Why I am still a socialist ?

Not so much for ideological reasons, I was a presidential elector for the American Communist Party way back in 1972, I recall, my old friend- Ronald F. Marshall, now living in New Hampshire, was the 2nd presidential elector here in Rhode Island. Gus Hall and Angela Davis were the persecuted party's candidates for president and vice-president of the United States.

I recall one small town Rhode Island newspaper making some fuss over it. The two-bit editor was warning local patriots that the "Communists were coming" – giving Mr. Marshall an impish belly laugh.

I came across this now ancient NEWS in the old fashioned PROVIDENCE JOURNAL NEWS CATALOGUE in the old reference department at the Providence Public Library. A few years earlier 17 year old Ronnie– a Hope High School drop out– gave me a delightful yet PROFESSORIAL lecture on the history of American Trotskyism. I think I mixed a teaspoon of my father's gin in his ice water drink- which made his blues eyes sparkle all the more. He also had very long black hair and could be quite humorously erratic: "Ideology is a brain disease!" he declared, having just read Jerry Rubin's cult 60s classic "Do It". Remember this was the era of huge protests against the Vietnam War and a generation of rebellious and extremely alienated youth. My young friend and I (I was 22 when I met him) loved the irreverence on the very first page: " F_ _ _K Amerika!" Later at an anti-war demonstration Ronnie shouted "Free Charlie Manson!"

I was a presidential elector again this time for the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). In 1976 I recall distributing a campaign booklet titled "A Bill of Rights for Working People". This booklet is just as relevant to the Class Struggle today. Yes, indeed: A RIGHT TO A JOB. . . A RIGHT TO MEDICAL CARE . . . 100% TAX ON CORPORATE PROFIT".

The SWP presidential candidate, Peter Camejo, explained in his classic 60s pamphlet: "How to Make A Revolution in the United States." Nope, no bomb making suggested here. Just radical politics. A mass movement. Getting people into the streets by the millions. Seizing power backed by the highest authority in ANY democracy- the majority of working people, which, of course, includes most of the middle class.

I was also a presidential elector for the SWP (without ever being a party member) way back in 1980. Annette Gagne was the other presidential elector. You can check official STATE HOUSE RECORDS for details of that that election. But alas 1980 was not a banner year for socialism. It was just the beginning of  the Reagan Era – an extremely reactionary time that did not even end with the election of Barack Obama in 2008.

It was also the beginning of the AIDS scare. And this, I believe, was also the beginning of the end of the so called Sexual Revolution– when so many people were becoming less uptight about human sexuality in general. All that pornography out there on the Internet today does not quite kill the Old Puritan voice whispering WICKED! CONFESS AND REPENT!

Workers Party is no more. It has evolved into an extremely bizarre Jack Barnes personality cult. But the Great Man of the American Trotskyist Party- for me - will always be James P. Cannon, who wrote the book young Ron Marshall lectured me on now such a long, long time ago.

I have lost touch with this gifted human being. I know he still is a an ardent H.P. Lovecraft fan. Perhaps in reactionary political times we all become more sensitive to COSMIC HORROR. After all, the vast universe is frightfully indifferent to ALL our human problems. Recall reading on the TIME MAGAZINE Cover in 1968: "Is God Dead?  "Catholics believe that once God (Jesus) once did indeed die. Then they celebrated Easter Sunday.

I still reread Albert Einstein's essay "Why Socialism?"- which this science genius wrote rather late in life. I say to myself : "Well I can't be too wrong headed", I tell myself, if this genius was a COMRADE SOCIALIST .

Like the Pythagorean Theorem in Euclid, I never could change my mind about basic axioms. TRUTH endures!

    

Support the Arts- VOTE YES ON QUESTION 5

Rae, I am a registered voter in Cranston. I will most certainly vote YES on QUESTION 5. My brother is also a graphic designer and has done wonderful work on my blog (http://radicalrons.blogspot.com/)

What is $35 million compared to all the money people foolishly gamble away? I refuse to vote for any casino gambling here in Rhode Island. I am convinced that gambling and our state lottery-which radio and TV news celebrities are always pimping -are really just a tax on the vast class of desperate and uneducated poor people.

What is $35 million compared to the super-costly -and foolish-WAR ON DRUGS? What is $35 million compared to ALL our foolish military adventures?
I would gladly vote you many millions more!

(Post to Cranston Herald letter)

Ron Ruggieri, Cranston

Warwick Beacon post on New Atheism

God bless you, Richard D. Walsh. I strongly suspect that this evil and malicious WAR ON GOD is not coming from the traditional New Deal Democrat Left. Much of it is inspired by reactionary Ayn Rand-ism. The atheist author of "The Virtue of Selfishness" was so much a crackpot that conservative Catholic William F. Buckley wanted nothing to do with her.

A haughty contempt for the majority of religious humanity is no way to make this sad miserable world a better place. The NEW ATHEISM is also inspired by the likes of ex-Trotskyist, Islamo-phobe Christopher Hitchens. These so called left-wing atheists hate God more than they ever loved the common people.

They no doubt hate Pope Francis-who  takes Catholic social philosophy seriously. A socialist myself, I greatly respect my Catholic heritage and had no problem with now famous PRAYER ON THE WALL at Cranston West High School-whatever "Uncle Atheist" -  John DePetro (john@630wpro.com) calls him that - Steve Ahlquist, found so offensive about it.

Sad to say, most public school teachers are easily frightened sheep.

"Uncle Atheist" insists Elorza is an atheist

Subject: "Uncle Atheist" insists Elorza is an atheist

To: kgregg@providencejournal.com

Kathy Gregg, you can judge this yourself for its NEWS value. But the guy John DePetro calls "Uncle Atheist" on his WPRO TALK RADIO program, Steve Ahlquist, insists that Elorza is indeed an atheist. He clearly hopes that Elorza will be the first highest ranking openly atheist elected official in the country. ("Is Jorge Elorza an atheist?", Sept.4, 2014 blog )

Then I read : "But of course, he would first have to be open about his atheism". In the interest of TRUTH, I forward you this near copy of a message I sent John DePetro ( john@630wpro.com) early this morning. I myself have no problem with honest atheism-only with the hateful, malicious New Atheism-with crackpot Ayn Rand and ex-Trotskyist, Islamo-phobe Christopher Hitchens as its first Popes.

