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Facts and wisdom from the High Priest

of the Church of the Painful Truth!

Entry date 10/06/2022

On the subject of sports in this nation:

When I was young, we had season tickets to a major league baseball team. I loved going to the games with my dad and still remember the names of all the great players. Ahh, the good 'ol days, but how times changed.....

In 1994, we had the big baseball strike, among many others in the past. Then, they had the nerve to double the price of season tickets. My dad asked if I still wanted to get them and I said, "NO!" That was just the beginning of my souring on sports and I pretty much gave up on them from that point going forward. I couldn't even get excited about my college football team when I was there and after graduation because they had embarked upon what turned out to be a 14-YEAR losing streak!!

Flash forward to early 21st century and what liberal contagion slithered its way into all American sports and sports commentary? This insidious creeping pestilence known as "wokeness" and that really cinched it for me. All these multimillionaire (and even some billionaire) crybabies refusing to, of all things, stand for the National Anthem and the country that made them rich beyond avarice! ENOUGH!!

But still, like most American males, there was still some part of me that still wanted to be a fan of some sport. So, I started looking but could find none that interested me - they were all too slow and had way too many complicated rules. Then, I happened across a movie called Blitz starring Jason Statham. In the opening scene of the movie, he took out 4 thugs with some kind of strange wooden stick that he referred to as a "hurley" which, as he said, was used in the Irish game of "hurling," which was "a cross between hockey and murder." I'd never heard of such a game, so, I did a little research on it on the Internet and wow, was I ever surprised! How had I never heard of this game, which is over 2,000 years old, and especially given my ethnic heritage?? Statham didn't quite do justice to the game with his hockey reference because even though there are elements of it in the game, it also has elements of football, baseball, lacrosse, soccer, and rugby. It moves so fast that you can barely follow the ball and there are very few rules. At last, I have found a sport I can get behind! And no woke crap, whining, or filthy rich players who hate their country!!! Quite the contrary!

If you are interested in learning more about hurling, here are a few resources:

Entry date 05/26/2022

Updated 10/2/2023

On the subject of guns in this country.

For those of you who have read my publications, you know that I usually heavily footnote my writings, however, even though I could, I’m not going to do so in this case. Why? Well, if you doubt me, I want you to do your own homework and dig out the references yourself because I’m mostly certain that most readers have never heard or even considered some of the points I am going to bring up here. However, I will give you a head start on your research – you can use the resources on the Firearms, Firearms News, and Crime & Law Enforcement pages of my website to do your homework.

First, watch this video where the Fresno County CALIFORNIA Sheriff shreds the myth of gun control for law abiding citizens. Yeah, a CALIFORNIA Sheriff!! Yeah!!! In your face, Nanny Bloomberg!! Now you and all the other "Moms" can go play on the runway!!!

NEWSFLASH 6-23-2022: Supreme Court Gun Decision Shoots Down NY Rule That Set High Bar For Concealed Carry Licenses Full NYSRPA vs Bruen SCOTUS Ruling here. Note that this case will have far-reaching implications because it fundamentally changes the way laws must be interpreted for constitutionality. Eliminated is what was known as the "two-step model," which resulted in deference to an “important interest” of the government, a very subjective and ever-changing model, and it was replaced with the requirement to interpret laws according to Constitutional text as informed by history and tradition, as it should always be, naturally. It will take a lot of time and more court cases, but eventually this part of SCOTUS' ruling will probably negate most firearms carry restrictions and other restrictions such as magazine capacity and configuration bans, in other words, so called "assault weapons" bans - many such lawsrestrictions have already been struck down. More on all those later. This does not mean that Congress and other jurisdictions still won't pass such laws, in fact, California and New York have already passed laws in attempts to try to skirt the Supreme Court's most recent ruling, but they are already getting slapped down and future restrictive legislation will ultimately be ruled unconstitutional by SCOTUS in light of this recent case and the Heller and McDonald rulings. Also regarding CA and NY - they want to require people who have guns to carry liability insurance, but on the flip side, Democrats are trying to force companies that offer such coverage out of business. So which way is it?? Ahh, but such is the ever-prevalent duplicity of our Democrat friends. Personally, I think it would be very wise, for all the obvious reasons, to obtain that coverage and many outfits offer it at very reasonable prices, but again, you can't place undue restrictions on citizens to exercise their Constitutional rights. More on that below, too.

NEWSFLASH 10-8-2022: From the Crime Prevention Research Council: New research on the massive errors in the FBI's active shooting reports, Evidence that the strongest supporters of gun control are the least well-informed, huge increase in number of armed civilians stopping attacks, the dangers of gun-free zones, and much more

In mid-2022, in light of very sad and tragic rash of mass shootings in Uvalde, TX, Buffalo, NY, Summerton, SC, Milwaukee, Chattanooga, Tulsa, Phoenix, Philadelphia and the ongoing, weekly carnage in Chicago, I have been in discussions with several people who have questions for someone like me because they know who I am and what I do and appreciate my educated and experienced viewpoint on such issues. Oh, you didn't hear about latter 7 shootings? I'm not surprised, but more on that later. Since I am very busy and don’t have time to discuss these events with everyone, I decided to draft a blog entry that I hope will help everyone understand what is going on. And let me start off by apologizing for kind of jumping around here - I'll try to clean up the organization part later,.....maybe....

Also, I was prompted to address several aspects of what we’ve been hearing from the mainstream media because much of what they are telling us is misinformation, disinformation, and outright propaganda from talking heads who have no idea wherefrom they speak. And from talking with many people recently, it has become abundantly clear that the overwhelming majority simply do not know what they're talking about because they are just regurgitating the absolute crap they are getting from the mainstream media, late night comedians, and morning talk shows masquerading as news. Please folks, I'm begging you - stop walking around in this fog of ignorance - get educated and get your facts straight. Read my column on this on the News You Missed page here.

Ultimately what I want to try to do with this blog entry is inject some reality and good sense into this discussion because we certainly aren’t going to get it from most of the media and a lot of our elected officials. Be prepared because I am going to be somewhat repetitive here, too.

Also, what I’m not going to do is compare the U.S.’s crime, firearms and related laws and statistics to other countries – if you can’t figure out that is like comparing apples to automobiles and a complete exercise in futility, then you should probably go back to reading your comic book or watching those insipid idiots on CNN, MSNBC, The View, or late-night comedians. But here's a hint: The U.S. Constitution and all the freedoms it affords us - no other country has this and did you know we have the longest, enforced constitution in the world, as Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg once reminded us? And she went on to say it is because ours begins with, "We, the people." (More on our country's history with firearms later.) What I will tell you though, is that yes, the U.S. does rank high on that list - last figures indicate we're around 8th to 11th in total gun deaths (all causes) and that's because we have a CRIMINAL VIOLENCE and MENTAL HEALTH problem, not a GUN violence problem - more on that later. Here are a few other quick statistics that I'm sure you've never heard:

The US ranks 89th among 230 countries when it comes to the rate of murder per 100,000 people.
The US ranks 66th and 56th out of the 101 countries reporting a mass murder between 1998 and 2017 for the rate of mass murder events and the number of people killed by mass murder per 100,000 population.

Source: There Are Things We Can Do to Prevent Mass Shootings and Make Them Less Deadly, 12/14/2022

Gun Violence By the Numbers...Did You Know The US Does Not Appear On Top Ten List of Gun-Death Nations? 3/5/2023

And be vary wary of statistics from the Gun Violence Archive and any of the media meatheads that quote it. Their favorite thing is to cite almost 1 mass shooting per day. Okay, that is happening, but what they don't tell you is that the majority of those incidents are gang and drug related and not some random individual who walks into a school or store and starts randomly shooting people. More on that here. And here. And here. And here. If you want to really dig into the data, you can get more info at the non-partisan Crime Prevention Research Center and GunFacts.info (and especially their Gun Control Research Analysis page). Again, be very wary of any statistics you hear quoted in the media and that goes double if they do not cite the exact, specific source, and most do not and that is because they are generally pushing a political agenda. Reason recently published a video explaining a 2020 Rand Corporation meta-analysis of 27,900 studies on the effectiveness of gun control legislation. The Rand study found only 123 (0.4%) studies were rigorous enough to yield meaningful results, but even those were acknowledged not to have really answered the most meaningful questions, yet public policymakers and politicians still cited this flawed data as true. And just a little bit of historical context (not including the 9/11 attacks), one of the worst civilian mass murders was done to 909 people (304 of them children) with Kool Aid, not guns. And just to keep it in perspective, consider these FBI stats:

2X more people are killed with hammers and clubs than with rifles of all kinds
2X more people were killed with fists and feet than rifles and shotguns of all kinds
5X more are killed with knives or cutting instruments than with rifles of all kinds
Firearms are used to protect and defend life and property 2 – 7 times MORE than they are to take it and in 90% of those defensive use incidents, there is never a shot fired

And just a little bit more - there are around 600,000 million guns in this country with approximately 1 - 2 million being manufactured and sold on the civilian market every month (that's right, EVERY MONTH!). Those firearms are in the hands of about 100 - 150 million people, roughly 1/3 of the U.S. population. Those are, admittedly, some huge numbers. However, out of those huge numbers, only a miniscule number of them are used for illegal purposes. And, according to FBI and CDC statistics, firearms ARE used to protect and defend life and property 2 – 7 (that's up to 2 million) times MORE than they are to take it and in 90% of those defensive use incidents, there is never a shot fired. Re-read that until it REALLY sinks in!! And here's more: Article: Study lists more than 60+ times a concealed carry permit holders stopped mass shootings. Full list here.

Let me give you a little more perspective:

According to Pew Research, in 2020, 54% of all gun-related deaths were suicides (24,292). 43% were murders (19,384), 535 were unintentional, 611 involved law enforcement and 400 are still undetermined. That's a total of 45,222.

According to various government sources, 42,915 people died in 2021 from car crashes, up 10.5% from 2020. 4.8 million were seriously injured in 2020 and the estimated cost of car crashes in 2020 was $474 BILLION!!

According to Reuters, in 2020 (+17%) and 2021 (+15%), over 100,000 Americans died from diabetes-related illness. It is now known that those with diabetes are at a much higher risk of having serious complications if they contract Covid.

Now here are the REAL shockers!

According to the CDC, more than 480,000 (yes, that's a correct number) people die in the U.S. from cigarette smoking and that includes 41,000 from second hand smoke. That works out to around 1,300 deaths EVERY SINGLE DAY. Not to mention the cost to our health care system and economy! In 2018, that figure was $600 BILLION!!!!

According to Pew Research Center and statistics from the CDC, in 2019, there were 629,898 abortions in the U.S. Now irrespective of whether you agree with abortion, you cannot argue that those were human lives and 93 - 97% of abortions are for "convenience" purposes and NOT the health of the mother, rape or incest.

Yeah, I know there's a little apples-to-oranges comparison going on, but my point is, don't you think it's kind of strange how our politicians seem so intent on attacking an industry and product that clearly protects and saves many more lives than takes them, but is dead silent on other problems/issues that take significantly more lives than guns do???

And here's another REAL shocker!!!

CNN reported on 8/28/2022 that a study from the NIH revealed that marijuana smokers now exceed cigarette smokers. Video here. And other studies have revealed that marijuana smoking is more dangerous to one's health than cigarette smoking, but where's the outrage from politicians like there was against cigarettes?? <Crickets.> In fact, in July 2022, Politico reported that Senate Majority Leader Chuck U. Schumer (D-NY) and other prominent Democrats introduced a bill to lift federal prohibitions on marijuana. One only needs to look at Colorado's annual reports on the effects of marijuana legalization to see how detrimental this substance is to society and especially young people, but again, where's the outrage from our elected official like there was against cigarettes? Like most other things, the answer is, follow the money. Marijuana and Psychosis -
Studies show a link between heavy pot use and the onset of schizophrenia, 05/15/2023

Now for any of you who might be tempted to tell me that I don't understand the impact of gun violence, well, just know that one of my best friends from elementary school was shot to death with a rifle while minding his own business and visiting with neighbors on the 4th of July (and the shooter committed suicide minutes later), another best friend from high school committed suicide with a rifle because he was distraught over losing his first girlfriend, and my father accidently shot himself with a shotgun in a farm accident - fortunately he survived, barely. And I have other similar experiences that I won't go into.

Along those same lines, I want to touch briefly on another subject - the myth perpetuated by the media and gun control advocates that having a gun in your home is more likely to cause you to injure yourself or if attacked you should go along with the attackers demands and you will less likely be killed or injured. Well, here is some information debunking all that, too:

To begin with, whether or not you believe in God or some higher power, deity, etc., evil (or some kind of malevolent force) exists in this world – it always has and it always always will (until the Kingdom is established) – get used to it. The same goes for insanity and there are millions of emotionally disturbed people (EDP's) walking around right now and who could pop off at any moment, anywhere! Therefore, throughout history, we have seen, and will continue to see, people and groups of people who have no regard for human life, private property, or man or God's laws whatsoever, NONE. Re-read that until it sinks in. Inasmuch, crime will continue to exist in all different forms – it always has and it always will – get used to it and prepare yourself to defend against it! Youmust be your own first responder in all aspects of your life. Remember, when seconds count the police are only minutes or hours away and this may come as a shock to just about all, but the Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that the police are not required to come to your assistance, although some state laws may have since changed and now require it. More info on that subject in my 05-04-2021 blog entry below. So if you're wondering why all this is happening to our country, go read my 09-01-2021 blog entry below.

But the bottom line is that today we live in a culture of violence - just look at our "entertainment" industry and the best-selling video games. But that falls under the First Amendment. Guns are the Second Amendment. The First Amendment allows this violent culture we have and the media, Hollywood/the entertainment industry, the rap industry, etc., all these people celebrate this culture of violence and market it to our young people, many of whom have no parental authorities watching over the filth they consume hour after hour, day after day, year after year. To make matters worse, this constant barrage of that crap desensitizes young and developing brains and worse, and mentally ill people become desensitized too, if they were ever sensitive to begin with, because they see all this horrible violence on the Internet and the movies. And, you know, vulnerable people with no moral compasses absorb that and go and act out and harm or kill people. They don't believe in anything, especially right from wrong or any deity. They don't believe they'll go to Hell for all eternity and in some cases, they want to die themselves and commit suicide or go on a rampage and just wait for "death by cop." It's so sad.

Since 1960's, the Left has been pushing their manta of moral relativism - there is no right and the is no wrong and who needs a nuclear family? They have slithered their way into our educational system, now at the earliest levels, to indoctrinate our children to believe all kinds of complete garbage like CRT, DEI, ESG, etc. Our families are broken, there is no respect for life (abortion), and prosecutors in many of the largest cities refuse to rigorously prosecute drug traffickers who are poisoning our communities at record levels,.....and you want to talk about gun violence???? And which communities are harmed the most? Minority communities - the very people liberals claim to care for the most. Yeah, right.

