Once again – Why do we live in Kansas?

Ahh Kansas! Hardily a week goes by that some of us aren’t wondering why we, or any one else with a brain under their skull, would want to live here. Of course most of my friends and I don’t really want to live here. Kansas draws idiots with dangerous ideas the way shit draws flies.
A bill pending in the Kansas Senate would ban billboards advertising adult video stores, strip clubs and other sex-related businesses along highways.
Consider this quote in The Wichita Eagle, Feb. 22, 2006:

“We think 90 percent of everything in all those stores is obscene," said Jan Beemer, president of the anti-pornography group Operation SouthWind.

To make a statement like that, we must assume this person has spent a lot of time cruising porno-shops and reading this material to make such an observation. She has the right to be a pervert, but wants to tell the rest of us what we can read and look at. SouthWind is just one more Christian fascist organization that is trying to drive out anyone who isn’t a Christian fundamentalist.
She said the group already has 4,000 signatures seeking a probe of nine businesses. Just under 2,600 would be needed to force a state grand jury investigation.
And who are they going to investigate? Party Store, 9601 E. Kellogg, Priscilla's, 2606 S. Rock Road; Vegas Video, 8323 W. Kellogg; Video Adventures, 2726 Amidon; Xcitement Video, 3909 W. Pawnee; After Dark Video, 3721 S. Broadway; and After Dark Video, 2809 N. Broadway.
These are all hard-core pornography? If these people get their way, Playboy, Penthouse, even National Geographic’s may be under attack. Will we need to put pants on the monkeys in the zoo to make these crackpots happy?
And what about their annoying religious believes? What if we start publicly attacking them?
According to The Eagle, SouthWind members make other ridiculous claims:

Phillip Cosby of Abilene, instrumental in organizing sex-shop opponents in nearly a dozen communities, said various groups are employing 11 different strategies in the fight.
The adult businesses, he said, are "an open sewer that is changing Kansas."
The link between pornography and criminal behavior is strong, he said, and serves as the basis for zoning laws that the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld.

This is a baseless claim, using bogus and unsubstantiated statistics. They don’t make sense. Which, living in Kansas, is just typical of the people you find here.
Opponents of free thought include many people and philosophers.

The R.I.M. International warns it is time to support Nepal’s revolution

Message to the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)
From the Committee of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM)

On 13 February 1996, a whole new chapter in the history of Nepal was begun, when the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) led the masses of the downtrodden in Nepal in daring simultaneous assaults throughout the country. Although the scale of the initial actions was small and the People’s War was begun with only a few weapons, from the outset the goal was mighty—to carry out a new democratic and socialist revolution throughout the country as part of the international proletariat’s historic mission of sweeping imperialism, reaction and indeed all traces of class exploitation from the Earth. For ten years the revolution in Nepal, under the leadership of your party, with comrade Prachanda at its head, has gone through twists and turns, victories and losses, and faced political complexities. There have been many sacrifices and boundless heroism among the party and among the people. Today, ten years later, those initial small squads with a handful of arms have grown into a mighty People’s Liberation Army, and backward Nepal, while still poor and oppressed, has become an advanced beacon in a world so much in need of revolution. Most of the territory of Nepal is already under the rule of the people, led by the party, and the revolution is knocking on the doors of nationwide power. These achievements fill the hearts of communists and revolutionary-minded people all over the world with joy and are rekindling hope among the oppressed that there is a solution to the exploitation, misery and oppression that enslaves humanity.

The revolution in Nepal faces powerful enemies. The exploiters the world over are frightened by the prospect of the people seizing power in Nepal and by the hope of genuine revolutionary communism re-emerging powerfully on the world scene. The US, Britain, neighbouring India and China are all providing weapons and advice to the Royal Nepal Army on how to better slaughter the people, and they are aiding the reactionary Gynendra regime in countless other ways as well, including by holding our dear comrades Kiran and Gaurav hostage in India. These reactionaries dare to slander the Maoist revolutionaries as “terrorists” when they themselves know full well that the party enjoys the deep support of the majority of the people of the country, and even the parliamentary adversaries of the party treat it is a legitimate political force. The imperialists and reactionaries will certainly not easily accept a genuine people’s government in Nepal, and they can be expected to continue to combine overt support for the reactionary monarchy with all sorts of hidden intrigues and conspiracies.

The revolution is nearing the historic point of nationwide victory, but this will only intensify the desperate ploys of the reactionaries to combine honeyed words of democracy with vicious attempts to drown the will of the people in blood. At this critical juncture in the revolution, it is more important than ever that the communists and the revolutionary-minded people the world over play their necessary role. The Revolutionary Internationalist Movement salutes you and pledges our continuing efforts to build support for the People’s War in Nepal.

