My New year 2000: asleep by midnight !

The year 2000 has great psychological significance for me - a lot to think about. Since I share Mr. Whitcomb's aversion to the relentless NOISE around us - and since I am sick of 2000 hype- I plan to seek Peace & Quiet on New Years Eve . A very meditative hour or two and then -hopefully - I shall be contemptuously sound asleep by midnight. And blissfully refreshed in the morning assessing the first day of New Times.

The BIG NEWS of the morning : " Boris Yeltsin is back in the hospital ... " ? People will conclude that the coming of 2000 was the biggest dud since the Edsel. And a dud will be elected President of the United States in November 2000. Gore ? Bush ? What difference does it make ? And the Red Sox will blow it again late in October. And Buddy Cianci is still being investigated ....

And I'll still be writing letters : " It's damm capitalism , you see ... "

Gay Marriage- A True Abomination !

Providence Journal columnist M. Charles Bakst has truly gone off the deep end on gay rights issues. He is now disappointed that the Vermont Supreme Court " failed to legalize same sex marriages . "

At the core of modern bourgeois marriage is property and procreation. Gay thinkers - and " non-breeders " - like witty author Gore Vidal - have mocked the sacred institution again and again. And indeed they have satirized it brilliantly.

From a RADICAL perspective, gay marriage would simply be a farce of a farce , a mockery of a mockery ! A capitalist society should not recognize gay marriage unless it is prepared to profoundly transform the institution of marriage for everybody - forever.

What every divorced man discovers -TOO LATE ! - in court is that PROPERTY - not love & affection - is at the heart of marital bliss. Too late does he learn that his "immortal beloved " has the soul of a shopping mall. How dearly he pays for love's illusions !

What could be more ludicrous than an unhappy gay couple arguing bitterly in court over who should get the dog ?

( Words I actually overheard : " Why should I stay with an old fag like you when Mario has a beach house and a Porsche! ")

Here is an issue on which both radicals and reactionaries can unite : BAN GAY MARRIAGE !

It it is sheer lunacy . And M Charles , please invite me to the wedding.

Send Cuban Boy Back To Cuba !

Providence Journal columnist Froma Harrop is right to believe that Elian Gonzlez- the 6 year old Cuban boy, an involuntary exile rescued off the Florida coast- belongs with his father in Cuba. And you don't need the wisdom of Solomon here!

Spurious indeed is the argument about the GOOD LIFE here for Elian. Since when is the GOOD LIFE compulsory in our society ? Speak that crap to the millions of working poor - many of whom are from Latin America . The " dark , Satanic mills " of the Industrial Revolution are still there for the new immigrants - most of them .

I am opposed to a recklessly " liberal " immigration policy. But I am also passionately opposed to the abuse and exploitation of these latino immigrants.

And most certainly a 6 year old political innocent should not be used as a pawn in international politics.

I happen to agree with Fidel about the main type of Cuban exile in Miami - a despicable GUSANO , an implacable enemy of the Cuban Revolution

They will never forgive Fidel for " stealing " their vast wealth - the fruit of their own corruption and the misery of the Cuban people.

Viva Fidel ! ( But retire soon please and hold elections .)

Keep doctors out of Congress !

" Keep government from health care " , thinks a smug conservative, A. John Elliot ( letter Dec. 20 ) . "

The entire edifice that we now call health insurance has been erected because we do not trust people to make their own health decisions, " he writes.

I know hard working people who have lost this " bureaucratic red tape " health insurance.Oddly enough they have all decided to NOT visit doctors or hospitals unless delivered while unconscious in an ambulance .

And what is their excuse for not having $100,000 in cash available for health care ? Such a careless life style gets the contempt it deserves in hospital finance department or in the good doctors office .

Don't trust the government to get anything right, to be what " that man " FDR called " a helping hand " . Instead count on the natural benevolence of the Free Market -worshiped by all true conservatives.

These same people whine for Big Government to come to the rescue whenever a natural catastrophe strikes - floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes . Surely the Free Market could deliver help here much more efficiently !

Keep doctors out of Congress - especially conservative doctors ! They are an unhealthy influence indeed .

