The Urban Grind

Apparently, what’s good for the elite politicians is not good enough for the taxpayers who pay these peoples salaries.

As an example, two of America’s most outspoken opponents of gun ownership, Senators Chuck Schmumer (D-NY) and Diane Feinstein (D-CA) both have concealed carry permits.

A recent poll conducted by the National Association of Chiefs of Police indicated that almost 64 percent of police commanders and sheriffs favor a law allowing private citizens to carry concealed firearms for protection. Almost 73 percent said that citizens should not be restricted from purchasing more than one weapon, and 96 percent say they believe criminals obtain firearms from illegal sources.

Unfortunately most states – especially those called Blue States due to their Liberal-leanings – continue to prohibit private citizens from carrying concealed handguns.

At the same time, there are outspoken opponents of gun ownership, such as Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Diane Feinstein (D-CA), who are carrying concealed weapons, according to WABC Radio’s Mark Levin. Levin, a recognized constitutional expert, heads the Landmark Legal Foundation. The LLF’s goal is to protect American’s from unreasonable and illegal government intrusions and violations of the US Constitution, including the Second Amendment.

The mainstream news media have been aware that several antigun proponents are carrying concealed firearms but have failed to expose this hypocrisy. This writer’s efforts to discover how many other anti-gunners are also packing heat – a right they wish to deny other citizens – met with limited results.

Not only does Schumer carry a handgun, the New York City Police Department also provides armed escorts for the good senator. In fact, the Government Accounting Office — the investigative arm of the US Congress — slammed Schumer’s use of police resources for personal protection. It’s clear that Schumer believes he’s special. He wishes to ban private citizens’ ownership of firearms, while he enjoys layers of protection.

“No wonder Chuckie Schumer shoots his mouth off so much – he’s able to protect himself,” says a 25-year police veteran.

Also, a check of Pistol License records shows that Senator Schumer possesses an “unrestricted” pistol permit, a rarity in New York City. Licenses are distributed in different categories in the Big Apple: Target Permits allow only use of a firearm at a licensed firing range; Premises Permits allow weapons to be kept in a home or apartment; Restricted Permits allow the gunowner to carry their firearms concealed but only within the purview of their job (security, jewelers, armored car guards, etc.). So it’s evident that Senator Schumer has two sets of rules — one for Americans and one for himself.

And then we have Senator Diane Feinstein on the Left Coast who possesses something more rare than a conservative Republican in San Francisco – an unrestricted concealed weapons permit. Apparently without shame, she participated in a citywide gun turn-in program that was intended to create some kind of statue from the donated guns that were to be melted down. One of her police body guards let it slip that she contributed a cheap model for the meltdown, while retaining her .357 magnum revolver for her own personal self-defense.

Hypocrisy is not limited to politicians when it comes to the Second Amendment. For Example, well-known Washington-based columnist, Carl Rowan, often wrote about the ills of firearms ownership. Until, that is, he shot and wounded a teenager who trespassed on his property. The white teenaged boy claimed he wanted to try Rowan’s swimming pool. Rowan, an African-American, retaliated with deadly force using a firearm. That’s when the news came out that Carl Rowan, gun-control advocate, actually possessed a license to own firearms.

Another example is the loudmouth entertainer, Rosie O’Donnell, who once ran roughshod over conservative actor Tom Selleck because of his stance supporting the Second Amendment. Although Ms. O’Donnell doesn’t carry a gun, she has three armed bodyguards who protect her, her wife and her children, something the vast majority of hardworking Americans could never afford. Isn’t it comforting to know all these Liberals are looking out for us?

Hat tip: Ron L Via Facebook

After the Sandy Hook shootings, most people will be quick to hop on the gun control bandwagon. But it’s not that simple. As it is now, Connecticut’s gun laws are some of the strictest in the country. Obviously, that didn’t stop Adam Lanza.

Thanks to the deinstitutionalization laws put into effect in the 1960′s, schizophrenics and other mentally ill individuals were moved out of state mental hospitals.

