Fun With Statues!

This is a cool example of performance art.

Camille Paglia

She's awesome.  Love her.  Here she is, talking a mile a minute. 

The Art of Ozu

An Autumn Afternoon (1962) 

Ozu is amazing.  He was doing films about nothing before Seinfeld was born.  Okay, it's not about nothing, it's about a daughter getting married and leaving her father.  But it's a low-key comedy, quiet, unobtrusive, humble, pitch perfect. 

What's amazing about Ozu is he takes these real life conflicts, these small moments that occur in just about everybody's life, and he makes them interesting.  What helps Ozu too I think are his actors, who, like Hitchcock's, underplay everything, they hide their emotion.  It's also fascinating to see characters avoiding conflict, by refusing to answer a question, they'll grunt or something. 

So much is going on underneath in an Ozu movie.  He's got no car chases, no deaths, no violence, no sex.  Should be boring and it's just brilliant.  This is his last film, in my opinion his greatest, but you can't go too wrong with any Ozu, really. 

And damn this film is beautiful.  It’s so gorgeous.     

What Is Heaven Like?

I don't know, but I like this.

I like blue, so maybe that's it.  I like islands. 

I also like clarity.  I'm a huge fan of Hugo Black.  One think he did was fight for clarity in the law.  He would read the law and follow the law, as written.  Sandra Day O'Connor, on the other hand, is perhaps my least favorite jurist.  I felt like she was always making the law murky and unknowable.  The Undue Burden law.  Don't break the undue burden law!  
 
Look at that water.  That is clear water.  You can't hide in that water!  What you see is what you get.  I love the purity of this image, the cleanliness of it.  I love the dark blue sky, the white sand and the aqua cool ocean.  I like the bridge man has built.  I like that we have a path to nature.  Beautiful. 

Plastic Surgery Nightmare #1

Sexually speaking, we are a liberal society.  Our people have a lot of liberties and freedoms.  Some people argue we should have even more liberties and freedoms.  For instance, that we should legalize prostitution. 

I like living in a sexually open society.  But there's a dark, ugly side to human sexuality, too.  And that's a side that liberal society often represses and hides. 

For instance, here is a recent photograph of Joan Rivers, who has had some work done. 

I can't imagine she's happy with a permanent Joker smile. 

Why do we do this to ourselves?  Why do we pay a surgeon to intentionally scar our bodies?

She wants to look young.  She is desperate to look young, to defy death, to give the appearance of eternal youth. 

Why youth?  Because young women reproduce and have babies, and old women do not.

Sex is not a contract or a roller coaster ride or a fun tingle in your body parts.  Sex is primal.  It is how we reproduce as a species.  Sex creates babies, all the time.  We are glib and stupid about this.

Here is a baby who was aborted.  I am sure the photographer used a zoom lens.  So maybe this image is not upsetting in real life.  Maybe it's not a homicide.  But I look at that tiny arm, ripped off by a surgeon, and I have to say I am appalled.  

I like our sexually liberated society.  I like the freedom in it.  But to have this freedom, we censor and hide all the bad stuff.  You probably won't see "plastic surgery disasters" in the New York Times, nor will you see photographs of aborted babies.  We hide these images.  

I think our society is actually quite weird on the subject of sex.  I think forcing miscarriages is weird, and intentionally scarring your body is weird.  I think it's a perversion of medical skills, and an abandonment of medical ethics.  These doctors are violating their Hippocratic Oath.  

But we really can't blame the doctors.  We pursue sex with a single-minded intensity.  I know I do!  And doing so makes us crazy, and it makes us do crazy things.  And while we should expect crazy to go hand-in-hand with liberty (nonconformists by definition refuse to conform), I also think we should hold up a mirror to the crazy, and show our people what we are doing.  And our media has failed us miserably in this regard. 

Abortion and Women's Health

One of the important briefs in Roe v. Wade was filed by the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology.  In it, the ACOG argues, "The medical procedure of induced abortion is potentially 23.3 times as safe as the process of going through ordinary childbirth."

This is a rather shocking statement to make.  The political organization that represents all the obstetricians in our country is arguing in federal court that an abortion--a forced miscarriage--is safer for a woman than a childbirth.  And not just safer, but 23.3 times safer.

This is counter-intuitive, to put it mildly.  Pregnancy and birth is a natural, healthy event that billions and billions of women have undergone since the dawn of humanity.  Yes, there are certain dangers in a pregnancy.  But, one might add, there are even more dangers to a woman in a miscarriage.  Indeed, much of the dangers in a pregnancy revolve around a miscarriage.  A miscarriage signals that something is wrong with the pregnancy.  And when something is wrong with the pregnancy, there is a danger to the mother.

