Next Gun Control Fight Likely to Target Ammo

Over the weekend the New York Times ran a lengthy story on the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant and its role in producing ammunition for the civilian market in addition to the U.S. military. The Times report explicitly tied ammo produced at Lake City to mass shootings, with the paper reporting that Lake City ammunition has been “bought by murderers, antigovernment groups, and others.”

Not just to complain about, but potentially to legislate or regulate as well. I’ve been covering 2A issues long enough to recognize the pattern here; a major media outlet “uncovers” something it portrays as a problem, and then anti-gun politicians and gun control groups start demanding action be taken. The New York Times report itself doesn’t contain too many comments from anti-2A activists, but it doesn’t need to. That’s what follow up stories are for. Instead, the purpose of the initial report is to establish some reason to be concerned; in this case, the presence of Lake City-produced ammunition turning up at crime scenes.

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November 13

1775 – During the American invasion of Quebec during the Revolutionary War,  forces under Gen. Richard Montgomery occupy Montreal without firing a shot.

1851 – The Denny Party of pioneers lands at Alki Point, before moving to the other side of Elliott Bay to what would become Seattle.

1918 – Just days after the Armistice, Allied troops occupy Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire.

1922 – In the case of Zucht v. King, the Supreme Court upholds mandatory vaccinations for public school students.

1927 – The Holland Tunnel opens to traffic as the first Hudson River vehicle tunnel linking New Jersey to New York City.

1940 – Walt Disney’s animated musical film Fantasia is released at New York’s Broadway Theatre

1942 – During World War II, in battle between U.S. and Japanese ships off Savo island in the Solomons, the Japanese lose 1 battleship and 2 destroyers sunk with the U.S. losing 2 cruisers and 4 destroyers sunk

1947 – Russian soldier Mikhail Kalashnikov submits his perfected prototype assault rifle, designated Автомáт Калáшникова Oбразец 1947 –
Avtomat Kalashnikova Obrazets 1947 – for adoption by Soviet armed forces.

1950 – General Carlos Delgado Chalbaud, President of Venezuela, is assassinated in Caracas.

1956 – In the case of Browder v. Gayle, the Supreme Court declares Alabama laws requiring segregated buses unconstitutional, thus ending the Montgomery bus boycott.

1982 – The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C.

1985 – The volcano Nevado del Ruiz erupts and melts a glacier, causing a volcanic lahar mudslide, burying the town of Armero, Colombia, killing approximately 23,000 people.

1995 – A group called the Islamic Movement for Change detonates a truck bomb outside of a US operated Saudi Arabian National Guard training center in Riyadh, killing 5 Americans, 2 Indians. and injuring 60 more.

2001 – President Bush signs an executive order allowing military tribunals against foreigners suspected of connections to terrorist acts or planned acts on the United States.

2013 – The 78 story 4 World Trade Center officially opens, replacing a 9 story building damaged during the 9/11 attack and later razed.

2015 – Islamic State terrorists carry out a series of coordinated attacks in Paris, including suicide bombings, mass shootings at several restaurants and the Batalclan theater and a hostage crisis, killing 130 people and wounding over 400 more.

Media in Panic Mode Over Questions About Whether They Knew in Advance About Hamas Attack on Israel

On October 7, four photojournalists who provide reporting and photos for the likes of the Associated Press (AP), CNN, the New York Times, Reuters, and other outlets were allegedly at the Israeli border with Hamas terrorists who committed acts of atrocities against innocent Israeli civilians that shocked the world. Since an Israel-supporting news watchdog website reported the claim, everyone wants to know if these Gaza-based reporters knew in advance about the attack and, more importantly, if they could have saved lives by alerting the world about it. The question arises: Did the AP, CNN, the New York Times, and Reuters know about the Hamas terror attack in advance? 

The allegations have sent major media into panic mode and generated even more mistrust in the corporate press.

The website HonestReporting, which chronicles coverage of Israel by an increasingly one-sided press to contrast the “Pallywood” and crisis actor coverage by Hamas and its agents, asks: “Is it conceivable to assume that ‘journalists’ just happened to appear early in the morning at the border without prior coordination with the terrorists? Or were they part of the plan?” 

