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In December, 1775, an American colonist (believed by many scholars to be Benjamin Franklin), noticed the increasing use of a symbol throughout the colonies, stamped onto barrels and other items, depicting a coiled rattlesnake with the words ''Don't Tread On Me'' written below the snake. And he wondered about how the symbol of a rattlesnake could be a symbol of the American desire for freedom? He wrote the following words, after giving it some thought. Words which are just as relevant now, in light of the attack September 11, 2001, as they were back in 1775.

"... the Rattle-Snake is found in no other quarter of the world besides America. She never begins an attack, nor, when once engaged, ever surrenders: She is therefore an emblem of magnanimity and true courage. ... she never wounds 'till she has generously given notice, even to her enemy, and cautioned him against the danger of treading on her.''

You can see images of this "Gadsden" flag as well as other U.S. flags using this symbolism at http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/us-ratt.html#gad This mailing deals with stupid things that people do. If the constant bombing of Britain by Hitler's Germany and the attack on Pearl Harbor by the imperial forces of Japan during WW II taught any lesson to those who commit atrocities, it's that attacking civilians and someone's homeland does not demoralize anyone nor gain any new supporters for a cause, but rather rallies people into a mightier, more dangerous retaliatory force.

by Larry Elder Today Congress approved the $300 billion Universal Support Enablement Law for Evaders of Suitable Skills, known as the USELESS bill. USELESS supporters call the measure's passage a statement to people with no work skills, bad attitudes, poor personal hygiene, that they, too, are Americans. The program is open to "any individual who can--but won't--work, whether due to laziness, self-pity, or bad attitude." The USELESS passage delighted Vice President Al Gore, who, during the New Hampshire primary, called the measure a centerpiece of his presidential campaign. "I know a lot of people who don't like getting up on Mondays," said Gore. "People who stay up too late, who drink too much, and sleep too little. We should honor those who refuse to submit to the Internet era."
USELESS seeks to close the gap between the rich and the poor, the skilled and the unskilled, the motivated and the unmotivated. "Many people," said Gore, "lead lives of intellectual stupor. They watch Jerry Springer and smoke Winstons without filters. They think Picasso is something you order from Pizza Hut. They drink out of glasses that originally came with grape jelly. They eat at Sizzlers, go bowling on Tuesdays, and say things like 'boo-yah' or 'what's u-u-u-u-p-p-p?' Somebody needs to be there for them."
A quarter of a million USELESS volunteers will be paid $25 an hour, plus benefits, to search for and identify the indifferent, the lackluster, and the lazy. Volunteers are instructed to approach those not working and say, "Stand up. You count, too. That's why God invented microwave popcorn, the remote control, and the living room sofa."
USELESS participants will receive vouchers enabling them to purchase goods, products, and services they are simply not interested in acquiring by working. Program sponsors say fraud will be kept to a minimum because the lazy and indifferent lack the energy and creativity to cheat the system. "It's the best of both worlds," said First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. "The critics say that giving money to the lazy, dumb, and stupid provides a disincentive to learn, grow, or educate. But every day contributions are made by those who are confused, disorganized, and dysfunctional. Except they call it Congress."
Even Republican George W. Bush yielded to the measure's popularity. "Life can be cruel to somebody who doesn't like working. We had a cousin, Irving, who didn't like to work. Gee, I remember in those long ago, less sensitive days, we just hollered at him and told him to get a job. Oh, he did, but he held it against us for a really long time."
USELESS tax incentives will be awarded employers who hire those with slovenly work habits, low self-esteem, and poor personal hygiene. Obsessive attention to profits and to corporate image, say USELESS sponsors, denies rights to those without taste, fashion sense, or social skills. "I was out of work a long time," said Ed Trucker, a former St. Louis airport baggage handler. "People complained that I smelled funny. I admit I never bathed or showered, but I don't trust the fluoride they put in the water. Makes me itch. But now, with this new law, there's a light at the end of the tunnel."
USELESS, which goes into effect on April 1, prevents landlords from requiring security deposits, mortgage lenders from seeking collateral, and employers from requiring employees to show up and perform as a condition of compensation. "We shouldn't create two classes of citizens--those who are punctual and those who are not," said Gore. "Just because you come to work late, or don't show up at all, doesn't mean you can't contribute. What would have happened to the play, 'Waiting for Godot,' if Godot had shown up on time?"
The measure also outlaws intrusive personal questions during job interviews, such as, "Did you bring a resumé?" "Have you worked before?" or "Why aren't you wearing pants?"
Taken from Larry Elder's website. ©2000 Larry Elder

