If you see me smiling when things ‘get serious’, that’s not me taking it lightly. That’s my brain fastening its seatbelt because a decision has been made.
“Common sense is not a gift, it’s a punishment — because you have to deal with everyone who doesn’t have it.”
– George Bernard Shaw
November 13, 2026
They’re not defending “historical tradition.” They’re inventing it.
Colonial Virginia didn’t keep guns out of church. It ordered them in.
In 1755, Virginia’s militia law let a county’s militia commander order his listed soldiers to go to church armed, and fined any soldier who ignored the order five shillings:
“And further, it shall and may be lawful, for the lieutenant, or other chief officer of the militia in the county, to order all soldiers listed therein, to go armed to their respective parish churches.”
— “An Act for the better regulating and training the Militia,” Va. Acts, Aug. 1755, ch. II, § VIII, 6 Hening, Statutes at Large 534 (1819)
Any state that bans peaceable carry in houses of worship and calls it historical tradition has to answer for this.
“The more time that the Democrats spend focusing on impeachment and other insane vendettas against President Trump, the less they will have to focus on a legislative agenda that is even more insane.”
– Stephen Kruiser
I may not be able to party like I used to, but if I take a nap, I can stay up past dark.
“One who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived.”
– Niccolo Machiavelli
November 12, 2026
Doctors’ Group Wants to Send Gun Makers the Bill for Violent Crime
An Illinois doctor who wants to make gun manufacturers pay for the criminal misuse of their products has found some new allies in his quest to make the firearms industry pay for violent crime.
Dr. Anthony Douglas, a surgical resident at the University of Chicago Medical Center, has spent almost two years pushing the so-called Responsibility in Firearm Legislation (RIFL) Act, which would force gun makers to pay into a state fund based on how often their firearms are recovered in connection with shootings. Now the American Medical Association has embraced the same basic idea, adopting a new policy calling on gun manufacturers to shoulder some of the financial costs associated with firearm injuries and deaths.
Douglas and his allies insist that its only fair to make the industry pay for the damage caused by its products. But there’s an enormous difference between holding a company responsible for selling a defective product and making it financially liable when a criminal deliberately misuses a perfectly functioning firearm.
That distinction doesn’t seem to matter much to the AMA, which is now lending its considerable influence to a proposal that could make exercising our Second Amendment rights much more difficult and expensive.
Dr. Melissa Garretson, a member of the AMA board of trustees, called gun violence “a public health crisis whose heartbreaking consequences are borne by patients, families, communities and taxpayers.”
“Firearm manufacturers should share responsibility for those costs,” Garretson said in a press release. “Requiring them to contribute can help fund evidence-based prevention efforts and encourage greater investment in firearm safety.”
Supporters of the measure in the AMA House of Delegates meeting this week likened firearm maker restitution payments to the financial liability judgments against large tobacco and opioid makers for the public harm caused by smoking and addiction, respectively.
Funds raised through such payments, according to the organization’s press release, could go toward supporting evidence-based violence prevention efforts and services for communities disproportionately affected by gun violence.
Yes, violent crime imposes enormous costs on victims, their families, and society as a whole. But why should a company that manufactures and sells a perfectly legal product be held financially responsible when a criminal decides to misuse it?
The AMA’s comparison to tobacco and opioid manufacturers is inane. Those companies faced lawsuits alleging deceptive marketing, concealment of health risks, and other misconduct. The AMA, on the other hand, seems to believe that gun makers should have to pay simply because their products are sometimes used to commit crimes.
If a gun maker breaks the law or knowingly sells a defective product, by all means hold it accountable. But making Smith & Wesson or Glock pay every time some violent predator, armed citizen, or police officer pulls a trigger and injures or kills someone is a very different proposition.
I’ve seen nothing that indicates the AMA differentiates between an injury caused by a criminal using a gun and one caused by a member of law enforcement discharging their firearm, or an armed citizen protecting themselves or others. That question is worth asking, though. Does the organization believe that a gun manufacturer should be financially penalized when its product is used to save an innocent person’s life?
Regardless, these costs wouldn’t come out of corporate profits. Manufacturers would almost certainly pass at least some of the expense along to consumers, making firearms more expensive for the millions of Americans who purchase them for lawful purposes, including self-defense.
Garretson says the money could fund evidence-based violence prevention programs. If those programs work, lawmakers should be willing to fund them directly and defend that spending to taxpayers. Why impose a special financial burden on a constitutionally protected industry and its law-abiding customers?
There’s another question the AMA doesn’t seem particularly interested in answering: If a criminal shoots someone with a stolen gun, what exactly did the manufacturer do wrong?
The answer, of course, is nothing. But under the AMA’s approach, the company could still end up paying for the criminal’s actions.
Imagine if we applied that same standard to the medical profession. Medical errors cause hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths and impose tens of billions of dollars in costs every year. How many members of the AMA’s House of Delegates would be willing to reach into their own pockets to compensate patients harmed by mistakes made by other doctors, even when they themselves provided perfectly competent care?
My guess is that the AMA would suddenly discover some very strong objections to holding people financially responsible for someone else’s actions. Collective responsibility is a much more appealing idea when somebody else is picking up the tab.
One of the many things I’ve discovered about getting older is realizing how many things can be solved by “It’s not my problem” and going on with my day.
On the morning of November 11th, 1918, American fighter ace Captain Eddie Rickenbacker defied orders, jumped in his airplane, and flew out over the front…to watch the war end.
I was the only audience for the greatest show ever presented. On both sides of no-man’s-land, the trenches erupted. Brown-uniformed men poured out of the American trenches, gray-green uniforms out of the German. From my observer’s seat overhead, I watched them throw their helmets in the air, discard their guns, wave their hands.
