Globalize the Second Amendment?

 At the American Thinker today Arthur Schaper has an article (actually the same one twice, but who's counting, right?) entitled It's Time to Globalize the Second Amendment. He suggests that our leaders need to start calling out other countries for denying their citizens their natural rights. He is correct, of course, but before we do that, perhaps we could call out states within the United States for the same thing?  

Gun control is not just a bad policy. Based on the latest horrific mass shooting, it’s just plain evil. Any government that thinks it’s okay to take away a people’s firearms should automatically be considered illegitimate, and our American leaders should not resist stating that fact.

Schaper is exactly correct. I have long made a similar point. Any government that does not trust its citizens with the means of self-defense cannot itself be trusted. For the only reason to deny citizens that right is because the people in charge of that government have no good planned for their citizens. Usually, it is Leftists who want to cram unpopular ideas down the public's throat.

Granted, most thinkers (?) and commentators around the world scoff at the Second Amendment and fear massive gun violence in their countries. Liberal pundits like Piers Morgan excoriated conservatives like Alex Jones and Ben Shapiro over their resistance to gun control and their insistence on maintaining the right to keep and bear arms in the United States.

Gun-control advocates love to point at the statistics, shooting off the number of gun-related deaths in the United States compared to other countries. Of course, many of the statistics are doctored and distorted, or they fail to indicate that many gun deaths are suicide related or occur in urban areas with little enforcement of the law.

In reality, the problem is never the guns. Instead, it’s the people who are misusing the firearms, and the government entities that refuse to prosecute criminals. One can only hope that a horrid mass shooting such as that at Bondi Beach would be the spark necessary to make people around the world give up their inherent or indoctrinated aversion to firearms.

There’s been a lot of talk about “globalizing the intifada,” which has clearly come to mean global jihad. Perhaps the United States should use its soft political power and cultural heft to globalize the Second Amendment and start pressuring Western governments to respect the natural rights of their citizens to keep and bear arms.

Perhaps before calling out other countries, which needs to be done, Congress should show that we mean it by passing a national reciprocity bill for guns?

France Revives Ancient Demon Worship

 For those who think that the Devil and his minions are not real, please read Fay Voshell's article today at the American Thinker entitled A Massacre of the Innocents in France. There, a government sponsored parade featured mechanical automata of the ancient gods Moloch/Ba'al and Lilith. This after the disgusting opening of the Olympic games this summer, which featured a mockery of Da Vinci's The Last Supper. It seems the French want to poke God in the eye, but He will not be mocked.

In France, a nation in which glorious architecture, literature, and art once celebrated the Prince of Peace, citizens recently beheld a parade celebrating the Herodian malice revealed in the Massacre of the Innocents.

Leading the parade were monstrous automata representing the human flesh–eating Minotaur and Lilith, the infant-killing mythological first wife of Adam.

Writer Baxter Dmitry, reporting for The People’s Voice, reveals the Macron government–sponsored parade included a “Minotaur float, complete with a sacrificial labyrinth stage where performers in goat masks symbolically offered a child mannequin to the bull-headed god, [which] was a direct nod to Ba’al and Moloch worship, the very deities the ancient Israelites were warned never to tolerate.” The theater company behind these giant monsters has been featuring them in events, mainly in Toulouse, for the last few years.

As for the reality of these demons, why would the French, or indeed any people, keep replicating them if they weren't real. Clearly, the people putting this parade together think they are real. And such parades replicate ancient parades featuring the same themes. France seems well and truly lost without a miracle, heading the same direction as ancient Babylon and Nineveh. Perhaps there will be one, I certainly don't know the will of God. In any case, I urge gentle readers to read Voshell's article and pray that this does not spread. God has a way of dealing with such societies.

Some say the world will end in fire...

 When I was a teenager (back when dinosaurs roamed the earth) a new fad hit the fashion world: wide ties and wide lapels on suit and sports jackets.  Yes, the zoot suit from the 1920s was back (or at least part of it). I "borrowed" some of my Dad's old wide ties since I couldn't afford new ones. Mom bought me a wide lapeled sport coat, and I was in high fashion on Sundays going to church. I eventually picked up on the fact that, as book of Ecclesiastes notes, there is nothing new under the sun.  Every "new" idea is just a reworking of an older one. 

So, it was with some amusement today that I noted that the "they" who attempt to keep the population worked up and scared out of their wits are now saying that the earth is headed for a new ice age. This after several decades of claiming that the earth is going to be burning up unless we go back to living like cave men. At the moment they are still tying it into the global warming scare by claiming that warming will create cooling or something. But this whole ice age scare is not new. In the late 1960s the "they" were predicting an oncoming ice age, the solution for which was to give up our modern lifestyle for living again in teepees.  Some things nothing ever changes.

“Vanity[a] of vanities,” says the Preacher;

“Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”

So, gentlemen, save those old ties and bell bottom jeans. You never know when they will come back into fashion. Oh, and here is a little poem on the subject, Fire and Ice by Robert Frost:

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I've tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

Socialism Steals from the Wealthy and to Hell with the Needy

 Mike McDaniel has a post over at the American Thinker entitled MiGs and farmer's markets that yet again presents the absolute shock when people from socialist countries come to America and see what is available to even the poorest of us. These are always good to read, to remind yourself, in case you forget, that we have more material prosperity than probably anyone else. We take this for granted most of the time. The MiG pilot thought he was being driven past Potemkin Villages constructed to impress him, because that is what the Soviets did. Anita from Cuba is a more emotional story because she knows that people back in Cuba don't even have a plate of food for Christmas.

You should go read McDaniel's piece, for sure. On youtube you will find people from North Korea who have the same experience. A grocery store, not even a particularly large one, is unbelievable to them. And all this plenty is available year-round in any grocery store in America. Is it expensive? We yes, but that is because of the government who inisits on inflating the dollar.

Meanwhile we have supposedly college educated students who think we should burn down our system and install a socialist one. Remember that socialism makes everyone equal by stealing everything you have. I builds nothing, and discourages you from building anything either.

Anita’s story, like Victor Belenko’s provides perspective for those who have always enjoyed the benefits of freedom, but who esteem it too lightly. Even today, useful idiots have elected an Islamist Communist Mayor of New York City, and others extol the virtues of Socialism without Anita’s understanding of reality.

I’m glad Anita and her family have found what they sought. She’s the kind of immigrant we ought to welcome. Perhaps someday we will.

Understand that material wealth is not our most important quality. God always comes first, and we must be strong, disciplined and humble despite our wealth if we are to survive as a nation for another 250 years.

If wishes were fishes...

 I have two articles to highlight today, both from the American Thinker and both related to self-defense and guns.

The first I noticed last night, but it was too late, and I was too tired to write about it. Andrea Widburg had a post entitled Lox and load, a Jewish gun club, slowly grows across America. My first thought was: It's about time, after I had a chuckle over the pun. I have always wondered where the notion came from that Jews were supposed to be sitting ducks waiting to be slaughtered. It is nowhere in the Law, the five books of Moses. The 10 Commandments contain a law that says one may not murder, but by extension it also means that one must defend oneself and those in one's care. And indeed, the ancient Israelites were a warrior people.

I believe that history proves that all Jews should be legally armed and defensively dangerous. As law-abiding citizens and moral human beings, we should always be able to exercise our God-given right to self-defense. Fortunately, it seems that, slowly but steadily, more and more American Jews—a demographic that was traditionally anti-gun—are beginning to see things my way.

I grew up in a very anti-gun home, something that mostly came from my mother. My parents had experienced World War II and the Israeli War of Independence firsthand. My dad was a combatant in both wars, first in the RAF and then in the Israel Defense Forces (“IDF”). Dad’s lesson was that a good rifle will defend you, and he eventually bought an old British Lee-Enfield rifle...which Mom promptly made him get rid of.

Why did she do that? Different life lessons.

My mother was a victim of World War II (she was interned in a Japanese concentration camp in Java) and an IDF cartographer in the Israeli War of Independence. Although she knew how to handle a rifle as part of her IDF basic training, she was never a combatant.

Maybe that was why Mom was one of those Jews who learned the wrong lesson about guns: Namely, that the problem is the gun, not the ideology that drives the person holding the gun (whether that ideology is basic criminality or race- or religion-driven hatred). Our family’s Democrat politics reinforced this attitude.

This is fascinating. It is a matter of Christian faith that man is born sinful, and there is nothing he can do about it. That is why we need Christ, to forgive our sins. The belief is derived from the Bible, right there in Genesis, where Eve takes a bite of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and gives some to Adam. Right then and there, God set a plan in motion to ultimately save mankind. The Hebrew texts contain the exact same material, but for some reason Jews read these facts differently. People like her mother seem to believe that people are good, it is just the instruments that are evil.  In any case, I am glad to see these people waking up.

Next up we have Mike McDaniel telling us that Anti-liberty/cracktivists are...let's say deceptive. McDaniel cites one such person, a Professor John J. Davenport PhD at Fordham University. He fisks a statement by Davenport, who describes himself as a philosopher of "peace and justice."  Like Widburg's mother, he is sure that the bad guys are really good.  It is just the guns that somehow made them kill.  And if wishes were fishes...but they are not.

McDaniel concludes with this:

It appears the professor is a bit light on the “justice” part. The right to keep and bear guns is a fundamental, unalienable right. Smoking isn’t. If it’s in the Constitution banning it is off the table. And if we want to deter and stop attacks, we need to ensure many willing citizens are armed in colleges and everywhere else and potential attackers know it.

That’s what saves lives, not disarming people who would harm no one. You know, the peaceful and just?

Please read both pieces as they are short.

Merry Christ's Mass

 Merry Christmas to one and all.  Christmas is of course the celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  If you have time, you might take a look at the American Thinker's Olivia Murray who has penned a post entitled Politico reporter rages against 'far right' for claiming Christmas as a holiday for Christians. She links to the article, which can be found here.

Despite what Hannah* Roberts may believe, we have had a war on Christmas for at least the last 30 years. I remember as a child that at Christmas time, everyone wished everyone else "Merry Christmas." Oh, there have always been Scrooges, but most people were generally glad to wish everyone else a Merry Christmas. Nativity scenes were set up even on public property. It was our culture, back when we were allowed to have a culture of our own. Which is why there has been a war on Christmas.

The Left, now aided by Islamist, want to burn our culture to the ground so they can install totalitarianism. But Christmas is a holiday for Christians. It is not about gifts, though the reason we give gifts is because we have been given the greatest gift of all. It's not about lights, though He shown the brightest light of all to the world. It is about God coming into history and becoming man, living with us in real time. God has shown us that he is not like the pagan gods, removed from mankind, but intimate and available to those who believe and trust in Him.  Murry has it correct:

The mainstream can’t stop platforming SHOEs—Stupidest Humans On Earth—but what’s new?

Merry Christmas everyone!

* Hannah, by the way, is the name of the mother of the prophet and judge of Israel Samuel. He was the last judge and anointed the first king of Israel Saul. Saul's successor, David, was a man after God's own heart and was the progenitor of Jesus. I wonder if Hannah Roberts knows the distinguished name she carries?

Georgia Finally Wins the Civil War

At the American Thinker Joe Fried has a piece entitled 2020 GA Election Fraud is Confirmed. It is the most complete explanation of the Fulton County Democrats rigging of the election of 2020, and is must read. But here is the thing nobody is saying: "So what happens now?" Will anyone suffer any consequences whatsoever? And what does the country as a whole do? This didn't just affect the state. We all suffered under Biden and the Democrats. Theoretically, all the laws and executive orders supposedly signed by Biden and possibly laws passed by Georgia Senator Ossoff were illegitimate. What do we do about it?

Fulton County has in effect shrugged its collective shoulders stuck their collective tongue out at us, and said to the nation, "Yeah, we fraudulently rigged the election. So what?" And the thing is, they continue to do so. They won't release information, and they won's seat two Republican members defying a court order. It as if they as still fighting reconstruction after the Civil War.

Which brings us back to the question of what to do about it?  What I fear is that there is nothing we can do. Which means they have gotten away with it, will get away with it in the future, and there will be no justice. So, except for hobbyists and historians, but I repeat myself, there is really no reason to look into the matter, because nothing will come of it. There is also no reason to vote, because your vote doesn't matter. And I frankly don't believe our republic will withstand it. Sorry.

Democrats Want You Dead

 At the American Thinker today Mike McDaniel has a post entitled Democrats really do want you dead. He ends the post with this:

Normal Americans want everyone, Democrats included, to have the ability to defend their lives, the lives of those they love and even strangers. Democrats want everyone, except their publicly funded security, disarmed. Normal Americans want mass murderers dead and fellow Americans alive. Democrats want mass murders to have free-fire zones and want Normal Americans dead.

What other result can their disarmament policies bring?

Indeed, what other conclusion can one draw? What D. Parker at the American Thinker calls "gun grabbing ghouls" have been after our guns since I was a youngster and probably before that as well. This despite the fact that gun control laws have not proven to stop a single shooting anywhere. Oh, and the police have no requirement to protect any individual. Rather, the police are there to protect and serve the public at large. But there are not enough police available to be everywhere all the time, and in any case the weapons they carry are for their own personal protection. As McDaniel notes:

The police would love to be able to stop a shooter, but even if they’re present, which was reportedly the case at Bondi Beach, they may do nothing which gave the killers a free-fire zone for from 10-20 minutes. At Uvalde, some 300 officers allowed a 70+ minute free fire zone. At Brown, they had no role in stopping the attack.

In any attack, someone must call the police. A dispatcher must assimilate the information and dispatch the call. Officers must race to the scene--if any are available. In some places, the nearest officer might be an hour away. When they arrive, they must orient themselves and close with the attacker or attackers without getting killed before they can do any good. And in all that time, unarmed innocents are dying. Or even worse, as happened at Bondi Beach, the police, who are rushing into a dangerously ambiguous situation, might shoot an innocent.

Normal Americans given this indisputable set of facts want willing citizens to go armed. They trust their fellow citizens with motor vehicles, which are far more deadly than guns. They’re willing to extend that trust to guns as well. Do away with gun-free zones, to be sure, but to deter attacks, and to limit damage when they occur, the only sane, effective solution is allowing honest Americans the means to save their own lives and the lives of others. If they’re present when an attack occurs, they know precisely who the good and bad guys are and they’re able to quickly end the attack.

Democrats see things very differently. Just as officials in Australia and Rhode Island did in the immediate aftermath of those attacks, American Democrats reflexively want to disarm Americans. Despite the failure of near-absolute gun-banning laws and regulations, they demand even more, and more punitive, anti-liberty/gun laws.

Taken together with the other policies of the Democrats such as defunding the police and releasing violent people to prey on normal Americans, one can only conclude that McDaniel is correct: Democrats want you dead.

Liberty and Justice for All

 J. B. Shurk, over at the American Thinker today has a must read article entitled Freedom Lovers Aren't 'Fascists'. It sounds like Shurk is getting just a bit tired of being called what he manifestly is not. I am tired of it too. Those who want freedom for themselves also want it for everybody else. They are far from the dictatorial totalitarianism that characterizes fascist regimes. I don't think even the media folks calling us "fascist" believe it to be true. They just think it's a bad name they can throw out there. The money quote is here:

Those of us who identify as liberty lovers and defenders of freedom harbor profound distrust of government. It is therefore galling when Big Government leftists, socialists, globalists, Marxists, and even outright communists (especially those exercising power as so-called “journalists” working for multinational corporate news organizations) call us “right-wing.”

What is “right-wing” about wanting government bureaucrats to just leave us the hell alone? I try to put myself in the small wingtips of someone such as CNN’s Brian Stelter. When I say, “I want government out of my life,” how does he hear, “Right-wing fascism is overtaking America”? Is Brian obtuse? Maliciously dishonest? Both?

I find it perplexing to hear Stelter, Jake Tapper, and their fellow ideological clones on cable news describe those of us who most ardently defend the Bill of Rights as somehow being threats to American freedom. Look around the universe of political writers today, and you will find that almost all of the staunchest advocates for free speech, freedom of religion, the right to bear arms, and protections from warrantless government searches and mass surveillance are Americans whom Stelter, Tapper, and their cohorts would describe as “right-wing.”

Please go and read the whole article. Please also realize there is a difference between "liberty," in which people govern themselves, and "libertine," in which people indulge their baser instincts. Some will inevitably use their liberty for nefarious purposes, but that does not negate the idea of liberty for the vast majority who choose to govern themselves.

Having Fun Playing the Organ

 Today, at the American Thinker Mike McDaniel has a post noting that The Mar-A-Logo raid was always a fraud and the American people knew it. Now, it seems, the FBI has come clean with an internal memo. So, let's see if any heads will roll.

I have not been posting much as a couple of you may have noticed. Mrs. PolyKahr has pointed out to me that I am an old fart (true), am not working (true) and especially no longer working in the government (also true.) I have no special insight anymore, nor any influence. Nobody listens to me. All true. Therefore, she concludes, I spend too much time on the computer, getting stirred up and failing to do things that I actually have control over. She is right again. So, while I have a lot to say about current events, I have kept my thoughts to myself. Which leads me to what I am doing with the time I would have spent prattling on about this or that.

I may have mentioned from time to time that I play the organ. Many years ago, when I was around 15 or so, I bought a little Thomas organ and switched from piano to organ. I haven't played any more than a scale or two on a piano since.  The piano and the organ both have at least one keyboard, but the piano's keyboard is sensitive to how hard the keys are struck.  This sensitivity to touch allows the pianist to create expressive music by varying how hard they strike the keys.  The organ, by contrast is insensitive to how hard you strike it.  Varying the loudness of the music is controlled by the expression pedal.  

