Album of the Weekend

Dio-The Last in Line

The second studio album by Dio, The Last In Line does not measure up to Holy Diver, but that's okay. Holy Diver is one of the greatest albums in rock/metal history and they can't all be like that. That's not to say this is a bad album-far from it. In fact, it's a great album, and because it's still not as good as Holy Diver, that shows you how good Holy Diver really is. 

Unlike Holy Diver, some of the best songs on The Last In Line are not the biggest hits. Breathless and Mystery are both outstanding songs, easily the best on the album while the title track and We Rock are good, but not the best. If you are a fan of Dio,and if you like the style of music you should be, download this entire album. 

New Gillette ad

There is a new Gillette ad, this time a man showing his transgender son how to shave.  I found the other ad speaking out "toxic masculinity" to be ridiculous, and guess what?  With this one, I'm ambivalent. On one hand, I have no problem with transgenderism and think it's a cute ad, and showing a man teach his transgender son how to shave is fresh and innovative. On the other hand, Gillette is still trying to show how woke they are and appeal to people who don't like capitalism in the first place and are too dense to see they are being played like fiddles.

Ask yourself this: If Gillette did an add showing a man teaching his unborn son how to shave than being devastated when his baby mama gets an abortion, would you still support Gillette? Of course not. If Gillette ran an ad showing a man teaching his son how to shave-then go hunting, would you support it? No. So you probably have no problem with Gillette being liberal, but if they suddenly became conservative you'd correctly say they were pandering. Because so many people agree with Gillette right now, no one will say they are pandering. They are just "keeping it real".

College bribery scandal

I'm not saying what Lori Laughlin did was right. In fact, I do think she needs to pay some sort of debt to society for it. However I am so disturbed by the hate I'm seeing online towards her. No, she shouldn't do time in prison. At all. She doesn't deserve to have her face splashed over the tabloids like she's Charles Manson.

A lot of the hate she is getting isn't because of what she did. After all, that sort of thing happens all the time and if you think your favorite celebrities don't get special attention or treatment, than you are  either incredibly naive or sort of stupid. A big reason people don't like her is because of jealousy. She's rich, successful, was on TV (though I never saw her show) and people love to see celebrities like her fall.

When asked about steroids in baseball, Joe Torre said "I'm not saying it's right, but I can see why people do it." To be totally honest, if you were her and had to make the choices she made, you don't know what you would do. You are generally only as virtuous as your options.

How has serving impacted you?

If you want to have your heart broken, go over to Twitter and spend an hour or so reading Tweets like this. Apparently the US Army failed to understand that old saying, "Never ask a question you don't want the answer to."

War is Hell, and thank God I never served. I'm not naive and I understand that we need to have a strong fighting force and that sometimes war is a necessity. Do we need to do more for our troops? Absolutely, and we need to remember that war should always be used as a last resort and that often times, the survivors have it much worse than we could ever imagine.

Memorial Day

I've had a very busy weekend, and I owe it all to veterans who gave their life so I could have....a busy weekend. 

God bless them all. 

Scripture Sunday Ether 2:8

This passage is a bit ominous. People are living in a  land of great promise, but if they fail to serve and obey God, they will be swept off in the "full wrath" of God. While this passage could be read literally, I think most LDS read it metaphorically.

When someone is greatly blessed by God, they should in return serve Him with some of their great blessings. If they get arrogant or forget where their blessings come from, it seems that our Heavenly Father might unleash His "full wrath" on them. I don't see it that way really. Sometimes people who don't serve God become incredibly blessed while others who serve God in much better ways that I do suffer greatly. Simply put, we don't know why-or how-His blessings are distributed.

Anti drinking and driving ads and posts

First off, no. You should not drink and drive. Ever. Not just on New Year's Eve but ever. If you can't afford an Uber/Lyft catch a ride home with friends. If you can't do that, don't go out in the first place. Secondly, we all make mistakes and no one is perfect. Sometimes we make grave mistakes that cost us and innocent people dearly. I've been drunk many times in my life but I've never driven drunk.

I'm not 100% sure that your friends posting anti-DUI memes and pictures help much. They mean well of course and there is nothing at all wrong with posting them-but I hesitate to think they'll actually stop someone from drinking and driving. I'm not sure that ads and billboards do it either. They might make a sober person stop and think and I hope they do-but the different between a sober person thinking and a drunk person thinking are huge.

Let me be clear-drinking and driving is wrong and if you choose to do so I hope the cops arrest you and that the DA prosecutes you to the fullest extent of the law. Jail time, fines, license suspension-you deserve it if you drink and drive.

But I'd like to see a legit study on advertisements and if they deter DUIs.