Reason for MSNBC rating decline...?

I saw this on Yahoo last week and saved it for posting when I had time to actually add to the article since I don't like to just cut and paste then post since that is cheesy and intellectually dishonest.  I knew that MSNBC are having problems due to the context of their lineup.  When you have an unabashed race hustler named Al Sharpton on your political lineup for commentary.   I believe that people are realizing the shameless pandering that MSNBC is doing and it turns it off.  The other networks try to be objective and they are successful with varying degrees.  MSNBC is 100 percent in the tank for the democrats and Obama.  People realizes that after a while when the BS meter starts pegging all the time that the endless carrying of the water for the Obama administration when their reality sharply contrast with the hope and change being spouted by the talking heads on MSNBC

MSNBC is known for zealot  parroting the party line..Jake Carney could get a job at MSNBC and not miss a beat as spokesman for the Obama White house and speaking at the podium at this network.  I have heard people call MSNBC "The Pravda of the Potomac" as the shameless shill of the modern progressive movement.  The talking heads and the network spokespeople emit a liberal elitist attitude as they deride "flyover country" and deride the average American as a bumbling imbeciles unless they have drunk the kool-aid or breath the ratified air that the liberal progressives have since it has permeated their entire existence.

   From Yahoo News:

MSNBC bills itself as the "place for politics," but if you've been watching the network lately, it's been all of the Zimmerman trial, all the time. Political director Chuck Todd grew so frustrated with the coverage preempting his Daily Rundown show that he barely concealed his exasperation on-air, as evidenced by a video from the Washington Free Beacon that quickly went viral. Most of the network's flagship news shows, from Hardball with Chris Matthews to Politics Nation with Al Sharpton, seem to spend more time talking about Trayvon Martin than President Obama.

It's nothing new for cable news these days – CNN, FOX News and Headline News have all put the trial at the center of their coverage. But the strategy is especially noticeable when it comes to MSNBC because its numbers have been in sharp decline over the last few months. The network that found success being the aggressively liberal alternative to CNN during the 2012 presidential election is now finding itself with a ratings headache on its hands. And it seems to be abandoning its politics-first play for the easy ratings of nonstop courtroom coverage – following CNN's tabloid turn, if you will.

Asked if the amount of Zimmerman mania was causing any eye rolling at the network, one MSNBC insider said: "It's less the amount of coverage because everyone does that and especially after CNN covering [Jodi] Arias [murder trial] did so well. And we have a large African-American viewership that's interested. The issue is whether we cover it the right way, as a legal issue, which we're mostly doing or does it get covered like it's 2012, when there was no indictment, as a political fight. I worry."

Balancing liberal politics and news, politics and other subjects--it's all an issue for MSNBC this summer. Earlier this month when the cable news ratings for the second quarter of 2013 came out, there was a head-jarring decline in MSNBC's numbers. After a great 2012 in which the liberal-leaning network had bested CNN and, at times, caught up to perennial leader Fox News Channel, MSNBC's was losing the race. By a lot. It had just 576,000 primetime viewers, by one metric, a figure that's down 16 percent from the heady days of 2012.

The question as to why offers some insights into MSNBC's future and, perhaps, the still-unresolved challenges facing a liberal network during a Democratic administration. 

"When you're too predictably a mouthpiece for the administration and you cast your lot with the president's performance, there's a risk," said David Shuster, who left the network for Current TV when his contract expired in 2011. He pointed to Fox's higher production values as one of the reasons for the conservative network's ongoing ratings dominance lead and the high-brow nature of MSNBC's prime time lineup as one of the reasons for its most recent decline.

MSNBC declined to comment for this story, but cable news veterans -- including former MSNBC alumni -- offered their own theories of what ails the network. One common theory is that MSNBC feels threatened by a resurgent CNN.

"MSNBC's apparent success was owing to CNN's failure," says a former cable executive. "CNN was run so poorly that it made MSNBC look fantastic by comparison. "

That seems ready to change. Jeff Zucker, the former head of NBC Universal and the guiding hand behind 16 years of Today show victories, has buffed the look of CNN, bringing in network stars like Chris Cuomo and Jake Tapper. But more importantly, his expanding definition of breaking news to include the Zimmerman trial gives CNN more room to run.

CNN has been the place for breaking news and its audience reliably swells when there's a big event. (MSNBC insiders deride that as "muscle memory" owing to CNN's 16-year head start in the 24-hour news biz and say it will fade in time.) CNN's newsy rep would seem to account for much of its gain over MSNBC in the second quarter--a time span which included the Boston Marathon bombings, the Cleveland kidnappings, and the Oklahoma tornadoes as well as the Jodi Arias trial, which powered its Headline News channel ahead of MSNBC. But in June at the end of the dismal second quarter, MSNBC's ratings picked up. "All those viewers who tuned into CNN for their big quarter haven't stuck around," says one cable executive.

Other insiders posited the theory of progressive decline -- liberals are less fired up now that we're in the second term of the Obama administration. There's no easy way to measure that but it would certainly seem like there's less interest in politics as well as liberal commentary at least on TV. MSNBC rode waves of liberal enthusiasm and election-related interest in 2012 and 2008. But with Obama down in the polls and no election at hand, and Congress famously gridlocked, the place for politics, as MSNBC bills itself, may not be the sexiest best pitch. MSNBC continued to run its "The Place for Politics" chyron during the Zimmerman trial on Tuesday morning which would be as incongruous as boasting "The Place for Courtroom Trials" while airing a presidential convention.

Critics also suggest that MSNBC no longer has much diversity in the evenings. It's not that MSNBC needs a conservative host. It's that the nighttime hours from 8:00 PM to 11:00 PM are too erudite, too sophisticated and too earnest to hook a wide swath of viewers.

Some believe the network suffered from moving blunt Ed Schultz to the weekend. The former football player and liberal radio talk show host could be irascible and even buffoonish at times--he called Laura Ingraham a "right wing slut...a talk slut" and apologized for it--but his populist instincts contrasted with the evening's urbane mien.

