Tag Archives: Liberty

Commentary

Kiss America Goodbye

If you think that title sounds alarmist, think again.

Undoubtedly the worst presidential candidate in modern history, crooked, cognitively challenged and thrust into office by the dedicated efforts of America’s lapdog media, her socialist Big Tech and “the most extensive and inclusive voter fraud organization in the history of American politics,” Joe Biden has not even taken office yet. Nor has the razor thin Democratic tie (+socialist Kamala Harris) in the Senate been installed. But the Democrats can taste the power that they will soon wield and they are already making their wish list, naming those whom they will persecute and punish, lining up for new investigations and prosecutions, and above all laying plans to secure their grip on the power they have gained so that they never have to surrender it again. In anticipation of their ascendancy and in cooperation with its expected permanency, Big Tech has already begun silencing any voice of opposition to the one-party rule that America will soon suffer, permanently banning soon-to-be-ex-President Donald Trump, blocking any social media platform that does not agree to censor conservative speech, shutting off access to servers and internet services for alternative media and laying the groundwork for a universal blockade of information outside the “mainstream” narrative. Books are being banned, political contributors outed and threatened. Fund-raising websites deny access to anyone not politically correct. The list goes on and on.

How long until this website is blocked or banned? How long until e-commerce sites that sell t-shirts with images and legends derisive of left-wing, socialist, progressive, statist ideas and personalities are dropped? How long until guns, ammunition and related goods and services are banned from the Internet? How long until PayPal and other e-payment options are denied to conservative organizations or websites? How long until churches find their live-streamed services blocked because the pastor dared to preach against homosexuality or abortion? How long until your bank begins “monitoring” your accounts to identify support for “domestic terrorist” (conservative) causes and candidates? Don’t dare scoff at these questions! Who would have ever believed that America would see the day that churches were ordered closed and pastors threatened with jail for refusing to comply?

“But censorship like that is okay because it’s not the government doing it!” That’s what they’re going to say, and I know because that’s what they’ve already said. Conservatives have no right to speak on college campuses because it isn’t the government silencing them. Conservatives have no right to have their opinions shared in the mainstream media–or even to expect that facts and events demonstrative of the lies told by the left are published anywhere that the public can see them. Free people have no right to be heard as long as it is the left-wing monolithic tech monopolies (that your government has fostered) that are silencing and crushing them. You have no freedom if it is someone other than the government depriving you of it. Really?

When was the last time you read the Declaration of Independence? If you’ve read my book, God, America and Liberty you’ve already heard this analogy, but here it is again: most ideologically-based associations (like churches) have two founding documents, a statement of faith or beliefs and a constitution or bylaws. The constitution or bylaws is a set of rules for how they will conduct business: how the leader is chosen, how the directors are chosen, who is in charge of the money and how it is handled and spent, etc. The statement of faith or belief is a list of the core convictions held by the association, the common ideas that bind the members together in one body. The rules are important, but the beliefs are why the association exists in the first place. The Declaration of Independence is our nation’s statement of faith. Please take a moment to read it in its entirety, but here is a very important quote:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Our government was institution in order to secure our rights (all government are supposed to be) not just to abstain from destroying them itself. You have the right to life, and your government is not just supposed to refrain from killing you, it is supposed to keep others (foreign governments and other citizens) from killing you too. You have a right to liberty, and your government’s responsibility is not just to abstain itself from stripping you of your liberties, it is also required to prevent others from taking your liberties as well. Your rights were given to you by God. They were not granted to you by government. When your government stands by and allows the Big Corporate Mainstream Media to gouge out your eyes and stop your ears (by blacking out news that you need in order to make an informed choice in an election, e.g. the Hunter Biden story) and allows Big Corporate Tech to rip out your tongue (by silencing anyone who defies the left-wing narrative by trying to inform you, e.g. the Hunter Biden story) then your government has become destructive of the ends of securing your liberties.

