To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Bible Prophecy
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Charlie")
Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2000 03:35:56 -0500
Is a 'State of Judea' Coming?
The Word of God says: Matthew 24:14-22 "And this gospel of the
kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and
then shall the end come. When ye therefore shall see the abomination
of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place,
(whoso readeth, let him understand:) then let them which be in Judaea
flee into the mountains: let him which is on the housetop not come
down to take any thing out of his house: neither let him which is in the
field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are
with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that
your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: for then
shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world
to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be
shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake
those days shall be shortened."
IsraelWire - Tue. Jul 25,2000 -- Efforts towards the establishment of
the State of Judea, intended to fill the void left by Israel's
abandonment of any and all lands of Israel to the PLO Authority, has been
announced. The organizers carefully point out in their statement of purpose that
the goals are in no way to combat Israeli forces, or engage in any
inciteful activity against the current Israeli administration.
Following are some of the points of clarification appearing on the State of
Judea website. --- We do not advocate any seditious activity against the
current Israeli regime and therefore present no threat to the State of
Israel. --- We intend to act only if abandoned to the enemy State of
Palestine and to act only against the forces of the enemy State of
Palestine. --- We believe that the existence of the State of Judea is
in the best interests of the State of Israel in that it will provide a
safety valve to relieve religious/secular tensions and in the
eventuality of the creation of a State of Palestine, the emergence of
a State of Judea in that area will make for a better neighbor and peace
partner to the State of Israel than the alternative. --- That part of
historical Eretz Israel known as Yesha has never been part of the
modern State of Israel, but has remained since 1967 "disputed territory" that
was never annexed or placed under Israeli sovereignty.
I think the gospel "shall be preached in all the world", by the angel
of Rev. 14:6, during the 30 days which follow the second 1,260 days, and
"they shall see the abomination of desolation … stand in the holy
place" on the first day of the 45 days, which follow the 30 days.
(1,290-1,260 = 30) and (1,335-1,290 = 45) See Daniel 12:11-12.
Charlie Baker.
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Subject: [BPR] - July 27, 2000 TV Programs
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2000 08:43:02 -0400
8:00 PM Eastern
HIST - ANCIENT ALIENS - Ancient texts refer to
extraterrestrials.(CC)(TVG)
MTV - TRUE LIFE - "I'm a Professional Wrestler" -
Professional wrestling; on the road with Triple H and
Chyna.(CC)(From 7:30pm) (Ends 9:00pm)
TLC - SUPER STRUCTURES OF THE WORLD - "Oil Derrick" - A
colossal oil platform, the Hibernia GBS, operates in the
Grand Banks off Newfoundland.(CC)(TVG)
9:00
DISC - STIGMATA - Some people exhibit the wounds of the
Crucifixion.(CC)(TVG)
HIST - MUMMIES: TALES FROM THE EGYPTIAN CRYPTS - Ancient
religious beliefs; well-known pharaohs.(CC)(TVG)
10:00
ABC - YOU CAN'T SAY THAT! WHATEVER HAPPENED TO FREE
SPEECH? WITH
JOHN STOSSEL (Repeat) - John Stossel examines issues
affecting free speech.(CC)
PBS - AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHY: A CENTURY OF IMAGES -
"Photography Transformed, 1960-1999" - Television challenges
photography; surveillance photography; photojournalism;
photography as an art form; media-image
politics.(CC)(TVPG)
TLC - DETECTIVES OF THE DEEP - Archaeologists and divers
explore the sunken British warship Pandora.(CC)(TVG)
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Subject: [BPR] - Saddam cancer fear spurs rivals
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2000 08:43:02 -0400
July 27 2000
MIDDLE EAST
Saddam cancer fear spurs rivals
BY MICHAEL THEODOULOU AND GILES WHITTELL
Links
PRESIDENT Saddam Hussein of Iraq, the world's most
resilient leader, is seriously ill and thought to have cancer,
according to reports from Baghdad.
Word of his deteriorating health will intensify a power
struggle between his two sons and undermine the myth of
invincibility that he has carefully fostered during two
decades of autocratic rule.
"We know Saddam is unwell and understand it may be
cancer, but we don't know how bad it is or how long he can
go on for," an Iraqi businessman in Jordan said. Other
well-connected Iraqi travellers, who are not connected to
opposition groups, have made similar claims in recent days.
