Happy 2017, Everyone

Once again, it's been a while since I posted, for which I apologize.  First of all, Happy New Year to everyone!  The past few years have been very trying at this end, so here's hoping for a better 2017.  A friend of mine did this--a song from each year of his life. It's his "life playlist", so to speak. I thought that it was a great idea. so here's mine. These aren't necessarily my favourite songs of all time, though I love (or at least like) every one of them. Certainly, there were some years that were harder to do than others, either because of a plethora of good songs or a paucity of them, and often, the choice was made based on the memories I have associated with the song.

1965: My Girl, The Temptations
1966: What becomes of the Brokenhearted, Jimmy Ruffin
1967: Groovin', The Young Rascals
1968: Hey Jude, The Beatles
1969: Get Together, The Youngbloods
1970: Love Grows, Edison Lighthouse
1971: My Sweet Lord, George Harrison
1972: I Can See Clearly Now, Johnny Nash
1973: Drift Away, Dobie Gray
1974: Sundown, Gordon Lightfoot
1975: Can't Get It Out Of My Head, ELO
1976: Dream Weaver, Gary Wright
1977: Jet Airliner, Steve Miller Band
1978: Grease, Frankie Valli
1979: What A Fool Believes, The Doobie Brothers
1980: Cruisin', Smokey Robinson
1981: I Love You, The Climax Blues Band
1982: Trouble, Lindsay Buckingham
1983: Come On Eileen, Dexy's Midnight Runners
1984: Dancing In The Dark, Bruce Springsteen
1985: Shout, Tears For Fears
1986: Life In A Northern Town, The Dream Academy
1987: Heart and Soul, T'Pau
1988: Red Red Wine, UB40
1989: Paradise City, Guns 'N Roses
1990: Free Fallin', Tom Petty
1991: Hole Hearted, Extreme
1992: Jump Around, House of Pain
1993: Ordinary World, Duran Duran
1994: Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm, Crash Test Dummies
1995: Hold My Hand, Hootie And The Blowfish
1996: One Of Us, Joan Osborne
1997: Bitch, Meredith Brooks
1998: The Mummer's Dance, Loreena McKinnit
1999: Iris, The Goo Goo Dolls
2000: Take A Picture, Filter
2001: Butterly, Crazytown
2002: In The End, Linkin Park
2003: Calling All Angels, Train
2004: Hey Ya, Outkast
2005: Boulevard Of Broken Dreams, Green Day
2006: Bad Day, Daniel Powter
2007: Chasing Cars, Snow Patrol
2008: Let It Rock, Kevin Rudolf
2009: Use Somebody, Kings Of Leon
2010: I Gotta Feeling, The Black Eyed Peas
2011: Sexy And I Know It, LMFAO
2012: We Are Young, Fun.
2013: This Is What It Feels Like, Armin van Buuren
2014: First Light, Racing Glaciers
2015: Spirits, The Strumbellas
2016: All Is Lost, Patrick Krief

There you have it. I'd be curious as to some of your "life soundtracks"!

Social Media

So, I realize that I am probably writing a blog post which will be read by absolutely no one other than myself (that's what happens when you posted sporadically over the course of seven years or so), but that's okay.  The internet is often nothing more than the collective voices of millions of people shouting at each other because they disagree politically, or over religion, sports, or because a misguided segment of the population mistakenly believes that the Kardashian family actually contributes something to Western society.  Whatever.

What I want to discuss is social media.  I have been on Facebook for over eight years now, and on Twitter for several years as well, though I "tweet" about as often as Donald Trump acknowledges his (many) limitations.  However, I recently deactivated my Facebook account.  Facebook can fill some voids in a person's life, but it cannot replace actual human contact, and if you are in a bad place mentally, it can often make things worse.  There's a phenomenon known as "The Fakebook Phenomenon", and essentially, what it means is that no one wants anyone "out there" to see that their life has problems, so what we often see out of Facebook is that people post nothing but happy photos of wonderful times when in fact their lives are far from that.  That's not to say that people don't have happy moments in their lives, or that they shouldn't post about them when they do, but there are studies which support the theory that Facebook and other social media outlets actually serve to make at least some people depressed, or more depressed, as the case may be.  For more on that see here and here and here and here and here.  People look at the news feeds of their "friends" enjoying a never-ending stream of parties, nights out, financial success, and then they look at their own lives and think, "What the hell am I doing wrong?  My life is NOTHING like that.  How did I screw up my life so badly?"