Whitcomb's Cocktail Crowd -familiar

Robert Whitcomb's column today reads as if it were written the morning after one of those horrid cocktail parties - where you get to meet conspicuously " successful " people whose conversation tells any half-sensitive , cultured listener that being rude crude -often drunken -jackass - is no obstacle to " higher achievement " in a madly materialistic society.


This type stopped reading serious books decades ago. Mr. Whitcomb mentioned encountering this type while on jury duty . All Babbits ! And the allusion to the Sinclair Lewis classic would go right over their bloated heads .

Mr. Whitcomb just cannot admit that the capitalist way of life - minus liberal humanist values - mass produces the same sorry types generation after generation.

How to save your soul from this mess ? Stop thinking that millions of lemmings cannot be wrong about the good things in life.

Find your true self in SOLITUDE -not in the company of corrupt greedy - and mentally lazy - philistines.

Dr. Timothy Leary's message is as valid as ever : " We are living in a highly organized insane asylum ... " Tune in , turn on , drop out ! ".

No, I don't recommend LSD . But if you " tune in " to your real self -not your corporate false self - your cocktail party self - you might find a creative way to " drop out " without starting fires in abandoned warehouses .

The philistines don't read because serious reading is more and more impossible for the egotist. It demand that he or she get out of the self. For someone like Einstein the discovery that the universe was independent and scornful of human egotism was a liberating experience. The egotist, however , is often terrified of solitude -a condition in which inner emptiness is revealed.

The Real Person will have no need for empty cocktail chatter - and less and less need for the cocktail.

" Enough with holiday newsletters ! "

The projo.com bulletin board notification of new message. See:
http://www.projo.com/twocents/get/news/1056.html

I am a fan of Ann Landers. Her advice has often kept this middle aged bachelor out of trouble. But this morning (Dec.15) her column was a little too harsh on those "insufferable " holiday newsletters. Many people it seems are furious with successful, happy -and God forbid!-affluent people. Especially if they are relatives or friends!

They " proceed to send this drivel to everyone whose last name they can spell " : " Jim was named vice-president of the bank,so we celebrated by buying a Mercedes. "

French writer Albert Camus wrote about that certain "look of success " which would "infuriate a jackass ".

It seems too me that it is quite NORMAL to be interested in the charming details of lives of people we know at least superficially. PEOPLE are
infinitely fascinating to other people. That is why TV soap operas are so popular, indeed why Ann Landers is so popular.

Is it not the jealous " jackass " in us that is infuriated with the good luck -deserved or undeserved - of other people ?

Their good luck is just a brief moment in time. One Christmas season will arrive when that gossipy newsletter will be quite melancholy : Life happened ! Yes, Jim served as chairman of the United Fund drive. And now we could use some help ourselves -alas ! The cute kid who played the lead in the Little Theater was killed by drunk driver !

Recall the Thornton Wilder play " Our Town ". The happy present isn't always
what it seems to be . Just ask Emily who just wanted to relive her 12th birthday.

Forget Thornton Wilder. Horror writer Stephen King can imagine
other possibilities in life - since his accident !

Let us empathize with happiness as well as misery - remembering that the latter has more staying power.

Just put that interminable newsletter aside for a long rainy day. And merry Christmas -even to Uncle Scrooge !

Help is available ?

Certain individuals whom I see every day would answer YES to the following questions found in an ad on page B 11 -Dec. 12 :

Loss of interest in activities

fatigue or loss of energy

Change in sleep or appetite

inability to enjoy things

difficulty concentrating

recurrent thoughts of death

And finally : Do you feel hopeless. worthless or helpless ? You may guessed that this ad is directed at MENTALLY DEPRESSED individuals . The individuals whom I see every day are HOMELESS !

Does anybody even THINK about treating the homeless for mental depression ? " Reimbursement for expenses available " .

Really ? How many depressed homeless people have excellent health coverage ? But " Help is available " says the ad . Really ?