Okay, so what do we know about these shooters? Well, most of them are young, detached/disaffected individuals from broken families, usually with a known history of mental illness. In many cases, they were also victims of long-term bullying, social isolation or some other kind of abuse, sadly. They usually telegraph their intentions to others either personally, in written form and or via electronic social media. Many have been previously reported to and are well-known to law enforcement, but none of that made any difference in many cases, sadly, and it never will - I will explain that below.

I recently had a person quip to me, "People who carry guns are just chickens" and "guns are the problem." So think about the first one this way: What are you already doing right now for your self-defense, safety and security? Do you:

have a storm shelter?
have car insurance?
have home insurance?
have earthquake insurance?
have flood insurance?
have liability insurance?
have life insurance?
have health insurance?
take medications and or supplements for your health?
wear seatbelts?
get annual check-ups with your GP, dentist, optometrist, OB/GYN, etc.?
get vaccinations?
lock your car and house doors when leaving?
have a home alarm system?
have a car alarm system?
monitor your bank and credit accounts for fraud?
have a service like LifeLock?
put AirTags in your children's backpacks or on your luggage?
keep your important papers and valuables in a bank safety deposit box?
have smoke, carbon monoxide detectors and fire extinguishers in your home?
use Uniball #207 anti-fraud gel ink pens to write checks?
only deposit your outgoing mail inside the post office?
carry pepper spray or a personal alarm?
have a supply of non-perishable food in case of an emergency?
have a back-up generator or other power supplies in case of power outages?
have a family emergency plan?
have a bug-out-bag in your car?
pay extra attention to your surroundings when in public?

See what I mean? You're already doing a lot to protect yourself and your family from disasters and criminal activity, so why in the world aren't you protecting yourself from perhaps the most dangerous, unpredictable, life-threatening risks of all?? Just in FY 2022, the Border Patrol has intercepted over 9,000 individuals with serious criminal records, including dozens on the terrorist watch list. And remember, the Border Patrol admits that they are only able to catch about 40-50% of illegal crossers; the rest are "got-aways." See the Immigration page of this website for links to official and updated (quarterly) U.S. government statistics, but right now, we've let in approximately 8 million migrants (as of 05/2023), most of whom we have absolutely no idea who they really are or their real intentions for being here. True, the vast majority of them are just seeking work and a better life for themselves or their families, but again, statistically speaking, humanity has about 10-15% EDP'S (Emotionally Disturbed People) wandering around at any given time, so, you do the math on that 8 million. In this age of wide open borders, lethal drugs streaming across the border by the tons, rampant violent crime, shortage of law enforcement officers and ambivalent politicians, DA's and AG's, you really need to be taking this one, additional, critical step to protect your person and your loved ones from criminal physical harm. Sorry folks in "blue" states, you generally aren't allowed to do this, but that's okay because the police you have defunded are ALWAYS there to protect you, right??? RRRRRight. So here's what I tell people who ridicule law-abiding citizens for wanting this one, additional layer of protection: A person should consider carrying a gun because it prevents someone younger, bigger, faster, stronger and with ill intent from illegally forcing their will upon you (and your loved ones), and in some cases, it is multiple assailants doing so. OUCH! Reality slap! Don't think it could ever happen to you because you live in a "nice part of town?" Don't be so naive! So here's a short little parody video for you. As much as we would ALL wish gun/crime control would work this way, it just does not and never will and actually, it's the reverse - criminals search out these "soft targets" where they know statistically people (law abiding citizens) will be unarmed. And if you think criminals will have mercy on you, well, I've got some property to sell you in Brooklyn. People with such uninformed, unrealistic and irrational attitudes towards self-defense will eventually get victimized in some manner and they are always the first ones to run to a gun store to buy a gun or some other kind of defensive weapon after-the-fact and rarely will they bother to get additional training with that weapon and they are the ones who are a danger to themselves and others. I've seen it time and time again. Folks, refuse to be a victim!!! Be as proactive in the defense of yourself and your family as you possibly can. Think about it. We've all had some kind of tragedies affect our lives at some point and it is important to try to insulate ourselves against it as best we can. And I will remind you again that according to FBI and CDC statistics, firearms are used to protect and defend life and property 2 – 7 (that's up to 2 million) times MORE than they are to take it and in 90% of those defensive use incidents, there is never a shot fired. Re-read that until it REALLY sinks in!! And here's more: Article: Study lists more than 60+ times a concealed carry permit holders stopped mass shootings. Full list here. If I have piqued your interest in getting a firearm for your self protection, I have a very comprehensive assessment list on the Firearms page of my website. It clearly isn't for everyone, I understand that, so you really need to think it through carefully because it is an expensive and obviously HUGE responsibility. But give this a little thought: If you knew that you'd be defending the lives of your loved one(s) tomorrow, how would you prepare today?

So I have another friend who says she hates guns. Now she cannot articulate why she hates guns, she just knows that she does. And yes, I discovered that she also suffers from the mental illness known as TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) and she can't articulate why she hates him either, but she just knows that she hates him. Now here's an interesting article that explains a lot about her incoherence (on the gun issue) and TDS notwithstanding - among other things, it goes on to say that the strongest supporters of gun control are the least well-informed, but those of us who study this issue really didn't need a research study to tell us that, did we, but it explains a lot, nevertheless.

So, onto the second part about guns being the problem. Okay, I hear you and I understand why you would think that. No guns, no gun problems, right? Seems to make pretty good sense. Now some reality points: This world is awash in multiple billions of small arms, so guns are here to stay whether any of us like it or not. I'll now make the obvious statement that guns are inanimate objects and can do absolutely nothing without a human interacting with it. Now here's some more reality: The same holds true for vehicles (collisions, injuries, deaths, homicides, etc.), sugar cane & corn [high-fructose corn syrup (Type II diabetes)], saturated fat (heart disease), tobacco plants (addiction, various types of cancer, COPD, etc.). None of these would be a problem, or much of one, without human interaction. None of them are going away anytime soon and people won't stop using them, so they will continue to be problems and kill us. The only difference with guns, and sometimes vehicles, is that they also can be used to save lives (see above).

Okay, now a little background on the Second Amendment (and here's an excellent, brief summary video), since most people don't know the first thing about the Constitution, but they sure think they do - you know who you are!! The Second Amendment reads, "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." Yes <sigh>, I've heard and understand all the arguments about "the Militia," (thank you media for shamelessly promoting this non sequitur) but the more important and accurate part of that sentence is "the right of the people." Like all the other God-given, unalienable rights annotated in the Constitution, the Second Amendment does NOT grant the right to bear arms, but rather is an acknowledgement that there is a pre-existing right to bear arms for self defense that has always existed and was derived from natural rights at the time the Constitution was ratified. Simply put, the Second Amendment (and all other amendments) is not a positive grant of a right, but an acknowledgement of a right that already existed and a prohibition on government from regulating or removing that right. The primary point of this right is to prevent the government from disarming the public. (And remember, all totalitarian regimes in this world started out by disarming the public.) Remember the whole point of the Constitution is to limit government and protect the citizens from government tyranny, one of the primary reasons our Founding Fathers and Mothers came to North America and fought the Revolutionary War to free us from England's rule and the tyranny of the crown. The other primary reason for this amendment is because the Fathers knew that the government would never be able to defend all the people from all threats, whether the be 4-legged, 2-legged or no-legged as in the case of snakes. You can read about the genesis of the Second Amendment here and here. And further commentary. And this great video. But here's a little more that often gets left out: Aside from need for firearms to survive and protect themselves when the Pilgrims first landed and aforementioned Revolutionary War, here's a little more on the U.S.'s history with firearms: We are a relatively young country compared to most in this world. After the Revolutionary War, we set out to expand the country and so we headed west and we needed guns to defend ourselves from hostiles who were attacking us - there were Europeans, French, Spanish, Native Americans, etc., all who wanted parts of North America for themselves. And of course, there was all kinds of dangerous wildlife out there such as bears, cougars, mountain lions, wild boar, poisonous snakes, etc., all of which could easily kill an adult, child or other, domesticated animals or livestock. And yes, we even had criminals back then, too, and not much law enforcement. For decades, it was a very hard and dangerous life for the pioneers - they really had to be their own first responders! So every American who ventured West had to have a firearm for self-preservation. Back in east in Philadelphia, the Founding Fathers were developing the Constitution and they feared a military takeover of the United States from Britain or others, so they put in the Second Amendment which gave the citizens the right to bear arms in case the democracy fell apart. Continuing on, the tradition of arming ourselves never stopped and then we had the Indian Wars (1604-1924), the Revolutionary War, the Barbary (Pirate) Wars, the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War and after our victory there, we purchased what is now Texas, California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming for $15M from Mexico. Then came the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, WWI, WWII, Korean War, Vietnam, Gulf Wars, Afghanistan, etc. [Fun Fact: To fund the Spanish-American war, in 1898 a law was passed imposed a 3% federal excise tax on all telephone bills. The war ended in December of that year, but the tax stayed in place for another 107 years until it was repealed in 2006!!!]

So, as you can see, this country's tradition with guns has been perpetual since it's founding and there was no time in history, not one year where there was a movement to ban guns or to disarm the civilian population, that is, until about the last 35 years or so when some seriously liberal nut-job politicians seemed to think it would be a great idea to leave honest, law-abiding citizens defenseless against the criminal element in our society, which only continues to grow due to their own ill-conceived, libertine and soft-on-crime/defund the police nitwittery!

Now all these arguments you hear about weapons technology that existed at the time, modern circumstances, statistics, etc., they are completely irrelevant in the context of our rights and the Constitution. Ever wonder why the Founding Fathers didn't use the text, "carry muskets" instead of "bear arms" in the Second Amendment? It's because just like today, there were many different kinds of weapons in circulation at the time and they will continue to change. Eventually we will have energy weapons (laser guns), so then what?? Limit the wattage or joules, battery capacity?? The Founding Fathers were very careful and deliberate about the words they chose to use when writing the Constitution. Now, if you want to add in such (weapons specific) caveats, then you are going to have to amend the Constitution, and the Founders put the processes (2) in it, but they are, by design, extremely difficult processes. (By the way, do you know what they are??) And if you did that for one amendment, then you'd have to do it for others since you are ostensibly just trying to keep up with changes in societal norms, demands and political whims and that would be never-ending and complex undertaking, albeit totally futile and pointless and render our legal system essentially useless. I'm sure much of what I just said will come as a shock to most people and sadly that's because you did not receive proper instruction on the Constitution and other founding documents in publik skool. If you would like to know more, Hillsdale College offers some fantastic, free, online courses - I would encourage you to check them out. Side note: You know, the two sides of the coin about the Constitution are that it is either mostly set-in-stone, or, it is a "living, breathing, document" that is meant to be changed constantly. It is very interesting to watch the liberals and progressives hyperventilate whenever the Supreme Court makes a change and it is a change that they do not like. So, which is it, folks?? Change or not?? You can't have it both ways! Yeah, I hear you huffing and puffing out there over that comment. More on specific Constitutional cases below.

So let’s first talk about laws. There’s a lot of talk for the need for stronger gun laws and I’ll get into that later, but essentially, what are laws? Boil it all down and they are essentially just words on paper, nothing more. They are meant to keep the honest people honest and for they most part, they do. That’s it. However, criminals do not care about laws!!! Repeat, criminals DO NOT CARE about laws!! Re-read that until it sinks in. Just go to any jail or prison and ask the inmates how much they considered “the law” before they committed their crimes.

Since we're on the topic of laws, let's talk about law enforcement and the criminal justice system. What we have in this country right now is a designed collapse and breakdown of our criminal justice system and we saw it on full display when disgraced, fired FBI Director James Comey made the unprecedented move of exonerating Hillary Clinton for her 2016 campaign shenanigans and his dismissal was followed by that of several of his top lieutenants. (For those of you who don't understand how our justice system works, it is not the FBI's job to determine guilt or innocence and even to prosecute someone; that authority lies with the U.S. Attorney General and the Department of Justice.) 4 years and tens of millions of the public's dollars later, and thanks to the sworn Congressional testimony of her campaign manager, Robby Mook, we now know that Hillary was really behind the whole Trump Russia Collusion hoax. So what is the genesis of this problem with our justice system? Mainly one person, Communist billionaire international financier, George Soros. Haven't heard of him? I'm not surprised, but even the left-wing website, Politico, warned us about his nefarious plot back in 2016!! However, the complicit, left-leaning mainstream media purposely keeps his name out of the headlines as much as possible for obvious reasons. He has (legally) donated hundreds of millions of dollars to PACs that support and help elect far left candidates in state-level justice systems - people such as sympathetic district attorneys and attorneys general who think our justice system is unfair and want to end cash bail, mass incarceration and "re-shape" and or "re-think" it. The brave men and women of law enforcement can arrest perps all day long, but if the DA's and AG's refuse to charge or hold them on bail, then they are right back out on the streets victimizing the innocent public. According to OpenSecrets.org, people in Soros' organization (not the organization itself) have given a staggering $128,676,963 to left wing PACs. That makes his company #1 out of 25,950 in contributions. #2 on that list gave a paltry $29,464,100 to conservative entities. Here are some examples of George Soros' handiwork:

Chesa Boudin (D) - Soros beneficiary. San Francisco DA. A former public defender and translator for the brutal Venezuelan Communist Dictator, Hugo Chavez. His parents were members of the Weather Underground, a domestic terrorist organization. Disgraced and recalled in mid-2022 for his incompetence and failure to enforce the law. Even the uber-liberal citizens of San Francisco know this guy is a public safety disaster.

George Gascon (D) - Soros beneficiary. Cuban immigrant. LA County DA. Refuses to enforce 3-strikes law. Now facing the same fate as Chesa Boudin under skyrocketing crime rates since he took over and now facing heavy criticism for his weak-on-crime policies that allowed a previously convicted felon to get out on probation and kill two police officers.

Kim Foxx (D) - Soros beneficiary. Cook County (Chicago, IL) State Attorney. Jussie Smollett case fame. By 2020, she had dismissed over 25,000 felony cases!!! The third largest city, but almost double the homicide rate of America's largest city, New York City. Every weekend there are approximately 10 - 30+ shootings and multiple deaths,....EVERY WEEKEND!!!!! Where is the media howling about gun violence in Chicago??

Larry Krasner (D) - Soros beneficiary. Philadelphia District Attorney, re-elected in 2021. Crime has skyrocketed (up 78%) under his watch with homicide surpassing New York and LA! Legislature is considering impeaching him.

In New York City, 90% of people arrested for illegal weapons possession are either immediately released after booking (no cash bail required) or on low bail. How many of those perps do you think the DA will really charge and prosecute??

01-19-2023 - Justice ‘reforms’ forcing prosecutors to toss out 69% of NYC criminal cases,

alarming new study finds

Now, don't you find it an odd coincidence that these are cities with some of the worst crime rates and gun violence in the country and, oh yeah, they are and have been for a very long time, under complete Democrat control? Hmmm???

