Archive for the ‘opinion/news’ Category

The only thing wrong with Lisa Graas column at newsreal today…

Posted: December 22, 2010 by datechguy in internet/free speech, opinion/news
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Is that it answers Max Blumenthal who frankly deserves no answer only scorn.

With all due respect (very little is actually due here) one wonders if Blumenthal is off his proverbial rocker. This claim of anti-Muslim “hysteria”, without which his conspiracy theory unravels, is insanely false. One might even say it’s spastic. More accurately, it’s just another “astonishing act of left-handed legerdemain” of the sort that Blumenthal routinely engages in as he touts the very same falsehoods we are used to seeing from the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). The latest statistics from the FBI tell quite a different story.

Max makes his living the way he makes his living, he frankly isn’t worth the attention but enough well-financed left leaning outlets promote him that it becomes necessary to make sure that voices of sanity are not crowded out by the dollars of the left.

Pay particular attention to the chart on page two, of the piece, it speaks volumes.

Meanwhile there is no comment about this poster from a banned Islamic group concerning the evils of Christmas out of England. I’m sure Max will get around to condemning it as soon as someone pays him a higher wage to do so.

A Christmas photo album The Charpentier Christmas display

Posted: December 22, 2010 by datechguy in catholic, local stuff, special events
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The greatest Christmas display in our area is not flashy; but is hand-made.

Louis Charpentier’s Christmas display began before I was born and will likely continue after I’m dead although the 100-year-old Mr. Charpentier children and grandchildren will be carrying the load.

For those of you not close enough come and see it yourself, here are the photos so you can see it.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

If you don’t want to see it piecemeal here is the whole thing together via youtube, at night it is even more impressive:

He actually carves another piece each year to add to the display

The Boston Globe did a story on him last year, and the Catholic Free Press did one today. How you can do this story without photos of the display is beyond me.

As impressive as all this is, it pales before the life-size crucifix he carved for St. Cecilia’s church in Leominster. When I get a chance I’ll swing by and take a shot of it, I can’t believe I can’t find an image of it on the net.

Assorted thoughts as Christmas gets closer

Posted: December 22, 2010 by datechguy in Afghanistan war, oddities, opinion/news, Uncategorized
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Christmas is getting closer, I’m not all that excited about a lot of things today but I have a lot of things I’m thinking about:

Watch Hugo Chavez slowing take absolute power is like watching a horror movie for the 27th time. Every single time you shout don’t open that door” but you know it’s going to be opened. No comment from the Sean Penn’s of the world.

The fact is that the first rule of being a good leftist is the enemy of the US is my friend.

This is one of the reason why Obama drives some on the left nuts, by deciding not to lose the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan he has betrayed them.

And Julian Assagee is driving ultra feminists nuts too, there is a conflict between their belief that America is an evil patriarchy and the idea that almost all sex is rape. It’s for this reason that the left confronted by this conundrum choose to attack…Robert Stacy McCain .

Or Sarah Palin.

The more I read about Arlen Specter the more I’m proud of the tea party that helped get people like him out of government.

Do you remember the conventional wisdom that Pat Toomey couldn’t win a general election? I do. Conventional wisdom is correct until it isn’t.

Then again I thought that three Massachusetts seats would flip, turns out the answer is 1, that is we have lost a democratic seat that will likely end up Red elsewhere.

If I live to be 77 I expect to see Massachusetts with a six seat delegation or less unless we change. I can’t help but think this is good for America as a whole.

I plan a longer post on the subject but someone needs to explain to the left that you can’t vote the dead unless they’ve been born first.

Bill Whittle is a national treasure, and I need to get him on my show.

Yesterday on O’Reilly there were comments on what people gave to charity. I don’t like this. I itemize my taxes but claim no charity, not because I don’t give but because I don’t believe it taking a tax deduction for it. I’ll wager there are a lot of folks like me.

They also played the flash mob Hallelujah choir, I absolutely love that and the silent monk one too. Both are creative.

How much great classical music has it’s roots is Christianity? Must be a conundrum for liberal elites.

I always smile when I get an e-mail from Andrea Shea King, she once did a favor for me that might seem small but meant a lot to me at the time. I’m very sentimental like that.

Can we finally admit that Global Warming/Climate change is a religion?

Considering the geological age of the Universe in general and the earth in particular how arrogant is it that our current “climate” IS the climate that we must maintain?

And another thing, if man is just another animal why is don’t we simply accept that it is our “nature” to “change climate” just like it is like a lion’s nature to eat antelope?

The anniversary of one of stupidest things that elites in this country every came up with Secession was this week. I see a direct line from this to liberals today. I also think that if it hadn’t been for secession and the civil war slavery in America would have continued well into the 20th century in the US until perhaps World War 2.

That deserves a longer essay that I will write later.

Am I the only guy who was not surprised when the North Koreans did nothing after days of bluster over South Korean war games etc?

How exactly does a story end up on memeorandum? It can’t be just hits or Instapundit would be there every day?

