Category Archives: Hedonism

By Kevin Thomas | July 25, 2017, 7:08 EDT

Printed from: http://newbostonpost.com/2017/07/25/move-aside-parents-were-talking-sex-to-the-kids/

Im starting to understand the arguments against school choice.

Why give parents a say in their childrens education when, obviously, there are experts who know better?

Thank heavens (and I mean that rhetorically; please, take no offense) that we have the Massachusetts State Senate and Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts watching out for our childrens welfare.

If youve been reading New Boston Post, you know of the Massachusetts sex education bill that has beenintroducedand nowpassedby the Senate. NBP has alreadyeditorializedabout it.

If you are not up to speed, the bill titled An Act Relative To Healthy Youth (who could be against that, right?) supposedly offers comprehensive sex education. Among the curriculum is a program called Get Real, aimed at middle school students. It is published by the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts (such a pro-child group).

According to Andrew Beckwith, who first wrote about this for NBP, the Get Real workbook for seventh graders gives instructions on how to perform oral and anal sex. As Andrew writes, let that sink in.

There are other programs, including role-playing between children who want to have sex.

The state Senate passed the bill. Hey, theyre the ones who know whats best. And no problem using tax dollars for such programs, because we know schools have so much money.

Of course, citizens cannot spend tax dollars in religious-themed schools. Instead of Get Real, our impressionable children might learn the Ten Commandments, or the Beatitudes, or even the definition of the word chastity.

The title Get Real has just the right message. Who would ever think of being chaste? Hedonism is where its at. Get real.

It appears the only controversy about the Senates vote was a proposed amendment requiring parental permission to take part in the program.

That would require school districts to chase down the parents of every single student, complained Senator John Kennan of Quincy.

Why would a school district want to communicate with parents?

What the senators and the educators wont say is that some parents could care less. And, bottom line, isnt that a key to our public school woes? The continued collapse of family structure means children come to school less prepared and less disciplined. They are not being taught values at home, nor are they read to; let alone hearing about the birds and the bees.

Enter the lower-the-bar mentality. Our society is several generations into the sexual revolution. Instead of combatting that with messages of chastity, dignity, and true respect, there is resignation. The children supposedly cant control themselves when it comes to sex, so we might as well show them how to do it, safely.

The sex-ed bill is now headed to the state House of Representatives.

There is a better way, but I know it is not trendy, nor considered realistic. In the sexual ethics section of the morality class I taught high school students, we did not discuss sex as an inevitable event in their young lives. We did speak of the inherited beauty of sex, with its role in life and true love. (Yes, I can picture the eye-rolls from the enlightened crowd.)

For an introduction, we talk a lot about the value of friendship, which is not a collection of Facebook followers, but people who care about you. You care about your friends, you dont use them. (This is where I mention thecourtship of the woman I married.)

Next comes the sex talk. (Not that sex talk I defer to the biology class.) Natural reasoning tells us that there are three factors in sex.

One, openness to life. (It happens, see your biology notes.)

Two, a lifelong commitment between the man and woman. (To take care of the life that may come along.)

Three, pleasure.

I-know, I-know, I-know that our advanced society wants to bypass one and two, and go straight to three. (See Hedonism). I opted for truth.

Before we were so advanced, there were mothers and fathers committed for a lifetime, to themselves and their children. These groups were called families and they took responsibility for their children, teaching them morals, while also making sure they were ready for school.

Now, schools and politicians assume too much of a role. Maybe they think they must. But institutions cannot replace family. There must be boundaries. Programs like An Act Relative To Healthy Youth step over the line, especially when they want to keep parents out.

My cynical side thinks this is about control. Although I pay taxes, I cannot use that money for the school I want my children to attend. The government decides. That same government creates school programs that I consider immoral and not healthy at all.

Is it any wonder why homeschooling becomes more popular every year?

Kevin Thomas is a writer and former teacher, living with his wife and children in Standish, Maine.