Indeed, Fox from 8:00 to 11:00 may operate in a conservative space but it has more diversity in its style of host. Sean Hannity is different than Greta Van Susteren who is different than Bill O'Reilly. Keith Olbermann, for all his bombast, was a powerfully skilled broadcaster and while his departure for Current TV in 2011 may have pleased MSNBC executives it left the network's lineup with a big hole.

In a sign of how things have turned, Olbermann recently signed a deal as the lead postseason baseball anchor for TBS, while many of MSNBC's primetime stars are dealing with speculation over their declining ratings. Olbermann, no stranger to controversy, even waded in himself on Twitter, writing that the network had "collapsed" since he left and that he hadn't heard from his protégé Rachel Maddow since.

Others smell blood, too. Bill O'Reilly took a shot at MSNBC last week as he often does after Chris Matthews referred to Sen. Ted Cruz as looking a bit black Irish. "It's all falling apart," O'Reilly said of MSNBC.

Collapse? Hardly. Vulnerable? For sure.

Monday Music "I would do anything for love...but I won't do that..." Meatloaf

I decided to go with a Meatloaf song for my Monday Music( Yeah I know that it is earlyTuesday Morning, I havn't gone to sleep yet...so to me it is still Monday.)     I saw Meatloaf back in 1994, My girlfriend(now my wife) knew that I liked "Meatloaf" and he was coming to Lakewood Amphitheatre.  She gave me a card and when I opened it, 2 tickets fell out.  I was very happy and surprised.  We made jokes now about the "salad days" but they were more like raman noodles days...Salad days would have been an improvement.
     We had the cheapo lawn seats, and they were still good, from the recreational pharmaceuticals that were present to the couple behind us that didn't need a room, it was a very good show.  At the end Meatloaf would say " thank you to his fans for sticking with him from the good times and bad.  he was very sincere about it.  His album Bat out of hell II..Back into Hell was climbing the charts but the critics were still lambasting the album as a joke.   Even now I would play the song and the album if I go on a road trip.

"I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" is a song composed and written by Jim Steinman, and recorded by Meat Loaf. The song was released in 1993 as the first single from the album Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell.
The last six verses feature a female vocalist who was credited only as "Mrs. Loud" in the album notes. She was later identified as Lorraine Crosby, from North East England. She does not, however, appear in the video, in which her vocals are lipsynched by Dana Patrick. Meat Loaf promoted the single with American vocalist Patti Russo performing the live female vocals.
The title of the song confused some listeners, who were curious to know what "that" is. The song was a commercial success, reaching number one in 28 countries. The single was certified platinum in the United States and became Meat Loaf's first number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and on the UK singles chart, and was the best-selling single of 1993 in the UK. The song earned Meat Loaf a Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Solo.
    
The song opens with a guitar played to sound like a revving motorcycle, which scholar Anne Bader interprets as foreshadowing "the male angst to come". This is a reference to Todd Rundgren's contribution in the middle of "Bat Out of Hell". Roy Bittan's piano begins to play, along with the guitars. The vocals begin at the 1:50 point, which is where many pop songs are beginning their second chorus. Steinman "alternates ... [a bombastic] style with mellow moments where the hard-hitting piano licks are fleshed out with ethereal synthesizer and choral-styled backing vocals."

And I would do anything for love

I'd run right into hell and back

These opening vocals are accompanied by piano and backing vocals. The song then becomes much louder as the band, predominantly piano, plays the main melody for twenty seconds. An instrumental section follows the first verse and chorus, lasting over 45 seconds, with piano playing the title melody, accompanied by guitar and wordless background vocals by Todd Rundgren, Rory Dodd and Kasim Sulton. The lead vocals recommence with another verse. The popular phrase "sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll" was edited to become "Some days I just pray to the god of sex and drums and rock and roll" on the recording (though not always in live shows).
    
Steinman's songs are usually much longer than most other songs, and "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" is no exception.The song is a full 12 minutes, and Steinman broke down when executives advised him that he had to cut it down to get radio play. Manager Allen Kovac warned that any song over five minutes would not be played on radio, saying that if Steinman and the group did not make the cuts then the stations would. Even after they made the cuts, Steinman sent his own version to the stations.
The single version was edited down to five minutes and 25 seconds, where the entire motorcycle introduction is omitted. The video version was whittled down to seven minutes and 38 seconds, where the motorcycle intro remains, but not in its entirety. In the video version and single version, the lengthy instrumental break is completely omitted. In the video and single versions, the refrain, which reads "I'd do anything for love, anything you've been dreaming of, but I just won't do that", which is sung before the instrumental bridge, was to be repeated three times, but was whittled down to having the one line repeated twice. Lorraine Crosby sings six verses in the complete song. In the video version, the second and third verses are omitted. In the single version, the second, third, and fifth verses are omitted.
    
Michael Bay directed the music video. He also directed the videos for "Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer than They Are" and "Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through", also from Bat Out of Hell II. Filming took place in Los Angeles County, California in July 1993; the opening chase was filmed at Chávez Ravine, with the interior mansion scenes filmed at Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills. The cinematographer was Daniel Pearl, particularly known for filming The Texas Chain Saw Massacre in 1973. Pearl says that this video "is one of my personal all-time favorite projects... I think the cinematography is pure, and it tells a story about the song."
The video is based on Beauty and the Beast and The Phantom of the Opera. Bob Keane did Meat Loaf's make-up, which took up to two hours to apply. The make-up was designed to be simple and scary, yet "with the ability to make him sympathetic." It went over budget, and was filmed in 90 °F (32 °C) heat, across four days. According to one executive, it "probably had the budget of Four Weddings and a Funeral. It is the abridged seven minute single version, rather than the twelve minute (11:58) album version.
The actress in the video, Dana Patrick, is miming to Crosby's vocals,however, as she would to Patti Russo's in the 1995 song "I'd Lie for You (And That's the Truth)".According to the captions aired on Pop-Up Video, Patrick received several offers for record deals after the video aired, by executives who assumed she was actually singing in the video.
    
