FORT FAIRFIELD JOURNAL

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FORT FAIRFIELD, AROOSTOOK COUNTY, MAINE

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Social Programming

By:  David Deschesne

Editor, FORT FAIRFIELD JOURNAL

www.mainemediaresources.com

The following excerpts are from my son's Biology book.  Biology is, of course, the study of living things.  But, notice the Neuro Linguistic Programming that is occurring in his textbook with the following highlighted excerpts:

"In the fourth month, the back becomes less curved, and the abdominal muscles grow to enclose the viscera.  The muscles become much stronger and the fetus is able to hold up its head.  Fingerprints are beginning to appear as an adaptation for government employment.  If the fetus is stimulated during this period, it will react at first with very general bodily movements..." - Biology: The World of Life, ©1978 Goodyear Publishing Co.,  p. 201

"The huge tears that may appear in the eyes of sea turtles have nothing to do with the turtle's realization that we are poisoning the oceans.  They are merely salt removing glands." - ibid, p. 227

"All terrestrial mammals, including man, also face the problem of how to flush nitrogenous waste out of their bodies without losing too much water.  A large part of human food is protein (for those who can still afford it), and protein is, paradoxically, at the source of man's excretory problems." - ibid, p. 228

I'm sure human genetics did not advance through natural selection to adapt fingerprints for government employment; man couldn't poison the whole ocean if he spent a lifetime doing it, because it cleans itself up with forces much more powerful than human; and surely nobody is going without protein with the Social Services and food stamp programs that were instituted by President Johnson's "Great Society."

This is just one example of how socialist textbooks are warping the minds of our youth using subtle, subliminal messages inserted out of context within subject matter it has nothing to do with.

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U.S. Supreme Court: 

Teachers Spanking School Children is O-K

By:  David Deschesne

Editor, FORT FAIRFIELD JOURNAL

www.mainemediaresources.com

   On April 19, 1977 the United States Supreme Court decided to uphold  a Florida District Court Ruling and subsequent Federal District Court agreement that teachers or school systems were not violating constitutional rights of schoolchildren when spanking them.  (see Ingraham v. Wright 430 U.S. 651)

   Two Dade County, Florida students who were spanked sued for a violation of their Eighth Amendment rights protecting against "cruel and unusual punishment" and the Fourteenth Amendment protection of Due Process.

   Dade County School Board policy 5144 contained explicit directions and limitations on corporal punishment.  The authorizing punishment consisted of paddling the recalcitrant student on the buttocks with a flat wooden paddle measuring less than two feet long, three to four inches wide, and about one-half inch thick.  The normal punishment was limited to five "licks" or blows with the paddle and resulted in no apparent injury to the student.  School authorities viewed corporal punishment as a less drastic means of discipline than suspension or expulsion.

    In reviewing the Federal appeals courts ruling, the U.S. Supreme court held that "the administration of corporal punishment in public schools, whether or not excessively administered, does not come within the scope of Eighth Amendment protection." (525 F.2d. 915) Nor was there any substantive violation of the Due Process Clause.  The court noted that "paddling of recalcitrant children has long been an accepted method of promoting good behavior and instilling notions of responsibility and  decorum into the mischievous heads of school children."

   The Supreme Court also noted, "At common law a single principle has governed the use of corporal punishment since before the American Revolution:  Teachers may impose reasonable but not excessive force to discipline a child.  Blackstone catalogued among the "absolute rights of individuals" the right "to security from the corporal insults of menaces, assaults, beating and wounding," 1W. Blackstone, Commentaries *134, but he did not regard it a "corporal insult" for a teacher to inflict "moderate correction" on a child in his care.  To the extent that force was "necessary to answer the purposes for which [the teacher] is employed," Blackstone viewed it as "justifiable or lawful." Id. at *453; 3 id., at *120.  The basic doctrine has not changed.  The prevalent rule in this country today privileges such force as a teacher or administrator "reasonably believes to be necessary for [the child's] proper control, training, or education."

The Supreme Court also concluded, "An examination of the history of the amendment and the decisions of this court construing the proscription against cruel and unusual punishment confirms that it was designed to protect those convicted of crimes.  We adhere to this longstanding limitation and hold the eighth amendment does not apply to the paddling of children as a means of maintaining discipline in public schools...we find it an inadequate basis for wrenching the Eighth amendment from its historical context and extending it to traditional disciplinary practices in the public schools.

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Bureau of Census:

Counting the Collateral

By:  David Deschesne

   In 1902, just a few years prior to our nation surrendering its money supply to a private cabal of international banks, Congress created the Bureau of Census to begin the laborious task of cataloging, serial numbering and tracking all of the personal and business property in the United States, as well as the humans therein for the purposes of appraising the value and compiling statistics thereon.

    Census, in Latin, means to appraise or to assess a value thereon. "(in Roman history) a registration or count of citizens and their property to determine taxation." - World Book Dictionary/Thorndike Barnhart; 1969 ed. ©1969 Doubleday & Company Inc., p. 333.    The spirit of the word 'Census' does not appear anywhere in the U.S. Constitution, only an 'enumeration' (counting) of people every ten years in order to appropriate Representatives evenly.

   In 1903, the Bureau of Appraisal (Census) was absorbed by the newly created Department of Commerce and Labor.  Ten years later, in 1913, the Department of Commerce was restructured as a stand-alone entity separating Labor into its own Department (15 USC 1501)   The Federal Reserve System was formed in the same year as the restructuring of the Department of Commerce.  Under the new Federal Reserve System's plan, all new money would be brought into existence via loans.   The Bureau of Appraisal, as a division of the Department of Commerce, is charged with keeping track of the number of human chattels, plus it  appraises and keeps track of  manufacturers, mineral industries, distributive trades, construction industries, agriculture, religious organizations and transportation.  All towns, cities, and municipalities are required to annually submit a report of all new construction, multi-family units, new businesses, and any losses to the Bureau of Appraisals for the purposes of keeping a current valuation of all property in the United States.

   All property and humans are tracked and traced via a very efficient certificate system.  "Certificate:  a paper establishing an ownership claim." - Barron's Dictionary of Banking Terms, ©1990 Barron's Educational Series, Inc.  The Birth Certificates, Marriage Certificates, automobile Certificates of Title, etc. are all warehouse receipts, conforming to the requirements of Article 7 of the Uniform Commercial Code - the universal law that regulates business transactions - that the States use to claim ownership of a person's body and all of his property for the purposes of using its "full faith and credit" as collateral against national, state, and local bonds. 

   "Beginning in 1880, the Bureau of Census recognized a 'registration area' within which death figures were collected suitable for the bureau's purposes.  Birth figures were added in 1915.  By 1933 all states were included in the registration area for both deaths and births." - Lincoln Library of Essential Information, ©1965 Frontier Press, Vol. II, p. 2116.  Just prior to the bankruptcy of the United States in 1933, the Bureau of Appraisals undertook a bold new venture: "During the month of April, 1930, over 100,000 persons were engaged in taking the census.  At that time the usual questions regarding race, color, sex, age, occupation, whether married or single, and whether able to write were asked.  In addition were such questions as the value of your home and whether owned or rented, whether you were the owner of a radio, and detailed questions regarding unemployment...Biennially it takes a census of manufactures;  and annually it compiles statistics of births, death, marriages, and divorces, and also financial status of States and cities." - MacGruder's American Government, ©1939 Allyn and Bacon, p. 285-286.

   While the Bureau of Census doesn't actually keep birth certificates, the Under Secretary for Economic Affairs does compile data derived from the Secretaries of State where those certificates are filed and makes it available to those who are in need of it - such as banks seeking to determine how well a state or geographic area of people are able to collateralize a bond issue (loan) with their currently existing labor and property.

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Northern Maine Feels Canadian Earthquake

From US Geological Survey

A moderate eartquake occurred at 1:17 am on Sunday, March 6, 2005. The magnitude 5.4 event has been located in Gaspe Penninsula, Canada, seventy-one miles WNW of Madawaska, Maine. Windows were reportedly rattled as far south as Fort Fairfield and Presque Isle.

Gaspe Pennisula is located within the Charlevoix-Kamouraska seismic zone, which straddles the St. Lawrence River in southeastern Quebec. People in the seismic zone have felt small earthquakes and suffered damage from larger ones for three and a half centuries. The zone is one of the most seismically active in North America east of the Rocky Mountains. The first and largest known damaging earthquake (magnitude about 7) in the seismic zone occurred in 1663. Several others have caused damage since then, most notably in 1925 (magnitude 6.2), and the most recent damage from an earthquake in the seismic zone was in 1979 (magnitude 4.8). Earthquakes cause damage in the seismic zone every few decades. Smaller earthquakes are felt roughly two or three times a year.

Earthquakes east of the Rocky Mountains, although less frequent than in the west, are typically felt over a much broader region. East of the Rockies, an earthquake can be felt over an area as much as ten times larger than a similar magnitude earthquake on the west coast. A magnitude 4.0 eastern earthquake typically can be felt at many places as far as 100 km (60 mi) from where it occurred, and it infrequently causes damage near its source. A magnitude 5.5 eastern earthquake usually can be felt as far as 500 km (300 mi) from where it occurred, and sometimes causes damage as far away as 40 km (25 mi).

FAULTS

Earthquakes everywhere occur on faults within bedrock, usually miles deep. Various plate motions formed most bedrock and faults beneath the seismic zone over the last billion years. Ancient continents rifted apart to form oceans, and land masses collided to raise mountains that were then eroded down. The Charlevoix-Kamouraska seismic zone straddles the boundary between billion-year-old rocks of ancient North America on the northwest, and younger rocks of the Appalachian Mountains on the southeast.

