Think as you live, before you vote
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There should be a lesson in everything.
Whether we are directly involved or sitting on the sidelines watching, whatever is happening in our own little life or in the world around us we should learn something from it.
Watched Kanye’s latest controversial video, Bound 2, featuring fiancé and mother of North, Kim Kardashian. It opens innocently enough with beautiful snow-capped mountains and green valleys as seen through the eyes of an eagle, then lovely wild horses racing along the bluffs with some simple, soft, kind of weird lyrical singing. From there it breaks away to Kanye doing an even simpler, even weirder rap and what I presume is Kim sprawled out and writhing atop a motorcycle apparently naked. Now remember this is the girl who filmed a sex video and leaked it to the public so anything is possible.
More lyrical stuff then more rap with him riding the motorcycle and the mother of his child straddled facing him as they bump and bounce along the highway. Both the singing and the rap are punctuated with the stimulating lyrics, “Bam. Bam.”
Now there is a huge pile of hype swirling around this video which drives sales and the sheep who, because of the publicity, think it shows Kanye’s self-proclaimed genius and brilliance. To me it’s a bad song sung badly with the obligatory implied sex which sells. Bam. Bam. The lesson is to think for yourself and don’t be a lemming.
As a Canadian I am not impressed that we have become so famous in the States that we are on CNN daily or fodder for the late night comics. But Toronto mayor, Rob Ford, has done that for all of us.
Almost every day he says or does something else stupid and then apologizes for it. Saying you are sorry doesn’t mean anything if you repeat the embarrassing, disrespectful, offensive behaviour over and over and over.
I suppose the Americans, who are notorious for their wayward politicians – think Edwards, Weiner, Sanford, Clinton – love to expose ours. I think it’s like group therapy, knowing you are not alone helps to ease your pain.
This is different than the usual lying and cheating kind of corruption. The news media loves a good smutty, sex, drugs and rock and roll story and they run with it and run with it and run with it.
The big lesson here is not about the power-hungry, ‘I-can-get-away-with-anything’ mentality of politicians. We all know that already. It is to do your research and think very, very carefully about what you are doing before you put your little cross on a ballot. It is almost impossible to get rid of incompetent, humiliating, odious buffoons once you have elected them. And four years of ineffectual representation can be very destructive.
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