If you think my email is a worthless waste of your time, please let me know. I will publish it in my blog ( http://radicalrons.blogspot.com/ ) Regards to all the future jobless at the Providence Journal.

Thank you for your attention.

                                                                                                                                                                  

John, "Uncle Atheist" insists Elorza is an atheist

To: John DePetro <john@630wpro.com>

John, your notorious "Uncle Atheist", Steve Ahlquist, insists on his blog ( "Is Jorge Elorza an atheist, Sept. 4, 2014) that Elorza is indeed an atheist. He clearly hopes that Elorza will be the first highest ranking openly atheist elected official in the country.

Then I read: "But of course, he would first have to be open about his atheism."

In the interest of truth, I forward this information to you– and others. But I myself do not have a problem with honest atheism. Only with this malicious, hateful New Atheism-with Ayn Rand and ex-Trotskyist Christopher Hitchens as its first Popes.

Red Eye Radio's Constant Theme, Gene

To: Gene630@wpro.com

I know you have nothing to do with this , Gene. But if listeners of your radio station think John DePetro is too conservative ( and liberal Democrats are wrong to boycott the station ) - I wonder what they would think if they could hear Red Eye rants during the day. I am up early really just to catch Frank Coletta do the 4:30 Good Morning News. Both you and Frank are "congenial mainstream".

Their constant theme is that environmentalism has only one real motivation: punishing capitalism. For these guys PUNISHING CAPITALISM is a greater evil than destroying planet Earth.

Clearly CAPITALISM is nothing less than a fanatical religion with these people. I suspect most of them are no more religious than the late Isaac Asimov, the famous HUMANIST science writer convinced that global warming was THE STORY OF THE YEAR way back in the early 1980s.

Their early morning Red Eye rants  remind me of vicious, lying 1950s McCarthyism. They see socialists and communists everywhere. Their beloved CAPITALISM is being threatened by their LIBERAL pimps in high office.

Their hysterical anti-environmentalist rants reek of atheistic Ayn Rand-ism. That crackpot was notorious for her "Virtue of Selfishness" social philosophy. Even the late conservative Catholic, William F. Buckley, could not stand her.

Perhaps WPRO radio should consider a counter-voice to the brainless right wing propaganda of Red Eye Radio. Most scientists just believe in the scientific method- not the political program of the Fourth International.

Does WPRO radio - and more and more Ed Achorn, The Providence Journal's editorial page editor- think intelligent, literate citizens can ever be won over to this reactionary cynicism about  SAVING THE GOOD EARTH? God of the divine stock-market ?

On SAVING THE MIDDLE CLASS in a CLASS SOCIETY

Not for nothing Abraham Lincoln thought that the study of Euclid would sharpen his intellect for political debate. First year geometry students learn at the very beginning of the course how necessary is precise definition: DEFINE YOUR TERMS.

Listening to the Rhode candidates for governor, an alert voter will notice how they NEVER do this. Again and again they talk about OUTSIDERS, INSIDERS, THE TAX PAYERS, and SAVING THE MIDDLE CLASS.

They invariably hint that their opponent represents SPECIAL INTERESTS. While they are self-evidently champions of THE PEOPLE.

What makes this shameless political circus possible is the lack of clear CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS in America. This country is far from an egalitarian society with LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL. And most certainly THE LAW is not above the CLASS STRUGGLE.

In his book "Passionate Declarations", the famous leftist professor, Howard Zinn has a whole chapter titled "Economic Justice: The American Class System" writes Zinn: "We have a class system, unmistakably, in a country that promises LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL."

Even liberal Democrats refuse to see the obvious because their careers are based on CLASS loyalty-but to the ruling class.

By the way, just what can these dishonest politicians DO for the so called middle class anyway? Can they prevent them from falling into the lower classes? Is the capitalist economic system all about protecting the middle class? Why is it OK to ignore the traditional WORKING CLASS? Why is it OK to ignore what socialist writer Michael Harrington called "The Other America" – the vast numbers of hopelessly poor Americans? Hardly any liberal Democrats talk about saving them anymore.

It is clearly politically safer to babble about their great love affair with the American middle class. And almost everybody not homeless or jobless begin to see themselves as middle class. Hope for millions is not real class mobility but WINNING THE MEGABUCKS LOTTERY. All that is left of the American Dream.

Image from: http://www.procon.org

You can't begin to improve the lives even of the so called middle class until you challenge the very legitimacy of wealth. What makes all this obscene private wealth possible is PRIVATE OWNERSHIP OF THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION. Every blacked-robed American JUST JUDGE is a sworn defender of just this very unjust system. If you disagree with YOUR HONOR over sacrosanct PROPERTY RIGHT, he might even let you think it over in jail.

The bourgeois legal nose is expert at sniffing out any UN-AMERICAN socialist or communist types.

What is the ultimate authority behind THE LAW? A God that they no longer believe in? It can't be THE PEOPLE because capitalism must exploit and oppress them. The MAJORITY simply must not rule, must be excluded from the halls of real power. 

So it seems that American Democracy is democracy only for the rich, the ONE PERCENT. They are always the shadow government of the United States. They are what C. Wright Mills called them: "The Power Elite." And even the CULT OF CELEBRITY serves them.

WE THE PEOPLE are the true outsiders. For how much longer?

Then happened the REAL horror story . . .

With Halloween approaching, I was in the mood early this morning to draft one of my mini-horror stories: mixing a political theme, jobless youth, with the idea of our state still being haunted by the Industrial Revolution where child laborers slaved away their precious youth in DARK SATANIC MILLS.

I learned on You Tube that the Old Slater Mill in Pawtucket has a reputation for being haunted. I imagined a frustrated unemployed teenager aroused by his Lovecraftian walk– often passing by LOVERS LANE by the old canal in Roger Williams Park– seeing used condoms; feeling like a loser on Friday Night (date night!) getting drunk on his Pop's Four Roses Whiskey– then with a hidden butcher knife heading for the Last House on the Left- seeing HIS girl in the bathroom window taking a hot shower- getting ready for a dreamy, romantic Prom Night . . .

Of course, she does not know that she is HIS girl. She likes the rich boy. But the DISTURBED YOUTH is thinking ahead of next day's HEADLINE NEWS and two very unquiet graves. His only friend THE VOICE told him to DO IT on Halloween Night- truly a night of the Living Dead . . .