At well-studied plate boundaries like the San Andreas fault system in California, often scientists can determine the name of the specific fault that is responsible for an earthquake. In contrast, east of the Rocky Mountains this is rarely the case. The Charlevoix-Kamouraska seismic zone is far from the nearest plate boundary, which is in the center of the Atlantic Ocean. Current thinking is that larger earthquakes in the seismic zone may occur on large faults that parallel the St. Lawrence River, whereas most of the smaller earthquakes may occur in highly fractured rock near the large faults.

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"The less there is, the more it's worth," as the old adage goes, has never been more true than with today's current gas prices.

Some industry experts cite a limited supply of crude from OPEC that caused a peak of $58.28 per barrel on Monday, April 4, 2005.

Goldman Sachs recently released a report that forecast crude oil could soon top $100 per barrel.

But crude oil prices are just one aspect of the gasoline pricing debacle. Writer/ researcher, Charles E. Carlson recently wrote, "Five years ago an eye witness confirmed to me that Iraq had so much gas for sale that Sadam Hussein's government was selling it to anyone inside Iraq for four to five cents a gallon. Now that we've bombed Iraq into the Stone Age, our prices are on the way to $3.00. And our leaders want to bomb Iran, the next biggest oil producer they can find. How much do you think that will cost us?"

Carlson also cited in his article an experience by a Mr. A.W. Blumhorst, who, on a Mid East bus trip at that time period, calculated the conversion of gallons to liters and native currency to US dollars to four cents a gallon, US.

While crude shortages may be prevalent, and tinkering with gasoline supplies may be extant, there is one variable that is almost as unmovable as Mount Katahdin: current US refinery capabilities.

According to Michael D. Tusiani in an article in the March 3, 2004 Bangor Daily News(BDN), US refinery capacity is simply not able to keep up with the demand.

"America burned 8.93 million barrels of gasoline a day in 2003, 8.14 million barrels of it produced by domestic refineries. If U.S. refineries operated at peak gasoline output despite seasonal swings in motor fuel sales, they might sustain 8.7 to 8.8 million barrels a day of production, assuming their equipment could take the stress." The article in the BDN goes on, "Most foreign refineries are unable to make gasoline that is suitable for sale in the United States. They simply do not have the equipment to turn out a product that meets our specifications." Mr. Tusiani also stated in his article, "...the oil industry could not install new equipment fast enough to prevent a shortage two or three years from now. No company can order the major process hardware to make gasoline - pipe stills, catalytic crackers, alkylation units, cokers, and reformers - off the shelf. It takes three years to build and install those big, costly units."

So gas itself is what is really being limited. Limited by our ability to produce it. If our Congress opened up the entire Alaska wildlife reserve to drilling and stacked the crude oil up at our refineries, that would not affect gas prices very much at all, because the refineries would still only be able to put out the same amount of gasoline at the end of the day.

The real motive that is driving the price of gas up is the American consumers' willingness to pay. Consumers aren't necessarily willing to pay the high prices because they enjoy it, rather it is because of the massive "hamster wheel" of debt they have all been placed on that they feel the need to get to work, regardless of the cost of gas, in order to collect a paycheck to pay their (for some, unpayable) debts.

The machine that is driving our gas prices skyward is the same machine that has driven all prices upward for the past seventy years - credit. Consumers continually cast their vote for higher gas prices every time they swipe their credit card and artificially create more new money into circulation within the economic sphere of the petroleum market (for a dissertation on "economic spheres," see Debauched Currency article). As long as people buy gas with artificially-created credit card money and make minimum monthly payments, our gas prices will continue to escalate until no amount of spinning will turn the hamster wheel fast enough to pay off the American citizenry's gluttonous, pathetic accumulation of debt. Only then, will a forced reduction in money supply cause gas prices to finally fall.

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With the current crisis in Maine's Medicare payment system, and the increasingly high costs of health care, many people are questioning why the late payments and why the high costs? A simple board game from the 1930s can be used to illustrate the problems, their causes and effects.

The game of Monopoly is a very illustrative game to use when describing monetary systems. Suppose you had four players. Each of the players is given the standard $1,500. That $6,000 represents the money in circulation. As that money supply is limited, so too will the prices of the various properties be.

Now, let's reach down under the table in our shoe box full of Monopoly money and bring up fistfulls of it. Give two of the players each $500,000,000! What do you think that will do to the property prices when the other two players land on them and are unable to buy? That's right, the property will go out to auction and the two "rich" players will begin bidding. Since so much money is available in their hands, and each wants the property in order to be able to compete, the bidding will be fast and furious. Human nature will take the original $400 sticker price of Boardwalk, for example, to $3,000, $6,000, $100,000 or more. While the two "rich" players are furiously bidding, all the other two regularly-funded players can do is sit and watch the prices rise, knowing they will never be able to afford them.

