I can’t control what someone thinks, but I can say if I think they’re stupid.

Biden’s HHS Pick Thinks AR-15s Are ‘Not In Common Use For Self Defense’

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, President-elect Joe Biden’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, said AR-15s are akin to military-grade weapons and not useful for self defense in a 2019 court filing.

The AG’s statements were included in a court case that challenged California’s gun ban titled Rupp v. Becerra, in which multiple state residents sued government officials to overturn the prohibition of certain semi-automatic firearms. Becerra, an advocate for the Affordable Care Act, was announced as Biden’s pick to lead HHS Sunday, according to the New York Times. Continue reading “”

Slow Joe is seen here talking to the press between events.
But, where’s the boot?
For an elderly man who – supposedly – broke a bone, the man seems to have a very little problem walking around. Biden – supposedly – broke his foot 8 days ago, not nearly enough time for the injury to heal. So was it simply another lie to provide cover for him being kept away from people until he could be doped up again, or what?

 

Goya Foods CEO: We Made AOC Employee of the Month After Her Boycott Boosted Sales

Goya Foods CEO Bob Unanue said his company named Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) its employee of the month after an increase in sales following the New York Democrat’s call for a boycott of his firm.

“She was actually our employee of the month,” Unanue said on Monday’s edition of the Michael Berry Show. “I don’t know if you know about this, because when she boycotted us our sales actually increased 1000 percent, so we gave her an honorary — we never were able to hand it to her — but she got employee of the month for bringing attention to Goya and our adobo.”

Unanue added, “Actually, our adobo sales did very well after she said make your own adobo. … She’s our hero. She helped boost sales tremendously.”

After Unanue praised President Donald Trump’s leadership, Ocasio-Cortez joined other Democrats and celebrity leftists in calling for a boycott of Goya products.

 

Legendary airman Chuck Yeager dead at 97

Chuck Yeager — the legendary airman who was the first person in history confirmed to break the sound barrier — died on Monday night at age 97, according to a post on his verified Twitter account.

The famed test pilot’s death was announced in a heartfelt statement by his wife of 17 years, Victoria Yeager.

“It is w/ profound sorrow, I must tell you that my life love General Chuck Yeager passed just before 9pm ET,” she wrote on his account.

“An incredible life well lived, America’s greatest Pilot, & a legacy of strength, adventure, & patriotism will be remembered forever.”

A World War II fighter pilot, Yeager rocketed into history by breaking the sound barrier in the experimental Bell X-1 research aircraft in 1947, helping to pave the way for the US space program.

Yeager reached a then astounding 40,000 feet and notched a speed of over 662 miles per hour in his historic Southern California flight.

Yeager’s life was famously portrayed in Tom Wolfe’s 1979 tome “The Right Stuff,” — which was later adapted into an Oscar-winning film — chronicling the postwar research in high-speed aircraft that led to NASA’s Project Mercury.

Yeager was born in West Virginia in 1923. Soon after graduating high school in 1941 he enlisted in the US Army Air Forces, later known as the US Air Force.

Just to remind everyone, the Supreme Court, in the Heller decision, ruled mandatory gun lock crap like this unconstitutional, and the McDonald decision incorporated 2nd amendment protection on the states.

CA city bans guns in private homes unless locked up, disabled

Gun owners in Dublin, Calif., are banned from keeping firearms in private homes unless they are kept in a locked container or disabled with a trigger lock after the City Council unanimously approved the new regulation last week.

Pleasanton Weekly reported that the ordinance goes farther than existing California laws that apply if children live in a household or if a member of a household is prohibited from having guns. It goes into effect next month.

“What we’re doing in this case is just expanding that definition beyond those two scenarios — children in the home or criminal record — and applying it to all households,” said City Manager Linda Smith.

The ordinance will be added to the Dublin Municipal Code, stating, “No person shall keep a firearm within any residence unless the firearm is stored in a locked container or disabled with a trigger lock.”

Exceptions to the ordinance include when a gun is being lawfully carried or when it is in the control of a law enforcement officer.

According to councilmember Shawn Kumagai, the regulation “will state clearly to our community that we embrace a culture of gun safety” and “safe gun storage helps to prevent unintentional and intentional injury and death of minors, helps prevent gun suicide, and deters gun theft.”

