The Billionaire Oligarchs of the Authoritarian Fascist Far-Left

 J. B. Shurk has an essay today about the ... let's call it slavery ... that the authoritarian fascist far left wants to impose on the rest of us "little people." Interestingly, he sites an excellent article by Victor Hanson Davis that can be found here. I suggest you read it as background for this article. Shurk's article can be found at the American Thinker entitled Ending the Democrats Plantation World Order.

As 2023 comes to a close, two stories are receiving renewed attention: the unprecedented immigrant invasion at the Southern border and Democrats’ ongoing legal efforts to remove Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot. Neither story is a surprise, since Democrats depended entirely on the importation of new voters from foreign lands (usually third-world indoctrination mills for some form of Marxist socialism) and a series of partisan judicial rulings that legalized mail-in ballot fraud in 2020 to make habitually unpopular Joe Biden the most popularly “elected” president in American history. In risible contrast to Democrats’ effusive public adoration for “democracy,” judicial fiat has always been their preferred method for “ruling.” Those who prattle most about “saving democracy” desire nothing more than for black-robed authoritarians to “fix” elections before the public has even had its say.

Professor Victor Davis Hanson has written an excellent essay about how today’s Democrat “ballot banishers” emulate nineteenth-century Democrat efforts to ban Abraham Lincoln from the 1860 election — before their subsequent loss led them to reject that election’s results (which they had attempted to rig) and form a breakaway Confederacy. In comparing the Democrats’ election-riggers of today with those in the lead-up to the Civil War, Hanson finds no shortage of similarities. Just as antebellum Democrats rejected federal tariffs that affected the profitability of King Cotton and later nullified federal laws enacted to end racial segregation, Democrats today insolently repudiate federal immigration statutes by establishing unlawful “sanctuary cities.” Just as nineteenth-century Democrats obsessed over skin color, today’s Democrats do, too. Just as post-Civil War Democrats fought to segregate people by race, today’s Democrats embrace a “woke” collection of “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” initiatives (further evidence that we have entered Orwell’s dreaded dystopia where words mean their antonyms) that segregate campus dorms, graduations, holiday parties, and “safe spaces” and reward people not for their meritorious achievements but rather for their racial composition.

Finally, Hanson takes a look at the Big Tech-dominated economies of today’s Democrat strongholds and sees a mirror image of nineteenth-century Democrats’ plantation society centered around cotton and slavery. While Democrats once expected the riffraff to call them “master,” today’s Big Tech, Big Media, and Big Bank “masters of the universe” are slave-owners in every way but name. Within the new technocratic plantations that Democrats have constructed, an extremely small class of elites possess wealth and political power, while everyone else struggles to stay above abject poverty.

Shurk goes on to paint the the Democrats in the years leading up to the 1860s as oligarchs who were afraid of a Lincoln administration because of the possible effect on profits from King Cotton. The entire Southern plantation economy was based on cotton exports, and the way that they produced that cotton was with slave labor. So they did what they could to rig the election of 1860 by removing Lincoln from the ballots in many places. Sound familiar? When the Civil War broke out, the Democrats had every expectation of winning. After all, they had international backing, wealth, status, not to mention international banking . What they didn't have was the industrial strength of the North

Ultimately, nineteenth-century Democrats’ “plantation world order” collapsed because it could not keep pace with the capital-accumulating effects and technological innovations unleashed by the wealth-creating dynamo of private property and free markets. When the Industrial Revolutions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries took hold in the United States, Americans’ work ethic, rejection of aristocratic privilege, and embrace of private property regardless of class combined to propel the working poor into middle class trades. From there, the possibilities for economic advancement were limited not by one’s academic degree or family pedigree but rather by one’s frontier daring, penchant for hard work, and willingness to keep struggling.

If you ever find yourself in a rare books library that contains the travel diaries, economic notes, and social observations of visitors to America from its days as a collection of colonies all the way through the first part of the twentieth century, a common refrain you will notice is this: no other nation on the planet produced such astounding intergenerational social mobility. Only in America could the descendants of indentured servants become farmers, millers, shopkeepers, factory owners, industrialists, bankers, and statesmen in the course of a few generations.

What happened? Marxist socialism and other pre-“woke” mind viruses gutted the broad wealth-generating effects of private property ownership and its attendant rise in social mobility. A hundred and ten years ago in 1913, President Wilson (a Big Government socialist) and Democrats (along with “progressive” Uniparty Republicans) succeeded in legalizing a national income tax (through ratification of the 16th Amendment) and granting a private bank (the Federal Reserve) the centralized power to print and devalue American currency. It is no accident that oligarchs had to first legalize the theft of Americans’ incomes before they could then erect an inflationary system that enriched financial and political elites by draining wealth from poor and middle class Americans. America’s once-vaunted intergenerational social mobility subsequently collapsed. The Democrats lost the Civil War only to succeed in establishing their “plantation world order” nonetheless.

So, what to do? Shurk expertly lays out the state of the world today. Billionaire oligarchs, who have claimed for themselves the anointing of the gods to rule the rest of us seem on the verge of success. In their view, we have been designated as the serfs of the future. Our role is to serve our rulers. We, of course, in this role will have nothing, and we will be happy or else. We will eat bugs.  For reasons that escape me, there are a lot of people who fall for the authoritarian fascist far-left's propaganda. What they don't realize is that they will be the first thrown up against the wall and shot.  These are the ones described by Russian dictator Vladimir Lenin as "useful idiots." They have always existed. They want someone to take care of them. But that is not how it works.

What Shurk hopes, and I do too, is that more people come to realise that their lives are being turned upside down, that the idea of "climate change" is being used to steal the wealth of the middle and lower classes and reduce them to abject poverty. The oligarchs will use these people as serfs, to be discarded when they are of no more use.  Moreover, it is by design. And members of both parties are in on it. The question remains, will enough of us wake up and will we do something before it is too late?

A late post alerting you to the Nigerian Attack on Christians over Christmas

 I am late to this article.  I should have highlighted right away.  In Nigeria, 160 people were killed, and 300 injured in attacks on 26 Christian communities over Christmas. You can find the story at Townhall.com by Leah Barkoukis at Christians In Nigeria Massacred in Christmas Weekend Terror Attacks.

At least 160 Nigerian Christians were murdered and 300 injured in a series of terror attacks over Christmas weekend, according to multiple reports.

The attacks on at least 26 Christian communities made it “one of the most violent [times] in the area’s history,” Maria Lozano, a representative for the group Aid to the Church in Need, told the Catholic News Agency.

President of the Christian Association of Nigeria Archbishop Daniel Okoh condemned the attacks, which some have blamed on the Muslim Fulani militia.

“We condemn these acts of violence in the strongest possible terms. The burning down of houses, and worship centers, and the destruction of properties worth millions of naira is not only a criminal act but also a direct assault on our shared values of peace, unity, and mutual respect,” Okoh said, reports CNA.

One forgets that Nigeria was a Christian nation until the Muslims swept through. But their faith is strong. That may be because they are under constant threat from the local branch of Islam "holy warriors." This is only the most recent attack too. Gentle readers, please pray for Christians around the world who are under attack, that they may remain strong and not bow down to Allah, who claims to sit on God's throne.  While you're at it, pray for the jihadis too, because Satan has duped the people into believing he is the true God.

The Demonic Nature of "Climate Change"

Mike McDaniel has two related posts today at the American Thinker. The first is entitled The Swiss Army Knife of Climate Change. McDaniel notes that throughout the 20th century, we had global warming...er...global cooling...no, global warming again...oh f___ it, climate change. Man made climate change became the rhetorical cudgel with which to blame any disaster, no matter how tenuous, and of course, it is all our fault! We must, therefore, sacrifice to the goddess Gaia by giving up anything that makes life pleasant and donate all our wealth to the likes of Al Gore, John Kerry, and Klaus Schwab for salvation. It is no wonder that Climate Change has been likened to a religion.

Remember the good old days when Global Warming was going to doom us all? I’m so old I remember it was the imminent, any day now, new ice age that would popsicle humanity. Good times. Good times. But when the climate computer modeler’s climate computer models all failed to predict, well, anything, and embarrassingly, the globe suddenly refused to warm, and that couldn’t be covered up, our new, universal doom was hastily renamed: Climate Change! It’s the Swiss Army Knife of eco-Armageddon. There is nothing it cannot do, nothing it cannot anticipate, describe or blame. Since it is and causes everything, it has the enormous scientific advantage of being non-falsifiable, which is kind of un-scientific, but CLIMATE CHANGE!

Hot weather? Climate Change. Cold weather? Climate Change. Rain? Climate Change. No rain? Climate Change. Tuesday? Climate Change. Dark out? Climate Change. Full moon? Climate Change. Snow? Climate Change. No snow? Climate Change. Bidenomics? Climate Change. Ooops. No, sorry! That’s not Climate Change, that’s stunning success and salvation. Glad I caught that one. High gas prices? Climate Change—or Putin. Afghanistan pull-out debacle? Stunning success and Climate Change! Supply chain disruptions? Climate Change. Cow flatulence? Climate Change. Breathing? Climate Change. Terrorism? Climate Change. No terrorism? Climate Change. The utter failure of high-speed rail? Climate Change. Donald Trump? Absolutely Climate Change.

