July 22
838 – An army of the Byzantine emperor Theophilos suffers a heavy defeat by an army of the Abbasid caliphate at Anzen in modern day northeastern Turkey
1099 – Godfrey of Bouillon is elected the first Defender of the Holy Sepulcher of The Kingdom of Jerusalem during the First Crusade
1456 – John Hunyadi, Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary, defeats Mehmet II of the Ottoman Empire during the moslem siege of Belgrade.
1587 – A second group of English settlers arrives on Roanoke Island off North Carolina to reestablish the deserted colony.
1686 – Albany, New York is formally chartered as a municipality by Governor Thomas Dongan.
1793 – The Scottish explorer Alexander Mackenzie reaches the Pacific Ocean, becoming the first recorded human to complete a transcontinental crossing of North America.
1796 – Surveyors of the Connecticut Land Company name an area in Ohio “Cleveland” after Gen. Moses Cleaveland, the superintendent of the surveying party.
1864 – Outside Atlanta, Confederate General John Bell Hood leads an unsuccessful attack on Union troops under General William T. Sherman situated on Bald Hill.
1893 – After admiring the view from the top of Pikes Peak, Katharine Lee Bates writes “America the Beautiful”.
1933 – Aviator Wiley Post returns to Floyd Bennett Field in New York City, completing the first solo flight around the world.
1934 – Gangster John Dillinger is shot and killed by FBI agents trying to escape after exiting the Biograph Theater in Chicago
1937 – The Senate votes down President Roosevelt’s proposal to add more Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States.
1942 – Compulsory civilian gasoline rationing begins in the U.S. during World War II. There was no shortage of gasoline, in fact we had more gasoline production capacity than demand. The problem was a shortage of rubber for tires from the Dutch East Indies that was occupied by the Japanese.
1943 – Allied forces capture Palermo during the Allied invasion of Sicily.
1946 – The Israeli Irgun militia bombs the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, headquarters of British civil and military administration for Mandatory Palestine.
1973 – Pan Am Flight 816, a Boeing 707, enroute from New Zealand to San Francisco, crashes after takeoff from Faa’a International Airport in Papeete, French Polynesia, killing 68 of the 69 passengers and all 10 crew aboard
1974 – Students of Southwestern Bell Telephone’s 23 Desk Directory Assistance class 74-6 begin training.
1992 – Fearing extradition to the U.S., Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar escapes from his prison near Medellín.
1993 – Levees on the Mississippi river near Kaskaskia, Illinois rupture, forcing the entire town to evacuate by barge.
2003 – Troops of the U.S. 101st Airborne Division and 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta, attack a compound in Mosul Iraq, killing Saddam Hussein’s sons Uday and Qusay
Those racist white people and their…
(Shuffles deck, draws card)
…Not wanting to eat bugs?
This right wing conspiracy theory about eating bugs is about as racist as you think
U.S. Senate Quietly Adds Permanent Gun Control Law Into 2024 NDAA Authorization
Republicans and Democrats are reportedly working together to end the sunset provision on a law gun rights orgs call ‘a backdoor gun ban’
As Congress begins consideration of the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), Senate leaders are attempting to quietly slip in gun control legislation.
The discovery was made by the Second Amendment advocacy group Gun Owners of America, who combed through the text and found an amendment inserted into the bill that would indefinitely authorize the Undetectable Firearms Act of 1988.
According to a version of the proposed NDAA bill dated July 13, the amendment introduced by Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) would end the sunset provision on the 1988 law, which criminalizes firearms unable to be detected by metal detectors and x-ray machines commonly used at airports.
Though the provision was introduced by a Democrat, gun rights organizations say that Republicans are also involved in the effort to permanently codify the gun control law.
“Trips” is the operative word here.
The White House Is Now Hiding Joe Biden’s Trips Up and Down Stairs on Air Force One.
You won’t have stories about Joe Biden tripping up or down the stairs on Air Force One to kick around anymore. That’s because the White House brass have issued a directive ordering staff to hide how Joe gets in and out of the presidential jet. It won’t stop the president from tripping, but you, an American voter, won’t have to be subjected to watching it anymore.
