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Under the Fedora: Jonah Goldberg and the New Rules, Pride Month Savings on Sports, The annual Business ritual, More Utilitarian Candidates, What Bread of Life Discourses?

Posted: June 3, 2024 by datechguy in Blame Trump, business, catholic, culture, election 2024, elections, politics, Sports, under the fedora
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This weekend Jonah Goldberg noted that a lot of people on the right were comparing Trump to Christ and weren’t taking into account the idea that he cheated on his wife with a porn star.

Well there are two things I’d like to say to that. While Jonah is of course free do disagree on the merits of either verdict the fact is we compare Trump to Christ because Trump we believe both were found guilty unjustly, not of sleeping around but of a completely made up bookkeeping felony, so like Christ he was unjustly found guilty. Nobody (with the possible exception of Laura Loomer) on the right compares Trump to Christ’s divinity.

Second while I do in fact find it plausible that a really rich guy decided to bang a porn star and tried to keep it quiet (frankly I’d hate to have my performance in bed judged by a professional) folks like me who under the old rules thought such things should be disqualifying were massively outvoted on said rules so until the left decides to go back to said rules we aren’t either.

We’re in the middle of a baseball season where the Redsox have a great crop of young players and at the end of a basketball season where the Celtics are in the finals with a solid shot of winning and least we forget the Pats have a new 1st round QB and an old Brady era vet to mentor him. All these things are strong temptations to have me pony up for one of various sports packages from NESN to MLB to NBA etc etc etc…

…and then June roles around and all the professional teams go out of their way to remind me that they are not on my side in the culture wars and suddenly radio and hitting a local bar/restaurant to watch a game rather then giving these guys my money becomes an attractive alternative.

My thanks to various leagues for helping me appreciate the joy of free sports.

Oh and the annual ritual of business shoving gay pride down our throats in the west while making it a point to avoid the same in the middle east continues as always, with BMW actually admitting what we all know that it’s all about the risk and reward of the mob.

Of course in a new years the Ghastly Tom Hagan math will catch up with the west and when it does the west will drop their pride campaigns faster than the Democrats dropped Israel

Speaking of a lack of principles there are quite a few GOP candidates who had been pushing their pro-life credentials in the past who suddenly find themselves willing to compromise on life to gain higher office.

Now there are no shortage of Democrats who run as republicans in red states or republican who run as dems in blue states to get power nor is there a shortage in either party of people whose primary principle is to advance their political power. And the reality is that given the number of honest men & women in politics you likely can’t get a majority without these sorts.

So when there is no other choice by all means elect them but keep such folks away from the true levers of party power because people willing to sell out their principles or their God will have little trouble selling you.

Finally episode one of the Chosen is available free and those who expected to see the aftermath of the feeding of the 5000 and the calming of the waters which closed last season might have been shocked to see they went back to Luke Chapter 1 to the Visitation as their lead.

Granted they decided to knock off John the Baptist in episode one but if there is one thing you could always be sure of in any protestant movie about Christ skips the 6th chapter of John once it reaches verse 26 the beginning of the bread to life discourses. The only exception being word for word adaptions of Gospel.

Given that The Chosen is a TV series rather than a movie there would have been more than enough time to include them but as Catholic as Jonathan Roumie is, he does not have creative control so the bread of life discourses had to go.

Don’t get me wrong, it was a good episode and I liked the juxtaposition of the Canticle of Zachariah (the Morning Prayer of the Catholic Church) with the scenes of John’s end and the reaction to it but some things never change, and if you were expecting to see The Chosen break that mold you will be mistaken.

Oh and I’d watch it via the youtube live stream because the loading time of the app seems to be very slow likely due to the sheer number of people trying to watch it there.

Doctor Who: Six Points About the New Series Or Why It’s Worth Your Time Again.

Posted: June 2, 2024 by datechguy in doctor who, entertainment
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I haven’t really done any reviews of the Ncuti Gatwa Doctor Who episodes and I frankly don’t have time to do a full review today but as someone who walked away from the series after Capaldi I want to comment on the season so far today (and I’ll cover this week’s episode later this week) because I think people who are skipping it are missing out.

Point 1: Chibnall clearly isn’t the boss anymore:

I’ve been watching these episodes with my oldest son who unlike me watched all the Chibnall era episodes. As he put it the worst of the episodes to this date is leaps and bounds over the best of the Chibnall era. For me as some who discovered the show in 1976 and watched it regularly since about 78 you can clearly see that the writing and the plotting have improved. Davies being Davies has of course inserted his agenda into the show but that was true and recognizable from the moment the show was revived. The point was can he do so without overwhelming the story. For the most part he has succeeded. These are solid stories, as always some better than others but are clearly recognizable as Doctor Who stories.

Point 2: Gatwa works as the Doctor

I’ve seen plenty of Doctors over the years the two best being hands down Tom Baker and Matt Smith (Tennant is good but VERY over rated). It took a couple of episodes but Gatwa clearly has reached the point where he carries himself as the Doctor. Frankly the early episodes didn’t do him a lot of favors as the first three (The Church at Ruby Road, Space Babies and the Devil’s Chord were, meh) but Boom clearly established him as the Doctor and while 73 yards was a classic Doctor lite story but by that time you clearly saw him as The Doctor. That’s what you really have to do to carry this role, be clearly recognizable as the Doctor while still carrying your own Doctor’s traits. He has pulled that off. I think Davies would have done better to have the regeneration (or bi-generation Trauma) and perhaps that’s reflected in some early weakness (more on that later) but so far so good.

Point 3: Millie Gibson is more than adequate.

