Not something I usually talk about

American Idol is back again for, I do believe, season 8. American Idol is a spin off from a British show titled Idol. I do believe there are a lot of Idol spin offs for different nation around the world now.

Now I am sure you are wondering what the hell is Rod doing talking about pop culture. There is good reason. If you are the parent of a teen or a pre-teen you will definatly understand from where I come from on this.

American Idol is, at least for the moment, the appitomy of "pop culture". It tells us a lot about ourselves, our nation and believe it or not, our government. Hell, look who we elected. We elected a TV Star. But I digress.

Idol is back and it has added a judge to the panel. I have watched Idol in the past and I have seen one episode this season so far. To tell you the truth, I have not really watched Idol since its first season. I think it is a blight on our culture and I will tell you why.

Sure they may help talented singers noticed. But all to often it is not the most talented that wins or even goes on to make it to the top 10. It is often about the superficial things such as look and attitude.

Just take a look at all the Idol winners that you don't hear from anymore. There have been 7 of them. And often even the runner up and others in the top 4 have been said to have great promise. So lets do the numbers. Seven seasons of Idol multiplied by the top 4 of each season gives you 28 "contenders". How many of those 28 do you hear from today? By far Kelly Clarkson is the most successful of the bunch but she was also the very first American Idol. I could name off a few others but most of the 28 have disapeared.

Yet these are the people that our kids and young adults look up to. Oh yes, here comes the connection. Those young people will vote. Those young people have voted. Those young people helped put Obama in office. Come on now, you must have seen at least a few episodes of Idol.

How many times has the kid with the good looks and quirky but "cool" attitude gotten the votes over the one who really had promise and talent. Remember Sanjaya? Come on, you cannot tell me you honestly think this kid had huge talent over all the others that he beat out. Not on your life. But he was very cute. He was very quirky and he had the swirling ingima of possibly being gay. Oh how cute is that?

Now you may think, "kids will be kids". At one point in time that was true. We kids grew up. But think about it. Today we have kids that never really grow up. They expect their parents and the government to do everything for them. They seem to think they are owed popularity and success. Yet they can't even put two sentences together.

Back to Sanjaya. He recently did an interview and showed off his "new" look and talked about his new memoirs book. MEMOIRS? The kid is all of what, maybe 20! Yet they did an interview with this kid. Sure he has facial hair now so he look older. Actually he looks like a 15 year old with facial fuzz and really long dark hair. But again I digress.

Listening to this interview, I was in horror. This kid can influence an entire generation by what he says. And trust me what little he does say he does NOT say it well.

Which leads me back to Obama. Now our 44th President. Get this guy off his prepared speech and he really can't speak. Articulate? Please. But he was helped by those who would think Sanjaya is cool and cute.

You still think kids will be kids and eventually grow up? Maybe its time you grew up.

If you can take it, check out the interview for yourself on Idol TV.

What Obama Believes

Now I have read just about everything. Obama seems to think that China is manipulating their money. Hmm. You think?!

This has been an issue since the Clinton Administration. President Bush did nothing to try and stop this madness and other nations that deal with China economically have done little if anything to address this issue with China.

Now Obama is going to do something about it? Didn't Obama praise the Red State during the campaign? Didn't Obama lavish praise on this nation for its really great infrastructure?

Obama loved their modern ports. He loved their new damn projects. He loved their new road systems. He loved how they were building high rise tower after high rise tower and all the underground pipes and electrical that go along with those towers.

He was beside himself because he thought the the US ports were inferior to those of China. He railed about our crumbling roads as compared to the new and gleaming roads in China. He gritted his teeth at how bad our electrical grid was designed and maintained and thought China had much to teach us.

Now he tells us he thinks China is manipulating its currency. But he probably won't do much about it at this point because it may aggravate the trade deficit we have with China.

What makes him different from Bush or Clinton in this regard? Where is the change we can believe in. It is becoming very clear that the only change this guy is for is taking away your freedom and liberty but everything else will probably stay the same.


Geithner signals tougher stance on China

Settling in with Obama as President

And so the “reign” of Obama begins. It started out a little rough with both Chief Justice Roberts and President Obama messing up the Inaugural lines. It was a bit comical at first but then you realized, this is something these two should have had down pat. No excuses.

But they are human and it would be petty to target Obama on this slip up. But since President Obama is not quick on his feet (we have seen him stumble on more than one occasion when he is not reading from a script or prompter) you know this will not be the last time he screws up with his words.

Obama waisted no time in halting the trials of Guantanamo prisoners. You can say Obama has now launched a war on the war on terror. He seems to want to give these prisoners of war the same treatment as a citizen who has committed a crime.

Obama has also extended a hand of friendship to our enemies. In his speech he pledged to shack the hand of our enemies if they would only but extend an open hand other than a fist. How many times have these same nations extended a false open hand only to have their fingers crossed behind their backs with the other hand?

