By Christopher Harper
Amid the news of hatred and hurricanes, the Little League World Series and its stories provide a welcome relief.
Even the Philadelphia Phillies and the Washington Nationals, who played a game during the series, reveled in the purity of the game of young players worldwide.
Held each year in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, which is 15 minutes from my home, the two-week-long championship provides many tales of hope and opportunity.
The best story this year centers on Illia Kolomoiets, a refugee from Ukraine who plays for the Czech Republic.
Until 2022, Kolomoiets and his family lived in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. When Russians invaded the country, Kolomoiets, his mother, and his older brother were part of the 6.2 million Ukrainians who became refugees.
“We evacuated in March of 2022. It was me, my mother, and my older brother. We moved with a friend in his car to help transport them over the border. The journey to Prague took 12 to 13 hours,” he said through a translator.
Now living in Prague, Kolomoiets was part of the Little League team that went undefeated in its qualification stage. Throughout the regional tournament, which took place in Kutno, Poland, at the end of July, his team dominated the competition. The team finished a perfect 5-0, defeating the United Kingdom 16-0, France 4-0, the Netherlands 18-3, Italy 4-2, and the Netherlands again in the championship round 7-6.
In Prague, the 12-year-old outfielder found an outlet in baseball, even adopting a Major League baseball team. “My favorite team is the Pittsburgh Pirates,” Kolomiets said. His favorite player, outfielder Bryan Reynolds, plays for the Pirates.
When asked what the best part of competing in the tournament was, Kolomoiets said, “Being able to face great pitching. I can experience it.”
His coach applauded Kolomoiet’s skills. “It’s Illia’s first year with me,” Arnošt Nešnal said. “I saw that he was a very fast runner who can play any position. He is very good addition for our team.”
See the interview from the Williamsport Sun-Gazette at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIcgUc1LUU4
Archive for August, 2023
Hope and baseball
Posted: August 22, 2023 by chrisharper in UncategorizedTags: damagnificent seven, Little League baseball
I’m Old Enough to Remember When CNN Editing A Conservative’s Speech To Change It’s Meaning Was Frowned Upon by Trump Primary Supporters…
Posted: August 21, 2023 by datechguy in election 2024, elections, primariesTags: dishonest media, dishonorable left, donald trump, gop primary, ron desantis, unexpectedly
…but apparently if you’re doing so to DeSantis suddenly the MSM, fake media that pushed the Russia Hoax the false J6 narrative and has been pushing the Trump indictments are disqualifying are suddenly to folks like Kari Lake and Donald Trump Jr a reliable source that must be trusted. Which is particularly funny in Lake’s case as her entire campaign in Arizona was based on her calling them out.
Here is the actual clip
Now I’m not actually surprised by the Trump campaign’s reaction because it’s Trump’s nature to fight in this way. Indeed one of the things that make Trump appealing other than his record is that he fights like a Democrat and when the target is a Democrat people who have have seen the left get away with this kind of stuff without pushback for years tend to smile because a Jacksonian believes that if you’re fighting against someone who doesn’t fight fair, they don’t get a fair fight back. It’s one of the reasons why Trump is my 2nd choice after DeSantis over the rest of the GOP field that has no fight in them whatsoever.
But right now we’re in a GOP primary and Trump is fighting the single best GOP governor we have in the country using the same type of tactics & lies that the Dems used against him. Why because he understand that voters, not pols vote. (at least in GOP primaries where the boxes are stuffed)
That last thing President Trump needs on the GOP primary ballot is a person with a solid conservative record both of accomplishment and defeating the left who can appeal to those people particularly in swing states, that are suffering from Trump fatigue.
I submit and suggest the only person more afraid of Gov Ron DeSantis than the MSM and left is Donald Trump.
But in fairness if DeSantis is going to beat the Dems in November he has to be able to handle this kind of dishonest attack because it’s exactly the same type of tactics that the Biden campaign will throw at him and worse so it’s good practice for the fall.
Closing thought: If Trump is the nominee it will be interesting to see the same people touting these tactics by CNN vs DeSantis being outraged when they’re used against Trump again.
#unexpectedly of course.
A Reminder Concerning Twitter (And Facebook, and Tic Tok and Instagram et/al)
Posted: August 20, 2023 by datechguy in UncategorizedScrewtape: Even if a particular train of thought can be twisted so as to end in our favor you will find that you have been strengthening in your patient the fatal habit of attending to universal issues and withdrawing his attention from the stream of immediate sense experiences. Your business is to fix his attention on the stream. Teach him to call it “real life” and don’t let him ask what he means by “real”.
C. S. Lewis The Screwtape letters Screwtape #1 1941
One of the disadvantages of having blogged continually for 15 years is that you are constantly looking for something to write about.
It doesn’t matter what else is going on, if you have readers, particularly readers who have kicked in cash there is a desire to make sure there is material on the plate every day. When you do full time work and have other items on your plate that can be a challenge.
That’s where the addiction of Twitter and everything else in social media comes into play. It provides an endless stream of people talking about things and expressing opinions on things. It can be a useful source but the desire to be heard and to prove one’s own self importance can become an addiction as strong as any other.
