Heart and Soul

It seems the era of Obama increasingly is becoming one of non-convention. While an era attempts to define itself looking back at many periods in history, what will determine its major defining characteristics? The entertainment industry traditionally has had a sizable impact on pop culture, but will the current roster of artists stand any chance of influencing today’s America? Justin Biber? Lady Gaga? Katy Perry? Do any of these adolescent appealing performers stand a chance of usurping both the 60’s and 70’s monumental power of molding America’s social, political, and cultural habits? The answer is no and for one simple reason. America’s popular music once was focused on more substantial humanistic issues. There is a parallel between the current trend of popular music and America’s fallen economic leaders. Neither was concerned with anything other than immediate human gratification. Because of Napster, American record companies lost their power. Consequently artists have had to rely on the internet to market their music. Politically the last decade has seen a campaign of “Fear and Intimidation” fostered by Bush Jr. Political Correctness and Gay Rights have squeezed any remaining rebelliousness out of the American populace. We have become a generation of couch potato gamers concerned with nothing. Luckily with Egypt and Libya’s example Wisconsin has returned to something tangible in the history of America. They have resurrected the ghost of Jimmy Hoffa, protesting in the streets for union labor rights. Unfortunately with a swift slash of the pen Republicans in the Wisconsin Assembly, even with the picketing absence of democratic leaders, forced a vote in the wee hours of the morning passing legislation severely limiting workers rights. The process was a success, but much like the resulting Presidential election decided in the state of Florida by the Supreme Court, savvy lawmakers used their legal knowledge and political prowess to succeed in the vote. All the moxy in the world, while necessary in garnering spiritual support for truly American issues, cannot defeat lawyers. Still as a nation we are not sure whether to embrace them and their system or continue to spurn them like the Wall Street traders that led is into the current crisis. The quintessential battle between heart and mind, soul and reason, and logic and emotion continues. Maybe we need a few more lessons from Spock and Captain Kirk.

Tax the Rich

Arianna Huffington’s Huffington Post now represents a trend made viable by corporate deregulation under the George W. Bush administration. In the face of a continually decreasing American economy, the rich continue to try to acquire equity in products themselves are not able to create. This is the antithesis of the core philosophy of Capitalism, although in recent decades with a swell in Wall Street trading it is being perceived as the real McKoy. The Grass Roots movement in America best viewed in the lineage of the Gilded Age represents a viable model of economic prosperity in America. The buying and selling of companies on Wall Street is not. While it is obvious the chasm between the poor and the rich has grown since the Bush presidency, the disparity between the working class and affluent America always has been present. One only must turn on the tube or watch a spate of emerging retro 80’s flicks at the theatre to see this tenacious disparity continue. Memories of the Reagan Era are creating a sentiment that seems to be ever increasing in Hollywood. Likewise re-emergent mall landscapes are an eerie physical incantation attempting to raise the ghost of trickle down economics. It will be interesting to see if mainstream America bites. More realistically the creative and artistic mall scenarios probably will bite it themselves, because the pocket change America carried in the decade of the 80’s no longer exists. This dichotomy, an elitist economy on top of the real economy, is the fatal illusion that is impeding progress in America. While fiscal progress because of the government’s huge accruing debt is foremost in most people’s minds, jump-starting the economy via Capitalism is the only way to revitalize America. The corporate pattern of the last decade engineered by Bush Jr. is not the right model. It was an elitist model devised for those all ready possessing money. Reagan was more successful in his administration, because culture and education were at a high point in American history. Reducing tax rates for the rich for the first time from 70% to that akin of middle class America worked, because the rich invested their money back in the infrastructure of America. Unlike Wall Street cronies of this decade, they did not pocket the cash. This first emerging class of wealth saw the need to re-invest their monies in the system that was creating their lifestyles. We have seen an unparalleled greed in the American economy in the Bush and post Bush years favoring an earthly presence of the anti-Christ. Could this symbolically be the sign that the second coming of Jesus Christ is near, and the epic significance of 2012 is credible? Judging by media’s depiction of the crisis it seems otherworldly in nature. Could it be the quintessential battle between rich and poor has surfaced again as the metaphor for the battle between evil and good? Will we ever recover from this human-induced drama, or is some kind of spiritual intervention being summoned? Solutions to the economic crisis, while not intangible, seem to bathe themselves in the hypocrisy America has sported since its inception. For America’s economy to resurrect, the real philosophy of the America Dream must be reestablished, aid for the middle and lower classes must be provided, and the rich must be taxed.

Current State of Affairs

A few thoughts after a long respite from blogging. Leaving a ship always is difficult. The average working person in America knows nothing about living at sea for six months at a time, in a small room, with a same-gendered roommate of your non-choosing. Then acquaintances and your familiar working environment in the blink of an eye are all gone. After laborious travels you arrive at a different place (the cruise lines call “vacation”) and attempt to reorient your life. Many people experience an extreme depression at the sudden loss, or at least seeming loss and drastic change. Only with discipline and the power of mind are you able to integrate once again into American society. The memories are the luck of the draw, sometimes sentimental, sometime melancholic. You must decide what to remember and what to leave behind. It seems the lower southern half of the eastern seaboard is drastically polluted with what must be diesel micro-dust.

Even in Nassau the air was fowl with aroma of the burning of fossil fuels. To a cruise guest this must not seem like a vacation, only a re-visiting of what has become the stark reality in America. Also the violence seems to increase proportionately as you drive south with Miami being the sole destination. Did not Florida used to be a tourist state? Only American musicians have any real grasp of American music. What must cruise lines continue to fill their bands with Europeans with no interest or ability in Motown, Jazz, or R&B music? Television has become trite propaganda produced for what must be attention deprived idiots. Corporate merging has dispensed with any system of Checks and Balances simply in the attempt to earn the coveted quarterly revenue for which prostrate shareholders desire. Wall Street once again has cursed the real economy of Capitalism and mainstream America. Soon, as predictions would have, a giant computer will rule the earth. Those without God will be left fighting on the deteriorating earth until their deaths. Many historic cultures believe the world will end in 2012. Y2K was pigeon poop compared to what is to come. Multi-Culturalism voraciously was murdered by Globalization furthering the economic and social gap between the rich and the poor. How can the rich perceive skating and bicycling as threatening in any way? They used to be methods chosen to ambulate to businesses. Now they are perceived as a grievous threats to elitist society. Gas prices again are rising. It has become apparent an evil dictator is on the take solely from the U.S. After being forced from power by effective but deadly public protests instigated by Facebook posts, he makes off with billions received for exercising sovereignty strengthening the rights of the U.S. to use the Suez Canal for transportation of black gold. The U.S. is experiencing the highest budget deficit in history, and that even with President Obama’s budget proposal, seems never to be fulfilled. Is a coup imminent?

How to Carve on Your Skate Board

While there are two approaches to carving, the most effective method of cornering sharp bowls or curved transitions is to separate the upper half and lower half of your body. The 2 legs must be able to move independently and twist in the opposite direction of the torso. Your waist is a pivot. The thighs move in tandem like the movement in the dance “The Twist” and freely follow distribution of weight instigated by the upper body and arms. You in effect are torquing your entire body throwing your upper body and arms in a circular motion instigating the carve or turn. The lower body follows the movement pivoting on the back trucks and wheels sometimes utilizing the “kickturn” as a method to make the turn when it is to tight to carve with the wheels on the wall or bank. Both things should happen simultaneously with the upper body twisting in the direction of the carve, and the lower body doing a normal carve with the feet in normal carving position. Basically the knees remain close together like slalom snow skiing or slalom water skiing, and the pivot actually occurs below the knees. Because you are vertical and in a tight curved transition the throwing twisting motion of the upper body is needed drive through the carve at the apex of your upward line to the coping. If you did not use the torque of the upper body to rotate the carve, chances are you would continue on your upward line and out of the top of the pool. Because of the steep angle of the vertical wall and because your body is perpendicular to the transition it is difficult to use the angle of your ankles to push the leading edge of the board back into the pool. This is way you must carve on the back trucks in a tight radius. You could consider the carve a carving kickturn dragging your back foot to stabilize your speed. When kickturning a carve to help make it, differently you are using your weight distributed on the leading edge of the board to bring it back into the pool.

