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Watch full video on YouTube
Sitting on the tailgate of my truck, I fire up the new Optimus Gemini II dual-burner camp stove in order to make some coffee and oatmeal to start the day. With a scenic backdrop of snowcapped mountains piercing a pale blue sky, I twist the knobs on the slim silver stove to get the heat settings just right. Moments later, I’ve got oatmeal simmering in one pot while my coffee water boils in a mug next to it. The new Optimus stove, which fits perfectly into my truck-camping regimen, is considered compact. The stove has two burners, making it a…
Toronto sure looks like a rough place these days. Not even by Canadian standards, but ours. Even the U.S. Consulate isn’t safe, as we found out last month.Yeah, that gun control is going just swimmingly, isn’t it? However, I apparently need to give the Toronto cops their due. They made two arrests in the incident, which is good. It’s everything else they announced about the arrests that has me scratching my head.Toronto police announced the arrests Thursday of a 19-year-old man and a 15-year-old boy in the second shooting at the U.S. Consulate in five…
After a long day in the sun paddling the Missouri River, I hopped off the canoe, walked along the sandbar, and began to set up my tent. As I unfolded the poles, I began to hear the clinking and clanking of knives chopping vegetables and metal spoons hitting the side of a mixing bowl. Soon, the crackle and smoke of fire began to spread over the campsite, and I got my first inkling that something tasty for dinner was on the way. I walked over to the fire with my camp chair in hand, and took a seat to watch…
Violent crime is down across the country, and that’s a very good thing. Our homicide rate hitting record lows is something that we should all be celebrating, and we’re on pace to see it even lower this year. Again, a very good thing. However, the only acceptable number of homicides is zero, and that means there’s always work to be done. We need to be realistic, though, which is why gun control is still a non-starter.But maybe the answer is to not let dangerous people walk around on our city streets? I’m just putting that…
Within the Air Force, officer ranks follow a clear-cut structure, divided into three categories: company grade, field grade, and general officers. Company grade officers range from O-1 to O-3. Climbing the ranks, next are field grade officers, in the O-4 to O-6 range, taking the helm of mid-level command. Finally, at the top of the hierarchy are general officers, O-7 and above, who oversee strategy. Air Force Company Grade Officer Ranks Second Lieutenant (O-1) The rank of second lieutenant is shown through a single gold bar. Proper forms of address include “second lieutenant” or “lieutenant.” Commissioned airmen sometimes may skip…
I got my first Swiss Army knife at a flea market when I was about 11 years old. I have no clue which model it was, but it had the basic tools we typically see nestled between those familiar red handle scales, such as a knife blade, can opener, bottle opener, and corkscrew. I beat the hell out of that knife for a few years. It whittled hundreds of sticks into sharp points. I used it to open cans of Dinty Moore or Chef Boyardee I’d brought to the campfire. It trimmed rope we used in countless forts in the…
Iowa’s always been pretty decent when it comes to gun laws, but the state has made a couple of major improvements over the past few years. In 2021, the state’s permitless carry law kicked in, and the following year voters approved an amendment to the state constitution that declares firearm ownership a fundamental individual right and mandating that courts apply “strict scrutiny” to any future gun control legislation. Those advances could be in danger, though, unless Iowa gun owners turn out in force this November. While Democrat candidates like Christina Bohannan and Josh Turek don’t…
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When the FourLeaf Air Show moves to July 4 weekend for America’s 250th birthday, some of the oldest aircraft in the sky will carry more than engine noise over Jones Beach. The American Airpower Museum in Farmingdale, N.Y., is preparing to fly a formation of World War II-era warbirds during the 2026 FourLeaf Air Show at Jones Beach in Nassau County, adding a living-history element to a weekend already tied to the nation’s semiquincentennial. The show, scheduled for July 5 and 6, will be headlined by the U.S. Navy Blue Angels and will include other military and international performers, according…
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Jergen “CoachCam” Campbell was tired of seeing friends he served with die by suicide. So, he decided to do something about it. Make people laugh. More importantly, open, honest, raw, emotional and thoughtful dialogue around the mental health issues some veterans face. Campbell, a Marine Corps veteran who served for 23 years, calls it “heart work,” building connection, belonging and resilience through storytelling, conversation, writing, comedy and artistic expression. In Jergen’s podcast “Real Resilience Talk,” the veteran turned stand-up comedian talks to veterans, current service members, first responders, artists, fellow comedians, authors, mental health advocates and everyday people about resilience,…
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Watch full video on YouTube
For many Americans, the nation’s 250th anniversary will center on July 4, 2026, and the signing of the Declaration of Independence. In Yorktown, Virginia, local officials are asking visitors to look further down the road, to the battlefield where independence was secured years later. Yorktown’s VA250 and America250 programming is being built around a longer Revolutionary War timeline, one that begins with the ideals of 1776 but continues through the military campaign that led to the British surrender at Yorktown in 1781. The town’s commemorations are expected to continue beyond the national July Fourth anniversary and toward 2031, the 250th…
California has some of the worst gun laws in the nation, but that doesn’t mean that they’re popular in every part of the state. Outside of the more populous coastal counties, there are lots of locales where the right to keep and bear arms is seen as the fundamental right that it is, and even in the “may issue” days many places, like Fresno County, treated the concealed carry licensing process as “shall issue.” Now Fresno County is looking to expand who can carry; specifically, which city employees should be able to bear arms when they’re…
Recent changes to the real-world Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington D.C. by the Trump administration make it look like Fallout 3. Credit: via GameRant, Bethesda Originally published by Game Rant Recent changes to the real-life Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool enacted by the Trump administration have made it resemble its counterpart in Fallout 3. Though the real version is creating a lot some controversy and is arguably a bit of an eyesore, fans of Fallout 3 have been poking fun at the similarity. The Fallout games have been set around various locales of the United States, but Fallout 3 in particular…
Two rights I care deeply about are gun rights and property rights. These have been ingrained in me for quite some time, but property rights were the first I came to care about. Learning about eminent domain in school sort of radicalized me to believe that a person’s property should be sacrosanct. Gun rights came later for me, but were no less important. For Salon, though, it seems that all they care about is how little they understand either.I mean, that’s the only take I can have when they, like so many others, have a…
Two proposals for the 2027 military pay raise are under consideration. The House of Representatives, in its draft of the fiscal 2027 National Defense Authorization Act, advanced a White House proposal for military pay raises ranging from 5 to 7 percent. The Senate separately proposed a flat 3.6% raise in its NDAA draft. Read More: Senate Rejects Pay Boost in NDAA for Junior Troops Who Need It Most For your personalized pay and allowance computation, check out our free Military Pay Calculator, which can provide you with personalized pay calculations. View the 2026 pay charts for active-duty and reserve members.…
Virginia Del. Dan Helmer routinely brags about his role in pushing the state’s new gun and magazine ban through the General Assembly, but there’s a really good chance that a year from now, the only thing Helmer really accomplished was ensuring that tens of thousands of Virginians ended up purchasing the guns he was trying to ban. In addition to the half-dozen lawsuits that have already been filed in state and federal court over the ban, the Justice Department announced today that it’s bringing suit against Virginia over the law that was authored by Helmer…
