There are many depressing things about what is happening right now but of all of them one of the worst is this.
The American Medical Association (AMA), in a surprising move, has officially rescinded a previous statement against the use of Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) in the treatment of COVID-19 patients, giving physicians the okay to return to utilizing the medication at their discretion.
Previously, the AMA had issued a statement in March that was highly critical of HCQ in regards to its use as a proposed treatment by some physicians in the early stages of COVID-19. In addition to discouraging doctors from ordering the medication in bulk for “off-label” use – HCQ is typically used to treat diseases such as malaria – they also claimed that there was no proof that it was effective in treating COVID, and that its use could be harmful in some instances.
Let’s be blunt, the AMA is not changing its recommendation on HCQ because of some new medical breakthrough, they are doing so because now that the election is over it doesn’t matter of President Trump recommended and talked up the drug.
Hey if thousands had to die or suffer to get the result they wanted, well apparently you can’t make an omelet without killing a few Americans.
The devil owns the AMA now, as he owns so many other American institutions.
In fairness given the abandonment and editing of the Hippocratic Oath and the willingness of doctors to recommend drastic surgery to children who want to change their sex something like this can’t be all that surprising.
Merely depressing.
Welcome to your post Christian society, may our society be happy in its choices choices.
SHREVEPORT – I grew up in the Episcopal church; I went to Sunday School, was confirmed, sang in the choir, the whole thing. As I got older, and busier, and my focus became diverted in the wrong directions sometimes, I quit going. And when you stop going to church on Sunday, it’s really hard to get back in the swing of it.
For a variety of reasons, my husband believes “the end times are upon us,” or very near, and so he wanted to start going back to church. He’s not crazy or a zealot – he’s just retired and has a lot of time on his hands where he reads too much social media. If that won’t convince you that the devil is knocking on the door, nothing will.
Long story short, we have been attending services at the church where I grew up for the past several weeks, and I’ve found that I am actually enjoying it. Part of my reluctance about returning to St. Paul’s was not the church itself, but the memories within. So many of the people I loved that I share memories with there are gone…my mother, my godmother, my godfather, various members of the congregation, some favorite Sunday school teachers, the exuberant piano player who led us in song in the children’s choir….
And the memories have been hard to face. So many Christmases in that church, red poinsettias lining the altar. The traditional Christmas songs.
I get so sentimental this time of year anyway, and returning to the stomping grounds of my youth have been…challenging, but so worth it.
I’m making new memories there, remembering happy times, and I know those I miss so much would be glad I am there. And in a way, they are there with me, still.
One thing I’ve noticed, I’ve been so shocked at how low the attendance numbers are compared to what I remember. Obviously part of this is because of the pandemic, but I know just from the church directory that just came out that numbers are nowhere near what I remember. Is this the case everywhere? Do people not go to church anymore? I live in the South where pretty much everyone is either a Baptist or a Catholic, and I can say for certain that the Baptist church that I pass on the way to the Episcopal church is packed with cars.
I don’t know. It doesn’t matter, I guess. Maybe people stay home and do church on the internet.
Side note: the first Sunday my husband and I attended, about four weeks ago, our Rector announced his retirement later this year and the formation of the Rector Search Committee. I was really sad, because he’s been there for decades and is very popular.
The next Sunday, literally the next week, the bright, young, Assistant Rector announced that he has been transferred to another church; he and his family are being sent to Texas.
So. We were sort of scared to go back on week three, because….who else would be leaving?! But, things have been quiet since then and nobody else has hit the door.
Y’all have a good week, enjoy the Christmas season, and don’t get bogged down in the little stuff.
I keep hearing from people that claims of voter fraud and magic ballots are simply conspiracy theories.
My answer to them remains the same:
I’ll believe that claims of Voter Fraud and Magic Ballots are conspiracy theories when the officials who claim that they are conspiracy theories stop acting like conspiracists.
For example Lin Wood and Sydney Powell have claimed and produced witnesses who claim that the Dominion voting systems were “fixed” in terms of turning Trump votes into Biden votes.