We are at a crisis point in our nation’s history. Our government has long been out of control and indifferent to our freedom, but now it has gone from indifference to antipathy, becoming destructive of our freedoms. Very soon you will not be able to read words like those in our Declaration of Independence on the Internet or hear them on the television.

What then?

2020 Election, Commentary, Liberty and the RKBA, News

Eight Reasons You Should Vote for Biden

I admit that this post is too long, but there really are some good reasons that you should vote for Joe Biden for president. Here are just eight of them, and I want to give them fair treatment.

  1. You should vote for Joe Biden if you want your city to look like Portland, Seattle, Kenosha, Minneapolis, Washington DC or any of the other cities that have experienced major unrest over the past few months. Almost all of these are cities that are solidly in Democratic hands, in states that are solidly in Democratic hands, and have been for decades. The policies that have turned these blue cities and states into whirlpools of arson, looting, anti-police violence and murder are policies of the Democratic party. While demanding that Donald Trump denounce “white supremacists” and falsely claiming that he won’t, Biden refuses to denounce the leftist violence that is running wild in our cities and his staffers have contributed to funds that bail out rioters and other violent criminals. His running mate, Kamala Harris, has supported the same funds. Kamala visited a man accused of sexual assault and said she was “proud” of him–presumably for reaching for a knife and forcing police to shoot him in the back. She did not have any kind words for his victim, nor did she take time to visit two sheriff’s deputies shot in the face.
  1. You should vote for Joe Biden if you want your guns confiscated. When asked if people were justified to fear that a Biden administration would “come for” their guns, Biden said, “Bingo! If you have an assault weapon.” Don’t think for a minute that Democrats only want your AR-15s and your AK-47s. Any firearm could be used to resist tyranny, that is why they are all protected by the Second Amendment, and that is why, ultimately, they will all be banned. Biden has declared that Robert Frances “Beto” O’Rourke, who answered “hell, yes” when asked if he would try to seize guns, will be in charge of gun policy in a Biden administration. [My response to O’Rourke is here http://www.rkpaden.com/2019/09/16/my-response-to-beto/ ]
  1. You should vote for Joe Biden if you want the Supreme Court permanently turned into a mini-legislature made up of unelected liberal justices who serve for life. After decades of suffering with an activist liberal majority on SCOTUS, Republicans seemed poised to return the court to sanity by confirming a majority of constructionist justices on that body. But Democrats believe that they are entitled to control of the Supreme Court and are threatening to “pack” it if they can by adding more liberal judges to the bench. When asked if he would support this action, Joe Biden has refused to answer, asserted that the voters have no right to know what he will do and declared that he will announce his position after the election. (Interpretation: he will pack the court.) Update: Joe now says that he will announce his intention after he sees how the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett “is handled.” (Interpretation: no matter what he says now, if elected he will pack the court if that is what his leftist base demands–and it will be.)
  1. You should vote for Joe Biden if you want the U.S. economy shut down indefinitely to protect you from Covid-19. Biden has declared that he will not hesitate to shut the country down again if “the scientists” tell him he should. But while “science” is anything but settled on this (or any other) issue, Democrats have consistently wanted the nation shut down, ostensibly to save lives during the pandemic, but actually because they believe it will help them defeat Donald Trump. But face it, they just love ordering common folk around and telling them how to live their lives and the Covid-19 pandemic has just been the best opportunity they have ever had to seize such extraordinary powers. They are not wasting this crisis, and they are not going to be in any hurry to surrender those extraordinary powers. Their plans to “protect” the US from Covid-19 are going to rob you of freedom and kill the patient.
  1. You should vote for Joe Biden if you want the U. S. economy shut down indefinitely to protect you from the Global Climate Crisis. Despite his public repudiations of most of the “Green New Deal” Joe Biden has declared that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will chair his “Environmental Task Force” and that means this ex-bartender Marxist congresswoman will be in the perfect position to force Biden back to the policies that he supported months ago in order to win the support of the socialists. America’s energy independence, just realized for the first time in a century under Donald Trump, will be no more. Hundreds of thousands of self-sustaining jobs in the energy sector will disappear to be replaced by thousands of “green” energy jobs heavily subsidized by government bailouts–subsidies that also will line the pockets of campaign donors and other favored parties. (See Solyndra.) The environmentalist agenda has nothing to do with saving the planet and everything to do with controlling the American people.
