Billionaire metabolism = average drudge

 Headline today : Billionaires wealth wanes; Oprah joins the club

       Working class people are advised  early in life that they simply

    must WORK for a living -and only despicable parasites refuse to make

    socially useful efforts. But the average drudge supporting a family

    can expect only a very modest life style no matter how hard he WORKS.

           Something strange and even a little unjust about this business

    of work. Too bad so few blue collar workers studied elementary physics

    in high school. Science has finally demystified  WORK and can even measure

    it - in foot pounds or calories. Even our brain can be studied at work,

    literally lighting up a medical imagining screen as one area of the brain

    burns up calories at a faster or slower rate than another area of the

    brain.

                Looking at this screen alone, the good doctor can not tell

    if the patient is Bill Gates, Oprah or just John or Jane Doe.

              Mechanical work is measured in JOULES which -and this was a

    great 19th century discovery - has an equivalent in calories.

                     1 joule = .239 calories

           In consuming calories our brains are comparable to a household

    lightbulb. Since our economy is based on the principle of exchange,

    and if we  equate calories consumed -thinking or DOING - to units

    of money - a scientific soul can only wonder why Oprah or Bill Gates

    earns more than the average drudge !

            ...... A song says it better... " Sixteen tons and what do you

    get ?   Another day's pay and deeper in debt "

            Or  even better : " F--- this job !  "

                 Groucho Marx is my mentor.

HONESTY demand insults BIG LABOR

Sometimes Hollywood gets it right. If you want a true picture

    of BIG LABOR even today, view that all time great film " On the

    Water Front " . Not for nothing a CORRUPT labor union like the

     Teamsters has a cozy relationship with the Republican White House.

     Normally the ONLY union leaders a self-respecting capitalist can

    stand are dead ones. But the likes of James P. Hoffa - son of a

    legendary  CORRUPT  Teamsters president - " Jimmy " - can find

    himself invited into the first lady's box during a Bush  State of

    the Union address. As long as the labor leader is more like Johnny

    Friendly ( played brilliantly by Lee J. Cobb ), the ruling class

    will HONOR him. To be honored for betraying the rank and file of

    your union,  betraying the working class in general !

               But  I read today that the Secretary of Labor, Elaine

    L. Chao has insulted and infuriated big labor leaders like Hoffa .

    The reason ? " Stricter financial disclosure rules for labor

    unions ". ( NY Times story, Feb. 27 )  .

              There is no such thing as  DEMOCRACY in most labor unions

    today. Not even the rank and file is entitled to know about where

    union funds are going. A good guess -around election time - is

    into the pockets of some Democrats - all tested " friends of Labor ".

                Here Hoffa is a bit of a maverick - finding a friend in

    George W. Bush, FREE ENTERPRISE Republican.

               Organized labor has forgotten its roots. Do you know

    that the Teamsters  union was founded by radicals in the 30s , not

    just radicals but Trotskyists ?

                 If organized labor can recover some of that old militant

    spirit - " ORGANIZE THE UN-ORGANIZED ! " - it might begin to grow

    again. And blue collar America might be able to hope again.

Two questions doom Bush re-election

In less than two years his country will be as fed up with

    this foolish cowboy president as the rest of the civilized world.

             Two questions will prove fatal to the re-election of  George

    W. Bush :

                 1    Are you better off economically than you -the voter -

    were four years ago ?

                 2    Are we -the citizens of the United States - safer

     from terrorism than we were four years ago ?

                  Now both Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden are world

    class rats.   And what a feat for George W - a  decent man - to  be

    even less popular than THEY on the world stage !

             All the sympathy this nation had after September 11 , HE

    blew it ! Something called " the arrogance of power " .  A book by

    that name -written by a fine Southern senator - convinced me of

    the righteousness of the mass movement against our war in Vietnam

    in that decade of wonderful rebellion - the 60s .

                And now we have  MILLIONS of people protesting against

    a war with Iraq - before it  REALLY begins. CAUTION : IGNORING THE

    COURT OF WORLD OPINION CAN BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR POLITICAL FORTUNES !

              Making the world a  little kinder and little more just

    MIGHT undermine the terrorist cause. Bombing Baghdad back to the

    Stone Age most certainly will not .

                Multiply that little holocaust in West Warwick , Rhode

    Island, by a 1000 and then wonder how THAT can cure the world of

    the terrorist scourge !

                  Better to confine " pyrotechnics " to  dried out old

    nightclubs like " The Station ". Wasn't that the word  a TV reporter

    used to describe  the SHOW over Baghdad on one night of Operation

    Desert Storm ?

                  PEACE !

