal Revenue Service and bad deposits totaling $186 million during the 14-year span of the conspiracy. The jury also found Richard George Flowers guilty of failure to file federal income tax returns for 1995 and 1996 and found Anderson, Ronald and Elecia Stacey, and Dan Romaine Kirkham guilty of tax evasion.
[2] The indictment alleged a conspiracy that involved a nationwide web of financial transactions from March 1986 until July 2000. The scheme was designed to enable members to conduct banking transactions anonymously by using numbered accounts that were come singled in a single comercial bank account.[3] "The jury's verdict sends a clear message that criminals who hide income and assets to evade payment of taxes and who willfully fail to file income tax returns will be held accountable," said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein. "People who commit tax fraud are not patriots."
[4] Evidence presented to the jury showed that defendants Richard Flowers and Dorothy Flowers founded the Christian Patriot Association (CPA), and along with Jeff Weakley, operated it from its headquarters in Boring, Oregon. Identifying customers by numbers rather than names, CPA conducted anonymous banking transactions for over 900 customers nationwide, including defendants John Anderson, Ronald Stacey and Elecia Stacey of Oregon, and Dr. Dan Romaine Kirkham of California.
Now nobody expects the Victor Oekerman clan or Roger Weidner to know the difference between wrong and right merely because of the way those people were brought up, but for my relatives (John McClelland Hays, Neta Hays and Chris Andrea Hays) to become a part of the insanity of the cult amazes me.
It also amazes me that some members of a Church of Christ in Washington County, Oregon have become members of the cult. The members of the Church of Christ should know better. When I was growing up members of the Church of Christ that I knew were honest and decent. For the most part they were also not racist or filled with hate. Neither were they envious or jealous of their fellow citizens.
I wonder how things got so out of hand.
By the way, two members of the cult were convicted of bank robbery.
Man, Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) is real. My youngest daughter, 14 years of age, came over to spend Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and all she's done is tell me what scum I am. Since she was small she has gotten a daily dose of hate directed at me from the cult. While I was working ten years for the Postal Service I managed to save over ten thousand dollars for a college fund for my two kids. Somehow the cult got into the savings account and the money disappeared. Now one of the reasons my youngest daughter hates my guts is because there's no money in the saving's account.
I've recently found out that members of the Roger Weidner/Victor Oekerman gang have destroyed their own property just so they can try to persuade people that I'm the one who did the dirty deeds.
Well, I guess you could say, "What do you expect from a bunch of mentally ill fanatics? Rational behavior???!!!"
Looks like there's a crime wave in PA and it's the troopers doing the crimes. I wonder how things got so out of hand. For the rest of the story click on the link below.
The Sleaze Report and JohnHays.net sometimes dive head first without thinking into topics of a controversial nature. Usually I just get death threats and hate email, but if I'm ever threatened with a lawsuit because of what I write, I better remember to check out Pejmanesque - MY STATION COLUMN IS UP wherein he discusses the Blogosphere's capacity to attract litigation.
Discriminations: A Sad Commentary Archives has a post that could be considered a post about race relations of some sort.
This is a dialogue, or maybe a monologue, that should or could might cause one to think. In any case, check out the link above.
Today's online news thingy is Daily Gate City: News Column.
The following is an excerpt from today's feature:
Board asked to investigate GRRWA's spendingBy Tracey Lamm/MVM News Network
Ray Bradley urged the Lee County Board of Supervisors to make sure the Great River Regional Waste Authority is living within its means.Bradley, a waste hauler from Keokuk, told supervisors Tuesday that when the waste management fee was implemented to retire almost $10 million in debt at the landfill, it was with the understanding that those funds would go strictly to retiring that debt.
"When that tax was set up it was to retire the debt. Some of it is, but a lot of it's not," Bradley said.
As an example, Bradley said video cameras have been installed at each of the GRRWA's transfer stations to monitor operations at each location from a computer at the landfill site in Fort Madison. At $20,000 Bradley said the expense was unnecessary.
