If you’re not familiar with the concept of the three types of people: sheep, wolves and sheep dogs, I strongly urge you to read about it in Lt. Col Dave Grossman’s book, “On Combat”. Sometimes it’s not easy to tell which category a person falls into until circumstances or events make it plainly obvious. One of the things the COVID-19 situation has done is make the distinctions more transparent.
Very briefly, and quoting from the book…
“If you have no capacity for violence then you are a healthy productive citizen: a sheep. If you have a capacity for violence and no empathy for your fellow citizens, then you have defined an aggressive sociopath–a wolf. But what if you have a capacity for violence, and a deep love for your fellow citizens? Then you are a sheepdog, a warrior, someone who is walking the hero’s path. Someone who can walk into the heart of darkness, into the universal human phobia, and walk out unscathed.”
The vast majority of people are sheep. This isn’t a pejorative term, unless of course we’re referring to “sheeple”. Sheeple are docile, fearful, easily-led, easily-manipulated, often ego-centric, gullible and seek the approval of others, particularly “expert authorities” and some kind of outside validation for their actions.
The truly evil sociopaths are of course wolves, but we can characterize scammers, demagogues, fearmongers, ‘hypercrits’ (.sic), ‘patronizers’, ‘condescenders’, megalomaniacs, holier-than-thou types, petty bureaucrats and of course, the majority of politicians as wolves too!
FInally, there are among us, thankfully, sheepdogs: combat soldiers, intelligence operators, police, firemen, first responders, much of the medical community, community emergency response teams and myriad volunteers who seek to serve others.
Look around you these days and you’ll clearly see who’s who.
What does this mean for our new lives… our during and post-COVID lives?
If you are a sheep. I strongly urge you to seek out, get to know, listen to and if need be, follow one or more sheepdogs whom you can trust and try to help as they seek to protect and serve others.
If you are sheepdog, I strongly urge you to embrace your role and let people know you care about them, will try to look out for their well-being, will defend them (with violence if necessary!) against evil and will lead from the front, not from your behind (.sic).
A few years ago a regional newspaper run by wolves and staffed by sheeple, in a fit of anti-Second Amendment pique, published an online, interactive map of those of us with concealed carry gun permits. Their attempt was to ostracize and shame us. It backfired.
No less than three of my neighbors, after seeing that I (and no-one else within a radius of about five miles) had a carry permit, quietly told me something to the effect of, “If the s— hits the fan, I’m coming to YOUR house.” Besides offering to mentor them on firearms training and permit acquisition (usually met with a “noooo, I could never do that…”) I reassured them they could indeed rely on me to help them in a dire situation, and if necessary, I’d given them on-the-spot training!
If you are a Sheeple, you’re not reading this but if perchance you do I urge you to wake up, shut up, engage your brain and do something useful instead of whining, weeping, wailing and gnashing your teeth!
Finally, if you’re a wolf, you too are probably not reading this. But I would strongly urge all wolves to be mindful of the rapidly increasing number of sheepdogs who are coming out of their doghouses to confront the evil you represent. We’ve thrown the bulls— flag on the field and while we haven’t seen apocalyptic civil unrest at this time, we’re ready to confront you and will not hesitate to defend our families and our friends from everything from petty unrighteous dominion to violent threat.
This crisis has clearly brought out both the best and worst in people. I have no data to support this, but I would not be surprised if the number of sheepdogs reading these words is greater than for most blogs. Why? Because people who would actually take the time to read the reflections and musings of an old, traditional fart like me probably care deeply about their loved ones, their communities and our nation. I expect many of you are courageous in the face of hardship and would, like a sheepdog, step up when called upon (if you’re not already doing so) to defend the flock.
May God bless the Sheepdogs and the Sheep. May He help the Sheeple and may He render the Wolves impotent…
It took just a minute to turn the switch off. But in the Northeast Blackout of August 2003, it wasn’t a matter of flipping the switch back on…the electrical grid had to be brought back on gradually lest some nasty power spikes set the whole system on fire! The COVID-19 mess is similar.
The parallels end with how relatively straightforward restoring power was as compared with restarting an entire economy. The complications: pragmatic, sociological, psychological, political, even spiritual, are mind-boggling. It amounts perhaps to the most intricate optimization problem society has ever faced. Compounding the problem is a lack of good will…the Swamp is the battleground.
One could argue that were the government at all levels to just step out of the way, the ship would right itself. Commerce, ingenuity, inherent good judgment and common sense could very well generate answers to the myriad problems.
On the other hand, so reliant, even dependent have our citizens become on the government to tell us what to do, leaving the re-entry to the good will of society and the workings of the marketplace, especially now that the government like the Blob has inextricably inserted itself into the equation, could result in an s-show of monumental proportions!
What to do?
Think for ourselves. Play strategic “what if” games. Start with the worst possible set of circumstances – there’s a renewed outbreak, the hospitals are overwhelmed, the therapeutic drugs don’t work and there is civil unrest, i.e. roving gangs of looters and killers. What, if anything, could you do about such a scenario?
Then, think of the more realistic dire but potential circumstances: you lose your job, your savings will last only so long, you’re healthy but it doesn’t look like there’s going to be any kind of meaningful recovery for you and your family in the near future and you know anything the government gives you is peanuts compared to what you were making before and your obligations. What do you do then?
Or let’s imagine the other extreme. The crisis was overblown and with a face mask on you return to work by, say, mid May. The kids go back to school with an extension of the school year into late June or July. How will you handle THAT?
To one degree or another any or all of the above scenarios are possible right now! Hard to believe since Netflix and the Internet are still operating, and even though the news shows look like the beginning of the Brady Bunch, with each co-host in his or her own square and your closet is stuffed with toilet paper and paper towels, life while different and crazy, goes on for most of us.
In short, assume the government is not the solution but the problem. How do we inoculate ourselves from a cure that is, indeed potentially worse than the disease?
Unfortunately, the time for preparation is gone. We’re in it now and have to make do with what we have and the circumstances we face. Certainly I cannot tell you what to do. Neither can some bureaucrat. Nor can some talking head on TV. Assume there will be no black and white decisions. All future forks in the road will be shrouded in fog, and ambiguity will reign over every decision we face.
Each and every one of us must think for ourselves, critically, pragmatically and do what is right to the best of our abilities. And each of us will have to be sole arbiters of “what is right”.
Take heart! As bad as things are, they will get better, and better, and better. We can do this! Think of what the Apollo 13 astronauts faced. Think of what the battered bastards of Bastogne faced at the Bulge in December 1944. Remember Winston Churchill’s words, “When you’re going through Hell, keep going!” And think of what we went through on 9-11.
We can beat this thing. Those of us who have survived will be stronger. Those who have perished will be taken care of in a Better Place. Those who have lost loved ones will be comforted, in time. Those of us who have been knocked down will get up and fight again, for our families, for our friends, for our neighbors, for our communities, for our country. We will rebuild. We will rejuvenate, and we will once again re-assert our position as the greatest nation the world has ever known.
Easter Sunday, 2020. The pews are empty. This is our first “video celebration” streamed through thousands of digital mechanisms across the world. Earlier in the week Passover seders were celebrated similarly. A juxtaposition of the technological and the divine.
How one marks the day depends on one’s belief or lack thereof. There are, in my opinion, as regards religion, three states: either we are atheists, believers or agnostics. And, I hasten to point out, we may be one or the other at different points in our lives.
Atheists, a.k.a. secularists, non-believers or those who worship things other than a deity, make up a significant and growing percentage of the world’s population. While there are countless “studies” marking this growth, one has only to look around at the opposite phenomenon, the decline in congregations, to acknowledge this trend.
