<^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> ........Catt's Claws # 149 ... March 22, 1997......... ........ A Feminist Newsletter by Irene Stuber......... istuber@direclynx.net is solely responsible for its content Archives are found at http://www.imageworld.com/istuber.html <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> I called on an old friend to help me ... (best viewed at Courier 10 pt, or some small, fixed font). _ __,----'~~~~~~~~~`-----.__ . . `//====-_ ___,-' ` -. \_|// . /||\\ `~~~~`---.___./ ______-==. _-~o~ \/ ||| \\ _,'` __,--' ,=='||\=_ ;_--~/_-'|- |`\ \\ ,' _-' 95 ' | \\`. '-'~7 /- / || `\. / .' //// \\ | \\ \_ / /- / || \ / / ____ O-O--= | \\.`-_/ /|- _/ ,|| \ / ,-' ( ^ _/\_ --_ \ `==-/ `| \'--===-' _/` /\~-\/ \ `-| /| )-'\~' _,--~' /|`/ _ \_ \ '-~~\_/ | | `\_ ,~ /\ / | : bg/ / / \ \__ \/~ `\__ \(__:__ \_/ _,-' _/'\ ,-'~____-'`-/ ``===\ =@===== ((->/' \|||' `. ~`-/ , _|| | | \_ ~\ `^---|__i__i__\--~'_/ / | | __-^-_ `) \-.______________,-~' / /| | //,-'~~`__--^- |-------~~~~~' | | | | //,--~~`-\ |__| |__| /B ) |G\ After 2.5 weeks of arguing, pleading with and hiring all sorts of experts, and spending hundred of dollars, I have deleted Windows 95 (no mean task in itself!). A Windows upgrade to 95 seems to be ok if you have a simple, straight forward machine with few files, or if it is installed on a new disk and everything is loaded FRESH, but with 16,000 files, a stacked double drive, and files that date back nine years ... I would NOT recommend Windows 95 to anyone. It actually TRUNCATED many of my large text files ... you can imagine how my heart actually stopped when my 800,000 plus mgs of feminist quotes weren't there ... Just gone ... and many other data files over 100,000 mgs also gone with "error 30". Fortunately I had backed up both drives on tape before going mad and trying to install "95." I have everything back now, including an operating Word Perfect 6.1 which Win-95 would not accept. It continuously said there was a shared dlls error ... To those for whom Windows 95 works and is working just fine - bless you. For the rest of us - well guys, I WORK with my computer. It isn't a toy in itself to be tweaked and adjusted - a black hole of wasted time passing itself off as technology instead of misogynistic entertainment. I want to be able to turn on a computer - as I have for more than nine years - and start working. I don't need or want virtual thrills. I find life exciting as it is. In fact, one of the Fortune Cookie predictions that I get most often reads: "You find life exciting and adventurous every day. You grasp life with both hands." I often wonder how someone in a kitchen in New York City knows me so well - and the richest man in the world from Seattle knows me so litt.e (or cares to know me). . . . . . . . ^ C^l^a^w^s^ . . . . . . . Beloved virtual friend Varda who sends me all sorts of interesting clippings passed along a fascinating article, "The Genius and Mrs. Genius," about Vladimir Nabokov (_Lolita_) and his wife/assistant Mrs. Nabokov who might well have been a ventriloquist during the nine years THEY taught at Cornell. You've got to read the article in the 02-10-97 _New Yorker_ magazine. One wonders who actually wrote... But what ran me to the library was the beginning of "Tinkering With Death," a personal reflection by Judge Alex Kozinski about the death penalty that started on the back of the Nobokov article. He quotes the crimes of several murderers, including the one on whom he was the final, death watch: Thomas Baal. Baal robbed 34-year-old Frances Maves at knifepoint and when she only gave him $20, he stabbed her eight times to death. Judge Kozinski said Baal "was not such a bad fellow compared with some of his neighbors on death row..." Indeed not. In 1973, four men shot and killed five men - and also one woman, Mary Alday, who was raped - raped - raped - driven away blindolded from the home where the rapes and slaughter took place to a wooded area where she was raped again and again, beaten in a terrible way when she refused to commit oral sodomy, her breasts mutilated and finally she was killed with two shots. "Her watch was then removed from her nude body." Yeah, read it again and never, never forget it. The men were shot cleanly and were dead. The woman was raped and raped, and mutilatedand beaten before being killed: She was tortured for hours while the men were simply, and cleanly shot and killed. This raping of women is something that