Why I Still Enjoy the Punk Rock

Even though I'm old, I still find punk rock relevant.

I just got the Tom Snyder "Tomorrow" show punk rock interviews. A 1981 episode has Wendy O. Williams and the Plasmatics. Tom talks to her, says something like, "Why do you smash TV's at your concerts? Don't you realize that there are many out there who can barely afford a TV set?" How can you be so viciously wasteful, young lady?!?

Wendy says something like it's her statement against consumerism, etc. The usual. And then she blows up a car in Tom's studio.

So this comes to mind as I'm reading this from a story on how the Iraqi government is refusing to take over the projects we spent billions on, and we are just handing things that don't always work quite right anyway off to locals who haven't a clue what to do:

In one of the most recent cases, a $90 million project to overhaul two giant turbines at the Dora power plant in Baghdad failed after completion because employees at the plant did not know how to operate the turbines properly and the wrong fuel was used. The additional power is critically needed in Baghdad, where residents often have only a few hours of electricity a day.

Since March of 2003 we've been spreading freedom and defeating terrorists by creating a sick amount of waste. Tax dollars, lives, an entire country -- maybe two countries -- sucked into a black hole of stupid. That'll teach that Saddam and bin Laden.

So, as we stare into the void we created, and the void stares into us, it makes a hell of a lot sense to artistically (not terroristically - don't hurt people, people, and respect others' property) to blow shit up and make a lot of angry noise.