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Move Aside, Parents, We're Talking Sex to the Kids - NewBostonPost (blog)

It's every man for himself.

Ever wanted to be inside the world of everyones favourite medieval softcore porn show,Game Of Thrones?If youre at uni, you kind of already are. As long as you replace ale with beer, swords with academic ridicule, and the word hodor with fucking parking inspectors dammit shit!

If you fall down here, no ones going to help you up. Whether youve been given an involuntary amputation or stranded without a computer in the library, you can expect bystanders to keep right on walking. And so they should.

Ruthlessness is survival, my friend.

Group assignment? Reclaiming the Riverlands for House Stark? Expect in-fighting, ceaseless suspicion of glory-stealing, and the odd leadership challenge. Personally, I hearThe Rains Of Castamereevery time I see that contact sheet.

Surely, could I not give less than half a groat for the meandering pomposity of yonder professor? Does he not shrivel ones ears? His vaunted tales of workforce maturation are as nipples on breastplates to me.

Oh, my sweet summer child! So you came down from the safety of your parents house and expected life in this bustling metropolis to be just dandy, did you? To quote someones creepy uncle: Life is not a song, sweetling.

Sure, the drinks are cheap, but every courtier hides a dagger in their smile, and every professor a penalty mark.

Do authority figures ever get tired of telling us that the case study is imperative or that winter is coming? I mean, it all sounds very grim and impressive at first, but eventually you just start tuning it out.

Yeah, yeah. My assessment is one month overdue. The Others march on Westeros. Whatever.

When it comes to uni, parents love to assume that youll be drawn into a world of orgiastic hedonism the likes of which Tyrion himself could not conceive. Then they see good oldGoTon your laptop and all their worst fears are confirmed.

But thats just intergenerational bias. We dont watch it for the nudity, we watch it for character development and cultural subtext! Right guys?

Right?

I swear by Tyrions broken bedsprings, in every crowd theres at least one smartarse who thinks its cool to act all big and start waffling on about the history of the Seven Kingdoms or this weeks mandatory tutorial chapters. And then they have thenerveto tell us what will happen next week.

Some of us prefer to be left in suspense. Thanks a lot, arsehole.

Theres so much foreshadowing and just not a lot else. I mean, everyone keeps talking about throwing insane parties and reclaiming their birthright, but it seems like most people just sit around and wait for someone else to do it.

Seriously, were this far in already and no-ones done a keg stand? Daenerys is still in Meereen? Just what the hell is this?

Though maybe not quite on the level of Jaime and Cersei Lannister, after the initial awkwardness of the first few tutes, your classmates will begin to notice each other. It starts off civil enough, but all it takes is onepub crawl, and suddenly everyone starts pairing off for the winter break.

Kind of gives gross new meaning to the words of House Stark.

Joel Svensson

Business major, journalism minor and sometime voice-actor, Joel Svensson pretends to be smart at La Trobe University in Melbourne.

(Lead image:Official HBOGame Of Throneswebsite)

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If Uni Life Was Game Of Thrones - Junkee

If you've been reading Greatist for any length of time, you know we're big proponents of the #healthyish lifestyle. And there's no one who reps it better than blogger and private chef Phoebe Lapine.

After being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease at 22, Lapine began healing herself with healthy comfort foods. And by that we don't mean quinoa and kale. We're talking loaded baked potato beets, mushroom Bolognese, Paleo "ramen" burgers, and mac and cheese. Her mantra is "healthy hedonism," which she describes as "balancing the things that nourish you on all cylinders with the things that nourish your body." Sign us up!

In this video, she shares her key to healthy livingand her recipe for beef larb lettuce wraps, a healthier version of a traditional Thai dish, which is full of fresh herbs, green veggies, tangy lime juice, and lean ground beef.

