Hey, Mr. President:

 

"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."

--- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  (April 4, 1967)

Diss Track Review: "No Rest for the Wicked"

The '90s were wild.  Hip Hop was at its peak of diversity, not only in terms of sound but representation. Things got a little stupid at one point.  You had an all-white rap group by the name of "Young Black Teenagers," Jewish Ruthless Records act Blood of Abraham, the Geto Boys featuring Bushwick Bill--the one-eyed Jamaican little person with a history of suicide attempts and mental illness--"crunchy" Afrocentric groups like Arrested Development & A Tribe Called Quest (which were amazing).  It was truly the Golden Age.  For the most part these acts co-existed peacefully.  Mostly.

Young Black Teenagers 🤔

Enter Cypress Hill:  a trio comprised of Sen Dog, Muggs & B-Real from Southgate California--the first major label act to put Latinos, marijuana & gangsta rap on the map together when they came out in '91. They had a unique sound in MC B-Real's nasally delivery & Muggs' haunting beats.  Today they occasionally feature the percussion of Eric Bobo, especially when one of the other guys can't be present on stage.  Cypress Hill's niche was the pothead demographic that watched The Simpsons (which the band appeared on), skateboarded and attended Woodstock '94, an event the group also performed at.  While B-Real had a real history of gangbanging, the group was seen as a chill rap-rock act with a sense of humor that played to mostly white crowds.  

A pre-beef B-Real & Ice Cube

Initially they were buddies with Ice Cube, another heavy in the Cali rap scene.  Cube made a cameo in their very first music video "How I Could Just Kill A Man" and later went on tour with the band in Australia circa 1994.  But somewhere along the way it all came unglued.  As the story goes, Cypress let Cube listen to a pre-release cut of their single "Throw Your Set in the Air" and claim that he stole the idea with his track "Friday" (from the soundtrack to the movie of the same name).  Here's a sample of the lyrics to the choruses from both songs so you can make up your own mind: 

Cube's version:  

Oh yeah
Throw your neighborhood in the air
If you don't care
Oh yeah
Throw your neighborhood in the air
If you don't care

...and the Cypress Hill version:

Throw your set in the air (C'mon)
Wave it around like you just don't care
Throw your set in the air (Throw it up, homes)
Wave it around like you just don't care

Point taken.  This rip-off resulted in the fiery "No Rest for the Wicked," a track on Cypress Hill's dark, gloomy 1995 album "III (Temples of Boom)."  In it the guys call out Cube for a variety of perceived sins, from plagiarism to putting a pipe on an album cover when he doesn't really smoke weed (!!!) to being fat to, uhh... cutting his hair to look like B-Real's?  Not the hardest diss track ever, but it is the only one to casually drop a Yiddish word* in a verse, ask if we know what it means and then define it for us, so it's got that going for it.  It fit nicely on this brooding album laced with exotic-sounding chimes & sitars and no shortage of hard lyrical content.  

Interspersed between verses is a lot of angry ranting by an unknown member of the group--either Muggs or Sen Dog--that contains the n-word.  If it's Muggs this is pretty scandalous because he's white (Italian descent).  And there's a 50/50 chance it is because Sen Dog played a less prevalent role in this album after breaking away to do his own thing while in Australia on tour (a fact Ice Cube alludes to in his comeback diss track "King of the Hill" with the line "when Sen Dog left your bitch ass in Australia").  But that just goes back to the '90s being a different time.  I imagine that even a Latino rapper like B-Real who has light skin & very little African ancestry would draw ire if he were to drop that word in today's climate, but I digress.  

This feud spiraled with more back and forth between Cypress Hill and Ice Cube's group Westside Connection until California's Black and Latino communities were ready to go to war for real over it.  There's an excellent episode of Beef that covers this chapter of Hip Hop History.  Cypress Hill's razor sharp wit came through on their next diss track, "Ice Cube Killa," which stole the beat from "King of the Hill" and featured an Ice Cube soundalike.  (I actually bought my 1st Cypress Hill record after hearing about them on the aforementioned track by Westside Connection, so that song had the opposite effect.  Sorry, fellas). 