Bradley asked that financial statements and operating costs be made public and that the monthly public meeting be changed to be more accommodating to the public. Right now the GRRWA meets once a month at 7 a.m.
How Appealing is on a rant about fonts and the fonts used in legal documents. For those who don't really care I offer some examples of the two fonts he is discussing. I don't need to put an example of a sans serif font below because Howard already has an example on his blog. Don't ask me why. It's not my blog. On my blog I only use
Edwardian Script ITC because it looks so cool.
Anyway, below are examples of fonts being discussed.
This is an example of Book Antiqua
This is an example of New Century Schoolbook font
This is an example of Century Schoolbook font
By the way, in order to see these fonts correctly you need to have them on your computer.
For those of you who want to download all sorts of fonts, then click here.
BuzzMachine... by Jeff Jarvis has a link to an article written by Mark Morford.
The article itself is an example of Mark Morford on one of his extremely delusional rants.
I, personally, don't apologize to anybody for what any president does and I don't apologize to anybody for being an American. (Remember, I was in the Navy for four years and was able to visit many countries.) Nor do I feel bad about what any president does (and all presidents do boneheaded things sometimes).
I'm just damned amazed at that article.
While I'm ranting I might as well rant about a post at One Hand Clapping about the difference between a marine and a soldier and how the difference is not noticable to some news reporters and editors.
Good grief, here's the difference. Marines do what Navy guys tell them to do and soldiers get to wake up in the morning on the ground.
Lately, Donald Sensing has had some discussions concerning Islam, Christianity and Judaism. The discussions have been interesting and occasionally I would like to have inserted an opinion, however, I'm not a theologian so my opinions would probably not be helpful to the discussions.
But the discussions are interesting and people might want to check out this post.
The President has done something pretty cool. Imagine that, keeping his trip to Iraq secret.
Wizbang has pictures of the Prez and Senator Hillary with the troops in Iraq.
Looks like the thehomelessguy.net has a strong opinion about comment spam.
I agree with him.
One of the weirdest things about Oregon politics is the repeated attempts of Neo-Nazis to infiltrate the Republican Party and the Libertarian Pary and the repeated attempts of the Neo-Nazis to run candidates under the banners of the Oregon Republican and Libertarian Parties.
So far Senator Gordon Smith has been quite successful in keeping the Neo-Nazis from gaining control of the Oregon Republican Party. But he can always use help from those who care about the party.
The following is a reminder to the folks in Washington County, Oregon:
U.S. white supremacists bend meanings in the Bible to open doors that would otherwise stay closed to their hate and violence, say expertsIn the early '90s, when Floyd Cochran was a lay minister in the white supremacist, Christian Identity church, he noticed something: "If I walked into a community dressed as a Nazi, a wall would go up," he said. "Pull out a Bible, the wall would come down."
Cochran, who left Christian Identity in 1992, remembers how friends outside white supremacist circles used to say, " `Floyd's not that bad. He goes to church on Sundays.' Meanwhile, I was learning that Jews are the children of Satan and need to be wiped out."
While most clerics preach "love thy neighbor," Christian Identity interprets the book of Genesis to mean that Jews are descended from Satan and has called for their extermination. The Ku Klux Klan has long taught that black people are the "beasts of the field" described in the Old Testament. A handful of fundamentalist churches -- aiming to impose Old Testament law at its harshest in the United States -- preach that homosexuals deserve death.
For more info on the Neo-Nazis click here.
It's still a mystery to me why some of my relatives (John McClelland Hays, Neta Hays and Chris Andrea Hays) would want to be members of a Neo-Nazi group. It's still a mystery to me how Neo-Nazis got a Navy JAG officer to forge my signature to some fraudulent documents. It's still a mystery to me how Neo-Nazis got Dr. Ron Turco to do a false diagnosis.
Let's see. Four rubles plus three rubles equals 4000 rubles. Man, talk about inflation.
Porphyrogenitus has a post about the evolution of math.