  1. You should vote for Joe Biden if you want this to be the last (semi) free and fair election in our nation. If you want America radically changed from the nation you now know to something much more akin to Venezuela or Cuba, the Democrats are your party. They have promised that if they can seize power now, they will:
    • End the Senate filibuster, allowing them to enact any legislation with a simple majority of votes. This has been referred to as “the nuclear option.”
    • With control of the presidency and both houses of congress, they will enact statehood for Puerto Rico and Washington DC, adding four more certain Democratic seats to the Senate.
    • With full control of the legislative and executive branches, the Democrats have promised to enact mandatory universal mail-in balloting for all future federal elections, legalize ballot harvesting and outlaw all voter ID laws across the country. What we have seen in Minneapolis [https://nypost.com/2020/09/27/project-veritas-uncovers-ballot-harvesting-fraud-in-minnesota/] will be the norm all across America and Republican candidates will never win another national election.
  1. You should vote for Joe Biden if you really like the swamp. Joe Biden has been in Washington for almost half a century, he epitomizes the corruption and sleaze of the DC Swamp and every creature of the mud and slime has worked and is working tirelessly for his election.
    • Hunter’s Laptop: Just hitting the news, but it was turned over to the FBI almost a year ago during the Trump Impeachment debacle, and that Deep State agency has been sitting on it ever since. Fortunately, the whistle-blower kept a copy of the hard drive and it has now become public. Someone at the FBI leaked to the press that this story is being investigated as “Russian disinformation” but the fact that it is Hunter’s laptop has been verified, many of the damning emails have been independently corroborated by others involved in the scheme, and the Biden campaign will not specifically deny the facts, only repeating that the whole story has been “discredited.” (It has not.) On most of the “mainstream” networks, this story has received zero (0) coverage. If you don’t watch Fox News Network you probably don’t even know it is happening. Here’s a quick summation: there is now serious, credible evidence that Biden’s “fire the prosecutor or you don’t get the billion” phone call to Ukraine was a “pay-for-play” quid pro quo that protected his son and personally profited him and his family financially. There is also serious, credible evidence that Biden and his family profited from similar deals with the Chinese Communist Party.
    • Just as Important as the Crime, the Coverup: The swamp’s friends, who never blocked a single story damaging to Donald Trump, no matter how unsubstantiated, unverifiable or unreliable its source, have decided that no one should be allowed to share the story about Hunter’s emails and have blocked tweets and postings linked to the article about it on the New York Post’s website. (The New York Post is one of America’s oldest and most reputable newspapers.) Twitter has even suspended the official White House account and Facebook has blocked their page. Barely two weeks from the election, this amounts to election interference on an unprecedented scale.
  1. Finally, you should vote for Joe Biden if you never want to know the truth about the greatest political scandal in American history–the first attempted coup. All of the following are known facts:
    • Before Donald Trump was elected, the United States Justice Department and the FBI launched an illegal investigation of the candidate and those around him, based on a document that they knew was garbage and that they knew was paid for by his political opponent, Hilary Clinton.
    • The FBI lied on affidavits to the FISA court, falsified documents and engaged in other illegal and unethical acts to continue the investigation long after it was known that there was no grounds for it.
    • FBI Director James Comey leaked classified information to the press in order to compel the appointment of “Special Counsel” Robert Mueller to investigate the Trump administration.
    • The Mueller investigation was staffed entirely by anti-Trump lawyers who spent almost three years and $32 million trying to find anything they could pin on Donald Trump, without success, but in the process indicting and convicting several of Trump’s associates of “process crimes” in order to create the appearance that the administration was mired in scandal and controversy. Now, when an investigation into the corrupt origins of the probe has finally been launched, it was discovered that fifteen (15) cell phones used by the Mueller team had been “accidentally” wiped clean.