Hamas terrorists paraglided and drove into the civilian populations that day and committed acts of horrific brutality. They wanted their murders and acts of terror chronicled for the world, which is why they wore GoPro cameras and apparently arranged for these traditional media photographers to go in with them.

HonestReporting reported that “four names appear on AP’s photo credits from the Israel-Gaza border area on October 7: Hassan Eslaiah, Yousef Masoud, Ali Mahmud, and Hatem Ali.” The news watchdog took a close look at Elsaiah, a “freelancer who also works for CNN, crossed into Israel, took photos of a burning Israeli tank, and then captured infiltrators entering Kibbutz Kfar Azza.”

Elsaiah “did not wear a press vest or a helmet,” the website reported. He posted a video of himself on Twitter/X saying that “everyone who were inside this tank were kidnapped, everyone who were inside the tank were kidnapped a short while ago by al-Qassam Brigades [Hamas’ armed wing], as we have seen with our own eyes.”

The website later featured an older photo of Elsaiah with the Hamas leader who planned the attack.

In war reporting, journalists are often given a heads-up and allowed to chronicle American troops heading into battle, for example. But this wasn’t an act of war — it was terror. It was murder for murder’s sake. There hadn’t been an Israeli offensive to which the Gaza terror organization was responding. Indeed, if Hamas had been wearing uniforms and acting as an “army” they would be accused of war crimes. As it is, they’re accused of crimes against humanity.

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Five US Service Members Dead After Military Aircraft Crash Over Mediterranean Sea

Although the United States has not formally entered the Israel-Hamas war, America nevertheless suffered our first casualties related to the conflict Saturday when five servicemembers perished in an aircraft crash over the eastern Mediterranean Sea during a routine training mission.

All five are presumed dead:

U.S. European Command (EUCOM) said the aircraft “suffered a mishap” and crashed into the sea during a routine air refueling mission. Search and rescue efforts began immediately, including nearby U.S. military aircraft and ships. All five service members on board the aircraft were determined to have died.

An investigation into the crash is underway, though military officials have said that there are no indications of any hostile activity involved.

The president weighed in:

“Our nation shares their grief,” Biden said of the family members of the fallen. “Our service members put their lives on the line for our country every day. They willingly take risks to keep the American people safe and secure. And their daily bravery and selflessness is an enduring testament to what is best in our nation.”

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said officials were still investigating the cause of the crash:

“While we continue to gather more information about this deadly crash, it is another stark reminder that the brave men and women who defend our great nation put their lives on the line each and every day to keep our country safe,” the statement said. “They represent the best of America. We will remember their service and their sacrifice.”

Although it’s unclear which military service the aircraft belonged to, the U.S. recently sent two aircraft carriers, the USS Gerald R. Ford and the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, to the region as the war in the Middle East intensifies.

The identities of the five have not yet been released:

European Command said that out of respect for the families of the service members and in line with Department of Defense policy, the identities of the crew members are being withheld for 24 hours until the families of those killed have been notified.

EUCOM is responsible for U.S. military operations across Europe, portions of Asia and the Middle East, the Arctic, and the Atlantic Ocean:

The United States European Command is one of the eleven unified combatant commands of the United States military, headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany. Its area of focus covers 21,000,000 square miles and 51 countries and territories, including Europe, The Caucasus, Russia and Greenland.

November 12

1330 – Near Posada, in modern Romania, the much smaller 7000 man army of Wallachian Warlord Basarab, ambushes and defeats the 30,000 man Hungarian army  of King Charles I, maintaining the independence of the principality from Hungarian domination.

1892 – Pudge Heffelfinger becomes the first professional American football player on record, participating in his first paid game for the Allegheny Athletic Association.

1912 – During the First Balkan War, King George I of Greece makes a triumphal entry into Thessaloniki after its liberation from 482 years of Ottoman rule.

