Friday, March 21, 2014

Why the No Guns Signs in Restaurants and Shopping Malls are Unenforceable

Chicago, IL—As thousands of concealed weapons permits are being issued here some people running local businesses apparently fear anyone law-abiding that is also armed.   They are putting up signs prohibiting guns.
Illinois politicians opposed to gun rights have offered up a feel good solution allowing businesses to ban guns on their property that’s otherwise open to the public.   Some of the businesses are following corporate mandates others are ignorant and perhaps frightened by the idea of guns. 
Of course all armed and dangerous criminals can be counted upon to ignore the signs.  Adding to the madness the business owners utilizing the signs are telling criminals that they can rob, kill or rape without encountering armed resistance! 
These days in most safe appearing neighborhoods finding armed security guards not involved in money transportation is nearly impossible.   No local business would dare begin TSA style frisking.  If they tried doing that, it would guarantee a trip to the Bankruptcy Court.  
Putting up the signs sends a political message that will bring more than enough customer loss and economic damage.   Frankly you have a choice and can avoid doing business where such signs are displayed.   It’s simply one more good reason to use amazon.com, skipping the brick and mortar Gun-Free Zones altogether.
First and foremost concealed weapon arrests are made almost exclusively during vehicular traffic stops.  Occasionally some arrests are made incident to unrelated arrests for shoplifting, street disturbances or trespassing cases.  Shoplifters that carry guns find out the hard way that packing heat may raise a misdemeanor offense to a much higher-level felony crime in many jurisdictions.
Thankfully none of us have ever seen police enter businesses and restaurants and begin searching patrons.  There is still a shell of the Fourth Amendment protection from unreasonable search and seizure preventing that kind of police nightmare.  The fact is entering a sign posted business with a No Gun sign carries almost no risk of discovery.  That may and should change with a breach of the peace.
If a permit holder were discovered armed, they’d have to prove that the sign was not obstructed from view.  Often I’ve seen the signs posted on glass doors that were actually propped open and not facing where people could reasonably be expected to see them.  Did the patron enter behind a large person blocking view of the sign?
One thing we can all count on thugs, robbers, rapists and killers will never obey these or any signs or laws.   Why put yourself at risk simply to obey a stupid sign?   
If there was the rare situation where a violent crime occurs like a robbery and a patron was armed and actually displayed or otherwise used the firearm judiciously I think an arrest would be highly unlikely especially of a violent crime was halted.
The signs have no real impact but to divide businesses from customers.  A concealed weapon permit guarantees that the holder is a sane and law-abiding citizen.  Felons, the insane and otherwise troublesome people cannot be barred from businesses without fear of bringing the wrath of the ACLU and government regulators. 
If you have a concealed weapon permit and you are armed you need not fear arrest provided that you are not intoxicated or disorderly.  If something happens and you either display or otherwise deploy your weapon do not answer questions but instead ask for a lawyer.   
My advice is to not patronize any business with these ridicules signs.  If for convenience, you feel the need to give them business they don’t deserve you should simply ignore the signs.  Never let some politician or law deter you from protecting yourself or someone you love.  Be safe, not sorry! 



Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Without Proof of Citizenship and Photo Identification Elections are Unreliable

Chicago, IL—Chicago is the home of massive election fraud.   They register the dogs, cats and dead to vote.   In the African-American ghettos there are no Republicans.  The Democratic Precinct Captains own and control the polling places.  The “Republican” election judges are always Democrats masquerading to satisfy legal requirements.    
Poll watchers are routinely intimidated, their cars vandalized and the votes are always tabulated in high these crime areas late at night. The reality is the Precinct captains simply vote for every no show voter.  Chicago’s ghetto returns are always the last ones turned into the Recorder’s office.   The Precinct Captain has a lot of work to do because the election judges unpaid helpers making the Captain happy.
The most serious problem today is the 11 million illegal aliens that have as many reasons to stuff our ballot boxes.  They want entitlements and amnesty.   They know that the Democrats are the ones promising them everything they desire despite their trespassing on our soil.  The Democrats also reassure the illegals that they will face no penalties for registering to vote or voting.  
The Democrats demand that people be allowed to register and vote without any proof of citizenship or identification.  The motivation for these demands can only to facilitate massive voter fraud. 
Democrats know that massive fraud has thrown elections for years.  Democrats have perfected vote fraud. 
Frankly the identification requirements to purchase a gun should be equal when it comes to voting in elections.   American elections have been a total farce in every large American city.  No other nation allows people to vote without strict id requirements and proof of citizenship. 


Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Can Quadcopters facilitate the Salvation of TV New


Helicopter Crash Scene Courtesy of KOMO-TV Seattle, WA
Seattle, WA—Tragedy struck this morning as a TV news helicopter crashed near the landmark Space Needle.  At least two people are reported dead and another is listed in critical condition at a local hospital.  At least three cars have been set on fire as result of the crash.
TV news helicopters have a relatively good safety record, but every few years somewhere, these horrible accidents are repeated.  
Over the years I’ve lost friends in crashes in Phoenix, AZ and Denver, CO that lost their lives covering news from the air.  Trust me, it always hurts.
Aerial news coverage is necessary but can be a little risky.  It is also the single most expensive cost of most TV news organizations. 
TV news has lost a major portion of its audience and revenue and many news organizations have curtailed or eliminated helicopter coverage altogether.
Technology has brought us something far lass risky or expensive, the camera armed, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle.  These devices are very light, inexpensive, safe and perfect for gathering and broadcasting news video.  
The little drones can cost at little at $1000.00 with the popular high definition GoPro cameras or as much as $15,000 with a larger camera such as the Canon 5D DSLR with live broadcasting capability.   Either way it’s only a fraction of the cost of operating a helicopter.
The upside is that accidents with quadcopters are nearly always free from damage or injury.  They are so light that should they fall from the sky there is little or no damage in most cases.  The size of the quadcopters range from a small to an extra large pizza.
Medium and small market TV stations can keep several of these quadcopters in their broadcast arsenals at little cost.  They are also much quicker to deploy for a news story than those helicopters they now rely upon 
They can operate as long as 25 minutes before they are brought down for a quick battery change.
Those sensational and famous Los Angeles freeway chases are not currently suitable for the quadcopters because they often go on for hours and many miles. 
In riots helicopters are often shot at from the ground. That’s dangerous to say the least.  Quadcopters are a much smaller moving target and lives are not at risk should they be hit by gunfire.
A Denver federal judge has just reversed the FAA ban on commercial use of these drones.  Use of drones by hobbyists was always allowed but now news organizations are free to employ these devices.
I know for sure that employing drones will slow down the steady downpour of pink slips in newsrooms because they are so incredibly cost effective.
I can predict the immediate hiring of quadcopter multimedia journalist-pilots that can also edit the raw video into news packages on laptops in their vehicles at various news events. 
In the long run the use of drones will bring more use or aerial video than the helicopters simply because of the ease and reduced cost involved.
Another advantage is the drones can easily operate at much lower altitudes.  In fact the FAA wants them no higher than 400 feet.  Aerial video from just 30 to 75 feet is truly amazing.
The drones can be effectively flown and operated after only a few hours of practice.  News organizations cannot afford, not to employ these gee whizz gizmos if they are serious about their mission and financial survival. 
Below is my first video flight of my Blade 350 quadcopter and GoPro Hero3+ camera.  The cost of this bare bones package was about $1000.00.  I was able to do this with only about an hour’s instruction and practice.  I edited this video on a laptop with Final Cut pro X software. 


