with Draconis Blackthorne

DENVER (Reuters) - Six months after two teenagers shot 13 people to death at Columbine High School before taking their own lives, the grief of the survivors has found a new expression -- lawsuits.
The local sheriff, the parents of the teenage gunmen, people who supplied the two students with weapons and gun manufacturers have either been sued or are under threat of a lawsuit.
It was a different atmosphere immediately after the April 20 massacre at Columbine in nearby Littleton. Then friends, relatives, students and even people who never met the victims created a makeshift memorial near the school.
They left flowers, teddy bears and notes. Locals and people around the country were in shock over the horror. Besides the 15 dead, 23 were wounded, some very seriously.
But as the days passed, other emotions surfaced. Relatives of victims chopped down two trees planted at a local church because they represented the gunmen, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.
Some families have sued the school district in federal court to force it to install religious-themed memorial tiles relatives made for their loved ones.
``It's the American way,'' columnist Ed Quillen wrote in The Denver Post. ``We unite in sympathy and grief during a tragedy, then divide to fight it out in the courtroom afterward.''
In the past week a number of families of students killed or wounded have notified authorities they intend to sue Jefferson County because they claim the local sheriff was negligent in failing to prevent the attack.
Since the shooting, parents have asked how the two gunmen could have built up an arsenal without anyone seeing what was happening.
``There are no doubt other ways to recover from a terrible loss, but the rule of law is the glue that binds us together,'' said Mimi Wesson, a former federal prosecutor and university professor.
``We're such a litigious society,'' she added.
Even the parents of Dylan Klebold filed their notice of intent to sue, a requirement in Colorado when suing a governmental entity. Tom and Sue Klebold pegged their claim on Jefferson County officials' alleged failure to inform them about the violent tendencies of Eric Harris.
Filing a notice of intent to sue does not necessarily mean a full blown lawsuit will follow, but it does preserve the survivors' right to sue, lawyers said.
In an editorial titled ``Finding Someone to Blame,'' the Denver Rocky Mountain News said filing an intent to sue may be nothing more than a defensive legal strategy. ``Yet whether the action is tactical or sincere, it is still an attack on the moral principle of holding criminals responsible for their own crimes,'' the newspaper said.
After shooting their schoolmates, Harris and Klebold turned their guns on themselves.
``We don't believe there's any legitimate basis for liability,'' William Tuthill, an assistant Jefferson County attorney, has said.
The parents of Isaiah Shoels, the only African American killed in the massacre, have sued the parents of Klebold and Harris, alleging negligence in not being aware of what their children were planning. They hired high-profile Michigan attorney Geoffrey Fieger, best known for representing assisted suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian.
Michael and Vonda Shoels have also sued two young men who provided Klebold and Harris with a semi-automatic weapon, and Fieger said he planned to sue Robyn Anderson, who bought rifles for the underage youths.
Lawyers for the Harris and Klebold families have tried to get Fieger removed from the case, saying his public remarks about it have been improper.

In eastern India, a newspaper reports that a Roman Catholic nun was abducted, stripped, and forced to drink her captors' urine.
The two men told her it would be a lesson not to convert Hindus.
In New Delhi, a Catholic archbishop has demanded the government take immediate action against the offenders. Hindu radical groups have been linked to a growing number of attacks on Christians in India, including the burning death of an Australian missionary and his two young sons in January.

Police near Chattanooga, Tennessee are trying to figure out who killed a Methodist minister... and why. The burned body of Reverend William Petty Jr. was found in Monroe County, Tennessee Saturday night.
Members of Petty's church were shocked when they heard the news of his murder. They say they can't understand why anyone would want to kill a man who cared about reaching out to others.
No suspects are in custody at this time.

Mourners have paid respects to nine people, mostly Roman Catholic clergy, who were killed Saturday during a mercy mission to East Timor refugees.
Their killers reportedly belong to one of the pro-Indonesian militias still controlling much of the countryside, which is outside the reach of the multinational peace-keeping force now in East Timor.
Catholic clergy have long been at the forefront of the independence movement in East Timor, making them the target of numerous militia attacks since the independence vote a month ago.
Earlier this month four priests fell prey to the militias.
Meanwhile, Defense Secretary William Cohen is en route to Australia urging Indonesia to quickly investigate its army's involvement in the atrocities of East Timor. And the United Nations says that more than 100 million dollars is needed in humanitarian aid over the next six months.

