What Do Women Want?

 At the  American Thinker today, Christopher Chantrill has an interesting topic entitled A Discussion About the True Nature of Women. I read it, of course, because like a lot of men, I wanted to know what women want. I am married to a fine and sensible woman, but after 43 years, I still don't know what she wants. I just adapt and hope. Chantrill writes:

In the wake of the Lindsay Clancy Verdict and the Sydney Sweeney Pile-On and the Sophie Cunningham Point-ology it is time for a comprehensive and mandatory discussion of the issue of Women in the Public Square.

...snip...

Experts agree that the issue was raised by German sociologist Georg Simmel over a century ago. I first wrote about it 18 years ago. Simmel argued that it was not centuries of oppression that powered the feminist movement, but the new technologies that “made for less labor in the household” for those who could afford them. The unaccustomed leisure provoked unease, even frustration, in middle-class women, and in response they sought activity outside the home. I wrote:

Simmel understood that in the short term the public sphere for women would be defined by the rules “created by men and for men” but that eventually women would transform the public square to suit “a more feminine sensibility.”

And how.

Chantrill points out that the public square of politics was devised by men for men, who traditionally fought each other literally to the death for dominance. Might, it seems, made right. It is a Culture of Insults. Donald Trump, needless to say, is a master of this culture. The culture of women, on the other hand is a Culture of Complaint. My bride often makes, as she styles them, comments. I, however, view them as complaints. As complaints, I view them as something I need to fix. But that is not what she wants or means. She just wants me to listen, nod, and empathize with her. All this is fine on the home front.

But what about when a woman is making decisions in the public square? Here the rules are different.

You can see that when women, per Georg Simmel, entered the male-designed public square, they instinctively began to push their Culture of Complaint to replace the male Culture of Insult.

Not impressed? Then what was the Clancy jury all about but complaining that Lindsay Clancy didn’t have adequate access to mental health treatment? I’d say that such women have a problem with the entirety of law and criminal procedure. It’s male-created and all based on rules instead of feelings.

I believe that, when it comes to Women in the Public Square, Houston We Have a Problem. That is because in our current era, with girlbosses and female superheroes and 27 genders, we have deliberately obscured the true Nature of Woman.

Chantrill goes on to expand upon the basic premise. The rules-based Culture of Insult cannot be changed or softened. To do so would change how men behave and return us to dueling and fighting each other literally to the death. Such is the Islamic world where revenge, honor, and killing each other is rampant. On the other hand, we can't take away women's right to vote and be part of the body politic, as many have suggested. No, what we need is for women to keep their feminine nature under control, as men have learned to do.

As always, I urge gentle readers to read Chantrill's piece, along with the other embedded article. Please think about it, and comment.

Good vs. Evil

 Gentle readers may notice that I am on an anti-Islam kick, or crusade if you will.  Actually, I have been writing about Islam for a long time.  I was in Washington, DC on September 11, 2001, across the Potomac River from the Pentagon, at the Navy Yard.  When the second plane hit the Towers, I commented to those watching on television that we were now at war.  And when the third plane hit the Pentagon, I could see the rising plume of smoke. President George W. Bush, though named the wrong target of our anger.  We were not at war with "terror."  Terror was just a tool, used by an ancient enemy of the Creator, known by many names including Baal, Beelzebub, Lucifer, Satan, and others such as Zeus and Jupiter. Let us here just call him Satan.

Islam is not a religion, as we understand that word.  The founders, in writing the First Amendment were only thinking of various strains of Christian religion.  Both Islam and Christianity are all encompassing, taking over the lives of believers and informing them how they should live.  But unlike Christianity, which you are free to accept or reject, because God doesn't want to be where He is not wanted, Islam demands submission and will kill those who will not submit.

Islam requires its adherents to pray five times a day, and to kill all pagans and those who will not submit.  Christians and Jews are given the "opportunity" to live under Islam by becoming second class citizens and paying a special tax, but they are often persecuted.  Muslims may lie, if it is to advance Islam.  Christians, of course, may not.  Another feature of Islam is Sharia, the Islamic law.  Sharia seems, however, to simply be the codification of the ancient Arabian way of life.  Thus, polygamy, wife beating, honor killings, child marriages and brutal punishments for violations of Sharia are part of this so-called law.  Some of the lesser-known facts of Sharia are that dogs are considered "unclean" and therefore you can't have them.  Muslims are of course supposed to be teetotalers, and pork is absolutely verboten.

Needless to say, the Koran is a hodge podge of a book apparently written by a mad man.  And so it was.  The entity inspiring the Koran was Satan himself, disguised as the Angel Gabriel.  Look at the symbol of Islam.  It is the crescent moon.  But the moon has no light or life of its own.  The moon merely reflects of the light of the Sun.

Christians try to follow Christ, to follow the moral law laid down in the Ten Commandments, to be good husbands and wives, to be good neighbors, good citizens, and to love God with all our hearts and minds.  Faith and trust in God are the hallmarks of Christianity. As Paul wrote in an epistle, "to live is Christ and to die is gain."  Of course, we fail so often, that He sent is only begotten son to take on the sins of the world for us by dying and rising again on the third day.  It's a free gift, and all we have to do is not reject it.  Muslims do, however, reject it, and they want everyone else to reject it too.  The Bible has been called a nonfiction novel, the whole pointing to God's plan to save humanity.  It was written by various authors, all of whom were inspired by the Holy Spirit, so we consider it God's word.  Indeed, He is its main character.

This war, between Satan and God plays out in the human world.  We, all of us, are soldiers in this war.  There is no neutral ground.  You must decide.  Are you for God, who loves you and forgives your sins, or are you for Satan, who hates you and wants to rule you in hell.

Eileen F. Toplansky today, at the American Thinker has a piece asking the question never Forget? Of course, she is writing about the fact that too many have forgotten what happened on September 11, 2001. Seemingly, Islam is taking over more and more of the United States. When Jesus cast a demon out of a man, he told his disciples that unless the man turned to God, the demon would return and bring seven more, and his final state would be worse than before. This happens with nations too. We need to rededicate ourselves to God if we are to remain a free nation.

I urge gentle readers to read Toplansky's article. Please consider, if you are a atheist, isn't it better to live in a Christian nation than under barbarian rule? For Christians, it is time to use the tools of spiritual warfare (prayer) to stand against this invasion.

The Constitution Is Not a Suicide Pact

 Today, at the American Thinker Mike McDaniel has a post entitled Defining Islam to avoid national suicide. Americans must realize that Muslims are waging a special kind of jihad against us, with the eventual goal to conquer this country for Allah. It starts small. Maybe a family moves into your neighberhood who is Muslim. They seem nice. Then a few more. One day they build a mosque, hire an imam who tells them they must more fully comply with Islamic law and the Koran. Next thing you know, they are demanding Sharia in place of the laws of your community One day the city that once was yours has become theirs and you are no longer welcome. See Dearborn Michigan. We don't have to let this happen.

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Note that the Constitution is not a suicide pact. Yes it says that we may not either establish a religion or prohibit the free exercise of such. But, is Islam a religion?

Christianity is a voluntary religion. No one is forced to become a believer, and there is no earthly penalty for choosing to reject belief. One willingly accepts God, or one does not. Christianity does not mandate the conquest of the world for God. It recognizes self-defense, an unalienable right acknowledged by the Second Amendment, but it does not preach hatred of anyone; quite the opposite, as the Second Commandment says:

And the second is like, namely this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

Islam is a system of political conquest and domination. It tolerates no separation of church and state because the “church” is the state. It uses religion as a means, including Sharia, to keep its adherents in line. If you are not an observant Muslim, you risk being labeled an infidel, and if you choose to leave Islam, you’re an apostate. There is only one fate Islam mandates for apostates: death.

Muslims are exhorted to kill all Jews, and to enslave or kill all infidels in Jihad—holy war—to conquer the world for Islam. Islamist Muslims often kill other Muslims they consider insufficiently fervent in their faith. And while some Muslims apparently do not want to kill or enslave anyone, it is Islamists, not they, who are living the intent and text of their faith. The saying that some Muslims don’t want to kill anyone, they just want other Muslims to do it, applies.

It should be clear that the god of Islam is not the same as our God. It should be clear that Sharia is incompatible with our laws. It should be obvious that while we are expected to love those that have a stated goal of killing us, we nonetheless can expect them to either give up their stated goal or return from whence they came. We are not required to bow to their god, who in reality is the Evil One. We already have sufficient laws to deal with Islam, the question is, do we have the spine to implement them?

More sad news for gun grabbers...

 In 1992, Florida State criminology professors Gary Kleck and Marc Gertz conducted a survey that showed around 2.5 million defensive gun uses (DGU) a year nationwide.  Most DGU involved merely brandishing the gun, not actually firing it.  Naturally, the gun grabbers tore into Kleck's results, claiming it could not be true.  The CDC did a similar study in 2018 and found similar results. A number of years ago, I had a experience of using a gun to defend myself, but in my case, I didn't even have to brandish it. Once the bad guy made himself known, I took a firing grip on the weapon but did not draw it. It remained concealed.  But the bad guy decided I was not an easy target after all.

