“The violent left exists only because most people on the right don’t want to serve time.”

Larry Correia.

We went from “Equal Justice for All” to “The application of Justice according to political inclination” which soon will lead to “What’s good for the goose…”

With the aid of a fellow Auschwitz survivor and a handwritten letter, an elderly man with dementia goes in search of the person he believes to be responsible for the death of his family in the death camp to kill him himself.

My wife and I watched this film today with no great expectations. We are both into watching historical movies and this one caught her eye. The acting is ok. I am not one to judge acting. Christopher Plummer does a good job of portraying an elderly man with dementia and Martin Landau does a good job portraying his friend.

But that’s not why it is worth talking about this particular movie.

Everybody in Hollywood just knows that you can walk into any store that is selling firearms and for a few dollars just walk out with a gun, ready to kill. Or if not that, then they go to a “gun show” and buy a gun from somebody at the show and walk away with a gun, ready to kill. Everybody just knows it is easy to buy a gun.

We know that it is not that easy. While most people really do believe it is more difficult to buy cold medicine than to buy a gun the reality of making a gun purchase is almost never shown.

This show didn’t show the protagonist filling out a 4473. “Here fill out this form, I can’t help you. If you make a mistake I’ll shred it and you can start over.” is never explained to the public. Nor the 10 minutes of writing followed by 30 minutes to a few days of waiting before the “instant” background check comes back with a proceed. It isn’t shown in this movie because it is BORING.

Instead they told the story. The FFL asks for the old man’s drivers license and then walks to a computer and starts entering information from the DL. The old man asks what is happening and the FFL then explains that a background check is going to be done and what they are checking for.

He explained it naturally. It was made clear that nobody, not even a harmless looking old man, just hands over money and walks out the door.

The FFL then sold the gun and didn’t proceed until he said the background check had been completed.

The only thing they got wrong in that scene was that I don’t know a single FFL that would have completed that transfer given that the old man was showing signs of dementia in just the few interactions.

Finally, they did a good job of having good people in the movie. I’m so tired of movies filled with nasty characters. In this story the old man was treated with respect and kindness through out. There was no evil corporation doing evil things, there were no evil thugs doing evil things. The son is portrayed as loving and carrying. More concerned about his father being missing than anything.

And it wasn’t that nasty “Dad is just making work for me” it was a loving son taking care of his father.

There are some small things that happen that aren’t all that realistic in terms of firearms and firearm laws but even those are plausible.

Oh, the other scene that got the wife, old man has purchased some clothes at a Walmart type store. As he is leaving the security alarm goes off. Security guy comes out to check. He is polite and well spoken. He explains he has to do this, gets the receipt verifies that they just left a tag on something and then goes to check the other bag the old man is carrying.

He opens that bag and finds the Glock. We all know that bad things are about to happen.

“Is that a Glock?”

“yes”

Long pause, you can see the security guard about to react.

“It just reminds me of my first gun.” Puts the gun back in the bag. “You have a great day.”

And beware of the new enemies seeking to bring down more of our country.

So I could carry it in this holster.

The American Federation of Teachers and its head, Randi Weingarten, is at it again.

A nonprofit organization called First Book, which said it has partnered with Disney, the American Federation of Teachers and other entities, provides free and heavily discounted books to low-income schools. Some of those listed in its marketplace contain sex imagery or have been challenged by parents for promoting gender ideology.
— Nonprofit partnered with AFT provides books with sex imagery, drag queens and gender ideology to K-12 teachers

They are also attacking Project Veritas’ Secret Curriculum series.

Once again, the conservative activist group Project Veritas is targeting public education with out-of-context and deceptively edited videos.

The group is trying to churn up the culture wars in schools, announcing that they have videos about public education’s “secret” curriculum. They want to smear teachers and school staff, trying to paint them as nefarious and public schools as places of indoctrination.
Project Veritas YouTube page with full letter

A few days ago Randi was out there talking about how the teachers unions were the ones working to keep the kids in the schools.

There comes a point when you have to look at somebody and know that they are just scum. Ranid has made the cut.

JUST IN: The International Organization for Standardization, an organization that sets standards for business transactions has voted to create a special code for gun stores to use when processing credit and debit card transactions via Visa, $V, and Mastercard, $MA.

— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) September 9, 2022

This is clearly intended to track your purchases at gun stores.

Why do that unless they intend to use that information, probably against you.

Either your gun store purchases will be factored into your credit score or your personal ESG score or some other social credit score that will be used to determine what sort of undesirable citizen you are and which of your privileges should be restricted.

And for those who say “but I only use cash,” that’s utterly useless.

There is so much stuff only available on line, e.g., optics, holsters, etc., that it’s almost impossible to kit yourself out without buying something with a credit card.

Even then, businesses run on credit, so every gun store, guide, shooting instructor, etc., is stuck getting tracked.

This will be used to violate our Second Amendment rights the same way the government conspired with Facebook to violate your First Amendment rights.  At arms length by making the unconstitutional violation a private sector policy.

This is a strange confession for an American to make, but I am a royalist.

Not in my country, no, absolutely not.  I am glad to be a citizen and not a subject.

However, I have come to understand why King George III was concerned for the United States and how we would fare without a monarch.

I think he understood something about the human condition.

We are hard-wired for a monarch.  It is in our brains to need a leader.  That is how humans survived and formed civilizations.  Every gregarious species has a leader.  It makes communal living possible.

Under a monarchy, that leader transcends generations and is an anchor for the community.  A proper monarch is groomed from childhood to understand the responsibility they have to their people.

America has no monarchy.  Except that we do.  We have created de facto monarchs.  My parents’ generation had the Kennedys.  My generation had the Clintons.

Then there are the celebrities who are “American royalty.”

That is why I have such a burning hatred for Meghan Markle.  Her idea of a royal was the American concept.  A life of luxury where the media and pop culture hangs on your every word.  You have no actual responsibility except to promote your brand.  The Kardashians are the exemplars of this model of American royalty.  AOC is their political equivalent.

Markle wanted to be rich and famous and covered in glamour, and then to do some environmental activism and Woke proselytizing to soothe her soul.  The idea of having to be quiet and reserved and a paragon of English culture was antithetical to what her idea of royalty was.

Queen Elizabeth II was the quintessence of royalty.  She was the standard for Great Britain for 70 years.

Perhaps, as King George III suspected, we are in a way poorer that we lack a monarch because our de facto celebrity monarchs are of such poor quality.  Our “American royalty” do not have the sense of responsability or temperament of Queen Elizabeth II and promote a culture of selfish virtue signaling.

It is honestly sad to me to see the American idea of a royal take root over there as that is corrosive to society.

Although I do not want a monarch, I do understand why a proper monarch, even as a figurehead, makes sense to society as a cultural anchor.

My hope for the British is that with the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, they do not lose what is left of the virtues of their culture and collapse.