Song Analysis: Closer To Home

The maritime themes of this top-40 hit by Grand Funk Railroad from the fall of 1970 are but elaborate metaphors for the dilemmas surrounding one's sense of control over one's own existence, and over one's life overall.

Your life is your "ship", and as the "captain" how well your "ship" sails and functions depend on the loyalty and cooperation of your "crew" (the elements that make up or interact with your existence), which can be everything from your family and relatives to your associates to your own body functions to even the possessions you own or the facilities you use or do business with in some way.

You depend on each of these factions being on good terms with and favorable towards you.  But there are occasions where you can very well experience incidences of "mutiny" (bad blood, bad health, defective or worn-out items malfunctioning on you, corruption in the family or work place or community or certain businesses).

It's during times of duress, dysfunction, precariousness, and animosities that we, as the "captain" cry out to the world to "return command of" our "ship" to us, the one's who rightfully should be the ones in control (of our own lives).

Sleep
...is a lot like money and sex.   You get it if and when you can

     Uber and Lyft:

...paying out of one's own pocket to accept a ride from a total stranger and ride in their vehicle.
Didn't people use to do this same thing for free a long time ago?
Yes, they did as a matter of fact---and I believe they used the term "hitchhiking" to describe it.

              Immigration/ Health Care Fiascoes
If you want to know how I feel about the "border wall", I think it's little more than an elaborate fantasy trip.
The money allocated for it would be better invested in the creation of a 7th branch of the military, one whose specific duties would be to assist the Border Patrol agents and U.S. Customs.
A branch allowed full military authority and authorized use of lethal force if and when deemed necessary.

As for the dismantling of the Affordable Health Care Act?
First off, let me explain why, essentially, I'm in favor of some form of a universal health care system run by one's government:
It has not so much to do with how well or responsibly one takes care of their own health issues (a.k.a.: proper diet, healthy lifestyles, getting enough exercise) as it does with the fact that a lot in the world and in our lives are elements we have no control over:  being injured in accidents caused by another; viruses and contagious illnesses; dangerous conditions resulting from another's incompetence, neglect, or carelessness; inclement weather situations.

As for the Affordable Health Care Act----it was never really a universal health care system, as the insurance companies forced the Obama administration to taint it by infusing stipulations dictated by their agendas into it.
Hence, I've always had mixed emotions about it.  Although I doubt the current Trump administration is likely to come up with anything better, and, quite possibly, are liable to come up with a health care system even more inferior.  

                 Governmental Control vs Privatizing
There are many who, when observing institutions run by either state or federal government agencies (such as the Postal Service, or the prison systems, or Social Security), contend that "government is only capable of mismanagement, politicizing anything it gets its hands on, and wasting taxpayer dollars"
...then they go on about "the virtues of" the private business and corporate sectors, and express the notion that privatizing these government agencies by turning them over to those private sectors would be a solution to resolving their (alleged) failings.

...to which I say "No, not really".

For starters, panaceas almost never work nor live up to their promises (think: "Three Strikes" laws; sex offender registries; Me-Too; political correctness; quota systems; rehab programs; plans to "improve" traffic and public transit; dealing with school shootings by "arming school teachers")
...and the fact that the primary difference between governments and corporations is that governments exist mainly to regulate and control their citizens and resources, while corporations are mostly concerned with making profits and with how much they can pick from the pockets of consumers and customers in order to enhance their profit potentials.
...each under the guise of "serving the needs or desires of" the general public.

In short:  the alleged agendas of their services are, for the most part, a charade, just them going through the motions of "dutiful servitude" to their constituents, all the while covering up their true intentions, plotting how to subliminally exploit those they "serve".

Personally, I think corporate control will be just as bad as governmental control, and services and agencies will still ultimately end up just as big a mess under one as it will under the other.

