Hi Tweets,

>God, may the following news report turn out to be totally true and that this
>whole thing will be over by Monday, betterTODAY!!!!

Yes, indeed. This thing is best over.

>Again a copyrighted news story from CNN-Reuters. Please restrict its
>distribution to other birders. Thanks.

If it's on the CNN Website and off the Reuters wire, which eventually goes
to thousands of newspapers all over the world, why and how on earth *can* it
be restricted to birders? That's like asking to restrict an item that's
already appeared on the front page of the New York Times, for pete's sake.
Hey, it's *already* out there.

And where is the boundary between fair comment and obeying these dire
warnings about commenting on this? If the army generals down there are
commenting, and the various departments of the US and Colombian governments
are commenting, and the families and friends are commenting, and the
guerrilla leaders are commenting, why are we birders being enjoined from
commenting? Can you explain why any word from us in particular would
jeopardise delicate negotiations (which, if this thing is following the
usual script, is something along the lines of 'pony up some bucks and we'll
free 'em')?

Are there other news sources that can be accessed beside CNN? I'm beginning
to feel more than a little bit shilled to get my news through CNN alone.
What are the others saying? Say, English newspapers like The Times, the
Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Economist; or toher US sources such as
the Christian Science Monitor, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal,
Washington Post; or even English-language versions of Le Figaro, L'
Osservatore Romano (I think that's how it's spelt anyway), and so on?

Be good to get more than one perspective on this and not depend solely on an
organ which could never be accused of too great a profundity in reporting
the events of the day--let alone the context which would make them
intelligible--and which has sometimes been known to present departmental
press releases as news, whether through confusion as to which is which or
through deliberate policy of presenting an official government position as
if it were actual news instead of spin.

Michael Price A brave world, Sir,
Vancouver BC Canada full of religion, knavery and change;
mprice at mindlink.net we shall shortly see better days.
Aphra Behn (1640-1689)