Blog
Law and Order
Rasmussen: "59% of all voters are concerned that those opposed to President Trump’s policies will resort to violence"
The left-wing now appears to be intellectually drained. Lacking coherence, they are making the traditional shift to a ‘physical’ mode. A recent report supports the escalation of the social disorder that we have seen recently in the news.
The motto “Semper Paratus” has taken on the additional requirement of staying out of gun-free zones.
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Law
Crime Gun?
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) has filed his proposed “Crime Gun Tracing Modernization Act,” which would create a computerized, searchable database of gun records, which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is explicitly forbidden to do by federal law.
Gee, maybe then we can get a “Drunk Automobile Tracing Modernization Act” and solve the problem of drunk driving.
If you follow the news, you are no doubt aware that there are some people in our society that cannot figure out whether they are male or female. It should then come as no surprise that we also have people in our society that cannot figure out how to use a firearm safely. Where the line should, and must, be drawn is at the threshold of allowing clueless people dictatorial power over the inerrant and enumerated rights of people who can, and regularly do, practice firearm safety.
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Culture
Not Dying is Not an Option
I have a couple of different edition's of a book titled The Law of Self Defense in my library. A gun can be a very efficient and effective tool when used for defending innocent life, and that book does a good job of describing the legal boundaries associated with using a gun in that manner. The book is recommended reading for anyone who carries a gun for self-defense.
But, just who (or what) is this "self" that we are defending? Is it really the case that, for some, using a gun to stay alive is nothing more than prolonging the agony of life? Question's like that have an answer, and the answer is theological.
Theologian Dr. Albert Mohler addresses the fear of death as one of the topics in his Daily Briefing on June 15, 2018.
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Culture
The Gun-control crowd continues to intensify their focus on the NRA
Having been a member of the National Rifle Association (NRA) for over 55 years, I’ve seen a continuing effort to restrict guns and gun ownership during that time span.
I suspect that every one of this country’s institution's have come under attack at some time or another during our 240+ years of existence as a nation. The NRA has never been an exception to those attacks, but in the past the attacks have focused on guns rather than the institution itself. The focus has changed.
Like many other civil rights organizations, the NRA often has been vilified. The current propaganda shares common features with hate campaigns from many different places and times. Over the course of human history, just about every religious or ethnic group has been persecuted with similar tactics. So have many other victims.
Freedom is not free. Some satisfaction comes from knowing that most people are aware of that fact.
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Seamanship
The Last Hours of El Faro
When [El Faro's] engine shuts down, [Hurricane] Joaquin’s center is a mere twenty-five miles to the southeast; the opposite direction from that which [Captain] Davidson expects, as if the storm were deliberately trying to lunge under his guard. El Faro, disabled and helpless, lies almost within the eye, inside its circle of strongest winds...
Joaquin is now approaching Category 4 status, winds averaging 115 knots, gusting to 130 — close to 150 mph.... occasionally, a wave will reach close to fifty feet, the height of a five-story building, a dark mass of water streaked like a rib-eye steak, only instead of fat veining the liquid flanks, these are white tendons of watery fury stretched by the massive energy of wind; and the wave tops are impossible to see, for that same wind is shearing off the waves’ summits and using them to rocket some matter that is neither sea nor air but an abrasive mix of spume and salt water, a slurried ganache of surf that will rip clothes from the body and drown the very breath in your throat. On El Faro, even as what momentum she has left keeps her heading, temporarily... Clearly the list is going from bad to worse, and the rate at which it’s getting worse is speeding up...
Those words from the the June 2018 issue of Soundings, are an excerpt from the book RUN THE STORM: A Savage Hurricane, a Brave Crew, and the Wreck of the SS El Faro by George Michelsen Foy. They describe the last moments before the M/V El Faro and her crew met their doom.
In addition to the National Transportation Safety Board report, a lot has been written about that fatal voyage. Over the years, there have been several other similar events. There is a lot to be learned, or should I say re-learned.
Like similar disasters, there are a string of often ignored indicators that lead up to the final moment.
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Gun Control
Materialism and "Gun Control"
On Thursday June 7, 2018, James Alan Fox, Opinion columnist for USA Today, wrote a piece about U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and the Federal Commission on School Safety complaining about their approach to making our schools safer. It's obvious from Fox's comments that he is convinced that guns have free will, and that guns are the root of the problem. Fox seems to believe that there can be no solution to the "gun problem" without doing away with guns.
This country needs better control of who can have access to guns as well as limits on the type of weapons that are available. This country needs a White House that is not beholden to the NRA.
The first sentence in the above quote unmasks the heart of Fox. He desires "better control” over civil rights, in this case the right to bear arms. Where have we seen that before? He should ask another 'control freak' like Chicago's mayor Rahm Emanuel how well "control" works in solving social problems in (what is supposed to be) a free country.
For James Alan Fox, and many others like him, the solution to the misuse of guns in a free country will forever be stymied by reality—ad infinitum. Even if there were no such thing as an NRA.
Hopefully, Betsy DeVos will be able to stay focused on the real issues. In the meantime, there are schools that are successfully addressing the problem.
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Semper Paratus
Welcome Cutter Decisive
Pensacola Naval Air Station officially welcomed the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Decisive (WMEC-629) and its 78-member crew to its new home port today.
The Decisive is one of two Coast Guard Cutter's relocating to Pensacola; she will be joined by the Cutter Dauntless (WMEC-624) later this year.
Welcome Coasties! Glad to have ya’ll with us. You’ll enjoy your new home, and you can tell by looking at our bollards, we have plenty of much-needed white paint.
Semper Paratus!
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Culture
Why are they laughing?
This goes right to the heart of the freedom-responsibility issue. We cannot have individual freedom without individual responsibility.
An irresponsible society will never be a free society. The NRA has been teaching that cornerstone principle for more than the 55 years that I have been a member. As an NRA Instructor, I teach it also.
Given the recent stance taken by some left wing liberals over the NRA's promotion of individual freedom, specifically the "right to keep and bear arms", why are these people laughing?
You would think that with all of the anti-gun rhetoric that we have seen recently, the tone would be somber when discussing the negligent discharge of a firearm in a crowded room in a public place.
Can a responsible person find humor in an incident like this? A providential answer to that question can be found in today's Briefing by Albert Mohler:
The redefinition of comedy: Why a society that will laugh at everything doesn’t really understand anything
Therein lies the profound answer.
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Negligence
They called this “accidental"?
And, today’s Lee Paige Award goes to:
Let this be a reality check for everyone who thinks that that “the police” are the only ones capable of carrying guns safely. I would guess that there were probably several legally armed citizen's nearby who are a lot more judicious than this guy.
Just what the FBI needs…..
UPDATE: FBI agent Chase Bishop, 29, a D.C-based special agent that was visiting Denver for training earlier this month when he allegedly shot a man at Mile High Spirits in the city’s LoDo downtown area, was charged with assault in the second degree, a class 4 felony, by Denver District Attorney Beth McCann.
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Safety at Sea
More things that can go bump in the night!
They might be awash, just below the surface, and none of these things have lights nor any reflective surface!
Remember Rule 5 and eat plenty of carrots!
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