By Nathan Barton

Good morning, and may you enjoy a wonderful day, regardless of the news and events.  If I’m counting right, this is my 500th column to be published in the new format of The Price of Liberty. So something special, first.

Mama Liberty, is it okay if I tout someone else’s column?  (Of course!)

Knowing L. Neil (if not as well as I wish, seeing how I drive within five miles of his house three to six times a month!), I always read his columns, if for no other reason that it gets my heart rate up, and reminds me how many of his novels I’m behind on.  Some are better than others (how WELL I know that feeling), and some we definitely disagree on.  And some are, well, just awesome.

This week’s column by Neil is one of those, and I pray (sorry, Neil, I know) that he survives this one, and one of those Red-diaper babies or one of their goons does not get hyper and try to do something nasty to Neil.  (Hey, we are all slower than we used to be: one reason to raise strong (and accurate) sons and daughters and yes, grand children.)

I’ve wondered more than once when he wrote something that was true and pointed and sure to prick some hearts (as well as generate a LOT of backlash) if he wasn’t setting himself up.  Lady Susan and I can get away with it: we don’t have our names on almost a hundred paperbacks and hardcovers found in used book stores from Tunbridge Wells and Londonderry to Manila and Anchorage and Panama City.

Go and read it: Barry the Red.

Then put it down, do something else and go BACK and read it.  And do it again.  Then think VERY seriously about printing out a half dozen copies and leaving them with “Simon Says” stickers on some library or Elks Club bulletin boards, and give some to friends – or even acquaintances that are only somewhat deluded, or have gotten a bit disillusioned.

And then, go out and DO something.  Work on getting your family prepared for the tsunami to come.  Work on getting your friends at least concerned. Work on making sure that you know just how far away that rock or fence post is from your front (AND back) door and how much windage to allow.  Dig deep and give up three or four Big Macs and buy another box of 9mm or .45-cal ammo.  Or another pistol or carbine, even if it IS just one of those El Cheapo HiPoints.

Make friends with the good cop who lives a block or so over and has already complained about what the deputies in Texas or the NYPD and LAPD are doing that is wrong and angers him.  And the nice couple that just retired from 30 years in the National Guard, next door to him.  And the guy that is always working on yet another hotrod and whose old 1985 S10 always has the bed filled with junk.  And the kid who is looking so bummed out since he last got back from the Stan who was such a great guy before he left.

Don’t talk politics with them, talk economics and hunting and fishing and gardening and making do with scrap and junk and salvage. And don’t say a word to anyone who can’t be vouched for by a half-dozen different folks who are NOT federal or state or even local employees.

Lest you think that I am too concerned about Neil’s (and his family’s) safety, remember that even cartoonists are at risk in our modern world.  And moviemakers.

On to some news items:  And good news to start with!

Finally, and they didn’t kill her, as they seemed to be intent on doing.  After hard work by hundreds of people, she is going HOME! Connecticut teenager Justina Pelletier spent 16 months in state custody as the central but largely off-stage player in an explosive drama involving parents’ rights and the controversial new field of medical child abuse. Now she is going home. On Wednesday, the 16-year-old girl is to return to her parents’ custody and their home in West Hartford, Connecticut, following a ruling by the same Massachusetts juvenile court judge who originally removed her from her parents’ care.  Nazgul are evil, but this judge seems to once more prove Christ’s parable of the wicked judge.

U.S. forces capture a Benghazi suspect in secret (and illegal) raid into Libya. Ahmed Abu Khattala is an alleged ringleader in the 2012 attacks in Libya that left four Americans dead.  Abu Khattala’s capture is I-told-you-so moment for the Fuehrer, always someone swift to claim glory that isn’t his and actions that are either stupid or done by someone else. The WaPo explains and justifies that this could be short-lived, as the achievement is likely to do little to tamp down partisan fervor.  Of course, I seem to recall that there WERE “no ringleaders” and the murderous Benghazi attacks were just the spontaneous reaction of faithful Muslims to the severe provocations from Americans making nasty movies about Mohammed (peanut butter und honig).  Of course, even with modern databases, it is SOOOO hard to keep your lies straight when you tell as many as the Fuehrer.

In the land of the Two Rivers (Mesopotamia) “Iraq’s” Maliki consolidating power even as nation fractures. Even as Sunni “extremists” (read, average Sunni faithful believers practicing their evil religion by killing and killing and still more killing) press toward the capital, some of the Shiite premier’s critics are lining up behind him.  I think that this is a case of grasping for something, squeezing too hard with your mail-gloved fist, and seeing it all squish out between your fingers.  Remember the Shi’a hands are just as red with not just the blood of their enemies, but the blood of innocents, and has been since they got started 1200 years ago.  When Arab Muslims began their blood-soaked conquests and occupations, leading to the murder of millions, the Azteca were still centuries away from getting their empire (with ITS mass murders and ethnic cleansing and all) going.  Now, the Azteca are nothing but a 400-year-dead nightmare and we see thousands a day sacrificed at virtual altars to Allah in a broad band running from Afghanistan through Pakistan and Persia and Mesopotamia through Syria and Canaan and Egypt to Nigeria and other places in Africa.  And actually, it can be seen in an even larger band of darkness across the globe from the land of the Moros in the Philippines to “honor killings” in Canada and the Fifty States.