Don Bendell's Blog

GuestOpinion by Don Bendell

One GoodTurning Point Deserves Another

            One of the many motion pictures I enjoy watching is Mel Gibson’sThe Patriot. The film released by Columbia Pictures in 2000 describes itselfwith one line: ” Peaceful farmer Benjamin Martin is driven to lead the ColonialMilitia during the American Revolution when a sadistic British officer murdershis son ” The movie however is much more than that. Loosely based on real lifePatriot Francis Marion, “The Swamp Fox,”  it is more about the conventional versus the unconventional,the British versus the Colonials, neighbors and family members versus their ownneighbors and family members, and the hatred bred by misunderstanding andpassionate belief in truths and incorrect assumptions. In one poignant scene, outstandingactor Adam Baldwin portraying a Captain Wilkins, a local colonial-turned-British-sympathizerin the British Army. Demanding to show his loyalty to the Crown, his ruthlesscommander orders Wilkins to torch a church filled with all his imprisoned neighborslocked up inside. With Captain Wilkins, first fighting his conscience, hecrosses the moral line and  the church  is set ablaze with him tossing the first torchagainst the padlocked “House of God,” burning all within.

            With a core group zealously following him and believing ferventlyin his mission and core ideals, Charlie Kirk, another hero I admired who alwaysthought and acted “outside the box,” Kirk not only had enemies but absolutehaters. One to the point of shooting and killing him at long range with a powerfulMauser 30.06.

            With a smile on his face and in his heart, Charlieentered the Lion’s Den on a daily basis, speaking to young people mainly. Hespread the message of Christ and openly debated detractors and the uninformedalike with truth bombs, not bullets, without judgement or condescension, aboutsuch topics as abortion versus life-giving, transgenderism, men competing inwomen’s sports, and most importantly getting back to being families again. Hespoke hard truths, but always with love and conviction and facts. He was simplyfollowing Christ’s example of real manhood.

He staunchly supportedPresident Donald J, Trump in the 2024 election and helped him win, especiallythe youth vote. Charlie simply wanted to get our nation back to “One nation, underGod, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” He wanted us to stopfighting, name-calling, and turning on each other and stop being brain-washed bythe internet, legacy media, and self-serving-politicians. He wanted us toquietly, not only talk with each other, but listen as well. Charlie wanted usto get back to family, to each other, and to God.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Listed as one of the mostfamous cowboys of all time, Don Bendell is a best-selling author whose stylehas been likened to Louis L’Amour, Zane Grey, and Robin Moore, a 100% disabledGreen Beret officer and Vietnam veteran, and a 1995 inductee into theInternational Karate and Kickboxing Hall of Fame. Don owns the StrongheartRanch in southern Colorado, with his social psychologist and fellow author,wife, Dr. Janet Bendell also a former Army captain. Don is the author of 32books, mainly westerns and military thrillers, with over 3,000,000 copies inprint worldwide, a Pulitzer Prize nomination in 2011, and a successful motionpicture. He has 6 grown children and 12 living grand-children, and 2great-grandchildren. Don has a Masters degree in Leadership from Grand CanyonUniversity. Two of his sons are also decorated 100% disabled Green Beret combatveterans.

By Don Bendell

“Somebody,Grab a Rope.”

That title is figurative, but it reflects the feelings ofmany Americans right now. In the Old West horse thieves were hung and oftenlynched. Solutions were much simpler then. Contrary to what many movies show, inthe west of the eighteen-hundreds, women were a rare commodity, very rare. Consequently,most women and girls were treated with a great deal of respect. There were eveninstances of hardcore outlaws shooting, hanging, or beating to death members oftheir own gang who tried to assault a woman.

After suffragettes demonstrating, along came Rosa Parks, a modestbut proud woman heroine on a lonely bus in the south. There were major eventslike Billy Jean King’s famous tennis victory over chauvinist Bobby Riggs. Thenthere was a female US Vice President elected, and before that many high officesachieved by women in business, the military, and politics. In fact, there was agreat deal of empowerment for women and girls the past forty years or so. Whatthe hell do the wimpy powers that be in sports do? Kowtow to a very vocal verysmall minority, transgenders (less than one percent of the US population) whowant to bully, intimidate, and take over women’s and girls’ sports. This isdone to the total detriment of women and girls, yet the very people who pushthis ridiculous agenda are the ones who normally are the bleeding hearts whosupposedly care about others, especially women’s rights. This all is a symptomthough of a greater national illness.

Our country is rapidly going to hell in a hand-basket. Whenformer President Bill Clinton upset then President George H. W. Bush, whenasked how he won, Bill Clinton stated, “It’s the economy stupid.”

It still is!

Our sidesaddle President Joe Biden let Title 42 expire,because, like Barack Obama, he is the hand-puppet of his own greed. He is ownedby, not only George Soros, but a handful of other multi-billionaires who are pullingall the strings. Why? They want to turn us into a socialist nation and controlour economy. They know that the best way right now is to flood our nation withillegal immigrants, who will vote democrat in the future, and provide almost aslave-labor force of unskilled workers. These elitists at the top will just getwealthier and more powerful, while destroying the middle class in this country.The first thing Biden did, under their direction was surrender our energyindependence under the guise of “climate change.” That whole issue is simplyanother bandit wearing a green bandana.  

Donald J. Trump has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, hewill not only win the Republican nomination but the general election as welland many of these issues will be corrected in short order. However right now,we have a major crisis, a border crisis that must be solved immediately, so howdoes that happen?

Number one, each of us must saddle up, get off our dead asses,and get involved. We must contact our congressmen and DEMAND that President JoeBiden and  Alejandro Mayorkas, ourSecretary of the Department of Homeland Security, both be impeached immediatelyon a variety of charges, maybe even treason. Kamala Harris has shown she is anincompetent cackling buffoon with the leadership traits of a fence-post,however she is an attorney and no dumbbell. She knows, after her, the Speakerof the House is Republican Kevin McCarthy of California as the next-in-line tosucceed the President. She will be much easier to control and get along with thanBiden, who has enough trouble figuring out what flavor ice cream cone he wantseach day (On a side note: The sense of taste is the last sense to go with Alzheimer’spatients, so many of them especially crave ice cream and sweets).

