Grateful Dead

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No apology necessary, Anna.We must say what we truly feel.

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Yes, It has become high comedy-drama, this show featuring the Democrats, moderate and progressive and the Republicans, "Tea Party" and and "Old Guard". This year the table was set for an old-time political show-down between two factions of the Republican Party. They were at each others throats and neither wanted to give in because of well-funded primary challenges sure to come. The stakes were enormously high. As high as we have ever seen in our lifetime. One side of the Republican Party wanted to gamble with the full faith and credit of the the US Government (By shutting down the Federal Government as well as not voting to raise the debt ceiling by fully funding, without discrimination, the budget for 2013-14) as well as gut any trace of the first black president's legacy of universal healthcare through landmark legislation known as the "Affordable Care Act". The other side of the party, the moderates, want to repeal, or at least drastically scale back, Social Security, Medicare, Food Stamps, Unemployment and all programs related to Aid to Families with Dependent Children. This is something that the upper 2% of the wealthy in this country have been screaming for since it's inception in the 1930s. These were seen by the wealthy at that time in history as a way to keep an uprising, increasingly organized, restive population from exploding due to hunger and unemployment during the dark, hard times of the Great Depression. One US Senator, a first-termer named Ted Cruz associated with the Tea Party, went on a hell-bent 21 hour twisted screed on the Senate Floor in a maverick attempt to derail the President's health care act, which was about to go into effect. It was not a filibuster and had nothing to do with any strategy on the part of the Republican minority Senate leadership. It was his personal attempt to defund ObamaCare. What he ended up doing was putting the President's landmark healthcare legislation squarely in the spotlight for the American people to seriously look at, at exactly the time it was coming into effect by law. Senator Cruz effective attained a majority of support for the law where one had been formerly lacking. In the meantime, the "Old Guard" leadership had become so distracted (McConnell; Boehner; Cantor) that they totally missed the fact that the Democrats were willing to begin negotiations with the Republicans budget numbers. In other words, they were already miles down the rail-road track toward a "Grand Bargain" that would have made decisive steps toward making accommodations in the budget for the wave of baby-boomers about to retire, enrolling in the vital social welfare programs that could never be cut before. The result may very well be NO REFORM in those social welfare programs and the GOP permanently split as a party. One side becomes the the fiscally and socially conservative Tea Party "True Believers" and the "Socially Moderate, Polite, Play Fair, Republicans" who are still fiscally conservative, though not so vehemently so. What has been pointed out before is that the Tea Party faction is willing to sew chaos by roiling the US and World Money Markets by playing with the default of the "Full Faith And Credit of the United States Government" by not paying the interest, and eventually the principle on those T-Bill Coupons. This has been an amazing tale that is still unfolding...

About the hyperbole...

Mary, Sinéad's long, drawn out letters may have been heartfelt, but are entirely ineffective and the method chosen to convey her feelings spectacularly poorly judged.Why not contact her directly and express concern, if she so desperately feels the need, instead of an 'open letter'? Her rambling was met with a rather delightfully witty response; some cute little put-downs which she immediately took exception to. If you don't like being called crazy, please refrain from acting in such a fashion. As for Mrs. Lennox, her tiring call for a rating system for pop videos was rightfully shown the exit back in the eighties, along with the equally delusional rantings of Tipper Bore et al. May i humbly suggest a ratings system for banal, mediocre and instantly forgettable piano ballads, usually delivered with a teary eye at a Comic Relief event, accompanied by video screens projecting images of suffering African children. Their views once again perpetuate the incoherent and illogical belief/myth that any woman working in pornography, nude modeling or the sex industry, is being manipulated, coerced, prostituted or pimped by men. For some lamentable reason, it would seem that certain women, sometimes men (usually when trying to impress in the company of women, truth be told), are deeply unhappy with their fellow gender openly celebrating their sexuality. The notion that women can enjoy and promote sex of their own accord appears unfathomable and sadly adds to the general condescension that females have to endure on a regular basis. Are we to attribute empowerment and strength only to the male of the species? Miss Cyrus' parents have nothing to be ashamed of. She is a beautiful young girl enjoying herself and exploring her sexuality. And although Billy Ray has a hell of a lot to answer for; inflicting 'Achy Breaky Heart' on the world's population to name but one, that is a whole other kettle of slimy, white fish (mullet fish?) - his daughter's behaviour is not one of them. Is 'Wrecking Ball' a great pop song? Not especially. Is the video an immense artistic achievement? Not really, although it's splendidly fun and everything a good pop video should be; certainly has a lot of people frothing (at both ends). Intention aside, (and be damned even, it's the results that are interesting), is it more/less entertaining than a bunch of guys (it usually is, isn't it?) essentially repeating the same songs, with minor adjustments and fluctuations in key for a living? (A question quite reasonably aimed at a large section of artists deified on this site). The answer? Hugely debatable. Pornography, nudity and sex is not intrinsically a danger to women. To be more pertinent - in·trin·sic ( n-tr n z k, -s k). adj. 1. Of or relating to the essential nature of a thing; inherent. Sex and the body in it's purest form is beautiful and to be encouraged. I read the other day that there was an offer to Miley for $1 million to direct a porn movie. I hope she has the courage to accept this offer. And Anna - i'm afraid i've no idea what you meant by your 'don't give in to denial - the news is what it is' comment. I can only assume that Slo Lettuce was correct in his guess and that you took my 'Shut up..' posts as personally directed at your good self. Although why you would think i would ever speak to you in such a fashion is beyond me and makes for rather a depressing thought. It never is, never was and never will be my intention to tell anyone what they can or cannot express in this Forum. This should be a place for everyone. Your views on this subject are hugely encouraged.

My buttons get pushed easily. Your rant (twisted screed, whatever) was quite good but I'm sure you don't expect everybody to agree with you. There are a number of ways to look at this. Miley had the wholesome girl kid hero image to pull away from and she milked it for all it was worth in a sweet PR campaign. Really, It's her PR people who should take a bow, not Miley. She was just choreographed. Sinead and Annie? Irrelevant! Sour grapes mixed with their own private versions of psychotherapy hell sessions. I hate to sound banal but what was the line from Seinfeld about the traditional route of being spit out the bottom of the porn industry? Anyway, sounded like you had something to say and you said it in your own inimitable way.

I doubt you're living paycheck-to-paycheck. Still, I wish to express my deepest sympathy for the family crosses we all bear. Well, the unluckiest of us, or the luckiest ones in the lessons we learn. Well, you know what I mean... Need I say it? The Tea Party has torn asunder the two-party system that sustains the Right's hegemony over us all. Whooda thunk it!

I acknowledge Randy is light-years ahead of me. Good detective work on your part!

my apologies to anyone I made feel uncomfortable or disrespected. The only pot I ever care to stir is usually sitting next to me. I will now write, "I will attempt to keep my big keyboard shut" 100 times on the etherboard. Knowing myself though, this will be met with limited success.... :)

sort of goes into the anthology that also contains Courtney Love's screed on the music industry. Out there maybe, but classic.