The Duke of Blunt

Equality, but not what you think...

2010-02-03T19:55:00.000-08:00

If I must accept a cliche', I will be consistent and examine it's logical conclusions. Given that men focus on physical love(sex), and women focus on emotional love(romance), then the fantasies of perfection for each must be given equal status. Except, equality almost never applies both ways with these fantasies. Pornography generally places the opposite sex's role as subservient. But if sexually explicit movies, and strip-clubs are questionable for men, then what is the equivalent for women?

A friend of mine once compared dime romance novels to "porn for women," and their modern successors, romantic comedy movies, fail to dispute the notion very well. Cassy Fiano at HotAir's GreenRoom has this to say:

"The woman goes and sees some romantic comedy where the boyfriend or husband is kind, sensitive, intelligent, and charming. He does all of these insane things to keep the woman happy… heck, he’s basically a doormat to her alpha female. They then go home feeling even more angry and let down. Why doesn’t my husband treat me that way?, they wonder."

Naked chicks are "cheating", but this isn't? What man can compete with a perfectly written McConaghey or Connery? Real life doesn't come with scriptwriter teams. Sure, they're only escapist, romantic distractions. Renaissance nudes are escapist, HOT distractions. Both masquerade as "art." When life begins to imitate art, life has gone off course, in essence imitating an imitation of itself. Like playing "telephone," reality will be lost in translation.

The Friend of My Enemy

2010-01-29T13:59:00.000-08:00

With the recent cataclysms befalling the Climate Change movement(being a haox will do that), the cause received a fresh endorsement from a major world player:

"Discussing climate change is not an intellectual luxury, but a reality," he said. "All of the industrialised countries, especially the big ones, bear responsibility for the global warming crisis."

Said Osama bin Laden, [h/t AceOfSpades]from his neither "big" nor "industrialized" cave. It is unclear if such an important endorsement is a benefit or a hinderance to the broader movement. Mr bin Laden has many critics, many of whom are also already critical of Climate Change. However, his endorsement is an encouragement and show of support to many of his natural allies: those who seek to bring "corrupt" and "evil" Western Civilization and it's poster-child America to it's knees.

Bailouts a Success!...Oh, Wait.

2010-01-28T09:22:00.000-08:00

Once more, the lone US auto maker to *NOT* take the Auto-bailout is the lone company turning a profit.

Still in debt to the Unions to the tune of 7-Billion, but not required to sell out ala GM/Chrysler-hostile-takeover yet.

Ford said it will make profit-sharing payments to its U.S. hourly workers in March. They will be the first profit-sharing checks since 2004.

That's how economies are grown.

Contrarian food for thought, or, "The Folly of Compassion for the Sake of Compassion"

2010-01-28T07:50:00.000-08:00

[UPDATE:] Stacy-lanched! Shameless obedience to Rules 1 & 2 pays off! Thanks for stopping by!

"Doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result is the deffinition of insanity." --Albert Einstein

It's not PC to think about, let alone talk about. But some guy named Paul Shirley asks: Is this really charity, encouraging people to repeat the actions which killed so many to begin with?[[h/t TheOtherMcCain]

"We were quick to vilify humans who were too slow to respond to the needs of victims, forgetting that the victims had built and maintained a major city below sea level in a known target zone for hurricanes. Our response: Make the same mistake again. Rebuild a doomed city, putting aside logic as we did."

New Orleans was a tragedy, but an avoidable one. You'll have flooding when you build a city on a swamp. You'll have a city razed to the ground when you "build" shanties on a fault-line. Do we really want to rebuild such disasters-waiting-to-happen again?

Riding the New Conservative Wave to the Blaine House

2010-01-18T12:43:00.000-08:00

With the impending victory of Scott Brown in Massachussett[e]s, morally if not actual, conservatives here in the Northeast feel the winds of Change!™ shifting back in their own direction. Here in Maine, there is a strong culture of political independence, with more Independents elected governor than Republicans in the last forty years.

The state, and Republicans in particular face a fractured primary. There are over twenty declared candidates, seven of them in the Republican primary. As in California, Texas, South Carolina and other states, there is an opportunity here to unite behind a solid conservative.

Here in my opinion, influenced by the quality Maine politics blog http://www.pinetreepolitics.com”>PinetreePolitics , and what I could glean from their respective campaign websites.

THE ESTABLISHMENT(Collins, Snow & Co.)

http://www.abbottforgovernor.com/”>Steve Abbot Is the Establishment frontrunner who’s claim to fame is Senator Susan Collins’ long time Chief-of-Staff, helping her survive the 2008 debacle. The website has few details on actual policy, concentrating more on endorsements and, apparently, wearing the Establishment label with pride. He has the endorsement of former gubernatorial candidate and industrialist Peter Cianchette.

http://www.millsformaine.com/plan”>Peter Mills is a Navy vet and long-time State Senator. According to his website, “Republicans and Democrats know him as a coalition builder with practical, independent views and a business-like approach to state finances.” Voted for Maine’s Gay Marriage Act and has made donations to Planned Parenthood of Northern New England.

THE MANAGERS(ala Romney)

http://www.jacobsonforgovernor.com/”>Matt Jacobson is a former Air Force pilot and railroad executive, and now leads a consulting firm aimed at improving the state business climate. While on the record as opposing the Stimulus, he has said that the existing Stimulus “should be spent Intelligently.” He attended the 2009 Republican Governor’s Association meeting.

http://www.bruceforme.com/”>Bruce Poliquin is a business manager who has amassed a considerable personal fortune, which he has put to good use in his campaign and conservative causes such as TABOR and the repeal of the Gay Marriage Act. Was accused of astroturfing a Portland GOP straw-poll when it’s organizer was revealed to be his fundraising chief. Wins the “I really want this job” award.

http://www.lesotten.com/”>Les Otten is a former owner of the RedSox and ski resort mogul. Has drawn fire for over-leveraging his ski resort, playing both sides with his political donations and for http://lesotten.com/pb_html/leadership.php>plagiarizing Obama’s “O” logo.

http://www.lepage2010.com/”>Paul Lepage is Mayor of Waterville and GM of local discount retailer Marden’s. Survived 2008 as a Republican in a heavily Democratic town, while maintaining his Conservative positions, and fought to lessen the Mayor’s power with a City Manager office. Says all the “right” conservative things and has done as well as Mayor, but has a certain “Fred!” lack of public polish and campaign skill.

OTHER

Bill Beardsley is former president of Husson Univerity, where this author is currently a student. He just announced, so no one really knows what's going on here.

CONCLUSION

I think it’s fair to say that the Establishment is out from the get go in the current climate.

PAUL LEPAGE is clearly the Tea Party candidate, but that also means he’s the RONPAUL!-bot candidate. How he reacts to his various groups of supporters will be key in how he is perceived for the larger campaign.

After that, I see MATT JACOBSON as the best of the outsiders, putting forth the effort to build a strong published and online presences, while not resorting to the attention-trawling of Poliquin or carrying the baggage of Otten.

If Scott Brown can win in Massachusset[e]s, We have a good chance to make a difference here in Maine.

How I do things.

2010-01-16T17:26:00.000-08:00

This is pretty much a personal archive of stuff which interests me, a questioning, plainspoken young man well on his way to becoming a cynical, crotchety old man. All the time I spend on the the internet needs *some* justification.

My writing is better when short, sharp and to the point. Brevity=soul of wit.

The sarcastic generalizations made here will always have exceptions, but some things just need to be said. If no one's offended, it's not been done right.

Stuff will mostly relate to random profundity, weird/awesome stuff found on Teh Internets and Classical-liberal politics.

To begin, something shiny: