After a year or two of various challenges that health officials have come out or had celebreties come out to denounce as dangerous and foolish the time has come for the ultimate in challenges that I’m sure that branches of the government will be loudly denouncing and will likely get me kicked off of Youtube.
The HANDSHAKE challenge.
This challenge consists of extending one’s right hand to another person, and taking said right hand (also extended) in your grip and then moving both hands in unison up and down.
For generations this type of greeting was considered the customary greeting of friendship, particularly among men. It was occasionally used as a test of strength and the unwillingness to shake hands as a sign of peace or reconciliation or approval might even be considered inappropriate:
I know that in those ancient days before March of 2020 a handshake was the most common greeting between men, but now in this enlightened new age of COVID such and action it is considered dangerous and extreme.
In fairness even in that prior privative age there were some cases when it was not considered proper to shake hands, If one was sick , was known to have a communicable disease or if one’s hands were dirty or unwashed such shaking of hands was not encouraged. There were cases when it was considered proper to refuse an offered hand in order to avoid the appearance of approval of said person and or his actions.
There were even extreme cases when said person offering a hand was so beyond the pale that it was preferable to risk death rather than accept it.
All of these limitations are matters of propriety and if any of these limitations are present:
Dirty Hands
Either person sick or carrying a communicable disease
Avoiding confirming legitimacy to a person or action beyond the pale
then it is perfectly proper and even recommended to avoid the Handshake challenge.
But absent these conditions I submit and suggest that the handshake challenge is not only proper but an important if not vital step into reasserting and reclaiming normalcy and to reestablish ourselves not just as free Americans, but as free men and women.
Seven months in and it’s already fair to call the Biden presidency a debacle. Our humiliation in Afghanistan tops Biden’s list of failures. Yes, John F. Kennedy botched the Bay of Pigs invasion and helplessly saw the Berlin Wall built during his first seven months in the White House, but to paraphrase what Sen. Lloyd Bensten said of Dan Quayle, Biden is no JFK. And Kennedy, while we’ve learned years later that he was not a healthy man, showed no signs of cognitive decline during his brief presidency. JFK was 46 when he was assassinated. Biden turns 79 later this year.
The old proverb, “Success has many friends but failure is an orphan” is true to the extent that people prefer to sweep failure under the rug. Lee Iacocca, the legendary automotive CEO, remarked in his autobiography that there were plenty of people eager to take credit for the success of the Ford Mustang. But not for the flop of the Edsel car a few years earlier.
As a civic duty I’m going to point out those deserving people and groups to blame for Biden, our White House Edsel, being elected president. And there are many.
Dr. Kevin C. O’Connor. The White House physician is also Biden’s personal doctor. In late 2019, as he released Biden’s medical records, O’Connor said, “Vice President Biden is a healthy, vigorous, 77-year-old male, who is fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency, to include those as Chief Executive, Head of State, and Commander in Chief.” Wow. Biden wasn’t “vigorous” two years ago. And just how healthy is Biden?
Do you care to update your comments, O’Connor? And please, doctor, don’t hide behind patient confidentiality laws. Biden is responsible for the safety and well-being of 330 million Americans.
Jill Biden. Someonse else nailed Jill’s role in this tragedy on the head last week and I’ll hand things over to her. “Who are the people responsible for putting someone this incompetent and frankly this mentally frail in this position. …I’m sorry, as a political spouse, I can’t help but look at Jill Biden,” Fox News’ Rachel Campos-Duffy, who is married to a former congressman, said last week. “No one knew better his state of mind than Dr. Jill Biden. And if you ask me the most patriotic thing Jill Biden could have done was tell her husband, to love her husband, and not let him run in the mental state that he is in. I think she failed the country as well.”
US Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC). After lackluster performances in the Iowa Caucuses and the New Hampshire primary it appeared that Joe Biden’s third presidential run would end up like the others, along the lines of a batter being dealt a three pitch strike-out. But to prevent a Bernie Sanders nomination–and a Trump reelecton–Clyburn gave Biden a strong endorsement shortly before the South Carolina primary. Biden won the primary and essentially coasted to the Democratic nomination, while conducting his campaign, to use Sean Hannity’s favorite phrase, from his “basement bunker” in Delaware.
