Current mood: pensive
Category: Life
It's been a while since I've graced this blog with a post. It's not that I haven't had strong opinions on stuff recently, or things of note haven't happened, or that I haven't found anything online worthy of posting. It's just that I've been busier with work lately. I feel if I can't give my blog a full effort then I might as well not post anything. So, I decided to post several random observations.
- The Democrats took Congress, I'm more hopeful today than I was before 11/07/2006. But the Democrats are not the solution, they're just better than the other guys. With the Democrats in Congress, the grassroots can refocus their efforts on pushing for reform without having to worry about what Congress is doing everyday. That is the biggest benefit of a Democratic Congress.
- I hope the Cato Institute and progressive bloggers like Daily Kos and Atrios follow through on their efforts to create a libertarian/progressive coalition to beat back the lunatic right-wing fringe and neocons. Libertarians and progressives may disagree on many issues, but now we have a common enemy. The old left vs. right paradigm is outdated. The change most progressives want is compatible with libertarian ideology. Keeping government out of the private lives of adults, no more wars of choice, reduce government spending and waste, rejecting unnecessary expansion of government power, and the reduction of corporate influence in our elections and politics. The rest of the issues (taxes, healthcare, education, etc etc) are where the progressives and libertarians will probably never see face to face. But we can respectfully disagree and debate. But the things we have in common are a much more powerful slate of issues to build a partnership for the future on. Hopefully a viable third party.
- Music is great right now. Unfortunately, hip-hop is pretty weak right now. But there are several new artists that I have been stumbling across lately that have been really good. Bertine Zetlitz, Mira Craig, The Rapture, and helloGoodbye have some really great albums out right now. And don't forget about Boy Eats Drum Machine. Great indy album. Hopefully, Nas' album, prophetically titled "Nas....the N: Hip-Hop is Dead...." will resurrect good hip-hop for the masses. I can't even name one great hip-hop release in 2006. That's a shame. (Rhymefest & Snoop Dogg gets a notable mention though)
- Jay-Z's comeback album is a snoozefest. Skip it.
- The Game's new album is not half as good as his debut. Skip it.
- The Clipse album is ok. Not worth waiting months and months for.
- I love Timbaland's new direction with his music. His new album is called "Shock Value" and its hit or miss. Still, I never complain about getting new Timbo...
- Work is busy as stated above. I need a raise.
- There is a lot going on in the world right now that I don't feel people are paying enough attention to. If they were, they would be more engaged. The American experiment does not work without full participation from it's citizens. It simply doesn't. I think we see proof of that everyday.
