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Omni Magazine WIN A CAMARO CONVERTIBLE! $30,000 TREASURE H' TEBRUARYT994 . -.. SHOCKING SECRETS OF THE FDA! ^ EXCLUSIVE:^ HCTION " CURE EXPLORE • THE MIND WITH J FRANCIS , § CRICK ,-:-.;; II [ SPACE FOR' /jt ADVERTISING IN ORBIT ///// onnruiVOL. 16 NO. 5 EDITOR IN CHIEF & DESIGN DIRECTOR: BOB GUCCIONE PRESIDENT & C.O.O.: KATHY KEETON EDITOR: KEITH FERRELL EXECUTIVE V D /GR.APHICS DIRECTOR: FRANK DEVINO MANAGING EDITOR- CAROLINE DARK ART DIRECTOR: CATHRYN MEZZO DEPARTMENTS FEATURES 6 v 29 First Word wrJ^te, li9*k?^ Continuum By Greg Meyerson 36 8 Unhealthy Alliances Communications By Linda Marsa 9 Taxpayers pick up Political Science the tab when questionable By Tom Dworetzky relationships 10 form between government- Arts financed By Robert K. J. Killheffer .^B^^W researchers and drug " companies. JHH iv Omni Treasure Hunt Are medical ethics losing , ,. , .. ....,,; \ 16 out to the \::* Mind pressures of big money? By Nina L. Diamond 46 Psychoactive cure Soul Searching with 18 Francis Crick Sounds By Daniel Voll By Robert Angus Codiscoverer of DNA's Noise annoys double helix 20 attempts to redefine our Wheels concept of soul By Jeffrey Zygmonl - and pinpoint free will. 22 V 3H ^HS 56 Stars w?%m Fiction: Assassin By Bill Lawren JM\ mm By Bruce McAllister 24 The ability Electronic Universe V to change has mixed By Gregg Keizer am "^ results. 26 IH m 71 ' Medicine ^V^H^Sfe^^H^I .-;.'. ^fffSt Interview: By Hunler Whitney Tom Sever Mapping internal rhythms By Neil McAleer 27 Archaeologist takes to the Space At the center of our universe, air— and gains By Devera Pine we traditionally envision the eternal human soul perspective on the lay 100 According "io Francis Crick, (hat of the land. Games could change. Cover arl by Jim Zuckerman. (Additiona 77 By Scot Morris art and photo credits, page 82) Antimatter ".© FIRST WORD RACE MATTERS: Analyzing the politics of patriotism By Greg Meyerson remembered the Black man hold- termination campaign, the boys ing the razor, Dominant stereo- "voiced their approval and de- types see Blacks as either crimi- clared their willingness to do the nals or as beneficiaries of reverse exterminating with their own discrimination, yet Blacks face hands" without guilt. systematic discrimination in apply- Racism and nationalism are ing for mortgages or in job inter- not identical, but they feed on views. (The jobless rate of Black each other. Patriotism, the moth- Nleyerson is college graduates is 2.24 times er of all nationalisms, feeds them that of Whites.) Sister Soulja both. I regularly ask my students professor of can't racist how many Southeast Asians critical says Blacks be be- have the power were bombed and starved by the theory at the cause they don't of White supremacy. U.S. government during the Viet- University ot Nationalism carries an uncan- nam War. One hundred thousand North Carolina at is the usual answer. students Greensboro. ny logic though. Louis Farrakhan My has stood on the same podium underestimate twentyfold Vietnam The slave trade cost 50 million with Arthur Buiz (who argues in War deaths. Arthur Butz esti- lives, says historian Howard Zinn. The Hoax of the Twentieth Cen- mates that a million Jews died dur- For most Black people, the Confed- tury that the holocaust was an in- ing World War II— most dead by erate flag symbolizes this holo- vention of Jews and commies) diseases resulting from the trans- caust. March 4, 1992, was Con- and White supremacist Tom Metz- port of Jews to labor camps in federate Flag Day in North Ca- ger. This is nothing new. In 1922, the East. The Nazi apologist un- rolina. The Confederate flag flies Marcus Garvey sought support derestimates Holocaust victims atop the Georgia Capitol and, from Edward Young Clark, the im- only sixfold. Nearly 100 percent until recently, the Alabama Capi- perial wizard of the Klan; in 1924, of Americans do not think the tol. A bumper sticker features the he invited John Powell, head of American flag is a symbol of im- Confederate flag and the mes- the Anglo-Saxon clubs, to speak perialism, Most Americans think sage, "Heritage Not Hate." at the United Negro Improvement that imperialism is nothing but the People need community and Association headquarters; Elijah rhetoric of Muslim fanatics blind- cultural identity, so some get Muhammed met with Klan offi- ed by their own patriotism, their sense of belonging by hon- cers in Atlanta to work out a trea- Racial inequality is the van- oring Robert E. Lee; others by hon- ty promising Elijah his Black na- guard of increasing class inequal- re- ity. In top oring Harriet Tubman. I think we tion within the United States as the United States, the should honor Harriet Tubman, not ward for supporting a right-wing 1 percent own more wealth than