Crazy

Watching a National Geographic Show about Gang Lockdown...what the hell?! These guys are still controlling their gangs in cities 400 miles away from inside the walls of the prison. Prisoners are still stabbed, killed, guards threatened. We are way too freaking lenient...send these fools to Antarctica, give them nothing. Why are we wasting time, effort and tax dollars on these freaks? Why are we making them comfortable? Can you say electric shock collars? Hey call me crazy.

If this wasn't enough video craziness for one evening, earlier I watched a news segment on Sixty Minutes about Mental Illness. It points out how easy it is for people who have been involuntarily committed to a mental hospital to buy a gun or any type of firearm after they have been released. How can our laws be so screwed up? Are we collectively that stupid?

Here's another crazy item. As someone who is recently unemployed, we are quickly discovering the nightmare of no health insurance benefits. The monthly COBRA payment is 1200 dollars. After six months or close to 8,000 dollars coming out of savings we are seriously considering stopping COBRA. According to the law we have another sixty days and if we do not have some sort of temporary health insurance then our "continuous coverage" lapses and Health Insurance Companies in the future will have the right to deny us health insurance if we have pre-existing conditions for up to one year or more...in other words, you're screwed and will be forced to pay full boat on all health costs which for most people is astronomical. God forbid you have some sort of chronic illness like Cancer, COPD, Diabetes, Asthma, IBS or AIDS. Vision and Dental? (Laugh here). It will be cheaper for you to just die and be buried in the ground. What? That's CRAZY!

And then again, there is still IRAQ, a bill passed by both the House and Senate to fund our troops with the caveat to begin troop withdrawal in October and we have a President who is about to VETO this bill...it doesn't get any crazier.

Come over here and tighten the belts on this straight jacket.

Road Trip

We just returned from a road trip to Kentucky...Lexington, Kentucky, the center of the Universe for Thoroughbred Horses...really any kind of Horse. Horse Heaven and the birthplace of Kentucky Bourbon.

It was a grueling 8 hour drive. Neither of us had been to Kentucky or West Virginia so it was a chance to see the countryside so to speak.

I am sorry, but West Virginia is a scary place. Coal Mining, Gas Refineries, Factories making unknown things...smokestacks spewing fire; we did not even want to stop for any reason. It's hilly and there were at least three if not four toll booth stops at a Buck Twenty five each; plus they had a couple of very long tunnels that cut right through the mountains at a couple of locations. The real fun part of West Virgina though is racing with the eighteen wheelers up and down the hills....NOT!

Kentucky is a whole other story...it was weird but as soon as the sign said Welcome to Kentucky, it seemed the environment and entire surroundings changed.

Lexington is a surprisingly cool city. Home to the University of Kentucky Wildcats and Rupp Arena where Kentucky has won more basketball games than any other college team in America. Triangle Park in front of Lexington Center has a really neat water fountain...in fact, there were numerous water fountains in the downtown area. While the downtown was a nice mix of tall modern buildings and historic homes, the outskirts of Lexington is what will blow your mind. Bluegrass galore and multi-million dollar Horse properties...one after another of HUGE mansions, "gated" drives and horse fences as far as the eye can see. One Horse Farm it took us a good twenty minutes of driving to just get to the other side of the Farm....BIG horse barns with skylights...tons of money and hundreds of beautiful pure bred horses...unbelievable. I think Joy thought she died and went to Heaven.

Equestrian fans from all over the world come to Lexington to see horses, buy horses and watch horses race...it is truly an international scene. The Bluegrass just enhances the beauty of the area...no wonder horses like it here! Joy spent the day on Monday at Keeneland Racetrack watching the trainers exercise the horses while I interviewed for a potential job. I am glad she was able to come along and see Lexington...we'll see what comes of the job--it certainly would be an interesting place to live. We are thinking of opening a Bed and Breakfast...that might be a great idea...catering to the Basketball fans and the Horse fans.

