Well, here’s something I don’t think I want to watch.
Category Archives: Popular Culture
The Other Royal Wedding
Iowahawk has coverage of the one that no one else was paying attention to. The nuptial vows will bring a tear to your eye, if you’re an anglophile.
I Am Extremely Deviant
That is, I am so deviant, that I share virtually none of these deviancies:
Straight men enjoy a wider variety of erotica than imagined, including sites devoted to elderly women and transsexuals. Foot fetishes aren’t a deviance; men are evolutionarily wired to look for small feet, which are a sign of high estrogen production, which itself is a sign of fertility. Gay men and straight men have nearly identical brains, and their favorite body parts, in order of preference, line up exactly: chests, buttocks, feet. Straight men prefer heavy women to thin ones. Straight women enjoy reading about and watching romances between two men — it’s not about the sex, which is downplayed, but the emotion, which is the focus. (The largest audience for “Brokeback Mountain,” says the book, was straight women.) Straight men have a fascination with other men’s penises, which may be conscious or unconscious.
For the record, I am a very straight man, who has zero interest in elderly women, transs3xuals, feet, chests, and a negative degree of interest in other mens’ junk. I don’t even like to see it in porn, particularly in a woman’s mouth. Few things make me go for the fast forward faster than fell@tio. But apparently, I’m weird in that regard, judging by its prevalence. I would also note that I’ve never done a single one of the top ten searches sited in the article.
Just in case my readers had been wondering.
The Politics Of Star Trek
Thoughts from Ilya Somin:
Instead, it is the Federation that turns out to be a sort of kinder, gentler Soviet Union. Both are multicultural, federal, socialist states with an official ideology of egalitarianism. But the Federation lacks the Gulags, secret police, and mass murder (or at least we never see them on-screen!). Meanwhile, the Romulans represent several of the negative qualities that many leftists associate with the present-day West: elitism, arrogance, and intolerance for other cultures. The same can be said of many other Star Trek villains, such as the Ferengi, who represent the supposed evils of capitalism. At some level, of course, Star Trek is a projection of Western values. After all, egalitarian socialism is a Western ideology. However, Trek is far more hostile to the present-day West than Nussbaum and some other left of center critics recognize.
Some say Roddenberry was a dreamer. But (sadly) he’s not the only one. Imagine.
Just A Right-Wing Fantasy
No, of course Atlas Shrugged has nothing to do with life in modern America:
Ah, that must be the Anti Dog-Eat-Dog Law, or one of the Fairness Laws, or something, right? The WSJ isn’t sure what law the NLRB is talking about, either. Not only do businesses routinely relocate to find the most advantageous environment possible, states and cities compete for that business by calculating their business climate. If this has escaped the notice of the NLRB, perhaps they should get out more.
This will be an important court case, assuming it’s fought. Then again, it’s hard to feel too bad for Boeing — as Mickey says, live by crony capitalism, die by crony capitalism. Sadly, we’ve also seen this sort of corporatism/fascism wasting our space dollars as well, in addition to inhibiting innovation.
The Death Tax
…and how it wrecked the Dodgers.
To The Consternation Of The Suits In Hollywood
Atlas Shrugged seems to be doing pretty well:
business has been brisk enough for producers Harmon Kaslow and John Aglialoro to expand from 299 theaters to 425 this weekend and to 1,000 by the end of the month. They don’t have enough film prints to fill all the orders.
“Things have turned for us,” Kaslow said. “When we started, exhibitors were not embracing the film like we thought they would. Now, we can pretty much go into as many theaters as we want. It’s just a matter of logistics.”
Unexpectedly!
Though he’s still cautious, this would bode well for Parts 2 and 3.
Go Make It A Hit
Amy Holmes interviews some folks at the Washington Atlas Shrugged premiere. I hadn’t realized that the actor who plays Rearden is British. We may go see it in Rolling Hills this weekend.
[Update a while later]
What if audiences shrug? An interview with the producer.
[Update late afternoon]
More interviews from Amy Holmes:
(Hot conservative women alert)
[Update Saturday morning]
Francis Porretto has some ruminations on the book, faith, charity and epistomology.
Yuri’s Night In LA
Griffith Observatory 7:30 – 9:00 PM
Tuesday, April 12th, 2011
Admission is free
Join us for a very special opportunity to join over 200 events around the world celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of humanity’s first step into the cosmos. Hear Griffith Observatory’s Astronomical Observer, Anthony Cook, describe Yuri Gagarin’s historic 108 minute orbit around the planet and how it still affects us today. Look forward to the future as Virgin Galactic CEO, George Whitesides, describes how space travel might change in the coming 50 years. Meet Yuri’s Night co-founders Loretta Hidalgo-Whitesides and George Whitesides, share your own “where were you?” stories, and take part in this historic, global celebration of people in space.
Wood and Vine 9:00pm – 11:30pm
6280 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA
[Via Robin Snelson]
The Supreme Dumbness
…of wearing a baseball cap backwards. It’s still not quite as stupid as pants with the belt below your butt, though. Each of these fashion atrocities reduces my estimation of the IQ of the offender by twenty points or so.