Gun Control Myths That Die Hard

At some point you would think the anti-gun cabal would educate themselves enough to know the facts about guns. Instead of focusing on real concerns such as the mentally ill getting access to a gun they continue to rely on talking points that have no validity. Banning the AR-15 is one of the more common ones these days.

They try to make a case that banning the AR will stop the carnage but the fact is the overwhelming majority of violent crime is handgun related. They’re going after the AR-15 specifically because they view it as low-hanging fruit. They’re convinced they can win that war in the state legislatures.

One need only look at the criteria they consider to make an assault weapon and it’s obviously a sham. Pistol grips, barrel shrouds, collapsible stock and other cosmetic parts that have nothing to do with the lethality of the firearm but the real issue is blaming the inanimate object rather than the individual who uses it. And worse, so many of these school shooters had a litany of psychological problems and encounters with law enforcement that should have been more than enough reason to get the individual psychological help and keep them away from firearms.

One of the most bogus arguments is the notion that the Second Amendment only gives the right to bear arms to the military. This is so wrong on so many levels. First of all, the Constitution in general and the Bill of Rights specifically, do not award rights to John Q. Public; they affirm their rights and specifically limit the power of government.

Among the founding fathers the Federalists were against the Bill of Rights. Liberals have used that fact to say the Founding Fathers really didn’t intend to give the public unlimited freedom but they either misunderstand or are disingenuous because that’s not the case.

The Federalists such as Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison didn’t like the Bill of Rights because they argued that the Constitution didn’t need it. Their perspective was the people and the states kept any powers not given to the federal government. Their fear was a tyrannical government would consider a bill of rights as an all-inclusive list of the rights of citizens and everything else were the rights of government.

The Anti-Federalists such as Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams and James Monroe believed a Bill of Rights was necessary to safeguard individual liberty by specifically stating the most sacred rights were clearly guaranteed. Both sides agreed on the rights of John Q, they just disagreed on how to assure those rights would always be recognized.

An ancillary to the liberal interpretation of the Second Amendment is it only applies to muskets. “The Founding Fathers had no way to predict the evolution of firearms into the modern, rapid fire weapons of war that are now available,” they postulate. Ironically that point of view is most often read in Internet blogs on smart phones and iPads which begs the question do they have the right to publish their thoughts since the First Amendment would only apply to quill and parchment but I digress.

What the Founding Fathers did know was that John Q. should have total access to the same weaponry possessed by the military because John Q. was the last line of defense against a government out of control. And that nonsense where the left goes to the extreme and asks, “Does that mean you should be allowed to own a nuclear weapon?” First of all, even a government out of control in this country isn’t going to be nuking its own cities but having said that, what part of law abiding citizen do you not get? Even if I had a nuke on the workbench in my garage, I’m not going to be using it. That’s the point of being a law abiding citizen.

And for the record you intellectual tree stumps, repeating rifles were in existence for more than 100 years before the Bill of Rights was written and the Puckle gun, a multiple shot repeating rifle somewhat of a precursor to the Gatling Gun was well known to the Founding Fathers. Not much of an intellectual leap of faith to project it would morph into a more efficient automatic type firearm in the future.

But the most fundamental lie is if we ban guns criminals won’t have access and violent crime will go away. Again, the hardware is the problem not the individual but individuals have been slaughtering others for time immemorial all the way back to the day Cain killed his brother Able.

Yeah, the government banning guns will solve the problem all right; just as it did with prohibition and the war on drugs. If you’re in the mood to ban something how about we ban those who would attempt to ban law abiding citizens from owning whatever gun they want?

In The War For the Hearts and Minds of America Conservatives are the Problem

The problem with conservatives is they believe in the rule of law, fair play and honesty; three of the hallmarks of an increasingly marginalized way of life. Progressive liberalism considers all three to be weaknesses that can be exploited to erode conservatism and expand a socialist agenda.