Now if you were an official, say an Attorney General or a Secretary of State, in a swing state, say Michigan, who claimed that the election was on the up and up and a forensic audit of such machines had taken place one would think you would be anxious to release the results to prove the claims of folks such as Sidney Powell and Lin Wood and those people making claims under oath was false.
Listening to music is a serendipitous adventure. And it was on one of those journeys I uncovered another great band that you’ve probably never heard of, The Divine Comedy. Last year before the post was swallowed up by a memory hole at Da Tech Guy, I profiled another undeservedly unknown band, the Rainmakers. Only I first encountered the Rainmakers on a local radio station years ago.
I discovered The Divine Comedy when I downloaded the “Inspired by the Kinks” compilation on Apple iTunes. A great collection, yes, and easily the standout cut for me was “The National Express,” a satirical look at a ride on the eponymous company’s bus line.
Unknown? As this is an American blog with, I believe, a predominately American readership, that’s true. But The Divine Comedy has scored hits in Europe, particularly in Great Britain and Ireland, which is understandable as the band’s only constant member is Neil Hannon, who is from Northern Ireland.
As great as “The National Express” is, there’s just one small issue in my opinion. I’m a huge Kinks fan, but unless you count that British band’s last big hit, “Come Dancing,” it doesn’t sound like any other Kinks tune.
Listen for yourself!
The Divine Comedy’s first album, since cancelled by Hannon, was the R.E.M. inspired Fanfare for the Comic Muse, which was released in 1990. The only place it seems to be available is on YouTube. If you somehow find a copy of it at a rummage sale or used record store, grab it if it’s priced cheap, as it is probably a collector’s item.
The band then “regenerated” three years later into a chamber pop, or if you prefer Britpop band, for Liberation. Actually I prefer the moniker baroque pop. Regardless of the name, what kind of music am I talking about? Think along the lines of “Penny Lane” by the Beatles, “Senses Working Overtime” or “Easter Theatre” by XTC, or “Never My Love” by The Association, the glimmering song that was used with such beautiful yet chilling effect in the final episode of the most recent season of Outlander. Oh, throw in a bit of Cole Porter too. Back to Liberation: My favorite song from that collection is “The Pop Singer’s Fear of the Pollen Count,” which is cleary inspired by the Beach Boys. Yes, I suffer from allergies too so I can commiserate.
Hannon, who writes nearly all of the band’s songs, is a clever lyricist who brings wit and even snarkiness to many of his songs. The Divine Comedy’s melodies are striking and the musicianship is superb.
With her military might She could defeat anyone that she liked And she looked so bloody good on a horse They couldn’t wait For her to invade Catherine the Great.
Yes, there is a sly reference here to the historical gossip that the Empress of Russia died from a mishap during carnal relations with a stallion.
One more Divine Comedy favorite of mine is “Gin Soaked Boy” from the 1999 compilation A Secret History…The Best of the Divine Comedy, which might be good place for you to see if The Divine Comedy is for you. Or you can begin as I did on Apple Music with their “Essentials” and “Next Steps” collections.
Of the band’s dozen studio albums Fin de Siècle, which contains “The National Express,” is my favorite. If you prefer to see what the Divine Comedy is up to now, its latest album is Office Politics. The track I enjoy the most on this collection is “Philip and Steve’s Furniture Removal Company.” It’s about a proposed sitcom and its theme song, both devised by Hannon, in which minimalist classical composers, Philip Glass and Steve Reich, operate a furniture removal business in the 1960s in New York.
Silly? Of course. Brilliant? Definitely.
Oh yes, I said “regenerated” earlier. Regeneration is the title of the Divine Comedy’s 2001 album. Perhaps not coincidentally Hannon contributed a couple of solo tracks, “Song for Ten” and “Love Don’t Roam” to Doctor Who: Original Television Soundtrack from 2006.
In addition to Apple Music works by The Divine Comedy are also available on Amazon.
(Jesus) said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”
John 20-21-23
This week at mass the first two signs of a healthy parish were in evidence.
