I get annoyed when I see Christmas stuff in store as early as August. Hey guys, the kids ain't back in school yet!
Well, Thanksgiving is past and it is now the official Christmas season. The next few Fridays it will be Christmas music. If you have never seen Mannheim Steamroller live, do yourself a favor and watch them. The show is fantastic.
Carol of the Bells live. Enjoy and have a great weekend.
Let’s say you’re a moron. Or let’s say you’re a former Clinton cabinet member and current Berkley professor. But I repeat myself.
After the shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs, Robert V Reich immediately put this up on his Twitter feed:
Researchers have estimated that if we still had a federal assault weapons ban, we would see 70% fewer mass shooting deaths. S-E-V-E-N-T-Y PERCENT. Reinstating it should be a no-brainer.
Now one thing I am very meticulous about in my writings is sources. If you’ve read my stuff, I have links to studies, online publications, etc., where you can judge for yourself my assertions. Granted, Twitter is not a full blown, “sourced,” or “peer reviewed” information source. Fair enough.
But one thing I do have issue with is Mr. Reich seems to expect people to read his stuff and swallow it whole. His intellectual arrogance is what makes people despise higher education faculty.
A simple search will find facts of mass shootings. Mass shootings are defined as those where 4 or more people are shot and killed in one incident. From the National Institute of Justice:
Notably, most individuals who engaged in mass shootings used handguns (77.2%), and 25.1% used assault rifles in the commission of their crimes. Of the known mass shooting cases (32.5% of cases could not be confirmed), 77% of those who engaged in mass shootings purchased at least some of their guns legally, while illegal purchases were made by 13% of those committing mass shootings. In cases involving K-12 school shootings, over 80% of individuals who engaged in shootings stole guns from family members.
Granted, they, like Bobby Reich here, don’t define what an assault weapon is. Again, I started with a Web search and I found a two-decade old reference from the OJP:
The paper defines an "assault weapon" as a "civilian, semiautomatic version of a military weapon." Generally, the characteristics of an assault weapon make firearms more lethal, more accurate, and/or less conspicuous when used.
assault rifle, militaryfirearmthat is chambered forammunitionof reduced size or propellant charge and that has thecapacityto switch between semiautomatic and fullyautomaticfire. Because they are light and portable yet still able to deliver a high volume of fire with reasonable accuracy at modern combat ranges of 1,000–1,600 feet (300–500 metres), assault rifles have replaced the high-powered bolt-action and semiautomatic rifles of theWorld War IIera as the standard infantryweaponof modern armies…
I’ve said countless times over the years, I’ve carried both a Ruger Mini-14 and a Safariland AR-15 as patrol rifles. Both fire .223 ammunition and both have “high capacity” magazines (I carry 30 round magazines). Furthermore both are semi-automatic, i.e., you must pull the trigger every time you want to fire one round, as opposed to automatic, where once your squeeze and hold the trigger, the rifle will fire rounds until you release the trigger, run out of bullets, or the rifle jams.
So, compare these two rifles to a M-16. All three fire .223, all three have “high capacity magazines,” but only the M-16 A1 has full auto (M-16 A2 has burst fire of 3 rounds). Otherwise the AR-15 and the M-16 similarities are cosmetic, not functional. The Mini-14 looks nothing like the AR-15 or M-16, although it functions like the AR-15
Another lie put out by many politicians and other ignorant sources is the AR-15 is a “weapon of war” or a “military weapon” in civilian hands. I then ask people this one question: Which army in the world uses the AR-15? I get no answer, and in internet searches, I get no answer. I have no doubt some Guerra groups use them, but no nation’s armed forces that I can find uses it.
The facts are Mr. Reich put out a unsubstantiated statement. I’ll be generous and give him the benefit of the doubt he’s just ignorant of the truth. As a Berkley professor, that is very believable. But either way, it’s false, and it shows he’s not to be taken seriously.
I didn't see the first two hours of MTV, but I did see the video that started it, Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles. Followed quickly by one of my favorite rockers, Pat Benatar with You Better Run. I read in her book Between a Rock and Heart Place they filmed the video in a warehouse on the New York docks. She said how everything was going wrong (technical problems, it was hot and humid, etc.) and that was part of the reason she had a stern look on her face. And they had no idea what a "music video" was. Thankfully she learned.
Unfortunately an unknown idiot changed an awesome channel into another reality TV hellhole. But for years, it was an incredible distraction. So for a long week, here is the first two hours of MTV back when it was great. Enjoy, have a great weekend, and Happy Thanksgiving.
I've travelled on airlines countless times with my firearm. By that I mean it's in my checked luggage. Simple to do, have it unloaded in a locked case, declare it when you check your baggage, and the TSA agent has to verify it's unloaded.
Well, never thought of this technique to carry my weapon.
A TSA agent finds a gun wrapped in a package inside a raw chicken. (Photo courtesy of the Transportation Security Administration)
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - A person going through a airport checkpoint got caught trying to smuggle a gun inside a raw chicken and was called out by the Transportation Security Administration on social media.
Photos shared on the agency’s Twitter page shows agents removing a gun wrapped in a bag inside the chicken. "There’s a personal fowl here. Our officers at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) @FLLFlyer made this very raw find. We hate to break it to you but stuffing a firearm in your holiday bird for travel is just a baste of time," the TSA captioned.
Air travelers bringing guns into Florida airports is becoming an alarming trend. So far this year, the TSA reported that passengers have brought 700 guns to checkpoints, including 120 seized at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. The agency noted in these incidents that most of the guns confiscated by agents were loaded and had ammunition in the chamber.
The TSA shared on its website that unloaded guns can be carried in a locked hard-sided container as checked baggage only. Guns and ammunition also have to be declared at the ticket counter.
A TSA agent finds a gun wrapped in a package inside a raw chicken. (Photo courtesy of the Transportation Security Administration)
...According to the TSA, passengers that bring an unloaded gun with accessible ammunition to a security checkpoint face a fine or civil penalty. The agency can impose civil penalties of up to $13,910 for each violation.
I think I need a new lock for my case. And no, it won't be from the meat aisle.
I've been trying to dust off the blog again, and this week I've probably made more post than the last month. I'll keep working at it!
One of the things I want to restart is the Friday music send off for the weekend. I think you will enjoy this.
This song from Aerosmith is on my bucket list. Seeing the bank is touring again, hopefully the wife and I can finally get to see it live. But until that, Postmodern Jukebox will help. Their cover is excellemt.
Some months ago I became a weekly columnist for the American Free News Network. My post are generally every Tuesday morning. But here is one from a fellow columnist that is very pertinent with the Democratic party now. Especially with the elections ongoing, I think you'll find it interesting.
As the nation prepares to vote in the upcoming midterm elections, I couldn’t help recalling a couple of years ago when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stormed around the Capitol building purging it of all things reminiscent of the Confederacy.
That prompted House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to wonder if Pelosi should consider changing the name of the Democrat Party, given her newfound disdain for the Land of Dixie.
“The speaker has the power to do that,” McCarthy said in response to Pelosi, who ordered the removal of the portraits of four speakers who also served in the Confederacy.
“If the speaker is concerned about that, should she also start talking about changing the name of her party and chastizing the occupant of the White House?” McCarthy asked in a reference to Joe Biden, who referred to late Democrat Sen. Robert Byrd, a former KKK leader, as a mentor and “dear friend.”
In a letter to House Clerk Cheryl Johnson, Pelosi requested the “immediate removal of the portraits in the U.S. Capitol of four previous Speakers who served in the Confederacy: Robert Hunter of Virginia (1839-1841), Howell Cobb of Georgia (1849-1851), James Orr of South Carolina (1857-1859), and Charles Crisp of Georgia (1891-1895).”
A Confederate Democrat Speaker bites the dust al la Pelosi
All of those men were once members of her Democrat Party—the party that has a long, tumultuous history of defending the institution of slavery and fighting to keep it.
Pelosi also called for the removal of Confederate statues in the U.S. Capitol, characterizing them as “monuments to men who advocated cruelty and barbarism to achieve such a plainly racist end. The portraits of these men are symbols that set back our nation’s work to confront and combat bigotry,” Pelosi told reporters. “You have to see the remarks that they had made and how oblivious they were to what our founders had in mind in our country. We must lead by example, so we’re glad that that is gone.”
Pelosi’s comments and actions are the very height of hypocrisy, as well as an attempt to erase and rewrite American history.
