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Category Archives: Culture
Boyd Coddington Dead at 62 – UPDATE
Missed this on Wed, still need to get internet at our new house, and I hadn’t seen it on the news. Hot rod entrepreneur Boyd Coddington died on Wednesday of undisclosed cause. He will be missed by many in the … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Keith's Page
Tagged American Hot Rod, Boyd Coddington, Coddington Foundation, diabetes, Hot Rod
2 Comments
American Idol Inspired-UPDATE
I actually enjoyed American Idol tonight, in past years I couldn’t say that (though Carrie Underwood was hot.) One of them performed this song, and did a pretty good job. No graphics, but the best sound quality of the video’s … Continue reading
Posted in Lance's Page, Music
Tagged American Idol, Carpenters, Music, Papa Was A Rolling Stone, Sonic Youth, Temptations
2 Comments
Imagine
Two things you probably don’t know about me and one you probably do: (1) I’m a pretty decent musician and singer. (2) I love American Idol. (3) I hate John Lennon’s “Imagine” because of the message, even though I’ve always … Continue reading
Posted in MichaelW's Page, Music
Tagged American Idol, David Archuleta, Imagine, John Lennon, Music, original arrangement
7 Comments
Pushing Collectivism
Two shows on Nickelodeon are teaching Chinese values to the kids. The first, Ni Hao, Kai-lan is meant to teach pre-schoolers Mandarin Chinese and Chinese values. It sounds innocent enough (and certainly a welcome change to the insipid Dora the … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Media
6 Comments
Historical Revisionism
Did you ever wonder what it would be like if The Beatles had written Stairway to Heaven instead of Led Zeppelin? Yeah, me neither. But the Australian tribute band, the Beatnix, give us some insight anyway [via: Marginal Revolution, and … Continue reading
Posted in Humor, MichaelW's Page, Music
Tagged Led Zeppelin, Stairway to Heaven, The Beatles, The Beatnix
3 Comments
Is That A Big Lense, or Are You Happy To See Me
Yep, that’s a big lens all right. 12X optical zoom, equivalent to a 432mm telephoto on a 35mm camera. Biggest lens I have right now. The previous shots of the lunar eclipse were taken with this camera. Still getting used … Continue reading
Posted in Keith's Page, Photography
Tagged camera, Canon, digital camera, Photography, Powershot, S5
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Blegging for Votes
Hey, I entered a online photo contest. Here is one of the photo’s I entered. I would really like to win the Canon 40D, as I’ve had my eye on it since it was released. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE … Continue reading
Posted in Keith's Page, Photography
Tagged autumn trees, canon 40D, Indiana, photo contest
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Moon Be Gone
If you missed the eclipse of the moon last night, it was quite a sight. These two pictures were only taken about a minute apart. The first picture is closer to what was actually viewable to the naked eye. The … Continue reading
Posted in Keith's Page, Photography
Tagged Canon, eclipse, lunar eclipse, moon, Powershot S5
5 Comments
Whaaa? When did this happen?
Last week? …but I can no longer stand idly by and watch the media and independent voters continue to throw themselves at the feet of John McCain. Because I’m trying to remember anyone swooning over McCain and I’m not having … Continue reading
Posted in Domestic Politics, Election 2008, Humor, Music, Uncategorized
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Am I anti-Intellectual or…
…am I just not impressed by YOU? Jules Crittenden responds to a column by Susan Jacoby The Dumbing of America. She concludes… It is past time for a serious national discussion about whether, as a nation, we truly value intellect … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Education, Society, Synova's Page, Uncategorized
Tagged anti-intellectualism, Education, elitism
3 Comments
Lance and the R.E.M. Tickets
Love letter, 1982-1985. In between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, a section of I-10 stretches out as a low, dead straight bridge across 25 miles of swamp. This is the story of how I came to be hauling ass across … Continue reading
REM’s New Single
Can be found here. For those who missed the tale of REM, Robby and I, I am promoting it to the front page. Hat tip: Instapundit
Posted in Culture, Lance's Page, Music
Tagged accelerate, Music, R.E.M., supernatural, superserious
1 Comment
If The Beatles Had Been Irish
My first thought was something along the lines of that soliloquy from The Commitments where Jimmy Rabbitte encourages his erstwhile band to internalize the thought “I’m black, and I’m proud.” Do you not get it, lads? The Irish are the … Continue reading
And Who Is GK Chesterson???
Thanks to Lance, I have a hankering to learn who this man is he is quoting… http://www.chesterton.org/discover/who.html This absent-minded, overgrown elf of a man, who laughed at his own jokes and amused children at birthday parties by catching buns in … Continue reading
Perhaps we’re turning into Victorians
Or: What I Learned About the World from Reading Historical Romances. I learned that sometimes people get *more* uptight over time rather than less. Victorians, according to custom and any number of novels, were concerned with propriety above all. Certain … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, History, Society, Synova's Page
Tagged Culture, Domestic Politics, Historical romance, History
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Home & Land Defense
There’s a moment in Mark Steyn’s book America Alone, where he relates the truism that we’ve all experienced conversations with a mild-mannered, educated and seemingly rational person from the Arab world, where quite unexpectedly they say something nutty in the … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Firearms, Lee's Page, Society
Tagged .223, .22lr, 9-11, 9mm, America Alone, Americans, Arab, Beretta, burglary, crime, Culture, culture-shock, EOTech, European, Firearms, gun rights, guns, Heckler & Koch, HK33, HWS, Kip Payne, Law, Mark Steyn, Media, Model 597, ratlesnake, Remington, rural, second ammendment, self-defense, shotgun, Tony Martin, United Kingdom, urban, Vector Arms
7 Comments
The New Media Zombie Apocalypse
image: Dead Central (see alternate posters at ZNN) George Romero is evidently taking on the dynamics of social networking and new media culture, in his latest apocalyptic zombie film Diary of the Dead. George, in an interview for the AP: … Continue reading
Posted in Blogs, Culture, Lee's Page, Media
Tagged Blogs, Diary of the Dead, entertainment, film, George Romero, Hitler, horror, Michael Moore, movie, myspace, new media, social networking, undead, youtube, zombies
2 Comments
Tired of the Primaries Yet??
This BLAST from the PAST comes to you from the glam pop rock band SWEET! Dude… Sweet…
Just Imagine
(Cross posted at Whatif?) George Santayana told us: “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” What on earth do you do, though, with those who never learned any history in the first place? A fifth of … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Education, History, Peg's Page
Tagged Education, Florence Nightengale, History, Richard the Lionheart, Santayana, Sherlock Holmes, Winston Churchill
7 Comments
Sarkozy’s New Wife
Carla Bruni. Quelqu’un m’a dit [youtube fMUedRUJ_HA] Ten things to know about Sarkozy’s bride: 5. Criticise her intellect at your peril: her last album, released in 2007, was based on poems by W.B. Yeats, Emily Dickinson and Dorothy Parker. She … Continue reading
Posted in Foreign affairs, Lance's Page, Music
Tagged Carla Bruni, France, Nicolas Sarkozy, Quelqu’un m’a dit
2 Comments
“First They Came for the Gays”
(Cross posted at What if?) My liberal friends think I’m a conservative. My conservative friends think I’m a liberal. Frankly – there is truth in the assessment of both groups. Depending upon the issue, you can honestly label me … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Foreign affairs, Peg's Page, Religion and theology, Society
Tagged Bruce Bawer, conservative, gays, homosexuality, liberal, radical Islam
13 Comments
Ain’t No Sunshine
And now for an unscheduled musical interlude: Bill Withers wrote and recorded that song while he had a job installing toilet seats on 747′s. Apparently, he had intended to write more lyrics to replace the 26 consecutive “I know’s” but … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, MichaelW's Page, Music
Tagged 1972, Ain't No Sunshine, BBC, Bill Withers
3 Comments
Cloverfield – Reality Not Up To Hype
“Cloverfield” has got to be just about the worst movie I’ve seen in my life. My wife agrees, saying “Starship Troopers” was better, which for her, had been one of the worst movies of all time. And we weren’t alone. … Continue reading
Monthly Book Roundup
A new monthly feature here at A Second Hand Conjecture, is going to be a roundup of what we’ve been reading during the past month. Feel free to discuss, or ask questions about any of the books. Joshua: Right now … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Culture
Tagged , Ahmed Rashid, Alldenata, graphic novel, John Ringo, John Scalzi, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Michael Z. Williamson, Taliban
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Education and Socialization
