Be generous to all the living, and withhold not your kindness from the dead.
Sirach 7:33
A couple of days ago at work I was listening to music on my very old iPod that I bought off my son’s friend about 15 years ago when I suddenly had the thought to put on Manheim Steamroller.
That might seem an odd choice as Christmas is half a year away but we are asked to keep the spirit of Christmas in our hearts all year long so I put on the album while I was working. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed it and the concerts I had gone to with my wife and kids the latest being at the Colonial in Boston before this insanity took place
As I was doing my work it occurred to me that this pleasure along with the joy of those concerts was one more thing that I and millions of others owed to Rush Limbaugh who had introduced Chip Davis and his music to his audience and thus to the country and world. I found myself thinking about the impact he had on the nation culturally and politically from the initial victory of the GOP breaking the 40 year run of Democrat control of the house in 1994 to his role along with Sarah Palin in the 63 seat red wave in 2010.
One might consider this a debt we can’t repay as he’s been dead now for several months but by an odd coincidence as I was thinking of all I owed him I remembered a project that I’m working on The Indulgence Calendar.
I’ll be writing more about the indulgence Calendar (along with some downloads) on Memorial day but the bottom line is that if you are a Catholic there IS something you can do for Rush Limbaugh: You can earn an indulgence for him.
Now Rush wasn’t Catholic but that doesn’t matter. You can earn an indulgence for any deceased person and the merits of said indulgences do not depend on if the subject was Catholic thus I propose:
Every Catholic Earn An Indulgence for Rush Limbaugh Day
Sunday May 30th 2021
I propose this date because
I will be starting the indulgence Calendar June 1st and want to sneak this in before it.
Holy Communion is necessary for an indulgence (see #1 below) so a Sunday maxes out the number of Catholics.
Finally I think Rush would not want to make Memorial Day (May 31) about him rather than vets who gave their lives
Now to earn an indulgence there are certain norms that must be followed here are the ones that apply from my indulgence calendar
Communion on the day of an indulgence. This can be applied to any amount of indulgences that day.
Confession within two weeks of the day of an indulgence. Applies to all indulgences during that period
Prayers for the intentions of the Holy Father (an Our Father, Hail Mary or any appropriate prayer) once per day of indulgence.
To earn an indulgence you must be in a state of grace (no unconfessed mortal sin) at the time of the indulgenced act….
11. No unbaptized person nor any Christian who is currently under the penalty of excommunication may earn an indulgence.
12. You must ACTIVELY seek and or state your intention to obtain an indulgence for the act or prayer that carries it to be valid.
So if you are a Catholic going to mass and receiving communion on Sunday all you have to do, in addition to receiving communion to earn an indulgence for Rush Limbaugh Sunday May 30th is:
Declare your intention to do so
Make sure you go or have gone to Confession sometime between May 11th and June 19th
Say an Our Father and a Hail Mary for the intentions of the Pope that day
And do any act or prayer that carries an indulgence (outside of mass) from reading scripture to Praying the Angelus or even the sign of the cross.
Additionally Earning an indulgence for the dead in purgatory is a spiritual work of mercy so in doing this for Rush we are also helping ourselves along our path to Christ.
Oh and fyi, there is no limit to the number of partial indulgences that you can earn in a day as long as you declare your intention to earn it so feel free to obtain multiple indulgences for Rush and maybe one for yourself.
If you want to learn more about indulgences stop by on May 31st and I’ll introduce you to my Indulgence Calendar Project which launches June 1st.
In many small towns throughout America, Memorial Day is special.
Almost everyone knows someone who served in the military; most know someone who died.
Here in Muncy, Pennsylvania, two memorials stand out.
A few years ago, the town and the state recognized two fallen soldiers by naming bridges after them.
Army Pvt. Walter L. Smith, who served in the Spanish-American War, and U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. William F. Merrill, a Vietnam War veteran, died in service to their country.
The war against Spain was declared in April 1898 after the sinking of the battleship Maine in Havana Harbor. On May 12, 1898, Smith enlisted at Williamsport and was mustered into service as a private in Co. D, 12th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, According to historical documents found by his family, Smith met his fate while on a supply patrol with a small detachment in the Philippines on July 28, 1901. “[He] bravely and selflessly defended men in his company against an overwhelming attack by some 60 native insurgents. During the battle, Smith’s sergeant, the only other armed man, was shot and killed. Fighting alone, Smith saved the lives of two unarmed soldiers but was overpowered, captured, and taken prisoner,” according to the local newspaper.
While his remains never were recovered, in 2006, family members honored his service by placing a government-issued memorial headstone in the Smith family plot at Muncy Cemetery.
Merrill was with the 1st Marines during Operation Oklahoma Hills, an operation to clear out the enemy from their base camps and infiltration routes southwest of Da Nang, Vietnam.
On Nov. 26, 1969, Merrill and nine fellow Marines came to a ravine. The first to cross hit a wire attached to a booby trap, and he called out for Merrill, who guarded the device as the rest of the Marines went around it. As Merrill and his sergeant were standing at the device, the explosive detonated, killing Merrill and fatally wounding the other man. Merrill’s body was returned home to his family for interment at Boalsburg Cemetery.
“These were two sons of Muncy who went off to do their duties – like many sons of Muncy – but were unfortunately never able to come home.”State Rep. Garth Everett, R-Muncy, a former U.S. Air Force member, said at the bridge dedication ceremony.
The service of Smith and Merrill in two distant wars underlines the true meaning of Memorial Day.
One of the interesting things about having part of a movie shot in your neighborhood is the number of people who turn up, both your neighbors who you end up talking to and people from around the area. While I went outside a couple of times my wife spent most of the day outside getting up very early and taking photos and videos with the camera I usually use for interviews (which have been few and far between due to work and COVID although I had a pair of Catholic ones this week, more on that tomorrow). She pretty much shot a bunch of one minute clips and a fair amount of photos till she came home tired around 2 and crashed. The biggest take away I got from them was that despite the better pay a lot of acting, at least in movies which aren’t on the same deadline as a weekly TV show, is that like any other job there is a fair amount of tedious repetition.
Because she took so many shots I’m only uploading a few plus three videos. Be aware that the date on the Camera was set wrong. While the shoot had been scheduled for the 7th it was actually done on the 8th.
There are plenty more but I think this gives the gist of what is going on with the police controlling the crowd and traffic and the guys in charge letting people know when to be quiet etc.
I figured the Diner would have done pretty well with these folks but alas for Ed because there were three different days when the shooting might have taken place his regulars stayed away those days and he only got a quick burst of business when they called lunch the day of the shooting which didn’t make up for it.
Anyways here are the three videos here is one with a shot of their car pulling out
My wife shot a lot of those, didn’t upload the others since they were pretty much the same. DaWife says they did it about five times. Each time they pull out, when Clooney calls cut Affleck backs up and they get ready to do it again.
Here is another shot of Clooney joking with the kid and Affleck before another shot. This would be just visible from my front yard.
And finally here is a 3rd shot of him directing the kid before another shot and then the shot itself. The antique cars were parked in the neighborhood for about a week before the shoot but then again I’m old enough that to me they don’t seem like antiques they’re just the cars I remember from the 70’s. In fact my 1st two cars were a 67 Barracuda and a 75 Buick LeSabre both convertables.
My chief interest in all of these is how the work is actually done as I’m not experienced in it. Granted it’s not work in the sense that my dad worked or that I or my sons or my wife do but it’s work and it takes them away from their homes for long periods of time. Granted it would have been cool to get Clooney to sign the season 1 of ER that I bought my wife 20+ years ago and my son had hoped to get a Batman comic signed by both as they each (Clooney meh, Affleck actually very good) played the role but there was none of that.
And frankly in an age of cancel culture where people are looking to bring down folks for saying or doing the wrong thing the last thing you really want to do is mix with a bunch of strangers with cameras any one of whom might hold a grudge and be looking to get their 15 min of fame by giving you grief. That realization precludes Jimmy Stewart’s old advice to Raquel Welch about fans and autographs these days and must be a pain in the neck, particularly if someone happens to be affable by nature who previously enjoyed meeting the fans.
At least the pay is good.
As I said there are a lot more pictures and a lot more video but they seem too repetitive to upload to youtube and given how close to the vest things have been around here I can’t justify the extra bandwidth charges to put them all up. Feel free to hit DaTipJar to offset those costs.
Thanks to a combination of a left arm still unable to shovel, a wife deserving a good night’s sleep, the need for additional confession and weekly scheduled adoration I found myself away from my laptop until nearly 2 pm yesterday meaning that the 1st report I had as to what was going on in Richmond Virginia at the 2nd Amendment Rally came from my son repeating what his ultra liberal friend(s) were sending him him about White Supremacists etc when I picked up up just after noon. I told him at the time that because his friends resided in the liberal bubble their information was unlikely to be accurate or complete which proved to be prophetic when we finally got home after picking up DaWife and finally getting to sources of info that were not being censored by youtube or pre-written by folks trying to advance a meme rather that write news.
The 1st clue to the truth of this came at lunch with CNN as usual in the background on one TV at our favorite lunch haunt (the one drawback to the place). The lack of live coverage and breathless headlines during our meal demonstrated that all was not going as the media expected.
It also demonstrated the value of conservatives not abandoning Twitter as it became an excellent avenue to disseminate reality to people who wished to deny it as the 2nd Amendment march in the former 2nd Capital of the Confederacy turned out to be typical of tea party events that I had covered for many years while foiling every hope of a left media breathlessly waiting to proclaim a Charlottesville or a Kent State.
So today let’s look at five of those tweets and my responses that in my opinion illustrated the events of the day so well.
Don’t touch that Play Button, Part 1
Twitter is in many ways a lazy medium where many people will send a tweet with a link and video and people will either not click the video or follow the link allowing you to make any meme you want stick. That strategy however fails pretty miserably if people do
Oh my God people are walking down the street!
I'm sure you mean well but I suggest you spend some time with your family, regain perspective
If you’re going to be a blue checked NBC reporter tweeting out clips of chants at a live event it does behoove you to match the chant with the clip you claim to be tweeting out to make the media’s contention that unlike bloggers you have layers of fact checkers credible.
The Scott Brown Election Night Memorial Clip
Take a look at the faces of the reporters particularly in studio, the disappointment is palatable! https://t.co/MhHpxSzBuM
The saddest look I ever saw on the MSM’s face was the election night when Scott Brown won in Massachusetts but this one wasn’t all that far off. it’s even worse when the 1st guy interviewed is named Manny Cruz. Maybe he’s one of those “White Hispanics”. Anderson Cooper was even more taken aback here
His face says it all it looks like he’s going to throw up.
Nothing gets a story demoted faster on a MSM webpage than a Democrat/media narrative that is unmet by reality.
Moment of Accidental MSM/Left Clarity #1
#rephrased if only our friends on the left showed up to the #VirginaRally then we would have had the violence that we predicted from the #2a people to commit happen!
Don’t you dare get the idea that the right isn’t violence just because there wasn’t any. Yeah there was no violence by the right, but that’s only because the tolerant and noble left wasn’t there to cause it!
Moment of Accidental MSM/Left Clarity #2
You mean to tell me there are no riot cops at a place where there are no riots happening? What kind of mad sorcery is this?
I remember covering a big tea party event during the 2012 primaries in NH that some expected trouble at. There was a single cop and not a harsh word to be said. The police at these events know when they’re in danger and when they’re not
Why do I have the feeling channel 7 Boston would have been highlighting something different if the narrative had been met?
We’re all gonna die! Again!
how could da media have expected violence at the #VirginaRally since everyone who might have done such violence was killed by the #trumptaxcuts & those who survived died from the end of #netneutrality & the few that got past that were killed off by the #Kavanaugh vote? #2a@POTUS
One of the problems of constantly predicting doom a/la Peter Cook in the Secret Policeman’s Other Ball over the course of several years is that when voters who expected to be imprisoned, starving or living in a state of anarchy surrounded by the dead tend to notice when on election day they find themselves with good jobs in a booming economy on election day with nary a body in sight.
Meanwhile back in Bubble World…
the sad thing is given that many of the people who will hear her saying this will never look at another source of info outside of that bubble they will likely believe it despite the actual reality https://t.co/Jqa3mWn4EN
My son’s friend’s likely only source of news but in fairness somewhere in the multiverse this reality might exist, perhaps in the same reality where the Crisis on Infinite Networks Letterkenny & the Witcher crossover is taking place.
The “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” award
.@GovernorVA#rephrased Good thing you didn't kick me out for the blackface/klan bit because thanks to me none of those violent right wing people were able to turn the #VirginiaRally in Richmond into Mississippi burning. Aren't I wonderful?
Or, if you can’t get the nonviolent ordinary citizens who are opposing you to display the violence you insisted was inherent in their system you might as well blame said lack of violence on your decisive actions and forethought.
They mentioned the fence the Governor put up in that clip and I’ll close with a tweet commenting on that.
For the last two years WQPH 89.3 FM show Your Prayer Intentions has been the only place to find DaTechGuy on DaRadio as we each week take and pray for people’s prayer intentions while playing religious interviews and talking scripture rather than secular politics.
That will change for two hours this Sunday morning as I will be guest hosting the Joe Mangiacotti show (formally Conservatively Speaking) on my old station WCRN AM 830 AM Worcester from 6 AM to 8 AM EST
Normally I would have had to decline Joe’s gracious offer to guest host but thanks to a bad shoulder break (more on that tomorrow) I am out of work as the break heals as I await the options from my doctor on treating the permanent damage to the shoulder.
Thanks to this injury while Joe’s producer Cam will be running things from the Clinton Savings Bank Studios at WCRN I will be broadcasting from the palatial DaTechGuy Studios in Fitchburg Mass. also known as my sickbed.
The topics will be impeachment, Thursday’s Dem debate and what comes next.
If you want to be a part of that conversation you can call in at 1-508-871-7000
In 2018 I was at CPAC with my sons when the younger seeing that I was, as usual, driving myself to a ridiculous point suggested doing something different, so we went on a little trip to a pinball place in Bethesda where I found what I thought was the most significant interview of the trip.
and wrote why this interview was so significant
Now a person like my self who has covered angry mobs last year, and is constantly bathed in the political fight, not to mention the media narrative of absolute Trump / GOP hatred and constantly in the company of activists both at home and at CPAC, might expect a Democrat woman of color living in a blue state to give answers fitting the us vs them narrative, particularly if filmed and in the presence of her friends. She did not. She gave the President mixed marks, complemented him on keeping campaign promises that he made to his people, noted that as a Democrat she’d like to see some more moderate moves. Her answers had none of the rancor or the division that the media has pushed on us for the year or that I’ve seen from angry activists. They were completely reasonable answers that would not have been out of place several decades ago in a saner time when I remembered people could disagree and get along. In other words they reflected who she is, a normal American trying to get by whose primary focus is real life instead of manufactured outrage.
Remember this was 2018, Mueller was still out there, plenty of people thought there was lot of “there” there. Stormy Daniels was still out there as was the creepy porn lawyer. In fact we were still in the pre-Kavanaugh era. In other words the entire spectacle had not yet blown up on the left.
This interview, given in public on film in front of friends made me draw two conclusions, the second being the most significant
Despite what our media friends are trying to sell us, Regular Democrats, even democrats in a blue place like Maryland are not wedded to the Peloxi/CNN/MSNBC line and are seeing this president for what he is rather than what they are being told he is.
People like Lea are winnable and the media narrative is all about convincing us she is not.
When we got back to CPAC I couldn’t wait to upload the video and rushed to tell every person I ran into that this was incredibly important and tremendously significant. Nobody seemed to care, we were in the CPAC bubble which meant all eyes were on the pols and the activists there, not to mention the President’s upcoming speech. The idea that this might be a signal of an opening to the black community for the President and the opposition of blacks to the president might be softer than other think was something totally off everyone’s radar.
Saturday Morning ,much to the concern of DaWife and some of my friends I got in the car and headed to Boston to cover the protests/counter protests going on in Boston post Charlottesville.
I left early enough that the traffic was fairly light and getting to Alewife station went directly to the 4th level to park. It was fairly empty at the time I got there before 10 AM.
When I got on the Subway train I found my surrounded by large groups of people carrying signs, some homemade some not. They varied from hit Nazis to attacking the “alt right” to the standard “love Trumps Hate” and “Black Lives Matter” I quietly sat and listened. It was my impression that the folks who had come to Boston from out of town were mostly people who wanted to “make a difference”. Their grandparents had fought in World War 2 and they saw themselves as doing what they did. This was a theme I got a lot from a certain segment of the crowd once I got to Boston, a feeling that they were emulating the “greatest generation” by going to Boston to stand up to the Nazis, Fascists and Klansmen That meme was common among the people I ran into on the train and in the crowd once I got there and my primary goal in going to the event was to not only report on what I saw, but to find out if their assessment was true.
There were a fair amount of masked folks in the crowd, some wearing green who were organizing things (they seemed distinct from the ANTIFA folk who I saw later) I asked one young lady why she was wearing a mask and she replied that it was to keep her from being doxxed which seemed to be the standard line, which frankly didn’t seem all that credible to me.
At the time I got there the crowd was comparatively large but not massive as it would later become there was a large crowd by the Statehouse, that was the Marty Walsh event and various groups to the far side where the free speech rally was supposed to be. It was at this time I saw a familiar group go by.
As I continued to head deeper into the common I saw a group of folks sitting down on a bench who consented to an interview
I found the remarks about people losing their jobs ironic after the doxxing stuff the masked lady had said, but from there continued on. At this point I spotted a group of State Police and spoke to one about them.
He said they would do their best to protect everyone’s first amendment rights (and from what I saw there was a large enough police presence to do so. I asked him about the masked ANTIFA folks, he mentioned that they were a worry but as there was no law against wearing a mask on the common all they could do is keep an eye on them.
I walked all the way to the far end where the pond was and then doubled back to get to the gazebo. All this time the crowd continues to grow as more and more folks showed up as the weather continue to get better but hotter. When I got to the Gazebo area I found the entire section was cordoned off. Only people specifically on a list were invited in and that included the press.
This was a large blow to my plans as the primary thing I wanted to do is record the speeches and see what they were saying to answer the question: Were these guys actual Nazis, White supremacists et/al or were they just conservatives that because they supported Trump were considered all of these things?
Of course to the crowd none of this mattered. It was a matter of faith that these guys were Nazis but it seemed to me also a matter of faith that President Trump was also a Nazi/White Supremacist as was anyone who supported him and this was evident by some of the chants.
The attendees were very good at the whole repetitive chanting thing which requires very little thought.
I tried to find some other angles to get a better view of the bandstand but there was no place where I could get close enough and the fence lining it was filling up.
All of it seemed like overkill to me but the crowd seemed rather enjoying themselves as I walked through them.
The crowd itself consisted of the following groups:
Group one: The well meaning folks standing up as I mentioned at the start (worth interviewing) Group two: The college kids finding something cool to do while establishing their liberal credentials (worth interviewing)
I’d say those two groups at least at the time I was there was a solid 1/3 or more of the crowd
Group three: The mayors folks also establishing both their anti-trump and liberal cred (spinning pols no interest to me) Group four: The various activist groups there to push their specific causes (again professional protesters spinners mostly not worth my time) This was I’d guess about half the crowd or slightly less. When you report they are very noticeable and you could see the polish in how they carried themselves and their organization.
