The Leftists Won't Like the New Rules

 Judge Andrew Napolitano explain why Judge Engoran's ruling in the New York fraud case is so wrong.  We have all read about the 8th Amendment issues with excessive fines.  That is the Amendment that bars cruel and unusual punishments.  But as Napolitano tells it, there is even stronger reasons buried in the common law.  You can find his article at Ammoland entitled Donald Trump and Government Theft.

When U.S. Supreme Court Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo described the basic principles of tort law in one easy line, he was reflecting upon centuries of Anglo-American jurisprudence. His dictum of wrong first and remedy afterward was essentially based on the common law understanding that an injured party can only seek damages for a wrong actually caused.

The legal and philosophical essence of wrongness is harm. The law does not concern itself with trifles or with theoretical wrongs, but only wrongs that have caused palpable and measurable harm.

The rational corollary to harm first and remedy later is that where there is no harm, there can be no remedy. Were this not the case, then a crazy plaintiff could drag a hapless defendant into court for all sorts of fanciful or theoretical or immeasurable or speculative claims — none of which caused harm.

...snip...

The government created a phantom harm by arguing to the court that Trump’s corporation was not fully accurate in its loan applications and thus was charged a lower interest rate on the loans than it should have been charged had it been accurate; and thus it earned more income on its use of the money it borrowed than would have been the case had it scrupulously reported the value of its pledged assets; and thus — somehow — the government ought to be able to confiscate the excess income plus interest.

This, of course, defies the no-damages-without-breach-of-a-duty principle and no-damages-without-caused-harm principle that have been the bedrock of American tort law. It also redefines fraud.

The government told the court that Trump defrauded his lenders by inaccurately stating his assets. If you borrow $100 million from a bank and pledge as security a building worth $2 billion, you will get more favorable loan terms — a lower interest rate — than if you pledged as security a building worth $1 billion. But Trump’s banks did their own due diligence on the value of the assets he pledged, and they told the court that they were satisfied with Trump’s valuations.

So, the State of New York, that suffered no harm, therefore should have no remedy.  It has inserted itself between two parties that were satisfied with a mutual transaction, so that it could steal for itself some $400 million of Trump organization money. It should be clear that this can not stand, for if it did, it could be used against any of us.

Please note, once again, that I am not a "Trump" guy. He has many flaws, as do all of us. At the same time, Trump in office did most things right, unlike the desiccated puppet for whom the Democrats...er...Communist/Socialist stole the election. Now, to keep Trump from getting back into office, the Communist/Socialists are using the law and asserting bizarre theories, also known as lawfare.  They want to put him in prison or failing that to impoverish him. None of it is right, and the truth is they are making a martyr of him. But even worse is that they are making a mockery of the law, and eventually they are not going to like the rules being used against them.

We Can Do Better Here

Killing candidates south of the border, by Silvio Canto, Jr. at the American Thinker shows us again why we need to hang onto our Second Amendment as if our lives depended on it, because they just might. The Left has effectively banned guns in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Great Britain. Now the international Left is gunning for them here too. And the Biden administration along with the Democrat...er...Communist/Socialist party is doing whatever it can to help. But see what is happening south of the border, down Mexico way:

If it’s Thursday morning, then it’s another post about violence in Mexico. Or as a Mexican friend said: “Dios mio todos los dias” or “My God, every day.” Yes, killing is happening too much south of the border, whether you are a journalist or a couple of candidates running for office. This is the story:

"Two mayoral hopefuls in the Mexican city of Maravatío have been gunned down within hours of each other, as experts warn the June 2 national elections could be the country’s most violent on record.

"The widening control of drug cartels in Mexico has been described as a threat. During the last nationwide election in 2021, about three dozen candidates were killed."

"The campaigns haven’t even started yet. They formally begin on Friday."

"On Tuesday, this farming town, where most of the men wear boots and big belt buckles, was in a state of wary shock following the previous day’s killings. Dozens of state police were visible around city hall."

No campaigning yet, but the killers couldn’t care less about that. Who knew that criminals did not obey or respect election campaign laws? Remember that the next time that someone questions your Second Amendment right.

"Who knew that criminals did not obey or respect election campaign laws?" But it should be obvious. Criminals, by definition, do not obey laws. Note that the legitimate purpose of laws is to set the expectations of society, and the punishment meted out if those expectations are not met. Seen in this light, the laws should be few and well understood. God figured you only needed 10 laws, which he layed out in the book of Exodus. But man, always looking for a way to wiggle out of the law, kept pushing the envelope, so the rabbis added explanations. Then some power hungry types added some illegitimate laws as well until the poor Jew living in the first century had 613 of these things to do every single day. We have thousands, and they don't stop even one crime.

One of these illegitimate laws in Mexico is that you CAN have a handgun. Yay...what? But there are restrictions. For instance, it can only be in a caliber that has never been used by a military anywhere in the world. Believe it or not, there are such things: 38 Super Automatic is one such caliber. But there is only one gun store in Mexico where you can buy such a weapon, and of course it is run by the Mexican military. There are other restrictions as well. So few people actually have guns. Suffice it to say that if you are a disfavored candidate in Mexico, your life is...precarious.

Meanwhile, the cartels can get all the guns and ammunition they want, including actual real life assault rifles, not the pretend things we civilians can get here in the States. They just smuggle them in with everything else they are smuggling.

The intent of the Second Amendment was that at a moments notice, in case of invasion, the government could call up the militia, and they would arrive with whatever the current military soldier is equipped with, including guns, ammunition, food, water, ready to go into battle. If we still had that, every man would have an fully select fire M4 style weapon and hundreds of rounds of 5.56 Nato ammunition. We don't, but that was the intent. We can, and should do better

Statue of Astarte Being Erected At University of Houston

 I have to go to work today, but I wanted to share this with you.  Olivia Murray at the American Thinker today has a post exposing the University of Houston of harboring a sect of the goddess Astarte or Ashtaroth, an ancient Canaanite goddess and wife of Baal. You can see her idol at University of Houston set to erect a towering goat-headed, female-esque with tentacle arms on campus for the abortion movement.

To any Christian, this is in-your-face paganism.  The idols, of course are just statues, it is what is behind the statues that is so shocking and unnerving, for there is a real, malevolent being behind the statue.  For that matter, the famous bull statue on Wall Street represents the ancient idols of Baal.  So we have been flirting with paganism for a long time.

Please go and read the post, then tell me that the Left isn't Satanic. Tearing down the statue, of course, isn't the answer. The answer is in changing peoples hearts and minds. Hold fast to your faith in Jesus Christ and his promises. That is the answer. It will get worse before it gets better.

The Devil and Climate Change

Today I wanted to highlight an essay by William Sullivan at the American Thinker entitled The Left Demands Millions of Human Sacrifices to Appease the Gods of Climate Change. He puts in fairly well in that a lot of ancient people had the same beliefs. In ancient Israel, remnants of the various tribes of Canaanites sacrificed to the gods Baal, Astarte and Molock. Baal was the ancient fertility god, while Astarte was his wife and lover, and sought various perversions like cross dressing priests and "sacred" prostitutes. Molock was the one to whom they would sacrifice their children by tossing them into the fiery belly of the image of the god. Got that?  They threw their newborn children alive into fire that consumed them.  Sullivan cites the Aztec example, but such pagan worship of demons happened everywhere until the Christian era. Sullivan writes:

“At their Monday night poker game in hell,” writes Mark Steyn, “I’ll bet Stalin, Hitler, and Mao are kicking themselves. “It’s about leaving a better planet for our children?’ Why didn’t we think of that?”

These three evil socialists of yesteryear would certainly be green with envy at the way today’s green socialists have convinced millions of citizens to willingly surrender their liberty to the State.

“The ruling classes of the fading West are determined to save the planet by immiserating their fellow citizens,” writes Joel Kotkin. He continues:

Their program calls not only for fewer people and fewer families, but also for lower consumption among the masses. They expect us to live in ever smaller dwelling units, to have less mobility, and to endure more costly home heating and air-conditioning. These priorities are reflected in a regulatory bureaucracy that, if it does not claim justification from God, acts as the right hand of Gaia and of sanctified science.

This apparent religiosity highlights an interesting sort of logical somersault for modern progressives. On the one hand, they believe it to be primitive “Christian Nationalism” to assert, as all documents associated with America’s Founding do, that our natural rights were endowed to us by God, rather than some government edict written by a government official somewhere. On the other hand, high priestesses like Nancy Pelosi assure the faithful that hurricanes on the Gulf Coast and wildfires on the West Coast are signs that “Mother Earth is angry,” and is visiting her vengeance upon us.

Quite literally, today’s party of The Science™ is an apocalyptic doomsday cult which fears the wrath of deities that are personified by nature, complete with the sacrifice of countless children.

Again, I point out that these "deities," whom Christians recognize as demons, are not new. They are the same ancient demons who turned people away from the Lord, the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob, the God whose first command to man was to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

These people act as if they have just discovered that the climate changes. Horrors!  Again, reading the Bible will tell them that changing climate has always been a feature of the earth. Didn't famine drive the ancient Israelites into Egypt?

