Monday, February 23, 2015

Boycott Liam Neeson's "Run All Night"

Liam Neeson plays a ex-CIA agent that is continually using his "very particular skill set" in the movies, making good his threat,  "I will look for you, I will find you and I will kill you;" usually with guns a blazing. In other words in the real world, the  Liam Neeson character is a psychotic killer, looking to kill other psychotic killers, all in the name of entertainment, for which he gets paid millions of dollars ($20 million for his latest move Taken 3). So what does Liam Nelson think of America's Constitution?  "There’s too many fucking guns out there! ..Especially in America. I think the population is like, 320 million? There’s over 300 million guns. Privately owned, in America. I think it’s a fucking disgrace. Every week now we’re picking up a newspaper and seeing, ‘Yet another few kids have been killed in schools’." What are you talking about Liam? Gun violence in the US has been on the decline; by 50% in the last 20 years. Further, while certainly a tragedy, children being killed by guns in the US is an aberration; the real culprit is the court system's failure to aggressively enforce the current gun laws that already exist both state and federally. 

So does Liam Neeson  take any responsibility for the effect that his extreme violence in movies has had on society? No he simply chooses to ignore numerous studies show that children exposed to repeated violence can become desensitized to violence? "After the Jonesboro shootings, one of the high-school teachers told me how her students reacted when she told them about the shootings at the middle school. "They laughed," she told me with dismay. A similar reaction happens all the time in movie theaters when there is bloody violence. The young people laugh and cheer and keep right on eating popcorn and drinking pop. We have raised a generation of barbarians who have learned to associate violence with pleasure, like the Romans cheering and snacking as the Christians were slaughtered in the Coliseum."  Are We Conditioning Our Children to Commit Murder?


Liam Neeson's arrogant self serving response speaks volumes of his hubris,  A character like Bryan Mills going out with guns and taking revenge: it's fantasy. It's in the movies, you know? I think it can give people a great release from stresses in life and all the rest of it, you know what I mean? It doesn't mean they're all going to go out and go, 'Yeah, let's get a gun!  Sorry, Neeson but study after study says you are wrong and you are just rationalizing away any responsibility you have for the gun violence you portray with moral abandonment in your movies. Liam-Neeson-launches-expletive

To illustrate this, eOne Movies created a map to provide a handy rundown of all the countries and the number killed, just in case you were wondering like. There’s even a method key, for a more detailed insight into his characters’ murderous ways.


 http://thedailyedge.thejournal.ie/liam-neeson-kill-map-1688438-Sep2014/

 Gun Maker, PARA USA (whom supplied the guns for Taken 3) I think summed it up quite nicely,  “comments made by its Irish-born star during press junkets reflect a cultural and factual ignorance that undermines support of the Second Amendment and American liberties."

I will admit that I have enjoyed Liam Neeson's movies, but I have suddenly lost all interest in seeing them. It is obvious that America Exceptionalism is totally lost on someone that was raised in another country.  American Exceptionalism is not about a people believing their country superior, contrary to the President Obama once again misstating and then apologizing for an American world view he continually demonstrates he simply doesn't understand; unlike any other country, America was originated with the concept of self rule, individual rights and freedom (that makes America the exception to every other country, better by American standards, but certainly not superior). And just because someone is rich and famous, it doesn't give him opinions any more weight than any other non-American that thinks their worldview is superior (just ask Piers Morgan). It needs to be shown that if you come to America and talk trash about our liberties, it's going to cost you.

Friday, February 20, 2015

California Blocks All New Gun Sales with Microstamping Mandate

As of Jan 1, 2015 no Handgun Manufacturer will be allowed to sell any new model handgun in California; the reason being the new Microstamping mandate and the fact that no handgun manufacturer in the US uses the technology. While I'm sure that those that against the lawful ownership of handguns are cheering with delight, the end result is new and safer guns will not be available in California Microstamping is a process where identifying characters are engraved on the head  of the firing pin of a handgun, with the hope that it will leave an impression on the primer of a casing, so law enforcement can identify a handgun that was used in a crime. While the California Police Chiefs Association (CPCA) originally showed interest in the technology,  they now express concern over the "hasty implementation" as  "peer-reviewed studies conducted by independent research organizations conclude that the technology does not function reliably and that criminals can remove the markings easily in mere seconds". California Police Chiefs Association Calls for Firearms Microstamping Study

