Obama the Muslim, 53rd Grammys, and Pot Luck Zen

Very fun week so far! First let me address a couple of incidents at work. In one encounter I had a husband and wife in on Friday night renting some movies. They looked completely normal except the wife had way too many highlights in her hair. It was that deal where the base color is brown and then you have really pronounced, one-inch-wide blond bits. Anyhoo, after my usual banter the guy gives me a card for some non-denominational church they go to or where he's the minister or what have you. I've opined here before about how I feel about proselytizing, so I told him, that I was Zen Buddhist or atheist or whatever and maybe if they started a Tuesday night Zen pot luck dinner there was a good chance I might pop in. It was pretty obvious that wasn't the response they expected but I've gotten so tired of people advertising their religions to me. I was nice about it at least and I do like pot luck dinners.

In the next episode I had an older woman in the store, say around seventy or so, who was very talky about a bunch of real estate issues. Nothing political was being discussed but near the end of the convo she said that if we didn't get some "pro-business" types in Washington D.C. very soon America would be dead.

Now this stuff just really freaks me out. She's obviously one of the people I talk about, the Beck, Limbaugh, Palin, Tea Party type. I was just thinking to myself, you mean like George W. Bush and a Republican Congress? They did everything short of making a porno tape with business. I'm not sure that "pro-business" thing got us very far as a nation. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure their pro-business agenda really screwed up this country.

I guess what this lady was talking about was the unicorn of Tea Party politics. That elusive beast is the politician who will go to Washington and represent the interests of American small businesses. Yeah, American small businesses flourished under George W. but they were only the ones who made profit off the use of illegal labor or the "small businesses" who were actually just the doctors' wives who had a real estate license. The mom and pop shops that are what we're really talking about when we discuss small businesses just keep getting screwed. If you don't have the money to influence legislation then you'll keep getting screwed.

You'll keep hearing about the HUGE tax burden U.S. corporations bear but it's the "real" small businesses and individuals who actually tote that load. The bigger the corporation the more tax loopholes, offshoring of accounts, tax breaks, etc. they can take advantage of. It's impossible to find the actual statistics but, in real money, the very large corporations can often end up being subsidized by the U.S. government rather than paying in to it.

Ladies like the one in my store will keep voting in the jerks who keep that system going because she thinks Obama is an anti-business, anti-American Socialist. No sense in trying to change her mind though. She'd just think I was a victim of those left-wing mind tricks.

Another bit of fun this week was on FOX News. There was a focus group of Iowans they were showing being conducted by right wing pollster Frank Luntz. Some question came up about Obama and a lady said, basically, that we couldn't trust him on any issue because he's a Muslim. Well, Luntz hopped on that and asked the group how many of them thought Obama was a Muslim. Out of 25 people in the group, ten raised their hands. That's a pretty scary 40%. Pretty much right along the lines of recent polls that asked that question. Another poll showed that something like 50% of Republicans think Obama was born outside the U.S.

Please, just let me say it, these people are freaking morons. They know absolutely nothing about what's really going on in this world and, rather than consume actual news, they are fed on a daily diet of right wing opinion and propaganda. It's just shocking to me that people are this freaking stupid. You know, God bless democracy and the right to vote and all that, but really, really, I'm not talking about Jim Crow stuff, but you should have to pass a test before you vote to see how freaking stupid you are. I honestly don't believe a country can run effectively if the representative part of our representative democracy is being elected by people like these absurd jugheads.

However, on this past Sunday's Face the Nation, NBC's David Gregory had Speaker of the House John Boehner on the show and suggested that he, Boehner, had some sort of responsibility to tell people that they were in error, that Obama is not a Muslim and is a U.S. citizen. I totally disagree. Not because I don't wish that these people could recognize the truth even though I don't think they'd accept it if it smashed them in the face. I don't feel it's the responsibility of Boehner to do it. There are a lot of things I think aren't true that a lot of Americans believe as carved in stone fact. I don't think there is a supernatural being who created us. In fact I think it's nuts to believe it. But I don't think it's a politicians responsibility to correct that thought.

It's basically the same thing. These moron Tea Party freaks believe Obama is a Muslim despite absolutely no proof for that belief at all. Same thing with the belief in a god. There is no proof of a supreme being; never has been. That belief is based solely on faith. Same thing with the right wing freak show. Their beliefs are based on faith because of their hatred of the Left and Obama.