Biden using 'lower stairs' on Air Force One to avoid embarrassing tripping incidents: Report https://t.co/SeOlx2LeKJ
— Fox News (@FoxNews) July 20, 2023
11Th Circuit Grants En Banc Hearing for Florida’s Young Adult Purchase Gun Ban
A lawsuit challenging Florida’s law banning rifle and shotgun purchases by adults 18 to 20 years of age is set to be heard by the full 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
A lawsuit challenging Florida’s law banning rifle and shotgun purchases by adults 18 to 20 years of age is set to be heard by the full 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. On March 9, a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court had upheld Florida’s under-21 gun purchase ban. But on July 16, the court vacated that decision and announced that it would take up the legal battle en banc, meaning the full court will soon hear arguments concerning the law.
The case, National Rifle Association v. Bondi, challenges the law that was hastily passed and then signed into law by then-Gov. Rick Scott following a tragic mass murder at a school in Parkland, Florida. The NRA filed the lawsuit shortly after the law was passed. The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) has opposed the law from the time it was first being discussed and filed an amicus brief supporting the most recent challenge to the law, according to Mark Oliva, NSSF managing director of public affairs.
“Florida’s law banning the sale of firearms for adults under the age of 21 is fundamentally flawed,” Oliva said in an exclusive interview with Firearms News. “Every American at the age of 18 is fully vested in all of their civil liberties, including their right granted to them by their Creator to keep and bear arms. That is not a right for Florida’s government to withhold.”
Oliva said that laws curtailing the other enumerated rights of 18- to 20-year-olds would almost certainly be considered unconstitutional. Yet for some reason courts often find Second Amendment rights not quite so important.
“Banning the rights of free speech, free exercise of religion or free assembly wouldn’t be tolerated yet this law relegated the Second Amendment to a second-class right,” he said. “That is Constitutionally unsound. Additionally, the answer to concerns that a minor’s criminal history prohibiting firearm possession would not be included in the background check was addressed in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. This law was wrong from the start. It only disenfranchises law-abiding adults from exercising the full spectrum of their rights.”
From the time the law passed, NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action has consistently pointed out the fallacy of the law.
“There is no question that 18- to 20-year-olds are adults in the eyes of the law and the Constitution,” NRA-ILA wrote in an action alert after a federal judge first begrudgingly upheld the law in 2021. “To deny those younger adults their rights because of the actions of criminals is nothing less than political discrimination and it is inconsistent with the Heller decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.”
Since then, of course, the case for 18- to 20-year-olds to be able to purchase long guns has been further strengthened by last year’s U.S. Supreme Court decision in New York Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen. That ruling set a new standard for deciding Second Amendment cases.
According to the new standard under Bruen, when determining the constitutionality of a firearms law, the courts now must first determine if “the Second Amendment’s plain text covers [the] individual’s conduct” the government hopes to restrict. If it does, “The government must then justify its regulation by demonstrating that it is consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”
If the government fails to meet this burden, then the challenged law cannot stand. The ban on 18- to 20-year-old adults likely runs afoul of both aspects of the standard. The date has not yet been set for oral arguments to begin in the case.
WDOC rolls out Restoration of Rights certificates
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (RELEASE) – The Wyoming Department of Corrections (WDOC) has begun accepting applications and evaluating discharging individuals on their eligibility to receive a restoration of rights certificate in the State of Wyoming.
The WDOC is able to begin this process due to a change in Wyoming Statute §7-13-105 that went into effect July 1, 2023, which allows individuals that are convicted as a first time, non-violent felon, to have their right to vote, along with the rights lost as outlined in W.S. §6-10-106 to be restored. The rights restored under W.S. §7-13-105 include the ability to be an elector or juror or to hold any office of honor, trust or profit within this state or to use or knowingly possess any firearm.
The WDOC is accepting applications by mail, by email or in person at the Central Office. For more information in regards to this process, please visit https://corrections.wyo.gov/restoration-of-rights. Senator Eric Barlow, who was the sponsor for the original bill, commented “I am thankful to those who supported allowing more folks who have fulfilled their debt to society to re-engage in the most foundational aspects of citizenship, including the right to hold public office, serve on a jury and exercise their Second Amendment rights. The Legislature recognized the importance of voting rights for these same folks several years ago and I was pleased to assist with that too. I appreciate the Department of Corrections for implementing this program in a timely and efficient manner.”
The Second Amendment Is The Great Unifier
We all want to protect what we love.
No matter your age, your background, your ethnicity, or your religious affiliation, there is one thing that we can all agree on: nothing is more important than protecting what you love.
Where we are divided is HOW we protect those things that are most precious to us.
People who ascribe to the anti-gun rhetoric and agenda, and who belong to groups such as Moms Demand Action (MDA), Everytown for Gun Safety, and Giffords Courage to Fight Gun Violence, all proclaim that saving lives is at the core of their mission. We all can applaud and agree on that. Life is precious. And each of us can name at least one life we want to protect.
