Archive for Life - page 23

It’s a fact.  The Washington Post says so in the article Female Named Hurricanes Kill More that Male Hurricanes Because People Don’t Respect Them, Study Finds.  A study has found it to be so. Enraged at the disrespect shown them, even in the face of their multitasking superiority over their weaker, less inteligent male counterparts they have launched a campaign of death and destruction unlike any previously experienced by humankind aimed at garnering them the respect they so deserve, the respect they are entitled to.  That’s what the study probably said…I didn’t read it.  I don’t have time, I got a lot on my plate – these cat videos aren’t going to watch themselves.

The deadly practice of naming inanimate things after women has a long and …well a long history, and the results are sometimes beneficial in the long run.  The most recent example was during WWII when the allies came up with a secret plan to increase the effectiveness of bombing raids against the axis powers by naming bombers after women – girlfriends, wives, or just sexy babes in general.  It was believed that the enemy would not take thusly named aircraft seriously, and this disrespect would greatly increase the damage and casualties inflicted.  And as we now know, “Operation Sexism Gambit” helped turn the tide.

As we face greater and greater crises in the world today I look to our leaders to once again harness this awesome power of The Rage Of Disrepected Female Named Inanimate Things (TRODFNIT) and use it unsparingly to rid the globe of the scourges of inequality, perceived inequality, hallucinatory disrespect, and unfairness *sob*.  After all, Hell hath no fury like some inanimate thing named after a woman scorned.

Having been at this for  a few months now, and looking back at the blog as a whole, I am thinking a few things over.  One decision I am grappling with is whether I want to conitnue posting political content here.  I do follow politics and have strong opinions.  And the stronger my opinion, the stronger my impulse to write about it.  Therein lies the rub – I don’t want to chase any potential readers away with stringent political commentary.  It’s not you, it’s me.  While I’m not ashamed of my opinions, I just want people to feel welcome here regardless of politcal stripe, and though I always assumed politics would be one of the subjects written about here, I did not intend this to be an overtly political blog.  I’d really like to keep the atmosphere light around here.  I’m open to hearing about it.

I’ll just quietly make my point and then go away.

When people (I include myself – I am a people too) talk about big government, they are often dismissed as paranoid crackpots.  Well, I may be a paranoid crackpot but that doesn’t mean I’m wrong when I say that the Federal Governmant has just gotten too damn big, and it has insinuated itself into areas of life it has no business in.  In a supposedly free society that is.  If you think freedom is old fashioned then no problem, I guess.

I’m starting to rant…serenity now…serenity now!…better.

When the federal government tells your local school district what they have to put in their school lunches that’s a problem.

That is all.  Thank you for your time.  Good Day.

…but it all comes down to you.

I give you Stevie Nicks – well, Fleetwood Mac really.  But this song is all Stevie.

If you’ve ever seen Stevie Nicks interviewed then you know she is…interesting.  She definitely has the artist vibe going.  Maybe I’ll expand on that one of these music Fridays.

…so we’ll continue our mellow Music Friday with this screeching guitar solo…just kidding!  We’re going MELLOW today.  This next one’s so mellow you may want to get grab a cup of coffee to stay alert.  Hopping off from the last post, I have another Dan Fogelberg song from his Souvenirs album, which you might remember was produced by…hint…it was in one of last Friday’s music posts…give up?  The answer is Joe Walsh produced Souvenirs.  Here is the title track:

Bonus backtrack:  mellow + Eagles + Joe Walsh = Pretty Maids All In a Row

Sometimes when I’m be-boppin’ around on the web I come across something, bookmark it and later forget how I got there.  That is the case here – I forgot how I came across this Judy Collins performance of  her song Since You’ve Asked, but I’m glad I did.  I hadn’t realized that she wrote it, as I was only familiar with the Dan Fogelberg version (2nd video) and assumed he authored it.  You will not recognize this song if you are only familiar with Collins’ commercially successful songs like Both Sides Now or Send In The Clowns.  This is a very moving love song, melodic poetry with a piano accompaniment

Now Dan Fogelberg:

Very Nice!

I guess I’ve been a little bit of a downer today.  Sorry.  Didn’t mean to harsh your mellow.

Here:  Look at 12 minutes of funny cats:

You’re Welcome.

I think it’s tough to be a boy today.  We used to say “boys will be boys”, now they says “boys have ADHD”, and when they say that it is all to often that boys are drugged.  Boys between seven and twelve years old are being given powerful stimulants with worrisome side effects because, in my opinion, they are normal or nearly normal boys under inept supervision or parenting.  Boys are physical and like to roughouse.  They need outlets for their energy – yet what do our educators tell us?  That physical sports are dangerous and not appropriate for the playground.  Someone might get hurt.  At home, parents are either too stupid or too lazy to engage their children in physical activity.  Or worse, they too have bought into the “competitive sports are bad for kids” bull.  Then their kids “won’t sit still” and it’s off to the doctor who, after the alotted 15 minute examination can’t find anything wrong, but just read an article in the Journal Of Medicine about ADHD and it’s “increasing prevalence”.  And how do you treat ADHD?  You guessed it – drugs.  Stimulants that are acknowledged to have great potential for abuse.