Here is some exceptional night video over Los Angeles with a DJI Phantom II with a GoPro:


Why Most Gun Permit and Registration Laws are Unconstitutional

CT Gov. Dannel Malloy signs new gun ban and registration law
Los Angeles, CA—In the not so golden state of California politicians never met a gun ban, restriction or tax they did not absolutely love.
Aside from the guarantee of the Second Amendment politicians here and in the other Leftist run jurisdictions of this once great nation regularly trample on the rights of citizens.
Permits and registration requirements all come with serious legal baggage.  First and foremost gun permits and registration come with special tax assessments or fees. 
The cost of fingerprint screening and administrative matters are forced on every gun owner.  Second is that gun owners are forced to surrender their privacy by answering personal questions on the gun permit and registration application documents.
In many states the gun registration and permit records are considered public and the media often publishes some of these records.  Newspapers have even gone so far as to map out the homes of gun owners in an effort to humiliate and shame them!  Home invaders and burglars were provided with a wealth of personal information endangering those entire communities!
The fact is gun registration is in no way an effective crime-fighting tool.  Convicted felons and mental patients have long been absolutely exempt from obtaining permits or gun registration laws on self-incrimination grounds. 
Guns are never left at crime scenes unless the offenders are killed, incapacitated or arrested at the crime scene.  Accordingly tracing gun ownership does absolutely nothing to solve crimes. 
Gun registration does nothing at all to deter crime or improve anyone’s behavior.   Gun registration’s real purpose is to unlawfully tax gun owners and to provide government with a database of targets for later gun confiscation tyranny.
By imposing special any fees and taxes on gun owners they are forced to purchase a Constitutional right.  That right then becomes reduced to a privilege granted only to those who can afford to pay for it. 
The now outlawed Poll Taxes of the Deep South are the best example of the rationale demonstrating why gun permit and registration fees are also unconstitutional. 
Forcing special taxes and fees on gun owners violates their rights to due process under the Fifth Amendment by imposing a fine.  The gun owners were never charged, tried or convicted but are in effect punished with a fine.  
The fees too often victimize the poor when they can’t afford them; they are denied their rights under the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause.  Should any American be forced to choose between food, shelter or the need for self-defense?  Simple survival depends on all three.  
The state of Connecticut’s politicians have put their population in a dangerous crisis with a new registration law.  They required owners of certain rifles and ammunition magazines to register them.  So far over 100,000 have openly defied the law risking felony arrests.
Over 250 CT state police officers risked their job by signing a document that proclaims they won’t participate in enforcement activities under the new law.  You can be sure that hundreds of other officers have similar mindset did not have the courage to sign that very public document.
What it boils down to is that any officers foolish enough to enforce the new law will not have needed backup and their lives will be at risk. 
This is a crisis that undermines basic respect for law.  It’s a slippery slope that leads to chaos and even insurrection. 
The politicians in CT need to revisit their new registration law and learn about pragmatism.  They must ask themselves honestly, what are the benefits if any of their registration goals? 





