Scripture Sunday 1 Nephi 11:3

It's impossible not to read this passage metaphorically. The "great and spacious" building that is the "pride of the world" came tumbling down, and buildings built on pride usually do eventually. It may take weeks, it may take decades-but it will happen eventually. This passage is interesting because it mentions that any nations that take action against the "apostles of the Lord" will suffer the same fate-so again, it seems very metaphorical.

I'm not sure we (LDS) should take pride in seeing the destruction of our enemies. I freely admit that I'm the last person to say anything about this, I carry grudges like Michael Corleone and I take great happiness when people who have wronged me fail in their lives. I wouldn't say it's a good way to live your life, but it is a weakness of mine. When the church seems to be under attack in this world, we can quickly get caught up in wanting to see our enemies fail. While it's a perfectly normal reaction, I'm not sure it's what God wants.

2016 was the worst year ever. 2017 was the worst year ever!

2016 was tough on all of us because a large number of celebrities passed away. It wasn't my personal worst year ever-in fact on a personal level the year was quite good. Unlike many out there I know what it's like to have a celebrity you admire die-it's tough. It's not like having an intimate friend or relative pass away but you will miss their craft (whether it be a sports star, music performer, actor, political hero, etc) and you'll miss what they brought to your life an society at large.

What I'm noticing on my social media accounts is that the same people who thought 2016 was the "worst year ever" are also saying that 2017 was "the worst year ever". I'm one hundred percent confident that 2018 will also be their "worst year ever". Like I mentioned before if you've been divorced more than three times-odds are that you are the problem. If you think drama always "finds you" no matter what relationship you might be in, then you are likely creating it. And if you think that every year was the "worst ever" than I'm also very sure that the problem is your perspective. 

Album of the weekend

Scream 2-soundtrack

The Scream movies are among the best horror movies of all time. They lead the way in jump scares and they provide an excellent "who done it" kind of story. If you have seen the movies than you say "I knew it was him" all along, but in reality you probably didn't. It was a lucky guess. All three Scream soundtracks are also quite good, but this one is my favorite of the series.

"The Swing" by Everclear is one of my favorite songs of all time (Yes, I have many favorite songs of all time) and it's the best song of the soundtrack. Every song is quite good. Even the songs by artists I don't like at all are worth a listen, yet not a download. "She Said" by Ed Roland of Collective Soul is another great song. The grunge years are really represented quite well on this album.

A fantastic soundtrack.

Another arena football team exits stage left....

I love watching train wrecks as much as the next person, and I love watching dumpster fires. Arena football has become that. Another team, the Tampa Bay storm have cashed in their chips and are leaving the casino.Of course I feel sorry for the fans and the employees of the team, but this is pretty standard for minor league sports. Some minor league baseball teams have been there forever but the only constant in the world of minor league sports is change.

Arena football is becoming a Northeastern thing with the only teams being in Washington, Baltimore, Albany and Philadelphia. That could change anytime of course, for all I know by the time the day is over several of these teams could be gone as well. Two of the more successful teams, the Orlando Predators and the Tampa Bay Storm, were in Florida for more than two decades. The famous "War for I-4"  rivalry between the two teams was among the most popular rivalries in all of minor league sports. Orlando folded up their team last year and now Tampa is doing the same. Arena football was once very popular down here and it's a shame that the teams have closed up shop.

Impact Wrestling

I used to be a huge wrestling fan growing up, but I haven't watched it in years. When Impact Wrestling would tape shows in Orlando I would sometimes go to watch, but it got a little depressing. The people that in attendance didn't care about wrestling, they were just there because they were tired at Universal studios and needed a place to sit down. I was there once and saw kid taking a nap. His parents looked just as bored but they needed to fake paying attention just to see when it was over. I saw virtually no signs and only a small handful of people who actually wanted to be there. It was my first opportunity to see wrestling so up close and I was excited. When the Hardy Boys won the tag team titles I got to "celebrate" with them by giving them each a high five. I was about one of seven people who were around the ring.

Impact wrestling has been declared dead 344 times by now and it's still alive, so I sort of wonder if anything will stop it at this point. The ratings are terrible and the buy rates for the pay per views are also pathetic. Eventually that will lead them out of business. Wrestling isn't a charity and the point of it is to make money. If they don't make money, entertaining you isn't going to happen.

Day after Christmas

6AM. Day after Christmas. I throw some clothes on in the dark. The song "Brick" by Ben Folds Five seems to really encapsulate the depressing feeling that many people have the day after Christmas. For me, it's always been the opposite. I've always been uncomfortable with Christmas, not for any religious reason. Growing up Christmas was always a stressful time for my family and we never really got along. It's been much better in recent years, thank God but it's taken me a very long time to get into the Christmas spirt. I didn't really enjoy the holiday until well into my 30's. 

The day after remains a great day for me. I get to enjoy the gifts I receive and more importantly I get back into my daily life. If you are having a hard time with the day after Christmas just remember-the days are getting longer and soon enough it'll be springtime. Get back into your routine and stay busy. 

Christmas break

I'm on my Christmas break, so I'll be offline for a bit. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone! I'll be back before the New Year! 

Album of the weekend

Barenaked Ladies-Rock Spectacle

You ever have a band you don't really like enough to buy their albums but you like more than one song by them so you want to buy a greatest hits or live album? For me, it's the Barenaked Ladies. Which is odd because they are very quirky and I expect some people either love or hate them. For me though, I like enough of their big hits to buy the live album but not enough so that a more hardcore fan could quiz me on deep album cuts of theirs and I'd get it right. I'm telling you upfront-no, I'd get it wrong. I'm not a big enough fan to know everything about them, but I am a big enough fan to enjoy some of their better known songs.

I think you would be too. This band is good for an album or two but it's not something I find myself getting obsessed with for a long period of time. The more well known songs are the best ones-like "If I had a Million Dollars" or "The Old Apartment". Those two alone are worth a download. This album is one you'll need to listen to on Youtube before you spend any money on it. It's got a very unique sound to it, for sure.

Extraterrestrial life?

There seems to be a lot of activity recently about the search for extraterrestrial life. Click here, here too, and here as well. True or not, these are all legit news sources and not Alex Jones or the other trash heaps of the internet. With technology that is advancing and letting us look deeper and deeper into the solar systems it's not a surprise to me that more mainstream news organizations are covering the look for aliens.

I'm agnostic on alien life. Could there be something else out there? For sure. To me being an agnostic means being skeptical but still open to the possibility, just like an agnostic when talking about the existence of God. I don't think that Travis Walton was abducted nor do I think Betty and Barney Hill were. Don't get me wrong, I don't think these people are outright lying. They probably believe 100% that they were abducted-but that does't mean they are or were right. A person can passionately believe something and still be wrong. Many people who claim abduction have some personal drama going on in their lives or were (surprise!) drunk or high. Betty and Barney Hill are the exceptions to that, but I still don't believe they were abducted either.

It's a fascinating topic for sure, though virtually all accounts of alien encounters should be read and enjoyed with a healthy account of skepticism. As of right now, I don't think aliens have visited the earth in any way, shape or form. That doesn't mean they don't exist though, I'm just waiting for more evidence. 

Gene Simmons sued for assault....