Then all up and down the front, the two groups of men began edging toward each other across no-man’s-land. Seconds before they had been willing to shoot each other; now they came forward.
Hesitantly at first, then more quickly, each group approached the other. Suddenly gray uniforms mixed with brown. I could see them hugging each other, dancing, jumping. Americans were passing out cigarettes and chocolate.
I flew up to the French sector. There it was even more incredible. After four years of slaughter and hatred, they were not only hugging each other but kissing each other on both cheeks as well. Star shells, rockets and flares began to go up, and I turned my ship toward the field.
The war was over.
World War I – known at the time as “The Great War” – officially ended when the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, in the Palace of Versailles outside the town of Versailles, France. However, fighting ceased seven months earlier when an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, between the Allied nations and Germany went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. For that reason, November 11, 1918, is generally regarded as the end of “the war to end all wars.”
In November 1919, President Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day with the following words: “To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…”
The original concept for the celebration was for a day observed with parades and public meetings and a brief suspension of business beginning at 11:00 a.m.
The United States Congress officially recognized the end of World War I when it passed a concurrent resolution on June 4, 1926, with these words:
Whereas the 11th of November 1918, marked the cessation of the most destructive, sanguinary, and far reaching war in human annals and the resumption by the people of the United States of peaceful relations with other nations, which we hope may never again be severed, and
Whereas it is fitting that the recurring anniversary of this date should be commemorated with thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations; and
Whereas the legislatures of twenty-seven of our States have already declared November 11 to be a legal holiday: Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), that the President of the United States is requested to issue a proclamation calling upon the officials to display the flag of the United States on all Government buildings on November 11 and inviting the people of the United States to observe the day in schools and churches, or other suitable places, with appropriate ceremonies of friendly relations with all other peoples.
An Act (52 Stat. 351; 5 U. S. Code, Sec. 87a) approved May 13, 1938, made the 11th of November in each year a legal holiday—a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as “Armistice Day.”
Armistice Day was primarily a day set aside to honor veterans of World War I, but in 1954, after World War II had required the greatest mobilization of soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen in the Nation’s history; after American forces had fought aggression in Korea, the 83rd Congress, at the urging of the veterans service organizations, amended the Act of 1938 by striking out the word “Armistice” and inserting in its place the word “Veterans.” With the approval of this legislation (Public Law 380) on June 1, 1954, November 11th became a day to honor American veterans of all wars.
Later that same year, on October 8th, President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued the first “Veterans Day Proclamation” which stated: “In order to insure proper and widespread observance of this anniversary, all veterans, all veterans’ organizations, and the entire citizenry will wish to join hands in the common purpose. Toward this end, I am designating the Administrator of Veterans’ Affairs as Chairman of a Veterans Day National Committee, which shall include such other persons as the Chairman may select, and which will coordinate at the national level necessary planning for the observance. I am also requesting the heads of all departments and agencies of the Executive branch of the Government to assist the National Committee in every way possible.”
President Eisenhower signing HR7786, changing Armistice Day to Veterans Day. From left: Alvin J. King, Wayne Richards, Arthur J. Connell, John T. Nation, Edward Rees, Richard L. Trombla, Howard W. Watts
On that same day, President Eisenhower sent a letter to the Honorable Harvey V. Higley, Administrator of Veterans’ Affairs (VA), designating him as Chairman of the Veterans Day National Committee.
In 1958, the White House advised VA’s General Counsel that the 1954 designation of the VA Administrator as Chairman of the Veterans Day National Committee applied to all subsequent VA Administrators. Since March 1989 when VA was elevated to a cabinet level department, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs has served as the committee’s chairman.
The Uniform Holiday Bill (Public Law 90-363 (82 Stat. 250)) was signed on June 28, 1968, and was intended to ensure three-day weekends for Federal employees by celebrating four national holidays on Mondays: Washington’s Birthday, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, and Columbus Day. It was thought that these extended weekends would encourage travel, recreational and cultural activities and stimulate greater industrial and commercial production. Many states did not agree with this decision and continued to celebrate the holidays on their original dates.
The first Veterans Day under the new law was observed with much confusion on October 25, 1971. It was quite apparent that the commemoration of this day was a matter of historic and patriotic significance to a great number of our citizens, and so on September 20th, 1975, President Gerald R. Ford signed Public Law 94-97 (89 Stat. 479), which returned the annual observance of Veterans Day to its original date of November 11, beginning in 1978. This action supported the desires of the overwhelming majority of state legislatures, all major veterans service organizations and the American people.
Veterans Day continues to be observed on November 11, regardless of what day of the week on which it falls. The restoration of the observance of Veterans Day to November 11 not only preserves the historical significance of the date, but helps focus attention on the important purpose of Veterans Day: A celebration to honor America’s veterans for their patriotism, love of country, and willingness to serve and sacrifice for the common good.
Happy Veterans Day.
38 U.S. Code § 101
(2)The term “veteran” means a person who served in the active military, naval, air, or space service, and who was discharged or released therefrom under conditions other than dishonorable.
At eleven o’clock this morning came to an end the cruelest and most terrible War that has ever scourged mankind. I hope we may say that thus, this fateful morning, came to an end all wars.
– David Lloyd George, British prime minister
Only to be surpassed by World War 2 in destruction and casualties.
November 11, 2026
1918 – At at 5:45 a.m Paris Time (UTC +1), aboard a railroad car in Compiègne forest France, the Allied Entente & German delegations sign an armistice, ceasing all hostilities between the parties, to take effect at 11:00 a.m. Paris Time.
1921 – The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is dedicated by President Harding at Arlington National Cemetery.