Tag: philosophy

The Cowboy Way: Living by a code of honor with guns as a centerpiece

Those who don’t know much about guns or their place in American culture are easy to seduce toward the diatribes of those who fundamentally want to change our nation into something else—a much less morally reticent and overwhelmingly evil utopia for the socialist of heart. They think of the NRA as a mean spirited organization resistant to change. Well, resistant to change is true—because what gun-grabbers want to change America into is something that gun owners typically don’t like. I am obviously a member of the NRA, but also of satellite groups within it—affiliates such as Second Call Defense. I’ll remind you again dear reader, if you go to the Second Call Defense website and type in Overmanwarrior, they’ll give you your first month free—and you should do that—for your own good. I am also a very proud new member of the Cowboy Fast Draw Association—which reflects my new hobby/career as a gunfighter. I’m so serious about it that I’m thinking of listing it as my new official profession. As we speak I am turning the basement of my home into an indoor shooting range specific to that hobby—and I’m very excited about it. The reason why is that I love the type of people who are in these groups—especially the CFDA.   They live by a very specific code of ethics called the Cowboy Way. Below are a few examples of that way of life for which gun owners in the CFDA adhere.

Gene Autry’s Code of Honor

  1. A cowboy never takes unfair advantage – even of an enemy.
  2. A cowboy never betrays a trust. He never goes back on his word.
  3. A cowboy always tells the truth.
  4. A cowboy is kind and gentle to small children, old folks, and animals.
  5. A cowboy is free from racial and religious intolerances.
  6. A cowboy is always helpful when someone is in trouble.
  7. A cowboy is always a good worker.
  8. A cowboy respects womanhood, his parents and his nation’s laws.
  9. A cowboy is clean about his person in thought, word, and deed.
  10. A cowboy is a Patriot.

Hopalong Cassidy’s Creed

  1. The highest badge of honor a person can wear is honesty. Be truthful at all times.
  2. Your parents are the best friends you have. Listen to them and obey their instructions.
  3. If you want to be respected, you must respect others. Show good manners in every way.
  4. Only through hard work and study can you succeed. Don’t be lazy.
  5. Your good deeds always come to light. So don’t boast or be a show-off.
  6. If you waste time or money today, you will regret it tomorrow. Practice thrift in all ways.
  7. Many animals are good and loyal companions. Be friendly and kind to them.
  8. A strong, healthy body is a precious gift. Be neat and clean.
  9. Our country’s laws are made for your protection. Observe them carefully.
  10. Children in many foreign lands are less fortunate than you. Be glad and proud you are an American.

http://www.jcs-group.com/johnwayne/literary/codes.htm

When people or groups of people criticize the “Wild West” and “cowboys” in general they are essentially attacking the values expressed above. In today’s world those values might appear to be out-of-step, and archaic—but I think they are a whole lot better than what anybody in the world of today is adhering to. The mythology of the American gunfighter as expressed by the values of old cowboys like Gene Autry and Hopalong Cassidy is worthy of more serious consideration. When I talk inflamingly about being an American gunfighter it isn’t so much to have the ability to shoot human beings—it is to behave in a way to protect the Cowboy Way reflected above. Being a gunfighter isn’t about fighting with guns—it is about fighting for them and propping them up as a symbol of those Gene Autry values. I dare anybody from any gun-grabbing group to criticize those Cowboy Way values—because those who do have designated themselves villains against the American philosophy that built our nation.

Guns in American culture is not about killing, or even hints at violence—although those are certainly associations most common to weapons of all kinds. Guns are about preserving the Cowboy Way, which is why NRA members and other shooters tend to embody respectful values toward one another that reflect those elements because the traditions that guns protect are rooted in the Cowboy Way. That Cowboy Way was established during a period of western expansion that took place after the Civil War and was built up through a mythology of the American gunfighter. The strength of that mythology lasted well into the next century all the way up essentially until the 1960s when communist insurgents implanted themselves in the hippie movement and advocated against those Cowboy Way values.

Being a gunfighter is an essential part of American culture and with every gun grabbing politician and modern entertainer who stands against that Cowboy Way mentality we all have a right to be extremely angry at them for what they are trying to do. One of the ways I am combating that imposition and channeling that anger in a constructive way is in taking up membership with the Cowboy Fast Draw Association so that I can preserve the way of the cowboy from an older generation that needs some support. They are directly an affiliate of the NRA—so they are gold in my book. Additionally, I have lent myself to the Second Call Defense for the same precise reason. An armed America is a good America because the roots of gun ownership resides with the philosophy of the Cowboy Way—which is a whole lot older in this country than the recent progressive slant toward European sentiment.

When I say I intend to be a gunfighter as a profession, it doesn’t mean that I plan to assassinate bad guys with a gun—although if I do find myself in a self-defense shooting, I have my Second Call Defense card and I’ll let them handle the police when and if it happens. So far Second Call Defense has an excellent track record. Most self-defense shootings by members aren’t even going to trial because of it, because police know that with Second Call Defense they can’t use a shooting to politicize an issue or justify their false interpretation of the law under the scrutiny of a pro Second Amendment lawyer. So they just leave the case alone to avoid the embarrassment of prosecution in court. A lot of times the shooter in those self-defense cases has a lot more rights than they think they do, and gun-grabbers hope that the general public never learns that reality—so they can continue to weaken the Second Amendment due to ignorance. I see Second Call Defense as a perfect way to strengthen the Second Amendment, so I am a supporter. I carry my membership card proudly.

Yet for me that’s not enough. I want to be even more proactive in defending the Second Amendment especially due to the latest round of incursions from the political left. We have talked about this gun-grabbing time for a long period leading up to this latest phase, so now is the time to buckle down the defense of the Second Amendment into something more voracious. That’s why I’m proud to be a member of the Cowboy Fast Draw Association. They stand for the roots of firearms ownership, the Cowboy Way—the mythology built around gunfighters and the capitalist oasis that they paved to become the greatest country on earth. There is no way to remain a great country without private gun ownership because it all starts there—not with the intent to kill or maim with them—but in honoring guns as the instrument of focus for establishing a Cowboy Way of thinking evolved through the heart, bravery, and tenacity of the American gunfighter.

The Cowboy Way is a mode of thinking that not only needs to be resurrected in American culture; it needs daily maintenance to solidify into something for which society can build their foundations upon. It completely changes the way people interact with one another—it’s a code of conduct that works hand in hand with capitalism to bring prosperity to all who dare wake up in the morning to enjoy it. It’s unlike anything created anywhere on the face of planet earth during any period of history ever known. So there is no comparison to other nations and what they are doing to ban or reject guns from their societies. America is unique, and part of that story comes from the Cowboy Way. It’s not something we need to change or further contemplate—it is something we need to be proud of and to strictly adhere to from here on out—and that begins with maintaining a love with guns that has been abused due to political influence that is completely unwarranted, and destructive.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

The Bengals Did Well: Carlos Dunlap saves Cincinnati

As a Tampa Bay Buccaneer fan I don’t put much investment emotionally into my hometown team of the Cincinnati Bengals. I’m not a fan of Mike Brown and think the stadium deal he made with the city was a bad one compounded by a mediocre product he has put on the field over the last several decades. Even though lately his teams have been in the playoffs year after year, they always end up a disappointment. But the Bucs haven’t been very good this year, as they weren’t last year. They seem to have fixed many of their offensive problems, but the defense just isn’t working—and for me and Tampa Bay, I get excited about defense. So it’s been a pretty mundane year so far. Because of all those elements, I don’t get to the local Bengal games very often. I have always loved the NFL experience, but don’t often get down to a game. However, it was a good week for me last week and I had a packed weekend full of activities and an opportunity to go to the Bengal game against the Seahawks presented itself so I went with my family.

image imageThe game itself was fabulous, an overtime thriller that nobody will forget anytime soon. It was a magnificent October afternoon and we spent some extra time before and after the game enjoying the new Banks developments and all the tailgating activities. It was sunny, warm—the leaves were changing color—it was a wonderful day for football and two very good teams were playing in the usual ramped up rock n roll environment typical of professional football. The Ohio State marching band was at the game performing—which was impressive—the game itself and all the festivities around it were just perfect including the overtime win that rocked the stadium with much deserved enthusiasm. I was very glad I went to that particular game at that particular time.

But those kinds of things to me are never just about the game—I enjoy the larger picture. I like Paul Brown Stadium because it’s the hometown arena even though I think it’s not nearly as spectacular as Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. The Club area at PBS is everything you’d want it to be—luxurious, well-managed, and optimistic. It was quite enjoyable to watch all the NFL games occurring from the lounge within the high intensity environment of the Bengal game. The Bengals have done a much better job of capitalizing off their mascot theme of a Bengal tiger the last several years. The video promotions shown around the stadium were much better than they have been in the past even though the stupid song they play with each touchdown sounds like a broken 45 vinyl record from a crusty old man’s treasure chest. It sounds outdated and lost—but the whole experience was otherwise very exciting and stimulating. The people were from all walks of life and in many cases had spent thousands of dollars to be there which put my nose on the economics of what was happening.

