F*ck Da Soulja Boy

Excuse the vulgarity of the title, but it is difficult to address rap music without being exposed to vulgarity.

This post is my take on the current outcry over Soulja Boy's lyrics in Let's Be Real. Specifically, everyone is in an outrage over "Fuck All Da Army Troop." There is even a movement to have Soulja Boy's music boycotted in military exchanges.

Can there be any doubt that he is disrespecting the military? I remember, during the younger Bush presidency, Democrats commenting on the low the intelligence and education of military members. How they were innocent puppets of Bush, culled from the economically impoverished, coerced into fighting for his oil empire.

There was a great outcry that, hate the war, but support our troops. Now that Obama is in office, there is not even much of an outcry over the wars, all of which are still ongoing and another log has been thrown in that fire.

Culturally, it has become taboo to criticize the military. You can tell that it is this cultural taboo at work because, by examining the entire line we see he says "Fuck Da FBI and Fuck All Da Army Troop." I have looked at hundreds of comments throughout the Internet and news articles and Facebook posts and no one says "How dare he say anything against our FBI agents!"

Ten years ago, we would have said "You should thank God you are in America, where you have the freedom to criticize the military and the government." My how times have changed. It is both taboo to thank God and to criticize government.

But is he really criticizing the military? The FBI? Maybe indirectly and certainly not intentionally (confirmed by his own apology). The next line, and many more after confirm that this song is not meant to criticize anyone directly, but rather prop up his own image. "Fighting For What Bitch, Be Your Own Man." It comes around now, to the same rhetoric we heard during the Bush years. The troops and agents are not fighting for their own cause, just jumping at the master's whip.

He even goes on to say he is no Obama. Interpreting lyrics can be tricky, specially when they don't seem to even be written in your language, or any known language. What I take from his song is Soulja Boy's expression that he is his own man, working to his own purposes with his own followers. He doesn't jump through someone else's hoops for someone else's gain. He is more his own man than even President Obama.

Of course, the fact that he was cowed into apologizing shows he jumps through hoops for the same master as every other American, the Holy Dollar.

Some of my own thoughts:

• It is not surprising that military dependents and some civilians would attack the wording. What surprises me the most is that military members have become so enamored of themselves that they would vehemently attack someone whom they think is speaking out against their profession.
• If Soulja Boy would have said "Fuck All Da McDonald's Troops" would there have been a similar uproar? Would McDonalds stop selling him Big Macs? If the line targetted Wal-Mart cashiers, would Wal-Mart stop selling him blank CDs to put his music on?
• I've listened to some samples of Soulja Boy's songs. How is it enough people listen to this garbage that it is even an issue?
• As a 20 year veteran and an American citizen, I dislike his music but support his rights to express himself and I see no intended offense leveled against anyone.
• For current news that is deliberately meant to be offensive, check out Ben and Jerrys new flavor, Schweddy Balls. It was funny 13 years ago when the comedy was flirting with it's 'unintended' offensiveness. Now it is real and on purpose.

Let Go Your Eggo

Ego. Latin for 'I'. Pronounced like eggo in Latin.

Ego, I find, is my biggest stumbling block when trying to communicate with other people. Not my own ego, does anyone find their own ego to be a problem? No, trying to communicate through ego. Allow me to give an analogy to the problem I often encounter.

I am travelling in a foreign city and enter a market. There is a fruit vendor in the market. As I approach the fruit stand, the vendor comes around and greets me hartily. "Ah, welcome to my fruit stand. This is the best fruit around." I spy, over their shoulder, some large oranges amongst the fruit. "Thank you." I say. "I think I will take a look at your sumptuous looking oranges." A look quickly passes over the vendor's face, but is just as quickly replaced with a smile. "There is nothing wrong with my oranges, just tell me how many you want to purchase." "Of course I am sure they are all fine oranges." I quickly insert, hoping to mollify an unexpected reaction. "I only meant I would like to pick for myself the most appealing oranges." Now the vendor's face becomes beet red and their lips drawn so tight spittle flicks out with their every breath. "How dare you imply I would lie about the quality of my oranges! I don't even want to sell you oranges any more! Begone from my stand!"

