If you've been half-awake during the last fifteen years you may have noticed that among the younger consumers of popular culture there is, among the lovely youth, a fascination with, and love for, vampires.
Your faithful correspondent traces the start of this fad to Anne Rice's novel Interview With the Vampire and the motion picture made of the same novel starring Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt (or was it Val Kilmer?) and Kirsten Dunst (what kind of proper name is Kirsten, anyway? Is it a misspelling of Kristen? An atheist form of Christine? Is the male form of the name Kirstofer?). It was with the publication of the novel that the character of the vampire became a romantic figure instead of a parasite, a freak, or just plain damned.
Since that time Tom Cruise has become a Scientologist, Brad Pitt hooked up with a freaky bird (Val Kilmer has pretty much disappeared) and Kirsten Dunst became Spiderman's girlfriend. And a vampire ethos and culture emerged.
We here at Bloody Nib Manor are no strangers to the spooky. The name of the Manor, itself, sends shivers of fear among the urchins polluting the streets of the Eastside. But the fear inspired by Bloody Nob Manor has nothing to do with vampires. We just host various prosaic ghosts; Tudor ladies carrying their heads under their arms, mad monks searching for chaste maidens to despoil, a pearl-eyed phantom mastiff roaming about in the garden. But we have no vampires and will not host vampires despite our nieces' love for the Twilight series of novels,
We will have no truck with blood-suckers simply because vampires are nothing more than leeches, ticks, fleas in human form. There is nothing romantic about a damned being that wants nothing more than to take an involuntary transfusion from one whether that being look like Louis Jourdan or Barbara Steele.
But, of course, we at Bloody Nib Manor tend to be of a more Victorian sentiment and outlook than the average Goth/Neo-Vampire. The Victorians had their problems, but they had some sense. They realized that evil is evil no matter how pretty it looks.
Now, in the United States, we have people who want to be, or pretend to be, vampires. In this writer's opinion these people, if they were to see a real vampire (an impossibility since there is no such thing as a real human physical vampire; psychic and emotional vampires are another matter), would find themselves surprised to find that their vampire was more of a wolverine than Tom Cruise.
But people are stupid and they see what they want to see and pretend what they want to pretend. An example would be Renaissance Faire re-enacters who do not seem to realize that if they had lived during the Renaissance they would more likely be scrambling to provide bread on the table than being a knight, queen or lord.
At the end of this post is an article and television report about Neo-Vampires in Tampa Bay, Florida (of all places) who meet monthly to celebrate their vampireness. If one watches the video one will see a group of rather unattractive Goth girls and the men who want to take advantage of them. The women would be much better off, if they insist upon wearing fishnet stockings and corsets, to re-enact the Moulin Rouge during the fin-de-sicle in France. At least then they might get their portraits painted by a midget instead of giving their blood to a freak more interested in getting a shot of leg. And the guys with the black clothes and fake choppers will get a shot of leg from these silly girls.
V is for voracious: Vampire culture unveiled - St. Petersburg Times
Sunday, August 16, 2009
ObamaCare/Swine Flu Vaccine
The Mexican swine flu first reared its head in April. And almost immediately medical researchers and labs began working to develop some sort of vaccine while at the same time telling us that the Mexican swine flu had little or no chance of developing into a flu of epidemic proportions like the 1917/1918 Spanish flu. Their actions belied their words. They were afraid that the Mexican swine flu would follow the pattern of the Spanish flu; a short and mild first appearance followed by a period of apparent dormancy which is followed by the flu boomeranging back like gangbusters, more virulent and widespread than ever.
Why bother to develop a vaccine for a flu that was claimed to be a milder and more benign flu than the seasonal flu? The answer is that researchers, despite their first words, are scared of the thing.
