Ben Wetmore
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Late Bloomer: the aged accomplishments of Ben Franklin
This is a snarky little graphic I made for MCFL, for the back page of the newspaper. It's pretty plain, in that the message is pretty simple yet, I hope, profound-- that the depression of everyday life ought to be put in the context of the great things to come. Let me know what you think.
This is a snarky little graphic I made for MCFL, for the back page of the newspaper. It's pretty plain, in that the message is pretty simple yet, I hope, profound-- that the depression of everyday life ought to be put in the context of the great things to come. Let me know what you think.
Labels: history, imagery, pro-life, pro-life movement
¶ 7:52 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Professor Esolen, reposted
I just can't say how much I loved this speech by Prof. Esolen, and wanted to repost it. Truth is intellectually delicious.
I just can't say how much I loved this speech by Prof. Esolen, and wanted to repost it. Truth is intellectually delicious.
Labels: children, culture, history, pro-life, society
¶ 3:19 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Theo's story about 'kissing his baby goodbye'
Theo Purington gives his history as his girlfriend had an abortion against his wishes, after getting advice on campus at Boston College from the nursing staff. Many colleges counsel young women into abortion as a 'solution' to pregnancy, not realizing that they're causing them to only compound their problems. A baby is never the 'problem' to solve, and in the most recent issue of the MCFL News you can read about another local university's resources and help offered to female students in such situations.
Labels: abortion, fathers, pro-life
¶ 6:04 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Dinosaur Extinction and Baby Extinction
So, this pretty well speaks for itself I suppose. Image links to a higher quality version.
So, this pretty well speaks for itself I suppose. Image links to a higher quality version.
Labels: abortion, imagery, pro-life, propaganda, society
¶ 7:35 AM 1 Comments Links to this post
Monday, June 22, 2009
LTPC: Love Thy Prisoner Campaign
Labels: activism, ideas, theater
¶ 8:47 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Field Offices and campus organizing
I've written a few plans and considered good locations for campus organizing, and while there are always a variety of issues to consider, in an ideal world
1. Austin, TX
2. Berkeley, CA
3. Athens, GA
4. Ann Arbor, MI
5. Boston, MA
6. Madison, WI
A few other thoughts: you need someone to manage a small team in these areas, perhaps in their mid-20s, and then the best situation would be to hire 2-3 people straight out of college. The rationale for this is that you don't want these solo operations because it then either becomes a race to promote one's self above everything else, or it leads to a special brand of crazy. For me, it seems, mainly the latter. You would want to target two general types of places: those that are absolute leftist strongholds, and also cities/college towns in swing areas. This is why Austin outranks Boston, and why Madison might be better moved up the list. You want to reach people in these areas to help counteract the effect of a constant indoctrination in the classroom.
There are also some salient issues you could always organize around, issues like culture/heritage/identity, values/family/life/abortion, war/state/bureaucracy that are powerful wherever you go. It's always entertaining to see certain forced agenda topics try and take root in college, and are usually transitory. I recall one while I was an undergrad, where there was a push to be anti-gun. Well, in case you hadn't noticed, there isn't much gun crime in college and, as well, most colleges ban guns anyway. So, it's a loser of an issue. These natural, 'salient' topics, however, should prove organizable in any situation or area.
1. Austin, TX
2. Berkeley, CA
3. Athens, GA
4. Ann Arbor, MI
5. Boston, MA
6. Madison, WI
A few other thoughts: you need someone to manage a small team in these areas, perhaps in their mid-20s, and then the best situation would be to hire 2-3 people straight out of college. The rationale for this is that you don't want these solo operations because it then either becomes a race to promote one's self above everything else, or it leads to a special brand of crazy. For me, it seems, mainly the latter. You would want to target two general types of places: those that are absolute leftist strongholds, and also cities/college towns in swing areas. This is why Austin outranks Boston, and why Madison might be better moved up the list. You want to reach people in these areas to help counteract the effect of a constant indoctrination in the classroom.
There are also some salient issues you could always organize around, issues like culture/heritage/identity, values/family/life/abortion, war/state/bureaucracy that are powerful wherever you go. It's always entertaining to see certain forced agenda topics try and take root in college, and are usually transitory. I recall one while I was an undergrad, where there was a push to be anti-gun. Well, in case you hadn't noticed, there isn't much gun crime in college and, as well, most colleges ban guns anyway. So, it's a loser of an issue. These natural, 'salient' topics, however, should prove organizable in any situation or area.
Labels: campuses, college, organizing, theory
¶ 1:49 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Summer movies: barf
The upcoming summer releases are about as impressive as Wesley Snipes doing Shakespeare. I'm sure at the end of the summer they'll blame the economy as to why people aren't going to watch movies, and not, in truth, the absolutely abysmal quality of the cinema.
Labels: hollywood, movies, society
¶ 7:21 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
Sunday, June 21, 2009
For the summer, the winter
so often the moments of life can be so well felt through Vivaldi. ¶ 7:38 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
so often the moments of life can be so well felt through Vivaldi. ¶ 7:38 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
6 thoughts on being drunk
I went out with two friends, one of whom was such a cool kid that he got free drinks at the bar. This meant that an endless series of martinis flowed into glasses and ultimately into my tummy and thus into impaired judgment. I don't get drunk very often, maybe 1-2 times a year and can't say that I much enjoy it. It's usually the result of sweet-tasting drinks that delay the alcohol taste until it's too late.
Needless to say, I have a few thoughts while drunk, mostly inane. But I decided to share them here:
1. Being so drunk that your hair feels different, it's as though it's numbed
2. Unable to focus your eyes but inappropriately
3. A deep desire to drunk dial former lovers
4. Beer goggles that you know are lying, but you just don't care
5. Certain elements of your personality becoming amplified
6. Intoxication may be a sin, but it is the most honest I've felt in months ¶ 1:12 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Needless to say, I have a few thoughts while drunk, mostly inane. But I decided to share them here:
1. Being so drunk that your hair feels different, it's as though it's numbed
2. Unable to focus your eyes but inappropriately
3. A deep desire to drunk dial former lovers
4. Beer goggles that you know are lying, but you just don't care
5. Certain elements of your personality becoming amplified
6. Intoxication may be a sin, but it is the most honest I've felt in months ¶ 1:12 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Movie Review of the "Attack of the 50 Foot Tall Woman"
So I watched this movie last night, thanks again to Netflix. I think my interest came from the well-done poster though when it arrived I did notice that it's 66 minute run time was a bit suspicious. When I looked at the movie's description and premise it seemed:
Outlandish - good
Campy - good
Silly sci-fi - good
Intellectually deconstructable - good
So, I thought, really, how could this go wrong? With a movie premise this silly, it has to be a great movie. And yet, in almost every way, this movie sucked. The writing sucked, the acting sucked, the plot sucked, the effects sucked, and the execution sucked. There are some movies from this period that go a long way on a small budget or put together a wonderful story that is still very basic, as does the Outer Limits and Twilight Zone series. This movie, however, just plain sucked. It's almost unwatchable, and is certainly not worth your time.
F, 5/100, 0/****
Outlandish - good
Campy - good
Silly sci-fi - good
Intellectually deconstructable - good
So, I thought, really, how could this go wrong? With a movie premise this silly, it has to be a great movie. And yet, in almost every way, this movie sucked. The writing sucked, the acting sucked, the plot sucked, the effects sucked, and the execution sucked. There are some movies from this period that go a long way on a small budget or put together a wonderful story that is still very basic, as does the Outer Limits and Twilight Zone series. This movie, however, just plain sucked. It's almost unwatchable, and is certainly not worth your time.
F, 5/100, 0/****
Labels: movie review, movies
¶ 11:09 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Movie Review of The Machinist
Review of The Machinist
This was a good movie trying very hard to be great. There were moments where I felt like it was part Memento, and yet at other parts as though it was a modern colorized film noir combined with European cinema, a few stark camera angles and purposeful confusion in order to throw you off. This movie was trying very hard to be great, but just doesn’t quite make it.
Christian Bale does a fabulous job, and obviously really delivers. The main deficits of this movie is in a script that was a little too disjointed and striving for artsy and camera work that was more than simple and yet not truly great. There aren’t moments of any shots that were especially daring or any new perspectives that grab you. In an age where every aspect of the movie process is broken down to its elements and the audience has come to expect greatness in every aspect, it simply came up short.
Another movie I watched over the weekend, just for grins, was 1993’s “The Fugitive” and it struck me how plain that movie is, and how basic it is, and yet how strongly it delivers. It’s not pretentious, it’s direct and simple and yet so powerfully entertaining. It makes a script about a falsely accused doctor and makes it so identifiable and puts you in the role of Dr. Richard Kimball so well that each aspect works.
The Machinist isn’t simple, and you don’t identify with the protagonist, there are so many different sequences that are disjointed, relatively unconnected, and brought together at the end in such a way that doesn’t leave the viewer feeling as though it’s an adequate resolution to the various issues presented. And before anyone says that insomnia can explain his various crazy moments and scenes, one should realize that I could, thus, written in a giant duck named Chester who played cards and had the voice of Katherine Hepburn and been just as relevant. If the movie can be made in such a way where the contents don’t matter, then what’s the point of watching a movie, just flash a black screen with white text and tell me what the message is and move on. Skip the song and dance and save everyone the money.
No, even as someone who is, for lack of a good term, “conservative” I thoroughly enjoy even liberal movies, which, of course, they all are, because on some basic level they engage ideas in a way that we refrain from doing in normal life. The movies are a vehicle by which to live life a little more brightly, and so when they go out of their way to be confusing they ought try even harder, as in Memento, to give a perfect delivery and a compelling point. Another way of saying that is that one should not be so flip with the rules until one has mastered the rules. Hemingway wrote in simple sentences, and did wonderfully. Every movie need not be a twist, a change or a new exploration into the movies itself especially if one is not prepared to fully deliver on that promise. Sadly, the Machinist, though somewhat laudable for trying, succeeds best in coming up short.
C-, **/****, 70/100
This was a good movie trying very hard to be great. There were moments where I felt like it was part Memento, and yet at other parts as though it was a modern colorized film noir combined with European cinema, a few stark camera angles and purposeful confusion in order to throw you off. This movie was trying very hard to be great, but just doesn’t quite make it.
Christian Bale does a fabulous job, and obviously really delivers. The main deficits of this movie is in a script that was a little too disjointed and striving for artsy and camera work that was more than simple and yet not truly great. There aren’t moments of any shots that were especially daring or any new perspectives that grab you. In an age where every aspect of the movie process is broken down to its elements and the audience has come to expect greatness in every aspect, it simply came up short.
Another movie I watched over the weekend, just for grins, was 1993’s “The Fugitive” and it struck me how plain that movie is, and how basic it is, and yet how strongly it delivers. It’s not pretentious, it’s direct and simple and yet so powerfully entertaining. It makes a script about a falsely accused doctor and makes it so identifiable and puts you in the role of Dr. Richard Kimball so well that each aspect works.
The Machinist isn’t simple, and you don’t identify with the protagonist, there are so many different sequences that are disjointed, relatively unconnected, and brought together at the end in such a way that doesn’t leave the viewer feeling as though it’s an adequate resolution to the various issues presented. And before anyone says that insomnia can explain his various crazy moments and scenes, one should realize that I could, thus, written in a giant duck named Chester who played cards and had the voice of Katherine Hepburn and been just as relevant. If the movie can be made in such a way where the contents don’t matter, then what’s the point of watching a movie, just flash a black screen with white text and tell me what the message is and move on. Skip the song and dance and save everyone the money.
No, even as someone who is, for lack of a good term, “conservative” I thoroughly enjoy even liberal movies, which, of course, they all are, because on some basic level they engage ideas in a way that we refrain from doing in normal life. The movies are a vehicle by which to live life a little more brightly, and so when they go out of their way to be confusing they ought try even harder, as in Memento, to give a perfect delivery and a compelling point. Another way of saying that is that one should not be so flip with the rules until one has mastered the rules. Hemingway wrote in simple sentences, and did wonderfully. Every movie need not be a twist, a change or a new exploration into the movies itself especially if one is not prepared to fully deliver on that promise. Sadly, the Machinist, though somewhat laudable for trying, succeeds best in coming up short.
C-, **/****, 70/100
Labels: movie review
¶ 6:01 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Monday, June 15, 2009
Unique readers for this blog in the last week: 721
From my IP stats:
14. - - - Distinct hosts served in last 7 days - - - 721 Hosts
I don't have that many ex-girlfriends, so I'm kind of surprised that number is any higher than 2: Marty and Ferro.
14. - - - Distinct hosts served in last 7 days - - - 721 Hosts
I don't have that many ex-girlfriends, so I'm kind of surprised that number is any higher than 2: Marty and Ferro.
Labels: stats
¶ 10:11 AM 1 Comments Links to this post
My new group: LTPC
The "Love Thy Prisoner Campaign" made its debut at the Gay Pride Parade in Boston over the weekend.
People were asked to adopt a detainee, provide a home if they get released, help them with their 'religious needs' and be a friend, a pen pal.
James and I were told that we were "the most truly progressive people here..." and this was at the Boston Gay Pride rally, so, I think that puts us in strong running for the most progressive people in the world.
Fact sheet - Signup sheet
Hopefully you can see where this is going...
The "Love Thy Prisoner Campaign" made its debut at the Gay Pride Parade in Boston over the weekend.
People were asked to adopt a detainee, provide a home if they get released, help them with their 'religious needs' and be a friend, a pen pal.
James and I were told that we were "the most truly progressive people here..." and this was at the Boston Gay Pride rally, so, I think that puts us in strong running for the most progressive people in the world.
Fact sheet - Signup sheet
Hopefully you can see where this is going...
Labels: activism, homosexuals, leftists, video
¶ 8:43 AM 2 Comments Links to this post
PostSecret
I really enjoy PostSecret, and even listened to a recent NPR program on the site.
Specifically I really enjoyed the above postcard, and thought it was very poignant. The site is filled with, and cards are well-chosen, to give a certain honest humanity and dramatic power that it's so hard to find in the media or even interpersonally. PostSecret tells you a lot about people, even considering that I suspect half of the 'secrets' are really quite embellished.
I really enjoy PostSecret, and even listened to a recent NPR program on the site.
Specifically I really enjoyed the above postcard, and thought it was very poignant. The site is filled with, and cards are well-chosen, to give a certain honest humanity and dramatic power that it's so hard to find in the media or even interpersonally. PostSecret tells you a lot about people, even considering that I suspect half of the 'secrets' are really quite embellished.
Labels: ideas, psychology
¶ 7:05 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
This made my day
"Yeah, I agree with you all the time and totally love your blog, you're my non-sexual mancrush."
-Marty Andrade
-Marty Andrade
Labels: endorsement quotes
¶ 6:40 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
Sunday, June 14, 2009
As I was going up the stair¶ 9:47 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
I saw a man who wasn’t there
He wasn’t there again today
Oh, how I wish he’d go away...
When I came home last night at three
The man was waiting there for me
But when I looked around the hall
I couldn’t see him there at all!
Go away, go away, don’t you come back any more!
Go away, go away, and please don’t slam the door... (slam!)
Last night I saw upon the stair
A little man who wasn’t there
He wasn’t there again today
Oh, how I wish he’d go away
An old activism schedule for four days of content-generation
sadly most of this didn't pan out, but enough did where it should end up being pretty glorious. I tried to be a little obscure with some of these things, so if you're truly curious then just email and ask.
day 1
LTPC Campaign
Adoption
formerly deviant
document parade/march
new media event
day 2
religious audit
set up logistics for marketing
no work union job
day 3
ACLU skit
hit up campus clinics
calling potential funders
day 4
editing, promoting
day 1
LTPC Campaign
Adoption
formerly deviant
document parade/march
new media event
day 2
religious audit
set up logistics for marketing
no work union job
day 3
ACLU skit
hit up campus clinics
calling potential funders
day 4
editing, promoting
Labels: activism, ideas, plans
¶ 6:47 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Thursday, June 11, 2009
My friend Alyssa
I have had a long-running dislike of so-called "Ayn Rand" and her silly theories and writings. Though she's got kernels of truth in some of them, overall she's just an empty woman.
So, I made this graphic to express my thoughts on the matter and thought you might enjoy it:
So, I made this graphic to express my thoughts on the matter and thought you might enjoy it:
Labels: Ayn Rand, imagery, objectivism, truth
¶ 11:49 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
Monday, June 8, 2009
Some mindless images
At the request of a friend, I made the Obama graphic and then after playing around a bit in flash I made it animated:
And then also wishing to get a decent flash background, I made this one for use in message boards:
Both are ridiculous, but it fits a certain blend of absurdist humor that I enjoy. ¶ 2:39 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
And then also wishing to get a decent flash background, I made this one for use in message boards:
Both are ridiculous, but it fits a certain blend of absurdist humor that I enjoy. ¶ 2:39 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Sunday, June 7, 2009
The progression of Pro-Life disaffection
Having sat through a very mendacious speech about pro-life battles a few months ago, that was all heavy on how pregnancy centers were the only ways in which to save babies in the pro-life movement, a statement that is either woefully ignorant considering Dr. New's wonderful research on the effectiveness of legal restrictions or intentionally deceptive which I believe to be the case, it occurred to me that there must be a generally standard set of steps followed by individuals who become fervently pro-life.
