I pledge allegiance to the supercomputer of the United States of
Data Mining. And to the dictatorship for which it stands, one
nation, under Obama, unencryptable, with tyranny and injustice for
all.
-Mike M
Monday, June 10, 2013
Smallmouth Bass are Cool
Smallmouth Bass 21" (my uncle caught one the same size too):
My dad missing it with the net:
Note to you largemouth bass fishermen: this is about as big as a smallmouth gets. The cold water smallmouth also has a lot more fight in him than any freshwater fish of the same size, particularly the comparably limp largemouth.
My dad missing it with the net:
Note to you largemouth bass fishermen: this is about as big as a smallmouth gets. The cold water smallmouth also has a lot more fight in him than any freshwater fish of the same size, particularly the comparably limp largemouth.
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Cary Grant Movies
The Captain of Capitalism as occasionally pointed out that he is a fan of the movies starring Cary Grant. (Here too.)
Unfortunately for you, he hasn't (as far as I know) elaborated on which of Cary Grant's movies you should watch.
If you're lucky, you may stumble across a blog post pointing out the better movies to watch, and which to skip.
If only there was someone who has watched a fair few of those movies and could point you in the right direction....
Arsenic & Old Lace
A movie with a novel idea. Little old ladies who help lonely old men end their [perceived] problem. With a man who thinks he'd Theodore Roosevelt, thrown in to boot!
Cary Grant is recently married and looking to leave for his honeymoon, when he discovers what his aunts are up to and he spends the rest of the movie trying to manage the situation.
A movie well worth watching.
Charge!!
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House
If you're looking for a Cary Grant movie to find a lot of wit and amusing lines, then this is it.
Mr. Blandings finds that his New York apartment is too small for his family and he and his wife decide to move to the country. They wind up building a new house and hilarity* ensues.
(*hilarity is a 1940's word, meaning: amusing)
I do wonder about the relationship between Mrs. Blandings and the couple's best friend.
Take note of the prices of things ($10,000 for a new house) and the nature of the world in that time. His daughter's school paper early in the movie is a sign of the doom (feminism) yet to come.
Another good movie.
I was a Male War Bride
A movie who's first half is about a French solider (Grant) and an American solider (don't care) who work together but are constantly fighting each other. If it had ended there I would have liked it fine.
The second half of the movie is not so good.
In the second half, after they decide to get married and move to America, Grant is put through ...situations meant to be amusing during his attempt to move to America as a "war bride."
The "fighting" in the first half of the movie is not bad, and if you like Grant's mannerisms, then the first half of this movie is okay.
Skip it.
The Philadelphia Story
A wealthy socialite prepares for her second wedding while interacting with her first husband (Grant) and a photographer.
Its the movie to see if you want to see the way Grant acts and interacts with others.
Its not the movie I'd watch for entertainment purposes though. Its not my sort of thing.
Indiscreet
This is a movie about an actress in London (Ingrid Bergman) who is looking for a man. Cary Grant appears but it turns out that he's married.
This is the movie I'd watch if I wanted to emulate this actor's mannerisms and speaking. You get to see him start a relationship and direct it exactly the way he wants.
I quite like the surprise ending.
This is a good movie to watch through the lens of Game.
Father Goose
This one takes place in the South Pacific during WWII.
Grant's character wants to be left alone on his boat and to avoid the war. A man in the Navy "persuades" him to station on an island as a lookout for Japanese airplanes.
During the movie her winds up rescuing a teacher and her female students.
An entertaining movie; I like it.
The Bachelor and the Bobbysoxer (sp?)
A painter and his relationship with a female judge and her young sister.
Once again, its a good movie to watch for the Game aspects but not the sot of movie that I'd care to see again.
***
That rounds out all but two of the movies that I'm aware of Cary Grant making. (I don't remember Bringing Up Baby and don't remember the others title.)
It should start you in the right direction for watching movies by Captain Capitalism's favorite actor.
***
BTW Captain, since you and I seem to like many of the same movies (the above, the man with no name trilogy, and Cowboy Bebop), I recommend that you watch Exiled and Little Big Solider.
***
Update: A commenter reminded me of a few more movies: North by Northwest, Charade, and An Affair to remember.
North by Northwest was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and is good. Charade is fine too. And An Affair to Remember is in the running for my least favorite movie ever.
Unfortunately for you, he hasn't (as far as I know) elaborated on which of Cary Grant's movies you should watch.
If you're lucky, you may stumble across a blog post pointing out the better movies to watch, and which to skip.
If only there was someone who has watched a fair few of those movies and could point you in the right direction....
Arsenic & Old Lace
A movie with a novel idea. Little old ladies who help lonely old men end their [perceived] problem. With a man who thinks he'd Theodore Roosevelt, thrown in to boot!
Cary Grant is recently married and looking to leave for his honeymoon, when he discovers what his aunts are up to and he spends the rest of the movie trying to manage the situation.
A movie well worth watching.
Charge!!
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House
If you're looking for a Cary Grant movie to find a lot of wit and amusing lines, then this is it.