If you want to know more about George Soros and the 20+ other DAs and AGs he's backed, go to the Crime & Law enforcement page of this website and do a Ctrl+F search for "Soros." You can also follow his activities here and here's a complete list of Soros-backed attorneys.

01-22-2023 - George Soros spent $40M getting lefty district attorneys, officials elected all

over the country

UPDATE 02-28-2023: Here's a perfect example of the above and it involves this month's mass shooting at Michigan State University and this is information that the mainstream media won't tell you: The shooter, a Black man named Anthony McRae, was arrested in 2019 for carrying (w/o a carry permit) an unregistered pistol in a vehicle. That is a felony and could have resulted in up to 5 years in prison. However, the then Ingraham County prosecutor was Carol Siemon, a Democrat, of course, and also a George Soros-supported, soft-on-crime prosecutor. In August 2021, she ended mandatory prison sentences for felony firearms charges stating that sentencing enhancement led to "dramatic racial inequity" and was "not in any way linked to the goal that we share of keeping the public safe." Inasmuch, she allowed McRae to plead down the charges to a misdemeanor and therefore he only received 1 year probation, which he violated, but Siemon still would not imprison him and just extended his probation. Note that the misdemeanor charge did NOT prohibit McRae from purchasing additional firearms in the future, which he did - a felony conviction would have prevented that. More on this story:

11-26-2022 - These Soros-supported prosecutors promised us ‘reform’ but delivered

chaos instead

01-23-2023 - How George Soros co-opts the media and keeps criticism down

02-14-2023 - MSU shooting suspect Anthony McRae previously pleaded guilty to gun-

Progressive Prosecutor

02-15-2023 - MSU killer Anthony McRae had prior felony gun charge dropped by

progressive DA, would have been barred from owning gun if convicted

02-15-2023 - MSU shooter Anthony McRae was armed thanks to Soros-aligned, far-left

prosecutor

Fortunately, Siemon took early retirement half way into her term and is no longer the prosecutor of Ingraham County, but the damage she caused during her tenure is tragically obvious this day.

Earlier I mentioned some cities that had mass shootings and you probably didn't hear about them. Here's why and some will call it controversial:

Black on Black crime. No one, not even law enforcement, wants to even talk about it for fear of being called a RRRRRRRRRRacist. I'm not exactly sure how racism plays into this if you look up Webster's definition of racism, but there you go - such is the butchering of the English language and reportage as we have it now.

Did you know that mass shootings happen weekly in Chicago - ever wonder why you never hear about it on the news? That's right, because it's Black on Black crime and mostly related to illegal drugs (coming across the wide-open southern border) and gang violence. Here are the stats: According to the recent Census, Black people comprise 12-15% of the U.S. population. According to the FBI, approximately 56% of homicides are committed by Blacks and of those 56%, 90% are committed against other Blacks. Statistics are similar for other ethnicities. By the way, only about 1% of homicides are the result of mass shootings - most are, again, from drug gang-related activity. Deaths resulting from violent crimes are still deaths.

Okay, so you don't believe me? Dig into these mass shooting stories and see how quick they are to point out that a shooter is white, but when the shooter is Black and other victim Black, you can't even get the police to cough up the race of the shooter or the victims.

And we all see the mothers crying on the news over their dead children, but no one has the guts to ask, "Where are the fathers??" Ah ha! There's another component to this story - the missing fathers. Like it or not, most of these shooters come from broken families, as I mentioned earlier. Currently, about 50%+ of whites are out-of-wedlock births and 75%+ of Blacks. Believe it or not, fathers still matter, too, and when they aren't around to be part of the family dynamic, it adversely affects the children. Fathers, you need to step up and BE fathers to your children! This is another story that the media refuses to touch because for decades they've been fully invested in telling the public that the nuclear family is an anachronism and no longer needed. I'm sorry, but as I always say, it starts in the home and sadly, parents, if they are even around these days, are not teaching their children to be good citizens, about patriotism, God and love for each other and their country, respect for their elders, their community, and law and order. And, of course, they darn sure aren't allowed to teach any of that in government (public) schools.

The saddest part of this is that are millions of innocent people, many Blacks and other minorities, who are needlessly and relentlessly victimized because their elected officials are soft on crime and refuse to enforce the law. These are good, honest, hard-working, law-abiding citizens who are just trying to make it day-to-day and raise their families and survive, but their elected officials are so politically correct and ideologically blind that they refuse to see what's happening to their constituents and the media certainly won't touch it and that, THAT is where the racism truly is. All they want to talk about is "common sense gun laws" that make NO sense because most of the shooters obtained their guns legally and all the shooters broke several laws in commission of their crimes and any of the laws they propose after-the-fact wouldn't have prevented most of these shooting anyway. Why? BECAUSE CRIMINALS AND THE INSANE DON'T CARE ABOUT LAWS!!!!! California has the strictest gun control laws in the country (107 laws, including a 10-day waiting period), but the highest rates of gun violence and mass shootings. Why?? BECAUSE CRIMINALS AND THE INSANE DON'T CARE ABOUT LAWS!!!!! Are you starting to see a recurring theme here??

Fortunately, people are starting to question the Left's "leadership." It started with Donald Trump in the 2016 campaign essentially asking, "What have they done for you lately?" and "Give me a chance." Fortunately some very brave Black social media influencers stepped up and are asking just those questions. You can read more about that on Culture, Race & BLM page of this website.

So now let’s finally talk about stronger gun laws, or gun control.

In every state, in order to purchase a firearm from a federally-licensed, retail dealer, where the vast majority of people get their guns, you have to fill out the ATF Form 4473 and submit the information to the FBI’s NICS (National Instant Criminal Background Check System) for approval. Most people have never seen the ATF Form 4473, so here it is - you should read through it. You will note that failing to answer any question on the form is an immediate felony. Furthermore, you can thank the NRA for the NICS - yeah, get your facts straight media!  People do not go through these NICS checks unless they intend on purchasing a firearm.  So, think of it this way – one NICS check equals (at least) one gun purchase. People can buy multiple guns at one time with a single check, assuming local laws allow and some do not. Usually it takes only a few minutes for the FBI to approve or deny the application and most are approved and the customer can walk out the store with the gun that same day, again, assuming local laws allow and many do have additional waiting periods and I’ll address those later. Now, if, over the decades, you add up the number of NICS background checks the FBI runs annually, it’s around 400 – 600 million guns with about 20 – 35 million additional checks being run each year. Now here are the disturbing facts: According to a 2018 article in the Washington Post, in 2017 there were 112,000 gun purchase denials because people were in forbidden categories. The ATF investigated 12,700 cases and of all of those, only 12 (twelve) resulted in prosecutions. That's a rate of 0.09%. Previous years across administrations have similar statistics. Clearly we're just not serious enough about enforcing and prosecuting even the most basic of gun control laws, so why would we think any additional gun control laws would make any difference at all? Emphasis on "gun control" because I'm not saying that other strategies might not work either.

There are currently thousands of state and federal gun laws on the books. In the majority of these shootings, the shooter obtained the firearms legally and for the most part, that means they purchased them from a federally-licensed firearms dealer and had to go through the mandatory FBI NICS background check (and sometimes waiting period) before the dealer could sell them the guns. Note: Extremely few guns used in crimes are purchased at gun shows from private sellers or from private, person-to-person sales outside gun shows, so mandatory "universal" background checks wouldn’t make much difference. Note that retail dealers at gun shows must still run NICS background checks on purchasers - did you know that?? And if someone purchases a gun on the Internet and has it shipped to them, it must be shipped to a federally-licensed firearm dealer who must run a NICS background check on the purchaser/recipient before that person can take delivery of that firearm. Did you know that?? And some states levy additional requirements such as waiting periods, registration, licensure, etc. I'll bet you didn't know that, either, did you? Most law-abiding citizens I've come across are very careful about to whom they sell/transfer their firearms in private transactions - they don't want them falling into the hands of criminals anymore than anyone else. Once again, it's criminals who don't care about who gets guns and that's because, well, they're criminals and they don't care about the law. Where have I heard that before??

In many of these jurisdictions where these shootings have taken place, they have some of the strictest gun purchase and possession laws in the country. Just look at Chicago, IL. Illinois and Chicago have some of the most restrictive gun laws in the country, but they suffer from the most gun violence of any place in the country. Yes <sigh>, I know the politicians’ line is that all the guns come from out-of-state, but have you ever wondered why these surrounding states, with significantly laxer gun laws don’t have near the homicide and gun violence rate that Illinois does?? Hmmm??? This is proof yet again that stronger gun laws do nothing to deter criminals. Stories here and here. And Vermont, a blue state, Sen. Bernie Sanders (D) home, has the most lax gun laws and some of the lowest gun and violent crime rates in the country. Hmmmm...... (Remember, when comparing these statistics, you have to use exact numbers and not percentages based on population - that's the dirty little trick the anti-gun lobby uses to say gun crimes are worse in red states than in blue states.)

So I hear people say we need longer waiting periods in order to buy a gun. To what end?? In almost all of these shootings, the shooter had legally purchased and possessed his gun(s) for weeks, months or even years before they committed their crimes. What longer waiting periods and other "common sense" restrictions do is prevent the majority law-abiding people from, in a timely fashion, obtaining a gun with which to defend themselves. Consider the woman who is a victim of domestic violence or is being stalked and she finds herself in immediate danger and in need of a method of self defense, only to be assaulted and or killed while legally waiting to obtain a firearm. So then I get the argument, well, those people who do that are untrained and will just wind up hurting themselves or others. Oh yeah, prove it! Who's to say that person who is buying that small pistol for concealed carry isn't already trained in the use of firearms, but just didn't happen to have a gun suitable for concealed carry/personal self defense?  According to FBI and CDC statistics, firearms are used to protect and defend life and property 2 – 7 (that's up to 2 million) times more than they are to take it and in 90% of those defensive use incidents, there is never a shot fired. Re-read that until it REALLY sinks in!!  And here's more:  Article: Study lists more than 60+ times a concealed carry permit holders stopped mass shootings.   Full list here.

Now, irrespective of whether theses mass shooters (and other criminals) obtained the firearm(s) legally, in many cases, they broke several laws in the process of the shootings. And any laws proposed after-the-fact by those talking head geniuses and politicians wouldn’t have prevented the shootings either. Again, laws have no meaning to criminals, the criminally insane, or mentally ill - they are not rational individuals who think clearly. Re-read that until it sinks in!

Okay, so let’s talk about banning so-called “assault weapons.” First of all, there is no official definition of “assault weapon.” This is a term made-up and frequently used by the left wing, mainstream media and politicians pushing an anti-gun agenda and they have finally admitted as much. Article here. Most politicians and people in the media have never even seen an “assault weapon” in real life, let alone held and or fired one. The term “assault weapon” is used to describe and demonize a particular class of weapons for their cosmetic appearance. They also call them “weapons of war.” So, what we have been indoctrinated to think of assault weapons are mostly the AR-styled rifle. Let’s have a short lesson on firearms: Do you know the difference between semi-automatic rifle and a fully-automatic, selective fire rifle? Most people do not and again, definitely most politicians and people in the media do not and, actually, most of your general public,....because they only know what the news reader on the TV tells them and they believe it, sadly. By in large, only the military and police can legally possess a true “assault weapon,” that is, a selective fire, fully-automatic firearm. (Civilians can if the firearm was produced before 1986 and after they go through a lengthy background check, are fingerprinted, photographed and pay a hefty tax and assuming their respective state allows possession of that type of firearm and most do and you can come up with about $10,000+ to purchase it.) Such a firearm can continuously fire rounds (bullets) at a very high rate of speed [400+ rounds (bullets) per minute or until the barrel melts down] with a single pull of the trigger, or, (on some models) you can flip a switch and you can fire 3-round bursts, or, (on some models) flip the switch again and fire one round per each pull of the trigger, hence, “selective fire.” Now, your average civilian can possess a firearm that cosmetically appears exactly like the police and military’s “assault weapons,” but they are not selective fire capable – they are only semi-automatic, again, meaning you must pull the trigger each time you want to fire a round (bullet). Here is a good video explaining the differences. These rifles, again, are commonly referred to as “AR’s” or AR-15’s and come in the .223/5.56 x 45mm caliber. “AR” does not stand for "automatic rifle" or “Army Rifle.” It stands for ArmaLite Rifle, the company which first produced the AR-15 starting in 1959. They eventually sold the rights to it to Colt Firearms which marketed the rifle to the public as a “superb hunting partner” in 1963. The AR-15 rifle and caliber are very well-suited for hunting small game, varmints and self-defense, but not big game (deer and larger) as the caliber is relatively small compared to other hunting rifles and calibers, but you can also get larger calibers in the AR platform, they just have different number designations after the “AR.” Note that it is illegal in most states to hunt any variety of deer with an AR-15 because it just isn't a powerful enough caliber. Also, the AR-15 is not a "weapon of war," nor is it "military grade." The U.S. military does not use the AR-15 nor does any other countries’ military – they use the M16A2 or M4A1 Carbine (shorter length version of the M16A2) which are selective-fire, fully automatic versions of the AR-15. (And the technology used in the AR-15 rifle has been around since the 1870’s – this ain’t nothin’ new, folks. ) In fact, the U.S. Army recently announced it will be replacing the M4 with the larger caliber (.277 Fury/6.8 x 51mm), much more powerful M5 rifle for its combat troops. This will give them a distinct advantage in distance reach over Russian and Chinese Army troops' standard rifles (and other countries who use them). Note that even this new rifle is not as powerful as the M1 Garand (.30-06/7.62 x 63mm) used by our armed forced from WW I through early Viet Nam and the M14 (.308/7.62 x 51mm), which was used in Viet Nam for a short time before being replaced by the M16. You can still buy an M1 rifle, but they are very expensive. The semi-automatic, civilian version of the M14, the M1A, is still in production (in various configurations) by the Springfield Armory and is a very popular rifle. That's right (snarky adjective deleted), there are many, much more power rifles out there than the dreaded AR-15. I'll bet a lot of you hoplophobes and gun haters out there are shrieking in horror now because you didn't know any of that, did you?