I would write this out in a longer article, but I don't really have the time and don't really think I have the credibility and, pragmatically, the audience, regardless:
1- direct action
2- education
3- legal issues/lawsuits
4- legislation
5- culture
6- pregnancy centers
7- local area, the most micro, solving it one by one level
8- disaffection, burn out, apathy
From what little I can tell, and what I can tell about my own personal experience, that seems to be the steps that happen most often, in that order. People float into one and then slowly float into the next and move along the path until they reach burn out or apathy. The challenge would be to figure out how to contain this, slow it, or ideally stop it among pro-life activists so that they don't burn out and stay active.
I suspect that the best answer would be to highlight their individual successes in a constant, routine basis. The Gerard Foundation's "Life Prizes" which I lightly criticized previously, might be a part of that answer, as is the development of alternative media outlets among other solutions.
I would write this out in a longer article, but I don't really have the time and don't really think I have the credibility and, pragmatically, the audience, regardless:
1- direct action
2- education
3- legal issues/lawsuits
4- legislation
5- culture
6- pregnancy centers
7- local area, the most micro, solving it one by one level
8- disaffection, burn out, apathy
From what little I can tell, and what I can tell about my own personal experience, that seems to be the steps that happen most often, in that order. People float into one and then slowly float into the next and move along the path until they reach burn out or apathy. The challenge would be to figure out how to contain this, slow it, or ideally stop it among pro-life activists so that they don't burn out and stay active.
I suspect that the best answer would be to highlight their individual successes in a constant, routine basis. The Gerard Foundation's "Life Prizes" which I lightly criticized previously, might be a part of that answer, as is the development of alternative media outlets among other solutions.
Labels: organizing, pro-life movement, theory
¶ 2:30 PM 2 Comments Links to this post
Christianity's Challenge
In reading about Edward Gibbon for research for an article I'd like to publish, I ran across his most famous work on the decline of the Roman Empire and its greatest controversy, that of its clash with Christianity. A friend referred me to Gibbon once and I was dismissive of it simply because I tire of constantly defending Christians.
However, on this account, as one of the two main critiques by Gibbon that I am reading secondhand, I think Gibbon and my friend are correct. Specifically his claim is that Christians focus so much on the afterlife that they lose their own care about the present. I think another way to structure that argument would be to call it a Christian selfishness about their own salvation -- that they become so focused with their relationship with God and their entrance into heaven that they forget about God existing in the people around them right now, here on Earth. They disgrace their faith by ignoring the needs of the present. Douglas Hyde, to a degree, talks about this phenomenon as it relates to Communist organizing in "Dedication and Leadership", that those who care about the world are so often scooped up into false doctrines because Christianity offers so few real ways to address and alleviate the problems of this world. It's too easy to become too focused on forever and not enough on the here and now.
I have felt this myself, watching priests and Bishops opine about the world and then do virtually nothing to help it. The excoriations are always upon the sheep, the loud lamentations of the shepherds that their flocks are not good enough. Moralizing Catholics, especially, are so prone to pick apart one's own faults and never tackle the most basic problems within themselves: apathy and inaction. Justifying their own wants and desires by claiming they want closeness to the Lord, they skirt the real issue which is that they want comfort from the pain of this world by the promise of peace in the next. It's not that they actually want communion with God because that will undoubtedly involve the pain of watching so many of His people suffer, of wanting to help His people but due to the constraints of creation and the love embedded within free will, unable to do so. God undoubtedly wants to help us, He wants to give us respite from our suffering, and yet the disciples he has provided on Earth are so preoccupied with their own pains that they forget to tend to that of others. Their desire to be in communion with their creator is a challenge, is their goal, it is their stated desire and never the byproduct of their virtuous life here as a human.
Are we good for ourselves, are we good for others, are we good because that's what we're told to do, or are we, hopefully, good because good acts are best, and what gives our creator glory, and what brings about our own fulfillment.
And, of course, this is far from a call for 'social justice' or of false 'equality' or redistribution, which are thievery masking as theology. No, I intend to say that our own actions, our individual choices, our daily decisions ought to be concerned less with our personal salvation and missing every crack while walking as to not offend a legalistic Lord, and rather on providing real relief, sincere compassion and opportunities for individuals to serve themselves and in so doing realize self-fulfillment and give glory to God through our acts and not our desires. The simple act of having children and raising them is the perfect realization of this, and is so crass when we in society who are so blessed fill our emotional voids with animals. Married couples living in the most prosperous nation in the history of man take their time with children and fill their fertile years with felines and canines instead of little ones. Blessed as a marriage in the church, given such opportunity, we turn to trivialities. Given a great library we read the comics, offered time-travel we would go to the first Britney Spears concert, offered genetic control over food and we make sweeter candy -- in our prosperity and given our opportunities we are almost unworthy of this world.
We justify ourselves not through our attention and focus, but from our discipline and obedience to serve despite the promises. Bravery is not the same as duty, heroism is not that which is in a job description. These traits we once admired were what we recognized as unique, commendations that we have watered down by proclaiming every janitor brave and every soldier a hero. Going out of our way to conflate Audie Murphy with Jessica Lynch, we have only degraded ourselves. We ought to act not as we expect will gain entry to heaven but in remarkable ways that exceeds the expectations. Our faith should motivate us all to be a martyr for the faith in the example of Murphy and not the quiet, calm Christian sheltered and isolated ticking off a checklist of to-dos in the pursuit of salvation. In many ways the promise of heaven seems a distraction to what we are called to do, would we serve the Lord so willfully, so powerfully and so well if we knew that there was no heaven and that we ought to be thankful enough for our simple creation, or would we fall into hedonism? What if our path to heaven depends on the degree to which we operate as though it wasn't there - that we act and serve not out of an expectation as to quid pro quo but out of a reverence, devotion and actual fealty to God.
-I am not good because of what is promised, I try to be good because it is what the father wants from me.
-I am not trying to be virtuous because of how wonderful the next life will be, but because I know that the father desires that act from me.
-I am not working to help the unborn because I expect choirs of babies to sing my praises to Peter to gain my entrance into heaven, but because to do otherwise is an affront to my creator.
-My greatest goal is to surprise my Lord through my actions, and to do them for Him and not for myself.
However, on this account, as one of the two main critiques by Gibbon that I am reading secondhand, I think Gibbon and my friend are correct. Specifically his claim is that Christians focus so much on the afterlife that they lose their own care about the present. I think another way to structure that argument would be to call it a Christian selfishness about their own salvation -- that they become so focused with their relationship with God and their entrance into heaven that they forget about God existing in the people around them right now, here on Earth. They disgrace their faith by ignoring the needs of the present. Douglas Hyde, to a degree, talks about this phenomenon as it relates to Communist organizing in "Dedication and Leadership", that those who care about the world are so often scooped up into false doctrines because Christianity offers so few real ways to address and alleviate the problems of this world. It's too easy to become too focused on forever and not enough on the here and now.
I have felt this myself, watching priests and Bishops opine about the world and then do virtually nothing to help it. The excoriations are always upon the sheep, the loud lamentations of the shepherds that their flocks are not good enough. Moralizing Catholics, especially, are so prone to pick apart one's own faults and never tackle the most basic problems within themselves: apathy and inaction. Justifying their own wants and desires by claiming they want closeness to the Lord, they skirt the real issue which is that they want comfort from the pain of this world by the promise of peace in the next. It's not that they actually want communion with God because that will undoubtedly involve the pain of watching so many of His people suffer, of wanting to help His people but due to the constraints of creation and the love embedded within free will, unable to do so. God undoubtedly wants to help us, He wants to give us respite from our suffering, and yet the disciples he has provided on Earth are so preoccupied with their own pains that they forget to tend to that of others. Their desire to be in communion with their creator is a challenge, is their goal, it is their stated desire and never the byproduct of their virtuous life here as a human.
Are we good for ourselves, are we good for others, are we good because that's what we're told to do, or are we, hopefully, good because good acts are best, and what gives our creator glory, and what brings about our own fulfillment.
And, of course, this is far from a call for 'social justice' or of false 'equality' or redistribution, which are thievery masking as theology. No, I intend to say that our own actions, our individual choices, our daily decisions ought to be concerned less with our personal salvation and missing every crack while walking as to not offend a legalistic Lord, and rather on providing real relief, sincere compassion and opportunities for individuals to serve themselves and in so doing realize self-fulfillment and give glory to God through our acts and not our desires. The simple act of having children and raising them is the perfect realization of this, and is so crass when we in society who are so blessed fill our emotional voids with animals. Married couples living in the most prosperous nation in the history of man take their time with children and fill their fertile years with felines and canines instead of little ones. Blessed as a marriage in the church, given such opportunity, we turn to trivialities. Given a great library we read the comics, offered time-travel we would go to the first Britney Spears concert, offered genetic control over food and we make sweeter candy -- in our prosperity and given our opportunities we are almost unworthy of this world.
We justify ourselves not through our attention and focus, but from our discipline and obedience to serve despite the promises. Bravery is not the same as duty, heroism is not that which is in a job description. These traits we once admired were what we recognized as unique, commendations that we have watered down by proclaiming every janitor brave and every soldier a hero. Going out of our way to conflate Audie Murphy with Jessica Lynch, we have only degraded ourselves. We ought to act not as we expect will gain entry to heaven but in remarkable ways that exceeds the expectations. Our faith should motivate us all to be a martyr for the faith in the example of Murphy and not the quiet, calm Christian sheltered and isolated ticking off a checklist of to-dos in the pursuit of salvation. In many ways the promise of heaven seems a distraction to what we are called to do, would we serve the Lord so willfully, so powerfully and so well if we knew that there was no heaven and that we ought to be thankful enough for our simple creation, or would we fall into hedonism? What if our path to heaven depends on the degree to which we operate as though it wasn't there - that we act and serve not out of an expectation as to quid pro quo but out of a reverence, devotion and actual fealty to God.
-I am not good because of what is promised, I try to be good because it is what the father wants from me.
-I am not trying to be virtuous because of how wonderful the next life will be, but because I know that the father desires that act from me.
-I am not working to help the unborn because I expect choirs of babies to sing my praises to Peter to gain my entrance into heaven, but because to do otherwise is an affront to my creator.
-My greatest goal is to surprise my Lord through my actions, and to do them for Him and not for myself.
Labels: Catholicism, God, heaven, society, theology
¶ 1:22 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Movie Review: Drag me to Hell
Looking for movie suggestions, it's often tough to feel cinematically motivated considering the film gluttony I experience courtesy of Netflix. Movies, now, have to be a bit more than just the nice experience of going to the movies. Dare I say it, I actually expect movies to be good. And at $10.50 a ticket in Worcester, I actually want them to be pretty good. Drag me to Hell looked like it was going to be a waste of time, money and expectations, I knew something would be different, though, when I saw that Sam Raimi was attached to the film or had written the original script. And sure enough, it was near-perfect.
The movie plays with you in a way that one isn't used to, in a way that a few newer films such as "Funny Games" have attempted to do: thoroughly postmodern, aware that they are movies, but still 80% within their genre and yet trying very subtly to break out. There are obviously serious filmmakers who are trying to not only make great movies but are trying to do new things, to try fresh ideas on the screen and are willing to risk audience dissatisfaction in order to do so.
Just some of the slights and thrills in Drag me to Hell are bound to get replicated in other subsequent thrillers. There was an excellent shot where a demon was haunting the protagonist, and as she walked through a dark house as she opened the kitchen door, the camera which was about five feet in front of her suddenly zoomed back and was suddenly surrounded by clamoring pots and pans hanging above a kitchen island. The effect was solid, smooth and well-done. Another effect worth noting was at night where the protagonist turned on a flashlight, pointed it at the wall and saw the shadows of something not between her and the light, obviously the demon. i'm not doing the movie effect justice, but it just came across perfectly. This wasn't just a campy, cheaply-made no-name thriller, this was a thriller that played with the movie, that danced around with the frights and tried hard to make something of itself. It seems cliche to say that it was 'aware of itself' but it was not just that, it was also aware of your expectations. I read the IMDB page before I went, and was surprised to see that the first reviewer noted how well-done the distraction and thrills were in the movie. The small things you were expecting never came about, and were often just a method to lull you into a false security before hitting you hard with the real fright.
I should also disclose that I enjoyed the small demonization of the Gypsies in the movie considering my own 2005 run-in/attack by Gypsies in Rome.
This was an excellent movie, a testament to the power of film, and a real joy. I was entertained, well frightened and hope that more like it come in the future.
A-, ****/****, 93/100, trailer
The movie plays with you in a way that one isn't used to, in a way that a few newer films such as "Funny Games" have attempted to do: thoroughly postmodern, aware that they are movies, but still 80% within their genre and yet trying very subtly to break out. There are obviously serious filmmakers who are trying to not only make great movies but are trying to do new things, to try fresh ideas on the screen and are willing to risk audience dissatisfaction in order to do so.
Just some of the slights and thrills in Drag me to Hell are bound to get replicated in other subsequent thrillers. There was an excellent shot where a demon was haunting the protagonist, and as she walked through a dark house as she opened the kitchen door, the camera which was about five feet in front of her suddenly zoomed back and was suddenly surrounded by clamoring pots and pans hanging above a kitchen island. The effect was solid, smooth and well-done. Another effect worth noting was at night where the protagonist turned on a flashlight, pointed it at the wall and saw the shadows of something not between her and the light, obviously the demon. i'm not doing the movie effect justice, but it just came across perfectly. This wasn't just a campy, cheaply-made no-name thriller, this was a thriller that played with the movie, that danced around with the frights and tried hard to make something of itself. It seems cliche to say that it was 'aware of itself' but it was not just that, it was also aware of your expectations. I read the IMDB page before I went, and was surprised to see that the first reviewer noted how well-done the distraction and thrills were in the movie. The small things you were expecting never came about, and were often just a method to lull you into a false security before hitting you hard with the real fright.
I should also disclose that I enjoyed the small demonization of the Gypsies in the movie considering my own 2005 run-in/attack by Gypsies in Rome.
This was an excellent movie, a testament to the power of film, and a real joy. I was entertained, well frightened and hope that more like it come in the future.
A-, ****/****, 93/100, trailer
Labels: movie review, movies
¶ 11:30 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
Public Intellectuals and academic warfare
Nearing the autumn of any iota of my own relevance on the topic of academic or college organizing issues, I ran across a John Derbyshire article on the issue of who is and is not a "public intellectual." If there was a functioning conservative movement in this country, they should start by documenting, dissecting and deconstructing the scholarship of the most prominent left-wing intellectuals. I would add Barbara Ehrenreich and Eric Schlosser to this list, and perhaps the awful Tim White, but regardless there are more left-wing ones than Derbyshire was listing in 2004. As well, the conservative movement, if it still exists, ought to find a better way to really attack the scholarship of these individuals and fight them where it matters: in the battle of ideas.
Labels: academia, college, ideas, leftists
¶ 11:11 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
Friday, June 5, 2009
"So far Mr. Obama has used his personally exciting presidency for initiatives that are spending public money on a scale not seen since ancient Egypt."
This great WSJ article, entitled "Obama's America: Too Fat to Fail" was an excellent piece on the unbelievable molestation of the market and the wonderboys Obama has hired to 'fix' the economy who will undoubtedly only end up wrecking it further.
Government is not the solutions to our problems, government is the problem.
Government is not the solutions to our problems, government is the problem.
Labels: Democrats, Detroit, Economics, obama
¶ 10:04 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Confessions
So, the Vatican is upset more people don't go to confession... Well, I don't know, perhaps if any moral issues were ever heard from the pulpit and confession was ever offered more than once a week at the most inconvenient times possible (usually Saturdays from 3:00-3:30 with priests I roll with leaving on the dot at 3:30) for half an hour, more people would go.
Labels: Catholic, Catholicism, communion
¶ 12:11 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Monday, June 1, 2009
The death of George Tiller
George Tiller, infamous doctor known for performing partial-birth and late-term abortions in Wichita, Kansas was shot and killed yesterday in his church. The media has been framing this issue as one of violence against a "health" provider, but in reality the current person suspected has virtually no ties to the pro-life movement. Regardless, the death of George Tiller is sad because not only will other confused doctors take his place, but his will become an issue of a fake martyr for the cause of killing children. The emotionally disturbed individual who decided to take a life to save unborn lives ought to have known that given the legal situation in America and the pervasive culture of death, that even by stopping Tiller, sadly, no babies would be saved and the media will jump on the opportunity to defame all pro-lifers. The emotional trauma of abortion, fostered and reinforced by abortionists and the abortion industry, will sadly only be furthered by this act, not alleviated. The violence also denies the powerful opportunity for conversions, such as those by Dr. Bernard Nathanson and Norma McCorvey. The murder of George Tiller inflicts the same emotional distress of the abortions he routinely provided, and will not save any babies. It's a sad day in many ways, not the least of which is the knowledge that thousands more babies are going to die tomorrow.
¶ 12:38 PM 1 Comments
Links to this post
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Levels of Acceptance and Validation
Given to me by my new friend the clinical psychologist, a series of ways to build better rapport with individuals.
1. Observation/Alert/Awake
2. Rephrasing
3. Reading
4. Understandable in the context of the past, biological dysfunction
5. Validating the person in their current functioning - validation is not praise, rather, it is accurate understanding
6. Radical genuineness - treat as unique, you are real and genuine, disclosure
1. Observation/Alert/Awake
2. Rephrasing
3. Reading
4. Understandable in the context of the past, biological dysfunction
5. Validating the person in their current functioning - validation is not praise, rather, it is accurate understanding
6. Radical genuineness - treat as unique, you are real and genuine, disclosure
Labels: psychology
¶ 4:41 PM 2 Comments Links to this post
Buildings, Bureaucrats and Bitchy Ben
Having run across "Worcester State Hospital" online at an odd-Americana type event, I was overjoyed to easily find the creepy abandoned sanitarium from the road. As I approached, though, the street in front of it was blocked off for some silly bureaucratic reason. I drove up anyway, and saw all sorts of posted signs about no pedestrian access, no admittance, no entry and crap like that. Frankly, few things upset me more than lazy bureaucrats hanging bitchy signs telling me where I can't go. Little did I realize that I was being followed, and that I was being watched to wait and see if I would approach, no doubt ready to give me a good scolding for not obeying the clearly marked signs. Oh, let me also point out, that this is public land. It's extremely frustrating and aggravating that these bureaucrats are cordoning off entire swaths of land and declaring that you and I cannot trespass on public land. I remember the same frustration, post 9/11 when the aristocracy decided to keep the people's house away from the people, because God forbid the people actually come to it. Who am I being protected against? The easy answer is to say that they're afraid of lawsuits, but let's not forget who writes the laws! Who enforces them! The government can't tell me with a straight face that they're worried about my safety and my security and their liability when they are the ones writing the laws. I don't want to make too much about this, but I just think it's a small part of an overall trend where we are subconsciously conditioned to accept blind authority. We are told where we can go, and no one deviates. We are told what we can photograph, and no one dissents. We are told that "copyright" protects all aristocratic interests, and those who violate are defamed as 'thieves' - we tolerate this oppressive cultural control by these self-appointed bureaucrats and by a legal system gone mad. I ventilate my frustrations through writing, but it's only a temporary fix. You can't paint outside without being harassed by the police, you can't assemble without people asking for your damn permit, and you can't live outside the lines without enormous pressure to box you back in. The land of the free, home of the brave has become the land of those who comply with the bureaucrats and the few who end up fined, harassed and imprisoned for nothing more than refusing to paint by numbers.
Labels: architecture, government, regulation, resistance, society
¶ 1:45 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Teaching tool for pro-life
I made this quick graphic for an idea at work to help foster pro-life discussions for younger children, and get them in the baby-saving mindset.
I made this quick graphic for an idea at work to help foster pro-life discussions for younger children, and get them in the baby-saving mindset.
Labels: activism, pro-life, pro-life movement
¶ 1:35 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Reason: ENOUGH with Drew Carey
Okay, I GET IT, that Drew Carey is a libertarian. Not even the most shameless of shameless liberal Hollywood types get as much political exposure as Drew Carey. And, fittingly, he's summing them up quite well: wearing fake glasses even though he had eye surgery, he's more style than substance; as the host of the price is right he's used to putting a monetary value on everything; libertoids are typically about as funny as his awful television show; he's an awkward-looking white male; he has no discernible principles other than the pursuit of his own rational interest... I could go on, but I digress. I just simply want LESS OF THE SHAMELESS CULT OF THE ONE HOLLYWOOD POSTER BOY and more, oh I don't know, IDEAS.
Labels: hollywood, libertoids
¶ 2:15 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Newspaper and Publication Systems
I wrote out the newspaper systems for an effective publication and thought it might be useful to review:
1. CONTENT
a. Story Spreadsheet/ways to solicit and brainstorm new and edgy stories
b. Publisher approval/editorial committee
c. Soliciting feedback, suggestions, ideas from people outside the group
2. ORGANIZATION
a. Recruitment of writers, managers, sales and distributors
b. Organization/Management of work
c. Revenue/budget, sales, subscriptions
d. Story boards/Layout process/software/training of people who do layout
3. DISTRIBUTION
a. Distributors, social network
b. Maps/Distribution Points
c. Electronic distribution
d. Marketing of content/stories as well as publication itself
1. CONTENT
a. Story Spreadsheet/ways to solicit and brainstorm new and edgy stories
b. Publisher approval/editorial committee
c. Soliciting feedback, suggestions, ideas from people outside the group
2. ORGANIZATION
a. Recruitment of writers, managers, sales and distributors
b. Organization/Management of work
c. Revenue/budget, sales, subscriptions
d. Story boards/Layout process/software/training of people who do layout
3. DISTRIBUTION
a. Distributors, social network
b. Maps/Distribution Points
c. Electronic distribution
d. Marketing of content/stories as well as publication itself
Labels: journalism, marketing, newspapers, politics, systems
¶ 3:28 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Outlining stories
Outlining Stories
When most people make a story outline, they make crap.
When we outline, we need to make gold.
A golden outline for a story:
1. Visual story structure
2. Major questions to answer
3. Overall theme/allusions
4. Action items/what are people supposed to do with this knowledge/what can they change about it
5. Quotes and interviews to conduct
6. Graphics and pictures relevant to the story and worth using
When most people make a story outline, they make crap.
When we outline, we need to make gold.
A golden outline for a story:
1. Visual story structure
2. Major questions to answer
3. Overall theme/allusions
4. Action items/what are people supposed to do with this knowledge/what can they change about it
5. Quotes and interviews to conduct
6. Graphics and pictures relevant to the story and worth using
Labels: features, journalism, newspapers, writing
¶ 12:27 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Monday, May 25, 2009
Handouts for pro-life outreach
I made a handout, below, for use in pro-life outreach efforts to young adults at risk of abortion. It's designed to be printed on black and white, cut twice and creating three little flyers for use on public streets to be put on cars, handed out one-by-one.
Also in Photoshop in case you wanted it. The fonts I used were Arial and N.O.Movement.
Also in Photoshop in case you wanted it. The fonts I used were Arial and N.O.Movement.
Labels: abortion, activism, pro-life
¶ 3:19 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Naomi Wolf, activism and right and wrong
I watched these awful comments by Naomi Wolf about activism and "fake" activism. It always intrigues me to hear people talk about activism, because they usually only mean the most rudimentary political action. "Activism" is present tense, more than just the method of taking action and yet most of these people mean one simple thing, with one trite and cute simple idea. In Wolf's case she wants "massive protests" but it betrays her sheltered life to show that her idea of progress in politics is not much more than mass displays of humanity. The March for Life, as I noted below, has a mass display of humanity and yet it is almost wholly disconnected from directly ending abortion. It's tough to watch Wolf and not read too much into her mannerisms and ways of her speech: seeming so stilted and full of herself. It reminds me of people arguing in student government: the overgeneralizations, the vague indictments, the reflexive reactionary solutions that are without nuance, skill, thought or planning. Not to mention that she's just so plainly wrong. Wolf's entire premise is that the "system" has evolved higher and higher opportunity costs to political action in order to keep "the people" from ruling. Would that it were so it would validate her ideas about a conspiracy by "the man" to keep "the people" metaphorically "down." But anyone who spends 5 minutes in applied politics, who deals with these bureaucrats, realizes that more often than not these rules evolve out of well-meaning bureaucrats who try to prevent a specific special interest from abusing the system to take advantage of a loophole. Wolf cites the rules against false voter registrations, but when her preferred candidate loses by a slim margin with thousands of questionable voter reg. filings the day before the deadline, she'll be saying death is too good for whomever denied her the opportunity. We have no patience for problems, no tolerance for mistakes, and we contribute to this awful bureaucratic system and its inane rules. We rail against bureaucrats and then fail to consider how often we tell others that "we'd like to help, but..." and then use some arcane rule to justify our inaction. I question the sincerity of her commitment to true openness, to true competition. Many states have silly laws that hurt political action, removing those laws would be a good thing. I doubt that Wolf will carry forward on this and not just write another book about feminism or retreat back into New York City. Incidentally, I also tend to confuse this Naomi with Naomi Klein, who is, as well, almost equally as feminist, socialist and wrong.
Labels: activism, election, politics, theory
¶ 9:13 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Obama as Leviathan
I made this Obama Leviathan graphic, both with graphic images and without, based on this infamous cover to Thomas Hobbes' classic work, The Leviathan. Alas, the only consistent comment from friends seems to be that they don't initially see 'it' and then when they do I don't hear anything further.
I made this Obama Leviathan graphic, both with graphic images and without, based on this infamous cover to Thomas Hobbes' classic work, The Leviathan. Alas, the only consistent comment from friends seems to be that they don't initially see 'it' and then when they do I don't hear anything further.
Labels: abortion, government, history, imagery, obama
¶ 6:00 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
March for Life improvements
Ed Burke of the Logos Institute, which I had never heard of until today or at least do not recall, wrote a critique of the March for Life that a friend sent to me recently. I found his observations to be very perfunctory and pedestrian. The March doesn't need a reinvention as much as it needs an evolution. I wrote and sketched out, at a previous pro-life position, an outline as to what that could be, if anyone was so curious I would be happy to share it if you want to email me for it. Of note, the friend who forwarded it claimed that some were trying to change and update the March, and others have made similar efforts in the past. Personally I have a difficult time attending only because it all seems like so much wasted opportunity.
Here's the bulk of the email:
Here's the bulk of the email:
The inherent idea behind the march can be put into question, but any teenager attending probably has the same thoughts. No, the real question is how to take this momentum that has at least 150k each year coming to the march, and more effectively use it.
Burke hits on part of that by mentioning the past use of lobbying to influence the legislators. However, any PoliSci 301 course can tell you that the difference between access-based and controversial-confrontational lobbying means that the latter won't work with issues that are 'divisive' - it's the grassroots, the candidate recruitment, the actual muscle behind the movement that has to make these clowns feel the heat so they'll find the light.
And sadly that heat is left to be brought by NRLC affiliates who are aged, tired, worn and too often complacent in old methods, tactics and history. Nellie Gray, God bless her, is who I had in mind when I wrote that sentence even though she's not NRLC.
Ways in which you could grab the march and use it for grassroots purposes:
1. training (already done by a few other groups) - too often the training is too academic though. People lose sight of the ways in which they can save a life, the actual way in which individual people make a difference. I find a lot of the NRLC crowd (I feel like I'm writing in way way way too big overgeneralizations here) who have this attitude of "we can do it, trust us, if only everyone did there'd be no abortion" and not tolerating alternative methods. We need a pro-life big tent, dare I say it, we need unity though perhaps not a unity flag.
The training ought to be: "here's how to make yourself useful for a CPC; here's how to run for office from scratch; here's how to convert anyone; here's how to shut down a clinic" and related topics -- make people believe they can make a real difference and jettison all the feel good stuff like pro-life t-shirts and the billion methods that don't save any lives.
2. activation/radicalization: set goals for people who attend, encourage results and not thinking the right thoughts
3. capturing the data: Rod Martin tried doing this with LifeHQ, with Sean O'Hare. God bless them both, that's something the March should have done in an organized fashion for the past decade at least. I heard they both got threatened by the March organizers. They should collect this data, work to measure and turn out more and more people each year with reliable numbers and not just the WAG's that they typically use, and then share that data with any and all groups within the respective state where the person is from.
Labels: organizing, politics, pro-life, pro-life movement, theory
¶ 4:21 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
An old training outline
I ran across some old notes, about a planned Leadership Conference for pro-life campus leaders. My files have become somewhat of a repository of half-good old ideas that never went anywhere. That fact is quite frustrating. Here's the rough outline I had:
Leadership Conference and Training
-over the summer in DC
-name after a major donor
-exclusive to 15-20 hand-picked students, probably have to ask 60 in order to get 20 to commit
-train on education, rhetoric, skills, debating, recruitment
-one day with meetings with people from across the movement
-offer a quick training session on adoption/how to counsel women into keeping their children aimed towards younger women, to enable college students to speak the right language so as to facilitate adoption
Leadership Conference and Training
-over the summer in DC
-name after a major donor
-exclusive to 15-20 hand-picked students, probably have to ask 60 in order to get 20 to commit
-train on education, rhetoric, skills, debating, recruitment
-one day with meetings with people from across the movement
-offer a quick training session on adoption/how to counsel women into keeping their children aimed towards younger women, to enable college students to speak the right language so as to facilitate adoption
Labels: pro-life, pro-life movement, training
¶ 2:38 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Thursday, April 30, 2009
The politicization of... everything
Now not only is the west coast the left coast, which used to be just a snarky joke told among right-wingers and is now apparently a proud self-approved label, but the travel industry is promoting revolution through your airline travel. Perhaps they offer complimentary carbon offsets? The red blurry things are fists, in case you were wondering.
Now not only is the west coast the left coast, which used to be just a snarky joke told among right-wingers and is now apparently a proud self-approved label, but the travel industry is promoting revolution through your airline travel. Perhaps they offer complimentary carbon offsets? The red blurry things are fists, in case you were wondering.
Labels: movement, politicization, politics, society
¶ 1:17 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Unborn rights campaign
a little image I made recently for grins:
¶ 12:11 AM 0 Comments
Links to this post
¶ 12:11 AM 0 Comments
Links to this post
Craigslist for journalism
I had the idea a few years ago to start a website that never came about, I called it Washingtonfreelance.com -- the idea would be to find ways to pay people to write stories and link them together with the outlets who need the content. I sorely lacked the requisite industry contacts to make this idea happen, but it just occurred to me that the UPI/Reuters/AP cartels make a ton of money off a very basic model that could so easily be replicated by blogs or by really anyone. The real money should be directed towards good journalism rather than the recitation of press releases, something none of these outlets really try to do anyway. If you could find a way to deliver the main content at little to no cost, and then allowed member outlets to pick up stories you had financed, you could with one website radically revolutionize the industry. You would pay reporters better, direct the money to the ones writing the valuable content, and empower editors to cover better stories and choose to fill their content spaces in a better systemic way. It's an idea whose time has come.
Labels: ideas, journalism
¶ 12:05 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
Saturday, April 25, 2009
"Tricked into" mortgages, how about tricked into colleges?
The left talks about people "tricked into mortgages" but never about investments that are almost as large, how about "tricked into college" -- young kids are sold a false bill of goods: that their careers depend on a college education. Often $40k a year later, for four years at $160k, students leave paying down a decade worth of needless debt. Colleges modify their costs and play games with their pricing, most often in racially discriminatory ways, and most of the costs are entirely wasteful on bloated bureaucracies. They also make it virtually impossible to transfer to other colleges. If Countrywide was a bit smarter, they would have decided to run Countrywide College.
¶ 11:12 PM 0 Comments
Links to this post
movie review: Quarantine
Quarantine - 2008
Previews:
"The Haunting of Molly Hartley"
-the thesis on this one seems initially interesting, but falls apart pretty quick. Yes, the Devil is real, but not more powerful than God. These recent movies seem to give to the Devil a power he lacks: control over our actions, control over our lives, and greater power than God. Silly.
Bank thriller - "The International"
-looks very good vs. bad and yet it's interesting that the cultural programming everywhere else is very careful to constantly reinforce that it's never quite that simple, that there's always a way to take the side of the bad guys. Clive Owen either has the worst agent in the world or chooses incredibly inane roles for himself. It's also shamefully obvious that the 'political assassinations' are of popular leftists and never of right-wing people who routinely get assassinated as well. It's this stupid way in which Hollywood rationalizes that big business is somehow in lock step with the Christian Coalition and the NRA. It's just so staggeringly stupid.
Quantum of Solace
-I'm not really that happy with the new Bond, but it looks somewhat entertaining
Twilight - vampires
-looks hokey and too many camera tricks
Zach and Miri make a porno
-continued degradation of culture
There's a lot of very shaky camera work in this movie, it's very first-person, very youtube-ish, and certainly existing in the wake of Cloverfield, and both are in the wake of the Blair Witch Project.
As a regular of zombie movies, it was interesting to see how they treat the disease. Some movies use the most precise definition, that of the actual living dead reanimated, whereas most recent movies tend to use a biological agent in order to mollify an audience that wants a degree of realism. Quarantine uses "human rabies" as its zombie plot-device, and it's not distractingly bad.
The movie also features a degree of government utilitarianism which sets the movie in motion. They use an apartment building as the setting, and exit is controlled by a government attempting to keep the contagion localized. It added a nice dimension of fear, that the government was just waiting for these people to die. They weren't staging a rescue and weren't there to help them in their time of need, they were just one of 200 million taxpayers and couldn't die fast enough.
One innovation in the movie was the first "lens death" or perhaps more accurately "beating by lens" that I've seen. In order to kill a zombie the cameraman repeatedly uses the camera itself to kill zombie, lucky for us that he directs the lens in the direction of the zombie. A great gimmick. The overall gimmick of the camcorder, though, was never reconciled fully. One person demanding that history record an event doesn't quite work. All zombie movies have a basic level of entertainment because they allow the audience to reflect upon the state of nature and man's most primal instincts. 28 days later 28 weeks later, notably in the latter's opening sequence, played that idea out very well. Yet, here in Quarantine, trying to escape from zombies in an apartment building, what's the motivation to keep the cameras rolling and not try to stay alive? I'll buy "human rabies" but I couldn't buy the desire to keep filming by a man scared for his life.
That said, the movie has a great use of night vision, and an absolutely fabulous final sequence that really redeemed a movie at risk of being a little too kitschy. They had an evil kid motif and firemen who were heroic, and just a little too much stereotyping and political correctness that was getting quite stale. So, whereas 28 weeks later is redeeming only for its opening sequence, Quarantine is similarly redeeming only for its conclusion.
B+
Previews:
"The Haunting of Molly Hartley"
-the thesis on this one seems initially interesting, but falls apart pretty quick. Yes, the Devil is real, but not more powerful than God. These recent movies seem to give to the Devil a power he lacks: control over our actions, control over our lives, and greater power than God. Silly.
