Chicago Shooting: Man, 80, Seriously Wounds Man Who Forced Way Into Northwest Side Home

CHICAGO (WLS) — Chicago police said an 80-year-old man was badly injured in a Northwest Side home invasion after he fought off his attackers.

Now, the two suspects are in police custody.

“This doesn’t happen here. This is a pretty rare event,” said Boris Stojakvoic, who manages a building across the street with his family.

Investigators said it happened at 10:30 a.m. on the 8500 Block of West Catherine in Chicago’s O’Hare neighborhood.

“We’re actively checking that all our doors stay closed, and notifying our residents to make sure not to let anyone in the building they’re not expecting,” Stojakvoic said.

Police said the 80-year-old man was inside a home on the block when the suspects, a man and a woman, knocked on the door. After he opened the door, the suspects entered the home without permission and then a fight broke out.

Police say the 80-year-old, a FOID card holder, shot at the suspects, hitting the man in the chest. The woman was not injured.

One woman, who lives on the block and didn’t want to show her face out of fear for her safety, said she is heartbroken for her neighbor.

“I was in shock when I heard it, because it’s like in the middle of the day, in the morning, and something like that happens so close to your home, it’s really scary to hear,” she said.

The suspects drove to Resurrection Hospital, where the victim is also being treated. The 80-year-old man and the alleged invader he shot are both in critical condition.

Big win for gun owners as federal judge grants second TRO against New Jersey carry laws

U.S. District Judge Reneé Marie Bumb delivered a second win to New Jersey gun owners and Second Amendment activists challenging the state’s new carry restrictions on Monday, granting a temporary restraining order that halts enforcement of many of the state’s “sensitive places” where lawful concealed carry is considered a felony offense.

Bumb had already granted a TRO in Seigel v. Platkin, another challenge to several of the “gun-free zones” created by New Jersey lawmakers, but the federal court in Camden recently combined that case with Koons v. Platkin, giving Bumb the chance to take a look at some of the other “sensitive places” that were not a part of Seigel‘s initial complaint. On Monday, Bumb issued her ruling, finding mostly (but not entirely) in favor of the plaintiffs.

The judge concluded that the plaintiffs do not have standing at this time to challenge the “gun-free zones” in zoos, medical treatment facilities, movie sets, airports, and places covered by Fish and Game Department regulations, but are in a position to seek a restraining order against the following “sensitive places”:

  • public parks, beaches, recreational facilities, playgrounds
  • youth sports events
  • casinos
  • public libraries and museums
  • bars and restaurants where alcohol is served
  • entertainment facilities
  • private property unless indicated otherwise by owner
  • private vehicles

Of all those locations, the only ones that Bumb did not subject to the temporary restraining order are the prohibitions on concealed carry on playgrounds and at youth sporting events.

In Bruen and Heller, the Supreme Court expressly identified restrictions at certain sensitive places (such as schools) to be well-settled, even though the 18thand 19th-century evidence has revealed few categories in number. Bruen, 142 S.Ct. at 2133 (citing Heller, 554 U.S. at 626)). The inference, the Court suggested, is that some gun-free zones are simply obvious, undisputed, and uncontroversial. These are: (a) certain government buildings (such as legislative assemblies or courthouses or where the Government is acting within the heartland of its authority), (b) polling places, and (c) schools. Id.

Bruen further instructs courts to consider analogies to such sensitive places when considering whether the Government can meet its burden of showing that a given regulation is constitutionally permissible. Id. Here, Defendants subsume playgrounds within their discussion of historical statutes that regulate firearms where crowds gather and where the vulnerable or incapacitated are located. [See Defs.’ Opp’n at 34–35.] Unfortunately, Defendants neither point to a particular or analogous prohibition on carrying firearms at playgrounds nor provide a more meaningful analysis, despite this Court’s persistent invitation.

In particular, Defendants have done no analysis to answer the question Bruen leaves open: is it “settled” that this is a location where firearms-carrying could be prohibited consistent with the Second Amendment? Where the right to self-defense and sensitive place designations could be read in harmony under the Second Amendment? For that matter, nor have Plaintiffs. This issue must be explored at the preliminary injunction stage. Despite these shortcomings, the Court concludes that schools and playgrounds intersect, that is, playgrounds fall within the sphere of schools. Therefore, under Bruen, the Court “can assume it settled” that playgrounds are a “sensitive place.” See Bruen, 142 S.Ct. at 2133. Accordingly, because Plaintiffs cannot meet their burden as to their challenge to playgrounds in Subpart 10, the Motion will be denied as to playgrounds.