The Huron Plainsman in South Dakota has an article about a house that is still being lived in that was built in 1907.
I've been watching with great interest the Democratic Party primary race. I've heard a lot of nonsense spouted by the various candidates. I used to be a liberal Democrat but the Democrats aren't liberal anymore. They do seem to be "leftist", though. For this reason I generally vote Libertarian or third party or for candidates like Ralph Nader.
The following is a speech given by Hubert H. Humphrey to the DNC in 1948.
American Rhetoric: Hubert Humphrey - 1948 DNC AddressFellow Democrats, fellow Americans:
I realize that in speaking in behalf of the minority report on civil rights as presented by Congressman DeMiller of Wisconsin that I am dealing with a charged issue -- with an issue which has been confused by emotionalism on all sides of the fence. I realize that there are here today friends and colleagues of mine, many of them, who feel just as deeply and keenly as I do about this issue and who are yet in complete disagreement with me.
My respect and admiration for these men and their views was great when I came to this convention. It is now far greater because of the sincerity, the courtesy, and the forthrightness with which many of them have argued in our prolonged discussions in the platform committee.
Because of this very great respect -- and because of my profound belief that we have a challenging task to do here -- because good conscience, decent morality, demands it -- I feel I must rise at this time to support a report -- the minority report -- a report that spells out our democracy, a report that the people of this country can and will understand, and a report that they will enthusiastically acclaim on the great issue of civil rights!
Now let me say at the outset that this proposal is made with no single region. Our proposal is made for no single class, for no single racial or religious groups in mind.
All of the regions of this country, all of the states have shared in the precious heritage of American freedom. All the states and all the regions have seen at least some infringements of that freedom -- all people -- get this -- all people, white and black, all groups, all racial groups have been the victims at times in this nation of -- let me say -- vicious discrimination.
The masterly statement of our keynote speaker, the distinguished United States Senator from Kentucky, Alben Barkley, made that point with great force. Speaking of the founder of our party, Thomas Jefferson, he said this, and I quote from Alben Barkley:
He did not proclaim that all the white, or the black, or the red, or the yellow men are equal; that all Christian or Jewish men are equal; that all Protestant and all Catholic men are equal; that all rich or poor men are equal; that all good and bad men are equal. What he declared was that all men are equal; and the equality which he proclaimed was the equality in the right to enjoy the blessings of free government in which they may participate and to which they have given their support.
Now these words of Senator Barkley’s are appropriate to this convention -- appropriate to this convention of the oldest, the most truly progressive political party in America. From the time of Thomas Jefferson, the time of that immortal American doctrine of individual rights, under just and fairly administered laws, the Democratic party has tried hard to secure expanding freedoms for all citizens. Oh, yes, I know, other political parties may have talked more about civil rights, but the Democratic party has securely done more civil rights.
We have made progress; we have made great progress in every part of this country. We’ve made great progress in the South; we’ve made it in the West, in the North, and in the East, but we must now focus the direction of that progress toward the realization of a full program of civil rights for all. This convention must set out more specifically the direction in which our party efforts are to go.
We can be proud that we can be guided by the courageous trail blazing of two great Democratic presidents. We can be proud of the fact that our great and beloved immortal leader Franklin Roosevelt gave us guidance. And we be proud of the fact -- we can be proud of the fact -- that Harry Truman has had the courage to give to the people of America the new emancipation proclamation!
It seems to me, it seems to me, that the Democratic party needs to make definite pledges of the kinds suggested in the confidence placed in it by the people of all races and all sections of this country.
Sure, we’re here as Democrats. But my good friends, we’re here as Americans; we’re here as the believers in the principal and the ideology of democracy, and I firmly believe that as men concerned with our country’s future, we must specify in our platform guarantees which we have mentioned in the minority report.
Yes, this is far more than a party matter. Every citizen has a stake in the emergence of the United States as a leader in a free world. That world is being challenged by the world of slavery. For us to play our part effectively, we must be in a morally sound position.
