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Rob's Soapbox - The Worst Hall Of Fame May 08, 2022

Show notes

With so much “bad” happening right now, ranging from the Invasion of Ukraine to the rage over abortion again taking center stage in America, let’s escape for a few minutes and talk about something less important, seemingly trivial, yet necessary to confront.

The Major League Baseball and National Football League Hall of Fames are the most coveted and noteworthy Halls in all of America. There’s a Hall for almost every interest, ranging from croquet to paper. I’m not sure why we need an Insurance Hall of Fame, but I sure am glad there’s the AVN Hall of Fame, which honors the best of the best in the porn industry. I suppose there’s a reason why the Mascot Hall exists, so too the Quilters, Scuba Divers, and Internet Halls of Fame.

All of which makes the most embarrassing Hall of Fame of them all so shameful.

You see, the Basketball Hall of Fame actually inducts people that have something to do with the game; either as a player, coach, or even referee of the game of basketball.

The AVN Hall of Fame includes porn stars, directors, and even companies that directly play a role in making world class pornography.

The debate over what exactly a genre of music is defined as has raged since the first caveman uttered out the original version of Ooooooga-Booooga. Just recently on the RAD show, we debated what exactly defines “Classic Rock,” music; is it age? Feel? Sound? Can Grunge be Classic Rock since Grunge, at its’ height, was played endlessly on every mainstream rock station in America? Are hair bands classic rock? What about bands like Linkin Park, who were at their peak 20 years ago?

One thing that was never debated was whether or not Janet Jackson belongs to the category. Do you know why? Because she clearly has nothing at all whatsoever to do with rock music. Oh sure, occasionally a rock artist will find their way to the pop category with a certain song, or specific sound. Aerosmith has charted on the Billboard Hot 100 more than once, Journey a dozen times, and the aforementioned Linkin Park a half dozen times, all while also being played on Rock stations. But never have you once turned on a self-respecting rock station, whether it be classic, mainstream, grunge, or anything in between and heard Madonna.

And yet, somehow, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame includes both Janet Jackson and Madonna amongst its’ inductees. Not to mention James Taylor, Abba, Donna Summer, Run DMC, Bill Withers, Public Enemy, and NWA. Jesus jumped-up Christ.

I realize this complaint is neither unique nor new; people have been arguing about how in the world pop and rap stars are in any way deserving of being enshrined alongside the inarguables like Zeppelin, The Beatles, Pink Floyd and the like since the Hall began. And of course, there’s the annual list of bands that aren’t in the Hall, which, when compared to knowing Abba and NWA are in, makes the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame lose all credibility. Somehow, Madonna and Donna Summer are in, but Iron Maiden, Motley Crue, Pantera, Stone Temple Pilots and even Ozzy Freaking Osbourne (as a solo artist) aren’t!

Nothing has been more embarrassing and telling than the 2022 inductees for the shear whiplash you get from imaging how the extremes on each side could ever possibly be uttered in the same sentence as “rock and roll.” The only acts that belong amongst this year’s inductees are Judas Priest and Pat Benatar. The absurdity of Harry Belafonte, Carly Simon, Duran Duran, and The Eurythmics speak for themselves. But the three points on the triangle that level waste to this garbage hall are Eminem, Lionel Richie, and Dolly Parton. Yes, Dolly Parton, whose only association with this genre of music is a lyric in one of her songs in which she says “I’m a little bit country, a little bit rock and roll,” which she sang in a COUNTRY song (and it was a remake of Donny and Marie’s biggest hit…also, not rock and roll artists).

All of this would be a non-issue if they would have named the Hall what it clearly is; The Musical Performers Hall of Fame. There’s nothing at all “Rock and Roll” about so many of the inductees that it’s both an insult to the genre, and a slap in the face at some of the greatest musical performers of all time who AREN’T in. After all, if somehow NWA and Public Enemy are in the Hall, how is Snoop Dogg not? Or Mariah Carey, for that matter?

And don’t get me started on the fact that what is supposed to be the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is in one of America’s worst cities, Cleveland, and for no legitimate reason at all whatsoever. Juts because Drew Carey sang “Cleveland Rocks,” doesn’t make it true. Other than Nine Inch Nails and Joe Walsh, nothing resembling rock has come out of that sewer by the Cuyahoga River, unless of course you consider Tracey Chapman and her depressing ass “fast Car,” Rock and Roll, which the Hall of Fame probably will soon. Pathetic.

See? Wasn’t that a fun few minutes? Isn’t it nice to occasionally get all ginned up over something meaningless, yet not?

Now, you may resume worrying about soaring prices, Roe versus Wade, Covid, masks, the legitimacy of the 2020 election, the current President’s mental state, war in Europe, the baby formula shortage, hepatitis in children, the soaring crime rate, record-high illegal immigration, The Johnny Depp/Amber Heard cringeworthy trial, the popularity of Doctor Strange and what it says about our society, and why the UFC scale wasn’t working properly this weekend. Enjoy!

