Faith and Firearms

I’m not a religious person, and most people who know me know this. I have a pretty good sense of who I am as a Jew who escaped the Soviet Union in 1979. I have written on the topic of being Jewish, being abused by one’s government, and being able to stand up to it. Being a Jew is what formed my views on gun rights to begin with before I ever knew what the Second Amendment was.

But I’m not religious at all. If I had to describe myself, I’d say I’m more of the agnostic/atheist variety. So when I tackled the subject of faith and firearms for Concealed Carry magazine more than a decade ago, I had to approach my father – a faithful Jew since we stepped foot onto American soil in 1980 – and some of his contacts.

I wanted to know whether many Jewish organizations in the United States had any basis for supporting disarmament, and whether they were misinterpreting Jewish law.

This week’s poll promfaith-and-firearms-coverpted me to see if the article I wrote all those years ago is available online, since it is still as appropriate today as it was more than 10 years ago when I wrote it.

The full article is here, along with a view from the Lutheran perspective. Here’s a bit.

The fact is that gun control subverts and violates Judaic law. According to Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO), the sanctity of life is a core Jewish value. Rabbi Isaac Leizerowski, after having conferred with several of his colleagues, agrees that the right to self-defense is MANDATED by Jewish law. From the sanctity of Life comes an imperative to safeguard Life. The directive to defend your life is written in the Talmud, the 70-volume Code of Jewish Law, in at least three places. “And the Torah says, ‘If someone comes to kill you, arise quickly and kill him.’”

Have a good weekend!

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LA City Council Requires Tougher Storage Laws

So the Lost Angeles (spelling intentional) City Council has decided to mandate tougher storage laws to ensure that no children accidentally shoot themselves in their fair city.

“I am tired and I know you all are too of reading of grieving parents who have lost their children through unintentional and totally preventable shootings,” said Laurie Saffian with Women Against Gun Violence.

Yes, do it for the children! Because we haven’t heard that well-worn trope before!

A violation will be a misdemeanor. Officials say there won’t be patrols checking homes to make sure the law is being obeyed, and they admit it will be difficult to know until after an incident occurs.

“Sadly, it will also come into play after tragedies occur or after near tragedies occur,” Krekorian said.

So the idiots can’t enforce it without massive violations of the Fourth Amendment, and they’ve essentially passed a new law that has no hope of reducing accidents – all to remedy a problem that pretty small, according to that bastion of conservative reporting, the Washington Post.

We know how many gun deaths were declared accidental (591 in 2011, the CDC says). And we know that 102 people killed in these accidental gun deaths in 2011 were younger than 18, according to Vernick, with half of these children younger than age 13.

In 2013, the last year for which statistics are available, 59 children under the age of 13 died due to accidental gunfire. Compare this to the 577 in that same age bracket who drowned, and 51 and 55 who died of poisoning and falls respectively. Why is it that gun grabbers aren’t lobbying for swimming pool control?

This new law can’t be enforced, and it will more likely than not be completely useless at deterring accidental deaths.

But you know what it will do?

It will ensure that any armed thug who breaks into your home will have complete access to your body, your loved ones, and your property with impunity.

Unless, of course, you think your encounter with an armed intruder will go something like this:

DOOR FLIES OPEN, ARMED INTRUDER ENTERS

You: Oh, my goodness! You have a gun! How did you possibly get one with all the strict gun laws we have in Lost Angeles?

Intruder: Shut up and lie down.

You: Oh, NOES! What are you planning to do to me?

Intruder: Well, first I’m going to tie you up and rape you. And then I thought I’d walk around and help myself to your stuff. That OK with you?

You: No! As a matter of fact, I bought a gun to protect myself against just such an eventuality!

Intruder: Well, where is this mythical gun?

You: It’s locked up right now. City Council says I must.

Would you mind waiting right there while I run and fetch it?

Intruder: Oh, sure! I’ll wait here. After all, I’d like to afford you a level playing field before I rape and rob you! Go for it. I’ve got all the time in the world!

There's no facepalm strong enough for this lunacy!
There’s no facepalm strong enough for this lunacy!

In what lunatic world do these imbeciles live?

What good is a tool of self defense if you cannot immediately use it in times of need?

And what good is a right, if you are forced to submit to idiot regulations that have no hope of preventing violence and serve to put you at a disadvantage in the face of an armed enemy?

Good luck, LA. You’ll need it.

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Poll: Why are U.S. Jews generally anti-gun?

This week’s poll asks why American Jews are generally anti-gun.

—–

We didn’t have a poll last week, but our previous poll (on whether you personally carry a gun) produced encouraging results (click to embiggen):

Screenshot from 2015-10-27 13:35:26

Between the big YES to carrying everywhere and the jaunty “none of your business” we’re clearly an alert and ready group. 🙂

Oh, and sorry about the two “other” options. Still getting used to how PollDaddy does things.

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NOT. ONE. INCH. NOT. ONE. INCH.

France has helpfully drafted a proposal to the U.N. to internationalize the Temple Mount, Har ha-Beyit. They feel that seizing control of a section of Israel’s sovereign and most holy ground will somehow calm the violence. I never accused the U.N. of being clever, but I never thought them that stupid either.

UNESCO was planning to vote on making the Kotel, the western wall of King Solomon’s temple a islamic holy site. Mind you since it is a Jewish site now, Jews, Christians and muslims can and do go there to pray now. But if it’s changed to a muslim site, then it will be as the Temple Mount. Only muslims will be allowed to pray there.

Even more insane, barry urged Israel to hand over half of Jerusalem, the Kotel, The Temple Mount, Old Jerusalem, and the tomb of Jesus to the Hamas-Fatah terrorist organizations.
Bibi’s response? Israel cannot accept the draft resolution of the council.