In the 1960s, the United States embarked on an innovative approach to caring for its mentally ill: deinstitutionalization. The intentions were quite humane: move patients from long-term commitment in state mental hospitals into community-based mental health treatment. Contrary to popular perception, California Governor Ronald Reagan’s signing of the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act of 196712 was only one small part of a broad-based movement, starting in the late 1950s.13 The Kennedy Administration optimistically described how the days of long-term treatment were now past; newly-developed drugs such as chlorpromazine meant that two-thirds of the mentally ill “could be treated and released within 6 months.”14

At about the same time, two different ideas came to the forefront of American progressive thinking: that there was a right to mental health treatment, and a right to a more substantive form of due process for those who were to be committed to a mental hospital. If there was a right to mental health treatment, then judges could use the threat of releasing patients as a way to force reluctant legislatures to increase funding for treatment.15

The notion of due process for the mentally ill was not radical. American courts have been wrestling with this question from the 1840s onward.16 While perhaps not up to the exacting standards of the American Civil Liberties Union, by the end of the nineteenth century, there was something recognizably like due process before the mentally ill were committed.17 What changed in the 1960s was the result of ACLU attorneys such as Bruce J. Ennis, who claimed that less than 5 percent of mental hospital patients “are dangerous to themselves or to others” and that the rest were improperly locked up “because they are useless, unproductive, ‘odd,’ or ‘different.’”18

Until the 1960s, courts used a medical model when considering commitment: the government’s actions were part of “the historic parens patriae power, including the duty to protect ‘persons under legal disabilities to act for themselves.’ . . . The classic example of this role is when a State undertakes to act as ‘the general guardian of all infants, idiots, and lunatics.’”19 Instead, public safety alone became the legitimate basis for commitment, and with it, a more exacting standard, a bit less than is required for convicting criminal defendants.20

Neither a right to treatment nor a more demanding application of due process alone was particularly destructive, but in combination they made hundreds of thousands of seriously mentally ill people homeless,21 where many died of exposure22 and violence.23 They fell through the cracks, living shorter, more miserable lives, and often greatly degrading the quality of urban life for everyone else.24 A fraction became something quite a bit more unsettling than the mentally ill person begging on the street or disrupting the public library: they became the mad mass murderers of the modern age.

First grade teacher Kaitlin Roig rushed her 15 students into the classroom to hide from the gunman, and pulled a bookshelf in front of the door to barricade them inside. She also said the following to them:

“I said to them, I need you to know that I love you all very much and it’s going to be OK, because I thought that was the last thing they were ever going to hear,” Roig said. “I wanted that to be the last things they heard, not the gunfire in the hallway.”

Then there was 27 year old Victoria Soto who died shielding her students from the gunman with her own body.

My friend Brian summed it up best about the Left:

Yes, you are right. At a minimum they are at fault through their inaction. They are on this constant jihad against guns and against any form of deterrent like the death penalty (or even life in prison/in a mental institution), but they are constantly trying to shove compassion and mercy towards scum of the earth down our throats. Then, when one of their darling monsters goes berzerk, it’s the “right-wing”‘s fault for being “intolerant” and supporting the Second Amendment. It’s a win-win situation for them.

Of course the only thing that might deter these creatures would be a universally carrying public, but the left would rather kill their own mothers (no pun intended in this case) than agree to such a thing.

One of Obama’s core constituent groups, the labor unions literally went ape in Lansing Michigan when the right to work law was passed. I mean, Heaven forbid a worker should have the choice of either being in a union or begin unemployed…

Such is the thuggery of labor unions. Their main purpose is to squeeze as much money as possible from employers for their people to do as little possible. At the slightest threat to their employee monopoly their true nature as hoodlums and criminals is exposed.

Obama traveled to Michigan yesterday to support the unions’ protest against the laws, which would allow most workers to decline union membership. Currently, many workers in Michigan are forced to join unions as a condition of employment. Republicans sought to change the law to make the state more competitive. Right-to-work states typically enjoy faster economic growth, higher job creation and lower unemployment rates.