I love the NFL experience for the things connected to the events. The economic stimulus connected to the National Football League is staggering—everywhere there are advertisements for various products, promotion work for various cancer fighting awareness, and lots and lots of beer being sold. People generally stayed relaxed and enjoyed themselves for a much-needed four hours of bliss on a Sunday in October. The rock music, the video images, the connectivity to the entire stadium network around the country simultaneously is quite something to behold.

There are several interesting things going on at football games. Fans are quick to assimilate to the phrase “we” when talking about their favorite team. It’s a form of collectivism that is dangerous to our society as perfect strangers were brought together by rooting for their favorite team to score points. When the Bengals went to overtime with a last-minute field goal the stadium was nearly in an orgy of enthusiasm for each other. There were hugs and high-fives everywhere as people who normally wouldn’t speak to each other held one another in warm embrace. That was very interesting.   Clearly politicians utilize the same type of unifying force to solidify support for their various impositions. Yet in spite of that alarming trend the essence of capitalism was unmistakable. There was no way that the collective unification of the masses would adhere to any kind of communist banter if it meant robbing them of their Sunday afternoon football.

I enjoyed immensely the pre-game ceremonies of tail gating, the obvious recklessness of the activity being conducted on a mass scale. It wasn’t my first time of course, but with a football team that had a chance to be 5-0 after coming off a playoff year previously, there was a lot of hope in the air. Because the weather was warm there were the typical fair weather types mixed with the hard-core maniacs who come all dressed up to the stadium for war. Some people had fixed up school buses dedicated to the Bengals they tail gated out of, some had million dollar RVs all decorated up in the team colors. There was an obvious sizable investment that people had dedicated themselves to for the exclusive enjoyment of those three hours of battle. So it was even more intense that all the pent-up emotion before the game was released after the game with an overtime win against a good team. The economic engine driving the experience mandated a bold support of capitalism to generate that type of energy. There was no danger of Bolsheviks generating a communist revolution among NFL tailgaters. There was a lot of conflicting human behaviors on full display, but generally it was all very optimistic and healthy—and uniquely American.

If I had to pick a hero of that particular game it wasn’t the enthusiastic crowd, Andy Dalton, A.J. Green or the coaching staff—it was Carlos Dunlap. I watched him carefully between downs even when the fourth quarter started; the Seahawks had the ball and were up 17 points surely headed to a victory. Dunlap, number 96, was in position dancing around as enthusiastic as if the game were just starting. I put the victory on his shoulders because it was obvious that the Bengals as a team fed off his energy. His body language carried the crowd and the team in a time when it would have been acceptable to start looking toward the next game regarding the present one as hopeless. I thought he was the unsung hero of the day. It’s that kind of football that makes a distinct difference between the one that is played around the rest of the world with soccer and rugby. In American football, sure it’s a team sport, but the individual often has a more important role than the collective efforts of the team. Not everyone understands that, but it’s obvious if you know what you are looking for. Carlos Dunlap had it. It didn’t show up on the games I’ve watched on television, but it was sure present in the stadium while the TV audience was in commercial breaks. Dunlap was all energy all the time and that had to be the momentum killer for Seattle. I know the story of the game was that Dalton went after Sherman and all that—but it was Dunlap who led the way for the Bengals to win that game. In the fourth quarter that defense turned down the screws and that is what put the offense back on the field three times in the fourth to secure a tie, then an eventual win. That was the key to the game led by Carlos Dunlap.

Overall, the Bengals did a good job as an entire organization. I have been critical of them, but I admired the effort from the people behind the scenes who made all the graphics on the score board, to the sound guys, to the people who scheduled all the special guests—to the employees in the Club section who were professional and enthusiastic about providing a great experience for the people in those areas. Even the police outside trying to manage the traffic were in on the fun. It was a wonderful experience for me. I liked it so much that I almost bought a Carlos Dunlap jersey—almost. If there had been one in the pro shop outside my seat entry at the Club section, I would have bought it. The product of the Bengals had improved enough for me to consider it.

I waited for the crowd to clear after the game and sat in the lounge watching recaps of the other NFL games. My Tampa Bay Bucs had won 38 to 31 but that didn’t impress me because they gave up way too many points for my liking. Still, it was a pretty good day to cap off a nice week. The NFL offers a great product that is important to American philosophy—a mixture of not such good things with a whole lot of things that are. But one thing that it isn’t is calm, passive, or in any form conciliatory against fever pitched competition. And that’s what I loved most; the intensity, the furious melodrama of strategic objectives set against a ticking clock, and the high-pitched temperament of a packed crowd excited about a 5-0 start to the season after an overtime win on a beautiful afternoon. It was something I will always treasure as a sports fan.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

What Carlos Todd and Donald Trump Had in Common: Eminent domain and the opening of Liberty Center

The Donald Trump speech from Norcross, Georgia at the North Atlanta Trade Center on Saturday October 10, 2015 was particularly telling of American politics. It was a great speech and it should be watched—seen below. Just a day later after the Sunday morning talk shows Trump continued to beat on the same kind of drum. Trump’s accusations were confirmed when Obama appeared on 60 Minutes later that same day after the football games and was grilled by Steve Kroft over the destabilization of the Middle East, also shown below. In that 60 Minutes segment was discussion over the upheavals in the Republican Party after a week of nobody wanting to be Speaker of the House—because of the Freedom Caucus. There is a lot going on, and it’s very clear that only someone like Donald Trump is equipped to handle the very volatile situation. Obama clearly is not privy to the current trends—he’s in extreme denial—as is most of the Beltway.

On issues regarding the Second Amendment, trade, immigration and economic growth, Trump is a far right conservative—so much so that Republicans should be drooling within the party at his intentions. He has the ability to market the Party in a new way they haven’t enjoyed since Ronald Reagan and they’d do well to embrace him. On the other hand, he is rather liberal regarding taxes, healthcare, and eminent domain. I could argue all day long with Trump on those issues—but they are his thoughts and he couldn’t do any worse than what we’ve had so far. I am willing to take what’s right with Trump metaphorically, and literally and offset the negatives because he is the kind of person who can get things done—and things need to get done. The Party bosses may not like Trump, but they’d be stupid to pass up on the chance of a lifetime. Trump would build a wall on the southern border, he’d expand the military, and he’d restructure the tax system all while stimulating the economy which are all things he’s capable as president to have a direct influence on, and at 70 years old, Trump has enough gas in the tank for one last spectacular decade of his life and America should give him a shot to go out with a bang. Obama has already embarrassed America—stepped all over the Constitution, and caused irreparable damage on Capital Hill. Only extreme success can fix the situation now.

As the Liberty Center shopping complex begins to open in my hometown it is ironic that one of the biggest Republican Party bosses in Butler County’s history was laid to rest. Essentially the Liberty Center shopping complex was made possible because of eminent domain. I was always against the Butler County Regional Highway construction which ran right through all the areas I used to play as a kid. Carlos Todd was a developer who built the Republican Party base in Butler County to essentially use crony capitalism to complete his building projects. Our political system is so dysfunctional that the only way to get projects done on a massive scale is to purchase politicians with money and loyalty—and Carlos Todd was one of the masters. He died at 77 eventually to his battle with cancer leaving quite a power vacuum in his wake.

I was in firm opposition to Todd and his Butler County associates Michael Fox and Bob Shelly as the Butler County Regional Highway used largely eminent domain to destroy my childhood home, a cemetery that had Revolutionary War soldiers in it, and several Indian Mounds that populated the area destroying a lot of potential archaeology. I thought of Todd as evil incarnate on the face of the earth because the Republican Party led by him was buying up property to develop for their projects stepping all over the rights of private citizens in the process. It was incredibly wrong and I was made even more furious when they took my father to a baseball game where the developers had a nice private box and convinced him to sell to Todd all in the name of progress. Their basic sales pitch was, sell and profit, or fight and be destroyed. They had the power of government to destroy, so he should take the money. I had been willing to fight them to the ends of the earth with any means necessary, but it was my father’s property—and his right to do with it whatever he wanted. So the developers got their way.

Well, Michael Fox eventually went to jail, Bob Shelley got into sexual harassment troubles and was pushed out of his trustee seat, and Todd drifted off into the shadows as his grandson took over the family business. There has been a lot of change and upheaval since then as the Regional Highway was built and slowly development began to appear around it. Bridgewater Falls is just such a development, which I have slowly come to enjoy over the years. Liberty Center is the latest, and most spectacular, but was it worth all the pain it caused people to run all over their property rights to build it?