Liberals lost in the election despite putting in the fix, lost in the Supreme Court as a result and lost in the court of public opinion. Rather than do a little self-analysis and ask the tough questions about why they’ve been losing, liberals prefer to take control of the media in all its forms to be their propaganda machine.

Like it or not, social media is the dominant form of modern communication. It is, without question, getting stronger and increasingly pervasive over time. The over fifty set eschews the Internet in general and social media specifically. The days of the Baby Boomer generation running things are coming to an end.

According to government statistics, about 22.6% of the U.S. population consists of the Baby Boomer Generation; those born between 1946 and 1964. The demographic that truly believed in the rule of law, fair play and honesty is being pushed out of the driver’s seat.

Generation X’ers, those born between 1965 and 1980 account for 20.2%, Millennials, born 1981 through ‘96, are at 22.1% of the population and Generation Z, those born after 1996 are already at 26.5% of the U.S. population. It was Ho Chi Minh who noted “to reap a return in ten years, plant trees. To reap a return in 100, cultivate the people” and liberals are doing just that.

The vast majority of Gen X, Millennials and Generation Z citizens were educated by liberal professors, have been thoroughly indoctrinated in virtues of socialism and the evils of conservatism, They grew up, if not born, in the world of the Internet. Baby Boomers who ignore the power of social media to both condition and control the teaming masses do so at the peril of the way of life we see as the real America.

The Internet is vast and complex and is the perfect carrier for social media. It allows instant dissemination of information in real-time, can reach millions of people instantly and is available throughout the world. Facebook and Twitter combined regularly speak to 1.8 billion people. Sixty-eight percent of Americans are now on Facebook, Google is the world’s number one search engine and YouTube is slowly but surely making television obsolete. They are the liberal media trifecta.

Despite all that, liberalism was still not getting sufficient traction. As a result, liberals are now subtly and not-so-subtly censoring conservative ideology on the Internet. Social media giants such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have been exposed censoring conservative programming. The message is powerful and the results are exemplary. Liberals have converted numerous banks and major corporations to support their position cutting off funding and marketing for firearms and other conservative-based goods and services.

Billionaires such as George Soros and Michael Bloomberg are pouring millions of dollars of their own money into transforming America into a socialist country. Thousands of liberals turn out regularly to protest, march and cause chaos in the streets. These are the quintessential idealists. They are doing this because of what they believe unlike conservatives who, for the most part, continue to believe the system will work.

When asked to donate funds or subsidize conservative efforts to thwart liberalism the conversation inevitably turns toward, “what’s the return on my investment?” You doubt it? Any attempt by us to get sponsors was always mired down in what a sponsorship would do economically for the sponsor. There was no thought to idealistic nonsense such as keeping a pro-Second Amendment dialogue on the air. Not even one’s basic right to keep and bear arms was sufficient cause to commit even the smallest financial obligation.

To this day the most significant gun lobby group in Springfield protecting the right of all Illinois gun owners is the Illinois State Rifle Association. Yet the ISRA enjoys a membership consisting of a mere one-percent of Illinois FOID card holders. Conservatives are pragmatists. For the most part conservatives want to know what’s the return on investment before doling out dollars; liberals could care less. And when is the last time you saw a few thousand conservatives blocking the Dan Ryan or Lake Shore Drive?

Liberals are ideologists and they will give up their last dime and risk going to jail to change society to their warped socialist point of view. That is the difference between conservatives and liberals and that is why it appears inevitable liberalism will win in the long run. One day you will take up and wonder what happened to the country you loved and who took your guns. The answer will be – you’re apathy and lack of commitment is what happened.

Dante’s 10th Circle

If you haven’t had the opportunity to read Dante’s Inferno, I highly recommend you continue on you successful journey avoiding it. The Inferno has more indecipherable metaphors per page than a Chicago street has potholes and the journey is just about as bumpy. The crux of the Inferno is detailing Dante’s concept of Hell and he does so by enumerating nine ever descending circles into the darkest depths of Hell. The first circle is limbo.

