Is Our Whole FBI A Pack of Unscrupulous Scoundrels?

 Today at the American Thinker John Deitrich discusses The Murder of Bryan Malinowski, the Executive Director of the Bill and Hillary Clinton Airport in Little Rock, Arkansas. He was the highest paid local employee earning $260,000 per year. Do you think he was illegally selling guns because he needed the bread?

On March 19, the ATF, accompanied by members of the Little Rock Police Department, raided the home of Bryan Malinowski. Malinowski was the executive director of the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport in Little Rock. He had no criminal record and did not even know that he was under investigation. The announced reason for the raid was to execute a search warrant. The actual reason was to deliver a message to American gun owners that the ATF has the power to end their lives. This was an example of premeditated murder. A week prior to the raid, the ATF had assembled to carry out the raid; this raid was canceled allegedly because Malinowski was not home, and it was necessary for him to be there in order for him to set an example.

There are numerous reasons to why this raid appears to be an execution. Ten vehicles pulled up to Malinowski’s home. At 06:02:46 a.m., an hour before sunup, agents in full SWAT gear approached the front door. An agent put a piece of tape over the doorbell camera lens. According to Rep. Jim Jordan, the ATF also apparently killed electricity to the home. None of the government participants were wearing required body cameras. This was a "no knock” raid. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco wrote a directive limiting the circumstances in which agents may seek to enter dwelling pursuant to a warrant without complying with the knock and announce rule because of the risk posed to both law enforcement and civilians. This requirement was announced two years ago. Agents knocked down Malinowski’s front door. Malinowski awoke, loaded a pistol and headed for the front door. He reportedly fired a few shots at the intruder’s feet to drive them back out the front door. An ATF agent was hit in the foot during this effort. The ATF responded by shooting Malinowski in the head. The entire affair lasted only 57 seconds. At 06:03:43 a.m. agents dragged Mrs. Malinowski into the front yard. She was barefoot and wearing her night clothing. The temperature was 34 degrees. They locked her in the backseat of a car and detained her there for four hours while refusing to allow her to use a neighbor’s bathroom. The humiliation of spouses is apparently an integral part of this process.

Gentle readers can, and should read the whole thing. The news of Malinkowski's murder at the hands of the ATF have been bubbling in the gun rights community for a while now. As noted, Congress is investigating, but I at least have little faith in Congressional investigations leading to anything like justice. But the point of bringing up the Malinowski murder is to ask, as does Patricia McCarthy Why do our FBI agents so regularly abuse their power?, because it is clearly not just the FBI, but the entire bureaucracy. As one who used to be part of that bureaucracy, I have to ask what the hell happened?

The American people are learning by dribs and drabs that the raid on Mar-a-Lago was not only unconstitutional, it was a set-up, an attempt to frame former President Trump for having documents illegally stored there. The set-up proves the lie. Both the National Archives and the FBI knew said documents, which Trump was legally allowed to have, were carefully stored in a locked storage room. Many of those boxes were packed and sent there by the National Archives; they likely knew what was in those boxes better than Trump did. In short, it was a Gestapo-like ploy to both incriminate and humiliate Donald Trump. As the truth of the raid leaks out (such as the authorization of lethal force) thanks to Judge Cannon who has ordered Jack Smith’s redactions unredacted, it is becoming clearer and clearer that it is the FBI and the National Archives working with the Biden administration that plotted to create a situation by which they could indict Trump. Jack Smith, a known legal thug who has no respect for the actual law, was then appointed, illegally and unconfirmed by the Senate, to prosecute Trump and convict by any means necessary. That case seems to be falling apart. It was a farce from the outset and Judge Cannon is allowing the American people to see just how much of a farce by releasing unredacted Smith documents.

The raid on Mar-a-Lago in August 2022 is hardly the only example of FBI skullduggery. They raided hundreds of persons who were in attendance at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 in much the same way — fifteen to twenty agents, armed with all manner of weapons. They are still raiding and arresting people who were simply there. Hundreds of such people have been similarly raided, arrested, over-charged, sentenced, and imprisoned for made-up crimes like “parading.” Those Americans, several of whom have committed suicide, are being treated as horribly as one might be treated in any third world nation. They are denied medical care, put in solitary confinement, given substandard food, maybe even tortured by vicious prison guards. The FBI raided and abused the family of pro-life activist Mark Houck, for having shoved a man who accosted his son while peacefully protesting across the street from an abortion clinic. The FBI has long been abusing its power to the point that it has become something like Hitler’s Brownshirts or Stalin’s NKVD who were charged with carrying out the Great Purge.

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It isn’t just the FBI that abuses its power in what is now known to be the deep state. So does the DOJ. Merrick Garland is perhaps the most unscrupulous of all. He should be held in contempt for all sorts of abuses. As we can all see, the Democrats’ use of lawfare to destroy Biden’s opponent is obviously illegal and unconstitutional. Judges Kaplan, Engoran, and Merchan have shown themselves to be extreme partisans, not unbiased jurists. Whether or not they’ve each been bought, as in paid off, to blatantly expose their own abuses of power for all to see, the fact is that there has been no justice deployed when it comes to Trump. The explosion of lawfare that has been launched against Donald Trump has exposed the criminality of the deep state like no other era in U.S. history. The left hates and fears an outsider, any person who may not capitulate to their corrupt way of doing things.

So, you see, it is not just the FBI, or the ATF, but the whole Democrat party. I would suggest outlawing the party, but that wouldn't change things. They would just change their name and continue as before. Nor does it do to disband the FBI, or the ATF. The problem is that these people are doing the devil's work. Our first problem is to find honest people, and second, to put in place both incentives to be honest and swift, sure consequences for denying people their rights. Actually, we already have it:

Title 18, U.S.C., Section 242 - Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law This statute makes it a crime for any person acting under color of law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom to willfully deprive or cause to be deprived from any person those rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution and laws of the U.S.

This law further prohibits a person acting under color of law, statute, ordinance, regulation or custom to willfully subject or cause to be subjected any person to different punishments, pains, or penalties, than those prescribed for punishment of citizens on account of such person being an alien or by reason of his/her color or race.

Acts under "color of any law" include acts not only done by federal, state, or local officials within the bounds or limits of their lawful authority, but also acts done without and beyond the bounds of their lawful authority; provided that, in order for unlawful acts of any official to be done under "color of any law," the unlawful acts must be done while such official is purporting or pretending to act in the performance of his/her official duties. This definition includes, in addition to law enforcement officials, individuals such as Mayors, Council persons, Judges, Nursing Home Proprietors, Security Guards, etc., persons who are bound by laws, statutes ordinances, or customs.

Punishment varies from a fine or imprisonment of up to one year, or both, and if bodily injury results or if such acts include the use, attempted use, or threatened use of a dangerous weapon, explosives, or fire shall be fined or imprisoned up to ten years or both, and if death results, or if such acts include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, shall be fined under this title, or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death.

It is just not being used, like the Constitution.

There Is A Higher Authority - The Highest

 Today is Memorial Day, which may seem a strange time to discuss The West's War on God by J. B. Shurk, but if we do not turn this around, there may not be many more Memorial Days. Gentle readers will know that Communist China, North Korea, the old Soviet Union and of course the Muslim countries all push God away. In ancient times, God kept Israel for himself, and let the other countries go their own way. Then he sent his Son into the world to die for men and save them. But it seems now that He is again under attack everywhere, including Israel.

Perhaps the most startling quality of world leaders today is that they do not believe in much beyond their own wants and needs. Many will feign a belief in God for the sake of appearances, but true believers are hard to find. In the West, where Christianity has shaped society for two thousand years, it is more common to find governments punishing Christians for their faith than to see biblical doctrine defended.

Finnish Member of Parliament Päivi Räsänen, a rare Christian politician in our overwhelmingly secular times, has spent the last several years defending herself against criminal “hate speech” charges for quoting the Bible. Prosecutors claim that her religious convictions concerning marriage and morality are “insulting” and “degrading” and violate “sexual rights.” Furthermore, her accusers insist that the State “can limit freedom of expression in the outward expression of religion.”

The persecution and prosecution of Päivi Räsänen is a most disturbing case, for she is being prosecuted for saying that the gay, lesbian and of course so-called transgender lifestyle is against God's word by quoting God's word. Paul mentions it a number of times, and He specifically says it is an abomination in the Old Testament. Now, whether you agree with Him or not, the state should not take sides between those who believe and those who don't. But that is precisely what is happening to her. And you can see where this is going. If quoting God's word is not allowed, eventually God's word, the Bible will be illegal as well.

Amid a horrendous global effort to prevent people from praying together, Canada’s Justin Trudeau distinguished himself as a tyrant par excellence by sanctioning the repeated arrest of Polish-Canadian Pastor Artur Pawlowski. His “crime”? He continued to hold church services for those seeking salvation in defiance of Canadian officials’ attempts to shut him down. Video of Pastor Pawlowski throwing armed police out of his church during an Easter service back in 2021 remains one of the most inspiring examples of regular citizens rejecting State tyranny. Comparing Canada’s militant authoritarianism to what he witnessed growing up “under a communist dictatorship behind the Iron Curtain, under the boots of the Soviets,” Pawlowski repeatedly implored Westerners: “We as lions should never bow before the hyenas.” Because the good pastor possesses moral courage, Trudeau and his government of Cheka thugs have done their best to ruin him.

Abusing Christians has become an obsession for American leftists. Catholic-in-name-only Joe Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland’s Department of Religious Persecution have spent the last three years targeting pro-life Americans who pray near abortion clinics. Heavily armed agents of the Gestapo FBI have executed pre-dawn raids against Christians with no criminal records because they offend the pro-abortion sensibilities of the State. While federal authorities do next to nothing to investigate attacks on churches and pro-life organizations, they throw grandparents in prison to serve multi-year sentences for the “crime” of having peacefully protested outside of notorious abortion businesses.

Similar arrests and prosecutions of pro-life Christians regularly take place in the United Kingdom, too, where police officers have been filmed asking citizens whether or not they are silently praying on public sidewalks. If so, it’s off to the hoosegow! Praying outside is now forbidden! The UK government has been shamefully clear that God is permitted only in certain designated areas where He may be best hidden from the public. He is unwelcome everywhere else.

Meanwhile, I should point out that Muslims are allowed to block streets while praying to Allah with no pushback from the government. But since Allah is the snake who tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden, behind a mask, I guess it all makes sense. The devil is attacking God on all flanks in a war of attrition because he hates our heavenly Father with white hot hate.

Nowhere are leftists more committed to burying Christianity than in the United States. Why is that? For the same reason that the Chinese Communist Party tortures, enslaves, and murders Christians living within its domain: Christians understand that God’s authority supersedes that of the State. China must prevent Christianity from growing within its borders because a population faithfully obedient to God will not remain mindlessly obedient to a communist dictatorship. Likewise, American Marxists must first dismantle American Christians’ spiritual faith before they can cultivate a widespread dependence upon and deification of D.C.’s Deep State.

The link above is to a opem letter by Bishop Strickland, formerly of Tyler, Texas to faithful Catholics that points out when the Church's authority is not in line with Christ's word and authority, then it must be ignored in favor of Christ. The same thing is true of governments. When Paul says we should submit to government authority, he also means when that authority is acting within God's authority. When it becomes tyrannical, as we now see it across the West and in the United States, faithful Christians must not submit to such authorities. We are bound to obey a higher authority; that of Jesus Christ.

This Memorial Day, Why I Carry A Gun

 Mike McDaniel at the American Thinker has a post entitled Why I carry a handgun, 2024. It mirrors my own reasons for carrying as well. First, evil exists. In 1 Peter 5:8 we learn to: Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. That the devil often appears as a man makes it incumbent upon us to be prepared to resist such evil men. Second, it is also incumbent upon us men in particular, but women also with children in their care, to protect those who cannot protect themselves. But McDaniel expands the list of reasons to carry daily. I highlight just a few of them.

*Evil exists and may confront anyone at any time and any place.

*Evil exists to destroy all that is kind, good and loving.

*God exists and expects me to protect myself, those I love, and those unable to protect themselves.

*Self-defense is a God-given, natural, unalienable right.

The above should be obvious to any observer of life. But even if it is not to you, gentle reader, the arguments for the bearing of arms can be made using natural law without reference to God. In any case, know that our God is not a pacifist. While we are not to murder, the opposite of that is to defend the lives of ourselves, our loved ones, and our neighbor. Furthermore, our neighbors should help to defend me and mine. Here is where McDaniel comes down on this:

*Our country, circa May 2024, is brimming with tens — even hundreds — of thousands of terrorists. I’m ready.

*The lives of the innocent — friend or stranger — are worth far more to me and to a just society than the lives of vicious criminals and terrorists.

*By carrying a handgun, I honor the foresight and wisdom of the Founders in writing the Second Amendment, which acknowledges, but does not create, the right to keep and bear arms.

Also, note that no government has ever banned the bearing of arms for truly good reasons. While they have used the excuse of public safety - "for your own good" - that is not why they have done it. Mao said that power grows out of the barrel of a gun, and power over people is the reason behind every attempt to disarm the people. The current Democrat obsession with what they call "assault weapons" is no different. They cannot take away our rights, but they want to nullify them. Do not let them nullify your rights.

*Foremost, I am an American; I am a free man; it is my tradition and heritage.

Will We Heed This Warning In Time?

 Today, I have a number of errands to run, but I saw this article by J. B. Shurk at the American Thinker today, and had to present it to gentle readers for consideration. The article, entitled Tyranny, by Any Other Name Still Stinks warns us that the hour is late for us to fend off the totalitarian leviathan that threatens us.

Tyranny takes hold when good people are lulled into inaction. Those of us who mind our own business and prefer government to leave us alone are particularly prone to falling into this trap. Because we have no use for government, we hope government will have no use for us. So we are silent while evil grows far from our homes. We tend to our basic comforts and ignore evil as it nears. And, eventually, we even collaborate with evil in order to avoid making a public scene. In an effort to “get by” without causing too many waves, tyranny’s waves grow bigger and stronger until they crash upon our homes. By then, it is too late to batten down the hatches. Evil has already broken through our doors.

In his book Religionless Christianity, Eric Metaxas is at pains to point out that Pastor Deitrick Bonhoeffer tried to warn the German church of Hitler but was ignored. Many of us tried to warn the people about Obama, but we were ignored too.  Shurk, with less talk of the devil tries to warn us of the same thing in our own time. Whether one wants to admit it or not, any form of collectivism, whether it is called by the name of Marxism, Socialism, Fascism, Communism, Maoism, Progressivism, Fabianism, or any other "ism" are from the same source: the devil. No matter what you call him, the accuser, Satan, or the tempter Beelzebub, Islamism or the demons, their goal is always to enslave, murder, and lie. You cannot be a Christian and uphold Communism, or socialism. God does not lie, and neither can those who call themselves by His name.

One of the peculiarities of our own time is that so many people remain blind to the totalitarianism growing and spreading around them. Western governments have seized the authority to tell us what is true and what must be censored as harmful “disinformation.” They openly spy on our phone calls, read our emails, record every Internet search and keyboard click on our computers, and monitor our social media conversations. They tell us which “politically correct” words we must use and which words are outlawed for inciting “hate.” They have criminalized reading from parts of the Bible or acting with religious conviction. They insist on manipulating the value of money and rigging markets in ways that confiscate the meager savings of the have-nots and further enrich the well-to-do. Corporations and government ministers work together to spread the same propaganda. Mainstream news media operate as compliant mouthpieces for the State. Banks discriminate against customers due to their personal beliefs. Companies fire employees for not being sufficiently “woke.” Prosecutors contort statutes into weapons that can be used to punish innocent people for their political speech. Westerners have no need to learn about the rise of totalitarianism from dusty history books describing the decades between WWI and WWII. It thrives right outside our windows. Hell, it operates on every piece of technology with a camera or microphone already inside our homes.

Totalitarianism has triumphed under the guise of “progress.” Behind every shiny new toy’s discreet surveillance of our private lives is a steroid-induced, rage-filled strongman working not-so-secretly to enslave us. Would you like to safeguard your most intimate photographs? All you have to do is upload them to a magical cloud. The corporations entrusted with your valuable secrets promise to respect your privacy. Would you like your automobile to provide real-time traffic alerts? Then just tap, “yes,” when the geolocation satellite system seeks to track your movements. Would you prefer the ease of buying convenience store items with a wave of your hand? Then please allow your Obamacare government doctor to insert a computer chip under your skin, so that the Federal Reserve can track how you use its central bank digital currency. Technological convenience is the gateway drug to universal surveillance. And universal surveillance is an iron fist in a velvet glove demanding compliance.

The above are what we used to called the "money quotes." They are the heart of what his is trying to warn us about, indeed, it is all he ever warns us about. The question is: Will we heed his warning in time?