That's exactly what has happened to our health care prices. Health care and its affiliated systems all represent an economic sphere - that's the Monopoly board. The two players who have fistfulls of money represent the health insurance providers, the other two regularly funded players represent average citizens in society.

Because for years the health insurance providers have had such inordinate amounts of money available to play the game with, they tempt the prices up into the stratosphere. We need not list individual prices to illustrate how expensive our health care system has become. While insurance providers do have a system of deductions, where the hospitals will only receive a portion of the originally-invoiced amount, the final amount is still sometimes fifty times higher than it would have been without the devaluation of money caused by health insurance systems and government spending. In addition to devalued money, of course, government regulation and an insatiable appetite for malpractice suits can also be attributed to high health care costs. Malpractice suits and government regulation, however, chase after a cash-enriched economic sphere - they aren't the cause of it.

Money functions exactly like baseball cards trading on the bid board at our local stamp and coin shop. The more there are, the less they're worth. The more baseball cards that are printed and entered into circulation, the less overall worth they'll have. Similarly, the more money that is printed and entered into circulation, the less it will be worth. That is why we have inflation - prices rise to offset the devaluation of the dollar.

Just like money in the hands of our two "rich" players lost value when each was given nearly five hundred thousand times the money they originally had, the money in the health care field lost its value, too, as more and more was introduced into its economic sphere of activity. The same types of economic spheres exist in Sports, NASCAR, Hollywood, Lawyer services, Housing and Real Estate, petroleum markets, etc.

As people lose their jobs, retire, or just decide to live off the State, less money is borrowed into circulation. Loans and credit card debt continue to be repaid, but since the banks only created and loaned the original principle into existence - not the interest - there isn't enough money in circulation to pay off all the debts (new money has to be borrowed into circulation to pay the old interest, kind of like paying one credit card off with another one, your payments are always current but you are never completely free of debt). As these loans continue to be repaid, less and less money is available in circulation.

Today, the late Medicare payments in Maine are being blamed on "slow computers" when it may be that the players of the game may simply be running out of money. Surely, government will step in, reach under the table, borrow from the shoebox full of money and give it to the health care providers as an "emergency measure." Society will then owe that money, plus interest, back to the banks in the form of taxes and the prices of health care will continue to rise, due to that inflation of currency, until society can no longer physically or economically bear the strain of additional bonds, loans, taxes, etc.

While this is a gloomy picture, there is a way out if we can convince our Congressmen and the rest of society to get off of the highly-addictive drug of credit money. The solution was written down in our Supreme Law of the land over two-hundred years ago - the Constitution - all we have to do is get our Congress and State legislatures to follow it.

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Gun Registration

In Maine?

Churchill Opposes Roadmap to Gun  Confiscation

©2005 FORT FAIRFIELD JOURNAL

www.mainemediaresources.com/ffj.htm

By:  David Deschesne,

   In an effort to gain a monopoly of power over its masters, some servant politicians have deemed it necessary to take away their masters' ultimate means of resisting the tyranny the government intends to impose by ultimately eliminating ownership of all guns.

   LD 1579, entered by Maine Senator Ethan Strimling (D-Portland) would require registration of all “assault” type weapons and .50 calibers; and allow for the seizure of any that remain unregistered.  It would also require registration of a variety of shotguns, long barrels, flash suppressors, pistol grips and magazines exceeding ten rounds.  

   Maine Representative John Churchill (R - Washburn) originally co-sponsored  LD 1579. However, when presented to his committee, he finally opposed it.   “LD 1579 went much further than the original draft,” Churchill said.  “I did not support 1579 when presented to my committee May 2, 2005.  It was withdrawn by the author, due to lack of support.”

   The summary of LD 1579 states in part:

"This bill creates the Class D crime of knowingly manufacturing, transferring or possessing an assault weapon, a.50 caliber rifle or .50 caliber ammunition.

   The bill amends current law regarding the confiscation, seizure and forfeiture of machine guns, so that the same procedures and due process apply to the confiscation, seizure and forfeiture of assault weapons and .50 caliber rifles and ammunition.  Machine guns, assault weapons and .50 caliber rifles and ammunition manufactured, acquired, transferred or possessed in accordance with the National Firearms Act, as amended, are exempt from these laws."

   "The problem here is that "assault weapons" and "50 caliber rifles and ammunition" with the exception of fully auto versions, are not subject to or covered by the National Firearms Act,” said one local gun dealer. “Therefore, since it is impossible to possess one in accordance with the NFA, they can't possibly be exempt and would presumably subject to forfeiture.” “How DARE those who presume to do this to us be so supremely ignorant of the law that they don't even know what the Federal laws contain and do or do not pertain to. Then they arrogantly presume to ram more poorly drafted legislation down our throats without so much as a care as to the effects, errors, etc. that their idiotic and ignorantly exuberant exercises of legislative hubris might produce. I would suggest that these fools go back to high school and learn how to read, write and do basic research before they presume to do anything having to do with actually writing laws.

