Music is the Message?

The other day as I scrolled through my music library I decided, since it had been a while, that a little Rush was in order. I settled on the album that was probably their best seller, Moving Pictures. Of all of the songs on that album, my favorite isn't the big hit Tom Sawyer but Witch Hunt (part of the four song "Fear" series, each song found on a different album). Though it was written over 30 years ago, some of the song's lyrics still ring true in many ways today. In fact, a few years ago Neil Peart was interviewed by George Stroumboulopoulos on CBC about the album's tracks and here is what he had to say about the song:

GS: Witch Hunt, when you watch the news today do you go "Wow, Witch Hunt was really ahead of the curve?"

NP: Um, yeah, and it was, of course, reacting to the same sort of mob mentality back in those days.

Here is a live version for your listening pleasure:

For better or for worse, I make the mistake of reading a blog every day called "Dispatches From The Culture Wars," and each time there is something there that leaves me angry. And while the author will certainly post when Democrats/liberals do something utterly stupid, most of the content involves some right-wing nut job saying or doing something that just makes my blood boil. The problem, even though they are extremists who each have a relatively small audience, collectively they reach a lot of people. Whether it is Limbaugh, Beck, Pat Robertson, Michael Savage, or the clowns from some of the "family" organizations (Focus on Family, etc.), they are reaching enough people to continue fucking up this country. Their sheep get out and vote based upon the propoganda they are being fed, some of them commit acts of violence (and don't get me wrong, there are some liberal extremists too, but the fact is a significant amount domestic terrorism can be attributed to people on the right). To me the last three verses of Witch Hunt just scream out "ultra right-wing religious conservative pseudo-patriots" (also known as RWNJs - Right Wing Nut Jobs) . . .

And the lyrics:

The night is black

Without a moon

The air is thick and still

The vigilantes gather on

The lonely torchlit hill.

Features distorted in the flickering light

The faces are twisted and grotesque

Silent and stern in the sweltering night

The mob moves like demons possessed

Quiet in conscience, calm in their right

Confident their ways are best.

The righteous rise

with burning eyes

Of hatred and ill-will

Madmen fed on fear and lies

To beat and burn and kill.

They say there are strangers who threaten us

In our immigrants and infidels

They say there is strangeness too dangerous

In our theaters and bookstore shelves

That those who know what's best for us

Must rise and save us from ourselves.

Quick to judge

Quick to anger

Slow to understand

Ignorance and prejudice

And fear walk hand in hand.

(Music: Alex Lifeson/Geddy Lee  Lyrics: Neil Peart)

I have much more I'd like to post on several different topics but, until my internet improves (next week, hopefully), posts will remain very infrequent. I know of several other examples, particularly from Prog bands, that also carry messages or tell stories, and I may make "Music is the Message?" a series. We'll see . . .

100 Greatest Prog Albums: #10 Fragile (Yes)

The band that topped the list of the 100 Greatest Prog Albums at #1, Yes with Close To The Edge, rounds out the Top 10 with 1971's Fragile. With this album Rick Wakeman joined the band, replacing original keyboardist Tony Kaye, and its success brought the band into the mainstream. The album opens with a song that was a minor hit as a single (and concert staple), Roundabout.

 

In addition to group efforts, each member of the band wrote a song for the album (new to songwriting, drummer Bill Bruford's contribution is only 35 seconds long). Guitarist Steve Howe's contribution was the brilliant piece Mood For A Day:

 

 

And my personal favorite from the album, Heart of the Sunrise:
 

 

 

Every one of the recordings in the Top 10 is a masterpiece and worth owning. Over the next few weeks I'll post about some of the other albums on the list - there is a lot of really good music to be found there!



100 Greatest Prog Albums: #9 The Raven That Refused To Sing (And Other Stories) (Steven Wilson)

Today's album, in the #9 slot, is the only one of the Top 10 that is not from the 70s (or, in the case of In The Court Of The Crimson King, the 60s). Released early in 2013, Steven Wilson's The Raven That Refused To Sing (And Other Stories), is a fine example of modern Prog. The songs all deal with tales of the supernatural - for the most part, they are ghost stories.

The title track tells the story of a old man who had been very close to his sister, but she had died very young. He believed that a raven who came to his garden was a manifestation of his sister who used to always sing to him. The man convinces himself that if he could just get the raven to sing to him, he would know it was her come to take him to the next life.



The Holy Drinker is a tale involving a TV evangelist preacher type who is also an alchoholic. Unwittingly, the preacher makes a bet with the Devil that he can outdrink him - and, of course, the preacher loses, condemning himself to Hell.



Wilson has three solo albums, but is also well known for his association with Porcupine Tree (heck, for the most part, Steven Wilson IS Porcupine Tree). PT's Fear Of A Blank Planet was their highest in the rankings at #18 and is also worth a listen - Anesthetize is my favorite track from this one: 



100 Greatest Prog Albums: #8 The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (Genesis)



The band's third record to be voted into the Top 10 is Peter Gabriel's final record with Genesis, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. The only double album to make the list of ten, The Lamb is a surreal tale of a Puerto Rican boy in New York and his adventures after he gets swept underground, visiting some bizarre places and meeting bizarre creatures.

