Here are two approaches to Mayan Apocalypse Day on December 21: NASA is urging everyone to go about their business, nothing to see here. On the other hand, there's country music icon Merle Haggard, who told the Village Voice:
"I think everybody has December 21 on the back of their minds and hoping that everybody's wrong. I'm trying not to think about it. I got a lot of money in the stock market, and I'm trying to figure out whether to sell or wait until the 21st. If something doesn't happen, the stock market has got to go up, and it's got to go down before that. That's what I'm mainly watching, trying to be the head of the family here. I don't want to wake up on December 22 and have done the wrong thing."
Neither do we, Hag. Neither do we. In the meantime (before the End Time), here's this:
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I prefer Britney Spears
... or maybe, you're old-fashioned...
If you think #1 that Brittany spears can even sing you have a problem and #2 that you would actually prefer her over a legend like Merle Haggard??? You officially have no taste in music
Mike Candys has an interesting take on the subject... Cool helmet, too...
Merle Haggard, a legend? ... in his own mind, perhaps...
Country-Western is great music... if you're tone-deaf and can't hold a note...
I have no problem that David prefers Britney Spears, I say to each his own. Britney can sing, not my kind of music but she can sing. But David is just here to troll and be an arse. David why would you say Merle thinks he is a legend in his own mind? He has never done anything to suggest that. Just so you know he IS a legend and he will be remembered for far longer than Britney Spears. I'd bet that Britney would agree, she is a country girl Britney Spears has said in interviews that she likes country.
Seriously though, Don't let people raze you David about liking Britney a lot of effeminate men prefer dancing and singing along with Britney rather than a good ol' beer drinking, cheating,pickup truck driving, rebel law breaking country song.
Dang I accidently liked Davids comment about Country-Western Music. Just want to be clear that there isn't 3 people who agree with him.
RTW = The Right To Work for nothing.
Worker exploitation is not new. Alexander the Great’s economy ran on slaving-out the “ citizens “ of defeated countries. Very effective tool for holding down wages.
The 1860’s a US company, Pullman Palace Car, was a train car manufacturer. It owned the entire town built around the factory. If you worked for the company, you had to live there. Rent and food prices were absorbent. Wages, not so much.
Not to be left out, Henry Ford trapped European emigrant machinist into “ Ford Homes “, which included regular company inspections to see if your wife was keeping the place up to Ford’s standards. Both these companies experienced situations that only a labor union could solve.
* In 1920’s Michigan, my teen age father went to work for a non-union lumbering company. After most of a winter away, he returned. His mother , however, would not let him enter the house, until he was deloused with lye and his linen burned. He also returned, while still owing more to the company, than they had paid him.
Yes , he returned flat broke and in debt to the company store over two pair of boots and an axe. It gives new meaning to, “ Working for That company might cost You. “
.
Many will complain that prices are to high. But what if it’s really that wages are to low. The two would look the same. We could end up with a few people who believe they should all be paid as brain surgeons, and the rest of us who may not have the " right stuff " to ask for more money.
This post is a sort of oxymoron - one of the strangest post ever, yet one of the best...in a weird sort of way. Thanks, Kent.
Love Mighty Merle
Don't you find it curious that the Mayan calender ends exactly on the winter solstice date Dec. 21st?...the begining of winter...but what can you do except dress warmly.
The answers are in my Kindle novel, Nine Elevens, today's article THE LATTER DAY SAINTS OF MAYA PROPHECY OR LAST FLIGHT FOR MERCURY AND THE kINDLE book by the same name which will go on Kindle this weekend. Just in time!
BJ...
It's no coincidence... The Mayan Calender Year starts and ends on the Winter Solstice... Almost all calenders that pre-date Christianity use astronomical events to measure years, because that's how you calculate the length of the year in the first place...
Christmas itself is just a conversion of pagan Winter Solstice celebrations... You don't really think shepherds in the Holy Lands tend the flocks at night in the middle of winter, do you? Mary and Joseph were traveling to Joseph's home town for the annual census, which took place in the Spring, when Mary's going into labour caused a detour to Bethlehem...
Celebrating the Birth of the Son just took the place of celebrating the Birth of the Sun..
In northern CA, we had 71 degrees F on Monday-- record high! Did not need warm clothes.
It's that non-climate change issue again.
Dec. 21 - end of the world party, my house - RM you are invited!!
JS...