"Don't Ask, Don't Smell"

In true fashion of the Californian judicial system, Federal Judge Virginia Phillips slipped in the back door of the Department of Defense a worldwide injunction immediately stopping President Clinton’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy from l993. Sidestepping Congress completely and the probable desires of the American majority, Judge Phillips plead in favor of the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay advocacy Republican group. While covertly her ruling could be seen as an Obama success (his administration tried to slip in the repeal as pork in the recent defense spending bill), Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates speculated that an abrupt ending to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” would have enormous consequences for the troops. We are at war. The federal government is deciding whether to appeal the decision, despite their own previous attempt to repeal the what most people consider anachronistic legislation. If Obama does appeal most pundits believe the courts temporarily will lift the injunction while the appeals process commences. The question here is whether the ruling stands for the good of the many or the good of the few. While personal civil liberties are important in the Constitution, rulings concerning the masses or class actions have more far reaching ramifications. In certain situations where many victims suffer at the hands of a law-breaking culprit, a class action is appropriate and can be helpful. For a spiritual and private liberty and one that can fall under the aesthetic of religion, legislating a global injunction affecting the entirety of America’s military would be a mistake. No one seems to be making a case for the adverse consequences of “Gay in the Military.” While the gay contingency continues it pursuit of American civil liberties, no one really wants to openly say sexual preference is a religious issue. Likewise religion in general and a belief in God has been spun as unpopular by many large media conglomerates. For whom is it elected officials are going? Hispanics? Black? Gays? Sexual harassment is not bridled just to heterosexuality, and until that issue is confronted in terms of a largely male fighting force often cloistered together in remote areas, real enlightenment over the effects of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” will not be found. While homosexuality on television is a relatively tame affair, anyone that attends any of the many gay activist activities immediately would see what aberrant behavior is possible behind the close doors of same sex bunking. For the many well adjusted and couple homosexuals living common lives with no outward vigil, the repealing of the legislation could seem Constitutional. Why can’t homosexuals openly serve in the military? It is because the military is unlike any civilian organization. Civilians do not form battalions, brigades, or platoons. Civilians do not eat, sleep, and work together as a huge cooperating force. Civilians do not spend long hours forced together in extreme and often dangerous situations. It is for these reasons the Department of Defense has launched a probe in the effect of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” which are forthcoming on December 1^st. Any attempt to change the law before them, no matter how California-appropriate, would be a mistake. Fruits, flakes, and nuts don’t necessarily represent the best interests of the national security of this country. They tend to represent their own, which is proven again and again in California’s judicial system. Homosexuals are not celebrities, although they seem to want to be.

Pop's Box

What is “pop” attempting to say? Without an authoritative study of the history of “pop” as a musical style, some inferences deserve to be made. First the “Pop” charts in America give this rhythmic style a particularly high place in American music history. The “charts” or ranking as determined by Billboard Magazine or Rolling Stone recognize “pop” as a discreet musical style. Somehow “pop” music inherently sells and therefore makes money. Who was it that determined that this particular style was the choice of America’s masses, and what is it about “pop” that creates such a valuable commodity? Covertly hundreds of bands seemed to understand this phenomenon and without opening a musical cans of worms exploited this “style” to benefit themselves and their record companies. It must be assumed that this particular “style” of music lent itself well to the histrionic stage presentation that accompanied it. Was it really this style of music accompanied the histrionic stage presentation itself? This author believes the latter to be true, and that “pop” music was the perfect vehicle for such an exhibition. The greatest example of the validity of this statement is the band AC/DC. Upon casual acknowledgement AC/DC seems to be a heavy metal band. If one is sitting at a bar and hears AC/DC on the jukebox, it is most likely a clangorous cacophony of banging garbage can lids will ensue and one will become annoyed if not all ready versed in the art of Angus Young. This was my experience. I heard or felt nothing that engaged me in any way. That is because AC/DC is a “pop” band. They are not a rock or heavy metal band in the sense of Aerosmith or Metallica. While this might be surprising to most, it seems the same secret exists for fans of AC/DC as the hundreds of bands that exploit this style. Angus Young, while appearing to be full of vitriol, covertly is a softy. He pantomimes grand kinetic gestures, but when it comes to striking the strings of the guitar his touch is a soft as a kitten’s belly. This was surprising, perplexing, and alarming to me as a fellow musician. How could it be I had spent forty years perfecting my touch on the piano, embodying strength, power, tonal clarity, and dynamic nuance, and this man barely touches the strings of the guitar and represents hundreds of thousands of angst ridden adolescent youths who buy AC/DC’s records? It simply was not fair. How did he accomplish such a feat? The underlying secret of pop music’s success is such. While I cannot explain the universal appeal of the “pop” rhythmic feel, I can describe the technique that controls it. It ain’t much. In fact there is little to describe. There is no “clave” or interesting rhythmic pattern. There is nothing even that proves “pop” music is in 4/4 time, unless you define that by the chord movement. Like African music utilized by the fusion band Weather Report (who were the first to perform semi-commercial music in a ¼ time signature) pop really is in ¼. So is the music of Count Basie. Perhaps this is what makes “pop” so universally appealing. There is NO grouping of the quarter note to define actual bars of music. “Pop” music is just a string of eighth notes that go on interminably, just like a porno soundtrack. It takes no thought to digest the music, because one basic element of music of the holy trinity of three, rhythm, does not exist. As it does it is the most base level to what rhythm can be reduced while still qualifying as music. This foundation supplies the necessary framework for the grandstanding of alter musical egos on stage. It appears that “pop” musicians represent fire, pathos, and virility, but underneath there is nothing.

Poppy Cock

The West Coast’s seeming reaction to the heated pyrotechnics of the East Coast’s Bebop during the l950’s could be seen as a parallel to Europe’s own dichotomy of Classical versus Romantic styles. Romanticism followed Classicism as a musical “style,” but Cool Jazz usually is seen as a reaction to the precursory musically aggressive style of Bebop. Bebop was the Rock ‘n’ Roll of jazz music, while the Cool School was Adult Contemporary. The only difference was the series. The refined eloquence of the High Classic Style preceded the emotional and personally expressive style of Romanticism. The constraint and seeming distance of the Cool followed the energy and aggressiveness of Bebop. It is just a matter of where you tune in. Pop music in America merits its own study, because although pop is a derivative style it inherently possesses some of the same contrasting musical elements represented in both of the former examples of music lineage. What is America’s pop music attempting? Hip Hop was in popular music’s case the precursor to Pop. It was anti-establishment. It was aggressive. It was raw. It felt good, and you could feel it in your body. While its themes were controversial, often violent, and misogynist the rhythmic concept of Hip Hop was very similar to America’s jazz music. Who knew it swung? That itself historically must define part of the expression of Hip Hop music and why it dissolved. Jazz it is said dissolved in the bottom of a whiskey bottle. What happened to Hip Hop? Evidently more skill was needed to produce Hip Hop than was known, because after the elimination of quite a few of Hip Hop’s major figures the music began to flounder. Cheap electronic imitations began to surface as corporate America attempted to capitalize on Hip Hop’s former influence. The effort was not successful, and modern R&B has not recovered. Instead Pop music became the music of choice for America’s airwaves. How did this happen? First was the disappearance of sample loops, something that ensured Hip Hop always would have an engaging rhythmic feeling. Sampling hit records is not a bad way to ensure the success of your future project. With sampling could have come a neglect for the artistry of live music performance. While this was not so evident at the time, it could have had long lasting ramification for the music industry. If A&R money evaporated with the emergence of iTunes, then the focus of music became not live performance but preconceived, prepackaged, prepared “Boy Bands.” Corporate producers became the major purveyors of popular music shaping the sounds we would come to hear on America’s airwaves. Was this a successful movement? With this trend came the reliance upon pre-recorded tracks and a computer-created click. Tethered to this dragon bands would begin to lose the ability to improvise. Their music became a corporate created product void of the traditional angst driving and accompanying most teen-oriented pop music. While there may have been angst visible on stage, the skill of manipulating it musically and extemporaneously began to get lost. The Greatful Dead officially were dead. Cruise ship bands did not help this movement. With a decline in quality of music education, young musicians now were surfacing that had heard nothing other than America’s own choosen insipid pop music. They were programmed to believe that by conforming to this now created construct of seeming money production, they were satisfying the requirements of the art of music production. In fact there is no art involved at all. Unlike both the Cool School and Bebop, pop require no soul connection whatsoever. Often the vocal can express some emotion, but the underlying rhythmic feel inherently is incapable of stirring anyone’s soul or feet. The pop rhythm comes from the strumming of the guitar, and people’s dancing feet are in no way related to this rhythmic concept. That could be pop’s major downfall, because it fails miserably to connect with the human body unlike much of America’s previous popular music. Why has pop remained “popular” in America? Simply it is because it takes no musical skill whatsoever to create it. While techniques are required to play the notes, no rhythmic feeling is necessary making the instrumental accompaniment to vocals impotent. It seems some contingency of America has grown to love this tepid, submissive, and vaporous music. Could it be the same contingency that supports homosexuality? While that may seem like an extreme conclusion, many of the passive traits associated with this sexual transgression are exhibited in pop music. Pop music is music “in-the-box.” It is performed within the construct of a box. It is not free. It is not romantic. It is conformist at the highest level of conformity and in no represents the previous tenets of America’s music. It is Politically Correct. It is Conservative. It is nothing, and the quickly America moves on the more successful we will be at rebuilding a viable, virile, potent America free to express the deepest of her soul driven concerns.