Federal Prosecutor John Durham has been investigating all of this, but his probe, now over a year old, has yielded only one concrete result, a guilty plea by a relatively low-level lawyer at the FBI. Durham’s long-awaited report continues to be inexplicably delayed, and will not appear until after the election…if at all. If Joe Biden is elected, the unknown facts about the first attempted coup in American history will never see the light of day. They will disappear into the same black swamp sinkhole that now holds the Fast and Furious scandal, Hilary Clinton’s 30,000 deleted emails, the Uranium One deal, the Bill Clinton/Jeffery Epstein connection and untold other goings-on of the DC Swamp and Deep State. That, too, is where Hunter’s laptop, its damning emails and Joe Biden’s corruption will disappear.

If this is what you want, then you should vote for Joe Biden.

Commentary

Home of the brave

President Trump left the hospital yesterday, and he made a short speech, calling on Americans not to let Covid-19 “dominate” them. “Don’t be afraid of it,” he told us. Not unexpectedly, the Democrats, leftists and mainstream media (pretty-much all one in the same) went insane over his comments. They are furious that the president would dare to tell Americans not to fear Covid-19.

In my last blog, I wrote about projection and how common it is for the left to accuse their enemies in general and Mr. Trump in particular of exactly what they are doing. Most likely, they are simply following the tactical advice of their philosophical progenitor, Karl Marx. But it is also possible that this is truly psychological projection: seeing in others what you know is in yourself. They think that Trump and the Republicans want to use fear to manipulate and control America’s citizens because that is exactly what they do, day in and day out.

Climate Crisis: “If we don’t do something about it in the next 12 years, it’s going to be too late!” Hurricanes and tornadoes will multiply. California will burn down. The seas will rise. Coastal cities will disappear. Polar bears will go hungry. We are all going to die. It’s true (and they know it) that there is not one shred of actual scientific evidence that man has anything to do with rising global temperatures (and not a whole lot of evidence that global temperatures are actually rising significantly). And it’s true that they have been making these dire predictions for the last 30 years. But none of that matters, because they hope that fear of these things can stampede Americans into accepting sweeping, outrageous and draconian restrictions on our liberties.

BLM and Racism: “Racist white cops (and black ones too) are cruising the streets, just looking for a young black man that they can kill.” I really can’t gauge how many young black men have fallen for this lie, because in all of the videos I’ve seen of the “peaceful” protests/riots in American cities, most of the masked faces I see seem to be college age white kids. Statistical evidence proves that this is a lie, and just based on common sense I think that ordinary young black men probably do not seriously believe that cops are hunting them down with murderous intent. Antifa and the communist revolutionaries are probably the primary source of the unrest–and that should not surprise us, since Black Lives Matter is an avowedly Marxist organization intent on overthrowing our system of government and our freedom. But African-Americans are not the sole target of this campaign of fear. If Donald Trump is reelected, it’s going to get worse…much worse, they assert ominously. “There ain’t no light at the end of the tunnel,” says Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. If Trump wins, “f***ing cities will burn,” says a Sanders staffer. The message is clear: vote for us or we will burn this country down. They hope that their message of fear will sway American voters.