It is Washington Park in the early 60s. A bunch of working class teenagers are outside a Georgia Ave. Jewelry shop. They are all shocked by the front page news: MURDER-SUICIDE IN QUIET NEIGHBORHOOD.

The pretty girl and the disturbed youth had both worked side by side on the sweat shop foot presses in early July. They remembered SHE calling him a loser for dropping out of Hope High in the 10th grade. SHE didn't date LOSERS! . . .

So, here is how this horror story really ended for ME : I accidentally hit the DISCARD DRAFT button. And to my horror my story did not even make it to THE CLOUD. "Never more!" I moaned. "Never more!"

Italo-Americans mainstream here– but?

Early morning message to RI Radio host, Gene Valicenti:

Gene, I appreciate your not infrequent speaking up for the dignity of Italo-Americans when mass media associate them with disreputable images...Too much Godfather- Sopranos cult, still too much stereotyping.

Most Italo-Americans of the third and fourth generation, in fact, have a mixed ethnic heritage-much like American Jews. But again your last name invariably carries with it your ethnic "baggage" . . .

Let me get quickly to my point here: Unlike the Latinos and the Jews, Italo-Americans are, in fact, super-Americanized in this sense: they have neglected and ignored their own beautiful Italian language heritage.

Only rather late in life did I start paying attention to the language of my father's ancestors (my mother was an "Engley")

After a while I found a near sensuous delight in the sounds of this most musical of languages. "We must not lose this jewel of a language", I thought.

The Internet now makes learning ANY language a lot less duller than it was in my high school days- when I learned the connection between ancient Latin and modern Italian. We have lost our Latin connection -after Vatican II. Do  Rhode Island high schools like Hope High or Central High or Mount Pleasant still offer a course in First Year Italian? All it takes is ONE year to get back the soul of Italy-the wonderful Italian language.

You can use your considerable influence for Italo-American cultural preservation. To be sure, Italian restaurants are in no danger of disappearing in Rhode Island. But Atwells Avenue is all that remains of Old Federal Hill. Even Holy Ghost Church once had a daily mass in Italian. Now there is a daily mass in Spanish- which like Italian had its linguistic roots in the empire of ancient Rome.

It is indeed a blessing to be bilingual in modern America. This is wholesome "political correctness". In contrast to Columbus Day hostility.

Ciao !
Ron from Knightsville, Cranston

Radical Ron's "Federal Hill Roots" – pictured here in this composite image are his paternal grandparents,

Ludovico and Andreana (Napoletano) Ruggieri– both Italian immigrants who arrived in America in 1905.

They rented a humble apartment on 62 Gesler Street for over 50 years and attended Mass

(often daily) at Holy Ghost Church.

"Probae esti in segetem sunt deteriorem datae fruges, tamen ipsae suaptae enitent."

(A good seed, planted even in poor soil, will bear rich fruit by its own nature.)

– Accius, Atreus

Catholic Pope says "God not a magician" !

I am listening to the  Channel 10 Evening News. Once again Pope Francis surprises the secular world. News anchor, Brian Williams reports, in his usual Prozac Voice, the Pope is saying that the Big Bang and Darwinian evolution are not contrary to the faith.

But the Pope himself must realize that his Church made peace with modern science  a long time ago- but still not so far back that old Galileo need not fear the Inquisition and a horrible  Poe-etic " Pit and the Pendulum torture death- in case the Almighty (now seen as "not a magician") was lacking in lurid torture schemes for the damned dead.

Jesus did finally bring some loving compassion into the world. And we can at least thank Father in Heaven for that.

I myself believe in divine metaphysics where-ever physics leaves me with too much quantum uncertainty. Or with all due respect for my materialist teacher and brain trust confidante, H.P. Lovecraft , I do often feel that the Mystical Body of Christ is the only cure for COSMIC HORROR.

And before the Big Bang? We have God who is No-Thing- just as Aquinas said- restless in His own No-thing-ness. So he had a Platonic Epiphany and said: "Let there be light".

Read Isaac Asimov's story "The Last Question". Perhaps God will be there in THE END as He was IN THE BEGINNING.

In the meantime, there is BEAUTY IN UNCERTAINTY. So it is not wise to fuss too much over all those Holy Books. Secular or religious, they all lead us to the unholy ground of Auschwitz. I can hear the voice of the kindly Jewish scholar kneeling in its ashes in the TV documentary "The Ascent of Man"– Certainty did this!" he passionately declares. AMEN.

Hillary and Freud and Marx's labor theory of value ?

Any right-wing types who want to believe that Hillary Clinton is some sort of Marxist are on the same intellectual level of a vocal few who think President Obama is an illegitimate president-perhaps even an illegal alien.

But Hillary is just my age and her conscious and subconscious mind had to be shaped by the late 60s. Back then the best and the brightest -in passionate opposition to the Vietnam War- had to be familiar with Marxist criticism of the capitalist system - simply as an academic necessity.

Marxists certainly do not perceive our ruling class- very much the dominant OWNING class- as benign JOB CREATORS. Without personal malice, Marxists perceive the ONE PERCENT as an exploiting class, even if this exploitation is perfectly legal (by bourgeois law, of course).

It still amazes me- still very much influenced by Marx- that the labor theory of value was not a knock out blow to obfuscating capitalist FREE MARKET ideology. When I first grasped it as a mere adolescent, I thought it had all the cogency of a PROOF in Euclidean Plane Geometry. A logical proof is the exact opposite of some totalitarian dogma. For example, there are nearly 100 proofs of the Pythagorean Theorem: the square on the hypotenuse of a right triangle is equal in area to the sum of the squares on the legs. For a while a few months ago I imagined that I myself had conceived a new and most elegant proof of this basic theorem. But I soon discovered this "new" proof in my old high school geometry text.

Today I suspect that modern computers-given all the truthful and relevant data -might easily produce a 21st century PROOF of Karl Marx's labor theory of value. But too many middle class intellectuals are unmotivated to undermine the capitalist profit system, seeing themselves perhaps are already very comfortable and privileged.

Old Freud with his ID, EGO, and SUPER-EGO, I suspect, can explain this "resistance" and hostility to a class embarrassing TRUTH.

When I heard Hillary Clinton yesterday say in so many words that CAPITAL does not create JOBS, I was flabbergasted ! So was the capitalist news media. She quickly retracted the statement.

But was Hillary's 1960s shaped UNCONSCIOUS MIND whispering the simple truth to her ear? The rest of the liberal Democrats continue to fawn over our divine JOB CREATORS.

