Category Archives: The Zelman Partisans

Things You Won’t See

In breaking news, a trove of newly released text messages shows that the prosecutor who charged Antifa and BLM peaceful protestors, who were exercising their free speech rights, was working and coordinating with a Proud Boys organizer.

Oh. Wait. My bad. I got that a little mixed up. Allow me to correct it: Kenosha District Attorney Michael Graveley, who charged Kyle Rittenhouse with murder for defending himself against violent armed rioters, coordinated with BLM activist “Billy Violent” (Whitney Cabal) for almost six weeks via text messages. And it’s only “breaking” now because exactly zero “mainstream news” outlets are reporting on what the Kenosha County Eye revealed on October 10, 2020; more than three weeks ago.

You won’t hear about it with a Google search either. I had to accidentally learn about it through blogger Mom-at-Arms.

Imagine how the “news” would have covered it had my little “accidental” hypothetical occurred: Front page, above the fold outrage, demands that the charges against the innocent brick-thrower be dropped, or that the DA recuse himself at the very least. Calls for an independent investigation of the DA’s office.

You aren’t going to hear about it on most social media. Twitter suspended The Zelman Partisans for linking to a column explaining what Kyle did that days. Twitter suspended me for linking to a We the People petition; it’s hard to get people to sign a petition if the tyrants that be won’t let you know about it. My suspension is effectively a ban, because they won’t “let” me back until I kneel before them and delete the tweet they aren’t letting anyone see anyway.

You probably have heard that Kyle is being held on $2 million — cash– bail, but only because they can gloat over it, and claim See? He must be guilty or the bail wouldn’t be so high.

On the other hand, you won’t see in the “news” that his attorneys are still trying to come up with $600,000 more to make bail. The legal defense fund they set up only has about $1.4 million (and you probably thought that was going to be plenty).

[Permission to republish this article is granted so long as it is not edited, and the author and The Zelman Partisans are credited.]

Carl is an unpaid TZP volunteer. If you found this post useful, please consider dropping something in his tip jar. He could really use the money, what with ISP bills. And the rabbits need feed. Click here to donate via PayPal.
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Losing the War?

I read a lot of RKBA news. Seriously: A lot. (And that matters, as you’ll see.)

One theme that started popping up last week is the idea that RKBA advocates are somehow losing the culture war.

If you read the national news (or watch television, or get your news from mainstream web sites), that’s an easy conclusion to reach. So long as you don’t look too closely.

As I said, I read a lot of news. I must, to put together the weekly TZP news summary. Besides my casual browsing, I use several pre-built news searches on a variety of terms. The terms were selected to produce headlines from various points of view.

Probably 90% of the actual results reflect only one point of view; that RKBA is losing. You see it in “news” reports and Letters to the Editor (LtE) alike. You see it in polls and surveys.

And it’s BS.

Not to defend the NRA, but did you see the “news” story “Lawyer who worked for NRA said to have had concerns about group’s Russia ties”? So the NRA’s lawyer is worried about collusion?

Nope: Mitchell told McClatchy in an email that any suggestion she has concerns about the NRA’s Russia connections is a “complete fabrication.” But to learn that, you have to get past the false headline and two paragraphs of innuendo.

Or this oldie-butgoodie bullshit: “The NRA has blocked gun violence research for 20 years. Let’s end its stranglehold on science.” Absolutely factually wrong headline. Folks who routinely rely on the LA Times to inform them will have no basis to understand that the CDC was stopped from advocating and promoting gun control, and the funding they “lost” was the money they’d diverted from research, thus proving they didn’t need it. But try writing an LtE to correct that lie.

I’ve been writing LtEs on firearms-related topics for decades. Offhand, I can only recall two being published. One was a recent letter to the Texas Wilson County News in which I congratulated the publisher for getting facts right.

