Archive for the ‘opinion/news’ Category

How to understand the elites in both parties and Hollywood

Posted: October 19, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
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You have to think of the way things were back in the middle ages and before.

You had a group of elites. Some were wise some were not, they got their wealth from inheritances of lands granted by royalty and lived off the labor of the tenants on the land.

They would patronize entertainers and artists and scientists. Those people would humor their patrons who were amateurs in their fields in order to maintain their funding and comfort. They would also have squires and knights who would serve them and depend on their largess for their place in society.

These Lords would compete with other lords for the favor of the king and the largess that he would supply them, but the King also knew that if the Lords turned on him they would be another Royal house in charge.

Since wealth wasn’t the big issue the primary worry was status. Who was considered the most important.

Because they were elites they also enjoyed the king protection when their actions crossed lines of propriety.

And beneath all of these people were the freedman, the tradesmen, the serfs and the slaves, they actually grew the foods and created the tools and did the work and saw the majority of it. They were expected to do the work, pay the taxes and not complain.

When you wonder about Hollywood and Polanski, about the White House’s attack on Fox, about reporters sucking up to Letterman and Polanski, about networks pandering to the president, about the NRCC and the New York 23rd, about conservatives becoming big spenders and about CPAC west and their treatment of John Ziegler, keep the above in mind and it will all make sense to you.

Update: Salena Zito elaborates.

Religion of Peace in our time…

Posted: October 18, 2009 by datechguy in fun, opinion/news
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yes I admit it I stole that line from Tim Blair’s commentator surfmaster of down south and in a bit, however it perfectly encapsulates the excellent poem on religious freedom that I am now stealing from Tim Blair main post:

The Pope’s a total Nazi
What’s the deal with those Hindus?
Judaism’s not so bad
Except for all the Jews

Hey, Buddha! Would it kill you
To wear a frickin’ shirt?
I can say most anything
And I’m never getting hurt

But let’s not mention Islam
We’ll play it safe instead
It’s hard to make religious jokes
When you don’t have a head

 

To say I wish I said that is the understatement of the year and perfectly encapsulates the problem with Radical Islam and it’s defenders. As for the rest I submit that God has a sense of humor, after all he created man.

As for the supports of Islam, if you don’t want to be laughed at and called a bunch of barbarians, I suggest you stop acting like a bunch of barbarians to wit:

A Somalian Muslim group reportedly has started whipping women in public for wearing bras that violate Islam, the Daily Mail reports.
Residents claim insurgent group Al Shabaab sent gunmen into the streets to round up women who appeared to have a firm bust. The women are inspected to see if their suspected firmness is natural or from a bra. Officials reportedly make the women shake their breasts after removing their bras.

Can a fatwa against Meagan McCain and Rule 5 Sunday be far behind?

And Yes Radical Islam deserves a Nelson every day of the year.

It’s all about A status Quo…

Posted: October 17, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
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…not THE status quo which is democratic control of congress but A status quo, making sure that waves are not made with particular interests.

The thing about power is it waxes and wanes, sooner or later the Republicans will again control the house and/or senate. Sooner or later they will be Chairmen of committees that have spending and taxing power and that means sooner or later interests will shower them with money and favors to retain their particular interests.

The problem is if you get candidates who actually take conservatism seriously then that type of business as usual becomes harder and said power brokers loose face with the money men who might God forbid withhold their largess or even worse support the other guys!

This is why NY23 is significant. There are likely internal reasons why Dede Scozzafava was selected but like Newt’s endorsement is short term thinking (unless his primary concern is the gravy train). If the party discourages conservatives they will see more of this.

The republican party is happy when it comes to the tea party movement generating negative ratings for the president and challenging him so they don’t have to do it. About actually electing conservatives that will challenge Republicans to actually live up to the fiscal responsibilities that they espouse? Not so much.

I should note that you get the same dynamic from the other side. The far left is strung along for money to preserve majorities by electing democrats in “purple” districts but those same candidates balk at the radical agenda and the people who put up the money rightly cry foul. The hypocrisy is the same but one significant difference exists.

The conservative principles of the tea party protesters:

Fiscal responsibility
Support of Military victory and the Troops
Judeo-Christian values
Lower Taxes

These appeal to the great mass of the American public and are often publicly declared even by progressives.

The liberal principles of progressives:

Government Socialism
American defeat abroad and support of repression
Secular humanism ridicule of Judo-Christian values
Higher Taxes

These can NOT be declared openly without electoral defeat except in the most radical areas such as San Francisco.

You will on occasion see “progressives” espouse some or all of the conservative values while running to get elected, you will never see a conservative espouse the 2nd.

Update: Professor Darren Hutchinson seems to notice our problem in reverse. It appears both of use are being used like Leonard Hofstadter for Leslie Winkle immediate satisfaction.

She’s not just on facebook, Palin says Drill…

Posted: October 16, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
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…at NRO:

We rely on petroleum for much more than just powering our vehicles: It is essential in everything from jet fuel to petrochemicals, plastics to fertilizers, pesticides to pharmaceuticals. Ac­cord­ing to the Energy Information Ad­min­is­tra­tion, our total domestic petroleum consumption last year was 19.5 million barrels per day (bpd). Motor gasoline and diesel fuel accounted for less than 13 million bpd of that. Meanwhile, we produced only 4.95 million bpd of domestic crude. In other words, even if we ran all our vehicles on something else (which won’t happen anytime soon), we would still have to depend on imported oil. And we’ll continue that dependence until we develop our own oil resources to their fullest extent.

To pretend we can do without oil is to marry a fantasy. With the weak dollar the need to use our own resources is even more urgent. Not to mention the jobs it produces during a time of very high unemployment. She concludes thusly:

Alternative sources of energy are part of the answer, but only part. There’s no getting around the fact that we still need to “drill, baby, drill!” And if those in D.C. say otherwise, we need to tell them: “Yes, we can!”

Like the daily beast says, she’s not going anywhere.

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