Archive for the ‘under the fedora’ Category

Some Catholic Thoughts Under the Fedora: Pope Nails One, And Another, Trouble in Germany, Practical Reasons to support Priestly Celibacy and the Post Christian Experiment

Posted: March 16, 2023 by datechguy in catholic, Church doctrine, culture, under the fedora
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The Pope had something to say about all this Transgender Nonsense.

“Gender ideology, today, is one of the most dangerous ideological colonizations,” the pope said in an interview to Argentina’s La Nacion newspaper. “Why is it dangerous? Because it blurs differences and the value of men and women.”

Always good to hear him get one right. He also has been strong on coining a phrase:

He has frequently used the term “ideological colonization” in reference to cases in which influential organizations and governments require developing countries to accept abortion, contraception and Western values before they can receive aid money. For example, he lamented to Catholic bishops in 2016 that schoolchildren were being taught that they can choose their gender. “Why are they teaching this? Because the books are provided by the people and institutions that give you money.”

That nails it.

Even better Francis is two for two

“With great respect, I have no choice but to think about a derangement (“desequilibrio”) in the person who leads [Daniel Ortega]. There we have an imprisoned bishop, a very serious, very capable man. He wanted to give his testimony and did not accept exile. He is a something that is outside of what we are experiencing, it is as if it were bringing the Bolshevik communist dictatorship of 1917 or the Hitlerite dictatorship of 1935, back to life… They are a type of rude dictatorships, or, to use a nice distinction from Argentina, “guarangas” (vile), assured the Pope in the interview published on Friday.

Via Babalu Blog who notes how this contrasts with his treatment of Cuban communists:

 In its 64 years of existence, Castro, Inc. has committed millions of crimes, and its cruelty dwarfs that of Daniel Ortega. Yet, Papa Che [Francis] has never uttered a single word of condemnation — or anything close to it — against Cuba’s communist dictators.

Its’ a fair critique but it’s such a nice change to see him get things right I’ll take it.

Meanwhile in Germany things aren’t so good:

The German Synodal Way has voted to adopt “implementation texts” related to same-sex blessings, lay preaching during Mass, and a request for Pope Francis to reexamine the discipline of priestly celibacy in the Latin-rite Catholic Church.

If you think that’s bad it gets worse

While the Vatican has not explicitly condemned the Synodal Way’s promotion of heterodox proposals related to same-sex blessings and women’s ordination, the Holy See has been increasingly clear about its rejection of this form of ecclesial governance, which involves bishops and laity “sharing responsibility.” In the German proposal, laity could even overrule a bishop (or bishops at the national level) with a two-thirds majority.

Hey who needs confession when the sinners can just vote to cause sin to be legit?

Pray for these folks they need it.

There is one issue that these folks have brought up that I have mixed feelings on, that’s priestly celebacy.

This is because it was introduced as a reform to stop the practice of heredity parishes and dioceses which is no longer a problem.

I do have some practical objections.

Given the workload of most priests I don’t see how a married Priest would have time for a family and given the commitments a family involves I don’t see how you could make time for the 24/7 nature of priestly duties.

My primary objection to the idea is that as a parent I would not want priests to be in a position where there is a conflict between church and family. Furthermore the insurance costs for families might be prohibitive, particularly at a time when there is so much trouble in supporting retired priests.

Then again Anglican priests who have converted and kept their wives and families have managed to pull it off.

Anyways those are the practical objections I see, but in terms of theology I see no objection to the Vatican changing the rules, just as long as they think long and hard about it because if they think this is a solution to the sex scandals that are primary homosexual they’re wrong.

Finally one of the advantages of being my particular age is I’ve been able to observe the difference between a Christian culture and a “post Christian” culture.

We see the promotion of vice, the sexualization of children, the redefinition of basic terms we have understood for centuries. We see people unable and unwilling to deal with basic situations that our society was able to cope with less than 50 years ago without issue.

We see youth confused and unable to cope, we see people without direction grabbing different fads, dissatisfied with themselves and their positions in life without hope.

Put simply the world, as it does by it’s very nature, is chewing people up and spitting them out because they can’t cope.

One can only think of this verse from scripture:

At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.

Matt 9:36

That is what happens always happens when you remove Christ from the picture. Because he respects our free will if you choose the world he will step back and let you face it alone if you choose, but fortunately he always has a hand extended if you change your mind. No person or nation is ever so far gone that God will not bless it if it repents.

Quick Thoughts Under the Fedora: Glenn is Right, Where’s the Solar lights?, Small Signs, Rewards of Persistence and Choices and biology.