For example, Pelosi has yet to address the role her father, Thomas D’Alessandro Jr., played in overseeing the dedication of the Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee Monuments in Baltimore’s Wyman Park while serving as the city’s mayor in 1948
“Today,” her father said in remarks at the time, “with our nation beset by subversive groups and propaganda which seeks to destroy our national unity, we can look for inspiration to the lives of Lee and Jackson to remind us to be resolute and determined in preserving our sacred institutions . . . . to remain steadfast in our determination to preserve freedom, not only for ourselves but for other liberty-loving nations who are striving to preserve their national unity as free nations.”
Gen Robt. E. Lee & Stonewall Jackson statue in Baltimore
Ahem. “Preserving our sacred institutions?” Did you mean, perchance, slavery, Mayor D’Alessandro?
But wait. There’s more. Pelosi’s father also encouraged Americans to “emulate Jackson’s example and stand like a stone wall against aggression in any form that would seek to destroy the liberty of the world.”
Not exactly politically correct, is it, Nancy?
And, of course, that is exactly what’s wrong with the hysterical imbeciles who are toppling statues and attempting to erase and cleanse America’s checkered history.
The past is the past. People a century ago or longer thought behaved and spoke differently from people in the 21st Century.
They certainly did so in 1948 when Pelosi’s father praised Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson during the dedication of those statues. I wonder if Pelosi, in her fervor to cleanse history, will call for those statues in Baltimore to be ripped down.
But wait! The statues were removed by the city in the dead of night, thereby saving them from defacement and destruction.
In that case, I wonder if Pelosi will condone the desecration of her father’s grave (as some have suggested with the graves of Confederate soldiers) because he was sympathetic to those two giants of the Confederacy.
Don’t count on it. Pelosi has conveniently forgotten the dark history of her beloved Democrat Party.
For example, its founder, Andrew Jackson, was a slaveholder and Confederate politicians were ALL Democrats.
Hmm. As they say on TV: “And that’s not all!”
The Democrat Party for decades fought desegregation, formed the Ku Klux Klan, resisted Reconstruction following the Civil War, created Jim Crow laws, and instituted the notion of separate but equal in the South—a clear violation of the 14th Amendment of the U. S. Constitution that guarantees equal protection under the law.
Should this former Democrat President be purged?
The party itself is the very quintessence of hypocrisy. What about it, Speaker Pelosi? Is it time to cleanse the Democrat Party of its past sins? Should you not be working to eradicate its transparent and nauseating connection to the Confederacy?
Speaking of nauseating Democrats, what about Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va? A couple of years ago, on the Senate floor, he blathered that America “didn’t inherit slavery from anybody. We created it.”
That has to be the dumbest declaration ever made on the Senate floor. The Democrat Party has now completed its unconditional surrender to the forces of historical illiteracy.
Slavery has been rife throughout all of ancient history. Most, if not all, ancient civilizations practiced it, and it is described (and defended) in the early writings of the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Egyptians. It was also practiced by early societies in Central America and Africa.
Three thousand years ago, Egyptians enslaved Jews who eventually escaped via something we now know as “The Exodus.”
Then there were the Romans. They enslaved just about everyone they conquered. And lest we forget, what about the million or so Europeans who were kidnapped by African Muslims and forced into slavery?
Here’s another reality. Slavery in America existed long before the first Europeans arrived. American Indians were slaveholders before and long after slavery became an institution in the South. In fact, slavery is the only African institution ever adopted by this country.
And here’s another salient fact: Portuguese — not Americans — brought the first slaves to Jamestown in 1619.
For those in this country who believe slavery in the world ended with the American Civil War, guess what? It still exists today and is even more prevalent than it was in the 19th Century.
Every day across the African continent, black men, women, and children are captured, bought, and sold into slavery, with the Western world paying scant attention. For example, in Mauritania, slavery persists, with tens of thousands of blacks continuing to be held in bondage.
In Sudan, tens of thousands of African women and children from mostly Christian villages were enslaved during the jihad raids of the Second Sudanese Civil War. At least 50,000 remain in bondage today.
According to the Global Slavery Index (GSI), 106,000 black Africans are estimated to be enslaved in Algeria. Migrant women and children of both sexes risk being forced into sexual slavery while men perform unskilled labor.
Sound familiar? For Democrats, it should. It’s what that party supported and protected for decades in the South until President Lincoln and the Union Army ended slavery by force.
