Today I learned something new. We’ve always known there were five beaches on D-Day in Normandy: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Sword, and Juno. However, there was a planned sixth beach called Band that was a contingency to protect the eastern flank from the German shore batteries.
Jim aka Old NFO has more on it here.
Ian McMurtrie aka LawDog is an author, a blogger, and a retired lieutenant from the Wichita County (TX) Sheriffs Department. He blogs at The LawDog Files and has a number of books and anthologies out including Ghosts of Malta which is excellent.
He retired from the sheriffs department in April 2020. In October 2020, he was charged with excessive use of force regarding an inmate in the jail. The charge is a misdemeanor for which he is not guilty. As Jim Curtis explained to me yesterday, it involved a very large inmate who was out of control and who had been arrested for assaulting an officer. I have read the news stories regarding LawDog’s arrest and the “excessive force” he used. It is total and utter bullshit. Indeed, the prisoner involved did not even file a complaint. The excessive force was more in line with what a nun might have used in a Catholic school to control an unruly student in days gone by.
The charge stems from internal politics within the sheriffs department. It is being made worse by a DA who is trying to bleed LawDog dry by dragging the case out over two years with numerous bogus plea deals. Cedar Sanderson gives more background. It is way more eloquent than my post.
A successful defense costs money and LawDog is at the point where he has to ask for help. A legal defense fund has been set up. You can find it here.
Jim Curtis aka Old NFO has set up a raffle for donors with some very nice prizes in order to help raise awareness and contributions. Every $20 donation gets one entry into the raffle. Prizes include a custom rifle along with some other great stuff.
I have donated and I would encourage everyone to do so as well. While you could win a raffle prize, make a donation because it is the right thing to do. If we don’t stand up for what is right in the face of an injustice, who will?
UPDATE: As of this morning, Sunday, Nov. 6th, over $36,000 has been raised for LawDog’s legal defense fund. To those who have donated, thank you. To those that plan to donate, you can still do it!
Jim Curtis aka Old NFO, gun blogger and author, has written another winner.
Released last week, Showdown on the River: The Bell Chronicles, follows Rio Bell and his compadres as they make their way up from Texas moving a herd of cattle in the early 1870s. Along the way to Fort Laramie, they run into hostile Indians, rustlers, and stampedes.
After delivering the herd to the buyer and selling the excess to the U.S. Army, Rio makes his way up in the Rockies outside of Fort Collins to check on his Uncle Ethan Bell. As he searches for his uncle, he stumbles into a range war. The Kidds, led by patriarch Roger Kidd, are seeking to expand their spread by taking over other claims by force.
What the Kidds didn’t know was that Rio was also known as Rio Kid, a legendary gunman, who would “fight for the brand” against all comers.
Western stories are not usually my preference. However, this book kept “a’holt” of me from start to finish. I highly recommend it.
Available in Kindle format, you can get it here. It is $4.99 well spent.
Miguel at Gunfreezone.net pointed out a tweet yesterday by Ladd Everitt that brought back memories.
Armed “Boogaloo” protesters are NOT insurrectionists. Goal isn’t to overthrow our govt to create greater freedom 4 individuals. They are the unorganized, private, white militia of a fascist dictator & their goal is to keep him in power indefinitely. The difference is important!
— Ladd Everitt (@LaddEveritt) May 18, 2020
Ladd had been the Director of Communications for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (sic) before he headed off to be Executive Director of George Takai’s anti-gun organization One Pulse for America. He and CSGV’s Executive Director Josh Horwitz loved nothing better than labeling gun rights activists and Second Amendment supporters as “insurrectionists” back during the Obama years. It was their favorite epithet and Josh wrote long articles about insurrectionism for the Huffington Post as well as a book entitled, “Guns, Democracy and the Insurrectionist Idea.”
Here is an example from 2011 when this blog wasn’t even a year old. It was in reference to the Tucson shooting of then-Congresswoman Gabby Giffords (D-AZ) and others.
Sadly, Saturday’s tragedy was both predictable and inevitable. Insurrectionist rhetoric—which posits that the Second Amendment gives individuals the right to take violent action when they believe that our government has become “tyrannical”—was once confined to the dark corners of gun shows and the Internet. In today’s America, however, it has become a “mainstream” idea that is widely promoted by movement conservatives, high-profile media figures, and even elected officials and candidates. Tucson was not unique—since the conservative wing of the Supreme Court embraced the insurrectionist idea in the D.C. v. Heller decision in 2008, there have been numerous threats and acts of violence against government officials.
