Articles by Herschel Smith

I notice that Kyle doesn’t shoot his rifle with the “aggressive plates forward” stance that seems to be popular these days. I’m not saying you have to, but that’s how I was taught and I find it comfortable with AR-15s. Of course, not so with bolt action hunting rifles or shotguns.

I’ve shot thousands and thousands and thousands of rounds through pistols, and I’ve never had this malfunction (perhaps because I only try to shoot higher quality firearms and ammunition). I’m very down on low quality ammunition, and I look on it sort of like putting cheap oil in your engine. Also, I’m very observant of my magazines, and try to keep them clean. But if you are subject to this failure, he gives you a way out.

By now you’ve heard that Judge Barbara Bellis dismissed the case against Remington.  Good.  But she should have done this long ago.  The only people who got rich here were the lawyers.  I have no desire to analyze what she said.  It’s a waste of my time.

Early on she said the law “does not prevent lawyers for the families of Sandy Hook victims from arguing that the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle is a military weapon and should not have been sold to civilians.”  Now she says it does.  Here’s my analysis.  She has her sights set on higher things, and wants eventually to be considered for some higher judicial post.  She can’t make an idiotic ruling that gets reversed by the Supreme Court of Connecticut or the United States and keep that hope alive.  I suspect this was entirely self serving.

PJ Media:

One of John Podesta’s emails released by WikiLeaks this week exposes how progressive elites seek to exploit the unwashed masses. The email features one of Podesta’s colleagues from the Center for American Progress admitting that the institutional left “conspires to produce an unaware and compliant citizenry,” ostensibly to impose their radical agenda on us without much resistance.

The correspondent is Bill Ivey of Global Cultural Strategies, “the online representation of the ideas, writings, and affiliations of author/consultant Bill Ivey.” He is an author trained in folklore and history, a trustee of the Center for American Progress, a former team leader in the Barack Obama presidential transition in 2008, and the former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts in the Clinton administration.

In the email from March of 2016, Ivey expresses concern about the rise of “opinionated blowhard” Trump and frets because the “citizenry” seems to be awakening.

Well, we all thought the big problem for our US democracy was Citizens United/Koch Brothers big money in politics. Silly us; turns out that money isn’t all that important if you can conflate entertainment with the electoral process.

Trump masters TV, TV so-called news picks up and repeats and repeats to death this opinionated blowhard and his hairbrained ideas, free-floating discontent attaches to a seeming strongman and we’re off and running. JFK, Jr would be delighted by all this as his “George” magazine saw celebrity politics coming. The magazine struggled as it was ahead of its time but now looks prescient. George, of course, played the development pretty lightly, basically for charm and gossip, like People, but what we are dealing with now is dead serious.

How does this get handled in the general? Secretary Clinton is not an entertainer, and not a celebrity in the Trump, Kardashian mold; what can she do to offset this? I’m certain the poll-directed insiders are sure things will default to policy as soon as the conventions are over, but I think not.

And as I’ve mentioned, we’ve all been quite content to demean government, drop civics and in general conspire to produce an unaware and compliant citizenry. The unawareness remains strong but compliance is obviously fading rapidly. This problem demands some serious, serious thinking – and not just poll driven, demographically-inspired messaging.

I’m not insulted.  I actually feel a bit sorry for your ignorance.  Mr. Ivey, you make the same mistake that most other progressives make.  Oh, there’s a lot of couch potatoes around who like to watch night time sitcoms, wear stupid clothing and cheer for their favorite band of criminals on Sunday.

But you’re missing the larger point.  The NRA is blamed for rousting the masses of gun owners, for telling them what to think, and for getting in the way of “common sense” gun regulations.  You see the world this way because progressives need their leaders to tell them how to think and what to do.  To the extent that the NRA fights the Senate, Congress and President, they’re doing what we tell them to do.  To the extent that they don’t, they are being recalcitrant.  In the total absence of the NRA, our views wouldn’t change one iota.  We don’t look to them for our world view.

Similarly, messaging won’t change things for us.  When I say “us,” I mean more people than you know.  Donald Trump is a symptom, not the disease.  The only other candidate who had any chance of winning was Ted Cruz, and he was as hated by the establishment as Trump is.  Trump didn’t ascend to the top because of his television persona, but because it’s all being burned down by the people.  Trump is the vessel.  The people threw gasoline and lit the match.

As for the goal of conspiring to produce an unaware and compliant citizenry, you’re far too late for that.  America is the most heavily armed nation in the world.  I’ve seen your plans.

The legislation has already been written. H.R. 4269 would enact a national, permanent ban on the manufacture and sale of so-called “assault weapons” and all firearm magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds. The bill, introduced last December, already has149 Democratic co-sponsors (218 are needed to pass the House).

H.R. 4269 would ban all AR-15 and AK-type rifles and all civilian versions of military rifles produced anywhere in the word within the past 60 years or so. The bill would also ban all parts kits, stripped receivers, “bump-fire” stocks, thumbhole stocks, trigger cranks, so-called “compliant” rifles, and “any… characteristic that can function as a [pistol] grip.” Law enforcement is exempt from the bill’s provisions.

H.R. 4269 is not a “kick down the door and confiscate ‘em” bill. Existing rifles and magazines are “grandfathered” (but the transfer of existing magazines is permanently prohibited). Gun banners know that it is literally impossible to perform a door-to-door gun confiscation in a nation of 300 million people, and that any attempt to do so would certainly be met with violence. Consequently, they have pre-empted the “Come and take it” crowd by employing a long-term strategy. Once the manufacture and sale of certain weapons is prohibited, it is only a matter of time before the legislation would be amended to outlaw the transfer of “grandfathered” rifles as well as magazines, thus enacting a de facto confiscation within a generation.

This won’t work.  No one will comply.  You don’t honestly think we’re going to spend our hard earned money on guns and ammunition, teach our sons to shoot and fend for themselves, and then turn the guns over to you in our wills, do you?

As I said.  It’s too late.  There is an inevitable split coming to America.  Your plans for collectivism can’t control the American spirit.  Every turn of the screw by you will only make matters worse and the people more ungovernable.  But since your world view works from the top down, I don’t expect you to understand this.  That bodes darkness for the near term.

Wikileaks:

RE: Thanks

From:elmendorf@teamsubjectmatter.com To: john.podesta@gmail.com Date: 2016-02-09 20:56

Subject: RE: Thanks

I am all in

Sounds like it will be a bad nite , we all need to buckle up and double down

From: John Podesta [mailto:john.podesta@gmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, February 09, 2016 4:36 PM To: Steve Elmendorf <elmendorf@teamsubjectmatter.com>

Subject: Thanks

Didn’t think wet works meant pool parties at the Vineyard.

So I don’t run in the same circles with spooks, and until tonight I didn’t know what the phrase “wet works” meant.  I do now.  John Podesta needs to explain himself immediately.  The phraseology and the timing look damning.

TCJ wants to know.  What does this mean, John?  Who knew what, when?  Who was involved in what, John?  What did you do?

Informative video.  In the end, if you make it that far, I think they reach the right conclusion.  AR-15s (and their parts) have become so reliable that it makes little difference now.  The point of diminishing returns is reached very soon (the sweet spot is < $1500).

Fox News:

NEW CASTLE, Ind. –  An Indiana pastor is charged with threatening to shoot neighborhood children to keep them away from his church.

The (Muncie) Star Press reports (http://tspne.ws/2eh5K8T ) that 69-year-old Bobby Slagle of New Castle’s Calvary Baptist Church is charged with felony intimidation and misdemeanor resisting law enforcement

According to a police report, Slagle said he was frustrated about vandalism at his church in New Castle, 50 miles east of Indianapolis.

New Castle police say Slagle “advised the kids that if they did not get off his property he was going to shoot them.” Police say Slagle raised his shirt, showing the children a revolver in his waist band.

The report says Slagle struggled with arresting officers. He waived his right to an initial hearing. A judge entered not guilty pleas on his behalf.

Well, riddle me this, readers.  What’s the difference between ISIS destroying churches throughout Mesopotamia, and gang members destroying them in America?

Right, it looks very bad, and I wouldn’t have done it, and he shouldn’t have either.  It was a dumb move.  He’ll no doubt pay the price for his dumb move.

But listen to me on the implications of this, if you will.  Be prepared for more of this to come.  Muslims will come to be very militant in America, as gang members are now.  Perhaps even more so.

For those of you who are part of congregations who own church buildings, what are you going to do when your property is vandalized every week, or eventually burned down?  Do you put 24-hour security on the physical plant?  Are you going to be part of that security?  If so, what do you do when the property is threatened, and the gang members (I’m sure they weren’t “children”) figure out that comporting with the law you’re unwilling to use lethal means to stop the aggression, and there are too many of them to do anything except call the police and wait the fifteen minutes for them to arrive and find no one?

If this is the way it all works out, you may as well not have security.  Or church property.  Or for those of you who aren’t Christians but who own homes, perhaps your home is the same as that church property.

Such is life when society lurches towards dystopia.

Statesman:

Continuing his efforts to champion law enforcement since five Dallas officers were shot to death in July, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announced Wednesday that he will press legislators to provide all 59,000 Texas patrol officers with a bulletproof vest capable of stopping high-caliber rifle rounds.

Early estimates place the cost at $15 million to $20 million, Patrick said, vowing to fight for the money in the 2017 legislative session despite a tight budget thanks to depressed oil and gas prices.

Oh my.  Do you think he understands that he’s talking about sending every cop out every day with hard shell SAPI plates and tactical vest plate carriers?  Wouldn’t that be a sight in Texas heat?  Sort of like it was with Marines running around Fallujah in 120 degree weather with full body armor on.  We’d have officers passing out everywhere, unable to get into and out of their patrol vehicles, knees crumbling from the stress, and unable to pass the physical with the additional weight of the vests.

Do you think someone needs to talk to him in private?  Or perhaps not.  Let’s see how this little experiment goes, shall we?  Everyone in favor, say aye?

News from California:

A gang member used armor piercing-bullets and an AR-15 to kill two Palm Springs police officers in a planned “ambush” on Saturday, said Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin in a press conference Wednesday.

John Felix, 26, shot an assault rifle through the front door of his house, killing Officers Jose “Gil” Vega and Lesley Zerebny and wounding a third officer – all of whom were wearing bulletproof vests. Felix was captured early Sunday morning after a 12-hour standoff with police and SWAT teams.

Felix has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and three counts of attempted murder, with enhancement filed on each charge for the use of body armor and armor-piercing bullets.

Because most journalists write at the fifth grade level (intentionally and by design), we don’t know what this means.  I suppose it means that he used green tip ammunition.

But it really doesn’t matter.  I’ll wager that the cops were using SAPI plates, and so Kevlar won’t stop either green tip or frangible 5.56 mm ammunition.  But leave it to the police to make it sound like something other than what it is.  Someone killed cops.  The ammunition he used is irrelevant, and the cops know that.  This event was used to make an unrelated point.

And what’s the issue with the use of “body armor?”  What was he wearing – Kevlar or hard shell armor?  Is that illegal in California?

The Washington Times:

In the exchange, Mr. Halpin mocks media mogul Rupert Murdoch for raising his children in the Catholic faith and said the most “powerful elements” in the conservative movement are all Catholic.

“It’s an amazing bastardization of the faith. They must be attracted to the systematic thought and severely backwards gender relations and must be totally unaware of Christian democracy,” Mr. Halpin said.

“I imagine they think it is the most socially acceptable politically conservative religion. Their rich friends wouldn’t understand if they become evangelicals,” Ms. Palmieri responded.

“Excellent point,” Mr. Halpin wrote back. “They can throw around ‘Thomistic’ thought and ‘subsidiarity’ and sound sophisticated because no one knows what the hell they’re talking about.”

[ … ]

In another brief exchange, Mr. Podesta and Center for American Progress President Neera Tanden slammed Southerners and the Miss America Pageant.

“Do you think it’s weird that of the 15 finalists in Miss America, 10 came from the 11 states of the CSA?” Mr. Podesta asked, referring to the Confederate States of America.

“Not at all I would imagine the only people who watch it are from the confederacy and by now they know that so they’ve rigged the thing in their honor,” Ms. Tanden responded in a September 2015 message.

In another email, Mr. Podesta asked why CNN’s Mr. Tapper is “such a d—k,” one of a number of examples of Clinton allies verbally assaulting reporters — though other messages show close coordination with influential reporters.

Just for the record, and so my readers know, Thomas Aquinas was the Roman Catholic Church’s answer to Aristotle.  To wit, many of the works of Aristotle has been found around the time of Thomas, and those that were already available found a resurgence in study.  Scholars began to read them again, and the teachings of Aristotle even became popular within the laity.

The RCC needed an answer, or so they thought (I think the Scripture stands on its own as capable of supporting a comprehensive world view without admixture with anything else), so they commissioned Thomas to read and answer the resurgent popularity of Aristotle, synthesizing the Scriptures with Aristotle when he needed to.  The result was what scholars call the “Thomistic Synthesis.”  Ultimately, the result was the Council of Trent, which today forms the doctrinal basis for the RCC.  For the record, I am a Calvinist so I do not follow the traditions of the RCC.

When anyone asks you now, you know the answer.  There is much more, and you can read it for yourself.  Take note of the dripping sarcasm, the hatred, the utter disdain for anyone who isn’t them.  And take note that they consider you – if you are one of my Southern readers – an ignorant redneck.

Never forget that.