Song in my Heart, but Jeebus help me if I let it out.

I sing. At home, in the car, anywhere but the shower. I sing karaoke couple times a week because I am too lazy and cheap to actually hire a piano student at the local Univ for backup and try to find a practice space. I don't really care if the place is packed, or if the "audience" is several drunks of indeterminate gender. I can sing Frank, I can sing Stevie Ray Vaughn. Rough it up or smooth it out. I sing because I like it.
The only time I notice and enjoy the audience is when they are singing with the song. It hits me sometimes that I wish all of us would sing. It used to be the only group entertainment we had. We, as folk, all sang together. Then came the mass media in the 'teens and 'twenties, recordings and movies. All of us hearing, and then seeing and hearing how a singer "should" sound. We stopped. Individually at first, then as groups. The standard for singing had been raised, and we started cutting each other as to the quality, accuracy, etc of each others' voice. It killed public singing for the fun of it by average everyday folk.
This is why I smile when I hear some rap that everyone knows, and everyone chants. It's the closest we get to singing, without setting off the voice police, juries and judges.
Perhaps we, as folk, should just start singing again. Doesn't have to be loud, just enough to let each other know that we're singing. If we know the song, we should join in. Then we should shush the naysayers with a quiet "have some respect, fool".
So decreed.

The Dance of Obfuscation.

The political season is starting. Electoral politics is like a distant freight train moving toward us; the din will grow louder and louder until it blocks out rational thought.
There always is a background radiation of electoral politics as opposed to, say, legislative politics which is the sound of compromise being struck, of investigations real and Potemkin, of continual speeches using the word "outrageous" inappropriately and often.
The sound of electoral politics rises in volume every cycle to block out the legislative process entirely. The last 2 cycles (2000 and 2004) were interesting in that real conflict was possible, given the electoral anomalies.
This time, I see blandness wherever I look. I am sure that the candidate will be long-established (other than Obama), wealthy personally and a lawyer. I am also sure, as I have been for 20 years, that I and anyone I know will have absolutely no input into the process of selecting a candidate.
My solution? Have the parties select 10 candidates, and run them off in a series of monthly national elections, eliminating 2 at a time from the process, culminating in the Big One in November. Make this a giant reality show, where someone gets voted off the show every month. I'd be a lot more interested in it, and I think you would be as well.
So decreed.

A New Jurisdiction.

The court of Draconian Measures is currently setting up its court offices. Issues overseen by this court will include small claims (unverifiable), large claims (unbelievable), domestic relations, foreign relations, distant relations, internal affairs, external affairs, court logs- both mono and dia, internal conflicts, external complaints, and penalties of all kinds including those resulting from personal fouls.
Harsh sentences (grammatically speaking) are standard.
Appeals will be heard, subject to the will of the court.
This court can be addressed as "My Lord" (British subjects only), "Your Honor" and, as has happened in the past, "You're Insane". Profanity directed AT this court, its plaintiffs, or its officers will not be tolerated.
It is not within the purview of this court to rule on isues such as the nature of reality, of Aristotelian or Platonic ideals, or whether or not Godzilla could win against an Alien/Predator Ultimate Fighting tag-team. Plaintiffs with commentaries seeking judgement on such matters will be referred to Higher Courts.
Commentaries that are frivolous, argumentative beyond patience or non-sequitur in nature will be stricken from the record.
So decreed.