spiphywarfare

Author: Derek

  • We Need to Stop S. 3589 

    We Need to Stop S. 3589 

    An interesting bill has been filed in the Senate, S. 3589, also known as the “Preventing Private Paramilitary Activity Act of 2024” aims to prohibit unauthorized private paramilitary activity in the United States. Sounds good right? We don’t necessarily want or need Wagner Group-style armies running around in the U.S. Or do we? 🤔 That’s another discussion for another time. What caught my eye while reading this was that Section 9 of this legislation includes an interesting definition, it incorporates a “security services unit” within the broader category of a “private paramilitary organization” (PMO). 

    The bill provides the following as the definition of a PMO: 

    This term encompasses any group of three or more persons who associate under a command structure. Their purpose is to function publicly or train to function publicly as a combat, combat support, law enforcement, or security services unit. 

    link to section

    Why That Matters 

    As a retired peace officer, I remember at times seeing how broadly written laws can be broadly and selectively enforced. That, combined with the need for churches, or any other organization for that matter, to be able to protect themselves in this society where violence is on the rise, caused me some concern. 

    Is Your Church Security Team a PMO? 

    Do you know if your church has a security team that trains to protect the congregation during services? Does it have a team lead or person considered “in charge” of it? Under the bill’s definition, this security team could be classified as a “private paramilitary organization” due to their structure and focus on security services. 

    Effects 

    Now, what could be the impact of this bill if this team acts during a service to neutralize a potential threat (such as an armed intruder)? If the bill becomes law, their actions might be considered “unauthorized private paramilitary activity” unless their activity has been sanctioned by federal or state authorities. 

    Despite their good intentions, and rightly honorable actions, the security team could face legal consequences. As written, this bill leaves open the possibility that they could be held liable for engaging in paramilitary activity without “proper authorization.” 

    Their training and commitment to protecting the congregation could lead to imprisonment if the law is strictly enforced as written now. A violation of the law that results in death carries this penalty, “the person shall be fined under this title and imprisoned for any term of years or for life.” Imagine the hero in the opening photo being sent to prison for his actions.

    Now, under exceptions we find the law does not apply to the U.S. Armed Forces, National Guard, state militias, military re-enactment organizations, veterans in a parade, and:

    “members of an organization that is authorized under Federal or State law to provide paramilitary, law enforcement, or security services training or to engage in paramilitary activity, law enforcement, or security services when performing the functions authorized by law and, in the case of paramilitary activity and law enforcement functions, when under the direction and control of a governmental authority [emphasis added].”

    I included this section because there has to be a specific reason for that emphasized language to be in there. Why would it specify that law enforcement members can only do that when under the “direction and control” of a governmental authority? Would the feds consider an off-duty officer providing security for a church, movie theater, a Quinceañera, etc. as being under the direction and control of a governmental authority? I “know” that they are, but this language making it explicit makes me wonder.

    The only halfway good thing about this bill is that it recognizes it’s limited by the Commerce Clause so if one can manage to outfit their team with all in-state equipment, including ammunition, it is of no effect at all. But I would urge people to contact the people in D.C. that are supposed to represent them and ask them to oppose this bill.

  • Hmmmm… Homeschool Socialization

    So, my wonderful wife and I had the occasion to be around a large group of kids a few years ago. The energy level among the young people was exceptionally high. One of the things we noticed while there was lots of disruption, a slight bit of disrespect, and just general noise going on was that two kids in particular were doing exactly as they should do and we’re not being disruptive, disrespectful, or loud. After my wife pointed out the two kids, I couldn’t help but notice that they were the two home-schooled children in the class.

  • Merry Christmas 2023

    It’s Christmas morning. The sun is still down. Our kids are young adults for all intents and purposes. There is a slight chill in the air. I sit alone in the living room, in the soft light of the Christmas tree and the glow of the screen I am writing this on, and wonder.

    I wonder if we have given our civilization away. On this day that millions of people in the west, and around the world, celebrate the incarnation of God himself, we see stories of another religion, being allowed to disrupt our celebrations. People disrupting Christmas carolers with, “No celebration, ’til liberation,” as if they get to decide when we celebrate our Lord. People telling us, “No Christmas as usual,” unless we bow to their demands. There were plenty of others.

    For the record, I’m not real keen on bowing to the demands of any other human. It’s never been one of my strengths. I am, however, keen on acknowledging the Lordship of that child born in a lowly setting two thousand years ago. I am keen on my children and grandchildren having smiles on their faces, joy in their hearts, and their eternity sealed. As our faith in the Lord goes, so goes our civilization. Western society is unravelling to the joy of our enemies. We mostly sit by a watch it happen, and console ourselves with word, “Oh, what a pity.”

    I do however take solace in the fact that our Creator isn’t limited by our abilities to remain faithful individually or as a nation. Regardless of the status of our nation, or the West, in the future, Christ is King. Even so, I cannot and will not willingly give in to the destruction of my children’s future.