We can’t use a double standard -- there’s no room for double standards in American politics -- for measuring our own and other people’s policies. Our demands for democratic practices in other lands will be no more effective than the guarantees of those practiced in our own country.
Friends, delegates, I do not believe that there can be any compromise on the guarantee of civil rights which I have mentioned in the minority report.
In spite of my desire for unanimous agreement on the entire platform, in spite of my desire to see everybody here in honest and unanimous agreement, there are some matters which I think must be stated clearly and without qualification. There can be no hedging -- the newspaper headlines are wrong! There will be no hedging, and there will be no watering down -- if you please -- of the instruments and the principals of the civil-rights program!
To those who say, my friends, to those who say, that we are rushing this issue of civil rights, I say to them we are 172 years late! To those who say, to those who say this civil-rights program is an infringement on states’ rights, I say this: the time has arrived in America for the Democratic party to get out of the shadow of states' rights and walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights!
People, people -- human beings -- this is the issue of the 20th century. People of all kinds -- all sorts of people -- and these people are looking to America for leadership, and they’re looking to America for precept and example.
My good friends -- my fellow--Democrats -- I ask you for calm consideration of our historic opportunity.
Let us not forget -- let us do forget -- the evil passions, the blindness of the past. In these times of world economic, political, and spiritual crisis, we cannot -- we must not -- turn from the path so plainly before us. That path has already lead us through many valleys of the shadow of death. Now is the time to recall those who were left on that path of American freedom.
For all of us here, for the millions who have sent us, for the whole two-billion members of the human family, our land is now, more than ever before, the last best hope on earth. I know that we can -- I know that we shall -- begging here the fuller and richer realization of that hope -- [have] that promise of a land where all men are truly free and equal, and each man uses his freedom and equality wisely and well.
My good friends, I ask my party, I ask the Democratic party, to march down the high road of progressive democracy. I ask this convention, I ask this convention, to say in unmistakable terms that we proudly hail, and we courageously support, our President and leader Harry Truman in his great fight for civil rights in America!
Critical Mass: points out some of the hypocrisy of political correctness that has taken root at many universities.
Critical Mass, at the link above, also posts an anecdote from a person who gives an example of false accusations motivated by vindictiveness.
As a person who has been falsely accused of all sorts of crimes and heinous behavior, I find the posting interesting.
Check out The Bitch Girls: I'm Sure You've Already Seen It because they know where to go to get info on Senator Kerry's super duper secret strategizing.
Update: "The Bitch Girls" is the name of the blog, so don't bitch at me for calling people names.
Also, The Bitches From Hell is the name given by Powers Philips, P.C. - attorneys at law to themselves, so if you don't have a sense of humor, don't bitch at me.
Jack Bogdanski has a Buck-a-Hit Day Dec. 10. Just click on the link above and Jack will give some moolah to a worthy cause. I notice Howard Bashman has done his part by publicizing the "Buck a Hit Day".
According to John Tabin in his article online at the Spectator, John Allen Muhammad had a list of county schools that could be presumed to be targets. The article goes on to explain why the death penalty may be justified in this particular case.
I'm against the death penalty in all cases. I believe there should be a section of a prison set up for solitary confinement for the rest of the lives for those who commit such heinous crimes usually deserving of the death penalty.
My idea might be realistic if the states and the feds would quit putting drug users in prisons. Now.....if a drug user commits some other crime, like burglary or kidnapping, then bust the drug user for that crime.
That's my opinion but read John Tabin's article because it is a must read.
With various proposals being put forth by the U.S. Congress concerning financing drugs for seniors and the reimportation of drugs from Canada, DB's Medical Rants has a post that leads to another post about the pharmaceutical industry and some of the politics and other issues involved.
DB's Medical Rants: On the pharmaceutical industry
Zero Tolerance is the last refuge of the really stupid and those who are chronic control freaks. Wendy McElroy has an excellent column about zero tolerance at the following link.