Damn skippy.

Appeasement does not, nor will it ever work.

The attacks against Jews are growing more violent and aimed at larger groups. (The escalating stages) The stabbing attacks are turning into attacks against a larger group. The bus attack in Jerusalem one week ago  attacking the passengers.

“…Yisrael – the other driver, my friend – got out of the bus and ran towards my bus (shouting): ‘stop, stop, there’s a terrorist in the bus.’ …he shouted to me ‘he’s slaughtering them, he’s slaughtering them,’ and we had nothing we could do, we were trying to contact the police, there’s nothing we could do.”…..A senior security official told The Jerusalem Post that the series of attacks increasingly appears to be “a planned and timed assault.”

Damn skippy. They are.

The other bus attack was at the Be’er Sheba bus station, and came less than a week later. He was apparently financed by a new terrorist group that was recently established in the Gaza Strip by Iran and Hizballah, more hard core than Hamas. Good thing barry is releasing the monetary sanctions against Iran, huh? WOWZA, who could have seen that coming? A rise in terrorism against Israel with the release of sanctions money and financial aid?

What you may not be aware of and I haven’t heard it mentioned is something special about the Be’er Sheba bus station.

In Israel, Jewish history is everywhere. Literally. Under the floor of the Be’er Sheba bus station are Avraham’s wells. Right, the Avraham in Sepher Bereshit/Genesis. Avraham, the Patriarch.

Avraham's Wells
Avraham’s Wells

 

There was an attack of another kind this week. Joseph’s tomb (article from 28 April, 2011). On the 16th palestinians set fire to the tomb of one of the Patriarchs. And again, last week.

Seems the arabs have something against Jewish Patriarchs lately, again, always.

The so-called “Oslo Accords” signed between Israel and the Palestinians in 1995 stipulated that Joseph’s Tomb would remain an Israeli-controlled enclave open to Jewish worshippers and religious students.But at the start of the Al Aqsa Intifada in 2000, a Palestinian mob backed by Palestinian Authority police officers assaulted Joseph’s Tomb, killing an Israeli soldier in the process. Israel subsequently surrendered control of the site on the condition that the Palestinian Authority would protect and maintain it.

I ran across something very interesting the other day. A story about the number of times America has pressured Israel. What made it more interesting is what happened in America within days or hours of signing, but you can read that if you want to. But here are the times:

1991 30 October – The Oslo AccordPresident George H. Bush promoted and proudly signed the infamous Oslo Accord at the Madrid Peace Conference on October 30, 1991. The Oslo Accord was labeled a “Land for Peace” accord that demanded Israel award their land to the Palestinian murderers and terrorists in exchange for peace. The perverse Oslo proposition was simple: give us your land and we’ll stop killing you.

1992 23 August-A year later, President Bush literally picked up the pieces from Oslo attempting to rob Israel again. Meeting in Washington D.C. Bush and crew again attempted to “sell” the fictitious Madrid “Land for Peace” agreement.

1994 16 January-President Bill Clinton meets with terrorist and Israel hater Syria’s President Hafez el-Assad in Geneva. They talk about a peace agreement with Israel that includes Israel giving up the Golan Heights.

1998 28 September-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright finishes the final details of an agreement which requires Israel to surrender 13 percent of Yesha (Judah and Samaria). President Bill Clinton meets with Yasser Arafat and Netanyahu at the White House to finalize another Israel “land for peace” hoodwink. Later, Arafat addresses the United Nations and declares an independent Palestinian state by May 1999.

1998 30 November-Arafat arrives in Washington again to meet with President Clinton to raise money for a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as the capital. A total of 42 other nations were represented in Washington. All the nations agreed to give Arafat $3 billion in aid. Clinton promised $400 million, and the European nations $1.7 billion.

1998 12 December-President Clinton arrives in the Palestinian-controlled section of Israel to discuss another “land for peace” fiasco.

2001 8 June-President George W. Bush sends Secretary Tenet to Jerusalem to promote his “Roadmap to Peace,” the continuation of the failed Oslo Accord.

2005 23 August-Israel completed the evacuation of the Gaza Strip and gave it to the Palestinians. The Gaza Strip evacuation came directly from President Bush’s “Roadmap to Peace.”

Every time Israel has ceded land for peace it doesn’t work, it will not work this time.

I think we know something about “reasonable compromise” and appeasement.

How Reasonable Compromise Works
How Reasonable Compromise Works

 

An appeaser is one who keeps feeding the crocodile in the hope it will eat him last”~~ Winston Churchill

Israel and gunowners have both got to stand our ground this time. As the democrats debate on TV who can most proudly try to steal our G-d given rights, and the world tries to pressure Israel into ceding even more land, we can not give in. The results of what we have already given so far has cost us too dearly. We can not give in again.

NOT. ONE. INCH.

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Weekend links

I’ve been saving these up, hoping to write something or somethings from them. But life has kept me from it. So here you go for your weekend reading …

  • “The Banality of Good.” A surprisingly decent piece from Slate on how people who rescued Jews during the Holocaust found it so hard to talk about what they did.
  • We tend to think of the Poles as being willing, eager collaborators with the Nazis in the extermination of Jews. As usual, the real picture was more varied.
  • Sometime-TZP-contributor Ilana Mercer says “cut the ‘cycle of violence’ crap and recognize what’s really going on with the latest round of attacks on Jews.
  • And the great Paul Rosenberg asks to look honestly on the anti-Jewish cancer in the liberty movement. (H/T ML)
  • Finally, on a more cheerful note, an Israeli hummus cafe gives substantial discounts to Jews and Arabs dining together.

(H/T to colleague Y.B. ben Avraham for several of these stories.)

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How Do Those Shackles Taste, Lawson?