I have to go back to the mid-1990s for the only other published LtE: It ran in the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch. I opened to the Op/Ed page and found they’d run two letters side by side, to reflect “both sides” of the discussion. The pro-RKBA letter was… sad. An embarrassment to RKBA. Poor grammar, unfortunate word choices, incorrect statistics. You name it, that guy got it wrong, and I was pissed because I’d sent a letter covering everything that clown had, but I got it right. But I kept reading.

And found that crappy excuse for a pro-RKBA letter over my own name. They edited it to make pro-Second Amendment types look like idiots. They edited it so heavily — changing even facts — that I couldn’t recognize it as my own. I had to dig out my personal file copy and match paragraph to published paragraph to see that they’d followed my sequence. Sort of.

I protested. Nothing.

I threatened. Nothing.

I recently wrote another LtE to a local paper, objecting to falsehoods in another letter. They refused to publish it. The publisher claimed she could “correct” the falsehoods by printing a “correction” elsewhere.

She didn’t.

We are not losing the war. Yet. But we have lost the media battle. The editorial gatekeepers will not let our truly representative views be seen.

Polls/surveys? Same thing. Gallup claims “Americans Widely Support Tighter Regulations on Gun Sales”. To hear them tell it, 96% of Americans want universal background checks; 95% of gun owners. 75% of all Americans want a 30 day waiting period on all firearms purchases.

You couldn’t get 96% of all Americans to decide on vanilla ice cream over frozen feces, if only because of the jokers answering the phones. Certainly no state has ever come within 30 points of that figure in real elections or referendums.

So how do they get those numbers? Sometimes it’s through careful question selection, but that’s a crude technique, mostly abused by outright push-polls. The pro’s trick is weighting. That’s where you expect a bias in answers due to statistical clumping in the random selection of respondents, so you adjust the numbers to compensate. Real statisticians will do that for specific reasons.

(And what happens with “unscientific” Internet surveys; the ones where respondents aren’t carefully selected and “weighted”? Pretty much the exact opposite. The truth is somewhere in between.)

But if a pollster finds he’s getting too many pro-RKBA answers, out of proportion to the blue-city urban responses, and has to adjust…

Adjusting is exactly the wrong response. That’s deciding what the “right” result is before starting and faking the results to match preconceptions. If your “random” respondent selection was properly random, then the respondents should average out to represent — proportional to population — America. No need to “weight.” And to be sure, you randomly select another pool of respondents and run a second survey with exactly the same questions. Think of it as reproducing experimental results in real science.

Instead, we get nonsensical, proven-wrong (UNH survey in NH claimed 94% of residents wanted universal PPYI; when the Dems tried, they were voted out by large margins) 96% percent propaganda. (And kudos to the Crime Prevention Research Center for trying to conducted accurate surveys and analysis; statistics is inherently imprecise, so errors occur, but they try.)

The media gatekeepers have won the battle to inform the uninformed. They will not allow a proper defense of human/civil rights, an understanding of existing laws, or what already failed. The faked surveys become believable because, “Well, I never see anyone saying different in the news.” Convenient, that.

We have sites like this, and other bloggers and dedicated firearms sites rarely seen by those who don’t already share our interest. A few allies at services like Breitbart. Inconsistent, occasional support from Fox. The occasional local paper with severely limited circulation. If anyone can even find them, what with Google censoring bad-think search results, even shopping searches.

Social media? Are you still on anti-gun Facebook?

Big media has control. By blocking almost all positive discussion of firearms-related human/civil rights, they make appear there are none. Honest gun owners can be demonized, making it that much more likely that the deliberately ill-informed will support that much more erosion of rights. After all, only handful of radicals want those rights… they’re told, unaware of what they aren’t told.

At best, my writing here at The Zelman Partisans is preaching to the choir. More like shouting into an echo chamber.

Or a void.

Frankly, I’ve stared too long into the abyss. It’s a staredown.

But the choir doesn’t want me to say it’s hopeless. You want answers. Preferably quick, easy answers.

