Articles by Herschel Smith

Guns.com:

Political commentator, Dana Loesch, was recently featured in an NRA News Commentary, titled, “The Godless Left,”  wherein viewers are treated to a diatribe against what is claimed to be a monolithic left wing of the American political spectrum.  These evil people supposedly have contempt for history and rights, are lacking in values, but will use shaming and silencing to achieve their goals.  They even hate Christmas.

There is so much here that needs addressed.  I hear frequently that the United States is a Christian nation, but we can’t just leave the claim as is.  What, exactly, does it mean?  The majority of Americans identify themselves as Christian—three out of every four, more or less—but that number has been declining lately.  But in legal terms, this country is secular.  Contrary to Loesch’s implication, though, secular doesn’t mean “Godless.”  It simply means that our government has to be neutral with regard to religion, including the constitutional ban on establishment.  In fact, the only mentions of religion are to be found in the Sixth Article barring a religious test for holding public office and in the First Amendment, which as I said, requires government and religion to keep hands off the other.

This fact about the United States is reinforced by a couple of documents, one a letter and the other a treaty, written in our early days.  Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Baptists of Danbury, Connecticut that “religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions.”  This was in response to the concerns of the Baptists over the then established denomination of Congregationalism.  Someone may say that this was only a letter, though it expresses the opinion of the sitting president.  A treaty, however holds legal standing.  The Treaty of Tripoli between the United States and Tripolitania in an effort to stop piracy in the Mediterranean, and in doing so, in Article XI it assures the North African nation that “the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion.”  The point here was to make plain the fact that any time we involved ourselves in conflict, that action did not come from a religious motivation—that what we did to defend our sailors was not a new crusade.

But a nation is more than its laws.  One of my main themes is that we gun owners need to embrace people of all beliefs and backgrounds, so long as they accept the principle that each of us has the right to make choices about our own lives.  This isn’t about empathy or political correctness.  It’s basic marketing and survival.  The more people we have on our side, the more secure our rights will be.  Loesch’s attack on what she calls the “Godless left” only encourages undecided people to believe the stereotype of the white, Christian, male gun owner.

The author, Greg Camp, assumes that it’s possible to hold to secularism without veering off into a worship of anarchy or statism.  I claim it’s not, and my claim holds up in the light of history.  As philosopher R.J. Rushdoony explains in his book “The One and the Many,” orthodox Christianity is the only thought system that sustains the tripartite designation of power of the state, church and family.

I have no intention of embracing people of all beliefs and backgrounds, because America is a Christian nation at its core and inception.  Again, read “The Emergence of Liberty in the Modern World” by my professor Douglas Kelly, or “The Foundations of Social Order” or “This Independent Republic” by Rousas J. Rushdoony.  Or start with my own brief assessment.  Either way, it you place your trust in embracing people of all beliefs and backgrounds, you’ll be ground into dust right after your wife and daughter are raped and beheaded, or put to work for the state.  Tell me how it goes when they inform you that your children belong to the state.  Take the temperature of your faith in mankind after that happens and let me know how you feel.

Greg can stick with his appeal to the inherent goodness of all men, and be disappointed as time waxes on in his life.  As for me, I and my household will follow the Lord.  The only successful antidote to statism is Christianity.  The Lord tells me in no uncertain terms that my rights don’t come from the second amendment.  They come from God himself.  This is my axiomatic irreducible.  It is my belief, and it is incorrigible.  I will not change.

David Codrea:

At least in this case, the Bloombergians used real NBA players, although how much of a “role model” that organization provides is questionable.

Yea.  I saw that about the NBA.  David also covers NFL and other sanctioned sports and how they treat guns.  As for me, I laughed when I saw the thugs in the NBA co-opted by the anti-gun crowd.  They deserve each other.

John Jay has a GREAT piece on the standoff in Malheur.  GREAT article.  You need to read it for perspective.  Now that I think about it, John must be right concerning the roots of all of this.

As I’ve said, the TSA is a jobs program for hicks, goobers, rednecks, perverts and child molesters.

Our friend Mike writes, “I discovered yesterday afternoon that Dr. Johnson was entirely correct. The results of my latest liver scan came back. Boil it all down and the odds are that I will belong to the vagaries of history in six months, perhaps more, perhaps less.”

