“Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walks.”
Thomas Jefferson, 1785
Yes, I know who won the football game last night. No, I didn’t watch it. I was, however, delighted to learn that the win went to the boys from Missouri and not to a team from the godforsaken I-95 corridor.
Naturally, many of our neighbors here in The Ozarks are happy today. That’s a good thing.
I did sneak a peek at one highlight this morning — the national anthem by Chris Stapleton. I still say that the “Star-Spangled Banner” should be joined and sung by the People, not performed for them, but Stapleton did it perfectly.
Folks always point to the 1991 performance of the anthem at this game as “the best ever.” Not me — it was wretchedly excessive, just awful, a rendition that called attention to singer and not song.
It was as if the woman was trying to win a talent contest, not lead a nation in common prayer. Stapleton, in stark contrast, wasn’t flashy. The man got it just right. Good for him.
Unfortunately, and typical of the league, the pre-game festivities were soiled by wokeness. Three days before the event, the US Navy pilots scheduled to execute the traditional flyover were unceremoniously bumped for an identity play — all of the aviators who flew yesterday were women. (No word on how many were “cis” or “binary,” nor do we know if a biologist was consulted.)
As for the decision to impose a second, race-specific “national anthem” on viewers, that was an abomination. It may have checked a woke box, but it was disgustingly un-American.
This is why I haven’t watched the NFL in almost ten years, and why I’ll continue to find better ways to spend my time.
And that’s all I have to say about that.
If you’re keeping score at home, it took several days for public discussion about the “Chinese spy balloon” (et al) to catch up with Ubi Libertas Blog. No, seriously — other than the occasional meme recalling Japanese “balloon bombs” employed for six months during WWII, until recently virtually no one was talking about the possibility that a wandering gas bag could’ve been carrying some sort of weapon.
Here’s what I said on February 5th:
“…Suppose that this balloon’s payload had been, by some definition, kinetic, and that it had remained under the control of the PRC throughout the flight. It’s entirely plausible that the craft could’ve carried a relatively small microwave generator or a larger nuclear device designed to produce an EMP.”
Most of the focus was on espionage, perhaps rightfully so. That threat alone is serious, and it’s plenty serious enough. But clearly, a balloon drifting along at 60,000 feet is capable of much more. We know that China has tested those offensive capabilities, and it may have fielded them.
Beyond the kinetic potential I mentioned, there’s also been talk about the ChiComs using a very-high-altitude balloon as a platform for launching its so-called “hypersonic missiles.” That’s certainly plausible — but is it likely?
No. Given other options the PRC has for delivering such payloads, and considering the types of offensive weapons better suited to balloons — EMP, e.g., either microwave or nuclear — I wouldn’t put “hypersonics” near the top of my list of concerns.
We need to be honest and clear-eyed about foreign threats, from surveillance to offensive weapons. But I think it’s possible to get preoccupied with that and miss the biggest lessons we’re learning here.
Maybe this isn’t exactly news, but the national-defense response to these “objects” confirms that our nation’s military leadership isn’t doing its job with anything resembling confidence or competence. From the Oval Office to the Pentagon, command has been corrupted by politics and risk-aversion. We, the People, aren’t being served well.
You might be tempted to apply that observation to the entire federal government. And you’d be right.
The spokesman for the NSC took over the daily White House press briefing today. He’s a polished guy, a retired admiral and a damn sight better at his job than the White House spokestoken is at hers.
After reading a lengthy prepared statement, he spent the next 45 minutes ducking and deflecting, doing his best to avoid giving real answers (despite some decent questions from the press corps). He was there only to defend the regime’s indefensible conduct.
One of the reporters asked him if the last three “unidentified aerial objects” were lighter-than-air craft or heavier-than-air craft. The admiral responded, tersely, that he didn’t have that information.
Curiously, that exchange doesn’t appear in the official transcript of the briefing.
At some point, each of us has to decide what we’re willing to tolerate and then act accordingly. I, for one, no longer watch pro football. Kari Lake, who had the 2022 Arizona governor’s race wrenched from her deserved grasp, was at yesterday’s game but refused to take the race bait and stand for a “national anthem” that isn’t.
On the other hand, I was disappointed to see many of my otherwise anti-woke friends cheer the transparent move to dump male pilots in favor of females for the ceremonial flyover. “Girl power,” dontcha know. Shameful.
I mean, it’s not like the NFL is gonna change its stripes — the league has found its market, and it sure as hell ain’t me. The target demo is riding a runaway train of entitlement, identity and reprehensible progressivism.
I may not be able to change or even affect that, but I don’t have to tolerate it. And the first step is to withdraw — participation is de facto endorsement, so I simply refuse to participate.
It’s the least I can do. Hell, it’s pretty much the only thing I can do.
The other subject I touched on today, involving federal defense of sovereign airspace, obviously is weightier than a ball game. The consequences of failure would be catastrophic, and without question the feds are failing to secure the Homeland.
That, like the culture of professional sports, is beyond our direct control. But it’s also something from which we, as individual citizens, can’t withdraw — we’re in it. We have no choice but to participate.
What that means, the way I see it, is that we should prepare for the coming catastrophe. Government will fail us, on the ground and in the skies. We’d better be ready.
Get your affairs in order, People.
Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay calm. Stay sharp. Stay free.
#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath
#LetsGoBrandon #FJB
(Today’s header image: Table Rock Lake, seen from Missouri State Highway 265 on Saturday afternoon.)