Unanswered Questions About McVeigh
Clinton's Excellent Russian Adventure
Do You Want an Ad-Free-Zone Home Page?
I've always been a big fan of the Spyderco knives (and in fact have one in my pocket as I write this - which is not surprising since I carry one almost all the time). All of Spyderco's knives are well designed; their folders are durable and extremely handy to use, thanks to their one-hand-opening design and quality materials.
The new Military Model, C36 is the best of these knives to roll off the Spyderco assembly line. As it's name suggests, it is extra tough and - to my surprise - has bettered the original designs most of these knives share.
Designed by serious field work, the C36 has a stainless steel "walker liner lock" which can be flicked off with the thumb; coupled with the large hole in the back of the blade, this means you can open and close it with just one hand. It also has some nice touches: A rough exterior on the grip makes it easy to hold and "file work" on the lower, rear edge of the blade and lock give added control.
The blade is 3-5/8-inches long (keeping it just under the 4-inch maximum of many state laws) and available with either a plain edge or the "SpyderEdge" which has teeth like a shark's and amazing cutting powers for heavy-duty jobs. The modified clip point blade is made of CPM-440V which is both stainless and capable of holding its edge - a tricky combination to achieve but one which Spyderco pulled off with this knife.
The handle is equally tough. It's epoxy-filled woven glass fiber which is both strong and light. In fact the total weight of this knife is only 4 ounces, making it just about "vanish" as far as weight is concerned.
Like most other Spyderco knives, this one has a clip making it a cinch to carry around in a variety of ways, whether attached to a pocket, in a waistband, or on a pack strap. This stainless steel clip is also positioned so the thumb hole on the blade is lined up for quick opening when the knife is snatched from the pocket. This makes it possible to bring the knife into action quickly - an important plus for a blade that may be needed in an emergency.
The Spyderco knives are all marvels of good engineering, modern production, and materials. The C36 is certainly no exception and is, I believe, the best production knife to come down the pike from any company to date.
For more information about Spyderco knives, you can call 1-800-525-7770 (FAX: 303-278-2229); mail address is: Sypderco, Inc., P.O. Box 800, Golden, CO 80402-0800.
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Well, the Republicans have now jumped onto the anti-terrorism bandwagon, apparently in an attempt to "prove" that they're "tough on crime" - always important in an election year.
It would have been nice if the compromise bill that swept through the House and Senate last week was simply window dressing. But even though much of it was, some of it dealt some more blows to the Bill of Rights, no doubt to the joy of the present Administration as well as those anti-gun/anti-Net congressmen who seem determined to strip us of our rights in order to protect us from ourselves.
There are serious worries in the Terrorism Bill (I leave the "anti-" off since I think that "terrorism" more fittingly describes the new law). At the top of the list is the provision that permits the President and the Justice Department to define groups that will be considered "terrorists." Undoubtedly it will only be a matter of time until any administration's enemies list is converted into a terrorist list.
Once a group is refurbished from a regular organization into the guise of a terrorist organization, the FBI and Justice Department can come down hard on them with expanded use of wiretaps. And (of course) illegally-seized evidence becomes permissible in court. Likewise both the federal and local police agencies can use the law to trace financial information without any need to obtaining evidence that any crime might have been committed.
I have not yet been able to study the bill as it passed, but it is my understanding that buried within it are "no-knock" search provisions, the legalizing of more types of military troop deployment in American borders during certain situations, and other blatantly unconstitutional qualifications.
Oh, yes. Apparently Schumer managed to get laser sights classified as a tool of terrorists if reports coming from Washington are true.
When I finally locate a copy of the new Terrorism Bill, I'm going to sit down before reading it. Otherwise I may be bowled over. After reading it, I have little doubt that the next thing I do will be to check to be sure the doors are bolted and the windows locked. If you're reading this, you should do likewise.
I seem to remember an old story about a locksmith in Colonial New England. The locksmith remarked that before government officials visited, there were always brisk sales of new padlocks, chains, and door bars.
Sounds like that time is returning to the Colonies.
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With the second anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing now behind us, and the trial of Timothy McVeigh coming up, there are still many troubling questions that remain unanswered about this whole terrible happening. If the mainstream press was anything other than a puppet of the government and big business, reporters would be asking some tough questions.
But instead, most of the press is busy painting McVeigh as a "loaner who loved guns" and who "became disenchanted with the Army and became a drifter". (If these features were capable of driving ex-GIs to become mad bombers, the Oklahoma bombing would have hardly been noticed in the aftermath of the Vietnam and Gulf Wars.)
Of course we're also hearing lots of anti-militia propaganda as well. On April 19th, reporters roamed the countryside like vultures, hoping for some carnage to bring to us on the evening news. Nothing happened so it became necessary to manufacture the terrorism of the day.
We saw reports about how federal workers were too terrorized to go to their jobs; one reporter on the evening news even told us that there had been one "militia-style robbery of a post office" somewhere in the US (I forget where). I have not yet figured out what a "militia-style robbery" is since as far as I can recall the militias haven't been robbing enough Post Offices to create any discernible MO. But who am I to question the mainstream reporters?
