Pribek

I pretty much live like a hermit. Maybe, I’m anti-social; I don’t know. I’ve been accused form time to time. It’s not that I don’t enjoy interacting or, I’m unfriendly; I just don’t feel the need to constantly be around people.

At some point, I realized that I was not the Master of the Universe. This wasn’t a sudden revelation rather, a gradual awareness. As my awareness increases, my ability to control decreases. I seem to be more of an observer than participant, in a lot of respects. Maybe, that is the natural order of things.

Tell you what though, I’m glad I’m not in control or even under the delusion of being in control because, the more I observe-things look strange.

I look at the news every day, probably more than most people do. And, even though I haven’t been writing about a lot of it, I’m aware of it.

Still having “morning” coffee right now, rock and roll hours, you know? So, I’m still in the introspective stage of my Sunday routine.

Then, give us a few few thoughts and observations please, Jack. Thank you, don’t mind if I do, voice inside my head.

The Economy:
How in the hell would a 44 year old songwriter/guitar player who has never had a pot to piss in and, if he did, there isn’t a window in the Winnebago big enough to throw it out of: How does that guy have the nerve to say anything about the economy? One thing I have is nerve.

In the news this morning, I saw that mortgage defaults are up 57% over last year.

I saw that some guy from the U.N. is accusing all of western civilization of murder because of, high food prices.

I paid $3.41 a gallon for gas yesterday.

Last night, driving home from the gig, I heard some guy on the radio saying that, at some point, maybe when diesel reaches $5.00 a gallon, the trucking industry will shut down, that this was a plot perpetrated by “globalist” corporate types, as a result, “the grid” will totally shut down for years and, we should all start raising chickens and growing hydroponic gardens, it’s the only way we will survive.

Yeah well, I’m not going to raise any chickens.

If you got into some variable rate mortgage that, some guy in a polo shirt with a receding hairline, sold you on and now, you can’t afford to pay for it-you can’t pay for it. That seems pretty simple. But, I keep seeing this stuff in the news that always has some greasy economist laying a collective guilt trip on home buyers for their irresponsibility. It’s a crock. The irresponsibility is the baggage of the lenders.

You and I aren’t killing people because the price of wheat is high. The price of wheat is high because oil was $117.00 a barrel yesterday.

I’m driving less, are you?

Politics:
I grow more and more apolitical every day. I don’t have a dog in the hunt. Here’s one I see a lot, “The growing number of the disaffected”. I have to say a big “blow me” to that one.

I don’t even know if I’m going to vote this time. Does that make me a bad person? No.

Maybe, I am “disaffected”, I don’t know. I would look it up but, I don’t care.

“Dancing With The Stars” is a better T.V. show than the ceaseless, ongoing election coverage. I would rather see Priscilla Presley do a jitterbug than watch another debate.

Here’s the thing, this election cycle already seems like it’s been going on for 20 years and it really hasn’t even kicked into gear yet. November is a long way away. When you are talking to me about November, you might as well be talking about the year 2052 when we all have robot maids and groovy personal space copters.

I don’t care about John McCain’s wife’s financial records, I don’t care what Bill Clinton says to a bunch of college students, I don’t care what Bill Maher thinks about the Pope and I don’t care that Jeremiah Wright has a $10 million line of credit and, I don’t care about analysis of how far Obama should have or, has, distanced himself from him. Get back to me on all of that around the third week of October and, I bet I can sort through all of it before noon. Then, I may have a dog in the hunt.

Speaking of Mr. Wright, here is what is important; When he says “God Damn America”, there is a room full of people hanging on every word. Further, I have been around a bit and I have met a lot of people that feel that way and even agree with the opinions of Louis Farrakhan. I don’t want Jeremiah Wright to shut up about it and, I don’t want anybody who feels or thinks that way to feel the need to keep quiet about it either. I want to know why they think or feel that way. We got to figure that out. See, I heard Sean Hannity, on the radio the other day, repeatedly calling Wright “crazy” and a “nut”. That kind of stuff isn’t helpful because, anybody who agrees with Wright is a “nut” by proxy. That is a type of suppression. I figured out a long time ago that if tell someone they are crazy, you aren’t going to change their mind. The best you can do is make them want to avoid the subject. We need to encourage these people to speak about this stuff.

The Weather:
I don’t know about you, but we sure have been having some screwy weather here in the Ozarks.

Global Warming or Not Global Warming? Tell you what; I don’t know, you don’t know, Al Gore doesn’t know, the U.N. doesn’t know, NASA doesn’t know; nobody knows for sure.

I can tell you this though, carbon offsets are a con game and whether or not you use those silly straw light bulbs isn’t going to tip the balance. If you feel like using them though, go right ahead on. If you want to buy carbon offsets, go ahead; I bear no ill will to people that send money to T.V. evangelists either. Whatever gets you through the night.

Might be best to drive a little less, just to be on the safe side-no Atheists in a foxhole you know? Might bring the price of oil down a little and get the U.N. off the back of the Western World and, at the same time, cut down on suburban chicken farming.

Once again, the whole deal comes back around to my continued, comprehensive gripe with the “news” media. The “news” media is hell bent on laying a not so subtle guilt trip on collective humanity while, at the same time metaphorically and collectively, stumbling around Central Park with a rope tied around it’s genitalia and a pocket full of crank.

That’s my rant for the day. Aside from all of the above, I feel pretty good.