Mr. Blandings finds that his New York apartment is too small for his family and he and his wife decide to move to the country. They wind up building a new house and hilarity* ensues.
(*hilarity is a 1940's word, meaning: amusing)
I do wonder about the relationship between Mrs. Blandings and the couple's best friend.
Take note of the prices of things ($10,000 for a new house) and the nature of the world in that time. His daughter's school paper early in the movie is a sign of the doom (feminism) yet to come.
Another good movie.
I was a Male War Bride
A movie who's first half is about a French solider (Grant) and an American solider (don't care) who work together but are constantly fighting each other. If it had ended there I would have liked it fine.
The second half of the movie is not so good.
In the second half, after they decide to get married and move to America, Grant is put through ...situations meant to be amusing during his attempt to move to America as a "war bride."
The "fighting" in the first half of the movie is not bad, and if you like Grant's mannerisms, then the first half of this movie is okay.
Skip it.
The Philadelphia Story
A wealthy socialite prepares for her second wedding while interacting with her first husband (Grant) and a photographer.
Its the movie to see if you want to see the way Grant acts and interacts with others.
Its not the movie I'd watch for entertainment purposes though. Its not my sort of thing.
Indiscreet
This is a movie about an actress in London (Ingrid Bergman) who is looking for a man. Cary Grant appears but it turns out that he's married.
This is the movie I'd watch if I wanted to emulate this actor's mannerisms and speaking. You get to see him start a relationship and direct it exactly the way he wants.
I quite like the surprise ending.
This is a good movie to watch through the lens of Game.
Father Goose
This one takes place in the South Pacific during WWII.
Grant's character wants to be left alone on his boat and to avoid the war. A man in the Navy "persuades" him to station on an island as a lookout for Japanese airplanes.
During the movie her winds up rescuing a teacher and her female students.
An entertaining movie; I like it.
The Bachelor and the Bobbysoxer (sp?)
A painter and his relationship with a female judge and her young sister.
Once again, its a good movie to watch for the Game aspects but not the sot of movie that I'd care to see again.
***
That rounds out all but two of the movies that I'm aware of Cary Grant making. (I don't remember Bringing Up Baby and don't remember the others title.)
It should start you in the right direction for watching movies by Captain Capitalism's favorite actor.
***
BTW Captain, since you and I seem to like many of the same movies (the above, the man with no name trilogy, and Cowboy Bebop), I recommend that you watch Exiled and Little Big Solider.
***
Update: A commenter reminded me of a few more movies: North by Northwest, Charade, and An Affair to remember.
North by Northwest was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and is good. Charade is fine too. And An Affair to Remember is in the running for my least favorite movie ever.
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Jane Austen's Books
Girls are no longer being taught whatever it is they need to do in order attract someone to marry.
A commenter on a post from Sunshine Mary used an example from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice to illustrate a point.
It seems to me that if a girl wants to get married, or just be more attractive to men, then reading classic books like those written by Jane Austen would put them a whole lot closer to being attractive than they are now.
Books by Jane Austen may not exactly be what I'd point to for a girl working on improving her attractiveness, but reading them should put a girl in a much better frame of mind as opposed to reading 50 Shades, or Eat, Pray, Love do.
I actually did not mind reading Jane Austen, particularly: Emma and Pride & Prejudice.
Long ago I was curious about why no girl wanted to talk about such books with me. Now I know. But I would still appreciate a girl who actually preferred classic, or other more unique, books, movies, and music, as opposed to reading, watching, and listening to all the same [expletive deleted] that everyone else does. Or at least, don't be surprised when I don't express any interest in things like whatever is currently on TV.
(If you are going to read classic romance novels, stay far, far, far, far away from Jane Eyre. Further than that even; run away. Jane Eyre is awful.)
A commenter on a post from Sunshine Mary used an example from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice to illustrate a point.
It seems to me that if a girl wants to get married, or just be more attractive to men, then reading classic books like those written by Jane Austen would put them a whole lot closer to being attractive than they are now.
Books by Jane Austen may not exactly be what I'd point to for a girl working on improving her attractiveness, but reading them should put a girl in a much better frame of mind as opposed to reading 50 Shades, or Eat, Pray, Love do.
I actually did not mind reading Jane Austen, particularly: Emma and Pride & Prejudice.
Long ago I was curious about why no girl wanted to talk about such books with me. Now I know. But I would still appreciate a girl who actually preferred classic, or other more unique, books, movies, and music, as opposed to reading, watching, and listening to all the same [expletive deleted] that everyone else does. Or at least, don't be surprised when I don't express any interest in things like whatever is currently on TV.
(If you are going to read classic romance novels, stay far, far, far, far away from Jane Eyre. Further than that even; run away. Jane Eyre is awful.)
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Why Politics is a Ruse
In my favorite author's latest book, A Beautiful Anarchy, a few chapters look at the book and movie (or is it a tv series?), The Hunger Games.
Apparently, in The Hunger Games the world exists with a large government that occupies and distracts its populace with games of watching selected young people fight each other to the death.