Sorry to disappoint.

Short of brainwashing Soros et al into channeling mass quantities of money into fact-based, unbiased, professional — as opposed to the current crop of “journalists” who decry their innocence in false reporting by exclaiming, “But it’s my job to report what [insert authority figure] said. It isn’t my place to question them.” — reporting, and the advertising necessary to make people aware of the news source, the media battle will lead to the culture loss already being decried.

The NRA can’t do it. They’re already the designated demon to the ignorant, and traitors to informed gun owners.

I can’t do it. I’m struggling to pay bills, without running up expenses chasing down leads or paying for honest surveys, or building a high traffic web site to pass that info along. Education like this is part of what The Zelman Partisans was created to do, but still lacks the resources to reach far enough.

Gun Owners of America can’t do it. They’re already reaching as far as they can, while pushing pro-rights legislation and law suits.

55,000,000 to 120,000,000 gun owners, and we can’t cough up a buck a piece per year to create a loud enough voice of truth. Hell, I’d settle for enough to buy an editor or two in major markets, the way the victim disarmament side has done.


Carl is an unpaid TZP volunteer. If you found this post useful, please consider dropping something in his tip jar. He could seriously use the money, what with truck repairs and bills.

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Extremism

One Henry Blodgett, editor-in-chief of Business Insider, thinks the NRA are a bunch of extremists.

HENRY BLODGET: The NRA’s extremism hurts gun owners, NRA members, and America (not worth a link; search the title if you wish)
Henry Blodget explains how the extreme rhetoric of the NRA leadership mischaracterizes the views of many NRA members and gun owners’ views on common-sense gun laws. Following is a transcript of the video.

The NRA has backed firearms registration, background checks, nonresident sales bans, mail order sales bans, new machinegun bans, gun-free zones, “assault weapons” bans, due process-free “no-fly/no-buy,” bump-fire stock bans, and enforcement of all unconstitutional anti-firearms laws (3 strikes), and CCW licensing. They opposed constitutional carry.

How “extreme.” “No virtue” there.

You want to see “extremism” in defense of liberty (which I’ll remind you is no vice?)

“Jews. Guns. No compromise. No Surrender.”
A group of Jews and friends who stand uncompromisingly for the right to keep and bear arms — and the entire Bill of Rights.

Yes, the NRA mischaracterizes the views of gun owners.

But not in the way you wish.

Funny how the media never contacts The Zelman Partisans for a sound bite.


Carl is an unpaid TZP volunteer. If you found this post useful, please consider dropping something in his tip jar. He could use the money, what with truck repairs and bills.

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Ed. note: This commentary appeared first in TZP’s weekly email alert. If you would like to be among the first to see new commentary (as well as to get notice of new polls and recaps of recent posts), please sign up for our alert list. (See sidebar or, if you’re on a mobile device, scroll down). Be sure to respond when you receive your activation email!

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The Zelman Partisans Statement on Proposed Legislation to Ban “Bump-Fire Stocks” and other accessories.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, long a foe of free and armed people, is introducing legislation (PDF) to ban “bump-fire stocks.”

“It shall be unlawful for any person to import, sell, manufacture, transfer or possess, in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, a trigger crank, a bump-fire device or any part, combination of parts, component, device, attachment or accessory that is designed or functions to accelerate the rate of fire of a semiautomatic rifle but not convert the semiautomatic rifle into a machine gun,” the bill states.”

Since The Zelman Partisans do value free and armed people, having an understanding of history when wanna-be tyrants like Feinstein succeeded, we utterly oppose this legislation.

We oppose it for the usual RKBA philosophical reasons. It is yet another infringement on the very right to life, as expressed through self defense.

We oppose it for practical reasons as well.

The rate of fire of a semiautomatic firearm is based in physics. Force is applied to the firing pin. That force and the pin’s mass determine its acceleration into the cartridge primer. The primer ignites at a given velocity for that cartridge; that in turn ignites the powder with its own ignition velocity. The bullet is propelled forward; force and mass again.

