Month: December 2014

Why is “Die Hard” the perfect Christmas movie.

Christmas movies are the best effort Hollywood makes to sell tickets and generate some income to cover for the artistic/political crap bombs they make the rest of the year. But they find themselves having to appeal to the interest of the movie-goers during this time and this tends to be Christmas and/or Christian values related, something they usually hate to cover.

Hollywood also knows that Action Movies assure more butts in the theater. “It Is A Wonderful Life” is cute and traditional, but Dirty Harry gives a fierce competition so, why not combine both? There was a very nice attempt back in 1948 with the movie “Three Godfathers” starring none other than The Duke himself, John Wayne in which three bad hombres rescue a baby from the lap of her dying mother and forget the riches they got from a bank robbery and overcome the challenges of a desert, fellow criminals and a chasing posse to take the baby to a secure location on Christmas Day. This is perhaps one of the top three John Wayne movies in my opinion.

But let us examine Die Hard. Why should it be considered the best Christmas movie? Well, for starters because it happens during Christmas, so the first check mark is cleared. It is also full of Christian references even if in a glancing form: We have John McClane a NY policeman being something of a Prodigal Husband trying to reconnect with his estranged wife as it is the Christian thing to do.

As soon as McClane and his wife are just starting to figure out how to begin to reconcile, the Devil and his minions make an appearance in the form of Hans Gruber and his collection of terrorists. And can Gruber be more devilish iconographic? How many depictions of the Evil One have we seen in which he is wearing a goatee like our Germanic Lucifer? Classic Christian imagery.

hans gruber

 

We find out soon enough that Hans Gruber is not, as initially thought, doing his terrorism out of misguided sense of “justice” but actually committing one of the seven Deadly Sins: Greed.  He has no problem offing people to lay his grubby hands (see what I did there) on hundreds of millions of dollars. There is no redeeming value for his actions, no “but you have to understand” point of view, the sucker is 100% pure bad man.

Of course, the Evil Hans Gruber will be challenged by John McClane, it has to. Just like St. Michael challenged Beelzebub at the beginning of time and Jesus went toe to toe with the Devil in the desert, so will John McClane will thump the living crap out of the bad guys. But that does not mean it will be easy nor that he will have all things in his favor to do so. McClane is barefoot, wearing pants and an undershirt, half a pack of crappy European cigarettes and carrying a Beretta 92. Most rational people will not even consider getting out of bed with so little in the form of support,but if Job was challenged with many a trial and tribulation for his faith and Jonah had to take a cruise inside a whale, John McClane surely can get rid of a bunch of heavily armed eurotrash terrorists before they murder a whole bunch of innocents by using a 9mm and snarky comments.

You think I am stretching things? Wait, I am not even close to done. We get now to the part of the Ethereal Companion. We have seen in tales and movies Ghosts from Christmas (insert time here) or Angels that tell our heroes a story or shows them life without them, but can any of them be as cool as McClane’s twinkie-eating banner of trust and moral support also known as Sgt. Al Powell? And you will say “But Al Powell is a sidekick!” and I say Nay-Nay! Sidekick means he is by McClane’s side in physical form, not on his spiritual side as he does in the movie. And as a Good Angel, Powell buttresses McClane’s spirit when everything and everybody seems to be running against him. When he feels unappreciated, Powell tells him that many rank and file good guys are supporting him even when the honchos who “know better” want him out of the picture or do not care for him (Can you say Pharisees, boys and girls?) And also remember, they do not meet until the end of the movie and Powell goes from Good Angel to Avenging one and takes out the Steyr-toting blonde golem named Karl.

There are many other Christian & Biblical references in the movie. Joshua and the Walls of Jericho tumbling down at the sound of trumpets? McClane does his own Miles Davis solo with C4 and erases the bad guys from fourth floor of Nakatomi tower. Moses leads his people through the parting Red Sea to avoid the ire of the Pharaoh? McClane moves the hostages from the roof to a safer downstairs before the explosives installed by the terrorists and the machine-gunning of the two idiotic FBI agents gets them killed. Unbelievers decide to play by their own misguided rules and end up under a shower of fire and brimstone? Deal-maker Harry Ellis (Hey babe, I negotiate million dollar deals for breakfast. I think I can handle this Eurotrash) pays the ultimate price for ignoring McClane’s advice by absorbing a bullet hole in the head.