While the general consensus at the time was that Cube & Co. had more street cred, now I feel the opposite when I go back and listen to all the tracks in this beef.  Sure, Cypress Hill may have stuck to rapping about weed & mental "illusions" and other not-so-hard things, but at least they were authentic about it.  In the intervening years they've stuck mostly to music and weed products while Cube has put out all kinds of corny family Blockbuster comedies and made some very sus songs/political moves that his younger self would've scoffed at.

Cypress Hill & Cube after squashing the beef.

Eventually the guys squashed the beef to avert disaster as they felt it wasn't worth causing actual tragedy in the streets, which was the right call.  They're friends to this day so the whole episode seems to have been a blip on the radar, thankfully.  But for a minute it got ugly.  Let this be a lesson to anyone thinking of stealing creative ideas from loved ones:  don't.  Especially if said loved ones happen to be rollin' 50 deep and strapped with enough gats to make the military shake in their boots. 

Song Highlights

No rest, no peace, no sleep
Doughboy rolling down the Hill 'cause it's so steep

Shoulda known that you couldn't hang in the alley
Good boy went to school out in the valley

"No Vaseline"
Just a rope and a chair and gasoline (burning your ass up!)

"You know what a chazzer* is, O'Shea?
A motherfucking pig that don't fly straight"
Where ya gonna run to? Where ya gonna hide?
Taadow, look at who's waitin' outside

I got Cube melting in a tray
Pulling up his card and fucking up his "good day"
Unoriginal rap veteran
The nigga who say he don't steal from his friends
Don't trust that nigga named O'Shea
Fuck 'im, and send him on his way!

"No Rest for the Wicked" by Cypress Hill

On R-E-S-P-E-C-T

--- Unknown

This is a sentiment I share, and one I've thought a lot about over the years.  In fact I'd take it a step further & say that defaulting to blind respect based on age alone is actively dangerous.  (Well, maybe "respect" is the wrong word.  Everyone's entitled to basic respect.  Maybe "reverence" is the word they're looking for).

My Boomer parents grew up in a world where children were to be seen and not heard, where "respect your elders" was the mantra & back-talking was a mortal sin (I also grew up with that last tenet. This sin earned me countless ass whoopins & hours in my room as a kid.  Probably 95% of my punishments were for "backtalking").  One of my parents & both of their siblings endured the worst thing a child can endure--all at the hands of DIFFERENT men in town--and it was never reported to police, not that they would've done anything other than blame the kids and their mom anyway.  My grandma on the other side of the family also endured the same abuse from what sounds like the same man, or at least someone in the same "network".  All of them claim this was just "the norm" in the '50s and '60s which is enraging.

Yet my parents are the first to say parents today are too lenient, that the only thing they did wrong in raising me was not beating me MORE and that "respect your elders" should be the law of the land.  Also enraging.  How you can grow up in that hellscape & still not grasp how that mindset endangers kids is beyond me.  The unspoken side of that coin, of course, is:  "Due to their lack of life experience, kids are little more than sentient furniture; a loud, expensive inconvenience deserving of all their parents' rage & the sexual frustration of random perverts who cross their paths--a possession with no bodily autonomy.  Kids aren't worthy of respect."  

Don't get me wrong:  there's a long list of elderly people I admire & respect more than I can put into words.  Most of these people belong to the Silent Generation:  all my grandparents fall into this category but there are others I've known all my life who are equally amazing.  Real badasses who've lived through the Great Depression, multiple wars, pandemics & social upheavals yet maintained their sweet, soft outlook.  Folks who stuck it out in less than ideal marriages & then nursed their partners through brutal battles with Alzheimer's or other terminal diseases & maintained a positive outlook despite it all.  They very likely hold old-fashioned racist, sexist, homophobic views but aren't narcissistic enough to go around spewing them in public or around younger people.  That's called having CLASS.  These lovely people tended to live into their late 80s or 90s regardless of income, education or lifestyle which is perhaps an interesting side note.  The wisdom they possess could fill novels.