Now let’s talk about limiting magazine capacity, which is always a topic of discussion after these incidents. It sounds like a good solution, on the surface, but again, this is yet another canard and construct from the media and politicians. Consider this: Even in jurisdictions where magazine capacity is limited to 10 rounds or less, we’ve had mass shootings. Why? Because the shooter broke the law! Imagine that? Even a mediocrely trained individual with a bag full of loaded 10-round magazines can shoot them, swap them out (reload) and get off almost as many shots as fast as someone who has a rifle or pistol with a 20 - 30 round magazine. Here's proof (VIDEO). Clearly we’ve seen from these incidents that they have had the time to reload, when necessary as no one was engaging them immediately, for the most part. Now for law-abiding citizens wishing to defend themselves from criminals, magazine capacity really does matter. According to the FBI, it takes, on average, 2 – 3 rounds (bullets) to stop an attacker. But in stressful situations such as those, even the most highly trained military and police miss their targets 70% of the time, even in close quarters where most of these events take place. So consider this scenario: A senior, living at home alone, is the victim of a home invasion by two young male assailants armed with big knives. The senior has a semi-automatic 9mm Glock pistol with one 10-round magazine in it. In the heat of the situation, he will miss 70% of his shots at his attackers (that’s 7 bullets out of 10). That leave him with only 3 rounds to stop the two attackers. Will he be able to successfully defend himself with that 10-round Glock against those attackers who have absolutely no regard for a bunch of words written on a piece of paper? Maybe, but I wouldn’t bet on it. Now ask yourself, did the law help that law-abiding citizen, or the criminals? Don’t you ever wonder why police carry their service weapon (usually with a 15-20 round magazine) and 3 additional (15-20) round magazines on their duty belts? It's not because they're expecting to get into a prolonged firefight with Al-Qaeda - they know about this statistic. Again, according to FBI and CDC statistics, firearms are used 2 – 7 (that's up to 2 million) times more to protect and defend life and property than they are to take it and in 90% of those defensive use incidents, there is never a shot fired. Those are facts that never get mentioned. And here's more:  Article: Study lists more than 60+ times a concealed carry permit holders stopped mass shootings.   Full list here. UPDATE: The recent SCOTUS ruling in the Bruen case has vacated and remanded California's Duncan v Bonta case, essentially negating all state-level magazine capacity and assault weapons bans. Of course, there will still have to be lawsuits filed to awaken and bring into compliance several intransigent blue states like California who refuse to heed SCOTUS' decision. Also, on 7/29/22, House Democrats barely passed a second, enhanced and expanded "assault weapons" ban and I believe that bill also included provisions to reverse a previous law thus now allowing lawsuits against gun manufacturers. Note: Contrary to what the media and those 10-watt bulbs on The View are spewing, you may still sue a gun manufacturer if they produce a defective product that fails during operation and causes injury; you just cannot sue them solely because they manufacture firearms, which are legal, Constitutionally-protected products.

So what’s the answer? More gun laws? Licensure? Registration? Waiting periods? Clearly, no. Criminals and the insane DO NOT care about laws and law-abiding citizens are hindered from adequately protecting themselves. Re-read that until it sinks in. Well, what about an “assault weapons” ban? Same answer and we’ve tried that and they have almost no appreciable affect since most crimes involving guns are not committed with so-called “assault weapons.” Besides there are tens of millions of so-called “assault weapons” in circulation currently – they are, by far, one of THE most popular rifle configurations today and the Supreme Court has already ruled on this aspect in favor of them. How about magazine capacity limits? No, they don’t work either, hinder law-abiding citizens and following the Supreme Court's recent ruling against New York's carry restrictions, cases on magazine capacity limits were remanded to their respective jurisdictions for reconsideration. Okay, how about banning guns altogether and or repealing the Second Amendment? Look, neither of those are going to happen and anyone who thinks that is woefully ignorant of the Constitution. The writings of many of our Founding Fathers and deliberations set forth in the Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers clearly show that they wanted the people to have arms available to them for their self defense (Not hunting!). The Supreme Court has affirmed this with over 20 decisions since 1803. List and explanations here. And this was re-affirmed most recently by the Supreme Court in cases Heller v District of Columbia (2008), McDonald vs Chicago (2010), and the New York Rifle and Pistol Association v Bruen (2022). Also, repealing the Second Amendment is even a taller order and if you knew the process required to repeal an amendment to the Bill of Rights, you would clearly understand that. However, I’ll bet most people reading this can’t even tell me what freedom(s) the First Amendment affords citizens. Hint: It isn’t just freedom of speech, folks! Did you know that?? Furthermore, a ban on firearms would be completely worthless in light of our completely open southern borders. Think about it – drugs like heroin, meth, Fentanyl, etc., are highly illegal, yet thousands of tons of them have been streaming into this country through our wide-open borders since January 20, 2021. During the following year, there were approximately 100,000 overdose deaths, primarily from Fentanyl and primarily in the 18-35 age ranges. Right now, Fentanyl is the leading cause of preventable deaths among people ages 18-45, far ahead of suicides, car accidents and firearms-related deaths. Currently, that number is up to approximately 107,000 and projected to approach or exceed 200,000 by early 2023 if we don’t secure the border. Think about those numbers for a second - to put them in perspective, that's like a 737 aircraft crashing (with no survivors) every single day for a year. Or here's another way to look at it: The 9/11 Muslim terrorist attacks killed almost 3,000 people. Now just imagine if we experienced the equivalent number of deaths (or more) from similar attacks every 10 days for an entire year or more! Do you think the mainstream media and the public would pay attention then?? Those numbers far eclipse the number of gun-related deaths, but is anyone talking about securing the border? Nope, because that would be RRRRRacist! The drug cartels are currently making upwards of $200 million per week smuggling people up to and across the borders, so if you think the drug cartels wouldn’t start smuggling guns into the U.S., too, if we banned guns, then you’re a complete fool! And who would be buying these guns? Certainly not law-abiding citizens who turned in their guns. But criminals, who do not care about laws, certainly would and they would prey unmercifully upon a completely defenseless public. And consider this:  Mexico has some of the strictest gun laws in the western hemisphere. They also have one of the highest homicide rates, around 50,000 plus per year and most of those are from guns. Now, you can legally get guns there, but the government makes the process nearly impossible for the average citizen to obtain one, legally, so few citizens do, legally. Ever see the bumper sticker, "When Guns are Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Have Guns." Yeah, that applies to Mexico - the place is awash in guns and gun violence and you know who has them? Criminals and they prey unmercifully on the citizenry who are essentially defenseless thanks to the government. This is where we're headed if we keep electing these Soros-backed, soft-on-crime, woke DAs and AGs and restrict law-abiding citizens' right to defend themselves, such is the case in most "blue" states.

Of course, there’s been a repeated call to raise the age that someone can purchase a firearm. Okay, currently under federal law, shotguns, rifles, and ammunition for them may be sold only to individuals 18 years of age or older. All firearms other than shotguns and rifles (i.e. pistols, revolvers, other handguns), and all ammunition other than ammunition for shotguns or rifles may be sold only to individuals 21 years of age or older. Federally licensed retail firearms dealers are bound by the minimum age requirements established by the Gun Control Act regardless of state or local law. However, if state law or local ordinances establish a higher minimum age for the purchase or disposition of firearms, the licensee must observe the higher age requirement. Most state laws mimic the federal law in this area. Only 5 states, Florida, New York, Illinois, Vermont and Hawaii require a purchaser to be 21 years of age for any firearms purchase. There are a lot of changes currently working through several states' legislatures, so stay tuned. However, consider that if someone 18 years of age can be compelled (Selective Service) to carry a firearm and defend our country overseas, why shouldn't they be able to defend themselves at home in their own country? More on that point below.

It’s pretty much accepted the medical and psychological community that the prefrontal cortex of the human brain, the area that contains our “executive functions,” doesn’t fully develop until around 24 or 25 years of age. Executive functioning includes self-awareness, inhibition, nonverbal working memory, short-term memory related to sensory and spatial information), verbal working memory (short-term memory related to speech and language), emotional regulation, motivational regulation, and planning and problem-solving. Clearly these are all very important. I know I’ll take some heat from my pro-2A friends for this, but I can understand the rationale for wanting to raise the age to possess or purchase firearms. However, once again we are talking about a Constitutional right and we have determined that the age of 18 is when a person reaches the “age of majority,” or some call it emancipation, and have, for the most part, full access to and can exercise their rights as a U.S. citizen and the government cannot impose unreasonable restrictions/requirements for citizens to exercise those rights. Re-read that because it is a key point. Now consider the 17-year old who gets parental permission to enlist in the armed forces. That young person may serve up to 4 years in the military before they reach the age of 21. During that time, they most likely will be trained on and use a variety of small arms [handguns, rifles (fully automatic), and pistols] and explosives. And they may get training on other, even more powerful and destructive weapons systems and entrusted to use them to defend our country. However, if that person gets out of the military before they are 21, they will not be able to purchase or possess, let alone carry, a handgun for their protection in most states. Note that some states have exemptions for active members of the military and law enforcement. If that person was trained and trustworthy enough to defend our country on the battlefield, why aren’t they in the homeland? And I’ll go back to my point about a person who needs a weapon for defense against a stalker or abuser. And what about our young Olympians? Most people don’t know that shooting sports are hugely popular in the country, one of the most popular and safely practiced daily by hundreds of thousands law-abiding citizens every year, and shooting is a huge Olympic sport and there are a lot of young people well under the age of 21 who participate in them. Are we going to deny all of them, as well, just because of the actions of a few bad actors? I think we could probably come to a mutually agreeable solution on this point.

There has also been talk of requiring a federal firearms license (with pictures, fingerprinting, etc.) and mandatory training in order to purchase and or carry a firearm. Once again, this is just another worthless law that criminals will ignore and hinder law-abiding citizens from defending themselves and further hamstring our already overworked and understaffed law enforcement departments. Again, such a requirement may not even pass Constitutional muster because again, you cannot implement unreasonable requirements for citizens to exercise their Constitutional rights and establishment of such a system (database) is currently illegal for the government to do. I’ve heard about making the comparison to driver’s licenses, well, newsflash, driving is not a right, it is a privilege. However, even in that case and as bad as a lot of drivers are, the government cannot place undue requirements on your right to move freely around this country, which is done by most people via motor vehicles. In other words, the government cannot levy CDL (commercial drivers license)-levels of training and licensure on the average citizen in order to operate a motor vehicle upon public roads – that would not pass Constitutional muster, either. Get the idea?

Have you ever wondered why these shooters choose theaters, schools, public events, etc., to commit their crimes? It’s because they are known as “soft targets” (as opposed to “hard targets”). The shooter knows these venues have people huddled closely together and the venues usually have little or no police or security present as a deterrent. And these venues are often “gun free zones,” so they also know they will probably face no resistance from an average citizen who normally carries a firearm because again, that law-abiding citizen adhered to the law and left their firearm in their car before they entered the venue. Exact statistics on this are in dispute since there is no widely accepted definition of "mass shooting" and there are several other defining factors in contention.

I want to go off on a little bit of a tangent here: Let’s talk about President Biden’s past remarks about no one needing a "weapon of war" (referring to AR-15’s) – you only need a double barrel shotgun and if somebody comes up to your house, you just step out on the porch and fire off a couple of warning shots. (Yeah, and you ass-u-me they will just go away now that you’re standing there with an empty gun – duh!) Okay, let me unpack that for you because the media meatheads sure didn't: First of all, as far as I know, it is illegal everywhere to fire warning shots. And it is illegal to randomly discharge a firearm within city limits. On top of that, it is just downright stupid and very dangerous because you don’t know where those balls of lead are going to come down – they may land on a child playing in an adjacent yard or strike the windshield of a car on the next street, causing the driver to swerve and hit a pedestrian. So the President is quite clearly telling you to break the law in a variety of ways and endanger the public, to boot. And just recently, he was railing against 9mm ammunition (bullets, rounds, cartridges) talking about “blowing out lungs.” What???? Folks, here's another dose of reality for you - for law enforcement and security personnel the 9mm cartridge is the bare minimum powered bullet they are allowed to carry on duty. In other words, it is the smallest bullet they are allowed to carry. So why carry it? Go back to the 70% miss statistic and there are some other reasons, too. In fact, when considering most popular and common self-defense, center-fired bullets, the 9mm is only second or third from the bottom (smallest) after the .25 and .380 caliber bullets. I think most of you will remember Clint Eastwood in his role as “Dirty Harry.” The revolver he carried, the Smith & Wesson Model 29, was chambered in .44 Magnum and at that time, it really was the most powerful handgun made. That bullet is approximately 2.5 times the size and power of most 9mm loads, and some officers still carry such guns, but you don’t hear President Biden railing against it, do you? Following the .44 Magnum is the .357 Magnum and then the .45 ACP, .40 Smith & Wesson and .38 Special, which are all popular calibers with law enforcement, security and also for civilian self-defense purposes. I’ll bet most of you didn’t know any of that, did you? Now, I don’t think President Biden would say those things if he knew anything at all about firearms and firearms laws, but he clearly does not and it is completely irresponsible for him to make such comments and or suggestions.

Here are some other similar suggestions I’ve heard: Shoot them in the legs or shoulder and just Tase (Taser) them. Okay, as for shooting someone in the legs, it goes counter to the training we all go through. We are taught to stop the threat and the best and safest way to do that is aim for the center of mass, essentially the largest part of the target. Now think about this and keep the aforementioned 70% miss rate in mind - if you shoot for the legs of a moving suspect, chances are extremely good you will miss and where will that bullet go? Maybe across the street and into the neighborhood and strike and innocent bystander or cause other property damage. Keep in mind that most bullets can travel up to 1 mile. As for Tasing someone, that is fine in theory, but Tasers have lots of limitations. For example, at best, you can hit someone from 35 feet away, and that's really a stretch. However, in order for a Taser to work, both probes (I like to call them mini-harpoons because that's what they look like) must strike the suspect and attach to the clothing and be within 2" of the skin (or penetrate the skin) in order to complete the electrical circuit and enable the officer to administer the electrical charge. It is extremely difficult to do this if the suspect is moving and or has on heavy clothing - again, it is ideal for the probes to penetrate the clothing AND the skin. If the suspect is coming at the officer with a knife and the Taser fails to work, the officer is done for – there is no time to draw a firearm. Also, Tasers cost around $1,500+ each, so getting one for each and every officer is out of reach for most departments. Here is a great video on how Tasers work. Did you know the cost of all the gear an average officer wears daily is $3,000+?? In many cases, the officer has to bear that expense themselves. By the way, Tasers (a trademarked name for a patented device) are not “stun guns” although they have the ability to function in that capacity, and “stun guns” are not Tasers – they work completely differently. Did you know that? If you want to know more about this, read up on the Use of Force Continuum and the OODA Loop.

And, one of the other popular solutions is to arm teachers. Okay, obviously I understand that, but again, carrying a firearm daily is a HUGE responsibility that I really don’t think should be borne by teachers for a variety of reasons – there are other options. However, like commercial pilots, I think that they probably should be given the option to do so, if they so desire. [As we have seen recently, in the absence of proper security protocols and law enforcement action (their inaction), an armed and trained teacher could have been the first and last line of defense against an active shooter who managed to get into a school.] But I also believe they should have to go through the same process as law enforcement and armed security personnel do and essentially become “professionally licensed” to carry. That includes taking the MMPI (Minnesota Multi-Phasic Personality Inventory) psychological exam, be evaluated by a state-licensed and CLEET (Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training) certified psychologist and if they pass those requirements go on and take and pass the firearms training section. There should probably be some additional training involved regarding how to conceal and carry, properly secure the firearm, when to shoot, and the school district should probably pick up the tabs for their use of force/defensive shooting legal defense insurance policies, which I assume would be required by whatever company underwrites the school district’s general liability insurance policy. Here's an interesting article.