The Thomas organ was a portable version of their popular home organ. It broke down into three boxes, one for the manuals and controls, one for the lower pedals, expression control and speakers, and a third for the Leslie speaker. You could switch the Leslie on by pressing a switch while seated at the organ.  The Leslie had rotating baffle inside that created a warbling effect simulating a tremolo. I have looked, but could not find an image of the Thomas, but the layout was like this one.  Leslie was popular in the day because they also made a box for the Hammond B3, featured on such hits Whiter Shade of Pale by Procol Harum.

I still have the books from I learned the organ. My organ teacher's marks on them indicate I switched from piano to organ in July 1968. Back then I was still trying to play the whole organ, which includes two manuals and a pedal board. Unfortunately, when I went to college, I stopped playing music and concentrated on my career.  Eventually, the Thomas was sold, and I didn't touch an organ for at least 3 decades.

 At some point, Mrs. PolyKahr happened on a Kimball organ for something like $100 and brought it home. I played on it some. After retirement, I started taking lessons at the local piano and organ store on a Lowery instrument. Typically, these lessons, for old farts like me, involved a song a week. While others had Lowerys to practice on, I was using the Kimball, and had trouble keeping up.

Lowery had a patent on a system whereby you pressed the key to the left had chord that you wanted to play. So, for instance, to play a "C" chord, you pressed the "C" on the lower manual. This is true for all 12 major chords. The minor chords are similar, though these require two fingers, one on the key and the other on the flatted third. So, for "C minor" you would press "C" and "E flat". These chords include the pedals. All together the available chords include most that you might need to play any popular song and a bunch of hymns as well. So, I bought a Lowery Majesty and have played that ever since.

The Majesty is what is called a Theatre organ.  As such, in includes a huge number of sampled instruments and accompaniments.  As wonderful as the Lowery Majesty is to play, I have always felt like I needed to go back to the roots of my desire to play the organ, which began with a Hammond C3 in church. Beneath the theatre organ overlay, there is a traditional organ in the Majesty. You can set the stops and play as a traditional organist. So, I dug out the old books, now 57 years old, and I have been reacquainting myself with playing an organ the right way.  Oh, and I am having a lot of fun doing it.  Perhaps in a few years I may play a voluntary at Church.  Not that we need another organist at church.  Our cup runneth over with talented organists.

I haven't given up entirely on this blog, I am just facing the fact that the world is going to be what it is going to be. I can only influence myself in the end.

A Treacherous Ideology Growing Among Us

 Today, at the American Thinker Sloan Oliver has a piece entitled More Violence from the Religion of Peace in which he catalogues the number of people killed and injured by Muslims in their ongoing war to impose "peace" on us. It is interesting to note that while they kill a number of people in the West, they kill more of their own. If that is their idea of "peace," I think we can do without it.

Listening to the news, how often do you feel gaslighted? Lied to? I’m guessing quite often. Again, we’re being lied to about Islam; you know, the “religion of peace.” Last week, a practicing Muslim gunned down two National Guard (NG) soldiers in Washington D.C. Immediately, the claptrap media warned against Islamophobia, that the murder had nothing to do with Islam. Right, and abortion has nothing to do with infanticide. Do people actually believe such lies? Obviously, they do, because media such as MS-NOW (former MSNBC), CNN, the NY Times, NPR, and all the other leftist media blamed President Trump for instigating and inciting the Muslim to action. A quick review will help.

Prior to the late 1960s and early 70s, most in the West didn’t think much or often of the Middle East or threats posed by Islam. We were more occupied with the Soviet threat. Nevertheless, Muslim/Islamic terrorists were killing people all over the world -- particularly targeting Israel and Jews, hijacking planes, shooting up airports, bombing embassies, and the like. When Iranian Muslims captured the U.S. Embassy in Tehran (1979), and held Americans hostage for 444 days, we took notice. In the ensuing decades, Muslim terrorists and Islamic madmen have been on the march across the globe -- the U.S. Embassy in Beirut was bombed (April 1983 -- 49 killed); the Marine barracks in Beirut were bombed (October 1983 -- 241 killed); Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed (1988 - 270 killed); World Trade Center was bombed (1993 -- six killed); the Khobar Tower was bombed (1996 -- 19 airmen killed); U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed (1998 -- hundreds killed, thousands injured); the USS Cole was bombed (2000 -- 19 sailors killed); and the 9/11 attacks (September 2001 -- killed thousands). Since 9/11, Islamic terrorist attacks targeting Americans, both here and abroad, have almost become routine -- the Shoe Bomber, the Underwear Bomber, the Fort Hood shooter, the Boston Marathon Bombers, the San Bernadino attack (2015 -- 14 killed), the Orlando Nightclub Shooting (2016 -- 49 killed), the NYC truck attack (2017), the New Orleans truck ramming (2025 New Years Day -- 14 killed), and last month’s shooting of two NG soldiers in D.C.

The above attacks were some of the major ones against American targets. Muslims have targeted just about every country in the world beginning with attacks against Israel’s Olympic Team (Munich 1972 -- 12 killed); Beirut became a hellhole (1970s and 80s); the Bali Nightclub attack (2002 – 202 killed); the Madrid Train bombing (2004 – 193 killed, thousands injured); the London Subway bombing (2005 -- 56 killed); the Mumbai, India attacks (2008 -- 175 killed); the Charlie Hebdo attack (2015 -- 17 killed); the Paris Nightclub suicide bombings (2015 -- 130 killed); the Nice, France truck attack (2016 -- 86 killed); and the Moscow Theater Attack (2024 -- 145 killed). Let’s not forget the Hamas Oct 7, 2023 attack on Israel that killed over 1,200 and took 250 hostages. These were the Muslim attacks that garnered large media because they were against western countries and killed westerners.

...snip...

If you think these attacks by Muslims are one-offs and happen infrequently, think again. According to the website “thereligionofpeace.com,” worldwide last month there were 92 Islamic attacks in 17 countries that killed 378 people and injured 210. The website admits they don’t catch all attacks, because some are not immediately reported or claimed by a terrorist group. Actually, November was a light month. The previous month saw 152 Islamic attacks in 18 countries that killed 2,548 and injured 458. In all of 2025, there have been 1,875 Islamic attacks in 48 countries, 13,337 people killed and 6,139 injured. In 2024, worldwide there were 1,762 Islamic attacks in 52 countries, 9,587 people killed and 8,464 injured. Every year prior had similar numbers, all carried out by Muslims.

Oliver wonders if Satan designed a religion, what would he do differently? I have news for him, though don't tell anyone. Satan is precisely the one who designed Islam. Oddly enough, even though we are sinful people, Christianity attracted numerous people, in part because God promises to forgive your sins if you repent and try to do better. Also, they noticed that Christians lived much more peacefully with each other and their neighbors. In contrast, Islam can only recruit new members by the sword and offering young men their most prurient fantasies (having constant sex with 72 virgins in eternity.) He has described it perfectly as an "ideology of oppression that wraps itself in the cloak of a religion."

Islam is dangerous and its adherents will never assimilate into American culture and life. Indeed, America is antithetical to Islam.  We already have Leftist; we don't need another treacherous ideology growing among us.

We Dodged A Bullet

At Zero Hedge, there is an article by Tyler Durden entitled "The Whole Model Is Broken": 'Tech Mafia Wife' Admits 'We Were Klaus Schwab's Useful Idiots'. The article features an interview with Nichol Shanahan, the ex-wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin and former vice presidential candidate. As an aside, we dodged a bullet when RFK,Jr dropped out of the race because this woman shouldn't be anywhere near the levers of power.

Now, I am sure Nichol Shanahan is a perfectly nice person in the normal sense of the word. I am sure she is compassionate and kind. The kind of woman who bakes cookies for the school fund raiser.  But one has to think that if a person with this kind of wealth, who because she has access to a staff, and did not figure out long ago that the Davos crowd was a total fraud...she must be a total idiot.

Remember that Klaus Shwab wanted a 'great reset' so we could "build back better."  Hmmm. Wouldn't you think it might be a good idea to ask what "building back better" would look like? Wouldn't you also think that maybe it would be a good idea to ask how we were supposed to pay for it?  You don't have to get too much in the weeds to read that "BBB" means we will own nothing and be happy. Said with that German accent, it sounds more like a threat.  She owns a lot, so I would think that might bother her. And when you think about it, if no one owns anything, no one takes care of anything, and everything without care turns to crap.

Digging just a little deeper, there is the idea that AI and robotics will do everything for us. Of course, that won't happen either. Someone has to build things, pave roads, repair electrical lines, and do other stuff robots cannot do.  But the disturbing part is the belief that there will be too many useless eaters and that we will have to shed...oh, I don't know...some 8 billion of us? Murdering 8 billion people doesn't sound too compassionate to me. No, it sounds hauntingly like the adage attributed to Lenin that 'To make an omlet you must break a few eggs.' We know how that turned out.

