In no particular order.
Why do team sport stars and teenage ‘actresses’ get paid millions while school teachers earn a tiny fraction of that?
Why are/were so many artistic geniuses (Picasso, Beethoven, Hemingway, et al) such flaming assholes? Do you have to be a great asshole to be a great artist?
Why do so many intolerant conservatives lead secret lives of hypocritical and ‘deviant’ behavior? Why can’t the liberals call them on it? What are the liberals hiding?
Why are Van Halen (can’t put a tour together) and Guns n’ Roses (can’t release an album) so fucked up? And why would anyone care?
Do people actually watch those ridiculous reality/competition shows on TV?
Will the world really end in 2012 like the Mayans predicted? Or does that mean it’s the year Mel Gibson releases ‘Apocalypto 2’?
Why do people who can’t biologically have children (i.e., men) have the right to make decisions on abortion?
How long is that note at the end of The Beatles’ ‘A Day in The Life’, anyway?
Why did George Lucas sap all the fun out of the Star Wars series? And with all his money, why is HE such an asshole? And is that a hairpiece?
What’s up with those ‘American Flag’ running shorts? Should there be a constitutional amendment about putting the flag on your ass?
Why are the much-touted economic theories of the Chicago/Freidman school no longer applicable in a post-Reaganomic climate? (yes, I’m serious.)
Why do so many African-Americans from New Jersey and New York (and further north) speak with a southern twang?
When are we going to stop hearing about celebrities going into rehab? When’s it going to start working?
When are people going to stop committing murder in the name of their religion?
Well, you can certainly read between the lines as to what you might think my answers would be, my snarky worldview is not limited to crowded races and annoying runners and all that crap. So I’m not asking any of you to tackle any of these ‘questions’. Maybe you, too, can come up with a list of your own. It will provide HOURS of pacing fun, especially that last one.
9 comments:
End of the World Party or Mel Gibson bashing party Dec.12, 2012 in Techal, Mexico. Bring Corona and Margaritas Virgin Victim for Blood Sacrifice is Optional....And my answer to that murdering in the name of religion thing comes form the Gospel According to Bob 1:3-5:And the Lord Sayeth unto Bobby D Thou Shall love the rest of Humanity. Thou Shall NOT BE AN ASSHOLE AND BLOW UP SOME ONE BECAUSE THEY CALL ME A DIFFERENT NAME! ( thunder bolt)....ok that was my rant I'm done.
You got me thinkin', and wow, who knew?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Day_in_the_Life#The_chord
Good rant, B.A., I will indeed bring the Coronas (because I'm a very lightweight beer drinker these days), and we can probably get the limes there.
Actually, Apocalypto had a mighty fine trail run in the last half. After all that surgery it was nice to end with a 10K in the jungle.
Thanks for the link, Russ, I had no idea so much could be written about the last track on a Beatles album. Looks like the answer is 'nearly a minute'. I forgot The Rutles had a parody version, then I remembered hearing years ago their very funny one-second long note recorded on a toy piano.
Well, two down!
You've hit on so many questions I have the answers to! It's remarkable!
I once asked a class before we started our one-day whirlwind tour of Pre-columbian art: When will the world end? And this one kid was like "When Jesus comes." And someone else said 2012. I loved both answers. (Sadly, neither one of them seemed to care about the whole Maya calendar system, which irked me because I had just learned how to write my birthday in Maya glyphs.)
And I think the answer to the last question is 2012.
"Why are the much-touted economic theories of the Chicago/Freidman school no longer applicable in a post-Reaganomic climate? (yes, I’m serious.)"
I believe it is a major belief in the political arena that government is the be all and end of economic growth. "Free Market" and the lesser known Austrian Economic theories say exactly the opposite. Fiscal and monetary policies encourage, reward, promote (mal)investment in the marketplace, and when economic shocks come along (subprime?), the politicos then point at the whipping boy of choice, rather than realize that it is they, themselves (Fed included), who cause x, y, and z.