When I started No Lakota Levy all the characters from those eminent domain fights joined together with me to fight the Lakota levy because the local public school was blocking out some of those developers from further work and the district had reached a saturation point. Developers had built all the buildings they could hope to ever construct leaving the taxes enormously high on all future development tipping the balance away from everything that had been built by them. I had always been against the explosive growth because of the sustainability of it, so now I was on the same side as people like Carlos Todd and the developers he largely controlled. It was strange to get to know all of them from a perspective on the other side of the fence. Most of the emails I sent or received had Carlos Todd copied on them so he was well aware of what we were doing and it threw me back to when I was in opposition with him and I was able to map out how he controlled things from a distance. My hatred subsided toward him because I saw what he was doing—he used government—which had stuck itself in every crevice it could over a long period of time—to hedge the bets for his projects in his favor. I couldn’t argue his method or reasoning. The developers were productive people making things that didn’t exist previously—and that was a good thing. Some of them I liked quite a lot, some I didn’t. I worked with them and just did my thing eventually doing as I always do—just sort of taking over. When the heat got too hot for them they checked out and we parted ways. Every time we’d meet toward the end they’d try to poke me into running for office, so I deliberately sabotaged the relationship with them to get out of that circle not because I disliked them, but because I needed to maintain my own course.

I’m sure Todd would have liked to see the Liberty Center open, but he didn’t quite make it. I am proud that its there, and of all the hard work many people endeavored to construct it. I think it’s a miracle of economic activity and the best minds of architecture. But was it worth it? Was it worth the building of the Butler County Regional Highway? The destroyed lives, the destroyed history and the integrity of Butler County politics? The answer is yes—even though it cost me personally. True, the world would have been better if everything had been left alone, but there’s a lot to be said about creating something from nothing and I appreciate that more than stagnation for the benefit of sentimentality.

The reason I told that story is that establishment Republicans, many of which were put in place because of people like Carlos Todd have mostly committed vast amounts of evil using eminent domain to destroy the lives of many. Donald Trump is not alone in that effort and he shares a lot in common with Carlos Todd, a developer who used politics to get what he needed to accomplish done. Getting to know Todd and his troops well from the other side of the fence I was able to see what was really in their heart. Sure, some people were bad, and they went to jail, lost their seats or ended up wiped from the face of the earth one way or another. But the good ones endured because through competition there really is no other way to sustain your essence, but through authenticity, and Carlos Todd was authentic—just as Donald Trump is. No question when you do things that relate to other people, they will have an opinion one way or the other. The judgment of a person’s character is determined by how they act under pressure. What people do under pressure validates their worth—and Todd showed that he had a lot. I might not always like what he planned to do, but his effort had purity to it. But within that purity there were many people who were trampled on and were smacked around quite a lot.

The real answer is to get politics out of development and remove many of the regulations that cause all this evil. Until that happens people like Carlos Todd and Donald Trump will work the system to their advantage. That is why I feel that Trump—after a lifetime of making deals and running over people can actually straighten out the mess of politics and its terrible relationship to business. Ideological people who have not built things themselves but were relegated to just giving their opinions about things do not have the benefit of my life where I’ve been very active on both sides and know clearly where the line is drawn. I can only treasure that opportunity because it gave me the philosophic foundations to understand all these complexities without losing sight of the real objective—economic growth, the sanctity of private property, and the evil of a system that the most clever among us learn to use to get things done—in spite of the desire of that system to destroy all thought and action. Donald Trump is an insider, and I would love to see what someone like him—who likely hates the system as much as I do, would commit himself to if given a chance to right the ship in ways that Carlos Todd never came close to achieving. But for Republicans to turn on Trump as a radical maniac who would wreck the party—they are in denial at what put them in office in the first place. They’d be wise to get behind Trump for the strength he provides and for giving them an opportunity to have their office seats. Because without people like Carlos Todd, Donald Trump and eminent domain—most of them would still be small time hacks looking for an opportunity that would never come otherwise.

The only way to change the system is from the inside by someone who knows it better than anybody. That’s why I’m voting for Trump. His use of eminent domain and the guilt I’m sure he feels about it I think would make a person determined to correct that situation for the benefit of economic wonder which everyone would eventually enjoy. Trump is in a position to morally build a philosophy of growth by utilizing the lessons learned from crony capitalism into a more laissez-faire system perhaps for the first time since the first few decades of America’s creation. And that would be wonderful.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

The Needs of Men and Women: Why it’s cowardly not to throw oneself into a hail of bullets–if needed

It really is shocking sometimes to read what those on the political left think these days when pressed against times of circumstance. These school shootings recently are bringing out all the failures in political thought starting with education and shining a light on them that obviously Salon magazine can’t face. The common ingredient between the Oregon shooter, the recent Arizona University shooting, and even the fight that left French train hero Spencer Stone stabbed after a bar altercation, is that they all feature young males trying desperately to assert themselves in a confusing world. Progressives have spent so much time trying to make women equal to men, all colors of skin to integrate, and sexual orientation to feel comfortable operating without secrecy in society—that they forgot that one of the most intense needs young men have of all shapes, sizes and backgrounds is the need to determine their place in the pecking order of their existence. There is a real science behind these crises that is obviously completely missing from an article by Heather Digby Parton at Salon trying to piece together why both Donald Trump and Ben Carson—leading the GOP pack of presidential candidates have exhibited themselves as so “pro gun.” Read that article at the link below, it is rather funny.

http://www.salon.com/2015/10/07/they_think_theyre_all_clint_eastwood_donald_trump_ben_carson_the_rights_demented_gun_fantasies/

I’m sure Heather is a nice girl. In fact I had dinner with a whole room full of Heather types recently at a winery where the premier topic among them was the movie Magic Mike, and reruns of Friends. Their dates—if you could call them that sat patiently by them as the women knocked wine glasses together and giggled like school girls over topics like six-pack abs and lesbian fantasies of accidentally putting on the other person’s underwear the next morning before leaving for the office. The men looked rather lost, not really knowing when to laugh or when to look emotionally invested. They all looked like men who had missed the train at the station and had to wait until the next day to catch the next one. It was an upscale place, but the game was obvious. Even through I’ve never met Heather Digby Parton from Salon—her kind was clearly present at the dinner engagement and guns were a taboo subject.

I was walking back to my seat after getting up to view the wine cellar and a young man actually engaged me in conversation—which I really didn’t have time for, but could tell he was desperately seeking some testosterone driven guidance. I told him what I usually do under such circumstances—that he needed to take his date to the back seat of whatever car they arrived in and give her what she’s really looking for instead of another two hours of all that hen cackling for which he and she were suffering. She’d stay on his arm for the rest of the evening and drop all the contemporary drama of not being able to find soap at Bed Bath and Beyond. About that time I received a message that the longtime leader of the Republican Party of Butler County had died. Carlos Todd was a significant figure in shaping the Republican Party nationwide as John Boehner, George Bush in 2004, and many others have cut their teeth in politics in his wake. Butler County is largely extremely conservative because of him and now he was dead at the fairly young age of 77. That left me thinking about modern girls who joke about lesbian acts in front of their male dates, Donald Trump and guns, and some of the fights I personally had with Carlos Todd over the years where I didn’t think he was conservative enough for my taste. Even though he and I disagreed about a lot of things, we did join together on some fights. Where our disagreements often flowed over it was on the Republican strategy of appealing to these modern types taught in the manner of progressivism to adhere to a new code of conduct that ignored the male need for boldness by instead encouraging them to sissy slap each other and join the ladies in mixing up their underwear with their fellow male counterparts in the morning. Not a good idea on any scale.

The Republican Party has suffered because it moved off its macho base and tried to appeal to what they thought was a changing demographic. The demographic needs did not change, young men still desire to prove to young women how tough they are and when their rope runs out, they sometimes turn to violence to display their last act of courage—from their point of view. And women as much as they think it’s stylish to hyphenate their last names to show that they are not assimilated to a man by way of marriage really just want a determined man who can make them feel like a woman while engaged in sexual mating customs. And that’s why I actually feel bad for Heather Digby Parton and those who read her Salon magazine article and actually understood her point of view.

Every human being should know that if bullets are flying that in that moment acts of heroism are mandated. It’s OK to be shot, or to be stabbed several times like Spencer Stone was during his recent bar fight. For a man it feels good to collect new scars even if it means you die in the process. It feels good to be heroic. I can say what I’d do if under the threat of gun fire honestly because I’ve been in those situations. Let me say, I’ve never put my hands up and turned over my wallet, or allowed my woman to be insulted, or my personal integrity—gun or not. So I completely understand Donald Trump’s comments in the wake of the Oregon shooting where he resurrected images of great vigilante films like Death Wish by making guns out of his hand in front of the audience pretending to quick draw. Yes it is cowardly Heather Digby Parton to not throw yourself into a hail of bullets if there is danger present. It is worse to cower like a baby pleading for your life than in dying through the act of heroics. Because our current society is so obsessed with homosexual acts and equality blending the hard-working with the lazy it has missed the deep need humans have for heroes even if that act costs them their life. Clicking wine glasses together and joking about overly estrogen necessities at the expense of masculinity won’t make a more peaceful world—it makes it more dangerous—which should be obvious after the recent school shootings. Donald Trump is proving what I have been trying to convince Carlos Todd Republicans for a number of years—that if you really want to expand the Republican Party you don’t do it by feminizing the candidates. You put up bold heroes to represent conservativism.

Young men need danger and to overcome it to prove to themselves and their potential mates that they have the potential to act heroically. Progressivism seeks to remove that desire from the human mind—which is impossible without thousands of years of evolution. Women in their sexual roles are built biologically to crave a bloody, sweaty man—and men are programmed to save damsels in distress properly perfumed and highlighted with all the latest supernormal sign stimuli (eye shadow, lipstick, blush, high heels, etc). Most women when pressed will say that the two things they are most attracted to with men are their smell and their confidence. Women are not so interested in visual attributes like six-pack abs and the strippers in Magic Mike—they actually want a deeply confident male to sweep them off their feet—even after all the decades of progressive education attempts to equalize the sexes by ignoring the strength of one and artificially propping up the other. Both have suffered and the males are lashing out in ways that are proving detrimental to the safety of our nation.

So guys, if you have an opportunity to stop a robbery, fight a bully who is picking on other people, or just standing up for an idea that you believe in, you will do better with the ladies than if you try to appease them by watching chick flicks and giggling like an idiot at their estrogen based diatribes. Women don’t really want you to giggle at that stuff either, and they really don’t care if you pretty yourself up with cologne, hairspray and well-pressed cloths. Like the girls I mentioned joking about getting their underwear mixed up after a rough night in the sheets—girls can get that kind of stuff with each other—they truly don’t need a man for that. But, people in general do recognize that it is cowardly to hide when the bullets fly and danger is at its peak. Donald Trump clearly knows that. Carlos Todd never really accepted it. But the Republican Party is deciding, just as millions of human beings are turning against the teachings of progressivism represented by Salon writers like Heather, that they don’t want to live in a world run by cowards. So in these changing times, those who invoke the gun know what they are doing. Those who hide from it just sip wine and make jokes as the times leave them behind just as masculinity was deliberately left standing at the loading deck as the train of modernism pulled away only to break down a few miles down the track—because there wasn’t anybody around who knew how to fix it. There are worse things than death, and being a coward is one of them.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

My New Ruger Vaquero: A best friend that brings out the best in humanity

There is nothing about my new Ruger Vaquero .45 that speaks of violence to me. Looking at it all I think about is cowboy trick shooting and stunts that can be performed with it. It is to me equivalent to a nicely made basketball intended to be thrown into a net by a good athlete, or a wonderful pair of golf clubs meant to drive a ball across a vast green into a hole 400 yards away in increments.   Shooting with the Vaquero shown in the picture is essentially a sport where science and skill combine into hitting a target under timed circumstances. There is nothing violent about the act whatsoever. Guns might have been invented out of war like necessity and the sport of shooting to practice for that eventuality—but the sport of shooting is just another human endeavor intended to test skill against adversity with the drama of competition to drive image

What struck me on this particular gun—as they all do these days is the nice messaging that often comes with them. Ruger in this case was grateful for my purchase and the supplied literature made it clear. It showed to me a serious interest by the Ruger Company to build a solid base of customer support for a product unquestionably made in America by good, hard working people. The gun feels like a well-crafted work of art, its machining is immaculate, the tolerances on its critical junctures well inspected, and it feels incredibly competent. This is not a company that should be targeted by liberal hate groups. Ruger is not a company making death—it makes life, and tradition. There is nothing about my Ruger Vaquero that speaks of violence if a person really understands what shooting is all about in the world of sport. It’s a fine tool to me for exhibiting traditional American art forms, and it’s a miracle of modern science—more sophisticated than driving a golf ball into a hole, or throwing a football 50 yards down field into the arms of a waiting receiver. To me the Vaquero by Ruger is the ultimate individual sport where great power is incorporated into the mechanisms of great engineering and it deserves to be respected as such.

But it’s not lost to me how grateful the Ruger Company is with each purchase made of their firearms. It is because of their attitude toward their customers that I get a special feeling whenever I see the emblem blazed across a t-shirt of hat, or on a banner at a competition. I know they care about their customers in spite of a world led by liberals that wants to eradicate them from the face of the planet because those political minds want to make the company into a representation of hate and violence. Football is a violent sport, golf clubs are sometimes used as weapons of hate when they are slammed over the head of a victim, but political advocates don’t seek to ban golf courses or the sport of golf. The gun has a special hatred aimed at it because liberals have no idea or desire to understand that guns like the Vaquero are designed for much more than hunting or self defense—they are built for the sport of the Cowboy Fast Draw.

In such groups as those in the preservation of the Wild West arts are some of the best people I have ever met. The world would be a whole lot better off if more people interacted with these great Americans. And on the hips of most of them are often Vaqueros by Ruger. They wear them openly in public often and nobody ever gets shot, and there are seldom ever hard words spoken to others. There is almost always respect for their fellow shooters. Within that alliance of sportsman they revere each other with camaraderie that is exceptionally healthy and overwhelmingly positive.

When I picked up my Vaquero at Right 2 Arms it was the owner’s parents who were working the store and were armed behind the counter. There was no reason to feel apprehension at that visible support of what looked like a Glock holstered on the father. We proceeded to have a very nice conversation about Gatlinburg, Tennessee while the background check came through for me. They were good people and I looked over my Vaquero as they spoke about their upcoming vacation plans. It was good, healthy conversation among highly armed people who invoked no danger whatsoever. Instead, the presence of guns elevated our interaction to something of respectful banter united under support for the 2nd Amendment.

Just two days prior I had a wonderful lunch with some VIP’s within the shooting world. We talked about gun ranges, plans for helping the youth through learning marksmanship, and the bad rap that guns were getting in the wake of the Oregon shooting.   I enjoyed the company more than I would if the conversation were a usual business lunch where all the things that people really like are talked around because of political correctness. With these guys, we could all just be ourselves which was refreshing. It was much better to talk about things that really interested us instead of sports scores and the season trajectory of our favorite football teams. There always is a solid foundation of realness that comes from those types of lunches as opposed to others that feel like a clip on tie at a wedding. It confirmed much of what I have been feeling lately about firearms and their role behind the American experience. We need to be more proud of that heritage, not less so.

I mentioned to the guys at the power lunch that we needed to market firearms differently as a public perception—that as shooters we needed to stop riding the ropes of the obvious political fights we are without question in. We need to get into the center of the ring and control the fight from that position instead of just taking the shots to the face and hoping to outlast our opponents—the gun grabbers, the liberal radicals teaching in our public schools, and the political class that wants to turn America back into an aristocracy similar to Europe—instead of one founded on independence from gun possession.

The reason my Vaquero as opposed to other guns I have bought is so special is that its purpose is exclusively for use as a cowboy shooter for the sport of Western Arts. It is the type of single action that won the West in America and that means a lot to me symbolically, and the sports that have risen up in the wake of that historical memory is not much different from the battlefield strategies of football. The games might have been invented by inclinations of war, but they evolve into camaraderie and tradition that brings out the best that a society has to offer. The gun in America exhibits the best of this example.

The summation of my contacts the week that I picked up my Vaquero at Right 2 Arms is guns make people better—not worse as progressive politics suggests. The political left had misdiagnosed the root cause of human evil and sold it back to society in a package of deceit. When that deceit is removed and Americans are allowed to wear their firearms on their hips, and discuss them as extensions of themselves, a higher quality in people emerges built out of respect. The knowledge that domination of the another person is not possible—so a respectful exchange emerges between human beings when both have guns. The trouble emerges when that relationship is lopsided, where a maniac is armed and a peaceful person is not—that’s where abuse happens. But Ruger is not about feeding that fear—they are about making America a better place and that sentiment begins with the simple thank you note that they package with their guns. I felt honored to open up my new Vaquero. It’s an honor to have such a fine gun from such a quality company. As is typical of most gun manufacturers, they are examples of what’s best about American manufacturing and that is certainly the case with Ruger. They are one of the very best, and every time I look at my Ruger Vaquero, I will think of what’s best about America and the culture that should otherwise thrive in a society open to gun use for the skills that emerge from them in sports.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

End of The Drudge Report: A calm before the next American Civil War

Well, the full court press by progressives is on and they have shown their cards. In the wake of another round of gun violence it is obvious what the strategy is. Matt Drudge gave a rare interview with Alex Jones predicting the end of his famous internet news site The Drudge Report because of something a Supreme Court Justice said to him. The next Civil War is well at hand—because of progressive intrusions, and while there is still civility the mechanisms for which they control is attempting to shape the battle ground. They want to control the media in all aspects so they can cut the lines of communication between free people. They want to disarm the public so that there is little resistance to their incursion. And they are selling all this effort with a perceived professionalism that is rather dangerous. Watch Matt’s interview here which sounds remarkably similar to the interview I gave to my friend Matt Clark recently. Click here to review that. Watch the Drudge interview here:

I agree with Wayne LaPierre, the head of the National Rifle Association (NRA), when he famously claimed that “the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun.” There are a lot of bad guys out there, at all levels of the world. Some are thugs in the streets looking to steal from those who work; others just want to terrorize to satisfy their own infantile egos. Low level terrorists work through radical groups, or are individuals crazed with hate. More sophisticated terrorists hide their maliciousness behind orthodox behavior and reside within the world’s governments. And it is they who speak through the work of publications like The Nation which said the following in reaction to Wayne LaPierre’s gunslinger comments about private armament.

