Gimme that Rock 'N Roll Music

Battle of the Bands, 1967.  Lightfoot on the Right

What has happened to rock 'n roll music these days? I'm talking about music that rocks.  Apart from the un-listenable drivel that passes for rap and hip-hop, there simply isn't any new, innovative rock music being brought out.  Is it the result of the doom, gloom and malaise that permeates the current culture that prohibits the recording of feel good rock 'n roll?  I think so, too.  When we have to resort to such unimaginably inappropriate combinations as Bob Dylan covering Frank Sinatra's hits, we are admitting that there's a serious dearth of any decent new rock music.  No wonder aging rockers such as the Rolling Stones, the Who, and Led Zepplin are still doing tours.  They're filling venues even with astronomical ticket prices because people want to hear rock music, and there's none being made.  I can applaud Sir Chritopher Lee's new Christmas album, however.  He's 92 years old, and can actually rock.

Even Nashville's thrown in the towel and produces very little real country anymore; it's all just homogenized popular music with a little twang, a fiddle and a slide guitar.  Some exceptions exist, of course, but mostly the current crop is pablum.  Outlaw country retired when Waylon, Willie, Merle, Bocephus, Johnny and others quit recording. I know this is just my opinion, but God, I sure miss 'em.

Election Nullification

You gotta be kidding me.  Yesterday, at a little after 2000 hours, (that's 8 PM for you civilians) John Boehner, Speaker of the House of Representatives, presented a omnibus spending bill that is 1,603 pages long. That means it will be impossible for any member of Congress to read the entire bill before voting on it this week. This bill - you have to pass the bill before you can know what's in the bill - essentially is a $1.1 trillion open checkbook to fund not only amnesty, but a host of other very unpopular spending allocations.  This is obviously an attempt to "conduct business as usual" in Washington before - according to Mitch McConnell - and even after the GOP gains a majority in both houses.

If this bill passes, and is evidence of the truth of the matter, I fear that conservatives, Tea Party supporters and others will feel as though the midterm elections have been nullified.  And rightly so.  If the entrenched political class feel as though they can make and enact law irrespective of the voters' wishes, then we have truly lost our republican system of government.  And when that happens, an environment exists for pure tyranny.  When tyranny exists, resistance follows.  And that may not be pretty.

What Life is Out There?

The Ancient Lunar "Glass Dome"

The images that China's Jade Rabbit - their rover on the Moon - has sent back seem to verify two things:  first, that Americans did in fact repeatedly land on the Moon and return to Earth during the eight Apollo missions, and secondly, photographic evidence confirms earlier NASA contention that ancient artifacts have been found.  Apparently in the ancient past, there was vast intelligent construction on the Moon, obviously built by other than Homo Sapiens.  A base or outpost, perhaps?  The curious part is that this discovery is being globally suppressed by the US, Chinese and other space agencies.  But why? Is this considered a threat to religious notions?  Do they fear a panic of the masses in learning of this?  I don't know.  But I do think most thinking people, regardless of religious affiliation and beliefs (well, there may be one exception), can intellectually accept the notion that in the whole of space there certainly must be intelligent life forms other than just us.  The universal popularity of space adventures in science fiction has certainly permeated every culture.  Again, perhaps except for one.  Think Star Trek and Star Wars. Who isn't aware of the possibility of alien life?  And with four nations (United States, India, China and Russia) along with the European Space Agency now exploring space at a furious pace, it's inevitable that we will find that we are not alone.  Even today, a NASA report indicated that NASA's Martian Rover Curiosity has found evidence water once was plentiful on Mars.  Vast lakes, and perhaps even seas once existed on Mars.  If so, intelligent life as we understand it was most assuredly abundant there, as photos of Martian artifacts indicate.  And NASA's Cassini probe, launched years ago, has found liquid water - essential for life as we know it - on Europa, one of Jupiter's moon, as well as under the ice on Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons.

Curious Skull Configurations

Some scientists speculate ancient beings on Mars may have seeded the human race on Earth tens of thousands of years ago.  It just may be that we are them, after all.  Interestingly, here on Earth some ancient civilizations sprang forth fully developed, and then suddenly disappeared. Incubation?  Or merely an anomaly?  I don't know.  But I can understand caution by the scientific community in declaring positively there are aliens, or at least there once were, in our solar system and elsewhere.  Perhaps the caution is borne of Stephen Hawking's famous admonition that if aliens do exist, they're probably not going to be friendly toward us.  I don't know about that.  I lean toward the notion that alien civilizations certainly do exist, and that there's a variety of species, as there are here on Earth.  And I think we've probably encountered both benevolent and malevolent aliens in mankind's past, and that fact will come to light soon. Stay tuned.

