Been Some Time...

...since I got all political on this blog. I mean, I haven't changed. I am still a right winged prick. You'll never take my gun from my cold, dead hands or convince me that abortion should stay legal... And what the fuck is so wrong with teaching Intelligent Design anyway? It's not science, it's philosophy and so is the Theory of Evolution... which is just that, a theory and not a proven fact... There is no right or wrong here...

Tonight though I want to challenge you all on something:

Free Speech

Let me preface this... I watched George Carlin's latest HBO special last night. He's good. I think the man is a genius. He's brilliant... I don't believe half the crap that comes out of his mouth one minute. But I do honor and respect his free speech stances in the past. And I laugh my ass off, he is one of my favorite comedians. One thing he talks about in his latest special is what we in America may consider as a whole, "our God given rights." Well, that is if you believe in God. I do... And I do believe our freedoms lie somewhere in our faiths in our religions whatever you choose to believe. I guess that is if you believe in a religion with a God. Perhaps not... I am sure there are some religions I'd feel safe with if they didn't believe in a God or what have you.

I digress...

Mr. Carlin brought up things he called bull shit in America. Like the Bill of Rights, which started with 10 rights, as God given rights but "omitted the whole slavery issue being a bad thing". And that we have amended our Constitution so many times over the years. Or how Germany has 29 amendments and the Brits have 13 or Sweden having 6... and so on. Or how we in America believe in the "pursuit of happiness" or "the American dream" and other things he called bullshit America things. Like freedom is our God give right in America. Why would God like our country over the 200 "less free" countries? I think he equated our laws and rules as being created by man to control the masses.

I went out tonight to get a burger. I went to the H&C place over on 16th and Broadway here in Sactown Sacramento. Great place for fried fat let me tell you. Hits the spot as always. I always get the hammer 4.

I am in serious pain tonight, and I had to park far away because there was a music event going on across the street at the old Tower Records that was closed because all you kids illegally steal music with teh Napsters and teh Limewires and shit. (Ironically abusing someone else's American dream or "god given right") Anyhow, here I am 100 yards from the burger place, hobbling like a cripple because my legs hurt so freaking bad I cannot even move correctly (Need to get this shit checked out Steve) and I hear this rap group over at the old Tower covering NWA's Fuck tha Police.

"Fuck tha Police... Fuck tha Police... Fuck tha Police... Fuck tha Police... Fuck tha Police... Fuck tha Police... Fuck tha Police... Fuck tha Police... Fuck tha Police... Fuck tha Police... Fuck tha Police... "

I went on over and over and over... like the needle was stuck on the turntable. And I thought to myself, nearly out loud... What the fuck? It's a public corner. And these dudes are yelling their hatred and disgust with some misguided angst about the police from an old rap song from the early 1990's:

Ice Cube:

Fuck tha police Comin straight from the underground. A young nigga got it bad 'cause I'm brown. And not the other color so police think. They have the authority to kill a minority

MC Ren:

Lights start flashin' behind me. But they're scared of a nigga so they mace me to blind me. But that shit don't work, I just laugh. Because it gives 'em a hint not to step in my path.

Eazy-E:

Without a gun and a badge, what do you got? A sucker in a uniform waiting to get shot. By me, or another nigga. And with a gat it don't matter if he's smaller or bigger.

Okay... the musician in me says one thing and the concerned parent hobbling out of his Charger to get some food thinks another. The musician in me says, the NWA song is a classic. The guys that wrote this song created a work of art. When we had the Hummer, I remember rolling down the road with the XM radio on the rap station blaring my honky, white ass ears out to the song. But... why must we hear it in public? And not by the real guys, I mean Eazy-E has been dead for years for that matter and why is it just out in the open air for the surrounding businesses and patrons, along with the residences nearby to hear? I mean... I might twitch if say John Lennon's Working Class Hero was sung out there to, with all the fucking f-bombs in that song.

So to me... this rap group was just a bunch of poseurs really, that figured they were gonna be out in public in front of the old Tower and how cute and funny and how "cool" they might be singing rapping this song out. What power and what real men they must feel like they have over say, the old lady on the other corner at the Tower Cafe eating a Caesar Salad with the love of her life on a cool Friday evening who really didn't go out tonight to be serenaded to the spiteful sounds of gangsta rap.

So back to Carlin, free speech, the Bill of Rights, yada yada... Are we that screwed up as a society that at the bare minimum, we can't have the decency and respect for others in public in not expressing lewd and downright threatening words for all to hear? Including the rights and respect of the majority that don't want to hear that shit? We may not have the God given right of freedom in America, rather a freedom that was given to us by a bunch of old dudes back in the 18th Century. But can we go beyond that and respect others in public? Can America ever get back to some form of decency where it was just standard to treat others with respect in public? I have no beef with the song or the liberal use of the f-word as form of expressing or even as I use it on my blog. In fact, it may be ironic that I have such a big beef with this incident tonight because my blog is a free public place for anyone to visit (who's IP's I have not banned because they were either spammers or slapdicks). Text is different though. You sort of have to pick up this blog and read it to understand it and my caveman grammar. Seeing or reading for that matter requires a different or more private sense. Sound is for everyone, except maybe the deaf people like Rush Limbaugh.

Perhaps there is just a meanness in this world...