   While "assault weapon" is a scary, politically-expedient target for politicians to go after, baseball bats, machetes, ammonia/bleach combinations, and ink pens are all equally as deadly and just as "assaultive."  Try as they might, governments throughout history have never been able to legislate morality, and limiting one of the tools of immoral behavior, such as LD 1579 does, will do little to it affect any change for the better. 

   According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reports for January through June, 2004, “law enforcement agencies throughout the United States reported a decrease of 2.0 percent in the number of violent crimes brought to their attention in the first 6 months of 2004 when compared to the figures reported for the first half of 2003.”  The 2 percent reduction in violent crimes nationwide took place without any federal gun registration scheme.

    Currently, Maine enjoys one of the lowest crime rates in the nation.  While Maine ranks 40th in population, out of the fifty states, Maine ranks 46th in total Crime Index, 49th for Violent Crime, 46th in Crime Against Property, 40th in Forced Rapes, 45th for Robbery, 49th for aggravated results, 37th for burglaries 41st for larceny, and 50th for vehicular theft. (source: www.disastercenter.com/crime/mecrime.htm)

   The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled on numerous occasions that the police have no duty to protect the citizens from life-endangering situations.  “A State's failure to protect an individual against private violence generally does not constitute a violation of the Due Process Clause, because the Clause imposes no duty on the State to provide members of the general public with adequate protective services” - 489 U.S. 189.  Therefore, it is ultimately up to the people to safeguard themselves.

   In order to ward off a potential terrorist invasion, or worse, a tyrannical government at home, it is best to have a well-armed and well-trained populace apart from government to affect that safety.  Maine had a private, non-governmental militia up until at least 1841.

   Out of fifty states, Maine is one of the safest states in the nation with no gun registry program currently in place, leading many to wonder what these collection of rogue State Senators and Representatives are trying to do.  Certainly Maine can’t be made much more safer than it already is, so is there another motive behind registration of guns?

    With the passage of LD1579 and subsequent bills restricting gun ownership down to unusable antiques, We the People in Maine, who are the rightful masters of our politicians will soon be reduced to the level of serfs - with only politicians and bureaucrats possessing all the power and strength to compel us to "do what we're told." and no means to resist them.   The cart will then, indeed,  be leading the horse.

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Attempts Economic Analysis

In the April 25, 2005 Bangor Daily News (page A9) Maine State Representative Jeremy Fischer attempted to do damage control for the State by showing a rosy picture of job and wage growth for our fledgling state.

"In 2000, the average Mainer made $25,969; by 2004, that number had grown to $30,567 - an increase of 17.7 percent," wrote Fischer.

What Fischer either fails to realize, or refuses to point out is that in the time period indicated where wages appeared to rise over 17 percent, our nation's M2 also rose as well. The M2 is the total of all money in circulation. The M2 is figured by totaling all the currency, traveler’s checks, demand deposits, other checkable deposits, Money Market Mutual Funds, savings, and small time deposits. According to the Federal Reserve's website, there was a total of $4.68 trillion in circulating money in January, 2000; compared to $6.09 trillion in January, 2004. That's a 23 percent increase in total money in circulation. Inflation of wages and prices is due to an increase in the money supply. Hence, “the more there is the less it's worth." Germans learned the lesson of printing excessive money in the 1930s when so much was printed and circulated that it took a “wheelbarrow full of money to buy a loaf of bread.” As our money supply was expanded (via bank loans and credit extensions) the corresponding reduction in its value was corrected by the rise of wages Mr. Fischer brags about.

The devaluation of our dollar not only affected wages, but it made the cost of everything else go up, too. Gold, trading at $285 per ounce in 2000 was up to $425 in 2004 - a 32% increase; butter, selling for $1.79 per pound in 2000 was up to $3.00 in 2004 - a 40 percent increase; and milk, selling for $2.49 per gallon was up to $3.69 per gallon in 2004 - a 32% increase.

It seems that as our money supply was expanded by 23 percent, the prices of products, services and wages rose at nearly a corresponding rate, thereby creating a "wash" with nobody really any better off at all.

Mr. Fischer goes on in his article, "The total number of jobs in Maine has steadily increased from 603,400 in 2000 to 613,900 in 2004."

