Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
'Life is what happens while we're busy making other plans'
John Lennon
'Life is what happens while we're busy making other plans'
Blog Archive
-
▼
2008
(144)
-
▼
October
(11)
- Exceptional Customer Service
- Leaders - Born or Made?
- London Marathon 2009 - Running for Carers
- Tom Peters backs Barack Obama
- Resilience Report
- Variety or Familiarity?
- Thought for the day ....
- Proof - if you needed it - that the financial cris...
- Actually I 'undersold' George's talents!! He is i...
- 78 and still loads to do .....
- Crazy!
-
▼
October
(11)
17 comments:
Perhaps she will get the "Employee of the month" award as a consolation.
Brilliant suggestion Felix!
"One is impressed with one's customer service" she will say ...
I have an ex-girlfriend who's an investment banker on Wall Street. She told me last night she's going to sell real estate instead. But fast food might be a better bet.
McDonalds has great incentive packages.
Her arms and hands are in amazingly good shape. The grease from the french fries works wonders for skin tone, you know!
John, Rocky and Dick - it is brilliant we can still laugh in the gloom ....
WHAT GLOOM ANYWAY???!!!
The sun is shining gloriously here in Shakespeare's County - and we all have God to thank for such REAL joys of life ....
Thanks guys for your continued support to Simplicity Blog.
BTW, Trevor, don't feel you have to be diplomatic by not identifying the source of this crisis: the "empire of consumption" (as described in the "The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism" by Andrew Bacevich). I'd say more but I'd be accused of treason by saying unpatriotic things on a "foreign" platform. :-) Wouldn't want to be Dixie Chicked.
You can say what you like on my Blog John - I won't tell anyone :-)
I'm pretty sure greed is at the root of these current problems and I guess we are ALL responsible for that.
Thanks, Trevor. Whatever I say from now on here is STRICTLY between you and me, ok? Actually on my own site I could almost promise that! :-)
BTW, in case you hadn't heard, "Dixie Chicked" refers to when Natalie Maines, the feisty lead singer of the Dixie Chicks, criticized George Bush from the stage in Britain after which the Chicks' music was banned from country radio in the US in protest against her treasonous statements. I was already a huge fan of theirs because - despite their Barbie Doll image - they're GREAT pickers and singers. Are you familiar with their material?
You can trust us Brits not to tell anyone John …. You are among friends :-)
Don Henley criticised Bush at The Eagles concert I went to in England in 2006. The Eagles song ‘Long Road Out of Eden’ is a protest song about Bush, consumerism and Iraq.
I’m not familiar with the Dixie Chicks but will now listen out for them … good on her for being brave enough to talk openly about politics. Maybe we should have more of that from our rock stars – I seem to recall the young John Lennon never bothered about upsetting politicians – he made quite a habit of it in fact …. It did him no harm.
Actually John I often wonder whether Lennon might have emerged as some sort of political figure if he had lived – what do you think?
Good points, Trevor. John Lennon did have a habit of making impolitic remarks which got him in trouble on occasion - e.g., his comment about the Beatles being more popular than Jesus got the Beatles banned on some radio stations in the South and his protests against Vietnam earned him the hatred of the Nixon administration - and even Elvis!
Had he lived, I don't think Lennon could have displayed the required diplomacy to run for public office. Incidentally, I discussed on my blog last April how Lennon might have voted in the US presidential primaries this year: http://rockandrolllessons.blogspot.com/2008/04/whom-would-john-lennon-vote-for.html
To this day I STILL miss his presence on the music (and world) stage.
Very sad that the great man John Lennon was taken from the world so early, so tragically and way before his time - what a tragic waste – I “imagine” he is at peace in heaven and keeping god on his toes :- )
He remains my greatest rock hero. I’m sure you are correct he would not have been able to be diplomatic enough to succeed in politics but he would have always spoken up for the poor and hungry in our world.
I remember your Blog discussion back in April and I made a comment that Lennon would have voted for Mr Obama – I still feel that. Do you agree?
Democracy is indeed a marvelous thing! Natalie Maines exercised her right to free speech. If I'm not mistaken it had something to do with some throw away line about being embarrassed by President Bush being from Texas. Those who chose to continue to support the Dixie Chicks, at the box office, in the record stores, and elsewhere did so. Those who didn't spoke with their words and actions.
Democracy and free speech has always been put into perspective for me by this bit of dialog from the movie "The American President"...
"You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country can't just be a flag; the symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then, you can stand up and sing about the "land of the free".
I spent 24 years in the military, one of hundreds of thousands of my generation who have served to protect the rights of those who wrap themselves in or chose to burn the flag so that we could celebrate democracy and free speech. Every time I read The Daily Kos for example, or anything else that I might vehemently disagree with, I feel terrific about the small part I played in enabling the citizens of this country to exercise that right to speech. I feel terrific about Ms. Maines exercising her right to say what she did and equally terrific with those who expressed themselves by supporting or boycotting their "product". Either way, one of the "Dixies" was certainly responsible for their being "Chicked".
You are so right Dave - democracy works both ways.
Anyone who gives as much of their lives as you did to your country in military service is always worth listening too. You remind us of the sacrifices many thousands of military folks make to keep the rest of us free.
Thank you my friend
Best
Trevor
WONDERFUL thoughts here, Dave. Thank you much for the sweet reminder of freedom and the continued cost too. Thanks also for your service.
It’s an interesting point that Dave has raised. It is all too easy to think that democracy and freedom is good as long as we agree with whatever is going on and is being said. However, with freedom comes responsibility. Freedom of speech does not mean freedom to incite hatred, freedom to drive does not mean that we don’t have responsibility to other road users and so on.
I seem to recall that Bob Geldof is another musician who has rocked a few political boats and yet he appeared to get on well with Tony Blair.
Talking of John Lennon, I have just booked a couple of nights’ stay in Liverpool in a few weeks time – and that’s not a cue for any of your libellous jokes about that great city and its people Mr Gay.
Just going back to democracy, many, many years ago I worked with a guy who was a union member but voted Conservative. The union subscription included a political levy that funded the Labour party. You could opt out of the levy if you did not support Labour. However, this Conservative voter chose to pay the levy because he believed that it was important for democracy that both main parties were well funded, the Conservatives traditionally having drawn their support from business.
Hi David- I would never insult Liverpool!!
I love the reply of Mahatma Gandhi when he was asked what he thought of democracy in Britain ... He replied 'I think it would be a very good idea'
Post a Comment