Conn. senators demand NRA ‘cease and desist’

Conn. senators demand NRA ‘cease and desist’ making robo-calls to Newtown residents – NY Daily News.

Frank Kulick walks past a display of wooden crosses and a Jewish Star of David representing the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on his front lawn.

Frank Kulick walks past a display of wooden crosses and a Jewish Star of David representing the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on his front lawn.

Democratic Harry Reid said last week that including the assault weapon ban in the gun control package would likely cause Republicans to block the entire gun-control package, including measures that have bipartisan support.

Senator Feinstein, who won passage of a 1994 assault weapons ban that expired after 10 years and reintroduced a similar bill after the Newtown massacre, said last week that her bill was dropped because “the gun lobby is inordinately powerful.”

In the meantime, the Americans who mourn the children of Newtown, Conn.; the victims of the Aurora, Colo. shooter; the three women who were shot down at the Azana Salon & Spa by Radcliffe Haughton; the 6 killed at the Sikh temple in Oak Creek and many others before them and how many more before 2013 comes to close are beginning to feel like the Washington political machine is spitting on the graves of those that have been buried thanks to shooters using assault weapons and other guns purchased illegally.

On Sunday, March 24, Mayor Bloomberg (New York) and Wayne LaPierre from the N.R.A. appeared separately on “Meet the Press.”

Bloomberg pledges to create a permanent counterweight to the N.R.A. He said his new $12 million dollar ad campaign supports universal background checks and targets 10 senators in home states over the current 2-week recess. It’s intention is to draw out 90% of the public who support expanded checks.

Bloomberg and the senators wants the ads to tell the public in those 10 states what people are doing in Congress … who’s voting for what. And then they can make their own decisions.

The N.R.A. once supported the national instant check system in the late 90s. But LaPierre made clear that will no longer be the case. “It’s not fair, it’s not accurate, it’s not instant. The mental health records are not in the system, and they don’t prosecute any of the criminals that they catch. It’s a speed bump for the law abiding.”

What’s the newest strategy of the N.R.A., bombarding Newtown residents with robo-calls urging them to oppose proposed gun control measures and sending out postcards urging their local legislators to vote no on “dangerous anti-gun legislation.”

In some cases, they have actually called Newtown residents.

In this instance, I think the N.R.A. have pardon the pun… shot themselves in the foot.

Read the link (I actually bored the pun from them) and read more …

Academy member calls for Oscar boycott of Zero Dark Thirty

Academy member calls for Oscars boycott of Zero Dark Thirty | Film | guardian.co.uk.

David Glennon

David Clennon

This tidbit of trash happened to show up on the front page of imdb.com on Monday when I was reading about Ben Affleck winning a Golden Globe for Argo.

A few posts back, I wrote about Argo and posted a link to the article that was the story behind the movie. In the past few weeks I’ve read several arguments where others have compared Argo to Zero Dark Thirty (ZD30), mostly because they both deal with our enemy(ies) in the Middle East.

This particular article (link) really pissed me off (please excuse my language). So much so that I actually posted a comment at imdb.com, which I don’t do often. [Comment: What about all the films that condone senseless gun violence that no doubt led to some of the nuts committing mass murder? It’s okay to show those but not to see ZD30? What a hypocrite!]

David Clennon is an American actor, who has an extensive resume of TV and movie work. He, as an Ampas member, would not be voting for Kathryn Bigelow’s film, which has been nominated for five Oscars, because it “promotes the acceptance of the crime of torture, as a legitimate weapon in America’s so-called War on Terror.”

Many, including other Ampas members are outraged that he would use his status as an Ampas member to speak out this way against a film and attempt to influence the voting process.

His comment has seriously offended me, not near as much as seeing thousands of Americans die at the hands of TERRORists on September 11. (Which was real and not being portrayed in a film.)

With Newtown, CT just passing its one month anniversary and President Obama already in a skirmish with the Washington elected officials regarding new laws on gun control, I commented on imdb.com that David Clennon should have been exercising his “veto”  long ago and boycott films that promote and glorify films with blatant gun violence (the 2012 films alone are way too long to list).

What do you think?

Amanda Todd Suicide: Police Will Investigate: Larry Fedoruk Blog

News Talk 610 CKTB :: Amanda Todd Suicide: Police Will Investigate – Larry Fedoruk :: Larry Fedoruk Blog.

This isn’t about a quality baby boomer TV show. But it is about a topic that’s near and dear to my heart and that’s BULLYING.

I opened my weekend Seek or Shout email this morning and on a page with only two entries I found this link from Larry Fedoruk’s blog about Amanda Todd. I really like Larry Fedoruk’s blog. He blogs about relevant issues not just fluff.

I almost always write about fluff, but not this time. I hate bullies and after I watched Amanda Todd’s silent video where she was holding up pieces of paper that was the narration behind years of her pain I decided that I wouldn’t write about fluff today.

UPDATE: I asked for permission to be a member of a “group” on Amanda Todd’s R.I.P. Facebook page and it’s a mixed emotion. First, I’m getting a lot of emails to my personal email account. Second, I found some awful things people have written on her R.I.P. page, things that Amanda’s parents will see and it just breaks my heart.

It makes me upset that Facebook can’t do a better job of monitoring those pages. I even tried to report this person and when I did I found pages and pages of instructions from Facebook, but didn’t find a link or email address or any way to actually “report” this person. I’m inserting the item, but I’m warning you, it will piss you off and considering Facebook makes it impossible to report it and does nothing to stop it will piss you off even more.

Someone thought it would be cute to make a bleach ad featuring Amanda Todd’s likeness.

Kenneth Krause, personal injury lawyer, wrote letter to Jennifer Livingston calling her obese [PHOTO] – Minneapolis – News – The Blotter

Kenneth Krause, personal injury lawyer, wrote letter to Jennifer Livingston calling her obese [PHOTO] – Minneapolis – News – The Blotter.

Jennifer Livingston, TV Anchor, Speaks Out Against Bullying : People.com

Jennifer Livingston, TV Anchor, Speaks Out Against Bullying : People.com.

I’m so grateful that WISN Channel 12 (ABC) in Milwaukee reports news that’s important and relevant, no matter where they find it. This morning they reported this piece about Jennifer Livingston who reports the news for CBS WKBT.

Jennifer Livingston received an email from some viewer who truly is an idiot in the making. He obviously is NOT a baby boomer, or he would have remembered the lawsuit that a national news anchor brought against a network when she was fired because she started to look “old” yet they didn’t seem to mind male announcers who they felt look “distinguished” when their temples started to grey.

In those days there was no Facebook, Twitter or social media. To voice your outrage, you had to write or call television stations or newspapers and trust me, the national network certainly heard it from enough people to change their position. I guess getting sued didn’t help any. If I remember that little move they tried to make help shape discrimination in the workplace laws.

Back on track, it’s the video (4:35) that really drives the message home. October is National Bullying Prevention Month.