Category Archives: The Culture

Finally, a president without a college degree

Posted on March 17, 2014 | Comments Off on Finally, a president without a college degree

Potentially, that is, as in Wisconsin’s Republican Gov. Scott Walker. He didn’t finish community college, let alone Harvard or Yale. Now some people will think that’s a bad thing, but look at the bozos we’ve had with their slick Ivy League educations.

Like Wormtongue who can’t tell the truth to save his life, delegates everything and spends his time playing. And unlike even his Harvard predecessors, Bush and Gore, refuses to release his college transcripts. Almost certainly because his grades sucked and he skated because of his race.

Truman was the last American president without a college degree and he, at least, was pretty honest and no more thin-skinned than rest of ’em. Shoot, I’d vote for Walker for that reason alone. Helluva recommendation.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Obsessions, The Culture

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Rule 5: The Velazquez Venus

Posted on March 16, 2014 | 2 comments

800px-RokebyVenus

Completed between 1647 and 1651 by Diego Velazquez, it was attacked and badly damaged in 1914 by the suffragette Mary Richardson. It was fully restored and returned to display.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Rule 5, The Culture

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The dying wristwatch

Posted on March 13, 2014 | 7 comments

I bought Mr. Boy two wristwatches (trying to find one that suited him) before I decided to investigate his claim that his generation doesn’t wear them.

Sure enough, I’ve never seen one on a kid at his school the times I’ve been around and looking. Or at the grocery. Or anywhere else. But, like him, they carry phones which display the time whether there’s a call or not.

Darkwater says he saw a report that wristwatch sales are down 30 percent. Could be. Then he touts this successor to the plain-Jane timepiece and the pocket-filling phone.

Maybe. But I see two problems: one, Mr. B’s generation prefers texting to voice, for which they need a keyboard, and two they also need a larger screen than these wrist-size screens for the games they play when they’re not texting.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Mr. Boy, Science/Engineering, The Culture

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Pushing back twice as hard

Posted on March 12, 2014 | 6 comments

“Tensions continue to rise in Connecticut, as the home addresses of the legislators who voted for the [“assault” weapons] ban have been posted on numerous web sites and forums. Many of the legislators are now calling for police protective details, regarding the publication of their home addresses as a threat to their safety.”

This could become a “teaching moment” for pols elsewhere with the same plans to please their anti-gun supporters by disregarding the Constitution.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Guns, Obamalot, Obsessions, The Culture

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Vlad Putin gives SXSW a hand

Posted on March 8, 2014 | 3 comments

It might seem a bit pompous of Kansas Republican Mike Pompeo to ask SXSW to cancel its much-advertised, long-distance interview Monday with Vlad Putin’s favorite foreign guest.

But Pompeo, the junior member of the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, a former Army captain and a West Point graduate, has some arguable reasons:

“The panel, ‘A Virtual Conversation with Edward Snowden,’ will focus on the impact of the NSA spying revelations and how technology can be used to protect privacy.

“Snowden’s ‘only apparent qualification,’ Pompeo wrote, ‘is his willingness to steal from his own government and then flee to that beacon of First Amendment freedoms, the Russia of Vladimir Putin.'”

Indeed, it is the only reason for the “conversation,” in which Snowden—having helped put SXSW back on a media stage that might be tiring of it—allegedly will answer questions from the Austin audience, even the unadoring kind. Instead of just making speeches.

Whether there will be any unadoring “questions” from the primarily leftist audience remains to be seen. Pompeo offers two the leftists might not think of: “including why [Snowden] chose to leak ‘purely military secrets’ with no bearing on domestic surveillance, and…the extent of his relationship with the Russian government, ‘financial or otherwise.’”

Via Instapundit,

UPDATE:  Apparently neither of Pompeo’s questions were asked. No surprise there. No one even asked why Snowden fled to Russia, no champion of privacy or freedom whatsoever.

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Posted in Texana, The Culture, The War, Troops

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You need a Vietnamese pedicure

Posted on March 8, 2014 | 3 comments

I never thought I’d get a pedicure, until old age and overweight made it difficult to cut my own toenails without risking injury. Not to mention my really rough heels that were destroying scores of pairs of socks.

So, at the urging of Mrs. Charm, I visited the Passion Nail Spa on Far West Boulevard, near the Rancho. I was one of the few males, but no matter. It was very relaxing, warm water, hot towels, foot and ankle massage and all.

I was surprised to discover the management and pedicurists were all recent Vietnamese immigrants. Apparently recent as none of them spoke much English. Turns out they are part of a trend these days in Vietnamese-owned nail salons. For instance, in South Florida:

“The nail industry will help stabilize the lives of so many Vietnamese from Vietnam to America,” Truong said. “But with the second generation — for example, my children and my staff’s children — they are not going to choose a career in a nail salon, because they will have a diploma and will be good in English, so they can find another good job.”

The Austin pedicurists smiled politely at my use of what Vietnamese language I could remember after 45 years—mostly hello and thank you—but they would, wouldn’t they, even if I was unintelligible. I got the $26 classic but next time (oh, yes, there will be a next time) I might get the $40 deluxe.

Now with toenails all nice and short and rough heels smooth, I’m more than satisfied. You will be, too, if you try it. And you should. Really.

UPDATE:  Or, perhaps, predate would be more accurate. Miriam was way ahead of me, way up there in Delaware back in 2011.

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Posted in Mrs. Charm, Rancho Roly Poly, Texana, The Culture, Viet Nam

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Rule 5: Dylan Penn

Posted on March 6, 2014 | 2 comments

Sexy Shoots Dylan Penn for GQ Magazine January 2014

Proof that daddy Sean was good for something besides sucking up to dictators. Although there is a rumor that he also quietly helped rescue an American businessman from a Bolivian prison a few years ago.

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Posted in Rule 5, South of the Border, The Culture

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