But their very condition for job creation is MAKING A PROFIT. That something just needs to be done, public housing or national health care, for example, is not a factor in frenzied stock market investing.

Like all science economic science must deal with objectively measurable quantities.  Science has only one way to measure human EFFORT - physical or mental- the consumption of calories. It is pure superstition to believe that the ONE PERCENT are so much more productive than the entire producing class of employed labor.

The correct measure of our total wealth and our total social surplus value- which really pays all the bills- is LABOR TIME.

Just a bit of common sense: A guy who never heard about Marx's labor theory of value would never TRADE a commodity he had to work a whole year for- say a car- for some other commodity- say a new refrigerator which brand new would only COST IN TIME only one week of his job place labor.

It is the PRIVATE OWNERSHIP OF THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION which makes all PRIVATE WEALTH possible. The bourgeois lawyers will see to it that it remains LEGAL wealth. So the working class is plundered indeed HONORABLY- in accordance with our Majestic Laws. For our vast class of working stiffs every day is Plunder Dome Day.

Should exploitation become all too obvious ,even to the relatively content working-middle class, the capitalist system will face a crisis of legitimacy. It would begin to look like the Great French Revolution of 1789.

With reference to Sigmund Freud, will our COLLECTIVE ID make peaceful revolution impossible?

 

Pat Cortellessa and a very suspicious fire in Providence

Gene Valicenti just reported a story on TV 10 news at 6 o'clock that I had read about earlier in the day in The Providence Journal: "Cianci critic Cortellessa charged with assault", All this over the former "corrupt" Mayor of Providence, Vincent "Buddy" Cianci. "An assault on a woman!" The lowest thing!", later commented "Buddy".

Cortellessa assaulted a female Cianci worker last Wednesday at a mayoral forum at the South Side Community Center.

At another mayoral forum on October 7 Cortellessa is pictured sitting next to his buddy, Antonio R. Freitas of Plunder Dome fame. These two crusaders for ethics in Providence City Hall, supporters of the highly ethical Democratic mayoral candidate, Jorge Elorza, in the news photo LOOK like characters in the gangster movie "Good Fellas".

The George C. Arnold Building, on Washington Street,
Providence, shown damaged after a 2009 fire. The
building was owned at the time by Pat Cortellessa)
Photo Credit: Dylan Weisser

The short article by Richard Salit hints that Pat Cortellessa loathes Cianci for less exalted reasons than his own high ethical standards: "Cortellessa had run- ins with Cianci and his administration over his real estate investments in Providence.... He himself wanted to offer his oh-so-ethical self to the voters of Providence for the position of HONORABLE MAYOR.

It seems that his real estate in Providence includes the George C. Arnold Building on Washington St. There is a story about a fire there a few years ago but the building "was not damaged so badly that it can't be repaired. The owner PAT CORTELLESSA has insurance. Even before the fire he was fixing the building (erected in 1923)"

Under this story– a CYNICAL post: "Not trying to libel anyone but really? He was fixing it up! Uh-huh. Maybe he was– I'm just saying" (October 1,2009, DOWNTOWN PROVIDENCE ).

I love it when slum lords and bum politicians debate ETHICS. And the Providence Journal endorses INTEGRITY.

Is Obama a Marxist? Ask singer Pat Boone!

The legendary singer and movie star Pat Boone speaks
at the 2011 Conservative Political Action Conference.

Because the capitalist owned news media is terrified that cogent socialist criticism of their economic system will win the attention of the mass audience, they do little to correct plain lies and nearly illiterate ignorance.

One hears numerous references to President Obama as a Marxist(seduced and led astray in his youth by one sinister radical, Saul Alinsky ). Hardly any conscientious investigation of this- on the same level as Obama as an illegal alien.

No "responsible" news media checks on this crapGOOGLE HEADLINES FOR " OBAMA (as) MARXIST "Ex-Marxist calls out Obama as" communist" (one notorious, professional anti-communist, David Horowitz )

Pat Boone ( the celebrity entertainer ) : "Pat says Obama is a Marxist who wants nobody to get rich." (Fox Business News). ( I just heard Pat sing "Speedy Gonzalez" on You Tube-now banned as racist )

"The Marxist roots of Obama's war on the middle class"

"President Obama's potential as a Marxist dictator"

"Obama lies like a Marxist"( this guy lies like a fascist )

"Marxist ideology keeps Obama from using quarantine to stop the spread of Ebola." (The plague as a class war weapon?)

Here is a more concise thinker: "President Obama- a Neo-Marxist"

"Obama care not about health care - about wealth distribution" (Free market should decide who gets medical care?)

The last headline I cite ( modified quote ) expresses this venomous idea : "Obama, the Marxist, knows that the rich do not have enough money to raise everybody up, so he wants to bring us all down to the same level- the gutter." ( Here we have the deep loathing for socialism by the rich: they cease to be PRIVILEGED. Not oppressed or persecuted -just no longer PRIVILEGED ). But President Obama is not at war with CLASS PRIVILEGE.

The simple truth: Obama is a Neo-Democrat- who makes FDR look like a flaming Bolshevik.

I can find many similar quotes on Hillary Clinton as a sinister Marxist. But no sober corrections of this crap in big city newspapers like The Providence Journal.

They rarely let Socialists speak for themselves

Talk radio is dominated by conservatives. It would be irrational for any real SOCIALIST to think it could be dominated by left-wing types. The so called  Left is far more representative of the CLASS interests of the majority of eligible voters than Tea Party loud mouths. But as Karl Marx said "the ruling ideas are the ideas of the ruling class".

To make it simple Gene, if you ever started quoting the most famous quotes of famous socialists -like Eugene V. Debs - you would quickly join Bob Kerr on the UNEMPLOYED rolls. John DePetro was always referring to him as "Comrade Kerr". But Bob was really just a sincere and compassionate traditional liberal.

My quarrel with your Talk Radio station is not their pro-capitalist propaganda. That is to be expected in the so called Free Market of ideas.  But it is not OPINION but downright IGNORANCE when talk radio hosts start referring to President Obama or Hillary Clinton as some shade of Marxist. Or associating Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, state welfare programs as creeping Socialism".

I am presently listening to your Red Eye Radio scholars explain how pernicious would be any significant raise in the minimum wage. They must wonder how the Socialist Idea ever won the hearts and minds of several generations of the Best and the Brightest.

