Month: November 2025

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Unconsciously Ironic

November 28, 2025 by 4 Comments

If you are like me your email accounts are filled with notices regarding Black Friday Sales. I even got one from Everytown pushing Moms Demand Action merchandise.

Now if you were imagining the stereotypical Demanding Moms supporter it would be an upper middle class suburban Caucasian woman with a degree in the arts, social sciences, or gender studies who is looking for her next virtual signaling “cause”.

Moms Demand Action has come up with the perfect gift for her. It is even on sale at 40% off!

What better way to virtue signal to your lefty girlfriends while swilling box wine or a vodka and cranberry than to offer them a drink in these glasses! It will show you care and what is more important than that. Plus you won’t have to wear one of those tacky red t-shirts.

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Support Conservation; Win Firearms

November 24, 2025 by 1 Comment

The Carolinas Foundation chapter of Dallas Safari Club is holding our Christmas Raffle. Monies raised will help support our conservation efforts in both Carolinas.

To make it easier, we can take either Venmo or Zelle and will fill out the tickets for you. Email me at dsccarolinas AT gmail DOT com for details on that. Paypal is out as they refuse to allow payments for “gambling”.

Here is what you could win:

Number One – Beretta A-300 Ultima 12 gauge. This shotgun comes with multiple chokes and would be great for waterfowling.

Number Two – Henry Lever Action .22. Who doesn’t want a lever action in .22 LR for plinking?

Number Three – Diamondback AR-15. Sure you already have an AR-15 but two is one and one is none.

Number Four – Ruger American rifle Go Wild Camo edition in 6.5 Creedmoor. (Scope not included) This is much nicer than the 6.5 Creedmoor I plan to take with me to Africa next year.

Number Five – Smith & Wesson M&P Shield pistol in 9mm. This is a solid pistol for concealed carry.

While the DSC Carolinas Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit, the IRS in its infinite wisdom has decreed that raffle tickets are not tax deductible.

The raffle ends on December 15th so don’t procrastinate. Get your tickets now!

While we are at it, put January 31st, 2026 on your calendar. That is the date of our annual gala. This year it will be held in Huntersville, NC (just north of Charlotte).

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Save The Date – GRNC Annual Meeting

November 23, 2025 by

Grass Roots North Carolina will be having its 31st annual meeting in Raleigh on Saturday, December 6th. It will be held at Triangle Shooting Academy, 6501 Mt Herman Rd, Raleigh, NC 27617. Preceding the meeting will be a training seminar for activists and following the meeting there will be an impromptu Christmas party.

See below for more details:

Thanks to the generosity of Triangle Shooting Academy (TSA) and its world-class facility, GRNC will hold its 31st annual meeting, together with a legislative tactics seminar, on December 6, 2025 at Triangle Shooting Academy, 6501 Mt Herman Rd, Raleigh, NC 27617. Afterward, we will also have an informal get-together at Irish “gastropub” called Tra’li Brier Creek at 10370 Moncreiffe Rd., Raleigh, NC 27617. See details below.

December 6th Agenda

9:30 AM – 12:30 PM: “Defending the 2nd Amendment in a Politically Polarized Environment”

1:00 PM – 2:30 PM:     Grass Roots North Carolina 2025 Annual Meeting

2:30 PM – 3:30 PM:     GRNC board of directors meeting

4:00 PM – 6:00 PM:     GRNC Christmas party & informal get together at Tra’li Brier Creek

Seminar by Paul Valone:

‘Defending the 2nd Amendment in a Politically Polarized Environment’

Learn how GRNC has won so many legislative battles in the 31 years of its existence. Taught by GRNC co-founder and president Paul Valone, you will learn why conventional lobbying fails by comparison to grass roots mobilization, and why everything you have heard about politics is conveniently wrong. We invite people interested in volunteering at the NC General Assembly with GRNC’s Legislative Action Team to join us, as well as anyone interested in learning better ways to defend your rights. Please RSVP to DirectorOfDevelopment@GRNC.org.

