Random Thoughts of a Busy Mind (Part I)...

Today, I'm just going to push out some random thoughts that should hopefully spur on some thoughts of your own....

* The 2016 Presidential Election may very well be the worst in America's history. We have two main party candidates who can't be trusted, lie on demand and will do nothing but continue the slow decline of the world's last great superpower. I'd say we deserve better, but We the People have brought this on ourselves by continuing to reflexively vote for a corrupt two party system. 

* Maybe I'm crazy, but perhaps America doesn't need to take the lead in fighting ISIS. I know that the Guns, God and Murica' crowd will take offense to this, but we're not really accomplishing all that much over there. Yeah, I once believe we were, but this had become a generational struggle for us. In a few years, we'll have troops fighting who weren't even born when the Twin Towers and Pentagon were attacked in 2001. 

Maybe the Middle Eastern powers such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Qatar, whom are all buying billions of dollars in advanced weaponry, should be taking the lead. After all, they have far more to lose than America or Europe does in this struggle. ISIS is a much bigger threat to their sovereignty and security.

* Hollywood may be out of good ideas. with this summer of remakes and sequels. I've only been to theater once since April. Don't get me wrong, there are some films that lend themselves to remakes, but there are others that don't need to be rehashed. There are plenty of good books out there that would make excellent films (cough, cough...Ronan Marino), but the movers and shakers in Tinseltown aren't willing to take the risk.

Most of the good stuff is on Amazon Prime, Netflix and pay cable these days anyway.

* Speaking of Hollywood, does it bother anyone else that some celebs rant about gun control, yet work in an industry that glorifies violence and guns?

There's one huge reason (other than being far more educated and wordly than the vast majority of them) I can't take any celeb serious when they preach about the issues of the day. They do not practice what they preach. Take a look at climate change issue. Leonardo DeCaprio preaches on the topic, yet flies on carbon spewing private planes, sails on fuel hogging yachts and rides in gas guzzling limos, yet he's going to tell us we need to take action to save the planet?

Sorry, not buying it from you, Leo. Ditch the yacht, mansion, private plane, etc. and we'll talk. Same with all the celebs who want to talk about banning guns, yet make films with gun-toting heroes or have armed body guards. Apparently they've never once heard the term hypocrite.

*Sadly, in terms of music, we live in age of forgettable one hit wonders. I look at the charts and barely recognize any of the names in the Top 40. In a month, it'll be an entirely different set of "musicians" I've never heard of, most of whom will never be heard from again. 

I miss the days when artists would put out an album and have four or five hits that would last for generations. I'm not critiquing the music itself, but the business model brought on by the .99 download. If this trend continues, the days of artists like Elvis, Sinatra, Springsteen, etc. who spanned decades and remained beloved will be gone forever.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on some of my random thoughts.