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Rob's Soapbox - Why Stop There? May 01, 2022

Show notes

As the Biden Administration continues to swirl downward and circle the toilet bowl of history, it continues to dig its’ collective fist deeper and deeper into its’ almost empty bag of tricks to find something, anything, that will stop the bleeding of the lowest approval rating in the history of all American Presidents.

Enter the re-emergence of floating the idea of forgiving student loan debt.

92% of all student loans are owned by us…the United States Government. Thus, our elected leaders have the ability to say “you no longer owe us,” and simply add it to the national debt.

As you can imagine, this is a very popular idea with young people who have large student loan debt. This is how desperate the administration is; they’re considering pandering to the group of voters that vocally supports them overwhelmingly yet never, ever, shows up to vote on election day. Of all voters aged 18-29, never have more than 18% of them shown up, and that was their high watermark in 2008 when they ushered President Obama into the Whitehouse by increasing their turnout by a whopping 1% over 2004. The youth vote is a fallacy that Democrats keep chasing and never catching, but at this point, they’ll take anything, thus the trial balloon of forgiving part or all of peoples’ outstanding student loan debt. https://www.pewresearch.org/2008/11/13/young-voters-in-the-2008-election/

There are multiple problems with this idea, starting with the least important and least interesting one; nothing is free. While this is true, it doesn’t move the needle. America has spent 20 years being told our national debt is out of control and our grandchildren will pay for it (or our currency will crumble a la Greece) and no one cares at all. It’s too heady, no one understands it, and it’s not happening to us right now, which is all most Americans care about or can process intellectually. As the greatest power on Earth (for now), we can, by definition, sustain unsustainable debt, longer than any other nation on the planet. If you want to lose the interest of an American, start explaining that forgiving student loan debt means that all of us are paying for the education of total strangers via our funding of the government…snore…snore…snore.

The real reason this is a wildly unpopular idea amongst everyone not owing student loan dent is two-fold; there’s a fundamental principle and there’s an experiential resentment.

The fundamental principle is simple; we live in a country where we are taught and told to pay our debts and honor our obligations. If you promise to pay for something that you have received, you need to make restitution for it, not be told “just kidding, someone else is going to take care of it for you, not for the reason of hardship or ask, but simply because we’re doing it across the board for everyone.”

The experiential resentment is far more potent and powerful. The group of Americans that are most against illegal immigration are legal immigrants because they played by the rules, paid their way, and did it the right, and hard, way. They overwhelmingly loathe allowing a pass to people who skirt the system. Similarly, every single American can and will invoke immense anger at the idea of telling people they no longer owe what they promised to pay.

The most obvious are those who have spent years, if not decades, working their asses off to repay their student loans. They will quickly, and rightly, shout “why did I bother?” and “what about me?”

But it doesn’t end there. Why should I keep making my mortgage payments? Why should you bother with credit card statements? All of us are part of this society and those who went to college are no better than anyone else, so why should any of us honor our obligations?

This, of course, is just another sick step towards socialism and the creation of what has long been called a nanny state; the government will take care of you, like the wonderful parent they are, from cradle to grave, all the while we forget that we are the government. It’s a gross time in America; we’ve been teetering for decades and we’re certainly right on that edge once again. Whether we pull back from it or not remains to be seen.

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Rob's Soapbox - The United States of Compliance Apr 24, 2022

Show notes

Long before Covid, I was ringing the bell about the Pussification of America. It takes shape in many forms ranging from the destruction of the appreciation of the need for toughness and healthy forms of masculinity, to trophies for everyone and making sure our kids never feel what it’s like to fail or be disappointed.

We’re a society that believes words can be violent, closes school because of the forecast of a heavy rainstorm the next day, and is now literally afraid of getting sick.

During the last two years, it has been nothing short of stunning, yet not surprising to see how far gone we are. The overwhelming majority of Americans meekly obeyed politicians and scientists who ordered us to do things that made absolutely no sense. The few of us who questioned, and even pointed out observational proof of the folly of the various mandates and policies were branded everything from lunatics to Granny-Killers.

Fast forward to present, as some Americans emerge from the comfort of their scaredy-cat bubbles they are seeing and hearing more and more people admit and acknowledge that, like some of us said at the time, almost everything we did beginning in March, 2020 and beyond, made absolutely no sense, saved zero lives, and ironically, destroyed countless others.

If we lived in an intelligent society, this would lead more and more people to become, as they should, more and more skeptical. Common sense and logical reasoning would return, and a revolt against blind compliance would occur. “Question Authority,” has never meant “ignore what a cop says,” rather, it is a plea to encourage people to find their voice, use it, and ask for explanations when we’re being told to do something senseless.

I admit I am about to provide you a uniquely anecdotal, observational, and totally unscientific example to support my hypothesis; but that’s the difference between me and your almighty “leaders:” I admit that I am using ridiculous methods to reach my conclusion.