Covid-19: If you’ll give it some thought, you will remember that the virus first raised it’s ugly head just as the Democrat impeachment fiasco was reaching its absurd climax, and they and the mainstream media dismissed it as a distraction from the real story of Donald Trump’s treasonous quid-pro-quo and “obstruction of justice.” When President Trump closed the borders to travel from China, Biden called it “hysterical” and “xenophobic,” and the mainstream media condemned the action as useless showboating. But as soon as it became clear that their original optimism based on the reassurances of the Communist Chinese Party was wrong, they ramped up the fear-machine, predicting “2.2 million” deaths in the United States from the novel coronavirus of 2019. (“200 million” is the number that worked its way deep into Joe Biden’s head and continues to pop up there from time to time as Covid-19 mortality and, occasionally, the number of Americans killed by guns in the last decade or so.) Two hundred thousand was the number sometimes offered as the minimum, if we “did everything right.” In deep blue states and cities, Democrat governors and mayors were quick to use fear of the Wuhan Virus as a means to seize extraordinary “emergency” powers–powers that they are extremely reluctant to now relinquish. Telling everyone else what they can and cannot do is, after all, what tyrants enjoy most, and they will never let a good crisis go to waste. Entire state economies were shut down and millions lost their jobs. Small businesses closed for good, while mega-businesses like Amazon, Walmart, Home Depot and Lowe’s did extremely well. Liquor stores and marijuana dispensaries were allowed to stay open as “essential,” while health clubs, gyms and beauty salons were ordered closed (except when Nancy Pelosi or Mayor Lori Lightfoot needed a trim). Churches and synagogues were ordered closed and the religious disobedient were threatened with arrest and told that their rights “had been suspended.” For the most part, Americans accepted these unconstitutional orders, fearing the virus as much as the wrath of their despotic rulers.

Fear, fear, fear. People who are afraid are easy to control. That’s what terrorists know. That’s why terrorism is effective. That’s why what the Democrats and the left are doing to America now is nothing short of political terrorism. When Donald Trump stands up before the American people and tells them not to be afraid, he is demonstrating that he is exactly the kind of leader that we need now.

Fear is un-American! The first Americans faced a perilous journey halfway across the world to reach this continent. It was a rich land, but life was harsh and dangerous. Many starved, fell victim to pestilence or hostile natives. When the first settlements were secure, fearless men and women took their families and struck out into the wilderness, carving homesteads and farms out of the deep forests. Fearless Americans stood up to the greatest empire on earth at that time to win their freedom. Americans conquered the western lands, fighting for every inch of their new nation. Brave Americans went back across the seas twice to fight tyranny in the lands they had left, winning two world wars. Americans crossed the empty sky to reach the moon and place the flag of our nation there on its barren, lifeless soil.

I stand with Donald Trump one-hundred percent. We should not fear this virus. We should not fear “climate crisis.” We should not fear those who threaten us with violence if we do not obediently say “Black Lives Matter” when they harass us at our tables. We should not be afraid to speak out, say what we believe, put bumper stickers on our cars and signs in our yard. With some of these, the danger is real and others it is imaginary, but even if the danger is real, we should stand with our forefathers who did not fear the unknown forests to the west, the hostile indigenous peoples, the pestilence, the hunger, the darkness or the uncharted emptiness of space.

We are Americans, we are not cowards, and we will defeat this enemy just as we have defeated so many others. And God willing, in about one month, we will show the Democrats, the socialists, the leftists, the statists, the mainstream media, George Soros, BLM and Antifa that we do not fear them. Bring on your worst and we will give it back to you, because we are Americans and we are not afraid.

Commentary

National sins and civil war

The United States of America was born with a birth defect: slavery. Contrary to what Tim Kaine (D-VA) asserted in the well of the senate, we did not invent slavery. It’s been around just about as long as humans have, and we did inherit it from our father, the British Empire. Slavery was America’s original national sin, and our founding fathers knew that it was an affront to the fundamental principle upon which our nation was built: that all men are created equal and are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, among them: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It took about eighty years, but eventually a majority of Americans mustered the will to confront this sin and act to eradicate it, even though they knew that doing so would be costly.

