Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Headline Article Date: Wed, 18 Nov 92 16:10:35 EST Message-ID: \SE A;NATION;INSIDE THE BELTWAY \BY John McCaslin \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES NOW, NOW, BOYS As the debate rages over whether to allow homosexuals into the military, some red-blooded heterosexuals in uniform are making news, too. The Marines say nine of their officers face charges ranging from indecent exposure to dereliction of duty after a Nov. 10 incident in a crowded restaurant in Spain. The officers are accused of grabbing one woman's breastY, looking under another woman's skirt and baring private parts before a crowd at a steak house. The officers, one a lieutenant colonel, are all members of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit from Camp LeJeune, N.C. Meanwhile, an Air Force lieutenant colonel with the 374th Airlift Wing at Yokota Air Base in Japan has been fined $700 for sexually harassing two female airmen, Pacific Stars & Stripes reported. A military investigation substantiated three of five allegations against the officer, including that he asked one woman about her sex life, kissed her cheek and slapped her buttocks in public. He commented to a second woman that he wanted to see her in a bathing suit and called her "cutie" and "sweetheart." MADONNA AND SEX Bill Bennett came by The Times for lunch the other day, dispensing wit and funny stories and, aware of the newspaperman's usual practice of stealing the good stuff without attributing it to the source, warned that if we used his Madonna parable he wanted it credited to him. Well, we did, and naturally it showed up in the paper with a garbled punchline. The explanation is that it was an error in editing. Or maybe typesetting. So here it is again: He was talking about how silly it was to say, as a certain Arkansas governor and a certain Texas zillionaire were going about the country saying, that the American economy is down the tubes. "A country where 900,000 people can buy the Madonna book for $50 a copy is not a country in severe decline, unless you say they're all Republicans," he said. "A country where that many people are buying the Madonna book for that kind of money has another kind of problem. "And if you have 50 bucks and are interested in sex and spend it on a book, you've got another kind of problem." HIGH SOCIETY It used to be a chore collecting dues for the Arkansas State Society. Now everyone is scrambling to become a member, says Henry Woods, an aide to Arkansas Sen. David Pryor. As society secretary, Mr. Woods is suddenly swamped. "Everyone who's ever driven through Arkansas now wants to belong to the Arkansas State Society," the 19-year Hill veteran and Hot Springs native said yesterday. "We're even finding that some who have been in the closet are coming out. In any given year I have about 500 people who pay dues, but I bet this year there will be 700, 800 or more." As for you native Arkansans who are already members of the state society, guess what Mr. Woods was busy preparing for yesterday's mail? That's right, a notice that society dues are going up. But what do you expect? You natives, more than anyone else, are expected to line up behind your leader and help "grow the economy." So instead of paying the customary 7 razorbucks, your dues will now more than double to $15, or an even $25 for couples or family. If that's hard to swallow in these tough times, consider yourselves the new elite, celebrities even. "One Florida woman called to join, and I asked her where she had lived in Arkansas," said Mr. Woods, who the record should show graduated from the same high school as the president-elect, albeit five years later. "She admitted she never lived there but thought it would be one way to get on the right lists for inaugural parties." The Florida woman wasn't so lucky. But not this columnist, whose father, a former FBI special agent of 37 years and native of New York state, arrested his first fugitive in Arkansas and nearly married a woman from the Arkansas town of Cotton Plant. "Is that good enough for me to join?" I asked. "You bet," said Mr. Woods. NOT THE FLU AFTER ALL If President Bush is down in the dumps now, wait until he hears he's the victim of a voodoo curse. We're serious, George! If you're reading this, be advised that the Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste, a Roman Catholic priest in Haiti, said the first evidence came when you got sick during that infamous state dinner in Tokyo. "You remember when Mr. Bush fell under the table in Japan? It was a salutary warning," writes the Father in this week's edition of the newspaper Haiti En Marche. The priest said he still isn't sure who put the curse on the president, but he said it happened after Haiti's September 1991 coup in which President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted. The only way Mr. Bush can improve his political fortunes is to end his policy of deporting Haitian refugees, the priest said. President-elect Bill Clinton is taking no chances. He pledged on Thursday to rescind the Bush administration policy on Haiti. EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms finds it odd that America's political leaders continue to move in the "wrong" direction on gun control, even in the face of mounting evidence that armed citizens are the most capable defenders of safety. The committee points out that after 75 years of gun control, Russian President Boris Yeltsin has legalized the use of certain weapons for self-protection in response to rampant crime and violence plaguing his country. "It's now easier to legally carry a weapon for self-defense in Moscow than in Los Angeles," said Alan Gottlieb, committee chairman. "At this rate we may no longer be the land of the free." This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM