Monday, November 30, 2020

Perspective on the Evangelical "Threat"

Those about to fire off emails with refresher courses on the history of European Jewry, please save your efforts. For more than a century now, attacks on Jews have predominantly emanated from secular fascists and leftists, Arab nationalists and Islamists -- not Christians spreading the good word. It is in secular France, where gruesome murders of Jews are now an annual event, that men can't wear yarmulkes in public. And, rest assured, it is not because of Mormon missionaries. An American Jew is far more likely to encounter anti-Semitism on progressive campuses than anywhere else in this country.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/11/20/convert_me_if_you_can_144698.html

Sunday, November 29, 2020

US Founded on ....

A useful review of the concepts that framed slavery in this country as it was born and grew from settlers to colonists to a nation, at about the same time that "civilization", for all of its many horrors, started to put its foot down to say human ownership is bad. Reading about the Comanche and the Navaho in the last few years, I was introduced to the ubiquity of slavery in pre-civilized humanity - it was a given. And, it might be regarded by some as a good thing, since those not enslaved were murdered. 

Civilization upped the ante by making it possible for tribes to profit by first capturing, then selling their competing tribesmen and women (and children). Fortunately for all of us, civilization also made the world a place of such profit and excess that it could afford to eliminate human ownership. 

https://thefederalist.com/2020/11/20/the-historical-record-shows-america-was-founded-against-racism-not-to-promote-it/

Saturday, November 28, 2020

Violation of Voting Laws

Some of the stats in the article make it clear how obvious the cheating was - nasty! It's bad enough that it's possible that they'll get away with it, but I see no political will to change the systems to make them trustworthy.

There's no way Biden's lap dog media will ask about any of this.

"But there was a much bigger story behind Lai’s article: Election officials clearly violated the law by inspecting mail-in ballots before November 3. According to Pennsylvania’s election rules, county election boards were required to “safely keep the ballots in sealed or locked containers” until pre-canvassing legally began at 7 a.m. on Election Day."

https://amgreatness.com/2020/11/22/something-rotten-in-pennsylvania/

Friday, November 27, 2020

Thank you Mr. Steele

 A writer I always look for, his stuff has a perspective like no other. 

This lack of victimization amounts to an “absence of malice” that profoundly threatens the victim-focused black identity. Who are we without the malice of racism? Can we be black without being victims? The great diminishment (not eradication) of racism since the ’60s means that our victim-focused identity has become an anachronism. Well suited for the past, it strains for relevance in the present.

Thus, for many blacks today—especially the young—there is a feeling of inauthenticity, that one is only thinly black because one isn’t racially persecuted. “Systemic racism” is a term that tries to recover authenticity for a less and less convincing black identity. This racism is really more compensatory than systemic. It was invented to make up for the increasing absence of the real thing.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-inauthenticity-behind-black-lives-matter-11606069287?mod=djemalertNEWS

Thursday, November 26, 2020

Thanksgiving 2020

 I spent Thanksgivings either in Florence or Demopolis, Alabama. We lived in Florence and had grandparents there. Demopolis held hunting camp with extended family, and family tradition that ran 50 years, and a huge feast with kid tables and all kinds of family stories.  

We were so white and professional and religious and polite and, at least for the kids, oblivious.

Most of my relatives were married and older and successful in their fields of work. Their professions were thinks like airline pilot, NASA engineer, accountant, doctor, civil engineer, lawyer and businessmen. I don't know that any of the spouses worked. Virtually all of the couples had children.

These were hard working people and very kind and mannerly. They could also hunt, fish, work a farm and had travelled the world. Many were veterans. They were what Brokaw called "the greatest generation", having lived through the world wars, the 1918 flu pandemic, the depression, the Korean war, Viet Nam, the 60s and the Cold War. They grieved the Kennedys and King, and saw the attempted assassinations of Wallace, Ford and Reagan. 

I don't know if they were democrats or republicans. Much more relevant was that some were Auburn fans. We didn't love those folks any less, though, and enjoyed playing poker with them (gentlemen's poker, nickel-dime-quarter, max of 3 raises per round of betting, nothing wild), getting them some branch water for the whiskey (I never saw one drunk until later when my granddad's alcoholism was beyond hiding), letting them tell us about squirrel hunting weapons, and having them set up shooting challenges after lunch at hunting camp. 

I recently acquired a 20 gauge double barrel shotgun. My uncle Ellery, WWII pilot and NASA engineer, of the even, confident temperament and always ready with a warm greeting and grin, used to hunt with a 20 gauge double. I asked once why he didn't get a 12 gauge - bigger must be better, right? His reply was polite and firm and he noted he didn't need a bigger shotgun for squirrel hunting, the 20 was plenty. He may have pointed out how the 20 was also lighter and more pleasant to carry in the field. He probably remembered when hunting for food meant using the least expensive ammo (shells for the 20 being cheaper than for a 12). I had forgotten that exchange until recently as I described why I purchased the 20 to my youngest son. I dismissed Uncle Ellery's logic outright all those years ago, since I didn't value light weight or "big enough" - I was a teenager, I wanted "more".  I used magnum 5 or 6 shot for my 12 gauge semi auto, (although I had plenty of luck shooting squirrels with a single barrel 20 until I was deemed big and responsible enough to handle the 12 gauge at age 12).  I'm looking forward to toting the 20 gauge double next year for squirrels or turkey or some such game, to complete the circle of Uncle Ellery's wisdom. 

I liked some more than others, of course, but they were all admirable men. I never saw them say an unkind thing to another person of any race, or treat a spouse with anything but kindness and respect. They tended to their kids, they loved their sick or healthy spouses and they acted interested in all us kids. I didn't have as much luck success find friends my own age back then, and their care and interaction was a gift. Of course, I found out later their struggles were hidden to me, and some were not as kind as they seemed. Nonetheless, the strong, kind, competent man, even tempered and hard working, was the vision of masculinity I grew up in.  

I didn't know how profound and lucky that experience was. No doubt, what I believed would be "the good life" was what I saw from my parents and grandparents and that was reflected by these men and their families. 

Those days are gone. Most of them are gone. I live 2000 miles to the north. I've grieved having lost touch with them, but that's what a US Navy career will do to a person (and knowing that, I delayed joining for as long as I could).

Today I am thankful for them, for that time, and for the gifts they gave that still benefit me today.


Sloppy Thieves?

An unprecedented number of mail-in and absentee ballots were cast this year, and practically everyone expected that this would result in a higher-than-usual rate of ballots being rejected for various flaws, such as lacking a secrecy envelope or missing information. In Pennsylvania, tens or hundreds of thousands of ballots were likely to be rejected, based on historical patterns. Instead, a mere 0.03 percent of mail-in ballots were ultimately rejected—somewhere in the neighborhood of about 1,000 votes.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_app/the-thieves-who-stole-our-election-got-sloppy_3592153.html?v=ul?utm_source=partner

Tuesday, November 24, 2020

Back to 2005

They called on states to increase voter ID requirements; to be leery of mail-in voting; to halt ballot harvesting; to maintain voter lists, in part to ensure dead people are promptly removed from them; to allow election observers to monitor ballot counting; and to make sure voting machines are working properly.

They also wanted the media to refrain from calling elections too early and from touting exit polls.

All of this may sound eerily similar to the issues in the prolonged presidential election battle of 2020. But these were among the 87 recommendations from the 2005 report of the bipartisan Commission on Federal Election Reform, known informally as the Carter-Baker Commission.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2020/11/20/7-ways-the-2005-carter-baker-report-could-have-averted-problems-with-2020-election/

Voting Sanity

 Back to paper? Sounds good to me unless the electronic systems would make it possible for me to see how my vote was tabulated. 

https://spectator.us/editorial-restoring-trust/

Monday, November 23, 2020

5-7 of these things are not like the others -

"Was this election stolen? Well, millions feel that way. The turnout numbers are odd in some states, like Wisconsin, which hit 89 percent. Now, is that figure impossible? No. Wall Street Journal’s Kimberley Strassel did the math, but it’s highly improbable given the turnout rates in the surrounding areas. It would require 900,000 people showing up for same-day registrations. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was blunter last Sunday, when he said, “I think he would have to do a lot to convince Republicans that this is anything except a left-wing power grab, financed by people like George Soros, deeply laid in at the local level, and, frankly, I think that it is a corrupt, stolen election.” He was commenting on Biden’s call for unity. Yet, he also gave a hat-tip to someone we have written about here: Democracy Institute’s Patrick Basham."