See? There is nothing that exists, does not exist, moves, does not move, thinks, acts, or just sits there that is not caused by, or is an existential cause of, Climate Change! The Climate Change crowd have statistics to prove it too, and if they don’t they’ll just make some up, just because CLIMATE CHANGE!...

McDaniel goes on to explain how the Climatistas have somehow blamed the wild fires that burned in the United States on...you guessed it...Climate Change! The fact that wildfires raged before man ever walked the planet seems to have eluded these geniuses. Indeed, fires can be blamed on arson, on lack of good forest management practices, and lightening. Climate? Not so much. But when you have a flexible tool like Climate Change, you use it. What is the saying? When you are a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. The fact that we had half the acreage burning this year did not cross their minds. But who needs chemistry, physics, or common sense when you can blame it all on Climate Change

McDaniel's second post is entitled In Pet Buttigieg's reality, EVs dominate.

Real reality-based Americans have been watching the increasingly downward spiral of electric vehicles and their associated PR machine with relief and pleasure. The venerable axiom “what cannot go on, won’t” applies. However, one of the fruits by which democrats/Socialists/Communists may be known is also their defining characteristic: they create their own reality and try to force others to live in it. So it is with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who is, by the way, gay. You don’t have to ask him; he’ll tell you. Here’s his current reality:

“[T]he share of EVs has been dramatically increasing every single year, and that’s continuing. Now, our goal is, by the end of this decade, to be about half-and-half. We think that that can and will happen. But what isn’t guaranteed is, first of all, is that EV revolution going to continue to be made in America? During the Trump administration, China really built a major advantage on EVs. But as somebody who comes from the industrial Midwest, sees how the auto industry creates so much by way of livelihoods where I come from and really around the country, I’m much more excited about the jobs being created on U.S. soil, and that doesn’t just happen. We’ve got to make sure that the U.S. leads the way as this technology changes. I don’t know a lot of people who think that Americans in 2050 are still going to be driving that old technology, that combustion technology that we inherited from the 20th century.”

The other day, I was speaking to an elderly gentleman who had purchased a Mercedes Benz EV around 6 or 7 months ago. I noticed that for the last 3 weeks he had been driving a Mercedes Benz gas powered car. We were gathered, waiting for assignments and I asked him why he wasn't driving the EV. "I sold it. Sold it back to Mercedes." There ensued a bunch of complaints about the car, most of which had to do with troubles charging it. He wasn't allowed to put in a home charging station by his homeowner's association. So he had to charge using normal power outlets which took up to 18 hours. The charging stations nearby were often on the fritz, and the ones that weren't were usually occupied. Then, if he wanted to go anywhere besides to work or errands, he had to worry whether the charge he had would run out before he got back home. I chuckled.

Just as the Left has to shred the Constitution to save it for "Our Democracy," it seems they have to destroy the environment to "save the planet" from so-called "Climate Change." It is all demonic and anti-human. They presume to sit on God's throne. The fact is that we have at least 200 years' worth of recoverable fossil fuels right now. We should use them now. Interestingly, God seems to provide more, as played out wells become productive again.  Meanwhile, that will buy time for other technologies to develop naturally. No need to force anything down the public's throat.  Except, that is the way of the Left.

Are you guilty of a thought crime?

 Charles C. W. Cooke had an essay at the National Rifle Association's Americas 1st Freedom that asks Will the Second Amendment Soon Become a Thought Crime? He points out that the government has teamed up with mainstream media, social media, big tech, and powerful corporations to enforce the narratives they choose. The First Amendment says Congress shall make no law, but the government has found a way around that.

If you think that the American media’s relentless attacks on the right to keep and bear arms represent a credible threat to the Second Amendment now, just wait until they come to realize that, instead of merely proselytizing against your rights, they can turn your support for them into a “thought crime.”

Over the last few years, politicians from a handful of states have gotten into the bad habit of teaming up with the media, academia, Hollywood, Silicon Valley and key parts of corporate America, and of using the remarkable power of their alliance to contrive and promulgate political narratives that, even a few weeks earlier, had been on virtually nobody’s radar. In 2017, this team brought us the Trump-Russia Collusion hoax, which started as a salacious and unsubstantiated rumor but quickly became all Washington, D.C., was interested in talking about. That fake narrative was broadcast during every news program; it was conveyed during a lot of professional sports telecasts; it was featured in corporate press releases; it was appended to the splash pages and login forms of widely used websites; it was woven into the algorithms of streaming services and search engines and online stores. Its scope, in short, was astonishing.

This could also happen with guns and our Second Amendment rights. And when such an orchestrated effort comes, they will work overtime to make it just as all-consuming. They’ve already been trying. Every time a mass-murderer attacks—almost always in a so-called “gun-free” zone—the same cabal of media, entertainment personalities and politicians who want to disarm America’s armed citizens try to create a feverish movement to force through gun bans and more.

Cooke believes that the only reason the unholy alliance has not had the same effect on guns that it has had on the other issues mention such as the Trump Russia hoax is that gun owners are organized. But he also thinks that we must be ever vigilant. The Democrats want to neutralize the Second Amendment in the worst sort of way, and will not stop. Just as the worked for 60 some years to put socialized medicine in place, they will keep trying to take away our guns.

Gentle readers are encouraged to read the entire essay. Think about the shape that the government will take next to make you a serf instead of a citizen. Note that the Republicans will be of no help unless we can show them they owe gun owners their positions. Oh, and it would be nice if we could get government to stop doing through private companies what the Constitution forbids them from doing.

The Real Women's Issue

 Mike McDaniel keeps hitting the high notes (a reference to trumpet playing, where it is sign of great mastery of the instrument).  Yesterday, in a post at the American Thinker entitled The ultimate women's issue: fighting the war on women he spoke some truths that are politically incorrect. Namely, that women are always at risk from men, and should have a self defense weapon at all times. The truth is that a 120 pound woman is no match for a 200 pound man whose muscles are fueled by testoterone. She needs something more, like a gun. I tell this to women I work with, but it too often falls on deaf ears.

My knees wore out long ago. Too many mountain trail runs. Too many marathons. These days I bike, or more specifically, trike. On those long, semi-rural and rural rides, I invariably come upon women. Many young and athletic, resplendent in the latest, trendiest and most colorful athletic wear. Others older and less trendy and colorful, but no less determined to run or bike.

Many are wearing earbuds, their heads down, their gaze not far in front of their feet, oblivious to their surroundings. When coming toward them, I wave and smile, and about half eventually see me and return the greeting. When approaching from behind, I give them a wide berth, and virtually all jump and squeak when they see movement in their peripheral vision. I wave and keep them in sight in my rear-view mirror as long as I can, praying they’ll be safe. Praying because almost none of them can possibly be carrying the means to protect themselves, and because almost none of them are remotely aware of their surroundings and potential danger.

That’s why I don’t let my wife ride alone. She is prepared, she doesn’t wear earbuds, she’s aware of her surroundings, she’s armed, but she’s one woman, alone, out in the country, and help is a long way off.

That’s why the Second Amendment is the ultimate women’s issue. Despite the woke assertion there is no difference between male and female athletic performance, despite the reality mediocre male athletes can instantly seize the winner’s stand by pretending to be female, there are enormous, and deadly, size and strength disparities between men and women.

McDaniel goes on to tell how a fight actually goes in real life. They are fast, violent in the extreme. Oh, and the miscreants are into "fair fighting" or following Marquess of Queensbury rules. They will bring overwhelming force and numbers, and strike when you least expect it. Situational awareness is always important. If you are to survive one, it helps to have a stand off weapon like a gun, and of course, you should know how to use it instinctively. Then, pray you never have to.

Every woman, in recognition of physics, and reality, should carry a concealed handgun, but no one should carry unless they know the law of deadly force, and are willing to use it should their life, or the life of another, be in imminent threat of seriously bodily injury or death. One doesn’t wave a handgun about thinking it will cause criminals to run away. They may, or they may not, and if one lacks the will to protect their own life, then what?

Bottom line, every woman should have a concealable handgun, and should carry it wherever she goes. You never know when some evil miscreant will decide you look like prey. Being aware and avoiding places where you can be surprised will help, but not always. Get a gun and learn how to use it. Don't be a victim

The National Firearms Act Must Go

Mike McDaniel is sitting in at the American Thinker for inestimable Andrea Widburg who is taking off for a couple weeks of well-deserved vacation. McDaniel has an essay today entitled So you want a machine-gun?. He explains the reason you cannot get a submachine gun for love or money. And it all started with the National Firearms Act of 1934.

You’ve been watching action movies for like forever, and you have some spare cash. It’s time to cowboy up and buy…wait for it…a machinegun! Except you can’t. You sort of can, but not really.

