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Chief Surgeon Confirms Fart Fire Exists: 'I Lit a Fart Through a Midline Incision'

November 04, 2016
Lori Hanes

Writer

In one of the more pressing news stories of the day, reports surfaced that a woman undergoing laser surgery actually caused a fire by farting. Naturally, the investigative team at The Glenn Beck Program jumped into action.

"It's not every day that you get a story on a fart fire," Glenn reported. "I want to hear from doctors, because I believe it can."

RELATED: Fart Blamed for Causing a Fire During Surgery at a Tokyo Hospital

As luck would have it, Dr. MacDowell, a chief surgeon from Nashville, Tennessee, called in to lend his expert opinion.

"Would you say that fartology is in your realm of business? You've been around some sort of fartologist?" Glenn asked.

"Definitely, I have. I consider myself an expert on it, in fact," Dr. MacDowell said.

Dr. MacDowell went on to confirm that, under the right conditions, a patient's gas can absolutely spark a fire.

Read below or watch the clip for answers to these explosive questions:

• Under what conditions did Dr. MacDowell light a fart?

• Does Al Gore need to get involved in this methane gas problem?

• Among Glenn and his co-hosts, who has lit their own farts?

• Is Jeffy correct about why doctors wear masks?

• Why does Dr. MacDowell say the U.S. has the best medical system in the world?

Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors:

GLENN: All right. I think we have to start with the fart fire. I mean, you don't -- it's not every day that you get a story on a fart fire.

PAT: I don't even think this can happen.

GLENN: I want to here from doctors. Because I believe it can.

PAT: Do you really?

GLENN: Yes.

All right. Some -- a woman, where was she?

JEFFY: Japan.

GLENN: She's having laser surgery on her butt.

PAT: Well, her cervix.

GLENN: All right. So she's having -- it wasn't colon surgery?

PAT: No.

JEFFY: No.

GLENN: Well then I don't know if this can happen.

PAT: That's what I'm saying.

JEFFY: What?

GLENN: So, anyway, so she's having laser surgery. And they got the lasers fired up, and she passes gas.

JEFFY: Right.

GLENN: And the laser hits the gas, ignites a fire.

JEFFY: Right.

GLENN: And it sets --

PAT: Of the -- of the, you know, bed she's laying on, ignite and burns her on the lower torso of her body.

JEFFY: She gets burned.

PAT: Her fart didn't cause a laser fire. Come on.

JEFFY: First of all, it couldn't -- I will say -- I believe that it's possible. But it's not the first time that people have passed gas during surgery, right? I mean, that's why doctors wear masks.

GLENN: Yeah. No, that's not why doctors --

JEFFY: They wear the mask so they don't smell the gas.

GLENN: No, it's not for gas. It's really not.

PAT: It's not.

JEFFY: Why else would you --

GLENN: For germs. But it's a good guess on your part. But it's germs.

JEFFY: Okay. All right. If you say so.

PAT: We need to stop the methane gas releases in order to save the planet. It's the SUVs and the farting during surgery that is causing catastrophic damage to the planet.

(chuckling)

GLENN: I mean, so there was a fart fire in the --

JEFFY: Yes.

PAT: I want to hear from doctors whether that's even possible.

GLENN: Of course, it is. People can light their own farts on fire.

STU: No, they can't.

PAT: Not with a laser.

GLENN: You don't know what kind of --

STU: So, Pat, I want to make sure I understand your nuanced position here: You're saying that the issue with this is not that you can't light farts on fire, it's that you can't light farts on fire with a laser.

PAT: Yeah, with a laser.

STU: You can do it with a lighter?

PAT: Yes, you can. Obviously. Were you ever a teenager? Come on.

JEFFY: Haven't you see the YouTube video? Come on.

STU: I don't click on those typically.

PAT: Okay.

JEFFY: Yeah, neither do I. Neither do I.

GLENN: Lori, do you have fart fire on your screen right now? Do you have a YouTube up of a fart fire?

LORI: No.

