Articles by Herschel Smith

World Net Daily:

US News:

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A federal trial that begins Monday will focus on whether police lied about the results of tests on discarded tea leaves found in a Kansas couple’s trash to get a search warrant ahead of a SWAT-style raid on their home in search of marijuana.

Robert and Adlynn Harte are seeking $5 million for economic losses, emotional pain, distress and humiliation and an additional $2 million in punitive damages in response to the 2012 raid on their Leawood home.

I won’t try to read the tea leaves in this case (sorry for the very bad joke).  But I do have a solution for this kind of thing.  Since the law enforcement officers, attorneys and judge who signed the warrant all participated in the unconstitutional actions against this family, they should all have all of their toenails pulled off, one by one.

Take video and send so that I can embed.

Mr. LEO responds to our article on the Grand Rapids Police Department:

LOL. Constant “oh those horrible police!!!” You people are completely clueless. Wanna guess what I took out of the back of the pants of a six-year old? A cocked .32 cal revolver his mama had shoved in there to hide it when she heard me coming around the corner. A COCKED REVOLVER – IN YOUR CHILDS PANTS! You people live in a world of ignorance and stupidity. It is very very sad.

Thanks for your visit.  It’s always a bit amusing when a LEO (or former LEO) visits this site.  The working assumption is normally that we’re a progressive anti-cop site (because you read a single article), or that we’re a conservative site full of readers who believe in state authority and want the cops to protect them but are having a difficult time swallowing the hard, necessary things a cop must do to actually protect the poor “sheeple” under his charge, sheep dog that he is.

But we know, as do you, that you aren’t charged to protect anyone, legally or judicially.  All or most of the readers on this site have multiple firearms, carry them, and are able and willing to present and deploy them if the need arises.  We don’t want or need your protection.  If something happens, we’ll call you to write the report.  But we won’t talk to you about it, because we know that the (unbiblical) US Code says that any exonerating evidence you learn from your conversation with us must be excluded from court as hearsay, and that only incriminating evidence is admissible.

As for the little wheel gun you took off the boy, hmm … let me ponder that for a moment.

Okay, I’ve pondered it, and here is my response.  I don’t care.  Not one whit.  Not even a little bit.

Either that lady had a right to it (God gives everyone the right and duty of self defense), or she didn’t (e.g., she stole the firearm in which case she and her boy should have become the slaves of the offended party until the debt was paid threefold).  I don’t know the details of the case as do you.

But most readers here believe in Herschel’s Dictum, and if we had met this lady somewhere and she intended us harm with the weapon (or without), we should have been ready to present and defend ourselves.  As should you.  You should assume that everyone is armed all of the time.  That assumption doesn’t turn me into a pathological time bomb.  Nor should it you.

Thanks again.  Your visit was at least mildly amusing.  Oh, and if you violated the constitutional rights of the person you talked about with the revolver, then you should have your toenails pulled off.

PJM:

Islamic State supporters issued a new Christmas-themed threat showing the National Cathedral in Washington in flames, with a camouflage-clad jihadist wielding a rifle standing in front of the Gothic structure.

The poster circulating among ISIS channels photoshops the photo of the church used on its Wikipedia page.

The text warning on the image is of a city just attacked this past week, though: “Wait for us: We meet at Christmas in New York… soon.”

The threat mirrors that on a poster of Santa with a case of dynamite overlooking Times Square, which was released just after Thanksgiving: “We meet at Christmas in New York… soon,” reads the text on that image.

Idiots.  Santa Claus has nothing whatsoever to do with Christmas or Christianity.  And the National Cathedral has nothing whatsoever to do with Christianity either.  They no longer believe in anything at all, and ISIS is wasting their time assuming that an attack on the National Cathedral would deter believers in America from meeting and worshipping on the Lord’s Day Sabbath.

However, it does bring up an interesting little dilemma for the National Cathedral, yes?  You see, they are leaders in the progressive community in gun control.  This sermon (posted on their web site) tells us everything we need to know.

I, for one, have decided to join forces with Dean Hall at the National Cathedral and all people of faith and good will who are saying now, in response to Friday’s tragedy, that enough is enough. We have been fed enough the stale bread of violence. We have been complicit too long in a system that allows such crimes to continue. 119,079 children and teens have been killed by gun violence since 1979, according to Marian Wright Edelman of the Children’s Defense Fund, more than the number of Americans killed in any of the 20th century’s largest wars. More than 10,000 Americans were killed by gun violence last year alone.

