Union decline and " political correctness "

         There is a myth that the news media is imbued with left-wing

    prejudice. But why should the billionaire owners of newspapers,

    magazines, radio and TV stations leave the management of these

    powerful voices of " public opinion " to " dizzy leftists " ?

              How rarely does the public get a WORKING CLASS slant

    on the news ! It is hardly an exaggeration to say that most

    newspapers editors  have one purpose in life : to stifle a little

    thing called  CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS. For years now the phony academic

    Left have tried to substitute an innocuous mindset called


    " political correctness " - that DIVIDES the masses into small

    minded, self-centered, mutually  antagonistic groups that blind

    themselves to the really dominant forces in human social life.

               If the politically correct Left had Marxist backbones -

    and had great influence on the news media, then why has union

    membership declined here in the United States - the land of the FREE-

    to a miserable 9 percent of the work-force ?

              For almost a generation rather ludicrous race, gender,

    ethnic conflict has replaced  solid, rational CLASS STRUGGLE.

                 And clearly just about all the worlds major religions

    prefer crackpot mysticism to anything as subversive as  CLASS

    consciousness.

               The Islamic crackpots crash airplanes into tall office

    buildings - killing thousands of infidels - in the name of Allah.

    Jewish crackpots arrogantly build settlements on disputed land -

    with the delusion that THEY are the CHOSEN PEOPLE . The Catholic

    Pope has one relentless message to the destitute of the earth :

    KEEP THE BAMBINOS COMING !

                Our pious president, George W. Bush, wants to  wage

    war against Iraq - unprovoked and in contempt of Allied opinion -

    to the tune of " Onward Christian Soldiers ".

                  Is  Russia really better off as a capitalist society ?

     Gangster capitalism has ruined the former Soviet Union -possibly

    for centuries. Wasn't dialectic materialism easier to put up with

    than mass drunkenness and Scientology ?  Under the planned economy,

    the average Russian citizen could at least hope to reach age 65.

               The collapse of the Soviet Union was brainlessly

    misinterpreted by bourgeois ideologists as the vindication of

    a ruthless, reckless, soul-destroying, global capitalism.

              Whada ya mean: " workers of the world unite " ?

         Happy Labor Day !  Now you working class people have

    nothing to lose but your lottery tickets. Happily you got

    your Budweiser back - thanks to those damned Teamsters.

Winning line for next Mayor?

From my humble friend Mike, living on social security

    disability : " I think a guy could get himself elected Mayor just

    by saying again and again : " If I'm elected, I'll have real, live

    human beings in City Hall to answer your phone calls.

              Losing line from would be Mayor of Cranston : " If I'm

    elected I'll treat your tax money as if it were my very own "

           Really ? Couldn't  " Buddy " do as much for us ?

Keep it the Hoover Building !

Don't even think of changing the name of the FBI Building -now

named after J. Edgar Hoover. If you do, the ghost of J. Edgar will

haunt it forever. If thy guy made it to Heaven, we must assume that

he is doing up there what he did best down here, keeping records

of people " of interest " who he knew in his All-American heart

were dirty,rotten, scoundrels.

More seriously I resent this RECONSTRUCTION and DECONSTRUCTION

of history -and I am way out on the political left. The present

generation has no CIVIL RIGHT to arrogantly erase the judgment

of the Greatest Generation -or any past generation.

Our "political correctness " has its good points, but it

may well be ridiculed by future , more sagacious TV journalists.

We cannot just change the names of buildings and places

in accordance with ephemeral public opinion.

A newly discovered ancient manuscript might reveal

the historical authenticity of Romulus - founder of Rome.

Should THE CITY be named after a guy who killed his own

brother ? And whose mother was just an Etruscan whore

nicknamed the " She-Wolf " ?

JFK was a playboy. So rename Kennedy Plaza in Providence,

Rhode Island after the present House Speaker, John Harwood -

who will soon be vindicated , I am sure.

Only J. Edgar knows for sure. He's STILL making a

list, checking it twice, gonna find out who's naughty or

nice !

Accurate profile of child molesters ?

The NEWS always focuses on the sensational. In a nation of

many millions, it is a statistical certainty that there will be

shocking murders every day, that there will be a few hundred

dangerous child molesters out there.