Seminar topics:

  • Why you are probably unprepared for political action
  • The real nature of politics
  • The real nature of politicians
  • The nature of your opposition
  • Issue management
  • Political mechanics of direct action – it ain’t ‘Mr. Smith Goes to Washington’
  • Legislative action via grass roots mobilization
  • How & why we must WIN ELECTIONS

GRNC Legislative Action Team needs you!

GRNC is looking for volunteers for our Legislative Action Team to help pass constitutional carry in the upcoming session of the General Assembly. In addition to performing a vital function, legislative team members will learn valuable skills useful in defending your freedom. Attending the legislative tactics seminar above is recommended, but not required. If you can serve, please contact DirectorOfDevelopment@GRNC.org .

Lunch break (12:30-1:00 PM)

For those staying for both events, we will take a lunch break from 12:30 to 1:00. Catered lunches will be available from TSA’s excellent café, Nero’s.

2025 GRNC Annual Meeting (1:00-2:30 PM)

The Grass Roots North Carolina Annual Meeting will be held on Saturday, December 6, 2025 at 1:00 PM at Triangle Shooting Academy, 6501 Mt Herman Rd, Raleigh, NC 27617. A short meeting of the board of directors will follow.

Christmas party & get together

At 4:00 PM, GRNC will have an informal Christmas party and get together at an Irish “gastropub” called Tra’li Brier Creek at 10370 Moncreiffe Rd., Raleigh, NC 27617. If you plan to attend the party, please RSVP to DirectorOfDevelopment@GRNC.org to give us an idea how many are attending.

Voting Members

If you are a paid and current member of Grass Roots North Carolina, you should already have received a proxy postcard for use if you are unable to attend. Please return it ASAP. If you need another proxy, you can mail in the one below. Thanks for helping us make GRNC possible!

As a follow-up note, as the Secretary-Treasurer of GRNC, I will be the one voting your proxy. I didn’t realize that until I got my own proxy card!

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The Gimlet – Fiction Vs Reality

November 23, 2025 by 4 Comments

If you are a fan of old hard-boiled detective novels, the name Philip Marlowe evokes memories. Marlowe was Raymond Chandler’s prototypical private eye and appeared in seven of his novels. He was played on the big screen by none other than Humphrey Bogart.

In Chandler’s The Long Goodbye (1953), Marlowe’s friend Terry Lennox opined,

“We sat in a corner of the bar at Victor’s and drank gimlets. ‘They don’t know how to make them here,’ he said. ‘What they call a gimlet is just some lime or lemon juice and gin with a dash of sugar and bitters. A real gimlet is half gin and half Rose’s Lime Juice and nothing else. It beats martinis hollow.’”

I don’t disagree with Lennox’s assertion that it “beats martinis hollow” but the recipe I followed tonight was actually 2/5ths Rose’s Lime Juice and 3/5ths gin. That was the recipe from the bottle of Rose’s Lime Juice. I have also done a gimlet with 50/50 gin and Rose’s Lime Juice with a teaspoon of simple syrup added.

Bookstore owner Rebecca Romney who has Chandler’s own copy of Trader Vic’s Bartenders Guide just published a short video discussing this. As you will see, Chandler’s notes on the gimlet had a somewhat different recipe.

@rebeccaromney Philip Marlowe’s REAL gimlet recipe in Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye — using Chandler’s personal copy of a famous cocktail book. On display this weekend at the Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair in the Hynes Convention Center. Come visit and see! #noir #cocktails #rarebooks #booktok #gimlet ♬ original sound – Rebecca Romney

Either way, fiction or reality, the gimlet is a good and easy drink to make.

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An Alternative Suggestion

November 14, 2025 by 13 Comments

The Everytown Gun Safety (sic) Action Fund – their PAC for supporting anti-rights candidates – is trying to use the 154th anniversary of the NRA’s founding to raise money. They are seeking $154,000 or $1,000 for each year the NRA has been around. This is according to an email I received from them this morning.


The NRA turns 154 years old this week. We’re raising $154,000 to keep holding them accountable.

For decades, the NRA has pushed a dangerous guns everywhere agenda—putting profits over people and leaving our communities to pay the price. Everytown has been the counterweight to their chaos, fighting back against their reckless rhetoric and the politicians who parrot it.

So we’re raining on their birthday parade.