Today, at Fox News there is an article by Amy Swearer entitle Gun control activists demanded better data. What they got surprised the heck out of them. According to the article:

A Georgetown professor just taught gun control activists an important lesson: When you criticize studies that don’t support anti-gun talking points, be careful what you wish for — you just might get it. In this case, they got an unprecedented amount of new data that obliterates their narrative.

In 2021, Professor William English published the findings of his National Firearms Survey, by far the most comprehensive assessment of gun ownership ever conducted. The data demonstrated that defensive gun uses were commonplace, that ordinary Americans really like the weapons gun control activists hate most and that longstanding stereotypes about the "sort" of Americans who exercise their Second Amendment rights were misplaced.

Gun control activists predictably hated this. They attacked the report’s conclusions and author, blasting the survey over nitpicky concerns. English explained how the alleged problems wouldn’t have significantly impacted the results. Critics categorically dismissed the report anyway.

So, English humored them. He re-administered the survey, "fixing" its alleged "mistakes."

If gun control activists hated the 2021 conclusions, they will likely lose their minds over the new ones, which English just released online. The improved and redesigned 2026 survey fails to vindicate their criticisms and deals even mightier blows to anti-gun narratives.

Gentle readers can read the whole article at the linked site. I don't expect this survey to change any minds among the gun grabbers. They are stuck in the belief that if we only banned the tool, that criminals wouldn't kill others. But the first recorded murder in the Bible was when Cain killed Able with a rock. Indeed, nearly anything can be used as a weapon. It is the criminal intent of the killer rather than the tool he uses that makes the difference. What surveys like the one conducted by English show is that guns are inanimate tools that can be used for both good and evil.

It is, of course, a utilitarian survey, but as such things go, it proves that the principle is correct.  God says you shall not murder.  But when someone chooses to break that commandment, we have the right, and even the duty to defend ourselves.

Finding Meaning in Not Being an AWFUL

 On August 27, Steve McCann had a piece at the  American Thinker entitled Why Are Liberal White Women So Angry?. You have to wonder. Not all women, mind you, but you have no doubt encountered "Karens" and "AFWULs (Affluent Female White Urban Leftists). McCann quotes Peechy Keenan:

Recently, Peachy Keenan, the pseudonym of a well-known cultural commentator, writer, and critic of modern feminism, asked a question on her X account that succinctly summarizes the state of American feminism and the white liberal woman:

Why are so many women sooo angry? They won. They got everything they wanted. Men have never been doing this badly, and women have never been doing this well. They make more, they have the majority of jobs, they are the majority of college graduates, (UCLA undergrad is 60% female), they make more money, have much lower rates of suicide, addiction, and alcoholism, and live longer. They won: they took over all men-only spaces, they took over the Boy Scouts, they ended men’s bathrooms, they can fly fighter planes and be in combat. Marriage is optional, divorce is no-fault, they win 99% of the custody battles, they can control fertility at will, and they can’t get drafted. We are all living in the female future they promised.

One of the commenters to Keenan's post noted that the feminists never wanted to win. They wanted to complain. I think this is probably partially true. McCann's article mentions a more probable reason, though. Having won, they've lost their purpose, their meaning in life. Unfortunately, the meaning they sought in life turns out to be a dead end. What does a woman do when she is old, has no husband, no children or grandchildren and is facing her mortality?

Unsurprisingly, the first post-civil rights crusade was Second Wave Feminism, a movement that began in the mid-1960s and continued throughout the 1970s. It triggered religiously passionate mindsets and achieved fleeting “meaning in their lives” moments for a vast number of white women. It set the stage for overwhelming leftist women to dominate all the so-called “civil rights” movements since the 1980s and triggered the lunacy that engulfs the country today.

Thus, this movement can never win or declare victory. The never-ending search for meaning in their lives requires not only retaining the same villain—white men—but keeping the movement alive by continuously finding increasingly ludicrous policies to promote and espouse...

Somehow, and I don't know the answer, women must find again the joy of raising a family as God intended. Gentle readers are encouraged to read McCann's article and think on it.

The Haunted Bookshop

 So, I have been enjoying a tobacco blend by Cornell and Diehl called The Haunted Bookshop.  It is a blend by the late Bob Runowski and named after a book by Christopher Morely.  In the book, Morely weaves three subplots into a surprise ending.  The book is set in 1919 Brooklyn, New York.  President Wilson is set to go to Europe.  One subplot involves the Haunted Bookshop and its pipe smoking owner.  Another involves the disappearance and reappearance of a book on the shelves of the shop.  The third involves, what else, young love.  It's a fun little whodunit.

Like The Haunted Bookshop, Runowski weaves together three types of tobacco to create a blend that the over-the-counter blends should have been.  The burleys are the most prominent tobacco.  It is high quality, without casings or toppings.  It is rare to find a blend with uncased burley.  The virginias play a secondary role.  Always present in the background, they balance the earthy Burley with their typical sweetness.  Sometimes, like an apparition, they will appear for a moment before fading again to the background.  Finally, Perique adds a peppery spicey note to the blend.  You can sense it best on retro hale, where it may tickle the nose.  You might even sneeze!

 One warning, The Haunted Bookshop has a reputation for being somewhat strong in nicotine.  I don't have any problem with it, and I could smoke it all day.  But for new pipe smokers, I suggest using a small-bowled pipe, or put it down when you start feeling it, and pick it up again later.  While I have never been sick from nicotine, it can be quite distressing.      

If they hate America so much, why don't the leave

 Susan Quinn at the American Thinker today asks something that I have wondered about for many years. She asks If You Hate America, Why Don't You Leave? It's a fair question, particularly for Muslims. There are many countries where Sharia is the law. They don't have to go back home. But instead of going where they will have more in common with the people and culture, they come here to a land where the culture and the government are in conflict with their desires. As a result, they don't assimilate.

Quinn is asking the right question, but comes to the wrong conclusion. The Muslims are here, in a non-Muslim land specifically to conquer it for Islam. They intend to use traditional means by killing the infidel. The truth is that while we are fighting a human war here on earth, the same war is raging in the spiritual realm. St. Paul tells us that the ruler of this world is the evil one. He goes by many names: Satan, Lucifer, Beelzebub, and of course Allah. When he tempted Jesus in the wilderness, one of his temptations was taking Jesus to a high hill and showing him all the kingdoms of the world. He would give them to Jesus (who was Yahweh in human form) if He would bow down and worship him. Jesus, of course, refused.

So, Allah thinks he owns every piece of ground in the world, and his army, the Muslims, have a duty to conquer all, killing every infidel. The Left thinks it is using Muslims as a battering ram to take us, but they are tragically mistaken. We, the Christian and Jewish people must fight back. But we can not use guns and knives. We must fight back spiritually, with prayer, self-discipline and fasting, and trust in our God, for he is the true creator of everything that is and everything that is not, and the true ruler of all.

Post Office Carry Ban Contradicts Federal Law

 Today at Bearing Arms Cam Edwards has some welcome news for gun owners. The article can be found at DOJ Says Post Office Carry Ban Contradicts Federal Law. It is not a done deal yet, but it is closer than ever to getting rid of this nasty rule.

Every time I have to go to the post office, I have to take my gun out of its holster, put it in a safe, and then walk in. Upon completion of postal business, I have to retrieve it, put it back in the holster, all without anyone noticing.  But the truth is nobody in the post office is in any danger with it in its holster, but I am at risk every time I handle it. People make mistakes all the time when in a hurry. Besides that, handling the gun in a car, while keeping everything on the down low is awkward.

Gentle readers can read about it at the embedded hyperlink.  As with everything, it takes forever, but at least here it is trending the right way.

Stone. Cold. Sociopaths

Today, at the American Thinker M. Walter has a post entitled The smiling butchery of it all that all gentle readers should read. Abortion has become a sacrament of the left and the Democrat party. It is sickening, disgusting, and no different from the pagan practices of ancient times.

First, it was revealed via Anthony Fauci’s digital messaging that he knew that giving a pregnant woman the COVID vax likely carried with it an increase in the chance of miscarriage — yet he still went on television, under the mantle of his M.D. and his creepy smile, insisting it was safe.

The normal rate of miscarriages is 15%, but among pregnant women who were vaxxed, the rate went up to 81%, and Fauci knew this and advised pregnant women to get vaxxed anyway. As Walter says:

Stone. Cold. Sociopaths

Second, Governor Maura Healey signed legislation making Massachusetts the tenth state in the nation to allow abortion up to the minute before birth, and as she signed it, she smiled and was surrounded by women smiling and clapping.

Again, Stone. Cold. Sociopaths.

