On Christmas Eve, I watched on TV a bit of the Mass at St. Peter’s in Rome – and there is nothing quite as impressive as St. Peter’s Basilica. Say what you will about the Catholic Church, St. Peter’s is clearly the product of a highly advanced and refined civilization.
As I watched, a little distracted by the English translation (I wish they hadn’t bothered…certainly no Catholic needed to know what was going on; we know, no matter what language) it occurred to me that St. Peter’s was probably heavily locked down by security and all sorts of screening and barriers were around and within the Church…all to prevent a savage from carrying out a horrific act. And then it really hit me:
In the very heart of our civilization, we are not safe.
Think about what we have around us, every day, grating against normality. A prominent lady on Twitter, the daughter of immigrants, related the other day her tale of woe in getting the new driver’s license. All the extra documentation she needed to obtain and provide so that she, an American, could prove to her own government that she was, indeed, a citizen of the Republic and so should be allowed to enter federal buildings. And even if she got that ID, she’d still need to take off her belt and shoes and run them and her purse through a scanner while she, herself, was quickly x-rayed on the way in. And let’s pause for a moment and think about those round, concrete bollards which have sprouted like mushrooms in front of all sorts of buildings and places…barriers against a barbarian driving a car or truck into us.
We are imprisoning ourselves – caging our own people, while barbarians roam free.
This is wrong. This is terrible. This is not how civilized people are supposed to live. It is the barbarians who should be running and hiding from us…not we erecting anti-terrorism barriers in front of our buildings, parks and places of worship. And it is becoming so ubiquitous that even us older folks aren’t noticing it – but worse than that, the youngsters are growing up thinking that it is normal to have such things. That to live you have barriers and machine guns and tanks and, with all that, the barbarians will get through from time to time and carry out a massacre.
No. No. No. That is not what should be.
Qassim Soleimani was a very dapper man – in uniform or mufti, he was always carefully groomed and well turned out. But make no mistake about it, he was a barbarian. Doubly so because he deliberately became one, rejecting the 4,000 year old civilization he was born into. He was not, be sure of it, the only person in the world organizing and funding barbarism…but he was one of the main ones. When Trump ordered him killed, a peculiar bit of satisfaction came over me…the purveyor of blood finally paid in blood for what he did. I’ve been saying for years that Islamism is a con. As much of a con as Nazism or Communism is or ever was. It is a grift; a justification for a mafia-like entity to batten itself upon a nation and suck its blood. Not for the leaders of Islamism is strapping on a bomb and blowing up a marketplace – nope; they convince others (or force via threats to families, if needed) to do that. Because it really is just a con: what they say and do merely justifies their barbarism…and allows them what they, and all barbarians, really want: to live fat on the carcass of civilization…making nothing and doing nothing of merit, but having the luxuries of life in gross.
Trump struck a hard blow against barbarism – and promises more of the same if the Iranian leadership doesn’t cool it. But to me, that isn’t quite enough. We need to forcefully let everyone know that civilization wins. That we will punish those who seek to kill and destroy as a means of garnering unearned wealth and power. For decades we’ve allowed the barbarians to push us back to the point where we’re bunkered into our churches and government offices…now is the time to start the counter-attack.
And I can’t think of a better way than painting a target on the backs of the barbarian leaders. Let them know that if they orchestrate savagery, we’re coming after them – that they will die; that they will no longer live well while others die. Do it often enough, and they will change their tune because all those who seek to live well off others primarily want to live. They are brutes, to be sure, but also cowards of the lowest sort. Mere amoral appetite…and the thing that terrifies them the most is losing wealth and life.
Blogs For Victory 
In the very heart of our civilization, we are not safe.
I have a lifetime Indiana license to carry a firearm, which in Indiana allows the licensee to carry concealed or open. I choose to carry concealed and do so just about everywhere except in church. I’m considering re-thinking that following the recent church shooting in Texas, and it grates on me to feel that way. My wife and I attend a small country Missionary church that has a typical Sunday morning attendance of less than 50. There is NO security, and anyone who wanted to do so could walk in and murder most of the congregation in a few seconds with nothing more than a handgun. What are the odds of that happening? I have no idea, but probably pretty low. Ten years ago I would have said the odds were zero. At the rate we’re going, ten years from now it may well be a daily occurrence.
Driving a lot yesterday and ended up listening to a gun show on the radio, which featured a man who specializes in security for churches and synagogues. It was fascinating, and scary. Because I was driving I couldn’t write down the name of the book he recommended but I will see if I can find info on the book and maybe the show is available on a podcast. Then I went to Mass last night and as I entered the church I was thinking of what he said about security, and there were no greeters at the door or obvious security near the back of the church.
I know, I hate it too. but that is the world we live in. And I blame the Left for the decline in our willingness and even our ability to just stand up and say “that is wrong”. We are constantly nagged, bullied and harassed whenever we take a stand—-we are not “tolerant”, blah blah blah.