But I don’t want a belt-fed, general-purpose machinegun, you know, a rifle caliber, crew-served weapon, just a submachine gun—go here for a subgun primer--like an Uzi or MP5 or Thompson, something that shoots pistol caliber ammo, like 9mm or .45ACP.

So sad.

Until 1934, Americans could own machineguns without restriction. It was Prohibition, and the organized crime it birthed, that made criminal machine gun use newsworthy, and the 1934 National Firearms Act, enacted a year after the repeal of Prohibition by the 21st Amendment, regulated possession. It imposed a $200 non-transferrable tax, government registration, background checks (fingerprinting, photographs, etc.) and storage requirements, all of which take many months at bureaucratic speed to process. The same process is required for suppressors, and rifles or shotguns that do not meet minimum federal barrel length—at least 16” for rifles, 18” for shotguns--and overall length—at least 26” for both--minimums.

There have been attempts to liberalize the law, particularly for suppressors, but even when Republicans controlled the White House and both Houses of Congress, congressional “leaders” felt “it just wasn’t the right time.” Somehow, it never is.

After the NFA was passed in 1934, one could still obtain and possess a machine-gun if one satisfied the bureaucratic requirements and paperwork, and paid a $200 tax. Remember though that that $200 tax was the same as $5000 today. Still, you could have one if you were rich enough to afford one. But over the years, additional legislation has changed that.

Democrats/Socialists/Communists have so successfully demonized common semiautomatic rifles that provision has never been struck down. One can still own a fully automatic gun—even crew-served, belt-fed, rifle caliber guns--following the procedure established in 1934, but the 1986 amendment froze the number of such weapons in circulation.

Cool! What about my submachine gun?

The problem is virtually none are for sale, and the few that are cost whatever the market will bear, which these days means tens, even hundreds, of thousands of dollars. Submachine guns are gold mines, increasingly scarce gold mines, and they’re not selling. When their owners die, their guns will probably be lost in tragic boating accidents. Remember, only guns made before May 19, 1986 may be owned by Americans. Even individual police officers are in the same boat. Their agencies can own new subguns, and of course the military can, but not individuals. It’s a seller’s market. The law has driven up the price of newly made weapons for even governmental agencies.

So, in addition to never deciding the time is right to repeal this blatant violation of the Constitution, but then they made it worse by reducing the supply to near zero, thus increasing the cost to near infinite.

Of course, the inevitable deflection comes up: But who needs a submachine gun?. McDaniel answers the question fairly well. In the end, who needs most of the things we consider necessary to life in the 21st century. Fast cars, cell phones, indeed all the conveniences we enjoy could be deemed superfluous to our survival. Yet, none of these things is a right acknowledged and protected by our Constitution. As always, tyrants use fear to scare the public into demanding that the tyrants "do something" to save them. And the tyrants are always happy to oblige.

Merry Christmas

 J. B. Shurk has an essay at the American Thinker today that seems appropos of Christmas Eve entitled Rebels for Christ. He points out that too often tyrants make unjust laws that we accept because we are afraid. But what we should really do is obey God's laws, which means being a rebel for Christ.

An unjust law is no law at all, and the more that injustice becomes the law of the land, the more likely that chaos comes, too. Why? Because injustice begets more injustice. Most humans have an antenna that can distinguish right from wrong, but most humans also ignore this antenna to their detriment. It is far easier to accept the world as it is — even when it is drenched in depravity — than to rebel against majority opinion. It is far safer to stay silent in the sight of outrageous sin than to stand alone and say, “This is wrong.” As everyday wrongs pile up high, though, human antennae — even ones that have gone unused for too long — begin to twitch uncontrollably. Why are so many people today afflicted by sadness? Because sins are a heavy burden to carry. The mountains of evil rising in our world torment every soul. And only by actively fighting the resulting chaos can we hope to one day find salvation.

That idea — that the struggle against evil is worth any cost — is easier said than done. How can the actions of any one person make any meaningful difference? As Christians all over the world celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, it seems more logical to ask: how can any person dedicated to making a difference ultimately not succeed? Christ came to Earth to seed a message of hope and redemption and died for our sins. His disciples spread that message across the world, suffering torture and death, so that we might live. Christians have been persecuted, imprisoned, and slaughtered ever since, so that we might be saved. Next to their sacrifices, our hardships pale.

I admit that there is a rebellious streak in me. I am fond of rule-breakers who stand unafraid against evil. Rebellion for rebellion’s sake can be just as detrimental as injustice. Yet rebellion against injustice so that one may remain obedient to God is surely righteous. And when you say it out loud in that way — will you choose man’s laws or God’s? — the answer is obvious. So, I have always had a soft spot in my heart for God’s devout and indefatigable troublemakers.

Shurk writes about some real rebels for Christ who print and smuggle Bibles into countries where it is illegal to have them, where Christianity is illegal as well. These people perform God's work against the most evil of tyrannical laws. He talks about the hair-raising adventures of people who smuggled Bibles into the Soviet Union, who still smuggle them into Red China and various Muslim tyrannies. I have several Bibles to choose from every day, not to mention sites like Bible Hub to read different translations. We have an abundance of riches, but these people have to worship in secret at great risk of life. Sometimes it seems as if these countries are monolithic, but there are a lot of people who believe. They are the cells of yeast that keeps leavening the Bread of Life. No matter what the Evil One tries to do to suppress it, His Word has gone out to all nations and cannot be silenced. Christ has already won, this is just the mop up operation.

You never know when your seemingly mundane words or actions might light a flame of courage in someone else. You do not know how your good example might affect another’s future. So speak bravely and live your life as if curious eyes are constantly watching. Be a person of both gentleness and authority. Be one of God’s valiant ambassadors. Be fearless, while others quiver. Be rebellious against injustice and defiant against evil. And remember this: no matter what tyrant rises or what iniquity spreads, God’s faithful children have nothing to dread.

I have been working very hard to be more trusting, to realize that wherever I am, it is where the Holy Spirit has placed me, and I have a job to do there. I am not called to be an international spy, more power to them though. I often have no idea what I am supposed to do, but one thing I know is that I must attempt to fearlessly tell the truth. One never knows when something one says might inspire another. Please read Shurk's inspiring piece, and please, have a Merry Christmas as we celebrate the birth of Our Savior.

A Christmas Wish: That We All Would Wake Up

As we get closer to the Christmas holiday, even the news cycle slows just a bit. So, it wasn't totally surprising to see that someone else noticed Kurt Schlichter's article at Townhall entitled Buy Your Kids Toy Guns This Christmas. In this case, it was Tom Knighton at Bearing Arms who noticed, and wrote his own analysis of the piece entitled Schlichter Is Right: Buy Your Kids Toy Guns for Christmas.

In his essay, Knighton quotes from Schlichter's piece extensively because Schlichter is, of course, eminently quotable. Interestingly he doesn't disagrees with Schlichter's point that the gun-grabbers do not think they will have to face the consequences of their actions. They think their kids will not have to carry a rifle in defense of themselves or their country. Maybe not, but I wouldn't bet the kids future on it. In the Book of Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3 is this:

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

2a time to be born, and a time to die;

a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;

3a time to kill, and a time to heal;

a time to break down, and a time to build up;

4a time to weep, and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

5a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;

a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

6a time to seek, and a time to lose;

a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

7a time to tear, and a time to sew;

a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

8a time to love, and a time to hate;

a time for war, and a time for peace.

The world is a dangerous place. You can wish it was otherwise, but those are the facts. Adults know this and prepare themselves accordingly. We have the luxury of living in a mostly peaceful country because rough men are willing to go and do things we may not want to think about. I pray every day that I won't have to use my gun except to punch holes in paper targets. But we should all be prepared to do what is necessary at a moments notice. If I could be granted one wish for Christmas, it would be that we all would wake up.

Golden AK-47s Are The Problem

I like the way Kurt Schlichter is thinking in an article at Townhall.com entitled Buy Your Kids Toy Guns This Christmas. I like it because it will tweek the noses of the Karens in our midst, and because he is telling a truth in his usual acerbic way.

There was recently a Twitter kerfuffle when some frustrated harridan, this time in Nebraska, blew a crone gasket because a store is selling toy guns to kids. She’s one of those Moms Demand Action types, and it’s pretty clear she’ll be demanding for a while. She frets that kids playing with toy guns “will be a problem when kids start getting them for Christmas, learn to quickly assemble their guns & bring them to school,” as if – between perverts, communists, and children of degenerate parents packing actual heat – popguns are the big threat to the kids in the schools these days.

Won’t someone please, please, think of the children? Well, we are. Which is why they must be exposed to toy guns at a young age. And toy firetrucks and race cars and airplanes and the rest of the actiony, adventury toys that begin to teach little boys to be big men. And for girls – and only girls, because only girls will ever be mothers – there are baby dolls as well. Play is play, sure, but play is also practice. It is how children begin to model themselves on adults by copying adult behaviors. And one of the most important of adult behaviors is learning to use violence against enemies in order to defend themselves, their families, their communities, and their Constitution.