West Warwick fire = TRAGEDY

             Being a fan of horror fiction, I was reminded of the ghastly

    prom night apocalypse scene in " Carrie " , the Stephen King movie,

    when  I watched the on the scene news coverage of  the West Warwick

    nightclub holocaust. My nephew, Ricky, lives right across from the

    " The Station "  .  After making a few anxious calls, I learned that

    none of my extended family -  the younger ones are most likely to

    frequent seedy or classy  nightclubs - were unlucky enough to be

    there. To die a horrible death  because you just love a decadent

    heavy metal band. Likely last thoughts of a victim in the burning,

    screaming , stinking darkness : visions of Hell , last agonies fading

    to black nothingness or eternal peace..... Father !  Mother ! Oh God,

    oh God ! .... I was living.... now  I am dead !

                   But " Carrie " was about revenge. And every good horror

    story has something to say about GOOD and EVIL.

                 We look for villains here in  " The Station " . But even

    the owner wipes bitter tears. Governor Carcieri got it right : the

    fire that has taken nearly 100 lives was a TRAGEDY that should not

    have happened. Our litigious society has forgotten the very meaning

    of TRAGEDY. It prefers to obsess foolishly on  CRIME and PUNISHMENT.

                  No laws or punishment will cure the human race of pure

    stupidity. And  numerous bad judgments  culminate in an out of control

    event - like an earthquake or volcano.

                No moralizing judge will ever be able to put the Absurd

    on trial. Forget about those ridiculous grief counselors. Just BE

    THERE for people who  grieve.

                 West Warwick is an old mill town, still haunted by

    the ghosts of the New England Industrial Revolution. Now and then

    a friend of mine  - often  in late October - visit one of our favorite

    West Warwick pubs : " Ronnie's Last Chance Saloon " .

               Until the fire at " The Station " the only hot topic in

    blue collar West Warwick was whether or not to build a casino.

                  A new casino should greet its visitors with a statue

    of the Greek goddess  - Chance . A real bitch !

Cranston's bond rating for boxer Paz

I would just like the whole country to know that MY city-

    Cranston, Rhode Island - has the worst bond rating in the country

    or had until just recently when a " financial genius " became the

    new mayor. Cranston's gift to the sport's world is the aging boxing

    legend, Vinny Paz. I was thinking that Vinny could get a public

    relations job with Cranston, promoting a new image of financial

    integrity here. But alas today's front page headline in " The Providence

    Journal " : " Boxer Vinny Paz arrested on Nevada bad-check charge ".

              Bad credit has alarming consequences for a city. For

    example, vicious dogs run loose in the street. And if you fall on

    busy Reservoir Ave. while being chased by a  crazy Rottweiler -

    and break  a bone , don't expect the police to be soon on the scene

    to investigate the incident and have some friendly advice for the

    dog's owner. An ambulance MIGHT come to your rescue.

               This morning I noticed that those garbage cans on our

    street - a house with a PAZIENZA sign around the corner - have

    STILL not been emptied. It is only Friday !

                 Like Vinny, Cranston is going to the dogs ! Don't

    buy a house here -if you are smart.

Yesterday,Feb. 20, just after noontime, the passengers of the

Cranston St. bus ( 9203 ) -including myself - literally got

a whiff of terror on the packed bus. Up front a young, disturbed

looking, white male was told by a middle aged black lady seated

opposite him to " please stop staring ". A gentleman would have

just apologized , perhaps thinking that the female was oversensitive.

    But then the horror show began : " Shut up bitch ! " And

then -as if the poor lady were just a cockroach - sprayed her

in the face with  some noxious chemical.

       Good thing there was no panic or stampede on the bus !

 A shocked bus driver finally called the police and opened the

the passenger doors.  I myself tried to console the poor black

lady : " You'll be OK.  An ambulance will arrive soon. THAT

was so mean and nasty... "  . The young man was restrained.

I gave my name, address, and phone number to the bus driver

as a witness to the assault. So did other passengers.

       Somebody said the guy looked like the " Cool Moose "

candidate. That is just pure description, of course.

       I studied him while he was being detained: " American

Gothic ". Later when the bus continued up Cranston St. , I

noticed some of his belongings left on the seat. I gave them

to the bus driver before getting off myself.

        I read out loud from the outside of a white envelope,

among the things the cops should have taken with them :

        " DISCHARGED - RETURN TO SENDER "

      Was this another example of our mental health care

system at work ?

         It seemed the police took their time in responding

to the bus driver's emergency call. The ambulance got there

before they did.

         I hope that poor black lady will recover from her

eye injury. There was also a woman with asthma and a baby

on the bus.

        Good thing the incident did not become racial. It

may have if it all happened when school was  getting out.

The young and the restless would have taught the mentally

ill young man a LESSON.

      But society has learned no lessons about neglecting the

mentally ill !