Twenty-two cities across California have implemented similar regulations, including Oakland, Berkeley, Moraga and Sunnyvale.

“It’s not about taking gun rights away from people at all whatsoever, it’s about educating, it’s about making sure that we do our part, and have an awareness out there,” said Councilmember and mayor-elect Melissa Hernandez.

Hernandez said she believed in “not only just saying it but actually doing something,” adding that the city may provide trigger locks for residents, in addition to potentially granting funding for public gun safety awareness.

Prior to voting for the new regulation, Councilmember Arun Goel said gun safety was an issue he held “near and dear to my heart.”

Goel said his son committed suicide, adding that education is needed but “part of what I’ve always been about is, when we take an action of such a nature, it should be for the fundamentally correct things, not just for stipulation of trying to do something perfunctory or lip service.”

“Systematically I agree with it, and so I’m kind of in a little bit of a confusion standpoint,” Goel said. “We can agree on safety but in the reality, how much of these are issues from lawful gun owners vs. unlawful gun owners.”

NBC Edits Video of Restaurant Owner Exposing NBC Comedy’s Catering.

Over the weekend, a video of Angela Marsden, the owner of the Pineapple Hill Saloon & Grill of Los Angeles, protesting the city shutting down outdoor dining with no scientific basis went viral. The video showed Marsden’s emotional plea for help as she exposed how a similar set of tents and tables were set up in the same parking lot to cater a film production approved by the city.

Only part of Marsden’s comments made it onto NBC’s Sunday Today. But reporter Meagan Fitzgerald deceptively edited out Marsden pointing to the hypocrisy with the tents and tables. Worse yet, NBC covered up the fact that the catering was for NBC’s comedy show, Good Girls.

Remains Of Four Pearl Harbor Sailors ID’d as Nation Marks 79th Anniversary of Attacks.

Officially, the U.S. death toll in the Dec. 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor is 2,403. But the books have yet to be closed on identifying the available remains of more than 150 of those killed on what President Franklin D. Roosevelt called a “day that will live in infamy.”

Ahead of remembrance ceremonies in Hawaii on the 79th anniversary of the attacks, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced Dec. 1 that the remains of four more sailors from that day had been identified, including two brothers.

Navy Fire Controlman 2nd Class Harold F. Trapp, 24, and his brother, Navy Electrician’s Mate 3rd Class William H. Trapp, 23, both of La Porte, Indiana, were killed aboard the battleship Oklahoma.

Navy Chief Carpenter’s Mate Tedd M. Furr, 39, of Mobile, Alabama, also served on the Oklahoma, while Navy Seaman 1st Class Carl S. Johnson, 20, of Phoenix, Arizona, served on the battleship West Virginia, DPAA said. Continue reading “”

Mexico Proves More Gun Control Does Not Mean Less Crime

Recently The Washington Post published an article depicting the rampant organized crime crisis in Mexico. There is no question that the crime and violence fueled by drug cartels in our southern neighbor are major problems for Mexico, the United States and for the global community. However, the authors make a mistake typical of the gun control crowd; they blame the firearm rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution for the problems in Mexico.

Cartels are becoming bolder, showcasing weapons and drugs in videos used to not only attract potential recruits but also threaten those who might oppose them. Mexican officials who articulate their frustration in the article are very quick to blame cartel activity on their pro-gun northern neighbor and the authors are more than eager to parrot these inaccurate sentiments in the article.

The misplaced blame is unfortunate because the right solutions cannot be implemented if the problem is not correctly identified. If firearm rights are the problem, why does the United States not face a similar level of cartel-related violence? Particularly under President Trump, crimes are prosecuted. The government enforces the law. Making the United States more like Mexico, with its clearly ineffective gun control policies, will not solve Mexico’s problem and is surely not a successful model for the U.S. to follow. Continue reading “”

I often think about giving these over-educated morons exactly what they’re asking for. Then I consider that it would also mean that there will be no one to enforce gun laws….decisions, decisions.

Ivy League librarians demand a ‘world without policing’

A group of 13 “abolitionist librarians” from Ivy League universities who call themselves “AbLA Ivy+” is demanding that their colleagues “immediately begin the work of divesting from police and prisons.”

The Association of Research Libraries released a statement in support of “protests against police brutality” in June. It called on “leaders of libraries and archives to examine our institutions’ role in sustaining systems of inequity.”

