I say people need to @ least be aware of and prepared for this possibility, even if you might think it currently far fetched. Reason being, that hallucinating people would be picked off quicker than people whose minds are clear.

I hope hallucinogenic warfare is never actualized, but given man’s capacity for making bizarre and destructive concoctions, I’d say it is not as crazy as it may @ 1st sound. I would love my readers thoughts on this topic.     I have heard of people who have taken hallucinogens and suffered side effects years later.

 Remember Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett anyone? Case in point.

1. Rage Against The Machine – Killing In The Name

Originally released in the early 1990’s, this song hit the Christmas number one spot in the UK charts in 2009 as a protest against the X Factor. Someone started a Facebook page to get this song to number one instead of the X Factor winner song – it worked!

2. Pink Floyd – Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)

What has this song got to do with Christmas? Nothing much apart from the fact it was the Christmas number one in the UK in 1979. This was the only number one hit in the UK that Pink Floyd had.

3. Bob The Builder – Can We Fix It

Christmas is all about the kids – or something like that. And in the year 2000 enough kids pestered their parents enough to buy this song to take it to number one in the UK charts and at Christmas no less!

4. Mr Blobby – Mr Blobby

The first non human to make it to number one in the UK – for what that is worth – enough people bought this nonsensical nonsense to make it the Christmas number one in the UK in 1993. I blame Noel Edmonds.

5. Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody

Which song has been number one at Christmas time not once but twice in the UK. Yep, Bohemian Rhapsody – Christmas number one in 1975 and again in 1991. And not a mention of Christmas in it at all.

6. Scaffold – Lilly The Pink

All the way back to the Christmas number one of 1968 for this song here by Scaffold, who included Paul McCartney’s brother and Roger McGough. It should be noted that Christmas songs did seem to pass the 1960’s by; they were popular enough in the 1950’s and in the 70’s and beyond but not in the 60’s!

7. Benny Hill – Ernie (The Fastest Milkman In The West)

Comedian Benny Hill had something of an unexpected hit with this one – no one could have predicted how high it would get in the chart. It was the Christmas number one in 1971.

8. Human League – Don’t You Want Me

Perhaps the music buying public just don’t want to see Christmas type songs reach the Christmas number one spot. Like this one for example – nothing to do with Christmas but a Christmas number one nonetheless (in 1981).

9. Michael Jackson – Earth Song

A haunting song for sure but is this the kind of thing that is needed at Christmas. This Michael Jackson song managed to be the Christmas number one in 1995.

10. Jackie Wilson – Reet Petite

This song first hit the charts in 1957 and finally made it to the number one spot just in time for Christmas in 1986 – yep 29 years! 

Think about it. What would the world be like without money? John Lennon mentions it in his song “Imagine.”

♪ “Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man .” ♪

Money is the #1 reason for divorce. Who doesn’t have money stress? Even rich people do, especially if they get divorced… how do you split all that money? And who gets what?

Even Pink Floyd said it  ♪ Money, it’s a crime ♪ ♫ Money, get away Get a good job with more pay And your O.K. ♫

Some people are born into money, I wasn’t one of them and I’m actually glad about that. I look at those spoiled rotten child actors or children of actors and it makes me sick the way they behave. Oh I’m sure there are a few that appreciate what they have and aren’t constantly behaving stupidly but it seems they are a few. Can they really appreciate what they have though? If anyone is born into money, can they appreciate it? I don’t think so. I believe we have to earn it off the sweat of our backs to appreciate it.

A couple that starts out a marriage without money eats dinner off of cardboard box tables, eats Kraft Dinner, skimps and saves everything they can and then one day that couple will be able to afford a house of their own, one that they worked very hard for and they appreciate it.

If a young couple is given a house as a gift on their wedding day for example, then they’re not as likely to appreciate that house. I’m sure they do but not in the same way. Sure they have mortgage to pay every month for a very long time but each month they know that they are a little bit closer to paying it off and it being completely their own.

Money can corrupt, give people a false sense of power and the feeling that they can buy their way through life.

