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The GOP and Pennsylvania

Posted: October 4, 2022 by chrisharper in Uncategorized
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By Christopher Harper

As the country slouches toward the midterm elections, Pennsylvania provides a microcosm of the battle between Democrats and Republicans.

In 2016, the state put Donald Trump over the top by less than 1 percent of the vote. In 2020, Joe Biden got slightly more than 1 percent of the total.

Down the line, the Keystone State mirrors almost every demographic of the nation from ethnic makeup to average income to the severity of poverty.

On the West Coast sits the Democrat stronghold of Pittsburgh. On the East Coast stands Philadelphia, another Democrat hovel. In between, where I live after 17 years in Philly, the flyover country of Pennsylvania votes almost entirely Republican down the ticket.

In the U.S. Senate race, Mehmet Oz has pulled almost even with John Fetterman. Oz takes conservative stands and has Trump’s backing, while Fetterman ranks to the left of Bernie Sanders and George Soros. Oz isn’t a great campaigner, which is why he isn’t running away with the race.

But one of the main reasons Oz has been gaining ground is that Fetterman had a stroke earlier this year and hasn’t convinced many people, including the media, that he can handle the pressure of the U.S. Senate.

Gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano is a stout Trump supporter, but the media have portrayed him as too conservative. Unfortunately, that caricature has left him far behind.

As Common Sense put it recently: “The Democrat is covered in tattoos, favors hoodies, and just had a stroke. Will Pennsylvania send the anti-politician to the Senate?”

Josh Shapiro, an unaccomplished liberal, is likely to follow in the footsteps of our state dictator, Tom Wolf, whose COVID clampdown made him all-powerful for much of the past two-plus years.

Fortunately, the Pennsylvania Senate and House will remain solidly in Republican hands, although the all-Democrat delegations from Pittsburgh and Philly prevent the GOP from overriding vetoes by the governor. The Republicans are pushing for the ability to override executive orders, such as those during COVID, with a majority vote, but legal requirements have prevented such a move until next year.

Also, according to most polls, the U.S. House of Representatives delegation—now nine Republicans and nine Democrats—is likely to add two Republicans into the mix.

Apart from the governor’s race, Pennsylvania looks good for the GOP—perhaps a positive omen for 2024.

Do I detect a tiny hint of Brady?

Posted: October 3, 2022 by datechguy in nfl, Sports, Uncategorized

I have spent most of the last week in bed the first day being taking care of DaWife who got COVID and then getting it myself. It’s really laid me out and basically the most strenuous things I’ve managed since last Wednesday has been putting up the St. Matthew Novena for those FBI agents (day 8 later today)

One of the few advantages of this situation is that when I’m not totally zonked out trying to sleep, which has been very difficult I’d had access to the net and thus got to follow a most interesting development.

As you might know 21 years ago the New England Patriots starting QB got himself hurt in game and a young 6th round pick who had not been on anybody’s radar came in. Took the starting job and never looked back. That young fellow was Tom Brady who now has 7 Superbowl rings and would not shock anyone if he came home with an eighth by season’s end.

Well last week the Patriots starting QB Mac Jones a 1st round pick out of Alabama ended up down with an injury meaning that Backup QB (and defacto coach) Brian Hoyer would be starting for New England with a young 4th round pick Bailey Zappe to back him up.

Not many people expected this game to be close but the real surprise was not Aaron Rogers’s 500th TD pass but that Hoyer would go down with an injury and Zappe would have to take over under fire.

Even fewer people expected that he would lead the team to several scores and that the game would go to overtime tied at 24 till Green Bay with no time left on the overtime clock would kick a game winning field goal.

Now does this mean that lightning is about to strike again for the Pats with a late draft pick that nobody wanted? Unlikely, there is only one Tom Brady. But I’m going to be very interested in seeing what happens next week when he likely gets his first start

Why LGBT voters benefit from less government and a market economy

Posted: October 1, 2022 by navygrade36bureaucrat in Uncategorized
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Two weeks ago I argued that LGBT voters should be prolife, if nothing else because the prolife movement protects babies from premature abortions based on genetic testing, and it won’t be long before we develop testing good enough to hint that a baby might grow up gay or transgender (despite the fact that genetics don’t always equal outcomes). I’d like to go one step further and say LGBT voters benefit far more from less government and a market economy, especially as a minority.

Let’s start with a real obvious point: government likes people to fall in nice, neat boxes, and those that don’t get treated unfairly. The US government is always primed to pick on minorities. Recent examples include persecution against Japanese-Americans during World War 2, even in Hawaii, or the disproportionate number of black Americans used for drug testing by the CIA. LGBT voters probably feel this right now whenever they travel, get an ID of some kind, or interact with the government in general.

Let’s take ID cards for a second. The government continues to increase the amount of information it demands from people to get an ID. This invasion of privacy hasn’t made a lot of headlines, but the fact that you can basically be denied the ability to fly unless you surrender a lot of information to the government is a bit concerning. Worse though, what if you’re a transgender individual in the middle of hormone treatment? Try explaining that to the “nice” TSA agent, who should be concerned about you carrying a bomb onboard the aircraft, but will instead use their position to hassle you at a checkpoint. Why are you treated like a criminal for non-criminal activities.

Less government equals less interactions equals more freedom to be yourself. Whether you’re a gun-loving firefighter or his transgender wife, you benefit from less government in your life. Unless you’re violating a law, the government doesn’t need to snoop in your affairs.

If the government isn’t sticking its nose where it doesn’t belong, other people are often trying to use it to that end, particularly with hate crime laws and lawsuits. The Masterpiece Cakeshop lawsuits highlighted this weaponization. Despite the fact that there were hundreds of bakeries to get cakes of all shapes and sizes, Charlie Craig and David Mullins went all the way to the Supreme Court, only to lose. The damage was done though, since Masterpiece Cakeshop lost around 40% of its business.

This weaponization isn’t a long term strategy, since it tends to come back around and bite you, because plenty of people will use this tactic to shut down LGBT businesses. We’re far better off with a free market because it automatically promotes an exchange of goods that is inevitably linked to an exchange of ideas. For example, its really hard to say you want to kill all gay people if you regularly interact with the gay owner of a restaurant that has great food. It’s difficult to say you think transgender individuals are all pedophiles when you find out your neighbor is a transgender woman and an upstanding citizen in your community. Just like having a black or Hispanic neighbor makes it harder to hold negative opinions about them (assuming they are good neighbors!), the same goes for interacting with LGBT individuals.

In fact, these regular interactions are far more powerful then any lawsuit. I would argue the Masterpiece lawsuits only further cement the idea that most LGBT individuals want to find ways to punish Christians.

Free association in a market economy and less government interference, by default, makes us all learn to work together. We’re all better served under these models.

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency. Please be sure to purchase something from the author’s collection of books, since Christmas is right around the corner.

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