The Paradox and Absurdities of Carbon-Fretting and Rewilding

Herschel Smith · 28 Jan 2024 · 4 Comments

The Bureau of Land Management is planning a truly boneheaded move, angering some conservationists over the affects to herd populations and migration routes.  From Field & Stream. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) recently released a draft plan outlining potential solar energy development in the West. The proposal is an update of the BLM’s 2012 Western Solar Plan. It adds five new states—Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming—to a list of 11 western states already earmarked…… [read more]

DOJ Arguments in Unserialized Firearms Case

BY Herschel Smith
8 hours, 46 minutes ago

Remember folks. Every lawyer working for the DOJ is a practicing attorney and officer of the court and has sworn an oath to uphold the constitution. The head demon at the DOJ is chief of oath breakers.

You know the difference between a sperm cell and a lawyer? The sperm cell is a one in a billion chance of becoming human.

Honestly though, I probably shouldn’t tell lawyer jokes since I’m not even a lawyer. Hey, I don’t even know what puppy meat tastes like.

In Case You Were Wondering

BY Herschel Smith
8 hours, 52 minutes ago

Venezuelan Gangs Should be Disarmed and Evicted From the Country

BY Herschel Smith
6 days, 8 hours ago

There is a host of other information on illegal aliens (who will never fit in America), but for now it’s sufficient to focus again on the Venezuelan gangs.

The first time this came up over these pages caused a stir of comments, and it’s good to rehearse this again because it’s an instructional moment.

God rules His creation by covenant and contract. All men are under the Adamic covenant. They can like it, or dislike it, or think nothing of it, but none of that changes anything. The man cannot say to His maker “Why did you make me thus” (Romans 9). That’s not in the list of answers that the maker owes you.

Those who are saved and in Christ have had the Adamic covenant superseded by a salvific covenant, and that’s where you want to be. But rest assured, all men are under one of these two covenants. You will live, or you will perish.

God also rules His entire creation by covenant and contract. God arranges His relationships with men by covenant. Men arrange their relationships with other men by covenant and contract. Covenants and contracts have blessings for obedience, and curses for disobedience, surely in eternity, but also in time and on earth.

Marriage is a covenant and contract. Business is a covenant and contract. Church life is a covenant and contract. Commerce is a covenant and contract. Employment is a covenant and contract. The life of society (i.e., between the state and the people) is also supposed to be a covenant and contract. There is no lawlessness in the Christian economy. Libertarianism is a phantom, a ghost telling you lies. God doesn’t rule His creation by allowing men to become god. The only righteous law is His law. He expects obedience from all men.

The bill of rights is a covenant and contract. It is between the government and the people of America. It isn’t between everyone and everyone, and it’s not between the government and the government, or only one party, or no one and no one. A covenant and contract is always between two parties. In the case of the BoR, it’s the government and the people.

Illegal immigrants are not part of “the people.” They are illegally here and should be evicted from the country. And illegal immigrant doesn’t get to claim the umbrella of protection of the BoR (including the second amendment, or any other) by illegally crossing the border and perpetrating war on Americans or her institutions. That’s not how any of that works.

That’s not how a covenant and contract works. Once covenants and contracts have been signed, it’s final. You don’t back out, you don’t add to it, you don’t take away from it. God recognizes borders and national sovereignty and always has in the Holy Writ. The BoR restrains the government from infringements on the rights of “the people,” not the entirety of the world population. If that were the case, there could never be such a thing as war between countries, even in self defense. If a proposition leads to inconsistency, it cannot be true.

People in America illegally have no right to a trial by a jury of their peers (although that often becomes just a gaggle of idiots). They have no second amendment rights, they have no rights against search and seizure. They have no fifth amendment rights (unfortunately, even American citizens apparently have no fifth amendment rights in grand juries, which are an abomination of justice).

People in America illegally have only the right to be evicted.

This is proper covenant and contract. This is the way God rules His creation.

Paying More for Boutique Stuff

BY Herschel Smith
6 days, 8 hours ago

I don’t do that. I don’t care about impressing people. I don’t care what other people think. I like things that work well for the least expensive price I can find.

Should A Father Be Charged For His Son’s Crimes?

BY Herschel Smith
6 days, 8 hours ago

The answer is no. Sure, the father was certainly a putz. He purchased a rifle for his son. This is fine, and many young boys have learned to hunt deer with rifles bought for them by their fathers. But if you do that, you lock it up if you have a troubled child. He didn’t.

And for being a putz, you also know that because when he grabbed stuff from his home, he left the dogs.

He … left … the dogs … to fend for themselves.

Anyway, for theological support I cite Ezekiel 18:20.

“The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.”

For me, that’s the end of that.

As for charging family members with the crimes of other family members, that’s what communist countries do. It’s not just bad precedent, it’s wrong.

Venezuelan Gangs

BY Herschel Smith
1 week, 3 days ago

Gosh, it’s sort of like a foreign invasion by armed enemies, huh?