GLENN: No, you don't? All right. Could you get one?

PAT: She's lying. You know she's lying.

GLENN: Lori who writes for GlennBeck.com is in here. And I'm surprised she didn't have the fart fire up on there, a YouTube video of that, immediately.

STU: So you're saying you can't light farts on fire?

GLENN: Oh.

PAT: No question about it. That's a proven fact.

JEFFY: That's a fact.

PAT: That's a proven fact.

GLENN: Okay. Right here. World fart fire. There it is. Look at that. Look at that.

Now, watch. Look at that.

PAT: Okay.

GLENN: That is a --

JEFFY: Yeah, that -- guys have had their hair burned down their backside for years.

PAT: That's sick. That's sick.

STU: I suppose my question then is why wouldn't you believe that a laser during surgery --

GLENN: That's what I don't understand.

PAT: Just --

GLENN: Of course, this happened.

PAT: I don't think that's possible.

GLENN: Why?

PAT: Because it would have happened a thousand times by now --

STU: Maybe it has.

PAT: And not just in Japan. It would have happened all over the world, and we would have heard about it before now.

GLENN: Maybe -- maybe her gas was a little extra --

JEFFY: Yeah. And it was perfectly timed with the time that the laser came on.

PAT: 877-727-BECK. I got to hear from the audience on this.

GLENN: On fart fires.

PAT: Yes.

GLENN: I don't mean to be crude. But seriously, what if her fart was a little more liquidy.

PAT: Ick.

GLENN: That would cause it to go on the sheet and be like a gas fire.

PAT: Ugh.

STU: What do you mean you didn't mean for it to be crude? You absolutely --

GLENN: How else do you explain that?

STU: You don't explain it -- that's how you --

GLENN: Okay. Then I'll just be quiet. Then I -- you're trying to shut down my freedom of speech.

PAT: I wish he would have, yes.

GLENN: I am trying to have a real -- a serious explanation on how it could catch the sheets on fire.

STU: I have not -- I have not passed a congressional law limiting what you're saying. You should just stop saying it.

GLENN: Boycott.

STU: Not a First Amendment.

GLENN: Next it's a boycott.

STU: It's not.

(laughter)

PAT: I would say that would make it less likely. I would think it would have to be more, you know, gaseous.

GLENN: Gaseous?

PAT: Uh-huh. Do we have a doctor?

JEFFY: Yes, we do.

PAT: All right.

GLENN: Dr. McDowell. Doctor. Doctor.

CALLER: Hello.

GLENN: You refer to me -- when I say doctor, you say doctor.

CALLER: I am -- I am a doctor.

GLENN: Well, so am I a doctor.

CALLER: Is this Glenn?

GLENN: Yes, this isn't Glenn. This is Dr. Beck. It's professional courtesy, man. Doctor.

CALLER: I have no idea.

PAT: He doesn't understand how this works. When Glenn addresses you as doctor, you address him back as doctor.

GLENN: Let's try this again, if you are indeed a real doctor who doesn't know the etiquette of addressing a doctor. Doctor.

CALLER: Doctor.

GLENN: Yes! Yes. There you go.

JEFFY: Thank you.

PAT: It wasn't delivered great, but okay.

GLENN: But we'll take it. We'll take.

Okay. So Dr. McDowell. You are a doctor of?

CALLER: Surgery. I'm a surgeon from Nashville, Tennessee.

PAT: You've worked with lasers?

GLENN: Would you say that fartology is in your realm of business? You've been around some sort of fartologist?

CALLER: Definitely I have. I consider myself an expert on it, in fact.

PAT: All right.

GLENN: Excellent. Do you work with lasers?

CALLER: You know, I think "lasers" is a misnomer in our line of work. We really don't use lasers much. I don't really know what they were doing with a laser around an anus. That really doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

(laughter)

I mean, I don't use a lot of lasers around --

PAT: That's one of the best phrases that's ever been uttered on this show. I don't know what they were doing with lasers around an anus.

