Subject: Feedback from #103 -- STOP CASSINI #104
Date: March 3rd, 1999
Time Frame: There are only 113 days left until the last appropriate moment of redirection of the Cassini probe - the flyby of Venus, 7 weeks before the flyby of Earth.
Hi!
Two interesting answers have come in to the two topics presented in the last newsletter.
Russell D. Hoffman, Founder and Editor
Today's Subjects:
INCOMING EMAIL
X-Sender: light@ilhawaii.net
Date: Tue, 02 Mar 1999 08:49:31
To: "Russell D. Hoffman" (rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com)
From: Light Worker Center (light@ilhawaii.net)
Subject: Woody Smith
Dear Russell,
I really appreciated the gag you put out about some guy you called Woody Smith. Your creativity in manufacturing this person and attributing to him the most outrageous statements lightened my day.
Then I started wondering if perhaps Woody's messages to Evelyn were the real McCoy. Could such a person really work for NASA and really send out such messages?
I quickly understood that if you had not made Woody up, then NASA did. This composite character with all the right credentials -- Greenpeace canvasser, dear Mom living in Cape Canaveral, etc. -- must have been the late night dream of some bored NASA PR people. After creating their persona, they then decided to give him the most twisted arguments to confuse would be questioners of Cassini's wisdom. Woody is designed to get people like yourself to spend their time answering nonsense while the NASA creators chuckle.
Of course, from my days at the Christic Institute looking into the National Security State, I do have to consider the possibility that Woody is the creation of a psychological warfare unit and provided with dialogue designed to test which confusionist arguments will work the best. Those arguments that cause the most confusion, take the longest to unravel and explain, etc. will then become the arguments of choice for NASA and other defenders of Cassini.
It helps to remember that we are dealing with children playing with fire. They believe themselves to be adults and, therefore, cannot objectively or maturely confront the likelihood that they have made a mistake. They so hate to feel guilty because then they might get punished. Children living in fear and pretending to be secure provide a very real challenge for compassionate people. We must constantly do our best to recognize ourselves in them and to speak to them in ways that do not increase their denial.
Aloha,
Lanny
END OF INCOMING EMAIL
Hmmm. Then I shouldn't have called him a liar?
MY RESPONSE
Dear Lanny,
I can't thank you enough for what you have written -- I didn't make up Woody, but completely agree that he is/was either "made up" or simply designed-in, as in, they are told how important a little canvassing for Greenpeace might be, etc. etc. He's too "perfect". The tug-at-your-heartstrings-story, etc. etc. Such crap. My wife thought he was "made up" when she read it, and me? I think NASA made him up or, like I said, "designed him" from available parts. Your theories are unfortunately perfectly plausible in my mind. They attack us from every side they can, so why not a group effort like that?
The Mars '98 error was a really good clue, don't you think? A typo in the program.
Anyway, your comments are brilliant, and strangely comforting, and I will want to use them in my next newsletter. Without rewriting them, they cannot be anonymous, of course -- I assume you don't mind?
Thanks anyway, for speaking. I am absolutely sure you are right.
--Russell
END OF RESPONSE
INCOMING EMAIL (#2)
At 12:33 PM 3/2/99, Lanny wrote:
Russell, I don't mind if you use my Woody analysis in your next newsletter. I hope it provides a chuckle and food for thought. Aloha, Lanny
END OF INCOMING EMAIL (
MY RESPONSE
Thanks!
You've made me curious: Does NASA really have a Woody?
END OF RESPONSE
I love New Haven, Connecticut! In my younger daze, I spent many an enjoyable evening at Toad's Place. Right next to Toads, is an institution of higher learning known as Yale University.
INCOMING EMAIL
X-Authentication-Warning: mars.its.yale.edu: db236 owned process doing -bs
Date: Tue, 2 Mar 1999 09:34:08 -0500 (EST)
From: Denise Burchsted (denise.burchsted@yale.edu)
X-Sender: db236@mars.its.yale.edu
To: "Russell D. Hoffman" (rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com)
Subject: Re: A clear and indisputable compliment -- STOP CASSINI #102, March 1st, 1999
GIVE IT A BREAK !!!!!!! PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I understand your concerns, but you are talking about people I have never met, have never had any dealings with, and do not care to read pages and pages of [odd reference to dietary outflow] about. I honestly don't care how destructive they are to your movement. If you present the wealth of facts you have, and do so convincingly, you will be gaining far more support and doing far more for any movement than by constantly taking potshots. Please stop insulting my intelligence. I know an ineffective person when I see one. I don't need anyone to keep hammering it into my head. And if I (or anyone else) happens to feel that you're mistaken or out of line, please accept that. I already have. Let's continue to work together. None of us needs to be preached to about the incredible failings of the great sinners. We need to gain more power against nuclear weaponization of space, not against other people - especially not against those that are a part of the movement.
