Web links related to the Back of the Book program of 11/29/99

Well, this was an unusual program! The “Saddle Pals” reunited on the air for the first time in about a year or so. Uncle Sidney Smith was able to provide us with a tape for the program, and he and Maxwell J. Schmid commented on the program's topics.

The Web cast of tonight's program is probably working. Here are your choices:

Paul Williams of UFO Desk is arranging for this feed. And we thank Porus dot com for this feed.

“Emmanuel Goldstein” of Off The Hook is maintaining this feed.

On the air we talked about New York City Mayor Giuliani's latest crackdown on the homeless. Not content to force them to work in exchange for being allowed to stay in the luxurious confines of a New York City homeless shelter, the Mayor is now just ordering that the homeless be arrested. There is also the older Mayoral Executive order that requires the police to pick up all homeless persons they see and bring them to a city homeless shelter when it gets too cold. Some folks have set up a message board for discussions about this Mayor's policies.

Yeah, I know, it's not an Earth shaking development, but chess has been a certain way for many years. Now the worthless imbeciles from the international chess federation (FIDE) have achieved their wish and chess is being considered for the status of an Olympic sport. Chess, a sport? Seems goofy on it's face, but in places like the former Soviet Union it was considered a sport. Of course the International Olympic Committee is known to be every bit as corrupt as FIDE, so it's not too far a stretch for them be get in cahoots with each other.

This wouldn't be too awful for chess and chess players if it only involved the looting of organizational treasuries and grandstanding by crooks. But now we've experienced the first ever scandal involving drug testing and chess. At the Spanish Team Championships they've tested participants for drugs. The E-mail publication Chess Express is reporting that a chess player has been banned from the Italian Championships because he tested positive for drugs. This is unheard of in chess because there is no known drug that can enhance performance in a chess game. Is this just a stupid, never to be repeated gaff, or is this the way things are going to be in the future for chess?

In a breaking development, Jan Timman, a world class International Grandmaster, is talking about starting a new International Chess Federation if FIDE insists on drug testing of chess players (item #39 on that page).

There is a very disturbing development being reported by the Village Voice. If true, it's something that has to be dealt with by everyone who has a Web site, otherwise this fabulous medium of free expression called the World Wide Web is going to succumb to the most vile forms of governmental censorship.

Through the kind offices of Uncle Sidney Smith, who alternates with me in the 1:00 AM to 3:00 AM time slot on Sunday nights/Monday mornings, we were able to play audio of the above referenced video tape. We all agreed that it's a fictional presentation, in the same vein as The Blair Witch Project was. The big question remains: why was the FBI and New Jersey law enforcement so adamant about getting that Web site out of the public view?

Here's an on line copy of the audio from that tape courtesy of a listener named Richard. If I can find a mirror that has the video I'll link to that as well. So if you know of one, please let me know.

And who would ever trust that ISP called BECamation ever again, after they caved in so easily to threats, or “requests,” from the FBI?

There are a lot of issues that we can't talk about on the air at WBAI. But there is an Internet list called “Free Pacifica!” which you can subscribe to, and these issues are discussed there. If you subscribe to it you will receive, via E-mail, all of the messages which are sent to that list. You will also be able to send messages to the list.

If you want to subscribe to the “Free Pacifica!” list just click on this link and follow the instructions, and you'll be subscribed. Could open your eyes a little bit.

The above list has occasionally produced a high volume of E-mail because of the attention that these issues have drawn. If you would prefer to subscribe to a low volume list that only provides announcements of events related to these issues then subscribe to the FreePac mailing list.


My voice mail number at WBAI is 212-209-2996. Leave a message.

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