Archive for the ‘Uncomfortable Truths’ Category

A voyage into history

Posted: August 30, 2022 by chrisharper in Uncomfortable Truths
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By Christopher Harper

On September 5, 1522, The Victoria sailed into the harbor near Seville, Spain, after completing a three-year, 60,000-mile trip around the world.

For centuries, the expedition, launched by Ferdinand Magellan, was regarded as one of the most outstanding achievements in history and had a significant impact on the West’s understanding of the world.

See a map of the incredible journey at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uKhVFlasxE

Mired in today’s wokeness, the voyage is regarded as the beginning of colonialism and the dominance of the Catholic Church over those colonies. 

But Magellan’s vision and his sailors’ persistence against all odds demonstrate what’s wrong with wokeness.

Would the world really have been better if people didn’t know how to sail around it?

After studying maps for years, Magellan had a dream. He was convinced that by sailing west instead of east, he could find a better route to Indonesia and India from Europe. The king of Portugal wouldn’t finance his trip, so he headed for Spain, where he gained citizenship and Charles V’s backing for five ships. 

But he was in an awkward position regarding his crew and royal mission. “The [Spanish] resented sailing under a Portuguese commander, and the Portuguese considered him a traitor,” historian Lincoln Paine wrote.

After winter weather forced his ships to wait for months in what is now Argentina, Magellan’s crew mutinied. One ship was wrecked; another headed back to Spain. 

Magellan managed to navigate a treacherous passage around South America that later was named in his honor—the Strait of Magellan. He’s also credited with naming the Pacific Ocean.

But the troubles weren’t over. As the crew traveled across the Pacific, food spoiled, and scurvy and starvation occurred. The sailors reached the Philippines, where Magellan was killed in April 1521 by a local tribe. 

After Magellan’s death, his crew continued in the single ship that remained, captained by Juan Sebastian Elcano. Only 18 of the 270 men survived, but the expedition had proven that the globe could be circumnavigated and opened the door to European colonization of the New World in the name of commerce.

A legend was born—and in 1989, one of Magellan’s namesakes even traveled to Venus. During a five-year-long journey, NASA’s Magellan spacecraft made images of the planet before burning up in its atmosphere.

According to Antonio Pigafetta, who chronicled the journey and lived to tell the tale: “Magellan’s main virtues were courage and perseverance, in even the most difficult situations; for example, he bore hunger and fatigue better than all the rest of us. He was a magnificent practical seaman who understood navigation better than all his pilots. The best proof of his genius is that he circumnavigated the world, none having preceded him.”

Today, Magellan’s vision and fortitude should be praised rather than placed on the altar of wokeness.

Fortunately, a relatively apolitical rendition of Magellan’s accomplishments is now airing on Amazon Prime. See https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B0B1LNS6LB/ref=atv_hm_hom_1_c_lZOsi7_2_1

DaTechGuy’s Spontaneous Podcast the Mar-a-Lago Raid and an Immigration story that both spell trouble for the left

Posted: August 11, 2022 by datechguy in Always look at the bright side of Trump, immigration, politics, Uncomfortable Truths
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The mood struck me to do a spontaneous podcast.

I talk Trump, How the left is trying to intimidate us and a story of a black immigrant woman that is bad news for the left

You can watch it here

Eventually all of this will be on Rumble but till all my youtube videos are moved we’ll still be there.

AARP: A bad deal from a bad group

Posted: August 9, 2022 by chrisharper in Uncomfortable Truths
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By Christopher Harper

Like many other seniors, I am bombarded daily by ads, emails, and letters from the American Association of Retired Persons.

AARP is not only a nuisance but also a dangerous, left-leaning organization that concerns itself more with its power than its members.

AARP members should cancel their memberships and, more important, seek other providers for Medicare Advantage and Medigap coverage  

About half of those aged 50 years and older in the United States—or 38.5 million people—belong to AARP. That makes the organization one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the country. In comparison, the National Rifle Association has a mere 4.5 million members.