Yet somehow the generation AFTER them (the Baby Boomers, ahem) seems to have turned out just the opposite.  A product of the wealthiest period in American history after WWII, the 1st generation raised on television & accurately labeled the "Me Generation," these folks ripped ass partying & protesting throughout their youth in the '60s and '70s before slamming the door shut on their kids and grandkids in the Reaganite '80s, morphing from hippies into Yuppies into their final Trumpster dumpster fire form in old age.  They have very little to be angry about, as most of them have been able to retire & live comfortable lives, draining Social Security, supporting numerous wars after literally burning their own Vietnam draft cards & heating the planet to dangerous levels with their precious fossil fuels.  Of course these are the loudest, angriest Boomers of all, not those forced to work in their old age or live in their cars due to poverty/homelessness.  

But then that seems to be the pattern, doesn't it?  Those with the most to be happy about tend to be LEAST content.  People whose parents did the most for them, allowing them to laze about & not do chores or work are the most critical of others & the most miserable.  Those forced to take care of themselves from a young age or endure abuse tend to be grateful for every little bit of good fortune that comes their way, completely unable to relate to the sense of entitlement those pampered brats exhibit.  It's a sad & frustrating paradox for parents trying to decide how many creature comforts & how much help to give their kids growing up.  Too little and you've traumatized them; too much & you've created a monster.

Back to the point:  I base my respect not on a person's age, race, sex, achievements, wealth, status or anything of the sort.  For me, the way you treat people is everything.  Are you friendly even when you feel the opposite?  Do you take your bad moods out on innocent people?  Do you apologize when you've wronged someone?  You may not have anything to give in the way of material things (Lord knows I don't), but you can always help in some way.  Maybe you're a good researcher or writer with unique knowledge to share; perhaps networking is your strength & you know someone who can do a friend's taxes for free or get them a job in their chosen industry.  Perhaps you're physically strong & can offer help with a burdensome task like moving.  All of these things require energy, effort & work, be it mental or physical.  If people can't recognize and appreciate these contributions, maybe it's time to pull back a bit.  Whatever your abilities, helping is a CHOICE, as is being kind.  And so is being grateful for that help and kindness.  

To summarize, respect (and especially reverence) is earned regardless of one's age or station in life.  Anyone who comes around demanding it probably doesn't deserve much.  🧐

 

To Youngsters Agonizing Over a Career Path:

Choose a career you're passionate about, have a degree of natural talent in & something that pays a salary you can live with, not what your family or community want you to do.  You're the one who will have to wake up & go to said job every day of your life until retirement, not them. 

More specifically, stop going into helping professions (teaching, nursing, firefighting, social work, physical/occupational therapy & counseling) if you don't intend to help.  If your #1 focus is money* & you really don't have the empathy or patience necessary to deal with vulnerable populations, find another career path.  If your "help" is thinly veiled love-bombing or martyring in an attempt to get narcissistic supply & look like a hero...  If you're weaker or less stable than the people you're trying to help...  If you secretly despise the less fortunate & use them to feel superior or fulfill a rescue fantasy.  FOLLOW THE $$$ AND GO.  There are far more lucrative fields that don't require you to interact with the poor, feeble-minded, sick & needy.  

  *Money is the #1 reason everyone works so demand to be paid what you're worth regardless of what you do.  But for some people money is the sole focus of their lives, symbolizing success, power & immortality--the reason they get up in the morning, the #1 must-have on their ideal partner list & so on.  If you don't have it, they don't consider you their equal & nothing you say or do will change that.  They may not tell you so to your face, but you'll find out in other ways, such as when they're pushed to the breaking point at work & have one of those lovely "mask slip" moments.  (And these moments are happening increasingly often as workers are expected to take on the workload of multiple employees for less pay).  That's not an excuse, it's just a fact. 