Harrison Butker Answers the Question "What Is Woman"

 The second post today comes from the American Thinker, by Lewis Dovland and is entitled Why American Women Should Want Their Own Harrison Butker. As a reminder, Butker is the NFL Kansas City Chiefs football player who gave the commencement address at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas. Butker gave a description of what God's plan was for marriage, in that each person, male and female has a distinct and special purpose. Neither can be complete without the other. Yet he is being attacked mercilessly by the Left.

Butker’s comments at the graduation ceremony for Benedictine College, a Catholic institution (where he gave a Catholic message) in Atchison, Kansas, has Democrats in a tizzy, clutching their pearls, getting the vapors, and collapsing onto their fainting couches. And of course, going into full-blown scorched earth mode.

His comments were so egregious that all the usual misquoting, false framing of facts, false analogies, ridiculous assertions, and plain contumely were immediately out in full force. Not only should he be fired from the KC Chiefs and have his career and life ruined, but he should be executed, so despicable is his crime.

Pause and think. Nature made men and women different from each other in a perfect and complementary yin/yang design. Women are natural nurturers, with a capacity to deliver much deeper feelings and empathy, and their maternal instincts are not taught but ingrained. Nesting is a natural tendency, and a woman’s home is her face to the world.

Men are simpler creatures (just ask any wife) and are not known for deep emotions on a regular basis. When societies refocus a man’s reproductive and power drives into beneficial application (usually through culture and religion), their ingrained nature makes them natural providers for their offspring, defenders of their family, yet remain no-nonsense masculine creatures, provided society hasn’t yet ‘whipped’ them into shape.

A man’s natural focus is problem solving, which is why women get frustrated when they bring an issue to their husbands and then he immediately goes into “problem solving mode” to fix it, when all the woman wanted is for him just to listen without much talking to let her know he understands her feelings. (Which makes near zero sense to a man, BTW.)

There is more to it than that, but at the very least we should recognize that men and women are different yet complementary. Each has his or her special areas of influence yet are equals in everything. The Apostle Paul explains it pretty well:

The true idyll is a co-equal relationship in which the husband presents controlled strength over the potential violence he could unleash, while meeting his wife’s needs and giving her both love and security, while the wife meets her husband’s needs, giving him the admiration and respect he needs to be fulfilled. This is how a man and woman should act in the sense of “two becoming one flesh” as Paul states in Ephesians 5:31-32. The sacrifice goes both ways.

Go read the whole article. Note that the author does not endorse the model of manhood which he calls "Neanderthal man" because that is not Biblical. But clearly, he does not endorse "Mr. Milquetoast" either. As I say, read the whole thing.

Damn Lies

First up today is a post by David Strom at Hot Air entitled This Is a Mystery to Me. There are a lot of mysteries in life. For example, why, when two cars are traveling together, and there is space to get into the lane they are traveling in either in front or behind them, someone always wants to get right in between them? It's a mystery but if you ever do any team driving, you will understand that this is a thing.

However, the mystery that Strom mentions is: Why, after having been lied to by the mainstream media, do people still gullibly belive them? He points out that he understands that no one can personally research every single thing one hears. A person must trust someone, at least to some degree.

It is practical to do so for many reasons. First of all, there are only so many hours in the day, making it neither practical nor desirable to spend hours fact-checking everything you hear, even on important matters. Almost everything we believe, outside our direct experience, comes from sources we trust.

Have you been to the moon? How do we know that our little robots have actually landed on Mars? Does Paraguay exist? I haven't been there, after all. It could all be a hoax! But I trust that my beliefs reflect reality, because I trust the testimony of others.

Have you measured the diameter of the Earth? I haven't. I have a pretty good idea of how to do it with simple tools (the Greeks did it millennia ago), but I accept what I was taught because I have no reason not to.

So, he makes the case that as a practical matter, we must trust some of the things we hear. But then there is this:

What I cannot understand for the life of me is why people do not become enraged with the white-hot fury of the sun when they are confronted by the fact that they have been betrayed--utterly betrayed--by people they trusted. It is an absolute mystery to me. Everybody in America by now should have realized that the Establishment has betrayed them, and yet few people are outraged.

One of the memes you see all the time is, "You may hate the media, but you don't hate them enough."

That is absolutely correct—100%. You cannot possibly hate them enough because they betray you daily. They aren't mistaken. They aren't incompetent. All day, every day, they lie to you, knowingly and with malice. They sometimes tell the truth, but only if they like where it leads you.

Why aren't more people furious?

I suppose one reason more people don't hate them enough is that one doesn't want to seem to be one of those conspiracy whack-jobs. Mrs. PolyKahr likes to watch the local news and doesn't understand why I don't. I explain that every word out of their mouths is a lie, including the "a," "an," and "the." I watch only the weather, which I know they can't predict with real accuracy. She looks askance at me as if I am the in fact crazy, and of course, maybe I am. But maybe it is she who has not been paying attention.

Another reason is that all the lies coming in from every direction overwhelm a person's ability to care. One can only care about just so many things, after all. I care about God, my immediate family, securing the things we need to daily life, and friends I know personally. Far down the list of caring is the lying sack of sh** someone installed in the White House, his lying sack of sh** administration, Ukraine etc. And most of the things one is supposed to care about, like climate change, are made up hoaxes. The overwhelming nature of so many lies enervate a person and leaves them with a sense of ennui.

Strom writes about the Covid lies that were perpetrated on the American people, and the absolute hatred that was poured out by so many on their fellow citizens. These will never be punished, though calling for the gassing of innocent people is technically a crime, whether its people who don't wish to be jabbed or Jews. I have the same feelings about Hillary Clinton, who broke the law, members of the DoJ, FBI, ATF and IRS who broke the law. Come to think of it, the whole two-tiered system where people with the "correct" political party seem to go scot-free while those with the "incorrect" political persuasion get the book thrown at them offends my Christian senses since God commanded the Israelite judges to judge impartially.

I urge gentle readers to read the whole article, and wonder as does Strom, why people seem so passive in the face of such monstrous lies.

Is The Pope Catholic?

 Andrea Widburg posted this last night at the American Thinker, so I decided to put it up today here at Standing By. She takes the old joke about the pope and asks Is the Pope Catholic? A joke question becomes a serious one. I have been saying this for a while now. This Pope, like Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi, may claim to be Catholic, but he is not.

Specifically, Pope Francis is a product of "liberation theology." It is basically a Marxist social justices movement wrapped in religious language. Remember, the Left will say anything to get you to agree with them, to the point of turning Christians with 'liberation theology." But as I have noted, one cannot be a Christian and a Leftists. Why? Because Leftism, at its core, is a materialistic religion. The prosperity gospel falls within the same parameters. But the Triune God is spiritual, and demands your faith, your trust, and ultimately your loyalty. These things are not material.

The correct response to Pope Francis is "Get behind me Satan." For Francis has mistaken the devil for God. I get why faithful Catholics want to give Pope Francis the benefit of the doubt. They believe he sits in the chair because of the prayers and meditations of the various Cardinals. But if they read their Bibles, they will know that he is a false pope by what he says and does.

The Church’s strength, always, has been two-fold: Its fealty to its core religious doctrines and the glacial slowness with which it changes. Its teachings are meant to be primary and eternal, rather than to move with the fads of the moment. Changing those teachings is an enormously consequential act because each change raises doubts about the church’s prior infallibility. You’re not a spiritual or cultural bulwark if you change policies according to the polls and the whims of the crowd.

Widburg is here alluding to the fact that the Bible has not changed in 2000 years. If we believe Jesus, that He was the Son of God, sent into the world to save mankind from despite his sinful life, then there can be no new discoveries that change church dogma. Like the Constitution, there can be no "penumbras" hiding new doctrines. Yet Francis keeps inventing new teachings.

Marxism corrupts everything it touches. Pope Francis reflects that fact and he’s exposing the rot with his statements and sophistry on 60 Minutes. Once, the Catholic church stood for something unique, intangible, and permanent. Under Pope Francis’s aegis, it's beginning to stand for nothing at all.

Andrea Widburg is a Jew, so may not know that the Rock on which the Church is built is Jesus Christ Himself. It cannot fall. There are thousands of faithful Catholics, not to mention Lutherans and others to stand against the evils that currently surround us. We were born for such times, and must stand strong against the pagan onslaught. But having a pope like Pope Francis giving interviews to 60 Minutes is disgraceful and embarrassing.

Attempts To Thwart Independence

It is well to remember H. L Mencken's quote that "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."

At The Federalist today, Jessica Marie Baumgartner has an article entitled COVID Fearmongering Worked So Well, the Government Is Now Creating A Poultry Panic. Baumgartner has recently gotten into the backyard chicken raising craze in order to have fresh eggs for her growing family, herself and her husband. Eggs are considered one of the most complete bioavailable sources of protein and other vitamins and minerals you can find. After all, an egg is a little kit for building a chicken, so it should be.