The story begins with the opening credits saying: "I have travelled across the universe through the years to find her. Sometimes going all the way is just a start." We then see "The Beast" character – a deformed man portrayed by Meat Loaf, on a motorbike being chased by police officers and a helicopter. As the chase continues into night, the Beast passes through into his castle hiding from his pursuers. He mournfully examines his deformed hands and features; as the officers enter the castle, he ducks out of sight before resuming the chase on his bike. Crashing through the wall, he accidentally knocks down a police officer while the impact causes one of the chandeliers on the ceiling to fall and kill the officer.
In desperation the Beast flees into the nearby woods where he comes across a beautiful woman bathing/cooling herself by a fountain. Oddly enough, the woman appears to be in sunny daylight, while the rest of the woods and castle clearly show that it is night-time, although this may be a symbolic representation of the woman being the light to the Beast's own mental torture or "darkness" or a romance cliché. The woman looks into a mirror and glimpses the Beast watching her. She turns and he flees leaving only an amulet hanging on a branch. The woman picks it up and pursues him.
As she approaches the castle, the Beast is watching her movements through the reflection of his drink. As she comes into the castle the Beast hurriedly removes himself. The woman sits in his chair and rests by the fire. The beast watches her from his hall of mirrors and contemplates approaching her but is ashamed of his appearance. She later is seen having a bath interspersed with the police officers finding the dead officer's body and preparing to raid the castle. She is later seen trying to sleep while being seduced by 3 vampy women while the Beast sits in a chair (a reference to Dracula and the Brides). The Beast leaves the room and, seeing his reflection, begins to smash up the mirrors. The woman, hearing the noise, comes out and follows him into a presumable living room. The Beast observes her from above and levitates the chaise she is sitting on.
The Beast, then hearing the officers are near moves away, pulls the chaise back down breaking a lamp. The two run away and the woman removes the Beast's hood so she can look at him clearly. She accepts him and caresses his face while they embrace. As they pull away, the Beast is returned to his human form, and the two disappear just before the police catch them. The woman and the transformed Beast finally ride off into the sunrise on his motorbike.

   

Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell
Studio album by Meat Loaf
Released	September 14, 1993
Recorded	1991–93 at Ocean Way Recording (LA) and The Power Station (NYC)
Genre	Hard rock, rock, Wagnerian rock
Length	75:38
Label	MCA, Virgin
Producer	Jim Steinman

 

The Zimmerman Trial...and the aftermath? updated photo's

 I made it home and was able to access my files of photo's.  My brother uses an apple laptop and it is a lot different than the Win XP that I use on my computer.  So I updated the photo's on this article.

I am traveling out of town, am visiting my brother and his family in Fort Rucker and we watched the live testimony of the "not guilty" verdict.   I am relieved that this part of his journey is finished in the judicial system.  But I believed that his trials and tribulations are not finished,   He will now have to deal with the civil aspects of a trial.  The trayvon family ambulance chasing race baiting bottomfeeders lawyers have said that they will pursue a civil litigation against him.  They also alluded to the fact that the DOJ will probably pursue "civil rights" violations against Mr. Zimmerman.   You know the same DOJ that helped organize anti-Zimmerman protest last year.  It is refreshing to see the Department of Justice apply equal protection under the law to this case.  I am sure that they would do the same thing if the races were reversed.

     The trial should never have gone forth, the totally spineless politicians that pursued this to appease certain segments of the population and the politicians that depend on the continued good graces of said segment of the population to remain in power.  We also had the media that shamelessly inflamed tensions in an attempt to push a narrative.

I and my brother went to MSNBC to see how they were trying to spin this as basically that it was a black and white issue.  They also commented that the Florida "Stand your ground" law was to blame for this issue.  They still were trying to spin the narrative that "Saint Skittles" A.K.A. Trayvon was just headed to the store to buy skittles for his little brother and he was stalked and shot in cold blood by the police wanna-be white racist George Zimmerman.  They tried to link him to the tea party and the GOP.

When it came out that he voted for Obama in 08 and tutored minority children and he was Hispanic not white, kinda killed that one.  The picture used to described Trayvon was the innocent 12 year old,

they did not use the older Trayvon using gang signs and showing the trappings of a thug lifestyle.

  The picture they used to describe Mr. Zimmerman was the picture that was 5 years old in a jail jumpsuit.

  I saw a bunch of signs demanding "no Justice and no Peace"  also demanding the repeal of the "stand your ground" law.   George Zimmerman life will never be the same.  He will have to move and go to a different place to avoid the media and there will be people that will try to hunt him down and pursue him and possibly kill him " for Trayvon and Justice".   The fury of the mob knows no limitations to its fury.  

     One of the outcomes of this case is that people will hesitate to shoot even in self defence for fear of being persecuted by the media and the DOJ even in a legitimate case of "Self Defence".  I remembered a case several years here in the Atlanta area, the case of the "Red Dog Unit" of the Atlanta police department was being pilloried in the media for targeting minorities and harassing them. It didn't matter that the entire area that they worked was full of "minorities" They were thrown under the bus by their superiors and the politicians that ran the city,   Well in Forest park ( suburb of Atlanta) a Forest park officer pulled a car over for a traffic stop around the same time.   Well the people in the car came out shooting, according to the eyewitnesses that saw this, the police officer hesitated in pulling his service weapon and got killed.  I believe that he hesitated because of all the media attention and for a split second he wondered " If I shoot, will my department back me or will I be screwed along with my family."   Well he got killed and his family lost their husband and father.

    This issue sucks, the Reverend Al Sharpton, the purveyor of the Tawana Brawley incident, the shootings of 7 people of Freddies fashion mart by the rent a mob instigated by him,  the crown market shootings and burnings and many others of racial strife.  The MSNBC commentator expressed his outrage at the verdict and that it shows that racism is alive and well in America.

     The feeling that I have gotten from a lot of Americans is that they are tired of the constant racial drumbeat being pushed in the social fabric of America and they are no longer willing to be "reasonable and accommodating to the racial claims of the loud minority that screams "racism" at every opportunity.  I fear that there will be a blowback and the resulting chaos will either tear this country apart or this will give the Obama Junta the excuse to impose martial law and suspend the constitution and become a dictator by proxy.  I wonder if this is by design and cement a wet dream that the progressives have had since Woodrow Wilson started the modern progressive movement.

Range time....again

Well I took my son to the range, It seems like it was a good day to go he was jonesing for some range time and I wanted to do a bit of shooting.  My son used both of his .22's rifles, and I brought along my 303 Enfield and my Mosin Nagant. 

