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/4/ it I it get -“: \( jet Etiangelical Ournrism by Arthur Frederick Ide “well researched” Playboy “… this book gives more than a history of fundamentalism in America. It exposes the political and social agenda of the religious right.” American Reader “For the future, Dr. Ide paints a rather chilling picture if trends continue. for a nation that believes it is too free to see any person persecuted for religious beliefs, the truth is as close as your television screen. Incredibly, Big Brother may now be appearing in the pulpit of your neighborhood church.” Ronald Wayne Hurt $15 Publishers Associates P. O. Box 140361 Las Colinas, TX 75014 Texas residents please add $1.16 state sales tax. Shipping & handling: $1.50 lican assault on environmental laws, other moves to delay and confuse environmental protection measures are scattered about in several bills. The net effect of these measures allows industry to file an unlimited number of petitions to roll back major rules and sue whenever an agency declines to do so. The level of pickiness is astonishing. The Department of the Interior will no longer be able to conduct environmental research on private land even when the CRUEL AND UNUSUAL. In the days of “The Wild West,” it was not uncommon for the local sheriff to have been recruited from the “other” side, from the ranks of the outlaws themselves. Sheriffs were pretty rough guys. And even in these modern times, it’s not unusual to come across some pretty rough characters wearing sheriff’s badges. OK, even an ardent ACLU activist has to realize that jail is not meant to be a nice place. But in the Maricopa County jail house, Phoenix, Arizona…a line has Lt.,en crossed. If ever there was a cut-and-dried case of Cruel and Unusual Punishment, it’s what Sheriff Joe Arpaio is doing to the 5,200 convicts under his charge. Arpaio prides himself in making jail as hellacious as he possibly can. Already he’s banned coffee and cigarettes and reinstituted the notorious chain gangs, making prisoners do road work in shackles and convict uniforms. But now, this diabolical, hard-hearted sheriff has gone waaay too far. Let’s come right out and say it: He’s moved from punishment to sheer torture, from sheriff to sadist. Arpaio has begun pumping into each prisoner’s cell the entire lecture series of…I can barely get the words out of my mouth…the entire lecture series of: NEWT GINGRICH. My god, sir, have you no mercy, no decency? Call F. Lee Bailey! Call the Humane Society! Cattle prods, yes. Chinese water torture, maybe. But the yapping, selfrighteous prattle of Newt Gingrich? God have mercy on your soul, Joe Arpaio. Now I think we know why Newt is pushing so hard in Congress to re-write the crime bill, authorizing the construction of Jim Hightower, a former Observer editor and Texas agriculture commissioner, does daily radio commentary and a weekend call-in talk show on the ABC Radio Network. landowner agrees or volunteers. And the agency can no longer use volunteers to gather environmental data. Let’s hear it for cost-cutting. The Environmental Defense Fund says that REAL reform would produce regulations that are more efficient and cost-effective, but the Dole-Johnson Regulatory Reform Act simply lets special interests and corporations set the public agenda by forcing government to spend all its time and energy responding to legal actions. more prisons and the arrest of more Americans. It’s all a scheme to build a captive audience for his lectures. VIPS IN ATLANTA. Not since Sherman marched on Georgia has there been such an eagerness to get to Atlanta, home of the 1996 Games. Maybe you’re one of the millions of Americans vying to win this year’s “Olympic Lottery,” the huge drawing being held by Atlanta’s Olympic Committee to allocate tickets. Demand so far exceeds the available seats that the Committee is taking pre-paid ticket orders, and a random drawing will decide who gets to go to which events in ’96. But hold your horsessome already have their tickets. They didn’t wait on any drawing and didn’t have to pay full-price for their tickets up-front, like the rest of us. As usual…these are the VIPsVery Irritating Persons. Politicians and assorted corporate Big Shots were allowed by the Committee to get their tickets first, ahead of “We the Public,” even though our tax dollars are underwriting this extravaganza. Talk about bad sports! There’s Georgia Senators Sam Nunn and Paul Coverdell, Newt Gingrich, the Governor, the whole Georgia Legislature, the Atlanta City Council and a passel of other politicians, plus Coca Cola, AT&T and other corporate honchos grabbing up some 4 million tickets before the general public even gets a shot at seats. “It’s ridiculous,” one fan said of this “Elites First” ticket policy. “They are blatantly abusing their power….They should go through the lottery just like everybody else.” How naive! We can’t have our privileged class waiting in lines. Why that would be too sporting, too egalitarian, too…well, too much like the Olympic ideals. What do you think this is…a game? DESPERATELY SEEKING HOUSING New Observer editor needs affordable, centrally located Austin housing for self and family. 2-3 bedrooms, ASAP, for lease or purchase. Contact Michael King at Observer JIM HIGHTOWER 12 JULY 28, 1995