Texas Pardons Racist Murderer & Billionaires Try to Sic Police on Protestors
Texas Pardons Racist Murderer & Billionaires Try to Sic Police on Protestors
Supreme Court Justice Alito an Election Denier?, What Science Tells us About Aging Brains Like Biden and Trump's (and Mine!), Butker Spews Nonsense--His Jersey Sales Spike, Miriam Makeba Sings
What I’m Discussing Today:
Kareem’s Daily Quote: Neil Young and an ad for industrial paint share a message about life that has many meanings.
Abbott Pardons Killing by Racist Who Explicitly Texted Apparent Minor: The governor of Texas released a murderer, racist, and child groomer. Just for the NRA vote? What a patriot!
Supreme Court Justice Alito urged to step off Trump election case over U.S. flag controversy: Aside from the gifts/bribes he’s taken, now he’s an election denier deciding cases involving Trump.
What science tells us about Biden, Trump and evaluating an aging brain: What people get wrong about aging.
Kareem’s Video Break: These young men dance like everyone’s looking—which they should be.
NYC Tycoons Pushed Mayor To Sic NYPD on Columbia Student Protesters: A bunch of billionaires tried to suppress free speech to promote their point of view. That’s not how democracy works. The arrogance of wealth doesn’t care.
Kareem’s Kvetching Korner: This is where I mutter under my breath about petty things, like the fact that following his insulting and irrational commencement speech, Butker’s jersey has spiked in sales.
Miriam Makeba Sings “Qongqothwane (The Click Song)”: This lovely wedding song from the Xhosa people of South Africa is wonderful to listen to, but impossible for most of us to duplicate. Give it a try.
Kareem’s Daily Quote
Rust never sleeps.
Rust-Oleum advertising slogan
Neil Young adopted this slogan from an ad campaign for rust-resistant industrial paint for his 1979 album Rust Never Sleeps. Reportedly, members of his band created the slogan for the ad back when they were graphic artists. To Young, the phrase meant “to avoid artistic complacency and try more progressive, theatrical approaches to performing live.”
That phrase has stayed with me since I first heard the album 45 years ago. The silent, relentlessness of rust is a metaphor for so many things in life that each time I think of the phrase, it conjures new thoughts.
When I was younger, “Rust never sleeps” goaded me into training harder and playing harder. I was 32, an old man in NBA years, and “rust” meant two things: my body was aging and I had to work out more to keep the rust from taking over, and rust was represented by the rising younger talent that every year invaded the NBA looking to take my place—just as I had replaced others. I had been their encroaching rust.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to accept the inevitability of physical rust that can’t be trained away no matter how many weights you lift or miles you jog. You slather on some rust-resistant paint in the form of medications, healthy diets, and sensible exercise, yet the crusty red edges still creep closer.
On a less self-indulgent note, sometimes the phrase means the insidiousness of The Awful. Awful behavior from strangers toward others, awful treatment of family members by those who should be showing love, and awful actions of politicians destroying democracy. The Awful corrodes The Goodness in people and society attempting to swallow us until all is rust. Being awful is so much easier than being good, it takes discipline and intelligence to see that it is better for everyone in the long run. But worshipers of rust see only the meal in front of them and must consume at any cost.
Rust never sleeps and will undoubtedly be victorious over the frail flesh of the individual. But the desire of good people to create a just society never sleeps either. And though the players may retire, the team still plays on.