Armed Campus Lies

I woke up to some great news this morning. A Texas bill, restoring the fundamental right of faculty and students over the age of 21 with a concealed handgun permit to carry firearms inside classrooms on public and private college campuses, tentatively passed the Texas House the night before. It passed despite the sniveling objections of school administrators, although thanks to a last-minute amendment, schools are allowed to create “reasonable” regulations pertaining to the presence of firearms on school grounds.

What constitutes “reasonable,” is anyone’s guess.

The bill still has to be approved by the Texas state Senate before it’s signed into law by the governor, and you can be sure that the gun grabbers’ disinformation machine will kick into high gear before this happens.

The clueless, quivering bottom lip horde continue to bring up the specter of the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre as justification for disarming law-abiding, innocent adults on America’s campuses, likely hoping you will ignore the fact that Virginia Tech was a “gun free” campus to begin with… well, gun free other than the gunman!

This year, a survivor of that shooting and another from the Virginia Tech massacre testified in a committee hearing that arming students wouldn’t make campuses safer. William H. McRaven, chancellor of the University of Texas System and a four-star admiral who led the mission that killed Osama bin Laden, argued that the policy would endanger students and teachers.

Arming students wouldn’t make campuses safer? Do the words: Appalachian School of Law ring a bell? Yeah, that’s the one where armed students actually stopped a gunman.

Oh, did we hope no one would bring that up?

Frankly, I’m appalled that McRaven – a retired flag officer and special ops expert who oversaw the mission that ended up in the death of Bin Ladin – would forget how critical firearms are to safety and security and outright lie by claiming that concealed carry would somehow make campuses “less safe.”

Worse, the gun grabbers are using his rank to bolster his credibility on this particular issue, and he appears only too happy to allow them to do it. Using your military rank to lend credence to your political views is abhorrent to me as a veteran.

Anti-gun armedcampuses.org claims that “ gun-free policies have helped to make our post-secondary education institutions some of the safest places in the country.”  McRaven must have been huffing their glue. 

While homicides on college campuses are relatively rare, I would submit that has more to do with the fact that college students and professors tend to be a less violent, more law-abiding bunch writ large, so it’s doubtful that “gun free” policies have had anything to do with that, despite the disingenuous claims of the group. Additionally, the states that do allow concealed carry on its college campuses – Idaho, Utah, and Colorado – have not been made less safe by the passage of concealed carry laws.

“Our parents, students, faculty, administrators, and law enforcement all continue to express their concerns that the presence of concealed handguns on campus would contribute to a less-safe environment, not a safer one,” McRaven wrote in a letter to Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and House Speaker Joe Straus.

The paranoid fantasies of cowards do not interest us.  We’ve seen time and time again that disarming the law-abiding does nothing to protect them from violence, and we’ve seen near daily reports of armed citizens stopping criminals.

Perhaps McRaven should spend a bit more time focusing on how better to educate America’s college students and a bit less time inventing excuses to render them defenseless.

After all there is a negative relationship between education and violent crime.

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One of These Things May Be Like The Other

I listened to a radio broadcast a few weeks ago that pointed out that the things that happen in Israel are then reflected in America. The first example the radio host gave was the amount of residents displaced from Gush Katif due to pressure exerted by the US and the U.N. was proportional to the amount of residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina just a week later. I admit it, I was ignorant of the connection.

 

The next example the radio host discussed was a recent Molotov cocktail attack and what the streets have looked like during the intifadas. How the US is pressuring Israel to accept a two state solution, which will give them indefensible borders. He then talked about turning on the TV and seeing Baltimore burning. He said it looked like the streets in parts of Israel during the intifadas.

 

So if America is a reflection of what takes place in Israel and the two are tied together, what might we be expecting? What things do we hold near and dear that we may see affected as they have been in Israel.

