I remember the "prog-rock" period of the early '70s.
And how it created a lot of musical lunkheads who equated anything that wasn't a 9-minute abstract-sounding track to that of "bubblegum music".

I remember reading a review of an America album in a college newspaper in which the reviewer slammed the group for being "just another 'AM rock' band", as if anything top-40 or pop was automatically synonymous with bubblegum or even children's records.  With that kind of reasoning even Frank Sinatra would fit into the "bubblegum" category (simply for performing straight-ahead pop songs).

Music analysis is way more intricate and multifaceted than simply pigeonholing meritability as being based solely on how abstract something seems.  A 9-minute track can just as easily be a succession of repetitive two-chord instrumental riffs that drag on indefinitely and go nowhere.  But which may sound impressive to the musically uneducated.

Although, essentially, there's nothing wrong with a 9-minute track---so long as it has substance and the music itself actually goes somewhere.

 

Once a year they review your case to determine if you're still eligible for a continuation of benefits, be they food stamps, or residence in a government-subsidized housing unit, or anything else along those lines.

And, always, you have to provide these people with official documents, including:  drivers license (or state I.D.); birth certificate; rent receipt and lease forms; medical insurance cards and documents; utility bill receipts; and other such items.

Even medical and dental clinics ask for medical insurance cards and photo I.D.s and a written medical history from you (to the best of your recollection).

What I'm wondering is: Why haven't they implemented the practice of Biometrics?
That's when they identify individuals by fingerprints, handprints, eyeprints, and other DNA-related methods.
They program your idiosyncratic biopatterns into a central computer network so that anytime you need to do business with any government agency, medical clinic, or even commercial establishment all you need to do is have them scan your hand or face and any information they need to have on you automatically shows up on their computer screen.  Fraud-proof and up-to-date.

As for concerns anyone may have about "privacy issues", keep in mind that while they presently need your consent to release your medical information and financial information, or to obtain your address and phone number(s), if you have any kind of arrest and conviction(s) on record most anyone can obtain that information (often for a fee of some kind) as such records are of a "public domain" status.

The way I see it, if it's okay for anyone to find out about all of our "fuck-ups" in life then it should also be a given for those either assisting us or trying to help us in some way to be able to just-as-easily obtain information on us that's helpful to their cause or causes as well.
Society should be allowed and able to do FOR us as much as it seems to enjoy doing things TO us.

Why is it...
...that "Adult Content" always denotes anything sexually explicit or erotic?
How come it doesn't mean something intellectually stimulating?
Or anything explaining the complexities of life?
Or a refined insightful, reflective, and philosophical perspective of serious or significant subject matters?
Or a deep intimate understanding of the ways of life, the world, or the universe?

And just because a subject matter is of a sexual nature doesn't necessarily mean it is being handled in a refined and disciplined manner.

Have you noticed:
How much sense people make in writing?
Or on-the-air on radio and television?
Or how logical the characters are on TV and in the movies? (Well, the older ones anyway)
Or in novels?  Or when they write news or opinion columns?
Or how logical the (older) cartoons are?
Or how rational song lyrics are? (Again, mainly the older songs)

However, face-to-face, people in real life rarely make any sense and hardly ever react in a logical "cause-and-effect" manner to anything you say or do to them, and are very capricious and irrational.

I think it's because everyone's so busy either trying to take advantage of one another, or being prejudice and judgmental, or just being paranoid of each other that they only know how to objectify others instead of honestly interacting with them.




                                                                      Adage For Today:
 A sign that someone's prejudice toward you is when they expect you to have compunction while they run around doing whatever they want.

Strolling along the main drag of an elitist neighborhood full of highfalutin restaurants, bars, and eccentric shops, I come across street musicians.

Among them a trio:  two guys and a young lady.  One playing a lute, the other a violin, and the lady with an illuminated hula hoop who spun that thing around her waist nonstop for minutes-on-end while her comrades played uptempo celtic-like melodies in perfect harmony and on perfect tempo.

I don't care how impoverished I may be myself I couldn't witness such a feat of secular sorcery without dropping at least a dollar into their hat (such well-developed and well-nurtured aptitudes deserve much more of course).

It was a Friday night and everywhere else I went it was that crappy "bump-and-grind" type of music with that fake "disco" beat, and getting trampled on public sidewalks by fraternal Alpha personality pricks and cunts wearing trendy clothes and obviously enjoying financial subsidies designated for booze, fancy meals, and either gas or bus fare.
Weekends="It's D-Day once again, folks!"







                                           Another site to check out: www.madgemadigan.com

"What 'overpopulation problem'?" you ask

I get tired of hearing various pundits refuting the ongoing phenomenon of consistent chronic overreproduction of the human race.
Their claim:  The west is producing less and less children and that we've now gone beyond the threshold of "zero population growth".  And that it's the east who continues to be reproducing.
And that the reason the U.S. government circumvents its immigration laws is because we need these "extra people" to fill the gaps left by this (alleged) "zero population" problem.

But I myself don't see this as being the case.  Go anywhere in this country and what do you see?  People everywhere pushing baby strollers.  Or running around with their kids.
They're all over the place: in elitist suburbia; in the 'hood; in blue-collar "white trash" neighborhoods; in small towns; in small cities.
Try to go ANYWHERE and it takes you forever to go shopping, to eat out, to go to the bank, and the laundromats are always "convention centers" as well.  You can blow a whole day just running one single errand.  Easily! 
This is all on account of just the current overpopulation.

