Washington, DC- -it's a painfully slow process for politicians and FAA bureaucrats to accept the need, legitimacy and relative safety of those little civilian drones.   There was the initial hysteria of passenger jets crashing, mass privacy invasion because of those little drones.     The panic reaction was bolstered with thousands mistaken or deliberately false reports of sightings claiming drone misbehavior.     Thankfully as the number of drones in civilian hands increased by leaps and bounds, the bogus reports quietly subsided considerably.  Very recently progress has been made in allowing the commercial use of drones under a somewhat loosened set of rules and guidelines.    Along with the more realistic drone rules the FAA created the Part 107 licensing exemption with a written test for commercial drone pilots.   They have allowed for considerable expansion of drone use in urban areas for news gathering, filmmakin...

Los Angeles, CA—I love German films because they helped me learn the German language when I was a young Army medical corpsman serving in that great nation.  Today German films and TV series are simply terrific!   Toni Erdmann is a favorite and the shoe-in for the Best Foreign Film Oscar Award. It's in German, Romanian and English.   Of course The film is sub-titled in English.   I had to see what the major film festival's buzz was all about. I won’t spoil it for you but will tell you it’s about a somewhat lonely old curmudgeon, Winfried Conradi aka Toni Erdmann (Peter Simonischeck) who refused to grow up.   Our aging protagonist is never at a loss for a prank or joke and he longs to bring his successful and beautiful role model daughter, Ines Conradi, (Sandra Huller) back into his life.  Our hero invades his daughter’s life as she is working hard on an Important business trip to Romania.  Needless to say the complications pile up in ...

Hollywood, CA —Tinseltown was once ruled by some over-emotional Conservatives.   There was a group of Communist artists here that included Lucille Ball that were considered by others as both dangerous and un-American.   The result of that misguided political activism was a purge that destroyed promising careers in the form of Blacklisting. Today the shoe is on the other foot and the seeming majority Hollywood’s elite are Socialists. They pour millions into Leftist political campaign coffers.   Today’s Hollywood power structure has little tolerance for Conservative artists.  The industry’s accepted screenwriters bend over backwards making films that display African-American heroism and legitimize the Gay lifestyle. I guess it might be called, Affirmative Action Filmmaking .   I don’t want criticize anyone’s artistic products no matter their message.  Saying that, I’m a solid and unyielding believer in Freedom of Speech and Thought.  ...

Washington, DC —We are a divided nation like never before or at least since the North and South rained carnage on each other not that long ago.  Donald Trump won the election promising an end to importing crime, drugs, poverty and terrorism through a castrated immigration control system.    The Leftists politicians (that includes both Bush Presidents) never had enough votes to repeal immigration laws so they simply obstructed justice and willfully refused to enforce it. From Gun rights, free medical care demands and the Global Warming theory, the Left and Conservatives are at constant odds.     We settled it with an election that Donald Trump won. However the Left can’t emotionally deal with losing and are taking to the streets in some cases like thugs.  It’s laughable as they are all shooting cell phone video of each other’s bad behavior.  The political venom is getting worse everyday.  The Left is well known for usi...

The flight begins and ends just a little North of Franklin and Vine.   You can see three famous landmarks, The Hollywood Sign, Griffith Observatory and the iconic Capitol Records Building.   Spandau Ballet sings their hit True.   Please be sure to watch full screen and enjoy!    

Hollywood, CA —The filmmaking business is getting more democratized every day.   The days of only the most powerful studios and talent agencies   producing films are numbered. Cheaper equipment means   more people than ever can make films.   Alfred Hitchcock was a master of making great films on the cheap.  No special effects, difficult sets or  costumes were used.  Just talented writing and actors made his success. Some filmmakers enjoy the power of mixing art with political propaganda.  They want to influence the masses rather than entertain them.  That’s exactly what was behind the recent financial film disaster of, MISS SLOAN . With an estimated $13 million budget, a terrific leading lady ( Jessica Chastain ) what could possibly go wrong?  The answer is everything! I’m loving the films finally being produced with female protagonists. When I saw the slick previews I thought this would be something I wanted to see....

Los Angeles, CA —The father of broadcast Fake News is Josef Goebbels .   As Adolf Hitler’s Minister of Enlightenment   and Propaganda, he was a pure genius.   Goebbels convinced the entire nation of Germany that what they heard on their newly acquired radios was always absolutely true.   Goebbels success was not lost on our own CIA , back then called, OSS .   The OSS learned of the amazing power of the radio and soon Franklin Roosevelt was broadcasting propaganda “Fireside Chats” that mesmerized our entire nation binding us together against Germany, Italy and Japan.   In the last 150 years we had powerful newspapers and soon followed radio and television.  I don’t give a rat’s ass who the news provider may be, they all have their own secret and vested interests that they are selling to the public as news.   Only the very richest Americans could own newspapers and broadcasting organizations.  We the people were never part of th...

