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This is a very bad idea but no Surprise

Posted: February 10, 2023 by datechguy in Uncategorized

I’ll say this for the Biden Administration. When you buy them they stay bought, to wit:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a new list of routine vaccines for children and adults now that it’s already more than a month into the new year. While COVID-19 shots weren’t on the agency’s list last year, the vaccines, including updated booster doses, are now added to the CDC’s 2023 routine immunization schedule for eligible children and adults.

The bottom line of this is that in a blue state that mandates following these guidelines the kids are getting the clot shot reguardless of the lack of risk of COVID for the young, but the real irony of this decision is that it comes after Fauci does this:

What if I told you that Anthony Fauci knew all along that the COVID vaccine could not possibly prevent either infection with or transmission of COVID?

Not surprised? Neither am I.

Now, what if I told you he just published a paper in a peer-reviewed journal admitting that fact, and calling for new types of vaccines to deal with the problem?

So the party of killing kids in the womb is going to make sure they get them later.

Well that’s the advantage of having a post-Christian bureaucracy You don’t have to worry about the actual health of lives of kids as long as you get your cut.

Yes to the FBI at Latin Mass

Posted: February 9, 2023 by datechguy in Blame Biden Administration, catholic, catholic devotions
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Penny: Can I ask you a question?

Sheldon: Given your community-college education, I encourage you to ask me as many as possible.

The Big Bang Theory: The Robotic Manipulation 2010

At first glance this story is a rather sinister thing:

 An intelligence analyst within the Richmond Field Office of the FBI released in a new finished intelligence product dated January 23, 2023, on Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists (RMVE) and their interests in “Radical-Traditionalist Catholics” or RTCs. The document assesses with “high confidence” the FBI can mitigate the threat of Radical-Traditionalist Catholics by recruiting sources within the Catholic Church.

If there is a better illustration of Bishop Fulton Sheen’s famous quote…:

There are not one hundred people in the United States who hate The Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be.

….I can’t think of it.

Ed Morrissey who linked the story at Hotair had a bit of a chuckle too:

 It’s not as if some extremist Christian sects haven’t presented a real domestic-terror threat in the past, either, but the “rad trads” are mainly extremists entirely within the context of Catholicism, not in the sense of secular threats. The Traditional Latin Mass is going to be a major disappointment to FBI agents ‘infiltrating’ it.

And the extent of the rad trads “extremism” is the rejection of the vernacular mass (what is called the Novis Ordo) as illicit which the majority of those who regularly attend the Latin mass do not. Of course to the Fr. James Martins of the world and their allies in the church the affirmation of Catholic doctrine of subjects like homosexual sex, gay marriage and transgenderism is what makes an “extremists” so a Biden FBI run by the left would likely be considering Catholics as a whole (well except for that school in Canada that kicks out and arrests students who dared to say there are only two genders) extreme.

My own reaction is slightly different. If you tell me the FBI are sending people to attend Latin Mass or even the venacular Mass, either weekly or daily my response can be articulated in one word:

Good!

I can think of no group of people who more desperately need to be attending Mass than the folks at the FBI. Furthermore the even if they come with the intent to observe and report they will still be hearing the word and be part of the prayers and in the words of Screwtape:

Wherever there is prayer, there is danger of His [God’s] own immediate action

Give the Holy Spirit an opening to a soul and you can bet your bottom dollar he will dash in.

So to paraphrase Sheldon’s response to Penny: Given what the FBI has become over the last few years I strongly encourage every field agents and analyst in the bureau to attend as many Masses of any type as humanly possible.

Five Chosen Season Finale Thoughts Under the Fedora (Spoilers) A Nitpick, A surprise, A key teaching, Cliffhangers and The Bread of life in season 4?

Posted: February 8, 2023 by datechguy in catholic, culture, entertainment
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Tonight is the season finale of the Chosen season 3 for those like me who didn’t see it in the theatre. Here are some thoughts.

There was a big error right in the front. In Israel the queen wasn’t the king’s wife, kings had many wives, it was the king’s mother. We also don’t know which wife of David that was although given her age and pregnancy I’m betting Bathsheba.

It’s an interesting note because it was not uncommon to ask of the queen mother to intercede with the king on behalf of a need, which explains the “Hail Mary” prayer of the Rosary to a “T”.

I’m sure like me A lot of people expected the climax to be the feeding of the 5000, the fact that it ended on the walking on the water and calming the storm was a surprise. Thomas’ line concerning the 2nd most incredible thing he saw that day was funny but what was more significant to me was even having Jesus right and having Jesus do what he had already done that day the Disciples were still urging Simon Peter not to get out of the boat when invited by Christ.

The overall arc of the season was apparently the story of the prodigal son (which he has not told yet) in the sense that Simon Peter and Eden are the faithful child who complains “Why is the fatted calf killed for a party for the one who did not obey?” The frustration of both Eden and then Peter in their suffering while so many are healed around them is poignant.

I also thought that Eden going to her local Rabbi and not waiting for Jesus’ personally was an important reminder that when are priest intervenes when we have problems we ARE getting God’s intervention as he is there in persona Christi.

Just because you don’t see someone dramatically commanding the waves to stop it doesn’t mean your relief from the storm isn’t an act of God.