CALLER: Right. But so -- but the truth is, it very much can happen. And I was telling your screener about a story that happened to me a few years ago. I was a resident. This was probably ten or 15 years ago at Vanderbilt. And I was on trauma call. And a gentleman came in on a Sunday morning with a history that he had been out at a bar on Saturday night here in Nashville and had gotten into a fight and been stabbed in his abdomen. And went home and passed out. And woke up the next morning, and his belly just felt awful. And so he showed up at our emergency department. And we evaluated him and found that he had some unknown injury to his bowels. And so that -- that's a straightforward indication to take him to the operating room and explore his abdomen.

JEFFY: Oh.

CALLER: And so I had him in the operating room, and I had opened up his abdomen. And I had an electric artery, which is -- can cause a spark. And as soon as I entered his abdominal cavity, a blue flame shot out of his wound. It was the craziest thing. And what had happened was is he had been stabbed and had an injury to his colon, and the methane from his colon had leaked out into his peritoneal cavity and had built up over night.

PAT: Ick.

CALLER: And literally, I lit a fart through his midline incision. It was crazy.

(laughter)

PAT: That's what I'm saying. That needs to stop.

CALLER: So, yes, it can happen. And there were no lasers involved. And it really can happen.

PAT: Wow. It can happen. Wow.

JEFFY: So, Doctor, are you going to deny that that's the reason you wear masks in surgery?

CALLER: Well, there's lots of reasons that we wear masks. It's not like that those masks can control the odor if you enter, you know, some untoward organ. It can --

GLENN: Is there ever --

CALLER: You mainly wear masks for your own -- to make sure that you don't pass your -- your germs on to the patient. So that's the reason why you wear masks.

JEFFY: Whatever.

GLENN: Jeffy.

Thank you, Doctor. Doctor. Oh, my gosh, this guy is not a --

CALLER: Doctor.

PAT: There you go.

GLENN: Thank you.

Doctor, let me ask you this, has there ever been a time that you open somebody up or you were treating somebody and you thought, "You know what, they never told us about this in medical school. And why the hell am I doing this job?"

CALLER: It happens to me almost weekly, Glenn. I mean, you know, there are just some days where I'm like, "God, why didn't I go to law school. Jeez." But it's --

JEFFY: That's amazing.

CALLER: But the truth is, a lot is said about American medicine in these days. And I think that -- I'm the chief of surgery of my hospital in Nashville. And I have a great deal of faith in what we do. I think our technology is great. The training that our physicians is great. And I think that we have the best medical system in the world. I just hope that we can maintain it.

GLENN: Me too.

CALLER: With the next administration, whoever that may be. I'm praying for one particular candidate. So...

GLENN: I'm praying for all of them.

(laughter)

CALLER: Good.

GLENN: Thank you very much, Doctor.

CALLER: Whatever is needed.

GLENN: Appreciate it. God bless you.

That's nice.

PAT: It's interesting. So it can happen.

JEFFY: There you go.

STU: Wow, there you go. It's a real story.

PAT: It can happen.

GLENN: I can't believe you didn't believe.

PAT: I did not believe.

GLENN: You saw the evidence on YouTube.

PAT: It's amazing. Well, I knew that could happen. But the laser thing --

STU: I honestly did not even know that could happen. It felt like one of those urban myths that you would say when you were a kid because you thought it was funny, to light your farts on fire. And then it would actually -- if you tried to do it, it wouldn't actually happen.

GLENN: See, I have to tell you, I don't know why I knew that was not a myth because I had never met anybody, nor had I tried to light farts on fire.

JEFFY: Please. We're supposed to believe that. Everyone has.

GLENN: I have not.

PAT: You personally have firsthand knowledge of it, don't you?

GLENN: I have never tried to light --

JEFFY: Everyone has burned some hair between --

GLENN: No, I haven't.

JEFFY: Jeez.

GLENN: And I don't know anybody who has, Jeffy, until right now.

PAT: You know somebody. You know somebody.

