Archive for November, 2022

Yesterday was Black Friday and day one of our “peak” season at work and the beginning of eight straight days of work for me.

As you might guess we were pretty busy, but based on the numbers I’ve seen overall volume was a whole lot less than normal. That won’t affect today, tomorrow or even Monday but the real question for me is: “Will we be behind to the point where next Saturday is voluntary?” In a normal year that’s how it works and by the time you get to Christmas you have managers who have worked 25-30 straight days since “optional” isn’t “optional” for them and some employees averaging 15 hours of overtime a week.

My gut and the numbers tell me that won’t be the case. I suspect we will only have one optional Saturday, next Saturday but that the volume will be at a point where we aren’t days behind rushing to keep up. Part of that may be to good planning on our part but the best planning can’t overcome incredible volume and based on day one, we just don’t have that.


Speaking of Black Friday shopping, most of mine took place on Thanksgiving evening and yesterday morning before going into the breach. A look at Amazon convinces tell me that while there are more and more pages of black friday “deals” (822 to be exact) there are less and less things on them that I need.

I also notice there are a lot of brands of “tablets” and “robot vacuums” that I’ve never heard of before as if there is an attempt to dump a lo of cheap electronics this year.

Of course with that many pages you’re bound to find something useful that your spouse might like or need (I just spotted something on page 29 that I never thought of which might work for her in the garden, but it’s all a question of how much time you want to spend (Indicently the cyber monday deals look surprisingly like the black friday deals

Good Luck.


By an odd coincidence as Elon Musk as cracked down on child porn on twitter apparently a lot of Antifa accounts have ended up dead while doing so.

They have not taken this well and there have been attacks on Tesla dealerships in the Northwest.

This is rather foolish for three reasons

  1. These will simply lead to insurance claims which puts money in the pocket
  2. Musk being one of the richest men in the world is in a position to put the type of security in place that won’t be as accommodating to the leftist thugs that don’t come enmasse.
  3. Finally he has access to the type of lawyers in a position to crush these folks on a national and international level

But if they want to poke the bear be my guest.


The loss of a cherished narrative is a terrible thing and CNN is doing it’s best to reverse it, But the Irony overload here is incredible:

And just like that you can look at someone, say they’re a dude and not be considered a bigot for it, at least if it serves the narrative.

That society has given in to this collection of mentally ill idiots is not an indictment of them, it’s an indictment of us for being suckers.


Finally there was some shock over a Christian commentator noting that those who were killed in Colorado didn’t accept Christ that they were likely in hell.

We are called upon not to judge the state of any particular soul but this type of thing is Christianity 101 or at worst 104. St. Faustina in her diary notes that Christ extends a hand at the time of death even to the most obstinate of sinners it’s just a question of grasping it.

People forget that the Good News of the Gospel is that there is a way into heaven and eternal life and avoiding eternal death and sufferings. For some people this is a hard message to take because it involves acknowledging sin, for others it’s a hard message to deliver because they want to go along and get along.

Christ was not one afraid to rock the boat nor afraid to risk offending people even inside their own homes. How many times was he invited to dinner which a Pharisee and then criticize them while there.

There is an excellent clip from The Chosen from the final episode of season 2 where Matthew is critiquing the Sermon on the Mount that illustrates this

The key line from Jesus:

“Did you think I was going to come here and say: ‘hey everyone keep on doing what you’ve been doing for the last thousand years since it’s been going so great?'”

If you actually love your neighbor you will tell them a truth they don’t want to hear to save their lives rather than shut up.

The good news is that you have your whole life to figure this out and come to Christ, but not a moment more.

Giorgia Meloni takes Sir Humphrey’s advice

Posted: November 25, 2022 by datechguy in Uncategorized

I’ve often quoted the spectacular TV comedies “Yes Minister” and “Yes Prime Minister” on this site because of the continued relevance of it’s portrayal of: “The political will vs the bureaucratic won’t” which apparently has not changed in the nearly 40 years since the last episode was broadcast.

