Tuesday, October 31, 2000

A correct horoscope at last !

I have campaigned against your daily horoscope but I will

    desist after reading my horoscope today - for Leo ( Oct. 30 )

       " ... You exude sex appeal: Don't break too many hearts. "

           Out of concern for my own heart a pretty teen age girl

    held a Providence Mall door open for me !

               And I am just as young as Bill Clinton .

Sunday, October 29, 2000

Shockingly undemocratic Times Editorial


            The New York Times editorial showing complete contempt

    for presidential candidate Ralph Nader (   How EGOTISTICAL of

    anybody but an endorsed Democrat or Republican to seek the

    highest office in the land - even if inspired by PRINCIPLE ,

    and against impossible odds ! ) was the  most foolish New

    York Times editorial since you ridiculed Robert Goddard's

     experimental rocket . " Nothing to push against " , you

    see. Ignoring Isaac Newton , ACTION & REACTION .

           But despite the Times editorial Goddard's rocket did

    soar. And Ralph Nader's third party might also take off and

    become a truly  REVOLUTIONARY phenomenon . It does have

    something to PUSH AGAINST - a lot of REACTION !

            Don't quit now , Ralph ! To Hell with Gore !

Saturday, October 28, 2000

Health benefits for the healthy

Eights weeks after his wife was diagnosed with cancer,

    she lost her health insurance. Richard Addison - age 60 - himself

    living on $700 from  social security - is pictured wiping a tear

    from his eye ( page A6 , Pawtucket Times - Oct. 27 ) .

               Now there is already a $40,000 medical bill from

    Memorial Hospital.

               Al Gore does not have much to say anymore about

    " grandiose " national health care plans. Woopie for 8 years

    of Clinton-Gore prosperity ! Woopie for GOOD TIMES !

               Poverty activist , Henry Shelton, faces the truth :

    the have nots of the world -so much more numerous than the haves -

    must unite .  Yes, forget about the phony liberals. Maybe

    Patrick Kennedy will send Addison and his sick wife a sympathy

    card.

                 Isn't this system just wonderful : Health Insurance

    for the Healthy !

              And don't think that " compassionate conservatives " -like

    George W. Bush - lose sleep at night  trying to solve the health

    care problems of the poor .

                 Just a sigh and a " Let us pray ! "


            I know of one mentally ill man who also lost his health

    insurance not long after the crackpot.  Now he pays even more

    for his lithium - out of his own pocket, while working only

    3 days per week.


                 Woopie for our prosperity ! Greed and selfishness

    forever ! That's God's Way !

Thursday, October 26, 2000

Texas education - please no bull !

 If Texas kids who are classified as black or hispanic

    do quite well on standardized tests , that can only reflect well

    on the school system there - whatever the vagaries of that just

    released Rand Institution - " think tank " - report.

             If a latino or black pupil scored 600 + on an SAT test , we

    can assume that he or she really did learn something academic in

    high school. And not just test foxiness !

              I could not in good conscience vote for George W. But

    Republicans should not lose an election on the basis of baloney

    from big education bureaucrats.

             In general CONSERVATIVES have many sound ideas on the

    education of the young.

             I'll will probably vote for Ralph Nader . But can only

    accept the democratic process - flawed as it is.

Tuesday, October 24, 2000

Pay Phone Rip-off

 I asked a stranger for a quarter in downtown Providence

    early Sunday morning - not usually a class act. But I needed a

    quarter to make a call. The gentleman made a PROFIT from this

    bum: I gave HIM 3 dimes.

               Then - this happens a little too often - the damm

    thing swallowed my quarter. This must happen to thousands of

    pay phone users !

              The telephone company monopolies can't make enough

    money by legal robbery.  Tell me Mr. Bigshot Executive , does

    ANYBODY ever get their lost quarters back ? And how ?

                 And too many pay phones are broken down for

    months without  YOU paying the slightest attention.

               I hope some day YOU will really need a quarter

    in downtown Providence.

