I have a buddy I have known since college.  He is a gun guy.  More than that he’s a gun industry insider.  He’s worked for several gun makers including some Big (Green) ones, and is currently in working Miami with The Bull.

We were chatting and he told me that he had to put a moratorium on his wife talking about anything relating to his job.  The subject is no-go in public.  This is apparently a thing going on down there right now with the people he works with.

Broward County Sheriff did a press statement.

The important part starts at the 23:25 mark.

I understand the importance of vigilance, but “if your neighbor comes home from the range on Friday night, you should say something” is over the top.

When your life is guns, literally, how do you avoid becoming a suspect when the Sheriff says that.

The fear is taking this type of situation leading to a #MeToo like witch hunt that catches law abiding gun owners.

Law abiding Broward gun owners need to be  careful.  The is very thin line between vigilance and moral panic, and Sheriff Israel is blurring it.

I like movies.  I like to be entertained.

I really don’t spend much time worrying about the demographics of the cast if the movie is well done.

I loved Idris Elba as Stacker Pentecost in Pacific Rim.  Will Smith in Men in Black 3 was fantastic, that movie was awesome.  So was Bright.

I really want someone to do a true-to-the-book Starship Troopers and I will be disappointed if Johnny Rico is not Filipino.

Just make a movie that entertains me and doesn’t try and jam a heavy handed message down my throat and I’ll be happy.

I haven’t seen a Marvel movie in theaters in a while, or any movie for that matter.  Mostly because it’s expensive and I have kids.

I’d like to see Black Panther but holy shit, is there a lot of baggage associated with it.  It is a “defining moment for black America” and is finally “a chance for black moviegoers to finally just enjoy the show.”  It’s “more than a movie, ‘Black Panther’ is a movement.”  It’s so important a movie that people are raising money to take black children to see it because “Black children are so often instilled with the tools to survive, but when do they have the chance to live? When do we let them laugh and smile?”

It’s already been made clear to my that as a white person the movie is not for me.

And that I can’t let my presence in the theater steal joy from the black people in the audience.

So here is my question:

If I go to the theater to see Black Panther, should I sit in the back of the theater in the bad seats, and if a black person wants my seat, I have to stand?

Or, should I put on black face and try to blend in with the crowd?

I’m confused as to what I have to do to enjoy a movie about a black character, created by two Jews, Stanley Lieber and Jacob Kurtzberg.

The Washington Post sent this out because “democracy dies in darkness.”

Mike Pence bought a Valentine's Day gift for his wife at . . . CVS https://t.co/l2XBOL1oe9

— Post Local (@postlocal) February 15, 2018

It was written by WaPo writer Emily Heil.

It seems that Ms. Heil is an unmarried woman in her early 40’s.  This article explains why.

I admit that I am no marriage expert, but after 10 years, I have learned a thing or two.

If you gauge the quality of your marriage by the cost of the gift your spouse buys you on a totally made up holiday, your marriage isn’t on firm ground to begin with.

A couple that really loves each other and does well together isn’t shaken by a CVS gift.

VP Mike Pence has been married to his wife since 1985.  After 33 years, I’m sure whatever he gets her after a long day of work and a national tragedy, is fine.

That Ms. Heil thinks this is newsworthy or embarrassing is likely a strong indicator of why she probably goes home to a bottle of wine and a couple of cats every night.

A girl from Parkland Tweeted a response to what was perhaps Trump’s most anodye Tweet since becoming President.

Her Twitter page is gone, but the Internet never forgets.

Twitter is dangerous.

Never in a million years would I have thought to say to the President he is a “fucking piece of shit.” 

My dad would have killed.  I’d be dead, just dead.

If the paramedics managed to bring me back (and my dad didn’t kill me a second time) I’d be sure I’d never get a job in a professional setting in my life.

I’d spend eternity under the Rickenbacker Causeway with the convicted pedophiles.

I think it’s best that I stunt my children’s social growth, no Facebook or Twitter until they are adults.

