Author Archive

Disagreements Under the Fedora

Posted: May 22, 2021 by datechguy in Uncategorized

I’m a fan of the Gatestone Institute but I have to disagree with this line in a piece about Hamas and the support they apparently have around the world as they launch rockets at Israel.

These Arabs evidently understand what the anti-Israel activists around the world fail to see — that Hamas has brought nothing but disaster and despair to the two million Palestinians living under its rule in the Gaza Strip

I don’t think the anti-Israel activists fail to see this, I think they don’t care, I think their goal is dead Jews and no amount of Arab suffering in the process is too little.


There is something missing in the premise in this article on the Silence of Chuck Schumer

One pro-Palestinian demonstrator launched a firework at bystanders, reportedly causing burns to a 55-year-old woman. Pro-Israel demonstrators were beaten in the street, and pro-Palestinian demonstrators spat at diners at a local steakhouse. Fox News added that a Jewish man was chased in a parking lot by pro-Palestinian demonstrators in a truck, flying Palestinian flags.

Yet Schumer has said nothing about the violence in his own state.

Ironically, Schumer has been voluble about other forms of bigotry, and other riots, celebrating the signing of a bill on anti-Asian hate crimes, and pushing for a bipartisan commission on the Capitol riot of January 6. But he has been silent about antisemitism in New York, and similar attacks in cities around the country, notably Los Angeles, where pro-Palestinian rioters attacked Jews.

Schumer not only understands that this is the base of his party and he can’t lead by attacking them, but he also understand that not only would the violent types he’s been condoning for a year would turn on him like a shot but he also understands that as a Jew he and his family would be targeted and killed with glee.

That’s why the left is easy on this violence because the only thing these folks hate more than us is an apostate.


On twitter yesterday I pointed out the left should be happy about these audits as they should prove how wrong we on the right are about the election and got this response from a lefty:

The number of falsehoods in this reply are considerable and I’ve presumed that our friends in the left know this to be the case but this piece at the American Mind suggests there is something else at play:

The same holds true for Democrats. When it comes to the legacy media, well-known technocrats, or leftist politicians, they will default to an assumption of truthfulness. Reporters can repeatedly report lies, Anthony Fauci can flip-flop constantly on health policy, and Andrew Cuomo can lie about sending elderly New Yorkers to their deaths, but they are all still trusted. Collecting the evidence and doing the work of finding and accepting the truth is much harder than simply trusting them, so people ignore the red flags and contradictions. Conservatives can safely claim that they had no part in these disasters, but progressives are forced to account for their misguided support of such people. It’s much easier to ignore the evidence and accuse the other side of being crackpots and bigots.  

To acknowledge reality is to acknowledge responsibility. As Prager said he now understands how so many Germans were willing to pretend the Nazi’s were not what they were.


I wish this was a surprise:

I have no idea why baseball executives think it is appropriate to celebrate an armed robber, drug addict, petty criminal, arrest resister and sometime porn performer, or why they think this is what their fans want to see. But I have no intention of patronizing a business that does something this clueless.

The reality is they’re not worried about John Hinderacker going to the park they’re afraid of it being burned down, particularly when the size of your police force continues to drop.

If I owned the Twins I’d move them.


Finally yesterday I went for breakfast with my wife. I had the check book with me and was writing out some water bills. Apparently this got the attention of someone at the next table and his wife who said about 15 minutes he wanted me to run for mayor.

It was very odd and slightly flattering and the look on my wife’s face was interesting but I think that in a city that voted for both Hillary and Biden in a deep blue state a public Trump fan like me is not likely to go anywhere when it comes to elective office.

Some Simple Facts of Life Vaccine Edition

Posted: May 21, 2021 by datechguy in Uncategorized

The whole business of vaccines needs some non political clarifications.

Vaccines were one of the great advances in medicine. By this large populations were protected from diseases that ravaged mankind for millennia.

Since day one vaccines have come with side effects as all things do and for a small percentage of the population these side effects were serious (my now 71 year old brother spent time as a youth in an iron lung do to a reaction to one) and even death. But in an age of diseases that could decimate a population such a rick was considered worthwhile for a population as a whole.