               I wanted to send that quarter to the Committee to

    Elect Ralph Nader .

Saturday, October 21, 2000

Calling Harold Hill - The Music Man

We do need LATIN teachers in our high schools. So

    congratulations to young Andrews Josephs  for his efforts

    in East Providence.

                The fictitious name of Professor Harold Hill in

    your Oct. 20 editorial reminded me that music programs are

    also disappearing from our high schools. No funds for CULTURE,

    no funds for the very things that make life bearable -like

    classical music. (  Thank God for National Public Radio , for

    89.7 FM in Boston ).

            The  poignant  movie " Mr. Holland's Opus " tells the

    sad story. Kids with awesome musical talents are being betrayed

    by the bean counters !

            President Clinton is  sympathetic , an accomplished

    musician himself. Perhaps he can dress up as Professor Harold

    Hill and campaign around the country for the restoration of

    high school music programs .

          They will pay attention to a REAL charlatan !

Friday, October 20, 2000

School Days Cruel Days !

Just read and pondered your Oct. 18 editorial : " Singing

    the homework blues ". I have seen kids as young as 7 with happy,

    affectionate dispositions - and bright enough for future "success " -

    crushed by the drudgery of homework - mostly just busywork assigned

    by teachers with the souls of bureaucrats  with a PROGRAM , an

    AGENDA , a collective GOAL .

             In his biography the Russian revolutionary, Leon Trotsky

    observed that there are not a few FREAKS in the teaching profession.

           How many kids  are the victims of  destructive teachers

    who deep down hate kids and hate their jobs , their only real

    goal in life a comfortable retirement ?

                 No one should be a teacher who does not feel in

    his or her heart that a child is precious !

               I am very pro-union, but I must admit that teacher

    unions are protecting too many ignorant and vile incompetents.

                Einstein was right when he perceived that school is

    often just a prison which kills the natural curiosity of kids

    and prepares them to be " narrow , neurotic , and obsessive "

    adults. A lot of everyday MEANNESS  can be traced to our

    school days.

                 I recommend Bertrand Russell's essay : " In

    Praise of Idleness ".

Wednesday, October 18, 2000

Old Gus passes away

Well he lived till age 90 still believing in

    the Socialist-Communist future. It takes CHARACTER to

    be a REBEL in a " free " society that still punishes

    non-conformity in many ways.

                I suppose it is not improper to wish this

     working class champion : REST IN PEACE !

              Is Russia a happier country today - dominated

    not by the Communist Party -with all its faults - but by

    ruthless , heartless GANGSTER CAPITALISM ?

            Just a few weeks ago I re-read Erich Fromm's " The

    Sane Society " . The gifted psychoanalyst was not talking

    about CAPITALISM .

            Gus Hall was a SANE man !

Tuesday, October 17, 2000

The "science " of screwing workers

 Here is under-reported  scandal in blue collar America :

    it is not enough for greedy capitalists to LEGALLY exploit

    labor with abysmal wages. They have developed a perverse

    economic " science " for screwing wage workers out of

    EARNED wages and overtime.

                A half a dozen male and female  " service industry "

    workers tell me that  they are routinely - and I suspect

    systematically cheated out of their EARNED weekly incomes.

              If they complain about errors, they are given the

    "treatment ".  " Let's not be pests now , my surly peasant

    subjects ".  Yes , we ALL make mistakes - even if in our case

    NEVER to our disadvantage and ALWAYS to yours !

          So you worked 50 hours last week and only got paid for

    40 ?  You worked 30 hours one weekend and only got paid

    for 24 ?

            It cannot be a coincidence that so many wage workers

    are routinely cheated  even out of their pauper wages. I

    am sure this is now an evil SCIENCE .


                 Any Noble Prize in economics for THIS : Always

    owing 20% of your workers last month's wages ?

              Alas even  Communists have given up impolite talk

    of EXPLOITATION in the New World Order.

Saturday, October 14, 2000

Dying for Dust of Ages !


