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Okay, a few things, this doesn’t really have anything to do with a political agenda of mine, I just typically don’t like discussing politics unless it’s an issue for debate. This is just something interesting, and you conspiracy theorists might jock it (you probably already do now).

Many of you may have seen the Obama Deception video (and no I’m not linking to it) and have heard of the whole Bilderberg Conspiracy. Now of course most of that is poorly sourced and is purposely trying to be scary and provocative in order to sell tapes. And don’t believe that ‘free’ bull for one second, conspiracy theorists offer free vids in order to get you hooked and to then start buying their merch. Moving on, one interesting fact in the video (and it’s true nonetheless!) is that the Federal Reserve is not an entirely Federal operation, it does indeed have private parts, namely the fact that the individual banks of the Federal Reserve are privately owned. However “they are controlled by the publically-appointed Board of Governors. The Federal Reserve banks merely execute the monetary policy choices made by the Board. In addition, nearly all the interest the Federal Reserve collects on government bonds is rebated to the Treasury each year, so the government does not pay any net interest to the Fed.” (Source, Edward Flaherty, Ph.D. Department of Economics)

So the Fed is not a private bank in an overall sense, and unlike the video would tell you, the Fed DOES undergo financial audits from outside auditors. (Fed Website)

Now to my point, despite the audits, and despite the fact that I sometimes feel like Ron Paul gets caught up in conspiracies as much as he has passion for fighting for the American people, I do agree with Sen. Ron Paul and feel like the Federal Reserve audits and records should be more intensive and widely available to the public, with nothing being secretive. Especially in times like these, with the bailout happening and so much money getting passed around, the money of the Fed NEEDS TO BE CAREFULLY TRACKED, AUDITED, AND SHOWN TO THE PUBLIC.

So now that the rant is coming to a close, what can you do if you’re reaction to this post is more than “okay enough of that, time to google boobies.”

Ahem…well, you can support Ron Paul’s bill

Write in to your Rep or Sen and get them to support the bill, if they haven’t already. It’s our country’s money, and therefore OUR MONEY, so why not?

Nostalgia. Looking back at the ‘good old days.’ Why does it seem like everything you experienced earlier in life seems so much better than “the stuff that’s out there now”? I have so many favorite quotes about nostalgia, let’s try and limit them to a few:

• Nostalgia is like a grammar lesson:  you find the present tense, but the past perfect! ~Owens Lee Pomeroy

• The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact, a return to the idealized past. ~Robertson Davies, A Voice from the Attic

• Nostalgia is a file that removes the rough edges from the good old days. ~Doug Larson

• I don’t like nostalgia unless it’s mine. ~Lou Reed

Why can I vividly remember stomping on that first Goomba in Super Mario Bros. but I can barely remember the ending to many modern games I play? Why will no animated movie ever top Aladdin and the Lion King for me when clearly many excellent one’s have been made since? But more importantly, why do so many people in their early twenties (like me) agree with nearly everything that I’ve said? It must be the nostalgia effect. Try and remember how magical those movies, books, games, hobbies, events were to you as a youngin’. With all of the stress of the adult world, is it no wonder why nothing seems to stick with you as it used to?

My personal theory for nostalgia is that as kids, with no other worry’s in our lives, we became devoted to the things we enjoyed. We thought about them all the time, we made up our own stories and set up scenes and reenacted things from these events. But today, after I see a good movie, I say “Huh, wow that was really good.” Then I turn off and go back to work, or move on to something else. As a kid though, I would rewatch, hang on every word, think about it for weeks later and make my own versions of what I just saw, experienced, whatever. From fishing trips to video games, anything and everything enjoyable, I would think about often later. Now a vacation elicits a few minute remembrance in what a nice break that was from school/work/owning my first home/other responsibilities.

I think the free time we had to continue our interest in whatever event/media we experienced makes what we did in the past so much more memorable. I also think that the “leap-frog effect” plays in here too; everyone says how much better things “in their day” were, so it makes us more inclined to believe our olden days were awesome, and the days of today’s kids are deprived of our great experiences.

I think the blank slate effect plays another part of our fond remembrance of the past, and sometimes even the reverse or the disdain of our past. I think the BSE plays a role in that when your experiences are so limited, such as they are as a child, then something great seems ABSOLUTELY MIND BLOWING. Meanwhile, when you get older, more worldly, more cultural, and to be truthful, a bit more jaded, you can still greatly appreciate great works and great times, but it just doesn’t have that same worshipful attitude you used to have a young lad/lass experience something for the first time. Just like every guy never forgets his first girl, a powerful memory maintains longevity if it was the first time you experience something in that category or of that caliber, and there are a lot of first times when you are young

Speaking of golden oldies:

• Peter Schiff Predicts the Recession in ’06!
• The Schiffster on the Stimulus Bill

Music

• Binary Star Album Not Available Online Anymore? (Someone Please Re-Upload, it was a Classic!)
• Tsk Tsk Timbaland, NO STEALING BEATS!
• New Albumbase?
• OneArmedBandits – Defunct Reggae Group from Delaware

Random

• Literal Music Videos are Hit and Miss
• Skills!
• Tragic One Post Wonder!

Tom

Michael Bolton: You think the pet rock was a really great idea?
Tom Smykowski: Sure it was. The guy made a million dollars.

