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.