My wife and I spent the weekend in Northern Nevada, highlighted by an amazing day at Frey Ranch Distillery in Fallon where we helped create the RAD RADIO Whiskey Barrel, which our buddy C.K. at NorCal Bottle shops will be selling exclusively later this summer. I tell you this not to somehow work a commercial into the soapbox, but rather to give you the background needed to truly appreciate what we observed.

Creating a barrel of whiskey requires hours of tasting whiskey. Thus, when we returned to our Reno area hotel (via limousine), we were both tipsy (Christina) or drunk (yours truly) and exhausted. We made our way to our room, napped, had dinner, and went back to bed around 9PM, desperately hoping for a solid night of sleep with the plan of waking up by 5AM so that we could drive home and I could spend Sunday as I always do; working on the upcoming week’s shows.

So when we both awoke to the most annoying siren-type sound at midnight, we both knew our plans were off the rails. In our exhausted haze, my wife Christina quickly and correctly deduced that we had been rousted from our slumber by a fire alarm at the hotel. After throwing on some sweats, we made our way to the front door, opened it and stepped into the hallway. One second later, we were stoned.

The hallway reeked of marijuana and there was a haze of pot smoke near the ceiling.

Meanwhile, a portly man in a white shirt with “security” written on it and an equally portly woman in a red shirt that indicated she was some sort of hotel-employed safety/medical person were making their way down the hallway with absolutely no sense of urgency. As they did, there were about a dozen other hotel guests in the hallway, all disheveled and in their pajamas, who were told by the pair of hotel workers to “go downstairs immediately!” With that, the guests made an immediate beeline for the elevators (A stupid and nonsensical move since, if you actually believe there’s a fire, you should always take the stairs…but I digress). Meanwhile, Christina and I, having realized there was no emergency of any kind, walked back into our room and closed the door.

My wife stayed at the door watching through the peephole, reporting the stupidity she was seeing of panicked guests and a non-inspired two-person team of hotel workers nonchalantly trying to identify the room that had caused the alarm, still blaring, to be triggered.

Frustrated at the ongoing blaring siren when we needed to get back to sleep, I opened the door again to see the female hotel worker ordering more guests to “get downstairs!” My intention was to plead to their common sense and ask them to turn off the damn alarm since they had clearly realized there was no emergency…and then it hit me…it’s March 2020 in our hotel hallway!

Two people who have no power in life suddenly have all of it! They have shirts with words on them! Just like countless politicians and scientists who “ordered” all of us to wear masks for safety, yet were constantly caught not wearing them themselves (because they knew how small the threat was) we had before us two people who knew there was no fire, and no danger, but they could absolutely tell total strangers to do something that was totally unnecessary and they were going to get as drunk on their power as I was hours earlier on Frey Ranch Bourbon.

The red shirt woman saw me in the doorway, looked at her “partner” and said “do you want them to evacuate as well?” He very authoritatively said “yes, let’s have them head downstairs!” She looked at me and repeated what I had heard clearly and I responded “oh ok,” and shut the door. I then locked and deadbolted it, walked into the room, looked at my wife, and we both had the exact same look on our faces. Bewilderment.

How are people so complicit? How do you leave behind all of your belongings, and trudge to a hotel lobby in your pajamas, merely because a couple of people who clearly are not at all concerned about any sort of threat are telling you to? How do you not assess your surroundings, notice the unmistakable presence of marijuana smoke and smell all around you, and deduce what caused the alarms in the first place and, with that, go back to bed? Or at least to your room, as we did, since sleep was now off the table for a while since the alarm kept blaring and we were now wide awake.

An hour later, as we were trying to wind back down and get back to bed, we wondered how many morons from our floor were still downstairs? Idiotically waiting for someone to tell them what was going on, which of course was never going to happen. The image of pajama-laden humans wandering a hotel with a skeleton staff waiting for the “all clear,” made us smile as we crawled into our hotel room bed together, more thankful than ever that we still aren’t sheep…but aware of the fact that we’re going to need a lot more shepherds.

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Rob's Soapbox - It's Friday In America Apr 17, 2022

Show notes

All this weekend headlines screamed “homebuying is now as expensive as it has been in a generation!”

https://www.deseret.com/utah/2022/4/14/23025299/u-s-mortgage-rates-5-percent-home-buying-most-expensive-inflation-housing-prices

And my first thought was “what isn’t?!?!?!”

But then I realized that I’m old…and I’ve lived through 2-3 generations of this…and that if homes (and everything else) is as expensive as it has been in a generation, then we should also remind everyone that we went through a period where they were as affordable as they were in a generation. We

America, the economy, society, and everything else is cyclical. It all comes around and goes around. Ironically, it was on Easter weekend that I grasped what my father was saying a couple years ago when he calmly reassured us all that, essentially, we’ll be fine. America will find its’ way back and everything will work out.

When he first said it I was skeptical, since my arc in life was growing up in the miserable 70’s, the scary cold-war 80’s, the booming fantastic 90s, the scary aughts, and malaise filled 10’s….but when I stopped to reflect, I realized that’s exactly the pattern we live out over and over again. The 1920’s were literally called the “roaring 20’s,” until the depression of the 30’s hit, the scary 40’s and then came the booming 50’s, before the civil right stricken 60’s and…you get the idea.