As people went up for communion there were some who approached with crossed arms receiving a blessing instead showing respect for the presence of Christ by publicly admitting that they were not properly disposed to receive as per the 1st sign of a healthy parish.
Furthermore not only large families were in evidence but during the responsorial psalm (which this week for Gaudete Sunday was the Mary’s prayer of praise the Magnificat ) the young child who had so loudly prayed the Our Father two weeks ago was praying this. Clearly his parents had taught him his prayers well. All of this is in line with the 2nd sign of a healthy parish.
But the 3rd sign of a healthy parish was also present as we left as the father of that boy held back to ask our priest if he had time to hear his confession.
I and others have often done the same both after a Sunday mass and in the gap between the two daily masses (offered at 7 AM & 8 AM Mon-Thurs). Invariably (although once in a while when there is a family waiting for a baptism the confession has been quick) our pastor has agreed which can be a handy thing because the only thing more reliable than his agreement is that if you turn up for confession at the usual time (3:15 or so on Saturday before the 4:15 mass) you will find a line.
This is very much in line with the sermon that was preached today where Father noted that all people need to be saved from their sins by God and the sacrifice of Christ. As he put it:
Go to a convent and the oldest and most devout nun you there will be in need of the saving power of God.
If such as John needed the Baptism of Christ for the forgiveness of his sins how much more you and me?
Furthermore a good priest who regularly hears your confession is in a good position to be a life coach steering you away from thing that are a danger to your soul.
I have known parishes where the priest will go the entire hour confessions are offered without a person coming or with maybe one or two regular penitents. This is always a sign of danger. Pride is the 1st of the deadly sins for a reason.
Find a parish with a line for confession and a priest always ready to hear one and you will find a parish that will be around for many years to come.
After getting tired of the Facebook, and now YouTube, censorship of anything remotely conservative, I decided to plot my social media exodus. If you read anything online, anyone contemplating leaving Facebook is an idiot, but since I don’t trust the media anyway, I wanted to try it myself. Over the next few Saturdays, I’m going to outline alternatives to Facebook, YouTube and Google, give each the pluses and minuses, and give you a guide on how to transition successfully.
My view of Twitter, even before the election
But I won’t help you with Twitter. Twitter has always been hot garbage. You’re on your own there.
The first platform that you should try is Nextdoor. I found this gem on a list of alternative social media sites, and it does not disappoint. Nextdoor connects you with your neighbors. When you register, you put in your address, which then places you in a pre-defined neighborhood. You then get dropped right into a well-designed home page that shows you posts from your neighbors plus nearby neighborhoods.
The first big difference from Facebook is that there isn’t a friends list to maintain. Nextdoor lets you see only the people in your neighborhood. When you go to post something, you can only post in a number of categories: for sale, safety, general, lost and found and recommendations. When you look at the general feed, its not at all like Facebook. There aren’t annoying Vox articles linked by your liberal friends, or anti-vax memes from that crazy mom down the street. Nope, its just local news.
Which is not a bad thing. I found a city council meeting I had missed, so I got updates on nearby construction projects. I also found out our water metering people were hacked by ransomware, which is why they haven’t sent us a bill. I never saw any of that on Facebook, and those things actually affect me a lot more than most of the things I read on Facebook.
For your interest areas, there are local groups, although not nearly as many as Facebook. It didn’t take long to find a conservative group that was working to support local people running for office. I also quickly found a gardening group and pawpaw (the fruit) group. I had to start a group for dads, but there were a million mom groups already. Although it doesn’t have the number of groups of Facebook, the fact that I can make a group with people in the area only is kind of nice.
The other great feature is the “for sale” section. One of the big benefits of Facebook is the Marketplace section, where you can find a ton of items for sale, or sell your items quickly. I’ve made a killing selling firewood through Marketplace, and that was something I didn’t want to lose. Nextdoor has similar functionality. Even better, I’m not wasting my time looking at items that are hundreds of miles away but offer “free shipping.”
