A single mother and her three children are forced to live in a minivan. Why? Because if you make $24,000 in the state of Massachusetts, then you’re not eligible for state-funded shelter, no matter how many people are in your family. So this single mother, who earns roughly $300 per week in take home pay and has to spend it on food, clothes and storage, has to crash every night in the driver’s seat of a van? Sickening. Think about the assistance our state may have been able to provide had we not laid out the cash to bring something as useless as the Democratic National Convention to Boston. The conventions serve no purpose anymore, other than to throw some parties for mostly rich, obnoxious white dudes. Shameful. Puts things into perspective, doesn’t it? Your life ain’t so bad after all.
In much lighter news, Queen is the first western pop band allowed for airplay in Iran. I would give almost anything to have been a fly on the wall when the powers-that-be in Iran were whittling that list down. Was Culture Club one of the finalists? George Michael? I can see it now – young Iranian boys running around on their front lawns, dressed in a one-piece leopard-skin, chestless leotard, flamboyantly singing “Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy” at the top of their lungs. I guess it could be worse. It might have been Judas Priest. I’ve made the claim many times, in fact, that Mercury possessed one of the best voices in pop music of the past 40 years. I’ve always been a fan of Queen, since the 1970s when my parents brought home the vinyl version of “News of The World” and I saw the huge gatefold vinyl artwork with that large, mechanical monster terrorizing all the concertgoers. Of course, the music was great, too.
Song now playing: Queen – “I’m In Love With My Car”