Articles by Herschel Smith

Surprisingly, PJM has a piece on J. Gresham Machen’s “Christianity and Liberalism.”  It’s a quick read but a good piece to start the day.  Thie gem appears.

Place the lives of children in their formative years, despite the convictions of their parents, under the intimate control of experts appointed by the state, force them to attend schools where the higher aspirations of humanity are crushed out, and where the mind is filled with the materialism of the day, and it is difficult to see how even the remnants of liberty can subsist.

A public-school system, if it means the providing of free education for those who desire it, is a noteworthy and beneficent achievement of modern times; but when once it becomes monopolistic it is the most perfect instrument for tyranny which has yet been devised. Freedom of thought in the middle ages was combated by the Inquisition, but the modern method is far more effective.

True, all of that.  I’m proud and pleased to say that I own a copy of Machen’s “The Origin of Paul’s Religion.”  At the time Machen taught, the liberal school of theology was promulgating the idiotic notion that Paul’s theology was at odds with, or an addition to, Christ’s theology.  Red Letter Christians, they are called.  You get to accept the words of Christ, but ignore everything else, especially all of Paul’s difficult teachings.

It makes a mockery of the unity of the Holy Writ, and Machen addresses the issue in the book.

By the way, Machen’s Christianity and Liberalism can be found in PDF version without even having to purchase it, if you don’t happen to have the small bit of money to get a hard back copy.  Nearing the conclusion of this brief book, he observes the following.

“The present is a time not for ease or pleasure, but for earnest and prayerful work. A terrible crisis unquestionably has arisen in the Church. In the ministry of evangelical churches are to be found hosts of those who reject the gospel of Christ. By the equivocal use of traditional phrases, by the representation of differences of opinion as though they were only differences about the interpretation of the Bible, entrance into the Church was secured for those who are hostile to the very foundations of the faith. And now there are some indications that the fiction of conformity to the past is to be thrown off, and the real meaning of what has been taking place is to be allowed to appear. The Church, it is now apparently supposed, has almost been educated up to the point where the shackles of the Bible can openly be cast away and the doctrine of the Cross of Christ can be relegated to the limbo of discarded subtleties.”

Maybe so (via David Codrea).

“In passing Senate Bill 41, today was a great victory for the Second Amendment. GRNC wishes to thank Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore, as well as sponsors and “main movers” of the bill including Sens. Danny Britt; Warren Daniel; and Jim Perry; and Reps. Destin Hall; Jay Adams; Hugh Blackwell; Allen Chesser; Kyle Hall; Bobby Hanig; Kelly Hastings; Neal Jackson; Keith Kidwell; Jeff, McNeely; Ben Moss; Mark Pless; Jason Saine; Carson Smith; plus Democrats who stood courageously: Marvin Lucas, Michael Wray, and Shelly Willingham, and finally the many others whose co-sponsorship and votes who made the victory possible. GRNC particularly thanks our members and supporters, whose thousands of emails and phone calls made this victory inevitable. We are confident that we will over-ride the inevitable veto by anti-freedom Governor Roy Cooper. Very soon, we will release more details of the vicious floor fight waged by Democrats to stop the bill, and the well-managed efforts Republican leadership used to stop it.”

Here’s another report.

And veto it [s]he will.  Roy Cooper (to whom I customarily refer to as “Goober Cooper”) is this administration’s boy toy.  After all, what would it look like to follow in Biden’s footsteps, only to get clocked in the head with repeal of permits for pistol purchases?

If you’ll recall, we’ve followed this for a while now, and while it was always going to pass, there was a question whether it could pass with a veto-proof majority.  According to Paul Valone, we’ve got a veto-proof majority.  So there, goober.  I’m glad to see the end of this ridiculous scheme.

One pistol, the other shotgun.

The Defender CCW is made from 7075 aluminum. “We did a lot of different material selection tests to find the optimal material. We found 7075 has some better impact characteristics than 6061,” Morell says …

I immediately proceeded to bash the front of the optic against the bench a dozen times. I loaded the gun and rechecked zero—it held. At 500 rounds, I once again bashed the front of the optic a dozen times and checked zero. At 1,000 rounds, I went back to hitting the front of the optic, but I didn’t go straight to checking zero this time.

I dropped the unloaded M&P 2.0 All Metal, weighing 30 ounces, optic down onto a concrete paver from chest height. I picked up the gun, checked for damage, and then checked zero at 15 yards. Not only did the CCW have no damage, it also held zero.

