Why Biden Wants SCOTUS To Rule Agains Rahimi

I’m going to start this off by saying what we almost have to say when talking about the Rahimi case, that the plaintiff in this case is not a good person. By all indications, he’s a terrible human being and not someone I’d want as part of my life.

But, our rights don’t exist only for those we approve of. They have to be protected for everyone, regardless of whether they’re a good person or not.

And Zachey Rahimi is such a person.

Now, his case is going to the Supreme Court, and a lot of people are blatantly misrepresenting it. They’re saying it’s about keeping domestic abusers disarmed, all while ignoring that the case doesn’t try to take on laws that rule those convicted of such offenses are prohibited from owning guns.

Because Rahimi wasn’t convicted of any such thing when he was charged with illegally possessing a gun. He just had a restraining order against him.

Over at The Federalist, John Lott gets into the real reason the Biden administration is fighting this so hard.

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It bears repeating that my first squad leader was a font of practical wisdom, usually doled out in pithy maxims. One I already knew, but liked how he put it was:
“I’ve found that experience is the best teacher, and the best experience is someone else’s as it’s usually less expensive and less painful.”
A word to the wise should be sufficient

What we Should Learn from the Attack on Israel

Terrorists attacked innocent victims in Israel. This is a war of ethnic cleansing. The victims were chosen precisely for their innocence. The murdering terrorists sought out the vulnerable and the harmless. This attack was a show of force, a show of violence, and a show of brutality. It was Hamas and their Iranian enablers saying that they are willing to be barbarians. They wanted other nations to hold them in awe. I don’t think it will work out that way. An Israeli politician said you can’t negotiate peace with someone who has come to kill you. Here in the United States, there are things we can learn from both the Israeli civilians and from the Israeli government.

We watched over a thousand of Israelis die at the hands of armed terrorists. Many more were wounded. Women and children were murdered or kidnapped. Those are exactly the results you would expect. The point is not that the attackers were some type of super-warriors. Those are simply the results that any trained combatant would expect when disarmed victims face armed attackers. It didn’t need to unfold that way.

Let me resize the attack so US readers have a sense of proportion. Keeping the percentages the same and with its larger population, this attack would have killed almost 60-thousand US citizens. That is about twenty times the number of people who were killed at Pearl Harbor in 1941, or during the attack on September 11th in 2001.

Where Israelis were armed and on alert, they defended themselves very well. Examples include Kibbutz  Nir Am and Kibbutz Mefalsim. There we also saw the sort of results we expected. Attackers need to outnumber defenders by a ratio of over six-to-one in order to advance. The terrorists did not bring that number of attackers to bear so the defenders prevailed.

In the United States of America, I noticed that another million of us went out to buy guns and ammunition in the week after the attack. Most of these were first time gun buyers. Again, ordinary citizens like us came to some far-reaching conclusions. They recognized that the world is not safe. People who look just like them are capable of horrific acts of violence. Law enforcement and other government authorities will only arrive long after the attack is over. Far from being conclusions drawn from worse case estimates, I think those conclusions are simply a sober evaluation of the truth.

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Middle class America is no less violent than any other people.
They seem passive because they’re results oriented. They rise not out of blood frenzy but to solve the otherwise insoluble.
Their methods of choice are good will, cooperation, forbearance, negotiation and finally, appeasement, roughly in that order.
Only when these fail to end the abuse do they revert to blowback. And they do so irretrievably.
Once the course is set and the outcome defined, doubt is put aside.
The middle class is known, condemned actually, for carrying out violence with the efficiency of an industrial project where bloody destruction at any scale is not only in play, it’s a metric.
Remorse is left for the next generation, they’ll have the leisure for it.
We’d like to believe this is merely dark speculation. History says it isn’t.
-‘ol Remus

October 23

4004 BC, 1800 hours Coordinated Universal Time– The Earth is created according to calculations of Irish Archbishop James Ussher in 1650

42 BC – Marcus Junius Brutus, one of the assassins of Julius Caesar, commits suicide instead of being captured after his army is defeated by that of Octavian and Mark Antony near Philippi in Macedonia.