According to Dante this is where virtuous non-Christians and unbaptized pagans go when they die. I was also taught it is where babies go if they die before they can be baptized. For 35 years I was comforted that unbaptized babies had somewhere to go but then in 1992 limbo disappeared from Catholic doctrine. I’ve always worried about those poor babies floating around somewhere in the great cosmic muffin.

As you go deeper you enter the Second Circle which is lust. Now you know, you don’t want to rush things so hanging out in one of the circles isn’t such a bad thing. You know, doing a few millennia might not be such a bad deal in the Lust circle but eventually you have to drop down into the Third Circle – Gluttony.

I have it on good authority that the Third Circle is physically located behind the counter at Oberweis where there is no limit to the amount of ice cream one can consume. As you continue your descent the circles are greed, anger, heresy, violence, fraud and treachery.

It is in the eighth circle, fraud, where the federal government’s employees go upon death. These are the people who thought it was good public policy to spend $1.7 million for a hologram comedy club in Jamestown, N.Y. And $450,000 for National Science Foundation-funded research that determined dinosaurs couldn’t sing, and $230,000 for a National Institutes of Health-funded study showing that rhesus macaques are aroused by the color red. For the record, they’re monkeys and not the type you slap.

Just this year a U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance-funded study came to the shocking conclusion that larger caliber firearms are more deadly than relatively smaller caliber firearms. Ah yes, our tax dollars at work.

Dante completely avoided talking about a Tenth Circle that is so horrendous that just mentioning it can cause plagues of locust, earthquakes unlike any ever experienced in history and more. The Tenth Circle is Internet Trolls. Admittedly in the 14th century it is unlikely that Dante could foresee the complexity of the Internet but his writing of the internet such as it was 700 years ago remains true to today.

I have more than my share of first-hand experience with Internet jerks such as Ukrainian women I’ve never met telling me I’m “super appropriate for permanent family with handsome good,” whatever that means.

And I will never forget the email I received from a high-ranking Nigerian government official who has fallen on hard times and needs my help to move millions of dollars out of the country. I was promised a couple of million dollars for the effort and all I needed to do was give them my bank account number so they could direct deposit the money. Failing that, they asked me to send a few hundred bucks to help them bribe the Nigerian public officials to get the money transferred.

The worst experience was having someone get a credit card number. It has happened to me three times in the past year, each resulting in closing the respective account and waiting to get a new card. In one specific instance someone went on a shopping spree. What really ticks me off even more than the $5000 one of them ran up was $3000 charged to iTunes. Seriously, iTunes? The purveyor of 99 cent songs. Nobody at iTunes looked at a $3000 expenditure and said, “You know Clive, that there just don’t seem right.”

And most recently I got an email from some nubile blonde. The email said, “Hi Dave, a friend of yours said I should contact you. He said we would be a perfect match” and she went on to tell me how she’s volunteering with UNESCO in… wait for it… Nigeria but she would be traveling back to Chicago where she’s originally from as soon as she can pay off the back rent of her apartment in Nigeria. She assured me that she really wants to get home to meet me. I told her no friend of mine would ever recommend me to any female and hit the spam button. She may actually qualify for an 11th circle of hell.

Where Do We Get Such Men?

H.L. Mencken once wrote, “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.” When you mix that with a strong uptick in the arrogance of the common voter it becomes a very unpleasant brew to swallow.  Case in point: the Village of Plainfield.

I attended a special meeting of the Village Board recently to discuss a proposal by a trucking firm to open up a terminal in the village. A portion of the meeting included comments by the public but the primary business was to determine if the trucking company’s proposal was appropriate for the Village of Plainfield. I was there videoing the proceedings however I’m not a resident of Plainfield so I’d resigned myself to keep my mouth shut.

Personally I was not in favor of the proposal because it would be located in a residential area. There wasn’t a thing wrong with the company’s proposal, it was just in the wrong part of town.  Be that as it may, the stage was set and the public poured through the doors. There were so many residents they filled the meeting room and a second room was set up and connected by a video feed. The joint was packed and the mood was ugly.

