Yeah, I'm around. Been busy, that's all.
I'm ambivalent as hell about the Holocause Museum protests. First off, ya'll just don't know the history of how Richard Bradburry's Community Improvement Foundation went about shutting down Straight, Inc. Rich stood out there protesting Straight Inc., usually all alone, from `85 till it finally shut down in like `93, I think. He may be crazy, but he ain't dumb. So I'm inclined to hunker and watch just on that count.
My only objection to the concept is that it's too damned much to explain. I get it, but even fellow program vets have a hard time understanding, and we all tend to be at least a little sympathetic going in.
I don't think it's off at all to reference the German Holocaust when discussing the drug war.
You say there are no death camps? I say there are. Here's a sad tale of one deader than dead scapegoat:
http://www.teenliberty.org/BootCamp.htmSadly, it's not an unusual story. Couple of times a year we get news of another one like this, or another suicide. And they don't always make the papers, folks, odds are we don't even know about all of them. But the stories we do know about are hauntingly similar. The kid always dies accused of faking and manipulating. The allegedly horrible, soulless, dangerous kids around them never seem to have any difficulty telling the difference. But they're always scared to do anything to piss off the allegedly helpful staff who can't seem to see (or, in some cases, even
smell) what's going on right in front of them, day after day after horrifying day.
How does that happen? Well, just read some of the TOUGHLOVE hategroup propaganda then you try and explain to me the difference between it and the National Socialist German Workers Party.
No, I think there's a valid point to the protest. I'm doubtful about their getting the message accross effectively in the way they're doing it. But then, I've known rich now for about 5 years. At every encounter, I've always wondered if he hadn't finally gone completely `round the bend.
But then, he's accomplished quite a bit. Just recently, gotten Betty Sembler under depo and Melvin's is coming up here shortly. If it weren't an 18 hour drive for me, I'd go. Not sure whether I'd want to hold a sign and stand w/ the protestors or just take some pics and see how the land lays. But I sure am not inclined to oppose the project.
A government resting on the minority is an aristocracy, not a Republic, and could not be safe with a numerical and physical force against it, without a standing army, an enslaved press and a disarmed populace.
http://memory.loc.gov/const/fed/fed_46.html' target='_new'>James Madison, The Federalist No. 46