Poll: Trouble for Olympic Shooting Sports

Even if you haven’t watched every minute of the Olympic Games, you have to know something odd is happening with Olympic shooting sports.

RioOlympicsShootingWomen-f039cDuring her first Olympic showing, 19-year-old Ginny Thrasher became the first gold medal winner for the United States and the first medal winner of this year’s Olympiad after firing an unbeatable score in the Women’s 10-meter Air Rifle event.

It is no doubt a feat to be proud of, and yet, the American teenager faced sneering and snark from the likes of Piers Morgan and whining has-been Wil Wheaton (aka Star Trek’s Wesley Crusher), who instead of appreciating her achievement, decided to wax sarcastic about America and guns on social media.

Kim Rhode won a bronze medal in skeet shooting last week, and in the process became the first woman to take the podium in six straight Olympic Games. And yet, big name sponsors want nothing to do with her, because GUNZ!

An odious bill entitled the HEART Act, which I briefly discussed in last week’s poll threatens to shut down youth shooting sports.

Are things really that grim, or are shooting sports going to come out of this just fine? That’s the subject of today’s poll. What’s the danger? Let us know.

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Olympic bigotry

When a TZP supporter first sent this news item, I didn’t think much about it. Saudi judo competitor Joud Fahmy forfeited a first-round match against a woman from Mauritius. Word in Israel was that she did it to avoid facing an Israeli Jew, Gili Cohen, in the second round.

Fahmy said she was injured and couldn’t compete. I thought, “Well, maybe she really was.” After all, if her purpose was to avoid contact with Cohen, why not go ahead and compete in the first round and see whether that would even become an issue? If she’d have lost in the first round … no need to touch a Jew. So it was certainly possible she really was injured and not just avoiding contact.

But this morning comes word of a blatant, public act of bigotry. In men’s judo, an Egyptian competitor snottily snubbed the Israeli who beat him.

TZP_ArabSnubsJew-atOlympics_081216

It was an elaborate, unmistakable triple snub. Islam El Shehaby (in blue) first refused the traditional bow (a sign of respect that’s part of judo’s very fiber). Then he refused to walk to the middle of the mat for a handshake with the victor, Or Sasson. Finally, he refused Sasson’s offered hand when the gracious Israeli walked across the mat to him.

It’s unfortunate that the Olympics (partly thanks to Hitler in 1936) have become such a show of nationalism, rather than a celebration of the hard work and talents of awesome individuals. But there’s just no civilized excuse for El Shehaby’s behavior.

In the context, he came across not only as a pathetically sore loser, but as a disgusting bigot. You’re willing to do hand-to-hand combat with an Israeli individual, but not to shake his hand afterward? Shame on you, you foul creature and the foul dogma that motivates you.

Unlike some of my colleagues here at TZP, I’m no giant fan of Israel. I consider it a necessary homeland for a people who’ve been homeless, vulnerable, and fatally abused far too long. But its government is a government like any other and sometimes does objectionable things, even appalling things. But then, what government doesn’t? When it comes to appalling things done specifically to Muslims and Arabs, they should look to some of their own governments and neighboring Islamic governments, where savagery, corruption, oppression, and suppression of individualism have been the norm for centuries. Israel has been a piker when it comes to harming Muslims.

But even if that were not so, to show such public contempt for a man who, just moments earlier, was your honorable competitor is inexcusable.

Apparently the International Judo Federation considers it a sign of progress that an Arab was even willing to compete against an Israeli Jew. But I’m glad to learn that the audience in Rio gave the bigot a resounding round of righteous contempt for his unsportsmanlike and soulless conduct.

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A Partisan Passes

nyberg-iii-flag

In the early morning hours of Wednesday, August 10, 2016, Mike Vanderboegh passed away. In recent years, he battled cancer as well as tyranny.

MikeVanderboegh

Longtime militia and ‘Patriot’ leader Mike Vanderboegh dies at 64
Mike Vanderboegh, a longtime leader in the “Patriot” movement, died Wednesday after a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 64. Vanderboegh also was founder of the “Three Percenters,” who vow to use force if necessary to resist what they see as oppressive gun-control laws.

