~~ Ravan's Ravings - January 2000 ~~

The Constitution Under Assault

Don't these jerks read the Constitution and the Bill of Rights? Do they really think that the religious freedom, separation of church and state, and freedom of speech bits only apply when it's convenient for their perverted brands of Christianity? They've shredded the Fourth amendment (search and seizure - the whole civil asset forfeiture abomination). They've gutted the Second Amendment and are performing further amputations without anesthetic even as I type. They repeatedly try to censor the net and ban encryption, making the First amendment a joke, all in the name of "god" and "for the children". The provision of "no religious test for office" has been rendered a farce by people who judge someone more on what religion they "profess" and what services they attend that by what they actually DO!

Then the little turds in the House vote in the dead of night to have Judaic law (the "Ten Commandments" or "Decalogue") posted in classrooms. Thief in the night indeed! If they wanted to post a moral code in the classroom, how about one that has parallels in most of the world's religions - the "Golden Rule" and the variants found in at least seven other religions? Oh, no, that wouldn't be "strict" enough, and just might encourage "moral relativism" and other things frowned upon by their leash holders in the Religious Reich!

What Does That Have To With Paganism?

Our freedom to assemble, worship, work, shop, and even talk to each other rests firmly in the Constitution, including the means to fight to keep it, as needed. If the erosion of fundamental Constitutional protections, even those that we don't think we need, does not alarm us, we need to take a very long, hard look at the descent of various countries into dictatorship and police state: Germany in the 1930s, for example.

But The Rede Says Harm None... Pagans Are Pacifists... NOT!

Every time some "pagan" comes off with the Wiccan Rede as a justification for letting someone walk all over them and theirs I want to puke. They refuse to stand up for what they believe in, by word or deed, but they are very ready to whine when their rights get trampled. These are the kind of people who think that simple guns are too "dangerous" for ordinary people to own, but are perfectly willing to have the government and the police carry them around with impunity, and wield them at will, enforcing laws bought and paid for by the religious reich and other control freak lobbists and their masters. Yet these same people will whine to everyone in sight when their athames are confiscated because they are "dangerous weapons".

What To Do....

• Make noise, and not just at the national level. The rights grabbers are in your own back yard, in your school boards, in local government. The Religious Reich has been targeting local and school elections quietly for years. The prudes and thought police are in your neighborhood, and will shove their "values" down your throat, at the expense of your livelihood, your families, and someday your lives. Ask Sheri Eicher about "community values" and the thought police.
• Make plans, write letters, be a noisy citizen, or even run for office. Look into civil disobedience, jury nullification, or even going underground.
• Put your money where your mouth is. Contribute to political organizations that uphold ALL of the constitution, not just ones that support one part and try to throw out the rest.
• Make a difference. Stretch your freedom as far as you can, but cover your butt. Realize that there is an underground war going on between the control freaks and their creeping fascism, and your right to believe and do as you will.
• *DO NOT* become a champion of "political correctness". This type of thought policing and the concommitent crying to authority has already cost me one job, because I dared call matters as I saw them under my real name!! Political correctness is a smokescreen for censorship and those who would be thought police (e.g. "my company does not support that kind of thinking among our employees" - a quote from an e-mail about the situation.) Don't fall prey to the lure of this concept!!
• Use the anonymity of the net, to exchange ideas and keep those in more repressed areas company. Encrypt things just to be ornery, even stuff that doesn't need it. Get a HushMail account, and then exchange recipes for deserts with a friend.
• Collect banned books and "forbidden" information. Get copies of some of the things like the "Anarchists Cookbook", even though you'll never use them (the Anarchists Cookbook neglects a large number of safety precautions, and you could hurt yourself if you didn't have them.) Various treasonous congressmen are trying to have them banned. Knowledge is power.
• Throw a monkey wrench in the gears of control, reduce your liabilities and dependence on the numbered, tracked, and controlled social framework. Close one or more credit cards a year, and pay them off. Buy things with cash, if you can.
• When some government agency asks you for your social security number or your fingerprints, only provide them if you have to, and under protest even then. They should have to explain to you where and why they are allowed to ask for such personal data, as well as what protections exist against misuse of the data. Be a squeaky wheel. Protest the mandatory inclusion of social security numbers and other personal data on Drivers License and ID cards. Say NO!!! to national ID cards - they make it difficult for a persecuted minority to make a fresh start in another state. Don't be numbered, labeled and tracked.
• Don't give private companies any information about you that you aren't willing to have them "share" with their "affiliates" and any proto-fascists that may be on their board of directors (and their political cronies.) Don't be a number, don't let them use your retirement identification number as a means to track you and your comings and goings. Make it difficult for the social control freaks and thought police to run our country.
• Visit mirrored Australian web sites, even if they are not to your taste. Australia has put into effect a draconian net censorship law. Many other countries (including the US!) are trying to do the same thing. Buy banned books, and support organizations that defend freedom of thought and conscience worldwide.