Real Time With Bill Maher: Debating The Second Amendment

Source:Real Time With Bill Maher- U.S. Representative Darrell Issa (Republican, California) Chairman of the House Oversight Committee.

Source:FreeState MD

“Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) stood up for your constitutionally protected Second Amendment right to bear arms on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher.”

From House Republican Oversight

My main point to and response to Representative Darrell Issa and MSNBC host Alex Wagner is both a personal, as well as philosophical argument: anyone who believes any amendment in the U.S. Constitution is absolute, is not a constitutionalist. And anyone who would either throw out the current U.S. Constitution or completely rewrite it and move America towards some type of social democratic government or some type of socialist state, is obviously not a constitutionalist either.

Comedian Bill Engvall who is about as redneck and Tea Party populist as anyone can be (if you don’t believe me, just ask him or watch his comedy routine) had the best point about the 2nd Amendment during this clip when he said that he believes in the right to self-defense and wants the ability to defend himself and his family. But there should be some real limit to how many guns that any American should be allowed to own and what types of guns that Americans should be allowed to own. Which to put it simply: he believes in commonsense gun control. The redneck standing up for the U.S. Constitution.

Real Time With Bill Maher: Gun Control & Dumb Gun Laws

Source:Real Time With Bill Maher talking about the lack of gun control in America.

"A recent "New Rules" from Bill Maher's HBO series, "Real Time." Bill takes defenders of stupid gun laws to task regarding idiotic pro-gun legislation." 

From Pariah 2001

Thom Hartmann: Margaret Thatcher & Ronald Reagan: ‘What You Need to Know’

Source:Thom Hartmann with a look at United Kingdom Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (Conservative, England) & United President Ronald Reagan (Republican, California)

Source:FreeState MD

“Thom Hartmann takes a look back at the political careers of British Prime minister Margaret Thatcher and U.S. President Ronald Reagan.”

From Thom Hartmann

I agree with Thom Hartmann (for perhaps the 1st and last time this year about anything) about the debt and deficits that then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her Conservative Government piled up in Britain in the 1980s. Not that different from the debt and deficits that President Ronald Reagan piled up in the 1980s, or President George W. Bush pilled up in the 2000s.

I’m also not here to make Margaret Thatcher look like a Goddess or Saint. (And I could make a joke about that, but I’ll spare you and her) I’m just going to talk about the situation that she inherited in 1979 when she became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the country she left when she left office in 1990.

In 1979, Britain was not just a socialist state, (yes, a democratic socialist state) but a socialist state that was drowning in its own socialism. They had ridiculous rates on deficits, debt, inflation, interest rates, high unemployment, and poverty. The beautiful, thriving, Britain that we saw (at least when the sun was out) in the 1990s and 2000s, is not the Britain that we saw in 1979, the early 1980s, or even mid 1980s.

Remember, Labour Party Leader Tony Blair didn’t run for Prime Minister in 1997, to return Britain to socialism, with state-run banks, energy companies, airlines, etc, where people who were unemployed or on Welfare, never had to go  back to, or even go to work. He just presented a center-left alternative to Maggie Thatcher’s individualistic conservatism. Remember the New Labour in Britain in the late 1990s and 2000s. This wasn’t a socialist movement at all.

For Britain to get moving again or no longer be a declining power, but again a western power can be respected in the world again and not just by Europe and America, but the rest of the developed world, she had to get the economy moving again. And that meant a lot more Britons working and earning their own living and a lot more economic privatization in the economy. And that meant a lot of short and long-term pain for millions of Britons. But her economic strategy was successful

Reverend Jesse Jackson: 1984 Democratic National Convention Speech

Source:Speeches- Reverend Jesse Jackson speaking at the 1984 Democratic National Convention.

"Jesse Jackson 1984 Democratic National Convention Keynote. Many thanks to all librivox and other readers and public speakers."

From Speeches 

Reverend Jesse Jackson laying out what his vision of America would be if he could have it his way and why he ran for President in 1984. While at the same time making the case for unity in the Democratic Party and saying that it was time to come together as a party and unite behind Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferarro and time to try to defeat President Ronald Reagan with a unified ticket. As apposed to trying to argue that you either nominate him, or don't bother voting in November, because only Jesse Jackson can save America. Or some nonsense like that. 

Intelligence Squared Debates: 'The Two-Party System is Making America Ungovernable'

Source:Intelligence Squared Debate moderator John Donvan.

"The Republican and Democratic parties are entrenched in calcified partisanship, where politics is played as a zero-sum game. The rise of the Tea Party, liberal backlash, and the exodus of moderate voices from Congress all point toward the public's growing discontent. Has our two-party system failed us? Is this a call to change our two-party system of governance?" 

From Intelligence Squared Debates

ABC News: Special Report- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Assassination- April 4th, 1968

Source:ABC News Special Report on the assassination of Dr. Martin L. King.

Source:The Daily Journal

"Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., mortal shooting of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., the most prominent leader of the American civil rights movement, on April 4, 1968, as he stood on the second floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, where he had come to lead a march by striking sanitation workers. In response to King’s death, more than 100 American inner cities exploded in rioting, looting, and violence. James Earl Ray, a career small-time criminal who became the object of a more than two-month manhunt before he was captured in England, pled guilty to the shooting and received a 99-year prison sentence. He quickly recanted his plea and spent the rest of his life claiming that he had been framed by a conspiracy that was really responsible for King’s assassination."  