The statement demands that “material resources are procured and highlighted to chronicle the history of white supremacy, oppression of marginalized peoples, and the laws and policies that create systemic inequities” as well as attention to hiring those “who identify as Black, Indigenous, and people of color.”

In a more recent statement, AbLA Ivy+ claims that while these actions should be “applauded,” they “have not gone far enough.” The group wants Ivy League librarians to “explicitly name policing itself as the problem” and take actions that will lead to the “complete abolition of law enforcement.” Continue reading “”

Personal Defense During the Holidays

Here we are, once again, entering the Holiday Season—the most stressful time of the year for most folks—in a year like no other year any of us has ever experienced or expected. What that means for folks like us is that we’ve got to really increase our awareness and keep personal defense in the forefront of our minds at all times.

We know that robberies and home invasions increase during these last days of the year. But you also have to realize that ordinarily good folks are getting awfully stressed out. They’ll be letting their anger and frustrations get the best of them. They’ll do stupid things. And they will do things that place other’s lives in danger.

We can begin by recognizing that we, too, can become overly frustrated and angered. Talking with the family about finding ways to avoid stress is a really good place to start. Often, just supporting each other is a good way to keep that stress level within bounds. And we can also make a concerted effort to remain polite and courteous to everyone, strangers included. When a person loses his temper, he has also weakened his defense level.

The holidays are also a good time to review the personal defense plan, especially the need for being aware of what is going on around us. We also need to make sure that we are communicating regularly with other family members and that we know each other’s location at all times. When another family member is especially stressed or not feeling well, we need to be there to pick up the slack, carry some of their load for them.

And this is also not the time to let your pistol practice wane. Yep, I know that ammunition is difficult to come by but that just means that you need to increase the time you spend in dry practice. Practicing the basics—draw stroke, flash sight picture, trigger press—can also still be honed during dry practice. And you might want to do it while wearing that heavy coat and winter gloves that you’ll be wearing when you go out.

Getting serious about our personal defense and having a solid personal defense plan does not have to hamper our enjoyment of the holidays. Once these principles become ingrained in our everyday lives, we can enjoy ourselves and still be careful. You say you haven’t gotten around to developing a personal defense plan and discussing it with your family? Well, now is an awfully good time to start it.

You can’t avoid being a target, but you can decide if you are going to be an easy target or a hard target.

So find ways to keep the stress within due bounds. Make it a point to put a smile on your face at the same time that your head is on a swivel. Focus on your family and the other stuff that really matters and you’ll likely get through these trying times successfully.

Mandatory Voting Is Authoritarian

After the 2016 presidential election, I wrote an exceptionally unpopular op-ed for The Washington Post headlined, “We must weed out ignorant Americans from the electorate.” In it, I noted that “never have so many people with so little knowledge made so many consequential decisions for the rest of us.”

My assumption has always been that the Post only accepted the piece because its editors believed I was aiming my criticism exclusively at the right-wing populists who had just voted for Donald Trump. If so, they were wrong. My skepticism extends to all sides.

And to all elections. Indeed, today, the problem is even more severe. More Americans voted in 2020 than ever before even though the winner, Joe Biden, was rarely impelled to answer a substantive question on policy or even to show himself in public.

2020 might have featured the most vacuous campaigns in American history. This is what “democracy” looks like when propelled by fearmongering, ignorance, and the “common impulse of passion,” as James Madison warned. I mean that all around.

We encourage Americans to vote as if it is the only right of a citizen, without any corresponding expectations. And as if that constant cultural haranguing to vote weren’t annoying enough, after every election, no matter how many people participate, there is a campaign to force everyone to do it.

“America Needs Compulsory Voting,” writes a professor in Foreign Affairs. “A Little Coercion Can Do a Lot for Democracy.” “1 In 3 Americans Didn’t Vote. Should We Force Them To Next Time?” asks BuzzFeed.

Ideally, in a free nation, the answer to “Should we force them?” is almost always “no.” But for the folks at places such as the Brookings Institution and Harvard University’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, the answer is almost always “yes.”

In July, these think tanks laid out their case for mandatory voting in a report titled “Lift Every Voice: The Urgency of Universal Civic Duty Voting.” I wish I could whip up an equally anodyne euphemism for “ugly authoritarian instinct,” but none immediately comes to mind.