The following is a story from the Boston Globe
Colleges trail prisons in fundsFor the first time in at least 35 years, Massachusetts is spending more on prisons and jails than on public higher education, according to a report released yesterday.
This year's state budget included $816 million in appropriations for campuses and student financial aid, and $830 million for prisons and jails, said the report from the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation.
I guess it's more important for Massachusetts to put non-violent drug users in jail than to educate its populace.
Shark Blog: Protocols of the Elders of Zion, courtesy of UNESCO points out that the Museum of Manuscripts at Egypt's recently renovated Alexandria Library is exhibiting a copy of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Would anybody put a fake painting deliberately in an art museum? Would anybody put a bootleg album deliberately in a record store?
I'ts ridiculous that UNESCO is helping fund this. Maybe once UNESCO gives money then UNESCO loses any control about how the money is spent, but this whole thing is still ridiculous.
The Protocols of the Elders is a fraud originally created to get a certain part of the population of Russian into a tizzy. Check out the following excerpt from Nizkor Project:
RUSSIAN COURT RULES 'PROTOCOLS' AN ANTI-SEMITIC FORGERYBy Michael A. Hiltzik
Los Angeles Times, November 28, 1993
MOSCOW -- In what observers called a historic ruling, a Russian court has pronounced the infamous "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" an anti-Semitic forgery -- the first such verdict in the land where the fraud originated 90 years ago."Up to now every country had disengaged itself from this shameful book, except Russia, where it was concocted," Tancred Golenpolsky, the
publisher of the Moscow Jewish newspaper that won the ruling, said Saturday.
The court case arose 10 months ago after Golenpolsky's Jewish Gazette accused the radical nationalist group Pamyat ("Memory") of printing
anti-Semitic sentiments. Fostering ethnic conflict is punishable under Russian law.
Michael Ledeen on Turks, Italians & Us on National Review Online is a must read.
I've written before how a moron by the name of Kim Anderson tried to plant illegal drugs on me and then conducted an illegal search of my clothing and locker when I worked at the downtown Post Office in Portland, Oregon. He did the search in front of many of my co-workers.
I have also written about how Kim Anderson had a doctor at a Kaiser Permanente hospital in Portland give me a medical test some years ago to determine whether or not I was a homosexual. (The hospital has since been torn down.)
I'm still wondering if Kaiser Permanente has patented the revolutionary homosexual test.
To think all this nonsense was started because of the false accusations of Roger Weidner (a former prosecutor who was disbarred), his crazy client and his crazy buddies. By the way, old Roger was later thrown into the Oregon State Hospital's program for the criminally insane.
On a related not, a Dr. Ron Turco of Washington County, Oregon diagnosed me as a homosexual satanist pedophile who is a danger to myself and others because of the mindless, false accusations of crazy Roger. You see, Dr. Ron Turco is concerned I might run out and snatch people off the streets for my satanic rituals.
Only in looney, homophobic, racist Washington County, Oregon
I know slavery exists in other areas of the planet but I don't think it exists today in the U.S. Then again, you never know.
Lehman Brothers Admits Past Slavery Ties.
It seems sometime in the past the Lehman Brothers profited from slavery. Apparently, they gave up ties to slavery some time ago.
I've been watching reruns of Gunsmoke lately. It really is a good western. It's also an amazingly adult western. I'll tell you what, though. Old Doc certainly spends a lot of time in the saloon chugging beer.
According to The Center for Security Policy the best way to spend money on needed refueling tankers for the Air Force is to lease them. At the moment it's vitally important for the Air Force to make sure it has the capability to refuel its various aircraft in flight.
It's too bad the necessary funding for updated tankers wasn't appropriated sometime ago because if it had been then the Air Force probably would be getting state of the art tankers about now, which the Air Force sorely needs.
Cryptome has a series of pictures of a MiG buried in the Iraqi desert at the following link.
Iraqi Russian MiG Dug Up from Desert
Today's local highlighted online newspaper is the Arizona Daily Wildcat.