That's why truly being passionate about your career is so important.  You may not always like your co-workers, boss or the way things are run, but if you at least enjoy the mission and focus of the work itself, that can be your saving grace.   Meanwhile, if the people above you on the food chain are making your life unlivable, take it up with them.  Organize with coworkers & try to negotiate to get what you're worth, or simply work on setting healthy boundaries & saying 'no' to extra work.  Demand to be treated with respect or leave relationships, be they platonic or romantic.  This is how efficient, bad-ass bosses run their lives.

Whatever you have to do, it's not acceptable to take your frustration and rage out on those with less power who don't deserve it:  your kids, wife, clients, students, loyal friends, patients, employees, pets or others who did nothing wrong.  That's gutless & cowardly & solves nothing.  You may have absolutely valid points but you invalidate them the minute you choose to lash out at innocent bystanders.  You may even be a victim of abuse yourself, verbal or otherwise, but you cease to be a victim the moment you turn your pain into rage & dump it on someone who did nothing wrong.  Now you're just another victimizer.  

Punching down:  Cycle of pointless violence

If you can't help someone, that's understandable.  You're human.  But at least endeavor not to hurt them.  And thank you to those rare few who truly do care, not because you're paid to pretend you do but because you have compassion, want to pay it forward & make the world a better place.  Don't forget to take care of yourselves too.   🌏🩺🚒

Bunk Benzedrex & FDA Fuckery

Ahh, the good old days.

I was recently informed that the makers of Benzedrex reduced the dosage in their inhalers from 250mg of the active ingredient (propylhexedrine) to a mere 175mg.  Makes sense, as I was blowing through twice as many as in the "good old days."  Unfortunately they still cost just as much as before which is bullshit.  Never mind that the vast majority of people who attempt to abuse this particular substance find it far too repulsive to ever repeat the experience, shuddering forevermore at the smell of menthol or the mention of lavender.  (See all the nightmare trip reports online for proof).  

Even non-stimulant ADHD drugs are in shortage circa April 2024

Is there anything too petty for the FDA to bother tampering with?  This is particularly offensive considering we're in the middle of the worst national stimulant shortage in U.S. history, with every single ADHD medication in critically short supply as of March 2024.  Ritalin/Focalin/Concerta/Metadate?  Check.  Adderall IR & XR?  Yep.  Desoxyn aka methamphetamine?  That too.  And Vyvanse?  YES.  Even non-stimulants like guanfacine & atomoxetine are out of stock.  Why not concern yourselves with THAT, assholes?  The fuck are people like me supposed to do, crystal meth?  You'd like that, wouldn't you fuckers:  Another barely-functioning-adult-turned-statistic that you can throw in your prisons & rehabs for a profit.  Another scare story for the media, also known as the propaganda arm of the state department.  

Weak-ass Gen Z Benzedrex.  Thanks, FDGay.

And that's just ADHD patients.  I feel particularly bad for Type I narcoleptics with cataplexy who literally fall asleep in their soup, going limp without warning at random times and relying on these meds to not do that.  Fuck them too, right?  I was preemptively diagnosed with Type II narcolepsy back in the day and lemme tell ya, that's no walk in the park either.  My little cousin is on Adderall for a one-in-1 million sleep disorder (Kleine-Levin Syndrome)--we hit the genetic lottery in that regard.  He sometimes sleeps 11 days in a row and has to be woken up to eat, go to the bathroom & drink water.  He does bizarre shit while sleeping like drawing on his face with markers & talking like a baby or crying out in agony.  He lives in fear of another episode & gets incredibly depressed every time one happens, having to scramble to catch up on school work after the fact.  Heaven help him & his family during this man-made drug shortage.  

But even he's got it better than the diabetics, heart disease patients & cancer patients who rely on GLP-1 agonists, anesthetics, anti-clotting agents, antibiotics & chemo drugs that are nowhere to be found in the U.S. drug market right now.  Docs & pharmacists are having to make "tough choices" that translate to KILLING patients who otherwise wouldn't be dying if only we lived in a developed nation with passably decent healthcare.  This is a preventable situation & nobody's being held legally accountable for the slaughter--a fucking Level 10 crisis that requires all hands on deck: pharma companies, the FDA, legislators, suppliers of raw medication ingredients, physicians, hospitals & the DEA in the case of Scheduled medications.  I've sat back and watched as it's steadily grown worse for the last 3 years.  Where the fuck IS everybody?