 

Is religious freedom in America under attack? This video was shot on Har Habayit, the Temple Mount. The holiest site in Judaism, it is in Israel, the Jewish state. But, Jews are not allowed to pray there. Moshe Dyan handed it back over to the Jordanians about 15 minutes after Israel regained control of it in the Six Day War. All faiths were to have been allowed equal access to pray. But that’s not what has happened. Muslims harass the Jewish and Christian visitors to the site. If they feel someone is praying the wafq (who also decides if you get to go up or not) has the Israeli police throw you out, and they will. The Israeli police discriminate against the Jewish and Christians that come to Har Habayit, against the Muslims? Naw, not so much. The courts have declared Jews and Christians are allowed to pray there, but as you can see, it’s not happening. To be fair, I wouldn’t want their job, but they aren’t exactly being fair either.

Would you be willing to walk through this to go to pray at your house of worship?

 

 

This is taking place inside of Israel, and the government is not standing up for the people. In fact the government is making it harder. The harpies that are screaming at the visitors are paid by Hamas, this is how they earn their living. They show up, steal stuff off the Temple Mount, protest the Jews and Christians and get paid by Hamas. Is that our tax dollars by chance? Well, what do we have? Oh, as it turns out the protestors in Ferguson Missouri that rioted were paid also! Or, not paid, so they are protesting not getting paid to protest. Any guesses as to the chances some of the rioters in Baltimore that were given room to steal and destroy were paid imports?

 

Could you ever envision a time within American borders when your free speech is threatened by someone who disagrees with it? Naw, that won’t happen here, not within our borders. Just because it’s already affected free speech for our neighbors to the north, Canada.

Police officer responding during the Garland Texas attack
Police officer responding during the Garland Texas attack

 

Here’s a helpful little video that talks about the borders and the importance. I like it cause it has cool 3D maps.

 

 

Perhaps one of these things really is a lot like the other. But really good investigative jounalists would check it out for themselves.

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Custom TZP Kershaw knives!

ZelmanPartisans_CustomKnife-01_052115

ZelmanPartisans_CustomKnife-02_052115

Aren’t they slick? And sleek. And tough. And Kershaw quality all the way. We’ve just gotten these customized, Ken Onion-designed spring-assist folders. Check them out in our store.

TZP president Brad Alpert (of the Missouri Bullet Company) chose them personally, and as soon as I heard he’d selected a Kershaw I knew they’d be good. The two Kershaws I own are as sharp and beautiful as when they were new (and that’s despite the fact that I got one of them at a garage sale from somebody who’d put it to hard use). This one’s going to be a classic.

Need I say: get ’em while they last. 🙂

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THREE-YEAR MEMBERS, don’t forget! If you’re a 3-year Founding Member, you get 10% off all TZP store purchases (excluding our CafePress and Queensboro stores). If you’re a Premium Founding Member, your discount is 15%.

You must be logged in to your account to get the discount, so if you don’t yet have a login, create one. If you didn’t get your introductory email with login instructions or you’ve lost track of it, contact us at tzpstore-at-zelmanpartisans-dot-com and we’ll see that you get the info.

NOW FOR SOME UPDATES

Custom kippot to come: At the suggestion of one of our supporters, we’ll be adding TZP custom kippot (aka kippahs or yarmulkes) to the store around Independence day. Watch for them. These will be quality linen kippot with an embroidered TZP logo. Great conversation starters. (And depending on how irreverent your sense of humor is, you don’t even have to be a Jewish man to wear one. Or two.)

We apologize. Quite a bit of outgoing TZP email has disappeared into the ether. We hope to fix this soon by moving to a new server. In the meantime, if you didn’t get a receipt or other acknowledgement from us, it’s most likely our problem and we’re working on it.

Snail mail payment option available: A few people have said they will not or cannot use PayPal. If you want to join TZP or buy from our store, we now have a snailing address for taking orders. Contact us at tzpstore-at-zelmanpartisans-dot-com and we’ll email the address to you.

FUTURE PROJECTS

We’ve been so moved by the support you’ve given TZP right from the beginning. You should know what we’re planning for the future. First order of business, as you see, is to keep good, informative blogging going while also creating some steady income through memberships and product sales.

With that in mind, we’re focusing on building an excellent store. Not a big store, but one featuring quality goods you can’t get elsewhere. When that’s farther along we’ll undertake our first special project. What will it be? Video? Campaign? Book? A line of user-friendly booklets (like the late, great Gran’pa Jacks from Aaron’s JPFO)? We don’t know yet. When that time comes we’ll probably ask your help in determining the best project to educate, excite, and keep the Zelman legacy strong.

