Imagine analyzed

Warning! Controversy ahead!

I'm going to start out by saying that I am a fan of John Lennon. I love the man. I love his music, and I love the music of the Beatles, and I think that Mr. Lennon was a very honest, sincere man. I don't think he ever knowingly lied to himself or to us in his music. That said...

Many, if not most people, will tell you that Imagine was his signature song, the best he ever wrote. I am telling you it is not. I can think of several that are more profound and better written: In My Life, Nowhere Man, Strawberry Fields, and The Word all come easily to mind - and yes, I know that The Word was a sly dig at Christianity. It was nevertheless better written than Imagine by leaps and bounds. If we examined his catalog, I am certain that we could find a dozen more songs that stand above Imagine.

In the three decades since he released this song, I have heard dozens of people singing it reverently as if it were a profound work of art. It is not. It is bullshit set to music.

Let's look at the lyrics, and pay attention to their actual meaning, rather than the image (image is the root word of imagine).

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky

Seriously? Let's imagine there is no afterlife at all. We die and we become worm food. We cease to exist. When mom or dad passed away, they were gone for good, and we will never see them again. Same with our children. We all just... die. Do you really want this?

Even if there is no heaven, and those of us who believe in it are completely, tragically wrong - and I do not believe that we are wrong about that - what possible good does it do to dismiss that belief? Are we to imagine a world where we are to fear death, with no hope of anything on the other side? Please.

Imagine all the people
Living for today

I know lots of people who live for today, not bothering to plan for tomorrow. They are short-sighted fools, they are quickly impoverished and they become burdens to their families and to society. They live a sad, ignorant existence. Not that we should only live for tomorrow, mind you. Wise people live for today and for tomorrow, planning for both, and holding on to memories of the past. But to "live for today" -as advised by this song - is a huge mistake. Please, my friends, enjoy today, but live for both today and tomorrow.

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for...

No countries? OK, let's imagine that. It's what we started out with. The whole point of a country, or nation, or tribe, is that we can pool our resources and talents and cooperate for the common good and for defense. No countries? I have imagined it, and I don't like it. Now, lots and lots of countries, all with governments that are sharply limited in their power, restricted to preventing fraud or theft... that I can happily imagine. Yes, most of our dying is because of governments, kings and presidents and religious leaders... if and when they gain too much power. But if you have no countries at all, no governments at all, somebody will form one, and it will not be for the benefit of all. We are cursed with the power mad among us, and that is human nature, and so the more countries the better, all small and limited. So... let's go with Imagine no kings or powerful governments.

Now the next line:

...and no religion too

is accidentally correct. What he meant was no belief systems asking us to kill each other to advance the cause, but since most of us don't realize that "religion" - at least when organized - is not at all the same thing as spirituality, or relationship with the Creator, I still question his lyric. Religion does usually get in the way of the connection between God and his created beings on earth, and it is often a powerful tool when used to manipulate, as was done by the religious leaders who crucified Christ (and I don't mean the Jews themselves), and today by those who mislead in the world of Islam (and I don't mean the deceived in that religion, but the deceivers), and by popes and crusaders bent on commanding armies in the name of God.

Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

OK. Peace would be great. But try going unarmed to achieve it. See where you get.

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

My friend, even if we all somehow agreed in the principles of this song, we would still be enslaved by our very nature. Get a roomful of people to agree that they don't need a leader. See how long they can go without one appearing anyway. I don't care how sincere they are in cooperating without one. Someone should try this for college credit.

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man

Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

We don't have to imagine this. It's been tried over and over. It's called communism (or its less forceful cousin socialism), and it always results in the same thing: dependence and poverty. If you own nothing, and neither do your neighbors, then there is no point in hoping somebody will share - which they won't, because they will be fighting for every scrap of bread they can get for their hungry children. You want to see greed and hunger, man, just eliminate the concept of private property. You will have it in abundance. See Cuba. See North Korea. See Russia immediately after the revolution. See any country anywhere that abolishes property rights. You cannot have freedom without independence, and you cannot be independent without the right to own property.

Now the music is beautiful, I agree. Mr. Lennon was and is a legend. But this song is crap.

I find more sense in I Am the Walrus. Seriously. But he got that one backwards, too.

Insanity in political decisions

Warning: political rant.

