Song Talk with Morry Campbell

Duplicity: The "Defense of Marriage" crowd admits to falsehood

This is a particularly unsettling piece of video. In it, the chairman of the spiteful "Yes on 1" question that eventually passed and decimated protections for same sex couples in Maine, basically admitted that they won using lies and falsehoods to scare the voting public.

If you have to make up lies and half- or total falsehoods to get your way, maybe you should give it up. Please give it up. What a waste of tax-payer money and time! You want to have a Christian influence on your community? Do something for the poor. Volunteer at a soup kitchen. Get involved in community service. Don't fight to take away other's civil rights.

 

The Goddess Annie Lennox Speaks On Reclaiming Feminism

Yeah, it may date me, but I think Annie Lennox is still one of the most amazing voices in popular music (hence my designation of "goddess"). And she's also an activist for women's issues. Below is a post that Ms. Lennox penned and is posted on Huffington Post. It's a sobering read. And deserving of attention.

Annie's words start below. Clicking the link will take you to the original article.

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It shocks, disappoints and angers me that in a world where man has traveled to the moon and where we can connect to people anywhere on earth instantly online, men and women are still not equal.

via www.huffingtonpost.com

THE INSTITUTION OF MARRIAGE IS UNDER ASSAULT!

I know this is supposed to be a music blog, but I've strayed a bit now and then in the past, and I'm about to stray again. If you really think marriage is under assault, then click through because I have a challenge for you. If you say, "Morry, you must be nuts!  Marriage is not under assault, how silly of you to say so!" then skip this one. It's really not about music and music is what you came here for.

Tea Party: The Video

Okay, so a good friend of mine suggested I put the Tea Party mini-dance number to a video, so here it is. Thanks to Mr. Keith Olbermann for the quote and the vocal. So, without further ado, Here's the Tea Party Ramble, with vocals by yours truly, and Keith Olbermann. NOTE: If you're sympathetic to the Tea Party and their goings-on, you may want to skip this one...

Rally to Restore Sanity Sanity slightly insane

I'm a big fan of both Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. We ditched our cable about a year ago, but The Daily Show and The Colbert Report were two of the reasons I we took so long to cancel the service. And I still miss their shows more than any other cable show that is not easily viewed on the internet. (Yeah, I know you can watch on Comedy Central's website, but not nearly as easily or as slickly as you used to be able to watch them on Hulu. What's up with that, Comedy Central?).

Anyway, the point is, I have a lot of respect for both of these men and I generally agree with their points of view. However, Bill Maher had some good comments about their recent event in Wash, DC, and I think they are worth repeating. So I'm embedding the video here, without further comment.

Soap box rant #1

Because it's election day, and because I've been mulling it over in my head for a few days, I'm going to get up on my soap box and put my 2 cents in on the Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert Rally to Restore Sanity/Fear.

I say, with one caveat, hoo-rah for you, Mr. Stewart. You said a lot of things that needed to be said. And yes, both the left and the right are guilty of demonizing the other side, gross exaggeration, and in trying to spin everything so that it makes "them" look bad and "us" look good.

Now for the caveat: Mr. Stewart, you talk like the guilt is equally shared across the board. It is not. You make comparisons between Fox News and MSNBC as if they are mirror images of each other, polar opposites, different only in the slant of the politics. The implication is, the right may have Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Michelle Malkin, etc., but the left has Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow. And while this is true in the sense that Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Hanity, Malkin, etc are on the right, and Olbermann and Maddow are on the left, that is where the accuracy of that comparison ends.

First of all, to compare Rachel Maddow to any of the talking heads on Fox or to Limbaugh is kind of crazy. Ms. Maddow always conducts herself with grace, humor and aplomb, treating even guests with whom she vehemently disagrees with respect and dignity. Even the unsavory "pray away the gay" Richard Cohen was treated with respect as Ms. Maddow called him out on some of the more outlandish statements he has made in the press and in his writings, and pointed out to her viewers that he has been disbarred from the APA and is not licensed to practice psychological therapy by any American or other licensing body.

Admittedly, with Keith Olbermann, the comparison may be a bit more fair. A bit.

Oh no! The Gays are coming!

Lock up your children! Wives, tie up your husbands! Husbands, lock your wives in the basement! The Gay is coming, and it's coming to get YOU. What will we do when teh GAys have the same rights as we have?!?  JB Urges Speedy Return to Gay Marriages

Call my Senator, and tell him you're not happy

As long as we're off of the songwriting topic already, I want to encourage everyone and anyone to call my State Senator and tell him how displeased you are that he is opposing fair and equal treatment for all New Yorkers.

Senator George Onorato, (D) District 012, pictured above, plans to oppose the marriage equality legislation that is soon to be presented and voted upon in the New York State Senate.

I don't know why he opposes it. I've been emailing him and calling his office for an explanation, and have not received one as of yet. I can only assume, however, that he's making this rather antiquated, regressive stand on his religious convictions. With a name like "Oronato," I'm guessing Catholic.

Please explain to him that he is is a Senator, and not a Cardinal. This is a democracy, not a Theocracy. Religious sentiment has no place in creating civil rights laws. Everybody deserves equal treatment under the law. (You know the drill: be respectful, but firm and to the point).

Call Senator Onorato and tell him to do the right thing. Tell him to support marriage equality in the State of New York.

Albany: 518-455-3486

Long Island City: 718-726-9706

email: onorato@senate.state.ny.us

Give it up, Norm...

You look like a freakin' idiot.

Is this a surprise to anyone?

Okay, warning:  I'm veering out of the usual songwriting territory and veering into pure politics, but I saw this and I had to comment. Does this surprise anyone? It seems there are studies on everything these days, and the subject of this particular study was on the popularity and consumption rate of pornography from state to state, using anonymised credit card data from a major online adult entertainment provider as the criteria.

"When it comes to adult entertainment, it seems people are more the same than different," says Benjamin Edelman at Harvard Business School.

However, there are some trends to be seen in the data. Those states that do consume the most porn tend to be more conservative and religious than states with lower levels of consumption, the study finds.

"Some of the people who are most outraged turn out to be consumers of the very things they claimed to be outraged by," Edelman says.

Typical. I'm so not shocked by this news I may not pass out and hit my head on the floor. Those that decry the evil pornography the most are those that are using it more than anyone else. If this was just a simple question of human foibles and harmless hypocrisy, that would be one thing. But this is a much deeper issue than that.

One more reason you shouldn't steal music

This is pretty wild. Someone downloaded a file sharing program on their company computer at a defense contractor in Bethesda, MD, and it allowed someone in Tehran (yes, the Tehran in Iran) to download detailed plans for Marine One, the President's helicopter. Boback is the CEO of the company.

Someone from the company most likely downloaded a file-sharing program, typically used to exchange music, not realizing the potential problems, Boback said.

"When downloading one of these file-sharing programs, you are effectively allowing others around the world to access your hard drive," Boback said.

I guess for an indie musician, there are certain plusses to outweigh the minuses of peer-to-peer and file sharing networks. Yes, it's possible that it may help you build a fan base and get your music into the hands of some folks that would not otherwise listen to your music. But if the cost is that your potential fans leave their hard drives open to anyone that wants to poke around there, it might be cheaper in the long run for them to just buy the song. It might be not only dishonest to download free music, it may be dangerous.