On this picture he is checking that the safety is on before he loaded the magazine.   I wanted to take more pics but I had gotten the dreaded *bong* of death that the demise of my phone was imminent due to lack of energy.  My son did well on the range, he used both iron sights and the scope to see the difference in the impact zone.  
    

Here he is loading the magazine in preparation to shoot.  I fired a few rounds through my 303, then switched to the Nagant.  Somebody asked me after I had fired several rounds, if they kick as hard as people say.  I replied " Yes they do"  I only fired 20 rounds before my shoulder cried for mercy.  I will go again in a few weeks to shoot again.  By this time I hope to have the upgrades to my AR completed and see how she runs at the range.  I also tried to locate some 6.5X55 swedish mauser ammo for my 1902 Mauser.   I wanted to shoot it, but can't locate the ammo for it.  The last time I fired that one was when I was in Germany in 1990.  I used it for competition shooting.   I hope to locate some ammo so I can see how the last of my "old" rifles shoot.

The New APP for marking "Dangerous Gun Owners"

This is rich....Some company is making an APP where you can *narc* on your neighbor if you believe that he is a "Gun Nut".   Talking about doing the work for STASI the ATF,FBI,CIA,IRS,DHS,NSA and other alphabet federal and state agencies that want you to squeal on your neighbors.  Wonder if they will get extra food rations in the Obama economy for pimping out their neighbors.   Have a dispute with your neighbor, call the federal government and say that the person that you don't like is an "extremist" and pop a cold one, relax in the lawn chair and watch your neighbor's house get tossed, their dogs shot and if they are lucky, they will only be splayed out in their yard.  If they are unlucky, they will be on the way to the morgue because of the propensity of the local law enforcement to do a "hard knock" on people that they might have a problem with.  If I sound like I am bashing the police..I am not, I remember when "Police Officer" meant "Peace Officer".  Well that shows my age I guess.  I don't care for the militarization of the Police.  I see tragedy happening if this APP gets off the ground.  Even though the designers say that they have "safeguards" to prevent "abuse"...Yeah right.....You believe that?  Well I have some oceanfront property in Nebraska I will sell you.  You can watch the sun rise in the west sitting on your balcony while sipping some Starbucks.  Small bills, non-sequential numbers if you please.  I remember something during my research a while back on the Stasi the East German security police.  1 out of 7 "Osties" spied on their neighbors for either money, usually extra rations or privileges.  I can see the same thing happen here.  What happened to our freedom, people are willing to give up our birthright for some extra government cheese.

An App For ‘Marking Dangerous Gun Owners’ Ready For Abuse By Anti-Gun Crowd

July 10, 2013 by Sam Rolley

Geo Gun Marker, a smartphone app created by Walkingtools, which describes itself as “a loose confederation of software and related art or education projects,” allows users to electronically log the locations of “potentially unsafe guns and gun owners.”
A description of the app, available at the Google Play store, reads as follows:

Geolocate Dangerous Guns and Owners with the Gun Geo Marker. Geolocation means marking dangerous sites on the App’s map so that you and others can be aware of the risks in your neighborhood.
The Gun Geo Marker operates very simply, letting parents and community members mark, or geolocate, sites associated with potentially unsafe guns and gun owners. These locations are typically the homes or businesses of suspected unsafe gun owners, but might also be public lands or other locations where guns are not handled safely, or situations where proper rights to own or use any particular type of firearm may not exist. Electronically marking these locations can help others in the area learn about their geography of risk from gun accidents or violence. No matter what your safety concern with firearms might be, you should feel free to use this tool to provide the most accurate information you can such that others can make their own safety decisions.

The app states that it is to be used to electronically log the location of only “potentially unsafe guns and gun owners”— but judging by the gun control proposals pushed by anti-gun zealots throughout the Nation over the past several months, it’s obvious that there is no way of knowing who classifies what as a dangerous gun or gun owner.
Never fear, the app makers offer some guidelines. 
Here’s who they say you shouldn’t mark:

• Hunters or gun enthusiasts who safely store and properly enjoy their weapons in the field, or at local firing ranges for recreational purposes.

• You should not be concerned merely because your neighbors are a member of any national gun advocacy organization. The actual threat – just to cite the best known org – that the National Rifle Association (NRA) and its kin present to you and your children is political.

• Finally, there is at least one particular situation in which you should certainly not use the Walkingtools Gun Geo Marker. If you have direct, personal knowledge or even a suspicion that guns are being used in context of organized criminal activity, then it may be extremely risky for you to mark related locations. You should forget about the Walkingtools Gun Geo Marker in all such cases, and instead consider getting appropriate law enforcement agencies involved in the situation.

The last point is one that seems to negate the need for the app in the first place: if someone is using a gun in a dangerous (criminal) manner, call the police.
Here’s who the app makers want marked:

• Note that while people who keep loaded firearms in their home should not necessarily have their location marked as a gun owner of concern, studies do show conclusively that guns in the home greatly increase the chances of death by gunfire for the owner, family members and visitors. This is especially the case with guns kept unlocked and loaded for “personal safety.”

• First time gun owners or others who may not have not taken basic gun safety training, or who were not raised in a culture of gun safety, represent a real and present danger to their community, themselves and their family members. Their locations may be marked at any time. Bear in mind that these people are most often well meaning, thus as a concerned neighbor you might very well be able to educate them and therefore avoid marking their location.

• A more obvious category of dangerous neighbor is someone who frequently displays or brandishes weapons, or those reveal their gun ownership status during normal conflict resolution. Such people are potentially a very serious concern, and the home or business locations of potential high conflict gun owners should be marked only when feasible. The same goes for any neighbor whose children speak frequently of their parent’s gun ownership, or who talk about guns as a potential tools for conflict resolution.

• There are many locations, such as remote public or private lands where the discharge of firearms is legal. If you frequent such a location, you are likely a gun owner yourself and moreover, you probably have a strong interest in re-establishing safety standards at these sites.