Not to make light of a very serious incident, but file this under "It's about damn time." The man is a walking sexual harassment case and the fact that he has a daughter makes it even more disgusting. Oh sure, he's from a different era but that doesn't make it right. Of course, he's innocent till proven guilty in the legal sense but in the court of public opinion the man is a pervert. While it's true, we all have problems, issues and character flaws but if his son acted this way towards women or his daughter was a victim I truly wonder what he would say or do.

When you are as rich as he is, you don't care what the peons think of you. You can cry in your limousine all the way to your mansion in Malibu. However your reputation does matter, and Tiger Woods, Eliot Spitzer, Roy Moore and Bill O'Reilly are all learning that lesson right now. No matter where they go and what they do from now on, people will whisper and talk about what happened to them. That's good and bad-it's good, because those people did do something wrong. It's bad, because you shouldn't be judged by your worst moments even though that is the way the world works and how people think.

Anyone who knows the slightest thing about Kiss knows that Gene Simmons defines himself by his ability to get female attention and companionship. Since he revels in that reputation he has no right to all of sudden claim "foul". Is he guilty? I don't know, I wasn't there. But if he is it shouldn't be a surprise to me, you or anyone else

My current comic obsession

It's so nice to go into a comic store and not have the owner be a walking stereotype of comic store owners. Sadly, The Simpsons famous "Comic book guy" is often times deadly accurate with who owns comic stores and their customer base. As much as I love comics I hope and pray that I'm nothing like them. They remind me all of Jack Black in High Fidelity without the charm. I'm lucky-the local comic store in Ocala is run by a super nice guy.

I'm in the middle of Daredevil right now, and the storyline consists of the arch villain Kingpin currently holding the office of mayor of New York City. It's loaded with political overtones-Kingpin can easily be seen as a smaller version of Donald Trump. Luckily they don't shove their politics down your throat. I'm sure it's coming-everything is political now-but for now, it's the one of the better comics out there, no question.

The XFL is making a comeback.

Pretty much the only thing that Bob Costas and I agree on is that the XFL is/was a really stupid idea. Finding ways to make football "more violent" would lead to serious problems all around, both for the players and ironically, for the fans who would get more and more desensitized to violence and thus seek out more and more violent forms of entertainment. There are rumors all around that the XFL is making an ill advised comeback.

This will fail for many reasons. The biggest and most obvious is that it failed once before, well over a decade ago. I'm sure that there are some forms of entertainment that failed before and come back to success years later, but minor league sports generally aren't among them. With so many different things out there begging for your attention to entertain you, the XFL will have massive competition.

Arena football is learning the hard way that being a minor league football team is damn near impossible. Arena football has all sorts of problems, but the biggest one is that the teams don't really make money. The XFL will be arena football 2.0, and it will almost certainly fail again. Vince McMahon is a genius in marketing and business, there can be no doubt about that whatsoever. Shame he's not learning from past experience on this one.

Scripture Sunday Ether 12:34

Ah, charity. That most misunderstood virtue.

This scripture says, "except men shall have charity they cannot inherit that place which thou has prepared in the mansions of the Father. To me that sounds like overkill a bit. The foundation of getting into the mansion of the Father is Christ, and while charity is certainly a good thing, it's not the be all and end all of salvation.

Charity is a hard thing to talk about. You don't want to be an ass who talks about how much they give to charity all the time-while that doesn't cheapen what you've done (if it's true of course) it generally makes you obnoxious. Charity is a good thing but it's of course it's better if it's done quietly and not broadcast all over the place.

You can also get overwhelmed by charity. Sometimes it might seem like everyone is creating a GoFundMe and you feel guilty if you can't give everything to everyone.  It's possible to get compassion fatigue. It's okay to say no-after all, to some degree charity begins at home and if you can't feed your own kids than charity to others is somewhat foolish.

Racial double standard in sports?

Recently, Odell Beckham talked about the double standard between white and black athletes showing emotions on the field.  Sadly, he is exactly right. A black guy showing emotions will be called immature, showboating or selfish-just what Odell Beckham said while a white guy showing emotions will be called "showing leadership", "passion" or having intensity. There are two sets of rules here and it's getting very obvious. 

There is a catch-22 for athletes of all colors showing emotion. If they are ice cold, professional and under control-they lack passion. If they cry out, showboat, or get angry when they miss a field goal-then they are too emotional, unprofessional or lack the ability to be cool under pressure. When you throw race into the issue, then it gets much worse. The average sports fan cares more about winning than race, but that doesn't mean that there are not some unpleasant thoughts about race in professional sports. 

Album of the Weekend

The Beatles-Let it Be

What can you say about the final album of the greatest band of all time? The band that while changing music fundamentally kept up their artistic talent and meaningful songs? In reality, The Beatles might be the only band that really matters. Without them, music would be totally different. Every artist from 60's onward owes something to the Fab Four.

Oh, what an album. While it's not one of their most popular albums and it's not the one that has the most critical acclaim to me, it's still a gem. Like we all know, the band was basically broken up at this point and some of the songs (I Me Mine) sound like the members screaming at the other. I Me Mine is an amazing song and totally underrated. I might as well get this out of the way-I don't like the song "Let It Be." I've always thought it was a little overplayed and again, I'm not really a fan of slower songs. Regardless, I know it's a very popular song and I'm in the minority.

This album does capture emotion better than any other album they have. You owe it to yourself to buy it.

A sidenote-no, Yoko Ono did not break up The Beatles. She was the final straw, but they were pretty much done long before her. Four insanely talented guys don't work well together. It's a miracle they lasted as long as they did in the first place.

Eminem loves Trump

Like all singers and all entertainers, I assumed Eminem was a die hard conservative and huge Trump fan. My bad. He's spoken out several times against Trump and he's getting more and more intense about it. Before I go any further I'd like to remind everyone of something: He has every right to speak out against Trump, and I have every right to speak out against Eminem. Just saying "he has free speech" is avoiding the topic.

The ruling elite love everyone who dislikes Trump, even a deeply disturbed man like Eminem. Growing up people thought metal was "sinful" and "evil" but no, no metal lyrics come as close to disturbing as his do. Now Eminem, previously in retirement, saw an opportunity to regain critical acceptance and the quickest way to do so is record an album about how much you hate Trump. Eminem is apparently upset that Trump isn't listening to him-that's nonsense. I'm sure Trump will be on Twitter shortly talking about how much he hates Eminem too.

When you have very little talent and no manners, you have to appeal to the lowest common denominator. That describes both Trump and Eminem perfectly. 

Boston Herald sold...

The Boston Herald, the newspaper in Boston that isn't the Globe, was sold recently. The buyer bought it for 4.5 million and that seems a little high to me. I used to read the Herald daily when I lived up north, now I read it weekly online.For some reason it was one of my favorite newspapers. I would read two newspapers a day at times, the Herald and USA Today. I understand that newspapers are dying out and while it is a little sad, there is nothing I can do about it. the majority of people under 50 get their news online.

Newspapers are a victim to changing technology. For obvious reasons, why pay anything for news when I can go online and get everything I need for free? I feel sorry for the poor bastard who spent 4.5 million buying a newspaper, but it's their money and they can do whatever they want to with it. I also feel sorry for the columnists and reporters. Most newspaper reporters think the are "watchdogs for the public good" but that's bullshit. They are ass kissers who line up to worship anyone who they politically agree with. We need more old school reporters who are skeptical of everything from government to religion to business who drink whiskey with one hand and an unfiltered Marlboro in the other.