1927 – Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, leaving Joseph Stalin in undisputed control of the Soviet Union.

1928 – The Lamport and Holt Line’s SS Vestris sinks in heavy weather approximately 200 miles off Hampton Roads, Virginia, killing at least 110 passengers, mostly women and children who die after the vessel is abandoned.

1933 – Nazi Germany withdraws its membership from the League of Nations.

1936 – The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge opens to traffic.

1938 – Within days after Kristallnacht, Nazi Germany issues the Decree on the Elimination of Jews from Economic Life prohibiting Jews from selling goods and services or working in a trade, totally segregating Jews from the German economy.

1942 – The 3rd and 4th Battles of Savo Island between Japanese and American naval forces, begin off Guadalcanal.

1948 – In Tokyo, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East sentences 7 Japanese military and government officials, including General Hideki Tojo, to death for their roles in commiting War Crimes during World War II.

1954 – Ellis Island ceases immigrant inprocessing operations.

1958 – A team of rock climbers led by Warren Harding completes the first ascent of ‘The Nose’ on El Capitan in Yosemite Valley.

1979 – In response to the hostage situation in Tehran, President Carter orders a halt to all petroleum imports into the United States from Iran.

1981 – Space Shuttle Columbia, launched on Shuttle Mission STS-2 marks the first time a manned spacecraft is launched into space twice.

1990 – Tim Berners-Lee publishes a formal proposal for the World Wide Web.

1997 – Ramzi Yousef is found guilty of masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and sentenced to 2 life terms plus 240 years in federal prison.

2001 – American Airlines Flight 587, an Airbus A300, enroute to the Dominican Republic, crashes minutes after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport, killing all 260 passengers and crew aboard and another 5 people on the ground.

2008 – A treacherous Iraqi soldier is killed after assassinating U.S. Army Sergeant Jose Regalado and Specialist Corey Shea in Mosul, Iraq

2011 – A explosion of mysterious origin at Bidganeh arsenal in Iran’s Shahid Modarres missile base kills 17 Revolutionary Guards and the chief of its missile program.

2021 – The Los Angeles Superior Court formally ends the 14 year long conservatorship to pop singer Britney Spears.

Why I Am Now a Christian

In 2002, I discovered a 1927 lecture by Bertrand Russell entitled “Why I am Not a Christian”. It did not cross my mind, as I read it, that one day, nearly a century after he delivered it to the South London branch of the National Secular Society, I would be compelled to write an essay with precisely the opposite title.

The year before, I had publicly condemned the terrorist attacks of the 19 men who had hijacked passenger jets and crashed them into the twin towers in New York. They had done it in the name of my religion, Islam. I was a Muslim then, although not a practicing one. If I truly condemned their actions, then where did that leave me? The underlying principle that justified the attacks was religious, after all: the idea of Jihad or Holy War against the infidels. Was it possible for me, as for many members of the Muslim community, simply to distance myself from the action and its horrific results?

At the time, there were many eminent leaders in the West — politicians, scholars, journalists, and other experts — who insisted that the terrorists were motivated by reasons other than the ones they and their leader Osama Bin Laden had articulated so clearly. So Islam had an alibi.

This excuse-making was not only condescending towards Muslims. It also gave many Westerners a chance to retreat into denial. Blaming the errors of US foreign policy was easier than contemplating the possibility that we were confronted with a religious war. We have seen a similar tendency in the past five weeks, as millions of people sympathetic to the plight of Gazans seek to rationalize the October 7 terrorist attacks as a justified response to the policies of the Israeli government.

When I read Russell’s lecture, I found my cognitive dissonance easing. It was a relief to adopt an attitude of scepticism towards religious doctrine, discard my faith in God and declare that no such entity existed. Best of all, I could reject the existence of hell and the danger of everlasting punishment.

Russell’s assertion that religion is based primarily on fear resonated with me. I had lived for too long in terror of all the gruesome punishments that awaited me. While I had abandoned all the rational reasons for believing in God, that irrational fear of hellfire still lingered. Russell’s conclusion thus came as something of a relief: “When I die, I shall rot.”