A great many Americans were determined to safeguard the institution of slavery because their wealth was built upon it and they could not see any way to maintain their position without it. Despite being fundamentally religious people, because it was valuable to them they managed to convince themselves that it was right, and mankind has always been adept at justifying what we really want to do. As those who opposed slavery came closer to the power to legally ban that abomination, the slave states saw the handwriting on the wall and decided to leave the Union before abolition was imposed on them. The end result, of course, was a “great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated [to the proposition that all men are created equal] could long endure.”*

We are hearing a lot today about the evils of racism and slavery, and some are even demanding reparations for the crimes committed by some of our progenitors more than a hundred years ago–deliberately forgetting that other progenitors fought and died to end that evil. Slavery was a great evil, but if it is wrong to put a man in chains, what is it to rip a living child to pieces inside the womb, suck them out and sell them to laboratories? If it is wrong to make merchandise of a living human being, how can it be permissible to kill an innocent child and then make merchandise of them?

Legalized abortion on demand is not a birth defect, but neither did all Americans choose it. It was imposed upon the nation by a cadre of unelected judges who substituted a perverse and arcane legal calculus for the will of the majority of America’s citizens, inventing a “right” to end the life of an unborn child and creating a multi-billion dollar industry that funnels millions into the pockets of politicians who promise to keep abortion safe, legal and profitable. And just as the antebellum slave owners refused to even consider relinquishing their property, those who have been enriched by legalized abortion will fight to keep the abortion mills in operation.

The passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has ignited a firestorm of rancor and ratcheted up the stakes of this election to eye-bulging intensity. Why? Because as the liberal majority on the Supreme Court to which liberals/progressives/Democrats feel entitled slips away, they have realized that the handwriting is on the wall for abortion. It was never constitutional, it was always bad law and it was always pure evil to declare millions of unborn children non-human so that their lives could be extinguished. America has awakened to this horror, it is trying to right the wrong, and the abomination of abortion on demand must be purged from our national conscience. I sincerely hope and pray that it does not take another “great civil war” to atone for the taking of so many innocent lives. After slavery, our second great national sin was forgetting God and the best chance we have of ending the slaughter of the unborn without a great slaughter of those already here is to remember God, turn from our sin and plead for His mercy.

I’m afraid that ultimately the choice will be up to those who have profited by saturating the earth with the innocent blood of more than sixty million unborn Americans.

I am not optimistic.

*Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address

Liberty and the RKBA

Does America still have the guts to stand up to terrorism?

We just remembered the 19th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001. The terrorists dealt us a terrible blow, but we stood up, stood together and struck back. As I watched the ceremonies on television, I wondered if America still has the guts that we demonstrated back then, because we are under a direct terrorist assault right now that is unprecedented in our history. The next few months will demonstrate if we are still the United States of America, or sheep.

Terrorism is the use of fear and intimidation to accomplish a political goal. Terrorism is exactly what the Democrats/Socialists (at some point we’re no longer going to need to make any distinction there) are using right now to try to keep conservative America quiet and cowed. “Do you think the violence is going to stop if Donald Trump gets reelected?” Biden asks. “The protests are going to continue, and they should,” says Kamala Harris. NY Governor Cuomo warns that “Trump is going to need an army to protect him if he comes back to New York.” You know that it is true: there are many places in the country today–lots of them–where you dare not go wearing a MAGA or TRUMP 2020 hat unless you are prepared to be harassed and perhaps killed or else protect yourself and then face prosecution for doing it. Now, with the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the temperature of the rhetoric has risen noticeably. “Over our dead bodies! Literally!” Tweeted former CNN host Reza Aslan, and later “if they even TRY to replace RBG we burn the entire f–ing thing down.” Some other recent quotes:

  • “We’re shutting this country down if Trump and McConnell try to ram through an appointment before the election.”
  • “If the democrats don’t fight, the people are going to have to march on Washington and just shut it down ourselves.”
  • “F— no. Burn it all down.”

Particularly regarding the nomination of a replacement for RBG, Democratic lawmakers are making unusually direct threats. Nancy Pelosi is hinting that the Democratic-controlled House may impeach Trump again in order to prevent the Senate from holding hearings for a nominee, and Chuck Schumer is warning that next year “everything will be on the table” if Republicans proceed. Since the House has already impeached President Trump over absolutely nothing and Democrats in the Senate have already stated that they intend to eliminate the filibuster, pack the court and expand their seats in the Senate by seeking statehood for Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., one wonders what more they could have in mind.