Senior Biden campaign officials. I’m sure they knew all about Sleepy Joe’s mental state.
The media. I excoriated the mainstream media’s role in elevating Biden in a post here last week. I suspect reporters knew–and still know–that Biden is a weak old man. But they chose to keep it to themselves. And because the person they loathe, President Donald J. Trump, absolutely could not be reelected, they had to cover up, or at least obscure, Sleepy Joe’s many weaknesses.
Never Trump Republicans. Perhaps the GOP Trump haters belong at the top of this list. Are you happy now?
Biden voters. On WIND-AM Radio last week, co-host Amy Jacobson observed that many Biden voters approached last fall’s election as if it was a student council race. Trump was that mean bully and rude Tweeter and he just had to go. He just had too, you know! And besides Trump wasn’t “cool.” As Barack Obama famously and correctly said, “Elections have consequences.” In high school if you elect the wrong people to the student council it might mean that films you don’t like are screened on Campus Movie Night. The stakes regarding elections to the most powerful office in the world are immeasurably higher.
Barack Obama. Sometime in 2019 Obama should have convincingly told Biden, “C’mon man, you’re too old and to feeble to be president.” Or maybe Biden was unqualified to be president even before his cognitive decline set in. “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to f**k things up,” Obama supposedly said about his vice president.
Joe Biden. Surely in his more lucent moments Biden must realize that whatever mojo he had as a politician, other than name recognition, was gone. And even when he was at the peak of his skills, Biden was simply a mediocrity.
I’m certain I’ve left many worthy people of shame and blame in this list. Feel free to add others who come to mind in the comments section.
Update 8:00pm EDT:
I can’t believe I forgot the 50 former intelligence officials who made the false claim that the Hunter Biden laptop discovery appeared to be a disinformation campaign put forth by Russia. These “experts,” swamp rats really, either had no clue if that claim was true or they were lying.
The propagandists that we call the mainstream media utilized this denial as justification for not reporting on the Hunter haptop scandal.
Posted: August 29, 2021 by datechguy in Uncategorized
There is not a lot of good I have to say about radical feminists whose efforts over the last 50 years have done untold damage to this country in general and ironically to women in particular.
However credit where credit is due these radical feminists took the time to act to save women actually under threat:
How did “Aisha” even get the last-minute paperwork? How did she know what gate to approach? How did she and about thirty other Afghan feminists (and counting) finally escape from Hell?
I am thrilled to share that answer. My team consists of radical feminists, anti-trafficking/anti-sex slavery activists and experts, honor killing experts, (myself included), a brilliant legal team—Europeans and Americans, mainly white girls, (who’ve lately been overly maligned): some Jews, some Christians, a Sikh, maybe some atheists—perhaps a Goddess worshiper or two. Who knows? It is my honor and my privilege to be among them.
Via Ed Driscol at insty & Yid with Lid (I know it’s just “the Lidblog” these days but he’ll always be Yid with Lid to me) and yes there are plenty of sane people involved per the list above including the redoubtable Phyllis Chesler who should need no introduction to longtime readers but never the less Radical Feminists are first on this list and they will willing to make common cause with some they might not have in the past to save the lives of Afghan women who might otherwise have to submit to, as what Bill Marr notes actual oppression as opposed to what they’ve defined as oppression for decades.
So today at least let me raise a glass to these radical feminists who have actually done right and will make the lives of the women and the generations that they produce better.
Closing thought #1: I hope I’m wrong but the fact that this piece is out there publicly suggest that the window of these efforts is practically closed. That’s a shame.