The company gave its presentation to the Board with the crowd occasionally cynically laughing loudly or making rude comments as the attorney giving the presentation said something they didn’t agree with. At the appropriate point the floor was open to public comment. Mind you, the purpose of the special meeting was to get a presentation by the company on its plans and a portion of the meeting is set aside for public comment. No one was in favor of the proposal and eventually a vitriolic jerk took to the podium and it wasn’t the last occasion. The rudeness exhibited by a handful of people was pathetic and they had no clue how government worked. They were both ignorant and arrogant.

One person railed at the Mayor for only allowing citizens five minutes each to speak but the company had over an hour. Just five minutes each still resulted in a couple of hours of comments by the public. I think there were people in the audience that met, got married and raised a family during the time it took for everyone to put in their two cents worth. Of course the company had over an hour. They were there to make a thorough presentation to the Board.

The Board took a number of hits during the evening, most commonly threatening Board members with being voted out of office during the next election if they didn’t abide by what the mob wanted. It was Mayor Michael Collins that took the brunt end of the most vitriolic commentary with one implacable shrew acting as if she were possessed in her demonic diatribe against the mayor. Throughout all of this the village board remained calm and non-defensive.

I have attended a number of “Coffee with the Major” meetings to know that Mike Collins is a thoughtful individual who genuinely loves the Village of Plainfield and does anything he can to make it a better place to live and work. The same can be said for the entire Board of Trustees and their top echelon employees.

The thing I no longer understand is why would someone pay what it costs to get elected then work for little to nothing until it’s time to pay again to get reelected and so on, ad nauseum. Being a local area elected official, be it on a village or county board, is mostly a thankless job and reminds me of the closing line of the William Holden movie about Korean War Navy fighter pilots.

When Holden’s character is killed during an air attack on the critical Bridges at Toko-Ri, his commanding officer ends the film with the comment, “Where do we get such men? They leave this ship and they do their job. Then they must find this speck lost somewhere in the sea. When they find it they have to land on its pitching deck. Where do we get such men?” It begs the question about local elected officials: Where do we get such people?

Midterm Madness

Yet another Chicago suburb has jumped off the cliff of reality following lemming-like villages that have passed anti-Second Amendment ordinances in the past couple of years. This time its Northbrook where an amendment to the liquor code now requires businesses with on-premise liquor licenses to post signage prohibiting the lawful carrying of firearms. Note bene – I did not say bars where liquor is served but businesses that sell liquor to take out such as your local grocery store.

For the most part, businesses ignored it and that egregious act of defiance by…well, pretty much everyone in Northbrook, drew the ire of the village board. So what did the Board do about it? They tactically redeployed the Northbrook Police Department to visit every business in town that has a liquor license to give them a stern finger-wagging and some of the No Guns window signs.

Think about that for a moment. This is how far the left has gone. They redeploy law enforcement from crime stopping duty to visiting businesses with a liquor license and telling them they are required to put the No Gun signs in their window to prevent crime. Oddly, none of these businesses have exactly been what anyone would consider the epicenter of crime in Northbrook. Principally the Northbrook Village Board implemented an unpopular ordinance to solve a problem which didn’t exist.

Deerfield did something equally stupid recently.  The village had an ordinance addressing firearm storage and transportation, not that there had been any appreciable problem in either of those areas.  The ordinance was redefined to include a ban on assault weapons and high capacity magazines neither of which had been a problem either. The change directly violates state law which reserves that right exclusively to the State.

At the state level, the Democrats are openly trying to reverse parts of the concealed carry law they’d agreed to during its initial implementation. Typical of liberalism they agree to anything to advance their agenda then simply ignore the agreement once they get what they want. And do I even need to address what will happen if Pritzker defeats Rauner? Right now you’re just worried about your scary looking AR-15. Under Pritzker you need to worry about pretty much every firearm and box of ammo sitting in your safe.