- - -- - - - - -
comment:
From: kali55@loa.com (kali)
    To: ar803@osfn.rhilinet.gov
    Subject: My Two cents
    Date: Mon, 13 Dec


    Hi,
    Every time I see your posts i wonder if you are the Doctor i saw for PTSD some years ago.
    I think you are.
    Besides the point. You are so right pertaining to your post about mental health.
    I am fortunate that i am not in the situation that others are pertaining to mental health. YET! My
    health is very bad and I am a harvard member as you must have seen from my own posts. I cannot find
    insurance that is affordable. So that is why I am saying not yet :)

    I feel my place is to speak out for those who just can't do it. I am committed to that. But nothing
    seems to work.

    What is it going to take and how many deaths will it take or hospitalizations will it take for the
    Government to wake up?
    I have tried to speak out. I have gone to the state house and attended the meetings by ocean State
    Funding only to feel totally abandoned by them.
    I have posted and used the radio talk shows. But people do not want to get involved.

    Someone posted on the board wondering where all the hoopla was pertaining to this health issue.
    "Where are the people he asked." I ask the same thing.
    Will i become depressed throughout all of this? Well I don't know. According to my Dr. I am already.
    I went to him because of a domestic problem and he said i was depressed. You really have to know me
    to visualize this. I am full of laughter and take each day as it is and live it to it's fullest. as
    best i can. i am a cancer survivor and my sense of humor faith kept me alive.

    When I left his office with pills in hand ( samples) I said hey wait a minute. I am not the one who
    created this problem and I refuse to take meds for depression for someone else's actions. I did
    nothing wrong other than to go and seek a solution and to report a situation to my Dr. Pills went in
    the basket and my smile came back. So I really don't think I will. I will be scared more than
    anything because of everything that is going on.
    Three brain tumors, seizure disorder, bone tumor, six herniated discs, cancer, hyperbaric chamber
    decisions two pulled ligaments in my knees and two cysts on my kidney.

    To live with what I have to isn't easy but i do it and I do it with as much happiness in my life as
    I can create.

    If I do become depressed I will head right on down to the campus and see Dr. Fitzhugh. He is the one
    who told me never to stop using my mouth and that if it was one of his relatives in the ER needing
    an advocate he would hope that it was me. Dam if i will ever learn to keep it shut. I get in such
    trouble for speaking my mind.


    Looking forward to your posts each day. Thanks for your input.
    You have a great day
    kali
    Maureen Tanguay

Homeless and RIPTA schedules

I just read about the homeless (nameless, luckless, friendless, hopeless, jobless, witless .. penniless ,etc. ) killed by TWO cars on the corner of Pontiac and Howard Avenues in Cranston.

The last time I checked the Pontiac-Reservoir, I was shocked to see that no buses were scheduled after 7:00 am. How does homeless man get to Eleanor Slater shelter on a freezing cold night ? Not even the homeless go to bed at 7:00 !

In general the RIPTA bus schedules are contemptuous of the needs of working people and the poor. Buses should be running up main streets of Rhode Island major cities until just past midnight.

There is no way for a bus rider to get back to Warwick after 7:30 pm .

I have a theory why nothing much is really done about homelessness: They serve as scarecrows for the ruling class - see where slacking off will get you ! A stern warning to a nation of drudges .

Non-plagiarism = thought-crime

How stultifying our speeches would sound if tyrannized by the half-cracked idea of " intellectual property ". Every phrase and sentence - indeed every THOUGHT - has its lawful owner.

After reading John Schulz pathetic self-condemnation yes, even UNINTENTIONAL plagiarism must be punished - I'm inclined to conclude that " property is theft " even when it consists of a clutter of words .

Schulz reminds me of a pathetic character named Parsons in George Orwell's " 1984 ". Fanatically devoted to " Big Brother " he nevertheless said something disloyal " in my sleep " - and his little daughter reported this to the authorities. " Thoughtcrime is a dreadful thing ,old man ", he warns Winston Smith.

" You don't think the Party would arrest an innocent man, do you ? "

Stealing intellectual property with the purpose of " selling " it yourself is clearly unethical. When challenged or questioned, a writer should reveal his sources.

Most of the " opinions " for sale nowadays are hardly worth a nickel ! One gets cheap and good opinions in bar rooms and on the Internet - the equivalent of an intellectual flea-market.

But most academic writers are still anal-retentives .My own opinions on things are absolutely FREE. I represent the FUTURE of " intellectual property " !

