It’s Not Just Squirrels

I kinda missed the story of Peanut The Squirrel because, as a rule, I’m not that enthralled by stories about rodents unless there are air- and/or .22 rifles involved.

But basically, for those who are like me, the story goes that a much-loved pet squirrel with an Internet following (!) was slaughtered as a result of some dubious Gummint raid on private property somewhere in (duh) New York.

Like I said:  tragic, but not of great interest to me other than providing yet another example of why a few random local Gummint employees should, as a rule, be whipped in the town square on a monthly basis by voters, just to remind them of whom they actually are supposed to serve and to stop them getting too big for their boots.

This story, however, is quite different:

America’s famously private Amish people are unreachable by phone or email and refuse to have TVs in their homes.  But that didn’t stop members of the conservative Christian group turning out on polling day in a trend that appears to have helped Donald Trump win Pennsylvania.

What sparked the voting rush? Government agents had stormed a local farm early in the year in a row over unpasteurized milk that left the Amish community absolutely enraged. 

Pennsylvania’s traditionally private Amish community, which some estimate numbers around 100,000, then registered to vote in ‘unprecedented numbers’.  Experts have said that the movement could won Mr Trump tens of thousands of new votes in the crucial swing state. 

The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture raided Amos Miller’s farm on January 4, sparking outrage among the state’s Amish population.

“That was the impetus for them to say, ‘We need to participate’,” the source said. “This is about neighbors helping neighbors.”

Trump’s winning margin in Pennsylvania was about 130,000 votes, by the way.

As much as I view the above story with satisfaction, on balance I think I still prefer the “monthly flogging” idea.


My favorite comment on the Amish story, however, was from the God-Emperor-elect himself:

“Imagine what law enforcement could accomplish if they went after members of elite pedophile rings rather than farmers selling to their neighbors??”

Muzzling Free Speech

And speaking of people who want to attack our First Amendment, we show some foreign interference (and no, it ain’t Russians):

BRITAIN was once the envy of the world for our legal right to free speech*. However, the tide has turned, and the government’s Counter Disinformation Unit (CDU), set up in 2019 and instructed in March 2020 to combat the spread of ‘false coronavirus information online’, has helped the United States establish a dedicated team to crush what it sees as dissent.

In the name of ‘misinformation’ and ‘disinformation’, the CDU focused on coercing social media giants to execute ‘government-wide censorship efforts’. It has now exported its blueprint to the US, despite the fact that America’s prized First Amendment specifically protects citizens’ right to express themselves freely.

*Of course, it’s a lot easier to understand this when you realize that for all its so-called “storied freedoms”, Britain has never had absolute freedom of speech, nor anything approaching it.

A duty-of-care principle was established in the UK in 1932, and it is this anti-harm legislation the British government used to demand censorship of social media content, since reinforced by the Online Safety Act passed in October 2023.

Needless to say, though, their foulness found fertile governmental soil Over Here:

In August 2021 the Biden White House hosted a team from the CDU. They taught the Biden-Harris National Security Council (NSC), an interagency policy committee (IPC), everything they knew about silencing government critics on social media.

Feel free to read the disgusting details, if you think you can stand it.

Me, I’m off to the range.

New Ban?

This is an interesting development:

Australia will ban children from using social media with a minimum age limit as high as 16, prime minister Anthony Albanese said Tuesday, vowing to get kids off their devices and ‘onto the footy fields’.

Federal legislation to keep children off social media will be introduced this year, he  said, describing the impact of the sites on young people as a ‘scourge’.

The minimum age for children to log into sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok has not been decided but is expected to be between 14 and 16 years, Albanese said.

The prime minister said his own preference would be a block on users aged below 16.

Age verification trials are being held over the coming months, the centre-left leader said, though analysts said they doubted it was technically possible to enforce an online age limit.

Loath as I am to give any kind of credit to the OzGov, foul totalitarian nanny bastards that they are, I can’t help but wonder whether a) this can work and b) if it does work, will it benefit teens in any way?  Given that teens nowadays appear to have absolutely no problem in accessing porn — even porn sites protected by “age walls” — I’m somewhat skeptical about it all.

It’s probably just the usual “We have to do something!” posturing so common among all politicians.


(Just an aside:  Albanese’s “center-left” philosophy is somewhere around that of Bernie Sanders, politically speaking.)

Quote Of The Day

From Insty, referring to this post:

“Let’s be honest, the people running the world are not only corrupt, but spectacularly incompetent.  For their lousy performance alone they should be tarred and feathered;  for their “impudence” in attempting dictatorship they deserve worse.  But it really seems that over the past few years the ruling class of the West has been preparing for war against its owns citizenry.  Again: Why?”