If only the madness were restricted to a specific state but we find it rampant at the national level. We have a shadow government trying to oust our president, the FBI colluding against the Trump campaign committee and ultimately the White House personnel. And speaking of White House personnel, the ultimate fruitcake – Congresswoman Maxine Waters – has openly urged anti-Trump acolytes to accost Trump cabinet members wherever they’re seen and tell them they’re not wanted there. And, for that matter, anyone, anywhere that appears to be a pro-Trump.  And then there is the gaggle of liberal senators calling for Trump’s impeachment. If the Dems take the Senate it could spell trouble which brings me to the point – the midterm election.

Next November 6th is a high stakes political poker game. The problem is John Q. Public has generally stayed away from the midterm election but this time you would do so at your own risk. Historically the party of the incumbent president tends to lose seats during midterm elections. Looking back at the past 21 midterm elections, the President’s party has lost an average 30 seats in the House, and an average 4 seats in the Senate.

Only twice during that period has the President’s party gained seats in both houses. Note well, all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 seats in the Senate will be contested. And let’s not forget that Antifa and the other radical socialist organizations are literally crying out for a civil war.

Key statewide seats are up for grabs as well, the most notable being the Governor’s office, and even the election down at the county level can have major consequences. This is the time to wipe out these self-appointed social change con artists. They’ve shown us time and again what their policies can do with their test laboratories in Chicago, New York Detroit and Los Angeles.  They consistently increase the size and power of government, force ridiculous, unfunded regulations on John Q, make end-runs around the Constitution and raise taxes every chance they get.

We’re not talking simply gun control but literally our way of life in America. They will rig elections, lie in the press, intentionally target Republican candidates and make troublesome people disappear. As much of an oxymoron as it may appear to be, it is organized chaos. Don’t fail to turn out the vote on November 6th and reverse the traditional midterm madness.

Whatever Happened To Being A Man?

I committed a social faux pas this morning: I held the door open for a woman.

“I’m perfectly capable of opening a door myself,” she snorted.

“I thought perhaps you might need help getting through the door as it’s only 32 inches wide,” I thought but didn’t vocalize because I was taught to have good manners and because she probably could have crushed me. So I let go of the door and it slammed in her face.  I thought perhaps she was just having a bad day but 15 minutes later I saw her breaching near the zucchini and she was railing against some other poor guy for who knows what feminist defined egregious social error he had committed.

The whole thing gave me pause to contemplate why being polite has become a negative thing. It occurred to me that pretty much everything boys were taught when I was growing up have become negative things. I consulted my Boy Scout Handbook for Boys, originally published in 1948 and found under the Table of Contents, the following:

Tracking and Stalking, Fire Building, Tents and Outdoor Shelters, First Aid, Signaling, Swimming and Physical Fitness.

A look at the contemporary version of that same book lists the following in the Table of Contents: Youth Protection and Adult Leadership, Scouting’s Barriers to Abuse, Lightning Risk Reduction, Alcohol, Tobacco and Drug Use and Abuse.

I remember our scoutmaster taught us to hunt with a .22 rifle, clean and cook a rabbit. I don’t think they’re doing that anymore. From the look of that table of contents I suspect they’re spending their time doing things I didn’t even know existed in 1957. And it wasn’t just Boy Scouts that taught boys to be men, the nuns did it, my father and my uncles did it, and television and movies. Stars like John Wayne and characters like the Lone Ranger and Paladin did it. The rules were simple. Men were expected to be respectful of others, to do the right thing even when it contradicted their own personal interests, to not be a quitter, to tell the truth, to be fair, to honor and, if necessary, defend our country, and to defend oneself and others who were less able to defend themselves.

In the movie The Shootist, John Wayne’s character – J.B. Books defines clearly and concisely what is expected of a man: “I won’t be wronged, I won’t be insulted, and I won’t be laid a hand on. I don’t do these things to other people, and I require the same from them.”