All four of my children have been homeschooled, and one of the complaints about homeschooling that irritates me the most, is that it is socially damaging. My children have various social strengths and weaknesses, just as kids I knew in … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Education, Lance's Page, Society
Tagged Education, homeschooling, socialization, teaching
3 Comments
Sam Zell on what is important
I don’t know if the eccentric Sam Zell can turn around Tribune, but he is always entertaining: From: Talk to Sam Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2008 11:03 AM Subject: Censorship, the First Amendment and the Fourth Estate Everyone, I learned … Continue reading
Posted in Blogs, Culture, Lance's Page, Media, Technology
Tagged free speech, internet, Sam Zell, Tribune
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Love in a Foreign War
(photo: trish brunner | blog) This morning I stumbled into the story from last year of James and Lena Ahearn. James, the American officer, Lena the Iraqi woman who was apparently the first war bride in Iraq in 2003. They’d … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Culture, Lee's Page, Military Matters
Tagged , American, Baghdad, Green Zone, interracial marriage, Iraq, James Michael Ahearn, James Michener, Lena Ahearn, love, lovers, married, novel, Tales of the South Pacific, war, women
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Bloody Inflation!
Alex Tabarrok compiles the data: Number of people killed per minute in the Rambo series. Rambo: First Blood (1982): 0.01 Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985): 0.72 Rambo III (1988): 1.30 Rambo IV (2008): 2.59 His source, Peter Gordon, observes: … Continue reading
Unfortunate cultural dominance
[youtube zYwlRH7R6DE&feature] 18 years ago when I was in the Philippines a somewhat similar song was popular. The song advised, “Not all the World is America.” Well, I figured then that the point made was a good one. It’s a … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Foreign affairs, Music
Tagged , America, Culture, foreign relations, Music, Rammstein
13 Comments
Parade of Fools
Behold the band of idiots. JENA, La. (Jan. 21) – The residents of this central Louisiana town, who watched their community turn into a battleground over the “Jena Six,” will watch out-of-towners doing most of the marching on the birthday … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Media, MichaelW's Page, Race, Society
Tagged Jena 6, media bias, media narrative, MLK day, myths
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Walking Spanish
[audio:Walking_Spanish.mp3] To love a song, it’s not important that you understand the words. And I say that as a onetime lyricist and singer. As one of my guitarists often reminded me, “the words don’t matter.” Well, yeah they do, but … Continue reading
Posted in Great Lyrics Series, Music, Robby's Page
Tagged death songs, Music, Tom Waits, Walking Spanish
19 Comments
Shah Mat
The king is dead (Persian). Robert James “Bobby” Fischer died Thursday, January 17th, in Reykjavik, Iceland, after a bout with an unspecified illness. He was 64. To refer to Fischer as a master player of chess is to say nothing … Continue reading
Posted in Culture
2 Comments
LOC Releases Photos on Flickr
Library of Congress releases 3,000 copyright free photos on Flickr. A quick dig found this particular one. via Lifehacker
Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning
Echoing a wonderful discussion we had in the fall of 2006 on the nature of Fascism (see here, here and here) Jonah Goldberg writes a book which bristles at the use of the term by the contemporary left. I would … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Culture, Domestic Politics, History, Lance's Page
Tagged capitalism, Domestic Politics, fascism, FDR, Germany, History, Hitler, Italy, left, liberalism, Mussolini, National Socialism, right, Roosevelt, socialism
15 Comments
“XMas” Origins
Jon Henke posts an interesting history lesson concerning the origins of the well-known abbreviation for Christmas: Growing up, I sometimes heard – in church and from various religious scolds – that XMas was a secular attempt to “take Christ out … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, History, MichaelW's Page, Religion and theology, Society
Tagged Bible, Book of Kells, Chi Rho, Christmas, Xmas
6 Comments
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the the ASHC crew. We’ll be taking a bit of a break from the blogging, but be sure to check back after the New Year. Until then, best wishes to you and yours.