It's too damn cold outside!

It's cold down here!

Even though I live in Florida, I'm originally from New England. After two years of living down in Florida full time I've become allergic to cold weather, and when it drops below 50 I begin to feel my body prepare for hibernation. I hate the cold weather, I hate the snow, basically my level of hate for the winter is equal to my level of hate for the Dave Matthews Band. So when I found out it's going to snow in northern Florida and all over the south, I got a little depressed.

It's understandable that people in the south don't know how to drive in the snow, so I don't think you should really expect them to. Oh sure, many of us are native northerners but after some years down here you really can forget what it's like to drive in terrible weather.  I don't understand how people in New England can forget how to drive in the snow though, given that it's an occurrence that happens much more frequently.

Whatever happens, I'm moving to Miami if it stays like this for too long. That, and the Cayman Islands are looking mighty fine right now.

Alabama senate race

For the first time in my adult life, I'd probably sit out an election and not vote. I don't agree with anything that the democrat says (surprise!) and Roy Moore is five steps away from sharing a jail cell with Jared Fogle. Look, I get it that in politics people lie. I'm sure that some of the controversy surrounding him is political, but I can count on one hand how many times I've been accused of something that I didn't do. Most of the bad things in my life that I've been accused of are things that I did do. I also understand that if I poked around in your past I could find things that you did that you are ashamed of and don't want known. However with Roy Moore, there is just so much smoke that there has to be fire. It took down Herman Cain (remember him?) and now it's going to take down Roy Moore.

Many republicans have called for Roy Moore to step down from the race, and that's a good thing. The democrats correctly kick out their perverts (Franken, Anthony Weiner, John Conyers) and the republicans are trying their best to do the same. I admire the party leadership-something I've never said in my life.

Scripture Sunday 3 Nephi 18:21-24

I'm sure that other religions have their versions of family prayer, but LDS seem to really embrace it. Praying is an important aspect in the church, and it's heavily emphasized in the culture. This scripture might be where the family prayers come from. That old saying, "the family that prays together, stays together" can be ridiculed in our increasingly secular society but there seems to be some truth to it. Lots of times families that pray together can be better prepared for stressful events that happen in life.

The passage goes on to say other interesting things. "Behold, you shall meet together often, and you shall not forbid any man from coming onto you when you meet". LDS meetinghouses are open to the public and just anyone can walk into a church meeting on Sunday morning-so the church is doing the right thing and supporting what this passage says. It is true however that LDS temples are not open to the public and you have to be a bit more "serious" of an LDS member to be allowed entrance. I've been to the temple several times but I haven't been in a few years.

Finally, this passage talks about "holding up your light so it may shine to the world." Often times LDS are thought of having a light that shines to the outside world. It's a sweet thing, and it's often very true. LDS people do tend to have a special glow to them-and we love to share that with the outside world.

Smoking in restaurants

I find it highly amusing that people who think that a business should be able to pick and choose who to serve are in favor of smoking bans in restaurants. If you can pick and choose not to serve a homosexual wedding, why can't a restaurant pick and choose if they want to allow it's customers to smoke in it?

Like I've mentioned before I no longer smoke cigarettes but I used to. Do I enjoy the occasional (less than once a year, seriously) cigarette? No comment, but in fairness it's been several years since I had even one and a decade since I've smoked on a regular basis. Unlike many other non smokers and former smokers, I have no problem being around them and don't look down on people who smoke anything from cigars to cigarettes to weed.

It is your choice as a consumer to frequent places that you enjoy. If you don't want to sit in the smoking section (are there such things anymore?) at a business, than you need to use your freedom of choice and not do so. It's up to the business to decide if they want to ban smoking or not. Some bars in the my county still allow smoking, and it's not up to you tell them to ban it anymore than it is your right to force them to serve a homosexual person.

The cool part about freedom is the freedom for others to do things that you personally disagree with.

Album of the weekend

Iron Butterfly-In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

Fun fact: this band has had a huge, huge amount of turnover. At one point every single citizen in California was in this band. Literally. Every single one.

High turnover or not, this album is famous for one song. The stupidly long In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. The backstory to this song is that the writer was so drunk he tried to say "In the Garden of Eden" but it came out like the title. Regardless of the how, and even though it's way too long this song was one of the first heavy metal songs. Listen to it again in it's entirety and tell me you couldn't see it done by early Black Sabbath.

No one has ever heard the other songs on the album. Obviously you'll download just this one song and forget about Iron Butterfly-but their place in heavy metal history should be recognized by more people.

Bitcoin

The price of Bitcoin is skyrocketing right now and while I'm hardly an expert in the stock market or Bitcoin, it concerns me. Something this volatile is not likely to end well. That's a shame too, because as paper cash quietly fades to black, Bitcoin I think will be the future of money.

Bitcoin is many things, but to me it seems like an electronic version of paper cash. Like dollar bills, Bitcoin is hard to trace. It can be earned and hoarded without the government really knowing about it and that's a good thing, a very good thing. What the government can't know about it can't tax, regulate or take. I'm not naive though-I think Bitcoin will eventually be regulated/taxed/banned or in some way restricted. The government can't function without your money and if more people use Bitcoin than debit cards/etc, than the government will absolutely strike back.

Plastic surgery

It is a free country and you can do whatever you'd like. If you want to get breast implants or liposuction just due to vanity-go for it. There are also many blessings to plastic surgery as well. Burn victims can lead better lives and hopefully get a boost to their self confidence. A man going bald can also try various cures that might make him feel better as well. Plastic surgery of virtually all types should be legal and as long as you find a doctor willing to do perform the surgery you should be free to do whatever you please.

In most cases though I think plastic surgery can be a sign of a deeply depressed person and someone with some severe mental issues. This blog post was inspired by the internet rumor of the girl in Iran who got plastic surgery to look like Angelina Jolie. The Heaven sent Snopes says that the rumor is "unproven" but we've all heard of plastic surgery horror stories before. The Snopes story is right here.

I hope it's not true. The woman needs mental health counseling and not more plastic surgery if this really is the case. I find the story incredibly disturbing.

Bill Clinton

If you grew up in the 90's you'll remember that Bill Clinton had a string of sexual scandals, and I'm not just talking about Monica. He, like Trump,was a walking sexual harassment case. Democrats defending him wildly back in the 90's and republicans (shockingly) tried to take him down. Are you surprised about this? I'm not. It's the exact same as it was now, with the political parties reversed. In 2017, some democrats are now saying that Clinton should have resigned back then.

It's easy to see that now, isn't it? I have a bit of disdain (is that possible to have a bit of it? You either have it or you don't, I guess. It's like being "sort of" pregnant) for people who now suddenly say that Clinton should have resigned. It's easy to say that now after the time has passed and it won't cost you much politically, huh?

Bill Clinton is an afterthought in democratic politics. Oh sure, he still holds some power-all ex presidents do after all-but it's easy to throw him under the bus because sexual harassment suits are in the news right now. Them saying that he should have resigned is completely meaningless and it's as political as people saying Trump should never have been elected president. Well, like it or not he is president. Like it or not, Clinton didn't resign and many people on the left didn't think he should have back then. You can change your mind on issues and that's fine. God knows I have. But this is nothing but politics.