Aside from the numbers, there are also countless “studies” that seek to explain why religion is on the wane. Could it be that the rapid advancement of technology has simply made us “full of ourselves”? What need have we of a God when we can summon knowledge, convenience and even virtual human interaction instantaneously and effortlessly from the electronic gadget in our hands? Millennials (Gen Y) and Gen Z seem to be the most secular and least religious of any generation. They are, of course, those who grew up with this technology and don’t even recall much of what I call the Analog World (a separate article forthcoming on that subject).
Forget about broad trends for a moment, however, and examine what this means for our families, our local communities and our Country. What happens to a people when they get too full of themselves?
You’ll recall when Moses descended from Mt. Sinai he found this exact circumstance. Not a good scene. The party animals had taken over, they no longer had any need for God, faith or religion and things didn’t turn out well. Isn’t it obvious we’re duplicating that scene at the base of Mt. Sinai right now? What does the future hold if we keep this up?
The battle we as a nation are fighting is a civil war. It is a battle for its soul. I’ve often referred to Bill O’ Reilly’s contention that the fight is between Traditionalists and Secular Progressives. Will we follow a course plotted by a rudderless ship piloted by secularist atheists, or by a people who, irrespective of their denomination, subscribe to traditional principles of right and wrong stemming from a belief in God that have survived the vicissitudes of mankind since the Garden of Eden?
As regards my own views on God and religion. As I begin to think more and more about the subject I’ve yet to codify my beliefs. But here are some thoughts.
Thomas Aquinas tried to “prove” the existence of God in his book Summa Theologica. I’m reasonably well read and educated and no matter how hard I tried, I found it incomprehensible and far more confusing and doubt-provoking than enlightening. The proof can’t be conjured up from within ourselves or “proven” in some way. Whether or not to believe in God has to be an individual determination. Anything else but a personal conviction withers under fire or rusts with disuse. Thus, in thinking and talking to others about God I have often asked others the question: “Who is the only person in the universe who can prove to you whether God exists?” Frequently, the reply has been, “Me.””No,” I submit, “the only person in the universe who can prove to you whether God exists, is God.” Again, it is for each of us to come to our own conclusion.
As humans who reside on an earth that turns, causing sunrise and sunset; as fragile beings who are born and who eventually die, we think in terms of beginnings and endings. Thus, evidence of an expanding universe leads us to conclude that there was a Big Bang that started it all. But that begs the question, “What was there before the Big Bang?”
My suggestion is that if we eliminate the construct of beginnings and endings and assume that there never was either a beginning or end to the universe…that the universe is, in fact, infinite; that it has always existed and will always exist, it becomes a little more logical to think of man’s life as a very very small segment of time within that continuum stretching endlessly (literally, not figuratively) in all directions. It also makes it easier for me to comprehend that there is a being, God, who exists within this infinite continuum and, though I may not comprehend how, also has always existed and will always exist. Similarly, this Easter morning, I can accept that a man name Jesus died and three days later rose from the dead by means that I cannot understand, but which are based on principles and truths that are immutable and exist whether or not either I or anyone else believes them or not. And if the Atonement and Resurrection, and more importantly the purposes and reasons for them made it possible for me to wake up somehow after I die and transform into something else – a different life as wonderful or even better than this one has been, I’m thrilled it occurred.
This morning, thousands of children will go on Easter Egg Hunts. Many will receive gifts from the Easter Bunny. How many will have even an inkling of what Easter Sunday is all about? It has become another so-called Hallmark Holiday for many.
As for me, I pause this morning to reflect on my choice to believe in God. I will seek to do right rather than wrong. I believe in good and evil and hope to embrace the Good and eschew Evil. I believe there are many truths and eternal principles we have not yet uncovered and learned…things that logically explain what we presently see as miracles and the unexplainable. And I choose not to forget that Someone guiding us and worthy of our worship exists and through some truly extraordinary technology, is able to know and communicate and guide each and every one of us.
“On any subject one can find at least twelve world-renowned experts citing documented, empirical, irrefutable evidence to support arguments that are diametrically opposed to one another.” – Grumps
Who you gonna believe? Dr. Anthony Fauci? Dr. Deborah Birx? Dr. Oz? President Trump? Secretary Steve Mnuchin? Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy? Senator Chuck Schumer? Senator Mitch McConnell? Larry Kudlow? Rachel Maddow? Laura Ingraham? Nancy Pelosi? Andrew Cuomo? Chris Cuomo?
Simply put, there are no end of experts, pundits, commentators, ‘contributors’.
Have you ever wondered why these people after being interviewed by some television host most often say “Thank you,” at the end of their segment, right after being thanked by the host? If it were I, my last words would be “you’re welcome”, or “happy to contribute”, or “my pleasure”, or even a simple nod. No, most say “thank you” or “thank you for having me”.
The reason is simple. The media is theater and these people being interviewed are being paid to entertain (.sic…they claim to inform but they’re mostly offering opinion, parroting someone else’s commentary, or simply making up stuff on the fly) so I’ll say entertain rather than inform despite even the best of intentions. If they’re not being paid, they’re hoping to someday be paid. If they’re neither being paid or hoping to be paid they’re desperate for attention and recognition in order to advance their careers, at best, or just their egos, at worst. They got their 15-180 seconds of fame. That’s why they say “thank you”.
I say despite their best intentions because many of the talking heads really do try to present relevant, useful, information and some even say what they really think. And some tell the truth, some omit the truth, some flavor or color the truth, some think they’re saying what’s true, and some disclose that they’re offering their opinions, which many take as truth.
On the other hand, there are many who intentionally deceive, ‘spin’, twist and color truths as well as outright lies to further their agenda. The more outrageous the deception, the better to “make it bleed”, thus “lead”.
And of course, depending upon where one sits on the ideological continuum, lies are truth and vice versa, spin is omnipresent…it’s a question of degree.
So whom to believe?
Ourselves. We went to school and supposedly learned how to think there. Instead of lapping up what the talking heads tell us, we need to think for ourselves. And the thinking needs to be critical. If what we’re hearing is contradictory, obscure, wrapped in gobbledygook or simply sounds like nonsense, it probably is. Doesn’t matter who’s spouting it and it doesn’t matter how much of it is fact, applicable to our own circumstances, or how much is conjecture, fiction, outright falsehood, etc.
We need to believe in our own God-given good judgement and make decisions that are right for us, not just run along with the sheep.
The stock market has crashed. Unemployment is skyrocketing.
The number of confirmed Wuhan Virus (that’s what I call it) cases is
growing exponentially. Grocery store shelves are bare. Gun sales are going
through the roof. Office buildings in Manhattan are empty. People are walking
around with masks. Schools are cancelled. The internet is bogging down because
so many people are home its vaunted capacity (bandwidth) is proving to be
inadequate for the demand. California is “locked down”. Hell has
broken loose.
However… “The wonderful thing about Tiggers is,
tiggers is wonderful things. Their tops are made of rubber, and their tails are
made of springs. They’re bouncy, flouncy, trouncy, pouncy, full of fun, fun fun.
The wonderful thing about Tiggers is, I’m the only one.” Substitute Americans
for tiggers and you’ll have a hint as to why despite the misery and impending
doom I’m optimistic for the future.
My thoughts…
1. As bad as
the pandemic is, it’s not as bad as you think. Simple arithmetic coupled
with basic critical thinking points to the conclusion that greater than 99% of
everyone who contracts the disease will recover, and we don’t know of course how
many people WILL or WILL NOT contract it. Thousands get sick and many die each
day from heart disease, cancer, jaywalking, ‘regular’ flu and chronic lung
disease from smoking, etc. As of this morning, ~a quarter of a million people WORLDWIDE
have been confirmed to have the virus, ~10,000 people WORLDWIDE have died from
the virus, and ~86,000 have recovered. These numbers are DWARFED by regular flu.
