Thanks; always a pleasure to see English written well.

Have gotten as far as the "Men in Suits" (6?) next. Complements a talk by a columnist for Time, whose new book details her work as a waitress, housekeeper, Walmart employee... may come up with minireview later,

Nickeled and Dimed; On Not Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich. Hideous stuff, commentary on our faked measures of 'poverty level' - the coming 11-13 million women (mostly) who shall share her $6-7/hr jobs from Hell -- no coverage for Anything, etc. thanks to the "end welfare as we know it" bandwagon - maybe Clinton's largest fuckup - trying to out-Repo the Repos: he succeeded.

(*NONE* of that Big (300? 500?) tax refund scam will go to ANY of these people at the bottom. And at 6-7/hr. they DO pay taxes too (absurd as that sounds) - just not enough to get ANYthing back.)

{sigh}

Just too much pithy Moorcock to quote, but have to toss in a few anyway:

The words of American politicians in the world in general are empty of content and understanding. Americans are incredibly badly served by their representatives and too many Americans seem to think of their representatives as patrons. The authoritarianism in the political language is astonishing to a modern ear. So I might sometimes despair of this huge country's inadequate and unsophisticated bureaucracies and follies, but every so often the clouds part and I see the same vision Tom Paine saw\ufffdthe same possibilities remain. All is not lost!

........

Canada and Australia, among other countries, have learned from the US experience and got themselves superior constitutions. The only problem is that the American version seems to work a lot better for the rich than the poor. That isn't a Christian system, whatever else it is. America sometimes seems to me to be more Old Testament than New and a lot of the Jews seem more New Testament than Old.

I've seen the quality of life and thought in America decline badly since the full-fledged adoption of consumerism Ralph Nader warned the world about so long ago (not capitalism\ufffdconsumerism in my view is totalitarian capitalism and it's the totalitarian bit I hate\ufffdit's also dumb and doesn't work, as the Soviet Union proved).

We are almost as badly mired in orthodoxy as the Soviets were, but we probably have a slightly better chance of getting out of it. Mire, I would say, is George Bush's middle name. (Well, mire's the polite word). Theirs is probably the last attempt of the old guard to produce the counter-revolution Reagan and Thatcher thought they had started. They cleared the decks for the real thing, but the clearing was unnecessarily brutal and still is. There are subtler engines for running a large economy.

..Nowadays, we have to go to those trained in another country, to hear our own language used with such precision, see our present follies as others can.

Wish I could share his occasional optimism. I think we're mired in this consumer-diverted wholesale ripoff of all the wealth - for much too long a time next. It's a feeding frenzy for the suited ones and, we are too complaisant to see the social organizations we must build (back) to send these carpetbaggers back to more nearly-honest work.

Ratio of CEO / blue color worker (same Co.) pay rates in Murica:

1960: 30:1
Now: 470:1
(No other country comes anywhere near this depravity)


Ashton

(Moorcock likely didn't meet many of the folks Ehrenreich worked with. Studs Terkel re her book, She has accomplished what no contemporary author has..)

I supposed that you all were up to er waists in alligators. Great! that you have a diagnosis at last - pseudo-tumor indeed. No kinds of ions would have been appropriate - we may hope that would have been observed via CT scan.

Excellent site there, at Iowa - just-right presentation of pix and useful English. Mr. Wall writes well; lots better than I'm accustomed to seeing in ~ '80s, say.

Small Aha! from Mr. Wall's lists of causes,

Any disorder that blocks the flow of spinal fluid between the brain and its route to the blood, the jugular vein, can cause raised pressure..

Obvious! [now] a palpable reason for eliminating of - besides the utterly apparent silliness - of..














*The Necktie*

that anachronistic badge of elite foppery.. retained by the reactionary and sartorially challenged, to this date!

:-\ufffd

Well..? worn on the job?

Hope that the various pressure-reducing ploys produce immediate relief; probably later progress will be enhanced by the endorphins from that initial pleasant shock.

Heh.. re Moorcock - guess I could safely conclude that you think his work er.. promising, then? Gotta bring mate up to speed. Umm - maybe not good idea.

(Cackle.. cackle..)

Pity that - his insights appear so universally absent in our current political doggerel. There *are* bloody smart Muricans - how's come we elect so few? Is that it: "always elect someone dumber than you, so that ____" ?

Guess I'll never understand such matters.

Cheers, best to Rob!


Ashton