In 2020, the supply chain experienced disruptions that no one in my generation had ever seen. It became even more apparent to those who believe in the power of self-reliance that it is up to us to take care of ourselves. Backyard farming began booming, along with an increased interest in raising chickens.

Since then, efforts to balance self-sustainable lifestyles have been threatened. Government interference in normal healthy practices continues to grow amid concerns over “public safety.”

During the pandemic, my family added fruit trees to our already-growing vegetable garden and discussed getting chickens. It offered a sense of peace in a time of unprecedented government overreach.

I had similar thoughts when the pandemic was going full steam. But I was put off that notion by the woman down the street who had had hens for years. No one ever complained. But then, a new president of our HOA took over and he was determined to enforce all the provisions of our HOA, including the provision that no one could have "farm animals" on their property. Now, remember that our properties are all two acres or more. Apparently, they threatened to take her home. I don't know if it is constitutional or not, but I decided not to test it.

Now as avian flu is making headlines, fears that “they’re coming for your chickens” are being realized.

Although the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) admits that “the current public health risk is low,” it also posted that more than 90 million detections have been found in wild birds and backyard and commercial flocks across 48 states.

Yet, in the fine print, they note that this number was compiled over a two-year period and offer no information on how the testing was administered, how deadly the virus is, or how many birds have recovered.

So once again, the numbers are being stacked to breed fear. Why?

Why indeed? Could it be that the institutions we used to trust have been hijacked by the globalists? We know that in the name of "Climate Change" a number of countries have called for the culling of the herds of cattle. They have talked about closing farms.  They want us dependent on their laboratory grown "meat" and to become vegans. But as Lierra Keith's book The Vegetarian Myth shows that vegetarianism and veganism are not moral alternatives to eating meat and are not healthy. While vegetables may contain proteins, they are not complete, and they also introduce poisons that slowly ruin your health.  It has been said that plants are trying to kill you.

We should all be suspicious of why the big, bad bird scare keeps getting pushed.

While constant death-toll counters were used to scare people about Covid, despite the fact that Covid was never as deadly as predicted and mostly affected senior citizens who are usually at risk for all illnesses, there have only been two cases of avian flu reported in the U.S., with no fatalities.

Two. Total. Out of hundreds of millions of people. Still there is a push for more testing, and even the development of two vaccines in the works — for an illness that has done virtually nothing.https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-26/eat-less-meat-is-message-for-rich-world-in-food-s-first-net-zero-plan

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In addition, the latest bird flu scare happens to coincide with climate alarmists’ movement to prevent people from eating meat.

The globalist oligarchy, the World Economic Forum, claims that eating “lots of meat” is bad for the environment, and Bloomberg noted that the 2023 Paris climate agreement is slated to curb our “excessive appetite for meat.”

Although the narrative surrounding meat consumption focuses on the human carbon footprint, very few outlets are willing to report on the catastrophic effects of malnourishment, often developed due to a lack of meat consumption.

Baumgartener concludes with the truth that the more we are independent, the less we will be subject to being frightened into the government's idea of what our lives should be. We are slowly realizing that most of our government has been captured by the globalists, who do not care about you and me. They are in thrall to the international mega-corporations and their profits. We know that the WEF believes we need to cull the human population down to 500 million from the current 8 billion. They use climate crisis as the excuse, but what they are really thinking is that most of us won't have anything to do in their "brave new world."  Idle hands, right?  I think, as usual, these so-called "best and brightest" have no idea beyond their technological ideation. Men will always be needed to do the dirty and dangerous jobs these elite pansies won't do. But more than that, they have not figured out that people are endlessly inventive and will find things to do that have not been thought of yet.

Be a Critical Thinker

Here's another one for gentle readers today.  Found at PJ Media by David Strom is Teacher Focused on Reason Over Ideology Fired. I encourage you to check out the X posts as they will give you a flavor of what Warren Smith is about. I remember teachers just like Warren Smith who shaped me. Learning to think critically is the most important thing one can achieve. If you are a Christian, it is doubly important to separate out the real teachings of Christ from those others would impose on you. But sussing out the facts from the propaganda is important in every area of life. Be a critical thinker. And now I have to run.

Electric Semis Cost Us How Much?

 I don't have much time today, so I will simply point to a post by Olivia Murray at the American Thinker entitled New report: Trucking industry firm finds transition to 'electric' semis hikes operating costs 114%. Now, imagine that your food costs, already 30% higher have an addition 114% tacked on. You think you are hurting now? But read the whole report.

Let Hamas Be Destroyed

 Mike Konrad at the American Thinker today has an article that must read, if you don't read anything else today. Konrad article is entitled What the War Is About. Without mentioning either God or the devil explicitly, though he does quote from Scripture, he speaks about how God intervened in human history to improve the life of people in Western Civilization. Western Civilization is currently under attack, but true Christians should know that God has already won and should stand up and be counted as on His side. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (Matt 16:26)

Konrad starts by analysing the Battle of Thermopylae from the framework not of battle tactics, but from the world changing results of that battle.

There are times when large wars produces miniscule results, waged only to re-arrange pieces on a chessboard (War of the Spanish Succession) -- and times when small scuffles will make or break a civilization (The battle of Thermopylae).

...snip...

At the battle of Thermopylae, were the Spartans really morally preferable to the Persians? Both had Indo-European leadership, so this was not about race. The Persians were an autocratic tyranny with a semi-divine king, yet the Spartans were a totalitarian monstrosity.

So which side was right?

The key lay in the underlying Greek culture. While Sparta was a nightmare, the rest of Greece was not. Other Greek city-states had a concept of the worth of the individual, and a nascent sense of democracy. And even Sparta had a concept of rights for women.

By today’s false standards, Persia was a multicultural wonderland which included autonomously semi-empowered ethnicities of color, while Sparta was elitistly white. (Early 20th century racists thought the Spartans were close to the Nordic ideal. Argh!).

Yet, it would be multicultural Persia which would descend into historical despotism while ancient Greece (hopelessly white) would invent Western civilization (and Orthodox civilization as well). Had one been a neutral observer in 480 B.C., it would have taken some discernment to comprehend that. Yet, even though Sparta was a flawed representative of Greece, overall the battle was a struggle between light and dark, good and evil, freedom and tyranny.

A note here for those not familiar with the Bible. Konrad's use of light and dark refer to the Biblical meaning of "light" as illustrating the Truth of God, versus the darkness representing evil, the devil, and the demonic. It carries no racists overtones. Racism and the preoccupation of skin color is an exclusive fetish of the Left. It has no bearing in the real world and is a construct used by the Left solely to distract from its indefensible positions.

The next turning point in creating Western Civilization was the conquering by Alexander the Great of Israel. In subsequent centuries, the relatively advanced Jewish culture would be Hellenized as Jews discovered that the Greeks although pagan, had a high culture of their own. Into this world was borne Jesus of Nazareth.

What is also clear is that the Greeks were not like Israel’s other enemies (at least, not at first). The Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians were genuinely deranged. The Egyptians worshiped frogs. The Assyrians and Babylonians were mindlessly violent.

The Hebrews were blindsided by a Greek culture that could compete with their own. The Greeks had higher math, music theory, impressive architecture, wonderful literature, great art, and the Olympics. It was easy to look down on the Egyptians, but one could not do that with the Greeks (Westerners).

...snip...

And it is no accident that the New Testament is written in Greek.

This meeting of European and Hebrew is the real beginning of world civilization.

I am going to state it bluntly, true world civilization begins when the West meets the Jews.The rabbis went nuts as Jewish youth started embracing Greek culture. They called this the crisis of Hellenization. [James Mitchener also described this phenomena in "The Source." -ed.]

Konrad also notes that the other world religions were dying out until revived by Westerners. In particular, Islam was a dying culture until the Wilhelm II revived it. The devil is always working to undermine Christ. Yet today we face a reinvigorated Islam, that never produced anything but misery and slavery.

Konrad goes on to describe the Western Civilization, blessed with the Christian faith, as dynamic and inventive. Science in its true form bloomed in Christiandom because of a belief, born of the Bible, that God is not the god of chaos and confusion. Thus the world is knowable, and Christians set out to find it.

Recently, we have lost faith in science not because science is bad, but because scientists themselves have betrayed science and us by claiming science in the name of Leftist politics. Similarly, what was and is the only way to make a living, by trading something you have for something someone else needs (capitalism) has become a dirty word in a post Christian and increasingly pagan world. Churches have betrayed the people by bowing to the world rather than standing up for the Gospel of Christ. All of these things stem from a lack of faith in the saving promises of Christ. We must have spines of steel, and put on the full armor of God.

What is going on in the Mideast is much deeper than an ethnic, colonial, or national struggle. Should Israel fail, world civilization will fall accordingly.

This is why I support Israel, and why the West should continue to do so.

Let Hamas be destroyed.

Exactly so.

There Should Be No Carve Outs For the Police

 Today at Bearing Arms Tom Knighton has a piece entitled Why Special Exceptions for Law Enforcement Make Little Sense. Knighton brings up the famous case of the DEA agent who claimed to be the "only one" professional enough in that room (he was giving a talk to a classroom full of kids) to handle his gun, just before firing a negligent discharge into his own leg. This incident spawned the "Only Ones" meme by David Codrea at the War on Guns.

You see, we the armed public, are not perceived to be sufficiently trained, or sufficiently responsible enough to manage our firearms on our own without the "help" of legislators, who pretty much don't know anything about guns or handling them. Witness the bozo statements by Congress citters about guns. I could put more such links, but they would be redundant. They don't carry daily, but they presume to tell everyone else how to do it. They create a series of "gun free zones" that require us to constantly take our guns out of our holsters and put them in our cars. Then they complain that guns are stolen out of our cars. Then they suggest we just keep them locked up, where they can't do harm, but can't do any good either.

See, the police aren't some special class of people who are more pure than the rest of us because their cause is righteous. Police departments are organizations made up of people, which means some are good and some are bad. Some are smart and some are idiots.

What's more, we also know that while law enforcement may well go through a great deal of training initially, armed citizens not only put themselves through extensive training on their own time, but often continue with training through discussion, videos, range trips, and additional classes.

I'm not trying to denigrate law enforcement here. I'm just saying we, the law-abiding public, should have the same access and availability for firearms that police officers do. Just because they draw a paycheck doesn't make them experts on how to handle guns, after all, and I'm sure most officers can name some colleagues they don't think should be allowed out in public without supervision, much less allowed out with a firearm.

The expertise of the police is in things like patroling, catching speeders and other criminals, investigating crimes and building cases for prosecution. Guns are tools, but not their most important tools, same as civilians. Therefore, whatever restrictions are placed on civilians should be applied to police officers as well. They really aren't the "Only Ones."

Best Practice Is Concealed Carry

 Mike McDaniel has yet another piece on the open versus concealed carry of firearms at the American Thinker today entitled simply Open or concealed carry? McDaniel, I think would agree that the best weapon you have is the one on top of your shoulders. Good situational awareness, avoidance when possible, de-escalation when necessary should be your go-to. My Shotokan Sensei years ago noted that the only fight you win is the one you didn't have. One should strive to never have to draw and use the gun, though if you have to draw it, you must be prepared to use it. It is a tool, not a talisman.

The primary advantage of concealed carry is criminals can’t know who is carrying and have to assume everyone is and act accordingly. This applies largely to red states. Of course, situational awareness plays a role. Anyone appearing to be an easy, unaware target is more likely, armed or unarmed, to be attacked. Obviously, the greater the number of honest people carrying concealed, the greater the potential deterrence.

Many would argue there is no commensurate advantage to open carry, but for the sake of argument, I’ll make a case. An openly carried handgun might—might—convince criminals the person carrying it is prepared and situationally aware, someone with whom one does not trifle—unless observation reveals otherwise. It can’t be assumed an open carrier will therefore be less aware, relying on their exposed weapon to ward off evil, but it can’t be discounted either.

McDaniel cites a number of advantages to open carry besides the supposed deterrent factor. One of these is that it is easier to carry a full size gun, whereas most concealed carry guns are sub optimally small. Yet I carry a full size 1911 handgun daily and slip it under a shirt, behind a jacket, under a sweater, and so on. Now when I started out, I didn't think I would be able to do this, so I bought your typical "belly gun" as a first buy. But I soon found that no one was paying any attention. I was of course hyperaware, but most people are buried in their phone or concerned about their current mission.

One other consideration I call "don't scare the white women":

The other primary issue to consider is stampeding the women and children and frightening the cattle. The mere sight of a firearm is sufficient to panic some people. However, there is nothing sane Americans can do, nor should they, to avoid aggrieving the perpetually aggrieved, particularly those of an anti-liberty/gun bent. Rational Americans aren’t responsible for the moment-to-moment mental health of the unbalanced, but one can make a reasonable case for doing what’s reasonably necessary to avoid unnecessary confrontation of all kinds.

When I see someone carrying openly, and that’s actually less common than most imagine even in Flyover Country, I take a few moments to assess their actions and apparent emotional state, and to date, that’s all it has taken to be comfortable with them.

McDaniel makes the point that no one is responsible for the reactions of another. Each one of us is responsible for our own actions and reactions. When people say that seeing a gun make them feel unsafe, they are demonstrating a desire to control others, not a particulary delicate sensibility. Such people are manipulative and should thus be ignored. However, why draw attention to yourself? I have had the experience of listening to an anti-gun person bang on about it while I stood there with my 1911 on my hip and smiled and nodded. If you go about concealed, you don't have to become a lightening rod.

Here, I have to interject something that comes up frequently. Should a Christian be carrying a gun, prepared to shoot someone? Our God did command us not to commit murder. But He is not a pacifist, and we are not to be pacifist either. Our God hates evil and sin, and if we love Him, we will too.  God sent Israel in to slaughter the men, women, children and even the animals of those worshipping the ancient demons (and this should frighten us today, as many still worship these beings.) God also expects us to defend ourselves, our families and neighbors against unlawful attempts to take their lives. We should use the best tools available for that job, but always pray we don't need to use that force.

McDaniel comes down on the side of concealing our firearms. I agree.

Generally, it’s best to go about one’s business as unobtrusively as possible, relying on situational awareness and solid knowledge of use of force law to avoid ever having to draw or fire one’s handgun. Arguably has the greatest chance of doing that while carrying concealed.

The Greatness of Trump

 I have wondered at, and then been impressed by President Trumps ability to take a lickin' and keep on tickin'.  But Andrea Widburg at the American Thinker explains how Trump does it and remains a happy and joyful warrior. Her post can be found at Trump explains the secret behind his astonishing emotional resilience.

From Trump's The Art of the Deal:

When people treat me badly or unfairly or try to take advantage of me, my general attitude, all my life, has been to fight back very hard. The risk is you’ll make a bad situation worse, and I certainly don’t recommend this approach to everyone. But my experience is that if you’re fighting for something you believe in — even if it means alienating some people along the way — things usually work out for the best in the end.

The former president added that he doesn’t let his legal troubles bother him too much.

There it is. If Trump were given to quoting the Bible, he might have said, “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” (Matthew 6:34.) At a visceral level, Trump understands that you take each day as it comes, dealing with that day’s needs and not worrying too much about the next day.

Now, as I have said, I am not a Trump guy, and I am not wild about his style either. The man has many flaws, though which one of us does not? The thing is, he is proving himself to be a great man despite his flaws. Moreover, his greatness stands in contrast to the small men and women who are arrayed against him. It reminds me of Gulliver's Travels and the Lilliputians. Given a choice between Trump and almost any other politician running, I will vote for Trump every time.

Another Reason to be Grateful for George Washington

 Daniel Greenfield, aka Sultan Knish, has post at his website entitled The Left's Plot Against George Washington. If you do not know the history of the Left, the idea that the Left had a plot against Washington will surprise you. That's because the media tend to focus on Karl Marx as the founder of the Left. But actually, the Left has existed since the snake tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden. Oh, the devil changes tactics to snare people in every age, but he is always a liar and a murderer. He always attempts to subjugate people under him.

We must remember that there were two revolutions in the 18th century. One was the American revolution, which resulted in the republic of the United States of America, and the French revolution, which devolved into the reign of terror. The philosophies underlying the two revolutions were diametrically opposite. While the American revolution specifically invoked God and Divine Providence, the French revolution was a consciously atheist affair. And the French revolution was therefore a Leftist revolution.

But the War on Washington isn’t just a recent phenomenon.

The Left didn’t want until George Washington was a statue to topple him. Newspapers like The National Gazette, The Philadelphia Aurora and The New York Time Piece, which were the vanguard of the emerging Democratic-Republican party, depicted him being led to the guillotine.

Democrats today claim that they oppose George Washington because he was a slave owner, but why did Democrats who were not only slave owners then but defended slavery (unlike Washington who favored liberating slaves and whose Washington Benevolent Societies were the organizing network for black conservative voters in the 1800s ) oppose him then?

Long before their relatively recent interest in organizing black people, American leftists were great enthusiasts of the French Revolution and favored bringing it to this country. My book, ‘Domestic Enemies: The Founding Fathers’ Fight Against The Left’, reveals how the Democrats got their start as the “French Party” built around “Democratic Societies” modeled on French radical Jacobin clubs and set up with the aid of foreign emissaries of the French Revolution.

George Washington’s great crime in the eyes of the leftists of his day was his refusal to turn over America to the forces of the French Revolution which was the USSR of its day.

...snip...

French Foreign Minister Charles Delacroix had urged Citizen Pierre-Auguste Adet, the French ambassador, to “use all means in his power to bring about a successful revolution, and Washington’s replacement.”

Washington, always a fighter, would not take the leftist campaign against him lying down.

In his address to Congress, President George Washington had warned of the threat of “certain self-created societies.” By those he meant the Democratic Societies. In a private letter he even more explicitly described how “these societies were instituted by the artful & designing members (many of their body I have no doubt mean well, but know little of the real plan),” by an agent of the French government “under popular and fascinating guises, the most diabolical attempts to destroy the best fabric of human government.” The Democratic Societies, he warned, were created to “sow Sedition; to poison the minds of the people of this country.”

We owe the Father of our Country a great debt of gratitude for his actions. He managed to provide an example of humble service, right actions, and faith in God that has stood the test of time. Greenfield has provided yet another reason to be grateful that Washington was our first President under the Constitution.

The Myth Of The Plant Based Diet

So, this is not "new," but I came across it and having read Nina Teicholz book Big Fat Surprise, I thought I would share it with gentle readers. The article can be found at the Atlantic entitled How We Got Meat Wrong by Nina Teicholz.

The idea that red meat is a principal dietary culprit has pervaded our national conversation for decades. We have been led to believe that we’ve strayed from a more perfect, less meat-filled past. Most prominently, when Senator McGovern announced his Senate committee’s report, called Dietary Goals, at a press conference in 1977, he expressed a gloomy outlook about where the American diet was heading.

“Our diets have changed radically within the past 50 years,” he explained, “with great and often harmful effects on our health.” These were the “killer diseases,” said McGovern. The solution, he declared, was for Americans to return to the healthier, plant-based diet they once ate.

Except that plant based diet we once ate never existed. It was a myth.

Early Americans settlers were “indifferent” farmers, according to many accounts. They were fairly lazy in their efforts at both animal husbandry and agriculture, with “the grain fields, the meadows, the forests, the cattle, etc, treated with equal carelessness,” as one 18th-century Swedish visitor described—and there was little point in farming since meat was so readily available.

Settlers recorded the extraordinary abundance of wild turkeys, ducks, grouse, pheasant, and more. Migrating flocks of birds would darken the skies for days. The tasty Eskimo curlew was apparently so fat that it would burst upon falling to the earth, covering the ground with a sort of fatty meat paste. (New Englanders called this now-extinct species the “doughbird.”)

In the woods, there were bears (prized for their fat), raccoons, bobo­links, opossums, hares, and virtual thickets of deer—so much that the colo­nists didn’t even bother hunting elk, moose, or bison, since hauling and conserving so much meat was considered too great an effort. A European traveler describing his visit to a Southern plantation noted that the food included beef, veal, mutton, venison, turkeys, and geese, but he does not mention a single vegetable.

Infants were fed beef even before their teeth had grown in. The English novelist Anthony Trollope reported, during a trip to the United States in 1861, that Americans ate twice as much beef as did Englishmen. Charles Dickens, when he visited, wrote that “no breakfast was breakfast” without a T-bone steak. Apparently, starting a day on puffed wheat and low-fat milk—our “Breakfast of Champions!”—would not have been considered adequate even for a servant.

Indeed, for the first 250 years of American history, even the poor in the United States could afford meat or fish for every meal. The fact that the workers had so much access to meat was precisely why observers regarded the diet of the New World to be superior to that of the Old.

I present this data to you not to convince you to adopt a meat based diet unless you want to. Rather, it is to show you that you have been lied to about something as personal as your diet. What right does the government have to manipulate you into eating a diet that frankly consists of mostly wheat in various forms? They are not serving you, are they? Sounds like they are serving Big Food, doesn't it?

Minnesota Measure Would Allow Abortion Up To Birth

 Over at Life News Steven Ertelt reports that Catholic Bishops Oppose Minnesota Measure Allowing Abortion Up To Birth.

The Catholic Bishops of Minnesota are urging state residents to oppose a measure that would allow killing babies in abortions up to birth.

A proposed “Equal Rights Amendment” SF 37 deceives voters with its nice-sounding name – by taking women’s rights and turning it into unlimited abortion.

As Catholic News Agency reports, the measure drew opposition from the Catholic leaders because of that fact.

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis this week urged Catholics to join a rally to oppose a proposed constitutional amendment that they say “fails to protect Minnesotans from discrimination based on religion, could constitutionally mandate legal abortion up to the moment of birth, and promotes harmful gender ideology.”

The proposed amendment, sponsored by St. Paul Rep. Kaohly Her of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL), adds several protected categories to the state’s constitution, in part saying the state cannot discriminate against a person on the basis of sex.

Within the category of sex, the proposal includes “making and effectuating decisions about all matters relating to one’s own pregnancy​ or decision whether to become or remain pregnant,” as well as “gender identity or gender expression” and “sexual orientation.”

Under such language, any protections for unborn babies and any limits on abortion would be prohibited.

Gentle readers are urged to read the whole article.

We Must Have Access to Every Personal Weapon the Soldier Musters Out With Today and in the Future

 David Codrea, writing at Firearm News in an article entitled Next Generation Army Rifle Highlights Danger of 'Common Use' Argument to Defend 2nd Amendment. Codrea makes the point that the true meaning of the Second Amendment is that civilians, being ultimately the militia, should have access to the same or better weapons as the military. And it makes sense if you think about the Second Amendment for a few minutes. If civilians are to be called up as the militia, when they muster out with their own weapons and ammunition, you want them to be compatible with the military's such that they can share ammunition with their military counterparts.

If the Bruen standard, of text, history, and tradition is to guide the law, what was in common use at that time was equal or superior (like the more accurate and longer-ranged Pennsylvania/ Kentucky rifles) to the Crown’s standard-issue Brown Bess musket. Citizens mustered with the intent to match and to best a professional military threat. Arms “in common use at the time” by everyone meant arms in common use by infantries, who would otherwise prevail if not matched (and surpassed) in capability.

Rather than deter tyranny, a dictated inferiority would invite it. To argue otherwise is to argue the Founders thought sending an outmatched yeomanry to their slaughter was “necessary to the security of a free State.” That’s insane.

And the prohibitionists are aided in citizen disarmament when “gun rights leaders” not only accept – but argue for an invented “in common use at the time” qualifier that limits permitted firearms to what is commercially popular, as opposed to what soldiers and police carry (with the latter somehow magically transmuting their “assault rifles” and “weapons of war” into the more benign “patrol rifles”).

But Codrea's other point is that using the 'common use' argument of Heller is a trap that ensures the government can ban future weaponry because it is not currently in common use.

If “the people” of the Second Amendment can be denied arms based on them not being “in common use” for sport and for limited “self-defense” situations, what chance would they have resisting tyranny equipped with future weaponry that today would be considered the stuff of science fiction? Who knows what those imposing their demands will have at their disposal, along with the power to withhold from citizens 50 years from now, or 100, or beyond?

Since no innovation ever begins “in common use,” a government with the power to do so can ban all new weapon developments from those they would rule, retaining them exclusively for itself. It’s what I warned about when I wrote “Things to Come” back in 2002 for Guns and Ammo:

“It’s been said that a battle isn’t won until a man with a rifle occupies the ground. We must keep in mind that someone probably once said the same thing about spears.”

I urge gentle readers to read all of Codrea's article. It is important to understand exactly where we stand with regard to the right to keep and bear arms. We have made great progress over the last several decades clawing back our birthright from the jaws of the gun grabbers. But we must always keep our eyes on the prize. Biden claims that even cannon were not owned by private citizens when the Second Amendment was ratified. But he is wrong. Wealthy people did own cannon and sometimes armed local militia with cannons and other arms as well. If the Second Amendment means what it says it means, we should have access to every personal weapon that the soldier musters out with today and in the future to be able to deter tyranny.

A Writer Notices A Lot of Fat People Out Protesting, and Tells Us Why?