In the U.S., ~15,000 people have
confirmed cases and ~100 people have died. This flu season alone (roughly
from October 2019 to the present) 31MM people IN THE UNITED STATES (!) have had
the flu. Somewhere around 275,000 give or take have had to be hospitalized, and
as many as 30,000 (vs. 100) have died from run-of-the-mill flu! (See https://www.health.com/condition/cold-flu-sinus/how-many-people-die-of-the-flu-every-year
for a plain language discussion.) Translation – this isn’t anywhere near as
bad as the media and politicians would have you believe.
2. Despite
what you hear or see, the government is doing the right things. They may not in
all cases being doing things right, but the medical, logistical, economic and
societal response is “gettin’ ‘er done”. I expect the response is
even overdone if you look at the statistics in the previous paragraph. So,
for example, NOT EVERYONE NEEDS A TEST! If you get sick, sure, go get a test.
But it’s self-centered, selfish and “looking out for number one” just
to confirm you’re NOT sick, and may deprive someone who really needs to be
tested from getting the help they need. Testing is NOT a cure, and satisfying
statistical number crunching is nowhere near as important as preventing and
treating the actual disease. Mobilization and coordination among all the health
care agencies, departments and the private sector is exactly what is needed,
and again, no matter what you hear, there are very competent people who care
about others and this country hard at work on the problems. Have some faith in
them!
The backstopping of employers in various ways and the anticipated
support given to individuals and families is being matched by lenders,
landlords, tax collectors… you name it. Everyone’s in this and making
accommodations following the lead of the federal, state and local governments.
Just remember that “the government” is made up of
people who have the same hopes, dreams, fears, constraints, problems as
everyone else in the country. The vast majority are working their asses off to
help and do what’s right within their on organizations and spheres of influence.
I had to go to the department of motor vehicles the other day. Everyone there
had taken a large dose of patience pills and I was both shocked and thrilled to
see how both the people behind the counter and in front of it were behaving.
The government, of course, is damned if they do and damned
if they don’t, but on balance, its response to this crisis has been overwhelmingly
appropriate and helpful. Its communications, despite the handwringing and
teeth-gnashing of a “if it bleeds it leads” media has been solid,
optimistic, informative and suitably cautionary as to get virtually the whole
nation (except the Florida beach Spring Break party animals) to respond as it
should. This all happened in a matter of days, unlike the responses during the
H1N1, SARS, MERS and other pandemics.
3. Gas
prices and interest rates are falling. The one commodity everyone needs is
fuel, and the stimulating effect of a drop in gas prices to the ~$2.00 – ~$2.50
level is incredibly impactful on regular budgets. This will benefit us all,
except of course for oil producers. But Washington is on to the Russian and
Saudi’s game to try to destroy our energy-independent status and crush our
shale industry, and are NOT going to let them get away with it. Similarly,
we’re not standing idly by while China spews its propaganda and stomps its feet
and blames our military for what they caused or worse, threatens us with
withholding drugs such that we become “awash in a sea of Coronavirus”.
We’ve thrown the bull#%*& flag on that already and will continue to rub
China’s nose in the mess they’ve created and left on the world’s floor. Xenophobic?
No, just highlighting the truth in the face false accusations.
4. One of
the silver linings in this mess is the awakening that has occurred among
government, industry and the American people that we must no longer be held
hostage by foreign manufacturers and suppliers. The Globalist agenda has been
thoroughly trounced by this exposure of its flaws, and bringing our
manufacturing and supply chains home may result in higher priced goods, but
we’ll all benefit in the long run.
5. Kids are
getting educated again. Home schooling is exposing the inadequacies, biases and
absurdities of the current state of our education system. Parents are waking up
to what is being taught, and what is NOT being taught to our children. I predict
that for whatever time period home-schooling prevails, our kids will get a
BETTER education than what they’re getting at school, and teachers will be
astonished when students return at how far they’ve advanced. You heard it from
me first.
6. Neighbors
are helping neighbors. Our little local email chain is lit up with offers of
help and assistance. People are getting outside and checking on each other from
afar (i.e. more than six feet). Kids are teaching parents and grandparents about
Facetime, Skype and Zoom. And Animal Planet is running shows about carefree kittens
and puppies. Come on…how much better is it to watch than the gloom and doom
on broadcast tv?
7. People
are learning who their leaders are. Not the ones with the titles, but the ones
who are true leaders as opposed to managers and demagogues. True leaders step
up in times of crisis and go to the front of the crowd, carry a light and turn
back to shout encouragement and instill confidence in others. People who may
have labored in the shadows or punched well below their weight are now emerging
as the shepherds of our society. This separating of the leaders from the
followers can only be a positive development.
8. The Silent
Majority is silent no more. Having to adapt to the situation, conservatives and
the Right who normally are head down working and caring for themselves and their
families are speaking up and speaking out. They are not just throwing the BS
flag on politically correct nonsense, they are ignoring social engineering and
all its related evils and practicing true philanthropy and real, beneficial community
activism.
9. Complacency
is evaporating. It’s amazing what being forced to rely on fundamentals and
things that matter will do to a spoiled and coddled population. In the face of
what’s going on, do people really care what the Kardashians think?
10. Faith is
making a comeback. It’s sad but true that there are no atheists in foxholes.
We’re rediscovering our faith despite not being able to attend Church. And
whether it’s one religion or another, it’s the common principles of right and
wrong, goodness versus evil and a belief in a set of universal truths that are
moving back into the public consciousness. This is a good thing.
11. Families
are getting to know one another again. Yes, we’re cooped up and hunkered down.
And things get testy at times as we bumble around in each other’s way. But for
many of us, we’re forced to seek virtue: patience, understanding, caring for
one another, and learning anew about each other. It doesn’t take a village, it
takes a family, and families are binding together out of necessity and love.
And finally, THE MOST IMPORTANT REASON I’M OPTIMISTIC ABOUT
THE FUTURE is that America has the most natural and other resources of any
nation on earth. We can produce enough of EVERYTHING to take care of
ourselves and help the rest of the world to boot. We have the smartest people.
We have a spirit of “can do” that is unparalleled on the planet. Many
nations think we’re brash, loud, obnoxious, overly proud and nationalistic and
hate us for our bad manners and profligacy. So be it. I’d rather live in the
United States than in any other country. We will not only get through this, but
emerge stronger than ever and once again, we’ll be the city set on a hill
letting our light so shine as to be a beacon of freedom and prosperity to the
entire world.
I’m a pragmatist, and I recognize the challenges that lie
ahead to recover from this mess. But I believe with every fiber of my being
that things are going to be better than ok, and sooner than the so-called
experts predict. I’m not suggesting we all go Hakuna Matata on this, but let’s
put things in perspective shall we?
May God continue to bless us. And may God continue to bless America.
In the coming months there’s going to be a lot of talk about
the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms, the NRA and “assault rifles”. The
limp-wristed Leftists who think a gun magazine is something you read will stomp
their feet and gnash their teeth crying “we have to get guns off the streets”
and “Republicans want guns so they can kill our kids” and similar nonsense.
The ignorance on the subject of guns is truly astounding. Hollywood
has had much to do with creating false perceptions, and hypocritical, power-hungry
politicians, many of whom have armed bodyguards, try to use this to their
advantage. It’s a subject that can and will be discussed far beyond this
election cycle, and there are so many facets to it, from the constitutional to
the economic, to the ethical and moral, to the pragmatic…this article is only a
tiny toe-in-the-water attempt to dispel some of the more glaring falsehoods and
mis-characterizations of both guns and gun owners that permeate the airwaves.
