Via Ken.

California would be the first state to require gun owners to buy liability insurance to cover the negligent or accidental use of their firearms, if lawmakers approve a measure announced Thursday.

Even idiots know that insurance doesn’t cover intentional tort.  This is simply a way of punishing firearms owners.  They know that.  We know that.  Everyone knows that.

Outdoor Life.

Hiking with kids can be a unique experience, especially when there’s a black bear following your family up the trail. Last week, Brighton Peachy, her husband, and their three young children were hiking a popular trail in British Columbia when a black bear started following them, according to KUTV News.

While the bear appeared to be more curious than aggressive, it blocked the way back to the parking lot so the family of five—with kids aged one to six—had to keep walking up the trail as the bear lumbered along behind them. Peachy was able to record a video of the encounter with her cell phone.

Video at the link.

He has his wife and children on a hike through the wilderness of British Columbia, and he had bear spray.

I think you know what I think.

Matt Lewis writing at Daily Beast.

If you think Rep. Lauren Boebert’s conservative political philosophy is perverse, wait until you get a load of her version of Christian theology.

Speaking at a Christian Family Camp Meeting last weekend, Boebert revealed her mangled interpretation of Christ’s crucifixion: “On Twitter, a lot of the little Twitter trolls, they like to say, ‘Oh, Jesus didn’t need an AR-15, how many AR-15s do you think Jesus would have had?’” The Colorado congresswoman added, “Well, he didn’t have enough to keep his government from killing him.”

First, he writes like a second grader, and additionally, he blasts out how much he detests her conservative political philosophy right off the bat.  This doesn’t set the foundation for good analysis.

This might be one of the most un-Christian things a person could say—and not just because guns are bad, or whatever else might viscerally repel secular progressives. Consider the biblical account of Jesus’s arrest, after he was betrayed by Judas (as recounted in the Book of Matthew):

“[O]ne of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. Then Jesus said to him, ‘Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?’”

Now, compare the Gospel of Jesus to the Gospel of Boebert.

First, Boebert assumes that Jesus wanted to prevent his own crucifixion. Of course, this is true—in a sense. Before his arrest, Jesus prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.” But he hastened to add, “Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

Second, as Jesus told his disciples, he could have summoned “twelve legions of angels” to save himself and kill his captors. He didn’t. And the idea that Jesus simply needed more firepower denies one of the central tenets of Christianity—which is Christ’s divinity and omnipotence.

What is more, Boebert (and everyone else who claims to be a believer) should be thankful that Jesus did not take the easy way out of an excruciating death. As Jesus said, “how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled?”

Christians believe that God sacrificed his only son to atone for our sins. No sacrifice, no atonement. Sure, a bloody Tarantino-esque revenge scene might have felt very satisfying for his disciples, at the moment. But consider the eternal consequences.

Now, maybe you think this entire crucifixion story (never mind the resurrection) is one big absurd fairy tale—and that’s your right. But for those claiming to be Christians—as Boebert ostensibly does—getting this fundamental part of the story so badly wrong suggests it was either (a) a sacrilegious joke meant to score political points about the need to use guns against one’s government, or (b) evidence Boebert has a fundamental misunderstanding of basic Christian theology.

Either possibility should exclude Boebert from speaking publicly before a Christian audience.

But there’s something else here, too. By botching the events after Jesus was betrayed, Boebert betrays a worldview that has become ubiquitous during the Trump era: the hunger for a political savior.

It’s important to understand that the desire for a political savior (who will smite your enemies), while simultaneously overlooking the spiritual savior (who will change your heart and crucify your flesh), is a major theme of the New Testament.

“My kingdom is not of this world,” Jesus told Pontius Pilate during his trial. “If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”

Yet, what we see time and again in the Gospels—as evidenced by Peter cutting off the ear of an arresting officer—is that Jesus’s own disciples constantly struggled to understand this.

Indeed, most of Jesus’s disciples were anticipating a savior who would rule over Israel and liberate them from Rome. Instead, they got a “servant leader” who washed other people’s feet, and told them to turn the other cheek. They got a king who was forced to wear a crown of thorns.

Someone with a Trumpian ethos might even look at Jesus and conclude that he preaches weakness. “What a sap,” they might think.

Today, a lot of evangelicals are making the same mistake. They are so desperate for a political savior that they are missing the real-life spiritual savior.

