Famous People Playing Music Can Save the World?

So apparently there's a big deal about these Live Earth concerts going on all over the world this weekend... something about benefit shows for a climate in crisis with Al Gore smiling for the cameras.

I'm guessing that all the Police and the Linkin Park did for Earth was add more carbon dioxide to the air with their singing.

I mean, seriously, this is such a stupid idea. It convinces the MTV-educated masses that global warming is a conclusive issue, and even worse, that somehow by listening to this music they are doing something about it.

I've only looked into the controversy enough to know that there's some very good arguments for all of these positions: Global warming is caused by human activities; global warming is real but not caused by human activities; global warming is not all real. It's a complicated issue, and I bet even I know more about global warming than half the stars on the stages across the continents.

Oh, excuse me, it's climate change now, because sometimes it results in global cooling. Gotta have our terms straight to convince the masses that we really know what we're talking about.

This blog is pretty much devoid of substance. I'm just casually ranting over the simultaneous obvious worthlessness and perceived effectiveness of "Concerts for Climate Change."

Puh-leez.

Edmond the Hun

We’re just the boys and girls that think they always know...

There are very few things that make me angry. One of them is pop culture's destructive degeneration of healthy relationships.

It's time for some more venting.

The fourth-highest selling album of last week was Kidz Bop 11. If you don't know, Kidz Bop is a strangely successful series that takes radio hits and re-records them with kids singing them. Apparently 75,000 kids convinced their parents to buy the latest one. Cute? Maybe occasionally.

Some of the hit songs are harmless. As much as I despise Nickelback, at least "Far Away" is about commitment through the distance. But something about ten-year-olds singing about destructive relationships just really gets me. James Blunt's "You're Beautiful" was bad enough. But this latest installement includes Beyonce's You're-not-"Irreplaceable" (I could have another you in a minute) and Hinder's "Lips of An Angel" (It's hard to be faithful to my new woman because I'm still in love with you).

Seriously?! And then we wonder why these kids grow up to be teenagers who sleep around and cheat on each other and break each other's hearts and have no idea what a healthy relationship looks like.

I'll tell you why. It's because our culture doesn't know what a healthy relationship is anymore. We've forgotten that having sex whenever you want isn't any better for you than eating whenever you want (Parenthetical citation: C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity). Pop culture seems to think that relationships are simply about getting what you want.

We haven't quite forgotten that relationships are about the simple joy of spending time with someone, that when she's in your arms there's nothing else in the world. But we have forgotten that relationships are about unselfishness. They're about respect. They're about your attraction for that special someone causing you to desire their happiness and safety above anything else. Some people call that love.

Emery said it best in their song "So Cold I Could See My Breath"

How quickly lust can pretend it's love
Designing words to help us believe
It’s so much more than just tonight
So we have got to get this right
How quickly words can become our hands (you want it more, you want it more)
Resigning everything we believe (you want it more, you want it...)
You want it, you want it
More

We’re just the boys and girls that think they always know
With answers for the world
The ambiguity shows

Even those who don’t agree with the Christian view of sex within a lifetime-lasting marriage must see that it’s dangerous to teach kids that relationships are not at all about commitment or respect or any of those unselfish virtues that actually make relationships work…

Edmond the Hun