None of this is new, of course. Over the years, we’ve seen similar columns in The New York Times and Time.

Obama administration officials such as Peter Orszag, an advocate of compelling everyone to buy state-mandated health insurance, were arguing that the United States “prides itself as the beacon of democracy, but it’s very likely no U.S. president has ever been elected by a majority of American adults.”

Maybe the lesson here is that we should pride ourselves on how many freedoms we enjoy rather than how people vote.

“The hope is not that the United States of America tomorrow morning is going to adopt this,” E. J. Dionne, who is a Georgetown University professor of government, a Washington Post columnist, and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told BuzzFeed, “but we do hope that cities, counties, states would take a look at this and perhaps adopt it experimentally, the way, say, Maine has adopted instant runoffs.”

Some of us do not share the hopes of Dionne, a longtime proponent of forcing Americans to do all sorts of things.

The Constitution makes no stipulation that citizens must vote. It doesn’t even mention voting as an individual right. We have no civic duty to vote. I haven’t voted for president since 2000. I haven’t voted at all since 2004.

For me, this is a proactive political choice. But maybe some Americans don’t vote because they are anarchists, or monarchists, or nihilists. Some Americans might not be satisfied with any of their choices. Some might rather be watching cartoons. It’s none of Dionne’s business.

The last thing we should do is make those who aren’t interested, motivated, or feel unprepared to make sound decisions act against their will.

Whenever I mention that compelling people to participate in the political system is authoritarian, someone will ridicule me by noting that voting is the hallmark of “democracy.”

One wonders if citizens of, say, Hong Kong, who had no real vote as British colonial subjects for 150 years, feel freer today than they did 30 years ago.

Sure, mandatory voting exists in Australia and Belgium. But it also exists in Bolivia, Congo, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, and Lebanon. In fact, historically speaking, authoritarian states often adopt compulsory voting as a way of creating a false sense of democratic legitimacy. If you’re compelling people to participate, you’re not doing “democracy.”

2020 saw record turnout—though calling it a “turnout” is a bit misleading since the involvement was largely a function of states’ haphazardly mailing out paper ballots to everyone.

All mandatory-voting advocates are doing is further degrading the importance of elections and incentivizing more demagoguery.

If they truly believed democracy was sacred—rather than a way to accumulate power—they’d want Americans to put more effort into voting for the president than they do in ordering Chinese takeout. And they certainly wouldn’t want to force anyone to do it.

 

First-time gun buyers projected to top 8M: Smith & Wesson
Women are making up 40% of new buyers

Background checks, a metric for gun sales, are hitting an all-time high in 2020, and nearly half of the purchases being made this year are by first-time firearm owners, firearm manufacturer Smith & Wesson said Thursday.

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To date, nearly 8 million Americans have already decided to “exercise their Second Amendment rights for the first time,” chief executive Mark Smith told analysts in an earnings call.

For their findings, the company cited data from the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), which estimated that 40% of the tens of thousands of firearm purchases in 2020 are coming from first-time owners.

Smith noted that these new purchases are further “broadening and diversifying” its consumer base and are an indicator of the long-term vitality of the industry as a whole.

Smith said NSSF data indicated that “women are making up 40% of new buyers and overall firearm purchases by African Americans are outpacing all other demographics with 58% growth in the first half of the year alone through June.” Continue reading “”

Lawmakers set to expand gun rights in Ohio, DeWine’s reform plan unlikely to pass

Gov. Mike DeWine’s package of gun reforms appears unlikely to pass the Statehouse this session, but lawmakers are poised to permit armed Ohioans to stand their ground in public settings and use deadly force in self-defense.

Ohio House Speaker Bob Cupp, R-Lima, said he plans to move House Bill 796 “as soon as possible,” which could be as soon as next week.

Currently, Ohioans have a “duty to retreat” from dangerous situations, if possible, before using force in self-defense. HB796, sponsored by state Rep. Kyle Koehler, R-Springfield, would eliminate that duty. Continue reading “”

Well, it appears to me that all those ‘new guns’ in the hands of all those ‘new gun owners’ hasn’t resulted in much, if any, increase in the ooltra-ooltra violence some people believe guns – in and of themselves – cause.