And here are some options for marking gun threats in the app:

• “Possible unlocked/loaded/unsafe storage”

• “Possible insufficient training”

• “Guns and unsupervised children”

• “Guns and substance abuse”

• “Possible medical related concern”

• “Neighborhood talk, unsafe”

• “Possible high conflict, armed neighbor”

• “Possible out of place, large arsenal”

• “Documented/frequent unlawful discharge”

• “Possible illegal weapons on premises”

• “Possible prohibited persons”

• “Possible anti-government/terror threat”

• “Other concern (describe)”

Perhaps a better—and less obviously made for and by people who dislike guns— version of the app would simply let people mark the locations of potentially dangerous people? Of course, an even better option would be for folks to mind their own business and focus on their own self-preservation and family protection without resorting to an app designed to spread gossip about gun owners.

Executive Order fail....

I got this from JPFO.  It is well researched and doesn't bode well for Obama's Junta and the ever popular call for gun control that seems to echo out of the halls of Federal Government.  You notice that they want US we the people to disarm but they can keep their bodyguards and special security arrangements whereas US the people are defenceless.  That is the dream of the average liberal.   Gun control is never about stopping the violence caused by people that can't own guns anyway, but disarming the average law-abiding citizen.  Without guns that we would use to defend us and our family, we would have to depend on the government to defend us and in return for the government to defend us, we would have to surrender more of our freedoms "in our best interest"

Article Source

If you recall, back on January 16, 2013, standing with little children, Barack Hussein Obama tried to pull a fast one on the American people and issued 23 executive orders pertaining to gun control. Among those was number 14: Issue a Presidential Memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence. Well friends, that study did happen and it destroyed Obama's position on guns and gun violence.

Well like all things in government, the people tasked with the study simply directed the study to the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council. However, many people have not heard about the report. Could it be that much of the information in the report didn't quite "jive" with Obama and the anti-gun crowd?

Actually, that's exactly what it did. In fact, not only did they not hold any water for Obama's claims regarding gun violence, it poured it on him, pretty much backing every Second Amendment lover's argument that has been made.

The report, titled Priorities for Research to Reduce the Threat of Firearm-related Violence, which identifies the particular topics of gun violence to be researched over the next few years, made the point that the majority of deaths that take place annually by the use of a firearm are not related to crime, but to suicide.

"Between the years 2000-2010 firearm-related suicides significantly outnumbered homicides for all age groups, annually accounting for 61 percent of the more than 335,600 people who died from firearms related violence in the United States," reads the study.

That's obviously not a good thing. However, it indicates that many Americans suffer from both a spiritual and mental health issue. With that said, let's not then run to government to deal with mental health issues. I've warned before and I'll warn you now: That would be a very bad move.

Here's the great news in the report though. It points out that virtually every study which "assessed the effect of actual defensive uses of guns" discovered the same thing. Those using their guns for self-defense "consistently lower injury rates among gun-using crime victims compared with victims who used other self-protective strategies."

Oh and remember how we've been told by the Obama administration and the socialist gun grabbers that guns aren't used that often in self-defense? Well, the report shows that isn't true either.

"Defensive uses of guns by crime victims is a common occurrence, although the exact number remains disputed (Cook and Ludwig, 1996; Kleck, 2001a)," the study reads. "Almost all national survey estimates indicate that defensive gun uses by victims are at least as common as offensive uses by criminals, with estimates of annual uses ranging from about 500,000 to more than 3 million per year (Kleck, 2001a), in the context of about 300,000 violent crimes involving firearms in 2008 (BJS, 2010)."

Yeah, not as uncommon as the propagandists would have us believe.

In all fairness, the report does point out that "some scholars point to radically lower estimate of only 108,000 annual defensive uses based on the National Crime Victimization Survey (Cook et al., 1997)."

July 2013

While the report does maintain that this will always be a controversy in the field, the study does state that "the estimate of 3 million defensive uses per year is based on an extrapolation from a small number of responses taken from more than 19 national surveys," while the "estimate of 108,000 is difficult to interpret because respondents were not asked specifically about defensive gun use."

"A different issue is whether defensive uses of guns, however numerous or rare they may be, are effective in preventing injury to the gun-wielding crime victim," reads the report.

The report does have a downside. It indicates that we have the most firearm related deaths of any western nation. However, the good news is that the study claims that is rapidly declining.

"Overall crime rates have declined in the past decade, and violent crimes, including homicides specifically, have declined in the past 5 years." However, "Between 2005 and 2010, the percentage of firearm-related violent victimizations remained generally stable."

Additionally, the report goes on to inform about other declines. "Firearm-related death rates for youth ages 15 to 19 declined from 1994 to 2009," the report continues, adding that accidental shootings were declining as well.

The report also states that "Unintentional firearm-related deaths have steadily declined during the past century. The number of unintentional deaths due to firearm-related incidents accounted for less than 1 percent of all unintentional fatalities in 2010."

While everyone recognizes that there will always be crime and violence and yes, even gun violence, the fact of the matter is that gun control is not the answer, except to make sure you control your own gun and hit your target. For sure there will be more data added as the study continues, but already what they do have from the past indicates something that is completely opposite from what this administration has presented and there is no doubt that any information that comes out of the study will be thoroughly scrutinized.

The report also referenced video game violence to see how it might contribute to gun violence, but said that more research would need to be done and no research to the present has been conclusive.

Anyone wondering why Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Dianne Feinstein aren't running to the state run media to air out this little report? It's because they have egg on their face.

One last question that is on my mind is, how much did will this study end up costing the American taxpayer?

    I added this in the end of the article, I ran across this picture and got a chuckle out of it and realized that there was a lot of truth to it.

 

Monday Music....."Every Breath You Take"

I decided to go with the Police and "Every Breath you take"   This song was very popular during my senior year in high school.  A lot of us liked the song and the entire album;

"Every Breath You Take" is a song by The Police on the band's 1983 album Synchronicity, written by Sting and Andy Summers (but officially credited to Sting only). The single entered the charts at position 36 on 4 June 1983. The single was one of the biggest hits of 1983, topping the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for eight weeks and the UK Singles Chart for four weeks. It also topped the Billboard Top Tracks chart for nine weeks.
At the 1984 Grammy Awards Sting won Song of the Year and The Police won Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals for "Every Breath You Take", while it was also nominated for Record of the Year. The song ranked No. 84 on the Rolling Stone list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and No. 25 on Billboard's Hot 100 All-Time Top Songs. This song is considered to be The Police's signature song, and in 2010 was estimated to generate between a quarter and a third of Sting's music publishing income

The lyrics are the words of a character of dubious nature, who is watching "every breath you take; every move you make".

I woke up in the middle of the night with that line in my head, sat down at the piano and had written it in half an hour. The tune itself is generic, an aggregate of hundreds of others, but the words are interesting. It sounds like a comforting love song. I didn't realize at the time how sinister it is. I think I was thinking of Big Brother, surveillance and control.

—Sting^[

Sting later said he was disconcerted by how many people think the song is more positive than it is. He insists it's about the obsession with a lost lover, the jealousy and surveillance that follow. "One couple told me 'Oh we love that song; it was the main song played at our wedding!' I thought, 'Well, good luck.'" When asked why he appears angry in the music video Sting told BBC Radio 2, "I think the song is very, very sinister and ugly and people have actually misinterpreted it as being a gentle, little love song."
According to the Back to Mono box-set book, "Every Breath You Take" is influenced by a Gene Pitney song titled "Every Breath I Take". The song's structure is a variation on the Classical rondo form with its AABACABA structure, a form rarely found in modern popular music.
The demo of the song was recorded in an eight track suite in North London's Utopia studios and featured Sting singing over a Hammond organ. While recording, Summers came up with a guitar part inspired by Béla Bartók that would later become a trademark lick, and played it straight through in one take. He was asked to put guitar onto a simple backing track of bass, drums, and a single vocal, with Sting offering no directive beyond "make it your own."
The recording process was fraught with difficulties as personal tensions between the band members, particularly Sting and Stewart Copeland, came to the fore. Producer Hugh Padgham claimed that by the time of the recording sessions, Sting and Copeland "hated each other", with verbal and physical fights in the studio common. The tensions almost led to the recording sessions being cancelled until a meeting involving the band and the group's manager, Miles Copeland (Stewart's brother), resulted in an agreement to continue. The drum track was largely created through separate overdubs of each percussive instrument, with the main backbeat created by simultaneously playing a snare and a gong drum. Keyboard parts were added from Roland guitar synthesisers, a Prophet-5 and an Oberheim synthesiser. The single-note piano in the middle eight was recommended by Padgham, inspired by similar work that he had done with the group XTC.
     The song had a music video (directed by duo Godley & Creme) that was praised for its black-and-white cinematography. Both MTV (1999) and VH1 (2002) named it as one of the best music videos ever, placing it 16th and 33rd in their respective top 100 lists. Daniel Pearl won the first MTV cinematography award for his work on the video

The new generation.....

This is on a personal level.  I had left for work (overtime YAY) and my son called me while I was leaving subway with dinner.( I wish they had frequent flier cards as often as I eat there..but I digress).  My son called me and told me that " a kid tore down my basketball goal."  I replied " What?!"  the back story is as follows.  My son has a basketball goal and we have it in the cul-de-sac becauee my driveway is on a hill and he would spend more time chasing the ball down the hill than practicing his basketball shooting skills.  I had already repaired it because friend of the neighbor's kid tried to do his favorite Michael Jordan impression by swinging off the rim and tore it off the backboard.   Then to compound it, the other kid threw the hoop into the  other neighbors yard pissing him off.  Well I finally fixed it reluctantly after the wife and son both asked me to do it.  Well I used some sheetmetal to the backboard to brace it and reattached the basketball loop.  I also did some composite repairs and painted it so it looked good.  Well another friend of the same neighbor kid busted it again.  This time the wife was home and she went over to talk to the parents of the kid that broke it( this time).

   The parents of the kid blew her off and acted like him breaking the goal was no big deal and they are not concerned in the least that their kid busted property.    They also used an ugly word to my wife to describe her attitude.  "You don't have to be a b***h about it".   When my wife told me, I was livid.  I wanted to turn around and head home and show how how much of an asshole somebody can be.  But I had to go to work.(dang responsibility anyway.)  I told her to please call the police, I wanted a police report.  She didn't want to pursue it.  I wanted the report because I could take them to small claims court and have them poney up the money to replace my sons goal.  What also disturbed me was the totally cavalier attitude these people had.  Like nothing was their fault and their problem. 
     Am I old fashioned....?   I remembered being told since I was little to "respect other peoples stuff" by my Dad.  If my son had broken something, I would have worked out an arrangement with the owners to "make it right".  Until my son is 18 or emancipated by the law, I am responsible for what he does or breaks.  This attitude is foreign to the new generation....they have no care and have a big entitlement mentality.   What went wrong with this country?   Where did we deviate from the "being responsible" to being a "sorry piece of crap?"   I just don't know how to make of it.

I gotta decide if I am going to repair it....or just call it a day on it.  But it penalizes my son, who likes to shoot basketball and all it does is hurt him.  With my overtime schedule running...If I fix it...it will not be anytime soon.   I have to remove some of the plastic in the back, and insert more sheet metal to brace it and it isn't an easy fix.  The little bastard really did a number on it.   If I fix it, where would I put it?  If I put it in the cul-de-sac, it probably will get busted...again.  I can't use my driveway because of the slope.    

Here we go again.......

I got this from the following bloggers, Peter, TAM and Daddy Bear that TJIC is getting harassed by the local Police....again.   I was a new blogger when this hit and this was very popular among the blogosphere.

Apparently your first amendment rights don't mean crap in the peoples republic of Massachusetts
 and your 2nd amendment rights are worth even less.   This all transpired on the 4th of July....I keep thinking..is that the place where the shot that was heard around the world came from.  I guess the people in charge forgot a piece of history...again.   he had just gotten his Firearms Identification card from the authorities back, all of a sudden they raid his house, and seize the firearms that belong to his girl, not him and there is no clear reason why this is going on.

    I have cut and pasted this from Tam's website.

  

As anyone who knows me can tell you, I have a prickly disposition.

