Posts Tagged ‘datechguy's magnificent seven’

Don’t know much about history

Posted: February 14, 2023 by chrisharper in Uncategorized
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By Christopher Harper

In a bow to political nonsense, a new Pennsylvania law will likely curtail the reenactment of historic battles in the state, a key battleground in the French and Indian War, the Revolutionary War, and the Civil War significantly.

Without a public vote, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission restricted reenactments, including any battles with blank ammunition or physical altercations.

Gee, folks, you mean people can reenact a battle without guns, bullets, knives, or people playing dead? That sounds rather unhistorical.

The so-called “no force-on-force standard” maintains such reenactments are “disrespectful” to the memory of those who died in or were affected by the conflicts.

“There are more impactful and safer educational methods through which we can teach the public about the complex mix of ideas, events, social structures, etc., that led to violent conflict,” PHMC official Howard Pollman wrote via email. Museum staff decided without a vote from the commission, which includes elected officials and other state leaders because the decision fell under the so-called “professional interpretation standard.”

That’s government-speak for the lower-case deep state knowing elected officials might actually listen to their constituents and stop such nonsense.

Furthermore, the staff determined that Native American reenactors must be Native Americans. The museum consulted representatives of the Seneca, Seneca-Cayuga, Shawnee, and Delaware tribes regarding its interpretation of Native American history. All of these tribes, which are located in New York, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin, consider Pennsylvania to be their ancestral homeland, Pollman said, but the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania does not recognize any Native American groupings in the state itself.

During conversations with representatives, Pollman said they have repeatedly shared concerns that museum sites lacked Native American perspectives on history. Also, the Native American tribes have refused to participate in the reenactment events in Pennsylvania.

“To continue this interpretive programming without evaluation and significant input from those tribes connected to Pennsylvania would go against the best practices of the public history field,” Pollman wrote. “It also undermines the Commonwealth’s efforts over the past two years to develop channels for communications and to establish trust with these sovereign nations.”

Although it’s unclear how many reenactments may suffer as a result of these actions, one significant event has already been canceled. The annual reenactment of the battle in August 1763 between British and Native Americans was halted in Penn Township, near my home in central Pennsylvania. The event took place on Bushy Run, a site under the control of the museum commission.

The battle reenactment was Bushy Run’s biggest fundraiser, drawing hundreds of historical reenactors and thousands of observers. But leaders of the reenactment decided that the lack of battlefield actions and Native American tribes’ prohibition against participation in the event made it impossible to move forward.

Fortunately, the new state regulations do not stop the annual reenactment at Gettysburg, which is held on private land.

Simply put, it’s incredible how much government can muck up good ideas.

Godwin’s Law needs a revision or a successor

Posted: February 12, 2023 by John Ruberry in culture, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics, Uncomfortable Truths
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By John Ruberry

It’s time to revise or perhaps expand on Godwin’s Law. Named for attorney Mike Godwin, which, according to Dictionary.com, “Godwin’s law is the proposition that the longer an internet argument goes on, the higher the probability becomes that something or someone will be compared to Adolf Hitler.” 

Here’s the new law, you can call it Godwin’s Law II, Ruberry’s Law, or just a simple observation: The longer any American political discussion continues, it’s very likely that something or someone will be called a white supremacist. 

Yes, that includes some things. When Pete Buttigieg was calling for massive infrastructure spending last year, he mentioned previous road and bridge projects and “the racism that went into those design choices.” To be fair, there is a grain of truth or two to what Buttigieg said. Nearly 100 years ago, master builder and notorious racist, Robert Moses, purposely designed Long Island’s Southern State Parkway, which was built to expand access to Jones Beach State Park, another Moses project, with overpasses that were quite low, so buses, presumably filled with minorities, couldn’t be driven to Jones Beach. 

On the other hand, it has long accepted as local gospel that the 14-lane Dan Ryan Expressway, built like a trench, was geographically placed to separate South Side Chicago’s white and growing black populations. Chicago’s NPR station dismissed that tale as an urban legend ten years ago. Long before the Dan Ryan’s completion in 1962, African Americans had migrated in large numbers to the “white” side of the expressway. 

Let’s move on to an interesting young man, Vince Dao. He’s a conservative who late last year participated in the Asian Americans Debate Model Minority & Asian Hate panel organized by Vice. Dao spoke with a level of common sense, so much so that most of the other participants, including a Bangladeshi American man and a Korean American woman with purple hair, appeared to be suffering coronary attacks as they had never been confronted with a logical discussion in their lives. 

If you only have a few minutes, the core part of this debate begins at the nine-minute mark.