Read the rest of his post.  I have prayed for Mike, and continue to.  I have also purposed to do what I can to help with bills as well.  God wasn’t finished with Mike here on earth several years ago, and apparently he still isn’t.  Mike’s time with us will continue until the precise time he is to go home.  He will not leave one second sooner than intended, and will not stay one second longer than God wants.  God is sovereign and “declares the end from the beginning.”  There are no surprises or accidents with Him.

Mike doesn’t know his last day, his doctor doesn’t, and we don’t.  Only the Lord knows.  But Mike is wisely making preparations like we all should.  None of us knows the times or epochs.  Keep Mike in your prayers, and regarding the work to close the loose ends (you did read his post, didn’t you?), I would like to try to plan a work weekend for Mike at some point.  It would be better for me if it happened in the spring rather than winter, but I will work with what we’ve got.  The drive to his place would take me about 3/4 of a day, which isn’t too bad, and I certainly desire to meet Mike face to face and shake his hand.

Oh, one more thing.  I know the post title was clever, but listen, when the believer is called home, there is no hangman’s noose.  “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints” (Psalm 116:15).  There is celebration in heaven, singing, dancing among the angels, and the joy of the Lord.

By now you’ve seen at least some of the details of Obama’s executive orders on gun control.  You know what I think about all of this, so I won’t repeat what we all know.  But I do want to make some specific observations.

The little boys and girls at Daily Kos are just giddy that they saw Obama cry.  They’re in full celebratory mode.  Crocodile tears on tap for just such an occasion.  That none of this accomplishes what he said he wanted to do doesn’t even move the needle on the bullshit-o-meter for the Kos kids.  That he’s a liar and this was all staged to occur at this point in his tenure escapes them.  He wanted to do all of this by executive order rather than by law-making.  It has been his design all along.

Regarding the details of things, first of all concerning mental health.  Via Uncle, your doctor can report you for what he or she perceives as mental illness.  I suppose that means that your name makes its way into the NICS as prohibited.  Next, the Social Security Administration can also put you on the prohibited list.  Seriously.

Current law prohibits individuals from buying a gun if, because of a mental health issue, they are either a danger to themselves or others or are unable to manage their own affairs.  The Social Security Administration (SSA) has indicated that it will begin the rulemaking process to ensure that appropriate information in its records is reported to NICS.  The reporting that SSA, in consultation with the Department of Justice, is expected to require will cover appropriate records of the approximately 75,000 people each year who have a documented mental health issue, receive disability benefits, and are unable to manage those benefits because of their mental impairment, or who have been found by a state or federal court to be legally incompetent

As for the mental health issue, that may mean, for example, that anyone who has ever taken a neuromodulator is now prohibited from ever owning a weapon.  And once these regulations get published in the federal register and codified in the federal code, it becomes very difficult to remove them.  One thing working against their removal is that the progressives blame guns for violence, while the so-called conservatives blame mental health.  Neither is responsible, and they know it.

As for the elderly, this might mean that if a child has power of attorney because a couple cannot run TurboTax, they are considered to be incompetent to manage their own affairs.  The Holy Scriptures say, “Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honor the face of the old man” (Leviticus 19:32).  The very ones who are the weakest and least able to defend themselves, who may need the protection afforded by a weapon more than anyone else, are the ones attacked by Obama.

What a worm.  What … a … worm.  He is a hateful, sorry, miserable, awful, terrible servant of the evil one.  But the most interesting reaction to Obama’s actions comes from Mike Vanderboegh, who observes that Obama has instantly nationalized the armed civil disobedience movement.  That’s the takeaway.  He has done what we could never do.

News From Germany:

German police has received numerous complaints from women who said they were groped and attacked in Cologne city centre. One woman has claimed she was raped.

Wolfgang Albers, the Cologne police chief, says witnesses described the assaults as coming from a group of up to 1,000 men whose appearance indicated they were of “Arab or North African origin.”

He said the incidents were “a completely new dimension of crime”.

An MP in Angela Merkel’s party has claimed the events are proof Germany needs to tighten its borders.

But the police also said many of the men had been known to them for some time and were not newly-arrived refugees, according to The Local.

The crowd, believed to be men between 15 and 35 who were possibly intoxicated, reportedly flooded the city’s famous square and began to throw firecrackers and shoot fireworks.

As the festivities took place outside the famous Cologne cathedral, some of the men allegedly began sexually assaulting women and pickpocketing others, according to Reuters.