Piece of Horse trivia...Man O'War one of the biggest and most successful thoroughbred race horses of all time had a stride of 28 feet...wrap your head around that one. He is buried in Lexington, Kentucky.

Surreal and Horrific

My wife asked me if I had heard what happened in Virginia this afternoon and I said no. 21 people have been killed at Virginia Tech. What?!

I jump online and there it is. Then I tune in to CNN television. First Headline News, then the other CNN channel, then MSNBC, then Fox News and I realize that they are all claiming slightly different things. All of these news outlets seemed to be racing to be first. The first to say something that further differentiates their channel from the competition. The worst shooting on a college campus in U.S. History, then comes the alert that 31 people are confirmed dead...now it is Thee worst shooting period, and it is positioned as "record breaking"--does this make it even more newsworthy? What kind of message does this send? Record Breaking? These News channels are putting students on the air via phone asking them inane questions...I wonder if any of these are real...one guy is laughing (maybe nervously as the anchor is quick to point out-laughing is a natural reaction to something as horrific as this).

Then angles begin to quickly develop. There was a bomb threat in August, there was an escaped convict who shot a deputy near the campus, why was there a two hour window between the first shooting and the massacre that occurred, what was the Security situation at this campus and what was being done since the August threats? The shooter was Asian, the shooter was looking for his girlfriend so he lined people up and began shooting them, the shooter had a vest and was wearing belts of ammunition, the shooter chained the doors of the second dormitory from inside---where does all this come from? Are these confirmed facts from on site reporters or random ramblings of whoever is available on campus calling in on their cell phone?

"We have Tiffany on the line, tell us what happened! Are you surprised that you were allowed to go to class after news of the first shooting two hours earlier?" ---digging, looking for fault and blame, looking for an angle to run with...this IS CRAZY!

It is surreal. A horrific act of violence. Senseless. I cannot believe that I am viewing or hearing these news reports and wondering if some of the facts are distorted or just plain wrong.

Then it strikes me like a big iron frying pan up side of my head...advertising. I am trying to wrap my head around what is going on, a terrible shooting on a college campus, a massacre really--31 people are dead and between unconfirmed reports I am looking at Geico, Immodium A.D. EZ Chews, Mazda and Embassy Suites Commercials. Bigger ratings, more advertisers, higher rates, the pressure to deliver revenue budgets, the pressure of answering to stockholders, the pressure to be first...what are these organizations willing to do to be first? What happened to ethics in Journalism? Why can't we take the time to confirm the facts before reporting?

We have a WAR in Iraq that is being sanitized by the news media and to most News organizations the four year old war fails to generate ratings. Do we really care more about Anna Nicole Smith and who the father of her baby is? Are we willing to watch breaking news stories whether some or all of the facts are true or not? Is this what our society has become? Authors who plagiarize, News reporters who stretch facts, Reality Television that celebrates dysfunction? Obscenity, indecency, racism, stupid people tricks and misogyny on Morning Radio Shows and Network TV? Weather Reports that border on Armageddon? Video game war? Now I am hearing a news story that School Bus drivers could be Terrorists...what!?

It's ironic that advertisers pull advertising from MSNBC, CBS Radio and the Don Imus Show because of a poor choice of words, yet let it ride with CNN, Fox News and any other News channel reporting unconfirmed facts related to breaking news stories or making headlines out of nothing. What could be worse than "manufactured news"?

Should our news and information be tainted by advertising? Remember Yellow Journalism? Has it raised its ugly head once again...push the envelope on what is the truth, go ahead and report it, everyone else does and we will work through the facts and the truth later. Does this make your skin crawl? I am not saying this IS happening, but I do perceive it to BE happening...and I am sick over it and needed to write about it.

I just heard yet another student on the air that said, "I am not sure what is true or what is not..."

My feeling exactly...I don't know.

Who will hold our News Media to a higher standard?