To understand why I became an atheist 20 years ago, you first need to understand the kind of Muslim I had been. I was a teenager when the Muslim Brotherhood penetrated my community in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1985. I don’t think I had even understood religious practice before the coming of the Brotherhood. I had endured the rituals of ablutions, prayers and fasting as tedious and pointless.

The preachers of the Muslim Brotherhood changed this. They articulated a direction: the straight path. A purpose: to work towards admission into Allah’s paradise after death. A method: the Prophet’s instruction manual of do’s and don’ts — the halal and the haram. As a detailed supplement to the Qur’an, the hadeeth spelled out how to put into practice the difference between right and wrong, good and evil, God and the devil.

The Brotherhood preachers left nothing to the imagination. They gave us a choice. Strive to live by the Prophet’s manual and reap the glorious rewards in the hereafter. On this earth, meanwhile, the greatest achievement possible was to die as a martyr for the sake of Allah.

The alternative, indulging in the pleasures of the world, was to earn Allah’s wrath and be condemned to an eternal life in hellfire. Some of the “worldly pleasures” they were decrying included reading novels, listening to music, dancing, and going to the cinema — all of which I was ashamed to admit that I adored.

The most striking quality of the Muslim Brotherhood was their ability to transform me and my fellow teenagers from passive believers into activists, almost overnight. We didn’t just say things or pray for things: we did things. As girls we donned the burka and swore off Western fashion and make-up. The boys cultivated their facial hair to the greatest extent possible. They wore the white dress-like tawb worn in Arab countries or had their trousers shortened above their ankle bones. We operated in groups and volunteered our services in charity to the poor, the old, the disabled and the weak. We urged fellow Muslims to pray and demanded that non-Muslims convert to Islam.

During Islamic study sessions, we shared with the preacher in charge of the session our worries. For instance, what should we do about the friends we loved and felt loyal to but who refused to accept our dawa (invitation to the faith)? In response, we were reminded repeatedly about the clarity of the Prophet’s instructions. We were told in no uncertain terms that we could not be loyal to Allah and Muhammad while also maintaining friendships and loyalty towards the unbelievers. If they explicitly rejected our summons to Islam, we were to hate and curse them.

Here, a special hatred was reserved for one subset of unbeliever: the Jew. We cursed the Jews multiple times a day and expressed horror, disgust and anger at the litany of offences he had allegedly committed. The Jew had betrayed our Prophet. He had occupied the Holy Mosque in Jerusalem. He continued to spread corruption of the heart, mind and soul.

You can see why, to someone who had been through such a religious schooling, atheism seemed so appealing. Bertrand Russell offered a simple, zero-cost escape from an unbearable life of self-denial and harassment of other people. For him, there was no credible case for the existence of God. Religion, Russell argued, was rooted in fear: “Fear is the basis of the whole thing — fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death.”

As an atheist, I thought I would lose that fear. I also found an entirely new circle of friends, as different from the preachers of the Muslim Brotherhood as one could imagine. The more time I spent with them — people such as Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins — the more confident I felt that I had made the right choice. For the atheists were clever. They were also a great deal of fun.

So, what changed? Why do I call myself a Christian now?

Part of the answer is global. Western civilisation is under threat from three different but related forces: the resurgence of great-power authoritarianism and expansionism in the forms of the Chinese Communist Party and Vladimir Putin’s Russia; the rise of global Islamism, which threatens to mobilise a vast population against the West; and the viral spread of woke ideology, which is eating into the moral fibre of the next generation.

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GloBull warming………

Alaska’s Largest City Declares ‘Snow Emergency’ After Record Snowfall Piles Up on Back-to-Back Days

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A winter storm dropped record snowfall amounts in Anchorage, Alaska, with some areas outside of Anchorage proper receiving more than 2 feet of snowfall in just two days.

