Those TV shows like America's Got Talent and American Idol keep deprecating a mediocre contestant as only good enough for karaoke.  If you want to watch an embarrassingly bad singer, attend any karaoke session.  As terrible as you might be, there almost surely will be someone worse.  But that's okay, for in most cases, these are the ones who get the most applause. What is karaoke? First of all, it is not something like  Sing Along with Mitch  ( Miller ) and his band from 1961-66.  Sure, the lyrics played across the bottom of the TV screen, but there is no personal pressure, for everyone in the room is singing. Most authorities cite Kobe, Japan musician Daisuke Inoue, in 1971, for inventing the karaoke machine.  Thus, the Japanese name, Kara ( meaning empty ) oke ( for okesutora, the phonetic Japanese word for orchestra ).  Japan enhanced the experience by creating karaoke booths, smaller boxes or rooms, where you could sing with your friends or fa...

Donald Trump tosses out lies...all the time.  Actually, worse, for they are abhorrent, appalling, atrocious, dangerous, dreadful, horrendous and worse.  He is a pathological liar, psychologically known as mythomania.  When The Amazing Randi lies, it is mostly for a good purpose.  Who is Randi?  I'll get to him later. Here, from Health Encyclopedia of the Rochester Medical Center: For your birthday, your aunt knits you a sweater that is, well, downright hideous. You tell her, 1) “I'd go out in an army blanket before wearing that;” 2) “It would look better on a peacock;” or 3) “It's beautiful, Aunt Sylvia! I really need a sweater.” If you chose the third response, well, you’re a liar. Don’t feel bad, however. If the truth be told, most of us lie to some degree, especially when faced with an alternative like hurting the feelings of poor, good-hearted Aunt Sylvia.   Some of us, however, lie so often that we don’t realize it. That’s when it becomes the sort of p...

The future of Democracy for the USA got a boost from former Congresswoman Liz Cheney and her father, former  Congressman, Vice President under George W. Bush and White House Chief of Staff for President Gerald Ford.  Like JD Vance, Dick Cheney graduated from Yale.  Liz is a law school graduate from the University of Chicago. Better yet, it appears that Liz will campaign with Harris as needed and the  Harris-Walz team raised $361 million August, triple that of Trump-Vance .  Plus all those  additional campaign volunteers  to boost their ground game. The highlight of this coming week is the Donald Trump vs Kamala Harris debate. Finally, some good news for Boeing and NASA.  The  Starliner spacecraft returned to Earth, but without the two astronauts.   When are they returning, and how?   A lot of unknowns remain .  Looks like February of 2025, with SpaceX looming to be the carrier.  But the USA might need to ask Russia fo...