She claims that the other members of the 'Tech Wives Mafia' believed the same things as she did. If so, it just proves that these women, who, remember, did not make the money themselves, they just had access to it by virtue of their husbands, do not deserve it. As I say, we dodged a bullet. If, as it sounds like in the interview, she has repented, then good for her. Please note that the United States as founded was not and is not perfect. No human government can be. But the government the Left would put upon us is even less perfect. Keep that in mind.

On Being Grateful This Thanksgiving Day

Today, November 27, 2025 is our official Thanksgiving Day.  But while we have one official day, we should practice giving thanks and praise to God every day.  Like so much in our tradition, giving God the thanks and praise he so richly deserves from us was brought down to us by our friends, the Jews, who practiced it and preserved it so that when the Messiah came into the world, the world was set up to receive Him.

So, it is fitting that the best Thanksgiving message today comes from Yael Eckstein in an article at Townhall.com entitled Hineni: Thanksgiving's Answer to Ayeka. As we learn in Eckstein's article, "Ayeka: means "where are you?" and "hineni" means "here I am" in Hebrew. But knowing this doesn't convey the full spiritual meaning. That you only get by first having an attitude of gratitude.

This Thanksgiving, my heart turns again to the quiet strength that comes from gratitude, not for what we wish we had, but for the blessings God has already placed in our lives.

In a world of constant comparison and societal pressures, it is easy to forget this spiritual truth. In the Jewish tradition, we observe gratitude not only as a feeling, but as a response to a sacred question.

That question is Ayeka? Where are you?

It is the first question God poses to humanity in the Garden of Eden, and it continues to echo through the generations. It is not a request for an exact location. It is a calling: Where are you in this moment? What do you decide to stand for when the world around you feels uncertain, frightening, or unfair? Who are you choosing to be?

And the answer our tradition gives us is the answer of our forefather Abraham: Hineni. Here I am.

Hineni reminds us that everyone can do something. Everyone is empowered. Hineni is the language of faith in action, even in the hardest times. It is the courage to step forward even when the path ahead is uncertain. When there's nowhere left to go but to jump into the abyss of the unknown. It is answering God’s call not because life is easy, but because we know He walks with us, especially during the tough times.

Seen through the lens of Hineni, Thanksgiving is not just a holiday on the calendar that comes around once a year. It is part of a daily spiritual practice – a way of standing before God with presence, purpose and an open heart. And it is often in the moments when gratitude feels the hardest to find that we need it the most.

Before you have your family gathering, your turkey and ham, and sit down to watch football, I urge gentle readers to read Eckstein's article and consider all the many blessings he has given us, and how we might bless others as a result.

A Bargain or a Trap

 Here's the last one for today. At Alt-Market.us Brandon Smith has an article entitled Is Global Technocracy Inevitable or Dangerously Delusional. The so-called tech geniuses and gurus believe that computers will eventually take over the world. Through Artificial Intelligence, the machines will be in charge. But Smith notes that it is entirely in our hands, as it has always been. We can choose to cut the cord, to leave our devises at home. We don't have to live as slaves to this iteration of "world domination."

The bewildering truth behind human technological enslavement is that it is impossible without the voluntary participation of the intended slaves. People must welcome technocracy into their lives in order for it to succeed. The populace has to believe, blindly, that they cannot live without it, or that authoritarianism by algorithmic consensus is “inevitable.”

For example, the average person living in a first world economy voluntarily carries a cell phone everywhere they go at all times without fail. To be without it, in their minds, is to be naked, at risk, unprepared and disconnected from civilization. I grew up in the 1980s and we did just fine without having a phone on our hip every moment of the day. Even now, I refuse to carry one.

Why? First, as most people should be aware of by now (the Edward Snowden revelations left no doubt), a cell phone is a perfect technocratic device. It has multilayered tracking, using GPS, WiFi routers, and cell tower triangulation to track your every step. Not only that, but it can be used to record your daily patterns, your habits, who your friends are, where you were on any given day many months or years ago.

Then there’s the backdoor functions hidden in app software that allows governments and corporations to to access your cell’s microphone and camera, even when you think the device is shut off. The private details of your life could be recorded and collated. In a world where privacy is being declared “dead” by boasting technocrats, why help them out by carrying something that listens to everything you say and chronicles everything you do?

Like Mr. Smith, I grew up at a time when there were no computers. We all got along just fine. We used paper maps to get around. We went to the library for information. We employed slide rules to perform calculations.  We actually wrote down things on paper with ink delivery devises called "pens." Young people are fascinated with fountain pens and often ask me to demonstrate one. My point is that we can live without a lot of this stuff. Indeed, in many ways our lives were better, if less convenient, then. Convenience is only worth so much. It is certainly not worth your freedom and your soul.  They are offering you a bargain, but it is also a trap.

Grab a cup of coffee and read the whole article. it is well worth thinking about it.

A Christian Revival

 It seems that today is my day for disagreeing with the story title writers at the American Thinker This time it is the article entitled God Is Back by S. R. Piccoli. God has always been there, will always be there, and constantly calls to people to come to Him. We are the ones who stray, like lost sheep, from His embrace. The title of the article should have been "People Flocking to God."

There. Having fixed the author's title for him, let me note that I have noticed the same thing, though I did not have the statistics. In my own congregation, I have seen an upswing in new members, both couples with children and single men. (The phenomenon of men entering the church without women is something I have not thought enough about, being too old and too married for that sort of thing. But if the number of single women who believe themselves to be oppressed by society and the "patriarchy," and voted for Mamdani are any indication, there is a huge lack of gratitude among our young women today. If young women want to see patriarchy, they should take a hard look at Muslim societies. Women are considered the possession of a man, to be bought and sold like slaves.)

The revival of Christianity among both young people and intellectuals is good news. We will need them to fight off the coming Muslim attempt to conquer the West. I have noted many times here that Islam is not from God, but is from the devil himself. The followers of Islam, like their father, build nothing, invent nothing, make nothing. They only destroy. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Christian God, created us, sustains us, and builds us up. Christians, like their Father, invent, build, and attempt to make the world better. Even Richard Dawkins admits he would rather live in a culture based on Christian principles.

Understand that the Church Christ founded will never fall, so whose side would you rather be on?

Nick Fuentes: Man of the Left

 Joseph Ford Cotto has an article claiming that Nick Fuentes proves 'No Enemies to the Right' is suicide for the GOP. I read the article at the American Thinker, and it does get better, but seems to avoid the obvious. So, let's back the truck up a bit. Let us note that Nick Fuentes is not to the right of the GOP. He in fact is a part of the Marxist Left. He is wacky, emotional, his principles are not well thought out, but he is of the Left. He praises Hitler and Stalin for crying out loud.  We have no problem declaring him, and anyone who follows him an enemy. We don't want him anywhere near Republican politics. Period.

One can talk good sense to the vast majority of Republicans and conservatives, however. To them, the message is clear. There is no moral, political, or strategic justification for allowing Fuentes or his followers anywhere near GOP and right-leaning institutions. They must be screened out of every respectable, or even quasi-respectable, non-lefty function, media enterprise, political campaign, donor network, youth organization, party organ, political action committee, and think tank without hesitation or apology.

So, Cotto has it correct in the end, except that he allows himself to believe the old canard that Hitler and the Nazi party were of the Right. They were not. Perhaps they could be considered to the right of Stalin, but they were still Socialists and of the Left.  Reagan's 11th Commandment does not apply.

Man Bites Dog Stories

Well, here's something different...way different.  This is a man bites dog story if ever there was one. Apparently, in Western North Carolina, a bald eagle dropped a cat through a motorist's windshield. You can find the story at Sky High Surprise: Bald Eagle Hurls Cat At Unsuspecting Motorist.

These are things you and I can't explain. It is like the time that a little bird, a type of parrot, landed on Mrs. PolyKahr's shoulder. It was obviously someone's pet, but whose? Having had parrots before, we put him in a proper cage, fed him the proper diet, and put up posters around asking if anyone knew to whom he belonged. After about 7 months or so, we had decided that he was ours, when our little bird needed the care of a veterinarian. It turned out that the original owner had taken the bird to that particular vet, and so eventually bird and owner found themselves together again.

One can't make this stuff up. Really, these things are just too freaky.

The Three Estates of Man

 I have spoken about what this thing called "conservatism" is all about.  In the past, I have differentiated conservatism from traditionalism.  Traditionalism often masquerades as conservatism, but they are not the same thing.  Conservatism conserves our founding principles, as contained in our Constitution.  Traditionalism is conserving what has been, no matter that it was originally a radical position. Being conservative requires discernment to know the right path.  Sometimes conservatism is traditionalism, but sometimes it requires us to try new things to achieve old ideas.

