Posts Tagged ‘culture’

The reality of the 60’s

Posted: January 18, 2011 by datechguy in culture, opinion/news
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There is a lot of talk about how the 60’s was the summer of love and all the great stuff that came from it. Virginia Ironside had a different memory:

To be honest, I mainly remember the 60s as an endless round of miserable promiscuity, a time when often it seemed easier and, believe it or not, more polite, to sleep with a man than to chuck him out of your flat. I recall a complete stranger once slipping into bed beside me when I was staying in an all-male household in Oxford, and feeling so baffled about what the right thing was to do that I let him have sex with me; I remember being got drunk by a grossly fat tabloid newspaper journalist and taken back to a flat belonging to a friend of his to which he had a key, being subjected to what would now be described as rape, and still thinking it was my fault for accepting so much wine. I remember going out to dinner with a young lawyer who inveigled me back to his flat saying he’d got to pick something up before he could take me home, and then suggested we have sex. ‘Oh no,’ I said feebly. ‘I’m too tired.’ ‘Oh, go on,’ he replied. ‘It’ll only take a couple of minutes.’ So I did.

You mean to say that all of that bit about fornication in Christianity and waiting till marriage although religious might have a non religious benefit? Who woulda thunk it. And who would have ever thought that if you give men, who naturally want sex, particular young men no reason for restraint they will show none. Her conclusion:

After a decade of sleeping around pretty indiscriminately, girls of the 60s eventually became fairly jaded about sex. It took me years to discover that continual sex with different partners is, with very few exceptions, joyless, uncomfortable and humiliating, and it’s only now I’m older that I’ve discovered that one of the ingredients of a good sex life is, at the very least, a grain of affection between the two partners involved.

In the rush to reject traditional Christianity a lot of people did a lot of damage to themselves. My advice, find a nice young man who goes to Church and warn your daughters of making it too easy. People tend to rise to the level of expectations that you set for them so let’s make the exceptions high.

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.

Bristol Palin, Grover Cleveland and the Civil Service

Posted: November 26, 2010 by datechguy in internet/free speech, oddities, opinion/news
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I’ve never much card for American Idol, or Dancing with the stars, at game night over Dave’s house its on so I do my best to ignore it but neither one are anything that I care to watch. Unfortunately the convergence of the show with the Palin wars forced it into the news. I didn’t want to write about it at the time but now that it’s over there are some valuable lessons for everyone here.

Once Bristol Palin started to advance in the show the left started getting into a huff because better dancers were being eliminated and complained comically about the “integrity” of a vote in popularity show. It was admittedly a lot of fun watching them have a cow as she made it into the finals. This show was nothing significant but they had made it so as a way to hit the Palin’s who were simply having fun. This is and was a great example of Palin Derangement Syndrome

It was at this point that many on the right made a fatal mistake. They decided that because the left had invested themselves into this TV show emotionally that they would have to as well. This was a huge mistake and an example of the same idolatry that elected Barack Obama.

Gone was the principle of advancement by merit, that conservatives prize, gone was the opposition of special preference, we preferred Sarah Palin and by Extension Bristol Palin plus we could upset the left so many people invested themselves in an attempt to gain a victory that would feel good for a day but prove Pyrrhic. In the end the mirror image of Obama worship gave the left a talking point and a cause to smile as Bristol Palin came in 3rd. It was frankly a meaningless victory but one that got some small meaning because Palin fans made it so.

In 1884 Grover Cleveland was election becoming the first Democratic president since before the Civil war. Democrats who had been in the wilderness for a long time looked forward to the fruits of the spoils system but unfortunately for them President Cleveland’s reputation for honesty was well-earned. He was studious in replacing only the unqualified and when pressed by the party over this replied “A Democratic Thief is as bad as a Republican one.” (It is the lack of such democrats today that helped push me into the GOP). When people blindly voted for Bristol they made that same mistake that Cleveland scolded the party insiders for.

I like Sarah Palin a lot, of the candidates I believe are running only the very qualified Haley Barbour has a shot of getting my vote. Palin combines the practicality of an authentic life and a common sense approach to most issues, with the courage to stand up for things she believes in even if there is a political cost (as Lincoln said of Grant, he Fights!) when others hide in the shadows. She is however a person, I am going to disagree with her on occasion, she will get things wrong and/or make mistakes on occasion as we all do, and if we blindly follow, we are doing both her and ourselves a disservice.

Sarah Palin isn’t “the one”, nor is her family, I like them both and think she is the best choice for 2012 but I refuse to be caught up in the same throes of passion that drove the election of President Obama or the frenzy concerning Bristol Palin and neither should you.

We are conservatives for a reason, lets act as such.

Answer: No More than two of them

Posted: October 25, 2010 by datechguy in oddities
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I was perusing the net this morning when I found an open thread at Ace’s place that linked to this series of vintage ads.

It is pretty clear that none of those ads would pass muster in the west today, but looking that them a 2nd time. It would seem to me that most of them would pass muster in the Islamic world.

So my question is this: Look at the vintage ads in the link and tell me how many would be unacceptable in the Middle east?

In fact let’s have a poll

I think it’s an interesting question

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