I hear a LOT about fascism these days. Regarding fascism, the central message of it, as expressed by Mussolini, is best represented not by the swastika, but by another ancient and authoritarian symbol of considerably less notoriety, the fasces. Basically a bundle of sticks, Mussolini's message was that while a single stick breaks easily, a bundle of them tightly-bound together is strong. Using that definition, you can say that any organization that wants to separate people from something, usually their money, can be "fascist". The fasces, oddly enough, is also found on the U.S. Mercury dime, a ten-cent coin minted from 1916 to 1945. Although communism and fascism are nominally polar opposites, they have much in common. One time while flying from Frankfurt, Germany to LA, CA, USA, I entertained myself by reading a certain notorious underground magazine that had on its back cover a picture of a crucified Hitler being mourned by Stahlhelm -wearing “cherubs”. It d