The Democrats are trying to create an atmosphere in our nation just like they have already succeeded in fostering on college campuses, where contrary voices will be silenced and political goals achieved by intimidation if possible, violence if necessary. You’d better do as we say, they are warning, or things are going to get much, much worse.

America has gotten the message. Everyone knows it now, even if they will not admit it. If Joe Biden wins, Trump supporters will be furious (especially since they will be pretty sure that the election was stolen using millions of fraudulent mail-in ballots) but they aren’t going to fill the streets and start hurling things at cops, burning down small businesses and looting Target Stores.

But if Joe Biden loses, hell is going to break out in America’s streets. What we’re seeing now is just a warning: let us win or else.

Does America still have the guts to stand up to terrorism? We will find out in a few weeks.

Liberty and the RKBA

One a Month…

Real quickly, let’s establish once and for all that in Virginia Democrats are either ignorant of both the Virginia and United States Constitutions and the principles of limited government–or just don’t care. Virginia’s Democrat-controlled senate just passed SB 69 which establishes a “one gun a month” policy limiting Virginia citizens to purchasing only one handgun in a 30-day period. Assuming that it is passed by the Virginia House of Delegates, Governor Northam is expected to sign it into law. (This will reinstate a previous VA law placing such a limit on handgun purchases.)

For those who may not be familiar with Virginia’s Constitution, take a minute to Google it and read Article I, Sections 2 and 13. Like the United States Constitution, the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia also explicitly recognizes that the source of all government power is the consent of the people. It also recognizes the right of all the people to be armed for the defense of their liberty just as clearly as the 2nd Amendment in the U.S. Bill of Rights–if not more so.

So, just thinking clearly for a second, where do you suppose that the Democrats currently in control of Virginia’s State Government believe that they derive the authority to limit Virginia citizens to one handgun a month, or to place any limit on how many guns of whatever type and capacity Virginia citizens may purchase? The Constitutions (US and VA) are limits on the power of government, not the rights of the people. Among the enumerated powers granted to the governments (US and VA) I am unable to identify any section that grants those governments the power to limit the lawful, clearly described rights of their citizens to keep and bear arms.

But logically, if the government does have the power to limit citizens to only one handgun a month, then doesn’t that mean that the government also has the power to limit them to only one handgun a year or only one handgun in their lifetime?

Or no guns of any kind at all?

Remember, in our nation and our states, we do not derive our rights from the consent of government. On the contrary, our governments derive their just powers (only their just powers) from the consent of the governed–us. In other words, if we choose, we the people have the power to limit our government to only one law a month, but our governments do not have the power to limit us to only one anything a month.

Liberty and the RKBA

The Nature of Compromise

In grammar school I was taught that our system of government is based on compromise. That’s not true, but that’s what I was taught. Compromise is fine, but there is something you have to understand about it. You cannot compromise with someone whose ultimate goal is diametrically opposed to yours.

For instance, let’s say you and your friend are going on vacation together. You both want to go to the beach, but you want to get there as fast as possible and he/she wants to take the cross-country scenic route. Perhaps you can travel part of the way on the Interstate and part of the way on the secondary roads, and you both wind up where you ultimately wanted to be. But suppose you want to go to the beach and he/she wants to go to the mountains. You compromise and travel part-way toward the beach, and then turn off and go to the mountains. When you get there, you suddenly realize that your friend got what he/she wanted and you got nothing.

That’s where we are with the “gun control” debate. Thanks to Beto, everyone can now see where the democrats have been wanting to take us for fifty years, but everyone is still crying out for compromise on this issue. Democrats, when asked straight up if they agree with Beto on confiscation, hedge, dip and dodge. They use phrases like, “we’ve got to do something now,” and “starting place” and “first steps” and “what is achievable.” What they are saying is that they know they can’t get confiscation right now, but if they can get us to compromise and move in that direction a little, they will be patient and come back for more after the next mass shooting.