It’s entirely possible that even this “sensitive place” could fall once the case proceeds further, though Bumb seems more convinced that the prohibition on carrying at “youth sporting events” overlaps enough with “schools” that its probably okay to ban firearms there. I disagree, particularly given that many youth sporting events are run by leagues that aren’t school-affiliated at all, but the plaintiffs still have a chance to make their argument at future hearings over an injunction. But in the meantime Bumb has delivered a solid opinion in favor of the Second Amendment rights of all New Jersey residents by telling the state it can’t enforce its carry prohibitions in most of their “sensitive places”, at least in the near term.

This doesn’t mean, by the way, that all entertainment venues, casinos, and diners are going to be welcoming concealed carry holders. Private property owners can still ban concealed carry if they choose to do so, but under Bumb’s TRO the state’s presumption that all private property is off-limits unless otherwise noted is a non-starter. All in all this is very good news for New Jersey gun owners, and likely the first of many disappointments to come for civil rights abusers like Gov. Phil Murphy and his anti-2A ilk in the legislature.

One of the first ‘shall issue’ states, that still hasn’t gone permitless. Amazing when compared to Missouri, Kansas and a few other states who went from no carry, to shall carry, to permitless in relatively short order

‘Constitutional Carry’ Bill Introduced in Florida

U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- Florida House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Court, along with sponsors from the House and Senate, introduced HB 543 Monday morning, a “Constitutional Carry” bill that Renner said gets “rid of the need for a government permission slip” to carry a concealed handgun.

The lawmakers were accompanied by Hernando County Sheriff Al Nienhuis, president of the Florida Sheriff’s Association, and other Florida Sheriff’s.

“We don’t operate in a vacuum. What’s happening in our society now is Defund the Police 2.0,” Renner said. “I don’t think there’s ever been a time in my history on earth that we’ve needed the right to keep and bear arms more than now.”

Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey thanked Renner and the bill’s sponsors for the legislation.

“This bill is an important piece of legislation for our citizens to have the ability to protect themselves. Criminals don’t go get a permit,” Ivey said. “Florida Sheriffs stand solidly behind this.”

Bill sponsor Senator Jay Collins, R-Tampa, an Army Special Forces veteran, described the legislation as a “monumental moment” and a “major breakthrough for our freedom.”

“My very first lesson as a Green Beret was that it is incumbent on each of us to leave things better than we found them,” Collins said. “We will take a monumental step to ensure that government does not interfere with a law-abiding citizen’s ability to protect their family.”

Bill sponsor Rep. Chuck Brannan, R-Macclenny, said the bill won’t change “who can and cannot carry a gun.”

CWFLs, he said, will still be available for Floridians who travel out-of-state and want reciprocity.

“People don’t have to carry if they don’t want to. This is a constitutional right people have,” Brannan said. “Criminals are getting guns anyway. They don’t care what the law says. We’re only giving law-abiding citizens a simple way to get a firearm. It’s only fitting that citizens of the freest state in the nation be given the right to constitutional carry.”

America’s Rifle
What the gun-control crowd doesn’t want you to know about AR-type rifles

A lifetime of work led me to write the book America’s Rifle: The Case for the AR-15. I began challenging “assault-weapon” bans when California passed the first state ban in American history, the Roberti-Roos law of 1989. At the time, the Ninth Circuit ruled that the right to keep and bear arms didn’t apply in California, a denial that the U.S. Supreme Court overruled when it held the Second Amendment also restricts state and local government, in McDonald v. Chicago (2010)

In District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment protects the individual right to possess firearms, including handguns, that are in common use by law-abiding persons for lawful purposes. It should have been a no-brainer when we challenged D.C.’s semi-automatic rifle ban in Heller II, but the D.C. Circuit held that, while rifles like the AR-15 are in common use, the ban was valid under a then-novel “two-part test,” which allowed courts to balance away rights at the second step. In a dissent, then-Judge Brett Kavanaugh argued that the ban violated the Second Amendment.

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Amy Klobuchar Cites Two Pistol Attacks to Push ‘Assault Weapons’ Ban

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D) posted a video to Twitter on Saturday in which she pushed an “assault weapons” ban in response to two shootings carried out with pistols.