Lawson Clarke is an ad exec from Massachusetts and a “Gun Owner Who is Perfectly Comfortable With Gun Control.”

Translation: he’s a serf, who has no comprehension of the meaning of a right and thinks the Second Amendment protects his “right” to hunt.

In his article for NPR, he details the laborious process he underwent as a Massachusetts resident to get state permission to exercise his rights, and he apparently doesn’t mind the numerous forms, background checks, and exorbitant costs associated with being able to exercise a fundamental right, because MASS SHOOTINGS!

STEP 1: I enrolled in a four-hour firearms safety course registered with the state.

A safety course is always a good idea. Only four hours? Most gun owners I know train much more often and much longer with their self-defense tools. But when mandated by the state, it really becomes a perfunctory gesture. I won’t even get into the whole “registered with the state” thing!

STEP 2: I joined a properly licensed gun club to demonstrate I was merely interested in hunting and recreational shooting. While this was by no means mandatory, it was encouraged by my local police department.

I wonder how much the kickback is for said “encouragement.” And I wonder why this particular brand of stupid doesn’t consider paying to join a club “encouraged” by the police to “prove” that you are only interested in exercising your right to engage in activities that have little to do with the intent of the Second Amendment isn’t a gross violation of said right and a twisted perversion of freedom.

STEP 3: I then visited my local police station, where I presented my application for a license to carry, my firearm safety certificate and a letter from my gun club stating my membership was in good standing.

STEP 4: Along with my paperwork I had to pay a $100 application fee. NOTE: In Massachusetts a firearms license is only valid for six years, and the $100 application fee is due any time I reapply.

A $100 fee to exercise a right, eh? I have to wonder once again if this serf even understands the basic definition of a right.

I also have to wonder how poor people, who ostensibly don’t live in safe, often gated communities (unlike Boston ad executives), but want a means to protect their homes against armed thugs, can afford all these extra expenses in addition to the several hundred dollars for the purchase of the actual gun!

Why do you hate poor people, Lawson?

STEP 5: I sat through a face-to-face interview with a police officer and submitted to a preliminary background check.

STEP 6: My photo and fingerprints were taken and filed digitally with the Massachusetts State Police, along with the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health and the national criminal records database.

Are you applying for a top secret clearance or begging the “authorities” to allow you to exercise a fundamental right?

STEP 7: I made an appointment at the police firing range on Moon Island in Boston Harbor to demonstrate my proficiency with a firearm in front of a state trooper.

Hopefully it wasn’t this guy.

A Massachusetts State Trooper is expected to survive after accidentally shooting himself in the leg, State Police said.

Ooops!

STEP 8: I waited approximately 30 days for my license to be approved.

STEP 9: My class A license to carry arrived in the mail.

I’m sure if you ask any assailant trying to victimize you really nicely to wait until you get your state-sanctioned permission to own a firearm, they’ll oblige. No. Really! Stop laughing!

STEP 10: I visit a nearby gun store, which by law is registered with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms as well as the Massachusetts Firearms Records Bureau. After presenting my license to the clerk, I was then allowed to browse the store’s inventory.

It’s instructive that you need a license to even go shopping in the People’s State of Massachusetts! But apparently, that bit of statist ploddery doesn’t bother Lawson either.

STEP 11: I selected my very fist firearm: a 30/30 Winchester Model 94, a tried and true staple of New England deer hunting.

Because that’s what the Second Amendment is really about — deer hunting. It says so right there in the text. Wait… no? But… but… but… we in Massachusetts know what the Second Amendment is about! We KNOW freedom, darnit!

STEP 12: While in the store I submitted to yet another background check, this time over the phone with the FBI.

Sure! What’s another background check to make a constitutionally-protected purchase between master and slave?

STEP 13: I waited three days.

Luckily you weren’t a woman who was being stalked and needed a tool to protect herself, eh? But I’m sure if you asked very nicely, the stalker or a violent ex would wait for you to finally purchase your gun!

STEP 14: I returned to the store and picked up my Winchester 30/30, effectively adding my name to the list of over 250,000 legal gun owners in Massachusetts.

Good to know that you don’t mind being added to a state-maintained list of innocent people whose only crime was a desire to exercise their rights. How do those chains taste? Want a gold Star of David so you can be properly identified?

From start to finish, the entire process unfolded over the course of several months, but then again so did acquiring my driver’s license and first car. In fact, one could argue automobiles and firearms are equally lethal machines: each responsible for over 30,000 deaths per year in the United States; so perhaps there’s justification for requiring patience in this endeavor.

I’m willing to bet that acquiring your driver’s license took several months, because the state wanted to ensure that while you’re operating a machine weighing several tons on public roadways, that you are properly educated and trained to do so. I’m also fairly sure you didn’t have to sit down for an interview with law enforcement or undergo two background checks to buy a car or get a license to drive it.

Did you have to pass a background check to buy your car? Did you have to get fingerprinted like a common criminal? Did you have to wait several days before you could take your car home? I don’t think so, Sparky.

Don’t conflate purchasing a car with the months of bureaucratic hoops you had to jump through to purchase a gun. The auto purchase takes a couple of hours and the mere ownership of it does not require training, background checks, fingerprinting, or even a license! The mere purchase requires you have money or sufficient credit to pay for said vehicle. Purchase and operation of the vehicle are two separate things. Of course, I don’t expect someone who doesn’t comprehend or respect the plain language of the Second Amendment to understand that nuance.

As a gun owner, I’m perfectly comfortable with the notion of sensible gun control, and in the stark light of recent tragedies, I’d say the process of acquiring my first firearm in Massachusetts was exactly as difficult as it needed to be.

