"We worried for decades about WMDs – Weapons of Mass Destruction. Now it is time to worry about a new kind of WMDs – Weapons of Mass Disruption." ~ John Mariotti, Successful business leader and author

Good morning and welcome to Tuesday, June 9, 2015. I do realize there is a difference between one being critical and one being cynical. I can't always know which of those hats I am wearing when I present my views but I do not want to portray a sense of hopelessness because even with as much stuff messed up in our nation I still believe we can recover. This just announced data breach of government personnel information is stunning. Fortunately they had put in some enhanced security just in time to find out the data had been stolen. That is absurd to me. If you look at how much the average pay of federal employees has grown in recent years, especially in the higher positions, one would think there would be an increase in performance as well. The government believes the Chinese are the culprits who hacked some 4 million personnel records including security information. I don't care how. I don't care what they did to get those records. My belief is that firings should be taking place for those responsible for protecting these records. They aren't. They won't be. Why? Well, there's the federal employee union. There's the mean folks in Congress who won't give them unlimited funds. And, after all is said and done, this is just a way of life today. They cannot even guess what this information is worth out on the black market. Oops. Bad things happen sometime. Tell that to a federal employee whose security codes and everything about his or her family is now known by our enemies.

There's a big stink being stirred up recently involving radio stations that play country music. The most profitable stations play male performers much more than their female counterparts. That's what sells. A recent expert on the industry advised stations to take note of this and if they are not mostly playing the big male stars they could be leaving up to 15% in ratings on the table. This created a tsunami wave of political correctness. This expert had attempted to describe his findings by giving an illustration. He called the male country singers the lettuce in the salad and the girl singers the tomatoes. He said the tomatoes should be used sparingly. Many of the top female artists went ballistic. It's not fair. The system shouldn't be allowed to work that way. Now they are angry at the big name male singers for not jumping in to defend them. These fellows haven't said much because selling records is how they make their money. Radio airtime equals dollars. Radio stations play what their listeners want to hear and what they are buying. Now, after all this uproar, most of them are being pressured to run some special programs to prove they love female artists. I think the whole thing is an absolute farce. But, in the end, the stations will no doubt end up playing more female singers. I'm sure our government would love to dictate some ratio but I do hope that when they do they will designate a special category for train songs. You do know that was a joke. Right?

I understand there are some flavors of ice cream that do not sell as well as others. Consumers are allowed to choose based on their own tastes and preferences. I read about a creamery in New Orleans that has a avocado mint and sour cream flavored ice cream. Some people probably don't care for that flavor. Maybe the advocates of avocado mint sour cream will attempt to force ice cream sellers to give them equal time. Vanilla gets way too much shelf space. That's just not fair. Okay. The odd flavor is a true story but I've used it in a rather stupid parody reflecting what I see as the craziness of trying to force people to like, follow, and purchase country music based on some type of parity among the male and female entertainers. Like I say, we have a government that loves to try and dictate just about every choice we make in life. I would imagine there are any number of past their prime country music singers who would love to be hearing their songs played again on the radio. You know. Equal playing field and all of that malarkey. Sounds to me like there needs to be some type of investigation into this situation. What say you? Thanks for tuning in and may God provide for us all is my prayer. Amen. .....More later.