“If America is to hold together, assimilation [is]–not just good or bad–[but] necessary,” Dao stated. “I don’t think it’s going to be possible for America to survive as a stable functioning society if people don’t, to some degree, say, ‘Well here’s what we’re going to commonly agree upon.'”

“But who gets to choose it?” another panelist asked. Dao responded, “The majority culture I suppose.” When pressed on what was that majority culture, Dao elaborated it would those who happen to be in power. “And who’s ‘people with power?’ White people?,” the purple-haired woman bellowed out while rolling her eyes, adding derisively for emphasis, “I’m going to say it… white people!”

Not surprisingly, purple-haired woman brings up “white supremacy,” proving the infallibility of Godwin’s Law II or whatever you think it should be called. Later in the exchange she asks Dao, “Do you ever say ‘all lives matter?'” His response, was, “Of course.” Another woman, sarcastically responding as if Dao was on trial for murder and he admitted in testimony that he committed the deed, answered back, “There it is! All lives matter!”

Yes, some leftists believe if you say, “All lives matter,” it is racist.

The sheep in George Orwell’s Animal Farm would be proud of Dao’s detractors. 

When Republican Larry Elder, a black man, ran for governor of California two years ago, a Los Angeles Times columnist warned that Elder offered a “white supremacist worldview” and that he was a “very real threat to communities of color.” Last month, the brutal beating death of Tyre Nichols at the hands of Memphis police officers–the first five cops charged with his murder are black–was presented by some media wags as an example of white supremacy. Oh, the chief of police in Memphis is an African American woman.

The general theme of the white supremacy trope is that America is rigged–and our nation’s ruling class is in place–forever. 

No, it isn’t.

Let’s talk about William Augustine Washington. He was the last great-great-great-great-great-grandson of Augustine Washington, a slave-owner like his famous son, our first president. 

While generations of the Washington family enjoyed great financial success, William Augustine Washington, who died in Bradley, Illinois in 1994, was a humble tool-and-die maker. That’s something to ponder as Presidents’ Day is next week.

At my age I can say I know, met, and interacted with thousands of people, many of them fascinating individuals. Until recently I worked with a man, a modest yet erudite clerk, who was a descendant of George Washington’s successor as president, John Adams.

When I toiled in the hospitality industry, one of the salespeople I worked alongside had a distinguished ancestor of her own, Arthur Middleton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Years earlier she parlayed her lineage, and, ahem, white privilege, to land a highly paid job. Well, not really–on the financial end. She wore a hoop skirt while portraying an ordinary citizen at Colonial Williamsburg. 

As for my white family, the richest member of my extended relations was a great uncle–who fathered one child, a son. The son died broke.

America is not “rigged,” but that is not to say racism doesn’t exist. It certainly does. 

But America’s freedom to succeed comes with a curse, the possibility of failure, even if you are white.

And for some sheep, America is about, and only about, white supremacy. Which is why, because of those sheep, if you wait long enough, every political argument will devolve into that topic. 

Yes, we have a new law of political discussion.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Traditional Catholics and traditional terrorists

Posted: February 11, 2023 by navygrade36bureaucrat in catholic
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So I don’t know where to even start with this one. Obviously I’m referring to the FBI memo from the Richmond, VA office that indicates growing concern over terrorism people not worshiping the state in so-called “Traditional” Catholic parishes. When I first saw this article appear, I gave it the ole’ 72 hour wait to see what ends up being true.

After having the FBI confirm it, I went ahead and read the memo. I have read many, MANY FBI memos in the past. I’ve read plenty of intelligence memos from various agencies, and I’ve written a fair number of memos myself and with others. I also wrote a 100+ page masters thesis that was read by some very smart and important people in our government. I know that writing well is important because you never know how far something you write will travel, whether its an email, memo or 100 page analysis. Since its that important, you should learn to write well, cite good sources and be ready for criticism if you’re going to make points that are controversial.

Does this paper do that? Nope.

Seriously, go read it. First, it starts with an interesting statement: that RMVEs are interested in RTCs. As a network guy, I immediately confused RMVEs with NVME solid state hard drives and RTCs with the people that yell at you at boot camp. But no, RMVE is Racially and Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremist, and RTC is radical-traditionalist Catholic. OK, lots of acronyms, which tells me this is legitimately from a government agency right off the bat, because we know that government loves its acronyms.

Reading the first few paragraphs, its actually kind of bland. The memo states that the FBI is seeing an increase in RMVEs reaching out to RTCs, attending services and engaging more on social media, and that the RMVEs are trying to recruit RTCs. That’s not a crazy assertion. If all you see at more “radical” Catholic churches is women wearing veils and priests speaking out about the evils of homosexuality, and especially if that group of “radical” Catholics thinks the world is on fire because of sins like homosexuality, then yeah, it might seem like a great place to recruit people that would be OK bombing a gay nightclub.