Bank thriller - "The International"
-looks very good vs. bad and yet it's interesting that the cultural programming everywhere else is very careful to constantly reinforce that it's never quite that simple, that there's always a way to take the side of the bad guys. Clive Owen either has the worst agent in the world or chooses incredibly inane roles for himself. It's also shamefully obvious that the 'political assassinations' are of popular leftists and never of right-wing people who routinely get assassinated as well. It's this stupid way in which Hollywood rationalizes that big business is somehow in lock step with the Christian Coalition and the NRA. It's just so staggeringly stupid.
Quantum of Solace
-I'm not really that happy with the new Bond, but it looks somewhat entertaining
Twilight - vampires
-looks hokey and too many camera tricks
Zach and Miri make a porno
-continued degradation of culture
There's a lot of very shaky camera work in this movie, it's very first-person, very youtube-ish, and certainly existing in the wake of Cloverfield, and both are in the wake of the Blair Witch Project.
As a regular of zombie movies, it was interesting to see how they treat the disease. Some movies use the most precise definition, that of the actual living dead reanimated, whereas most recent movies tend to use a biological agent in order to mollify an audience that wants a degree of realism. Quarantine uses "human rabies" as its zombie plot-device, and it's not distractingly bad.
The movie also features a degree of government utilitarianism which sets the movie in motion. They use an apartment building as the setting, and exit is controlled by a government attempting to keep the contagion localized. It added a nice dimension of fear, that the government was just waiting for these people to die. They weren't staging a rescue and weren't there to help them in their time of need, they were just one of 200 million taxpayers and couldn't die fast enough.
One innovation in the movie was the first "lens death" or perhaps more accurately "beating by lens" that I've seen. In order to kill a zombie the cameraman repeatedly uses the camera itself to kill zombie, lucky for us that he directs the lens in the direction of the zombie. A great gimmick. The overall gimmick of the camcorder, though, was never reconciled fully. One person demanding that history record an event doesn't quite work. All zombie movies have a basic level of entertainment because they allow the audience to reflect upon the state of nature and man's most primal instincts. 28 days later 28 weeks later, notably in the latter's opening sequence, played that idea out very well. Yet, here in Quarantine, trying to escape from zombies in an apartment building, what's the motivation to keep the cameras rolling and not try to stay alive? I'll buy "human rabies" but I couldn't buy the desire to keep filming by a man scared for his life.
That said, the movie has a great use of night vision, and an absolutely fabulous final sequence that really redeemed a movie at risk of being a little too kitschy. They had an evil kid motif and firemen who were heroic, and just a little too much stereotyping and political correctness that was getting quite stale. So, whereas 28 weeks later is redeeming only for its opening sequence, Quarantine is similarly redeeming only for its conclusion.
B+
Labels: movie review
¶ 10:51 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
The fundamental breakdown in conservatism
Since the election, a variety of people have weighed in about what needs to be done. No one reads this blog, but I wanted to collect my thoughts on the matter. I came up with 14 major reforms:
1. Accurately assess blame - it wasn't "conservatism" that lost in the abstract or something as simple as McCain's poorly run campaign, or his moronic decision to abide by the campaign finance laws. No one thing caused this defeat and abstract ideas didn't win or lose either. Obama had more activists who were better trained who were using better technology. When Napoleon lost at Waterloo people didn't say he just had a bad day or that the stars divined it to be so or that the other side played with "heart" - no, a combination of tactics, strategy and technology made the difference between victory and defeat.
2. Retool our movement publications - some people need to be fired. My nominations:
3. Start using clear metrics - most of our nonprofits have a mailing list and not much else. They need clear metrics measuring results and not activity. They ought to all have some sort of serious field work and focus on outside the beltway strategies rather than all be soundbite factories scurrying to get on Hannity or in print.
4. Develop the youth - serious youth outreach, I could write for weeks on this subject.
5. Test our messages
6. Figure out electronically how to win - I don't want to go into too much detail here, but in 2004 the movement claimed the world would change due to blogs. And then it was social networking. The world hasn't changed, it's just that some things are a bit easier. We need to stop the fascination with pointless technology, i.e. Twitter, and start thinking about how to actually use this technology to convert more people, to take more effective action and to win more elections. Technology is not an end in itself, even though it seems whenever I hear or read people like Saul Anuzius talk about it, that's how it comes across. People don't talk about twitter as a way to test messaging or coordinate a field team; they don't talk about tangible ways to do the basic tasks necessary in order to actually win - it's as though no one has a big picture anymore of how to get back to victory. And those victories will start happening in a specific order:
And the local places, our first step in this journey, don't have the time or resources for big complicated systems. They need to be able to easily do their current operations and do them better and cheaper. Let's find a way to use technology to win.
7. Develop the donor class
8. Punish our insincere elected officials - let's make a few human sacrifices to keep the base sane. My first nomination? Senator Specter. My second nomination? Senator Hatch. My third nomination? John "Crybaby" Boehner
9. Write out the neocons from the movement and end the fratricide - neocons are leftists, who are we kidding.
10. Develop and start alternative media outlets
11. Focus locally
12. Get serious about training - we are losers who need to learn how to win
13. Means-test our pundits - if you have never done anything with your life, and yes I'm looking at you Sean Hannity, then you don't deserve to have an opinion. I don't like the politics and past employers of people like Patrick Ruffini, but he gets to have an opinion and I'll take it seriously because, well, he's done something. Sean Hannity? barf. Michael Johns? barf. Mona Charen? barf. Being an "author" or an "analyst" or a "speechwriter", by the way, doesn't mean anything. Running a successful competitive election? Yes. Accomplishing real tangible goals against real opposition? Yes. Sucking a paycheck to do what's always been done and lose? No.
14. Focus our efforts on the places the left is weakest
1. Accurately assess blame - it wasn't "conservatism" that lost in the abstract or something as simple as McCain's poorly run campaign, or his moronic decision to abide by the campaign finance laws. No one thing caused this defeat and abstract ideas didn't win or lose either. Obama had more activists who were better trained who were using better technology. When Napoleon lost at Waterloo people didn't say he just had a bad day or that the stars divined it to be so or that the other side played with "heart" - no, a combination of tactics, strategy and technology made the difference between victory and defeat.
2. Retool our movement publications - some people need to be fired. My nominations:
a. National Review - Rich Lowry - Lowry has made the movement standard bearer into the most irrelevant publication possible. The greatest intellectual minds of National Review have gone from Whittaker Chambers and Bill Buckley in the past to Mona Charen and Jonah Goldberg today. It's a disgrace.
b. The American Conservative - Scott McConnell - Contrarian to be contrarian has a special spot in my heart, but the American Conservative, run by a self-described "New York Review of Books liberal" has become intellectually dishonest in how it approaches movement issues. Where it once held a banner of anti-war and immigration to a stupid GOP listening to idiots like Hannity, it has since become a perpetual nonsensical critique of conservatism that simply seeks to validate liberalism in mind and act. I can't remember the last time I read an article of theirs and didn't feel as though they purposefully twisted words and history to suit their desire to critique. Laughably lately, they claim Carter was a real conservative. If I want idiocy I'll read the Nation, thank you.
c. Human Events - Jed Babbin - The commercialism of Human Events emails has become either comical, pathetic or both. Advertising for Extenze and Viagra is likely right around the corner. Babbin writes the most obvious articles with the most underwhelming analysis. The most obvious articles from the most unknown writers, Human Events has become a repository for old news without any interesting angles. Their good talent, namely Amanda Carpenter, left for greener pastures and I frequent their site only to read Buchanan and Novak when he was in better health. Other than that, with contributors as poor as "AWR" Hawkins, I question the publishing proclivities of what should be the best conservative outlet out there.
3. Start using clear metrics - most of our nonprofits have a mailing list and not much else. They need clear metrics measuring results and not activity. They ought to all have some sort of serious field work and focus on outside the beltway strategies rather than all be soundbite factories scurrying to get on Hannity or in print.
4. Develop the youth - serious youth outreach, I could write for weeks on this subject.
5. Test our messages
a. Education
b. Isolationism
c. Streamlining/anti-bureaucracy
d. Family
6. Figure out electronically how to win - I don't want to go into too much detail here, but in 2004 the movement claimed the world would change due to blogs. And then it was social networking. The world hasn't changed, it's just that some things are a bit easier. We need to stop the fascination with pointless technology, i.e. Twitter, and start thinking about how to actually use this technology to convert more people, to take more effective action and to win more elections. Technology is not an end in itself, even though it seems whenever I hear or read people like Saul Anuzius talk about it, that's how it comes across. People don't talk about twitter as a way to test messaging or coordinate a field team; they don't talk about tangible ways to do the basic tasks necessary in order to actually win - it's as though no one has a big picture anymore of how to get back to victory. And those victories will start happening in a specific order:
a. Local
b. State
c. National
And the local places, our first step in this journey, don't have the time or resources for big complicated systems. They need to be able to easily do their current operations and do them better and cheaper. Let's find a way to use technology to win.
7. Develop the donor class
8. Punish our insincere elected officials - let's make a few human sacrifices to keep the base sane. My first nomination? Senator Specter. My second nomination? Senator Hatch. My third nomination? John "Crybaby" Boehner
9. Write out the neocons from the movement and end the fratricide - neocons are leftists, who are we kidding.
10. Develop and start alternative media outlets
11. Focus locally
12. Get serious about training - we are losers who need to learn how to win
13. Means-test our pundits - if you have never done anything with your life, and yes I'm looking at you Sean Hannity, then you don't deserve to have an opinion. I don't like the politics and past employers of people like Patrick Ruffini, but he gets to have an opinion and I'll take it seriously because, well, he's done something. Sean Hannity? barf. Michael Johns? barf. Mona Charen? barf. Being an "author" or an "analyst" or a "speechwriter", by the way, doesn't mean anything. Running a successful competitive election? Yes. Accomplishing real tangible goals against real opposition? Yes. Sucking a paycheck to do what's always been done and lose? No.
14. Focus our efforts on the places the left is weakest
a. Unions
b. Affirmative Action
c. Taxes
d. Life
e. Bureaucracy/Regulations
f. Universities
Labels: conservativism, ideas, movement, theory
¶ 9:04 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
What do people want to see in video clips?
1. Humor
2. DIY and how-to
3. Ways to save/economic/things of financial use
4. Sex
5. Skills training
6. General entertainment
7. Topical humor ¶ 4:53 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
2. DIY and how-to
3. Ways to save/economic/things of financial use
4. Sex
5. Skills training
6. General entertainment
7. Topical humor ¶ 4:53 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Craigslist killer kills prostitutes: blame craigslist?
ABC interviewed Craig from Craigslist. Due to the recent killings nearby, their angle is trying to push for guilt to be partially transferred to the website. Are the media really proposing making policy based off of the moniker's they choose for serial killers? If the connection had occurred via the classified ads, should we call him the classifieds killer and then propose banning classified ads? There is something more troubling than dead women, and that's the continued twisting of language so as to justify any action. The newspapers hate craigslist for streamlining and removing the revenue stream of the classified ad business. The website is simple and direct, and yet no newspaper was willing to post listings for free, and easily searchable. The arrogance of print newspapers, resulting in their current decline and demise, is now exacted upon this website now that they have the smallest window of opportunity to do so. It's shameful, pathetic, and disgusting that we tolerate this kind of 'journalism.'
Labels: journalism
¶ 10:34 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
Friday, March 27, 2009
Easy Scanner
Here's another idea whose time has come: easy scanning. Some medium-end copiers have the ability to do automatic document feeding scanning, but it's high time for an easy desk or wall unit that will just take a stack of papers, scan those suckers and then trash them. If you want a paperless office, then make it easier to do. Especially for schools and hospitals, notorious for their onerous paperwork (as are nonprofits in general), I'd envision something hooked up to a central database with specifically email capabilities. So, it'd be like a shredder with a touch-screen front that would allow you to enter in an email address, and then put in your documents to scan, and would scan and email as a PDF. It would also be useful for testing centers, as it could replace the old scantron sheets with something that could generate your scores instantly.
Labels: ideas
¶ 2:23 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Immune to hypocrisy, history and anti-trust: the Government
It's hilarious that Tim Geithner can get up and say that some business like AIG is "too big to fail" and convince lawmakers to bail out the preferred business/industry of the day. Businesses becoming too big to fail used to be called control of the market, and subject to the anti-trust laws that mandated their separation. Not central banks of course, but those 'other industries' such as telephones in 1982. That these companies got so large that they became 'too big to fail' seems, as well, like a failure on the part of government to adequately enforce the already existing anti-trust laws. The government's monopoly over the money supply is beyond question, but when other countries point out the obvious and don't want to keep financing Uncle Sam's perpetual debts, Geithner can talk about a global currency in one breath, saying both that he'd oppose it but telling others he'd support it.
Such is the madness, the Washington circus.
Such is the madness, the Washington circus.
Labels: bailout, Economics, fiat money, obama
¶ 11:20 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Cutting government: state salaries
The average state bureaucrat salary is $54,309. If you took double the educational rate of $43,664, which is $87,328 and cut all those salaries by 25%, you'd lower that 87k salary down to $65,496, still comfortably above the average. I don't know how much money this would save, but if the state refuses to lay off state bureaucrats, the least they could do would be to cut the salaries to make them feel the same pinch the rest of us are feeling.
Another thought: every dollar for a state employee past the average salary in the state ought to be considered a 'bonus' and if they receive more than that, it's conditional on budget surpluses. No surplus, no bonus.
Another thought: every dollar for a state employee past the average salary in the state ought to be considered a 'bonus' and if they receive more than that, it's conditional on budget surpluses. No surplus, no bonus.
Labels: budget, policy, taxes, theory
¶ 2:53 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
newspapers: mandatory subscriptions
While I was writing the last post, it occurred to me how they could 'save' the newspapers now that we're entering full-fledged socialism: mandatory newspaper subscriptions. Everyone who lives in an area will get taxed the subscription fee for the designated major paper, the tax will get collected, and then given to the newspaper of choice. It'll be done someway in which "government doesn't have control over the paper"... at first, but then morph into the local paper being the functionary arm of the state within a short period. I can already see my liberal relatives rejoicing at the paper being 'saved' and 'jobs' created, and also how great it will be that everyone in their area receives the paper! Colleges already do this, setting up huge distribution bins and taxing everyone for three copies of crappy papers no one reads. Welcome to the revolution, comrades!
Labels: journalism, obama, Pelosi, policy, politics, theory
¶ 9:10 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
Borat's ruinous legacy for journalists
Sascha Cohen makes a living by making fun of others. In the various comedic cousins, such as Trigger Happy TV, Jackass, Candid Camera, Michael Moore and others, none makes jokes as abrasively as does Cohen. Personally I can't even stand watching his material. And to add even more to the critique, it now comes out that he uses front companies and elaborate ruses to dupe people into doing interviews and talking to him. Now, I understand the need to build confidence in a subject so they feel at ease, but going to this extreme makes it different than others. You can dupe someone by not directly lying to them, but many will allow their suspicious detector to key them off and refuse the interview. And though it may seem like a small distinction, it gives the subject the opportunity to say, "well, I should have known better" in the sense that they should have done their homework better. Here, by setting up these groups and fake fronts, even having done their homework most would be duped. And so when people see this, when they read it, it means they won't want to give any interviews or ever talk to the media. And while that's my most common advice to friends and organizations when it comes to unfamiliar media, it's a bad overall precedent and will lead to a walled-off section of society unwilling to be a part of the local and national discussion ostensibly happening through mass media. Nancy Pelosi wants to bailout big media that makes all sorts of bad business decisions, but no one thinks to enforce existing laws against Cohen who is truly and irreversibly harming journalism in order to make crass unfunny jokes to line his own pockets.
Labels: comedy, journalism, theory
¶ 8:59 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
Monday, March 23, 2009
Two great groups
It may seem, assuming anyone reads this with any regularity or consistency, that I am overly critical of nonprofits and conservative groups. There are two great groups I want to mention, though, the Alliance Defense Fund and Americans United for Life. And the work that the American Civil Rights Initiative does, working to overturn state race codes one by one, is great as well.
Labels: activism, conservativism, movement, pro-life movement, theory
¶ 11:07 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Reasons I hate my alma mater: #3,488
When a charity event happens, they blame any damage during that time on the charity and decide to bill them for the cost of repairs.
Labels: AU
¶ 4:09 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Pro-life injustices, and its opportunity for outreach
Walter Hoye has been jailed in California for standing on a sidewalk with an unpopular message. His 'crime' was talking to people, even the San Francisco Chronicle can't cover up the obvious in their story. Because of the content of his speech, because of what he was saying and what his personal principles are, he was jailed. This all leads one to the question of: does this offer an opportunity for group and activist development in churches. And I would have to say, probably not. Hoye's actions seem outside the range of normal church activities. Few churches, and virtually no Catholic churches, evangelize anymore or are used to such actions and activities. Using this as a catalyst seems stuck because our people are so unused to the tactic of taking any action outside simple prayer. They forget that prayer ought to rightfully lead to action. Prayer sanctifies as it leads one to move. That connection seems lost, so perhaps this incident can help us reach out to a different set of people: for example the "spiritual" moderates who would be offended by a pastor being jailed but are perhaps not of a particular denomination. I don't know, perhaps I'm overthinking this.