Local media reported that at least 80 people fell victim to the assaults, 35 of whom were sexually assaulted.

One of the victims, named only as Katja L, told Der Express her buttocks and breasts were grabbed.

“I was groped everywhere. It was a nightmare. Although we shouted and beat them, the guys did not stop. I was desperate and think I was touched around 100 times in the 200 meters,” she said.

“Fortunately I wore a jacket and trousers. A skirt would probably have been torn away from me.”

[ … ]

Police sent 143 local officers and 70 federal officers into the area in a large-scale operation to clear the area.

But due to the dark and sheer scale of people, Mr Albers said that this operation was not effective.

Freedom Outpost:

We will also have to lock up all of our dogs to keep them safe because most of these new Muslim residents will be out to kill as many of them as they can. The dog genocide can already be seen in various parts of Europe where these same refugees have settled.

Be prepared.  Hatred of dogs, and hatred of women.  Carry guns.  Use them, or the U.S. will look like Germany.

David Codrea:

Something else marked by its conspicuous absence from media reports: Any statement from Ako Abdul-Samad condemning his former aide following the guilty plea. Instead, we’re treated to “faith leader” Samad “call[ing] for unity to battle ‘Islamophobia.’”

Um, no.  I’d rather focus on fake terror attacks for the purpose of pressing gun control.

“You know less than you think about guns: the misleading uses, flagrant abuses and shoddy statistics of social science about gun violence.”  Well, to be fair, there is nothing science about social science.  Those two words don’t belong together.

Note to HEB on open carry.  “As a retailer of alcohol, long guns and unlicensed guns are prohibited on our property under the Texas Alcohol and Beverage Commission rules. H-E-B maintains the same policy we have for years, only concealed licensed handguns are allowed on our property,” reads a statement from H-E-B.”  Hey, I think that’s made up.  That’s not the story you told at first.  At first you just said you didn’t want open carry because you didn’t want open carry.  Now you’re blaming it on the ABC.  Which is it?  I’d prefer you just be honest about this.

Fusion.net:

Texas is starting off the new year with a bang: A statewide gun law that doesn’t make much sense.

“Unfortunately, this law was not written very well. It’s not very clear…I can read it one way, I can read it another way,” said Donna Edmundson, the city attorney for Houston, at a town hall meeting two months ago. The law—which will make Texas the 45th and largest state to allow citizens with permits to openly carry handguns—goes into effect on January 1.

But by the end of that hour-and-a-half session, which was also attended by the police chief and district attorney, very little had been resolved.

Now, as they anticipate anticipate an uptick in 911 calls reporting people walking the streets with guns, police departments across the state are still trying to figure out how—and if—they can enforce the law, which legal experts say is marked with gaping loopholes and ambiguities.

For one thing, legal experts say, it’s not clear if the law allows police to detain someone who they suspect is open carrying without a license. Some districts are training police to ask to see a license only if an individual is engaging in otherwise suspicious activity. Others say they are free to ask because there is reasonable suspicion that the person may be committing a crime—unlawfully carrying a gun without a license.

Even trickier for police officers is what happens when a citizen is asked and refuses to show proof of an open-carry license. According to the Dallas Morning News, there is no penalty in the law for license holders who refuse to do so:

[C]ase law in Texas could prohibit police from arresting that person, since the action has no penalty.

But if the person isn’t a license holder, the officer can arrest him for unlawfully carrying a gun. So at what point does an officer know enough — like the person’s identity and whether he’s a license holder — to determine whether to make an arrest?

In other words, as it is written, the new open carry law is nearly impossible to enforce, said Geoffrey Corn, a professor of law at the South Texas College of Law in Houston. “It’s kind of like a Catch-22,” he told Fusion. Carrying without a license is illegal, but there’s no clear way for police to investigate if the person does indeed have a license to open carry or not.

“The way it’s gonna end up is that police are gonna have encounters with people who are open carrying that are going to escalate, and that are going to lead to an arrest,” Corn said. “And then that’s going to lead to defense attorneys saying the whole thing was tainted, and that the seizure was illegal because he had right to carry.”

Originally, the bill had a “no stop” provision, which barred police from asking anyone for their open carry license. Law enforcement groups fought it, saying it would prevent police from doing their jobs, while endangering the public. In response to that pressure, the bill was rewritten in its current form.