I say ‘partisan,’ although Mike was not formally associated with The Zelman Partisans. Nevertheless, we were fellow freedom travelers. He could be darned controversial, but he recognized the threat of gun owner control and victim disarmament. He backed up his words with actions. I believe that his smuggling of standard capacity magazines to states banning useful tools against tyrants was far more effective than many people realize: In terms of logistics support,the magazines meant little except to a few hard-pressed individual who benefitted, but it demonstrated — oh so well — how magazine bans are pointless. A lesson we should have learned from Prohibition and the War on (Some) Drugs. Even when he announced a smuggling run, the powers that would be failed to intercept a shipment.

As parent, Mike also performed well. He raised a son who not only stands up as his own man, but has stood up to continue his father’s work. That is a legacy of which any person should be proud.

לנצח לזכור, לנצח החמיץ.

Requiesce in pace, Mike.

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What kind of wall is that again?

This post appeared first on TZP’s Monday email alert.

Plans to ban guns based on appearance march on. Late last month, Washington Ceasefire and Ceasefire Oregon announced a joint effort to get “assault weapons” banned in both states.

Specifically, they want to create a “West Coast Wall.” Building on California’s existing bans, they want to make the entire U.S. west coast … um, wait, what do they want to make it? I live here and I don’t even know. More on that in a moment.

The groups say they want legislation that uses “Connecticut’s ban on assault weapons as a guide.”

Whether they chose Connecticut because there’s something they particularly like about that state’s instant-felon creation machinery or because Connecticut = Sandy Hook = emotions overriding thought, I don’t know. At a glance, that state’s AW law seems to focus on banning — very strictly — the usual “shoulder thing that goes up” type features, and standard-capacity magazines, as well as a list of specific firearms and their derivatives.

One thing the Ceasefire activists surely do like is that the U.S. Supreme Court recently upheld Connecticut’s law, giving them a leg up in the enforcement department if they’re able to impose their legislative will.

But the thing I wonder about is that “West Coast Wall.” What is its exactly? How will it work? One can merely speculate.

  • Is it a wall as in “blockade”? Do they believe that somehow they’ll succeed in locking the entire west coast of the U.S. so that those eeeevil assault weapons won’t be able to get in past the Golden Gate, the Columbia, or Puget Sound? Or so that, on the eastern boundaries, all those murderous, rampaging weapons will be forced to pile up uselessly at the borders of Idaho, Nevada, and Arizona, unable to penetrate the True Blue West?
  • Is it a wall as in prison? I suppose. In a way. Surely they hope (without actually calculating the numbers of felons or the cost of imprisoning us all) to put every violating gun owner behind bars. But hasn’t anybody told them how laughably porous prison walls are when it comes to contraband getting in and out? Can they actually imagine that decreeing guns to be illegal will make them go away?
  • Is it a wall as in “wall of noise”? Before announcing their big plans in July, the combined state Ceasefire groups polled a whopping 310 people in Washington and Oregon and concluded that 65 percent of apparently everybody favors banning undefinable but obviously scary “assault weapons.” Sixty-five percent is short of the 90 percent that’s become the standard claim for these things. So maybe the activists figure that a West Coast Wall of clamorous propaganda is needed to bump up that figure.
  • Is it a wall of nonsense? Can we sit down with these Ceasefire people? Can we find out whether they can tell a muzzle brake from a folding stock? Shall we listen to them tell us that magazine bans work because once the “bullets” in the ‘zines are all shot, there are no more magazines left? Shall we ask them how one of those “shoulder things” endangers lives?
  • Or is it a wall as in “Berlin Wall”? A wall that enables the few to impose their will on the many? A wall that authorizes government enforcers to arrest and kill harmless people, a wall that’s feared but always defied, a wall whose very existence ultimately reveals the failure of the builders’ own philosophy?

“West Coast Wall.” Has a powerful sound, doesn’t it? Nice alliteration. Good meme. The antis have always had us gunfolk beat in the slogan-and-meme department. But what it means, if it means anything at all, remains a mystery.

