Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

A Boston Sports Thought, Brady and the Celtics

Posted: June 12, 2024 by datechguy in Uncategorized
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As you might know yesterday was a very good day for Boston Sports. The Red Sox came back from a deficit to defeat the 1st place Phillies to get their record back to .500 2 games behind the Twins for the last wild card spot. The Boston Celtics held on against a furious 4th quarter attack by the Mavericks to go up 3-0 against Dallas and put then one win away from a title.

And finally Tom Brady’s number was retired by the Patriots in a big event which competed with game 3.

The Brady event is very significant. Before the coming of Brady no Boston team had won a title since the days of Larry Bird. After Brady won that first title everything changed. Brady won six titles in Boston and in between those six titles the Celtics and Bruins both won titles when they had not won since the 1980’s and 1970’s respectively and the Red Sox who had not won a title since 1918 won four titles three of them on the back of David Ortiz who is the closest thing to Brady we’ve seen in Boston since Bird and Russell.

Brady won his last title in Boston (but not HIS last title) on February 19th 2019. That was the last title any Boston team has won in any major sport.

While some in Boston sports complained about the clash of this event with game 3 I think it’s very appropriate that it takes place when it did. As I noted Brady brought titles back to Boston and he furthermore won the last title that Boston has seen. It’s great to celebrate him as a team in on the verge of winning the first post Brady title for a team in Boston in the 21st century.

Although in fairness Dallas will have a say on if this happens or not.

I’m Sorry But Isn’t that a good thing?

Posted: June 12, 2024 by datechguy in Uncategorized

I saw this headline at Hotair and my reaction was a tad different than you might expect:

Depressing: US Soldiers More Likely to Die by Suicide Than in Combat

and a bit from the piece:

One of the most alarming statistics reveals that U.S. soldiers were more likely to die by suicide than from combat industries. And it wasn’t by a small margin. Soldiers were nine times more likely to die in that manner.

Now maybe it’s just me, but if your soldiers are dying from suicide at a greater rate than by combat that means that you either:

  1. Are not fighting large scale wars when heavy combat causalities
  2. So effective at fighting wars that your troops are unlikely to get killed

I suspect that if you look at any major war from Vietnam back to the Revolution you won’t find a ratio like that.

What IS worrying is this figure from the same piece:

That still doesn’t come close to explaining the situation with the Army, however. Looked at based on per capita figures, the overall suicide rate for Americans went from 10.4 per 100,000 to 14.0 over the 21-year period measured. By comparison, the rate in the Army was 36.1 per 100,000 in 2021, and last year it reached 36.6. That’s not a minor difference. That’s more than two and a half times greater than what is seen in the general population. It’s also far more than should be written off as a coincidence.

If I may be so bold as to suggest I think this is yet another example of the costs of a post-Christian society. Once you remove the love of Christ from an equation, particularly a tough one and you’ll be surprised how a society, particularly a subset of a society engaged in dangerous work, reacts.

Baby, you can drive my car

Posted: June 11, 2024 by chrisharper in Uncategorized
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By Christopher Harper

I bought my last new car the day after the Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series.

For those not Philadelphia fans or baseball enthusiasts, that was 16 years ago.

Today, my Saturn Aura is no longer being made. The electronic gauges have mostly failed, and I’ve had to search for competent mechanics to keep the old car running.

A recent Wall Street Journal article confirmed that I was not alone in my lack of desire to buy a new car.

“It’s not just the political class. America’s fleet of cars and trucks is also getting long in the tooth. Last month a study by S&P Global Mobility reported the average age of vehicles in the U.S. was 12.6 years, up more than 14 months since 2014. Singling out passenger cars, the number jumps to a geriatric 14 years,” Dan Neil wrote recently.

“In the past, the average-age statistic was taken as a sign of transportation’s burden on household budgets. Those burdens remain near all-time highs. The average transaction price of a new vehicle is currently hovering around $47,000. While inflation and interest rates are backing away from recent highs, insurance premiums have soared by double digits in the past year,” Neil added.

Moreover, Neil reported that many buyers don’t like designs that include more technology, particularly electric vehicles. “But lately another, stranger element is showing up in the numbers: a motivated belief among consumers that automakers’ latest and greatest offerings—whether powered by gasoline, batteries or a hybrid system—are inferior to the products they are replacing,” Neil wrote. “I cast a wide net on social media last month, posing this question: Name a new car/truck/SUV that is not as desirable as the design it replaces. I got back a long and distinguished list, a roll call of the compromised: Toyota Land Cruiser; Mini Cooper; Ford Mustang; Toyota Crown (née Avalon); Ford F-150; just about every model of BMW you can think of.”

The Joys of a Quiet Life

Posted: June 7, 2024 by datechguy in Uncategorized

I watched the Trump interview with Dr. Phil and something hit me during it.

There have been several times when I have been in the middle of things, from clearing the camps in Denver and the attack on the hotel where Conservative bloggers stayed, to boarding the Tea Party express bus to Washington, to being in the middle of the mob of “antinazis” in Boston that had to be held back from attacking two men one wearing a Trump flag and one wearing an Israeli flag back in 2018 ( a story that’s very relevant now).

But there have been also times when I just missed being in a bad spot, I had hoped to be in Texas at Pam Geller’s event but things fell through so I wasn’t there when the gunman started shooting, work prevented me from getting to DC to cover the J6 events which almost certainly in this environment would have put me in jail and destroyed my family finances.

Furthermore it has also hit me that if I had made it as an independent reporter I would have been targeted by the left in a way that would have again made life difficult for DaWife and family.

I’d like to think I’d have still done a good and honorable job if any of those things had happened, but part of faith is trusting that even if you don’t know what God’s doing God knows what he’s doing.

I’m wondering if I’ve been granted a quiet life simply because a less quiet life might not have been conducive to the heath of my soul.

It would be nice to do something for the country and in a very small way I hope we still do good here but being a good husband, a decent father and doing well in small ways in the community where you actually know and see people face to face is of no less value and might even be of greater value.

Either way may I be grateful for the quiet life that I have now been granted and carry myself well within it.

It’s a small vocation but if that’s where God has put me and might put you let’s do that job that we have been given.

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