informant38
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...But of these sophisms and elenchs of merchandise I skill not...
Milton, Areopagitica

Except he had found the
standing sea-rock that even this last
Temptation breaks on; quieter than death but lovelier; peace
that quiets the desire even of praising it.

Jeffers, Meditation On Saviors


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8.10.05

Kids In The News:

When our daughter Rachel Corrie was killed by an Israeli bulldozer in the Gaza strip on March 16 2003, an immediate impulse was to get her words out to the world. She had been working in Rafah with a nonviolent resistance organization, the International Solidarity Movement, trying to stop the demolition of Palestinian homes and wells. Her emails home had had a powerful impact on our family, making us think about the situation in the Middle East in ways we had never done before. Without a direct connection to Israel and Palestine, we had not understood the devastating nature of the Palestinians' situation. Coming from the US, our allegiance and empathy had always been with the people of Israel.
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Rachel was a real human being. Sometimes, when people idealize her, we feel vulnerable for her. Knowing the complete human being, would they feel the same? Through My Name is Rachel Corrie, people can know a more complete Rachel.
[...]
We recently spent time in the US with members of the family who were behind the wall of the home Rachel stood to protect. For a month we ate, played and traveled with 15-month-old Sama. What future does she have, living in what now amounts to a mass prison in Gaza?
Cindy and Craig Corrie/GuardianUK/CommonDreams 08.10.05
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The typical white family has $80,000 in assets; the average black family about $6,000. It's a wealth gap out of the Middle Ages. Some 46 million can't afford health insurance, 18,000 of whom will die early because of it.
The US, we learn, is 43rd in the world infant mortality rankings. A baby born in Beijing has nearly three times the chance of reaching its first birthday than a baby born in Washington. Those who survive face rotten schools. On reading and math tests for 15-year-olds, America is 24th out of 29 nations.
Dermot Purgavie/DailyMirorUK/CommonDreams 08.10.05
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Jarvis had assigned her senior civics and economics class "to take photographs to illustrate their rights in the Bill of Rights," she says. One student "had taken a photo of George Bush out of a magazine and tacked the picture to a wall with a red thumb tack through his head. Then he made a thumb's-down sign with his own hand next to the President's picture, and he had a photo taken of that, and he pasted it on a poster."
According to Jarvis, the student, who remains anonymous, was just doing his assignment, illustrating the right to dissent. But over at the Kitty Hawk Wal-Mart, where the student took his film to be developed, this right is evidently suspect.
An employee in that Wal-Mart photo department called the Kitty Hawk police on the student. And the Kitty Hawk police turned the matter over to the Secret Service. On Tuesday, September 20, the Secret Service came to Currituck High.
"At 1:35, the student came to me and told me that the Secret Service had taken his poster," Jarvis says. "I didn't believe him at first. But they had come into my room when I wasn't there and had taken his poster, which was in a stack with all the others."
She says the student was upset. "He was nervous, he was scared, and his parents were out of town on business," says Jarvis. She, too, had to talk to the Secret Service.
Matthew Rothschild/Progressive/PrisonPlanet 08.10.05
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Annette Bening appeared on the Capitol steps to make an appeal for increased funding for the arts in California's public schools.
"Education and art in our culture should not be treated as a luxury for some, but as an absolute necessity for every one of us and every one of our kids," the actress said Friday.
Yahoo/AP 08.10.05
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The largest group of consumers of internet pornography are youth 12-17...
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As much as parents worry about the video games that their children are playing online, children actually spend significantly more time on pornographic sites today than they do on game sites.
The Porn Standard (google pdf>html)
The Third Way
link Scratchings
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Vehicle Crashes Remain Leading Cause of Teen Deaths
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Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for people ages 1 to 33

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