Wednesday, August 17, 2005

State of the Blog Address (and the Godless Communist)


So: I've been using this blog as a place to compile information that may be useful to me during the writing of my book. I don't know what kind of internet connection I'll have in Ukraine (probably an internet cafe) so it's best I do all this hunting now, when I'm off the clock and in the comfort of my own home.

I leave for Kyiv September 10, and at that point the face of the blog should change quite a bit -- primarily, it will have more original content, along the lines of the two-part interview I did last month, with elements of travelogue.

For the time being, I hope you find something to enjoy. Tonight, my internet crawl led me to The Godless Communist, a comic book put out by the Catholic Guild in the early-1960s. The first installment tells the story of what life in the USSA would be like -- that's the Union of Soviet States of America.

Here's a sample bit of dialogue:

Mr. Jones, the government has decided you will work in northern Wisconsin at a lumber mill there. You will leave tomorrow by train. If you resist, you will be arrested ... Your wife will be moved to an apartment here in Chicago, near her factory. We will allow you to visit her sometime.

But with my wife working, who will care for the children?

The government will take care of children in special schools and nurseries. They will see their mother on weekends. Now get going!


Other installments dramatize the power struggles following the death of Lenin and Stalin. The series ends with a porcine-looking, two-faced Khrushchev trampling over international treaties and seeking only one thing: world domination. But even if Communism is described as "truly the work of the Devil," we are to remember "that Communists are our brothers in Christ. We should hate Communism, but not the Russian people who are victims of it." Or in the words of Mac Dre, don't hate the player, hate the game.

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