So the wise men and women in the medical/pharmaceutical industries have been working overtime trying to come up with a vaccine that, once it is developed, will be promoted, perhaps even required, by the government. The work on the vaccine has been going on since April and the result has been this:
Swine flu jab link to killer nerve disease: Leaked letter reveals concern of neurologists over 25 deaths in America | Mail Online
Now, let's consider the various governmental health care schemes proposed by the executive and legislative branches of the government (the judicial branch has yet to stick its oar in the matter, but that will come with time). Whatever the proposal presented, one problem is that no proposal has been thoroughly thought out. If one listens to the various Solons pushing this gag, one is reminded that speed of passage of a health plan, any health plan, is of the essence. Never mind the details or the cost.
Is the race for a Mexican flu vaccine a living metaphor for the various federal health care plans that must so speedily be passed? This writer thinks that it is. The need for speed, in both cases, seems to have overcome the requirement for safety (safety in regards to Obamacare means you're monetary and health safety). No one politician, to this writer's knowledge, has read, or even understands all the facets of, the health care plan they are flakking. They want a plan. Any plan even if it means that a person has to wait six months for cancer surgery or if the cost is so high that the initial phases of the plan will be paid for three generation from this day.
Speed in governmental action is required in only one instance. That instance concerns national security from foreign threats i.e., declarations of war when the U.S. has been attacked. The nation has survived with what some politicians have called an unacceptable, or even inhumane, health care system for over two hundred years. Another year or ten won't make any difference.
And one thing that must be pounded into the heads of our elected masters is the question of whether the federal government has any Constitutional authority to mandate any national health plan. Once that they understand that their is no Constitutional authority perhaps they'll abandon the whole idea and go back to excessive drinking, woman chasing and bribe taking, and just leave us the hell alone.
The nation does not need a self-administered case of GBS.
Why bother to develop a vaccine for a flu that was claimed to be a milder and more benign flu than the seasonal flu? The answer is that researchers, despite their first words, are scared of the thing.
So the wise men and women in the medical/pharmaceutical industries have been working overtime trying to come up with a vaccine that, once it is developed, will be promoted, perhaps even required, by the government. The work on the vaccine has been going on since April and the result has been this:
Swine flu jab link to killer nerve disease: Leaked letter reveals concern of neurologists over 25 deaths in America | Mail Online
Now, let's consider the various governmental health care schemes proposed by the executive and legislative branches of the government (the judicial branch has yet to stick its oar in the matter, but that will come with time). Whatever the proposal presented, one problem is that no proposal has been thoroughly thought out. If one listens to the various Solons pushing this gag, one is reminded that speed of passage of a health plan, any health plan, is of the essence. Never mind the details or the cost.
Is the race for a Mexican flu vaccine a living metaphor for the various federal health care plans that must so speedily be passed? This writer thinks that it is. The need for speed, in both cases, seems to have overcome the requirement for safety (safety in regards to Obamacare means you're monetary and health safety). No one politician, to this writer's knowledge, has read, or even understands all the facets of, the health care plan they are flakking. They want a plan. Any plan even if it means that a person has to wait six months for cancer surgery or if the cost is so high that the initial phases of the plan will be paid for three generation from this day.
Speed in governmental action is required in only one instance. That instance concerns national security from foreign threats i.e., declarations of war when the U.S. has been attacked. The nation has survived with what some politicians have called an unacceptable, or even inhumane, health care system for over two hundred years. Another year or ten won't make any difference.
And one thing that must be pounded into the heads of our elected masters is the question of whether the federal government has any Constitutional authority to mandate any national health plan. Once that they understand that their is no Constitutional authority perhaps they'll abandon the whole idea and go back to excessive drinking, woman chasing and bribe taking, and just leave us the hell alone.
The nation does not need a self-administered case of GBS.
Sunday, August 09, 2009
Bits and Pieces
Those of you who know this writer are aware that he is not, nor has ever been doctrinaire anti-union
. Both his grandparents on the maternal side were union members (in one case the Garment Workers' Union and in the second of the Teamsters) and that he was involved in the attempted unionization of a machine shop some twenty years ago. He was also, at one time, a member of the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World). This writer sees the value of unions in certain cases. Those cases have to do with fair wages, safe work places and the representation of the worker, as a whole, when dealing with management and the shop owner.
But, since the days of your faithful correspondent's union activism it has turned out that several unions have decided to become unofficial arms of the government instead of representatives of the worker. A case in point is the SEIU. To be honest, the SEIU is a union that represents people who, if they had any damn sense, would use their jobs as janitors, hotel workers and maids, as a way to work themselves up into something better. In other words, they have made permanent jobs of jobs that were once performed by men and women attending college and working the jobs to pay their way through college or between high school and entering the military.
Now, in the administration of The One, we find that the SEIU has become an unofficial arm of Obamaism by acting as enforcers against the free speech of citizens at Town Hall Meetings who oppose the various permutations of ObamaCare.
Now the SEIU has taken to violence in an attempt to silence those who oppose the various forms of socialized health care while raising the image of mine workers in Matawon fighting Pinkertons; a silly comparison. But many unions have become silly. They worry more about the wealth of the union leaders than the well-being of the members. Also note, many members of the SEIU are unable to speak English, meaning that they are illegal aliens and are easily led with the promise of another few tortillas in the bento box.
If this writer were a young man he would not consider becoming a member of the CIA. The reason is not because he has a prejudice against spycraft, but because it has turned out that, from one presidential administration to another, one is never quite sure whether one will be awarded a medal or charged with criminal activity. The Justice Department of the Obama administration seems to have decided that it will prosecute CIA interrogators of Al-Queda and Taliban operatives using waterboarding as a method. There has been not beatings, no electrical shock, no starving. There has been the placing of soaked towels over the faces of the questioned. It is not unusual for members of the American military to have undergone such treatment. Waterboarding is not torture in the same sense that beatings or electric shock are. But The One and his DOJ seems to have decided that it is.
If you're a CIA agent it's probably a good time to get out.
Here's the story: Criminal investigation into CIA treatment of detainees expected - Los Angeles Times
. Both his grandparents on the maternal side were union members (in one case the Garment Workers' Union and in the second of the Teamsters) and that he was involved in the attempted unionization of a machine shop some twenty years ago. He was also, at one time, a member of the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World). This writer sees the value of unions in certain cases. Those cases have to do with fair wages, safe work places and the representation of the worker, as a whole, when dealing with management and the shop owner.But, since the days of your faithful correspondent's union activism it has turned out that several unions have decided to become unofficial arms of the government instead of representatives of the worker. A case in point is the SEIU. To be honest, the SEIU is a union that represents people who, if they had any damn sense, would use their jobs as janitors, hotel workers and maids, as a way to work themselves up into something better. In other words, they have made permanent jobs of jobs that were once performed by men and women attending college and working the jobs to pay their way through college or between high school and entering the military.
Now, in the administration of The One, we find that the SEIU has become an unofficial arm of Obamaism by acting as enforcers against the free speech of citizens at Town Hall Meetings who oppose the various permutations of ObamaCare.
Now the SEIU has taken to violence in an attempt to silence those who oppose the various forms of socialized health care while raising the image of mine workers in Matawon fighting Pinkertons; a silly comparison. But many unions have become silly. They worry more about the wealth of the union leaders than the well-being of the members. Also note, many members of the SEIU are unable to speak English, meaning that they are illegal aliens and are easily led with the promise of another few tortillas in the bento box.
If this writer were a young man he would not consider becoming a member of the CIA. The reason is not because he has a prejudice against spycraft, but because it has turned out that, from one presidential administration to another, one is never quite sure whether one will be awarded a medal or charged with criminal activity. The Justice Department of the Obama administration seems to have decided that it will prosecute CIA interrogators of Al-Queda and Taliban operatives using waterboarding as a method. There has been not beatings, no electrical shock, no starving. There has been the placing of soaked towels over the faces of the questioned. It is not unusual for members of the American military to have undergone such treatment. Waterboarding is not torture in the same sense that beatings or electric shock are. But The One and his DOJ seems to have decided that it is.