Recipe by: Phoebe Lapine Makes: 4 servings

INGREDIENTS 2 tablespoons jasmine rice (or any type of white rice) 2 tablespoons hemp seeds 1 tablespoons vegetable or coconut oil 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced 1 pound lean (93 percent) ground beef 1 tablespoon honey 2 Thai or serrano chili peppers, thinly sliced 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice 3 tablespoons fish sauce 1 large shallot, thinly sliced 2 cups finely chopped green beans (about 1/2 pound) 1 cup roughly chopped basil, cilantro, or mint leaves (or all three) 1 head lettuce leaves separated, for serving (Boston, Bibb, or romaine work best) 3 cups cooked, short-grain brown or cauliflower rice, for serving

DIRECTIONS 1. In a large nonstick wok or skillet, toast the jasmine rice over medium heat until golden brown, about 3 minutes. Like nuts, rice can go from brown to burnt very quickly, so keep an eye on it.

2. Remove the toasted rice and place in a coffee or spice grinder. Add the hemp seeds and pulse until it becomes a fine powder. Set aside.

3. Heat oil in the skillet. Cook garlic over high heat until golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes. Add beef and cook, breaking apart with a spatula, until no pink remains (about 5 minutes).

4. Stir in honey and chilis, then continue to cook until the beef begins to brown, 3 more minutes. Stir in lime juice, fish sauce, shallot, and green beans, and stir-fry 1 minute more, until the vegetables are heated through.

5. Remove from heat, add herbs, and taste for seasoning. Transfer to a serving bowl and garnish with the toasted rice-hemp mixture.

6. Serve warm alongside lettuce leaves, cooked brown rice, and lime wedges.

LAPINE'S RECIPE NOTES

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This Wellness Pro's Health Mantra Is One You Can Actually Get Behind - Greatist

The famous Cambridgeshire hedonist's playground closes its gates after 2017's final bash - here's all the naked, paint-flinging, mansion-burning fun of the last ever SGP.

Who wants to wear my pubic hair hat?

In the age of unkillable super-gonnorhea, this question really shouldnt get the enthusiastic response that it does. But the rush to don the pubic headwear of a random woman on the Palais De Boob stage is perhaps the biggest of its kind in recorded history. For this is Secret Garden Party, a place where normal convention does not hold, where every yoga session involves at least one naked man, where your inhibitions are best left in the care of the massive sad fox by the entrance and theres no concern whatsoever for cultural appropriation. Forget all the Native American head-dresses, there would be real uproar if word of this place ever got back to the ancient Amazonian tribe of the Glittertits.

Go Big & Go Home is the weekends motto. 2017 marks the last ever Secret Garden Party I got very emotional, twice, says Head Gardener Freddie Fellowes, discussing his Q&A about shutting the gates for good so in wild-ass hedonism terms, time is of the essence. Everywhere you turn lies another invitation to get naked. Outside the Spiritual Playground tent an array of Buddhist monkey gods and false idols are celebrating the birthday of a nude bloke called Phil The Little Acorn (for evident reasons) by playing a game of Pass The Parcel where virtually every prize is a silver thong. The Palais De Boob stage is dedicated to freeing the nipple and every game of Keeping Up With The Car-Crashdashians in the Colosillyum seems to end with the loser fortfeiting most of their clothing. Its like the worlds biggest game of Spin The Bottle decided to put some bands on.

The acts certainly get in the spirit. On Sunday afternoon Beans On Toast has written a song especially for the festival, commemorating the sight of a grown man attempting to leap a gap on a five-year-olds bike during the Wonky Races and the time he took a pill live onstage at Where The Wild Things Are. And Peaches appears to have won the race to the pubic hat she opens her Friday night set wearing a vagina headpiece and flanked by dancing vaginas, and ends it half naked, simulating such rampant lesbianism youd think she was pitching her own Netflix drama.

All of which makes Secret Garden Party an affront to God, so naturally He tries to wash it from the face of the earth on Saturday and Sunday. SGP just organises a mass moon at the clouds. The Zeuses and nuns of the Spiritual Playground just move their game of Blind Deity inside. The men with gold TVs for heads dont let a spot of rain stop them having a dance off in the onsite boxing ring. Two Amy Winehouses still stop for a natter by The Drop, a dance ditch featuring the worlds shittest Transformer.

