::::::::  The following e-mail is from a young ensign ::::::::  aboard USS Winston Churchill (DDG-81) ::::::::  to his parents. (Churchill is an Arleigh Burke class AEGIS guided missile destroyer, commissioned March 10, 2001, and is the only active US Navy warship named after a foreign national) Dear Dad, We are still at sea. The remainder of our port visits have all been canceled. We have spent every day since the attacks going back and forth within imaginary boxes drawn in the ocean, standing high-security watches, and trying to make the best of it. We have seen the articles and the photographs, and they are sickening. Being isolated, I don't think we appreciate the full scope of what is happening back home, but we are definitely feeling the effects. About two hours ago, we were hailed by a German Navy destroyer, Lutjens, requesting permission to pass close by our port side. Strange, since we're in the middle of an empty ocean, but the captain acquiesced and we prepared to render them honors from our bridgewing. As they were making their approach, our conning officer used binoculars and announced that Lutjens was flying not the German, but the American flag. As she came alongside us, we saw the American flag flying half-mast and her entire crew topside standing at silent, rigid attention in their dress uniforms. They had made a sign that was displayed on her side that read "We Stand By You." There was not a dry eye on the bridge as they stayed alongside us for a few minutes and saluted. It was the most powerful thing I have seen in my life. The German Navy did an incredible thing for this crew, and it has truly been the highest point in the days since the attacks. It's amazing to think that only half-century ago things were quite different. After Lutjens pulled away, the Officer of the Deck, who had been planning to get out later this year, turned to me and said, "I'm staying Navy." I'll write you when I  know more about when I'll be home, but this is it for now. Love you guys.

I Won't Be Bound... :::The lyrics were inspired by an account of actual events. :::Most cab drivers provide a great service... This song isn't about those cab drivers. :::One cab driver crossed the line... Displaying his Taliban colors. :::Lyrics are set to the music of the Tom Petty song... "I Won't back Down" Verse... Well I've trekked through towns... 'Cross a sphere that's round! I have traveled by cabs... I've been down those old steel tracks, And I won't be bound... I will make my rounds! Verse... Well I see you've made... Your journey to my town, You can call up your buddies... You can gather all around, But I won't be bound... Because I love my ground! Chorus... I won't be BOUND!!!!   <---- (Backing vocals) HEY there cabbie... There ain't no easy way OUT! HEY there Taliban... There ain't no truth in your SHOUTS! No, I won't be bound... To a single town. Verse... I don't see it your way... You're just as evil by day, You're upset with our freedoms... You see women just one way, No, we WON'T be bound... And no, this ain't your TOWN! Chorus... We won't be BOUND!!!!   <---- (Backing vocals) HEY there cabbie... There ain't no easy way OUT! HEY there Taliban... There ain't no truth in your SHOUTS! No, we won't be bound... To a single town. Chorus... No, we won't be BOUND!!!!!   <---- (Backing vocals) HEY there cabbie... You hold your tongue in our TOWN!!!! HEY there Taliban... You spew your truths all AROUND!!!! No, we won't be bound... You can leave our GROUND!!!! Chorus... No, we won't be BOUND!!!!   <---- (Backing vocals) HEY there cabbie... You haven't a clue of my WILL!!!! HEY there Taliban... There ain't no truth in your SPIEL!!!! No, we won't be bound... We will take you DOWN!!!!    -Mogs