Ordinary Iraqis, too, have been speculating about Saddam's
health since he made a far shorter than usual address to his
countrymen last week to mark the 32nd anniversary of the
coup that brought his Baath Party to power. He did not
refer directly to his long stand-off with the West and spoke
in almost mystical terms, comparing the Baath revolution to
"the smile of a baby, the prayer of a hermit and rain falling
on parched land".
Dressed in a dark suit and tie for the televised speech, the
63-year-old Iraqi leader appeared haggard but there were
no other signs of illness. His hair, as usual, was dyed a virile
jet black.
Rumours that Saddam has cancer have circulated before
but have proved impossible to confirm, given the secrecy of
his regime. The Iraqi leader has always prided himself on a
healthy lifestyle. He once ordered Cabinet ministers to lose
weight and took a well-publicised dip in the Tigris River to
demonstrate his political buoyancy during a period of
tension with the West.
The unconfirmed reports of his deteriorating health came as
President Putin welcomed Tariq Aziz, Iraq's Deputy Prime
Minister, to the Kremlin yesterday to discuss the lifting UN
sanctions.
Proceeds from oil smuggling in the past ten years have
ensured that the regime remains immune from the suffering
caused by sanctions. There is little organised opposition
within the country and Saddam's Western-backed exiled
opponents remain weak. Assassination attempts, coup plots
and an uprising in the wake of the 1991 Gulf War failed to
unseat him.
Any succession in the Iraqi regime is unlikely to be as
smooth as that in neighbouring Syria after the death in June
of President Hafez al-Assad. The reins of power in
Damascus were passed uncontested to his son, Bashar, a
British-trained eye doctor.
The rivalry between Saddam's sons is compounded by his
reluctance to make clear which one will succeed him.
Uday, 36, is portrayed by defectors as a torturer, serial
rapist and killer. The less mercurial Qusay, 34, controls the
intelligence and security apparatus.
http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/2000/07/27/timfgnmid01001.html
Link via:
http://www.newsviewtoday.com
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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Infobeat News items (7/27/00)
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2000 09:01:44 -0400
*** U.N. faces funding shortfall
GENEVA (AP) - The U.N. said Wednesday it faces a major funding
shortfall in tackling humanitarian crises from Congo to North Korea,
with donors so far providing only a third of the $2.5 billion it has
sought for this year. The world body asked for the money to support
some 35 million people in 16 countries. "We are very dismayed" that
richer nations so far have paid out only 36.6% of the overall
funding, a U.N. official said. "At the same time last year, we were
at approximately 50%." Uganda has attracted only $2.4 million - far
less than the required $27.5 million - forcing cutbacks to refugee
and food programs, the United Nations told donors. Congo, the
Republic of Congo and Burundi received around one-fifth. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2568445495-c35
*** Senate OKs $600 mln for AIDS
WASHINGTON (AP) - Legislation committing up to $600 million in U.S.
