Posts Tagged → freedom
Musical “1776” Two Thumbs Up
Please do not tell anyone, but I saw a musical play the other day, and I liked it. Humiliating to admit, yes, but our three readers come here for honesty, if nothing else. Today you get five doses of honesty: The musical “1776” was excellent, timely, accurate, entertaining, and all the other positive stuff that my movie and theater critic mentors Siskel & Ebert would say about it.
We saw it at the historic Walnut Street Theater in Philadelphia, America’s oldest longest-continuously running theater. Because the venue has a sane policy on weapons (have your carry permit available if anyone asks to see it), I was strapped. I was strapped because it is downtown Philly, where the Wild West can descend upon one in the blink of an eye.
The docents, volunteers, and paid staff were all nice and helpful. Before the show started, we could have raised Lazarus more readily than actually reaching a human being during operating hours. Weak spot, but probably a weak spot in all theaters. No one there answers the phones or the emails until after you have come and gone.
Look here, theater is not for me. Watching adults play dress-up and make-believe is usually overwhelmingly annoying for me. These are not mature people, and many of them have gratingly annoying personalities. It is impossible to take actors seriously, on stage or off. Now that TDS is ravaging Hollywood, I am reminded daily about how much I dislike actors. It seems that the kind of people drawn to acting all fall into the “Big Jerk” category of life.
One exception in my world exists for those live stage performances that are about meaningful, inspirational, true stories. Biblical stuff ranks “acceptable.” Political theater is almost always heavily slopped to the falling overboard-left, preachy, inaccurate, dumb, communist, and, thus, annoying. Best bets are on movies, where the nonsense and forgotten lines moments have been left on the editing room floor.
“1776” is about the writing of the Declaration of Independence over a one month period, however, and is, therefore, a ten out of ten in my book, any day. It involves the story of the delegates from 13 colonies, debating the break-up with Britain, in Independence Hall, in Philadelphia, in June and early July, 1776. The widely documented personal performances of Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and our own (local to PA) John Dickinson are performed admirably by the capable actors. Thank you!
Real focus is put onto the debate about slavery, which did occur in the actual Continental Congress, and how that hot issue was taken out of Jefferson’s first version of the Declaration of Independence. Depicting this on stage is especially important these days, as it is bizarrely considered “cool” by some to incorrectly badmouth America about slavery.
Fact: In 1794 America just about had a civil war over slavery. We also almost had a full civil war over whisky and taxes, then, too. But abolishing slavery was an early goal in our nation’s founding, and white people were ready to fight and die to end it, even as slavery was a full blown enterprise in the rest of the world. Eventually American whites got around to that fighting and dying thing, in 1861, when the insurrectionist Democrat Party declared separation from the rest of America, over keeping their slaves.
By 1865, the Republicans took away the Democrats’ slaves, and as we see even today, the Democrats never forgave them for it.
I digress.
That this was a musical without much singing was God’s way of showing me that beauty can occasionally exist in the darnedest places, including on a stage full of … feh… actors. That most of the singing that did occur was bawdy or silly really took the sting out of the musical part.
The actors said their lines well, performed very well, and entertained us audience people well, about an important subject. The Walnut Street Theater was clean, had no stray odors, and was a pleasure to visit. All the audience members upon whom I threw myself were friendly and gracious.
In another couple of months America, us, our nation, will celebrate its 250th anniversary since our founding. It is a really big deal. This play was timed to synch with our national celebration, and it fits well. If you find yourself going anywhere near Philly in the coming weeks or months, go see “1776.”
And go strapped, because the venue has a Constitutionally-minded policy on 2A concealed carry. God bless ’em. That was the only reason I set foot inside the theater…they actually believe in FREEDOM.
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Passover + Easter = Peaceful freedom
Tonight is the beginning of the week of Passover, the ancient Biblical holiday marking the end of Jewish slavery in Egypt and the beginning of their 40-year trek to Israel, their Biblical homeland.
Passover is the major worldwide holiday dedicated to human freedom. From Passover comes inspirational phrases in American founding documents and coinage, and the Last Supper in the Gospel. This Sunday is Easter, the worldwide holiday about spiritual renewal and peace.
Tonight, while Jews and Christians are at their Seder tables, President Trump will announce the beginning of the end of the war to end Iran’s apocalyptic nuclear holocaust ambition. This Easter Sunday will mark the beginning implementation of that winding down. The symbolism of this timing of events is powerful.
