by Robert M. Traxler

Free speech does not include “hate speech,” free speech does not include incorrect speech, free speech does not include hurtful speech? This is holy grail among the progressives/socialists.

The Constitution does not protect any speech that may make someone uncomfortable — really? Then what exactly does it protect? It’s just one more move to negate our Constitution, Bill of Rights and First Amendment.

Fact check is the new censorship. Facts are whatever the progressives/socialists want them to be. The Robert Hunter Biden laptop was a Russian plant, the Russians helped President Trump get elected in 2016? Both absolutely true until proven not to be true, and even when proven false these are referred to as facts by our media.

President Donald Trump as a candidate never said white nationalists, Ku Klux Klan (KKK) were good people; President Biden and Vice President Harris even repeated that lie in rare interviews few days ago.   

“Stolen valor” is no big deal to many folks, but to those of us who served, lying about your military service is about as bad as it gets. Governor Tim Waltz refers to himself as a retired Command Sergeant Major. He was indeed an “acting jack” as we used to call them.

An acting jack is a soldier who was in a position the Table of Organization and Equipment (TOE) documents called for a higher pay grade then they held, so they are temporally allowed to wear the rank insignia of the higher grade. Being an acting grade does not affect regular pay or retirement pay, because it is a position and not an official promotion. He actually retired as a Master Sergeant.

The rank of Command Sergeant Major is an honor as well as a rank; statistically it is easier for a commissioned officer to become a General than an enlisted person to become a Sergeant Major, let alone a Command Sergeant Major.

The rank holds prestige and respect and carries with it a great deal of responsibility. Through his surrogates, Governor Waltz has said that he misspoke when he said he retired as a Command Sergeant Major. OK, that happens, but it is and has been on his website for years, along with at least nine other examples of his “misspeaking.” Quite frankly we must wonder why he just didn’t say he was an acting Command Sergeant Major (CSM), or a temporary CSM.

Along with his statement on his retired rank, on various occasions, he said that we should ban weapons of war like he carried in Iraq. He was never in Iraq; a simple way to make his statement true and not stolen valor would be to say he carried weapons of war in support of the war in Iraq.

Again, stolen valor is something many folks do not care about, but to veterans it is an outrage that he claims to be a combat veteran when he is not. Governor Waltz served honorably for 24 years, something to be proud of, so why stain his honor with a pack of lies?

Let’s look at the call for banning “weapons of war” argument. It is such a broad statement as to be meaningless. Rocks, sticks, javelin, discus, shot put, all originated as weapons of war. The classic example of banning is the dreaded rifle on the semi-automatic AR platform, but the Army and Marine snipers carry bolt action rifles like most traditional hunting rifles. Flame weapons have been used in war for centuries, do we ban fire?

A weapons of war ban can be darn near anything; it is an open warrant to just fill in the blank as to what to ban, more unregulated government power.

Common sense gun control? It is another statement so prophylactic in nature, so broad and encompassing as to be unconstitutional, what does it even mean? Who cares? Just do it. My opinion.