Overall, Nextdoor has about 75% of what I want in social media. I get local things that matter to me, local groups that I care about, and can sell to my neighbors. I miss out on out of area relatives and friends, which is why Nextdoor can’t replicate Facebook. To be fair, they don’t claim to do that, and if you live near most of your family, maybe you won’t mind.
I now find myself checking Nextdoor a lot more than Facebook, and certainly enjoying it more. Maybe you will too, I’d recommend giving it a try.
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.
2020 made the rubble bounce this week on the ruins of whatever integrity Journalism with a capital “J” still had.
For readers with Dora-level memory banks, a few weeks ago – just before a certain presidential election, in fact — the New York Post broke a story about then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden, and how Hunter was up to his eyeballs in Chinese and Russian payoffs, with mysterious messages in secret emails about saving “10%… for the big guy.” This reporting, the Post explained, was based on “primary-source documents” stored on Hunter’s personal laptop.
You might think such a juicy story would set the wolves howling, with a frenzy of media interest descending on the Bidens. I mean, it had everything — sex, drugs, foreign enemies, even possibly implicating the Democratic presidential candidate on the eve of the election. This thing’s a blockbuster, you might think.
You’d be wrong.
“Journalism” immediately went to work burying the report in a bald effort to help Joe Biden get elected. First, the Democratic party machine went into motion. Over 50 former intelligence officials published a letter claiming the same; among its luminous signatories were former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former CIA Directors Leon Panetta and John Brennan, along with acting directors, chiefs of staff, and other officials of the CIA, DIA, NSA, and a range of other alphabet-soup bureaucracies.
CNN pushed the Russian disinformation lie. So did the New York Times. NPR said it would not cover the Hunter Biden story because they didn’t want to “waste our time on stories that aren’t really stories.”
Twitter and Facebook, too, suppressed the story, and Twitter even locked the New York Post out of its Twitter account for posting the story because – try not to laugh – the story was based on “hacked material.” Somehow I suspect Chelsea Manning has never been locked out of his account.
Well, after all that suppressing of information from the American public, turns out, the New York Post had it right all along, and well, with the election safely behind us, the media has decided it’s safe to report on the story.
A more egregious example of journalistic malpractice the reader will be hard-pressed to find.
As for me, I see no reason to believe anything they ever say again.
I understand that you have in the past called for boycotts of business that have expressed support for President Donald Trump in a public way. I would like to formally request that you call for such a boycott of this blog and particularly my TipJar
While many other blogs have openly supported President Trump over the entire terms of his administration unique reasons why this blog in particular should be the subject for such a call.
On two occasions as credentialed Press I have questioned Donald Trump. On both occasions not only did I not make the premise of my questions: “Why do you suck, Why does the GOP suck? or not even “What are you going to do about you and the GOP sucking so badly?” But on both of these occasions I was complemented directly by Donald Trump for said questions. In fact at the top of my blog AND is a direct quote of Donald Trump saying to me after such a question: “It’s nonsense nobody reports that, but you do that’s why I like you.” The constitutes a betrayal of the press credentials that I held for those events .
I endorsed Donald Trump twice during his 1st campaign, the 1st time before the GOP convention even before my candidate of choice at the time (Ted Cruz) had consented to do so but more importantly the 2nd time the day after the Billy Bush tape dropped. Such an act of picking up the flag and moving forward when everyone else was running scared. An unpardonable sin.
Finally I’ve not only supported all the attempts to reverse fraudulent moves by the Democrats in multiple states to steal this election even to the point of being locked out of my twitter account six times since election day for daring to put out statistical evidence of Joe Biden’s “magic ballots” but I’ve not paid off bets on said election yet holding the money aside until the final decision of the courts and the state legislatures thus not acknowledging the legitimacy of the MSM calls.
For all these reasons it is incumbent on you to call for a boycott of DaTechGuyblog.com in general and DaTechGuyblog.com’s Tip Jar in particular for crimes against liberalism much in the same way that you did of GOYA foods, presumably with the same effect.