  • Defenders of the West

    Cover of Defenders of the West by Raymond Ibrahim

    I am about one-third of the way through the book, “Defenders of the West: The Christian Heroes Who Stood Against Islam” by Raymond Ibrahim. I’m going through it as an audio book, which isn’t my favorite but, when you commute several hours during the week, it isn’t too bad. It’s made me realize a few things.

    I’ve already come to the conclusion that, even though I’ve thought this for a while, we’ve become exceptionally soft. I had no idea of how soft until I hear the accounts of some of the battles of the crusades, from both Christian and Muslim chroniclers. Men their enemies say looked like porcupines due to the number of arrows in them who continue to fight. Men who cry to God to take their blood and their life for His glory. Some of that about one’s own king could obviously be hagiography but, I don’t think it is likely for an opposing scribe to write an idealized version their infidel enemy’s accomplishments.

    The account of Ferdinand III includes two events where he was encouraged to enter battle with others who opposed/threatened him but happened to be Christian. He refused. He claimed he would never do battle with another Christian unless there was no other option. We’ve, well, some at least, have seemingly lost this ability as well. Log on to Twitter, or X, and you will find Christians gleefully attacking each other over Christian Nationalism, baptism, election, or more, all while the world burns and people who are damned to hell for all eternity are dying.

    We’ve lost our way. I’ll proclaim now, I won’t fight another Christian. Some have made me wonder what is wrong with their thinking, but I’ll not fight a brother or sister in Christ. Caveat that if I think you’re a false teacher, fighting you isn’t fighting another Christian.

    Finally, it has made me rethink Islam and how we approach it these days. That, however, is for another time.

  • Texas isn’t selling enough fishing licenses

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    Texas isn’t selling enough fishing licenses

  • Generative AI. Funny Not Funny.

    I’m doubting the “Intelligence” part of AI right about now. I went for a little outing today and not far away I took a picture looking down on a monument currently in progress. With it being “in progress” it obviously wasn’t great for presentation, and I got the following image.

    Original Image

    This is a fair representation of what is there. However, it’s okay to visualize what it will look like when the grass fills in. Those patches of dirt are definitely unattractive. Perfect job for AI right? That wonderful time-saving tool everyone tells us we need to rave about.

    Okay, so I give it the prompt, “Fill dirt areas with grass and leave everything else alone. The result?

    Not Even Joking

    This particular instance is humorous to say the least. This is the result produced by software from a massive, well-known, private sector company. That’s important because I think in general; most people accept that the private sector performs better than the public sector. It quits being humorous when you consider these results in light of the fact that, “The Pentagon is Moving Toward Letting AI Weapons Autonomously Decide to Kill Humans.“

  • No More Patrol For You!

    Years ago, I gave up my lieutenant bars in the jail to go to patrol. I loved it! About six years in, I get called into the Sheriff’s Office. The then Sheriff told me about a plan he had to resolve some problems in the jail. The jail had gotten less than stellar marks for the last couple of visits from TCJS. He had been approved by the Commissioners for a new lieutenant spot and he wanted me to take it.

    I told him I was deeply appreciative of his confidence in me but went on to tell him how much I enjoyed what I was doing. Serving search warrants was always exciting. Patrol officers really don’t come into their own until after about five years. He told me he really thought I was the person to do what he needed done. I declined again and saw something I only saw twice in my career there. The Sheriff tiled his head down and looked over the top of his glasses (the second time has its own story for another time). He said, “Let me put it another way, do you ever want to have rank in this agency again?”

    My reply? “It sounds like a wonderful opportunity sir!” And back off to the jail I went.

    He explained I would remain on the Special Response Unit (our tactical team). I would get to keep my take home car and when I wasn’t tied up with jail issues, I could go out on patrol. The issue he wanted resolved was fixed in a couple of months. It turned into one of the best times I ever had at a job. It led to me being the PIO (fun), responsible for two small sections in the Sheriff’s Office, and pretty much free to find things to fix and to do what I wanted.

    Looking back, it turned out that what I least wanted at the time was a tremendous blessing to me and to my career.

    I was thinking about this time the other day. I couldn’t help wonder how many times I may have missed out on something better because I was happy where I was.

  • Brief Video. Are transwomen actual women?

    Thank you for watching.

  • Disaster Response for Civilization?

    Disaster Response for Civilization?

    CN, if you aren’t aware, is short for Christian Nationalism. The reader can assume what is meant by that, and if you assume incorrectly, that’s on you, not me. To let people know how I view it, I have written about that term here, and here. There is some raging debate on the site formerly known as Twitter between people who agree on all other fundamentals of theology.

    Meanwhile, life goes on. Part of that life is taking training to maintain my Texas Peace Officer’s License, even though I retired from doing that for a living. One of the courses I’m currently taking discusses active shooter incidents and “disaster psychology.” Here, this term is referring to the psychology of a person who unexpectedly finds themselves in the middle of an active shooter event. Basically, what they experience and how it impacts them. They go through the stages of denial, deliberation, and decision making.

