" Morning Briefing " story - duh ?

Even after a strong cup of coffee, this " Morning Briefing "

    story on page A2, Jan. 26, made no sense : " Police say couple

    had bomb in McDonald's ".  The two were " arrested for

    allegedly planting a bomb in a McDonald's restroom ".

          But according to the prosecutor, " the pair were attempting

     apparently to get rid of the bomb ... and were not targeting

    the McDonald's on Southern Artery ".

            Allowing for congenital idiocy here ,  how do you

     just get rid of a bomb by leaving it in a McDonald's

    restroom ?  Would not the middle of a woods be a better

    place for  an " infernal device " ?

            I note that the five children of the accused , Lorraine

    Trombetta, were removed by the state last year " after being

    found living in a filthy house . ".  Has the editor of

    " Good Housekeeping "  been appointed chief of a state

    welfare department ?

             Perhaps the whole family - including boyfriend, Martin

    Niven- would be less dysfunctional in Castro's Cuba ?

One cheer for " diversity "

The deplorable regression to tribalism now seems to be a

    world-wide phenomenon - no doubt connected to the collapse of

    Cold War ideology which did divide the world into TWO camps -but

    not 1000 !

         The spring semester program at URI Extension here in Providence

    screams " DIVERSITY " on the front page . As if DIVERSITY was a

    self-evident  blessing. And in fact the DIVERSITY worshiped in

    the unreal academic world is often downright nasty in its

    exclusiveness. Every branch on the great tree of DIVERSITY must

    be branded PC .

            Sorry, but I still have a quaint -if pernicious - belief

    in the merits of Western Civilization . A champion of multi-

    culturalism has just E-mailed me that there is no such thing

    as Western Civilization. He must have discovered that at a university

    where once there was actually a course in it.

            People who hang around dusty old libraries might independently

    discover " The Western Tradition " - a video series. Or books

    like Bertrand Russell's " The Wisdom of the West " .

           How can people begin to get along without common reference

    points, a common culture, common CIVILIZED values ?

             Today  the gospel of DIVERSITY is being preached with

    all the fervor of Red China's crazed " Cultural Revolution ".

               Indeed it is really the opposite of UNI-VERSITY !

Mercy for Pinochet

I agree with the conclusion of your Jan.19 editorial :

    " When they're arrested abroad "  . General Pinochet of Chile

    is - and there is much evidence for it - a political monster.

    But let Chile deal with him - now a fading, sick old man.

           Castro is indeed a dictator as your editorial points,

    but it is preposterous to compare him to the fiendish Pinochet.

         Perhaps even old Nazis should not be hounded forever. Is it

    not a very Marxist idea that the ROOT of evil is not in warped

    individuals but in the social structure ?


          What science already knows about the human mind - the soul-

    would undermine the whole superstructure of bourgeois criminal

    law. But what science knows is ignored by almost every criminal

    judge in the country -and the vast  majority of citizens who

    support or clamor for the death penalty.

          Were not observers of the Nuremberg Trials amazed by

    the sheer banality of the Nazi villains on trial ? So in

    their hearts - not in a malignant social order - we see the

    roots of the Holocaust ?

           No doubt General Pinochet's last thought on his death

    bed will be  that cold draft from the window .

            We must change society fundamentally in order to begin


    to change the human soul.


           Dictator Castro at least has that right.

Pseudo-Liberal Hillary ?

I like Hillary Clinton and I can still respect her husband,

    President Clinton, for all his good qualities -like grace under

    pressure.

          But Senate candidate Hillary has made some flippant and

    pseudo-liberal remarks on the human tragedy of homelessness:

        So unlike the present Mayor of the Big Apple, Hillary would

    not arrest homeless people. Gracias, Senora !

         So it is now boldly liberal to suggest that THEY should not

    be arrested?  Then let me make a RADICAL suggestion : THEY should

    not be homeless !

          And the solution to the homeless problem is a little thing

    called RENT CONTROL !  Decent rooms should be available in every

    big city :  Two days pay at minimum wage should suffice for one

    week's rent. And very affordable apartments for families trying

    to live on poverty wages.

         We must point the finger of condemnation at greedy landlords!

       Give them hell, Hillary - if you are not just another phony.