Chopin and Hsu, A Piano Recital

Frédéric Chopin and Samuel Hsu

A Dedication

by Mark Shockey

Piano Recital

Sunday, November 27, 2016

First Baptist Church

Haddonfield, New Jersey

Widmung - Franz Liszt: 1:34

Polonaise in A Major, Op 40, No 1 'Military' - Chopin
5:51 - Introduction; 7:22 - Performance

2 Mazurkas, Op 17 - Chopin
11:40 - Introduction; 12:50 - No 1; 15:18 - No 4

Nocturne in E-flat Major, Op 9, No 2 - Chopin
20:20 - Introduction; 22:00 - Performance

Nocturne in E-flat Major, Op 55, No 2 - Chopin: 26:40

Fantasie-Impromptu, Op 66 - Chopin: 32:07

- INTERMISSION -

Beneath the Cross of Jesus - Hsu
39:29 - Introduction, Hymn sing; 43:20 - performance

Homage à Chopin: Fantasy on 'This is My Father's World' - Hsu
48:25 - Introduction, Hymn sing; 50:30 - Performance

Ballade No 4 in F Minor, Op 52 - Chopin
54:45 - Introduction; 57:35 - Performance

Why Bother Holding the Primaries?

Clear confirmation of my arguments in my last two posts...

RNC Rules Committee Member:

     "Political parties choose their nominees, not the general public."
Anchorwoman:

     "Then why bother holding the primaries?"
RNC Rules Committee Member:

     "That's a very good question."

RNC Committee Admits Votes are Meaningless - 90 seconds long

What the Political Parties Think of You

Political Parties, Part II

(part i here)

At first glance, this issue reveals corruption to the core. There is no justice in the GOP taking the vote completely away from the American people as to who should represent the party in the presidential elections. But wait, we’re forgetting something...the GOP is a private organization. They are not officially a government organization (even though we all know they receive boatloads upon boatloads of money through the public trough, both directly and indirectly).

If I were to start the Spurious Political Party tomorrow, I could make whatever rules I want, yes? I could decide that upon the completion of the SPP primaries, the party nomination is now entirely my choice, votes be damned. Thanks for your votes, but I’ll decide who represents the SPP! There is nothing inherently immoral in that. The only problem is that anyone who voted in those primaries would realize that their vote was totally meaningless, and would move on to another party.

Aha! So, the trick, as a party leader, is to give the people just enough of a say that they will continue to participate in the primaries and continue to donate time and money to keep us in power. The only thing left is to convince everyone that we are the only option if they don’t want to go with that other party. I’m OK with being the lesser of two evils if that keeps enough people on my side to stay in power!

Really, American people? This is the system in which you continue to voluntarily participate?

Colorado GOP Primary - No Voting Allowed

Political Parties, Part I
(part ii here) 

Did you know that in spite of the fact that there are votes held to determine which person will represent the Republican and Democrat parties in the presidential election, Colorado decided to take that decision directly out of the hands of voters?!

To win the Republican nomination, someone must obtain 1,237 delegates, which is just over half (there are 2,472 available, so this is half plus 2, because the total is an even number). Therefore, if one candidate obtains 1,236, another 800, and another 436, any of these candidates can be chosen by the GOP to represent them in the election.

What this means: the primary voting potentially has almost nothing to do with the candidate the GOP chooses to represent them in the presidential election. So, uh, democracy? Not so much.

Here’s what happened in Colorado… The GOP in Colorado decided to skip the whole primary voting process and have the party to choose amongst themselves who would receive the delegates. This year, Trump, like him or not, is threatening the GOP in a big way, so every one of the 34 delegates went to the candidate who is not a threat to the party: Ted Cruz.

The moral of the story…

The two major political parties in this country have one and only interest: their own. They care nothing for the interests of the voting public, except inasmuch as the voting public helps them accomplish their goal: staying in power. For this very reason, many Republican leaders would rather have Hillary Clinton become president than Trump!!!

Buy Local! Unless You Support the FDA

I hear the cry, "buy local!" all the time. I sympathize with that cry. Our family shops at Aldi because of the low prices - we'd love to buy local (especially raw milk!) if it fit into our budget. Those who would like to see people buy local must seek the one thing that would lead directly to its implementation... abolish the Food and Drug Administration.

What if there were no FDA? How would that affect your food shopping?

You would either research the food you buy, or look for an agency you trust who does the research for you, or both. It is not easy to research a company located hundreds of miles away, not to mention a different continent entirely. People are willing to buy products from distant companies they have never investigated, directly or indirectly, because they trust the product approved by the FDA. Therefore, a lack of any sort of FDA would lead directly to more local food shopping.

Because FDA approval is required, big and small businesses have to be approved. For a large business, these costs are no big deal, but for a small business, they can mean the difference between staying afloat or going under. FDA approval (among hundreds of other regulations) is superfluous when it comes to local businesses you can (and probably do) research yourself, simply leading to much higher costs, and therefore, fewer local businesses.

Now, if those businesses never exist, who is subsidized by their lack of existence and therefore less competition? Larger businesses. Ever wonder who lobbies for regulations? Larger businesses. So, who enjoys the existence of and lobbies for the continuation of the FDA? Larger businesses.

Getting rid of these regulations would lead to lower prices on local food. Higher prices is the primary reason more people haven't jumped on the "buy local" bandwagon. There are countless other reasons to abolish the FDA, but if you would like people to buy local, you MUST be counted among the opponents of the existence of the FDA.

A Short Letter to Every Generation

Dear Every-Generation-In-the-History-of-the-World,

When you sit back and observe the generations that follow you, you may often feel sad that they are not what you hoped and expected they would become. Remember this: it was your generation who both taught and failed to teach them everything.

Professional Athletes Make Too Much Money!

I have been a huge sports fan all my life. I have also been a defender of many aspects of sports, especially in the professional realm. However, there is one thing about which I have shifted my view in the past few years...

People often complain that athletes make soooo much money. The retort goes something like this: "There is obviously someone willing to pay them that amount of money, so there is nothing inherently wrong with it." This is the exact statement I am wont to make on a regular basis. However, there is one enormous flaw in this argument when dealing with professional sports.

Stadiums are built with tax-payer money.

This is an example of socialism. Or fascism. Depending on how you look at it. Either way, it is soooo wrong. Let us take a moment to consider what would happen if teams had to pony up the money for the stadium from which they reap huge financial benefit. Perhaps it should be a moment of silence...for the athletes who would be making somewhere in the neighborhood of 40-70% of their current salaries.

There would be other issues as well, but clearly the average salary of a MLB player, for example, would no longer be $4 million (!). Instead, that money would be redistributed to everyone within a certain geographical area in the only moral way that can happen: refraining from stealing in the first place.

I am flabbergasted that the same person would both complain that athletes make so much money compared with - wait for it - teachers, and yet support the idea that taxes should help to pay for the stadium. Do you have any idea how much these things cost? Take the recent Marlins Park in Miami. Here is an article explaining the current and eventual cost of the stadium, and the fact that the owner of the team contributed less than 20% of the cost!!!

Or consider the 49ers' $1.2 billion Levi's Stadium in San Francisco. $850,000,000 came from the "City Stadium Authority" (taxes), while the rest was paid for by a hotel tax, redevelopment funds (read: more taxes), and the NFL itself (thank goodness!).

If you really don't think athletes should make what they do, you are 100% correct. Much of the money they make is, by every truthful measure, STOLEN from everybody else.