Because, Professor Reynolds, the socialist state has always been better at waging war against its own people than against foreigners.  The French Revolution’s Reign of Terror was not directed at the Germans, Spanish or the Italians, but against the very French citizens the Revolution had purported to liberate.  The Communist Revolution in 1917 Russia ended up slaughtering and imprisoning far more working- and middle-class Russians than had ever been killed under the Romanovs.

And it will be far easier for the West’s ruling class to oppress the populace than t would be to, say, oppress foreigners.  The ubiquitous surveillance cameras are in London, Los Angeles, Paris and Berlin — not in Bangalore, Rio de Janeiro or Manila.  And the coming clampdown on free speech will affect Musk’s TwitterX, Bill Whittle and me and the Readers of this website, not Burmese peasants or Masai cattle herders.

Not only was it untrue that Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia;  there’s a distinct possibility that Oceania had never been at war with Eastasia — the war being simply a propaganda concoction to justify the repression of the inhabitants of Oceania.

So when the lackeys of the ruling class — that would be, say, the police forces of Britain and the FBI here in the US — start muttering darkly about the “hard-Right” or “MAGA-followers” as they prepare for mass arrests and imprisonments, it’s us they’ll be coming for.

As for Glenn’s why? the answer’s simple:  because they can.  Glenn is a thoughtful, intelligent and civilized man, and he simply cannot comprehend the feral nature of those who would rule over us.

They — to a man —  are amoral cocksuckers.  And the sooner we recognize that and start treating them accordingly, the better.

Quiet Skies

Apparently, Tulsi Gabbard is on the dreaded “SSSS” list:

This story began two weeks ago, when the former Hawaii congresswoman returned home after a short trip abroad. In airport after airport, she and her husband Abraham Williams encountered obstacles. First on a flight from Rome to Dallas, then a connecting flight to Austin, and later on different flights for both to cities like Nashville, Orlando, and Atlanta, their boarding passes were marked with the “SSSS” designation, which stands for “Secondary Security Screening Selection.” The “Quad-S” marker is often a sign the traveler has been put on a threat list, and Gabbard and Williams were forced into extensive “random” searches lasting as long as 45 minutes.

“It happened every time I boarded,” says Gabbard. The Iraq war veteran and current Army reservist tends to pack light, but no matter.

“I’ve got a couple of blazers in there, and they’re squeezing every inch of the entire collar, every inch of the sleeves, every inch of the edging of the blazers,” she says. “They’re squeezing or padding down underwear, bras, workout clothes, every inch of every piece of clothing.” Agents unzipped the lining inside the roller board of her suitcase, patting down every inch inside the liner. Gabbard was asked to take every piece of electronics out and turn each on, including her military phone and computer.

I suspect she’s on the SSSS list because of stuff like this:

Not having flown on any airline for many a year, I wouldn’t know if I was (still) on the SSSS list (story here and here) and it doesn’t look like I’ll be doing so anytime soon either.  But should I take to the Friendly  Quiet Skies again, it will be interesting to see if my inclusion has lapsed, so to speak.

I think I’ll pack the 1911 in my checked luggage, just for giggles.

And I wasn’t aware of this little thing.

Not THAT Disturbing

Via Insty I see this interesting news:

Police departments throughout the United States have stopped sharing information with the FBI due a “disturbing loss of trust” in the Bureau, an alarming new whistleblower report has found.

The scathing report listed ten key findings that have dire national security and public safety implications:
1. Local law enforcement officers do not trust the FBI 
2. No more actionable, substantive information sharing with the FBI 
3. FBI National Academy graduates are troubled by bias 
4. Crisis of confidence in FBI-led task forces 
5. The FBI is isolated and unresponsive to local law enforcement 
6. Local law enforcement officers feel disrespected by FBI special agents 
7. Today’s tone-deaf FBI disregards the value of retired FBI special agents 
8. The new generation of sub-standard FBI special agents 
9. FBI management is too transitory and obsessed with self-promotion
10. The FBI’s cult of narcissism begins at the FBI Academy.

The headline to the piece calls this “disturbing”, but I consider it “unsurprising”.

Unlike the oh-so supercilious Fibbies, you see, local LEOs have to live with their communities, are answerable to them and can be kicked out of office at the polling booth.

If I were a local cop in, say, north Texas I’d tell Teh Fibs to take a fucking hike if they came snooping around.

Which is what erstwhile Collin County Sheriff Terry Box (PBUH) said at a press conference when asked how he felt about a federal civilian disarmament program:

“They’ll have to come through my deputies first.”

Note:   not “they would” (subjunctive), “they will” (declarative).

So why are we “disturbed” by the news above?