Da Techguy's (no longer backup) Blog

Based on a couple of drives around Los Angeles the last couple of Friday mornings, traffic in the city has distinctly increased from a few months ago, at the height of the pandemic. While a couple of drives are hardly conclusive, others have noticed, too. The days are growing longer, the California sun is feeling warmer, and the shutdown is, if not quite in the rear view mirror, at least in the slow lane, everyone zooming past.

American cities are about to undergo a unique experiment. The rise of remote work has made much office space obsolete. A friend of mine, an animator on a popular cartoon series, has been working remotely since the pandemic began. The producers recently told much of the staff that they won’t be required to return to the studio, once the city opens back up. They can continue to work remotely, out of state, for all the producers care. In California, the top tax rate is 13.3%, with anyone making more than $58,000 paying almost 10%. That’s going to chase people out of state, especially when Nevada is next door, with no state income tax.

Strange time, then, for new District Attorney George Gascon to hollow out law enforcement. Gascon, sounding like some Tea Party pork cutter, touted the hundreds of millions of dollars the county will save by reducing prison sentences for convicts. He’s also vowed to do away with the death penalty, and is going after police officers accused of misconduct. Gascon apparently kept up with how such reforms have treated Minneapolis.

Back in L.A., these “reforms” have so far prompted the city of Beverly Hills to issue a vote of “no confidence” in the district attorney, and L.A. suburb La Mirada is expected to do the same. And a victims’ group is launching a recall effort against the D.A., with support from the county sheriff. So things are going great in L.A.

Now with crime bound to rise, demand for office and industrial space collapsing, commercial property values sinking, city budgets reliant in large part on property taxes, and so city services dwindling — the city previously announced deep cuts to the police force — and with drought to only worsen, L.A. may soon resemble one of those wasteland dystopia’s the city’s artisans are so fond of depicting on screen.

Tough luck. I always preferred “Blade Runner” over “Mad Max,” but you get the dystopia you deserve, I guess. Installations have consequences, after all.

The irony of the fact that the avg age of Democrat leadership being 70 means they are all children of World War 2 era people and should know better.

The Irony of the advancement of the Transgender agenda, which is the extension of the Gay Agenda, which is an extension of feminism which is that all of this has been made possible overwhelming by the votes of women who have been made more alone and miserable by this.

The irony of the current state of the woman’s movement and the current state of the civil rights movement is that those who suffered the most would be horrified by the results.

The irony of the current state of US education is that I can clearly see all the mistakes that were made at the early or mid stages of the fall of the Roman Republic going on in the country, which would be recognized by every schoolchild 100 years ago because they were once taught to every schoolchild in America.

Is there anything more ironic than the American left insisting that the US is a racist murderous and Russia and China making it a point to publicly agree?

Of course not all ironies are bad. Apparently a large chunk of the money being sent back to induvial Americans is being spent on guns and ammo.

All sorts of virtues painted in the fantasy or approved by the intellect or even, in some measure, loved and admired, will not keep a man from Our Father’s house: indeed they make him more amusing when he gets there.”

C. S. Lewis Screwtape 7

Reuters promoted a story saying that some Catholic Priests will defy the Vatican and bless same sex weddings.

The Catholic Church has a term for such people who defy doctrine for their own spin, they are called “Protestants”.

For myself I’ve always called them what they actually are: “Catholics for Mortal Sin”.

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All of this reminds me of the entire Transgender business.

The people who are getting bits of themselves cut up are mentally ill, but are so desperate to been seen as normal and are willing to go to great, even destructive lengths to deceive themselves in order and to convince or impose on society that this standard of insanity is a beautiful thing.

That’s bad but the real evil comes from the Physicians , the psychologists and the surgeons who know better who take advantage of these people for fun and prophet. As Christ said to Pilate: “You would have no power over me if it had not been given to you from above. For this reason the one who handed me over to you has the greater sin.” (John 19:11)

There is a reason why the sin of Pride is first among the mortal sins. It’s because it’s replacing one’s own judgement for that of God.

This is why these priests are guilty of the greater sin in giving a false blessing and abusing the rights of the church than the couple seeking it.

For the priest it’s all about them.

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Is it not ironic that the couples involved do not respect obviously do not respect the teaching of the church by an open defiance of it , yet are apparently desperate to be seen to have the blessing of the God and the Church for what they are doing and have that blessing seen and acknowledged?

It reminds me of something that Fr. Z once said about the difference between a couple in an invalid marriage resolving to live as brother and sister receiving communion privately from the priest and going to confession if they fall and another defiantly going up for communion during mass.

One couple wants to receive Christ because it’s all about God, the other wants to be seen getting the wafer because it’s all about them. It’s not about submitting to God, it’s about God submitting to them.

It’s the sin of pride once again.

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Looking at this it’s basically the difference between two famous gay Catholics Milo Yiannopoulos and Andrew Sullivan.

Both understood the church teaching on the subject of homosexuality and gay marriage but Milo acknowledged and struggled to conform himself to combat the mortal sins he was inclined toward while Andrew fought to have his mortal sins celebrated and blessed by church and state.

It’s still up in the air whether or not Milo will manage to win his fight against sin or go the way of Fr. Corapi but as a person who struggles with is own sins I’d rather be in Milo’s place pleading with God for help and mercy and forgiveness than Andrew’s place telling God what the score is and expecting a prize.

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All of this by the way include a trap for everyone else. As I’ve noted Milo’s situation is much like that of the Tax Collector that Christ told of who approaches the alter with his head bowed saying: ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’. The Trick is to make sure we don’t look at the Priests and the couples involved and declaring our righteousness before the Lord in comparison to them particularly for our own aggrandizement. As C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape puts it:

Once you have made the World an end, and faith a means, you have almost won your man, and it makes very little difference what kind of worldly end he is pursuing. Provided that meets, pamphlets, policies, movements, causes, and crusades, matter more to him than prayers and sacraments and charity, he is ours–and the more ‘religious’ (on those terms) the more securely ours. I could show you a pretty careful down here.

That’s the same sin of pride and it’s just a deadly or even more so. Rather we should pray for those involved while also confessing our own sins and asking for the mercy of God.

As I’ve said many times. Heaven will be no less glorious nor Hell any more bearable if we find ourselves next to someone we didn’t care for on Earth.

The Biden Administration is only two months old. God help us.

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It has to be pretty bad at the Border for CBS to admit that it is a crisis with the Biden administration in power.

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I’m becoming more and more convinced that the guard and the fencing isn’t because there was an insurrection on Jan sixth (there wasn’t) but because Democrats know that they intend to provoke the right to the point where there will be one or should I say a response to the successful insurrection on the morning after the election where the left stole power from the American people.

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There has been a lot of talk in NE about how serious the New England Patriots and Bill Belichick are about returning to a playoff/contenting team spending 232 Million dollars (127 Million guaranteed) on new free agents in order to return the team back to contention.

I don’t pretend to be a football or economics expert but it seems to me that a $75 million dollar investment in Tom Brady would have cost less and guaranteed that the team remain a playoff team and contender for both the division and the AFC over the course of such a contract.

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Finally I understand that LeBron James is now a minority owner of the Boston Red Sox.

This is a very good idea on his part, as long as he doesn’t try to turn them into the woke sox.