While we’re all thrilled that you’re “perfectly comfortable” – OK, we really don’t give a damn, but still… – let me ask you something, Lawson: Are the people who take the time to go through months of background checks, the training, the fingerprinting, and the waiting periods the ones committing violent acts with firearms? Are all these measures effective crime reduction techniques?

Nope.

Massachusetts has a national reputation as a bastion of gun control, but crimes and injuries related to firearms have risen — sometimes dramatically — since the state passed a comprehensive package of gun laws in 1998.

Murders committed with firearms have increased significantly, aggravated assaults and robberies involving guns have risen, and gunshot injuries are up, according to FBI and state data.

But… but… but… that’s because illegal guns are flowing from other states!

That’s not what I asked, Sparky. Are the people who are legally licensed to keep and bear arms in Massachusetts the ones committing the crimes?

gun stats

Judging by the records kept in these states, nope! The majority of people willing to undergo all that rigamarole will, in fact, never commit a single crime with that gun, so how is it, exactly, you think you’re helping mitigate violence by subjecting yourself to statist regulations?

Some vocal conservatives are quick to accuse Massachusetts of being a bastion for the liberal elite who are grossly out of touch with the fundamentals of the Second Amendment. It seems they’ve forgotten this is where the “shot heard round the world” was fired in the name of Independence; where simple colonists in 1775 formed a militia and rose up in arms against a formidable force of British Army regulars.

Do you think those colonists registered their weapons? You think they paid some gold to be able to keep a simple defense tool in their homes? They would have probably slapped you stupid at the thought, you quivering-lipped coward! I would submit that given your ardent willingness to submit yourself to onerous infringements of your rights, you are the one who has forgotten Massachusetts’ history of liberty. Not only that, but you spit in its face!

You’re welcome, by the way.

Oh, please shut your ignorant yap! If it had been you and your fellow vassal colostomy bags fighting the war for Independence, begging the government’s permission to allow you to own a simple firearm, we’d still be a British colony!

Trust me, in Massachusetts we know our history and we know the significance of the Second Amendment. However, we also understand that owning firearms is an immense responsibility, and we have carefully balanced our right to keep and bear them with what I would argue are an appropriate amount of institutional safeguards.

You keep referring to that knowing the significance of the Second Amendment thingy… I do not think it means what you think it means.

If you know your history and the significance of the Second Amendment, then you should also know that responsibility has nothing to do with paying bribes to petty statists to allow you to exercise a fundamental right.

And no, I don’t trust you when you tell me how much you respect the right to keep and bear arms, even as you gleefully submit to noxious infringements on said right! Thanks for playing.

Is it a perfect system everyone can agree on? Certainly not. But in a time when contentious shouting has largely supplanted meaningful debate, perhaps that’s too much to hope for. However, there is data to suggest our state gun ownership laws are working. Well, that is to say, they seem to work better than the gun policies of most other states. In a recent study, Massachusetts stands out as having one of the lowest rates of gun-related deaths, second only to Hawaii, a state with a population one-fifth our size.

Actually, no. And the statistics you cite for only one year are deceptive at best. If you refer to the Boston Globe article I cited above, you will see that gun-related deaths have nearly doubled from 1998 when your state first ushered in its tyrannical infringements on people’s rights!

In 2011, Massachusetts recorded 122 murders committed with firearms, a striking increase from the 65 in 1998, said Fox, the Northeastern professor. Nationwide, such murders increased only 3 percent from 1999 to 2010, the CDC says.

There were increases in other crimes involving guns in Massachusetts, too. From 1998 to 2011, aggravated assaults with guns rose 26.7 percent. Robberies with firearms increased 20.7 percent during that period, according to an FBI analysis conducted for the Globe.

So not only has gun-related violence increased in Massachusetts since the package of draconian gun control measures was passed, but said violence has increased at a higher rate than the rest of this country! How are those “gun ownership laws” working out for you, Lawson?

Clearly the epidemic of gun violence is an issue that needs to be addressed on a national level. For any gun owner or gun rights advocate to suggest otherwise is not only stubbornly myopic, but inhumane.

And here we have the emotionalist rhetoric we’ve so grown accustomed to from gun-grabbing freaks and their obedient chattel.

If you don’t support tyrannical infringements on your rights, you’re heartless.

If you don’t useless bureaucracy to make your right to self defense cost-prohibitive, you’re stubborn.

If you aren’t willing to submit yourself to a metaphorical anal probe in order to exercise your fundamental rights – an anal probe that has no hope of actually reducing violence – you’re myopic and inhumane.

Clearly you haven’t heard the news that overall, violence has been on the decline in the United States. So maybe, before you decide to spew another load of nonsense into the Interwebz, you’ll do some research, and also look up the meaning of the word “epidemic.”

So if we’re earnestly looking to take steps towards reducing the number of gun-related deaths in the United States while respectfully preserving our Constitutional right to legally own firearms, perhaps the rest of the country should, once again, look to Massachusetts to lead the way.

And watch our gun-related violence nearly double, as it did in Massachusetts? You’ve got to be kidding me!

Please keep your statist mitts off my rights. I can see you obviously enjoy your shackles, but the rest of us are just a bit smarter than that! So just go back to licking the boots of your masters and leave the rest of us alone.

Stick to advertising, Lawson. Obviously logic, basic research, and policy are not your strong points!

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Nightmare on Ha Kotel Street

This is the time of year when things like Freddy Krueger and zombies begin to make their appearance. Not only in costume shops, but in the dreams of young and old alike. But then you wake up from the dream, have a nice cup of Israeli coffee and start to breath normally again. Telling yourself, “It was just a dream”.

But what if your life in the daytime rivals the horrific events of your nighttime nightmares?

It’s becoming that way for normal Israelis, just people going out to work, take their kids to school or grab some coffee, milk and halva on the way home.