To date, Glock, Ruger, Smith and Wesson have already said they will not sell new handguns guns in California rather than invest in what is was deemed a faulty technology in 2007 that can be defeated by criminal in seconds (It should be noted that Law enforcement is exempted from the mandate as they are constantly upgrading their officers firearms, which these days are about 80% Glock; apparently civilians don't rank high enough to be able to purchase newer and safer firearms) and there has also been limited research and/or development of the technology. The only reason Microstamping has become mandatory is the patent has run out, while gun manufactures and law enforcement have serious reservations, the California Legislators apparently do not. Further even though that patent has run out, the proprietary machinery owned by the developer, NanoMark of Seattle, Washington, makes it still the only company from which the Microstamping technology can be purchased. "Two trade groups, the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) and the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers Institute (SAAMI), filed a lawsuit in 2014 seeking both declaratory and injunctive relief against what the groups perceive as an attempt to ban semi-automatic handguns in the state." The court issued a decision on May 21, 2014 that denied NSSF and SAAMI’s preliminary injunction request to stop the state from enforcing the new law. The court found that they failed to establish a reasonable probability that they will success on the merits of their case." However this was before the largest firearm manufactures declared they are not going to build a faulty system into their pistols and have been resigned to the fact that they will not be able to serve the California market with their new and often safer handguns; this may result in another attempt to force an injunction. Now this does not mean that Californians will not be able to purchase handguns, there are hundreds of models on California's Department of Justice (DOJ) gun list, it's just new models that have been made illegal by this law.

Finally it is worth noting that California has dozens of gun safety laws that the legislature simply refuses to fund. Included is a law that allows the California DOJ to track down gun owners that made legal purchases of handguns or assault rifles, but have since become ineligible from owning them due to mental illness or a criminal conviction. Unfortunately of the 20,000 illegal gun owners on the list, with some 40,000  illegally possessed firearms in California, only about 2000 have had their firearms confiscated; and around 3,000 are added to the list every year. California Unable to Disarm 19,700 felons and Mentally Ill People 

Thursday, February 19, 2015

ISIS Soldiers Are Not Looking For a Job

 President Obama has been preaching, the cause of ISIS terrorism is poverty and the lack of jobs in the middle east.  The problem with this naivete is western non-secular solutions will not work in the collective religious societies of Eastern Islam.  A Muslims life is to worship and humble their self before god; it is a life of service, charity and austerity. Islam simply doesn't fit the consumer/capitalism mold. In the United States poverty and unemployment often leads to criminal behavior, but in Islam, poverty (or austere living) is more often than not a choice, so as not be distracted by unnecessary possessions that get between man and his God (this is also an early Christian belief).In other words Muslims don't join ISIS becasue they are looking for a well paying job with good benifits.

In a society that is dedicated to the worship of god, community and service, everyone has his place and there is always something to do; each according to their ability, each according to their contribution.*  Unemployment and poverty simply do not have the same meaning in eastern Islam as it does in the west. And it is liberty, freedom of thought, consumerism and western education that, in a Christian context, are the four horsemen of the apocalypses of Islam. Islam is a religion the decided itself from the 13th century that science (discovering the structure of the natural world without divine regulation) was an anathema that needed to be fought so Islam can survive. To suggest the same as an answer to radical Jihad, is much the same as offering Americans another chance at British tyranny.

* There are two of these clever sayings that are meant to define Communists. The first (which I used to describe Islam) describes the Communists Dictatorship for the purposes of re-education, which places a priority on collectivism and working for the benefit of the state (in the case of Islam it is to the benefit of Allah); "each according to their ability, each according to their contribution. Once the re-education has been successful and the second revolution has occurred that frees the people from the yoke of the oppressive dictatorship and collectivism, the people will  finally be free to enjoy life on their individualists terms; a paradise described as "each according to their ability; each according to their needs". This might explain why the left has been the constant apologists for Islam, despite the carnage being waged by radical Islamic.