I pardon thee son

 President Biden pardoned son Hunter who pleaded guilty to nine federal tax charges and was convicted on three gun charges.  Reverberations on Capitol Hill as expected.  I really don't have an issue.  Blood is thicker than water.

Liz Cheney's Ahab-like obsession with Trump

 It's existential at this point.  Does she do anything else with her time?  It's like her sole mission in life now is to STOP TRUMP.

When stupid things are said always reach for the most hyperbolic explanations first.  It makes for good political theater.  Technically Trump said nothing about Liz Cheney facing a firing squad for treason.  He was talking about her being a war hawk, an armchair warrior who would not hesitate to put our boys into harm's way.  She's out of office now anyway.  The best thing that could happen to Trump right now is a good case of laryngitis.   Her rhetoric is no better saying this is how dictators destroy free nations.  There could be any number of nutjobs out there right now who could take her words quite literally.  Maybe that's what some on the Left want.  She could've just called him a dumbass and left it at that.  Incidentally in the eyes of the Left when did the Cheneys become less than evil?  Dick Cheney's Halliburton and missing WMD days is more like an original Batman episode, dated but watchable but now the Left has moved on.

We're in the home stretch.  If Trump loses Liz Cheney will have accomplished her mission and hopefully find another purpose in life.  If he wins it will be another four more long and agonizing years for her and the Left.  Pop a Prozac.

Maybe we need to watch the left-wing rhetoric Part 2

 Second attempt on Trump's life in two months.  On Sunday September the 15th the former president was playing golf at his Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach FL.  A Mr. Ryan Routh age 58 stuck the barrel of his rifle through the fence at the edge of the course.  The weapon was an AK-style assault rifle with a multi-round magazine and a long--range scope.   Trump was only 300-500 yards away.  The Secret Service saw this opened fire and Routh was later arrested in a black Nissan on I-95.  A fierce supporter of Ukraine with a history of business problems and being in court.  Most recently lived in Hawaii but was a long-time voter in NC as a registered Democrat.  A long social media trail and many media interviews.

We didn't lower the temperature the first time around it only went up.  Will we cool the fierce and sometimes deranged anti-Trump rhetoric in the wake of the second assassination attempt?  Probably not.  Left-wingers gotta hunker down and double down.  No pause for reflection.  It will be put on the back shelf the news cycle goes so fast these days.  Is this the new normal?

Maybe we need to watch the left-wing rhetoric

 Someone tried to assassinate Donald Trump today at a campaign rally in Butler, PA.  An audience member has died and the gunman has been killed.  As Trump was being swarmed by Secret Service agents to escort him off the stage with bloodied face he pumped his fist to the crowd.  Photo Of The Year.  Say what you will that was a gallant move on Trump's part.  Could swing the election.  Make him a martyr and he could win in a landslide are what some people are saying.

Will the Left watch their rhetoric now and tone it down?  Probably not but one can wish.

Thoughts on the gun control debate (yet again)

It's amazing how fast time is going. Looking over the posting date of my last post I hadn't realized so much time had elapsed before coming up with a new idea. Sorry to my handful of fans. Liberals act like if they were in charge tragedies like the recent newsroom shooting in Maryland wouldn't have happened. Then I'm reading some hyperventilating political/social commentators extrapolating from one weird individual living in his own self-contained weird mental universe that there's some kind of male rage/war against Women. Well as one conservative blogger here said some time ago back in the day re Newtown sometimes bizarre and tragic things happen and there's almost nothing we could have done about it, nothing that could have prevented it so the whole gun control debate becomes a kind of cosmetic discussion imo. Then there's this thing about some revenge porn law that seems to have gotten stuck in the New York State Legislature that won't pass and folks are blaming Google. I'm no attorney but isn't it already illegal to post say nude pictures of myself without my consent on the Web not that you'd want to see? In our zeal to pass new laws based on the latest tragic social circumstance we should first check what's already on the books that maybe need to be better enforced. If you're having sex maybe don't leave the smartphone out? Here's the problem: reality itself is weird and bizarre and tragic things happen, sometimes rarely and in the case of guns for some reason in cycles. There are bizarre and odd individuals walking amongst us right now. All I can say and offer is don't make eye contact:)

Trump is Trump - neither conservative or liberal

In the wake of the HS massacre in Parkland, FL President Trump is now taking on the NRA and wants to get both Dems and Republicans on board in a kind of omnibus gun reform bill. Things like expanded background checks, raising the age to buy a gun to 21 and other common proposals. No this is not an alternative reality Trump was simply never that conservative to begin with. It is said that Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein had a kind of stunned smile upon hearing this. Look Trump has a hemorrhoid of a personality but that has nothing to do with baseline politics. Wonder how Michelle Malkin is taking this.

I find myself in a sort of racial quandary

Nothing happened for a while now there's been a few more unarmed black men killed by police.  MN and LA and of course the cop ambush in Dallas.  The conservative position seems to be whenever an unarmed black man winds up dead at the hands of the police he must have done something to bring it upon himself.  The liberal position might be the cops are always 100% wrong in these tragic cases.  Meanwhile most police departments today have taken to social media platforms as a kind of warmer friendlier more community-orientated police/social service agency so the juxtaposition between the cultivated department image and these ongoing recent and tragic news events is rather jarring.  The Long Hot Summer;)

Random thoughts on random violence

Re yesterday's very tragic events in San Bernardino CA -- Premature liberal commentary as usual headed by the president himself and Nicholas Kristof and the editorial board of the NY Times. Apparently it's too much to ask to wait a day or two before opining but opine they must framing yesterday's massacre in the usual gun control terms when terrorism hasn't been ruled in or ruled out yet. Some of my preliminary thoughts: the act was carried out by a young couple in their late 20's and it involved a social services agency so my first thought was it's easy enough for any bureaucratic dept. of the gov't to piss people off but then we got some Egyptian/Middle Eastern names going and the husband recently made the obligatory trip to Mecca and the way they carried the whole thing out struck many initially as being something other than the usual gun violence in this country so there does seem to be some reluctance on the part of liberals to go down this road, they don't want to offend CAIR and the guy did work there or something so...such commentary is a form of leftist political masturbation, they can't help themselves and it serves no purpose but being a habit they need to get it out of their system and anything that may even tenuously smack of the need for more gun control becomes a kind of social/political trigger, a liberal frenulum. So basically it doesn't really matter what the investigation comes up with it's just another golden opportunity to discuss gun control and maybe Obama can even put the whole thing in the larger framework of climate change who knows?

The Dukes of Hazzard problem

To start off I don't think this old show was particularly great but it anchored my Friday night tv schedule when I was growing up.  I remember it well, Dad and Mom would come home from food shopping and Dad would give us a box of Devil Dogs but Mom would say go eat an orange.  So TV Land is yanking the show because of the whole Confederate flag controversy which wouldn't be that much of a controversy had that young Aryan racist not shot up that black prayer meeting.  Wondering does Katy Perry now have to tweak her hit song "California Gurls" because it includes a line about Daisy Duke bikinis?

Why throw rocks at a junkyard dog?

The Garland TX Mohammed cartoon shootings, our little version of Charlie Hebdo - ISIS is now claiming responsibility which even if true you'd think they'd be a bit hesitant as it hardly came off in their favor, not their best work you could say. Pamela Geller of her American Freedom Defense Initiative coordinated this event in TX and from what I understand it was some sort of cartoon contest for who could come up with the best sketch of the Prophet Mohammed I guess. I might be in the minority but her subway ads in NYC which the MTA had a huge problem with I don't find them the least bit offensive. I'm sure you've heard of them and they always have the angle of radical Islamists are anti-Semitic which they are so it's kind of hard for me to unravel just why the MTA has their collective knickers in a twist. However having said that what was the point of this little sketchathon in Garland TX? Are they suddenly interested in this particular faith system? Are they contributing to global culture? Was the whole affair designed to be provocative? (x) I'm thinking we have enough to worry about. Thanks guys and gals and all you Bob Ross wannabes.