Sunday, March 16, 2014

The Real Danger of Not Protecting Free Speech

Los Angeles, CA—Pornography, hate speech and Rock & Roll music have all come under attack in America.  The religious misfits of the Westboro Baptist Church disrupt funerals of our fallen soldiers carrying their disjointed messages of hate.  In the 1970’s neo-Nazis sought to picket Skokie, IL, which was where many Concentration Camp survivors were still living. 
Repugnant words, displays, videos seem to be everywhere.  Certainly political messages many of us despise assault us everywhere.  We can’t seem to find refuge from something offensive.   Many ignorant people in this land demand strict laws to curb offensive speech. 
There really is no happy medium or acceptable compromise.  What we create when we try are subjective judgments of vague words like immoral, obscene or hateful.  When does art become pornography?  When is disagreement hate? 
The best way we can determine what Americans want politically is through allowing unfettered free speech.  
We don’t really have freedom of thought or expression even though it’s the law of the land.  For example you write a blog like mine and you freely express your opinion it could be a liability. 
These days, potential employers conduct routine Internet searches of applicants and if they don’t like what you published they will discriminate against you.  That’s all too common in the entertainment and news business. 
Hate speech is a certain sign that freedom still exists in this nation.  It should really be music to our ears. 
If certain speech is outlawed than people become too afraid to express their true opinions.  Despots like Castro, Hitler and Stalin loved to brag how they are supported by 100% of their populations.  Not all of the seemingly adoring Germans loved Hitler.  There was a severe price to pay if you did not display reverence for the swastika and Hitler.  We will never know just how unpopular Hitler was after he invaded Poland and the USSR.  
Communists and Nazis demand loyalty of everyone they rule.  Severe penalties were levied against people they merely suspected may not have liked their form of government or leaders.   
Anonymous letters and phone calls suggesting disloyalty were always sufficient evidence for the Gestapo, KGB or Stazi to remove a couple’s children out for adoption or even to an orphanage.
After 1939 Nazi Germany used the fact that they were at war as an excuse to hang people that refused to give the Hitler salute or were caught listening to foreign radio broadcasts.   American or British style Swing Dance music was viewed as enemy propaganda and there was always some draconian form of punishment for minimal resistance.
Suggesting in any way that Nazi Germany or the USSR was violating human rights or that those forms of government were simply inadequate could and did often bring the death penalty. 
What we seem to somehow forget is that East German Communists were killing anyone they could trying to escape to the West until the Wall came down in 1989.  I can’t help but believe fleeing Communism is yet another form of speech.
Make no mistake Communists are in the Halls of our Congress and the Whitehouse today.  Their constant assault on liberty, freedom and the Bill of Rights has heralded their true loyalties.  Their actions speak clearly for them despite their claimed political party labels.
Yes, I’d spit on Barack Obama because of the Red Color of his politics and constant lies.  So far, government should not be able to punish me for saying that.  I’m proud to say I detest Obama and all that he stands for.   
Frankly, I see it as my duty as an American to spill a lot of blood including my own before I let government muzzle me.  There is no freedom without free speech. 

Saturday, March 15, 2014

St. Patrick’s Day in Chicago, The way it Was!

Mayor Daley leading the St. Patrick's Day Parade
Chicago, IL—Before the push to demonize Catholicism here and elsewhere St. Patrick’s Day was a special event in Chicago like none other.   The radical Left Wing used their influence to destroy a grand celebration of Irish pride.
The date of St. Patrick’s Day is March 17th.    It’s by no means the nearest Saturday.  Politicians all but ended local government cooperation throwing cold water on the celebrations all over the city.   
This special day was not by any means an official paid holiday for anyone.  However in Chicago the city simply all but shut down.  The children played hooky from school and everyone took part in celebrations.  At the city offices and private businesses nobody called in sick, it was understood they weren’t showing up for work!  This was by no means a religious celebration, but one of absolute fun and merriment.
Most of Chicago’s Democratic ward organizations held corned beef and cabbage dinners for their members.   Grand parties were held everywhere but the ghettos.  Almost everyone became Irish on this fun day. 

The St. Patrick’s Day Parade was a blast.  The real mayor, Richard J. Daley, not his worthless son by a similar name was the MC. 
In the glory days of the 1960’s and 70’s all parades began at Hubbard and State Streets.  The first residential building it passed was where I lived at Marina City.  From my apartment I had a wonderful Southeastern view of the city and could watch the parade from beginning to where it ended at State and Congress Streets.
That Notre Dame football great, later signed by the NFL, Steelers, John Joseph “Johnny” Lattner, owned the Marina City restaurants and he knew how to throw a grand Irish party.  Green beer flowed like Niagara Falls everywhere.  It matched the river below that was always dyed green for the occasion by the Chicago Plumbing Council under the control of the Late, Daniel Patrick Leyden.

I don’t quite understand just what happened to the crazy women that partied more than I could ever imagine.  Their clothes quickly came off as they chased the boys!   It was always just like Sadie Hawkins Day from Al Capp’s, Li'l Abner hillbilly comic strip.  I could run but not hide from some incredibly attractive hotties. 
Saint Patrick’s Day for me was the greatest celebration of the year.  It’s all but gone now. 
Mayor Daley’s successor Michael Blandic and the city council members funded their campaign contributions and illicit slush funds for a decade by shutting down traffic on State Street for their billion-dollar State Street Mall project.  Aside from crippling downtown traffic it was a grand failure in every respect.  Needless to say the parades were rerouted. 
In true Chicago style the politicians soon deconstructed the State Street Mall and opened State Street once again for yet another cool billion!   Just imagine how sound the public employee pensions would be today with the $2 billion that was wasted and stolen by Chicago’s corrupt politicians?
The only real celebration today was when the South Side Irish Community began to hold a parade a parade to replace what was gutted.   Chicago’s Irish have since taken a distant back seat to African-Americans and Hispanics and parade permits were sometimes denied.  There is little left but a token celebration on the nearest Saturday.  The St. Patrick’s holiday spirit died with the late Great Richard J.  Daley. 
RIP St. Patrick.  At least they can’t take my fond memories. 