WHJJ HATE RADIO -starring " The Independent Man "

The old 60s radical in me says WHJJ's  TALK RADIO jerk and

    hate monger, John DiPetro - the " Independent Man " , John DiPetro -

    has a profitable relationship with the CIA or FBI - All-American

    institutions which guard freedom by viewing with suspicion any individual

    or group infected with humanist notions - like pacifism, international

    working class solidarity, and -even more odious - FREE SPEECH !

                The extreme  Right seems to own Talk Radio.   I heard Mr.

    DiPetro say on his program that he just hates Arabs - because they are such

    animals.  And learning about a peace demonstration in New York this

    week-end, expressed a wish that a terrorist bomb will land right in the

    middle of it .

                    Keep listening to the " Independent Man " if you want

    to  learn what Americanism is all about.

                  And Arlene Violet -once our Attorney General - degrades

    herself by staying with WHJJ. After doing one more stupid " Good Feet "

    commercial, she should walk out of the place and take a vow of silence

    for at least a year.

                  The Providence Journal should INVESTIGATE  John DiPetro.

Saddam tyranny inseparable from HIS bureaucracy

History teaches that dictators like Saddam Hussein of Iraq

sooner or later provoke wars. It is nice to believe that democracy

triumphs everywhere in the end.  But what an arrogant headline in

USA TODAY on February 13 : " U.S. General would run Iraq ".

        I read somewhere that Saddam -as a TYRANT - patterns

himself after one of the most evil tyrants in human history :

Joseph Stalin .  But that did not stop the Russian people from

fighting so ferociously at Stalingrad.

        The USA TODAY article says : "  a post -Saddam Hussein

Iraq would be run by a U.S. general USING MANY OF THE BUREAUCRATS

WHO ADMINISTER THE COUNTRY NOW " ( my emphasis ).

        Just a few years after the Russian Revolution one of its

most brilliant leaders , Leon Trotsky, explained in his classic

" The Revolution Betrayed "   the relationship between the

corrupt " socialist " bureaucracy and its leader Stalin.

        The privileged bureaucracy needed Stalin as much as

Stalin needed the bureaucracy.  Trotsky  opposed terrorism

as a political strategy.  He believed  that if Stalin were

assassinated, the corrupt Soviet bureaucracy would have created

a NEW Stalin  .

        To  remove Saddam Hussein of Iraq and keep HIS bureaucracy

intact would be to betray any possibility of even minimal

democracy in that miserable country.

          The American Caesar would find himself working with

corrupt Saddam henchmen to suppress a real democratic political

revolution in Iraq.

         Clearly DEMOCRACY is not the goal of a U.S. war against

Iraq. Imagine those poor people being ruled by some Texas cowboy

general !  AS an old 60s song warns : " Meet the new boss- same

as the old boss !  "

         I support OLD Europe on this matter of war against

Iraq.  The French are not cowards.  I wonder what their

Noble Prize winning author Albert Camus would think about our

cowboy president, George W. Bush . Camus was the courageous

editor of the anti-Nazi newspaper " Combat " when Germany

occupied France. His book " The Rebel " is still relevant

to world politics today.

        And I myself expect THE ABSURD to triumph once again

in human affairs. The Plague has never really disappeared !

The wrath of Clara Harris and Jean Harris

             " Hell hath no fury.... " The story of Clara Harris - accused

    of running over  and killing her unfaithful husband - reminds me of

    another famous case of feminine RAGE : Remember one Jean Harris found

    guilty of murdering  her unfaithful husband, the famous diet doctor,

    Herman Tarnower .Jean's defense : "  the bullet intended for herself

    struck her lover by mistake ". Oh, that's right. He was an unfaithful

    LOVER . Anyway Jean Harris had a good side  and - if I were on the jury-

    I would  have said : " Ten  years - with time off for good behavior ".

              I feel the same way about Clara Harris. FEMALE RAGE can

    explain a lot of domestic horror shows. Jean Harris wrote in her

    biography : " Every person in an American prison should be required....

    wherever possible... to  THINK LOGICALLY, especially about personal

    responsibilities " . ( page 554 , large print edition ) .


                 I oppose the death penalty because modern medicine has

    graphic evidence of brain function unaffected by any mystical FREE WILL.

                  True enough : " The devil made me do it !  "

             Crime prevention is really a matter of raising our emotional IQ.

Arlene scolds Bob Kerr

Good morning, Bob. I very much enjoyed your column making

    fun of RULING CLASS types ( my definition ) who use the word  SUMMER

    as a verb. However, that column was judged " snotty " by WHJJ's

    GENERAL - Arlene Violet.

                I really think Arlene- though I can still respect her -

    is losing it. TALKING too much and -unlike good writers like Bob

    Kerr - THINKING too little.

                  I suspect Arlene socializes with people we use to

    call SNOBS and SOCIAL PARASITES. But  a journalist is just COMMON

    FOLK to them. And nothing shakes them in their self-esteem.

