Chris Saxman: Cold Fusion-State of the Union Edition
Wednesday afternoon I sat down in the recently renovated and undecorated customer lounge at Charlie Obaugh’s Buick/GMC dealership to read President Obama’s State of The Union address. This was necessitated by the fact that the twelve year blocked my attempt to do so on the way home from a basketball game the night previous.
Rather than punctuate a channel change maneuver with a Like I’m Not Even Kidding, she jumped right to the Triple Dog Dare and simply turned off the radio with a very stern “NO. I am NOT listening to this”. I was unwilling to draw back a bloody stump of an arm by turning MY radio back on, so I instead opted to delve into Dervish Whirling’s head on just what she didn’t like about our president of these very United States. Read more
Chris Saxman: Cold Fusion-Saint the Cowboy Edition
Dateline – All Saints Day 2000 Anno Domini.
A 5-year-old Catholic schoolboy walked on stage, like the rest of the entire school had to do, to announce which saint he had dressed up to be that day. See, this school reversed the Halloween thing and tried to celebrate saints instead of mass murderers, prostitutes, and other things that scare the used food out of kids.
Dressed in his cousin’s cowboys boots (that would not have fit him until middle school), red handkerchief, jeans and a cowboy hat, he was asked by the microphone wielding school head “Well, William…which saint are you today?”
William sheepishly, but audibly to the entire school auditorium, announced that he was…
“Saint the Cowboy.” Read more
Chris Saxman: Cold Fusion-Like I’m Not Even Kidding Edition
Picking up one’s twelve-year-old daughter from school is like a box of chocolates – you never know what you’re going to get. h/t Forrest Gump.
And then she opens the door thus beginning the conversation -
“My coach hates me…”
“What’s for dinner?”
“I need some deodorant, I totally reek…”
Hi Sweetie. How was your day? Read more
Chris Saxman: Cold Fusion – Jazz Edition
Heading down a quiet yet active street that passes aging, solidly built middle class homes, the youngest member of the clan, dressed in his football practice uniform, asked, “Dad, what’s jazz?”
He had seen the display on the XM Radio of a channel that had the word JAZZ on it and asked a simple question – “What’s that?”
Wishing I could hit the Google/Wikipedia button, I muttered something incoherent about musicians just playing together and creating music without a lot of structure. They just play their instruments. The kid’s nine, but I whiffed that answer big time.
I was relieved to see on the Wikipedia definition for Jazz that “Jazz can be difficult to define…” Sweet. Upon review, I got the first down – two weeks after the fact, but these days, I’ll take it. Big Time.
We have all been treated to a policy upchuck by the various candidates for president of these here United States on how to fix our economy. There is a lot of well thought out positions by just about all of the wannabes and even Obama. Since there is an equal amount of bovine based fertilizer as well, one cannot help but conclude that everyone is rowing, just not together or in the same direction. We are spinning in circles.
Improvisational jazz comes together when the musicians get each other in the music. It just happens or it doesn’t. The music works and is beautiful or they quickly move on to another shot at a polyrhythmic, syncopated journey into the soul.
What the candidates and Obama are missing is the beautiful narrative of America. America has long transcended all other nations due to its creation from nothing but a dream of freedom and opportunity.
Recall the greatest accomplishments of our nation and you can distill them all down to one or two simple words. The one that will always be used by even the most objective observer is freedom. From the landings at Cape Henry and Plymouth, to our Revolution/Articles of Confederation/Constitution to the Louisiana Purchase to the War of Union Aggression (a.k.a the Most Recent Unpleasantness a.k.a the Civil War) to the World Wars of the 20th Century to Women’s Suffrage to the Civil Rights Era and the Cold War, America is about one thing and one thing alone – freedom.
Or as Austin Powers would say “Freedom baby, yeah!”
And not just in the areas of political and military moments in history but also jazz and baseball and American football and Hollywood. The massive migrations of our people and boom rushes centered on jobs and economic prosperity and all were driven by an internal undefinable (maybe) human desire to lead lives according to our own dreams of a life to be lived well.
One would have thought that former history professor and former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich would have defaulted to this reality. For now, he seems content on rallying the troops and using the media as Quixotic windmill. He will not be the next president, but he above the others can focus Americans on America.
The candidates will offer positions and platitudinal speeches until financial attrition gives us the Republican version of the Final Four and we will be, finally, left with a choice of Obama or Not Obama.
Having recently dropped off our oldest for her freshman year at college a long 18 days ago, we understand full well the emotional and psychological angst of letting her go and watching her do it mostly on her own. How liberating and equally petrifying the last three weeks have been. The sniffles have long since dried up and the reports home are very encouraging.
Our American political class is like a helicoptering parent that simply cannot let go of the Americans they represent. Both parties honestly believe that their ideas, solutions and slogans are the correct path forward, but they continue to row without rhythm and syncopation. The resulting dead spin is a recession,not just in our economy, but deep within our soul. The Soul of America, freedom, is lost at sea.