“Traditionally, the way legislatures tackle hard problems is to leave it to the courts,” George Dix, a professor of law at the University of Texas School of Law, told Fusion. “In this case, I suspect there was no politically acceptable language they could agree on, so they left it up to others to decide.”

The officials who pushed the bill through saw it as mostly a symbolic measure, he speculated. They weren’t necessarily concerned with how it would be enforced.

For all its problems, there is one thing abundantly clear with the new law: seeing someone on the street with a gun is not enough of a reason to detain them and ask for their license. Seeing someone with a firearm no longer makes them suspicious in the eyes of the law, even as regular citizens might be alarmed at the sight.

“What a lot of police are worried about is not that there’s gonna be open carry, but that there’s going to be a deliberate effort to exercise that right in what I might characterize as an ‘unusually zealous’ way,” said Corn. “And there can be a lot of chaos in those circumstances.”

Deliberate, mind you.  Not accidental, but someone exercising a right deliberately.  Deliberately!  And not only that, but in an “unusually zealous” way!

So tell us Mr. Corn.  What does it mean to deliberately exercise a right in an “unusually zealous” way?  Be precise, please.  Legally precise.  And explain how that can be chaotic.

Or perhaps this is just some bullshit term made up for some bullshit article over something that won’t end up mattering a hill of beans to most people?  Which is it, Mr. Corn?

Indystar.com:

A veteran was wounded Wednesday at Richard L. Roudebush Veterans Affairs Medical Center when a handgun he brought into the Indianapolis hospital accidentally discharged in his pocket while he was in a procedure room — possibly an MRI suite.

Hospital officials confirmed the accidental shooting in a statement issued Thursday and reported the victim, whose name was not released, received immediate medical attention. The statement added the man’s wound did not threaten his life.

A hospital spokesman initially confirmed in a telephone call from The Indianapolis Star that the incident involved an MRI, but the subsequent statement said only that the incident occurred “in a procedure room.” When asked for clarification about the involvement of the MRI, the spokesman said in an email that the statement “is our response at this time.”

The statement noted it is a violation of federal and state law to bring a firearm into the hospital and “notification of this law is posted at every entrance.”

Having a gun or other metal object in the vicinity of an MRI machine would also be a violation of widely accepted medical and safety protocol, according to American Journal of Roentgenology, and could have fatal consequences. It was unclear Thursday if criminal charges would be pursued. The Marion County prosecutor’s office was closed Thursday.

The accident at Roudebush may be the first time in the U.S. that a patient was wounded when a gun discharged in an MRI unit.

It also is at least the second instance of a handgun accidentally firing in the suite of one powerful imagining machines which, according to WebMD, use “a magnetic field and pulses of radio wave energy to make pictures of organs and structures inside the body.”

In the other case, according to a 2002 report in the American Journal of Roentgenology, a gun discharged in an MRI after it was pulled from the hand of an off-duty police officer as he attempted to place the weapon on a cabinet about 3 feet away from the MRI’s magnet bore. No one was injured in that case.

In 2009, another off-duty police officer in Florida sustained a minor hand injury when her department-issued gun was pulled inside an MRI machine. Jacksonville TV station WJTX reported the injury occurred when her hand became trapped between the gun and magnet.

Another MRI accident — which involved a metal object, but not a gun — claimed the life of a 6-year-old New York boy in 2001.

The deadly accident at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, N.Y., occurred when a metal oxygen tank about the size of a fire extinguisher was pulled into the MRI and fractured the boy’s skull, according to the New York Times.

In a report on the 2002 incident in New York involving a handgun, the Journal of Roentgenology found, the police officer’s “gun was immediately pulled into the bore, where it struck the left side and spontaneously discharged a round into the wall of the room at the rear of the magnet.”

At the time the .45 caliber semiautomatic pistol fired, the report said, “it was reportedly in a cocked and locked position; that is, the hammer was cocked and the thumb safety was engaged to prevent the hammer from striking the firing pin.” There also was a live round in the chamber.

“Many people who choose this weapon for personal protection will carry it in this manner because it allows them to quickly fire the weapon if needed,” the report noted.

The discharge was likely “a result of the effect of the magnetic field on the firing pin block,” the report said.

“The firing pin block was probably drawn into its uppermost position by force of the magnetic field. The firing pin block has to overcome only light pressure from a relatively small spring to release the firing pin. The pistol was likely drawn into the magnetic field so that the muzzle struck the magnet’s bore first. With the firing pin allowed to move freely in its channel, the force of the impact on the muzzle end was sufficient to cause the firing pin to overcome its spring pressure and move forward to strike the primer of the chambered round.”

