VA's GA Dumbass Democrats Pass Assault Weapons Ban

Dems in the General Assembly passed this idiotic bullshit, and the Spanberger will almost certainly sign it. 

But she's a moderate!

Then we'll have to wait until the Supremes nuke it.

As I've said before: the Dems are basically working their way through the Bill of Rights. They hate the First Amendment. They hate the Second Amendment. I keep waiting for them to come out in favor of quartering soldiers in our houses in peacetime...

I sincerely wish I'd started voting against these jackasses long before I actually did.

I'm going to send a big contribution to WinRed.

The Republicans may not be the greatest...but at least they aren't actively trying to destroy the country...

Therese Shaheen: The Realist Case for the Iran War

Tend to agree, but no settled view yet.

Bogus Pix of "Anti-U.S. Demonstration" By Iranians

I saw this the other day, experienced a second or two of concern, then said (out loud) "probably bullshit," and moved on.

Greenwald kinda starts slippin' whenever Israel and/or the U.S. Military are part of the story:

 

Step 1: Glenn Greenwald posts footage from 2020.

Step 2: Cenk Uygur doubles down and reposts it.

Step 3: These two tell you not to trust the media and only them because they’re the only who will tell you the truth. pic.twitter.com/w2c8EcPjvU

— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) March 9, 2026

Funny how good some people can be on some kinds of stories, and how bad on others. Greenwald has been pretty good on the woke nonsense. But I don't even expect him to be that good on this story.

  Which is not to say that I'm discounting criticism. Hell, I'm certainly not sure what we ought to be doing....though it does seem pretty clear that military action against Iran is a reasonable--though perhaps not optimal--course of action. 

Gerard Baker: In a War of Words, Trump Always Defeats Himself

Exactly

Trump is often a good doer--but not a good talker.

Unfortunately, he can't accept the latter.

I wish he'd just say "Over to you, Marco..." and then sit down.

But he just can't keep his big mouth shut--to the detriment of the part and the nation.

McCarthy: Demanding Unconditional Surrender is Dumb; But it Doesn't Sanction Rape

I agree with McCarthy on all points--even the legal ones I don't understand.

Tucker Carlson hit some kind of sweet spot there for about a year. He was saying reasonable and sometimes even interesting things.

Then he went off the rails...I don't know when.

Maybe about the time of the UFOs...maybe sooner.

Seems to me this is a pretty common thing. Not that many people stay sane and interesting past a certain window--if then.

Anyway, now Carlson just seems to have lost it.

Misleading WSJ Story: "Americans are Now a [sic] Target in Trump's Immigration Crackdown

[1] Remember, WSJ's news coverage is just about as left-biased as that of NYT.

[2] All these cases should be investigated and wrongdoing by federal agents should be prosecuted--and ended.

However:

[3] I've watched a lot of this kind of footage, and the aggression and interference comes from the rioters/"protestors" far more frequently. 

   Which is not to deny that the LEOs have done some--perhaps many--things wrong. I have no interest in ignoring their wrongdoing. However there's just no doubt about it, the leftist mobs are out of control, and pushing things right up to and over the line along many dimensions. I'm not saying that this is the only factor in play, but I'd bet money it's a large part of it: currently, the agents don't seem to have the means to effectively deal with the raving mobs of crazies interfering with them at every point--shrieking, getting in the way, blowing whistles and car horns, screeching at them through megaphones, trying to pull arrestees out of their grip... So agents look for some way to push back...and sometimes undoubtedly get it wrong.

   Again: I'm not interested in defending outright wrongdoing.

   But the left is crazy. These people devote their lives to this. It's their religion. They have massive communication networks, funding, and teams of lawyers. The law is filled with spaces that are supposed to be governed by reason and good judgment...neither of which the leftist mob cares about. They will at one second be blowing whistles and shrieking the most heinous personal insults in the faces of LEOs...and then if so much as touched or pushed away, they'll flop to the ground shrieking bloody murder while ten other ones shriek and videorecord the "abuse"... Antifa tactics--in which these people are training.

   Well, you know my opinion of the open-borders crazies...

   Give ICE et al. the legal tools to fight back against the moonbats...but hold them accountable for their actions as any other LEOs would be.

   One last thing: note the (undoubtedly) intentionally misleading title of the piece. It means to suggest that ICE is going after American citizens to deport. They've been trying to get that idea into people's heads since the beginning.

Kate B. Odell: It's High Time to Restock U.S. Munitions

Way past time.

I was talking to an old CIA guy at a conference last month, and he wouldn't shut up about this.

