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@Delano, I trust you are your's are safe. However I was wondering it the inferno raging across the country you live in has changed your opinion on climate change. The reason it occurred to me is the U.S.'s coverage, of the Australian coverage, of the unprescenced fires raging across your continent. Apparently, Rupert Murdoch's media conglomerate is doing everything in its power to push the agenda that climate change is not a factor in the fires. This led me to believe Murdoch's influence may be -- even unconsciously -- influencing your stance on man.s influence on the climate. Media also made me think about our bets in 45 presidency. You and @Kalexander2 after losing a bet to me over 45 presidency doubled down and bet me again thinking he would be booted from office before the end of his term. It is virtually certainty that he will complete his term, in fact he may win a second. I thought about why a situation they seemed so obvious to me could be seen so differently by you and K2. Then it occurred to be -- neither of you live in the U.S. Your perceptions of what is going on here is quite distorted leading you to believe things that folks here would not possibly believe. In much the same way we, in the U.S., are given distorted views of other countries by our own media you are given a distorted view of the U.S. What do you think?

Nope, because most of it is not "news." Besides I already know how the country works. I was exaggerating, but 15% of it has already burn up and that is indeed massive! Yes, it is well known that a lot of folks get their news from Facebook, but there is no indication that they are fact checking in higher numbers. Even if they did, this is increasingly difficult because news sources are not always fact checking they sources are the have an agenda like Rupert Murdoch, FIX News, etc.

I'm not knocking the musician. This particular song just doesn't move me. The 70s were the first full decade black people experienced in this country without slavery or Jim Crow. Disco and funk reflected that. We had fun, relaxed and displayed our musical prowess. It takes talent to play instruments, read and write music. So I'd disagree that funk is simple. But it reflects a relatively simple time when black people finally felt a little relief from the boots on our necks. The only music that is unique to Europeans is opera. And nobody likes that crap except Europeans. Everything else they stole from cultured people. Michael Bolton's entire career is plagiarism. The Isley Brothers won a $5.2 million lawsuit against Bolton in 2001 for the latter plagiarizing their song "Love is a Wonderful Thing." That Katy Perry chick plagiarized a Christian rap group for one of her biggest hits. If litigation wasn't so expensive and time-consuming, I'd bet 90% of white "artists" would be exposed for who and what they are. That's why white supremacist society ushered in rap in the late 80s. They wanted black people to be talentless copycats too, like them. And man, that Billy Ocean tape with Caribbean Queen, Suddenly, and Mystery Lady might be one of the best albums of all time. The 1980s was the closest the United States will ever get to being a racial melting pot of peace and understanding. And it was the music and television shows that did it. I believe white supremacist society recognized that they were humanizing black people too much in the 80s and they quickly propped up gangsta rap and all those hood movies in the 1990s to destroy what the 80s had done for our overall image. I wasn't alive in the 1960s at all. But must say I am a big fan of all the original Motown sounds and classic rock. Many of the 80s biggest hits that you wouldn't know were remakes came from the 1960s. Joan Jett's "I Love Rock 'N Roll" is a one of the biggest hits of the 1980s. It's a remake by a 70s group called the Arrows. Bananarama's "Venus" was a #1 hit for several weeks in the mid-1980s. It's a remake from the 1960s-70s band Shocking Blue. Tiffany hit #1 with "I Think We're Alone Now." All the kids my age back then had no idea it was a song by Tommy James and the Shondells. There hasn't been much originality since the 1970s. It's funny how the US and UK were very petty in the 1970s and 1980s as far as what bands they allowed from the other country to rank on their respective charts. I was introduced to T Rex and Sweet only because they were played at my local skating rink in the 1980s. My local public library had a HUGE catalog of albums and 8-track tapes, along with a great librarian who knew his stuff about music (a former DJ who influenced my career). The first paper I ever wrote in school was in 3rd or 4th grade and it was about glam rock. It definitely influenced all the 80s hairbands and some of the others wearing outrageous outfits on stage. I don't know why I could never get into the Beatles. Maybe because I always wanted to be different and everyone liked them. Don't get me wrong. There are several Beatles songs I like. I was a black kid who grew up in a white town so basically whatever my friends' parents listened to, that was my experience since my parents were all about soul, funk and R&B. My town was more about Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Janice Joplin and Canadian rockers like Bachman-Turner Overdrive from the 1970s. You and I could probably sit around, smoke weed and listen to music for hours though! :)

I HAD to respond. I really didn't want you getting the wrong idea. The AALBC site and forum are great. But as I said, Lipstick Alley isn't for me.

Kids kicked out the nest perhaps to soon so they are destine to be domed, A parents call in spite of it all being that I am far from an animal to attempt to help them avoid altogether the fall. So many of us had dreams cut short or fear the movement cause no one thought enough of us to cultivate our world beyond the enviable pain life applies. One lie, but we try, in spite the knock down we stand our ground, realizing that birthing a child doesn't make you a mother Loving them in their pain when in earnestness the need you show them an example that welcomes true peace, not self pity, not blame, You allow them to grow, not throw them to the wind because of something you think you know