Jenna Ellis presents us with an even deeper idea of conservativism in her piece at Townhall.com today entitled Real Conservatism: Pursuing What God Ordained. My previous definition of conservatism was essentially political, and to some degree materialist. Ellis points us to an apolitical conservatism with which we can combat all forms of ideology and materialism by following God's original plan for us.

Ellis opens with a warning for us old dogs. That warning is that young people have grown weary of the usual guff the movement conservatives give them. They have become wary of traditional institutions which they see as corrupted. Ellis is correct in her assessment. And an old dog still can learn new tricks. Each of the "institutions" started out as something new once upon a time. But many have outlived their usefulness to conservatives.  They need to change or be reprogramed to serve a new generation:

For years now, the so-called “New Right” has expressed a deep and growing distrust of America’s institutions. And honestly? They’re not wrong to feel that way. Every generation eventually realizes that the shiny buildings and bureaucratic titles we’re told to trust are, in reality, just man-made structures run by flawed people. Washington think tanks, legacy media, universities and even parts of our own political machinery have squandered their credibility.

But in reacting against the failure of man-made institutions, too many conservatives — especially younger ones — have started believing the entire conservative project is obsolete. They look at the GOP establishment clinging to “Reaganism” in 2025 like a security blanket or nostalgically quoting the Founders without offering any path forward and understandably wonder whether the future belongs to populists who burn everything down or technocrats who want to rebuild everything from scratch.

Both sides are making the same mistake: they’re acting like institutions are the problem.

But the real problem is the wrong institutions.

Conservatism was never about “conserving” whatever man happened to build. Conservatism was — and must again be — about conserving what God ordained: the permanent institutions that He designed for human flourishing.

So, what are the God ordained institutions that are designed for human flourishing?

There are three institutions Scripture establishes:

1. The Church, tasked with proclaiming truth.

2. The family, the foundational unit of society.

3. Civil government, designed not to create rights but to secure pre-political rights endowed by our Creator.

Everything else — parties, agencies, bureaucracies, schools, media, “experts,” political influencers — is downstream from human ambition and human failure.

Ellis here notes what Luther described as the 3 estates of man: the State, the Household, and the Church.  One has specific duties in all three.  So, in our culture, voting is a part of our civic duty under the State as well as paying taxes and defending its borders.  We also have specific duties under our Household.  For instance, earning a living, leading prayer and worship, nurturing children and so on.  Regular church attendance is also a part of a man's responsibilities.  All three estates have been under siege for at least 100 years.

I would note that I have voted in every election since Nixon became president. In all that time, for the most part I have held my nose and voted for the least bad choice. For the most part that has meant voting Republican, even though I acknowledge that the Republican party is the stupid party, able to snatch defeat from the mouth of victory. Right now, the Democrat party, always the evil party, is in disarray. But they will eventually right themselves and move to the center again. We, as conservatives need to focus Church, family, and achieving a civil government that secures our God given rights.

Update: Watch Modernity is about to collapse. Richard the Fourth comes from a British perspective, but puts his finger on the source of our troubles. Man made ideologies are, not surprisingly, materialist and seek worldly things rather than sacred things.

Socialism Always Fails...Always

 Late yesterday, at the American Thinker D. Parker had a great post entitled The running gag, the leftists lie: 'Socialism has never been tried before'. As Parker notes in his post, socialism has actually been tried many times over hundreds of years, and has...failed...every...time. He notes, socialism started in this country with some of our forebears. For example, the Mayflower colony in Plymouth, Massachusetts nearly starved to death under collectivism. They had made all land common property and expected the people to all give their utmost to ensure the common good. After all, this was a Christian colony.  Trouble was that each person expected someone else to do the hard and dirty work. It is the tragedy of the commons so lamented among environmentalists, where when everybody owns it, nobody worries about conserving it.

Parker describes a sampling of socialist experiments that have taken place in the United States over the last 200 years. None of these were the totalitarian variety. All were entirely voluntary. They did not survive. And little wonder. Like the pilgrims' experiment, when people realize they will get the same as everyone else no matter how hard they work, no matter whether they have good ideas for improving things, they slack off. It is human nature. People will work for their family, for themselves, and a few will work for altruistic reasons. But generally, nobody works for nothing. Indeed, this is called slavery.

So much for the running gag that is the leftist lie: Socialism has never been tried before. It’s been tried everywhere, including the birthplace of AOC, and it’s never worked in 200 years. That’s a consistent record of failure that the left needs to be ashamed of, once you consider the mass murder and misery that always accompany these socialistic schemes.

If you are not familiar with the socialist experiments Parker mentions, it is an interesting exploration. If you happen to be leaning towards socialism, it is worth your while to study them and ask yourself if the current crop of socialists has proposed anything different? If not, how will the current politician succeed where the ones in the past failed?

As far as "capitalism" goes, it is just the way business has always been done. It is trading something you have for something you want more. Merchants would load a ship with, say, grain, wine and olive oil, and hope to trade these for copper, iron, and perhaps spices or luxury goods. In the process, the merchant hoped to make a small profit to provide for his family and be able to purchase his next shipload of goods. The problem with our current "capitalism" is that it has become crony capitalism which is actually corporate socialism. If politicians can note that a business is "too big to fail," with a straight face, they should seriously think about breaking that business up.  Oh, and as we are learning from the collapse of the EV market, you can't sell something nobody wants without government mandates.

Please read the whole post.

You Can Not Be Left and Be Christian

I have said it, but I have never heard anyone else say it.  You can not be a disciple of Christ, and call yourself a Christian, and be a leftist.  There are many reasons for this.  But the most glaring reason is that the Left views abortion like a secular sacrament. Abortion is child sacrifice, the same as what the Bible describes as passing their children through the fire.  God ordered the Israelite armies to destroy cities that did this.  He ordered them to destroy men, women, children and even animals.  He did not want anything to remain of such people.  What do you think he thinks of us?  In any case, I agree with the speaker in this video.

I would note that there are some commenters who think that Christianity is separate from such things. They want to have it both ways. They talk about being a progressive Christian. I agree that the Right is not universally on the side of Christ. But the Left is pretty universally against Christ and on the side of the devil. You can not be neutral. You can not sit on the fence. And, oh by the way, God is not your co-pilot. You must be on Christ's side in all things, or you are lost.

Please go watch the video. It is short.

When Will Ford Motor Company Re-learn What Its Founder Knew

 As the United Nations meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP-30) meets in Brazil, Mike McDaniel notes that Ford Motor Company continues to lose $132,000 on each Ford F-150 Lightening sold.  That is an amazing amount of money being wasted, really being misappropriated.  It is a common mistake people make.  Having spent a great deal on a losing scheme, they then spend more in hopes of saving what has already been spent.  Instead, they should look at money spent as sunk costs and coldly cut off any further expenditure.  In this case, Ford executives should recognize, as the American car buyer has, that an electric truck is not going to work...at least for now.

McDaniel notes:  

Lightning MSRPs have been as high as $90,000. Is that $132,000 on Ford’s production cost, or on the MSRP? What company can possibly lose that kind of money and remain in business? And why haven’t Ford shareholders stormed corporate HQ with torches and pitchforks?

I write this as an owner of two conventionally powered Fords. They’re fine vehicles I plan to keep for many years to come, so I have an interest in Ford’s continued success.

Ford’s EV losses to date in 2025 have been equally catastrophic:

The move comes after Ford’s electric vehicle business, Model e, lost another $1.4 billion in Q3. Ford’s EV unit has now lost $3.6 billion through the first nine months of 2025.

Around $3 billion of the loss is due to its current EVs, such as the F-150 Lightning and Mustang Mach-E. The other $600 million is for investments in next-gen electric models.

And which “next-gen electric models” might those be? The Lightning has been continually hyped as a wonder vehicle, but when owners asked it to do truck things like tow trailers and carry heavy loads, it woefully underperformed. All EVs have range problems, particularly when it’s cold, on anything but flat land, when bucking headwinds, and when they dare travel at highway speeds. Adding 1000 pound+ batteries to already heavy vehicles worsens those problems. Adding to the fun is using electrical accessories like heaters in winter makes annoying range problems potentially deadly. Ford recommends Lightning owners use only their seat and steering wheel heaters in winter. That’ll keep the frost off the windshield.

Automobiles did not originally have heaters in them. My 1933 Plymouth had an aftermarket heater installed, which made riding more comfortable. In the late 1950s, my dad had a Jeepster that didn't have a heater, or if it did, it wasn't effective. I remember riding in the winter in that car and freezing until we got to our destination. So, it seems the F-150 Lightening is taking a step backwards in technology, which doesn't add anything to the sales pitch.

It appears that with Trump II, the free market is again prevailing without lunatic leftists putting their thumbs on the economic scales. Ford, and the rest, appear to be dimly realizing they need to make vehicles the public wants at prices they can afford and which turn a profit.

Who coulda thunk it?

Well, Henry Ford, for one.

