Latest / The Wes Carroll Morning Show / Oh the Numbing Is Everywhere

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Oh the Numbing Is Everywhere · The Wes Carroll Morning Show

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The news, opinions, commentary, and interviews. You need to start your
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day, and you're listening to the West Carrol Morning Show. Thursday morning,
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fourth day of January. I'm West Thanks for joining me for many. If
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the kids aren't already back in school, they're starting back today in the Chattahoochee
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Valley area. It's about time. No, I think it was good.
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We needed a longer break. We always needed a little bit longer break with
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the kids over Christmas, I think, But it is time for them to
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go back. I mean it's time. Today's day for most they're going back.
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That's that we can all move on. So there we go. And
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I hope you were able to have an opportunity to spend an appropriate amount of
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time with them over the holidays. That's always the challenge, isn't it,
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when you're trying to just make the time in a time where it's hard to
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make time with your kids. And here's what I want to talk about today,
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this numbing of us as a culture, This numbing as a society that
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is just there and it's now growing. There was a point where I thought,
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you know, no big deal. I think in my twenties and thirties.
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Maybe it was easy for me to be dismissive. And I'm going to
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be clear on a few things because I'm not blaming exclusively one thing or another.
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But there's a combination of things. It's all taking place, I guess.
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At the same time, social media is certainly a big component of it,
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and I think video games are a component of it, but not just
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video games. I mean, yes, some video games, some of the
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games that are happening on screens. And now drug culture is much more accepted,
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I think than it ever has been, and it's growing. And I've
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got a few thoughts on this and what it means. And when I talk
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about video games, I grew up playing a lot of video games. Now,
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keep in mind, the first video games for me were ones that you
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had to go to an arcade and you had to put in a quarter and
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you played the game, or you bought tokens and then you played the game.
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You were limited on the number of restarts of games because they all involved
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a quarter. Okay, unless you had one of those moments where you just
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struck gold and you went to one of the arcades and they were like we
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turned all the machines on free go nuts. Occasionally that would happen and it
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was great, but again, you couldn't just restart the game and start over
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and keep going. Now, with games playing at home, and we did
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have games that you played at home, there were periods of time where I
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wasn't supervised very well, or my parents just let it go. They were
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busy, they had things going on. We're all guilty of it. Now
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as parents, especially parents who as kids played video games, we have more
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sympathy. We have more empathy when our kids are playing a video game and
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they want to get to a save point, they want to get to a
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next level, they're trying to beat some sort of record. We understand what
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they're dealing with. My parents did not. When my parents said, hey,
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it's dinner time, come to dinner, you were expected to turn off
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the game and go, and it didn't matter if you had to. You
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know, you tried to hurry up and get to a save point, but
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it didn't matter. You had to get to dinner. That's what they expected,
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that's what they wanted my generation now, and I guess any parent even
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younger than me is looking at their kids in a way where they're saying,
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you need to get to that safe point, and we cut them that slow
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and we allow them to do it, and the video gaming just goes on
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and on and on. Right as screens of any kind, we're all,
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I think, guilty to some degree of it. There's not really an age
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I want to say, we're all. There's some that stay away from it.
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But the reality is your ability to stare at a screen and kill time
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kind of numb things a little bit, right. I mean, that's part
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of what we do with it. That's part of what we do with video
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gaming. We just kind of kill time. We stare at a screen.
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Sometimes it's watching TV, sometimes it's playing a game. Sometimes it's like I
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said, you're on a phone, you're on an iPad, you're on some
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sort of a tablet, and you're just staring at a screen. And it
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gets us through the day. In some cases, the things that are getting
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us through the day. We know that alcohol has been something that people have
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used to do that, but now it seems like more than ever, everywhere
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I go, I smell it, that skunk smell of weed. Now,
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I've long been an advocate for I don't think we need our government telling us
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things that we can and can't do unless it affects other people. I understand
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that. I think that, you know, people that smoke cigarettes, it's
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bad for you. Why would you do it? Why would you smoke cigarettes?
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But I also don't think the government should be stopping you from doing it.
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The only motivation for the government to stop us from doing anything like smoking
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cigarettes is, you know, if you have. They're moving towards more and
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more of a government run health system. They don't want you smoking cigarettes because
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that's going to be a problem for them later, and they try to,
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you know, bump up taxes on it. I don't know where that money
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goes. Does that money go to help the healthcare system? I don't know.
