The Second Amendment Is Not Racist

 I had a post last Wednesday entitled For The Left, Every Day Is Opposite Day, in which I pointed out that contrary to certain claims, the Second Amendment is not a racist document, nor was it written to keep blacks in slavery. Today, at the American Thinker, Tony L. Vets II has a longer article that puts the lie to the notion that the Second Amendment is racist at The Second Amendment: Not Racist, But Definitely Pro-Freedom. If you read nothing else today, read this. Vets brings up the points I did, and then some.

Much has been said about racism and the Second Amendment since Carol Anderson published her new book, The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America. Unfortunately, much of what has been said is false. Commentators including CNN, NPR, Democracy Now!, and the ACLU, just to name a few, have all interviewed Ms. Anderson and hyped her theory that the Second Amendment has its roots in racism, "anti-Blackness", and oppression. Few journalists seem to be approaching the "racist Second Amendment" narrative with a healthy dose of philosophic doubt, nor do they seem interested in questioning the accuracy and validity of Ms. Anderson's assertion, with the result being that the truth is being suppressed in favor of the narrative du jour.

...snip...

Much has already been said about the Second Amendment's roots being found in the English Bill of Rights of 1688, and so it is not necessary to recap that fact now. Instead, I refer the reader to Andrea Widburg's post, "The Second Amendment Isn't Racist," in American Thinker (June 4, 2021) and William E. Devlin's article "The Second Amendment's Irish Link" in The Irish Story (September 29, 2018). With an established legal tradition protecting the right of the people to keep and bear arms coming from England in 1688, it is difficult to argue that the roots of the Second Amendment are racist or meant to deal with potential slave revolts. The English simply were not in the least bit concerned about the potential for slave revolts and "anti-Blackness" in America when they drafted their Bill of Rights in 1688.

I did not know about the Irish connection, but it is interesting history. No doubt Ms. Anderson thinks the "Irish connection" was to the "black Irish." Look, anybody who wraps up his or her identity in things like race and sexual preferences are on the wrong path. Such things can only lead to unhappiness. And trying to lie about history, a history that is easily verified, betrays a person so imprisoned in her identity as a black woman instead of freeing herself to simply be a woman period.  but note that women are one of the fastest growing demographics buying guns.  Why?  For the same reason others have bought guns:  protection from those who would take their lives.

Naomi Wolf Warns About Big Tech

 Naomi Wolf again, talking about the censorship of Big Tech.  In this case, Twitter shut her down for reporting factual information. Wolf, speaking to the Epoch Times points out that the same thing happened to her family in Nazi Germany.  

Now, as I am a conservative,  and Wolf is a Leftists, she and I do not have a lot, politically, in common. But we do have our humanity, and while I may disagree with what she says, I will always defend her right to say it.

Wolf has also joined President Trump's lawsuit against Big Tech.  Go read, and watch the whole article.

The Tyrants Don't Want to Give Up Power

So, the panic over the latest variant of the virus, the Delta variant has proven to be exactly that. the medical establishment has been literally running in circles, screaming and shouting, while CDC's own date show very low infection rates among the vaccinated. But here, let Natalie O'Neill tell it at the New York Post in an article entitled Severe COVID-19 Breakthrough Infections Extremely Low Among Vaccinated, Date Shows.

Out of 161 million US residents who were fully vaccinated as of July 19, just 5,601 caught a severe breakthrough infection and were hospitalized — an infinitesimal 0.0035 percent of the protected population, according to the latest CDC figures available on post-vaccination infections.

When it comes to deaths, the risk is even lower, with just 1,141 vaccinated people dying from a COVID-19 breakthrough infection — or 0.0007 percent of those fully jabbed.

Overall, the elderly were the most at risk of severe breakthrough infection, with 74 percent of people who were hospitalized or died post-vaccination over the age of 65.

By contrast, 95.5 percent of total COVID-19 deaths and 97 percent of total hospitalizations in the US are among unvaccinated people, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said earlier this month.

It turns out that the so called "scientific study" on which the politicians are basing their new restrictions and mandates on is an debunked study out of India using a vaccine that has not been approved for use in the United States. Clearly, the tyrants don't want to let go of power.

Keep Telling the Truth

 By acknowledging so called "transgenderism" as if it is a real thing, we lie, knowing it to be a lie.  And every time we do that, we lose a little bit more of our moral authority.  We become ever more and more demoralized, quite literally.  So, it is good to see that others have picked up on the same theme and are speaking up.

Of course, you should not lose your own moral authority because without it, what credibility do you have?  But it is also true that you do no favors to the "transgendered."  Many will come around to accepting their place in society and the responsibilities that come with that role if they are not encouraged in their fantasy.  Naturally, I do not advocate making fun of them either, for they are more to be pitied.  In any case, people are more persuaded by kindness and understanding.  But being kind is not the same thing as repeating the lie. 

Today, at the American Thinker Michael J. Mueller has an article entitled Transgenderism: Perception and Reality Are Two Different Things.

The American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), lists gender dysphoria as a mental disorder; however, society has been programmed to believe that individuals may choose whichever sex they prefer rather than accept the fact that gender is determined at fertilization. No Virginia, X chromosomes cannot be transformed into Y chromosomes, and vice versa. As Princeton University political philosopher Robert P. George put it, “Changing sexes is a metaphysical impossibility because it is a biological impossibility.”

While I don’t care who or what you try to mate with, which sex(es)/species you identify with, or what you call yourself, I do get annoyed when I am expected to accept and embrace your delusion. Publically shaming or “canceling” people for failing to call a middle-aged, woman sporting a crewcut, and testosterone-induced beard “he” is counter-reality. Likewise, not calling a self-professed non-binary they (like I’m supposed to deduce this?), will also get you shunned by the enlightened “woke” crowd.

...snip...

Transgendering is a psychological rather than biological matter. Dr. McHugh indicates young boys and girls seeking sex reassignment come with psychosocial issues such as “…conflicts over the prospects, expectations, and roles that they sense are attached to their given sex—and presume that sex-reassignment will ease or resolve them.” People suffering from gender dysphoria need therapists willing to assess and guide them in ways that permit them to work out their conflicts and correct their assumptions. Dr. McHugh believes that “treatment should strive to correct the false, problematic nature of the assumption and to resolve the psychosocial conflicts provoking it.”

Lying to people who suffer from transgenderism to show others how enviably “woke” you are is “virtue signaling” of the highest order that only exacerbates the internal struggle of the girl who thinks she is a guy. This uncompromising acceptance of transgenderism by the virtuous is a renunciation of reality especially when studies show that 80% to 95% of gender-dysphoric children eventually grow out of their dysphoria and become comfortable with their bodies after puberty if there is no hormonal or surgical intervention. Those who undergo sex-reassignment surgery commit suicide at 19 times the rate of the general population and almost double the rate of transgender-identifying adults overall.

My advice? Keep telling the truth.

Republican Lawmakers Urge Court to Overturn Roe v. Wade

 The Epoch Times has an article today entitled 228 Republican Lawmakers Urge Supreme Court to Overturn Roe v. Wade.

For any possible new gentle readers here, I feel that abortion under most circumstances is murder. So, it gladdens my heart to see that the Court may overturn it, which will put it back into the hands of the various states. Abortion will not go away, instead, by overturning Roe v. Wade, it will allow the states to determine their own regulation of the practice, as they always should have been.

Beyond that, it is true that Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided. Blackmun pulled this out of thin air justifying it with high faluten langage about penumbras and emanations. No one was ever fooled.

I pray they rule well.

For the Left, Every Day is Opposite Day

 Why is it that the Left always accuses the other side of doing what they are in fact doing, or in this case of having done what the Democrats in fact did. At FullMagNews is an article where the ACLU Claims that the 2A has Racist Roots.

The American Civil Liberties Union(ACLU) is now claiming that the 2nd Amendment has its roots in racism and was inserted into the Constitution as a way to protect slavery.

On a recent episode of the ACLU’s “At Liberty” podcast, historian Carol Anderson and professor Charles Howard who is a professor of African American Studies at Emory University claimed that “anti-blackness” played a role in the decision to include the Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights.

According to Carol Anderson, the lack of gun safety laws in the United States can be directly attributed to “the power of anti-blackness.” This is the same “anti-blackness” that is enshrined in the constitution according to Anderson and Howard.

Unfortunately, this "lawyer" is spouting absolutely ahistorical balderdash.  If you read the writings of the founders on the Second Amendment there is no mention one way or the other about blacks or slaves.  Indeed, the right predates the Constitution by hundreds of years.  It was one of the Rights of Englishmen.  Indeed, the notion that blacks were somehow "subhuman" came up after the Constitution was written and was a way for the Democrats to justify the keeping of blacks as slaves, in the face of abolitionist arguments to end the  practice.

What the Second Amendment was about was the people having the ability to defend themselves against a tyrannous government.  The Founders were not wild eyed revolutionaries.  They fully understood that any government, no matter how the power was dispersed, could become tyrannical.  Having just thrown of such a government, they wanted to provide that the government would fear the people.  That the Second Amendment remains relevant is why the Left so despises it.  It is why they make up preposterous lies to try to discredit it.  

After Flynn, Can Military Leaders Grow a Pair?

 Also, today, over at Townhall.com Kurt Schlichter has a guest post, written by a Navy officer entitled The Generals New Clothes: Transgender Policy and the Willful Demoralization of the American Military. Of course, as I have explained elsewhere, there is no such thing as being "transgendered." Just because you mutilate yourself doesn't change your DNA. Please go read, and consider the whole article. Think about what it means for our defense.

I’m a naval officer who’s spent the last 15 years on active duty. In that time, much has changed. Today I’m required to affirm that a man who has had his penis turned inside out or a woman who’s cut off her breasts has actually become a member of the opposite sex in order to keep my job. Let’s look beyond the “ick” factor and grapple with what’s really going on.

...snip...

For those of you in the civilian world, it really is hard to explain the magnitude of god-like fear, awe, and respect these men command, to say nothing of the material rewards. If you don't think those are powerful hooks sunk deep into their skin, think again. They've spent lifetimes scraping and sweating to get where they are, and they're not eager to see it disturbed.

So when policies like those recently issued by the DoD demanding everyone play along with the delusions of the mentally ill are issued – preferred pronouns and all – none of them says a word. Worse yet, they've been trained to pretend they agree. What began with an oath to "support and defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic" has become a luxuriant career that makes them wealthy, stages them for yet more lucrative follow-on careers, and stokes their egos into bonfires.

...snip...

The only thing worse than men crazy enough to believe this nonsense is men cowardly enough to pretend they do. And that's precisely what they're doing. They're pretending in order to protect the careers they love so dearly.

Let's be clear: if you believe a man can become a woman, you suffer from a psychological disorder on par with those in the throes of gender dysphoria, only you have no excuse. They are genuinely unwell; you have merely been deceived.

Furthermore, if you genuinely believe that men and women can mutilate their genitals, change their clothes, and become the opposite sex, you are unfit for military service. At any rank, in any position. Full stop.

You must be wondering if there is a solution. Unfortunately, the author doesn't have an easy solution. Rather, he points to the effect of what is taking place:

So what’s behind all of this? Why are we being required to lie? Demoralization.

The Soviets mastered the art of demoralization: forcing people to tell lies they knew were lies, knowing that each lie you tell chips away at your moral standing until, having become complicit in the deception, you have no moral standing left at all. If history has taught us anything, it’s that those bought off by comfort and devoid of moral fortitude are ready tools in the devil’s hand.

So, we know what is behind this. The Chinese are attempting to win the war without firing a shot, as Sun Tzu instructed. And our politicians who seem to be in China's pocket, are aiding and abetting the Chinese in this endeavor. What it will take is our military leaders to grow a pair?  I realize General Mike Flynn was a deliberate lesson to any others who might speak out.  He was bankrupted and his family threatened.  And I realize that I am asking people who have a lot to lose to put that wealth on the line, knowing what was done to Flynn.  But if we are going to survive, it must be done.

Saving Our Liberty and Freedom

 So, we are back on masks again, as the CDC, no less, is considering making mask mandates a thing again.  Today at the American Thinker, Alexsandar Markovic has an article entitled When It Comes to Masks, Physics Will Always Trump Politics. Please go read the whole article as it is both interesting and true. And the more of us who know the truth, and speak out, the better. It takes overcoming some fear, perhaps, but when you do, you will often find that others agree with you.

What I want to talk about is the physics of masks. Remember that the virus is extremely small, while the pores in the typical cloth mask are large enough to be visible to the naked eye.

If they must ignore reality while imposing a fantasy on others, they’ll do it. It’s necessary to bear in mind, however, a simple axiom: sooner or later reality trumps everything else, every time. What follows is real.

The CCP-virus’s diameter ranges from 60-150 nanometers (nm = billionth of a meter). As a basis of comparison, the thinnest hair on your head is about 80,000 nm. That’s over 600 times the mean diameter of the CCP-virus (120 nm). We’re talking small.

A mask that’s effective against the CCP-virus must reliably stop the passage of 120 nm objects. This is no mean task. Such a mask will likely not be made of everyday materials nor be fabricated using common methods. It will have to be fitted and worn carefully to maintain its integrity against such minuscule particles. It will have to be maintainable in order to guarantee its effectiveness over time or be inexpensive enough to replace when its efficacy lapses.

Now, let's look at typical cloth masks, you know the type that most people wear.

A strand of cotton -- not a thread, but a strand from which threads are spun -- consists of numerous cotton fibers. Cotton is absorbent due to the abundant space between these fibers. The spaces vary between these fibers from tens to hundreds of times larger than the CCP-virus. It should go without saying, but does not anymore, that the CCP-virus can readily pass through these between-fibers spaces.

It follows that the same virus can readily traverse the even larger spaces between cotton strands that are spun into cotton thread. These cotton threads are, in turn, woven together into cloth used in non-surgical masks. The spaces between the threads in that cloth are visible to the naked eye and are, comparatively speaking, multi-lane freeways to the CCP-virus.

Therefore, to believe non-surgical cloth masks can stop the passage of 120 nm particles like the CCP-virus is not rational. In a marvelously Orwellian statement, the CDC’s guidance on wildfires advises that “cloth masks used to slow the spread of COVID-19 offer little protection against wildfire smoke.” As the smallest smoke particle’s size is at least four times greater than the CCP-virus a mask that provides little protection against smoke particles provides less from the CCP-virus.

Now, while I do believe that Leftists are to some degree mentally ill, and do entertain a great deal of cognitive dissonance, even they can't really believe in masks, can they? People with medical degrees? Interestingly, I have been perplexed by this almost from the beginning. Something else must be going on. Interestingly, Eric Utter has a post at the American Thinker today entitled Coercion, Covid, and Free Will that argues that what is at stake is power - pure, raw power.

At any rate, I've thought a lot about this in recent days, and I've come to this conclusion regarding the tyrannical attempts to coerce us all into ceding sovereignty over our own bodies: it is primarily a big test — probably the final one — issued by those in power to see if there are still limits as to what they can force Americans to do. For if they can succeed in wresting our health decisions away from us, if they can take away our choice, if they can force us to submit to allowing an unvetted foreign substance into our persons to act in a way that cannot be now known on the very genes of which we are composed, they will know there is nothing they can't do to us.

Ironically, if they can get the vast majority of citizens to renounce progressives' decades-old mantra of "my body, my choice," they will know they have won. (They will never acknowledge that the mantra, as progressives meant it, ignored the killing of an innocent baby and therefore was a priori nonsensical and evil.)

If our elected officials, media, academicians, and Deep State masters can get enough people to do as they say, regardless of personal cost-benefit analysis or impact on their current and future freedoms and autonomy, they will then know they can finally take away our Second Amendment rights with impunity as well. They will be emboldened to take away our guns and our ability to protect ourselves and our loved ones. They will have robbed us of our free will.

We must resist if we are to save our liberty and freedom.

The Socialist Democrats Want To Outsource The Infringement of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms

 During the Obama administration, the United Nations passed something called the Arms Trade Treaty.  John Kerry signed it for the United States, but it was never ratified by the Senate.  Trump "unsigned" the treaty, but the Senate never sent it back to the White House.  Now the ATT is coming back to haunt us. Ammoland has the story on what might happen at UN Arms Trade Treaty, The Biden Occupation, and the American People

Will the Senate give its approval so Biden can make the U.S. a Signatory State? Probably not, because our Constitution requires a two-thirds vote, of the Senate, when it comes to treaties.

But 

We understand that American Socialist Democrats have given up any semblance of truth and moral behavior. They have shown a propensity for illegal acts in order to get their way. They have no goal, but to take control of our country, and we gun owners lay directly in their path.

Having our own government infringing the right to keep and bear arms is bad enough. While I have hopes that the Supremes may...MAY...defend that right, there are no guarantees. But to have our government outsource the infringing of our rights to foreign governments is to add insult to injury. But it fits with the modus operandi of the socialist democrats.

Masks for the Vaccinated?

The Epoch Times reports that Fauci says the CDC is considering mask mandates for vaccinated people. My first thought is that these people must truly be insane. After all, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Masks did not stop of even slow the virus before. No reason to believe it will now. And of course they really are not following the science. The virus is perhaps 40 nm, while the pores in masks are 1,000 times bigger. Stopping the virus with a mask is like trying to stop mosquito bites by building a chain link fence.

What I think this is about is imposing a vaccine passport on the country. Vaccine passports are a step on the way to the "papers please" police state. We know they want this, but so far they can not justify it. But, by scaring people with the Delta variant, which while it is more contagious, is less deadly, they hope to impose some sort of vaccine passport. Show your papers or wear a mask. And don't notice that showing identification is racist when it is for purposes of voting. Vaccine passports is a way for the tyrants to introduce social credit to the American public.

To Rescue the American Dream from Bully Corporations, We Need Better Trade Policies

 You need to watch the entire 40 minutes of Chris Bedford at The Federalist entitled Can We Rescue the American Dream form Bully Corporations. Here is the money quote:

Bedford argued the need to focus on tax and trade policies.

“Why corporations are treated better than partnerships and family businesses. Why capital is treated better than labor, our labor. Why Brazil and Canada are given preference to American ranchers. Why Chinese manufacturing is treated the same way we are. Why Facebook and Google can say we’re global companies, not American companies while benefiting from all of our order, all of our systems, all of our education,” he said.

“Why any other company can benefit from every single aspect of us and all of the trade and then move all over their manufacturing abroad, overseas, choose foreign slave labor, and then use our Navy to get those products shipped back safely on freights to sell to us at lower costs to buy welfare and food stamps,” he said.

Look, many of these policies amount to nothing more than legal theft. When the government uses its taxing power to take from you and me, and give those funds to others to buy votes, that is theft. When corporations are treated better than the American people by the government, as Bedford says, that is also theft. The United States Navy, for example, costs taxpayers billions of dollars. Having corporations using that to get their goods back from China is theft. Then there is the idea that American corporations using slave labor in China to circumvent higher American wages. When these companies get their stuff made in China by what they know is slave labor, and then sell that back in the United States, they are breaking the antislavery laws, if not in fact, then certainly in spirit. When American businesses push for open borders because illegals will charge less for their labor, that is also if not directly slavery, certainly exploitive.

Interestingly, I have had a very real change of heart over the years. 20 years ago, I had more of a libertarian ideology. I would have been very comfortable with Ayn Rand's philosophy. But Ayn Rand was an atheist, and her philosophy is souless.  And I looked at the idea of having countries that had cheaper labor performing labor intensive work as making sense.  And it does in a purely logical way of thinking,

But I am a Christian, and the God of creation loves people, not money. Money of course is necessary as a means of exchange, as a tool, in other words, but what is important is people, always. And more specifically, it is individuals. The greatest good for the greatest number of people is not our God's concept. God is not collective.  Rather, God, who knew each of us before the world began, wants the best for each of us, which we achieve by following his Laws. This makes slavery and exploitation of people immoral. Indeed, the Bill of Rights reflects as well as any document the essence of a governing document that follows God's plan for us. It was truly an inspired document.

Update: Please also watch Tucker Carlson Today. Tucker Carlson seems to be a moral conservative, and interviews interesting people.

Courage Is Like Muscle

 So, last evening a couple of us were on the way to the archery range, when the subject of the so-called "transgendered" came up.  I stated that in my opinion, there are no such things as the "transgendered" because one's sex is determined at conception.  No matter how much people may mutilate themselves with sex change surgery, their DNA will always remain what they are.  Given that transgenderism isn't real, I refuse to refer to people by their supposed "preferred pronouns" because unless these agree with common English usage, they are often made up terms that also have no basis in reality.  My companion was somewhat shocked.  She felt that the polite thing was to go along with the mad.  I pointed out that this was just enabling them in their mental illness, and that enabling was doing no favors to those truly suffering from this metal illness.

Interestingly, Joy Pullman has a post at The Federalist today entitled Wokenss Means Forcing Everyone to Live Inside the Prison of Mental Illness.

What is at the core of insanity? It is quite simply the refusal to acknowledge or attempt to befit oneself to reality. It is imprisoning yourself inside your own mind’s fantasies about what the world ought to be, what you want it to be, instead of what it truly is.

This is easily apparent in any sustained encounter with America’s homeless, most of whom are quite obviously mentally ill. It is also often apparent in any sustained encounter with someone for whom leftist politics functions as a religion.

One senses in such encounters the uncanny eerieness of having somehow entered an internally closed loop, a spiral from which there is no escape, and the assumptions underneath it are absolutely not up for question. The assumptions are many, they are often vague and undefined, and they are unquestionable. Try, and you risk being viciously attacked.

There are also the demands that not just the unstable individual but those he encounters be forced to conform to his reality instead of actual reality. Many kind and decent people go along with the initial demands because they seem relatively trifling and, at a surface level, to possibly ease another’s suffering. Wear a mask. Overlook that tent pitched next to the playground. Put an unaccompanied minor into the U.S. foster care system.

Now, my companion for the evening is a kind and decent person, and she is also someone who doesn't want to confront anyone and have trouble. Unfortunately, taking this "go along to get along" attitude is to take the cowards way out. But one improves one's own self respect by holding the line, and insisting that people observe reality and don't fall into enabling the lunacy around them. Remember that each individual can only control him or her self, but showing some backbone may help others to be more courageous too. I find that courage is like a muscle. You need to exercise it to have it when you need it.

Is the FBI working with the Far Left?

 This is very disturbing.  Today at the American Thinker John Dietrich has a post entitled The Antifa/FBI Coalition. I have suspected that this might be true at the top, but the idea that this corruption may permeate the FBI is very disturbing. And one has to now wonder, are the other Federal law enforcement agencies equally corrupted? What about the Marshal service, the Secret Service? Of course we know the ATF is absolutely corrupt. They should be neutral, enforcing the law impartially against law breakers while protecting the law abiding. But they have picked a side, and that side is anti-gun.  But then, that is the goal of every law enforcement agency: to enforce the law impartially and not take sides in the culture wars, or push their political masters agendas.

I would note that while the Dems are all in on this because they hope to achieve permanent power, and thus permanent ability to loot and ruin the middle class and poor, we haven't heard a peep from the R's.  Why not?  And more importantly, why don't the Republicans take some action.   Oh, Senator Kennedy from Louisiana goes on Fox News to make clever "aw shucks" mincemeat out of this Biden policy or that, and Ted Cruz makes blistering attacks against the Dems latest fiasco, neither one takes any real action.  And while I applaud Rand Paul's action referring Dr. Fauci for criminal prosecution, I don't expect much to come from it. 

The R's seem to be in on it too.  But nobody seem to be working for the American people.

The Salt of the Earth Are the Ones that Count

 I was riding back from Wilmington, NC today, when we briefly got into a discussion of international affairs.  I mentioned that at least the South and Central American dictators were just plain corrupt.  They didn't have an ideology attached to their corruption that made them even more dangerous.  My companion for the day dryly said, "Unlike our own politicians."  He was right, of course.

Today, at the American Thinker Spruce Fontaine has a post entitled The world has only 5.000 people that matter. It's a provocative titled, no? But as you will see if you read the post, the idea that there are only a few people that matter is a view shared by the self anointed about themselves.

Politicians are almost never working for us. Don't confuse a bill to reduce America's tax burden to revive a faltering economy with the elected officials themselves. Politicians work for themselves, period. If something worthwhile happens, it's like fruit beverage production; you can make beauty products out of the leftovers. How often do you hear politicians proffer "getting back to doing the work of the American people"? Both sides of the aisle use the phrase. What actually are they "getting back" from?

The thing is that working for the American people simply does not pay well enough. It's Marxism for the public servant class. Beginning with Bill and Hillary, public servants began to see themselves as the schlub proletariat doing all the work while the elites reaped enormous profits from the policy deck–stacking for which the wealthy donated. Thousands of dollars–a-plate fundraisers soon seemed like ancient small potatoes as the tech giants measured their own jaw-dropping GDPs as bigger than Italy, Brazil, Canada, and Russia. The political class wants Washington, D.C. to be Palo Alto on the Potomac, having what the elite benefactors have. In other words, the elected want to be the elect having almost nothing to do with us Americans in outer darkness.

What used to be cozy financial arrangements for the capital's political denizens have morphed into mega-wealth strategies. The staged Capitol insurrection, the private security firm Capitol Police, and the barbed wall around the nation's capital are the neo-medieval fortress. I am convinced of the elites' abhorrence of all things not them. Hatred is the tool the political elite use to divide and subjugate. For the rarefied gentry, this strategy means to sweep us, the peasants, out of their kingdom so they control and limit contact with us.

To find out where the titled comes from, you need to read Fontaine's post. Meanwhile, let me say here that the real people who matter are those that get up and go to work every day, that keep our economy running. The people that the Bible calls the salt of the earth are the ones that really count.

Democrats Don't Believe in Democracy

 H. Sterling Burnett as an article at Townhall.com entitled The Red Queen Would Be Proud of the Impossibly Inconsistent Climate Change Disaster Claims. Burnett:

Climate alarmists have a problem presenting a consistent narrative on the dangers supposed human-caused climate change poses.

Instead, they follow Lewis Carroll’s irrepressible and violent Red Queen down the climate change rabbit hole, as when in response to Alice’s statement that “one can't believe impossible things,” she proudly proclaimed, “I daresay you haven't had much practice. When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

Whether it is more snowfall, or less, more rain, or less, more and more powerful hurricanes or less, the media has presented both. It is why they came up with the term "climate change." First, it was global cooling, then it was global warming, and finally climate change. And the people who believe in these theories, somehow believe in both consequences seemingly at the same time. This is, of course what is called "cognitive dissonance." As Burnette reports:

I’m weary of progressives desperately clinging to the theory of catastrophic climate change in the face of confounding data and contradictory predictions. I’m tired of their gross public displays of cognitive dissonance, twisting any unexpected weather event into further proof of climate change even when it is inconsistent with previous types of weather events they said climate change should cause or is causing.

Please, environmental socialists, move on to the next hobgoblin you will try to terrify the public with in your continuing effort to expand the government’s, and by extension your own, power over peoples’ lives. I’m ready for a new mythical dragon to slay.

Interestingly, at the American Thinker they have the answer to Burnett's request for a new mythical dragon. That answer comes to us via an article by Brian C. Joondeph, MD entitled Are Masks About To Become Permanent? After noting that between the vaccinated and those who have had the disease and recovered, we probably already have herd immunity. We also know that while the many variants seem to be more contagious, they are also less deadly.

The Copenhagen mask study found little benefit to masks in stopping the Chinese coronavirus. From a viral particle size perspective, masks also do little. The COVID virus is 50-140 nm, while the pore size in standard surgical masks is 300 nm to 10,000 nm. This is using a chain link fence to stop mosquitoes.

Is this about public health, protecting the LA population, most of whom already have COVID immunity? Or are there other motives at play? Given how so much of the pandemic has been politicized, it is appropriate to look at any new guidelines through a political prism.

Please go read Joondeph's article to understand the real reason we may all soon be hectored again to wear masks. The eternal Covid-19 may well become the new climate crisis. Because totalitarians always need a crisis. And of course, if you want to know How the Democrats Could Steal the Midterms, you will find how the Democrats may use Covid or another excuse to "postpone," read eliminate.  the midterms. Here is the problem with one party rule: the single party may not give up power.  And we know the Democrats don't believe in democracy.

Racist Gun Control Laws Have Morphed Into Wanton Power Grab

Tom Knighton as a post over at Bearing Arms that talks about Gun Control's Racist Reality. Knighton's article in turn points to an article at National Review on the same topic. I have pointed out in the past that North Carolina's gun permit system was a Jim Crow era law designed to disarm blacks, while no white sheriff would ever deny a white person a gun. That law is still on the books. The sheriff's claim it brings in substantial revenue. But it still places a financial burden on a right, just as much as a poll tax would. If North Carolina wanted to repudiate its racists roots, it would get rid of this last Jim Crow era law, instead of tearing down statues that should remain as a reminder.

Knighton makes some good points here:

However, the reality is that every new gun control regulation will likely have a further impact on the black community. Especially the poor members of the black community. That’s just how it’s going to work.

Further, those who claim to care about minorities are also screaming about “defunding the police” while also calling for more gun control; laws that would have to be enforced by police. Honestly, it’s a wonder their heads don’t explode from the contradictory positions they hold.

Regardless, while some like to push gun control as somehow being good for the black community, the opposite is the case. It’s going to land a lot of young black men and women in prison for something that in and of itself isn’t actually wrong. Carrying a gun shouldn’t automatically come with a prison sentence.

When it does, its outcome sure as hell looks racist.

About the "wonder their heads don't explode" part: they don't explode because the Left seems accustomed to the sort of cognitive dissonance seen here. The fact that the original purpose of gun control laws was racism has morphed into taking as many firearms from as many law abiding people as possible so that they can control you and me with impunity. There is no legitimate law enforcement purpose behind these proposals. There is only a wanton power grab. They don't deserve it.

   

Update: From The Truth About Guns comes this short piece by Dan Zimmerman entitled Why Haven't Anti-Racists Targeted Gun Control Laws. It references the same NR article as Knighton does above.

Why Does Everything Have To Be About Politics

 Andrea Widberg, at the American Thinker points out that while You May Like Black Rifle Coffee, Does It Like You?. Widberg points to a New York Times article in which Black Rifle Coffee Co. CEO trashes some of his customers. I don't read the NYT so this was news to me.

When Black Rifle Coffee (“BRC”) emerged on the scene, it targeted conservatives, positioning itself as a pro-American and, eventually, pro-Trump veteran-owned company. I don’t drink coffee so it didn’t matter to me.

However, some coffee drinkers may be unhappy with what the company’s executives had to say to the New York Times. The Times article opens by assuring its readers that BRC’s CEO, Evan Hafer, really is a MAGA kind of guy. He voted for Trump and even believed Trump’s claims about election fraud – before he saw the light thanks to Bill Barr’s declaration that there was no fraud, gave him new faith in the system. Neither the Times nor Hafer mention the evidence of substantial fraud in Arizona and Georgia.

However, it was when Hafer saw the events at the Capitol that The Times says that he suddenly realized that his brand had been stolen by extremists...

Now, I have been a Black Rifle Coffee club member for several years. I have bought both the Black Beard's Delight and recently Beyond Black in whole bean. Mrs. PolyKahr recently got me a Delonghi EC 702 Espresso machine and I have been enjoying real espresso made at home any time I want. I pains me to purchase Starbucks because of the Leftist bent of the company, even though they make an excellent product. And while local roasters would make a lot of sense, I find that so far their product is lacking.  I like a bold, rich flavor, but not so much the caffeine.

But I think I will have to forgo BRC coffee from now on. If he wants to get rid of his customers, I can accommodate him. 

Why does everything have to be about politics?

Does What Is Happening In South Africa Portend America's Future?

Ilana Mecer was born in South Africa, so has some knowledge of the culture and geography of South Africa.  I therefore take what she writes in her article at Townhall.com entitled South Africa Shames US Democrats By Uniting Against Criminality. Mercer contends that the problems of South Africa started when the Americans insisted on a "democratic" solution instead of a federal republican system with recognition of minority rights and checks and balances. Please go read not only Mercer's article but the linked articles as well for a good understanding of what she is talking about.

For background, Mercer quickly sites the current situation:

For the last decade, I’ve seen South Africa as a sea of troubles—and a harbinger of things to come in America. When America becomes a majority-minority country, it will likely resemble South Africa.

But, in their darkest days, the country and its people need upliftment—and have, surprisingly, earned it. I saw a ray—nay, rays—of hope amid the revelry of looting, robbing and arson that has engulfed the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and the Transvaal (my birthplace), following the conviction and jailing for contempt of court of former President Jacob Zuma.

Dozens have been killed in the two provinces mentioned, more than 200 shopping malls have been robbed then razed, and countless cattle have been stolen, which generally means sentient animals are being savagely hacked to death for food.

The courts issued a verdict that went against the wishes of a tribal faction of the South African population, and it erupted. I assure you, however, that Zuma’s loyalists, the Zulus, were not the only ones partaking in the bacchanalia.  The dominant-party state ensconced with American imprimatur was once a variegated country of English, African and Afrikaner. For centuries, British, Boer and Bantu had been clashing and alternately collaborating on the continent.

Now, however, South Africa is an Afro-American multicultural society, united by an affinity for MacDonald’s and mobile phones and a strict enforcement of progressive “thinking,” attendant speech codes and cancel culture.

South Africa has been made over in the image of America, and the outcomes are not good.

When South Africa was working on their constitution, one wag made the comment, "Why don't we give them ours'? We're not using it." He is right of course, that our government has been burning up more and more of our rights under our Constitution, and reaping yet more and more social pathologies. The riots last summer, which once would have seen people arrested and prosecuted to the full extent of the law were only the beginning. Now businesses are closing up in San Francisco because criminals who steal from these businesses are no longer prosecuted. Predictably, with no consequences, more and more people take what they want.

Our elites keep yapping about "our democracy."  But a democracy is two wolves and a lamb deciding what to have for dinner.  It is not our system of government.  Our Constitution defines a republican form of government, with certain rights guaranteed.  They are off the table.  They are not up for a vote, and the majority has to respect them.  It is for this reason that everyone wants to come to America.  

Whatever form of rule the elites have in mind, whether it is communist or fascist, it is not what our country was founded to be.  It is time we call out these so called "elites" and oligarchs for who they are and what they want.  Too many conservatives have pretended that our opponents mean well, but have different views on how to proceed.  But the mask is off now, and we can see that they are not arguing in good faith.  Indeed, they don't want to argue at all.  They want to tell you, and you are supposed to obey.  What they want is the power to tell YOU how to live YOUR life.  But God puts that choice in each of our hands.  It is not up to them, or indeed anyone else's hands.  We can not let them have that power over us.

For Mercer's sake, I will be praying for South Africa too. 

The Unfortunate Thing Is They May Get What They Wish For

 A hat tip to David Codrea of the War On Guns for point me to ZeroHedge The Increasing Agressiveness of Petty Tyrants. David characterizes the article with this quote from Tyler Durden:

The aggressiveness of progressives—their willingness to arrogate power to themselves and run roughshod over the half of Americans who disagree with them—is, of course, not confined to those holding political office...

Durden makes the point that they may just get what they wish for, but it won't be the glorious Utopia they think it will. It never has been. Instead of trying to bully conservatives into getting "woke," it may behoove them to wake up themselves and study history. They are being used as the useful idiots by the sociopathic elites. One can debate which group will be the first to be thrown against the wall, but history has shown an awfully uniform tendency the rulers to kill off all their percieved potential rivals.

General Milley: Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper

 Please go read Andrea Widberg's post at the American Thinker entitled The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is Straight Out of Dr. Stranglove. Widberg here reveals her age, because the movie, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb was released in 1964. I saw it at the movie theater at the time. It was one of those movies that made one laugh because the only other thing you could do was pray and cry. Pray, of course, that somehow our leaders weren't crazy enough to incinerate us all.

But now it appears that life is imitating art:

In Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 black comedy, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, the engine for the plot is Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper, a United States Air Force general, who goes completely off his rocker and launches a nuclear weapon at the Soviet Union. We may have our own, real-life General Ripper in the form of General Mark Milley, a product of the Ivy League and now Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. However, unlike General Ripper, who had the Russkies in his sights, General Milley is pretty sure that you are the enemy.

Milley, 63, is not a graduate of America’s military academies. Instead, he’s an Ivy League product, having attended Princeton and Columbia. Apparently, at least as to Milley, the rot had already started to set in when he attended those institutions.

For many of us, Milley entered our consciousness on June 23, when he insisted that West Pointers should study Critical Race Theory and that he, especially, wanted to understand “White rage.” At that moment, when he openly embraced CRT, complete with its claims about White Supremacy, systemic racism, and White privilege, Milley imposed upon himself an obligation immediately to resign from his position and to insist that someone Black – anyone Black – take his place. Until Milley walks away from his White privileged position, he’s just a very dangerous, virtue-signaling windbag.

Milley insists that we should teach Critical Race Theory to prospective officers at the military academies to broaden their perspectives. Does he also recommend teaching the "Communist Manifesto"? How about the Koran? Or the Bible? What other controversial theories does he think it appropriate to teach our future officers? And where does he think these thing fit in with leadership, tactics, logistics and strategy in war fighting? More important, or less?

Besides his odd notions of how to educate our officer class, the other objectionable thing about him is his beliefs about conservatives.  Conservatives believe in the Constitution, which means that we would not rise up in support of a President who did not abide by the same document.  We looked for the courts and the Congress to do their job.  That we have been disappointed does not change the fact that we would not stage an insurrection, and indeed, January 6 was not an insurrection.  No one was armed, and indeed, the only one killed that day was the unarmed  Ashli Babbet by a Capitol Policeman.  Where are the BLM protestors burning down cities over Ashli?  And don't the American citizens who paid for the Capitol have every right to be there?

Milley, unfortunately appears to be another true believer in the communist cause.  We should view such "leaders" with a jaundiced eye.

Face Palm

 At Bearing Arms today, Tom Knighton has a post entitled Founder of Liberal Site: Right To Own Guns was Made Up.

Oh boy. As Knighton points out:

The right to keep and bear arms longs predates the invention of guns. Originally, it encompassed spears, bows, swords, and so on. It was long held that a man had a right to defend himself from attack and, as such, had the right to have whatever tools he could afford to use in that effort.

However, not everyone agrees. Some people think the right to keep and bear arms is really about states despite the Second Amendment’s use of the term “people’s right.” It seems people only mean people and not states when it’s convenient. Some people think the right is entirely fictional.

One such person, though, is Josh Marshall, the founder of the liberal website Talking Point Memo, who tweeted this on Wednesday.

                "Just to remind everyone, the individual right to own and use firearms is completely made up                     and the product of NRA funded activism."

Wow.

Just…wow.

How completely uneducated do you have to be to imagine this was made up by NRA activism. First, the Second Amendment’s plain text says “the people’s right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” What on Earth could that mean other than the right to own guns? If you couldn’t own the gun, who were you keeping it for? Someone had to own it, for crying out loud.

Keep in mind that the revolution was fought with guns and cannon as well as swords, knives and bayonets.  The Founders were thus aware of all the terrible implements of war available at the time.  They also were aware of the existence of repeating arms, and I believe that could conceive of future improvements to such weapons.  Interestingly, the Founders left behind many statements indicating that the Second Amendment means exactly what it says.  These statements are easily looked up.  But here's the thing: the revolution began in 1776. The Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791. The NRA was not founded until after the Civil War in 1871. So how could the NRA, founded 80 years after the Bill of Rights that included the Second Amendment, influence that document?  This is just historical ignorance.

Please go read Knighton's post and see for yourself what passes for "thought" on the other side.

The Cuban Uprising vs. Our Garbage Elites

The ironies are rich indeed.   First up is an article by Kurt Schlichter entitled The Cuban Freedom Protest Is Awkward for our Garbage Elite. Looking at the facts laid out by Schlichter, one has to ask what is the difference between what the Cubans face and what we face here at home:

Oh, that wasn’t embarrassing at all – a couple days after our glorious FBI, fresh from failing to stop several mass murderers it knew about decided to ask the American people to narc on their family members, the Cuban people took to the streets to protest just this type of commie garbage. Great timing. This is the kind of quality work that has led to our ace Inspector Erskines having no idea what the Maddow-loving leftist with the list of Republicans and a rifle was doing at that softball field.

Now, it’s not just the FBI encouraging kids to turn-in their birthing people to the authorities for unapproved thoughts that channels the Castro vibe. It’s a whole bunch of things going down that demonstrate, conclusively, that our elite is down with the oppression. And, of course, it’s all in the name of democracy.

It was just this last July 4th that the esteemed, among jerks, New York Times informed us that the flag is a symbol of badness. Meanwhile, the Cuban people, and the people of Hong Kong, are waving the red, white n’ blue around like woke corporations waved rainbow flags right up until the last day of Pride Month.

This all comes a week after the regime got caught tuning into Tucker Carlson’s texts. The whole listening into the private communications of dissenters flex seems kind of familiar too. The NSA sort of denied it – weasel words are red, flashing lights to lawyers like me – but then, exactly as predicted, some public servant leaked these nonexistent intercepts to the lapdog press.

And of course, the Leftist threats against normal Americans will only get more oppressive. Joe Biden administration has announced they intend to publish a list of influencers who have radicalized others to conduct an "armed" "insurrection" of the Capitol on January 6. How does a person get on that list? If being despised by the despicable is an honor, then being on this list seems like a good thing too.  Let's be clear, shall we?  The Biden administration, and the Democrat party have gone full on communist.  Oh, I don't believe that every one with a "D" after his or her name is an actual communist, but even if they are not, they are afraid to speak up, or vote their conscience, so they are facilitating the destruction of this nation.

If Joe Manchin is the man portrayed, he would switch to Republican.  Indeed, that is how the State of West Virginia came to be.  When Virginia seceded from the Union, the West Virginia counties refused to go along.  Manchin would thus be standing in good stead with the history of his state.

The second item today is a post at the American Thinker by Andrea Widberg entitled It looks as if there was massive fraud in Fulton County Georgia. The Fulton County audit, the Maricopa County audit in Arizona are showing that Trump was right all along. Trump's claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him is more and more appearing to be true.

I urge you, gentle readers, to read both articles and think hare about what you are going to do.

Knife Control?

 At Bearing Arms today John Petrolino has an article entitled UK Knife Amnesty Cuts Up Gun Control Arguments. I have said for years that if the gun had not been invented, or if it were possible to magically get rid of all the guns, people would still kill each other. Knives, screw drivers, even rocks can be used. The problem, always,, is not the tool used, but the intent of the person. In the holster of your average concealed carrier, a gun presents absolutely no threat to anyone. But if someone wants to kill another, the tools he could use are virtually unlimited.

This is where we are in the world today. Knife trade-in boxes and police departments celebrating a box of items that are fit for an American flea market table. They did their best to get rid of the guns in England (which they failed at mind you) and have moved onto kitchen knives. Looking at the picture I don’t see any prominently displayed switch-blades, dirks, daggers, or narwhal tusks. There seems to be a nice set of utility shears, a few old bayonets, and one lonely pizza cutter among the chef knives. Burnley and Padiham Police department, we thank you for taking these wicked kitchen gadgets off the streets! Clink a couple of pints of draught at the pub, you deserve it. Tally-ho!

Maybe it's time for a little humility? The government can not keep you safe. Your safety is up to you. It is your responsibility to protect yourself and your loved ones. If the politians would admit that they can not protect you, that they can only investigate the crime, prosecute the perpetrator, and execute punishment, that would be a good first step. This is, by the way, an important job. But the anti-gun crowd should not promise to do a job they can not do, for no one can.

The gun has made it possible for the weaker to defend against the stronger, the older to defend against the younger, and one to defend against the mob. It is more civilized than anything that came before, but everything that came before still exists. And the people who want to kill others will use whatever comes to hand.  Meanwhile, in England, they have knife control.

Without the Constitution, We Are Not Exceptional At All

 Today at Townhall.com Kurt Schlichter has an article entitled The Coming of Strong Man Populism and the Power of "No!" Schlichter's thesis is that just as the communist and socialist excesses of the Obama administration brought the Trump administration into being, so the even worse excesses of the * administration will bring about a Strong Man. And this time, he predicts, heads will roll, figuratively speaking.

Get ready for Strong Man Populism. The bad guys - the soft elite who think it can hold onto the societal power it inherited, but did not earn, through petty oppressions - will call it “authoritarianism.” Of course, they like authoritarianism when they are the authority - that’s why they feel no compunction about remaking our country and culture without bothering with obtaining our buy-in. But history teaches - not that they would know it, because they have never been taught it - that a backlash is inevitable.

We’re going to turn to someone who won’t be deterred by cultural caterwauling, who will not be satisfied with a status quo ante that is deeply anti-American, who will ruthlessly use his power to reclaim our society for us, and who will wreak vengeance on our enemies.

Ironically, I heard someone on the "news" today saying that Cubans are rising up because their country is so corrupt. Is he kidding? Has he not looked at Hunter Biden selling his "art" for $500,000 a pop? Hunter is no artist, and this is clearly him selling access to his father, again. Then there are all the past corruptions from "Fast and Furious" to Hilary's emails, to the stolen election of 2020, all of which went without anyone even being charged. The Left fights every attempt to audit the election.  they characterize election integrity measures as somehow racist.  Oh, and what of the Durham investigation? Anything? No? The fact is that this country is incredibly corrupt. What do they think might happen here if they see the Cubans as revolting against corruption?

Strong Man Populism will come, and dumb people will find this ironic, because we are, at heart, still a free people unwilling to merely survive on scraps as serfs. Oh, some of us are eager drones - the lazy, the stupid, the morally illiterate who empower the mutants against us, or who sit on their moms’ couches playing video games. But the rest of us are getting fed up. We can’t be free when we are cowering in our homes, unable to speak, with our interests left undefended. We will take our freedom back, at the ballot box, because our failed ruling class has, well, failed.

...snip...

Our establishment scoffs at laws, everything from election rules to regulations against spying on citizens who oppose the regime. At the same time, it lets street criminals run rampant. The law enforcement agencies do nothing, the media does nothing, and the courts do nothing. But when we break their laws, watch out - especially you LEGO insurrectionists.

Our voices are silenced, we have no institutional advocates; the institutions designed to vindicate our rights won’t. That limits our options going forward to opting for submission - that’s the aptly-named David French solution - or opting to burn it all down.

I say flick the Bic.

Despite the incessant braying about "our democracy," the fact is that our governing system is a republican form of government, not a democracy. It has worked for over 200 years. But if we do not soon begin to clean up our system, and prosecute the corrupters with long prison sentences we will lose the republic, and with it the freedoms and liberties that have allowed the United States to enjoy a higher standard of living than any other. But make no mistake, the standard of living is a result of the Constitution and the liberties it demands. Without it, we are not exceptional at all.  But the * administration is trying to nullify these liberties and freedoms.

Please read all of Schlichter's piece.

Why We Believe The Election Was Stolen

Tucker Carlson had read a Twitter thread by Darryl Cooper aka MARTYMADE.  Andrea Widberg has the story at the American Thinker in a post entitled A brilliant Twitter thread perfectly explains what drives today's conservatives. Widberg adds a bit of explanation, then reproduces Cooper's Twitter thread in normal prose so it is easier to read. She also includes the section of Carlson's show where it was read. I suggest you go and read it for your self.

Cooper's analysis is spot on. These are facts, that the left keeps denying, and instead the Biden administration and the entire executive branch seem to be going after Trump supporters and Republicans. It is frustrating that we who saw these things can not get justice. There is simply no Constitutional remedy for stealing an election. But it is illegal none the less, so the fact that the people who did this will never be prosecuted or see time in jail sets my blood boiling. And here's the thing: the right is not above doing the same thing. Right now the Left is attempting to keep conservatives from gaining power, but what if we do? Shouldn't we ensure that the Left is utterly destroyed? Both sides should therefore help to ensure election integrity for the protection of both sides.

At present, the Left is desperately attempting to thoroughly demonize and dehumanize conservatives, in the way that the Nazi party demonized the Jews before they executed the "Final Solution." I am not saying that the Left will send us all to concentration camps, though I wouldn't put it past them. But with three more years to do this, one wonders just how many conservatives will be burning for some justice. And while most Republican politicians are spineless Vichy collaborators, they may not be able to resist their angry voters if they gain power.

The idea of our Founders was that the only legitimate government is one that governed with the consent of the governed. We achieve that by electing representatives to do the work of governing. The Left however, has determined that we conservatives are beneath representation. That makes us in their view less than human. Disturbing.

What It Means To Live in an Authoritarian Police State

 David Codrea has a piece over at Ammoland that has done the work I intended to do, but just haven't had the time so far. The article is entitled Rise of the Moors Turns DHS's "Perfect Storm" into summer squall. Unlike Codrea, my first thought was not "these may be the droids we're looking for." A bunch of guys heading to Maine to train does not cause me concern. When I found that they were a group of black guys calling themselves "Rise of the Moors" I still thought, "well, so what?" After all, every citizen is entitled to keep and bear arms, and Massachusetts gun control laws are an infringement of the Constitution.