More Notable Songs Whose Themes Are Obvious

Brand New Key
Melanie
Female stalker who doesn't drive or own a car

Girl
Beatles
Charlie's Shoes
Billy Walker
Guys who get the coveted "trophy cunt", only to get done in by the Catch-22s of her insatiable desires and demands

Video Killed The Radio Star
Buggles
About how the advent of television in the late 1940s/early 1950s did away with the original radio versions of dramas, variety shows, situation comedies, and soap operas---leaving the radio format to focus on either news, sports and commentaries, or promoting the latest phonograph records

The Future's So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades
Timbuk 3
Guy boasting about how secure his overall future is, as High Tech is "the wave of the future" and anyone with knowledge of and aptitude for it has a guarantee of "the good life"
...these days full apologies are owed to a lot of laid-off and underpayed employees of "Silicone Valley"

Tales Of Lucy Blue
Bob Seger System
About a fictitious hard-luck heroine in either a paperback novel or television drama script

Distant Drums
Jim Reeves
The Last Farewell
Roger Whittaker
Ongoing romance interrupted by the ominously beckoning shades of impending war

Draw Of The Cards
Kim Carnes
Fate is a lot like a game of poker.  Same kind of crapshoots and consistent inequitablenesses.

All I Really Want To Do
Cher/Byrds
About the most platonic lyrics ever written (courtesy of Bob Dylan)

Rice Is Nice
Lemon Pipers
A guy eager to get engaged to his girlfriend, with hopes of a successful marriage to follow.  His main concern?  Whether or not she will remain loyal and faithful to him in the years to come.

Drunk
Jimmy Liggins
Guy has an obvious drinking problem, but doesn't seem too concerned about it.  In fact, he's quite comfortable with it---not a problem as far as he's concerned.

  To all concerned:
I need $1 dollar bills for bus fare.
I need quarters for the coin laundry.

So, all you cashiers:
Please quit handing me back "paper shredder" bills and quarters used to scrape gum, tar, and mud off shoes as change.
-----Thanks!------




                                  Another site to check out: www.bartidiothalloffame.com

                                 Hate water-saver
Putting governors on plumbing doesn't work
...unless one thinks half-hour showers and it taking ten minutes to fill the sink basin with dish water is somehow such an essential act of conservation as to really be all that helpful in our efforts to "save the planet".

I think it's little more than a time waster myself.  Just taking longer to use the same amount of water you normally do anyway.



                                    Another site to check out: www.raconteurreport.blogspot.com

                At the computer terminal in the library:
Other patrons are coughing and sneezing---right onto the keyboards!!

Am I the only person wise enough to always bring a napkin/tissue with him on every visit to the library to catch my coughs and sneezes?
How come it's never occurred to anyone else to do the same?

Song Analysis: Radio Radio

I don't know if this 1978 song by Declan ("Elvis Costello") McManus was ever released as a single, but it seems like the kind of song one would expect to find on a "45".  I could even picture a song of this kind getting brief AM radio play during the early '70s.

The song starts out with the listener trying to change stations and the tuning knob breaks, upon which he hears the aftercomments the announcers and staff ordinarily make when they think their listeners have turned their station off.

During this bout of "media metaphysicalism" they brag about how they program their station to toy with the minds of their listeners, how they engage various psyopic ploys and other propaganda techniques to, along with the programming format itself, influence their listeners into a collective compliance with the social systems and institutions.

That the rock and roll stations are actually not this bastion of "creativity", "free thinking", or "defiance".
That all media are, essentially, primarily commercial ventures, and that even rock and roll radio is a lot more conservative, conformist, and in cahoots with the establishment than most would be willing to admit or accept.  That the rock n'rollers are not so "cool" after all.

The gist of this song is the feeling of betrayal the idealistic rock n'roll worshipper  feels upon learning this inconvenient fact of life.

                             Just say "No!" to Artificial Intelligence
I am a bit apprehensive about the notion of everything eventually falling into the hands of Artificial Intelligence.

Take the example of those coupon books supermarkets send their customers by mail.  Anything you've been purchasing on a regular basis, whether frequently or simply on more than one occasion, the have calculated to a tee.

But, say, you decide to favor another product or another brand?  Say there's a certain food product you no longer eat because your system doesn't seem to be able to handle it the way it used to, perhaps due to some of the metabolic changes that accompany aging?

When those coupon books come in they'll continue offering that product you no longer buy.  It'll take at least a couple months before the products you're now buying start showing up in these books----alongside the ones you no longer purchase.

That's what I don't like about all these "A.I." trends.  It's all based on profiling and pigeonholing.  It's bound to miss nuances and idiosyncrasies because it's constantly "summing up" all its subjects.
And they want to put EVERYTHING under control of A.I.?  Medical?  Legal?  Records of home addresses? Records of phone numbers?  Analyzing anyone's lifestyle and habits?