In that final episode titled titled “The Tangled Web” A there is a clash between Prime Minister James Hacker (Paul Eddington) and secretary of the Cabinet and head of the Civil Service Sir Humphrey Appleby (Nigel Hawthorne) over the PM categorically denying the bugging of a MP before parliament that he was not made aware of. Sir Humphrey refuses to back up this false statement in an upcoming appearance before the privileges committee. But before that appearance comes up Humphrey in an obscure interview not realizing a microphone is still live when the interview is done states that the you can half unemployment in a week by cutting off benefits to any person who refuses two job offers saying “they’ll be off the register before you can say parasite”. While the BBC had no intention of using the post interview remarks the PM gets ahold of a the master tape and Humphrey agrees to back up the PM’s previous denial before the committee to get his hands on the tape.

Well it’s 34 years later and we’ve finally found a pol willing to do something about this in Italy:

Ms Meloni had vowed to abolish the expanded welfare programme altogether during the campaign, arguing that it encouraged people to stay on welfare when they could work and was abused by fraudsters.

The changes announced on Tuesday would knock eligible workers out of the system after eight months or after they refuse a job offer, and requires recipients to actually live in Italy.

Where is this money going? Well it’s going to help Italy, a country with one of the lowest birthrates in the world make more babies:

To encourage families to have more children, Ms Meloni announced a 50 percent increase in the “baby bonus” checks parents receive the first year after the birth of a child and a 50% increase for three years for families with more than three children.

Women who choose to extend maternity leave beyond five months for an extra month can do so on 80 percent of their salary rather than 30 percent. Meloni, Italy’s first woman premier, also announced a reduced tax on feminine hygiene products and items for newborns.

The future belongs to those who show up and Ms Meloni is determined that those who own the future in Italy will be Italians who have a job.

The political left are a rather humorless and mean spirited lot. They are not satisfied making themselves miserable, they try very hard to ruin things for everyone else. 

Holidays particularly draw the ire of progressives and other cultural Marxists.  Thanks to the politically correct mob, Christmas is treated very much like a swear word.  Nativity scenes have been removed from town squares, Christmas tree lightings are now called tree lightings, and schools even ban candy canes and Christmas napkins.

There is a major move amongst progressives to replace Columbus Day with indigenous people’s day. They are now working very hard to replace Thanksgiving with A National Day of Mourning.  Articles such as this NPR article are popping up across this nation.

Members of Native American tribes from around New England are gathering in the seaside town where the Pilgrims settled — not to give thanks, but to mourn Indigenous people worldwide who’ve suffered centuries of racism and mistreatment.

Thursday’s solemn National Day of Mourning observance in downtown Plymouth, Massachusetts, will recall the disease and oppression that European settlers brought to North America.

Sadly, these Native American activists parrot the usual progressive revisionist history, which they no doubt learned from college.

“We Native people have no reason to celebrate the arrival of the Pilgrims,” said Kisha James, a member of the Aquinnah Wampanoag and Oglala Lakota tribes and the granddaughter of Wamsutta Frank James, the event’s founder.

“We want to educate people so that they understand the stories we all learned in school about the first Thanksgiving are nothing but lies. Wampanoag and other Indigenous people have certainly not lived happily ever after since the arrival of the Pilgrims,” James said.

“To us, Thanksgiving is a day of mourning, because we remember the millions of our ancestors who were murdered by uninvited European colonists such as the Pilgrims. Today, we and many Indigenous people around the country say, ‘No Thanks, No Giving.'”

The latest liberal anti Thanksgiving talking point is captured in this Breitbart article.

A recent Washington Post essay faced backlash online after listing common Thanksgiving foods and their “climate impact” in order to inform readers which of the festivity’s staples can be consumed “with a clear conscience.” 

The Thursday article by food columnist Tamar Haspel, titled “The climate impact of the Thanksgiving meal might surprise you,” begins with the author admitting that “tallying the environmental impact of a holiday feast” does not seem to be in the holiday spirit.

We must stand firm against this progressive assault on Thanksgiving.  We must stand firm now before this insanity gains steam.

