Dear Friends,
I am sorry you didn’t get The Quarter Inch in your inbox yesterday. My daughter and I took a short overnight trip to small-town Montana and I wasn’t able to get it out.
So, belatedly, here are some things that have caught my eye.
The first is one that reminded me of just how diverse this country is. I imagine that the gas station I stopped at yesterday would be well-nigh incomprehensible to a fairly large mass of my fellow citizens. It’s your average convenience store, but it also has a really nice gift shop for Montana-themed art and trinkets of all sorts. And then there’s the gun selection. True story. Fill your tank, top off your coffee, and buy an AR-15 or pistol, if you prefer. The range of the selection was quite impressive, from shotguns, lever-action, bolt-action, and bargain-basement AR’s (please don’t bet your life on those) to a few nice, higher-end ones (e.g., Daniel Defense). I was particularly taken with this .22 caliber revolver, styled in an “Old West-Meets-Modernity” fashion. Even more, the place was a one-stop gun shop in every respect: they had every part you would need for building your own rifle, including some impressive, high-end brands. Oh, I almost forgot about the suppressor/silencers, too. Those require a lot more paperwork hassle and extra money, but you can still get one at the gas station.
As I say, it is a different planet from the one many people experience. Feel free to stop by Big Sky Country for a visit. We are happy to have you, so long as you eventually keep on driving.
Speaking of firearms, Hunter Biden was convicted of all three counts in his Federal trial for lying on his forms while purchasing a gun. I’m of two minds: I am glad they charged him and convicted him. There is still some semblance of equality before the law in this country. On the other hand, it is just a “semblance,” which is quite different from “real.” I have a difficult time believing they are going to throw him in a Federal penitentiary for his crimes because this privileged and corrupt little scofflaw is the son of the sitting President of the United States. If it were any other person there would be zero doubt: he or she is going to prison. Law-abiding American gun owners everywhere are constantly expected to dot every “i” and cross every “t,” and if you make the slightest mistake—like, say, putting the wrong butt stock on the wrong length of rifle—the ATF and U.S. Attorney’s Office come down on you like ton of bricks. Straw-buyers for drug dealers and politically connected liars like Hunter Biden get quite different treatment.
Westminster Theological Seminary is doing a podcast series on “The Future of Reformed Apologetics,” hosted by Brandon McLean Smith and Scott Oliphint. They are talking about Cornelius Van Til and the various individual contributions to the forthcoming volume by the same name. This week they talk a bit about yours truly, if you care to give it a listen.
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