Track 1 is the title track and in it we meet graffiti artist Rael, the "imperial aerosol kid":

 

Rael finds himself mysteriously swept underground (tracks 2 and 3, Fly On A Windshield and Broadway Melody Of 1974) and wakes up in a cocoon (CD1/Track 4):
 

 

As Rael's adventure continues, he relives his first sexual encounter(CD1/Track 9):

 

 

Later on Rael meets The Lamia (CD2/Track 5), strange creatures with the head and breasts of a woman and the body of a snake:

 

 

 

Though he sees a light that could lead to his escape back to the real world, Rael sees his brother John drowning in the river below and must make a decision (CD2/Track 9):

 

And the final track:
 

 

I don't think there is any question that The Lamb is a very unusual story. The thing is, it still works - the musicianship is simply phenomenal. There is a very wordy website, The Annotated Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, that helps to understand it. Hell, there's even been a book written about it, Genesis and the Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (which I probably need to get) by Kevin Holm-Hudson, a professor of music at the University of Kentucky.

 

Yes, there are times when you want to snap your fingers, clap your hands, maybe dance, or tap your foot. But, for me, there are just as many times when I just need to listen - and that's what makes Prog Rock, and albums like The Lamb, so great. So go, listen.

100 Greatest Prog Albums: #7 Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd)





Today we have another repeat band in the Top Ten of the 100 Greatest Prog Albums: Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here comes in at number 7. Songs on the album explore feelings of absence and alienation, the cut-throat nature of the music business, and the mental health decline of former member Syd Barrett.

The title track is the fourth track on the album:



Welcome To The Machine is about the band's disillusionment with the music business, how it was becoming more about making money than artistic expression (see Miley, Justin, Pink!, the entire country music business, and we could find a host of other current examples):



Split into two parts (which are further divided into 5 and 4 parts, respectively), Shine On You Crazy Diamond bookends the other tracks and is a tribute to former member Syd Barrett:



100 Greatest Prog Albums: #6 Foxtrot (Genesis)

 

Their fourth studio album and second with the "classic" lineup of Peter Gabriel (vocals), Tony Banks (keyboards and guitar), Mike Rutherford (bass and guitar), Steve Hackett (guitar), and Phil Collins (drums), Foxtrot is the second from Genesis to make the Top 10 in Prog Magazine's 100 Greatest.

Watcher Of The Skies is the first track on side one, a Sci-Fi song about an alien looking down on a deserted and dead Planet Earth. In an interview Tony Banks said, "Early one morning it was totally deserted. It was incredible. We had this idea of an alien coming down to the planet and seeing this world where there obviously there had once been life and yet there was not one human being to be seen." The Mellotron and organ opening? In a word, amazing.

 

The 3rd track, Get 'Em Out By Friday, uses reality and science fiction as social criticism of corporate greed and oppression of tenants by landlords in the UK in the 1960s and 1970s.

 

 

Most of side 2 is taken up by Supper's Ready, a nearly 23 minute long suite consisting of seven parts. I am at a loss to even to describe it. Except that it is EPIC. In a 1986 interview Peter Gabriel described it as "a personal journey which ends up walking through scenes from Revelation in the Bible . . . I'll leave it at that" (which may explain my inability to describe it lyrically - consider what Thomas Jefferson had to say about Revelation: " . . . I then considered it as merely the ravings of a maniac no more worthy nor capable of explanation than the incoherences [sic]) of our own nightly dreams").

 

 

 

Simply put, Foxtrot is one of those albums that belongs in EVERY music collection.

100 Greatest Prog Albums: #5 Thick As A Brick (Jethro Tull)



Another of those bands that most people don't know is considered Prog, but that is the genre in which many critics (and those who write about music) place Tull. Some of their albums from the late 70s find them placed in the sub-genre "progressive folk" (in particular Songs From The Wood - #76 on the list of "100 Greatest"). They're music was initially Blues based but, by the release of Aqualung in 1971, they started to become more progressive in style, and Thick As A Brick completed the transition to Prog.

TAAB was actually created as a response to critics and writers who, in their reviews, kept insisting that Aqualung was a concept album, something Tull frontman Ian Anderson kept denying. So, in response, Anderson wrote this album, which consists of one very long song (43:46) that took up both sides of the original vinyl release. Satirical in nature, the album was said to be a poem written by an 8-year old (the fictional Gerald Bostock) set to music.

Though I'm somewhat surprised in came in as high as it did in the 100 Greatest Prog Albums poll, it is still great listening and certainly one of, if not the, best of Jethro Tull's output.