While I'm on the subject of training, etc., I want to dispel another scenario that is brought up after such incidents - it's all the NRA's fault because they pay off politicians and prevent any gun control laws from being enacted. To which I reply, B.S.!!! According to OpenSecrets.com and 2020 (latest) figures, the NRA ranked 270th out of 7,869 for lobbying contributions and when it comes to direct contributions to politicians, they rank 1,043rd out of 34,619. Yes, gun rights advocates do outspend gun control interests in most cases, but if you drill down into the money-per-candidate, it's not nearly as much as the media would lead you to believe. For the past 22 years, the NRA didn't even come close to breaking the Top 20 firms' spending on lobbying. The top 5 were: U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Realtors, American Hospital Association, American Medical Association, and Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association. Surprised?? Some other things you may not know about the NRA: They were established in 1871 as a non-profit chartered by the U.S. Congress for the purpose of educating the nation in marksmanship both as a sport and to qualify individuals who may be called in defense of the country. They are responsible for either directly training or providing training for the majority of the trainers for our nation's law enforcement officers. They also provide tens of thousands of hunter safety programs every year and have the Eddie Eagle GunSafe program for young people - it's the number one gun safety program for children K - 4 and has been taught to over 32 million young people. Also, another group, the NSSF (National Shooting Sports Foundation), the firearms industry trade association, has partnered with more than 15,000 law enforcement agencies to distribute over 40 million firearm safety kits, including gun locks to help prevent theft, misuse, accidents and suicide. Interestingly, I could find scant evidence for corresponding gun safety programs from any of the national gun control groups.

So the only real solutions to these types of shootings is increased security which acts as a physical deterrent (i.e. hardening targets) to these types of activities and more mental health resources (more on that later). However, there are problems with both aspects, as well. Following the Ferguson, MO (Michael Brown), Baltimore, MD (Freddie Gray), and Minneapolis, MN (George Floyd) incidents, attitudes changed towards security and law enforcement turned significantly negative. Even in the face of billions of dollars of property damage and hundreds of law enforcement officials injured by rioters (no, CNN and MSNBC, they were not mostly peaceful protestors), politicians and media meatheads managed to parlay those incidents into unprecedented animosity towards law enforcement and called for defunding of such. Well, it worked. Across the nation, several states began slashing the budgets of departments and experimenting with “alternatives to policing,” so thousands of law enforcement officers resigned and or took early retirement. All that experience will take decades to get back, if we can. Meanwhile, the criminals are still out there waiting for us - the politicians didn't defund them, did they? For them, the "defund the police movement" was a huge gift to them. And again, to make matters worse, Communist international billionaire financier George Soros funnels millions of dollars into district attorney and attorney general races in a mostly successful attempt to get soft-on-crime, social justice DA’s and AG’s elected. Even the new, liberal Democrat Mayor of New York City, recently replied to complaining citizens that his hands are essential tied due to DA’s who won’t hold, charge, or prosecute most crimes and criminals. And L.A. is having the same problem as well as other major cities. To make matters worse, L.A. DA George Gascon, who soon may be subject to recall, just announced (7/12/22) that he is disbanding the unit that notifies victims of their assailant's parole hearings, which in itself is a violation of the law. Are you kidding me??? Sorry to break it to you, but what most of these cities all have in common is that they are Democrat-run and have been for a long time, as has the “leadership” at state levels. Folks, you get the government you vote for and that's why there's a mass exodus out of these states to states with lower taxes, less regulation, and respect for law and order. (See the Blue State Blues page of this website for more information on that.) To make matters worse, many of these states do not have “stand your ground laws” and require you to essentially be victimized before you can defend yourself and even if that is the case, you will probably still face prosecution for your defensive actions. I know, what kind of sense does that make? And now, many people are starting to realize the mistake they made with this “defund the police” garbage, but again, it’s too late. Crime rates are spiking. Even in “law enforcement friendly” states/jurisdictions where police enjoy overwhelming public support and funding for additional officers, they cannot attract applicants because these young people see how they are demonized by the national media and politicians and the pay is generally low compared to the unbelievable amount of stress and B.S. they have to endure, so why in the world would you choose a career path like that, but some still do and we should be very grateful for that. But we need so many more. So for the officers who are out there, their priorities lie with addressing the most serious crimes and there just aren’t enough of them to go around to all the schools and even if a school does have a school resource officer, that’s great, but it’s usually only one officer for the entire school and most schools are huge – there’s no way that officer can be everywhere he or she is needed as quickly as they are needed in an emergency situation. The other option is to hire private security, but, for most school districts, such a prospect is cost-prohibitive since their budgets are already stretched to the limit. So if you want a safer community, tell your elected officials that you want more law enforcement and you want it funded and supported to the extent it can attract and retain quality candidates. And work for and vote for more law enforcement-friendly candidates. Also, voters need to work to recall/impeach/throw out all these soft-on-crime, George Soros-backed DA’s and AG’s. You can find a list of them here.

Back to the mental health issue and yes, I am aware that some mental health “professionals” completely deny the connection between mental illness and mass shootings, but are you kidding me? We all see how incredibly heinous these crimes are and the shooter usually shoots family member or members, then goes on a rampage at a school with innocent children and then winds up committing suicide. No, there’s clearly no mental illness in play with that scenario. Any doctor who thinks that should have their license pulled!! Talk about ignoring reality!! Recall that this is what we really need to address and there is a lot of talk about it for the homeless, but mental illness affects all races and socio-economic classes. But, again, politicians mostly pay lip service to this critical issue and it only gets worse as the years pass and no one on any side has a really good, general, workable solution. Most probably don’t remember, but for about the past 50 years, laws have been passed in most jurisdictions that prevent people from being “institutionalized” against their wills and as such, psychiatric hospitals shut down over the country, yet the rates of mental illness has only increased. One study suggested that more than 8 million people (more like 12M now) suffer from serious mental illness, and that doesn't count the substance abuse addicted. The other problem was that many of these psychiatric facilities lacked oversight and incidents of abuse and poor care were rampant, thus enhancing the push to shutter them, but without a comprehensive plan to provide services to those who still needed it and the many more who would be forthcoming. Of course, even if adequate facilities were available, the costs are unbelievable and I’d have to double check, but I don’t think Medicaid pays for long term care in an institution and, of course, most people who need such care are indigent to begin with. There are over 330 million people in this country and sad to say, but at this point I think that the numbers are just too big and the issue just too complicated and too expensive for us to fully wrap our arms around. To make matters worse, even if we, as a society, could manage to wrap our arms around this problem, we are so far behind in the number of appropriately trained personnel to do it that we'll never catch up - we can't even staff our medical and long-term care facilities as they are now. To make matters worse, with more and more states legalizing marijuana and the thousands of tons of narcotics streaming across our open borders, the problem is only going to expand exponentially.

In summary, do I think our “leaders” will come up with truly viable solutions to any of these problems (not just guns)? Sadly, very sadly, no, I do not. There are just too many elected officials and media meatheads who don’t really understand much of what I just explained, don’t want to, and just want this as a political issue to bludgeon and demonize the opposition with. Yeah, there are some out there who do understand and care, but they get belittled and shouted down any time they veer off the gun control orthodoxy path. So what can we do? Well, regarding guns and crime, after 9/11, we had the saying, "If you see something, say something." So, if you see a young person or adult who clearly needs help for whatever reason, do something to get them that help and don't give up until you do. Bring it to the attention of their school counselor or their supervisor in their workplace, friends and or relatives, law enforcement, etc. - just don't let it go. Also, in many metropolitan areas, you can dial 211 and someone at an "Action Center" can get you pointed in the right direction. Also, the United Way has many resources and are in most communities. Of course, in emergency situations, always dial 911. Additionally, for crime, get involved with your neighbors and in your community through groups like the Neighborhood Alliance, Nextdoor, National Night Out, County & Local Police TRIAD Crime Prevention programs. If you don't have some of these programs in your area, contact your local law enforcement and tell them you want them - it helps to get as many friends and neighbors to express their desire for these programs, too. If the local police/sheriffs lack funding, bend the ears of your local elected officials from city council members and county commissioners and mayors to state legislators and the governor. And for the health issues I mentioned, the best thing you can do is see your primary care doctor if you have a health concern and don't wait till the ambulance is taking you to the hospital to address it. Sometimes we just have to admit we need professional help with an issue. I was stubborn, but finally had to throw in the towel and get medical help when diet and exercise couldn't keep me from gaining weight and once I did, the problem was easily identified and solved, but I was miserable until I did. There are very few health issues that can't be remedied if caught early enough, so please, don't neglect your health. If you don't have insurance or money, most states have programs through the local health departments where you can get assistance.

Finally, pray for our people, our elected officials, civil servants and our country – we need it now more than ever! Be safe and be well!

In all aspects of your life, YOU must be your own first responder!!

To keep abreast of the latest with firearms legislation, policies, studies and statistics, here are some great resources:

Entry date 03-15-2022:

Source: Retirement Investment Advisors Weekly Market Commentary - March 8, 2023:

What gives life meaning? Last spring, Pew Research asked people in several countries: What aspects of your life do you currently find meaningful, fulfilling or satisfying?

The No. 1 answer (out of the 17 options) in most countries was “family and children.” The exceptions were Spain (health), South Korea (material well-being), and Taiwan (society).

In the United States friends ranked second in the hierarchy of things that give life meaning, followed by material well-being.
In the United Kingdom, friends ranked second, followed by hobbies.
In Australia, New Zealand and Sweden occupation ranked second, followed by friends.
In Greece, France and Germany occupation ranked second, followed by health.
In Italy, Netherlands and Japan, material well-being ranked second, followed by health.
In Canada, occupation ranked second, followed by material well-being.
In Belgium and Spain, material well-being ranked second, followed by occupation.
In Singapore, occupation ranked second, followed by society.
In Taiwan, material well-being ranked second, followed by family and children.
In South Korea, health ranked second, followed by family and children.

It’s interesting to note that freedom appears to be widely taken for granted. It was most highly valued in Netherlands where it was mentioned by 20 percent of survey participants. Belgium and New Zealand also ranked it more highly than other nations (15 percent each). Freedom was mentioned least often in the U.K. (5 percent), Singapore (5 percent), and Japan (6 percent).

In the United States, just 9 percent of Americans – fewer than one in 10 – said freedom gives their lives meaning. <Webmaster emphasis added.>

Entry date 2-20-2022:

Some interesting tidbits of information you probably didn't hear from the mainstream media:

On Immigration: In the last year of the Trump administration, the Border Patrol had encounters with 450K foreign nationals ("Illegal aliens" - yep, I said it and it's still a legal term in the law whether you like it or not!). After reversing nearly all of Trump's immigration policies in the first 20 minutes he was in office, during the first year of the Biden administration, the Border Patrol had over 2 million encounters with illegal aliens. And the Border Patrol generally says that about 50% evade capture, so we're talking about 4 million unvetted, illegal aliens that the Biden administration has allowed into this country. And oh yeah, we, the taxpayers are on the hook for their care and feeding to the tune of around $150 billion per year!!! See Overview of Immigrant Eligibility for Federal Programs (Regret your 2020 vote yet???)

And FYI, 16 states give illegal aliens drivers licenses - they are: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, D.C., Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington.

[202220217]

On Economics and Family Finances: Inflation right now is at around 10% overall. For some items, like gasoline, it's around 60 - 100%, depending on where you live.

There are about 330 million people in the U.S., give or take a few million illegal aliens.
The average American household earns $68,000 a year and they spend about $57,000 and after inflation, that's not much if anything left over, especially if you have a medical emergency or have to pay for a big car or home repair, etc.
20% of Americans have $0 in savings - they live paycheck-to-paycheck.
31% have less than $500 in savings.
65% of the population earns less than $100,000 a year
There are only 21 million millionaires in the U.S.
There are 2 million people with a net worth of $10 million
There are 90,000 people with a net worth of $50 million
There are 30,000 people with a net worth of $100 million
There are 788 billionaires in the U.S.

We are clearly a working class society with people trying to move up, but when Bidenflation chews up 10% - 50%+ of their take home pay, it makes moving up nearly impossible. 1 year ago when Trump left office, there was practically no inflation and the PPI (Producer Price Index) was -2.4% (falling prices for goods and services). What we are seeing now is clearly the result of the Biden administration's war on fossil fuels and not Covid or the the supply chain or whatever the excuse du jour is that you hear coming out of Biden's mouthpiece, Jen "Little Red Lyin' Hood" Pasaki.

Blue State Blues: Insane Democratic People's Republic of California: Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and the state legislature wants $20 million allocated to medical school students who sign a paper saying they will perform abortions.

Entry date 2-3-2022:

My thoughts and opinions on the current state of the real estate industry:

First of all, keep this in mind: In all aspect of life these days, you have to be your own first responder.

It’s shameful!! And I’m not talking about the prices – those are outrageous, too, but a function of the current administration’s energy and monetary policies and the resulting inflation.

What I’m talking about here is customer service and I’m referring to licensed real estate agents/Realtors [and I’m a licensed, but not fully active, real estate agent (NOT a Realtor)] and unlicensed property leasing and management personnel. For simplification, I’m just going to refer to them collectively as “property people.”

It kind of used to be the running joke that you could never get your agent to return your call. Now, it’s no joke and that now includes property managers. (I’ve even got 2 unanswered questions to MY broker-manager from October and November of 2021 – good thing they weren’t urgent). I’ve been trying to help a friend get a place (house or apartment) and neither of us have ever been so frustrated. For one thing, apparently property people couldn’t care less about actually talking to you either over the phone or in person – they want everything to be done by text, e-mail or through a website. Yeah, we know how well that always turns out – we’ve had almost no responses to any of those. And no, I don’t think it has much to do with Covid, either. In my not-so-humble opinion, it’s sheer laziness and incompetence. The real estate/housing business isn’t easy from any aspect – it’s a 24x7x365 job, that is, if you’re serious about it and you have to juggle all this paperwork and scheduling that is dependent upon others returning your calls and taking care of business on their end – GOOD LUCK!! For the most part with real estate issues, you’re dealing with the largest investment most people have and generally, as they teach us in real estate school, time is of the essence. But, once you answer that question on the test, most property people completely forget about that part completely and couldn’t care less about your priorities. Yes, I will say that there are a few good agents and companies out there, but they are VERY few and VERY far between, sad to say.

So what do you do? Some of you may remember when we had phone books – the Yellow Pages slogan was, “Let your fingers do the walking,” which was introduced in 1962 to promote using and advertising in the Yellow Pages and calling to save time and money. Well, if you’re looking for an apartment or rental homes these days, don’t waste your time calling because IF you can even get a live body on the phone, good luck getting someone who can answer your questions accurately. And if you have to leave a message, you can pretty much forget about ever getting a call back. You’re just going to have drive to the property’s office and pray that by some stroke of good luck, someone actually showed up to work that day who can show you around and take your application. As for real estate agents, do your homework and pray that you find a good one. In my current quest with my friend, we’ve already been through 4 or 5, who were referred to us by “trusted” friends who said, “Oh, I have the best real estate agent EVER!” I’m pretty sure most of you have heard that line before and how did it work out for you? They ALL turned out to be complete flops, that is, the ones who actually took time to respond,…..a little. And what they did respond with was completely useless and it was because they didn’t even take time to question my friend extensively about her specific wants, needs, finances, etc. And get her under exclusive buyer’s agency contract??? What is that??? These people were not serious and need to get out of the business altogether.