These people evidently don't realize, or don't care that each child born is a gift from God. Does it make sense to throw away such a gift?  When the Israelites came to the promised land, the people were worshiping Molock, who demanded that they throw their first born into its fiery belly alive. God demanded that the Israelites kill every man, woman, child, and their cattle and sheep. His judgement was that these people should be wiped out of the land. That is how seriously He takes the killing of innocent babes.

If you are not a sociopath, know too that you will mourn that child for the rest of your life, because you know, in your heart, that you are executing the child for something the mother did.

Third Circuit Ruling in NJ 'Assault Weapon' and Large Capacity Magazine Case a Huge Win for the 2A

 Yes, I am late to the party, but I have now three articles to highlight concerning the Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that New Jersey's so-called "Assault Weapon" ban and large capacity magazine ban  violated the Second Amendment of the Constitution. To say this was a huge win for the Second Amendment is an understatement.

First up is an article at Ammoland entitled Major 2A Victory: Third Circuit Strikes Down New Jersey's AR-25 and Magazine Bans Note that the court sitting en banc had 10 of the 15 judges concurring in the majority opinion.

New Jersey’s AR-15 ban and 10-round magazine limit have suffered a major federal appellate defeat.

Sitting en banc, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled July 17 that New Jersey’s so-called “assault firearm” ban violates the Second Amendment as applied to every semiautomatic rifle covered by the law. The court also struck down the state’s prohibition on magazines capable of holding more than ten rounds.

Ten of the court’s 15 judges joined the judgment invalidating the rifle and magazine provisions in the consolidated challenges brought by the Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs, individual gun owners, and the Firearms Policy Coalition. Judge Arianna Freeman wrote the opinion of the court.

The decision goes substantially further than the lower court’s 2024 ruling. U.S. District Judge Peter Sheridan had limited his decision against the rifle ban to Colt-manufactured AR-15s while upholding New Jersey’s magazine restriction. The Third Circuit expanded that judgment to all semiautomatic rifles regulated by the challenged provisions and reversed the ruling on magazines.

Of course, there is a catch.

The Third Circuit remanded the challenges involving semiautomatic pistols, semiautomatic shotguns, and other weapons covered by New Jersey’s definition because the record was less developed regarding those firearms. Bump stocks were not part of the challenge. The court also did not decide the separate Takings Clause claim because the Second Amendment ruling resolved the magazine dispute.

New Jersey gun owners should not treat the publication of the opinion as an immediate green light to disregard existing statutes. The appellate mandate, further district-court proceedings, and any request by the state for a stay must still be watched closely.

Meanwhile, over at Bearing Arms, Cam Edwards has two articles on the Third Circuit ruling, with one more to follow. The first announces the win at Breaking: Third Circuit Says Ban on 'Assault Weapons' and 'Large Capacity Magazines' Is Unconstitutional. The second at 'Catchy Slogans' Versus 'The Rights of Our Republic:' Concurring Opinions in NJ Gun Ban Case.

I urge gentle readers to read all three articles, and of course check back for Cam Edwards analysis of dissenting opinions.

Pipe Meditations

 Today I was smoking a 58-year-old billiard style pipe, probably a Dunhill second by the looks of it.  The markings on it, barely legible now say "Made in England" and "Savory."  I bought this pipe during my first quarter at college, and the smoking of it brought back a flood of long forgotten memories.

I was already smoking a pipe, a nondescript Dr. Grabow that, while relatively inexpensive, nonetheless provided a good smoke.  At that time, I was smoking Sutliff's "Mixture 79," a very fragrant pipe tobacco that tasted like soap.  (Good riddance.)  I didn't really know any better. Then I met a fellow pipe smoker who introduced me to more sophisticated smoking.  At the Tech Book Store, with this acquaintance, I managed to find this billiard pipe and a mixture from the Dutch firm of Dowe Egbert called "Amphora Aromatic."  Now, my dad smoked a pipe with "Sir Walter Raleigh" pipe tobacco, a blend they now call a codger blend or more kindly, an over-the-counter blend.  But I was too sophisticated for old codger blends!  The arrogance of youth.

Back then, you could find pipe displays in every drug store and supermarket.  They had brands like Dr. Grabow, Kaywoodie, Medico, and of course Missouri Meerschaum Corn Cob pipes.  They also carried pipe tobaccos in these stores; Prince Albert, Sir Walter Raleigh, Granger, Carter Hall, Revelation, Cherry Blend, and many others.  These were typically burley blends, some with various casings and toppings to provide a pleasant flavor and room note. A lot of blue-collar working men smoked one of these because they were inexpensive and convenient. They did not look on pipe smoking as a hobby, but a part of life.  One could smoke a 2-ounce pouch of pipe tobacco that lasted a week.  Cigarettes on the other hand typically were consumed at a pack a day and each pack cost as much as a pouch of pipe tobacco. There was no internet, no on-line stores.  I have even seen a motorcycle rider going down the highway smoking a pipe.

When I graduated college, Amphora was no longer available to me, so I too switched to Sir Walter Raleigh Aromatic.  But I still smoked my billiard.  Although I collected other pipes as time went on, I still have this old billiard, well-worn and well used.  It brings back both fond memories and things I would rather forget when I smoke it.  So now I have become an old codger, smoking codger blends and dredging up old memories.             

Pipe Smoking Has Gone Underground

 I used to smoke a pipe.  I did so for around 27 years until 1997 when President Clinton wrote the executive order making smoking in Federal buildings illegal.  Of course, many businesses suddenly restricted smoking, as well as restaurants, airplanes and...well, you get the idea.  Even my lovely bride, Mrs. PolyKahr complained about tobacco smoke.  Part of the reason was state laws banning smoking.  Some states took it to the extreme, and you couldn't even smoke in your apartment.

Now, most of the uproar was driven by cigarettes, which are more addictive than even heroine, and since cigarette smokers inhale the smoke, over many years in may cause lung cancer.  I say "may" because cigarettes only cause you to have an increased risk of lung cancer by around 15%.  Ordinary people who never smoke have a 7% risk of lung cancer.

As long as cigarette smokers were only harming themselves, the government couldn't do much about it.  But then, the busybody community came up with a new theory that they too were being harmed by so-called "second hand smoke."  They then went about doing various studies which I don't think ever showed a statistically significant harm, and these were epidemiologic studies not controlled studies.  In any case, they pressed on and eventually made most places no smoking zones.

In the no smoking bans, pipes and cigars were caught up with cigarettes.  The busybody community did not see a distinction, and since they operated from ignorance, why would they?  Pipes and cigars are not typically inhaled.  Indeed, the many pipe blends on the market are there because flavor is the main thing.  One takes smoke into the mouth and then releases it.  One can detect many flavors in pipe tobacco including nuttiness, earthiness and the flavor of the casings that make various tobaccos taste different.  Then there is the smell.  Interestingly, one of the things being evaluated when reviewing pipe tobaccos is what is termed "room note," the smell of the room after one has smoked a bit.  Many aromatic tobacco blends really do smell quite pleasant.

Today, I ran across a Youtube video entitled A Little Essay on Pipe Smoking. Malcom Guite has captured the essence of pipe smoking. It is relaxing. He does these little things at last to do nothing. Unlike the cigarette, which can be smoked in a few minutes, enough to get that nicotine hit, a pipe is going to be smoked for a while, perhaps 45 minutes to an hour. A pipe requires fiddling and figeting with it. You carefully pack it with tobacco, not too tight or too loose. There is an art to lighting it. Then you have to tamp it down (with a special tool) several times. When you are done, there is cleaning it and putting it up. All that allows you to contemplate, to just be. You can read a book. I know I don't do that enough anymore or enjoy music.

There is a song by the group Alabama entitled I'm in a Hurry which describes the current state of America rather well. We are all in a hurry to get things done and go onto the next. Kids have little non-structured time.  If not is school, they are doing homework of playing various sports.  Their parents are busy making sure their children can fill out the requirements to get into that Ivy League college.  If that is you, perhaps you need to take time out of your day, join the Brotherhood of the Briar and just contemplate and be for a little while.

Another Plandemic? Just In Time for Another Election

 There is growing concern in the conservative media that the Democrats are preparing to run the Covid playbook again.  First, we get articles attempting to hype up the Hantavirus and scare people, and then the World Health Organization (WHO) declares Ebola a worldwide threat.  You should know by now that Covid was not going to kill healthy individuals at any age.  But if your immune system was compromised you needed to stay away from other people.  But no, the Left and the media (but I repeat myself) used it to panic the people and then as an excuse to justify the rigging of the election.  It worked so well, there is every reason to believe they will try it again.

But before we get into today's article, let us note that NIH top Ebola researcher Vincent Munster (Fauci collaborator) caught smuggling undeclared pathogen samples from the Congo,   And what would those samples be? Why of course, Ebola. Now, why would the NIH have to smuggle these samples in. As an Ebola researcher, he would have reason to bring them in the legal way. Or he could study them in the Congo if he were not allowed to bring them into the United States. This coupled with the WHO declaration raises suspicion among those of us who remember how the people ran a tabletop version of the Covid plandemic before running it in real life.