Day of Infamy

Sunday, December 7th, 1941: the day the Imperial Japanese navy attacked the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor Hawaii.  The attack was intended as a preventive action in order to keep the U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions Japan was planning in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. There were simultaneous Japanese attacks on the U.S.-held Philippines and on the British Empire in Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

The  photo above is of Battleship Row taken from a Japanese plane at the beginning of the attack. The explosion in the center is a torpedo strike on the USS West Virginia. Two attacking Japanese planes can be seen: one over the USS Neosho and one over the Naval Yard.

Seventy-three years later - today - we remember this event as the start of the US involvement in World War II, and rightly so.  Probably the most iconic image of that day is the sinking of the battleship USS Arizona, which lies on the Oahu lagoon's bottom, and is a both a monument and a memorial as the ship's crew are still entombed there.

Even though few WWII veterans are still alive today, we as a nation must never forget the attacks upon our sovereign soil. As with the infamous attack of the Twin Towers in New York on September 11, 2001, those who attack us may, in the end, regret doing so.

Back To Space

Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle 

I watched the white plume of vapor as the Delta IV Heavy Rocket lifted the Orion Space Vehicle soared skyward early this morning at 0705 hours.  As I write this in early afternoon, it has already splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, concluding a roughly six-hour successful test flight into space and back  Outstanding!  NASA's back in the space game with new and advanced technology.  So what's the big deal about that?  The Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) is capable of transporting astronauts farther out into the solar system than manned flight has ever trekked before.  This test flight reached a peak altitude more than 14 times farther from Earth than the International Space Station's orbit. No spacecraft designed for astronauts had gone so far since Apollo 17 — NASA's final moon shot — 42 years ago.  This is the Conestoga Wagon for the 21st century, and will take Earthlings into deep space.  This is a vehicle that can take a crew of astronauts to Mars, outer planets, the Moon, asteroids and elsewhere. 

Apollo 11, Neil Armstrong, July 1969

As I've posted here previously, China is on the Moon, and India orbited Mars on the cheap, and both nations should be congratulated for their technological success.  And some have wondered if NASA was out of the space business as the US leased portage on Russian space flights to and from the International Space Station, and private contractors were paid to taxi US astronauts and supplies to the ISS.  NASA's most visible foray into space this year was the MAVEN project, which was a probe sent to orbit Mars to study atmospheric conditions.  Last year NASA launched the Cassini research vehicle to orbit Titan to study the possibility of life there.  Those were long term unmanned probes.  But today was the test flight of a new, true spaceship - one that can go into deep space with a three or four man crew, and more importantly, return home.  Let's hope the US continues manned space exploration, and put its efforts into a manned mission to both Luna and Mars, as we did with the eight manned Apollo missions to the Moon.  As a nation, we need another giant leap for mankind.

Rape, Not Rape Part Deux

Rape has become one of the most overused words in the country's current lexicon.  Why?  Because it's been reduced to a weapon, a threat, a minor accusation, and most importantly, a shakedown.  Consider the recent updates to two of the most published "rape" claim stories.

Rape Bait??

First, let's review the claims of the venal narcissist Lena Dunham.  Breitbart News did a thorough investigation of her claim of rape by "a mustachioed Republican named Barry" while she was a student at Oberlin College.  On this blog I have reviewed her specious claim, along with related misandry issues by radical feminists at length in previous columns here, and here.  As dubious as they were when alleged, Ms. Dunham's claims have now been exposed as almost completely fabricated.  The superb journalists at Breitbart give her the benefit of the doubt, and that's a noble gesture, but is much like giving the infamous shakedown actor Tawany Brawley the benefit of doubt.  

But wait - what of the poor man whose life is ruined by this vile misandrist's yet to be retracted accusations?  He's living in fear that the liberal press will find him and harass him with this total fantasy nonsense.  "Have you raped anyone else?" shouted by liberal harpies can be heard even outside of his darkest nightmares.  But our good Lena, adored by All The Right People, knows and feels nothing but the glow of her own self aggrandizement.  And the sparkle of the $3.7 million she got from Random House, publishers of her unbelievably disgusting book.