Will Washington Ceasefire and Ceasefire Oregon succeed in building the thing, whatever it may be? Hard to say. Both states are very blue, but it’s always been a different shade of blue than the benighted mid-Atlantic or even California. Sort of a free-and-easy, here-have-a-latte shade of blue. Both states were sufficiently live-and-let-live to be among the earliest to legalize recreational marijuana. Police statism clashes with the laid-back, outdoorsy, brew-pubby, salmon-and-blueberry Pacific Northwest culture.

In Washington over the years, a few key legislators have held the line on victim disarmament. But in the past activists have turned successfully to the initiative process (as they did in 2014 when, with mega-billionaire funding, they imposed universal background checks).

Washington’s grassroots pro-gun defense has sometimes been weak and compromising. Fortunately, up-and-coming activists (especially the many roused by 2014’s defeat at the hands of the billionaires) are less willing to go along to get along.

Oregon’s grassroots are stronger, but on the other hand, their legislature lacks Washington’s long-time and well-placed legislative gun-rights defenders. Both states have rural, pro-gun eastern sides whose populations are outnumbered — but also getting very tired of being pushed around by — effete urbanites near the coast.

Hard to say what’ll happen. If the banners succeed, it’ll be interesting — as in the Chinese curse — to find out exactly what type of wall they build. Whatever it is, do they really imagine it’ll hold us?


Have you entered to win TZP’s historic Nazi-made, Israeli-adopted Mauser 98? All it takes is a few words and a modest entry fee. Please check it out, then enter today!

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Poll: A Good Time for Machine Guns

My son was eight years old when he fired his first machine gun. It was an MP5 9mm automatic that a nice man at the range offered to let him fire.

He was 11 years old here. Very small for his age.
He was 11 years old here. Very small for his age, with a lot of hair!

I stood behind him, helping his little hands control the weapon, and the gentleman stood next to me, also behind my son, guiding him.

Danny had been exposed to firearms since he was probably four years old. He knew gun safety rules before he learned how to tie his shoelaces. Prior to his range trip, he had fired numerous firearms under supervision, and I felt he was ready to try something new that day.

Not everyone thinks that children should be taught to use these firearms, let alone semi-automatic rifles. Two hoplophobic imbeciles last month introduced separate bills – one in the Senate, and one in the House – nauseatingly named the Help End Assault Rifle Tragedies (HEART) Act to prevent young people from using these firearms.

We’ll discuss these noxious proposals more in depth in a separate article. For now, we’d like to know when you believe is a good time to introduce youngsters to automatic weapons.

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Copy-Paste

But, they promised…Right? Uh-huh. But, you’re not really surprised, are you?   Here is the carefully, and soothingly worded, GAO report.  Judge Andrew Napolitano noted: “It’s reprehensible, it violates federal law, it violates a Supreme Court opinion, it violates our natural right to self-defense, which is protected by the Second Amendment.”  Exactly.

 

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Folks still after Nugent

I have a suggestion for him.

Ted Nugent shows protested over singer’s controversial remarks
“The fair reflects the values of the entire county, and having Ted Nugent perform at the fair would reflect tolerance of racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny, xenophobia, ableism, and incivility toward people who protest his remarks or cancel his shows,” former social studies teacher Jennifer Vogt-Erickson wrote.

He should email the ditz a copy of his Honorary TZP Membership certificate, and wear his yarmulke on stage.

As for Vogt-Erickson, she should learn a little more about Ted Nugent before bleating like an ill-informed, self-entitled fool.

Is Nugent perfect? Of course not. Who is? Despite his flaws, am I still willing to have him as an ally in the fight for freedom?

Absolutely.

“Ableism”? She’s frickin’ upset that he can do stuff she can’t?

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The 17th of Tammuz, Lowlights from the DNC and The Holy Temple

Yep, I actually do see a link. While I may not be the best person to explain this, I want to try.

The 17th of Tammuz on the Hebrew calender was the 23rd of July, Saturday. Normally you fast that day, but as it landed on Shabbat, the fast was postponed until the next day, the 24th of July, Sunday. The 17th of Tammuz starts a three week period of mourning, culminating on Tisha B’Av. Tisha B’Av is another post for another time. I’ll stick with the 17th of Tammuz, from the Chabad web site

  1. Moses broke the tablets when he saw the Jewish people worshipping the Golden Calf.
  2. During the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem, the Jews were forced to cease offering the daily sacrifices due to the lack of sheep.
  3. Apostomos burned the holy Torah.
  4. An idol was placed in the Holy Temple.
  5. The walls of Jerusalem were breached by the Romans, in 69 CE, after a lengthy siege. (Three weeks later, after the Jews put up a valiant struggle, the Romans destroyed the second Holy Temple on the 9th of Av.)
    The Jerusalem Talmud maintains that this is also the date when the Babylonians breached the walls of Jerusalem on their way to destroying the first Temple.

Plenty of sorrow on the 17th of Tammuz or 23rd of July, for this year.

More came on the 25th of July with the start of the Demoncratic national convention. I have no intention of telling you who to vote for, this is about the “low lights” shall we say of the coven, er, convention. The meeting opened with a word of prayer, during which the Democrats booed. They didn’t like the prayer. I read what she was praying, I didn’t like it much either, but they may have been booing because she was praying, who knows, since in 2012 they booed when G-d was put back in their platform. Speaking of that platform, from Liberty Unyielding:

Yesterday we reported about a Pew Research poll which demonstrated that Liberal Democrats were not fans of the Jewish State, and recalled the four pro-Israel planks removed from the 2012 Democratic Platform and how the delegates booed when one of the planks about Jerusalem was put back. Based on people put on the DNC platform committee, it looks as if the Democratic Party is looking to continue backing away from supporting Israel.

It seems that the DNC Platform Committee is loaded with people who are not exactly friends of the Jewish State. Among those Bernie Sanders added were James Zogby and Cornel West. (Note: Rep. Keith Ellison (muslim) was also placed on the committee; while he leans toward the Palestinian side, he is not the same kind of froth-at-the-mouth Israel hater as Zogby and West). Hillary’s picks include some who should be worrisome to Israel supporters: Ambassador Wendy Sherman and Center for American Progress head Neera Tanden. One of Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s picks was California Rep. Barbara Lee, a longtime critic of Israel.

The next low light is, it sounds as though American flags may have been in short supply, but to say that there were not flags at the DNC is a hateful lie. Of course there was.

The Falestinian flag proudly on display at the DNC
The Falestinian flag proudly on display at the DNC

But to be honest, the Israeli flag was also at the DNC. Outside. Being burned.

From Israel Today

In a video posted online, one protestor is seen setting an Israeli flag alight, while another waves a Palestinian flag nearby. Others chant “Long Live the Intifada” – a call of support for the Palestinian terrorist campaign plaguing Israel.

The Israeli Flag was burned at the DNC
The Israeli Flag was burned at the DNC

And if just this wasn’t enough “junk” for Israel to deal with, it seems Black Lives Matter has decided to open an Israeli branch. After their deep studies into middle-east affairs (and being invited to appear with Hillary Clinton on the DNC stage) they have arrived in Israel. While there they expressed solidarity with the Falestinians and encouraged them on in their goals. To kill Jews living in Israel. Not surprisingly, they also expressed approval for the BS movement, er BDS scheme. Lending even more credence to the Demoncrat party’s Pro-Israel position.

After accusing Israel of “systematic discrimination” against Palestinian Arabs, apartheid-like policies, and even outright genocide, the platform calls for an end to US foreign aid to the Jewish state, which should instead be diverted to reparations for “victims” of “American war-making” like Iraq, and Libya, as well as African Americans descended from slaves in the American South.

No word on when they will be going to Iraq, Syria or any of the other countries massacring any remaining Jews, Christians or opposing Muslims. Actually no mention of this even happening. Must has skipped that 2 minute lecture in their middle-east studies.

Is it just me, or does anyone else find it interesting that they showed up in Israel at this time?

That many continue to think the Demoncrats are pro-Israel is baffling to me. But I don’t listen to CNN, MSLSD or NBC, CBS, ABC, MoreBS or any of the other Clinton fan club media, if I can avoid it. I do find some interesting info on Israeli news sites though.

Now, to the Holy Temple (I WISH). When the Temples were destroyed, it also destroyed the heart of worship that had taken place there.

