The New Beginning

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Dola Re Dola from Devdas

Shown this morning on Showbiz India.

alternate

Slightly better quality.

Maar Dala

What would be an appropriate epithet for the Democratic Party?

Which features the following characteristics:
pandering to minorities
support of multiculturalism, feminism, and license
defense of the welfare state (and unjust forms of redistribution?)
and in general, support of the unitary nation-state

Nanny Party doesn't capture the advocacy of what are bad morals.

Deconstructionists? Not philosophical deconstructionists, but the party that is directly attacking the morals of this society and tearing down its institutions.

I think the Old Plutocrat Party showed its true colors in New York yesterday with the vote on the same-sex marriage bill.

Forget the politicians -- are young people increasingly in support of SSM in part because of affection deprivation when they were children, due to the absence of one or both parents because of work? Then there's the impact of divorce on children's emotional health. Might these contribute significantly to an exaggerated sentimental view of love and romantic relationships?

I still think women are more prone to enforcing the new PC morality in order to seem "nice." (Which does involve an erroneous conception of justice based upon rights.)

NYT: The Road to Gay Marriage in New York

Friday, June 24, 2011

Some sense in the House

AP: House rejects measure to continue US role in Libya

Counterpunch:
Patrick Cockburn, Amnesty Questions Claim That Gaddafi Ordered Rape as Weapon of War

Gareth Porter, The Open Door in Afghanistan

Anthony Esolen, Sexual Revolution: Built Upon Sand (via Mere Comments)

The state of savings among single American women

How many American women are saving money in the expectation that they will be contributing 1/2 to a future home and everything else when they are married (or even before, if they've found someone willing to commit to them apart from the formality of a ceremony)? Those trips to foreign countries and exotic locales can be rather expensive, and many run up their credit card bills on shopping. What number are rather carefree in their spending habits, believing that when the time comes they will be able to find a man who will bear the responsibility of paying for the house and other marital assets?

Thursday, June 23, 2011

The current MetroPCS ad campaign featuring two Indian(-American)s is rather incomprehensible to me -- they first appeared last year? Did this MetroPCS ad make the tech world cringe? and Is MetroPCS’s New Commercial Racist? Many Say “Ranjit and Chad” Are Indian Tech-Help Stereotypes Are Ranjit and Chad endearing or offensive? The company claims that it is meant to be humorous. Is the company trying to save face by continuing the ad campaign? Does the company actually make use of call centers in India for tech support? I think the reaction of Americans to offshored tech support maybe increasingly negative, no? Too soon to tell if the ad campaign has backfired on the company?

Flipping through the channels tonight, it seemed to me that there is an increasing number of Indians on television -- Kunal Nayyar on Big Bang Theory, Adhir Kalyan on Rules of Engagement. There was also a disproportionate number of Indian contestants this season of MasterChef? How do the number of Indians on TV shows compare to the number of East Asians? A (deliberate) new trend or just a temporary aberration? I can't help but reminded of the demographic changes in this part of California. There has been some discussion at Steve Sailer's blog of Indian(-American)s as a voting bloc. Are Indians more insular than East Asians? Do they assimilate less?

*Bollywood dance is its own separate category on So You Think You Can Dance. I suppose E. Asian dances are more sedate in comparison to what is featured on the show -- and there are few practitioners (even if one includes the Chinese dance troupes)?

Alison Krauss & Union Station on Conan

Tom Engelhardt, Defining an American State of War (Counterpunch)

JHK on the Future of Cities

Back to the Future
A road map for tomorrow's cities
by James Howard Kunstler

Pertinacious Papist: The Political Problem of Religious Pluralism. PP republishes a review, originally published in Latin Mass Magazine, by Christopher Oleson of Thaddeus Kozinski's The Political Problem of Religious Pluralism. (archive for the review)

Related:
A review at NDPR

Zenit: On Learning to Pray With the Psalms
Addressing Him "With the Words That He Himself Gives Us"

Pope Benedict XVI kisses a baby during the weekly audience in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican June 22, 2011. (Reuters/Daylife)

Pope Benedict XVI (C) gives a blessing during an outdoor meeting with youths in Pennabilli June 19, 2011. (Reuters/Daylife)

Gillian Welch - White Rabbit - Telluride Bluegrass Festival 06/18/05

Gillian Welch

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Medieval Warfare

An interesting periodical, the New Scot would probably enjoy this.

