Columnist ripped for reference to ‘Imagine’ as ‘silly’ song by ex-Beatle John Lennon

I would venture to guess that at least a billion people worldwide adore John Lennon’s anthem of peace and love, “Imagine.”

I had never heard of Dennis Prager, but after reading his commentary “Imagine no big cities...” (in the Sept. 01-14 edition of the Daily Planet), I cannot find a more appropriate word to describe his writing than the one he used to embarrass himself by calling one of John Lennon’s masterpieces “silly.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: The Beatles included Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and John Lennon. After the group’s breakup on April 10, 1970, Lennon began his solo career and, in 1971, released “Imagine,” the best-selling single of his solo career. While the song has many fans, on May 28, 2010, an opinion piece from Steve Hoffman, a music critic, appeared — memorably — in Rolling Stone magazine, headlined “Hey Rolling Stone — John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ is an awful song,” referring specifically to the magazine’s ranking of “Imagine” as one the top five songs of all time. (Rolling Stone named “Imagine” No. 3 on its “500 Greatest Songs of All Time” list, behind
The Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction” and Bob Dylan’s “Like A Rolling Stone.”) Regarding “Imagine,”Hoffman wrote, “It’s a bad, bad song. I say that as both a Beatles fan and a John Lennon fan. It has a plodding, boring melody that drags on and on, and some of the worst lyrics I’ve ever heard in any song, ever-pie-in-the-sky, peace ‘n love hippie nonesense.”

Another outspoken "Imagine" critic, Frank Turner, former vocalist for post-hardcore band Million Dead, also despised “Imagine,” saying in a 2012 interview, “I think one of the things that grinds for me, though, is the way it’s a kind of fall-back ‘favorite song’ for people who don’t have any interest in music. It’s a default setting for the tasteless. I’d respect people much more if they just

said, ‘You know what? I don’t really care about music,’ rather than pick this song as a favorite. It’s so beige.”

Equity/inclusion chief, really?

Talk about double-talk — what the heck is that supposed to mean?  

Ms. (Brenda) Mills might very well be a nice lady, but it seems to me she’s made a career out of making herself and people feel good about themselves, without ever producing anything constructive.  

Used to be that folks were interviewed for a job based on whether they could do it. 

Nowadays they have to be conversive on making sure they don’t offend anyone, say all the right things and, in general, walk on eggs.  

A perfectly predictable outcome; a strategic blunder

Perfectly predictable!

Once again, we walk away, leaving a nation dependent upon the strength of the U.S. to fend for itself; the outcome was predictable, Afghanistan is on the verge of becoming a failed state, again.

Optimizing force levels around the globe is a continual assessment. Throughout the past 20 years, U.S. force levels in Afghanistan ebbed and flowed as the mission changed. 

The U.S. desired nation-building effects had been achieved, leaving only a small residual force to execute counter-terrorism operations. With no combat losses in eighteen months, our commitment was sustainable.

Now is not the time for political finger-pointing; this failure crosses several administrations.

With the U.S. departure from Afghanistan, we lost a strategic platform that enabled the U.S. to provide multiple dilemmas to multiple adversaries.

We are a weaker nation tonight. Instead of walking completely away, optimizing troop strength to continue counter-terrorism operations would have maintained our operational flexibility.

Remaining clear-headed and focusing on what must be done to move forward is the most pressing challenge in front of us.

If there is time and energy later, we'll sort it out and gain accountability to prevent this failure from happening again.

The 2,349 Americans who paid the ultimate sacrifice and the 20,149 Americans wounded during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Freedom's Sentinel served with honor and valor, asking no questions.

Let's honor our national treasure with respect and humility. With two Afghanistan Combat Tours at the Tactical, Operational, and Strategic levels of war, the U.S. departure from Afghanistan is very personal.  

Those who serve feel firsthand the rigors of combat while the communities and families around them share in their sacrifice.  In the coming days, our focus should be on our Gold Star Families and with our Veterans questioning their sacrifice and commitment — tonight, as always, they are in my prayers.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Rod Honeycutt is a recently retired, 37-year U.S. Army colonel, running for U.S. Congress, seeking the seat held by Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-Hendersonville.

Time for us to ‘roll up’ for the magical mystery tour

We need to change our worldview. 

As the tentacles of tyranny are beginning to choke the life out of our civilization, it is imperative that we find a new zeitgeist (spirit) for our civilization.

The age of scientific reductionism, whose medical inflection now forms the foundation for the rise of this new tyranny, must come to an end. 

The “experts” are always right, we are told, and the vision of a world terrorized by a rogue virus is beyond question. Yet I wonder if we have lost our humanity in the details of this lurid tale and if we don’t act soon it is possible that those details may kill us.

The current story of COVID-19 illustrates this case most clearly. 