If you have any intelligence at all you’re wondering where the irony is.

Easter has little to no meaning to me, despite my deep spiritual background and understanding of almost all religions, most notably Christianity. As a Deist, I am blessed with the ability to know that there is a power greater than us all, but not to be withholden to one in particular, nor, more importantly, a bunch of garbage humans say or makeup regarding my supreme being. Thus, I can, and do, appreciate teachings from many religious corners, and often find a way to apply them to my belief system or, and this may work for you, take religion out of it altogether and find great meaning and inspiration in the message without any need for a God to still appreciate it.

Enter S.M. Lockrdige, Pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, a prominent African-American congregation located in San Diego, California, from 1953 to 1993, who was known worldwide for his passionate sermons including one of my personal favorites, befitting Easter weekend, “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming.”

Through a Christian prism, the message is exclusively and entirely about the resurrection of Jesus, but there is a message for all of us of any, every, and no faith as well and it’s simple yet beautiful and comforting. Put simply, it’s Friday in America and everything sucks. Society hates itself and each other, the price of everything is through the roof, there isn’t one single thing that unites us as a people, a pandemic has laid to ruin what we were 3 years ago, which wasn’t much to brag about in the first place, and Betty White is dead. There is little, if any hope for a better tomorrow in America as poll after poll show that parents, for the first time, do not believe their children will live a better life than they have, and only 25% of us believe we’ll be better off financially a year from now than we are today. It’s Friday in America…but Sunday is coming.

If you are staunchly and unequivocally atheist, even you can find meaning in this for you don’t need to equate America’s Sunday to Jesus saving us…that’s not even how I mean it, despite the original message.

It isn’t, in my opinion, a message of hope, for hope leads to despair. It’s a message of faith…as in, have faith. Hope is a fleeting urge for something to happen while faith is an absolute. Those who have true faith are literally incapable of it being shaken for it is as real as oxygen, land and water. Nothing you say nor do can rattle true faith.

Things are pretty rotten in America, relatively speaking to our history and expectations, but the truth is that I have lived through worse, and then saw the best of my 50 years on this planet as I scorched the earth during the 90’s. Thus, I have faith that it’s merely Friday in America…and Sunday is coming.

“It’s Friday - Jesus is praying - Peter’s a sleeping - Judas is betraying - But Sunday’s comin.It’s Friday - Pilate’s struggling - The council is conspiring - The crowd is vilifying - They don’t even know - That Sunday’s comin.

It’s Friday - The disciples are running like sheep without a shepherd - Mary’s crying - Peter is denying - but they don’t know - That Sunday’s a comin.

It’s Friday - The Romans beat my Jesus - They robe Him in scarlet - They crown Him with thorns - But they don’t know - That Sunday’s comin.

It’s Friday - See Jesus walking to Calvary - His blood dripping - His body stumbling - And His spirit’s burdened - But you see, it’s only Friday - Sunday’s comin.

It’s Friday - The world’s winning - People are sinning - And evil’s grinning.

It’s Friday, (they say) The soldiers nail my Savior’s hands to the cross - They nail my Savior’s feet to the cross - And then they raise him up- Next to criminals.

“It’s Friday” - But let me tell you something” The congregation shouts, “Sunday’s comin.”

It’s Friday - The disciples are questioning - What has happened to their King - And the Pharisees are celebrating - That their scheming has been achieved - But they don’t know - It’s only Friday - Sunday’s comin’

It’s Friday - He’s hanging on the cross - Feeling forsaken by His Father - Left alone and dying - Can nobody save Him?

It’s Friday - But Sunday’s comin’

It’s Friday - The earth trembles - The sky grows dark - My King yields His spirit.

It’s Friday - Hope is lost - Death has won - Sin has conquered - and Satan’s just a laughin’

It’s Friday - Jesus is buried - A soldier stands guard - And a rock is rolled into place - But it’s Friday - It is only Friday.”

Sunday is a comin"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS2wPotScZY

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Rob's Soapbox - Why Does Everything Have To Be About Race? Apr 11, 2022

Show notes

Every single time race is injected into a conversation, some moron…usually a middle-aged white man…shouts out “why does everything have to be about race?”

For example, last week the reggae band Soja won the Grammy for best reggae album and social media exploded because everyone in the band is white! a Jamaican woman on Twitter said “spice losing the Grammy to soja has proven that we Jamaicans & our entertainment sector has work to do…the Grammy’s, along with these cultural vultures, are way too presumptuous, our culture is being disrespected & blatantly robbed.”

A Jamaican man wrote: “A white American group #soja won a Grammy for best reggae album wtf Talk about culture appropriation”

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2022/04/04/soja-grammys-awards-reggae-category-sparks-backlash/9464001002/

We tried to talk about it on the show and discuss whether or not there was a legitimate point of view for people from a specific part of the world feeling as though their cultural contribution was being hijacked and it wasn’t long before the emails came rolling in with the same tired, lazy, ignorant trope: Why does everything have to be about race?