STU: We, as a national talk show, don't typically take requests, but on Twitter @worldofStu, and someone mentions this. And I think is needs to happen. Tell Pat to say anus like Al Gore.

(laughter)

STU: What was the sentence again?

GLENN: I don't know what that laser around the anus...

PAT: I don't know why they had a laser around an anus.

(laughter)

STU: It's a great point.

GLENN: It really is.

STU: Not enough people have made it.

GLENN: And only from a chief of surgery.

STU: What a weird show.

Featured Image: U.S. Air Force surgeons repair the ruptured achilles tendon of a service member. (Photo Credit: Wiki Commons)

URGENT: FIVE steps to CONTROL AI before it's too late!

MANAURE QUINTERO / Contributor | Getty Images

By now, many of us are familiar with AI and its potential benefits and threats. However, unless you're a tech tycoon, it can feel like you have little influence over the future of artificial intelligence.

For years, Glenn has warned about the dangers of rapidly developing AI technologies that have taken the world by storm.

He acknowledges their significant benefits but emphasizes the need to establish proper boundaries and ethics now, while we still have control. But since most people aren’t Silicon Valley tech leaders making the decisions, how can they help keep AI in check?

Recently, Glenn interviewed Tristan Harris, a tech ethicist deeply concerned about the potential harm of unchecked AI, to discuss its societal implications. Harris highlighted a concerning new piece of legislation proposed by Texas Senator Ted Cruz. This legislation proposes a state-level moratorium on AI regulation, meaning only the federal government could regulate AI. Harris noted that there’s currently no Federal plan for regulating AI. Until the federal government establishes a plan, tech companies would have nearly free rein with their AI. And we all know how slowly the federal government moves.

This is where you come in. Tristan Harris shared with Glenn the top five actions you should urge your representatives to take regarding AI, including opposing the moratorium until a concrete plan is in place. Now is your chance to influence the future of AI. Contact your senator and congressman today and share these five crucial steps they must take to keep AI in check:

Ban engagement-optimized AI companions for kids

Create legislation that will prevent AI from being designed to maximize addiction, sexualization, flattery, and attachment disorders, and to protect young people’s mental health and ability to form real-life friendships.

Establish basic liability laws

Companies need to be held accountable when their products cause real-world harm.

Pass increased whistleblower protections

Protect concerned technologists working inside the AI labs from facing untenable pressures and threats that prevent them from warning the public when the AI rollout is unsafe or crosses dangerous red lines.

Prevent AI from having legal rights

Enact laws so AIs don’t have protected speech or have their own bank accounts, making sure our legal system works for human interests over AI interests.

Oppose the state moratorium on AI 

Call your congressman or Senator Cruz’s office, and demand they oppose the state moratorium on AI without a plan for how we will set guardrails for this technology.

Glenn: Only Trump dared to deliver on decades of empty promises

Tasos Katopodis / Stringer | Getty Images

The Islamic regime has been killing Americans since 1979. Now Trump’s response proves we’re no longer playing defense — we’re finally hitting back.

The United States has taken direct military action against Iran’s nuclear program. Whatever you think of the strike, it’s over. It’s happened. And now, we have to predict what happens next. I want to help you understand the gravity of this situation: what happened, what it means, and what might come next. To that end, we need to begin with a little history.

Since 1979, Iran has been at war with us — even if we refused to call it that.

We are either on the verge of a remarkable strategic victory or a devastating global escalation. Time will tell.

It began with the hostage crisis, when 66 Americans were seized and 52 were held for over a year by the radical Islamic regime. Four years later, 17 more Americans were murdered in the U.S. Embassy bombing in Beirut, followed by 241 Marines in the Beirut barracks bombing.

Then came the Khobar Towers bombing in 1996, which killed 19 more U.S. airmen. Iran had its fingerprints all over it.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, Iranian-backed proxies killed hundreds of American soldiers. From 2001 to 2020 in Afghanistan and 2003 to 2011 in Iraq, Iran supplied IEDs and tactical support.