Loved you in Rear Window, Vertigo and The Philadelphia Story...
Any relation to Jon?
Back in the LP days, when Hag moved to Redding, Bobby managed to get guitar lessons from the haggard guitar player, Roy Nichols. This was good because Bobby was teaching me to play guitar so I could back up his already great lead guitar with rhythm. I backed up Bobby's almost on key voice with my beautiful tenor come baritone. We did alright. We would crank up in Bobby's front yard with beer in the cooler and steaks on the BBQ, play songs and fish for gals going to the market down the street. One day my friend Path Schneider came by with a stack of LPs. That stack contained everything Hag had recorded up to that moment. A friend of Bobby's was baby sitting for the Haggards.
It was a Merle Haggard time. Nobody was sorry Merle Haggard had moved to Redding. I still sing better than I pick. But, heck, so does Hag!
Those were the days.
Bobby, if you are out there somewhere, Rawbut, this bud is for you and Hag.
It is good to see that Hank Williams, Jr is the only CW star with a screw loose. I was worried that Hank was all alone.
You must be joking... The name Ted Nugent ring a bell?...
Mitt Romney's bias leaves him blind
To the problems of friends he may find...
Nugent's psycho babble
Encourages the rabble,
Who don't care that he's out of his mind...
Mitt Romney can't recognize the truth -
Ted Nugent's paranoid and uncouth...
Nugent anticipates the drama
As he assassinates Obama...
He wants the infamy of John Wilkes Booth!
I wouldn't call Ted Nugent a country & western star.
Other points in History. Let us go back to 1967.
1) Bobby Kennedy sort-of endorses CBS Smothers Brothers employee Patrick Layton Paulsen for President of the United States.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktg4fomzeR0
2) Pat Paulsen explains and solves all of Americans problems. From Social Society to Gun safety, and exploding medical expenses.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4kWLUnorTU
Has any one noticed how much Senator Corker of Tennessee looks like Pat Paulsen? Just saying.
Yes, Merle, after being on the losing side of the culture wars along with all the other Oakies, I can see why a Mayan non-prophecy about the end of the world would have you worried! When you read stuff like this, you just have to wonder how did Obama ever get elected twice.
"I want a taste of what these commentors are having" says this reader to the dealer at the corner.
"Oh, I'm proud to be an Okie from Muskogee, A place where even squares can have a ball, We still fly Old Glory down at the courthouse, And white lightning's still the greatest thrill of all."
Merle Haggard has always been his own man, and I respect him for that. Plus, "Okie from Muskogee" is such great fun to sing.
Wow, thanks for flushing out all the crazies.
If I refuse to believe a bunch of far-right Christian nut jobs who proclaim every two years or so that the world is going to end, I'm certainly not prone to believe an ancient culture who took innocent people and ripped their guts out in religious rituals. Especially if said ancient culture is no longer around because they just happened to have sat around and did nothing to prevent their own extinction.
I have always loved Merle. Been to many of his concerts; however, I'm not going to take his advise about the stock market any more than I would take my 10 yr. old grandsons opinion. Today's music is enjoyed by the young but give me that "old time rock and roll" and country music sang by the greats such as Merle, Willie, Wylon, Johnny, Kris, etc. I will still enjoy life and music after the 21st. If I am wrong and the world ends....so be it. It has been a great life and I have enjoyed every minute of it.
Okay, this is just stupid. Oh we have both kinds; Country and Western..
I've got a calendar that ends on Dec. 31 of 2010. By the "logic" employed by the Mayan calendar doomsayers, the world ended almost two years ago. Dang, the afterlife is nowhere near as much fun as was advertised!
Merle, how do we know what the stock market will do?
We are not supposed to even be here (?) according to the Mayan calendar.
I personally do not invest in the stock market because while you could make money there, you could also lose money there.
Many folks have made lots of money, then lost it because they put their faith in other people or just made a bad decision, or even through no fault of their own.
http://www.villagevoice.com/2012-12-12/music/merle-haggard-is-searching-for-his-hurt-and-considering-doing-stand-up-comedy/
Poor old crazy Merle! But I'm a fan. Just seeing Merle and Maddow on the same page makes me giddy, but a true fan would have chosen a much more appropriate Haggard song for this little news item. Still appropriate for workers' rights, too!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9TByT3QlWc
Exuse me BUT .... theres only two kinds of music COUNTRY and WESTERN .