Articles by Herschel Smith

And brrrr and brrrr and brrrr …

Interesting take here (via WRSA).

This is an easy decision for me.  I am a Calvinist.  I’ve said it before, and I will persist until the end.  As philosopher Alvin Plantinga observed about beliefs, mine are incorrigible (and he was a Calvinist philosopher so he understood me).  I will not perish one second sooner than ordained, nor live one second longer than ordained.  My very seconds are numbered.  Isaiah 46:9-10, Ephesians 1:11.  I will wisely avoid it if possible because I have responsibilities and God forbids me to tempt Him, but I do not fear death.

See here for historical context on how ill-tempered and disorderly Calvinists can be.

I will not submit to a ghoulish plan to modify my RNA worthy of Josef Mengele.  See the Greek word “pharmakeia,” which doesn’t mean the administration of drugs (of which I am not against), but rather, “witchcraft, magic, the use of spells and potions of magic, often involving drugs–a magic spell,” see Galatians 5:20 Greek original, “witchcraft.”

For me, case closed.

Interesting video.  Also applicable to some hunting.

They are using a light weight poncho, and I’d like to get a Polish Lavvu poncho, but here is the only place I can find a legitimate and authentic one, and I don’t even know if they ship to the U.S.

GOA.

Appropriations contained within H.R. 4502 and H.R. 4505 are at odds with the Bill of Rights. The House of Representatives has no business appropriating funds for programs that directly infringe on the right to keep and bear arms. Gun licensing, so-called “red flag” gun confiscation orders (GCOs), and gun buybacks have nothing to do with “State and Local Justice Assistance” and have everything to do with undermining the Bill of Rights. Further, it appears this legislation goes out of its way to stigmatize mental illness. H.R. 4505 appropriates $100,000,000 to bribe states to upgrade “mental health records” in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) using the gun control laws known as the NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007 and the Fix NICS Act of 2018. In conjunction with the unabashed inclusion of the Schumer Amendment—which prohibits ATF from removing records from NICS even if individuals are adjudicated “not […] likely to act in a manner dangerous to public safety”—this effort will certainly lead to more innocent Americans losing their gun rights.

The controllers never sleep.  Ecclesiastes 9:3, Jeremiah 17:9.

General Milley.

General Milley had no direct evidence of a coup plot. But in the days after Mr. Trump’s electoral defeat, as the president filled top military and intelligence posts with people the general considered loyal mediocrities, General Milley got nervous. “They may try,” but they would not succeed with any kind of plot, he told his aides, according to the book. “You can’t do this without the military,” he went on. “You can’t do this without the C.I.A. and the F.B.I. We’re the guys with the guns.”

While some might greet such comments with relief, General Milley’s musings should give us pause. Americans have not usually looked to the military for help in regulating their civilian politics. And there is something grandiose about General Milley’s conception of his place in government. He told aides that a “retired military buddy” had called him on election night to say, “You represent the stability of this republic.” If there was not a coup underway, then General Milley’s comments may be cause more for worry than for relief.

Right.  A coup.

Why don’t we outfit him in a dress and prance him around like a runway model?

Next up, Major General Patrick Donahoe.

On July 22, Major General Patrick Donahoe, the Commanding General of Fort Benning, reported from his official Twitter account that he was seeing a “surge” in ICU visits among young soldiers due to Covid. He reported that he would mandate the vaccine if he had the power to do so.

I replied, pointing out that the DOD has lost a total of 26 out of over 2 million personnel in the last year and a half to the virus. In the fourth quarter of 2020, there was a 25 percent surge in suicides across all services. In those three months alone, 26 additional servicemembers took their lives compared to the prior year.

The military’s response to the Coronavirus is almost certainly to blame for the rise.

[ … ]

He also tweeted at the university where I am a student, Hillsdale College, and told them to “come get your boy” for questioning the military’s quarantine and lockdown policies. General Donahoe, apparently, thinks the private sector is just like the military, where criticism can be stopped, and careers ended, with a mere snap of the fingers. As the thread attracted more attention, one commenter asked the General “how many wars he’d won.” The General responded by accusing the questioner of “shilling for Putin.” When I asked if Putin was the reason America had lost in Afghanistan, the General blocked me.

My interaction with the General serves as a microcosm of the American military’s cultural rot. Here we have a two-star General who spends his days on social media hyping a vaccine for an illness that poses minimal risk to his troops. When pressed on why America can’t win wars and why he embraces policies that treat healthy people like biohazards, his first response is to accuse his critics of treachery and then block them from view.

This is what $693 billion a year buys you: unbridled arrogance from the leaders of a military that can’t win against third world tribesmen armed with small arms and homemade explosives. A significant portion of our military leaders, like General Donahoe, are totally detached from reality. They face no consequences for losing wars or losing troops to preventable suicides. Many of them don’t really command anything at all. They are so ensconced in layers of bureaucrats, staff, operations and logistics shops, briefs, intelligence reports, public affairs officials, and aides that there is usually no danger of the public uncovering their true character, lack of leadership, or empty careers.

Task & Purpose had a fawning piece on him a while back.

One of the reasons Donahoe — who commissioned in 1989 through the ROTC program at Villanova University, and most recently served as the Deputy Commanding General of Operations for the 10th Mountain Division out of Fort Drum, New York — says he engages in Twitter is because it exposes him to viewpoints he otherwise could miss out on. Because of his rank, he’s insulated from the views, complaints, and opinions from lower ranking soldiers. But with Twitter, he’s able to get unfiltered perspectives, straight from the source.

“What I enjoy following [@LadyLovesTaft] is she’s got a perspective that I don’t have,” Donahoe said at AUSA. “I’ve never been a female lieutenant in the United States Army, I’ve never had that experience … those really are valuable insights for us. What is it that a female lieutenant in uniform in a combat arms unit faces on a daily basis? I got nothing, other than what’s being reported through 42 filters. This is unfiltered, unvarnished.

How embarrassing for Task & Purpose.  And how embarrassing for the U.S. military.  And how embarrassing for America.

But then, these two ladies aren’t the exception in today’s military leadership.  They’re the rule.

How sad and pathetic.

The superiority of tactics and training over equipment.

The advice is to get both.  But I found this bit interesting.

Armalite continued to develop and improve upon the AR-10 concept. Under the direction of Stoner, replacing the composite aluminum and steel barrel that may have ultimately been responsible for the military’s decision to go with a different weapon. Stoner had never liked this barrel. It proved a spectacular failure during torture tests demanded by the customer. The composite barrel had been suggested by Sullivan. This marked the moment when major Armalite design decisions started moving in Stoner’s direction.

That’s information I didn’t know.  It seems like there’s something I learn about the Sullivan/Stoner relationship every time I read an educated piece on this part of history.

Dean Weingarten.

On the evening of 22 September 2005, a hunting guide and his hunter, who was from Ohio, were attacked without provocation, by a grizzly bear in the Shoshone National Forest in the northwest corner of Wyoming. The details of the attack were found in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) response to AmmoLand. This correspondent has not found any other published account of this attack.

[ … ]

The guide attempted to draw his .44 magnum revolver, but the pistol hung up on the trigger guard. The bear was very close, so the guide dodged behind an eight-inch birch tree, to avoid the bear. The guide estimated he spent 40 seconds dodging the bear around the tree, until the bear grabbed him by the right side, and threw him to the ground.

With the guide on the ground, the bear worried him for a short period, then left him and ran at the hunter, who was armed with a crossbow. At ten yards, the hunter shot the bear in the chest with his bow. At the impact of the bolt, the bear stood up, and started back toward the guide, then lay down.

The hunter shouted to the guide, “She’s dead, I’m all right!” The guide got up and asked where the bear went. The hunter said “She is right next to you, about 6-8 feet away.” The guide determined the bear was still breathing, so he shot her in the back of he head with the .44 magnum.

This is impressive skills at composure under pressure.  Still, I’d rather have successfully deployed the .44 magnum handgun.

ZeroHedge.

Remington and the families of nine victims from the Sandy Hook school massacre, the second-deadliest school shooting in US history, have reached a settlement that was years in the making: the gun-maker and manufacturer of the Bushmaster AR-15 used by shooter Adam Lanza will pay a total of $33MM. Divided up among the families, that comes to $3.66MM each (before the lawyer’s cut). The families insist the money is no substitute for the brutal killing of their loved one.

According to Reuters, the settlement must still be approved by the Alabama judge overseeing the Remington bankruptcy case. The plaintiffs allege that Remington’s marketing contributed to the shooting. In a February court filing, the plaintiff’s legal team  argued that the value of their claims could exceed $1 billion, including punitive damage – a pretty obvious negotiating tactic.

Sickening.  Why didn’t Remington fight this all the way?  There is a federal law in place to prevent this sort of thing.  Why did they cave?

And tell me why I should ever buy a Remington product again?

Via WiscoDave.