Under the Fedora: Da Rules, Da Race and Da Movies

As I write today’s Under the Fedora I awake to a house full of teenagers. My youngest had a sleep over with 7 friends, while my oldest also had a pal over for a while before going out till all hours.

As each of the boys came in they were told DaRules of DaHouse No Booze, No Drugs, No Sex. Some had heard it before, some had not, my oldest’s 21 year old friend joked that he had been hearing it since he was 11.

When a young lady entered with a young man with her, the speech was repeated, separate sleeping quarters were arranged, each boy including my son (and her boyfriend who she arrived with) had the rules repeated. To the shock of Sharon Stone no bowl of condoms was left for the use of the teens.

This morning the guys are all still asleep in front of a game system, the young lady is out like a light in the couch in a different room, all the alcohol in the house remains at the levels they were at when I went upstairs and in accordance with my wife’s instructions, although cooking was done in the kitchen it was not a disaster area despite pizza’s from scratch and burgers to be cooked. Somehow these teenagers between 15-18 managed to get though the night without being drunk or high and the young lady left the house in the same state of pregnancy that she entered it.

There are a lot of parents who concede this ground, they would be very surprised to know that if you plant your flag on it, the colors just might still be flying as you kids approach 20.

Of course when you give warnings being of Sicilian descent and having a dirt cellar helps in terms of persuasion a bit…

BTW my oldest’s friend showed up in a trenchcoat and a first class fedora, nicer than any I own. Last week a young conservative woman of my acquaintance told me the man she is dating wears a fedora and trenchcoat, both of these men are half Italian.

Who knew I would be far ahead of the curve when I bought my first fedora back in 2000.

One of the DVD they had in the house was the original theatrical version of Star Wars. You know without the additional CGI, the bells and whistles and with Han shooting first.

I’m a capitalist and George Lucas made this film, he can do whatever he wants to make it fancier and more geared to what his dream was but there is a class and innocence to that first movie as it was that made it endure.

There is a whole generation of movie goers who have never seen Star Wars as it was, they have no memory of it and no reference. You can retroactively play with a streaming video saved on someone’s server but you can’t change my VHS tape sitting in a bin in my house.

That’s why I don’t like the kindle either; I want to know the words in my book will be the same today as the day I bought it.

Plus I lose things easy, ask anyone at CPAC.

A few days ago I was watching Witness of the Prosecution staring Charles Laughton, Elsa Lancaster, Tyrone Power and Marlene Dietrich (A spectacular courtroom drama that you should not miss) There is a flashback scene where Dietrich is singing in front of a group of soldiers on leave and one tears open one of her trouser legs. According to IMDB…

In order to show just one of Marlene Dietrich’s famous legs, an entire scene was written that required 145 extras, 38 stunt men and $90,000.

Think about that for a second. The movie studio believed it worth $90,000 in 1957 dollars to show off one of Miss Dietrich’s 57 year old highly insured legs for the box office of this movie.

That came to mind when I saw Evil Blogger lady’s post “The thighs that launched a million hits” and the list of 30 or so blogs that have written about “thighgate” and our reference to it on this week’s DaTechGuy on DaRadio show with Sarah Rumpf.

Perhaps like Dietrich and Betty Grable before her an insurance policy should be taken out on such a hit producer. After all hits are the mother’s milk of bloggers. Perhaps the policy can be paid for by bloggers that reaped the hits.

Interesting note about Witness. Tyrone Power was playing a man facing a death sentence for Murder Ironically although he was only 44 , this would be his last picture as he would suffer a massive heart attack while making his next film.

Power died at 44, Whitney Houston died at 48. It is rather odd to see people who at first glance are in much better shape than me dying at my age or before.

The New Jersey flag flying at Half Mast for Houston’s death btw says a lot about our culture and very little of it good.

Rick Santorum is now in the lead in Michigan although Governor Romney is making up some ground and his supporters are highlighting that late surge.