Klobuchar cited the January 21, 2023 Monterey Park shooting (11 killed) and the January 23, 2023 Half Moon Bay shooting (seven killed).

She did not mention that both shootings occurred in stringently gun-controlled California, which has had an “assault weapons” ban since the 1990s. Nor did she mention that both shootings were carried out with pistols.

Klobuchar did, however, push for more gun control.

Breitbart News reported that California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) blasted “weapons of war” after the suspected Half Moon Bay shooter used a handgun in his attack.

CBS News noted that the suspected shooter “drove himself to the substation located between the two businesses and surrendered to deputies.” They pointed out that the weapon used was “a [semiautomatic] handgun.”

At least it makes his intentions clear.

Eric Burlison files his first legislation in Congress, attempting to repeal 1930s gun law

U.S. Rep. Eric Burlison filed his first legislation as a freshman member of Congress this week, aimed at stripping out gun regulations approved in the 1930s.

The southwest Missouri Republican’s “Repeal the NFA Act” would remove requirements under federal law to pay a $200 tax, register and undergo an application process to own certain firearms and accessories, including shotguns, rifles with certain length barrels, machine guns, and mufflers and silencers.

“The federal government has used the National Firearms Act for almost a century to violate law-abiding citizens’ Second Amendment rights,” Burlison said in a statement announcing the bill. “The recent ATF pistol brace rule is just another example of these blatant attacks on the constitutional rights of Americans. The ATF-NFA sham needs to end.”

Burlison’s bill comes a month after the U.S. Department of Justice submitted a new federal rule requiring stabilizing braces and other accessories, used to convert pistols into short-barreled rifles, to follow federal laws that govern those types of weapons, including the 1934 law. He has also co-sponsored legislation that would abolish the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF.

His legislation is unlikely to see final passage, with Democrats remaining in control of the Senate and some members advocating for more strict gun safety laws in the wake of a string of mass shootings in California. It has been referred to the House Ways and Means Committee, which is chaired by fellow Missouri Republican U.S. Rep. Jason Smith.

Burlison, when he was a member of the Missouri legislature prior to his election to Congress, was a vocal supporter of several measures loosening the state’s gun laws.

He was one of the lead sponsors for the Second Amendment Preservation Act, a 2021 bill that nullifies a number of federal gun laws and came under criticism by members of law enforcement who said it interfered with violent crime prevention and investigation efforts. Burlison has touted the bill as a nation-leading Second Amendment law.

Police say 2 self-defense shootings in Phoenix Saturday night left 2 dead

Two separate shootings in Phoenix, one on the west side and one in the central area of the city, left two men dead Saturday evening.

Just after 6:30 p.m., Phoenix police officers responded to a report of a shooting in central Phoenix, near 12th Street and Highland Avenue.

Once officers arrived, they found a man with gunshot wounds. The victim was identified as 24-year-old Aaron Duwan Frazier Jr. He died at a local hospital.

Early information indicated a man was fueling up his vehicle at the gas station when Frazier approached him with a gun and attempted to rob him. The man went back to his vehicle grabbed a gun and shot Frazier, according to police.

The man called police to report the incident. Detectives conducted interviews and collected evidence at the scene. The man was not booked into jail. The case will be reviewed further for any possible charges.

Later in the evening, in west Phoenix, another shooting occurred.

Just after 8 p.m., officers responded to a call claiming a shooting occurred near 44th and Whitton Avenues.

When police arrived, they discovered a man with gunshot wounds. He was transported to a hospital and was later pronounced dead.

Early information indicated a man attempted to enter a home when a woman inside called a family member to come help. The family member arrived and confronted the victim in front of the residence, police said.

A verbal altercation occurred, and the victim made threats to kill the man, raising a black object believed to be a gun. The family member then shot the victim claiming self-defense, according to police.

The man was interviewed by police and not booked into jail as further review of the case is pending. Evidence was collected and the investigation remains ongoing.

January 30

1649 – Charles I of England is executed for treason against England by order of the newly formed High Court of Justice, created by a special act of Parliament.

1661 – Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, is exhumed and ritually executed more than two years after his death, on the 12th anniversary of the execution of Charles I

1703 – The 47 rōnin, former samurai of Asano Naganori, under the command of Ōishi Kuranosuke, avenge the death of their master, by killing Kira Yoshinaka who had been assaulted by Asano, who was then forced to commit suicide.