To most of us buying a cup of coffee at our local coffee shop is something we don’t even think about. To many people in poorer countries the price of that coffee could be all the money they make in one month.

“You can’t take it with you.”  No you can’t. You might be born into money but you won’t die with it, it stays behind to be passed on to our loved ones and who knows what they’ll do with it? Will they fight over it, over all our belongings? I say spend it while you can, enjoy it, take a vacation, buy something you always wanted to buy. At least that’s what I would do if I had money.

Money – Imagine what life would be like without it.

Ayatollah is the title of senior representatives of the Iranian establishment. The group intends thereby to express the position of young Iranians who are dissatisfied with the current situation in the country. Redesigned recording gives its green light to young musicians and Roger Waters of Pink Floyd. You can hear it on the website YouTube.com. Proceeds from the song go organization Amnesty International.

Some students are able to stay motivated throughout their entire educational career, but the rest are left behind because they are either apathetic for the reason that teachers do not peak their interests or they are too smart and teachers assume that they can handle themselves. Schools across the country should focus on setting goals in mind for the students like the Sudbury school model. The Sudbury school model is a form of democratic education where students decide what to do with their free time, every class (the word class is de-emphasized) involves interaction instead of passive learning, there are less age groupings, and “play” is emphasized in order to learn. All schools should try to make learning fun so that the critical thinking abilities they learn can be applied and appreciated their whole lives.

The idea of teaching students to think for themselves and to really respect their teachers and elders, instead of the fear-induced respect they are currently being taught each and everyday, has to come from educators. Teachers need to be caring leaders with emotional intelligence so respect for diversity and others can be taught through role modeling. Instead of spending time watching movies like “Remember the Titans”, activities should be done to learn to respect others. Teaching respect should not be kept waiting until high school before it is a disaster. Rules need to make sense to students. When I was in high school, all I wanted to do when I was bored at lunch was go down to the library and start my homework so I could have more time for fun when I went home. Some students just wanted to go down to the gym to play some pick up basketball games to blow off steam before they had to sit through some more boring and irrelevant lectures. Instead the Gestapo parental volunteers and other teachers that liked treating us like we were in Auschwitz held us captive. They only did that because they did not trust us, but how were they supposed to trust us when they did not respect us? They treated us like children in POW camps, so we acted like kids in POW camps.

Relevant classes need to be taught in schools. I am a little disappointed in Michigan’s new academic requirements. They take time away from classes some students enjoy like shop or band and put them in the more boring classes they will probably fail anyway. If a student fails a class in Michigan they have to take summer classes or become a super senior just to graduate. The reason kids do not graduate or go to college is not because they did not have enough education, it is because they found the excess amount of classes unimportant and boring. In an individualistic society, choices need to be made that determine your own identity and future. The government seems to want conformity in the students that they produce. A student’s ability to critically think about their life is what is important in education, not the ability to participate and compete with other students in the global capitalistic economy.

I chose this topic because the education institution does not simply fall into the schools hands. Sports that have active coaches, parents that teach their children values or home school them, religion, the media, and most other aspects of society teach everyone something. Education does define a person’s success in life though. If this system is failing one person, it is failing everyone. We all go down when one person goes down. The song “Black and Blue” by The Herd has an interesting take on the failing education system. Here is a sample of their lyrics.

I can see clear that the systems dying
but I haven’t learnt the words yet to define it
but yes so fine ill step in line
and write I’m a distraction 500 times.

Other areas in pop culture try to use music or entertain people enough to make them think about the true character of the ethos of the failing education system. The song by Pink Floyd “Another Brick in the Wall” is played during the Pink Floyd movie and has hundreds of children burning down a school with all of their desks and books along with it. The popular 1990’s comic strip “Calvin and Hobbes”, starring a brilliant, troublemaking six-year old boy and his stuffed tiger that only comes to life with his imagination, satirizes and criticizes public schools quite often. In one panel Calvin’s dad is talking to him and asks him why he does not like school. He says to Calvin that he loves to learn about Dinosaurs, so why can’t he love to learn other things in school. Calvin’s response is “We don’t talk about Dinosaurs”.