And yet in 1973 the ACOG is flipping this understanding on its head.  In its Roe v. Wade brief, the ACOG is arguing that an abortion--a forced miscarriage on a healthy pregnant woman--is safer and healthier than a pregnancy itself.  The political body that represents obstetricians in our country is telling the Supreme Court that pregnancy is a danger to women, and a miscarriage is the cure. 

Who Are the Abortion Radicals?

A few days ago one of the commentators at Althouse wrote something striking about abortion. 

I have pondered the "abortion question" for forty years and I still haven't come to a conclusion - it is that close an argument - other than to believe I shall not express an opinion on the subject.

A person or politician who holds a moderate view on either side is worthy of further consideration. An extremist of either ilk I simply dismiss.

This is a fascinating attitude, and I believe it describes a great number of Americans.  Abortion is a divisive fight over two radically different ideas.  One side sees the unborn as a baby, a human being who has a right to life.  The other side denies the humanity of the unborn.  There is no baby.  It is sub-human property.  

Since the commentator does not want to be a radical--and both sides hold radically different ideas--he is unable to form an opinion or speak on the issue.  So he is silent, and upset by the fight.

Underwater Dog #5

Spy, Spy, Spy

The "Boyfriend Tracker" is an app for smart phones that allow people to spy on their mates.

To install Boyfriend Tracker, suspicious partners have to get their hands on their loved one's smartphones and upload the app. A free version leaves the app's icon visible on the target's phone, while a version that costs $2 a month masks the icon. 

"We are going to have to kill a lot of whites"

That's from a website, War on the Horizon, that you can see here.  The website is run by an Irritated Genie, who may or may not be Ayo Kimathi, an employee of the Department of Homeland Security. 

The Southern Poverty Law Center has an unnamed source for the story, a former supervisor of Kimathi at DHS who discovered his website in June.

A former supervisor of Kimathi’s at the DHS told Hatewatch, “Everybody in the office is afraid of him.”

“This guy is filled with hate,” the supervisor continued. “People are afraid he will come in with a gun someday and go postal. I am astounded he’s employed by the federal government, let alone Homeland Security.”

Gay Politics Seeks to Outlaw Science

Chris Christie has just made it illegal for therapists to treat the sexuality of gay teenagers.  The sponsor of the bill says this speech is "insidious child abuse." 

Bad speaker, bad!

How weird is it to insist that you know all about the sexuality of people you've never met?  How bizarre is it to mandate, by force of law, that gay people must remain gay? 

What if you don't want to be gay?  Is that possible?  What if you were molested as a child and you desperately need therapy to straighten out your sexuality?  I can think of any number of scenarios where people need sex therapy, and would like the heterosexual option.  But that option--that speech--has been criminalized as evil and wrong. 

House of the Rising Sun

Nobody seems to know who wrote the song.  Pete Seeger sang it.  Andy Griffith sang it(!)  Joan Baez put it on her first album, and Bob Dylan sang it on his first album, too.   

And of course the most amazing version is from an English band, the Animals.  A song about a whorehouse, in 1964, here you go.

Glass Ceiling Cracker

Hillary Clinton's twitter account describes her as a "glass ceiling cracker."  Yes, you are a honky, shut up!  

You crazy ass cracker!

She means to talk about "glass ceilings" and how she will crack them.  What jumps to my mind is how oblivious she is to the word "cracker."  She's unaware of any racial taunts or insults, because she lives in a rich, lily-white world where such upsets never happen.

Can you imagine a billionaire so obsessed with being the #1 billionaire in the world?  It's like Oprah whining about that glass ceiling over her head.         

As Camille Paglia has written, modern day feminism is "too narrow and elitist."  Hillary Clinton is a class warrior without any class.  She's talking about herself, thinking about herself.   "Hi, I'm Hillary and I break through glass ceilings.  I'm a Senator!  I'm a Secretary of State!  And I got one more glass ceiling to break through.  Vote for me, the glass ceiling cracker!"           

World Peace!

One of the jokes in Miss Congeniality is that all the women in the beauty pageant want world peace.  Except for Sandra Bullock's character, the undercover FBI agent.  She has a far more realistic goal.  "Harsher punishment for parole violators."  Which isn't popular at all!  And then she adds, "And world peace" and everybody cheers.  

Kathleen Parker is like one of the beauty contestants in Miss Congeniality.  She's writing a column about world peace.  And she thinks it can happen, if we just elect Hillary as our next President.  This is a direct quote.  "She can save the world." 

One of the dangers of the left's disregard for religion is that it keeps coming up with religion-substitutes.  In 1966, Time magazine put up a provocative cover.  Is God Dead?  It upset everybody.  

Now people on the left talk about Obama as if he's the messiah.  And they're not even joking! 

