QUOTESSAYS

 I have never been a big nostalgia buff. I do enjoy going back and reflecting occasionally on different eras of my life, primarily to review the lessons learned, which there have been plenty. The pop culture of my youth means very little to me now. Lots of people get stuck believing the music, TV shows, and movies when they were young whipper snappers were the bomb. In reality it probably has more to with being at the very top of your physical and hormonal game. You were firing on all cylinders, while simultaneously being exposed to pop culture aimed at your generation. At the end of the day, it is a business.  I remember when my parents used to watch Lawrence Welk on TV every Saturday night religiously. I even got them into a live telecast at the old Hollywood Palace on Vine St. when I worked for ABC as a guard. You would have thought it was the Beatles. Then it occurred to me that punk rock is as far back in time now as the music Welk was playing in the 70's was then to the 30

Few more basic truths than this, and so routinely ignored. A new Popeye's Chicken franchise just opened here, and you would think it was the second coming of Christ. I saw lines of people waddling up to it when I drove by on opening day. One of the big topics on our neighborhood Nextdoor social media page, between the lost dogs, people bickering, and constant virtue signaling, are odes to any new crappy chain restaurant opening up, which we seem to have an explosion of lately. The emotional love I see expressed over a hamburger can be disconcerting. And you can be pretty sure they aren't jogging down to the local Whataburger.  

Ironically, some of the most memorable and exciting times in my life were predicated on 'out of money experiences'. Nothing keens the senses and heightens awareness than not having a dime and finding a way to survive. In looking back at my life those were the times that stood out among the hundreds of normal days spent kind of sleepwalking through life, the blessing and curse of a comfortable middle-class lifestyle. Now I must differentiate between being broke in a first world capitalistic country where money is fairly fluid and attainable with a little ingenuity, as opposed to a hard scrabble feudal state like Haiti with little options no matter how clever you are. Our very poorest living on skid row in tents still have it way better than a good portion of the world's population. I know when I am blessed and lucky.  

 Legalization of pot to the rescue! The perfect societal drug. Keeps you high enough where you can still do simple work tasks and not get too uppity. AI will take care of all the hard stuff. Plus, it primes you to consume crappy pop culture that would otherwise seem horrible if you weren't high. From Kerouac Beat rebel drug to Big Brother's tranquilizer, what a long, strange trip it has been....

A subtle lesson on propaganda too......  

  Turns out Colin only identifies as Chinese. Now I stumped......

This quote is so primal, ageless, and valid that it has no real authorship. Variations of it go clear back to Greek philosophers and right up to modern times, proving some wisdom never goes stale.  I am always reminded of a quote from the 92-year-old retired DC Beltway lawyer who I befriended at the nursing facility. There was some big hoopla about something in the news and I asked him where he thought the truth lay, and he answered: "Where the truth always lays, somewhere in the middle. Politicians make a living pushing it around." That is how I always look at war propaganda, which we are getting a good dose of lately. If I carefully look at both side's propaganda, I can usually come up with a pretty clear picture of the actual situation from that perspective. It is never black and white, and wars cannot be fought in shades of gray. It requires 100% good and bad guys to make it work. A good rule of thumb is to always remember a few people get very rich through war. A bil

  1. If anyone tells you they know the meaning of life, they are either lying or guessing. Robes and vestments just make it fancy lying and guessing. 2. Never give them money.

  There sure seems to be an increase in violent crime lately. I can see many reasons why. The COVID pandemic pushing people over the edge, war in the Ukraine making people feel uneasy, police agencies being gutted and underfunded, the loss of a rational middle in political discourse, a scary vacuum in political leadership, a society possibly too large and unwieldy for a classical liberal republic to thrive in, etc. But I still believe a huge part is society being desensitized to violence through corporate media. Actually, this quote is somewhat dated. Violence in movies is a one-way street and a 30 second Super Bowl ad will run you closer to 7 million these days. I am speaking more of the two-way street, first-person shooter video games where you are interacting with the medium as you kill virtual beings by the score to rack up the score. I don't believe an adult who was not raised on them is affected much by playing those games. I am thinking more about the kids raised on them fro