Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Draft Day Thoughts Under the Fedora Cam Can? AOC present, Durham surprise, Babylon Bee nails me and another one on the list

Posted: September 24, 2021 by datechguy in Uncategorized

Will have no time for news today as from 10 AM till about midnight I’ll be running the draft in my Pursue the Pennant 1969 draft league so here are some random thoughts on random things:

Sports: Was it just a month ago that there were a ton of people arguing that Cam Newton should be the starting QB for the Patriots? It has now been three weeks and two games into the season and not a single team decided that he was good enough to sign. That speaks volumes.

It’s been suggested that AOC’s vote of “present” on funding Israel’s defensive Iron Dome is a sign that she is running for the Senate in NY vs Chuck Schumer. I think it’s actually more likely that Nancy Pelosi wanted as few votes against from Democrats as possible since there is no way that AOC is going to convince any voter who favors Israel that she is in their corner, particularly over Chuckie Schumer.

I was very surprised that John Durham actually produced an indictment in his investigation. I presumed it would just be a report. The real question to me is will there be any more such indictments?

Yesterday because of the draft I had my laptop with me at work for my lunch break and I made the mistake of reading this from the Babylon Bee while I was drinking:

That the Biden administration is allowing yet another false narrative to take root would surprise me if their entire power was not based on false narratives.

Finally I found myself playing with another Atheist on twitter yesterday who assumes all people who believe in God are simple minded. The only thing more laughable than the weakness of his arguments is his casual dismissal of some of the finest minds in history or any mind from the past might actually have insight that he does not.

I’ve added him to my prayer list with the memory that at one time C. S. Lewis was an unbeliever as well. After all he has his whole life to figure it out and who’ll pray for him if I don’t?

People around the world are beginning to rise up against Coronavirus restrictions and vaccine mandates

Posted: September 23, 2021 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
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For the past eighteen months I have been continuously amazed and sickened at how meekly people around the world have accepted the trampling of their most fundamental rights and freedoms, all in the name of fighting the Coronavirus  I have been especially disappointed and saddened at the unquestioning acceptance of outright tyranny here in the United States.  For the past year an a half I have been waiting in vain for people to rise up and say in a very loud voice enough is enough.  Until that happens I know that these restrictions and mandates will continue

Finally, just in the past week or two, people around the world are beginning to rise up and say enough.  Australia appears to be the epicenter of this world wide resistance. That does not surprise me because no nation has traveled further along the road to absolute tyranny than the land down under,  This article chronicles what is going on in the land of koala bears and kangaroos. 

An inflection point has been reached in Australia with the government COVID-19 lockdowns, forced vaccinations and now, vaccine passports. What is happening today in the state of Victoria, specifically the Melbourne metropolitan area, is an outcome of more than a year of heavy-handed government rules and regulations deaf to the voices of the average man, woman or family. There is a middle class & blue-collar backlash taking place, and Americans would be wise to pay attention.

Things recently came to a head when the Premier of Victoria, Daniel Andrews, began outlining the rules and regulations for opening society back up after almost a year of total lockdown. The always futile attempt to block the COVID-19 virus through a policy known as “COVID-ZERO” was abandoned. The new approach is to open up society and the economy by forcing everyone to take the vaccine, and then allowing only the vaccinated to participate in the economy as varying percentages of the population are double-vaxxed, and admittedly, later, booster-vaxxed.

Over the course of two days protests began, spread, and escalated into riots because the people are completely fed up with the dystopian  nightmare they have been living.

On Monday 9/20 [AU time] a large group of members of the biggest trade union in Australia, the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), went to CFMEU headquarters to confront their leadership, CFMEU Secretary John Setka.

Their demand was essentially simple – to have their voices heard and use the power of the trade union to stop the Victorian government overreach. The union members wanted their leadership to block the new vaccine mandate and stop the creation of a two-tiered society as outlined by Premier Dan Andrews.

On Tuesday 9/21 [AU time], the trade union members took to the streets in even larger numbers, now joined by blue-collar workers of all stripes who identify with the cause. Even workers who did not previously like the union members or their prior political tactics are joined in common cause over the issue of COVID-19.

The protesting ranks swelled. Tens-of-thousands of non-union workers joined with the trade union protesters in solidarity. Notice this is an interesting repeat of history when you consider Poland in the 1980s and the working class alignment to push back against the totalitarian regime of the former Soviet Union.

France has also become a hotbed of protests and riots because of the draconian nature of the restrictions and mandates instituted by President Macron.  As in Australia, vaccine passports are proving to be the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.   Check out this Breitbart article.

The streets of France were flooded for the ninth straight week with protesters against President Emmanuel Macron’s vaccine passport scheme, with an estimated 121,000 demonstrators marching throughout the country, including about 19,000 in Paris.

In the French capital, there were four demonstrations against the pass sanitaire (vaccine passport) on Saturday, with demonstrators chanting “Macron, your pass, we do not want it,” “Macron, resign,” and “no to dictatorship”.

Even in New York City protest have begun over vaccine mandates.

The people of Holland are just as pissed off about the mandates and restrictions as everyone else.  They are taking to the streets in protest, however, they are doing it in a truly Dutch manner.  This headline from Louder with Crowder 150K DUTCH PEOPLE PROTEST RESTRICTIONS WITH RAVE, FUNKY DANCE MOVES. MEDIA…? says it all.

