Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

A small victory for sanity

Posted: January 31, 2023 by datechguy in Uncategorized

In Yesterday’s Under the Fedora I noted that it was disgraceful that even a single juror in the Mark Houck case was willing to vote guilty in a case that was all about the basic freedom of religion.

Apparently this disgrace has been rectified.

A Philadelphia jury acquitted Mark Houk, the devoted Catholic father of seven, of federal assault charges for supposedly shoving an abortion clinic volunteer.

Peter Breen, Thomas More Society Executive Vice President and Head of Litigation, said via email: “We are, of course, thrilled with the outcome. Mark and his family are now free of the cloud that the Biden administration threw upon them. We took on Goliath – the full might of the United States government – and won. The jury saw through and rejected the prosecution’s discriminatory case, which was harassment from day one. This is a win for Mark and the entire pro-life movement. The Biden Department of Justice’s intimidation against pro-life people and people of faith has been put in its place.”

What’s worth noting is that one juror was dismissed and replaced with an alternative:

One of the 12 jurors deciding the fate of the pro-life father of seven Mark Houck in Philadelphia federal court has been replaced by an alternate.

The alternate took the place of the original juror at approximately 1:30 p.m. Monday, when deliberations began again. Defense lawyers for Houck could not comment on the reason for the replacement.

The jury began deliberations on the case on Friday but said they were “deadlocked” and would not come to a decision that night.

Legal insurrection notes that the juror who was replaced didn’t take part in deliberations but once he was out it took only an hour to acquit.

Make of that what you will.

A journalistic trifecta

Posted: January 31, 2023 by chrisharper in Uncategorized
Tags: , , ,

By Christopher Harper

The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Associated Press combined to create arguably one of the worst weeks ever for mainstream media.

Although I realize that most of us have given up on news organizations, the outrage has grown among some of the media’s longtime defenders.

The Columbia Journalism Review, a left-leaning organization tied to Columbia University, published a four-part series that savages The Times’ coverage of Russian involvement in the 2016 election.

“No narrative did more to shape Trump’s relations with the press than Russiagate. The story, which included the Steele dossier and the Mueller report among other totemic moments, resulted in Pulitzer Prizes as well as embarrassing retractions and damaged careers,” CJR executive editor Kyle Pope wrote in an editor’s note. 

Jeff Gerth, the critique’s author and a former Times reporter, said he believes the Times damaged its credibility outside of its “own bubble” and that even famed journalist Bob Woodard told him coverage of the Russia probe “wasn’t handled well.” 

The Associated Press, once a venerable outpost for objectivity, fairness, and balance, has lined up with the woke crowd.

Last week, the AP, where I once worked, issued a directive for its stylebook, once regarded as the most important set of guidelines for journalists.

The organization tweeted advice not to use generic labels for groups of people who share a single common trait, giving as examples the poor, the mentally ill, and the college-educated.

But the AP backed down after the guideline came under fire. The French embassy in the United States joked that it should possibly change its name to the Embassy of Frenchness.

Then The Philadelphia Inquirer weighed in on the foibles of a private restaurant’s failure to uphold political correctness.

Restaurant critic Craig LaBan decried the Union League Club for honoring Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

“At the end of December, the Union League announced plans to build a $25 million rooftop restaurant with an expansive terrace. Imagining the gorgeous city views from atop the elegant red brick bones of this ornate 1865 building, with breezy outdoor dining and a more casual dress code planned to debut later this year, I’d begun to think this grand addition to the city’s culinary skyline might be just the cue for me to finally write about the city’s reviving private club restaurant scene.

“Or maybe not. This week’s gold medal celebration of Florida governor and potential presidential candidate Ron DeSantis was a stark reminder that the Union League isn’t just a private social club with pretty good food: its mission is served with an increasingly MAGA-flavored side of political ideology.”

I realize that business and sports reporting had been taken over by leftists, but I was surprised that food reporting had been usurped by lefties.