The impact of Pierce County’s pandemic-related gun sales may surprise you


The bulk ammunition shelves at Columbia Gun Rack in downtown Kennewick, Wash. are mostly barren from a continued surge in purchases during the coronavirus pandemic.

Not all businesses have been adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Across the nation gun stores are doing brisk business, and here in Pierce County, firearm sales have more than doubled in 2020.

Inventory is flying off the shelves, according to Damien Wongwai, owner and operator of Bull’s Eye Indoor Range in Puyallup. He told a member of the Editorial Board that first-time buyers, fueled by pandemic fears, make up a large percentage of his sales.

It’s important to remember that behind every gun purchase is a real person, with a real family, and due to the fallout of COVID-19 restrictions, they’re potentially going through a life altering experience. Gun safety measures have never been more important.

Pierce County recorded 20,181 firearms transfer applications (FTAs.) in 2019. To date, that number is well-past 44,000, and according to South Sound 911, those FTAs don’t reflect the total number of new firearms in circulation. There can be multiple weapons transferred under one application.

But do guns, guns and more guns also mean an increase in gun-related injuries and deaths? Call it the great unintended experiment of 2020, because we’re about to find out.

A study conducted this year by the University of California Firearm Violence Research Center concluded that “During the coronavirus pandemic, an acute increase in firearm access is associated with an increase in firearm violence.”

But that’s not the calculus playing out in Pierce County, not yet, anyway. Continue reading “”

Employee at Akron Metro PCS store shoots robber who pulled out gun

AKRON, Ohio (WOIO) – A man who pulled out a gun during a robbery at an Akron MetroPCS store Tuesday night was shot by an employee who pulled out a gun of his own, Akron police said.

The robbery happened just before 8 p.m. at the MetroPCS store on Main Street in Akron.

According to Akron police, the suspect entered the store, pulled out a handgun, and took money from the cash register.

The suspect then tried to get access to the safe.

That’s when a MetroPCS employee pulled out his own handgun and fired multiple shots at the subject before running from the store.

Officers took the suspect into custody when they arrived on scene.

The suspect had been hit by at least one shot and is in the hospital where he is in serious, but stable, condition, police said.

‘Hillbilly Elegy’ critics show they still despise ‘deplorables.’

Elites won’t allow any sympathy for poor whites

Netflix’s new adaptation of JD Vance’s “Hillbilly Elegy” is devastating for the left’s political narrative. How do I know that? Because so many leftists are trying to keep people from watching it.

Critics complain that the movie has too many noble country folk — though neither Vance’s 2016 memoir nor the film version is exactly focused on nobility as such. They even gripe that the autobiography of a white guy from the hill country doesn’t have any major black characters. Well, yes.

For a film made out of a bestselling book by a well-known liberal filmmaker (Ron Howard) and featuring Glenn Close, Amy Adams and Gabriel Besso, the movie seems surprisingly controversial. And why? Because, as I mentioned above, it’s devastating for the left’s political narrative. Continue reading “”

Is Left Starting To Understand Where NRA Stances Come From?

The National Rifle Association is the boogieman for the anti-gun left in this country. During the recent campaigns, plenty of politicians talk about how they were going to stand up to the NRA, how they were going to put the NRA in their place.

This is the same NRA that’s embattled at every flank, of course, yet still apparently managed to pose enough opposition to prevent a $100 billion effort by Micahel Bloomberg and company from yielding any fruits. At least, that’s what happened if you believe the NRA is the only barrier to anti-gun Utopia.

However, it seems that some on the left are starting to brush up against the understanding that the NRA isn’t what they need to worry about. Continue reading “”

Interstate shootings don’t surprise police, who say streets are flooded with guns

ST. LOUIS – Two interstate shootings Monday have people wondering if they’re safe anywhere. But they are just the beginning of the violence police say they’re seeing every day.

“The streets are absolutely flooded with stolen guns,” Maryland Heights Police Chief Bill Carson said.

The chief said many of them are coming from legal gun owners who are carrying them in their cars. Carson said it’s so prevalent now that criminals are confident they’ll find a gun when breaking into a car. He said the criminals are “looking specifically for guns. They’re finding guns and a lot of times when we encounter them, they are armed with guns they’ve stolen out of cars.” Continue reading “”