is seldom mentioned in newspaper or magazine reports. From most written accounts, one would think that even Ted Bundy did a dainty sex acts before killing his many victims rather committing horrible and savage mutilations. The rape - usually multiple rapes - of a woman victim and then torture and mutilation is so ordinary that many police reports mention it only in passing, along with the color of her hair and newspapers, of course, under the family newspaper rule, are allowed to ignore the REAL facts of murder. It is ironical - or maybe not considering the legacy of the Old Testament - that the good religious people are the ones who lead the battle to keep the dirty, filthy facts of women's abuse out of the "family" newspapers - and thus out of our everyday knowledge. "Good" little girls grow up *not* knowing what savagry faces them. "Good" little boys grow up *knowing* that the savagry they inflict on girls/women will go almost unnoticed. Do get the Judge Baal's article and read about what a good father did to his tiny daughter, Kelly Ann ... after unbelievable tortures which included burning her hands, beating her for 45 minutes, sewing up her cuts with needle and thread ... he "placed her body in a plastic garbage bag and buried her in an unmarked and unknown grave." And Florida has begun releasing hundreds - HUNDREDS - of violent prisoners because of loop holes. To rape and kill and rape somemore. I don't know about dead men walking and mercy for their murdering souls, but I do know that dead men don't kill or rape again. And maybe, we ought to start believing in mercy for the potential (and past) victims rather than the men who CHOSE to inflict such horrors on their SISTER human beings. . . . . . . . ^c^l^a^w^s . . . . . . . The condom supply for prostitutes in New Delhi, India, ran out since August, 1996 leaving nearly 10,000 sex workers vulnerable to HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Well, I guess it's OK now that Mother Teresa is turning her attention to AIDS - of course, the prevention of veneral diseases and pregnancy through the use of condoms in a nation with 3 to 5 times too many people for its land might be simpler, cheper, and certainly lessen the torture so many women go through because of the SACRED SPERM theory. Starting in 1992, more than 180,000 condoms were supplied to nearly 100 brothels in New Delhi each month as part of an HIV prevention program. Condom makers in the country, however, say the government has not renewed any condom orders, according to newspaper accounts - and there is, of course, no attempts to educate men to buy their own condoms since they know perfectly well that the average transmission of AIDS/HIV is much less for men through vaginal intercourse than for women. . . . . . . . ^c^l^a^w^s . . . . . . . A recent study showed that hospital nurses exposure to blood diseases because of needle pricks is MUCH higher than had been assumed. It is suggested that needle recapping be reduced and the use of temporary nurses be reduced, keeping only highly trained personnel caring for AIDS patients. . . . . . . . ^c^l^a^w^s . . . . . . . According to the New York Times, at least 75 corporations and individuals gave $250,000 or more to the Republican Party last year, "etting a new standard for political giving that by far surpasses previous election years, when top donors generally gave $100,000 to join `team 100.' "Republican fund-raising drives strongly implied that large donations would help buy special access to the Republicans controlling Congress. Even while Republicans criticize Democrats for selling access to the White House, Republican fund-raisers are sending out even more explicit pitches promising special rewards for big donors. According to solicitation letters, invitations and interviews with dozens of Republican fund-raisers, the Republicans have focused on large corporations and individuals with interests pending on Capitol Hill. '`There is no question -- if you give a lot of money, you will get a lot of access,' said a senior executive whose corporation gave $500,000 to the Republicans. `All you have to do is send in the check.'" . . . . . . . ^c^l^a^w^s . . . . . . . Now that Ligget and Myers - makers of Chesterfields, the cigarette I smoked most of my life - have admitted to the addictive qualities of cigarettes, etc., and will be turning documents over to attorneys and the justice department, we may be on our way to stamping out the pandemic of