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Activist Times Inc. Issue 055
HEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEY
HEYHEYhey, hey, hey, it's ATI!HEY
HEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEYHEY
-----> issue 55
August-something, 1991.
Special "Yeah, We're Back - Did you Miss Us?" Issue!
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= info following brought =
= on by a need for more =
= real information =) =
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Hi, folks. Hope you're all doing well and staying out of trouble.
Sorry for not putting out ATI55 sooner! Hopefully, we'll be on
a monthly or bi-monthy schedule from now on.
What's new?
Watching the news is a strange experience as of late, because we're
seeing history in the making. The shape of Eastern Europe and the USSR
is changing radically. One country (Yugoslavia? Romania?) is on the
brink of civil war, and the USSR had a 3-day coup and now threatens
to split up.
On the home front, a whole host of new problems have popped up, and
certainly all the old ones continue to plague us. It's time to
clean house, folks.
Prime hasn't sent me his column, Prime Anarchist World News (PAWN)
lately. We hope to start that up again by next issue. But in the
meantime, we present a new contrubutor and column: Media Assassin's
Crass Commentary.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
C R A S S C O M M E N T A R Y
from: The Media Assassin
Greetings, drones, dweebs and other forms of life.
47 PERCENT OF OUR GROSS NATIONAL PRODUCT GOES TO GOVERNMENT
That's what Andre Marrou, Libertarian Party candidate for
Presidential nomination says. In a viewer call-in question-and-answer
session on C-SPAN on August30, Marrou stated that the federal
government takes 22% of the nation's GNP, and state and local governments
take another 25%. That adds up to 47%. Virtually half of what we
produce in this country is confiscated by government to waste on whatever
and whomever they wish.
Think about the implications of the above. Next time you hear someone
complain about high taxes, remember that disturbing statistic. Next
time you hear someone complain that the government isn't doing enough
for the victim-group-of-the-hour, remember that statistic.
Where does the money go? Good question.
Here's a breakdown of the items included in the proposed budget for
fiscal year 1992 (beginning October 1, 1991). Due to the short lead
time on this article (yeah, I know -GZ), I didn't have time to research
whether the figures were approved by Congress or altered. I am merely
including this to give you an idea of the massive spending of your
expropriated tax dollars. Read on:
FY92 % of
Proposed Federal
(figures as of May 1991) Funds
(in $ millions)
CURRENT MILITARY SPENDING 294,399.151 25.8%
TOTAL COST OF PAST WARS 209,411.387 18.3%
NON-MILITARY RELATED INTEREST 126,759.029 11.1%
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 30,314.077 2.6%
ANTI-POVERTY/SOCIAL PROGRAMS 259,794.775 22.7%
COMMUNITY AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT 62,474.224 5.5%
SCIENCE AND THE ENVIRONMENT 36,100.454 3.2%
FED. EMPLOYEE RETIREMENT & BENEFIT 43,866.042 3.8%
MISCELLANEOUS GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS 85,069.702
less unallocated receipts: -85.000
-2,687.000
Pmt. to soc. sec. (off budget) -1,190.731
Gov't. programs, net 81,106.971 7.1%
BUDGET TOTALS 1,144,602.462 100.0%
------------------------------------------------
The two largest categories are military spending and social
programs. Let's examine these two areas.
The preparers of the above information, the Friends
Committee on National Legislation, included "community and regional
development" as a separate category. However, it is certain that
the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) was a part of the
aformentioned category. HUD provides many programs, such as payment
of low-income individuals' rent in private housing (in which taxpayers
are forced to contribute to a program that drives up the cost of housing
for everyone), and also provides for public housing, such as senior
citizens' buildings in which the tenants pay rent according to income
(the remainder of the rent is paid by HUD, i.e., the taxpayer). Therefore,
part or all of the category of "community and regional development"
could be considered "social programs" in light of the functions of HUD.
It could be argued that the greatest part of the federal government's
expenses go towards social programs that productive taxpayers realize
no benefit from.
Military spending has proven to be quite a burden as well. I
am sure most readers are familiar with anecdotes of "$500 hammers"
and "$1000 toilets" sold to the taxpayers by defense contractors.
Also, consider the stories referring to the many costly defense items
that fail to work properly. While stories of this nature are refuted
by government officials and industry "experts", believe them. They
serve to illustrate how our members of our government take the privelege
of siphening our tax dollars to their friends in the defense industry.
Many people believe that the amount of taxes paid by themselves
and others and the amount of government spending does not affect
them. A review of the above information and discussion clearly reveal
that taxes and spending do affect individuals. The taxes
>from payroll, sales and property tax and other forms of tax diminish
the quality of life for productive people. Remember that 47
percent of our gross national product is consumed by government.
If people were allowed to work and make purchases of goods
and property without severe taxation, their quality of life would
increase tremendously, and our economy would benefit.
See you next time.
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Now for a tidbit someone sent me about a new COCOT (indepently-owned
pay phone - Customer Owned Coin Operated Telephone):
The Birth of a Cocot
I have just had the amazing experience of seeing the birth of a
COCOT. From a hole in the ground, to a slender metal pole, to the cozy
blue box with magic inside.
At first glance, it looks just like a NY Tel payphone. Nowhere does
it say NY Tel. The top insert has all the normal info, with the
additional "For emergencies, dial 911". Syracuse does not have 911
service implemented, even though we pay a surcharge for it. I didn't
try it to see if the phone was programmed.
The insert where the phone number goes is blank. The lower insert,
where the info on who provides what LD service is supposed to be, is a
generic panel with fill in the blanks. Directory assistance.
Emergency. Operator. Repair.
The only two blanks filled in are the Emergency number (211,
different than the upper insert says), and Operator. There is nothing
for repair, nothing that says the LD carrier. Nothing that says who
the owner of the phone is.
Aha! I will dial the operator and see who the AOS is. I pick up the
handset, and hear, in addition to dialtone, McGruff the Crimefighting
Dog talking about neighborhood watch and taking a bite out of crime.
How unique -- PSA's on COCOT's. I dial 0. Country music comes on. So
does the operator. She shouts at me. I shout back. The country music
plays on. "What number are you at" she shouts. "Don't know". "What
city are you in?" "Syracuse." "What state is that?" How convenient in
an emergency, dial the operator.
I find out she works for Oasis. She asks me the number I was
calling. I wasn't, just her. Why she thinks I would try to complete a
call with Kenny Rogers playing loud enough that I have to shout is
beyond me. She wrote a trouble ticket. How they will find the phone, I
don't know. There are a lot of them in Syracuse.
I think I know who owns the phone. I am going to call him tomorrow.
------------------------------
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ANAC List
What's an ANAC? It stands for Automatic Number Anouncement. It
refers to a number that you call that will give you a computer-voice
reading of the phone number you're at. Telco repairmen use these
numbers, but others sometimes find use for these numbers as well.
Here are some that I have gathered from various sources such as 2600
Magazine, and e-mail conversations I have had with people in different
parts of the country:
AREA CODE or Area NUMBER
----------------- ------
619 211-2111
212, 607, 516, 718 958
914 990
713 380
512 830
213 61056, 1223 or 114 (in GTE areas)
parts of IL 290
408 760 or 300-xxx-xxxx (x = any number)
parts of 919 711
parts of TX served by GTE 970-xxxx
502 997-555-1212
parts of MI served by MI Bell 200-222-2222 or 200-xxx-xxxx
191# in DMS-100 areas
604 211 or 116
(put 1 in front if in a step-by-step area)
404 940-222-2222
Atlanta area (doesn't work in suburban-Decatur area)
412 410-4100 - downtown/suburban Pittsburgh
410-6633 - east suburban Pittsburgh
elsewhere in 412 - look in 410 exchange
916 830-xxxx - Sacramento area
206 411 (GTE Everett, WA area)
305, 407 1-200-xxx-xxxx
603 200-222-1111 (put 1 in front possibly)
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Well, that's it for now. I hope to make ATI a monthly
event now. I know I promised it before, but this time I really hope
to accomplish it. I need more contributions to make this goal a little
easier for me to accomplish. In ATI we publish items of all
categories, but here is a list of suggestions for contributions:
creative writing - short stories, poetry, stream of consciousness, etc.
"slice of life" - transcripts of weird conversations, buffers of weird
BBS posts or chat buffers
telecom - info on telephony, BBSing, hack/phreak, computers in general,
packet radio, etc..
technology - ham radio, electronics, scanners, etc.
current events/politics - local news in your area of special interest,
comment on local/national/international issues,
editorials, political theory
social issues - abortion, death penalty, crime, prisons, men & women,
homosexuality, etc.
entertainment - books, movies, TV, Star Trek, The Prisoner, etc..
hobbies
science
..and any other category you can think of!!
Send your items in. I await them!
In the meantime, I bid you a farewell. Look for a new ATI in late
September/early October. Ciao a tutti!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
ATI: part of George Bush's thousand points of light.