Our newest Supreme Court Justice is Ketanji Brown Jackson, a black woman, who was chosen after President Biden had already announced that he would appoint a black woman to the court, garnering cries near and far of “Why does everything have to be about race?”

The problem with questions, no matter how rhetorical they’re meant to be, is that there’s always an answer…and usually one that most people don’t want to hear, entertain, or understand.

To be candid, I hate that President Biden announced over a year ago that he would choose a black woman to be the next Supreme Court Justice because I, personally, find it demeaning to all people of color…not to mention all women. My experience is that truly great people want to earn their keep; they want to be chosen because they are the best at what they do, not because they do or don’t have a penis or a certain skin pigmentation.

That opinion, however, is different than demanding that things can’t or shouldn’t be about race. Do you know why everything has to be about race? Because everything is about race.

Let’s start with universal truth #1: If you walk around saying asinine things like “I don’t see race,” you are almost certainly a racist. The sentiment is supposed to be that you see everyone the same, but the problem is that everyone isn’t the same, and not acknowledging that marginalizes those you’re alleging to align yourself with. When you say that you don’t see color, you are saying that you don’t see my wife. She’s black...she knows it, I know it, and you know it…and with that comes a culture, an experience, and a perspective that adds so much to who we all are, if we allow it in.

You notice a woman who is blond versus a redhead versus a brunette; stop saying you don’t see color. You do, you should, and you should acknowledge and honor it.

As for the embarrassing question “why does everything have to be about race,” I appreciate all of you throwing me such a lazy softball to knock out of the park, knowing that too many of you are simply incapable of taking in the factual answer. There is a sociological theory that demands that the reason people in the majority and of privilege recoil when others ask questions, make demands, or simply make their voice be heard, is that they can’t stand the thought of losing their power. I don’t know if that’s true, but it sure seems to be, based on my observation.

Oh, and quick off-ramp; privilege; boy does that word send people over the edge. I’m not sure why it’s so hard to acknowledge and accept, but yes, there are those of us that have an advantage or the privilege of, having an easier time than others based solely on our appearance. That doesn’t mean we have an easy time, it means we don’t have it as hard as others, period. I worked my ass off for everything I have and I earned it. I grew up paycheck to paycheck with no college fund or inheritance waiting for me…and now I’m a one-percenter and I earned every bit of it…but my ability to acknowledge that I didn’t have to leap as many hurdles as a woman, or a black man, or a woman of color would have had to leap to accomplish what I have in no way demeans my accomplishments. It simply recognizes reality. The sky is blue, the Earth is round, and I have it easier every single day I am alive than my wife does. Do I have it easy? No…does or should she use that as some sort of crutch or excuse? Hell no…but it’s still reality. Own it. And maybe spend some time with people that look different than you and find out that most of them don’t want anything special other than not being stereotyped and treated differently. That’s it…maybe just treat them like, I don’t know, equals…because they are.

As to the answer to your question about why everything has to be about race…bear in mind that the same question is and has been asked endlessly for decades with the word “race,” replaced by “gender,” and/or “sexuality,” and you’ll right away get closer to the answer.

I love this country and I am proud of it from its’ inception; I am also a student of history who knows that many of our founders knew that they were creating a country that made no sense; this is why the phrase made its way into the Constitution: “in order to form a more perfect Union.” Many of the founders were already against slavery and still more didn’t understand or agree with women having no standing…yet in order to form a union of any kind, compromises and capitulations were made. So…why does everything have to be about race? Because we made it that way from the jump; we created the most amazing country on earth while also marginalizing women and people of color. And we didn’t even entertain the idea that gay people had standing, let alone anyone else in the LGBT community.

In 1787, we created a nation in which white men ruled the world. Women couldn’t vote, black people were still slaves, and somehow we signed a document that said “all men are created equal.”

133 years later, women were allowed to vote, although it was almost 200 years after our founding that they could truly function independently and not need “a man,” to get a credit card, have a bank account, or own a home. It was 180 years after the United States became a country that black people could vote…only four years before I was born a marriage that looks like mine; a white man and a black woman, or any combination thereof, was illegal. Gay people only began to grasp the legal right to be married less than 20 years ago!

So when you utter idiotic things like “why does everything have to be about…” take a beat to realize that the answer is simple. We made it about that. Whether it be color, gender, or sexuality, we, as a nation, as a majority desperately uncomfortable with losing our grip on power, made it about that. Imagine growing up and hearing the stories, not of your great great grandparents, but of your parents, not being allowed, not being welcomed…imagine living it for half of your life…and then you dare to tell them all to just “get over it,” that it’s in the past? How dare you?