There were two significant cliff hangers. First of them is Rabbi Shmuel. We know that he was invited by Christ to pray with him when the crowds were gone and that Christ made himself available to him, so:

  1. Did they pray together
  2. Did he question Jesus
  3. If so was he satisfied with the answer

That was to me the big cliff hanger, the second is Atticus Aemilius. He was right being the rabbis from Jerusalem in getting to the crowd, although they didn’t show it he obviously would have questioned them and more importantly he SAW Christ walk on the water and the sudden end of the storm.

Presuming he is a believer in the Roman Gods the idea that Jesus might be “A” God (as opposed to “The God”) would not be out of his comfort zone. The question is will he consider him a threat to Rome, basically a God of the Jews who is acting to challenge Rome or will his part be to be the one who reports to Tiberius, basically the Roman who produces the report to Caesar that is the basis for the movie “The inquiry“.

You could actually had Atticus urging and advising the death of Christ not because he doesn’t believe he is God but because he does.

That will be very interesting to see how it plays out.

Finally as of this writing they are still millions ($13.1) away from raising the funds needed for season 4. As of this day they have not yet payed for episode 4 so we don’t know when we will see it but we know a few things.

  • We know that Jesus will be healing Gaius’ son.
  • We know that even larger crowds will be following him

but most important of all

  • We know that boat will end up back in Capernaum

The significance of this is that in John Gospel directly after the feeding of the 5000 comes what is called “The bread of life discourses” The feeding of the 5000 and those words are basically John Chapter six and they, combined with the last supper, are the basis for the Eucharist where Jesus tells the crowd bluntly that they must eat his flesh and drink his blood and when challenged instead of explaining it as a metaphor doubles down, thus causing many of his disciples to leave him.

I’ve mentioned this before but I recall my Pastor upon hearing of the Chosen noted that Protestant productions that are not word for word adaptions of scripture invariably leave out the bread of life discourses as they are frightfully inconvenient.

I guess the rubber will meet the road in a year, how much influence the VERY catholic Jonathan Roumie will have on this decision will be interesting but either way we will see. (Of course if they do the feeding of the 4000 too they could always put it there).

Williams vs Musial in Left as Trump vs DeSantis as the Nominee

Posted: February 7, 2023 by datechguy in baseball, elections, politics, Uncategorized
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In the 1985 edition of the Bill James Historical Baseball abstract James ranks the best players at each position based on both “Peak Value” (How they played at their peak) and “Career Value” (How they played over their career). At the position of left field James Ranked Stan Musial as the #1 of all time with Ted Williams 2nd. By the 2001 edition of the book which didn’t have the Peak vs Career editions he had flipped the pair based on his revised win shares formula but back in 1985 he made this argument concerning his choice:

Look I am not saying anything at all negative about Ted Williams. The further we go into the analysis of batting statistics the closer we come to being forced to accept the conclusion that Williams, not Babe Ruth, was the greatest hitter who ever lived. I think he was the second greatest left fielder who ever lived. That’s not critizism.

But if I had to choose between the two of them I’d take Musial in left field, Musial on the basepaths, Musial in the clubhouse and Williams only with the wood in his hands. And Stan Musial could hit a little too.

This is actually one of my pet peeves. I get sick of hearing people say on talk radio, “Aaron Rogers sucks, when talking about Brady or or Lebron sucks when talking about Jordan. One can acknowledge that Brady is better than Rogers or Jordan is better than James without deciding the other stinks.

And that takes us to Trump vs DeSantis.

In one sense this conversation is premature as Ron DeSantis hasn’t announced that he’s running but I’m getting really sick of the “DeSantis sucks” stuff coming out of the Trump camp and the “Trump sucks” stuff coming out of some republicans.

If you look at the data, from the economic numbers to the accomplishments one had to conclude that not only was Donald Trump the best and most effective president of the 21st century so far, but you can make a credible argument that he was superior to Ronald Reagan and the best GOP president since Teddy Roosevelt who I think is the most compatible president to Donald Trump.

One can see this, acknowledge this and even assert, as I do, that the 2020 election was literally stolen from him, and still decide that DeSantis is the better choice in 2024. That’ doesn’t mean that Trump is a bad choice it just means that you think DeSantis is a better one.at this time.

On the other hand if you look at the data, again from the economic numbers to the accomplishments and conclude that Ron DeSantis is not only the most effective and successful GOP governor currently in office but that he is likely the best GOP governor that we’ve seen in the 21st century and I don’t think it’s close.

One can see this, acknowledge this and even assert that he would make an excellent president and still decide that Donald Trump is the better choice for 2024. That doesn’t mean DeSantis is a bad choice, it just means you think Trump is a better one at this time.

I supported Rick Santorum in 2012, in 2016 I supported Ted Cruz over Santorum, not because I thought Santorum was bad but because I thought Ted Cruz was a better choice at the time.

I will happily support either Trump or DeSantis as the GOP nominee but let’s not pretend that either one of them is a bad choice, and let’s stop hitting either as if they are.

Oh and if you claim to be a conservative and say you won’t vote for Trump or DeSantis over a Biden, Harris, Newsom or an Obama then please don’t waste my time with your opinion because you’re no conservative.

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