Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

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

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.

Daniel Webster: What are you looking for, Colonel? What’s your name?

Martin Van Buren Aldrich: Martin Van Buren Aldrich. My pa is the only Democrat in Cross Corners. He said you had horns and a tail, Mr. Webster, but I ain’t seen them yet.

Daniel Webster: [laughs] You see, Martin, I only wear them when I’m in Washington. That’s the trouble. But if you ever get down there, I’ll be glad to show them to you.

Martin Van Buren Aldrich: Gee, would you, Mr. Webster? Honest?

Daniel Webster: Of course! And you tell your father for me, that we may be on opposite sides of the fence, but I’m always glad to hear of a man who holds to his own opinion. As long as the people do that, this country is all right.

All That Money Can Buy (also known as The Devil & Daniel Webster) 1941

Every day when I get up and look at the next I see multiple pieces on polling. Trump is up by four over Biden, Abbot up four or eight over Beto, the generic ballot favors democrats by one, or republicans by three or DeSantis is up over trump by five or Fetterman is up over Doc Oz by six etc etc etc

You can find polling on almost every race, almost every opinion, in fact on just about everything and there is one fairly consistent fact that is very easy to miss if you don’t take a moment to think about it.

No matter what side of the fence you are on, no matter what candidate you support, at least 40% of your fellow citizens think you are wrong.

You might find an odd issue or candidate where that number drops to as low as 35% in fact once in a great while you might find an issue where you might get even lower and of course regional differences might make the number as few as three in ten but the bottom line is this: As a general rule it’s safe to say two out of every five people who pass you on the street don’t hold the opinions you do.

Now for most of the history of this county this hasn’t been that big of a problem. People disagreed and were willing to let it go today this is not the case. There is a key line in the movie I quoted above when Daniel Webster challenges the contract the Devil uses to claim his clients soul on the grounds that an American can’t be made to serve a foreign prince

Mr. Scratch: It’s true the North claims me for a Southerner and the South for a Northerner, but I’m neither.

In the end we’re all men, we share a common humanity and one of the basic rights of a man is the right to be wrong sometimes. Some may be wrong more frequently than others but in the end everybody gets some things wrong.

The danger is that when you criminalize disagreement and furthermore criminalize the attempt to hear the other side of an argument that’s when the Robespierres of the world arise.

There are those who may not object to this, and might fancy themselves the one who shall decide who gets the chop and who does not, but never forget that in the end every Robespierre ends up under his own guillotine.

Let’s see if we can avoid this fate for our country.