Category Archives: Pop-Culture

UPDATED: JFK’s America (Not Yet A Police State)

America, Democrats, English, History, Homeland Security, Pop-Culture

On Friday, November 22, it will be 50 years since President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. CNN has used the upcoming commemoration to avoid covering Obamacare, filling every spare moment of the last week or so with documentary footage of the 1963 events. (The Jonestown massacre’s 30th anniversary was also put to the same use by the nitwork.)

The footage shows an America that is so much more united in mannerisms, grief; better spoken, more refined, reserved, and appropriately attired. It is an endearing and innocent America that is revealed in these records. What was so bad about that bourgeoisie society? Not much when compared to today’s America.

JFK and his stunning wife were rather conservative individuals. Jacky was certainly very proper. She also despised Martin Luther King and Linden Johnson.

Jacqueline Kennedy, as revealed from audio recordings of her historic 1964 conversations with historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr., held a low opinion of Martin Luther King. America’s most engaging first lady called Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “terrible,” “tricky” and “a phony.”

“His associations with communists” is why Jacky’s husband ordered the wiretaps on King. Mrs. Kennedy’s brother-in-law, Robert Kennedy—recounts Patrick J. Buchanan in “Suicide of a Superpower”—”saw to it that the FBI carried out the order.”

Stark too is the contrast between this erudite, educated, exquisite Renaissance woman and Michelle Obama, our current, generally disgruntled First Lady.

UPDATE: (11/18): Not Yet A Police State. In light of the police state that the USA has become, it is quite illuminating to see a different America reflected in CNN’s documentary about the JFK assassination. Reporters form scrums around the individuals they follow. Streets are not cordoned off in deference to power. Like the press, “commoners” have access to the politicians who serve them. And so it should be.

Uplifting Cultural News, For A Change

Celebrity, Free Markets, Pop-Culture

I don’t know if the booboisie get “The Big Bang Theory,” but they are rewarding the sitcom’s top stars handsomely.

The series’ stars Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki and Kaley Cuoco are asking for as much as $1 million per episode.

Jim Parsons, the actor who breathes life into the character of the iconic Sheldon Cooper, deserves a cool $1 million.

The season premiere of “The Big Bang Theory” is Sept. 26, 2013.

Taki On Twittering Twits and Twats*

Intelligence, Internet, Pop-Culture, Technology, The Zeitgeist

This is too good not to post: “… The Ancient Greek philosopher Taki calls people that Tweet and spend their time on Facebook the closest thing to subhumans. Cicero, John Gray, Taki—three great thinkers known for their silences and (I can only speak for the latter) not owning a mobile phone.”

[SNIP]

[To comport with Taki’s claim to greatness, and with respect, I would have edited that last sentence to read: “… known for their silences and (I can only speak for the latter) FOR not owning a mobile phone.”]

Hey, Taki, this writer beat you to it, writing in “The Dumb Generation’s Hand-Held Devotional” that “Myself, I have no interest in hand-held devices. I use my well-appointed PC for work. Away from the PC—during a jog, for instance—I think. Ideas flood my mind during physical exertion and solitude. On the rare occasions that we both go away on vacation, we do not take our work along.”

Yes, I confessed to not owning a mobile phone. I do not plan on acquiring one. My blog posts propagate to Twitter automatically. Facebook is used for the same purpose: post the work, interject on the Timeline when it’s educational, and leave.

But even more interesting, in my opinion, is an item also shared in “The Dumb Generation’s Hand-Held Devotional”:

“I live with an individual who is intimately involved in the design of some wonderful gadgets. Yet he himself hardly uses them in the little spare time he steals for himself. They frustrate him; they don’t seem to satisfy his creativity or sate his intellect. His greatest pleasure is found in composing and playing complex thematic pieces of music in his home studio. To do so he follows eternal, timeless rules of composition. Low-tech, if you like.”

*Twats: I don’t expect the twittering twits to know the word. Suffice it to say that it is a good, honest crudity, perfect for the occasion.

The Germ (Chris Christie) Worries About The Strain (Libertarianism)

libertarianism, Morality, Pop-Culture, Republicans, Terrorism

If you’re as old as I, you’ll remember Michael Crichton’s “Andromeda Strain,” a popular thriller novel which was adapted to the screen. Forever in my mind will Gov. Chris Christie be associated with The Strain.

Christie The Germ is denouncing a “strain of libertarianism that’s going through both parties,” and “is a very dangerous thought.” Thomas Mullen explains the inexplicable:

TAMPA, July 27, 2013. Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., introduced an amendment to the Defense Appropriations Bill that would have defunded the NSA’s blanket collection of metadata and limited the government’s collection of records to those “relevant to a national security investigation.”
It terrified New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who lashed out at those who supported the bill and libertarianism in general.
“As a former prosecutor who was appointed by President George W. Bush on Sept. 10, 2001, I just want us to be really cautious, because this strain of libertarianism that’s going through both parties right now and making big headlines, I think, is a very dangerous thought,” Christie said.
Yes, it is dangerous, but to what? It is dangerous to the bloated national security state, which tramples the liberty and dignity of every American under the pretense of protecting them from what Charles Kenny recently called the “vastly exaggerated” threat of terrorism.

Yes, Gov. Christie is in the news again, and not for cavorting with Barack Obama, but for speaking out against politicians who appear to be libertarian.

“Chris Christie’s problem is not his weight, but his character. New Jersey’s popular Republican governor is the consummate backstabbing, slimy, opportunistic politician, who, for good measure, also preaches and practices the dirigiste economics of an Obama (and a ‘W’)”.

Christie’s outburst is par for the course; it’s part and parcel of the frequent displays of professional discourtesy among the crass opportunists in our politics.

Look at it as a turf war, defined as “a dispute between criminals or gangs over the right to operate within a particular area.”