Motivation

Have you ever wondered what motivates you? Why you are motivated to get up at 5am to get an early start to your day? Why you are motivated to get to your job not just on time but earlier than everyone else? Why you are motivated to go the extra mile for your kids or your loved ones or your friends? Why you are motivated to follow the rules and obey the laws? Why you are motivated to take good care of yourself?

What exactly happens when motivation leaves you? How do you get it back?

I have always believed that motivation comes from within. Others cannot motivate you. Teachers cannot motivate you to learn if you have little or no desire to learn something. Parents cannot motivate their kids to make the right choices if the kids could care less about what Mom and Dad think or want. Bosses and supervisors cannot motivate employees to do their jobs better...employees motivate their selves because employees have their own personal agenda, their own personal goals-when these match up with the goals of their employer, things get done well and on time...they could care less about what the CEO needs or wants...they care about what they need and want.

People are motivated because they WANT to be motivated...but what triggers that?

Incentives? Rewards? Recognition? Wealth? Pleasure? Cheese?

What is your trigger? Why are you motivated to do the things you set out to do?

Change

We need to change our ways. We are involved in IRAQ because of weapons of mass destruction...there are none. Are we stupid? We are still in IRAQ after four years. Young men and women come home missing limbs, some will never come home; still others have not come home outside of a coffin or body bag. The IRAQI people will never appreciate our personal sacrifice, afterall, they have been at war for a thousand years and their war will continue for a thousand more.

Do we just follow like lemmings to the cliff and jump off? Do we allow people like Dick Cheney and Dubbayah to have the final word? Or do we just say NO!

We need to say enough and we need to say enough loudly so that the stupid people can hear us. Do you really want to go on each day with a headline about bodies being blown to bits in the name of Allah? Insanity. We keep doing the same thing but expect different results. Insanity.

We are a country where MONEY trumps everything.

We are a country that is fascinated by American Idol, LOST and Dancing with the Stars...hello?! How stupid is that?

We are a country fascinated with Twitter...our life is sooo boring that we need to know what the other person is doing right this second...hello?! I don't want to know that you just popped a zit.

We are a country that pays money to watch Borat on the BIG Screen.

We are a country that gathers in large coliseums to watch organized violence. Sound familiar?

We are a country that is hypicritical...we have hypocrisy down to a fine science when it involves racism, class society, politics, religion, education, money and power.

We are a country of losers because there is only ONE winner and if there is only one winner, then logic dictates that everyone else lost or DID NOT WIN! How does it feel to be a loser?

We are a country where it's o.k. to tell a lie.

If the world ended today, there will be many in our country who don't make the cut. Think about that for a moment.

Change is our only alternative.

Change is our only choice.

Change will allow us to survive, adapt and move on.

Are you willing to change?

Rest In Peace Kurt Vonnegut

One of my favorite authors of all time Kurt Vonnegut passed today at the age of 84. He had been doing some work for In These Times. I have been reading his 1976 Book "Timequake". Authors like Kurt Vonnegut are a rare breed and special in their unique gift of storytelling. I should be so lucky to live on this Earth for 84 years...Thank You Kurt for sharing your vision of the world with me. Long live Kilgore Trout and Futurology!

What IF

There are days when I have too much time on my hands and I begin thinking weird thoughts like "What IF...?"

Then there are those nasty and evil thoughts of Woulda-Coulda-Shoulda that enter my mind....these can be very painful, very enlightening or just plain stupid.

I would have finished college if I didn't get bored with it.
I could have been a lawyer if I stayed in college.
I should have stayed in college and become a lawyer so I could pay for my kids to go to college and then quit.

OK I digress.

What IF I never went into the Army after High School?
What IF I played college football instead?
What IF I married my High School Sweetheart? (did not have one but hey what if?!)
What IF I never had any children?
What IF I became a roadie for the Rolling Stones and Keith Richards was my best friend?

You can really drive yourself nuts with the What IF game.

Maybe it's part of the "getting old" disease. This is a terrible affliction and if you begin to show symptoms get help immediately!!!