Jesus described the devil as the father of lies and a murderer from the start. So, one test of whether you are being influenced by the devil is if you are being asked or told to murder, particularly if you are being asked to murder your own children. But mass murder by whatever means, the more heinous the better, is a hallmark of the devil, whether it is the gassing of Jews, the genocide of Christians in Albania, the Holodomor, the hacking of the Tutsis, or as Sullivan notes the mass slaughter by the Aztecs. The attack on the Israelis on October 7 is just the latest example.

Gentle readers will want to read the entire essay and ponder the scope of the hoax being perpetrated on the people of the world today. The more I find out, the more shocked I am that so many seem to be on board with this incredibly bad idea. I, of course, will continue to pray that God will take the whole mess of people pushing this stuff to the woodshed, but of course He acts in His own time for His own purposes. We just need to remain on His side. Praise be to God. Sullivan closes with this:

What progressives are pitching with the green agenda today is anything but progress, and their prescriptions to maintain political power are sillier and deadlier than ever. But that doesn’t stop young people, being tutored in the modern-day temples that we call universities, from offering their absolute devotion to this green doomsday cult.

Perhaps I should pray for a more discerning generation of young people, for they are the ones who will have to fight this.

What is Christian Nationalism?

 Yesterday I had a post that questioned what in the heck was "Christian Nationalism."  It seemed from the description offered by Ms. Przybyla that it was just plain Christianity.  Today. there is a post at the American Thinker by John Leonard entitled What is a Christian Nationalist? that attemptes to answer that question.

On MSNBC “award-winning investigative journalist” (from Politico) Heidi Przybyla said this recently:

"Remember when Trump ran in 2016? A lot of the mainline evangelicals wanted nothing to do with the divorced real-estate mogul who cheated on his wife with a porn star and all of that, right? So what happened was, he was surrounded by this more extremist element. You’re going to hear words like Christian Nationalism, like the new apostolic reformation. These are groups that you should get very schooled on because they have a lot of power in Trump’s circle. And the one thing that unites all of them because there’s many different groups orbiting Trump but the thing that unites them as Christian nationalists — not Christians by the way, because Christian nationalist is very different — is that they believe their rights as Americans don’t come from any earthly authority. They don’t come from Congress, they don’t come from the Supreme Court, they come from God."

Horrors! Does this mean that a Christian nationalist believes what the Declaration of Independence said — that our inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness come not from King George III, but from our Creator? How does that separate a Christian nationalist from any other ordinary Christian? What is she trying to say?

Ms. Przybyla continued:

"The problem is that they are determining, man — men — are determining what God is telling them. And in the past, that so-called natural law ... it’s a pillar of Catholicism, for instance, and has been used for good. In social justice campaigns, Martin Luther King evoked it talking about civil rights. But now you have an extremist element of conservative Christians who say this applies specifically to issues like abortion, gay marriage, and it’s going much further than that, as you’re seeing for instance in the ruling in Alabama. The judge is connected to a dominionist faction."

Um...what? Is Ms. Przybyla trying to say that mainstream Christians support abortion rights and gay marriage, but Christian nationalists do not?

Well count me in Christian Nationalism if that is the case. The book of Leviticus is pretty clear that both of these are an abomination to God. And what God hates we should also hate, don't you think? Now, clearly God can forgive these behaviors, but only if the one doing them repents. It doesn't sound like Ms. Przybyla wants to repent.

If you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you’re a Christian. Okay, then...so what is a nationalist? According to the Cambridge English Dictionary, a nationalist is a person who wants his country to be politically independent, or a person who strongly believes that his country is better than others.

Putting the two terms together, we get a follower of Jesus Christ who strongly believes that America is the greatest nation on the face of the Earth. And that’s the problem?

Oh, wait a minute — one of the Alabama justices is accused of being a dominionist. This is, apparently, a person who seeks to create a nation governed by Christians according to their understanding of biblical law. Is the justice a dominionist because he quoted from the Bible instead of a biology textbook? Both basically say the same thing on this issue.

Most Christians I know (and I know more than a few through social media) realize that America was founded not as a Christian nation, but as a secular nation founded by Christians with Christian principles. Muslims, Jews, and atheists alike have been welcome to participate in our secular government that still operates on Christian principles.

Obviously, the term “Christian nationalist” is meant to be seen as a pejorative. It is being used to separate the “good” Christians (those who support abortion and gay marriage) from the bad Christians (actual Christians). It is a term intended to divide and conquer.

Frankly, I want my country to operate on Christian principles. What does Ms. Przybyla want us to operate on, the Devil's principles? That would of course by Sharia. No thanks, and I don't think she would be too happy with that either. So, in the end, the term "Christian Nationalism is just a nonsense phrase that can mean whatever the Left wants it to mean at any period in time. It is not meant to convey information but to disparage whoever is being accused of it.

Catholic Bishop Denounces Leftist Boogeyman

 This is disturbing.  I pray every day for the Christians around the world who are being persecuted.  But, now our government is one of those active persecutors.  And they have help from the mainstream media.  Today Matt Vespa at Townhall.com has a piece entitled Why a Catholic Bishop Said This MSNBC Segment Was One Of The Most Disturbing Things He's Ever Seen. Heidi Przybyla finds it disturbing that what she termed "Christian Nationalists" believe that our rights as human beings don't come from any earthly authority but instead come from (here she points upward) God! The horror!

She makes plain that normal Christians don't believe that. Unfortunately, I have news for Ms. Przybyla: All true Christians believe that. More to the point, if she had bothered to read the Declaration of Independence, she would have found that Thomas Jefferson also believed that our rights come from God. And everyone who signed the Declaration endorsed that belief.

Bishop Robert Barron also corrects Ms. Przybyla when he points out that if our rights came from some earthly authority, then those rights could legitimately be taken away by that same authority. This would eventually lead to tyranny. So, as an American, never mind as a Catholic priest, he wanted to make clear that our rights come from our Creator, or God.

You can read the whole post and watch both videos. The post is not that long. I don't know what the heck "Christian Nationalism" is supposed to be. Every time I hear about it, I think to myself that what they believe sounds a lot like what plain old Christians believe. I suspect this is another made up strawman that doesn't exist.

Mocking Our So-called "Elite"

 I wanted to bring gentle readers' attention to the article by J. B. Shurk at the American Thinker today entitled Of Course We Should Mock the State. Shurk usually packs his articles with with so many important fact that one is at a loss as to which to highlight. But your humble correspondent will do his best to find some nuggets of pure gold out of a pile of 10 carot nuggets.

Every once in a while, Big Government globalists inadvertently tell the truth. It’s usually not because they’re dumb, but because they’re so entombed inside their own dystopian cocoons that they forget how crazy they might sound to reasonable, well adjusted people. The World Economic Forum is filled with giddy zealots who have no idea how insane their plans for global domination sound to the wider population because the WEF’s psychopathic members are universally eager to depopulate the planet; cage the survivors; and drip-feed their human pets with a cocktail of drugs, bugs, and propaganda. Ordinary people look at Klaus Schwab and see Dr. Evil. WEF-fers see Commie Klaus as a shiny-headed (perhaps reflecting so much bright light as to be downright Luciferian) globalist god. While Davos devotees yearn for a “new world order,” prudent Westerners are thinking about how to end the WEF’s madness before it abruptly ends them.

I have commented on more than one occasion that Klaus Schwab looks the part of Dr. Evil in the Mike Myers comedy. So mocking him is easy. But more than that, it is the plethora of foolish svengalis surrounding him that make the whole World Economic Forum a laughing stock to those of us here. And the fact that our trashy so-called "elites" seem to be working to put his absolutely idiotic and impractical plans into place starts to get people here a little upset.

Ever since Obama’s election, the effort to bulldoze America and rebuild on its rubble a compliant nexus point for the WEF’s coercive Borg to dominate the West has picked up speed. Unaccountable bureaucrats and politicians in Washington don’t even pretend to respect the will of voters anymore. Strong majorities of Americans have said resoundingly: close and secure the borders, stop spending money that you do not have, end widespread warrantless surveillance, stop censoring public debate, stop distorting the law to punish dissenting voices, safeguard elections from mail-in ballot fraud, and stop funneling money to foreign regimes that use that money to attack the United States. The hive-mind Borg in D.C. has told the American people to go suck an egg. The federal government’s targeted abuse of Americans has been an eye-opening experience for many.

Consider this question: when is the last time you can remember an Establishment politician trying to unite Americans behind common history and principles, irrespective of background or race? It’s been many years, has it not? Why is that? Because the current power structure of the U.S. government depends upon keeping Americans fiercely divided.

The moment a large coalition of Americans come together to tackle common obstacles is the moment that the small “ruling class” of political elites (across all three branches and the vast, unconstitutional administrative State) get tossed to the curb. From D.C.’s point of view, the scariest thing about Donald Trump is that his policies make sense to an amazingly diverse cross-section of the American people. In his wake, the political class’s usual attempt to pour salt in old racial wounds has become less effective. That’s why we now hear so much about the scourge of “Christian nationalism.” The attempt to use religious discrimination as a new wedge to divide society is an admission that the Deep State is desperate for a new boogeyman.