I’ve given Hallie Miller a lot of my time lately, she is now in the top 10 (8th in the Explore Modeling contest) in the Savvy Magazine modeling contest. I’ve been fascinated on how close the vote is. There are 351 votes separating the current 12th place lady and the 6th place spot. With under 10 days to go in my opinion no spot outside the top 3 or 4 is safe and I expect a lot of movement in the last few days of the contest to get those 10 winning spots.

Hallie was in the 100’s when she first left a comment on the blog. The irony is that I would have likely help any person who had asked first. Half the battle is showing up.

Barney Frank went on about what did the children of the rich do to deserve their parents money? Tell me Barney what did YOU do to deserve it?

Anyone who thinks that the Military won’t handle the repeal of DADT professionally doesn’t know the military.

I think the MSM and the left aren’t strong enough to force us to lose Afghanistan.

BTW anyone who thinks that Sarah Palin can’t win in 2012 is deluding themselves.

Also anyone who thinks Barack Obama can’t win in 2012 is also deluding themselves.

And if John Stewart actually had political clout outside the elites republicans wouldn’t have won 63 seats.

That will do for now. Read you all later. and go vote for Hallie

The media government really loves me!

Posted: December 20, 2010 by datechguy in opinion/news
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Today I will be in Worcester taping the Christmas Show (it will not be live but it will be awesome!). The topic will be the Christ in Christmas and the Church and the media. With less than 7 hours before taping of the show it is so nice of the Government and the media to provide me more fodder:

Federal Reserve examiners came to Perkins bank last week to make sure banks are complying with a long list of regulations. The team from Kansas City deemed a Bible verse of the day, crosses on the teller’s counter and buttons that say “Merry Christmas, God With Us,” were inappropriate. The Bible verse of the day on the Internet also had to be taken down.

As I’m fond of pointing out Christmas is a FEDERAL HOLIDAY as I’m sure federal regulators should know.

As you might guess this garnered some attention:

the media caught wind of the story and Republican Members of Congress wrote to Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke

and again:

Most grade schools do not produce this level of foolishness. Indeed this form of stupidity is learned at one place, radicalized public universities.

So both Oklahoma Senators wrote a letter to the Federal Reserve and with a new Tea Party controlled House with Ron Paul as the chair of the Banking Committee this was going to mean bad news.

Ya think, and on the legal side:

It seems to me that the Fed action is a pretty clear First Amendment violation. Businesses may indeed be barred from stating that they will not engage in commercial transactions with members of certain groups; that’s a somewhat unusual but well-settled aspect of First Amendment “commercial speech doctrine,” which is more properly thought of “commercial advertising doctrine.” (See Pittsburgh Press Co. v. Pittsburgh Comm’n on Human Rels. (1973), which has been cited favorably by the Court even in more recent commercial speech cases.) But businesses retain a First Amendment right to express their views, including even views that might be actually seen as insults to particular groups, see, e.g., Sambo’s Restaurants, Inc. v. City of Ann Arbor (6th Cir. 1981). And businesses certainly retain a First Amendment right to say things that might simply be seen as expressing endorsement of a particular religion.

As you might guess the outcry caused a reversal

The small-town bank in Oklahoma will be able to restore its Christian signs and symbols after all, thanks in part to public outcry against the Federal Reserve.

The president of Payne County Bank, Lynn Kinder, said he spoke with the second in command at the Federal Reserve late Thursday evening. Both sides agreed to work out the issue.

“The federal reserve immediately took action, ” Kinder said in a statement. “And allowed us to restore our Christian display of items and verses on our television and website until a final determination is made. It appears that the matter will be resolved.”

Final determination means until the heat is off most likely. Don Surber cuts to the chase:

Huh?

What does that rule have to do with good banking?

Once again some federal governmental bureaucracy is pursuing a political agenda that has nothing to do with its mission — and is falling down on the job.

From the Associated Press: “Regulators on Friday shuttered three small banks in Georgia and one each in Florida, Arkansas and Minnesota, raising to 157 the number of U.S. banks brought down this year by the struggling economy and soured loans.”

If federal regulators had done their job all along instead of Mickey Mousing around over some teller’s button our banks would be more sound and our economy better.

Congress should strike down that rule and in fact go through all the regulations to make sure that the bank examiners are examining the bank’s books and not the teller’s buttons.

I’m sure the GOP congress will have a few things to say about this.

Meanwhile it isn’t just Christ being banned from Christmas:

Santa Claus, as portrayed by Dennis Jackson, won’t be visiting students at the Head Start classes in St. Peter this year.

Jackson has made appearances the past four years at the classes for students who need help preparing for school, but this year officials said, “No, no, no.”

The reason: The classes have many immigrant children who don’t celebrate Christmas, says the Mankato Free Press.

Perhaps we should change the name “St. Peter” too, don’t want to offend anyone:

Chris Marben, who coordinates regional Head Start programs through Mankato-based Minnesota Valley Action Council: “We have Somali families in the program. We’re respecting the wishes of families in the program.”

She didn’t say how many objections were made, but said more than one would be enough to cancel Santa.

Actually since “Chris” might be mistaken for “Christ” I think in the interest of cultural diversity you should change your name to avoid offending anyone. I would suggest: “Dhimmi”

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