[ … ]

“I bet we have over 100,000 rounds of effective recoil testing on these. So, in addition to the drop durability, we have a lot of confidence in the entire electronics and mechanical design. We have some folks that we’ve given these out to for extended testing, and they have north of 40,000 rounds on them and they’re still running strong,” Morell says.

It appears to be rugged and it’s aesthetically relatively pleasing.

Here’s the catch.

The Defender CCW is made in China. Whether it’s American manufacturing pride, improved quality control, or avoiding supply chain issues, there are advantages to making a product on home soil. Of course, that would also come with a significant price increase.

It sells for $250.

Here’s an interesting idea for a shotgun optic if your gun isn’t designed for an optics attachment (most aren’t, although that’s changing).

If you’ve ever wanted to mount a red dot on your vent-ribbed shotgun but didn’t want to take the time to get it milled for a red dot, Burris has a new DIY solution for you. The new Burris SpeedBead Vent Rib Mount is an affordable solution for adapting your favorite shotgun for use with the Burris FastFire series of red dot sights without the need to permanently modify your shotgun.

It just attaches right to the rib.  The attachment device sells for $60 (no, not the Buris optic itself).  At Optics Planet that optic pictures sells for $380.

As one might expect, here’s another article on the destructiveness of feral hogs.  Homes, golf courses, farms, graveyards, you name it.  They destroy everything in their path.  Here’s the money quote for me.

Jamie Sugg, the Texas A&M Agrilife extension agent in Walker County told Houston Media last week: “It’s not a case of if you have a hog problem, but when. They are everywhere.”

I suspect this was referring to Texas, but it could just as well have been America.  It’s not a matter of if, but when you start suffering hog problems.

Okay we’ve covered this before.

So there is yet another post about magazine springs and whether they should be replaced, and if so, when.  This is in the same theme I wrote about several years ago when there was another little flurry of articles and posts about this.  I’m going to cover this ground one time for everyone.

Metal creep is caused from slippage of crystalline structures along boundary planes, whether FCC, BCC, or whatever.  One reader writes that “springs don’t wear out from compression.”  This is along the same lines as most of the [mistaken and incorrect] articles I linked the last time I addressed this issue that claimed that stainless steel doesn’t creep below the yield limit.

Do you know any piano tuners?  I do.  Yea, they have to go back a few days later and retune because of metal creep.  But most piano wires are carbon steel under high stress.  What about stainless steel?

Do not make the claim that stainless steel (like SS304) doesn’t suffer creep below the yield limit and at low temperatures.  Yes … it … does  (“In all tests at applied stress/yield strength ratios above 0.73 some plastic deformation was recorded”).

No offense, but don’t try to be an engineer if you’re not one. If you make the claim that SS304 (I presume the material of most magazine springs) doesn’t suffer from metal creep, you’d be wrong, and then you’d also be answering the question the wrong way.

The right way to look at the question is one of whether the creep is significant.  It usually isn’t, and it is less significant than for carbon steel.  It’s also not significant for applied stress/yield strength ratios lower than what the authors tested.  Where your specific magazine spring falls in this data set is best determined by the designer, not me (I don’t have drawings or any other design information).

Stop saying that it’s only the compression / decompression cycle that puts wear on springs.  Stop it.  Just stop.  That’s not true.

It … is … not … true.

It’s true enough that the compression / decompression cycle is fatigue wear, but it’s also true that this means slippage of the crystalline structures just like metal creep.

Again, the question is whether this creep is important under the specific design circumstances or not, whether the specifications are challenged or not.  It’s not about whether creep will occur.  It does, and it will, even if undetectable by you.

I’m not saying here that it’s a bad idea to leave your buffer spring compressed.  I’m not saying that it’s a bad idea to leave your magazines full of rounds.  Don’t misunderstand what I’m asserting.  I’m not even asserting that Brownells was wrong in their conclusions, even if they didn’t do all of the necessary analysis to properly arrive at their conclusions.

I am asserting that the justification for whether you do or don’t leave springs compressed has nothing whatsoever to do with whether the spring undergoes a compression / decompression cycle while it’s in the configuration it’s in.

It has to do with a materials and structural engineering analysis that most people don’t do (and probably don’t need to do), and which Brownells didn’t do for the video above.

This may sound like a nit, but not to an engineer.

Source.

According to the White House some of the changes that the executive order will make include expanding background checks by expanding the statutory definition of a firearms dealer. It will also require Attorney General Merrick Garland to prevent former federally licensed dealers, who have had their licenses revoked or surrendered, from engaging in the business of firearms.