In just one month, President Trump has done what naysayers and spineless apologists had said could never be done – the destruction of a genocidal Islamic tyranny determined to hijack our entire planet. Iran as we knew it a month ago is no more, its 47 years of nonstop militarism now in rubble, its threats to humanity vastly diminished.
Imagine if world leaders had had Trump’s level of foresight and bravery in 1938; if they had had his strength of conviction to confront Adolf Hitler before he gained momentum; there would likely have been no World War II, no mass destruction of Europe by the genocidal German Nazis. President Trump’s principled, decisive nature this past month has saved what is left of Western Civilization, giving it time to save itself in the long run, before it is subsumed under a wave of foreign ground invasion and Iranian nuclear missiles.
Tonight, the world knows peace for the first time in a very long time. If you don’t know this, you should, and if you don’t appreciate this fact, you need to contemplate on it. No more TDS, no more JDS, just give thanks that the America you so easily take for granted has a lot more breathing room. Much thanks to be said this Passover and this Easter for President Trump’s gift of peace and freedom.
And we all hope the Iranian People will take this same opportunity for themselves.
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Hanuka’s meaning for America
Tonight is the last night of Hanuka, and it is important to say that this holiday is still important for America, even if 99% of Americans don’t observe it, don’t know what the Menorah stands for. Those who do not want to be consigned to the dustbin of history can learn lessons from history, apply those lessons, and win. Hanuka presents modern freedom-loving Americans with a history lesson in never giving up, sticking to your principles, and always pursuing freedom, no matter what it takes to persevere.
Often called the “festival of the lights” in an effort to make it sound all cheery n’ stuff, Hanuka is in fact a commemmoration of a long, hard-fought, quite bloody civil war military campaign in Israel 2,400 years ago. That conflict restored Jewish control over Jerusalem and with it, the traditional (Biblical) service in the Great Temple there.
Christians take note of two things: Without the Jews winning the war, there would have been no Jesus/ Yeshua 400 years later, and note also that Christmas, which is America’s national holiday, is marked on the 25th of December. Hanuka begins on the 25th day of Kislev, the Hebrew calendar’s winter month. Jesus was a Jew, the Apostles were all Jews, most of the early Christians were Jews, and when it came time to create a new holiday for Christians, Christmas was set on the same date as Hanuka. There are no coincidences here.
Another important thing to take note of here: While the war ending in the “miraculous” discovery of a bottle of kosher olive oil hidden away in the Great Temple is often described as Jew vs Greek, it was also very much Traditional/ Orthodox Jew vs Liberal Jew, allied with the Greeks. In other words, a bloody tension has always existed between the liberal Jews and the Orthodox Jews, and it is only suspended when both groups are being chased down the same street together by mindless mobs who hate all Jews.
During the civil war that Hanuka marks, the blood of all combatants flowed abundantly, as this was no simple “spiritual battle” as the holiday is often described. Hanuka was not won by those who engaged solely in “spiritual” type behavior, like praying really really hard. Mean “X” tweets were not met with spicy retorts, and the loser then shut up and hid in shame.
Nope, a lot of blood flowed, as a result of years of close quarters combat with edged weapons. The Greeks and the liberal Jews lost more blood, and more lives, than the traditional/ orthodox “Maccabee” Jews, who ended up taking back what had been taken from them, by force: Jerusalem (another related history lesson: Judaism is Zionism, which is the 3,500-year-old religious movement to keep Jews living in Zion/ Israel/ Judea. The Maccabees were Zionists).
Key word here being “force.” The fighting was not mere words contained within the walls of the Oxford Union Debate Club, or other academic classrooms. It was borne out in hand-to-hand physical contest, which the most determined will usually win.
Hanuka’s lesson for freedom-loving Americans today, right now, is (and somehow I just know that you have heard this phrase somewhere before in recent times)… Fight! Fight! Fight!
Be determined, strong, and of brave spirit, because President Trump is not going to be in office forever.
Menorah = Freedom everywhere, including in America
Sunday hunting in January, 2026?
Last summer, Pennsylvania was approved for as much Sunday hunting as the PA Game Commission would care to implement. After decades of wrangling, a simple law allowing the agency to set all hunting days was passed, and in fact, PA hunters got a whole bunch of Sundays to hunt on. It was glorious.