You would just hope that education would result in people recognizing reality over faith but that's certainly not the job of John Boehner. Maybe Obama should just go on TV and try to tell these idiots that he's a U.S. citizen and a Christian. Not that it would do any good but at least the attempt would be made.

On a lighter note, as always, I DVRed the Grammy Awards Show. I know I'll be treated to an endless feast of self-congratulatory garbage but sometimes there is a chestnut that makes recording worth it.

First, the big "upset". Esperanza Spalding won best new artist knocking off clear favorites Justin Beiber and Mumford and Sons. I was rooting for Mumford and Sons. Unlike 99.9% of the viewing audience, I was actually already familiar with Esperanza Spalding because I'm an NPR listener. Yep, the same NPR that's about to be slashed into oblivion by Obama in yet another cave in to the Right.

Spalding is like a Norah Jones singer who plays upright bass and that's basically it. She's known to jazz enthusiasts and urban hipsters but that's it. The odds of her having a crossover hit are negligible and she'll probably never appear on any pop charts. Her style is pretty traditional but you rarely hear solo bass and vocals so there is that. I think what happened was people wanted to vote against Beiber and thought the name Esperanza Spalding sounded cool so .... here's a Grammy.

I was seriously wanting Cee-Lo Green to win for something with his song formerly known as "Fuck You". But he got passed over twice by Lady Antebellum with their massive hit "Need You Now". Don't get me wrong, I love that song. It's an amazing bit of pop songwriting and it totally pulls me in BUT hell, they performed the song at the LAST Grammy show! How long is a song supposed to be around? Shouldn't it have just won last year? I guess there are time frame issues I don't know about but I don't expect to hear the same song two years in a row.

Cee-Lo's performance of the song formerly known as "Fuck You" was very cool. He was pretending to play the piano in a HUGE red Elton John looking gorilla suit and, well, you'd have to see it, and backed up by a Muppet band. Unfortunately Gwyneth Paltrow came out to make the song a duet. Now, don't get me wrong, she's hot, really hot, but she sings like she talks and that's terribly unnerving. I guess she was making a little appearance to push her last movie "Country Strong" which will be on DVD soon? Whatever the case it was unnecessary.

Arcade Fire won album of the year. That's cool. I dig them and their whole aesthetic. I don't like everything they do but they consistently come up with something album to album that makes me want more and that's a good thing. They just come off as a bunch of friends having fun making music and that's sorely lacking in the modern music industry.

And now, on to the rap. At the risk of sounding racist, and let me add that I don't care if it sounds that way, I think the vast majority of rap sucks. I really don't consider it a legitimate art form. From what I can see, you take a song with a female vocal that's already popular and that's your "hook". Then you talk over other parts of the song and put in too much bass. From what I can tell you're more successful if you sound kind of tough or angry and you have to swagger around while you're talking. The parts of the songs I like, the hooks, are pieces of music I would like in the original version too and I find myself waiting patiently for the swaggering rap bits to end and the hook to come back.

Whatever, I just think it's crap and I'm obviously in the silent majority on that. I can't ever say things like this without getting jumped on and I don't care. I'm just going to call it like I see it. Public Enemy was interesting to me. I liked that "Hard Knock Life" thing Jay-Z did but I liked the musical Annie so ..... I think Kanye, Puff Daddy, Lil' Wayne and others like that are a waste of air time and promotional money. I think kids like it because it makes them feel rebellious, not because it's good or artistic. There, I've said it now I'm done with that.

I found it sickening that Band of Horses got nothing and they're one of my favorite bands. Radiohead should have won for In Rainbows when it came out as a digital download in 2007 but didn't get a nod until it was released physically in 2008. Just an illustration of what a dinosaur the Grammys are.

However, and yes, I've discussed this ad nauseum, there is occasionally a performance like Pink's at last year's show. Her song, "Glitter in the Air", written by Billy Mann, is amazing and her performance at the 52nd Grammy show freaking stunned me. The song is written very much in the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road era Bernie Taupin and Bat Out of Hell era Jim Steinman style, piano-centric and slowly progressing with gorgeous lyrics and melody. I'll post video of that monumental, show-stopping performance here.

Songs like that and artists like Pink are what make me feel okay about the current state of pop music. Even artists like Taylor Swift. These artists are a vehicle for amazing songwriting. It's refreshing to know that kind of thing is still out there. I wish Jim Steinman and Bernie Taupin would start working with performers like Pink and really bring back some of that kind of epic songwriting. I don't think it's impossible.

I could watch this performance every day!

Here We Go Again! Unleash the Lunatics! Culture Wars Renewed!

Leading off the evening, yet another Republican in a sex scandal. Rep. Chris Lee of New York got busted posting shirtless photos of himself on Craigslist saying he was single when he's, in fact, married. The shame is, he could have just kept his job but he resigned as soon as the thing came to light. He could easily have followed in the footsteps of Larry Craig, John Ensign, or David Vitter. It's not like he's a Democrat. Republicans are very forgiving when one of their own gets caught up in this sort of thing.

He was your typical politician. He's got an MBA. He was an executive in the company his daddy started. His family is very involved in party politics. This is all the same for most Dems and Republicans. He just couldn't keep it in his pants as is common among politicians as well. Most aren't stupid enough to post their photos online; that's unique. It still could have been painted as a liberal smear campaign but it's not like he doesn't have a nice chunk of money to fall back on so, whatever.

Much more this week has been made of the current state of affairs in the Republican party. Well, except for more fun news about Glenn Beck totally losing it. For many years now the Republican party has been involved in a nasty internal struggle. Not that the Dems haven't with the Blue Dogs vs. the Progressives, but in the Republican party it's much more volatile.

You have the traditional bank and business loving types, Episcopalian, button-down, country clubbers, versus the whacko far right fringe. The traditional Republicans have typically kept the rabble in check with occasional bills that they know will never be passed: going way too far in attempted abortion restrictions, the Ten Commandments, gun stuff, you know the routine.

The problem now is that the rabble has begun to organize and its voice is getting much louder in the form of the Tea Party. In fact, it's being suggested that the Republican party is looking more likely to go the way of the Whigs as it is increasingly marginalized. There just aren't enough people in America making enough money to keep voting for a party that only serves the interest of the wealthy. It's not enough to vote to put an assault rifle in every classroom to cover the other vote you made allowing some American company to offshore it's operations and pay no taxes. The Tea Party people want the assault rifles in the damn classrooms dammit!

So, while the new Republican controlled House of Representatives has made much of the storyline that they'll be voting to bring JOBS to Americans, their first weeks have been spent on abortion related issues in an effort to pander to the idiots.

The Tea Party is the voice of the real majority in the Republican party. A recent poll showed that something like 40% of Republicans believe that Barack Obama is a Muslim. The vast majority of those, I'm sure, are Tea Party people. Tea Party people are not intellectually curious in the least. They get their "facts" from Beck, Rush, Drudge, Palin .... in other words, they are fed and easily digest a strict daily diet of lies. This makes the Tea Party so dangerous that it scares the crap out of me.

These people know next to nothing about history or politics or even what's actually going on in the rest of the world. They live and breathe a fictitious, alternate reality. The bigger problem though is that mainstream Republicans are having to cater to these lunatics in order to save themselves politically.

There has never been a time in U.S. history when the media has so much on its shoulders. If the U.S. President won't even openly address this glut of misinformation, well, he did at first but FOX News bit back and he backed off in order to "play to the middle", then the media has the responsibility to try to educate the public. They need to stop worrying about the Kardashians, Charlie Sheen, Lindsey Lohan, et al, and get on with the business of actually reporting the news. Save the rest for trash like TMZ.

On a side note, I think it's hilarious how House Majority Leader John Boehner keeps harping on his humble beginnings. The life story we keep hearing is meant to show you how he's one of us, the little people. As if this would keep him in check on Capitol Hill and he would be looking out for our interests and not feeding at the buffet the lobbyists set up for him.

Not saying Boehner is Hitler but it's worth noting the Hitler came from humble beginnings as well. He wasn't part of the East Coast elite. He was from a family of little means, was in the military but never an officer, got started in a grass roots political campaign, etc. Just because you come from humble beginnings doesn't mean you'll always be humble. Just a thought.

I'd also like to say that I don't think Obama is actually religious at all. I don't think many politicians actually believe in any kind of God. I know they have to say that they do because they have to. Unless you're from San Francisco, you have to be part of some kind of organized religion or you're unelectable. Maybe I'm just cynical but I find it hard to believe that you can be in a situation where you've learned and seen so much and been so educated and still believe in the supernatural.