This past week, Mark checked in with Gareth Cliff to discuss the current political climate in the USA and where Mark is laying his bets for November. Take a listen!
Well as the Summer fades and Fall begins, there are changes all abound for the team here at The Q. We have been in talks for a little while and finally this past week, we were able to lock all the pieces together and bring The Q back to the STL/ILLINOIS area on the radio.
So first we would like to welcome our new radio home of 1510 AM WQQW servicing the Madison County area of Illinois and Southern IL. We are happy to joining such a respected and well known station. And we hope to be able to represent the station proudly as we move through the rest of 2016 and into the future. Also, we are going to be joining the team with Riot Radio! RiotRadioRocks.com is the website for all things related to Riot Radio and Darryn does great work with all the shows over there. We had no streaming option in the USA for the past few years and now you can listen to the shows on Riot Radio Too. We are happy to be joining that family as well. But please welcome our new radio home 1510 WQQW and Riot Radio to the fold!  For years I have been hearing the argument "It's not a gun problem, its definitely a mental health issue!" And when you first hear it, your quick judgement is always "Yep, those people are crazy that do this stuff" which makes that argument sound correct. And even down the road it still sounds like a pretty obvious answer to the issue. But when you really research it, you find out its just a small part of the much larger problem.
Other countries have mentally ill people that live amongst them and their statistics of gun issues is almost non-existent. So how is it a mental health issue? Because we make it one. Mental health experts say media reports of shootings by mentally psychotic people increase public attention and reinforce the idea that severe mental issues leads to brutality. But various studies over the past few years show that the high majority of people with severe mental illnesses, such as OCD, bipolar disorder or severe mental depression/exhuastion are never violent toward others. So why do we like to throw these things out there in the media and through conversation as a "be all end all" explanation to the issue? Most likely because things are easier to deal with brushed under a rug rather than directly dealt with. We as a society have regressed over the past few decades. We have become desensitized to the violence and social media has brought the world view into our island we call the USA. Now we see it daily through the internet, but still want to pretend it doesn't happen here, only in those thrid world type nations. Through that desentizing, we have become more and more brutish and bitter cause we have nothing to fight for anymore. Nothing to occupy our minds anymore. So we lash out at each other. Sometimes for the litttlest and most inconsequential stuff. But since we are not used to dealing with heightened emotions like this, we go overboard. And when we go overboard you get situations like Alton Sterling or Philando Castile. So I beg to differ. It's not a mental health issue solely. There are reasons beyond that are just as much apart of the situation and need to be dealt with. Gun access in the USA is ridiculous. I am not proposing banning any weapons at all...but...there needs to be more legislation to stop gap the people falling through the net and getting access. But more importantly than that is what we as neighbors and family members can do to really put these normal people in their place. We have to put their attitudes and stress in check for them. We have to let them know its okay to "use your words" to relieve the stress and anger. We also must realize once you are born on this planet, theres no taking you or anyone else out of life with murdering them. So instead of looking for reasons to attack each other, how about we find unique ways to live with each other and respect the cultural and social differences that all of us bring to the table. I understand that there is always going to be a section of society that is just bad apples. It comes with the territory of living in the world. Some people don't care what I or you say and they will play to the beat of their own drummer regardless. Fine. Those people are a lot less common than you think and even though they rear their ugly heads, they can't stop us a culture and worldwide society.  The best thing you can do to increase your value and market yourself the best is to just CARE. Show care for others. Contact them and check up on them. Respond to them and talk with them whenever you can. Like their posts and a truthfully read what they say. Showing a little care online and offline can take you from mediocre to a top notch person in the eyes of many.
I employ this techinque daily. I always respond to questions and try to keep in touch with people to show them that they are important to me. Even if a person is mad at me or we are having a bump on the road, I still treat them like a friend because that is larger than my slighted feelings for a moment in time. We tend to lose focus on whats truly important in life....all we got is each other. Theres nothing more or less. Simple as that.
It doesn't get much better than this. Sit back and enjoy the genius of Gunslinger!
Gunslinger from Smash TV on Vimeo. Here is the video Allman referenced in the show about Charles Jaco. It looks legit after all the researching I have done...but the comical over reaction to potential bombing is ridiculous in my book. Skip to 6:45 for the beginning of what he talked about. By Mark Bland
Are we just gushing and bloviating at this point to make people say "GOOD JOB", "I AGREE!" , "DAMN RIGHT" or 1000 other sayings and cliches for the sake of trumpeting that we are on the right side of history? I am all for this, but I am noticing a lot of 4, 5 and 6th posts trumpeting the success of the SCOTUS decision on Gay Marriage as if the first 3-5 posts weren't already letting us know where you stand. So why? Does anyone really think any of us are going to be sitting in a situation a year from now, bothered and hot blooded about anyone and then go "Well I remember they definitely loved the Gay Marriage decision a lot last year, so I can't be all that mad at them". NO THAT WONT HAPPEN. HERE'S WHAT WILL HAPPEN....a year from now, you'll randomly jump on TIMEHOP on your phone, the posts will come up and you'll be reminded that it happened AT ALL. So you'll share the TIMEHOP and say "yeah this was a good day in history" or something to that effect. I get that today is a monumental day in LGBT rights...BUT....we have to stop fake bloviating our true care and love for random things that don't affect us in the least bit...both in the positive (as today) or the negative (as the people trying to protect the confederate flag).... NONE of it means anything to any us for the most part. Gay Marriage affects gay people that want to get married. The Confederate flag really only affects rednecks from the south trying to live in the past hardcore. Other then that, it never comes up in discussion. So why do we pretend like it does. Because we are lost as a society and have no real identitiy in 2015. And why should we. Our young people go out of their way to dress from bygone decades cause their is nothing unique offline for them today. We are a technological society and that doesn't require anymore involvement in life other than a few keystrokes and pretending that something is really really really important to us. When I see people that NEVER post anything about LGBT anything going out of their way to trumpet their approval of the SCOTUS decision on Gay Marriage, I say to myself "what a fraud'. Now you might say "But what about you Mark? You did it?" True...BUT AGAIN...I have hours of audio from the show backing up that I have opinionated on it before and had LGBT advocates on my show multiple times to discuss these ideals and laws. So for me to trumpet makes sense, since its what I do. Now the ones that really bother me are the people that never post to social media and this is the only time they did. As if this is the most important thing in their life...but they are married with 3 kids. That's the stuff that blows my mind. So lets hold back on telling everyone how proud you are unless you truly have vested interest. And this happens on multiple topics. The confederate flag discussion (Yep!), the Ferguson Situation (Yep!), the Election of Obama (Yep!)...it's constantly something and we constantly have to let everyone know where we stand. Well I am here to tell you that you don't. The ones affected will fall into the place they are meant to fall into, and your general appreciation of "whatever" the topic will go verfied into the books of life regardless. So Brian Williams, justifiably, gets lamb basted for making comments untrue to his standing in a situation in combat, but here is AUDIO PROOF and Bill O'Reilly getting called out for lying LIVE on his show....and I guarantee that FOX News won't fire him anytime soon or punish him at all. Conservatives are the worst!!!! 
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