Posted: March 15, 2023 by datechguy in under the fedora
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Yesterday we got 20″ of snow, in some hillier parts of town the snow total was as high as 31″. I wasn’t worried as I had an excellent Ariens snow blower to clear the driveway so my wife the nurse could get to work.. At least not until the power went out and I discovered that no matter how hard I pulled the cord, without the electric starter I couldn’t get it going.

If nothing else this confirms Glenn Reynolds advice today: “IF YOU CAN AFFORD ONE AND HAVE SPACE, YOU SHOULD REALLY HAVE A GENERATOR”

There was one thing that confused me yesterday. Quite a few of my neighbors have solar panels on their houses as they are subsidized by both the feds and the state, yet when the power went out they lost power too.

I thought the whole idea of solar panels is you generate your own electricity? What the point in having them if they don’t give you power in your place when all the other power is gone?

I always offer the 3rd Mystery of Light of the Holy Rosary (The Proclamation of the Kingdom of Heaven) both for my wife and to notices the works of God all around me. An example took place yesterday.

After I finally dug enough to get my car out so I could take DaWife to work I headed down to road in the hopes of finding a place with power that I could sit down, eat and maybe charge my laptop. On the way I noted a woman walking in the snow who is a friend of mine that I take to Mass on Fridays outside of Lent (during lent my church adds two Friday masses). When I circled around she was there waiting saying “As soon as I saw your car I knew you would circle to pick me up.” She was walking to the nursing home where she words leaving almost an hour early to get there in the midst of the storm.

The irony is that if DaWife had not asked me to drive through a McDonalds and the line hadn’t been the length of Cuba delaying us I would not have been at the right place to give Claire a lift in the storm.

Don’t tell me there’s no God.

After I dropped Claire at work I noticed, to my surprise, that the local Longhorn’s Restaurant was open. I pulled in and was seated at once. Apparently one maître d’, a manager, a cook and a server made it in and they were making do. Shortly after I came in a party 9 was seated and within 10 minutes tables and booths around we were filling despite the warning that it might be 10 minutes before the server could get to them.

I got something quick and small as they had enough work and I asked the maître d’ how they would handle it. He answered: “As best we can, but on the bright side the tips will only be split two ways.

I suspect those who made it in had to put in effort to do so but they will also reap the financial rewards from their hard work. That’s how it should be.

Finally I noticed this story first at the NY Post and then at Redstate concerning the “Trad Wife” movement.

a trend on TikTok began emerging that gained traction very quickly. It was women simply posting their daily lives as traditional housewives. They cooked, they cleaned, they looked nice for their breadwinning husband, and they took care of the children during the day.

Feminists are of course up in arms. Apparently equal rights for woman doesn’t include the right to choose to stay at home and raise your children yourself.

You would think feminists whose goal was to rise on the cooperate ladder would be happy to have less competition for that coveted “diversity hire” position that companies are tying to fill, but perhaps the real problem is that this skit from the BBC is more than a just a skit.

Did you notice that all the women in that skit were childless?

On a closing note. Massachusetts has paid maternity leave and one of our leads just came back to work after having her first child. She is liked and well respected at work but when I talked to her, she said that after spending the time with her son that the leave allows she wishes she was in a position to stay home with her son permanently.

No amount of political theory can counter millennia of biological urgency.

Misconceptions Under the Fedora: Silver, Schmidt, Schlichter, Fernandez and Bonchie

Posted: February 27, 2023 by datechguy in Uncomfortable Truths, under the fedora
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Many incorrect things come from false premises for example Nate Silver tweets

Silver assumes the scientists in question were interested in presenting fact rather than advancing a particular premise. I presume they were out to advance that false premise and therefore have no reason to be ashamed as they met the goal there were shooting for.

Along those same line Eric Schmidt is suggesting that tough words will prevent this from happening again this premise is again false as I noted

here is the williams bit

No consequences no changes.

Old friend Kurt Schlichter notes something that perplexes many conservatives like me:

In places like North Dakota and Idaho, which should be on the cutting edge of medieval conservatism, they regularly elect Buick Republicans who think we should use our inside voices. What gives?

and explains that many people are working under a misconception that they are actually voting for republicans:

In the big red states, everyone who is wants to get elected to anything joins the GOP. So, naturally, a lot of people who, in a non-red state, would probably be Democrats, join the GOP. It’s the only game in town. Can you tell the difference between Arkansas’s Asa Hutchinson and a Democrat?

But these people dilute the hardcoreness of the party. You get them in office and they do not evolve into something cool. Rather, they devolve into squishes and undercut those who actually are based. 