America's Middle Class Jobs

The news continually is reporting the American job market has not recovered from the recession. Middle class jobs in particular are scarce after massive corporate cuts to shore up those reeling from a huge Wall Street economic break down. While in the short term it is easy to cast blame on the pooling and selling of sub prime mortgages on the open market, other historical and far reaching political decisions have sealed the fate of America’s middle class. NAFTA or the North American Free Trade Alliance, a watershed institution under past President Bill Clinton, failed miserably and caused the peso collapse of South America. It seems those Mexican workers were not quite ready for the amount of hours Asians spend in their sweatshops. The venture capital evaporated as dreams of employing millions of Mexicans at cheap prices vanished. Many lost their life savings as Mexican “workers” continued their own cultural habits. Interestingly enough many of the same workers “flew the coop” penetrating the Texas/Mexican border seeking work as illegal aliens. This is an issue unto itself, and the employment status of these workers eventually will appear before America’s Supreme Court. Should businesses be penalized for utilizing the help of these willing workers? Since Americans themselves are unwilling to pursue these hard labor farm-oriented jobs, why shouldn’t practical businessmen capitalize on their willingness to work? It seems the fertile soil of America laced with the American Dream is more appealing than the rituals of South America. Conversely the continuing displacement of America’s middle classed jobs would point in another direction. It was not that long ago corporations began establishing hubs in foreign countries, and Argentina was a prime choice. These were middle-classed jobs, and a college education and relocation were required. To find a good middle classed job today one must relocate to a foreign country? It seems to be a dichotomy. Middle class jobs that require college always have been scarce therefore competitive in America. Now that corporate America has “out-sourced” many of their total jobs, these jobs are even more scarce here. America’s job market now is not in America. Was this the goal of “Globalization?” While the dismantling of the Berlin Wall and the eradication of the Cold War could have been painted as a national defense issues, wasn’t the opening of global “markets” the goal? America is a Capitalist nation, therefore dollars are needed to ensure the long term economic security of here citizens. How was this to be accomplished exporting her jobs to India and China? As corporate America always has deemed appropriate, they pay the bottom line for free market labor and keep the rest for themselves and their shareholders. Is this the American way? Buying and selling shares of companies on Wall Street seems to be the downfall of Capitalism if it is accomplished greedily and with spite for the American middle class. Religion could play a role here, as our forefathers all ready knew. Capitalism with no conscience is evil. That candidly was proven with Wall Street’s aberrant behavior concerning sub prime lending. The repealing of the Glass/Steagall Act did not help. Allowing what once were discreet financial institutions to merge and interact without the watchful eye of the federal government created a new breed of upper class criminal. Maybe it was destined to occur. It could be the unspoken catalyst for the coup waiting to transpire in America. Luckily or not Obama came to the rescue and George Bush’s head was spared in the public square. Ironically although Clinton was an effective president in many ways, his precursory political legislation fertilized things that were to come. He and Bush’s heads have been spared. Speaking candidly about this situation is the only way to open discussion for the reemergence of America’s middle class. These jobs must come from somewhere, and if corporate America is not given some incentive to bring these manufacturing jobs back to America’s home soil, it will not occur. People keep shouting over these jobs. “I am disappointed with Obama’s lack of success decreasing unemployment in his short tenure as President.” While Clinton himself believes “Green Jobs” are the key, America as a Capitalist country must produce a Gross National Product. We must produce something and not just money. The pipe dream of manipulating money with no means of production is gone. The federal government must realize that to return to her former greatness, pride must return over America’s products.

Count Basie's Pop Music

When I play a big band gig on piano, eventually and inevitably the director will ask me to play like Count Basie. Each time it happens I cringe a little bit, because I forget that playing piano in a big band has very little to do with jazz music. Although Count Basie is considered to be a jazz pianist, his big band was a dance ensemble. I did not know this when I was playing his music in college. We just enjoyed playing swing-oriented music in an ensemble that offered more freedom of expression than the traditional wind ensemble or orchestra. The jazz ensemble was appealing to us because you got to “cook” a little bit. You also got to “solo.” It seemed hip, hipper than the square classical music the other music students were studying to perform. In my undergraduate days I was ignorant of jazz music history. A good historical jazz education was difficult to come by in the early l980’s, especially at the undergraduate level. There were only about ten universities then that offered a D.M.A. or Phd. in jazz studies. It was said because the music was so young a significant enough amount had not passed to amass the relevant pedagogy. Jazz also was shunned because of the interconnected drug culture. The “Ivory Tower” didn’t understand that drug use did not necessarily thwart art. Jazz musicians I found out later used alcohol and drugs to help facilitate the euphoric personal expression necessary for the realization of quality jazz music. Although Miles Davis, one of jazz music’s iconic creators, created his voice from a mainly melancholic type of expression, swing music should be considered “happy” music. Miles changed this, and with his new direction he changed jazz music for good. If you need a diversion from the “happy” swing music Miles should be your choice. While it would be wrong and stereotypical to call all jazz happy music, swinging could and should be considered a happy musical style. Upon examination most music scholars probably would agree that to “jazz it up” is to bring a kind of happy personal feeling to the music. The perfect example of this dynamic is the piece “The St. Louis Blues March” performed by the Glen Miller Orchestra. Miller, after enlisting in the United States army, created the first successful military, commercial music reliant, propaganda music force in American history. While “nationalism” had been in place as a music tenet in many European countries, an American Tchaikovsky or Wagner hadn’t necessarily been discovered. Miller, in an ingenious conception, actualized a plan that satisfied many high profile demands. First he offered his services to the war effort like many young Americans were forced to do resulting from military conscription. Second he created a U.S.O.-type of internal troop moral building music machine. Third he advanced the art form of swing-oriented music. Fourth he cleverly advanced his own personal music career. All of this was accomplished utilizing swing-oriented music. Miller’s accomplishment alone proves the value of swing music, but also pigeonholes its own musical potential to “happy” music. Miles resulting musical commentary could be seen as a reaction to the preceding dance-oriented big band music. The outlawing of dance floors in clubs during the war did not help. A new type of music had to be created that of itself possessed the capability to keep listeners tuned in. That music was Bebop. Bebop was seminal in the development of jazz music, because by its own definition it was music solely for its artists and proponents. Bebop musicians relished the concept their music was not “for the man” and not for dancing. It was a strong individual reaction and evolution of civil liberties spurred by the slavery experience in America. The feeling of the blues developed in the fields of the American by slaves could be considered what brings soul to swing music. Similarly the early jazz musicians of Louisiana were familiar with the street funeral dirges inherent in New Orleans culture. The feeling of sadness was a crucial part of human expression and thus deserved to be preserved in jazz music. The funeral parade with their “Second Line” would sing the lament of death, and upon burial of the individual would celebrate their resurrection to heaven. How does Count Basie relate to this history? The definition of a jazz ensemble as a dance entity effects the freedom of rhythm. Because dancers demand a steady uncompromising “beat,” this requirement takes precedence over the individual musician’s personal expression. Count Basie’s orchestra with Freddie Greene as guitarist is the most obvious example of this limitation. While Basie’s arrangment are musically interesting in melody and harmony, the rhythmic concept that came to define them is historical “pop” music. A constant strum of quarter notes on the guitar of itself is not musically interesting. What it does do is satisfy the apparent need of the pop music patron, a simple, continual, rhythmic pulse providing a base for a melody. Consequently is it academically correct to call Basie’s music derivative? While they were doing all that they could to continue working, and resultantly were advancing big band music it should be noted that The Count Basie Orchestra was not the highest achievable example of swing-oriented big band music. It is the most popular because it was the most well-known.

