Not That Brave

Believe it or not, Atlanta has finally expanded geographically as far as it can go. The sprawl has reached its limit and the developmental tide of expansion is starting to move inward. More and more, residents are starting to move closer to the city center instead of away from it. As this phenomena continues to gain momentum, I believe the Braves will regret their shortsighted decision to take the money from the Cobb County taxpayers. In 20 years, they’ll want to build a new stadium in one of the many new revitalized urban neighborhoods. Somewhere near a now better funded MARTA train station.

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/cobb-co-finance-45-new-atlanta-braves-stadium/nbrxj/

Like It Just Happened Yesterday

I’ll typically write more about music on the Fuzz Factory blog (my internet radio program) when it is officially launched next month. In the meantime, I will occasionally share musings, memories and opinions here on my life as a music freak.

I am always listening to rock & roll, both old and new. This morning I started playing some great Godfathers tunes from the late 80’s. Eventually, I looked for videos on YouTube. I quickly ran across some live clips from their 1987-88 tour. I saw the Godfathers on that tour. It was my very first 18 & over show and my first show at the Metro, one of Chicago’s best venues. However, even more important was that it was my first concert at a small venue. That was an experience that forever changed my life. I remember it like it just happened yesterday. Since that night, I’ve seen hundreds of great concerts at small venues, where live performance is at its best.

Here is a clip from that very Godfathers tour taken I saw in Chicago that night over 25 years ago. This is from a stop in their home base of London. In it, they’re covering John Lennon’s Cold Turkey like their lives depended on it.

The Fraudster

Tell me where you’ve heard this before. Rand Paul is a fraud. You’ve heard it from me, dozens of times. This plagiarism story is just the latest and greatest reason why this guy is not a serious member of our government. Rand Paul is not ready for prime time and probably never will be, regardless of whatever any libertarian bandwagon rider will tell you.

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20131106/OPINION01/311060062/1016/OPINION/Editorial-Sen-Rand-Paul-agiarism

These days, there aren’t many truly serious politicians in the spotlight. In fact, most of the serious politicians don’t usually seek the spotlight. Many of our elected leaders preserve an appearance of seriousness, but for the most part, they don’t give a fuck about anything but themselves. Because he is such an awful politician, Rand Paul is one of the worst offenders.

Rand Paul is an ass clown. High school students have a better understanding of what constitutes plagiarism. His rationalization of his actions are completely ignorant overall. Rand Paul (or his weak-minded staff) has repeatedly lifted large passages of other peoples words and entered them into his speeches where Paul brazenly read them verbatim. Not only is that lazy sloppy work, it’s plagiarism! End of story.

Listen to any of the interviews where Rand Paul defends himself against the allegations. His sense of entitlement is astounding. Beyond that, as an educator, it makes me sick to hear him blame the “haters and hacks” for calling out these kind of baffling high school level mistakes. For some reason, he even pulled out the duel reference, wishing he could challenge those making these allegations to a duel. For real?

Does Rand Paul even understand what plagiarism is? Seriously, among other things, he was reading from Wikipedia! Perhaps his cognitive dissonance towards plagiarism is the reason he can simultaneously be a hardcore libertarian and a social conservative. To me, this is logically unacceptable and results in a paradox I have little patience with.

Tell me where you’ve heard this before. Rand Paul is a fraud.