First of all, guns are only one means to either inflict
injury or death. In the hands of a determined killer a gun is actually one of
the least efficient ways of carrying out an evil act. A bomb or driving a car
into a crowd is far more deadly. Just ask Timothy McVeigh or Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
Similarly, guns are only one means of self-defense, but
they’re an equalizer. A trained, 115 pound gun- wielding mom defending her
children against a threatening 250 pound home invader has a far better chance
of protecting them with a gun than without one. Yes, locks, alarms, pepper
spray, a fireplace poker or baseball bat and “retreating to a safe place” are
all possible defensive alternatives, but they’re hardly as effective as a gun against
a perpetrator intent on harm.
The constant whining about “assault rifles” is sickening to responsible gun owners and enthusiasts. From Colorado Democrat Representative Diana DeGette’s idiotic statement that if there is a ban on magazines eventually the number of bullets would diminish “because the bullets will have been shot and there won’t be any more available,” to Nancy Pelosi’s bill to ban “assault magazines”, I could go on and on but I’ll simply point you to this article entitled “Top Ten Most Idiotic Anti-Gun Quotes from Politicians”.
For those of you who are NOT knowledgeable about guns, a
magazine is the part of the gun that holds the bullets or shells, and is
continuously re-used, so banning magazines doesn’t ban or reduce the number of
bullets! And, by the way, the difference between bullets and shells is the
difference between rifles and handguns and shotguns. Shotguns use shells, the
others, bullets. Magazines can hold either but each is specific to the precise
ammunition used!
Another common absurdity spewing from the mouths of Leftists
is the suggestion that the AR in AR-15 stands for “Assault Rifle”. In fact, it
stands for ArmaLite, the company that has been around since 1954 and that
designed all kinds of rifles, each named with the prefix AR.
An assault rifle is a weapon that is capable of ‘select’ or
in other words, fully-automatic fire…essentially, a machine gun. That’s what
the police and soldiers have hanging from the straps around their necks. The
Left would have you believe that ANY gun that looks scary, i.e. one that looks
like a military rifle such as the AR-15, or the most widely available gun type
in the world…the AK-47 and its variants, is an assault weapon. No! Fully-automatic, true assault rifles are
already illegal. The kind of AR-15 or AK-47 that can be bought and used
are semi-automatic. The difference is that pressing the trigger of a
real assault rifle when in fully-automatic mode will cause it to shoot bullets continuously
until the trigger is released. On a semi-automatic rifle such as the kind owned
by hundreds of thousands of gun-owners, the trigger must be pressed once for
each firing of a bullet. The infamous “bump stock” used by the Las
Vegas shooter was a device that allowed a semi-automatic rifle to simulate a
fully-automatic one, but such a device could be used on lots of different
semi-automatic rifles, including ones that don’t look scary!
Ironically, the M-1 Garand – the principal rifle used by the
U.S. military during World War II, seems to be ok with the Left because it
doesn’t look like scary but rather more like a classic hunting rifle. However,
just ask many a dead German or Japanese soldier whether they considered the M-1
to be an assault weapon!
The justification for owning an AR or AK style rifle should
not be, as some pro-gun advocates suggest, for hunting. Sure you can hunt with
one, and many do, but for pure hunting purposes, a specific hunting rifle like
the Winchester Model 70 with a scope on it will likely fill your freezer with
venison more efficiently than an AR-15.
No, the justification for owning an AR or AK
“assault-style” weapon is that they are dual-purpose – they are
effective both for hunting AND self-defense. As the Winchester Model ’94 (the
lever-action saddle “Gun that Won the West” featured in Western
movies) was the dual-purpose rifle of the late 1800 and early 1900’s, the AR-15
and AK-47 are the dual-purpose rifles of today. Can any of these be used in a
mass shooting incident? Yes, and so can a pressure-cooker bomb!
Under the heading PROPAGANDA, you may have seen a spot on television
from the Ad Council where a little boy talks to his dad about the handgun
hidden under the sweaters in the father’s closet. The clip is intended to shock
the viewer into thinking “Oh my God, the child has access to a handgun and
could do so much harm to himself or others! We simply have to ban guns.” What’s
so ridiculous about this portrayal is that no responsible gun owner leaves a
gun in a place accessible to children! And while there may be some
irresponsible gun owners who have an easily accessible loaded gun in the house,
they take other precautions, of which there are many, to ensure it doesn’t get
into the wrong hands.
But this is but one example of the ignorant bias of such
“public service” depictions. The barrage is continuous and serves no-one save
the felons who would like nothing more than the assurance that they won’t
encounter an armed citizen when they perpetrate their crimes.
I once sat at dinner with a conservative Englishman with
whom I agreed on just about every topic except guns. “How could you allow so
many guns in America and pass legislation supporting their ownership? That’s
absurd”, he said. In reply I calmly pointed out, “Let’s say we were
instantaneously able to get all 350 million plus guns in the hands of American residents
off the streets on a Monday. How many guns do you think there would be on the
streets by Friday, and in whose hands would they be?”
The suggestion that all guns are inherently dangerous is
analogous to saying that all cars are dangerous! It is a true statement,
irrespective of whether it’s uttered by the NRA or an individual gun-owner,
that the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. And
while rarely publicized, the number of times annually that guns in the hands of
responsible gun-owners have stopped crimes dwarfs the number of times guns are
actually used in the commission of a crime. What is never reported, because it
can’t be, is how many times the presence of a good guy with a gun DETERS a
crime, or the times a criminal abandons a crime and flees when confronted with
the barrel of a gun in the hands of a good guy.
In summary, it is absolutely true that “guns don’t kill
people, people do”. In the U.S. there are far more responsible gun owners
than criminals with guns, and that in and of itself deters many more crimes
than might otherwise occur.
So demagogue politicians can and will denounce guns, and
fracking, and cow farts and whatever else comes along that is the “cause du
jour”. Their stupid memes and crusades aren’t going to help anyone but
those who live off the grant money and donations of people trying to “feel
good” about “doing something”.
There, I feel slightly better now. Someday I’ll tell you how I really feel!
At last night’s Democrat debate schoolyard brawl/whine-fest, the unifying theme was, “Let’s bash millionaires and billionaires!” No, wait a minute…let’s just bash billionaires because everyone up there, perhaps with the exception of Boot Edge Edge, (although his CNN or MSNBC contract is waiting) is already a millionaire.
This is one of the big problems of the Democrats. SUCCESS
ENVY. Does anyone honestly think, if having invented a product or service that
makes a billion dollars, Klobuchar, Buttigieg or Sanders would say, “No, I’ve
made too much money?” The hypocrisy of the Left stinks to high heaven.
Hey, I’m envious of billionaires too. I wish I had invented
a better service than Quotron (the predecessor to the Bloomberg product/service)
and made billions. I’ll bet the “My Pillow” guy is doing ok too!
The problem with the Left is their envy has always
manifested itself in a Robin Hood complex. Unable to achieve success on their own,
they demand that those who have it give the fruits of that success to them.
They argue that those who succeeded either gamed the system somehow, or stepped
all over exploited workers, cheated, or were successful because the government was
responsible for that success (“You didn’t build that.” – Barack Obama).
It’s the winners against the losers. Irrespective of how the
billionaires made their money, let’s think through what would happen if Sanders
or Warren were elected and able to impose confiscatory taxes on people making,
I think one of the suggestions is, more than $600,000 per year.
The arithmetic is extremely simple and everyone
with half a brain already knows that even if you taxed ALL of that income at
100% there wouldn’t be enough money to fund the Democrat utopian dream list.