1835 – The first assassination attempt against a President of the United States fails when both pistols of Richard Lawrence misfire due to humid conditions. President Jackson turns on the assassin and beats him with his cane until others, including Congressman Davy Crockett, come to his aid.

1847 – Yerba Buena, California is renamed San Francisco.

1862 – The first American ironclad warship, the USS Monitor is launched.

1911 – The destroyer USS Terry makes the first airplane rescue at sea saving the life of Douglas McCurdy ten miles off Havana, Cuba.

1933 – Adolf Hitler takes office as the Chancellor of Germany.

1945 – 126 American Rangers and Filipino resistance fighters liberate over 500 Allied prisoners from the Japanese controlled Cabanatuan POW camp on Luzon, Philippines.

1948 –Mahatma Gandhi is assassinated in New Delhi, Indian by a Hindu nationalist

1956 – Martin Luther King Jr.’s home is bombed in retaliation for the Montgomery bus boycott.

1968 – During the Tet lunar new year celebrations and cease fire, forces of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army launch an offensive against South Vietnam, the United States forces there, and their allies.

1982 – Richard Skrenta writes the first PC virus code,  called “Elk Cloner”, which is disguised as an Apple boot program.

1989 – The American embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan is closed and staff evacuated due to a civil war starting

1991 – Coalition air forces attack invading Iraqi forces in and around Khafji, Saudi Arabia, destroying hundreds of Iraqi Army tanks and armored vehicles, not to mention the crews.

2020 – The World Health Organization declares the COVID-19 pandemic to be a ‘Public Health Emergency of International Concern’.

 

Oservation O’ The Day

” ‘It’s the guns. It’s always been the guns,’ said Lisa Geller, a public health researcher at the Center for Gun Violence Solutions at Johns Hopkins University.”

Adapting the quoted logic…
The US obesity problem is “the forks, it’s always been the forks.”
Distracted driving deaths are “the phones, it’s always been the phones.”

Hmmm… that makes the action the fault of an inanimate object rather than the person wielding the object.

That’s literally the logic from someone at Johns Hopkins.
What an absurd and obviously flawed way to spin the problem statement.

A child shot his teacher, a 72-year-old man opened fire in public: Here’s what that tells us about guns in America.

A 6-year-old student. A 72-year-old man.

They are two people separated by decades and thousands of miles, but united in one tragic fact: Both made national news in January after authorities said they committed horrific gun violence.

The contrast – like many facts about America’s gun violence problem – is both striking and predictable. This doesn’t happen in other countries, experts say. It happens much more frequently in the U.S., but often hidden from public view. Children, in particular, are far more likely to shoot themselves, a friend or family member accidentally, usually inside a home.

“It’s the guns. It’s always been the guns,” said Lisa Geller, a public health researcher at the Center for Gun Violence Solutions at Johns Hopkins University.

While other wealthy countries have similar levels of interpersonal violence, the United States stands alone when it comes to shootings. An average of 110 Americans die daily from gun violence, far above the rate of gun deaths for any comparable nation. The U.S. has about 12 gun deaths for every 100,000 residents, almost four times the rate of the next-highest country, Switzerland, according to experts.

Concentrate Where the Murders Are Concentrated

One of the principles of good public policy is to focus efforts on understanding social problems and searching for effective responses where those problems are serious, not where they are minor or missing. Local problems justify locally focused and decided policies, problems that have effects that are more widely spread justify geographically broader policies, and the broadest problems justify national policies, as illustrated by the federalism of the US Constitution, particularly the Tenth Amendment.

That such a principle is well established is illustrated by t Edgar K. Browning and Jacquelene M. Browning’s  textbook, Public Finance and the Price System, which I used when teaching my first such class over four decades ago and which said, “The key issue here is the geographic area over which persons necessarily benefit [or are harmed],” which requires that “care is needed in determining what types of policies are more suitable for local governments.”

However, that principle is often honored in the breach today, as politicians at higher-level governments are always trying to regulate and legislate issues that are more local in character. Why? It lets politicians in areas where the problems are greatest pretend they are a national problem rather than ones tied to their jurisdictions and policies. Further, the power to vote on national-level plans gives politicians representing other areas the leverage to “rent” their support for such programs in exchange for more of what they want through the legislative pork barrel.

