Haditha, Gaza and the Up Against the Wall Conundrum.

Posted: March 7, 2024 by datechguy in culture, Israel, Israel vs Hamas, middle east
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The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy describes the Marketing Department of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation as: “A bunch of mindless jerks who’ll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes.”

Curiously, an edition of the Encyclopedia Galactica which fell through a rift in the time-space continuum from 1000 years in the future describes the Marketing Department of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation as: “A bunch of mindless jerks who were the first against the wall when the revolution came.”

The attacks on Israel in the press, on campus, in large marches and in the arab have one thing in common: The complete lack of reliance on the actual facts on the ground.

No matter what Israel does, no matter how they respond they are accused of genocide and no amount of reality or the pointing out that all of this comes from Hamas not only launching the attacks of Oct 7th but their claim that they intend to repeat said attacks if and when possible.

This brought back to mind a letter I wrote to Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit about the Haditha “massacre” before the facts came out and the lawsuit against rep Murtha began and the question: “When will Biden apologize to the Haditha marines?” was asked. The email said:

There is one aspect about Haditha that seems to be ignored by everybody.

Our press and the anti-American left both in this country and outside of it has been reporting “Hadithas” over and over again over the last three years.

Time and time again our friends have accused us of every possible atrocity that there is to the point that internationally people are already able to believe this or the 9/11 stuff or all the rest.

Because of this, internationally it is totally irrelevant if the Marines actually violated the rules of war. Our foes are going to say that we’ve done things if we do them or not, so the only people that it really matters to will be; the people killed (and family) and the people in our own country who support the military.

The real danger is that we who support the war will reach the point that we say “we might as well be taken as wolves then as sheep”. At that point the left can celebrate that they have made our military and those who support it the people they claim we are. Once that happens however any compunction about respecting them will be gone, and remember one side is armed and one is not.

That is a fate that I don’t wish on any of us.

You could take out the word “haditha” and replace it with “Genocide” and take out the word “Marines” and replace it with “IDF” and take out the words “anti-American” and replace it with “anti-Semitic” and that paragraph would pretty much hold up.

This leads to the logical question. Since no matter what they do they will be accused of “genocide” why not simply flatten Raffa, slaughter Hamas without mercy or concern for civilian causalities and end the issue once and for all? You would lose the hostages assuming any are actually alive but would likely save the lives of hundreds of Israeli soldiers who would die by trying to protect a population that wants them and their families dead anyways.

That’s important to remember. The Palestinians of Gaza aren’t upset at the slaughter of Jews, they celebrated it, they’re upset that said slaughter had consequences for them.

That’s the real question: Will Israel eventually decide to treat Hamas & Gazans they same way every other Arab & Muslim leader treats them if they get in the way. The way any other nation would treat a land that attacked them as they did. When will Israel say: ENOUGH! and give notice to the arabs who want to kill them in Gaza, West Bank, Yemen or even Qatar that if they try to kill Jews or finance those who do so, neither they nor their buildings nor their treasure is safe?

I suspect they will not and the reason is the against the wall conundrum and it works like this:

At any given time there are a lot of people who deserve to be put up against the wall, the problem is as soon as you decide to start putting such people up against the wall you invariably turn into the type of person who deserves to be put up against the wall.

Speaking for myself I’d say that cost is too high.

Israel has decided to set a standard that the world is unlikely to follow, but having made that choice there is no point in changing direction now that the war is almost over.

But the temptation to do so never leaves.

Bidenomics Strikes and a Shake of DaTipJar

Posted: March 6, 2024 by datechguy in Blame Biden Administration, economy, personal
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In yesterday’s Under the Fedora I mentioned both that the reason I had not made it to CPAC lately was my full time job and also how DaTipJar has been falling short to the point where this will likely be the blog’s last year.

Well it only took 24 hours for things to get worse.

Things have been nasty at my work for a couple of years. The normal peak seasons at Christmastime that were crazy during the Trump years lasted less that a week. We closed two warehouses in the area and every single temp worker at our place was let go.

All of this despite the insistence of the media/left that our economy is absolutely fantastic and we need to thank the Biden Administration for it. Well I’ll give them this much, I do give Joe Biden/Obama credit for the economy we have. I got another dose of that economy last night.

Yesterday we were told that my shift, the 2nd shift is to be eliminated. I don’t know what my new shift is going to be but the end results at minimum are

  1. a 4% pay decrease
  2. Daily mass at best eliminated for 3 days a week and at worst eliminated completely
  3. A 67% chance that I’ll have to give up both running the parish Adoration and my two hours
  4. The joys of early mornings and rush hour traffic
  5. And not only a shift no longer corresponding with my wife but because she sleeps in a recliner due to hip issues an excellent chance of waking her each morning and disrupting her sleep every day.

At my age and with the economy we have there is not much I can do I’ve done two of the three things that can be done.

  1. I’ve arranged a Mass with all of us at the company as the Mass intention.
  2. I voted for Trump today when I had the chance.

The only other thing I can do is ask you to consider hitting DaTipJar and or Sharing this post for that purpose. I’ll cut back and we’ll get by the best we can.

But if you would like to give a hand it would be most appreciated.

Five Fast Thoughts Under the Fedora AOC out and about, Narrative Narrative Narrative, Unpeople, “Wolf” in the CPAC fold and the countdown to the end continues

Posted: March 5, 2024 by datechguy in internet/free speech, media, politics, the courts, under the fedora
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Saw the article about AOC out with her guy and protesters bugging her about Gaza.

It’s rather ironic as she’s generally on their side but what really struck me is the photo of her out with her guy seemed so …. normal.

I’m partial to the sight of a young lady out with her man and frankly I’d like folks to leave her alone to enjoy those moment which are some of the most important in life.