Putting it altogether is Matthew G. Andersson at the American Thinker today in an article entitled How to distract a wartime president and undermine a nation.

The one card it (the Democrat party)can play in the upcoming midterms where it seeks congressional majorities, is to revert to what it did previously to undermine elections: turn to emergency authority and compliance, including claims of severe threats to public safety coming from the “dangerous voices” of conservatives.

The prior COVID program was used as just such a social and political control tool. It justified widespread mail ballot abuse to avoid in-person “infection risk,” and it was used to directly appeal to state courts to illegally change election rules, bypassing legislation. It also served to turn anyone questioning their plans into dangers to public safety. The COVID program also created a government spending orgy, with taxpayer money flying out the door including to favored DNC allies like the teachers union: almost $2 trillion was dispersed under Biden as COVID “relief aid.” It is still largely unaccounted for.

A new fear campaign based on “hantavirus,” coupled with a W.H.O. announcement of a global ebola virus risk, has the hallmarks of another “COVID” political project.

Gentle readers can read the entire article. It isn't that long. And remember, with Covid, the virus itself wasn't a hoax, but it's so-called methods of control were. Remember that stopping a virus with a mask is like trying to stop mosquitos with a chain link fence. They pass right through. But a panicked public will try anything. It will be the same here. Hantavirus is real, but the things the Democrats want to do to our voting systems is all a hoax, and probably illegal.

The True Purpose of Gun Control Laws

 We have two articles to highlight today on the subject of the failed Minnesota gun ban. The first comes from Mike McDaniel at the American Thinker entitled Minnesota fails to ban (assault weapons (sic)). McDaniel points out that:

...Suffice it to say, no government that disarmed its people ever did so for altruistic and benevolent reasons. Just ask the Iranians or Cubans.

McDaniel starts off his post with:

There are several blue states that have extinguished themselves by going full Communist/Islamist. Never go full Communist/Islamist. The big three are California, Illinois and New York, but Minnesota, under soon to be ex-governor Tampon Tim Walz, is vying for the number one spot in that pantheon of lunatic anti-Americanism.

The Minnesota Senate is barely in the hands of Democrats while the House is evenly split, with the Speaker of the House a Republican largely due to Democrats getting caught cheating in the 2024 election. As with the big three and every other blue state, there are certain articles of faith. Arguably the most important among them is that Normal Americans—largely but not exclusively Republicans—must be disarmed, not only within their Communist/Islamist states, but everywhere. They understand that unless and until they can disarm Normal Americans, their utopian state, a tyranny of the majority, can never be realized.

That is what all the fuss is about. The so-called "Democrats" don't care about criminals with guns, or they wouldn't routinely let them out to rob and murder again. No, what they care about is YOU, the law-abiding gun owner. You scare them because they want, indeed they can almost taste it, complete power over you and how you live. It has been tried and failed before, most notably in the old Soviet Union. There the "citizens" were told where to work, where to live, what they could buy right down to what foods they could buy. Anyone who understands human nature knows this kind of control will fail.

A similar article, though more passionate, is After Failing to Pass a Radical Gun Control Bill, a Minnesota Democrat Responded With Violence at Townhall.com by Amy Curtis. Curtis points out that no matter how many gun control bills are already on the books, Democrats believe that one more will magically make us safer. But the fact that Democrat prosecutors and judges seem not to throw the book at felons in possession, even they don't believe it. This makes you wonder what these Democrats really want.

Democrats will never cease in their efforts to strip us of our Second Amendment rights. Any time there is a mass shooting, they trip over themselves to get in front of a microphone to demand more gun control laws. It doesn't matter that there are countless gun control laws on the books already — laws Democrats refuse to enforce — they insist more gun laws will magically make us 'safer.'

The reality is they won't. Last month, former Virginia Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax killed his estranged wife and himself in a murder-suicide. Fairfax was a proponent of gun control, including red flag laws that weren't followed as Fairfax's marriage fell apart and reports of increased drinking were apparently known. In Massachusetts, Judge Janet Sanders gave Boston career criminal Tyler Brown only five years after Brown — a man with a 20-year history of crimes, including firearms charges — tried to shoot two Boston police officers. Sanders admitted she was 'taking a risk' on Brown because law enforcement told her he was dangerous. Last week, Brown used a rifle to open fire on a Massachusetts road, critically wounding two commuters. And in Fairfax County, VA, Prosecutor Steve Descano released illegal alien Marvin Morales Ortez, dropping gun charges against him.

This reality doesn't matter to Democrats, because their goal is to take guns away not from criminals, but from law-abiding citizens. And when they don't get their way, they get nasty and violent, as Minnesota State Rep. Aisha Gomez did after a radical gun control bill failed to pass.

...snip...

Democrats accuse gun owners and Republicans of fomenting gun violence, but the reality is far different. At the drop of a hat, Democrats are willing to engage in violence when they do not get their way politically. Their accusations are really confessions, as Gomez once again demonstrated here. They know their Republican opponents are not violent; they wouldn't say such abhorrent things if we were.

Please go and read both articles. Understand that they could care less about the criminal element. The real target of these gun control laws is the law-abiding citizen.

Worshipping the Creation Instead of the Creator

 J.B. Shurk, over at the American Thinker yesterday had an article that gentled readers should read entitled Leftism: A Religious Cult for Psychopaths and Crazies. In it, Shurk describes the many ways the Left seeks to indoctrinate you, including finally murdering you if you still don't believe. In that, it is not unlike Islam, so it makes sense that the two "religions" have temporarily sought common cause against Christianity.

The efforts in Wales to indoctrinate toddlers to become little racists is despicable enough. But the proposal in Denmark to deny old folks in state run nursing homes meat should be thought of as genocide. The "crime" the elderly did? Why they destroyed the climate, of course. No wonder St. Greta Thunberg thinks the world will end in 12 years.

In its essence, leftist-globalism is a psychopathic religion. It cannot countenance argument or dissent. Everyone must be forced to believe in the exact same things. In Wales, leftist-globalists indoctrinate toddlers to fear “white supremacy” and to love Islam, “multiculturalism,” and “diversity.” In Denmark, leftist-globalists indoctrinate citizens to fear “climate change” and to hate older citizens for their “climate crimes.”

These are cult-like conditioning programs meant to trap human minds in a permanent state of suicidal self-delusion. Instead of “drinking the Kool-Aid,” toddlers are given daily diets of everything is racist! Instead of cutting out the hearts of human sacrifices to appease certain Aztec gods, today’s leftist-globalists sacrifice people over a certain age by denying them meat. It’s crazy, irrational dogma used to indoctrinate people from cradle to grave. Neither Jim Jones nor Aztec priests, however, are leading this lunacy. Instead, leftist-globalist governments are spreading this madness.

Now, the God of the Bible unlike Islam's god, or these crazy people's god, calls everyone to Him. But he leaves the choice to you. You can accept Him or reject Him. Those who actively reject the invitation, He lets them go their own way, now and in the afterlife. Hell, you see is not a prison designed to torture people. It is being as far from God as that person wants to be. The gates of heaven are always open, the gates of hell are locked from the inside.

Go read Shurk's article highlighted above and see if it makes sense to you as well.

Count Me Among Those Who are Fed Up

Mike McDaniel had a post yesterday at the American Thinker entitled When it comes to leftists and law-abiding gun owners, they really hate us. McDaniel starts out with a typical leftist approach:

After any notorious shooting, anti-liberty/gun cracktivists inevitably—after demanding: “what will it take before we do something about gun violence?”—call for a “national conversation about gun violence.” When Normal Americans reply, “OK, let’s talk,” they scream, “shut up, you racist, red neck, domestic terrorists!” Every. Single. Time.

I have encountered these "let's have a national conversation" types. My response, because I have around so long has been: "We have already had that conversation. You lost." They are not going to change my mind now, after all I have seen and heard, and I am certainly not going to change theirs. Second of all, as McDaniel points out, there is no such thing as "gun violence." Guns are tools, relatively simple inanimate objects. People are the once who commit violence, and that violence depends on whether they are assaulting innocent people, or they are defending themselves from such an assault. Guns may be used in both cases, but one of them is justified, the other is not.

It’s like Lucy pulling the football away from poor Charlie Brown. Normal, honest Americans are willing to talk with just about anybody about just about anything, even though they know there’s no such thing as “gun violence.” People commit violence, not inanimate objects. Guns are nothing more than tools that propel projectiles. They have no consciousness, no emotions, no malice. They are neither good nor evil, and they’re only one of many tools capable of being used by human beings to harm other human beings, tools like motor vehicles, which in the warped sense that guns are responsible for violence, are responsible for far more deaths and injuries than guns.