They are right. I am NOT tolerant. Society has to take a stand and lay down rules of acceptable behavior again. We don’t need to go all the way back to Victorian prissiness, but we need to call out certain behaviors. I have known and loved girls and women who have gotten pregnant out of wedlock, but at the same time I think our society was stronger when there was a societal criticism of this. I think it is a good thing to tell people that no, they can’t poop on the street, and that they need to work for food and shelter.
We are told it is “insensitive to a culture” to talk about the cowardice and basic lack of manliness that lets men hide behind women and children while they attack innocent people, or to openly discuss the link between sexual repression and violence. When a French journalist who was admitted to the inner circle of Islamic terrorism wrote about the sexual repression of the boys in that culture and its channeling into violence he wrote one article about it and it then fell into the void. I thought it might deter a lot of young men from adopting the terrorist approach to life if they knew that this would brand them forever in history as merely impotent and unable to function as sexual men. Ditto for our domestic terrorists, like the frustrated and impotent men who can only feel strong and powerful if they are shooting up a church.
But we have let society unravel, till it no longer provides the function a society is supposed to provide—that is, a framework within which we can all live, work and function. There is no framework in American society any more, except in increasingly rare intact families and in some churches and private schools. There are no moral guardrails and no one to enforce rules and restrictions.
In a world like this, while we hope society will hit the bottom and start to recover some of its purpose and sanity, we have no choice but to deal with the results of hedonism, lack of self discipline, sense of self based on externals and not on internal values and the other causes of a fractured and unmoored civilization. Sadly, that is to arm ourselves to protect ourselves and others and to accept that at least for now, in this time and place, we have to be on defense as we are increasingly surrounded by insanity.
Yep; a couple years back, some group of Commie nitwits was going around to Catholic churches here in Vegas and once into the Mass, they’d start chanting some protest crap about whatever drivel they were on about…we thought of it as kind of a joke and were instructed that if the group showed up in our parish we were to all rise and start saying the Our Father until they quit. Its not a joke any longer…and I think we should have reacted more forcefully to that Commie effort. Christianity has hated – Our Lord said it would be, after all – and we have to take that into consideration.
Once a certain mentality feels that it has a right to disrupt other people that quickly escalates into assuming the right to interfere with other people and that is a short step from physically assaulting people to disrupt or interfere and that is a prelude to the assumption that it is OK to do ANYTHING to anyone.
It is an incremental escalation of attacking the rights of others, and it is easiest to stop at the lowest level. In the case of the Mass protests, that would be standing outside the church and being quiet, not interrupting the service. Once that line is crossed, it is time for the police to intervene, and that should mean at the very least opening a police file on every “protester” even if no one is arrested. That would mean posting a sign that anyone there for the purpose of disruption or anything other than worship will be considered a trespasser and will be prosecuted, which would mean spine transplants for too many who think a mealy-mouthed passivity is somehow “Christian”. (Try telling that to the Christ who drove the money-changers out of the temple.)
But that is the problem—any time a solution is suggested it butts head with those who whimper about being “fair” and “tolerant” and “kind”. It takes a certain kind of strength to say “If you want to worship, you are welcome, but if you have other motives then stay out or face the consequences”.
It took decades of eroding will and purpose to get to this place, and it will take a lot to dig our way out of it. A top-down, enforcement and consequence approach is certainly called for, but to really work it will have to meet up with a newly developed will of the people to establish rules and stick to them.
Evidently this program is available on a podcast on iHeart radio.
Gun Talk
Nationally-known firearms expert and television host, Tom Gresham, talks about gun safety, sport & recreational shooting, gun collecting, personal defense, firearm issues and more.
Securing Houses of Worship & Stopping Threats; Range Report on Sanctuary County Meeting: Gun Talk Radio|1.5.20 A
January 5, 2020 • 43 min
I strongly recommend listening to this. I didn’t hear the part about the sanctuary county meeting, but I caught a lot of the “securing houses of worship” segment.
We now live in a feminized society, something of which Rush warned about 20 years ago. As I watch the cowards on MSNBC this morning all they speak about is their fear of retribution and the desire to be “safe”. The media has us suffering from battered wife syndrome where we are constantly worried about being safe and appeasing our aggressors but that is not who Americans are.
Funny enough they just had Will Hurd on, Republican from TX, who pushed back on their narrative and suggested Trump did the right thing to which Mika was seen smirking and shaking her head in disapproval. Joe now is defending Iran suggesting that they are operating within the confines of acceptable behavior while Trump is rogue and unpredictable. The Iranian News Agency could take some advice from MSNBC on how to report this story.
I don’t know much about this Ricky Gervais character but this is spot on:
“So if you do win an award tonight, don’t use it as a platform to make a political speech, right?” Gervais continued. “You’re in no position to lecture the public about anything. You know nothing about the real world. Most of you spent less time in school than Greta Thunberg. So, if you win, come up, accept your little award, thank your agent and your god, and f**k off. No one cares about your views on politics or culture.”
https://www.dailywire.com/news/fk-off-ricky-gervais-blasts-hollywood-for-lecturing-world-politicizing-everything-trolls-them-over-epstein
It’s painful to laugh at satire when it is hard to tell it from what is really happening. Case in point, from the Babylon Bee:
WASHINGTON, D.C.—At a press conference held on Capitol Hill Friday, mourning Democrat leaders called for flags to be flown half-mast to honor the death of Qasem Soleimani.
