Posted on 06/18/2003 7:51:38 AM PDT by El Laton Caliente
A century old experiment should no longer fascinate anyone.
The obvious logic of responding favorably to stimuli that one deems necessary to their continued existence and adversely to threats against ones very survival is simply natural instinct.
Not at all. You've been around here long enough that I've noted your thoughtful inquiries and responses before, and I think we've even passed a thought or two back and forth once or twice. You asked for the reasons why I found Barger's possibly self-serving testimony likely to be accurate, and I offered both corroboration and anecdotal material in response. No problems there.
In the 30-plus years I've been involved in journalism and newsstory research since 1970 or so, I've gotten reasonably good at sniffing out the wheat from the chaff, which is not to say that I've not ever been snookered, nor that there's always as much clear-cut evidence for every point I've tried to make in every story I've worked on...or every post at FReep.
But I try, and when I hear the thunder of hooves, I usually try to suspect horses rather than Zebras, unless I'm near a wildlife preserve.
And though I can pretty easily be in error, I try really hard not to be surprised by most anything that comes my way, so if additional information or better evidence pokes a pin in a working theory or postulation of mine, no problem.
It's disenheartening to see this situation continue. In the last couple of decades, me eyes have really been opened.
Agreed. Just don't shut 'em completely in fear of some of the ugliness you unfortunately can't miss, or you'll miss the seperate beauty they'll see elsewhere too. An occasional nap to rest 'em is a good idea, though.
-archy-/-
Oh my..
See the details from the period of the activities of the Indianapolis-area *5-Is* private investigation firm of Indianapolis and elsewhere, so-called from its name of *Indianapolis International Intelligence Investigations, Incorporated*
Variations of the name also appeared, as did imitators, so websearches should check the following reference first.
See in particular Jim Hougan's 1979 book *Spooks* for additional info, both on the *Five Eyes* investigations agency and Bobby Kennedy's *Get Hoffa* activities in particular.
[FYI, the original *JHoffa* was from the small southern Indiana town of Brazil, near Terre Haute.]
-archy-/-
Me too.
(I am his arch-Conservative, labor hating, doppleganger though..)
I think the only reason the FBI wouldn't welcome them with open arms (after all they worked so well together at Waco) is the inherent snobbery of the FBI as being elite so that they once had to be either lawyers or accountants to be a special agent....whereas any old brutal cop with his own jack-boots can get into the ATF.
The ATF is in town. Go home and lock your doors.
Better include grandmoms in that warning.
Thirty years ago you'd expect that opinion to come from the fringes of left or right. Your profile is that of a solid citizen. Sad state we're in.
They ceased to be a legitimate federal agency the day they were moved out of the Internal Revenue office, 1 July 1972, and even then only the collection of the taxes on alcohol and tobacco were legitimate. Those functions stayed with Treasury when BATFE was recentely moved to Justice and was renamed. Either taxing or restricting the right of the people to keep and bear arms is an infringement of that right, prohibited by the Second Amendment, and thus illegitimate.
That's not to say that they don't have few other legitimate or at least worthwhile functions, such as providing expertise on arson and explosives. Those functions properly belong in other agencies, such as the FBI.
The BATF(E)'s abuses did not start with Waco. Part of the reason the Firearms' Owners Protection Act was enacted during the Reagan adminsitration was to reign in the BATF, and eliminate or modify some of the laws they were abusing.
Justice Department. and it's BATFE, not ATF, inspite of what they'd like to think. Always use the full five letter designation. It means they are one step lower on the peaking order, and they hate that. They'd like to be thought of as a three letter agency, like FBI or DEA, but they aren't.
(I am his arch-Conservative, labor hating, doppleganger though..)
I lived in Knox County south of Brazil, and spent several years as the *Along the Way* columnist of the Hiatt newspapers owned by Bicknell publisher Larry Hiatt, particularly the KC Daily News.
I also spent time around Bloomington and the Brown County town of Trevlac, and most enjoyably, up around Vermillion County's town of Dana, long ago the boyhood home of newspaperman Ernie Pyle. [I am his syntax-strangling, participle-dangling misspelling and editor-hating doppelganger, though, a poetaster following the path he and others blazed for me.]
-archy-/-
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