I have to be honest, I started feeling that way.  My life has hit some ruts (and then some) over the last couple of years.  I'm still standing, but it has not been easy.  In any event, I watched as my Facebook feed was constantly filled with people celebrating one glorious success after another, and it got to me. I just couldn't take it anymore.  I had to walk away.  So, I deactivated my account, and when you're as into social media as much as I am, this is a very, very difficult thing to do, but when you're not in a good place mentally, it is sometimes necessary to "disconnect".  I don't know how long I will stay away, I just know that for the time being, it is what I must do.  If nothing else, it will force me to focus on myself, and to concentrate on what I can control, as opposed to what I can't.  And (yes, I know that it's poor grammar to start a sentence with the word "And", but I'm going to do it, anyway) if I can step away, so can you................if you think that it will help you.  We get one crack at life.  I don't believe in heaven or hell, so in my view, this is our chance at enjoying existence.  It serves no purpose being unhappy because of things we cannot control, so if social media is causing you unhappiness, disconnect.

I began this post by acknowledging that it is likely that no one will ever read this post, but if someone browsing the internet finds it and something I wrote helps them, it has served a purpose.  I don't know if this post will represent any significant return by me to blogging--I very much doubt it, to be honest--but what I posted here was worth sharing, I thought.

Assorted Stuff

So, somehow, today the oldest BHG kid turned 15.  He is tall, has an insane mop of curly hair, is easy-going and is well-liked by his friends and peers.  In other words, he's everything I was not (and still am not).  He's a great kid and I'm incredibly proud to be his father.  On the other hand, he's now legally allowed to apply for his learner's permit, something of which he keeps reminding Mrs. BHG and I.  This is quite alarming to us...............

As I write this, it looks more and more likely that the missing Malaysian airlines flight, or wreckage from it, anyway, has been located in the southern Indian Ocean, well off the west coast of Australia.  See here for more on that.  Unfortunately, there is a distinct possibility, if not a probability, that we will never know how the plane came to be in that location.  The "black box", which contains the cockpit's voice and date recorders, will only send out "pings" for 30 days, and even if the searchers do locate it in this remote and deep part of the ocean, there is a very good chance the critical period of time--when the flight made its inexplicable turn to the west and then south, may very well have been overwritten.  So, sadly enough, we may never find out what exactly happened with this flight.

So, Richard Falk is set to step down on May 1 from his position as the United Nations Human Rights Commissions' "Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian Territories.  This 9/11 conspiracy theorist, a guy who blamed the Boston Marathon Bombing last year on Israel, is an anti-Israel zealot.  Unfortunately, he is set to be replaced by someone who is just as bad.  I guess that it's too much for to expect Israel to get a fair shake from the odious United Nations in general, let alone the despicable Human Rights Commission...........

Higher education is doomed.  Skidmore College, a prominent and (to this point) well-respect liberal arts college, is set to offer a course on......................Miley Cyrus.  I hardly think that she merits a mention in the newspapers, let alone a class devoted to her.

The political insane asylum that is Quebec

I grew up in Montreal, but I haven't lived in the city--or the Province of Quebec--since 1991.  Still, I have family and friends there, so I maintain an interest in the place.  For the life of me, I truly don't understand the linguistic insecurity of the French-speaking majority, the result of which has been oppressive, anti-democratic measures employed by even the so-called "federalist" (i.e., they don't want to dismember the Canadian Confederation) political party (The Liberals, for those keeping track).  The overtly separatist party, the Parti Quebecois ("PQ"), doesn't hide what it is, and as a result of that, we have the bizarre spectacle of so-called language police running around the city of Montreal citing people working in retail outlets for the horrific crime of saying "Bonjour/Hi!" to store customers.  Worse yet, the PQ has promised much more in terms of restrictive legislation if it wins the provincial election scheduled for April 7.

I must be weird this way, but it seems to me that if you want to call yourself a truly democratic society, everyone should have the same rights.  In other words, a person should be able to speak the language that they want, when they want, and where they want.  If they want to put up an English-language business sign, that should be fine, too.  It may not generate much (if any) business from the French-speaking majority in the province, but that's the problem of the business-owner.  It should not involve the government.  I really don't understand why so many non-French speakers accept being treated like second-class citizens in a place where many of them have lived for (in some cases) hundreds of years.  It boggles the mind.......................

