Archive for the ‘culture’ Category

Polls vs Actions

Posted: March 4, 2011 by datechguy in catholic, culture, politics
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I’ve talked a bit about the difference between what a poll might say vs actual actions.

Early this morning insty linked to this post at hotair concerning polling on libertarian issues such as Gay Marriage.

Forgetting the splits lets see how this actually works in practice in a couple of blue states:

Getting a gay marriage bill through the Rhode Island House of Representatives with Gov. Lincoln Chafee’s support and a new openly gay House speaker was supposed to be a cakewalk. Instead, as The Boston Phoenix (an alternative paper) reports: “The end game is proving trickier than advocates had hoped. … They’ve been caught off guard by the prowess of the church, which has joined with the nation’s leading anti-gay marriage group to mount a surprisingly potent defense of the status quo.”

And in Maryland another deep blue state things are getting interesting too:

This week in Maryland, black Democrats from progressive districts are beginning to jump ship. First Melvin Stukes, a co-sponsor of a gay marriage bill in that state’s House of Delegates, unexpectedly announced he was switching sides.

A few days later, two black Democrats counted as “yes” votes suddenly went missing, refusing to show up for a committee vote, which had to be postponed.

Maryland is a deep blue state — core Democratic territory — but opposition to gay marriage is also surging

And the reason?

The reaction has been extraordinary! The black church in particular has risen to this occasion in an extraordinary way. Whose vision and whose values count to the Democratic leadership in the Maryland legislature, black pastors are asking? Well, maybe this week they will find out!

If the trends where with them the democrats would not have the trouble they are having. It’s precisely because they don’t have the numbers that it’s necessary to push without public support.

“Cultural Imperalism” and Sati (Suttee)

Posted: March 3, 2011 by datechguy in culture, internet/free speech, opinion/news
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At Piece of work in progress Dan Collins talks about the “consequences of the Multicult”

The liberals who comprise the MSM majority have in essence adopted the stance that insistence on religious tolerance in Muslim majority nations is an undue imposition of Western standards of human rights on foreign states and cultures, which is an expression of lingering imperialism, and thus bad, while millions of Muslims and non-Muslims suffer under the yoke of Islamist fundamentalism in all of its forms. One of the most egregious examples is the media’s treatment of the Muslim Brotherhood, but there are many more.

In consequence, the United States stands by as ethnic cleansing is accomplished versus Copts and other Christian minorities in Muslim majority nations.

Not two minutes ago on Morning Joe (I’m writing this at 8:37 a.m.) Mika mentioned the killing of two soldiers at the Frankfurt airport. They stressed “Germany” and the “last time there was a shooting in Germany” but they were unwilling to talk about what was brought up on MSNBC Europe’s own web page:

Family members in Kosovo described the suspect as a devout Muslim, who was born and raised in Germany and worked at the airport.

Nope, nothing to see here, not a thing going on. The Catholic minister in Pakistan murdered? No comment, nothing to see here. Copts killed in Egypt, none of our business.

Our unwillingness to defend our cultural values is dooming millions to oppression. Consider this story from history:

General Charles Napier held the offices of Governor of Bombay and Commander-in-Chief of India for the British Empire,was confronted with the tradition of Sati (or Suttee) where the new widow of a deceased man would be thrown alive on his funeral pyre. Napier forbade it, and when leaders of the community objected saying it was their custom. Napier with all the confidence of an 1850’s Brit with this classic answer (via Mark Steyn’s book America Alone)

“You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”

Sati or Suttee has been gone from India for 160 years. How many widows did not die in excruciating pain because of this example of “cultural imperialism”?

And what is the situation now? Now we’ve reached the point that the same British who stopped Suttee in India now have unofficial “gay free zones” in their capital imposed by unassimilated Muslims who are imposing their own “cultural imperialism” right back at em.

I think Steyn nailed it with this sentence:

Multiculturalism was conceived by the Western elites not to celebrate all cultures but to deny their own.