The force of the detonating powder also works to move the bolt backwards; the old “equal and opposite reaction.” How fast the bolt goes back is determined by its mass and the resistance of the spring behind it. When it has traveled all the way back, the spring applies force and pushes the mass forward once again.

The bolt is slowed as it strips the next round out of the magazine. Finally it moves the round’s mass into the chamber.

In a machine gun, the firing pin would continue forward starting the cycle over again. In a semiautomatic firearm, the pin does not go forward until the trigger (with its own mass and springs) returns to the ready position and is manually operated again. So semiautomatics have an inherently slower rate of fire than machine guns, all else being equal.

The only way to even approach the theoretical maximum rate of fire of most semiautomatics is to have a fast finger.

Old-timers know the trick of pushing your rifle forward with your grip on the stock or barrel shroud as you fire. Recoil pushes the rifle back, and your hand acts as a spring to pull it forward driving the trigger into your finger. The mechanicals have typically cycled already, so the rifle fires again. It’s a fun trick, but wasteful of ammunition, and very inaccurate.

Thus were born “bump-fire” stocks. They merely provide a way to hold the rifle a little steadier while you perform the same silly stunt. They absolutely in no way increase the theoretical rate of fire. They help folks with slower fingers get a little closer to the theoretical.

Should Feinstein’s bill pass, it would necessitate outlawing holding the rifle by the stock like we did in the old days. I suppose possession of an off hand would be a felony.

In fact, this bill is so broadly written that far more than “bump-fire” stocks would be banned. Light-weight after-market bolts can increase the rate of fire, as can different replacement buffer springs. Likewise nicely polished and sensitive trigger groups.

Polishing the parts in the stock trigger group would be illegal.

Basically this Constitution-shredding Senator wants to redefine “machine gun” by how fast you can make something fire, rather than being designed to fire automatically as long as the trigger is depressed. Apparently Jerry Miculek is going to be outlawed.

We understand that other people are reacting in shock and grief to the horrible incident in Las Vegas. But if we are to ban every fun or useful thing that has ever been misused, we will have to eliminate microwave ovens, sandpaper, fire extinguishers, doctors, and senators, among many other things.

The Zelman Partisans opposes this, and any other legislation with similar Bill of Rights violating intent, on the grounds that it is both wrong and stupid. We urge Senator Feinstein — clearly in her dotage — to withdraw it and to retire in ignominy.

We urge anyone with a lick of sense to also oppose it.

Please contact your Senators and House Representative to voice your opposition.

We also note that the National Rifle Association has issued a statement in support of further regulating or banning fun stuff, saying, “devices designed to allow semi-automatic rifles to function like fully-automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations.” We disagree, and urge principled members of the NRA to consider quitting and joining a real pro-RKBA organization.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

I want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving, I know it’s kind of late, thanksgiving is winding down. I am very thankful for The Zelman Partisans that allow me the opportunity to write for them, and for the fantastic team I am allowed to work with. I am very grateful for the readers we have and those that have gone further and chosen to become members. I’m grateful for our readers that take the time to comment on our columns and topics making it a dialogue, sometimes a very spirited dialogue!

I’m thankful for the followers we have on Twitter and Facebook. Among our followers we have people from America, Israel, Iraq and I think a couple in Iran. TZP has appeal worldwide. I think it’s because the issues we cover apply to people all over the world. And we do cover a wide variety of topics! Some of them are state specific, pertaining to certain propose laws or situations such as the disgusting universal background checks misleadingly portrayed by Mikey (no 32 oz soda for you) Bloomberg, and Shaneen Allen who was arrested in PA and spent 40 days in jail. I’m grateful Chris Christie, Governor of N.J. isn’t our next President, or Mikey Bloomberg either for that matter. Some topics are of interests to the human soul and the human condition no matter where you live.