The Future of AI Is Not Heaven on Earth

At the American Thinker today there is an article by Vince Coyner entitled Elon's & Joe's Not-So-Excellent Adventure: The Delusion of an AI-Driven Nirvana. In the article, Coyner makes clear that Elon Musk and Joe Rogan have no idea about human nature. They speculate that artificial intelligence (AI) will soon eliminate most jobs as it takes over the world, thus freeing humans to "find meaning." It will be yet another heaven on earth, in their opinion. Coyner accepts their premise that AI will eliminate most jobs, but thinks it will bring about something more akin to hell that heaven.

The AI nirvana about which Musk and Rogan wax will likely be anything but. I think the most likely outcome of untethered AI is that mankind ends up in bondage and is then eliminated. Once AI has control over pretty much everything, it will see humans as a necessary evil to be tolerated, albeit temporarily. The number of humans necessary to maintain the system will be few, so AI will simply eliminate the excess. Then, once those few are no longer necessary, they will meet the same fate.

Interestingly, I have been noodling on this topic myself, but have come to somewhat different conclusions. Let me explain. Recently, I read a book by Charles Murray, which was recommended by American Thinker editor Andrea Widburg entitled Taking Religion Seriously. Murray is a public intellectual, working for a "think tank" who has written many papers and books. Among them is The Bell Curve. So, with that as background, it is understandable that Murray had had any serious thoughts of Christianity beaten out of him by his peers and professors. It was simply something that smart people didn't believe. But Murray, being an honest intellectual, began to notice evidence that perhaps God might be real, that the Bible might be true, and that Christianity was real and true.

Murray describes in his book the events and evidence that forced him to confront the fact that either Jesus is the Son of God, or else a lunatic and a liar. And if He is the Son of God, then Murray needed to change his beliefs. I will not present all of Murray's evidence here. Instead, I will concentrate on two important types of evidence germane to the topic at hand.

The first is the body of evidence generated by what are called Near Death Experiences, or NDE. If you, like me, spend any time at all on youtube you will have encounter stories of people who claim to have died and come back to tell what they discovered in the afterlife. If you were skeptical, well so was I. Some people having the experience of dying then changing their lives for the better.  They become pastors or make other significant changes in their lives.  All that points to having a very profound experience. One wants to believe that they indeed had the experience they claimed. For others though, the fact of their NDE seemed to be in question as they touted an agenda rather than discussed what it meant for them personally.

Murray points out that these phenomena have been studied and indeed there are books about the topic.

You have probably heard of the phenomenon known as the near-death experience (NDE). First brought to public attention by Raymond Moody in his 1975 book, Life After Life, NDEs have subsequently been the subject of books, articles in technical journals, and masscirculation newspapers and magazines, plus a few movies. They have also been the subject of extensive scientific investigation, including the compilation of databases with thousands of cases.

Murray, Charles. Taking Religion Seriously (pp. 50-51). Encounter Books. Kindle Edition.

What these various books, technical articles and databases have in common is that they verify to the extent verifiable, what these people claimed. For example, after the person was declared dead by competent medical personnel, the deceased who is brought back may remember actions taken, or conversations had, outside of his or her direct presence. These can be verified. Of course, only the person experiencing the NDE knows what else may have happened, that is unverifiable. But what is verified points to something that materialism cannot explain.

At this point I should define what I mean by "materialism." In the broader context, materialism is a belief that everything can be explained by the forces of the material world: matter, energy, gravity, etc. In the context of NDE, materialists believe that mind is a function of the material brain, and that consciousness and self-awareness are also functions of the material brain.

Moving on, there is another phenomenon called "terminal lucidity." In terminal lucidity, people with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias will, sometimes, exhibit momentary lucidity again, just before dying. It doesn't happen to all. Again, as with NDE, often care givers will witness this phenomenon, which gives credence to it happening. Often, a person with dementia for many years, who hasn't recognized members of his or her own family will suddenly recognize them, will remember important events, and hold lucid conversations with them. This may be only a moment or may last for an hour. Just as suddenly as it appears, the person returns to their demented state and soon dies.

If you have ever looked at a brain scan of someone with Alzheimer's disease or severe dementia, you will notice that a lot of the brain is no longer there. Thus, it is a puzzle where they suddenly come up with the ability to carry a conversation as if they did not have the disease.

Where all this is leading us to is that human consciousness seems to be larger than our brains alone. Yes, sure, the brain processes a lot of the sensory inputs from our five senses. This is true of all animals. But the special something, which we call consciousness, which no other animal has, seems to be outside of ourselves. Music, art, spoken language, making stories, mathematics and the interpretation of these things are not needed for survival. Our closest primate relatives, chimpanzees have gotten along just fine without them.

Now, materialist thinking is that our consciousness and our mind is a function of the brain alone. In the materialist vision, our thought processes can be imitated by a machine programed with just the right algorithms. Materialists will point out that a machine is much faster than we are, and makes fewer mistakes.  All true for certain tasks.  A machine set loose on the internet, can find and summarize all the existing knowledge of the world. It may even be able to draw hypotheses and suggest new areas for research.  I will grant all of that.

Now the internet has been described as both "the information superhighway" and a sewer. Both things are true at the same time. Judging the veracity of the information AI returns requires human judgement and understanding. A machine cannot and never will be able to do it.

Elon Musk and Joe Rogan, smart men though they are, are materialists. They see AI as taking our places. Glenn Beck, though, should not be a materialist, and should understand that AI is a tool, just like any other tool that man uses. It is neither good nor bad. It is not in itself evil. People may misuse AI as they have often misused computers. I am sure the evil party is even now cooking up a scheme to use AI to generate fraudulent votes. It is what they do. But AI will not eliminate all the jobs, and it will not create heaven on earth. That ship sailed with the Garden of Eden. We will have to wait for the Second Coming for that.

The Smiley Face Mask Has Come Off

At the American Thinker today is a short post by attorney Michael C. Hurley entitled Stop Mincing Words which I encourage gentle readers to take to heart. The article quite explicitly states that the Democrats are fighting for their faith, as warped and twisted faith is, while conservatives and Republicans are debating policy positions.

No one, at this late hour, should be unaware of what the stakes are. We are in a spiritual war between good and evil, between the forces of order and the agents of chaos. Full stop. So let’s say so, clearly, without apology or embarrassment. Tell people they’re in a war, and a great many of them will show up to vote. Tell them they’re in a debate over monetary policy and energy development initiatives, and most of them will hit the snooze button and sleep in.

The forces of evil do not fail to understand our program. They are not casting about for a better balance of trade. They know they’re in a war for power, and they intend to win it, which is why they fight so passionately. Abortion isn’t an issue for them. It’s a sacrament. Climate change isn’t a scientific debate. It is a religious world-view that gives their lives meaning and purpose. Politics for the left isn’t an intellectual sport to be conducted within the polite parameters of free speech. It’s an unholy crusade to be won by any means necessary, including censorship, lawfare, defamation, perjury, conspiracy, insurrection and assassination.

...snip...

Unless one believes that the New Testament is a work of fiction or that Jesus was just joshing us in the 24th chapter of Matthew about the days to come, it strains credulity to be incredulous about what is going on around us. When the Pharisees seemingly failed to understand him, Jesus knew the reason why and wasn’t afraid to say so out loud: “Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires.” (John 8:43–44)

There might have been a day when the spiritual battle lines in the West were difficult to discern, but no more. Allow me to focus your attention. We live in an age when every leading state and national candidate of the Democrat party, including every former Democrat president, openly supports the genital mutilation of healthy children and the obvious lie that a child can change genders. That, my friends, is the tell. Leave everything else aside if you must, because when a murderer is coming for your children, you do not pause to inquire whether he might also lower your electric bill. You sound the alarm and oppose him with every fiber of your being. When we hear this, we should think of the millstone and shudder.

People talk about the "old days" when supposedly the Democrats and Republicans had the same goals in mind but differed in the method of accomplishing those goals. In thinking back, I don't really think that is the case.  That is just fond remembrance of former times. The Democrats have been the party of the Left for as long as I can remember, and I remember Ike. As far as history goes, the Democrats have been soft on Communism and Fascism since at least Franklin Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. We overlooked their misbegotten ideas and dysfunctional policies to our regret. But now the smiley face mask has come off and what is underneath is a devilish monster. We are running out of time to save the Republic. We recognize our fate if we don't turn things around.

Please also read Patricia McCarthy's post at the American Thinker entitled Results are in: American leftists willingly embrace evil. I am sure Satan is dancing around in the coldest part of hell. God save us, I pray, because we are powerless to save ourselves.

The Man Who Knew Too Much

Over at Bearing Arms Tom Knighton has an article that points to the absurdity that is the (formerly) Great Britain. According to the article a UK Man (has been) Arrested for Possessing Gunpowder Recipe. My first impression was that there must be more to the story. Surely, Knighton cannot be serious.  Perhaps he had made some gunpowder and loaded it into steel pipes to make pipe bombs. But no, apparently the man was being persecuted for merely writing down the recipe.