The sour squaw, who is bitter that young boys want to be like adult men and that young girls might not want to be alone and sad like her, hates this idea. She objects to firearms being normalized for children and adults as well, and hates and demonizes those who wish to do so. Ironically, she can only embrace this boutique bigotry against the people who make her country safe because those people she despises have made her country safe for her – by using guns.

All through human history, the weak – like her and the sissy biological males who simp for this type of woman – have been at the mercy of the strong. And strong means physically strong, not just loud, shrill, and grating. Chairman Mao, whom these people no doubt admire in every other context, observed that power comes from the barrel of a gun. The communist mass murderer at least had that right. Power used to be the sole domain of the biggest and the strongest men. The guy who could swing that broadsword ruled over both the weaker men, and the women, who could not – no appeal, no negotiation. Put away these dumb modern cliches of 110-pound waifs taking on human ogres weighing in at three times their mass. Size matters. Or, rather, it matters when guns are not in the equation.

So much truth to unpack here. The first thing is that if someone believes AK-47s come in gold, they are delusional to start with. The AK-47 was deliberately designed to be made cheaply by the millions. They were not using gold to finish these weapons. Just sayin'. Then there's the fact, and it is a fact, that women are usually smaller and weaker than men. In general, a man will be able to beat a woman in any test of strength. Guns are what changed all that. They really are an equalizer, and I encourage all women to have one and carry it everywhere. And what is wrong, anyway, with boys wanting to be like men, and girls like women? Huh? I remember playing cowboys and Indians, and guess what? I haven't killed anyone yet! Finally, giving the government a monopoly on violence means the end of democracy. Aren't these people always yapping about "our democracy."  For who needs to ask the constituents about policies when you can just shoot them instead?

Schlichter points out that if the Blue cities were taken out of the mix, that the violent crime rate for the rest of American is pretty low. So why disarm the people outside the Blue cities? Again, delusional thinking seems to govern:

As far as normal America outside the Democrat chaos goes, she and the gun grabbers have a solution in search of a problem. She does not want to change the outcome; what she wants to change is a variable that leads to the outcome thinking the outcome will not change. But changing variables changes outcomes. If you disarm the law-abiding people outside the blue cities, you will get the opposite of peaceful as the degenerates, thugs, and criminals that the Democrats suck up to will come out to loot and pillage the suddenly disarmed populations. But that’s not important to her type – if lowering crime was their priority, they would be clamoring to send the Army into DC to suppress the crime wave. Their priority is you being disarmed, and therefore powerless.

Why? Hate. These gun banners hate normal people – their disarmament agenda goes hand-in-hand with the agenda of defunding the police for everything except persecuting normal gun owners and people who use weapons in self-defense. Why do they hate us? A lot is aesthetic – they find us crude and dirty and scary. So scary that we must be made vulnerable to the forces they think they prefer, like the government and the criminal class, though I repeat myself. That this is suicidal never occurs to them. They cannot conceive of a society where they are at actual risk, instead of the fake risk posed by angry insurrectionist Trump voters shooting up their Whole Foods with fully semiautomatic AR15s and hundred-bullet clips. So they pull blocks out of the social Jenga tower thinking it can’t possibly fall. Well, I was on the streets with the 160th Infantry during the LA Riots and lady, I beg to differ.

But their hate cannot be countered by reason. They want us disarmed on the way to being disenfranchised. The idea that there will be a new generation trained to be actual men and women, citizens instead of serfs, is therefore hateful to them. They want boys neutered and sitting quietly in class reading their pornographic textbooks about how some men menstruate. They want girls to be bitter, frigid faux girl-bosses like themselves – ignoring the truth that girl bosses exist now, for the first time in human history, only because people with guns keep them from being beaten into submission by physically more powerful men and other women, for that matter.

When you let your kid play with toy guns, you teach your kid about what an adult’s responsibilities are. Fighting bad people is one of them. And your kids are going to be covering for a lot of social freeloaders when they do. Her kids Kaden nor Ashliegh will ever carry their weight by carrying an AR15 – they are on the pre-school fast track to some Ivy League conformity factory. But your kid will, because your kid is going to be awesome. You will teach your kids starting young that they must be citizen-warriors. Then you will teach them to shoot real guns, and they will want to learn, because shooting guns is what free adults do.

I love that line: "angry insurrectionist Trump voters shooting up their Whole Foods with fully semiautomatic AR15s and hundred-bullet clips." I was rolling on the floor laughing at that! Schlichter can be a riot. But in all seriousness, gentle readers should read this article too. Schlichter packs a lot of truth in a small package.

In times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

 Readers of Ayn Rand will recognize Jonathon Gault as a pseudonym from the book Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. But Gault has good reason to keep his name from publication. Writing anything critical if Islam can bring death threats and attacks down upon one's head.

Writing the truth about Islam is exactly what Gault has done at the American Thinker today in a piece entitled Fear Of Muslims Is Rational: "Islamaphobia" Is A Myth. When they hit us on the 11th of September 2001, I wondered what could be their beef with us. Suddenly, I wanted to study Islam. What I learned over time made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Nothing I have learned since has changed that. Whoever Mohamed was listening to in that cave, it was no messenger of Yahweh, our God. Allah, their god, is not the same person, and is indeed demonic. As Christians, we are commanded to pray for our enemies, so pray for those who are worshipping the devil in the form of Islam.

Merriam-Webster’s dictionary describes the word “phobia” as “an exaggerated, usually inexplicable and illogical fear of a particular object, class of objects, or situation.” In the wake of recent events, is fear of Muslims, labeled “Islamophobia,” really exaggerated, inexplicable, and/or illogical?

I’ve concluded that not only is fear of Muslims logical and explicable, but it is by no means exaggerated and, most probably, understated. The deliberately misleading term “Islamophobia” itself amounts to a cudgel used to silence critics of what Dutch Parliamentarian (and possible new Dutch Prime Minister) Geert Wilders has at times characterized as a totalitarian political ideology masquerading as a religion.

One of the tactics of Islam, especially when they are in the very minority in a new place, say less that 2%, is what they call "taqiyya" or lying to advance Islam. Yahweh never lies, Christ never lies, the Holy Spirit never lies, and we followers are not given permission to lie either. Yet Islam sanctions lies. What does that tell you? If you look at the symbolism of Islam, you will get another clue. The symbol is that of the Crecent moon. The moon, however, does not create light, it only reflects it. This is Allah, reflecting the True Light of the World. But there is more here, for if you look in a mirror, everything is reflected backwards. Again, this is Allah, reflecting backwards and upside down what is True and Right.

Gault goes through a litany of Muslim violence not only against Christians, but even against other Muslims. Here is another lie, that of the "Religion of Peace." There is no peace in Islam. And once you understand who Allah is, you understand that there can be no peace. Jesus describes him as the father of lies and a murderer from the start. So he is.

Facts show that Islam’s religio-political ideology and its adherents are anything but peaceful. Islam’s holy texts themselves incite violence, manifested against both non-believers and believers.

Islam’s teachings drive some Muslims to commit and condone evil. Muslims mutilate the genitalia of their subjugated women, whom they treat as children or second-class citizens. Family honor is tied to the sexual behavior of women, and honor killings often blame women, the victims, for being in situations they are unable to avoid or control.

Whenever women live under Muslim control, they exist in fear due to the primitive, dysfunctional “customs” enforced by a violent, patriarchal society that punishes differing opinions and free thought. Men, separated from women without the possibility for intimacy, turn to molesting young boys, a vile, hypocritical contradiction of their “faith”, which purports to prohibit homosexuality.

That groups that purport to stand up for women cannot bestir themselves to stand up for Muslim women tells us all we need to know. They accuse men of being...well...men in our country calling it "toxic masculinity." But then what are Muslim men but "toxic." Yet not a word is spoken. Are they afraid, or in league with Allah?

Lt. Colonel Jeff Cooper, the father of modern handgun safety, advised: “Observe your cat. He moves well, using his senses fully. He is not preoccupied with irrelevancies. He’s not thinking about his job or his image or his income tax. He is putting first things first, principally his physical security. Do likewise.” This teaches us two things: (1) Be aware of your surroundings and take precautions to stay safe and, perhaps more importantly, (2) Don’t worry about your image..

...snip...

Christ taught the world that “the truth will set you free.” We must re-embrace Judeo-Christian values and stop worrying about our “image” or having woke mobs rebuke us for speaking the truth they consider “politically incorrect.” This self-censorship erodes truth..

Cowards lie due to weakness. Psalm 34 tells us to “keep your tongue from evil and your lips from telling lies.” Liars understand what awaits them at the gates of heaven..

Be courageous. Courage is needed in Joe Biden’s America, where nobody is punished for lying but only for telling the truth, which perpetuates deceit. We must flip the script and reacclimate society to truth, which will be difficult, especially for the “snowflakes.”.