But protecting what we love sometimes requires that good people stand against predators and murderers with the very tools that MDA, Everytown, and Giffords vilify: guns. People who understand that reality dedicate their own time, money, and energy to training themselves and others to be safe and responsible gun owners. This training and education is truly what will protect those you love.
More judges trying their hardest to slow down what SCOTUS did to gun control laws.
Federal Judge Upholds San Jose Gun Ownership Tax, Insurance Mandate
San Jose’s first-of-its-kind gun ownership insurance mandate doesn’t violate the Second Amendment, according to a federal judge.
U.S. District Judge Beth Freeman ruled against the National Association for Gun Rights (NAGR) last Thursday. She found the California city’s requirement that gun owners pay a fee to a yet-to-be-determined anti-gun-violence charity group and obtain insurance is constitutional. She ruled the regulations stand up against the Supreme Court’s new history-based test for gun laws and did not infringe on residents’ rights.
“The City has demonstrated that the Insurance Requirement is consistent with the Nation’s historical traditions,” Judge Freeman wrote in NAGR v. San Jose. “Although the Insurance Regulation is not a ‘dead ringer’ for 19th century surety laws, the other similarities between the two laws would render the Ordinance ‘analogous enough to pass constitutional muster.’
The ruling is a win for gun-control advocates who are looking for ways to restrict firearms even in the wake of 2022’s New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen. It allows the city to continue to attempt to implement its unique requirements, which have been scaled back significantly from when they were first introduced. The decision also boosts the odds that lawmakers in states, such as New Jersey, who’ve sought to copy the restrictions might survive court challenges as well.
Judge Freeman, an Obama appointee, also ruled the gun ownership fee was not a tax for the purpose of California law and did not need voter approval because it goes to a non-profit rather than the government.
This court is not interested in the outcomes of single cases alone. The conservative majority has greater ambitions: to impose its conception of the Constitution as the only legitimate framework within which to interpret the law.
Caitlin B. Tully
June 25, 2023
Rethinking the Liberal Giant Who Doomed Roe
She says this as if it were a bad thing. And, in my mind, how could it be legitimate any other way?
I am reminded of Lewis Carroll’s Humpty Dumpty:
When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’
’The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’
’The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.
And that is why the political left is so upset at the current SCOTUS. The political left is intent upon being the master of all and if the U.S. Constitution were to be interpreted as written they would have, comparatively, no power.
July 21
356 BC – The Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World in antiquity, is destroyed by arson.
1798 – Napoleon’s forces defeat an moslem Ottoman-Mamluk army near Cairo in the Battle of the Pyramids.
1861 – At Manassas Junction, Virginia, the first major battle of the Civil War ends in a victory for the Confederate army.
1865 – In the town square of Springfield, Missouri, James ‘Wild Bill’ Hickok and Davis Tutt engage in what is regarded as the first western showdown gun fight with Hickok killing Tutt with a single shot.
1873 – At Adair, Iowa, Jesse James and the James–Younger Gang pull off the first successful train robbery in the U.S.
1904 – Louis Rigolly, a Frenchman, becomes the first man to break the 100 mph barrier on land, driving purpose built, 13.5-liter engine powered Gobron-Brillié racing car in Ostend, Belgium to 103.561 mph.
1907 – The Oregon Railway and Navigation Company’s passenger steamer SS Columbia sinks after colliding with the Metropolitan Redwood Lumber Company’s steam schooner San Pedro off Shelter Cove, California, killing 88 passengers and crew aboard Columbia
1919 – The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company’s dirigible Wingfoot Air Express crashes into the Illinois Trust and Savings Building in Chicago, killing 3 passengers and crew aboard and 10 people in the building.
1925 – In Dayton, Tennessee, high school biology teacher John T. Scopes is found guilty of teaching evolution in his school class and fined $100.
Malcolm Campbell becomes the first man to exceed 150 mph on land, driving the Sunbeam 350HP at Pendine Sands in Wales, at a 2 way average speed of 150.33 mph
1944 – American troops land on Guam to retake it from the Japanese, starting a battle that will end on August 10.
In Berlin, 5 conspirators are executed for the plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler.
1949 – The Senate ratifies the North Atlantic Treaty, creating NATO.
1952 – The 7.3 Mw Kern County earthquake strikes Southern California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing 12 and injuring hundreds.