Guilty Until Proven Innocent?

Second, let's review the idiocy surrounding Jameis Winston's alleged rape accusation, which we exposed as bogus last year on this blog.  Guilty until proven innocent, Mr. Winston's is faced with defending himself at his Florida State University student conduct hearing.  In a statement prepared for the hearing, Winston says his accuser willingly danced with him, entered her number into his phone, and traveled back to his dorm in a cab with him and friends.  Quoting from that statement:

Almost immediately upon our arrival, (NAME REDACTED) and I went into my bedroom. We were standing facing each other, kissing and touching each other's bodies. I eventually asked (NAME REDACTED) if she would perform oral sex on me. She said that she would. The lights in my bedroom were on and (NAME REDACTED) willingly performed oral sex on me. While (NAME REDACTED) was performing oral sex, I was close enough to my dresser to reach over to it, open a drawer, and retrieve a condom. (NAME REDACTED) and I also engaged in intense foreplay and heavy petting during the same period that she was performing oral sex.... (NAME REDACTED) assisted me in putting on the condom. I stood on the floor with (NAME REDACTED) on the bed and we engaged in consensual sexual intercourse. After sometime in this position, we changed positions. I got on my bed on my back and (NAME REDACTED) got on top of me. (NAME REDACTED) conduct and other verbal expressions left no doubt that our sex was consensual.
I recall hearing Chris and Ron outside of my room. The door to my room was broken so the door could not close fully or be locked. At some point, Chris came into the room. (NAME REDACTED), who was still on top of me, saw Chris and told him to get out of the room.

As Winston's friends continued to interrupt him and his accuser in flagrante delicto , the quarterback states that she pressed him for more privacy, so they went into the bathroom where they continued. Afterward, Winston says he chauffeured his lady friend to her dorm upon his scooter. Winston's accuser has demanded $7 million from him.  This blackmail includes a slanderous charge that will hang over him for the rest of his life. "Rape is a vicious crime," Winston declared. "The only thing as vicious as rape is falsely accusing someone of rape."

Well said, Jameis, well said.  As we see, it's all about a shakedown for money.  It's about misandrists setting up men in "honeypot" shakedown stings.  And it has nothing to do with rape.

What Now, America?

A few days ago, may of us took a moment to thank and honor the armed services in general and veterans in particular for their service and sacrifice in protecting the United States, our freedoms and our way of life as we acknowledged and celebrated Veterans Day. Others did not.  But what has become of us, since that noble holiday was established so long ago to celebrate the end of a terrible and costly war?  What have we lost in terms of freedom, democracy and most importantly a sense of self reliance since those days a hundred years ago?  That America, I am sad to say, no longer exists.  In that America, one could wake up in the morning and go out into the world and not only be free, but able to make his own way, in most any way he chose.  The unbridled optimism of people simply being and doing resulted in our country becoming the most ambitious, free, and prosperous nation the world has ever seen.  Innovation, literature, science, technology, manufacturing, exploration - all of these things were heralded, honored and admired.  But today, our every act and thought is monitored, judged and punished by a mindless, nameless, overreaching and completely totalitarian government.  Innovation and intellectual curiosity is quelled and is made to genuflect at the alter of political correctness.  Individual motivation and desire to excel is punished so that egalitarianism may be worshiped.   How were we, as the most powerful and righteous nation on earth, able to defeat the authoritarianism of a hostile communist enemy, only to succumb without a whimper to the very same ideology from within?  How did our concept of our nation of laws, not men, become so perverted in such a very short time into the exact opposite of that noble notion today?  How did we allow this to happen?

The culprit was- and is - moral apathy and cultural complacency, and the enemy took advantage of that weakness.  Are we defeated?  No, not yet.

I'm encouraged by the overwhelming change of national mindset I hope I see in the results of the recent midterm elections.  If what I see is true, then the country has indeed awaken to the fact that we have been literally invaded and occupied by an alien and hostile force, not only in a political sense, but culturally as well.  If the folks we elected into positions of leadership follow the electorate's mandate, and resist being sucked into the amoral political morass that defines Washington, DC, we just may be able to pull back from the brink of Orwell's dehumanizing nightmare, and save our culture, our nation, and our way of life after all.  If however, those leaders resort to the insipid get-along, go-along mentality espoused by the smiling, evil freedom sucking vampires, then I suspect we, as a nation of free men, will need to resort to other means.  What now, America?