It’s that mindset that had me and thousands of others, take the oath to join the military and volunteer to go off to places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Korea, and Europe or the South Pacific in the two great world wars. What we learned and what became part of our very core were key values. Self-reliance, responsibility for one’s actions, a commitment to do the right thing, a sense of honor and duty, and the willingness to defend one’s self if need be.

Today, we’re not raising men; we’re raising wimps. We’re raising children under governmental and child support programs that tend to neuter them from a very early age. Schools stamp out any thought of self-reliance or accountability and forget being a gentleman. This behavioral training continues in every facet of a young boy’s life from school to movies to the law.

As far as I can tell there is only one thing my generation has in common with millennials and that is the concept of having a safe space. Theirs is in a hidden, dark room curled up in a fetal ball clutching a stuffed animal. My safe space is directly behind my Glock.

SCOTUS Pick Of The Litter

The Birkenstock Brigade is circling the wagons and digging in for a fight to the death over Trump’s second SCOTUS appointment. They’ve seen the short list and they’re not pleased. The fact is it’s unlikely that Republicans will break ranks and at the end of the day the Democrats aren’t in control of anything much less themselves.

The Democrats have this fantasy that the President should appoint an equivalent to Kennedy; a swing vote. Well of course they do and of course he won’t. Trump has no sense of fair play when it comes to appeasing the Democrats. Why should he? They wouldn’t give an inch when they were in power. I recall Obama meeting with Republicans in 2010 over Obamacare. He was given a list of a few modest proposals and gave Republicans a cold shoulder. Obama relished saying to Republicans, “elections have consequences and I won.”

Well, guess what, elections still have consequences and this time we won but the best is yet to come. Trump may get a third opportunity for a SCOTUS nominee.

Has anyone notice that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg has been photographed asleep in group pictures of the sitting Justices? It can’t be very long before Ginsberg’s formaldehyde level drops off.

Trump’s short list has outstanding candidates such as Chicago’s own U.S. Court of Appeals judge Amy Coney Barrett. The Conenator, a sobriquet Barrett earned for her voracity in chewing up and spitting out opponents in court, has been on the U.S. Court of Appeals for less than a year. Unquestionably she would generate the most vociferous debate because she has so few rulings. John F. Kennedy notwithstanding, liberals cite her strong Catholic beliefs as prima facie evidence of religious extremism that could unravel Roe v. Wade.

Senator Feinstein told Barrett during her confirmation hearing to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, “The dogma lives loudly within you and that’s of concern when you come to big issues that large numbers of people have fought for, for years in this country.”

To be fair, it isn’t exactly left wing paranoia as one of Trump’s campaign promises was to overturn Roe v. Wade. However, in the best tradition of stare decisis, Barrett is on record saying its unlikely Roe v. Wade would be overturned and that the debate will be over public funding. All indications are that Barrett is a constitutionalist and at 46 she has plenty of time left in her career. Look, all political appointments are high theater so I’d hold Barrett back until Justice Ginsberg fails to wake up from one of her judicial naps. Replacing a female Justice with a female nominee just makes political sense which brings me to the point – replacing Justice Anthony Kennedy.

There are two other potential nominees on Trump’s short list: Federal appeals court Judges Brett Kavanaugh and Raymond Kethledge.

Kavanaugh has the chops but as a George W. Bush appointee many conservatives who have a problem with W may be turned off by Kavanaugh. And then there is Kethledge.

First and foremost Judge Kethledge has clearly demonstrated from the bench he is a constitutionalist in general and a firm believer in the individual’s right to bear arms under the Second Amendment. He has strictly applied SCOTUS’ ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller and is vocal about Second Amendment rights deserve at least as much protection as any others. In addition, he is an avid hunter, has a concealed carry permit and routinely carries a Glock 27.

For those reasons and more I hope Judge Raymond Kethledge will be tagged to fill Justice Kennedy’s vacancy. I also hope President Trump tells the Conenator to keep up the good work and every morning read the Washington Times obituary column before making a decision about where to go to work.