 

Just think how many times a single event in one place starts trending, then immediately gives rise to proposals for new state or national policies as “the solution,” as is so common with issues of crime. The Monterey Park mass shooting is a good illustration. The same day it was reported in the Los Angeles Times, they ran an editorial about mass murder shootings becoming “a sickeningly frequent occurrence in America” arguing that mass shootings “have one thing in common: They have guns” and asserting that we must limit the Second Amendment in the US Constitution—not only federal law, but the highest law of the land—because “national suicide is not the compulsory price of freedom.”

The result of such broad, national responses is also poor “target efficiency,” because too little attention focuses on the more local reasons for where the problems are worse.

An excellent example of this is provided by recent research on the US murder rate by the Crime Prevention Research Center, and its president, John R. Lott Jr., whom I have known since we overlapped many years ago in the UCLA Economics PhD program. I would note that John’s work is often controversial, which also makes him a frequent subject of ad hominem attacks, because the empirical data he develops can strongly contradict what others are “selling” as the truth in some area, particularly with regard to crime. However, I have never seen him abuse logic and statistics to get a particular answer he set out to find (or was paid to, as many “researchers” are). His focus, which strongly reminds me of the work of Harold Demsetz, who taught both of us, is on designing empirical tests to differentiate among alternative explanations, then following where the evidence leads, rather than torturing evidence to create the “right” wrong answer.

Increases in homicide rates tend to be treated by state and federal politicians as if they are broadly distributed national problems to scare Americans into supporting overly broad-brush “solutions.” But Lott’s research shows instead that “homicide rates have spiked, but most of America has remained untouched.” Or as David Strom summarized the results, “There are vast swathes of the country where violent crime is very, very rare, and small areas of the country where it is common.” If that is true, we should focus our attention on those small areas, not on national policies poorly focused on where the actual problems are most severe.

Lott’s research, which used 2020 homicide data, examined the concentration of homicides in particular areas to see whether America’s increasing homicide problem is national or local. He let that data tell its story.

First, he focused on county-level data rather than national data. Some of the dramatic results he found:

  • The worst five counties (Cook, Los Angeles, Harris, Philadelphia, and New York) accounted for about 15 percent of homicides.
  • The worst 1 percent of counties (31), with 21 percent of the US population, accounted for 42 percent of the homicides.
  • The worst 2 percent of counties (62), with 31 percent of the population, accounted for 56 percent of the homicides.
  • The worst 5 percent of counties (155), with 47 percent of the population, accounted for 73 percent of the homicides.
  • In contrast, over half of US counties (52 percent) had zero homicides in 2020, and roughly one-sixth of the counties (16 percent) had only one.

Continuing his investigation, Lott looked at even finer-scale zip code data for Los Angeles County. He found that the worst 10 percent of zip codes in the county accounted for 41 percent of the homicides, and the worst 20 percent accounted for a total of 67 percent of the homicides.

From such data, Lott concluded that: “Murder isn’t a nationwide problem.” Instead, “It’s a problem in a small set of urban areas, and even in those counties murders are concentrated in small areas inside them, and any solution must reduce those murders.”

Despite the constant political and media drumbeat to portray homicides as a national problem that threatens everyone everywhere, and thus demands national solutions in line with what the political Left wants, the evidence points us in a far more local direction.

That may well explain the political reason for the volume and persistence of that drumbeat. It provides camouflage for those whose policies (and those who support them) would come under far greater scrutiny if people recognized just how concentrated homicides are and then asked what is different in those places, rather than the “blame America first” bromides they are routinely misdirected toward today.

But that means if we really cared about those most harmed by the murder rate, rather than imposing broader-than-necessary restrictions on Americans, it is important to follow the evidence so many would prefer to keep hidden.

Analysis: Whole Community Effort Needed to Combat Mass Shootings

A new U.S. Secret Service report adds to a growing body of research documenting common behavior patterns among mass attackers. It also highlights the potential for community intervention, both broadly and on a small scale, to make a real difference.

The National Threat Assessment Center’s (NTAC) report published Wednesday analyzed 173 “mass attacks”—defined as incidents in which three or more people, not including the attacker, were harmed in public or semi-public places—between 2016 and 2020. The report uncovered many patterns linking various attackers to one extent or another, but what most perpetrators had in common was striking.

More than three-quarters of the individuals who committed mass attacks exhibited concerning behaviors or shared alarming communications before carrying them out. Nearly two-thirds exhibited behaviors or shared communications that were so concerning “they should have been met with an immediate response,” according to the researchers. Roughly 60 percent of the attackers exhibited behavior that caused others to fear for the safety of the attacker, themselves, or the broader public.