The Nation spoke to several people who do—combat veterans and former law enforcement officers—and who believe that the NRA’s heroic gunslinger mythology is a dangerous fantasy that bears little resemblance to reality. Stephen Benson knows what it’s like when bullets start flying. The former Navy SEAL saw extensive combat during his three tours in Vietnam. Later, while recovering from the wounds that earned him his third Purple Heart, he also trained elite troops at the Naval Special Warfare Center in Coronado, California. “In chaotic situations, the first thing you know is that the shit has hit the fan and you don’t know where the fan is,” says Benson. “And unless it’s constantly drilled into you, it’s very hard to maintain discipline in those situations. You’re immediately hit with a massive thump of adrenaline. Your mouth begins to taste like copper. You can hear the blood moving in your system. You can even experience a kind of time-warp. And the problem with that kind of state is that conscious thought shuts down because you’ve been taken over by your nervous system, and your nervous system is saying, ‘holy shit, things just got really bad.’”

http://www.thenation.com/article/combat-vets-destroy-the-nras-heroic-gunslinger-fantasy/

As a connected issue to all the above progressives are looking toward Australia as a solution to the gun control avocation they support most. In Australia essentially the government bought back guns from the public, kind of like the cash for clunkers program seen in the United States a few years ago. The big difference is that if people refused to participate, they were threatened with jail. The Australian 1996 National Agreement on Firearms was not a benign set of commonsense gun-control rules: It was a gun-confiscation program rushed through the Australian parliament just twelve days after a 28-year-old man killed 35 people with a semi-automatic rifle in the Tasmanian city of Port Arthur. The Council of Foreign relations summarizes the Aussie measure nicely: The National Agreement on Firearms all but prohibited automatic and semiautomatic assault rifles, stiffened licensing and ownership rules, and instituted a temporary gun buyback program that took some 650,000 assault weapons (about one-sixth of the national stock) out of public circulation. Among other things, the law also required licensees to demonstrate a “genuine need” for a particular type of gun and take a firearm safety course. The council’s laudatory section on Australian gun-control policy concludes that “many [read: gun-control activists] suggest the policy response in the wake of Port Arthur could serve as a model for the United States.”

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/425021/australia-gun-control-obama-america

So there you can see dear reader how the collective consciousness of mass progressives—globally induced is establishing its attack run on American liberty. First, they intend to shut down free speech by strong individual advocates, like Drudge. Next they wish to continue to establish trust in a central authority, like public school teachers, and police run by international trade unions philosophically committed to socialism. Then they plan to disarm society under the guise of safety. Their only opposition is in building up public momentum against their individual enemies with public sentiment. Now that you know that much, go back and listen to the Drudge interview once again and listen carefully. The guy has been at the top of his game for two decades and knows most of the major media personalities in the United States on all sides of the political spectrum. He’s not a conspiracy wack job. He’s a very real and conscientious person.

As to the assertion that NRA gunslingers are no match for the well-seasoned combat veteran let me put that one to rest. Without question there are many brave people who serve in the armed forces—but to me that is part of the problem of mass collectivism. They are effectively employees of the government and if the government goes bad, they become the enemy against liberty—so there must be checks against their power with individual—and equal ability. But let’s be clear about something, and I know I’m not the only one out there—but under strenuous situations I trust myself far more than any police or military officer to remain cool under fire. If I were not a married man, I would be a contractor such as what works around the world outside of the military services, so professional soldiers don’t impress me. And most cops are such a panicky lot that they make fools of themselves all too often during traffic stops and late night run-ins with drunks at bars. CLICK FOR AN EXAMPLE IN MY TOWN. I certainly don’t want police officers and military personnel to have supreme command over my life and property. No disrespect to them, but they need checks and balances from a civilian presence who is better armed in most cases to keep them honest.

I’ve been shot at, been under severe threat, had guns pointed at me and been under every kind of danger imaginable and I don’t rattle. An explosion could go off right next to me and I’d be under complete control. I can control my adrenaline, and I actually thrive when the “shit hits the fan.” I enjoy those moments and I purposely look for reasons to be in such circumstances. There are many Americans like me just as there were people like that in Australia—people like Rod Ansell who was the inspiration for the movie character Crocodile Dundee.   Ansell was shot dead in a gun battle with police in 1999 two years into the gun ban when authorities came to the outback master’s remote home—blocked off the road and fought it out with the old hold-out. There are a lot of people like Ansell in the world, and everyone is much safer with them armed and free.

Make no mistake about it. The intentions from villains hiding behind certified law are lurking for excuses to unleash their ideology upon everything they see standing in their path. If they could, and will likely attempt by virtual of law, is to make an outlaw out of Matt Drudge, just as they did Rod Ansell. When Ansell was killed by multiple gunshot wounds the authorities excused the effort through the rationalization of insanity—that Rod and his 26-year-old girlfriend were hyperactive drug addicts obsessed with an attempt by the Freemasons to take over the world. Since this new breed of criminal has taken off the masks they used to rob banks with, becoming lawyers and law makers instead, they create now the means for looting by legal means—so they can make outlaws of Ansell, Drudge, and anyone else with the signature of a pen instead of the point of the gun—because when all the guns are collected, they’ll still have them—then it will be too late. So you better know what kind of game you are playing and who is moving the pieces and not white-wash the reality with any illusions. We have a Civil War on our hands—the shots just haven’t been fired yet. But they will be—and when that happens, make sure you are a card-carrying member of Second Call Defense so you can stay out of jail while the legal system still works. There will come a time when it won’t, but until then protect yourself. Because nobody else will.   At that point those public sector security types will point their guns in your direction, just as they did at Rod Ansell in Australia. That is what Obama and his progressive friends are trying to create in the United States. The real fight is one of the mass collectivism against the individual—everywhere in the world. And in a world where collectivists make all the rules—it is the truly insane mandated by the weakest links of their order for which they define the rationality of people like Rod Ansell—which is why Matt Drudge is one of the biggest targets on the internet. First it will be people like him—then it will be everyone else.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

Stop Acting Like A Sissy: How to stop a form of suicide

We used to call a boy who wanted to dress up like, or act like a girl a sissy. Of course that was before liberals used the education system and every platform available to them to attempt to change words and values against the will of logic. Now calling someone a sissy is equivalent to a hate crime—but is the best term available to most people of the male sex these days. Being a sissy is not only disingenuous to themselves, it is to the wives and children they will have as adults, and it should be discouraged—in spite of the progressive attempts to eradicate the meaning of the word for the benefits of their social strategy of valueless assessment of all people no matter what the condition—because their aims are mass collectivism. That means essentially that the very good is equal to the very bad equating the human race to the value of zero—which explains a lot why our society is as messed up today as it is. Thank a progressive who pushed for society to stop calling flailing young boys, sissies.

Over a decade ago, 14 years or so as of this writing I saved a young man from committing suicide by invigorating in him the spark of life. He worked with me and for many consecutive days during a certain period of his life he was seriously about to end it all. He only kept going so that he could talk to me the next day at work so that he could get some little peril of wisdom that I’d give him as an excuse to keep living. I was glad each day that I saw him because it meant he listened to me and had not committed the act. Of course I didn’t take away what honor he had left and involve the authorities in the matter. Likely, if I had it would have only delayed the process by a few years. No, this kid needed to be fixed at the level of the soul, and he needed me to help him—so I did.

Largely his problem was that he had experimented with drugs, his sexuality, and his ethics and he felt it would be impossible for him to be a good person from there on. Usually people in his condition might turn toward God for redemption and the psychological mechanism of eternal forgiveness so that they could call themselves born again Christians. But this kid’s real father was a louse, his mother a slut and his sister was gutter trash. He really didn’t have any family support to nurture a church going turn-around. His live-in girl friend that he had three kids by was sleeping with everyone in town, his children were quickly headed down the tubes also and he really didn’t know what to do. Remarkably, he was a smart kid given the surroundings that he came from which made it worse for him—because he knew the hand he had been given in life was taking him somewhere that offered little hope for the future.

