Hard to dismiss VITALISM and DESIGN and PURPOSE in Nature as just Medieval ignorance

Viewing this remarkable COMING TO LIFE film of just a primitive salamander I find it hard to dismiss VITALISM and DESIGN and PURPOSE in Nature as just Medieval ignorance .

I was informed as a 12 year old in the late 1950s that the discovery of the DNA molecule was the " secret of LIFE " . DNA was a real breakthrough in understanding the REPRODUCTION of living things .

But our modern Dr. Frankensteins should look for the secret of life elsewhere. To what degree does the human mind , the soul, transcend biochemical process ? I don't know but what that Time Magazine cover " Is God Dead " asked in 1968 is still an honest question in contrast to the nihilistic " God IS dead ". ALL life is precious despite Darwinian " struggle for existence ". People are not dumb to see their beloved pets, mostly cats and dogs , as part of THE FAMILY . " Reverence for Life " ( Dr. Schweitzer ) is good advice- even when we enjoy our meals.

See a salamander grow from shapeless blob

Catholics should " give up mass for Lent " ?

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The dumbest response to cancellation of the Catholic Mass and Holy Communion : [ " Then, if we – all of us – search out creative answers to the problem, we may find that just as fasting can improve our physical as well as spiritual health, our giving up Mass for Lent will have improved our Church's health".] I am inclined to agree with a " Relevant Radio " ( Catholic News program ) voice thinking that there is more than an element of hysteria here: Give up Catholic Mass and Holy Communion for Lent ? Is Satan speaking ?

What about the homeless USA population in the Corona Virus epidemic nightmare ?

["Robert Greifinger is a physician who spent 25 years working on health care issues inside the nation's prisons and jails, and he says the "social distancing" advice we're all hearing right now isn't so simple behind bars. "] People are naive to think rotten capitalism, and its bought and sold Democrat and Republican leaders , will save them from any CATASTROPHE waiting to happen. This Corona Virus is already the psychological equivalent of nuclear World War III . I recall a Twilight Zone episode first viewed in my youth : " The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street ". Besides the danger to prisoners what about the crowded and neglected and scorned homeless populations of great cities like Los Angeles ? Yet how URGENT is it to replace the plutocrat Trump with senile " Sleepy Joe " Biden ? Let the FAKE NEWS mainstream news media try to sell decidedly un-charming ( a whiff of formaldehyde ) cadaverous Joe Biden . What was the 2016 presidential campaign all about but fury at the ESTABLISHMENT ? A democratic socialist myself, I could vote for Senator Bernie Sanders - a very compromised " socialist " Democrat - as the LESSER EVIL in 2020. But no way " Sleepy Joe " !

. You might think that the 21st Century really began on Friday 13 , March 2020 ... with Corona Virus panic

This scary Corona Virus pandemic should united China and the USA in a common HUMANE cause. It is already an eerie moral equivalent of nuclear World War III . You might think that the 21st Century really began on Friday 13 , March 2020.
At least we can look forward to a more SOBER world ( like one not too concerned with trans-gender rights to public restrooms and equal rights for gay wedding cakes ) .

RIPTA BUS HEALTH HAZARD ? The mean Corona Virus has a friend in RIPTA !

   Just before I left my  Randall Manor apartment  this morning to catch RIPTA bus 30 in Knightsville, Cranston  I heard a caller to 630 WPRO Gene Valicenti's morning news and talk show bring up the topic of RIPTA bus riding health hazards. In Kennedy Plaza there were no bus schedules to be read on the electronic messaging inside the bus shelter. Just a dumb message that RIPTA is being more conscientious about cleaning. Not too reassuring ! How to verify ?  Send a PROJO reporter ?

                 Apart from the Corona Virus pandemic scare a crowded warm bus with no fresh air circulation is always a threat to the health of vulnerable passengers, especially senior citizens.  NOT riding the bus is not an option for most seniors in Rhode Island. We should have the most efficient public transportation in the country. ALL of Rhode Island should be reachable to all RIPTA riders.

                   When there is a rude , ignorant , and stupid person on the bus coughing like a 19th century tuberculosis ward ( or a homeless case daily evicted from notorious Harrington Hall in Cranston )  the RIPTA bus driver should don his AUTHORITY hat and scold the rude cougher : " Cover your mouth, use facial tissues ! " The bus driver should have a supply of hospital face masks to offer the chronic coughers.