Posted in Author Pages, Culture
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Blast From The Fashion Past
The linked post is a couple of months old, but the thoughts are yours to treasure for a lifetime. Remembering the ’70′s: Last weekend I put an exhaust fan in the ceiling for my wife’s grandfather. After a bunch of … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, History, Humor, MichaelW's Page
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Happy Repeal Day!
For information on Repeal Day you can visit www.repealday.org: The turn of the twentieth century was a dark time in America. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union, which had been promoting Prohibition for many years, believed alcohol was the cause of … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, History, Lance's Page, Law, Libertarianism, Society
2 Comments
Terror in Our Backyard – UPDATED
These are the headlines on the drudgereport right now. ABC NEWS: HOSTAGE TAKER A WELL-KNOWN LOCAL RESIDENT WITH HISTORY OF MENTAL ILLNESS… Developing… ‘TROY STANLEY’: WITNESS NAMES ALLEGED PERP… SEN. CLINTON CANCELS DNC TALK… SHUTS ALL IOWA CAMPAIGN OFFICES… OBAMA, … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Domestic Politics, Keith's Page
2 Comments
Feminism vs Multiculturalism – UPDATED
The radicals over at N.O.W. continue to be in a pickle over their support or at least their inaction over a case where one set of values conflicts with another set of values. How can you defend womens rights, and … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Foreign affairs, Keith's Page, Society
2 Comments
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Here’s wishing you and your family a Happy Thanksgiving. Eat well and be merry. From the Staff at ASHC
Posted in Author Pages, Culture, Uncategorized
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Ron Paul on Racism
I don’t think Ron Paul is a racist, or rather I don’t claim to have any evidence he is, and that is enough to hold from suggesting he is. However, his view of racism and its history is rather bizarre … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Domestic Politics, Election 2008, History, Lance's Page, Race
6 Comments
Cracked Toys
Hat Tip: Tyler Please run through this list of baffling toys. Please leave responses. People who understand Japan are especially encouraged to leave comments. I need to understand the fascination with poop. This is a practice stripper poll, that was … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Humor, Lance's Page, Society
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Oh, To Be a Fat Cat
The New York Times has a nice piece on the latest health research on the impact of weight on health. Of course, like most nutrition and weight related research we should approach it with some caution as John Tierney has … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Health Care, Lance's Page, social science, Society
1 Comment
Zero Tolerance Idiocy
Hugging friends is equal to sexual harassment? What has replaced commonsense in school administrators these days? Risk aversion is one thing, defining a problem down to a list of “must not do” activities isn’t the way of solving it. http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/illinoisnews/story/32B579E2975B8BA08625738B007B4E1B?OpenDocument … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Domestic Politics, Keith's Page, Law
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Closed Minded Bigots
I found this post very apt to a situation we’ve highlighted here on this blog. I’ve noticed this time and time again, and have shut off even trying to change minds when I encounter this behavior. Best to point it … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Domestic Politics, Education, Keith's Page
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Global Warming = California Wildfires
So says Harry Reid and other environmentalists, so it must be true. No doubt they have checked with everyone who agrees with them and they have a consensus about it. So, what caused them way back when… If there was … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Domestic Politics, Environment, Keith's Page
1 Comment
Oy – of mice and men
How can anyone read Glenn Greenwald prattling on about how picked on he feels by the VRWC?? And remain so slavishly loyal to him as to defend his own behavior. If his point is the supposed politicization of the military, … Continue reading