aid for fighting HIV and AIDS in Africa and developing countries
elsewhere was passed Wednesday by the Senate. On a voice vote, the
Senate approved a bill by Sens. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and Jesse Helms,
R-N.C., authorizing $300 million in each of the next two years for
AIDS prevention and treatment and also for the care of AIDS orphans
in developing countries. The bill directs the Treasury Department to
establish a trust fund with the World Bank for the prevention efforts
and the treatment of orphans. Helms, chairman of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, said the bill requires that up to $220 million
of all U.S. bilateral funding for HIV-AIDS programs over the next two
years be spent on supporting orphans in Africa. The United Nations
has predicted that the disease is expected to wipe out half the
teen-age population in some poor countries in Africa. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2568444345-6f7
*** Arrests made in Jerusalem fires
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli police have arrested 3 Orthodox Jews
suspected of setting fire to a Conservative synagogue in Jerusalem
and vandalizing a sanctuary of Messianic Jews, officials said. The
suspects were arrested in the last two days, a Jerusalem police
spokeswoman said. One is a minor. The suspects, secular Jews who
recently became religious, are suspected in the June 24 firebombing
at the Ramot Forest synagogue, affiliated with the Conservative
stream of Judaism. Several prayer books and chairs were lost in the
fire. The damage was estimated at several thousands of dollars. The
synagogue, located in the well-to-do section of Jerusalem's Ramot
neighborhood, had been the target of demonstrations and protests by
ultra-Orthodox Jews before. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2568442302-3a0
*** Extinction traced to methane burp
(AP) - Huge reservoirs of methane trapped beneath the ocean floor
rapidly escaped during prehistoric global warming and depleted much
of the sea's oxygen, according to new research into why many forms of
life suddenly vanished 183 million years ago. The findings, reported
in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature, shed new light not only on
the disappearance of as many as 80% of some deep-sea species but also a
process suspected in other prehistoric mass extinctions. The study also
raised questions about today's sea floor reservoir of methane hydrate, which
the federal government plans to study as a possible energy source. "One of
the important questions that is debated a lot today is the stability of this
methane hydrate reservoir and how easy it is to release the methane that is
there," said Stephen Hesselbo, an Oxford University researcher and the
study's lead author. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2568437281-16e
*** Study: Net bigger than we think
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The Internet has become so large so fast that
sophisticated search engines are just scratching the surface of the
Web's vast information reservoir, according to a new study released
Wednesday. The 41-page research paper, prepared by a South Dakota
company that has developed new software to plumb the Internet's
depths, estimates the World Wide Web is 500 times larger than the
maps provided by popular search engines like Yahoo!, AltaVista and
Google.com. "These days it seems like search engines are a little
like the weather: Everyone likes to complain about them," said Danny
Sullivan, editor of SearchEngineWatch.com, which analyzes search
engines. "The World Wide Web is getting to be so humongous that you
need specialized engines. A centralized approach like this isn't
going to be successful," predicted Carl Malamud, co-founder of
Petaluma-based Invisible Worlds. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2568446616-9d8
*** Court rejects N.J. abortion law
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - A federal appeals court agreed Wednesday that a
New Jersey law banning certain late-term abortions is
unconstitutional. The finding by a three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals upholds the ruling of a federal judge in
Trenton who struck down the law in 1998. The panel said the court's
decision was made before the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on a
Nebraska law also aimed at banning so-called "partial-birth"
abortion. The Supreme Court found the Nebraska law unconstitutional.
Abortion rights advocates had argued that the ban was so broad and
vague it could be used to prohibit all abortions. Their opponents
countered that the law applied specifically to "partial-birth"
abortion, in which the fetus is pulled part of the way through the
birth canal and the brain is removed to allow the head to pass. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2568441028-47b ***
Also: Judge rules on abortion protesters, see
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2568446617-07d
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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Record Sunspot Count Reported
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2000 09:19:23 -0400
July 27, 2000
Record Sunspot
Count Reported
By Larry O'Hanlon,
Discovery.com News
July 25, 2000 =97 July is
becoming the most
sunspot-laden month in
years, say solar
scientists who are
watching the sun this
summer for signs of the
solar maximum.
On July 20, some 401 sunspots were counted on
the sun =97 a number that hasn't been reached in
six years. Such a large sunspot value is rare. The
daily sunspot numbers surpass 400 on no more
than a few days during the sun's 11-year cycles of
activity.
Scientists can identify when the sun has entered its
maximum period of activity =97 called the solar
maximum and predicted to fall this year =97 by
looking for the months during the solar cycle when
sunspot activity is at its highest.
Whether the abnormally high sunspot count last
Thursday means the sun has hit its maximum will
take some time to determine, say scientists.
What they can say with certainty, however, is that
the danger of the Earth being blasted by powerful
solar storms has not passed.
"Sunspots (numbers) are interesting because there
is a long historical record to compare to," said Joe
Kunches, a lead space weather forecaster at the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's
Space Environment Center in Boulder, Colo. "But we
don't live and die by the daily sunspot number."
Researchers still have to average out the sunspot
numbers and compare them to other months
before they can say whether sunspot activity has
peaked, said Kunches. "You don't know if you're at
the maximum by counting sunspots until six
months or more later," he said.
In other words, we could be at the solar maximum,
but it all depends on what the sun does next =97
which is anyone's guess.
"There are three possibilities," quipped Jo Ann
Joselyn, a solar scientist with the University of
Colorado at Boulder, "it can increase, decrease or
remain the same."
Until mid-July the sun has been behaving
remarkably docile with few sunspots and fewer
flares, Joselyn said. Now it seems to be back on
course for the cycle, she said.
Of more practical importance than figuring out the
month of the solar maximum, however, is watching
for sunspot groups that might aim at Earth and
hammer it with X-rays, super-hot charged particles
and heavy radiation, said Kunches. That doesn't
require 401 sunspots but just a few, clustered
together and lined up dead center.
Such a setup gives the sunspots the opportunity to
release their energy right at us, as Sunspot Group
9077 did two weeks ago when it let loose the most
powerful storm of the current solar cycle.
http://www.discovery.com/news/briefs/20000725/sp_sunspot.html
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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - United Societies in Space
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2000 09:24:55 -0400
United Societies in Space (usis.org) Constitutional Convention, will
be held at the University of Denver Law School, Denver, Colorado,
USA on August 4-5, 2000. The convention is open to the public.
USIS' Constitution, to be adopted at the Convention, establishes a
private governance entity in Space, independent of the U.N. and
national governments, and based on the common law. Exopolitic's
author Alfred Webre, a Yale Law School-trained international
lawyer, has been invited to address the Convention with a
mechanism to allow for institutional docking with extraterrestrial
government, as that occurs.
Exopolitics and USIS will be discussed by author Alfred Webre as
guest July 28 at 1 AM PT on KOA radio (Rick Barber). You can
listen to the program live at: http://www.850koa.com/listen.html
Exopolitics is the study of government and politics in the Universe.
EXOPOLITICS, EPISODE ONE, an idea-manifesto, is available free
at Universebooks.com.
USIS Constitution
http://usis.org/constitu.htm
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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Disappearing Sun takes its toll
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Shophar_Sho_Good")
Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2000 09:03:48 -0500
Disappearing Sun takes its toll
http://www.newscientist.com/nl/0729/sun.html
WATCHING a solar eclipse may be so stressful that it is bad for your health,
say British researchers. So there might be a grain of truth in myths
surrounding eclipses after all.
Omar Mian at Manchester University and Rubina Mian and Doug Thake at
Coventry University were mocking tales of eclipses making people sick, or
even causing deformities in unborn children. "Then I pointed out there was
no evidence either way," says Rubina Mian.
Mian took her graduate students to a field in Briey, France, to watch the
1999 summer eclipse. By analysing their blood samples with a luminometer,
the researchers found that leukocyte activity increased by 8.7 per cent
during the eclipse. These white blood cells usually help our immune system,
but if overstimulated they can damage DNA by releasing free radicals.
Experiments after the eclipse showed that darkness, silence and temperature
had no effect on leukocyte activity. But in other studies being prepared for
publication Mian has found that stress can have a big effect.
"I know I was stressed," says Mian about the eclipse. "It was really quite
overwhelming." And if it's stressful for her, Mian says it must be worse for
those who don't understand what an eclipse is, or who believe legends about
the phenomenon.
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Subject: [BPR] - Force Fields and 'Plasma' Shields Get Closer to Reality
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Moza")
Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2000 12:28:50 -0400
Thursday, July 27, 2000
Force Fields and
'Plasma' Shields Get
Closer to Reality
By James Schultz
Special to SPACE.com
posted: 07:00 am ET
25 July 2000
Space-borne protective energy systems, like the
deflector shields on the fictional starship U.S.S.
Voyager, are on the drawing board of real-world
scientists.
These "cold plasmas" -- analogs to the sophisticated
defensive grids envisioned by Star Trek's creators --
are ambient-temperature, ionized gases related to those
found deep within the sun´s core.
Such plasmas are capable of shielding satellites and
other spacecraft; or making them invisible to radars; or
both. Nor will they fry electronics or melt metal.
On Earth, cold plasmas should permit
rapid, room-temperature sterilization of
food, medical equipment and
contaminated civilian and military gear.
Low-temperature plasmas could one day
also make possible an entire new
generation of miniature lasers and ultra-low-energy
fluorescent light tubes.
While scientists have known of low-temperature plasmas
since at least the end of the 19th century, only within
the past several years have techniques emerged to make
cold plasma generation practical.
