We should quickly change our Middle East foreign policy

 

It would certainly help the American Muslim community if the United States ended its cozy relationship with every rotten, undemocratic, theocratic, decadent royalist regime in the Middle East. Also, too many of our political leaders slobber over Zionist Israel.

What is democratic about this self-absorbed, self-righteous, JEWISH state? When did ordinary Americans ever decide that we have a special ,sentimental, extremely indulgent, relationship with Israel? We must pressure Israel to disarm its own nuclear weapons.

And Democrats should just walk out when the prime minister of Israel, Netanyahu, speaks to the Congress in early March. He was invited here by the Republican fans of Ayn Rand- herself a rabid atheist- Zionist who thought the Palestinians were inferior human beings. I'll bet President Obama is furious with Netanyahu.

Submitted to: letters@providencejournal.com, letter@globe.com, letters@usatoday.com

New Atheism a front for Zionism?

Militant atheism has been around since the Great French Revolution of 1789. The New Atheism is clearly nothing more than a front for militant Zionism. No honest socialist-even if a convinced atheist- will sympathize with this deranged and decadent bunch. They have been accurately described as Islamophobes.

A non-religious socialist will find more inspiration and instruction in a long forgotten book written by that incorrigible atheist and REVOLUTIONARY– Vladimir Lenn, the leader of Russia's Bolshevik Revolution in 1917.  Like Marx Lenin believed that the only cure for religious confusion was a rational social order.

Any honest socialist will oppose Zionism and support the oppressed and downtrodden in every country. The world's Muslims present a truer picture of oppression than comfortable middle class Jews in a nuclear armed and belligerent Zionist Israel.

If Democratic politicians have any sense, they will not be there in the Congress to welcome the prime minister of Israel– war criminal Netanyahu in early March. Nor will they welcome the Catholic Pope unless he too is personally welcomed by the White House first.

Let the Ayn Rand Republicans greet  Mr. Netanyahu. Ayn Rand was a rabid fan of Israel too. So is the Ayn Rand Institute. Ayn was buried under the floral design of a dollar sign. A fitting symbol for global capitalism.

Submitted to: letter@globe.com

Is Craig Stephen Hicks related to Ayn Rand Philosopher and contemporary author?

This might just be a weird coincidence: There is an author-philosopher, disciple of Ayn Rand named Stephen Ronald Craig Hicks. The killer, "gun toting atheist", of three Muslim students in North Carolina is named Craig Stephen Hicks. The author wrote a book titled "Ayn Rand and Contemporary Business Ethics". Has the news media carefully checked out the background of the killer? Is that even his real name?

Submitted to: letter@globe.com

Hands off Cuban Socialism!

As a citizen of the United States and a democratic Socialist I would hate to see everything good and decent and progressive about socialist Cuba spoiled by the corrupting influence of American vulture capitalism.

Has the world been told the full story behind the collapse of Soviet era communism? How could hundreds of thousands of Russian Communist Party members – almost over night– abandon the rational ideology of scientific socialism (which was never a Stalinist personality cult) and embrace the reactionary American crackpot Ayn Rand? Embrace the socially insane principles of global capitalism?

Link to The Demon-Haunted World

Our popular science writer Carl Sagan reported that all sorts of intellectual rubbish was surfacing in post Soviet era Russia ( read his "Demon Haunted World"). A Lenin could have predicted this (Lenin's  work "Materialism and Empirio Criticism" is still very instructive)

I would love to see a revival of socialist thinking in Russia. In 2017 they should CELEBRATE the 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. And once again reach out to the workers of the world.

( comment on article published in Aktyalnye Kommentarii ( Russia ) on Jan. 29, 2015 by Alexander Ionov, WATCHING AMERICA, "The U.S. Always Wants More")

Rand Paul or Ayn Rand on the evil of vaccination?

I recall in the 1950s the John Birch Society was saying that putting minute quantities of fluorine in our drinking water-to prevent dental decay in children-was a communist plot. Now Republican leader Rand Paul  is saying that vaccinations are DANGEROUS. Did he consult the Complete Works of Ayn Rand ( his idol ) before speaking out on this BIG GOVERNMENT plot?

To: letters@providencejournal.com

Portion of a 1955 cartoon warning against the evils of three government health programs, including water fluoridation.  [Source: Spectator]

Obama right to snub mass hysteria Islamophobia

 As a socialist I can only encourage mass action in the streets in defense of democratic values. But beware cant phrases like "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: And "Free World." Can't we at least make our world safe for our ONE PERCENT plutocracy?

Forget about Equality and Fraternity. Not long ago our very patriotic Cold War fanatics wanted to end Godless Communism with a nuclear bang. I just heard right-wing Red Eye Radio here in Rhode Island ( 630wpro.com ) suggest the same thing for quickly ending the scourge of international terrorism. "Obama is weak!" they rant.

President Obama is wise to snub mass hysteria Islamo-phobia – in France or here in the United States. Cant phrases start wars- as in the Great War, the war to make the world "safe for democracy... the war to end all wars."

Would Ayn Rand ask you to die for bourgeois Free Speech? That is not in keeping with the "Virtue of Selfishness." And it is so cozy in your Wall Street office. $$$ is the business of America. Let working class suckers fight your wars!

( Comment  on Houston Chronicle article: "White House: U.S. should have sent other officials to Paris",  Jan 12, 2015 )

Should Humanists embrace Ayn Rand?

How can Humanists best respond to injustice? Not in the rude, mean spirited manner of the New Atheists putting up obnoxious ads on Rhode Island Public Transit Authority buses: "Godless, so are we."

Does Logic & Reason culminate in a reactionary social philosophy? Should Humanists embrace the Ayn Rand cult? What does her crackpot atheist cult classic "The Virtue of Selfishness" have to offer black rage in the streets of America this past week? Do Humanists want to make common cause with our ONE PERCENT plutocracy? How many of these super-rich people are oh-so-enlightened atheists, having liberated themselves from the superstitious fear of Hell for the injustice they perpetuate here on earth?

Clearly the New Atheism is giving moral support to our government's Crusade Against Islam, spreading its oh-so-enlightened  Islam-o-phobia. A scandalous  TORTURE REPORT of prisoners of war is being released today. Put the military bases on alert against THEIR evil! The evil of ISIS!

As a long time SOCIALIST,  I must ask my fellow Humanists if they think they are above the CLASS STRUGGLE? Has the New Atheism made peace with U.S. imperialism? What does Reason & Logic have to say about the madness of the capitalist way of life?

I can't imagine joining a New Atheist club where a Hitler and a Lenin can exchange mocking jokes about Jesus Christ rising from the dead. And joking too about his gospel of Love. What a fool!

The crackpot atheist Ayn Rand, of course, worshipped MONEY. Do we embrace her?

NOTE:  Of course, there is a long tradition of Judeo-Christian humanism. Did organized atheism ever sponsor even a two-bit SOUP KITCHEN?

Does Godlessness lead to "The Virtue of Selfishness"?

I want to thank my good HUMANIST friend ( and Lovecraft Pal ) Herb Marshall for directing me here. As a long time SOCIALIST I am wary of this NEW ATHEISM which is not only rude but right-wing reactionary - in the vile tradition of Ayn Rand, the crackpot atheist who worshipped MONEY. What does her book "The Virtue of Selfishness" say to oppressed and exploited black Americans?

Don't pretend that mere atheism rises above the class struggle with a wink of approval at the educated (atheist?) elite. And a look of contempt for poor, unenlightened masses. Would the New Atheists have invited Ayn Rand for tea and sent the religious Martin Luther King out as her chauffeur?

Sometimes I suspect New Atheists are funded by the FBI to serve as agents of Islam-o-phobia. No?

Does reason & logic apply to this sick and irrational capitalist system? The Providence Journal just published my letter : "Wary of the New Atheism" (Dec. 4, 2014.) ALL comments are welcome.

A Pulitzer Prize investigation: the New Atheism?

I note the number of comments on my short letter just questioning the political agenda of the New Atheism. To be sure, if the Ayn Rand cranks are prominent in the movement, the progressives have formed an unprincipled alliance.

Every socialist knows in his bones that you cannot begin to win the hearts and the minds of the common people- so necessary for REAL socialism- if you just scold them for being dupes of organized religion. And it is an effete and sophomoric atheism that wants to refight intellectual battles won by Science long ago. And no committed socialist would find it necessary to antagonize the world's major religions unless they have forged a sinister conspiracy with the ruling classes against the people.

It was the greatest mistake of the Russian Bolsheviks to make their state officially atheist. They should have copied America here-with its separation of Church and State. Any intelligent socialist would assume that public education with emphasis on basic science- biology, chemistry, physics- would free most young minds from what that IDEAL HUMANIST, astronomer, and popular science writer, Carl Sagan, called the "Demon Haunted World."

I link the crackpot atheist Ayn Rand, author of "The Virtue of Selfishness," and her bizarre cult, with HUMANIST Isaac Asimov's "Armies of the Night." They clearly worship MONEY!

I will try to reply to many of those comments on my blog http://radicalrons.blogspot.com/ But one question remains: How many of the New Atheists apply reason and logic to the everyday insanity of the capitalist way of life?

Submitted to: letters@providencejournal.com

Political agenda of RIPTA "Godless" campaign?

I don't have any quarrel with atheistic humanism. But I smell the "New Atheism" in these obnoxious RIPTA bus ads: "Godless? So are we!" The new atheism is characterized by rude, snobby and mean spirited effrontery.

As a socialist I can only wonder at its political agenda. Individuals who feel a need to join exclusive "intellectual" cliques  are rarely friends of the oppressed and exploited masses. Do they apply reason & logic to the highly irrational capitalist system?  Or am I correct in suspecting that many of these naturally superior individuals are devoted to the Ayn Rand cult?

Ayn Rand remains the crackpot queen of pro-capitalist atheism.

Submitted to: letters@providencejournal.com