If they ever read a book by some well educated socialist - and not with their brain shut down-they might learn there are deeper considerations in human life than the dubious wisdom of the Free Market. I try to clarify all this on my daily blog: "Time Enough at Last":  (http://radicalrons.blogspot.com/)

Paradox - Socialist Idea kept alive by its enemies

Emma Goldman 1869 – 1940) was an anarchist known for her political 

activism, writing, and speeches.  She played a pivotal role in the development

of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half

of the 20th century. For more info on this extraordinary woman

follow this link to Wikipedia

Except for the last two decades of the 20th century the pristine vision of Socialism-unsullied by Stalinist tyranny-was kept alive by numerous "public intellectuals". They included many artists, scientists, writers, religious idealists, and numerous academic scholars. Of course, their free speech and free thinking was protected by the democratic tradition not quite snuffed out in the countries shaped by much maligned Western Civilization. 

Was it just a strange coincidence that all this brain power was united in condemning the evils of capitalism, in general the EXPLOITATION of the many by the few? No amount of FREE MARKET mystification led them to stray from the truth that working people were systematically robbed of the fruits of their labor. And what made this abomination possible was PRIVATE OWNERSHIP OF THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION.

Since the Reagan era -and since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 90s I have studied this curious social phenomenon: Both liberal and socialist intellectuals in retreat  everywhere- almost a stunning rout. Suddenly all that collective brain power started to  preach the gospel of free market capitalism. As if the very idea of socialism had been discredited for all time!

Flaming liberals or socialists in their youth, now they were all born again true believers in the Gospel of Wealth. They had completely succumbed to the Marxist axiom: the ruling ideas are the ideas of the ruling class.

Almost overnight they stopped using even the vocabulary of socialism. They seldom mentioned the working class, oppression, exploitation, imperialism. They rarely even talked about the poor anymore in the manner of a New Deal patrician liberal. I soon discovered that the only class they obsessed on was the MIDDLE CLASS. The Neo-Democrats started chanting in recession years : "Save the middle class!"  How bold and benign of them.

Some of them kept up a veneer of radicalism by embracing the New Atheism. Rather than identify with the poor, confused and often stupefied masses, they now publicly ridiculed the religious common people- in the obnoxious manner of the ex-Trotskyist Christopher Hitchens.

What the New Atheists never did was talk socialism anymore. They were nearly intoxicated themselves with the prospect of being embraced by a now "politically correct" ruling class. God was out but Money was still worshiped. Gay marriage was now the great moral question of our time. They conveniently forgot what old socialist had to say about all forms of modern marriage being connected to bourgeois PROPERTY RIGHTS.

Not a few gifted Jewish intellectuals found a new god that had not failed in the state of Israel. Not a few socialist "vanguard" parties degenerated into deranged personality cults. The Great Leader using party funds to live on a princely estate - funded by all those dues paying proles (but fewer and fewer by the year)

Oddly enough, today the IDEA of Socialism is ironically kept alive by its most implacable and paranoid enemies. No, socialism for them is not quite dead and buried. They see the specter of Socialism in President Obama and Hillary Clinton! Here in Rhode Island the plutocrat Lincoln Chafee is at least a closet socialist.

Red Eye Radio rants all night long about BIG GOVERNMENT SOCIALISM. Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid and all state welfare is pernicious socialism. ALL taxes are loathsome - except those that directly support the military-industrial complex. Even public schools are condemned as a waste of the TAX PAYERS MONEY.

And who are these aggrieved tax payers? But of course, the ONE PERCENT. But the Neo -Democrats bemoan this God-awful tax burden as much as any Tea Party crackpots.

And yet history teaches that you cannot kill a true idea. The born again pro-capitalists do not even want to believe in Science anymore if it tells them that capitalism is killing the Good Earth. They prefer not to believe in OBJECTIVE REALITY - which,  in the final analysis, is just a mental health concept.

WHOM THE GODS INTEND TO DESTROY THEY FIRST MAKE MAD!

Brown pollster guilty of malpractice, says Fung's manager

I learned some of the basics of scientific polling years ago when I took a summer course in Elementary Statistics at my beloved Community College of Rhode Island- once known- and I say this with trembling pride as R-E-J-E-C-T. (R.I.J.C.– for Rhode Island Junior College) A school just right for my income at least at the time (1977 graduate).

An example of a Bell Shaped
Standard Distribution Curve Chart

The student is quickly introduced to the iconic STANDARD DISTRIBUTION CURVE, of bell shaped elegance. Now and then The Bell Curve can serve the evil purposes of bigoted "special interests". The basic idea is simple enough: a truly random sample- in fact as few as 30 samples– can correctly reflect the picture of the larger group.

Headline: "Fung challenges methodology of Brown poll" (Oct. 25, Providence Journal, page A3) cries Fung's campaign manager: "The methodology and weighting are absurd".

There is well known principle in physics known as quantum uncertainty: when you try to pin down, for example, the position of an electron, you must understand that the very act of measurement ALTERS the thing being measured.

In the same way, a highly respected opinion poll released so soon before election can effect the outcome of an election. Why show up to vote for your favorite candidate if the polls don't give him or her an incremental chance of winning? Hence the anxiety over poll results.

Community College of Rhode Island
(CCRI) is the largest community college
in New England and was founded in
1964 as Rhode Island Junior College,"RIJC"

Could Fung's campaign manager, Patrick Sweeney, be right? The problem is really that too many registered voters don't vote- a scandal for democracy. If very few of the voters show up at the polls on election day, the election will clearly be decided-not by any jackass poll- but by the energy and passion of a candidate's following. I suspect that Gina Raimondo's fans are more enthusiastic- (ah, divine enthusiasm!) - than Mayor Fung's.

I can see how enthusiastic people are for Vincent "Buddy" Cianci. Elorza himself, leading in the latest Brown poll, strikes me as very able and NOT lacking in integrity. But he comes across as a DEAD FISH politician. Which fits his VILLAGE ATHEIST reputation (this should not be an issue!). How can anyone voting for this Harvard Law School graduate possibly love him as much as they, no doubt, loathe "Buddy" Cianci?

Would it not be funny if the Brown pollster, James Morone, after the election is faced with a rather humorless MALPRACTICE SUIT?