When President Obama said he was going to raise taxes on only people who made over 250,000 a year, I figured OK, great, stick it to those rich morons in Hollywood that got this guy elected. But now we're finding out how he's going to do it. And it's brilliant in its insanity.

He's going to limit their charitable deductions! This means that the liberal rich folks won't be hurt at all, because they don't give to charity nearly as much as conservatives and libertarians. If you don't believe me, do the research.

And what does this mean to America? It means that charitable giving will go down, way down. Which in turn means that the government will have to do even more in the way of socialism. But consider this: when the economy collapses (which it will thanks to our president's stimulus package aka drunk sailor spending spree) where are all those homeless going to go? Remember, if you don't have an address, you can't apply for those government checks. And those soup kitchens and charities that kept them alive can no longer count on the large donors they need so badly.

This will in turn further increase dependence on government programs (emergency programs, of course, because this is a crisis), which will further strain the state's ability to take care of us. Socialism isn't perfect, but it's the worst system we can have.

As I predicted, disappointment is on a frantic increase with this administration. If he does even half of what he promised, he will plunge us into national ruin, which will disappoint even the working poor in the country. Taxes will have to be raised drastically on them, the poor, but even more on the middle class, because there lie the numbers you need to get any revenue. You don't understand? Try this...

You can get the same money by either of these two actions: take one million bucks from each of 100 millionaires, or take 100 bucks from each of one million middle class types. Which group are you going to run out of first? Hint: how many millionaires live in your city, and how many working class? Drive around and make an estimate.

Even if you took 100% of the income from all the truly rich, it wouldn't run this country on its current budget for more than a week. The money has to come from you, the working stiff. That's why you need to understand that when they say they're going to make the rich pay their fair share, they really mean you, bucky.

Feel stimulated yet? Between Bush's Bailouts and Obama's Stimulus, we're either going to kiss America as we knew it goodbye, or we'll throw out both parties as we should have done thirty years ago. It can't go on like this anymore. Math, like the moon, is a harsh mistress.

4th of July

How do we celebrate the Fourth of July here in Houston?

Or more accurately, how do we celebrate the 4th here in Sienna Plantation, just outside of Houston proper?

The longer I live here, the more I like my new home. I'm not discounting Midland, mind you. I love my friends back in Midland. But this here Sienna living is growing on me.

The people here are so polite and considerate. And cool. Cool in the good sense, not in the fashionable sense. They're friendly, and nice to each other, and considerate of each other's space and dignity.

Yesterday evening, to celebrate the 4th, our HOA hosted a party of sorts on the amphitheater by the Water Park. (That's right - our HOA does more with the money they extract from us than just tell us what we can do with our own property. They use the money to do things that make life more enjoyable for those who live here. It's what taxes are supposed to be used for.) So GA and I brought our comfy little camp chairs, and set them on the hillside facing the band that was playing for our enjoyment:




They call themselves "Crisis," which is not an especially great name for a band, but they're pretty good for a three piece. They play rock, country, disco, rap (very little of that, thank God), and even some reggae. It felt kind of strange, though, to be a part of this. We were surrounded by what they would have called the "beautiful people" back in the 60's, mostly in California. They are all young, in great shape (nobody fat and ugly like me), and with perfect children, laughing and playing and running and being nice to each other. All races: whites, blacks, Asians, Hispanics, and so forth.



You can't really see it in the picture, because the Google people shrink the fool out of these photos we upload - not that I'm complaining, since it's free.

But how do we celebrate the 4th here in Sienna? Like this.

Before we left for the picnic/festival/party/concert/fireworks display, we cooked some hot dogs. We ate them on American buns, with American chili and American mustard, and I added American jalapeños.


And for my beverage? No, I didn't drink American beer, because I hate beer. I had Dr Pepper.

Not communist Dr Pepper with communist high fructose corn syrup. This was the real thing, made with Imperial Cane Sugar, and 10 2 and 4 on the bottle.



And that's the flag in front of our house there, flying proudly above the national soft drink of Texas, in Sienna Plantation, just outside of Houston TX, in the good old US of A.

Take that, radical Muslims. Take that, Democrat and Republican parties. Take that, you LTRB politicians. Blow it out your ears.

And God bless real Dr Pepper and the USA.