Indeed, despite the rain, Secret Garden Party pulls out all the stops for its final curtain. The spectacular Sunday afternoon paint fight comes with paint fireworks, and the Dance Off even has a champagne fight on Friday. A skywriting plane shooting fireworks circles over the Lake Stage during Jagwar Mas Saturday set and the legendary burning of the effigy in the middle of the lake sees an entire faux mansion house go up in smoke, revealing a gigantic heart of fire in its ruins.

Its tempting to call this weekend the death of the boutique. A monochrome film shown on the big screen of the Lake Stage on Saturday night made up of footage shot here over the past fifteen years certainly makes people on bungees hitting each other with giant balloons look as mournful as it can. As SGP bows out and Bestival shrinks onshore, there are few bijou festival wonderlands left, places you can go to take on a three-day identity, become a superstar of costumed idiocy and, most crucially, feel like you really own. A toff-fest in Freddies glorified back garden, yes, but Secret Garden Party was also a community of free-spirited souls in a way that Leefest, frankly, isnt. Perhaps the bleakness of Brexit, Trump and May overwhelms even the need to find respite in a place where you can dance to reggaeton in a spangly tassled leotard to your hearts content. Perhaps hedonism only really thrives hand-in-hand with hope and the Oh Jeremy Corbyn chants are more ardent here than anywhere.

Or maybe, as Fellowes claims, think of it more as Dylan goes electric than our Altamont.You cant be avant-garde from within an institution and lest we forget, the frontier always moves. So watch this space for the phoenix rising from the ashes. It seems new borders are being planted, gardeners

Originally posted here:

Secret Garden Party bows out with its most debauched bash yet - NME - NME.com (blog)

There are some who think there is no God, but the evidence for God is overwhelming (Movement on the move, Faith & Values article, Friday). Nevertheless, they hold onto that belief because it gives liberty to hedonism.

Hedonism is rejected by many atheists, but for no good reason. Bertrand Russel once wrote, We feel that the man who brings widespread happiness at the expense of misery to himself is a better man than the man who brings unhappiness to others and happiness to himself. I do not know of any rational ground for this view.

Russell was a secularist; what values did he hold and, for that matter, for what reason did he hold them? His daughter, Katharine, took these words from his autobiography, thus an accurate conveying of a despairing sentiment, suggesting the values of a secularist have no foundations and are fluid.

In the battle of ideas, especially on college campuses, secularism and theism should be made available to each student to choose on his and her own. Let the debates begin, and let not the campuses shut them down because one might be conservative and the other progressive/liberal.

The Rev. Ron Thomas

Sunrush Church of Christ

Chillicothe

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Letter: Encourage open debate of secularism - The Columbus Dispatch

Its easy to trivialize pop music, or dismiss it as something intrinsically lesser than real music." It can seem banal, and focus on catchiness in lieu of explicit meaning. But those criticisms often miss the point of the genre. At its best, a pop song isnt about a message, per se, but rather a feeling, wrapped up in a chorus that seems so true to a moment or person or place that you cant not sing along with it.

Every Top 40 aspirant tries to manufacture that irresistible magic. Regular placeholders like Drake and the Chainsmokers seem to have it down to a science. While a good way to score airtime, such a formulaic approach is also what separates generic radio hits from the likes of pop princess Lordes debut album, Pure Heroinea hypnotizing, shapeshifting gem that made house parties everywhere suddenly uncomfortably introspective.

For her part, the New Zealand artist has expressed not merely a love, but a reverence for the pop genre. And throughout Melodrama, her latest offering, that adoration is alive and well. The result is an exquisite, affecting account of all the heartbreak and hedonism of life at 20-something.