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2020/11/14/democracy-institute-pollster-yes-i-think-this-election-was-stolen-n2579970

Sunday, November 22, 2020

Paris Climate Accord and Other Foolish Bufoonery

"If power corrupts, as it is said, Americans are going to feel a jolt of degeneration when Joe Biden plugs back into the climate-change network. Rather than save the world from global warming, a President Biden would force Americans to spend more of their hard-earned dollars just to keep the wheels turning and the lights burning."

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/nov/12/editorial-a-return-to-the-paris-climate-accord-wou/

This is the kind of stupid that will define the JB tenure - shallow, pointless, symbolic and expensive. 

Right Place Right Time

 For 3 years wearing the badge, I wanted every day to be at the right place at the right time. This is a cool read. A few times I was. 

https://www.theepochtimes.com/right-place-right-time-georgia-motorcycle-cop-finds-choking-teen-performs-heimlich-saves-life_3577321.html

Attkisson's Hard to Find Fraud Stories and Links

Obviously, I'd rather have no president than to have Biden/Harris, so I'm still in the make believe land hoping what Trump's team is saying will be shown to be true in court. 

 https://sharylattkisson.com/2020/11/hard-to-find-2020-election-fraud-stories-and-links/

Saturday, November 21, 2020

Election Fornicatory Factors

"Before I became a novelist I was an accountant. In auditing you look for red flags. That’s weird bits in the data that suggest something shifty is going on. You flag those weird things so you can delve into them further. One flag doesn’t necessarily mean there’s fraud. Weird things happen. A few flags mean stupidity or dishonesty. But a giant pile of red flags means that there’s bad shit going on and people should be in jail."

https://monsterhunternation.com/2020/11/05/the-2020-election-fuckery-is-afoot/

Friday, November 20, 2020

"An Excellent President"

 My mom wrote a letter in which she informed me she was glad Biden won the election and that she was confident he would be an excellent president. 

And that surprised me.

How could anyone think the dude that:

-Has been at least low level corrupt for 47 years

-Has lied and lied and lied since he's been in office and most recently lied about his conflict of interest regarding his son's corrupt foreign business dealings

-Is about as deep as a piece of paper

-Never had an original thought

-Has believed every position he now disavows

-Is barely hanging on to sentience

Better than Trump? I can see lots of folks thinking that, Trump's polarizing to the say the least. 

But "an excellent president"? As I have so many times this year I wonder who changed the english language and when and why they were permitted to do so.

James Bond in the 2020 Election?



"It’s partly a matter of what I think of as the “Goldfinger principle,” after the avid gold smelter and nuclear weapons amateur Auric Goldfinger.

"Goldfinger was a sensitive man. He didn’t like it when people began looking into his business ventures with too much curiosity—largely, no doubt, because many were ostentatiously illegal and, in some cases, evidence of grandiose homicidal insanity.

"Nevertheless, his response to the repeated unscheduled appearance of James Bond in his life prompted him to make the eminently rational observation that “Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time, it’s enemy action.”"

https://www.theepochtimes.com/the-appearance-of-impropriety-dogs-this-election_3581707.html?utm_source=partner

That There Is Peculiar

 https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16770/stolen-election

41 Mag Nostalgia

 Lots of details that support why I have two 41 Mags but no 44 Mag. Fun read.

I read an article in 77 in Shooting Times from Skeeter Skelton making the case for the 41 Mag. That was about the time that Col Jeff Cooper began to advocate for the 10mm. 

I've yet to take deer with the 41 - but there's still time!

https://www.americanhunter.org/articles/2020/8/13/an-ode-to-the-41-remington-magnum