From: bear@tigger.cs.Colorado.EDU (Bear Giles)
Subject: Re: Freedom of Religion as well as everything else
Keywords: Civil Rights, Pagan
Organization: National Oceanic & Atmospheric Adminstration / Boulder Labs
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 06:23:40 GMT

In article <25151@castle.ed.ac.uk> loki@castle.ed.ac.uk (A Kashko) writes:
>>In article <1992Aug25.000207.10316@csus.edu> altheimm@nextnet.csus.edu (Murray Altheim) writes:
>>>As has been posted recently, we as pagans can pretty much kiss our rights 
>>>to practice our religion, our rights to keep from being discriminated against
>>>in our jobs or in public, and our admittedly feeble press support, well, we
>>>can kiss it all GOODBYE if the Republicans win the Presidency.
>
>	Lets not panic....  maybe this is just a platform
>for getting reeelected, and will be quietly dropped if they get into
>power. 

The problem is, what else are the Republicans gonna do?

Bush's speech was very revealing, if you know how to read between
the lines:  he promised to cut APPROPRIATE taxes if [the pig-headed]
Congress GOES ALONG.

In other words, he promised a capital gains tax cut, and even then
he acknowledged he won't get it.  He just sugar-coated it so the
middle class may think he's talking to them.

The Republicans just can't seem to understand that they are making
the nation ungovernable.  A lot of "solid, middle-class" citizens
are _F_U_R_I_O_U_S_ (I typed it slowly so even Danny can read it)
about things like the "effective use of manpower" in seizing a
local business's bank accounts because an employee allegedly received
a check for hallucinagenic mushrooms at work -- AND NOT INFORMING
THE OWNER.  Then, the U.S. Attorney General refused to return
phone calls.  It was only after the press reported this that the
businessman could reopen his sub shop.

(The quote was from the Colorado USAG when explaining why he didn't
bother filing criminal charges, let alone getting a conviction, before
seizing several hundred thousand dollars from alleged "head shops.")

(Sorry.  I learned today that the citizen initiative to decriminalize
marijuana did not make it onto the November ballot in Colorado.  I've
never smoked pot (honestly!) and don't expect to in the future, but
I'm fed up with the Constitution (yes, Associate Justice Scalia, 
the Amendments to the Constitution _are_ _part_ _of_ the Constitution)
being trampled.  (To understand the last comment, read Alan Dershowitz's
column last week)).

This sickening piety to "Family Values" just makes it worse.  If
Bush is reelected (god forbid) he'll start out with a large part of
the population hating him.  Not just disagreeing with particular
policies, but actively hating his guts and everything he stands for.

In a situation like that, what has he got to lose by making pagans
into scapegoats?  We already hate him, along with anyone sympathetic
to our cause, but an evident majority will back him in promoting
"Family Values."

BTW, a friend of mine (and follower of Asatru) claims that the U.S.
is now much worse than Nazi Germany, and his parents lived under
Hitler.  He claims the S.S. could _not_ seize your property and
demand you prove "innocence," at great cost, before recovering it.
The U.S, however, does.  For instance, it even pays ticket agents
in airports to report travellers paying in cash or traveling to
southern cities with minimal luggage.  (ref: Philadephia Inquirer).


Bear Giles
bear@fsl.noaa.gov