    The denial phase consists of people responding due to normalcy bias. Basically, it is our tendency to interpret everything through our normal day-to-day experiences because it is easier for our brain to process information. Hence, many survivors of active shooter events tend to say things like, “At first, I thought it was firecrackers.” It’s an initial denial of the event because, “That won’t happen here, to me.”

    A normalcy bias causes us to assume that, although a catastrophic event has happened to others, it will not happen to me. If it does, we are shocked and unable to cope with it effectively, often underestimating its full effects. 

    Safety Requires a State of Mindfulness – PMC (nih.gov)

    Once the disaster is accepted, they turn to deliberation. However, due to the previous disruption of their environment, people in the midst of a disaster tend to have poorer thinking skills than they would without that disruption. One of the topics discussed in this section involves “social proof” and its role in decision making. Several videos of unfolding disasters show those involved starting to look around at what others are doing, this behavior is shortly followed by a mass of people acting in the same manner. They cited research that a lone individual is more likely to help someone in need than someone in a crowd would be. But social proof of our decisions also tends to make our decisions vulnerable to be less in line with how we would normally act, they may not even make sense.

    When we use social proof to inform our behavior, we are not necessarily acting rationally. 

    Social Proof – The Decision Lab

    Finally, the deliberation turns to decision making and the individual makes a decision to act. This training talks a lot about how those decisions are not always good decisions. One of the events used to demonstrate this was The Station nightclub fire. The image below (from this study) shows the location of the victims of that fire. Roughly half of them died trying to exit the same door, the one they came in, despite there being three other exits, four if you count windows. Helpful hint, always pay attention to where ALL the exits are in every building you enter.

    Sadly, many of these victims may have had a chance to escape had their thinking, or maybe the thinking of others, been more rational. None of this is victim blaming. The purpose of the training is to help civilians be prepared to combat some the naturally occurring physiological responses to stress, and its impact on our thinking, in order to increase their chances of survival. Overall, the course has been excellent, and I can’t wait to use it to help people.

    Studies have shown that when stressed, individuals tend to make more habitual responses than goal-directed choices, be less likely to adjust their initial judgment, and rely more on gut feelings in social situations.

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5146206/

    That’s all well and good but why in the world did I start this article with a paragraph about CN? That’s because as I am going through this training, it occurred to me that the phenomenon I am witnessing in some folks response to CN is like watching these stages play out in slow-motion. I wouldn’t know any serious Christian who would say our culture/civilization/society is not in the midst of sudden change (on the timescale of all of society) and that the changes we are seeing are disruptive of our expectations and that in general, it is currently a disaster.

    There are still many who are oblivious to this unfolding disaster, though that number has started shrinking fast. Many still haven’t recognized the change around them is outside normal experience. Still, it seems a growing number of people are moving out of the deliberation phase and into decision making. And this is where the conflict is being generated.

    A group of people looked at each other and knew something had to change for society to survive. Some recognized it much longer ago than others. They saw what each other were doing and recognized it as similar and started to coalesce around similar ideas. The people here I am thinking of are Doug Wilson, A. D. Robles, Joel Webbon, William Wolfe, Stephen Wolfe, and those in that group. They don’t all agree on everything but do agree on enough to begin acting. Personally, I think they recognized what was happening more quickly and started reacting before others. History may show some of their reactions were off target of where they should have been and that’s okay. We, and they, are all humans.

    But here’s where the conflict arises, the Moore sisters were some of the earliest people to warn of Christian Nationalism in the modern era. It got just enough of a foothold that others, still deliberating and looking for social proof of their decisions, saw something that scared them. Their reaction was not rational (in my opinion) and was based on gut feelings and how others close to them were responding.

    That would explain why people I followed for years suddenly began making weird decisions and accusations that were entirely unfounded. Some people have responded rationally. Those folks have calmly stated their concerns and defined what they mean. Others just started out with what were really wild claims.

    I hope we can all take the time to do some social combat breathing, slow our reactionary impulses, and come up with rational, scripture-based responses to concerns and to what is going on with society. Believe it or not, this actually gave me more hope that the conflict I see will ultimately be resolved. I think, if this is a disaster response in slow-motion, many of those who are anti-CN for reasons that are not rational reasons, will eventually get over the shock and disruption and return to sound thinking. I hope.

    If ever a post should end with a verse from scripture, this one should. Peace and Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ to you, reader.

    For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

    2 Timothy 1:7
  • Christian, Avoid These Two Things

    Christian, Avoid These Two Things

    Short but true. Christians who want to walk in a God-honoring manner should steer clear of the Enneagram and the heretic Russell Moore.

    Suggest you go read the entire thread

    If you haven’t read much on the Enneagram or are considering using it, do some research on it. At least read this article as an introduction.

    And, if you don’t have a Twitter/X account, you should be able to read the whole thread mentioned above right here. If you do have one, @WokePreacherTV would be worth a follow.