Gentle readers are encouraged to read the whole essay and above all to start telling the truth. Be wise as serpents of course, and gentle as lambs, but tell the truth. Oh, and carry a big stick, preferably a .45 big stick. Whether George Orwell said it or not, the following remains true: In times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act. Maybe this is why Christ was executed, but his execution freed us.

Muslims Are a Problem Wherever They Go

Andrea Widburg probably doesn't know Christian history, being a non-practicing Jew, but she highlights how God spread Christianity in a post entitled Europe stands as a grim warning about unlimited Muslim immigration. The Devil is aping God here by doing the same thing God did.

Christ told the disciples to go to the lost sheep if Israel only. So how did Christianity spread to the gentiles, such that today it is a gentile religion?  On the day of Pentecost, after the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, there were thousands of Jews in Jerusalem from all over the known world. These were the Jews of the diaspora. Every year, the Jews of the diaspora sent at least one representative from their respective synagogues to celebrate the Passover. Each of these representatives would return home and tell their synagogal members what had happened, and that the Messiah had come. Good news!  Because Judaism was a popular religion, there would have been gentiles who were also members of the synagogue. In this way, Christianity spread through the known world. Like yeast leavening a bread, these little pockets spread and spread until the whole world was Christianized.

Now, God spread his religion by persuasion. One person would tell another, they would study the scriptures, read the letters of the Apostles, listen to preachers, and come to conclusions for themselves.  They then would seek baptism and communion with their respective Churches.  The Devil looked on and decided to do the same thing. Thus, from a small band of thugs, he expanded the number of people until he had all of Arabia. Only, instead of persuasion, the Devil used the sword and the scimitar. Their message: convert or die. Many sadly did, and still do. Where being a Christian is hard, being a Muslim is easy. All you have to do is repeat the mantra three time and bingo, you are a Muslim. The Devil doesn't seem to care about your inward feelings and thoughts, only your outward submission. Of course, remember that the Devil was always the father of lies and a murderer from the start.

The above is background for what Ms. Widburg has to say:

Islam, by its nature, is an ideology centered around conquest. That’s why, within one hundred years of Mohamed’s death, Muslims had conquered large swaths of the known world. And unlike Christians, this conquest was not effectuated mostly through persuasion (something separate from internecine wars between different types of Christian nations fighting for political control). Instead, this conquest was brutal. In Europe, which started with a trickle of Islamic immigration after WWII that turned into a flood in 2015, we’re seeing what happens when devout Muslims have the wind at their back.

To give you context, here’s a distillation of what Peter Hammond wrote in his book Slavery, Terrorism and Islam: The Historical Roots and Contemporary Threat—and yes, the book was controversial, but its premise certainly seems borne out both by Islam’s history and by events in the 18 years since its original publication...

She then quotes Michael Haltman's summary of the effects of inviting Muslims into your country. Muslims are spreading the same way as Christianity did, but whether they know it or not, they are spreading a lie. For example, when they blow themselves up, they are not a martyrs, they are a suicides.  They are not getting the 72 virgins (in Heaven people are not given in marriage), but the fires of hell await them.  Everything they teach and do is a lie. We should pray for these misguided people.

An estimate of the number of professing Christians in this country puts the percentage at 63%. It was a gross mistake to let these Muslims in, and it is a gross mistake to let any more in. While we are not technically a "Christian nation" in the sense that European or Islamic countries are religious, we are a Christian nation nontheless. Particularly in my part of the world, we have perhaps 5 churces within 5 miles of my home. Obama's claim that we are not a Christian nation was to hint that we could be an Islamist nation. So, Obama wants 63% of this nation to be second class citizens and to pay the Islamic jizya tax. Umm...no thank you.

Face it, Muslims are a problem wherever they go.  Why bring them here?

Spreading the Gospel

 The Evil One is getting bolder and bolder in our nation.  I am sure that we have always had Satanic worshipers in our midst, but to actually establish something called the "Satanic Temple" and to have little Satan worshiping clubs in schools bespeaks a terrible time in America.  While one knows the outcome already, yet one can be apprehensive about the immediate effects of this turn of events.

Today at Towhall.com Dr. Robb Brunansky has an article entitled Decapitating the Serpent, which opens with the tearing down of the statue of Baphomet in the Iowa state capitol.

Earlier this month, a man named Michael Cassidy allegedly tore down and beheaded a statue erected by the Satanic Temple in the Iowa state capitol. He reportedly took this action because “it was extremely anti-Christian.” Later, he posted a quote of 1 Peter 5:8 to his X feed, where the apostle exhorts Christians to “be on the alert” because our “adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (NASB).

Interestingly, the title "satan" was a term from the Old Testament for the accuser before God in God's counsel. He may also be the Serpent in the Garden of Eden, it is not made clear, but it is not his name. In fact, we may not be able to pronounce his name even if we knew it, so I will refer to him as the Devil. But moving on:

Many Christians and politically conservative individuals have hailed Cassidy’s actions as ‘brave,’ applauding him for taking a stand against the evil that has infected our nation. People are exhausted by the constant onslaught of wickedness that occurs in our nation day after day, and to see someone fighting so publicly against Satan and Satanism feels very refreshing. Such a bold protest, even if illegal, seems laudatory because it is opposition to evil. As Christians, however, we would do well to allow our passions to simmer and to think through this situation biblically to exercise wisdom and discernment in our fight against the powers of darkness. Is tearing down a statue really a biblical way to oppose evil and a path that Christians should choose or even celebrate?

I must confess that my first reaction was "good for Mr. Cassidy." But, unfortunately, Brunansky is correct. We should not be pulling down the statues of what the Devil worshippers call satan. Why is best left to Brunansky to explain. But bottom line, all it does is harden the heart of people you want to convert. The Devil has seduced a lot of people in America, whether these be supporters of Hamas, or various atheists, Satanic Temple ignoramuses, abortion pushers, the devicrats, Gaia worshippers, the list is seemingly endless. Only God can convert these people by sending his Holy Spirit into them. But we don't want to make these people hardened against the Holy Spirit. As Paul notes, we must meet each one where he is, and pray for their souls. The Spirit will convert them in His own time. It is how we spread the Gospel.

Republicans Playing For the Other Team

I have lately highlighted the work of J. B. Shurk at the American Thinker because he is often both a powerful writer and invariably insightful. Today is no exception as I bring to gentle readers attention The Republican Party's Paper Elephants. Shurk points out to his own shock, dismay, and disgust that a large part of the Republican Party's elected members are playing for the other team. They are in short, Democrats disguised as Republicans. One can sense his profound pain as he comes to terms with the reality that he, and we have been betrayed.

The worst kept secret in politics is that most Establishment Republicans play for the other team. If not unofficial card-carrying Democrats, they are full-time members of a Uniparty that actively undermines the work of rank-and-file Republicans.

For the longest time, Republican voters just thought their “leaders” were stupid. Their unimpressive “representatives” not only seemed incapable of making the simplest of political layups, but also routinely dribbled the ball down the length of the court just to score on themselves. Far from ever witnessing elected Republicans snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, middle-class Republicans regularly watched country club Republicans snatch defeat from certain victory.

All that inexplicable buffoonery finally revealed something far more unsavory: just as Marxists have been engaged in a “long march” through our institutions in a diabolical but dedicated effort to replace America’s foundations in freedom with communism’s concrete boots, they did not spare the Republican Party from their subversive infiltration. There’s a reason why Republican officials in Georgia, Arizona, and elsewhere have worked with lawless Democrat prosecutors to imprison any Republican fighting for free and fair elections: those “Republican” officials have always been agents for the other side. As ordinary Republicans see more and more of these “Republicans In Name Only” for what they really are, voters have come to the shocking conclusion that the vast majority of elected officials are in fact RINOs, too.

...snip...

That illusion is now shattered. How do we know? Because RINO schemes are no longer working as they once did. Endorsements from Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan — the leaders of the party only a decade ago — are now the kiss of death for any candidate. People see through the Murdoch family’s efforts to use its media empire to create astroturfed support for politicians under the family’s control. The Bush-Cheney construction of a post-9/11 surveillance state that Obama and Holder transformed into a whole-of-government operation for targeting conservatives has mangled any goodwill grassroots Republicans once attached to the Bush or Cheney names. What residual esteem might have remained, Liz Cheney successfully destroyed when she participated in Nancy Pelosi’s nefarious J6 inquisition designed to malign President Trump and his supporters as “domestic terrorists” and punish them for daring to exercise their constitutionally protected free speech. RINO support for despotism has left an acrid taste that will never be fully washed out.