Dean Hall and I have decided to dedicate ourselves to the work of passing national legislation to ban the sale of assault weapons and ammunition in this country and I invite you, as a congregation, to join us and others for whom something snapped inside on Friday, as if we collectively all awoke from a very bad dream. While there are legitimate reasons to own a gun for sport and self-defense, there is no reason for civilians to own weapons whose only purpose is to kill large numbers of people. And while there is far more to be done to reduce violence in our nation and to care for the mentally ill, if we don’t begin with the most obvious first steps, how will we ever progress to more difficult challenges?

So there you have it.  The very people who have been threatened by ISIS believe they shouldn’t be allowed to defend themselves and should have to turn to the state for protection.  The National Cathedral has never once averred that congregants should carry, any more than they believe that men walking the street should be allowed to carry weapons.  Their tip of the hat to self defense is a lie.

If I was a congregant at the National Cathedral, I sure wouldn’t be attending there any more.  But then again, why would anyone be a congregant at the National Cathedral?  They don’t believe in anything.

Albert Mohler:

He was one of the great defenders of historic Christianity of our times. It is fair to say that R.C. was the greatest and most influential proponent of the recovery of Reformed theology in the last century. He was a stalwart defender of the Word of God, and one of the primary architects of the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy in 1978. His tapes were soon accompanied by his books and the vastly expanding influence of Ligonier Ministries.

When he taught about the holiness of God, a generation of evangelicals was rescued from the emaciated and desiccated theology of cultural Christianity. When he defended Reformed theology, he taught us all how to understand the gospel in terms of God’s eternal purpose to save, consistent with his sovereignty. He was rigorously biblical and ruthlessly logical . . . with a smile.

He loved to introduce Christians to both the splendors and the humbling lessons of church history. He wanted evangelical Christians to stand in a line of faithfulness that began with the apostles and continued to the present. He had the heart and courage of Martin Luther and the theological precision and passion of John Calvin. He was a proud son of the Reformation, and the solas of the Reformation were the architecture of his mind. He urged and taught Christians toward the development of the Christian mind, and ideas were his battleground.

There were many theologians responsible (humanly speaking) for a resurgence of reformed theology in the twentieth century, including Cornelius Van Til, R. J. Rushdoony, Gordon Clark, Greg Bahnsen, Alvin Plantinga, and many others.  However, from the perspective of the popularization of theological ideas and the ability to see the future and react quickly to the changes in how people would be educated, Sproul was unsurpassed.  He was also unsurpassed as a communicator and teacher.

His legacy is cemented, but I’m sure he isn’t concerned about his legacy right now.  I don’t believe in the term RIP (rest in peace).  There is no rest.  Sproul is busy worshipping at the throne of glory right now.  Good.

Via David Codrea, this from Larry Keane writing for Ammoland.

For those on the pro-gun side who argue online or respond to posts with the message that the entire system should be scrapped for whatever reason, or that it will lead someday to a national gun registry, you need to hear this: Take a breath, think.

If there was not a NICS system, we would have had some other system imposed, just as we did in the five years before NICS was implemented. The Brady Act imposed a waiting period while NICS was under construction. Would you prefer that? Existing federal law prevents a national registry. That will not change with Fix NICS.

Well isn’t that just swell.  Larry Keane, head of NSSF, is lecturing us on accepting something because something else could be worse.  Nevermind that the whole thing is an unconstitutional infringement.

Smarter and more morally grounded writers, Roger J. Katz, Attorney at Law, and Stephen L. D’Andrilli, also write for Ammoland why they are concerned about “fixing NICS.”

Anti-gun proponents, through their Congressional representatives—Senate Democratic Party members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, including ranking Democratic Party member, Dianne Feinstein, and her principal cohorts, Patrick Leahy, Richard Blumenthal, Dick Durbin, and Sheldon Whitehouse, among others—wish to move the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) and other criminal and mental health databases into an efficient and massive and broad digital firearms registration scheme, embracing more and more individuals and incentivizing the military and the States to add comprehensive criminal and mental health data into NICS and other databases. Through this Hearing, and through recent comments of anti-gun proponents in news broadcasts, we see renewed efforts by anti-gun proponents, stoked by the recent mass shooting incidents—to weaken the Second Amendment beyond past efforts. Emboldened, we see efforts afoot by anti-gun proponents to transform NICS and other federal and State databases into a comprehensive digital firearms’ registration scheme, wrapping it into a more restrictive, draconian criminal and mental health background check scheme.

It’s a long article and well worth your time.  Please read it all, and thanks to David for bringing Keane’s Krap to our attention.

You know my position.  I’ve made it abundantly clear, and I don’t retreat one iota from it.  “I do not support any bill, ever, under any circumstances, for any reason whatsoever, that includes more gun laws.  I do not believe in compromise.”

The Baltimore Sun:

Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler has asked state lawmakers to let handgun owners bring their weapons to worship, saying he wants congregations to be able to defend themselves against a mass shooting like the one that happened last month in Texas.

Gahler backs a proposal that would let parishioners who have the written permission of church officials wear and carry a handgun on church property. The parishioner would need a state handgun license, but not a concealed-carry permit.

He was joined at a news conference this week in Edgewood by the two lawmakers who plan to introduce the legislation— Republican House Minority Whip Kathy Szeliga and state Sen. Wayne Norman — and three local pastors who support the idea. The sheriff, also a Republican, said he asked lawmakers to pursue the issue.

They called the measure the Parishioner Protection Act of 2018.

The Sheriff is to be congratulated for his stand.  It isn’t constitutional carry, you say?  No, it’s not.  But it’s all he could ever hope to get (regardless of his views on constitutional carry).  So why does he want this for Marylanders?

Gahler said there are about 300 churches in Harford County and about 20 Sheriff’s Office deputies on duty at any time.

“The police cannot be everywhere, and this proposed legislation grew out of the faith-based community reaching out to us,” he said.

But continuing with the previous report, this isn’t likely to happen.

The proposal is counter to political winds in Annapolis, where the presiding officers of the Democrat-dominated General Assembly have proposed tightening — not loosening — Maryland’s gun laws.

“We don’t need guns in churches,” Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller said in a statement to The Baltimore Sun.

Miller and House Speaker Michael E. Busch, both Democrats, have jointly announced support for expanding the state’s ban on assault-style weapons and revamping the process for appealing denial of concealed-carry permit requests.

Miller and Busch want to replace the Handgun Permit Review Board, which is composed of five political appointees who can overturn decisions of the Maryland State Police, with an administrative judge — taking gun permit requests out of the hands of civilians.

“Maryland has one of the strongest gun control laws in the country — and we are not going to take a step backward now,” Busch said in a statement.

Given that environment, “I don’t see it happening,” Del. Kathleen Dumais said of the new proposal on guns in houses of worship.

“We will certainly hear the bill,” said Dumais, a Montgomery County Democrat who is vice chair of the House Judiciary Committee. “I am just not convinced that more people carrying guns is the solution.”

Under current law, those who want a concealed-carry permit must undergo training and apply to the state police. The applicant must show “a good and substantial reason” for needing the permit, and the police investigate to determine whether the applicant has “exhibited a propensity for violence or instability.”

“Good and substantial reason.”  You see, you basically cannot have a concealed handgun permit in Maryland.  It isn’t a shall issue state.  The Sheriff wants to allow congregants to carry on church property without one.

The communists in Maryland would rather see congregants die.  They are one Islamist away from hundreds of deaths that could have been avoided.

Do you live in Maryland?  If so, why?

William Jacobson details his problems with the refusal to peacefully transfer power to the Trump administration.  It’s an interesting read, but the thing that most caught my attention is the comments.

tiger66 | December 12, 2017 at 3:59 pm

People know almost without having to be taught, that the second amendment isn’t about hunting.  That’s why tyranny will ultimately fail.  The more the deep state tyrants try to squeeze the people, the more guns and ammunition they buy.

Now to be sure, they have to be willing to use them, but that time will come.  It’s a peaceful, longsuffering people.  But they can be pushed hard enough to crack.  I don’t know whether the revolution will be televised or not, but I’m certain that parts of America won’t have power, so many people won’t see it even if some do.

Meanwhile, Matt Bracken has updated his visual on the deep state coup.  It’s nice to see the major actors all on the visual, including McCabe, Comey, etc., but we should also remember that there are some deeper and even more hidden actors within the CIA, FBI and Department of State that make the wheels turn.

And then there are some even deeper actors than that, e.g., Steve Feinberg and DynCorps and perhaps the head of the snake itself, the Council on Foreign Relations.

WKYC.com:

The description of the suspect at the time was a 40-year-old woman.

Officers determined that the suspect had fled the scene, and their investigation led them to another house on the Westside of Grand Rapids. As they set up a perimeter, two women and the 11-year-old walked out of the house. Police said the two women looked to be about 40.

Officers pointed their guns at all three individuals as they determined if any of them were the suspect. The guns were lowered and the girl was patted down and handcuffed while police determined if the knife from the stabbing had been passed off to her.

According to police, the girl was handcuffed for two minutes then the cuffs were removed and she was detained in the back of a police cruiser for 10 minutes with the other women.

After this, GRPD officers reached the conclusion that the two women and the girl were not the suspect involved in the stabbing. All three were then released.

Sergeant Cathy Williams of the GRPD said, “At no time was anyone thrown nor was any force used other than the detention with handcuffs.”

After this incident, a complaint was filed on behalf of the 11-year-old with the GRPD who then opened an internal investigation.

The Grand Rapids PD make it sound so reasonable and peaceful, don’t they?  Having coffee and crumpets with the ladies, were they not?

No, they were not.  They were pointing deadly weapons at them.  So what the GRPD wants you to accept is that it’s okay for cops to go on a rambling, disorganized, discombobulated, knuckleheaded search for someone, they know not whom, point weapons at innocent ladies, touch and search a little girl, handcuff her, and detain her unlawfully.  Because cops.  And that’s all you need to know.

And this could have been your wife or daughter.  Is that okay with you?

Reason.com:

According to a 2016 report from the Justice Department’s inspector general that looked at a sample of 125 delayed denials from 2008 through 2014, the ATF recovered weapons in 116 cases. In two cases, the gun owners already had resold the weapons, and in one case “the matter was referred to local authorities after the subject was arrested by them on unrelated charges.” In five cases, “the subjects could not be located,” and in one case “the ATF office explained that due to competing priorities it did not have the resources to retrieve the firearm.” In other words, the illegal gun owners were disarmed 95 percent of the time. But the public safety benefit of those efforts is debatable, because the reasons people are forbidden to own guns often have little or nothing to do with the threat they pose.

[ … ]

The 2004 report noted that gun buyers who fail background checks before completing their purchases are rarely prosecuted, even though all of them, on the face of it, have committed felonies by making false statements on the ATF form they filled out while trying to buy a firearm. The FBI blocked 122,000 gun sales in 2002 and 2003, which represented 0.7 percent of background checks. Only 154 of the would-be gun owners—0.1 percent—were prosecuted. According to the 2016 report, prosecution rates in more recent years have been even lower. “These cases lack ‘jury appeal’ for various reasons,” the 2004 report noted. One of those reasons: “The factors prohibiting someone from possessing a firearm may have been nonviolent or committed many years ago.”

If most people who are forbidden to own guns by federal law do not strike ATF agents or jurors as dangerous, maybe there is something wrong with the law. The scandal is not lackadaisical ATF agents, negligent prosecutors, or apathetic jurors; it is the casual ease with which the government deprives people of the fundamental right to armed self-defense.

But in order to understand what’s happening here, you have to remember that Form 4473 isn’t really about preventing dangerous people from buying guns.  It’s about FedGov control.

The thing that struck me in this article was the fact that buyers had stated they sold the firearm, and that apparently was good enough for either local law enforcement, the FedGov, or both.  Some states require that you keep a bill of sale for person-to-person transfers, but in the case you don’t, most prosecutors aren’t going to waste jury and judge time on failure to retain a BoS.

That means that Form 4473 – and no, I don’t like it, and I think it’s an infringement, and it could easily be turned into a FedGov gun registration list, and therefore is a dangerous thing that ought to be abolished – is not yet a FedGov gun registry.

Not yet.