What the heck is George doing?

Besides lookin' all buff and HAWT, I mean.

With ropes and leather. Heh.

There are certain artists, such as John McLaughlin and Allan Holdsworth, who play on a level at which my brain does not compute. I would throw the odd George Lynch solo into that category as well.

And I have always more or less presumed that these artists would forever be only semi accessible to me, but researchers at the University of Melbourne have just published a paper that sheds new light on how we learn to appreciate music.

“Our study shows that musical harmony can be learnt and it is a matter of training the brain to hear the sounds,” Associate Professor McLachlan said.
 “So if you thought that the music of some exotic culture (or Jazz) sounded like the wailing of cats, it’s simply because you haven’t learnt to listen by their rules...
What we found was that people needed to be familiar with sounds created by combinations of notes before they could hear the individual notes. If they couldn’t find the notes they found the sound dissonant or unpleasant,” he said.


So apparently, the longer you listen (ie, train your brain), the more it will make sense and the more you'll like it. Maybe. I'm not sure any force on earth could make me like Reggae. I've tried, people. I've tried.

Update: it just occurred to me that I should point out that I love what George is playing here, even if I can't exactly wrap my head around it. Lack of understanding does not necessarily imply dislike.

Secretary Mehgel

So, this happened. 

A lot of conservatives are worked up over it. I just can’t muster the interest. So, an anti-Semite simpleton who’s sweet on Iran is now the Secretary of Defense.

A quick review of some of the other lovable scamps to grace the President's cabinet makes me wonder exactly how Chucky’s appointment is a jaw-dropper.

The former Treasury Secretary is a tax cheat.

 

The Attorney General has allowed racial prejudice to determine which cases his office will prosecute, and presided over the fantastically catastrophic Fast and Furious gun running scheme, which, you'll recall,  allowed Mexican drug lords to waltz off with 1800 firearms —some of which were used in the murder of an American Border Patrol agent, Brian Terry, as well as at least 150 Mexicans—and which was done without the cooperation or even the knowledge of the Mexican government.

The current Secretary of State possibly committed treason in his younger days by negotiating directly with North Vietnam, which he had absolutely no authority to do, while the US was still at war with them. 

And the previous Secretary of State, resplendently adorned with baggage before she took the gig, bears more responsibility for the slaughter of Americans at Benghazi than anyone but the President himself.

Look, like Allahpundit says in the top link, the grown up decisions about defending the country are going to be left up to the C-in-C and whomever he’s assigned to hold Hagel’s hand at the Pentagon. Yes it’s pathetic. Yes, if the President were a Republican, the media would be portraying this as Hitler appointing Himmler. But look, in the last 4 years, I’ve had a tyrannical health care law for which nobody asked imposed upon me; watched my President seriously consider extending American jurisprudence to the architect of 9/11; been outraged by Fast and Furious, and again by Benghazi. I’m kind of running low on outrage at the moment. It will take a bigger insult than Chuck Hagel to get my blood boiling.

Let it Bleed

As the threat of a cut in government spending the equivalent of a rounding error draws near, I'm finding myself just a little perplexed: are we, a people $16 trillion in debt and climbing, really having a discussion about whether or not it's a good idea to curb spending? This is like having a discussion about whether or not it's a good idea to stop ingesting strychnine.

Our government, as a matter of routine, votes itself permission to go further into debt every few months. On what type of bizarro world could this behavior be interpreted as healthy or sustainable? Our debt will probably surpass $20 trillion in the next four years. Current, actual unfunded government liabilities, depending upon whom you ask, are somewhere between $45 and $100 trillion. This WSJ article pegs it at around $87 trillion.

Eighty-seven trillion dollars. Unfunded. And yet we're expected to stomach Paul Krugman's schoolmarmish, finger-wagging admonitions to abandon this sequester nonsense, and all this talk of  unsustainable spending, because there is no-and-I-mean-it-young-man-no crisis. You boys stop scaring the other children with your crazy talk! And stop slouching. And would it kill you to run a comb through your hair once in a while?

Excuse me, Paul, but who exactly is sounding a bit agitated here? Democrats are characterizing the $85 billion in cuts as the fiscal equivalent of the chainsaw scene in Scarface. I guess I'm a little too jaded from the frequent insults my intelligence has endured over the years at the hands of these people to declare, as Rush Limbaugh did, that these goofballs  make me "ashamed of my country." Me, I'm rocking more of a bored depression.

But Rush is right that this utter lack of seriousness in addressing spending is shameful. Obama is trying to incite panic over cuts (all his administration's idea, by the way) that amount to about eight days of government spending. If we as a nation can't withstand these cuts--in reality, not cuts at all, but rather a restriction in the rate of increase-- then it's time to give up. Let the Huns in. Say "hi" to the four horsemen and the flying monkeys. Dogs and cats, living together, mass hysteria.

Am I saying sequestration is nothing? No. it is very likely that a lot of people will lose their jobs, that potential new jobs will be frozen or eliminated, that some services will be reduced or eliminated. For the record, I work in a segment of the economy that relies upon government spending. Sequestration may have an adverse impact upon my employer, and potentially, me. Of course, given that the amount of the reduction is a thimbleful compared to the vast ocean of annual government spending, there are doubtless numerous ways to minimize the impact of these cuts on most people. Just don't ask our elected officials to make any symbolic cuts from their own budgets. As Madame Pelosi said, it's beneath their dignity.

Whatever. If we have to take the hit, we have to. And the next day, when the sun comes up anyway, and the general public is just that less dependent upon the government dole, it will be a good day for America.