                  Even public libraries should be more careful about communicable diseases. FINALLY the Cranston Public Library has a supply of hand sanitizer  and  posters in the public computer area reminding users of public hygiene manners.

              While waiting for BUS 35 in Kennedy Plaza  last week I talked to some RIPTA officials  standing nearby . I asked them why on a rainy day non-smokers like myself  cannot escape from as many as two or three smoking addicts INSIDE the shelter . " The rule [ there IS a NO SMOKING sign ] is never enforced ", I complained.  The oh-so-competent and concerned RIPTA official told me that the company and the Providence Police had given up on that .

                       RIPTA  can just give up on PUBLIC HEALTH safety ?  The mean Corona Virus has a friend in RIPTA !

RIPTA finally got this message ( March 6 ) ?

As a frequent RIPTA bus rider I observe how negligent RIPTA management is in SANITIZING their buses. Early morning buses often look filthy , look like health hazards . Has air circulation been tested in warm crowded RIPTA bus rides ? A crowded, over heated RIPTA bus seems a virtual petri-dish for " Great Plague " like epidemic diseases . Bus 21 picks up notorious Harrington Hall , permanently homeless passengers . I heard a one night resident of Harrington Hall in Cranston describe the place as looking and sounding like a 19th century tuberculosis ward.
Is it asking too much of RIPTA management to nightly disinfect these RIPTA buses - just common courtesy for riders frequently elderly with weak immune systems ? Also, cannot sickly , chronic coughers be offered hospital sanitary masks ?
I hope some competent Rhode Island Public Health Dept. employee reads this comment .
I will forward this comment to newsman Gene Valicenti . WAKE UP RIPTA MANAGEMENT -or be fired !

Long before modern medicine there were horrendous Great Plagues

When the Corona virus panic is over think about this : [ It's been 80 years since Orson Welles' 'War of the Worlds ...abcnews.go.com › story Oct 30, 2018 - It's been 80 years since Orson Welles' 'War of the Worlds' radio ... On Oct. 30, 1938, future actor and filmmaker Orson Welles narrated ... "]

The BIG FEAR was lurking in the common people for too long now . What if global warming - Summer of 2020 Heat Wave - defeats the Corona Virus ? What defeated Welles' Martian invaders in " War of the Worlds " ? And how can we ever survive the chaos of" winnable " ( ? ) nuclear war when WE cannot cope with lesser catastrophes ?

REALITY CHECK : long before modern medicine there were horrendous Great Plagues . The one of the 14th century claimed the lives of half ( ? ) the population of Europe .. Just as SICKENING were reports of deplorable inhumanity , object lessons for the nth circle of Dante's Inferno .

" Fear & Trembling " will restore humility before the Almighty . 

Today marks " The Last Hurrah " for " Feel the Bern " Bernie .

I commend Bernie Sanders for being a voice - though a weak and compromised voice - for SOCIALISM as an ideal . Today marks " The Last Hurrah " for " Feel the Bern " Bernie .

In many ways secular humanist SOCIALISM has much in common with Catholic Social philosophy .
But not for nothing Catholic RELIGION recently banned former Vice President Joe Biden from receiving Holy Communion. He is weak on RIGHT TO LIFE - like " kill it " Michael Bloomberg .

Socialists should build bridges to the world's millions of Christians or risk being marginalized for all eternity.

There is way too much Christian bashing , war on God fanaticism in left wing parties and organizations today. And sadly a growing contempt for the FREE SPEECH, FREE THOUGHT tradition of Western Civilization.

Both Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth should call for a new populist party , an American version of the British Labor Party. The CLASS base for this party would be the American working class and the " free falling " lower middle class so often embraced in sympathy by Senator Elizabeth Warren.

But I suspect the souls of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are hopelessly compromised.

Today seems like " The Last Hurrah " for Bernie Sanders but not for democratic socialism .