Labels: activism, organizing, pro-life, pro-life movement, theory
¶ 8:46 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Obama to release Gitmo detainees inside the U.S.
What could possibly go wrong with this plan? A follow-up from a post from a few days ago.
Labels: foreign policy, obama, policy, terrorists
¶ 10:56 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
me as Debbie Downer: red envelopes
I hate seeming cynical or that I'm tearing ideas down, but it is damn frustrating to watch people get worked up over the 'red envelope' campaign. I know people have the best of intentions, but the return email I got for an announcement of the campaign was from Lindsay@republicanprofessionals.net - and so it doesn't inspire a lot of confidence that this is a truly 'grassroots' enterprise as claimed here.
In fact, reviewing the FAQ, listen to this paragraph:
This is ridiculous. Of course some group is behind it, otherwise it wouldn't be as organized. I don't mind that a group is behind it, I just don't want to be lied to about what's going on about it. AUL did a great FOCA campaign, there are several Students for Life of America projects that they occasionally announce - they're all good things, but claiming that it's spontaneous generation just irks me for some reason. Not the least of which is that I suspect this very very very passive activity, mailing an envelope, will ultimately be thrown away by the White House and will just build some mailing list for a pro-life group. And, as one working for a pro-life group, I understand the need for these kind of things, I just wish they'd be tied to effective action rather than ineffective action.
In fact, reviewing the FAQ, listen to this paragraph:
This movement is a true grass roots phenomenon. There is no entity behind this project other than the thousands of men, women and children that have volunteered their time, money, and effort to be involved. The Red Envelope Project has spread largely through emails and word of mouth. I believe that many have been moved by the Holy Spirit to do this. It has crossed all denominational lines, and has brought together the efforts of Roman Catholics and Protestants in our common value for life and the blood of Christ. Churches, schools, CCD classes, youth groups, religious communities, and small groups have joined in this effort.
This is ridiculous. Of course some group is behind it, otherwise it wouldn't be as organized. I don't mind that a group is behind it, I just don't want to be lied to about what's going on about it. AUL did a great FOCA campaign, there are several Students for Life of America projects that they occasionally announce - they're all good things, but claiming that it's spontaneous generation just irks me for some reason. Not the least of which is that I suspect this very very very passive activity, mailing an envelope, will ultimately be thrown away by the White House and will just build some mailing list for a pro-life group. And, as one working for a pro-life group, I understand the need for these kind of things, I just wish they'd be tied to effective action rather than ineffective action.
Labels: activism, pro-life, pro-life movement, theory
¶ 12:19 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Provasic t-shirt
a gift I would actually wear and use, and probably smirk when people wouldn't 'get it'
Labels: gifts
¶ 10:18 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Rewarding teacher quality: a rough draft on a measured system to do this consistently
Having heard the arguments that you can't measure teacher quality, I gave it some thought. Surely there's no perfect way to do it, but what if you tried.
First things first, every teacher deserves a healthy base pay, this would be above that in order to reward those teachers who had proven results with their subject. This is mainly a method to adjust the pay, but as I'm sure plenty could point out- pay isn't the strongest correlation to student performance. A bad teacher in a smart area can do well, and a great teacher in an area that has cultural dysfunctions will not prosper either. So, this is by no means a cure all and isn't meant to be: it's simply a way to structure a rewards system to justly compensate those teachers who have consistent performance.
A few preconditions:
structural:
1. end social promotion
2. variable class sizes
3. incentivize quality and quantity
4. mandatory, enforced attendance, or make it so that the student actually is there for the classes
5. regular standardized tests that are not simply multiple choice, can't be 'taught to' and measure aptitude separate from actual knowledge and skills.
6. embrace 'tracking' individual students, which means to allow students to take courses outside their proscribed age level, also encourage students who are behind not to advance (related to social promotion)
cultural:
1. reward entrepreneurship and academics
2. promote studying and self improvement
3. Stress academics and those things that are lasting over those temporary things such as physical prowess - the mind masters the body not the other way around
4. embracing standardized testing, perhaps by making them race-neutral to remove the most controversial components - we should treat each child like a human being and not an identity class
Now, of course, those things are never going to happen, thank you NEA/AFT. But, let's just assume they did.
You could measure teacher performance, this is likely going to be relatively obvious but I wanted to write it out, by formulating said equations:
student test at entry = STE
student test at exit = STEX
average student test at entry = ASTE
average student test at exit = ASTEX
(ASTEX-ASTE) = Average Improvement for the year = IMPROVEAVERAGE
(STEX-STE) = Student Improvement for the year = IMPROVEACTUAL
and if you took each grade level, up to 12, for each test, so that the 9th grade exit test was STEX9
then by taking (STEX9-STE9) and comparing that number to STE10, you could get an idea of both what was gained/lost over the summer, and also a nice control on STEX9 in order to factor in test anomalies.
The rewards to the teacher, then, would be to measure how much the individual student was able to outstrip the curve in terms of their learning that year in that subject. If you could take a student who started 9th grade science with a proficiency at a 10th grade level and was able to get him to the 12th grade level, that should cause a reward to the teacher. Now this also gets complicated as well because age becomes a bad predictor for one's skills within that area. Meaning that not all 9th graders perform as 9th graders on both Math and Science. So, one would probably want to adjust for that and place students based on their tested skill level. This could get hairy, though, and I recall someone quoting a study that said that students placed out of their age bracket in such scenarios, which used to be more common, felt a great degree of alienation and separation that could be unhealthy. Even though that concern seems ambiguous, it's worth considering.
Also, while I'm obviously a fan of standardized tests, even though I don't usually do well on them, they should be localized. Nationalization of our testing standards is an awful awful thing. Each area, state, locality, should be allowed to set their own standards. We want all "American" children to perform at a specific level, but we do so with the arrogance of not considering that perhaps people are happy with how they have things. As well, perhaps my system isn't meant for everyone - perhaps a specific area wants to teach only through oral tradition, or one solely through rigorous science devoid of the humanities. I wouldn't send my hopeful future family through such a place, but it ought to be encouraged to develop. We could stand to be a little less nationally concerned, and be so quick to label one part of the country 'behind' or lacking in one way or another.
And of course this is all very rigid, so maybe it's unrealistic, but I'm not a superintendent making policy, I'm just trying to sketch this out.
First things first, every teacher deserves a healthy base pay, this would be above that in order to reward those teachers who had proven results with their subject. This is mainly a method to adjust the pay, but as I'm sure plenty could point out- pay isn't the strongest correlation to student performance. A bad teacher in a smart area can do well, and a great teacher in an area that has cultural dysfunctions will not prosper either. So, this is by no means a cure all and isn't meant to be: it's simply a way to structure a rewards system to justly compensate those teachers who have consistent performance.
A few preconditions:
structural:
1. end social promotion
2. variable class sizes
3. incentivize quality and quantity
4. mandatory, enforced attendance, or make it so that the student actually is there for the classes
5. regular standardized tests that are not simply multiple choice, can't be 'taught to' and measure aptitude separate from actual knowledge and skills.
6. embrace 'tracking' individual students, which means to allow students to take courses outside their proscribed age level, also encourage students who are behind not to advance (related to social promotion)
cultural:
1. reward entrepreneurship and academics
2. promote studying and self improvement
3. Stress academics and those things that are lasting over those temporary things such as physical prowess - the mind masters the body not the other way around
4. embracing standardized testing, perhaps by making them race-neutral to remove the most controversial components - we should treat each child like a human being and not an identity class
Now, of course, those things are never going to happen, thank you NEA/AFT. But, let's just assume they did.
You could measure teacher performance, this is likely going to be relatively obvious but I wanted to write it out, by formulating said equations:
student test at entry = STE
student test at exit = STEX
average student test at entry = ASTE
average student test at exit = ASTEX
(ASTEX-ASTE) = Average Improvement for the year = IMPROVEAVERAGE
(STEX-STE) = Student Improvement for the year = IMPROVEACTUAL
and if you took each grade level, up to 12, for each test, so that the 9th grade exit test was STEX9
then by taking (STEX9-STE9) and comparing that number to STE10, you could get an idea of both what was gained/lost over the summer, and also a nice control on STEX9 in order to factor in test anomalies.
The rewards to the teacher, then, would be to measure how much the individual student was able to outstrip the curve in terms of their learning that year in that subject. If you could take a student who started 9th grade science with a proficiency at a 10th grade level and was able to get him to the 12th grade level, that should cause a reward to the teacher. Now this also gets complicated as well because age becomes a bad predictor for one's skills within that area. Meaning that not all 9th graders perform as 9th graders on both Math and Science. So, one would probably want to adjust for that and place students based on their tested skill level. This could get hairy, though, and I recall someone quoting a study that said that students placed out of their age bracket in such scenarios, which used to be more common, felt a great degree of alienation and separation that could be unhealthy. Even though that concern seems ambiguous, it's worth considering.
Also, while I'm obviously a fan of standardized tests, even though I don't usually do well on them, they should be localized. Nationalization of our testing standards is an awful awful thing. Each area, state, locality, should be allowed to set their own standards. We want all "American" children to perform at a specific level, but we do so with the arrogance of not considering that perhaps people are happy with how they have things. As well, perhaps my system isn't meant for everyone - perhaps a specific area wants to teach only through oral tradition, or one solely through rigorous science devoid of the humanities. I wouldn't send my hopeful future family through such a place, but it ought to be encouraged to develop. We could stand to be a little less nationally concerned, and be so quick to label one part of the country 'behind' or lacking in one way or another.
And of course this is all very rigid, so maybe it's unrealistic, but I'm not a superintendent making policy, I'm just trying to sketch this out.
Labels: education, ideas, policy
¶ 3:33 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
On Closing Gitmo
So the GOP told us that to close Gitmo would just put terrorists back out in the field. Looks like they were right. The strange desire to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay stems, it seems, from a very misplaced notion to always embrace one's attackers. It's the basis of a certain left-wing desire to have pure tolerance, and even hidden admiration for, those who hate the West. The left (said as though this amorphous blob of intellectual thought is a coherent, consistent organism) may presume that this will then result in more terrorists being given a nice show trial like they watch on Law and Order. But in reality this will likely mean that a 'no-prisoners' policy will be in effect on the battlefield, a significantly worse outcome.
Labels: foreign policy, leftists, military, obama, policy
¶ 11:54 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
Everyone loves stupid 'contests'
Throw away money? Fine if you're a non-profit. There are a spattering of groups offering "contests" for videos, and then are shocked when they receive crap. Who would put an investment into a good video if there's a raffle's chance of being chosen? It's stupid. These contests want to have their cake and eat it too, they want 10 $5000 videos for a paltry $500 prize. It's shameful, really. Any organization that offers "prizes" ought to immediately be suspect and seen for what they are: bureaucrats without imaginations; stooges who can raise money but can't think of how to spend it!
Labels: non-profits, theory
¶ 9:43 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
The "death" of evangelicals
So this "post-evangelical" clown, Michael Spencer, writes in the Christian Science Monitor that there is a coming 'death' of evangelicals and plays on all sorts of fear tactics. And of course in 60 years he'll be long gone by the time that his theory is proven right or wrong, but it's at least entertaining to see the Obama Vanguard continue their assault on anything center-right even after they take control of government, because Spencer claims that what's going to kill evangelicals is... wait for it... conservatism. Attaching itself to 'conservatism' is what will cause kids to grow up without faith, donations to dry up, your house to catch on fire, your wife to leave you, your dog to run away and your stock portfolio to collapse even further! Maybe. In 60 years. So sayeth I, who am self-described as 'post-evangelical' and have books to sell, blogs to promote and my other crap to peddle. It's laughable that clowns like this get any press play. What kills any faith or movement is the lack of faith. If Evangelicals start embracing 'gay' 'marriage'; infanticide; high taxes and other 'progressive' things, it will represent the rejection of the essence of their faith. Look at the mainline 'dying' denominations: Methodists, Lutherans, Congregationalists -- common denominator? radical left-wing attitudes on all these core issues, these family issues. But, of course, in two generations those denominations will be flourishing and all these evangelical ones will be dying according to Spencer. I just hope the clown lives long enough and is sentient enough to realize how wrong he is.
Labels: conservativism, media, media bias, messaging, religion
¶ 8:52 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
Monday, March 9, 2009
Media softening the public to accept cocaine legalization
Proclamations about how the 'drug war' is failing are about as old as time. One wonders if cartels can afford unchecked spending how much it would cost to bankroll some interest groups, lobbying outfits and hollywood producers. As Ted DiBiase taught all us young kids through his theme song as a young WWF fan: "everybody's got a price." We're told/sold that the war on drugs is lost, that it's a failure, even though it stabilized Columbia. We're told that after legalizing it, the crime will go down, even though as a drug it becomes an irrational desire, an unchecked addiction. We're told/sold that diseases and viruses will vanish because needles will be plentiful and safe. It's almost the same b.s. marketing around abortion and the pill: that sex will be safe and without consequence and everyone's marriages will improve and that human beings will live in harmony with one another. The liberal dreams are always nightmares in reality, and who knows, perhaps we'll be able to watch the disintegration of our communities at an even faster pace if Czar Obama, Caesar of the Ages, either decriminalizes, legitimizes or ends enforcement against hard drugs. By the time kindergartners are shooting up on the playground, Obama will be busy giving 250k speeches on the lecture circuit, so what does he care.
This also demonstrates that the economics of hard drugs, claimed by libertarians that the constricted supply artificially creates the destructive situation where violence flourishes is essentially a completely false premise: more drugs equals more violence. When a commodity is as precious and as desired, no amount of supply is going to stop people from doing whatever it takes to procure it.
This also demonstrates that the economics of hard drugs, claimed by libertarians that the constricted supply artificially creates the destructive situation where violence flourishes is essentially a completely false premise: more drugs equals more violence. When a commodity is as precious and as desired, no amount of supply is going to stop people from doing whatever it takes to procure it.
Labels: drugs, government, obama, policy
¶ 11:33 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
politically incorrect tax cheats
Get an appointment by Obama and your tax cheating is an 'honest mistake' but be politically unpopular like these folks, and you're going to prison.
Labels: government, obama, taxes
¶ 9:17 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
Sunday, March 8, 2009
UMass Minuteman
Even though I spent several years working at the Leadership Institute setting up campus newspapers, I have never met or worked with more alumni than that of the UMass Minuteman. It has a website worth checking out, and brings a much-needed dose of reality to a very left-wing campus.
Labels: campuses, journalism
¶ 10:33 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Friday, March 6, 2009
Brownback and Palin: Pro-life?
Sam Brownback endorses the radically pro-abortion Kathleen Sebelius, and Sarah Palin nominates a former Planned Parenthood board member to the Alaska Supreme Court. Brownback's crappy rationale/rationalization almost makes it worse.
Labels: abortion, politics, pro-life, pro-life movement, Senate
¶ 6:08 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
It's not news, it's CNN
Sitting in my favorite sub shop, CNN is on in the background. I CANNOT BELIEVE what passes for news on CNN, and how incredibly terrible it is. The "News to Me" short is on right now, and I have seen more reliable better journalism in colleges than I do on CNN. This must be their way of being "hip" and "techno-savvy" but it is an abomination and disgusting.
Labels: CNN, content, journalism
¶ 11:20 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Debate Judging: Group Discussion and the Stimulus/Bailouts
I recently had the opportunity to judge a debate tournament at Shrewsbury High School, where I occasionally help out. One new Forensics event is called "Group Discussion" where 6 students take a topic and the judge decides which one of them handles and controls a group discussion the best. It seems like a very modern, PC and lame event, but in practice it was neat to see. Having judged the event, though, there were a few thoughts that helped me understand how the economics of the bailout appear to the common man. It was shocking, for instance, that all the students agreed in the necessity for both the bailout and the stimulus package. Even some who had obviously read several libertarian tracts and even mentioned the gold standard, still said government action was needed. There was also an absence of principles guiding their actions, which I suppose is to be expected, but was frustrating to watch. They had a very singular and short-term focus on getting past this immediate economic situation and not really questioning what underpinnings caused this situation. It was also frustrating that no one really took the role of the contrarian. Three students, in fact, were virtually silent through the presentation and I kept hoping that at least one of them would try to take the role of the spoiler. The solutions, even to accept the necessity for government action, were all very within-the-box and uncreative -- there were no big ideas, no one took any risks. I understand economics isn't the most exciting field, but I was still hoping to see a spark in one of them to the point where they took an idea and ran with it - instead it was largely predictable: more education, more money to teachers, the new deal was key to getting out of the depression, more regulation, etc. etc. etc. -- it was hard to restrain myself and say what a cesspool of money most school districts are, that government is ridiculously inefficient and that government caused this crisis. Perhaps I was hoping for too much. I have been so thrilled by the high caliber of the Shrewsbury High students that perhaps my standards were artificially high; I had a good time and enjoyed the day so I should not complain at all, but it was interesting to see what kind of messages are getting across to students in this current crisis.
Labels: Economics, education, media, media bias, messaging
¶ 2:05 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Capitalizing on their gains
Democrats and leftists, so ridiculously smarter and more strategic than the right, are not only giving DC voting rights in clear violation of the Constitution, but also setting up institutions to push the left further to the left.
Labels: Congress, Democrats, leftists, strategy, tactics, theory
¶ 7:32 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Catholic Action
This article is wholly inadequate to what is appropriate, but it at least focuses on a long-running discussion I've had with several: the necessity of Catholic action vs. faith sustaining one's self alone.