There have been a lot of attacks on Israeli Jews. There is the one chronicled by my teammate Y.B. of a wonderful man and his wife in front of their young children as they were on their way to a class reunion. Miracle of miracles they evidently didn’t see the children in the back, or just weren’t inclined to kill them at that point. Then a couple days ago there was a horrific stabbing in Jerusalem in the old city of a man, his wife and their two year old toddler. They were out shopping. From the video it appears they were in the Cardo. A nice shopping section in the old city of Jerusalem. I’m quite familiar with the Cardo. I was there four months ago.

You notice all the shopkeepers standing around and watching it, drinking soda, not attempting to intervene as a man, his wife and two year old are stabbed. Not only that, when Adelle Banita-Bennett attempted to escape by running away with a knife stuck in her shoulder the arabs shouted to her to “die” and “hopefully she would die too”. When she tried to hold on to a passerby as she felt she was going to faint, he shook her off and kicked her. No arabs attempted to help her. Who did? Rabbi Nehemia Lavi Hy”d. He grabbed his gun and went out to try to help. The Father of seven was then stabbed and his weapon taken. Those arab shopkeepers stood around watched and did nothing. But the SOBs moved fast enough when the shots started. Too late to save the Father and the Rabbi.

You can add in the children shot in Sukkahs this year, rocks thrown at the IDF and civilians, rockets fired and female motorists ambushed.

Then there seems to be an increase the the rate of arab “traffic accidents”. Like this tragic lose of control of a car.

The driver was the uncle of one of the Har Nof Synagogue murders. With all the unfortunate traffic accidents in Israel lately perhaps they should consider an car ban for arabs. And isn’t it shocking he had that ax right there with him in the car.

Where does all this come from? Part of it is Mahmoud Abbas, known as Abu Mazen that leads the PLO. When you have someone who helped finance the Munich Olympic Massacres as the leader of the PLO, shouldn’t be shocking. If you didn’t know, the day the attacks began, was the day after Abbas stood in the UN and said Oslo was finished.

Somehow I don’t think he is all that concerned that the 13 year old child he told the world the Israelis murdered is actually alive and being cared for in an Israeli hospital. The 13 year old child in question is probably related in temperament to Michael Brown the gentle giant that started the Ferguson riots.

If children are taught to hate, and grow up thinking the best thing is to die killing Jews? There are youtube videos teaching them how, though some have been taken down now. Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon showed a chart that has been used teaching how to stab a Jew.

And that brings me to my next point. How the current regime in the White House, the world, the UN and media view this situation. In the article above is the line

Sky News has been unable to verify Mr Danon’s claims, in which he said: “When a Palestinian child returns from school and opens (sic) the television, he doesn’t see Barney or Donald Duck, he sees murderers portrayed as heroes.

Um, well, how about what’s going on now? Because with what I see happening, that pretty much looks to be the case. The two little kids in combat fatigues saying they want to blow up Jews sure sounds like it. The 13 year old “child” that was stabbing people with his cousin sure seems like it.

Then we have the ever reliable CNN, from a CNN article we learn

Although the Obama administration has been careful not to place blame on any party for the latest escalation of violence, the officials said Kerry is particularly concerned about statements by Palestinian officials inciting their people to violence.”This violence and any incitement to violence has got to stop,” Kerry said at a separate event. “The situation is simply too volatile, too dangerous. And it is not going to lead to the outcome that people want, which is to have a peaceful resolution of the differences.”He added, “We continue to stress the importance of all persons of responsibility to condemn the violence on either side and to avoid provocative statements.” (Violence on either side?? I don’t believe the Jews are standing near Gaza or East Jerusalem and hurling rocks or hanging around with knives in their hands. )U.S. officials said Kerry is concerned about heavy-handed treatment of Palestinian rock throwers by Israeli security forces, particularly the use of live ammunition against young protesters.( I think a rock has already binged Kerry in the head. He’s worried about the wrong group, the ones trying to kill innocent people. Perhaps he should suggest to them they stay home and quit trying to kill people by throwing rocks at them.)

From the NY Slimes we learn East Jerusalem, Bubbling Over With Despair

EAST Jerusalem? EAST Jerusalem? Um, I believe the attacks are not being carried out in EAST Jerusalem, which is mainly arab. Written by someone who sounds like they aspire to be a leader of “Occupy whatever the heck is next”, they are offended that the citizenship which arabs in East Jerusalem can apply for is being revoked for the “college students” that have stabbed police and attacked others. They are going to LOSE their SOCIAL WELFARE BENEFITS! And have to reapply for visas every few months. Those Israeli beasts! They have a helpful chart showing the number of Palestinian deaths resulting from Israeli security forces. They also show the number of attacks on Israelis, which is fewer. What they do not mention is it is not one for one. MANY Israelis are sometimes injured in one attack. They talk of the three men that kidnapped and killed a boy from East Jerusalem. Wrong, yes, I agree. But they forget to mention that was in retaliation for the three Israeli teenagers that were kidnapped, tortured and killed. No, it doesn’t make it right, but it would have seemed pertinent to mention don’t you think?

Then there is this attempt by a MSNBC “reporter” to say Israeli forces had shot a unarmed man. Too bad for him, his camera crew had already put in a big shot of the “unarmed” terrorist clearly holding a knife.

These are not people working for a peaceful solution, nor are the people that “just want their own land”, these are people that are killing Jews because they are Jews.

And the world’s response? Our nation’s response via John Kerry?

“Regarding Jerusalem, it absolutely is unacceptable on either side to have to have violence resorted to as a solution,” he said.”And I would caution everybody to be calm, not to escalate the situation and to deal with this in a way that can find quick way back to the full restoration of the status quo where the chief administration is in the hands of the government of Jordan and King Abdullah, who is the custodian,” he said, referring to the Al-Aqsa site, also known as the Temple Mount.”And it is very important to maintain a sense of calm that will minimize the instinct for escalation.”