Here's the first part:



100 Greatest Prog Albums: #4 Dark Side Of The Moon (Pink Floyd)



The big question is, who DOES NOT own this album? Who hasn't sang along with "Breathe" or tapped their foot along with "Money"?

While it only managed number four on Prog Magazine's list, as chosen by the staff and readers, the one thing we do know is that The Dark Side Of The Moon is the biggest selling Progressive Rock album of all time. Though it only spent one week at #1 on Billboard's Top LP and Tapes chart, it spent an incredible 714 consecutive weeks there (1973-1988)! It occasionally appears again and is approaching 850 weeks on the charts. DSotM has sold an estimated 50 million copies worldwide, with over 15 million in the U.S. alone (in 2007 it was estimated that 1 in 14 U.S. citizens owned or have owned a copy).

What? You didn't know you were listening to Prog when you were listening to this? Well now you know.

And while Pink Floyd is no more, both David Gilmour and Roger Waters are still performing songs from the album in their respective concerts to enthusiastic audiences - more than 40 years after the album was released.

Lyrically, the concept behind the album is about various stages or aspects of our lives - Wikipedia provides a good description. In a nutshell, the albums themes include conflict, greed, stress, the passage of time, death, and insanity.

Here are some examples if you've never heard it (or if you have, want to enjoy them again):

"Breathe, breathe in the air . .  ."

"Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash . . ."

"Us and them . . . and after all we're only ordinary men . . ."

Prog's Top 100 - #3 "Selling England By The Pound" (Genesis)

"And I know what I like, and I like what I know." - I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)

So as we move through the Top Ten in Prog Magazine's "Top 100 Greatest Prog Albums of All Time" we come to #3, "Selling England By The Pound" from Genesis. Without question, if you could only pick one album from Genesis, this is the one. There are some other great releases but, for me, this really stands out, this is where they hit their stride. The next one, "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" (which came in at #8 so we'll be looking at that one in a few days), is a close second, but then things begin to unravel following Peter Gabriel's departure ("A Trick Of The Tale" and "Wind and Wuthering" are two good albums that close out the Steve Hackett era and, as far as I'm concerned, the band after that was Genesis in name only). The only piece that seems horribly out of place is a song with Phil Collins on lead vocals, "More Fool Me," that I don't even include on my music player. Everything else is just classic Genesis.

The album title is a line from the first track, "Dancing With The Moonlit Knight"

"The Battle of Epping Forest"

And "The Cinema Show" (the instrumental section that begins at about 5:25 - simply brilliant)

Tomorrow we'll look at #4 . . . 

Response to (Yet) Another Stupid Meme

There are days (okay, most of them) when I can't help but laugh at the gullibility of some of my fellow Americans. This post was prompted by a meme that I have seen again recently on Facebook where the "tea fartiers" and gun nuts are comparing how different acts of terrorism were perpetrated using something other than a gun. And, of course, the meme ends with a comment about how godlessness is the real root of the problem.

I call "bullshit."

In less than three minutes and two Google searches, I was able to EASILY dispel that myth. I started by looking up the countries of the world ranked by how religious they are (the specific question from Gallup was "Is religion important in your daily life?", with only two possible answers: yes or no), and then I looked up the countries with the highest rates of homicide. What one will find is the least religious countries almost always have the lowest rates of homicide. For example, the religion survey shows that fully 83% of Swedes say that religion is NOT important to their daily lives, yet the country is tied for seventh in least number of homicides (0.7/100,000 population). On the other hand, the United States is one of the world's more religious countries, with 65% saying religion is important in their daily lives, yet has a homicide rate (4.8/100,000) almost SEVEN TIMES GREATER than that of Sweden.

Here are the rest of the top 10 least religious countries with their homicide rates:

Denmark (80.5%)	0.8/100,000
Estonia (78%)	5.0/100,000
Norway (78%)	2.2/100,000
Hong Kong (75.5%)	0.4/100,000
Netherlands (75.5%)	0.9/100,000
Japan (75%)	0.3/100,000
Czech Republic (74.5%)	1.0/100,000
United Kingdom (73%)	1.0/100,000
Finland (70%)	1.6/100,000

*(The number in parentheses is the percentage of those who say religion is not important in their daily lives.)

Except for the outlier Estonia, each and every one of these "not very religious countries" has a homicide rate significantly lower than that of the U.S., and the majority of them are at 1.0/100,000 or less. In addition, of the top ten countries with the highest rates of homicide per 100,000 population that appear on both lists, all save one of those had a greater percentage of respondents who believe religion is important in their daily lives than those in the U.S.

Given this information, can we HONESTLY look each other in the eye and say that godlessness leads to acts of terrorism and murder? I think the answer can only be a resounding "No!" While there almost certainly forces at work, godlessness isn't one of them.

For Pete's sake, I wish people would start using their brains again . . .