Gays in the Military

The absurdity of placing the value of one’s sexuality above one’s career security can be exemplified by a UNC-Chapel Hill undergraduate’s grievous mistake of “coming out” her senior year to senior ROTC officials. Almost at the completion of a full ROTC scholarship at one of America’s finest institution, this cadet had the bright idea that her sexual preference somehow became more important than her lifelong love of the military and her dream of becoming a military officer. What was she thinking? Often in adolescence where love is a primary part of an individual’s self-perception, selfish emotions drive achievement. Only later in life after educational and social maturation occur does the need to control one’s emotions with the mind become more important. It is possible this grievous mistake was necessary in beginning this process of development. American culture with its capitalist root does not help young people’s schooling on love and sex. Without the necessary (but often disdained) intervention of religion or education, there is naught left to assure young Americans can make an enlightened decision regarding their sexual definition. The task of separating one’s sexuality from the ranks while in America’s armed forces could seem overwhelming. For this reason “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was created and suggested by then Secretary of State Colin Powell to President Bill Clinton. It was a simple plan. It said that gay soldiers, if not in uniform, could not be persecuted if they attended gay bars or participated in gay rallies. It was a simple modest plan that promoted both humbleness and humility, a combination that took into consideration religions’ labeling of homosexuality as sodomy. Only without this contingency could homosexuality be considered moral. With the continuing surge of homosexuality in America whether coincidental or not, major institutions have taken pot shots at Christianity in the last few years. It seems the gay agenda has been put into place and a large populace still is attempting to gain its acceptance into mainstream American society. Why are homosexuals so concerned about defining a public platform with which to define themselves with an issue traditionally private and discreet? America itself has struggled with the commercialization of sexuality, and in most cases this actualization has proven a failure. America’s social conscious over decades decided to replace the sometimes bawdy and depraved and not-so-inconspicuous display of commercially available sex in Times Square in New York City. Who is to say it was a success? Disney and sex seem to be polar opposites. Was it appropriate that the Lion King replaced Linda Loveless? It can’t be mistaken that America has puritan roots, roots often that desire to be overlooked. If asked if Shaker, Amish, or Quaker customs would be acceptable to most modern Americans, unequivocally the answer would be no. It has been up to Larry Flynt to decide the dividing line between conservative and liberal sexuality in America. It is true America is based upon principles of freedom, and it is understandable that homosexuals are seeking asylum like many oppressed immigrants. “Give me your tired, your poor.” The difference here is a religious issue, one that must be mitigated by God. Literal translation of educational scriptures are anachronistic, so it is conceivable homosexuality may not buy you a ticket to hell. The reluctance to accept what traditionally has been perceived as immoral behavior into America’s mainstream is understandable. Its acceptance into the modern American military armed forces should be delayed until a greater understanding is achieved.

Pop Art

As much as I try to love “pop” music I can’t. After nine years of collegiate study in music and after two years of desperation studying the style and trying to recognize its financial contribution to American history, still I cannot love it. I’m sorry. There is nothing to love. “Pop” music is just that. What? Some people consider “pop” a shortening of the world “popular.” “Like, admired, or enjoyed by many people” could be an anthem for the world derivative defined as “having a value deriving from an underlying variable asset.” That is true in the sense of a pure music education. “Pop” music is nothing of itself. It only can be defined by other more tangible underlying musical ideas. Why then must “pop” music exist at all? The reason is simple. Music is an art form, and because music has become such a crucial part of the American ideal an easy way needed to be developed to realize it with no skill. “Pop” music is folk music, music for the folks. The interesting thing is the “folks” in America always seem more intelligent than expected when interviewed on television. Why then must we subject the folks to such inane music? The reason is simple. Money. Commercial music at one time in America was a high art form. In the l930’s through the year two thousand, viable music sound stages existed in film, television, and radio that gainfully employed high level musicians. These were predicated by a high degree of music education and performance skill. Music was operating as an art form, and hence the artistic ideal was part of film, television, and radio. That is not necessarily true today. Modern day music media companies are attempting to clone previous successful music vocations, but without the necessary education and experience producing music, their product is falling short. They are attempting to produce an art form without the meaning, feeling, or substance. It is a crutch. It is substituting for “education,” the process of attempting and failing, an immediate gratification without peering into one’s soul. If one sits in front of a computer all day and never makes an effort to talk to another human being, how can we consider ourselves a social nation? This has been the trend of this entire decade driven by technology that attempts to do just that, substitute a shallow seemingly pleasant mantra for what should be a “hard knocks” school of growing pains. It is soft-core porn. I prefer the hard-core kind where you get your hands dirty and experience a tactile and tangible reward or response from an effort driven by desire. Desire is what motivates, and it used to be what motivated musicians. It still might, but the desire for money is what is motivating commercial music houses today. With a lack of mainstream from which to draw inspiration, the commercial musical community eventually will have to return to the collegiate classroom to find its roots.

"Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

Upon a casual reading of the definition of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in Wikipedia, it should be obvious to the most dense American the integrity of our nation’s fighting forces should be more important than an individual’s sexual preference. The depth of Wiki’s definition alone should mandate that a casual attachment of the Murphy Amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act would be shortsighted. While the repealing of relevant portions of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was supposed to be contingent upon the completion of a study by the Department of Defense on its effectiveness and long term ramifications, it appears the casual and immoral approach of American sexuality erroneously has been extrapolated to law making. A social issue that directly affects the national security of the United States demands a more in depth study, one that stealthly should not be attached to other legislation as “pork.” As America recognized the “Separation of Church and State” as a fundamental part of our Constitutional responsibility, the “Separation of the Military and Sexuality” should remain a humble and discreet process. “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” has been corrupted. Absence of integrity out of sight of the eyes of authority both in the ranks and administration has bred abuse. Witchhunts were common attempting to segregate probable homosexuals from the mainstream of the military. This not only existed in the military, but America’s views on homosexuality are changing at the urging of television. It has become common in the last decade for the casual needs of pop culture to at least attempt to instill their value system in mainstream American education. With the lack of funding and emphasis on America’s public education, the value system of an undefined and unstudied contingency has crept into our consciousness. With the vacating of America’s middle classed manufacturing jobs little has been left to define a mainstream. The often contempt for Christianity in America has left a segregated, selfish, and undisciplined population that is bathing in a false security. A misrepresentative “pop” culture has created a soft and malleable bandaid attempting to cover the festering wounds of a continuing “Campaign of Fear and Intimidation.” Music, once a potent force of change in the expression of American ideals, has become a depressive narcotic anesthetizing America to the real soul moving vibrations necessary for a thriving economy. The mis-education continues. Amy Poehler’s comedic narrative last night on the season premiere of Saturday Night Live summed up the much-too-casual approach to repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” While representing one interpretation of “Gays in the Military,” her conclusion fell horribly short of the possible long term socio-psychological effects of mainstreaming homosexuality in a traditional heterosexual protective fighting security force. It is true and apparent that being shipped to Afghanistan for several years risking your life for your country is not much of a reward for “Seeing someone’s pee pee in the shower.” Unfortunately that does not scratch the surface of the common practices of homosexuality in the military. Saccharin pop sensibilities once again are attempting to soften America’s once lofty and respectable ethical and moral values. Media continue to bathe what once was a stark, visceral, and educational process of socialization of young Americans with tepid, shallow, temporary sensory anesthesia. A more appropriate depiction of “Gays in the Military” would be one of the many gay military porn sites. In Fayetteville, North Carolina officers in the army actively recruited young enlistees to participate in their gay sex videos placed online for a profit. This type of abuse of authority and exploitation of a nurturing environment much more is representative of the probable corruptions of “Gays in the Military.” The repealing of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” would open the door for such illicit and depraved sexual activity to continue. There once was a time when the mainstream in America clearly was defined and social, religious, cultural, political, and socio-economic habits were much more clear. We are living in an age of spin where our political parties, once defined and respectable organizations, have succumbed to the tribal barbarianism of the ethnic and religious sects of the Middle East. They lob fire bombs at each other while the diplomatic communicative processes that ensure any nation evolve shrink further away masked by convenient sound bites and iPhone text. While our starving economy needs Gross National Product, all of the convenient telecommunications products in the world cannot replace a traditional American “Readin’, Writin’, and Rithmatic” education. The influx of net technology into our schools has transformed the educational process into arch enemy number one. Many of America’s once tried and true virtues casually have been replaced by a non-proactive, complacent, and lethargic acceptance of original sin. We are weak as are gay men. If given a choice, if Islam Extremists invaded your town would you want gay men fighting for you? Pink sarongs, spiked heels, and wigs are no match for the bullets of angry Muslims






.

Lay Off Obama!

It would be a near impossibility for one man to turn around the status of the badly tattered United States economy. The shortsighted need for immediate gratification, like an epidemic, is haunting President Barak Obama’s relatively new administration. It would be a grievous error to call it fledgling, because fledgling it is not. In stark contrast to its tabloid television media coverage, Obama’s administration systematically has been enacting legislation to turn the social and financial systems around in America. Many people have been confused by the serialization of those acts. Obama had no choice first to take the reins of the TARP bailout money. As much of the country demanded they quickly passed an economic stimulus package rightly that produced its own bastard political party. The “Tea Party” was begun, and there was nothing wrong with objecting to the “Porkulous.” The county as a whole still has no idea whether the emptying of America’s pocketbook at the expense of Wall Street was helpful. Have any jobs been created? It was a necessary gamble in an attempt to stabilize our economic infrastructure hoping and opting for employment in the future. In retrospect now we all know it was a heinous atrocity that was abused corporately like a Catholic alter boy. So was Communism.
His second overlooked, misunderstood, and erroneously politically disparaged legislation was “Universal Healthcare.” Again the need for the continuing gratification of the wealthy demands attention from Obama in response to his call for the coverage of America’s forty million uninsured citizens. As per the quintessential nature of Conservatism, why would the wealthy, privileged, and empowered want any change? They are afraid of a “restructuring” of Americas entitlement system, historically one that can serve the poor and middle class depending upon whether a democratic or republican administration is in power. The appropriate response to America’s wealthy comes from the movie “A Few Good Men.” Fundamentally we are supposed to fight for those who are not strong enough to fight for themselves. Unfortunately like the abuse of the TARP funds, this process itself becomes abused breeding yet another bastard entity, the lazy poor. They and the illegal immigrants who are taking advantage of America’s entitlements enrage republicans as they should. What is difficult is isolating the deserving undeveloped, overlooked, and underachieving Americans that need a leg up. It would stand to reason immigration reform is likely occurrence following the serial of Obama legislation.
It is wise to take a moment to digress and speak loudly that….. THE WAR IN IRAQ IS OVER! On time and as planned America’s troops are LEAVING IRAQ. This is huge news, but it is not surprising that America’s media has given it little attention. They are continuing the same pattern of partisan and republican partial reporting of Obama the wealthy desire. It clearly is media bias.
Without citing his entire presidential history, it is necessary to quell the minutia of America’s minority vocal demand that one man solve economic problems that began with the Clinton Presidency. While effective as a president the enacting of NAFTA and the repealing of The Glass-Steagall Act both were the founding of the economic crisis that festered during George W. Bush’s tenure as president. Obama merely stepped in at the worst possible moment, a probably reason why the first African-American was elected president. It would be nice if Christian America would “Give a brother a hand.”

Obama the Martyr

Despite the ongoing smear campaign by the Republican-led telecommunications industry, President Obama like a martyr continues to rebuild America’s socio-economic infrastructure after its decimation by the Bush Administration. It is a large task healing the weeping wounds left by the Bush Administration. Considering Americans have been left coldly in the lurch by industry, how are we expected to put food on the table and a roof over our heads? Starkly but not surprisingly America during the Bush regime became a country of the wealthy and privileged. The essence of our constitution was tainted by Bush’s greedy, egocentric, and unchristian legislation favoring only the rich. Now abstract tenants of the “American Dream” that citizens have enjoyed for decades have become a vapor evaporating vehemently and tenaciously resisting Allah’s Christian-like mantra. How could America’s constitution spiritually have been tainted, and right and good been made bad and evil? It was a formidable task, but one that the Bush Administration seems to have completed aptly. The hypocrisy is the media continues to paint the opposite picture. If Obama is the socialist how can we explain the government employed 60% of the population before his emergence into the Presidency? America always has been a socialist nation disguised by the desired and fought for privileges of capitalism. Someone has to fund capitalism, and it always has been the government. With Bush’s exit from the Presidency, he took that funding. Now America’s private citizens are left holding empty pocketbooks. It took a thief and Bush was a clever one. Just as he got the hell out of Dodge, he stuck his hand back in America’s purse and stole the bounty for his friends. It could have been the most controversial political act in the history of the nation. Anywhere else Bush would have been beheaded in the public square. Here in a politically correct nation of indoctrinated submission by a campaign of fear and intimidation, Americans have been threatened like vulnerable jews in Poland and squeezed inadvertently into their own private gas chambers. The question now is in spite of Obama’s heroic efforts to right the wrong, has America’s concept been maimed permanently? Can anyone even remember how America used to work? Is it conceivable America can ever return? How can the success of a country be left only on one man’s shoulders? If America quickly does not reinvigorate its educational system caring about its future leaders, the America we have always known will become a myth. Baby Boomers are not the fuel this country and this economy needs. America cannot afford to fund its privileged anymore. It has to begin anew with a grass roots effort to reinvigorate capitalism as it was meant to function, what products Americans need and the best domestic men provide them. China and India do not enter into the equation. The aristocracy hiding America’s lost fortune will not last forever.

The Timothy McVeigh Tapes

While grotesque in appearance the biography of Timothy McVeigh’s convictions through hundreds of hours of recorded cassette tapes on MSNBC offers a telling expository narrative of a post traumatic Desert Storm veteran. Skilled and cunning McVeigh was indoctrinated by non other than the American armed forces during Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait. After viscerally living a life of combat against terrorist forces, McVeigh found despondency returning to the continental United States. A mundane life of daytime television and fast food could not meet the expectations of a tried and true war veteran. After suffering a year’s tenure of depression and post- traumatic stress, McVeigh in a futile attempt began to conceive his own vigil based upon the mistreatment of the Branch Dividian followers of David Koresh at the Mount Carmel property near Waco, Texas. In McVeigh’s eyes the 168 human beings murdered during his bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building were martyrs intended to represent the hundreds of thousands of innocent victims persecuted by an increasingly fascist American government. Posthumously his own execution was a Socratic touché vehemently objecting to his own hypocritical indoctrination during the United States military’s war against Iraq. It was a plea for peace.

Gordon and Smith Skateboards

It is highly recognized the Gordon and Smith continued carrying the torch for a flexible skateboard deck. While the original Zephyr board actually may not have flexed because of its heavy glass and resin construction, the G&S boards did. Skip said the rocker design was meant to keep the dense stiff fiberglass from cracking under weight. Whether the rocker profile changed the glass and resin structure is speculative, but it seemed to solve the problem simultaneously creating an ergonomic slalom-styled deck. G&S began creating decks that actually moved in response to the rider’s weight. They were dynamic creating a new responsive deck that interacted with the moves of the rider. The G&S Fiberflex became the Cadillac of skateboards during the late l970’s, and its model never has been replicated. Gordon and Smith customized their Fiberflex with newly available Bennett Trucks and World Industry produced Road Rider wheels. This was the second school of the original Sure Grip truck and Cadillac wheel. “Mr.” Bennett used aircraft aluminum to create a highly technical truck that was tall, sharp-turning, and efficient returning the hanger to center after it had been torqued in a turn. The Road Rider easily replaced Frank Nasworthy’s Cadillac wheel mostly because of its new sealed precision bearing. The Cadillac wheels had open ball bearings that could spill out and crash the rider if too much weight was placed on the wheels. Likewise they could get dirty and rusted easily if not cared for properly. The Hoover bearing set the standard for sealed precision bearings and although originally found in vacuum cleaners made the transition to carrying people easily. The combination of the G&S fiberglass deck with Bennett trucks and Road Rider wheels revolutionized the skateboard production industry.

The "Carve"

The key to skateboard “set-up” or design is an intuitive geometry or feng shui among its components. In the Old School control turning predicates a ratio between axle length, wheels width, and board width. The efficiency to turn the board via torquing the truck on its bushings is achieved by this magic ratio. The variables can be very different. Any combination of short vs. wide can used as long as logic is applied to the size the components. A narrow width board could demand a wider truck to create stability. A wide board could demand a narrower truck to create a tighter turning radius. Three elements fully must cooperate in the conceiving of a functionally operating skateboard. 1) The width of the board. 2) The width of the hanger and/or axle, 2) the width of the wheel. There are some proponents insisting the wheels cannot extend beyond the edges of the board, but how is one to visually see his “balance beam” without seeing the total extension of the wheels and axle? The ability to “carve” the board is what is created with the magic ratio. Carving is a stylized turn created by weighting and un-weighting on a pivot axis rather than merely tilting the board forward or backward over the front and back trucks. Carving is what demands perfect symmetry in the cooperation of these three components.

New School vs. Old School Skating

First a few thoughts on vintage skate paraphernalia. For street cruisin’ 7 ply concave top decks are not the way to go. Transportation means long distances traversed on four wheels two feet. A concaved deck is not copacetic with the arches in the feet. Only a few deck manufacturers seems to have picked up on this bit of ergonomic information. While for skate rats adhering to the motto “Skate and Destroy” concave decks may offer heightened control for Ollie tricks, a flat top is more suited to long distance travel. Imagine hours or miles of friction created by the opposite geometry of concave vs. convex. It just doesn’t make sense. “Old School” and longboard manufacturers seem more in tune with the concept of traversing long distances, carving mellow banks, and rolling over rough concrete and asphalt. Flex, rocker, or “give” in the board offer a more comfortable ride, especially to those over 30. The concept of pumping the skateboard has experienced a new awakening, and this equally can apply to both longboards and shortboards. As with any aesthetic the boundaries become blurred, and the connoisseur fully must understand the intent of their craft. A carefully chosen stick can satisfy a number of requirements. Sadly the art of slalom skateboarding has been overlooked as the root of LBP or “Longboard Pumping.” In the seventies getting through the cones quickly meant not only being able to turn or carve on a dime, but weighting and unweighting as one navigated the tightly spaced path. A “tall,” narrow-width axle, and loosely-turning truck was conceived for such an act. Not many people seem to realize the Jeff Ho and Skip Engblom designed and built original Zephyr skateboard served such as purpose. The conception of this watershed design is what allowed Dogtown’s Z-Boys to devise and develop their personal surf-oriented skateboard style. While based upon Hobie’s rockered and railed fiberglass Super Surfer model, the Zephyr board included the Sure Grip truck and Cadillac wheel as needed customization. Only so much performance could be eked out of compressed nut shells wheels and open ball bearings. The combination of these four elements produced a skateboard equally qualified for slalom, carving banks, and achieving speed by pumping the board. The rocker shape contoured to the body compressing into a turn, the rails prevented “wheel bite,” the somewhat tall Sure Grip trucks provided a tight turning radius, and the urethane wheels both gripped and slid on pavement when necessary. It was a catharsis, one that would not have occurred had it not been for Skip Engblom and Jeff Ho. While the stylistic roots of skateboarding had been pioneered in an earlier decade based upon other board sports, this configuration is what allowed skateboarding to flourish fueled by the talent and devotion of Dogtown’s Z-Boys. To understand the nature of skateboarding at its core, an examination of the Z-Boys style crucial. The New School of skateboarding, while in some ways similar, is quite different. The requirement of intricate balance is not such an imperative. The boards have a lower center of gravity, have concaved edges, and have longer noses and tails. In comparison to the surf shape they almost qualify as balance boards. Therefore a clear delineation must be made in choosing one’s aesthetic and one’s board.

The Z Boys Surf/Skate Style

The Z Boys Surf/Skate style employs a rather sophisticated set of footwork to control the skateboard. Instead of placing one foot over each truck and using the ankles to turn the board by tilting the direction you are turning, the Z Boy method utilizes the “carve.” It is important to realize that BOTH the heels and the balls of the feet are used to control the board. They can be used discretely with independence between the two feet or in tandem. Any combination of front foot/back foot toe/heel can be used. Stacy Peralta originated (or at least in any mainstream sense) the concept of “pumping” the skateboard to achieve speed. He used the back foot tilted at an angle and “rocked” the foot from ball to heal on the very tail of the board to get it to “pump.” The front foot also was pointed mostly forward, not laterally across the board, with the ball of the front foot carrying most of the weight. The combination of a small ball pivot placed nearly center on the board (with possible the heal hanging over the back rail, if your foot was large) controlling the turning of the board from the front, in cooperation with the “rocking” of the back foot from toe to heal (i.e. the toe pressing down in the inside rail in a turn and the heal pressing down the outside rail) accomplished a very sharp carving motion enabling the Z Boys to eventually carve a pool. The technique was based upon Larry Bertleman’s surfing style which the Z Boys saw for the first time in the Hal Jepson film Super Session. Larry did not want to follow the traditional, long, loping lines of previous surfers instead opting to “carve” figure eight patterns much more sharply with a low center of gravity. Surfing low allowed the execution of sharper turns high on the incline of the wave and also allowed riding inside the closing tube of the encroaching wave. The feet position of Bertleman could be called one of a number of different surf stances. The feet are placed at almost a 90 degree angle with each other and with a 45 degree angle to the rails of the board. This foot placement offered optimum control when carving the board. This symmetrical foot placement

America's Closeted Fascism

Upon perusal of America’s ports it would become readily apparent America has no exports. Under the blanket of George W. Bush’s closeted Fascism, the majority of America’s products were “outsourced” to what then was believed to be the “Bridge to the New Millennium.” Two “Clintonian” concepts failed, and both failures were unmerited. Bill Clinton’s North American Free Trade Association and Hillary Clinton’s Universal Health Care Plan both found political deaths for similar reasons. The social landscape was not ready for either. In South America the lifestyle of peasant Mexico was not prepared for a “sweat shop” style of mass production practiced by Asian children. The realization of quickly produced product at a budget price failed and the peso collapsed. The venture capital invested by Wall Street evaporated like the bubbles created by the Internet, over-valued housing, and easy credit in North America. Many South Americans lost their money and their lives. America’s elite were not ready to have their lifestyles and fortunes compromised by a Socialist concept that guaranteed the common man equal health insurance. Ten years later America’s elite still is not ready for a compromise of lifestyle, but America’s majority-elected black president is trying to achieve the same goal. It is both a compliment and an insult that Hillary Clinton accepted Barack Obamas’s nomination as Secretary of State. Posthumously Hillary’s Universal Health Care proposal was found to be nothing more than a memo sent via E-Mail. Socializing one of America’s most wealth-producing private industries was a task daunting to the most accredited academics. No one is sure she even asked for help with the task. Barack Obama’s “Public Option” health care reform bill seems to be even more misunderstood. The only glimpse the public has seen is that it intends to offer a health insurance option to those now uninsured, and it seeks to curb the exponential inflation in American health care costs. Because America no longer seems to desire the manufacturing of goods that could be exported, the income earned from the workers producing those products cannot be spent on health insurance. In a nutshell America’s Closet Fascism has been created. There is no need to create death camps with gas chambers at Auschwitz. In America globalization or the diversion of our Gross National Product to potentially more lucrative foreign economies accomplishes the same goal. We have created domestic poverty. With the bleeding of our monetary lifeblood we have created an inability to diagnose, treat, and heal our human iniquities necessary to maintain a capable and potent work force. With no income comes no health insurance, and Big Brother does not care. In a continuation of George W. Bush’s elitist, unethical, propagandist dogma the neglect of America’s people continues in a trend only that can represent Nazi Germany’s arrogant invasion of Europe. It stealthy is being achieved not unlike the multi-national prophecy of the onset of Armageddon. The year 2012 quickly is approaching, and no one seems to believe the impending second coming of Jesus Christ is worth mentioning. The end of America as we know it is more fathomable, yet conservative pundits continue to bark on national television about Barack Obama’s Socialism. What he seems to be offering in a “Public Option” is not the ultimate death of the privatized health care industry. It, like the United States Post Office, is meant to offer an unaffordable alternative for those in America that cannot afford UPS or FedEx. The success of the USPO is iconic, and while sometimes it is a struggle it remains a pinnacle of a tried and true America value. How could affordable public health care be less? Instead of assuring your letter or parcel will get to your loved one on time, Obama’s “Public Option” would assure uninsured Americans will not die when they contract swine flu, HIV, or cancer. No extremist right wing political news organization can say this is an evil idea. They can only say it is un-Capitalist. With the election of George W. Bush to the American presidency, Capitalism was out-sourced years ago. For America’s populace to survive the new millennium, the lower and middle class need an influx of progressive political ideology that unfortunately may tax the rich. We deserve the Constitution’s ideals, and when they methodologically are being revoked by elitist America, Barack Obama is needed.

The Public Option

The economic foundations of the “America Dream” have to come from somewhere. How is it this country, America, has risen above all others promising and often providing the “American Dream?” The “American Dream” is nothing other than financial success achieved without the oppressive constraints of social class and politics. Somehow in the American capitalist frontier the system of supply and demand has been upheld. Commodities worthy of value remain as such, and invaluable commodities that are hawked and gambled upon eventually find their true demise. Hedge funds found their true demise. The bundled mortgages of private citizens held in the poker hands of elitist Wall Street players have revealed their true colors. Without a product, without a Gross National Product, there is no product upon which to gamble. Debt is not a good product upon which to gamble. We have learned that in the last two years. What has been the economic foundation upon which the “American Dream” has been possible? That is a good question. It seems the Free Market System, a system that relies upon honest and unbiased advertising, has been upheld in America until now. Now the airwaves that previously supplied that honest and unbiased advertising have become monopolized compromising the neutral communication of a democratic Capitalist socio-economic system. The airwaves have become corrupt. The infrastructure of America, honest and arbitrary advertising via telecommunications, has become a huge propaganda machine for the Extreme Right. The “American Dream” has been quashed by financial elites seeking to maintain their own power. The mobility of America, the ability to sidestep bureaucracy and large government, has been stymied by elitist America. Big business has squeezed the last penny out of Main Street left holding their dicks and wondering where the money is. In an effort to retain their monetary power, the remnants of elitist America produced by the medical profession and the insurance industry are floundering seeming grass roots lobbies at Town Hall meetings across America. Bucking the undeniable unpopular trend of HMO takeovers of healthcare in America, wildcard Republican extremists have launched an offensive against President Obama shouting such absurdities as “Death Squads.” While most Americans know Medicare and Medicaid are not the most efficient and stealth of health care providers, they are there for the masses that need them. Such is the “Public Option.” Unlike these shouters would have you believe at local Town Hall dissentions, the “Public Option” is meant to be nothing other than a viable option for health insurance for those that remain uninsured. As Obama continues to reiterate, it will not change the existing policies of Americans who are happy with their coverage. The Public Option, like the United States Post Office, is meant to provide and much needed service to and for the American people. The anti-Socialist shouting extremists appearing at these local Town Hall meetings are much more likely to be staged by the Republican party than pro-Obama supporters that slowly are beginning to realize their importance to the country. The stagnation of Old Money and the reliance upon tried and true fixed financial instruments has become real, and a true test of America’s Frontier is now underway.

We Can't Handle the Truth, in America

Upon returning to the continental United States after working on a cruise ship out of San Juan, Puerto Rico for six long months, the social, economic, and political landscape appear evil, bleak, and violent. Returning to a military town with the United States still engaged in an unwanted war of attrition against extreme Islam, the smoke continues to disguise reality. Virtual spin machines still are hard at work like Skynet doing their best to skew America’s political perceptions. Is it possible the Democratic Party is staging Town Hall meetings, supplying them with bought political supporters of our current President? Would the Democrats go to so much trouble to sway America’s perception? It is not unrealistic, because the media predominantly is controlled by the Extreme Right. Therefore their what-should-be-neutral media coverage all ready is tainted. It has been years since we as a people have been able to believe television. The internet is more reliable, but it seems not to be self-sustaining. The input of a myriad of bloggers seems to be the fuel of the internet news services. Without their online chatter, their coverage has waned but not without reason. The presidential election now is over, and the reality of trying to bleed news from the Capital Hill spin machine must be overwhelming. Journalism now will be defined by its traditional definition with instinctual, tenacious, investigative reporting. The good stories are left to those reporters who commit to their ideals. The question whether current Town Hall meetings have been staged is reasonable. Wag the Dog scenarios have existed before, and certainly the challenging of the medical elites’ monetary support is a high enough profile issue. It could define the very nature of America. Are we getting down to it? The issue simply is who deserves? Do uninsured Americans deserve health care? Can we qualify their needs for health care in the shadow of the preamble to the Constitution of the United States, “All men are created equal?” Because citizens are unemployed, poor, or illiterate means they do not deserve the same health care benefits as well-provided-for Americans? That seems to be the case in a country with roots in genocide and slavery. While America has redeemed herself in certain ways with advances in industry, technology, and art, today’s post Bush landscape is one littered with bigotry and racism radiating from a Totalitarian elite pushed into exile by Barack Obama and his fervent voters. Still as exhibited in these recent Town Hall meeting the disparate strains of America continue to fight. Slowly and surely Obama seems to be laying the groundwork for what could become milestone reversals of Bush’s unconstitutional policies and legislation. It takes time, and weekly assessments of Obama’s public satisfaction ratings are nothing more than media ammunition to fuel and disguise the truth. Television continues to be a void of nothing. There is very little worth watching, and the minds of our youth successfully have been shielded from the positive aspects and philosophy of American life. It continues to be a campaign of intimidation, fear, and violence. Formerly good people are taking up arms in ignorance, misunderstanding Obama’s plans. They are running scared, worried about no one but their own damn selves the way we were reared in our Capitalist socio-economic system. Obama is trying to change that with hints of a socialist philosophy. The problem is America’s own Extreme seem just as closed-minded as the Islam faction whom we are fighting. Instead of trying to embrace one another in diplomacy with Christian ethics, we are headed down a path of barbarous antagonism not unlike the Extremism we have witnessed since its inception. Media has adopted and embraced the extreme evil sacrament of terror and unknowingly we watch it daily. How can we not be affected? What is the truth? We can’t handle the truth, in America.

Let Them Eat Cake!

With the recent failure of hedge funds, financial instruments gambling upon consumer debt, it may be America’s realigning economy will become anachronistic. Wall Street’s financial district will disappear, and the quaint but realistic merchant shops once littering Manhattan’s streets and alleys will return. They would be selling fresh vegetables, fruit, meats, spices, perfume, baubles, and other accoutrement to thriving New Yorkers. They would not be selling multiple mortgages packaged at budget interest rates. The need to amass billions of dollars would cease, and humanity would return at a provincial grass-roots level. Guilds would take the place of the House and the Senate, and Free Masons would proliferate. Their symbol is on the back of our paper currency. The mundane skills of blacksmithing, cobbling, furniture-making, and cooking would re-inherit their former glory, and the tenets of American social class would shrink. The economy would contract but would come to rest firmly on a foundation of demand and supply. The Gross National Product would become inconsequential, because America would be concerned only with providing for herself. Imperialist desires would be quelled by a previous War in Iraq, another plunder tapping the pocketbooks of citizens. As the financial industry recedes cloaked and incognito, mainstream American minutemen would launch an offensive reestablishing control of the Federal Reserve. Those guilty of the Wall Street melt down would be humiliated, publicly shackled in stocks at the town square, not Town Hall. They would be left to be tormented by their livid dupes. If they whimpered for contrition, maybe guillotine would be spared.

The New Revolution

Disco dancing and step aerobics could have no faults other than mall hair and “Glam-Rock” clothing. They both are vital physical exercise allowing humans to purge their endorphins cleansing them of the toxic refuse created by living in a Capitalist socio-economic system. While the Humanities suggest Western society long has engaged in music rituals to sanctify romance, America has lost touch with her roots. The driving forces of the 1980’s, love and the arts, have been lost. Only now in the bleak aftermath of George Bush’s economic debacle, “The Raping of the American Economy,” are the tenacious residual strains of romance beginning to resurface. Glorify the individual? Indulge the soul? Embrace the libido? These are new thoughts in a changing era of politics. It may be we reap the musical reward as well as the music of the 80’s provided overt cleansing of the confusion of the soul. It astutely fed the desires of the human soul instead of fueling them like pop music. Music and dance of the 80’s provided pleasure, not desire. Pop music as an aesthetic and a specific music style is effective only in riling people like a Hitler war speech. If you want your audience to revel and buy products, this is your choice. If you want to plant the seeds of a long term economy, gain the adoration of your fans, and invest in America as a country you would choose something else. The musical effect of pop music is nothing other than to flush the audience with raw emotion. It matters not if there is no understanding of the lyric content and how it relates to its audience. Pop music is a device that has been abused in the last decade sweeping America’s real music history under the rug. Time/Warner purchased the rights to the majority of America’s hit music and only offers it in expensive compilations on their website. AM and FM radio were corporately monopolized like television and the propaganda campaign began. Those damn longhairs got pushed out of Texas. I mean the country. While living in the barren aftermath of an economic implosion, Americans have realized they have nothing left to lose. Why not form a militia? Why not buy a gun and carry it to a Town Hall meeting? These are our constitutional rights that have been squelched like radio. Cooley and cunningly America was duped into innocent, naïve, compliance with the Republican party whose private citizens bilked them of billions of dollars for their own personal gain. If that is not grounds for a revolution, I don’t know what is. Maybe music will lead the way, again.