Everything has to be about race, gender, sexuality, and god knows what else, because we have tried as hard as we could to marginalize everyone who has the audacity to be born looking and/or feeling a different way than the mainstream majority in this country from its inception. There is no shame in acknowledging that, in fact, there’s strength and honor. I never owned slaves and I don’t care if my ancestors did or didn’t but I am the first to recognize that the playing field remains uneven and I have the advantage when I walk into almost every room because of implicit biases that need to be unwound. Saying that in no way makes me or my accomplishments less than all that they are…it simply acknowledges that the sky is still blue, my wife is still black, and the world is still a very ugly shade of gray that needs a lot more color to make us all better.

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Episode 181 - RAD Prodcast - Artist Adrian Malko Apr 06, 2022

Show notes

Interview and live painting with Artist Adrian Malko (Gman Hunter Art) - Found online at https://www.instagram.com/gman_hunter/

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Rob's Soapbox - The Problem With Perspective Apr 03, 2022

Show notes

It is my sincere hope that this will be the last, and hopefully most unique and least polarizing perspective on the “Slap Heard Around the World,” and the truth is, it isn’t about Will Smith or Chris Rock at all.

It’s much more about us; and not in that pandering, drivel-soaked way most are using this moment as a way to point out that we, the people, are to blame for everything because we’re an angry society, we worship celebrities, we’re all snowflakes, we’ve demonized masculinity, blah blah blah.

Thinking about this more in-depth, and, as I often do, trying to find the angle no one is taking, I stumbled upon something that can’t be ignored.

While nothing other than childish rage defends Will Smith’s behavior, we are told that Chris Rock’s joke was offensive for three potential reasons as follows:

Jada Pinkett Smith has alopecia, an autoimmune disease that causes a person’s hair to fall out.

Whether Rock knew about the alopecia or not, it is well-known in the black community that you don’t make fun of an African American woman’s hair; there’s 400 years of history to explain why, and Chris has daughters himself. He should have known better.

We should be past commenting on and making fun of, peoples’ appearances.

As a lifelong fan of standup comedy, I have seen how it has devolved lo the past many decades. And devolving is what it is doing; people want to tell you that we’re more enlightened when we stop making fun of certain things and people, but the opposite is true. We will reach true enlightenment when each of us as individuals is comfortable and confident enough with ourselves that the words, thoughts, and judgments of others are truly meaningless to us, regardless of whether or not other people agree with them or laugh at them.

For now, let’s just focus on the first of the three arguments, which is Jada having alopecia, as a new refrain was born this weekend vis a vie her condition.

While it is true that perspective is almost always helpful, it can be taken way too far as a dismissive argument.

Telling someone who just got fired that “people in Ukraine are dying,” is far from helpful. While it is true that the 6-week-long war is an atrocity on mankind, it’s not the reality of the person who just lost their job in America and doesn’t know how they’ll pay rent this month. It’s just not reasonable to ask all of us to happily accept every horrible thing by realizing that somewhere, something more horrible is happening to someone else.

On the other hand, it was a cold slap in the face (pun intended) to many of us when 8-year-old Scarlett called the show last week to explain in the most intelligent, jovial, and eloquent way, her battle with Leukemia. In that moment, a lot of us realized that being annoyed at the inconvenience of an oil change that day, or upset that Starbucks got our order wrong was perhaps, a bit self-centered and out of focus. Such perspective is good, positive, and welcome at times when it truly teaches us to stop getting bent out of shape over the small stuff.

That’s the key; identifying what is, in fact, “small stuff,” while making sure we allow room for both understanding and intolerance. Understanding in the sense that what may seem small to some is truly devastating to others. Intolerance as in not allowing snowflake drama queens to define two cisgender adults using pronouns in a private conversation they overhear as “devastating.”

That said, the newest trope is that Jada should thank her lucky stars that all she has is alopecia. To paraphrase one commentator I heard this weekend, “if you are so lucky in life as to have your only medical problem be your hair falling out you should just say, “thanks, God.”

Another put it more bluntly as such: “Alopecia…your hair falls out, it’s not like Leukemia.”

Now, for starters, we hardly know what, if any, additional medical challenges Jada may have and chooses to keep private. More importantly, yes, it would be great if she, or any other person suffering from alopecia, was able to embrace the “Hey, it could be worse,” attitude, but to dismiss entirely the literal suffering of some for what others deem to be dismissive reasons, is a dangerous slope to go down…and a never-ending one. In fact, if we are going to use the “someone else always has it worse,” argument, then there is literally only one person suffering on Earth.

Model Winnie Harlow has something called vitiligo, which the Mayo Clinic describes as a disease that causes loss of skin color, generally in patches, which on a woman of color could be devastating. Harlow has proudly embraced the changes in her body, widely quoted as saying that it’s just “another difference, like freckles and big hair,” which is beyond admirable, and should be celebrated, but shouldn’t be forced on Jada or anyone else.

As always, the answer lies in moderation. While we can’t insist that Jada become comfortable with her hair loss, we can absolutely assert that she should be doing whatever she can to feel better about it and herself. If she doesn’t like her shaven head, which many of us find sexy, then she should wear a wig so that her condition is less noticeable. Ultimately, I’d love that she find herself gorgeous as is, but she needs to get there; as so many do.

Fat people need to either go to the gym, get some surgery, or be comfortable with the fact that they’re fat and people are going to make fun of them. The same is true of so many others that can’t do anything about their “condition,” like short people.

In the end, humanity is cruel, and learning to deal with it is part of life. You can’t slap everyone that says something that upsets you or someone you love, but you can have the perspective that while someone, somewhere has it worse, your problems matter, and hopefully you have the support system you need to battle those challenges. Getting offended and upset at others who mock you is wasted energy and will suck the life from your very soul.

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Rob's Soapbox - Attacking The Cart Pullers Mar 20, 2022

Show notes

More than a decade ago, I wrote a column about the cart-pullers; those of us who lead the way, take the risks, create and provide the jobs, and quite candidly, keep the country running. We don’t ask for notoriety, gratitude, or attention…we just ask that you not vilify us vis a vie envy. So much for that, as here we are again.

On the lighter side of this topic, I saw a headline last week as the baseball lockout was ending that read “MLB owners retain their billions.” Long story short, said the article, was that millionaires will again be playing baseball this spring, paid by billionaires, and for some reason, the 30 people that own a baseball team are somehow the bad guys. Sure, I get it…defending wealthy people is less popular now than ever before, and to be completely candid, many of them are, in fact, scumbags. But this ongoing childish call for wealth redistribution under the guise of life not being fair is not only infantile, it’s founded in fallacy. Yes, those big, bad, evil MLB owners will remain billionaires; and do you know what else will remain? Hundreds of jobs in each of their organizations, ranging from the office staff to trainers, coaches, and even mascots. Around the country, thousands of vendors, ticket takers, security guards, members of grounds crews, scoreboard operators, and even PA announcers will go to work in stadiums every day earning a paycheck. Yes, a paycheck far smaller than those horrible owners, but a paycheck nevertheless, powered by very rich people who took risks to get to where they are and reap the rewards of it today. Let’s not forget the endless hotel rooms that will be booked by not just traveling players and team members, but also fans; Then there’s the airline flights, rental cars, drivers, the bars and restaurants surrounding the stadiums, and of course, the endless money made from thousands of games being broadcast, thus bringing in more revenue through advertising while also employing thousands of network personnel.

I could go on, but if you don’t get the point by now, you’re either dumb or a total loser who views everyone else as the reason for your miserable life and endless failures.

Then there are the oil companies; another group of wildly unpopular people who basically print money at will and somehow take the blame when we decide to drive more, world events drive up speculation and have the audacity to want to make a profit. A wildly large profit, yes, which is what leads to asinine comments like “who needs that much money?” It’s not far from that question to “each according to his ability to each according to his contribution,” the literal mantra of Socialism. The answer to the first question is that no one needs “that much money,” whatever your amount is, but it’s there for those who want to strive for it and earn it. I won’t bore you with the MLB owners like list of all of the jobs that grow from the tree of big oil, because again, you either get it or you’re a bum.

Oh, oops, did I trigger you with the use of “bum?” I understand that’s a slur nowawdays. My bad.

All of this is the backdrop for one of my favorite annual stories, the World Happiness Report, which has pretty much the exact same results every year as follows:

Finland once again ranked the happiest according to people's self-reported assessment of their lives on a scale of zero to 10, with zero being the worst possible life they could have expected to have, and 10 being the best.

Finland's neighbors, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden and Norway, all ranked in the top 10.

I’m not even going to waste time on the folly of “self-reporting,” particulary when it comes to things as fleeting and subjective as a person’s own happiness. Asking people to rank their own happiness is about as scientific as throwing darts at a map to determine the answers.

More importantly, though, is that one thing you have to appreciate about the Scandanavians is their self-awareness. The reason, they openly admit, is that they’re constantly reporting themselves as so “happy,” is that they have very few failures or set-backs, since none of them strive for anything. They just exist.

Scandinavia's happiness rankings aren't the result of the country's sterling quality of life, but because people in those countries have a lower bar for what they think their best possible life could have been.

"The Nordic countries are united in their embrace of curbed aspirations," wrote Jukka Savolainen. "People are socialized to believe that what they have is as good as it gets — or close enough." Put another way, good enough is good enough. Why strive for more when I have only what I need and striving would mean, by definition, occasional failures which hurt, and make me temporarily sad. Boo hoo. https://www.npr.org/2022/03/18/1087631248/world-happiness-report-finland-pandemic-america-us

As reported by a correspondent for the Economist, when a Cabinet member of the Finnish government was introduced at an international conference as “the representative of the happiest country in the world,” he responded: “If that’s true, I’d hate to see the other nations.”

Way back in 1993, 60 Minutes featured a segment on Finland, which opened with this description of Helsinki pedestrians going about their business: “This is not a state of national mourning in Finland, these are Finns in their natural state; brooding and private; grimly in touch with no one but themselves; the shyest people on earth. Depressed and proud of it.”