Report from Louisiana: Podcasts

Posted: September 20, 2021 by Pat Austin in Uncategorized
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By:  Pat Austin

SHREVEPORT —  Y’all…I’m so late to this party it is just embarrassing. I am going to need a little help from those of you that listen to podcasts, but first, let me explain.

I am hard-pressed to think of a term that better illustrates the rapid advancement in personal technology in the past two decades than “podcast.”

Perspective: my generation grew up with rotary phones attached to walls by cords. In my lifetime I witnessed the invention of the push-button phone, the satellite phone, the cordless phone, and eventually the mobile cellular phone. It has been a steep learning curve for some of us that are of a certain age. I did not own a cellphone until I was 42 years old; it was a red Nokia flip phone.

Now I own a very expensive iPhone that will probably do a great many more things than what I actually use it for. Back in the flip phone days, I also had a click wheel iPod which was just revolutionary. I actually still have it and still listen to it sometimes.

Technology started pulling away from me when we no longer bought music on iTunes and made playlists. I think now people just stream everything. I’m not really sure. I subscribe to Apple music and Pandora but don’t really use them. I know there is something called Spotify and I don’t know how to use it.

You see my problem?

Back to podcasts. As a high school educator, my students tried to keep me in the technological loop and so I learned about things like Instagram and TikTok. (I have an Insta but won’t fall into TikTok. Refuse.) But podcasts? I didn’t have time to learn anything else! I was barely keeping up already!

The word “podcast” originated in 2004 and in 2005 it was the Word of the Year for the New Oxford American Dictionary. Apparently, podcasting is now a billion-dollar industry. The 18–34 age group seems to be the primary listening audience and by the time you get to my age group listeners drop significantly.

I dipped my toes into the podcast waters a couple of years ago when a friend insisted that I listen to S-Town, the popular true-crime serial. I dutifully pulled out my earbuds and started listening and I loved it! It was hosted by Brian Reed and the story centered around John McLemore, a larger-than-life, colorful character in Woodstock, Alabama. Mr. Reed’s recordings of his conversations with McLemore were fascinating and my friends and I spent hours talking about this story.

But since then? Nothing. I haven’t listened to another podcast. Why?

Right about that time was when I began a big research project and so there was really no time or opportunity to find a new podcast. When I was writing my book (the result of that research), I listened to a playlist on my iPod (not the click wheel one!). Honestly, there’s no good excuse. I just didn’t look for a new podcast.

Last week, someone suggested I try the Old Gods of Appalachia podcast. I’m not much into the horror genre, which is how this was described to me, but I do love anything Southern Gothic and so maybe this would be okay. The episodes aren’t overly long (in fact, they’re a little too short), and I do like the serialized format. I’ve listened to four or five episodes now and while I don’t yet love it the way I did S-Town, I am going to stay with it a while longer.

I would love to find some good podcasts to listen to. Now that I am retired, I think I can put on a podcast and do this godforsaken walking thing that my doctor wants me to do each day. While I like listening to music, or even birds and barking dogs in the neighborhood, I can see myself listening to a podcast while I walk.

But I have so many questions. How do you find a podcast you want to listen to? When do you listen? Why are so many podcasts in the true crime genre? I don’t even know what genre I want to focus on which is the first question everyone asks me. I want a podcast like S-Town. Colorful characters. I don’t want irritating voices or giggling hosts. I don’t want to listen to anything political — I was a political blogger for ten years and I’m tired of that fight. I want a good mystery, or to learn something. Escapism.

Since podcasts are basically today’s version of radio programs from back in the day, obviously I want to be entertained.

So, tell me. What are you listening to? What are your favorite podcasts and why? Help a girl out!

(This article was previously published on Medium; I am reprinting here because I really want your suggestions!)

Pat Austin blogs at And So it Goes in Shreveport and at Medium; she is the author of Cane River Bohemia: Cammie Henry and her Circle at Melrose Plantation. Follow her on Instagram @patbecker25 and Twitter @paustin110.

All Quiet Along the Potomac Last Night

Posted: September 19, 2021 by datechguy in Uncategorized

Lt Cmdr Montgomery Scott : There’s an old, old saying on earth, Mr. Sulu: “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.”

Ensign Pavel Chekov : I know this saying. It was invented in Russia.

Star Trek, Friday’s Child 1967

A lot of people have had a lot of fun pointing out that the specter of a 2nd “uprising” at the Capital was a farce with more press than protestors and said protectors being more FBI than protestors. In fact one photo has become a comic meme: An example:

I find this interesting because this leads to the obvious question: How much of this actually went on January 6th when it wasn’t clear that stuff like this was going on with the FBI et/al & people including President Trump who at the time might have presumed that such a thing might not take place.

While we are all having a good laugh all all of this it doesn’t change the fact that there are plenty of Americans who are at best guilt of trivial trespass still being held while charges against those who actually spent a year looting and burning major cities were given a pass. That’s an American disgrace brought to you by the Biden Administration and those who aided, abetted and supported the steal of the last election.

Bottom line, We won’t get fooled again.

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