BarrieBergman

Yankee Doodle Dandy

I’ve become more patriotic as I’ve gotten older.  I always promised myself that  I wouldn’t become more conservative when I got older, but supporting our people in uniform seems the correct thing to do.

I try to remember what Memorial Day is really about.   The sacrifice of service people and their families to protect our freedom is important to me.  While Congress is cutting spending, which I totally support, I am opposed to cuts in Veteran’s benefits.  We have to take care of the people who take care of us.  I am opposed to war, but if we have to fight them, we have to make sure the soldiers who fight them are as comfortable as we can make them, when they come home.
                                                                ~
From the sublime to the ridiculous.  It’s nice to see Donald Trump supporting Mitt Romney.  Twenty-six percent of Americans said they would support any candidate other than one Trump’s supported.  George Will recently called the Donald a bloviating ignoramous showing some conservatives have amazing perceptivity.

Wolff Blitzer got into a wonderful debate/argument with the fool about Trump’s Birther Movement.  If you can find it, it’s worth watching.  It was great to see a newscaster have enough of this self-promoting asshole.  Trump responded by basically calling names and telling Blitzer his ratings were low.  With an intellect like Donald Trump’s, why isn’t he solving world hunger or curing cancer?

Why does this moron get air time?  Why am I talking about him?  What is the meaning of life?

~
The road goes on forever
And the party never ends
Robert Earl Keen

That Toddling Town

I spent most of the 60’s running a record store in Chapel Hill, NC.  Chapel Hill was called the Berkley of the East, so I got to see lots of anti-war demonstrations.  I was opposed to the Vietnam War, but I always thought most of the protestors were just pissed off college kids looking for a place to put their anger.  The demonstrations went on in Chapel Hill long after the war ended.  I guess the people just needed something to fill the time.

I watched a lot of civil rights demonstrations up close and personal.  I stayed in our Durham, NC store several times during rallies to protect it from harm, if there were a riot.  Although I have no idea what I would have done, if trouble had occurred.

I believe strongly in peaceful demonstrations.  I support peaceful assemblage for issues that I am opposed to, but that’s where I draw the line.  The thuggery, that occurred last week in Chicago, appalled me.  It reminded me of the insanity at the 1968 Democratic Convention, except that time the authorities and an insane mayor were to blame.  We probably have Mayor Daley to thank for Richard Nixon’s presidency.  Thanks a lot, Richard.

When I was trying to raise my children, I often told them that ”might makes right,” when they asked me why they had to do things.  I of course was bigger than they were, so it was a clever way of getting them to behave.  I publically apologize to my kids.  That’s no way to behave.  Just watch television news, if you don’t believe me.

~
Signs, signs, everywhere signs
Mostly say hooray for my signs
-Buffalo Springfield

Over the Rainbow

It seems like almost every week there’s a new billionaire entrepreneur.  They mostly come from the tech sector, but occasionally other types of businesses are represented.  This week Facebook goes public with an offering worth $16 billion, just the latest of these spectacular success stories.

I speak at colleges and universities about entrepreneurial pursuits.  The interest among kids in business ventures today is amazing.  Everybody wants to be Mark Zuckerberg.  When I went to school everyone wanted to work for IBM or later Goldman Sachs.  Doing ventures for oneself is an exciting way to use the freedom that we have.

The opportunity here is still unparalleled in the world.  I’m sick of hearing people talk about the lack of mobility in our society.  Individuals in this country are only restrained by their own lack of creativity and hard work.  The Horatio Alger dream is still alive.

At a time when Greece is failing because they refuse to live within any reasonable boundaries of spending, the US with its limitless resources can continue to prosper, if we just can find a way to compromise about our political differences.

I love America.   It has been so good to me and my family.  I am sick of hearing about all the things that are wrong here.  We have always been able to co-operate with each other, when the chips are down.  Tell the fools in Washington to accommodate each other and continue the greatest social experiment the world has ever seen.

~
I feel good
Like I knew that I would
I feel nice
Like sugar and spice
-James Brown

Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler

Last week the lovely wife and I boarded a big Delta Box and went to New Orleans for the Jazz Fest.  The indignities of flying today have been widely chronicled, but I saw an incredible use of our tax payer dollars, while in the New Orleans airport!

We were in the first class security line and suddenly another line opened up to our left.  It turned out this was the full body scan line.  Well before we got to the scanner, a worker told us that this was the body scan line, and if you didn’t want the scan, you needed to go back to the other line.  In other words, the scanner was only for rich people and any suicide bomber, who didn’t want to get scanned, should go to the other side.  Welcome to the Big Easy, the real Big Easy!