Mr. Fischer failed to note that out of necessity, many Mainers have been forced to work two or three jobs in order to "make ends meet" and that each of those extra jobs may be performed by the same people. Furthermore, Mr. Fischer's statistics don't seem to line up with other industry researchers. According to the AFLCIO website, the State of Maine lost 20% of its manufacturing jobs in the 2001 - 2005 time period. "What’s more," according to the AFLCIO's website, "the 7.7 million officially unemployed represents only about 57 percent of all U.S. workers—approximately 13.6 million, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics—who are either unemployed, underemployed in part-time jobs out of economic necessity or who have become so discouraged that they have given up looking for work."

"Maine's state and local taxes have declined each year, from 13.1 percent in 2000 to 12.3 percent in 2004," bragged Fischer in his article.

While state and local taxes may have gone down, the prices of Maine's licensing, penalties and fees have gone up at a corresponding rate. The tax burden in many cases has been shifted to businesses such as restaurants and food vendors who have seen a nearly 20% increase in the cost of their permits in that time period; not to mention the excessively high fines exacted from the taxpayers via the Maine District Courts for traffic infractions. Again, a "wash."

Mr. Fischer notes the state's Gross State Product (GSP) as rising 29.1 percent since 2000. That's understandable considering the previous analysis of our money supply as having devalued 23 percent and causing prices to rise by about that much on average. If the price of the goods rise, then naturally the numbers for the GSP will, too. All in all, we were really no better off in 2004, than in 2000, Mr. Fischer's optimistic analysis notwithstanding.

In the 1920's a person could acquire a good suit of clothes for $17.85, when a one ounce gold coin was worth $20.00. In 2004, that same person would have to pay over $400 for that same suit of clothes, which is still equal to that one ounce gold coin. The rising wages and prices of products are the effect of a rapidly expanding money supply, not the cause of it. Therefore, they are not a very good indicator of economic health.

In a speech before Congress on July 10, 2003, Congressman Ron Paul said, “Total U.S. government obligations total $43 trillion, while the total net worth of U.S. households is about $40.6 trillion.” If that’s the case, how are we going to pay all that debt, if there's only $6.47 trillion in circulation today?

Beich Rebuts Journal Article

Kenneth Beich is planning to sue the Fort Fairfield Journal for “slander” for an article written about him in the Journal, April 27, 2005, page 14. Slander is when somebody orally speaks a falsehood about another with a malicious intent to damage the other person’s character. Libel is probably what Mr. Beich was referring to since libel is in reference to the printed word. The story hinges on an alleged attempt by Mr. Beich to stab another person at the Borderview Housing complex in Fort Fairfield. The story originally noted the other person was a tenant there, but the Journal has since learned the person was not a tenant, just a visitor who lives in Fort Fairfield.

“I did not serve 10 years in prison and was not on State parole from Pennsylvania,” Beich wrote in a letter to the Journal. “In June of 2004 I was sentenced to 9 months of county probation for 2 misdemeanor charges...possession of small amount of marijuana and possession of drug paraphenelia [sic].”

It is not clear whether or not Beich spent the time in prison as originally indicated by the Journal, because his statements conflict with what Fort Fairfield Police Sergeant Jim Chartier reports: “When I was escorting him to the courthouse he was bragging to the other prisoner that he had spent about ten years in prison in Pennsylvania,” said Chartier.

“A Maine State Police Officer took me to the Fort Fairfield Police Station then the same officer took me to the Caribou Police dept. UNHANDCUFFED,” wrote Beich.

“State Trooper, Espling transported Mr. Beich to Caribou,” said Chartier. “Espling informed me because Mr. Beich was cooperative, he was handcuffed with his hands in front.”

After interviewing Sergeant Chartier, the original Journal article stated, “After running a search, it was discovered there were outstanding warrants for violation of probation and parole from Erie County, Pennsylvania Sheriff Robert Merski. Pennsylvania authorities have agreed to extradite and have sent officials to Houlton to take custody of Beich.”

“I am not wanted in Pennsylvania for any felonies or anything serious, a couple of misdemeanors and unpaid fines,” wrote Mr. Beich. The Journal has never claimed Mr. Beich was wanted on any felonies, only violations of probation and parole, per information provided by FFPD. After further research the Journal has discovered Mr. Beich has a history of possession of drugs and paraphernalia, convicted of carrying offensive weapons, a history of aggravated assault and family violence.

Presumably, it was the failure to appear probation violation that prompted Erie County Sheriff officials to decide to extradite Mr. Beich back to Pennsylvania.

The Journal checked with the Aroostook County Jail on Wednesday May 3 to check on Mr. Beich’s status. Officer Bickford confirmed the extradition of Beich by Erie County Sheriff deputies. “He left on Saturday,” Bickford told the Journal on May 3.

“Not only am I going to pursue a lawsuit against you, but also the Fort Fairfield Journal for defamation of character and slander,” wrote Beich. “You have already found me guilty, and yet you never heard of my name before.” The article in the Journal was based on an interview with Sergeant Chartier, of the FFPD and was not written with any malicious intent, which is one of the requirements of libel. The article also never implicated Mr. Beich in any specific crime. It merely reported he was arrested for allegedly attempting to stab someone.