IX/XVIII/XXIV
Larson, xian talk-show host, "exorcist", & Satanophobe, appeared on "Politically Incorrect", & right off the bat, began with his condemnation of Harry Potter, a truly wonderful childrens' character, claiming the 'Occult' influences would corrupt the youth of America. The "glorification of Evil" as it were. All on the panel became annoyed by Larson's bigotry & zealotry. When the subject of racism came up, Larson clammed up, & remained quiet for the remainder of the program. Bill Maher was a veritable "Devil's Advocate" this night, it was delightful & refreshing to see a host counter a xian opportunist & hysteria-promoter, instead of passively nodding because of PC-feelgood garbage.
Larson has been a "Devil-chaser" for years, & his most notable contribution was the "In The Name of Satan" series, in which he interviewed in his Denver studios Mgr. Peter Gilmore, Mgr. Rex Diabolos Church, Mgr. Boyd Rice {NON/Abraxas Fdn.}, Mgr. Vincent Crowley {Acheron}, & Thomas Thorn {EHC} of The Church of Satan in Year XXX A.S.

LONDON (Reuters) - An English vicar eager to attract a bigger congregation gave his sermon extra zip by dressing up as ''Star Wars'' villain Darth Vader.
Anglican priest Peter Evans, 59, told reporters he wanted to make going to church more fun in the southern English town of Croydon. He was rewarded with a congregation that tripled in size.
They sang specially created lyrics set to the ``Star Wars'' theme music and Evans preached about how Darth Vader finally abandoned ``the dark side of the force'' and became a good man.

Texas State News For September 16 - (FORT WORTH) -- Police in Fort Worth, Texas, say they have a tentative I-D on the gunman who opened fire at a Baptist church last night, killing seven people and himself. But they're not releasing the man's name. Witnesses say the gunman was dressed in black and shouted obscenities before blasting away. Three of the dead are teenagers, the youngest of them 12 years old. Several people who survived are still in the hospital. A-B-C News reports that the bodies of the victims... with the exception of one who died at a hospital... were removed early this morning. There's not much known about the 35-year-old gunman or if he was affiliated with any particular hate groups.

FORT WORTH, Texas (Reuters) - A Texas man who gunned down hymn-singing teen-age worshipers at a Baptist youth service Wednesday, killing seven people before taking his own life, was a troubled loner who apparently picked the church at random, police said Thursday.
Police named the gunman, who killed himself inside the church as police stormed in, as Larry Ashbrook, 47, who lived in squalor amid boxes of ammunition and hacked up photographs in a house in a Fort Worth suburb not far from the church.
Ashbrook opened fired on a youth rally attended by about 150 people Wednesday evening in Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, shouting anti-religious curses and telling his victims to ``stay still.''
``We were just in the middle of singing when he started firing,'' said survivor Laura Watson, a college student. ``My friend next to me was hit, he was lying there on the ground gurgling and moaning.''
The massacre was the latest in a series of recent shooting rampages in the United States that have shocked the American public and put the spotlight on the issue of gun control.
President Clinton said he hoped the shock of the church shootings would spur the nation to act so that such tragedies do not happen as often as they have in recent months.
``We know there is nothing we can do to ensure this will never happen,'' Clinton said. ``But there is a lot more we can do to ensure it will happen more rarely.''
Texas Governor and Republican presidential frontrunner George W Bush cut short a campaign trip in Michigan to fly to Fort Worth and visit relatives of the shooting victims.
Ashbrook emptied three magazines of bullets from a nine-millimeter semiautomatic handgun into the church hall and had six full magazines left when he put the gun to his own head, police said.
``At this point in time we would have to say it was random, he picked the church at random,'' Acting Police Chief Ralph Mendoza told reporters.
Three teen-agers and three adults were killed in the church and a teen-age girl died later in the hospital of a wound to the head.
Seven people ranging in age from 12 to 41 were injured in the shooting but their conditions improved overnight, although a high school football player was paralyzed by a back wound.
``This has the appearance of being a very troubled man who for whatever reason in is own mind sought to quiet whatever demons were bothering him,'' FBI agent Bob Garrity told reporters Thursday after agents searched Ashbrook's house.
Police said Ashbrook was an unemployed loner who inherited the one-story house when his father died in July. When FBI agents entered, the house was a shambles with old journals and writings scattered among boxes of ammunition, upside down furniture and hacked up photographs.
Previous gun rampages have involved some weapons bought illegally, but Fort Worth police said there appeared to be no legal problems with the two handguns in Ashbrook possession.
Although the investigation was just starting, police said the nine-millimeter gun used in the shooting appeared to have been bought at a flea market in Grand Prairie, between Fort Worth and Dallas.
The other gun, a .380 caliber model that the gunman brought to the church but apparently did not fire, was bought by Ashbrook in 1992 at an area gun shop that has since closed.
``At this point in time it is my belief that we will find out that both weapons were purchased legally,'' Police Chief Mendoza said.
Officials were at a loss to explain the rampage: Ashbrook had no record of mental health treatment in county records and no criminal record anywhere nationally except a 1971 charge of marijuana possession filed by Fort Worth police, police said.
There were no notes with the gunman's body or in his car or home and no written material indicating he was planning the bloodshed. ``It is very early and we don't have any significant information in regard to why he committed this crime,'' Mendoza said.
The massacre began just before 7 p.m. (8 p.m. EDT/0000 GMT) when Ashbrook walked into the entry area of the brick church, which has a lobby connecting separate wings of the three-story building in a quiet middle-class neighborhood.
Mendoza said Ashbrook shot three people in rapid succession as he moved from the lobby toward the main auditorium or sanctuary, including a janitor who approached him and a woman sitting on a lobby couch.
``He walked in through those double doors into the sanctuary, as we refer to it, and was standing back kind of pacing and firing randomly at the people inside the sanctuary,'' he said.
Witnesses said Ashbrook, who was wearing a black jacket, black shirt and blue jeans, shouted as he fired ``What you believe is all bullshit'' as well as ``stay still.''
Police said Ashbrook rolled a pipe bomb down one of the aisles. It exploded but apparently without much force.
As police entered the building, the gunman sat down in a rear pew and killed himself.