The rest of the population spends much of its time talking about and paying attention to this event. They think about their guy's chances against another place's guy in this event. They cheer their guy and boo his opponents.
All this is done so that the population will be too distracted to think about the real impediment in their lives, the government that arranges all of this.
A few quotes from a post at Foseti about working for the government:
The presidential election is run more similarly to American Idol rather than an actual situation where we pick the best person to run the executive branch of our government. And as Foseti says, no matter who is elected the people who make the rules will stay right where they are:
***
How much time is spent discussing things like elections and major laws? Why do we, in comparison, ignore the "little" regululaitons that dictate every aspect of our lives?
Like The Hunger Games, politics, and the discussion of politics, is a distraction from the fact that no matter who is elected, no mater what their campaign promises, we will have government laws, rules, and regulations dictating how fast we can drive, how old we must be to buy guns, OSHA laws, EPA restrictions, residency requirements, federal, state, and local taxes, ......
Apparently, in The Hunger Games the world exists with a large government that occupies and distracts its populace with games of watching selected young people fight each other to the death.
The rest of the population spends much of its time talking about and paying attention to this event. They think about their guy's chances against another place's guy in this event. They cheer their guy and boo his opponents.
All this is done so that the population will be too distracted to think about the real impediment in their lives, the government that arranges all of this.
A few quotes from a post at Foseti about working for the government:
We spend inordinate amounts of time and money determining who will occupy short-term elected positions in government. Once there, people make a living thinking about what these politicians should be doing. On the other hand, we spend almost no time thinking about who will permanently occupy the bureaucratic positions that are actually responsible for implementing governance.During the presidential elections we often hear it called a "horse race." Everybody likes his guy, at least becasue he's "least bad," and boos his guy's opponent.
The vast majority of the employees of the government, like me, are unelected and – for all intents and purposes – cannot be fired. Focusing on the 0.0001% of government employees that get elected (obviously!) misses the remaining 99.9999%. Virtually everyone thinks that its possible to "change" government while maintaining 99.9999% of its employees. This belief is obviously retarded.
The presidential election is run more similarly to American Idol rather than an actual situation where we pick the best person to run the executive branch of our government. And as Foseti says, no matter who is elected the people who make the rules will stay right where they are:
When we are taught how laws are made, we’re told something like: someone writes a bill, both houses of Congress vote on the bill, if it passes it’s signed by the President and then it’s law at which point it might be interpreted by the courts.Even if Romney had been elected, how much different would any of the Federal Agencies look? Do you actually think something like the IRS would have been eliminated?
This is correct as far as it goes. However, have you ever asked yourself who that "someone" is who’s writing the bills? Seems like a powerful position, no? That someone is generally unelected and cannot be fired.
The common story also doesn’t go far enough. Regulations are now, by any serious metric, more important than laws. Regulations are written and implemented by agencies, often with little or no judicial oversight. Modern laws aren’t even really laws anymore, they’re just lists of regulations that Congress hopes agencies will implement.
***
How much time is spent discussing things like elections and major laws? Why do we, in comparison, ignore the "little" regululaitons that dictate every aspect of our lives?
Like The Hunger Games, politics, and the discussion of politics, is a distraction from the fact that no matter who is elected, no mater what their campaign promises, we will have government laws, rules, and regulations dictating how fast we can drive, how old we must be to buy guns, OSHA laws, EPA restrictions, residency requirements, federal, state, and local taxes, ......
Monday, June 3, 2013
Abortion
After watching this debate on abortion I think that the point at which life, and a person's rights, begins is an unclear issue.
If you insist on having even a limited government, then one of the laws should be that no one is allowed to harm another. Therefore, deciding when a person "begins" is the point at which his right to not be harmed begins.
A point I liked from the above linked debate is that the point when the unborn can survive without the mother could be important, because that's the point when the unborn stop living at the expense of another.
However, that's an awkward point becasue science changes all the time and abortion laws cannot be changed that frequently.
As far as I can tell the logical abortion law options are:
1. Life begins at conception. No post-conception birth control. Abortions are illegal.
2. Life begins at birth. Abortion is legal until part of the unborn exits the mother. Abortions are legal, partial-birth abortions are not.
I like both options, for different reasons. The imposition on the mother could be considered as the unborn "harming" the mother, but the right to live should be given priority over discomfort and pain.
If you insist on having even a limited government, then one of the laws should be that no one is allowed to harm another. Therefore, deciding when a person "begins" is the point at which his right to not be harmed begins.
A point I liked from the above linked debate is that the point when the unborn can survive without the mother could be important, because that's the point when the unborn stop living at the expense of another.
However, that's an awkward point becasue science changes all the time and abortion laws cannot be changed that frequently.
As far as I can tell the logical abortion law options are:
1. Life begins at conception. No post-conception birth control. Abortions are illegal.
2. Life begins at birth. Abortion is legal until part of the unborn exits the mother. Abortions are legal, partial-birth abortions are not.
I like both options, for different reasons. The imposition on the mother could be considered as the unborn "harming" the mother, but the right to live should be given priority over discomfort and pain.
Sunday, June 2, 2013
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