There was a line, there was a formula
I don't know how many questions at the "Nick's Mathematical Puzzles" or at "The Big Here"
I could get right. After all, the whole point of modernity and modern
living is to abstract away everything. But it is an interesting
exercise nonetheless. Otherwise we might soon find ourselves living
like in the comic "Job? Fuck it!"
which I guess is like the casual Friday at the office where my better
half works. But seriously, I really have to wonder what the people who
don't belong to the richest 5% in the world would say if they saw this
comic. I think they would find it rather incomprehensible, the say the
least.
I belong to the city and need to feel the concrete under my feet. As I have written a few times before, because of the urban and edgy way that we live we don't need a car. There is a giant mall a three block walk away, my wife works a ten-minute walk from our home, and I take the bus and subway to the city. And it certainly doesn't hurt that by not having a car, we can rent out our parking spots, so every month these guys just knock on our door and just give us money. But if we ever did buy a car, perhaps the Suzuki LC depicted in the post "Cutest. Car. Ever." at Collision Detection might be the one for us. Tommi wrote once that "retro" thinking simply means that there are points in history from which things could have advanced differently and better, so we should go back to that and use our present knowledge to replace all things with better ones. Another time, he wrote that "retro" is the equivalent of "culture" in the technological sphere. So very true.
Many people like to write "Mary Sue" stories of science fiction. As an interesting thought experiment, if some rabid leftist activist wrote a Mary Sue story, what would it be like? What would the setting be, who would be the villains, who would be the heroes, and how would the heroes triumph? Think about this for a minute, and then go read the post "Alanya to Alanya: feminist science fiction adventure" at Boing Boing. It's almost like these people don't even care any more what a parody of themselves they have become.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the fight against patriarchy isn't important. The news article "Choosing baby's sex to be outlawed" tells us that even in Britain, women no longer have the right to control their bodies. What's next, you're telling us that women can't abort babies who have Down syndrome? But go on, make all the laws that you want and they still don't matter. There is nothing that the governments of free countries can really do to overcome the "soccer mom choice", as somebody recently aptly put it. I don't know if this is the right term to use, but if it isn't, it damn well should be.
On the other side of the political spectrum, I am sure that the news "50 year study says conservatives 'followers'" will inspire at least a few blog posts during the next few days.
Professor Kurgman is certainly not a follower, but a true intellectual and leader, a philosopher king. His new post "How To Help Black People" provides a practical list of ways that could be used to build a bridge over the widening rift between races.
John Derbyshire shows why he is, well, John Derbyshire, The Derbster himself, with his new takedown of George Gilder (Jesus, now there is a name from the past) in "George Gilder, Metaphysic".
I have been waiting for the Islamic backlash for the movie "V for Vendetta" for a while now, particularly to that scene where the Holy Quran was stored next to the photographs of Robert Mapplethorpe. The post "Superman should be censored" tells us about another blockbuster whose contents do not really jibe with the Islamic worldview. This link was provided by "Relapsed Catholic", who also comments on the recent CleanFlick ruling in his post "Court Forbids Cutting Nudity, Profanity from Hollywood Films".
Speaking of which, I am eagerly waiting for Boing Boing and the other geeky hipster outfits to comment this ruling, since if I have now understood the whole thing correctly, they generally believe that consumers have an inherent right to freely copy, rip, mix, edit and torrent anything they want, so that they can participate in the culture by creating their own versions of works of art. Or is this perhaps somehow different when it comes to Christians?
I belong to the city and need to feel the concrete under my feet. As I have written a few times before, because of the urban and edgy way that we live we don't need a car. There is a giant mall a three block walk away, my wife works a ten-minute walk from our home, and I take the bus and subway to the city. And it certainly doesn't hurt that by not having a car, we can rent out our parking spots, so every month these guys just knock on our door and just give us money. But if we ever did buy a car, perhaps the Suzuki LC depicted in the post "Cutest. Car. Ever." at Collision Detection might be the one for us. Tommi wrote once that "retro" thinking simply means that there are points in history from which things could have advanced differently and better, so we should go back to that and use our present knowledge to replace all things with better ones. Another time, he wrote that "retro" is the equivalent of "culture" in the technological sphere. So very true.
Many people like to write "Mary Sue" stories of science fiction. As an interesting thought experiment, if some rabid leftist activist wrote a Mary Sue story, what would it be like? What would the setting be, who would be the villains, who would be the heroes, and how would the heroes triumph? Think about this for a minute, and then go read the post "Alanya to Alanya: feminist science fiction adventure" at Boing Boing. It's almost like these people don't even care any more what a parody of themselves they have become.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the fight against patriarchy isn't important. The news article "Choosing baby's sex to be outlawed" tells us that even in Britain, women no longer have the right to control their bodies. What's next, you're telling us that women can't abort babies who have Down syndrome? But go on, make all the laws that you want and they still don't matter. There is nothing that the governments of free countries can really do to overcome the "soccer mom choice", as somebody recently aptly put it. I don't know if this is the right term to use, but if it isn't, it damn well should be.
On the other side of the political spectrum, I am sure that the news "50 year study says conservatives 'followers'" will inspire at least a few blog posts during the next few days.
Professor Kurgman is certainly not a follower, but a true intellectual and leader, a philosopher king. His new post "How To Help Black People" provides a practical list of ways that could be used to build a bridge over the widening rift between races.
John Derbyshire shows why he is, well, John Derbyshire, The Derbster himself, with his new takedown of George Gilder (Jesus, now there is a name from the past) in "George Gilder, Metaphysic".
I have been waiting for the Islamic backlash for the movie "V for Vendetta" for a while now, particularly to that scene where the Holy Quran was stored next to the photographs of Robert Mapplethorpe. The post "Superman should be censored" tells us about another blockbuster whose contents do not really jibe with the Islamic worldview. This link was provided by "Relapsed Catholic", who also comments on the recent CleanFlick ruling in his post "Court Forbids Cutting Nudity, Profanity from Hollywood Films".
Speaking of which, I am eagerly waiting for Boing Boing and the other geeky hipster outfits to comment this ruling, since if I have now understood the whole thing correctly, they generally believe that consumers have an inherent right to freely copy, rip, mix, edit and torrent anything they want, so that they can participate in the culture by creating their own versions of works of art. Or is this perhaps somehow different when it comes to Christians?
Alanya to Alanya seems like an interesting story.
It seems to point out, perhaps unintentionally, that ultimately, male and female interests are divergent. Since most females have a similar number of offspring, assuming they want offspring, their interests lie in ensuring that they can acheive their potential, especially when they have limited ability to acquire resources or power themselves.
On the other hand, male interests are very different ...
It also points out that females require outside intervention to achieve their desires for mediocrity.
Posted by loki on the run | 2:10 PM
What about the fastforward button on a DVD? Isn't the evil consumer messing with the Director's vision?
What about creating a service that marks all the possibly objectionable material and allows the consumer to skip over them?
I can't really understand why Hollywood is freaking out over a company expanding the market for its product? More videos sold means more $. What am I missing? Are Hollywood producers really willing to forgo $ in order to force some Mormon to watch a titty scene or not buy their product at all?
Posted by Disgruntled | 7:38 PM