But that’s where it all starts to break down. When I hear Racially Motivated Violence, I think people that hate black people, or white people, or Asians, or immigrants, or something like that. I suspect most people do too. But I have yet to see the Catholic church, including more traditional churches, argue that racism is good. There are lots of Catholic positions that homosexuality, transgenderism, abortion and sex outside of marriage are bad and causing problems in society. These same Catholics vote and protest against the governments attempts to impose these views on people, which is probably the more likely reason the FBI doesn’t like these people.

Saying that the Catholic Church, and more traditional Church followers, appeals to racist terrorism is even more dumb when you think of the extensive Catholic Church in Africa and the Caribbean that is full of…wait for it…black people! The Catholic Church, even the more traditional portions of it, represents people from all walks of life and all skin colors.

If the FBI memo said they that violent extremists were recruiting traditional Catholics to bomb abortion clinics and gay nightclubs, I might, MIGHT believe it. But that’s not what the memo says. It’s specifically about race and ethnicity, and it makes no sense whatsoever. Heck, even the Huffington Post argued that the Catholic Church lead the way to decriminalize mixed-racial marriage.

Probably should have cited that article over Salon…but I digress.

The next part is though: the FBI referencing “tripwire and source development.” I read that as:

  • Place snitches in churches
  • Develop a list of “trigger” words
  • Wrap up so-called “radical” priests when they say mean things
  • Threaten a “radical” churches tax-exempt status if they say mean things about the state

Sheesh, does this sound like the Tea Party? Or Waco, TX? Or Trump’s home in Florida? Or the dude that got thrown in jail over defending his kid in PA? If I’m drawing this conclusion, so are a lot of other people.

The analysis in the notes section does an OK job of breaking out SSPX vs FSSP vs Norvus Ordo. Honestly, style point here: put in a side-by-side comparison in the future. One nice graphic would make it a lot easier on the reader.

Further down, the memo admits it conducted no Analysis of Alternatives, fancy speak for “what other conclusions could we draw.” For an example, imagine a memo saying “War with China imminent in X years,” linking the increase in Chinese military activity to a desire to invade Taiwan. An alternative analysis might be that China is simply posturing to distract its population from domestic problems. Not having an alternative is another indication of sloppy detective and writing work on the part of the memo’s author.

The memo cites the Southern Poverty Law Center and a Salon article, which is what most conservative news agencies are jumping on. But the issues are deeper then that. There is no analysis of any of the RTCs, not even a basic open source analysis. The “Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary,” a scary sounding organization, is a bunch of nuns at a monastery. I doubt that they receive tactical weapons training on their campus, but maybe I’m wrong. If so, that might make for a cool addition to Larry Correia’s Monster Hunter science fiction series. But even a cursory review online shows that most of the organizations aren’t engaging in anything resembling violence.

The most disturbing thing to me is that this memo was even created and published. I’m sure the FBI gets thousands of leads every year, most of which end up being garbage. This looks like someone created an extensive memo over a single, unreliable source that was likely one racist person trying to recruit people that attend a Latin Catholic church. How did the Richmond station supervisor not read this and think “This looks dumb?” How did he or she not tell the author “You’re gonna need at least another source before we bother publishing this.”? That would have been my first comment.

So the FBI allows a poorly written memo attempting to tie racially-motivated extremists to members of the Catholic Church that attend a Mass said in a foreign language. It’s poorly researched, poorly sourced, draws crazy conclusions without data, all in what seems a blatant attempt to connect “white supremacy” to the Church. Much like the “white supremacy” nonsense that was tied to the military early on, this is only going to build more distrust in the FBI while doing nothing to fight actual terrorists.

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, Roman Catholic Church, or any other government agency.

Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address proves Progressives abhor reality

Posted: February 9, 2023 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
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Those on the political left perceive reality completely differently from Conservatives and Libertarians.  Progressives, and other Marxists, live is a universe where reality is subjective.  Truth is what they believe or feel.  There is no objective truth.  Reality is malleable.  In this type of universe men can become women, masks actually protect individuals from the Wuhan Flu, and taxation is not theft. 

The State of the Union speech delivered by Joe Biden this past Tuesday was a perfect example of the fantasy universe leftists exist in. The entire speech was pure fiction with very little actual truth.

In this quote the authors of the speech deny the reality that our country’s inflation crisis was brought about by reckless levels of spending by the federal government during the Wuhan Flu pandemic.

