A man in the arena

This is a great example of why our culture is worthless. Click on the image to see how it has been touched up/propaganized.

Of course this is also an example of good people fighting our worthless culture. And that is a comforting thought.

Update: Damn. It looks like some foreigners did this. So our culture still sucks and even the Euros know it.

A little Christmas blogging...

Michael Dirda has a well written review of a new Rousseau biography in the Washington Post. And once again, I am reminded of the inadequacy of my education. Rousseau is one of the few famous philosophers whose work I have not attempted to penetrate. I am not convinced that this is a real failing.

Rousseau's starting premise is that we are naturally good creatures and that society corrupts us and develops our vices. "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains." He goes on to explicate this idea in ways that many people have found stimulating. Of course, this is a paradox because the premise is absurd.

What would convince anyone that people in their original state are good and virtuous? Even in his day and age this was an absurd idea. Any perusal of history would refute the idea that man has a natural state that is good. Anyone raising a child knows that they are not corrupting the child's nature but civilizing a barbarian.

To begin any serious thinking about the human condition on a false premise is a dangerous action. The conclusions reached are by necessity detached from the everyday reality of existence. In this case Rousseau helped give us the French Revolution and Marxism. The history of his influence is anything but positive.

Dare I say it? Always. Always we go back to Burke.

Although his style grates on me, I have always had a deep respect for Bill O'Reilly. No one else went after celebrities and the Red Cross for not using money donated after 9-11 for 9-11 victims. His actions were generous and honorable.

His debate with Phil Donahue was perfect. Donahue goes personal about O'Reilly's kids, and O'Reilly slams him.

Regardless of your opinion of the war, Donahue does not support the troops. He will not shed tears if my buddies die in the desert. And it is disingenuous for him to pose as a man who loves the American Soldier.

My weekend was extraordinary. Friday was spent with the lovely Nemesis family along with NinjaKitty and Zinga. Saturday night was spent at an old friend's Christmas party on Capitol Hill. It was a night full of great conversations with brilliant people.

I found myself discussing gay marriage with a lesbian. A very articulate and smart women, the conversation was not easy. I pride myself on honesty. I was not going to lie about my opinion that gay marriage is not socially good. And she was very respectful; it was another great conversation.

The problem is faced with the human reality, I am no longer as sure about my previous position. As stated before, gay marriage is a change in a 5,000 year old custom that will have unforeseen consequences and should not be forced on society through judicial decisions. However, this argument feels rather weak when confronted by a woman who wants to know why her love is not socially acceptable. How do you tell a human being that their relationship is unacceptable? That their love is wrong?

Some would argue that this is proof that God is a man. Others may speculate along with Woody Allen that we do not know if there is a God, but we know there are women.

Women are wonderful.

Time has chosen as Man of the Year the tribunal of Bill Gates, Bono, and Melinda Gates. Ostensibly, they were selected for their charitable work.

OK. What ever happened to the person who had the most impact on the world not made liberal charities more successful? I do not want to denigrate the sincere work of these three people. However, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is remaking his country's entire political structure and may actually bring peace to the Levant. That is impact. Hugo Chavez remained in power and is assiduously working to remake South American politics. A South Korean scientist has developed cloning methods. That is impact. And Yasser Arafat died. Creating the possibility of sane leadership in the West Bank. That is impact.

Picking philanthropists for man of the year: that is a cop out.

Just for your edification, my dear reader: anti-torture laws do not protect Americans. You see, if we will not send a hundred volts through a man's testicles, that does not mean that the enemy will not. Ask POWs from Korea, Vietnam, or the first Gulf War. We always get tortured.

Support an anti-torture Bill for moral reasons. Please do not believe it helps me and my brothers and sisters in the military.

When even Reason nails you for bias, you know you have problems.

Personally, I love NPR. It is full of Liberals, and Liberal chicks are easy.

President Bush is trying to kill off the black man. It is so obvious. Why else would want to rebuild a city, mostly populated by blacks, that is below sea-level? Because he knows their will be another flood and it will kill off thousands of blacks.

What a racist bastard.

No one has answered the question below?

I have Stat Counter. I know you have been here.

A man in the arena expects that every blogger will do their duty.

The trailer for Match Point looks interesting. However, it jumps to the category of must see when you find out it is a Woody Allen movie. The best relationship movie ever may have been Annie Hall, and if he is trying a drama again, the movie deserves to be seen. I'll post a review when I see it.