I know how important your world is - it came up with a tremendous wealth of information regarding cassini and nasa which is incredibly valuable to the world community. Nonetheless, you are ranting and raving about people in a small community I am not a part of - as you say rightly in your newsletter, we are all leaders of our own movements. I don't care how disturbing these people are to some other movements. For instance, the newsletter clipping you presented does not present my concerns about cassini by any stretch of the imagination. I read it and felt my own disgust at the childish interpretation and glossing over of the more insidious dangers. Nonetheless, this does not mean that other protests will not be covered by the press or that other speakers will not present concerns well. Bring them on! The more the better - let's educate people!!
Let the ineffective talk. They add bodies and voices to the call to stop nukes in space. That simple act alone brings the issue up onto other peoples' radar screens who were previously totally ignorant. Please remember that you are dealing with people here, and somewhere between 99-100% of us have tremendous failings that prevent us from being truly inspirational leaders. Yet, if you want to win, you have to get all those people onto your side. And once they're on your side, what would you have them do?
You can not win this battle by silencing and denouncing everyone but yourself and a half dozen gurus. I am especially concerned with your bile now spewing out over jonathan. I visit BOTH of your web sites! Wow! What a concept! Not competition, but cooperation! I have found that his web site is incredibly useful to fill in the gaps left by yours. I have also found that his writing style is easier to digest when I don't have days to read and comprehend. Meanwhile, I find that your site is full of technical details that can't be found anywhere else. And so on. I don't want to engage in a web site review. The point is that as an ignorant American, I found the presence of the 2 websites to be incredibly useful and inspiring as I educated myself about the dangers of cassini. Quit whining!!!!!! He's not your competitor. He's not taking any of your limelight. He's not spoiling any of your issues. And frankly, I don't give a [further reference to dietary waste] what he calls himself. Complain about that to your cat. It DOESN'T MATTER.
If your technical information is good and solid, people will support the cause. If there are ineffective people involved, so be it. Please rely on your facts and passion against the common enemy to make things go forward - that is why I subscribe to your newsletter. I am uninterested in any personal vendettas, justified or no. If you must continue this barrage of wasted time and thought please take your own suggestion and contain it to a separate newsletter. Aside from the petition effort, I am having trouble finding any useful information in your newsletter these days. I am losing patience with the amount of my time you are wasting on things that will not help me in my cause of educating the people around me.
Thanks for all your time and effort spent in educating us. And thanks for reading this and considering my opinion.
Sincerely,
Denise Burchsted
END OF INCOMING EMAIL
MY RESPONSE
On Tue, 2 Mar 1999, Russell D. Hoffman wrote:
Hi!
Thanks for your email [shown above].
I would (of course?) like to publish this very very badly, with your name and email address. It also wins my weekly contest (honest, this is not a joke! I really started such a thing, and you're the third winner!) for a free copy of my CD-ROM (which is my life's work, 15+ years devoted to it. Cassini was/is only part-time, for 2+ years).
To win, you just need to send me the letter than "makes my week". Yours is surely the winner for the past 7 days. Few people write so clearly and hit home sentence after sentence without waste. I was painfully engrossed. (Some answers are below.)
Anyway, I try to publish as little anonymous as possible nowadays, even though I know it means the Rosin's and so on will attempt to "infiltrate" everyone who attempts continued activity (with some modicum of success) and even though it has time and again meant those people will not be accepted by the established anti-nukes-in-space movement (it's not the only thing that can keep you off the team, but it's one of the things. Another is being effective, taking the initiative, and not wanting to wait.) So I'll be happy to publish this anonymously as well -- take your choice. But I would like to send you the CD.
As to actual answers to you statements, let me try to offer some. If you believe it, good, if not, oh well.
First, there is a rule of social change, I have seen in labor movements (my stepmom, Alice Hoffman, is a rather famous labor historian), in political movements (her father, Nelson Cruikshank, was a major worker to create Social Security in America and as such was friend to a number of (Democratic) Presidents), in fact, in everything. It is that when the oppressed masses are unable to accomplish anything it is usually because they have not ORGANIZED.
These forces you say you don't know -- you SHOULD know them! They are the star performers of the movement! They are the leaders. I only comment on them, and I am NOT a leader. I don't organize anything. Why not? Because that would compete with the concept of organizing! It is right to organize. It is wrong not to. But when one organizes, your leaders must be real, not phonies. To think it doesn't matter is naive, I'm sorry to say. Did you read the James Randi essay about Nostradamus? And what it said NASA was saying about the Cassini opposition? [I believe] Regina Hagen is virtually solely to blame for that, perhaps with Haber's help. Those two (especially Hagen) specifically sought out information about "Nostradamus and Cassini" a few months ago, [apparently] just to set up NASA to be able to say the Cassini opposition was worried about Nostradamus. Hagen further muddied the waters by then claiming to me (in the letter I published) she couldn't possibly imagine NASA thought the Darmstalt meeting was about Nostradamus.
Yet you think these leaders are unimportant. What am I to do in your version of all this? Hold my own press conferences? Gather the scientists and make them choose who to fly with? Few can give their time to BOTH Gagnon and me, they would HAVE TO make a choice -- I didn't want to do that, so for two years, I did nothing. That was wrong and that's the way it is.
I am hardly in the limelight, and frankly -- though I won't waste my time saying it in the newsletter because no one would believe it -- I don't care one little bit for the limelight on Cassini. Why not? Because frankly, I've had it (the limelight), I can have it any time I want on NICE issues -- I don't have to be so outspoken to the whole world, you know, and frankly I just don't want it. Next week I give a presentation in Berkeley, California -- to a PC user group, about computer education. So I have the limelight -- on nice things. To accuse me of seeking it here is utterly absurd. There is something else motivating these "attacks" as you perceive them, and what it is, is not "truth". That sounds good, but it's too high an ideal. It's that the movement cannot be effective unless what these people do is well known. What will get you to act as a leader, other than knowing the "real" leaders are corrupt and purposefully ineffective? Would you think you were important, if you did not know that? Or would you think rather, this is just another one of those social issues that must take TIME to develop?
I hope I'm making myself clear. It's not a personal attack on them at all. It's their choice, of what they do, that leads me to criticize time and again their underhanded and evil efforts to destroy this movement. As I said to Dr. McCluney, I would LOVE to be proven wrong, but instead, I have been proven right, time and time again and the pattern is quite clear. They are not our friends, or even our cobiligerents.
As to getting to more important, more technical issues, do you think I should answer Woody Smith's letter in depth? I'm planning to do another issue on "plutonium dangers for beginners". Would that be what you are suggesting? I have one on the effects of a nuclear blast which is quite emotional in its coldhearted descriptions of how people die. Kai Petzke made a bunch of suggestions though, and I've shelved it for over a year trying to find time to fix it up. I hardly ever know, two days before, what a newsletter will look like. It all depends on what happens. We completed the petition, and then as if on cue (and it was!) THEY got their ball rolling, even after Hagen had assured me Cassini was a back issue with her group, of which Gagnon is a close part. These people you pretend are meaningless, exist solely to make my work and the work of the scientists, and the work of other activists, meaningless. It's just the way it is. If I ignore it, then the whole newsletter is a lie. If we admit it and move on, that is better on many, many counts. I hope you will be patient, because there are indeed many more important newsletters to come. But these issues must be discussed thoroughly enough that they have been properly documented, for they are important and those who come after me will need to know what blocks will be put in their way.
Would YOU like to have had to read 200+ pages of Carol's mind games?
Well, back to work. I'll be very grateful and interested to hear your further response.
Sincerely,
Russell Hoffman
END OF RESPONSE
INCOMING EMAIL (followup)
X-Authentication-Warning: mars.its.yale.edu: db236 owned process doing -bs
Date: Tue, 2 Mar 1999 14:09:55 -0500 (EST)
From: Denise Burchsted (denise.burchsted@yale.edu)
X-Sender: db236@mars.its.yale.edu
To: "Russell D. Hoffman" (rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com)
Subject: Re: A clear and indisputable compliment -- STOP CASSINI #102, March 1st, 1999
Terrific! Thanks as always for a wonderful response.