Splish Splash I was taking a bath ...!

A school science experiment -" Dipping into science " (Projo Dec.6 , C1 West Bay) .The picture shows Nicole Boucher immersed in a tub of water. A little too C-O-L-D Nicole ?

The story does not mention that the Rocky Hill school demonstration was a repeat of the ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes famous experiment: Was the King of Syracuse cheated by a goldsmith ? Was the royal crown a fraud ? While in the tub ( Splish, Splash, I was taking a bath ! ) he had a " eureka " idea - the volume of the water he displaced in the tub was equal to the volume of his body - an irregular shape like the king's crown . It was then a simple matter to compare the volume of the crown with its weight - volume divided by weight equals DENSITY.

Yes, the crown was a fraud and the goldsmith's head - we assume - was lost to science !

Just this criticism : Why the extravaganza to demonstrate a rather simple concept ? The main problem was to determine the volume of an irregular body - a rock would have sufficed !

The students could learn a lesson in CONCENTRATION from old Archimedes : He was killed while studying a geometric figure. Bertrand Russell suspects that the Roman soldier who murdered him -against orders! - had suffered through Euclid's geometry .

- - - - - - - - -
comment:
  Ron, I love it! This is the most creative and interesting post I've seen
    for months.
    Keep up the great work. You're the second Democrat on this forum that's
    got a real brain. One question, was it a good looking girl?
    Ciao
    Guy 
- - - - - - - -
comment from Ron Marshall:
Hi Ron,
         You tickled my funny bone by using  "Splish Splash.." in your post
    on Archimedes! It proves that the happy, liberated  kid in you is
    irrepressible! I noticed that you did manage to touch some cord in Guy
    Fawkes. That alone is something close to a miracle! Even with all his
    emotional Fail Safe defenses up and that hard crust to fortify them, I
    think something genuinely free & ALIVE flew in under his radar. A song
    like Splash Splish could  easily strike a vibrant cord in him., since he
    could very well associate it with a more carefree younger "happy days."
    I think something of the truth you spoke about in our chat, about
    finding a world outside ourselves and feeling liberated, is so
    compelling that not even a staid and crusty conservative like GF can
    escape it. He may still be responding in a self-referential way, but he
    was able to get outside himself also and acknowledge that you'd done
    something "fantastic." And yes, he learned even a poor dumb Democrat can
    have a brain!
 

Liberate Providence Place Mall !

This headline caught my attention yesterday : " Mall employees want to put brakes on new parking fees ".

Most of those new employees at Providence Place mall - capitalism's latest gift to Rhode Island - are wretched wage slaves. And they must pay $1000 a year just to park there ! Of course many of the mall workers would be eager to sign a petition against this outrage. But property rights, it seems ,have precedence over HUMAN RIGHTS : "No solicitation on mall property ".

This reminds me of my 60s high school days. " None of my students can protest the war. Go to the vice-principal's office and here is a PINK SLIP for you ! "

I say UNIONIZE every employee at Providence Place. I recommend the new and nasty Teamsters Union . Organized workers can shut down the whole damm place for Christmas !

On a more moderate note : RIPTA is failing to meet the needs of blue collar Rhode Islanders. Better bus service would ameliorate the parking problem at the Providence Place mall.

- - - - - - -
comment from Dave Brusat:

 Ron - Your last point tends to destroy your first point. That is,
    nobody is forced to drive to PP to work. Everybody can take the bus,
    even if they must drive to the bus stop (RIPTA has strategically placed
    park & ride centers where parking is, I believe, free). Granted, RIPTA
    isn't what it ought to be (we editorialize frequently for its upgrade).
    But it is enough to do that job, anyway. If PP were in the burbs, it
    would probably not be, since burb-to-burb connections are too rough to
    inflict on a worker as a necessity. But then if PP were in the burbs, it
    would have free parking and wouldn't need to charge because it would be
    in a former corn field or something. Oh well. - Dave 

- - - - - - -
Ron's response to comment from Dave:

Dave, a huge traffic jam might shut down the Providence Place Mall - before the Son of Jimmy. But as for buses, How could I get back to Warwick  after 7:30 ?  Bus service for 2nd shift workers is nothing less than contemptuous. BUT I still appreciate the service I do get from RIPTA .
Thanks -Ron

 NOTE : In architecture I myself am nothing less than an incorrigible reactionary - and you seem a cut above your critics here.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -
another response from Dave Brusat:

Ron - You have a strong point, possibly, about the night shift. Are
    there indeed buses they can take, or not? Very possibly there are not,
    in which case I would argue that Commonwealth Development should dip
    into the sum they said they'd give and offer them parking at the rate
    they'd have to pay to ride RIPTA - $2.50 a day, $12.50 a week x 50 weeks
    is, omigod!, $725 a year, or not all that much less than the mall's
    already charging ($80 per month, or $960 per year). Living downtown
    seems to look better and better, yes? Years ago, in a 1992 column
    headlined "Postcard from Providence, 1997," I suggested that the mall
    offer employees some sort of monetary incentive to live downtown so as
    to reduce the amount of employee parking it would need to provide - so
    as to increase the amount of customer parking available. I still think
    they should do that. Maybe I'll mention it again. Only one problem -
    partly because of the mayor's apparent disinterest, there's almost no
    place downtown for them to live!!
        - Dave

Homeless factor in Worcester fire

It was shocking to read on the front page of my paper this morning: "6 firefighters feared dead in Worcester warehouse blaze ".

How sad for the families - no " Pop " for Christmas ! No more Pop - never more !

One evil is connected to another here : homeless people " built fires there to keep warm ". Was THAT abandoned -God forsaken ! - warehouse their choice for a merrier Christmas ?

Perhaps it should be a CRIME to be homeless ? But the " criminal "here is an indifferent society. It could decree an end to homelessness in two weeks . ORDER local landlords to charge rents commensurate with the minimum wage or weekly welfare checks ( and don't pretend that the homeless are employable while still homeless ! )

Who would hire ANYBODY who even LOOKS homeless - as if he or she sleeps in abandoned warehouses ? If it proves impossible to establish rent control, then guarantee an adequate income to EVERYBODY in the country - adequate at least for the purpose of survival with simple human dignity.

Stop singing the praises of CAPITALISM in the midst of this abomination - human beings with no place to live - and scorned by the comfortable - God's chosen people ?

Sleepless in Seattle ? Blame THEM !

The popular American novelist, Taylor Caldwell, wrote a fascinating novel in 1974 that was made into a TV series: " The Captains and the Kings ".

The theme was that our world is ruled and controlled by a ruthless, very self-aware elite. Were THEY behind the Kennedy assasination in November 1963 ? Old Joe had warned his son Jack about " those bastards " .

The " moronic " and " anarchist " demonstrators in Seattle were in fact protesting against " The Captains and the Kings "

From the Taylor Caldwell book : " To be effective we must direct our attacks on the real criminals, the wealthy, and powerful and SECRET elite of all the world ... the conspirators laboring day and night to enslave us " .

Just today President Clinton got the ominous cold shoulder from this sinister bunch when he meekly - still breathing tear gas - protested their SECRECY !

" Old Joe Kennedy was right", he must be thinking ." They ARE bastards ! "

AIDS cure - a definite priority

Because foolish people associate the horrible disease AIDS with sexual promiscuity -especially homosexual promiscuity - there may be a perverse unconscious resistance to treating it and finding a cure.

Other diseases are just as horrible. My father just died of of cancer after " living " with it for a dozen years. But a decade after the Sexual Revolution - in which millions of people at least began to feel sexually liberated, free from Dark Age superstitions, open to sensual joy- we were afflicted with this plague - and LIFE itself began to be associated with DEATH !

What a blessing to the reactionary mentality ! In George Orwell's nightmare novel " 1984 " he shows how an absolute tyranny relies on sexual repression to keep the population docile. When a vitalizing activity is prohibited,it is a lot easier for Big Brother to maintain war hysteria.

When your wife or girl friend or boy friend is sexually frigid, the " Two Minutes Hate " rallies have more appeal !

If an AIDS cure is not found within a decade , mankind will enter a joyless, ignorant, and brutal - New Dark Age.