“Books are like seeds. They can lie dormant for centuries and then flower in the most unpromising soil.” (Carl Sagan); “Nothing ever dies on the Internet.” (anon.); “This is not your father’s Oldsmobile.” (Madison Ave. [m]adman). My posts amalgamate these three philosophical elements into one novel experience; they champion critical thinking, human dignity / equality, levelheaded / even-handed / liberty-based governance and solid environmental stewardship. C’mon in!
The border wall plan of fake prez and fool peers,
Is built on foundation of unfounded fears,
Since Mexico will not pay,
Let’s allay fears / costs defray,
Construct it with concrete found ‘tween Donald’s ears.
Folks possessing normal gray matter ‘tween their ears certainly wish that the fake prez would wise up… realize he’d be getting far more bang for his requested 5.8 BILLION BUCKS by not being locked into his wall ONLY boondoggle.
I wrote that above limerick on the premise that… eventually… House Speaker Nancy Pelosi / Congressional Democrats will wind up appeasing that Oval Office terrorist’s demands… i.e., allowing him to build his wall just for the sake of sparing government workers the hardship of yet another shutdown and/or preventing the fake prez’s declaration of a (non-existent) national emergency.
That latter prospect is fraught with peril considering how it reeks of Martial Law where there’d be too few limits… IF ANY… on Donny’s dictatorial powers. One has to suspect that he’s already gotten plenty of Putin’s Pointers on how to take a dump on democracy.
WTF else would Big Bad Vlad and Dummy Donny be discussing… where / when no other Americans… not even the translators… are allowed in the same room.
Ironically, The Wall could wind up doing far more to secure America than originally intended… e.g., just by protecting us from our own “leader”. And… as an American… that’s one sentence I never thought I’d ever need to utter and/or commit to print in my lifetime!
My keep a hanky handy advisory accompanies the arrival of week #20 of our Sunday Song Series. That’s because listening to… correction… experiencing Tell Me on a Sunday does have a tendency to tug at the heartstrings… i.e., owing to the fact that music composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, lyricist Don Black and thespian / vocalist Denise Van Outen have all so proficiently tapped into their own souls and unique skillsets to breath life into “the dots” and words appearing on the musical score.
In doing so they’ve made fully palpable the raw, heartbroken sorrow that goes hand in hand with failed relationships… that is… if “relationships” ever was the applicable word here.
Contrasting with lyricist Paul Simon, who once-upon-a-time mused about the 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover, Black’s lyrics tell us precisely how not to. While what Simon says may make it sound so simple… i.e, the manner in which he so flippantly flips it all off… what Black counsels is have a little heart… please?
And while men do get their hearts broken, too, it’s fair to speculate that… disproportionately so… stormy relationships are something women are forced to weather far more often… far too often… once again… if “relationships” ever was the applicable word here.
Of course it might only be a silly macho thing… i.e., society favoring the “strong” silent type… which causes males to be under-counted? But digging deeper into that is best left for a another Sunday / another blog.
Beyond savoring Tell Me on a Sunday based upon the pure artistry, a torch song such as this could also enlighten all… especially in a world full of full of themselves, love ‘em and leave ‘em cads… could well serve as a reminder that the heart is not a toy to be abused, broken and tossed aside. No siree, love should never be a game… if “love” ever was the applicable word here.
The words that are applicable here… it’s likely Ms. Van Outen’s own melancholy memories of love lost which fire the passion in her voice… unleash the rush of raw, frayed feelings from her soul… cause the fought back tears in her eyes. If she has yet to find resolve, one can only hope the everlasting love and respect every human deserves will soon be hers anew.
More applicable words… our Sunday Song Series will return… seven days from now.
Seeing how the Trump Party “party hats”, which the white nationalist, Imperial Wizard fake prez traffics in, all bear the motto, “Make America Great Again”… a motto which is little more than his deplorable, “dog whistle” message “Make America White Again”…
Here’s a quick question to each of his diehard supporters…
Do you realize that your MAGA hat is little more than a Klansman’s white hood?
The above video, amply demonstrating how a narcissist desperately hungers for applause, also serves as the rationale behind U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s recent strategy to stand up to that unreasonable, un-presidential prez.
As one of the few, effective adult leaders left within America’s dysfunctional government, she takes her responsibilities seriously… fully understands the Constitutional system of checks and balances / the separation of powers and her role in implementing and maintaining these vital to democracy functions.
Bottom line… she’s keenly aware that someone has to finally get tough and say “NO!” to the ersatz prez who… concurrently… is an out of touch with reality, spoiled rotten, temper tantrum throwing man-child AND an out of touch with reality, spoiled rotten, temper tantrum throwing terrorist.
In either capacity, he’s been holding 800,000 furloughed government workers hostage.
Think about it… just because he’s being denied HIS WALL, he’s denying these federal employees their lives and livelihoods… plunging these hardworking, decent, innocent bystanders and their loved ones into financial ruin.