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So, whether it's alcohol or it's now weed, which is one of
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those things that it's just everywhere and it's encouraged and it's laughed about, and
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no one seems to everyone just seems willing to look the other way. I
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always find it fascinating the laws that are just ignored. Now there's some states
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where things are legal. It's not legal here, Okay, if you're in
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the listening area typically for this show, you don't live somewhere where it's legal.
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Probably you may, and I'm as a very libertarian minded person, I'll
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tell you I you know, people should be able to do whatever it is
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that they want to do unless they're hurting other people. But are they hurting
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other people? When it's just everywhere? I mean, how is that not
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hurting other people? It's one of those things I struggle with because I don't
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want there to. I mean, there's laws already in place, the laws
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aren't being in force, the laws might as well not exist. That's true
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of a lot of things, But when it comes to just casual smoking of
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marijuana, it's everywhere. It feels like every third person I encounter during the
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day, at the grocery store, at the gym, wherever I am,
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I can smell it strongly on them, and it's there was a time when
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you'd smell it. I went to a lot of concerts as a program director
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of radio station, A lot of concerts. A lot of concerts. It
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always jumped at you when you smelled it in a crowd, and occasionally someone
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would go, that's a cigar, and you go, I don't have a
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lot of experience with it. I personally have never smoked it. I don't
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have a lot of experience with it. I just you know, I'd be
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at concerts and I'd smell it and go okay. Sometimes you go to a
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concert like Dave Matthews, and they pump smoke machines out into the crowd to
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hide the fact that people are smoking weed in the crowd. But now it's
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everywhere, and I'm starting to get concerned about the fact that this is obviously
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another one of those numbings things people can't get through the day without it.
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I'm not talking about the person who very rarely and very occasionally partakes of it
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in certain circumstances. Again, you know, check the laws in your area.
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But I don't necessarily think the government should be involved in it. This
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is where it becomes a conflict for me, and this is where I struggle
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with it. But I'm tired of smelling it. It's having an effect on
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me because I have to smell it everywhere. I have my kids that now
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know the smell and recognize it because it's just everywhere. It's everywhere. Taking
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our dog for a walk, we're gonna smell it as we pass certain houses.
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It's just there, and it's another one of those numbing agents. That's
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in place. It's just something to get us through the day so that we
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can get to tomorrow and try to get through the day tomorrow. So whether
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it's TV and movies or it's video games, and I'm not blaming all of
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those specific things. We have an epidemic might also be a dull content online.
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For some people, they really struggle with it, and it's just one
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of those things to get them through the day. They're going to get through
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point A to point B and then it's bedtime you go to bed. For
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some people it's food. There's all of these things that are challenges for us
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to get through the day, and it's become a growing problem, and we're
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raising children and teenagers and young adults to be in this mindset of let's just
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get through the day, staring at a screen, communicating with people they don't
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even know, sometimes social media, all of these aspects. It's a problem,
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and it's a growing problem, and I'm not fresh to it. I'm
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not giving you a fresh take on it other than to say, do I
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have to smell weed all day every day no matter where I go? Apparently
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so, and I know you think, well, you can go to some
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other places, but it's everywhere. It's not like it's the exact same routine
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every day. And I don't understand the people who they can't go to the
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gym and work out without smoking it. I don't understand that who's smoking it
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at the gym. But that's a thing, And maybe that's a workout thing
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that I don't know about, and I'm really missing out on something, not
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that I would try it, but maybe just not being aware of it.
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Maybe that's the thing. But it's everywhere you shop in the store and you
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just smell it moving around the store, and it's just on people. And
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maybe they didn't just smoke it. Maybe it's all in their clothes because they've
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been in their car where it's just a constant presence in their vehicle. We
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have a numbness problem. We have to learn to face reality a little bit,
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and we're not doing a good job of it. We're not doing a
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good job of getting our kids ready for dealing with life. This all relates
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to this mental health problem we have. And no, marijuana isn't a completely
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They say, oh, it doesn't have any side effects, it doesn't have
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any long term effects. It's the study show does the studies show that increased
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use of it causes an increased chance of schizophrenia and other mental problems dopamine levels.