Fellow Democrat Doug Geiss, a state legislator, had vowed earlier that “there will be blood” if the legislation passed; he failed to apologize, merely stating that he supported “nonviolence” in union protests. No Democrat or union representative, as of this writing, has apologized for the violence that took place today in Lansing.
In the past, conservatives have been held to account for random acts of violence that were entirely unrelated to anything they had said or done. In January 2011, for example, Gov. Sarah Palin was held responsible by media commentators for Jared Loughner’s crazed shooting spree in Arizona, merely because she previously used a political map with targets on it, indicating places where she focused her efforts in the 2010 elections.

In this case, the connection with Obama is direct. He went to Michigan to encourage the unions and oppose the state government; the unions turned out to protest and attacked those who had come to support the right-to-work legislation. In addition to the assault on Crowder, union members tore down a tent that had been pitched by Americans for Prosperity; Breitbart News’ Lee Stranahan captured the union members’ attack as the tent collapsed, with people inside, as union marshals looked on.

Update:
Steven Crowder has issued an ultimatum to the union thugs.

Via RonL from Facebook

Happy Hanukkah. It isn’t about presents, latkes, or driedles, or chocolate:

“2:17 Then answered the king’s officers, and said to Mattathias on this wise, Thou art a ruler, and an honourable and great man in this city, and strengthened with sons and brethren:

2:18 Now therefore come thou first, and fulfil the king’s commandment, like as all the heathen have done, yea, and the men of Juda also, and such as remain at Jerusalem: so shalt thou and thy house be in the number of the king’s friends, and thou and thy children shall be honoured with silver and gold, and many rewards.
2:19 Then Mattathias answered and spake with a loud voice, Though all the nations that are under the king’s dominion obey him, and fall away every one from the religion of their fathers, and give consent to his commandments:

2:20 Yet will I and my sons and my brethren walk in the covenant of our fathers.

2:21 God forbid that we should forsake the law and the ordinances.

2:22 We will not hearken to the king’s words, to go from our religion, either on the right hand, or the left.

2:23 Now when he had left speaking these words, there came one of the Jews in the sight of all to sacrifice on the altar which was at Modin, according to the king’s commandment.

2:24 Which thing when Mattathias saw, he was inflamed with zeal, and his reins trembled, neither could he forbear to shew his anger according to judgment: wherefore he ran, and slew him upon the
altar.

2:25 Also the king’s commissioner, who compelled men to sacrifice, he killed at that time, and the altar he pulled down.
2:26 Thus dealt he zealously for the law of God like as Phinees did unto Zambri the son of Salom.

2:27 And Mattathias cried throughout the city with a loud voice, saying, Whosoever is zealous of the law, and maintaineth the covenant, let him follow me.

2:28 So he and his sons fled into the mountains, and left all all that ever they had in the city.

First Book of Maccabees, Chapter 2.

His name is Douglas Geiss, he’s a Democrat, and he was in such snit over Michigan’s right to work law that he threatened violence on the House floor.

No doubt his union goon constituents will happily follow through and get violent.

As Nancy Pelosi said, we need to bass the bill to see what’s in it. And here’s one surprising new fee, or tax, if you like.

WASHINGTONMedical plans are facing an unexpected new fee. It’s to help cover people with pre-existing conditions under President Obama’s health care overhaul.

The $63-per-head fee — buried in a recent regulation — will hit health plans serving an estimated 190 million Americans, mostly workers and their families. It’s payable starting in 2014.

Employers are not happy. The cost of compliance works out to tens of millions of dollars for the largest companies, maybe a few hundred for small firms. Most of that will get passed on to workers.

The Obama administration says the money will cushion health insurance companies from the hard-to-predict costs of covering uninsured people with pre-existing conditions, so society will benefit in the long run.

The fee is temporary, raising $25 billion over three years.

Temporary, my foot! If anything, it will increase.

Or to put it another way, “How to be the most helpful slave you can be for me and my baby.”

All throughout history, women from different cultures and religions have been marrying (or not) and having children. Yet in this day and age, many women who do that feel they are entitled to make demands, and treat people around them like servants. An example is the disgusting reality show “Bridezillas,” which I had the misfortune of catching at my sister’s house, as the TV was on in the background.

First off, these women were hideous shrews, and just plain misserable human beings. How they managed to bamboozle some poor schmucks into proposing marriage, I have no idea.

But I have the feeling that once they manage to marry, they would issue a whole laundry list of assignments for anyone foolish enough to befriend them, just like this woman did.