“Contact your insurance carrier because not only will you be correcting lies with the truth, but you will also be compensating me for those lies,” warned Beich in the closing of his letter to the Journal. The Journal does not print known lies. It merely prints results of interviews and information available at the time an article is written. Whenever discrepancies are found they have always been promptly researched and reported. Sergeant Chartier stands behind the information he gave the Journal. “If you need to call me as a witness for your defense, Dave, I’ll be glad to show up and help out in any way I can,” said Chartier.

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Fort Fairfield’s town Barber, Colin Campbell has a unique new idea: Let High School students elect fellow students to their own town council.

While no legal authority would be attributed to them, Campbell explains, “I would like to see them shadow vote the Town Council’s decisions to see how they would decide a particular issue.”

The proposed Jr. Town Council would have five members elected by fellow classmates from a pool of High School students from grades 10 - 12 at FFMHS.

“It would allow them to discuss issues important to them.”

It was suggested by Campbell that the Jr. Town Council could meet at the school.

The Fort Fairfield Town Council would of course be invited to observe the discussions.

“I think the students should be more involved than the regular town council. They should lead by example.”

Campbell suggests the Jr. Town Council could meet every other week, as opposed to the Fort Fairfield town council’s monthly meetings.

“I’m not a politician,” says Campbell. “I don’t know how it could be implemented.”

As far as parental involvement, Campbell notes, “When certain issues come up in the town that affects kids, the kids will be involved at their Jr. Town Council meeting, then go home and tell their parents - perhaps that will motivate the parents and town council to do the right thing.”

As an unofficial body, the students could still send a liaison to the Town Council meeting to speak on their issues during the public comment period.

“They could nominate one of their own members to give their report at the town council meetings.”

In addition to observing town council meetings, the school board could be observed and noted as well. “I don’t see why they couldn’t sit in on the school board meetings and watch how they do things, too,” said Campbell. “I think the Jr. Town Council would do a lot of good for this town.

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9/11:  Unanswered Questions

Who stood to gain the most from the 9/11 disaster? “Terrorists” or Government Bureaucrats? The Department of Homeland Security was created out of the wreckage of the 9/11 event and has benefited bureaucrats and private corporations, alike, to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars so far. All the so-called “terrorists” got was hundreds of tons of bombs dumped on them. Again, who stood to gain? Who has gained?

While any line of questions can lead one down Alice’s proverbial “rabbit hole,” I have sorted through and found the most interesting points that should be answered by our public officials servants, but to this date, haven’t.

Flight 93 was the purported “Let’s Roll” flight over Pennsylvania. While it made for a good fictional television movie and a nationwide best-selling book, did that flight really occur the way the government has portrayed it?

Some facts to consider:

- Cell phones can not contact transponders in an airplane moving at 500 miles per hour because the “electronic handshake” that has to occur between the phone and a tower takes about 45 seconds whenever it moves into a new cell zone. At the speed the plane was flying, the phone’s five watt transmitting range would have placed it three cell zones away before the “handshake” could have been completed. Though it is sometimes possible to connect during takeoff and landing, under the situation claimed on Flight 93, the calls were likely impossible.

see: Article by Jim Heikkila, Citizen Reporter, December, 2002, p. 3.

- In an April, 2004 interview with Col. Donn de Grand Pre (US Army, retired) on the Alex Jones Show, Col. de Grand Pre admitted a pilot in the North Dakota Air National Guard shot down flight 93 over Pennsylvania. A few months later, in July, researchers at www.911letsroll.org reported Major Rick Gibney as the ND Air Guard pilot who followed orders to shoot down Flight 93. Alex Jones subsequently confirmed that identity with Col. de Grand Pre.

see: Fort Fairfield Journal, July 16, 2005, Vol. 1, ed. IV, p. 2

- In an interview on CNN on September 11, 2002, this was noted: “After the planes struck the twin towers, a third took a chunk out of the Pentagon. Cheney then heard a report that a plane over Pennsylvania was heading for Washington. A military assistant asked Cheney twice for authority to shoot it down.

"The vice president said yes again," remembered Josh Bolton, deputy White House chief of staff. "And the aide then asked a third time. He said, 'Just confirming, sir, authority to engage?' And the vice president -- his voice got a little annoyed then -- said, 'I said yes.'"

see: http://edition.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/09/11/ar911.king.cheney/ (this link still active as of printing date)

Supposedly, a Boeing 757 airplane slammed into the Pentagon. However, there are a few problems with that story.

1.) The hole created wasn’t large enough to accommodate a 757’s wing span.

2.) There were only two pieces of metal, allegedly from aircraft found there - a twisted piece of metal and a piece of alumin. Neither could be conclusively linked to a 757.