Many of these risks have dropped not only because of vaccines but of improved sanitary conditions both for human living and in the production of food etc that decreases the likelihood of such diseases breaking out.

The Wuhan / Corona / Chinese virus is more related to a flu than diseases like Polio or Smallpox but for the right populations, (the old the obese and those with existing illnesses) is seemingly more deadly than the flu and for some (my wife included) may have side effects that cause trouble even after recovery.

The unexpected arrival of this disease (likely from a weapons lab) and it’s effects on the population required drastic action which is why the Trump Administration operated “Operation Warp Speed” to develop vaccines much faster than normal.

As part of the emergency some of the normal precautions and controls that might take place with a vaccine we relaxed in the emergency just as in the field hospital a doctor might act with sanitary standards that he would never tolerate in a hospital.

That these or any vaccines were developed in this record time is a real human accomplishment that both the Trump administration and the medical can pharmaceutical industry should rightly take pride in however because speed was of the essence it’s is likely that the number of side effects, the severity of said side effects and the number of people subject to them would be much higher.

Because of this increased risk (which will dissipate over time as research continues) and the fact that the primary risk is to those to whom the normal flu would put at risk I have no problem with those who decide to give the shot a miss nor do I have an issue with those who go for the jab. We’re all adults here, let’s act that way when people make their call.

Governor Noem Meets Screwtape 30

Posted: May 20, 2021 by datechguy in culture, politics

Breitbart reports that the NCAA has caved on Transgender laws:

The NCAA made loud proclamations in April that it could pull events from states with limits on transgender athletes. Still, now the college sports governing body has caved and will allow tournaments in states including Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas despite their laws restricting trans athletes.

The NCAA sided with transgender athletes only last month, saying they may cancel events in states that aren’t “free of discrimination” against transgender athletes.

The NCAA Board of Governors made its announcement as more than two dozen states proposed, debated, and advanced legislation aimed at requiring state schools to ensure that athletes compete only in the category of their birth gender.

But now, only a month later, the NCAA announces that despite its saber-rattling in April, it will allow events in states that have already passed laws limiting transgender athletes to birth gender categories, Yahoo! Sports reported.

The biggest loses here isn’t the left but Governor Noam of South Dakota who threw away her National political future with the GOP base paying the Danegeld without earning the friendship of the Danes when holding out a few months more would have been a win.

If she had only read this bit from Screwtape 30:

Here’s the key quote:

Screwtape: For men usually feel that a strain could have been endured no longer at the very moment when it is ending or when they think it is ending.

In this as in the problem of cowardice the thing to avoid is the total commitment. Whatever he says make his inner resolution be not to bear whatever comes to him but to bear it for a ‘reasonable period’ and make the ‘reasonable period’ be shorter then the trial is likely to last. It need not be much shorter. In attacks on patients chastity or fortitude the fun is to s to make the man yield when, had he but known it, relief was almost in sight.

Had she but known she would not have blinked. Still it’s good to know if she would have run or not before we fight back to back. Cue Hawkeye:

So Much for Employers Requiring Vaccines

Posted: May 19, 2021 by datechguy in Uncategorized

This is a game changer:

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has put employers on notice that should they attempt to require employees to receive injections of experimental COVID-19 gene-therapy vaccines a resulting adverse reaction will be considered “work-related” for which the employer may be held liable.

OSHA released its new guidance on April 20 under a “Frequently Asked Questions” section of its website having to do with COVID-19 safety compliance.

The question asks whether an employer who mandates employees receive these experimental COVID-19 shots is required to record any adverse events as a result of these injections. Such recording requirements of serious work-related injuries and illness may not only leave an employer vulnerable to worker’s compensation claims, but such incidents could also impact the employer’s safety record.

Of course the Biden Administration being the Biden Administration they might change the rules but if this hold then risk adverse employers will run from any “No vaccine no work” policy like the plague.

Unexpectedly of course