As a democratic socialist I can only deplore this pernicious GROUP THINK contempt for Christians - especially Catholics and Christianity- on the Left . It can only guarantee that collectively they on this Left will never grow much beyond the " Feel the Bern " Bernie Sanders movement- not to be confused with a DEMOCRATIC socialist movement. " GREED , lies ,hypocrisy and mind blowing corruption " is what everyday capitalism- the Democratic Party- " OUR democracy "- is all about. The brilliant atheist , philosophical materialist Jew , Karl Marx , was right about capitalism containing the seeds of its own destruction. But neither Marx nor Engels approved any petty bourgeois radical WAR ON GOD , war on Christianity . And the biggest mistake of the old Soviet Union was not the first bold attempt at " socialism " . It was making the STATE " officially atheist ". Ironically today our illiberal liberal " progressive " Democrats sound more and more like old Stalinists and are just as contemptuous of the FREE SPEECH, FREE THOUGHT tradition of Western Civilization and also contemptuous for a fundamental principle of ANY democracy - MAJORITY RULE . They ARE attacking freedom of religion in the United States. Erich Fromm 's " The Sane Society " is still an excellent prescription for social change . And Fromm's explanation of the failure of Soviet " communism " is still very cogent . Fromm was very much influenced by the un-corrupted works of Marx and by the insights of Sigmund Freud in " Civilization and its Discontents " and " The Future of an Illusion " ( in which he hardly sounds like the arrogant and obnoxious New Atheists) . Today seems like " The Last Hurrah " for Bernie Sanders but not for democratic socialism .

What if the plutocracy started an election and nobody showed up ?

The DNC establishment is shamelessly red-baiting " socialist " Democrat Bernie Sanders - having promoted in the Kafkaesque Trump impeachment hearings the HATE RUSSIA , New McCarthyism. If Bernie Sanders will not launch a third party - an independent American Labor Party - he will end his second failed presidential campaign looking very seedy. The Democratic Party is not a happy breeding ground for even half serious " democratic socialism ". Try planting a RED rose bush on the North Pole .
" Let us unite the people not divide them ! " ( like Donald Trump ) . A banal refrain. No doubt the present Democratic Party can unite " socialist " Bernie Sanders with capitalist billionaire Michael Bloomberg . Or get the voters all excited over " Sleepy Joe " Biden finally getting endorsed by " socialist " Democrat Bernie Sanders.
What if the plutocracy started an election and nobody showed up ?

Stock Market Crash on Monday March 9 ... End of Trump Era ?

Karl Marx was wrong headed about the coming " dictatorship of the proletariat " ( what did come with Stalinist " socialism " was dictatorship " over the proletariat along with " official atheism " and the instructive " Society of the Godless " ) . But Karl Marx was so right about the logic of global capitalism and predatory imperialism : it is indeed self-destructing and a threat to human civilization - and now to LIFE ON EARTH . Where will the " inner contradictions " of capitalism take us in the coming decade ? NOT an Era of Trump and " Make America Great Again " ! NOT an Era of Neo-Liberalism and " Sleepy Joe " Biden . Somewhat closer to TRUTH is " socialist " Democrat Bernie Sanders- now being red-baited by the DNC establishment. But what WE THE WORKING CLASS PEOPLE need is an American Labor Party similar to the British Labor Party in its CLASS base.

[ Stocks Fall More Than 7% in Dow's Worst Day Since 2008 - WSJ

wts

9 mins ago - U.S. stocks fell hard Monday, pushing major indexes closer to bear-market territory as a price ... What's Behind Today's Global Market Selloff.

You've visited this page 2 times. Last visit: 3/9/20]

Chris Hedges spoils an otherwise excellent article, " The One Choice Election ", with a FALSE note

This constant Christian bashing in the mainstream news media is best explained by a neo-liberal coalition of arrogant , obnoxious New Atheists and anti-religious ( Ayn Rand type ? ) Zionist Jews. In an unprincipled alliance with barbaric Saudi Arabia Zionist Apartheid Israel is waging a cultural war against what remains of Western Christian Civilization. Sad to say that so many " Left " socialist parties and political parties - driven by " fifth columnist " Zionists for "Greater Israel "- are becoming more and more hostile to freedom of religion , indeed to the FREE SPEECH , FREE THOUGHT tradition of Western Christian Civilization. Too many on the Left today are promoting NOT democratic socialism but a New Stalinism which is compatible with the neo-Liberal Democratic Party establishment . With Hillary Clinton and " Sleepy Joe " Biden and Michael Bloomberg . WE THE WORKING PEOPLE will not be saved by the likes of daffy " Clears " in the Church of Scientology . Show me a sectarian Marxist Leninist Trotskyist party , still existing in 2020, that does not have a permanent ( " personality cult" ) GREAT LEADER and a very capitalist private bank account ? Would it not make sense for DEMOCRATIC socialists to build bridges to the world's millions of Christians ? In an article today on" Truthdig " Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Chris Hedges spoils an otherwise excellent article, " The One Choice Election ", with a FALSE note : [ " If we do not respond soon to the social and economic catastrophe that has been visited on most of the population, we will be unable to thwart the rise of corporate tyranny and a Christian fascism."] I know few working class Catholics or Protestants that have any spiritual affinity for fascism or neo-Nazism. But Apartheid Israel does have an affinity with WHITE SUPREMACY

Jesse Jackson , Bernie Sanders , " Third Party " hopes ?