A little context for those who have not seen the move Office Space: Tom has told the guys (Peter, Michael, Samir) about the ‘two Bob’s’ who are coming in to consult for Initech, a move he believes will result in many employee cuts (he’s right). He is expressing his concern (he is a generally goofy and neurotic character) about the cuts, and he gets the guys somewhat worried. He then comes out with this gem, which precedes my favorite quote:

Tom: You know there are people in this world who don’t have to put up with

all this shit? Like that guy that invented the pet rock. You see,

that’s what you have to do. You have to use your mind and come up with

some really great idea like that and you never have to work again!

Which leads to Michael’s response and Tom’s awesome realization that the success of the pet rock is what made it such a great idea. I’ve thought about this, and although on the surface I would seem to be the kind of person that would largely disagree with what Tom is saying since I tend to listen to somewhat obscure music and generally tend to stray away from more mainstream entertainment (in terms of television and such, not trying to sound like “OMG IM SO UNDERGROUND”), but I have to say that given context, I certainly agree! I think another quote (whom I can’t source because I cannot remember) comes from when I was talking to someone about ‘selling out’, and I remember them saying “Well, what does artistic recognition do for a guy like me huh? I’d rather have the cash!” Instantly in some peoples minds that would come across as shallow, but does putting financial success ahead of artistic expression really make you shallow?

For someone that “has” (i.e most of suburban America), finding success off of goofy material or selling out in order to achieve success is often found with discontent. I think that this discontent is no better expressed then by young white males who rant about underground hip-hop and who advocate not selling out to mainstream music. They think this way because they have many comforts to fall back on. They are also generally well educated and think that their opinions have more weight than the masses who listen to whatever is fed to them. However, little to no thought is given to the artist’s goals. Sure there is a lot of talk about the artist, but who ever discusses what they think their favorite artist wishes to accomplish? What if Fiddy was not particularly worried about the cultural footprint he would leave in hip-hop and was simply out to make money to secure the financial future of himself and his family members? Is that shallow? Is putting artistic expression in front of financial security more mature? What is wrong with recognizing your ability to sell to a mainstream audience and using (hell let’s say exploiting) that ability in order to make some money and better your standard of living. Ask any person living in poverty if they care about what their peers think of their artistic talent. THEY WANNA KNOW WHERE THE GOLD AT! (oldie)

And of course I find myself thinking the complete opposite on certain circumstances. Some things I think are too much to be giving up in order to find success. One example is the blatant selling of sex for many female singers, it’s almost a prerequisite these days to be attractive and seductive in order find success as a female singer. This also creates a larger issue, the overwhelming saturation of people “just trying to make a dollar” taking over a form of music so that the artists with real talent seemingly get pushed aside and never discovered. Hip-hop again is a great example of this. How can an intrigued mind find out about new intellectual hip-hop acts if all he finds on the radio is “SHAWTAY SHAKE DAT ASS THREE TIMEZ”. This topic generally speaks for itself, as artists more and more try to appeal to mainstream numbers, the dumber and less sophisticated they seem to get.

So I guess what I mean is that this quote really is interesting to me because it has me torn on both issues. I cannot blame an artist or group getting into the industry to try and make money because financial security is an important thing in this world and looking out for your future via financial gains is certainly not immature. However, the side effects of this overwhelming flood of new acts just looking to make money in many popular modern music forms often pushes aside acts with more talent but less appeal, and generally causes the genre to become more bland and have less variety. So while in my perfect world only the most talented and original artists would come out with new and inspiring works and have them reach many people, who am I to say that making a million dollars doesn’t make an idea great?

Not to start the blog off on a somewhat negative topic, it’s just been on my mind. I’ve found that most people that pursue a continued education in any sense often go through a nihilistic phase, sometimes in high school or sometimes later in their college years if they choose to attend. Often you will hear about them saying how “life is meaningless, why bother with anything”, by which they mean why establish, pursue, and complete goals when nothing essentially matters due to time’s ability to erode your life and accomplishments until no one remembers them. And this is true. No matter what you create, even if you should attain a sort of legendary status with great halls and monuments made in your name, entropy will always “outlive” any physical or indeed mental imprint you leave on this world. You will have existed, but in the long run, what does that matter with your finite lifespan? While I heed these truths to nihilistic thinkers, let’s not rush into cutting our wrists and wearing eyeliner just yet.

The flipside to this argument is what I believe drives most of us to do what we do, in a nutshell, getting things done, or at the very least seeing new things and experiencing new experiences. Since I was a Rob & Big fan I have to say their catchphrase “Do Work” definitely sums up a lot of eager, productive, and focused individuals in our society, and here is why I believe they should be. Since life is indeed so short in the grand scale of things, appreciation of what you have and what you can achieve for yourself in your allotted time is a great motivator to go out and get something done. Even IF you are destined to eventually pass on into whatever existance after life has taken its course (be it a heaven, reincarnation, or simply nothing) than why should you not attempt to accomplish things that make your life more enjoyable, be they monetary, skill based, or emotional gains. If you are one of the priveleged who have been born into a loving family and who lead a relatively good life with few pains than I cannot see a reason why you would not embrace the precious time you have and try to get to where you want to be, without forgetting to stop and smell the roses once in a while. On that note let’s stop writing this post and go outside.

Sophistefunk