Flags were spotted flying at half-mast around the country, notably at The Washington Post, The New York Times, and in front of several celebrities’ homes. The celebrities went out and bought an American flag for the first time just to fly it at half-mast for this important time of grief.
“The grieving process is painful but necessary,” said Rep. Ilhan Omar. “As a nation, we need to stop and grieve this great, austere, revered religious scholar. He was one of the good ones.”
In a rare moment of unity with The Squad, Pelosi gave each of the girls a hug, telling them to just “let it all out” in their time of sadness.
Ocasio-Cortez didn’t seem to know what was happening but adjusted her glasses to look smart.
A teary-eyed Barack Obama was also seen solemnly lowering the flag in front of his seaside mansion. “To think, this all could have been prevented with a few pallets of cash.” He sighed and stared off into the distance, a look of pain and regret on his face. “If only Trump had targeted a U.S. citizen with a drone strike instead.”
Later, Democrats clarified they meant we should fly the Iranian flag at half-mast, not the “offensive and problematic” American flag.
https://www.redstate.com/elizabeth-vaughn/2020/01/06/the-babylon-kills-it-with-article-about-democrats-response-to-death-of-soleimani/
“Ocasio-Cortez didn’t seem to know what was happening but adjusted her glasses to look smart.” See what I mean? It could so easily be a real article.
Mr. Bolton is a potential bombshell of a witness, with crucial knowledge of the president’s actions and conversations regarding Ukraine that could fill out key blanks in the narrative of the impeachment case.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/06/us/politics/bolton-testify-impeachment-trial
I am trying very hard to retain my long-time respect for Bolton so I am hopeful he won’t use this to throw Trump under the bus. I think Bolton really does have the interests of the nation at heart, and understands the dangers posed by letting the rabid Left run amok and sabotage our rule of law and form of government. If he can’t testify that the president actually said the US aid was an either/or proposition, he won’t be a ” bombshell of a witness,” no matter how much the Times yearns for someone to destroy Trump.
Bolton is a member of the military establishment so who knows what he is up to. I know he is thrilled about the Soleimani killing and is hoping Trump now invades Iran for regime change so his allegiances are firmly with the Military Industrial Complex and no where else.
As conservatives, it is our job to make sure the following becomes a reality for the Democrat Party:
“The future of the Democratic Party is not Pete Buttigieg. It’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,” said Will Rodriguez-Kennedy, president of the California Young Democrats, which has endorsed Sanders. “She has gripped the attention of fellow millennials across the country. The Green New Deal has changed the conversation on environmental action in the Democratic Party.”
THIS IS TREASON
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi isn’t just condemning President Trump’s decision to (rightfully) take out Iranian terrorist leader Qassem Soleimani, she’s submitting a resolution to tie his hands in the future. In other words, she’s attempting to limit President Trump’s ability to protect Americans, at home and abroad, from Iranian terrorists planning lethal attacks.
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2020/01/06/pelosi-moves-to-limit-president-trumps-ability-to-protect-america-from-iranian-terrorists-n2559016
Nan and Schiff both remind me of the knight who says “None Shall Pass”—-just not knowing when they are beaten.
Love Monty Python
Such a beautiful society:
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Two semiofficial Iranian news agency say 40 people have been killed and 213 others injured at a stampede during a funeral procession for a Revolutionary Guard general killed in a U.S. airstrike.
Honestly folks these people aren’t right in the head and we need to consider that when dealing with them. Grown men crying over the death of a military general is not a normal reaction, nor is it normal for women to be covered from head to toe so as not to “excite” the male population. This is an ignorant and barbaric society full of people who would be wearing helmets on the short bus here in America.
https://apnews.com/add7a702258b4419d796aa5f48e577fc
And this is a glimpse into the real reason why the establishment is so apoplectic over Trump:
Chelsea Clinton rakes in $9 million for serving on the board of IAC investment firm that is controlled by mom Hillary’s billionaire friend Barry Diller
The last 20 years has been a great ride for the Clinton’s, Bush’s, Kerry’s, McCain’s, Biden’s, Romney’s etc and they don’t want that to end. Not to mention their brethren in the media who are either related to, or married into these families. They have all become fabulously wealthy
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7859141/Chelsea-Clinton-rakes-9m-serving-investment-firm-board.html
I’ve never heard that the Bushes or the Romneys made their money from graft or being in the government. Kerry married money but then he and Biden worked as a team to funnel foreign money into a company owned by their sons, and it is not a reach to assume some of that went to the fathers. The Clintons came into politics poor and parlayed their access and connections and power into millions. McCain married into money and I am not aware of him being involved in corruption. Horrible politics and lack of ethics, yes.
“BREAKING: Iran launches more than a dozen ballistic missiles against US military at 2 bases in Iraq.”
Thank God Trump in our President. I’ve no idea what he’ll do or how / when he’ll respond. Iran’s leadership is in a losing position in so many ways. I do pray for the Iranian people who live in oppressive conditions under the current regime.