We cover history topics from freedom to gun control and everything in between. We cover things that the mainstream media doesn’t like to talk about, or doesn’t want you to know about. And we can do that because at this point in time, we still have a fairly free open internet.

But with the election of President elect Trump, there are those that have now had enough of that.

Some people blame social media for him being elected. So while Arab incitement to violence against Jews continues on Facebook and Twitter, some conservatives are banned. And Facebook has helpfully decided to create “filters” to block what they consider “fake news”. Not what I consider “fake news”, not what you consider “fake news”, what THEY consider “fake news”. Facebook Has Created A News Feed Censorship Tool For China While Fake News Still Runs Wild In The US Yes indeedy! Someday our internet will be open and free as China’s. Whoo hoo! Something to look forward to, no doubt.

Goodness knows Angela Merkel is hoping it will happen soon! Merkel warns against fake news driving populist gains So while many are aware of the large increase in the attacks against women especially, in Germany some are not. Today at Thanksgiving dinner I learned that Merkel is the best leader in the free world, taking in all the rapefugees (as some in Germany have taken to calling them) has been a great deal and made Germany and economic powerhouse. I also learned there have been no problems with taking in all those poor unvetted refugees. The ax and knife attack on a German train is a mere inconvenience (what with the blood and all to clean up) not a problem actually.

Debkafile raises some interesting questions.

Until now, the freedom of speech advocated by the news organizations, Facebook, Google, Whatsapp, Microsoft and others has allowed the posting of almost any political content to social networks without censorship. Now, following Trump’s election as the 45th American president, that content faces editorial review. Its classification as true or fake news is put in the hands of faceless “censors,” who may be guided by their political, religious or personal worldview when deciding that a news story or opinion are fit for publication. Who’s to know?

Some folks are beginning to realize what some other folks have known for a long time, that most of the mainstream media has an agenda other than reporting the news. They instead prefer to shape the news.

App Store Users Torch CNN with One Star Reviews over Liberal Bias Folks are just getting tired of not having news “reported” rather than “purported”.

One of the ways people can express their dissatisfaction with a product or service is a review. And that’s what happened with the fraudulent news channel known as CNN. Apparently apple and google haven’t decided to buff things up for them, yet.

Unlike Amazon, who has decided that readers obviously don’t know what they are talking about when in comes to reviewing books. Megyn Kelly recently wrote a book. People bought the book. People read the book. People took time and wrote reviews of the book on Amazon, like people write reviews of everything on Amazon, including scouring sponges from Israel. They are awesome! The never scratch my new ceramic non-stick skillet.

But back to the review of Ms. Kelly’s book. It seems some didn’t like the book. Those that didn’t like the book were therefore deemed to be Trump trolls. And many of the one star reviews were removed. Which prompted a bit of outrage from the people that took time to write a review in the first place.

Some commenters picked up on the removal of the negative reviews. “Tim from MD.,” for example, wrote a post titled “Over 120 1 star reviews have been deleted. Are we living in a free country anymore?”

“Trump is president, but she wrote the book certain Clinton would win,” Tim from MD. wrote. “Now the book and her shows advertisers are getting boycotted. So apparently her attorneys have called to get negative reviews deleted. And they succeeded. I’m shocked.”

Brianna wrote, “I have written many thoughtful reviews as to why this book is horrible! They have all been removed even though I am a reputable Amazon customer/reviewer which is why originally Megyn had the true rating of one and a half stars and now four and a half FIXED STARS!”

I would hazard a guess people usually buy a book based on what it said it was about and what other readers said about it. Then when they were disappointed in the book, they wrote why. Isn’t that how taking time to write a review is suppose to work?