More on the Cattle Thief

One thing you can say about George Washington: He wouldn't tolerate antics by a bunch of anti-goverment wackjobs. Maybe, just maybe, the government should have used a similar tactic against that group causing the trouble in Nevada recently:

Throughout counties in Western Pennsylvania, protesters used violence and intimidation to prevent federal officials from collecting the tax. Resistance came to a climax in July 1794, when a U.S. marshal arrived in western Pennsylvania to serve writs to distillers who had not paid the excise. The alarm was raised, and more than 500 armed men attacked the fortified home of tax inspector General John Neville. Washington responded by sending peace commissioners to western Pennsylvania to negotiate with the rebels, while at the same time calling on governors to send a militia force to enforce the tax. With 13,000 militia provided by the governors of Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, Washington rode at the head of an army to suppress the insurgency. The rebels all went home before the arrival of the army, and there was no confrontation. About 20 men were arrested, but all were later acquitted or pardoned.

The Whiskey Rebellion demonstrated that the new national government had the willingness and ability to suppress violent resistance to its laws.

How long would those anti-government heroes supporting Bundy have hung around if there were a few thousand members of the U.S. military headed their way with some fighter jets providing aerial support? In my opinion EVERY SINGLE ONE of those people are little more than traitors.

The Cattle Thief

I've been trying to understand this whole issue with rancher Bundy and his cattle but, this being Tax Day, here's my take after researching the matter:

The guy owes the federal government, which is, ultimately, you and me, over a million dollars in grazing fees. His privilege to graze cattle (only 50 head in the Spring from what I've been able to glean, not the 900 head he has been grazing year round) was revoked in the 1990s (please note the word "privilege" at the beginning of this sentence - they are NOT rights by law).

Now, we don't seem to blink an eye when someone serves time, or has property confiscated and sold, because they owe back taxes (state or federal).

Yet there are people who think it's okay for this guy (and his family) to steal from us?

The answer to that question can only be a resounding "NO!"

Pay up or go to jail, Bundy.

And don't go waving a flag around either, because you are not an American. I don't give a f*ck where you were born - you are not one of us.

Really?

Though this actually happened a few days ago, "people" (I use the term loosely) are just trying to get under my skin today.  It seems there was a protest by people not happy with the Virginia judge's ruling that the state's ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. So they decided to protest - outside the school his daughter attended!

So "we" don't agree with the judge, so let's traumatize his daughter (who attends a Christian school, by they way) as a way to get back him. Very Christ-like of you, morons! Get the hell out of the U.S. you a-holes, we don't want your kind living here!

I Know it's a Strong Word . . .

But I'm really getting to the point I HATE these people and I wish they would just GO AWAY.

I'm referring to the history revisionists like David Barton (along with his cohort Glenn F*cking Beck) and, just out from whatever rock he was hiding under, former Texas congressman (who may yet still serve some prison time) Tom DeLay.

Among the most absurd things that an American can say is "that God created this nation [and] that He wrote the Constitution, that it's based on biblical principles." That's a quote directly from DeLay. 

Well Tom (and David and Glenn), I'll borrow a page from the playbook of that creationist nitwit Ken Ham and ask the question "Were you there? Did you see God write the U.S. Constitution?" If you were and He did, why have HUMANS had to amend it THIRTY-THREE effin' times (27 have been ratified)? Or did He pop in on a session of Congress when nobody was looking and write the amendments Himself? And why wasn't it PERFECT the first time?

What? You history revisionists weren't there, after all? Thankfully, some people were. The people who ACTUALLY wrote it! Here's a quote from one of the Founders you may have heard of, his name was John Adams:

The United States of America have exhibited, perhaps, the first example of governments erected on the simple principles of nature: and if men are now sufficiently enlightened to disabuse themselves of artifice, imposture, hypocrisy, and superstition, they will consider this event as an æra in their history. Although the detail of the formation of the American governments is at present little known or regarded either in Europe or America, it may hereafter become an object of curiosity. It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service had any interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the inspiration of heaven, any more than those at work upon ships or houses, or labouring in merchandize or agriculture: it will for ever be acknowledged that these governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses. 

The above is a direct quote from the preface to Adams' A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America (with some added emphasis).

I get so sick and tired of hearing this revisionist malarkey, and it makes me sad that there are citizens of this country that are gullible enough to believe this crap. It's time we wake up and sweep these revisionists into the dust bin of history, once and for all. They achieve nothing, except maybe holding back any real progress.

(For the record, I know that Adams was in Britain at the time and Jefferson in France, however, they were both kept informed on the proceedings via letters from the U.S.)

A Touch of Madness #2

I am really beginning to think that way too many people who are "pro-gun" only hear what is said by gun lobby extremists and, at the end of the day, are absolutely clueless to the reality of the - very real - gun problem in the U.S. And please don't get me wrong, I am NOT anti-gun. But don't make the mistake of thinking that I don't feel strongly that extremely strict laws regarding gun ownership need to be put in place AT THE FEDERAL LEVEL.