1954 – The Geneva Conference partitions Vietnam into North Vietnam and South Vietnam.
1959 – The U.S. government owned NS Savannah, the first nuclear powered cargo/passenger ship, is launched at Camden, New Jersey, as a showcase for President Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace” initiative.
1961 – Mercury-Redstone 4 Mission astronaut Gus Grissom, piloting Liberty Bell 7 becomes the second American to go into space
Alaska Airlines Cargo Flight 779, a Douglas DC-6, crashes near Shemya Air Force Base in Shemya, Alaska killing all 6 crew aboard.
1969 – At 02:56 UTC, at Tranquility Base, astronaut Neil Armstrong leaves the Lunar Lander Eagle and becomes the first person to walk on the Moon. At 17:54 UTC, the Eagle lifts off from the Moon to redock with the Command Module Columbia at 21:35 UTC
1970 – After 11 years of construction, the Aswan High Dam in Egypt is completed.
1979 – Mohawk Jay Silverheels becomes the first Native American to have a star commemorated in the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1983 – The world’s lowest temperature in an inhabited location is recorded at Vostok Station, Antarctica at −128.6 °F
2011 – NASA’s Space Shuttle program ends with the landing of Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission STS-135.
BIDEN: "I couldn't resist, two of the children of a man and a woman who got me started back in 1972, actually 1970, were in town and I showed them the office" pic.twitter.com/OOyKcntxZX
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 19, 2023
Why’s the left so hot and bothered by “Try That in a Small Town”?
If you tune in to the weekly VIP Gold live chat with HotAir’s Ed Morrissey and myself (which is coming up at 1:30 ET today), I’m sure you’ve heard me say that “everything is stupid and it’s only getting worse” in response to the latest social media-fueled outrage of the day. That phrase definitely applies to the hysterics from the left when it comes to Jason Aldean’s song “Try That in a Small Town,” which has now been yanked from rotation on CMT and is in the crosshairs of anti-gun activists like Shannon Watts, who’s claiming credit for CMT’s move and now trying to get the country singer cancelled from a fundraiser benefitting Covenant School in Nashville.
When I first wrote about this “controversy” a couple of days ago, I figured it would be a one-off. After all, how much traction could Watts and her allies in the tribe of the perpetually outraged really get by complaining about a song in praise of small town living, even if it did mention those small-town residents keeping their guns instead of allowing them to be “rounded up”?
Well, we’re now on day three of the attacks on Aldean and his song, and the outrage mob is still gathering their torches and pitchforks. Aldean has been accused of fostering racism and violence with his lyrics, even as the singer himself has pushed back on the criticism.
Aldean denied the allegations against his song in a tweet on Tuesday.
“In the past 24 hours I have been accused of releasing a pro-lynching song … and was subject to the comparison that I (direct quote) was not too pleased with the nationwide BLM protests. These references are not only meritless, but dangerous,” he wrote. “There is not a single lyric in the song that references race or points to it- and there isn’t a single video clip that isn’t real news footage -and while I can try and respect others to have their own interpretation of a song with music- this one goes too far.”
On social media some users were offended by the lyrics, especially since Aldean was performing onstage at the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival in Las Vegas in 2017 when a shooter opened fire and killed 60 concertgoers and injured hundreds more. In his tweet, the Grammy-nominated star referenced the tragedy: “NO ONE, including me, wants to continue to see senseless headlines or families ripped apart.”
“‘Try That In A Small Town,’ for me, refers to the feeling of a community that I had growing up, where we took care of our neighbors, regardless of differences of background or belief. Because they were our neighbors, and that was above any differences,” he continued. “My political views have never been something I’ve hidden from, and I know that a lot of us in this Country don’t agree on how we get back to a sense of normalcy where we go at least a day without a headline that keeps us up at night. But the desire for it to- that’s what this song is about.”
I have a theory about why Watts is so incensed by Aldean’s song, and it isn’t just that he’s warning against trying to round up guns; something gun control activists swear they’re not interested in doing anyway. I think it goes back to the Las Vegas shooting, and Aldean’s comments not long afterwards that it was “too easy” to get a gun in the U.S. As long as the singer was siding with Watts, there was no reason for her to complain. But now that Aldean is singing about hanging on to the guns we already own, instead of stumping for gun control it’s time for him to be cancelled.
On Point: The Korean Armistice’s Iffy Anniversary: Korea Is a Forever War
The Korean War Armistice agreement was signed July 27, 1953 — 70 years ago this month. It’s a very iffy anniversary, for the Korean War remains unfinished business.