1086 – During the Spanish Reconquista the Almoravid army of Yusuf ibn Tashfin defeats the Castilians of Alfonso VI, at Sagrajas, but are unable to take advantage of their victory.

1850 – The first National Women’s Rights Convention begins in Worcester, Massachusetts.

1864 – During the Civil War, the Battle of Westport in what is now Kansas City, is the last significant engagement west of the Mississippi River.

1911 – The first use of an airplane in combat occurs when an Italian pilot makes a reconnaissance flight during the Italo-Turkish War.

1912 – During the First Balkan War, Serbian forces engage and are victorious over the  Ottomans in battle near Kumanovo in the Kosovo Vilayet.

1942 – On Guadalcanal, Japanese forces begin what will turn out to be their last major offensive action to retake Henderson Field from American forces.

1944 – During World War II, in Leyte Gulf of the Philippines, the U.S. submarines USS Darter and USS Dace sight and attack a large Japanese naval force as it passes Palawan island to attack the U.S. landings on Leyte island.

1965 – During the Vietnam War, the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), combined with forces of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, launch an operation to destroy Communist forces besieging Special Forces Camp Plei Me, 25 miles south of Pleiku, under command of Colonel Charles Beckwith.

1970 – Gary Gabelich sets a land speed record of just over 622 miles per hour, driving the rocket powered Blue Flame automobile on the Bonneville Salt Flats.

1973 – President Nixon agrees to turn over subpoenaed audio tapes of his Oval Office conversations.

1982 – In Miracle Valley Arizona, a gunfight breaks out in the early morning between members of Christ Miracle Healing Church and Cochise County Deputy Sheriffs who had arrived the previous evening to arrest several church members, leaving 2 church members dead and many on both sides wounded.

1983 – In Beirut Lebanon, the building used as barracks by U.S. Marines is hit by a truck bomb, killing 241 Marines. A French army barracks in Lebanon is also hit that same morning, killing 58.

1989 – An explosion at the Houston Chemical Complex in Pasadena, Texas, powerful enough to which register a 3.5 on the Richter magnitude scale, kills 23 people and injures 314 more.

1998 – At the Aspen Institute Wye River Conference Centers, Wye Mills, Maryland, Benjamin Netanyahu and Yasser Arafat negotiate an agreement to resume the implementation of the Oslo II Accord, the 1995 Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

2001 – Apple Computer releases the iPod

2015 – The lowest sea level pressure in the Western Hemisphere, 25.75 inches Hg, and the highest reliably measured non-tornadic sustained wind speed of 215 mph, are recorded in Hurricane Patricia, which strikes Mexico hours later, killing at least 13 people and causing over $280 million in damages.

Will We Survive the Next Intelligence Failure?

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Richard Fernandez

Future economists will ask why land conflicts in MENA [Middle East North Africa] could not be settled by negotiation. The Coase Theorem states that under ideal conditions, parties can negotiate terms that accurately reflect the full costs and underlying values, resulting in the most efficient outcome.
But in a multi-religions region without a consensus on right and wrong and without clear standards of evidence, territorial disputes cannot easily be argued according to accepted law or facts. The historical remedy in such doubtful cases was “trial by combat”.
“Trial by combat (also wager of battle, trial by battle or judicial duel) was a method of Germanic law to settle accusations in the absence of witnesses or a confession in which two parties in dispute fought in single combat; the winner of the fight was proclaimed to be right.”
In cases where the court could not decide who was right, the contending parties could fight it out, in the belief that if no man knew who was innocent, God or the fortunes of war would decide. In way, war is trial by combat when the international order cannot enforce a decision.
MacArthur’s Japanese surrender speech: “We are gathered … to conclude a solemn agreement whereby Peace may be restored. The issues, involving divergent ideals and ideologies, have been determined on the battle fields of the world and hence are not for our discussion or debate.”
Because international diplomacy failed Israel and its enemies are resorting to war, to trial by combat, to settle the issue. This, alas, is how much of the world’s boundaries were drawn throughout history and we are no nearer replacing it than our caveman ancestors.