Excuse me? Violence on either side? Everyone to be calm? Restore the status quo to Jordan? In case Mr. Heinz-Kerry hasn’t noticed, this is not a two way street. The peaceful palestinians are killing people, the Jews are dying. Jews aren’t attacking shoppers and children sleeping in Sukkahs. Basically it’s the same response of the regime to the shooting of Christians in Oregon. Meh. But for Heinz-Kerry to act like this is aggression on both sides is very disingenuous.

The Gaza strip? You can tell the deep level of caring Hamas has for the people living in the Gaza strip. Hamas uses schools, hospitals, apartment buildings to store and fire rockets into Israel. Israel will then warn the people in those buildings that the buildings are going to be bombed. They are the only military in the world to do this. It seems Israel has an objection to having rockets rained down on it’s citizens. So Israel will warn the people in the targeted buildings. Should the people try to leave the buildings, Hamas will shoot them. Hamas KNOWS the Israelis will not bomb the building as long as there are people in there. So whatever non-sense you hear from the UN or the current regime in the White House? Hamas knows, the Israelis will not attack innocent citizens. Interesting isn’t it?

Look at the response of the White House to killing 22 innocent people in the US attack on a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz Afghanistan. We can’t say anything, need a full investigation, don’t want to jump to conclusions. But when Israel shuts down a building that Hamas is using to fire rockets? The condemnation is large and accompanied by outrage.

The media, other nations, our current regime and certainly the UN hold Israel to a different standard than they do the rest of the world. With Jews fleeing the anti-semitism of Europe for the relative safety of Israel, the Jewish people should at least be safe in their homeland.

And finally, it looks like that may begin to happen. While in the CNN version of the bus stop attack they say that a Israeli security officer stopped it, on a Israeli radio show I heard it was a armed citizen. Not that CNN would ever admit THAT!

All this has prompted Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat to call for all licensed citizens to begin to carry guns. You gotta admit, Mayor Barkat is something. This is the mayor in the white shirt tackling another peaceful palestinian after he had stabbed a few people.

Not exactly Bloomers is he?

The IDF, Police and Security Services are almost everywhere. Most times on the bus or the train in Israel there would be young soldiers with their fully automatic weapons riding along. This was shocking to me as in America we are told to allow weapons on a bus or train, let alone fully automatic would result in countless casualties. The weapons would just begin randomly shooting people. In Israel, this never seemed to happen. They just pretty much hung out quietly with the person carrying them. There are IDF, police and security all around that can intervene, and they do it very well.

My point of course, is that they are too easy to spot. A peaceful palestinian that wants to stab someone only has to wait until there are no uniforms around. And no matter how good IDF, Police & Security are, and they are good, they can’t be everywhere at once. In addition to that, just think what it would do to the campaign of terror if they suddenly realized a WHOLE lot of Israelis wearing jeans, TZP polo shirts (sigh, I know) but regular Israelis were armed. Or might be armed. They just don’t know who they are and where they are. I’m thinking that would put a stick in the wheels of the current terror campaign.

Apparently Israelis agree, they have been flooding gun shops looking to find tools to keep themselves and their families safe. One shop owner is teaching for free. He waived the fee as his way of trying to help Israelis cope with the wave of peaceful palestinians expressing their “frustration”. And just so you know, when the Israelis classify a wound as “lightly wounded”? It can still be a very serious, possibly life threatening wound. I think they’re from the Monty Python school of Emergency Medicine. In case you need a bit of levity at this point.

Not that Israelis are completely innocent in all this. No indeed. In fact, one woman has had her gun license revoked! A threat and a menace she was! Do you know what she did? She is accused of attempting to PRAY on the Temple Mount. Everyone knows only muslims are allowed to pray at their third holiest site. First Holiest to Jews and Christians, but hey, they aren’t muslims. She hasn’t actually been investigated for it, so not sure why this happened. But the point is, when there is a list of who owns guns, well, there is a list of who owns guns. Mistakes can be tragic as her husband was stabbed very near their home by an arab terrorist peaceful palestinian.

But as they say on my favorite Israeli radio show, I think this will be coming soon to a theater near you. As 80% of the “refugees” flooding Europe are in fact, not from Syria. What do we have flooding the US via barry’s import program? Who knows? But the chances that they came from a country where the children have been raised to believe that killing Jews is a wonderful thing is good. The attacks we see in Israel now, are quite likely going to increase here.

Israelis are under attack in their daily lives, and the world’s response, the media response is meh. Perhaps the Israelis need to start saying the name of each victim attacked. Perhaps if they say the name of each victim attacked is “Cecil”, the world will begin to care.

“Ams Yisrael Chai – The people of Israel live.” עם ישראל חי

Y.B. put up this video, but I have my favorite version of the same song.

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Idiots Trip Over themselves to Alienate Critical Voting Demographic

I posted this at the Liberty Zone yesterday, but I felt a slightly different version of it needed to be posted here as well, just so you can further understand your adversary. I say “adversary,” because 4/5 of the idiots on the stage during the Democratic debate the other night actually named their fellow Americans as their “enemies,” and I want to be a bit more classy than that.

I’m not even kidding. Enemies.

…CNN’s Anderson Cooper noted that each of the candidates had made a number of enemies during their careers in politics and asked them which enemy they were most proud of.

Most of the Democrats at the debate gave predictably boring answers to Cooper’s question. Lincoln Chafee said he was proud that the coal industry disliked him. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley said the National Rifle Association. Bernie Sanders said Wall Street. What about Hillary?

“Probably the Republicans,” Hillary responded, in the apparent belief that nearly half the country is her enemy.