As a Christian who does not have an irrational fear of nation states, I always think, “Better to be a Christian nationalist than a globalist child-groomer, amirite?” What those who seek to divide us are really saying through the use of this Christian dog whistle is that people who believe in personal freedom, the Bill of Rights, and the Bible are somehow “white supremacist” Nazis. That’s a pretty hard sell when WEF-fers are the biggest Nazis operating today.

I have said, often without explanation, that one can not be a Christian and a leftist. Perhaps I should qualify that. But before I do, I should also note that Leftist is a broad term encompassing Communist, Facsist, Progressives, Liberals and generally collectivists. A Christian is someone who, besides subcribing to the tenets of Christianity, namely the creeds, the Trinity, the inerrancy of the Bible and so forth, attempts to follow the Laws of God as described in the Torah. But nobody gets them perfectly, which is why God sent his Son into the world to live as one of us, take the sins of the world onto himself and die an atoning death for us all. Praise be to Christ! Leftists want to ignore that the killing of once own children, whether in the womb or after birth is murder. It is right there in the Torah. Leftists want us to celebrate gay and lesbian lifestyles. But it is an abomination. It says so right there in the Torah. So, chose, Leftists: your politics or God's law. There can be no compromise.

I urge you to read the whole article, and to think of ways we can mock those who want to rule over us.  Make fun of them personally.  Make fun of Schwab, who does look like central casting for Dr. Evil.  Make fun of John Kerry, who besides not knowing anything about climate science, has a horse face.  When an Obama calls you a bitter clinger to guns and religion, take pride, for to be called despicable by those who are despicable is a badge of honor.

The Fascists Never Sleep

 Finally this tid-bit from the American Thinker by Olivia Murray: Calicrats fixing to require insurers to obtain information about personal firearms, then turn the information over to the Daddy Gov. This, in case you don't know it, is straight up fascism.

Murray first makes the distinction that the 2nd Amendment does not grant Americans the right to bear arms in self defense. Rather, it recognizes the pre-existing right granted by God. Then she goes on to talk about the proposal to use insurance companies to develop a registry of firearm owners throughout the state. Lying to insurance companies negates the policy, and since most people are required to carry homeowner's insurance on their property by their mortgage companies, they capture most of the firearms.

The bill, AB 3067, says: ‘This bill would require an insurer, by January 1, 2026, to include questions on an application for homeowners’ or renters’ insurance seeking specified information regarding the presence and storage of any firearms kept in the household, accessory structures, or vehicles kept on the property subject to any applicable insurance policy.’

Here are the questions from the text of the bill itself, via Hawkins:

In addition to existing regulations, an application for homeowners’ or renters’ insurance shall include questions regarding all of the following:

(1) Whether there are firearms kept in the household, including in any accessory structures, and if so, how many.

(2) Whether the firearm, if any, is stored in a locked container in the home, including any accessory structures, while not in use.

(3) The number of firearms kept in a vehicle located on the property subject to the applicable insurance policy, and if any, whether they are stored securely in a locked container while not in use.

Mind you, these are the same Democrats who think law enforcement asking about a person’s citizenship status, or an employer asking a job candidate if he/she has a criminal history, are unacceptable lines of inquiry. The state just wants to know if you have guns or gun safes and how many, and how you store said firearms—for your safety of course!

It seems fascists never sleep.

Maybe We Should Take A Page Out of Finland's Playbook?

 One of the purposes of the Second Amendment is defense, and that is stated in the Bill of Rights as: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." So, the citizens in the United States can own and carry arms for their own defense, the defense of the state, and other lawful purposes. Switzerland has a long history of using private ownership of arms for the same purpose, though they don't have an equivalent to the Second Amendment.

Now Finland Promotes National Security By Building Ranges and Encouraging Armed Citizens according to Cam Edwards at Bearing Arms. This at a time when here in the U.S. we see the government trying to nullify the 2nd Amendment and eliminating our God given rights.

The right of the people to keep and bear arms isn't just about our individual ability to act in self-defense or defense of others. As the Founders knew, the body of the people capable of bearing arms (otherwise known as the unorganized militia) is necessary to the security of a free state as well. Second Amendment attorneys Chuck Michel and Kostas Moros have done an excellent job of laying out the arguments of the Founding Generation in their recent law review article entitled Restrictions "Our Ancestors Would Never Have Accepted": The Historical Case Against Assault Weapon Bans, but the government of Finland has also given us a very important reminder that, even today, individual gun ownership serves as a check on tyranny and as a means of ensuring that a free people stay that way.

"Finland plans to open more than 300 new shooting ranges to encourage more citizens to take up the hobby in the interest of national defence."

"It is hoped that shooting in the Nordic country – which last year became Nato’s newest member and which shares a 830-mile (1,330km) border with Russia – could become as popular as football or ice hockey."

"There are about 670 shooting ranges in Finland, down from about 2,000 at the turn of the century. By 2030, the government plans to increase the number to about 1,000."

"Jukka Kopra, a National Coalition party MP and the chair of Finland’s defence committee, told the Guardian: “The present government aims to increase the amount of shooting ranges in Finland from roughly 600-700 up to 1,000. This is because of our defence model, which benefits from people having and developing their shooting skills on their own.”

So, Finland is taking a page out of the United States' playbook. Perhaps the United States should take the same page itself?

Are California Lawmakers Insane?

So, when I saw this headline at Bearing Arms by Tom Knighton, entitled California Gun Control Fails to Stop Man From Accumulating Massive Arsenal, I had to check, because according to California law enforcement, I have a "massive" arsenal. I read at one time that you should have around 500 rounds for every handgun you may have. I have strived to live up to that, and throughout various shortages due to Democrat administrations, the policy has served me well.

But for once, the California cops were right. This guy had a truly impressive arsenal. The only problem was that it was obtained illegally. Which is Knighton's point. All the laws that California has passed and continues to pass in the name of keeping guns out of the hands of the criminal did not prevent this guy form accumulating a really massive number of guns and rounds of ammunition, including some actual machine guns.

While many of us have a number of firearms, we never really have enough. If I had my way, I'd have enough of an arsenal to outfit a few divisions of troops. Not because I need them but simply because I can.

I love living in the land of the free.

Yet our friends in California often refer to themselves as living in occupied territory. That's because the gun laws there are so strict. The idea of massive quantities of firearms isn't completely dead there, but it's difficult.

Those laws, we're told, are meant to keep people from getting guns illegally.

Yet an arrest there kind of makes it clear how little these laws are doing in that regard.

"A man was arrested in Richmond after 214 illegally owned guns and about one million rounds of ammo were found, along with thousands of more gun parts.

"

...snip...

"In total, authorities seized 11 military-style machine guns, 133 handguns, 37 rifles, 60 assault rifles, 7 shotguns, 20 silencers, and 4 flare guns, and around one million rounds of ammunition of different calibers."

And yet, California continues to add laws, rules, and regulations to the hundreds already in existence. Einstein is reported to have noted that doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the very definition of insanity. Are California lawmakers insane?

Exposing the CIA

 Victoria White Berger has a post at the American Thinker today entitled Shellenberger exposes Obama's CIA. It contains much that has already been reported, and connects the dots on some things that may not have been clear. For example, what was the Mar-A-Lago raid REALLY about?

I encourage you to read Berger's entire post.

Kurt Schlichter on Tucker Carlson's Interview with Putin

 At Townhall.com today, Kurt Schlichter has an essay entitled Tucker Carlson Is A Convenient Distraction For Our Failed Elite. Frankly, I personally think Schlichter is too kind to our "elite," which term should be enclosed in scare quotes wherever it occurs. Schlichter notes that Carlson went to Russia to interview Vladamir Putin and let him explain himself. If there was any fault, it was not with Carlson, who was only doing his job, but with Putin, who was shown to be a fabulist, and with our so-called "elite" who think we are too stupid to see the man for who and what he is. Or maybe they are afraid we might see too much of him in them?

Vladimir Putin set up Tucker Carlson by murdering Alexis Navalny just days after Tucker‘s controversial visit to Moscow and interview. That’s what happens when a scorpion rides on your back – it’s going to sting you to death even if it’s riding you across the river and will end up drowning itself, too. But the frenzy over Tucker Carlson‘s visit is still massively overblown, and the intensity of it by the ruling class is less an indication of righteous indignation than an attempt to distract from modern America’s shortcomings. Tucker Carlson is not correct in all his details, but Tucker Carlson is correct that our ruling class has completely abandoned, and oppresses, the people it presumes to lead. He’s right to point that out, and he should keep pointing that out.

Tucker Carlson’s not a personal friend – I met him once (at fellow Townhall agitator Derek Hunter’s wedding to the lovely Heather) and did a couple of media hits with him years ago, and he was very pleasant. Others who know him better call him a radical contrarian, but swear by him as a loyal and thoughtful person. There’s one thing that can’t honestly be disputed. Tucker Carlson is an American patriot. Members of our ruling elite will recoil in horror at that reality, but the fact is that they equate patriotism with obedience and respect for themselves, not for America itself. Tucker has neither. He incites our trash ruling class by speaking undeniable truths, like: “Every leader kills people, including my leader. Some kill more than others. Leadership requires killing people.” He sees clearly the failures of our own establishment even as he’s accused of being blind to the failures of foreign dictators.

