Thune joins the resistance; Sends Senate home without passing a budget. Whee!

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Led by John Thune, Republican senators have joined the resistance by going on recess without fully funding the Department of Homeland Security—perhaps in an effort to attract the terrorist vote.

Senators claim it is a pro forma recess and not a real recess. I never studied the law but I do know that when lawyers start talking in Latin, my liberty is in jeopardy.

The Airport Aviary: Departures, Arrivals, and Other Human Migrations

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I wonder who is watching me right now.

Someone must be watching me because I, too, am watching others. I am in the Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport. We are leaving Spain after spending the better part of a month here. And I am engaging in my second favorite pastime: people-watching.

Stop the Hatred, by Walt Tollefson

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America, we need to remember how to disagree without hating one another. When I was growing up, many of my neighbors and friends were Democrats. My family was conservative and Republican. We disagreed. Sometimes we argued politics at the dinner table. But when the weekend came, we still went swimming together, canoeing together, watching movies together, eating together, and living as neighbors. Political disagreement did not require hatred. It did not require destroying friendships. It did not require treating half the country as enemies.

The Star, the Seal, and the Stories We Live By How Two Triangles Became One of the Most Powerful Symbols on Earth

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The six-pointed star did not begin as the Star of David. For centuries, it was associated with the legendary Seal of Solomon, a symbol tied to stories of hidden wisdom and supernatural power. Over time, the same geometry took on a very different meaning, becoming the enduring emblem of Jewish identity, survival, and national restoration. The lines never changed. The story did. And that is the secret behind every powerful symbol: it is not the shape itself that moves people, but the history, faith, and identity carried within it.

The Human Benchrest: The Enduring Legacy of MAJ Ernie Vande Zande

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Ernie Vande Zande was more than a national champion and record-setter; he was the rare competitor who made everyone around him better. Known as “the Human Benchrest,” the Army major and Camp Perry champion combined world-class precision with a quiet willingness to help any shooter who genuinely wanted to improve. His classic article Sights, Wind and Mirage still teaches competitors how to read conditions decades after it was written. Smallbore lost more than a legend when Ernie passed in 2018—it lost a mentor, a gentleman, and one of the finest ambassadors the sport has ever known.