Much like 2013s Pure Heroine, Melodramanails that pendulum swing between revelry and restlessness that should be familiar to anyone on the fringe of adulthood, while avoiding the predictability that often weighs down songs about young people partying. Thats largely thanks to Lordes exceptional songwriting, which defies conventional pop structure at every turn. Unexpected yet irresistible flourishespunching horns on Sober, Green Lights triumphant piano bridge, a penultimate guitar riff warped to sound like wrenching metal on Hard Feelings/Lovelesspunctuate beats like Pop Rocks candies that are sometimes watered down, sometimes chased with tequila.

On highlight track The Louvre, a soaring hook crops up as giddily and unexpectedly as the crush you didnt know was going to be at the bar tonight, before the spoken chorusBroadcast the boom, boom, boom and make em all dance to itpulls it all back, muting the party because youve stepped into the bathroom to try and stop blushing.

Thematically, the album is a soundtrack to some bender of a weekend, and all the barely-suppressed emotional baggage that comes with it. Drunken, reckless decisions abound on Homemade Dynamite, but hangover and heartache are never far off. Liability is a delicate ode to the party girl tired of being cast aside, and sways sad and reflective in the middle of the albums otherwise humming dancefloor. The contrast is somewhat poignant, but lays on the pure melancholy just a little too thick. Its successor, Hard Feelings/Loveless, yanks the heartstrings more effectively. The two-parter narrows the focus from broad heartache to that implosive, painstakingly concealed brand of hurt unique to the era of hook-ups and smartphonesthe kind that requires confessions like: It was real for me.

The singer-songwriters diagnosis of the young adult saga as one big, messy melodramabuilding relationships on boozy nights out, agonizing over the punctuation of a text, how we kiss and kill each otheris spot-on. Like any good soap opera, being young can be tragic, ridiculous, and, quite often, both at the same time. Cloaking jarringly insightful social commentary in winking, snarky lines like, Ill give you my best side, tell you all my best lies / Awesome, right?, Lorde strikes the balance between comedy and tragedy effortlessly.

And its not all anguishthis drama wouldve been cancelled seasons ago if there werent at least a few victories now and again. The closing track, Perfect Places, is an anthem apt for stumbling out of a house party like a living god, while the sparkling Supercut captures the afterglow of a fling never meant to last.

Above all, Lordes magnetism lies in her authenticity. Shes not just singing about being young and reckless; at 20 years old herself, shes right there with you, searching for peace of mind at crowded parties and noisy bars. She reflects on the absurdity of it all with sensitivity, candor, and wry humorbut never condescension. Its her melodrama, too.

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On Melodrama, Lorde reveres being young and dumb - McGill Tribune

When traveling, you can sometimes let go of normalcy and embrace something dreamlike. Israel abounds with wonderful places to sleep and to dream, catering to all tastes and imaginations.

There are the lush fairy houses of the Castles that Move in the Wind up in the Golan;Beresheet, a stone hotel that sits, as silent and monolithic as the city of Ur, on the edge of the Ramon crater in the Negev; and the sublime respite Mitzpe Hayamim,a spa/hotel/organic farm near Rosh Pina, and many more.

We have not stayed in every hotel in Israel not by a long shot but we have touched down in nearly every corner of the country and have seen a wide gamut of lodging places, from mud huts on working farms in the desert to the most elegantly appointed hotel rooms overlooking vistas of green hills, borderlines, and history.

What we have seen throughout our travels is that Israelis have a knack for combining elegance with a lack of pretention, a Mediterranean understanding of hedonism with a kibbutznik practicality.

Each of the hotels, inns, and guesthouses weve mentioned combines those factors.

Your feet are always on the ground in Israel; it is hard not to feel agreeably at home here in the most basic and the most high-toned places. That kind of comfort is the ultimate luxury.

Lin Arison & Diana C. Stoll are the creatorsofThe Desert and the Cities Sing: Discovering Todays Israel, a treasure box that highlights Israels creative achievement and innovation.

Link:

The many flavors of Israeli hotels - ISRAEL21c

By Deborah Jackson, Editor, National Liquor News

The 2017 Australian Liquor Stores Association (ALSA) Study Tour group has returned to Sydney, after a successful trip looking at the London retail market.

The group of 14 retailers and suppliers were able to identify some key themes in the London market, which they will be presenting at the Australian Retail Drinks Conference in Canberra next month.

ALSA Project Manager Mal Higgs told National Liquor News that the decision to go to London was made because of a resurgence in the independent liquor space in that market.

We chose London because our network has been telling us that there has been quite a resurgence in independent land. So the trading up or premiumisation trend that were seeing here in Australia, is also very evident in the UK.

The dynamics of the UK packaged liquor trade are that supermarkets own about 90 per cent of the business. However, at the moment as we saw from some of our suppliers over there, the only category of the retail market that is growing is the independent slice.

The aim of this years Study Tour was to look at the resurgence of the independent operator and why this has occurred, and at the other end of the spectrum, to see how the influence of the discounters, such as Aldi and Lidl has impacted the market.

The group visited a number of retail outlets across London, including Hedonism Wines, the World of Whisky and Vagabond Wines as well as receiving presentations from local suppliers on each of the major categories. This allowed the group to gain a broad understanding of the market, from which they were able to identify relevant themes.

Overall, the group found that its not just about stocking premium products, but is also about providing an experience.

In the Australian market, the traditional independent liquor store, for the most part, is part of a banner group, and is generally suburban-based. Therefore, almost by definition they are a convenience-based retailer.

It raises the question that in the right demographic and the right environment, could you specialise that convenience model a little bit and rather than try to sell everything to everybody, could you look at specialising in maybe whisky or craft beer? And that challenged the groups thinking, said Higgs.

The group came up with two or three key themes, around identifying what to do and understanding your customer, which will be presented at the Australian Retail Drinks Conference on Thursday 17 August.

In one respect it is fairly simple, and in another sense, something that appears simple isnt necessarily that simple to execute. So, by the time we get to the Conference we will have some of the retailers presenting exactly what theyve done in their stores, said Higgs.

As a follow on, ALSA is looking at doing a short trip to Hong Kong in November, which will include two days in the trade and two days at the Hong Kong Wine & Spirits Fair.

Then the next international Study Tour will head to New York in February, where Higgs says I want to have a closer look at the delivery model, and of course New York is always fantastic for really leading edge retail.

For more on the Study Tour, including its look at the Amazon Impact, see the August issue of National Liquor News, which will be out soon.

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The 2017 ALSA Study Tour group to present key findings - The Shout

WASHINGTON Its strange how six months can feel like six exhausting years when theyve produced nothing but a string of nonsensical superlatives.

As Donald Trump celebrates the first eighth of his ridiculous amazing, stupendous, unsurpassed presidency, we mere mortals are left to ponder what we have learned. Well, here are some takeaways:

Facts do not matter to this White House. Trump has publicly lied about important matters more than 100 times since becoming president. These are not just equivocations open to dispute; theyre flat-out, verifiable untruths. For example, he said he has accomplished more and signed more bills into law than any previous president. Not true. His staff follows his lead, disseminating statements that are lies.

Trump not only failed to drain the swamp, he deepened and widened it. He has filled top posts with Wall Streeters and business cronies, doling out jobs like mints to loyal minions. After he promised not to touch Medicaid, which serves the disabled, poor and elderly in nursing homes, we were introduced to a Trumpcare plan that called for disqualifying 75 million and taking another 22 million off health insurance.

He is a costly public servant. He is on track in his first year to spend more taxpayer money on personal travel than President Barack Obama did in eight. We also pay for security at Trump Tower, his hotels and his golf courses. His re-election committee (of course he wants four more years after 2020) has raised millions to pay legal fees and rent for office space in Trump Tower.

Trump does not care that he has the lowest approval rating of any president since polling started (about 70 years). His base loves him even though he has done nothing for them since taking office. Is it any wonder that 34 percent of Americans do not believe in scientific evolution, according to the Pew Research Center? Is it surprising that a majority of Republicans believe that colleges and universities are a negative influence on the country? (Pew again).

Trump has set the precedent that a presidents conflicts of interest do not matter. Refusing to divest himself of his holdings, he has put his son Junior (the one who loves meeting with Kremlin operatives) in charge. His wealthy daughter and son-in-law have offices in the White House. His hotels draw foreign leaders who want to curry favor. Fees at his Mar-a-Lago golf resort have doubled to $200,000.

Getting rid of excessive and overlapping regulations is one thing. Gutting environmental protection and consumer protection regulations as Trump is doing is another. A future column will detail the astonishing number of actions the administration quietly has taken to further the interests of big business to the detriment of Americans who love their parks, want to breathe clean air, drink clean water and buy products that wont hurt their children.

The artful dealmaker has not managed to make any good deals. Even with a GOP-controlled House and Senate, he could not repeal Obamacare. Instead, he sabotages it by eliminating advertising, shortening the enrollment period and not enforcing the mandate to buy insurance or pay a tax to keep premiums low. Wages are not increasing. Exporters of American goods and services will be hurt by the lack of free trade he is engineering. No wall. No tax reform. No infrastructure plan.

The number of investigations caused by Trumps inexplicable fondness for Vladimir Putin, the Russian thief, thug and murderer, is unparalleled for a first term. Trump refuses to admit Russia meddled in our elections yet wants a national registry of all Americans personal information to root out voter fraud the experts say does not exist. Hey, Russia, Trump will make it easy for you to re-elect him.

The United States is no longer the leader of the free world and fighter for human rights in the eyes of our once closest allies. After seeing Trump up close and personal at international meetings, some say openly they may never again trust us.

Trumps misogyny, hedonism, lack of discipline, coarse language, bullying and refusal to read briefing papers or attempt to learn what he doesnt know diminish us. The man who convinced millions to watch him say Youre fired every week parlayed celebrity into the White House, but the applause is fading. Only 12 percent liked his disgraceful health-care plan. It died.

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Ann McFeatters: What we've learned from 6 months of Trump - The Exponent Telegram (press release) (registration)

Appetite For Destruction turns 30 today. If youre a fan of rock music, it doesnt really matter when you were born thats bound to make you feel old, whether you were a teenager in 1987 or whether that album served as a hand-me-down gateway drug 10 or 15 years later. You could look at 80s hard rock and hair metal as the bastard child of classic rock, the delinquent and mutated end game, and now its best and most respected poster boys have a debut thats a full three decades old. Guns N Fuckin Roses doesnt have quite the same ring when it applies to guys in their 50s sporting a somewhat frightening array of hats. And yet, here we are.

Last night, the semi-reunited Guns N Roses played for subscribers of SiriusXM (a GNR channel launched on the satellite radio service this month) at Harlems historic Apollo Theater. It was the kind of thing that thoroughly underlined their status in some echelon of the classic rock pantheon: a sprawling three hour set that made room for an instrumental cover of Wish You Were Here and a Layla tease before November Rain, an Allman Bros. intro to Patience, a Voodoo Child tag on Civil War, and full readings of the Whos The Seeker, Soundgardens Black Hole Sun, and AC/DCs Whole Lotta Rosie. (As of last year, Axl Rose moonlights as AC/DCs new frontman.) The Kills another performatively rock n roll group in a very different context opened, prompting conversations like, Wait, whos the opener? I dont know some indie rock band

On some level, Guns N Roses status is very much solidified a massively popular band with only a few albums and one of the most its better to burn out than to fade away stories in rock history at the same time as its a dragged out, zig-zagging epic fitting for any of their 70s stadium rock forebears. But seeing them in the context of Appetites 30th birthday highlights the inescapably lost quality of their identity now. Theyre caught in some nexus between the bloated final act of classic rock in the late 70s up against the rise of punk, and then on the other side the rise of Alt Nation and a new era of now-classic rock, with a much different set of standards and proprieties that made Guns N Roses seem like dinosaurs when they were just about 30 years old.

Even when if you set aside how poorly some of this has aged their casual misogyny, Axl being a complete asshole, the general image of a belligerently wasted and debaucherous young group now scanning completely illegibly you have to buy into it if youre going to enjoy Guns N Roses in 2017. I mean, this is a band with people named Axl Rose, Duff McKagan, Slash, and Dizzy Reed. Again, there are a lot of hats and leather, and long solos, and rock n roll swagger. Theres a quality to the whole thing that, essentially, feels like the sort of fever dream someone would concoct for either a very ham-fisted fiction about a stratospherically successful (and thus free to be very dumb) rock band, or a Spinal Tap-esque parody.

On the flipside, thats precisely what always made them so cool. Thats precisely what made them one of the last real rock n roll demigods that suburban kids around the country looked at and thought, Thats the life. Three decades on, their power might seem alien in our current musical landscape, but it is far from diminished.

Technicalities first: somehow blatantly defying a wildly self-destructive past, Axl sounds pretty great live these days, especially considering hes now in his mid-50s and some of these songs require screams and actual range. And even though it isnt the full classic lineup, its something else to see Axl flanked by Duffs punk-leaning sneer and Slash as the still-vigorous guitarist, duckwalks and everything. There are still a few anonymous figures hanging out onstage, but its better than Axls very obvious attempt to replace Slash with his cartoonish doppelgnger Buckethead.

As for that three hour setlist, it afforded the group time to play just about everything youd want to hear. (And a few things you could probably do without, but who would expect rigorous self-editing from the crew behind the dual Use Your Illusion release, let alone now that they stand as one of the last torchbearers for an ancient hard rock brand of excess.) The setlist was pretty much the same as at any given recent show, with no alteration for or acknowledgment of the fact that it was the eve of their first albums 30th anniversary. Axl barely said anything, for that matter, aside from occasionally shouting out a band member or thanking the crowd.

The latter part worked in favor of the show, though: This was a no-nonsense, powerhouse set despite its rambling length deep into the night. They played the exact Chinese Democracy songs youd want to hear Better is a monster live and selected a good mix of hits and deep cuts from the Use Your Illusion albums, with You Could Be Mine a particular burner live, Estranged the still-more-interesting cousin to November Rain, and the welcome surprise of Coma.

Then, of course, there was the Appetite material the stuff where most of us first fell in love with them, the stuff that had a heightened impact given the timing. Thirty years later, Its So Easy and Mr. Brownstone make for a perfect, decadent one-two punch of an opening. Thirty years later, Sweet Child O Mine is still the earnest salve to its more caustic siblings. Thirty years later, Rocket Queen remains one of their best songs, a blend of serpentine groove and genuine beauty. Thirty years later, Welcome To The Jungle is as foreboding and exhilarating and infectious as ever, deserving a spot amongst the greatest classic rock songs.

By the time they finally finished playing at 1:30 AM, the weight of those 30 years could be felt in other ways, too. There was something out of time about the whole thing, seeing one of the most monolithic stadium rock bands ever in a tiny-ish theater, all these years removed from their heyday, their relevance. Out of any of the revivals and retro trends from the past 10 or 15 years, theres almost nothing major that you could point to and find actual sonic influence from Guns N Roses or their peers. Without being as vaunted as their 60s or 70s predecessors, Guns N Roses have found themselves in a similar place, exhuming the now increasingly distant past night to night.

But none of that really matters, because when you see them play these songs live, it has the effect its supposed to. It makes you feel like a wannabe rebellious teen all over again. It makes you fall back in love with their extreme depiction of rock n roll hedonism from the final days of that brand of rock n roll hedonism. It makes you remember that this was a band formed of lost kids who somehow conquered the world and for a time were the biggest thing anywhere and, song to song, it makes you remember exactly why.

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Last Night Guns N' Roses Played An Epic Set At The Apollo, Today Appetite For Destruction Turns 30 - Stereogum