Merv's Politically Incorrect Audio Blog

How dare that hussy Chopin utilize tempo rubato... Has he no respect for the sanctity of the metronome and the foundations laid by our forefathers Bach and Hanon?

edit: yes, I know the metronome wasn't in common usage in Bach's time... ironically I think it was Beethoven who popularized it

 

On screens and how they are effecting generational change (how it is really different this time), see the work of Johnathan Haidt (books, youtube, twitter).

On why governmental inflation measures do not capture what has happened to the working & lower middle classes in NA since the 1970's, see Oren Cass (e.g. on how the "market fundamentalism" of the the right (largely adopted by the left) has intentionaly failed them - twitter, youtube, and essay's at think tank - not sure if he has a book).

 

I advise them to keep rioting if they must, much safer. This business with guillotines tends to get out of hand very quickly.
Historicaly, the guillotines, when they start working they do not know when to stop, and the heads of the people who build the guillotines roll pretty quickly. Who would go first is always interesting question but it never ends there.

 

Statements like this are the fastest way to confirm my Old Fart status, but sadly it’s true, at least with what passes for “hits” these days. It’s all put together by producers chasing their idea of ear candy, or whatever you call the lowest common denominator. To me it seems an ugly soundtrack for the very ugly times we’re living in. Mainstream musicianship has been dead for years, you have to get on the back roads to find the good stuff these days. (Yes, it still exists; see: Billy Strings for example.)

 

Can totally imagine Louis XVI thinking WTF about that in the end.

 

Even Robespierre had to lose his head. It took a general like Napoleon Bonaparte to stabilise the situation in France with an army and massive popularity (he even defeated the Prussian army).

Either way I am 35 now. Most 18-25 year olds are okay. Some of them only think about their social media, smoke breaks and expect to talk their way out of everything. "Yeah I feel you man", no you do not.

Maybe being treated like another newbie for so many years made me too wary. Sometimes my manager calls me a dinosaur because I focus on getting the job done. So be it. Getting the job done opened many doors for me.

 

As it always has, and always will, cultural/generational variances over the generations notwithstanding.

Life ain’t fair. Work hard and do it right. Be thankful for what (and whom) one “has”. Be merciful.

No whining.

 

https://twitter.com/FordFischer/status/1757536607572279482

"I'm hit, I'm hit!!" LOL

 

Good ole Florida

 

Yet no criminal charges. Hard to believe that if I emptied my gun at someone, especially someone I had very good reason to know couldn't have a gun, because I heard a random noise that I wouldn't be charged with anything, not even assault.

 

I've been struggling not to think about this
https://www.sloww.co/meta-crisis-101/

 

They made a simple idea into a BIG confusing mess

 

I had the exact opposite reaction

 

And yet the blue line people et al wonder why so much of society complains about the police.

Personally, my stance on the police hasn't changed much in 10-15 years... I absolutely do not believe in no police, defunding, letting criminals off for no reason like they're doing now, all the other dumb stuff we've seen in the last few years, etc... but I really would more competent officers across the board as the norm, not a maybe. With officers held to the same or similar standards as the society they're supposed to be a part of. And blatant inexcusable mistakes like this coming out of individual pensions - just like it would be massively expensive for me if I were to shoot someone and then proceed to endanger a neighborhood with random fire "because acorns".

Especially given that officers can kill me (or whoever) or ruin my life by getting me charged with something that would lock me away for 20 years.

OTOH obviously things can't go the way they've been going the last few years if we want competent officers to stay on.

 

The question, always a local (as opposed to national/ideological) question, is there a constituency for competency in local policing? If you ever worked in State/county/municipal government, you know there is a wide and varied range of 'competency' in leadership which sets the culture. After 9/11 there was a surge of a 'military' mindset - an 'us vs. them' culture within far too many local PD's. Add on top of that the leftist ideological assault on civilizational order itself and you have several layers of toxic culture/thinking to work through...

 

I think the bigger problem is when the police unions got full backing of the state government. In FL the state government passed a law where unions have to ask for permission to take union dues from members except for police/fire unions. So if you are a teacher union, you need to make sure that 60% of union members are paying their dues unless you want the union to go bye bye. This doesn't happen to our police union in FL since the state government let them get away with anything. This is due to the police/fire unions support the state GOP like there's no tomorrow.

This is why I hate state governments in general, they always pick the winners and losers without the free market handling it.

 

I get what you're saying, but at the same time, I don't want to continuously excuse low standards in all branches / forms of gov if I want things to improve. If it's a culture issue, it needs to be addressed by leadership... unfortunately I doubt we will see this soon as I'm not naive enough to think it that it's even beneficial for most current leadership to do so. Hence why as much as I disagreed with Trump on a lot of things, I am VERY glad he brought up the drain the swamp stuff. Too bad too many people on both sides don't view themselves as part of the swamp. I do really like how his drain swamp and get rid of deep state stuff really hit a nerve with a lot of people and systems in gov that to me exemplify this problem though. Both sides of mainstream politics, across functions, etc.

I view the police mindset issue the same - it happened yes, but why excuse or allow it? Force competency across board, including police.

Random 1AM musing though - I've thought about this before when the conspiracy hat goes on, but it does seem like every major organic social or reform movement that would have prompted significant reform in the US were very deliberately derailed from within or made unappealing by simply making the loudest alternative appear (or actually be) worse than the problem. All courtesy of MS media. From the Tea Party in the late 2000's, occupy wall street in the early 2010's.... several more inbetween... fast forward to more recently BLM protests and disastrous + completely counter-product fake police reform, etc.

 

So Mitch McConnell's sister in law died from backing / reversing her Tesla into a lake... however, when I searched for the story because this by itself is already suspicious to me, every mainstream outlet is framing this as a "driving incident" or "car accident" with absolutely 0 details. None of them aside from a few local news are/were talking about how she backed the Tesla into a lake and was then locked inside the car. A few of the sources (ex CNBC) even seemed to scrub the part about any Tesla "malfunctions". One still had it in the header / tab but not the story. HMMMMMMMMMMMM.

A few people I know thought I was crazy when I told them why if I had any kind of profile that mattered or was in any position of power, I absolutely wouldn't trust a completely computer controlled car... that random people posted videos of themselves hacking into and controlling remotely with relative ease... that also needs to be connected to the grid to be able to work... the same grid that is controlled by "smart" meters at home that can be shut off remotely... And how I would hate to be deemed "suicidal" while my computer controlled car figuratively malfunctioned itself off the side of a tall bridge at 90mph.

Or idk, maybe I'm overthinking it and wearing the conspiracy hat just to wear it and this is really just a case of tesla, older, asian, and female driver stereotypes playing themselves out.

 

This is why you really need to get some. I am worried about your life.