Back of the Book links for the July 8, 2002 program

Here is the latest on the saga of Pacifica. There was a big meeting of the interim Pacifica National Board in June in Berkeley, CA. I have a link to notes from a listener who was there.

As we move into the next phase of the Pacifica Crisis some listeners are more convinced than ever that only open elections will provide a long range cure for the Pacifica Crisis. Here's an election proposal.

Here's the WBAI schedule. Don't blame me if it's not accurate, I didn't make it up I'm only relaying it.

Our colleagues from Off the Hook now have both a RealAudio streaming web cast operating, and a new MP3 stream both of which were working at about 7:44 PM last night. The MP3 feed is now the preferred feed.

The folks from Heritage of Pride, the group that now runs the march and rally is still committed to not letting anyone know the order of march until the very morning of the march itself. Some sort of mystical ritual of theirs. Sure would be nice if they'd post it on their Web site beforehand though.

I'm going to talk about the Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Trans Pride March tonight. I know that most people think it's a parade, but I know it's a march.

So far my award for most obnoxious float goes to the National Lesbian and Gay Task Force. They had a pickup truck with a couple of overdriven speakers blaring out old disco tunes. From the signs on their truck they were trying to say something about the Anita Bryant campaign from 25 years ago. It was not an impressive “float” but it was unnecessarily loud.

I am told that a local chapter of the Pink Pistols marched this year. They're a group that builds “bridges between the shooting community and other communities, such as those based on alternative sexualities.” In other words it's a gay gun club. As a member of the Gay Communist Gun Club I figure they might be my kind of people!

Since that program there has been a lot of discussion about this issue, and it turns out that the contract signed was of questionable legality. The host and senior producer of Democracy Now! issued a statement about the contract. The iPNB held a closed teleconference meeting on this issue on July 15^th, and will hold another on it on July 22^nd. All parties are apparently amenable to renegotiating this thing, and I'll keep you posted on what happens next.

We got through a bunch of mail on this program, much of it that old fashioned, but good, paper sort. Here are the E-mails I got to on the air, starting with one I'd skipped on a previous program to keep the ever romantic Fernando within his quota.

Subject: A Question on Relationships And A Report
Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2002 13:39:02 -0700 (PDT)
From: Fernando
To: rpm@glib.com

Dear R. Paul,

On a recent broadcast, you mentioned that you do not give credence to astrology. I am a Libra as my birthday is in EARLY October. A couple of years ago, I had my astrological chart done by a woman I was introduced to. I gave her sixty five dollars to do this. The chart was very accurate and said that I had enormous potential to succeed in my profession. She told me that I could become a GIANT in my field. I hope this will be so. I am already somewhat of a celebrity and I have a couple of accomplishments under my belt.

My chart also told me that I would be unlikely to succede in love and if I married, it would be for business purposes. This is what I want to ask you about, Sir. As a man with a few years on me and in a steady relationship, you are somewhat of a father figure with experience. I am in a relationship with a young woman who has a tatoo and her nose and belly button pierced. Her tatoo is of some chinese writing on the small of her back. I can't stand this about her, R. I do not approve of piercings and tatoos. As much as I am attracted to her, I find these white trash accoutrements to be very trampy and I told her so. I said they made her look like a gypsy tramp. She made a big stink and refuses to do away with the tatoos or the piercings. Why? This is sluttish behavior. I believe she has compromised the intimacy between us by letting some guy treat her back like a chinaman's notepad.

How can I continue to be in a relationship with a girl when she won't do what I say? How important is obedience to a relationship? Paul, how can I get her to do what I want?

On another matter, I recently attended a horror and sci-fi convention here in New Jersey. Do you like Spiderman? I know you like Star Trek, how do you feel about Next Generation? At this convention, I met Denise Crosby who played Lt. Tasha Yar. She was very nice and I told her how surprised I was that she was nice and STILL looked good. She was a knock-out, R! VERY hot! As she walked away from me, I checked how her fine rear attributes (if you know what I mean?)

Thank you for your attention. As always, I continue to listen to radios.

Sincerely, Fernando Florham Park, NJ

Subject: why can't i get rid of a cookie?
Date: Tue, 07 May 2002 01:54:16 +0000
From: "fred flintstone"
To: rpm@glib.com

after perusing various gay porno sites, i deleted some history and cookies-all but one stubborn one. why? what agency, if any, would make it impossible for me to delete a cookie? should i worry? i didn't look at anything illegal-just dirty, and i didn't even get a pass to really investigate these sites. am i marked? what to do?
also, the discovery channel had on a show about a vast tsunami which will one day originate in the canary islands and devastate the entire east coast of n. america.
run, everybody, run!
p.s. i'm not too computer literate. please answer on your website if i don't hear it on your show.
run fast!
love, paranoid

If you can't delete the cookie within the file, just delete the cookie file. Also, you can look through a search engine such as Google and just search on the words “delete cookies” and get lots of expert advice.