The Dangers of Big Bread

Sure, we attack tobacco companies, but when is the government going to go after Big Bread? Consider this:

More than 98% of convicted felons are bread users.
Fully HALF of all children who grow up in bread-consuming households score below average on standardized tests.
In the 18th century, when virtually all bread was baked in the home, the average life expectancy was less than 50 years; infant mortality rates were unacceptably high; many women died in childbirth; and diseases such as typhoid, yellow fever, and influenza ravaged whole nations.
More than 90 percent of violent crimes are committed within 24 hours of eating bread.
Bread is made from a substance called "dough." It has been proven that as little as one pound of dough can be used to suffocate a mouse. The average American eats more bread than that in one month!
Primitive tribal societies that have no bread exhibit a low incidence of cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, and osteoporosis.
Bread has been proven to be addictive. Subjects deprived of bread and given only water to eat begged for bread after as little as two days.
Bread is often a "gateway" food item, leading the user to "harder" items such as butter, jelly, peanut butter, and even cold cuts.
Bread has been proven to absorb water. Since the human body is more than 90 percent water, it follows that eating bread could lead to your body being taken over by this absorptive food product, turning you into a soggy, gooey bread-pudding person.
Newborn babies can choke on bread.
Bread is baked at temperatures as high as 400 degrees Fahrenheit! That can kill an adult in less than one minute.
Most American bread eaters are utterly unable to distinguish between significant scientific fact and meaningless statistical babbling.

In light of these frightening statistics, we propose the following bread restrictions:

No sale of bread to minors.
A nationwide "Just Say No To Toast" campaign, complete with celebrity TV spots and bumper stickers.
A 300 percent federal tax on all bread to pay for all the societal ills we might associate with bread.
No animal or human images, nor any primary colors (which may appeal to children) may be used to promote bread usage.
The establishment of "bread-free" zones around schools.

Remember: Think idiotically, act globally.
Taken from Larry Elder's website. ©2000 Larry Elder

Ten Reasons Why Reparations for Blacks is a Bad Idea for Blacks--and Racist Too

One: There Is No Single Group Clearly Responsible For The Crime Of Slavery

Black Africans and Arabs were responsible for enslaving the ancestors of African-Americans. There were 3,000 black slave-owners in the ante-bellum United States. Are reparations to be paid by their descendants too?

Two: There is No One Group That Benefited Exclusively From Its Fruits

The claim for reparations is premised on the false assumption that only whites have benefited from slavery. If slave labor created wealth for Americans, then obviously it has created wealth for black Americans as well, including the descendants of slaves. The GNP of black America is so large that it makes the African-American community the 10th most prosperous "nation" in the world. American blacks on average enjoy per capita incomes in the range of twenty to fifty times that of blacks living in any of the African nations from which they were kidnapped.

Three: Only A Tiny Minority Of White Americans Ever Owned Slaves, And Others Gave Their Lives To Free Them

Only a tiny minority of Americans ever owned slaves. This is true even for those who lived in the ante-bellum South where only one white in five was a slaveholder. Why should their descendants owe a debt? What about the descendants of the 350,000 Union soldiers who died to free the slaves? They gave their lives. What possible moral principle would ask them to pay (through their descendants) again?

Four America Today Is A Multi-Ethnic Nation and Most Americans Have No Connection (Direct Or Indirect) To Slavery

The two great waves of American immigration occurred after 1880 and then after 1960. What rationale would require Vietnamese boat people, Russian refuseniks, Iranian refugees, and Armenian victims of the Turkish persecution, Jews, Mexicans Greeks, or Polish, Hungarian, Cambodian and Korean victims of Communism, to pay reparations to American blacks?