“This Star Wars stuff is coming .... A good cold
plasma could really help out by reflecting or
absorbing energy from a microwave war
weapon.”
Igor Alexeff, president of the Institute of
Electrical and
Electronics Engineers' Nuclear and Plasma Sciences
Society
Vaulting to the first ranks of cold-plasma research in
the last three years has been soft-spoken, unassuming
Tunisian native Mounir Laroussi, an electrical and
computer engineer at Old Dominion University in Norfolk,
Va. Research groups at Stanford, Princeton, Ohio State,
Wisconsin and New York Polytechnic also are conducting
their own plasma-research programs.
Side view of a cold plasma inside a Pyrex glass
container. Cold
plasmas can
cloak satellites and spacecraft from radar view and
shield
against attack from
certain kinds of energy weapons.
Laroussi has literally put plasma on the table: devising
an apparatus that creates a mini-plasma inside a
plexiglass cube by passing an electric current through
helium gas via specially calibrated electrodes.
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/cold_plasma_000724.
html
Part 2
Force Fields and 'Plasma' Shields Get
Closer to Reality(cont.)
Laroussi´s process, specified in pending patent
applications, is scalable; cold-plasma containers of
virtually any size are feasible. No vacuum pumps are
required, since the plasma is generated at normal
atmospheric pressure.
"Mounir is on the forefront. He´s one of the pioneers,"
said Igor Alexeff, president of the Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers' Nuclear and Plasma
Sciences Society and professor emeritus of electrical
engineering at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
"He´s pushing very hard to develop a variety of
practical plasmas. His work is pretty impressive."
Invulnerable and invisible
The U.S. Air Force allocates some $10 million a year for
research geared toward satellite protection. Of that
amount, $2 million is dedicated to low-temperature
plasma studies.
Robert Barker, program manager for plasma physics in the
Air Force´s Office of Scientific Research in Arlington,
Va. is so taken with Laroussi´s approach that he thus
far has funneled $250,000 into Laroussi´s research since
his arrival at Old Dominion from the University of
Tennessee a little over a year ago. The Air Force has
supported Laroussi´s work since 1996.
Barker is drawn not just by Laroussi´s plasma-creating
prowess, but his ability to make low-temperature plasma
inexpensively, in bulk and without the need for hulking
equipment.
"What´s intriguing about Mounir´s work is the large
volumes of plasma he´s been able to generate," Barker
said. "He´s making very good progress in keeping costs
and weight low. His approach gives the best power
figures for practical, large-volume generation of cold
plasma we have to date."
Power-hungry plasmas
Poke a finger inside Laroussi´s tabletop
plasma-generating apparatus and all you´ll get from the
bluish, pilot-light-like ionized gas is a slight tingle.
But the harmless sensation is misleading, since it
doesn´t give a complete picture of plasma´s power.
Depending on how a plasma is "tuned," or how it is made
more dense by increasing its frequency, it could ward
off microwave bursts and discharges from ground-based,
energized sources of potential damage and disruption.
Swirling in and around one another, a plasma´s charged
particles interact constantly, giving rise to localized
attractions or repulsions. External energy splashing
against the plasma --- say, from a potentially
disabling, concentrated burst of microwaves, or perhaps
even from certain varieties of particle-beam weapons
fired from military bases on Earth --- could be caught
up within the plasma´s complex electromagnetic fields
and dissipated completely or deflected into space.
Hotter plasmas, while dense, don´t appear immediately
practical as a defensive shield because of destructive
temperatures and high power requirements. In theory,
cold plasmas can be made more dense, but like their
hotter kin will demand more power. Energy availability
and weight --- the larger the required wattage, the
heavier the equipment --- would remain thorny issues.
"In theory, a plasma could deflect a particle beam or
laser attack," Laroussi says. "It depends on what you´re
shooting at it and how high you can tune the plasma
frequency. That doesn´t mean it´s easy or practically
achievable, particularly with a cold plasma. It´s a
tough requirement to meet at present."
Cloaking mirrors
A nearer-term application is cloaking. With the proper
adjustments, a plasma can be made into a kind of energy
mirror, reflecting back or away incoming electromagnetic
waves, such as those emitted from ground-based radars.
In essence, any spacecraft outfitted with this kind of
plasma field would be completely cloaked from the
probing attentions of radar operators.