But everybody knows it.

"Magazine depth," in the lingo.

I was watching a video of an Arleigh Burke firing cruise missiles the other day--Tomahawk after Tomahawk after Tomahawk...thinking $3 million...$3 million...$3 million...  And we can't just snap our fingers and replace them. Maybe we're ok with cruise missiles--I don't know--but it's much harder--and costlier--to replace Patriot and THAAD missiles...

Anyway, if China decided to go for Taiwan in about six weeks, I reckon we might be SOL...

Appeals Court Strikes Down DC 10-Round Mag Ban

Good.

My attitude about such things has completely changed.

Now I say: never, ever compromise with the left. About anything.

The left views compromise as a beachhead; it's just a temporary resting place from which to launch even more radical attacks in the future.

They'll never, ever stop pushing for more expansive gun laws.

They'll never rest until we're like the UK or Canada or Australia.

Compromise is capitulation.

I hate having to think like this.

But that's where I am.

Iran: More Concerns

So I just read somewhere that Russia--and possibly also China?--may be helping Iran target U.S. assets--including bases and carriers.

Now, I'm nothing like an expert here...but...:

Imagine that Iran manages to get a lucky hit and badly damage a carrier--or even sink it--on the basis of Russian (or Chinese) assistance.

Then wouldn't the WWIII chatter become...more than mere chatter?

OTOH I've also read that the Iranian regime is basically an apocalyptic sect...is that true? How can I possibly know so little about this? If it is true...then...seems obvious that we can't let them get nukes. And probably shouldn't have let them get as strong as they are...

What confusing mess.

To me, anyway.

Peter Berkowitz: U.S.-Israeli Action Against Iran is Just and Necessary

Well, not exactly necessary...but possibly better than the alternative.

Fortunately, I understand too little about all this to be too upset about it.

"Epic Fury" and Cinematic Military Operation Names in General

I've complained about this before: I'm against them.

It's basically a kind of advertising slogan for the war...not that we call them 'wars' anymore.

"Epic Fury"...come on.

During the GWoT, I read some General or other say, basically: we've rethought our system for naming them...nobody wants to say that he was part of "Operation Blue Spoon"...

Well, ok.

But, y'know, "Overlord" was extremely cool without being an advertising slogan...

We had: Overlord, Market Garden, Cobra, Torch, Goodwood, Pointblank, Bodyguard, Neptune, Pluto, Undergo, Smash...dozens or hundreds of others.

These over the top cinematic names--I just think it's a really bad idea. We don't want any such rhetorical nonsense influencing the public's evaluation of such things.

Carolina 61 - Duke 76

Hey, coulda been worse...and was worse there for awhile...

Gotta hand it to the Heels--in addition to losing Caleb's 20 and 9 or whatever--not to mention his disruptive (for the other team) presence--there's the psychological toll. But they haven't given up.

Let's hope for a good showing in the ACCT.

Alex Hollings on the Triple Strike Eagle Shootdown

Mohsen Farshneshani: Giving Khamenei a Martyr's Death

Giving Khamenei a Martyr’s Death - The American Conservative

I don't know enough to know whether this is better or worse than letting him live.

Basically, events like the Iran war are mostly an opportunity for me to reflect on and appreciate the vast depths of my ignorance of world affairs.

Tal Fortgang: States Take Steps to Fight Civil Terrorism

This stuff--e.g. blocking streets and highways--actually is civil terrorism. As are many anti-ICE mob actions, most Antifa mob actions, and as were many of the BLM riots/"protests." Noem and the administration threw around the term incorrectly...but Fortgang and the states in question are using it correctly.

   The ACLU is a joke now--just another hard-left catspaw of the cult. They don't even mind outright contradicting themselves as long as it furthers the cause...

Judson Berger: Will the Iranian People Join the War?

This seems to me to be the crucial question.

One would conclude that we--or, more likely, Mossad--have/has sources inside...that's probably how we got Khamenei. We should have known that the people were likely to fight before we committed to this...let's hope we did.

Also: I honestly didn't realize Iran had as many missiles and drones as it does. I knew its air force was lame...but I let that be representative...and it isn't. The fact that they seem to be stronger than I thought kind of makes me more sympathetic to kicking their asses now, before things get any worse...

Also: I'm sure that some of the weapons we're fighting against right now were paid for with some of those pallets of cash the Obama administration sent over... Not that I'm really qualified to speak on the wisdom of that policy...

Caleb Wilson: Broken Thumb, Out for the Season

First and foremost: everybody loves that kid, and he's ridiculously fun to watch. It really sucks that we got to see him in Carolina blue for such a short period of time.