 

But in the end, it is Love what we want. Lesser men would have said “Screw it, I don’t love my wife that much” and chosen to safely vacate the building, but John McClane, beaten, burnt, blown-up, shot and with bleeding feet does not stop till he finds his wife. There are many classic romantic lines in movies, but none come close to the heart-ripping “HOLLY!” as McClane faces Gruber at the climax of the film. Many a strong & hard men have secretly wiped a tear from their eyes when they see that battered figure with an MP-5 coming for the love of his life. Love conquers it all!

So there you have it. Die Hard is the best Christmas movie of all times. I don’t care how many accolades other films may have and on how many lists they have been accepted to, nothing compares to the through message of love during the holidays like Die Hard.

When Moms Demand followers call them on a lie…

Moms Demand Georgia Airports

In a very well crafted post, Moms makes you believe that anybody in Georgia can go through a security checkpoint carrying a weapon. Unfortunately for Moms, the law in Georgia is not quite incendiary as they want to make-believe.

You see, the State of Georgia simply refuses to prosecute anybody with a concealed weapons permit that accidentally tries to go through a TSA checkpoint with a gun but those individuals without a permit do get prosecuted for carrying a concealed gun without a permit. However, the sterile area of the airport is under federal law and the TSA can go ahead and prosecute the individual regardless of permit or not.

The post is so ludicrous that Moms Demand followers call flag on the play:

Moms Demand Georgia Airports 2
selected screen caps from original thread

Another negligent discharge of a lie…gotta love it when they help our cause.

 

 

Moms Demand: the NRA killed NYPD Officers.

Moms Demand NYC Executions Gun

You see, it is simple: The  multiple-convicted felon Ismaaiyl Brinsley would have NEVER gotten a gun if the magical Universal Background Checks were in place. It is well-known that the power of UBCs is so great that black-marketeers immediately stop selling guns illegally, turn themselves in and pay their dues to society by going to Africa and start Clean Water projects or give elephants a free manicure.

Moms link to an article by Rebecca Leber in the soon-to-be-defunct left leaning New Republic where she states:

 As a felon, Brinsley was barred under federal law from buying a gun. Had he undergone a background check, he would have failed it and authorities could be notified. Yet the National Rifle Association argues that bad guys will get their hands on guns regardless of the law. The lobby points to violence in states with strong gun laws as evidence of gun control’s ineffectiveness.

But Ms. Leber does not mention something rather important: How did Ismaaiyl Brinsley get his gun? Was it at a gun show? at a Dealer? from the corner 7-11? Black market? Stole it? She has no idea, but you don’t need to know that because UBCs magic would have stopped Brinsley.

Now the fact that Ismaaiyl Brinsley plead guilty to several felonies and instead of sending him to prison where he would have been last week instead of executing cops, he was placed in some “boot camp” seems to escape both The Shannon Girls and Ms. Leber.  He obviously did not attend and a warrant for his arrest had been issued, but he had other plans that culminated with the death of Officers Liu and Ramos.

It is sad to see Moms and the New republic steal their correspondent pound of flesh off the bodies of the officers just to peddle their rhetorical bullshit. Even vultures have more style and wait for the bodies to cool off.

 

Something missing with this story.

ATLANTA —

Channel 2 Action News has confirmed federal charges for a Delta employee.

He’s accused of helping to put 18 firearms on a plane at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

Channel 2 Action News is the only station to get a hold of the criminal complaint before federal court closed within the past hour.
In a Federal Bureau of Investigation affidavit obtained only by Channel 2 Action News, we learned that agents believe a current employee working in Atlanta helped another man smuggle the guns onto a flight.
The affidavit names Eugene Harvey, a bag handler, as the suspected smuggler who was a Delta employee.
The flight originated from Hartsfield Jackson International Airport and went into New York’s JFK airport on Dec. 10, the complaint states.

via Delta employee charged with helping smuggle guns onto plane | www.wsbtv.com.

I wish I could lay my hands on the affidavit because the story does not make sense the way it is written. Anybody who has done air travel with firearms knows that other than the restrictions imposed by the airline if any. Checking on Delta’s website, they allow you to check in up to five sidearms per case with no apparent limit on the number of cases other than you are paying for excess baggage. Why bother to take them as carry-on? I know you have to declare them, but other than the bored TSA agent making sure they are unloaded and properly cased, nothing else gets done.

Me thinks some bad guys watched too many movies.

No set number of shots, only when the threat stops.