Today after mass DaWife and I were thinking about a quick bite when we decided to stop in on our sons house. Our oldest grabbed a quick shower and joined us at a local donut shop where we sat outside had a drink and ate our stuff while simply talking.
We didn’t concentrate on our phones, or the net or anything else, we just enjoyed the sun, the food the drink and each other.
In short to the horror of screwtape we withdrew our attention from the stream.
Of course in C. S. Lewis’ day the steam was very different that it is today but the principle is the same.
You have the power to walk away and interact with life. Note how many companies have failed to withdraw from the steam of facebook and twitter treating it like it was “real life” rather than interacting with the actual people their business is dependent on.
Don’t make that mistake, take a step away and if it means you don’t see an update on one of your sites till this evening or even tomorrow. You’ll be shocked at how easy it is to do so.
Public Schools align with Satan
Posted: August 19, 2023 by navygrade36bureaucrat in local issues, local stuff, Uncomfortable TruthsTags: Da Magnificent Seven, datechguy's magnificent seven, Navy Grade 36, NG36B, satan, satan club
Satan has two interesting strategies to spread his influence among humanity. The first involves pretending that he doesn’t exist. There are many people that laugh at the idea of Satan existing at all, and who instead argue that its “bad humans” that account for the evil in the world. These people don’t even like using the word “evil” because it implies there is a “good,” and they instead argue that actions are judged based on human standards at the time, instead of any sort of absolute judgement.
While this strategy works well, it pushes Satan to stay hidden and out of site. It’s far better to operate in the open, and that seems to be the current strategy. But why would rational human beings allow the literal Prince of Darkness, who promises to enslave men and women, to openly influence them?
Easy. Satan becomes cool. He stands for libertarian ideals of free and open speech. Heck, he even has an “X” account. He even manages to get applause in Chesapeake, VA, where school board members voted to continue to allow the club to meet on school grounds. From our parish’s FlockNote:
Unfortunately, the school board voted 7-1 (with one member absent) to allow all non-exempt clubs to include the After School Satan Club to use Chesapeake Public Schools facilities. There were 40 speakers that were signed up to speak, and only five spoke against the After School Satan Club and prohibiting facility use. Most of the speakers and the attendees represented the Good News Club (the Bible club), a wrestling club, and other various clubs such as a soccer club and the girl scouts. There were also about 10 Satanists present, with several of them speaking. There were only four Catholics present by my count, and all spoke out against the After School Satan Club and non-exempt clubs using school facilities. At the end of the meeting, the room was full of applause for the board’s decision to allow non-exempt clubs to meet.
The rosary rally had good attendance, despite the heat, with around 30 people showing up to pray. Four Satanists showed up as a counter-protest at the end of our rally, and there was no interaction between the groups. Thank you to everyone who showed up and those who were unable to make it that were praying from afar. Even thought the vote did not go as we had hoped, I know our prayers are not wasted.
On a positive note, I asked Rose Bastet (the leader of the After School Satan Club and a Satanic minister) if the After School Satan Club planned to meet on the third Thursday of the month as they did during the last school year. I said that we wanted to continue praying the rosary. She said that the school district was giving them a lot of trouble, and she wasn’t sure if they were going to meet at this time. She didn’t go into detail as to what that meant exactly. The attitude of the Satanists was completely reversed from the last time the school board allowed them to meet several months ago. Several months ago they were overjoyed and cheerful at the decision. After this meeting, they did not seem happy.
The only board member who voted to get rid of all non-exempt clubs to include the After School Satan Club was Samuel Boone. The member who was absent was Brittany Walker. The members who voted to allow the clubs to meet with no changes in the policy were: Angela Swygert, Thomas Mercer, Amanda Dean, Michael Lamonea, John McCormick, Norman Pool, and Kim Scott.
Amanda Dean tried to get a reclassification of what a non-exempt club was as she seemed to be surprised that the wrestling club would be impacted. She and Samuel Boone were the only two members who voted to reclassify, with the other members voting to not reclassify as they were wary of legal repercussions. Amanda Dean has been the most outspoken board member about getting the After School Satan Club out of schools so her vote to ultimately allow the clubs was surprising. Perhaps she voted the way she did due to the hostile crowd or realizing that the only option on the table would get rid of more clubs than she had previously realized.
Stay tuned for further details on this situation. We will plan to have rosary rallies in the future should we determine when the After School Satan Club is meeting. It is especially disheartening that the people of this city erupted into applause when all the clubs were able to meet. We need to continue to pray, do penance, and acts of reparation as it seems clear that things like wrestling are more important to the residents of this city than keeping Satan out of the public sphere.
Interestingly enough, if you go to the Facility Use rules for Chesapeake Public School, you can find this restriction:
The described use would conflict with a policy, procedure, or the mission of Chesapeake Public Schools.
Not sure when the mission of public schools aligned with Satan, but apparently they aren’t in “conflict” with the school? That doesn’t bode well for any of us going forward.
This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency. Pray for America and for Chesapeake today, we certainly need it.
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