Five: The Historical Precedents Used To Justify The Reparations Claim Do Not Apply, And The Claim Itself Is Based On Race Not Injury

The historical precedents generally invoked to justify the reparations claim are payments to Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, Japanese-Americans and African-American victims of racial experiments in Tuskegee, or racial outrages in Rosewood and Oklahoma City. But in each case, the recipients of reparations were the direct victims of the injustice or their immediate families. This would be the only case of reparations to people who were not immediately affected and whose sole qualification to receive reparations would be racial. As has already been pointed out, during the slavery era, many blacks were free men or slave-owners themselves, yet the reparations claimants make no distinction between the roles blacks actually played in the injustice itself. Randall Robinson's book on reparations, The Debt, which is the manifesto of the reparations movement is pointedly sub-titled "What America Owes To Blacks." If this is not racism, what is?

Six: The Reparations Argument Is Based On The Unfounded Claim That All African-American Descendants of Slaves Suffer From The Economic Consequences Of Slavery And Discrimination

No evidence-based attempt has been made to prove that living individuals have been adversely affected by a slave system that was ended over 150 years ago. But there is plenty of evidence the hardships that occurred were hardships that individuals could and did overcome. The black middle-class in America is a prosperous community that is now larger in absolute terms than the black underclass. Does its existence not suggest that economic adversity is the result of failures of individual character rather than the lingering after-effects of racial discrimination and a slave system that ceased to exist well over a century ago? West Indian blacks in America are also descended from slaves but their average incomes are equivalent to the average incomes of whites (and nearly 25% higher than the average incomes of American born blacks). How is it that slavery adversely affected one large group of descendants but not the other? How can government be expected to decide an issue that is so subjective - and yet so critical - to the case?

Seven: The Reparations Claim Is One More Attempt To Turn African-Americans Into Victims. It Sends A Damaging Message To The African-American Community.

The renewed sense of grievance -- which is what the claim for reparations will inevitably create -- is neither a constructive nor a helpful message for black leaders to be sending to their communities and to others. To focus the social passions of African-Americans on what some Americans may have done to their ancestors fifty or a hundred and fifty years ago is to burden them with a crippling sense of victim-hood. How are the millions of refugees from tyranny and genocide who are now living in America going to receive these claims, moreover, except as demands for special treatment, an extravagant new handout that is only necessary because some blacks can't seem to locate the ladder of opportunity within reach of others -- many less privileged than themselves? of discrimination.

Eight: Reparations To African Americans Have Already Been Paid

Since the passage of the Civil Rights Acts and the advent of the Great Society in 1965, trillions of dollars in transfer payments have been made to African-Americans in the form of welfare benefits and racial preferences (in contracts, job placements and educational admissions) - all under the rationale of redressing historic racial grievances. It is said that reparations are necessary to achieve a healing between African-Americans and other Americans. If trillion dollar restitutions and a wholesale rewriting of American law (in order to accommodate racial preferences) for African-Americans is not enough to achieve a "healing," what will?

Nine: What About The Debt Blacks Owe To America?

Slavery existed for thousands of years before the Atlantic slave trade was born, and in all societies. But in the thousand years of its existence, there never was an anti-slavery movement until white Christians – Englishmen and Americans -- created one. If not for the anti-slavery attitudes and military power of white Englishmen and Americans, the slave trade would not have been brought to an end. If not for the sacrifices of white soldiers and a white American president who gave his life to sign the Emancipation Proclamation, blacks in America would still be slaves. If not for the dedication of Americans of all ethnicities and colors to a society based on the principle that all men are created equal, blacks in America would not enjoy the highest standard of living of blacks anywhere in the world, and indeed one of the highest standards of living of any people in the world. They would not enjoy the greatest freedoms and the most thoroughly protected individual rights anywhere. Where is the gratitude of black America and its leaders for those gifts?

Ten: The Reparations Claim Is A Separatist Idea That Sets African-Americans Against The Nation That Gave Them Freedom

Blacks were here before the Mayflower. Who is more American than the descendants of African slaves? For the African-American community to isolate itself even further from America is to embark on a course whose implications are troubling. Yet the African-American community has had a long-running flirtation with separatists, nationalists and the political left, who want African-Americans to be no part of America's social contract. African Americans should reject this temptation.

From an essay by David Horowitz