Lionel Audio

Here we come . . . walking down the street. It was announced on June 11 that the dark lord himself, Rupert Murdoch, the 84-year-old CEO and controlling shareholder of 21st Century Fox, is preparing to step down as CEO of the media giant and hand that title to his son James, scion of the House of Murdoch. The man’s genius is nonpareil. And that’s not an endorsement of his editorial policy but rather his media domination. A domination, by the by, that gives the professional left something to claim as their platform.

Listen. If you want to curse, fine. Do it with some class. Never as a substitution for wit. Dig? There’s an art to it. But as evidenced by the organically unimaginative and chronically unfunny, lacing a story with gratuitous F-bombs has become the norm. It’s puerile and jejune and extremely low rent. It’s the mainstay of morning zoo-show anachronisms and trite broadcasting swill. Herein, is my disquisition and tribute to the noble art of cursing and cussing. There’s a place for the off-color and scabrous but only if well-timed and deftly placed.

Secret? This year, the Bilderberg Group is meeting from June 11th to June 14th at the Interalpen Hotel which is near the city of Telfs, Austria. Have you heard of it? You’ve heard of Davos and G7 and G8 and Burning Man and The festival of San Fermin, or the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona. Right? Of course I’m right.

Epistemology 101. A very simple question. Think of everything that you think you know. How do you know it? How? You are a repository of data and lore and myth and fact. Think of how many times during the day you refer to something that you know and that you remember. How do you know what you know? And there are things that you do that I’m sure you know are bad for you. If not, you’re not human. So the question becomes why don’t you do what you know?

A threat to order. Cailtlyn Jenner has them running for cover. Why? Because most Americans have the gender (and perhaps now, the gender identity) perspective of a child. Black and white. Manichean. Simple. Apodictic. Clearly drawn. Wrong, Sparky. It’s the particle physics and quantum mechanics of our time. It confounds preconceived notions and beliefs., It will rock the bedrock of common understanding. It demands nuance among a population able to nuance.

Bernard “Hap” Kliban (1935–1990 CE)

With all apologies to the lobotomized. We know nothing! Nothing! About anything. And we prefer to keep it that way. But, let me clarify that. It’s not we, it is they. They prefer to lapse into the warm self-induced coma of nescience. Unaware, unattuned and unafraid. You can’t fear something you don’t know. But that refutes the notion that I believe that it’s the unknown that’s the most frightening. To you and me, sure, but not the masses. Apparently.

When it comes to over-the-top feigned public suffering, nobody beats the North Koreans. Who admittedly do so at gunpoint. Well, at last, I admit they do . . . but the point shouldn’t go missed. So magnetic and warm and inviting is the gravitational pull of social media that anything that is “Awwwww” inspiring or “You poor thing” generating is prime for social media exploitation. Self-aggrandizement and self-reference.

My advice to graduates. First, wake up. Who can blame you for being bored Shi’ite-less? You’ve spent four years of your life being indoctrinated and trained and habituated and conditioned to what? Conditioned for failure. And for what? Exactly. Look, you’ve heard the gloomy job prognostications and when it hits you how you’ve wasted your time and money, well . . . you’ll see. And how about these speakers? Seriously.

America has always talked a great game when it comes to the military. Uncomfortable fact: 12% of US homeless adults are veterans with 50% having serious mental illness. Oh, there he goes again, ruining Memorial Day weekend barbecue and beach fun and frolic with the facts! Knowing, learning, reading and understanding puts folks into the unenviable position of knowing what’s true and what’s fiction. Our veterans, whom we proudly and publicly proclaim we love, need our immediate help. Platitudes and symbolic gestures are nice, it’s a start, but that’s not what is required.