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07.25.05 || Topics of InterestIn my daily commute I have lots of time to myself to ponder worldly happenings. An assistant to get me thinking about what is going around me is the radio. With morning talk radio discussing news topics, political views, and all the other daily jargon it makes one think. One of the ones that struck me was the news that they are trying to make it to where schools cannot give students an F anymore. They say this is demoralizing, or demeaning, and that they must give the student a “deferred success”. Basically they are saying that every student doesn’t learn a topic or subject the first time, so they don’t want to say that they ‘failed’. When in fact they could possibly learn it the second time, and saying someone failed hurts their self esteem, so they would have deferred success. I think this is just more political correctness that is getting way overboard. It’s similar to the topic that in kid’s baseball there is no winner, that way there isn’t a loser.
This political correctness is out of hand and hurting us as a country, not only in the school system, but also in war. There is no political correctness when it comes to terrorists, yet our country thinks we can ‘talk it out’. That’s a bunch of crap, its kill or be killed, therefore we must kill first, simple as that. Our school system is only going downhill, we aren’t trying to challenge kids to learn, we’re just basically patting them on the back for not doing a thing. If there is no winner in the baseball game, you have nothing to play for. Sorry if your kid loses, but it should inspire the losers to work harder, not complain more.
Alright enough about that topic, another topic far from the previous is what is going on with the Chicago land radio stations? It seems like we can’t have any more stations that play a certain genre of music, they must play ‘everything’. The first one I found was the previous Spanish station, previously Energy 92.7 & 92.5, and now “The Nine” with their format as “We Play Everything”. They have 92.7, 92.5, and 99.9 and play like they say, everything. From oldies to new rock, pretty much all over the map.
The next instance I heard of this was the rock/alternative station 101.1, Q101. Now they are “On Shuffle” saying that they play everything alternative, now including older stuff and also some of what I would consider not so rock. It seems they are following the trend that radio stations cannot play just the ‘alternative’ genre they must play everything.
The latest one I heard of is 104.3, Oldies 104.3. I can’t say I really listened to them before, but I thought they played more oldies. I've found that they played 60’s and 70’s, and people are talking that they miss that, and now they are “Jack 104.3”, “Playing What We Want”.
The moral here is where is commercial radio going? Is there not going to be anymore genre radio stations? There must be someone somewhere with more knowledge than me that is telling these stations to change format if they want to keep their audience in Chicago, but I would rather have genre stations, because I don’t want to go from System of a Down to John Mayer back to back.
07.11.05 || American Pride
I’m not sure how this email I got has to do with rednecks directly, but I'd say I agree with these statements. I'd say these statements should be valid, in your view, if you truly are a proud American and don’t want others harshly pushing their views on you. Lets state this again too, I did not write this! I don’t even agree that it should be related to ‘rednecks’ at all, nor do I consider myself or anyone who does believe this a ‘redneck’. Just because I did not write it I don’t want to change it, so see what you think of it…
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We have enjoyed the redneck jokes for years. It's time to take a reflective look at the core beliefs of a culture that values home, family, country and God. If I had to stand before a dozen terrorists who threaten my life, I'd choose a half dozen or so rednecks to back me up. Tire irons, squirrel guns and grit -- that's what rednecks are made of. I hope I am one of those. If you feel the same, pass this on to your redneck friends. Y'all know who ya' are...
You might be a Redneck if:
1. It never occurred to you to be offended by the phrase, "One nation, under God."
2. You've never protested about seeing the 10 Commandments posted in public places.
3. You still say "Christmas" instead of "Winter Festival."
4. You remove your hat and bow your head when anyone prays.
5. You stand and place your hand over your heart when they play our National Anthem.
6. You treat Viet Nam vets with great respect, and always have.
7. You've never burned an American flag, but would kick someone's A_ _ that did.
8. You know what you believe and you aren't afraid to say so, no matter who is listening.
9. You respect your elders and expect your kids to do the same.
10. You'd give your last dollar to a friend.
If you got this email from me, it is because I believe that you, like me, have just enough redneck in you to have the same beliefs as those talked about above.
God Bless you and the USA! I can honestly answer yes to all 10 ... Must be a redneck :-) have a great weekend.
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07.07.05 || Faces of the Fallen
Roaming around on the internet I found this website: Faces of the Fallen and I thought it was rather interesting. I’m not sure how much this is updated or why they don’t have everyone’s picture, or anyone for the last month’s picture in there, but it gives us citizens an idea of what’s going on over in combat areas. Check it out, let me know what you think.