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Congratulations To Cam Edwards

December 10, 2021 by 1 Comment

The Second Amendment Foundation announced earlier this week that Cam Edwards was awarded the 2021 Ray Carter Blogger of the Year Award. Congratulations to Cam on winning this award.

From the announcement:

The “Blogger of the Year” award honors the memory of Ray Carter, a lifelong gun rights activist in Washington State whose final years were spent working for SAF in its Bellevue, Washington national headquarters. Carter is remembered as “an activist’s activist” by SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb, and one of the founders of “Blogorado,” an annual gathering of pro-gun bloggers in Colorado. Ray passed in May 2016 following a long battle with cancer, but he never gave up fighting in defense of the Second Amendment.

“Ray would have been delighted to see this award go to Cam Edwards,” Gottlieb observed. “Cam’s background and breadth of knowledge about Second Amendment issues makes him a superb writer and blogger. He knows the subject and he knows his audience, and he’s never backed away from the gun rights battle.”

“I am incredibly honored to receive the Ray Carter Blogger of the Year award,” Edwards said. “As someone who started out as a broadcaster to be recognized for my blogging and writing is really an honor. It really means a lot to me. I know I am in really good company with my colleagues.

Previous winners of the Ray Carter Blogger of the Year Award include Paul Lathrop of Polite Society Podcast (2016), Rob Morse of the Slow Facts Blog (2018), Charlie Cook of Riding Shotgun with Charlie (2019), and Rev. Kenn Blanchard of Black Man with a Gun (2020). Without engaging in too much self-promotion, I, too, am a previous winner. I was greatly honored to win this award in 2017.

I can say I was lucky enough to have met Ray aka Gay Cynic in person though not at a “Blogorado”. Dave Workman has more about Ray and the origins of the award here.

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A Day That Will Live In Infamy Plus 80 Years

December 7, 2021 by 2 Comments

It is hard to believe that it has been 80 years since the attack by the Imperial Japanese Navy on Pearl Harbor. For my parent’s generation, it was something that they lived in real time. They heard about it on the radio or in extra editions of their local newspaper. My dad had already been in the Army for almost a year, my mom was working for the New York City office of the Lend-Lease Program, and my Uncle John would skip school the next day to enlist in the Navy.

Those who were in the military at Pearl Harbor that day are now in their late 90s at the very least. In other words, there are very few of them left. The Pearl Harbor Survivors Association stopped their Hawaii reunions 15 years ago due to the aging of their members. They officially disbanded in 2011. It has been succeeded by the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors. Even still, if you look at the pictures of their members, they are not youngsters.

A quick search of the Internet will allow you to find many, many propaganda posters from that era such as the one above. My favorite that I first posted in 2013 is the one below. Not only does it play on words but it emphasizes the total national commitment that was required to win World War Two. Notice that the knitting needles are arranged in a V for Victory.

remember Pearl Harbor - PURL HARDER". Promoting Civilian Knitting for War Production, New York City WPA War Service, 1942. : r/PropagandaPosters

It was done by the New York City office of the War Production Board to promote civilian knitting for war production.

My point in remembering the Pearl Harbor attack every year is that we should never forget our history. I fear that both our civilian and military leadership has forgotten many of the lessons that Pearl Harbor taught us and we will be caught unawares again.

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Would This Be Considered Baiting Bears?

December 6, 2021 by 1 Comment

Imagine this. You just shot your first deer. Not only is it your first buck but it is your very first time deer hunting. Then out of nowhere a bear appears and starts munching on your deer. That one bear then becomes four bears as three more arrive.

Sounds like a tall tale, doesn’t it. Except that it isn’t.

That is exactly what happened to Jordan Zabinski on her first time deer hunting in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania over Thanksgiving weekend.

I’ll let her take over the story:

“I was so terrified of a bear, and my husband was like, ‘I’ve never seen a bear except for this one time,’ he said, ‘don’t worry, you’re not gonna see one,’” Jordan Zabinkski said…

“I hear like, crunching. And I’m like ‘there’s a deer, there’s a deer!” she said. But it wasn’t another deer, Her biggest fear had come true. She was staring at four black bears. “And then right behind it comes three, and I’m like ‘okay, now there are four bears.’”

After multiple unanswered texts and calls to her husband, who was helping her brother load a deer he had killed, she started to worry.

“At first I was really quiet, but then I really started to freak out,” Zabinski said. After finally getting a hold of her husband, she had to wait about 30 more minutes, so she tried to keep as quiet as possible. “It’s been a while now and no one’s coming. What if they don’t to get me in time?”