Some are attempting to Trumpify Jesus—to change Him instead of letting Him change their hearts. Others are steering their passionate adoration toward an earthly king: Donald Trump. This, of course, is a form of idolatry.

This trend is being perpetuated by Trump disciples like Boebert, who advance this perversion of the faith—and by Christian organizations who baptize this warped worldview when they give it a platform.

We should all be thankful the Gospel of Boebert didn’t end up in biblical canon. Simply put, it’s a sin.

Second, readers here are no stranger to the notion that no politician will save us.  Only the King of King and the Lord of Lords can do that, both individually and nationally.

But Matt’s analysis has run off the rails, and badly so.  His bias has so clouded his judgment that he isn’t perceptive enough to notice it.

Ms. Boebert’s silly statement is a rehash of what has been seen and available over various blogs, Twitter accounts and elsewhere for months now.  She didn’t make it up.  It’s an attempt – a poor one – to cast weapons ownership in the light of self defense.

I am a Calvinist.  The events that surround the Crucifixion were ordained from before the foundation of the world, and could not have happened any other way.  God was saving His people from their sins.

That’s why I have never used this silly one-liner, and never will.  But I assume that Matt isn’t a Christian.  He gives me nothing in this article to assume that he is.  It’s always amusing to me to see non-Christians try to hold Christians accountable for living within the framework of their own world and life view.

They rarely accomplish that task because they don’t really understand the world and life view of the Christian.  To say that God’s kingdom is not of this world has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with whether the rulers of the world are to “Do homage to the Son, lest He become angry, and you perish in the way” (Ps 2:12).  It has nothing to do with whether God expects His people to pursue righteousness in their vocations, witnessing, and laws they help enact.  It has nothing to do with whether He will hold accountable those rulers who make ungodly laws and lead men and women in ungodly ways.

By 325 AD (anno Domini), Christianity had so conquered the known world that Constantine the Great convened the Council of Nicea to address the Arian heresy and affirm Athanasian doctrine.  There was sitting no back and quietly praying among Christians.  They worked to change the culture.  Nero was throwing them to the lions.  By 325 AD they had taken the Roman empire.

Another mistaken notion with Matt is that he conflates weapons with evil, or Trumpian doctrine, or something (we don’t know what).

Trump has nothing to do with this, and isn’t in Boebert’s statement.  We consider Trump to have been a failure because of all the awful people with which he surrounded himself, and his failure to root out the rot in the bureaucratic state.  Boebert’s statement has much to do with something entirely different than what Matt assumes, and his dragging a past-president into the conversation is weird and bizarre.

Finally, he of course thinks that Jesus is supposed to be a long haired, Bohemian, peacenik, flower child hippie, like so much of today’s Christians and non-Christians alike.

Remember though, it was Jesus who ordered His own disciples to go get themselves swords, in complete violation of the Roman laws of the times.  Jesus quite literally ordered His own disciples to become law breakers in order to effect self defense.

Our history of Christians and weapons is extensive (see here for one of hundreds of such examples).  We won’t recapitulate that here.  But suffice it to say when Matt decides to sus out Christian doctrine again, he needs to hire someone who is actually a Christian and believes Christian doctrine.  He also needs to learn quite a bit about Christian theology before weighing in again.

This article was a complete failure, and Matt is as much an ignoramus on Christian doctrine as Boebert (if in fact she wasn’t just trying to be cute with her response).

Dean Weingarten.

Cynthia had been dropped off by helicopter.  She was hiking along a narrow path on a ridge a few miles from the Salcha River, about 60 miles southeast of Fairbanks, Alaska. A “small black bear” startled her with a crash in the brush. It appeared to her, staring at her, from about 10 feet away. She yelled at it. She pounded a rock with her hammer to make noise. The bear was not intimidated.  Cynthia took a step back, which was also higher on the rock.

The bear moved out of her sight, then struck her from behind and knocked her down. She had been told playing dead was the best strategy, so she did. The bear proceeded to drag her for nearly half an hour. During that time, her right arm was disabled as the bear tore and chewed on it. She was able to get her radio out of her pocket with her left arm and signal for help.

The bear managed to eat and destroy much of both her arms before help arrived. She did not resist the bear.  If she had a firearm, she could easily have shot the bear. At 10 feet, standing still, even a small pistol could have worked.

