LEE RODGERSTHE
MORE THINGS CHANGE …
LIBERALS PREFER DEFENSELESSNESS ...
THE SAGA OF SILLINESS CONTINUES
LIBERALS PREFER DEFENSELESSNESS ...
THE SAGA OF SILLINESS CONTINUES
A week of limiting oneself to a very few minutes each day devoted to following the news reaffirms it: The more things change, the more they do remain the same.
More mass shootings. Liberal fantasists regurgitating the same refrain about more restrictive gun-ownership laws, blind to the fact that any place declared to be “gun-free” is an admission of vulnerability to attack by bloodthirsty crazies.
It should be – but apparently isn't – obvious to even the most ignorant among us that a firearm in the hand of, say, a teacher (or ten) adjudged to be a responsible person willing and able to use it would at the very least minimize casualties.
We are never going to be able to prejudge and thus deter outbursts of homicidal craziness and criminals, by definition, are not going to obey gun laws. Have Americans, as a group, lost the backbone to admit that the obvious immediate response to a killer, crazed or otherwise, is simply to shoot the SOB? Is this hard to figure out?
If our ancestors had been so lily-livered, the United States today would consist of a few trembling wimps cowering in caves. Assuming they'd ever have had the guts to cross an ocean to get here in the first place.
Footnote: As firearms instructor Peter Friedman points out, no “assault” weapons were used in this latest massacre in a “No Guns” zone, contrary to media reports. The media morons evidently think anything that goes "pow!" is an "assault weapon."
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Gun-obsessed liberals, please address the following: Why is it that Chicago, America's gun-murder capital. with so many shootings the local news media run a daily scoreboard, has some of the tightest gun-control laws in the nation?
Conversely, how do you explain that, overall, cities and states with the highest rates of legal gun ownership have the lowest crime rates?
What could just one teacher, with guts and a gun, have done to stop the slaughter in Connecticut?
Footnote: The town and immediate area where I live, total population about 25,000, has had one murder in its entire history going back about seventy years. A man who'd gotten into drug-dealing came back to visit his mother ... she learned of his activities and ordered him out of her house ... he stabbed her to death.
The sheriff's deputies came and shot him dead on the spot. Saved the taxpayers lots of money that would have been wasted on a trial. Yes, I like Arizona justice.
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Liberals suffer from such a mind-fog that they can't even see the logic in this question: Since far more people die in car wrecks than by gunfire, why are they not pushing for a ban of automobiles?
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After yet another tragedy, politicians bloviate “we must come together.”
Please … in the name of common sense … just what the hell does THAT mean?
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Jim Eason's take …
“When a horrible shooting takes place, conservatives ask: 'Why? What makes a person do that?'
Liberals ask: 'Where did he get the gun?'”
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Events noted during my week of R & R ...
Ben Bernanke, colluding with the subversive in the White House, further reduces the value of every dollar you've earned by printing more (and increasingly worthless) paper money.
Hillary conveniently faints and suffers a concussion just as Congress is about to ask her questions regarding her dereliction of duty in making American diplomats vulnerably to murderous Muslims in Libya. How convenient.
Susan Rice, doubtless surprised that her blatant lies about that same incident were met with widespread disapproval, finds herself thrown under the bus by the same president for whom she made a fool of herself.
One-time entertainer and current Marxist idiot Harry Belafonte, the perfect Obama stooge, declares that the Dear Leader should make it illegal to speak ill of him and jail all his critics.
It's true, as the axiom goes: “Different day, same old … crap.”
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I talked a few days ago with a man from Turkey, the nation which was liberated from regressive and repressive Islamic nuttiness by a hero name Ataturk in the early 20th century. The same Turkey that is now reversing itself under the direction of a president who wants that nation to return to its former “glory” of medieval madness under Sharia law. A current Muslim president who is admired – and consulted – by Barack H. Obama.
The Turkish gentleman wanted to make two points:
1. The situation in his country is now far, far worse than depicted by American media, to which he has had ample exposure. The suppression of dissent by anyone opposed to Muslim oppression is brutal.
2. His exact words in reaction to Obama's cuddling with the Muslim madman now running Turkey: "Your president is a fool."
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The indispensable Paul Kengor takes note of how Obama is, in his own words, “fundamentally transforming America” …
“The latest unemployment figures are again depressing, but not for the usual reasons. They provide further confirmation of Barack Obama's fundamental transformation of America, specifically through his creation of a growing government class.
“The numbers show a massive increase in government jobs created over the last five months—621,000, to be exact, dwarfing private-sector job growth. Those new government jobs account for a staggering 73 percent of overall job growth. In all, 21 million citizens now work for government.”
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“In a recent newspaper column in Pravda, the old Soviet propaganda rag ('The Truth') now published by post-Soviet era conscripts of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, a popular writer, Xavier Lerma, had this observation on our most recent presidential election: 'The Communists have won in America with Obama. ... Obama has been re-elected for a 2nd term by an illiterate society.'" – Mark Alexander, The Patriot Post
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A life in radio (cont.) ...
Jeanne played trombone. She was the first -- and only -- trombone-playing woman I ever knew. There were others, but women musicians are largely attracted to the strings and woodwind instruments, as well as the piano. My wife used to play cello and harp -- not simultaneously -- in a symphony orchestra. In fact, she's on one of Dave Brubeck's albums of "serious" music.
But Jeanne played the trombone and played it well. Played jazz.
She was born and raised in Kansas City but had migrated to Los Angeles where she found fairly regular work playing in that city's jazz clubs. When her mother needed assistance,Jeanne moved back to KC. Needing a more reliable source of income, she took a job in the traffic (i.e., commercial scheduling) department at WDAF Radio & TV where I was doing a daily radio show, a weekly hour-long TV show, emceeing nightclub shows and doing major-college football broadcasts that had me traveling nationwide.
One summer Friday, Jeanne invited a handful of us at the station to come to her modest bungalow in an old Kansas City neighborhood for a Saturday cookout.
As burgers were grilling and beverages being passed around, a limousine pulled up in front of the house. From it emerged one of the signature musical groups of all time, the Four Freshmen, instruments in hand.
Seems they were in town for a couple of concerts with -- as I recall -- the Stan Kenton orchestra and June Christy, whose "Something Cool" remains a jazz classic.
It turns out the Jeanne and Bob Flanagan, one of the founders of the group, were old friends and fellow trombonists.
The Freshmen spent the entire afternoon in what was obviously a pleasant break for them from the tedium of life on the road. As sunset approached, they brought their instruments out into the backyard and played virtually their entire concert program for us. Called it a rehearsal.
To this day, I can recall few days as pleasant as spending a lazy summer afternoon in a small Kansas City backyard with neighbors gathering to peek over the board fence as Bob Flanagan ripped off his classic trombone solo on "Day by Day," with Jeanne following him and repeating it, note for note plus flourishes of her own.
For a jazz lover, bliss.
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Conan O'Brien --
"The Spice Girls debuted in London. Turns out the Mayans were off by just a few weeks."
Craig Ferguson –
“A love letter written by a young Mick Jagger sold at auction for $300,000. You can tell that Mick's an old man because the letter begins, 'Dear Cleopatra ...'”
"...and now, if you'll excuse me..."