Assume you are the leader of Israel. Your country has fought a half dozen wars in the 60 years of it's existence. Now the leader of a country, Iran, is calling for you to be "wiped off the map" and claims the Holocaust was a myth. The country's spiritual leader, and real power, seems to agree with the political leader. The country is also developing nuclear weapons. What do you do?

There are two important caveats. One, the leader may be blustering for domestic consumption. And two, mutual assured destruction (MAD) is off the table because your country is small enough that a first strike could destroy your ability to counter-attack.

What do you do?

Chile is in the midst of an election where the two candidates, the socialist candidate and center-right candidate, agree that the free-market is a good thing that should not be wrecked. This is a country that elected a Castro-wannabe 30 years ago. General Pinochet overthrew the government and established an autocratic free-market regime. Inherently unstable this government collapsed in the 1980s. If you look at Cuba and at Chile which country would you rather live in: the one with a terrible revolution and socialist poverty or the one with a terrible revolution and an ever increasing standard of living and freedom?

An old and dear friend of mine is training to do free-running. Check it out. He is the craziest Sicilian I have ever known.

As a man who loves the movie trailer, allow me to suggest that you watch the trailer for Superman Returns.

If that trailer does not make you want to see the movie, then you are a Communist and I hate you.

For some reason unbeknownst to me, I have lost the ability to choose the time mark on my blog entries. So you will have to trust me when I tell you that I am blogging at 4am with my dear friend Johnny Walker, even though I have to spend tomorrow with the D.C. Air National Guard. The sacrifice of my coherency tomorrow is for you my dear reader.

I have not blogged about films in a fair amount of time. Fear not good readers, I still watch them as faithfully as I drink Irish whiskey.

I saw Aeon Flux last weekend. A wonderful movie with beautiful visuals and a passable plot. If you were a fan of Aeon Flux the cartoon, I would, on principle, suggest that you skip the movie. As in the first three Star Wars movies, learning the metaphysic basis of imagery that you enjoy is always and everywhere a let down. The movie itself is exciting, the plot twists interesting, and the heroin beautiful.

That same day I had the pleasure of seeing Walk the Line. This is a brilliant movie, that I would urge all thinking people, again on principle, to see. The movie does many things well. It shows the genesis of Johnny Cash's songs, the tough life he was born into, and most importantly his love of June Carter and how that love changed his life. Reese Witherspoon does an amazing job as the lover and disapprover of Cash. And Joaquin Phoenix deadpans his way through great lines and subtly defines the depth of Cash. The best cameo goes to the actor playing Waylon Jennings. And my favorite moment, is a scene that shows us the decency and the strength of the Carter family. They are the people who you want by your side when the night comes.

Some of you may recall the public offensive against Bill Bennet for stating that the abortion of all black babies would be a good way to bring down the crime. A little bit odd, for a pro-lifer to say don't you think? Of course he did not say that. In the course of a debate about abortion, Bennett was trying to prove his contention that a results-based argument against or for abortion is morally unacceptable.

"If you wanted to reduce crime, you could -- if that were your sole purpose -- you could abort every black baby in this country and your crime rate would go down. That would be an impossibly ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down,"

I realize that this is old news and probably forgotten by all. I encourage you to read Dennis Prager's column on the subject if only for one reason. Prager's list of anti-Bennett comments is outstanding in it's range of contributors. The Bennett-as-racist idea made it all the way to the shores of the Indian sub-continent.

Of course, there is no Liberal media.

I started college as a theatre lighting design major in New York, and ended college studying economics in Arizona. Big mistake.

The former Senator Eugene McCarthy has passed. He is most famous for being the anti-Vietnam candidate in the Democratic primaries of 1968. He is less famous for being a liberal dead set against campaign finance reform.

...McCarthy said money helped him in the 1968 race. "We had a few big contributors," he said. "And that's true of any liberal movement. In the American Revolution, they didn't get matching funds from George III."

I had no idea about this remarkable fact:
In 1980 he endorsed Republican Ronald Reagan with the argument that anyone was better than incumbent Jimmy Carter, a Democrat.

Eugene McCarthy was a liberal, a poet, and a statesman. R.I.P.

Yes, this is a re-post. Unfortunately it is perfect. Soloman does her best to paint William F. Buckely as an emotionless evil conservative. His reponse was to not take her seriously.

Must you be so clever at all times?

I haven't practiced the alternative.

Why are conservative writers generally wittier than liberal writers?

