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Sorry Buddy, You’re Four Years Too Late

This past week, George W. Bush made his first visit ever to Canada as President of the United States. This is after canceling numerous planned visits to Canada, the country that pretty much all past US presidents made their first international visit to. I guess he is keeping to tradition though, as this is his first international visit after being legitimately elected.

The visit was supposedly to patch up Canada-US relations. Ha. We may be nice people, but we’re not morons. We aren’t going to shine your shoes as you’re walking all over us. Canada has been ignored and neglected by the USA for the past four years, and we aren’t very happy about it. To anyone who thinks Canadians our being ungrateful for all that the USA has done for them, name one reason from the past four years that you think that. From mad cow hypocrisy to SARS hysteria and, most notably, the ongoing softwood lumber dispute (NAFTA goes both ways jerks), we have been getting the shaft. It’s no wonder Canada-US relations are at a low of lows. One up side to the increasing distance between us and them is that our dollar is looking pretty good these days by comparison.

Bush thanked Canadians who welcomed him by waving “with all 5 fingers.” Apparently, that wasn’t too many. But hey, too all of those Americans who salute their Commander in Chief with less than all 5, come join us. We’re very nice people (if you don’t push us too hard), our economy isn’t falling as fast, we allow gay marriage, and best of all, George W. Bush hardly ever visits!

George W. Bush Defines Irony (via DJ rx)

Download sunday_bloody_sunday.mp3

Why I am Against the Iraq War

I know this topic is getting old, and is terribly over-popular in the world of the weblog, but bear with me here. I need to get this off my chest.

 

People can say whatever they like in support of the War and Occupation of Iraq. Sure, Saddam’s reign has been ended. Never mind whether or not the USA has the authority to make decisions on who should stay and who should go, he was a bad man, end of story. The ends justify the means. I can understand how some people might feel like that.

Of course Saddam was a threat to the USA. Who isn’t? The majority of American citizens felt threatened enough by homosexuals to completely ignore their flaming albatross of an economy.

So yes, removing Saddam calmed many Americans down enough to get them off one or two of their 9 prescription antibiotics, which I guess is a good thing. The fact that this whole pre-emptive strike has created more anti-American sentiment and brought it to a boiling point is just an annoying side-effect that will be dealt with at a later date. You have to pick your battles.

 

And yes, the people of Iraq are getting a democracy. Whether or not it is a democracy by definition or a hand-me-down, one-size-fits-all version tainted by Western ideologies is not the issue. It’s a democracy, that’s enough.

The reason, after all of the above, that I am still against the War on Iraq, is that when ideals like freedom and democracy are forced upon people, they become rules. Freedom should not be a rule, for making freedom a rule to be followed contradicts the very meaning of freedom. Without freedom, Democracy loses its meaning. It simply becomes another rule to follow, not a form of government in which people have the choice. People need to choose democracy in order for it to be true, otherwise there is no freedom in the matter to begin with.

What is going on isn’t a noble cause in the name of helping your fellow man; it is a crusade in the name of Western Democracy as an absolute final means of government: no questions asked. That is why, no matter what you say, I will forever be against this war.

A Hip-Hop Lover's Struggle

One of my major in interest in life is always under attack, and that is Hip-Hop/Rap.  I love this style of music, and it's something that I identify with more than any other music genre.  However, my love for Hip-Hop causes me much pain, as a lover of Hip-Hop has to also be a defender of it.  There's three levels of Hip-Hop, and two of them give off the negative image that is shoved in the face of rap lovers the world over, while the third level gets widely ignored, even though it's the best form of rap and the truest to it's roots.