What prompted me to write today was this piece of dog poo I saw shared on Facebook this morning:

Ah . . . to start with there are two very old and very tired canards at work here: 1.) "Gun's don't kill people, people kill people," and 2.) "When guns are outlawed only outlaws will have guns." There is some truth to #1, but it is still the gun, or rather the bullet/shot fired from it, that actually does the killing/wounding/maiming. And if you keep reading (including the full link near the end of the post), we find that the "outlaw" part is only a fraction of the overall problem. And it is a problem.

I can't believe what a crock of horsesh*t that letter is. I suggest that anyone who really thinks the letter writer has it right needs to spend some time every week reading a regular post that appears on Daily Kos called GunFAIL (the link is to the February 4 edition). Below are just a few examples from the linked post (titled "Stand Your Ground, even if it's not yours, and actually belongs to the people you shoot: GunFAIL LV"):

7. BARBOURSVILLE, WV, 1/25/14: Behind a perimeter of yellow crime tape, a morbid scene. Cabell County Sheriff's officials said Rodney Bruce Black, 63, of Barboursville, killed two men with a scoped rifle. "Mr. Black had called 9-1-1 and said that he had in fact shot two individuals," said McComas. Deputies said Black shot the men from his home on Old Crow Drive. "He did not know the victims, he had no interactions with the victims prior to the shooting," said Cabell County Sheriff, Tom McComas. Investigators said he told dispatchers the two men were breaking into his shed, but sheriff's officials said the shed wasn't his. "These two men had every legal right to be where they were," said McComas. Rodney Bruce Black now faces two first degree murder charges. UPDATE: The Cabell County Sheriff's office has released the names of two men killed in a shooting, Saturday afternoon. Sheriff Tom McComas says Garrick Hopkins, 60, from Milton and his brother Carl Hopkins Jr., 61, from Oak Hill both died when they were shot on Lane Drive in Barboursville. Rodney Bruce Black has been charged with two counts of 1st degree murder. Deputies say he admitted to shooting the two men because he thought they were trespassing on his property. Sheriff McComas says the land actually belonged to Garrick Hopson. He had just purchased it and was showing his brother where he and his family were planning to build their new home in the coming weeks.

2. PARK RIDGE, IL, 1/06/14: A man who allegedly gave his teenage son a handgun for Christmas is facing criminal charges after police said the boy shot himself with the gun inside his Park Ridge home. Park Ridge Police Cmdr. Jason Leavitt said the 14-year-old boy accidentally shot himself in the leg on Jan. 6 inside his home on the 2700 block of Mayfield Drive. The teen’s injuries were not life-threatening, Leavitt said. Four days later, police charged the boy’s father, Joseph Streff, 52, of the 7300 block of West Addison Street, Chicago, with reckless conduct for providing his son with the gun, police said. Leavitt said the gun was a Christmas present. Police did not release information on Streff’s arrest until Jan. 27, 17 days after it occurred. Streff’s bond was set at $1,000. He is scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 27. 

 5. GREGG CO., TX, 1/25/14: The Gregg County Sheriff's Office is investigating a shooting death in the 11 hundred block of Highway 31. Officials have one home tapped off with crime scene tape. Family members at the home say a 13-year-old boy accidentally shot an adult male with a deer rifle. A Gregg County Justice of the Peace is headed to the scene.

12. GRANTS, NM, 1/25/14: Devin Ellis, 31, of Grants was killed from a gunshot wound to the head early Saturday morning, according to Grants Police Department (GPD) reports. Officers responded to 724 Austin St. in Grants at approximately 1:10 a.m. because someone had been shot. Corey White, a GPD officer, said when he arrived at the home that David Gonzales met him outside and said, “I messed up,” because he had shot his friend, Ellis. Ellis was once an officer for the Village of Milan, 2009-10. He was originally hired as a dispatcher, said Village of Milan Police Chief Jerry Stephens, and was later moved to an officer. However, Ellis failed the State Law Enforcement Academy and was dismissed from his duties. According to Officer White, Gonzales appeared to be intoxicated and had a strong odor of alcohol coming from his body when White approached him outside the home. Gonzales said he and Ellis were playing with a small caliber handgun when the gun went off. “I did not realize the gun was loaded,” said Gonzales. GPD officers said the victim was the owner of the small pistol that killed him.