At this critical juncture in American history, when nothing less than liberty’s survival is on the line, the Establishment quislings running the Republican Party have done demonstrable harm to the country. When Obama’s IRS was illegally targeting conservative Tea Party groups, Mitch McConnell was silent. When Obama’s FBI was illegally spying on Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, Republican members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence were silent. When Andrew Weissmann was using Robert Mueller’s special counsel witch hunt as a weapon to obstruct Trump’s presidency, Paul Ryan was silent. When the Gestapo-FBI worked with Democrats to advance the preposterous narrative that the J6 political protest against mail-in-ballot fraud was actually an “insurrection” seeking to topple the U.S. government, nearly every elected Republican remained silent. When Merrick Garland’s Department of (in)Justice decided to spend the next three years hunting down patriotic grandparents, conservative journalists, and military veterans — most with no criminal records but rather lifetimes of service to their countries — as if they were “terrorists,” elected Republicans remained silent.

While J6 protesters are separated from their families and thrown into jail cells without any semblance of due process, there is silence. While J6 targets commit suicide to avoid the financial costs and emotional carnage leveled by an indifferent criminal “justice” system, there is silence. While Democrat prosecutors, judges, and juries work together to hand out decade-long prison sentences to Trump-supporters as punishment for their unapproved thoughts, there is silence. While Democrat prosecutors, judges, and juries work together to fine, disbar, financially ruin, or incarcerate anybody advocating for election integrity, there is silence. While Democrat prosecutors, judges, and juries work together to deliver harsher judgments against President Trump than the U.S. government has sought for some convicted terrorists, the silence is deafening. At the very moment in history when an opposition party has been most needed to avert America’s descent toward total tyranny, the Republican Party has been AWOL for all to see.

It is tempting to simply copy and paste the whole article, but I can not, so please go and read the whole thing for yourself. I have personally had many doubts about continuing to vote for what I consider not an ideal case, but simply the lesser of two evils. Take, for example, Senator Thom Tillis. He is running ads suggesting we should thank him for all the "clean energy" stuff around North Carolina. While I am sure that as a lawyer, he doesn't know the intricacies of building an electric infrastructure, but he could at least listen to his constituents to discover that what he really needs to be doing is opposing all the "green" agenda. Instead, he has listened to powerful voices of people like Larry Fink and Jamie Diamond. I will not vote for him again, no matter if that means a Democrat will win. At least the Democrat stands up for the devilcrat agenda. I am tired of being played. It sounds like J.B. Shurk is tired of it too.

Knowing the Enemy

 Today is the third Sunday of Advent, so we had a special service including our annual Childrens program.  After the service, I was speaking with our vicar and we both agreed that the Israelis had the right to go after Hamas to prevent them from a similar attack to October 7.  I mentioned that in my study of Islam, I had determined that whoever Mohamad was listening to in that cave, it was not the messenger of our God.  The vicar stated flatly that Islam is positively demonic.  I said that at least the supporters of Hamas had let us know exactly who they are.  It is always good to know your enemy.

By way of knowing your enemies, at Townhall.com Shawn Carny has an article entitled For the Radical Left, It's 'Hark, Satan Sings'. Yahweh demands trust and loyalty. If you are not definitly with Him, you are against Him. So, once again we see who our enemies are.

The radical left used to chip away at the traditional family, religion, and the idea that unborn children are people, too. This Christmas, they've taken the gloves off. No longer hiding their pure contempt and disdain for family or religious traditions. This Christmas, they are actively embracing Satan.

For a blatant display of the ongoing war against the foundations of our society, look no further than the recent exhibit in a Wisconsin museum—a 'Hail Satan Christmas Tree.’ Rather than celebrating the Prince of Peace, this cultural battle cry hijacks a Christmas festival to glorify the prince of darkness and evil.

In neighboring Iowa, within the hallowed halls of the state Capitol, visitors are encountering a satanic altar erected by the Satanic Temple. That’s right! A display that represents dark and evil forces was enshrined in the halls of government of the Hawkeye State. While statues of our founding fathers are torn to the ground, statues of Satan himself are revered.

This Satanic display represents more than just an affront to Christian values; it is a calculated, deliberate attempt to normalize evil or make it cute and dare Christians to overreact to their goofy vulgarity.

I have read that people who are members of the Satanic Temple don't actually believe in Satan, they just want to poke Christians in the eye. So...do I believe that male bovine excrament? Not really, no. But if that is true, these people are playing a really dangerous game. Believe he exists or not, Satan definitely believes in thees people. He uses them against our God. God cries when we abort a child, while Satan laughs. I don't know about you, but I don't like making God cry.

Barbarism Is The Result

 Of the many issues that confront us today, one thing seems to be at the root of all the other problems, that of the acceptance of abortion in the United States.  David R. Carlin has an essay today at the American Thinker entitled Barbarism Ho! that makes exactly that point.

Decades ago, when abortion first began winning public approval in the USA, I worried that if abortion were to be generally approved, it would lead to further grim consequences. Abortion being what it is, namely the unjust killing of a guiltless human being, I feared that once society accepts the premise that it is morally permissible in certain circumstances to kill an innocent human being, other forms of unjust killing will gradually win public approval, e.g., euthanasia and political murder. After all, if you accept a wicked premise, sooner or later you will have to accept the wicked conclusions that follow from that premise.

Well, here we are, more than fifty years since I began worrying about such things, and ten states plus D.C. have legalized physician-assisted suicide, a kind of voluntary euthanasia. As for political murder, that’s what Hamas did in Israel on October 7 of 2023, and a day or two later great numbers of young Americans were applauding these murders. Who can doubt that euthanasia will grow in popularity? And who will be surprised when American political figures are shot down by fellow Americans?

Though I personally find Donald Trump an obnoxious individual, I fear what may be the outcome of the charge repeated every day by many of his fiercest enemies -- I mean the charge that he will, if elected in 2024, attempt to abolish democracy and make himself a dictator. I fear that some impressionable person, driven half mad by this charge, will decide to play Brutus or Cassius to Trump’s Caesar. People who make this charge are inspired, not (as they self-righteously claim) by a patriotic love of democracy and republicanism; rather, by a wish to inspire widespread hatred of Trump.

...snip...

But wait! What does abortion have to do with wholesale thievery? We may remember that we were told a few years ago that abortion lowered the crime rate by making sure that boys who are likely to be bad never get born, boys who, if allowed to be born, would grow up in a crime-ridden neighborhood.

Well, it may not have been abortion itself that led directly to “smash and grab” operations. It was, rather, the common justification offered for abortion. I mean the justification that asserts that moral beliefs are matters of opinion, quite unlike mathematical or scientific beliefs. “You say abortion is wrong. I say it’s right. Everybody is entitled to his own opinion.”

And here is the problem. I have known many people with this attitude that "everybody is entitled to his own opinion." People seem believe that moral issues are mere matters of opinion. They believe that "their truth" is different for each of us.  Not so. This is just another way of saying what God says in the Bible that "every man did what was right in his own eyes." But there is a code of morals that God imposes for our own good and happiness. These moral codes, called the 10 Commandments, are "get to" not "have to." But understand that if you want to go your own way, barbarism is the result.

"and put on your most festive Glock"

 Over at the American Thinker yesterday, Mike McDaniel tells us that Just in time for Christmas, terrorism is comin' to town. Now, I don't want to scare gentle readers, for we are always in God's hands, but this is rather to warn you that the devilcrats have allowed who knows how many people into our country who have evil intents. As you go through Christmas and the New Year, keep an eye out.

Just in time for Christmas, the FBI and Homeland Security are announcing a greatly elevated risk of “lone wolf” terrorism. Happy Holidays!

They’re a little late in contributing to the holiday spirit. Hapless FBI Director Christopher Wray has twice in the last month or so sheepishly told Congress with thousands, or tens of thousands of single, military-aged men from countries that want to kill every American, countries like China, Iran, Syria, Afghanistan and more, streaming across the totally secure border, we might have a kinda, sorta, terrorist problem, maybe. They’re even kinda, sorta admitting some of these guys might be members of the Chinese Army.

That’s tens of thousands they know about because they’ve chatted briefly with them before letting them go wherever they please by taxpayer-funded bus or jet, or they’ve seen them trotting across the border and kindly waved “bye-bye.” No one knows how many “got-aways” got away, likely as many more.

Our security establishment has gone so far as to say they’re watching some 300 undocumented persons on the Terrorist Watch List. What they’re not saying is why they allowed 300+ undocumented, TWL nabobs into the country in the first place so they would have to “watch” them. Job security? One doesn’t need to watch them so much if they’re not in the country, but that makes sense, so our security establishment doesn’t do that.

Keeping an eye on what happens across the pond, seemingly every week some nimrod Islamist jihadi goes off and stabs or shoots several Europeans. It is always a tradgedy, and of course, even though the miscreant was yelling "Allahu Akbar!" while doing it, no one in authority can quite figure out the motives. But though it is beyond our betters, we know. Oh, and how do they get those guns in gun controlled Europe? But we know that too.

Most likely are numerous attacks all across the country at churches, schools, shopping malls, theaters, sports events, anywhere Americans gather. Those attacks require only a few terrorists with small arms. Grenades and other explosives are icing on the terrorist cake. Imagine at least one such terrorist attack in every state occurring on the same day at the same time. That’s the very definition of terrorism: making people fear, making them realize the government can’t, won’t, protect them. Imagine that kind of terrorism occurring over and over again. Even a single terrorist armed with an AK—an actual automatic weapon, not a fictional “assault weapon”—can do enormous damage in little time.