   I fear today will be ugly...

   But, as a d00kie friend of mine said: never underestimate the rivalry...

Not Satire: Biden Administration Used Tax $$ to "Make Maps More Gay"

Every time I get fed up with Trump, I am reminded how insane the alternative is...

The U.S. Military is Downright Terrifying

If I were China or Russia, I'd be crapping my dra'ers.

Honestly, the U.S. military is just not to be messed with.

Our guys are very, very, very fucking good at this stuff.

The Austin Mass Shooting Was Probably Terrorism; Start Carrying

Links are easy to find and I'm in a hurry.

I don't like to carry, and ordinarily have no need to. I live in a low-crime place, and I can take care of myself just fine without a gat under anything like normal conditions.

But maybe we should all carry a bit more as a community service. The Austin shooting was pretty clearly Iran-inspired terrorism.

Iran War: Good Idea or Bad Idea?

I'm thinking about it...but...just for the record...I don't know.

Both, probably.

I don't have anything like all the information Trump et al. have. 

No war gets presumption, of course.

And, as others have noted, Trump et al. haven't even really tried to justify this publicly.

It wouldn't be that hard to get me on board. The Iranian regime is godawful (as it were). And, were the decision up to me, I expect that slaughtering tens of thousands (?) of their own people protesting for freedom would have been the last straw.

Or...funding and training Hamas for 10/7...that was just about the last straw, too...

Lots of last straws with these motherfuckers...

OTOH, I don't know enough about Iran to know what we can expect if the regime collapses.

I certainly don't want another wave of ME refugees to Europe...though Persians fleeing an Islamic theocracy >> than...well...you know...

So basically I don't know and there's no practical way for me to learn enough in the next six months to have an informed opinion.

Forced to say something, I might say: We know what Iran's trajectory was like before this. This doesn't seem to be at all like the idiotic Iraq debacle. These guys have made it clear what their endpoint is like. Our options are: waste 'em now or let 'em wipe out their people, stockpile more missiles, and build nukes... Don't forget that they turned down our offer of basically unlimited reactor fuel in favor of enriching their own uranium...and there's only one plausible reason for that...especially given their vast oil reserves... And, as I understand it, the regime is basically an apocalyptic death cult...so...there's that...

No good options, it seems.

But maybe the option we've taken is the less-terrible one...

But I do not know.

VA Supreme Court Allows Vote on Gerrymandering

I don't understand the legal arguments, but this challenge was based on the bullshit wording of this bullshit amendment:

Question: Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to allow the General Assembly to temporarily adopt new congressional districts to restore fairness in the upcoming elections, while ensuring Virginia's standard redistricting process resumes for all future redistricting after the 2030 census?

"Restore fairness" my ass. Also probably my ass: temporarily. The only way to make this temporary is to kick the Dems out of power.

Scumbags.

Anyhoo: the wording is bullshit, and if the voters fall for this, then they're bullshit too.

Probably the only hope for this state is to reverse the retrocession, which would move 400k Democrats--and that's just the living ones--back into DC.

Noem Out

Now do Bondi...

Charles C. Cooke: James Talarico's Creepy Synthesis of Christianity and Woketarianism

link

No offence to my Christian homies...but I actually think this is a pretty natural combination--and I've been told that it's afflicted many American Churches.

It may be wrong--but is it really that much of a stretch to analogize "whiteness" to original sin? (Though then it would only afflict some of us, of course.)

Anyway, woketarianism is already right on the verge of being a cult/religion...so this really doesn't surprise me all that much.

Anti-ICE VA Dems Get Another American Killed

They've lost their collective mind...as I may have mentioned...

And, as if this even needs to be said anymore: Spanberger is no moderate.
link

Wagon Wheelz-N-The-Hood

Fat Amy Gets Her First Kill?

Was the Eagle Shoot-Down Intentional?

An obvious question...though I've been steering clear of it.

Kuwaiti F-18 Apparently Shot Down the Three Strike Eagles

As the story notes, this coheres better with some of the other evidence: e.g.:

That the Eagles were hit at all

That they seem to have been hit in the tail(s)

That all crewmen survived.

If the Hornet used Sidewinders, the Es might not have been locked up, or might not have realized it. If they were locked, they might not have thought it was that serious. Sidewinders fired from behind are more likely to hit the tail. And they have relatively small warheads. (Older Patriots have fragmentation warheads, IIRC; newer ones are hit-to-kill; but in either case, they're going to make a much bigger mess of things they hit than a Sidewinder.)