One other thing you could do: When dealing with these property people, right up front, the first question you should ask them is: “Will you commit to responding to my calls, texts, e-mails, etc., in a timely fashion?” Put them on the spot, make them say “yes” and if they welch on you, you can throw it back in their faces and file a complaint with their broker-manager, owner or property manager, that is if they even care either. Also be sure you have a quick-out on any exclusive listing or buying agency contracts you sign if you are unhappy with the agent. Any decent brokerage should have such a clause in their contracts.

So if you are one of these deadbeat property people to which I am referring, please do humanity a favor and either step up your game (a lot) or get out of the business altogether and do something else for a living, if you even can. If I can’t even trust you with my biggest investment, why would I even trust you to flip my burger?? Think about it!

Remember folks, as I said at the beginning, you have to be your own first responder in all aspects of life these days. I hate to sound so cynical, but the level of indifference, incompetence and unprofessionalism throughout so many industries today is just staggering – we’ve all experienced it, whether it’s at the fast food restaurant, or the bank or the grocery store, or the car dealer, or even church. Understand clearly that no one is looking out for you, so you have to do it yourself! So don’t be a shrinking violet; follow the advice I have taken so much time to provide for you in all these reports, free of charge, I might add, and do something and speak up for yourself, because no one else is going to do it for you!!!!!

Entry date 11-20-2021:

Updated 5/3/2023

Well, well, we're almost 24 hours after the Kyle Rittenhouse self-defense case verdict where he was fully acquitted of all charges. Meanwhile, liberal media pointy heads are exploding everywhere almost at levels equaling the exploding heads following the result of the 2016 election of President Trump. I served as a juror on a 1st degree murder case where we acquitted the defendant on the basis of self defense, so I have a unique perspective on this case. More on this to come.... But before that, I want to tell you that there was a TON of misinformation disseminated by the mainstream media on this case (examples below), but you would NEVER know that, and I'm going to be charitable here, if you are foolish enough to get your news and information from those sources, in fact, it is almost hazardous to your health to do so. Be sure to read my narrative on the News You Missed homepage about this. This case was just another in a long list of high-profile cases where the media got it completely wrong. It's really borderline Twilight Zone material! And I hear politicians, people and have friends who discuss this case and they clearly did not watch the trial and or have no concepts of the use of force, self defense, due process, the law in general, the rule of law, etc., and again, are simply parroting the absolute CRAP they are getting from the liberal media. Newsflash, geniuses: You sound very stupid!!! So read up below and wise up! Even when confronted with the facts, they still refuse to accept the jury's verdict and believe Rittenhouse should be in jail. (See summary below.) It struck me that I've seen this pattern of behavior before on numerous occasions, but most prominently with President Trump and it's know as "TDS" or "Trump Derangement Syndrome" and yes, it is a mental illness for which you should seek professional treatment. Interestingly, I never remember these same people maligning other presidents like Clinton, Kennedy, FDR, etc., for their poor personal behaviors. Hypocrisy much, people? Whether you liked any of them personally, some of their policies were very good for the nation, just as Trump's clearly were. Never has our country gone from such prosperity to such calamity than from the transition from Trump to Biden, yet people are so blinded by the spurious, acidic and hateful narrative coming from the mainstream media that they refuse to even listen to the facts, let alone examine them in detail. Go ahead, keep living your life that way - as the saying goes, "There's one born every minute!"

See more stories on the Crime & Law Enforcement and Politics & Media pages.

So here's a quick summary on Kyle Rittenhouse, if you're brave enough to read it: Recall that he was (already) in Kenosha, WI, when riots broke out following the police shooting of Jacob Blake. A lot of people say that he never should have been there in the first place and that it was a stupid decision. Okay, let's follow that "logic." Therefore, all those other people out there involved in the riots shouldn't have been out there either, right? Stupid decisions all around? Maybe. But making stupid decisions isn't against the law unless you break the law at which point you DO face the consequences. Based on the Rittenhouse trial outcome, he did NOT break the law, in fact, his clear use of self-defense while trying to evade vicious felons (see below) who were assaulting him should've precluded him from ever being charged, nevertheless, he DID face the consequences for his actions and our system of jurisprudence worked, as it usually does. Now, who made the stupid decision here? Governor Evers (D) when he declined President Trump's offer to send in additional National Guard and Homeland Security support. Stupid decision? Definitely. Will he pay a price for his stupid decision? Maybe at the ballot box someday. However, to be fair, he did deploy twice as many National Guard leading up to the verdict in the Rittenhouse trial, so maybe he learned his lesson and Kenosha remained mostly calm following the verdict.

11-30-2021 - LISTEN: The Continual Media Dishonesty in the Kyle Rittenhouse Trial.

11-25-2021 - Rittenhouse, smeared by media as “murderer”, worked as a janitor and a fry

cook to help support his mom and sisters

11-24-2021 - Rittenhouse Case Illustrates Liberal Hypocrisy

11-23-2021 - Psaki justifies Biden calling Rittenhouse a 'white supremacist' because 'he

posed with Proud Boys' - then blames TRUMP for 'encouraging militia groups

and people taking law into their own hands' <Hmmm, recall that Biden eulogized

former Ku Klux Klan Exalted Cyclops, Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV), who later renounced

that membership, but does that make Biden a white supremacist or racist? I don't

think so - one only need look at his VP choice. And Obama took pictures with noted

antisemites Louis Farrakhan and Reverend Jeremiah Wright and treated Israel rather

poorly during his administration, but does that make him an antisemite? Not

necessarily. Now watch these 38 examples where Trump condemned racism and white

supremacy. I guess the mainstream media missed those. Anyone surprised???>

11-23-2021 - WATCH: Why The Kyle Rittenhouse Trial Should Frighten Gun Owners!!! All

the Lies Told About Guns During the Trial - The Armed Scholar

11-22-2021 - There’s Been Continual Media Dishonesty in the Kyle Rittenhouse Trial

11-21-2021 - WATCH: Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz Explodes Over Media

Misreporting During Kyle Rittenhouse Trial: Are media the real vigilantes?

11-21-2021 - Can Biden be sued for calling Kyle Rittenhouse a “white supremacist?”

History tells us “absolutely.”

11-20-2021 - VIDEOS: Media Bias: The news media keeps calling the riots that destroyed

poor parts of Kenosha “protests,” completely ignored is that Rittenhouse was

in the poor, minority area of the city to help out

11-20-2021 - Bill O'Reilly's Weekly Column: Joe & Kyle

11-20-2021 - ‘Jump Kick Man’ who kicked Rittenhouse during Kenosha violence suddenly

identified – and he’s convicted felon

11-20-2021 - Florida Black man who claimed self-defense and was acquitted of all murder

charges draws comparisons to Kyle Rittenhouse

11-20-2021 - Kyle Rittenhouse trial shows how far off the rails media, leftists have gone

11-19-2021 - 6 details the Kyle Rittenhouse jury didn't consider when it deliberated the

teenager's fate

11-17-2021 - 10 Heinous Lies About Kyle Rittenhouse, Debunked

11-17-2020 - Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz says it’s CNN and the New Yorker

acting as vigilantes, not Rittenhouse

FULL CRIMINAL RECORDS OF MEN WHO ATTACKED

KYLE RITTENHOUSE, PROMPTING HIM TO LEGALLY DEFEND HIMSELF.

Criminal Records Rittenhouse VIctims: What Were They?

Joseph D. Rosenbaum

Anthony Huber

Gaige P. Grosskreutz Full Record

Maurice Freeland "(aka "Jump Kick Man")

The 'Solid Citizens' Who Threatened to Kill Kyle Rittenhouse

Entry date: 11-3-2021:

Goooooooood Morning, Virginia!!!!! And the United States. And congratulations!! So what's going on here? What happened with last night's election? Let's go back in history, far back in history. The Pilgrims came to this continent to escape the tyranny of the British Crown and claim their freedom. But wait, it goes back farther than that. When Adam ate from the Tree of Knowledge (Genesis 3:6), at that point Man became aware of the difference between good and evil - he had free will. Flash forward back to the Pilgrims and the Founding Fathers - they founded this nation and established set in place systems (see Founding Documents) so that its citizens would be free to make choices about their ways of life, for the most part. Man has free will and this country was founded on that principle, among others. Since the founding of this nation, we have been used to making our own decisions about our lives; unlike so many other countries, we have never known any other way.

So how does all that tie in to last night's election? It's pretty simple - it was starting to happen before, but Covid was pretty much the tipping point. In the past 10 months, government has started to really tell people what to do, where to go, when to go, how much we could do, etc. When someone tells us what to do, it aggravates our innate sense of freedom. Virginia, for the longest time, has been a free state, occupying a unique, special and primary place in American history for a variety of reasons. From 2014 until January 14, 2022, Virginia has been under Democrat control and, by default, under national Democrat control for the past 10 months. Forget the mask and vaccine mandates, threats of job firings, etc., coming from the state and federal government, Terry McCauliffe really stepped in when he essentially said parents shouldn't be involved in their children's education and the state should control everything, the good and free people of Virginia had had enough, but then McCauliffe doubled-down on his stance and made more inflammatory comments towards the citizens. Apparently he didn't read the Virginia Code (see citations below) and even sent 4 of his 5 children to private school, where he could have a say in their education. Hmmmm,... Remember, we're a free country - people don't like being told what to do and they especially don't like their children used as political pawns when it is their (the taxpayers') money funding those schools and per Virginia Code, parents clearly have a right to voice their opinions about it. They'd sampled what McCauliffe (1st term), Northam and Biden had been cooking and they finally realized that it tasted like a green persimmon and they opted for a different dish by voting to restore some semblance of sanity in the Commonwealth by electing a Republican Governor, Lt. Governor and Attorney General along with 50 other House seats.

Aside from probably going back to being a talking (meat)head on CNNLOL or MSDNC, which no one watches anyway, hopefully, this is the last the good people of this nation will see of the final Clinton-era holdover and their uber-toady, Terry aka "The Punk" McCauliffe and Dr. Ralph Northam, the king of abortion on demand, even until right after normal birth. But don't be lulled into complacency with this win - even now the Democrat spin and blame machine is going into overdrive, accusing the electorate majority of being the unenlightened, white, racist, Christian boogeyman and every other kind of miscreant imaginable. Oh, but their playbook is so worn out and tired and they have become so predictable that it's sad, it's just sad. But be warned, as I write this, there is no doubt that like they did to President Trump, they are trying to dig up any kind of dirt possible to tarnish your reputation so you will be distracted and won't have time to focus on and reverse all the damaging socialist policies they put in place. Good luck to you, Virginia - freedom is only free if you can keep it at the ballot box. Don't let us down - we're counting on you!

Title 1. General Provisions » Chapter 2.1. Common Law and Rules of Construction » Article 2. Rules of Construction and Definitions » § 1-240.1. Rights of parents: A parent has a fundamental right to make decisions concerning the upbringing, education, and care of the parent's child.

Title 22.1. Education » Chapter 14. Pupils » Article 3. Discipline » § 22.1-279.3. Parental responsibility and involvement requirements: B. A school board shall provide opportunities for parental and community involvement in every school in the school division. C. .....These materials shall include a notice to the parents that by signing the statement of receipt, parents shall not be deemed to waive, but to expressly reserve, their rights protected by the constitutions or laws of the United States or the Commonwealth and that a parent shall have the right to express disagreement with a school's or school division's policies or decisions.

Terry McAuliffe Sent 4 of his 5 children to private schools: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10151011/Terry-McAuliffe-slammed-hypocrisy-praising-Virginias-public-schools-four-kids-private.html

Entry date: 09-12-2021:

Well, all the news readers have been talking about the U.S. getting out of "the longest war in U.S. history (Afghanistan)," and, as usual, they're ignorant of history and wrong yet again. America's longest war has been against the Indians. Exact time frames are debated, but here are a few articles to help you make up your own minds:

Entry date: 09-10-2021:

Updated: 05-26-2022

Okay, I'm so sick of hearing all the whining liberals complain about some of the new voting laws in some states and how they are SO restrictive and meant to suppress Americans' precious and sacred right to vote. GIVE ME A BREAK!!!

First of all, we had record voter turnout across all demographics in the 2020 election. And in Georgia for the 2022 primary elections, the turnout was shockingly higher and overwhelming, yet liberals HOWLED like banshees when Georgia strengthened their voting laws, which, by the the way, still aren't as restrictive as voting laws in President Biden's home state of Delaware. Yeah, there's lots of voter suppression going on and clearly lots of people who weren't able to vote. Sheesh!

REALITY: PHOTO ID REQUIRED FOR ALMOST EVERYTHING IN LIFE...(21 examples)

If requiring an ID to vote is discriminatory and unconstitutional, then why is it legal to require an ID for all of these other things in life?

DMV – You are required to have some form of identification to obtain a driver’s license in most states.
Airports – Try boarding a commercial flight these days without a photo ID.
Hospitals – Most hospitals require some form of ID for any out-patient or in-patient procedure. The last time I ended up at the emergency room, they were still asking me for my ID.
Pharmacy – We have to show our driver’s license just to purchase over-the-counter sinus medication like Co-Advil, let alone a prescription.
Blood Donation – Everyone I know that has donated blood has had to present their ID before being accepted.
Banks – Many banks require some form of ID to carry out any transaction except perhaps making a deposit.
Writing a Check – Most stores want a driver’s license or some other photo ID in order to cash a check or even pay for a purchase with a check.
Using Credit Cards – I have been in some stores that have asked to see a driver’s license or some other form of ID before they would accept my credit card.
Gun Shop – Right! Try buying a gun or ammunition without a driver’s license or any other form of ID.
Social Security Office – They require ID to verify who you are before they will even entertain paying you any benefits. To obtain SSI Disability requires ID plus a ton of documentation, yet many poor and minority people manage to obtain SSI Disability coverage.
Pawn Shop – Laws have tightened up so much on pawn shops to prevent them from purchasing stole property that pawn shops require a form of ID, preferably a photo.
Jail – Most cities, counties, and states require some form of ID before they book someone into jail.
Courts – Most courts require an ID in order for you conduct any form of business with them. (So if you want to file a lawsuit for some kind of voting violation, you have to show an ID, imagine that?)
Unemployment – Most unemployment offices require an ID before paying benefits.
Public Schools – Many schools require any non-student to present an ID at the office before being allowed to visit the school for any reason. I use to be a meter reader for an electric company and always had to go to the office first and show my ID before being allowed to OUR electric boxes.
Adoption Agency – It is almost impossible to adopt a child without an ID and a stack of other information.
Parole & Probation – Most people placed on parole or probation are required to have an ID when they check in with their court appointed handlers.
Auto Insurance – You are required to have an ID in order to obtain auto insurance.
Traffic Stop – In most states you are required to present your driver’s license, proof of insurance and vehicle registration if you are pulled for by a police officer.
Passport – You have to produce an original birth certificate and photo in order to obtain a U.S. passport. (Makes you wonder how Barack Obama obtained a valid passport.)
Post Office – I’ve had to show a photo ID to pick up packages at the Post Office.