So, Schlichter confirms that Carlson is a good guy, if sometimes mistaken. Well, who isn't sometimes mistaken on some subject or another. According to Mrs. PolyKahr, I am mistaken about nearly everything, so your humble correspondent is, if anything, humble. In the next paragraph, if it wasn't already obvious, he declares Putin a murderous scum-bag. No surprise there either. I was once asked by a subject of Russia if I respected Putin. I said, "Yes, I respect him as I do a rattle snake."

Having set the table, he goes on to the heart of his essay: namely that Carlson is angry, and many of his viewers are angry too, that America has been brought low on purpose. This was and is intentional, and Carlson, being a patriot, is mad as hell, and you should be too.

As I have said before, the greatest foreign policy disaster of the last three decades has been the alienation of Russia from the West. That didn’t have to happen. Our ruling class, in its arrogance and greed and ideological blindness, helped make it happen. That’s not to say the Russians are not to blame too. It’s a nation of thieves. But we Americans can only control what we do, and we let cheap domestic politics drive our Russia policy. All this elite hatred of Russia used to be unfashionable. Once upon a time, our cosmopolitan elite loved the Russians – remember that horrible Sting song? It was the Neanderthals who opposed Russia. Then Donald Trump came along, and calling him a Russian puppet became politically useful, so suddenly Russia became bad, and American strategic objectives be damned.

That’s an indictment of our own failed elites. And they haven’t just failed on Russia. They have failed in Afghanistan and Iraq and Libya, and on and on and on. How about our open border? How about the pandemic? How about the mutilation of kids and DEI and Soros prosecutors? On and on it goes. Has anyone ever been held responsible for these failures? Has anyone in the elite paid a price? Who is the guy who got fired over any of this? Thousands dead, millions impoverished, and our elite shrugs and goes on to the next disaster. That’s what angers Tucker Carlson and the many millions of people who see the world as he does. It should anger them. And it should anger you, too.

Tucker Carlson does not love dictators – if he did, he’d be another rump-sniff trailing our garbage elite. When Tucker Carlson points out that the Moscow subway is beautiful, he’s not saying that Russia is great. He’s asking us why the subways in our capital are urine-soaked hellholes full of lowlifes and criminals. And why the hell are they? We’re supposed to be the greatest country on earth. Lord knows our elite believes it’s the greatest group of people who have ever blessed our planet. Yet you can’t walk 30 feet in the DC subway without stepping in hobo droppings. Tucker is not saying America should be more like Russia. Tucker is saying America should be more like America. We used to build great things, do great things, be a great nation. But look around you – all you see are filth and crime, degeneracy and social pathologies. Where is our ruling class when some street thug is beating citizens in the streets? It’s on MSNBC complaining that Tucker Carlson is a treasonous traitor of treachery for pointing out how our would-be masters suck.

No, what Tucker Carlson is is angry. He’s angry because we can do better. He’s angry because we should do better. He’s angry because we’re not doing better, and it looks intentional. When Tucker goes to a Russian supermarket and looks at the prices, he may be inartful, but he’s got a point – the prices at our supermarkets are crushing normal Americans. That’s the issue, not the aesthetics. But the aesthetics are always what they want to talk about because if they talk about the substance, people might wake up.

Gentle readers can read the entire post. Schlichter has scored a bullseye here. He has precisely captured what Carlson intended. The American people should be able to see and hear Putin, and any other person without interference from our so-called "elite." Attempts to censor them are not only morally wrong, legally wrong, but Un-American and Unconstitutional. Carlson is right, we can and should do better

The Left Goes Berserk Over Study That Shows Their Narrative Is B.S.

 I have several pieces to highlight today, in no particular order.  Starting here though, is an article at Townhall.com by Matt Vespa entitled 'All Hell Breaks Loose' Harvard Professor Recalls One Study That Caused the Left the (sic) Implode. I am not surprised because the Left is in part a machine to generate outrage on cue. Cartoonist Al Capp had it right when he came up with the "Students Wildly Indignant About Nearly Everything" or S.W.I.N.E. In this case, the Harvard professor, who is black, by the way, did a study to find out if police shootings were indeed caused by bias against blacks. The upshot was they could find no racial bias. To make sure, he repeated the study with different researchers, to find the same thing.

Harvard professor Roland Fryer conducted a study that was timely and thought-provoking at a time when officer-involved shootings have become a media beat that’s not interested in the truth but a way for over-educated pseudo commentators to offer lectures about white supremacy and police overreach. Remember, these shootings are part of a covert genocide against black men. More often than not, the police’s use of deadly force turns out to be justifiable. Fryer opted to do a study on whether there were racial biases in these shootings. His study suggested race was not a factor, which caused everyone to lose their minds. Being a thorough scholar, he redid the study and hired a new team of researchers. The results were the same.

Fryer has come back into the news after he sat down with former New York Times editorial writer Bari Weiss, who also fled due to her former place of employment becoming an illiberal cesspool. Fryer said his study would ruin his career. He was forced to obtain armed security due to the backlash. You could say Fryer was canceled after sexual misconduct allegations were lobbed against him, which caused him to be suspended and close his research department. Then-President Claudine Gay said of these allegations, "The totality of these behaviors is a clear violation of institutional norms and a betrayal of the trust."

You will want to read the whole article, of course, and please click on the embedded video. It is telling that the Left doesn't want to have anything like an academic study get in the way of a good narrative.

The Evil One Shows His Fear

 Eric Utter has a post at the American Thinker entitled Evil silencing good that makes the point that conservatives and Christians need to stand up for what is right and true as loudly and fearlessly as those pushing evil on us and our children.

“Evil preaches tolerance until it is dominant, then it tries to silence good.” —Archbishop Charles J. Chaput

That is a remarkably astute observation, perfectly stated.

And such a true and important concept that it should be taught in every school at every level.

Longtime readers know I do not consider tolerance to be a virtue, per se. This should not be a novel idea, nor particularly difficult to grasp. Tolerance of differing food or musical tastes, for example, is good. Tolerance of murder and incest is not. Archbishop Chaput realizes that the left preaches tolerance for all things it likes, but not so much for those it doesn’t. And, when it acquires power, it uniformly tries to shut down and shut up any entity with which it disagrees. And, especially, anyone that could challenge its power and control.

I have long realized three things that are essential to understanding the world as it stands today. One: tolerance is not necessarily a virtue. Two: there is an ongoing, if largely unrecognized, battle between good and evil. And three: the only way good can prevail over evil-- and ultimate chaos and meaninglessness -- is for the majority of people to be courageous enough to tell the truth. Archbishop Chaput’s statement encompasses all of these beliefs in one succinct assertion.

Tolerance is the willingness to put up with opinions, behaviors, or situations with which one does not agree. In this country we "tolerate" gays and lesbians for example. In Muslim countries they throw them off a roof. Muslims are intolerant. As Christians, we tolerate many things, up to a point. We do this because as long as a person is alive, the Holy Spirit may inspire a person to repent and change. But one has to realize that today the evil ones have taken our tolerance as weakness, as license to invade our public space with all sorts of perversions God finds anathema.

As adults, we can "tolerate" many things. But we cannot tolerate our children's exposure to these things. We have to draw the line and draw it hard. Teachers may do things that parents might not approve of, but as long as these things don't intrude into the classroom, we can tolerate them. And certainly, we cannot tolerate them doing anything secretly with our children. Our children are our sacred responsibility to raise. Teachers, on the other hand are hired to provide education in specific subjects. They are hardly able to raise our children because they do not have a true relationship with them.

There is a bizarre — and dangerous — double standard, a two-tier justice system that has taken hold in modern day America. “MAGA” supporters are arrested at the drop of a hat, whereas members of BLM, Antifa, and various other assorted radicals are treated with kid gloves. No one is allowed to so much as raise their voice against the indoctrination — or mutilation — of their kids in a parent-teacher meeting, yet threatening conservatives is damn near de rigueur. Just days ago a group of radicals surrounded the conservative Heritage Foundation’s building, with a couple activists telling the crowd that they need to find out “where they live,” “where their office is,” and “where they go to church,” referring to those inside.

To the last, I say bring it on. Our God has already won.

This two-tiered justice system is something we definityly should not tolerate either for ourselves or for others. We should demand a single form uf justice for all, not simply complain that there are two teirs. We know what happens if the normal people stayed silent.

THEY work for US, Part II

 I did not get to this post yesterday as I had to work, but J. B. Shurk had a great post that expanded on my own of the day before that we are forgetting that They work for US, not the other way around.  His post can be found at the American Thinker entitled A Western Consensus Is Brewing. He sets the table thus:

However, something fundamental has been shifting beneath our feet. If you look at how civil conflict has been discussed on websites and internet forums over recent years, a noticeable trend emerges. Talk of “civil war” between various coalitions of states transformed into calls for “independence” from tyrannical government on par with America’s 1776 founding. In turn, calls for an American-style “revolution” against government abuse have transformed into the kind of rage against a “permanent ruling class” that existed before the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror.