Subject: ah, fernando!
Date: Sat, 11 May 2002 03:06:04 +0000
From: "mister charm"
To: rpm@glib.com

ahrgh, rpaul, how i want that fernando how he inflames me loins how he drives me wild ah fernando let's play cap'n and cabin boy ah let's take turns you can do to me what i do to you make a fat old man happy! best to both you and pickles
love charm
ahrghhh!

Subject: ahrghhh, fernando!
Date: Sat, 11 May 2002 03:18:17 +0000
From: "mister charm"
To: rpm@glib.com

did i mention that fernando is 32 years old? arrest me for young stud abuse.

Subject: Spam
Date: Sun, 02 Jun 2002 23:47:24 -0400
From: "W A S S E R C R A T S"
To: rpm@glib.com

Didn't you mention spam like this: http://www.polisource.com/PublicMisc/spam.html

on a previous show? Any suggestions on what I should do about it? I just got it and decided to put it on my website, but only your listeners will know about it.

By the way, my name is Barry. You didn't believe my real name was Wassercrats last time, so I decided to come clean.
Oh, and cool show last week. I had to wipe up your sweat dripping out of my speakers. Glad you raised the money, even though we're political opposites.

Subject: Gort! Klaatu barada nikto!
Date: Sat, 8 Jun 2002 18:35:01 -0400
From: Bill in Manhattan
To: rpm@glib.com

Translation: Where the hell is Michael Rennie now that we really need him? I had to do an on-line search of “The Day the Earth Stood Still” to come up with the line of dialogue because frankly what I remember most is just Klaatu's sad and ironic smile in response to human folly. But wait! isn't there a scene where our visiting friend finds a mathematical formula on a blackboard, erases part of it, and then takes a piece of chalk and corrects it. You know what this means, R. Paul? from millions of miles away they have sent a crape hanger to Earth. And then the professor comes in. He looks familiar, doesn't he? why, he actually looks like Gunga Din without a turban and grown a little older! (alas, aren't we all) and he sees the blackboard ... and a smile creases his weary face! Godfrey Daniels! he enjoys being corrected! (just like in real life) and well, there's only one way to explain this, but he must be a crape hanger, too. They don't even need to give the password or the secret grip of crape hangers. Born millions of miles apart, they still belong to the same Lodge. No wonder R. Paul Martin likes this picture -- the truth shall set you free. I never saw this film until it came on television as part of the big package of 20th Century Fox bought by NBC and shown on Saturday nights. I also remember very fondly a B-movie film which was always on television a lot, and that was “Rocketship X-M” with Lloyd Bridges. This was done in 1950, one year before “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” I think the only other important film to mention in this regard would be “Destination Moon” which was from a Robert A. Heinlein script, also 1950. I remember very well the first picture my parents took me to see -- “High Noon” in 1952. Half a century later, it's still the same old story, sometimes movies are great, sometimes you waste your bucks on a lot of crap. Advice for anyone watching their favorite film for the umpteenth time -- turn the volume all the way down. Look what the actors are actually doing. Look what the camera is doing. Look what the film editor is doing. We could do without the music -- but I'm not knocking Bernard Herrmann. Until I heard the Star Trek tape on the fund raising drive, I didn't realize he'd worked on that series, as well as all his great films. “D.O.A.” was a great film, as well -- but some secrets must not be revealed. Best wishes, Bill in Manhattan.

Bill is also relating to my short discussion about how valuable “crepe hangers” are to science. They're the people who try to find holes in the data or reasoning of other scientists' theories. Hell, Copernicus was a crepe hanger!

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.

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.

Another list that's sprung up is the “NewPacifica” mailing list. This one is very lively and currently includes over 400 subscribers coast to coast. Being lively, of course, it sometimes also gets a bit nasty. All sorts of things are happening on this list. With that warning in mind, you can look at the NewPacifica list here, and you can join the list from that Web page too, although you'll have to deal with Yahoo! to do so.

There is also the more WBAI specific “Goodlight” Web based message board. This one has a great many people posting anonymously and there's also an ancillary board that's just totally out of hand.

The “Goodlight” Web based message board has expanded to cover all Pacifica stations.