It seems to me that they have made Millie Gibson’s Ruby Sunday very strong right at the start which was overcompensating but the character has really worked. The proving ground was 73 yards, the Doctor lite episode. We got to see how traveling with the Doctor (even briefly) has affected her and watched her grow. That to me was the strength of the episode not the lack of Gatwa who as I have already said, had established himself as the Doctor by that time. From what I hear they are already getting ready to dump her and I think this is a mistake as the primary goal of this season is to reestablish the show as something worth watching and Gibson is worth watching

Point 4. The elephants in the (script) room.

A lot of people have written off the series because of the agenda thrown in their faces and we saw plenty of that during the specials and there is agenda here. As I already noted the Davies has been pushing his agenda since day 1 in 2005 but the agenda hasn’t been the boss of the show, at least not yet. As long as the agenda doesn’t get in the way of the actual stories I’m willing to put up with it. There are also those who hate that Davies hasn’t reversed the timeless child stuff, spoiler alert. That isn’t going to happen here and never was in the cards and won’t be until it hurt them financially and with Disney paying the bills that not likely. I simply ignore the references and remember rule #1 The Doctor Lies.

Point 5: Big Finish influences

Those of you who don’t listen to the big finish audios might miss it but there seems to be a ton of big finish influences in this series. Over and over I spot things from audios that I seem to recognize (elder Gods, relatives of the Toymaker for example) . This is not surprising as they have been doing Doctor Who for 26 years and doing it well so it’s natural that you would have some stuff bleeding over even if it’s not all considered canon. Given the quality of the Big Finish work this is a positive rather than a negative. I don’t know if this is deliberate or unconscious but either way it makes the show better.

Point 6: Irony Irony Irony Conservative Messages All Over the Place

One of the things that has been really amusing has been that the Davies crowd is so wrapped up in the agenda that they are missing things that I’m seeing. The latest episode is the best example of this but I’ll save that for my review later this week. Today let’s hit a few today from the prior ones

  • In the Space babies episode there is a scene where the intelligent babies suggest there is something wrong with them, but the Doctor reassures them they are good just as they are. While our agenda friends thought they were dunking there actually they dunked on themselves because that is an explicit message against transitioning kids. You are great JUST AS YOU ARE
  • In the Devil Chord episode the idea of pushing a Trans character was big, in fact SO excited were they missed what said character was. Or to put it another way: The same guy who was all bent out of shape having a handicapped person as the murderous Davros had no problem at all as a clearly trans character as an evil murderous elder God out to pervert and destroy not just the world but culture and joy.
  • In 74 yards I really liked how the Welsh noted how many in England still think of them (shades of Boomtown). More importantly the episode shows how the Doctor changes others in the sense that they see what’s in front of them and act. More on that later this week when we hit Dot and Bubble but that’s constant theme is there.
  • And of course in the Church at Ruby Road we celebrate foster parents, the idea that a kid is worthwhile even if said kid is not wanted. That the entire basis for the pro-life movement which I suspect few if any of those involved in product embrace.

Again I’m going to cover Dot and Bubble separately but to sum up. This season of Doctor Who is worth your while not because of the woke stuff so far but despite it. Granted we don’t know if it will turn on a dime but at least to this point, I must say the Doctor is back and he’s been missed.

Episode ranking as I see it (not including specials nor Dot and Bubble which I’ll review this week)

  1. 73 Yards ***** Solid episode
  2. Boom ****1/2 Nice basic plot
  3. The Church on Ruby Road **** OK doctory intro
  4. Space Babies **** Not bad but not great
  5. The Devil’s Chord ***1/2 Interesting villain but wasted potential with weak resolution & lousy ending.

(spoiler alert the top spot on that list will change this week)

Oh and let me re-iterate that per my son all of these are better than anything since Capaldi.

June Indulgence Calendar now available

Posted: June 1, 2024 by datechguy in catholic, catholic devotions
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It’s a new month so time for a new indulgence Calendar and it’s a busy one if you live near me because there are multiple feast days for saints who have a church dedicated to them meaning lots of extra Plenary indulgences available just for going to mass.

indulgence-calendar-june-2024Download

Remember there is always a plenary indulgence available for going to mass on the feast day of a saint at a church dedicated to said saint so this month will be a big one for all those St. Anthony of Padua and St. John the Baptist churches nationwide.

I’ve decided not to do the blank ones except on request. The lines below the names listed can be used to add additional names for a particular day.

These are the type of Numbers that Might Trigger the Worst Case Scenario

Posted: June 1, 2024 by datechguy in culture
Tags: ,

Saw a poll result that made my jaw drop:

Logically none of this makes sense, not the reaction mind you, but the over the top efforts to destroy Trump since day one. In the normal order of things the left would take a loss, regroup, wait for a mistake and try to win at the polls.

The degree of all this stuff suggest they consider Trump a extremital threat beyond a mere election and know that they have crossed the legal and moral line to such a degree that if a Trump, uncompromised by the swamp, investigates and reveals it their destruction of their prerogatives is assured.

So if we’re not reached a point where Trump has NY state in play we’re talking Nixon 1972 numbers which are beyond the capacity to steal, the “To Big to Rig” scenario that President Trump has advanced.

Given what we’ve seen and the sheer panic I suspect this will generate the worst case scenario.

  1. The left panics as the Trump train, driven by the unjust verdict, becomes unstoppable
  2. Thanks to the situation in Ohio Biden can’t be replaced at the convention
  3. Left arranges assassination of Biden (and possibly Harris as well) to get him off ticket, blames right
  4. Left uses this as grounds for massive repression of the right leading to an actual shooting civil war

To say this would be a disaster for the country is the understatement of the century, yet given what I’ve seen over the last seven years I can’t imagine that stopping our friends on the left who seem to have gone utterly mad.

I’m old enough to remember when I would have mocked such a possibility as lunacy.

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