Of course you had all the news outlets just fawning all over the Inauguration. They were so giddy it was sick. You have to ask yourself how fair and balanced are they going to be with this guy during his first (and hopefully only) term? Don't rely on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC and to some extent even Fox News for fair and honest and balanced coverage of this guy. Seriously, they all were in love with the moment, the day, the history.

For the record, this was an historic day, true. HOWEVER, every time we install a new President, it is an historic day. Our nation makes history every time we peacefully change the hands of power. Just because this guy had a darker complexion of skin should not have even been more than an anecdote. Seriously.

Martin Luther King, Jr. would have been filled with joy to see Obama elected, if he agreed with and liked his character. Remember, MLK wanted a world that did not judge a person by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. Does Obama have the kind of character that MLK would have liked and voted for? To be honest, probably not.

MLK talked about being free at last. President Obama talked about a free people doing great things. Yet most of Obama's ideas focus on taking choice and freedom from the people and placing that power in the hands of the government. Remember, if the government has the power, you don't have the freedom. Pretty simple.

Lastly, will I give this new President a chance to succeed? If that means he gets what he wants in the form of Socialism then I would have to say “HELL NO!” I will not stand by and watch him turn my nation into a new France or a new Germany or a new Russia. Hell No! I won't stand by and let him strip me further of my freedom and liberty. Government is NOT the answer. Government is the problem.

President Obama, I will give you time to get settled in your new home. Oh, hold on, you are in the White House now. You occupy the Oval Office now. I think you are settled. Now time to get to work for you, me and every American citizen. I for one am all settled in on spreading the word on what you intend to do. Along with all your friends on Capitol Hill. If you even speak or think of stripping any of my freedoms, I will be there on your “door step” fighting you.

Yes, I am a Patriot. I cling to my guns and religion and my rights and freedoms. I cling to the documents of freedom, the Deceleration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States of America, the Bill of Rights and the Bible. You can have those documents when you tear them from my cold, dead hands.

What say you, America? Are you a true American or do you think the government is here to support and take care of you?

Giving Obama a chance.

The time has come. My head is slung low. I am in shame because my country has openly elected a Socialist to be President. Today is the last day of the George W. Bush Administration and he is not going to waist any time getting out of Dodge.

Don't get me wrong, I am not one of those total GW fans that swoon every time his name is mentioned. There is plenty I have railed against GW on during his eight years in office. The biggest thing I hated was most of the Patriot Act.

There were plenty of other things as well but that goes for just about any President. I didn't always disagree with Bill Clinton but it is safe to say that I disagreed with him more than I agreed.

So now we will begin the era of Barack Obama. Already right out of the gate, I don't like him. Now I keep hearing the line “give him a chance.” I have thought about that long and hard. At first I said of course I will give him a chance. But as I thought about it, what am I giving him a chance on or for?

He has not really done anything since being elected to warrant my giving him a chance. In fact in one of his speeches since being elected, he has stated that “only government can fix...” Hold on a minute. That is not freedom. That is socialism. I will not give someone a chance to turn my country of freedom and liberty into the land of France or Sweden or even Germany.

Our nation has been in economic troubles before and we have always come out of those troubles. Usually without a ton of government intervention or programs. But we seem to be heading down the road to socialism with smiles on our faces.

We are collectively patting ourselves on our backs having had the “courage and strength” to elect a non-white man to be our President. We shouted for joy as Obama preached about “change.” We got tingly feelings running up our legs overtime Obama spoke.

We are a nation that now views appearance or substance. Thank you MTV and Hollywood. If it looks cool and pretty, then we buy it. If it sounds neat and cool then we buy it. Forget the reality or the substance of the thing or person in question.

Have you taken a walk down a mall recently? Seriously think about how much substance there is in that mall vs. the appearance. Everything looks beautiful. All the models that show the clothing you are supposed to by are thin and beautiful even if the clothing is for “bigger” people, those big models are still rather shapely and beautiful.

We are made to believe that if we buy those closes, or get that hair style or dab on that cologne, we will be as beautiful on the outside as those models. Now we have a president that sounds beautiful, to many he even looks beautiful and to be certain he has a beautiful family. Tall, thin, looks to be in great shape. He tells us stories we want to hear. Yet there is no substance there at all.

Its like walking down a hall in a political mall. We have chosen everything we think will make us beautiful to the rest of the world and we don't care how ungly it is under the surface. But now we have the beautiful people about to take office.

We are now about to come face to face with appearance over substance. So will I give him a chance? Not on your life. Not if all he wants to do is take my sweet land of liberty and turn it into the largest socialist nation in the history of our planet. Would you give someone who wants to do that a chance?

I didn't think so. Maybe there are just enough of us out there that prefer substance over appearance. Just maybe the 57 million people who did not vote for Obama will stand up and demand that the rest of the nation stop acting like teen age girls and boys and act like grown adults that understand it their responsibility to make their lives better, not the governments.

Time to stop the whining. Time to peel back the beautiful surface and get down to the ugly truth. Its time to grow up America.

I am all grown up. Are you?