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So you can't just blow it off and say there's no side effects to
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it, there's nothing, it's better than cigarettes, any whatever the argument is,
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you can't really make that case. It is a long term problem that
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we're going to be dealing with. Do we need more people with mental health
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severe mental health issues, dopamine level issues moving forward? No, No,
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that's a problem that has gone up, and we don't need it to go
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up. We don't need it to be worse. But it's increased. And
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so many things now are just generally accepted in society. Just do these things.
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Just do them. And as soon as people start trying to make the
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case for why smoking weed shouldn't be a big deal and everybody should be able
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to do whatever it is they want to do concerning weed, that's when you
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start hearing conversation about cocaine's not so bad. I've seen that, I've heard
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that already. Start that's already a thing. Ah, Cocaine's not so bad,
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really that bad? Should it be illegal? Should we be allowed to
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do that? No? No, that one is bad, that one's really
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bad, and how it gets here and how you're using it and all of
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that is bad. But if the reasons that those are bad, and then
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there's actual health and mental health, long term problems for things like weed,
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maybe they should enforce the laws that are already in place. I know that's
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something that's already changing. I know people that have invested into medical marijuana,
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and I'm not talking about medical marijuana really, but I know people that have
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invested in that long term and they feel like eventually, when it becomes legal,
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that's going to be a bigger payout for them. And again I'm not
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talking about medical marijuana. I don't have any issues with that at all.
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I don't think that's what I'm encountering all day every day. I don't think
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it's those people that are at the gym. I don't think it's those people
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that are shopping at the store all day, that drive past me where their
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windows down and music blaring and I can smell it. I don't think that's
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what I'm encountering every day. But maybe it is. I don't know,
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maybe it is. I do want to talk a little bit about Claudie and
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Gray, the president at Harvard or former president Harvard who was resigned. You
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know that it was an ugly mess when she was being asked about the calls
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for genocide of Jewish students at Harvard, and she defended it. She basically
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said, you know, it depended on the context. People should be able
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to say it, depending on their context, whether it violated code of conduct
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at Harvard. Well, another president of a university that was involved in that
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is out in her, but she's not completely gone. She doesn't have that
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title anymore. She now is just has a different job, making almost a
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million bucks a year, not being the president at Harvard. She basically the
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issue wasn't so much what she said about Jewish students or about Israel or the
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Jewish people in general. What got her, apparently was the fact that she
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had been caught plagiarizing a lot of things, a lot of published things.
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Something that's been defended. Her stance on not calling calls for genocide of Jewish
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students, saying that it depended on the context of how you were saying it.
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That part has been defended, and now her plagiarism is also being defended.
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See, the thing is, if you like with anything else. If
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you're on the correct side of you have the right momentum towards a particular party,
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you can kind of do whatever you want to do. People are going
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to defend you no matter what it is. If you look the right way,
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if you act the right way, if you have the right views.
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Yeah, they're going to defend you no matter what ridiculous thing that you're doing.
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But they're not going to defend you if your politics don't want up.
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Remember all the marches that they did where it was we hate Trump, we
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hate Trump. We're women, we hate Trump, we're women. We're all
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marching for women's rights. We're all supporting women. We're all supporting women.
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And then some women showed up and said, we like Trump, but we
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want to march for women's rights. Andy, Ah, you can't come here.
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Get out of here, scram beat it. We don't want you here.
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I mean, that's exactly the mindset of all of it. And rather
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than trying to welcome them in and you know, convert them to their ways,
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they just shoot them away. No, we don't want you here.
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You need to get out of here. You don't need to be a part
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of our group. You're not one of us. And it all has to
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do with if you toe the line. This is someone who tows the line,
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and they're willing to defend her under any circumstance, whatever it is,
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and then keep her on payroll for I don't know however long they want to
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keep her on payroll, paying her eight hundred thousand or a million a year
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or whatever it is, something absurd, But anyway, she's lost that title,
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disgraced former president at Harvard, and a really a whole lot more for
16:18
me to say about her. Today's show brought to you by Columbus State University's
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dot com More West Carol Morning Show. Right after the break, a New
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Jersey couple proud parents of two boys who were born in different years forty minutes
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apart. Parents Billy and Eve welcome their son Ezra into the world at eleven
20:07
forty eight pm on New Year's Eve. He was followed shortly after by his
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younger brother, Ezekiel, who was born at twelve twenty eight am New Year's
20:15
Day. The twins were born on different days in different years, and it
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also happened in Connecticut. Michael and Aliah Kyomi Morris welcome to baby boy named
20:30
seven at eleven fifty nine pm and then a baby girl named solely at twelve
20:34
two am. So that's pretty cool. Couple of twins born in different years.
