My Christmas Thought: Why Do We Engage in Such Stupid Debates?

Should people with cancer who lost their jobs no longer have access to doctors and treatments?

Should people who lose their jobs be able to keep their homes?

Should really, really rich people get huge tax breaks?

It's really a debate.

Should same sex couples be able to visit one another in the hospital?

I don't know.

Should we pay much, much more for pharmaceuticals than people in Canada?

Is global warming caused by people, and if so or if not, should we do anything about it?

I just don't know.

So, over Christmas, when your parents' friends talk about the failure of "Obamacare", just wonder why we are the only developed country that engages in these debates. It's just us!

But, wait, should we execute gays? I don't know. Let's debate!

Marc Riley emailed me!

For those of you who haven't heard the Marc Riley Show on BBC 6Music (Mon - Thu, 2-4pm), it's the best rock/experimental show on the internet. He covers the full spectrum from Roxy Music to Midlake to Toots and the Maytels to infinity.

Recently he's been playing a song called "Songs You Can Sing On Your Own" by Table.

Anyway, I emailed him to say how much I liked it, and *he emailed me back*. I know, schoolgirl, whatever, but, believe me it's awesome:

Marc Riley to me

show details 3:30 PM (17 minutes ago)

IT IS ..ITS CALLED 'SONGS YOU CAN SING ON YOUR OWN ... MAGICAL EH MATE!

---

From: Bryan [mailto:bryanthemusical@gmail.com]
Sent: 15 December 2009 20:21
To: Marc Riley
Subject: Table - "Tear a Blind Hole..."

Just beautiful. Thanks.

Bryan in New York

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Jezebel's Anna N. makes a strong argument against the word "douchebag"

She's right, it is pretty passe:

"...'douchebag,' once a thrillingly multifaceted insult, has calcified into a type. Douchebags wear Ed Hardy shirts. They pop their collars. They may differ by region, but even these differences are strictly codified. 'Douchebag' used to be both simple and versatile, a way to describe someone whose disregard for other people, combined with outsized self-regard, was so extreme as to be hilarious. Now it's a culture, with its own stereotypes and its own quasi-ethnic jokes."

True that.

Gawker "actually likes" year-old song that everyone else in the world already knows, likes

Gawker Editor-in-Chief Gabriel Snyder has discovered the Pheonix song "1901"! And he has graciously shared this gem with us, for our benefit! Too bad that Phoenix is already so well known that they appeared on SNL like 8 months ago, and "1901" is currently running about 1,000 times a day in a Cadillac commercial.

From Gawker yesterday:

"A few months ago this song started popping up in my iTunes on shuffle mode, but I kept forgetting to go back to my computer and learn the name."

Yeah, all that crap that keeps popping up in shuffle, but you can't be bothered to actually find out the name of the song or artist, and of course you never knew it to begin with because you don't ever buy any music or seek any out anymore. It's just sort of there. Playing on shuffle.

There's so much wrong with this post, I don't really know where to begin. First is the dated, tone-deaf headline "French Music We Actually Like." Yeah, because, like all French music sucks, dude. I challenge the author of this post to name 5 French artists he either likes or dislikes.

And the whole "actually like" conceit is annoying: apparently they are so discerning in their taste that only occasionally do they come across a song that meets their impeccably high standards. Maybe the trick to finding music you "actually like" is to pay a little bit of attention to music and to occasionally take your iPod off of shuffle mode.

I have to say, though, that the commenters didn't let me down. They quite fairly made a mockery of this post, prompting a bit of snarky defensiveness from Snyder. Examples:

"So tell us about the French music you actually hate, Mr. Snyder."

"I love this song! I do not like the whole "French music we actually like" attitude, though. Have you tried to listen to any French music? As if all French music sounded the same. Oof.

"

My fave:

"Wow, and only eight months after they appeared on SNL! When do you think Gabe's gonna find out Michael Jackson died?"

And Gabriel's weak response:

"I go out on Saturday nights, but apparently not to cool enough parties to know this band as soon as you."

But apparently you don't have to go to parties at all to know about this band:

"You do know this song is also blaring to Cadillac commercials every two or three minutes, too, right?"

and

"The producers of Cougartown, Entourage and every late night talk show ever are going to be so jazzed to find out they go to cooler parties than you too."

Anyway, this whole post is a train wreck and bothers me inordinately for some reason. Gawker, please stick to whining about media layoffs and the recession and New York and leave the music blogging to the pros.

(This, by the way, has nothing whatsoever to do with my commenter account being mysteriously suspended when the refresh happened, and not restored, despite my requests.)

Muslim terrorists attacking mosques

What is it with muslims attacking mosques? Is this a chapter in history that teaches the world that religion in general is just a little bit cray-cray?

The Moustache of Understanding on Brian Lehrer

Why does anyone let Tom Friedman even speak anymore? Oh, yes, Iraq was the right war, and Afghanistan is the wrong one, because of some stupid cocktail napkin theory of his about the war against terrorism vs. the war against terrorists.

I bet his farts smell really bad too.

UPDATE: Yesterday on the Brian Lehrer Show, The Moustache of Understanding made it seem like he couldn't be there in person because he was called in for a meeting with the President. Like, he personally, was asked to come in for a one on one with Obama. There was a little ha ha by Brian about well, that's the only excuse we'd accept, a Presidential invitation. Well, it turns out that Obama called a press conference of sorts with a bunch of top opinion writers (why Friedman is part of this group is another matter). It's not unreasonable to phone in a talk show appearance because of a Presidential press conference, but The Moustache made it seem like Obama needed to run his Afghanistan plan by Friedman just to get his okay or something.

God, this guy is such. a. douche.