Archive for the ‘culture’ Category

The Tea Party Commercial

Posted: January 18, 2011 by datechguy in culture, oddities, tea parties
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There are some commercials that just rub you the wrong way, (I hate the e-trade baby commercials) but I never get sick of this one:

Why, because it is all about a guy who wants something, wants it bad and what does he do? Does he max out his credit? Does he beg for it as a gift? Nope, he works and works at job after job, most of which are not enjoyable, and keeps his eye on the prize. And when he can afford the car he wants, only then does he get it.

This simply screams Tea Party values, hard work, perseverance, spending responsibility. In fact I would dare to say it screams American Values.

And look at the license plate on the two cars he buys. It says “The fly over state”. That says Red State all over it. How fitting.

I wonder how many copies of Money for Nothing were sold off iTunes yesterday?

Posted: January 14, 2011 by datechguy in culture
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I seem to recall a time when people who were considered “liberal” absolutely rushed to buy banned books and music to support artists repressed by uptight adults who didn’t get it.

Who ever thought that would be Canada:

The Dire Straits song “Money for Nothing” was ruled by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council to be “extremely offensive” and thus inappropriate for airing because it uses an anti-gay slur

No word on if the Canadians have banned Mel Brooks Blazing Saddles for this scene

I remember this video well for several reasons: The computer animation was not common in videos of the time, the song itself is pretty good and having known a lot of blue-collar guys they EXACTLY thought that about rock stars figuring they got rich the easy way.

Most bands will tell you that with rare exceptions it takes a lot of practice and years of work in cheap clubs to get to the point where you might have one hit, or one video. It’s not the type of heavy lifting that a laborer does but it is work (the easiest job is one somebody else is doing). There are rewards if you hit it big but most bands don’t.

Exit question is this: Has the Canadian Broadcast Standards council banned all rap music or comedy routines that includes a word that rhymes with “trigger”? If not why?

Anyway a count of the number of downloads of Money for Nothing yesterday would be quite interesting.

The media tells us who they fear

Posted: January 12, 2011 by datechguy in culture, media
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One of Rush Limbaugh’s favorite lines about the media and the democrats is they will tell you who they fear by their reactions.

One of the reason’s why the media has no problem “calling out” the Tea Party without evidence and why they have no problem going after the Catholic Church is not only do they disagree with their positions, but they understand and no they actually have no physical reason to fear them.

At No Paesran via Glenn we see the difference between reporting on people you fear vs people you don’t. First the shooting in Arizona and the Conservatives in Le Monde:

The shooting in which a Democrat was seriously wounded in Arizona has appalled the American Left, which denounces the “poisoned rhetoric” of the ultraconservatives…

He continues illustrating the comparative nonsense within the paper itself and their willingness to post blames, Yet not two weeks after the attack in Alexandra against Coptic Christians that was international news (prompting a rare positive reaction) we have this story out of Egypt:

An off-duty policeman has opened fire on a train in Egypt, killing a Christian man, but it is unclear whether the attack was sectarian.

At least another five people were reported to have been injured in the shooting on a train between Assiut and Cairo.

Officials said at least four of those hurt were Coptic Christians.

That’s just the fact but note how the story ends:

The BBC’s Jon Leyne reports from Cairo that it is difficult to see how the gunmen would have known he could target Christians by boarding the train.

Here you have the media making it a point to say it’s hard to see a direct religious connection the lack of evidence to make a connection to radical Islam vs the Coptic.

Although he approves of that last statement No Paesran’s head spins:

It is unclear whether the attack was sectarian! We learn that “Officials said at least four of those hurt [there were five wounded altogether] were Coptic Christians” and we learn that “Witnesses said hundreds of Christians later clashed with police outside the hospital where the wounded were taken” and we are reminded that “Tensions between Muslims and Christians in Egypt have been high following a bomb attack on a Coptic church in Alexandria at the new year that killed 23 people.” But! It is unclear whether the attack was sectarian!

All of this speaks volumes. I think it’s not just bias, I think it is the knowledge that if the BBC suggests islamic violence they may have to deal with repercussions personally.

Restraint is easy when your skin is at stake.

The Ultimate in counter programing

Posted: December 31, 2010 by datechguy in blogs, culture, media, oddities
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While the rest of us on the right pick apart Colman McCarthy over this Washington Post column Robert Stacy McCain decides in a brilliant bit of counter programing to tackle the issue that has sadly been ignored, namely the best tactics to ahem; stimulate the economy of the movie industry:

The question of what it takes nowadays to get people to go to the multiplex and pay $9 to see a movie they can catch a few months later on HBO or Netflix is a perplexing question for Hollywood. But when a chick says to her boyfriend, “Hey, you want to go see a ballet movie?” it’s kinda helpful if she can follow that up with, “You know, the one with the Natalie Portman lesbian scene.”

He then follows up 20 paragraphs on the cultural history of the “lesbian scene” in print and film including this gem:

It would be a worthwhile project for some “cultural studies” grad student to go through the 1971-79 Penthouse archives and count how many girl-on-girl pictorials they published. And you could probably get a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to do that research.

The irony of course being that you likely could get a grant from the NEH for such research and this is precisely the type of scholarship that our Mr. McCarthy would prefer our kids in college study as opposed to ROTC and the like.

This is usually the hit starved season for bloggers but Stacy knows that the phrase “natalie portman lesbian scene” will generate hits for years to come in search engines not yet invented to shore up his slow days. Why comment on the news of the day when you can make a long-term investment that will guarantee you hits and page views forever?

Update: Nothing like an Instalanche to start the new year, between the 63 (so far) at my party and this it’s quite a start. Don’t forget to tune into WCRN AM 830 tonight at 9:30 for DaTechGuy on DaRadio with DaScienceGuy and Barbara Espinosa of American Freedom. And remember two weeks from tonight Glenn will be my guest on the show (Jan 15 9 p.m. ) Mark that on the calendar! Listen live here. And if you are a business or a blogger looking for hits, you can’t do better than that for a draw.

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