Normal Americans are the people who built, build, and maintain America. They’re not the people who are protesting law enforcement in particular and our representative, constitutional republic in general. Recognizing “our democracy” is a tyranny of the majority, they support the rule of law by voting and politely telling their representatives when they’re displeased.

Yes, I think our Constitutional, representative republic was inspired. But knowing that men are not angels I keep an eye on it. The right to keep and bear arms keeps the government from taking all of my other rights. I certainly believe that those who have rigged our elections need to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. And we need to go back to watermarked paper ballots and holding elections on one day. But I depend on the corrective power of the Constitutional representative republic to fix it.

True, many Normal Americans, knowing all that, are fed up. Many won’t bother to have a “conversation” that will produce little more than angry, spittle-slinging rage, obscenities and insults. Still, some will try in the hope that logic, reason, objective facts and the lessons of history might somehow prevail, that those foundations of western civilization might somehow reach those likely too far gone on the path to a communist utopia might pause, think and embrace sanity.

So sure, they’ll have that conversation, because they’re decent people and they’re willing to be pleasantly surprised. But they’re not willing to bargain away the Constitution or the rule of law to people who want them dead.

Count me among those who are fed up. I have had the conversation with many people, and at my age don't need to have another "angry, spittle-slinging" conversation filled with "rage, obscentities and insults." But if McDaniel is willing to put up with it, more power to him.

Beware Those Escaping from Socialist Hell Holes

 A reminder from David Codrea at Ammoland that Democrats Fleeing 'Socialism' Bringing Anti-gun Politics With Them. I had experience of this years ago when we first moved from Virginia to North Carolina. We had a house warming party and invited all the neighbors. One neighbor, who owned a working farm used a shot gun to kill a fox who was harassing his cattle. Note that the farm was more than 5 acres, and shot guns have limited range. One woman thought the police should stop him. I personally thought if the woman didn't like our neighbor shooting at foxes, she should have not moved there.

The same phenomenon happened when people started moving out along the route between Washington, DC and Dulles Airport. The airport was there first, by many years. Still, the newcomers demanded that the airport change its routes and times so they could sleep at night. It is the same thing that happens when enough Muslims come into an area. They demand the laws change to Sharia.

Codrea writes:

Who thinks an influx of hypocritical Democrats into these states, voters who don’t want to personally “pay their fair share” (their terminology, not mine) for the type of government they demand, will work out well for gun owners?

We’ve seen what happened in Colorado. We can see what’s happening all over the country in an analysis by the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, which blindly opines:

“Texas, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee were the biggest net winners from interstate migration, while California, New York, Illinois, New Jersey, and Massachusetts were the biggest net losers.”

Codrea concludes with a passage from the Bible about the two sons of Isaac, Jacob and Esau:

It’s all reminiscent of the story of Esau, who traded his birthright for a mess of pottage. And what’s not being factored in by these migrating Democrats is when their new nests become as fouled as the ones they abandoned, there will be no safe haven to fly to.

If your only value is short-term financial gains, they may have a point. But long-term losses from increasingly strident collectivist demands – not just on incomes but on essential freedoms like the right of the people to keep and bear arms – are predictable.

I frankly do not know what is to be done about it. Living in NC, I have encountered New Yorkers who both are conservative and love guns, and those who are here to escape taxes, but want to impose those same taxes on us, and oh by the way, want to get rid of guns. Perhaps they should take classes on what it means to be a citizen before they can vote?

Bill Wilson and Ken Hackathorn Talk About the 9mm Luger

 Today I wanted to highlight a Youtube video on the Wilson Combat channel in which Bill Wilson and Ken Hackathorn discuss why they now shoot mostly 9mm instead of .45 Auto. You can find the video at .45 ACP vs 9mm - Gun Guys Ep. 08. Wilson is the founder and owner of Wilson Combat, a maker of high end M1911 style pistols. The Wilson CQB (for Close Quarters Battle) features in Kurt Schlicter's People's Republic series. Ken Hackathorn is known as "Mr. 45" in the gun community.

I have been following both men for many years as they competed in matches and especially as Wilson built his business. Both are getting up there in years. Both now mostly shoot M1911 style pistols in 9mm and the reasons are old age. Hackathorn in particular has arthritis in his hands and can take only so much abuse. Wilson doesn't have arthritis but likes the gentler recoil of the 9mm in a steel framed weapon. And, honestly, the higher round count of the 9mm, and the advent of hollow point bullets means there isn't a lot of difference between the two rounds most of the time. You would not feel under gunned with 9mm.

I too am getting old, and while I can still shoot a .45 Auto M1911 pistol, I now prefer the .38 Super Auto in an M1911 pistol. .38 Super loads a 9mm bullet into a somewhat larger casing but propels the bullet at similar velocity. When the .38 Super was developed, the 9mm Luger was a rather anemic round, so that at that time .38 Super was the most powerful handgun cartridge and remained so until the .357 Magnum came along. Also, the .38 Super is historically correct for the M1911 pistol, having been developed with that pistol in mind.

Gentle readers can rest their eyes, and listen as two old shooters talk about their now favorite round.

A sad story indeed

I may have mentioned that music is evidence for the existence of God. There is no evolutionary purpose behind music. It is simply for our pleasure and enjoyment. Does this prove that God created the universe and us? No, but it is an intriguing idea. Furthermore, if music is evidence of God the Creator, then it makes sense that Muslims would hate music. And sure enough... I have also stated that Muslims worship the Devil. So, it makes sense that they also try to destroy everything that God builds.

So, it is interesting that reports indicate that in Germany, music classes are being cancelled in schools, supposedly because for Muslim students it is forbidden. You can read about it at the American Thinker entitled Is the music finally over in Germany? by Eric Utter.

It is especially grievious to me because so many great great composers were German. I realize that the modern state of Germany is a recent invention, but the whole area from Prussia to Austria spoke a common language.

Germany produced far more than its share of great composers: Bach, Handel, Telemann, Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Strauss, Wagner, and the list goes on. (Not to mention Engelbert Humperdinck or Nena!) To see its rapid cultural degradation and loss of identity is honestly heartbreaking, even from the perspective of a nation that twice defeated it in war.

Martin Luther was also German and a composer of "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God," a truly rousing hymn.

Sunday Reflections

 I graduated with a degree in civil engineering, and minors in mathematics and (believe it or not) English and American literature.  Note that having studied English and American literature does not make me a better writer. (sigh!)  In any case, philosophy was not on the menu, as courses in math and science, and how to apply them to a civil engineer's work took up all my time.  It is something I regretted until, talking with my pastor, who graduated from Yale with a philosophy degree.  He noted that philosophy was pretty much hogwash.  He didn't use that term but indicated that the study of philosophy was without value for God does not operate as man would expect, but out of His gracious love.

Now, in studying Marx's Communist Manifesto, I had to study a bit of Hegel.  His explanations of things did not particularly impress me, and he was...how do I put this...loquacious.  I had also read short passages from Nietzsche, but again I had to wonder what he was on about.  In other words, I no longer regret my lack of a philosophic background, for philosophy just puts others ideas into your head. The world would be a better place without a Neitzche or a Hegel.

Today, at the American Thinker Arthur Schaper has an article entitled Leaving Keirkegaard in which he points out that while many people read and were influensed by Keirkegaard's writings, the author discovered that the true light of the world is not philosophy, but the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Keirkegaard its seems is another philosophy the world could do without.

I am writing about the wily Dane, Soren Kierkegaard.

My senior year in high school, I came across his writings in the local library. His last name alone was hard to ignore. From there, I read his signature treatise on faith and the sacrificial account of Abraham and Isaac, Fear and Trembling. The poetic depth of his passages on the role of the poet and the beautiful courage of Father Abraham brought tears to my eyes. I admired The Knight of Faith, desiring to live a life filled with peace and purpose, in which everything has meaning and encounters nothing but wonder in an otherwise plain world.

Kierkegaard’s other work, The Sickness Unto Death, captivated me, as well. His first paragraph (“Man is spirit. But what is spirit? Spirit is the self? But what is the self? … “) made me laugh out loud. His cryptic syntax served as a necessary jab and tonic to the prolix Hegelian universalism swamping European colleges and discussion halls at the time. The titles of his books were quite gruesome, and his voluminous readings on the topics were profound in every sense. Kierkegaard intended for his writings to be difficult because he was engaging in parody but also stripping away the self-righteousness of a smug world determined to prove its own smarts.

Schaper writes that at the time he encountered Kirkegaard's writings, he too was taken in by the clever prose and the turns of phrase, the humor and the pathos. But eventually he discovered that:

The hardships we face cannot be overcome by philosophical texts. Who can overcome the sorrows and struggles of life with lots of thinking? There are bills to pay, people to see, challenges to deal with, hardships to overcome, and victories to enjoy. All of the abuses and traumas that I had suffered as a child could not be resolved by reading philosophy.