...snip...

One of life’s ironies is terrorists will be most likely to strike in blue cities and states, places doing their best to keep their citizens disarmed, places—and here’s deadly irony for you—most supportive of the Palestinian terrorist cause. Terrorists, domestic and foreign, prefer gun free zones, knowing they’ll have the best chance to do the most damage before the police can arrive. That doesn’t mean red states are safe, just that there’s a greater chance of armed Americans who can end an attack long before the police can respond. Foreign terrorists are certainly learning the patterns and practices of the police in their assigned target areas.

If you haven't figured it out yet, your "representatives" do not have your or your family's best interests at heart. You are on your own. Thus it makes prudent sense to take whatever precautions you can. As McDaniel puts it:

When out and about this Christmas season, bundle up, and put on your most festive Glock. You might need it.

You are always your own first responder

 Gentle readers have heard it from me forever, that we are our own first responders.  I am not inclined to blame the police, for I recognize that they have a limited role.  They are there to prevent crime by their presence; after all, who commits a crime right in front of a police officer.  The other job is to draw the chalk outlines of the bodies and find out whodunit.  Now, even the American Thinker is saying it in a piece by Mike McDaniel entitled The police won't protect you; you're on your own.

Reality has a way of asserting itself. Post-October 7, American Jews have begun to realize the democrat/Socialist/Communist Party really isn’t their friend, won’t protect them, and is actually allied with monsters that want to kill every Jew. It took until November 15, however, for FBI Director Christopher Wray to admit to Congress that golly, there are thousands, maybe tens of thousands of likely terrorists crossing the border and that might be kind of a problem, like, you know, a terrorist problem maybe?

A problem indeed, on top of another problem: when it comes to personal safety we’re on our own. We always have been. The Supreme Court case is Castle Rock v. Gonzalez (2005).

...snip...

This might seem outrageous, but it is logical, rational and unquestionably necessary. Particularly in these times when it’s nearly impossible to recruit competent, capable police officers, who is going to take the job if they could be constantly sued for failing to protect people from dangers about which they had no knowledge or ability to intervene? What city could afford a police department? Professional police officers want to save lives, they want to be heroes, but there are very few of them, lots of criminals and far more citizens. They love to catch really bad guys in the act, but that’s rare. In virtually every case, they’re only going to be able to process crime scenes and wait for the coroner.

...snip...

The lesson—the reality—is we are solely responsible for our lives and the lives of those we love. Israelis, and Jews around the world, are awakening to that reality. They’re doing what even American democrats/Socialists/Communists have been doing in unprecedented numbers: buying guns and training.

The Director of the FBI hasn’t quite come around to that public realization. He’s busy chasing soccer moms and “traditional” Catholics. Fortunately, normal Americans are more reality based. Now they know, legally speaking, why.

Last night, I was speaking to our vicar. A vicar in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod is not yet a pastor, but is understudying an ordained pastor, learning the ropes of giving sermons and ministering to the needs of his future flock. He performs the Leader portion of the liturgy, while the Pastor performs the specific role of the Pastor. In any case, he mentioned that Saturday he will be taking a test in Krav Maga, the Israeli martial art. I have mentioned that Christianity is not pacifist, haven't I? Well, here you go. He had also studied Shorin-ryu, a Japanese martial art.

The point is that violence, like guns themselves, is a tool. You should never initiate violence. But if another initiates it against you, unless you use violence to respond, you will be killed. You have no way to know what is in someone else's mind.

The Great and Powerful Oz Is Like Everybody Else

"They," the so-called "elite" hate you and me with a burning passion. That sums up what E. M. Cadwalader had to say at the American Thinker today in an essay entitled The Collapse of Credable Authority

I grew up in a world in which most authorities could be trusted most of the time. True, it was already a cliché that Washington, D.C. was full of liars. And yes, everyone knew about medical malpractice. Even people who weren’t Marxists understood that corporations, from time to time, were guilty of committing genuine wrongs against the public. Still, overall, the people who were running things were usually accountable. There was an ingrained, unspoken sense of decency and social responsibility long before the current twisted understanding of social justice (i.e., revenge) had a chance to muscle it out. People in authority may have seen themselves as a bit better than the common run of humanity, but they didn’t quite see themselves as an entirely different species. They were the best and brightest of us, but not yet an utterly alien aristocracy.

In the last couple of decades, almost all of our institutions have failed. One after another has been caught doing things that no one ever imagined they would do. Most of us remember a time when the FBI were not the hired goons of the Democrat party, but almost always obeyed the same laws they were sworn to enforce. Most of us can remember when the Democrat party was, at least from time to time, still worthy of its name — and might cough up the occasional politician who wasn’t simply an empty cipher for the radical activists who now apparently run the DNC. More broadly, there was a time when politicians lied when they were backed into a corner, or maybe when it was expedient — but didn’t lie as a matter of course.

Perhaps it was always this way, but it was well hidden. But I like to believe that people were generally telling us the truth, or as close to the truth as they understood it. Of course, there were the occasional screw ups that proved the rule. But it has become open, blatant, and shameless. People will lie to your face, knowing that you know they are lying, yet they persist. They will even threaten you with loss of job and livelihood if you don't also tell the same lies to others. Thus, we were subjected to masking even though those who spewed the lies knew masks were ineffective.

Corporations have always been in the business to make money, but in principle, they tried to make money by selling people things they needed or at least wanted. They did not make money by bribing government to mandate that people buy their products (as happened with Obamacare and the insurance industry) or to mandate that we inject their products into our bodies on pain of losing our jobs (as happened to the military and health care workers with the COVID “vaccine” — and almost happened to everybody else). Companies that made packaged food did their best to make it tasty so it would sell — but they did not hire chemists and biologists to make it literally addictive. There was a time in which the FDA could have been reasonably expected to care that roughly 9 out of 10 Americans are metabolically unhealthy. It wouldn’t have been crazy to assume that everything you bought in the grocery, other than cigarettes and alcohol, was fundamentally safe for human consumption. Who in his right mind believes that now? Who thinks the NIH, or whatever three-letter agency Anthony Fauci is a loathsome part of — gives a damn about your health or your children’s? Or that the governing body of American psychologists, who has come out firmly for “gender-affirming care” (i.e., castration on demand), really wants to make a happier, saner society?

Who would have thought that freedom of speech would be under serious threat? Or that a national election would be rigged? Or that the openly racist 1619 Project would be taught in lieu of civics?

Our so-called "best and brightest" have begun to think of themselves, like the aristocrats and nobles of old, as being a different, more highly evolved species of men. We, you see, are like animals, tussling and working in the muck and mire, while the exalted ones are above it all. And that means that they are also above the law. As George Carlin remarked, "It's a big club, and you ain't in it."

This rot of our society didn’t happen overnight. To some extent, the shift in attitudes has been generational. The Greatest Generation, the one that saved the world from the real Nazis — as opposed to the merely rhetorical Nazis we have now — have faded away, as old soldiers have been rumored to do. They may have passed the torch to JFK’s generation, but after that, the torch was summarily snuffed out for outgassing too much carbon dioxide. I think Charles Murray’s observation about the concentration of people with the highest I.Q.s into a handful of hallowed universities has been a phenomenon too few people noticed or worried about. In the end, the “best and brightest” have become a nation unto themselves. They ceased to be the “best” when they decided they weren’t answerable to anybody and they ceased to be the “brightest” when they became too connected to suffer any consequences from failure.

We are now many decades into this intellectual and cultural inbreeding, all of which has gone on out of our sight while we ordinary mortals have gone our own way until we now no longer can. Trump was a shock to the elites. His only reason for being, in their view, was to feed the bubble money, then go away. Picking a president from outside the bubble was unthinkable. Didn’t we understand just who they are?

...snip...

When people see themselves as the highest accomplishments of nature, answerable to no one, evil is the inevitable result. History has shown this with monotonous regularity. We may thwart them, but we will never rein them in or make any sort of peace with them. People who imagine they are gods do not bow to mere men.

There was a time when even the Democrat party would have dealt with the Biden Crime family, not to mention the Clinton crime family. Not anymore. As Cadwalader points out, this is evil. It is the original evil, in fact, of pride. They want to dethrone God and sit in His seat in His stead. But they are just men, all too fallible, and everyone can see that. The bubble has become transparent. Toto has pulled back the curtain, and we have noticed the man pulling the levers.  We have seen behind the curtain that the Great and Powerful Oz is like everybody else.

Cheaters Will Cheat

In a post yesterday at Townhall.com Matt Vespa revealed a poll in which people who committed vote fraud told on themselves. And the numbers were...surprising, to put it mildly. The post is titled Here's the Number of Mail-In Voters who Admit They Cheated During the 2020 Election. Gentle readers will be shocked. I certainly was.