Oregon removes writing, reading, and math mastery from high school graduation requirements

The Oregon State Board of Education unanimously voted on Thursday to remove proof of mastery in reading, writing, and math in order to graduate from high school until 2029.

The board argued that requiring all students to pass one of several standardized tests or to create an in-depth assignment their teacher judged as meeting state standards was a harmful hurdle for students of color, disabled students, or those learning English as a second language. The standardized tests will still be given but will not play a role in determining whether students receive their diplomas.

“We haven’t suspended any sort of assessments,” state board member Vicky Lopez Sanchez said during the board meeting. “The only thing we are suspending is the inappropriate use of how those assessments were being used. I think that really is in the best interest of Oregon students.”

Opponents of the new order argued that removing the requirement devalues an Oregon diploma. The opponents argued that helping students with low academic skills through extra instruction in writing and math has helped them. However, supporters claim that forcing students to spend extra time on schoolwork eliminates their opportunity to take an elective and does not translate to how they perform after graduation.

“We are unable to ethically make a different decision at this point. It is also unethical for us to continue to require this when we know it can continue to cause harm and has had no change in how students are performing,” Board of Education Chairwoman Guadalupe Martinez Zapata told ABC’s KATU-2.

Hundreds of state residents have filed public comments on the subject, and most are in favor of keeping the requirements. But mastery is not the only graduation requirement. Students also need to earn a certain amount of credits and create an education plan that helps them achieve their goals after high school.

The pause was initiated during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when schools across the country were forced to shut down

Repost- How Armed Israelis Stopped Terrorists

I may not know a lot, but I know when to ask someone with more experience. I read reports of armed Israeli citizens stopping the Hamas terrorists who attacked their kibbutz. There are important differences between a deliberate terrorist attack and the armed defense that happens every day in the US. I asked Ben Branum for his opinion on these events. Ben is a marine, a civilian contractor for the military, an instructor in church security, and a civilian firearm instructor. We talked for about an hour about the recent attack on the kibbutz Nir Am.

Give us a listen on Ben’s site, Modern Self Protection Podcast or listen to the mp3 from Libsyn.

Here is a second report (an archive version outside the paywall) about an attack at a slightly larger kibbutz, Mefalsim.

The Last Three Years Prove We Need The Second Amendment More Than Ever

Guns can save your life and your livelihood but only if your right to own them hasn’t been taken from you.

The right to keep and bear arms has long been under attack but now, as violent crime, international terrorism, and grave abuses of government power abound, Americans need the Second Amendment more than ever.

A majority of Americans say they already own or want to own guns in the future. Nearly three-fourths of gun owners polled cited protection as a major reason for retaining their firearms.

For anyone paying attention to the rapid erosion of Americans’ civil liberties over the last few years, pro-Second Amendment sentiments like this shouldn’t come as a surprise.

In 2020, during the height of government-mandated lockdowns, Americans were sentenced to their homes with court-ordered ankle monitors, dragged off of public buses for refusing to wear a mask, and fired from their jobs over a shot that didn’t even do what the government said it would.

Around that same time, crime spiked and race rioters in cities all across the nation dealt billions of dollars worth of damage to civilian and government buildings alike.

Americans were confronted by violent crowds on their streets, at their businesses, and even on their front lawns. The chaos quickly turned deadly but that didn’t stop leftists from pushing a national campaign to defund the armed law enforcement sworn to protect civilians.

