The Audio Stylings of Chris Levens
"I'm a Gangster"

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My Parade Got Urinated Upon

Since the election, I've been feeling good: I felt like America grew up a little bit. Most of us were able to see through the illusions of the fearmongers. That gave me hope.

But this little piece of news just tinckled all over me.

Before the election, I remember hearing about a spike in gun sales because people feared that if Obama won, he would make assault rifles illegal to sell again. But hearing it again, and from all those news sources, really woke me up to a disturbing fact: a lot of America grew up, but there is still a significant minority that have been twisted and blinded by fear.

Many of these people stocking up on assault rifles are also people who think Obama is an anti-American terrorist. My own mom thinks he wants to submit Americans to some form of servitude, (the spirit of Hayacks, "Road to Serfdom" trickles down into the minds of those who have no idea they are being indoctrinated.)

Why do they want these guns? What do average people do with assault rifles?

I bet many of these people stocking up on assault rifles love the 2nd amendment and all the Jefferson jazz, like, “the strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.”

You know what Jefferson is saying, right? That when the government becomes tyrannical, it is our duty to pick up arms against it. Hence, the justification for the Revolutionary War: we had a moral obligation to throw off the tyrannical English government.

So: an anti-American, terrorist president who is all set to tyrannise America + neo-revolutionaries stocking up on assault rifles =

What does it equal?

fron the crowd: The plot of a Clancy-based action/adventure movie?

announcer: That is right!

I hope my imagination is running wild, because the equation suggests some disgusting possibilities. I want to hope that Americans won't use guns against other Americans in a nationaly organized front, but I know there is no promise that we will be free from internal strife.

Let's all pray to Jesus that the unhinged section of our society who are getting whipped up into a panic will not pervert itself with violence.
 10:13 PM   •  9 satisfied customers!!  

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Saint Revolutionary

Frank Schaeffer has a very interesting article about his dad, Francis Schaeffer.

In this article, Frank draws an interesting parallel between his father and the Republican party on the one hand, and on the other hand, Obama's former pastor Rev. Wright and Obama himself.

You're all familiar with Rev. Wright, I'm sure, and all the controversy he stirred up for Obama. Since Rev. Wright didn't think America was the most righteous nation on earth, Obama was labelled anti-American.

Frank Schaeffer points out an interesting double-standard. Back in the late 1970s/ early 1980s, Frank was helping his father, among others, to create the American Religious Right. One of the key issues Frank highlighted as a rallying point is the subject of abortion. It is fair to say that Frank had a good political head on his shoulders because no issue has become as foundational for the political power of the religious right as abortion. As many are aware, there are many God-fearing X-ians who vote one issue: abortion.

But then Frank had a falling out with the Religious Right. From his post-Religious Right perspective, he has been able to be honest about some of the stuff that was going on back when Francis Schaeffer was a theological big-wig.

So what does this have to do with Rev. Wright?

Well, back in the 1980s, Francis Schaeffer was sowing the seeds for armed rebellion against the USA. Frank quotes his father, who made such claims as when a nations turns its back on God's law, it forfeits its authority, and that in such circumstances, physical force is justifiable against that ungodly country. Links were made between America's abortion of infants and Hitler's mass murder of Jews, thus electrifying X-ians to stand their ground against America is if they were Germans resisting the Holocost. That is a powerful force to stir up among the trusting masses in the pews -- potentially a destructive force.

So what does Francis's anti-American rhetoric have to do with the Republican party?

Schaeffer explains, "We were rewarded for our "stand" by people such as Congressman Jack Kemp, the Fords, Reagan and the Bush family. The top Republican leadership depended on preachers and agitators like us to energize their rank and file. No one called us un-American."

Why is it OK for a white preacher to denounce American's sins and call for the violent overthrow of the government only to be rewarded with luncheons with Presidents, but for a black preacher to denounce America's sins without calling for any sort of armed resistance, he gets labeled anti-American and the candidate associated with him becomes suspect?


 12:33 PM   •  3 satisfied customers!!  

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Fighting the Good Fight

At what point do God-fearing, otherwise law-abiding citizens of the USA pick up arms against their own country?

I don't know about you folks, but it seems to me that certain groups in the USA are being whipped up into a panic. Some think Obama is anti-American and a friend of terrorists. They fear that Obama is going to literally destroy America.

If anti-Americans and terrorists took over this country, would that be justification to pick up arms against them? Even if they were democratically elected?

I was reading this letter from Focus on the Family. The letter was written from the perspective of an American Christian in 2012 after four years of Obamarama. As I was reading it, I thought to myself, "If I believed what it says, I would be absolutely frightened about an Obama presidency."

Is this why McCain supporters are calling for Obama to be killed?

When James Jorden encourages all Christian males to learn how to use firearms and join local militias so that when God calls, they will be ready to fight in defence of home and hearth, is he prepping trusting Christians to use weapons against an anti-American terrorist who highjacks our country?

Personally, I think these sort of scare tactics are working against the Right. To me, at least, it has become clear what sort of leader McCain is by the hate he and the Republican machine foster in their followers.
 8:20 PM   •  3 satisfied customers!!  

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Seed

Think about a seed -- a jalapino seed. Now think of a jalapino plant. There is a difference between these two, right? Though the plant springs from the seed, there is a difference between a plant and a seed: if I crush your jalapino seed, you can't say, "You just crushed my jalapino plant."

I've been thinking about unborn babies lately, with prop 4 in the air and all. I'm torn on the issue. For some reason, I can't go along with the idea that an unborn baby is a human in every sense of the word -- that a fetus and a child are the same thing. But at the same time I can't go along with the idea that a fetus is the same thing as an apendix -- mere tissue.

I think it is something inbetween: neither a full-fledged human or mere tissue.

While I was thinking about it, I thought that a fetus is to a human what a seed is to a plant. There is life in a seed, but the seed is not alive. A female plant/flower must be fertalized by male plants/flowers in order for to become ripe with a seed; just as a female human must be fertalized by a male in order to concieve. After fertalization, the plant become pregnant: it develops some sort of seed pod that swells as the seed develops within; female humans also sweel as the fetus develops within them. In order for the seed to develop into a full plant, it must exit the seed pod and be planted into the ground -- it must become independent of the female plant; a fetus too must exit the swolen womb in order to become an independent human, or at least to begin independent life.

A result of this analogy would be reducing the strength of the claim that the death of a fetus is murder just like killing a 10 year old; instead, we would have to say it is like killing a potential human -- like crushing a seed. It is something that shouldn't be done willy-nilly, but at the same time it isn't as grave a matter as cold-blooded, pre-meditated murder.
 9:05 PM   •  23 satisfied customers!!  

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Happily Surprised

Amid all the financial carnage of late, there have been several things that have happily surprised me.

1 -- I've heard that the US Government is considering purchasing an equity stake in the failing banks instead of just exchanging money for their bad loans. This is a good move, in my opinion. It is a step towards nationalizing the banking industry, which I support. I'm glad to see our $700 billion might be used in such a way that it benefits the taxpayer as much as the billionaires.

2 -- I've been happy to see that many free-market ideologists, including Bush, Bernake, and Paulson, have done a 180 degree turn on government intervention into the economy. Thank goodness! I'm so glad they didn't maintain their theory in light of recalcitrant experiences.

3 -- I've also enjoyed hearing positive things about FDR's quasi-socialism for a change. Finally. Here and there, among different media sources, ones that I haven't heard praise socialism in the past, I'm hearing positive opinions disseminated about FDR. I guess it is hard to criticize him for institutions that are saving our butts right now, like the FDIC.

4 -- It seems to me that the free-market theology of Hayek and Friedman will be buried for the next generation or so, just like Capitalism was buried for a generation or so when it plunged us into the Great Depression. Now that unregulated markets have proved again to be devastating, it seems that we will opt for a rational approach to managing our world rather than letting the forces of nature have their way with us.