And most of these babies are white and black ones at that.  Sure, there are plenty of Asian-American and Hispanic babies (both legal and illegal), but the majority one sees is still the white ones and the black ones.

Also, this nonsense about the Mexicans and their large families "taking over" the U.S. because "they're all Catholic and don't believe in birth control".
Excuse me, but what about the Irish-Catholic and the Italian-Catholic?  They abide by the same myopic doctrines as well.  How many large white and black families are there?  Quite a lot, actually.

In short, this notion of the west experiencing "zero population growth" is purely a myth.  A total canard.
Truth is, we don't need any more people ANYWHERE!  Not here in the U.S., not in Africa, not in England, not in Japan.  We're oversaturated with people.  And, what's more, the governments brainwash their citizens so well that 90% of their populations think the same way and have the same kinds of personalities.  So, in addition to being "crowded in on" there's also not the benefit of any kind of variety among all the people one has to endure on a daily basis.
I contend that if the world savors clones and drones that much why not replace living humans with robots?
At least machines don't spread disease or leave behind biological waste.

It doesn't take much for one to notice a plethora of grammatical errors and misspellings on most any comments section of a number of web sites or news sites.

Those of us more literate types readily engage in a hubristic celebration of schadenfreude directed toward these pathetic saps, many of whom don't seem able to spell even the simplest or most common of words.

But before we go on feeling so proud or self-congratulating our pompous asses let us not forget one critical thing:  aptitudes are usually savant in nature.  Meaning: one can be quite accomplished and/or knowledgable in one area and still be completely lacking everywhere else.

Take the self-taught musician who's never taken any formal music lessons and can't even read music, yet plays by ear and can replicate note-for-note rhythm-for rhythm anything they hear.
Take those with mechanical aptitude who can instinctively disassemble any kind of machinery, gadget or appliance then rebuild it the way it was originally constructed.

One should be envious of anyone with such viable aptitudes like those.  So what if such persons are lacking a more formal clinical type of education.
What they call "education" is way overrated anyway.






                                             Another site to check out:  www.ofnorth.wordpress.com

Society's such a baby when you stop and think about it.  Everyone's always needing our help with things.  They never seem capable of taking care of their own affairs.  Every institution, organization and business seems to need a hand from us in some way.

Yet they're the ones in control.  They make all the rules.  They decide what goes down and what doesn't.  They have the right to control our lives any way they want.

It's like governance by small children.  Lacking maturity and wisdom but still seeing themselves fit to have the final word on just about any subject.

Why do we, the private citizen, have to assist in helping them locate missing children?
How come we have to provide our own medical history to health care providers when we're merely the patients?
And why are we "free detective agencies" when the authorities need to track down elusive fugitives?

We're not employed by these agencies or clinics.  We don't get any paychecks from them.
They should learn to do their own work and quit pawning and serfing us commoners to finish their jobs for them while they still get the pay and credit for the results.

Well, the phone company just raised their monthly rates.  I wonder what the extra amount is going to.  To pay the wages of whoever keeps calling my number 5 to 10 times a day and never leaving a message or saying who they are or what they want?

Plus they only give me two weeks to send my payment in, tagging on a $5 penalty for late payments.  Hence this phone company's in the extortion business as well.

If phone service wasn't so essential I would've pulled the plug on these clowns a long time ago.  (And, no, I DON'T want your god-damn cable TV service or your stupid internet service.  You advertise these like you were offering us a gift of some kind.  Of course they're also "services" we'd have to pay for.  Simply another way of fleecing your customers.  You guys are little more than legalized racketeers.)

Sometimes I get tired of living.
Of having to deal with uncooperative people, of having to use appliances and gadgets that are defective, poorly designed, or old and worn-out.

I get tired of the way things are disproportionate and unaccommodating of me and my needs, desires, and personal lifestyle (not enough where needed, too much where unnecessary).

I get tired of having to "share" public space and facilities with domineering hogs who think they own everything and act like anywhere they're at is an extension of their living room.

I'm tired of each and every one of my own body functions having a mind of their own and setting their own "schedules".




                                               Two more sites to check out:  www.ianwelsh.net      www.newglobalfuture.com

Well, with the warmer weather making a comeback here in central Ohio, it means round-the-clock repairs of the potholes in the streets brought about by the recent arctic blitzes.

I'm really looking forward to all the rumbling trucks and loud-mouthed crews yelling back-and-forth at each other while hammering on their 500dB horns at 3 or 4 in the morning.

I love the way my rights don't matter as much as those of reckless drivers and drag racers.  Let's get those roads fixed so those wealthy enough to afford fancy vehicles and the gas required to run up-and-down the streets 24/7 can have their fun.

Ethics are not has-beens nor are they dead.
There may be "laws" and lawmakers may be power-and-control fanatics and average citizens may be anarchists, but that still doesn't mean the concept of what is right and what is wrong no longer exists.

It may seem ethics no longer exist, but that's only because modern society disavows (or circumvents) them.
But such undermining doesn't necessarily mean they've been done in.  It only means society refuses to acknowledge such concepts are still around and still valid.