Saint John Fisher Film Trailer

Mary's Dowry Productions

The low production value is very distracting -- was this written as a conventional movie or as a play. With a play, one could simply film the play and not have to worry too much about the sets. But if the filmmakers were aiming at realism, it does not seem that they have achieved it, and some of the acting is off (the noble in yellow in particular).

Two previous posts for the feast day of Sts. Thomas More and John Fisher.

Gene Watson and Rhonda Vincent - Gone For Good

First MV from their new album...

Gene Watson

Items of Interest, 22 June 2011

What A waste! The scoop on poop and ecological wastewater management
Jill Cloutier, Sustainable World Radio

Praise be baling wire and binder twine

Gene Logsdon, The Contrary Farmer, Mulligan Books

Franklin C. Spinney, The Myth of Precision-Guided Coercion

William Oddie, Chesterton’s prophetic voice, now increasingly being heard once more, is still relevant to the new age (via Ordinariate Portal)

Adrian Ayres Fisher reviews The Wealth of Nature: Economics as if Survival Mattered. (EB)

Ordinariate Portal has posted links to videos from Solemn Evensong and Benediction at Oxford: Magnificat, Beati quorum vita, O Salutaris Hostia.

Baby-faced Beauty

I watched part of the second episode of Babyfaced Beauty (동안미녀) last night, curious to see if it was any good. I was about to leave after about 10 minutes since I didn't find the comedy in this rom-com to be appealing, but I stayed to finish the rest of the episode. Generally, the audience sympathizes with someone struggling to succeed. Jang Nara as the mid-30s single spinster is still trying to make it in her dream career, as a fashion designer. In some ways her acting reminds me of Lee Bo-hee in Smile, Donghae. It seems like she's got the attitude and way of speaking of an older Korean woman. I don't know if that is deliberate or if Jang Nara has matured away from her cute persona in this direction.

Still, the drama has its problems. It's not very realistic in its consolation of older single women. It is said that Korean single women in their 30s are invisible. How many of this is due to circumstances beyond their control, and how much of this is the result of their own life choices? Hypergamy is alive and well, and the culture of arranged marriages may be fading away. Many of these women do not want to marry the single Korean farmers out in the countryside.

Jang Nara's character berates a group 20-something men for criticizing their unmarried female classmates for still being single, and pointing out that men become more attractive in their 30s while women become less so. Her potential love interest, played by Daniel Choi, is 6 years her junior and is initially unaware of how old she really is. Is this drama going to be a feminist dream, with the women satisfying her career ambitions and getting a younger man? Being a fashion designer may be frowned upon by American feminists, but it is a glamour job for trend-following female Korean consumers.

The fact is, age does matter for women because fertility does decline and the primary purpose of marriage is... procreation. (There is also the question of malleability -- whether a women can conform herself to a man or not.) There is a strong connection between youth and fertility, and youthfulness is a strong attractor for men.

The drama is just more evidence of the encroachment of feminism into Korean pop culture.

Some teasers:

Later I watched the episode of Kim Seung Woo Win Win (김 승우의 승승장구) featuring Girls Generation. Korean males, especially the fans of actresses and girl groups, whether they be in high school, college, or the army, seem to be rather beta in their behavior and devotion. It may be a sign of innocence, but it is also a lack of maturity which is disadvantageous in dealing with women but also in society at large. A culture of arranged marriages would help them find a wife, but if it is replaced by modern dating and Korean women are left to their own impulses, paying no heed to the more practical considerations of marriage and traditional mores, they will start to lose out.

Looks like 19th Group was recruiting in CA in November of last year...