Best Song Lyrics (Part XX)

I admit it, I'm a fan of acoustic music.  It doesn't matter if it's original acoustic music (think Norah Jones), or MOST modified acoustic versions of older songs.  (There are major exceptions, for instance, nobody needs to hear an acoustic version of Hey Ya! by OutKast, but I've heard it on the SiriusXM CoffeeHouse channel more than once.)

Earlier this month, one of my favorite acoustic musicians, Jack Johnson, was the musical guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.  Colbert was obviously a huge fan, singing a duet with Johnson on his song Sleep Through The Static, and also posting a separate impromptu rehearsal excerpt on the web.

A former champion surfer who still lives in Hawaii, Johnson has been a full-time singer-songwriter for about 15 years.  I've been listening to him on and off for about 10 years.  In my opinion, Johnson is best known for the songs Better Together and Upside Down, but as an acoustic guitarist outside of mainstream popular music, most people would not be able to identify even those tracks.

You get a definite Hawaiian vibe from his music, but he's also great with lyrics, much of them espousing progressive causes.  Let's go back to a verse and chorus from Sleep Through The Static, a 2008 song which uses smart lyrics to spite the reasoning behind the 2003 U.S invasion of Iraq, and the subsequent never-ending war:

Trouble travels fast
When you're specially designed for crash testing
Or wearing wool sunglasses in the afternoon
Come on and tell us what you're trying to prove

'Cause it's a battle when you dabble in war
You store it up, unleash it, then you piece it together
Whether the storm drain running rampant just stamp it
And send it to somebody who's pretending to care

Just cash in your blanks for little toy tanks
Learn how to use them, then abuse them and choose them
Over conversations relationships are overrated
I hated everyone said the sun

And so I will cook all your books
You're too good looking and mistooken
You could watch it instead
From the comfort of your burning beds
Or you can sleep through the static

Who needs sleep when we've got love?
Who needs keys when we've got clubs?
Who needs please when we've got guns?
Who needs peace when we've gone above
But beyond where we should have gone?
We went beyond where we should have gone

The LOST Loss

I’m a big believer in behavioral science / economics, which is essentially the idea that people are motivated in all facets of life by potential gains or losses, and their calculation of the underlying risk in achieving / suffering those gains and losses.  The gains and losses are often related to money, but can also be based on things like religion, politics, or relationships.

Unfortunately, many times humans do not properly calculate the underlying risk, leading to bad decisions / behavior.   I thought about this again this week, when the residents of my county were asked to vote in favor of voluntarily and regressively taxing themselves via a sales tax increase.

The local option sales tax (LOST) has been around for a while in Iowa, as a way for county localities to raise additional tax revenue by tacking on another 1% to the statewide sales tax.  When it was first introduced around 15 years ago, the idea was to allow counties to use the money solely for school infrastructure improvements over a 10-years taxing period.  As with most new tax ideas, I've hated it from the beginning.

Over several years, every county in Iowa passed a LOST, increasing the total sales tax from 5% to 6%.  And as a result, we have the nicest school infrastructure in the United States.  For real.  I’ve been to most other states, and their school building suck compared to Iowa.  (Of course, there’s absolutely no evidence that nicer bricks and mortar mean smarter kids, but that’s another story.)

But then something happened that was only predictable to those of us with common sense:   The LOST never went away.  In fact, after the school districts mismanaged their budgeted improvements to the tune of millions of dollars, the state decided to simply make the statewide sales tax 6%, and allow another, new LOST for counties to use as they wish.

97 Iowa counties have piled on to this regrettable legislation, leaving only two that have not voted for a new LOST that increased sales taxes from 6% to 7%.  (Note:  That isn't a 1% increase, that’s a 19% increase, a math computation the LOST supporters don’t want anyone to know about.)  My county is one of the remaining two, and this week, after an affluent neighboring suburb passed a LOST a few months ago, my county decided to have another vote.

Which brings me back to behavioral economics.  Why would anyone vote to tax themselves, especially with no explicit guarantee that local government would spend the money on non-essential services?  Yet, it happens quite often – as I mentioned, it recently happened in 97 out of 99 other instances in Iowa.   It’s usually backed with nothing more than a promise that the sales tax it would help to offset some other tax burden (this time it was property taxes) or that it would not be permanent (see above).

My answer is, it’s another matter of not properly calculating the risk.  Many people don’t recognize the cumulative impact of a regressive tax.  They think of it in terms of ‘just an extra penny on the dollar’ rather than a whopping 19% increase on every Average Joe that will probably cost hundreds of dollars a year, and many thousands of dollars over many years.

As in past LOST votes, I voted no, and I’m pleased to day this time it failed (barely).  I’m not against paying for essential government services, but I’m totally against voting to tax myself for undisclosed services I may not need, to be administered by government bureaucrats that haven’t been truthful, and who aren’t good stewards to begin with.

In other words, I’m for properly assessing risk and behaving appropriately. 

Too Much Snowboarding

After watching the 2012 Summer Olympics, I made a comment about every sport.  All 36 of them.

In contrast, there are only 15 official Winter Olympic sports.  With the exception of the kinda-crazy bobsled / luge / skeleton, most of them are related in some way to your basic skiing or skating.  (One sport that refuses to be categorized is curling, a family favorite, and one that deserves as much attention than the media darling of figure skating.)

One of the newer sports is snowboarding, and that's my topic today -- how the events within the snowboarding sport have gotten completely out of hand.

It started out simple enough, with half-pipe and aerial events.  But now the list includes big air, parallel slalom, giant parallel slalom, slopestyle, snowboard cross, and team ski-snowboard cross.  These all apply separately to men and women.

I'm not saying I don't enjoy watching these thrill sports.  I'm saying that we don't need this many Olympic events for snowboarding.  We've taken these boutique, millennial-driven, X-Games activities and put them on the same level as mainstream sports that require far more fitness.

Whatever.  At least it's good for the United States' medal count, because the U.S. tends to dominate these snowboarding events.  Suck it, Norway!

Jamaica Mon

I spent a few days away on a family vacation in Jamaica last month.  It was my first time in the Caribbean – not to mention my first visit to a country outside North America.    As with other travels to new places, I have some observations to share:

• Jamaica is a beautiful country – except for when it isn’t.  The coastal areas, foliage, and tropical colors were all great.  However, on the 1+ hour travel each way from the airport to our resort, the outdated and run-down roads, buildings, and housing structures were a deep contrast to the beauty.

• Driving on the left side of the road, with a right-sided steering wheel, is weird.

• I have never interacted with a group of friendlier people than the Jamaicans.  I’m well aware that I only visited the tourist-y places, and friendliness under those conditions may be a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Still, this was a deferential friendliness, as if someone feared offending me by just stepping across my path.  So I think there’s something more to it, something related to their laid-back living styles and frames of mind.

• I saw plenty of people smoking joints, but I frankly expected to see a lot more cannabis than I did.

• The food was a bit hit-and-miss for me, although I might not have been adventurous enough.  Among the most notable items, the Caribbean jerk chicken was very good, and I absolutely loved my daily serving of fresh papaya.

• There wasn’t much time for watching TV, but I had no idea there could be that many televised cricket matches.

Jamaica was interesting.  It had a few scars, but as the locals might say, it's no problem, mon.

Yes We Cannabis

It’s time to catch up on the good news in world of cannabis!

In sum, the news is positive enough that I’m almost ready to declare that January 2018 will one day be considered the ‘tipping point’ in time for full decriminalization of marijuana in America.  (There’s only one thing standing in the way of that right now, more on that in a few paragraphs.)

The thing getting the most attention now is the legalization of recreation marijuana in the state of California.  That became effective on January 1, 2018, and now like several other (mostly western) states, they allow anyone at least age 21 to buy a limited amount of cannabis daily.

The difference here is, California is the most populous state in the country.  As such, the implications are more profound.  One of these implications is the amount of tax revenue this law will bring to a state that sorely needs it.

Make no mistake, money (i.e. tax revenue) is why cannabis will ultimately be legalized in all 50 states.   That isn’t the only reason, nor the best reason, but it’s the main reason.

[This would normally be where I go on a rant about how marijuana should be no more controlled than alcohol, and probably less controlled than prescription drugs.  But I’ve covered society’s asinine attitude about that more than once before, and specifically in regard to medical marijuana.]

One lesser but still important pot-related action happened just this week in Vermont (Vermont!), where the governor signed a bill making it the ninth state to legalize marijuana effective July 1, 2018.  The difference is that Vermont was the first state to do it via legislation, rather than by a voter-approved ballot initiative.  That is a big deal, and the first admission that states want to grab the tax revenue.