This shift is significant. “Civil war” connotes a feeling that Americans will be fighting one another. A “1776-style struggle for Independence” reflects a belief that the federal government must be brought to heel. Widespread discussions of how to rid the country of an unaccountable bureaucracy with more allegiance to fellow globalists from the World Economic Forum than to fellow citizens from America’s heartland reveal a growing recognition of and antipathy for an entrenched ruling aristocracy.

Governments don’t mind when citizens quarrel. In fact, that old “divide and conquer” scheme is Washington’s favorite tactic for keeping Americans too busy fighting one another to notice what kind of mischief is going on in D.C. Governments would prefer that citizens not speak about “freedom” or “liberty” because those ideas are antithetical to bureaucratic mandates, institutional power-grabs, and rhetorical appeals to authority. Still, so long as an Orwellian news media establishment and a Machiavellian political class can work together to impugn “liberty” as “selfish” or “hateful,” then the powers that be largely succeed in twisting the meaning of “freedom” into a love for Big Government policies or a patriotic subservience to the State. However, when ordinary people begin to set aside their differences and instead turn their fury toward those holding the reins of power, well, Katie, bar the door — trouble’s brewing!

He points out that the jack booted thuggery we are seeing in America today, the two tiered justice system and the lawfare, including the Soviet style kangaroo courts, the cancellation of people who speak the truth, the attempts to censor anyone conservative, and of course the on-going persecution of J6 defendants betrays a growing panic on the Left. The Left would not be so bold if it were not extremely fearful of us.

This should not have to be said, but no society can be described as “free” unless that society can engage in free speech. Likewise, there can be no free speech unless the public is free to criticize and disagree with the government. Any government that claims a monopoly to determine what is true is a government hostile to dissent, debate, and democratic self-rule.

Western governments have so betrayed their duties to act as custodians of Enlightenment-inspired human rights that they have become as tyrannical as the tyrants against whom they posture. They are now little more than a collection of feudal lords using the trappings of their offices to enrich an insular “ruling class” while impoverishing and diminishing the masses.

I don't think there is one magic bullet that will save this nation, nor do I believe that the entire nation should be saved. Collectively, we have betrayed our founding, and God who preserved us. As Wild Bill for America always ends his youtube talks, "America bless God again." We need to do that, a lot. But we also need to vote more discerningly for those who would like to see the government, not America, brought down to manageable size. We must realize that the government cannot be all things to all people, especially because all people do not want the same things. We can, of course, tolerate these Satanic ideas as long as we are not forced to accept them. But laws that force it upon us, like Colorado tried to do to a cake shop cannot stand.

As an aside, I have always heard people complaining that the United States is for them a hell hole. When I ask them, quite sincerely, why they don't leave, they give me a number of lame answers. But I am still sincere. America is unique in the world, and it is exceptional. Oh, not in the way Leftists portray the term, but because of our founding as a representative republic. A number of not so unique nations are happy to have you take up citizenship in their countries. Go!

Remember too that I said that THEY, the government, work for US, the citizen, not the other way around. What person has a servant that is better armed than he is? Would a servant be allowed to tell his boss that he could not be armed? Imagine such a situation! That servant would be fired on the spot. They say they want to ban this gun, or that magazine. We say, "Who are you to tell us what we can and cannot have." We don't need such a big government making up laws upon laws that are simply redundant. Instead, we can govern ourselves by just making a sincere effort to follow the 10 Commandments.

They Work for Us

 Dan Wos at Ammoland has an analysis of the shooting at Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas entitled Is the Politial Left Creating a Victim/Predator Society? Gentle readers can Wos's article. He makes the point that so-called "transgender" people are mentally disturbed, and need to be treated for the malady, not celebrated. Then there is the anitsemitism and pro-Palestinian Left that seems to drive people...well...nuts.

What I want to bring up is at the end of his article:

It’s time to ask ourselves if we will continue to allow our elected employees to keep Americans in a perpetual state of unarmed helplessness, even after watching these brutal attacks time and time again. Is a victim/predator society the goal of the political left? If so, why?

We too often forget that they work for us. We pay their salary. They forget that too. Biden, with the connivance of Congress uses our tax dollars to encourage the invasion of our country in order to dilute our votes and bring our enemies inside our borders. This should have everyone boiling mad. The thing to do, of course, is to get rid of an awful lot of bureaucrats and replace our elected officials.  Then keep a close eye on these vipers.

Tucker Carlson Is Wrong. Russia Is A Third World Country With Nukes and Oil

 David Harsanyi, over at The Federalist has an article today entitled Tucker Carlson Is Wrong About the Moscow - And The United States. Harsanyi opens with:

At the World Government Summit, Tucker Carlson told a gathering of world leaders that Moscow “was so much nicer than any city” in the United States. “It’s radicalizing for an American to go to Moscow,” Tucker went on. “I didn’t know that. I’ve learned it this week, to Singapore, to Tokyo, to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, because these cities, no matter how we’re told they’re run and on what principles they’re run, are wonderful places to live that don’t have rampant inflation.”

He goes on to note that Carlson is way off in his assessment here, and I agree with him. Now, I haven't been to as many places as Carlson, or Harsanyi. But I have been to a few, and none of them beat living in the USA, even now. I've been to Panama, Costa Rica, Germany (briefly), Denmark, Norway, Sweeden and Finland. I could have gone to St. Petersburg, Russia, but at the time I was employed by the Navy. They had pretty strict rules about going there.

We lived in Panama for several years, and the people are nice, friendly, but no more so than people back here. But what locals could read, what books were available, was all heavily controlled. As Americans living on an American Naval Station, we had access to news, books, and other entertainment from home. But not so the ex-pats who lived in Panama. I really liked coming home. As an aside, we often asked my Mom to tape shows for us with the commercials, because we missed them.

We also took a trip to Scandanavia with our church. We went to see the how the Scandanavian countries uniquely implimented the construction of churces there. Unlike elsewhere, where there were stone cathedrals, the Scandanavian churches are wooden affairs. But we discovered that few people actually attended them, unlike back home. A five star hotel in Bergen, Norway would be on par with a typical Holiday Inn here. The famous Tivoli Garden in Copenhagan is about like a local city park here. Nothing really special. There is a lot of travel by bicycle, because people can't afford cars.

Here's the bottom line: The conditions under which the average person live in all these places was worse than back home. Sometimes, much worse. Now, I understand why many of these people resent us, for it is true that but for the grace of being born here, we too might be one of these people. We are fortunate, not only because we are here, but because of a unique set of laws that have made us prosperous and free, though our enemies are trying to change that. We are also fortunate because we are a child of Britain, where our ideas about government and the rules of laws not men were born. We should be grateful to God and should be humbled by that realization. We should seek to be the shining city on the hill, not trying to burn the place down.

As for Russia, Harsanyi notes:

There probably isn’t a single quantifiable economic measure in which Russia bests the United States. None of this is even to mention that Russia is an extraordinarily corrupt place, the price of which is embedded into virtually every business transaction. I’m not sure Americans appreciate how little graft they deal with in their everyday lives. Then again, Russia ranks in the vicinity of Uganda and Togo on the corruption indexes.

The only thing more pervasive than bribery is alcoholism and suicide. Russians have far worse medical care than we do. Far smaller homes. Fewer things to buy. Fewer places to see. Less mobility. Less innovation. Less meritocracy.

Not everything is about money, of course. Religious commitment? Around 50-65 percent of Americans claimed religion was important to them (depending on the poll). In Russia, it’s at 16-34 percent. The Russian divorce rate is at 74 percent, the highest in the world. And even though we’re headed in the wrong direction, we still have more children. But sure, crime has fallen over the years — though it is still higher in the Russian capital than most American cities.

I’m a big fan of Russian culture — Dostoevsky, Shostakovich, Tarkovsky, and so on. But that doesn’t change the fact that 20 percent of Russian households don’t have indoor plumbing. Or that a third of Russian hospitals don’t have running water. If you think infrastructure is bad here, I have news. Russia ranks 52nd on the Human Development Index. It’s basically a third-world country with nukes and an enormous reserve of oil and natural gas but little else.

I really don't know what Carlson was thinking. Perhaps his surroundings made him feel as if telling it like it is would not be well received. I don't know. But he got it wrong this time.

Biden Administration to Rely on Witch Doctors

At the American Thinker today Olivia Murray has a post that tells you all you need to know about what our government thinks is "science." Her post can be found at CDC and FDA poised to exchange one pseudoscience for another: "Indigenous Knowledge" set to replace "Follow the Science". Of course Murray is not belittling indigenous knowledge, for that is what many generations of people have come to know, as even she uses topical peppermint oil for her childrens' infections, thus avoiding dangerous antibiotics that destroy the gut microbiome. Mothers have used such remedies for...well...forever.

No, what Murray is pointing out is that both catch phrases are being used by the Biden administration to virtue-signal to their base while implying that we knuckle-dragging conservatives are just too unsophisticated...beyond the pale really, to even understand. What they are doing in fact is further undermining the medical professions, which have taken a real beating since going "woke."