One particular day I didn’t think he’d make it through the break period at work. He was crying and was curled up in a fetal position on the ground ready to end it all. There was nothing that could reach him. So I thought of all the old John Wayne movies I had watched as a kid and did my best impression—with a straight face in all seriousness. I told him, “stop being a sissy and deal with what’s in front of you.” He looked at me through tears and asked how………………so I told him.

I taught him The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi, which is an old book on Japanese samurai strategy as a way to give the kid a fresh outlook on life—to take him out of his immediate problems and place his mind in a higher place. Each break at work I played the role of a Japanese sword master and worked with him on the art of sword play and a warrior’s philosophy. This went on for about two months, but within a few weeks of it, his desire for suicide went away. Instead he was reading books about samurai, watching old Kurosawa movies, and started dressing with a top knot pony tail off an otherwise shaved head. He was losing weight and within six weeks or so was a lean figure bulging with muscle. Instead of killing himself, he was building himself and his body took the form of a warrior. His top knot hair cut did get some looks, but for a kid who was planning to kill himself, what did he care if people thought his hair was strange. It worked for him, and he was building a life for himself around the values he had been learning.

He began practicing all the time with a katana swords at home, at work, and anywhere he went. Eventually he developed a new association of friends who shared with him a love of samurai culture and Japanese art and they invited him to a beach visit the following summer, and he took his swords and spent most of the time not chasing women, but practicing with his katana on the beach. He became very good and soon found a very nice girlfriend and got his life on the right track within a year of wanting to kill himself. He became very stoic and sure of himself because of his practicing with the katana sword following the code of the samurai.

That code of the samurai is still very present in modern Japan. It is not something they take lightly and something of samurai code can be found in most aspects of their culture to this very day. The Japanese would not put up with an anti-samurai movement in Japan. If such people rose up to challenge their heritage, they would likely eradicate them, because they value their heritage and the code of conduct established largely by myth of the Feudal period where samurai roamed their island homeland with great respect.

That kid to thank me gave me a very nice katana sword as a way to honor me for saving his life. That sword still hangs on a gun rack in my bedroom and I think about it at least once every day. Without my input that kid would have been dead. He knew it, I knew it, his kids knew it—everyone knew it. But all he really needed was a new set of values to sink his teeth into that were aligned with his inner most needs. His parents gave him a lot of garbage to work through and he needed to completely refocus his energy in a positive direction. For him he found solace in the way of the samurai.

In a lot of ways our nation is trying to commit suicide presently—here in 2015. It reminds me a lot of the way of life that individual kid was living when I first met him. It needs to find the values it requires to continue living. To me the answer is exceptionally easy. The rightful comparison to the Japanese samurai is the American gunfighter. The gunfighter is America’s heritage and a code of conduct that it can use to put itself back together again away from the terrible progressive influences that are deliberating attacking all aspects of the culture within the United States. It is my very strong feeling that the entire nation, just like that single kid, would fix itself quite quickly if it could adopt a correct code of conduct that all people could agree to—and the best solution to that quandary is the American gunfighter. So like that kid, I saw in his eye a chance to introduce a healing philosophy to him, I see the same on the American nation as a whole. But for our nation we don’t need sentiments from the East—we just need to look inside at our own heritage.

The answers are already there for us. All we need to do is rediscover the wonder of our own ability through an art form we respect. Young men really need to rediscover their inner warrior, and young women will appreciate it when they do. Because in life we all have to fight through hard times, and it takes sometimes a warrior’s mind to achieve the tenacity to accomplish the task—and in American culture the way of the warrior is through the art of the gun. Understanding that relationship will unlock many of the troubles our times are currently enduring. And before anything can be fixed, our relationship to the gun must be not only accepted, but embraced fully and with great love. It’s time for half the people in our country to stop being a bunch of sissies.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

A Career Change to Gunfighter: Hillary Clinton’s call for gun control is opposed to American lifestyles

It was expected yet ironic that Hillary Clinton in reaction to the latest mass shooting in Oregon announced that she would make gun control a central theme of her run for President of the United States. First of all, ironic not just because she is a criminal herself, but because I spent the first weekend of October 2015 on a life changing mission dedicated to the future promotion of the Second Amendment. When I announced a few weeks ago that my next career would be that of a gunfighter—I was quite serious. But between now and then I have many thousands of hours of practice and many tens of thousands of spent money to get where I want to be with that new career. It will be a long process of which I am just starting. I have shot guns a lot over the years and am good with them now. But what I’m talking about is a whole new level where timing is measured within a quarter of a second. Given that progressive politicians like Hillary are going in one way, I am decisively going in the opposite to not only even out the imposition that these gun grabbing politicians are attempting, but to resurrect a marketing of firearms that worked years ago that I have decided needed to be implemented again. I’m talking about the kind of America that we all know and love from the famous Christmas Story movie that plays every Holiday Season where the little boy dreamed fervently about owning his own Red Ryder BB gun. Hillary and her gang of loony progressives are and have always been at war with that traditional American culture and I’m personally sick of it. So I looked in the mirror and decided I’m going to do something about it. And I have taken those first hard steps over the last several days.

I am proud to announce that I am officially a member of the Cowboy Fast Draw Association and several other gun related groups, which is unusual for me. I typically stay away from memberships, but in this case I’ll make the exception. We are in an ideological Civil War in this country and you have to pick a side—and I have. And when I do engage myself in such an activity I don’t choose to lose. I have also made a commitment to Second Call Defense for the same reasons that I joined Cowboy Fast Draw. I am going to make these organizations a part of my daily life and help them in ways that I can. I consider them extremely important to preserving what I love about America. However the things I say, I say on behalf of myself as an individual, not on behalf of them—so let’s make that clear as we go forward.

As far as fast guns to me single action firearms are the fastest. They have less moving parts than semiautomatics and don’t jam up on the feed mechanisms. So in that respect a good portion of the technology invented at the turn of the 20th century was the fastest and most reliable in firearm manufacture. That is the reason that Cowboy Fast Draw is the fastest sport there is, and why there needs to be more promotion of it to the mass marketplace. The first step for my participation in this new endeavor was to purchase a new .45 Ruger Vaquero which I did over the weekend at Right 2 Arms gun shop which is essentially in my back yard. One thing about where I live, which I am very happy about, there are three gun shops within a few miles of my house, real legitimate shops that have a constantly good stock of ammunition and firearms. I am thankful for them. I am particularly sentimental of Mike Reed at Right 2 Arms because he’s a great guy who is making it happen the right way. Then within a few dozen miles of my home is of course a Bass Pro Shop, a Cabela’s and a Dick’s Sporting goods all of which have a decent selection of firearms. God bless America! It felt good to purchase such an important gun from a good, all American gun shop at Right 2 Arms. It felt good buying it.

Of course then my next investment which as a large one—actually bigger than the gun was the targeting equipment needed for Cowboy Fast Draw. The timing lights and targets themselves are pretty sophisticated for a shooting sport and need to be acquired since times less than a second are needed to measure. If a Fast Draw shooter has times over one second, they are too slow, so the targets are needed to work with in knowing how to practice. I will be setting up in the coming months a special range in my basement just for this equipment. To be honest, it was in understanding all this equipment that has been the biggest hindrance to jumping into this sport for me. It is the key to learning Fast Draw.

Equally important is the holster rig needed for shooting Fast Draw. I’ve wanted a good one for many years now, but couldn’t justify it for just range shooting. The holster rig must have a metal lining to allow the revolver cylinder to turn within the holster so not to slow down the shooter and a deflection plate is good to have to keep the gun from going off into your feet. Fast draw largely uses wax bullets and powder charges in competition, so a really good holster is needed for both speed and safety. For me it had to be an official Mernickle Holster that I’ve had my eye on for at least a decade. Those rigs are custom-made for each customer, so it will take a few months to get it. But I bought the one I wanted and it wasn’t cheap.

After buying all those items to celebrate my wife and I took our grandson to the Wild West Festival out in Eastern Cincinnati—beyond the Eastgate Mall by about 15 miles east. I had been meaning to go as some of the people I have known over the years within the Western Arts community perform there. Through Gery Deer I know the Pickle Brothers act and their sword swallowing displays complete with fire and freakish spectacle. There were some fun gun fights and a pretty good Wild West act in the main saloon. The environment was wonderful and really put a cherry on top of the weekend for me since I had just deeply committed myself to another few decades of fun with Western Arts with a whole new skill development. I was certainly in the right mindset to go to that particular festival.

