Unconstitutional: working for welfare ?

No surprise here : " Recession may force closer look at welfare ".

       Apart from the idea of a RIGHT to welfare - with which no humanist will

    quarrel, this idea or practice of having to WORK for a welfare check is

    highly questionable from a constitutional point of view.

                 It clearly implies two separate  WORKING classes in a free and

    democratic country that outlawed  SLAVERY a long time ago.

               Anybody who  WORKS for a welfare check should simply be considered

    a state employee - with all the rights and benefits of any other state

    employee. The state has no right to punish an individual for being jobless.

                And what ever became of the NEW DEAL mentality ? So the State

    owes us nothing and corporate America owes us nothing ?

              Do we  perhaps owe ourselves a second American Revolution ?

Still there-the GOOD parish priest

             My 80 year old widowed mother said she was cheered up recently

    by a visit from the parish priest. She belongs to St.Mathews Church in

    Cranston, Rhode Island.

                 In sad and difficult times these priests were always there

    for people. Never a hint of scandal about them. I guess they did keep

    the faith all these years, after all.

               You never forget the GOOD people that pass through your life.

             There is some INSPIRATION out there. The Prince of Darkness is

    not yet running the whole show ! When we no longer trust ANYBODY , the

    world will be his for the taking.

Sympathy for Sarah Jane Olson

              If  Sept. 11 had not happened, poor old Sarah Jane Olson - now

    a typical middle class mom -beloved by her family - would probably  have

    been dismissed as a  60s relic. It is not clear to this reader the extent

    of her guilt for the SLA lunacy a long, long time ago.

               USA Today reader  Michael J. Gorman - one of New York's finest-

    brings a typical cop mentality to the case : forgive and forget nothing !

                Apart from the question of her crime, there is an overlooked

    error in political theory by the Sarah Jane of long ago : the belief that

    an elite few - independent of the majority - and of all things, in alliance

    with thugs and gangsters - could  constitute a revolutionary force in our

    flawed but real democracy.

                    People nowadays forget or want to forget everything great

    and good - and even extraordinary ! - about the feverish 60s.

                One sad lesson we learned : never trust upper class spoiled

    brats - in a slumming frenzy.

                  Revolution for the hell of it was not a good idea.

              Perhaps in a year or two Sarah Jane Olson might get more

    understanding.

Elegy for Stuart Denton -" caught "

Tragic news story in the Boston Herald today: " Suspect in sex

    case commits suicide ".  I guess the embarrassment was too much for 55

    year old Stuart Denton - being caught by the police in some kinky group

    sex  with other males in the theater of a Rhode Island "  Amazing ".

              I wonder if some malicious dime dropper will now sleep well

    at night.  Was it even possible that the dime dropper never visited

    " Amazing Video " in  Johnston, Rhode Island ? Was he the puritanical

    type ? Or it didn't matter to him making life a horror show for harmless

    gays or bisexuals ?

                Watch out now all you straight or gay people in your parked

    cars after midnight. The dime dropper has you in sight !

           A while back I re-read " Peyton Place " by Grace Metalious. Said

    a book critic : " The novel teaches us the wisdom of minding our own

    business. "

Toothless in Boston ?

Sad news about the cutback of dental care for the poor of Mass.

    Do you think that the poor are a different species for whom dental care is

    no more a necessity than a visit to a hair stylist is for the comfortable

    middle class citizen ?

                In general dental care should be inseparable from health

    care. Out the window here is all the wisdom of preventive medicine.

                One reads in Dr. Donahue that gum disease can be a factor in

    heart attacks.

                 Now how many will be sleepless  AND toothless in Boston ?

         Shame on you, most LIBERAL of all states. Do I see a Kennedy smile

    in the background ? A wonder of modern dentistry !

Hockey dad neither A nor B

Clearly now and then the law just has to make an example out

    of  someone for the benefit of society. The convicted hockey dad was

    neither a gentle giant nor a brutal killer. A booze soaked brain - even

    from past indulgence - and the manic environment of the sports arena-

    recalling the Mother of all stadiums - the Roman Colosseum - can bring

    out the killer in any red blooded  , all-American dad who sees  HIS

    boy abused.

                  Not for nothing the great Roman philosopher Seneca who

    abhorred THE GAMES wrote a long essay - still worth studying: " On Anger ".

              Perhaps a compulsory course in human anatomy might make even

    the dumbest sports fans a little less quick with their fists.

                  It took billions of years for the human brain to evolve.

    It takes just a few seconds to destroy it.

                   Even if you just punch a guy in the chest, a  sharp

    little bone called the Xiphoid process could puncture the heart. I

    learned that a long time ago in a  CNA class.

                    May cooler tempers prevail in sports and in the REAL
    world.

Lipstick on your collar ?

Small things like lipstick sales reveal major economic trends,

    according to a front page newspaper story. Recalling oldie but goodie lyrics-

    " lipstick on your collar tells me you're untrue ! " - I imagined an alternative

    explanation for increased lipstick sales : despite feminist propaganda, feminine

    nature has not changed much since Ovid's time.  A long time ago this great Roman

    poet wrote a  still practical book titled " The Art of Love. " .

              Is it not more likely that millions of females on the brink of

    a scary economic insecurity are merely preparing themselves for the world's

    oldest profession in its legal and illegal forms : marriage and prostitution ?

             By legitimizing  the latter form we will stimulate the economy and

    shorten many a man's cyclic depression .

                On the topic of marriage as prostitution the brainy feminists

    speak with more authority than this bachelor  reader.

                  Many of my divorced male friends speak with agony on the

    subject of life with the material girl. Holy matrimony led to holy alimony !

                Perhaps Liz Taylor has the right idea, after all : Never despair !