Articles by Herschel Smith

How did she not know that this would instantly become a meme?  How could she have been so stupid?

CBS News.

West Point has expelled at least eight cadets and are holding more than 50 back a year as a result of the military academy’s worst cheating scandal in over 40 years.

The military academy investigated 73 cadets suspected of cheating on a freshman calculus exam in May administered virtually because of the coronavirus. More than 50 of the cadets were athletes, several of whom were on the football team, according to a West Point spokeswoman.

“West Point must be the gold standard for developing Army officers. We demand nothing less than impeccable character from our graduates,” said Superintendent Lt. Gen. Darryl A. Williams in a press release.

Fifty-five of the 73 immediately admitted to cheating through the academy’s process of willful admission when confronted with suspicions of cheating. Willful admission was instituted in 2015 to encourage cadets to adhere to the academy’s honor code and take responsibility for any violations of the code. However, officials have concluded that this program has not been effective, and the academy is terminating the program.

This is the worst cheating scandal at the school since 1976, when 153 cadets resigned or were expelled because they cheated on an electrical engineering exam.

I’ll make some remarks that may surprise readers.

First of all, engineering is hard.  Calculus is hard.  People must resist the temptation to cheat.  The only way to learn engineering is to take a deep dive and spend all of your life with it, for at least four straight years.  There is no other way.  There is no replacement for devoting your life to study of this subject.  Ask me how I know.

I’m not sure why West Point – or any other school for that matter – would think that America can eviscerate God from the institution and expect honesty.  Without God there is no foundation for morals.  That is obvious not just in everyday, pedestrian life, but from the classic debates (e.g., Frederick Copleston versus Bertrand Russell, Greg Bahnsen versus Gordon Stein, etc.).

Second, while all of that is true, engineering professors must not turn engineering into exercises of memorization.  I don’t know that they did this, and I certainly don’t know the details of the incident.  But engineering isn’t done by memorization.  Any engineer who creates models and designs by memorized conversions, formulae or techniques should be fired.  It’s not done that way, and professors too stupid to know that shouldn’t be teaching.

Lectures and tests should focus on mastery of the concepts and material, not rote memorization.

I’ve sent questions around about med kit issues and haven’t gotten any responses.

Frankly, I don’t like what I see out there for complete kits.  For tourniquets, I’d rather have the ratchet design.  Quikclot is very pricey.  Here is a vacuum packed gauge kit from the same company.

I know about medicines, general issues of gauze and bandages, scissors, etc., but I’d also like to have Lydocaine.  I know there are patches and creams, but I’d rather have injectable Lydocaine.  I’ll probably not be able to get that because I’m not a medical professional.

I think I need to make my own kit, but I can’t even really locate good, compact kit bags like I want.  I know I need something waterproof, or very nearly so.

At SurvivalBlog there is this recent post on medical emergency sheets.

What have you chosen to do, and why, and how did you accomplish the logistics to make it happen?  From whom did you order what, how many did you get, and what are your experiences to be emulated or avoided?

Ammoland.

“This whole gunfight is going to come down to ‘Red Flag Gun Seizures.’ Moderates in the GOP think they can vote for that without getting burned…and if they pass ‘Red Flags,’ Biden will use that momentum to go for AR-15’s and mags next.”

That’s what one highly placed source on Capitol Hill told me just hours ago as the fight for gun control is being waged behind the scenes and behind closed doors with a vengeance!

[ … ]

… the backstabbing moderates in the Republican conference like Marco Rubio, Mitt Romney, and Lindsay Graham do their best to convince the Republicans to ‘offer up a common-sense compromise so we do something on guns.’

And that’s why Florida Republican Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott are the lead sponsors on S. 292, a massive ‘Red Flag Gun Seizure’ spending bill that bribes state legislatures into enacting this law at the state level, with taxpayer dollars!

We’ll get to see just how serious the states and counties are when they declare themselves 2A sanctuaries.

Guns.com.

On April 8, U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., announced two new gun control proposals, H.R. 2426 and H.R. 2427. The former deals with making it illegal to give a firearm to someone who has had their state license to possess or purchase firearms revoked. The latter is termed the National Firearms Act Modernization Act and aims to increase the tax rates on NFA-regulated items such as machine guns, short-barreled rifles and shotguns, and suppressors.

Noting that the tax amounts in the NFA, established in 1934, have not changed since enacted – for instance, $200 in 1934 would be the equivalent of $3,925 in 2021 – Raskin’s proposal would immediately bump the rates by 50 percent. This would make the basic $200 tax stamps on most NFA transfers $300 moving forward. After that, the rate would increase in line annually with the federal cost-of-living adjustment.

At the same time that Raskin’s tax spike scheme was being unveiled, President Biden was announcing he would order the Justice Department to issue a proposed rule within 60 days, “to make clear when a device marketed as a stabilizing brace effectively turns a pistol into a short-barreled rifle subject to the requirements of the National Firearms Act.”

Just keeping you informed.  This is what your betters expect you to do.

Around the 4 second mark.  That rifle is pointing everywhere but down.

Buses filled with National Guardsmen have arrived at the Brooklyn Center Police Department. pic.twitter.com/OL8dAbps8F

— James Klüg (@realJamesKlug) April 13, 2021

If my son had muzzle flagged somebody like that in the MC, he would have been sent to the “room of pain.” Oh, and it would be best not to drop your rifle. Keep better control over it.

Via WiscoDave.

HAPPENING NOW: Police association members and chiefs from Dallas, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio are holding a news conference at the Capitol to speak out against a bill allowing permitless carry of firearms. #txlege pic.twitter.com/CLLD7IPJvu

— Reena Jade Diamante (@reenajade) April 13, 2021

Is anyone surprised that Texas police would oppose the exercise of God-given rights without their approval?

This will go down as one of the most stupid, cowardly acts in the annals of “wokeness.”

In his emailed statement, Ryken said the term “savage” is a pejorative term that “has been used historically to dehumanize and mistreat indigenous peoples around the world. Any descriptions on our campus of people or people groups should reflect the full dignity of human beings made in the image of God.”

Ryken and other members of Wheaton leadership have received about a dozen comments about the plaque this school year from students and members of the campus community, said Joseph Moore, Wheaton’s director of marketing communications. He said the president released the statement because the plaque has been temporarily removed, and leadership wanted the campus community to “know about its review, rewording, and return.”

For those of you who know about the heroic actions of Jim Elliot and his missionaries, they were killed by the very group of savages to whom they went as missionaries.  Wheaton College is embarrassed at the truth.

“They weren’t white supremacists, they were Christ supremacists.”

We covered this.  Neither is “better.”  I prefer KeyMod.  Buy whichever you want.

Michael Yon.

United States must stay out. This is not our war. We are not global 911.

This is a strategic trap. Reserve our force for CCP.

My estimation: Russia will attack under the upcoming Comanche Moon — if weather is clear.

Truth spoken.  This isn’t our conflict.  We have no compelling interest in engagement.  If we go to war with Russian troops, unprepared, untrained, fat boys and girls will come home on body bags.

On the other hand, the DoD has driven most patriots out of the military (save the USMC).  It would be the sons and daughters of “woke” parents who perish.

I’m glad my son is out of the Marine Corps.  He is too.

We won’t be “saving” our troops for China or anyone else.  China will take Taiwan and the U.S. won’t lift a finger to stop it.