"The idea is to deflect or absorb the energy
completely," Laroussi said. "If you absorb the energy
--- completely dissipating it within the plasma --- the
radar doesn´t see anything. Nothing reflects back."
Light but potent
Lofting payloads into space must currently observe one
of the Space Age´s key commandants: Make nothing so
heavy that it must cost much to launch.
Any on-board plasma-generation equipment would therefore
have to be small and lightweight. Laroussi´s gear seems
to fit the bill: compact enough to save on weight, yet
powerful enough to produce the necessary plasma volume.
But don´t expect completely impervious shields anytime
soon. Any number of technical issues remains to be
solved, not the least of which is exactly how to make
cold plasmas dense enough to withstand attack. The
ultimate --- protection against projectiles or lasers
--- is likely decades away, at best.
"Ablative shields made of solid material might work,"
said the Air Force´s Barker. "A portion of the solid
would be converted to plasma [when hit]. But In a strict
sense, I don´t consider that plasma shielding."
Star wars defense
Less immediately space-like, but no less practical, are
biological applications. Cold plasmas allow for rapid
decontamination of clothing, equipment or personal gear.
In disrupting the integrity of cell membranes, the
plasmas appear to offer a rapid, simple and inexpensive
means of destroying even the hardiest bacterial spores.
At present, sterilization time can run hours; use of a
cold plasma could sanitize in mere minutes.
End-on view of a cold plasma inside a glass cylinder.
This particular variety
can be used to break down toxic gases into harmless
constituents. The
apparent "steering wheel" is an optical byproduct of
the cylinder's shape and
the way the plasma is generated.
Should this application pan out, it could offer to
hospitals and armies alike a safe and reliable way to
counteract potential health hazards, either those posed
by disease or in combat. Likewise, exobiologists might
rest easy knowing that cold plasmas could remove the
potential threat of contamination from collected
interplanetary samples returned to Earth´s surface.
Still, it´s hard to vanquish all the SF combat
scenarios. Plasmas may be one of the best defensive
options as offensive capabilities continue a rapid and
relentless advance.
"This Star Wars stuff is coming," said Igor Alexeff.
"Laser and high-power microwave weapons are on the way;
they´re almost here. Lasers are fierce weapons. To
protect against them, you´d need a very dense plasma,
almost a solid. But a good cold plasma could really help
out by reflecting or absorbing energy from a microwave
war weapon."
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/cold_plasma_000724_
2.html
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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Muddled Muggles
From: bpr-list@philologos.org("Shophar_Sho_Good")
Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2000 13:22:53 -0500
This is the line of thinking trying to rationalize
the acceptance of witches/wicca---as is par for this course, they are short
on facts and long on personal attacks and aspersions...one might even
say,"intolerant"!
-------------------------------------------
Muddled Muggles
Conservatives Missing the Magic in Harry Potter
Perhaps jealous its sales may trounce those of the wildly popular Left
Behind novels -- the evangelical publishing phenomenon scribbled by
fundamentalists Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins -- many religious
conservatives have been up in arms over J.K. Rowling's phenomenally
successful Harry Potter series. The case against the books? According to
some evangelicals, they promote Satanism and witchcraft.
No one in the media seems to have reported what actual flesh and blood
Wiccans (or, for that matter, Satanists) think of these allegations. But
when the fourth book in Rowling's series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of
Fire, came out last weekend, religious rightists were heard in abundance.
Anti-Potterite camps include the following:
Move over, Tinky Winky. Some have alleged that the lightning bolt scar on
Harry Potter's forehead, which is vaguely S-shaped, stands for "Satan."
Always searching out threats to his brand of Christian morals, Jerry Falwell
once accused the purple, purse-carrying Teletubbies character Tinky Winky of
being gay; Satan-pushing Harry Potter may trump even Tinky Winky on the list
of evils.
Also conspiracy-mongering is this theological faction:
The Anti-Witch Establishmentarians. Not all members of the Christian right
think that Satan is behind the success of Rowling's books. But a number
object that the Harry Potter novels, which they view as friendly to the
occult, give the IRS-recognized religion of Wiccanism a leg up in school
classrooms, while Christian students still can't hold organized prayer in
public schools. "There's no denying Harry Potter has a lot of symbolism for
Wiccans," comments Karen Jo Gounaud, president of Family Friendly Libraries.