The 2nd year of our draft league is winding down and a lot is going on Here is where things stand:

EastWinsLossesPctGBWild Card GB
NY Yankees8159.579—-+11 1/2
Seattle Pilots6773.479141 1/2
Baltimore Orioles638019 1/27
Pilots are defending AL Champ

Barring an epic collapse the Yankees have a pretty solid lock on the AL East and are a solid seven games ahead of Cleveland for the best record in the AL. Their trades last season when the playoff door closed have paid off and holding the 2nd-4th leading hitters in the AL and Jim Hickman’s MVP caliber season all help . Seattle trading for Frank Howard who is has made a huge difference leading the AL in HR & RBI and puts the defending AL champs in a position to challenge Minnesota for that final wild card spot to end the year. Particularly with the two AL leaders in walks batting ahead of him. Despite a good year by Billy Williams and Orioles pitchers striking out everything in sight the team has surprisingly underperformed but even with only 19 games to go to rule them out is dangerous

CentralWinsLossesPctGBWild Card GB
Cleveland Indians7466.529—-+4 1/2
Minnesota Twins6974.4836 1/2—-
California Angels5885.40617 1/211
Don’t count out those twins

Cleveland has surged lately building up a 6 1/2 game lead but even with Tony Perez & Jim Perry outperforming all expectations and Sam McDowell being Sam McDowell they are not far enough ahead to avoid worry. Minnesota is clinging to that last wild card spot by their fingernails with Duke Sims and Killebrew doing their best to hold off the charge but also has the toughest schedule with five of their last seven series against teams with better records than them BUT 5 games vs Cleveland meaning the division is still in play. California despite an excellent expansion draft have underperformed all around.

WestWinsLossesPctGBWild Card GB
Boston Red Sox7172.497—-+2
Oakland A’s7172.487—-+2
California Angels5090.35719 1/217 1/2
Talk about down to the wire!

The tightest division race in the majors remains deadlocked with only 19 to play. Add to that only a 2 game margin over the bottom wild card and this battle becomes do or die. Can Rico Carty’s bat, Gary Nolan’s arm and Pete Richert’s work in the pen overcome a disappointing year from knuckleballer Phil Niekro? Or will Sonny Siebert, Daryl Knowles be the difference to keep Reggie & company moving forward? Meanwhile the Washington Senators sitting with the #1 pick next year plus draft picks from trades are in a great position to rebuild and play spoiler.

EastWinsLossesPctGBWild Card GB
Atlanta Braves8654.614—-+9 1/2
Philadelphia Phillies8459.5873 1/2+6
Montreal Expos5588.38532 1/223 1/2
Another tough fight

Only the Yankees rivaled the Braves in trades for draft picks and like the Yanks Atlanta has cashed in. Tony Oliva and Caesar Cedeno have ruled at the bat while Fergie Jenkins leads the majors in ERA with pitching help from Chuck Dobson, Mike Cuellar and Eddie Fisher saving the day. Philly the other expansion team with Luke Walker, Bob Robinson and Dick Selma saving the day don’t intend to make it easy for the Braves. Montreal was expected to be a contender this year

CentralWinsLossesPctGBWild Card GB
Cincinnati Reds10241.713—-+27
NY Day Traders6377.45037 1/213 1/2
Montreal Expos6479.4483814
Big Red Machine no Huge Red Machine dominating the defending champion day traders

The Reds haven’t just deiminated this division they’ve dominated the league, Carbo, Rettenmund, Bench, Morgan Tolan own the leaderboards at bat with Fritz Peterson and Steve Hargan doing it on the pitching side. The defending champ day traders are still alive in the wild card hunt thanks to Tom Seaver with help from Larry Brown & Terry Harmon but only just. St. Louis’ is right behind them and only a bad luck year from Bob Gibson have kept them from doing more.

WestWinsLossesPctGBWild Card GB
San Francisco Giants8258.586—-+5 1/2
Pittsburgh Pirates7865.5455 1/2—-
Los Angeles Dodgers5783.4072519 1/2
Pitching Pitching Pitching

The Giants under new management have been a Pitching machine with Dave McNally reversing last years bad luck and Tom Hall and John Lamb leading the way. Pittsburgh led by Luis Aparicio and Gaylord Perry having huge years seem a wild card lock but are still in striking distance for the division. The rest of the league has discovered the way to beat the LA Dodgers. Walk Willie McCovey because if you don’t he will beat you badly.