 Chip in to the Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund today to help us hit our $154,000 goal and keep holding the gun lobby accountable, elect Gun Sense Candidates, educate the public, and mobilize our 11 million supporters.

I’ll be honest. I wish the NRA was the all-powerful, big bad wolf that Bloomberg’s Everytown uses in money raising fear mongering. I really do. Reality says differently.

While it would be easy to blame Tish James and the New York lawsuit for the NRA’s decline in political power, that would be a false narrative. I place the blame squarely on the heads of the grifters and those who enabled them along with the law firm who thought it was fine to rape and pillage the NRA’s coffers. The repugnance felt by many current and former members over their actions is certainly justified.

That said, all of the grifters are gone and most of their enablers as well. As my friend and former director Tim Knight has said, it is time to come back. Tim was one of the first directors who called out the problems and left when he was prevented from fulfilling his fiduciary duties. The people running the NRA today from the executive staff to the officers to the majority of the board are not those who almost ran it into the ground.

Thus, some alternative suggestions on where to make donations to support gun rights.

First, if you let your membership lapse, now is the time to rejoin.

Second, the mid-term elections are less than one year away. The NRA-Political Victory Fund needs to replenish it funds in order to fight the good fight. You can donate here.

Third, you can donate to the NRA Civil Rights Defense Fund which helps support 2A litigation. Here is where you can donate.

Finally, you can just send a check made out to NRA-ILA. If you want to specify it is for litigation, put litigation in the memo field. That is what I’ve done. Send that check to NRA-ILA, attn John Commerford, 11250 Waples Mill Road, Fairfax, VA 22030.

Any or all of the above are a good way to tell Bloomberg and his minions who would take away your right to defend yourself and your family to go screw themselves.

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And At The Eleventh Hour The Guns Fell Silent

November 11, 2025 by 2 Comments

This is a reposting of the post I did on the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day or what we now call Veterans Day. Then, as now, I felt sorrow over the death of Private Henry Gunther of Baltimore who died one minute before the armistice went into effect. Likewise, the recording from the Imperial War Museum remains eloquent.

H. G. Wells called the Great War or World War I the “war to end all wars.” We know that was a mythical false hope. Indeed, it can be rightly said that the Treaty of Versailles created the conditions that led, in no small part, to World War II.

The Armistice that ended the fighting on the Western Front went into effect at 11 am Paris Time on November 11, 1918. At that time, fighting was to cease. However, as I noted in a post a few years ago, fighting continued and men still died right up to until that time. Private Henry Gunther of Baltimore continued fighting to the end and was killed at 10:59 am as he charged a German machine gun nest. He was officially the last Allied soldier to die in combat.

Thus, this recording released by the Imperial War Museum in London is all the more eloquent as it begins with artillery fire and ends with the sound of birds singing. It comes from a recording made in the American sector near the River Moselle just before and after the eleventh hour.

So on this Veterans Day, the 100th anniversary of the Armistice ending fighting in World War I, let us remember all those living and dead who served in our country’s armed services.

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This Is Becoming A Pattern

November 11, 2025 by 4 Comments

This afternoon I received notice that NRA Director and former President Bob Barr resigned his seat on the Board of Directors. This makes the fifth resignation from the Board within a month. The resignation of Jim Fotis to deal with a family emergency was regrettable but understandable. The resignation of David Coy to accept the position of treasurer of the NRA Foundation and avoid a conflict of interest also makes sense. However, the resignations of former NRA presidents Sandy Froman, Charles Cotton, and now Bob Barr leaves me to wonder what the underlying unstated issue was that led them to resign.

From the announcement:

Board member and past President Bob Barr has resigned from the Board, effective today.  He will remain a member of the Executive Council.

Ron Schmeits was the next runner-up, but has declined to serve.  The next runner-up, Mr. David Mitten of Chillicothe, Ohio, has accepted the position and will fill the vacancy until the adjournment of the 2026 Members’ Meeting.  Past President Barr’s resignation leaves an additional two-year vacancy that will be filled by the members via the 2026 mail ballot.

Please join me in thanking Congressman Barr for his long service, and in welcoming Mr. Mitten.

