As IF Times

Source: Mariah Carey reportedly demanding ex James Packer to pay for her home | Fox News

Normally, the lifestyles of the vain and vapid aren’t of interest here since it contributes little to thoughtful experience.  However, it’s difficult to avoid exposure to the breathless stories of their latest romances or sightings or iffy outfits,  since they occupy prominent exposure in all on-line news sources.  While some may actually possess some level of desirable talent, we note that luck is a big part of their success in life.

Notwithstanding the propaganda of the hard work ethic that we are taught to believe, it can be difficult to overcome the inherent advantage some people have simply by virtue of the birth lotto.  Anyone who denies that attractiveness is the HOV lane to success is delusional. If you are fortunate enough to have been born with an inherent talent for music, you are doubly blessed, at this time in history and in this culture.

A third important factor is geography.  While being attractive and blessed with music talent are advantages, it wouldn’t be if you were born in, let’s say, Afghanistan.  Having the dual charms of attractiveness and an aptitude for music affords those lucky individuals in Western culture,  a fairly exalted status; so much so that they are detached from the concerns and realities of the fans who put them there.

The delusion sets in and they actually believe that not only are they charmed, they are entitled to be so at whatever the cost to whomever.  This is reinforced by the army of acolytes who tells them so.

We contrast the demands of Mariah towards her estranged boyfriend to the circumstances of the wife of the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong Un.  She hasn’t been heard from for over 7 months.  Something tells me that it isn’t rent and support demands that are keeping her from the limelight.  We don’t know if she has any musical talent, but it certainly was her misfortune to be born in Korea.

The whining entitlement of Ms. Carey is not that surprising other than the sheer scale of her chutzpah.  We are used to multi million dollar divorce settlements and other large scale damage awards based on entitlements. The real jarring reality is that this view of what she’s entitled to is merely a grotesque version of how society at large views things.  We’ve gone downhill  from the “greatest generation” of 50 years ago to the me, me, me generation of today. You can’t swing a cat these days without hitting someone or some group who feels entitled to some slice of life’s pie merely by claiming such.

Like Mariah’s once powerful voice that could elegantly hit the highest octaves, the bleating of the entitled just sounds like her aged voice now: Shrill.  It’s very sad that her once large voice has been overshadowed by her much larger hands.

Source: Colin Powell Says He’ll Vote for Hillary Clinton – The New York Times

One of the oldest clichés concerning public office is that politics make strange bedfellows.  This old chestnut has never been truer than as it applies to this year’s US elections.  As we all know by now, after a bruising convention, Donald Trump wound up as the nominee for the Republican ticket beating out some well known candidates in bare knuckled fights with unexpectedly personal attacks on their characters and records.

Those hurt feelings have yet to heal (if ever) and many of the contestants have publicly disavowed their support for The Donald.  This animus has extended to other old line Republicans including such as Colin Powell, a former GOP cabinet official, that feel compelled to publicly announce their support of the Democratic candidate.  Party loyalty, at least on the GOP side has been fractured and so other considerations are at play.  While many party deserters are claiming moral conscience in dissing Trump, it is laughingly disingenuous when you consider the alternative.  Party affiliation is obviously more an issue of expediency than of principles.  In the case of Mr. Powell, he claims thusly;

“…I am voting for Hillary Clinton,” he said,  Mr. Powell went on to praise Mrs. Clinton for her skills as a leader and her experience...”

Thanks to WikiLeaks document disclosures of his candid conversations, we know these sentiments are as fake as his former party loyalties.  We don’t recall experience being a requisite when he endorsed the neophyte Obama during his run for office.  Powell should be a man and just state that he despises Trump and would rather eat a bowl of slugs than support him.  Instead, he supports Hilary’s ‘experience’.

Powell’s endorsement is just one of the massive throng of ‘public’ figures rooting for Hilary in addition to most of the major media outlets, so it’s not as if it has any more effect than peeing into the Atlantic.  But if you did not know the issue at hand and only looked at the contingent of people vociferously and publicly championing one side; luminaries such as the bj offering  Madonna, Miley Cyrus, Justin Timberlake, Kim, Alec Baldwin, George Clooney, Mark Zuckerburg, Black Lives Matter, Joy Behar and Oprah, not to mention the political nutters including Elizabeth Warren, Tim Kaine and Al Sharpton, you’d HAVE to pull an opposite George and take the other side of the trade because that would be the rational thing to do.

As it happens, in this case, it’s politics.  The issue boils down to this:  They would rather vote for the person that has a proven record of duplicity, gotten people killed, is funded by hostile governments and is a danger to national security, than for the other guy because he said mean things.   In fact it’s the gaggle of shrill, bleating mean girls that are doing the bullying.