Greyhound racing

I'm not a fan of greyhound racing and my state (Florida) is thinking about banning it. Hopefully they'll put it to a ballot question and let the public decide if they want it banned or not. I'll vote for it to be banned, though I'm a bid cautious about it. Obviously, I don't like the way the dogs are treated when they are off the track. They can be pumped up with steroids and treated horrifically. While I do think that the dogs like the actual racing, I'm 100% sure that they don't like being shot in the head or otherwise put down when they lose and can't find a new home. If I'm wrong and they are treated better, great-greyhounds are wonderful pets and deserve better.

I'm concerned though. First off, I don't like banning things. We should basically be allowed to do whatever we want too as long as it doesn't hurt anyone. If you can prove that greyhound racing doesn't hurt the dogs and they live relatively decent lives outside of the track, then perhaps banning it isn't the right thing to do. I'm also worried about what will happen to the breed after greyhound tracks are banned. Will the breed disappear? If greyhounds can't be used for racing anymore, will they be able to shift into a life of companions? I hope so.

So I'd vote for the ban at this time, and I probably will in the future. It's not as black and white as I thought originally though.

Scripture Sunday Moroni 10:3-5

This is probably the most famous passage in the Book of Mormon. Doesn't mean it's the best, doesn't mean it's the most insightful-but it is the most famous. It's part of Moroni's promise. Moroni's promise basically says that if we pray with sincere intent, we can know the truthfulness of the LDS gospel. Moroni makes a promise that if you pray with pure intentions, the truth of gospel will be revealed to you.

For obvious reasons, I like this passage and for the most part, I generally agree. However I do have a lot of sympathy for people who have done exactly what the scripture passage says and don't have the same confirmation that Moroni talks about. I'm hesitant to say that it's something wrong with the person praying-that's going a bit too far-but I do still believe that if you pray with a pure intention and an honest inquiry you will get something special out of Moroni's promise.

Your favorite band

I'm going to give it to you straight. Some people think your favorite band is terrible, and that's okay. There are right wing snowflakes, there are left wing snowflakes. Both have "justifications" for their behavior, and usually those justifications boil down to how thin skinned and fragile they are. I'm going to add a third type of snowflake-the pop culture snowflake.

I'll talk about music because it's clearly one of my passions but pop culture snowflakes can also be that way about movies/tv shows/favorite authors, etc. If you say you've never watched Seinfeld-they stare at you. If you say you've never read any book by Chuck Palahniuk-they babble incoherently at you. If you can't recite every song from Blonde on Blonde by Bob Dylan-they look their nose down at you as if you don't know anything about music. It works for things that aren't terribly pretentious too. If you mention to someone that you've never liked Metallica and it's their favorite band-the claws come out.

How dare someone have a different opinion than you. After all, everyone must love the same things as you do and any diversity of thought is a grave offense to your dignity, right? I have my flaws but one thing I've always been okay on is that if no one cares the Ramones, Megadeth, Kiss, the Tampa Bay Rays or Bret Easton Ellis I don't take it personal. I accept that my tastes aren't for everyone.

Album of the weekend

The Clash-Combat Rock

I've avoided talking about The Clash. I've mentioned them maybe here or there but I've never gone in depth how I feel about them because I'm sort of conflicted. On one hand, I accept that they've been vastly influential in both punk and in the broader genres of music as well. However, this is my favorite album of theirs. This is the one they "sold out" on and I totally understand that their hardcore fans have every right to say I'm not a fan of theirs. After all, they are correct.

This was the first Clash album I owned, and I loved it. I love the pop political song "Know your rights". Sure it's not as angry or as deep as the Sex Pistols or Anti-Flag, but it was among my first introductions to how political punk could be. I like the song "Rock the Casbah" too. I don't claim that it is anything but a dance pop song. It's not punk, that's for sure. I still like the song. To top it off, I like their best known hit, "Should I stay or should I go?" which is also off this album.

So I'm torn. I like this album, but it's not really punk. Not in the least. You may not like my opinion of it or this album, so download it at your own risk.

Virginia Mom records her daughters bullies

A Virginia mom is facing felony charges after putting a recording device in her daughters school bag to record the bullying that her daughter went through.  Felony charges. That's a very serious charge for what the mom did. It's another reason why I think grade school-high school is the worst time of our lives. The bullies run the school and you are punished for standing up for yourself. If this woman gets convicted of felony charges and the school bullies and administration get off totally free, it'll be another shining example of what I've always thought-the worst people aren't the bullies, they are the bully enablers.

Teachers who turn a blind eye and principals who punish a mom like this have a special place in hell waiting for them. Oh sure, childhood bullies are nasty people too but sometimes it's just kids being kids and not knowing how to behave yet. Goodness knows I did things that were awful in school too. However I learned a life lesson: You can't bully someone who punches back. I was small and frail and couldn't really defend myself as a kid, so I was an easy target. The school system here is enabling the bullies to keep being nasty because they are punishing the victims. Like you, I'm tired of victimhood in America but that doesn't mean that there aren't real cases of being victimized.

This is Kafkaesque. A mom doing the right thing (after all, no one would believe her if she didn't get video proof. She got proof and then got arrested. Creepy) and could go to jail for it. The entire situation is incredibly chilling. The bullies/school system crying about getting their privacy invaded is like a cheating wife complaining you hacked into her iPhone and found messages to another guy,

Note-I wrote this on Tuesday and Wednesday I found out that the prosecutor dropped the charges. That's nice, but it's still horrible that the mom was arrested in the first place. 

Poland thinking of ending shopping on Sunday?

Apparently Poland is thinking of making it illegal to shop on Sundays. At first, some Christians might be happy that this is happening. After all, up until the 50's many shops in America closed on Sundays and I'm sure in some parts of the USA it's still not uncommon to see shops closed. I have nothing against it if the store does it for their own choice. I have a huge problem against it if the state forces a store to close on Sunday.

If you are in favor of a state making it a law for everyone to do something that you agree with, than you lose the right to complain about a state making it a law to force everyone to do something you disagree with. If Muslim countries want to force all shops to close when it's time to pray (even non Islamic shops) than you can't really say anything. If Israel wants to close shops on Friday night, same thing. If LDS states demand that no restaurant sells alcohol-than you can say nothing. And oh yes, if atheists demand that you open on Sundays and serve booze at your restaurant even if you are a devout Christian, than you can once again say nothing.

I'm as uncomfortable with this as I am with the state forcing a baker to bake a cake for a wedding that they don't approve of.

SNES/NES classics

I've talked about them before-the SNES classic blog is here, but I've been thinking about them more and more as I start my Christmas shopping. Like we all know retro video games have never really gone away, and you can get most old school games on your Xbox, Playstation or iPhone. Also, full systems have been for sale for years. Atari has had this one for sale since the early 2000's, I think. Sega also has one for the Genesis.

I'm a huge gamer and I have most consoles, the ones from way back to the more modern ones. I prefer the RPG genre and most of the retro consoles don't have RPGs (yes, I know there are exceptions, SNES being one of them). I also already own most of the games but it would be nice to have the games on one console that works with a modern TV.

The thing I don't understand at all is why Nintendo didn't make more of the NES/SNES Classics. This thing is wildly popular, especially with adults my age. It brings them back to childhood and the casual gamer who is not a collector really wants to get this. You can't get it online without taking the risk that it's a generic fraud (a staggering disappointment if you are in the market for authenticity) and most stores sell out of them in minutes. It's like the Furby or Tickle Me Elmo of 2016/2017. Nintendo could have made millions and millions of dollars by producing more of them but for some reason they didn't bother to do so. I'm in total shock as to why.

