Musical cleaning tour

So, I thought I'd do a post that's way off my usual topic. I think the world is far too serious and negative at the moment so I want to do a post that's far more light and positive.

This here ol' topic will come in two sub-categories: music . . . and . . . cleaning house

Here's the deal: I listen to music when I go about cleaning the house. This cleaning activity is not often, I'll admit to that. It usually follows along the gentle prodding of my dear wife and is further inspired by the fact that people will be coming over to visit. While I'm far more laissez-faire about the whole tidiness business. I figure that if these folks are really our friends will they mind the inch or two of dog hair on our hard wood floors? Of course not. Seeing as my marriage is based on mutual trust, cooperation, love, devotion and democratically sponsored team-work I end up doing what my wife tells me to do.

Before I even begin the arduous task of cleaning and sweeping and the like I have to select appropriate music. There's something about a good tune that can make a boring job that much easier. While I've been knownt to have some ecclectic selections for my "cleaning beats" I've gotten rather fixed upon a particular album. This album, while I can and do enjoy it outside of domestic chores, manages to make me feel energetic and ready to face daunting tasks.

What album is this amazing mind influencer? Why it's Mozart's Requiem. I don't know, there's just something about a powerful choir musically screaming "REX . . . REX" that makes me want to beat the ever-lovin' tar out of dust bunnies, tooth paste scum or ancient grease. Granted there are some slower movements to ol' Amadeus' work; there are some down right aggresively powerful (nearly Orf-ian) movements as well. I do try and not think how the music was intended as a cover piece for both his father's and his own funeral. Such thoughts would make me not feel so good about sweeping a floor. Instead I listen to some folks singing in Latin with what, I believe, is a rather strong but efficient accent as if they were all Germans and were pretending to be happy but very serious at the same time.

So next time your knee deep in some household chemicals attempting to perform barely legalised warfare on soap scum think to yourself if beautifully, no, angelically, sung "Kyrie Eleison" might lift your spirits . . .

The double-standard marches on

At lot has happened in the world since my last post in June. It seems the world is yet again about to tear itself apart. While I definitely deplore (despise, hate, condemn, you name it) the violence in Israel and Lebanon, I've decided to do this post on something else. Before I do jump topic let me say that it is sickening and disheartening that the major governments of the world are idly sitting by while Israel commits hideous atrocities to innocent civilians in a government sanctioned act of aggression. So what's the message? As long as your not Muslim it's o.k. to commit some act of terrorism as long as it's against other Muslims? Let that double-standard example stay in your mind while I move on to my main topic . . .

Good ol' G.W. Bush has finally used his veto power as president. The mispronouncing, golf club-swinging, aggressive cowboy got up off his ass and decided to veto something after 5 1/2 years of being in office. What got Bush moving? Stem cell research.
Ah yes, the evils of science! Knowledge and progress are apparently evil things in this world. Does that mean that universities, cancer research foundations and diabetes research groups are now part of the Axis of Evil?

The veto, itself, didn't really rile me up . . . per se. It did upset me that Bush would stop funding to legitimate, and needed, medical research. It all just proves that Bush doesn't attack so-called military targets but he also goes against social targets too ("No Child Left Behind", a crusade against evil education and now a medical research veto).

What really made me laugh in a "this is insanely ridiculous" kind of way was Bush's statement during a White House press conference. Bush claims that the research "crosses a moral boundary that our decent society needs to respect."

Uh huh. So, this moral boundary is nothing like the one that was trampled during the invasion of Iraq? And our decent society is the same that has agreed to The U.S. Patriot Act? As for respect, I didn't know Bush actually understood, much less could pronounce, the word.

So kids, a review of Bush's new moral math works like this:
Military agression and killing of civilians in countries outside the U.S. that speak poorly of Bush = GOOD

Government funding for research to find cures to childhood diabetes, paralysis and Parkinsons disease = BAD

Now class, go review for our next test on Bush ideology: Why Rich People Are Better Than Everyone Else