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It's you know, it's got to be that right, that perfect storm
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for that to happen. But it's kind of a fun story that they'll be
20:48
telling for the rest of their lives. If you're thinking about a new job
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in twenty twenty four and you're looking at jobs where wage increases happened in twenty
20:59
twenty three, the compensation data firm pay Scale conducted a survey to find the
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ten hottest jobs in terms of salary bumps last year. Assistant manager and customer
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service was actually at the top of the list. Hairstylist, master, plumber,
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automotive body repair, career coach, audio visual technician, animator, fitness
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coach, rufer, and general manager were all the top ten. So if
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you're in those fields, maybe should think about asking for more money. I
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mean, I'm not telling you to do it. I'm just saying maybe you
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should think about it. I don't know. So, you know exercise trackers
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that you wear on your arms, whether it's a smart watch or a fit
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bit, people got really focused on their steps that they should take each day.
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I feel like you're either one of those people who's really focused on your
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number of steps, or you're aware of the steps, but you really don't
21:52
care. That's kind of where I am. But at first, yeah,
21:56
I was doing that when I got my first smart watch. And they say
22:00
that ten thousand steps a day is a good goal to have, but a
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new research finds that four thousand steps could be more realistic goal every day to
22:08
reduce your risk of dying from any number of causes. Of course, more
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than four thousand steps today is even better, and that will further reduce your
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risk of heart disease, OBESD, diabetes, high blood pressure, and depression.
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So maybe that's the problem is you get all this focus on any ten
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thousand steps, and that makes people kind of dismiss it and go, I'm
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not going to get ten thousands? So what am I even trying for four
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thousand? You can do that, I mean, I want to What am
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I already today? I mean I'm off to a good start already, all
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right. So the next item for a Girl Scout Cookie treatment is cold brew
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coffee. Chameleon Organic Coffee will release three new drinks in stores this spring,
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brew sold in stores in eight ounce. Can something else to look for in
23:00
the new year? They say you should make a resolution to sleep in.
23:04
I don't do resolutions. I've said that many times over the years. I
23:07
just it's not my thing. I appreciate it, though, I appreciate the
23:11
fact that there's something that you know, you say, oh, it's a
23:15
new time, it's a new beginning, and all that sort of stuff.
23:18
But you could do that anytime, you know, the whole longest journey or
23:22
whatever. One step that's how it starts, that's what you need. I
23:26
know I slaughtered that quote, but anyway, So, a new study found
23:30
that sleeping in on the weekend might have long term help benefits. Remember they
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used to tell us that wasn't the case. They said that was bad for
23:37
you to sleep in on the weekends. Researchers in China found an additional two
23:41
hours of sleep on the weekend could potentially decrease the risk of heart attack or
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stroked by sixty three percent, particularly for individuals who sleep less than six hours
23:51
a night during the week. According to the study, this's a quote.
23:53
We found that weekend catch up sleep and adults is associated with a low risk
23:59
of Angina broken coronary heart disease. According to the researchers, they used to
24:03
tell us not to do that. I remember when I was in high school,
24:07
he said, don't do that. Don't try to make up for it
24:08
on the weekend. Now they're saying too, But then again, the research
24:12
coming out of China, So do what you want to do with that.
24:15
Who knows about two thirds of US households on a dog, eighty five percent
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of dog owners considering that their pets are part of the family. So which
24:25
breeds are the favorites? A survey done by Forbes says that no breed in
24:30
particular is America's favorite. I don't know whether that really counts as an answer,
24:36
but if Forbes is countenant, whatever it says. When broken down by
24:40
a popularity in each state, the Australian Shepherd is right up there top ten
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favorite dog breeds in the US. The Australian Shepherd followed by the German Shepherd,
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Bulldog, Labrador Retriever, Bermese Mountain Dog, Beagle, Golden Retriever,
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Boston Terrier, boxer Shitzuo. We're in the top ten there. That'll do
25:00
it for this Thursday edition of the show. Thanks to our sponsors and patrons.
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Thank you for listening. I'll catch you back here tomorrow morning. This
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is the West Carrol Morning Show powered by Overhead Door Company of Columbus, the
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