If you imposed those taxes, would the high
income earners put the same amount of money away in private equity, venture
capital, hedge or mutual funds, the pools of capital that fuel innovation, job
creation, and which indeed trickle down (sometimes flash flood down) to employees
thereby boosting the economy and growth in general? And what would that do to
the American Spirit and the American Dream? Would people still work hard to advance
their careers, think out of the box, invent new things, hire employees, shop
more at Saks or WalMart? Of course not. Their consumption and spending would
decrease as they would be deprived of the incentive to make more than the specified
threshold.
If you actually confiscate wealth as some
Leftists have suggested, i.e. say to the wealthy…”I’m going to demand you give us
X% of your 401(k) or stock portfolio or savings account so we can redistribute it
by providing healthcare or tuition free college for all” for example, how hard
will you want to work knowing you’ll be penalized if you’re actually
successful?
Look at those people on stage in South Carolina
last night. Even if you’re the most altruistic person in America, would you
really want ANY of them to decide how to redistribute and allocate the money
they’ve taken from you in taxes?
For further understanding of what
happens when Democrats take your money and redistribute it, you need look
no further than Obama’s 2012 $800 billion, “shovel ready projects”,
so-called “stimulus package”. Here’s the breakdown of how that our money was
spent:
First of all, it galls me that “Individual Tax Cuts” are
called “stimulus” at all. TAX CUTS ARE THE ABSENCE OF INCOME OR
WEALTH CONFISCATION, NOT GOVERNMENT SPENDING! (TAX REBATES, by the way,
are a RETURN OF YOUR OWN MONEY THAT THE GOVERNMENT PREVIOUSLY CONFISCATED) It’s
RELIEF, not STIMULUS. Are you stimulated by the act of a government bureaucrat taking
out the nail they drove into your forehead?
Same goes for Alternative Minimum Tax Relief, the second
item in the chart. It too was just the absence of additional taxation and had
nothing to do with “shovel ready projects”.
State Fiscal Relief wasn’t infrastructure spending either –
it was handouts to fiscally irresponsible states, particularly
Democrat-controlled states. As with “Aid to Directly Impacted Individuals”, it
trickled down only to the public sector unions to fund their entitlement (pensions
and healthcare) spending shortfalls and to shore up welfare spending as well.
The final category…Public Investment Outlays… paid for the
signs you saw on some of the highways and parkways around you. Did we really
see much of any benefit to our nation’s roads and railways from that $270
billion? No. And so only 1/3 of the so-called “Stimulus” went to “infrastructure
projects”. The rest went to reward favorite Democrat constituencies, i.e. into
the ether.
I used to think Liberals were altruistic. I’ve learned over
the years that their motivations are either the garnering of power for power’s
sake, or an unbounded arrogance that if they have power and control of our money,
they can make everybody happy. Both are evil because they deprive us of the
impetus to work hard and achieve success for ourselves, and by extension, our
families, communities and our country.
So do we really want Bernie Sanders, Elisabeth Warren, Joe Biden or any of the other megalomaniacal, power-famished hypocrites who were on that stage last night in charge of the government?
To Buffet and Gates’ credit, they’re working hard to give much of their wealth away and there are a lot of true needs and programs where philanthropy is the beginning of a solution. The various charities that build water purification plants in Africa such as “Action Against Hunger” or Doctors Without Borders are good examples, or here at home, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation or the Appalachia Service Project. Do you really want any of those Democrat candidates determining how money should be doled out for such projects? Not all, but the vast majority of Democrat controlled spending consists of handouts to “victims” who with hands out will vote to keep them in power.
I’d like to be a billionaire too. I wouldn’t buy a yacht. I
wouldn’t buy a bigger house. I would still insist that my kids and grandkids work
at McDonalds when they turn 16, or stock shelves as mine did. And I’d find
those meaningful charities that TRULY support the TRULY needy, or that promote
self-reliance, meritocracy, the production of goods and services that advance
the frontiers of science and health, human longevity, and natural resource
renewal and preservation (NOT ENVIRO-FASCISM BUT CLASSIC CONSERVATION).
Please let’s stop allowing the Left to serve as our nanny, putting
spoonful’s of pablum in and wiping the corners of our mouths while
congratulating themselves over champagne on how well they’re taking care of us.
Please America, just at the point where we’re starting to get back to basics,
let’s not empower demagogues such as we saw at the debate last night to spew
their utopian fantasies or, God forbid, enact more of their soul-crushing
plans.
I can think of no better word to describe the feeling I had
last night watching the Democrat debate. The spectacle gave whole new meaning
to the expression “circular firing squad”. What’s more, it highlighted,
again, the absurdity of the Democrats’ positions on just about everything.
Trying to focus on the issues at hand was darn near
impossible. It was a food fight extraordinaire…a stage where each tried to
out-perform the other. Bloomberg hid behind his lectern (.sic), and acted
small, arrogant, smug, and clueless and as he tried hard to stoically look
ahead while taking deserved incoming fire. Warren was her usual shrill,
unhinged self, screeching #metoo platitudes and demonstrating once again how poorly
an academic understands the real world. Sanders with his hand and arm gesticulations
continues to look like he might fly away, and while he’s authentic alright,
he’s authentically idiotic. Poor Joe Biden with his face lift and newly
whitened teeth tried his best to look energetic but appeared the geriatric
politician completely disconnected from today’s world, still stumbling and unable
to find the right words to insert in his sentences and pitching the “good
old days” when his boss was President – coattails on which Obama has made
him unwelcome. Pete Boot Edge Edge represented himself, and his whole
generation of snowflake millennial spoiled brats superbly, demonstrating his
glibness and immaturity at the same time. Finally, Amy Klobuchar, a U.S.
Senator believe it or not, looked completely outclassed, childishly defensive: “Are
you trying to say that I’m dumb? Or are you mocking me here, Pete?”
What a bunch of clowns!
But I flipped to the Phoenix rally that Trump was holding
court over and saw, regrettably, another jester’s performance. Trump really doesn’t
act like we should expect a President to act. He still acts like he’s running
The Apprentice. It’s embarrassing.
But here’s the kicker…Obama, with his nose in the air and
his imperious attitude, his eloquence and presence, was highly ‘presidential’,
and spent eight years fundamentally trying to transform America into some
two-bit foreign midget while Trump, with his bumbling act, is fundamentally
trying to save America from that fate. He may be the most inarticulate
President we’ve ever had, and contra-presidential in many ways, but his
intentions, his actions and his results have been spot on. I wish I could read
what historians will write about him 50 years from now.
If I were a Democrat candidate, and I really wanted to
defeat Trump in November, I’d embrace his nationalism, embrace his policies,
applaud and thank him for his efforts and suggest that with minor tweaks, the
path we’re on could be straightened and smoothed to accommodate the other half
of the country who want a more liberal or “progressive” (although I’d
avoid that term altogether because it’s a joke) approach. I’d adopt a
presidential diction, speech and demeanor and present a serious, no-nonsense
persona to contrast myself with Trump’s antics.
I’d still lose, of course, because more than 50% of the
population, irrespective of Trump, are happy with the Country’s direction and
are optimistic about where we’re going. But at least I’d have a chance to help
down ballot Democrats with their runs, and I might even have a respectable run
myself.
But the Democrats can’t help themselves. They’re so caught
up in hysterics, theatrics, hypocrisy, misandry (.sic), megalomania, and
victim-celebrating they’ve completely forgotten about the true majority: the
millions of Americans with their heads down working hard caring for themselves
and their families, supporting their friends and communities, productively
contributing to the growth and welfare of our entire Nation. The Democrats have
bought into the notion that the disadvantaged, the downtrodden, the tiny
minority of true victims should be helped no matter what the cost to the rest
of society or the nation.