Now, I have personally never been tempted to make gunpowder. It is dangerous to do, and in any case if I used black power firearms, manufacturers make much better substitutes today. The original was highly corrosive in addition to being explosive.  But that really isn't the point. The point is that the recipe for gunpowder has been pretty widely known since 1267 when Roger Bacon exposed the (not very closely held) secret to the world. So, where does the Crown get off pretending that it is some top secret, eyes only sort of thing. You can easily find the recipe on the internet, for crying out loud.

Here in the United States, we have a serious DIY culture. People will make their own anything if they think it's cool enough. Despite being the wealthiest nation on the planet, people build their own furniture, make their own clothes, make pottery, take up blacksmithing, or any number of activities that they could just pay for, but would rather do it themselves.

And we celebrate this.

Yes, that also includes people making their own guns and ammunition...

Well, yes, we do celebrate do-it-yourselfers so if you want to make your own gunpowder, be my guest. Especially since inevitably there will be those who say, "it can't happen here." I have seen how that (doesn't) works out:

And before anyone tries the "it can't happen here" thing, remember that some states have tried making it illegal to possess 3D printer files for making your own firearm. That's still just information that is harmless on its own. How long before some ninny here in the States tries to ban reloading your own ammo, followed by banning information pertaining to reloading?

We're not as far away from something like this as we might like to believe.

That's especially true as this was folded under anti-terrorism laws. The specter of terrorism has made our own lawmakers opt for some stupid things in the past, and to forget that freedom is and remains the guiding principle of this great nation, so it's not hard to see this happening here.

Knighton suggests each of us should write down the formula for black gunpowder. So, here it is just in case it suddenly disappears from the internet, though it will remain in old, printed books forever: 75% by weight Potassium Nitrate, 15% by weight Charcoal, and 10% by weight Sulfur. I hereby dare Scotland Yard to come and arrest me.

Built on the Rock

J. B. Shurk has a compelling article today at the American Thinker entitled Christians Persecuted and Killed Around the World in which he points out that Nigeria may be in the spotlight now, but Christians are being persecuted, jailed, and killed in Europe, China, India and other lands. President Trump can not take on the world here, which is what he is doing by threatening military action. Shurk first takes us on a brief tour of the world's hatred of Christianity.

In 2025, there is no part of the world that is safe for Christians. Leftist prosecutors in Europe, Australia, Canada, and the United States criminalize fundamental tenets of the Christian faith as discriminatory forms of “hate speech.” Chinese communists replace images of Jesus Christ with portraits of Xi Jinping. Hindus beat and murder Christians in India. Islamic nations sentence Christian converts to death. Nigerian Muslims attack Christian churches during prayer services and torture and murder so many Christian worshipers as to constitute genocide. The assassin who murdered Christian martyr Charlie Kirk allegedly did so because he believes that Charlie’s Christian teachings were “hateful.”

It is a dangerous time to be a Christian. Michael Snyder wrote an illuminating article a couple weeks ago entitled “Most of the Population of the World Lives in a Nation Where Christians Are Being Persecuted.” In a sober analysis, he takes the reader on a tour of Christian persecution, torture, and mass slaughter around the planet.

Children in China are prohibited from attending Christian church services, and the Chinese Communist Party rewrites Bible verses to support official pronouncements from the State. Sharing the gospel online is a crime, and Christian pastors are regularly arrested and “disappeared.” In India, Hindu terrorists set Christian churches and Bibles on fire and beat up and murder Christian parishioners. Muslims in Indonesia hunt down Christians as if they were animals. Muslims in Nigeria have massacred or abducted a hundred thousand Christians over the last six years and have destroyed some 20,000 Christian churches and schools. Islamic governments in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran discriminate against Christians, punish them ruthlessly for their beliefs, and execute anyone brave enough to convert to Christianity. In North Korea, Christianity is outlawed, and practicing Christians who are discovered are summarily executed or condemned to death in labor-intensive concentration camps.

We shouldn't be surprised by the fact that the world hates Christians. Indeed, Christ warned us saying in John 15:18 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you." Why does the world hate Christians? Partly it is because of Christ's message. We sin, and God hates sinners. We can not, by anything we do, get into heaven. We stand condemned to hell. Luther thought of our shabby works as being like a big pile of stinking excrement (Luther was blunter, but you get the picture). God cannot stand it and turns his back on us. But Christ, by his death and resurrection has paid the price for our sins. We only have to believe that. Luther likens this to that big pile of stinking excrement covered in snow. But the world somehow wants to do things its own way by its own merit. Sacrifice enough lambs, pray 5 times a day with your head to the ground, whatever.  God doesn't care about these things.  You can go that route, of course, but that way lies sin and damnation. Instead, pick up your cross and follow the Way, the Truth and the Life.

I have mentioned Finland's attempts to subvert Christianity by prosecuting Päivi Räsänen for quoting the Bible concerning the nature of men and women.

In Finland, government prosecutors continue to harass Christians for quoting the Bible. In 2019, Päivi Räsänen — a medical doctor, longtime member of Parliament, Finland’s former Interior minister, and the wife of a pastor — used a Bible verse to criticize Finland’s state church for sponsoring an LGBT “pride” parade. After the prominent Finnish Christian publicly stated that males and females are biologically different, police investigators interrogated her for some thirteen hours, forced her to justify her Christian worldview, and demanded that she publicly apologize and recant her Christian beliefs. Because she would not do so and instead defended the authority of God’s Word, she was criminally charged for illegal “hate speech.” Prosecutors have repeatedly asked Finnish courts to “wipe the internet” of Räsänen’s media appearances and writings, in which she has used her medical education and Christian faith to distinguish men from women and to promote the Bible’s moral teachings.

Although two lower courts have acquitted her, prosecutors have appealed and now argue before Finland’s Supreme Court that quoting the Bible should be considered a criminal offense under the country’s war crimes laws. One of Räsänen’s attorneys, Lorcán Price, argues that the outcome of the case will reverberate across Europe because it addresses directly whether a Christian can publicly express the tenets of Christianity. “Can you speak the truth as you see it freely, even if it might offend somebody, or will you be prosecuted for hate speech?”

All over Europe there are laws that attempt to prevent the Church from speaking out against the evils being perpetrated. People in the formerly Great Britain are arrested for silently praying outside abortion clinics. The Canterbury Cathedral has been desecrated with graffiti. The old joke asking "is the pope catholic" have become serious questions. We now have Muslims praying in the Vatican to their god Satan. Still, as the 19th century hymn, "Built on the Rock" reminds us, this has all happened before:

Built on the Rock the Church shall stand,

Even when steeples are falling;

Crumbled have spires in every land;

Bells still are chiming and calling;

Calling the young and old to rest,

But above all the soul distrest,

Longing for rest everlasting.

Shurk concludes with:

Christ’s followers are suffering around the world. They are hunted, beaten, raped, burned, hanged, and slaughtered. The governments of formerly Christian countries insist on making Christ’s teachings a crime. Chinese, European, and American officials wish to censor the Bible. Christians must find faith and courage to face these evils now. Because much worse is sure to come.

Amen, brother.

Could the pope do more?

 Monica Showalter at the American Thinker has taken note of Trump's message to Nigerian officials that they better start protecting their Christians, who are being slaughtered by Muslim militias. Showalter puts the numbers at 7,000 killed this year alone. You can read her post at After massacres of Christians in Nigeria, Trump does the pope's job for him.  As much as I would like to see Trump send troops into Nigeria, I think it would be seen as Unconstitutional for the government to favor one religion over another. Would Trump send troops in to rescue Hindus, for example?

The pope, however, could do something more tangible than praying, though praying is powerful. Here me out. We have been here before, with Islam conquering huge swaths of Christendom and forcing conversion under threat of the sword. The pope then commissioned the Knights Templar. That was then. Now, the pope could establish a paramilitary force to go into countries like Nigeria to again rescue Christians who are being persecuted. Clearly in addition to being very careful about when and where to use such a force, diplomacy would be necessary. But the notion that Christians should be doormats, or second-class citizens was never intended. I suspect that the pope could get a lot of mileage out of the threat to use these forces in places like Nigeria, Egypt, Syria, or Afghanistan without having to actually send them in.

I haven't fully thought the idea out, but it is something the Vatican, as a sovereign could do. Should he?

A Post For A Sunday

Please read Grateful Calvin's twitchy post at 'I Am Going to Abhor Evil:' Nick Freitas Drops BIBLICAL FIRE on the Left's 'I'm Offended' Arguments. Virginia House of Delegates member Nick Freitas points out that he is glad when people espousing evil are offended by him. And he should be. Every Christian should hate what God hates, and God hates evil.

