leonard bernstein!!...

its funny what you can run into on Facebook, these days. Its become multi-generational, and has linked people together who probably want nothing to do with each other. I recently found out, after taking a 'what kind of bitch are you?' quiz, that my 11 year-old cousin is rated as a 'classy bitch'. Well, that's good, I'd to think that she was a 'raging bitch' or 'lazy bitch' or 'bitch-on-wheels or...

through Facebook i have found that Yankee fans do not have the capacity to remember even a 45 days in the past and that my best friend's wife is just getting around to the fact that the people who go on Judge Judy are stupid. Really?—Really?!! The sad fact is that my cousin from Texas once appeared on that show, which was awfully embarrassing, especially after she lost the case—:/ gasface given...

through Facebook i have been brought up to date on softball teams, and parents hanging out with their kids, the unusual hi-jinks of other cousins, my brother and his never ending battle with coffee and meh and Rod being an asshole. Lately, i've been using Facebook more to play Bejeweled 2 than for any other reason, but occasionally i come across something of interest...

a former mentor and advisor to The TORCH, the Official Student Newspaper of St. John's University—for which I wrote and served on the Editorial Board of proudly for four years, passed an item along on her page—'How America is Going to End: Choose You Own Apocalypse'. She offered a link to a story written by Josh Levin for Slate. The piece presupposes the end of American Society and offers the reader a way to map out how this end will take place. Levin offers that the American Apocalypse could be caused by any series of factors featured in the 'Map Your Own Apocalypse' segment of the article. Routes include forecasting the decline, a dictatorship, a secession, a Mormon takeover, along with paths you can create yourself, there are 144 options listed in all. One factor, however is missing. Intellectual Inferiority...

I happened to catch a film a few weekends back called 'Idiocracy,' starring Luke Wilson and Maya Rudolph. It was a poorly made film, but its point was valid. Wilson travels in time (via government hiccups) and wakes up hundreds of years in the future to find out that he is the smartest person in the America—hi jinks ensue. Are we as a nation becoming too stupid to live? Here is a quick quiz:

1. Do you believe that your god is better than their god?

2. Do you believe that our government is a democracy?

3. Do you believe using stereotypes is racist and/or politically incorrect?

4. Have you seen Elvis in a gas Station?

5. Do you think i care if you and little Suzie had a great time at the park today?

answers: 1. I don't believe in ghosts and neither should you. 2. Its a Republic ruled by industrial magnates. i mean, they won the civil war, and all—and you thought we fought that war to free slaves. 3. i am a white male who went to public school and i have an ass. i do not speak like a Dave Chappelle impersonation and i too enjoy grape soda and watermelon—doesn't everybody?! Point is, hate people for the right reasons, like i do, not because race, creed or religion. There is nothing correct about being politically correct. Say what you mean and mean what you say. 4. The man is dead. 5. I don't. I really don't.

this is but a sample quiz, maybe i'll spend some time creating a larger scale quiz that asks if you use your turn signal or if you think its ok that you can buy a firearm in Virginia with nothing more than a driver's license, or what the quadratic formula is, we'll see if i have the time. You know what they say though—'ask a stupid question'...

aaron Sorkin once wrote that education is the silver bullet. It is. Education eliminates the questions above. It relieves the pain and rage caused by the answers. Of the 144 routes to the apocalypse that Levin offers up in his piece, the majority, if not all of them, can be solve by having a more intelligent population. A population that asks the right questions, demands positive action, and motivates its leaders to be true to the ideals that are America—not the distorted view from penthouse offices and lobbies in the Capitol—can thwart such an end. Without education this nation will eat itself. We will be buying our education, filled with a history of deceit of the war-mongers and snake-oil salesmen who wrote it. It will be stocked with enough mathematics so you can count the last pennies in your pocket correctly. Enough science to heal the sick, and create a strong defense but not enough to cure disease or find alternative energies to fuel our greed. Is there any other business better to be in right now then the health industry and defense contracting? Music will be taught by hitchhikers and homeless in the streets, art class will be graffiti on the walls—physical education will be the walk to McDonald's...

teach your children well, avoid an American Apocalypse, so we can get ready for the real one in on 12/21/12. Just like Prince in the 1999, Rush stands to make a ton in a few years, get that voice loose Geddy...

its the end of the world as we know it...

and after getting that off my chest, i feel fine...