The Jazz Fest is the best big musical event I’ve ever been to.  It combines indigenous music with the biggest names in Rock and Roll.  Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, and the Beach Boys played the first weekend, and The Eagles are playing the second weekend.

Seeing Bruce with an audience of 150,000 people was a religious experience.  He’s still the best I’ve ever seen, and he had the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand.  Also Trombone Shorty is one of the most exciting new talents around.  Find him on a video, if you get a chance.

Four days of eating, drinking, and partying in NOLA should last for a while.  My diet and my liver are shot to hell.  Rock and Roll and old age may not be the greatest combination for a recipe.

~
Lord have mercy on my Rock and Roll soul
-Kimberly Kuepferle

Nun Sense

Finally the Catholic Church has figured out the cause of all of its problems.  For those of you who missed the recent coverage, the answer was obvious all along.  The problems with pervert priests and cover-ups by the administrators, who run the church, were right under our noses.

It was the Nuns.  They’re to blame for all of the church’s problems.  Like 50,000 battered women, the Nuns just wouldn’t listen.  The church had to pay $144 million in claims last year, which would never have happened, if the women in the habits would have just shut up.

The Holy See says these women have been spending too much time on “issues of social injustice” when “they should be speaking out against contraception and homosexuality.”  They should also stop talking about “radical feminist themes.”

It’s hard to imagine that an institution, that has brought so much pain and suffering to mankind, should blame these devoted people.  It’s impossible for me to stomach.

I was recently in South America where the church’s influence has brought poverty and ignorance by encouraging the proliferation of population.  Our world is running out of resources, and if we want our planet to be habitable for our grandchildren, we have got to limit population growth.

The Catholic Church’s position on contraception is so wrong headed as to be laughable.  At least the Nuns aren’t allowed to have children, although the next thing you know they’ll be texting the Pope for permission.

~
Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo
Come on out and spread the news
-Rick Derringer

Stop the Madness

Bobby Petrino, the football coach at Arkansas, is caught with the swim coach’s fiancée on the back of his motorcycle, when he has a wreck.  He says that she is a random woman standing beside a country road, apparently watching the birds and the bees.  It is even more remarkable that he can lie so facilely with a broken neck.

The assistant football coach at Penn State is accused of molesting many small boys, while school officials look the other way.  This goes on for years.

The assistant basketball coach of Syracuse is accused of child molestation.  The head coach says that the accusers are crazy.  This allegedly goes on for many years.

An assistant coach with the New Orleans Saints incentivizes his players to hurt and maim other team’s players.   The head coach and general manager know, but do nothing to stop it.

The successful Baylor women’s basketball team, NCAA Champions, and the men’s football team send thousands of illegal texts and e-mails to prospective recruits, while the school does nothing.

It doesn’t end here.  It goes on and on and on.  There is no institutional control of sports in this country, as long as the coaches and the teams win.  As long as the money keeps flowing in from fans and alumni, nobody gives a crap.

When are we as a society going to say, “Enough of this”?  We can only stop this reprehensible behavior by voting with our wallets.  Don’t attend, don’t watch, and don’t donate in support of these thugs.

You wouldn’t make donations to your local meth dealer.  Stop supporting the great American addiction.  If you do, Carolina football can come back from its latest scandal.

~
Mr. big stuff, who do you think you are?
- Jean Knight

In the Hood

I have never liked clothes with hoods.  I have several sweatshirts, raincoats, and jackets with hoods, but I find them cumbersome, and they push my hair out of place.  I don’t have that much hair, so it’s very important to me that it be coiffed perfectly. 

I never expected to be at the front of a fashion movement pro or con.  In the last week hoodies have captured the national attention because of the terrible murder in Florida of a young man wearing a hood.

Face covering has always been controversial in our country (i.e. KKK).  The Unabomber didn’t help things, and lately gangs have adopted the look.  All this made me glad I didn’t adopt the style, since I don’t want to get shot.

Dress as evidence of belief is as old as man, but dress codes are pretty stupid.  I have been turned away at places because I was wearing shorts, non-collared shirts, jeans, colored shirts, and no tie.  I try to be a good person, but I just can’t see the point of all this. 

Neckties were originally pieces of cloth used as a gravy sop. Material was expensive, and only the affluent could afford cloth.  How our society could make the leap from a gravy-soaked piece of material to requiring a tie, and adding some significance to it, totally escapes me. 