I think that it would make more sense - since Sept.11 -

to try to PROFILE potential terrorists than to waste valuable

newspaper space " profiling " the typical child molester.

Today I learn that he is likely to be a HE, that he

is a seedy, lonely, eccentric loser. With this information

we can round up all the suspects now and confine them to

a rather large state !

Anyway the PROFILE reminded me of a description of

a few dozen men arrested on the West side of Providence for

seeking the services of prostitutes. A police sting operation

that is routine here around election time.

Question : Do lonely, eccentric, unprepossessing

males have a natural right to some sexual satisfaction now

and then ? I suspect that there would be less sex crimes-

even against children - if prostitution were legalized but

kept off the streets -and monitored by the public health

departments.

Classy CALL GIRLS - with their affluent clients -

are less likely to interest the LAW than shabby street

prostitutes - with their seedy, " loser " johns.

The lonely seedy loser males get their names

published in the newspaper -making their wretched lives

more wretched. A guy I knew - who fits the description-

drowned himself in the Providence River...but first put

on his blue dress suit. He was my neighbor in a South

Providence rooming house. Always cooking me spaghetti

and showing me his latest pornographic magazines. " Ray "

was a vigorous 64 years before Viagra.

A thought on the psychology of the male child

molester: Being a case of arrested development himself, he

can can quickly sniff out a lonely child, desperate for

adult attention. A lonely kid can be mesmerized by ANY

adult that pays attention to him or her, even a seedy, eccentric,

pervert.

And the pop psychologists interviewed in the media

don't dare to acknowledge Dr. Sigmund Freud 's discoveries

about childhood sexuality made more than a century ago:

... ( article on Freud by Mia Taormina )... " it is ludicrous

to think that children only SUDDENLY acquire sexuality

between the ages of twelve and fourteen ".

A pioneer in the study of human sexuality was one

Wilhelm Reich - a bit of a flake ,to be sure. Nevertheless

at age 4 he " overhears and observes housemaid and coachman

during their sexual act. Reich remembers that this causes

erotic sensations of great intensity. "( www.orgone.org )

Reich was loathed by the puritanical bourgeois

establishment for advocating the sexual rights of adolescents.

My personal opinion here: I prefer the ancient

Roman Stoic philosophy - sex is not naughty but it can

ruin the mind. And sexual obsession - and our society is

sexually obsessed - can corrupt the soul.

When you are not horny, you easily perceive that

most pornography is RIDICULOUS - and very bad ART !

Advice for the sexually tormented: GET A LIFE

- or move to Nevada.

American Gulag incompatible with Democracy

             " Criminal Population in U.S. at 6.6 Million " reports

    a front page AP story ( August 26 ) .

              While he was Attorney General of the United States, when

    he had become highly sensitized to outrageous social injustice, Robert

    Kennedy's favorite word was UNACCEPTABLE , I read somewhere.

                 I hope that spirit of moral outrage did not die with

    the unforgettable 60s, with the remarkable individuals who - like

    Kennedy - symbolized a passion for a better world.

                  For some Americans JUSTICE is still a passion , not a

    phony cliche. And there is something very, very wrong with the JUSTICE

    system that makes criminals out of so many of the population. And it

    is mostly the poor - the poorest of the poor - who are consigned to

    the hopelessness of the American Gulag.

          6.6  million souls in jail is  UNACCEPTABLE in America of all

    countries -  where FREEDOM shines.

                We cannot begin to change things as long as decent people

    cling to the myth of equal opportunity. Millions of people inherit

    poverty just as surely as a privileged minority inherits vast wealth.

                The Law studiously  avoids the CLASS issue - right where

    it explains just about everything.

              Poor kids are not stupid about the fundamentals of the

    social order. Very early in life they must experience a certain

    RATIONAL despair about their prospects in life.

                  And that is one reason to legalize drugs: at least they

    kill the pain. Walking up Cranston  St. in Providence Rhode Island, I

    am reminded of scenes out of " Manchild in the Promised Land " by

    Claude Brown. " Better to have sweet narcotic inspired dreams than

    to be stuck in this neighborhood ", I reflect.

                Dreams today but  THE FIRE THE NEXT TIME ! When will

    it all explode ?