You are totally right about 2 things that I realized as I was writing earlier, but didn't totally formulate those thoughts in my email:
1. THE movement is overwhelmingly more important than individual movements.
2. I should know the leaders of The Movement and their doings if I want to be useful.
Absolutely. Organization and mobilization is key to any political change. And I am familiar in varying degrees with many of the movement's true leaders - those who have researched, spoken, written, or web-published on the issues. But the people in your newsletters seem to be so ineffective that I have not had any reason to know them. I am in New Haven, CT. Where are they? Where are their protests or petition drives? Where are their books and videos? I am not writing this to blame them for my ignorance. My point is that The Movement as it exists now is small and mostly ineffective - especially if these people are the "leaders". The true leaders get heard. period.
My hope is that continued broadcasting of the TRUTH (yes, I do believe in such a thing) in fact form will bring individuals to The Movement. Some of these will no doubt be leaders. There is plenty of room for them - as in anyone who has motivation to do anything anywhere. There is no real organization now. There is no real movement now. It will be incredibly difficult to pull this together if the message is polluted with constant biographies of the useless.
Perhaps these people are truly sabotaging The Movement from even starting. That is certainly a real problem. Nonetheless, that is something that should be discussed between the "leaders" of "the movement". I still doubt that such a thing exists. For my own information: are there any meetings between you folks? (I mean face-to-face, in the same room. Not through this technological barrier of a communication medium.) Any strategy sessions? If there are indeed concerns about people sabotaging others' efforts, this is the place to discuss these things. Not to suggest that those discussions be hidden, but politics and the basic reason for the movement are two very different things. Again, I would strongly suggest a separate newsletter/discussion group revolving around these issues. The people who NEED to know these things, as you suggest, will still be able to access the information.
There is more to say in response to your specific points but I have been spending too long writing this email. I think we understand each other. As far as publishing my email - of course. Carol Rosin, whatever power she may have, inspires a good deal less fear in me than people in the Secret Service (for example). I am sure I am staking far more by simply being on your email list - and others - than by expressing my opinion. And besides, who could resist a free CD?! Sounds great. Glad the discussion is valuable.
Yours -
Denise Burchsted
END OF INCOMING EMAIL (followup)
They may be discussing it right now in Darmstalt for all I know...
I'm not sure when Leo signed on to the newsletter but I don't think it was long ago. Now he's left, having sent three or four short pithies to pith me off, one or two of which were comical/intelligent enough to print. However, he's lost his taste for our trash.
INCOMING EMAIL
Date: Tue, 02 Mar 1999 17:17:03 -0800
From: Leo Weiss (popsdad@earthlink.net)
To: "Russell D. Hoffman" (rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com)
Subject: Re: Another clear and indisputable compliment to our work: STOPCASSINI
#103 March 2nd, 1999
I no longer get laughs from your ignorant diatribes. Please discontinue my subscription. Long live Nasa and Cassini
"Russell D. Hoffman" wrote:
To: Subscribers, Press, Government Officials
Subject: Another clear and indisputable compliment to our work -- STOP CASSINI #103
END OF INCOMING EMAIL (+#103)
MY RESPONSE
Nor I from yours, but at least they were short. Goodbye!
END OF RESPONSE
Shown below is my standard "goodbye" letter as currently being used. Leo got a special one... How many drop off? One here, one there, thankfully there has never been a flood, no matter how "outrageous" I was (hey, was I ever outrageous? Tell me when I was outrageous!). I keep being afraid that if I admit that gratifying fact, I'll suddenly get a flood just to shake me up! Well, I'm admitting it! I'll also admit that I have lost over 25 pounds since learning about Cassini, but THAT was hard work! I'm trying to reach my draft card weight from when I was 18. I have another dozen to go. I hope to make it down to that weight by August, 1999. I should of burned that thing long ago.
In 1999, about a dozen people have dropped off, and perhaps half a dozen have signed on. There are currently between 150 and 225 subscribers, but I don't like to count exactly because it's too depressing. What isn't depressing is their stick-to-it-tive-ness. THANKS FOR READING! Sorry for offending.
SAMPLE OUTGOING UNSUBSCRIBE LETTER
To: .....
From: "Russell D. Hoffman" (rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com)
Re: (This email is in response to your email to us, shown below)
Hi!
