Category Archives: The Zeitgeist

‘Flesh-Eating, Zombie Apocalypse’

Ethics, Etiquette, Media, Morality, Pop-Culture, Psychology & Pop-Psychology, The West, The Zeitgeist

The plethora of piss-poor, potty mouthed writers, who’ve attempted unsuccessfully to satirize contemporary cannibalism in the West, attest to what Thomas Fleming diagnoses as,

…partly the fault of a very sick popular culture that dotes on the perverse movies of George Romero, Anne Rice’s novelistic gushings over vampires, and the teen-exploitation books, movies, and TV shows in which ghouls, werewolves, and vampires are basically not bad creatures who just need a little understanding. We are teaching ourselves not just to celebrate evil but to elevate it. Good people trying to muddle through in a difficult world are boring: Evil is way cool.

Of course, I would not use the word “exploitation” to describe the maladies afflicting the Millennials, who’ve been allowed by errant adults to turn feral.

Millennials are a generation of youngsters that reveres only itself for no good reason. They have been unleashed on America by progressive families and educators (Democrat and Republican alike) who’ve deified their off-putting offspring and charges, and instilled in them a sense of self-worth disproportionate to their actual worth.

One can disagree with Dr. Fleming on this or the other point or perspective. But his erudite, highly intelligent and cultured perspective in “Eating People is Wrong”—whereby he eviscerates the smarmy “Amateur philosophers and pop culture critics,” who rushed “to ascend their cracker barrels and deliver their explanations for the hysteria”—strikes the right tone, avoiding stupid spoofs on the one hand, or platonic theorizing on the other.

UPDATED: A Toilet Flushed; Kim Kardashian Flashed a Smile

Barack Obama, Celebrity, Hollywood, Journalism, Media, The Zeitgeist

In a spoof on the president’s hot-mic malfunctions, BHO engages in weak banter with an aide in the next room. A toilet flushes, and it becomes clear that Barack Obama was supposed to have been relieving himself during the “witty” repartee, which was overheard by the rapt crowd attending the 2012 annual White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.

A repulsive sequence, befitting a revolting crowd: Jimmy Kimmel was seated with the First Couple; porn star Kardashian crowed in the crowd. The press itself is minimizing the cringe factor. After all, practically every anchor person on the networks began his broadcast by brandishing a personalized gold-embossed invitation. “See what a top dog I am?”

During the sickening specter, some of the most pretentious, worthless people in the country—in politics, journalism and entertainment—get together to revel in their ability to petition and curry favor with one another, usually to the detriment of the rest of us. The annual pimping of the office is nothing new. This low culture has been cultivated by successive administrations

Those gathered at the annual White House correspondents’ dinner are not the country’s natural aristocracy. Rather, this is a bunch of people who make their living pretending to be something they are not. Poseurs and parasites all.

Granted, actors do not coerce the citizenry to patronize their (mostly) lousy flicks. However, when they use their celebrity to push unconstitutional, naturally unlawful policies—then they are acting as enemies of the people. (Every time I turn around a “celebrity” is preaching and propagandizing for the leftist cause du jour.)

Like nothing else, the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner is a mark of corrupt politics. The un-watchful dogs of the media have no business frolicking with the president and his minions. This is co-optation. And when did the phonies of Hollywood become a fixture in this event?

The toxic “tradition” began in 1920, and, as far as I know, is sponsored by THE WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS’ ASSOCIATION, which was formed in 1914 as a liaison between the press and the president.”

The event and the invited tell a great deal about the Association, its ethics and code of conduct.

UPDATE: Some of Kimmel’s jokes were really good. He was not as offensive as Wanda Sykes, who, in 2009, began her routine with some good material and then descended into vulgarity and sheer spite.

Latest Act in American Vaudeville

America, Intelligence, Media, Pop-Culture, Psychology & Pop-Psychology, The Zeitgeist

American life has a vaudeville quality to it. You learn to shut it out, as you would white noise.

A perennial element of the national freak show is the obscene football scene. Another, it would appear, is the “Mega Millions” lottery. This is major news in mainstream. The queues for tickets are snaking around the country’s neighborhoods.

The odds of a “Mega Millions” jackpot win are 1 in 176 million.

What does it say of those who are placing bets on these odds?

House Husbands

Affirmative Action, Economy, Feminism, Gender, Human Accomplishment, Labor, Pop-Culture, The Zeitgeist

Feminists once aimed to unseat men, now they are actively engaged in queering them:

“Seven of the 18 women who are currently CEOs of Fortune 500 companies—including Xerox’s (XRX) Ursula Burns, PepsiCo’s (PEP) Indra Nooyi, and WellPoint’s (WLP) Angela Braly—have, or at some point have had, a stay-at-home husband. So do scores of female CEOs of smaller companies and women in other senior executive jobs. Others, like IBM’s (IBM) new CEO, Ginni Rometty, have spouses who dialed back their careers to become their powerful wives’ chief domestic officers.

This role reversal is occurring more and more as women edge past men at work. Women now fill a majority of jobs in the U.S., including 51.4 percent of managerial and professional positions, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Some 23 percent of wives now out-earn their husbands, according to a 2010 study by the Pew Research Center. And this earnings trend is more dramatic among younger people. Women 30 and under make more money, on average, than their male counterparts in all but three of the largest cities in the U.S.”

Buried within the Bloomberg Business Week edifying report above is that the “recession” is, more than anything, a man recession:

“During the recent recession, three men lost their jobs for every woman. Many unemployed fathers, casualties of layoffs in manufacturing and finance, have ended up caring for their children full-time while their wives are the primary wage earners. The number of men in the U.S. who regularly care for children under age five increased to 32 percent in 2010 from 19 percent in 1988, according to Census figures. Among those fathers with preschool-age children, one in five served as the main caregiver.”

[SNIP]
Alas, women still complain when a poor bloke—who has put in more years and hours and happens to be more talented—earns a bit more. I dispelled distaff America’s claims of disadvantage long ago: “If women with the same skills as men were getting only 78 cents for every dollar a man earns, men would have long-since priced themselves out of the market.”