Labels: activism, Catholicism, religion, theory
¶ 9:34 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
Monday, February 23, 2009
Bailouts and Stimuluses and Messaging
I had the thought that the recent bank bailouts and stimuluses really amount to a new form of corporate welfare - and these new welfare queens are even less worthy than the welfare queens of time past. We get upset when John Thain redecorates his office to the tune of millions, just as we rightly get upset when poverty mama spends her assistance checks on game systems, new shoes and expensive jewelry. Obviously there's a greater moral wrong when the businessman, who is supposed to be disciplined and moral, makes these kind of lapses, but our righteous anger ought to be channeled in such a way as to have a similar welfare reform as we did in 1996 for a corporate welfare reform of 2009 to start allowing companies to fail, and remove the rent-seeking regulations on smaller companies to take up the slack when giants like Sh*ttybank (Citibank) and Skank of America (Bank of America) fall.
Labels: Congress, Economics, messaging, obama, Pelosi
¶ 10:08 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
Friday, February 13, 2009
Help get 3 MCFL Camcorders!
Labels: fundraising, MCFL, pro-life, pro-life movement
¶ 10:03 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Newsweek on Ogilvy: the original mad man
Newsweek recently wrote about an author whom I have recommended across the country, David Ogilvy. Unfortunately this interview is quite sub-par and relatively nothing within can't be learnt by reading "Ogilvy on Advertising"
Labels: art, books, tactics, theory, training
¶ 6:39 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Radical Honesty
I ran across this article on "radical honesty" and enjoyed it. It seems presumptuous for me to say that I engage in such behavior, but I like to think that I do and hope that I can increase my inter-personal honesty. It certainly, even if it creates some awkward moments, simplifies life and makes things considerably easier than trying to always defend whatever mangled construct of truth one builds with half-truths and deception.
¶ 9:22 AM 0 Comments
Links to this post
Monday, February 9, 2009
Democrat Ethics
Not that I consider myself a Republican, but the media who were daily hitting the DeLay/Foley/Craig drumbeat seems oddly silent on these scandals:
This is becoming a weekly headline for the Dem's:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/b...
Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon indicted
4 counts of perjury, 2 counts of theft over $500 among 12-count indictment
Democrats should be proud of their party's representatives. Here are some more:
Bill Richardson under investigation
Rod Blago the super governor
Hillary gave a $500 million federal contract to a contributor of Billy's Museum.
Tony Rezko- Obama's pal, neighbor and real estate sponsor. Obama engaged in a complicated land deal with his South Chicago neighbor and political ally who has been indicted by a federal grand jury for influence peddling.
Democrat Tom Harkin Gave Millions In Federal Money To a Major Employer Of Illegal Immigrants
Penny Pritzer, a major Obama fundraiser, heiress to the Hyatt fortune, torpedoes a bank......
* Superior Bank Was A "Subprime Lender hat Made Risky Mortgage And Auto Loans To People With Poor Credit Histories." (Kathy Bergen, "Millions For Pritzkers In Settlement," Chicago Tribune, 12/28/04)
* Federal Regulators Closed Superior Bank Due To "Poor Oversight By Its Board" Among Other Reasons.
Obama's mother in law- living in the White House
Obama's illegal-citizen aunt living in Chicago.
Obama's birth certificate issues
Obama and ACORN
Obama and Bill Ayers
Senator Chrissie Dodd took the most campaign money from corrupt institutions Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac while Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. Congressman Barbie Frank and his boyfriend girlfriend stealing millions from the same.
Charlie the Wrangler is the 15th-term member of the House of Representatives representing New York's 15th district. Rep. Rangel's ethics issues stem from leasing rent controlled apartments, improperly using congressional stationary and failing to disclose rental income on his personal financial disclosure forms.
Obama Advisor Valerie Jarrett (D-IL):
CBS News once called Chicago politician Valerie Jarrett "the other side of Barack Obama's brain." Residents of a housing project in Chicago simply know her as "slumlord." Jarrett is the former manager of Grove Parc Plaza, a controversial low-income housing project located in Obama's former state senate district. According to the Boston Globe, the housing complex was considered "uninhabitable by unfixed problems, such as collapsed roofs and fire damage.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA): Last year House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made the "most corrupt" list for sneaking a $25 million earmark for her husband into a $15 billion Water Resources Development Act passed by Congress. This year, Pelosi ran afoul of federal election law by participating in an illegal advertising campaign funded by Al Gore's non-profit Alliance for Climate protection.
Former Senator John Edwards (D-NC): By day, former North Carolina Senator and Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards repeatedly professed his love for his cancer-stricken wife during media interviews and campaign speeches. By night, Edwards was carrying on an illicit sexual affair with a former campaign consultant, Rielle Hunter.
Former Rep. William "Dollar Bill" Jefferson (D-LA): William "Dollar Bill" Jefferson was nabbed in a sting operation accepting a $100,000 bribe from an FBI informant to broker business deals in Africa. During his conversation with the informant, who was wired, Jefferson famously remarked, "All these notes we're writing to each other, as if the FBI is watching." Well, the FBI was watching (and listening) and during a subsequent search of Jefferson's home, investigators found $90,000 in cash stuffed in the congressman's freezer.
The group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), which serves as a more liberal counterpart to Judicial Watch, releases a similar list each year. At the end of this summer, they declared that three Democrats-Jefferson, Rep. Allan Molohan (D-WV), and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA)-were among the "Most Corrupt Members of Congress.
Rep. John Murtha (D-PA),- an "unindicted co-conspirator in the 1980 'Abscam' scandal, which included the arrest and convictions of a senator and six congressmen."
Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) - Hastings is one of only six federal judges to be removed from office through impeachment and has accumulated staggering liabilities ranging from $2,130,006 to $7,350,000. Hastings was "next in line" for Chairmanship of the House Select Committee on Intelligence until a wave of protest forced Nancy Pelosi to select another candidate. Nonetheless, Hastings is expected to continue to serve on the Intelligence Committee.
Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) - Senator Reid came under fire in 2006 for failing to properly report to Congress a $700,000 land deal. Reid also accepted more than $30,000 of Abramoff-tainted money allegedly in return for his ''cooperation'' in matters related Nevada Indian gaming.
Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) - According to complaints released by the House Ethics Committee recently, aides to Representative John Conyers (D-MI) alleged their former boss repeatedly violated House ethics rules, forcing them to serve as his personal servants, valets, and as campaign staff while on the government payroll.
Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) - In May 2006, Kennedy crashed his car into a Capitol Hill barricade at nearly 3 a.m. in the morning. Kennedy blamed the incident on a reaction to prescription pills, but officers at the scene said he smelled of alcohol. Nonetheless, they escorted him home rather than arresting him.
Former Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) - McKinney assaulted a Capitol Hill police officer in April after refusing to go through a metal detector. While McKinney was never forced to answer in a court of law for her behavior, she lost her bid for re-election in 2006.
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) is a second-term senator from Louisiana. Her ethics issues stem from inserting an earmark into an appropriations bill to benefit a large campaign donor. Earmark for Voyager Learning- The Voyager Expanded Learning literacy program had no proven track record when Congress appropriated $2 million in the fall of 2001 to be spent on the program, aimed at District of Columbia kindergartners and first graders.
Rep. Daniel Lipinski (D-IL) is a second-term member of Congress representing Illinois' 3rd congressional district. Rep. Lipinski's ethics issues stem from the outside employment of a top Washington D.C. congressional aide.
Jerome R. Hurckes - In January 2005, after serving as district director for former Rep. William Lipinski, Jerome "Jerry" Hurckes became chief of staff in the district office of Rep. Dan Lipinski, who replaced his father. Since 1999, Mr. Hurckes has served as an elected member of the Village of Oak Lawn Board of Trustees. In that capacity he ran a state campaign account called Friends of Jerry Hurckes. Both former Rep. William Lipinski's state PAC and the Dan Lipinski for Congress Committee have donated to Friends of Jerry Hurckes. Rep. Dan Lipinski serves on the House Transportation Committee, and companies with business in front of the committee, have donated to Mr. Hurckes' campaign committee.
Rep. Alan B. Mollohan (D-WV) is a 13th-term member of Congress, representing the first district of West Virginia. His ethics issues stem from misusing his position to benefit himself, his family and his friends and misreporting a dramatic increase in his personal assets. Over the past 10 plus years, Rep. Mollohan has earmarked $369 million in federal grants to his district for 254 separate programs. Between 1997 and 2006, $250 million of that total was directed to five nonprofit organizations that were created by Rep. Mollohan, staffed by his friends, and received the largest earmarks from Rep. Mollohan. During the same period, top-paid employees, board members and contractors of these organizations gave at least $397,122 to Rep. Mollohan's campaign and political action committees.
Rep. Laura Richardson (D-CA) is a first-term member of Congress, representing California's 37th congressional district. Rep. Richardson's ethics issues stem from accepting favorable loans and her failure to properly report a loan on her financial disclosure statements. In May 2008, it was reported that Rep. Richardson's Sacramento home had been sold into foreclosure. She claimed that this had happened without her knowledge and contrary to an agreement with her lender. Rep. Richardson had failed to make mortgage payments on the property for nearly a year and had defaulted on other home loans as well. Rep. Richardson also failed to include the mortgage on her Sacramento home on her personal financial disclosure statements. According to press reports, Rep. Richardson has defaulted on loans at least eight times on properties she owns in Long Beach, San Pedro and Sacramento. She also failed to pay approximately $9,000 in property taxes on the Sacramento residence.
Democrat Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, son of Democrat Congressman Carolyn Cheeks-Kilpatrick, in jail for perjury and obstruction of justice, and forced from office. Suspected involvement in the killings of two Detroit strippers.
ALL DEMOCRATS.........
This is becoming a weekly headline for the Dem's:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/b...
Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon indicted
4 counts of perjury, 2 counts of theft over $500 among 12-count indictment
Democrats should be proud of their party's representatives. Here are some more:
Bill Richardson under investigation
Rod Blago the super governor
Hillary gave a $500 million federal contract to a contributor of Billy's Museum.
Tony Rezko- Obama's pal, neighbor and real estate sponsor. Obama engaged in a complicated land deal with his South Chicago neighbor and political ally who has been indicted by a federal grand jury for influence peddling.
Democrat Tom Harkin Gave Millions In Federal Money To a Major Employer Of Illegal Immigrants
Penny Pritzer, a major Obama fundraiser, heiress to the Hyatt fortune, torpedoes a bank......
* Superior Bank Was A "Subprime Lender hat Made Risky Mortgage And Auto Loans To People With Poor Credit Histories." (Kathy Bergen, "Millions For Pritzkers In Settlement," Chicago Tribune, 12/28/04)
* Federal Regulators Closed Superior Bank Due To "Poor Oversight By Its Board" Among Other Reasons.
Obama's mother in law- living in the White House
Obama's illegal-citizen aunt living in Chicago.
Obama's birth certificate issues
Obama and ACORN
Obama and Bill Ayers
Senator Chrissie Dodd took the most campaign money from corrupt institutions Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac while Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. Congressman Barbie Frank and his boyfriend girlfriend stealing millions from the same.
Charlie the Wrangler is the 15th-term member of the House of Representatives representing New York's 15th district. Rep. Rangel's ethics issues stem from leasing rent controlled apartments, improperly using congressional stationary and failing to disclose rental income on his personal financial disclosure forms.
Obama Advisor Valerie Jarrett (D-IL):
CBS News once called Chicago politician Valerie Jarrett "the other side of Barack Obama's brain." Residents of a housing project in Chicago simply know her as "slumlord." Jarrett is the former manager of Grove Parc Plaza, a controversial low-income housing project located in Obama's former state senate district. According to the Boston Globe, the housing complex was considered "uninhabitable by unfixed problems, such as collapsed roofs and fire damage.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA): Last year House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made the "most corrupt" list for sneaking a $25 million earmark for her husband into a $15 billion Water Resources Development Act passed by Congress. This year, Pelosi ran afoul of federal election law by participating in an illegal advertising campaign funded by Al Gore's non-profit Alliance for Climate protection.
Former Senator John Edwards (D-NC): By day, former North Carolina Senator and Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards repeatedly professed his love for his cancer-stricken wife during media interviews and campaign speeches. By night, Edwards was carrying on an illicit sexual affair with a former campaign consultant, Rielle Hunter.
Former Rep. William "Dollar Bill" Jefferson (D-LA): William "Dollar Bill" Jefferson was nabbed in a sting operation accepting a $100,000 bribe from an FBI informant to broker business deals in Africa. During his conversation with the informant, who was wired, Jefferson famously remarked, "All these notes we're writing to each other, as if the FBI is watching." Well, the FBI was watching (and listening) and during a subsequent search of Jefferson's home, investigators found $90,000 in cash stuffed in the congressman's freezer.
The group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), which serves as a more liberal counterpart to Judicial Watch, releases a similar list each year. At the end of this summer, they declared that three Democrats-Jefferson, Rep. Allan Molohan (D-WV), and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA)-were among the "Most Corrupt Members of Congress.
Rep. John Murtha (D-PA),- an "unindicted co-conspirator in the 1980 'Abscam' scandal, which included the arrest and convictions of a senator and six congressmen."
Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) - Hastings is one of only six federal judges to be removed from office through impeachment and has accumulated staggering liabilities ranging from $2,130,006 to $7,350,000. Hastings was "next in line" for Chairmanship of the House Select Committee on Intelligence until a wave of protest forced Nancy Pelosi to select another candidate. Nonetheless, Hastings is expected to continue to serve on the Intelligence Committee.
Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) - Senator Reid came under fire in 2006 for failing to properly report to Congress a $700,000 land deal. Reid also accepted more than $30,000 of Abramoff-tainted money allegedly in return for his ''cooperation'' in matters related Nevada Indian gaming.
Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) - According to complaints released by the House Ethics Committee recently, aides to Representative John Conyers (D-MI) alleged their former boss repeatedly violated House ethics rules, forcing them to serve as his personal servants, valets, and as campaign staff while on the government payroll.
Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) - In May 2006, Kennedy crashed his car into a Capitol Hill barricade at nearly 3 a.m. in the morning. Kennedy blamed the incident on a reaction to prescription pills, but officers at the scene said he smelled of alcohol. Nonetheless, they escorted him home rather than arresting him.
Former Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) - McKinney assaulted a Capitol Hill police officer in April after refusing to go through a metal detector. While McKinney was never forced to answer in a court of law for her behavior, she lost her bid for re-election in 2006.
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) is a second-term senator from Louisiana. Her ethics issues stem from inserting an earmark into an appropriations bill to benefit a large campaign donor. Earmark for Voyager Learning- The Voyager Expanded Learning literacy program had no proven track record when Congress appropriated $2 million in the fall of 2001 to be spent on the program, aimed at District of Columbia kindergartners and first graders.
Rep. Daniel Lipinski (D-IL) is a second-term member of Congress representing Illinois' 3rd congressional district. Rep. Lipinski's ethics issues stem from the outside employment of a top Washington D.C. congressional aide.
Jerome R. Hurckes - In January 2005, after serving as district director for former Rep. William Lipinski, Jerome "Jerry" Hurckes became chief of staff in the district office of Rep. Dan Lipinski, who replaced his father. Since 1999, Mr. Hurckes has served as an elected member of the Village of Oak Lawn Board of Trustees. In that capacity he ran a state campaign account called Friends of Jerry Hurckes. Both former Rep. William Lipinski's state PAC and the Dan Lipinski for Congress Committee have donated to Friends of Jerry Hurckes. Rep. Dan Lipinski serves on the House Transportation Committee, and companies with business in front of the committee, have donated to Mr. Hurckes' campaign committee.
Rep. Alan B. Mollohan (D-WV) is a 13th-term member of Congress, representing the first district of West Virginia. His ethics issues stem from misusing his position to benefit himself, his family and his friends and misreporting a dramatic increase in his personal assets. Over the past 10 plus years, Rep. Mollohan has earmarked $369 million in federal grants to his district for 254 separate programs. Between 1997 and 2006, $250 million of that total was directed to five nonprofit organizations that were created by Rep. Mollohan, staffed by his friends, and received the largest earmarks from Rep. Mollohan. During the same period, top-paid employees, board members and contractors of these organizations gave at least $397,122 to Rep. Mollohan's campaign and political action committees.
Rep. Laura Richardson (D-CA) is a first-term member of Congress, representing California's 37th congressional district. Rep. Richardson's ethics issues stem from accepting favorable loans and her failure to properly report a loan on her financial disclosure statements. In May 2008, it was reported that Rep. Richardson's Sacramento home had been sold into foreclosure. She claimed that this had happened without her knowledge and contrary to an agreement with her lender. Rep. Richardson had failed to make mortgage payments on the property for nearly a year and had defaulted on other home loans as well. Rep. Richardson also failed to include the mortgage on her Sacramento home on her personal financial disclosure statements. According to press reports, Rep. Richardson has defaulted on loans at least eight times on properties she owns in Long Beach, San Pedro and Sacramento. She also failed to pay approximately $9,000 in property taxes on the Sacramento residence.
Democrat Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, son of Democrat Congressman Carolyn Cheeks-Kilpatrick, in jail for perjury and obstruction of justice, and forced from office. Suspected involvement in the killings of two Detroit strippers.
ALL DEMOCRATS.........
Labels: Democrats
¶ 12:35 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Conservatives on Twitter
Here's a link to conservatives on twitter, a very interesting find. While twitter seems overrated, it does have some interesting organizing potential.
