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Another Trope Pondering: Thor, Obama and Haiti

by Another Trope 5/16/2012 - 7:53 pm

Many people will spend considerable time discussing that Obama will raise somewhere near a billion dollars. But then I think about this:

Marvel's Avenger has already through last weekend grossed domestically $389,473,290

The Hunger Games has already through last weekend grossed domestically $387,870,286

Together they have grossed $777,343,576.  That is more than Obama raised for his entire 2008 campaign.

 [Read more]

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The Killer Rabbit in the American Psyche

by Another Trope 5/12/2012 - 5:36 pm

One the greatest cinematic scenes of all time, comedic or otherwise, in my humble opinion, is the exchange between Dennis and King Arthur in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  Of course, the film itself is one of greatest of all time and one could spend an academic life studying its influence on the adolescent male humor in just America alone.  But the scene between Dennis and King Arthur rises above the rest of the film in its brilliance, and in particular its ability to express some deep insights about society, power, and politics while being just plain bloody hell funny. [Read more]

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A Few Trope Ponderings: Thrones and Engagement

by Another Trope 4/6/2012 - 12:06 am

I am totally hooked on HBO's Game of Thrones. In fact, I would say it it is the best television show ever. Ever! The direction, the acting (mostly British and Irish actors), the story line. The perfect mix of soap opera and historical novel, with just right mix with European medieval accuracy. [Read more]

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The Speed Limit: What Would Mitt Do?

by Another Trope 3/17/2012 - 2:32 pm

I recently spent some time driving across a good portion of this fine country and as one might expect I saw a number of maneuvers on our nation's highways that would lead one to conclude we are a nation of idiots.  Or at least a nation that has a good number of idiots.  Actually I would have more choice words for these folks.  And one of the most glaring examples I experienced occurred on I-15 between Salt Lake and Provo, which is currently under serious construction.

Like most of these incidents of idiocy, the I-15 idiocy revolved around a group of cars wanting to go faster than another group of cars.  The latter group, of which I belong, is usually attempting to drive at or near the speed limit, whereas the former group is seeking to move down the road at speeds 10, 15 or 20 miles per hour faster than the posted limit. [Read more]

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Obama, Catholics and The New Old War

by Another Trope 2/7/2012 - 11:40 am

Here we go again.

As a New York Times blog puts it:

When President Obama‘s administration last month unveiled rules that would require some religious hospitals, colleges and other institutions to provide free contraception to their employees under the new health care law, it might have seemed to be a political winner.

The idea of birth control being covered by insurance companies is popular across the political spectrum, even among Catholics. The new policy will exempt churches themselves and will have no effect on doctors who object to prescribing contraception. And the decision means the president’s health care law will help make birth control cheaper for millions of women.

So life should be good, right? Wrong. [Read more]

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The Fallacy of Mark Levin's Ameritopia: What on Earth Can I Do?

by Another Trope 2/2/2012 - 10:37 pm

The environmental activist Hazel Wolf once wrote that if one wanted to convince an economist, one had to talk to them like an economist.  In the contentious atmosphere of socio-political discourse, this is often easier said than done. The principles and fundamental assumptions of the economist are in the grand scheme of things are relatively easy to grasp.  The challenge becomes how to translate one's stance through the prism of those principles and assumptions.

When we confront, however, the vast scope of socio-political ideologies the situation gets a whole lot messier.  [Read more]

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The Fall of the Alpha Male

by Another Trope 2/1/2012 - 10:33 pm

The alpha males still control the top of the hill.  For now. Their time, however, may be coming to an end, a victim of necessity, of survival.  In their place will not be a replacement, a mere shifting of their hierarchical ranking from them to their conquerors.  There will be no conquering. Rather, there will be a truce of sorts, an agreement, a reconciliation. Who will be there on the top of hill will shift in a collaborative act of play and thought. [Read more]

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Stockholm (Resilience) Syndrome

by Another Trope 1/30/2012 - 10:19 pm

I was nine years old in April 1974 when the images of  Patty Hearst -- newspaper heiress and Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) kidnapping victim -- wielding an M1 carbine while robbing a San Francisco bank with the SLA splashed over the news.  Because I was nine, I wasn't aware of the whole back story or who the SLA or Randolph Hearst were.  I knew Ms. Hearst was some kind of an "important person" who normally doesn't go around robbing banks.  I was aware of the debate as to whether she had voluntarily joined in the SLA or whether she had been somehow brainwashed into doing so.  And somewhere along the line, I became aware that Ms. Hearst's apparent new revolutionary tangent was purported by some to be a consequence of the Stockholm Syndrome. [Read more]

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Happy 20th Anniversary, Agenda 21! (Rio+20 or Bust)

by Another Trope 1/27/2012 - 9:35 pm

Has it really been 20 years?  Well, 2012 minus 1992 equals 20, so I guess it has been.

In case you didn't know, twenty years ago the UN convened in Rio the Earth Summit officially known as the Conference on Environment and Development.  [Read more]

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Architects on the Edge

by Another Trope 1/26/2012 - 10:34 pm

We as a nation can begin a meaningful march

toward a sustainable and just society. 

A national paradigm shift, however,

will be a necessary prerequisite.

And it will be the architects who will show us the way forward.

  [Read more]

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