When I was a kid we used to use the expression “My
heart bleeds purple peanut butter for you” when feigning sympathy for a
buddy who skinned his knee. I’m not so callous anymore, but I cannot support,
for example, crushing the agriculture industry in California by restricting
water flows thus jeopardizing farmers and crops and livestock production
because some whiny biologists are distraught that a tiny fish might go extinct
(I’m referring, of course, to the famous “snail darter” here.)
What about the vast MAJORITY? How about we celebrate the
WINNERS? How about we celebrate EXCEPTIONALISM? How about we celebrate
INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT? How about we reserve the use of NANNIES for our
toddlers instead of treating everyone as if we needed the government to serve
as one.
Trump may be crass, undignified, inarticulate and may appear
at times to be off his rocker, but he’s crazy like a fox in that, like Reagan (“just
a dumb actor from California” according to the Democrats), he loves this
country, he believes a rising tide lifts all boats, that growth (i.e. GROWING
the pie instead of trying to slice the pieces thinner and thinner) solves the
problems of the vast majority of our people and indeed, for the whole world.
The Democrats whine we’re destroying the planet. While that
is simply nonsense (see George Carlin’s famous routine about “Saving the Planet“),
my response to the unlikely possibility that mankind will use up ALL of the
Earth’s natural resources or somehow so upset Nature that we will all die of
carbon dioxide or monoxide poisoning, or that our orbit will decay such that we
fall into the Sun, is to go out and find ourselves another planet to live on
(which is exactly what we’re doing)!!!
Growth. Prosperity. Equal opportunity, not equal outcomes.
To each according to his MERIT, CONTRIBUTION and RESULTS, not his
“needs” is the answer. So long as the Democrats continue to whine and
stamp their feet, I’ll keep smiling as they seek to destroy one another.
I’ve written about this before, but it’s plain to see that two halves of our population can look at the exact same set of facts and firmly believe positions that are 180 degrees apart. But it is astounding that ANYONE in this country can look at the Democrats’ impeachment antics as credible, or the horrifying (to those of us with brains who are paying attention) stupidity coming out of the mouths of the Democrat candidates for President as believable, yet there are many, even if not 50% of the population, who do. THAT’s what’s scary about what we’re witnessing…that ostensibly ‘normal’ people could buy the nonsense the Left is peddling.
Don’t they get it? How is it that they can’t see how perniciously
calculating, conniving, dishonest and hypocritical the Left is?
I have a theory. It goes back to the basic principle that our perception is based on our experience (see my post (https://grumpsreport.com/?s=Briggs). In my opinion, the experiences of half the country have consisted of Leftist indoctrination, read brainwashing.
The Left is brilliant at manipulation, false-impression-creation,
misrepresentation, and above all, in knowing how to play on human emotions. They
cannot appeal to peoples’ left brains so they go after the right hemisphere and
heart strings. Play the right music in the background and a horror film becomes
a comedy. Set the lights just right and the ugly can appear beautiful. Put just
the right amount of quiver in your voice and twist the story line and you can
make anyone a victim. Celebrating losers and victims is their stock-in-trade.
Disagree with that and you’re a racist, bigot, heartless, entitled, privileged
old white person the product of a discriminatory society bent on crushing the less
fortunate.
Hollywood is of course the crucible in which all the leftist soup is created. The world’s greatest experts in deception and heart-string manipulation, Hollywood has fed generation after generation since the Greatest Generation with emotional drivel which, while entertaining, is taken as reality. It is THIS emotional drivel that has been the diet of those, in my opinion, who believe what the Left is saying and doing.
It’s no wonder therefore that the EXPERIENCE of half the country…the half that have swallowed the drivel with little to no critical thinking, are empty vessels into which the current Leftist nonsense can be easily poured. It fills their souls with emotional satisfaction to hear concepts like “Medicare for All” and Welcoming (i.e. ‘Open’) Borders. And it’s what allows them to believe the lies about children in cages and every other lie put forth by the Left.
It’s not FAKE NEWS, it’s blatant indoctrination, messaging with an agenda, subjective twisting of facts, figures, data to push a narrative that anyone with a functional LEFT brain sees as destructive to mankind and the world. The “Media” is just a court jester, pandering to whomever will buy their verbal diarrhea for the highest amount.
Follow the money. Always. The self-righteous and hyper-hypocritical
Left will do whatever maximizes the cash in their pockets, and the quickest way
to undeservedly do so is to amass and exercise POWER.
To be fair, there are plenty on the RIGHT who subscribe to
this strategy and who take advantage of it. But like so many other things, IT’S
A QUESTION OF DEGREE. The Left is guilty of lying, cheating, and
indiscriminately acting in ways that benefit themselves thousands of times more
frequently than the Right.
Not until the weak-minded and gullible face REAL reality ( I can’t believe I’ve had to use such a term ) or have their heart strings pulled by Goodness, Grace, God or the Holy Spirit, or whatever universal positive Force you subscribe to, or, alternatively, have an experience or experiences that wake them up to the real world, will they make their way back to the realm of the grounded human race with traditional values and practices, and will our Country revert to its position as Light Shining on the Hill.
Where to begin? The last couple of months has been marked by
a series of headlines that even Hollywood couldn’t invent. You’d have to be
living under a rock not to see or hear what’s been happening in the economy, politics,
society, media, technology, defense, even the environment.
In the economy. Forget the statistics – they’re useless in
depicting what’s really going on in your wallet. The old adage “Figures lie and
liars figure” has never been more true. Depending on how the pundits and
so-called “experts” spin them, the only thing that really matters is how we and
our families are doing. It’s a good time to ask the question, “Are you better
off now than you were three years ago?”
For the vast majority of Americans, the answer is an
unequivocal “Yes.” Rising wages, low inflation, increasing productivity,
greater convenience and utility provided in part by technology, in part by
innovation, systems and processes…all have improved our lives. The stock market
at all time highs doesn’t just impact the wealthy. It impacts everyone. Whether
or not you have an investment portfolio, economic GROWTH, which the stock
market reflects, increases demand for goods and services, including the things
made by the companies we work for and the services WE render. That all
translates to improvements in our lifestyle.
In politics. The cataclysmic impact of the 2016 election on
the status quo, what some call the “Deep State” or the legions of government
minions many of whom work hard but produce little of value, has slowed the
slide down the slippery slope the Left has had us on for so long. It is a long
slog back up, but the shrill, childish and petulant voice and actions of the
so-called but misnamed “progressives” have been fully exposed. The cancer has been
identified and bit by bit it is being eradicated such that the greatness and
“can do” spirit of America has begun to re-emerge.
In society. Some are content to let the next couple of
generations have the world they’re making. I am not. I believe it is still my
duty as a parent and as a concerned citizen to impart traditional values and
traditional norms to my children and grandchildren. Basics like manners, virtues
such as thrift and hard work, meritocracy, courage, self-reliance, communication
and interpersonal relation skills in the face of technological isolation (a
subject for another time), the importance of family, charity, trustworthiness,
and on and on. These are things that I’m afraid the next two generations don’t
fully understand, appreciate or possess as much as they should.
In media. As I have stated often, the impact of the
“one-to-many” amplification provided by the Internet has allowed the most
fringe-lunatic, caustic voices to reach and influence many. We used to say that
PowerPoint made everyone a graphic artist. Similarly, Social Media has made
everyone and anyone a journalist or pundit (present company included). The
firehose of data not all of which is actual information but all
of which is biased and deceptive in one form or another has created a distorted
reality…in fact, it has changed reality and societal norms, not always for the
better. Character assassination, taunting and hazing, for example, are
facilitated and empowered with the new media. And like the accident by the side
of the road, it is the macabre, shocking and emotion and nerve-tingling input
we receive that we pay the most attention to and are most influenced by. Never
has the need for critical thinking been greater. And never has it been found
more wanting.