Sad News

BY Herschel Smith
1 week, 5 days ago

Sad news concerning Paul Harrell.

It’s especially said that his own brother didn’t know his views and doesn’t know what will become of him.

Make sure to avoid that fate for yourself.

I will miss him. I would like to see him one day in heaven, but who knows?

Flashlight Testing

BY Herschel Smith
1 week, 5 days ago

This is a good set of tests and an interesting channel. I guess one takeaway might be to stick with SureFire and Streamlight (although I have never seen either company field lights that claimed 5000 lumens). I wonder who needs a 5000 lumen flashlight anyway.

Then this is also a good video, but frankly I can’t locate a Maglite 623 with these specifications. I’m guessing it’s a modified version.

David Codrea on the RKBA and Illegal Immigrants

BY Herschel Smith
1 week, 5 days ago

Coupling with what I said yesterday, David sent me this commentary. I must have missed this when it came out. That’s my mistake.

The “enforce exiting gun laws” faction of gun owners are the loudest objectors, evidently unaware that their position is ideologically no different than a Revolutionary era colonial demanding to enforce exiting Intolerable Acts. The hard truths no one wants to admit are that “gun control” laws don’t work – whether they’re favored by Everytown or by NRA, and that anyone who can’t be trusted with a gun can’t be trusted without a custodian.

It’s not a matter of “Should felons have guns?” That’s the wrong question. Try “Should those proven violent and predatory have access to the rest of us?”

Ditto with “Should illegal aliens have guns?”

Of course, all human beings are entitled to unalienable rights. And the Supreme Court has acknowledged, in the Heller case, and earlier, in Cruikshank, “The very text of the Second Amendment implicitly recognizes the pre-existence of the right and declares only that it ‘shall not be infringed.’ As we said in United States v. Cruikshank… ‘[t]his is not a right granted by the Constitution. Neither is it in any manner dependent upon that instrument for its existence.’”

But again, it’s the wrong question. What should be asked is “Why is a known illegal alien allowed to remain in the United States instead of being deported?”

[ … ]

At this writing, more, including an inordinate number of military-aged males of not just Mexican or Central American origin, but from China, and from hostile Islamic states, are adding to their unvetted numbers already here while our government, consented to under the premise that it would “establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,” offers the lawbreakers incentives and rewards to embed themselves (and increase political power through apportionment) throughout the Republic.

It’s hardly unreasonable to conclude the “newcomers” (we aren’t supposed to call them “illegals” anymore) represent the equivalent of a standing foreign army, many with agendas directed by brutal criminal cartels and by bellicose powers like China, Russia, and Iran.

The Framers never intended to protect the right of invaders to keep and bear arms, but again, that’s the wrong issue. We need to instead ask ourselves “Who does it benefit to have Second Amendment advocates arguing over acceptable infringements while they ignore the damn elephant in the room?”

This issue all about avoiding confusion, thinking deeper than a sophomoric level of understanding, and focusing on the root questions. It’s easy to get distracted.

Do try not to get distracted. When you get distracted, it makes you look like a simpleton.

To understand if your view is perhaps a bit outlandish and should be unpersuasive – even to yourself – always use hyperbole. Ask yourself the hard questions to see just exactly how far this would go.

Pose questions to yourself such as “Should we open the borders to invading armies and in fact arm them so that we can claim that the FedGov isn’t infringing upon the RKBA?” “Should we invite in immigrants who would predominantly undermine our core rights, including the RKBA?” “Should we terraform the culture such that we couple a welfare state with illegal immigrants, effectively destroying the medical care system in the country?” [Ask me how I know that immigrants are destroying the medical system in the country – go ahead, ask me].

The grant of citizenship is a transfer of political power.” Thinking through the implications of that might do everyone some good.

Illegals Don’t Have Second Amendment Rights

BY Herschel Smith
1 week, 6 days ago

That’s the correct decision.

Notice I didn’t say that RKBA isn’t a God-given right, because it is. I agreed that illegals don’t have second amendment rights. It’s our contract, not theirs. They can go back to their own homeland and force the government to adopt a covenant and contract that recognizes God-given rights just like we did.

Everyone has problems. You have your problems, I have mine. The problems of the illegal alien are not my problems. I have enough of my own to deal with. I can’t solve everyone else’s problems for them. And neither can America.

I’m not interested in the libertarian answer to this. I’m not a libertarian. I’m a Christian.

Illegals don’t have a right to be here to begin with. The fact that they’re here doesn’t mean that they can take advantage of the covenant and contract we have with our country (such as it is, and for as long as it lasts).

The Holy Writ stipulates to be kind to the sojourner among you. Sojourners don’t lay down roots and steal from you and try to undermine your own covenant and contract. They pass through. Becoming part of the tribe means adopting the values and faith of the tribe.

Enough said. This is the right decision. Illegal aliens are not part of “the people.”


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