As I watched my grandson take the new gun my wife bought for him around the town and shoot everyone he met, I thought about Hillary Clinton and what a fit she would have if she witnessed a three-year old child shooting everyone he met. Progressives like her would want me arrested for child endangerment. But in that Wild West environment, everyone played along. When he shot street vendors, they pretended to die. He actually shot the gunfighters who roamed the streets and gratefully died spectacular deaths to give my grandson that taste of being a Wild West hero on the hunt for bad guys. When I was a kid, I mostly played those types of games and I have never been at risk to shoot anybody for anything. When I have been in conflict with others, melee combat has been just fine. It’s perfectly healthy for young boys to play with guns so that they can adapt their emotional stability to a proper, healthy red-blooded American man who holds doors open for young ladies, and works hard into the night to care for his family. Not having those types of values gives you people like Bill Clinton—Hillary’s husband, the former president who has conducted his life as a sex crazed lunatic who craves power so he can have access to the girls who love it. During the Wild West period of westward expansion and all the romance that was born of that era, brave families risked everything to live on the frontier to essentially get away from people like Hillary Clinton, big government aristocrats who want to rule the lives of everyone to satisfy their own egos. But in our modern age, there isn’t anywhere left in the world to run to, so the ideologies of what made America great through guns, and the progressives who are so in love with Europe that they always want to remake the world into the image of that debacle of historic failure—are clashing and there’s only room for one side—as the two clearly can’t co-habituate. Progressives are unwilling to get along with people who are not like them—timid specimens of fear and loathing.

All this activity left me feeling very good about America. It was nice to be free for a little while of the parasitic decay so commonly associated with progressive types, like Hillary Clinton. It was a little shocking after all that reverie to hear from them their latest attempts to remove guns from American culture which left me thinking hard about why I enjoyed all these gun related events so much. My conclusion is that the American gunfighter is a unique concept in the world invented here in the United States during the frontier period. It was largely an invention of myth based on actual history surrounding heroes and villains that emerged in the Old West from around 1850 to 1900. The romance and freedom associated with gunslingers at Wild West festivals which excite boyish enthusiasm in young and old alike are unique inventions of American capitalism. The deep-rooted assumption is that guns guarantee freedom because it prevents a larger, faster, or more aggressive lunatic from imposing their will upon individuals. It doesn’t matter if the force of aggression is a country or another individual, the gun allows people the security of being self-reliant—and it’s a comforting concept. It is there that people like Hillary Clinton are so wrong and out-of-step with the correct way to socially carry our nation to the next philosophic step. The world in general has banned guns, and their economies and their people are suffering because of that decision. America has a different experience, it has been defined by revolution and expansion—where the American gunfighter is the pinnacle ingredient of its national mythology. For that reason I am very proud of my decision and I look forward immensely to being a part of the Cowboy Fast Draw Association. It is one of the few groups I find it a pleasure to be associated with because of its well-defined roots in Americana. This is going to be a lot of fun.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

Stop Being Afraid of Guns: Matt Clark and Rich Hoffman talk about gun free zones on WAAM radio

Matt Clark had me on his WAAM radio show in Ann Arbor, Michigan recently to discuss some of the hot stories of October 2015. There was enough to cover to last a lifetime of live radio—the stories and their frequency are exponentially increasing by the moment, and it’s a lot to keep track of. Without talk radio, it would be nearly impossible for the average person to follow everything. That’s why I’ve always been a fan of talk radio, because you can get a lot of news provided to you as other tasks are done, such as driving, changing the oil, and installing new hot water heaters. Talk radio is miraculous in its ability to cover a lot of ground quickly, and on Matt’s show, he is one of the best. Typically in a short hour, he can hit a lot of topics in a very fluid manner—and when he has me on with him—we really hit the topics in a furious fashion. That broadcast can be heard below.

Toward the end of the broadcast there were a couple of callers that Matt wanted to get on the air. I am typically sympathetic to callers because it takes a lot of guts to call into a radio show, to sit on hold for up to an hour not knowing when the host will put you on the air to millions of potential listeners.   If the callers are respectful I typically don’t interrupt them because it’s important to get their view points out on the table. A police offer took issue with my proposal that regarding gun control, my more guns are best approach was something he had a problem with. Matt and I let him talk which directed him to the real point he was trying to make—but it was near the end of the show, and we didn’t have time to expand down that line of thought. The cop of course felt that civilians were not as equipped to handle a crises situation as compared to law enforcement. As Matt and I had been talking about gun free zones needing more independently armed citizens to keep things in check, the officer wanted more police on staff to protect schools from violence.

Well, more cops won’t work because they are too expensive. There is a cost for safety and security, and if it does incur too much of a burden, there needs to be other alternatives. The solution to gun violence is not more gun control laws, or more cops patrolling the streets and schools—its more armed citizens who will do the work for free not in a reactionary way, but a proactive way. A cop in the school in Oregon would not have stopped that violence. A well armed student could have. More cops working off tax payer funds are not the answer in almost every situation. We do need the police, but more for the report that happens when violence occurs so that courts have evidence to look at. So I don’t agree with the nice guy who called into Matt’s show. From his point of view, more cops in schools make sense—because he doesn’t care how much police cost an area in increased taxes. To his mind taxes can be perpetually raised so long as safety is the focus. But that’s just stupid.

There is always a danger when tragedies occur for the timid minded to seek out more government to provide security. More cops in schools are an expansion of government. Whereas a more open gun carrying society would provoke cheaper and more direct security in a laissez-faire kind of way which big government types simply don’t understand. If progressive minded people are not tampering with the lives of other people, they don’t feel secure themselves, so my typical laissez-faire style of security is something that drives them crazy. Gun laws in America should essentially be the same as the laws that govern business and commerce. Less laws and more responsibility invoked at the point of contact driven by self-preservation.

There was a lot right that occurred during the “Wild West” period in America of which guns were such a part of the mythology of western expansion. To consider the effort it took for Americans to load up in covered wagons and head west for up to a year of travel at roughly 20 miles per day with all the dangers that such a journey provoked, and that within 100 years of that type of settlement, there were railroads, cars and airplanes invented that could connect all that open space seamlessly is quite a miracle. Forget about who the Native Americans were—whether they were caretakers of Mother Earth’s land, migrant Chinese people, left-over Viking warriors, or a lost tribe from Israel, the effort of frontiersman is one of the great stories of human innovation and tenacity ever conducted by free people. Guns evolved from muzzle loaders at the start of western expansion and ended as a pretty significant technological innovation resulting in lever-action repeaters and the Colt .45s that tamed the West into one of the freest land masses on the face of the planet. Progressives hated the Wild West because it was a period of history where laissez-faire lifestyles provoked hopes through capitalism and innovation that has never been repeated at any other time in known history. For all the barbarity of frontier life, it paved the way for a wonderful country that exploded upon the world an immense economy. Without the gun, none of that would have happened.

I am of a mind that Americans shouldn’t even have concealed carry anymore; they should make guns a part of their fashion. It should be as common to see a gun on the hip of a person as it is to see a business suit now. The American gun is a tribute to our heritage and a reminder of what a laissez-faire approach to legislation, and justice can provide a free people. As a society, we have to get away from this crap of being afraid of guns. We have to stop putting orange indicators on toy guns at Wal-Mart so not to scare some pansy police officer with a happy trigger finger willing to shoot anything that they might consider a threat. It ruins the experience for a kid of pretending that guns are real when they play with those toys. Schools need to stop trying to keep kids from playing shoot-em-up at recess by making fake guns out of their hands. Playing with guns is good for kids—they should do a lot more of it—especially boys. Avoiding guns is making our society into a bunch of wimps and it’s getting worse year by year. That’s what happens when you take advice from people like that caller into Matt’s show. More government employees and more gun laws turn our society into a much more regressive one. Aside from the obvious expensive nature of continuing to add government employees at tax payer expense, micromanaging society is an even more cost incursion that has detrimental effects on social responsibility. The 100 years where America operated as a much more laissez-faire society between the War of 1812 and the rise of the progressive era with Teddy Roosevelt in 1912 America became a global superpower. Under progressive influence, America has regressed steadily from 1912 to 2012.

2012 will be viewed as a pivotal year in American politics. Obama won a second term, Ohio’s governor Kasich lost his battle with the unions, and many of those who refused to hold their nose and vote for Mitt Romney as a Republican presidential nominee decided they had enough of politics as usual. Since 2012 the American people have started to turn more toward a desire for a laissez-faire approach to all things related to government which will increase as millenials realize that most of their educations during the first twenty years of their lives were a complete farce—they learned all the wrong things for all the wrong reasons. It is among them that they watch the big government reaction to all these failed progressive problems and are starting to consider other options. Of those options I believe we will see a new trend that guns will become more open and accepted. They should be, they are an important aspect of American culture.