Tump’s Legacy May Well Be The Supreme Court

If you open your window, listen toward the east and the wind is just right, you can hear the squealing from 100 E. Capitol Street Northeast in Washington. The Democrats are outraged and on the offensive which is somewhat ironic since they’ve been offensive for years. There is a near-constant paroxysm of vitriolic diatribe oozing out of every form of media the Birkenstock Brigade can commandeer. Joyce Behar blathered on about Republicans controlling the Senate, House, and Presidency and now they’re going to take control of the Supreme Court. “Whatever happened to the concept of checks-and-balances,” she asked. I don’t know, Joyce. Go ask Hillary Clinton about checks and balances. She’s become somewhat of an expert on the subject.

Whoopie Goldberg, who has as much credibility when it comes to the Supreme Court as David “Pigboy” Hogg does about the Second Amendment, suggested it would be the death of Roe v. Wade. Just a touch of irony in choosing to say it would be the “death” of Roe v. Wade). She mustered up every ounce of her righteous indignation and declared, “You stay out of my vagina!” Seriously Whoopie, trust me on this, you’re not going to have any problem keeping men out of your vagina.

When Bill Maher asked Michael Moore his opinion about the impending SCOTUS vacancy, Moore said he’d get a million people to surround the capitol building. That’s cool, Mikey. Of course the Supreme Court isn’t located in the capitol building nor is the White House were such decisions will be made.

In case you’ve been too busy watching the latest season of NCIS and don’t know it, Justice Anthony Kennedy announcedhe would officially retire July 31st.  Kennedy, a self-proclaimed conservative, was nominated by President Reagan. Kennedy soon proved to be more of a libertarian than conservative. He was the high court’s swing vote sandwiched in between Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Thomas, Alito and Gorsuch on the right and Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan on the left. His voice was loud and clear on such closely divided issues as affirmative action, same-sex marriage and abortion rights. To be fair, Kennedy did take a conservative position on gun rights, limiting regulation of campaign money and gutting a key provision of the landmark federal Voting Rights Act.

And then there are the confirmation hearings. Whomever the President nominates is sure to be grilled in the Senate confirmation hearings. There will be all manner of accusations, taunting, challenging and postulating but when all is said and done, the Republicans still control the Senate, if only by a thread.

The confirmation should take place barring some unforeseeable new piece of news and a new, conservative Justice will take the seat next to Neil Gorsuch who was confirmed in April 2017.

What’s interesting is liberal Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, ages 85 and 79 respectively, could very well vacate their seats during a Trump presidency particularly if he gets a second term.

But as for the yet-to-be-named Trump nominee’s chances to get the seat I am reminded of something Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards once said about being reelected. Edwards, a married man with kids, was an unabashed womanizer, gambler and heavy drinker. When asked by a female reporter if he really thought he could get reelected he responded, “The only way I can lose this election is if I’m caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy.” He won and so too will Trump’s next nominee.

Dick’s, gets dicked, for joining other dicks

Addressing the NRA Convention’s Leadership Conference in Dallas, Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Affairs, said, “The NRA is the only organization in the country that gets blamed for the crimes its members didn’t commit.” The comment brought thousands of attendees to their feet.

The fact is, the anti-Second Amendment cabal blames the NRA resulting in some companies abandoning relationships with the NRA over crimes committed by madmen. Let’s be very clear, when you abandon the NRA you are abandoning law-abiding gun owners all over the United States and that is going to have consequences.

Read More

You May Not Know It But Business Is Booming In Illinois

You know, in this hate-fueled Republican verses Democrat, Madigan verses Rauner environment vitriolic language tends to bubble to the surface. Worse, it is taken for granted if it supports your point of view. Case in point – Republicans are constantly whining about how bad Illinois is under Madigan. “Businesses don’t have a chance of succeeding,” some pundits keep saying. That’s just not true.

Read More