The marketers and public relations consultants behind the “follow the science” campaign of the Covid-era left were definitely the B-team, and it seems like despite the failure, they still have their jobs. As a New York Times columnist wrote of the catchphrase:

"When Donald Trump was president and making false statements to downplay Covid, ‘follow the science’ began to gain popularity. Now, it also serves as a response to the many incorrect statements that vaccine opponents make. President Biden likes to promise that he will follow the science, to signal his difference from Trump and deference to the C.D.C."

"The phrase does have its uses. It’s a rejection of myth…."

Well, that didn’t age well, because it appears as though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), along with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), are poised to exchange the pseudoscience of Big Pharma with… let’s all welcome “Indigenous Knowledge” to the asylum that is the federal bureaucracy. (And for those wondering, no, this is neither farce nor satire.)

Now, I have always thought that one of the things the American public owes its startling increase in lifespan to is the invention of flush toilet, along with sanitary sewers and sewage treatment, and fresh potable water pumped to the house. That eliminated a ton of waterborne diseases. By allowing bums to defecate on the public streets, San Fransico is flirting with a return of these diseases. Next would be the elimination of malaria in this country through the use of DDT. We are flirting with a return to this scourge by letting people in without checking their health status. But medicine played its roll too in knocking out many remaining infectious diseases like smallpox and polio. Indeed, now it seems that most deaths are due to chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease, and various lifestyle diseases.

 (sarcasm on)Who knew that we didn't need any of that. We could have relied on "indigenous knowledge" instead and avoided all those expensive medical treatments.  Who knows, maybe if the Biden administration had thought of this sooner, we wouldn't have needed Obamacare?(end sarcasm)

Ignore the "He Gets Us" Campaign

 I was at rehearsal for our handbell choir at church yesterday evening, so did not catch Andrea Widburg´s excellent essay telling us that During the Super Bowl, leftists crusaded to recreate Christ in a cultural Marxist mode at the American Thinker. I have said before that it is impossible to be a Christian, in the Biblical understanding of Christ, and at the same time to be a socialist. Marxism is socialism, and in truth, Marx would have agreed. He called religion, any religion, the opiate of the masses. Leftists have sidled up to Muslims, but eventually they intend to kill them off too. After all, for leftists, they believe themselves to be their own highest power.

Widburg is a Jew, but living in this society, it is pretty difficult not to be exposed to some Christian thinking, and she rightly identifies the actual Jesus of the Bible. Jesus claims, and I believe he is, to be the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. He is the God who created the world, the Alpha and Omega. He is before the world began and is after it ends. It was He that gave Moses the 10 Commandments, inscribed in stone tablets by His finger on Mount Sinai. He has not changed. He is the one who dispatches those who come into His presence without purifying themselves, but invites Moses and the 70 elders of Israel into his presence and does not kill them. As Jesus says, His Spirit blows where it will, calls who He will, forgives who He wills.

Now, Jesus is referred to as the Son of God, and Christians believe that God is a trinity.  It is a mystery, and in truth you should not try to overthink it.  Just accept that Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one being, at once separate and equal.  Just go with it.

When the Devil speaks, it is always a lie wrapped in a distorted truth that makes it hard to see the Truth and discern the lie. In this case, the notion that "He gets us" is true, but not in the way you might think. Yes, He gets us because He created us. He knows us better than we know ourselves. In the Psalms it says that he knew each of us before the world began. Eventually, He came to live among us, suffer the same temptations and afflictions we do, but unlike us, He was sinless. Thus He was able to die as the Pascal Lamb to take our sins onto himself and reconcile us to Him. But washing the deciples feet was to show that He is a servant to the people who believe in Him. At the same time it was pretty clear that our response to Him ought to be repentance, thanksgiving, and following his commands.

Gentle readers can read Widburg's essay, and they should. But if you aren't a Christian, and you want to find out who Jesus was, may I suggest that you start by reading Paul's Epistle to the Romans, as a good explanation of basic Christianity. It was written within about 30 years after Jesus's crucifixion. Then read all four Gospels, not as historical fact, though you will find many facts, but as statements of faith. If you want more, and you should, begin reading the Torah, the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Those books will tell you who the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is. Then start going to a liturgical church, preferable a Missouri Synod Lutheran church, and start asking questions. Oh, yeah, don't believe anything the popular culture or the MSM tells you about Christ. As Paul says, read for yourself and test everything you hear, including this post.

Gentle readers should also read Raymond Ibrahim's article at the same source entitled 'Stop Hating, Wash Feet' in which he makes the point that Christians are supposed to fight for Christ. Granted that Christ gave the instruction to turn the other cheek. But that was in specific circumstances where someone was being insulting, or otherwise being condecsending, but not life threatening. But He did not intend for you to be beaten to death. He also instructed his deciples to carry a weapon. Being a Christian is not for the faint hearted, the weak, or the stupid.

Democracy Is Two Wolves and a Lamb Deciding What's For Dinner

It used to be that Virginia was a Red State.  North of the border in Maryland and New England was occupied America, but in Virginia we were still free.  Now, Virginia, despite Youngkin's still being governor is a decidedly Blue State.  And to show its blueness, they are doing their very best to pass a ban on scary looking rifles that everybody owns and uses.

Today, North Carolina is a Purple State.  But due to the desire by the politicians, who offer sweetheart deals Big Tech and the EV industry to come here, we are being invaded by leftists from all over the country.  And of course, a number of people from New York have come here looking for lower taxes and a better quality of life.  Taken all together, it is fine for people to come here, but why do they have to bring their politics with them?

Today at the American Thinker Stephan Helgesen has a post entitle Red state dilemma: stand up to incoming progressive residence or flee? that sums up what we are facing. He specifically cites Colorado as an example, but the problem is everywhere throughout the Red states. Progressives are moving to these Red states from the Blue, and then voting in the very laws and policies that befouled their own nests back home.

No one can dispute how politically different Red states are from Blue states in our super-polarized country. When a large group of ideologically motivated people (usually leftists) move into a state, county, or neighborhood, things invariably change. The question for conservatives, who are usually the ones whose nice communities are changed for the worse, is whether they should flee or fight.

The once-conservative People’s Republic of Colorado perfectly proves how an influx of leftists changes an area. Most recently, Colorado decided to remove Donald Trump from the ballot.

...snip...

Staying with Colorado for a moment, the voters in two principal zip codes decide life for everyone else in the state: Denver, with 198,928 registered Democrats, 45,493 Republicans, and 191,316 unaffiliated (but leaning Democrat) voters, and Boulder, with 93,721 Democrats, 26,789 Republicans, and 97,014 unaffiliated (but leaning Democrat) voters. It’s no wonder that city councils and county governments can and are dictating what is or isn’t acceptable behavior at the ballot boxes and in the courts.

These big city zealots have consistently forced business owners to subordinate their religious beliefs if they are to stay in business. Home-grown Coloradans like cake-makers and website designers were persecuted by Colorado’s courts for daring to defend their beliefs and for standing up to the new wave of Progressives who now represent that state’s political majority.

As the recent effort to remove Trump from the Colorado ballot shows, though, this tyranny of the majority doesn’t stop with persecuting Colorado’s own citizens. Had they been successful, they would have erased any possibility that disaffected Democrats and independents might turn away from Biden and, instead, joined with conservatives to cast their vote for Trump.

Colorado is emblematic of the new Left’s strategy to win nationally by winning locally, by any means possible. The state is also working hard to change the culture by remaking it as a Leftist utopia (some would say dystopia) where only one opinion is acceptable. It is on a crusade to create a uni-culture based on wokeness and political correctness, and woe betide anyone who gets in the way of that crusade.

I vaguely remember a project a number of years ago by libertarians to have a bunch of them move to New Hampshire to change the state to be more libertarian. Being libertarians, that never worked. But the Leftists seemed to have picked it up and are infiltrating conservative states. There is currently no way to stop them.  The Constitution allows people to travel freely and to settle where they wish.  But it does place a real dilemma on the shoulders of conservatives.

Buying A First Gun for Self-Defense?

 Mike McDaniel has A basic, brief, semiautomatic pistol primer. Like McDaniel, I learned to shoot revolvers in the 1900s. Back then, semiautomatics were just a bit unreliable. If you had to use one in self defense, one wanted it to go bang, no questions.  We called semiautomatics "jamamatics." Frankly, I still love the Smith and Wesson Model 19 for its accuracy. As they say in Star Wars, an elegant weapon for a different age.

McDaniel likes weapons manufactured by Glock. It is a fine, and reliable handgun, and the manual of arms is simple, which is important when the doggy do do hits the oscillating air mover. I personally find the ergonomics of Gaston Glock's firearms to be off putting. Instead, I prefer 1911 style firearms. 1911s were somewhat unreliable in the old days, but manufacturing technology has greatly improved.

You’ve noticed tens of thousands of terrorists and members of the Chinese Army are skipping across the border. The Mummified Meat Puppet Administration (MMPA) is delighted, and doing everything it can to keep them coming. Texans have known this forever, but you’ve decided it’s time to exercise your natural, unalienable right to self-defense. But what kind of handgun to buy? Perhaps a semiautomatic?