Send him to R-E-J-E-C-T to take a remedial course in elementary statistics. I mean send him to the Community College of Rhode Island, celebrating its 50th Anniversary: Five decades of making working class Rhode Islanders smarter- if not much more employable. I know.

Remember "convicted felon" Eugene V. Debs? (Cranston Herald post )

I refuse to be angry at any fellow citizen who is appalled that a "convicted felon" can return in glorious triumph to Providence City Hall-with national news media glitz and all.

But I also think that well intentioned newspaper editors like Ed Achorn operate with a very narrow-even elitist- view of corruption. The fact is that the majority of voters perceive THE SYSTEM itself as corrupt. And this devastates their lives far more than puny individual corruption.

Is a bought and sold judge - bought and sold legitimately on the FREE MARKET, on a higher moral plane than a shady politician like Cianci? Could Cianci's real crime only be that he refuses to play the game by Harvard Law School standards? And so the Providence Journal recommends to their readers Jorge Elorza.

Each of the three candidates for governor of Rhode Island, Raimondo, Fung, and Healey, thinks the other two are captives of "special interests". Is that not just a polite way of saying they are legitimately corrupt?

Also, some truly great citizens have run even for president as "convicted felons". Remember one Eugene V. Debs, the old socialist crusader?

Eugene Victor "Gene" Debs (November 5, 1855 – October 20, 1926) was an American union leader, one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or the Wobblies), and five times the candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States. Through his presidential candidacies, as well as his work with labor movements, Debs eventually became one of the best-known socialists living in the United States.

Also, there is the Judeo-Christian concept of redemption to reflect upon.

I wish President Obama were more like FDR . . .

President Franklin D. Roosevelt speaking to the nation from the heart . . .
without the use of a teleprompter. . . 

As a registered Democrat I wish President Obama were more like FDR in one important way: his eloquent defense of the working class of America during the Great Depression. His voice gave hope to the hopeless. And his government offered the destitute a Helping Hand.

Was it not preferable to violent revolution? And yet, the OLD MONEY never stopped loathing THAT MAN long after prosperity returned and CAPITALISM was saved. Clearly, Obama is a neo-Democrat with no real quarrel with the ONE PERCENT. For that reason in 2008 I supported Ralph Nader.

And the Nation listened . . .

On the war against terrorism I can only commend President Obama's caution. It was Wilsonian blather that got us involved in the war in Iraq– the greatest foreign policy blunder in American history. We will definitely not make ourselves safer in America by some jackass air war over Syria and Iraq.

You can kill terrorists by the thousands but can you kill a deranged theology? Tens of thousands of American troops in the Middle East will surely bring back some horrific plague to the United Sates–a real  weapon of mass destruction. PEACE!

Understanding of poverty still Dark Age obtuse

I just read the John Kostrzewa article on a non-profit organization's latest report on poverty here. Community Action Partnership of Providence reports "poverty remains stubbornly and unacceptably high". This is consistent with the Providence Journal series "Middle Class Squeeze". Reading even the most honest and conscientious reports on poverty ( I still recall Michael Harrington's "Poverty in America") I often think the dreary subject is both over-studied and poorly understood.

I am presently reading "Journal of the Plague Year" by Daniel DeFoe. The horror in London in 1665 was not even poorly understood. This was before the Age of Science initiated by Galileo.

Galileo gave us the gift of the scientific method. Even simple everyday motion was not understood-not even by the genius of Plato and Aristotle, whose wisdom guided the early Doctors of the Church, St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas. Galileo conducted simple motion experiments using an inclined plane and a primitive timer. He freed motion from the necessity of a mysterious force. As a simple deduction: the Earth in its orbit around the Sun did not need invisible angels pushing it.


Today we are equally stupefied by social phenomena like poverty, homelessness, unemployment, periodic recessions and depressions. We have well meaning organizations that are dedicated to reducing poverty–while still accepting ruling class mystification of it. If we truly want to end poverty we must first have a rational understanding of wealth creation, THE FORCE of the divine JOB CREATORS !

Real wealth consists of real THINGS. Money is only wealth in its most abstract, socialized form. In the last century science has reduced all things to forms of mass-energy- to matter in motion. Rich or poor we expect to rewarded with pay for our EFFORT on the job. But science has only one objective measure of EFFORT - mental or physical :the consumption of calories. Clearly our one percent plutocracy -which owns just about every THING- cannot possibly make a greater effort than the rest of the human race.

It is private ownership of the means of production - and control of all other forms of PRIVATE PROPERTY- that allows the ruling class to amass more and more wealth at the expense of the truly hard working middle-working class. So when apologists for capitalism talk unctuously about "hard earned wealth", you do not have to be a flaming Marxist to laugh at them.

Nor is there any magic in money as a THING IN ITSELF.  A gold brick left in a closed bank's vault for a hundred years will remain just one gold brick when the vault is opened. Meanwhile paper stock certificates at first worth one thousand dollars may easily- by the SOCIAL process of "free market" capitalism - may now be worth one million dollars. What is the essence of this miracle? As Marx pointed out more than a century and a half ago, LIVING LABOR exploited by capital literally WORKS this miracle of wealth creation.

So let us not bow down stupidly today before the so-called JOB CREATORS. They will never liberate the human race from abject poverty. They continue to preach to us their own Gospel of Wealth: the solution to ALL the problems of capitalism is more capitalism and of course : GET THE GOVERNMENT OFF OUR BACKS!

Yet without some government oversight, I would not trust a dedicated money maker to make my donuts. And just consider all the MAKE A BUCK swindles out there - beyond everyday workplace exploitation.

Listening to reactionary Red Eye radio early in the morning,  I am convinced that a great deal of  blowhard TALK RADIO is so much rationalization for Robber Baron greed: We should be ashamed of ourselves for questioning the wealth of the wealthy- for questioning its very legitimacy? This is truly sinful envy and jealousy of THE BLESSED SUCCESSFUL.

Susan Berge right about corrupt two party system

RI Independent Candidates – Healey and Cianci

Letter writer Susan Berge (October 23, on line) is right about our decayed two party system. Only in Rhode Island this national phenomenon has degenerated into a decayed ONE PARTY system.

Only a partisan jackass will applaud the prospect of yet another Democratic sweep on election day. Happy Days Are Here Again! For Susan Berge, Independent Healey represents therapeutic fresh air in the race for governor. For me "Buddy" - yes, THE TWICE CONVICTED FELON- at least represents a popular politician not owned by the Democratic machine.