The attorney general will also be required to release the bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) records from inspections of dealers that were in violation of firearms laws.

The order will require the secretary of transportation to work with the Department of Justice to “reduce the loss or theft of firearms during shipment” by engaging with carriers and shippers.

The White House said that the gun industry will be held “accountable” by providing “more information regarding federally licensed firearms dealers who are violating the law.”

The order will require law enforcement agencies to issue “rigorous requirements regarding NIBIN data submission and use of this tool.” The National Integrated Ballistics Information Network (NIBIN) allows law enforcement to match fired casings to the guns from which they were fired. This makes it easier for law enforcement officials to connect multiple crimes and catch shooters.

[ … ]

Biden is also directing his cabinet to encourage “the effective use” of the new orders by partnering with law enforcement, health care providers, educators, and other community leaders.

[ … ]

The order will also close the “boyfriend loophole” which had allowed spousal domestic abusers to have their gun rights taken away but not unmarried ones.

There are several perfidious things here.  I’ve highlighted the first item.  What this means, as best as I can tell, is that a single violation means that the FFL has to turn over records of sales, which undoubtedly will go into the development of a registry.

He’s going to make transportation of firearms and ammunition even more difficult and costly than it is now.

Finally, be careful who you buddy up with.  Your firearms collection will depend upon it.

As I’ve said before, I’d find Ryan interesting if he was talking about watching paint dry for 1.5 hours.  I didn’t intend to watch this entire video, but I did anyway because so many important questions were answered and so many salient issues were addressed.

Grotesque.

In “Institutes of Biblical Law,” R. J. Rushdoony makes a biblical cases (a) against torture, and (b) in favor of the biblical standard for two or more witnesses to crimes.  His work is required reading for anyone who wants to understand just how bad the criminal “justice” system has gotten in America.

Source.

The man who sparked outrage by abandoning a German Shepherd in broad daylight in Texas has been arrested, charged, and identified as an individual illegally in the U.S., the Dallas Police Department and county jail records say.

[ … ]

In an update over the weekend, the Dallas Police Department said that Zuniga was identified as the suspect and that a search warrant was executed at his residence.

“On March 11, 2023, the Dallas Police Department’s Southeast CRT team executed a search warrant on Zuniga’s home, locating the vehicle used in the crime, and Zuniga was taken into custody,” cops said.

Zuniga was booked thereafter at the Dallas County Jail on the cruelty to non-livestock animals misdemeanor charge. While bond was set at $4,000, jail records say that Zuniga remains in custody on an immigration hold requested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

No ifs, ands or buts.  I have no patience for men who abandon dogs.  None whatsoever.  The dog looked like a fine, loyal beast.  The man looked like an awful beast.

Hey, speaking of illegals who have no respect for American laws, have you heard the one about the illegals who killed a bald eagle and intended to eat him?

Nebraska officials say a pair of migrants shot and killed a North American bald eagle – a protected animal and the national emblem of the United States – with the intention of eating the bird.

“Two Honduran nationals, Ramiro Hernandez-Tziquin, 20 and Domingo Zetino-Hernandez, 20, both of Norfolk were cited for unlawful possession of the eagle. Hernandez-Tziquin was also cited for having No Drivers License,” the Stanton County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release on Feb. 28.

The migrants were arrested but have since been released. The federal government could have kept the pair in jail, but Unger’s calls to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service – which would be the federal agency to bring charges against someone for violating the 1940 Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act – have gone unanswered.

That’s right.  The FedGov isn’t interested in illegals who drive without a license and kill the national bird of America for lunch.

I think there’s more than a little symbolism here from the eagle, to the illegals who killed him, to the FedGov who isn’t interested in people who kill the national bird.

Those are the sort of people crossing our Southern border.  What do you think would happen to you if you got caught having killed a bald eagle?  Not that I or you would have any interest in doing something like that.  At least I hope you wouldn’t.

So much for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  They serve no one and they’re worthless.  Hand them all pink slips and tell them to get a job on a road crew.

If some representative of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wants to clarify themselves, the comment section is open.  Go ahead. If you don’t want to comment, I’ll take that as a sign of culpability and shame.

First, he does a great job of shooting at that distance.

Second, as long as you get the holdovers rights, or otherwise adjust the scope for ballistics, the Marlin rifle is accurate and the cartridge looks like it would be effective.

I’d like to see ballistics gel evaluated at that range.