You begin to have a morbid fascination with reading the obituaries; you begin to care less about what other people think; you suffer silent pain; you begin to feel a sense of urgency about your life and the time you have left; you think about the things you have not yet done but want to do (and you think of these things often); you spend part of your day reflecting and taking stock of what you have accomplished in your life because it matters more today than it did yesterday for some reason; you appreciate things that have lasting appeal (great works of art, wonderful writing from gifted authors, music that moves your soul, true friendships, a great tasting wine); you yearn to travel the world because the stuff around you is...well...boring. OK, OK, maybe it IS Mid-Life Crisis.

Pathetic huh?

Getting old means you actually consider a face lift (Gene Simmons NEEDS a face lift---Keith Richards could use one...have you noticed lately that he resembles a chimpanzee? Look at a face photo of Keith real close---it's at the top---go back and look at it)--If Keith was my best friend I would tell him---hey you're looking like a chimp...better layoff of snortin' what's left of DAD. Getting old means you leak...wrap your head around that one. Getting old means becoming a VIP user at your local pharmacy. Getting old means you need to constantly carry or wear a pair of eye-glasses. Getting old sucks...where did that barnacle come from? What did you say? You're who? Are you sure I am married to you? What smells?

Thinking can be Exhausting.

I am thinking about getting a Real Estate License. Joy wants me think about it and then she wants to talk about it and most likely wants to worry about it before I actually sign up for the class...which is funny because she was the one who suggested I look into it. I have been fascinated with the idea of home selling...it's not about "selling" as much as it is finding a right match. Understanding what a couple or family or an individual person wants and needs in a home and a neighborhood and helping them find the right choice sounds interesting AND challenging to me. It's a LOT of work and I think one would need to be committed, passionate and very organized to do the job well. The upside is that you are in control of your own destiny--you are an entrepreneur--working for yourself and getting back what you are willing to invest of yourself...and it requires marketing skills which I can steal from my thirty plus years of doing radio.

Speaking of Radio...sometimes I get the feeling that I have reached that point where I am not willing to sacrifice for the sake of doing Radio. I realize it sounds selfish, maybe even stupid since Radio is my career and source of financial income, however, I am fairly certain that I am not willing to move to Cleveland or Detroit for a radio job. I am fairly certain that I don't want to work for programming types who don't have a clue but have some sort of status or position. I am very certain that I don't want to chase after a radio job that pays a paltry salary or to work for a radio company that thinks you are worth less because you are unemployed--it's just disrespectful to my craft and profession, yet radio is full of these types of people---looking to do everything on the cheap---and in essence that is what is wrong with Radio today...desperate times!

LUCKY

Today was Lucky's 28th Birthday. In horse years that is really old. Lucky is my wife's Appaloosa and he is a wonderful old soul who has a generous and likable personality...in fact, another animal of ours who talks-constantly! I'm not sure how people can get along without animals in their lives. It certainly puts balance in my life.

We are lucky to have Lucky!

ROCKY

Rocky is our dog; a champion stock, blue blood, black Standard Poodle who is a hulk at almost 60 pounds. He is three years old and has a very cool personality. Always smiling and always happy, except of course when he mopes, pouts and throws himself around because he ain't going with us---did I tell you he loves to GO?

Go for a Walk, Go in the Car, Go Get Busy, Go Outside, Go chase squirrels, Go play with Zoe the next door poodle dog, Go to Dog Park, Go chase Simba---he don't care where-Rocky likes to GO. If he ain't goin though he is mopin...we'll ask him to "watch the house" and he won't even look at us, we'll give him two and three cookie payments to watch the house and he'll spit them out and look the other way---a real brat when he wants to be...but most of the time Rocky is the coolest dog.

He walks. Rocky reminds us that we need to walk---without Rocky, I bet y'all we would not be walkin everyday.

He talks. We taught him how to say I Love You and he says it plain as day---for a treat of course.

We love our dog...The Pupster, Baby Boy, Rocky Racoon, The Rock Star, Poodle Head, Fancy Pants, Mister Stink, Rocky.