Even if Elorza  does have more personal integrity, the state wide triumph of the machine- which serves "special interests" just as effectively as traditional Republican-ism- only promises more political misery for the common people of Rhode Island- which, of course, includes the struggling small business class. Legal "corruption" is no less pernicious than Cianci's rogue "independence."

What particularly annoys me- a registered Democrat with a socialist ideal- is that not one of the Rhode Island neo-Democrats gives us a hint of the old Roosevelt era suspicion and disdain for BIG MONEY. They all fawn over these JOB CREATORS as if some genius for business is also the right stuff  and the cure for BIG GOVERNMENT incompetence.

To be sure, the three candidates for governor, Raimondo, Fung, Healey  have NO quarrel with the capitalist way of life. They accuse one another of being controlled by some sinister, shadowy "special interest."

The winner must be above all that. To be sure, the winners in this election will be very much above the general public as a particularly  annoying "special interest." So let us all sing "Happy Days Are Here Again."

Soon we might have a really bleak Depression to sing our way out of. I hope there is a budding FDR in the Democratic Party- which might not be hopelessly bonded to crony capitalism. It  would be better than the modern equivalent of the French Revolution-when chopping off heads became a national pastime long before Isis Islam.

Gene, ask Dr. Harrop about negative patient reviews?

Dan Harrop filed a complaint about legality of
huge "Cianci for Mayor" signs.

Gene, you might have a few more opportunities to question this silly jackass candidate for Mayor of Providence, the pro business (certainly pro-HIS business) Republican CONSERVATIVE, Dr. Daniel Harrop.

He is waving the banner of personal INTEGRITY in his pathetic campaign to keep Vincent "Buddy" Cianci  from once again being elected mayor of the city "he never stopped loving" (from LaChance advertising, by the way.)

Headline in GoLocalProv: "Harrop Found Guilty of Housing Violations" .... "accused of blatantly committing perjury" during legal proceedings.

A greedy landlord, he and a business partner, Keith Light, involved in some fraud over the Sigmund Chi House in Cambridge.

As a professional psychiatrist, at least two patients have expressed a very low opinion of Dr.Harrop. "This is one of the worst around He does not care for his patients and is notorious in the community for his lack of professional ethics. He has been fined for kickbacks from the insurance industry ...." (submitted to RateMDs, Feb. 7, 2009)

"This man should not be a psychiatrist! Instead of providing me with care, he made worse my condition... he is only out for for money.. stay away from this man!" (submitted to RateMDs , March 19, 2011)

Just recently: "Harrop complains to city about large Cianci signs" (October, 21) No more than the Providence Journal will this ruling class nut tolerate any violation of THE CODE.

The Providence Journal's mistake is not that it is lying about the past of Mr. Cianci, soon to be HONORABLE MAYOR again. The newspaper has the East Side snob concept of "corruption". Politicians who don't play the game and swindle the voters according to Harvard Law School rules. So they give us Jorge Elorza!

       

Steven Frias right about Constitutional Convention

I just finished reading the Steven Frias column in  support of a state Constitutional Convention ("R.I. has a rare chance to reform," Providence Journal, October 22). I could not find a hint of sinister right wing agenda in this  Republican's rational thinking.  To be sure "special interests" is a buzz term branding  just about  everybody easily categorized as "not one of us." I just learned that Democrat Gina Raimondo is "not one of us". We just can't let all these spurious "special interests" - which must include the GENERAL PUBLIC -subvert democracy by means of a periodic- and salubrious - Constitutional Convention?

On the far left myself , I have no problem with one, two, or a dozen Constitutional Conventions every few decades. My  reason is hardly subtle: No respected Constitution-including the United States Constitution- should be revered as a sacrosanct document, valid for all times despite changing times and changing human institutions. Does not the terrorist threat warn us to beware of ALL Sacred Texts and Holy Books- which only a handful of high priests-religious or secular- can interpret correctly behind the backs of the faithful ?

I have great respect  for  WHAT THE FOUNDING FATHERS SAID. But they themselves hardly believed in ossified TRUTH. So, of course, our Rhode Island State Constitution should not be above periodic scrutiny. No, the voice of the people is NOT the voice of God. But it is the only authoritative voice in any popular democracy? Who really fears the voice of the people?

Red Eyed Reactionary Radio

I am up a little too early in the morning ( 4:30 AM ). I turn on my cheap clock radio to the very same radio station that brings me right-wing TALK RADIO later ( John DePetro, 630wpro ). It is just that ONLY this station comes in clearly on my cheap clock radio . And DePetro- and his celebrity boss, Gene Valicenti- are at least as alive and entertaining as they are annoyingly pro-capitalist. And it hardly matters if they privately vote Democrat or Republican. Corporate America owns their talent- perhaps even their soul.

        But this early morning TALK RADIO is even more rabidly reactionary than during the day. The program calls itself RED EYED RADIO . One can picture half-drunk ( hopefully parked ) truck drivers drooling agreement at every sound bite mocking Big Government and applauding heroic but misunderstood Corporate America-which we are to believe wants only to bring the GOOD LIFE to all those working stiffs tuning in.

    " They are victimizing Corporate  America ! ", I said to myself. For semi-literate and very petty-bourgeois dimwits RED EYED radio may have a certain simple minded cogency: " If we can only get BIG GOVERNMENT off our backs, the doors of earthly paradise will be opened to us.

    It is scary what these sinister jackasses want to PRIVATIZE- everything from social security to public education. Even war ! How many privately owned soldiers of fortune were operating in Afghanistan and Iraq ? Brainlessly defending the American Way of Life ( Corporate America ) in very ungrateful lands.

        This fanatical belief in the benevolence of capitalism is every bit as pernicious as Islamic fundamentalism. The more evidence against the belief the more hot headed  become the defenders of the faith.

      It is easy to see how these TALK RADIO fans constitute the Armies of the Night in America. How they can even imagine " liberal " Democrats like President Obama or Hillary Clinton or even our Governor Lincoln Chafee are some sort of traitorous Marxists.

        Even their delirious love affair with the guns and the NRA is connected with their deranged worship of PRIVATE PROPERTY and the exploiting way of life. And they must be enemies of genuine democracy. The vast majority-if they only voted THEIR class interest- would never vote for right-wing politicians puffed up by ignorant and vicious TALK RADIO demagogues.