Arizona Daily Wildcat - Art history prof remembered for his classroom contributions - Monday November 24, 2003 -Nearly 100 people gathered to pay tribute to former art history professor Robert “Bob” MacLean Quinn yesterday in the Center for Creative Photography.
The professor, who gave his last lecture at the UA nearly 20 years ago, died Oct. 26 at age 82. He was remembered for making great and substantial contributions to the UA community during his long career.
Heretical Ideas has a post about how James Joyner has defamed George Harrison. Hell, George Harrison should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame just for writing "Here Comes the Sun" and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" while he was with the Beatles, but his solo career definitely qualifies him for inclusion.
As many people know the DesertLight Journal deals with men's and father's issues. At the link below you can find news about these issues from New Zealand.
I like history and Nathan Newman brings out a happening in New York City that should be publicized a bit more. For the rest of the story click on the link below.
NathanNewman.org - News and Views: A Forgotten "Witch Trial" of Colonial Slaves
The following is a post from a person who is Proudly Zimbabwean. I'm going to put the whole post below so it doesn't get lost in the chaos. Please visit the site at the link below.
Zimbabwe news this week Cathy BuckleSaturday 22nd November 2003
Dear Family and Friends,
We have become a zero society and are struggling to keep up with all the digits these days. We all look at prices and say to ourselves, "is that a hundred thousand, or a million, or a billion?" My calculator has only got a 10 digit display so once I get to 9.9 billion I'm in trouble. My mind boggled when I sat listening to our 2004 budget which was all in billions or trillions of dollars and in desperation I turned to my dictionary to see just how many zeros there are in a "trillion" dollars. I wrote it down carefully and then counted digits. A trillion has 12 zeros after it !Zimbabwe's budget for 2004 lost all credibility for me in the first half of the first sentence when the Minister of Finance began his presentation by saying : "Sanctions imposed on the country have worsened the economic environment..." His statement was interrupted by jeers, groans and calls of disapproval from the House who know very well that it is only 79 top government officials who have had sanctions imposed on them and not the eleven and a half million people of the country.
Before presenting the budget, Finance Minister Murerwa outlined what can only be described as utter chaos. He talked about the near collapsed state of virtually every government owned sector and asset including the airline and airports, railways, mines, schools, hospitals, grain marketing board, fuel procurement facilities, roads, water, sewage and government owned buildings. The Minister spoke of "runaway inflation," "rampant environmental degradation" and collapsing infrastructure across the entire country. He told us that inflation would rise to 600% by Christmas and to 700% by the end of April 2004 and said that this was not in line with inflation in other Southern African countries whose average inflation is just 14%. I sat forward in my chair with my pen poised as the Minister began to outline how he was going to rescue the country from this unspeakable disaster but didn't write much as I soon discovered that what he was presenting was a beer, football and strong arm budget.
The second highest amount of our national budget was allocated to the Ministry of Defence who were given 1.27 trillion dollars. The Minister's words were met by such roars of disapproval that the Speaker had to repeatedly call for order in the House and then the sentence had to be read again. Unbelievably the Minister allocated 1.4 billion dollars to the country's national football team for their match against Tunisia and later announced that tax on cigarettes and beer had been reduced. It seems that the solutions to Zimbabwe's problems are that we can smoke and drink ourselves to death and watch football on television while being guarded by well armed police and soldiers. Assuming of course that we can afford a television which now costs more than a 4 bedroomed house on an acre of land cost just 2 years ago.
To people outside Zimbabwe, this may all sound quite amusing but for those of us living here it is a nightmare. Our government have completely lost the plot. They join our state owned television station whose motto is "When it happens we will be there." ZBC television were not there at all this week when 360 trade union leaders, activists and civic leaders were arrested for trying to protest. ZBC TV did not report the protest itself, nor the arrests or 3 day detentions of the country's most highly respected people. Neither the government nor ZBC told us that the post office workers have been on strike all week, instead they flighted a new propaganda jingle about land and another for the country's tax collection authority.