I'm not sure that's true. Karl Marx was a gas, they say.

On December 23rd is there any doubt that I will be in a movie theatre watching Memoirs of a Geisha? If you have doubts about this you have obviously missed my predilection for Asian women.

Hopefully the director, an American, will approach the film as the director of House of Flying Daggers approached his film. That movie was visually beautiful with lush colors and extraordinary landscapes. The director was willing to shift nature in a surreal way (i.e. snow falling during a sword fight in the summer) to emphasize the tragedy and tear apart the viewer's heart. The trailer for Geisha has the same feel.

CNN thinks that these two headlines are equivalent in value and therefore puts them side by side on the CNN website.

• Matt Damon marries amid reports of bride's pregnancy

What the hell.

This is an old clip, that proves the adage that Chris Rock is the William F-ing Buckley of stand up comedy.

Ok, this headline is factually correct:

Killed man's luggage exploded on tarmac

It implies that the luggage explode on it's own. Not that the feds blew it up. Damn sensationalists at CNN!

Note: The headline will have changed by the time you hit the link. You will just have to trust me.

Kevin Drum makes a good point that GM is probably going to support nationalized health care in order to lessen their business costs. He is right. Of course, he is happy about it. Having worked for the government for the last five years, I am less excited about people like me making health care decisions for people like you.

The idea that corporations would want government to run health care seems obvious. Corporations do not love the free-market, they love winning. And if they can use the government to win, they will do it. Public Choice Theory is all about this. Look at our tax code for crying out loud. Tens of thousands of pages paid for by lobbyists to give their clients tax breaks.

The free-market is not good for big business and conversely, big business working with the government is not good for the free-market.

I have never known what to make of Hugh Hefner. The instigator of the sexual revolution is more than a party animal. He had a deep philosophic argument against the Western sexual tradition. And his war against this tradition has had some obviously negative side effects.

However there are two points in his favor. First, he was part of a movement that allowed women to live their own lives. It is strange that a pornographer would accomplish this. However, by giving women an imperfect yet perceived right to casual sex, in a way, he gave them power. And the second point is that everybody loves naked women. Even women love naked women. What can you do?

I didn't know Colonel David Hunt blogged. He does and he is mad. I like him: tough no-nonsense Boston guy. Check him out.

How do we take these guys seriously?

"The idea that the United States is going to win the war in Iraq is just plain wrong,"
- Howard Dean

Via Gateway Pundit, we learn that there have been massive demonstrations for democracy in Hong Kong. Bully for the Chinese! It is quite possible that by absorbing the educated and democratic people of Hong Kong, China has brought in a Trojan horse that will undermine the authoritarian regime.

I wish the Chinese nothing but good luck in their struggle. I also shiver a little whenever I hear about unrest in China. A very nationalistic people with a deep sense of being wronged by the world can be a very dangerous thing. China could go many different ways. Unfortunately, many of them lead to war and oppression.

There is an excellent essay by Michael Gurian in the Washington Post about the failure of boys in school. He makes a good argument for the idea that our education system is badly designed for boys. And his major reference point for this is that once women were given equal education rights as men, they promptly surpassed men in academic achievement. The article is well worth reading.

Gurian doesn't describe a one-dimensional problem, and give us his one-dimensional utopian solution. He is looking at one specific and major problem with boys, and is trying to solve it. He acknowledges the context in which the problem exists.

Lack of fathering and male role models take a heavy toll on boys, as does lack of attachment to many family members (whether grandparents, extended families, moms or dads).

This line hits the nail on the head. Boys do not grow up and become men, they become barbarians. To raise a man, the boy needs to be guided by a role model. Many of our social problems develop from the failure to raise men. But, why are we failing? There are a lot of very good theories: Single Mothers, Deadbeat Dads, broken educational system, etc. Allow me to give you my theory: responsibility is dead.

A boy can knock up a girl, and it is almost socially acceptable for him to let her raise the child on her own. We admirably have taught boys to regard girls as equals, and we have forgotten to teach boys that there is still a difference between the sexes. And that the girls deserve to be treated with respect, treated as women. We let go of the idea of the man as the breadwinner. That women have the right to get an education and a job is a great thing. But we have allowed it to undermine the growth of boys. The responsibility inherent in being the breadwinner forced seriousness on a young man. You want the girl? Then go to school, get a job, and be ready to support her and the children. That antediluvian thought process is gone from our world.

In short: I don't know what the solution is. Women deserve every chance to live the way they wish, as corporate titans or as homemakers. However, this has created generations of men without chests. We have to find a new way to teach the barbarians in the old ways of being a man.

I am talking with Minus and Nemesis about creating a hyper-blog together. The idea is to have the three of us blogging in the normal manner, but we would also write bigger thought pieces on politics and culture This will include movie and book reviews and hopefully contributions from Leftie friends.

This is my idea. Partially I think that the media market is already shifting to web-based magazines. More importantly, I am still mad. I am a Conservative not a Republican and the party is over. I am still mad that Lefties and Righties don't talk to each other, they yell at each other. Although it may seem grandiose, the intent is to have an impact. Some new consensus must be made; the Conservative imagination has to be rekindled. And we are just the right lunatics for the job.

I will let you all know when the site goes up.

My holiday weekends don't involve wrapping paper, Christmas trees, or akward conversation with bizarre relatives. My holiday weekends are spent with good friends and great scotch.

I spent the weekend at Nemesis's home drinking and talking. I was hanging with the Nemesis Family and friends, Minus, Zinga, and NinjaKittyz. Outstanding people. The only negative was that I once again met a friend's girlfriend and had to realize that all my friends date awesome women. I'm a good looking guy, why am I still single? What the hell.

Great to see you back in the U.S. Zinga. And NinjaKittyz I appreciate the publishing advice. Minus the scotch was greatly appreciated and I am drinking it as I write in the exact manner that you demand: neat and enjoying every sip. Thanks, man.

A coworker walks up to me and says "There is an investigator outside who wants to talk to you. I guess two of your friends are in some kind of trouble." I said "Bullshit, I 'm working here." He then named two friends of mine who I know I have not mentioned in front of him. I grabbed a pen and notepad and walked out to the lobby almost shaking. "To hell with this. This guys asks me anything beyond 'How's the weather' I'll tell him to screw and I won't talk to him unless there is a lawyer present. What the hell could those two have done? This must be a mistake. Or a setup. Fuck it. I'm not talking."

I walk into the lobby turn a corner and who do I see but Zinga and NinjaKittyz. I was so pale at that point that they burst out laughing. My co-worker was a SGM in Iraq with them. They didn't realize we all knew each other until they met at lunch and concocted this evil scheme. It was quite funny.

Welcome back to the U.S.A., Zinga. I am looking forward to the return of the blog and many a happy hour.

I just read an exchange on the Daily Kos that was perfect. The original post by Armando detailed how Bush left out the dissillusionment of a hero who died in Iraq when he praised him on television. This is based on a New York Times quote from one of the hero's letters. The New York Times article has already been debunked by the hero's family. I guess the hundreds of comments agreeing with the post were made by people who don't read opinions they don't agree with.

The best exchange comes when one person challenges the author (below). The response: nothing but insults. Welcome to the modern Left.

And? (none / 0)

After three tours, who wouldn't be battle-weary? Are you are implying that Starr was disillusioned about the war because he wasn't planning a FOURTH tour? From what I read, it sounds like he felt his sacrifice was worth it.

Did he volunteer for all his tours?

by kimbo29 on Wed Nov 30, 2005 at 10:13:14 PM PDT
[ Parent ]

And? (none / 0) Do you have a point? your comment is a nonsequitor. The SCOTUS is Extraordinary. by Armando on Wed Nov 30, 2005 at 10:15:08 PM PDT [ Parent ] And? (none / 1) Not a point, just a question. To refresh your memory ,the question was: Are you are implying that Starr was disillusioned about the war because he wasn't planning a FOURTH tour? I'm trying to figure out if you have a point, or if you just like to throw insults around. by kimbo29 on Wed Nov 30, 2005 at 10:22:52 PM PDT [ Parent ] No. I was not. (none / 0) I already figured out you are a troll. Zero for you. The SCOTUS is Extraordinary. by Armando on Wed Nov 30, 2005 at 10:37:57 PM PDT [ Parent ] Well then, my mistake. (none / 1) So, um, what point were you trying to make? Or am I just supposed you read your obviously superior mind? And for what its worth, I already figured you for a p**. by kimbo29 on Wed Nov 30, 2005 at 10:42:42 PM PDT [ Parent ] If you can read (none / 0) and comprehend maybe you'll figure it out. Since you sre a troll and a Republican, you won't. Zero for you. The SCOTUS is Extraordinary. by Armando on Wed Nov 30, 2005 at 10:55:03 PM PDT