Number two, hang onto your guns and your right to own anduse them.

Number three, do not let lynch mobs, like BLM and Antifaset fires to businesses to try lynching anybody or attack our lawmen and women.How do we do that? See rule number two.

Number four, we recapture the American spirit that tamedthe west and take back our country, without stealing land from originalAmericans or breaking any more treaties.

Number five, Hollywood and Madison Avenue need to be stronglyreminded that the gay community is not wrong at all. It is part of our society,always has been and always will be, but it only comprises less than fourpercent of our society. We need to get back to focusing on the ninety-sixpercent who are not gay.

Finally, our national motto is “In God We Trust.” We needto get back to that and away from trusting what Big Brother has to say or our DanceHall Dandies, men and women from Hollywood and Madison Avenue. Circle thewagons and hold back the enemy, until Trump gets back, and stop following GeneralGeorge Armstrong Biden into the valley of predictable and avoidable death.   

Don’t sit in your rocker in front of the saloon watchingthe sun go down at night and then the sun rise up at dawn. Join the posse of positivityand fight for our brand, the stars and stripes.

ABOUTTHE WRITER

Don Bendell is a best-selling author whose style has beenlikened to Louis L’Amour, Zane Grey, and Robin Moore. Don is a former US ArmySpecial Forces Captain and 100% disabled Green Beret Vietnam veteran, and a1995 inductee into the International Karate and Kickboxing Hall of Fame. Donowns the Strongheart Ranch in southern Colorado, with his social psychologistand fellow author, wife, Dr. Janet Bendell. Don is the author of 31 books,mainly westerns and military thrillers, with over 3,000,000 copies in printworldwide, a Pulitzer Prize nomination in 2011, and a successful motion picturewhich he also produced, directed, and co-starred in. He has 6 grown childrenand 13 grand-children and has a Master’s degree in Leadership from Grand CanyonUniversity.

By Don Bendell

Whoops! You Dropped Your Gauntlet Down in Front of Me!

In every state, there are laws directed at people like me, professional martial artists, professional boxers, kickboxers, and mixed martial arts pros. Such laws are referred to as “back to the wall” laws. In essence, they mean that such people simply cannot get into a fight, unless it is a clearcut case of self-defense where someone endangers your life or the life of an innocent person who cannot defend themselves. In other words, I cannot have road rage like some drivers.

This is a tremendous responsibility, and the question in any confrontation I ask myself is, “What would a normal judge say? Well, Mr. Bendell, when Mr. Smith got mouthy and you saw the potential for violence, why didn’t you run away or walk away quickly to diffuse it? Just because it was your right, was it wise or prudent for you to stay?”

The last stanza, in the late Kenny Rogers’ 1979 hit Coward of the County, he sang:

"I promised you, Dad, not to do the things you've done
I walk away from trouble when I can
Now please don't think I'm weak, I didn't turn the other cheek
And Papa, I should hope you understand
Sometimes you gotta fight when you're a man"

Many years ago, I created DON BENDELL’S CODE OF THE WEST and I live by it:

Cowboys should treat women like ladies, period.

Cowboys fight fair, they fight only when they have to, and when they do have to fight, they win, period.

You know exactly where you stand with a cowboy. There are no gray areas, only black and white, but not when it comes to skin color.

A cowboy is only as good as his word.

A cowboy protects his family, spread, and community.

A cowboy will fight for, and take care of orphans, widows, and those who are oppressed.

A cowboy will go out of his way to avoid a fight and is always willing to share his grub, campfire, and water.

A cowboy believes in his God, and he believes in America and will fight and die to protect either.

You see, I am not just a martial artist but I am also a cowboy. Therefore, I am also a man. When judges and/or prosecutors repeatedly let vicious felons go free on their own recognizance, when a multiple-violent offender sucker punches a 93 year old woman on a city street putting her in a coma, or a man working in a fast food restaurant sucker punches an eighty-some year old man leaving him dead. When violent rioters destroy streets and buildings, attack police officers, when a national election is illegally and expertly interfered with just so one party will win, when my grand-daughters have to worry about simply going into a restroom where grown men or boys are exposing themselves claiming that they’re a girl at heart, when baby after baby is murdered just because some consider its birth to be an inconvenience, when some pantywaist politician abuses their elected power to mercilessly and repeatedly attack a sitting or former President because he scares them; well, then I reckon they decided to toss their gauntlet down in front of me.

Real men don’t make threats, but we do sometimes make promises. I have a promise for the Adam Schiffs, the Clintons, Pelosis, the Gitensteins, the Klains, the ten billionaires financially backing Joe Biden, the Obamas and all of their puppets in-between, you tossed your gauntlet down before me, and I have picked it up. It is not just me. I have a very large posse. You will recognize us. We are all on white horses, black horses, brown horses, yellow horses, and red horses, and we are all wearing red, white, and blue outfits.

I promise you all this. This is my country, which God blessed us with, and nobody is taking it, or our freedoms, away from us. You have tried hard, but you have failed, and we are taking it back . . . period.

In 1968, I was a young Green Beret first lieutenant and a young, rich, spoiled Vietnamese Special Forces sergeant whose wealthy daddy bought his stripes and Vietnamese Green Beret for him challenged me to a duel. His goal was to make me lose face in front of the Montagnard mercenaries I was leading. I was wearing a .357 magnum revolver in a quick draw holster, and he was wearing an Army Model 1911 .45 automatic in a military holster. I stared daggers at him and told my interpreter to count to three in Vietnamese and then we would draw. Guess who is still standing here? Green Berets and real cowboys do not bluff. I have spoken.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Don Bendell is a best-selling author whose style has been likened to Louis L’Amour, Zane Grey, and Robin Moore. Don is a former US Army Special Forces Captain and 100% disabled Green Beret Vietnam veteran, and a 1995 inductee into the International Karate and Kickboxing Hall of Fame. Don owns the Strongheart Ranch in southern Colorado, with his social psychologist and fellow author, wife, Dr. Janet Bendell. Don is the author of 30 books, mainly westerns and military thrillers, with over 3,000,000 copies in print worldwide, a Pulitzer Prize nomination in 2011, and a successful motion picture which he also produced, directed, and co-starred in. He has 6 grown children and 13 grand-children and has a Master’s degree in Leadership from Grand Canyon University.