The Iranians have plotted assassinations and kidnappings on U.S. soil — in 2011, 2021, and again in 2024 — and yet we’ve never really responded.

The precedent for U.S. retaliation has always been present, but no president has chosen to pull the trigger until this past weekend. President Donald Trump struck decisively. And what our military pulled off this weekend was nothing short of extraordinary.

Operation Midnight Hammer

The strike was reportedly called Operation Midnight Hammer. It involved as many as 175 U.S. aircraft, including 12 B-2 stealth bombers — out of just 19 in our entire arsenal. Those bombers are among the most complex machines in the world, and they were kept mission-ready by some of the finest mechanics on the planet.

USAF / Handout | Getty Images

To throw off Iranian radar and intelligence, some bombers flew west toward Guam — classic misdirection. The rest flew east, toward the real targets.

As the B-2s approached Iranian airspace, U.S. submarines launched dozens of Tomahawk missiles at Iran’s fortified nuclear facilities. Minutes later, the bombers dropped 14 MOPs — massive ordnance penetrators — each designed to drill deep into the earth and destroy underground bunkers. These bombs are the size of an F-16 and cost millions of dollars apiece. They are so accurate, I’ve been told they can hit the top of a soda can from 15,000 feet.

They were built for this mission — and we’ve been rehearsing this run for 15 years.

If the satellite imagery is accurate — and if what my sources tell me is true — the targeted nuclear sites were utterly destroyed. We’ll likely rely on the Israelis to confirm that on the ground.

This was a master class in strategy, execution, and deterrence. And it proved that only the United States could carry out a strike like this. I am very proud of our military, what we are capable of doing, and what we can accomplish.

What comes next

We don’t yet know how Iran will respond, but many of the possibilities are troubling. The Iranians could target U.S. forces across the Middle East. On Monday, Tehran launched 20 missiles at U.S. bases in Qatar, Syria, and Kuwait, to no effect. God forbid, they could also unleash Hezbollah or other terrorist proxies to strike here at home — and they just might.

Iran has also threatened to shut down the Strait of Hormuz — the artery through which nearly a fifth of the world’s oil flows. On Sunday, Iran’s parliament voted to begin the process. If the Supreme Council and the ayatollah give the go-ahead, we could see oil prices spike to $150 or even $200 a barrel.

That would be catastrophic.

The 2008 financial collapse was pushed over the edge when oil hit $130. Western economies — including ours — simply cannot sustain oil above $120 for long. If this conflict escalates and the Strait is closed, the global economy could unravel.

The strike also raises questions about regime stability. Will it spark an uprising, or will the Islamic regime respond with a brutal crackdown on dissidents?

Early signs aren’t hopeful. Reports suggest hundreds of arrests over the weekend and at least one dissident executed on charges of spying for Israel. The regime’s infamous morality police, the Gasht-e Ershad, are back on the streets. Every phone, every vehicle — monitored. The U.S. embassy in Qatar issued a shelter-in-place warning for Americans.

Russia and China both condemned the strike. On Monday, a senior Iranian official flew to Moscow to meet with Vladimir Putin. That meeting should alarm anyone paying attention. Their alliance continues to deepen — and that’s a serious concern.

Now we pray

We are either on the verge of a remarkable strategic victory or a devastating global escalation. Time will tell. But either way, President Trump didn’t start this. He inherited it — and he took decisive action.

The difference is, he did what they all said they would do. He didn’t send pallets of cash in the dead of night. He didn’t sign another failed treaty.

He acted. Now, we pray. For peace, for wisdom, and for the strength to meet whatever comes next.


This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Globalize the Intifada? Why Mamdani’s plan spells DOOM for America

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

If New Yorkers hand City Hall to Zohran Mamdani, they’re not voting for change. They’re opening the door to an alliance of socialism, Islamism, and chaos.

It only took 25 years for New York City to go from the resilient, flag-waving pride following the 9/11 attacks to a political fever dream. To quote Michael Malice, “I'm old enough to remember when New Yorkers endured 9/11 instead of voting for it.”

Malice is talking about Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialist assemblyman from Queens now eyeing the mayor’s office. Mamdani, a 33-year-old state representative emerging from relative political obscurity, is now receiving substantial funding for his mayoral campaign from the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

CAIR has a long and concerning history, including being born out of the Muslim Brotherhood and named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror funding case. Why would the group have dropped $100,000 into a PAC backing Mamdani’s campaign?

Mamdani blends political Islam with Marxist economics — two ideologies that have left tens of millions dead in the 20th century alone.

Perhaps CAIR has a vested interest in Mamdani’s call to “globalize the intifada.” That’s not a call for peaceful protest. Intifada refers to historic uprisings of Muslims against what they call the “Israeli occupation of Palestine.” Suicide bombings and street violence are part of the playbook. So when Mamdani says he wants to “globalize” that, who exactly is the enemy in this global scenario? Because it sure sounds like he's saying America is the new Israel, and anyone who supports Western democracy is the new Zionist.

Mamdani tried to clean up his language by citing the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, which once used “intifada” in an Arabic-language article to describe the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. So now he’s comparing Palestinians to Jewish victims of the Nazis? If that doesn’t twist your stomach into knots, you’re not paying attention.

If you’re “globalizing” an intifada, and positioning Israel — and now America — as the Nazis, that’s not a cry for human rights. That’s a call for chaos and violence.

Rising Islamism

But hey, this is New York. Faculty members at Columbia University — where Mamdani’s own father once worked — signed a letter defending students who supported Hamas after October 7. They also contributed to Mamdani’s mayoral campaign. And his father? He blamed Ronald Reagan and the religious right for inspiring Islamic terrorism, as if the roots of 9/11 grew in Washington, not the caves of Tora Bora.

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

This isn’t about Islam as a faith. We should distinguish between Islam and Islamism. Islam is a religion followed peacefully by millions. Islamism is something entirely different — an ideology that seeks to merge mosque and state, impose Sharia law, and destroy secular liberal democracies from within. Islamism isn’t about prayer and fasting. It’s about power.

Criticizing Islamism is not Islamophobia. It is not an attack on peaceful Muslims. In fact, Muslims are often its first victims.

Islamism is misogynistic, theocratic, violent, and supremacist. It’s hostile to free speech, religious pluralism, gay rights, secularism — even to moderate Muslims. Yet somehow, the progressive left — the same left that claims to fight for feminism, LGBTQ rights, and free expression — finds itself defending candidates like Mamdani. You can’t make this stuff up.

Blending the worst ideologies

And if that weren’t enough, Mamdani also identifies as a Democratic Socialist. He blends political Islam with Marxist economics — two ideologies that have left tens of millions dead in the 20th century alone. But don’t worry, New York. I’m sure this time socialism will totally work. Just like it always didn’t.

If you’re a business owner, a parent, a person who’s saved anything, or just someone who values sanity: Get out. I’m serious. If Mamdani becomes mayor, as seems likely, then New York City will become a case study in what happens when you marry ideological extremism with political power. And it won’t be pretty.

This is about more than one mayoral race. It’s about the future of Western liberalism. It’s about drawing a bright line between faith and fanaticism, between healthy pluralism and authoritarian dogma.

Call out radicalism

We must call out political Islam the same way we call out white nationalism or any other supremacist ideology. When someone chants “globalize the intifada,” that should send a chill down your spine — whether you’re Jewish, Christian, Muslim, atheist, or anything in between.

The left may try to shame you into silence with words like “Islamophobia,” but the record is worn out. The grooves are shallow. The American people see what’s happening. And we’re not buying it.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Could China OWN our National Parks?

Jonathan Newton / Contributor | Getty Images

The left’s idea of stewardship involves bulldozing bison and barring access. Lee’s vision puts conservation back in the hands of the people.

The media wants you to believe that Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) is trying to bulldoze Yellowstone and turn national parks into strip malls — that he’s calling for a reckless fire sale of America’s natural beauty to line developers’ pockets. That narrative is dishonest. It’s fearmongering, and, by the way, it’s wrong.

Here’s what’s really happening.

Private stewardship works. It’s local. It’s accountable. It’s incentivized.

The federal government currently owns 640 million acres of land — nearly 28% of all land in the United States. To put that into perspective, that’s more territory than France, Germany, Poland, and the United Kingdom combined.

Most of this land is west of the Mississippi River. That’s not a coincidence. In the American West, federal ownership isn’t just a bureaucratic technicality — it’s a stranglehold. States are suffocated. Locals are treated as tenants. Opportunities are choked off.

Meanwhile, people living east of the Mississippi — in places like Kentucky, Georgia, or Pennsylvania — might not even realize how little land their own states truly control. But the same policies that are plaguing the West could come for them next.

Lee isn’t proposing to auction off Yellowstone or pave over Yosemite. He’s talking about 3 million acres — that’s less than half of 1% of the federal estate. And this land isn’t your family’s favorite hiking trail. It’s remote, hard to access, and often mismanaged.

Failed management

Why was it mismanaged in the first place? Because the federal government is a terrible landlord.

Consider Yellowstone again. It’s home to the last remaining herd of genetically pure American bison — animals that haven’t been crossbred with cattle. Ranchers, myself included, would love the chance to help restore these majestic creatures on private land. But the federal government won’t allow it.

So what do they do when the herd gets too big?

They kill them. Bulldoze them into mass graves. That’s not conservation. That’s bureaucratic malpractice.

And don’t even get me started on bald eagles — majestic symbols of American freedom and a federally protected endangered species, now regularly slaughtered by wind turbines. I have pictures of piles of dead bald eagles. Where’s the outrage?

Biden’s federal land-grab

Some argue that states can’t afford to manage this land themselves. But if the states can’t afford it, how can Washington? We’re $35 trillion in debt. Entitlements are strained, infrastructure is crumbling, and the Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service, and National Park Service are billions of dollars behind in basic maintenance. Roads, firebreaks, and trails are falling apart.

The Biden administration quietly embraced something called the “30 by 30” initiative, a plan to lock up 30% of all U.S. land and water under federal “conservation” by 2030. The real goal is 50% by 2050.

That entails half of the country being taken away from you, controlled not by the people who live there but by technocrats in D.C.

You think that won’t affect your ability to hunt, fish, graze cattle, or cut timber? Think again. It won’t be conservatives who stop you from building a cabin, raising cattle, or teaching your grandkids how to shoot a rifle. It’ll be the same radical environmentalists who treat land as sacred — unless it’s your truck, your deer stand, or your back yard.

Land as collateral

Moreover, the U.S. Treasury is considering putting federally owned land on the national balance sheet, listing your parks, forests, and hunting grounds as collateral.

What happens if America defaults on its debt?

David McNew / Stringer | Getty Images

Do you think our creditors won’t come calling? Imagine explaining to your kids that the lake you used to fish in is now under foreign ownership, that the forest you hunted in belongs to China.

This is not hypothetical. This is the logical conclusion of treating land like a piggy bank.

The American way

There’s a better way — and it’s the American way.

Let the people who live near the land steward it. Let ranchers, farmers, sportsmen, and local conservationists do what they’ve done for generations.

Did you know that 75% of America’s wetlands are on private land? Or that the most successful wildlife recoveries — whitetail deer, ducks, wild turkeys — didn’t come from Washington but from partnerships between private landowners and groups like Ducks Unlimited?

Private stewardship works. It’s local. It’s accountable. It’s incentivized. When you break it, you fix it. When you profit from the land, you protect it.

This is not about selling out. It’s about buying in — to freedom, to responsibility, to the principle of constitutional self-governance.

So when you hear the pundits cry foul over 3 million acres of federal land, remember: We don’t need Washington to protect our land. We need Washington to get out of the way.

Because this isn’t just about land. It’s about liberty. And once liberty is lost, it doesn’t come back easily.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.