Eventually Jordan’s husband and brother arrived. Yelling at the bears was enough to get them to leave. Fortunately, for Jordan the only damage that the bears did was to the tail.

From what I understand, Pennsylvania does allow bear hunting but you are required to have a bear tag. However, from what I can tell, Jordan was in Wildlife Management Unit 2E where the season was closed when she got her deer.

According to the Pennsylvania Game Commission, it is unlawful to put food or minerals out to attract bears. That, of course, leads to the question – is the deer that you just killed considered baiting if it attracts four bears? The answer should be an emphatic NO but one never knows.

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Camouflage Maps

December 5, 2021 by 3 Comments

I like camouflage. I like reading about how different styles are developed as well as the history and science of it. I like to see how both military and hunting camo styles are developed.

Thus, when I stumbled across maps showing camouflage adoption and use, I was intrigued.

Here is a map of Europe with the different military camouflage patterns by country.

You can see France with its CCE Woodland camo, Germany with its Multitarn which replaced Flecktarn, and the UK with MTP camo which is a DPM variant of Multicam. I have jackets that I use for hunting in CCE, MTP, and the original British DPM (Disruptive Pattern Material). They all are good at different times in the season and were bought as military surplus. They are rugged and relatively inexpensive.

In researching this post, I have come across both a map of Africa and a map of the world by the camouflage patterns adopted by each countries military.

From Dreamstime

From Reddit

The next two maps are the ones I first stumbled across. They are two maps of the United States with one each for spring/summer and fall/winter. They divide the country up into the appropriate camouflage pattern for the region.

By an interesting coincidence (or not), the camouflage for coastal North and South Carolina in the spring and summer is MARPAT. Also located in this region are MCB Camp Lejeune, MCAS Cherry Point, MCAS New River, MCAS Beaufort, and MCRD Parris Island.

Once fall hits and the leaves start falling, the best camouflage from my section of North Carolina would be Partizan SS with ATACS FG for the Piedmont. I can actually see that as the forests are heavily deciduous with pockets of green from hemlocks and rhododendrons.

I guess if I were artistic or really industrious, I would create a US map with the best commercial hunting camouflage patterns. That said, I’m not that artistic. I will say my preferences in hunting camouflage run to the disruptive rather than hyper-representational. That is why I like camouflages like TrueTimber’s Strata, NaturalGear, and ASAT as opposed to some of the Realtree and Mossy Oak patterns.

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Quote Of The Day

December 4, 2021 by

Every Saturday morning I go to the Powerline Blog to see their roundup of the week in pictures. Along the way I stumbled across a post by Kevin Roche on a speech given by President Biden regarding the Omicron variant. Or, as Roche put it, the Moronic Variant.

From the post:

Biden delivered the remarks setting forth his big plan to stem the panic he has helped foment over the Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus. Does this make sense? Are we going to develop seasonal campaigns to address each new variant of the virus? This is madness.

As always, the remarks stressed a theme with monomaniacal intensity. We are all voyagers on the good ship Pequod. Biden is our Captain Ahab. Covid-19 is his Moby Dick. The prospects are not good.

The Moby Dick reference is very apropos given it was first announced in November. If you have ever read Melville’s book, you might remember this line from the very first paragraph.

Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off—then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.

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South Africa Is Not Happy

December 3, 2021 by 6 Comments

The countries in southern Africa are not especially pleased with the rest of the world. This is due to the travel bans being put in place restricting travel to and from a number of southern African nations as a result of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

Probably no country is as pissed off as South Africa. President Cyril Ramaphosa was especially angry calling the travel restrictions “unjustified and discriminatory.” He went on to add:

“The prohibition of travel is not informed by science, nor will it be effective in preventing the spread of this variant. The only thing the prohibition on travel will do is to further damage the economies of the affected countries and undermine their ability to respond to, and recover from, the pandemic,” Ramaphosa said on Sunday.

Travel and tourism were finally getting back on their feet in South Africa after being crushed by COVID-19 in 2020. This is especially true for the safari industry. For example, with the US ban on visitors from South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique among others, outfitters and safari companies will not be able to send representatives to major conventions in January such as those of the Dallas Safari Club and Safari Club International.

Spike.T, who is a regular on the Africahunting.com forums and who lives in Zambia, posted this somewhat satirical account of the Omicron variant and the world’s reaction.

“In just 48hrs everything just went upside down, looking at all the updates and social media posts I could not help but write the below outlining the absurd response from the countries. Maybe some of them will realize what has actually transpired.”

South Africa: Hey guys, look what we discovered in our labs while researching Covid19 variants and mutations

World: What??

SA: It’s a new variant of Covid19, seems to be different than others, lets work together and study it further.