Now, I don't agree with Moors' ideas about history. As Codrea notes:

Forget that it was the Muslims who conquered North Africa forcing conversion on the natives. Forget that the Muslims conquered the Levant (including modern-day Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, and much of Turkey). Then forget that the Muslim Moors conquered most of Spain. Now disregard that Arab slave-trading continued after the British and United States abolished it and that Africans were the sellers.

Good thing we live in a country where the law established by its Founders from their heritage pretty much leaves citizens free to believe whatever they want — even if it’s kooky or worse — as long as they don’t force it on anyone else – at least it’s supposed to. With the rise of “cancel culture” and the conflation and smears being flung at anyone who doesn’t reject traditional beliefs and embrace all-encompassing cultural terraforming, the future of that is no longer something to take for granted – especially with Merrick Garland joining the chorus and pointing the finger.

Which is the point. The "Moors" weren't causing any trouble, at least not yet. And like a lot of us, they may well have been training for self defense. And if the "authoritahs" can put these people into jail, they can put any of us in jail at any time for anything they desire. This is what it means to be living in a authoritarian police state. And it is not supposed to be this way.

Who's In Charge?

 Andrea Widberg has a post today at the American Thinker entitled So it's true: Tucker Carlson got the General Mike Flynn treatment. By the "Mike Flynn treatment," Widberg means that the NSA not only spied on Tucker Carlson, but also leaked his emails to opposition journalists. This is totally illegal. The NSA should only be collecting data on foreign actors, and any United States citizens incidentally caught up in this NSA spying should be masked. As Carlson pointed out, Gen. Nakasone, as head of the NSA should have had to approve the unmasking of Tucker Carlson, so should be able to explain.

If you go to the linked page, you can see how exponentially large the “incidental” target group becomes thanks to the hop rules. For example, if you have 50 friends, the NSA can spy on those friends, as well as 8,170 second-degree friends, and another 1,334,978 third-degree friends. Expand your friend group to 1,000 friends, and the NSA has a pool of 163,400 second-degree friends to spy upon, and 26,699,560 third-degree friends to check out.

Even worse than being spied on, though, is the fact that Tucker got the Michael Flynn treatment: He was unmasked and the information leaked. Both things are grossly illegal. The government is allowed to spy only on foreign targets. Domestic targets are “incidental” and must be protected. Anyone in the government who wants to unmask these incidental targets must prove that the information is within his mandate and that he has an absolute need to know this information...

I have pointed out that while the NSA hoovers up every bit of electronic information in the world, they don't seem to find things like, oh, say, the Boston Marathon bombers, even though our FBI was warned about these people. But the NSA would have had direct knowledge of their plans. Why keep silent? This blog is being recorded by the NSA as you read it. Why they would find the thoughts of a nobody like me interesting is anybody's guess, but they do.

Agencies, like the NSA, CIA, FBI and others are supposed to be nonpolitical. They are supposed to give the President the same information whether he is Democrat or Republican. But they have obviously chosen a side, and it is not YOUR side. But even if it were your side, you should be concerned that the intelligence they are giving the President is biased. And that could get us all killed.

What should be done is to convene another Church Committee to reform these agencies and put them back in the box where they belong. The problem? Even Congress is afraid of these agencies. As Tucker Carlson asked, "Who's in charge?"

The Earth Is Not Overpopulated

I had a post the other day entitled Climate Change is a Trojan Horse that talked about the people who strangely believe that the world has too many people. Today at the Federalist entitled Recycled Overpopulation Is Anti-Science, Anti-Freedom, and Anti-Human. Now, it seems that Joe Biden has appointed a woman to be head of the Bureau of Land Management who seems to espouse the debunked Maltusian philosphy.

More than 50 years ago, Paul Erlich wrote “The Population Bomb,” which warned about an allegedly impending disaster of overpopulation that would bring worldwide famine, civil strife, and a host of other calamities. He predicted that the demand of so many new souls would inevitably outstrip the world’s supply of food, energy, and other necessities, ending civilization.

On nearly all his points, Erlich was utterly wrong. None of this happened. The global population continued to grow while the global standard of living rose dramatically.

...snip...

One of Erlich’s acolytes happens to be Biden’s recent nominee for the Bureau of Land Management, Tracy Stone-Manning. She has come under criticism for her involvement with ecoterrorism and her graduate thesis discouraging everyone, especially those in developed countries, from having more than two children. For her, children are not a blessing, but an “environmental hazard,” and the “truly smart thing” to do is to “stop at one or two kids.”

Nevertheless, a person like Stone-Manning proposes limiting individuals’ rights to life, liberty, and property in order to save the planet. If restricting these rights actually worked this way, however, China would be leading the world in cleanliness instead of being its biggest polluter.

Malthus noticed that deer starved to death when there were too many of them because there was just not enough food. This continues to plague deer and other animals. Malthus however made the inaccurate leap to the idea that the same fate awaited mankind. And, if we were not abled to adapt, so it might be. But it isn't. As it turns out, humans are adaptable.

Indeed, as I write in "Climate Change is a Trojan Horse," one of the reasons for our advancing technology is that there are enough people on the planet to create markets large enough to allow economies of scale. A number of industries have benefited from these large markets, and most of their products would be unaffordable without these large markets. Sure, the wealthy could afford things, but the middle class and the poverty stricken are in the same boat. Indeed, it wasn't until quite recently that there was a middle class, and industrialization is what brought it about. And having larger populations allowed the industrialization.

Be Worthy, and Prepared

 Kurt Schlichter has a piece today at Townhall.com entitled Unworthy Americans in which he decries the sheep like acceptance of ridiculous dictates by our incompetent so called "elites."

While I was wandering through Costco the other day as one of the 5% without some ridiculous mouth thong wrapped around my piehole, I began to re-think the French Revolution. Maybe it’s gotten a bad rap. Still, Marie Antoinette only suggested that the normal eat cake – hey, who doesn’t like cake? But she didn’t demand that the people humiliate and degrade themselves in every aspect of their lives.

But our garbage elite does to us, and so many Americans are sheep who eagerly obey. Independence Day has come and gone, this year being not just a reminder of the greatness of the American ideal but a painful reminder of how so many of our fellow Americans have fallen short. They are delighted to forgo the strenuous rigors of citizenship in favor of the flaccid idleness of serfdom.

I have to confess to feeling the same way. When did we become such a nation of submissive sissies. In the past, people might have laid low, but not complied. And really, when I ventured out to the Eastern part of the state, one did see such quiet noncompliance. But here in Raleigh, going to the grocery store was a scene of insane compliance with the most ridiculous orders. I would see others staring daggers at me, but none dared accost or harass me.  And really, why should I fear such sheeple?

If, as I have come to believe, the pandemic was an act of war, our enemies must be emboldened.  For in watching our reaction to it, they must see an easily tamed population.  They can win without firing a shot.  Perhaps they already have?  The generation that won WWII has spawned a nation of pantywastes.

Mostly, the sheep are told to pretend they aren’t sheep. And they do so even if the shame of their submissions somewhere, deep down inside them, gnaws at them.

We are the greatest nation on earth, which today is a sad commentary on the human race as a whole. And sadly, so many of our fellow Americans are unworthy.

Be worthy, and prepared, because change is coming.

Banning America's Rifle

 I found the essay entitled Banning America's Rifle: An Assault on the Second Amendment by Stephen P. Halbrook at the Federalist Society to be a valuable history of the attempt by anti-gun forces to disarm the citizens of the United States. It is a long piece, so allow time to read the whole thing. Halbrook delves into the various Federal and Supreme court rulings tracing the what Justice Thomas has described as a second class right in today's telling. But at an earlier time in our history, it was, as Joseph Story described it, the palladium of liberties. And it is important to remember that the Second Amendment does not stand in a vacuum. Its purpose is to support the other 9 Amendments, which together define the rights of an American.

In a broader sense, it is important that courts not spray-fire from the hip in denigrating or belittling unpopular constitutional rights. To have a checklist of excuses to uphold every restriction that comes down the pike is to disrespect the Constitution. Going down that path on the Second Amendment creates an atmosphere in which other constitutional liberties are endangered.