Make no mistake: no matter how much they may deny it and claim to be “firm supporters of the Second Amendment,” confiscation of all privately held firearms is their ultimate goal. Why is disarming the population so important to them? Because you can’t make a tyranny without it. Compromise is just another word for slow defeat. In the end, we will either defeat the enemies of freedom or be defeated by them.

Liberty and the RKBA

My Response To Beto

My sincere thanks to Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke, who finally admitted what most of us have known all along. Hell yes, they want to take our AR-15s and AK-47s!

And when that doesn’t work and the violence continues, they will be back for our other semi-automatics, pump-actions, bolt-actions, revolvers and anything else that goes bang and could put a hole in a would-be tyrant.

You cannot compromise with someone whose end goal is diametrically opposed to yours. You can only defeat them, or be defeated by them. So here is my response to Mr. O’Rourke:

Liberty and the RKBA

The Third Thing About the 2nd Amendment and the Right to Keep and Bear Arms that TOO MANY Americans Simply Do Not Understand

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

The Purpose of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms
Even many who admit to the original meaning and intent of the Second Amendment declare that it is an anachronism, a throw-back to an earlier time and no longer relevant today. We live in an enlightened civilization and the notion of tyranny in America is silly! And besides, the idea of the people standing up to a despot is ludicrous. One democratic lawmaker (Eric Swalwell) even suggested that the people would be hopelessly outgunned since the government has nuclear weapons.

Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. Recent events should convince us that now more than ever before in our nation’s history, the right of the people to keep and bear arms is indispensable to maintaining our free state. It is only the millions of arms in private ownership in America that have kept the forces of tyranny at bay to this point. An armed population is the last line of defense for liberty, and when our government succeeds in disarming us our days of freedom will be numbered.

Imagine a government-required license before starting a church or holding a prayer-meeting. Imagine a government-required background check before being allowed to speak at a public rally. Imagine certain types of unpopular political speech being banned by government and we’re just about there. Why have we tolerated so many restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms when we would never (and should not) tolerate the like when it comes to freedom of speech, assembly, religion or any of our other fundamental rights granted by God? Because “…all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.” But to continue quoting the Declaration of Independence, “when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

We’re not quite there yet, but when our government determines to finally destroy that last line of defense, “a design to reduce [us] under absolute Despotism” will be evident. Freedom-loving Americans will never surrender their arms. Doing so will be surrendering our children and grandchildren to slavery.

Liberty and the RKBA

The Second Thing About the 2nd Amendment and the Right to Keep and Bear Arms that TOO MANY Americans Simply Do Not Understand

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

The Right to Keep and Bear Arms is not about hunting, target shooting or even defending your life or your home. Although these pursuits are certainly protected by that same right, they are not what the founding fathers had in mind when they talked about the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. Now we are constantly hearing about “military assault-type weapons” and “weapons of war,” and too often I hear gun owners and self-proclaimed supporters of the Second Amendment declare that “no one needs an AR-15 or AK-47!” And one democratic candidate for president finally just admitted it: “hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47!”

The intent of the Second Amendment’s writers is clearly demonstrated in the use of the phrase: A well-regulated militia. The word “militia” comes from the same roots as military and militant and that means fighting wars. Of course, many have tried to define the term “well regulated militia” as the equivalent of today’s National Guard, but both history and just a little thought will inform even the most casual reader that this argument is spurious. The founders clearly wrote “the right of the people to keep and bear arms” and nowhere in the constitution or any founders’ writings was the phrase the people used to describe anything other than the people. The right of the people to keep and bear arms is nothing less than the right of American citizens to retain the means of overthrowing their government should it become necessary. Therefore, “military assault-type weapons” and “weapons of war” are exactly the kind of “arms” that the Second Amendment is talking about.