From a wonkish standpoint, I find this quite interesting.  I would have liked a picture (or set of pictures) to go along with the explanation, though.  Do we have any gunsmiths who can elaborate and clarify for us?

WSBTV.com:

On Monday, Gov. Nathan Deal rescinded an executive order that prevented state agencies from any involvement in resettling Syrian refugees, clearing the way for newly arrived transplants from the war-torn nation to receive food stamp benefits.

This comes days after Attorney General Sam Olens said in a formal opinion that Georgia can’t legally resist the resettlement of Syrian refugees.

Deal joined more than two dozen other Republican governors who raised concerns about President Barack Obama’s administration’s resettlement program in the wake of the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris in November.

“We’re ready to defend it if we have to. I’d rather not spend taxpayer money defending something that can be avoided,” he said in December. “I just don’t know why the federal government wants to do this behind closed doors in total secrecy and don’t even trust state leaders charged with the security of our states with basic knowledge.”

Olens wrote that he is “unaware of any law or agreement that would permit a state to carve out refugees from particular countries from participation in the refugee resettlement program, no matter how well-intended or justified the desire to carve out such refugees might be.”

“Accordingly, it is my official opinion that both federal law and the State’s agreement to act as the state refugee resettlement coordinator prevent the State from denying federally-funded benefits to Syrian refugees lawfully admitted into the United States,” he wrote.

Follow the money.  There is a lot of it being sent by the state to the federal government, and the federal government sends it back with strings attached.

It’s pathetic, really.  All that has to happen is for a lawyer to throw his shirt up, flash his belly, and say someone can or can’t do something, and everyone cowers.

The governor can do what he wants to do, and for whatever he’s willing to send the state police and national guard to back him up.  Deal doesn’t want this fight, and he would rather saddle his own state with Syrians than resist the *.gov.

Under this schema (where the feds control the states because they force taxes and control the money flow), no state has the power do to anything or resist any act, pronouncement or ruling.  I believe in common parlance this is called a monarchy.

Sad, very sad.

This commentary assumes you are aware of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters standoff, where supporters of ranchers in Oregon are ensconced on a small building called a “headquarters.”  The lede is rather silly if you ask me, but it’s being carried that way in the main stream media.

I think myself unqualified to address the specifics of the claims made by the ranchers.  Apparently, the Hammonds say they set the fire to clear invasive plant species, and the fire got somewhat out of control and burned some innocuous federally controlled land.  Thus the charges, although the specific charges are ridiculous, relating to being domestic terrorists.  This is an overreach by the prosecutors.

Every man has his own threshold at which we will tolerate no more.  I realize that I have readers who would not tolerate having a concealed handgun permit because it is an infringement of God-given rights to self defense, an abdication of said control to the state rather than to God who issues the ruling on self defense to begin with.

I have a CHP, and my reaction is, “that’s right!”  I suffer the infringement of this God-given right because my threshold has no been crossed yet.  I am not ready to take up arms against the government, not because I believe my views are wrong, but because of other reasons.  I have a family to support, I have a job to keep, and keeping that job and supporting my family requires that I stay out of prison.  Those are the facts, like them or not.  If I want to carry a weapon and support my family, I need to have a CHP.

As for the American founders, and I consider them to be better men that I.  But again, every man has his threshold.  I will not criticize another man for his, and he shouldn’t criticize me for mine – as long as we have a reasonable threshold.

Enter men without thresholds.  What’s happening in Oregon is nothing less than armed sedition.

This is an act of armed sedition against lawful authority. That is all that it is, and that is quite enough. This is not “an expression of anti-government sentiment.” Flipping off the governor as he drives by is “an expression of anti-government sentiment.” What Alex Jones does every day is “an expression of anti-government sentiment,” and god bless them all for it. That’s what the Founders had in mind. This is not an “occupation” following “a peaceful protest.” That would be all those folks who got bludgeoned and pepper-sprayed out of Zuccotti Park a couple of years back. (And when exactly did ABC News decide it wasn’t a news organization anymore?) These are men with guns who have declared themselves outside the law. These are men with guns who have taken something that belongs to all of us. These are traitors and thieves who got away with this dangerous nonsense once, and have been encouraged to get away with it again, and they draw their inspiration not solely from the wilder fringes of our politics, either. Ammon Bundy and his brothers should have been thrown in jail after they gathered themselves in rebellion the first time.