All of that said, decisions upholding bans must be put in context. That only six states ban certain long guns and handguns as assault weapons, and that 44 states do not, reflects a national, popular consensus that such bans violate the Second Amendment and are ineffectual. Judges from the mainstream states have had no occasion to opine on the issue because no such bans exist in those states. Instead, many of these states have a long tradition of judicial recognition of Second Amendment rights. The absence of prohibitions and correspondingly of judicial decisions across the heartland is a silence that is deafening.

As I have said repeatedly, the government that trusts you and me with guns is more to be trusted. But those that do not can not be trusted with anything.

Si vis pacem, para bellum

 Meanwhile, I have warned for some time that China is a global threat to the United States.  At the American Thinker today, Thomas Lifson has a post entitled The threat of Chinese military aggression even more worrisome after CCP's 100th anniversay celebration.

Donald Rumsfeld, whom we lost last week, warned us 15 years ago that “Weakness is provocative,” words that have ominous meaning as the Biden administration degrades military morale, cohesiveness, and readiness with exercises that prioritize racial strife, homosexuality and transgenderism in place of patriotic unity. Xi Jinping is not likely to fear American security guarantees for Taiwan or anywhere else in the face of America’s highly visible retreat from the trappings of power. And the billion dollars sent to the son of the President of the United States to “manage” surely bought something more than mediocre investment returns.

Rumsfeld's quote is a variation on the old Roman saying "si vis pacem, para bellum," if you want peace, prepare for war. But the only way a potential enemy can view a country's preparations seriously is if the country's leaders are not compomised by the enemy. Unfortuately, our leaders, both political and corporate, have been terribly compromised by China. I expect that if China invaded, they would be welcomed with open arms. And with our currently "woke" military, one suspects that they might well surrender if Jamaica invaded. Like China, the military and intelligence organizations seems to spend more time going after and spying upon U. S. citizens that paying attention to enemies like Russia and China.

Hunter Biden has taken money for peddling influence with his father, who is now President.  There is some evidence that the President is also compromised.  Then there is Eric Swalwell. But how many corporate leaders are also.  The Nike CEO has come out a said it.  How many others are quietly cooperating with the CCP.  

Go read Lifson's post. It reveals that the CCP may be feeling insecure in its hold on power. And well they should. But remember that a cornered animal is the most dangerous, for it can not lose any more. China thus becomes a cornered animal that could strike out in hopes of distracting from bad policies at home, while also using up an excess of young men. Cynical, I know, but that is the Chinese leadership.

The Declaration of Independence

 In Saturday's post, I suggested that you should go read the Declaration of Independence. Here you go. I couldn't make it more easy for you. And a hat tip to the American Partisan.

The Constitution is based on the Declaration. It would not exist without the prinicples laid out in the Declaration. The key idea embraced by the founders is that the government derives its JUST powers from the concent of the governed. Thus a hereditary government such as a monarchy could not be a just government, no matter how well intentioned. Similarly, dictarorships, military juntas, aristocracy, or oligarchy could not be legitimate. Some way must be found to give the people a say in the rules that govern them. But that would come later, after much thought on the issue. In the meantime, General Washington and the Founders had to win our Independence.

When So Called "Elites" Go Insane

 In my last post, below, I wrote about the fact that our "elites" are not really our elites.  Instead, they are people so consumed by desire for power and control, that they imagine themselves to be sort of demigods.  Indeed, if you want to see this idea taking place right now in full Technicolor reality, go read The Epoch Times piece on the CCP's campaign to eliminate religion.

Yesterday, at the American Thinker Jack Gleason makes these thoughts more explicit in his article entitled When Too Much Power Makes the Elites Insane:

There are many stories of wealthy people setting up foundations that help millions of people. But there is a dark side as well.

People with great wealth and power quickly become surrounded by underlings who fawn over their every word. Every idea is brilliant; every thought is genius. After a while, they start to think they are gods.

...snip...

When their ideas and faulty logic are opposed, they use blackmail, bribery, and intimidation to get their way. Our rights to vote and to free speech are unimportant because we are too stupid to know whom to vote for or what to say.

This life of power leads to a form of insane immorality, where rules of civilized behavior apply only to others. This is why we saw videos of political leaders at fine restaurants with no masks while everyone else was quarantined eating TV dinners. Scientists feel that it's OK to fake data to reach their desired conclusions. Governors can ignore their legislatures and act like dictators.

Among the richest and most elite is an obsession with the need to end "global warming" and make the planet healthy and "sustainable." The real fear is that "their world" is going to be polluted and overrun by the stupid people in "flyover country."

And there it is. It is "their world", you see, and the idea that someone else might have a different view is...well...insane and not to be tolerated. If you want to know how feudal societies came to be, it was this notion that people with wealth and power deserved to make the rules and everyone else had no say. And what the so called "elites" want to do is bring back something like feudal society again.  Our revolution was fought to give every individual a say.  It is in our Declaration of Independence.  You should go read it.

Climate Change is a Trojan Horse

 Have you ever noticed that the people who want to eliminate other people are those who live in coastal enclaves?  These people no doubt get frustrated because wherever they want to go, there are 1 million other people going the same direction, at the same time, to the same destination.  They have to stand in line for everything.  The problem is that these people look around themselves, and then, believing that what they experience is true for everyone on the planet, decide that we have too many people.  But of course, they don't want to eliminate themselves.  The want to eliminate others...like you.

Jeffery Folks has an article today at the American Thinker entitled How To Stop Global Warming: Misery or Death that makes the points that I make above. In reality there are not too many people, and in fact. humans have very little effect on global climate change. God has already accounted for our greed and other sins, and denied us the power to change the climate.

Yet even if human emissions were brought to zero, that too would not be enough. Natural sources of carbon emissions would continue to drive climate change. Natural forces drove climate change long before human life appeared on Earth, and they continue to drive it today.

Natural sources would continue to drive climate change because they constitute 95% of greenhouse gas emissions. Cattle, for example, emit 1.85% of total methane emissions as opposed to volcanoes, deep-sea vents, and other natural sources, which emit 95%. And human flatulence, from those 7.8 billion people now living, constitutes just 0.0016% of global CO2 emissions. It may be a bit malodorous and offensive, but it isn't a threat to the planet.

My own belief is that man-made emissions do not pose an environmental danger and that natural emissions are part of climate cycles that the Earth has endured since its beginnings. The presence of 10 billion or 15 billion human beings on the planet in 2050 will be not a threat, but a blessing. Each of these persons is divinely created and has the potential to make a contribution to other human beings and to the well-being of the Earth. Human ingenuity, a gift from our Creator, will solve whatever problems may arise, as they surely will, either from global warming or cooling.

All by itself, human population is projected to decline after mid-century as existing humans decide to reproduce at lower rates. The real problem that we may face is too few humans as many countries — not just Japan and many in Europe, but throughout the world — face the probability of demographic suicide.

Folks doesn't say it outright, but this is not about environmentalism, or climate change, or anything that might actually resonate with the public as impacting the common good. No. What this is really about is giving more power to our so called "elites." But our so called "elites" do not deserve more power. Indeed, they deserve to be disempowered. Our so called "elites" are people who have self selected themselves and have scratched and crawled their way to the top. They have done whatever was necessary because they wanted power. They are not smarter than you. They clearly do not have more character than you do. But they are now in a position to decide your life choices...and your death.

Of course, one of the secrets to the modern world's technological advancement has been the relatively large world wide population.  You see, billionaires like, oh, say, Bill Gates, or George Soros, or Jeff Bezos can afford whatever they want.  Elon Musk can afford his own space program for crying out loud.  But for the rest of us, the secret to making stuff affordable is to have really huge markets for that stuff.

Take cell phones.  A so called "smart" phone, which is just a little two way radio, costs anywhere from a few hundred dollars to $1000.  These little radios, however, depend on a vast network of towers with repeaters to carry the signal across vast distances.  This is tremendously expensive infrastructure that depends on the fact that nearly everyone on the planet has a cell phone and is willing to pay to maintain the tremendously expensive infrastructure necessary to keep them working.  Everything would be more expensive if there were fewer people.  Some of the things we take for granted would be prohibitively expensive for the vast majority if there were fewer of us. 

And that is what it is really all about.  Climate change is the trojan horse to get ordinary people to agree.  Are the people who want to eliminate you and me really so selfish, so greedy, that they just don't want to share life?  What does that say about our so called "elites?"