Can a rational attitude toward PORN prevail?

"The Temptation and Expulsion of Adam and Eve" (detail)
 by Michelangelo

Art demands almost complete freedom of expression. REAL art is downright radical and challenges the suffocating restrictions of the social order. A poem like Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" was far more revolutionary than it was "pornographic." Many books once banned as pornographic were finally appreciated as great art.

Most of the pure trash pornography that comes to you on the internet– even if you do not go willingly and lustfully to it, can never be mistaken for ART– some meaningful interpretation of LIFE. It is too obviously based on lizard minded exploitation, not real hot-blooded passion. It is all too obvious that the sex stars have no real sexual chemistry between them. And you do not have to be a porn addict to conclude that they all look alike after a while. Exhibitionist lust culminates in body language of bored emptiness.

Still many normal decent people are occasionally helpfully stimulated by cheap and artless porn. So only reactionary types will want to outlaw it. But an excess of it can only stupefy the intellect and benumb the heart.

I was amazed how much X-rated junk turned up in my E-mail SPAM. I can't recall any explorations which invited this AVALANCHE of sexual invitations : MARRIED BUT LONELY.... CHECK OUT THESE SEXY MARRIED WOMEN. . .VYDEX FREE TRIAL. . . DRIVE YOUR PARTNER CRAZY IN BED TONIGHT. . .

But could this possibly be naughty viewing: VIEW PHOTOS OF CHRISTIAN SINGLES IN YOUR AREA?

Well monogamy is thriving just as much as pornography: I can MEET THOUSANDS OF RUSSIAN WOMEN. Just get in touch with the RUSSIAN BRIDE TEAM.

Inspired not by my good-Catholic conscience (parallel to my good-communist conscience) I DELETED all these voluptuous temptations. Sent them to TRASH. Then deleted the TRASH. Only a J. Edgar Hoover can now know the true rot in my soul.

But it was old Lucretius in his classic poem on materialist philosophy who ridiculed human sexual needs as a useless passion.

But an old newspaper columnist, a liberal Jew, had this wisdom to pass on about sexual excitement: "It is the opposite of death!"

On that bit of human wisdom I end today's blog.

Dr. Harrop needs a psychiatrist?

Gene, I do enjoy your early morning commentary. I just caught the crack about Republican mayoral candidate, Dr. Daniel Harrop, "needing a psychiatrist himself." Where is HIS integrity in donating one thousand dollars to the already dominant-and CORRUPT- Democratic Party's candidate, Jorge Elorza?

But also it is all too typical of the rich ruling class to finance BOTH of the major political parties in the United States. The motivation for this duplicity is transparent: THEY remain in control. Also curious, Elorza is former housing court judge and Dr. Harrop – a greedy landlord, has been implicated in at least one housing rental scandal (I just read about).

As a professional psychiatrist, Dr. Harrop has some decidedly negative reviews (which I just read).

The mistake of the Providence Journal is not that it lies about Buddy Cianci. It has a narrow concept of "corruption." It fails to see that the voting public has perceived THE SYSTEM as corrupt for years now.

Legal "corruption" serves the wealthy class which Dr. Harrop directly represents. And he also represents the corruption of American psychiatry itself – now mostly a profession of right-wing, money making charlatans.

                                    

Letter writer Lyn Soares: "Bar utility shut-offs"

Aware that the Center for Disease Control is telling people to practice good personal hygiene, Lynn Soares asks in an October 20 letter-to-the editor: "So why is there not a a moratorium on shutting off the utilities?"

A simple enough question to ask in the midst of this Ebola scare. It would certainly help a poor family not to have to worry about losing hot water, electricity, gas, oil. It would also help not to have to worry about being evicted. Try staying healthy living in your car or in a crowded shelter with one toilet and one shower for a hundred people!

But Lynn Soares' kind hearted but naive question has a simple answer: in our capitalist for-profit economic system, the government is controlled by private wealth. No Democrat or Republican survives in office very long if he or she proves disloyal to ruling class interests. I do agree with you Lyn but I will not bother to contact Governor Lincoln Chafee's office as you request. He may seem like a super liberal progressive in silly cultural wars (gay marriage, for example). But in matters of CLASS interest, he is on the OTHER SIDE. In fact, he belongs to the ONE PERCENT American plutocracy.

Not a single Democrat or Republican running for office in Rhode Island has any problem with capitalism. Not one of them will lose any sleep over your concerns. What is the main obstacle to getting homes for the homeless or ordering the utilities to respect human life? It is the arrogance of PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHT. Every "respectable" and "responsible" bourgeois lawyer, honorable judge, capitalist politician will see millions perish rather than undermine the property rights of the rich.

And in Rhode Island how hypocritical of this bunch to have a problem with Vincent "Buddy" Cianci's "integrity."

Only a popular uprising can empower the common people to seize control of the utilities and ALL means of production.

When millions of Americans take to the streets there will be hope for real social justice and relative equality in our struggle against cruel and indifferent Nature. Oddly enough, a middle class journalist concerned about the ruin of the middle class, found it fitting to quote the Russian Revolutionary Leon Trotsky: "Revolution is impossible until it becomes inevitable." Until then there will be no "moratorium" on working class misery and oppression.

Don't be so TOUCHY, John!

My Catholic background, growing up in Washington Park, Providence in 50s and 60s, going to St. Paul's Church in Cranston on Sundays, makes me sensitive to foolish changes in the liturgy inspired by Vatican II. Forget about theology here. For millions of born Catholics in my generation Vatican II changes were a death blow to the dignity and AESTHETICS of the Church.

          
Talk radio celebrity John DePetro says he never shakes hands in Church-even before the Ebola scare. Well, SHAKING HANDS had to be the goofiest of Vatican II changes in the Mass ...  Many years ago I loathed this pseudo-LOVING gesture. I thought: why stop there? why not a hug and kiss too? Then the Catholic Church would have more in common with the Protestant Holy Jumpers !
           

I can shake hands with dimwits in bars.  In Church there was no need of being TOUCHY & FEELY   until the Holy Mass itself had lost its sacred mystique.
           

John, I can shake hands with you on this. But not in Church! Yes, the scientific- materialist in me says: Bring your little bottle of hand sanitizer to Church with you on Sunday -or whenever you happen to show up in a pious or god-fearing guilty mood. Do the smart thing-and let God take care of everything else.

Dominus Vobiscum!