World: What? You have a new variant of Covid19?!?!

SA: No, we just found a way to ‘identify’ a new variant, it seems it has also already been detected in Hong Kong, Israel and Botswana.

UK: Hey guys, no offence but we already have 45,000 cases a day, don’t wear a mask everywhere, allow large gathering however we cannot risk getting a new variant.

SA: But we just identified it and showed you guys how to check for this variant, it did not originate here. We have advanced labs because we do research on AIDS, TB and other communicable diseases.

UK: Thank you for the research, however a complete travel ban to you and your 5 neighbors.

Netherlands: We heard UK banned flights to you because you have the new variant, we are also imposing a ban to you and your neighbors!

Namibia: WTF! What did we do? We have less than 20 new cases a day since a month now!

EU: Guys, we have a situation in our hands.

Namibia: The situation where Germany has had 76,000 cases a day and Other countries are breaking daily records for cases?

EU: No, not that situation.

Lesotho: Is it that UK still has 40,000+ cases a day and doesn’t seem to have it under control?

EU: No, UK isn’t a part of us anymore, not our concern.

Malawi: We hear Poland has some serious rise in cases and hospitalizations

EU: Really?! We have no idea, we must look into it. But not what we are talking about.

Eswatini: What situation then?

EU: We heard that South Africa has a new variant, their numbers are rising rapidly and since some of you are next to them, we need to close travel to the region with immediate effect!

SA: Dude, we just identified it! We only have a few cases in the region. Especially when compared to what you guys have. What’s with the knee-jerk reaction?

Namibia: Knee-jerk, that’s the word we were looking for.

UAE: We are closing flights to Southern Africa, we don’t want to risk it. Sorry guys.

USA: We are looking into this and studying the variant, we wont ban flights yet.

SA: Thank you USA, finally a voice of reason!

Mauritius: Sorry SA and the variant group, I saw some other countries refer to you as that, we are friends and all but we are concerned about our tourism and economy, so we will also ban you guys for now until we know further.

SA: We thought you were family. Goes to show how money is more important!

Belgium: We already have 1 new case of the new variant, thanks a lot SA.

SA: We literally just showed you how to identify it.

UK: Thanks a lot SA, now we also have 2 cases of it.

SA: What about our vaccinated people?

World: Nope, we need to run tests first and figure out what this virus can do and how effective the vaccination is against it.

WHO: Hey guys, a quick question. The next Greek alphabet is ‘Xi’. What do we do? China? Are you here?

China: Don’t you dare! Leave us and our president out of it. Call it something else. And we don’t allow anyone in anyway, so the variant is not our concern.

WHO: We got it boss. It’s now called Omicron.

WHO: Sorry we meant Sir. China isn’t our boss.

SA: It’s true what they say, no good deed goes unpunished. The next time we won’t tell you guys about the next mutations or variants we find.

World: Sorry can’t hear you, too busy dealing with the outbreak that you caused. How about we talk about this later?

Namibia: It’s the weekend, lets braai & go camping and let the world figure this one out themselves, we are still open to everyone. And if you wish to travel here, ask your leaders to start thinking before making decisions.

To be continued…..

Written by Nrupesh Soni.

I know there is great fear about COVID-19. While I am neither a scientist nor an epidemiologist, it seems that this strain may be more transmissible but on the ground reports indicate that the symptoms tend to be less severe. We shall see but I really hope that we don’t head into another round of lockdowns or even Australian-style concentration camps.

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Junior Special Agent? Yikes!

November 28, 2021 by 8 Comments

Thanks to a Facebook post by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, I found that they actually have an online giftshop.

ATF said:

Many people reach out looking for collector items such as coins and patches. Here is the perfect place to stock up on all your official ATF memorabilia.

Official ATF memorabilia? I could be snarky and ask if that includes photos suitable for framing of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco but I won’t.

What did catch my eye was this T-Shirt for kids.

Forcing a kid to wear that T-shirt is pretty darn close to child abuse. Who in the world would want their child to wear that thing other than David Chipman?

Some of the other stuff includes ATF caps and polo shirts with logos. Maybe I’m giving criminals too much credit but I would think that would be ideal cover to get someone to open their door prior to a home invasion. All they would need to do is pair that with a navy windbreaker and a fake badge to complete their impersonation.

All in all it seems a stupid idea to have such a giftshop even if some of the proceeds go to the blind.

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You Did It! Frank Tait Is On The Ballot

November 23, 2021 by 4 Comments

Thanks to everyone who signed petitions for Frank Tait, he beat the “margin of Wayne” and is on the ballot for the 2022 NRA Board of Directors election. He could not have done it without your help and the help of many others who want change at the NRA.