An old article on Jesse Jackson's presidential campaigns in 1984 and 1988 by one Mfanya D. Tryman illuminates Bernie Sanders ' " political revolution " in 2016 and 2020 :

The writer " developed the thesis " that Jackson's 1984 and 1988 campaigns " were essentially those of a third party candidate attempting to gain legitimacy inside the Democratic Party ".

Today " socialist " Bernie Sanders has clearly crossed a line of " Left tolerance " within the Democratic Party. He and Senator Elizabeth Warren can snatch ULTIMATE victory from the jaws of defeat by calling for the formation of a " Progressive American Party " based on the American working class and the " free falling " lower middle class - much like the British Labor Party.

Presently the Democratic Party can be compared to an unstable U-235 nucleus . All it needs is a few " slow neutrons " to blow it apart.

The red baiting of Bernie Sanders is shameless . But what can you expect of the Democratic Party promoting the HATE RUSSIA , New McCarthyism ? Ironically, the Kafkaesque Trump impeachment hearings must have reminded many old fashioned Democratic " liberals " of the infamous Moscow Trials .

Perhaps Bernie Sanders gentle " democratic socialism " is no match for the new Stalinism of the Neo-Liberal Democrats ?

Does this pseudo-Left ever champion the FREE SPEECH , FREE THOUGHT tradition of Western Civilization ? Or even freedom of religion ? ( YOU , Senator Chuck Schumer ! ) .

Let us see how the equally senile mainstream news media in the United States tries to sell " Sleepy Joe " Biden to the American voters in 2020 election. What was the 2016 presidential campaign all about but collective disgust with the ESTABLISHMENT ? Love for the status quo in 2016 attracted the big energized crowds for Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders ? All that remains for a complete theater of Absurd Politics is for " Sleepy Joe " to name " Wall St. Hillary " as his running mate with " Great Expectations " for Hillary Clinton.

Democratic Party is clearly in alliance with the obnoxious New Atheists in promoting contempt for the world's great religions

Senator Chuck Schumer's Democratic Party is clearly in alliance with the obnoxious New Atheists in promoting contempt for the world's great religions, promoting moral nihilism instead of " Right to Life ". Christianity , Catholicism in particular , has been almost daily bashed by neo-liberal Democrats for decades now.

Ironically, the militant atheist and belligerent Zionist Ayn Rand , author of the " Virtue of Selfishness " , is emerging as the moral authority of illiberal liberalism. A study of Ayn Rand's influence in politics was aptly titled " A Life of Contempt ".

How long will tens of millions of working class CHRISTIANS in the USA tolerate this cultural war bullying ?

I just read the " Sleepy Joe " Biden was denied Holy Communion by a Catholic Church. Wonder why ?

WE THE PEOPLE witness " The Last Hurrah " of the Democratic Party

I think it makes perfect political sense for the " progressive " wing of the Democratic Party - led by Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez , Elizabeth Warren - to call for the formation of an independent ( of the American ruling class; Michael Bloomberg not ruling class ? ) Progressive American Party . WE THE PEOPLE now witness " The Last Hurrah " of the party of FDR and JFK . The Democratic Party is presently as unstable as a U-235 nucleus - just waiting for a few slow neutrons to come along and blow it to bits .

RIPTA BUS PUBLIC HEALTH HAZARD

As a frequent RIPTA bus rider I observe how negligent RIPTA management is in SANITIZING their buses. Early morning buses often look filthy , look like health hazards . Has air circulation been tested in warm crowded RIPTA bus rides ? A crowded, over heated RIPTA bus seems a virtual petri-dish for " Great Plague " like epidemic diseases . Bus 21 picks up notorious Harrington Hall , permanently homeless passengers . I heard a one night resident of Harrington Hall in Cranston describe the place as looking and sounding like a 19th century tuberculosis ward.
Is it asking too much of RIPTA management to nightly disinfect these RIPTA buses - just common courtesy for riders frequently elderly with weak immune systems ? Also, cannot sickly , chronic coughers be offered hospital sanitary masks ?
I hope some competent Rhode Island Public Health Dept. employee reads this comment .
I will forward this comment to newsman Gene Valicenti . WAKE UP RIPTA MANAGEMENT -or be fired !