“After reviewing all the evidence, I believe there can be little serious doubt that P.O. Manney was justified in firing at Dontre Hamilton, who was attacking him with a deadly weapon (baton). The more difficult issue is whether P.O. Manney fired more shots than necessary, or continued firing after he could reasonably perceive that Hamilton was clearly no longer a threat. Police officers in Milwaukee and throughout the United States are trained to fire to “stop the threat”. The 13 or 14 shots fired by P.O. Manney would, in all likelihood, have been fired in roughly 3 to 4 seconds total elapsed time, from first shot to last….

….While, as can be expected, the many witnesses to this event give varying accounts of what they saw and heard, several witnesses with the best, closest views of what occurred have stated that P.O. Manney stopped firing when Hamilton fell to the ground, and Manney did not continue firing after that point.

via Milwaukee officer shoots man 14 times, ruled “justified self-defense” | FOX CT.

I was cured long ago of the “one-shot, one-kill” malady and “stopping power”. Too many cases out there where a bad guy has absorbed amazing amounts of shots and pretty much kept going long enough to make you believe in monsters. In the latest issue of SWAT Magazine, there is a case where the criminal got shot with everything but a mini-gun and still kept coming with the only shot that made him non-threat was a non-lethal hit to the arm that broke the bones and rendered him unable to keep using his firearm.

Go read the whole thing as it is interesting and good info to process.

Yes Virginia, there has been a Santa Claus Bank Robbery.

As the group neared the bank, Ratliff donned a Santa Claus suit he had borrowed from Mrs. Midge Tellet, who ran the boarding house where they had been staying in Wichita Falls. They let Ratliff out several blocks from the bank. Followed by children attracted to “Santa,” Ratliff joined the other three in an alley and led the way into the bank. He did not respond to the greetings directed at Santa, and the other three drew their guns, indicating that it was a holdup.

via SANTA CLAUS BANK ROBBERY | The Handbook of Texas Online| Texas State Historical Association (TSHA).

At least one and it happened in Cisco, Texas on December 23, 1927. It was complete mess and things did not go well for customers or robbers. But at least is good to know that it was not the many-copied idea of some Hollywood writer.

Hat Tip t Sheriff Jim Wilson.

Publis Service Announcement: Making your kids felons. UPDATE

She has set the original video in private mode. Here is the new version. It seems to be shorter:

Director Rejina Sincic has created a disturbing video, advocating that teens commits multiple felonies—several of which could lead to injury or death through negligent discharge of the weapon—because of her own hysterical, irrational fear of firearms.In the video, a boy steals an unholstered (presumably loaded) firearm from his mother’s room, drops it unsecured into his bookbag, and then carries it to school. After class the boy pulls the pistol out of his bookbag and puts it on his startled teacher’s desk, saying, “Can you take this away? I don’t feel safe with a gun in my house.

via CRAZED: Gun Control Cultist Calls For Children To Steal Parents’ Firearms, Bring Them To Schools – Bearing Arms.

So, who can be so stupid as to produce this ad and mean it to be safe? Meet Rejina Sincic:

Rejina Sincic

According to her site: “Rejina Sincic is an Indian film director and screenwriter based in San Francisco. Her production company is Rejina Productions and is also the Co-Founder of Sleeper13 Productions. She completed her bachelors in Film Studies from University of Utah in 2006… Rejina has a great passion for filmmaking and is always looking to collaborate with creative people who have the same drive.”

Now, she may have gone to college and have a fancy degree, but the brain department ain’t precisely working. Now if a kid in real life decides to pull the same stunt, he is gonna face some serious charges. Let’s review what would happen in Florida:

Theft of a Firearm: Felony Third Degree. (5 years)
Illegally carrying a concealed firearm: Felony Third Degree. (5 years)
Weapon in School: Felony Third Degree. (5 years)
Weapon at Bus School Stop: Felony Third Degree (5 years)
Weapon inside a School Bus: Felony Third Degree (5 years).

So basically the kid may get up to 25 years in prison for being stupid enough to follow the “feel-good” BS of Ms. Sincic’s video. If the prosecutor is a**hole enough, he will ask and get that the poor bastard be tried as an adult, then make a deal and let him plea guilty to serve only one 5 year term and become a Felon for life with all the “goodies” that come with it.

Will somebody please tell this idiotic woman to remove the video? Thank You!

Update: Apparently she already has felt the heat, but failed to process the data and is asking for support.

CSGV RejinaSincic

 

This is gonna be good.

Hat tip to Big Fat Dave for the screen cap.