That headline is one hundred percent true. Never, ever have I taken bait dropped by a window that I didn’t ask for. Whenever YouTube or Rumble delays a video with an unsolicited spot, I’ll completely ignore it and wait for “Skip Ad” to appear. Often I’ll mute the audio.
It’s become a matter of principle. I’m not an easy mark for marketers because I refuse to be distracted.
Exploring the real, three-dimensional world, as Deb and I did yesterday, is a different story. Yes, there are times when travel must be an A-to-B proposition, but turning every trip into a mission — go here, do this, come back — sucks the enjoyment out of life.
A journey is more interesting, and it’s far more rewarding, when we allow ourselves to be easily distracted. Ask yourself — when was the last time you pulled off the road spontaneously to read one of those ubiquitous historical markers?
See, that’s the sort of thing we do. We did it yesterday. We learned that in 1857 a California-bound wagon train left from a spring south of Harrison, Arkansas, meeting a bloody end at the hands of paranoid Mormon militia at Mountain Meadows, Utah five months later.
Three of those families were from our adopted home of Marion County.
As I’ve said before, discovering the unexpected (and yesterday we certainly didn’t expect to learn about murderous Mormons dressed up like Indians) demands a slower pace and the willingness to take time. It also occurs to me that wringing the joy from travel requires a certain curiosity — a person has to want to know more and see more this day than he knew and saw the day before.
Even the most familiar roads hold surprises.
That easy Sunday drive demonstrates once again, at least to me, that Deb and I have found our way. We want to see. We slow down. We take the time.
Go do that.
Make some popcorn — we’re about to see Democrats and other anti-Liberty progressives tie themselves in knots. When news broke this morning that an intruder armed with “two assault-type rifles” had murdered three students and three adult staff at a Nashville-area Christian school, the Left rushed to the microphones and called for gun bans.
Naturally.
Authorities said initially that the perp, shot dead by responding cops, was “a female, apparently in her teens.” (Later they updated the age to 28.) That doesn’t quite fit the mass-murderer profile, since something like 99% of those crimes are committed by males, but a fact is a fact.
By mid-afternoon, unconfirmed reports began circulating (later corroborated) that “she” at some point had assumed the identity of “he.” And that, for painfully inclusive liberals, would present a big problem.
We’ve seen this before — when a mass-murderer is black, for example, calls for “gun control” go strangely quiet. A tranny, however, is the most special of all “identities,” able to be twisted to fit almost any perverse agenda. The gender-confused are the Left’s ideological Gumby.
But this tranny murdered children, and that complicates things. Do progressives again put their gun-control talking points back in the box and wait for the next mass shooting, hoping it’s a straight, white male? Do they contort their arguments to put blame on “cis culture” for driving the (obviously mentally ill) she-he to commit the heinous act?
They wouldn’t dare say that she suffered from “toxic masculinity” — or would they? You never know with these hustlers. It’ll be fascinating to watch.
I’m not making light of what’s clearly a tragedy. My heart is with the families, the school and the community. As usual, we’re hearing little such compassion from the Left.
To wrap this up, I want to mention what Deb said when she heard that the murderer was female.
“What if the perp turns out to be a tranny? They wouldn’t know what to do. They’d lose their minds.”
I love that woman. And she may just be right.
“Though the flame of Liberty may sometimes cease to shine, the coal can never expire.”
Thomas Paine (The American Crisis, Number I, published December 19th, 1776)
These horrific events will keep happening just as long as we fail to take their lessons. Until we value children enough to protect them by securing and defending schools — and stop trying to wrest guns from law-abiding hands — our children will die.
Sooner or later, after the next mass murder or the one after that, the Left will achieve critical mass of hysteria. The forces arrayed against Liberty will get their ban on “assault weapons,” and maybe more than that. Don’t kid yourself. It’s a matter of time.
And time is short. The day is coming.
If you’ve prepared for that day, good. If you haven’t, get busy.
We can’t allow the ember of Liberty to die.
Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay calm. Stay sharp. Stay free.
#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath
#LetsGoBrandon #FJB