In technology. Rapid advances in technology are proving to
be be both good and bad. This is a subject which we’ll touch on more and more
as robotics, artificial intelligence and quantum computing impact our society
and livelihood more and more, and at an accelerating rate. My wife received an
umbrella from the firm she works for recently. Nice umbrella, but would you
believe it came with an APP!!!! Yes, an umbrella with an App! For those of you
who are blissfully unaware of what an APP is…it’s just a software program dedicated
to doing a limited set of tasks on your desktop, laptop, tablet or phone like
report the weather or control your whole house! I mean really…an umbrella with
an APP???!!!!
In defense. Envy is one of the seven deadly sins for a
reason. It spawns evil leaders and causes even whole nations (or quasi-nations)
to seek power and dominance at the expense of others. Rodney King had it right
when he said, “Can we all get along?” The answer is “no”, not until a perfect, benevolent
leader (e.g. Jesus Christ) comes along who can inspire men with free will to
follow Him so as to eschew and eliminate evil. In the meantime, the United
States, despite all its imperfections, is still the best surrogate or
substitute because our form of government vests power (nominally) in the
people, i.e. spread across everyone rather than a single benevolent,
charismatic leader. Our constitutional republic or representative democracy has
been the greatest catalyst to human advancement in the history of the world,
despite its faults. It is not just worth defending…it MUST be defended against
those who seek to destroy it out of envy and a thirst for power. Wilsonian
appeasement of evil cannot and must not be tolerated. Might doesn’t make Right,
but adults (the U.S. at its best) must stop and modify the aberrant behavior of
petulant and in some cases violently misbehaving children (Iran, NOKO, Venezuela,
Russia, China). As arrogant as that sounds, it is, in my opinion, an apt characterization
of the current world stage and depiction of our responsibility as a nation.
In the environment. I’m not running for office so I’ll state
it plainly. Climate change is real – it changes all the time. And man has little
to nothing to do with it. The famous George Carlin routine says it best where
he humorously but acerbically rants at environmentalists while pointing out how
insignificant mankind is when compared to the history of the earth and
concludes, “The planet is fine. The people are f****d!” The wildfires in
Australia? No, not global warming…man-kindled by a bunch of malcontent Leftists
as it turns out. Bears floating on minuscule ice packs? Nonsense…they swam
several miles out there to hang out and fish! Follow the money! If there’s a
tree-hugging environmentalist/alarmist out there, there are grant dollars
nearby. “Please pass the offering plate…”
Are there Rightist sins? Of course! But in the grand scheme
of things, the principles of the Right are, in fact, RIGHT! Evil exists over
here as well – crony capitalism comes to mind. But for my money, Winston
Churchill was also right (.sic): “Democracy is the worst form of government except
for all those other forms which have been tried…” and by
extension…conservative/Right principles are the worst form of societal norms
except for all those other forms (socialism, communism, democratic socialism,
etc.) that have been tried.
And America still stands as the light shining on the hill.
God Bless Her! Happy New Year and Happy New Decade.
TODAY IS
Friday November 22, 2024
Quips & Quotes
January 2, 2024 "As we enter 2024, there is widespread public agreement about two things: (1) something big is about to happen, and (2) whatever that something is, it sure as hell won’t be pretty! While it may get pretty ugly pretty fast, though, there is an upside to what’s coming: as a country, we can finally pull this disgusting Band-Aid off, face reality for what it is, and stop pretending. However bad this year might prove to be, it might also be tremendously liberating.
Why? Because, one way or another, things will soon change. For too long, those who “run” America have had two things in common: (1) a hatred for individual freedoms, and (2) an even deeper hatred for the one country on the planet explicitly founded on their protection. As a national security surveillance State superseded the U.S. Constitution, leftists have controlled academia, journalism, the legal system, and entertainment. They have shoved anyone with a working brain out the door while assuring themselves that they deserve their privileged social positions and unearned accolades. They tell themselves that they are smart and enlightened, but anybody capable of self-examination knows this not to be true. Leftists are not happy people. They have not figured out any special meaning to life because, to them, life is meaningless. In other words, for too many years, a collection of the most depressed, least curious, morally relativistic, and intellectually homogenous people on the planet have been given pampered positions in exchange for acting as nihilistic and narcotic-dependent sea vessel captains willing to steer America into an iceberg of decline and failure." J.B. Shurk, American Thinker, January 2, 2024 "Do We Hit the Iceberg or Finally Change Course?"
November 3, 2023 "There’s a subtext to nearly all American political trends today. It’s hardly ever spoken about overtly and explicitly. But the topic is nonetheless always there. All insiders know about it. It’s also the central and critical debate concerning America’s future.
The question is as follows. Will the United States continue the present system whereby representative democracy persists as a mere veneer to keep the public distracted and defocused on the real rulers in the nation? Or will something dramatic be achieved whereby the swamp is truly drained, the administrative state gutted, the agencies disempowered, and we return to an actual constitutional system in which the people truly rule themselves through their elected representatives?
These are the two paths. It’s one or the other. They’re mutually incompatible." Jeffrey A. Tucker, November 3, 2023, Epoch Times, p A22, "Are You an Institutionalist or Anti-Institutionalist?"
October 30, 2023 "If you want an indicator of how lost Western civilization has become, go to your kids’ school and check their rules on fighting. Most likely, you’ll find out if two kids get into a fight, both get suspended, regardless of whether one was a punk bully who started it and the other was simply defending himself or some little kid. This is a moral disaster, of course – violence in the defense of what is right is a moral obligation and a symbol of a greater rot within society."
"The world's true nature is that good is forever pitted against evil."
"We must learn again to be ruthless in defeating our enemies. The big lie that Western civilization tells itself is that there are no real enemies, that there are no bad people – except the people of the West themselves, who bear some sort of original sin for not being corrupt and inept Third World barbarians."
"We have forgotten our strength and our courage. We have forgotten that we survive not through gentle hugging but through sword-swinging.The idea that Israel should somehow give these Hamas barbarians food, water, and electrical power even if it surrounds Gaza and prepares to attack is mind-boggling insanity. The moral illiteracy of expecting Israel to care more about the Palestinian people than other Palestinians do is simply bizarre."
"The hard truth is that the world contains bad people who must be crushed through ruthless violence, which shocks and horrifies modern sensibilities. But it is reality nonetheless. When people want to kill you, you are at a decision point. You can either let them kill you or stop them. But stopping them often involves aesthetically displeasing actions, such as blowing them into little bits with bombs or shoving a bayonet into their guts and watching them die in agony. And it necessarily means inflicting death and damage on the noncombatant camp followers around them. That’s why they say war is hell. And that’s why starting one is probably not a good idea. But when someone else starts one, you have to choose them or you. Someone’s going to die badly, and you know, I propose it is those other guys."