Oh, yes, almost forgot. There was even a report about how computers on the Internet should be considered "weapons of mass destruction." I'm not making this up - though I wish I were. According to the "experts" interviewed, those dreaded Neo-Nazis and militias in the country were busy hiring hackers to crack the codes of big city computers and shut down power grids, phone lines, and the like. Somehow this would cause the cities to melt down - things became a bit vague at that point.
Assuming that the Internet were connected to these computers which is doubtful, most undoubtedly are protected with firewalls to keep anyone from monkeying with them. But don't tell the news reporters - it would spoil the sensationalism. It is nice to know that Congress can start work toward banning computers once they round up all those dreaded firearms.
This would all be humorous if it weren't for the deaths in Oklahoma City and the damage being done by poorly reasoned laws and sensational reporting. In the meantime, the hard questions aren't being asked.
If McVeigh was involved in the bombing (and that's a big "if" in my mind), his tie-in to the military does raise some interesting possibilities that the mainstream press appears to be doing its best to hide. In my mind, these possibilities come the closest to explaining what might have happened in Oklahoma City.
The party line is that McVeigh became angry or disenchanted with the US Army after failing to make the Special Forces. In fact, those who were with him in the Army claim that McVeigh regularly made long hikes with 100-pound packs and was in superior condition. They cast doubt on the idea that McVeigh would have had any trouble meeting the physical demands needed to get into special forces (as he claimed to friends and family).
So what happened during the tests? Why did he fail to make the grade? And why did he suddenly decide not to re-enlist in the middle of what appeared to be a promising career that he was enjoying?
There is one possibility that fits with what we know.
Most people don't realize that US special forces, US military intelligence, and the CIA are all closely connected with personnel being shared on a regular basis. While they are separate entities on paper, they come close to being one and the same thing in many operations (at least from the time of the Vietnam War and most likely before that).
During the 1960s, US Army Intelligence created extensive files on American citizens; they also recruited operatives that worked in the US to spy on citizens. We've since learned that these individuals were often recruited from special forces.
Technically such operations by the CIA and US Army were made illegal in the aftermath of the Nixon Watergate problems and the Vietnam War fiasco. However, as we've seen with the Iran-Contra Operation and other odds and ends, sometimes the rules are bent in order to permit those in charge to do what they want. And there are certainly other government agencies that have taken the lead from the CIA and recruit operatives from the US military.
Now the question that begs to be answered: Was McVeigh actually working for some agency in the US Government?
His sister, before being silenced by the Justice Department and no longer covered by the press, claimed that her brother was doing just that, though she was unable to name an agency (but speculated it might have been the BATF). Since McVeigh did attend gun shows, sell firearms, and make a lot of contacts with groups the government was undoubtedly worried about, he could not have positioned himself better for such a job.
If McVeigh was working for the government, he might also have been part of a team. He might even have been used by agents in the team to help carry out the actual bombing in Oklahoma City.
Now the "easy out" is to blame BATF or some other agency for the bombing. But there might have been more to the "plot" than this. It is just as possible that McVeigh and the others working with him were trying to "smoke out" a potential terrorist by pretending to help him. Perhaps this plan got out of hand with the end result that they helped the terrorist a bit too much.
If McVeigh was part of a government team or working with people he thought were fellow bombers but were actual government agents, this might also explain both who the missing John Doe #2 was working for and why he was able to suddenly vanish from the face of the earth - and the memories of my Justice Department officials and much of the press.
Ryder Trucks just happen to be the rental truck of choice used by government agencies; the agency who rented the truck found at the scene of the crime in Oklahoma City, claims that not one but two trucks were rented to McVeigh and his friends. Apparently this second truck doesn't fit into the current case against McVeigh and therefore has been ignored by the Justice Department.
"Hoppy" Heidelberg is the gentleman who was thrown off the Grand Jury charged with the task of evaluating the evidence of the Oklahoma City bombing. Shortly after being removed from the jury, Heidelberg gave an interview to Jubilee Magazine. During that interview he said, "I think they know who John Doe #2 is, and they are protecting him." The "they" in his statement is our government. Heidelberg went on to say, "This is because John Doe #2 is either a government agent or informant and they can't afford for that to get out."
So was McVeigh a "patsy" who didn't know what was going on? Was he mislead or helped by government agents including John Doe #2?
I don't know and don't have access to the documents that would reveal the answers to this. But I have little doubt that the answers are there to be found. And the folks in Congress and the mainstream press would be digging up the answers if they were serious about the truth.
There are other questions that need to be answered: Why did the Oklahoma City bomb squad appear on the scene before the explosion? Why did BATF agents decide it wasn't a good day to be at work? Why did workers at the scene of the explosion claim to have found and disarmed other bombs? Why did seismic records show two explosions rather than one (with later "tests" showing there should have been three or four "spikes" showing up instead of two)?
