Archive for 2022

A What it’s like being Married 34 Years Story

Posted: May 19, 2022 by datechguy in Uncategorized

For this story to make sense you need to know three things up front:

  1. I’m under a religious vow to La Madonna Della Cava not to eat meat on Wednesdays
  2. The Diner less than a five minute walk from my door makes the best fried Haddock I’ve ever tasted but my wife doesn’t like it.
  3. Yesterday was my birthday

Me: Hmm shall I have a Frozen Celeste Pizza or the Red Baron French Bread Pizza for lunch?

DaWife: Aren’t you going down the street for your fish?

Me: I thought I’d just have a frozen pizza

DaWife: But you love that fish, it’s your favorite!

Me: I thought I’d save a few bucks and have a frozen Pizza

DaWife: It’s your birthday. Go down the street and have the fish you enjoy.

Me: Hmmm, it’s like you’re trying to get me out of the house. Does that mean that you’re planning to surprise me when I come back by greeting me in a sexy nightgown and then take me upstairs for an afternoon of passion for my birthday?

(pause)

DaWife: Go have a frozen pizza.

Five Thoughts That Have Little or Nothing to do with Politics Under the Fedora

Posted: May 18, 2022 by datechguy in Uncategorized

On the way to work last week I saw a hawk circling over Water Street in Fitchburg. Last week there was a Coyote in the parking lot of the warehouse I work at in Devens.

As little as two decades ago that would have been unthinkable, but then again as little as three to five years ago I never saw a rabbit in town. Now their not only all over my back yard but every day on the way home from work I see at least 3-5 darting around all over town.

Given that I grew up with a back yard abutting woods and a stream this change is even more dramatic.

I started attending adoration of the Blessed Sacrament ten years ago taking over the hour that my mother had done at the Chapel after she died and I’ve noticed a significant change in the decade this has been going on.

When I first started the adorers where I’d say 80-90% women. A man, particularly one in his late 40’s was an oddity. Not completely unique but an oddity.

Now when I go to adoration more than half of the people are men.

I can’t place when this started happening but it has happened.

One fact of life that is often ignored is that even on bad decisions there are some winners.

Remy is exactly right in his parody of Old Town Road that new Stadiums rarely workout for cities in terms of economic growth.

However when Worcester took the RedSox AAA franchise from Pawtucket there were two groups of winners.

The first was those was anyone who drove in Kelly Square before the change because that seven way intersection was one of the most dangerous bits of road I ever drove on. To me it’s amazing that there wasn’t an accident there every single day.

The second group of winners were baseball fans like me who now have a AAA stadium under 30 minutes away. The truth that it is likely a bad deal for Worcester will not take away my enjoyment of the ability to see baseball at practically a major league level affordable both in terms of price and time to get there.

It may be that sooner or later another city might decide to outbid Worcester and the team will move but until such a day comes, if ever, I’m going to enjoy every season of it.

I do most of the grocery shopping in the house and it’s become over the last year one of the most depressing tasks there is.

I find myself happy to pay “sale” prices that are at or above what was the standard or the high price on items just two years ago.

I can see my shopping habits chance as prices do and while I always had an eye for a bargain but with the knowledge that it will cost double to heat my house this winter I find myself scrimping now so I won’t have to suffer in the cold.

Being the son of depression era parents it’s not that hard to get in that habit but it feels like failure on my part as a provider. I know that’s not a popular idea these days but I wasn’t raised in these days.

Finally as I get older I find myself reflecting on my life more. I done a lot of different things from owning a business, to writing a book to occasional public speaking. I’ve had two radio shows, one still in progress interviewed mayors, governors, Cardinals, congressmen, senators and questioned one future President on the campaign trail. I even won a civil case before a jury acting as my own lawyer once against the real thing.

I’ve failed a lot too, I failed in business, My radio show while syndicated locally never broke through, I didn’t make it nationally and instead of a comfortable living in my major I find myself working full time at a warehouse while drawing only a quarter at best of the blog traffic I once did never managing to break though to the point where I could make a living at it as others have. And there are times when my failures, particularly my financial ones, press against me rather heavily.

But in the end I have a good wife and a marriage in its 34th year and two good honorable God Fearing Catholic mass attending sons both making a better living than I am.

If that’s not a successful life I’d like to know what is.

Something smells Here at BLM? Nah Every Big Money Donation Went for the Intended Purpose

Posted: May 18, 2022 by datechguy in culture
Tags: ,

Friar Tuck You two are accomplices! That means that lottery was a cold blooded swindle!

Will Sharpe: Now is that any way to talk about honest people?

Friar Tuck: I have no licking for any of these lotteries sweeping the country, but some of them are honest. Yours is a downright fraud.