So now you know and understand what Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Lincoln Chafee, and Martin O’Malley think of you – whether you’re a Republican, a gun owner, someone who works in finance, or someone who toils in the coal mines, working to bring much needed energy to America. They don’t just disagree with you. They HATE you. They want to rule and control you, and they consider you their enemy.

Congratulations.

Actually, maybe they are the enemy. I report, you decide.

Nonetheless… I had to laugh at the concentrated effort all of the Democrat lunatics on that stage made to distance themselves from the NRA. This is where the NRA is actually useful. They are the boogie man. They are the 800 lb. gorilla feared by the gun grabbers. So they can go on compromising, while groups like the Zelman Partisans, GOA, and others do the actual work. I’m good with that.

However, like it or not, we have the Second Amendment. Like it or not, it protects an existing right. Like it or not, the majority of this nation respects the right to keep and bear arms and does not support additional federal gun control regulations. Like it or not, these are facts, and no amount of mewling from the gun control camp will change it.

That said, it’s interesting to me that last night’s Democratic debate socialist dumpster fire (thanks to my buddy Jason Pye for that quirky, but oh-so accurate, turn of phrase) featured four candidates who were tripping over themselves to portray themselves as the candidate most hated by the NRA!

I didn’t watch the debates, thank goodness. I was really too tired to be that angry on a work night. I did, however, pull up a transcript just to see how these four monkeys would try to out-Marxist one another. From what I read, the debate went pretty much how I expected it to go, but I did find it instructive that given the failing issue gun control has been over the years, these four would be so quick to alienate a broad swath of the American population. I guess they all think that they can count on frothing Bernie Sanders acolytes to supplement the loss in gun owner support?

Filthy hippies and star-struck children.
Filthy hippies and star-struck children.

The first question posed by Anderson Cooper was predictably about gun control.

COOPER: Senator Sanders, you voted against the Brady bill that mandated background checks and a waiting period. You also supported allowing riders to bring guns in checked bags on Amtrak trains. For a decade, you said that holding gun manufacturers legally responsible for mass shootings is a bad idea. Now, you say you’re reconsidering that. Which is it: shield the gun companies from lawsuits or not?

SANDERS: Let’s begin, Anderson, by understanding that Bernie Sanders has a D-minus voting rating (ph) from the NRA. Let’s also understand that back in 1988 when I first ran for the United States Congress, way back then, I told the gun owners of the state of Vermont and I told the people of the state of Vermont, a state which has virtually no gun control, that I supported a ban on assault weapons. And over the years, I have strongly avoided instant background checks, doing away with this terrible gun show loophole. And I think we’ve got to move aggressively at the federal level in dealing with the straw man purchasers.

Translation: No no no! I’m bad on freedom! Just like I’m bad on economic freedom, I’m bad on all the other types of freedom too!

By the way, what’s with the Bob Dole third-person weirdness?

COOPER: Secretary Clinton, is Bernie Sanders tough enough on guns?

CLINTON: No, not at all. I think that we have to look at the fact that we lose 90 people a day from gun violence. This has gone on too long and it’s time the entire country stood up against the NRA. The majority of our country supports background checks, and even the majority of gun owners do.

Translation: I’m Hillary Clinton, and I lie like a cheap rug. If I had bothered to look at statistics provided by the ever-so-biased in my favor Gun Violence Archive, I would have seen that I have nearly tripled my estimate of people lost per day to gun violence. I would have seen that 9,956 people died in firearm incidents through October 1, 2015, and that this number averages to 36, and not 90 people per day, as I claim. If I had done my research, I would also have seen that the majority of people (63 percent or 23 out of those 36 people, according to the CDC) who die in firearms incidents take their own lives, and there’s nothing the government can do about it. If I had done my research, I would have known this, because gun-free Japan has a much higher suicide rate than the United States.

(By the way, I note with no small amount of irony that while California toils to clamp down even more on the right to keep and bear arms, it has legalized suicide.)

Actually I probably did do my research, but it’s so much more effective to inflate firearm death figures, so that I can out-Sanders Sanders with his D- from the NRA!

COOPER: Governor O’Malley, you passed gun legislation as governor of Maryland, but you had a Democratic-controlled legislature. President Obama couldn’t convince Congress to pass gun legislation after the massacres in Aurora, in Newtown, and Charleston. How can you?

O’MALLEY: And, Anderson, I also had to overcome a lot of opposition in the leadership of my own party to get this done. Look, it’s fine to talk about all of these things — and I’m glad we’re talking about these things — but I’ve actually done them.

We passed comprehensive gun safety legislation, not by looking at the pollings or looking at what the polls said. We actually did it. And, Anderson, here tonight in our audience are two people that make this issue very, very real. Sandy and Lonnie Phillips are here from Colorado. And their daughter, Jessie, was one of those who lost their lives in that awful mass shooting in Aurora.

Now, to try to transform their grief, they went to court, where sometimes progress does happen when you file in court, but in this case, you want to talk about a — a rigged game, Senator? The game was rigged. A man had sold 4,000 rounds of military ammunition to this — this person that killed their daughter, riddled her body with five bullets, and he didn’t even ask where it was going.

And not only did their case get thrown out of court, they were slapped with $200,000 in court fees because of the way that the NRA gets its way in our Congress and we take a backseat. It’s time to stand up and pass comprehensive gun safety legislation as a nation.

Translation: I need to sound a bit more radical, so I won’t remind people that even though violent crime has been on the decline in the United States since 1993, Maryland, which has some of the most stringent gun controls in the nation, still comes in as one of the most violent states in the country. Because NRA! And I’m definitely not reminding the audience that Sandy and Lonnie Phillips have been manipulated by my buddies at the Brady Center to file a frivolous lawsuit, which they knew to be frivolous, but I will screech their sainthood from the top of my lungs, because violent crime in Maryland… Um… NRA BAD!