UNESCO is again attempting to say that the Temple Mount, site of TWO Jewish Temples, is not in fact Jewish, but muslim. July 10, 2016. Yes, again. I guess I could mention, if the Temple Mount isn’t Jewish, then where was it Yeshua was teaching? So this affects Christians as well as Jews. Neither are allowed to pray there now, but if UNESCO gets it’s way, they won’t be allowed to visit either. Sort of like trying to destroy any little remaining connection to the Temple and Jews.

So, looking at plans of the Temple on the Chabad web site I learned some fascinating things. For example, did you know in King Solomon’s time it had FIVE entry gates? South – Two Chuldah gates,
West – The Kiphonus gate, North – The Tadi gate, East – The Shushan gate. When King Herod expanded the Temple Mount area, he added three more.

The focal point of the Temple Mount was a central courtyard containing the structure of the Bet Hamikdash. The rest of the Temple Mount area contained various rooms and buildings, including:

• House of Study, in which the Talmudic law was taught and discussed.
• Lounge for minor Temple officials.
• Weapons room, in case of enemy invasion.
• Tool room for repair work.
• Trumpet place. The shofar (ram’s horn) was sounded from the roof of this building before the onset of the Sabbath to let the people know when they must refrain from work.

Yep, needed the shofar, and repai….WAIT A MINUTE, WAIT JUST A MINUTE HERE! A WHAT? A WEAPONS room? In case of enemy invasion? The Holy Temple had a WEAPONS room? They realized they would have enemies who would want to destroy them and the Holy Temple and they were prepared to FIGHT for the people and defend the Temple? With WEAPONS? Well, my. If there was a weapons room in the HOLY TEMPLE, why then, does not every Synagogue and Church and Chapel and….have the wherewithal to be able to defend themselves and their people in case of attack? In fact, they are usually Gun Free Easy Disarmed Helpless Victim Zones.

I’m guessing it has something to do with the mindset.

From an issue of my Zehut newsletter from the 17th of Tammuz a Moshe Feiglin column:

This is all very reminiscent of how the Left took advantage of

Rabin’s assassination. Whoever did not support the Oslo Accords

automatically became a partner to the murder.

The process unfolds approximately as follows:

1. First, a move that completely contradicts the values of the

majority of the public is shoved down its throat.

2. The public stands up and protests.

3. The media portray the opponents to the move in a negative light

and distance them from the boundaries of legitimate discourse.

4. The public becomes frustrated and enraged. More public

opposition is met with more demonization.

5. Somebody (usually a psychopath) decides to employ violence –

and succeeds.

6. Everybody is in shock.

7. The shock is used to obliterate the will of the majority. Whoever

does not accept the minority position is a murderer.

8. The minority approach becomes the ruling position and is

translated into laws and policies.

9. The minority has won and forces its values upon the majority.

This pathway came from an article about a different topic, but they are still just as applicable to gun control.

As we continue to see attacks and shootings I wouldn’t be shocked to see this played out, if it hasn’t already. Much like a scene from a Matthew Bracken book Enemies Domestic and Foreign.

So, ready for Hillary and the Demoncrats? Only the first 39 seconds or so is what I’m referencing.

 

As if the three weeks didn’t have enough to mourn already.

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Feiglin: Give the Good Guys Guns

Feiglin

Rebellious and inspiring Israeli politician, Moshe Feiglin has penned a brief, but interesting piece on the Zehut website. In it he explores the question, “What would have happened … if Israel was a truly liberty-oriented state and the right to bear arms was a basic right for every upstanding citizen?” A fair question, and one increasingly apropos no matter where you live.

On a much more modest level, we also have this news item.  It is a shame it has to be framed in the context of gender politics and post-service employment opportunity, but, if we must be reduced to fiddling around the edges, at least it is arguably in the right direction.

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Battle of Athens

battle-of-athens
Sadly, I let this anniversary slip my mind. Happily, a friend reminded me of this, and that this was always popular with Aaron Zelman and his original crew.

Yes, people did exercise their Second Amendment rights to put down tyrannical government. In 1946, the Battle of Athens, Tennessee.

Is it any wonder that today’s wannabe tyrants want to dismiss the Second Amendment as “obsolete” and “archaic”?

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