Is Black Friday still popular?

Like many people who enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner, I spent the Friday afterwards recovering from a slight hangover while I drank coffee on the couch and lazily watched the news. I didn't go to celebrate Black Friday. but I'm all for that holiday. I love giving and I love receiving gifts-it's a nice way to show others how much you care about them. Both the left and the religious right love to complain about consumerism and how you shouldn't have to spend money on anyone to show you love them-you are right, you don't have to, but it's still a nice thing to do. In my experience the people who complain the loudest about consumerism over the holidays are the ones who complain the loudest when you don't buy them anything. And obviously nice, well thought out gifts don't have to be expensive.

Anyway I lurched out of my house around 1:00 and casually drove to the local mall, just to see for myself if people still went to malls. To my surprise and horror, the mall was completely packed. No parking spaces at all were available and people were parking in other plazas near the mall. I didn't bother to go into stores because I wasn't really shopping-just there to satisfy my own curiosity.

Of course I know that my own area doesn't mean that every mall in the country was packed. From what I've seen on the news though it does seem that mall traffic has gone up this season. That's a good thing of course, consumers spending money means that the economy is getting better. It's an interesting thing too. You don't need to be an expert to see how brick and mortar retail is plummeting around the country. This Black Friday might show that they still have a little bit left.

Scripture Sunday Ether 12:27

Humbling yourself is never a pleasant ordeal. In fact, in todays society humility is an odd thing to discuss. It's true, a humble person will never say they are humble. It's like how a smart person will never say they are intelligent. If you really are humble, than you have to wait for others to say that about you to really make it so.

There is nothing wrong with being proud of your accomplishments. If you are a CEO, an MD, or a highly skilled chess player it's okay to take pride in that. It's when you start thinking you are a better person than someone  else who doesn't have your accomplishments that it becomes a problem.

You also need to be able to humble yourself before the Lord. When you do that, the Lord will truly show you your weaknesses and no matter who you are, you do have them. The good news is that when you humble yourself before God he makes your weaknesses much easier to cope with, which is what this passage is all about. 

Churches becoming gun free zones

A church in my part of the country has made headlines because it declared itself a "gun free" zone. Oddly, some people are upset about this. In case you haven't been paying attention to the news, a psychopath just killed many, many people in a church in Texas. Oh sure, you can argue about why a man with a bad conduct discharge  and a history of domestic violence had a gun in the first place-and I agree, it should be debated about and investigated-but the truth of the matter is that he got a gun and killed many innocent people.

Churches are not safe spaces and you have the right to defend yourself even in a church. Thinking that a Christian needs to be unarmed just because they are a Christian is a gross misreading of scripture and basic church teachings. I admit that the odds of a mass shooting are very rare, but they do tragically happen.

You have the right to defend yourself against someone who wants to take your life. You don't have to lie down and let yourself be shot, Christian or not. Anti-gun rhetoric is dogma to the PC crowd. In fact, it's a test of compassion in some circles. The real world is full of bad people, and they don't care how compassionate you think you are.  A good guy with a gun always has a better chance than someone trying to lecture the bad guy about gun control. 

Album of the weekend

Rage Against the Machine-The Battle of Los Angeles

First off, no, I don't like Rage Against the Machine. Being a socialist when you make millions and live in Malibu without any sense of irony of your situation is absurd. They are not this generations Dead Kennedys who could laugh at their own politics sometimes while still remaining deeply political and passionate. Rage Against the Machine have nothing to rage against.

But I do like this album. It's full of catchy little songs that achieved massive radio play and brought their style of anger towards mainstream America. You had to seek out the Dead Kennedys/Anti-Flag/Minor Threat. Rage was being played on Mtv and on the local hard rock radio stations. Growing up I never got the politics of the band but I did like to feel important and rage against my parents, my teachers, the system-so in that case they've done their job. The politics? Comically bad. The music? Actually pretty damn good.

And in honor of Rage-go out and buy stuff this Friday. We all like giving, we all like receiving. Celebrate capitalism and consumerism and think of Rage Against the Machine.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. God bless you and I hope you get to your destinations safely.

If you have a hard time dealing with family or are flying solo today-I'm saying a special prayer for you. This day will pass.

Stores closing on Thanksgiving

Okay, this is an unpopular opinion but I stand by it. I think stores should remain open on Thanksgiving. If they want to close down for the day, fine. If they want to stay open, fine. Obviously the overwhelming majority of people disagree with me, and I know it's not a popular opinion.

Not everyone celebrates Thanksgiving. If you are an immigrant to the country you may not have the same patriotic feelings as the rest of us. The custom of Thanksgiving might have absolutely no meaning to you, and it might just be "another day" so why not see if you can earn extra money and work on that day?

It's nice to be close to your family. It's really nice to be have a large circle of friends. For whatever reason (and those reasons are none of your business ) some people are not close to their family and may not have many close friends. Or, their family might be far away from them as are their friends. Instead of staying home and dealing with crippling loneliness and depression for the day, it's a good thing to try and stay busy.  Of course they have every right to do so-but it would be nice for some to remain open just so people don't have to spend the day staring at the tv and watching football alone for 8 hours.

Self driving cars

I love to drive. It's a huge interest of mine. I've driven from Florida to New England well over 15 times. I've driven from New England to Missouri. New England to Ohio. New England to....you get the point. I've seen some weird things on the road. Like you, I've seen people texting and driving. I've seen people whom I think/know were driving drunk. I've personally driven when I probably shouldn't have due to exhaustion (never to drinking, thank you) and I've seen it happen to other drivers . While I love to drive I can't wait to see the future with self driving cars.

I live in the country and I love it. I doubt self driving cars will come here anytime in the next few years. I just bought at 2017 Jeep and it's loaded with features but alas, it's not self driving. When you think about self driving  vehicles it might be scary to some people, and I understand that but I strongly disagree. Think about planes. Pilot error is the number one source of crashes. Now, planes are so automated that they don't really make mistakes via computer/autopilot. Oh sure, it happens and it's deeply tragic but in reality, people are still the number one reason planes crash. 

A driverless car can't drive drunk. They can't drive exhausted. They can't text and drive. They can't flip you off while going 90 in a school zone because they are late to work. A self driving car will save thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands lives. We'll hear about the one or two deadly crashes and those are incredibly tragic. But, like plane crashes they are very rare. Self driving cars will happen in my lifetime and they will be a huge success.

Pizza Hut vs Papa Johns vs DiGiorno

So, the culture wars have infected the NFL and now it's infecting their sponsors. Pizza Hut has said that they haven't been hurt by the NFL protests while apparently Papa Johns have said their sales have been. DiGiorno (apparently frozen pizza?) have seen their opportunity to take a swipe at their competitors and they've jumped in the Twitter war too. To me, the pizza war is very simple-all their pizzas don't taste very good. From Pizza Hut to Dominos to Papa Johns to Godfather to DiGiorno-I just don't like the chain pizzas.

Yes, it's all subjective and no, my opinion doesn't mean that no one would like fast food pizza. Obviously if no one liked it they wouldn't be vastly popular. I like nice restaurants but I'm no food snob. My favorite coffee is Dunkin Donuts and I like Wendy's hamburgers. I also like Cracker Barrel-breakfast anytime is a huge plus for me. For pizza though, I overwhelmingly prefer the mom and pop places. Up north the local mom and pop pizza place was able to send their kids to a nice and exclusive private school thanks to me.

