Saturday, May 30, 1998
Dance Macabre in Lahore
Your front page today, Friday, May 29 : " Pakistan answers India,
sets off own nuclear tests ". A picture shows Pakistani children -
who have the most to lose from this " nuclear power " madness - dancing
in the street. Truly a dance macabre !
The " Islamic bomb " has arrived as if descended from Heaven. Allah
is great !
The news has set off " pandemonium " in the Indian Parliament.
Just the right word - all hell is now loose in that " overpopulated "
region. Allah in his infinite wisdom will soon solve the population
problem. A mathematician reminded me that the Indians literally
contributed ZERO to civilization.
Dance, dance my little ones. If that's all there is, then let's
keep dancing ... ( song lyrics )
Sorry Chat Line Mix Up ! (Warwick online)
Sorry about a misfire . You were so close to eavesdropping on
a my scandalous private life , which would have exposed me as the
Uriah Heep of Rhode Island.
I was composing my thoughts on the nature of physical beauty,
inspired by those lovely young faces I saw on the front page of
the Warwick Beacon yesterday.
This morning I read : " becoming obese is a normal response to
the American environment ".
Must ordinary people be highly motivated to stay attractively
thin ? Why do most married people rapidly put on the pounds, the men
with beer bellies by the time they are 30 and the women at about the
same age with an often irreversible matronly look ?
I wonder if the real reason besides the " American environment "
is that all " romantic " feelings are dead in them, long before middle
age. I remember the character " Rabbit " in an John Updike novel thinking
that his wife Janet looked old at age 24 .
Is being fat a way of telling the world : " I don't care anymore ! " ?
If these people tending to obesity would just WALK a half hour a
day , they would have their 18 year old body back in two years.
The philosophy of Self -Esteem nowadays encourages us merely
to accept or sometimes even to love our imperfections. It does not
challenge us to be our best physically and intellectually.
Quite often there is a mental torpor associated with obesity.
The ancient Greeks wisely preached the ideal of " a sound mind in
a sound body. "
At least 99% of the obese people out there can get back into
fairly good shape if they have the WILL.
Even if BEAUTY is just VANITY, then so is every other pleasant
thing in the world. Indifference to beauty is a sin against life !
a my scandalous private life , which would have exposed me as the
Uriah Heep of Rhode Island.
I was composing my thoughts on the nature of physical beauty,
inspired by those lovely young faces I saw on the front page of
the Warwick Beacon yesterday.
This morning I read : " becoming obese is a normal response to
the American environment ".
Must ordinary people be highly motivated to stay attractively
thin ? Why do most married people rapidly put on the pounds, the men
with beer bellies by the time they are 30 and the women at about the
same age with an often irreversible matronly look ?
I wonder if the real reason besides the " American environment "
is that all " romantic " feelings are dead in them, long before middle
age. I remember the character " Rabbit " in an John Updike novel thinking
that his wife Janet looked old at age 24 .
Is being fat a way of telling the world : " I don't care anymore ! " ?
If these people tending to obesity would just WALK a half hour a
day , they would have their 18 year old body back in two years.
The philosophy of Self -Esteem nowadays encourages us merely
to accept or sometimes even to love our imperfections. It does not
challenge us to be our best physically and intellectually.
Quite often there is a mental torpor associated with obesity.
The ancient Greeks wisely preached the ideal of " a sound mind in
a sound body. "
At least 99% of the obese people out there can get back into
fairly good shape if they have the WILL.
Even if BEAUTY is just VANITY, then so is every other pleasant
thing in the world. Indifference to beauty is a sin against life !
Friday, May 29, 1998
Health Care Issue Comes Back
I read on the front page of The Christian Science Monitor ( May 18 ) :
" Growing frustration with health care puts it back in center of political
arena ." A newspaper publisher here in Rhode Island - a mentally depressed
man - said recently in a suicide note that our mental health system had
let him down. Assuming he was at least fairly well off, what chance do
the do the poor and the working class have of getting adequate care for
mental depression ?
Living with my mentally ill brother, who is lithium dependent, I
can better understand the now dead and buried , young newspaper publisher's
long suffering grief.
I can say a lot more but time and space are limited. Is our
humanity also limited ?
" Growing frustration with health care puts it back in center of political
arena ." A newspaper publisher here in Rhode Island - a mentally depressed
man - said recently in a suicide note that our mental health system had
let him down. Assuming he was at least fairly well off, what chance do
the do the poor and the working class have of getting adequate care for
mental depression ?
Living with my mentally ill brother, who is lithium dependent, I
can better understand the now dead and buried , young newspaper publisher's
long suffering grief.
I can say a lot more but time and space are limited. Is our
humanity also limited ?
Thursday, May 28, 1998
Applause for today's " Americanize immigrants "
John J. Miller's column today ( May 27 ) " We must rediscover
how to Americanize immigrants " was more rational and benign in
tone than most Left or Right perspectives on this sensitive issue.
At its worst the Right offers the vision of the Nazi gas chamber
as a " final solution " to assimilation problem. Even the more
reasonable " liberal ' left is downright embarrassed by displays of
patriotic sentiment. They seem to think that American History is
- when honestly told - a shocking tale of WASP depravity .
Is it " politically correct " to admire every culture and
civilization but one's own - which has a claim to being the best
in the world, even with its many problems ?
The new immigrants will not be imposed upon by asking them to
be " patriotic Americans " . In its best sense that is not just a
pop phrase suggesting " Joe " types - pot bellied, red necked, gun
swinging idiots.
I feel a little like Rhett in " Gone with the Wind ". He had
an impulse to defend a lost cause ( not a moral one in my opinion )
when it was clearly lost, when Atlanta was burning and the Old South
was gone forever.
how to Americanize immigrants " was more rational and benign in
tone than most Left or Right perspectives on this sensitive issue.
At its worst the Right offers the vision of the Nazi gas chamber
as a " final solution " to assimilation problem. Even the more
reasonable " liberal ' left is downright embarrassed by displays of
patriotic sentiment. They seem to think that American History is
- when honestly told - a shocking tale of WASP depravity .
Is it " politically correct " to admire every culture and
civilization but one's own - which has a claim to being the best
in the world, even with its many problems ?
The new immigrants will not be imposed upon by asking them to
be " patriotic Americans " . In its best sense that is not just a
pop phrase suggesting " Joe " types - pot bellied, red necked, gun
swinging idiots.
I feel a little like Rhett in " Gone with the Wind ". He had
an impulse to defend a lost cause ( not a moral one in my opinion )
when it was clearly lost, when Atlanta was burning and the Old South
was gone forever.
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