Why I won't be seeing "American Sniper"

It's not that I think it's an immoral movie or the late US sniper Chris Kyle didn't do what was necessary during time of war but philosophically I'm not really into violence so I don't feel the compulsion to go out and see it. What he did in Iraq, his job if you will I can't really quibble with but should it be celebrated? Personally speaking I never held up the pilot of the Enola Gay as a hero of mine, I prefer to think of MLK, Ghandi or the police officers who are killed yearly in the line of duty. I very rarely actually go out to the movies anymore, maybe once or twice a year at best. Last one I saw was the Mockingjay movie only because I read the Hunger Games trilogy and I want to be consistent. Drone strikes against terrorists, sniping and all that - BB's more of a fan but the problem is more Hydra-like. You drone one or two terrorists and ten or twenty more are ready to take their place. I'm reminded of cockroaches and the problem is it's never really solved. In fact it's easier to get rid of cockroaches. OK so I'm not on this movie bandwagon to go out and see it at least not right now:)

'Tis the season of politicizing tragedy

I'm speaking of course of the assassination of two NYPD officers in Bed-Stuy Brooklyn last Saturday afternoon. Consensus analysis is the psycho did what he did in revenge for the death of Eric Garner at the hands of the police. Pat Lynch head of the NY PBA has said Mayor de Blasio has blood on his hands. What in hell is that supposed to mean??? Lately Pat Lynch is always angry about something and he's coming across as a tad irrational. Then there's the coverage of all things cop in the NY Post the only right-wing paper in town. They seem to be saying the tragedy was caused by the last few weeks' nationwide protests over the deaths of Michael Brown and Garner. Um, protesting is a part of our very democracy, a democratic lynchpin or pillar and nobody has to agree with everybody but it's there your right to express yourself and be heard sans violence of course. It seems to me if more in the NYPD and the right-wing paper of record at least conceded that look excessive force was used in the Garner case it would go a LONG way towards easing national tensions across-the-board. There are those who are anti-cop and they're very anti-cop and those who are pro-police are pro-police no matter what the case or situation. Opposite hardcores imo never make for a better society, no room for compromise or even listening for cryin' out loud. Newtown happened in 2012 just about two weeks before Christmas and now this happened even closer to Xmas. Don't know what to make of that it's just an observation:)

Mad dot in the universe

The God Problem - You finally meet God someday and go to him "how come you didn't do anything about ISIS?" God: "Who?" then you see Him quickly searching wikipedia. God truly has swarms of galaxies solar systems and other planets to worry about but then there's the guardian angels. As a Catholic we're taught they exist but I see no evidence. Where were James Foley and Steven Sotloff's guardian angels? (angel walks in on the imminent beheading: "what's going on here?" bullets passing harmlessly through his Michael Landon-type body to the utter amazement of the crazed jihadists). Are our guardian angels too busy on their smartphones? Foley even prayed the rosary during his captivity in Libya, did it help? A priest or theologian might say it helped his soul but did it help his situation? Personally speaking my faith crisis really started after Newtown which imo is the most shocking news event to happen in my lifetime after 9-11. We still don't know why the bug-eyed psycho did it and it didn't change Wayne LaPierre one iota so there goes your great Saul-like conversion on the road to the gun show. My Mom just had a dear friend die of cancer, why doesn't al-Baghdadi get cancer or at least a damn bug egg-sac in his brain to say nothing of Kim Jong-un? Why doesn't the executioner/beheader the day before suddenly get a heart attack instead of your brother-in-law or dearly beloved aunt? Ray Rice was done in by TMZ not God but maybe God works through TMZ? Look it's fairly obvious to me God the Creator or an architect of the Universe or a central planner exists but does He care? Big Speech tonight, no not God although He should be giving one too:)

What's up with the Ferguson PD?

