The first Honorary Basement Dweller is...

Just the other day, I heard an interview that I thought was the best interview I've ever heard in my life. It had just about everything: insight, philosophy, inspiration, dialogue about political matters, humor, discussions about relationships, partying, love, hate, and even a conversation about baseball. If you haven't already heard it, I promise this will be the best interview you've ever heard in your life.

Now if you're wondering about the post's title, yes, I am granting someone the honor of not only Honorary Basement Dweller, but the first ever Honorary Basement Dweller. I'll make it clear that just not anyone will be given the honor of Honorary Basement Dweller. You have to be someone special or have done something really special or both. The first recipient is both. Now on to announcing this individual. The first Honorary Basement Dweller is ....

His name is Carlos Estevez, but he is better known as Charlie Sheen. He is the son of Martin Sheen and the brother of Emilio Estevez. I'm sure most of you are familiar with the man from seeing him in movies and/or on TV. Just in case you've lived under the metaphorical rock, he's starred in such classic films as The Wraith, Major League, Hot Shots, Men at Work, among many others. He's also starred in TV sitcoms Spin City and Two and a Half Men. I use the past tense because as of this writing, apparently the producers of Two and a Half Men halted production and it appears that they don't want Charlie around anymore. You may also have seen him on TMZ or read about him in tabloid publications.

Charlie's career as an actor while trying to ride the coattails of his more talented father and talented brother is not the reason why I'm naming Charlie the first ever Honorary Basement Dweller. There are other reasons. I found out that Charlie is one amazing bitchin' dude from listening to his interview with Alex Jones, an expert on international politics and current events, a highly acclaimed documentary film maker, and one of Charlie's best pals. I learned that Charlie is a Vatican assassin. But this gets even better.

Charlie is winning. That's right. The man is addicted to winning. He was able to overcome his alcohol and drug addictions with the power of his mind. Charlie is the type of person we like here in the Basement and that is why he has been named the first ever Honorary Basement Dweller. He is a winner in life who possesses great ability to use the power of his mind. Wait, there's more.

Charlie lives life to the fullest. He lives life on his own terms, the way it should be. While he is trying to uncover evidence that the New World Order or the Illuminati was behind 9/11, he is out partying in such majestic places as the Bahamas with young beautiful actresses who often act in shall we say a certain type of low-budget independent movie. He also does great things for his family too. He said that he loves them violently while he hates anyone violently who would oppose his family. You better believe it when Charlie says he is like an F-18. Charlie provides plenty of philosophical thoughts into how to live life or I guess they can be called gnarly gnarlyisms.

Charlie cares about his gnarly friends and family. However, if you make enemies with Charlie, you better watch out. I'm sure that dude what's his name again who created Two and a Half Men and his third ex-wife Brooke are finding out that it's not much fun to be among Charlie's enemies. Shortly after the interview, a few haters named Sarah Silverman, Zooey Deschanel, John Stamos, and Denis Leary posted derogatory tweets on Twitter about Charlie. They're just some second-rate actresses and actors who are jealous that they don't get to party with Charlie and be among his gnarly friends to learn lots of stuff from him everyday. They're among the numerous trolls and fools who live loser lives just like that weirdo cult Alcoholics Anonymous. They're also probably pussies just like Thomas Jefferson. I'm not sure it really takes much stones to call the man who wrote the Declaration of Independence a pussy. Now if he has called George Washington a pussy, I would probably bow down to him just because he called George Washington a pussy. Knowing Charlie, I'm sure he'll do just that sometime in the near future.

Charlie Sheen is one awesome gnarly Vatican assassin winning bitchin' badass and the first ever Honorary Basement Dweller. Charlie, you and your beautiful powerful mind are always welcome to inhabit the Basement. Not only did he and Alex put on a great interview, Charlie probably also caused Two and a Half Men to be canceled which frees up 30 minutes of airtime for CBS to air a better show. That in itself is awesome. I'm sure that you have adequate Internet search skills to find his fantastic interview with Alex. However, I am offering the videos of Alex's interview with Charlie as downloads so you can listen to it over and over without using your Internet minutes (for those of you still stuck with limited Internet usage) or you can transfer the videos on your iPod or whatever mobile device you use and play them anytime anyplace. The reason I'm doing this is because everyone should hear this interview as it will change lives and make everyone more enlightened.

Tracklisting:  (links will be back soon)

1. Charlie Sheen Interview with Alex Jones (02-24-2011) part 1 {14:59}

2. Charlie Sheen Interview with Alex Jones (02-24-2011) part 2 {15:18}

3. Charlie Sheen Interview with Alex Jones (featuring Lenny Dykstra) part 3 (02-24-2011) {13:25}

Kenneth McFarland - Are We Raising the Red Flag Over Ourselves?

Kenneth McFarland - Are We Raising the Red Flag Over Ourselves?

LP probably released in 1963 (no date given); McFarland references having spent time at some hotel bar in New York during the Cuban Missle Crisis

What he means by the title of the LP is that he believes the United States of America could end up becoming a socialist/communist nation just like the Soviet Union because of many things including the enactment of the New Deal to help the United States recover from the Depression (i.e. creating jobs for the millions of unemployed people and to help restart the economy) and of something called progressive education. Basically, progressive education focuses on the individual abilities of the child or student and that each individual has his or her own learning style. A key component of progressive education is diversity.

Before Kenneth McFarland embarked on a career of public speaking in front of rich businesspeople and recording many records like this one, he was a superintendent of the Topeka, Kansas school system which was the school system in the Brown v. Board of Education case during Mr. McFarland's tenure. I guess I know why he's bitter towards progressive education. McFarland is also not happy that schools no longer post all the students' grades on all students' report cards. McFarland advocates that everybody should live life in competition everyday including children. I guess that it doesn't matter that students may or may not actually learn anything despite getting A's and B's. It's all about getting better grades than one's classmates. It's not really about measuring how well students are learning. I always thought that letter grades are kind of pointless anyway and I made mostly A's and B's.

McFarland advocates that people should succeed on their own, that is by competing against others. He thinks that those who are rich are the most successful and they should be treated better than anyone else. I guess that anyone born into a rich family is automatically a winner in life. He gripes that the rich pay more in taxes than anyone below them in the economic ladder. This is another way that the U.S. was supposedly headed towards becoming a socialist/communist country. The American way is competition and what he thinks of as "free enterprise" which really means no government regulation of business. McFarland is mistaking economic regulation by the government as control of industries.

On this record, McFarland speaks in front of a group of hospital and healthcare executives somewhere in southern California. It takes McFarland about 11 minutes to get into the topics mentioned already in this post. McFarland implies that the premier of the Soviet Union at the time, Nikita Krushchev, laughed in an evil way at the Americans are becoming a bunch of commies for progressive taxation and progressive education. Okay, Khrushchev didn't really laugh in an evil way at the U.S. (maybe he really did), but McFarland mentioned that Khrushchev said in a speech that the U.S. would someday raise the red flag (communism) over themselves. I can imagine McFarland boiling into some rage and his blood pressure rising at the mere thought of Khrushchev's speech and the fact that not every American shared McFarland's points of view on life. I'm sure everyone knows what happened after this LP was released. You can say that the opposite took place instead.


Tracklisting:

Side 1

1. Are We Raising the Red Flag Over Ourselves? side 1 {27:32}

Side 2

1. Are We Raising the Red Flag Over Ourselves? side 2 part 1 {19:43}

2. Are We Raising the Red Flag Over Ourselves? side 2 part 2 {6:03}

Note: side 2 is broken into two parts because at one point the needle gets stuck in a groove; the stuck part lasted well over a minute and I had to gently nudge the needle forward