Furthermore, faith in falsehood cannot save, no matter how earnest the faith. Truth matters, and truth is not something that we come up with or is something merely grounded in our personal experience. In one of his most massive texts, The Concluding Unscientific Postscript, Kierkegaard writes: “Truth is subjectivity."

No, it isn’t. If you jump into a pool, thinking it’s ten feet deep but actually only three feet deep, you will crack your head on the concrete. If you are dying of thirst in the desert, and you spy an oasis, only to find more sand, you will die. Kierkegaard’s determination to turn inwardness into certainty is not only wrong but dangerous. He minimized biblical revelation in other ways. In The Book on Adler, Kierkegaard argued that God doesn’t speak anymore. Yet the New Testament is replete with accounts of the Holy Spirit directing man to do God’s will.

In my youth what philosopy I read often seemed obscure, and deliberately so. The writer wanted us to think he was smarter than the reader. My feelings here have only hardened. It was obscure because the author wanted to cover over the basic falsehoods in his thinking. Here is where Schaper turns to the Truth, which can only be found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ:

Kierkegaard’s miserly misunderstandings of Christianity ignored the fullness of the sacrifice that Christ Jesus accomplished on the Cross, and one can see the serious problems people will run into when they take someone like Kierkegaard seriously. If Nietzsche’s philosophy was consolation for those who were no good at living, then Kierkegaard’s philosophy is a comfort measure for Christians who don’t understand the Gospel.

Christian faith is not subjective. It’s not about our feelings, but it’s based on the accomplished fact and the eternal efficacy of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. Where Kierkegaard talked about Jesus as an example, the Gospel proclaims Him as the Savior whom we receive. Only then do we follow him, only then do we learn to love others, and only because we learn that He first loved us.

As I matured, I found Kierkegaard unappealing and unrewarding. Kierkegaard believed in a law-centered, man-centered Christianity, one where man has to try harder in his own efforts, where there is never a sense of peace and rest. Very little time did he spend expounding on the wonders and grace of God, the Finished Work of Jesus Christ, and the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit.

There is nothing more to say

Gun Control Now Out In the Open

 At the American Thinker today, D. Parker has a post entitled Leftists move on from 'nobody's coming for your guns'. Like most of their anti-liberty agenda, the mask is coming off now, and the left feels certain it can steal its way to winning back the Senate and House in the midterms. They are so sure of it that they don't need to hide their true intentions. And their true intentions are to disarm normal Americans and cram their tyrannical program down our throats.

Leftists are no longer hiding their plans to take your guns if they ever gain power. That means it’s time to get activated in defending freedom.

The gun-grabber ghouls of the left have always played a little game incrementally demanding more control over a commonsense and constitutional civil right. Though they used to occasionally say the quiet part out loud, things have changed. They’ve never been as blatant about it as they are now.

In the past, the ghouls had the advantage that history had yet to be made in other Western countries, so they could brush off the very real accusations that they were ultimately out to confiscate guns. They could say we were being paranoid or toss off some variation of the infamous line that “no one is talking about taking your guns.”

But now guns have been confiscated around the world. Even worse, the facile promises of safety from these actions have failed to materialize. We now have the advantage of hindsight, to the point that the ghouls can no longer dismiss the gun confiscation accusation as “extreme.” We can now easily point to the U.K., Australia, and Canada, so they’ve changed their tactics.

I don't know if Parker goes back as far as I do in the gun debates. I can remember the great debate over "Saturday Night Specials." These were supposedly cheaply made revolvers that so called ghetto dwellers would use during their Saturday night escapades. The debate was terribly racist. Indiana Senator Birch Bayh (a Democrat of course) and others wanted to get rid of guns and so created the Gun Control Act of 1968. But of course, these measures are always a "good first step." The gun-ghouls will never be happy until we are disarmed and mere surfs in their machine.

Even as a teen I realized that the Second Amendment was not about hunting but defending the nation and for self-defense against tyrants. So-called "Saturday Night Specials" were not hunting weapons, so were derided for not having a "sporting purpose." Well, no they didn't. They were designed to be self-defense weapons when one was attacked. One of a legitimate government's jobs is protecting life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  But the state cannot be everywhere, so it becomes incumbent on the individual to protect himself. These things I realized even as a teen.

With that as background, I was happy to see the first state, Florida, to pass a shall-issue concealed carry law. That was in 1987. Since that time, most of the states have passed shall issue concealed carry, and many have passed so-called Constitutional carry, which doesn't require a permit. The Supreme Court has indicated that the Second Amendment is an individual right, not tied to being in a militia. But all that hard work over that last 50 years is in peril.

Even if you’re not a gun owner — or lost all your guns in an unfortunate boating accident — these stories should make it crystal-clear what is at stake in the upcoming electoral contests. Cruel leftists have already made noises about persecuting pro-freedom patriots, nuking the filibuster, making Puerto Rico and D.C. states, and packing the Supreme Court. And that’s what they will openly admit to at the moment. Who knows what else they have in mind?

If there is any constant in the universe, it’s that the collectivist left will lie, and lie often. It’s a hobby and a skill. It’s just like a spanner in the leftists’ political tool kit. It’s when they tell the truth that you really have to worry.

They Really Do Hate You

 J. B. Shurk today at the American Thinker asks the question Why Do Democrats Hate America? He eventually answers that question, and I will get to it shortly. But first Shurk cites a number of examples, some of which border on treason. And it isn't always just to "get Trump."

Earlier this week, Democrat Senator Chris Murphy highlighted a disputed news story claiming that a shadow fleet of several dozen Iranian vessels had successfully eluded the U.S. Navy’s blockade near the Strait of Hormuz. Above what appears to have been Iranian propaganda, Murphy wrote one word: “Awesome.” How much does a Democrat senator have to hate the country he putatively represents to root for a foreign enemy presently engaged in battle with the United States?

Murphy’s choice to side with Iran’s Islamic terrorists over American servicemembers should surprise no-one. As commenters quickly pointed out, the Democrat was caught meeting with members of an Iranian spy ring a few years back (most likely a crime under the plain statutory meaning of the Foreign Agents Registration Act for which Murphy was never prosecuted), and he actively lobbied the Biden administration to remove Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — the same group that slaughtered over 40,000 Iranian protesters a few months ago — from the list of U.S. sanctioned terrorist organizations...

...snip...

On Tuesday, Virginians narrowly passed a congressional redistricting amendment that will allow Democrats to replace their current 6-5 advantage in the House with a 10-1 drubbing that entirely ignores the state’s rather evenly split electorate. As of yet, Republican-led states have done nothing that so disenfranchises voters as what Democrats just did in Virginia.

Shurk continues on, citing the recent indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center, who actually paid what are extremely tiny and ineffective organizations to stir up racial strife where none exists. So, why do Democrats hate America?

The Democrat Party’s whole business model essentially runs on hate.

Gentle readers need to read the whole article. Then, imagine what it must be like to be a Democrat. One cannot sustain that kind of hatred of the people around you naturally. It takes a special kind of hatred to seek a job representing the people of your district and then using that postion to enrich yourself.

We are in the midst of a Color Revolution

 I have two today, both on the indictment of the SPLC.  But first I need to ask, if convicted, who goes to jail?  This business of indicting a organization seems...like cheap theatre.  But let's get into the articles, neither of which answer the question.

The first came yesterday evening in a post by Andrea Widburg at the American Thinker entitled Dems attack Hegseth to advance a coup against Trump. It is a fairly long post, containing lots of embedded X posts by DataRepublican, so get yourself a cup of coffee for this one.

The basic premise for this one is that the Democrats are attacking Pete Hegseth in order to split the military from Trump. It is standard in color revolutions to open a wedge between the military and police, and the current head of the administration for obvious reason. But the Democrats also go after the troops claiming that the administrations orders are not legal, and therefore if they don't want to be found guilty of war crimes, they should refuse them.

On April 15, thirteen radical House Democrats introduced six articles of impeachment against Pete Hegseth, accusing him of “high crimes and misdemeanors.” The charges are spurious, alleging that he violated the War Powers Act (which didn’t apply), that he committed war crimes because Iran claimed that girls were in a building on an IRGC base that the U.S. struck, and managing the military in ways they disliked.

Those articles may have been the acts of radicals, but the fact is that the Democrats have relentlessly sought to undermine Pete Hegseth at every turn. Some of it is purely policy-driven: They want mentally ill people in the military, low recruitment, a focus on social justice, not winning wars, and the triumph of overt enemies.

However, DataRepublican has a more shocking contention. She says the continued efforts to destroy Pete Hegseth are the prelude to an actual coup. I particularly noted this because Democrats are engaged in a stealth revolution against our Constitution and the Founders’ vision. DataRepublican, however, a more kinetic coup, which requires disposing of Hegseth.