So today, even though I live in a country where college students are taught to pitch a hissy fit if they don’t get what they want and some news media outlets portray rioters as peaceful protesters and law abiding armed citizens as crazed guns nuts just looking for the chance to kill someone, that there are options to new sources. That we have an internet where people can search for news sources and reports of events that may carry the unpopular conservative view. Although, that view may not be as unpopular as some of the elitists thought. There may be a lot of people out there that are interested in what we at TZP have to say. And I’m grateful we have the platform to say it.

I can’t imagine anyone wanting to censor the fantastic news that eating ice cream for breakfast makes you smarter, but you just never know! Make mine chocolate coffee please!

News sources! Need News sources, must get to TZP!
News sources! Need News sources, must get to TZP!
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Holiday Sale

20-percent-sale-web
Now through December 31, 2016, all items (excluding memberships) in the TZP Store are discounted 20% off the regular prices.* No coupon required; the discount will be applied automatically at checkout.

You’ll find great stocking stuffers like patches, lighters, knives, binoculars, and earplugs, and more.


* Does not apply to Queensboro or CafePress store items; only those offered directly through the TZP Store.

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Wearing Your Heart On Your Sleeve, Or Your Chest

Are you familiar with the old saying “So and so wears their heart on their sleeve”? It is supposed it originated when in the Middle Ages knights who fought at tournaments wore a token of their lady on their sleeves. Today if you make your feelings obvious to everybody you wear your heart on your sleeve.

That can be a bad thing, I’ll admit, it makes it easier for folks to know what you are thinking. But in this situation I’m thinking of now, it can be a good thing!

Have you ever wondered what you could do to help let people know about The Zelman Partisans? The no compromise, no surrender Jewish and friends Second Amendment rights group? Have you had trouble working that into a conversation? Say! How about the incredible weather, the price of corn futures and let me tell you about this great group I found! The one group that actually talked to Ted Nugent when he was accused of anti-semitism. The group that is having a contest for a historic Israeli Mauser, you have told your friends about that, right? Too much of a segue?

I have a far easier way for you to help TZP and a great conversation starter!

Others have listed their favorite items from the TZP store and products, I want to tell you about mine because it has been so helpful for me.

My favorite TZP gear is the items from the Queensboro store. I mean I really, really like Queensboro. They make it easy for me to look better. So here are a few of my favorite things (cue Julie Andrews here)

Warm weather choices
Warm weather choices

For summer, we have a buttercream yellow sleeveless polo and a peachy pink sleeveless polo. They are very professional looking. I can wear them either with jeans, capri pants for a slightly dressier look or slacks to look even nicer. There are also Tee shirts, the kiwi color is a very feminine cut with cute cap sleeves and the hunter green is a regular Tee shirt style. I’m sorry the pretty hunter green didn’t show up well, blame the photographer, me.

Sleeve Length Variety
Sleeve Length Variety

Tee shirts are always great, I have the three different lengths, the cap sleeve, the regular Tee shirt and the red is a long sleeve, for slightly cooler mornings or evenings. Also great as we move into fall!

Polo Shirts
Polo Shirts

Speaking of seasonal transitions, there are the most wonderful three quarter length sleeve polos! I have red and spring green. These really are very nice. Believe me when I say they are even suitable for interviewing politicians in foreign countries! And you will look nice and professional.

Cool Weather
Cool Weather

As we swing into fall and cooler weather we have you covered there too. I know, it’s a pretty miniscule joke. But we have lovely sweatshirts like the royal blue ladies cut that is adorable with a little cotton turtleneck shirt under it, and the pink zippy sweatshirt that has seen many races in cool weather and the two sweaters in gray and cerulean blue that when paired with slacks or even a skirt give a very put together appearance.

Baseball Cap
Baseball Cap

And last, but certainly not least if my hunter green and khaki baseball cap. This looks great with or without a ponytail hanging out the back. I wore it during Ethnic Festival. It was required. Well, sort of. It was required I have my hair covered. Most of the ladies wore a bandana, but our commissioner knowing where my heart lies had absolutely no problem with my wearing my TZP logo baseball cap. Considering that part of what I did was hand out the food orders, walk the grounds on various errands and occasionally interact with representatives from other countries a lot of people saw the logo.