Labels: organizing, technology
¶ 12:53 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Monday, February 2, 2009
checklist for serious "activists"
I see the term bandied about so much, and yet, truly, what is an "effective activist"
Have you:
Been arrested?
Been threatened directly by a police officer?
Gotten another person arrested?
Made jokes about what's illegal?
Broken a law willingly within 30 days?
Broken a felony level law within 90 days?
Deleted a few things from a checklist like this because you worried people weren't ready for the truth?
Gotten caught telling seriously bad taste jokes?
Lost friends from the other side?
Broken off a relationship because of ideology?
Never vote for mainstream parties, even for local office?
Wish you had a robodialer?
Ok, maybe the last one is a bit silly, but still.
Have you:
Been arrested?
Been threatened directly by a police officer?
Gotten another person arrested?
Made jokes about what's illegal?
Broken a law willingly within 30 days?
Broken a felony level law within 90 days?
Deleted a few things from a checklist like this because you worried people weren't ready for the truth?
Gotten caught telling seriously bad taste jokes?
Lost friends from the other side?
Broken off a relationship because of ideology?
Never vote for mainstream parties, even for local office?
Wish you had a robodialer?
Ok, maybe the last one is a bit silly, but still.
Labels: activism, definitions
¶ 1:31 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
History of Abortion: 19th century pro-lifers
Dr. Horatio Storer was the founder of American gynecology and was a tireless pro-life advocate. His book, "Why Not?", and whose biography is here. Patrick tipped me off to this, and pointed out that as a Bay Stater, he ought to be eventually memorialized somehow.
Labels: abortion, history, statues
¶ 1:16 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Mass Citizens for Life video work: Dan Rea
I recently put up and posted Dan Rea at the 2009 Assembly for Life for Massachusetts Citizens for Life and the entire event here
Labels: massachusetts, pro-life, pro-life movement
¶ 11:47 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Data, Lists and Elections
A good article in Business Week discusses Obama's use of data in his campaign. What I like about the article is that it reminds the reader that politics is rarely about the stump speech or the ideas as much as it is a battle of competing technology and resources. It's not quite a game, but it's not the contest where the best man wins or the best ideas prevail.
Labels: election, politics, technology
¶ 11:35 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
Monday, January 26, 2009
Delaying children because of the economy
Considering that so much of the economy is perception, and the media has hit a constant drumbeat of pessimism, one feels lucky that there are any children running around at all. But this bad story about declining birthrates, coupled with Nancy Pelosi's idiocy that birth control promotes economic growth shows that people forget the economy isn't driven by robots or equipment, but by people: their innovation, ideas, hard work, labor, time, capital and training. The economy is a word that reflects the collective work of millions of people, and when we abort people away, when we contracept future generations and children, we artificially constrict our economy and our progress. Society thrives on children, on workers, on artists and engineers: on the 'unwanted' kid who works hard and raises a nice family and works his hands to the bone to make a good life for himself. Why have we forgotten that it is great to be alive, and great to be with people? Our resources are infinite if we continue to unleash the potential God gave man through reason, time and the many resources abundant all over.
Labels: abortion, children, contraception, Democrats, Economics, policy
¶ 8:21 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Article: The Education Hoax
Does the price of higher education justify itself when considered against its value? Probably not, says this recent Forbes article.
Labels: campuses, college, Economics, education
¶ 9:48 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Thank you, Bernie Madoff!
Not only have you helped lay off employees at the world's largest abortionist: Planned Parenthood, but you even managed to hurt the communists at the ACLU.
Labels: leftists
¶ 9:32 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
An email exchange that well represented my views on the current conservative movement
Obviously this is in reverse order.
I edited out the profanity. Also, I tried to make sure within some of the emails which comments were whose.
I don't know why I'm posting this, I guess I'm just fed up with the petition strategy of political action.
honesty is that it looks like another do-nothing list vendor sucking down names using vague meaningless platitudes and wasting my time by amateurs who do zero field work, zero political work and are essentially just a fundraising operation.
read between the lines on their crap, notice how they don't actually TALK ABOUT DOING ANY SPECIFIC THING? AS THOUGH I'M SUPPOSED TO LOOK TO THEM AS THE CAVALRY BECAUSE THEY TELL ME OBAMA'S BAD? HOW MANY GENERALS FOUGHT BATTLES BY SAYING THE ENEMY WAS BAD AND THAT WAS THEIR DAMN PLAN?
- Hide quoted text -
On Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 10:47 AM, wrote:
Honesty?
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
From: Ben Wetmore
Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 10:46:37 -0500
To: Jonathon Burns
Subject: Re: two things
well, if you want honesty I could tell you that, but rather I'll just say that I'm glad groups are out there taking action.
On Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 10:19 AM, Jonathon Burns wrote:
what did you think about grassfire?
On Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 9:00 AM, Ben Wetmore wrote:
On Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 9:50 AM, wrote:
But how do I come up with original news stories? Where do I get leads?
--leads are weak? you're weak.
Are you saying I should re-frame stories from other sources and put spin on them to get my view across?
--no, you can do that, but the best will be to write your own stories. shit comes out of the woodwork, you just need to start collecting all the info. in one place. dream up a dozen stories to start with and see where they take you.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
From: Ben Wetmore
Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 09:47:40 -0500
To: Jonathon Burns
Subject: Re: two things
On Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 9:40 AM, Jonathon Burns wrote:
True, but how in the world do I have the resources for this? What your describing is easier on a College campus, which is like a small little medieval village, rather than a metro area. And there's no way I'm going to get anyone to write stuff like that for free.
then your blog is consigned to the ashheap of crappy blogs and you might as well not do it.
--it's not that hard to write stories dummy, quit complaining
2. analysis may be a little weak, but people do listen to pundits, and local punditry is relatively obscure in St. Louis. I'm hoping to make a headway with conservative, working class families who may be new to blogs. I think there are a lot of them out there.
--you have no reason anyone should give two craps about your opinions
3. We need practice. This isn't the be all and end all of blogging, and this is an experiment for us. Baby steps. Gotta crawl before you can walk, run.
these guys have never done anything like this before.
--if you actually do even this, it will become the maximum these guys do not the minimum. you need to ask more of them than to simply give their random opinions from time to time
On Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 8:31 AM, Ben Wetmore wrote:
I dont know about the technologies for blogging, blogger should work fine
collaborative blogs are the future, but general analysis and what you think about things is frankly relatively unimportant
it would be better to make your own news, write your own stories and try to get others to cover it. produce your own independent content.
On Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 7:59 AM, Jonathon Burns wrote:
one, check out this site: http://www.grassfire.org/111/about.htm
I think we're witnessing the start of a new political party.
two, I'm starting a blog with 3 friends here in STL and I wanted to pick your brain and also ask you for submissions.
I was thinking about starting the blog using Blogger, and then upgrading as they prove their dedication to the project. If I were to upgrade, what blogging service would you recommend? Typepad? others? Suggestions?
The purpose of the blog will be to commentate on state and local issues (political), but also sports, music, history, economics, etc. But we're also starting a new movement which I just named last night - I call it the Anti-Union, Anti-Socialism Movement. Thoughts?
We're gonna call it "4 Guys' Blog"
The reasoning is that we're 4 average guys and we're weighing in. It's sort of a populist appeal, and the name - I think - is somewhat catchy...sorta like Joe the Plumber. ¶ 7:52 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
I edited out the profanity. Also, I tried to make sure within some of the emails which comments were whose.
I don't know why I'm posting this, I guess I'm just fed up with the petition strategy of political action.
honesty is that it looks like another do-nothing list vendor sucking down names using vague meaningless platitudes and wasting my time by amateurs who do zero field work, zero political work and are essentially just a fundraising operation.
read between the lines on their crap, notice how they don't actually TALK ABOUT DOING ANY SPECIFIC THING? AS THOUGH I'M SUPPOSED TO LOOK TO THEM AS THE CAVALRY BECAUSE THEY TELL ME OBAMA'S BAD? HOW MANY GENERALS FOUGHT BATTLES BY SAYING THE ENEMY WAS BAD AND THAT WAS THEIR DAMN PLAN?
- Hide quoted text -
On Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 10:47 AM,
Honesty?
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
From: Ben Wetmore
Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 10:46:37 -0500
To: Jonathon Burns
Subject: Re: two things
well, if you want honesty I could tell you that, but rather I'll just say that I'm glad groups are out there taking action.
On Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 10:19 AM, Jonathon Burns
what did you think about grassfire?
On Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 9:00 AM, Ben Wetmore
On Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 9:50 AM,
But how do I come up with original news stories? Where do I get leads?
--leads are weak? you're weak.
Are you saying I should re-frame stories from other sources and put spin on them to get my view across?
--no, you can do that, but the best will be to write your own stories. shit comes out of the woodwork, you just need to start collecting all the info. in one place. dream up a dozen stories to start with and see where they take you.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
From: Ben Wetmore
Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 09:47:40 -0500
To: Jonathon Burns
Subject: Re: two things
On Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 9:40 AM, Jonathon Burns
True, but how in the world do I have the resources for this? What your describing is easier on a College campus, which is like a small little medieval village, rather than a metro area. And there's no way I'm going to get anyone to write stuff like that for free.
then your blog is consigned to the ashheap of crappy blogs and you might as well not do it.
--it's not that hard to write stories dummy, quit complaining
2. analysis may be a little weak, but people do listen to pundits, and local punditry is relatively obscure in St. Louis. I'm hoping to make a headway with conservative, working class families who may be new to blogs. I think there are a lot of them out there.
--you have no reason anyone should give two craps about your opinions
3. We need practice. This isn't the be all and end all of blogging, and this is an experiment for us. Baby steps. Gotta crawl before you can walk, run.
these guys have never done anything like this before.
--if you actually do even this, it will become the maximum these guys do not the minimum. you need to ask more of them than to simply give their random opinions from time to time
On Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 8:31 AM, Ben Wetmore
I dont know about the technologies for blogging, blogger should work fine
collaborative blogs are the future, but general analysis and what you think about things is frankly relatively unimportant
it would be better to make your own news, write your own stories and try to get others to cover it. produce your own independent content.
On Wed, Jan 21, 2009 at 7:59 AM, Jonathon Burns
one, check out this site: http://www.grassfire.org/111/about.htm
I think we're witnessing the start of a new political party.
two, I'm starting a blog with 3 friends here in STL and I wanted to pick your brain and also ask you for submissions.
I was thinking about starting the blog using Blogger, and then upgrading as they prove their dedication to the project. If I were to upgrade, what blogging service would you recommend? Typepad? others? Suggestions?
The purpose of the blog will be to commentate on state and local issues (political), but also sports, music, history, economics, etc. But we're also starting a new movement which I just named last night - I call it the Anti-Union, Anti-Socialism Movement. Thoughts?
We're gonna call it "4 Guys' Blog"
The reasoning is that we're 4 average guys and we're weighing in. It's sort of a populist appeal, and the name - I think - is somewhat catchy...sorta like Joe the Plumber. ¶ 7:52 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Malcolm Gladwell and modern bureaucrats
Malcolm Gladwell wrote "The Tipping Point" and "Blink" and now "Outliers" which my friend Jon has recently recommended to me. I've read the tipping point and found it, although not earth-shattering or perhaps deserving of its too-popular reputation, useful in at least putting clear terms and names on things you already knew: such as social connectors and information mavens within any social group. Jon referred me to this article by Andrew Orlowski in the Guardian, though, which is brutally honest in its assessment of Gladwell, and really brings a smile to my face for how thorough Orlowski deconstructs and dissembles Gladwell. It's the sort of public criticism one expects, the role that journalism ought to play, but never receives. This very critical review was spot on, well needed, and surprisingly absent from any American periodicals. Which should tell us quite a bit about American group-think when it comes to issues of culture and society. The mainstream media is barfing back the preferences it is conditioned to accept.
Labels: media, media bias
¶ 12:37 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
Friday, January 2, 2009
Movie Review: Scattered notes and thoughts on the movie "Australia"
Scattered notes and thoughts on the movie "Australia"
Friday, January 2, 2009 at 8:35am | Edit Note | Delete
Thoughts on Australia
(I was going to take this and make a coherent review out of it, but the movie sucked so much it really isn't worth it, and I thought it might be mildly amusing to paste my notes on here in some postmodern way so that you can try and decipher my little thought-nuggets to myself.)
Previews:
Marley and me
Bride wars
Last chance Harvey
All of which I found odd choices to preview an action movie
-Movie starts with b.s. racial politics that becomes distracting
-Glorifies a racial murder of a white, giving momentary sympathy for his racial murder, only 90 minutes later to explain that it was a white killing a white
-Plays a tired motif of white murders blamed on minorities really done by whites for simple financial gain
-the aboriginal half-breed is a very ugly kid who speaks like Jar Jar Binks
-anti-white racialism throughout
-there’s a relatively pointless domestic violence relationship between the evil white man with an aboriginal woman, the depth of this relationship is quite laughable.
-anti-Christianism: half breed not treated the same way by local religious individuals, even though historically the opposite is true
-white legalism causes the drowning death of mother, as she is hiding from the local sheriff, it’s a passing sleight, but notable in that the white man’s ways of enforcing the laws without mercy causes her to drown. Again, the depth of the portrayal in the movie actually makes me want to root for the bureaucrat.
-glamorizing a witch doctor
-false Gaia mysticism and earth-worship
-white typing – all four bad guys are white
-false mysticism and spirituality
-racial aging critique: posits whites as much older, and the colored races as always much younger. There are no serious roles for aged coloreds or infirm coloreds – the only portrayals allowed are of youthful minorities and old whites.
-they needed an actor and actress much younger than Kidman and Jackman to truly pull off the roles their characters suggested. Kidman should have been in her early 20’s and Jackman should probably have even been younger.
-white paternalism and obligation – either colonialism is bad or it isn’t – whites are told through cinema that their influence ruins local people, and yet whenever local people are on the down and out, whites are somehow obligated to act. It’s one or the other people! Aid can’t come without control.
-denial of triumphalism: nothing good ever came from a white man’s hands. There’s no greatness in his military success, in the unquestioned beauty of his art, in the amazing feats of civilization he has wrought nor in the frontier which he has conquered. Rather, all that we can praise is that which is weak, mediocre and ugly.
-where does white hatred come from?
-accessing power
-group think
-critical theory
-action scenes are way too short and stunted
-movie says that blacks wouldn’t get treated by hospitals – wtf, not sure if that’s true
-corporate fearmongering – how often in real life is the real villain a corporation? About 99/100 in my life it’s either been a government or a bureaucrat, never a company with whom I could give my business to someone else. (*notable exception: my declared global jihad against the Verizon Corporation)
-confusion of gender roles
-gender roles don’t equal gender rights – when Nicole Kidman wants to enter a dirty saloon, it becomes some stupid tale of gender discrimination that there are appropriately male and female areas. Saying that a lady belongs elsewhere than in a bar is a function of roles and not rights, and adhering to proper roles is not the denial of rights. Every restrictive action is not a denial of a right. To think otherwise would be to say that man has all rights to all things at all times. I certainly don’t expect a right to your wallet and your keeping said wallet is denying my rights. When you go to the bathroom, it is a societal rule and role that one to a stall, and denying some pervert access to your stall does not deny him his God-given right to be in your bathroom stall, it’s respecting the roles within society.
-faux social reform
-unnecessary and needless cruelty
-Japanese demonization – extremely shallow villains who really aren’t shown much on screen anyway
-equating the value and virtue of barbarism to civilization
-repeated closeups of the ugly kid – obviously trying to glamorize and make a star out of a hideously ugly child
-stolen generations – is this the point of the damn movie?
-missed opportunity to take advantage of more of the Australian landscape, for better cinematography – could have truly been grand
-rough dialogue
-“too long” is the wrong assessment, just an ineffective use of time and squandered opportunities – I don’t really know more about Australia having seen this movie.
-not nearly enough jap war scenes
-macro level events given short shrift and really no context
-power leads either to the aggrandizement of self or altruism, usually the former
-evil character wasn’t actually in a position of power, he was the downtrodden blue collar worker. A weird social stature for the movies, and one that might be a bit out of place. Resentment is a correct posture for such a person, but is really vengeful rage the right place? I think other movies would have preferred to give the character more depth or audience empathy. Some reasonable explanation as to why he felt this way, that it didn’t just materialize out of white man rage.
-white colonialism is wrongly depicted – it is and always was a liberal movement – to help and save those that colonialists wrongly believed were less fortunate that they weren’t born white.
D-
62/100
*/****
Comments from Facebook:
Updated about 6 months ago · Comment · Like
Geoff Woliner at 9:45am January 2
Excellent analysis, Dr. Wetmore. I took the exact same themes away from ''Meatballs 2''.
Ben Wetmore at 1:13pm January 2
well, you mean other than the acknowledgment that Richard Mulligan deserved an oscar for Meatballs2, right?
Geoff Woliner at 1:53pm January 2
Exactly. Plus, ''Australia'' could have benefitted immensely from the depth of an Italian street rat in a dress in a prizefight to save the camp.
Jennifer Wellnitz at 2:17pm January 2
I happened to enjoy the movie...I think it makes a difference on what your passionate about in life. It is a movie about passion...not history.
Ben Wetmore at 1:59pm January 3
Jennifer - I don't take that away from the movie, and even if is legit, then all the other crap they threw in there really makes it distracting to get to. Now, yes, I am a bit 'high octane' in my movie preferences, but so it goes.
KatieRynn Hickman at 6:08pm January 3
i thought the little "creamy" boy was adooooorable!