RIPTA BUS HEALTH HAZARD

" Progressive " Democrats should form an INDEPENDENT " Progressive American Party " !

Clearly the group of highly " progressive " Democrats led by Senator Elizabeth Warren and " socialist " Bernie Sanders -this wing about to be smothered once again by the still powerful , corrupt DNC - could now immortalize themselves by calling for the formation of independent ( of the ruling capitalist class ) Progressive American Party . It could resemble the British Labor Party in its CLASS base.

The " Progressive American Party " can include hard core " communists " ( God forbid ! ) democratic socialists ( more militant than Bernie Sanders ) and old fashioned FDR liberals ( like Elizabeth Warren ) .

Above all " OUR democracy " should mean MAJORITY RULE . Can the nation's ever arrogant plutocracy convince the vast majority of
working class and " free-falling " middle class people that CAPITALISM is now and always was just wonderful for EVERYBODY ?

 A wonderful system even for the hopeless , destitute homeless? A wonderful system for every working class unfortunate passing through or permanently housed in the American Gulag , our crime against humanity prison system ? 

Wonderful for the long term jobless ? Wonderful for the millions of neglected mentally ill individuals ?

Yes , indeed as Karl Marx quipped : " A capitalist is a capitalist for the benefit of the working class. "

TOGETHER Warren and Sanders should call for the formation of the " Progressive American Party "

Today March 6, 2020 that is not so clear . With Elizabeth Warren withdrawing from the presidential race the DNC MACHINE can easily smother the presidential campaign of " socialist " Democrat Bernie Sanders . These two now isolated " PROGRESSIVE " Democrats, Sanders and Warren, could immortalize themselves by calling for the formation of a " Progressive American Party " which would combine hard core " communists " ( God forbid ! ) , democratic socialists , and old fashioned FDR liberals. This Progressive American Party would resemble the British Labor Party in its CLASS base. It could channel potential pseudo-revolutionary, self-destructive street violence into constructive political agendas. To be sure, real DEMOCRATIC socialism will never marginalize the majority as MAJORITY RULE is the fundamental principle of ANY democracy . Then " OUR democracy " might have some credibility .

Conservative Catholic William F. Buckley's " God and Man at Yale " a still relevant controversy

' [God and Man at Yale: The Superstitions of "Academic Freedom" is a 1951 book by William F. Buckley Jr., based on his undergraduate experiences at Yale University. Buckley criticized Yale for forcing collectivist, Keynesian, and secularist ideology on students, criticizing several professors by name, arguing that they tried to break down students' religious beliefs through their hostility to religion and that Yale was denying its students any sense of individualism by making them embrace the ideas of liberalism. Buckley argued that the Yale charter assigns oversight authority of the university to the alumni, and that because most alumni of Yale believed in God, Yale was failing to serve its "masters" by teaching course content in a matter inconsistent with alumni beliefs. Buckley eventually became a leading voice in the American conservative movement in the latter half of the twentieth century.  ] '

Senator Chuck Schumer, is taking hints from the disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein ?

[ ""I want to tell you, [Neil] Gorsuch. I want to tell you, [Brett] Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price!" Schumer warned. "You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions." ] Perhaps Zionist-in Chief of the Democratic Party, Senator Chuck Schumer, is taking hints from the disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein who said that " WE " should learn from the Mafia ( ! ! ) how to deal with our enemies ? As a lifelong independent democratic socialist myself I find the instinctive malice toward Catholics and Catholicism among neo-liberal Democrats beyond deplorable . To make abortion a sacred right - in contrast to PRO-LIFE' s " Right to Life " is morally hideous.

How long does a PENDING comment take to get approved or censored here at The Harvard Crimson ?

Physicist and Environmental Activist Speaks at Design School 'Womxn’s Week' Event

How long does a PENDING comment take to get approved or censored here at The Harvard Crimson ? Does the president of Harvard get to make that decision? Or perhaps Israeli intelligence ?

 Benjamin Netanyahu a good judge of " racism " and " anti-Semitism " no matter what names that Bolshevik " socialist " Bernie Sanders calls him ( just recently " racist reactionary " ) ?