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Major Variola (ret)[SMTP:mv@cdc.gov] writes:

Please tell me cdc.gov is *not* a open relay and that our resident microbiologist has 'doctored' his own machine. I don't think our nation can stand another CY53R-T3RR0R12T threat right now. ;-)

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The inet-one.com archives show a Sircam offering which is just too humorous to ignore, and which lne.com folks won't see: a file called "animal farm novel report.doc.com" (which is, of course, infected).

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Humor? I think it's sad. The sad thing, of course, is that 'Eleanor' does not recognize that Animal Farm is a person-by-person, event-by-event, allegorization of the Russian Revolution and ensuing events. Such is the state of modern education.

Those who will not remember the past....

Peter Trei

".....As I have said elsewhere, there was little that was truly original with or indigenous to Gilead; its genius was synthesis....." The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood portrays a religious-fundamentalist group seizing power in the USA through progressive acts of terrorism. Re-reading it for the umpteenth time, I was surprised at the similarities between the book and recent events. Like 1984, the book took current and past trends, and 'carried them to their logical conclusions'.

From now on, whenever I think about 'Jezebel's' I'll remember the grand finale of Animal Farm. Thanks SirCam! (No cavities!!!)

If you can't be kind about history, be vague. -- Quote from "The Handmaid's Tale", by 'anonymous': "I guess that's how they were able to do it, in the way they did, all at once, without anyone knowing beforehand. If there had still been portable money it would have been more difficult. It was after the catastrophe, when they shot the President and machine-gunned the Congress and the army declared a state of emergency. They blamed it on Islamic Fanatics, at the time. Keep calm, they said on television. Everything is under control. I was stunned. Everyone was, I know that. It was hard to believe. The entire government, gone like that. How did they get in, how did it happen? That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary. There wasn't even any rioting in the streets. People stayed home at night, watching television, looking for some direction. There wasn't even an enemy you could put your finger on. Look out, Moira said to me, over the phone. Here it comes. Here what comes? I said. You wait, she said. They've been building up to this. It's you and me up against the wall, baby. She was quoting an expression of my mother's, but she wasn't intending to be funny. Things continued in a state of suspended animation for weeks, although things did happen. Newspapers were censored and some were closed down, for security reasons they said. The roadblocks began to appear, and Identipasses. Everyone approved of that, since it was obvious you couldn't be too careful. They said new elections would be held, but that it would take some time to prepare for them. The thing to do, they said, was to continue on as usual....." Excerpts from "Afghanistan and the United States: Two Early Twenty-First Century Monotheocracies, as Seen Through Diaries," by Prof. James Darcy Pieixoto, Director, Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Archives, Cambridge University, England: speaking June 25, 2195 [The Sons of Jacob Think Tanks] were organized shortly after the recognition of the superpower arms stalemate and the signing of the classified Spheres of Influence Accord, which left the superpowers free to deal, unhampered by interference, with the growing number of rebellions within their own empires. [..] It was [Judd] who suggested the use of an obscure "C.I.A." pamphlet on the destabilization of foreign governments as a strategic handbook for the Sons of Jacob, and he, too, who drew up the early hit-lists of prominent "Americans" of the time. He is also suspected of having orchestrated the President's Day Massacre, which must have required maximum infiltration of the security systems surrounding Congress, and without which the Constitution could never have been suspended. [..] "Its racist policies [..] were firmly rooted in the pre- Gilead period, and racist fears provided some of the emotional fuel that allowed the Gilead takeover to succeed as well as it did. [..] To institute an effective totalitarian system or indeed any system at all you must offer some benefits and freedoms, at least to a privileged few, in return for those you remove. [..] We now return you to your regular programming..... [demime 0.97c removed an attachment of type application/M$-virus-propagation-platform entitled "I send you this file in order to have your device.txt.doc".]