Please watch the embedded X post to hear Freitas' response to an 'offended' constituent. He has definitely nailed it. It is too bad that he doesn't intend to run again.  Virginia needs more like him.  But I understand. St. Paul tells us in the book of Romans not to associate ourselves with evil. For in doing so, the evil rubs off on us. That is why the LORD commanded the Israelites to thoroughly cleanse the land of Canaan of its former inhabitants. He didn't want any foreign gods being worshipped in His territory.

You will get a kick out of Freitas post, and it's a good way to start a Sunday.

NYC and Mamdani Deserve Each Other

 J. R. Dunn has a post today at the American Thinker entitled Let's not save the Dems this time. He makes a number of good points including one that is often attributed to Napoleon: “never interrupt when your enemy is in the process of destroying himself.”

As the clock ticks down the last days before the 2025 elections, we’re hearing more calls for the GOP and conservatives in general to intervene in the NYC election to prevent Zohran Mamdani from being elected mayor.

What we don’t hear is an answer to the question of why? Why, exactly, should the GOP and the MAGA movement waste time, effort, and political capital to prevent the Democrats from throwing themselves off the cliff? Why write another chapter in the never-ending saga of Republicans pulling Dem chestnuts out of the fire and the getting kicked in the face immediately afterward?

...snip...

The Dems, so we’re told, having come to their senses, will realize what the Republicans have spared them from and will be grateful. New York voters, with their customary insight and depth of perception, will reward the GOP with showers of votes. In other words, we’ll witness something that has never happened and never will.

What will happen instead is this: voters will see the GOP tossing away the principles and practices of MAGA just as they were beginning to bear fruit. They will see conservatives supporting one virulent social democrat over another for no rational reason. They will see the Uniparty in action. And they will respond as they always have: by walking away.

Dunn is correct here. New York voters have continually voted for Leftists like Bill DeBlasio and as Dunn notes elsewhere have spit on Rudy Giuliani who made New York again a tourist destination. What, pray tell, does the GOP owe to the party that started the Civil War, and apparently want to start another, who riot at the drop of a hat and maintain actual paid rioters. These people actively interfere with Trump's order to carry out the law and kick illegals out.  They flood the streets with criminals who should be in jail.  These people deserve everything Mamdani can deliver to NYC.

The impulse to save New York City doesn’t play, either. New York City doesn’t want to be saved. This is the city that elected Bill DeBlasio to two terms – in landslides, to boot. That sent Sandy O to Congress. That has reelected Chuck Schumer repeatedly. This is the city that had not one good word to say for Rudy Giuliani, the man who effectively destroyed the Mafia’s control of key city industries and who bought NYC an extra twenty years of life as mayor, when he was targeted by the Left. They’ve made their bed, and I wish them the joy of it.

I've highlighted the key issue. New York City doesn't want to be saved, didn't asked to be saved, and will just resent it if the GOP steps in to save them. There is another proverb here that applies: "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink." It reminds of Christians who think they are being kind by attempting to send missionaries to the unchurched. But all they do is make the people they are trying to save angry. Instead, they should stand ready to give a defense for why they have hope and let the Holy Spirit do the rest.

I encorage gentle readers to read the whole post.

Nutrient Partitioning and the Inability To Lose Fat

 Following onto yesterday's post, I get a weekly missive (I think they call these newsletters) from Dr. Michael Eades, one of two authors of The Protein Power Life Plan which advocates for a low carbohydrate lifestyle. Eades himself has said that the plan is really a high fat diet, but that the publishers felt this wouldn't sell because of the way fats have been demonized.

Featured in this week's Arrow is a piece by Adam Kosloff on nutrient partitioning entitled The Rats Who Starved to Death While Obese. The article is both disturbing and interesting. It is disturbing not because of the starvation of the rats, as disturbing as that is, but what it has to say about human obesity. It is also disturbing because it points to the blindness of doctors and dieticians to the suffering of their patients.  I encourage gentle readers to read Kosloff's article.  In many cases, these nutritionists are as cold as liquid nitrogen to our sufferings.

Using a low carbohydrate, ketogenic diet, I have gotten my weight down to 225 from a high of 307. Yet I have been unable to get any lower for at least 6 months. This despite starting a jogging program and keeping my calorie consumption around 1500-1800 calories per day. There is something else going on. At those low-calorie consumption levels, if the Calories In/Calories Out (CICO) formula worked I would be losing a pound every week and a half conservatively. But the Carb-insulin-hypothesis (CIH) doesn't explain the problem fully either. It gets closer but doesn't quite close the gap in understanding.

I have noted that I can gain weight, meaning fat, by just smelling a piece of pie. That may or may not be true, but it illustrates the problem. I have gained weight while fasting for a couple of days. Holiday eating consists of one meal, yet it takes weeks to get back into ketosis, and even then, the weight doesn't fall right off. As I stated above, I seem to have a lower limit to my weight that my body simply refuses to let go. I know of other people who have the same issues. There clearly is more to it than mere CICO.

(As a way to determine if I need to take in calories, if I am hungry, I eat protein.  If I don't have energy, I eat fats.  But I always have energy, so I am only concerned about protein intake which usually includes enough fats as well.)

Kosloff sums up his essay with three questions researchers should be asking:

The core questions should be along the lines of:

Why does the body partition fat the way it does?

Is that partitioning normal?

If not, what can be done about it?

These are the questions that actually matter.

And once we start asking these questions, perhaps we can stop blaming people for biology—and start figuring out how to fix it. Maybe then—just maybe—the torture of our mammalian cousins won’t have been entirely in vain.

The More Things Change, the More Things Stay the Same

I was at church yesterday evening rehearsing with the handbell choir.  Now you need to understand that we are currently experiencing stormy weather from at least two different storm systems with winds gusting to 35 miles per hour and rain that will continue for most of the week.  One of the ladies seemed surprised that I was there because I am an old fart and she thought couldn't get around well.  I pointed out that I jog 2 miles 3 times per week.  That surprised her.

Actually, it surprised me as well.  I thought I had run for the last time perhaps 25 years ago when I took to riding a bicycle.  I had always practiced running hard, and running hard all the time breaks the body down.  Bicycling did not break the body down, while still giving one the benefits of aerobic exercise.  Oh, and bicycling was fun, so much fun!

But feeling the need to build myself up after so much time spent in the hospital, then in getting radiation, I went for a walk.  But that was not enough to get the heart pumping.  I started jogging, it was too loosey-goosey to be called a "program," about 6 months into my recovery from cancer surgery.    Technically, I can call it a jog because both my feet are off the ground during every step.  But my pace is about the same as when I walk, about 20 minutes per mile.

Somewhere in the back of my mind was a memory from the early 1970s of a kind of training not unlike what I was experiencing called Long Slow Distance, or LSD.  LSD, the drug, was at that time a psychotropic drug that some proclaimed would open up the unused portion of the brain to all the wonders of the universe.  But it proved to be, as could be predicted, a massive failure.  LSD, the training method, turned out to be the then latest re-packaging of what has been learned and relearned over the generations.

Training by jogging long slow distances was popularized by then Runner's World editor Joe Henderson.  At the time, Henderson noted that a number of very successful runners, mostly distance runners, people who ran anywhere from 1 mile to the marathon, were training this way.  In his book Long Slow Distance: The Humane Way to Train Henderson points out that the speed that one is capable of running is a function of genetics. You are either born fast, or for most of us, we are not. Constantly training for speed will only shave a few seconds off your basic speed. But by constantly training for speed by doing fast intervals you will inevitable injure yourself time and again and may do more damage than can be repaired.  For the great majority of runners who run for fitness and the occasional race for a personal best, is it really worth it?  Only you can decide, but the fact there is an alternative is eye-opening.

By contrast, LSD is training for endurance. You can train yourself to run for fantastic distances. The marathon has in the years since been outclassed as the world's most grueling race by iron man and ultra-marathon races up to 100 miles. I am not endorsing such extremes that test the body to the limits of what it is capable of doing.  Such extreme events carry their own problems of injury and damage. The current record, by the way, for the 100-mile race is held by Zack Bitter at a blistering 6 minute 48 second per mile pace.

Speaking of Zach Bitter, he eats a low carbohydrate, ketogenic diet for both his training and racing.  The diet is very high in animal products.  While most running and marathon training coaches still endorse a high carbohydrate diet, carb loading before races, and using carb heavy gels during races, Professor Tim Noakes has shown that using fats to fuel a race rather than glycogen and carbs is a more efficient way to run.  Even very thin runners have enough fat on their bodies to sustain a full marathon without eating a single bite and without bonking.

Following a carnivore diet. basically beef, butter, bacon and eggs, I have put Dr. Noakes finding into practice myself and find that along with jogging, it is slowly changing my body, slowing down the aging process.  It will not make me live longer, but it will allow me to live better with the time I have left.

I recently got a copy of Joe Henderson's book again and have been reading it.  The more things change, the more they stay the same, it seems.  You can also watch an interview between Henderson, now 82 years old, and two of his running desciples here. Enjoy.