Comrades, we are confident that the same revolutionary daring and scientific confidence that led to launching the People’s War will enable you to navigate the stormy waters ahead. No doubt new obstacles will appear and new sacrifices will be required, but by continuing to firmly base yourselves on Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and by flexibly applying these principles to the complexities of the class struggle a New Democratic Nepal can emerge and brighten the whole world.

Committee of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement
13 February 2006

Patriot Act is on its way –personal freedom on its way out!

From The Wichita Eagle, Feb. 11, 2006:

Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Legislation to renew the Patriot Act was cleared for final congressional passage Friday when House Speaker Dennis Hastert blessed a day-old compromise between the White House and Senate Republicans.
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid also indicated that he will vote for the bill when it comes to a vote, possibly next week.
The legislation gives federal agents expanded powers to investigate suspected terrorists in the United States, and the Bush administration has said it is one of its key weapons in the war on terror.
"I think they (the changes in the bill) were enough to make sure we can protect the American people," Hastert told reporters at Cambridge, Md., speaking of three revisions that the White House and Senate GOP holdouts announced Thursday.”

I feel so much safer now!

I feel so much safer now!

Al "Grandpa Munster" Lewis died

Al Lewis (April 30, 1910 or 1923 (disputed) – February 3, 2006) was an American actor best known for the role of Grandpa (commonly but incorrectly "Grandpa Munster") on the television series The Munsters.
More information:
Al Lewis was born on April 30, 1910, in Brooklyn, New York, to parents of Polish and German descent. Lewis attended Thomas Jefferson High School. Not quite sure what he wanted to do with his life, he tried a Number of professions including salesman, waiter, owner of a poolroom, and store detective. In the late 1920s, he worked as a circus clown, riding a unicycle and performing stunts on the trapeze bar. Later, Lewis taught school and wrote two children's books.
He landed the role of Officer Leo Schnauser on "Car 54, Where Are You?-the successful Nat Hiken series that also starred Fred Gwynne. The series ran from 1961 to 1963. While finishing up a Broadway run of Do Re Mi with Phil Silvers and Nancy Walker, he was summoned along with Fred Gwynne to test for"The Munsters."
In early 1964, when Lewis began playing Grandpa Munster, he probably did not realize that he would be remembered forever for his portrayal of the petulant third-rate wizard of the Munster clan. "Fans treat me like an icon," he says. He enjoys the smiles he gives people as Grandpa, but for all the recognition he receives, there is one particular actor he reveres: "In my humble opinion, and nothing about me is humble," he says, "Chaplin was the only genius who ever worked in Hollywood. No question about it. In fact, I got to meet him at John Garfield's house once."
Also active politcially:
In 1988, he accepted the Green Party nomination for governor of New Yorksaying, "we don't inherit the world from our ancestors, we borrow it fromour kids". Although he lost to incumbent Republican Governor George Pataki, he stillmanaged to collect more than 52,000 votes with his name on the ballot as"Grandpa Al Lewis." Lewis' first political work was for the Sacco and Vanzetti defencecommittee. Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two Italian anarchists,were executed in Massachusetts in 1927 for a double murder and robbery amiddoubts about their guilt. Lewis worked in the 1930s to free the Scottsboro Boys - nine black teenagersaccused of raping two white women in another highly publicised case. All but one were sentenced to death, but eventually they were cleared. "If anything I consider myself an anarchist," he once said on his weeklyradio show on WBAI in New York City. Lewis had three angioplasties, and in 2003 doctors were forced to amputatehis right leg below the knee and all five toes of his left foot. He is survived by his wife, Karen, three sons and four grandchildren. - Reuters

Stew Albert, Yippie founder dies

Stew Albert, one of the founders of the Youth International Party aka
Yippies, dies
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Stew Albert, one of the founders of the Youth
International Party, whose members were more commonly known as
Yippies, died Monday of liver cancer, The Oregonian newspaper
reported. He was 66.
Albert was clubbed by police during the 1968 anti-war protests at the
Democratic National Convention and was named as an unindicted co-
conspirator at the Chicago 7 trial.
Though Albert helped found the Yippies, better-known leaders of the
group included Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin and Paul Krassner.
The Yippies in 1968 advanced a pig as candidate for president and in
1970 invaded Disneyland for a day. In 1970, Albert ran for sheriff of
Alameda County, Calif., but lost.
In 1988, Albert attended a 20-year reunion in Chicago of 1968
protesters.
"I imagine Americans secretly miss the passion of my generation," he
wrote of that experience.
In 1996, Mayor Richard M. Daley, son of former Mayor Richard J.
Daley, invited him to Chicago with his pal Tom Hayden, a former
roommate, for a day of reconciliation.
Albert was co-author with his wife of "The Sixties Papers" anthology.
He ran the Yippie Reading Room online and continued to blog until the
day before his death.