Monthly Archives: March 2021

Invasion of the Cute Girls

 

Please read these headlines and decide what they have in common:

 

 

 

 

 

It seems that we, as a society, are making a horrible mistake.

We are so angry at the (mostly) rich, straight, white men in charge of things that we’ve decided to hand power to their polar opposites: young cute girls.

At the risk of sounding misogynistic (nothing new, in my case), I declare that the worst social justice warriors — cancel-culture perps, Me Too whiners, and all-around clueless menaces to society — are the cute girls. We’ve foolishly granted them too much power and they are simply incapable of using it judiciously. 

This is what AOC hath wrought.

 

Or maybe it’s what the cute, kidnapped girls hath wrought. Whenever some cheerleader in Nebraska gets abducted, it’s a media bonanza. We can’t get enough of the young cute girls. No wonder Meghan Markle wants to run for president.

I’m not being sexist when I complain about cute-girl power. I don’t want a 20-something male running society, either. And it’s not a liberal-conservative thing. Tomi Lahren and some of her Fox cohorts certainly give off a dumb-blonde vibe.

But these girls are young, and young (usually) means stupid.

It’s like what the proverb says about children: They should be seen and not heard. Most of them, anyway.

 

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Joe Biden falling up the stairs: We’re supposed to “feel sorry” for him?

Nah. Considering the strong possibility that this geezer sold out his country to China, fondled underage girls, and is now turning North America into South America version two, it seems to me Biden’s fortunate to be falling on stairs rather than being told to bend over by some Bubba in cellblock six.

 

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We checked with Rip van Dinkle regarding this story, and he said he did not understand the problem.

 

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That does it.

I don’t want Trump back as president. I want John Wayne back as president.

Even though his real name was Marion.

 

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Netflix recommendation: Masum. This miniseries from Turkey, of all places, can be a challenge to follow, what with its frequent time shifts, plot surprises and, of course, subtitles. But it’s juicy-good fun.

 

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I’ve been watching Jordan Peterson videos on YouTube. I’m a bit late to the party concerning Peterson, who apparently took the Internet world by storm several years ago, then succumbed to mental-health issues about a year ago and essentially vanished — much to the chagrin of his army of followers and the delight of his detractors.

But now Peterson’s back in a series of podcast videos, in which he appears to be engaging in self-therapy sessions with friends. He looks drawn and haggard and indulges in self-pity.

In his older videos he is formidable. He does battle with progressive opponents and smoothly takes them all down. He offers advice to students that is refreshing and grounded in common sense.

In the new videos he seems defeated. It’s depressing to watch. The videos suggest that old saw, “Physician, heal thyself.” Seems to me he could use some sort of hobby that lets your mind rest. Something childish and non-taxing.

Something like, say, reading The Grouchy Editor.

 

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OK, OK … no more Mitch McConnell jokes.

For now.

 

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There is nothing in the “Review” this week about the following topics: Andrew Cuomo, Biden’s stumble, Teen Vogue, school lockdowns, the Grammys, China, the Mexican-border crisis.

Not going there because, in the lexicon favored by teen girls: “I. Can’t. Even.

 

 

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The problem with “journalists”

 

Journalists occupy the same public sphere as politicians (elected) and lawyers (not elected, but they do have to deal with that whole bar-exam thing). Journalists are not elected, nor are they tested. Hell, they don’t even have to have a journalism degree. And yet they are handed, as a group, enormous power.

These young journalists are indoctrinated into “wokeness” by colleges. There are hundreds of Web sites that hire them for peanuts. Their woke articles generate outrage, which generates views and ads.

Rank-and-file print reporters earn very little, are usually in their 20s and new to the ways of the world. But the stories your favorite TV news anchor presents are often lifted from what the print journalist provides.

 

Once upon a time, I was a print journalist.

Back when they weren’t so awful.

 

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I’m no fan of Britain’s monarchy, but after watching Ginger Boy and his Pampered Princess do their whiny thing with the queen of smarm, Oprah Winfrey, I’m supporting Team Elizabeth.

 

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I used to believe that many conservative accusations about the left — they don’t like America, they want open borders, they want to take your guns away — were hyperbole. Not so much anymore.

Seems that many rich, white liberals/progressives/Democrats are battling twin demons: self-loathing, and the fear of not-so-rich progressives brandishing pitchforks.

Their only hope? Divert those pitchforks toward “evil white supremacists,” i.e., Trump supporters.

 

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I watched a Colombian movie called Dogwashers on Netflix. It was no masterpiece. But I fear films like this one are an endangered species.

The movie, about a gang of lowly thugs and the unfortunate souls in their orbit, feels genuine. It was like eavesdropping on real people.

The filmmakers do not seem bent on pleasing Netflix and its global audience. There are no Hollywood special effects. I didn’t hear American rap music.

Dogwashers is gloriously photographed and the people are intriguing — even when they are just sitting around. Doing nothing. I liked that.

 

 

OK, there is one obvious Hollywood influence on Dogwashers. In the time-honored tradition of male-gazing Tinsel Town, starlet Lina Vanessa Nieto’s glorious T&A are on display for no apparent plot-related reason. Which is reason enough for me.

 

 

 

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More gems from The Babylon Bee:

 

 

And this from resident gadfly Rip van Dinkle:

 

 

 

 

 

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The Dig

 

Here’s a fact-based “prestige picture” that’s very classy, very pretty, and very … bland. Well, at least the second half of the movie is.

Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan are a pleasure to watch in the first half, in which an obscure excavator (Fiennes) finds an ancient Anglo-Saxon ship and a true soul mate (Mulligan) on land the young widow owns in Suffolk. But once the big find is found, the movie bogs down with extraneous subplots about another couple’s romance and looming war with Germany and … not nearly enough Fiennes and Mulligan.

The film would have been stronger had The Dig ditched reality and instead focused more on its two leads. Release: 2021  Grade: B-

 

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The Block Island Sound

 

Most horror movies that are destined to fall apart tend to do so in the third act. Too few of them know how to “stick the landing.” So, kudos to the McManus brothers for pulling off a damn-fine ending in Block Island, in which an unseen force wreaks havoc on an East Coast seaside village.

The problem with this low-budget film is the first two-thirds of it, in which less-than-stellar acting and a plodding plot give no hint of the good things to come. Release: 2020  Grade: B-

 

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I am expecting the Me Too movement to go after Dr. Seuss.

I mean, aren’t women sexualized and victimized by his 1939 masterpiece, The Seven Lady Godivas?

 

 

In case this is the first time you’ve heard of Seuss’s naughty book for big kids, here is some background:

 

 

Seven nude sisters and seven peeping brothers? It must have been Andrew Cuomo’s favorite childhood book.

 

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We’re hearing all kinds of talk about secession, or a “peaceful divorce” of blue states and red states. OK, well …

Secession was one thing during the Civil War when states were divided geographically. But how is that kind of split supposed to work in 2021, when we have all these blue cities surrounded by red outstates — and all of them falling under the umbrella of a single state?

Will blue Austin, Texas be happy to join the rest of (mostly) red Texas in seceding? Will outstate Minnesota, where I live, be content to turn blue to join its only major city, Minneapolis?

We’ll have to change our name to the 10,000 States of America.

 

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Tim Pool and friends this week discovered The Fourth Turning, a 1997 book that seemingly predicts much of what America is going through now. Here is a clip from Pool’s panel discussion. Here is my review of the book from 2019.

 

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I’m not sure which is worse, having a president whose handlers are so afraid of what he might say that they must shield him from difficult questions, or having Biden stumble and stammer his way through difficult questions.

 

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Minimum Wage

 

I go back and forth on this issue. On the one hand, seems to me that if your small business can’t afford to pay employees enough money to feed themselves, then perhaps you have no business having a small business.

On the other hand, Democrats who want a minimum-wage increase are also in favor of open borders, which will ensure millions of poor immigrants — lowering everyone’s wages.

 

 

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