David Mitten was part of the ElectANewNRA aka NRA 2.0 team in the 2025 election. However, he is not on the ballot for the 2026 Board election.

Mr. Barr is currently the chair of the Legislative Policy International Affairs Subcommittee. There is no word if he has resigned that position but he certainly could remain in that seat regardless of whether he was on the Board. Interestingly in my opinion, Mr. Barr, like Ms. Froman, remains a member of the Executive Council unlike Mr. Cotton who resigned from it. A longtime observer of NRA internal politics suggested to me that Mr. Cotton resigned from the Executive Council so as not to violate his fiduciary duty of loyalty to the NRA.

Going into the 2026 Board election, there will be a total of 30 seats to be filled. There will be the 25 regular 3-year seats that will be filled. In addition, with the resignation of Mr. Barr, there will be three 2-year terms that need to be filled (Fotis, Froman, and Barr) and a 1-year term (Coy). Finally, the nine runners-up will compete to fill the 76th Director 1-year term.

All I can say is that our winter Board meeting in January will be interesting.

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Happy 250th, USMC!

November 10, 2025 by 1 Comment

I wonder if anyone who signed up that day at Tun Tavern ever imagined that their Marine Corps would be celebrating a birthday two and a half centuries later. They certainly would never have imagined the Marines fighting from “airships” and providing close air support to their fellow Marines on the ground.

It started with biplanes and has ended up with jets.

And for my usual close to this, here is the official Birthday Message. Semper Fi, Devil Dogs.

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Warren Zevon Inducted Into Rock Hall Of Fame

November 9, 2025 by 2 Comments

It is about damn time! The induction of Warren Zevon is long overdue. Unfortunately, it was not in the performer category but in the “musical influence” category. I guess I will have to be satisfied with these crumbs.

Two years ago the Rock and Rock Hall of Fame held a vote to see which potential inductees should be voted into the Hall of Fame. Warren Zevon finished in third place which should have won him a spot in the Hall of Fame. The powers that be just flat out ignored the vote and put in those they wanted instead. I believe, if memory serves me correctly, they call it only an “advisory vote”. They did induct Willie Nelson. Now I like Willie but Willie ain’t rock and roll.

This year they got their heads out of their rear ends and finally inducted Warren Zevon. Dave Letterman on whose show Warren often appeared gave the induction speech. You can see parts of it below:

As part of the ceremony, The Killers performed Zevon’s Lawyers, Guns, and Money. As anyone who has ever followed this blog knows, it was the influence for the name of the blog. Given I was a practicing financial planner at the time and not a lawyer, I decided to limit it to only guns and money.

There are so many of Zevon’s song they could have featured but I am obviously glad they went with this one!

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Training For 2A Activists

November 9, 2025 by

Paul Valone, President of Grass Roots North Carolina, will be leading a seminar for 2A activists on Thursday, November 13th. It will train you on how to mobilize the base, how to use direct action to hold public officials accountable, and how to expose and defeat polices that are anti-rights. This seminar will be online and is FREE.

Details and how to register are below:

Defending the Second Amendment Free Strategic Webinar 11/13/25
Every time the political winds shift, one truth remains: enemies of the Second Amendment do not rest. Whether you’re shocked or unsurprised by the November 2025 election results, you can count on one outcome—relentless pressure to weaken your rights.That ends where you get organized.

On November 13, 2025, join a free, first-of-its-kind webinar, “Defending the Second Amendment,” led by nationally recognized gun rights strategist and GRNC co-founder Paul Valone.

👉 Register now:
https://www.litraining.org/event/f0201c57-2db3-4fef-aa43-125114b16236/defending-the-second-amendment-webinar- 

This is not theory. This is applied Constitutionalism.

You will learn how to:

Deploy grassroots mobilization that puts real pressure on politicians

Use direct action in both legislative and election operations

Expose and defeat policies designed to choke off your rights

Hold officials accountable and well-behaved from your town council to the statehouse

The government is not going to limit itself. That job falls to informed, disciplined citizens who know how to fight smart, hit strategically, and never cede ground.

If you’re tired of watching your rights negotiated away, this is your line in the sand.

Attend this free training and learn how YOU can shape policy and decision-making in your local, county, and state government.