Shut up, anti-vaccination idiots

I'm a big believer in science, especially medical science.  That's why I get so worked up when I see people taking their cues in life from idiot celebrities such as Jenny McCarthy, Kristin Cavallari, etc.  This is particularly true when it comes to the subject of vaccinating your children.  Sometimes, there are NOT two sides to every story.  In any case, as the result of the actions of these celebrities spewing their mindless, scientifically-debunked nonsense that vaccination can lead to an increased risk of autism, we now have increasing numbers of people all over the world who are being diagnosed with diseases which had basically become extinct in this country, such the whooping cough, mumps and measles.  Recent stories confirm this fact:  See here and here.  Again, let's keep in mind, these diseases had effectively been eradicated.  They are now back.

Does this mean that a fractional percentage of people aren't at risk of a bad reaction to these vaccinations? No, of course not, but the vast, vast majority of people are protected by them.  As well, and as a species, we benefit from a "herd effect"--in other words, society is protected by the fact that we are all (supposed to be) immunized.  That herd protection is eliminated by those who are not vaccinated.

I'm willing to go one step further than most people--I think that those who peddle these dangerous ideas are guilty of criminal negligence.  At the very least, they should be open to civil suits.

Florida is long, and other random thoughts

People in other states don't realize how freaking LONG Florida is.  When I lived in New Jersey, I could drive from one end of the state to the other in two hours.  In fact, I used to do it all the time for work.  Well, on Wednesday, I had to drive from where I now live to Pensacola.  I got in my car and started driving.........and then I kept driving and driving and driving.  After about 4+ hours, I finally got to the state capital, Tallahassee.  The most depressing thing was realizing that I had another three hours of driving ahead of me.  I live in the northeastern part of the state.  Imagine if someone was doing that drive from the Miami area, or even worse, the Keys.  The drive would take about 11 or 12 hours.  That's just crazy............

The story of Malaysian Airlines Fight 370 is one of the most bizarre stories in a long time.  If it's even possible, let's leave aside for the most the fact that there are just under 240 people on the flight who have seemingly vanished into thin air.  First, there was the story of those stolen passports, the users of whom ended up on the flight.  That seems to have become a non-story.  Then, there were the two Iranians on the flight, and that fact alone caused alarm bells to go off before that too became a non-story.  Now, we have the latest wrinkle, which is that the flight was diverted hundreds of miles off course, according to tracking by military radar.  I have to be honest; I suspected terrorism from the get-go, because planes do not suddenly go wildly off course and then vanish with not a single word from the pilots, or some indication of a mechanical problem.  On the other hand, terrorist groups invariably like to take credit for doing stuff like this. The silence after this plane vanished  has been deafening.  Not a word from any of the "usual suspects" (al Qaeda or one of its affiliates; Hezbollah; etc., etc.), or even some lesser-known outfit.  I just hope that this mystery is solved sooner rather that later, as the families of the passengers and flight crews deserve some type of answer as to what happened to their loved ones............

Am I the only person who is utterly repulsed by the entire Kardashian family? Honestly, what have any of them contributed to the world?  ANYTHING?  They seem to be incredibly good at self-promotion, I'll give them that.  Yet, they draw fans from all over the world--Kim Kardashian, who might be the trashiest of them all, has over 17,000,000 fans according to her Facebook page.  To me, that just means that there are over 17,000,000 stupid people on the planet who take their cues in life from a vapid "celebrity".  I get that we live in a celebrity-obsessed culture.  I don't like it, but such is life.  The thing is, the Kardashians aren't even famous for any particular reason.  The women are pretty.  Well, so what, there are millions of pretty women in this country and elsewhere in the world.  They're not smart in the conventional sense (though they're certainly savvy enough to turn their inexplicable popularity into dollars).  They've contributed nothing to the world.  Can anyone explain their popularity to me?????

I'm a grammar freak.  It drives me up a wall when I see people confuse the words "they're, there and their", not to mention "your" and "you're".  They are NOT the same words and they do NOT mean the same thing. People who can't tell the difference look like idiots.

A Wound is Reopened

Peter Lanza, the father of Newtown shooter Adam Lanza, has given an interview to the New Yorker which is causing a fair amount of controversy, as people predictably line up to either excoriate him or ask "what could he have done to stop this?"

Personally, I have no idea how as a parent, especially one who was divorced, and one who had been cut off from his son for over a year by his son's actions, he could have been expected to stop Adam Lanza from committing his horrific act of mass murder.

And, if you read the comments on the stories reporting on the interview, all the nutcases are out in full force--the "false flag" loonies, the "the government did it to take away our guns" or "it never happened" crowds, and of course the mandatory "the JEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS did it" collection of whack jobs.  Of course, because that's just the way we Jews roll...................

As a society, have we become so completely unhinged and distrusting of everything that we don't believe in ANYTHING anymore?

For what it's worth, he's a link to the actual article: Peter Lanza Story