cancer and pulminary and heart diseases caused by the nicotine addition of young people. Philip Morris tobacco company is holding firm to its claim that cigarettes are not addictive ... (HA!) ... and guessy who was a high-priced attorney for them while he was on the government payroll? None other than special Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr. By the way, the Arkansas Times which has all sorts of interesting revelations about Starr and company changed its URL a couple of days after I posted it. Its URL is Fascinating ... bet you can't just read one article. . . . . . . . ^c^l^a^w^s . . . . . . . Talking about new homepages, there's http://witness.peacenet.or.kr in both English and Korean which is operated by the *The Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery* (folk called Jongdaehyup). The Japanese government and military kidnapped thousands of Korean women before and during World War II and transferred them to military posts where they were forced into sexual slavery, often having to endure more than 20 rapes a day by Japanese soldiers. The women have been fighting for justic ever since. It is amazing but no government is helping them but will help MEN who contract AIDS through their VOLUNTARY actions. . . . . . . . ^c^l^a^w^s . . . . . . . Isnt' it strange how someone like Heidi Fleiss who was provided prostitutes to the rich and famous was sentenced to 18 months in prison for what is considered a "victimless" crime while male child molesters often get lesser sentences ... . . . . . . . ^c^l^a^w^s . . . . . . . WOW! All sorts of civil rights flags are being waved over Asian students being bombarded with hate mail. Joon Park, a junior at Indiana University is furious. Hey, man - want to read my email? Or the email of ANY woman who steps out of line? I used to go to church. I never heard those kinds of words there ... wonder where these good religious men learn that shit The Prejudice Institute in Baltimore that studies racial and ethnic hate crimes, has begun to examine e-mail harassment on campus. And women are stuck with a few pitiful women's groups that are most interested in racial prejudice than what violence happens to women. The fact is that sexual harassment of women by email was found to be 4 to 5 times as high as racial or ethnic harassment ... but what the hell, women deserve it , don't they Mr. Robertson, Mr. Reed and the other Lambs of God? . . . . . . . ^c^l^a^w^s . . . . . . . Indian eunuchs, known as Hijras, dressed as women in silk saris are selling a 32-page booklet ``Hijras: Who We Are.'' The men subject themselves to ritual castration and then dress up in women's clothes, wearing jewelry and make-up. They think of themselves as women and take female names. They claim the castration is for religious reasons although most work as prostitutes according to newspaper accounts. Sorry, guyz, but a snip does not a woman make no more than an operation does a man make. Please, no more transgender email - except I might like to hear from JUST ONE woman who was taken for a male baby and raised as such and not complaining about "her" manhood being taken from "her." I've known stone butches. Any women who participated in sports has. None of them ever tried to give or show me genitally explicit pictures the way some of the "men" have. I really dread using my Netscape for email because that. . . . . . . . ^c^l^a^w^s . . . . . . . The Women's Legal Defense Fund has found that most women who file age discrimination suits lose them because judges don't understand that older women are subject discrimination. Many of the judges are older men to whom older women don't really exist except as first (discarded) wives. About 70 percent of midlife and older women suffer age discrimination according the the AARP. However, because the older woman is not necessarily discriminated against in favor of males, but often because male bosses want younger more attractive and pliable young women, the judges dismiss the cases. Many of the companies get away with the claim that they are not discriminating against older people because they are promoting older MEN. Some attorneys said that In federal court women also have a high rate of dismissals because there is a great deal of deal of hostility toward older women. Cited were several cases where juries awarded damages but appeals judges - mostly males - dismissed the charges entirely or reduced them to a joke. . . . . . . . ^c^l^a^w^s . . . . . . .