The largest city in Alaska broke its daily snowfall record on Wednesday when 9 inches of snow fell in 24 hours. For context, the previous record for Nov. 8 was 7.3 inches set in 1982. Another 8.2 inches piled up Thursday, which also broke the daily record of 7.1 inches set on Nov. 9, 1956. That brought Anchorage’s two-day total to 17.2 inches of snow.

By late Thursday, Anchorage had a 21-inch snow depth, or the total amount of snow on the ground. This was Anchorage’s greatest snow depth for so early in the season, according to Alaska-based climatologist Brian Brettschneider. Already, 26.6 inches of snow has fallen in Anchorage this season, which is 17.5 inches above the average snowfall to date for Nov. 9.

‘Like A Machine Gun’ Isn’t A Machine Gun

Ever since Las Vegas, bump stocks have been horrifically demonized. Granted, the Las Vegas shooting was horrific enough that it shouldn’t surprise us that it did.

Soon after, the ATF reversed their decision that they weren’t machine guns.

That reversal came at the direction of then President Donald Trump. He did that, at least in part, to cut the legs out of an effort in Congress that would have gone a lot further than bump stocks and binary triggers. It could have screwed up any trigger modifications for any reason.

Regardless of the reason, though, the ATF actually overstepped their authority, so it’s not surprising that it triggered a lawsuit.

Now, it’s headed to the Supreme Court and Elie Mystal at The Nation has thoughts.

On Friday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear another gun case. That alone should make people hide under their desks at school, because at this point in our bloody republic, every time the Supreme Court decides to entertain the gun lobby, more children are likely to die.

The case involves a challenge to the federal ban on “bump stocks.” Bump stocks are a modification that can be attached to semiautomatic rifles to make them perform as fully automatic weapons. A shooter pulls the trigger to fire the weapon, and the bump stock uses the recoil from that action to pull the trigger again and again, resulting in a near continuous rate of fire, just like a machine gun.

The issue is “like a machine gun” and “machine gun” isn’t the same thing in the least. Especially not in the eyes of the law.

The ATF doesn’t have broad authority to just create law. It has the power to interpret laws passed by Congress, but it can’t just make up law as it goes.

Otherwise, ATF Director Steve Dettelbach could just mandate the assault weapon ban he’s said he wanted.

He can’t do that because there’s nothing in the law that allows for that.

What the ATF did with bump stocks, though, is not much different from a mandated assault weapon ban because the justification used doesn’t actually fit with bump stocks.

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Question O’The Day:
Given the headlines since October 7th, why are our schools churning out armies of angry racist and anti-Semitic kids these days?  – Ed Driscol

TRANS ANOMALY: Nashville Shooter’s Manifesto Suggests an Inconvenient Aspect of ‘Gender-Affirming Care.’

The vast majority of mass shooters are male, and male biochemistry helps to explain why. Yet the person who opened fire at Nashville’s Covenant School was biologically female.

Higher amounts of the hormone testosterone give men larger muscles, more significant skeletal muscle, and a higher percentage of red blood cells. Testosterone also tends to give men unwarranted self-confidence and aggression, a dangerous cocktail for unmoored youth.

According to the Justice Department’s research, published in February 2022, 97.7% of mass shooters in the U.S. have been male. Thankfully, the Justice Department seems to have acknowledged the biological truth—at least for now—despite President Joe Biden’s radical advocacy of transgender ideology.

On March 27, however, a 28-year-old female by the name of Audrey Elizabeth Hale opened fire at The Covenant School, a Presbyterian school in Nashville. Before police shot and killed her, Hale killed three children and three adults—Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, all 9; Cynthia Peak, 61; Katherine Koonce, 60; and Mike Hill, 61, according to Fox News.

What explains this female mass shooter? News reports give some indication, although three pages of her manifesto, recently revealed, also shine a light on the situation.

Although Hale was female, she reportedly identified as male and went by the name Aiden.

Police discovered a manifesto at the scene of the shooting, but unlike in so many other mass shootings where authorities publish a shooter’s white nationalist screeds almost immediately, authorities sought to keep Hale’s manifesto secret.

Nashville Police Chief John Drake begrudgingly confirmed that the three pages published Monday by commentator Stephen Crowder did indeed come from Hale’s manifesto.

