Second Amendment Rights |

Second Amendment Rights |:

"Incidents of mass violence, often perpetrated by individuals with severe mental illness (against whose possession of guns existing laws attempt to protect), should not be used by policymakers as an opportunity to restrict constitutional rights. Lawmakers have an obligation to be faithful to the original public meaning of the Second Amendment. "

Police Unions Defend Bad Cops Who Do Awful Things. Why Won't They Defend Broward County Deputy? - Hit & Run : Reason.com

Police Unions Defend Bad Cops Who Do Awful Things. Why Won't They Defend Broward County Deputy? - Hit & Run : Reason.com:
"Police unions routinely defend bad cops who do awful things.

• When Hector Jimenez, an Oakland cop, shot and killed an unarmed man in 2007, he got his job back. Seven months later, after he killed another man by shooting him three times in the back, he got his job back a second time. In both cases, the local police union intervened in Jimenez' favor.
• After 13 Cleveland cops fired 137 rounds of ammo into a car in 2012, killing two people, at the end of a car chase, all but one ended up staying on the job with help from the union. 
• The same was true for Philadelphia police officer Cyrus Mann, who was fired that same year after shooting three people within three years (he killed one of his victims, an unarmed man, by shooting him in the back) and later reinstated on the force after a union-backed arbitration process.
• Last year, when cops in Salt Lake City violently arrested a nurse for refusing to draw blood from a hospital patient without a warrant, the local police union stepped in to defend the officers' actions and attack those who criticized them.

In those cases, and plenty of others, police unions have defended cops who engaged in clear-cut abuses of the public trust placed in them. 
Whether it's a question of excessive force, unconstitutional searches, or the killing of innocent civilians, police unions routinely stand up for officers who have committed acts with tragic consequences. 
Union contracts "often provide a shield of protection for officers accused of misdeeds," Reuters concluded in a 2017 investigative report.
But the head of the union that represents law enforcement in Broward County, Florida, says his union won't be stepping up to help disgraced deputy Scot Peterson, who resigned amid the fallout from the Feb. 14 school shooting.
Why not? 
It's not because the union is upset with Peterson's conduct or because it thinks he has disgraced the courageous image of law enforcement. 
No, it's really just about the money.
"From a legal standpoint, we say he was not a 'dues-paying member,'" Jeff Bell, president of the Broward County Sheriff's Deputies Association told Reason..."
Read on!

AM Fruitcake

History for March 2

History for March 2 - On-This-Day.com:
Sam Houston 1793 - First President of the Republic of Texas, Sholem Aleichem 1859 - Author, playwright, Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel) 1904 - Writer, poet, and cartoonist


Tom Wolfe 1931 - Author, Mikhail Gorbachev 1931 - Former Soviet President, Karen Carpenter 1950 - Singer (The Carpenters)


1807 - The U.S. Congress passed an act to "prohibit the importation of slaves into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the United States... from any foreign kingdom, place, or country."


1836 - Texas declared its independence from Mexico and an ad interim government was formed.


1877 - In the U.S., Rutherford B. Hayes was declared the winner of the 1876 presidential election by the U.S. Congress. Samuel J. Tilden, however, had won the popular vote on November 7, 1876.


1899 - U.S. President McKinley signed a measure that created the rank of Admiral for the U.S. Navy. The first admiral was George Dewey.


1917 - The Russian Revolution began with Czar Nicholas II abdicating.


1933 - The motion picture King Kong had its world premiere in New York.


1949 - The B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II landed in Fort Worth, TX. The American plane had completed the first non-stop around-the-world flight.


1969 - In Toulouse, France, the supersonic transport Concorde made its first test flight.

‘There’s enough to arrest Hillary now’

‘There’s enough to arrest Hillary now’:

"There is enough evidence now to arrest former Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and send her to jail, says the president of a well-known government-watchdog organization.
But Americans shouldn’t hold their breath, because federal authorities are too consumed with politics, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in an exclusive interview with WND.
“As far as I am concerned, there is enough to arrest Hillary Clinton now,” Fitton said bluntly. “And I just want the Justice Department to finally start enforcing the rule of law.”"

The way we were-----WALTER MURPHY- A Fifth of Beethoven (extended version)

Boob-tube-----Stock Footage - 1960's TV Program Interrupted by News Bulletin

The Trumpian Rorschach Test Never Ends | Roger L. Simon

The Trumpian Rorschach Test Never Ends | Roger L. Simon: 
"...In fact, I would go so far as to say that it is Trump's very boorishness, if you want to call it that, that has allowed him to succeed to such a degree, i. e. to the point that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (no boor he) was able to avow "2017 was the best year for conservatives in the 30 years that I've been here. The best year. On all fronts."
Trump wouldn't have won without being a boor. 
We would have had President Hillary -- who is even more boorish, to tell the truth.  
And you wouldn't have the Democrats walking into walls, calling thousand-dollar bonuses "crumbs" as the mega-boorish Nancy Pelosi did and does. 
And how about cameraholic Adam Schiff when it comes to boors? 
And then there's Bernie with his warmed over 1930s socialist gasbaggery.  
How boorish is that?  
Maybe we have an epidemic.
...Those who cherish good manners and a certain measure of formality and protocol despise the man. Those who call themselves progressive and, usually, don't pay much attention to good manners and certainly not formality  (cf. pussy hats) despise him even more.  
...We enjoy Donald just because he wants to shake things up.  (Yes, like it or not, I have that trait.)  
...I regard his tweets as a feature, not a bug.  
I can't imagine a world without them at this point..."
Read all!

Cut NRA ties, take sides in culture war. That's bad for business and us.

Cut NRA ties, take sides in culture war. That's bad for business and us.:
"Do we really want separate financial systems for Republicans and Democrats? 
Because that's where we're headed if this witch hunt continues.
...Progressive activists and many in the news media have rather different priorities.
Their ire is focused squarely on a group that wasn’t tipped off, wasn’t a first responder, and had no affiliation with the attacker.
Namely, the National Rifle Association.
...But as soon as a vocal group started yelling online, many of these companies cancelled the programs — some within 24 hours. Enterprise car rental, Delta Air Lines, MetLife insurance, Symantec security software and several others abruptly abandoned their often long-standing arrangements with the NRA.
By cowering to a day of social media pressure, these companies are punishing 5 million potential customers simply for holding a common view in American politics — that the Constitution is the law of the land.
NRA members are just a small portion of the roughly 74 million gun owners in America.
Are they to be chased out of the marketplace as well?
...The larger problem isn’t this temporary tempest.
All of these pressure campaigns accomplish nothing but alienate people based on their politics. 
The result is to divide Americans into ever smaller subgroups in which we can’t sit in the same town hall or, apparently, shop in the same stores..."