I learned to shoot with revolvers. Back in the 1400s, there were few semiauto choices, and reliability was an issue. Making just about any semiauto reliable required a trip to the gunsmith who would fix all the issues manufacturers just didn’t address. Circa 2024, manufacturers do address those issues, and semiautos tend to be reliable out of the box, though they are somewhat more ammunition sensitive than revolvers—Some guns simply function better with some makes and bullet weights than others.

If you are thinking of buying a gun for self-defense gentle readers might start with McDaniel's article. I would add that you should try a number of different guns to find out which ones you shoot the best.  But which ones you shoot best is only one consideration.  You will also need a good holster, a sturdy gun belt, and a strategy for keeping your concealed carry ...well...concealed. You also will need some training and practice, practice, practice. You want to practice your draw until you can do it in your sleep. Finally, you will need to acquire some cleaning and maintenance supplies. Even a Glock needs to be cleaned every now and again.

We Do Not Have A Democracy, Either Direct or Representative

After Thursdays post, I hate to be a Debbie Downer, but there are things of which gentle readers need to be made aware. I have harped on this before, but this is the first time I have seen another writer bring this up.  Molly Slag, at the American Thinker has a piece today entitled Do We Have A Democracy? the main point of which is that, when most of the "laws" are made, enforced by, and adjudicated by, unelected bureaucrats, no, we don't.

 It is wrong, it is unconstitutional, but you can see why Congress would like to put the burden on to unelected bureaucrats. After all, is anyone of our 535 members of Congress and the Senate really excited about PM10 or PM2.5? Can anyone but a Squad member seriously propose to spend 10s of millions dollars per person to make the country safer for the very vulnerable? And if so, why are there so many still needing oxygen units to live?

The weight of the many regulations that affect literally every aspect of our lives can be measured in dollars which one estimate puts at $1.9 trillion. Now the Office of Management and Budget claims that the "benefits" far outweigh the costs. But do they, or is this just more government gas-lighting? These regulations are usually a one size fits all sort of thing. For instance, if you need a new water closet, it will be a low flow water closet. ALL new water closets are low flow. Now, low flow may make sense in California where water is scarce. Here in North Carolina, we usually have so much water it literally flows off the land and into the rivers and streams to exit in the ocean. But when you must defecate, you also must flush at least twice, sometimes three times to get all the particles down the drain. One wonders how much water is saved?

The US Constitution provides in Article 1 Section 1:

"All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives."

This says in very plain words that all of the federal government’s legislative powers are vested in Congress. That means no person or institution has any power to make a federal law except Congress. Hence, no one can enact federal law except the people’s elected representatives. That is the constitutional guarantee of the representative form of democracy in the federal legislative branch.

In particular, the bureaucracy has no power to make laws. That is, no federal agency can write laws. But of course, today, they all do! Federal administrative regulations have the force of laws, and their total mass and effect are far greater than congressionally-created laws.

This points us to two recent cases challenging the Chevron Deference doctrine, which gives deference to federal agencies in cases challenging their rulings. If the Supreme Court overturns Chevron it will start to unravel the tangled web of federal regulation. But it will only be a first step in a long process of unwinding the deep state.

A Bit of Hope

  Nothing seems inspiring me today.  Mostly the news is talk of this or that candidate's chances in that race and what it may mean for the future.  But I have long ago figured out that the only polls that matter are the polls on election day...or election season as it now plays out.  As noted in Ecclesiastes, Vanity of vanities.  All is vanity.  It is depressing.  But then, someone points out that we must continue because the war is not lost, man is not doomed, there is salvation in Christ our Savior, if we believe.  Such a one today is J. B. Shurk at the American Thinker in an essay entitled A Moment in History Pregnant With Purpose.

Shurk starts by pointing out that the situation today reminds us of the Revolutionary War period. Looking back on it today, it may seem inevitable. But it was far from certain. He notes that the founding generation took nearly 50 years to bring about our Constitutional Republic, the longest lasting republic in history. I would point out too that many people sacrificed their fortunes and lives to bequeath this Republic to us. And it is a republic, not a democracy. So when you hear someone talking about "our democracy," they are spewing lies.

But then Shurk gets down to what it is that gives us the strength, the courage, and the faith to keep going, even to be happy warriors in the face of all the evil in the world.

Still, even during the chaos of the late eighteenth century, people got married, had families, formed communities, and persevered through trials and tribulations that most of us have never endured. The “American Experiment” might have been the finest jewel of the Enlightenment, but to have read Thomas Paine’s Common Sense in the local tavern, to have endured British occupation in Boston, or to have been on the receiving end of the first volleys at Lexington and Concord would have felt like the beginnings of a long journey with just as many tortuous uncertainties as inspired truths. If America’s success story was foreordained, it is because America’s Founders steadfastly believed in God’s gift of freedom.

...snip...

Do you believe in God? If so, then do not allow yourself to be mesmerized by despair. If the Devil showed up at your doorstep with a billion-demon army and demanded that you join, would you acquiesce to your conscription? Or, having been forced to confront the existence of Evil face to face, would you dust off the full armor of God and pray for strength, guidance, and grace? Often, it is when we are tested most harshly that we find courage that we never knew we had. Do you think that’s because God prefers ninth-inning comebacks, or perhaps because God knows that to get the best from each one of us, He must challenge the very fiber of our souls?

Do you question that God’s hand is sculpting the challenges we face today? If so, it is never too late to “awaken” to God’s truth and, through His truth, to find implacable strength. As one of the most popular Christian hymns ever written ebulliently declares: “Amazing grace! How sweet the sound / That saved a wretch like me! / I once was lost, but now am found; / Was blind, but now I see.” John Newton, an English slave-trader turned evangelical cleric and abolitionist, wrote that stanza, coincidentally enough, around the same time that Americans were declaring their independence from Great Britain. Throughout history, spiritual awakenings have consistently provided the timely foundations for every great struggle for human liberty. Ours is not at all different.

Enlightenments are messy. Social and political revolutions are fraught with unpleasant moments. Every quest for human emancipation is filled with heartaches, setbacks, and miseries. Yet it is what we do with the obstacles before us that changes the course of history. We are not expected to pick up the weight of history, heave it over our shoulders, and carry it to the place it belongs. We are nudgers. We push and pull at the current and help shape its path. You feel that impulse in your soul, don’t you? That’s because God is nudging each one of us, too.

Gentle readers should read the entire piece. We all need to be reminded from time to time that we have a purpose in God's plan. It may, in the scheme of things, be a small purpose, but it is important nonetheless. Also remember that God demands loyalty and trust. No hedging your bets by appealing to other gods. The Universalist philosophy is false. So, buck up, don't lose hope, but remember that it is not the various candidates, who come and go, the God of Abraham, of Issac, and Jacob with whom we should be concerned.

Leftists Only Know How to Tear Down

 Vince Conyer at the American Thinker today noted that Leftists Disconnected From How Things Work Are Destroying Everything. It is true that a lot, maybe even a majority of these Leftist bastards are people who produce nothing. I don't mean that they produce nothing, but rather nothing of any practical use.  The world would not notice if they stopped.  But if they succeed in turning us back to a pre-industrial society, these are the very people who would not survive because they have no skills. Life was, as Thomas Hobbs noted, nasty, brutish and short.

Conyer takes us on a brief history of innovation and invention, what we would call today call "technology" that revolutionized the way we live. In the process, we rose from living an average of 30 years, to 47 years at the turn of the 20th century, to today at close to 80 years.  It is a remarkable feat.

I’ve always been a fan of the prosperity created by Western civilization in general and the United States in particular. Indeed, I even created a website called Gratitude for America, where I write about American entrepreneurs who invented things like barbed wire and standardized shipping containers. But maybe there’s a downside to this prosperity because we’ve created a class of people (especially in government) completely disconnected from how the world actually works.

Cyrus McCormick, who invented the mechanical reaper, is the most important entrepreneur in human history. He basically untethered mankind from farming, one of the most dangerous occupations on earth. In 1831, when he invented the mechanical reaper, approximately 80% of the American population was involved in agriculture, and, in most places in the world, it was higher—in some cases, 95%.

Back then, farming’s efficiency hadn’t changed much since the time of the pyramids. A man, using a scythe, could harvest approximately one acre of grain a day. Fifty years later, McCormick guaranteed that, by using his machine, a farmer could harvest 15 acres a day. With today’s machines, a farmer can harvest up to 100 acres in a day. Small wonder that only 3% of the US population today farms.

The reason McCormick is so important is not because of farming, per se, but because he freed up most of the population to go out and do other, less dangerous things. With that shift, work-life expectancies began to skyrocket in the latter half of the 19th century. In 1800, the average life expectancy was approximately 30 years, with Europe averaging 33 and the US close behind. By 1900, the world average had increased to 32, but in Europe it had jumped to 43 and in the US to 47.

...snip...

In the 20th century, things really took off. Today, a quarter of the way through the 21st century, world life expectancy is 72 years, while in the US, it’s 78, and in Western Europe, it’s above 80.

Not only are we living longer, but we’re also prosperous beyond anything in human history. Our food is more varied, dependable, and plentiful than ever. We have transportation, hospitalization, housing, employment, clothing, education, sanitation, entertainment, and leisure opportunities exponentially beyond anything in all of human history.