If you're a CIA agent it's probably a good time to get out.
Here's the story: Criminal investigation into CIA treatment of detainees expected - Los Angeles Times
Men In Hats
As those who are familiar with your faithful correspondent are well aware, this write has, and has had for many years, a dim view of the gutter press. The definition of "gutter press", in usage here means daily newspapers and news weeklies such as Time magazine, Newsweek and US News and World Report Few news items, of national or international import can be written accurately about in less than a month after the event. There is just no time for proper analysis and contemplation. Newspapers and news weeklies are good for such things as "screamer" stories i.e., "7-11 Victim of Robbery", "Dead Sharks Found in Trash Bin", "House Burns on Broadway".
But someone at Time magazine has deigned to write an essay about the importance of men wearing serious hats instead of baseball caps. And he also mentions the silliness of the "stingy brim" hat that is often worn by male hat wearers on the East Coast. A proper hat has a purpose (in fact several purposes). It shades, it protects and it decorates. The "stingiest brim" hat that an adult male should feel comfortable wearing is the boater. A hat, a proper adult hat, is more than a fashion statement, but it is also a statement. The statement is that the wearer is a man who realizes the importance of protect of the noggin and face from either heat or cold and that he aligns himself with a certain type of point of view -- the fedora being the hat of a serious man, the porkpie being the hat of the less than serious man, the homburg being the hat of the very serious man with money, and on and on.
Here's the link to the article: In Praise of Serious Hats - TIME
But someone at Time magazine has deigned to write an essay about the importance of men wearing serious hats instead of baseball caps. And he also mentions the silliness of the "stingy brim" hat that is often worn by male hat wearers on the East Coast. A proper hat has a purpose (in fact several purposes). It shades, it protects and it decorates. The "stingiest brim" hat that an adult male should feel comfortable wearing is the boater. A hat, a proper adult hat, is more than a fashion statement, but it is also a statement. The statement is that the wearer is a man who realizes the importance of protect of the noggin and face from either heat or cold and that he aligns himself with a certain type of point of view -- the fedora being the hat of a serious man, the porkpie being the hat of the less than serious man, the homburg being the hat of the very serious man with money, and on and on.
Here's the link to the article: In Praise of Serious Hats - TIME
Sunday, August 02, 2009
National Health Care Scheme
Here is a link to a video of a man asking his senator a series of cogent questions regarding the proposed national health care scheme:
YouTube - US Soldier Demands Apology From Senator Claire McCaskill at Town Hall
But, of course, we should all keep in mind that for The One and his cronies the Constitution is really nothing much more than a wax nose to bend and shape as they like.
And I might prove to be a valuable thought experiment to consider how, once ObamaCare goes into effect, how the government will insist that you eat, drink and exercise in a healthy manner so that you will not drain the resources of "the people." Say good-bye to your Mountain Dew, pork rinds and put on your running shoes because The One is concerned for your health. Big Brother will be watching you. And get rid of that skateboard. It's bad for your health.
YouTube - US Soldier Demands Apology From Senator Claire McCaskill at Town Hall
But, of course, we should all keep in mind that for The One and his cronies the Constitution is really nothing much more than a wax nose to bend and shape as they like.
And I might prove to be a valuable thought experiment to consider how, once ObamaCare goes into effect, how the government will insist that you eat, drink and exercise in a healthy manner so that you will not drain the resources of "the people." Say good-bye to your Mountain Dew, pork rinds and put on your running shoes because The One is concerned for your health. Big Brother will be watching you. And get rid of that skateboard. It's bad for your health.
Link-O-Rama
Global warming is one of those topics that waxes and wane depending more upon what other items are in the daily news cycle than what the actual temperature is at any particular time. If there isn't a beer summit, talk about a "learning moment", a particularly gruesome murder or Megan Fox saying another stupid thing, then the Global Warming stories come out of the freezer of the news rooms and we are subjected once again to hair-on-fire stories about migrating whales not knowing whether or not to turn left or right when they get to the Equator because of the suspected rise in the water temperature or ducks not flying south for the winter because the weather in Canada at the beginning of winter has suddenly become a balmy 34 degrees.