" Annie " is no Ann Landers !

Just read " Annie's Mailbox "( Aug.24 , page D-4 ). Annie is

    no Ann Landers and her correspondents tend to be rather vacuous.

              Dear Annie :.... " Last month Clint surprised me with

    an engagement ring. Unfortunately ,the ring is ugly and second

    hand. ".

               A fit ring for the bride ? Clint is making the biggest

    mistake in his life- marrying a shallow material girl. And there

    are millions like her - with a vested interest in bourgeois marriage.

    But very few eligible bachelors with bourgeois bank accounts.

                  And gay marriage will also be a farce - motivated

    by social climbing, greed, and neurotic insecurity.

                   George& Marty will be a lot like George & Martha

    as played by Richard Burton and Liz Taylor.

                  Gay or straight, do you really need the state's

    permission to  play house ? Or the blessing of organized religion ?

                  Most marriages are made in Hell !

Burning Love- Beware the Sun !

I like to take a walk on those still beautiful Rhode Island
beaches -like Narragansett- when the sunshine is more user
friendly, early on a July or August morning or late in the
afternoon.

I am amazed how many people resist this medical advice:
Beware the sun ! They are just like young cigarette smokers
- the pleasure of the moment ,the vanity of looking cool,
outweigh a future cancer nightmare.

But it is no crime to be stupid and uninformed. So I
was a little outraged to read about those " criminal "
parents who let their kids get a nasty sunburn-like leaving
an infant to roast in a parked car ?

As usual the law is as stupid as the negligent parents.
With equal logic, the law could prosecute parents with fat
kids or with illiterate kids who watch too much TV.

If the law fined less than affluent parents - say
$10,000 - for routine stupidity, would it not be taking that
money away from the poor kids too ?

When kids need medical care, it is not a good idea to
fine the parents - to make some corrupt judge fatter. Imagine
some hospital refusing to treat those kids because the parents
cannot pay the bill. And the LAW will not prosecute the
hospital!

Don't tell me this society really cares about kids.
Perhaps it is only worried about the future of cheap labor.

Smart people - who are not rich - do not have kids
nowadays. It seems that their guardian angels have been
on strike for a very long time !

And as for infants roasting in cars, perhaps their

guardian angels can be replaced by a computerized SENSOR-

when the car temperature rises above 80 degrees, it automatically

rolls down the windows or calls 911.

The not so shadowy Slocum family of Newport

       The only well known author I read who dares to write openly

    about our " ruling class "... our " plutocracy " is Gore Vidal.

        If THEY had their way in all things democratic, they would

    not hesitate to make themselves a sacrosanct minority- actually

    protected by political correctness.

           To speak of THEM with a lack of respect, with contempt,

    would bring certain retribution. A liberal editorial writer

    referring to somebody as a " plutocrat " would lose his job

    just as quickly as an illiberal one who used the N-word in

    commenting on race relations -which must never be perceived

    as less than harmonious.

         A phone call from a plutocrat's lawyer would be as dreaded

    as a nasty call from Al Sharpton.

           In a recent letter I said that the Democratic Party -

    despite its image as the champion of the working class and the

    oppressed -rarely  says or does anything to arouse the wrath of

    the shadowy plutocracy. It dreads being accused of provoking class

    war - which is whenever the have-nots get a little rebellious.

            A ruling class scandal made the front page of the Providence

    Journal on August 21 - involving a member of the famous Slocum

    family of Newport. The guy brings shame to  Bellevue Ave. by his

    stock market swindling -if in fact guilty.

           Perhaps this Slocum really has a bright future as chairman

    of the SEC. Some future Roosevelt might think: " It takes a crook

    to catch a crook " .  Recall FDR gave the job to one scoundrel

    named Joseph P. Kennedy.

               To be sure, there is no Chinese Wall between the

    shadowy plutocracy and our more prominent Rhode Island politicians.

           I read that the wife of Atty. Gen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Sandra,

    is a cousin of Eileen Slocum, the Newport grand-dame. Headline,

    Sept.7,2001 : " HERE COMES THE DUCHESS OF YORK-SARAH FERGUSON-

    TO ATTEND NEWPORT SOCIETY WEDDING TOMORROW ".

             Of course, any grand-daughter of Eileen rates royal

    recognition !

        ..... " A sword owned by Eileen Slocum's grand-father, Gen.

    George L. Gillespie, secretary of war under former President

    William McKinley, will be used to cut the cake ".

              The wealth of our Yankee plutocracy can be traced-

    if not to the institution of black slavery and the cruel

    exploitation of free labor during the Industrial Revolution-

    then to numerous and nefarious IMPERIALIST adventures.

           Any future war - say with Iraq- will cost many working

    class lives but make life even more voluptuously abundant and

    glittering for New Port high society.

             " Does that sound pretty good ? " Sheldon asks old

    Eileen Slocum.  " No, that sounds really good ", the old wealthy

    parasite thinks.

The law, traffic fines, and JUSTICE ( correction )

A PROJO editorial today comments that a recently departed

Supreme Court Justice - now meeting THE JUDGE who - we hope -

rarely hands out maximum sentences - knew the the difference

between law and justice.

A common example of routine INJUSTICE - if not filthy

corruption - is our Rhode Island Traffic Court.

In an Aug.12 , 2001 column, Bob Kerr writes : " In the

agonizing history of Rhode Island's attempt to purge itself

of its corrupt miseries, the traffic court stands out as an

arrogant, money -sucking swamp. " Kerr's column was his reaction

to this PROJO headline: " $ 31 million in traffic fines still

a mystery ".

And for many readers of the Providence Journal, where

all that money went is STILL a mystery in August of 2002 !

On June 10, 2001 we read in the paper about District

Court Judge Albert E. DeRobbio - being officially praised for

collecting $7 million in unpaid traffic fines.

To be sure UNPAID traffic fines cannot find

their way into any official's private PIG BANK.

Now I read about a need to INCREASE traffic fines

again. Here again we must consider a basic difference between

the law and JUSTICE :

A speeding ticket, for example, might just prick

an affluent middle class citizen. But it might RUIN a blue

collar guy.

Being blind to a man's economic CLASS can - in our

courts - guarantee not justice but blatant injustice.

And in general the ideological premise of the LAW-

that it operates above social class - is a LIE equal to

the Pope's delusion that he is infallible in matters of

the Catholic faith.

Our own venerable institutions are presently as

ready to implode as the 2000 year old Catholic Church- now

polluted with sexual perverts and faithless careerists.

A Supreme Court justice -with his robed grandeur-

reminds me of a prince of the Church - or the proverbial

emperor with no clothes.

History teaches us that sooner or later every institutionalized


LIE collapses with a stench. All the YOUR HONORs in the country

need to be reminded of the fate of the Spanish Inquisition.

When enough of the little people learn the truth about

the high and mighty - there will be Hell to pay !

RIPTA RIPP OFF !

Bob Kerr should put the present manager of RIPTA " on the

    bus ".  I buy a monthly pass - just went up 5 dollars. Now we

    RIPTA regulars pay 40 dollars for a monthly pass.

              Yes, it has been a long hot summer. Am I right in feeling

    a little ripped off when there are numerous FREE rotten air days

    for which the monthly pass buyer deserves a discount on his or her

    next monthly pass ?   How about one dollar off for every OZONE

    ALERT day on the previous month ?

               I'll bet good old " Buddy " would do something about

    it ! May he never see the inside of  a federal prison. Or of a

    RIPTA bus !

Negative campaigns insult democracy !

Way over on the political Left myself, I am not likely

    ever to vote in a Republican primary. If you have any real democratic

    instinct, you can only feel sorry for incorrigible Republicans here

    in Rhode Island. Yes, it would be nice to have a viable third

    party, but right now in Rhode Island we don't even have a credible

    TWO party system !

                 The entrenched Democrats, I guess, just can't do

    enough for the working class, the small business class... while

    never seriously hurting those shadowy plutocrats. And they just

    LOVE the poor and homeless too !

                 The few Republicans that compete here for Election

    Day humiliation clearly hate one another.  The Republican candidates

    for governor are setting a new standard for negative campaigning.