The Thing We Feared... Copyright © 2001 By Ray Thomas 10.29.01 The thing we've feared the most has come to pass. The power seekers in our government now have the Hegelian "Crisis" they need to complete our enslavement. The single crisis that can guarantee the bipartisan support they need for all the unconstitutional rapes of our rights they've been forced to shelve before because of opposition, but which now they've trotted out, slipped into one massive "Anti-Terrorist" bill and passed it literally without a whimper from those who value freedom. Benjamin Franklin said: "Those who value security over freedom deserve neither." But nobody is listening now and probably weren't then. What's the "Hegelian Principle?" For those who read what I write regularly, please bear with me as I describe it for those who do not: The Hegelian Principle is really very simple and involves three actions: 1. Create a "crisis" (or blow an existing one up to amazing proportions); 2. Publicize the "crisis" until a solution is demanded: 3. Provide a "solution" that attains your goals. They're always looking for the "ultimate crisis" to use in getting all their unconstitutional laws and regulations enacted, and now they've found it. They thought they had it with the "it's for the children" dodge, but there are only a few things that can be twisted into being "for the children" and have anybody but the most gullible believe it. Now, with the "terrorism" crisis to use, they're moving quickly to make all their dreams come true. In one fell swoop, the recently passed "anti-Terrorist" bill got most of their fondest dreams enacted into law. Things we've defeated before. Here are some of them: "KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER": We beat this one just recently by a massive letter and e-mail writing campaign that told them they'd better back off. This one forces your banker to become an informant for the feds, being forced to inform on you whenever you do anything that even looks funny on pain of career-ending prosecution themselves. So they tell the feds on you, even if they, themselves don't believe you're doing anything wrong because somebody later might think you were and, with the subjective nature of this law, allowing the enforcer to "define" whether or not you're breaking the law. THE "SNEAK-PEEK" SEARCH: The antiterrorism legislation passed by the House and Senate greatly expands the ability of the FBI to enter our homes and search them secretly without telling you. While there they can attach hardware that will allow them to record your every keystroke so they can find out all your passwords and come back later to search your hard drive without your knowledge. INDISCRIMINATE PHONE TAPS: It allows agents to tap any public pay phone if they think one day it might be used by a suspected terrorist. Who cares if innocent people have their homes searched or their conversations intercepted by the FBI? If they're not guilty . . .? Syndicated columnist Robyn Blumner in St. Petersburg Times says: "There is one phrase that has crept into the American vernacular that I wish I could banish from the hearts and minds of my countrymen: "If you're not guilty, then what have you got to hide?" The phrase equates the desire for privacy with the presumption of guilt. It suggests that anyone who wants to keep government's prying eyes away is trying to get away with something evil or criminal. For my part, my private business is none of their business, and I don't have to be guilty of anything in order to wish to guard that privacy from their nosiness. CREDIT CARD USAGE vs. CASH USAGE: "Who cares if our credit card company knows more about our interests than our parents? It's so efficient -- so much so that anyone paying cash is seen as a crook or a deviant. Cash is so bulky, untraceable and contra-modern; using it must mean you don't want to leave tracks. Just try paying cash for an airline ticket these days and see how fast it takes the FBI to be at your door. Quite frankly, I don't care what they think. I don't do credit cards and never will. If I'm still alive when the time comes that cash is outlawed, that's when I will become an outlaw and steal for a living. If they don't like it, to Hell with them. EMPLOYER REPORTING REQUIREMENTS:In addition to the information collected on us by the Internal Revenue Service and the Census Bureau, your employer is required to report details about you to the government. The excuse is to keep track of illegal aliens and of deadbeat parents trying to skip out on child support -- even if you are neither. MEDICAL SNOOPING:To "flush out medical fraud and make records easily accessible," the government has mandated that your medical records be converted into a standard electronic format and filed under your own unique number (your Social Security number, of course, the number that was never supposed to be used this way). And the government took away your financial privacy years ago, when the foes were mere drug dealers and tax cheats, not terrorists. EXAMINE YOUR PRIVATE E-MAIL: They have a system that allows them to read your private e-mail, right at the server, without even bothering you or asking for your permission. The e-mail provider must comply in allowing them to apply their hardware or get in trouble themselves. We shot this one down last year, too. But now it's law. WIDER WIRETAP POWERS: and a special "Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to give their approval. A court that is there for this one purpose and has never failed to give their permission, ever. Does anybody really think they ever will? UNLIMITED INVESTIGATIONS AND MONITORING: They can monitor the Internet activities of anyone they "suspect" of terrorism. All it takes is for someone to say they "suspect" someone of terrorism. They can "investigate" anyone "believed" to be linked to either international or domestic terrorism. All it takes is that "belief." Credit, medical, and student records can be retrieved secretly by federal agencies on anyone "suspected" of involvement in terrorism, regardless of state privacy laws. All it takes is for someone to say they "suspect" someone of terrorism. There is no definition of just what constitutes terrorism so naturally the "investigators" get to define it for themselves, making terrorists out of anybody whose activities they decide they don't like. That's the way they want it. With the law written this way, all they have to do to put somebody under "investigation" and to allow them to stick their noses deeply into our personal business is for them to say they "suspect" or "believe" us to be engaged in criminal activity. No proof of anything needs to be offered, only the unsupported word of an "investigator." Because of Osama bin Laden, we're now frightened enough to allow such things to happen. All they have to say is: "it's to fight terrorism," and we give them anything they want: unconstitutional laws, money, anything. We've lost. Osama bin Laden has won. Even if we kill him, even if we destroy terrorism's infrastructure. We've lost. Remember the military man who said "we had to destroy the village in order to save it?" That's what we're doing to our freedom and our way of life in order to "destroy terrorism."

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