I wear TZP logo wear almost anyplace I go. I’ve worn it to take my Mom to her doctor’s appointments. More than one doctor has said “Excuse me, I’m not staring at your chest, but I’m trying to read your shirt”. It’s so easy to smile back and reply “Awesome shirt isn’t it? It’s the Zelman Partisans, a Jewish and friends Second Amendment rights group”. “What do they do? Oh just LET ME TELL YOU!” And then I can tell them a bit about each of us and that we all write from different angles and cover a huge variety of topics. Most of the people I’ve talked to were very excited to find out there was such a group and where they could find us on the internet.

So if you’ve ever wondered how to start a conversation and tell people about TZP, let the Queen help you. No, not me, or the one in England, Queensboro. You too can get clothing from there and dress like a King or Queen. The quality of the items is EXCELLENT! I haven’t had colors fade and I line dry clothes, stitching is nice and everything holds up very well. The prices for the clothes I’ve purchased have been very reasonable. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. Sizes for the things I have seem to run true to the charts as well.

I wear my heart on my sleeve, but sometimes on my chest too.

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Another Place, Another Time

I guess I’ve had a couple trips down memory lane lately. Well, other people’s memory as well as my own.

I saw this iconic picture yesterday hanging on a wall and it started a conversation between me and another lady sitting there. So I looked up the history on it. Far from being faked as has been supposed by some,

Lunch atop a skyscraper
Lunch atop a skyscraper

On September 20, 1932, high above 41st Street in Manhattan, 11 ironworkers took part in a daring publicity stunt. The men were accustomed to walking along the girders of the RCA building (now called the GE building) they were constructing in Rockefeller Center. On this particular day, though, they humored a photographer, who was drumming up excitement about the project’s near completion. Some of the tradesmen tossed a football; a few pretended to nap. But, most famously, all 11 ate lunch on a steel beam, their feet dangling 850 feet above the city’s streets.

For these dudes, eating lunch, having a smoke, reading a paper 850 feet above the ground was not a big deal. Another place, another time. It’s like Sheila, can we take a picture of you feeding your animals?  Business as usual.

Then I got a email from a friend of mine with pictures of tinker toys, drive in movies, Dippity Do, Howdy Doody, saddle oxfords, and many more. All things I certainly remember. Another place, another time.

Then I had a conversation with my Mom today, and we talked about the picture in the course of the conversation. How we were as a people then. Tough, strong, brave, and we wanted to make our own way in the world. We wanted our children to have more and better chances than we did. We wanted to leave the world a better place for them. And often that was in the form of hard work, dangerous work, creative work, and sometimes war. Another place, another time.

And now, our children are “children”. In college they seek counseling from the trauma of seeing a name written in chalk. They need “safe spaces” in college, and college communications professors (fired now at University of Missouri at Columbia) trying to shut down, well, communications. They need the segregated “safe spaces” that the civil rights movement fought against a mere 50 years ago. Those struggles forgotten and dishonored. Another place, another time.

Instead of Mr. Smith Goes To Washington we have the dimocratic toddler time as they enjoy their catered in meals, bathroom breaks and publicity photo ops, rather than working to do right until they collapse. They are pitchin’ a hissy fit as they try to take rights, self-defense, endowed by our creator, not them. Another place, another time.

Dimocrat toddler time
Dimocrat toddler time

Recently a holocaust survivor publicly confronted former London Mayor Ken Livingstone about several statements, one of which was hitler was a Zionist. He made several other erroneous statements and the radio host corrected him. He knew so much that wasn’t true.

“It isn’t so much that liberals are ignorant. It’s just that they know so many things that aren’t so.” ~~Ronald Reagan

But it was the statement of Mala Tribich, survivor of Bergen-Belsen that hit me hard.

