Month: November 2012

King Kim Jong Un discovers ancient dynastic ancestor’s unicorn lair.

Seriously, this crap makes a lot more sense if you stop trying to fit it into a 19th century worldview and just go back all the way back to Charlemagne: short version is, North Korean ‘researchers’ have conveniently found a so-called ‘unicorn lair’ from ancient times that just happens to be right outside their capital.   Believe it or not, this is possibly not just about North Korea getting some bizarre self-scored style points over North Korea, and I’m suggesting that because of this:

“Supposedly, this unicorn was ridden by none other than King Tongmyong, founder of the Koguryo Kingdom (277 B.C.-A.D. 668).”

I’m an optimist, so possibly I am reading too much into this; but it does seem sometimes like North Korea is trying to go from Marxism to actual feudalism.  Which is going to be perceived as being ironic, but only by people who really think that the former is an improvement on the latter*…
Via:

Moe Lane

*You know.  Idiots.

 

 

 

Escape from New York.

Name: Escape from New York

Type: Movie

Written in: 1981

Set in: 1998

Why it's a dystopia: The country has a federal police service AND has turned Manhattan into a maximum security prison.  Worse, the Soviet Union's still around.

Why it's significant: Snake Plissken is an iconic character; plus, the shock visuals that resulted from juxtiposing familiar American icons and an aura of decay had an impact on subsequent dystopian cinema.  Which is a slightly pretentious way of saying 'people liked the film.'

What happened? Well, obviously, we didn't create a federal police agency of this sort, and we didn't make Manhattan into a maximum security prison.  But that's not why I'm noting this: after all, Carpenter's somewhat jaundiced worldview about contemporary American societal trends can be seen more pointedly in his sequel Escape from L.A.* No, the reason I'm pointing this one out is because we're all getting older, which means that the population is increasingly one that has no real memory of what it was like to have the Soviet Union looming over us.  The casual assumption that the USSR would be around and kicking in the next generation was utterly unremarkable at the time - which, given what we know about the nature of Marxists, implies some pretty dark deeds, in... deed.

Indeed, this is one of the more hopeful assumptions.  Far too much science fiction of the time period assumed that the Soviets were going to end up kicking our butts.

Moe Lane

*A movie which is notable partially for that, but mostly for being an egregious piece of sh*t whenever Bruce Campbell wasn't on the screen.

Escape from New York.

Name: Escape from New York

Type: Movie

Written in: 1981

Set in: 1998

Why it's a dystopia: The country has a federal police service AND has turned Manhattan into a maximum security prison.  Worse, the Soviet Union's still around.

Why it's significant: Snake Plissken is an iconic character; plus, the shock visuals that resulted from juxtiposing familiar American icons and an aura of decay had an impact on subsequent dystopian cinema.  Which is a slightly pretentious way of saying 'people liked the film.'

What happened? Well, obviously, we didn't create a federal police agency of this sort, and we didn't make Manhattan into a maximum security prison.  But that's not why I'm noting this: after all, Carpenter's somewhat jaundiced worldview about contemporary American societal trends can be seen more pointedly in his sequel Escape from L.A.* No, the reason I'm pointing this one out is because we're all getting older, which means that the population is increasingly one that has no real memory of what it was like to have the Soviet Union looming over us.  The casual assumption that the USSR would be around and kicking in the next generation was utterly unremarkable at the time - which, given what we know about the nature of Marxists, implies some pretty dark deeds, in... deed.

Indeed, this is one of the more hopeful assumptions.  Far too much science fiction of the time period assumed that the Soviets were going to end up kicking our butts.

Moe Lane

*A movie which is notable partially for that, but mostly for being an egregious piece of sh*t whenever Bruce Campbell wasn't on the screen.

Big Labor apologists overlook hidden lede of Unionmade flap.

Short version: some California chain selling men’s clothing is calling itself “Unionmade” when it’s not particularly featuring stuff made by unions, and the AFL-CIO is getting shirty about it.  But here’s the point/counterpoint kicker:

“We sell really beautiful well-made products. Products I’ve always liked,” [Unionmade founder Todd] Barket told me. “Our clothing is honest and straightforward. Everything has a reason for being there. Good design. High quality. Not too tricky. Any guy can walk in and understand what we’re presenting. Everything is really understandable.”

[snip]

…only about three to five percent of the items sold at Unionmade are union-made.

Translation: union-made products are pretty much crap quality these days.  I think that the AFL-CIO should probably worry about THAT more.

Moe Lane

Ken Salazar’s war on Drakes Bay Oyster Company, Science.

Executive summary: a bunch of people in Marin County, California made a serious mistake, forty years ago. To wit, they trusted the federal government to honor an agreement by which the Drakes Bay Oyster Company transferred ownership of their land (in order to protect the wetlands from development) in exchange for 40 year leases on that land in perpetuity. Several years ago, the folks who later bought Drakes Bay discovered that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar didn’t particularly care about that:

Continue reading Ken Salazar’s war on Drakes Bay Oyster Company, Science.