As Matt and I closed out his show it was obvious that the government has well overplayed its hand in this card game called politics, and police officers have seen the last of the days where panicked parents and squishy minded voters just increased taxes and threw more bodies at every danger that presented itself. We are dealing with a whole new age in a new century, and if America is to survive, it will only do so with an overall political approach that is laissez-faire toward everything—starting with guns. Once more guns are injected into our society with more frequency, and openness–then all things related to our commerce will reflect that less restricted approach. It’s a mentality that we are missing in America that goes or comes based on how our society maintains its relationship to the gun. A laissez-faire approach to firearms is not an extreme position with equal measure against the gun grabbing liberals on the opposite side of some political spectrum. It’s not up for debate with a high low bar between positions where left and right politics meet in the middle. Guns are a part of America and there should be no apology in wanting them, carrying them, or using them. If America had that attitude presently, a lot fewer people would be dying in these mass shootings. The shootings themselves are caused by failed policies and an overly cautions society that is so afraid of guns that they can’t even allow a child to have a toy unless it’s colored in some way so not to scare other people into believing its real. Nobody should be such a bunch of wimps as to be scared of guns. Our education system has made our society that way—to our own detriment. And now its time to stop being afraid.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.

ISIS Guilt in Chris Harper Mercer’s Violence: What Obama didn’t say caused the Oregon shootings–but he should have

There is certainly enough smoke to point toward an inconceivable fire if its proved to be true, that the Oregon shooter, Chris Harper Mercer wasn’t just the usual loner, the poor boy who couldn’t get a date and sought to put himself into history’s remembrances even as a villain after committing overwhelming violence. He appears to be more ideologically motivated. There are three things that give away the real story, and it’s likely that all three are connected. But if any of them were to hold up to the truth of proper investigating by real journalists, then there are a lot of people who should be immediately fired for the cover-up—because if these mass shootings really are to be stopped, the correct cause must be identified, not just the effect. Death was the effect, but guns were not the cause. Behavior was, and what motivated that behavior is the point of this discussion.

Not long ago Alek Skarlatos and his friends coming back from some ruckus boyish festivities in Amsterdam put a stop to an Islamic radical who attempted to take over a train in Belgium on its way to Paris. Skarlatos led the effort and has been since touring the world as a hero for stopping the possible terrible crime. Skarlatos would have been at the Umpqua Community College the day that Mercer showed up armed to kill Christians specifically, but the young hero was training for Dancing with the Stars down in Hollywood for the television show, enjoying rightfully his new-found celebrity. Now there are a lot of community colleges in the United States, so it’s just a bit odd that this attack happened to occur at the exact college of Alek Skarlatos just a matter of weeks after stopping the Belgium shooter. Initially when the Belgium shooter was stopped, the radical ties to Islam acquired during a time that the attempted murderer was in Spain had been suppressed with a cover story that the violence was not related to religious motivations. Remember that.

Apparently the FSB, (Federal Security Services in Russia) tried to warn the American CIA that a black-Islamist terror suspect had tried to gain passage to Syria through Turkey during the first week of September in 2015. That terrorist suspect was listed as Chris Harper Mercer and was on a list of 87,000 people they were watching, and was identified as being an Islamic State adherent after the attempt to get into Syria—all this flagged by the Foreign Intelligence Service, (SVR). Now, it’s possible that these agencies were just trying to make a name for themselves in the wake of the Oregon shooting, but what this congers up for remembrance is the Boston Marathon bombing by the radicalized Islamic terrorists there tipped off to us again by foreign intelligence agencies as our own Homeland Security failed to notice. Even with all the intrusions that the NSA is conducting on Americans they have shown themselves to be utterly incompetent so far in stopping terror from occurring—because the evidence is certainly present that these young kids—such as Mercer—where behaving in a way that indicating coming violence.

Third, just as in Benghazi where Chris Stevens was killed by a September 11th plot to sack the American embassy there, just a few months before President Obama’s re-election—were overeager reports that the violence had been caused by an anti-Islamic video. This time Obama himself took to the podium immediately after the incident in Oregon to call for more gun control. Even Chris Harper Mercer’s own father jumped on the train of anti-gun sentiment to show his shock that his son had owned 13 guns and declared that if his boy had not had the guns, the murders never would have happened. Everyone connected to the story was way too quick to blame the gun instead of the behaviors leading to Mercer wanting to kill specifically Christian people. For instance, Chris was coming from broken home, the father did not live with the mother—which is likely a much more telling tale of why the shooter had emotional problems and was unadjusted to social life. The root cause of young Mercer’s issues likely would reside between the dad and the mom because they did a bad job raising their son. Blaming guns is easy for the father, but the real cause of the Oregon deaths was that as a father he failed to give his son proper values to live life by. That left the young kid to bounce around aimlessly for several years before befriending some people on an online site called the “beta boys.” I have written extensively about the problems associated with “beta males” so the irony is not lost. Mercer had problems likely caused by his parents which should have been investigated before any press conference was conducted about the cause of the violence.

Even worse than all this—and at this point there is no way to really know—but there are several reports that the same agency that tipped off the CIA leaked information into the Russian publication Reedus indicating that Mercer’s online profile in The Red Room was changed from his original identify as an ISIS terror supporter to being a “white conservative Republican” immediately after the Oregon mass shooting. It was there that Mercer (supposedly) had warned the people he liked in that online forum to stay away from colleges in the Northwest because something was going to happen. Again, it’s possible that Russian intelligence agencies were just trying to make America look bad in a public relations battle taking place around the globe presently. So if it’s all untrue, Obama just has to say it—or perhaps his various security experts. Just give a press conference telling us that all this information is bogus and that there isn’t a grain of truth to it. That would put the issue to rest—because if any of this is true, there is some serious explaining to do—like why wasn’t it immediately revealed to the public that just like the shooter in Belgium, Mercer was motivated by Islamic radicalism—which would explain why he asked if potential victims were Christians. We don’t yet know what happened if potential victims indicated that they were Muslim. Apparently the father didn’t know Chris enough to understand if he had lost his son to radical Islamists—he didn’t even know he had guns. Unfortunately much of this information is coming from independent journalists and blog sites. More can be read at the following link, but much of the information could be cleared up by CNN, Fox and many other outlets if they would do a little digging and either shoot down the theories, or support them with hard evidence. But a failure to address these issues indicates more guilt, not less.

http://truthuncensored.net/guess-which-mass-murderer-was-on-a-terrorist-list-that-obama-refused-to-accept/#sthash.I66uFVvc.dpbs

Then of course is the mysterious push for this shooter to remain anonymous, as if by not applying a name to Mercer will prevent other screw-balls like him from doing something similar. The parts of the story that backed this line of thought have conveniently been released while other aspects were completely ignored and this behavior was done in odd choreography with local and national law enforcement. The decision to put a lid on the kid’s story was made within hours of the shooting with unusual clarity by law enforcement. There is just way too much that doesn’t add up.

Literally on the other side of the world relative to the Oregon shooting a Moroccan nationalist on the radar screen by counterterrorism agencies for his radical jhadist views tried to kill people on a speeding train about a 100 miles north of Paris. Apparently young Chris Harper Mercer admired people like that shooter because they gained instant celebrity through the acts of violence. ISIS as a terrorist group has seen a lot of disjointed young people trying to join their cause. Most of them come from broken homes and are awkward socially for one reason or another and are attracted to the power of terrorism advanced by the terrorist group. There are always people out there who love the villains in a story—because the bad guys often have power that is envied by those who inwardly feel most powerless to express themselves against a tapestry of social orthodox. You don’t see otherwise nice young girls leaving comfortable middle-class homes in Britain to join the UAE or the Israeli army. They are fleeing toward ISIS and radical Islam because at least there they can see a structure that their lives are lacking. Weak people like the bad guys, because it gives them an association with instant strength that they don’t inwardly have. Whether Chris Harper Mercer was one of these types remains to be seen. Much of what I have written here was provided to me by readers of Overmanwarrrior’s Wisdom and I have spent the last 24 hours doing what research was possible at this early stage.

There is certainly more to the story than what we have so far been told. But the root cause of the violence was not the gun. It started with bad parenting followed up by a failed education system. Then the community failed to turn that “beta boy” into an alpha by placing an incorrect emphasis on masculine necessity that is crucial to the biological urges that young men need to build their self-identity with. And to correct all that, it is likely that Chris Harper Mercer was attracted to the violence of ISIS and that his actions were more influenced by them, than by the convenience of a gun. That is the real story and is the reason that the Obama administration was so fervent to get out in front of this story. Because Chris Harper Mercer was and is a product of the failures of Obama’s terms as president—Obama gave rise to ISIS through his passivity, he has advanced the failures of progressive educations and social engineering and he has mastered the art of laying blame everywhere but at the true source. So when it is asked why there are so many people like Chris Harper Mercer emerging these days to create mass terror—all Obama needs to do is look in the mirror. Under his leadership, the situation has exploded, and it has nothing to do with guns.

Rich Hoffman

 CLIFFHANGER RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

Listen to The Blaze Radio Network by CLICKING HERE.