Often these concerning behaviors manifested in the form of expressed threats, actively making plans to carry out an attack, more minor acts of violence, or harassing behaviors.

For anyone who has spent time following the news coverage of these all-too-frequent incidents, the study results likely won’t come as much of a surprise. Time after time, it seems reports come out of the woodwork only after an incident has already transpired, revealing troubling details from an attacker’s past that, in hindsight, should have made it all too clear what was bound to happen.

But this new report makes clear that such perception is more than just anecdotal. The data bears it out. Mass attackers do, in fact, routinely exhibit a pattern of troubling behaviors that are generally identifiable by others, whether it’s family members, friends, classmates, employers, coworkers, or law enforcement.

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IRAN AMMUNITION FACTORY HIT BY BLAST: Iranian media also report large fire at oil refinery outside the city of Tabriz.

Iran said three drones caused an explosion at an ammunition factory in the city of Isfahan late Saturday, amid fresh tensions with the West and Israel over Tehran’s military involvement in Ukraine and stalled negotiations to revive an international accord that limits Iran’s nuclear activities.

Phone footage captured by several passersby in Isfahan and posted on social media showed what appeared to be a large explosion on the side of a building on a major street.

“At around 23:30, an unsuccessful attack using micro-aerial vehicles was carried out on one of the Defense Ministry’s workshops,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement, adding that one drone had been shot down by air defenses while two others had exploded. The ministry said the roof of one building had been slightly damaged, and that the explosion had caused no casualties.

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Comment O’ The Day:
It is amusing watching Democrats in power walk the tight rope of pretending to know everything while at the same time being completely ignorant.
Nobody believes this overt and public anti-Semite. Nobody.

I mean, politicians lie all the time, but at least she could have tried to make this one sound somewhat reasonable.

Rep. Ilhan Omar: “I Wasn’t Aware That There Are Tropes About Jews And Money”

Rep. Ilhan Omar said Sunday morning on CNN said that she didn’t know about the offensive nature of antisemitic tropes regarding “Jews and money” when she made comments that have been cited by House Speaker McCarthy as the primary reason she was removed from the House Foreign Affairs committee.

REP. ILHAN OMAR: I might have used words at the time that I didn’t understand were trafficking in anti-semitism. When that was brought to my attention, I apologized. I owned up to it. That’s the kind of person that I am. And I continue to work with my colleagues and my community to fight against anti-semitism.

Now, I’ve never compared or made any comparisons, what I was referencing was a case that was in front of the ICC. If you want to debate political differences, that’s something that we should all have the opportunity to do so, but to smear someone and their character, their love for their country and the work they get to do on a committee is wrong, and it is politically motivated. And in some cases, it is motivated by the fact that many of these members don’t believe that a Muslim refugee, an African, should even be in Congress, let alone have an opportunity to serve on the Foreign Affairs Committee….

I certainly did not or was not aware that the word hypnotized was a trope. I wasn’t aware of the fact that there are tropes about Jews and money. That has been a very enlightening part of this journey. To insinuate that I knowingly said these things when people have read into my comments to make it sound as if I have something against the Jewish community is so wrong.

To insinuate that I knowingly said these things, when people have read into my comments to make it sound as if I have something against the Jewish community, is so wrong. If you remember, when I first got elected to Congress, it was when the FBI report came out on the rise of antisemitism. As a rep-elected, the first op-ed I wrote was on that report, which I talked about how it was important for us, as a community, to coalesce around the Jewish community and fight against antisemitism.

I voted for every single resolution — no Republican can say that — condemning antisemitism. My work is clear. The collaboration and work that I do with my Jewish colleagues is very clear. The reason that the Democratic Caucus has not removed me and will not support my removal on the Foreign Affairs Committee is because I have done the work to make sure that I do not support any bigotry.

The Climate Faithful Have Developed Religious Dietary Restrictions (and You Guessed It — We’ll All Be Expected to Eat This Way).

Jews eat kosher, Muslims have halal, Hindus eschew meat, and many Christians fast during Lent. So naturally, the fastest-growing religion today — earth and climate worship — is developing its own faith-based dietary restrictions.

“Climatarians” (also called “reducitarians” or “climavores”) are people who make their food choices based on how what they eat will impact the earth, with the aim of reducing their carbon “foodprint.” The Earthist version of original sin is that, simply by living, people commit climate sin every time they eat, breathe, travel, and heat or cool their homes. Naturally, the younger generations are the most pious Earthists, having been recently exposed to the most evangelical Earthist education system yet.