We’re aiming for slow, but steady and responsible, growth. Meantime, everyone involved with TZP remains a volunteer. From the officers to the writers to order fulfillers, everyone’s here solely out of commitment to the cause.

Thanks for being with the Partisans.

(Now go grab yourself a knife.)

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Liberation rage

Last month was the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Dachau. I’ve been saving that link, planning to write something about the Allied troops who had no idea of the horrors they were about to stumble into.

Allied commanders knew about the camps. But for whatever reason they didn’t tell the men who actually walked in and encountered the Holocaust unprepared.

For the last two weeks I’ve been trying to frame what I wanted to say about those soldiers and why they were left so unready to witness what no one should ever have to see, let alone endure.

Before I could finish my thoughts, something new came to light: letters from an Army doctor to his wife about how some of the weary, shocked, horrified, outraged — and ultimately vengeful — allied troops reacted. (Warning: graphic images.)

They turned on the SS guards and gave them a small taste of what the SS had given its victims.

Historians knew about this and have called the troops’ revenge shameful. But was it? Was it right? Wrong? Legal? Illegal? Sadistic? Or simple justice? Those questions didn’t matter. Would the exhausted troops have behaved differently had they been warned what to expect? Had their commanders taken better charge? Who can know?

For good or ill, history (even the history of the noble act of liberation) is so much more complex than we were taught in school.

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Be sure to read the full account of Dr. Wilsey’s letters and experiences in the New Republic.

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Well, sending money is a start. But …

A certain notoriously compromising gun-rights activist has begun what is billed as a brilliant new campaign to combat Michael Bloomberg, Obama, Hillary, et al. As far as we can tell, the campaign consists entirely of scare tactics to get other people to send him money.

Now, we at TZP are most certainly not opposed to receiving donations or memberships. We’re grateful for your contributions and we promise to put them to good use for freedom and gun rights (with emphasis, as always, on lifesaving, holocaust-preventing civil rights). Being funded is most definitely a good start!

However, we fail to see how “send us money” could ever be considered “the most important action you can take to protect your right to keep and bear arms.” Or how it could be construed, by itself, as being a powerful campaign against BloombergObamClintonian evil.

I hate to be cynical (and what follows is just my own personal view), but doesn’t it seem as if something more that “you give, we take” is required for a real campaign against gun grabbers?

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Yom Yerushalayim ~ Conviction and the Lesson

 

IDF Paratroopers at the Kotel

Forty eight years ago through the heroic efforts of a beleaguered and outnumbered force, and the blessings of G-d, the whole of the city of Jerusalem, including the very center of the Jewish world; Har Habayit, the Temple Mount, was wrested from two thousand years of captivity.

Sadly, despite witnessing this incredible miracle, just as in ancient times, leaders of the Jewish People failed in their resolve, handing back functional sovereignty of the Temple Mount, to the enemy within days. It has remained so ever since.

har habayit today

The lesson to be learned is two-fold. First, while it takes more than conviction to persevere against adversity,  without it any gains are soon lost. Second, that G-d, like a patient, devoted father, prepares harsh tests. He hopes that we will succeed but knows that we will often fail. These tests are lessons, too.

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Capturing Eichmann

This week is the 55th anniversary of the capture of Adolf Eichmann. It’s a story worthy of a Hollywood thriller.

Many people know its outlines. But did you know that after the war but before the Mossad decided to capture Eichmann alive and put him up for trial, there was an armed Jewish group called The Avengers that handled Nazis more directily?

At first they handed over the SS men to the Allied authorities, but many of the SS men “escaped in the chaos that followed the war or were released.” At one point the Russians released two Nazi Germans who had been turned over to them by the Jews. The Germans walked out into the street, laughing at their release. But not for long. The Avengers “cut the men down with a burst of sub-machine gunfire.”

From then on the Avengers simply tracked down and killed former Nazis. Perhaps 1000 Nazis were tracked down in this way after the war.

It seems that, following the war, allies had a habit of letting Nazis escape — not surprising when you consider how much some high-ups among the allies despised Jews.