I will do my best to keep a stiff upper lip as a result of the financial effects of such a boycott and if I suddenly find myself able to purchase a car made in the 21st century to replace my 1999 Buick or am able to pay off my mortgages I’ll do my best to bear that in dignity as well.
Yours
Peter DaTechGuy Ingemi Proprietor of DaTechGuyblog.com
Update: Instalanche thanks Ed If you missed today’s no frills livestream you can watch it here.
I was greatly saddened by the passing of Walter E Williams. He was one of the two authors most responsible for me becoming a Libertarian and free market warrior, the other is Thomas Sowell. Through my teenage years, until I was in my early twenties I was a hardcore progressive/socialist. It was through an exhaustive amount of reading and research that led to my great political enlightenment. Walter Williams played a major, and very entertaining, part in that awakening.
As you can see from this quote, which appeared in the February 8 2006 article On Bogus Right, Walter Williams was a very outspoken critic of the federal government, and of the redistribution of wealth.
Three-fifths to two-thirds of the federal budget consists of taking property from one American and giving it to another. Were a private person to do the same thing, we’d call it theft. When government does it, we euphemistically call it income redistribution, but that’s exactly what thieves do — redistribute income. Income redistribution not only betrays the founders’ vision, it’s a sin in the eyes of God.
Walter Williams was an Economics professor at George Mason University. I know he must have been a very informative and entertaining teacher because I’ve watched a great many videos of him speaking and T saw him on TV quite often. He was an outspoken critic of socialism. Here is a quote from the article Evil Concealed by Money, 19 November 2008.
This is why socialism is evil. It employs evil means, coercion or taking the property of one person, to accomplish good ends, helping one’s fellow man. Helping one’s fellow man in need, by reaching into one’s own pockets, is a laudable and praiseworthy goal. Doing the same through coercion and reaching into another’s pockets has no redeeming features and is worthy of condemnation.
Here is another quote on the subject from Socialist Promises 25 May 2019.
Socialism promises a utopia that sounds good, but those promises are never realized. It most often results in massive human suffering. Capitalism fails miserably when compared with a heaven or utopia promised by socialism. But any earthly system is going to come up short in such a comparison. Mankind must make choices among alternative economic systems that actually exist. It turns out that for the common man capitalism, with all of its alleged shortcomings, is superior to any system yet devised to deal with his everyday needs and desires. By most any measure of human well-being, people who live in countries toward the capitalistic end of the economic spectrum are far better off than their fellow men who live in countries toward the socialist end.
Walter Williams was as big a proponent of free market capitalism as he was a critic of socialism.
Capitalism, or what some call free markets, is relatively new in human history. Prior to capitalism, the way individuals amassed great wealth was by looting, plundering and enslaving their fellow man. With the rise of capitalism, it became possible to amass great wealth by serving and pleasing your fellow man. Capitalists seek to discover what people want and produce and market it as efficiently as possible as a means to profit. A historical example of this process would be John D. Rockefeller, whose successful marketing drove kerosene prices down from 58 cents a gallon in 1865 to 7 cents in 1900. Henry Ford became rich by producing cars for the common man.
Here is a quote by Walter E. Williams from All It Takes Is Guts that I’ve shared on social media many times
But let me offer you my definition of social justice: I keep what I earn and you keep what you earn. Do you disagree? Well then tell me how much of what I earn belongs to you – and why?”
The following two quotes are from memes I shared on Facebook. I tried to track down the source of the quotes but Google failed me. I’m 100 percent positive they’re accurate. I remember reading them in articles recently,―
Most of the great problems we face are caused by politicians creating solutions to problems they created in the first place
Whether we want to own up to it or not, the welfare state has done what Jim Crow, gross discrimination and poverty could not have done, It has contributed to the breakdown of the black family structure and has helped establish a set of values alien to traditional values of high moral standards, hard work, and achievement.
I’m going to end this article with a very recent quote from a Daily Wire Article
The biggest casualty from the COVID-19 pandemic has nothing to do with the disease. It’s the power we’ve given to politicians and bureaucrats. The question is how we recover our freedoms.