15. CRANE HILL, AL, 1/26/14: A Cullman County man was shot and killed Sunday during a hunting trip with friends and family near Smith Lake in the Crane Hill area. Tommy “T.J.” Tucker, 37, of the Crane Hill community was pronounced dead at approximately 3:05 p.m. after being fatally shot when another hunter mistook him for a deer, near County Road 202 across from the Smith Lake RV Resort. Cullman County Sheriff’s deputies, paramedics and the Crane Hill Volunteer Fire Department responded to the incident, and were transported by boat to the scene, which was in a heavily wooded area. Authorities are currently treating the case as an accidental shooting. “The victim was out with friends and relatives deer hunting together, and a member of the group saw a deer and shot at it,” Cullman County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Max Bartlett said “The deer was killed, but they realized shortly after that Mr. Tucker had been shot, as well. It appears the deer may have been shot, and the shooter heard rustling in the area and fired another shot. We believe the victim was hit at that time.” Bartlett said paramedics attempted CPR, though Tucker was reportedly dead upon their arrival. Tucker was shot with a 12-gauge shotgun loaded with projectile buckshot. Both men were reportedly wearing hunter orange at the time of the shooting. “This is just a tragic accident, and the young man who did the shooting, who was related to Tucker by marriage, was devastated,” Bartlett said. “It’s just a sad situation. Our hearts and prayers go out to the Tucker family. We send them our deepest condolences.” Authorities have not released the name of the shooter at this time. 

 26. NASHVILLE, TN, 1/28/14: A 17-year-old McGavock High School student has been charged in connection to the fatal shooting of another student. Kaemon Robinson has been charged with criminal homicide following the shooting Tuesday night in at an apartment in Hermitage. Police say 15-year-old Kevin Barbee, who police say was a friend of Kaemon's, was shot inside an apartment on Burning Tree Drive. Four McGavock High School students were inside the apartment at the time of the shooting. Witnesses told police Kaemon was playing with a pistol when it discharged and hit Kevin in the face. Kevin was taken to Summit Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

28. GREENE CO., NC, 1/29/14: A father is facing charges for possession of a firearm by a felon after his baby was accidentally shot and killed. Greene County Sheriff Lemmie Smith tells WITN the baby girl was shot Wednesday night around 9 p.m. in a home on Letchworth Drive in Greene County, off of Fort Run Rd. Smith says the father was holding the rifle on the couch when it accidentally went off, shooting the baby in the chest. The gunshot killed her. The baby's name has not been released. Allen Ormond, 28, is a convicted felon and is not legally allowed to own a gun. Records show he was convicted in the 2007 of possession of stolen goods in Greene County. Sheriff Smith said Ormond had just bought the rifle earlier Wednesday, hours before the fatal shooting of his baby girl. Ormond is also charged with possession of a stolen firearm. The sheriff says the rifle that killed the girl was stolen.

Now, first I want to point out that of all I posted here, only the last one was an outlaw with a gun. Teenagers (and younger) playing with guns, suicides, hunting accidents, accidental discharge while cleaning, and so many more. There are THIRTY-EIGHT entries on that edition GunFAIL for a ONE WEEK PERIOD. It was actually a relatively quiet week, too.

There's more data, from 2010, that can be found (all referenced) at the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence website. Among several interesting stats on this site is one that really makes me cringe:

A federal government study of unintentional shootings found that 8% of such shooting deaths resulted from shots fired by children under the age of six.

Granted he report is old (1991), but based upon what I've read over the past few months at GunFAIL, if I were to speculate, I would not be surprised to find the stat in 2013 may have actually been higher.

The person who wrote that "letter to the editor" is wrong on so many levels. The people who perpetuate that kind of crap are also wrong on so many levels. The only way things like that make the rounds on Facebook is because of people who really don't understand the reality of the situation when it comes to guns. All state laws about gun ownership need to be struck down; full and VERY strict federal laws need to be put in place that include extremely thorough background checks and, just like an automobile, annual re-registration (including testing) for the owner. Severe penalties for those who do not comply must also be part of any new gun law. If a child dies because someone was careless with a gun, the owner should be charged and face prison time, as well as being forbidden from ever owning another gun once released.

It's way past time for a complete re-think of gun laws as they stand today in the U.S.

A Brief Look at the RW Noise Machine and Coke's "America the Beautiful" Ad

Curiosity got the better of me, so I just had to wander over to Twitter to have a look at some of the tweets with the "boycottcoke" hashtags. Here are a few of my faves:

"GLAAD praised Coke for being 'gay-inclusive' for showing two gay dads in their commercial. Another reason to #boycottcoke"

What's really great about the above is this individual has a "don't tread on me" flag for his avatar . . . and his Twitter name? The author of a little piece from the late 1700s called "The Age of Reason." My irony meter went nuclear!

People were actually saying stuff like this:

"If you don't know how to sing our national anthem in English. Then get the hell out #boycottcoke"

I'd heard there were numerous tweets like this, but I couldn't help myself, I had to see it with my own eyes. Seriously, what level of (self-proclaimed patriotic) moron does not know the U.S. National Anthem?

Here's another:

"Our national anthem should be in American. WE R AMERICAN. #boycottcoke"

Hmmm . . . couldn't bother to spell out "ARE" in that one, even though enough characters were left.

Missing a hyphen here, I think . . .