“I find them very offensive and hurtful when people belittle the Holocaust. When they use the Holocaust to score a political point,” she said.

“I really can’t see it. They are usually people in high places. I take them as being intelligent and educated. Yet they can stoop so low to use the Holocaust to better their positions. What really bothers me is that they do it whilst there are some survivors still around. What will they do when we’re all gone?”

As anti-Semitic attacks are on the rise world wide, entire political parties are openly anti-Semitic, anti-Israel or both, and it’s accepted or excused. They say things that would have gotten them shunned, kicked out of the political arena or the papers would have been chewing them up with the facts of their lies. Another place, another time.

Our wonderful Nicki and I exchanged some e-mails today talking about Moshe Feiglin, and she nailed it.

I just think it’s a sad state of our world that we actually hold men such as this as heroes. They should be the NORM. They should be the rule, not the exception, ya know?

And they did used to be, in another place, another time.

And so, someday the survivors will be gone, and then what will they (the liberals, the anti-Semites, the anti-Israel people) do? They will be confronted by me. And they will be confronted by Zelman’s Partisans, and they will be confronted by good, strong and brave people everywhere. People that seem to come from another place, another time.

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Twas a Night During Hanukkah

Twas a night during Hanukkah and all through the house, not a creature was stirring except for a mouse.

And Cowgirl Kitty killed it.

My Hanukkiah had been lit, and into sufganiyot and latkas I had bit and I smiled with joy that the three of them bring.

Little Marlowe gently snored on his puppy bed, and I snuggled in, with thoughts of Hanukkah in my head.

And who to my wondering eyes should appear? Judah Maccabee, it WAS him, I swear!

I sat up quite started, “Sir, you give me quite a fright, why do you appear here in the dead of the night?”

He regarded me gravely and tugged on his beard, he said so very softly “It’s the things I have heard”.

My eyes widened just as his narrowed, and I shivered in my bones, clear down to the marrow.

Judah, what has you so troubled I asked with a frown, you know you’re one of my heroes, you know it deep down!

He sighed as he listed the attacks both great and small, in France, in England, the USA and Israel, worst of all,

Hannah and her sons, my father, my brothers and I did not fight and give our lives, so that latkas you could fry. The dreidels you do spin, the songs you do sing, they should be a strong reminder there are still evil things.

We loved G-d our father, he created this earth, to serve him we certainly have proven our worth.

Those that would keep us from observing his rules, have mistaken our courage, they must have been fools.

He gave us great victories, he gave back our Temple, you should have held on, it is just that simple.

No Jew may pray there, nor Christian it seems, Beit HaMikdash lives only in my dreams.

In France Jews are told no Menorah to light, so as to avoid the evil in the night.

G-d gave us the miracle of such great victory, he gave us the miracle of the oil, it is our history. To turn our backs and ignore? What a sad mystery!

Judah smiled sadly, and said “The Zelmans Partisans, it fights the good fight you are warriors all. My spirit is beside you, you must heed the call!” We were partisans, we Maccabees, we know of your struggle, we’ve made the same pleas.

Freedom comes dear, without effort it won’t last. Keep your sword sharp and ready, be prepared to draw fast.

Your weapons they will try to seize, your faith try to shake, and you must hold both close. Make no mistake.

Judah then brightened and said with a smile, you all are doing good work. You all spread the word, keep it up and you will be heard.

He then began to fade and my eyes began to tear, Oh Judah I said, why did you come here?

It was then Marlowe barked and I awoke with a start, and I began to rethink the idea that Chipotle pepper Tabasco in latkas was a good idea.

חג חנוכה שמח

chag chanukkah sameach

Happy Hanukkah Holiday!!

Judah Maccabee Meme
Judah Maccabee Meme

 

 

With sincere, abject and humble apologies to Clement Clarke Moore. And probably a few of you that just suffered through my attempt at poetry!

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