            What can a rational person say about today's

    headlines, the crazy violence between Arabs and Jews ?

            This is not an Olympian sports spectacular. Ra

    Ra for the Jews ! Ra Ra for the Arabs !

            It seems that people are  just choking on the dust

    of the DEAD PAST . It does not matter whether or not Joseph's

    tomb is authentic. It remains a sacred symbol - like many

    insanely contested HOLY SITES .

             And soon their hearts become graves too !

         Perhaps  young Jews and Arabs might consider abandoning

    religious obsessions for the intellectual of  Dialectic

    Materialism .
         ( intellectual tranquility )


              Or just convert to Catholicism - the one TRUE FAITH !

Friday, October 13, 2000

Devastating economic blow to Warwick, R.I.

For several years, I - a non-believer in THE CAR- have

    complained about the appalling bad bus service for Warwick Ave.

    I am sure that hundreds of Warwick resident would take advantage

    of -or absolutely NEED - a more rational RIPTA bus schedule for

    that very busy , main street.


            Everybody in tiny Rhode Island should not be enslaved by

    the tyranny of the automobile - now a threat to the very

    civilization of which it is the quintessential product.


         WAKE UP RIPTA ! WAKE UP city mayors ! Like  Moloch ,

    this mechanical god  destroys its own worshippers by the

    millions. How much misery in modern life is motor vehicle

    related ?

               But now I have punished Warwick, Rhode Island by

    moving myself - and my considerable resources - to East

    Providence, R.I. . Much better bus service here. I am not

    -like a child - obliged to be home by 7 o'clock at night.

           I can drink in the Safari Lounge nearly to 11 -

    and the Bus 33 takes me right to the door of 2432

    Pawtucket Ave. - known for its more illustrious tenants !



            There will be financial PANIC in Warwick when the

    news of my departure gets out. But good riddance !

Wednesday, October 11, 2000

More is better for PROJO box

My day begins with coffee and the PROJO. My dollar was

    as good as anybody's at Dunkin Donuts at the corner of Warren

    and Pawtucket Ave. in East Providence last Saturday.

         But the PROJO " honor box " rejected my 2 quarters and

    humiliated me. "  Perhaps it senses my  radical-liberal politics ",

    I reflected.

         Then another guy came by. Did not look like a Republican. It

    reject HIS two quarters too. " Did the same yesterday ", he

    complained.

           Then I had an idea -  wretchedly non-CLASS STRUGGLE : I

    deposited 2 quarters + one dime. I got my paper !

              Same here as with those pest union : MORE IS BETTER !

Friday, October 6, 2000

U.S. not going to pot - but Macera ?

  I don't believe in trial by newspaper . A man is

    innocent until PROVEN guilty. But Bill Macera comes out

    of your October 5 story literally smelling bad -reeking

    of marijuana. It would be far more serious a matter if

    the mayor had been driving under the influence of

    the still popular but still illegal drug.

           I agree with Froma Harrop : " Some day the sale

    and possession of marijuana will be legal from sea to

    shining sea "

            Bill Macera was my philosophy of religion

    instructor at CCRI. I got a B in his course.

            My impression of the ex-priest is that he

    is a good and decent man. But it is very challenging

    to REFORM Johnston, R.I.

            I am not writing this letter under the

    influence of pot.

Wednesday, October 4, 2000

Upsetting picture worth a MILLION words !

That picture on the front page Sunday - a most disturbing

    one of an Arab boy killed in the embrace of his terrified

    father - was comparable to front page photos of the Vietnam

    War era ( remember that pathetic photo of the naked girl

    on the road fleeing a merciless attack ? ) . It too

    will change hearts more quickly than editorial brilliance .

              Enough is enough  - enough horror in the land

    of Christ's birth - sacred to Christians, Jews, Moslems, to

    the historical memory of mankind .

             The whole people should turn out for that kid's

    funeral. He is their Emmett Till.

            That shocking photo is THE picture of the YEAR  2000 !

        It was RIGHT to publish it !