Rantings Of A Mad Rodent

"Drill baby, drill!", you remember that? C'mon, yes you do! It was the rallying cry of the right, lead by that beacon of brilliance, Sarah Palin. Funny, but I can't seem to find any of these people now. It seems like they've wiped their fingerprints off the megaphones, and hid them away. Now these same "Drill baby, drill!" people are crying out in anger over what has happened in Louisiana. The same people who supported the Bush administration (who loosened up the regulations and safety requirements that led to this disaster), big oil companies like BP (whose rig it was), and Halliburton (who was operating the rig at the time of the disaster. Funny that they're always involved, huh?) have now found a way, with the help of the media, to conveniently lay this at the feet of the Obama administration.

At what point are you people willing to look past money and ideology, and do the right thing for once in your miserable lives?! Seriously, there is no other Earth out there people! It ain't like we can screw this one up, and go invade another one like we've done to so many countries. No assholes, this is the only world we have, and it seems as though you morons chose money and party rhetoric over it. When Obama wasn't 100% sure about more drilling, you said that he didn't care about America, and now that he isn't moving fast enough for your tastes, this has somehow become his "Katrina". Really? You same people that cried for corporate freedom and for the government to stay out of corporate affairs, now want the government to clean up BP's mess with taxpayer money. Those same taxpayers that BP gouged to make record breaking quarterly profits just a few years ago.

Now, it's going to be different. See, with Katrina, you people were able to look at the bodies floating in New Orleans, act outraged and turn off the TV and get on with your lives. Not this time, cupcake. No, this time we're all going to be affected. Maybe this time you'll pay attention, but early indications don't look promising. You people are still trying to play party politics, even in the face of our self inflicted doom. We continue to treat Mother Earth like a battered wife, and just like a battered wife, there's going to come a time where she can't take it anymore. Once that happens, your profits, and your political party will not be able to save you, and all that rhetoric, won't mean shit. If it were up to me, I'd fine BP $50 million per day. I bet they'd find a way to stop the leak then. Some people say that that amount would be too much, to them I say BP should look into all of their bank accounts and stock holdings, and "Drill baby, drill!" to come up with the money.

Now that I'm older, a little wiser, and have traveled the world, I've seen and learned a lot of things, and up until now, I thought I had most things figured out. I was wrong. The one thing that continues to puzzle me, is trying to figure out how the "blame game" works. As a bass player (El Pus, India.Arie, Anthony David, Sol Cypher, etc.) and former rapper (Tony MF Rock), I've been a part of an industry that's seen more than its fair share of blame. When groups like N.W.A. and 2 Live Crew were around, they were often blamed for a lot of bad things kids were doing at the time. N.W.A.'s "F**k Tha Police" and Body Count's "Cop Killa" were both blamed for police officers being shot in the 80's and 90's. , I'm pretty sure rampant police brutality had nothing to do with it. "Gangsta rap" was blamed for the rise in gang violence, even though gang violence was already bad before "gangsta rap" was even around. Hell, where do you think "gangsta rap" came from?

When the media first started blaming music for crap happening, people immediately took up the cause. People like Tipper Gore and C. Delores Tucker even made it their personal crusade, and records were required to display warning labels. As for me, I thought, "It's a reach, but I kinda see your point. If an impressionable kid listens to hardcore rap, it may cause him to go out and do some things. Okay.". From then on, the "blame game" was on and poppin'! Then in 1993, the World Trade Center bombing happened, and shortly after that, both CNN and ABC News ran follow up reports on it. They had an "expert" on the panel pointing out the flaws in the terrorists' plan to bring the WTC buildings down. This "expert" said that the only way to bring down a building of that magnitude, was to hit it from the middle and up. In 2001, that's exactly what they did! Oddly enough, nobody blamed those CNN and ABC News reports for "influencing " the terrorists like rap music influences gang members.

In the 90's and in the early part of this decade, we witnessed a rash of school shootings, and the media was quick to blame some forms of metal music, just as they had when 2 kids committed suicide after listening to a Black Sabbath tune. In most of the cases, the kids doing the shooting had been bullied, but instead of blaming that or the school administrators for not doing their jobs, blaming the music made more sense. When Bill O'Reilly took to the airwaves to called abortion doctor, George Tiller, a murderer, Tiller was gunned down soon afterwards. Did anyone blame Fox News or O'Reilly? He was simply called a "person who was passionate about his beliefs". Uh, yeah, okay. Maybe if Bill had said what he said with a "gangsta rap" track playing in the background, he'd have gotten his share of blame.

I thought I knew how the "blame game" worked. If video games like Grand Theft Auto can be blamed for the rise in vicious crimes among teens, then surely people like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh can be blamed for the rise in domestic terrorist plots, right? No? Hmm. Okay, then how about this; "Mind of a Lunatic" by the Geto Boyz was responsible for a few women getting raped and beaten, right? Yeah? Okay, I got that part. And Glenn Beck is responsible for helping to increase the division between blacks and whites, right? No? Really, why not? Is it because it wasn't done to music? CNN did story today pointing out all of the incorrect things done by the guy who failed to detonate a car bomb in Times Square. If they next guy, remembering what he learned watching that report, is successful, would CNN be as culpable as they made Marilyn Manson for the Columbine shootings? No? Okay, help me out here. I'm really having trouble trying to figure this "blame game" thing out.