It was also revealed a few years back that the West German government knew where Eichmann was hiding nearly a decade before the Israelis dragged him from Argentina.

Did the Israelis violate international law in conducting their unauthorized arrest of Eichmann? No doubt they violated many laws. But the keepers of the laws were busy either protecting or ignoring Eichmann — who (after the Nuremburg trials) was the only still-living senior official responsible for the Holocaust.

Eichmann was hardly the bland, colorless bureaucrat some have portrayed him as being. He was the chief administrator of genocide and a dedicated Nazi who continued to dream of setting up a new Third Reich in South America. His bureaucratic apparatus made mass murder possible. His lies persuaded hopeful Jews to believe they were merely being “relocated to the east” instead of being relocated to misery and death. His methods made mass murder go smoothly, with least resistance from the victims.

Before his trial, a lot of politicians and thinkers believed the best course was just to forget the Holocaust. Stop talking about it. Let it fade into history as quickly as possible. The trial of Adolf Eichmann ended all that and started an examination of the process of state-perpetrated evil that continues to this day — more than half a century after his capture.

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Mother’s Day Musings

Mothers, most of us had or have one. There are some politicians that I’ve wondered if they weren’t perhaps hatched out of a dodo egg, but that’s another discussion for another day.

 

I just want to say thank you, thank you to the Mothers that actually love their children. Up front disclaimer, all my children have either 4 legs and fur, or 2 legs and feathers. And I love them all. And as challenging as it can be to be a Mother to them, I understand from those that have children with skin and two legs, they are even harder to raise. Ok, I won’t dispute that, but will take your word.

 

When I was growing up, I was one of the very lucky kids. By that I mean I didn’t really grow up needing to be afraid. I didn’t have dreams of monsters under the bed or the killer clowns breaking in. Why didn’t I? Because I knew that my Dad had a revolver in the underwear draw and a shotgun in the closet. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that if my Dad didn’t drop them with a punch, he had the means and motive to use defensive tools to sort the issue. Now, while I view my Dad as a combination of Roy Rogers and John Wayne, I knew that when it came to his children, our safety was not a negotiable issue. I would like to think a lot of Dads are protective of their families.

 

So why do I consider myself so blessed? Because not only was my Dad willing and able to take care of us kids, so was my Mom. My little 5’4” Mom was a tough little farm girl. Not a lot fazed her when it came to taking care of her kid’s safety. Mom was a good Southern Baptist, and she was all about turn the other cheek, peacemaking and treating your neighbor as you would want to be treated. But there was no doubt in my mind she would look out for her brood.

 

“Mom, what would happen if someone broke in one day?”

 

“Sheila, your Dad will handle it, don’t worry”.

 

“But Mom, what if Dad’s not home?”

 

“Then I’ll handle it.”

 

By then I was about as tall and big as my Mom, which isn’t saying much. Sorry Mom.

 

“Um, how Mom?”

 

“I’ll shoot them.”

 

“Um, Mom, do you know HOW to shoot?”

 

Actually as it turns out, my Mom is a crack shot. Growing up on a farm, hunting squirrels or anything else she needed to, with not a lot of ammo to spare makes one a very good markswoman.

 

My respect for my Mother grew that day. I knew she loved us enough that she would do whatever she needed to in the effort to protect us, and she wouldn’t hesitate. I’m a blessed woman.

I knew that rather than fight and die to protect us, she would most likely fight and live to raise us herself.

 

I think about the pressures facing responsible Mothers these days. You have people like Shannon Watts who make a habit of telling Mothers their children don’t matter. She is supported financially by people like gazillionaire Mickey Bloomberg who I’m sure has a staff of security people armed with massive tasers and pepper spray to keep their families safe. He can afford them. We couldn’t.

 

Hollyweird celebs like Rosie O’Donnell, Melissa Joan Hart, Prince and a cadre of others who have private security telling us little people we will be safer if we are defenseless.

 

Pediatricians asking parents if they own guns, and yes, this happened to a friend of mine.

 

Then you have the mainstream media presenting biased stories against firearms, and for some bizarre reason people still watch stuff like CNN and MSLSD.