BTW: Liberals say that requiring an ID for voting is unconstitutional, discriminating and racist! The ironic part of this is that most unions are Democratic supporters and they require an ID for all union voting, but they are against requiring an ID to vote in local, state and federal elections. If requiring an ID to vote is discriminatory and unconstitutional, then why is it legal to require an ID for all of these other things in life? Are they racist, too???? Well?????

Here are a few more things that require a photo ID (some duplication from list above):

Adopt an animal
Apply for any kind of government benefits - welfare, food stamps, Medicaid, Social Security, unemployment, worker's comp
Apply for any kind of state or federal license or certification (hunting, fishing, occupational, professional, etc.)
Apply for a marriage license
Buy an "M" rated video game
Get into an "R" rated movie
File for a building permit
File for a permit to have a garage or estate sale or auction
File for a permit to hold a rally or protest
File to petition the government
Donate blood
Purchase any type of investment (stocks, bonds, mutual funds, annuities)
Purchase or sell real estate (apply for a mortgage)
Look at an apartment
Rent an apartment
Cash a check/make a purchase with a check
Open a bank account
Purchase alcohol
Purchase tobacco and vape products
Fill a prescription
Purchase certain over-the-counter medications
Purchase a firearm
Rent, drive, register a car
Get on an airplane
Enroll in school
Rent a hotel room
Apply for a job
Buy a cell phone
Rent a PO Box or a box at the UPS Store and other such locations
Pick up a package or online puchase at any brick-and-mortar location
Visit a casino
Voting in Canada
Voting in Mexico
Voting in 46 out of 47 countries in Europe
Voting in Israel
Voting in Iceland

And second of all, and here's the kicker - despite what the media pinheads say, you DO NOT have a right to vote in federal elections. That's right Einsteins Rachel Maddow, PhD and Fredo Cuomo (an attorney, no less), among many others. Read it and weep!

Do you have a specifically enumerated (in the Constitution) right to vote in federal elections? No. Even though the Constitution has several amendments that prohibit voter discrimination, and despite what you hear from the media and politicians, those amendments lack the base to guarantee voting as a “right” as we have come to understand the “rights” granted to us in the Bill of Rights. Further, in 2000, Supreme Court case #: 00-949, Bush v Gore, para. II.B. stated, “The individual citizen has no federal constitutional right to vote for electors for the President of the United States unless and until the state legislature chooses a statewide election as the means to implement its power to appoint members of the Electoral College. U.S. Constitution., Article. II, §1.” This re-affirmed the Supreme Court’s earlier decision from the 1892 case, McPherson v.Blacker, 146 U.S. 1, 35, para. 43. which is the source for that quote.

Entry date: 09-01-2021:

I heard this on Red-Pilled America 8/27/2021 podcast @ 31:26:

"Have you been asking yourself the question, "Why?" lately? Why is this country seemingly plunging into chaos? Here's why: The left (liberals) control every cultural institution in America - academia, film, literature, music, art; basically all forms of story-telling. They've been pumping Marxist ideology into the American bloodstream for decades."

Pretty profound, I would say - more on this to follow.........

Here's a more detailed explanation from another source as to why this is happening:

It's hard to believe that it was 18 years ago that authors Tim LaHaye and David Noebel saw all this coming and wrote the book Mind Siege: The Battle for Truth in the New Millenium. You may recognize Tim LaHaye's name as he was the author of the famous "Left Behind" fictional series of books that dealt with the Rapture, Anti-Christ, etc. The following are a video companion series to the book, Mind Siege, that really summarizes what is happening now and why:

Mind Siege - pt 1 of 6, The Struggle of the Ages
Mind Siege - pt 2 of 6, The Rise and Fall of America
Mind Siege - pt 3 of 6, The Threat of Secular Humanism
Mind Siege - pt 4 of 6, The 5 Pillars of Secular Humanism
Mind Siege - pt 5 of 6, Waking the Sleeping Giant
Mind Siege - pt 6 of 6, What You Can Do

Now consider this - we were warned!

1963 Communist Goals

The following was entered into the Congressional record by Albert Herlong, Jr. (a Floridian who served in Congress from 1949-69) in 1963. The list was published in the 1958 book The Naked Communist, by Cleon Skousen. (Current status updates follow each goal.)

US acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war. DONE
US willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war. DONE
Develop the illusion that total disarmament by the US would be a demonstration of "moral strength". DONE
Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war. DONE
Extension of long term loans to Russia and Soviet Satellites. DONE
Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination. DONE
Grant recognition of Red China, and admission of Red China to the UN. DONE
Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the Germany question by free elections under supervision of the UN. FAILED
Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the US has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress. DONE
Allow all Soviet Satellites individual representation in the UN. DONE
Promote the UN as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the UN as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.) DONE
Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party. IN PROGRESS
Do away with loyalty oaths. IN PROGRESS
Continue giving Russia access to the US Patent Office. DONE
Capture one or both of the political parties in the US. DONE
Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions, by claiming their activities violate civil rights. DONE
Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for Socialism, and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers associations. Put the party line in text books. DONE
Gain control of all student newspapers. DONE/IN PROGRESS
Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack. DONE/IN PROGRESS
Infiltrate the press. Get control of book review assignments, editorial writing, policy-making positions. DONE
Gain control of key positions in radio, TV & motion pictures. DONE
Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all form of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings", substitute shapeless, awkward, and meaningless forms. IN PROGRESS
Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art". IN PROGRESS
Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press. IN PROGRESS
Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography, and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio and TV. IN PROGRESS
Present Homosexuality, degeneracy, and promiscuity as "normal, natural, and healthy". IN PROGRESS
Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity, which does not need a "religious crutch." IN PROGRESS
Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the grounds that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state." DONE
Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis. DONE
Discredit the American founding fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man". DONE
Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of "the big picture:" Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over. IN PROGRESS
Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture — education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc. DONE
Eliminate all laws or procedures, which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus. IN PROGRESS
Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities. DONE
Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI. IN PROGRESS
Infiltrate and gain control of more unions. DONE
Infiltrate and gain control of big business. DONE/IN PROGRESS
Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand or treat. DONE
Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals. DONE/IN PROGRESS
Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce. DONE
Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents. DONE/IN PROGRESS
Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special interest groups should rise up and make a "united force" to solve economic, political, or social problems. DONE
Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government. IN PROGRESS
Internationalize the Panama Canal. DONE
Repeal the Connally Reservation so the US can not prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike. IN PROGRESS

Entry date: 09-01-2021:

Heard this the other day: "Those who disrespect or burn our flag have never been handed a folded one."

Well, that sounds good and I'd like to believe it, but I would say that even if they have been handed a folded one, they probably still wouldn't have any respect for it because they were already of the mindset that the United States is a bad country from its founding and anyone serving in the military (or law enforcement) is only perpetuating the problem. Of course, such a view is borne out of serious historical ignorance and I would go so far as to say probably mental illness, too.

Entry date: 08-31-2021:

Things that make you go, Hmmm:

So President Biden came into office and one of the first things he did was reverse several of President Trump's immigration policies, essentially throwing the border wide open to whomever wants to come here. Since that time, over a million (estimated, probably more) people have illegally crossed the borders and are now in this country and living on the public dole. Now wait just a minute!!! In April, 2021, President Biden, while addressing Congress, said that white supremacy was the most lethal terrorist threat to the U.S. today.

And he continually hammers home the U.S. society's apparent widespread problem with systemic racism. So that leads my to wonder why, if the U.S. is such a horrible country, are he and the Democrats essentially standing at the border and waving all these people in like a third base baseball coach waving a runner towards home plate? Why in the world would the party who presumably cares the most about "the little people" and minorities want these poor people, who have undoubtedly suffered in their home countries, to come to our horribly racist country and perhaps endure even worse?? I just don't understand......

Entry date: 08-19-2021 (updated 11-20-2021):

Occasionally you run across some real great nuggets of wisdom on the Internet and I did today:

-----------------------

Much More Here

-----------------------

"It’s a mess out there now. Hard to discern between what’s a real threat and what is just simple panic and hysteria. For a small amount of perspective at this moment, imagine you were born in 1900.

On your 14th birthday, World War I starts, and ends on your 18th birthday. 22 million people perish in that war. Later in the year, a Spanish Flu epidemic hits the planet and runs until your 20th birthday. 50 million people die from it in those two years. Yes, 50 million.

On your 29th birthday, the Great Depression begins. Unemployment hits 25%, the World GDP drops 27%. That runs until you are 33. The country nearly collapses along with the world economy.

When you turn 39, World War II starts. You aren’t even over the hill yet. And don’t try to catch your breath. On your 41st birthday, the United States is fully pulled into WWII. Between your 39th and 45th birthday, 75 million people perish in the war.

Smallpox was epidemic until you were in your 40’s, as it killed 300 million people during your lifetime.

At 50, the Korean War starts. 5 million perish. From your birth, until you were 55, you dealt with the fear of polio epidemics each summer. You experience friends and family contracting polio and being paralyzed and/or dying.

At 55 the Vietnam War begins and doesn’t end for 20 years. 4 million people perish in that conflict. During the Cold War, you lived each day with the fear of nuclear annihilation. On your 62nd birthday you have the Cuban Missile Crisis, a tipping point in the Cold War. Life on our planet, as we know it, almost ended. When you turn 75, the Vietnam War finally ends.

Think of everyone on the planet born in 1900. How did they endure all of that? When you were a kid in 1985 and didn’t think your 85 year old grandparent understood how hard school was. And how mean that kid in your class was. Yet they survived through everything listed above. Perspective is an amazing art. Refined and enlightening as time goes on. Let’s try and keep things in perspective. Your parents and/or grandparents were called to endure all of the above – you are called to stay home and sit on your couch." ~Author Unknown

To that last sentence I would add,"...and collect free money from the government because work is hard and you don’t want to do manual labor like washing dishes or flipping burgers. Waah, waah!”

-----------------------

And a couple of my other favorites that follow this line of thinking:

-----------------------

“I’m sitting in a small coffee shop near Nokomis trying to think of what to write about. I scroll through my newsfeed on my phone looking at the latest headlines of Democratic candidates calling for policies to “fix” the so-called injustices of capitalism. I put my phone down and continue to look around. I see people talking freely, working on their MacBook’s, ordering food they get in an instant, seeing cars go by outside, and it dawned on me. We live in the most privileged time in the most prosperous nation and we’ve become completely blind to it. Vehicles, food, technology, freedom to associate with whom we choose. These things are so ingrained in our American way of life we don’t give them a second thought. We are so well off here in the United States that our poverty line begins 31 times above the global average. {Emphasis added by webmaster} Thirty. One. Times. Virtually no one in the United States is considered poor by global standards. Yet, in a time where we can order a product off Amazon with one click and have it at our doorstep the next day, we are unappreciative, unsatisfied, and ungrateful.

Our unappreciation is evident as the popularity of socialist policies among my generation continues to grow. Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently said to Newsweek talking about the millennial generation, “An entire generation, which is now becoming one of the largest electorates in America, came of age and never saw American prosperity.”

Never saw American prosperity. Let that sink in. When I first read that statement, I thought to myself, that was quite literally the most entitled and factually illiterate thing I’ve ever heard in my 26 years on this earth. Now, I’m not attributing Miss Ocasio-Cortez’s words to outright dishonesty. I do think she whole-heartedly believes the words she said to be true. Many young people agree with her, which is entirely misguided. My generation is being indoctrinated by a mainstream narrative to actually believe we have never seen prosperity. I know this first hand, I went to college, let’s just say I didn’t have the popular opinion, but I digress.

Let me lay down some universal truths really quick. The United States of America has lifted more people out of abject poverty, spread more freedom and democracy, and has created more innovation in technology and medicine than any other nation in human history. Not only that but our citizenry continually breaks world records with charitable donations, the rags to riches story is not only possible in America but not uncommon, we have the strongest purchasing power on earth, and we encompass 25% of the world’s GDP. The list goes on. However, these universal truths don’t matter. We are told that income inequality is an existential crisis (even though this is not an indicator of prosperity, some of the poorest countries in the world have low-income inequality), we are told that we are oppressed by capitalism (even though it’s brought about more freedom and wealth to the most people than any other system in world history), we are told that the only way we will acquire the benefits of true prosperity is through socialism and centralization of federal power (even though history has proven time and again this only brings tyranny and suffering).

Why then, with all of the overwhelming evidence around us, evidence that I can even see sitting at a coffee shop, do we not view this as prosperity? We have people who are dying to get into our country. People around the world destitute and truly impoverished. Yet, we have a young generation convinced they’ve never seen prosperity, and as a result, elect politicians dead set on taking steps towards abolishing capitalism. Why? The answer is this, my generation has ONLY seen prosperity. We have no contrast. We didn’t live in the great depression, or live through two world wars, or see the rise and fall of socialism and communism. We don’t know what it’s like not to live without the internet, without cars, without smartphones. We don’t have a lack of prosperity problem. We have an entitlement problem, an ungratefulness problem, and it’s spreading like a plague.

With the current political climate giving rise to the misguided idea of a socialist utopia, will we see the light? Or will we have to lose it all to realize that what we have now is true prosperity? Destroying the free market will undo what millions of people have died to achieve.

My generation is becoming the largest voting bloc in the country. We have an opportunity to continue to propel us forward with the gifts capitalism and democracy has given us. The other option is that we can fall into the trap of entitlement and relapse into restrictive socialist destitution. The choice doesn’t seem too hard, does it?” ― Alyssa Ahlgren 4-16-2019

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“I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.” ― Benjamin Franklin, 1766.

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The Pilgrims’ Failed Experiment With Socialism Should Teach America A Lesson

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Remember what FDR [President Franklin D Roosevelt (D)], the father of the New Deal (big government social programs), no less, said during his State of the Union address in 1935 regarding the dire economic times our country was suffering:

“….The lessons of history, confirmed by the evidence immediately before me, show conclusively that continued dependence upon relief induces a spiritual disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fiber. To dole our relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit. It is inimical to the dictates of a sound policy. It is in violation of the traditions of America. Work must be found for able-bodied but destitute workers….”

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“Socialism vs Capitalism

Socialism is based on the idea that people cannot succeed.

Capitalism is based on the idea that anyone can succeed.

Socialism is based on the assumption that one who does not work for whatever reason is owed the support of those who struggle all their lives to make ends meet. It tells people that they don't have to do anything, and in that way it is not only ignorant but also "a philosophy of failure."

