Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

The Corona Apocalypse Trap

Posted: April 14, 2020 by datechguy in Uncategorized

Pray do not fill your letters with rubbish about this European War. Its final issue is, no doubt, important, but that is a matter for the High Command. I am not in the least interested in knowing how many people in England have been killed by bombs. In what state of mind they died, I can learn from the office at this end. That they were going to die sometime, I knew already. Please keep your mind on your work,

Screwtape Letter 24

One of the things I’ve noticed a lot of, which is something that others might not have, have been Christians looking at this entire Corona Virus thing as either a judgement of God or an attack by the devil.

It worth reminding everyone of these remarks by Christ on the subject:

At that time some people who were present there told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices.   He said to them in reply, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans?  By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!

Or those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them  – do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem?  By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!“

Luke 13:1-5

The #1 cause of death among humans is life. Once you are connived and alive you are doomed to die. People keep panicking over death but every person who reads this will die, but so will every person who doesn’t.

The corona virus stuff only matters in terms of heaven and hell in terms of how it affects individual souls. C.S. Lewis elaborates on this further in Screwtape 28:

When I told you not to fill your letters with rubbish about the war, I meant, of course, that I did not want to have your rather infantile rhapsodies about the death of men and the destruction of cities. In so far as the war really concerns the spiritual state of the patient, I naturally want full reports. And on this aspect you seem singularly obtuse. Thus you tell me !with glee that there is reason to expect heavy air raids on the town where the creature lives. This is a crying example of something I have complained about already – your readiness to forget the main point in your immediate enjoyment of human suffering. Do you not know that bombs kill men? Or do you not realise that the patient’s death, at this moment, is precisely what we want to avoid?

The last thing the devil wants is a person dying in a state of grace. The death of a person in a state of grace is a loss for the Devil and a gain for that person because if one dies in a state of grace they avoid hell forever. A long life that ends in an eternity in Hell is not a net plus.

Furthermore to obsess on the actual or supposed sins of other and cause us to take our eyes off the state of our own sins. There is a reason why Pride is the 1st of the deadly sins.

In other words rather than worrying about if this Corona Wuhan CCP Virus pandemic is God’s judgement on anybody else, let’s try to do God’s will today.

An awful lot of people who are serving their fellow man in this crisis seem to be doing that, and I suspect that fact is a disaster for the forces of darkness.

Report from Louisiana: Passing Time

Posted: April 13, 2020 by Pat Austin in Uncategorized
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By:  Pat Austin

SHREVEPORT – Because COVID-19 was not enough drama, tornadoes ripped through the South on Easter Sunday, leaving 19 dead at last count. The band of storms had been anticipated and talked about for days and days before the event; they blew up over Texas over the weekend and rolled into Louisiana around dawn, moving on across the southern states throughout the day. Seems like it happens here every Easter.

Like the rest of the nation, we remain sheltered in place, although people interpret that with various degrees of fidelity. Grocery stores, WalMart, and garden centers remain quite crowded. Some stores around here are limiting the number of folks allowed inside at one time, but not all of them.

The tone of the quarantine seems to be changing; more and more people are calling for businesses to reopen. The initial fear of the pandemic seems to be easing and now people want their liberties back. Personally, I’ve cleaned out every closet, pantry, and drawer, scrubbed the baseboards, polished the furniture, weeded every flower bed, brushed the dog, and eaten a gallon of BlueBell Ice Cream (Cookie Dough Overload). I’ve gained five pounds. I’m thinking of taking up yoga; those yoga pants are really comfortable.

I’ve met more people in my neighborhood than I have in the thirty years I’ve lived here – from six feet part, of course. I have one across-the-street neighbor who doesn’t come outside much but pops open his front door every day, looks around, waves, then goes back inside. My next-door neighbor fires up his blower and blows his driveway every single day, at least once. Sometimes more than once. I spend a lot of time watching the dog a couple of doors down dig holes in his front yard, tail happily wagging. There’s another guy across the street who sits in his big picture window every day, just watching the neighborhood. He waves when you look over there. There’s neighborhood bar at the end of my street and I can see the owner sitting outside alone on the deck sipping a beer and watching traffic.  Lots and lots of people are walking; with gyms closed, people are trying to get their exercise any way they can.

I can not fathom the economic toll this is all going to have. I totally understand all of the worry and angst about the economy and it’s going to take a far better mind than mine to figure out how we come back from this, but I know one thing: we will. There’s no other option. We will.

Once we all get back to work, we will be doing the Monday morning quarterback routine on how all of this has been handled and there will be blame, fault, and second guessing all around. It will be a political mess. I hope that as Americans we will be able to pull together instead of apart, and get ourselves back on track to prosperity, and I hope we do it with kindness and a new appreciation for what we have.