the other guy. Instead, we get du- takeover. In Chicago, several the bottom 90 percent. The rich- eling nationalisms. "If Blacks can years ago, Steve Cokely, a Black est 834,000's net worth is almost have an NAACP, then why can't Muslim follower of Farrakhan, a trillion more than the poorest 84 Whites have an NAAWP," Klan made the news by insisting that million, The world's richest billion members will say. there was a plot by Jewish doc- have 83 percent of the wealth; It is strange to equate Black tors at Cook County Hospital to in- the poorest billion, 1.4 percent. and White nationalisms. The ject Black babies with the AIDS Americans tend to see class stat- enormous power differences get virus. Black and White united in us as a function of individual ef- lost in such equations. White peo- their separateness and anti-Semi- fort. Everyone can be a million- ple don't get Jim Crowed or tism. Jewish Nationalism is sub- aire, or at least middle class. lynched by the thousands or hit ject to similar paradoxes. Shlomo Class, though, is more like a with job ceilings (except for wom- Ariel, in a 1983 letter published in curve, where 80 percent of the stu- en) and restrictive covenants. Ha'aretz, reported that in semi- dents get F's. Since, class analy- Whites are not besieged by nox- nars set up tor young Israeli con- sis is taboo in America, we get in- ious stereotypes. In a recent scripts, every group contained stead a rich mosaic of national- study, subjects were shown pic- boys who argued for the physical ism, racism, patriotism; the rich tures of a White man holding a ra- elimination of Arabs. When Ariel get richer—heritage, not hate. We all of zor during an argument with a . drew parallels between the 1982 could make a flag out of Black man. When the White sub- Sabra-Chatila massacres of Pal- this if we didn't already have too ' jects described the picture, they estinian refugees and the Nazi ex- many of them. DO — connnnuruicATiorus READERS' WRITES: Nuclear solutions to age-old disputes, glorious gums, and receiving signals from unknown origins Fight Back In Offense of Reason "Future War, Future Peace" by Ben Robert Killheffer implies in "The Con- Bova in your November 1993 issue sciousness Wars" [October 1993] that was, on the whole, quite intriguing and science has essentially shown that the very logical in its extrapolations on pos- soul is entirely the creation of the sible fuiure events. The only point at brain, which will die with the rest of the which I think the narrative goes awry is body. Whoa! If we're going to talk the description ol the nuclear exchange about the mind, let's at least keep an between Pakistan and India. It seems open one. Consider the analogy com- to me that should there be a nuclear at- paring the mind to a TV set. Just as a tack against a Muslim nation, other rad- TV is tuned to a particular program ical fundamentalist Muslim nations that does not originate from within the would take the opportunity to strike TV, so might the brain act as an interpret- with missiles of their own. Such an at- er of the mind. If we tamper with the in- tack would provide the perfect oppor- nards of a TV, the picture will distort and tunity for a jusii'iec: jihad against the "in- eventually disappear, but we have not fidels," carried out by nuclear means. damaged the source of the signal. Michael LaBauve Steve Briggs Prineville, OR South Portland, ME AOL: Demon3 Regarding "Jn Defense of Reason" Chelation Frustration [Books, October 1993]: Since the mo- Your article on chelation therapy [Med- ment scientists actually established icine, November 1993] was sorely need- ratio and the intellect as the absolute ed to help combat the prejudice against measure for truth, the humiliating proc- it on the part of the medical profession. ess of cynically reducing the enormous I have witnessed the struggle to have spectrum of human experience to a Medicare pay for chelation treatments, "scientifically measurable" and gener- whereas they will pay a large part of ally recognized minimum has taken $35,000 for a heart bypass without com- place. One fact that has been success- ment—this, in spite of the fact that fully ignored all along is that what actu- most bypass recipients require anoth- ally is measurable depends entirely up- er operation in five years. I personally on the state of the technology you use have struggled with periodontal prob- to measure. A small look back to the lems for years. During my last visit with time when radio waves or bacteria my dentist he remarked that the improve- couldn't be measured or seen and ment in my gums has been extraordi- were declared nonexistent should be nary since my series of chelation-ther- enough to make science step back apy treatments.
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