Any search and rescue effort will take a very long time but it must begin with both parties unburdening the American people. They have to let go. We’ll be just fine and our economy will recover due to the collective desire of Americans seeking freedom, not the desire of the political class to control the outcome.
Like jazz, America and Americans are best when left alone to explore, create and produce according to our will. That cannot ever be managed or calculated or even given, it simply is.
Our governments, bless their hearts, did not create jazz or baseball or football or the movies or Google or Apple or the automobile or the airplane. We did.
When candidates speak they should do so with inspiration, aspiration and perspiration. Passion for freedom should replace extensive policy pronouncements. Speak to our soul. Loose it on the world again.
Create an agenda based solely on the freedom that burns deep within the human soul that was set free by our founders. Founders who rightly controlled the one impediment to our freedom – themselves.
Limited, separated and divided government works because it allows freedom, and by extension our economy, to expand. Not the other way around.
Like jazz.
A lot like jazz.
Column by Chris Saxman
Chris Saxman: Cold Fusion-London Calling Edition Aug. 18
Caller on line two. Go ahead John from Churchville.
John : Where are you on the issues?
Well, John. We all have them. So, ask away but be please be specific. That goes for anyone else out there in Cold Fusion Country. Ask away…
Now back to our program.
1979 saw the release of London Calling by The Clash, one of the most important albums in the rock era. Rock and roll…ah, those were the days. Lyrics, music, angst, love, poetry and the occasional bad, but encoded word.
This was not the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius. No, this was the beginning of the cultural reaction to it. History notes that 1968 was the Summer of Love and Woodstock and that fun little party the Democrats (Democratics) had in Chicago. Cold Fusion HQ was then a play pen – irony noted.
During the 1960s, the Beatles ruled the cultural transformation in popular music with great album after great album. Rolling Stone lists Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band as the most important ever. My uncle gave me the White Album instead, in a not so concealed effort to radicalize me. Blessedly he failed to accessorize that Christmas gift with herbal supplements. I’m almost positive that Christmas fell in 1978.
The plot thickens.
As the generation that watched on black and white televisions the landing on the moon, Vietnam, Watergate, Three Mile Island and the Woodstock Decade Long Weekend, we hit a wall with the rest of the nation with the Iran hostages, an economy on the brink and general Chaos.
Sitting in our basements we listened to the Stones, the Who, Lynyrd Skynyrd and occasionally, at school dances, disco. Let it go.
Then in the backdrop of the Pirates come from behind World Series win and accompanying “We Are Family” diddy by Sister Sledge, we witnessed the Miracle on Ice – tape delayed – and then the run up to the historic election of 1980 ending the Carter Malaise. Eventually.
It was a cultural change in America but most of us couldn’t vote. We watched and listened coming of age during a time of American renewal. Some friends went Left and some went Right but remained friends against, but with the times. The times were improving and they were “a changin”.
With the The Clash methodically pounding in our heads
London calling to the faraway towns
Now that war is declared and battle come down
London calling to the underworld
Come out of the cupboard, all you boys and girls
London calling, now don’t look at us
All that phoney Beatlemania has bitten the dust
London calling, see we ain’t got no swing
‘Cept for the ring of that truncheon thing
The Clash. London Calling. Written during a time of great world confusion called out the previous, in their case own, generation.
Fast forward to 2011 with the increasing comparisons to the Carter Administration. With truncheon flying in London, Athenian and Arabian streets, history seems to be repeating itself. Or in Yogi Berraese “It’s deja vu all over again.”
The world is at a critical tipping point. Will it reverse course and begin to undo the entitlement mentality that has a near death grip lock on the youth of the Developed Countries or will it embrace what actually worked to pull us out of the Malaise – namely freedom and liberty? Will the governing class, representative of the idealist generation that grew out of world war and a century of incalculable dehumanization, double down and stay the course or will it realize the truths of simple mathematics and economics?
The most educated and yet most politically and culturally halved generation in American history is at the decision point.
While hope springs eternal, reality is a B*tch.
America’s greatest triumphs have been a direct result of clarity of purpose with eyes set on her horizon. Unleash the American greatness and you unleash the best of humanity. Get out of the way. We can fix what we know to be broken.
We can once again propel a long dormant pioneering and frontier spirit that is at the core of our national DNA. We must delineate between Power and Strength. Power comes from within and within our great Nation lies a power that was given to us by our Creator, not from our neighbor, boss or elected representative.
The strength of the force against is no match for the Power of Our Within.
That appears to be the clash that is calling, but as we schedule to gather this Thanksgiving, may this Nation, table by table, return to its DNA and loudly sing “We Are Family”. Right, Left, Green, Turquoise, Plaid – whatever your stripe – we are all in this together. We all got in it together and we will prevail together.
Maybe.
Come out of the cupboards all you boys and girls. All that phoney Beatlemania has bitten the dust.