And that’s were he is slightly off, they are not “devolving” they are being themselves. As soon as they have a base of supporters who depend on them for favors they feel safe enough to go the John “fifth vote for the left” Roberts route. On votes that would pass anyways or they don’t care about they’ll join with the GOP to boost their “I voted with the party 90% of the time” meme but when the chance comes to advance a democrat meme or to kill a bill that means something or to put a leftist in a civil service position by which they can advance the left’s cause they strike because the only reason they are not Democrats is if people actually knew what they believed they’d be run out of town on a rail.

Now I might be being a tad unfair to wretched the cat by including him in this post based on the following tweet:

Maybe I’m reading something that isn’t there into it but it seems to me he is suggesting that the woke didn’t have the goal of demolishing the palace? I’ve always presumed they did.

Finally I saw this piece at Redstate from Bonchie:

According to Luft’s legal team, information on Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, and Jim Biden was handed over to the FBI all the way back in 2019. That’s in the same timeframe that Timothy Thibault was heading up the investigation into the president’s son. Thibault was later fired for concealing evidence for partisan reasons.

Has that information resurfaced within the FBI or did Thibault bury it for good? That’s a question we don’t have an answer to. Regardless, if Luft has the evidence he claims to have, it would behoove him to get it to the House Oversight Committee immediately. The longer this stews, the less credible he is going to seem.

The piece suggests that the FBI will look more politically motivated if they stall on this but he has it slightly backwards. Biden had decided he wants to run for re-election. Winning elections is the only thing he’s been consistently good at and DaWife is all in with him.

The Democrats however want him gone and replaced with either a true believer or a more believable placeholder.

Make no mistake if the powers that are running this administration fail to get Joe to step aside with the various carrots they’ll offer this Whisileblower is the stick

The Bright Side of Europe, International Feudalism, Drudging Veritas, PA gets what it deserves and the Superbowl post Brady Under the Fedora

Posted: February 12, 2023 by datechguy in culture, media, nfl, under the fedora
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I’ve been thinking…

We talk about why Europe doesn’t defend itself but while the Russia Ukraine war is nearing the end of year 1 it’s worth nothing that since World War 2 and American Troop stationed in Europe there has not been a major war between European Powers.

That is the longest period in centuries that this has been true and even the wars we have seen (Russia vs Ukraine, Balkans War) have all bee from states that had been broken up (Yugoslavia) or part of each other.

For all the PITN about defending Europe that’s quite an accomplishment.

Of course one of the disadvantages of this has been the empowerment of the international deep state. Once wealthy elites did not have to worry about national wars destroying their wealth they discovered they had more in common with each other than the people of the land they lived in or ran businesses in. They became, in effect their own nationality a group who believed that it was their right and destiny to direct the world around them and for others to bend the knee.

Welcome back feudalism! That’s the goal (with them as the Lords astonished that the people demand the comforts that they possess) but it is only doable against an unarmed population.

That’s why gun control will never be off the table for the left.

As I look at the attempt to wrest Project Veritas from James O’Keefe all I can think of is Matt Drudge. Because Drudge was pretty much a solo flyer it only required buying one person willing to be bought.

I suspect after the Pfizer expo an attempt to buy O’Keefe was attempted and failed and thus plan B was put into effect.

It’s always been easier to buy people to get what you want. I wonder how much the folks on the board were paid and if it was contingent on the ousting of O’Keefe?

Speaking of real reporting vs phony stuff apparently Senator Fetterman’s condition has reached a point where it is impossible for the media that insisted he was well and denounced anyone who said otherwise to tenably make that argument.

For myself, I would not allow him to resign or be replaced in any situation short of death. The people of Pennsylvania decided they wanted a brain injured invalid as their Senator and by golly they should get what they asked for.

On a personal level of course it would be nice if he recovered, it must be murder on his family and himself and I’d feel bad for anyone with such health issues but in terms of politics he decided to get onto the playing field and if he’s on the field during the game he doesn’t get the right to be left open.

Speaking of games today is Superbowl Sunday and with Tom Brady’s retirement New England’s interest in the game is going to return to the “once a decade” mode at best or more likely to the “not us” mode that it was in pre-Brady.

That a franchise had a 50% chance of making it to the Superbowl over a 20 year period is, next to the Celtics run of championships with Bill Russell, the most incredible run you will likely ever see. (You can even argue that it’s more impressive since in a best of 5 or best of 7 series you can have a bad game and still take home the gold, Brady didn’t have that luxury). Watching the sudden decline of the team has been like watching the sudden decline of the American republic. People thought it would last forever but it can’t unless you keep it up.

It’s appropriate that WEEI named their Patriots postgame show “The six rings postgame show” it will be many decades before they’re forced to rename it again.

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