This means that instead of being forced to choose between voting for one of the hand-picked “friends of Wayne” or not voting, you now have a choice.

If you are a voting member, now is the time to start talking to your friends who are also voting members. A personal recommendation from you should mean a lot more than the usual propaganda that you see month after month in the official journal.

Remember it is our NRA and not Wayne’s NRA.

UPDATE: From Frank on getting on the ballot.

The petitions were “beyond the margin of Wayne” and I am on the ballot!

I have to get my approved 150-word biographical sketch in by December 17 so it can be included with the ballots.

This would not be possible without the support of many great people and organizations around the country including the participants at the IDPA Liberty Match, Bitter of Shall Not be Questioned Blog, and the members of Falls Township Rifle and Pistol Association, the participants of the Nineteenth Bi-Annual Machinegun Shoot at Eastern Lancaster County Rod & Gun Club, and the Montgomery County Federation of Sportsmens Clubs Trapshooting League.

I am grateful for this tremendous support and am committed to reforming the board and management of the NRA

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League Of Women Voters Rejects Rule Of Law

November 20, 2021 by 2 Comments

I am on the press release mailing list of a number of organizations. I don’t know how I got on some of them as they are far afield from what this blog deals with. For example, I get a lot from the Council on American Islamic Relations dealing with Confederate statues in North Carolina which they want removed. I don’t quite get the connection between Muslims and the Confederacy but so be it.

One group who has been sending me press releases on a regular basis is the League of Women Voters. In my naivete, I had long assumed they were interested in getting people out to vote and urging a fair examination of the issues on the ballot. That may have been the case years ago but it is not the case now. If the press releases I have been getting over the last few years are an indication, they have moved from the middle of the political spectrum much (much!) further to the left.

The latest press release I received from them involved the Kyle Rittenhouse trial and the verdict of not guilty on all counts. After pondering why they were even sending out a release on an issue far removed from voting, voting districts, or gerrymandering, I read it.

From their release:

“Today justice was not served for Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, who should still be alive.

“We are saddened and disappointed, but not surprised. Too often our justice system fails to hold accountable wealthy or white antagonizers while disproportionately over-policing and incarcerating people in Black and brown communities.

“Our justice system is in desperate need of repair. Our national obsession with firearms is out of control. Today sets a dangerous precedent that armed civilians can take to the streets and incite violence. America has had yet another wake up call. How many more lives must be lost unnecessarily?”

Excuse me? WTF?

Rosenbaum and Huber were both convicted felons whose crimes led them to serve time in prison. That they intended to kill Rittenhouse or cause him severe bodily injury was established by the evidence.

The rule of law worked in the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse. A jury listened to the evidence and deliberated for almost four days. In the end, they decided that he defended himself as is allowed by law. The only incitement to violence was done by the rioters.

The only thing the League of Women Voters has shown by this ridiculous press release is that they are far removed from middle America. That and they have no use for the rule of law which is the basis of this American republic.

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“Modern War in an Ancient Land”

November 19, 2021 by 1 Comment

The war in Afghanistan has been of interest to me for a long time for a couple of reasons. First, my late best friend’s son served as a platoon leader and the executive officer of Viper Company, 1-26 INF, 3 BCT, 1st Infantry Division when they were in the Korengal Valley. Second, a friend from graduate school, Dr. Larry Goodson, wrote one of the only books examining Afghanistan from the time of the Soviet invasion until just prior to our intervention. That book, Afghanistan’s Endless War: State Failure, Regional Politics, and the Rise of the Taliban, is still available on Amazon (commission earned).

The U.S. Army Center of Military History has now released a two-volume set on the war in Afghanistan entitled, Modern War in an Ancient Land: The United States Army in Afghanistan 2001–2014.

These volumes were prepared by the Chief of Staff of the Army’s Operation Enduring Freedom Study Group led by Col. Edmund Degen (USA-Ret). The Study Group was formed by the late Gen. Raymond Odierno when he was Chief of Staff to research and write an operational history of the U.S. Army’s involvement in Afghanistan from October 2001 until December 2014. I would imagine a third volume covering the years from 2015 until our disastrous withdrawal earlier this year will eventually be forthcoming.

The narrative is focused at the operational level of war and will discuss policy and strategy only as needed to illuminate the operational story. At the same time, it will delve into the tactical realm only when such insights amplify the implications of the operational decisions or occurrences.

Copies of both volumes are available for download free of charge. If you want print copies, they can be ordered from the Government Printing Office. That order number is GPO S/N: 008-029-00656-1.

To download:

Volume One

Volume Two