Internet factoids claim the armistice concluded the war with “a complete cessation of hostilities.” Dub those factoids “faketoids” — disinformation posing as historical fact. First point: an armistice is not a peace treaty. Second point: along the Korean peninsula’s Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the fighting has never stopped.
Examples abound. The DMZ Conflict is a collective name for skirmishes, raids and assassination attempts that occurred from October 1966 to October 1969. The fighting cost South Korea 299 dead and 550 wounded. Forty-three Americans were killed and 111 wounded.
The fighting included the January 1968 Blue House Raid. Thirty-one North Korean commandos infiltrated South Korea to assassinate South Korea’s president. They attacked the president’s residence (the Blue House) but failed to kill the president. Ultimately South Korea suffered 26 killed and 66 wounded; 29 communist commandos were slain, one captured. Call it “gray zone war” and you nail it.
At this immediate moment we see a kinda-sorta conflict lapse, except for nuclear warfare threats and missile launches.
This July 12 North Korea test fired an intercontinental ballistic that traveled some 650 miles and splashed into the Sea of Japan. The missile’s loft trajectory and flight time indicates it can hit Guam and Hawaii — a nuclear Pearl Harbor. Seattle, San Francisco and Phoenix, stay tuned.
The Biden administration’s Afghanistan skedaddle debacle has ongoing security consequences. The Taliban, however, hasn’t tested ballistic missiles and acquired nukes.
Was North Korea’s test a bluff? The Wall Street Journal quoted Sung-Yoon Lee (Korea expert at Tufts University) as saying “North Korea excels in pretextual provocations… resorting to illegal and menacing behavior while blaming the U.S. or South Korean actions or statements as the pretext for its kinetic ‘protest.'”
Lee believes North Korea “is gearing up for a major provocation.”
Which makes my third point: The Korean War isn’t over. When you hear TV talking heads call Afghanistan America’s longest war, click the remote and silence the ignorant poseurs.
On the armistice’s 70th anniversary, North Korea’s major export is the threat of war magnified by potential nuclear holocaust. It’s an international version of an alley bully’s extortion game. “Pay me off,” the punk waving the pistol says, “or I’ll burn your store.” The analogy, however, goes only so far. North Korea’s Kim waves a nuclear weapon as his miserable people suffer from endemic communist famine.
Maybe North Korea’s nuke is still a primitive fizzle nuke. But quick tech help could modernize the Kim regime’s nukes. Next door China is a possible culprit. Historical point: At its height the Korean War was a war between the U.S. and communist China.
The more likely nuke upgrade culprit– a desperate Vladimir Putin seeking political leverage. A nuke detonation in Asia might shake Ukraine.
Far-fetched? Let’s hope so. However, dictators experiencing a crisis of authority grasp at horse hairs — an indirect reference to the Sword of Damocles.
Twenty years ago, I wrote a column reflecting on the Korean War armistice’s 50th anniversary. In 1951 my father was in combat in Korea. My mother told me that year more than anything she wanted a quick end to the Korean War.”
Dad fought in the Punch Bowl, a collapsed volcano where the Chinese and American armies slugged it out in a series of bitter attrition battles. He censored his own letters. He didn’t tell Mom about the human wave assault that overran his bunker, with Chinese soldiers racing past him as he fired his pistol at fast shapes in the night.
For years, Dad’s commentary on Korea amounted to little more than “I was always too damn cold.”
Korea wasn’t the first post-World War Two “war of integration and disintegration.” That distinction arguably goes to China, where the fighting never stopped. Red China still wants to invade Taiwan.
Armed Carjacker Shot By Victim In D.C.
WASHINGTON D.C. – A suspect in an armed carjacking was shot by his victim yesterday morning in Southeast, D.C. The Washington, D.C. Metro Police Department is investigating the carjacking and have made an arrest, and are searching for the another suspect.
The incident unfolded at approximately 6:30 am at the 2300 block of R Street. The victim, positioned near his vehicle, was approached by two suspects traveling in a car. One of the suspects retrieved a gun and demanded the victim surrender his car. The victim drew his own firearm and discharged a shot at the suspect, 27-year-old Marcus Thompson, injuring him.
The victim assisted the suspect until help arrived. Simultaneously, the other suspect fled the scene while the victim provided aid to Thompson. Thompson was subsequently taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.
The suspect was taken into custody and faces multiple charges, including armed carjacking. According to detectives, the victim possessed a valid concealed carry permit in the District, and his firearm was duly registered.