It’s important for of us to step outside our belief systems, when evaluating other human beings.  People are not their clothing, even though I am one bad dude, when I wear Armani.

 

I Was Born a Poor Black Child

I was raised in a very traditional American family.  My parents, both first generation Americans, were similar to Ozzie and Harriet.  All of their parents emigrated from Russia in the early 1900’s to get away from the Pogroms (the Tsar’s army killing Jews).

In a way I’m here because of a search for religious freedom and because of a search for separation of Church and State.  My parents believed in keeping a very low profile politically in their community, because of their family background and being Jews in the South.  They were lifelong Democrats, but they never let anybody know it.  No matter how hard I’ve tried to rebel in my life, this apple has never fallen very far from my parents’ tree.  My politics are similar to my folks, and I’m not very outspoken publicly.

All these reasons come together in my fear and loathing for what is going on in the Republican primaries for President.  The devolving race to see who can be the most conservative among Mitt and the three dwarves is mired in social issues that were settled fifty to one hundred fifty years ago.  To talk about rescinding women’s rights or calling people who went to college “snobs and elitists,” makes me check the window for the guys on horseback coming to drag us away for our beliefs.

I know this crap is all posturing and positioning, but as our economy improves and we extricate ourselves from wars that we should never have started, the Republicans are running out of issues.  How about a campaign to help Angelina Jolie adopt more children or to find Katy Perry a new man?  Whaddya think, Newt?

We’ll Get Rich a Few Days Later

I read recently that rich people are more likely to cheat at stop signs by jumping the queue than people of modest means.  The wealthy are also more likely to fudge on taxes, and in other places, than their poorer compatriots.   The theory is that the rich are empowered and feel more entitled than those of modest means.

Before you poor schlubs out there start to feel superior, you’ve got to realize that as soon as you get wealthy, you expect the same entitlements as your formerly rich betters - so much for the nobility of the poor.  As I have often mentioned, I’ve been poor, and I’ve been rich, but rich beats the crap out of poor.  However, that is a topic for another day.

Ethics are an interesting matter.  When I first decided to write a book, my title was going to be We’ll Get Rich a Few Days Later, which referred to having a strong ethical base in business.  Instead, I named my book Nice Guys Finish First, because my publicist talked me into it.

I still like the first title, although the second title took me to great riches and fame.  In a time of Rush Limbaugh and mass cheating in politics and sports, doing the right thing is an American value we should return to.

In the same article I alluded to, it was discovered that more affluent people fudged on change.  They were much less likely to return money, if a cashier gave them too much change on a cash purchase.  My wife Arlene and I have given money back many times.  About half the time the person is reluctant to take the money and acknowledge they made an error.  Some times you can’t do the right thing even if you want to.

Nice Guys Finish First:  amazon.com
Website:  barriebergman.com
Blog:  http://barriebergman.typepad.com/barriebergman/   

We’ve Got a Barn, Let’s Put on a Show

I love living in Southern California.  The weather’s great, it’s beautiful, and there’s lots to do.  Last week we went down to Oxnard, where a lot of the country’s fruits and vegetables are grown, to a totally unlikely car museum.

The museum is called The Mullin Automotive Museum, and it features French cars from the 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s.  The cars are Bugattis, Talbot-Lagos, Delahayes, and others.  They are mostly art- deco, rounded, curvy, and gorgeous.

Because they are so rare, many of them exceed one million dollars per car.  This place is so unique and so well done, it should be on everyone’s list, who appreciate beauty and style.

Also last weekend we saw Nashville song-writer Matraca Berg in Santa Barbara in a singer-songwriter series called “Sings Like Hell,” which my old friend Hale Milgrim, former president of Capitol Records, is very much involved.

Matraca, whom I have loved for years, is not a household word, but she’s written a bunch of hit songs for other people, and has been nominated for two Grammy’s.  She got on stage and said she hadn’t played a full set by herself in a year and that she had been to a party before the concert, but she “hadn’t gotten trashed.”

She said she was nervous, so that was the reason she carried a glass of wine on stage with her, which she finished.  She forgot the lyrics to four songs and had to restart each of those songs.  At first it was amusing, but after awhile I thought it quite unprofessional.

Artists have a responsibility to their audience.  They need be rehearsed and ready to perform, when they hit the stage.  I paid my hard earned money to see a concert, not a rehearsal.  If they aren’t performers, don’t perform.  By the way, I still loved her, but I’m a sucker for cute girls with good voices.