All of this is the result of Nordic countries providing decent lives for their citizens and prevent them from experiencing sustained periods of material hardship. Moreover, they embrace a cultural orientation that sets realistic limits to one’s expectations for a good life. This mindset explains why Finns are the happiest people in the world despite living in small apartments, earning modest incomes—with even more limited purchasing power thanks to high prices and taxes. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/04/finland-happiness-lagom-hygge.html

Now…seriously…all name-calling aside, what type of person, other than a lazy loser would embrace any of that as a way to live? It’s pathetic, and quite candidly, cruel.

I’m no oil barron nor will I be owning a baseball team in my life, but I did grow up in a middle-class, paycheck-to-paycheck household where as much as my parents tried to give me everything, often told me “no, we can’t afford that.” My friends rode Mongoose bikes while I rode a Huffy. I didn’t get to go to Washington D.C. with my 7th grade civics class, and I certainly didn’t have a college fund. Today, and for the last 20+ years, I’ve owned my own company, employed dozens, and helped an unknowable amount of small businesses grow beyond their wildest dreams. Countless sales people, radio managers, and far less talented radio cretin have seen an improved quality of life merely by the existence of my team. This is provable; it has been stated publicly multiple times that were it not for the RAD show, 98 ROCK in Sacramento wouldn’t be 98 ROCK today, it would be 98 POP or 98 Country.

I don’t want to be thanked, honored, revered, or recognized. To be honest, I’m too busy pulling the cart too many people are riding in. All I ask is what most of us doing the pulling ask; leave us alone, get out of our way, and let us keep pulling.

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Dog Parents Are Better - Rob's Soapbox Mar 06, 2022

Show notes

I’ve noticed that almost any time someone is making a point about raising dogs they always preface it with some sort of disclaimer making sure to not offend parents of human children. Something like “I’m not comparing raising dogs to raising children…”

Well, guess what? I am…and I’m here to tell you that dog parents are better.

Now, the beauty of that is that it absolutely enrages some people. In my experience, those who have raised both children and dogs actually agree that raising dogs is more difficult if you’re doing it right…and therein lies the secret; the only people I know that get truly worked up over this supposition are either horrible dog owners, horrible parents, or both.

Parents of humans actually have it easy, especially in the 21st century! For starters, unlike dog parents, human parents have no reason to believe that their children will die before them. While tragic when it happens, thank god it’s rare. It’s not only not rare for dog parents, it’s part of the deal. We literally agree to raise, train, nurture, bond with, and love a living thing that we know is going to die, most likely in our arms, 10-20 years after our initial commitment. Human parents don’t even kick their kids out of the house when they reach the age of 18 anymore so what’s the big challenge there?

Plus, have you not noticed that most human beings are trash? Well, who’s raising them to become said refuse? Their parents, obviously. Meanwhile, you’d be hard-pressed to find a dog that isn’t happy-go-lucky, you’re welcome very much.

Parents of humans are nothing more than traumatizers, whether they like to admit it or not. Every parent traumatizes their child. Often it’s unintentional, but it’s still very real. There would literally be no psychotherapy industry if it weren’t for parents…meanwhile, not many dogs are plopping themselves on a couch for reasons other than snuggling.

A good dog owner builds a trust and a bond with an entirely different species… a species that, to be truthful, has no reason to believe we have their best interest at heart. If you do it right, you get a loyal, loving, faithful companion who would quite literally die for you…how many kids can you say that about?

A good dog owner spends countless hours feeding, walking, running, and caring for their pet. A human parent stops most of that when the kid hits double digits. By then, the little rat knows how to boil water for his mac n cheese and has friends to tire him out when he doesn’t have his face buried in a screen. Big whoop, what’s the challenge there?

And please, for the love of God, don’t give me this crap about propagating the human race…there are 7 billion of us and we don’t need more…most are horrible and you aren’t doing the world any favors by bringing your demon spawn into the mix. Dog come and go, and leave almost no footprint other than endless joy…your kid is a mutant, albatross, and drain on society.

Which brings us back to the beginning. Dog parents know that their pup is going to die before their eyes. It’s the hardest part about owning pets and the most selfless. If you do it correctly, you make a commitment to give everything you have to an animal that you know will bring you endless joy, only to break your heart. Every single time the damn dog dies on you…no matter how much you love them, how well you train and treat them, how many vet trips you make…they’ll always leave you bawling and wondering and wishing.

Human kids don’t do that…they turn into rotten teenagers and shittier adults, and it’s all your fault that they suck. I’ll put my German Shepherd and Labrador up against your crappy kid any day of the week and you know what? When that day is over my dogs will run to me, lick and love me, and happily follow me home to cuddle me all night long. Will your kids do any of that? NO they won’t…because they suck and so do you. Deal with it.

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Episode 180 - RAD Prodcast - The RAD Kids - Show & Tell, 90s Trivia & MadLibs Mar 01, 2022

Show notes

The Kids (Queenie, Kyle & Brando) will discuss a variety of topics, play MadLibs, dive into some 90s trivia, and a little show and tell for the RADTV Viewers.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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