Since commencing the writing of this blog, I have typed out explicit wishes for harm on a variety of people. Recently I suggested that people who put too much credence in horoscopes should go huff exhaust fumes in a locked garage. When Dick Cheney dusted his hunting buddy with his fowling piece, I wrote that his only real crime was shooting a lawyer in Texas without a lawyer stamp on his hunting license. In a two-day period last November, I hoped aloud that Sen. Chuck Schumer, everybody at the FDA, and an anonymous TSA agent would all die in a fire, screaming. I've used the phrase "Die, hippie" with a specific hippie as the referent more times than I can count.

And I still have my guns.

This is apparently mostly because I don't live in Arlington, Massachusetts.

Travis Corcoran, proprietor of Heavy Ink Comics, whose nom de blog is "TJIC" does live in Arlington, Massachusetts. Travis identifies himself as an anarcho-capitalist; I'd say that on the philosophical axis, the pelt on his wookie suit is longer and more luxuriant than mine, if not quite as splendid as Billy Beck's.

In the wake of the recent shooting in Tuscon, Travis put up a post on his blog about how he didn't particularly feel like shedding any tears over the shooting of a politician, entitled "1 down, 534 to go!" Provocative? Inflammatory? Even tacky? Sure. But it was just speech. Political speech. The kind that's protected under the 1st Amendment, even when it's about politicians further up the food chain than congresscritters.

Comic readers tend to trend younger and lefter than the norm, and some of his customers found out about his post and decided to organize a boycott. I have no problem with boycotts; lord knows I've called for the boycotts of businesses that did things that annoyed me, such as using murderers for pitchmen. Some people were so butthurt, however, that they went to the authorities, and Travis received a knock on the door: It was the Arlington, MA po-po, there to relieve Mr. Corcoran of his guns, his ammunition, his firearms license, and his 2nd Amendment rights, all for having the temerity to use his 1st Amendment rights in the former Cradle of Liberty, now its grave.

Folks, if Travis committed a crime, then I'm a criminal, too. To quote another famous Bay Stater (who would no doubt be disgusted with the current state of affairs there)

"Under a government which imprisons unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison."

I am TJIC.

Posted by Tam @ 6:35 PM

Why I don't FACEBOOK or other social media...

This question was mentioned on a reply to one of Old NFO's post while he was down under and the subject of blogging and Facebook came up.  Well I relayed that I used to Facebook, partly because others were doing it and it was a chance to keep up with my friends and also network.  My Army unit that I went to the gulf is on Facebook as is my last employer Ford Motor Co Atlanta Assembly plant.  The plant is gone, making way for Porsche to build a headquarters for their North American operations.  Well the people that used to work there formed a Facebook page and that is how we keep tabs on each other and also tell others if there are any jobs at and where to go. 
    

My problems happened when I was taken to task by one of the liberal friends of a good friend that I have known for many years.  Well I got thought about it for a while then proceeded to rebut all the half assed assertions and distortions that this person made.  My response was quite lengthy and my friend *Shelldude* as I refer to him was quite impressed and since he has known me for a long time and he knows that I am quite the polite person and it takes a lot to get me riled up knew that I was pissed by my response.  This was the rant that got me suspended from FB for 3 weeks.   I removed the name of my friend that is involved.

" .Hit the enter button again..*dangit* I would have responded yesterday but I was off the internet due to SOPASTRIKE..Well I read your rant or diatribe, and since I am the only person on the other side of the fence from the rest of y'all I guess it is directed at me. That is fine, so I will go down your screed and make my counterpoints. I do not look the other way on things, When I debate somebody I make sure that I have facts to back up my statements. Verify with XXXXXX on that. Yes I have stood in the shoes of the poor, the crap I went through after I got out in 1991, Ask XXXXXX, I dropped off the face of the planet for several years. Being soo poor and afraid to face my friends that knew me from before to see how far I have fallen. Having just enough change in the ashtray of my truck to buy a burger so I could eat. I remember those days and swore that I would never be there again. I work many jobs that I despised but I needed the money and worked them until I got a better job. That is how I climbed out of poverty. Like I have stated, there is a difference from people actually being down and out and the moochers. When I work the food pantry, the people that are down and out appreciate whatever we do for them. they are grateful. The moochers bitch about the food they get and make specific demands. The entitlement mentality is on display. They expect others to provide for them because they exist and put forth no effort to better themselves and break the cycle. The government is supposed to be "we the people" but the special interest have taken root. That is what happens when we have career politicians. They on both sides are more concerned about getting reelected and maintaining their power and perks. I like the idea of a citizen legislator, they spend part of their time in D.C stirring up trouble. I never came out of a trailer park and that is as bigoted as the comments you deplore. I am not stupid, but I am angry when I have seen what has happened to this country, we used to be the beacon of the world, the envy of the world, We as a society believed in American exceptional-ism, Now we are told we are just like everybody else and that infuriates and saddens me. President Obama and the Democrats have screwed it up. They picked up where the establishment Republicans left off. Then you threw the race card on me..."closet racist" any criticism of the president is considered "racist" Is this where I am supposed to apologize for all the sins of my ancestors and grovel on the alters of Political correctness and diversity?......Naaa don't feel it. How can there be any political discourse debated when the race card is thrown down. When all else fails, the opponents are "racist so I don't have to debate them since I have the moral high ground". When will it end? I also have been discriminated against, Discrimination isn't just a Black or a Female thing. I lost jobs and job opportunities because I wasn't a minority or a female. If you want I will tell you specific examples. We all have been discriminated against at one time or another. I remember it and don't like the feeling, so I go out of my way not to do it to others. you saluted Mr Thompson for being a wise person and basically told me to screw off since I do not breath the rarified air that you leftist inhale...or drink the koolaid for that matter. You are correct on the assertion that the politicians give us little to keep us pliable. that is how they maintain control. That is all it is, the ability to maintain control, our freedom is surrendered on the promise of security and we became slaves to the government and the political masters that control the government. If you or XXXXXX want to defriend me on account of this reply, that is your decision to make. We will have to agree to disagree. I thank you for your time

 Well I was reported  to Facebook for "Hate speech".  Although there was nothing that I had said that violated FB's terms of use.  It took 3 weeks for FB to release my access again and by this time I was so angry I started blogging instead.  I have since learned that this is a favorite tactic of the left is to "flag" what they consider inappropriate content and FB and twitter is very quick on the banning of conservative thought, but slow to release the access.  Whereas the left can say things quite incendiary and nothing is done.  They control the narrative.  This presents a problem where speech is censored for " thought control" or "hate crimes".  This is a slippery slope to tyranny. 