By Don Bendell

If Only Donald Trump Would Take My Advice!

“Come on, Coach! It’s fourth and one at the one-yard line, and you’re behind five points! Go for it! Don’t wimp out and kick a field goal!”

How many times have we yelled at the TV screen wanting a baseball coach to hit away and not bunt, or a football coach to try for three more yards instead of punting, or yell at a politician telling another lie? Wouldn’t it be neat if we had the power to actually get that politician’s ear or coach’s ear?

If President Donald Trump would simply take my advice, I would tell him:

First: Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift.” Mr. President, that is why that gift is called “the present.”

Over seventy-five percent of all American voters believe that you got cheated in the election. I did, too when I ran for the Colorado House in 2017, but, Mr. President, I am an American cowboy. If my horse throws me, it does not matter if it was his fault, mine, or forces of nature. You get up, wipe yourself off, pretend that nothing hurts, and keep riding. Why? For the respect of anybody that was watching you fall. They know that you are hurt but respect you so much more if you shut up, ride tall in the saddle, and keep an eye on the horizon while always watching your backtrail. Donald, if you never say the words again “election fraud,” you will attract so many more supporters. Let the rest of us bitch about how badly you got screwed, while you keep smiling that cocky, confident smile, and simply lead the herd.

Second: On Friday, November 4th, 2016, I felt so deeply honored to get a call from Trump Colorado Campaign headquarters and was asked if I could make it 140 miles north the next day to be the Emcee for your biggest campaign rally in Colorado being held at the National Western Complex in Denver and nationally-televised by all the networks. I was told I was requested to MC by the National Trump campaign. A month earlier, I had Emceed another Trump for President Rally in Lakewood and introduced your son Eric, who I really liked a lot and hit it off with very well. Apparently, he put in a good word for me. A few days before, a truck hit me and totaled my shiny white car, so I was sore all over, and driving a rental pickup. I was living alone at that time with my horse, dogs, and cats in a big house on my ranch. It was not convenient, but wild horses could not keep me from being there to introduce you and other VIPs like Mike Shanahan. You were getting your shot, and I wanted to help you get there in some small way. Many of us did. Politics are not always convenient, but we all need to be inconvenienced now to get our country back, and you need to know who can you trust?

You’re a Christian and so am I. God orders us to treat our wives like fine gems. Melania Trump is a diamond, a major babe any man would be proud to marry, but you got her. Nobody in the nation, or world, wants you to succeed more than she does. Listen to her wise counsel. She was a wonderful First Lady and needs to be in that position again.  She should always be your closest confidant.

Third: Look at Hunter and look at your kids. Your kids show exactly what you are all about. They are living campaign ads. You should be very proud and listen to their advice, too. You are their hero, but temper that. You are still dad.

Fourth: When I spoke with Eric Trump, I said, “Are you and your siblings like my sons are with me? Sometimes they will say, “Dad, it is time to pour yourself a cup of shut the **** up!”

Eric laughed heartily and said, “Yes, we try sometimes, but he won’t always listen.”

Understand that you have an ego or you would never have become President or a  billionaire. That is okay, and can be a good thing.  Also understand you were a construction guy and talk and act like one many times. Right now, instead, you need to sound like a President, all day, every day, because we the people need such a leader.

In your first term you proved that you have the charisma, courage, character, leadership, honesty, and toughness to be the leader of the Free World. However, in this next term, you need to be thought of as a statesman and a gentleman, with no one thinking you are abrasive and uncouth. That is why many voted for Biden, because you play into the democrats’ hands many times. Why? Because like me, you can be rebellious and love giving it back to them. Mr. President understand this. I am a 100% disabled Vietnam Special Forces combat veteran, and I have over 56 years in the martial arts. I have known some of the toughest men in the entire world. The most badass men by far that I have ever seen are men of faith who have a “quiet strength.” If you possess that “quiet strength,” you will never have to rattle a saber. The bad guys will simply know, not to ever mess with you.

You can go down in history enjoying the respect and legacy of Ronald Reagan. Surround yourself with loyal leaders, not “yes, men,” but leaders who will tell you sometimes privately that you need to shut up and just listen and remember Reagan’s wise words, “There's no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn't mind who gets the credit.” Those words were kept on a plaque on the desk you also sat behind in the Oval Office.

Fifth: Our nation needs a return to strength, and a return to patriotism, but right now, more than ever, we need a bully in the White House, a real bully. In a little over a year, Joe Biden has turned us into the limp-wristed pantywaist of superpowers. You know how to bully and manipulate world leaders, many of whom are pushing the envelope right now. You and Vladimir Putin are both Alpha Males. He is not going to be bullied by any world leader, but you have his number. You, and only you, can control Putin. You fully understand winning by intimidation.

You have no choice in this. God put you in the White House in 2016. Not you. God did it, and He will again, if you let Him. You know you have flaws and the left-wing media exploits them. God used people with flaws throughout the Bible to accomplish great things.   Abraham was really old. You and I are the same age and know that feeling. Elijah was suicidal, Joseph was abused, Job went bankrupt, Moses had a speech problem, Samson was a womanizer, Rahab was a prostitute, Noah was a drunk, Jacob was a cheater, David was a murderer, Peter, as predicted, denied Christ three times within twenty-four hours, Martha worried about anything and everything, and Paul was a Pharisee who persecuted Christians before following Christ.

This time, ask people like Barbara Rez to tell listeners that you made her the first Hispanic woman to ever completely plan, oversee, and build a major skyscraper in America. Have her tell that she was one of your business vice presidents years ago. Have black, Hispanic, and Asian-American families brag about how you changed their lives and all the things you accomplished in your first term. You do not need to be a self-promoter anymore. Let the myriad of citizens you have helped as President do that for you, and please keep endorsing good conservatives who are running. Campaign for them, for we must take the House and Senate back in November and put the RINOs and democrats out to pasture.