This particular article hit home for me, and I hope someone who reads it will not spend most of their lives trying to get thin.  There is a way to get and stay thin and fit, so you don't have to believe the MSM.  The article by Jennifer Galardi at The Federalist is entitled Fat, Unhappy Campus Protesters Should Try Lifting Weights and Eating a Burger (without the bun, of course.)

I suspect most of us have become numb to the ugliness of these people, but Galardi has been a model and of course lives in L.A. where the "pretty people" live, so she notices it more. Moreover, she is a fitness instructor and has spent a lot of time on camera. Her story:

As my X feed continues to populate with videos displaying the disgraceful behavior of pro-Hamas campus protesters across the country, I can’t help but notice how unattractive and unkempt they all seem to be.

In an era that celebrates obesity and poor health, I know these are not politically correct thoughts, but the uncomely appearance of student protestors is hard to ignore. Unsightly midriffs and unappealing piercings, which haven’t really been in vogue since the early ’90s, abound on these encampments. The masks don’t help.

I noticed this trend long before the protests littering college campuses. Many extreme activists — particularly those of the gender cult — seem to possess some sort of internal self-loathing, furious with a society that only acknowledges outer beauty.

I understand this anger and it’s not completely unjustified. As a fitness instructor who spent years in front of a camera, often wearing minimal clothing, I struggled with body dysmorphia for most of my life. I felt the constant pressure to lose just a few pounds. I always resented being directed to tell those working out with me at home that “this move will really whittle your waist” or that just a few more reps would help them “melt the fat away!” I hated the sales pitch of weight loss and the unrealistic standard of beauty pushed on women, particularly in Los Angeles where I lived.

My insecurities manifested on one side of the extreme, with endless exercise and food control. These protesters have landed on the opposite side of the spectrum. They have thrown in the towel altogether, displaying an utter disregard for their appearance or health. You don’t have to be a beauty queen to care about your appearance, but you should have more than an ounce of self-respect.

While not a fitness instructor, I have at various times in my life been on the Pritikin Diet (don't), the Adkins Diet (pretty good), the Gundry Diet (again, don't) and finally landed on what Dr. Ken Berry and others call the Proper Human Diet or Carnivore diet. This has worked best for me. Additionally, I go to Planet Fitness, in part because it is the least expensive gym for weight training. But in the past I have run, bicycled between 50 and 100 miles, all to stay in shape. Unfortunately, eating a typical American diet, I continued to gain weight.  I have dropped from 301 pounds down to 232 on the carnivore diet. Today I eat meat and eggs, concentrating on getting proper amounts of protein. My waist has shrunk and keeps shrinking, while my weight slowly goes down. Galardi is correct in her prescription to eat meat and lift weights. You don't have to become a body builder to have an attractive shape. An hour ot so lifting weights each week, and eating a proper human diet will do wonders.

The link between physical and mental health is real. Studies have shown the positive effects on mental health that come with adopting a ketogenic diet, likely because healthy fats, as well as cholesterol, are the building blocks of hormones, key agents in mood regulation. Higher-protein diets have been linked to higher levels of dopamine and norepinephrine, brain chemicals that play a role in mood, motivation, and concentration. Extensive research has also determined that weightlifting can alleviate depression, particularly a feeling of worthlessness.

Undoubtedly, this is why many of these students are driven to activism. They have no sense of purpose. In an era when everything has been given to them and every comfort at their fingertips, they are desperate for meaning. Particularly the coddled children at an Ivy League school like Columbia that costs almost $70,000 a year before room and board, books and supplies, and other living expenses.

Some protestors demanded vegan food be delivered to their encampments. Diets that eliminate all animal products may be fine for some people who have time to prepare food with an eye toward proper food combinations that contain complete proteins.

But prepackaged highly processed vegan foods such as fake meat products, non-dairy ice cream, or any of the other vegan snacks are no healthier than their traditional counterparts. In fact, they are usually worse, filled with inflammatory ingredients such as seed oils and glucose-spiking carbohydrates, which can lead to unstable blood sugar and erratic moods.

I follow Dr. Eric Westman, who studied at the feet of Dr. Atkins, who himself was standing on the shoulders of people like Banting, and I am amazed at the number of things that are corrected by eating a proper human diet. Once you get your glucose steady, your insulin low and steady, all sorts of things begin to heal. Many people report improvements in joint pain, skin rashes, heart disease, and on and on. And Westman and doctors like him don't make a penny from selling special supplements. Meat, especially red meat, and eggs. That's it.

In an age of digital and information overload, the focus of health has morphed from the basics like eating nutritionally dense food and getting daily exercise to elaborate bio-hacking routines to optimize human potential. As a health nut, I’m into all the latest trends, but for most people, extreme measures are not necessary. Simply prioritizing the time needed to cook your food and treat your body like the gift that God intended it to be is enough. Put down the cream puff or the bagel with vegan cream cheese and pick up a couple of eggs and some weights.

Exactly so. Go on then and live your life contributing to the betterment of mankind. Protesting is a dead end. Do something more meaningful. May I suggest that you start by going to church?

* If you do lift weights, please read this book by Fred Hahn: Slow Burn. Hahn' method is to do one set each of 6 exercises using the heaviest weights you can manage lifting to muscle failure. He explains why this works, and of course you should use machines. Why? Well think about doing bench presses or squats to failure without a spotter. Just sayin'.

NC Democrat Talking About Gun Grabbers

 Deborah Ross used to be my State House representative.  With changing district lines, she was promoted up to the U.S. House, while Riley Nickel is now my representatives.  But I digress.  It seems that Ms. Ross is up to her old tricks, but now at the national level. Tom Knighton has the story at Bearing Arms entitled NC Democrat Wants Mandatory Storage Law.

The first thing I wonder about is just how does she intend to enforce such laws? Will she have police come around and hold surprise inspection of homes and storage conditions? And what does she consider "in use"? And what does she mean by safer? For whom? There are other considerations that Knighton mentions as well.

The term "mandatory storage" is far more accurate.

And, to be honest, it's a terrible idea. While I support people securing their guns when not in use, most laws don't really account for "in use" the same way you or I might, particularly with regard to self-defense.

Believe me, when you hear the loud noise in the middle of the night, you don't want to have to fool with keys or a combination in order to get your firearm.

Ross claims:

A North Carolina lawmaker is calling for safe storage laws to keep guns out of the hands of children. In a partisan Judiciary Committee hearing this week, U.S. Rep. Deborah Ross (D-NC) testified something needs to be done to save American lives.

“In North Carolina, guns are now the leading cause of injury or death for children surpassing car accidents and one of the reasons for this tragedy is the lack of safe storage across the country,” said Ross, who represents the 2nd District, most of which is in Wake County.

...snip...

Speaking in a partisan hearing in Philadelphia this week, Ross cited the October 2022, Hedingham neighborhood mass shooting in Raleigh as an example.

“The shooter was a 15-year-old that took a firearm that he used to kill five people from his family home, and it was left unsecured,” she said.

Children having access to guns is something she said she would like to see changed. Nationally, Ross says 70 percent of school shootings are committed by children who have access to unsecured guns in their home.

Knighton notes that Ross's statistics are cherry picked, or worse, include as "childeren" 18 and 19 year olds, who are often killed during gang and criminal activity. But that is par for the course for gun grabbers. Gentle readers should read the entire article. I don't think this is going anywhere. What Deborah Ross wants at the moment is to create something to talk about to fire up her base. But really, it is a safe seat for Democrats, and Ross is likely to be able to retire in the job. More's the pity.

Jews Should Abandon "Learned Helplessness"

 John Farnam at Ammoland has a piece reporting that a Well-Orchestrated, Organized and Violent Anti-Jewish Fervor, Is Now Unmistakable in Every Corner of Our Nation. Farnum points out that too many Jews have become helpless like sheep. And wolves really don't care how many sheep they kill.

A long-time friend, currently living in the LA area, called yesterday expressing concern for the physical safety of himself and family.

He is Jewish, and like most of my Jewish friends, not particularly religious. Only rarely does he (at least marginally) observe Jewish holidays. In fact, in our conversations, he often expresses cynical skepticism concerning all religions.

However, he is understandably concerned about the current, well-orchestrated, well-organized, violent anti-Jewish fervor, which is now unmistakable in every corner of our nation, and by no means confined to college campuses!

...snip...

My Jewish friend forwarded me a letter (email) he received yesterday from a Jewish academic organization listing several “precautions” American Jews should be taking these days.

Most related to lowering personal profile.

It’s all sound advice, of course, but the admonishment to “go armed” was conspicuously absent from the list—a glaring omission I pointed out!

