Once Upon A Time


The 1930s.  The 1940s.   Into the 1960s and 1970s even.
The "golden age" of crime syndicates and the mafia.
The likes of Bonnie & Clyde and Al Capone was before my time.  Well before my time.


Lately the power and influences of the mafia and organized crime have pretty much waned.  You don't hear much about them anymore except in various forms of lingering folk legend.
The organized crime syndicates have pretty much been replaced by the modern-day minority street gangs: e.g. Crips, Bloods, and others of their ilk.



Racists will often cite the gangs and hip-hop culture as "proof blacks and non-whites are little more than a bunch of natural-born savages".
I have to find that brand of naivete amusing (never mind that such types are apt to act upon their myopically ideological notions).
They long for times past, when "blacks knew their place".  Like "things really started going to hell the more they took over everything".


Was American society "better" when Anglo sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons of western European immigrants had monopolistic domain over "structured domestic terrorism"?

                                                        Safety First?

I think I've finally figured out why American society has apparently outlawed mufflers on cars.

They could make cars really quiet if they wanted to.  But pedestrians strolling along and bicyclists cruising down the curb or on the sidewalks would never hear them coming when they, for example, make their sudden abrupt turns into the McDonald's parking lot to "get that 'most important in the world' Big Mac" via the drive-thru.
They'd "suddenly appear out of nowhere", and BAM!  That would be it!

So the logic is that if you can hear someone's vehicle from at least 5 miles away you can't miss them.
But still ...you always hope they'll miss you.

Pop Music Epitaph/Obit (another one)

Billy Paul
Best known for his 1973 hit the Kenny Gamble/Leon Huff-penned ME AND MRS. JONES.
A song whose lyrics are sort of along the same line as YOUR HUSBAND, MY WIFE.  Or ONE HAS MY NAME (THE OTHER HAS MY HEART).

                           Lead with safety and others will follow

                    Hopefully not too closely.  Tailgating is not very safe.

Warm weather is almost upon us once again.

And time for air conditioning everywhere you go.

One question:
What is it with the air conditioning systems installed in commercial and institutional structures that the only two settings on them seem to be either "Off" or "Siberia mid-January"?  Never anything in the "medium" or "reasonable" range.

You would think, this being the 21st century, air conditioning units would have improved a little by now.
Instead, an ongoing "Goldilocks complex" continues.



                 The above is my Musing For Today

Slogans

End Discrimination Now
Anyone caught treating any group or individual unfairly will be ostracized

Stop Abuse Now
Those guilty of abuse shall be beaten and kicked

Stop The Violence
Violent individuals are to be beaten, shot and hanged

End Harassment
Those guilty of harassment shall be publicly shamed everywhere they go

End War Now
Are we going to have to bomb the Pentagon to make our point?

Black Lives Matter
If you're not of African ancestry just crawl under a rock and die.  This also goes for you, too, Native Americans, Jews, Asian Americans, Hindus ...

To Protect and to Serve
"Protect" and "serve" who?  Or what?

Take Back The Night
Who took the night away in the first place?  And what do you plan on doing with the night once you get it back?

See Something Say Something
I see things all the time.  Does this mean I'm obliged to talk non-stop?

Fight Hunger
Who is this Hunger fellow?  And why would I want to fight him when I don't even know him to have any feelings of animosity towards him?

   "The People I Run Into Who Seem To Be The Oddest Are Often Those Who Consider Themselves To Be Normal."

I can't remember where I came across that quote (or one like it), but it's an interesting observation.

My personal experience with normal people seems to be more that they tend to be prejudice more than anything.

By "prejudice" I don't necessarily mean racist or sexist.  More like an inability to be accepting of co-existing with those who are different from themselves and their friends.

This isn't to say that normal people can't be provincial, ideological, or idiomatic.  But all that indicates is the simple fact that most people are affected and influenced by their upbringing and whoever they're around the most.