Nothing was simple about getting the simple law passed. It required the departure from the PA Farm Bureau board a whole host of people who for decades had publicly said “Sunday is for church, and if you don’t go to church on Sunday, you should go, even if your religion has you going on Friday or Saturday or not at all.”
They were that un-American, these supposedly all-American arbiters of all things religion on the Farm Bureau board. For decades the PA Farm Bureau had held up Sunday hunting in PA, even as Sunday hunting freedom was implemented across the USA. Out West, Sunday hunting was never in question. A citizen’s right to choose when to hunt was respected. But back East, the home territory of the Puritans and the Quakers…nope, Blue Laws all week long, for hundreds of years.
So now that we have Sunday hunting freedom on the books here, what will PGC do with it? We saw this past season greatly improved with something like ten or eleven additional days to be afield (legitimately). But now, as we enter into a very complicated extended rifle season for antlerless deer, mostly starting December 26th and ending January 24th, it appears that we don’t have any Sundays to hunt in January, 2026.
Tell me this is not the strangest thing…
This could well be an easy oversight by the PGC staff, who were probably giddy and overwhelmed with logistical considerations last summer, as they worked on implementing PA’s first-ever real Sunday hunting. Or it could have been a carefully considered gentle tap on the brake pedal, a desire to measure success or failure first, before going full bore ahead in Fall 2026.
It is easy to understand how policy officials can think that way. But now here we are. And now that we all saw how easy it was to implement Sunday hunting this past Fall, I have a request of the PGC staff: Quit being all responsible and anxious about Sunday hunting! Go full bore, baby!
See, PGC was not all anxious about another very complicated policy it is now implementing for the first time ever, this year into next: Extended rifle season for antlerless deer.
The purpose of extending rifle season for antlerless deer state-wide on some properties, and region-wide on others, is to allow the alpha hunters among us more time to help bring down the deer population. So that the kindly drivers on our highways and byways do not hit overpopulated deer with their cars.
Which begs the question: Why have an extended deer season if we don’t also have Sunday hunting during it?
For those readers who are hearing this extended deer season business for the first time, or even for the second or third time, yes, it is real and it is really complicated.
First, ALL DMAP properties state-wide are open to antlerless deer hunting with a rifle, from December 26th to January 24th, 2026. All private and public DMAP properties, including private properties that are not yet a designated DMAP property but which fall within one of the Chronic Wasting Disease DMAP areas. You do need to have a DMAP tag to hunt with a rifle in or on one of these DMAP areas.
I think CWD DMAP area #6396 here in southcentral PA still has DMAP tags available.
Second, extended rifle season in some WMUs, like 4C, runs January 2nd to January 19th.
This is all in addition to the regular flintlock and archery season that begins December 26th and runs through January 24th. If you want to hunt buck, you can only have a flintlock or archery tackle with you; no rifle.
So clearly the PGC thinks PA has too many deer, and the agency wants us hunters to remove more does from the landscape, so they are giving us more time afield with the most effective hunting tool, the rifle. It then logically follows that the agency should want us hunters to have more time afield in pursuit of implementing their policy, too.
If you want Sunday hunting this coming January, which I do, then contact the PGC and let them know.
And while we are discussing hunting here, may we suggest that all archery and flintlock hunters wear an orange hat? Why not? With all the rifle hunters out with us in the late season, our camo-only ways are likely not as safe as they were when it was just us flintlock and archery hunters afield.
Happy hunting!
We want Sunday hunting in January!
PA gets full Sunday hunting!
Got a photo taken by someone standing front and center at the bill signing ceremony less than an hour ago, of Governor Josh Shapiro signing the Sunday Hunting legislation by PA Sen. Dan Laughlin and PA Rep. Mandy Steele into law. As of 45 minutes ago, Pennsylvania joins some forty-plus-other states with full Sunday hunting, which means full freedom and no artificial restrictions on Pennsylvania hunters.
For anyone and everyone who hunts, adding Sunday to the days available is an enormous opportunity. It is either 50% of the weekend, when most working people get to hunt, or it is 1/7th of the week, a substantial percentage of the total time allotted to us.
Yes, there were arguments against Sunday hunting, and none of them were persuasive. Most of them were flat out ridiculous, like suddenly the risk of “being shot” went through the roof, but only on Sundays. Even on posted private land! Many of the arguments were made in bad faith, by conservative religious people who nonetheless desired to aggressively control and deprive basic American freedom to law abiding hunters and families doing the most wholesome family stuff together. You know you can walk and chew gum simultaneously, and you can also pray on Sunday morning and then go hunt with a clear conscience… just like millions of American hunters do in almost all fifty states.
This was never a difficult policy question, it was a question of political power.
For the past 25 years that I have been involved in this, originally as the strongest plaintiff in a state lawsuit (which after argument was then kicked over to federal court like a political hot potato), the amount of political and social bullcrap we had to wade through was unbelievable.
Every nonsense complaint and argument was made against Sunday hunting, even though the states where it was already allowed had none of those problems as a result of it. No opponent ever conceded that private property should be unregulated in this regard. Heck, we could and often did target shoot all Sunday long on private property, and ride ATVs, which was perfectly fine, but one little .22 aimed at a squirrel was apparently Armageddon, the end of the world, oh, the humanity.
So here we are, with the PA Game Commission working right now to implement this freedom. I do not think it is likely that we will automatically see a bunch of Sundays open up in deer season this Fall, but I could be wrong. I hope I am wrong. More likely, we will see some small game and late deer season Sundays open up in January-February 2026, which will be most welcome. I imagine that by this time next year, we will get our printed hunting and trapping guide with probably close to every Sunday open to hunting from September dove and squirrel seasons through late flintlock and special regulations areas hunts into the end of January.
This means maybe an additional 16 days afield, total (four days each in October, November, December and January), but for those hunters who cannot hunt on Saturday, the weekend is finally theirs as much as it is anyone else’s to be free on. That is simple and long overdue justice.
Thank you to HUSH, to Senator Dan Laughlin, Rep. Mandy Steele, and to all of those who were in the trenches for these past twenty five years, namely Kathy Gehman (founder of HUSH along with Brad Gehman), Harold Daub, Kevin Askew, Robb Miller, and various Sportsman’s Alliance leaders.
FREEDOM!
PGC executive director Steve Smith on the Governor’s left
PA Governor Josh Shapiro signs Sunday hunting into law today, just an hour ago. Photo Credit goes to “mister anonymous” thank you very much
Memes, memes, memes
EDS NOTE: OBSCENITY A flash bomb explodes on the 101 Freeway near the metropolitan detention center of downtown Los Angeles, Sunday, June 8, 2025, following last night’s immigration raid protest. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)
April 15th Tax Day vs April 19th Freedom Day
Today is April 15th, AKA “Tax Day,” because income tax reports are due to be submitted to the IRS by close-of-business today. Or at least American taxpayers are required to submit a somewhat detailed extension request today, because America’s tax laws and regulations are incredibly arcane and complicated. Everyone deserves the same opportunity to file the most law-abiding self-benefiting income tax report they can do.
(This is why I use a certified public accountant. There is no possible way in a zillion years that I would ever be able to fully understand or properly apply the tax laws and regulations to the income I have earned over the year. Yes, I have a very understanding CPA, someone who works with me, who goes over line items. The cost is worth it to me, given the potential consequences for making even small mistakes.)
April 15th symbolizes the government’s Sheriff of Nottingham coming to take away our money and our things, by threat of force. Nothing says “You are a serf and a powerless peasant” like having to bow and scrape before the mighty tax collector. It is worth noting that Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) has submitted legislation that will remove all armed law enforcement roles and duties that the IRS has somehow accreted over the years, and sell off the agency’s weapons and ammunition. Isn’t it strange that the IRS of all agencies has amassed a huge armory and stockpile of ammunition?
Contrast today, April 15th Oppressive Government Compliance Tax Day, with the upcoming April 19th, which I am hereby naming Freedom Day. It is strange that we rarely ever hear about April 19th as a holiday or even a day of note, even though our great American freedom started exactly 250 years ago on April 19th…
On April 19th, an armed dispute erupted between American colonists and the British Army, in the towns of Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, outside of Boston. What came to be known as “The shot heard ’round the world” was fired April 19th, 1775, on the Lexington town green. It is unknown who exactly fired this first shot, Minute Man or British regular, but what ensued was the beginning of the American experiment in democratic rule: Government of, by and for The People, and nor by king or powerful army.