This is unbelievable.

FBI on YouTube user who made "professional school shooter" comment: "The FBI conducted database reviews [and] checks, but was unable to further identify the person who actually made the comment." pic.twitter.com/qNnNeca3C8

— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) February 15, 2018

Translation:

“We at the FBI really didn’t give a shit.  Nobody thought this threat was real enough to do any actual work to prevent it.

We learned that after dropping the ball on the San Bernardino shooters, Tsarnev brothers, and Ahmad Rahami, it doesn’t matter how bad we fucked it, we can’t get fired.

Besides, we were too busy trying to deflect accusations of corruption because of our agents’ philandering and political biases, to extricate our thumbs from out asses and do something useful.”

I’m not going to comment too much on yesterday’s shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School because details are still coming out.

There are three bits of information that we have learned that are key.

The FBI was warned that a YouTube user with the name Nicholas Cruz left a comment on a video saying “I’m going to be a professional school shooter.”

Cruz was expelled from the school previously and was banned from coming onto campus with a backpack because of “fears that he would attack other students.”  His disciplinary problems stretch back to the 8th grade.

Cruz’s problems were so well known that “everyone predicted” that he would be a school shooter.

Student says “everyone predicted” that Nicolas Cruz would shoot up a school. pic.twitter.com/mkwJyRT2zE

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) February 14, 2018

This situation seems very similar to that of Jared Lee Loughner, where there was red flag after red flag that he would do something like this but no agency with any authority was involved enough to prevent it.

Even the Las Vegas shooter, Stephen Paddock, put up some red flags that he was up to no good.

Apparently our bureaucracy has butterfingers.

After Loughner and Cruz, THIS should become a priority.

To the rabid anti-gunners of America, the problem is the NRA and their donations.

These lawmakers took the most money $$ from the @NRA pic.twitter.com/TzJtZ5lgMq

— Mia Farrow ?️‍? ???? (@MiaFarrow) February 14, 2018

Blood money. pic.twitter.com/zUSvalBMjc

— ????? (@ChidiNwatu) February 14, 2018

Blame was laid at the feet of NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch.

https://twitter.com/MollyJongFast/status/963888603595190272

Her humanity, and that of all Republicans, was questioned.

https://twitter.com/kevinone/status/963890173355462656

Remember, if you are not a Democrat, you are a subhuman untermensch.

She had to be human first… She doesn't qualify

— RicSilvestre ?????? (@ricsilvestre) February 14, 2018

Then there is the call for collective punishment.

We have to elect candidates that are not funded by the NRA in November. We have an opportunity to elect candidates who won’t allow kids to go to school and get shot. It is disgusting how many times this has happened and Republicans do nothing. You all have blood on your hands.

— Chelsea Handler (@chelseahandler) February 14, 2018

https://twitter.com/outlazymedia/status/963903487154294784

If you want to understand why the media in the United States was fawning all over Kim Jong Un’s sister, this is why.

There is no problem the far left has found in which the solution was something other than take everybody who disagrees and send them to a gulag.

Are people poor?  Eat the rich.

Do people commit murder?  Send the law abiding gun owners to prison.

If only they could imprison or execute enough people, they could usher in Utopia.

To them, every mass shooting is another chance to call for that.

Shane Morris wants to be the Democratic candidate for Senate in Tennessee.  Shortly after the Parkland Shooting, he went to Twitter to mock people about it.

https://twitter.com/IamShaneMorris/status/963870828281475072?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitchy.com%2Fbrettt-3136%2F2018%2F02%2F14%2Fbad-taste-senate-candidate-jokes-that-gops-thoughts-and-prayers-stopped-school-shooting%2F

That’s some brilliant display of empathy right there.  A true humanitarian.

Every time some minor Republican says something stupid, the media demands that every person in the GOP answer for it.

I have a doubt that anybody will ask Chuck Schumer or Nancy Pelosi about this asshole’s statement.