Friday, March 14, 2014

Gun Free Zones vs. Gun Rights and Survival

Phoenix, AZ—I’ve been in the fight for Gun-Rights here since the 1980’s.  Arizona had a real Wild West mentality mixed with the Liberal ideation of the huge influx big city Eastern transplants that brought their gun bans with them.
Those from New York, New Jersey and Chicago fled from their cities but quickly demanded the same kind of Liberal baloney that made them run away in the first place!  It may not make sense, but it’s reality. 
Gun control has long offered the false promise of greater public safety.  Some people actually believe that in a free society you can simply make laws and people will somehow obey them.  If we can’t keep drugs and weapons out of our maximum-security prisons how can we possibly control them in our cities? 
The problem with gun control is a simple one.  Gun bans are unenforceable.  The Fourth Amendment in our Bill of Rights guarantees the right to be free of unreasonable searches.  Okay, many people hate our hard won freedom and the Second Amendment that guarantees the right to keep and carry firearms more than anything.  
How can our government search everyone in order to seize his or her firearms?  As it is, every year we spend hours, even days and weeks in lines waiting to be frisked like a criminals as we enter government buildings, planes, boats and trains.
Gun bans are only enforced by the honor system.  Since when do violent criminals and psychopaths have honor?  It’s obvious that honorable and law-abiding people are the only ones that obey the gun bans.   By banning guns we guarantee only criminals have guns. 
Okay, some believe that cops are the solution.  However we’ve redundantly seen how poorly they’ve responded in virtually every mass shooting.  The cops are too little and always too late to stop the carnage. 
Today our cops can only be counted on for a great show of military might with their fashionable SWAT gear and military style vehicles for the nightly TV news.  We can of course remember well their wonderful victories in places like Waco, Texas and Ruby Ridge, Idaho.  
Who can forget the pageantry of Jefferson County, CO SWAT cops marching around the Columbine High School while school kids were being slaughtered inside?  The cops dutifully waited until the gunmen committed suicide and the victims bled to death before they entered the school.
When the dust settles after a mass shooting we get the body count and see the grieving relatives on TV.   Quickly politicians promise us the violence will end with just one more gun ban.  Of course we know the answer to that, gun bans only make things worse.
The most dangerous place in America is those places with the feel good, Gun-Free Zone signs.  Ignorance is bliss if anyone actually believes that those signs do anything but remind deranged misfits they need not fear any resistance if they begin killing people.
There are those that believe that the police should handle everything and that they have no personal responsibility to protect themselves, families, and neighbors or for that matter their country.
Self-defense is really not about politics.  It’s not about laws either.  Self-defense is deeply rooted in the law of survival.  Simply put, those that can’t or won’t step up to the plate and use every means to survive were not meant to live.  Charles Darwin is the obvious ultimate authority here. 
Darwin was not yet around to influence our founding fathers but they seemed to understand the concept he later established in his widely accepted teachings.
Every sane, sober and competent American has an absolute duty to make sure they and their families survive.  Abdicating this responsibility is not a sign of civilization but one of ignorance. 
That means firearms must be treated like fire extinguishers, seat belts and first aid kits.  Professional training and safety are key elements too. 
Propaganda generated by history’s worst despots, has always brainwashed the citizenry into believing that they should surrender their instinct for survival to the agents with the bucket helmets, jackboots and rifles.
Fools fall for that old line every time.  What’s past is prologue.