Inflation has been a global problem because of the pandemic that disrupted supply chains and Putin’s war that disrupted energy and food supplies. But we’re better positioned than any country on Earth.  We have more to do, but here at home, inflation is coming down.  Here at home, gas prices are down $1.50 a gallon since their peak.  Food inflation is coming down.  Inflation has fallen every month for the last six months while take home pay has gone up.

Do sane individuals really believe the Biden regime actually created the mentioned number of jobs?

That’s why we came together to pass the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act.  We’re making sure the supply chain for America begins in America.  We’ve already created 800,000 manufacturing jobs even without this law.  With this new law, we will create hundreds of thousands of new jobs across the country.

Only reality challenged individuals believe in the farce known as climate change.  Individuals with a very tentative hold on reality believe that transforming the United States into a socialist third world nation will prevent this mythical disaster.

Look, the Inflation Reduction Act is also the most significant investment ever to tackle the climate crisis.  Lowering utility bills, creating American jobs, and leading the world to a clean energy future.  I’ve visited the devastating aftermaths of record floods and droughts, storms and wildfires.  In addition to emergency recovery from Puerto Rico to Florida to Idaho, we are rebuilding for the long term.  New electric grids able to weather the next major storm.  Roads and water systems to withstand the next big flood.  Clean energy to cut pollution and create jobs in communities too often left behind.  We’re building 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations installed across the country by tens of thousands of IBEW workers.  The climate crisis doesn’t care if your state is red or blue. It is an existential threat.  We have an obligation to our children and grandchildren to confront it. I’m proud of how America is at last stepping up to the challenge

Does Biden actually believe he is a capitalist?  The other talking points made in this next quote have long been disproved by economists such as Milton Friedman and Thomas Sowell.

And we pay for these investments in our future by finally making the wealthiest and the biggest corporations begin to pay their fair share.  I’m a capitalist. But just pay your fair share.  And I think a lot of you at home agree with me that our present tax system is simply unfair.  The idea that in 2020, 55 of the biggest companies in America made $40 billion in profits and paid zero in federal income taxes?  That’s simply not fair.  But now, because of the law I signed, billion-dollar companies have to pay a minimum of 15%.  Just 15%.  That’s less than a nurse pays. Let me be clear. Under my plan, nobody earning less than $400,000 a year will pay an additional penny in taxes.  Nobody. Not one penny.

Joe Biden ignores the truth that his policies alone have resulted in the our skyrocketing energy prices.

You may have noticed that Big Oil just reported record profits. Last year, they made $200 billion in the midst of a global energy crisis.  It’s outrageous.  They invested too little of that profit to increase domestic production and keep gas prices down.  Instead, they used those record profits to buy back their own stock, rewarding their CEOs and shareholders.  Corporations ought to do the right thing.  That’s why I propose that we quadruple the tax on corporate stock buybacks to encourage long term investments instead.

This next quote is the most ridiculous made during his diatribe

In the last two years, my administration cut the deficit by more than $1.7 trillion – the largest deficit reduction in American history.  Under the previous administration, America’s deficit went up four years in a row.  Because of those record deficits, no president added more to the national debt in any four years than my predecessor.  Nearly 25% of the entire national debt, a debt that took 200 years to accumulate, was added by that administration alone.

This next quote was pure fantasy.

Instead of making the wealthy pay their fair share, some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset every five years.  That means if Congress doesn’t vote to keep them, those programs will go away.  Other Republicans say if we don’t cut Social Security and Medicare, they’ll let America default on its debt for the first time in our history.

These next two quotes are both dangerous and farcical.  They translate to the fact that the Biden Regime will try very hard to disarm law abiding Americans.

Thank God we did, passing the most sweeping gun safety law in three decades.  That includes things that the majority of responsible gun owners support, like enhanced background checks for 18 to 21-year-olds and red flag laws keeping guns out of the hands of people who are a danger to themselves and others.

Ban assault weapons once and for all.  We did it before. I led the fight to ban them in 1994.  In the 10 years the ban was law, mass shootings went down. After Republicans let it expire, mass shootings tripled.  Let’s finish the job and ban assault weapons again.

The Biden regime is trying to secure the order?  What an absolute joke.

We now have a record number of personnel working to secure the border, arresting 8,000 human smugglers and seizing over 23,000 pounds of fentanyl in just the last several months.  Since we launched our new border plan last month, unlawful migration from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela has come down 97%.  But America’s border problems won’t be fixed until Congress acts. If you won’t pass my comprehensive immigration reform, at least pass my plan to provide the equipment and officers to secure the border. And a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, those on temporary status, farm workers, and essential workers.

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