Oh, that's right:  doing things like hounding the makers of an OTC inhaler to change their formulation because a few desperate people might use it to catch a buzz (read: self-medicate).  A medication that's been on the national market since 19-fucking-49, mind you, and is incredibly safe even when abused orally by healthy people.  Nobody fucking asked for this.  




Symptom of a Bigger Problem

"Watchdog" agencies' impotence/corruption is symptomatic of deeper breakdowns

It's shit like this that makes me apathetic when people chant "death to America."  While I'm not out there burning flags myself, I empathize.  The owners of this nation & those who work for them (i.e. our "representatives," a cruel & ironic title if ever there was one) don't give a shit if we live or die as long as they get paid.  They ARE "America".  The things that made this country worth being proud of:  our first-class education, healthcare, space program, public institutions like the US Postal Service, Social Security & the CDC (the latter of which lost credibility with anyone who had even a rudimentary understanding of germ theory during COVID when they adopted Trump's anti-science policies) have gone to shit, and the voting masses have their faces buried too deep in sportsball stats & Kardashian gossip to do anything about it.  It only gets worse from here.

If that sounds hyperbolic, you don't understand how serious a shortage of 323 prescription drugs by the third month of the year is, or how much we rely on other countries for our medications, food, textiles, electronics, vehicle parts, petroleum (crude, gas), medical supplies & other vital goods... countries our leaders routinely shit talk & fear-monger about.  It's why the shelves were bare during much of the pandemic:  because when the other 9/10ths of the world actually locked down like rational intelligent humans, the cargo ships we rely on to bring our EVERYTHING weren't moving. 

There might've been a time when those things could've been largely supplied by our own farmers & manufacturers within U.S. borders, but NAFTA and other insidious bills put a stop to that by allowing greedy corporate pigs to outsource their labor to the lowest bidder in sweatshops overseas, prisons at home & undocumented immigrants at our borders.  Never mind the whole "American job loss" situation.  (Those jobs are never, ever coming back btw).  Slavery is the cornerstone of U.S. economics & capitalism as a whole, hence the 13th Amendment.  

All this to say: do your actual fucking job, FDA.  There's a long-standing crisis in the form of drug shortages & you continue to focus on shit that nobody's asking you to do.  There's also a massive problem with tainted vitamins & supplements in this country but due to the corrupt DSHEA of 1994 ruling, you've decided supplements aren't "your jurisdiction."  Therefore it's just fine & dandy to allow the shelves of major retailers and online stores to carry supplements that contain unlisted drugs--some of which are not approved for use in this country and others that are outright illegal--and contain dangerous levels of heavy metals, combinations of unlisted psychoactive chemicals (i.e. synthetic cannabinoids) in products advertised as one thing like "tianeptine" and every other kind of contamination you can imagine.  

This is a fucking scandal, yet you continue wasting time & taxpayer money on nonsense like Benzedrex & kratom.  Hell, you could go after the manufacturers of deadly pet food that contains unsafe levels of pentobarbital from all the euthanized animals it's made out of.  Or the pet treats containing an unknown deadly substance that's killed hundreds of dogs yet remains on store shelves.  The fact that people get rich off these products that literally KILL people & animals yet don't spend a day in prison for their crimes should earn them more than just a place on your annual "naughty manufacturer lists."  Are you saying it's legal to poison people to death if it's done under the guise of dietary supplement commerce?  🤔

Is it really any wonder people are skeptical when they're told a new vaccine or other product/procedure is safe when you're the ones saying it?  