I really don't understand this "learned helplessness." The LORD does not demand pacifism from those who follow Him. Yes, He tells you not to murder. But self-defense is not murder. More Jews should go armed everywhere they go. Hamas started this war, and Hamas could stop it at any point by surrendering. Moreover, any American who supports Hamas holds an indefensible position. Any Jew who is attacked by Hamas supporters has every right to defend himself, just as Israel has the right to defend itself.

To Conceal or Not to Conceal?

Over at Bearing Arms Tom Knighton presents a discussion with a fellow gun blogger on Is Open Carry Idiotic, or Just a Topic for Debate? In the post, Knighton takes up an article by Kat Ainsworth Stevens. Now, Ms. Stevens doesn't dispute anyone's right to open carry. She just thinks it is unwise to do so.

From a tactical standpoint, open carry is…unwise. There are a lot of guys who will argue that having a visible firearm serves as a deterrent. Mr. Bad Dude, they reason, will see that gun and think twice about messing with [insert location here].

However, Mr. Bad Dude is just as likely to see Dude With Visible Weapon as the first target to take out. That or Bad Dude might think, hey!…a freebie!…and proceed to take that gun (ask me how many hardcore open carriers have proper handgun retention training).

When you conceal your gun, you take any potential weapons-based target off your back, you stop looking like a loot drop, and you retain the element of surprise.

I agree with Ms. Stevens on this point. It makes no sense to draw attention to yourself as carrying a gun. Too many people have been "SWATed" by anti-gunners, and some have been thereby killed. As discussed above, why remove the element of surprise? As long as your gun remains concealed, you have the option to engage at a time and place of your chosing, not that of the Bad Dude. You should take advantage of it.

I have to run now, but please read the entire article and also the embedded article. And as the Liberty Doll says, "Happy Shooting."

The Frat Boys Turn Out to Be the Heroes

 Over at Townhall.com Kurt Schlichter has an excellent piece entitled The (Communist) Nerds Are the Bad Guys in This Movie. Schlichter starts by pointing to the movie "The Revenge of the Nerds" as painting the nerds as the good guys and the frat boys and the bad guys. But that movie was a lie. As Schlichter points out, so called "Nerds" were just normal people studying hard and trying to get an education. We didn't have time for the stuff fraternities were known for, but which were even then largely overblown.

For those of us who came of age in the greatest of decades, the 80s, it’s a bitter pill to swallow to realize that we have been sold the lie by movies like “Revenge of the Nerds” that frat boys are the eternal bad guys. On college campuses today, the nerds are the bad guys, a communist collection of weirdos, losers, and mutations of heft who cry about Palestine, whine that the cops are mean to them for breaking the law and scream that they are being literally murdered by people who won’t honor their myriad food allergies. The 80s nerds were courageous rebels. Today’s nerds are pathetic conformists – they all look the same, they all sound the same, and they all smell the same. They’re not amusing nerds like Pointdexter and Booger. They don’t rock out like the ROTN nerds. These are garbage nerds, spoiled commies with stupid masks, stupid piercings, and stupid hair.

Today, the heroes fighting back on campuses are labeled frat boys, whether they’re in fraternities or not, but what they really are is a bunch of normal dudes. It’s obvious at first glance. They are mostly (but not all) straight white males, in shape, well-dressed, and free of stupid masks, stupid piercings, and stupid hair. They guzzle Coors Light instead of gulping SSRIs. They protect the Old Glory and proudly wave it. And they mock the pinko losers.

They don’t give a damn about the gentle feelz of the commie nerds. They’re rough and insensitive, cruel and hilarious. When a gigantic commie waddled up and waved her chubby finger at them, they chanted “Lizzo” and worse. It was hilarious and cathartic. It was liberating. Sure, some of it was obnoxious. Some of it was in bad taste. Some of it got called racist, but here’s the thing – these white boys are going to get called racist no matter what. They have been all their lives, so I doubt they care about one more epithet.

America’s normal young men are fed up. They’re done. They grew up in educational institutions dominated by communist females who despised them. They were always hated because of the race of the majority of them – this pushback by normal guys is multiethnic – and they were always hated because of their gender and unapologetic devotion to cisgenderism. They are told they are the problem and their oppression the solution. Their mere existence is claimed to be proof of a devotion to “white supremacy.” Their heritage is proof of their moral bankruptcy, an original sin that they can never scrub away. They are the oppressors, even though there’s no one more oppressed on a college campus than a frat boy, targeted by an administration that hates him, subjected to a double-track justice system that nukes him if he’s caught sneaking a Dos Equis, but that kisses the collective booty – the enormous booty – of the communist terror fans who take over chunks of the campuses. The normal guys are the designated villains, by the left and Hollywood too, and the rest of us are supposed to hate them.

Schlichter seems to be hopeful that these normal young men will begin the pushback against the Democrat communists that have seemingly sprung up everywhere. In truth, there are more of them, and they are tougher than communist protesters. I just wonder if they can be as ruthless and brutal as true communists can be, when freed from the constraints of God who created man in His image?

They’re not the bad guys. The paradigm of the 80s movies has changed. Those nerds were just cool people trying to get along. Today’s nerds are trying to help the people who want to kill all the Jews in Israel. That’s not cute, and that’s not funny. Thank goodness the frat boys know their enemies and thank goodness their masculinity hasn’t been so suppressed that they have forgotten their instinctive desire to destroy their foes. That is what men do. The communist trash people better hope that this remains on the level of shouting insults across the lines of cops. The stinky campus commies of 2024 won’t stand a chance when today’s Ogres sound their war cry, “Nerds!”

What is the Democrats' Plan?

 Gentle readers are probably wondering where I have been the last week or so.  Look, I put this blog together for personal reasons, not to get paid.  In fact, I don't receive anything in the way of monetary gain for this blog.  But it is also summer, and I am more active now and therefore have less time to scour the internet for stories of interest.  However, I will try to catch up today.

First up is a post by D. Parker at the American Thinker entitled What is Biden's end game in brining in terrorists. Oh, I know he will call them "refugees," but since the people in Gaza overwhelmingly voted for Hamas, I think it is safe to say that they are all terrorists or terrorist sympathizers.

The ruling class left has seen the importation of thousands, if not millions of military-aged men from enemy nations.

And now in a move that dials the insanity up to eleventy, they want to bring in supporters of Hamas, if not the terrorists themselves. Everyone is anticipating an October 7-type attack in the states that will make 9/11 look like a pinprick by comparison.

So, how do they think they are going to politically survive bringing on such an attack after importing these people in?

What is their plan, and what is their endgame after the inevitable terrorist attack that they’ve facilitated?

It’s a mind-boggling move to bring in people who overwhelmingly support a terrorist organization.

But with the ever-present warnings of the growing threat of terrorism and the looming election, it easily pushes the insanity off the scale.

Parker points out that not only are our Federal Government allowing, passively, terrorists into the country, but they are actively supporting them by moving them around the country at taxpayer expense, providing funding and other facilitation, again at taxpayer expense, of these potential terrorists. Thus, if and when they decide to attack us, the left and the Democrats can be held accountable for providing aid and comfort to the enemy. This is a crime, a treason, with serious consequences. What is their plan to beat these charges?

This means the terrorists are going to take full advantage of the situation to carry out as much murder and mayhem they can. They will want to set a new standard of destruction, and you can be sure it will be with the full approval of Red China. (Red as in communist, before the left decided to deceive everyone and switch the colors in the 2000 election).

They are going to attack places with as many people as possible and avoid locations where people can be armed. They aren’t going to be deterred by ridiculous rules or silly ‘gun free’ zone signs. They are looking to create maximum casualties and chaos, so they are going to be looking for large crowds. They may also attack infrastructure targets as well as create mass casualty events since Biden and the Democrats have so helpfully provided them with the resources to do this.

Since they ostensibly won’t have a fixed base to which they can return as with the Gaza in the October 7 attacks, they aren’t as likely to take hostages. Unless they have very ambitious plans to have such bases in place for their attacks.

These are the general considerations, but as far as specifics are concerned the terrorists have a large target area, so they have most of the advantages – with a lot of help from Biden and the Democrats.

So, we’ve looked at how the terrorists are going to take full advantage of the situation, and it would seem to be very bad news for Biden. But somehow, they don’t seem worried. The FBI has issued repeated warnings about terrorism from our open border and yet the border remains wide open and Biden's team is working overtime to bring in more potential threats, so what do they know that we don’t?

Parker is assuming the Democrats have a plan, and it appears it is not legal, or else why the deception? It is not an unreasonable assumption given the past history of the Democrat party. But what is it?