We are beginning to settle into a routine with our sweet baby girl and have visitors. [Parent] and I put together a list of “helpfuls” if you would like to come over and help us out during this transitional period into parenthood. Please visit this google doc:

Dear friends and family,

The following helpful list are the kind things that we will remember and appreciate forever. This is what [Parent]‘s body and soul needs, and will be most helpful for our bonding with the baby. By devoting just a few hours doing one of these things, we will get the support and rest we need with our newborn in the house.

Love,
[Two Chill Parents]

1. Ask us what groceries we need around the house and bring them to us. We likely need toilet paper and milk.

2. Drop off a big super greek salad with grilled chicken. We will dress it ourselves at home. Or, drop off frozen homemade food like lasagna we can reheat later.

*Allergies/intolerances include: Soy anything (including tempeh and tofu), carrageenan, guar gum, gum acacia, xanthan gum, carob bean gum (anything with the word GUM in it), lentils — Please read labels. Many of these ingredients are in store bought food.

3. Come over at about 2 in the afternoon, hold the baby while I have a hot shower, put me to bed with the baby and then complete one or more household chores, such as:
-fold laundry
-scoop the litter box
-take [our dog] for a well deserved walk or run around the neighborhood or park
-clean the kitchen or the bathroom
-vacuum

4. Come over at 10am, make me eggs, toast, and ½ a grapefruit. Clean my fridge and throw anything out that you doubt — don’t ask me, just use your best judgment. Clean the kitchen stove and the kitchen floor.

5. Come over in your work clothes and vacuum, dust, clean the litter box, and then leave quietly. It might be too tiring for me to chat and entertain, but it will renew my soul to get some rest knowing I will wake up to a clean, organized space.

6. Take [our dog] for a well-deserved long walk or run around our neighborhood or Prospect Park.

7. Come over to fold laundry or clean and give [Parent] a break so she can go enjoy some r & r, go to a coffee shop, a bar, or something else fun. Vacuum and fold more laundry. Clean the litter box.

8. Make a giant pot of vegetable soup in our kitchen and clean the kitchen completely afterwards. Then take a big garbage bag and empty every trash basket in the house. Reline the kitchen garbage can with a fresh bag.

Not surprisingly, the trendiest Manhattan neighborhoods are where most of the STD’s are found, along with the South Bronx and Harlem.

Now I could go on and on with stories about my dating experiences with men who just wanted to get right down to business while I was living in Manhattan. One man I met on a Jewish dating site said right to my face that I needed a few nights of sex with a nerdy guy to “loosen me up.”

Anyway, with statistics like this, I’d rather be “uptight.”

Nightlife areas such as SoHo, Murray Hill and the Upper West Side are home to 10 times more syphilis-infected residents than the city’s average, according to the city Department of Health.

Roughly 125 people — taken from a sample of 100,000 — tested positive for the disease in those three neighborhoods.

But it’s not just the posh ZIP codes that make playing the field sound like playing with fire.

The Tremont section of The Bronx — where 43 percent of residents are below the federal poverty line — is home to the city’s highest STD rate, the study found.

In the report, which uses data from 2010, researchers also pinpoint areas with the highest rates of hepatitis B and C, chlamydia, gonorrhea and HIV.

The findings reveal:

* The Bronx is the borough where you’d least like to have a one-night stand. Roughly 68 percent of neighborhoods in the borough were found to have “high” rates of more than one STD.

* Staten Island is the healthiest place to hook up. Not a single neighborhood in the borough made the agency’s top-20 list for STDs.

* Thirteen out of 20 of the neighborhoods with the highest HIV and syphilis rates are in Manhattan.

* HIV and hepatitis C ran most rampant in gentrifying Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights, Williamsburg and Harlem.

* Neighborhoods with the highest rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea include the South Bronx, central Brooklyn and northern Manhattan.

* Health officials note TB and hepatitis B are most prevalent in the city’s immigrant communities. More than half of Queens’ worst-ranked neighborhoods are home to predominantly foreign-born residents.

Areas with the highest hepatitis rates — including Chelsea and Morningside Heights — rank 10 times the city’s average.