Group five: The freaky guys like the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (drag queens dressed as nuns) and Vermin Supreme (folks looking for attention but not getting it from me) And Group six: ANTIFA violent thugs who I had no intention of associating with.
Despite how different they were all of them were all united in two propositions:
Donald Trump is a bad evil racist.
If you voted for Trump you are as are as bad or worse than he is.
The effects of that unifying idea was interesting, particularly interesting how well the Masked Antifa crowd was being received by said crowd.
That really shocked me I figured either they had no idea the type of people ANTIFA was (groups 1 & 2) , pretended they didn’t (group 3) or didn’t care (groups 4 & 5).
It was around this time that everyone got an education concerning them from an event that was to me, the defining event of the time I was there.
I noticed people swarming and went to check it out and was disgusted by what I saw.
Two men one wearing a Trump, Make America Great Again and another wearing an Israeli flag being greeted by cries of “fascist go home” and quickly surrounded. At least of the organizers recognizing that the potential of something that would shatter the image they wanted portrayed to the press and to some of the more innocent people there who had no idea what company they were keeping so one of the folks who had been coaching some of the masked folks on one side and two members of the highly radical “veterans for peace” did their best to make sure nobody threw a punch but it didn’t stop people from getting in their faces and surrounding them.
I was completely beside myself over this first of all Donald Trump won the majority of voters in 29 states. If a man can’t safely walk through Boston Common with that banner no matter who is there that’s an incredible escalation as it the dubbing of any person supporting Trump a fascist or a Nazi.
But what set me off even more was the vitriol against they guy wearing the Israeli flag and the crowd joining in on the chants against him. The irony of people carrying anti-nazi signs and lowly proclaiming their opposition to hate driving out a person wearing the Star of David flag seems to have been completely lost on the people there and frankly I was outraged.
What was even more amazing were those calling em cowards those two guys were the bravest people there and I found myself wishing that I had a Trump banner or an Israeli flag and was standing with them.
To me this was a turning point, it is a moment that in my opinion will get replayed over and over in states that Trump carried and I can’t think of anything else that would infuriate and energize Trump supporters more.
On the bright side there were some signs of sanity and plurality in the crowd this one stood out.
But then again one would expect Quakers to be expressing this kind of thing.
By this time it was getting clear that unless I was willing and able to stay very late there wasn’t going to be much big news and I noticed people starting to leave so I started to leave but found some interesting sights like the Panda crowd that I saw earlier.
That the people signing were basically saying “take away my freedom” never seemed to occur to them.
There was Gary who had an interesting quest.
Four nice folks from Plymouth who seemed to have experience in this sort of thing without being professional activists.
A catholic poet and musician who bought my book.
and my favorite person Gary who while not liking the right had my favorite sign of the day as embraced his opinions while defending the 1st Amendment.
Finally a large crowd came by marching and I filmed them for five minutes.
then a few minutes more.
which couldn’t help but make me think of the famous scene from Monty Python’s Life of Brian where the crowd chants in unison “yes we’re all individuals, we’ve all got to work it out for ourselves”
Finally it was time to leave and I headed for a T station as Park Station was closed. Because of this I missed some violence that took place later (conveniently after the regular people who might have objected had already left) but ran into the nice young ladies that I’ve already mentioned.
As for the object of these protests they became an afterthought but the real irony is, if there had been no protest they would have gotten even less attention but most of the people there seemed happy at what they felt they achieved and proud of their actions. What did they achieve? Well that’s an analysis post for later this week.
We’ll finish with a few assorted images and clips.
And My photo gallery follows my tipjar pitch
This report is an example of what independent journalism outside of the MSM produces. Less fancy, less polished but very trustworthy.
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