We’ve added some more nice things to the Store. In Cool Gear you’ll now find this classy little item.
Classic Victorinox design and function. Knife, screwdriver/emory board, scissors, and toothpick; with a nice, if understated, Star of David. Perfect for your keychain. And only $23.95, plus shipping.
Get yours today. (Just leave one for me.)
And while we’re on the subject of cool stuff, make sure you’re entered to win:
Twenty-five years ago, following a tragic automobile accident, there was a pogrom in New York City. It was arguably led by Al Sharpton, and repeatedly excused at the highest levels of New York political elites. During the three days of full-out rioting, an Australian rabbinic student, Yankel Rosenbaum, was viciously murdered for the unpardonable crime of being a Jew. The perpetrators even pulled a non-Jewish, Italian man from his car and savagely beat him, thinking him a Jew.
So, in answer to the question, “Can _it_ happen, here?” It HAS happened here. And, it almost certainly will happen again.
Why?
Fully a quarter-century later, the government of New York City’s Five Boroughs steadfastly refuse to allow their citizens tools for effective self defense. Permission to have even a mundane, single-shot shotgun in your own home, is expensive, arduous, and complicated, in the extreme. More effective tools are far harder to legally possess. A handgun on your person? Hell, the NYPD & Cyrus Vance will put you in jail and clean out your wallet for carrying a simple lock-blade knife like the one we offer here at Zelman Partisans!
The enemies of human liberty are always angling to keep the rest of us on the plantation, cane knives chopped blunt, dependent upon them, and their permission, for every human need. To them, you, and your loved ones, are livestock.
Remember the lesson of Yankel Rosenbaum.
August 13, 2016 was the 9th of Av, or Tisha B’Av 5776. Since nothing is to mar the joy of Shabbat, it was observed on the 14th of August.
I realize, that’s yesterday, but I can’t let it go without sharing a couple things.
The first is something wonderful I got from my teammate, Y.B. a wonderful true story honoring the spirit and commitment of Rabbi Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam.
Defiance on a Death March
The Klausenberger Rebbe z’tl on 9 AvRabbi Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam became one of the youngest rebbes in Europe, leading thousands of followers in the town of Klausenburg, Romania, before World War II. His wife, eleven children and most of his followers were murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
In the summer of 1944 the Russian Army moved west and pushed the Nazis further and further back across Poland into Germany. The Germans, in an effort to cover their crimes forced thousands of slave labourers on death marches across Poland. The Rebbe had previously spent time in Auschwitz and on a work detail in Warsaw, sifting through the rubble of the now vacant Warsaw ghetto on his hands and knees, forced to look for anything that might be of value for the Nazi war effort.
As the Russians moved closer the Rebbe along with 6000 other prisoners were forced to march for twenty miles a day, in the scorching Polish summer. The death camp of Dachau in Germany was to be their final destination of which just 2000 made it.
On the march, the prisoners were starved of food and water and any stragglers were shot immediately. On the day of Tisha B’Av (9th of the Jewish month of Av), Jews mourn the destruction of the two Temples in Jerusalem as well as many other disasters that have happened on this painful day. One of the signs of mourning of Tisha B’Av is that Jews remove their leather shoes (leather shoes being an inappropriate sign of comfort and luxury on this solemn day).
On this day and on this march, the Rebbe removed his shoes. Despite all that had happened to him, he refused to give up on the Jewish observances that made him who he was. The Nazis saw this as a sign of rebellion and decided to have some fun at the Rebbe’s expense. They made him march alongside the column on broken stones and gravel. They joked as his feet became bloodied and bruised.
At one point they thought he was trying to escape down the embankment so they shot him. He was hit in the arm and tumbled down the embankment. In an effort to stem the bleeding, he took bark and leaves from a tree and wrapped it around the wound. It was at that point in his life, when faced with such unimaginable pain, hatred and adversity that the Rebbe demonstrated forever that there is no depth from which the human spirit cannot rise.
It was at that point that he swore to God that should he survive he would build an institution based on the Jewish values of love, peace, equality and tolerance, all of the values the Nazis despised. He swore that he would build a hospital in the land of Israel that would epitomise everything the Nazis tried to destroy.
Today, that hospital is Laniado in Netanya.The hospital was built in 1974. After the maternity unit was opened, the Rebbe asked the nurses and staff to call him immediately when the first baby was born. A few days later he received the call with the good news. Upon hearing, the Rebbe said in a broken voice, ‘zeh ha nekama sheli’, ‘this is my revenge’. This is my revenge – life will defeat death, hope will defeat pain, compassion will overcome hatred.
May this Tisha B’Av be the last before our mourning is turned into joy and celebration.
And this one I have for you.
And now if you’ll excuse me, I seem to have some dust in my eye.
Even if you haven’t watched every minute of the Olympic Games, you have to know something odd is happening with Olympic shooting sports.
During 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.
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.
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.
In the early morning hours of Wednesday, August 10, 2016, Mike Vanderboegh passed away. In recent years, he battled cancer as well as tyranny.
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.
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.
“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!
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.
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.
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.
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?