To the “experts,” we are justified in giving up our freedom because a contagious virus is roaming the globe killing people when in fact something quite different is happening. 

The recent “pandemic” has underscored the increasing vulnerability of a human immune system that has become so damaged by our lifestyle and pollution of the environment that our health and well-being have reached a tipping point. 

What we have today is not a viral pandemic but an epidemic of modern non communicable diseases (NCDs) that are amplifying the vulnerability of the human immune system to the flu and other exploitative viruses. It is not the virus that is killing people, it is the condition of their weakened immune systems. 

This is where Dr. (Tony) Fauci and his now-obsolete germ theory of disease have led us. 

We have seen the real germ — and it is us! 

Ironically, this is not far from the truth. Our bodies are infused with and surrounded by germs that live in symbiosis with us and help us fend off disease. 

We are made of germs. For our immune system to remain optimally effective these good germs need to get out in the world and be challenged by evil beasties and, therefore, learn how to fight off disease. 

This is the wonder of natural immunity brilliantly demonstrated during the recent “pandemic” by the more enlightened country of Sweden.

It may sound a bit counterintuitive, given the current situation, but it is at this very time in our history that we need to fully embrace the world. 

It is by celebrating our sacred connection to life that we can overcome the fear that is ultimately driving us into the hands of tyrants. 

Never before has it been so important to connect with our friends, families and neighbors. 

We need to share our soul essence with the world. A mere hug can do wonders! Contact with the outside environment has never been more important. 

The world is a magical mystery that is beckoning our hearts to heal the wound between us and once again live in harmony with her. 

In a play on the lyrics of Lennon and McCartney, it is time for us to roll up, roll up for a new magical mystery tour that is waiting to take us away from this nightmare. 

This understanding should be the foundation of a new zeitgeist for humanity. 

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following letter — to N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper — was submitted to the Daily Planet with the request that it be printed as a letter to the editor.

Cooper not representing North Carolinians on guns

How disgusting it was to read that you, (Gov. Roy Cooper) yet again, vetoed a bill (HB-398 Pistol Purchase Permit Repeal).  

You, sir, are living in another world and need a dose of reality. 

You are not listening to the people you are supposed to represent. Your decisions should be based on what the people want and NOT on your personal views or desires.

The legislature, representing the residents of N.C. law enforcement agencies and officers across the state, and individuals urged you to sign HB-398.  

But you did not. Instead of listening to North Carolinians, you choose to listen to and follow the desires of the Democratic left. 

You have vetoed 60 bills to date. That is three (3) times more than any N.C. governor.

Is your ego such that you see yourself better than all North Carolinians?

Or perhaps you have “Bedenitis,” where you don’t like all things Republican? 

Whatever the reason, get over yourself and do the job you were hired to do.

Fascists on Facebook include 'clueless' N.C. man

A pro-Trump, white supremacist, partisan Republican fan of Fox News from Grover, N.C., drove his mud-caked pickup truck up onto the sidewalk of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 19, where he parked for five hours.

All the while, he filmed himself on Facebook, live-streaming his right-wing political bomb threats against President Biden, Democrats and the residents of D.C., including this pro-Trump terrorist filming his apparently inert, improvised explosive devices all on Facebook for any cross-burning QAnon crackpot to copy.

For some reason, this 49-year-old attempted bomber by the name of Floyd Ray Roseberry seemed to individually personify traitor Trump’s political base as it’s become known generally: a violent, racist, low-IQ, neo-Confederate numbskull who is completely out of touch with reality and is in desperate need of psychiatric medication, much like the deranged and delusional dimwit Donald Trump himself.

I don’t know if it was the brain-damaged sounding, slow Southern drawl with which this white supremacist spoke, or if it was Mr. Roseberry’s bulbous shaved head and unnecessarily large pickup truck with unnecessarily large tires, but if one were to hypothetically be able to look up a picture of the average Trump supporter in the dictionary… a photo of Floyd the barber from Mayberry (I mean Grover), North Carolina, is surely what one would find.

And as far as Floyd’s idiotic insistence live on Facebook that “The South shall rise again”, please!  I’ve watched “Gone With the Wind” too, but if you’re actually taking your American history lessons from a pro-Confederacy, pro-slavery cinematic crapfest that was so racist (even for it’s time) that it actually portrayed black folks as happy to be enslaved, well then you’re probably too racist and clueless to be cognizant at all.

Speaking of clueless racists, Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott recently contracted COVID-19 after spending the past several months issuing dictatorial edicts from the Governor’s Mansion in Austin against local mask mandates and blocking other necessary public health safety measures, instead of repairing Texas’ broken power grid before the upcoming winter.

Hopeless, hapless Gov. Abbott and his pro-Russian Republican comrade from Canada — Rafael “Ted” Cruz — should both plan on making another mid-winter escape to Cancun, Mexico, in the midst of what is sure to be another disastrously deadly power grid shutdown season in Texas.  