I'll leave the other questions to everyone else.
"Why do team sport stars and teenage ‘actresses’ get paid millions while school teachers earn a tiny fraction of that?"
As a teacher, and someone ostensibly responsible for furthering the future economic power of these tiny individuals while starving to death myself I have often wondered about this topic.
"Why are/were so many artistic geniuses (Picasso, Beethoven, Hemingway, et al) such flaming assholes? Do you have to be a great asshole to be a great artist?"
Good point.
As far as the reproductive rights thing, I don't know what you're driving at... but personally I think that everyone should fight for anyone's right over their own body... but that's only my opinion.
Thanks for thinking. There's not enough of that going around lately.
Oh yeah, and Bob hit the nail right on the head.
Renee, yes, I think 2012 is probably the answer to that last question, too. (sigh).
But until I read those kids’ responses, I didn’t think of how much a question like ‘when is the world going to end?’ is loaded with faith-based initiative, to coin a phrase. Funny how reliant we are on numbers and dates on which we can satisfy some irrational need for a random doomsday deadline. And of course, our Jesus’ birthday-centric calendar is off by 2-3 years since Mr. C. was most likely born around 3 B.C. (wait a minute, how can you be born 3 years before you were born? I tell ya, that Jesus!)
AR, yes, I agree that politicos think they are ‘the be-all and end-all’ in controlling the economic climate, but does the average stock-holding American want them to stand back and let the market correct itself? I know we can thank/blame FDR for bringing the government into all this (and not as successfully as many think, his policies extended the depression into ’37 and a bit beyond), but I think we’re all used to at least having the illusion that the government is controlling ‘something’ and as you said, blaming someone else when expedient. For example, in a totally free market, globalization is a given, but I’m not sure the average voter sees it that way or even cares until it affects them negatively (except when they’re at Costco rabidly buying skids of cheap goods from China). Anyway, I think our government has done plenty to affect ‘x, y, and z’, it’s just I have my doubts that our short-sighted economic ‘actors’ making independent economic decisions always want them to back off. It ain’t just ‘guns versus butter’ anymore, I wish someone in charge had the answers and more importantly, knew when to best use them.
Claire, what I’m driving at in the ‘abortion’ question is that I see way too many white middle-aged men in Congress jawboning about ‘right to life’ and such, and although they (and everyone) is entitled to an opinion, unless you can actually have a baby, shut up. One of my favorite bumper stickers says: ‘If Men Could Get Pregnant, Abortion Would be a Sacrament’, and although that’s a bit wry and hardcore, I’m pretty much with that. Let women decide what to do with their own bodies, and if a personal religious conviction stops an expectant mother from getting an abortion, fine, at least that was part of HER decision-making process, and not made by some guy in Congress who still doesn’t understand evolution. Sorry if this offends anybody reading this, I'm usually pretty good about keeping my mouth shut on such things, and I'll follow my own advice now and shut up about a very, very difficult decision I'll never have to make.
As for genius assholes, I think that many artists need to ‘believe in themselves’ (I hate that phrase, but I’m too tired to come up with something better) in the face of harsh criticism and personal adversity. So for years it’s work hard and fight, fight, fight, for your right to create and self-expression and all that, but unfortunately, many artists don’t have the emotional maturity to know when to stop, and that anger manifests itself into really, really poor people skills. I imagine we can also assume that emotional maturity is not something that automatically comes with getting older, as I learned at an early age from some of the supposed grownups I encountered.
And it must be something in our DNA that creates and worships celebrities and rewards them with fame and money. The Greeks and Romans had their gods, the Roman Catholic Church replaced them with saints, and the industrial/information age has created more bimbos than our brains can process, and we just want more. And I still go ahead and put a photo of a teary-eyed Britney at the top of the post, I admit. (sigh again)
So the question is "why are there so many bad things in this world"?
> It lets us appreciate the good things:-)
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