Closing thought #2 I suspect that will get almost no exposure in the MSM because highlighting it will only make the Biden Administration & their generals look even worse by comparison, perhaps this should lead to the creation of DaTechGuy’s fifth law of Media Outrage to wit:
Any positive action, even that supposedly advances a goals of or is done by a group allied or identified with the radical left, will not be considered newsworthy nationally if said action has the potential to highlight a failure and/or inaction by a Democrat administration that is in power at the time of said positive action.
While everyone was focused on the dumpster fire that is Afghanistan, an innocuous NAVADMIN (a Naval message that relates to administrative issues) came out on the 23rd of August, subject line OPNAVINST 3100.6K. NAVADMINs are normally pretty boring. They cover policy like how you can use your GI Bill, when people get promoted, or various annual awards.
OPNAVINST 3100.6 is the instruction that covers situation reports (SITREPs). SITREPs are required reports that Navy units send when bad things happen. For example, if a Sailor is arrested for drunk driving, a unit would notify their immediate superior in command (the “ISIC”) by using a formatted message called a Navy Unit Sitrep. OPNAVINST 3100.6 gives you the exact format to send this message, which are also called OPREP-3 messages (short for Operational Report). The instruction covers more serious messages too. In those cases, units might send an OPREP-3 Navy Blue message. This message goes to the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) office, as well as the ISIC and others. Incidents that require a Navy Blue are more serious or carry negative media attention, hence the need to notify the CNO lest he be surprised. A good example was when COVID-19 was first discovered, any Navy person that contracted it required an OPREP-3 Navy Blue message.
4. MAJOR PERSONNEL INCIDENT CHANGES INCLUDE: [SRB, EXTREMIST BEHAVIORS, BULLYING, ETC.] 4.A. ADDED PERSONNEL INCIDENT REPORTING FOR SUPREMACIST OR EXTREMIST BEHAVIORS.
Bullying? Supremacist Activity? Extremist Activity? Yup, these all require varying forms of Navy Sitrep messages. We don’t know what level (that’s not released), so we have to guess what becomes a Unit Sitrep and what becomes a Navy Blue. At a minimum, every time we have something resembling bullying, supremacist or extremist activity, a message must be sent out.
– an organization that espouses supremacist causes; – attempts to create illegal discrimination based on race, creed, color, ethnicity, national origin, sex (including gender identity), sexual orientation or religion; – advocates using force or violence; – or otherwise engages in efforts to deprive individuals of their civil rights.
Navy Discussion Guide on Extremism
So, if a Navy member participates in an Antifa protest, do we label him as an extremist? They certainly “advocate for the use of violence.”
What about Black Panthers?
A Black Panther Party member brings a shotgun into the state Capitol, May 2, 1967. He was one of two dozen armed Panthers who entered the building. (Photo: Walt Zeboski/Associated Press)
What if someone accuses Republicans of “depriving them of civil rights” (like we’re seeing with the voter registration issues)?
Vox headline
Is being a Catholic extremist because they won’t give Communion to someone that is openly living a homosexual lifestyle?
The problem with this broad definition is that it is broad and goal posts move all the time. People used to argue that homosexual unions would never impact Christians, until Christian bakers were sued for not making wedding cakes. Or the goal post moves the other way, and protests that burned down homes and businesses become “mostly peaceful,” and obviously didn’t incite any violence whatsoever. BTW, it’s been illegal to be in extremist groups since 1990, and people do get kicked out for racism (watch episode four of the PBS seriesCarrier for an example).
Besides, didn’t we make service members sit through training for this that covered:
Extremists don’t have a place in our Navy, but when we make the definition really broad, soon we’re all going to get painted as extremists. When that happens (and its a when now, not an if), why would you want to join the Navy? Remember that the Navy is constantly bringing in new people, to the tune of around 40,000 every year. People sign up for a variety of reasons, but one big assumption is the fairness and meritocratic environment that the Navy claims to have. When you remove that, or even appear to do so, it removes a large incentive to join. It’s already hard enough to get people to join, especially if you want people with high technical skills. I fear that this change is going to drive people to leave after a first enlistment and not bother staying around, if for no other reason then the worry they’ll be labeled as a bully or extremist.
This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency.
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