Will Sharpe: Fraud? We gave value for money. A moment’s excitement in their drab lives.

The Adventures of Robin Hood: The Lottery 1958

Over at Hotair there is a piece about how the money collected by BLM Black Lives Matter or also known as Build Large Mansions) on how these folks have been spending the millions that have been showered upon them:

The Associated Press has obtained copies of the group’s financial disclosure statements and it turns out that BLM has become a very profitable venture for a supposed non-profit organization. Even after blowing through an eye-popping amount of money over the past couple of years, the group is still sitting on roughly $42 million in assets.

But in fairness part of the 37 Millions has been spent, on friends and family that is:

This of course comes right out of the Three Stooges Tax Guide that note charity begins at home.

And some of the local chapters are wondering why they are not seeing the tens of millions raised. Jazz Shaw asks the question:

Did all of the wealthy liberal donors and Hollywood elites who flushed cash into BLM to “help the movement” ever think to ask where the money was going?

The outrage of the local chapters and the questions by Jazz and the snark from Ed would all seem valid but they ignore a rather critical fact about the money donated by the rich and the powerful and by the various corporation that shoveled millions to this organization.

I submit and suggest that practically none of this money was donated for the purpose of protecting or improving actual black lives hurt by discrimination or racism or even by unfair police practices.

If they were, then all of the outrage and the shock and surprise at the wonton use of these funds for personal and family profit would be valid.

But as the purpose of these funds, both corporate and individual were

  1. To publicly demonstrate individual and/or corporates “virtue”
  2. To publicly be included as “part of the club” of right thinking people
  3. To make sure they were not on the list of people to be targeted by social justice rent a mobs

And all of these donor goals were achieved!

Once you realize that people were spending monies on personal and public reputations rather than some altruistic vision it’s had to get outraged by it.

Jazz closes saying:

 potential donors should be made fully aware of this situation before they open up their wallets again.

He should have no fear. The donors know that every cent will still be used to enhance and/or protect the reputation of those who give them and as long as that remains true, they will be satisfied.

A Black woman for the GOP

Posted: May 17, 2022 by chrisharper in politics
Tags: ,

By Christopher Harper

Today’s GOP primary here in Pennsylvania, particularly in the U.S. Senate race, underlines the unpredictability of the state’s Republican Party.

Seven candidates are vying for the ability to replace Pat Toomey, a significant disappointment for many Republicans.

David McCormick, a former hedge-fund executive, has millions of dollars to spend, but his close ties to China make him unpalatable even though he has been at or near the top of the polls. Moreover, his connections are mainly to New Jersey rather than Pennsylvania.

Mehmet Oz, a surgeon and a television talk show host, has the support of President Trump. But Oz’s past statements in support of abortion and other liberal issues have offended many conservatives in the state.

As a result, Kathy Barnette, a former soldier and Fox News analyst, has gained traction in recent weeks.

This trio stands atop the polls in what has become one of the most expensive and dirtiest campaigns in Pennsylvania’s history.

Barnette has been the recent target of such attacks, including her tweets about Islam and gays.

“My phone is blowing up with people who never call who are asking who they should vote for,” said Doug McLinko, a Bradford County commissioner and local Republican Party official in northern Pennsylvania.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, McLinko said he has rarely seen as much confusion and indecision among conservatives. “Spending all this money to attack each other isn’t helpful because it has confused the voters,” he said. “I’ve never seen such a mess.”

If successful, Barnette would be the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Senate as a Republican. During the campaign, she has questioned the commitment of her better-funded rivals on abortion and other conservative causes.

 “I am the byproduct of a rape,” she said in one debate, as she criticized Oz for past support of abortion. “My mother was 11 years old when I was conceived. My father was 21. I was not just a lump of cells.”

Barnette said she was raised on a pig farm in Alabama that lacked running water.

In her book, Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain: Being Black and Conservative in America, Barnette argues that liberal policies have failed the Black community. 

I think Republicans need someone different to set the party apart from the Democrats. A Black woman from a hardscrabble background might make a powerful candidate against the Democrats, who depend heavily on the Black communities in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. 

Club for Growth Action, a conservative super PAC, has endorsed Barnette and placed an order for $2 million in advertising in support of her. Barnette, who lost a bid to join U.S. House of Representatives in 2020, also won the backing of the Susan B. Anthony List, a pro-life group.

Conventional wisdom argues that a Black female Republican will have difficulty beating the likely Democrat John Fetterman, the state’s lieutenant governor. But Fetterman suffered a stroke over the weekend and may not be as formidable as many experts think. 

I don’t think conventional wisdom and experts work much anymore. As a result, I plan to vote for Barnette. I think she might be just the right candidate to keep the seat in Republican hands. 

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