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

A Question for all our Democrat Friends Who are For Mail in Voting & No Voter Id. Why do you Trust Donald Trump so Much?

Posted: April 9, 2020 by datechguy in Uncategorized

There is something that concerning the left and their attitude to mail in voting, and no ID at the polls that requires such logical gymnastics that it amazes me that nobody discusses it.

We have been told for years by the Bernie Bros in general and the Democrats in particular the big corporations can’t be trusted. That they use connections in the government to get favorable status over labor and individuals in order to gain wealth and power over them.

We are told that the oil companies, the drug companies, the mining companies and especially the banks are all conspiring to use the laws to feather their own nests and get their cronies in so they can build their wealth and power on the back of the people and the planet.

Furthermore we are told that the republican party in general and Donald Trump in particular are tools of these forces acting in their interests in order to send billions, maybe even TRILLIONS of dollars their way.

And not only that but according to our friends on the left President Trump used collusion and intimidation to get power and is using said power to hold that office for the sake of his own wealth and the wealth of his friends.

There is a solid 20% of the country that believes all of these things and as much as 45% who believe most of this, so I address the following question to all of you:

Given that all of the wealth and power that is available through the power of the government is at stake and further given that you already claim that Donald Trump has cheated in the last election and will do so in the next, why do you assume that the big corporations with millions at their fingertips, the Russians with billions at stake and Donald Trump who you distrust more than either would not use mail in voting and the lack of voter ID to commit fraud?

I mean given the billions at stake, their resources which would allow them to use a mail system or fake identities on a national scale to commit fraud it seems incredible that you would endorse such a system and trust Corporations, Putin and Trump not to try to game it. Why if we didn’t know better one might thing there was some other ulterior motive to this sudden trust of these folks.

Discuss.

(Note this will be my lead topic on my friday livestream podcast at 9:15 AM) watch the stream live at the blog or at my youtube channel here

The great toilet paper shortage was caused by laws that prevent price gouging

Posted: April 9, 2020 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
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Anti price gouging laws were enacted across this nation with the best intentions however they very often produce shortages of essential goods.  This is exactly what happened at the beginning of the Coronavirus crisis.  In a purely free market economy the shortage of toilet paper would have been mush less severe.  We probably would not have witnessed near riots and even fist fights over a shortage of this so necessary product.

When the mass buying toilet paper began and store inventories began to run low the store keepers should have automatically raised prices.  A drastic run on  toilet paper should have led to a drastic rise in the price.  This would have discouraged the mass buying and hording when inventories in the stores began to run low.

Because of the increased sale of toilet paper the store owners would have ordered more toilet paper from their suppliers who would then charge the store owners more if their supplies began to run low.  Quickly, because of free market forces the increased price and demand of toilet paper would have reached the manufacturers who would produce more and ship it faster down the supply chain to the stores.

Here is how the Foundation for Economic Education explained the factors behind the toilet paper shortage:

From an economic perspective, the value of toilet paper is much higher now than it was pre-pandemic. But with the price of toilet paper the same as it always was and not reflecting its increased value, there is nothing to prevent individuals from buying as much of it as possible. Indeed, that’s the rational consumer response. But if shopkeepers increased the price of toilet paper to reflect its new value, suddenly we would think twice about hoarding it and only take as much as we need. These rising prices would also signal supply chains of the increased value of toilet paper, prompting toilet paper manufacturers to boost production.

In natural disasters, like a hurricane or an earthquake or a pandemic, we often hear people decry “price gouging” and blame “greedy shopkeepers” for trying to profit off of misery. Yet, price gouging is an unfair term. If the shopkeeper raises the price of toilet paper (or hand sanitizer or bleach or eggs or any of the other items that are currently in high demand), then it incentivizes the consumer not to hoard and to buy only as much of an item as is truly needed. It’s not greedy, it’s responsive.

If the store charges too much customers will not buy the product or they will buy very little then the store will need to lower the price.  When more product becomes available the store will need to lower the price if it does not sell.  The store will eventually need to order less causing the price up the supply chain to fall signaling the producers to produce less.

Because of the price controls restricting the price the store can charge they are not able to pay their suppliers more.  The suppliers are not able to pay the manufacturers more.  There is no incentive for the producers to rapidly produce more and no incentive for the suppliers to rush the product down the supply chain resulting in delays in restocking shelves.

Government interference in the free market always produces far more negative results than positive no matter how well intentioned they are.  Unfortunately most colleges do not teach free market economics and politicians who  do not support anti price gouging laws are decried as monsters.

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