In a cogent analysis, Kimberly Strassel of The Wall Street Journal provided a pertinent example of AARP’s duplicity: its support for the Schumer-Manchin bill, known officially as The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

“The group’s particular focus is the provision that would allow the federal government to ‘negotiate’ Medicare drug prices and cap annual increases to inflation—though it is more than happy to also swallow the legislation’s tax hikes and climate spending,” Strassel wrote recently. 

A University of Chicago study found that such a plan would reduce research dollars by $663 billion over the next 17 years, resulting in 135 fewer drugs. The study estimates a loss of 331 million years of life or more than 30 times the toll from COVID.

“Most devastated would be the people AARP claims to represent. Nearly 90% of adults 65 and older take at least one prescription medication—more than half report taking four or more. The AARP’s price controls would mean horrific hits to research in cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, you name it,” Strassel wrote.

The act also provides $64 billion to extend ObamaCare insurance subsidies. That’s a massive chump of change for insurers, including UnitedHealth Group, a company that paid $1 billion in royalty payments to AARP in 2020 alone. 

But there’s more:

–AARP argues that climate change, which gets billions from the law, has been largely responsible for a rise in infectious diseases throughout the world. 
–AARP supports widespread mail-in voting without a requirement for IDs, a significant means through which Joe Biden got elected.
–AARP supports the continuation of masks, social distancing, and contact tracing.
–AARP supports gay marriage.

If these reasons aren’t enough to cancel your AARP membership, consider the consumer complaints. 

Sitejabber.com, which provides overall reviews for various products and services, gives a huge thumbs down to AARP.

“AARP has a consumer rating of 2.17 stars [out of five] from 200 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Consumers complaining about AARP most frequently mention car insurance, customer service, and junk mail problems,'” the website advises. See https://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/aarp.org for some of the other issues. 

From just about any way you look at AARP, the organization doesn’t do much except to strive for more power rather than to help seniors! 

That’s just my nickel, which I plan to spend on my membership for the Association of Mature American Citizens, or AMAC, which does a lot more for seniors than AARP and has a political agenda far more in keeping with my outlook. For more information, see http://www.amac.us.

Why the Democrat Left in General and Elizabeth Warren in Particular hate Pregnancy Centers in five words: No opportunity for Government Graft

Posted: July 14, 2022 by datechguy in abortion, catholic, politics, Uncategorized, Uncomfortable Truths
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It’s been really something watching Elizabeth Warren go wild about pregnancy centers in the post Roe world because I’m so familiar with such centers and the work they do.

Such as Mira Vida, at Belmont Abbey College which allows pregnant college age women to transfer to Belmont Abbey college and get 10 classes hours for free while Mira Vida provides help both before and after the birth of their child.

Or Visitation House that gives residency, food, shelter and help on parenting and more including counseling and life classes to pregnant woman before and after they deliver.

Or problem pregnancy that provides financial, spiritual, social and physical needs of pregnant women so they can keep their children without fear.

As you can see the attacks on the center have been taking place long before the Dobbs decision.

and of course the video from this week about First Concern pregnancy centers that again focus on removing the problems that can prevent a woman from having their child rather than seeing the baby as the problem

All of these centers have some things in common

  • All of them attack the problems that women might face with pregnancy rather than the child being the problem
  • All of them serve a lot of women in financial need particularly the poorest
  • None of them restrict their support based on the religion or lack thereof of the mother
  • They get little or no attention from the media for the work they do

But there are two points that are really central to the hatred of these centers by the Democrat left in general and Senator Warren in particular

  1. All of these centers operate through private donations vs taxpayer funds meaning that the money is going to support women and their needs rather than financing Democrat activists and allies.
  2. Since there are no federal millions going to these centers there is no money to be kicked back to the Democrat party or their superpacs, or the campaigns of individual democrats running at the local, state or federal level.

Put simply there is no graft in it for the left and thus they are of no use to Democrats.

This is also why the media has had little or no interest in covering, promoting or extolling the good works that these groups and hundreds like them all across the nation are doing because every donated dollar to these organizations that saves a child’s life eats into Planned Parenthood’s bottom line which mean it eats into the campaign funds and support of thousands of Democrat activists and candidates.

It’s one thing to help women & children but if it shows Christianity in a good light and doesn’t help the Democrat Party it’s just not newsworthy.

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