Politics Mixed with Spotting Taylor Swift

Amnesty for those who have entered the United States illegally? Apparently, it's coming, per this article while prescribing that " .... the Republican response should be to make Camp David a refugee holding facility and close down every golf course controlled by public funds at which the President might wish to play. Heck, they should basically defund the White House, save for security for the President and his family." 

I chuckled a bit.

Then I went on to read this article and its claim that "...when Gruber says “the American voters are too stupid to understand the difference,” he’s saying the Obama Administration was able to deceive the American public – lie to us – to pass ObamaCare." The article then outlines the following 6 lies about that infamous piece of legislation:

1. The Obama Administration (and the President himself) told the American voters, “If you like your plan, you can keep it.”  It was a lie. 
2. The Obama Administration told the American voters that there was no abortion funding in ObamaCare.  It was a lie.
3. The Obama Administration told the American voters that ObamaCare wasn’t a tax.  It was a lie.
4. The Obama Administration told the American voters that ObamaCare wouldn’t increase the debt.  It was a lie.
5. The Obama Administration told the American voters ObamaCare would help the economy.  It was a lie.
6. The Obama Administration told the American voters they would have no trouble signing up for ObamaCare, that it would be as easy as buying on Amazon.  It was a lie.

And then, because who needs all this attention about real issues, there is an article about Taylor Swift pulling her music off of Spotify and an analysis of that move. Honestly, I don't use Spotify so I really don't know if this is a good thing Taylor Swift did or a bad thing.

I do know that Megan has been talking about her concert tour including a stop in Des Moines in 2015. When Megan told me that, I chuckled a bit more. I remember a long time ago, when concerts at the Five Seasons Center were a common event, there would be what was called a "Parent's Lounge" where parents who didn't want to see or hear the band that was playing could go and wait for their kids to be done with the concert. It's funny to me because I didn't understand the need for it - why wouldn't you want to see or hear whatever awesome band was playing that night? I always thought I would never use a "Parent's Lounge" when I had kids.

I never imagined a performer like Taylor Swift.

Is it possible that with Megan being 18 & a senior in high school that I don't have to go with her?

There's a stark contrast between "my parents" and "me as a parent". I don't think my parents had any idea what bands I went to see in high school. I simply bought a ticket and made my plans with Serbi. In today's world, parents seem less likely to "let their kids loose" and go to a concert without them. Sure, when Metallica tours in 2015 or 2016 or 2017, I fully intend to take the kids with me when I go see them, but that's because Metallica is a band I grew up with, more or less, over the last 20+ years. Taylor Swift? Nope. Perhaps she's a flash in the pan whose relevance is similar to Vanilla Ice - To the Extreme became the fastest selling hip hop album of all time,^[29] spending sixteen weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200^[30] and selling eleven million copies.^[31]  - or Milli Vanilli - whose Rob Pilatus died at the age of 33 on Thursday, April 2, 1998. That leaves out countless musicians that have made a lot of money very quickly and then disappeared. It's certainly too early to know if Taylor Swift will endure or disappear.