“I am greatly disturbed by today’s unauthorized release of three pages of writings from the Covenant shooter,” Drake wrote. The police chief announced an investigation into the leak, noting that the court system has control of the shooter’s journals due to pending litigation.

The police department has suspended seven detectives in relation to the leak.

The three pages revealed the sick mind of a mass shooter. In them, Hale expresses hatred for white people, whom she refers to as “crackers.”

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If Biden is against antisemitism, why does he continue to fund it?

Late last month, President Joe Biden declared that he was “very” concerned about the rise of antisemitism . If he were sincere, he would direct his administration to stop funding it.

Consider his longtime staffer, Antony Blinken. The secretary of state often speaks about his stepfather Samuel Pisar, who lost his entire family in the Holocaust. Blinken related Pisar’s escape from the Nazis at his confirmation hearing, and he has spoken about Pisar more than a dozen times since, often to establish his bona fides in the fight against antisemitism.

“We live in a time where antisemitism is again on the rise, in America and around the world,” Blinken told the U.S. Holocaust Museum. “When hateful ideology rises, violence is never far behind.” As secretary, he has promised to call out antisemitism and declared the United States would be “resolute in the fight against antisemitism.”

How sad, then, that Blinken pursues policies that reward antisemitism. Consider Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas: Blinken restored funding to Abbas, a man who denies the Holocaust, promotes antisemitic blood libel, and pensions terrorists who kill Jewish children. Blinken’s silence during his visits to Ramallah suggests his rhetoric about Pisar is cynical, meant only for gullible Americans.

Abbas, after all, wrote a doctoral dissertation arguing that Zionists supported the Holocaust. Over subsequent years, he downplayed and denied the Holocaust. In September, he speculated that Hitler targeted the Jews not from antisemitism, but because they were moneylenders. With a 40-year track record of Holocaust denial and diminishment, is there any question that Abbas promotes antisemitism? If so, how does funding him send a message about being “resolute in the fight against anti-Semitism”?

Or consider Yemen : One of the first actions Blinken undertook as secretary was to lift sanctions on the Houthis, a group that goes even beyond Iran’s “death to America, death to Israel” chants to add “damn the Jews” in its motto. Five years ago, a Washington think tank delegation queried Houthi representatives about their slogan. The Houthi spokesman was blunt: “That’s our program.” That Houthis now launch ballistic missiles at the Jewish state should surprise no one. That the United States allowed them a windfall should.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan bases his Iran approach on the idea that money and diplomatic outreach can put Iran’s reformers in the driver’s seat. But it was Mohammed Khatami, Iran’s reformist president famous for his “Dialogue of Civilizations” call, who gave asylum to Wolfgang Frohlick and Jurgen Graf, two of the world’s most vociferous Holocaust deniers.

The same holds true with Lebanon and Turkey . Amos Hochstein, the Biden administration’s unconfirmed energy envoy, has pushed to empower both Turkey and Hezbollah through energy deals and endorsement. By supporting the trans-Turkey energy route over that of democratic Cyprus and Greece, Hochstein has primed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the world’s most antisemitic head of state after Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, to receive tens of billions of dollars, some of which Erdogan now promises to Hamas. Hochstein likewise justified Lebanese maritime claims in a scheme that risks pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into Hezbollah coffers, never mind that Hezbollah’s secretary general once quipped he would be happy if all the Jews returned to Israel, as it would save the trouble of hunting them down in other countries.

Then there is Somalia , a country seldom in the headlines but the recipient of billions of dollars under Biden and Blinken’s watch. Less than six weeks after Blinken met Somali Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, Barre declared Hamas was not a terrorist group and suggested Jews were the “children of pigs and dogs.” The Biden administration’s response? Crickets. The money still flows to Somalia.

Antisemitism is at its highest level worldwide since World War II. Biden is right to be very concerned, and Blinken is right to condemn it. If only the leader of the free world and his top diplomat had some control over whether antisemites overseas would have access to billions of extra dollars.