Widburg includes a lot of posts from DataRepublican which should be read in full to decide whether she is right or not. I tend to believe she is correct; indeed, I have felt that the Deep State along with the media and the Democrat party are fomenting a color revolution to overthrow our Constitutional Republic for a long time. But it has gotten more obvious as we watch manufactured protests funded by leftists billionaires.  And the Left has undertaken that long march through the intuitions and now believes itself to be ready to spring the trap.

The second piece today is also at the American Thinker by D. Parker entitled Bombshell: SPLC accused of funding neo-Nazi and KKK groups to spark a color revolution.

The leftist NGO SPLC was acting very much like firefighter arsonists from real life and TV. Throwing gasoline on the coals of racism and then profiting from putting out the fire. Then, of course, there is the reality that the KKK was supported by the Democrat party, and our research has shown more than 50 common traits between them and the Brown Bolsheviks of the Third Reich.

One does have to wonder why the leftist 'law center' would be funding these groups, given all of the leftist falsehoods that they are supposedly on the 'right.'

But then again, anyone who researches past the lies should realize that it all makes sense. We'll set that aside for the moment, because these allegations raise even worse implications in that all of this was to stoke the fires of a color revolution.

Parker concludes with:

If the left wins, they have already started talking about packing the Supreme Court, locking people up, and taking other maneuvers to keep themselves in perpetual power, and that's now, while we're months away from the election. Think about what they would actually do if they were already in power and get activated.

The solution is to get out and vote. In such circumstances, your vote should be for the lesser of two evils, because in this fallen world there will always be evil. But if you want to pass on an America where the government protects our God given rights to life, liberty and the persuit of happiness, you must get out and vote. Oh, and buy guns and ammo, as Kurt Schichter advises.

Progressivism and Islam are not compatible with our republic

 I have felt for a long time that Clarence Thomas is a national treasure, and I hope he continues to be such for many years to come.  He recently gave a lecture at the University of Texas in which he made the case that Progressivism is incompatible with America's founding principles.  It is also incompatible with Islam.  The lecture can be found here, or you can also find it at the bottom of the article by Earick Ward entitled Clarence Thomas on the origins and dangers of progressivism.

Woodrow Wilson named the system "Progressivism," but it really should be called "regressivism." For Wilson was naming something that goes back into the very beginnings of civilization itself, "Tyranny." The Germans had long lived under various rulers, all of whom claimed a natural or divine right to rule over them. Bismark, whom Wilson admired and whose system of rule he wanted for America, was just the latest in a long, long line. Thomas says:

I would like to begin by addressing my first encounter with the principles of the Declaration of Independence. It is perhaps not what you would immediately think. The second paragraph of the Declaration proclaims; We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.

The American Heritage Dictionary of English Language defines self-evident as obviously true and requiring no proof, argument, or explanation.

I believe now, as I did then, that the Declaration of 1776 provides us with the principles to guide us as citizens of our republic. Even in this time of questioning and criticism of our Founding, we should not forget that the Declaration established the principles that produced, despite all of our imperfections, our miscues, and our tragic mistakes, it gave us the freest, wealthiest, and most powerful nation in the history of the world.’’

...snip

As we meet today, it is unclear whether these principles will endure. At the beginning of the 20th century, a new set of first principles of government was introduced into the American mainstream. The proponents of this new set of first principles, most prominent among them, the 28th president of our country, Woodrow Wilson, called it progressivism.

Since Wilson’s presidency, progressivism has made many inroads into our system of government and our way of life. It has coexisted uneasily with the principles of the Declaration. Because it is opposed to those principles, it is not possible for the two to coexist forever.

Progressivism was not native to America. Wilson and the progressives candidly admitted that they took it from Otto von Bismarck’s Germany, whose state-centric society they admired. Progressives like Wilson argued that America needed to leave behind the principles of the founding and catch up with the more advanced and sophisticated system of relatively unimpeded state power, nearly perfected.

Liberty no longer preceded the government as a gift from God, but was to be enjoyed at the grace of the government.

...snip...

It will, of course, not be easy. It never is. But if, like me, you need a greater source of strength than yourselves, you will need to rely on your faith to guide and to sustain you through it all.

Most of our Founders were Christian. As such they recognized that while the Kingdom of God was a kingdom after all, here in our fallen world, we could not entrust our government to kings and "divine" rulers. Christian theology has always maintained the concept of original sin.  We are not born good, but each of us is born in sin.  Our experience with George III showed us that we could not trust a king. After much thought, they came up with a republican form of government. But even though they thought this the best form, one can never discount the evil that men do. So, Thomas's closing remarks are very appropriate.

Please read the article, then listen to the lecture.

The Irony...

 The irony is thick in this story.  A gun grabber shoots and kills his wife then himself.

Today at Ammoland David Codrea has an article about the murder-suicide of Justin Fairfax and his wife. But Justin Fairfax was a former Lt. Governor of Virginia and a great proponent of red flag laws and gun control in general.

“Former Democratic Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax killed his wife and then himself in a shocking murder-suicide early Thursday morning, according to the Fairfax County Police Department,” Fox News reports. “Justin Fairfax shot and killed – shot several times – and killed his wife, ran to a different part of the home and then killed himself with the same firearm he just got unseen,’ said police chief Kevin Davis during a press conference on Thursday morning.”

While some may say it’s too soon, it can’t go without mentioning that Fairfax was a big proponent of citizen disarmament edicts, including those ostensibly purporting to be enacted to prevent domestic violence. The Fox News story itself notes, “He supported Virginia’s first red flag preventing individuals who show signs of being a threat to themselves or others from purchasing, possessing or transporting any kind of firearm.”

...snip...

It wasn’t “gun violence” that killed Fairfax and his wife, it was him. Since there are no reports at this writing that the gun he used was illegally owned, it’s fair to presume he went through a background check when he bought it. And he only needed a few rounds.

Time and again, it is shown that those who don’t trust us with guns and demand to control them really can’t trust and control themselves.

Why does it seem that these kinds of events always spring from those who would disarm you and me. Go read Codrea's article.

VA gun grab fight preparing to become nasty

 Virginia, a commonwealth that was fairly free on concealed carry and other firearms issues is facing suddenly becoming California.  According to the Firearms Policy Coalition, Virginia has about to heat up. A donation to the Virginia Citizens Defense League will be appreciated.

Stirring the Pot

 Shall we stir the pot a little?  You all have probably read most of the .45 Auto vs 9mm Parabellum articles, shouting matches and so forth. I have tried to stay out of these debates because I look at them as follows: each person must evaluate their own risks and then decide what to do about it.  My wife carries a .380 Auto, while my daughter carries a .32 Auto.  But I know that most don't carry anything at all. And most die of accident or disease or old age, not gunshot wounds.

So, it was interesting that the American Rifleman had a piece in it today by Bryce M. Towsley entitled The Infinite Argument: 9mm vs. .45 ACP. I recommend that gentle readers take the time to read it, because unlike a lot of the debate, this one is fairly sober.

If you watch TV shows, the good guys always place either one or two rounds such that they stop the bad guy from continuing his attack. But real life is far different. You want your attacker to bleed a little faster to stop his attack, and the .45 Auto has a proven track record of stopping an attack when paired with a M1911 style pistol. The reason the .45 pairs well with the m1911 is because the M1911 is a heavy steel pistol which absorbs much of the recoil.

The pistol and its cartridge resulted from a U.S. Army request for a new pistol:

This is a battle that has been fought before and probably will be again. For example, after the gruesome failures during the Moro Rebellion in the Philippines graphically illustrated the folly of using a smaller cartridge, the Army paid attention. That lead to the Thompson-LaGarde Tests, which proved what most of our salted Soldiers already knew: the Army made a mistake abandoning the .45 Colt in favor of the .38 Long Colt, a cartridge equivalent in power to the .380 ACP.

With that newfangled smokeless powder having been recently invented, ammunition makers were able to more or less duplicate the proven performance of the old .45 Colt in the newer, shorter .45 ACP. They put the cartridge in a semi-automatic handgun, the M1911, which went on to make its bones winning two world wars and in countless lesser conflicts. Yeah, I know. “OK, boomer.”

Well, yes, I am a "boomer, and an old fart one at that. And I shoot and carry an M1911 style pistol. Yes it's a relatively heavy pistol, but with a proper belt and holster it disappears under your cover garment. You see, physics has not changed, nor have bad guys changed. If someone pulls gun on you, it means he thinks whatever you have, that he wants, is more valuable than your life. Such people do not recognize you or anyone else as a fellow image of God. Now, I don't expect to have to use my handgun, most people do not. But it is like a fire extinguisher. You hope not to need it, but you wnat one if you do.

Woke Pope Becomes a Joke

 Yesterday at the American Thinker Monica Showalter had a post entitled Woke pope becomes a joke and gives Babylon Bee a field day. Now, as many of you know, I am a Lutheran because a number of passages in the Bible specifically deny a pope like figure. You can read these many denials in The Book of Concord to which all confessing Lutherans must confess.