Unlike the other provisions of our Bill of Rights the Supreme Court did not apply it to the states until very recent times in the Heller and McDonald cases. That previously allowed states to wrongfully regulate or restrict our rights to keep and carry weapons.   The failure to incorporate that right was in my opinion a deliberate effort by gun haters on the court to derail our liberty. Thankfully Heller and McDonald rulings finally rectified that problem. Our constitutional rights can't be licensed, taxed or otherwise infringed.  They can be regulated only to the extent of people victimizing innocents. Yelling fire in a crowded theater or using a weapon to injure or kill someone unjustifiably are examples of regulation.  As for weapons the Second amendment was not as some fools want to believe a vehicle for arming the government.  The militia was never the government!  The government already had the power to arm itself.  The idea of the se...

I located the original video and have restored it for your education.  Conflict avoidance is the best way to survive.  Pumping a few shots into someone does not always incapacitate!  

Charlotte, NC- - Rioting thugs beat, rob and strip naked an innocent white man in a parking garage.  When gun rights hating Liberals demand to know why Americans need large capacity magazines for their firearms this is exactly why.  It's unfortunate that some well armed citizen was not there to stop this cold. This was no protest but a racist insurrection by opportunistic and vile thugs. I see this as terrorism and a war crime.

Former KTTV-TV Investigative Reporter Chris Blatchford Los Angeles, CA —He came from the Windy City.   He, Chris Blatchford landed in Los Angeles nearly a quarter century ago and became a mainstay of investigative television news reporting at the Local Fox affiliate, KTTV-TV .   He worked under the leadership of former news director Jose Rios for many years.   In 2011 Rios retired and things began to change but not for the better when Kingsly Smith took over the news director’s job for two somewhat controversial years.   According to Blatchford’s   complaint, Smith attached himself to the stations legal analyst Robin Sax in an affair that apparently brought much more success to Ms. Sax’s career than to the news department.  Within two years Smith was replaced by the recently departed news director, Bill  Mondona . Kingsley Smith Robin Sax Things did not improve for Blatchford and he was placed on the fast track for apparent fo...

Chicago, IL- -Chicago cops are represented by the FOP as their collective bargaining agent.  They have lost more ground in recent years for their membership.  The city’s politicians have stolen, squandered and otherwise mismanaged Chicago’s revenue for decades creating a public safety funding nightmare.   Chicago is the current murder capital of the United states and in the last nine months despite gun bans and draconian restrictions over 3,000 people have been shot here. Nearly a decade ago with bloggers popping up Second City Cop was Born.  The site is hosted allegedly by a cop who has since retired. He or she has remained anonymous avoiding the wrath of angry police bosses and politicians.    Second city has done well in calling out misguided management, biased police related media stories and corruption.  In many cases SCC has criticized the FOP for lack of leadership or courage in their representation of cops.  In Short SCC ha...

Los Angeles, CA —The Internet and today’s video technology has given us the ability to gather and report news with inexpensive equipment and just a little knowhow.   This could be done with modern prosumer video equipment rather than the elitist stuff costing in the tens of thousands.  News video can even be gathered and edited with a modern iPhone. Of course you want the best quality your budget can handle.  You need watchable video and poor audio is inexcusable.  The local stations here are fading fast into the Abyss of low viewership, minimal content and vanishing revenue.  Viewers and print news readers everywhere are abandoning the papers and TV news broadcasts for no-nonsense content on the Internet. Those seeking news can search and find news and information without the overpaid news readers and their mindless and often propagandized chit-chat.  With streaming video a team of video journalists producers with a good assignment desk ma...

Los Angeles-- For those blog visitors that are unaware I'm both a senior citizen and a member of SAG-AFTRA Union. The gracious president of our union has asked us to contact Governor Jerry "Moonbeam" Brown.  Our union president Is the elegant and talented  Gabrielle Carteris  who wants to see a bill passed by dopey members of the California Assembly signed into law!   I certainly understand the motivation for the legislation that would outlaw publishing the ages or dates of birth of actors.  They simply want to combat age discrimination.  Currently the Internet Movie Database or the IMDB lists the ages of every known actor in the world.  Understandably decisions are made by casting directors to include or exclude actors in film parts based on the published information. Publishing the age information is constitutionally protected activity! What these politicians and screen actors representatives seem to have forgotten is that in many nations no film can...

Los Angeles, CA —While Im here visiting the Left Coast I have to make myself a meal or two.   I like making simple Stir-Frys and this is how I do it.   It’s simple, quick, easy and very tasty!   I thought Id show my visitors just how I do it!