Then, in 2024, you can start to make America whole again, proud again, alive again, strong again, and Great Again. We will help you, and so will God, if you do not worry about Him getting all the credit.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Don Bendell is a best-selling author whose style has been likened to Louis L’Amour, Zane Grey, and Robin Moore. Don is a former US Army Special Forces Captain and 100% disabled Green Beret Vietnam veteran, and a 1995 inductee into the International Karate and Kickboxing Hall of Fame. Don owns the Strongheart Ranch in southern Colorado, with his social psychologist and fellow author, wife, Dr. Janet Bendell. Don is the author of 30 books, mainly westerns and military thrillers, with over 3,000,000 copies in print worldwide, a Pulitzer Prize nomination in 2011, and a successful motion picture which he also produced, directed, and co-starred in. He has 6 grown children and 13 grand-children and has a master’s degree in leadership from Grand Canyon University.

Pictures:

[image error]   [image error]

[image error] [image error]

Don Bendell, MC        Candidate Donald J. Trump         Eric Trump

CAPTION: Don Bendell and national hero Jeanne Assam a few years ago.

By Don Bendell

How To End School Shootings

Mass school shootings are wholly preventable, if people will just put empathy for our children ahead of political agendas and naivete. There have been several reasons why the incidence of such killings have increased, such as the horrific shooting recently in Uvalde, Texas. How we respond to such mass shootings has a very tremendous impact on how often similar scenarios will reoccur or will be prevented.

It was early AM, December 9, 2007, and 24-year-old Matthew John Murray opened fire with a pistol at the Youth With a Mission training center in Arvada, Colorado killing two and wounding two more. Evading police, he made it to Colorado Springs an hour south, equipped with 3,000 rounds of ammunition, and several weapons and pyrotechnics. Getting out of his vehicle in the parking lot of the massive New Life Christian Church a short time after services ended, he opened fire with a Bushmaster AR-15-rifle. He killed two teenaged sisters near their car and wounded their father, shooting him multiple times, wounded another woman in the parking lot, and a man near the church entrance. He then entered the church lobby and began firing while parishioners ran screaming, a few wounded. That was his fatal mistake.

Church volunteer safety guard, a Colorado law enforcement officer, and former Minneapolis police officer, Jeanne Assam identified herself as a police officer, repeatedly demanded he drop his weapons, and exchanged fire with the crazed gunman, who many said often spoke about hearing voices. Although he was firing a semiautomatic rifle, Jeanne advanced quickly forward into his withering fire shooting him ten times, with two of her final rounds hitting his carotid artery and jugular vein on the sides of his neck and head killing him. Her last two bullet casings were found by investigators less than five feet away from his body and Jeanne was sprayed with arterial blood, his not hers.

Murray had previously published numerous hateful statements against Christians and Christianity on social media. He clearly represented pure evil that day having said he wanted to kill many Christians. Jeanne stood up against evil that day representing God and His followers. She was untouched by any bullets and saved countless lives.  

I told Jeanne about me writing this editorial, and she said, “We as police officers took an oath to protect and serve. We have the equipment, and we have the training. You keep that oath that you swore to people and whether you live or die, you do whatever it takes to eliminate the threat. Fear is not an option.”

Besides Jeanne walking the walk as a hero, so did several Border Patrol Agents in Uvalde who rushed to the scene, ignored orders of hand-wringing local law enforcement officials to wait, and entered the school with three of them engaging the shooter and killing him. Another off-duty CBP agent, Jacob Alborado, got a scary set of texts from his wife, a teacher at Robb Elementary, borrowed a shotgun from the barber shop where he had been getting a trim, and rushed to protect his wife and daughter. With other agents, he aided in the rescue of several rooms full of children, including his own daughter, Jayda, while LEO leaders were still in an outside hallway waiting for better equipment.

Our police need to be lionized, properly-funded, constantly trained, and supported. They should never be trivialized, cut down, shot down, put-down, or politicized at every opportunity. On top of that, we need to reinstitute some mental facilities for the criminally insane, or disturbed individuals showing deadly intentions, and get those people professional caring help, and remove the societal threat of some people from the streets who are very unstable and are potential serial killers, before they kill. Along with that, prosecutors, sheriffs, chiefs of police, and judges who create a revolving door justice system in their jurisdictions, need to be removed and replaced.   Our nation simply does not work without our system of justice working. Nor does it work with dysfunctional families. Parents seeing such behavior in their children, adult or child, have a duty to their community to report them and not shield them from scrutiny by mental health professionals.

School shootings have drastically increased in America ever since the passage of the “Safe School Act of 1990.” I know the media and democratic politicians love to blame former President Donald Trump for every bad thing that ever happens in America, but please understand this: The “Safe School Act of 1990” was created and sponsored by then-Senator Joe Biden - our current President, and the bill was signed into law by then-President George H. W. Bush. The school gun free zone law regulated signs outside of schools that read “This is a Gun Free Zone,” and in most states, anybody within 500 feet, or 1,000 feet in some places, of a school carrying a gun, even off-duty cops, can be arrested, fined, and jailed, making the sign a warm welcoming sign for sociopaths and the criminally unbalanced. School shooters are usually psychopaths and universally are by nature bullies. What is easier than shooting a bunch of innocent children in an area where guns ore outlawed.

We need armed school safety officers back in most schools, specific exit and entrance doors at those schools, interior classroom emergency door locking devices, which are already in existence, and special lockdown alarm alerts. We also need some level-headed teachers, trained in safe gun handling, such as many teachers who are veterans, to carry concealed in schools.

When there are shootings like this, politicos only thinking of their own agendas, start demanding more gun control and stricter gun laws. We have tons of gun laws. Do you think these active shooters care about laws concerning magazine size, calibers, or capacity? President Joe Biden created that gun free zone law with the same intelligence he recently displayed on national TV stating that the nine-millimeter bullet should be outlawed because it causes too much damage. The nine-millimeter is the most popular self-defense cartridge in America, but cannot even penetrate a Kevlar vest in most cases, by the way.

The very wise framers of the Second Amendment did not pen that document, because they wanted us to kill more deer. They had just liberated our country from the oppression of our ancestor’s personal freedoms by an over-controlling government. We no longer need a side-saddle President who should have been put out to pasture long ago and prefers the smell of the hair of little girls and young women to the acrid smell of gunpowder from his own gun. We also need to eliminate any in his posse who supports his ludicrous agenda. Wannabe leaders like that, throughout history, have gotten thousands killed.  