Ladd hated pro-gun politicians like Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) whom he labeled an “insurrectionist thug”. That should been Senator Insurrectionist Thug.
We in the gun blogging community actually took great pride in getting under the skin of Ladd. A post I did about Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) using the tragic death of her husband for political gain got me labeled a “gun extremist”. That was when I knew my blog had arrived and was gaining traction.
My friend Kurt Hofmann, who at the time was the Saint Louis Gun Rights Examiner, had patches printed up. If I remember correctly, Kurt was a definite target for Ladd and CSGV. I had to do some digging this morning but I found some of the patches and stickers that they each had made up. I probably have more around if I dig deeper.
Kurt now writes the Enemy at the Gate column for S.W.A.T. Magazine. It has been a few years since I’ve seen Kurt in person but we had some damn good discussions over a beer at his local watering hole.
Tomorrow marks the 10th anniversary of this blog. I don’t know how many years that is in blog years but it is a lot. I know many have said the day of the blog is over with but I am a contrarian and just can’t accept that. Many of the gun bloggers have gone on to other things but there are still some of us plugging away at it. People like Sebastian, SayUncle, Tam, Old NFO, Weerd Beard, and T-Bolt were blogging before me and are still blogging. We as a community are better for it.
Ladd was correct about one thing. We are the unorganized militia. We just aren’t the “private white militia of a fascist dictator”.
Getting books for Christmas was a tradition in my family. It is not surprising when your Mom was first an English teacher and then a school librarian.
I have compiled a list of books for your perusal. I have read most of the books myself. Those that I haven’t are either too new or are new books from authors I trust and respect.
First up is a new book on handgun hunting by my fellow Polite Society Podcast co-host Kat Ainsworth. I have it on order and am anxious to start reading it. Kat’s work can be found in USCCA Concealed Carry Magazine, Concealed Carry Handguns, Range 365, Pew Pew Tactical, SHOT Business, and Shooting Illustrated.
Another new books worthy of consideration is by Nikki Goeser. Stalked And Defenseless: How Gun Control Helped My Stalker Murder My Husband in Front of Me details how Tennessee’s legislatively mandated gun free zones allowed a demented stalker to kill her husband. Because Nikki obeyed the law and locked her carry gun in her car, she was left defenseless when this evil person murdered her husband.
Jim Curtis aka Old NFO is a friend, blogger, and novelist. I just finished the finale of his The Grey Man series, The Grey Man – Sunset. It brings to a conclusion the exploits of John Cronin and his family and friends as they fight the drug cartels and other evil doers in west Texas. Cronin is a rancher, a (retired) captain with the Pecos County Sheriff’s Department, an ex-DEA agent, and a Vietnam vet who served on 5th Special Forces A-Teams. He is also known to be a stone-cold killer of those that deserved it. I suggest starting from the beginning of his series and working your way through all of them.
Moving on, my next suggestion is actually a text book by law professors Randy Barnett and Josh Blackman. That said, An Introduction to Constitutional Law: 100 Supreme Court Cases Everyone Should Know, is very readable. It starts with the early cases such as Marbury v Madison and works its way forward. Since our common law is built heavily on precedent, knowing how earlier decisions paved the way for later decisions is critical if you want to understand it. The book also comes with a code that allows access to the video series that goes along with the book. Fortunately, unlike most law books, the price of this book isn’t a killer.
Old NFO has a very interesting post up about an abandoned airstrip located on the Pacific island of Tinian. What makes North Field and Runway Able of note is that it is where the instruments that ended WWII took off from.
Those instruments were two B-29s – the Enola Gay and Bockscar – which carried “Little Boy” and “Fat Man”. In other words, the planes that carried the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
My dad was in an Overseas Replacement Depot in Florida having returned from service with the Army in the Caribbean Defense Command. He could very well have been reassigned to Operation Downfall for the invasion of Japan. As it was, VJ Day was August 14th and my parents were married later that month.
Read Old NFO’s full account as it makes interesting reading for those interested in the history of WWII.
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