October 16, 2023 "Though around the world sociopaths stabbed some folks, the Day of Jihad fizzled in America – how many bummed patriots slammed in a mag hoping some mutant was going to choose his small town to prove Jason Aldean right? But it is only a matter of time. When you allow millions of military-aged males to come unvetted into your country, including many from bizarre hellholes where hatred for Americana is more common than food and indoor plumbing, there is a non-zero chance that some of them are part of sleeper cells waiting for the signal to murder Americans here at home." Kurt Schlichter, Town Hall, October 16, 2023, "We Are Sitting Ducks And Our Leaders Do Not Care"
August 22, 2023 "When arguing in federal court in HI in 2020, I had to get permission from the governor to enter his precious state to argue that his silly COVID lockdowns violated the Constitution. I lost. This same state, in real life, has shown how little respect for life its leaders really have. My perfectly healthy clients were not allowed to travel from one island to another to visit their own property. American citizens were turned away at the airport because they got the wrong COVID test on the mainland. The hotel gave me “parole” from the one way card key rule only to do my legal business and leave. I could not call an Uber or take a taxi at the airport. The National Guard met me at the gate to escort me to Hawaii COVID immigration to provide my information, which they verified with the hotel. I was to keep my phone on at all times so that they could track my location. This same police state didn’t turn the water on in Lahaina, didn’t have sirens, can’t begin to tell you how many children died from their incompetence. Or begin to explain it. Remember all this the next time you are asked to comply with farcical, unjust “laws” made by dictators. They are lying when their lips are moving about how much they care about you and your little life and your paper constitutional rights. Americans are beginning to realize how much we are on our own. Such a betrayal." Harmeet K. Dhillon, on "X", 8/22/23 12:44 AM
August 17, 2023 - A MUST READ!!!! The following is a transcription of Newt Gingrich's comments on Hannity last night. "“I think what you’re seeing tonight is one tree in a forest, and I think we are drifting towards the greatest Constitutional crisis since the 1850s, uh, and the rise of secession and the Civil War. I don’t mean that as hyperbole. Uh, if you read Andy McCarthy’s remarkable book, Ball of Collusion, which came out in 2019, he makes very clear that it is Barack Obama who corrupts the Justice Department, it is Hillary Clinton who routinely breaks the law and gets away with it. And now we have Joe Biden who’s learned, he’s learned from Obama that is doesn’t matter what you do, if you’re a liberal Democrat, you will not be prosecuted. He learned from Hillary that a person in high public office can get millions and millions of dollars. And they learned from watching Donald Trump that a true outsider, willing to take on the entire system, could destroy their entire machine. So what you’re seeing across the country, is a desperate, last-ditch effort by a corrupt machine to destroy their most dangerous opponent in a way which not only breaks the Constitution, destroys the rule of law, and establishes a moment of bitterness, uh, which I think will last for a generation or more. I think this is gonna be a horrendous period and we just need to understand: The people who want to control America and dictate to the rest of us will break any law, lie about any topic, and manipulate the system any way they can, and that includes a lot of the elite news media.”
August 10, 2023 "The fact that young men are getting more conservative is a cause for optimism. Remember, if you grew up male in the last ten years or so, every institution has been deployed against you. You’ve been told you are bad and horrible and evil and worthless. In contrast, every girl is an empowered girlboss ready to take her rightful place at the pinnacle of society. And to facilitate that, they must displace the dudes. And it’s no secret – that displacement, that consignment of men to second-class status, is not merely admitted but celebrated by our trash ruling class." Kurt Schlichter, August 10, 2023, Town Hall, "Angry Young Men Are Going To Disrupt The Garbage Paradigm"
Articles/Writings We Think Are A Must Read
Who Will Say No More to the Current Madness?
Once again, Victor Davis Hanson has nailed it. In his article there is a list of the most egregious crimes and failings of the Left and this Administration. Stronly urge readers to read the whole article. Here’s an excerpt of the most salient points:
“America is in existential danger.
The Biden administration has utterly destroyed the southern border — and immigration law with it.
Biden green lighted 7 million illegal aliens swarming into the U.S. without legal sanction or rudimentary audit.
China spies inside and over the U.S. with impunity. Beijing has never admitted to its responsibility for the gain-of-function COVID virus that killed a million Americans.
President Joe Biden printed $4 trillion at exactly the wrong time of soaring post-COVID consumer demand and supply shortages. No wonder he birthed the worst inflation in 40 years.
In response, interest rates tripled, gas prices doubled.
Our military is thousands of recruits short. It lacks sufficient munitions.
Following Biden’s humiliating pullout from Afghanistan, vast troves of arms were abandoned in Kabul. Billions more in scarce weapons were sent to Ukraine.
The Pentagon’s woke agenda trumps meritocracy in promotions and advancement.
Our enemies — Russia, China, Iran, North Korea — are on the move, while the U.S. seems listless.
The Biden renegade Department of Justice, CIA and FBI have become weaponized. Ideology, politics, and race — not the law — more often guide their investigations, intelligence operations and enforcement.
The downtowns of our once majestic major cities are becoming unlivable.
They are mired in refuse and trash, violent crime and homelessness. Stores and businesses leave. Millions each year flee the blue urban coasts to the red west and south.
To even say there are still two biological genders, that global warming may not be entirely manmade or necessarily destroying the planet, or that class, not race, is the proper barometer of inequality is to face ostracism and career cancellation.
The public assumes that Biden is severely cognitively challenged, likely corrupt, and a serial fabricator.
Most know what must be done, but few will tell the truth: Balance the budget. Return to legal only immigration. Restore a well-funded, but unwoke Pentagon.
Insist on racial unity. Curb the overweening administrative state. Enforce the rule of law.
Produce more gas and oil. Reestablish civic education. Insist universities protect free speech and due process — and stop proselytizing.
In other words, restore what until recently made America the strongest, most prosperous, and freest nation in the world. And quit undoing all the great good that eight generations of prior Americans bequeathed to us.”
Victor Davis Hanson saying it better than anyone. Perfectly describes the childish, impetuous behavior of the Left. A quick and incredibly accurate take on everything we see before our eyes.
An excerpt:
“Cry-baby tantrums won’t win over the public. These nonstop puerile meltdowns have turned off most Americans who tire of whiny narcissistic hypocrites.”
Strongly recommend the artful summary of what the Left is trying to do with the Disinformation Governance Board canard written by Michael Walsh in “The Pipeline”, May 2, 2022. You’ll find the whole article here. Some excerpts:
“So now the mask has dropped and, for the first time, the American people can see the modern Left in all its hateful, unadorned, vituperative, spiteful glory. Case in point: the announcement last week that the Department of Homeland Security—one of the excrescences of the Bush administration, cobbled together in its panic over 9/11—has created the “Disinformation Governance Board” in order to combat what it has, via its hitherto little-known Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, already dubbed “mis-, dis-, and mal-information.” Otherwise known as alternative points of view, but shut up, citizen.”
“Let us now remind ourselves of the late historian and Soviet scholar Robert Conquest’s third law of politics: “The simplest way to explain the behavior of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies.” At this point in American history, that is not only a theory but a fact. Having narrowly “won” the 2020 election by stealing it fair and square, the Left is putting pedal to the metal to accomplish as much of its anti-foundational agenda as it can before the clock runs out on its tiny congressional majorities this fall.”
On the Subject of “Things happening in the background to purge the illicit Biden administration“
The article in American Thinker by Dr. Brian Joondeph entitled: “Nothing Can Stop What is Coming. What if Nothing is Coming?” lays out the case for the increasingly skeptical that anything is going to halt the Leftist Leviathan. Strongly recommend this article not to throw cold water on all the hope so many of us have of there being some justice on the horizon, but to lay out the stark possibility that it’s all wishful thinking and we’re stuck with what we’ve got at least until January 2023.
On Climate Change Fraud
One of the best debunking articles/videos I’ve seen recently on the revolting fraud being perpetrated by the climate alarmists. In very calm, easy to understand terms the author shows how graphs and picking the right starting point for data visualization is being used to create the narrative that they rely on for their funding, their power, their nefarious attempts to alter society and our world. This same manipulation occurs with ALL kinds of data and the Left is expert in obscuring truth, altering perception and brainwashing a lazy, non-thinking mass of sheep to believe what they want them to believe. Strongly recommend watching this…12 minutes long and a must see!
Featured Friends
Straight Line Logic
Robert Gore’s blog. I put Gore up there with Victor Davis Hanson, Jordan Peterson and Thomas Sowell. His theses are chock full of substance.
The Burning Platform
Unabashedly conspiracy-theory driven, but thoughtfully so and well-written. Makes one think, “could this really be what’s happening?”