At this point, I have to chuckle, because the conversation between Sanders and O’Malley devolved into a contest about who has the smaller genitalia (translation: who has a lower rating from the NRA).

O’MALLEY: And we did it by leading with principle, not by pandering to the NRA and backing down to the NRA.

SANDERS: Well, as somebody who has a D-minus voting record…

O’MALLEY: And I have an F from the NRA, Senator.

It’s really quite amusing to see two twits arguing about who is more anti-freedom! Say what you will about the NRA – I know I have numerous times – but two guys arguing about who can more effectively alienate a huge chunk of the U.S. population is something akin to two monkeys having a contest to see who can fling a bigger turd. Frankly, in the poo department, I think O’Malley has it.

Of course, Lincoln Chafee (Who? The nitwit from Rhode Island, that’s who!), refusing to be outdone by his statist pals, is touting his F rating from the NRA as a badge of honor.

CHAFEE: Yes, I have a good record of voting for gun commonsense safety legislation, but the reality is, despite these tragedies that happen time and time again, when legislators step up to pass commonsense gun safety legislation, the gun lobby moves in and tells the people they’re coming to take away your guns.

Translation: Must. Use. As. Many. Gun. Grabber. Words. As. Possible. Commonsense gun safety legislation. Commonsense gun safety legislation. Commonsense gun safety legislation. Commonsense gun safety legislation. Commonsense gun safety legislation. Commonsense gun safety legislation. Commonsense gun safety legislation. Commonsense gun safety legislation. Commonsense gun safety legislation. GUN LOBBY BAD!

Who the hell is this douche?
Who the hell is this tool?

The only candidate who didn’t trip over his own winky to screech for more gun control was Jim Webb, whom the NRA seems to like an awful lot. I haven’t seen any Gun Owners of America ratings for Webb, but he at the very least doesn’t seem to be backing away from America’s gun owners, and that makes him smarter than the rest of the barrel of monkeys who infested that stage, competing for who can pick the biggest louse off his/her opponent.

 

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Break the Spirit ~ Seize the Tools

About a year ago I related a story of attending a “Preparedness Show” wherein I was drawn into commenting on the Anti Defamation League’s stance on firearms and the State.

For as long as I can remember, like our ideological forebearer, Aaron Zelman, OBM, I have been frustrated and disgusted by the mainstream Jewish organizations and community leaders’ suicidal position on self defense.

Comedian Jackie Mason used to quip about the cultural differences between the typical American Jew and the Israeli “Sabra”, by suggesting that the latter were not really Jews, but Puerto Ricans.

So, in the past few days I see the ever- reliable organ of the Reich, the Huffington Post, trot out a truly vile piece under the pretense of attacking  Dr. Ben Carson.

When Joshua ben Nun and his guerilla force entered the Land of Israel, they did something odd. Their overarching mission was to conquer the land and drive out the Canaanites and other pagan peoples from therein, establishing on the ground the title to that land, as promised to Abraham.

Yet, here they were before a disease-ridden pest-hole of a walled city called Jericho. So nasty was it, that Joshua absolutely forbade the Israelite Soldiers to loot, nor occupy, the place. It was to be destroyed, utterly.

Why?

BattleofJericho

Joshua knew that many far more difficult cities, kings, and armies had been watching the Israelites tarry for forty years just outside of their goal.

Memories of the incredible miracles wrought on their behalf, and the certainty that they were protected by an immeasurably awesome god had faded to doubtful legend among the peoples of Canaan and beyond. Perhaps their god had abandoned them?

So, the annihilation of Jericho was a psychological weapon. Strike fear into the enemy before they ever even see you. Sow doubt and they will be weakened. Perhaps they will even fold without fighting?

Before and since, manipulating the mind of an enemy is a crucial part of warfare.

Thus it is with those who seek to keep us quietly toiling on their plantation.

Segments of society decide to be savage murderers, rapists, and thieves? Well… entrust your very lives to the government (the most prolific of all murderers, rapists, and thieves) we are told.

Take measures to protect yourself, your loved ones, your neighbors from predation? Get scolded two-fold; first, that anything you do is futile, and second, that to do so it is morally equivalent to being a predator.

Spearheaded (this time) by Nick Baumann; Senior Enterprise Editor at HuffPo, we are scolded once again by our “leaders”, and our dutiful State-Safe academics. Gee, the Nazis ‘loosened’ the restrictions on firearms, especially for party members (Heh-heh. A subtle message to get with the ‘program’ there, right?)

They even trot out sad survivors of the Holocaust to say that suggesting that to claim disarmed people (erm…Psychologically? um… Physically?) might have saved lives had they not been in such straits is to BLAME THE VICTIM (!?)

Such arrogance. Such evil.

No.

Unless you have both the inner strength and the tools to defend your life, your liberty, and property, you are destined for chains, and when no longer useful to the bosses,… to the smokestack.

Human Smoke

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This week’s poll: How often do you carry a firearm?

This week’s poll asks how often you carry a firearm.

Since it went up a little late this week, we’ll keep it open until Monday at 6:00 p.m. CDT.

(And yes, “none of your business” is one of the options.)

—–

Last week’s poll results:
Click to enlarge.

Screenshot from 2015-10-13 12:50:18

When people choose “Other” they have the option to fill in a blank with their reasons. Unfortunately, PollDaddy doesn’t display those, but we had some interesting ones. Most of the “other” votes were variations on “all of the above” or “several of the above.” But here were the more original ones:

“Change the mindset. We can ALL defend & should.”

“Arm everyone. Darwinian solution.”

“Require small arms training and arming all teachers.”

“Constitutional carry everywhere.”

Thanks to all who voted!

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