If you were a troglodyte the past week and just popped on the tube you'd swear there was a major terrorist attack in the community of Ferguson MO. OK so let's rap about race and the police again. Despite my recent post re the NYPD for me Eric Garner is not Sean Bell is not Michael Brown is not Amadou Diallo and why don't we throw in Tawana Brawley while we're at it. I approach these cases on a purely individual basis and you can make the case that maybe Sean Bell or his friend was driving his SUV towards the cops OR that yes maybe teen Michael Brown was tussling with a police officer in his squad car and went for his gun after strong-arming a convenience store. Look I get it but put these other cases together and start comparing and they all highlight even more at least for me that the Eric Garner case is the weakest in terms of the NYPD POV & PR. He wasn't running down the street half-naked waving a machete, he didn't have a gun or a device that resembled a gun or even took out a black wallet the way Amadou Diallo did in the Soundview section of the Bronx when four officers shot him to death. So for parts of the right-wing like the New York Post to unreservedly support the cops as a general rule is a huge socio/political mistake imo if the GOP wants to get serious about attracting the Black Vote and no Bo Dietl doesn't know more than the NYC ME. Missouri - well at least conservatives are starting to wake the hell up by criticizing the increasing militarization of our nation's police forces what with all that surplus army stuff the federal gov't doled out to them in years past. Actually you know something? conservatives all conservatives should start reading Twelve Years a Slave if they haven't already and watch the movie as it's obvious they have no interest in or never got the whole Black Experience. Lastly conservatives waste far too much time talking about Al Sharpton:)

Other thoughts on the Santa Barbara shootings

I was watching the PBS Newshour last night and Judy Woodruff was interviewing reporter Adam Nagourney of The New York Times. I didn't know this but Mr. Nagourney stated quite clearly that the guns 22-yr. old shooter Elliot Rodger used in the seaside massacre in Isla Vista were all legally purchased and CA has some of the nation's strictest gun control laws on the books. I've long felt while I'm fairly in support of gun control in many cases and welcome some legislation to that effect I'm also realistic enough to know it's not the magic bullet if you'll pardon the pun. It was truly a bizarre manifesto Rodger left behind and my first thought was angel dust or bath salts but you know what's scary? if you're this Nutz and you're NOT on drugs, I mean at least ex-rapper Big Lurch can fall back on that. My other thought was let's say Rodger in his YouTube videos and other postings steered clear of the more violent and weirder elements it would have come across as angry and whiny but truth be told many men would have agreed with him. So instead of discussing maybe a valid social issue or two once the person behind the "cause" resorts to violence that invalidates the cause right off the bat so then the trending topic turns to potential armies of psycho virgins training in the caves somewhere instead of maybe what alot of men can relate to. I honestly think if he was this far gone take away ALL his guns he would have easily found another way to commit mayhem perhaps with a samurai sword say. This is one of the very rare times when I actually agree with the Scientologists as I don't put much stock in psychiatry as a whole as the guy had his therapists and counselors and look what happened. The debate needs to go beyond gun control and the latest theories of the shrinks but that's where it seems to be stuck:)

The 50th Anniversary of the JFK Assassination

While I wasn't even born during this tragic and historic event I was born on 3/14/64 which would make me well along in my mother's womb on that fateful day of 11/22/63. The specials are starting to churn out with PBS leading the way. Watched NOVA's "Cold Case JFK" episode last night and just as I suspected all the more mainstream and respected programs are gonna go all establishmentarian on us, not really gonna give serious fodder to any conspiracy theories. On the show after that narrator George Clooney intoned "when Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed John Kennedy from the Texas School Book Depository" and I got to thinking but that was never exactly proven in a court of law now was it because nightclub owner Jack Ruby wasted no time in gunning him down. While growing up I had a slim purple bound volume of the famous Warren Commission Report on my bookshelf and was weeding out books one day and it was such an easy decision to just chuck the thing out. The House Select Committee on Assassinations in 1978 went with it was probably a conspiracy and I'll go along with that but I haven't decided on which theory yet. I'm kind of guessing BB's establishmentarian POV here but let's open it up for debate anyway.

