Some Random Thoughts...

Just a couple random thoughts today.

● Social Security In Danger!!: Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Whenever there is a Republican in the White House, the media screams about Social Security going broke. Whenever the Democrats own it, Social Security is saved for all time! Then there was Obamacare, which saved Social Security by stealing all of its money. Anyways, now that Obama is leaving the White House and there is a very high chance that a (pretend) Republican will win it, Social Security is in danger again. Not only are we told that it will crash and burn in 2048, but it will do so two years sooner than expected. Panic!

Honestly, I’m sick of this. I’m sick of the homeless vanishing, AIDS being cured, inflation dropping to nothing, and wars mysteriously ending without the shooting stopping whenever the Democrats are in charge and then returning with a vengeance the moment the GOP is in charge again.

● Stairway To Court: There’s an interesting story from the world of music. Led Zeppelin has been sued for stealing their signature song, “Stairway to Heaven.” When I heard this, I thought it was just a money grab, but the trial seems to be going against them. Apparently, the introduction of the song comes from the song “Taurus” by 60’s rock bank Spirit. And even more apparently, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page may have seen this song performed at Birmingham’s Mother’s Club, though both claim they can’t recall that. In fact, Robert Plant has admitted that he can’t remember the 1960’s. Ouch.

I get the issue of copyrights and I do feel badly for Spirit if their stuff was actually stolen by Zeppelin. But let’s be honest, there is little original work in the arts. It’s all copies of copies of copies. All that really matters is what you do with it, and what Zeppelin did was timeless and amazing. What Spirit did, just didn’t take with the public.

● Seems Wrong: This week, the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Department released photos of Michael Jackson’s porn collection. While I in no way condone what he did, I find it wrong that this stuff is being made public. The man is dead and it strikes me that this is just piling on for the sake of satisfying the desire of some in the public (and more in the media) of selling salaciousness. You can disagree, but I just don’t see the point in continuing to drag a dead man through the ringer when we already know what he did.

● Surprise!: For a decade now, women’s groups have been pushing to improve women’s “body consciousness.” They tried everything from railing against magazines and films hiring only skinny models/actresses, to “shaming” women for airbrushing photos, to making it unacceptable to tell fat joke involving women. Just about the only thing they haven’t tried is giving up the jobs they got because they were hot and letting fat women take them instead... do as I say, not as I do. So basically, they did what the left always does – try to sell fake self-esteem over substance and act hypocritically the whole time (see e.g. feminism, anti-racism, environmentalism, anti-capitalism, anti-gun ownership, etc.).

So guess what? Yep: it didn’t work. In fact, women’s “body consciousness” has declined sharply since this all began. Imagine that. Every time the left tries to solve a problem, it makes it worse... every single time... everything they touch turns to crap.

As Reagan (kind of) said, “The scariest words in the English language are, I’m a liberal and I’m here to help!”