These are the tough questions that need to be answered if we're to lay the mystery of the Oklahoma City bombing behind us.
It's interesting to see who has benefited from the bombing and who has not. The current administration used the bombing to recover from the Waco killings (which now are conveniently minimized since the dates of the two events being the same).
The anti-gun, anti-Constitution, and anti-militia forces in the government and press have had a field day with the bombing, even though guns, Constitutional rights, and the militias were not in any way related to what had happened.
I hope that our government wasn't involved in this bombing. And I hope that if rogue agents were involved, our government will do something besides try to cover up the fact and continue to blame those who weren't responsible for this hideous crime.
(For a detailed look at other "oddities" to the Oklahoma City Bombing case, see David Hoffman's excellent article about this subject.)
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In the 1700 and 1800s, several royal families ruled Europe. They often had their wars in which thousands of soldiers and villagers were slaughtered, but somehow the royals always managed to patch things up in the end with little if any loss of blue blood. In fact, when things really got tense, the kings often made loans, reduced hostilities, or otherwise helped out behind the scenes to assure that no one lost his throne.
Little by little royalty has had to give up apparent power or go underground. Democracy - or at least the illusion of democracy - came back on the scene. Until recently.
Today we have new royalty in the form of politicians. And like the royalty of yore, they have the remarkable ability to wage war and hostilities with little spilling of royal blood during the slaughtering of innocents.
During the last few months we've witnessed the actions necessary to be sure no one loses his throne. A prime example of this can be seen in Clinton's recent trip to South Korea, Japan, and Russia where the royalty is in danger of being tossed out by the angry peasants.
With a flourish reminiscent of Marie Antoinette's famous, "Let them eat cake" line, Clinton stopped in Russia on April 19th to remind the Russians (who no doubt have nothing better to think about) that we could never again let anyone bomb Oklahoma City.
The Russians smiled and nodded and were careful not to mention Waco where 86 men, women, and children had been burned to cinders. In exchange, Clinton didn't mention the 40,000 corpses of civilians who've been bombed, burnt, and shot by Russian troops in Chechnya.
When the royals meet, there are lots of smiles, pomp, and ceremony for the cameras. Lots of hand shaking and agreements. Anything to keep in power and keep the common folk from driving those who were born to rule from power.
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Since the last column about the Kel-Tec P-11 pistol, I've had some questions coming in over the wire.
So...
Here's the company's address (thereby answering most questions): Kel-Tec CNC Inc., 1485 Cox Road, P.O. Box 3427, Cocoa, FL 329243427407-631-0068 (FAX: 407-631-1169)
Kel-Tec also has recently come out with an interesting accessory for its pistol. It's a clip that attaches to the pins in the frame of the gun. This clip permits "hanging" the pistol inside the waistband of your pants for fairly secure carry without a holster.
I have to admit I have mixed feelings about this feature since I've always felt a gun was a bit safer and certainly more secure in a holster. However for those folks who find themselves needing to quickly snatch up a gun and get it into place in a hurry, this may be just the ticket. I can imagine a homeowner, for example, living in a tough neighborhood and wanting a gun that can be picked up and jammed into the pants when going to answer the door late in the evening.
At any rate, the Kel-Tec P-11 is one of those nice little arms you find yourself wishing had been available about 20 years earlier.
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Up until this morning I had one of those. But little by little it has become filled up with more and more advertising. I put up with it because I liked the services it offered - advertising pays for much of the Internet these days.
But finally I discovered that the whole first of the page was ads - I have to "mouse around" to get to the search area. And one of the ads had obnoxious clacking false teeth which were funny the first hundred times but soon became like Mr. Whipple on the old Charman toilet tissue ads - pretty soon you were so sick of seeing them that you started your own boycott of the product (which my family did for nearly a decade).
Since I write Web pages for fun (and hopefully some day for profit), I decided it would make sense to make my own home page with a bunch of search engine forms, fun spots to visit, and (MOST importantly) no advertising.
So I took a day off and did just that. Soon I had the starting point to go to a choice of a variety of search engines, an on-line dictionary, directories, etc., as well as a lot of fun spots, magazines, news sources, and other links. And no more ads - at least until you get to your search results or final destination.
I've loaded my Ad-Free Home Page onto the Net and you're welcome to add it as your "home page" on your viewer. Unlike much of the Net, I can promise you that this home page has links to lots of "right-wing, pro-gun extremism" that will curl the teeth of those mainstream old women of both sexes.
You will need to ignore the "Manhattan Weather" (for my area of the world). But everything else is of general interest, especially if you're into firearms and the like.
And there are no clacking teeth, Mr. Whipple, or similar obnoxious things. Ad-Free Home Page
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(For a more detailed look at the firearms mentioned above, see Duncan Long's books, many of which are available from Paladin Press P. O. Box 1307, Boulder, CO 80306-1307 Phone: 800-392-2400; and/or Delta Press, P.O. Box 1625, 215 S. Washington St., El Dorado, AR 71731 800-8524445)