Wasn’t it less that 60 days ago Rick Santorum was languishing in single digits in a wide open GOP race and anyone who suggested that he would be still standing right now, let alone leading in Michigan would have been considered a fool?

Stacy McCain tells us that the White house is now starting to think Santorum:

Obama’s Chicago-based reelection team has begun digging into Santorum’s background, diverting opposition researchers who thus far had been focused on Romney. They also blasted an e-mail to supporters in Pennsylvania, asking them to submit their most damning recollections of Santorum,

So much for “hope and change” The left would like to talk about anything other than the Obama Record.

Stacy invokes Rocky but Santorum reminds me more of this scene from Rocky two

“…the man kept coming after you” brilliant!

If Romney manages to win Michigan it will be pointed to as a great victory for his campaign, nobody would have considered it such 30 days ago.

Quick question. If Romney finds it necessary to use every weapon in his formidable arsenal to achieve a come back win in Michigan against Santorum what are his chances against Obama in November when none of those advantages will be in play?

I’ve said it before I’ll say it again: Conventional Wisdom is always true, right up until the moment when it isn’t.

I noted the fuss over the ESPN headline “Chink in the armor” concerning a bad game by Jeremy Lin. The phrase itself is common but of course “Chink” is a also a vulgar slang for Chinese so all hell broke loose. The rapid apology wasn’t a surprise but while watching the news Sunday morning It was noted that If that phrase had been used to describe any other player it wouldn’t have been a big deal.

Life is odd like that.

There are two posts this week that I think perfectly exemplify the left and it’s thinking and both of them can be found at Slate. The first was called Liberals don’t homeschool your kids

So when college-educated parents pull their kids out of public schools, whether for private school or homeschooling, they make it harder for less-advantaged children to thrive.

Bill Jacobson comments on the piece saying

there’s some sociological gibberish thrown in, but really it comes down to power.

One less child of liberal parents in a school means fewer liberal children and parents to control the public school agenda:

But what I find most distressing is this: It is a basic job of parenthood to educate one’s children in the most effective way possible to give them the best shot they can have in the future. That a person would encourage people to stick in an education system that fails for the sake of progressive values in a major mag and not be laughed off of the pages of a major magazine is simply astounding.

Funny I seem to remember that before the left got their hands on the public schools they seemed to do a pretty good job.

The second is this piece that is so outrageous that it defies rational thought equating ultrasounds to rape (yes you read that right).
Tina Korbe at hotair comments:

That last sentence is the linchpin: To equate a medical procedure that carries no real risk of negative consequences — like emotional trauma or STDs — with rape, which does carry such consequences, does an enormous injustice to true rape victims. Incidentally, the Virginia law aims to ensure women have as much information as possible before they decide to undergo another medical procedure that does carry an enormous risk of negative consequences — including emotional trauma.

But the best piece on the matter comes from Joy McCann

And yet the smarmy John Cole, and my buddy Tommy Christopher (who may be wrong on some things, but does shoot straight and tell you what he thinks—and has defended right-leaning women when other lefties would not), would have you believe that an ultrasound is highly invasive, whereas an abortion is a cozy little experience of no importance whatsoever that imparts no trauma.

Which is, even if my experiences were not typical, a far cry from the truth.

This issue can be debated among reasonable people, and I agree that it’s a heavy thing for the state to mandate a medical procedure that is “invasive,” even if that’s in a pretty technical sense.

Yet let’s not pretend that an ultrasound wand, and an undilated cervix, is more invasive than a dilated cervix combined with a vacuum tube and/or surgical instruments.

It. Is. Not.

That’s as it may be but you don’t’ get the point. An ultrasound gives the lie to the entire “clump of cells” business. it provides a true image putting the reality of abortion squarely in front of a woman making this decision.

To defend the sacrament of the left from this reality, any argument no matter how offensive or false is acceptable.

See you at the end of the week