What is most noteworthy about the April 19th fatal confrontation beween the colonists’ militia men and the British “regulars” is that the individual American citizens were almost as well armed as the Redcoats. Each militia member carried a long gun, an edged weapon like a long hunting knife or a short sword or a hatchet, and plenty of lead and black powder ammunition for a prolonged fight. British military personnel were armed with the latest and best of all weapons, but the quality of the Patriots’ armaments were often not too far behind.
This model of the 1775 Minute Man militia member has stood the test of time, as a great many Americans today are also well armed and well provisioned with ammunition. This model of an armed free citizen, capable of standing up to an oppressive and lawless government, was later enshrined in the 1787-1789 Second Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees that all Americans can own and openly carry firearms at all times.
To me, what a strange and wonderful juxtaposition this week represents: Oppressive Tax Day backed by government force, vs. Freedom Day, the day that individual Americans collectively stood up for all oppressed individuals around the world. I think the takeaway message of this week is this: Pay your taxes, but keep your family well armed and always prepared, and always coordinate with those who share your freedom-loving views.
Some evocative images of April 19th 1775 and the resulting Bunker Hill battle by artist Don Troiani:
Artist Don Troiani’s depiction of the Minute Man patriots at the Lexington Green, April 19th 1775
Artist Don Troiani’s depiction of the Patriot militia at the Concord Bridge on April 19th, 1775
Artist Don Troiani’s depiction of the American patriots at the Battle of Bunker Hill
Going to the inauguration? Not I
Despite being bombarded with tickets and neat opportunities to go to the inauguration of President Donald John Trump in Washington, DC, I was of no mind to go. Not because I am not hyped and excited about his presidency, which I am, because of the good he is already having on world peace and the American economy, even before he actually takes office.
Rather, I had no idea what to expect once I got down to DC. Was it going to be all rainbows and happy unicorns? Or was it going to be mass riots and violence against Trump supporters, with local police standing by and allowing it to happen? And what about my own home, possibly at risk in any mass hysteria…
I was thinking about the days before the 2020 election, when I received a phone call from an old family friend of my parents. Someone I had not seen in thirty years at least, nor spoken to. An old far-left Quaker, Sam was in his early seventies when he called me in late 2020, and he was happy to get me on the phone.
“If Trump wins, we are organzing a nationwide boycott, massive civil disobedience, shut down the streets, protest marches in every city. And we need good organizers, responsible adults to help us prepare. Can I count on you to come to an important meeting in Philly next week?”
To which I replied, “Sam, it is so nice to hear your voice. Been a real long time. I know you and Dad enjoyed your philanthropic bike ride together last year, which was cool to follow. But I have to tell you, I am not in college any longer. That was decades ago. I left the Quakers decades ago over their political ideology, and I left my policy job at the US EPA in DC over the ideology there, too. I left the Democrat Party in 1993, after Bill Clinton was elected and tried to take away everyone’s guns. And to your point, I have donated thousands of dollars to the Trump campaign because I am a huge Trump supporter. So I don’t think you want me coming, because I will definitely ruin your Black Panther party,” trying to borrow a phrase from the Forrest Gump movie that I thought humorous and appropriate at the moment.
But Sam didn’t have to pull his trigger. Right after my brief conversation with Sam, the 2020 election was blatantly stolen, and America endured an incredible amount of purposeful self-destructive abuse at the hands of the Biden Administration, enabled by the ever-corrupt and lazy Republican Party.
No, for me now, the logistics of being in or even getting to Washington, DC, and running a gantlet of violent leftists, just to reach the inauguration site, and then standing in the cold, and then doing it all in reverse, was just too daunting.
Fortunately for me, I no longer have to endure the torment of happy reports of smiling unicorns and rainbows from ecstatic revelers who did manage all of the significant logistics to participate in person. Now that the event has been moved indoors (supposedly for weather, but probably just as much for the safety of President Trump), I don’t imagine all that many people are going to go to DC.
Except for Sam’s rioters and street theater thugs. I am quite certain those people will show up to protest and hurt innocent Americans and break things, no matter what formalities are or are not held outside, or who else shows up to celebrate.
Considering it all, last week I was of no mind to go in person, and even more so now I would still rather be at home sitting by my cozy fireplace, watching the inauguration on TV. Or maybe I will go out hunting that very last day of flintlock season. We are supposed to get a wonderful dose of snow Sunday evening, perfect for deer tracking and hunting in on Monday…now THAT is a great way to celebrate America’s new birth of freedom!