[ … ]

Marti Miller was working for the Geological Survey as a cook when she met Cynthia, two years before Cynthia was attacked. They had become close friends. Marti visited Cynthia in the hospital and was well aware of the details of the predatory bear attack.

In 1981, Marti joined the Geological Survey full-time, after she finished her college degree. She had her own encounter with a predatory black bear after she became a project leader, sometime before 1995. In January of 1995, she was interviewed by Larry Kaniut, the well-known author of Alaskan bear books.

Marti Miller’s experience was similar to Cynthia’s in many ways. One difference was she was the project leader when her event happened. She was dropped off by helicopter in a very wild area, to work on a geological survey …

[ … ]

Marti decided to climb fast to get above the bear, to a place where she could see it approaching her.  She chambered a round in her rifle.  When she had gained elevation and space, she tried the radio again. Still no contact.  Then she saw the bear again. She moved directly upslope of the bear, and in her best command voice, yelled: “Get outta here!”

The bear was about 100 feet away. It looked at her and purposefully started walking toward her. When it was 70 feet away, she fired, aiming at the bear’s nose. The 180-grain Nosler bullet broke the bear’s neck, killing it instantly.

Dean is the king of bear attack reporting.  I’ve left a number of details out – go visit Dean’s article.  And never go into bear country without a firearm.

Honestly though, probably not written by him, but by some recent graduate of an Ivy League school who thinks she should work as a controller of other people.

Red flag laws allow us to take action when someone who has a gun begins to act erratically.

Red flag laws still require due process, and any removal of weapons is temporary. pic.twitter.com/IVPHgbrvhD

— Governor Tom Wolf (@GovernorTomWolf) June 16, 2022

Photos of guns, cryptic messages, none of which are illegal.  However, please note, those of you who are still on social media.  When you make a post on social media, it gets archived and is there forever.  Get off of social media.

One of the best comments on this is found here.

This is Randy, Jane’s angry ex. He used to beat Jane.

Jane is stunning and brave and owns a gun.

When her friend asks Jane if she is afraid of Randy getting out of prison, Jane posts a picture of her gun with the caption “Nah. I’ll shoot him.”

Randy is evil. He red-flags Jane, and after she has been disarmed by the police he stops by her house and beats her to death.

Happily, no one was shot.

But then, red flag laws aren’t meant for protection against evil doers.  They’re meant as a tool of disarmament for anyone and anything the authorities dislike.

Ephesians 2:1-10

“1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;”

To be brought to life in Christ Jesus by the resurrection of your dead soul for your trespasses and sins against God Almighty is, without hesitation, the principal object at the outset. The world has a system for you, no grand purpose nor calling, but striving after the desires of the body and mind blindly following nothing much but living according to the course of this world. The world is full of people having little more worth than a self-licking ice cream cone consuming themselves upon the lust of the flesh, living for nothing, and dying alone. Every man dies alone.

It’s a complicated world, having trespassed against the Living God while remaining in self-serving sin. A life such as that is pointless; never to understand the power you perceive is the spirit that works disobedience, making yourself an heir of perdition.

“2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:”

There is a prince of this world, all the evil among men becoming glaringly evident, wickedness on every media and medium luring and enticing only to leave you dead, hell-bound, but this is God’s world; he made it and you. He owns it, so while living according to the law of trespass against Him, you offend His holiness, never seeing or even desiring to understand the war in the dimension of spirit at the root of the grave evil taking hold all around you.

“3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”

But you’re not alone; you are a sinner as all men are before the Holy One, and He is the true power, having already conquered your sin, death, and hell. You had not sought the good before sin took root in your conscience; how could you, having been born into sin. There is none that seeketh after God…there is none that doeth good. Fulfilling your desires with wanton disregard for God’s plan, you are by your very nature a child of wrath, for the wrath of God abides on all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

Sin is blinding. It’s not simply blinding to those that are aware; it’s so pervasive, so thorough that those blinded by sin are blinded to not only the immediate presence of sin but may never know that sin exists. Sin is not simply the sum total of all the unfit thoughts and deeds accumulated as you serve the spirit of disobedience; it’s what you are; you are a sinner. If you could stop sinning, you never would have started. And God is awakening your blinded soul to your condition.

“4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,”

The two most lovely words ever spoken are, but God. But God is drawing and calling, making space in your mind that His word might penetrate to your core need; you need mercy, for He is full of love and rich in mercy. “We love him, because he first loved us.” – 1 John 4:19.

His great love is shown round about you, a little at the first; His revelation shows you the evil of this world and the evil in yourself, revealing the need for His great forgiveness. Even dead in sin, it’s God that brings alive the eternal soul to the realization of Christ’s blood sacrifice, for without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin to bring about everlasting life together with Christ. God does this of His own accord, which seems quite absurd to have to say, but far too many, God help them all, are counting upon some sense of being a good man. Too late, you’ve already sinned against God; there’s no meter in heaven; it’s Christ or the death of eternal torment.

You are a sinner, condemned already in your trespasses and sins. Only the Almighty, the Creator, gives life and new life by mercy and grace unto the everlasting hope of heavenly places with riches beyond understanding, imputing worth for the soul by Christ Jesus to those that call upon His holy name.

It’s the heart of a man, your heart, not your deeds, that God desires. Not as corruptible things, silver or gold, or keeping commandments that men heap upon themselves as though impressing their neighbors gets the attention of God’s good graces. God is not impressed with you; He’s God. “The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the LORD trieth the hearts.” – Proverbs 17:3

“5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:”

You can be raised to walk in the newness of life, through Christ, by the resurrection of the spirit in your soul; the Father in heaven offers forgiveness of sin and salvation from the wrath to come. “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” – 1 Peter 1:23.

Jesus Christ took your sins to hell with Him and buried them there for you; Christ speaking of His own life, declared, “I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.” In authority to lay down His life paying your sin debt to the Father, and He took it up again. He raised Himself from the dead on the third day, leaving your sins behind.

But, it’s more than a spiritual resurrection, which is incredible enough. Having ascended to heaven, at the right hand of Power, it is He who makes the way of life eternal. Those sealed unto redemption in Christ, seated with Him in heavenly places now through the Spirit of God, when the last trumpet sounds, we shall see him as he is and abide in His presence; death shall be no more. Your soul, if you are His, will be altogether in the company and glory of Holy Almighty God.

He created you for this: to know Him and to be with Him, and you, wasting another day, taking another lick at the ice cream cone, would you call upon His holy name?

“7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.”

God’s riches are exceeding. They are exceeding what? They’re God’s riches; what manner of silly question is it to ask what they exceed, for there is nothing but a long ugly slog before you of growing old, and if you make it that long getting sick, only to return to the dust from which God formed you. Preparing for contingencies is wise, but what is your final contingency? How can you save yourself? Remember those two great words, but God? God’s riches are exceeding anything and assuredly anything of this world; His grace in kindness by Christ Jesus is what you need.

“8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

But God, in His mercy by the grace of His good pleasure, offers salvation unto those who would hear, for Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. If it’s not of works, and salvation isn’t by works, then eternal life must be by grace. If you take upon yourself the duty to work for eternal life, rejecting the gift of His mercy in love, you make the grace of God of no effect. What an end of those ones, God help them.

But if it’s by grace, and it is, then the grace of God’s eternal pardon is what you need. Well, it says it in the Holy Bible, right there in verses 8 and 9; by the grace of God, through your faith in Christ Jesus, and not of works as though you could boast before God of anything whatsoever. Salvation is a gift to those who hear the call of Christ, and His call to you is now!

“10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

Every day people try to repair the sin-scarred planet, to fix each other, all the while circling the drain. Those that are Christs, we’re not saved for nothing; having received a new life by God’s great mercy in Christ Jesus, we show that same mercy to others. You know that you have kindness and charity of heart within you; God made you this way. In Christ is where that work has meaning and eternal value; one day, in heaven, we’ll see the fruits of those labors.

So there are works and good works, but none gaining the favor of He that is holy except and unless you be quickened with the Spirit of God for it is His own Son that the Father sees when He looks upon those raised up together with Christ. Without Christ, you are an unclean thing, vile, unworthy. Why did God allow His own Son to be tortured to death if you could satisfy His wrath on your own by some good deeds? Every religion of good deeds mocks Christ, for without Christ’s sacrifice unto salvation for us first, your works come short of the glory of God, raising no worth in heaven.

Jesus didn’t stay dead; it was not possible for Christ to see corruption. So many get this backward; that’s how deadly the sin of pride is; we’re predisposed, through sin, to misunderstand the simple truth of the sovereignty of the Almighty. We want to do it on our own, but Christ is incorruptible, and you are only corrupt. Every man convinces himself that he is a good man. The most grotesquely wicked souls on earth consider themselves good men by doing what they perceive to be good things.

Thinking that there must be something you can do to win salvation, what are you next to God that you should attempt to steal His throne, making yourself a saint by your own good graces? God makes saints! Without Christ first, you are as a son of perdition, a worker of iniquity, a child of disobedience, run by the prince of the power of the air, bound by your sin to burn in hell. No man can keep the whole law, and no man can disannul by works the miracle of the glorious grace of the Lord God Almighty unto salvation by the suffering of Christ Jesus on the cross; who do you think you are that you can buy heaven with your merit?

But God, the master craftsman of all that are His by faith, having created you, has ordained for you a service to Him that you should walk therein. No longer to serve the wasteful and repetitive grind of the long march to the grave and hell, but created in Christ unto good works, having first received mercy from the throne of His judgment by grace, to be made a child of the King. God gives results of eternal importance and purpose; your soul finally being fulfilled; it’s Christ that fills that void, that hole in your heart where you know, knew all along, good must be able to live there.

It’s a new life and life everlasting, for by grace are ye saved through faith. Call upon Jesus, seeking forgiveness from sin, beseeching upon prayer the throneroom of heaven, for mercy by His grace to enter into the exceeding riches of His glory through God’s lovingkindness; asking that you would be quickened in Christ. Receive His mercy from wrath, life today, and the end of your faith, the salvation of your soul for eternity, that you might know His exceeding abundant grace in the ages to come. Forgiveness unto salvation is nothing to forgo or attempt by any manner of your own concoction. It’s grace; it’s all grace; behold, now is the accepted time: Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ.

Input costs are always a problem for farmers. Via WRSA, the solution becomes much more difficult when the economy destabilizes with inflationary pressure.

This is far from the first farmer to offer a dire warning. Three weeks ago John Boyd Jr., the President of the National Black Farmers Association, said “We are in a crisis right now as far as the food chain goes with the farmer in this country,” adding “We’re going to see a lot of empty shelves and a lot more high food prices.”

Food shortages are coming; plan accordingly.

Red Flag laws are still a favorite of Republicans. Tucker Carlson on Red Flag Laws

WoG has The Wish List. You have a Second Amendment right to buy firearms unless you’re mentally ill. TCJ has discussed at length the deeply problematic definition of mental illness. It’s just an opinion of a witch doctor.

This mother is a hero.

Pregnant Mom Evens the Odds, Fends Off Armed Robbers With AR-15

“A Florida woman who was eight-months pregnant and came out wielding an AR-15 rifle reportedly saved her husband and pre-teen daughter last week from a pair of violent intruders who’d broken into the family’s home,” Fox News reported.

“They came in heavily hooded and masked. As soon as they had got the back door opened, they had a pistol on me and was grabbing my 11-year-old daughter,” King explained.

He recalled being pistol-whipped and kicked in the head.

“It became real violent, real fast,” he said.

Just one more gun law and poof – utopia attained.

California Moves Full Steam Ahead With Two More Gun Control Laws

The Judiciary Committees in both the Assembly and Senate approved of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed bills that came on the heels of the tragic shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

The first bill, SB 1327, is an attempt to “limit the spread of illegal assault weapons and ghost guns.”

The second bill, AB 2571, limits a firearms manufacturer “from advertising or marketing any firearm-related product, as defined, in a manner that is designed, intended, or reasonably appears to be attractive to minors.”

A Beef Cattle operation that runs between 2300-2600 head to market each year got a phone call from the FDA and were told to kill and bury all the cattle on site. If I understood it correctly, this isn’t a one-time deal. They were told not to bring their cattle to market anymore. This is no small operation and has been in service for years; several dozen breeding bulls, husbandry hand-raising calves, with pasture and hay-fed animals. There are no disease or potential risk factors involved. The subject came up when farm land for sale was being discussed. The government is going to pay what presumably is a fair price per head, but that’s not the point.

The internet indicates 500 plus pounds of consumable meat per animal; somebody knows more precisely how much, but it’s a lot.