Stop 'n' Frisk put on hold in NYC

My liberal gut instinct tells me Stop 'n' Frisk is wrong but my practical side sees it's also a highly effective police tool for reducing crime rates and getting guns off the streets. As you know Manhattan federal judge Shira Sheindlin has basically invalidated the NYPD's well-known and highly practiced stop and frisk program which has led to at least twenty years of markedly lower crime rates than under the David Dinkins administration. Judge Sheindlin also ordered a court-appointed monitor or overseer of the NYPD program and there's also to be a pilot program involving copcams worn on cops in one precinct in areas in every borough with the highest stop rates is my understanding although the PBA is gonna fight this rightfully saying imo that cops already have alot of gear on like mace and flashlights and this is only an extra and unnecessary encumbrance. Here's a complaint I hear alot about gangbangers in general, what's the deal with them and why do they have such notoriously bad aim? it'd be like the Mob going after Castellano outside the steakhouse but instead shooting an innocent grandmother in her rocking chair across the street. Anyway here's my overall view of these matters, when liberalism holds sway the crime rate goes up, way up. In short PC kills, think ChicagoLand.

Are we a nation permanently divided?

and it seems to have gotten worse under President Obama.  This blog is a good example, the fault lines on so many moral, social and political issues run deep especially lately.  There's no sincere search for common ground or if there is one it goes along the liberal lines of agreeing to force religious employers to provide birth control since hey pro-lifer you want to reduce the number of abortions right?  Gay marriage - Obama could have simply let the issue play out in the states during his second term instead of issuing his now famous evolved statement on the issue.  It may not be most conservatives' cup of tea but many of them seem happy enough it does play out in the states, things were going slowly but surely steadily Gay anyway and yet the liberal pressure groups always want to short-circuit the whole traditional democratic process and take it all to the SCOTUS.  They want a permanent Roe vs. Wade re gay marriage and on other issues like Race there's Obama's "if I had a son he'd look like Trayvon" remark and it's out in the open now but the Justice Dept. early on spent money and sent some of their own people down there to organize rallies and such and these protests weren't in favor of Mr. Zimmerman needless to say.  ObamaCare which is actually aggravating our country's underemployment problem as more places of business with over fifty workers cut hours under the 30 hr./week threshold but not to worry because there are now free meetings at public libraries to explain the nuts and bolts of the Affordable Care Act but despite no amount of education and enlightenment most of the public still seems to be against it, the ignorant masses.  Drone strikes in foreign lands, NSA surveillance of your phone records and e-mails here at home (a great big liberal yawn), immigration, guns/gun control.  We didn't start the fire but we are a nation permanently divided, we take our sides and rock the blogs and social media networks and on it goes.  It wasn't a requirement that you like Bush, why is it a requirement that we like Obama?

The George Zimmerman Verdict and Al Sharpton in all his glory

So I go to work this morning and a black co-worker is carrying around The Daily News and you're like I heard that Jeter got hurt again. NOT GUILTY, look I'd have more respect for the Black View in this case if they didn't cheer when OJ got acquitted. The circular reasoning of pro-choicers like BB and Saty - if Barack Obama were aborted we wouldn't have one of the greatest presidents of modern times (in their view). Discuss all this and more.

The McBlog - a couple of thoughts on the go

Is it a sign of age when you spend most of your time on the computer looking up medical ailments? The failure of gun control - conservatives would rather you have a nuclear shoulder launchpad than risk a government takeover. Lovingly from my mobile device.