From Britannica 

"April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King Jr. Assassinated" 

From ABC News

The assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King the leader of the American civil rights movement, was tragic for so many reasons. But the biggest reason why it was so tragic because of the time he died and what left he had to contribute not just to the African-American community, but the American community in general. Because at 39 and with everything he had to accomplish he still had a lot more to accomplish. Which would've started with the upcoming poor peoples march and the poor people's movement.

The Poor People's Campaign, had an opportunity to be a real campaign against poverty that would seek to actually end poverty. And not just create new programs to help people live in poverty, but actually empower people to get themselves out of poverty. Through things like education and job training and really going past the New Deal and Great Society. Not saying that this movement would've developed like this had Dr. King survived. But had he and Senator Robert F. Kennedy survived, this movement would've had an opportunity to develop.

Unfortunately as it turned out, Dr. King, didn't die from some illness he had picked up. Or from some crazy person out their mind who probably should've been in a mental hospital. But he was killed by an escaped convict, a lost soul who had absolutely nothing going right in his life. Who was a career criminal and a loner who was simply looking to be noticed. 

To paraphrase Dan Rather from CBS News: "Dr. King, wasn't even murdered by a professional assassin, or a mobster hit man. James Earl Ray, was at best professional thief. Who wasn't even very good at that and had been in and out of prison most of his life." 

A&E Biography: The Rat Pack (1999)

Source:Emmalee Morisette- from A&E's Rat Pack documentary.

Source:The Daily Journal

“Part 2 here: * Unmonetised Fair Use upload, no copyright infringement intended. All ads & revenues attached to.”

From Emmalee Morisette

A group of some of the best and funniest entertainers of all-time. And in Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, you’re talking about two of the top singers and certainly comedic actors ever, guys who were also great at dramatic comedy as well. Men who were also two of the top vocalists of all-time. And when you add their off the cuff humor and dramatic ability, to go with the singing and you’re about guys who were born to entertain and act. Guys who combined many different role and styles of entertainment, in their entertainment routine of singing, acting and comedy. That is how you get the title of Chairman of The Board, as Frank Sinatra more than earned because he was the top man in Hollywood and the entertainment business.

Add Peter Lawford, who was a tall muscular 6’2, I would add better looking Frank Sinatra, who was perhaps the best all around actor in this group that also had Joey Bishop and Sammy Davis in it and you’re not just talking about good friends and partners, you’re talking about Hollywood’s real-life version of the firm, or an exclusive private club which they were. Where it doesn’t take being at the top of your game to get in, but the top of the Hollywood game. To not be in your prime, but to be the best of the best in Hollywood.

Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, are probably the two most famous and successful members of this club. But this was a club, a great club, where every member more than deserved to be part of.

And of course Sammy Davis a great and talented musical comedian, who was great at both, who was only a little man in physical stature, who accomplished so much in a fairly short life, despite being a horrible victim of racial and ethnic discrimination, because he was both African and Jewish. Who lost business and work opportunities, simply because he married and Nordic-Swedish woman, May Britt.

The fact that a guy like Sammy Davis is part of The Rat Pack, is two credits to The Rat Pack, but also Sammy. Sammy being good enough to be part of this group, but that The Rat Pack, was a business and the only color that good business’s are interested in is the color green. And I’m not talking about the Irish, but the color of money. Race, ethnicity and color, were not of interest to The Rat Pack.

Actor/comedian Joey Bishop, who I’m not as familiar with and that’s probably my fault, was also a great member of this group. If you watch The Rat Pack movie Ocean’s Eleven, not a great movie, but a very good movie and certainly better than all the Ocean’s that came after it, Joey Bishop was very good in that. Playing the right-hand man of the guy who puts their casino operations together.

This group also had honorable members to it people who weren’t official members, but did a lot of work with them and close friends of them. Actress Angie Dickinson, one of the top Hollywood Goddess’s of all-time both physically, but a hell of an actress (and Police Woman as well) was one of the non-official members of this group.

Of course Ava Gardner, was also part of this group as an honorable member and add Lana Turner to this list, Janet Leigh at least to some extent. The Rat Pack truly was a whose who of Hollywood people who were very talented and very successful, but also all came with a lot of baggage. Where it almost looked like they lived the lives of people they played in films, or others played in films. They literally lived made for Hollywood lives, perhaps especially Frank, Ava, and Lana.

The Rat Pack was their own talent agency. If you’re just friends and associates of this group, you knew you made it because only people who’ve already made it, or in Sammy Davis’s case had a great talent that simply was overlooked (for whatever reasons) by Hollywood, were going to be part of this group.

To paraphrase in what the narrator said early in this video: The Rat Pack defined cool in Hollywood. They were what cool was in a time where that word generally wasn’t used in pop culture terms that it is today. And generally just used to describe ones laid back personality. They defined what cool was, because they set the trends and were the only people that they knew how to be which was themselves. They did what they wanted to do when they wanted to do it and how they wanted to do it.

The Rat Pack were classic individuals in a very collectivist trendy industry where performers were supposed to all be a certain way and always act that way, or risk losing work. But no one owned The Rat Pack, except themselves. And they were very successful at being themselves and always doing what they wanted to do when they wanted to do it. And they could get away with that, because of how good and popular they were.