"Everyone is a witch or warlock; they cast spells, drink blood. They believe
in reincarnation." Lobbing an even more vicious charge, Linda Beam,
contributing culture analyst for Focus on the Family, says of Rowling's
fiction that "these stories are not fueled by witchcraft, but by
secularism."
On the other side of the Atlantic, meanwhile, the anti-Potterites seem to
have made friends with:
Henry VIII's "Always Anxious to Please" Church. One might think that the
Harry Potter novels would receive an enthusiastic reception in Britain. But
in fact, officials at Canterbury Cathedral recently dissed Warner Bros. when
the film company asked to shoot the medieval building as the Hogwarts School
of Witchcraft and Wizardry for its upcoming movie version of the Harry
Potter series. "Because this is the leading center of the Anglican
Communion, we had to be sensitive to the feeling of some Christians that
there is something anti-Christian in these books," said a Cathedral
spokesperson. "We had to be sensitive to all shades of opinion."
Reflecting a related shade of opinion:
The "Slippery Slope" Theorists. Reverend Lori Jo Scheppers, a "troubled
youth counselor," told CNN, "As we expose our kids to the occult, we expose
our kids to blood, to violence, and desensitize them to that. What I can
expect is those kids, as they mature, have a very good chance of becoming
another Dylan Klebold and those guys in Columbine."
But not all evangelicals hate Harry Potter:
The Repentant Nixonites. Chuck Colson, who went to prison for Watergate
offenses and later founded the evangelical Prison Fellowship Ministries,
likes Harry Potter. Harry and cohorts, Colson opines, "develop courage,
loyalty, and a willingness to sacrifice for one another, even at the risk of
their lives. . . . Not bad lessons in a self-centered world." And then there
are . . .
The Bootstrappers. Indeed, some conservatives find admirable values embodied
not only by the characters of Rowling's novels, but by Rowling's own
perseverance as a writer in the face of considerable hardship and poverty.
In an op-ed on literary aspects of the Potter novels, George Will glowingly
depicts this resilience and personal initiative:
"Not long ago Rowling was a single mother living on welfare in an unheated
Edinburgh flat. She would push a stroller through the streets until her
young daughter fell asleep, then she would nurse a cup of coffee in a warm
cafe while she wrote about a bespectacled 11-year-old orphan boy whose
parents were wizards."
How touching. But before conservatives start touting writing best-selling
children's novels as an alternative to welfare (and advocating cuts in
welfare programs as the only way to encourage such authorship), one should
note that Rowling originally began plotting the Potter plots when she was
still a teenager, in 1976.
And not everyone has Rowling's literary talents. Conservative columnist Bill
Murchison crashes and burns with this syrupy paean to Harry Potter:
"Hooray for Harry, I feel entitled to cry, without having so much as slipped
a Potter book into a Borders bag. If he's bad or mediocre, so what? He's a
book -- two covers, see? A thick spine to weigh in the hand; pages to thrust
a nose between, for the sake of appropriating the aroma of glue and paper;
summer dreams to dream."
Among libertarians, too, one finds celebration of the moral overtones of
Rowling's tale. Consider:
The George Lucas School. Those at the libertarian Ayn Rand Institute commend
the Harry Potter series for imparting enduring philosophical wisdom about
the nature of good and evil to children. In a highly Latinate op-ed e-mailed
out by the Mothership, objectivist Dianne L. Durante argues Rowling's novels
can teach kids yin-yang lessons, including how to see the glass as half full
instead of half empty:
"When my seven-year-old races around the dining room table swathed in an old
bathrobe, with a broomstick made of a mini-blind wand and cardboard, she is
not expressing an interest in witches or the supernatural. Rather, she is
trying on the personality of an independent, courageous intelligent
individual who conquers evil. She is enthusiastically endorsing a positive
philosophic perspective on herself and on the world."
Or just playing.
But regardless of their perspective, conservatives seem to be overlooking
another reason to "just say no" to Harry Potter. Haven't they noticed that
kids seem unfailingly attracted to books with the word "Potter" on the
cover? First Beatrix, now Harry. . . . Could it be a plot to spread
marijuana use among the young?
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