John Lennon said he would have voted for Ronald Reagan and started down the path of evangelical Christianity only to be gunned down by Mark David Chapman. The year? 1980.
Maybe Lennon discovered the clash before The Clash did.
Imagine.
Chris Saxman: Cold Fusion-Eminem Edition
So the big debtbacle is finally over.
You wish. This is just the start. This is the new normal. Everything from here on out will be negotiated until the final hours. That is until we set the debt and fiscal trajectory on a better path and for a period of time up to the final passage of the Balanced Budget Amendment. Then the negotiations will spill over the deadlines and the new outrage will not be whether or not there is a surplus but how large is it.
A generation from now.
It will take a generation of time to change to new normal. This is not quite the “fundamental transformation” the president had predicted. But it is coming.
Greater restraint on government power is coming. It’s long overdue and it will take time so that the societal transition is not nearly as disruptive as it could be. A dramatic transition out of massive entitlements will not happen. Think of a long glide path – like a plane landing after flying at 38,000 feet. It. Takes. Time.
But…but….
Look. There is no more money. The bill is due. The party is over and the hangover is upon us. From here on out the path to recovery and renewal is reform.
If you think for a second that the next generation of political leaders is not willing to make the hard and sometime dangerous decisions that were nearly made this week, then I dare say you should look to retire to Costa Rica.
Washington DC has been changed, but not by the president who ran a brilliant and inspiring campaign in 2008. No, it was changed by the winners of the election 2010.
The health care legislative battle was won by Obama in Old Washington, the debt ceiling battle was won by those who had nothing to lose – in New Washington. Out manned in a political structure 2 to 1, the minority won. Big. Big Big.
The narrative will try to be turned on them as to how irresponsible they were and how they should not play chicken with the economy, the full faith and credit of the United States and their political careers. Maybe it will stick…probably not.
They got sick and tired of being sick and tired and said “not to my kids and grandkids you don’t.”
The songs of the 60s and 70s were reflective of the realities of the youths who wrote them.
Fast forward to today’s music. Much of it is useless noise but some artists capture the times. Few do it as well as Eminem.
Eminem (a.k.a Marshall Mathers) asks during the introduction of his hit “Lose Yourself”
Look, if you had one shot, or one opportunity
To Seize Everything you ever wanted, in one moment
Would you capture it, or just let it slip
Raw and powerful lyrics from a new generation. Not the stuff of 1968 to be sure.
The uninformed will say “Yeah, but Eminem is just a kid from Detroit.”
That kid turns 40 in October. Like too much of his generation, Mathers learned life the hard way with a father gone before he was two and his beloved uncle committing suicide via a shotgun to the head before Eminem was 20.
The children of Vietnam and Watergate are going to have their turn at the plate and they don’t plan on drawing a walk or bunting to get on base, they are going to swing for the fences or die trying.
Yeah, but home runs are so hard to hit….yes, a 95 mph four seam rising fastball is impossible to hit 400 feet.
Taking a political piece of maple to the federal budget for the sake of their children’s future is like hitting watermelon off of a tee.
Those recently awakened to the cold reality of the kids who grew up watching Dirty Harry say “Go Ahead, Make My Day”, are going to be astonished at the clarity and purpose of the next generation.
They really don’t care – about themselves. They care deeply about their kids and they are going to make damn sure that they have a future in this world. Just watch when the issue of K-12 education spending comes up. If it comes down to the Pentagon or K-12 funding, bet on the schools – every time.
Very few rappers write lyrics worth a plug nickel. Eminem, however, does with stunning clarity and jarring anger. The now born again Christian is “down with the Bible” and writing songs with Old Testament verses. That would be the “eye for an eye” portion of the most popular book in human history.
The new normal is under way. Everything is on the table.
Reform of our governing policies will be the new grail. Every politician worth their salt will be looking at new and improved ways of delivering essential government services to those who truly need help.
This is not easy sledding by any stretch of the imagination but thankfully the states have been leading in this effort for decades. They’ve had to because they have had deadlines for balanced budgets. They have no escape hatches. They have to deal with the cold, hard reality of the battle between revenues and costs.
The next generation knows all too well cold and hard realities. Making those decisions will not take very long for them. It won’t require polling or focus groups.
They are fine with the idea to “Lose Yourself.”
How serious were the winners of the Great Compromise of the Summer 2011?
Many of them didn’t even vote for it!
The next battle is over the federal budget that is due to be passed by the beginning of the fiscal year – October 1st. Buckle up and start the office pools again.
Did I mention that Eminem is a Born Again Christian?
“For The Times They Are A Changin….”
Irony noted.
Column by Chris Saxman
Chris Saxman: Cold Fusion-Dude? Was That You? Edition
Posted by afp on February 4, 2012 · Leave a Comment
Now, naturally at this point one’s friend is totally frozen and shocked at the false outrage OR he is convulsively laughing which doubles down on the situational humor. Read more
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