Papa Johns has apologized for offending the social justice warrior set. Oddly, you never see companies bother to apologize to the right if they've offended them. 

Scripture Sunday 3 Nephi 30:2

This scripture sounds like some very bad things were going on with the latter day Gentiles. In fact, the author talks about murders, whoredoms, secret abominations and the like. I truly wonder what was going on with the "secret abominations" that was so bad it couldn't be mentioned. Was it worse than murder? Worse than whoredoms?  Maybe I don't want to know.

The passage ends with the offer that people be baptized and filled with the Holy Ghost so that they may be numbered with the people of Israel. That's a good thing of course, and if you are a baptized believer in God you are held to a higher standard than those who are not baptized. If you are planning to commit murders, whoredoms and "secret abominations" though baptism won't stop you. Baptism is not a special guard against you committing evil things.

Survivor

I was watching Survivor the other night and the castaways were struggling to start a fire. A smartass could yell at the television and talk about how stupid the castaways were. After all, starting a fire with nothing but flint and kindling has to be really easy, right?

It isn't. Especially when you are starving, thirsty, dealing with total strangers and have cameras shoved in your face twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.

From the comfort of our couch we love to yell at athletes for missing a shot or throwing an interception. Maybe we played in high school and like we all know that makes us an expert on professional sports. There are armchair quarterbacks but I think we also need to have a new category of people: Armchair reality tv participants.

Album of the weekend

Ben Folds Five-Whatever and Ever Amen

This is not an album I'd particularly enjoy. That's not to say it's not a good one, in fact it's outstanding-but you need to be in the mood for it. It's certainly much more mellow sounding than what I would usually like to listen too. Imagine a more interesting Dave Matthews Band with deeper songs that tell better stories, that's what this album sounds like.

All good songs (and yes, even some bad ones) can bring up emotion, even if you have not been in the situation that the song is talking about. Several songs on this album hit home to me, from "Brick" to "Song for the Dumped". You've probably heard both of those songs before-they were all over the place to the point of being overplayed. In my view, a good indicator of if a song/book/movie is a good one is if it brings up emotions. If it can make you laugh, cry or think-than it's probably good even if you don't like it. This album fits that description for me perfectly. 

The unexpected consequences of the NFL protests

No, the NFL won't be going out of business anytime soon. That's not the way it would work. The poet TS Eliot said, "This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper." That's how many personal relationships end, that's how many public relationships end. Oh sure, it can be a dramatic break that happens all of a sudden, but most things slow down first, then stop working completely, then just quietly end.

My question to the NFL players still protesting-what if they gave a protest and no one showed up to care about it? People are paying attention, but if people stop paying attention the rich athletes will no longer be rich. Like it or not, the customers pay their salaries. If no one buys tickets and no one watches games, salaries will be lowered. It's a mathematical certainty. I assume that football is so popular that it won't be long term. You'll also have football fans that are like me as a baseball fan-no matter what they do some will still follow the sport no matter what.

So sorry right wing snowflakes-the NFL ain't going anywhere. Yet. It probably isn't going for a long time. But they need to be careful. After all, if no one is paying attention to you, your NFL protests will be useless.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders

Remember-fat shaming and teasing a woman about her weight/appearance is okay. As long as you are a leftist and as long as the woman is a conservative. You get extra points if the woman works for Trump. This also goes for minorities who dare to think for themselves-racist jokes are a-okay for them. If you make any joke about a woman who is a liberal, than you are absolute pond scum and you will never be forgiven. Period.

Oh sure-Ms Huckabee-Sanders is fair game on Saturday Night Live. I was only vaguely aware that SNL was on the air still. It hasn't been funny since the 70s. I can't wait to see SNL take shots at social justice warriors. If they have, great. Like I insinuated I never watch the show.

Remember this everyone-if you disagree with someone politically, you can roast them mercilessly and none of your friends and fans will ever call you out on it. However - the moment you being to think independently or dare to engage in mockery/criticism about someone who agrees with you-the mob will immediately turn.

Stephen Hawking does not know everything

Oh, he knows more than you or I do. He's a very smart guy. He's an expert in his field, which is theoretical physics. So he knows a lot about that subject. If I was a grad student in theoretical physics, I'd do anything possible to take a class with him-which is probably impossible. Someone with his time demands and fragile state of health can't just teach nonstop. I also think that most big time "professors" aren't in college to teach, they are in college to do research, and that's how it should be at that level.

Now for the frustrating part. When Stephen Hawking talks about chemistry, he might not know everything, especially about advanced chemistry. When he talks about biology, he might now know everything about it. He probably knows more than the basics-and he certainly knows more than you or I do-but he shouldn't be counted on to give perfect knowledge of advanced biology matters. The media will make it out to be that someone who is a Ph.D in one science knows everything about every other topic out there. Not always the case. In fact, it's often not the case. When someone dedicates their life to one topic they usually spend so much time on that one topic that they don't know that much about other topics. That's why an expert in Shakespeare might not be an expert in Victorian literature. They'll know more than you or I-but not more than an expert in the field.

Sigmund Freud (a man I have huge respect for) once met Albert Einstein. They had a pleasant, but vapid conservation. When asked why, Freud said, "He knew as much about psychology as I do about physics." Same basic thing with Hawking 

Thanksgiving eve/Blackout Wednesday

I was never a hipster or very with it. So I apologize for being late to the party with this. 

My little brother* recently told me about a thing called "Blackout Wednesday". Apparently it is one of the most popular nights for bars in the country, and it's a famous time for people to meet up with old high school friends and sometimes even teachers-even if you are well into your thirties. 

For most LDS, it's not an important thing because they usually don't go to bars. They aren't missing much. In my view drinking is fine if you aren't LDS so knock yourself out-but drinking to the point where you black out get a DUI and kill someone or yourself isn't fine, LDS or not. Massive binge drinking never appealed to me. Sure I drank and sure I drank too much sometimes, but I never drank with the sole intention of getting fall down drunk or blacking out. Yes, not everyone who goes to bars gets a DUI or gets so drunk they black out. 

The other part of "blackout Wednesday" that I find totally unappealing is the idea of hanging out with people I lost touch with back in 1999. If hanging out with people from high school at age thirty five is your thing, than by all means go for it. There is nothing wrong it of course-it's just not my thing. I suppose that if your high school experience was positive you might think different-though in your mid thirties there is something sad about trying to relive glory days twenty years ago. People and relationships change - you can still be friends with people who you knew twenty years ago but if neither one of you have matured, that's a problem. 

My brother also brought up an interesting/troubling issue. Let's say you go to a party on "Blackout Wednesday" and you see an old girlfriend/boyfriend. You are married , they are single. Foolishly you talk about the "good old days" (I hate that term) and one of you thinks you could re-start things. That's asking for trouble of course-you might seriously mess your life up doing that. Neither my brother or I know anyone personally who has done something like this but we've both heard stories of things like this happening.

In the end, it doesn't matter what we think of course. If it's your thing, go for it. For the rest of us-don't feel guilty about not being invited to these parties. If you aren't friends with them the rest of the year, why bother faking it for one night? 

*For the record, my brother is actually my brother in law. I've known him for two decades and he's one of my closest friends. I think of him as an actual brother, hence the title. 

Scripture Sunday Mormon 3:11

This passage reminds me of the Thomas Monson speech, "Dare to Stand Alone." At this point in his life it seems like Mormon was banging his head against the wall and trying to lead a group of people that had become arrogant and bloodthirsty. Mormon is standing alone, just like Thomas Monson taught us how to do in his General Conference speech several years ago.

Prince William and overpopulation

Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge and future Prince of Whales has some interesting ideas, like his father does. Apparently he thinks that overpopulation will be a problem. Oddly though, this doesn't apply to him and his wife-who are expecting baby number three. Like Ted Turner, who also believes in the "world is suffering from overpopulation" bullshit,  they still father children and don't seem to get the hypocrisy that their overpopulation views have. Let me spoil it for you: overpopulation is a joke. It is of no threat whatsoever and actually, the much greater threat is going in Greece right now. Shrinking family size is an issue, not overpopulation.

It's so obvious that I have to remind myself that people actually don't believe it. Humans make the world better. Humans create things. Humans not being born do not create things and do not add to society. Oh sure, sometimes humans create great evil. But in reality, 90% of humans are doing things that are beneficial to society. The more humans, the better.

Are we running out of space? Resources? That's nonsense too. In reality, the world is huge. There is a lot of space out there. While I'm no expert in demographics I'm sure the that population of the entire world could probably fit into the continetnal United States with comfortable room for personal space. That would leave the entire rest of the world for farming, entertainment, and production of food.

We aren't having too many kids, we're having too little. The brilliant book "The Children of Men" talks about this in depth and much better than I ever could. The future King of England needs to get himself a copy.

Album of the weekend

Motley Crue-Dr. Feelgood 

Motley Crue is one of the most metal hair bands out there. The difference between metal and hair band is huge-hair bands generally have shorter songs, not as in depth lyrics and a softer overall sound than heavy metal. It's annoying when people who don't know much about music get the two confused. Motley Crue is a good mixture of a heavy metal and hair band sound. 

"Kickstart my Heart" is a great driving song. It's fast and you can sort of headbang to it in parts. On road trip mixes this is certainly a song I always use. The title track, "Dr. Feelgood" is another great song sounds very metal like and has a distinct "LA sound" to it. By "LA sound" I mean the sound of albums that were recorded by LA bands in the late 80's. Guns and Roses, LA Guns and Motley Crue. The songs tended to be decadent, dark and hedonistic. Motley Crue was all of that and more. Their drug use, sexual escapades, brawling and out of control lifestyle are legendary. This album is like watching all that in it's musical form. 

Kevin Spacey

And another Hollywood sex scandal has exploded. This time, it's much worse. Looks like Kevin Spacey made some advances towards minors. That is the worst thing you can do, gay, straight or whatever.

First off the matter of his sexuality. It seems to me, and to many other people, that he used it as a shield to deflect the serious charges. No one cares what adults do in privacy and your sexuality is your own business. Thinking you can use your sexuality to excuse bad behavior is an insult to gays and straight people, but especially gay people. If I was a gay man I'd be absolutely furious about how Spacey acted-both the sexual assault part and the "I'm gay so that justifies it in part."

Now, the sexual assault part. A powerful man/woman can delude themselves into thinking they can get away with anything and that the rules don't apply to them. Politicians like John Edwards show how someone who has never had to play by the rules can behave. It appears as though Kevin Spacey (who is a brilliant actor) acts like that as well.

He's innocent till proven guilty of course-but it doesn't look good.

Cassette tapes

Apparently America is running out of cassette tape-the tape that was actually in the cassette you listened to in the 1980s and 1990s.

If cassette tapes are your thing, fine. Nothing wrong with that. In their quest to ruin everything hipsters are bringing back cassette tapes, like older hipsters did with vinyl in the early 2000s. Don't get me wrong, at the time I made more mix tapes than the Rob from High Fidelity. Whenever I see a reference to the immortal mix tape in pop culture I do smile a little a bit.

Looking back though, cassette tapes were awful.

You had horrible sound quality, you had to fast forward and rewind for five minutes in order to find your favorite song. If you had a poor quality cassette tape player then it would eat the tape, thus running the cassette. I remember this happening to me on cassette tapes I played multiple times. They also couldn't hold much data, so God forbid you buy a book on cassette-if you misplaced one cassette tape,it was over. 

Oh nostalgia. That emotion/feeling that I hate so much. Once again something that sucked in the first place is remembered as something wonderful. 

Woman fired after flipping off Trump

Well, like my title says-a woman was fired after flipping off the Trump motorcade. She was employed by a government contractor, so she basically flipped off her own boss. She has no regrets and she shouldn't-if you had regrets you shouldn't have done it in the first place. Her boss had no choice, they had to fire her, and yes, they have every right to fire her.

It's overkill though. I've flipped off many people in my life, from bad opening acts at concerts to drivers who have cut me off to ex girlfriends to yes, political figures I disagree with. It's a relatively harmless way to express your disdain and disgust for someone. Is it rude? Sure. I'd rather she express herself this way than get violent with someone. In America I also have every right to tell my politicians to go to Hell. If she did this to Obama to W to Clinton -I'd feel the same way.

The hard left vs the hard right

At first glance, there seems to be no similarities between the two. They disagree on everything politically but in reality, they act the exact same. This is, of course, a generality and yes, you might personally know people on the far left/right who don't act like this, but it's just what I'm seeing. 

Rand Paul got assaulted by a neighbor this weekend. Thank God it's only minor. Not surprisingly, I saw the most tolerant people out there act the most viciously: 

It's not intolerant if the tolerant people say it

And yes, you can easily find things that the right have said when a liberal gets hurt, injured or assaulted. That's my point.  The further you go on the political spectrum the bigger the monster you can turn yourself into. You begin to associate with people who only share your views. You begin to read things that only confirm your own biases. You being to think that anyone who doesn't share your views is not just wrong or misguided-but morally deficient. Therefore, it's okay to not treat them as human. 

Truly chilling. 

Scripture Sunday 3 Nephi 13:24

Like Bob Dylan said in one of his best songs, "You are going to serve somebody. It may be the devil, it may be the Lord, but you are going to serve somebody." In this passage it basically says the same thing. In the adult world that we all live in we will be put into situations where you have to choose between two options. That doesn't mean that you have to hate people who take a different path, or that those who take different paths are evil-I don't see the real world as black and white as this scripture seems to. 

Adventures in karate

So like I mentioned before in this blog, I'm trying to get into better shape. The good news is that I've kept my walking up and I'm well over 1000 miles for the year. September was a slow month while I was dodging hurricanes, traveling up north and dealing with the tragic death of a friend. October was great and I'm getting back into the swing of things.

Speaking of getting back into the swing of things, I'm thinking of taking karate lessons again. I'm most familiar with the Ed Parker style of American Kenpo. Sadly though, the only studio that teaches that is over an hour and half away from my house. I could drive that long once a week or so, but several times in a week is madness. So I'm thinking to myself-do I keep with something familiar and put up massive miles on my car and in gasoline...or do I swallow the bitter pill and start fresh at another place closer to me?

I'll keep you posted. Wish me luck! 

Album of the Weekend

Green Day-Dookie

Simply put, this is one of the greatest punk albums of all time. It's achieved mainstream success (everyone had this album, even if you didn't like punk much) and it's achieved critical acclaim in the punk world. It placed Green Day on the map and cemented them as the quintessential punk band of the 1990's. It took the torch from the Ramones and while they aren't as good as them (it can be debated, and yes, it's just my personal opinion) they are one of the only bands post-1990 that can be mentioned in the same breath as them.

This album perfectly captures the post modern generation X attitude of being bored with the present and worried and angsty about the past and future. Imagine existentialism in it's punk form, as close to existentialism as punk can get, anyway. It's like a punk version of "Waiting for Godot".

This album also has "Sassafras Roots" one of my favorite songs by Green Day or any other band really.  There might be a song that I ignore here or there, but there are no songs that I dislike. This album is a landmark in both my personal life and in punk music in general. It was great yesterday. it's great now, it'll be great twenty years from now. If Green Day retired immediately after this album and never did anything else, they could still rest easily, knowing that their place in punk will never be forgotten.

Safe spaces

Safe spaces are disturbing to me.  They seem harmless. After all, a "safe space" for you to really express yourself sounds wonderful. In reality, they are incredibly disturbing and a sign that you have somehow failed your as a parent. If your kid needs a safe space every time they hear something that upsets them, I don't blame them-you can't blame a dog for peeing on the carpet if they haven't learned any better-I blame the parents who raised kids to be so fragile and insecure.

In the real world, you will encounter many, many people and ideas that you disagree with. Some will upset you. Some will offend you. Some will actually challenge your beliefs. All of those options are good in the long run. It might upset you to hear that someone disagrees with your lifestyle. So what? You can't please everyone. You might be offended that someone dares to disagree with you on a political issue. Don't be so arrogant as to think everyone must agree with you on issues. Someone might challenge your beliefs and you know what-that's a good thing. When no one challenges you it means that you are no longer are thinking.

In my dream world, I'd demand that conservatives read Mother Jones and liberals read the National Review. No one-from right to left, young to old, would be allowed a safe space.

Some thoughts on college degrees

Like I've mentioned before, college was the best time of my life up to that point and I have no regrets whatsoever with going. I don't think a degree is ever "useless" and if it is, then you deserve some of the blame for choosing it. While a degree might not be practical, just getting a degree in something is usually a good idea and can open more doors for you. I've come to believe three things about college. It doesn't make you smarter, people who think it does are from a different era, and sadly many people who didn't go to college have mammoth chips on their shoulder for not going.

A college degree will not make you smarter, it'll just make you more knowledgeable. There is an obvious difference between "wisdom" and "knowledge" and just being wise or knowledgable does not make you intelligent. There are all sorts of ways to measure intelligence-from problem solving to social skills. Not one quality is better than the other. The world is full of people who have great knowledge but can't convey that skill into a marketable ability or a likable personality. All a college degree does is show that you have dedication in a certain area.

People who think college makes you smarter are from a dying era. It's no longer 1955 where only a certain type of person went to college. Now, anyone can get into a college somewhere. In fact, that's a major problem right now. There are so many college degrees out there that the value of a college degree has become seriously watered down.

In my observations I've noticed that some people (key word, some) are defensive about not going to college. They'll say "Oh, I went to the school of hard knocks." or "I graduated from the University of Life." These are the same people who love pointing out that they've read more than English majors or can do more advanced math than you college dummies. That might be true, but it begs the question why they feel the need to say such things. If you really possess a great skill-like knowledge of math or biology-you don't feel the need to say it. You simply accept it.

"I don't care what others think"

I think I've heard this phrase 50,000 times in my life. Each time I hear it, it gets more absurd. It's absurd because it's a lie-if you didn't care, you wouldn't feel the need to tell anyone. It's also absurd because it shows your general disdain for others and how you grossly over value yourself. After all, if you "don't care what others think" why should they care what you think?

First off, let's get the obvious out of the way. You do care what others think. Yes, even you reading this. I'm a firm believer in individualism and I'm a very private guy-but yes, I do want others to view me with respect and admiration. For no other reason than it makes my own life easier. Life can be difficult and at one time or another you will rely on someone else for assistance. If you've alienated everyone else with your "go to Hell" attitude, you are making life much more difficult for yourself. That and if you truly, absolutely didn't care what others thought about you-you wouldn't feel the need to broadcast it. You'd just accept it and move on.

The other thing that bothers me is saying this shows how arrogant you are. If you don't care what others say-why should we care about what you have to say? Saying that you don't care what others think then expecting the rest of us to listen to you shows a seriously warped sense of self.

Poison Halloween candy?

Growing up my mother always told me to throw away home made Halloween candy that I received. Like a dutiful and obedient son, I did so. Looking back, I think that most of the homemade Halloween candy I got was harmless and it was very nice of someone to make homemade sweet things for trick or treaters. Let's think about this logically for a minute-do you know anyone at all who was actually sickened by poison Halloween candy? Not just eating too much of regular candy, but actually poisoned from Halloween candy. 

Oh, I'm sure you read about a kid in the next town over who ate an apple with a razor blade in it. How a razor blade could get into an apple without you noticing is beyond my limited intellectual abilities. I'm also certain that the apple would be thrown back at the house instead of eaten by the kid. I also read about this babysitter in the next town over getting weird phone calls from some guy. Turns out he was waiting upstairs for her. That really happened to someone. 

The much greater risk than poisoned Halloween candy is getting hit by a car because your costume in some way clouds your vision. Same with looking at your phone while you cross the street. Those risks are more common and aren't as creepy as poisoned Halloween candy, so they won't get much attention.  That's much more likely to happen to you though. 

Scripture Sunday Mormon 9:29

The sacrament is important in all religions, and LDS are no different. Several religions have rules on how you can take their version of the sacrament. For Catholics, if you are in a state of "mortal sin" it is frowned upon to take the Eucharist. I'm not sure about other religions-but in Mormonism you must be in a "worthy state" to take both the sacrament and be baptized.

I understand being in a state of purity to take the sacrament-after all, Christ does not want to dwell in an unclean vessel-but since baptism is supposed to wash away all your sins I don't fully comprehend being in a perfect state for your baptism.  I agree-if you are secretly robbing banks, sleeping with a mistress or snorting cocaine it's probably best to rethink your life before you get baptized. However if you are dealing with minor sins or minor character defects, than getting baptized might be a good way to start fresh and try over again.

Mass shootings

Mass shootings are horrific. They are without question some of the scariest things you'll ever read or hear about. It is heartbreaking beyond words to think about the people who are the victims in these tragic events. While talking about the latest mass shooting my friend mentioned that he was afraid to go to concerts. I understand that, but I'm not sure it's a rational fear. He said the same kind of thing right after that horrible movie theatre shooting in Colorado.

Again, I can't stress this enough-mass shootings are awful. My heart breaks for the victims and you can guarantee this-Hell exists and those who perpetrate such evil are turning crispy brown right now.

But they are also very rare.

You probably won't win the lottery, get bitten by a shark, or die in a plane crash, and you probably won't die in a mass shooting either. You'll die of course, all humans are mortal-but you'll die of old age, heart disease, cancer or a stroke. It's morbid but it's true. People who die of those things don't make the news. News has got to be news. Plane crashes are news because they don't happen much. Same with mass shootings.

There are lots of things to be afraid of. Some rational, some not so rational. While it's easy for me to tell my friend that fear of mass shootings is irrational-I'm not sure it'll help.