What a World We Live In Now

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I was handed a couple of I-Tunes cards for Christmas.

I had one CD in mind...Natalie Maines. She has a wonderful voice and I had heard her sing a couple of songs on Howard Stern...so I ordered it on my phone.

It was available to listen to...6 minutes later.

Isn't that incredible?

And I did listen to it and was immediately impressed with each song.

So I sent Natalie a tweet to thank her for making the CD.

She replied, thanking me for buying it.

Isn't that crazy?

I've always had a soft spot in my heart for her anyway as her band was basically ruined because she voiced her opinion about George W. and was threatened with bodily harm.

Evidently her right to free speech isn't quite as important as that duck dudes is.

And perhaps everyone should just shut-up about what they think and feel, but the basic difference being that she is of a profession where protest sort of is part of the job description.

Yet the instant voice that everyone has is best illustrated in the story of the woman who was a big-shot in her company and was headed to Africa. As she was boarding the plane she said something along the lines of:

"Going to Africa. Hope I don't get AIDS."

By the time the plane landed she was in an absolute shit storm. There was a lot of talk about firing her from her high-priced job.

I really worry for my boys.

They are active participants in all the sites...Twitter...Face Book...Instagram.

"Be careful," I tell them once a month.

"But you're a wise guy on there!" They say.

"I have a job. I have a wife. I'm done impressing people," I remind them. "But I watch what I say anyway."

And it can't get much more free can it?

We can instantly reach out to celebrities.

We can argue with total strangers.

We have all our news, music, comedy at our fingertips.

A couple of clicks away.

I remember my brother, who worked for Verizon telling me back years ago that someday we'd all be carrying around our phones and communicating that way.

"We'll use them for everything," he told me back then.

"Who the hell would want all that all the time?" I asked.

Turns out we all wanted it.

Get the Natalie Maines CD - she has a wonderful voice.

She's no Kathy Fazzolari in the voice department, but who is?

Who is?

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