              Oh poor, ungrateful PROLES - who cannot see THEM as our

    true benefactors !

                By the way, I SUMMER myself in Roger Williams Park or

    Oakland Beach bars.

                                          Love your " Queen For A Day "

                                         columns !

- - - - - - - - -
response from Bob Kerr:
  ron:  i summer on the portugese riviera in fall river.  i heard from a few
    people about her little tirade last week.  i've never  thought arlene quite gets
    it.  anyway, thanks for checking in.  bob

Thank God for the rich !

A silly letter to the Christian Science Monitor published

    on February 3  under the heading: " Should the rich keep more of

    what they earn ?  "  . One Sidney Williams begins his letter: " The

    rich provide almost every job in America . No poor person has ever

    provided or created a job.... ".

            Well, well .... THANK GOD FOR THE RICH !  Scientists tell us

    that human beings have inhabited the earth for at least a million years.

    How could they possibly have survived without the benevolence of the RICH

    -who perhaps did not descend from OLD FAMILIES - of monkeys !

                 How does this one percent of the population manage to be

    so much more PRODUCTIVE than the other 99 % ?

                Everywhere the working class would be clueless without them.

    Did not Marx explain to us a long time ago about the secret of capitalist

    profit - the exploitation of the workers ?

                But all that was just crazy commie crap. The capitalists are

    capitalists for the benefit of the working class !

          Oh those stupid, ungrateful proles !

               When did the labor theory of value disappear from the consciousness

    of even left-wing intellectuals ?

McGrief vs. the dark night of the soul

Charles Lindberg - a quintessential American - electrified the

whole world in 1927 when HE DID IT ! - boldly flew across the

formidable Atlantic ocean , landing in Paris to the cheers of a

wild, adoring crowd. Not for nothing he named his famous plane

" The Spirit of St. Louis " . That SPIRIT became the spirit of

NASA, especially in the early days of the space program.

       John F. Kennedy - who oddly reminded people of Charles

Lindberg early in his political career - inspired the titanic,

national project of landing a man on the moon.

        Lindberg -like JFK, like the USA - had a dark side.

    The human soul needs a challenge ,needs to wonder and dream

more than it needs mere comfort and security.

         If I were a complete pauper , I would not begrudge

the NASA space projects. They help keep the Spirit of St. Louis

alive. Nice to know that human beings can arise above the level

of bean counters, that not a few of us do indeed have the right

stuff.

         The seven astronauts of the space shuttle Columbia -

killed Saturday - all had the right stuff.

         The Israeli hero  showed that the human spirit can

rise again even from the ashes of the Holocaust.

          A lot of the grief expressed by public officials

sounds a bit canned to me. I call this phenomenon " McGrief ".

            We like to believe in a personal god. And many of

the astronauts claimed to be devout Christians.   I suspect that

we strain our sanity by believing in God as grand maestro of

the universe.

        Where was the Lord of the O-Rings , I wonder, when

the Challenger exploded ? Reagan was president back then. I

was touched by his speech to nation after that tragedy.

         After the Columbia exploded Saturday -and it was certain

the precious crew was lost - George W tried to imitate the Great

Communicator .  His speech was a flop, canned McGrief.

        Perhaps a great leader at such times might wisely

imitate the silence of God. In long dark night of the soul, we

wait - wait for Godot ?

         Oddly enough you can feel grief for a mere thing. When

I first learned that there was a  serious crack in the Hubble

telescope,   it was like hearing that God Himself lost an eye.

        Our scientists fixed it.

Spurious " letter to the editor "

 Just read your editorial -worthy of H.L. Mencken - about a

    new low in the political dirty tricks department: encouraging pro-

    Bush letters to the editor that  remind me of those organized

    spontaneous demonstrations at old fashioned national party conventions.

    The only thing now missing from those smoke filled rooms where presidents

    are chosen by a very motley " ruling class " is the smoke.

                So one  Tricky Dick letter - praising the economic wisdom

    of President George W.  Bush - was published recently in the Providence

    Journal. Other editors - who have no problem with Republicanism -were

    also duped. Experienced newspaper editors can usually sniff out a

    campaign.  Those pro-lifers have also organized letter writing

    campaigns. But the pious writers are content to score points in

     heaven

                I confess I write a few letters to the editor myself

    on issues that arouse my political passions. But not even Ralp Nader

    thinks of rewarding me with a one year subscription to " Consumer Digest ".

             For me that precious LETTERS space in the newspaper should have

    a pristine , democratic innocence :  " Do you hear the people sing...? "

                By the way old H.L. Mencken thought only jackasses wrote

    letters to the editor. I still love the guy ! Why not put that cynical

    face on an American postage stamp ?