Ben Wetmore at 6:13pm January 3
http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2007/05/26/walters27507_wideweb__470x352,0.jpg
looks like an alien
KatieRynn Hickman at 10:38pm January 3
nuh-uh... he made me wanna run off to Australia and adopt one but then i realized i'd raise him "white" and he wouldn't get to go on walkabout.
even though i thought he was adorable (and hugh jackman was insanely attractive) i didn't like the movie.
Ben Wetmore at 11:34pm January 3
why didn't you like it?
nicole kidman is insanely attractive as well, even pushing 40, 50 or whatever.
Steve Cassarino at 8:40am January 20
Late to comment. Wetmore, you're right about the kid. I think the medical term for his condition is butt fugly.
Friday, January 2, 2009 at 8:35am | Edit Note | Delete
Thoughts on Australia
(I was going to take this and make a coherent review out of it, but the movie sucked so much it really isn't worth it, and I thought it might be mildly amusing to paste my notes on here in some postmodern way so that you can try and decipher my little thought-nuggets to myself.)
Previews:
Marley and me
Bride wars
Last chance Harvey
All of which I found odd choices to preview an action movie
-Movie starts with b.s. racial politics that becomes distracting
-Glorifies a racial murder of a white, giving momentary sympathy for his racial murder, only 90 minutes later to explain that it was a white killing a white
-Plays a tired motif of white murders blamed on minorities really done by whites for simple financial gain
-the aboriginal half-breed is a very ugly kid who speaks like Jar Jar Binks
-anti-white racialism throughout
-there’s a relatively pointless domestic violence relationship between the evil white man with an aboriginal woman, the depth of this relationship is quite laughable.
-anti-Christianism: half breed not treated the same way by local religious individuals, even though historically the opposite is true
-white legalism causes the drowning death of mother, as she is hiding from the local sheriff, it’s a passing sleight, but notable in that the white man’s ways of enforcing the laws without mercy causes her to drown. Again, the depth of the portrayal in the movie actually makes me want to root for the bureaucrat.
-glamorizing a witch doctor
-false Gaia mysticism and earth-worship
-white typing – all four bad guys are white
-false mysticism and spirituality
-racial aging critique: posits whites as much older, and the colored races as always much younger. There are no serious roles for aged coloreds or infirm coloreds – the only portrayals allowed are of youthful minorities and old whites.
-they needed an actor and actress much younger than Kidman and Jackman to truly pull off the roles their characters suggested. Kidman should have been in her early 20’s and Jackman should probably have even been younger.
-white paternalism and obligation – either colonialism is bad or it isn’t – whites are told through cinema that their influence ruins local people, and yet whenever local people are on the down and out, whites are somehow obligated to act. It’s one or the other people! Aid can’t come without control.
-denial of triumphalism: nothing good ever came from a white man’s hands. There’s no greatness in his military success, in the unquestioned beauty of his art, in the amazing feats of civilization he has wrought nor in the frontier which he has conquered. Rather, all that we can praise is that which is weak, mediocre and ugly.
-where does white hatred come from?
-accessing power
-group think
-critical theory
-action scenes are way too short and stunted
-movie says that blacks wouldn’t get treated by hospitals – wtf, not sure if that’s true
-corporate fearmongering – how often in real life is the real villain a corporation? About 99/100 in my life it’s either been a government or a bureaucrat, never a company with whom I could give my business to someone else. (*notable exception: my declared global jihad against the Verizon Corporation)
-confusion of gender roles
-gender roles don’t equal gender rights – when Nicole Kidman wants to enter a dirty saloon, it becomes some stupid tale of gender discrimination that there are appropriately male and female areas. Saying that a lady belongs elsewhere than in a bar is a function of roles and not rights, and adhering to proper roles is not the denial of rights. Every restrictive action is not a denial of a right. To think otherwise would be to say that man has all rights to all things at all times. I certainly don’t expect a right to your wallet and your keeping said wallet is denying my rights. When you go to the bathroom, it is a societal rule and role that one to a stall, and denying some pervert access to your stall does not deny him his God-given right to be in your bathroom stall, it’s respecting the roles within society.
-faux social reform
-unnecessary and needless cruelty
-Japanese demonization – extremely shallow villains who really aren’t shown much on screen anyway
-equating the value and virtue of barbarism to civilization
-repeated closeups of the ugly kid – obviously trying to glamorize and make a star out of a hideously ugly child
-stolen generations – is this the point of the damn movie?
-missed opportunity to take advantage of more of the Australian landscape, for better cinematography – could have truly been grand
-rough dialogue
-“too long” is the wrong assessment, just an ineffective use of time and squandered opportunities – I don’t really know more about Australia having seen this movie.
-not nearly enough jap war scenes
-macro level events given short shrift and really no context
-power leads either to the aggrandizement of self or altruism, usually the former
-evil character wasn’t actually in a position of power, he was the downtrodden blue collar worker. A weird social stature for the movies, and one that might be a bit out of place. Resentment is a correct posture for such a person, but is really vengeful rage the right place? I think other movies would have preferred to give the character more depth or audience empathy. Some reasonable explanation as to why he felt this way, that it didn’t just materialize out of white man rage.
-white colonialism is wrongly depicted – it is and always was a liberal movement – to help and save those that colonialists wrongly believed were less fortunate that they weren’t born white.
D-
62/100
*/****
Comments from Facebook:
Updated about 6 months ago · Comment · Like
Geoff Woliner at 9:45am January 2
Excellent analysis, Dr. Wetmore. I took the exact same themes away from ''Meatballs 2''.
Ben Wetmore at 1:13pm January 2
well, you mean other than the acknowledgment that Richard Mulligan deserved an oscar for Meatballs2, right?
Geoff Woliner at 1:53pm January 2
Exactly. Plus, ''Australia'' could have benefitted immensely from the depth of an Italian street rat in a dress in a prizefight to save the camp.
Jennifer Wellnitz at 2:17pm January 2
I happened to enjoy the movie...I think it makes a difference on what your passionate about in life. It is a movie about passion...not history.
Ben Wetmore at 1:59pm January 3
Jennifer - I don't take that away from the movie, and even if is legit, then all the other crap they threw in there really makes it distracting to get to. Now, yes, I am a bit 'high octane' in my movie preferences, but so it goes.
KatieRynn Hickman at 6:08pm January 3
i thought the little "creamy" boy was adooooorable!
Ben Wetmore at 6:13pm January 3
http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2007/05/26/walters27507_wideweb__470x352,0.jpg
looks like an alien
KatieRynn Hickman at 10:38pm January 3
nuh-uh... he made me wanna run off to Australia and adopt one but then i realized i'd raise him "white" and he wouldn't get to go on walkabout.
even though i thought he was adorable (and hugh jackman was insanely attractive) i didn't like the movie.
Ben Wetmore at 11:34pm January 3
why didn't you like it?
nicole kidman is insanely attractive as well, even pushing 40, 50 or whatever.
Steve Cassarino at 8:40am January 20
Late to comment. Wetmore, you're right about the kid. I think the medical term for his condition is butt fugly.
Labels: movie review
¶ 8:58 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Democrats, post-election and "bi-partisanship"
The Democrats are so brilliant at making small little digestible projects for their activists. Now that they've essentially routed the Republicans, what's their latest charge? Well, going after consultants who work with Republicans, of course. This is a brilliant move to help cripple any future opposition, but it's shortsighted in the sense that once the ruling class determines the leftist activists are not critical to their power-base, they'll get taken advantage of regularly. But, this is a moment for "change" and not for "reason" and therefore these groups will neuter their perceived opponents before the revolution, like all revolutions, eventually turns in on itself.
¶ 9:49 PM 0 Comments
Links to this post
Sunday, December 21, 2008
A Communist I need to read: Antonio Gramsci
link to his writings
His wikipedia link
His wikipedia link
Labels: theory
¶ 5:44 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Friday, December 19, 2008
Why raising the gas tax could be a good thing
Wired puts out this article which seems silly at first. But they make an interesting comment a little bit into the article -- that it would then be wise to make a corresponding cut in payroll taxes. Now, at first this seems like quite the silly proposition-- just a displacement of current tax. But the gas tax is paid by everyone -- the unemployed, the poor, and the over 50% of Americans who pay no tax. So in reality this is the most regressive of all tax systems, and honestly, the most fair. If we're going to embark on a brave new world of construction projects, the least we can do is to free up other parts of the economy so that we don't have the economic efficiency of the Soviet Union. Displacing "progressive" taxation onto more "regressive" taxation making it flatter, simpler and more 'equitable' is honestly a great way to do that.
The only downside of course is that we all know once they raise the gas tax they won't really cut the payroll taxes. But it's a nice thought in the abstract.
The only downside of course is that we all know once they raise the gas tax they won't really cut the payroll taxes. But it's a nice thought in the abstract.
Labels: Economics, media, taxes
¶ 2:35 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Ideas Have Consequences
A young man commits suicide after reading Richard Dawkins' "God Delusion" book. Very sad. The world is a barren place without the Lord.
¶ 2:40 AM 0 Comments
Links to this post
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
An example of Republican timidity
The California FA-18 crash that killed a family should be met with questions as to why FA-18's and defense spending hasn't updated these planes so that they aren't safety hazards. Democrats only love cutting defense spending, and that's put our nation's airforce flying outdated planes, putting the risk of failures like the one in California. That's how the Democrats would play it out, and surely no Republican will fight politics as though they're inclined to win.
Labels: ideas, military, politics, Republicans
¶ 12:37 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
Monday, December 8, 2008
That which is not art
Brushing into people is now art? Moving trees and treehouses? Why is it so difficult to assert any sort of objective standard so that every interpretive moment doesn't become "art" in some ridiculously abstract sense.
Labels: art, beauty, society, truth
¶ 11:40 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Quick thought on a possible local referendum/local action
Sioux Falls, South Dakota has a very wise and interesting education reform mechanism as it allows students throughout the town to attend any government school within the town. This promotes competition between the schools and encourages each school to develop some niche and specialty. I don't know it's effectiveness measured statistically or how one could implement it elsewhere, but it's food for thought.
Labels: education, ideas, policy
¶ 2:28 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Monday, November 24, 2008
Watch what's been lost: Classic Church songs on classic Church bells
At Church this past Sunday I was subjected to unfair criticisms of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, hero of Chile. But on a positive note, they actually played some decent music, one song of which was an English translation of an older song called "Mainz Gesangbuch" from 1870. Searching through google, I ran across this version of the song on bells and thought it was neat. It reminded me of how nice it is to be in one of the few remaining Churches which uses the bells.
Labels: Catholicism, Church, music
¶ 2:17 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Homilies: Parable of the Talents
Last week I was attending Mass in Lansing, Michigan at the very underwhelming house of God, St. Jude's. The gospel reading was from Matthew 25:14-30, about the parable of the talents.
This parable always has odd interpretations that I hear. I can see and understand only one, and yet I have never heard a religious explain it to me in such a way. The way the priest last week described it, it was about the need to engage one another and to care for one another.
But I think that explanation is hopelessly imprecise. It's not just about caring for one another, or about thinking the right thoughts-- this parable is actually about action. The entire point is not conserving what we have, not being too attached to what we have: risk what we have to help one another, serve our master by taking a chance and trying to increase what we have been given. We are given a talent and we call it life, we are given a million talents and we call it time... yet at the end of days will we simply say that we have conserved what we had? That we buried it and are now giving it back?
A couple are two people, do they have more than two kids? A man spends his time in Church, has he donated more than what he has received? Even the homeless man benefits from society, will he repay his debt and can he, in whatever way possible, find a way to benefit his fellow man in a greater way?
Now, this line of thinking obviously lends itself into a heresy which puts dollar figures next to everything. Dollars are just a measurement. There's no way to measure the joy of a child, or the beauty of a truly great piece of art. They are both contributions, they are both joy, but we should be striving to justify ourselves, to work more than simply to work on our own faith, to act more than simply reordering the gifts we have been blessed with.
One last thing I've never heard a religious mention, is that Christ himself remarks about how silly it is that the third talent didn't at least invest his talent to get a return on his investment. And let us not then forget that both Judaism and early Christianity had prohibitions on usury/interest, so Christ is essentially saying it is worse that he is inactive than had he sinned through charging people interest. It's so obvious that the third talent is wasteful and lazy. The question then, how often are we like the third talent, how often are we not using the gifts we have been given to mete out something greater than the sum of its parts?
I know that I am often the third talent, and often completely unworthy of the gifts I have been given. Mine is a constant battle to better use these talents, to better use my talents, to glorify God and help others.
This parable always has odd interpretations that I hear. I can see and understand only one, and yet I have never heard a religious explain it to me in such a way. The way the priest last week described it, it was about the need to engage one another and to care for one another.
But I think that explanation is hopelessly imprecise. It's not just about caring for one another, or about thinking the right thoughts-- this parable is actually about action. The entire point is not conserving what we have, not being too attached to what we have: risk what we have to help one another, serve our master by taking a chance and trying to increase what we have been given. We are given a talent and we call it life, we are given a million talents and we call it time... yet at the end of days will we simply say that we have conserved what we had? That we buried it and are now giving it back?
A couple are two people, do they have more than two kids? A man spends his time in Church, has he donated more than what he has received? Even the homeless man benefits from society, will he repay his debt and can he, in whatever way possible, find a way to benefit his fellow man in a greater way?
Now, this line of thinking obviously lends itself into a heresy which puts dollar figures next to everything. Dollars are just a measurement. There's no way to measure the joy of a child, or the beauty of a truly great piece of art. They are both contributions, they are both joy, but we should be striving to justify ourselves, to work more than simply to work on our own faith, to act more than simply reordering the gifts we have been blessed with.
One last thing I've never heard a religious mention, is that Christ himself remarks about how silly it is that the third talent didn't at least invest his talent to get a return on his investment. And let us not then forget that both Judaism and early Christianity had prohibitions on usury/interest, so Christ is essentially saying it is worse that he is inactive than had he sinned through charging people interest. It's so obvious that the third talent is wasteful and lazy. The question then, how often are we like the third talent, how often are we not using the gifts we have been given to mete out something greater than the sum of its parts?
I know that I am often the third talent, and often completely unworthy of the gifts I have been given. Mine is a constant battle to better use these talents, to better use my talents, to glorify God and help others.
Labels: Catholicism, family, homily, religion
¶ 12:15 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Lincoln and the Constitution: what first amendment?
Doing some research on the so-called "Fairness Doctrine" I was less than surprised to hear Dr. DiLorenzo outline what I had heard before but never in such great detail: the outrageous abuse of power exercised by Abraham Lincoln to prosecute the War Against Southern Independence.
Labels: Constitution, history, media, war
¶ 7:39 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Sobran: fear of the smear
By reading an article at my favorite online magazine: TakiMag, I ran across Sobran's article, "Fear of the Smear" -- rarely when I read articles do the words resonate as loudly as they did in this article.
Labels: foreign policy, Israel, policy, politics, racism
¶ 5:20 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Society's Dysfunctional Code of Relationships
Two articles from Dan Flynn were quite poignant: this one on "Love in the Time of Darwinism" which was the somewhat more apt critique of the dating system compared to the previous article, "Child-Man in the Promised Land" which apparently generated many complaints from single white guys.
Labels: feminism, relationships, society, women
¶ 2:38 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Some thoughts on local policy change for Massachusetts
1- lay off 10% of government employees
2- end the stupid bottle deposit
3- end the police details on every road construction project
4- end mandatory health insurance
5- end two party consent for wiretapping
6- encourage homeschooling and private education
2- end the stupid bottle deposit
3- end the police details on every road construction project
4- end mandatory health insurance
5- end two party consent for wiretapping
6- encourage homeschooling and private education
Labels: massachusetts, policy
¶ 9:38 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
The bailout blame game
Harry Reid just called off the Senate vote on an automotive bailout, and let's not forget that the Democrats control the Congress. When I was in Detroit, I heard the local NPR take callers who tried, even still, to blame Republicans for the lack of a car bailout. Yet, no one notices the obvious: that when the unions and the manufacturing industry blithely gives its votes, repeatedly, to Democrats that they get taken advantage of -- as seen by the Democrats' internal power struggle displacing Cong. Dingell in favor of Henry Waxman. The Democrats are carving up the auto industry, fat on the votes of unions who don't know better, and busy serving their real masters: the environmentalists.
Labels: Congress, Democrats, Detroit, Economics, policy
¶ 8:18 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
What beauty is and what it isn't: Dyan Cannon
Watching some netflix movies, I ran across this actress: Dyan Cannon. I cannot believe for the life of me that a woman this unattractive could become an actress.
Now, the temptation is to treat all women as inherently beautiful in their own right, but certainly we can be mature enough to admit certain aesthetic truths. Her entire face is structured oddly, her eyes are even unattractive. Later in life, she becomes even more unattractive. I suppose this all makes me quite a hater among women reading this. Thankfully there are probably no women reading this.
Now, the temptation is to treat all women as inherently beautiful in their own right, but certainly we can be mature enough to admit certain aesthetic truths. Her entire face is structured oddly, her eyes are even unattractive. Later in life, she becomes even more unattractive. I suppose this all makes me quite a hater among women reading this. Thankfully there are probably no women reading this.
Labels: beauty, cinema, film, truth
¶ 8:01 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Sappy: 112 year old Boy Scout reinstated
Thanks to Fark, I ran across this story about a 112 year old veteran who left the Boy Scouts due to a lack of funds. A happy story.
Labels: sappy
¶ 6:46 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