I don’t watch a lot of the MSM but I made it a point of watching the reactions to the SCOTUS ruling on the attempts to kick Trump off the ballots in various blue states.

I found it hilarious that all of the stressed that the court didn’t acquit him of being an insurrectionist.

They didn’t have to, nobody has filed a charge of insurrection against him in federal court, in fact none of the J6 prisoners or defendants have in fact been charged with insurrection.

Their desperation to keep this narrative intact is very interesting and shows how far they’ve fallen, but it’s amazing how far a person will willingly let themselves fall if their paycheck is attached to it.

Have you noticed that in the minds of the media nothing delegitimizes an institution more than no longer following the narrative of the left.

Elon Musk, Ben Carson, The Supreme Court, Donald Trump, Naomi Wolf and yes J. K. Rowling were all feted and celebrated by the left for a very long time right up until the moment that they were perceived as a threat to the power of the left and the narrative they were selling.

Once they did as far as all those folks who loved and celebrated them were concerned they were now unpersons that needed to be destroyed.

Hey commies gotta commie.

There is an excellent substack by Naomi Wolf about visiting CPAC titled “Letter from CPAC” that you should read. There is one bit that jumped out at me:

We entered the Gaylord at the peak of CPAC, to an atrium thronged with happy visitors. My first, ignominious reaction to the scene, for which Brian rightly chided me, was: “This is not my culture.”

There was a buzz, from the moment we entered: a joyful vibe. After we checked in, changed, and ran down to join the festivities, we were struck by how pleasant and positive almost everyone was to us, and to each other. As someone reported to me the desk clerk had said, “I know they won’t approve of me saying this back in Southeast DC, where I come from, but you all are nice.”

Nice is a good and accurate word, a better description is “normal”

She goes though a list of folks she met and spoke to, many that she might disagree with on some issues and notes how different they are from how the media paints them.

It’s been six years years since I’ve been to CPAC the last time I went was with my sons and them seeing the MSM in action as they actually are taught them plenty.

Finally there are two reasons why you don’t see me at CPAC anymore. The first is as a full time employees where I work I only get so much vacation time and it won’t be till 2028 that I have the additional week that attending CPAC would require.

But the other is frankly that DaTipJar has dwindled to almost nothing, my last fundraiser only managed 25% of my goal and last month between subscriptions and tip jar hits I had exactly $2 left over after paying my writers.

I suspect the blog as a business will not survive long after the election and with money tight it will be an effort to survive to the election. It’s nothing about $5000 wouldn’t solve but that money simply isn’t there and in the end I don’t have a divine right to a single person’s dollar, I can only earn it by producing content that people think is worth it.

It’s disappointing to fail in business I’ve done so many times I’m just sorry I couldn’t provide better for my wife who deserves better. If I had followed my brothers into the civil service I might even now be retired or close to it with a pension, but I’m not ashamed of trying to make it as a writer/pundit and this blog has done good work, sometimes even important work. I’ve showed things and told things as they are which is why both Youtube now and pre-Musk twitter censored me. Best of all I’m proud to say I never sold out to push any narrative I didn’t believe in.

Hey in the end 16 years isn’t a bad run

Defining the real divide in America

Posted: March 5, 2024 by chrisharper in Uncategorized
Tags: ,

By Christopher Harper

For more than 50 years, I worked in two elite professions, currently known as the “talking professions” of university professors, journalists, lawyers, actors, and lobbyists.

Only in the past few years have I realized how dangerous these professions and elites can be. 

Stephen Moore, the co-founder of the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, just published a study entitled “Them vs. U.S.” examining how America’s cultural elites are hopelessly out of touch with ordinary Americans. The study defined a member of the elite as someone with at least one postgraduate degree, a $150,000-plus annual income, a high-density urban residence, and Ivy League school attendance. 

“First, there are the cultural and overeducated snobs — the kind of people who religiously read The New York Times, drive electric vehicles, wear Harvard or Yale sweaters, and have never even heard of NASCAR or eaten at Popeyes or ridden a John Deere tractor,” Moore wrote recently. “And then there is normal Main Street America. The snobs thumb their collective noses at the unrefined working-class Americans. The elites believe they are intellectually, culturally, and morally superior to the working class and rural America. You won’t see too many elites at a Trump rally with 30,000 people.”

Following are some of the findings:

Financial Well-being: Nearly three-quarters of the elites surveyed believe they are better off financially than when Joe Biden entered the White House. Less than 20% of ordinary Americans feel the same way.

Individual Freedom: Elites are three times more likely than all Americans to say there is too much personal freedom in the country. Almost half of the elites and 6 of 10 Ivy Leaguers say there is too much freedom.

Climate Change: 72% of the elites—including 81% of the elites who graduated from the top universities—favor banning gas cars. Majorities of elites would also ban gas stoves, nonessential air travel, SUVs, and private air conditioning. 

Education: Most elites think that teachers’ unions and school administrators should control school agendas. Most mainstream Americans think that parents should make these decisions.

“Crime, illegal immigration, inflation, fentanyl, and factory closings aren’t keeping the elite up at night because in their cocoons, they don’t encounter these problems on a daily basis the way so many Americans do today. Not too many Main Street Americans are losing sleep about climate change or LGBTQ issues,” Moore wrote. 

Although the study did not analyze recent media accounts, it is readily apparent that the left is ramping up counterattacks. For example, MSNBC launched an attack on those who consider the United States as a country founded as a Christian nation. These people are called “Christian nationalists.” 

Also, Paul Krugman, arguably the worst prize-winning economist in history, wrote recently in DaTimes that “white rural rage is arguably the single greatest threat facing American democracy.”

Having lived in big cities and small towns, I think the Committee to Unleash Prosperity’s poll provides a far better understanding of the divide in the United States. 

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