Starry Night

Make Love, Not War

That was a 60's slogan.  "Make love, not war."  And yet one of the problems here is that if you're oblivious to war tactics, you might be unaware of things like deception.  What if he doesn't love you?  What if you don't love him?  What if you're not making love at all?

What if sex is sport?  It's certainly more fun than war!  In a war zone you can get shot, you can get wounded, you can be handicapped for life, you can kill innocent people.  All sorts of awful things can happen.  

While sex is the most fun you will ever have in your life!  

And yet, sex leads to babies, all the time.

1968 was called "the summer of love."  But why that year?  What made 1968 so special?

1968 was the year abortion became legal in California.  Pregnant women could suddenly pay a doctor to force a miscarriage.  And so the summer of love because the summer of infanticides.      

I agree with the slogan.  Make love, not war!  But you want to watch out for the fucking.  "You're fucked," we say, and that's not a good thing.  For a baby it's like a knife in the head.    

Peace and War

Women are peace and men are war.  Peace needs to soothe war.  War needs to defend peace.  Sometimes war declares war on peace.  And peace is in trouble, real trouble.  But then war steps in, between war and peace.  And war says, "I'm not messing with you, war.  I just want to fuck up peace a little."  And war says, "Fuck you, war.  I'm defending peace."  And war declares war on war.  And after war gets his ass handed to him on a hat, war is like "Oh fuck, oh shit, peace!  Peace!"  And war says, "Fuckin' A, peace.  Peace is awesome."  And peace is standing there all smug, going, "I told you, I told you.  Why don't you listen to me?"  And war says, "I listen.  What the fuck do you think I'm doing?  I'm defending you."  And peace says, "You're using war!"  And war says, "Fuckin' A."  And peace says, "War is wrong."  And war says, "Don't be so cranky."  And peace says, "War is wrong!  War is wrong!"  And war says, "You're not being peaceful."  And peace says, "What the fuck do you know about peace?"  And war says, "It's good.  I like peace.  What do you know about war?"  And peace says, "I hate it!  War sucks!"  And war says, "I know."  And war starts feeling sorry for himself and peace has to give him a hug.   

 

Are Women Superior To Men?

Kathleen Parker is recognizing sex difference and arguing that her gender is superior.

Let’s begin with a working (and provable) premise: Women, if allowed to be fully equal to men, will bring peace to the planet. This is not so far-fetched a notion. One, men have been at it for thousands of years, resulting in millions and millions of corpses...

Parker is voicing her opposition to the feminist dogma that our two sexes are always equal.  She's suggesting men are warriors, not women.  And she's also suggesting that women are naturally more peaceful than men. 

And there's some truth to this!  Women are not biologically suited to war-making, not really.  In the modern age, of course, Hillary Clinton can press a nuclear button as easily as Harry Truman.  You don't have to be big and strong to press a button (or pull a trigger). 
 
Technology has, in many ways, equalized us.  Birth control would be another example of this.  Yet our two sexes remain quite different, even mysterious to each other.  Many of us, both men and women, object to the idea of drafting women for combat.

Our two sexes are quite different, actually, and modern feminists can be glib about how equal we are.  But we should not make the even dumber mistake--the Parker mistake--of assuming one gender is good and the other is bad. 

It's hard to object to the argument that we'd all be better off with love in our hearts, as opposed to war.  Yet women are not immune to war-like emotions such as anger or hatred or pride.  And it's a silly mistake to assume that Hillary Clinton, because she is a woman, is nice or gentle or sweet.   

What's the Worst Obama Scandal?

Victor Davis Hanson does a fantastic job summing up the scandals of the Obama administration.  

Outrageous

American companies are apparently forced, through secret court orders, to share all your search data with the government.  And on top of this they are forbidden to talk about it.  These are blatant and disgusting violations of our Constitution.  Every American should be appalled. 

Here is an e-mail service provider who has shut down rather than comply with the order to provide this information to the government.  Note that Yahoo is suing to ask permission to speak.

    

RNC Declares War on CNN and NBC Over HIllary Movie

The RNC has announced that it will cut off both CNN and NBC from any primary debates if they continue with their plans to produce two Hillary movies.



NBC was working on a miniseries about Hillary Clinton that will star Diane Lane. 



 

Glassholes

Google glass is not even on the market yet and there's already an insult for the people who use them.  Glasshole! 

If Google was smart it might rename the product before launch.  Because that nickname will not go away. 

Fun Fact For the Day

Did you know the Navajo nation is bigger than West Virginia?  I had no idea it was so big.

Jeff Bezos Buys Washington Post

Washington Post reports on its own sale here.

I wonder if he had to pass an ideological test?  It will be interesting to see if there is any shift in coverage.  I would expect him to be a bit more libertarian on economic matters. 

What Was the CIA Doing in Benghazi?

Whatever it was, the Obama administration doesn't want Congress to know about it.