Until we look this straight in the eye we will be seeing more headlines like this:

German prosecutors said on Thursday that Islamic radicalism may have motivated a Kosovar to open fire on an American military bus at the Frankfurt airport, killing two United States airmen and wounding two others.

And it will be our own fault.

I don’t remember if it was Chuck or Tony…

Posted: March 1, 2011 by datechguy in culture, personal
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…but after seeing all the exchanges from Attila’s post and Ace’s update combined with Stacy’s post last night reminded me of this story from my youth.

There were two different crowds I hung with, one was a Massachusetts crowd from high school and one was a NH crowd I met in college. The NH crowd was less sober but generated a whole bunch of very interesting stories.

They would do various pickup stunts. One of the guys would try to pick up a girl at a bar, when she turned him down the others standing at the door would loudly hum the Old Spice theme, toss him a bottle, He would put on the Old Spice and as the girl was laughing he would ask her out again (still didn’t work but it was a laugh)

One of the most interesting stunts they would do was to find a woman at a bar, go up to her and directly ask her if she would sleep with him.

Before the girl could hit him or tell him to get lost, he would ask to explain. He would say that normally he would make small talk, maybe buy a few drinks, perhaps a meal and invest an entire night and only at the end of it find out if he was going to actually get laid, which was the whole idea.

This way she has no illusions about him and he doesn’t waste the whole night on a wild goose chase.

Two things would always happen after this. The girl would agree he made sense, and would tell him to get lost.

Given the times I wonder what the result would be today?

Let’s talk about sex…

Posted: March 1, 2011 by datechguy in culture, internet/free speech, opinion/news
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…says Little Miss Attila:

This is not the world I want my niece and church sponsee to live in (and I’m delighted to say that they haven’t bought into this nonsense at all). But we have to get back to a place wherein “sexual freedom,” as a cultural norm, actually includes the freedom to say “no.” (emphasis mine) This in turn requires that we celebrate the notion of dating as something that doesn’t require sex, and we appreciate the wonders of human attraction without having to act on them every single freakin’ time, for crying out loud.

If you look at the culture you will see that if you are a guy and you are not looking to score every time, there is something wrong with you, and if you don’t score then your date is a failure. She continues:

I’m one of those who thinks this has more to do with the misuse of feminism than the misuse of birth control, and I know I occupy a strange middle ground inasmuch as I’m not quite a proper social conservative.

Yet what we’ve created at this point is a situation in which women and girls attempt to ignore their own emotions and “out-detach” the boys. In practice, this means many have trained themselves to be sexually available, and make no demands whatsover–and, yes: in some circles, a request to spend time with a guy doing anything other than sex is considered a “demand,” as Wendy Shalit has documented extensively in her books.

Joy mentioned Wendy on my show a few weeks ago. Let me tell you that is a real problem, particularly when you are trying to teach teenage boys restraint in these matters.

As Aquainus said love is: “Wanting the best for the other without thought to self.” Not being a woman I can’t comment from that direction, but as a man it can’t be stressed enough that no matter how attractive the prospect might be, if you actually love a woman you have to be able to say “no” when the situation calls for it. For a young man today that can bring social ridicule from his peers and from a society that equates “scoring” with success as a man and celebrates it at all levels.

There was a time when this was not true. In the movie the Philadelphia story a smitten Jimmy Stewart reveals that although he had the chance he did not take advantage of a willing Katherine Hepburn on the day before her wedding. Hepburn’s character is unexpectedly outraged:

“Why? Was I so unattractive? So distant? So forbidding?

He answers:

No, no you were extremely attractive as for distant or forbidding far from it, but You were a little worse the wear for alcohol, and there are rules about that kind of thing.

Now watching the scene prior and after this there is no question he wants her, he even proposes at a later point but is unwilling to take advantage of her. Remember also this movie is from the 40’s when Stewart’s character wouldn’t face the same legal consequences that such a move might have today, yet still he does not act.

It is that admiration and acceptance of virtue, rather than its ridicule that is missing from the society until it is regained then I suspect that the situation that Attila laments will continue

Update: I don’t know if it was intentional but Robert Stacy McCain skewers those most responsible for what Attila is lamenting

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