Mask decision represents freedom vs. mandates

On Tuesday, Sept. 6th, the Polk County Board of Education, on short notice and without the input of parents and the public, put into effect a mask mandate on all students. 

Contrary to a statement by the minority party, this was clearly against the wishes of parents as demonstrated at last month’s board meeting and no doubt will again be expressed at the next board meeting. 

The minority party disingenuously speaks of keeping politics out of the schools and of “following the science,” but it is clear that they are uninterested in “Doing what’s best for children.”

Numerous studies make it clear that children and young adults are more likely to be struck by lightning than to suffer serious illness or death from COVID-19. Studies show that masking and isolating children is harmful to their physical and mental well-being and may cause permanent physical and mental damage.  

The minority party cites the high ranking that Polk County schools have achieved to justify allowing school administrators free rein over decisions affecting student’s health and education. 

Parents and taxpayers have not given up their rights to ultimately decide school policy because teachers and administrators have done their jobs in the past. Also, those rankings were not achieved with masked or quarantined schoolchildren. School performance has been shown to have been damaged terribly by masking and isolation during this pandemic. 

So why is the minority party pushing the mandate agenda?

They say “ this is not about personal liberty.”

When you hear the minority party say that, then you know that it is exactly about our personal liberty. The party of “choice” is about mandates: mandates for masks or vaccines or whatever else they deem necessary in the future.

The party of “science” is about ignoring the truth in order to control your lives and indoctrinate your children. The minority party is about control, it’s just that simple. 

As this statement is being written, President Biden is issuing executive orders to force vaccines and other mandates on many Americans. He does not have the constitutional authority to do this, as local boards do not have the authority to enforce their mandates.

The minority party claims that opposition to the school board’s actions is only “a small, vocal group.”

Was it only a small vocal group that turned out a large majority of parents and concerned citizens at the last regular school board meeting? 

Was it a small vocal group which elected Republicans to all five seats on the Polk County Board of Commissioners?

Was it a small vocal group which celebrated Independence Day in Columbus this year while the minority party was nowhere to be seen?

Will it be a small vocal group which decides the outcome of the next school board elections? 

No, it is a large, patriotic group which will make itself heard and determine the future of Polk County. 

The Republican Party of Polk County is ready to aid parents and citizens in this fight to protect our schoolchildren and all citizens. 

Through the efforts of the Republican Party of Polk County and other patriotic citizens, Polk County has declared itself a Constitutional County. Our primary purpose is to support and defend that Constitution. 

Opposition to N.C. budget’s anti-local measures urged

The General Assembly’s proposed stated budget is a Trojan horse hiding an army of measures to remove local control over key local issues.

Engineered by special-interest lobbyists, the provisions are so unpopular they couldn’t be passed as freestanding bills — but unless voters demand that state legislators and Gov. (Roy) Cooper drop them from the budget bill, SB105, they’re likely to sneak through and sabotage the few defenses N.C. cities and counties are currently allowed to mount against the destructive effects of climate change and gentrification.

Three of the measures would limit local governments from passing rules requiring tree protection (bill Section 5.14a)); prohibit local stormwater-control requirements from exceeding state or federal requirements (Section 12.16(a)); and authorize relocation of outdoor advertising signs, even if nonconforming (Section 41.47(b). A fourth would remove local control over short-term rentals.

Disastrous global-wamring-induced flooding in our mountains has swept away people’s homes and lives. 

Yet this budget would ban badly needed local stormwater reforms that exceed outdated, one-size-fits-all state and federal rules, and prevent municipalities, such as Buncombe County, from passing ordinances to protect their tree canopy without prior approval from a legislature dominated by climate-change deniers.

Conservative rage soothed by ‘Cult of Donald Trump?’

I remember being a college student and hearing my philosophy professor saying this to the class:

“Loneliness is the least-talked-about social problem in the USA.”

This came back to me when I was trying to understand why so many conservative-Republicans (especially the ones who are radical-right-wing and far-right-wing) react so strongly against COVID vaccines and indoor mask-wearing. Their rage over this seems way out of proportion as well as irrational.

I now believe that what is “behind” a lot of their over-reactions is that it means the world to them to be a part of, and a follower of, what some Democrats call “The Cult of Donald Trump.”

Being a part of a cult or of any large group can take away a lot of our loneliness.  

Broken pact on monuments to reconciliation? Significant

The monuments to the cause were erected from the 1890s to the 1920s to remember those who fell for our independence.

One in four military age men died in the war and another quarter were permanently maimed. Many were held in death camps, where they were purposely froze and starved to death.

 For the North, the monuments were part of an understanding that we could honor our heroes, they would even name army bases after them, and we could again fly the flag and celebrate our holidays.

In return, we would pledge allegiance to their flag and fight their wars.