You don’t need assault weapons for hunting, but to safely protect our loved ones from home invasions, foreign invasions, and illegal government invasions. Hitler and every fanatical leader in modern history who killed its own citizenry and incarcerated dissenters with perverted justice did so by first removing people’s guns. Get rid of assault weapons so the ninety-some percent of us who are decent citizens cannot protect ourselves? Give me a break! I am buying even more ammo and more guns. because one of my main responsibilities in my life is to protect my family. On top of that, according to the FBI, three and a half times as many people are killed each year by knives than guns.

All you have to do is simply look at the preponderance of shootings and murders by gun in Chicago, Washington, DC, and other cities that have enacted the toughest gun control laws in the nation. Each year in the United States innocent American citizens protecting their homes, businesses, families, and property, have used firearms approximately a half million times to thwart crimes.

I just looked at a video of a punk on a crowded New York subway walking down the aisle ranting, grabbing an innocent young woman by the hair.

Obviously scared out of her wits, she meekly said, “Somebody help me, please.”

I saw at least a dozen men in that video sit there and do nothing while he held and jerked her around by her hair. Fortunately, he stood, dragged her a few feet, and pushed her away. What has happened to American men? They have turned into the sissies you too often see on commercials or in sitcoms. They worry more about their man-bun or shaving their legs than acting like a man. I would rather be shot to doll rags, stomped into a puddle of mud by gang-bangers, or stabbed repeatedly than to have my wife, daughter, or grand-daughter think I did not try to protect them when danger suddenly appeared. Most of us males have greater muscle mass and body size than our female loved ones. God made us that way, so we can protect them. It does not make us better or more important.

OMG! Did I mention God, and it is not Sunday morning? The first answer to ending school shootings is to get God back in our schools . . .and our families , , ,and our lives. Millions upon millions have struggled for years to reach our shores, learn our language, our history, our legacy of freedom, and apply for citizenship. They do not build walls along the borders of socialist or communist countries to keep such people out, only to keep people in. The biggest strategy to end school shootings is to return to what made America great.  We must all get back to one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty, and justice for all.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Don Bendell is a best-selling author whose style has been likened to Louis L’Amour, Zane Grey, and Robin Moore. Don is a former US Army Special Forces Captain and 100% disabled Green Beret Vietnam veteran, and a 1995 inductee into the International Karate and Kickboxing Hall of Fame. Don owns the Strongheart Ranch in southern Colorado, with his social psychologist and fellow author, wife, Dr. Janet Bendell. Don is the author of 30 books, mainly westerns and military thrillers, with over 3,000,000 copies in print worldwide, a Pulitzer Prize nomination in 2011, and a successful motion picture which he also produced, directed, and co-starred in. He has 6 grown children and 13 grand-children and has a master’s degree in leadership from Grand Canyon University.

.

Guest Opinion by Don Bendell

Roe Versus Wade

My name is Don, and for over seventy-five years I have been a grateful, recovering fetus. When I started writing this, the news had just broken that a draft decision to end Roe versus Wade was leaked from, apparently a law clerk, in the United States Supreme Court. This is unconscionable.

Maintaining the critical balance of power of the three branches of government, the Executive, the Legislative, and the Judicial is an absolute necessity for the survival of the United States of America as a nation-state. Our Founding Fathers knew what they were doing. They established, not a democracy, but a representative Constitutional republic with a system of checks and balances that works like a well-oiled machine, unless one part is corrupted. The one branch that is most sensitive when it comes to checks and balances is the Judicial branch, and the Supreme Court which is the ultimate arbiter of the Constitution, must not ever be politicized or corrupted in any way.

When Roe versus Wade was passed in 1973, science was far less advanced than it is now. Even if you do not care about the Pro-Life arguments, experts have now definitively proven, scientifically, that life begins at conception, and at twenty weeks a child is almost always viable outside the womb.. If you watch TV shows like Long Lost Family, the first words out of the mouth of almost every person who was given up for adoption as a baby and is reunited with their birth-mother is “Thank you so much for giving me life.”

Except for the possibility of a mother dying giving birth, getting an abortion because you are a rape or incest victim, or as a means of birth control, or because being pregnant for nine months is extremely costly or inconvenient for you, is not an excuse to abort the baby, because it is a human life. For whatever reason, only He understands, God chose you to be a vessel to carry and deliver a child and bring a new life into the world. God never promised any of us a rocking chair on the front porch and a gold mine in the back yard. We were never promised an easy life. If you are pregnant, it is not your body, your choice. You are already raising a baby with a sacred duty to protect and nurture it.

If you do not believe in God, or do not want to accept it is Divine Providence, or simply are determined to abort that baby, do not stand near me. Why? Because I do not know what the bursting radius of a lightning bolt is.

A very small minority of our professional politicians in today’s America are statesmen or stateswomen. Abortion is a billion dollar-plus industry In today’s society, another political tool for bureaucrats, the party does not matter. In modern day, John F, Kennedy would have been-considered a conservative republican. Politicians have perfected race-baiting and name-calling to a fine art, to simply get votes and expand their base. President Biden came out and stated, without any evidentiary reference, that over two thirds of Americans favor Roe versus Wade. That is simply untrue. Roe versus Wade is actually split down the middle in our country with only one or two percentage points dividing the two sides. Unfortunately, way too often, powerful PACs and lobbyists dictate to politicians which side to support anyway.

Morality is also very much a part of this heated debate. Has life become so trivial to us? It shouldn’t be. Not counting Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, or even those who simply believe in God, let’s just look at Christians.

According to a 2020 survey by the Pew Research Center, 65% of adults in the United States identified themselves as Christians, but in 1995 85% of Americans did, and many wonder why they feel God has abandoned us. Throughout the entire world less than 7 percent are atheists. That includes all countries.

In Matthew 18:6 of the New Testament, Jesus stated, “Whoso shall offend one of these little ones...it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea."

It states in several places that “Children are a gift from God.” It does not say, “unless they are a product of rape or result of incest,” or “a major inconvenience.”  

I am ashamed that in the state where I live, Colorado, they just passed a law stating that abortions can be performed right up until birth. How many of you reading this, were born a few days, weeks, or months premature or had children who did?

It is time for Roe versus Wade to be aborted, before our entire nation is. It is time to come down hard on any who try to politicize our Supreme Court. It is time to protect our children, those who are born and those who grow inside the women chosen to give them life.

As I previously said, “What is the bursting radius of a lightning bolt?”

ABOUT THE WRITER

Don Bendell is a best-selling author whose style has been likened to Louis L’Amour, Zane Grey, and Robin Moore, a former US Army Special Forces Captain and 100% disabled Green Beret Vietnam veteran, and a 1995 inductee into the International Karate and Kickboxing Hall of Fame. Don owns the Strongheart Ranch in southern Colorado, with his social psychologist and fellow author, wife, Dr. Janet Bendell. Don is the author of 30 books, mainly westerns and military thrillers, with over 3,000,000 copies in print worldwide, a Pulitzer Prize nomination in 2011, and a successful motion picture which he also produced, directed, and co-starred in. He has 6 grown children and 13 grand-children and has a master’s degree in leadership from Grand Canyon University.

Guest Opinion by Don Bendell

GUYS & DOLLS & WHATEVER

I have the background and credentials to opine on a current phenomenon in sports right now, as I am a former professional athlete retiring in 2014  I have well over a half century of experience in the martial arts, specifically boxing, wrestling, kickboxing, Song Moo Kwan Tae Kwon Do, one of the five main styles of Korean Karate, Freestyle Karate, Shita Jujitsu (“the Fulfilling Gentle Art”), Shita Judo, and I am also a black sash instructor In Muay Thai kickboxing.

I also have a solution for the current issue that I am writing about, and that is transgender athletes, who started out as biological males, competing against female athletes in female sporting events because you identify as a female. My solution is quite simple. It does not matter if you are straight, gay, bisexual, asexual, confused, or transexual. Sexual orientation has absolutely nothing to do with such qualifications.

If you think sex should be totally equal, then drive to the nearest farm and ask if you can milk the farmer’s bull. If you do manage to get any milk out of him, if you survive the ordeal, please do not attempt drinking it or pouring it in your morning coffee. Then walk around behind the rooster all day waiting for him to lay eggs for you.

My solution is simple, but exceedingly important.

Here is my solution: Pull out the waistband of your tights, shorts, swimsuit, sweatpants, jeans, or undies and look down. If you see a penis, you must be required to compete only in male sports. If there is no penis, then you may compete in women’s or girls’ sports. There is no other fair way to do it, because men have a completely different body structure than females, and men have a decided unfair physiological advantage over women in athletic events.

Why do we NEVER see biological female transexuals competing in men’s events? Because men have different musculature, are larger usually, and more natural muscle mass than females generally.

Now, should females and males compete against each other in mental competitions? Absolutely. That would be fair, but physically competing against the opposite gender is totally unfair.

Now, here is the most important negative side-effect of the current practice. It goes against all the tenets of liberal philosophy in regard to women’s rights. Women, especially many who are very vocal in demanding LGBTQ rights have been claiming sexism by males in many areas of our society. They demand women have higher pay, equal employment opportunity, a fair shot in the workplace, in relationships, in politics, in the military. However, now they are demanding that transexual (biological males) should be allowed to compete against biological females in physical athletic events. How is that treating women fairly? Will some liberal gender guru please explain to me how this practice is not unfair to women and girls. You geniuses, with good intentions I am sure, all just became the very best recruiters for “the good old boys club” with your lopsided thinking.

By the way, any of you biological males who are transexual and competing against females, what do you have if you win a first-place trophy anyway? If you pull out your waistline and look down, you will see that you do have something in common with biological females. In my opinion, you have no testicles.

God made us different for several reasons, and He started it all with Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Don Bendell is a best-selling author whose style has been likened to Louis L’Amour, Zane Grey, and Robin Moore, a former US Army Special Forces Captain and 100% disabled Green Beret Vietnam veteran, and a 1995 inductee into the International Karate and Kickboxing Hall of Fame. Don owns the Strongheart Ranch in southern Colorado, with his social psychologist and fellow author, wife, Dr. Janet Bendell. Don is the author of 30 books, mainly westerns and military thrillers, with over 3,000,000 copies in print worldwide, a Pulitzer Prize nomination in 2011, and a successful motion picture which he also produced, directed, and co-starred in. He has 6 grown children and 13 grand-children and has a master’s degree in leadership from Grand Canyon University.

Guest Opinion by Don Bendell

AMERICA IS NOT HOLLYWOOD

My whole life, being asked to define myself, my most common answer is, “I am an American.”

I don’t say that I am a white American, or a European American, which is really good since I have never been to Europe. Racially, I say that I am Caucasian or simply say white. Our Woke society however wants me to refer to anybody who is Negro as African-American, not simply black. I have 14 grandkids and one of them is black. I do not refer to him as “my black grandson,” but simply as my grandson. The NFL now insists that, before games the Black National Anthem is played, even though 19 out of 100 Americans are Hispanic, and only 13 out of 100 are black. Why doesn’t the NFL play the Latino National Anthem?  Duh!

The NFL team, formerly known as the Washington Redskins, are now called the Washington Football Team so nobody gets offended. Why not change their name to something apropos like the Washington Wimps, or the Political Back-Stabbers?

Maybe we should not say the Hyundai Sport because it makes kids who do not play sports feel left out.  The Toyota Sequoia should have a name change, as it was named for a Cherokee chief who invented the Cherokee alphabet. Worse yet is the Jeep Cherokee. Oh my, how racist. Maybe they should rename the Ford Escort, too so that VP Kamala Harris does not get offended about her former past-time.

There is an old Arab tale about a camel, on a cold desert night, asking his master if he could just stick his nose in the tent to get warm.  Being kind, the master let him do that and moving  a little at a time, soon the entire camel was inside the tent, taking up all the space and making all the people within uncomfortable.

RINOs and DINOs have done the same thing with liberals. Republicans In Name Only and Democrats In Name Only let Liberals have way too much power, when the liberals do not come close to representing the general thinking of most republicans, democrats, or independents. What fuels this? Hollywood and Madison Avenue.