It is important to know how recent all this is. My father and grandfather together lived through the transition from horse and mule power to today's mechanization. To illustrate, WWI, my grandfather's war, was fought with horse cavalry. By WWII the fighting was with armored cavalry. All of this mechanization freed the majority of people to do something other than daily slave to find food and water. Enough used that freedom wisely to improve life for everyone else. But some used it poorly and tried to tear down what they could not build.

The average Westerner’s life is far superior to any experienced by 99.999% of the people who ever lived, but, somehow, everyone today is a victim—and we know that everyone is a victim because the elites tell us so. Through schools, media, and government, we’re told that Western culture is racist, sexist, fascist, or somehow otherwise oppressive. Basically, the better things get, the worse they get.

...snip...

The reason those elites, the ones who seek to manipulate the public, get away with it is because a significant portion of the population believes them. And they believe them because of the division of labor-driven prosperity that McCormick unleashed.

Virtually the entire left in this country has zero connection with anything having to do with creating anything, growing anything, building anything, or risking anything. They spend their days pushing paper in offices or selling cappuccinos, if they work at all. Not only are few of them farmers, but few are truckers, lumberjacks, steel workers, plumbers, electricians, or entrepreneurs. Few have ever had to balance paying a credit card bill versus making payroll. Few ever risked their money and invested sweat equity to start a business.

There was a program on the Discovery Channel several years ago called Dirty Jobs, hosted by Mike Rowe. Each week Rowe would take us to somewhere a person was doing a dirty and dangerous, but necessary job. These jobs were necessary to keep America running. The WEFers should have watched that show to see how many unnoticed things are necessary to keep a high tech society running. You can't do this with robots. It takes men with tools, skills and guts to perform these jobs. They are the salt of the earth. Leftist scum are just...well...scum.

The FBI Violating Americans' Fourth Amendment Rights

 Mike McDaniel at the American Thinker today has a post exposing us to the malfeasance of the FBI in their effort to go after Private Vaults in Los Angeles county. McDaniel starts out with this:

Most Americans don’t know how much police officers rely on the Constitution, and particularly the Bill of Rights, in their daily work. This is particularly true of the Fourth Amendment, which regulates search and seizure:

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

There are necessary exceptions to the warrant requirement. Without them our police couldn’t function. However, probable cause (PC) matters. Simply put, it is facts or evidence that would cause a reasonable police officer to believe a crime had been committed, and a specific person committed it. That’s largely what keeps “show me the man and I’ll show you the crime” politicized fishing expeditions from happening.

Apparently, the FBI doesn't care about anybody's Constitutional rights. So, while going after Private Vaults, they decided to open clients' vaults and "forfeit" their private property and keep it. They managed to steal $86 million in jewels, cash, gold and silver and other valuable property. This is outrageous, illegal, a violation of rights under color of law. To make it worse, it was planned and by design.

It’s a classic case. In order to open any safe-deposit box and seize its contents, the FBI would need to have PC regarding each and every box they opened. They didn’t. Not even close.

"That the FBI had the chutzpah to ignore the judge’s warrant, which explicitly “d[id] not authorize a criminal search or seizure of box contents,” did not sit well with the court."

The FBI along with the Department of (in)Justice, the AFT and other agencies have become the thug arm of the Democrat party. As McDaniel points out the likelihood of anyone being held accountable is next to zero. But it is true that the FBI has legitimate duties, and those duties should keep them busy enough. Perhaps defunding these agencies would be appropriate?

The United States Is Being Torn Apart

 Today, at the American Thinker J.B. Shurk has an excellent article entitled Hell Must Be Empty. As you read the article, you will soon find out why. Spoiler alert, it is because all the devils and demons seem to be tormenting us.

In New York City, the bad guys have long understood an unwritten rule: you don’t hit a cop. In the past, doing so put you at the top of the NYPD’s to-do list and ensured that you would not be free on the streets for long. When 30,000 officers are tasked with securing a metropolis of nine million residents, the impenetrability of the “thin blue line” is a matter of life and death. When video emerged of a group of illegal aliens wrestling two cops to the ground near Times Square and beating them with fists and feet, that thin blue line got thinner. When news broke that the offenders were released without bail and that a left-wing “charity” had likely given them a free ride to California, the blue line all but disappeared.

By looking the other way as criminal invaders attack the people charged with protecting the city, NYC mayor Eric Adams and district attorney Alvin Bragg not only betray their duties to those who risk their lives every day for others’ safety, but also prove their complicity with those who wage war against citizens of the United States. Before he disappeared without a care in the world, one of the foreign nationals apprehended for the attack left Manhattan Criminal Court with two middle fingers extended into the air and a broad smile across his face. It was an “F you” to all Americans from a man who should never have been allowed to illegally enter the United States in the first place. At the same time, it sure felt as if Adams, Bragg, Biden, Mayorkas, and all the other open-borders advocates and politicians were really the ones flipping off desperate American citizens whose decades-long pleas for secure borders have been entirely ignored.

Gentle readers can read the rest of Shurk's article, which lists a long train of abuses. I don't want to rehash these, as most reader will recognize them if you have been paying attention over these years. I want to get to the end of the article, from which the title comes

Forget “two-tiered justice.” This is just plain old evil disguised as politics. Only in a nation under attack from demonic forces would J6 political hostages be imprisoned for exercising their First Amendment rights at the U.S. Capitol when a congressional staffer can make gay porn videos in a Senate hearing room without any risk of ever being charged for a crime. Only in a nation suffering from the widespread proliferation of evil would the Department of (in)Justice seek decades-long prison sentences for peacefully protesting Americans who dare to speak out against abortion, while federal agents routinely look the other way as “unknown assailants” vandalize and firebomb the buildings of Christian churches, pro-life organizations, and politically conservative groups. Only in a nation whose government chooses to embrace evil and reject godliness could a Christian veteran be charged for the “hate crime” of destroying a demonic shrine celebrating Satan. When adherence to moral conscience is criminalized and the protection of flagrant sin becomes government’s chief concern, there can be no doubt that evil has risen from the shadows and seized control of the State. When Christians are punished for their convictions and Satan has more friends in political office, it is clear that America’s institutions are rotting from the inside.

Once that decay begins, it is difficult to save the host without first severing the cancer from the body. It is why government-engineered injustices now occur with almost daily regularity. Consider a few of the startling news stories of just the last few weeks. A group of international scientists is calling for a global moratorium on COVID “vaccines” because a peer-reviewed study concludes, “For every life saved, there were nearly 14 times more deaths caused by the modified mRNA injections.” Meanwhile, there is now documentary evidence that the CDC intentionally covered up risks from the experimental, yet largely mandated, treatments — particularly the risk of myocarditis. Switching to the growing evidence of 2020 election fraud, unearthed documents confirm that the FBI and Michigan authorities were notified of “alarming” witness accounts attesting to “ballot fraud in Detroit.” How was that situation resolved? The FBI buried its head in the sand, and Michigan’s Attorney General Dana Nessel charged sixteen Republican alternate electors with felony fraud crimes. Not wanting Michigan’s rampant election-rigging and political persecution to get all the glory, PBS (the Marxist news organization that Americans are forced to support with taxes) confirmed that Congress’s partisan January 6 Committee was never anything more than shameless political theater meant to tilt the 2022 midterms toward the Democrat party. Finally, in international news, even though the Biden administration has been forced to temper its support for a U.N. agency implicated in the October 7 attack on Israel, nobody is surprised that the U.N.’s terrorists have still been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.

The language Shurk uses is the language Christians use to describe these things: Evil. Moreover, that Evil has a face, which is given many names: Lucifer, Satan, Beelzebub and so on. By whatever name you call him, he exists just as surely as The Most High God exists.

Now, in his time on earth, Jesus cast out many demons. My mother told me that these were just people with epilepsy or whatever. But if you believe, as I do, that Jesus was the divine Son of God, he would have been even more able to determine whether someone had a mere physical ailment (many of which he healed) or had a demon possessing him. Even now, exorcists of the Church take great care in deciding if someone is truly possessed or is suffering from some psychological problem. But the demons knew Jesus, and he knew them.  Interestingly, the fact that so many of us are baptized and sealed with the cross is probably why so few suffer from demonic possession today. For baptism is not merely the act of passing through water, but a form of protection from the demons.  And demonic possession exists.

Whether our president is possessed, or merely controlled by others who are, I don't know. We pray for him at Sunday services. But the vast effort to defeat the United States and Israel is a generation-to-generation plan, executed over at least 140 years, maybe longer. Such a plan, where so many participants could not expect to succeed, but still marched on implies a malevolent intelligence behind the scenes orchestrating the strategy and tactics used.

There is some good news for people currently working for the dark side. Our God is merciful. You may lose His protection by rejecting Him and His saving grace. But if anyone repents, he can regain that salvation. I am here to tell you that is true. An even more powerful example of someone who repented is the story of Bella Dodd, who worked for the Communists before repenting and becoming a Christian who exposed the Communist infiltration into the schools and churches.

Hell is not empty, I am sure, because so many do not want to be close to God.  Nevertheless, it is true that the United States is being torn apart.