The crime problem was only exacerbated when Democrat mayors and district attorneys committed to releasing violent criminals back into the streets in the name of “equity.” Their soft-on-crime policies are almost exclusively responsible for the murder rates in the nation’s top 10 most homicidal states.

Those numbers aren’t helped by the millions of people, including convicted criminals and potential terrorists, who began pouring freely across our open Southern border the moment President Joe Biden took office.

In the last few weeks alone, Americans learned that the FBI targets Trump voters as domestic extremists, judges will gladly overstep their bounds to dictate Americans’ right to free speech, and a former first lady and failed presidential candidate can make public calls for re-education programs for conservatives without scrutiny from her party or the press.

They also learned in the wake of the massacre in Israel that strict gun laws make people vulnerable to surprise attacks that not even trained military can quell quickly enough.

It’s a tough pill to swallow but one that everyone should be thinking about as pro-terrorist, antisemitic, anti-American sentiments brood at home and abroad.

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October 22

451 – The Chalcedonian Creed, a further refinement of the original Nicene Creed of 325 A.D.  that defines that Christ is acknowledged in two natures, truly God and truly Man, which come together into one person and one hypostasis, is adopted by the 4th ecumenical council held at Chalcedon in what is now modern western Turkey.

1746 – The College of New Jersey, later renamed Princeton University,  is chartered

1777 – During the Revolutionary War, American defenders of Fort Mercer  on the left, New Jersey side, of the Delaware River just south of Philadelphia, repulse several attacks by Hessian mercenary forces, delaying British plans to consolidate gains in Philadelphia, and relieving pressure on General Washington’s forces to the north of the city.

1784 – Russia founds a colony on Kodiak Island, Alaska.

1836 – Sam Houston is inaugurated as the first President of the Republic of Texas.

1879 – Using a filament of carbonized thread, Thomas Edison tests the first practical electric incandescent light bulb with it lasting over 13 hours before burning out.

1883 – The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City opens with a performance of Gounod’s Faust.

1884 – The International Meridian Conference designates the Royal Observatory, Greenwich as the world’s prime meridian.

1907 – A run on the stock of the Knickerbocker Trust Company sets events in motion that will spark the financial Panic of 1907.

1934 – Charles ‘Pretty Boy’ Floyd is shot and killed by FBI agents led by Melvin Purvis in a corn field in East Liverpool, Ohio

1962 – President Kennedy announces to the public that American reconnaissance planes have discovered Soviet nuclear weapons in Cuba, and that he has ordered a naval quarantine of the island.

1981 – The United States Federal Labor Relations Authority votes to decertify the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) for its strike the previous August.

1983 – Two correctional officers are killed by inmates at the United States Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois. The incident inspires the Supermax model of prisons.

2012 – Cyclist Lance Armstrong is formally stripped of his 7 Tour de France titles after being charged for doping.

2015 – During hostage rescue operations near Hawijah, Iraq, in which then U.S. Army Sergeant First Class Thomas Payne, for his actions, becomes the first living member of 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment- Delta, to be awarded the Medal of Honor; U.S. Army Master Sergeant Joshua Wheeler, also a Delta Operator, is killed in action and is posthumously awarded the Silver Star for gallantry in action and later, as a member of the Cherokee Nation, awarded its Medal of Patriotism.

You simply can not make up such a lie as this bureaucrap’s affidavit.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN GUN OWNERS, V. THE TOWN OF SUPERIOR Yurgealitis Report

I kid you not:

1) “Assault weapons” are too complicated to use in self-defense because you may have to use a charging handle, turn off the safety, and load a magazine
2) AR-15s are too heavy and require two hands, which is why he recommends people use a pump-action 12-gauge shotgun with buckshot instead
3) You should store your shotgun with the internal magazine loaded
4) You should use a revolver with hollow-point bullets instead of a semi-auto pistol for self-defense because “there are no complicated safety mechanisms” and speed loaders are easy to use
5) AR-15s are just as lethal as full-auto M-16s

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