3.) While firefighters were on the scene, photos have shown no airplane wreckage, landing gear, engines, bodies, etc. that would have existed if a 757 had actually crashed there. There was also no disturbance to the grass/land area directly in front of the “crash” site’s hole.

It has been postulated that a 757 was flying overhead while a smaller drone aircraft (unmanned) or missile was tailing it. Witnesses would have seen the 757 fly toward the pentagon, but its subsequent flyover would have been masked by the missile/drone’s explosion.

Either way, there is no incontrovertible evidence to prove a 757 hit the Pentagon.

see: thewebfairy.com/killtown/pentanium.html

Building 7

Then there is the collapse of WTC Building 7, the 47 floor structure that collapsed neatly into its own footprint at 5:20 p.m. on 9/11.

Building 7 of the WTC complex caught on fire hours after the WTC 1 and 2 towers fell. Then, after a few hours of very minor fires burning within it, it caved in symmetrically on itself - just as if it were imploded with controlled demolitions.

NIST has released 10,000 pages worth of draft report describing how WTC 1 & 2 collapsed. But an investigation of Building 7, unmentioned by the 9/11 Commission has been "decoupled" from that report. Why? Likely it is because from the beginning the collapse of building 7 has been impossible to explain. It was not hit by either plane, and the fires in the building were localized. And of course the statement of leaseholder Larry Silverstein, who, interviewed for a Public Television documentary about the WTC7 collapse said:

see: http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20050724164122860

Steel melts at 2700° F. Jet fuel burns at an optimum temperature of 1800° F. Because of debris, sheetrock, carpet, books, etc. it is estimated that the World Trade Centers’ fires only burned at around 1200°-1300° F. This “cold”-burning fire was indicated by the black, sooty smoke emanating from the buildings, as well as people standing in the holes created by the airplanes as the fire burned out.

The WTC towers were built on large, reinforced steel columns which were protected from heat with a layer of asbestos. The fires only burned for about an hour in each building before their collapse.

The “pancake” theory proposed by the government and parroted by the media is debunked by the fact that the buildings fell faster than the laws of gravity would have allowed - considering the resistance that would have been caused by supposedly intact floors and steel below the initial impact.

At 9:59 am the south tower began to tilt above the plane’s point of impact. The topmost 35 stories of floors were tilted out about 23° prior to the building falling. This would have shifted the center of gravity and prevented the building from collapsing straight down - unless there were demolitions used.

The crystallized cement dust that came out of the buildings could only have been produced from RDX or C4 explosives. Compression-based implosions don’t have enough force to crystallize cement.

Local Organic Farmer, Gary Kaszas has announced a new apple variety was discovered near his farm on Currier Road in Fort Fairfield.

“My son, Sam and I were clearing an electric fence in an old pasture on the hill when Sam found this particular apple tree,” said Kaszas. “If it wasn’t for Sam, these apples would have never been discovered. That’s why we decided to name the variety after him.”

Apple varieties are classified by appearance, color, stem length, and flesh consistency; also, whether it tastes better when first picked at the end of September - also known as a “Fall apple” or if aged a few months, which is known as a “Winter apple.”

“Sam’s Serendipity is both a Fall and Winter apple.” “It can be eaten right after picking and tastes even better by December.” “Under the right conditions, we have been able to pick the apples in the Fall and store them all the way until June of the following year.”

Kaszas works on a variety of apples at his farm - which is all organic. “We will have 36 varieties available for sale by 2008, also graphs of Sam’s Serendipity will be ready for sale then, too.”

After discovering the new variety, the Kaszas watched the tree for a couple of years to see how it would withstand insects and pests. “It has a waxy skin which is what makes apples insect resistent, but can make them bitter tasting, sometimes,” said Kaszas. “But this variety doesn’t taste bitter, at all. It also resists disease and apple scab.”

Kaszas, who operates their business, Organic Sam’s with his wife, Diana is currently working on three new varieties of apples where some contain the a natural taste of cinnamon while others taste more like licorice. “These varieties are not hybrids, they occurred that way in the wild.”

While it sometimes takes years to classify an apple, to make sure it hasn’t already been discovered, Sam’s Serendipity is expected to be listed in an upcoming FEDCO seed catalog.

Sam’s Serendipity apples currently are for sale, as well as other organic fruits, vegetables and Aroostook Heirlooms at Organic Sam’s. They may be reached by phone: 476-5361. Their farm is located 2-1/2 miles out on the Currier Road on the left.

(Photo:  Seven year-old Sam Kaszas displays the new apple variety, Sam’s Serendipity he found on the Currier Road in Fort Fairfield.)

U.P.S.’ closest competitor, FedEx, does not require identification to ship at their customer counter.

Feds Knew Pearl Harbor Attack Was Coming

Fort Fairfield Journal, November 23, 2005