Have you noticed how many television commercials feature black actors or actresses, African-American couples, or mixed race couples this past year? In fact, while researching for this oped, it was learned that several of the advertisers stated in articles that 75 percent of TV ads now have diversity, which is way different than the past. That is actually a good thing, as America has always needed more diversity and racial fairness. However, Hollywood, the network news media, and Madison Avenue have swung the pendulum way too far in the other direction, making it unrealistic.

In 2021, of the entire US population the break-down is as follows:

Non-Hispanic whites comprise 60.3%

Hispanics make up 18.5%

Blacks are 13.4%

Asians comprise 5.9%

Native Americans, including Eskimos, make up 1.3%

Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders comprise .2% of the total population.

Sexual diversity has also been focused on in TV ads and TV shows, but according to the latest Gallup Poll LGBT, Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, and Transgenders make up only 5.6% of our population, but TV and movies would make you think the percentage is much higher, but maybe that is because the percentage is indeed much higher in the entertainment industry.  

Diversity is important and very necessary, but it has become highly politicized and inaccurate portrayals of American life and our society have divided us even further, when commercials, TV shows, and movies make it look like we are a nation of minorities, and those in the significant majority, white Americans, are somehow the enemy all of a sudden, thanks to liberal politicos. Politicians and their newscaster enablers have used racial and gender divide as a weapon to attack conservatives, middle of the road democrats, and the majority of Americans who simply want a happy, productive low stress life, without having government hiding in the closet.

Our “Woke” society needs to be re-awakened and our whole society needs to be reminded of who and what we are. We need to start telling the truth, the whole truth. Liberals and the media know that if you keep perpetuating a lie, people eventually start believing it.  We also need to get rid of this ludicrous political correctness.

You do not need to get your panties in a wad anytime someone says a joke that pokes fun at you and figure out just how it offended you. We all need to laugh more, smile more, and love more, and hate a whole lot less.

The last four letters of American and the last four letters of Republican are the same, “I Can.” The last four letters of Democrats are “Rats.” I better shut up, as I realized that the last four letters of Trump are “Rump.”

We, Americans with a few brains and a lot of common sense, need to take back our Senate and our House of Representatives next year. That should be our focus right now, unless we hide all of Joe Biden’s handlers, so he will wander the lonely halls of the White House aimlessly walking into walls while he wonders if oranges have four legs or feathers.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Don Bendell is a best-selling author whose style has been likened to Louis L’Amour, Zane Grey, and Robin Moore, a 100% disabled Green Beret Vietnam veteran, and a 1995 inductee into the International Karate and Kickboxing Hall of Fame. Don owns the Strongheart Ranch in southern Colorado, with his social psychologist and fellow author, wife, Dr. Janet Bendell. Don is the author of 30 books, mainly westerns and military thrillers, with over 3,000,000 copies in print worldwide, a Pulitzer Prize nomination in 2011, and a successful motion picture. He has 6 grown children and 14 grand-children and has a Masters degree in Leadership from Grand Canyon University.

Guest Opinion by Don Bendell

OUR COUNTERFEIT PUPPET PRESIDENT

If a herd of well-trained horses gets stampeded into full panic, runs straight towards you, and you trip and fall, the horses will jump or step across your prone figure without touching you and continue running. Have you ever heard of a mare stepping on its foal at night out in the pasture or in the barn? No, you don’t. Joe Biden, I will refer to you as Mr. President In this missive, out of respect for that office but not you personally, because you and I and many others know you got into that office by crooked tricks and cheating worse than any sleazy carpet-bagger after the Civil War. You spoke about US Border Patrol Agents trampling illegal refugees with their horses and lashing them with their reins. The reins on the horse are their steering wheels and brakes. If you would try to lash someone with them, they could grab the reins and control the horse, spin them around, or even make them buck or rear. Those Border Patrol Agents were spinning their reins around to control a crowd of federal law breakers, and everybody, even dudes, watching those videos saw that is what they were obviously doing. That is a normal, trained tactic by mounted officers all over the country. Instead of “having their backs,” like a real leader would do, you went on TV and said they were strapping people and trampling them with their horses, and they would pay for it.

As CINC, Commander-In-Chief of our military, and the POTUS, President of the US, President Biden, your number one job is to keep us all safe. You do not do that by undermining law enforcement officers, Border Patrol Agents, or leave Americans and our closest allies in a hostile foreign country and claim that those hunting for them are civilized when the violent actions of the Taliban, now and in the past, are on full display for the world to see. Also, unless you are a total coward and wimp you do not abandon the battlefield and leave billions of dollars worth of weapons, ammunition, and equipment behind to the enemy, and you NEVER leave our countrymen behind, not a single one.

As a cowboy, one of the credos I live by is, “A man or woman is only as good as their word.”

Mr. President, I do not have enough middle fingers to convey my true feelings about you, your do-nothing Vice President, staff, and Cabinet. Your SECDEF, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and most of your top military brass could not lead Beatle Bailey to the latrine even if the path was a Yellow Brick Road lined with solar-powered LED lights.

As a disabled combat veteran, a cowboy, a staunch supporter of law enforcement, a father, grandfather, and man, I am pissed. beyond angry. I am tired of the disrespect by a man who reminds me of Jeff Dunham’s puppet Walter. He looks like him and has Walter’s disposition, but less way brains and character. Like Walter, Biden is a puppet and does not do anything unless his handlers manipulating his every move with their hidden controls, such as Barrack Obama and a few others, decide what he will do next to try to attack our Constitution and all our nation stands for.

We MUST actively do all we can to call, text, or write our lawmakers to stop this assault on our republic. And, we must work actively to turn the midterm 2022 election to not only red, but we have to vote in real republicans and send the RINO turncoats out of town riding on a rail wearing a figurative coat of tar and feathers.

In the 2020 election, many republicans and independents did not want to vote to re-elect President Trump, because they thought he was mean and abrasive with some of his tweets. He had made so much turn around for the good, after eight years of Obama, but they became complacent and took him and our blessings for granted. Trump got cheated and our nation became the victim of fraud and election theft,  and now in less than a year, with our Pretender-In-Chief our enemies like Iran and China are pushing the envelope as hard as they can. He has already made Jimmy Carter look like he was Ronald Reagan. We must take action now, or you may wake up  one morning in November of 2022, feeling a strange hand going up your back searching for the puppet controls. 

If we end up going to war with China, Iran, or an international terrorist network again, who do you want leading our country, a ventriloquist dummy or John Wayne?   