Grant and Lee at Appomattox
And by the way, as bad as the turgid goons who ripped down statues in the summer of 2020 think this country is, America remains the only nation that fought a bloody civil war to end slavery.
But even then (unlike the demented zealots who rampaged through our cities in 2020), with more than 600,000 Americans from both sides dead and millions wounded in the Civil War, there was room for forgiveness, benevolence, and graciousness.
At the South’s surrender at Appomattox, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant allowed Gen. Robert E. Lee to keep his sword. As Lee mounted his horse to leave, Grant saluted him. Then, after announcing the South’s surrender at the White House, President Lincoln ordered the band to play “Dixie.”
It was a stunning and humane way to end the bloodiest war in America’s history–a point that is lost on the destructive imbeciles who ran amok in our cities a couple of summers ago.
Joe Biden, the current mentally infirm occupant of the White House (we still are not sure who is making the decisions, but it is likely a combo of his chief of staff and Obama), is going to tax the oil companies to give us lower gas prices.
I would think he's not that stupid, but yes, he is. Or he could simply not understand what he's saying. The dementia has really progressed in him and he may just be reading what's on a card some other idiot wrote for him. But let's look at what this genius said:
In the wake of scorching inflation and Russia’s war in Ukraine, major gas companies like Chevron and Exxon Mobil are raking in profits. And it’s got President Joe Biden hot under the collar.
“Record profits today are not because they’re doing something new or innovative. The profits are a windfall of war,” Biden said in remarks at the White House on Monday, accompanied by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.
With gas prices still elevated, and an expensive winter ahead, Biden says he’s ready to force these oil companies to act — but while his words for these companies may be strong, he may not have the power to back them up.
Biden doesn’t mince his words
Biden has been waging a battle with oil companies over the last few weeks, but he escalated it Monday when he called on them to “act beyond their narrow self-interest,” to “invest in America by increasing production and refining capacity” on behalf of “their consumers, their community and their country.”
And if they don’t? Biden warns they’re going to face “a higher tax on their excess profits and … higher restrictions.”
The president didn’t elaborate on what those restrictions might be, but promised his administration would work with Congress to evaluate all the available options....
Got it. He will simply tax their windfall profits and spend it on...whatever he wants to.
Now this reporter seems to be missing something. Joe Biden (hell, Democrats in general) have been at war with American energy for years. One day one of is administration, Biden cancelled Keystone XL, banned all new leases for oil, had his energy department stop issuing licenses for oil drilling (you can't drill on a leased area without a license). He is openly talking about putting energy companies out of business, so this is limiting the supply of oil.
If you make something difficult to produce, it will limit the supply. You limit supply relative to demand (fixed or increasing), that will cause the price to rise. So oil companies are making more money per unit of supply (i.e. barrel of oil), and more profit. And who do the oil companies thank, and American people should blame? Joe Biden.
Basically what Biden has told Big Oil is, "Drill for five years, keep prices low through the 2024/2026 elections, and after that, I'll put you out of business..." Not exactly encouraging to producers to come on line. But it's not like we haven't seen this movie before.
In the Carter years, he put a "Windfall Profits Tax" on oil companies. The smart people would use that to fund "alternative energy" to end our consumption of oil, and we would be free of oil (what we would use plastic, rubber, jet fuel is still not determined). And guess what? Oil companies slowed production, and why not? There is no reason to produce more if the profit will be stolen immediately by people who did nothing to produce it.
In January 1981, the finest president of my lifetime was inaugurated. In one of the first acts of his administration, Ronald Reagan deregulated the oil market, and oil prices did rise for the first six months or so. And by the summer of 1981, prices started to drop as more oil was brought up on the market. Capitalism, works every time it's used.
But that doesn't seem to concern this petulant man-child (Second one of these to hold the presidency. Democrat of course.) Amazes me how unaccomplished he is yet he treats others like children. Remember how he was upset people were not taking the Covid shot:
“We’ve been patient,” Mr. Biden said in a sharp message to those who refuse to be vaccinated. “But our patience is wearing thin. And your refusal has cost all of us.”
Hey, Little Joey, remember, my body, my choice, or something like that?
It scares me that this demented idiot served as assassination insurance for Barrack Obama, and he now had another idiot serving the same purpose. God help us, hopefully the GOP takes thee congress and starts opening drilling again.