               Most political campaigns here have nothing to do with

    issues and ideas. Again and again the proven formula for success

    is to suggest that  an opponent is a morally and intellectually

    inferior jackass. You would think that just about everybody running

    for office is hiding his or her criminal record !

            Isn't this an insult to democracy ? The inference one

    can make from mutually negative campaigns is that the incumbent

    is knave who fooled  the voters.  The challenger is a knight in

    shining  armor, of the highest character.

                By this way of thinking - the voters are always

    victims of masters of deceit.  Failure in the election is proof

    of virtue.

                   How can a viable democracy be founded on the

    assumption that the masses are hopelessly gullible ? The

    negative campaign principle suggests that  EVERY elected official

    in the country is a rogue.

               The public ought to know better ! Sometimes you can

    really feel sorry for EVERYBODY who wants to  get elected to

    anything.

                 I am sure that Dick Nixon went to heaven !

Walking and Reading -lost arts ?

Health News today : Center for Disease Control- noting the

    " growing problem of childhood obesity " - suggests " Let kids

    bike or walk to school ".

                 Reading this I am reminded of my walking experience

    while a resident of Warwick, R.I.  I soon learned that a typical

    suburban sprawl city like Warwick is very pedestrian unfriendly.

    Equally unfriendly to any kid or adult on a bike.

               Just recently a kid on a bike was hit and run victim

    on Church Ave. - the long, broad street where  I lived.  They

    caught the guilty guy - an assistant school principal - an

    expert RULE ENFORCER !

            A while back a kid was killed while trying to cross

    busy Warwick Ave. near the corner of Church Ave. Late at night

    I listened to the disgusting sound of drag racing or of screeching

    brakes on the " nice neighborhood " street.

              A man just taking a walk on Church Ave. would - I know-

    arouse neighborly suspicion. A man without a car in Warwick has

    got to be a dangerous bum, thinks the dime dropper. When a police

    car slowly drives by me -checking me out for sure signs of

    criminality - I recall one of my favorite Ray Bradbury stories:

    " The Pedestrian ".

                Young or not so young - forget about taking walks in

    Warwick. There is a crosswalk -finally - in front of the new

    Warwick Public Library. But hardly any cars take it seriously.

               Inside the library you soon learn that READING is

    as suspicious an activity as walking. Every 10 minutes a Warwick

    Police officer passes by  your quiet corner -as if he were on

    the beat.  NEXT TIMES he will catch me tearing up that book and

    chewing on the pages : " If this guy were normal, he'd be home

    drinking beer and watching football on TV and beating up his

    wife like a regular Warwick guy - not reading silly books like

    a god damned commie pervert ! "

                 You wonder why so many kids are fat and stupid

    today ? Our wonderful way of life makes them that way !

                Yesterday I observed two kids hop on the bus - it

    was a free OZONE ALERT DAY - and then get off just a few blocks

    down the street. I'll bet reading is as laborious an activity

    for them as walking.

        And I'll bet a WALKING kid is the better reader. The pace

    of walking is the pace of thinking, the rythmn of reading for

    pleasure.

              In Ray Bradbury's golden future  walking and reading

    will get you put away in a " nut house ".

                Not a bright future for newspaper editors either !

Beer and " statistical correlation "

Forgive the pedantry for a moment : the dictionary defines

    " correlation " as  the degree to which two or more attributes  or

    measurements  on the same group of elements  show a tendency to vary

    together . ( Webster's College Dictionary )

               Again and again in the HEALTH NEWS , I encounter this

    flaw in logical reasoning : a statistical correlation is established

    -for example  between church going  and longevity or in today's news,

    between - of all things ! - beer drinking and a health heart. Then

    the naive scientifically illiterate  assumes that medical science has

    advanced in real knowledge.

                Common sense would caution doctors  against telling the

    public  that an  ADDICTIVE substance- like beer or wine - is good for

    them in " moderate " quantities. My own experience is that this sort

    of pseudo-science will only reinforce problem drinking : " If a little

    of the stuff is good , then more must be better !  "

          .
             I'll bet a strong statistical correlation can be established

    between people  with cancer who visit Elvis Presley's  Graceland mansion

    and the percentage among them of MIRACLE CURES - a correlation that

    would put the famous Fatima to shame !

               What about a statistical correlation between work as a

    newspaper editor and stomach ulcers ?

                  Or between being left-handed ( sinister in Latin ) and

    being a serial killer ?

              Unless you know the CAUSE of a phenomenon, a statistical

    correlation only suggests further investigation.

                  Now I need a nice cold beer. Good for heart, you know.

Lost Catholics- so very, very sad !

         Reading letters and columns in Boston newspapers, I 'm struck

    by the profound crisis of FAITH now in so many Catholics. Imagine

    being a 65 year old lady - facing ETERNITY - without the faith of

    her whole life  still there to console her !  How easy to understand

    those Catholics on the defensive, thinking  that there is also

    a conspiracy of EVIL against the Church.

             Brought up Catholic myself , I concluded a long time ago

    that FAITH was simply beyond REASON,  and not to take the Catholic

    Church too seriously. But I never wanted to lose respect for the

    2000 year old institution. Oh, how the mighty have fallen !

               I study the face of Cardinal Law. And see only a

    bewildered and tired bureaucrat. Remember the movie " The Cardinal "

    that came out in the early 60s- when Catholic  churches like St.

    Paul's in Cranston were packed on Sundays ? What a difference a

    generation makes !

              Behind all that grandeur of a prince of the Church was

    the simple faith of  millions of humble people. When that is gone,

    the mystique is gone. Not even Bingo games will bring it back !

                If Jesus was not a poor deluded fool, it is time for

    HIM to come back - and straighten things out.

               Without even being a conservative in matters of faith,

    I can see how the Church  self-destructed with Vatican II.

                By the late 60s the Devil was REFORMING things Catholic.

            That was when you visited an empty church and suddenly

    felt that it was really EMPTY.

                  Is  cosmic chaos the only supreme force in the

    universe ?  God help us !

" The only hope for Rhode Island "

             The Bob Whitcomb suggestion ( Achorn commentary, Aug.6 )

    that Rhode Island merge with Connecticut is more than just chuckle

    worthy.  In general many social and economic problems of the United

    States might be easier to deal with if we stop thinking of the 50

    states as if they were almost sovereign countries.

          The United States could be re-organized - without great insult

    to the Constitution - into a few political DEPARTMENTS - with unified

    laws. This will reduce the number of professional jurists and politicians

    -now mostly corrupt hacks.

           And there should be limits  set for the population and immigration

    numbers in every state. No way can we in Rhode Island  support a population

    of more than a million . The  Greater Providence area is already nearly

    unlivable.

           At some point the most democratic government must tell people

    that they have no absolute right to reproduce the race- with no regard

    to eugenics and the ecological situation.

            In  Rhode Island -because the stupid of every race and nationality

    are more prolific than the intelligent - we might soon have a vast population

    of cretins , nearly unteachable and inclined to crime - lorded over by

    a  privileged minority.

        And how horrible to see so many of those cretins driving cars in

    in the once idyllic Ocean State !

                 LIFE CANNOT  GO ON IN THE SAME WAY !  As the late Isaac

    Asimov said: perhaps we just have a choice of catastrophes.

A Mideast GAMBLE ?

In the anti-war movie " The Deer Hunter " one of the

    main characters - just an ordinary all-American kid in the beginning -

    in the end, crazed by a senseless war, ends up playing Russian Roulette

    with the enemy - just to pass time and make a few bucks on the side.

          After reading about seven kids killed at an Israel university -

    and beginning to feel the " Ground-hog Day "  affect with the LATEST

    NEWS , I have conceived a new form of the state lottery :

               Call it JEW_-PAL . Millions can play this game daily for

    years to come. The daily winners are all those who correctly guess

    the exact number of Jews and Palestinians killed on a given day of

    the week. Only holy days - either Jew or Palestinian - there will

    be a mega lottery. You can win millions then !

              You can also win ten dollars just by correctly guessing the

    age in months or years of the youngest Jew or Palestinian killed on

    the day of the ticket.

               Like the macabre  song " The Monster Mash "  my  " JEW-PAL "

    could be the hit of the land .

                  I myself don't gamble. And would oppose an Indian casino

    here in Rhode Island. The Indians are just not responsible enough yet.

    And all that cash would go to their heads - as fast as that booze they

    like so much !