The preceeding occurances happened after the 'dreaded' Columbine shootings, & since then, xians have been proclaiming that "No weapon formed against us shall prosper." {Isaiah 54:17}. Think about it. Obviously they do. More wishful thinking.

DORJE SHUGDEN
Some exiles also maintain that China, in its battle against the Tibetans' god-king, sometimes mixes Marxism with a touch of black magic. They accuse Beijing of recruiting the followers of a wrathful Tibetan spirit known as Dorje Shugden. This deity has tens of thousands of Tibetan worshippers--plus a contingent of Western Buddhist fans. Described as having four fangs "sharp like the ice of a glacier," three blood-red eyes and hair like flaming serpents, Dorje Shugden has become a supernatural enemy of the Dalai Lama. His fashion sense attests to his ugly mood: Dorje Shugden sports a necklace of 50 severed heads. Repeatedly over the past decade, the Dalai Lama has warned that Dorje Shugden poses a threat to both Tibet's struggle to regain independence from China and his own personal safety. What more could the Chinese want in a new, otherworldly friend?
This combat between the Dalai Lama and the snarling deity has already crossed out of the realm of sorcery and into reality -- with gruesome consequences. A respected Tibetan dialectics professor who publicly opposed Dorje Shugden worship was ritually slaughtered in February of last year along with two students. The academic, Lobsang Gyatso, 70, had been one of the Dalai Lama's closest allies in the struggle with the deity. Indian detectives discovered that the six suspected Tibetan assassins made several telephone calls to the Dorje Shugden Society headquarters in New Delhi en route to the slayings. Says former police superintendent Rajeev Kumar, who investigated the case: "The link is clearly established between the murderers and the Dorje Shugden cult. The killings were religiously motivated." The assassins fled through Nepal back to Tibet and have since vanished. Their border crossing was allegedly unhampered by Chinese authorities, even though returning Tibetans are often subjected to arrest and interrogation.
Tibetan exiles and Indian investigators suspect Beijing is manipulating the feud between Shugden supporters and the Dalai Lama's government-in-exile. Across Tibet, the Chinese are giving funds to rebuild Shugden shrines and temples destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. Sonam Topgyal, a Dalai Lama cabinet minister, claims that government workers who professed to be devotees of the wrathful god were given special cash bonuses for the Tibetan New Year. The Chinese press gleefully prints accusations by Shugden supporters that the Dalai Lama is imposing "religious dictatorship" on his people.
Indian authorities are investigating the possibility of a link between the two alleged Chinese spies and Shugden devotees. But according to Geshe Cheme Tsering, general secretary of the Dorje Shugden Society in New Delhi, "This is just police speculation. We don't come into the picture at all." Still, those in charge of the Tibetan spiritual leader's security are taking threats against his life seriously. Last January, police began receiving reports that the Dalai Lama might be in danger from disgruntled Shugden-ites. They urged him to cancel a trip to Tibetan refugee communities in southern India--a center of Shugden support--but he refused. "For us, the threat perception is very serious, and we've got to maintain round-the-clock surveillance," says an official. Besides the Dalai Lama's personal security force of Tibetans, a contingent of 100 policemen now guards the Tibetan leader's residence at Dharamsala.
Some Indian officials doubt that the Chinese would want to kill off the Dalai Lama, especially so soon after U.S. President Bill Clinton, on his recent trip to Beijing, championed the exile leader. A better strategy, say Indian experts on China, would be to wait for the Dalai Lama, who is now 63, simply to die. Then there would be nobody to defy Beijing's rule in Tibet. But the Chinese may not have the patience to wait for him to pass away naturally. A secret 1994 Chinese government report, leaked to human rights groups, admonished that "to kill a snake you must crush his head."

With reporting by Meenakshi Ganguly and Maseeh Rahman/New Delhi