In the Drugging of the American Boy  at Esquire.com, Ryan D’Agostino lays out some of the (astonishing) statistics.  Check it out – I’m sure you’ll be shocked.  In the meantime, if your boy won’t sit still, please don’t drug him.  Get him into football, basketball, soccer or baseball.  Let him focus and expend that energy .

In The Weekly Standard, Noemie Emery tells a story of the Rule by Experts theory of government, from it’s conception in the 1820’s to it’s latest failure, The Affordable Care Act or Obamacare.  

 They had a dream. For almost a hundred years now, the famed academic-artistic-and-punditry industrial complex has dreamed of a government run by their kind of people (i.e., nature’s noblemen), whose intelligence, wit, and refined sensibilities would bring us a heaven on earth. Their keen intellects would cut through the clutter as mere mortals’ couldn’t. They would lift up the wretched, oppressed by cruel forces. Above all, they would counter the greed of the merchants, the limited views of the business community, and the ignorance of the conformist and dim middle class.”

In 2008 with the election of Barack Obama and the installation of America’s first leftist faculty lounge administration, they saw their chance of a lifetime to make vast changes to our way of life and government.  After all, this was what Obama campaingned on and promised – to fundamentally change America.  They set their sights on the perfect junction of American life and government regulation – healthcare.  And once they embarked on that particular journey, virtually everything they believed about their crown jewel would turn out to be exactly wrong.  From the very beginning, Obama and the democrats in congress thought their plan would be popular when in fact the public resented the fact that the administration’s focus was taken off economic recovery and put on healthcare.  The majority of Americans were satisfied with their healthcare arrangements but worried about the economy and the proposed plan was viewed as expensive and risky.  It only got worse from there. 

“Historians will see this health care bill as a masterfully crafted piece of legislation,” wrote Jonathan Chait… “The new law untangles the dysfunctionalities of the individual insurance market while fulfilling the political imperative of leaving the employer-provided system in place. .  .  . They put into place numerous reforms to force efficiency into a wasteful system. They found hundreds of billions of dollars in payment offsets, a monumental task in itself. And they will bring economic and financial security to tens of millions of Americans who would otherwise risk seeing their lives torn apart.”

It did none of these things. It did not fix the dysfunctions of the individual market; it destroyed it. It did not save money; it squandered billions. It did not bring peace and security to tens of millions of people; it took it away from them. The best and the brightest had made their predictions. They were wrong.

Liberal Pundits proclaimed the genius of the plan while knowing none of the details…we were told details didn’t matter.  Promises were made to the public by the highest memebers of the administration, most notably the President himself.  Promises that turned out to be nothing short of lies – it was known that the bill as being drafted would not allow many people to keep their plans or doctors.  But since that change was what most of the public feared the lies were integral to the passage of the act.

These people are (allegedly) the best and brightest among us…this was their moment in the sun.  And they failed…spectacularly.  There is a reason why cliches are cliches – because they’re true.  So when someone says they’re from the government and here to help, brace yourself – you’re about to get it good.

It hurts me to say we have a ruling class, but we do.  There are some elected and appointed officials, some members of Academia who advise them and unfortunately many journalists and members of the news media who believe that due to their superior ivy league educations, intellect and experience (however limited it may be) in government, education or journalism they are best suited to occupy the positions of power that shape and control life in America.  They believe in theory over reality and bureaucracy over democracy.  The sturdy bubble they dwell in keeps them well insulated from reality and reason.

They believe they are better than you.  They know better than you how you should live.  They know better than you what you should eat.  They know better than you where (or if) you should work, what you should drive and whether you can be trusted to defend yourself.  And…they are wrong.  About everything.

The middle class is their enemy.  Why?  Because the middle class are sufficiently comfortable to accept the status quo while having enough education and common sense to reject the blue sky promises and  ludicrous attempts at utopia building of their “betters”.  Plus they don’t need or want anyone to take care of them – they want ot be left alone which is a do gooders worst nightmare.  Your efforts to get ahead, improve your lot or provide for your family are viewed as greed or crass consumerism.  If you succeed they view that as an injustice that requires rectification.  Of course, they are entitled to their compensations.  No inequality concerns there.

While they speak in terms of social justice, income disparity and equality, in reality they are the worst kind of bigots – they think no one can get along without them.  And they are arrogant enough to believe that they can change human nature or the laws of economics with the stroke of a pen.  They think they are smarter than you and I but they lack the intelligence and common sense to know that they don’t and can’t know everything.  And that a person has the right to live their life as they see fit, fairness or not.  You see, life isn’t fair.

They want to create change, and as all good community organizers know, before people will demand radical change you have to get them good and riled up.  I think it’s working.  But I think they change they are going to get isn’t the change they were expecting.  At least I hope it isn’t.