In a strangely absurd way, the 2004 budget for Zimbabwe gave me hope because now the collapse of the country is crystal clear for all to see and with that in sight, the end becomes inevitable. I'm off to see if I can find a policeman to watch me while I have a beer and a cigarette and watch football! So, from our trillion dollar cloud cuckoo land, until next week, with love,
cathy.
Proudly Zimbabwean
CrimLaw brings up an important subject that I've written about before. I can't seem to get the link to work properly so I'm putting Crimlaw's whole post below.
Virginia does not pay an adequate amount of money for the defense of indigent defendants.Duh. No kidding.
I agree with this: "The problem starts with the shamefully low fees the state pays lawyers appointed to defend the accused who cannot afford an attorney."
I strongly disagree with this: "The low fees offer sparse incentive for lawyers to launch a thorough defense, and they may be inclined to encourage a client who is presumed innocent to plead guilty."
I earn the majority of my money from court appointed Defendants. I don't make enough money to keep a full time secretary (I'm in the process of looking for a part time) which means that there is almost never an actual person at my office and that my contacts with my clients and their families are minimal. Often they are not happy about this and I cannot blame them1.
I have never, ever made a decision about how to proceed on a case based on a concern that I will not make money if my client pleads not guilty. I have tried a number of jury trials where my client is charged with a single felony so that the entire fee is capped at $395 and spent well over 10 hours (at a theoretical State mandated rate of $90 a hour) on the case. And I've also tried at least one misdeameanor jury trial which, if I remember right, was capped at $148.
Now, with that said, I have to admit that if the majority of my clients decided to fight their cases - despite whatever evidence or deal offered by the prosecutor - I would go broke very quickly. I'd also probably start spending a lot of time in jail on contempt charges as the 2 to 5 cases I have on most days I go to court started overlapping and causing me to miss cases.
What is never addressed, and won't be on this go round either, is the shamefully low amount of money paid for court appointed lawyers on appeals. This can be an incredibly time intensive process and the caps are amazingly low. If I only worked the amount of time allotted by payment for writing the petition alone ($400 for court of appeals; $200 for the supreme court) many of my petitions would not even make it to paper; they would stop before research was completed. Heck, I don't know that I could really write a decent Ander's brief in the amount of time that is allotted for the supreme court.
1 Actually, since I sit in my office each and every Friday from 2-5 pm for the open office hours I tell all my clients about (and announce on my answering machine message) and get about one client every three weeks dropping in, I guess I could. Still, I'm certain that someone actually scheduling appointments for me would work better.
Posted by Ken Lammers at 13:13
Greg Greene has some info about the latest blogosphere brouhaha starring Lileks, Dan Drezner and Salaam Pax. Check it out at the link below.
The Green[e]house Effect: a Weblog: Pow! Bap! Smash!
My opinion about all this is that whether or not it was a good idea to go into Iraq we are there now and we, as a nation, have a job to do. In order to do that job we are going to need necessary resources. If we don't have them there now, then we need to get them there. That's what we need to concentrate on now!.
Having said that though, this brouhaha is pretty interesting. It shows that the blogosphere is alive, squirming, screaming and relatively healthy.
Well, it seems Belize is doing a little celebrating.
The Belize Times Weekly Newspaper Online - Where Culture, Spiritualism & Art Collide |||The Cultural Capital of Belize, Dangriga, now has a visually striking and culturally resonant monument and new roundabout at the Southern entrance to the town. It is appropriately called "Drums of Our Fathers", a title derived from the milestone poem on Garifuna pride and cultural dignity by Roy Cayetano of the same name.
Emma over at the Oregon blog has an excellent post about the Tillamook Forest Initiative.
I think her analysis makes a lot of sense, but then again, what do I know? I mean, I voted for Ralph Nader and I support the ACLU.
Jeff Jarvis has found quite a few African blogs.
When I have the time I'm going back to check them out.