Nevertheless, all three of these once-venerable institutions got a fair amount of grief from nearly every slice of the political spectrum.

A lot to ask, A disgrace, Let’s go to the quote, A quick question, and the way of all things Under the Fedora

Posted: January 30, 2023 by datechguy in Uncategorized

With God all things are possible but to ask him to get you to the Superbowl with a 4th string QB is a bit much

Apparently the Jury is deadlocked on the charge against Mark Houck who was charged a year after the fact of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act when he confronted a clinc escort who was bothering his twelve year old son.

It’s disgraceful that this charge even made it to trial but I find it even more disgraceful that there are members of an American jury that voted guilty.

The weaponization of the federal government against Christians has only just begun. You have been warned

Last night on sports radio as I drove home there was a lot of buzz about people thinking the fix was in on those games yesterday.

Given the billions that are now bet on them I don’t find that suspicion surprising. Although I would think such a thing risks the entire business model and thus not be worth it but to those who would dismiss it out of hand let me give you a quote from the 1994 movie “Quiz Show” about the scandals there that perfectly illustrates the logical reason for suspicion:

Martin Rittenhome: Young man I sell over $14 million dollars a year worth of Geritol, Geritol, that’s the kind of businessman I am. That show twenty-one, cost me 3 1/2 million dollars year in and year out. Sales went up 50% when Van Doren was on. 50%! So the very idea that I was unaware of every detail or aspect of that show’s operation, well frankly it’s very insulting.

If the case incentive is high enough anything is possible

Last week I saw yet another story where “Transwoman” are stating that lesbian women who don’t draft Trans lesbians are bigots”

Now I don’t claim to be an expert on the “lesbian transwomen” dating scene but a question occurred to me: “How many of these so called “lesbian transwomen” are dating other “lesbian transwomen”?

Because if they’re not then apparently by their own argument they’re a bunch of bigots too.

I think that question should be asked of anyone who tries to play the bigot card. here.

Finally as you get older you get used to endings. Found out about two today. Pat Buchanan has apparently written his last column and Don Surber has apparently decided to drop his daily “Highlights of the News” in favor of his substack columns.

Everything eventually ends and as I’m closing in on 60 I’m wondering how much longer I’ll be writing daily.

Most likely I’ll keep up until it starts losing money hopefully that won’t be for a very long time if at all but we’ll see.

Mike Pence Lifeline is Biden not the Dems

Posted: January 27, 2023 by datechguy in Uncategorized

When the Joe Biden Classified documents scandal starting to gain legs I said this:

It may be that the reason this is coming out at all is that the deep state / Obama administration has decided they don’t want Biden in 2024 as the Democrat candidate so they intend to slowly leak stuff like this out until they can convince enough Democrats that he is no longer remains a viable candidate.

and this:

 The only thing Joe Biden is really skilled at besides collecting his 10% is going after his enemies so if you are the left and want Biden to go quietly into the sunset you need something like this to get it done.

It seemed that all the media was going out against him, that the word was out that it was open season on Biden and once January 20th had come and Harris was now eligible to be elected twice if he went, it was time to push him out.

Then came the Mike Pence story and suddenly the narrative shifted and the word was Pence had just given Biden a lifeline:

 Because of Pence’s stupidity, the narrative will shift to blaming the system in order to excuse Biden’s criminality. This was the lifeline the president needed.”

The author linked by Insty is quite right that this is a lifeline to Biden, but it’s not a lifeline for Democrats in 2024.

You see if they could push Biden out without a primary you could go with Newsom or Harris or anyone else and not only deflect the blame for all that has gone wrong in the last four years but it removes the potential rematch with two records side by side which might produce a result beyond the margin of theft.

But as I noted the one thing Joe Biden is good at is attacking and survival and Pence’s move while a lifeline to Biden also translates into an anchor around the neck of the Democrat party for 2024.

Closing thought, if you want to see a lifeline for Democrats here is the real one

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