What if one makes a major life change?  Or they come into some kind of financial fortune (a.k.a.: trust fund or such)? Or a traumatic event initiates a permanent change of certain habits?
Is A.I. going to keep up with all these, or are the person's online credit reports going to continue to show information based on how that person's been living the past 20 years or so, simply reflect its summation of that person's "general lifestyle, character, and habits"---some of which would by now be irrelevant?

                                             Musing For Today
I, myself, find the police to be, more than anything else, obsessed with "being good little robots" and with their intimate knowledge of applicable legalese.


                                                     Schadenfreude
When your place is the only one being bombed you tend to take it personally
...but should you find out other places are also being bombed as well, then you start to think maybe it's the "other guy" who actually has the problem, and you feel at least a little bit better about your whole predicament. 

               Just don't call it "immigration" (revisited)
I'm tired of everyone using the term "illegal immigrant".
There is no such thing.  One cannot be an immigrant without being legal.
Because to be an immigrant requires going through whatever legal procedures the country one is attempting to change their citizenship to demands in order for said country to consider whether or not said one is "fit for" inclusion into its society.
And to have that country approve said request and act accordingly.

A better term for those here illegally would be "unlawfully present foreign outsider"---someone who's either overstayed their VISA and continues to hang around, or who's managed to enter another country covertly.

                             Musing #3 For Today
It's not just government, politicians, authority, or the officials I'm dubious of
...a lot of average folks seem to exhibit a lot of the same traits:
*Sketchy
*Somewhat amoral
*Clandestine in their interpersonal interactions

A Cardinal Rule Concerning Written Laws:

If a law serves to solve a certain problem (assuming stringent and impartial enforcement) then you'll generally be okay with it, even if the law is a bit harsh, as long as it stands to improve things for you in some way.

If, on the other hand, a law seems to do little more than "exist to penalize you" while not doing anything to improve your life any, then you'll be resentful of the law as well as anyone who tries to enforce it against you.

Best human traits:
Being open-minded
Unbridled candor

Worst human traits:
Narrow-mindedness
Too much entitlement
Having too much authority

The problem with those in authority:

They're too much like the censors---they always seem to be misunderstanding things.
They'll regard anything "outside the box" or presented too candidly as being abusive, improper, lewd, predatory, or offensive.

They tend to read "malice" and ill intent into a lot of innocuous and innocent behaviors, conduct, and spoken or written words.
Anything ambiguous or hard to clearly define is automatically interpreted in the most negative light.

They come across too much like domineering metaphorical godparents, the kind who think their offspring to be mindless drones, eternally naive and unaware, sure to go astray without strong punitive discipline and constant direction and correction.
Power-tripping reformers, constantly punishing or correcting those below them.

I don't believe in evolution:
The theory is too dependent on capricious crap-shoot scenarios and improbable happenstance.
And it doesn't explain the orderly patterns in nature and the universe, obviously the results of a deliberate following-through of some kind of cosmic "blueprint" on the part of whatever's in charge of all that exists.

And I don't have any religious beliefs either:
I don't like any religions.  They all comprise too many dogmatic beliefs, artificial perfunctory rituals, and myopically simple-minded assumptions about the spirit realm.

                                       Musing #2 For Today
One should approach any subject the same way one would approach electricity
...in that it's essential to know exactly what it is you're dealing with---its substance, what it's all about---so as to be able to know how to render said subject the proper respect it is due.

                Societies are like the proverbial abusive parents:
They fulfill their moral duties to clinically instill proper instructions into the minds of their offspring---like "Show proper respect and consideration for others" and "Be sensitive to the feelings and needs of others"
...but treat said offspring like shit and speak down to them condescendingly, slightingly, and degradingly.

This is why we still "owe others respect", even if they behave insultingly toward us
...or why "empathy" is expected of us, even though we live in a "dog-eat-dog" world, where others are either constantly trying to "hustle us" or are so callous and insensitive toward us they "wouldn't piss on us even if we were on fire".

                                          Musing For Today
           Other peoples' issues seem to have a domino effect on everything around them
                                     ...and I don't enjoy being one of the dominoes.