You can read the Babylon Bee's many jabs at His Holiness absurdities and laugh along. I cannot make them funnier by quoting them here. But the last one is the funniest of all. Christ came into the world to defeat Satan once and for all. Therefore, Christ and Satan can never put aside their difference. St. Paul acknowledges this in Romans chapter 6 when he points out that we are now slaves of Christ and not slaves of the sinful flesh.

Showalter, by the way, is a member of the Roman Catholic church. We Lutherans (Martin Luther hiself would be appalled at calling his church "Lutheran.") think of our church as "Evangelical Catholic." That we derive all of our doctrine from the Bible, and add nothing to it, is one of the reasons Martin Luther was excommunicated. It was to maintain the power of the pope. However, we recognize that there are many faithful Catholics who will be saved.

Microstamping makes buying guns and ammo more expensive

 I was watching an old re-run of NCIS where Abby mentions that the murder weapon was a gun with microstamping. Case closed, right? Maybe on TV.  But as Mike McDaniel points out at the American Thinker in a post entitled Ammo serialization has nothing to do with solving crime, not so fast:

Microstamping is laser engraving a unique, identifying code on the tips of firing pins which will “stamp” that code—letters, numbers, etc—on the primers of fired cases. Some microstamping schemes also demand a second stamp elsewhere on a fired case.

One can imagine the many ways to get around microstamping. For instance, changing out the firing pin, filing of the microstamped code from the firing pin, not cleaning your gun, or stealing a gun from some innocent victim, or using a revolver. For that matter, merely policing your brass eliminates any signs of microstamping

But wouldn’t microstamping and serialization help catch criminals? No. In all my years in police work, I never solved a crime committed with a gun by finding and analyzing a fired case, nor was I aware of anyone who did. Virtually all such crimes are solved by old-fashioned police work consisting mostly of talking to people. The shining stainless steel and glass crime labs with holographic projectors and quantum computers of TV crime dramas don’t exist.

Microstamping has been enjoined by federal courts, not only because it’s unconstitutional and a blatantly obvious attempt to make guns and ammo too expensive, but because it doesn’t work. Serialization fails for the same reasons.

And here is the whole point. Microstamping, or indeed any serialization of ammo is not going to solve any crime. As McDaniel points out, you still have to place the criminal at the scene with the gun and prove he fired it. So, the only reason for such laws is to make guns and ammo more expensive for the average person to buy. Criminals will always evade the law. That is what makes them criminals. No, this is to make it harder and more expensive for you and me to buy guns thus making it easier to cram their totalitarianism down our throats.

The Image of God

Today, at the American Thinker in a post by Greg Maresca entitled The post-Roe landscape. I won't comment on most of the article. Gentle readers can read the grim statistics for themselves.

What I wish to comment on is another grim statistic, the lack of training in Christianity. Namely, that God created man in his own image. Every time an innocent human being is killed, another image of God is killed. While self-defense is allowed, mere mortals are not authorized to out and out murder our children. Indeed, God destroyed people who worshipped Molech, a "god" that demanded people throw their first born into the idol's fire in its belly.

He is Risen; He is Risen indeed

 He is Risen; He is Risen indeed!  Thus, Christians around the world greet each other on Easter.  Meanwhile, at the American Thinker J.B. Shurk points out that Leftism Fears Jesus Christ. You know it's true by the way the Left hates and resents us.  Why you would almost think the Devil inspired them.

On Easter, the holiest day of the year, we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Lord, Savior, and Treasure. Just saying those words out loud — Lord…Savior…Treasure — it is easy to recognize why modern socialist governments find Christianity so threatening. For if He is the King of kings, then all of our would-be masters in this world are pale imposters. If He alone is the Way and the Truth and the Life, then the marble halls of Big Government are just false paths leading to false idols that promise false salvation. If He is the only Treasure, then all of the things that governments do to make us envious, resentful, and hateful toward one another are tricks and lies meant to blind us from the Truth.

A Canadian writer named Dimpee Brar wrote a beautiful and insightful essay on this subject last month. In that essay, Brar draws attention to the more than eighty churches that have been set on fire across her country. She deftly describes how government-sponsored lies instigated these attacks on Christian houses of worship and argues persuasively that Marxist-globalist governments view Christ, Christians, and Christianity as foremost enemies.

Shurk heavily quotes from Brar's essay, much of which is about Canada itself, though we here in the U.S. should be wary because the Democrats have threatened to bring on even worse to us if they win back power. And these threats are not empty. Every one should be taken seriously.

But, the fact is that Jesus can be found not in church buildings. These are built rather for our convenience. God is everywhere and Jesus promises to be present wherever two or three are gathered in His name. We may need to revert to the house churches, or as St. Paul did, rent out spaces in commercial buildings to hold services, and to distribute the Lord's Supper. We may have to go underground to keep our faith alive. So be it. Christ did not promise us prosperity and a care-free life.

Reflections on Good Friday

 Today is Good Friday, the anniversary of the day Christ died on the cross for us and our sins.  It is the most holy day of the year for us Christians, and it has nothing to do with bunnies and eggs.  It is a day when the paraments come off the alters in the Lutheran churches.  Our Lord has died a cruel and undeserved death and will not rise until the third day.  His disciples are huddled in the upper room, sure the authorities are coming for them next. 

Kevin McCollough, at Townhall.com has an article about an incident that occurred while Jesus was hanging on the cross between two thieves. The article is entitled A Thief's Impossible Hope. One thief, representing the world and its sinfulness mocks Jesus and says "If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross and save yourself and us." But McCollough spends his time discussing the other thief, the one who at the last, believed.

The pain is constant now—no waves, no relief, just a steady, crushing reality that presses in from every side. His body is failing. His breaths are shallow. The end is not coming—it’s here.

And yet—something inside him is awakening. Not physically. Spiritually.

Because after everything he’s seen… after everything he’s heard… after the clarity that has broken through his denial and exposed his guilt… something unthinkable begins to rise: Hope.

...snip...

What if this isn’t the end? What if the man next to him… is exactly who He claims to be? What if the kingdom He spoke about… is real? What if death… isn’t the final word?

Do you understand how radical that is in this moment? Because everything around him screams finality.

The nails say it. The blood says it. The crowd says it.

This is the end.

And yet, somehow, the thief is beginning to believe the opposite. Not because of what he feels. But because of what he’s seen.

...snip...

He’s seen a man suffer without hatred. He’s heard forgiveness spoken over executioners. He’s witnessed a kind of authority that doesn’t look like power—but is power. And now, standing at the edge of eternity, he makes a leap.

Not of logic. Of faith. “Jesus… remember me… when you come into your kingdom.”

Jesus does not disappoint. Despite the gruesome torture he has been through, despite the unbearable pain, he grants this man's dying wish before he dies, just as he promises to save everyone who believes and is baptized.

When a man confronts his own sins, some that he may not know, it is enough to drive that man to his knees. But we are saved from hell by a loving God, whose grace is almost unbelievable. What love is this, that Christ was willing to die in this most horrible of ways, to save us from ourselves.

Update:  Please read also Where Evil Became Victory: Good Friday for a Suffering World, by Sarah Holliday.

Palm Sunday and the Start of Holy Week

 Today at Townhall.com Kevin McCollough has a post entitled The Madness of Palm Sunday in which he points out that Jesus knew, even provoked his own crucifixion, and yet he did in anyway. Not out of some form of madness, like the people who commit suicide by cop, but out of love.

Jesus rides into Jerusalem, not in secrecy, not under cover of darkness—but in full view of a swelling, electric crowd. They line the streets. They wave palm branches. They throw their cloaks on the ground. They shout, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”

They are celebrating Him like a king.

And they’re right to do so.

This wasn’t random. This wasn’t accidental. This wasn’t Jesus getting swept up in a moment. This was deliberate, calculated, prophetic fulfillment. Centuries earlier, the prophet Zechariah had written that Israel’s king would come riding on a donkey—gentle, humble, unmistakable. And here He was, doing exactly that.

Not on a war horse. Not with an army. But on a borrowed donkey.

Because He wasn’t coming to conquer Rome.

He was coming to conquer something far more permanent.

...snip...

Without the cross, there is no forgiveness.

Without His suffering, there is no healing.

Without His death, there is no life.

The madness of Palm Sunday is that the King is being celebrated by people who don’t understand the cost He’s about to pay for them.

Many people suffer, sometimes seeming unbearable pain. Jesus suffered all that. But his true suffering was the abandonment by the Father. Imagine if your father suddenly abandoned you, said "I don't know you" and turned his back to you. You would be hurt. Now imagine your father is the creator of the universe. This made His suffering so much worse. It makes our suffering seem like a pin prick.

We know how the story ends, and we are both sorrowful, and overjoyed. Please, This week, I urge you to consider this, and to pray on it.