     I have since then blogged a lot, met a lot of good people on the blogosphere and have an outlet for my writing.  having a blog allows me to say things that I want, put up stuff that I find interesting, and it helps me be a better writer and helps organize my thoughts.    I stay on FB because of my Army unit and my Ford buddies.  I use a "nom-de Guerre" on this site, I don't want people finding out where I work at and try to get me fired because they didn't like what I have to say.   My employer is very risk adverse and would can me in a new-york minute to avoid bad publicity.   Liberals like free speech if it is what they agree with it.  If they don't like it they try to silence it. ........... The tolerant left.

     the cartoon that is shown with this article is what I believe would happen if I continued posting on FB.  The left in the past few years had several phone numbers and websites that were organized by the government  if they wanted to "fink" on their neighbors if they believed them to be "extremist" or a "danger to society"  They tried this with "attackwatch" and also the white house had its own "narc" line to squeal on your neighbors.  Goebbels would be so proud of the modern left. 

The Germans are very sensitive to a police state since a large portion remember living under the East German Government until reunification.  They are not happy with Obama and the NSA spying on everybody else.  

He has tried to deflect this stating that this was a holdover from the Bush administration......Really?   You still gotta blame your predecessor?   When you gonna grow a pair and actually take responsibility for something that happened on your watch.   Oh yeah...You have dodged the IRS scandal, Fast and Furious, Bengazi?, Solendra, Fiskers, and many other scandals and your compliant media still covers for you.

I will continue to blog since I find it therapeutic and when I see something that either pisses me off or something that I think is "Neat!"  I will post it here.   If I did it on Facebook, anything would be lost among the noise that is Facebook.  Also blogging has made me a better writer and better able to organize my thoughts.   So I will keep on blogging.

Monday Music "Convoy"

This song and movie was part of what I called the "Counterculture rebellion" against "Da Man"  After having the first edition of the nanny state rammed through American society, the people that remembered what it was like before smog converters, and the dreaded "double nickel" speed limit among many other things spawned a bunch of movies that depicted regular people against authority like "Smokey and the Bandit," Cannonball run and others were very popular in the late 70's and it helped kickoff the CB Radio craze.  Yes I still have my CB Radio, she is a Cobra 29 classic and I am the "Gray Ghost"  I still use it occasionally when I drive my Ranger Pickup.  They seem to work well in trucks...not so much on cars.


"Convoy" is a 1975 novelty song performed by C. W. McCall (pseudonym of Bill Fries) that became a number-one song on both the country and pop charts in the US. Written by McCall and Chip Davis, the song spent six weeks at number one on the country charts and one week at number one on the pop charts. The song went to number one in Canada as well, hitting the top of the RPM Top Singles Chart on January 24, 1976. "Convoy" further peaked at number two in the UK. The song's success helped start a fad for citizens band (CB) radio. The song was the inspiration for the 1978 Sam Peckinpah film Convoy.

The song consists of three types of interspersed dialog: a simulated CB conversation with CB slang, the narration of the story, and the chorus. It is about a fictitious trucker rebellion that drives from the west to the east coast of the United States without stopping. What they are protesting against (other than the 55 mph speed limit), is shown by lines such as "we tore up all of our swindle sheets" (CB slang for log sheets used to record driving hours; the term referenced the practice of falsifying entries to show that drivers were getting proper sleep when, in reality, the drivers were driving more than the prescribed number of hours before mandatory rest) and "left 'em settin' on the scales" (CB slang for Department of Transportation weigh stations on Interstates and highways to verify the weight of the truck and the drivers' hours of working through log books). The song also refers to toll roads: "We just ain't a-gonna pay no toll." Also the "hammer" is the gas pedal; putting it down meant to place and push this pedal to the floor so as to feed more gas to the engine therefore breaking the 55 speed limit.
The conversation is between "Rubber Duck," "Pig Pen" and "Sodbuster," primarily through Rubber Duck's side of the conversation. The narration and CB chatter are by Fries.
At the beginning of the song a "Kenworth pulling logs," being driven by Rubber Duck, is the "front door" (the leader) of three eighteen-wheelers (tractor and semi-trailer) when he realizes they have a convoy. Following the Rubber Duck is an unnamed trucker in a "cab-over Pete with a reefer on" (a refrigerated trailer, hauled by a Peterbilt truck configured with the cab over the engine), while Pig Pen brings up the rear (the "back door") in a "'Jimmy' (GMC truck) haulin' hogs."
The convoy begins toward "Flagtown" (Flagstaff, Arizona) at night on June 6 on "I-one-oh" (I-10) just outside "Shakytown" (Los Angeles, California, due to its earth tremors). By the time they get to "Tulsatown" (Tulsa, Oklahoma), there are 85 trucks and the "bears / Smokeys" (police, a reference to the campaign hats worn by many state police departments as well as the United States Forest Service mascot Smokey Bear) have set up a road block and have a "bear in the air" (police helicopter). By the time they get to "Chi-town" (Chicago, Illinois), the convoy includes a "suicide jockey" (truck hauling explosives) and "eleven long-haired friends of Jesus (11 born-again hippies) in a chartreuse microbus" (a Volkswagen Type 2) ("Sodbuster"), and the police have called out "reinforcements from the 'Illi-noise' (Illinois) National Guard." The convoy crashes another road block when crossing a toll bridge into New Jersey, and by this time they have "a thousand screamin' trucks" in all.
The song's running gag has Rubber Duck complaining about the smell of the hogs that Pig Pen is hauling. He repeatedly asks the offending driver to "back off" (slow down). By the end, Pig Pen has fallen so far back, when Rubber Duck is in New Jersey, Pig Pen has only gotten as far as Omaha (a reference to the headquarters of American Gramaphone, which released the song, and also a reference to the slaughterhouses for which Omaha is famous). Also, Omaha was C.W. McCall's "home 20" (a reference to the ten-code for location).