You have been "unsubscribed" from the STOP CASSINI newsletter list. If you have any comments as to why you have dropped off at this time, or what you would have liked to have seen instead, I would be interested to hear.
In any event thank you very much for having subscribed in the past.
Sincerely,
Russell Hoffman
Founder & Editor
STOP CASSINI newsletter
END OF SAMPLE UNSUBSCRIBE LETTER
At 09:23 PM 3/1/99 -0800, "someone" wrote:
>so is the noflyby site off my ref then ??
Let's hold off for now, from playing any open hands.
Yknow, this is just like it was two years ago! But the stakes are higher and there are more of THEM (but, there are also more of us!) But yeah, JMH is useless, I think. Yeah, maybe you should go ahead and take that action. At least, stop putting him in, to lessen the effort of a full removal if we decide on that! I haven't even removed him from my "friends of the STOP CASSINI SITE" although I noticed its rather difficult to find a link from his site to mine. (Is there one to your site from his?)
Anyway, see ya next week. Newsletter #103 goes in an hour or so. It has a touching, painful letter from Dr. Ross McCluney about Gagnon, and my answer (also, hopefully, touching and painful, for the topics are indeed, very painful).
On a lighter note, there is a letter from a WOODY SMITH at NASA. I wanted to title #103 NASA HAS A WOODY (explaining that a "woody" is a car used in California for carrying surfboards) but didn't have the nerve. I just don't like to make fun of people's names. [Although unless they can actually produce the guy, then clearly, that was NASA's intention, that I do that! Besides, woodies are really cool cars.] Too low even for me!
But, it really scares me when I loose my nerve, even for a good cause! If that happens for an extended period (like a day or a week) they will crush me! Why they haven't yet, only God (and the U.S. military-industrial complex!) knows for sure.
--rdh
SIGN THE PETITION!
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/petition/cass1999.htm
CANCEL CASSINI by JUNE 24th, 1999!!!!
To Cancel Cassini start by asking NASA for the 1995 Environmental Impact Statement for the Cassini Mission and all subsequent related documents (on paper, please!). Tell them you need it IMMEDIATELY (members of the world press should do this too). All citizens of the world are ENTITLED to these documents because of the global threat Cassini poses. Here's where to get information:
Tell them Russell Hoffman, founder and editor of the STOP CASSINI newsletter, sent you. I bet they love to hear that!
NASA states that they do not have the resources anymore to answer most emails they receive. Liars! They have $13 billion dollars to play with. They can answer the public's questions. At least, ask them one specific question: How many letters did they get opposing Cassini today? (And tell them you oppose it too!) If each reader asks them that...
Here's NASA's email address:
Daniel Goldin is the head of NASA. Here's his email address: daniel.goldin@hq.nasa.gov
Here's the NASA URL to find additional addresses to submit written questions to:
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/facts/HTML/FS-002-HQ.html
(Note that it looks like possibly a temporary URL assignment, but you can always start at http://www.nasa.gov.)
They imply at the web site that written comments are more likely to get answered -- quicker than emailed comments! Someone should welcome them to the 1990's before it's too late.
Long time readers know lots of questions to ask them! Ask them why they don't link to our web site. Ask them why they haven't got rid of Daniel Goldin, the glassy-eyed fool. Ask them why they haven't sent you YOUR copy of the 1995 EIS for the Cassini mission! Ask them anything, but demand an answer! YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW WHAT NASA IS DOING TO YOUR HEALTH.
Be sure to "cc" the president and VP and your senators and congresspeople, too.
president@whitehouse.gov vice-president@whitehouse.gov
Always include your full name and postal address in all correspondence to any Government official of any country.
Please send any news directly to the editor at the email address given below.
Please post these newsletters EVERYWHERE! You can -- and should -- send them to news media too! Please tell your friends and neighbors and Internet buddies to subscribe! These words can have power, but only if they are passed on to many others!
Thanks for reading,
Sincerely,
Russell D. Hoffman
rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com
Founder & Editor
STOP CASSINI Newsletter -- nearly 100 issues of mirth, merriment, and mind-numbingly depressing facts about NASA and other horrors
Webmaster
STOP CASSINI Web Site
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/cassini.htm
I don't know how it is in your country, but in our country, at least we have this:
Amendment One... "Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble..."
Written in U.S.A.
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