Socialists put themselves on a pedestal saying how wonderful they are to support the "little man" while taxing the hard-working of society into poverty.

Capitalists believe that every person who works hard for a living has a right to live the best life possible.

Socialists believe that if you are successful, you should be punished and have the fruits of your labor taken from you and given to those who won't work.

Basically, while capitalists are content with people being unequally happy, socialists want everyone to be equally miserable.

Would it be fair to a great athlete to break his legs because he can play basketball or football etc. better than you? Of course not, so why on earth would anyone support taking money from those who EARN it (most of the rich in the US earned their money, they did NOT inherit it) and giving it to those who don't?

It is worse to take the money away from successful people, since they had to struggle to be successful. To use an analogy, capitalists want every plant go grow to its maximum height, however tall that is, while socialists want to cut all the taller plants down to be the same height as the shortest among them.

Also remember, there are homeless in socialist countries as well, and the majority of homeless are mentally ill or drug abusers, who wouldn't be successful no matter how much money was given to them.” ― Author Unknown

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“You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from someone else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half get the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.” ― Dr. Adrian Rogers, 1931

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Couch Lou Holtz Nails It !!

The Democrats are right, there are two Americas. The America that works and the America that doesn’t. The America that contributes and the America that doesn’t. It’s not the haves and the have nots, it’s the dos and the don’ts. Some people do their duty as Americans, obey the law, support themselves, contribute to society and others don’t. That’s the divide in America .

It’s not about income inequality, it’s about civic irresponsibility. It’s about a political party that preaches hatred, greed and victimization in order to win elective office. It’s about a political party that loves power more than it loves its country.

That’s not invective, that’s truth, and it’s about time someone said it.

The politics of envy was on proud display a couple weeks ago when President Obama pledged the rest of his term to fighting “income inequality.” He noted that some people make more than other people, that some people have higher incomes than others, and he says that’s not just. That is the rationale of thievery.

The other guy has it, you want it, Obama will take it for you. Vote Democrat. That is the philosophy that produced Detroit.

It is the electoral philosophy that is destroying America. It conceals a fundamental deviation from American values and common sense because it ends up not benefiting the people who support it, but a betrayal.

The Democrats have not empowered their followers, they have enslaved them in a culture of dependence and entitlement, of victim-hood and anger instead of ability and hope. The president’s premise – that you reduce income inequality by debasing the successful–seeks to deny the successful the consequences of their choices and spare the unsuccessful the consequences of their choices. Because, by and large, income variations in society are a result of different choices leading to different consequences.

Those who choose wisely and responsibly have a far greater likelihood of success, while those who choose foolishly and irresponsibly have a far greater likelihood of failure.

Success and failure usually manifest themselves in personal and family income. You choose to drop out of high school or to skip college – and you are apt to have a different outcome than someone who gets a diploma and pushes on with purposeful education.

You have your children out of wedlock and life is apt to take one course; you have them within a marriage and life is apt to take another course. Most often in life our destination is determined by the course we take.

My doctor, for example, makes far more than I do. There is significant income inequality between us. Our lives have had an inequality of outcome, but, our lives also have had an in equality of effort. While my doctor went to college and then devoted his young adulthood to medical school and residency, I got a job in a restaurant. He made a choice, I made a choice, and our choices led us to different outcomes. His outcome pays a lot better than mine. Does that mean he cheated and Barack Obama needs to take away his wealth? No, it means we are both free men in a free society where free choices lead to different outcomes.

It is not inequality Barack Obama intends to take away, it is freedom. The freedom to succeed, and the freedom to fail. There is no true option for success if there is no true option for failure. The pursuit of happiness means a whole lot less when you face the punitive hand of government if your pursuit brings you more happiness than the other guy. Even if the other guy sat on his arse and did nothing. Even if the other guy made a lifetime’s worth of asinine and short sighted decisions.

Barack Obama and the Democrats preach equality of outcome as a right, while completely ignoring inequality of effort.

The simple Law of the Harvest – as ye sow, so shall ye reap – is sometimes applied as, “The harder you work, the more you get.”

Obama would turn that upside down. Those who achieve are to be punished as enemies of society and those who fail are to be rewarded as wards of society. Entitlement will replace effort as the key to upward mobility in American society if Barack Obama gets his way. He seeks a lowest common denominator society in which the government besieges the successful and productive to foster equality through mediocrity. He and his party speak of two Americas, and their grip on power is based on using the votes of one to sap the productivity of the other. America is not divided by the differences in our outcomes, it is divided by the differences in our efforts.

It is a false philosophy to say one man’s success comes about unavoidably as the result of another man’s victimization.

What Obama offered was not a solution, but a separatism. He fomented division and strife, pitted one set of Americans against another for his own political benefit. That’s what socialists offer. Marxist class warfare wrapped up with a bow. Two Americas, coming closer each day to proving the truth to Lincoln’s maxim that a house divided against itself cannot stand.

“Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it.”
― Lou Holtz

Leo “Lou” Holtz (born January 6, 1937) is a retired American football coach (Notre Dame), and active sportscaster, author, and motivational speaker.

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"...Here is a Final Thought of the Day. So, my pal Alexander Green at Oxford wrote a column about how Americans don't read the Bible, don't care about the Bible, and this is causing a lack of discipline in our society. So, Greens stats how half of Americans cannot name the four gospels. Half. Most Americans cannot name the first book of the Bible, that would be Genesis. 40 percent do not know what Easter commemorates. It's not about the bunny. And the internet is the new Bible.

So, when I was growing up, America was a religious country, and some areas were more religious than others. But in New York, where I grew up, in the northeast, Boston, Philly, there was a big ethnic drive toward religion. What that did was it put forth a series of rules like the Ten Commandments, which are posted in the Supreme Court. There were rules for a civil society. Now, not everybody obeyed the rules, obviously, we're all sinners, and the jails are full of people who won't obey rules. Right? But there was an accepted measure of behavior in America back then because people were educated about the Bible, about different religions.

So, I knew what my religion was all about. I also knew what Judaism was all about. Half the kids in my neighborhood went to Hebrew school. And I knew what Protestantism was. I knew what Episcopalians and Methodists and Presbyterians and Baptists. You know, I had a frame of reference. Now? Forget it. Forget it. It's a totally secular society and you can see the behavior deteriorate, personal behavior. Just go on the new Bible, the internet, just look at the garbage that is on it. It overwhelms the good stuff. This is a source of weakness for America. A moral society must have rules. I mean, late term abortion is a savagery. Now, most Americans don't support it, but 30 percent do, and so does Biden and Pelosi and Andrew Cuomo and powerful people. That's just one example. Legalize drugs, that's insane. The damage that's going to do because you want to smoke pot or whatever, it's a gateway drug. Ask any drug counselor. This is going to weaken our society. We have enough problems with alcohol, we're going to compound it now? You're going to send a message it's okay to be stoned?"

― Bill O'Reilly commenting on his show, The No Spin News, on 8-16-2021

Entry date: 05-11-2021:

Ever since the 1994-1995 MLB strike, I normally I don't care about anything sports related and that goes double now that things have gotten even worse with "woke" sports, but I found this interesting:

So I see in the news that Tim Tebow is trying to get back into pro sports and may get a 1-year contract with the Jacksonville Jaguars. The key word there being "may." He is not guaranteed a starting spot, nor a spot on the regular season roster - he will have to earn it during pre-season practices and games. But that's only part of the issue. The liberal left is, predictably outraged that Tebow gets a shot whereas their darling, Colin Kaepernick, remains unnoticed and unsigned. They cries of white privilege from the liberal media pinheads abound, again, quite predictably.

Well, how soon they forget that in Nov. 2019, Kaepernick had a shot to showcase his skills during a NFL-organized private workout session, just for him, (Who gets that kind of unprecedented, favorable treatment??) where reps from at least 25 teams would be present, but for ridiculously selfish and self-serving reasons, he balked at the last minute, was a no-show, completely pulled the rug out from under the organizers and moved the venue and to this day, he remains unsigned. Shocking!!!

Another interesting observation: Remember how outraged the media was that Tebow took a knee in prayer from time-to-time - oh, it was horrible that he express his Christian faith at a sporting event - didn't we eliminate that years ago?? Yeah, but that was in publik skools, not private sporting events. And no, he didn't kneel in during the National Anthem in protest of abortion. USA Today story here. But, when Kaepernick wears socks depicting police as pigs (a violation of NFL dress code rules), and repeatedly kneels during the National Anthem, why, he's lionized as a national hero by the media and the NFL does nothing to him. Hypocrisy much media??

After an arguably unimpressive pro sports career, I don't know how Tim Tebow managed to get a shot at getting back into the NFL, but I suspect he did it the usual way - he probably asked nicely to do so and, of course, he probably knew the right people in the right positions to ask.

So here's the lesson, kiddos: Irrespective of your personal beliefs, issues and causes, if you want a job with a private company where someone pays you (in this case a ton of money) to do something, you don't badmouth the company to the national media before you walk in for your interview and you don't poke your finger in the eye of the hiring manager while demanding a job with a 7-figure salary. If you do, do not expect to ever get a job with that company, no matter how many public tantrums you throw or how many times you sue them to force them to give you a job. Like it or don't like it, in America, it does not work that way no matter how much you think it should. No one is owed a job from anyone nor is anyone a privileged individual - you have to earn your place and earn respect by your actions. It's not rocket science. Get a book on the Constitution and free markets and study up! And oh yeah, How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie will help, too.

Update: 08-19-2021: Tim Tebow Cut by Jacksonville Jaguars, Ending NFL Comeback Attempt Well, he had his fair chance, but apparently couldn't cut the mustard.

Update: 01-07-2022: Hey! What happened to all the kneeling?? Now that you mention it, yeah, I haven't seen or heard about it either! Ya' know why? Well, it's not secret that the NFL lost a HUGE amount of money over all this, so it's a quiet little secret deal the NFL made with the players - yep, now they play the Black National Anthem (I didn't know there was a country named 'Black.') along with the U.S. National Anthem before games and the players can stay in the locker rooms if they want and they can put little stickers on their helmets showing support for whatever cause it is that they support at the time. Yeah, just see what happens to the first person who DARES put a Trump sticker on his helmet.

Entry date: 05-04-2021:

Okay, it's time to dispel a couple of myths constantly propagated by my favorite people, politicians and prompter readers (media people).

1. You have a right to vote in this country.:

I hate to break it to you publik skool grajeeates, but there is no "right to vote" in federal elections in the Constitution. Even though the Constitution has several amendments that prohibit voter discrimination, those amendments lack the base to guarantee voting as a “right” as we have come to understand the “rights” granted to us in the Bill of Rights. Further, in 2000, Supreme Court case #: 00-949, Bush v Gore, para. II.B., stated, “The individual citizen has no federal constitutional right to vote for electors for the President of the United States unless and until the state legislature chooses a statewide election as the means to implement its power to appoint members of the Electoral College. U.S. Constitution., Article. II, §1.” This re-affirmed the Supreme Court’s decision from the 1892 case, McPherson v.Blacker, 146 U.S. 1, 35, para. 43. which is the source for that quote.

2. When you call the police, they have to come to your aid/the police are obligated

to protect you.

No on both counts. But wait, I'm a taxpayer, I pay their salaries, they are civil servants, so they have a duty and obligation to protect me! True, but no, again. But they take an oath to "serve and protect." True, but an oath is not the law and carries no legal obligations, or penalties. Still don't believe me? Reference all the damage and destruction done by rioters to persons, property and entire cities following the George Floyd killing in 2020. Gutless politicians told the police to stand down and in Minneapolis, they even burned down a police station.

The police are not required (by law) to come to your aid or protect you even if they are witnessing an assault. Reference: U.S. Supreme Court case number 04-278, Castle Rock v. Gonzales (6/27/2005) and related articles:

And this is why I keep saying, "You must be your own first responder." A lot of people complain to me, "I called the police and they showed up 45 minutes later or, more commonly, they never showed up at all. When I called back, they told me that they were too busy. You see folks, the police prioritize calls - just like triage in a hospital. The most dangerous calls go to the top of the response list and the least to the bottom - it only makes sense. And remember, 1 officer is usually responsible for several square miles during any given shift and processing a crime scene, taking reports, etc., etc., takes time and that is why they may never get to you. Don't like it?? Call and or write to your mayor, city council representative, county commissioner and state representatives and tell them to STOP DEFUNDING THE POLICE and that you want MORE POLICE!!!

Entry date: 04-22-2021:

With all the recent shootings around the country, and charges of police brutality, etc., it seems as if the world has gone completely crazy. I wanted to take a couple of minutes to address some things that no one seems to want to talk about, at least not in the media:

First of all, many, not all, but many, of these people who we see on the nightly news who have, let's call them, unfortunate outcomes from contacts with law enforcement officials got into those situations because of conscious, personal decisions they made about their conduct that brought them to the attention of law enforcement to begin with. To make matters worse, parents and schools pretty much no longer teach young people how to interact with law enforcement if and when they come into contact with them, which can make situations even worse. The great comedian, Chris Rock, summarized it better than I ever could: VIDEO: (Profanity Warning) Chris Rock's 'How Not to Get Your Ass Kicked by the Police' PSA

Second, I see a lot of talking (meat)heads in the media second-guessing these officers and their choice of weapon for a particular incident. Look, there's this thing in police training called the use of force continuum. Basically it describes how much force can be used in a given situation - look it up if you want to know more. FBI statistics show that in stressful situations, even the most highly trained military and law enforcement people miss 70% of their shots and it takes 2-3 strikes to bring down an attacker. (And that's another argument against magazine capacity limitations.) But let's skip forward to cases where there is a knife or sharp object involved. In most of those cases, the next level up of force is deadly force with a firearm. Why? Because if you use pepper spray, it sometimes doesn't work in certain cases or has a delayed effect and the assailant is on you, you don't have time to draw any other weapon, and you're done for. Or, with Tasers (not to be confused with stun guns - did you know there is a difference?), you have a single shot and a very short maximum-effective target-striking range. Both electrical probes (the look like tiny harpoons) must contact the assailant and bothmust penetrate the skin in order to complete the electrical circuit in order for it to work properly. It is very difficult to strike a moving target and make a full and complete circuit and if you miss, or if the assailant is wearing thick clothing and the probes can't get through to the skin, that was your one and only chance, you won't have time to draw any other weapon, the assailant is on you, and you are done for. Okay, I heard the media geniuses say the officers should've fired a warning shot or fired at the legs. Okay, let's unpack those: Firing warning shots is illegal in most jurisdictions. Why? Because gravity will bring that bullet down somewhere and may very well injure or kill an innocent bystander or may ricochet and do the same. Remember the FBI statistics above - as for shooting at the legs, it's hard enough to hit the center of mass of a moving target, let alone the legs. And then again, where are those stray bullets going? Most of these media people and politicians have never even held a firearm or Taser, let alone fired one on multiple occasions or had any type of certification training. It just makes me crazy that anyone would take any of those prompter-readers seriously....on any subject matter.