The New Secretary of Straight

I have to take a a few minutes and reflect upon what is happening politically in America. Hillary was taped in Africa representing a hybrid Madeline Albright and Jabba the Hut. In her newfound post as Barack Obama’s Secretary of State, we have heard little from her. We as the American people don’t know if she has done anything since the inauguration. If we were assessing her capabilities of diplomacy while watching the news footage of her trip, she would have received a D-. Wagging her finger and refusing to admit past President Bill Clinton is her husband painted her as a crochety school marm full of sour grapes upon losing her own Presidential bid. “Will the real Secretary of State please stand up, Mrs. Albright?” While Obama’s strategy of hiring political enemies to help bridge the stalemate between left and right in America seems prudent, it seems Hillary is dragging her feet. While it does take time to figure out what one’s job is and then figure out how effectively to do it, America’s diplomatic clock is ticking. Amicable worldwide relations could help trump not only the terror card but the ensuing economic depression. Meanwhile America continues to be defined by her incumbent, puritan-rooted, soap-box shouting Republicans fearful Socialism will deprive them of their benefits the Baby Boomer generation so tactfully arranged. It is this generation of Americans that are “in the money” and dutifully covered by health insurance, unlike fledging Gen. X’ers who hide their despondency by buying portable Apple devices and playing video games. “Will the real Condition of America please rise?” It is a bleak portrait. Obama seems effectively to be sledgehammering away at the crony politics of the previous George W. Bush, but a tsunami of deceit and corruption are floating upon the potable water of the American people. Unemployment continues to rise and banks continue to fail. The stark reality the “cheap money” upon which the credit industry was founded is gone may spark a revolution. What have the people got to lose?

The Medicine of the World

Why is it that soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are committing suicide after they return to the United States? If the horrors publicized from Viet Nam are any indication of the severity of war, how could life in the good old U.S. of A. be nearly as traumatic? Why is it that when cruise ship employees get their “land legs” back, they find that life in the good old U.S. of A. isn’t nearly as humane as life in floating prisons? Cruise ship employees do not incur the gross physical trauma of soldiers at war, but is there a connection between their mental demeanor when they return to America? Both groups live similarly when they work. Soldiers are taught to bond and support one another in their brigades, battalions, and platoons. Cruise ship employees are taught the same, yet when each group returns isolated to the United States do they find life equally as difficult? The social mechanism that is inherent in communal work seems not to apply to the United States. Does that mean that when enlistees of the United States armed services and cruise lines embark on their journeys of conjoined work and living they are taught a different socio-economic system that is more effective for them? Do the shallow rules of Capitalism not favor a well-formed, integrated, humanistic work force employed for both national defense and recreation? Do the shallow rules of Capitalism favoring an elitist social class no longer apply when the spin is removed, the smoke has cleared, and the napalmed middle and lower classes are exposed? America’s financial structure has been decimated by the grubbing leaches of a Capitalist elitism, and there is nowhere left to turn. The soldiers that have gone to war to fight for the rights of this faction permanently have been branded with our loss. They come back to America, their home, and are met with indifference, poverty, neurosis, and failure. The only difference is America is not shouting, “Baby burner” at the war veterans from Iraq. No yet. The Republican spin machine effectively has masked their evil agenda, and donning suits and ties in the White House’s Oval Office they have demanded respect from America for keeping her safe. None of the ramifications of their covert agenda for which have been accounted. The muck toils on. The sludge of Bush Cheney has become the petroleum upon which America depends, but our reliance on automobiles is waning. How do we clean up this sludge? Would it be to indict members of Bush’s past White House? It seems America wants to burn some witches at the stake, because it might provide a faux resolution to the eight years of incest. Monsignor’s Mondavi’s fingers are still ripe with the smell of Johnny’s anus, but life tools on. The Holy Roman Catholic Church bought their false contrition. Bush and Cheney got their war. What are the American people getting? What are the troops that are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan getting besides decreased bodily mobility, insanity, and poverty? They support system that was supposed to be in place to support these troops evaporated as quickly as federal regulation. “Now you see the money, now you don’t.” The scorched earth of America is smoldering like Mount Redoubt, oozing lymphatic fluid like an open sore. “Where will the detainees go,” Cheney asks? What about the International War Tribunal at the Hague? Isn’t the jail of Slobodan Milosevic appropriate for hundreds of “would be” terrorists? He mastermind and engaged in mass genocide like Hitler. Certainly a diplomatically neutral war tribunal would be the proper place to house these detainees. Maybe the thunderous roar of a dying Fidel Castro’s voice is more threatening to these Islam Jihadists? If America were to allow her incarcerated Saudi step children to stray from the longitude of America, she would become accountable to Europe. The wunderkind no longer could hold the torch of the American Dream, instead only basking in her tainted former glory. She would have to pony up to the plate of Western Civilization, admit her flaws, and ask for guidance. She would have to grow up. For the world economy to heal, Barack and Hillary’s diplomacy is needed. They cannot let right wing insults of “Having coffee with Iran” stop their pursuits. While terrorism is a grievous threat, if we are not willing to drop the bomb, then an alternative method is needed. Al Qaeda is afraid, because unequivocal irrational evil has no reason or rhyme. They have to be treated like children. Pooling the adults in the world is the easiest way to expose the children. If America cannot equally stand as a peer to Europe, then the cause is lost. It is time for Congress and the media to put down their sticks and stones, find a common good for the world, and devise effective solutions. If they don’t, as Obama says, the results could be irreversible.

"Happy Birthday, Mr. Vice-President" War is Business

Who better is there to predict a catastrophic terrorist assault on the United States? His odds are the same as your local weatherman. Stick your head out the window and guess. With fifty percent of America believing Armageddon will occur in our lifetime, his odds still are improving. Stir in these entries on his resume: 1. Commandant Incognito 2. War Profiteer. 3. Nazi. Still his odds are rising. (“The opening bell sounds,” either the Wall Street Stock Exchange or a bout between Halliburton and Blackwater.) Who better is there to predict a catastrophic terrorist assault on the United States? Could we sign a contract like Mumbai? Is the dog wagging its tail or is Cheney “Wagging the Dog?” Diversionary tactics are a crucial part of war, and lest we not forget still we are at war. The Democratic Party wants peace. It cannot be refuted, because with the ousting of George W. Bush from the White House “Hum and Strum” has made an unannounced appearance similar to that of Barack Obama as a presidential contender. Whence does it come? America cannot travel back through time to the l970’s. Although war is not new to the United States, this “War on Terror” is. While politicians are looking for ways to put a bandaid on Bush’s evil agenda, the wounds will continue to fester. Although Bush and Cheney have left Washington their tactics will continue. It may appear Congress is battling itself, but the same puppeteers are controlling the world’s purse strings. As Obama continues forcefully to feed Congress his new and often appropriate agenda, the world continues to turn. The army senselessly tools on, as soldiers murder their wives, rob banks, and commit suicide. Who still is at the helm? Bush and Cheney. Who better is there to predict a catastrophic terrorist assault on the United States? At one time America was a more enlightened nation, but as Wall Street let our economy collapse the need for war mongering continues. It is the most sobering instinct. When we cannot understand or solve our domestic infrastructure, we always can brutalize foreign regions ripe with natural resources. Maybe the United States should sell poppies. That’s a green industry. If we stopped subsidizing paramilitary activity with Afghan-grown narcotics, then maybe we could get out of the war business. What would Halliburton do then? For Cheney war is business, and we cannot forget that the stimulus for war can be a terrorist attack. Whence will it come, Mr. Cheney? Are you signing the check?