[ … ]

There is no actual tyranny in this country against which to take up arms. There is bureaucratic inertia. There is pigheaded bureaucracy. There even is political chicanery. But there is no actual tyranny in the Endangered Species Act, or in the Bureau of Land Management, or in the Environmental Protection Agency, or in the Affordable Care Act, or in IRS dumbassery, or even in whatever it is that the president plans to say about guns in the next week or so. Anyone who argues that actual tyranny exists is a dangerous charlatan who should be mocked from the public square. Anyone who argues that there is out of political ambition, or for their own personal profit, should be shunned by decent people until they regain whatever moral compass they once had.

To reflect back for a moment on the situation, if the fire had been set to provoke the *.gov, it worked.  I won’t criticize that, although my threshold might not be the same one.  The EPA is a terrorist organization, just like the Bureau of Land Management.  Furthermore, the federal government has absolutely no business owning land.

But if the fire was set and a plan for containment to ensure that it was a true “controlled burn” was not in place, or if a professional had not been consulted to ensure that it was well done, the perpetrators are goobers.  Yes, goobers.  Not terrorists, but witless goobers.  They chose to go out and set a fire all … by … themselves … without the assistance of professionals like a fire engineer.  Yes, the EPA, National Park Service and others are full of witless goobers as well, with “controlled burns” being set near the Los Alamos National Laboratory that ended up requiring evacuation of the lab for one month, the Animas river spill in Colorado perpetrated by the EPA, and other examples.  I’m being gracious, goobers they’re not in some instances.  Terrorists they are (witness the control over wood burning stoves), and yet, they have the power at the moment.  So we’re back to that issue.

The best reaction to this comes from a tweet.

But regardless of the fact that only goobers set “controlled burns” that aren’t controlled, we are where we are with this.  And David Codrea takes the temperature.

So what are the administration’s options?  Assuming functionaries had their New Years weekends cut short, you can bet they‘re focus-grouping and war-gaming, and weighing scenarios and options. You can also bet special tactical teams are on alert, if not on their way — and if DOJ approaches this as domestic terrorism, the feds will totally marginalize the local sheriff.

They could talk the guys down, although from the rhetoric of the takeover leaders and Bundy’s conviction that he is carrying out the Lord’s will, that doesn’t sound likely. If they do come out, don’t expect the Justice Department to show leniency.

They could lay siege and wait them out, turn off all power and water, and see if a week or two might soften some resolve. On the other hand, depending on how many answer Bundy‘s call, the enforcers could find the greater cause for their concern is amassing outside their perimeter.

The third option would be to go full Waco, making sure the media is kept back so the narrative could be whatever they wanted to put out through a spokesman. It’s been done before.

That’s why an analysis by Mike Vanderboegh on his Sipsey Street Irregulars blog is important for the government (and for all of us) to understand, so that people with access to decision-makers know, in no uncertain terms, the precipitous situation a brutal reaction will produce — for everyone.

If things blow up in Oregon, things could quickly get out of control everywhere, and while we can only imagine what that will look like, the certainty is things would be ugly and prolonged. The government will act and affected people who will not comply will react. It’s an incredibly dangerous situation, where a shot, whether intentional or an “accidental” discharge — and it may not even matter which “side” fires it — could be the “Time’s up” spark that changes all the rules.

The fact that those occupying the federal building are being labeled as seditionists and insurrectionists should be a badge of honor, whether those doing the occupying deserve it or not.  The writer at Esquire forgets (or never understood) America’s rich relationship with sedition.  We began that way, we will live that way, we will embrace change when the threshold has been crossed.

If you have no threshold, like the writer at Esquire, you believe that if the government says to kill every person named David who is born on the third Thursday of every month as a sacrifice to Molech, then it should be done and enforced by the power of the state.  There is no difference between you and a Nazi or Fascist or their rightful heirs, Margaret Sanger and the eugenicists and abortionists.

We are where we are.  This won’t go away, this will continue until one party backs down, the *.gov, or the people.  It may occur by preemptive surrender, but I seriously doubt it.  That means that at some point, whether this is it or just one more skirmish, it will all come to a head.  The *.gov is playing with fire, even if it doesn’t know it.