So to all the Mothers that stand against the pressures that would keep them from being prepared and able to protect their children, I applaud you. It has always been a sense of horror to me that I am more prepared and willing to defend a flock of chickens from a coon, possum or fox than some Mothers are to protect their children. More than one predator has met his eternal reward measured in shot. I figure I bought the critters, 2 and 4 legged, they had no choice where they wound up, I took on responsibility for them. Part of that responsibility is food, water, shelter, companionship, education and safety. Then I hear women with children (not sure they should be called Moms) say they are scared of guns, they don’t want them in their house or anywhere around their children. If there was a threat they would just call the police. While I am more than willing to admit perhaps I’m being too judgmental, an occasional failing, I can’t help but think if you didn’t want them, why did you have them? You have a smoke detector, a fire extinguisher, the pediatrician and Domino’s Pizza on speed dial, but one of the most urgent situations you could ever face you are willing to wait till someone can get there to help you. And you assume help will always be able to get there on time do you? Wow. Awesome.

So on this Mother’s Day, thanks Mom, I applaud you, and your “True Grit”. One of the highest compliments in our family, True Grit. And she has it.

Hero Moms
Hero Moms
Happy Mothers Day
Happy Mothers Day
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A Letter to an Uncaring World

Szmul M. Zygielbojm

Seventy-two years years ago today, exhausted and dispirited, long-time labor leader and member of the Polish Government in Exile; Szmul Mordekhai Zygielbojm, wrote a letter, and then tragically took his own life.  Here is his letter:

May 11, 1943

To His Excellency

The President of the Republic of Poland

Wladyslaw Raczkiewicz

Prime Minister

General Wladyslaw Sikorski

Mr. President,

Mr. Prime Minister,

I am taking the liberty of addressing to you, Sirs, these my last words, and through you to the Polish Government and the people of Poland, and to the governments and people of the Allies, and to the conscience of the whole world:

The latest news that has reached us from Poland makes it clear beyond any doubt that the Germans are now murdering the last remnants of the Jews in Poland with unbridled cruelty. Behind the walls of the ghetto the last act of this tragedy is now being played out.

The responsibility for the crime of the murder of the whole Jewish nationality in Poland rests first of all on those who are carrying it out, but indirectly it falls also upon the whole of humanity, on the peoples of the Allied nations and on their governments, who up to this day have not taken any real steps to halt this crime. by looking on passively upon this murder of defenseless millions tortured children, women and men they have become partners to the responsibility.

I am obliged to state that although the Polish Government contributed largely to the arousing of public opinion in the world, it still did not do enough. It did not do anything that was not routine, that might have been appropriate to the dimensions of the tragedy taking place in Poland.

Of close to 3.5 million Polish Jews and about 700,000 Jews who have been deported to Poland from other countries, there were, according to the official figures of the Bund transmitted by the Representative of the Government,** only 300,000 still alive in April of this year. And the murder continues without end.

I cannot continue to live and to be silent while the remnants of Polish Jewry, whose representative I am, are being murdered. My comrades in the Warsaw ghetto fell with arms in their hands in the last heroic battle. I was not permitted to fall like them, together with them, but I belong with them, to their mass grave.

By my death, I wish to give expression to my most profound protest against the inaction in which the world watches and permits the destruction of the Jewish people.

I know that there is no great value to the life of a man, especially today. But since I did not succeed in achieving it in my lifetime, perhaps I shall be able by my death to contribute to the arousing from lethargy of those who could and must act in order that even now, perhaps at the last moment, the handful of Polish Jews who are still alive can be saved from certain destruction.

My life belongs to the Jewish people of Poland, and therefore I hand it over to them now. I yearn that the remnant that has remained of the millions of Polish Jews may live to see liberation together with the Polish masses, and that it shall be permitted to breathe freely in Poland and in a world of freedom and socialistic justice, in compensation for the inhuman suffering and torture inflicted on them. And I believe that such a Poland will arise and such a world will come about. I am certain that the President and the Prime Minister will send out these words of mine to all those to whom they are addressed, and that the Polish Government will embark immediately on diplomatic action and explanation of the situation, in order to save the living remnant of the Polish Jews from destruction.

I take leave of you with greetings, from everybody, and from everything that was dear to me and that I loved.

S. Zygielbojm

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