Indeed, he’s been adamantly vowing that the government shutdown will go on FOREVER unless / until he’s allowed to piss away over $5 BILLION taxpayer dollars for HIS BORDER WALL… even though that same sum of money could be far better spent on more practical, logistically effective homeland security measures. If he really possesses the business acumen he claims he does, one would think… at the very least… he’d be on board with getting more bang for his bucks.
Were Pelosi to back down now, the fake prez would resort to routinely shutting down the government in the future… as in… each and every time someone would justifiably attempt to rein him in. Her decision to inform him that he won’t be allowed to deliver his State of the Union address until he reopens the government was / is a stroke of genius. This is SOOOO akin to a mother disciplining a misbehaving child.
That infant’s initial, all too predicable protestations over such discipline had NOTHING to do with a prez who actually cares about America and has EVERYTHING to do with a narcissist, who has become crestfallen at the mere notion of not hearing his robotic, sycophantic, Republican congressional cronies bleating / roaring out their on cue, (sincere?) hurrahs… dispensing their (heartfelt?) affection / adulation / applause.
Oh… sure… for awhile the fake prez pretended that [1] the Pelosi snub wasn’t all that big a deal to him, [2] he’d show mean ol’ Nancy that he doesn’t need her at all and [3] he could deliver his speech in any venue in America.
Yet… obviously… even he didn’t / doesn’t buy into this. Hence… he has now caved.
My bet is the more that man-child stews over this… the longer he goes sans the applause he aches for… the better the chances are that he’ll capitulate further.
Just how could anyone who has reached the ripe old age of seventy-two still be so childish? That he’s so obviously turned out rotten certainly does point to a lack of good parenting during his formative years. We can only hope that Pelosi’s “tough love” punish him when he’s bad, pat him on the back when he’s good type of “parenting” is not too late.
In a different, less enlightened, earlier era… he’d have been taken out to the woodshed where that “pat on his back” would’ve been applied to his backside.
To say the least, I’d be flattering myself to even whisper the words ASTRONOMER and CRITIC anywhere in the vicinity of my birth-name… even after qualifying / clarifying those proper nouns with adjectives such as RANK and AMATEUR.
And far be it from me to negatively critique a lunar eclipse… one of Ma Nature’s most magnificent performances… BUT… this time out… as far as I was concerned… her show was playing out in a crappy venue… in spite of the atypically (for a Michigan winter) clear skies.
Unlike my past experiences of this nature, I’d categorize last night’s total eclipse a total bust.
Many moons ago, I had derived far more enjoyment from watching Earth’s nearest celestial neighbor setting just as the eclipse had achieved totality. True, I had been booted from “The Theatre” long before the start of “Act II: The return to Full Phase” but half a “show” had been better than none.
And speaking of none… last night’s problems had arisen right from the get-go. The temperature had already plummeted to 0° F / -18° C… with the wind chill factor only making matters worse. By eclipse end the predicted temps would be tanking out at -7° F / -22° C.
Adding to this meteorological misery was the viewing angle. With the Moon at the zenith, it didn’t take long for this to become a (literal) pain in the neck. My in-advance awareness of this positioning problem was the precise reason that I hadn’t even bothered lugging out my 90mm telescope (I mean who’d even want to crouch down even closer to the recently fallen, thick, cold blanket of snow?)
Anyway… long sigh… with my three layers of clothing (inclusive of a thick down parka, lined gloves, long-johns and winter boots) still proving inadequate… with self-preservation mode constantly kicking in full force, I found myself needing to return (frequently) to the not-so-great indoors to warm up. And that need is at the crux of this negative review.
While I cannot speak for everyone… I found what was really missing was that uninterrupted dramatic build up towards totality. It’s kind of like leaving the movie theater to go buy popcorn and returning just as the protagonist… just in the nick of time… heroically saves the day. In other words…
My needing to repeatedly rejoin this eclipse in progress ruined the mood. Even timing it out to return at the precise moment of totality presented new problems. At that juncture, my eyes were no longer accustomed to the dark. Adding to my woes was how the overhang of my parka’s hood was constantly blocking my line of sight. Try dodging that while attempting to relocate the directly overhead Moon, now darkened by the Earth’s shadow. As for “losing” the hood? Yeah, right… just what I needed… frostbitten ears. Need I say more?
Orienting my head back into its default position and glumly swaying it side to side, once again the cold proved too much. Now back indoors and reclining on my sofa, head resting comfortably, I dozed off and didn’t wake up until long after the “Super Wolf Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse of 2019” had ended.
All in all… at least in my neck of the woods… very little to howl at!
As a former FCC broadcast license holder who normally applies over the airwaves standards to this website, my goal has been to post family friendly content / avoid profane language.
However… there does come a time when such words are called for. To e.g. that… when…
• The far bigger obscenity involves a full of himself / full of you-know-what, know-nothing-know-it-all ersatz prez.
• That fake prez devolves into a terrorist bleating out terrorist demands.
• That terrorist is hellbent on inflicting irreparable harm upon America… upon our entire world.
And TERRORIST is not too strong a word, either. WTF else would you call someone holding 800,000 government workers HOSTAGE. All things considered, is he not actually saying…
Gimme my 5+ Billion Bucks to build my boondoggle wall OR ELSE I will continue cracking my whip to [1] force government workers to slave away for zero pay and [2] drive them / their entire families into hopelessness, homelessness, starvation and financial ruin.
Hmm… when you really think about it… that terrorist’s nuclear saber rattling is holding all 7+ Billion of us hostage… indeed… is threatening to drive the entire human race towards extinction.
Oh… btw… the MSM have been too fuckin’ charitable towards him when they say he is using government workers as pawns. To re-emphasize…
THESE GOVERNMENT WORKERS ARE TERRORIST TRUMP’S HOSTAGES!
By comparison, this makes Cardi B’s NSFW rant re the Not Safe For World “prez” almost seem too fuckin’ mild… doncha think?
Seeing how the current Oval Office occupant routinely makes a big stink over issues such as bible thumping and flag hugging… this does call into question whether or not he and his loyal supporters all have a firm grasp on the true meaning of spirituality and patriotism? The truth is that… unless seen with perfect 20/20 vision and in 3D… both virtues can become flat, blah and meaningless. Hopefully this re-blogged, vision corrective lens / thought experiment will be helpful in preventing Election Day 2016 / History from repeating itself come 2020?
Most people profess their love for God and country. We’ve seen a lot of these sentiments serve as window dressing to bogusly spruce up one particular 2016 presidential candidate’s campaign rallies (need I even name him?). That said, does everybody actually understand how deep spirituality and patriotism need to go?
To better illustrate this, either actually run this “experiment” or just imagine doing so. First write whatever symbols represent your religion on a sheet of paper. Not to worry… even atheism has its own “logo” and I truly believe folks can still feel love and behave in a spiritual manner even without a Supreme Being entering the picture. Next, draw an image of your nation’s flag.
No need to be concerned if your calligraphy and artistry are just so-so. Of primary importance here is to, first, observe the height and width of everything you’ve written and drawn and, next, view…
How we wind up feeling about life within each of our own hometowns is sure to vary. As our Sunday Song Series continues into week #19, Morrissey along with song collaborator Stephen Street lyrically address this issue within their May 1988 composition Everyday Is Like Sunday.
“The lyrics are reportedly inspired by Nevil Shute’s novel On the Beach, about a group of people waiting for nuclear devastation in Melbourne, Australia.”
To be sure… when songsmiths build upon negative vibes such as these, it’s pretty safe to conclude that it was both Morrissey and Street’s contention that many of us do wind up feeling shortchanged.
This vid’s Manchester audience… numbered in the high multiple thousands… certainly corroborates their premise. These concert attendees had strongly identified with Morrissey… known every sung syllable… to the point of raising their voices in unison to transform this into a rousing sing-a-long. Might we even deem this a form of group therapy?
Indeed, Morrissey… stunned by it all… even humbly expressed his disbelief. To virtually situate all the enthusiastic attendees on stage… all the audio engineer needed to do was merely “pot-up” the audio board’s audience microphone levels.
As for a personal take on hometown life… well… let’s just say that the while the not-to-be-taken-seriously, lyrical apocalyptic solution to the problem was intended just for harmless venting purposes… there have been instances where I’d “Etch a postcard” to express “How I Dearly Wish I Was Not Here.”
One certainty here… those aforementioned On the Beach vibes did make the auditioning of music videos problematic… some containing such dark, disturbing, depressing imagery that this blogger deemed it best to leave such footage on my own personal cutting room floor.
Our Sunday Song Series will continue seven days from now…
We’ve now reached week #18 of our Sunday Song Series. This time, country recording artist Craig Morgan covers That’s What I Love About Sunday… a.k.a. composers Adam Dorsey / Mark Narmore’s, seen through Sunday eyes, ode to life / life’s simple pleasures. While these lyrics harbor a distinct southern perspective re this day of rest, is not such serenity also sought by souls, planet-wide?
And this need not involve Christians / Americans only. Musically inclined folks… spanning our vast globe… could easily customize this mellow melody to pen lyrics to address their own spiritual / cultural values. And lest we forget, one can even view our world through secular eyes and still cherish / yearn for the “little things in life”.
Indeed… whatever loving God we worship… or not… wherever we hail from… basically… we ARE the same.
What I love most about That’s What I Love About Sunday stems from an outgrowth of the visual aspects… namely… the videographer concept of a wall-less house of worship. To be sure, my idea of the ideal Sunday services would be meeting in an out-of-doors setting. To commune with society / nature does imply peaceful coexistence… a wide open, toll-free bridge to the rest of humanity.
As 2018’s ending, heartbreaking current events now spill over into 2019… now more than ever… such a unifying span is what’s sorely lacking and so desperately needed.
Our Sunday Song Series will continue seven days from now…
CommonSenseTom 