To me this shows the need for election integrity. People will cheat if there is a low chance of getting caught. So make it hard to cheat, up the consequences, but of course we will never stamp it out. What I wonder is where are the Republicans screaming about this?

The Propaganda Machine

I have to wrap presents today, as well as go to Church this evening to play bells for our Advent Prayer service, so this will be a short post. Paul E. Scates has an article at the American Thinker today entitled The Totalitarian Three-Step in which he systematizes something I have observed for years. That the Left (1) manufactures a "crisis" that doesn't really exist, (2) proposes a "emergency solution" that no one would otherwise accept and (3) with the solution in place, reveal the hidden agenda to transfer your liberty, freedom and wealth to them. I once had a boss who used the technique to become the boss. She was a nice enough person, but she did this constantly to not only gain, but to hold onto power in the organization.

For at least half a century the Left has been luring this nation into a deadly dance. Like the sirens of Greek myth, their music hits all the right notes: true equality, fairness, justice for all, health, and peace, etc. Because the music is so beautiful, and the steps to the dance so familiar, again and again we’ve accepted their invitation and blindly followed their lead.

This simple political dance can be done to many types of “music,” for it has only three steps. We have seen its familiar choreography in efforts against racism and crime, in steps to preserve our national security, in efforts to support agriculture and education, et al; whatever the tune, the steps are the same:

1. Manufacture a “crisis”

2. Offer “emergency solutions” people would never accept except for the “crisis”

3. Results achieve the hidden goal, unrelated to the supposed problem

We see this in the gun-control debates. The Left takes advantage of every shooting incident they can to first publicize the incident as much as possible, usually trying to pin it on law-abiding gun owners if possible. That is what is often referred to as "dancing in the blood of victims." Then they trot out the latest "solutions" to "gun violence" which are characterized as "common-sense gun reforms."  I use scare quotes for these terms because these are all made up terms of the Left.  There is nothing common sense about these proposed solutions.  Fortunately, we have been debating this issue for nigh on one hundred years, so there is a great deal of scholarship built up on the side of the Second Amendment. But even with the Supreme Court ruling in Bruen the Left keeps trying to take away our right to arms and self-defense. They must do it if they are ever to complete the totalitarian takeover of the United States.

Global Cooling...er...Global Warming...er...Climate Change is another example of the use of the Totalitarian Three-Step. In the 1970s the globalists were sure we were going into another ice age and we would all freeze. The solution? Cut out fossil fuels. Then they decided the earth was going to burn up. Solution? Again, cut out fossil fuels. Now it's Climate Change because they want to be ready whichever way the world goes. Solution? Cut out the fossil fuels. Once you realize that the solution is always the same, no matter the manufactured "crisis" du jour the hoax becomes obvious.

The above are but two examples of the Totalitarian Three-Step in action. There are many others including the Open Borders, the COVID-19, and I could go on. But gentle readers will get the idea. The problem for those living in reality is that these things tend to spring up suddenly out of nowhere. It takes time to investigate each of these. Meanwhile, the Left is conducting a propaganda blitzkrieg in which they hope to have their so-called "solution" implemented before we can respond. It seems to work more often than it fails, which is why they keep doing it.

I urge gentle readers to read the entire article, and perhaps get their hands on a copy of the book Behind the Green Mask by Rosa Koire. But get the Kindle edition-it's cheaper.

Crying in Their Champaign

 I have been banging on about the fact that so-called "Climate Change" alarmism is a giant hoax designed to take the power, wealth, and freedom from the vast middle classes and place it in the hands of a self-appointed arrogant "elite."  Now, as a retired civil engineer, what do I know, right?  Certainly, my training is not in the weather, but it is in general science, and physics.  But of course, I am not alone here.  There are many actual meteorologists who share the same sense that a hoax is being foisted upon us.

Now, at Townhall.com H. Sterling Burnette has a piece entitled Christmas Came Early: Long Suppressed Truths Spoken Ahead of UN Climate Summit. Those truths are that so-called renewables like wind and solar power are not, and never will be adequate to power the modern world. Fossil fuels should remain as part of our energy strategy. Included in that energy strategy should be more nuclear energy. Al Gore must be crying a river over the failure of COP28 to put the kibosh on coal and other fossil fuels.

Gentle readers can read Burnette's article for themselves. I want to emphasize that we have seen graphs that show that at 400 parts per million (ppm), the atmospheric CO2 level is near the lowest since life began. It has been as high as 6000ppm, and the oceans did not boil. The UN is putting you on. They want power, and they believe if they pound on the drum hard and long enough, they will get it.

But no human being on earth has ever, or ever will be able to control the weather, much less control climate. Lately, Biden has asked for federal agencies to explore pumping aerosols into the atmosphere to absorb some of the Sun's energy before it hits the earth. What a stupid idea! If he intends for us to drive electric powered cars, powered by the Sun, it seems strange he would at the same time be trying to limit what power the Sun provides. But that should show you the stupidity of these arrogant "elites."

God alone controls the weather, and he has been doing a good job of it all this time. Perhaps we should stick to things we can do something about, like crime in the streets and public corruption, open borders, spending more than we make, and limiting the number of unborn children we feed to Molech? That was not the complete list, just a start. Certainly, we have more than enough on our own plate without trying to play "God."

I will close with these quotes from Burnette's article:

The second truth once again spoken, but largely ignored by the media, was that climate scientists, particularly those who work on the UN’s periodic climate reports, want to be given Czar-like powers, to both recommend and oversee the implementation of climate policies globally. As The Guardian wrote, “Five IPCC report authors say scientists should be allowed to make policy prescriptions and potentially oversee implementation … by the 195 states signed up to the UN framework convention on climate change (UNFCCC)."

Translation, “We the scientific elite, want governments to impose, under our guidance and legally binding oversight, polices to force people to comply with the climate diktats that we proscribe. The time for convincing people is past, Democracy is too slow and uncertain. We know the truth and should be allowed to force various nations to act according to our informed will.”

...snip...

In the end, authoritarians will always try to cloak their ambitions in paternalistic terms, “we must do this for the good of, ‘the people,’ ‘the proletariat,’ ‘the volk,’ ‘society,’ ‘the planet,’” pick your term from the appropriate region and time period, but it is in reality all about increasing power and aggrandizing themselves.

In his farewell address, President Dwight Eisenhower, warned that with the advent of big government funding big science, the people should jealously guard their liberty.

“[H]olding scientific discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite,” warned Eisenhower with grave demeanor and intonation.

No doubt our "elite betters" are crying in their champaign as they jet home. Well, good.

Senators Breaking Their Oaths of Office (But What's New)

The government has been trying to use "public heath" as a reason to curb guns for a long time.  Note that it is not "gun violence" but just "guns" because in truth they don't care about "violence" as long as it is not committed against them.  If they did care, they would lock up the criminals, and not restrict the tools we use to fend off the criminals.  Earlier this year, the governor of New Mexico, Michelle Lujan Grisham used "public health" as an excuse to crack down on law-abiding citizens in Bernalillo County who carry guns.  In her press conference, she even admitted that her executive order wouldn't stop the criminals, just the law-abiding citizens.  Hmmm.

Now comes the Senate of the United States using the same excuse to crack down on guns, despite the clear Constitutional demand that the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. In an article at the Washington Examiner by Katie Pointer Baney, she admonishes us Don't let politicians us 'public health' to justify more gun control.

The Senate Judiciary Committee recently held a hearing titled “The Gun Violence Epidemic: A Public Health Crisis.” Unsurprisingly, the focus of the Democratic-led hearing was how to further restrict the ability of law-abiding residents to protect themselves and their loved ones. This included discussion of constitutionally problematic “red flag” laws, widespread bans on so-called “assault weapons,” mandatory gun storage rules, and universal gun registration — all in the name of protecting “public health.”

We’ve seen this before. Politicians often use the excuse of “public health” to strip away rights protected under the Constitution. We witnessed this during the COVID-19 pandemic when governors and state authorities implemented arbitrary restrictions that prevented children from going to school and forced small businesses to close their doors.

A more recent example regarding the Second Amendment unfolded earlier this year in New Mexico. In September, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM) issued a sweeping “emergency public health order” that banned the concealed carry of firearms in public places in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Bernalillo County. She said the order would stem the rise in violent crime that the community was experiencing despite the fact that these crimes were almost always being committed by criminals with illegally possessed guns. At one point, Lujan Grisham even acknowledged that criminals were unlikely to adhere to the order, but she proceeded to restrict the rights of law-abiding gun owners anyway and used the guise of “public health” to justify it.

Gentle readers can read the entire article, and the embedded articles as they have time. One never knows where this is going. It could be that, as an election year is coming up, that Senators are playing to their constituents back home. It could be that they are laying the foundation just in case a horrific mass shooting can be blown up into a cause célèbres. Or they could be planning to put it to a vote and dare the Supreme Court to tear it down, thus giving cause to pack the court. In any case, they are not defending the Constitution of the United States as they swore an oath to do.