The first, and worst form of Hip-Hop would be the "ignant rap".  There is no skill involved at all, most of the time the "artist" can barely rap.  This level of rap is purely beat driven and the only skill involved is that of the producer.  A prime example of this would be Lil Jon.  He can't rap, he just screams.  Every other word in the song is an expletive, and there is no message at all beyond "You can neva eva, eva eva, eva eve, eva eva eva eva, get on my level ho".  I personally believe that this is the beginning of the end of rap.  The sad thing is...the beats are so insanely good that people end up buying it anyway, even if they dislike the lack of a message.  I must admit that I own a Lil Jon CD since he was also smart enough to get some decent rappers to rap over some of his hottest beats and give the album a handful of good songs.  It's something that's good to get you hyper in an instant.  However, the negative image is so strong that Hip-Hop haters love to throw it in your face and never let it go.  This is the main source of rap's bad name.

The second level is commercial rap.  This is the "Money, cars, hoes" rap that has saturated the market.  Here, there are many people with talent, but no message at all besides how drunk they get in the club and how many girls they can sleep with.  This is also more beat driven, but not as much as "Ignant rap" is.  The way that some of the commercial rappers can put together words is amazing.  This is more driven by the flow that the artist has.  If it's good, they will be successful, if not, they will fail.  The main problem with this rap is that it has no message to it, so to people who dislike the genre, it's not music.

The last, but most certainly not least, level is what I call "real rap".  This is where the *real* talent is.  This is where the street poets reside.  All of these artist have a message that they are trying to get across to the listener, or an image that they are trying to portray.  You can actually sit down with the lyrics of their songs and analyze them like any other poem and find a deeper meaning to the words.  Some songs explain the struggles of street life while others are telling the listeners to better themselves so they can have a better life.  When I was younger, I didn't understand these rappers at all, so I didn't listen to them.  When I got older and realized what they were saying, I grew a great appreciation for these artist.  At first, I was focusing on the flow that they had, and it was much better than a lot of the commercial rappers that are out.  After listening on the surface a few times, paying attention to the beat and their flow, I started to listen to the words.  Songs like Tupac's "Me and My Girlfriend" made me say "Wow!  He's not talking at all about what I thought he was!"  "Brenda's Got a Baby" was another Tupac song that was misunderstood at first, even in his own neighborhood.  Because of his talent, he was able to make the song seem so personal that people thought that he was talking about one person, but he was talking about all the black girls across the country.  Songs like "Poppa Was A Player" by Nas may seem on the surface like just a story about a cheating father, but when you listen, he's actually talking about how fathers need to take care of their children and not just be a "baby daddy" or just "the man that impregnated mom".  In the song, he talks about how no matter how many problems there may have been, his father always stayed and that was the best lesson he got...how to be a man. You have Old School rappers like Slick Rick who made their career on telling stories.  "Children's Story" by Slick Rick is more than just a play on a bedtime story, it's a life lesson.  The moral of the story is to stay out of trouble because once you get into trouble, it builds upon itself when you try to get out of it.  There's Old School gangsta rap that had a strong message, but people chose to ignore it.  NWA released the song "Fuck the Police" and the FBI, Congress, and local law agencies denounced them publicly, and in letters written to the group.  They were trying to tell people that things were happening in the hood, and that bad things would happen in LA if they didn't fix it.  Instead, they were written off as ignorant, inflammatory, misinformed, vulgar rappers.  Then the Rodney King beating happened and after the verdict in the trial...LA exploded in riots.  People finally saw what NWA was saying this whole time, they weren't so wrong after all.

The problem with real rap is that most of it is Old School, so it doesn't get play time on the radio, on on music videos.  People are not exposed to the real rap because of that, and they are missing out on something special.  There are still good rappers, but people choose to listen only to their singles, which may be more commercial than the rest of the album.  Once you get into the album, where the artist puts their heart and soul into it, there is something beautiful in the making.

In the end, I'm just a lover of music.  I'll listen to anything as long as it's good, but Hip-Hop is my focus.  Chris Rock summed it up best in one of his stand up shows, "Love rap, hate defending it".  It's something that is tiring, but almost like a duty.  If you love Hip-Hop, it just comes with the territory.