Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Chinese spying: It’s time to draw the line

Posted: February 7, 2023 by chrisharper in Uncategorized
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By Christopher Harper

For those of us who lived through the Cold War with the Soviet Union, the Chinese spy balloon seemed like déjà vu all over again. The incident seemed far more dangerous than President Biden and his administration believed it was.

Sure, a balloon isn’t a bomber. But past spy vs. spy endeavors have had near-disastrous consequences.

In May 1960, American pilot Francis Gary Powers was shot down in his CIA spy plane over Russia. President Eisenhower thought the pilot had died and declared the mission was aimed at surveying weather. The aircraft had accidentally wandered off course.

The Russians quickly showed the spy plane and the pilot, embarrassing the Americans just before a critical summit with Russia. The incident seriously affected East-West relations, ultimately leading to the Berlin Wall and the Cuban missile crisis.

It’s unclear what will happen because of the Chinese balloon, but it’s unlikely to be anything good.

The Chinese have engaged in ongoing espionage in the United States, and little has been done to stop it. Now is the time to do so.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies has found 160 serious incidents of Chinese spying in the United States since 2000. See https://www.csis.org/programs/strategic-technologies-program/archives/survey-chinese-espionage-united-states-2000

U.S. companies have also filed more than 1,200 cases of intellectual property theft against Chinese companies and their agents.

The results of the investigation are rather chilling:

–42% of the spies were Chinese military or government employees.
–32% were private Chinese citizens.
–26% were non-Chinese, usually persons recruited by Chinese officials.
–34% of the incidents sought to acquire military technology.

The investigation also found that the Chinese have become far more aggressive in recent years. More than three-quarters of the espionage incidents happened between 2010 and 2021. Also, the number of hacking incidents has dramatically increased, particularly from Chinese government operations known as People’s Liberation Army Unit 61398 and APT4.

Moreover, the investigation found that various university professors had used their positions to obtain funding from the U.S. government and then provided the results to China in various scientific fields.

The balloon incident should underline the need for greater emphasis on battling Chinese espionage. If the Biden administration fails to stand up to China, the Beijing government and President Xi will only become more emboldened in their efforts.

Williams vs Musial in Left as Trump vs DeSantis as the Nominee

Posted: February 7, 2023 by datechguy in baseball, elections, politics, Uncategorized
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In the 1985 edition of the Bill James Historical Baseball abstract James ranks the best players at each position based on both “Peak Value” (How they played at their peak) and “Career Value” (How they played over their career). At the position of left field James Ranked Stan Musial as the #1 of all time with Ted Williams 2nd. By the 2001 edition of the book which didn’t have the Peak vs Career editions he had flipped the pair based on his revised win shares formula but back in 1985 he made this argument concerning his choice:

Look I am not saying anything at all negative about Ted Williams. The further we go into the analysis of batting statistics the closer we come to being forced to accept the conclusion that Williams, not Babe Ruth, was the greatest hitter who ever lived. I think he was the second greatest left fielder who ever lived. That’s not critizism.

But if I had to choose between the two of them I’d take Musial in left field, Musial on the basepaths, Musial in the clubhouse and Williams only with the wood in his hands. And Stan Musial could hit a little too.

This is actually one of my pet peeves. I get sick of hearing people say on talk radio, “Aaron Rogers sucks, when talking about Brady or or Lebron sucks when talking about Jordan. One can acknowledge that Brady is better than Rogers or Jordan is better than James without deciding the other stinks.

And that takes us to Trump vs DeSantis.

In one sense this conversation is premature as Ron DeSantis hasn’t announced that he’s running but I’m getting really sick of the “DeSantis sucks” stuff coming out of the Trump camp and the “Trump sucks” stuff coming out of some republicans.

If you look at the data, from the economic numbers to the accomplishments one had to conclude that not only was Donald Trump the best and most effective president of the 21st century so far, but you can make a credible argument that he was superior to Ronald Reagan and the best GOP president since Teddy Roosevelt who I think is the most compatible president to Donald Trump.

One can see this, acknowledge this and even assert, as I do, that the 2020 election was literally stolen from him, and still decide that DeSantis is the better choice in 2024. That’ doesn’t mean that Trump is a bad choice it just means that you think DeSantis is a better one.at this time.

On the other hand if you look at the data, again from the economic numbers to the accomplishments and conclude that Ron DeSantis is not only the most effective and successful GOP governor currently in office but that he is likely the best GOP governor that we’ve seen in the 21st century and I don’t think it’s close.

One can see this, acknowledge this and even assert that he would make an excellent president and still decide that Donald Trump is the better choice for 2024. That doesn’t mean DeSantis is a bad choice, it just means you think Trump is a better one at this time.

I supported Rick Santorum in 2012, in 2016 I supported Ted Cruz over Santorum, not because I thought Santorum was bad but because I thought Ted Cruz was a better choice at the time.

I will happily support either Trump or DeSantis as the GOP nominee but let’s not pretend that either one of them is a bad choice, and let’s stop hitting either as if they are.

Oh and if you claim to be a conservative and say you won’t vote for Trump or DeSantis over a Biden, Harris, Newsom or an Obama then please don’t waste my time with your opinion because you’re no conservative.

Full employment for Plumbers, Staying Bought, Blaming those not there, Too rich to Play and a final Catholic 101 Clarification Under the Fedora

Posted: February 6, 2023 by datechguy in Blame Biden Administration, catholic, nfl, race card, Sports, Uncategorized
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Got a call first thing this morning from the plumber concerning the frozen pipes in the attic apartment that DaWife and I first lived in when married and has now been rented out to the same fellow for nearly 30 years. Water was leaking to the 2nd floor where my brother lives. I called and emailed Saturday concerning the problem, apparently it’s a good thing I called fast because while there are a lot of people ahead of me which means we likely won’t see them today, the number of people behind me is a whole lot longer.

That artic blast is a full employment program for the plumbing and heating industry which I suspect isn’t laying off anyone in New England anytime soon, but then again in an age where automation is taking over a lot the trades remain the best option out there during a recession.

My thought on the Chinese balloons was that it would be a better idea to capture it in the air rather than shoot is down as we don’t know if they might contain hazardous materials. With a slow moving balloon of indeterminate weight I don’t know how practicable such a move would have been but if that wasn’t possible I don’t see the advantage of allowing to to gather intelligence and transmit it in real time letting it traverse the country before taking it out over the Atlantic.

By waiting that long you basically gave China not only the real time data they were looking for but data on the use of such balloons as a delivery system for bio weapons for either a first strike or an attack if we defend Tawian.

The Biden administration’s reaction tells me that what I’ve said before still applies, when you buy them, they stay bought.

Let’s point one important thing concerning all this reparations talk that nobody is discussing.

My four grandparents came here around 1906 over 40 years after the end of slavery in the US. and as Sicilians were considered to be of a different “race” than the WASPS in Massachusetts where they settled having to work like dogs to get to where they were.

Even if you make the stupid argument that reparations are due to people who were never slavers and whose parents were never slaves (and whose grandparents were likely never slaves either) why the hell should any of the descendants of people who were no where near America in the 19th century be responsible for those sins?

This past weekend the NFL “Pro-bowl” became a flag football game and skills competitions that I suspect people didn’t care much about.

The reason the pro-bowl is in decline? That’s simple. Current salaries.

When an NFL player was not making generational wealth the bonus from even the loser’s share of a pro-bowl game was something worth showing up for, not to mention the trip to Hawaii.

But when you are making a fortune playing the game already there is little incentive to show up to play an extra game that you have the potential to be hurt at, and one injury could mean the end of your seven to eight figure paycheck.

Thus the well paid stars who the pro-bowl is meant to feature give it a miss and the middle tier guys to whom that extra cash might mean something show up and now you don’t even have a real football game.

How it draws any eyeballs escapes me.

Finally there was yet another “clarification” concerning homosexuality from the Pope as he continues to try to dance around reality so as not to have to speak the truth aloud so in the interest of clarity let me give you four basic Catholic truths.

  1. There are NO circumstances where sex outside of marriage between one man and one woman is not mortal sin.
  2. There are NO circumstances where homosexual sex is not mortal sin.
  3. Mortal sin, sexual or otherwise, if sacramentally confessed with a firm resolve to amend is forgiven independent of sexual orientation.
  4. If you fail in your resolve and sin again, sacramental confession remains available so you can pick yourself up and try again.

This is Catholic 101 and any Priest or Bishop who tells you different is at best ignorant and at worst a liar.

The Key Words in Stacy McCain’s Piece on Zachary Teytlebaum

Posted: February 4, 2023 by datechguy in crime, Uncategorized
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A few days ago Stacy McCain wrote about an aspiring football player who had a brush with the law who, as Stacy put it:

was behind the wheel of a Mercedes when he got blue-lighted Friday by Volusia County deputies on I-95. Teytlebaum fled north into Flagler County at triple-digit speeds, weaving in and out of traffic, passing on the shoulder and generally making himself a hazard to other motorists

After he was caught thanks to air support there was an exchange that I think is worthy of more attention:

Teytlebaum: “I got a warrant.”
Deputy: “OK, then if you’ve got a warrant . . .”
Teytlebaum: “I’m asking, do I have . . .”
Deputy: “We don’t know who you are. How do we know if you’ve got a warrant?”
Teytlebaum: “I’m asking you, do I have a warrant? I fled because I thought I had a child support warrant. What the f***?”
Deputy: “That doesn’t give you an excuse to run.”
Teytlebaum: “Yes, it do!”

Now there are things to be said about young men not being responsible sexually but that’s not the big thing here.

Note that the reason why this guy took off was because he thought he had a warrant against him.

From what I’ve seen of these type of stories over the years, many which end up with activists marching and crying racism, the one thing that you see in common is that the people who are fleeing from the police tend to have warrants against them so they know if they submit to a police check the warrant will turn up and they will be heading to jail.

So they run, hoping they will get away and avoid jail. For most of them it’s a forlorn hope but for just a few they will end up martyred to the cause of leftism and elevated to sainthood by the left to attack police.

Personally I don’t think it’s worth it.

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