Regarding that one thing standing in the way of ‘tipping point’ actualization…..we currently have an old white male dominated (Republican) party in charge of the executive and legislative branches of the U.S. government, along with an old white guy U.S. attorney general that thinks marijuana is evil.  That means marijuana, for now, will likely maintain its federal designation as a Schedule I drug along with things like heroine and LSD – good grief.

These will all need to be changed before the pro-cannabis world can truly take over.  It’s only a matter of time, however, and that time is much shorter than it seemed only a few weeks ago.

Less Brutal Vikings

We interrupt our planned blog entry again to bring you breaking news.....

On a couple of occasions in the past, I've written about the harsh life of being a fan of the Minnesota Vikings.  Several years ago, I documented my five most brutal losses, and then added a sixth a couple of years ago.

Yesterday, the Vikes were about to add to that brutal loss list, in a last minute, come-from-ahead loss in another home playoff game.  Then this happened.

I've never bothered to come up with a list of the Vikings' five greatest wins.  But given the circumstances, this one might have been the best (so far)!

2018

Another New Year's Eve (eve) is here, so it's time for my annual review of the things I wanted to have happen in the past year, and a fresh list of things I want to have happen in the next year.  Here's the 2017 list, with comments in ALL CAPS:

-Again:  At least some progress on medical marijuana in Iowa,

THE GOOD NEWS IS, SOME PROGRESS WAS MADE.  IT'S GOING TO BE A TAD BIT EASIER FOR THOSE WHO NEED IT TO GET IT.  THE BAD NEWS IS, IOWA IS STILL NOT FULLY COMMITTED TO IT.

-Some type of institutional or legal control over fake news / social media.

FACEBOOK HAS TAKEN SOME ACTION, ALBEIT TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE.  AT THIS POINT, IT'S HARD TO GET IN FRONT OF IT, BECAUSE THE PRESIDENT LIVES IN A VIRTUAL REALTY WORLD THAT HE WANTS OTHERS TO BELIEVE IS NORMAL.

-Related to the above, more critical thinkers, fewer idiots who believe everything they hear.

THERE ARE MORE CRITICAL THINKERS ON THE LEFT, AND LET'S JUST SAY FEWER CRITICAL THINKERS ON THE RIGHT.

-GPS technology used in major sporting events, e.g. to mark the ball in football games, and for the strike zone in baseball games.

NOPE.  LOSERS.

-More working from home by me.

THIS HAPPENED, BUT TO ONLY ABOUT 25% OF THE LEVEL IT SHOULD HAVE.

-The return of popular mainstream rock bands and rock music.

THIS DIDN'T HAPPEN, HOWEVER, I SAW RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS AND JOE WALSH AND TOM PETTY (AND SCHEDULED TO SEE BOB SEGER) IN CONCERT.  SO IT WASN'T ALL BAD.

-Implementation of the fiduciary rule, and the demise of commission-based financial advice.

THE CURRENT ADMINISTRATION ALLOWED THE RULES TO GO INTO EFFECT, BUT THERE WILL BE NO ENFORCEMENT UNTIL AT LEAST 2019.  SO, NO.  AND SINCE FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS ARE IN THE REPUBLICAN'S POCKETS, MIGHT AS WELL FORGET ABOUT THIS FOR A FEW MORE YEARS.

-The resignation or impeachment of an unqualified president -- no names, any one will do.

NOT AS CRAZY AS IT SOUNDED LAST YEAR. WILL ADD PUSH THIS FORWARD.  IT WON'T BE ANY FUN TO ASK IT FOR 2019 BECAUSE BY THEN IT WILL BE LIKELY.

For 2018 I'd like to see:

The failure of Bitcoin, not as an idea, but as an investment.

An NCAA scandal so large they will have to start allowing players a cut of revenues.

More destinations and ways to fly on Southwest Airlines.

A widespread ability to charge devices without a cord (also asked for this for 2016).

A new governor / lieutenant governor elected for Iowa. 

Let's try this -- exponential growth in the cannabis industry to the extent all states will want a piece of it through taxation.

Greater national and international awareness of CRISPR (genome editing) technology.

Smaller entree portions served in restaurants, for a reduced price.

Fewer national weather disasters, but more understanding of climate change.

The resignation or impeachment of a mentally unstable and unqualified president -- again, no names.