Here are a couple of stories dealing with Global Warming. One taking a look at the theological aspects of the theory and the second having to do with the unintended consequences of legislative idiocy:
Global warming is the new religion of First World urban elites
Getting Around the EU Ban: Germans Hoarding Traditional Light Bulbs - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International
As our town-criers will never let us forget, Senator Edward Kennedy is a physically ill man. It is almost as if we have been put on notice that we should be on a death-watch and we should stand that watch with the same sadness and sense of the passing of a great fount of wisdom that Socrates' students had when they witnessed his death by hemlock. But we should not let this anticipation of the death knell for Senator Kennedy blind us to the fact that he was, and is not, a particularly good or wise man. His passing will be a sad thing for his family and friends, but the nation will have lost nothing more than an old-style Boston politician who was a bully, a shallow thinker and a man who took upon himself (and was granted by a fawning press) the characteristics of a Medieval
baron; a womanizer, a drunkard, a bellowing buffoon, a perpetrator of manslaughter. And like many of the worse barons of old, Senator Kennedy has never really done anything to earn his position except have the right family connects and the right name. If he had not been of the magic litter of old Joe Kennedy (much of whose wealth was made through boot-legging) he would have ended up as a local ward heeler at best.
If the above appears rough or cruel, just keep in mind Senator Kennedy's treatment of Judge Robert Bork. Mr. Bork has shown himself a good and honorable man, a much better than the man who destroyed his reputation in the public's eye.
Here's a link to a story recounting the Chappaquiddick affair that showed Senator Kennedy's true character:
Chappaquiddick Revisited by R. P. George and D. Quinn on National Review Online
Here is another story of the "My Husband is an Uncaring Lug Who Doesn't Talk to Me the Why I Want Him To, But I Love Him Anyway" type. What's different about this one is that it appears to have been written under the influence of something:
My husband is a snail and I can't whisper - CNN.com
So there you go.
Here are a couple of stories dealing with Global Warming. One taking a look at the theological aspects of the theory and the second having to do with the unintended consequences of legislative idiocy:
Global warming is the new religion of First World urban elites
Getting Around the EU Ban: Germans Hoarding Traditional Light Bulbs - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International
As our town-criers will never let us forget, Senator Edward Kennedy is a physically ill man. It is almost as if we have been put on notice that we should be on a death-watch and we should stand that watch with the same sadness and sense of the passing of a great fount of wisdom that Socrates' students had when they witnessed his death by hemlock. But we should not let this anticipation of the death knell for Senator Kennedy blind us to the fact that he was, and is not, a particularly good or wise man. His passing will be a sad thing for his family and friends, but the nation will have lost nothing more than an old-style Boston politician who was a bully, a shallow thinker and a man who took upon himself (and was granted by a fawning press) the characteristics of a Medieval
baron; a womanizer, a drunkard, a bellowing buffoon, a perpetrator of manslaughter. And like many of the worse barons of old, Senator Kennedy has never really done anything to earn his position except have the right family connects and the right name. If he had not been of the magic litter of old Joe Kennedy (much of whose wealth was made through boot-legging) he would have ended up as a local ward heeler at best.
If the above appears rough or cruel, just keep in mind Senator Kennedy's treatment of Judge Robert Bork. Mr. Bork has shown himself a good and honorable man, a much better than the man who destroyed his reputation in the public's eye.
Here's a link to a story recounting the Chappaquiddick affair that showed Senator Kennedy's true character:
Chappaquiddick Revisited by R. P. George and D. Quinn on National Review Online
Here is another story of the "My Husband is an Uncaring Lug Who Doesn't Talk to Me the Why I Want Him To, But I Love Him Anyway" type. What's different about this one is that it appears to have been written under the influence of something:
My husband is a snail and I can't whisper - CNN.com
So there you go.
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