5 -- I'm very glad that Bush's goal of privatising Social Security is dead and buried now. Can you imagine if he succeeded? I get nauseous just thinking about it. I'm so glad that didn't happen.

All this being said, I would much rather have had these things come to pass in anticipation of a crisis rather than waiting for the crisis to happen (see the previous post about crisis). Some worldviews can anticipate crisis and seek to avoid them, and others can't. It seems to me that the recent crisis has shown which worldviews are woefully deficient -- a trial by fire, as it were. Hopefully we will learn from this and seek to head off other crisises at the pass, like looming ecological devastation. Let's hope and pray.
 7:49 AM   •  4 satisfied customers!!  

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Business Suits and Trust

It is really hard watching money I've saved and invested getting torn to shreds. I followed all the advice from the "experts"; my financial advisor at WaMu Financial even knew me by name. I purposefully chose conservative, small-risk, small-reward, stable investments, and I was diversified. A lot of good trust in the authorities did me.

It is funny that all the experts/authorities/professionals didn't see any of this coming. How hard is it to understand that people, let alone nations, can't borrow more money then they can pay back? Though I knew it was trouble, I thought to myself, "who am I to second guess all the professionals? Do I think I know more then they do?"

I've come to a point in my life where a business suit has taken on a new meaning: beware! I don't do it intentionally, but whenever I see someone in a business suit, I think to myself, "Schmuck." When I listen to people in business suits, I automatically distrust them. I can't help it. I know I need to work on it -- not everybody in a business suit is bad and untrustworthy, right?

Yet, deep down inside, I know there is something wrong with people who wear business suits; it says something about their character, about their soul. What it says isn't good. It says they support the hierarchical power structures that screw the world over. It says they are a part of the problem, not a part of the solution. It says they want to maintain respect for authorities.

Those things business suits say aren't absolutely wrong. I know that, and a little voice in my heart tells me to cool the hasty judgements. I usually do temper my knee-jerk opinions, but it is a constant struggle.

I've also noticed that people who don't wear business suits are usually more trustworthy and ethical than those who do. People who don't like suits usually aren't the sort of people who turn a blind eye to exploitation in the pursuit of profit. I know this prejudice isn't accurate: there are plenty of plain clothes schmucks. Yet, I can't help but notice the cold-hearted free-market dickheadedness of suit wearers as opposed to the sympathetic-hearted concern-for-the-masses of those who dress down. Maybe it is because those in suits tend to profit off of those who dress down.

Still, I can't help but notice the relationship between business suits and untrustworthyness. I guess we all have our prejudices to work through. I'll keep working on mine.
 2:19 PM   •  9 satisfied customers!!  

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Fresh Jams

Just thought I would help take our minds off of the sadder side of life with some fresh jams. The following are a series of videos of musicians I have been digging lately.

Brazilian Girls: I just saw these cats last week with Free the Robots. They put on a hell of a show.



Free the Robots: my enjoyment of these guys have been growing over the past year or so. I just saw them again last week with Brazilian Girls, and their live performance is even better then their recorded music. Here is a little sample, albeit the sample pales in comparison to what they do live.



Gaslamp Killer: If you like FTR, you will love GLK. I can't get enough of this guy. Watch it in high quality and give it 20 secs or so -- it starts out kind of scratchy.



Enur: I hesitated putting this one on because it may be a little, um, . . . spicy for the barber shop. But, alas, I dig the song and the whole CD is swell. Maybe someday they will make it to SoCal to see live.



Busdriver: Haven't seen him yet, but he plays around here a lot. Hopefully I'll see him soon. He's a bit crazy, as you will see in the video.



Saul Williams: Hip-hop poet prophet -- can't beat that.



Amon Tobin: I've been loving Amon Tobin (also known as Cujo) a lot lately, especially his jazzyer-break-beat stuff. I couldn't find videos to the songs I prefer, but this one is decent.



Let me know if you enjoy any of these -- it will make me happy. That's it for now.
 1:30 AM   •  4 satisfied customers!!