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Eyes, Lies & Credibility

I once had a sociology professor who said "People who are shifty-eyed & avoid eye contact when talking to you are always lying or hiding something.  Always."  🤦🏻‍♀

You have no idea how much I wanted to raise my hand & ask the asshole 1.) where he got his degree  2.) if he'd like to know where he could shove his degree, and thirdly, if he'd ever met an autistic person.  But I needed to not get kicked out of college so, as always, I kept my mouth shut & turned that rage inward.  Hah.  But seriously.  I've found that his ignorant belief seems to be pretty universal even if people don't say it out loud.  Hell, maybe they don't realize they have this prejudice themselves.  I've been accused of lying when I 100% am NOT in too many situations to count as well as just not being taken seriously on subjects I know more about than if a typical person had studied them for a decade (which ain't very many, but the fact remains).  It sucks royally.  😓 

Tulips & Truth

There's a belief that autists are "incapable" of lying and this varies, but for me it's pretty close to true.  I came to this realization as a 16-year-old when my dad asked "What the hell's growing in that pot out there?"  I stuttered and spat out in the most indignant tone I could muster: "Psssh, tulips. Why?"  The pot contained maybe 5 inches of soil & wouldn't fit one tulip bulb, let alone multiple.  I guess I envisioned tulips starting as SEEDS rather than bulbs.  He got up and stormed out of the room and my mom informed me of my mistake.  Needless to say, my cannabis plant never made it past the vegetative stage & I made a pact with myself at that moment that lying just ain't worth it.  I have a terrible poker face & can't think on my feet at all, but you can bet that if I somehow manage to fool you in the moment I'll mess it up later by forgetting the details of the lie.  Big, important details.  Losing the trust of people--even ones I don't really know/care about--just isn't worth it...  especially when I come out looking so stupid in the end.  😬

Yet despite lying LESS than other people on average, I'm stuck with all this skepticism, doubt & second-guessing; a credibility problem without a lying problem.  If only people knew how much it hurts to be accused of something you didn't do when you've never given them a (real) reason to not trust you, maybe they'd think twice about it.  Maybe not because people suck.  While the sociology professor was a dick, at least he said the quiet part out loud, something I wish more people would do:  cut the crap & tell me where I'm fucking up & what I should be doing instead.  I prefer the ugly truth to a pretty lie, thanks.  It's hard to follow rules you don't know exist and, while my intuition is pretty damn strong, I'm no Dionne Warwick.  Reading minds is exhausting.  Also:  Generalizing with words like "always," "never," "all," "every" and the like just doesn't tend to work with something as complex as human behavior... a factoid you'd expect a human behavior expert to know.  😒

Indeed, other things may be happening in this scenario:  The "liar" may not be lying at all, they may just find you creepy or your insistence on eye contact too intense & intrusive.  The eyes are the only part of the brain that's visible from the outside (well, the retinas specifically) so surely you can grasp why having someone stare a hole through them might be a bit overwhelming for some people--autistic or not.  It's not so much that I can't make eye contact but that I can't maintain it & keep a train of thought at the same time.  Some days are better than others & it's harder with some people than others.  Don't fucking ask me why but it has nothing to do with lying.  So I've learned to fake it over the years using a number of techniques from blurring my vision completely while looking in the direction of someone's eyes to focusing on some other adjacent part of their face, like their forehead or cheek.  Just a ridiculous little autistic "life hack" I've had to institute to avoid being treated like a human impersonator.  One of many.  👽

While giving people the benefit of the doubt is retarded, you should probably gather more evidence than "they seemed twitchy & had poor eye contact" before labeling someone a sketchy untrustworthy con artist. Some of us are just naturally twitchy & shifty-eyed.  (God forbid I ever end up in a police station after a major crime I didn't commit.  "Let me talk to my attorney" will be my ONLY statement if I can conjure the wherewithal to summon it forth from my lips in a moment of terror).  TL;DR - Everybody isn't you & thus your foolproof interrogation tactics are bullshit.  You probably had your mind up beforehand anyway.   Oh, and using body language to try & detect deception is bullshit anyway.  The entire "field" is pseudoscience.  🤷🏼‍♀

Another thing I suck at:  keeping secrets.  But I'm proud to say that ability is getting better as we speak.  Or DON'T speak, as it were.  🤐