I could not even truly address the oranges because the vendor put themselves between me and the fruit. Any interest I had in the oranges was redirected to the vendor. Communicating about the fruit was impossible because of the ego, the 'I' of the vendor. Why is the vendor in the way? Most likely they feel intimately connected to the fruit, fruit from their own trees. Any perceived slight is seen as a slight on the part of the vendor. Let's try another analogy.

I am having some joint pain. It's another gout attack. I get them too frequently. I am not able to work this way, so I go to a doctor to get a note for my supervisor. The doctor is examining my ankle while I explain my history with gout. He briefly looks over my medical history and proclaims, "You don't have gout, this is a mild sprain. You can go back to work." Hmm. I have to ask, so I do. "Why don't you think this is gout. I have been having gout attacks like this for ten years." "I have had eight years of medical school and several years of practical experience. You are not old enough to have gout, your diet does not suggest gout. It looks like a mild sprain, which are quite common in your line of physical work."

This analogy really happened to me, while I was in the military. I finally convinced him I was having a gout attack by insisting on a urine sample being tested for high uric acid levels. Why did I have so much problem with the doctor? He ignored my own observations about my symptoms, he ignored the data in my medical record. His preconceived conclusions about gout and my work kept him from doing an honest diagnostic of my condition.

Ego is often used as a curse word. Used with a connotation of over-inflated sense of self worth. As I mean it, though, is putting yourself where you do not belong. Like between a cart of fruit and a potential customer. Like between a diagnosis that is virtually a foregone conclusion and a suffering patient. Like between a generalization and a fact, because you don't feel the fact fits you as much as the generalization does.

A Microscope Review

For a nice change, we will not be talking about politically explosive issues.

I am 'home schooling' my children. All five of them. What a chore, but what a satisfying chore! I urge anyone who has both children and the time to invest in them to try their hand at home schooling.

Now I am not doing what is traditional home schooling. I do not create their curriculum. I should say, I do not create all of their curriculum. There is a lot of freedom to add to what I teach them. Instead of traditional home schooling, I am a learning coach guiding my children through an online public school called Connections Academy. No one that I have steered towards Connections Academy has been disappointed.

The freedom to explore their education leads to many educational discoveries. We are exploring amateur radio, Latin and computer programming to name just a few. Today, I want to give a review of a device we are incorporating into our classes. A microscope.

The microscope I bought us and we are having a hoot with is the My First Lab Duo-Scope, model MFL-06. It cost me a modest $63.99 (free shipping with Amazon Prime) through Amazon.com. It is not the heavy metal behemoth you used in high school. Much of it is plastic and it feels light weight and deserving of special handling. I frequently tell Amaya to not lean on the eye piece, afraid she will break it off. Regardless of how it feels, it works great. Focus is crisp and sharp, the lights are bright, nothing is loose or jiggly.

It calls itself a duo-scope because it has two different light sources. One that shines up through the material you are viewing and one that shines down on the material. When I went to school (am I so old, really?) there was a metal reflector that you had to use to reflect sunlight up through the material. It was a real challenge for me to get enough light and I never really enjoyed using a microscope. Boy did I miss out on a lot! The bright LED lights use three 'AA' batteries. I do not know how long they will last. We have been using ours for four days so far. Not nearly enough time to judge the efficiency of the lights.

For optics, it has a x10 eyepiece, a x4 objective lens, a x10 objective lens and a x40 objective lens. I considered buying a microscope with a higher magnification (X1000 vs x400) but based on other reviewer's comment I decided that a clear x400 was better than a blurry x1000. I've not be disappointed with the optics or my choice in a lower magnification range. Most of the things I have viewed have looked wonderful on the lowest setting of x40 (eyepiece times objective lens). Some things have required a higher setting to see more detail but a clear image at x400 has been enough to open a whole new world of discovery.

Something that I discovered (I discovered it because I didn't read the manual to learn it) is that you cannot use the overhead light at the highest magnification. The x40 objective lens gets so close to what you are viewing that it blocks the light.

Things I wish were different. I am very pleased with the microscope. I can think of only one thing I wish was different. I wish there was a power cable for the microscope. I find it needlessly expensive, wasteful and ecologically unfriendly to require batteries. A USB connector would be ideal, but even a normal wall adapter would be useful.

I didn't add any picture because I don't have an adapter for my camera. If you want to see the outside of the microscope, just follow the links I posted. I really wish I could show you some of the great images that have been eliciting squeals of delight from my children, made my wife shudder and keep the smiles on my face.