“Climavores, as you might expect, follow a diet less defined by ingredients—unlike veganism, for example,” global consulting firm Kearney informs us. “Instead, Climavores actively make food choices based on climate impacts, practicing climate-conscious eating based on a series of dietary trade-offs intended to benefit the planet.”

Climavores see beef, lamb, and cheese at the very top of the environmental damage scale; pork is in the middle, followed by chicken and eggs. Plants of all kinds typically have the lowest impact. …

Most Climavores eschew labels, viewing climate-conscious food choices paired with their efforts to “live and shop green” beyond food as a meaningful way to personally impact environmental outcomes. Our survey found this is especially true among younger consumers. Respondents 18 to 44 years old were up to twice as likely to consider the environmental impact of their food choices.

And as the older faiths are gradually supplanted by the Church of the Climate, societal changes are in the works that reflect and support the new religion. Axios reports:

Food manufacturers, restaurants, and supermarkets are racing to cater to the zeal for lower-carbon eating choices, which has people eschewing plastic packaging, ingredients flown in from afar, and foods that are environmentally damaging to produce. …

Terms like “climatarian” are getting newfound attention from corporate America as young consumers gravitate toward what they perceive as “green” diets.

  • “By 2030, our routine food choices will be climate-directed,” advises a report from consulting firm Kearney. “The companies that mobilize now will win the future of food.”
  • Restaurant chains like Just Salad, Chipotle, and Panera Bread are putting “carbon labels” on their foods — and, in the case of Just Salad, adding a “climatarian” filter on its app.
  • Supermarket chain Fresh Market is among the many food prognosticators that declared “climatarian eating” a top trend for 2023.

Back in the bad old days, righteous folk censured people who lived outside Christian proscriptions, and with good reason — things like theft, adultery, sloth, and single parenthood lead to issues that hurt all of society. Under the same reckoning, prepare to be judged for your apostate food choices. Ordering a big, fat steak in a restaurant may earn you glares from fellow diners who have been taught that your dinner hurts them by causing droughts and heatwaves or something.

But Leftists are nothing if not authoritarian, and soon the choices will be made for you. More from Kearney:

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His ‘word’; well that settles it, it means it’s actually worse than we know.

Carjacking suspect in critical condition after being shot by victim

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — Philadelphia police say a carjacking victim in Philadelphia shot the suspect who was trying to steal a vehicle.

It happened late Saturday night at North Mascher and West Berks streets in Kensington.

Police say the suspect approached the victim who was sitting in a vehicle.

The victim fired a gun through the windshield, shattering the vehicle’s glass and hitting the suspect in the chest.

Police say the suspect then ran to Frankford Avenue and East Palmer Street where he collapsed.

The suspect was taken to the hospital in critical condition.

January 29

1845 – “The Raven” is published in The Evening Mirror in New York, the first story published by Edgar Allan Poe.

1850 –Senators Henry Clay and Stephen A. Douglas, with the support of President Millard Fillmore, introduce the Compromise of 1850, a set of 5 laws, which reorganizes the areas of different territories, the states of California and Texas and fugitive slaves in free states.

1856 – Queen Victoria issues a Warrant that establishes the Victoria Cross to recognize acts of valor by British military personnel during the Crimean War.

1861 – Kansas is admitted as the 34th state.

1886 – Karl Benz patents the first successful gasoline powered automobile.

1891 – Liliuokalani is proclaimed Queen Regnant of the Kingdom of Hawaii, the last monarch of the kingdom before being overthrown less than 2 years later.

1907 – Charles Curtis of Kansas, a member of the Kaw tribe, becomes the first American Indian U.S. Senator and later becomes the 31st vice president of the United States under Herbert Hoover.

1936 – The first inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame are announced.

1963 – The first inductees into the Pro Football Hall of Fame are announced.

1991 – 3 Iraqi Army divisions invading from occupied Kuwait, attack and temporarily occupy the Saudi Arabian city of Kafji, until engaged and repelled by U.S. and coalition forces.

2002 – In his State of the Union address, President Bush describes regimes that sponsor terror as an ‘Axis of Evil’, in which he includes Iraq, Iran and North Korea.

2009 – Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich is removed from office following his conviction on several corruption charges

2020 – The administration of President Trump establishes the White House Coronavirus Task Force under Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar.