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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 16, 1984)
Daily Ncbraskan Tuesday, October 16, 1934 o fcvIDo 1l :(Q)Ji( Hiil 3iesyi Pago 4 i v 11 rp.en Ti."t li sn. f wi or Don 11 "H very time the embassy la Lebanon N ha3 been attacked by terrorists ii a President Reagan condemned the act and promised retribution. Terrorism is a barbaric, uncivilized and un-Christian way to go about achieving one's goals, Reagan has said. The same man has staunchly defended the covert war against Nicaragua. The latest VS. contribution to the resistance is a CIA manual provided to the FDN, or Nicaraguan Democratic Force. It contains instructions on how to terrorize. It's titled "Psychological Operations in Guerrilla War." The manual was distributed to the FDN last year, according to an Associated Press story in Monday's Lincoln Star. FDifs president denied the manual was from the CIA, but AP verified its origin "independently by U.S. intelligence sources." The book counsels against "explicit ter ror " but endorses the "selective use of violence" against Nicaraguan judges, police and other officials. The story says the book does not use the words "assassi nate" or "kill " but the language used indi cates physical force is intended. "If possible, professional criminals should be hired to carry out specific, selective jobs," it says. The manual also advises rebels to lead "demonstrators into clashes with the authorities, to pro voke riots or shootings, which lead to the killing of one or more persons, who will be T T Mm 1-Mffte I seen as the martyrs; this situation should be taken advantage of immediately, against the government to create even bigger conflicts." That's called inciting a riot and it is illegal in the United States We are supporting terrorism in Nicara gua with our tax dollars. We support it through propaganda like the aforemen tioned manual and we support it with weapons and officers for training. Reagan maintains Nicaragua is trying to export communism and rebellion to other Central American countries. That is his justification. One cant export revolution like bana nas. Nor can communism be exported like a produce. Nicaraguan cClcials main tain that they are not "exporting" their government Right now, they're busy with the FDN and CIA. Even if Nicaraguans sought to ship communism to other coun tries, the conditions have to be ripe within the country. If the people are desperate, they may rebel but it will come from inside the country. A content population, communist or capitalist, will not take up a new government for no reason. Even if communism and revolution could be exported, the CIA's attempts to overthrow the Sandinista regime are hypo critical The Reagan Administration dec ries and supports terrorism at the same time. Communist or capitalist, Moslem or Christian people die because of terrorist acts. It's barbaric and uncivilized no mat ter who is behind it. 71 -V k. ''-oner "-v- - 'P or those of you who missed it, Sophia Loren turned 50. We are told that she celebrated her birth day publicly in a shopping mall in Atlanta. What glamorous errand had brought the Italian movie star to the mall? Had she run out of candles or pantyhose? No, Sophia Loren had joined the bus tling ranks of certifiably older women promoting beauty. By now it appears that nearly ail the women who are pumping Ellen and primping, selling their shapes and their books on the circuit, are more than halfway through the average life expectancy. Bloom County comic Cary Trudeau and his comic strip p Doonesbury have made their much wJ heralded return to America's news papers. The accolades are, however, inap propriate to say the least. As far as I'm concerned, Trudeau shares the same moral plane as that of a sadistic heroin supplier. Recalling why I fed thb way is painful But if my story can prevent just one person from undergoing the same utter agony that I went through, then the pain of remembering will be well worth the cost. 111 start at the beginning, Only last year Joan Collins, 50, wrapped her body in nothing but boas for Playboy. Before that Jane Fonda, 46, began bump ing and posing a3 a 44-year-old yoga pinup flueen and Sophia Loren hustling for Coty and a book of beauty tips. Middle age is so popular that, soon a younger woman may have to lie to get a publisher, or endorse a face cream. It was hard enough trying to look like a model in Seventeen when you were a tee nager. How many of us suspected that we would be compared to Linda Evans at 40? Indeed, think of the women who have spent five decades being measured against Sophia Loren. Is it any wonder that they are fans of Elizabeth Taylor? TIjs centr&l notion of the middle aged, show-and-sell routine is that if SHE can look that good at 50, so can you. Just follow the directions on the package or the book. This is a bit like saying that if Shirley MacLaine can dance at 50, you can dance at 50. (Dear Diary. Can I look like Catherine Deneuve at 41? Dear Wri . ten Did you look like Catherine Deneuve at 20?) The sales pitch of beauty dom is gener ally accompanied by a charming disclai mer of youth. Loren, for example, writes in her new book, that "this mature ap proach to beauty . . . does not depend on possessing the dewy cheeks of a teenager. ..." The secret in this advice is that Sophia Loren apparently had "dewy cheeks" as a teen-ager. The rest of us had zits. A few of us may have had muscles in youth; the rest had premature cellulite. The new role models of mid-life assure us that they, too, were really awkward and unattractive in their youth. "I wasn't always considered beautiful," writes Loren. "When I was 1 3, my nickname was Tooth pick. ..." Raquel Welch goes a bit further saying, "For the most part I see myself as a well-proportioned wimp." But if you really think of Loren as a toothpick and of Welch as a wimp, then I have some books, a line or two of beauty products and a lot of exercising just wait ing for you. As far as I can tell, not one of the new breed of mid-life beauties is going to make their peers feel good about themselves. It's Rosemary Clooney in a muumuu who makes them feel good. We ISO longer look forward to letting go at 30. There is no thought of aging gracefully at 40. At 50, we are faced with a prospect of daily regimens to soften our skin and tighten our thighs. The end result of all this is that those of us who failed to look like Brooke Shields at 17 can now fail to look like Victoria Principal at 33 and Linda Evans at 41 and like Sophia Loren at 50. When Gloria Steineir. turned 50 this year, she updated her famous line from 40. She said, "This is what 50 looks like." With due apologies to the cult of mid-life beauty, allow me two words: "Not neces sarily" 1 SS4, Th E$t-Ji G& UmszpspQt Company Ys$!nt3a Post WrRe r Gray? strro satis 4i I 1 i - !v isnes addiction to Doonesbury 1 J Rogers CM, i Air, 1A ft -X'X uiU4iATKJ f'' U PH1 in the words of Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music, "a very good place to start." The curtain opens back in my more tender years du ring the early seventies . . . As a youngster, I perused comics daily. In fact, as youth is wont to do, it was the only portion of the newspaper I read. One momentous day the bane of the serious serial comic strip reader struckJStev? Canyon was replaced right Li the middle uzsz vndim me. shaped noses and a weird title: Doones bury. However, being the dedicated comic strip reader that I was, I began reading the strip. At first I liked it. After only a short while, I liked it a lot. . Tim passed happily during that early period. My happiness was short lived, however, for I discovered some thing which propelled me down the doomed road of Doonesbury addiction: I discovered that I could bay entire collec tions of Doonesbury strips at the book store for 75 cents. Not having to waif, for a meas-r four-sausared daily diet of the -strip- unleashed a ravenous Doonesbury net only were Eseve's park ranger days not to entertain my ycuthful fancy any logger, but it was replaced by & ccniie 'strip iith character thai had fanr.y- I soon dkreovered that the more I read. the more I craved. My appetite was not muted by my indulgence, rather -it was enlarged all the more. I eagsrry awaited tin shfpr.cr.t cf the most recent comic reprints. But whenever they arrived, I had to speed through the book in an hour just to stop the quaking of my hands. Only afterwards did I go back to relish each and every square, always hoping that I would not tire cf the book before the next set of reprints. I was hocked and hooked good. Just as any clever and perverse drug pusher does when he supplies goods to an addict, so too did Trudeau, and the price of the necessary goodie began to rise 95 cents . . . $1.25 . . . $1.75. 1 was desperate and began to sell my other books to support my Doonesbury, habit. My mother started to worry quite a bit after I overdosed on the huge four-colcr deluxe anniversary Doonesbury edition. I was bleary-eyed for days afterward. Only when I came to did I realize that in my craze I sold the family's Curtis Mathb for the last 43 cents I needed to pay for the book. But deep down I had no regrets. All I knew was that I wanted more and mere. I was lost Then U12 fateful announcement, like a thunderbolt from the blue: no more goodisa from Trudeau alter the end of th year. I was horrified. How dire he do this? I wrote him, called him, cycled and threatened him, but to no avail I counted the passing days like a condemned man. ThedrrdWithmyp,c!amriy hands I turned to the editorial pi -.2 (where it appropriately had been mcved some time in the past). My mother heard my half-choked shriek from the kitchen and ran into my room finding me slumped over my desk. The Lincoln Journal had replaced Doonesbury with, of ail things, Tank McNamara. That's like offering a watery gruel to th starving man who ordered a T-bcnc. I continued in an excited, feverish state for I don't knew how long. Days, weeks, months all ran together as grief exacer bated withdrawal rymptoms. My eyes were bloodshot because of my continual weeping. The healthy, naturally rosy hue cf my cheeks tu rned ashy white and only bones showed through my skin where once muscle had been. Bsrln'I my rather lenzthy convales cence, one day on a whim, I picked up t.e j Lincoln Star and read the comics. Ltket the first small sip of ccel, crystal clear water to the ds&sxt wanderer or the fevered brew. I rend it with abundant delight; I had dlseovsred the methadone ofmy Doonesbury addiction: Bloom Coun ty , I Sure Eloosi County is addicting &f but lika the methadone addiction whicn( replaces the herein addiction, the crav- ings are less Interns and I can ?ven go few da?3 without a strifix. s - Wc2 that's kt stsry. I no longer crsy. , Doon-2abury, but I cannot forget wt Trucsaudidtonte. . i !.