Greetings everyone! There is nothing wrong with extremism, and the Republic of Texas "movement" should be viewed in such a light. What just transpired over the past week, however, has nothing much to do with extremism, either of the left variety, or its' so-called "right-wing" counterpart -- since violent acts occur regardless of political views or what end of the political spectrum one wishes to call "home", for themselves. As a product of the radical era of the 1960s, I recall various violent acts perpetrated by the so-called extreme "left-wing", the Symbionese Liberation Army, the Black Panthers, and other such groups that truly did espouse violence as a means to achieving a political end. This was the exception, however, for even most avowed "leftists" generally oppose violence to achieve political or social goals. And although it was an exception, I feel there was a far greater degree of violence associated with the radical leftist groups than there is today with such matters as just occured in west Texas. Although many libertarians, including Harry Browne stated that the Libertarian Party has achieved solidarity with mainstream America, there is the realization that we are still a "fringe" party, or to put it quite another way, an "extreme" party, with an extreme political philosophy (at least by today's standards). A comfortable factor with us "libertarians" is we do NOT believe in initiating the use of force to achieve either social or political ends. And, there is much in the middle here that I do not have the time to really touch on at the moment, for example, many of us believe in legitimate use of force for self-defense against aggression, and certainly there is a lot of that imposed upon all Americans today by our own government. Aside from that, we need to take a sober look at the use of force by a faction of the "Republic of Texas" movement, and see how it all stacks up. And, a faction it is, since reports indicate the group is split into three factions as this goes to press. And, I find it extremely sobering to take a look at how the mainstream press is playing all of this up. I just spent most of last week in Corpus Christi, Texas as all of this was playing itself out. The papers I read were far more objective than anything I have read in the Pacific Northwest concerning patriot or constitutionalist groups in our own region! And, it appears that locally, at least, Texans were given both sides of the standoff-- including the views without hyperbole of the splintered Republic of Texas view of the legality of the "annexation" of Texas as a state. A tremendous contrast can be said here between such objective reporting, and the smear campaign launched by the media in our northwest region! [66 lines left ... full text available at <url:http://www.reference.com/cgi-bin/pn/go?choice=message&table=05_1997&mid=1392179&hilit=CONSPIRACY+MEDIA> ] -------------------------------- Article-ID: 05_1997&1366829 Score: 80 Subject: Re: Iguana freaks out close to full moon, and when a storm is on the way...