"Can't believe how unamerican Coke is.  #boycottcoke"

Amazing command of English from someone who calls him/herself "RealTrueConservative":

"When I'm Chic Fil A I'll drink water and only water. LIKE are Lord Jesus! #boycottcoke"

(This was probably in response to comments from some people asking the Wingers what they planned to drink when eating at Chik-Fil-A . . . "are" instead of "our" and butchering the name of their favorite fast food restaurant.)

And I'll close this with a couple from "AngryWhiteRepublican" (who has an avatar with Jesus sitting down holding a rather large rifle and has this for a motto: I believe in two things: guns and the King James Bible.):

"Not buying it Coke, no Kumbaya for this patriot. I do what the Bible tells me!"

"Despite Coke's best efforts, patriots still know that sometimes you have to kick non-American ass for God."

Yup. Some of these, um, "people" may be your neighbors . . .

He Was One of the Good Ones

The title of this post is a quote from one of the comments in a blog post I was reading earlier this morning following the passing of Pete Seeger. That quote pretty much sums it up, I think. He cared about people, he cared about this planet we all share, and he tried to teach us, using the universal language of music, how to live together.

He established a real trend among many musicians with his activism, and I find it funny that there are people out there that like to berate musicians for taking a stand on things (actually, it seems that those who make the loudest noise about it are on the right, even though they have their poster children that speak out about certain causes - but, ironically, they are often causes that are not in the best interests of society as a whole). I can't say that my particular political views are linked directly to Pete - I knew some songs he had written, but they had been covered by other artists when I became aware of them. But from what I know of him, we think a lot alike in many respects.

Frankly, some of today's performers could probably take a lesson or two from Mr. Pete Seeger. I could be wrong, but I don't see the likes of Miley, Justin, or Kanye having the level of social consciousness I see in performers like CSNY, Jackson Brown, Bruce Springsteen, Willie Nelson, Bono, Peter Gabriel, Roger Waters, and so many others from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. And these artists that I "grew up" with continue doing these things to this day. I'm not saying that these younger performers aren't involved in social causes, but they do not seem to be as obvious from where I sit - and, in my opinion, that's a problem. 

"It troubled him, it troubled him deeply, that technology was so advanced, that our emotional state was so inadequate to cope that, with the push of a button, in a fit of rage, we could wipe ourselves off the face of the Earth. And he really wanted to fix that, and always felt like he failed." - Tao Rodríguez-Seeger (Pete's grandson)

Thank you, Mr. Seeger, for working to make the world a better place. We've got a long way to go, but we're a little closer to the goal because of you.

Way Back In Henry VIII's Time

I recently saw several episodes of the TV series "The Tudors" on BBC-America, a program in which the producers certainly took some liberties with the facts (it's labeled as "historical fiction"). But it prompted me to finally download an audiobook that had been on my wish list for quite some time, The Tudors: The Complete Story of England's Most Notorious Dynasty (G.J.Meyer). As I was listening last night, I came upon a section that really caught my attention, mainly because I was so surprised to see that, even back in the 16th Century, theologians (and kings, obviously) were picking and choosing which sections of the Old Testament actually apply. Not unlike what they do today. I transcribed the relevant section from Chapter 2 where the author is discussing Henry's attempts in the 1520s to get his marriage to Catherine of Aragon annulled:

There were problems, moreover, with the biblical passage to which Henry attached so much importance: "If a man takes his brother's wife, they shall be childless." One of the mentors of Henry's youth, the learned and revered John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, pointed out that nothing in these words indicates that they refer to a dead brother's wife. On the contrary, a reader's natural inclination might be to assume the opposite. As for the warning about childlessness, nothing could be more obvious than that Henry and Catherine had a living child, Princess Mary. Henry, clutching at straws, suggested that a mistake had been made when Leviticus was translated from Greek into Latin, so that the word liberis ("children") had been incorrectly substituted for filius ("sons"). In an age when all educated people shared a knowledge of Latin, and no one could have claimed to be a theologian without mastering it, this argument got him nowhere, having no basis in fact. Leviticus was, in any case, a peculiar foundation upon which to construct arguments about how Englishmen were supposed to conduct themselves in the 16th century. It included many rules, some of them intended for Hebrew priests, to which no one paid the least attention. Instruction in the proper way of killing chickens, for example, along with prohibitions against eating of rabbits, and the incorrect trimming of hair and beards. The church had long taken it as settled that the relevance of Leviticus did not reach far beyond the time, place, and people for which it had been written. 

Even worse for Henry's case, Leviticus was directly contradicted by another Old Testament passage, one from a book written later and, therefore, arguably preemptive. Deuteronomy 25:5-7 declared it to not only be permissible, but obligatory, for a man to marry the childless widow of his dead brother: "He shall go in unto her and take her to him to wife." Failure to do this would mean that the dead brother was "put out of Israel," a deplorable fate, and therefore severe punishment was prescribed for those who did not comply. The straw that Henry clutched this time was the notion that the kind of marriage prescribed by Deuteronomy had been a mere ceremonial matter, and that in any case the Jews themselves had abandoned such practices many centuries before. About this, too, he was proved wrong.  

The point, I suppose, that I'm trying to make is there is so much worthy of our skepticism in the OT, this being but one example. Not eating shellfish (Leviticus 11:9-12, Deuteronomy 14:9-10) is another silly thing in there, along with the interpretations of Leviticus 18:22 today by those busy bodies who are trying to stop same-sex marriage (Yes, I know what it says, but I say if you want to follow a literal interpretation of Lev 18:22, you better stop eating shrimp, oysters, lobster, etc., because that prohibition is in there, too. You CANNOT pick and choose this stuff without me labeling you a hypocrite.)

I think the most important sentence in the paragraphs quoted above is this one: The church had long taken it as settled that the relevance of Leviticus did not reach far beyond the time, place, and people for which it had been written. If Pope Clement VII chose to ignore parts of Leviticus in the 16th Century, we should probably do likewise with ALL of it here in the 21st.

*(Truth be told, I had an Anglican vicar tell me over 30 years ago that most of the Old Testament was a collection of (allegorical) tribal stories. Some years later this idea was reinforced when I read The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts (Neil Asher Silberman, Israel Finkelstein) - bottom line to be taken away from the book is that the archaeology in that region simply does not support most of the OT stories [and it doesn't take but a couple of minutes searching the internet to learn that, for example, the Noah's Ark story was a rewrite of a portion of the Mesopotamian poem Epic of Gilgamesh - can't believe they're making a new movie about Noah . . . why bother?).]

And, suddenly, the conversation turned . . . Crimson.

Went with a friend over to Cedar City for some shopping (and a trip to the vet for Ginger - nothing serious) today and one of the stops was at the health/nutrition store. While I was waiting for Charlene to complete her purchase, I was whistling along with Beethoven's 6th as it was playing on the store's sound system. The clerk made a comment about my familiarity with the piece (or something along those lines) and I made the off-the-cuff statement (have no idea where it came from or why) that "Beethoven is a good choice if you can't listen to King Crimson." The clerk, who was probably in her mid-30s, lights up and says "I saw King Crimson back in the 90s in Las Vegas."

Now how cool is that???!!! There's someone else in southern Utah that truly appreciates GREAT music!

(I would also learn that, while away at college, her mother put all of her vinyl in a non-air conditioned storage unit, ruining all of her records, including King Crimson, Yes, Genesis, and many others. :-( )

And now, for your listening pleasure, some live King Crimson from 1994 & 1995: Robert Fripp (guitar), Adrian Belew (vocals/guitar), Tony Levin (bass/Chapman Stick), Bill Bruford (drums/percussion), Pat Mastelotto (drums/percussion), Trey Gunn (background vocals/Stick).

Progressive Rock - for when you really want to listen to and appreciate the music!!!

Oh the Hypocrisy . . .

Everyone who knows me well, knows that I am politically liberal. That's not to say that aren't some conservative ideals I agree with, just that there is nothing in today's "conservative" platform I find agreeable. When I talk conservatism, I am talking about old school Republicans like Dwight Eisenhower or Theodore Roosevelt. Let's face it, most of the conservative politicians (I cannot call these modern pretenders Republicans - they do NOT represent historical Republican ideals in any way shape or form) in the U.S. are a bunch of nuts. And so are the conservative commentators. Right near the top of that list are nut jobs like Glenn Beck.

I refuse to link there, but Beck's The Blaze website has an article about how (ZOMG!) the President and his family did not attend any Christmas services while on vacation in Hawaii last week. Okay, so they only attend church occasionally, the family may have their reasons, and it really is not our place to judge them because of that.

Why "hypocrisy" in the title?

Let's look at the big picture: Bush II's church attendance was almost exclusively limited to private services in the chapel at Camp David. President Clinton's family, on the other hand, attended church publicly almost every Sunday during his two terms. Bush I, an Episcopalian, was not affiliated with any Washington, D.C. church according to several sources I found. How about Saint Ronnie Reagan*, worshiped by the new conservatives as maybe the best president ever? Well, he never attended church while he was in office. Meanwhile, his predecessor Jimmy Carter not only attended church in Virginia, he even taught Sunday school.

At the end of the day it appears that, even though our current president doesn't attend regularly (about 20 times over his first term+), the Democratic presidents seem to have a much better attendance record than their Republican counterparts. So maybe God's Own Party really isn't . . .

Dear Glenn Beck: Stuff a sock in your pie hole, you lying blowhard.

Oh, don't want to forget to mention that on Christmas Day 2013 the President spent part of his day visiting with U.S. military men and women in Hawaii. You know, those same members of the military modern conservatives seem to care about when they're serving, but love to take away their benefits once they become veterans.

*In 2012 there were many complaints from conservative commentators about the fact that O hadn't visited Israel yet (he did go in 2013). Guess how many times St. Ronnie visited that country during his two terms? That's right, a big fat goose egg.