May God bless America . . . again.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Don Bendell is a best-selling author whose style has been likened to Louis L’Amour, Zane Grey, and Robin Moore, a 100% disabled Green Beret Vietnam veteran, and a 1995 inductee into the International Karate and Kickboxing Hall of Fame. Don owns the Strongheart Ranch in southern Colorado, with his social psychologist and fellow author, wife, Dr. Janet Bendell. Don is the author of 30 books, mainly westerns and military thrillers, with over 3,000,000 copies in print worldwide, a Pulitzer Prize nomination in 2011, and a successful motion picture. He has 6 grown children and 11 grand-children and has a Masters degree in Leadership from Grand Canyon University.

Guest Opinion by Don Bendell

TIME FOR CHANGE

In 2010, the Vice-President Joe Biden reportedly told then-President Obama's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, that the US had to leave Afghanistan no matter what the cost for the Afghan people. 

According to Holbrooke, when Biden was asked about our obligation to maintain a presence in Afghanistan to protect vulnerable civilians, he scornfully replied to Holbrooke, “'F*** that, we don't have to worry about that. We did it in Vietnam, Nixon and Kissinger got away with it!“

This was reported by the United Kingdom Daily Mail: : https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9901577/F-k-Biden-told-Obamas-special-representative-Afghanistan-obligations.html

This is the President of the United States, the Commander-In-Chief of the US military, behind closed doors showing his true colors, instead of the political bull-squat he spews to an anxious worried audience of US citizens eager for solutions and answers that may give them hope for a brighter future.

This man is not only feeble-minded, he lacks any semblance of empathy for our military, our civilians in harm’s way, or the brave Afghani men and women who risked their very lives to support our troops serving in Afghanistan, knowing they would be tortured and brutally executed if caught helping us. JOE BIDEN DOESN’T CARE! He only cares about his next strategic move to discredit republicans, his real enemy in his mind, with slander of false racism, misogyny, and jingoism.

Americans and our allies, military and civilians alike in Afghanistan, have been waiting in fear and trepidation for the next suicide bomber to strike, or the next Taliban guard to be in a sadistic mood and open fire with his automatic weapon. They pray with trembling hands clasped for someone in Washington, DC to impeach this professional politician and his cackling sidekick and get someone in the position of stewardship who has leadership skills greater than those of a chimney sweep.

American journalists, the deaths of our Marines and sailor in Afghanistan are in great part your fault. You became the major propaganda arm of the democratic party, such was your hate for Donald Trump and any of his followers. Instead of being the true accurate recorders of US and world history in real time, of any and all news good or bad without inserting your political leanings, you copped out. You sold out and Americans died, so did the legacy of Edward R. Murrow. So now, because of your massive assault on honest elections, we are stuck with a resident of the White House who is a mix between Alfred E. Neuman, Rip Van Winkle, and Peewee Herman. It is time for setting the record straight and hold politicians, all politicians, accountable, and reporting the news regardless of whether it suits your taste or not. You owe it to the real journalists in America who preceded you, the ones who reported the news, not painted it over with a yellow brush.

We need a leader who will put a general in charge of Afghanistan who says to the Taliban, “We still have more than one American in your country, and you did not provide safe passage for Americans and our allies to leave your country safely by August 31, so now that date will only be a footnote in history. We will for now leave a small contingent of US Army Special Forces, some Ranger reinforcements, and a tactical aircraft wing in your country. We will also, using such forces, rescue any and all Americans and our loyal allies still trapped in Afghanistan until the last one is out. If, during that rescue, one American soldier is killed, one hundred of your fighters will be killed. If one of our aircraft is even fired at, we will destroy thirty of your aircraft. If that does not change your minds, we will start eliminating your leaders with precision tactical airstrikes.”

America used to have military leaders who were Pitbulls, German Shepherds, and Rottweilers. Joe Biden got rid of them and replaced them with every pantywaist democrat general and admiral he could find only too willing to turn in their “Man Card,” to become a barking, yapping neutered French Poodle, tail tucked between their legs awaiting orders from their senile master. They have worried more about which soldier was properly sniffing each other’s tails, instead of crouching like a Belgian Malinois, ready to launch an attack against any threat from any direction.

As a young US Army officer in 1968-1969, I lived with less than a dozen other Green Berets and 8,000 primitive nomadic Jeh Montagnard tribesmen in Vietnam’s jungle-choked mountainous Central Highlands region. The Montagnards, were the most pro-American, toughest fighters in all of Vietnam. I saw them sold-out and abandoned by our government when we pulled out of South Vietnam, only to be raped, slaughtered, tortured, and even crucified on crosses in some villages. This also happened to many South Vietnamese who were loyal to Americans. I hoped and prayed after that, that our leaders would use “lessons learned” to avoid doing such a betrayal to any other group of loyal foreigners, because our nation after-all is the by-product of foreigners. Sadly, we have failed miserably at that task.

God brought these foreigners, as slaves, as warriors, as explorers, as merchants, as spirituals simply wanting religious freedom. We became a melting pot for all races, religions, and societal norms and mores. Some who are self-serving tried to create their own class of elites, but we who live in that melting pot must now cry out, “Stop!” This is our country, and we will not let you destroy it anymore!”

An American, man or woman, is only as good as their word. Countries should live by the same pledge of honor. Lack of loyalty and lack of leadership are the bastard step-children of cowardice and greed. How can we lead the world, if our own leader can’t find his butt in the dark with both hands?

President Biden's dog biting a Secret Service Agent was our first hint about what was in store for America. It’s now time for change.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Don Bendell is a best-selling author whose style has been likened to Louis L’Amour, Zane Grey, and Robin Moore, a 100% disabled Green Beret Vietnam veteran, and a 1995 inductee into the International Karate and Kickboxing Hall of Fame. Don owns the Strongheart Ranch in southern Colorado, with his social psychologist and fellow author, wife, Dr. Janet Bendell. Don is the author of 30 books, mainly westerns and military thrillers, with over 3,000,000 copies in print worldwide, a Pulitzer Prize nomination in 2011, and a successful motion picture. He has 6 grown children and 11 grand-children and has a Masters degree in Leadership from Grand Canyon University.