When did we lose our freedom of speech?

What can I say, I'm sick of closed-minded MF'ers. I'm opinionated as anyone (got that skill from my father) but even if I don't agree with someone, I'm glad that we both have the right to voice our opinions. That's what our country is all about, right? So why would someone get so beat down for disagreeing with what others think? I don't get that. If you don't follow the norm, you should be afraid for your life or the life of your family??? Excuse me, what country do I live in again?
I don't like to get all political. First of all, it doesn't interest me in the least. There isn't a politician out there who's a saint. If they were, they wouldn't be elected officials because you can't be one without lying, cheating, stealing or killing somebody.
Secondly, I don't belong to a party. I'm a party of one. Like Chris Rock said "don't be a right winger, don't be a conservative or a liberal. Just listen. Listen, think and then make up your OWN mind" Maybe people are too afraid of speaking their minds. Maybe they have no minds to speak of.
So today the Dixie Chicks new CD is being released and I won't go home without having it in my hot little hand. Above and beyond everything that's happened to them, I love their music. That's why I listened to them in the first place, that's why I went to see them from the front row in Buffalo, NY a few years back. Natalie can sing her little ASS off. Martie and Emily are not only amazing musicians but combine to make incredible three-part harmonies.
I could care less what Natalie said about the president. If that's what she thought, she had every right to say it. Just as much as you and I have a right to speak our peace.
So here's mine; we've been in this war WAY too long. Sons, daughters, fathers, wives, brothers, sisters, grandsons, grand daughters, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles and cousins are DYING. EVERY day. I have a nephew there right now. I'm scared for his life.
Some say that the media is painting the war as such a negative. That the people are HAPPY that we're there. Explain to me then...when was war EVER a positive...for ANYone??

Is it better to burn out than fade away?

I had a friend in highschool named Wendy Hastings who LOVED Def Leppard. That's all I'd hear about when we talked; Joe Elliott, Def Leppard and Pyromania. At the time, I was a HUGE Loveryboy fan. I must've played the LP Get Lucky a bazillion times in our basement. (gotta love the red leather pants)
So after alot of nagging by Wendy I finally watched a Lep video on MTV one night and became totally intrigued. Not by Joe Elliott, although I admit I was completely envious of his hair, but of their music and the fact that they weren't your average rock band. They were cute, running all over the stage with youthful energy and they're songs were really solid. I was sold!
22 years later I still love the Leps. Maybe even more now than I did then. At the same time like any past love there is some pain involved. Why? Because my favorite member of the group died back in 1991. As much as I have enjoyed VH1 Classic's Metal Month, it's still quite painful to watch when the videos for Photograph, Rock of Ages and especially Foolin' come on the screen. Steve Clark looked so young then. You couldn't see the demons lurking in his head. All you saw was his blonde hair, his pale skin under whatever opened shirt he happened to be wearing at that time and his guitar down around his knees. What was hidden was his poor, tortured soul and his badly abused liver. He was as talented as he was depressed.
I had a friend in college named Dave who spent hours in a hallway trying to perfect the opening guitar sequence from the song Foolin. A few years later he crashed a motorcycle he was taking for a test drive, hit a tree head on and died from the injuries.
Then the video for the song comes on and there's Steve playing that opening part on the acoustic guitar. It leaves me somewhat speechless and sad.
That song always reminds me of Dave and Steve....it probably always will

Here's what Joe Elliott wrote about Steve five years ago:
http://www.defleppard.com/diaries/index.html

So here we are, January 8th, 2001 and I’m in Japan with the Cybernauts. Tonight I’ll be singing a song called “Rock and Roll suicide”…How ironic, don’t’ you think? It’s 10 years to the day since Steve passed away and I shall be dedicating that particular song to his memory.
Steve lived it like he wanted to, and if the truth be known, probably went the same way. Always one notch too low with the strap, always one step ahead with the ideas, he could be the most inspiring and depressive person you ever met. But I wouldn’t change a thing. Yes, of course, I wish he was still alive but I doubt he’d be in the band anymore….But you never know do you??

I’ve seen women fighting over him, I’ve seen him fighting with his own demons and I saw him lose the ultimate battle, the one for his own life. At the end Steve wasn’t happy but he always meant well, even if he knew in his heart of hearts that he was letting us down. I think he enjoyed the success , but ultimately wanted to be Johnny Thunders more than he wanted to be Steve Clark. We all found out the hard way he couldn’t be both.

I miss him, I miss his humor, I miss his spark, but I don’t miss the heartache of seeing him slowly killing himself. Life moves on and so did we, and to borrow from one of his favorite bands, he’s ten years gone.

It’s almost nine years since Viv joined and we’re still here doing our thing. In many ways we’re a stronger unit now than we were before, but we wouldn’t be in this position if it hadn’t been for the contribution of one Stephen Maynard Clark. I love you, man, I always will, and I know that if you are up there (I doubt it!), you’re watching what we do, and you’re rooting for us. My guess is you’re DOWN there, whooping it up w/his un-holiness, beating him at cards and telling him why the Pistols were the world’s second greatest band. You always did love the danger of it all….

Sugar Me!

Your Stripper Song Is

Pour Some Sugar on Me by Def Leppard "Love is like a bomb, baby, c'mon get it on Livin' like a lover with a radar phone Lookin' like a tramp, like a video vamp Demolition woman, can I be your man?" Break out the baby oil, you rock it old school.

What Song Should You Strip To?