On Changing and Saving the World; Or Space Invaders

In the classic video game Space Invaders, the player must defend the earth from aliens bent on taking over the planet. The aliens start in five rows of 11 and gradually move down the screen at ever-increasing speed. When they reach the bottom, you die and take the rest of the planet with you. 

To save the world, you must shoot the most imminent, dire threat first – the aliens in the first row – then move on to the next, and the next, and so on. There's very little to gain from targeting the aliens at the farthest distance away while dismissing the real threat that's already upon the player. Here's how this might apply to saving the world today:

Take a look at the threats facing us below, shown in no particular order. Then rank them in your head in order of threat level – is it a problem already causing harm right now that demands our attention or is it a potential problem that may or may not cause harm down the road?  

Nearly 1 million homeless in America suffering, freezing, starving to death in the street link

100,000 die every year in America while in a hospital under a doctor's care from ordinary, preventable mistakes - oops! link

Our own U.S. military is world's largest polluter – even worse than China - contaminating water, air, and soil all over the planet, causing massive disease and suffering for millions, plus the ocean pollution

Family farms continue to be targeted for destruction and takeover by big corporations with government support link

100,000+ die every year in America while in a hospital under a doctor's care from FDA-approved prescription drugs used as directed link

Police officers continue to shoot and kill upwards of 600 Americans every year, injure 250,000 more - often innocent bystanders link

Any of the people being harmed by these actual events and situations happening right now worthy of being taken more seriously than other events and situations that get bigger headlines? But wait! There's more:

$100 billion/year of our taxes are taken and funneled to big corporations as subsidies while the working poor are told pick themselves up by their bootstraps link

FDA-approved injections taken as directed under a doctor's care cause hundreds of thousands of deaths, injuries and diseases as documented in VAERS federal government database link

Thousands of people suffer in prison for years for marijuana possession – even after widespread legalization - why haven't they been released?

The climate might be warming 

Surveillance cameras spy on ordinary Americans nearly everywhere at all times yet never seem to prevent or catch terrorists or mass shooters 

Police officers steal more $$$ as civil asset forfeiture per year than all the other criminals steal combined  link

I was told to save the earth from a young age - first by the theme song to Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster - called "Save the Earth" - then I had to look out for the new ice age due to global cooling. Later I had to do my part to stop the hole in the ozone layer. As I was conditioned to save the planet from a young age, it might be time to ask, "just what threat exactly are we saving the world from?"

Seems to make more sense to help real people who are suffering real harm right now as you read this – we could make a dramatic difference in their lives and see it happen in real-time - rather than pour our angst and effort into uphill battles against threats that may or may not threaten anyone for years or decades. 

Several of the threats described above are already destroying the people of Earth. Targeting the less immediate threats first while watching, ignoring, or dismissing the actual threats now doing harm is no way to win at Space Invaders - it's game over.

Follow @PaulEntin

Skier Dad Ruins Child's First Day Skiing

I felt terrible for the crying four-year old boy. Big tears rolled down his cold, red cheeks in stunned disbelief, wondering what he'd done to his Dad to deserve this punishment. “I thought we were going skiing,” he would've said if he were able to speak what his heart was feeling. 

“We are but you're taking lessons here with these people first,” said Dad, trying to do the classic daycare dropoff and be on his way. But all the crying boy felt was Dad didn't want to be with him today. 

As I sat inside the gondola across from my son remembering his first day on skis nearly 20 years ago and all of the great times we've had skiing together, I felt even worse – not for the crying boy – but for his Dad. I wanted to explain to him what he'd be missing: carrying two pairs of skis, buckling his little boots – and never getting it just right, stopping for the bathroom after one run, stopping to eat right after breakfast, stopping to adjust the goggles, stopping to find a ski pole he'd dropped from the lift, pulling him like a pack horse on the flats, stopping for a snowball fight, and certainly much more stopping than actual skiing.

Dealing with these struggles is just paying your dues. It's how you earn the magical moments of joy that stay embedded in your soul as the years pass. I'll never forget the first time my son decided to leave the safety of skiing between my skis to ski on his own. Young skiers enjoy one milestone after another as they improve and being there to share them as they happen is the ultimate reward. The first blue trail. The first black trail. The trees. The first spectacular wipeout. Ditching us to ski with friends. And then one day he's waiting for you at the bottom wondering what's taking you so long. 

I know the crying boy's Dad was probably looking forward to a killer day on the slopes after working long, hard hours and playing around with his son on the bunny hill all day wasn't his idea of a killer day on the slopes. But it probably was the crying boy's idea of a killer day on the slopes. Jeez, Dad, it wasn't even a real powder day.  

Skiing with the kids gets even more fun when they can carry their own gear and zip up their own jackets. 

Follow @PaulEntin

When Did Our News Become a Slanted Mix of Truth and Lies?

The idea that we're fed slanted news with little bits of truth plus outright lies is not new, as Thomas Jefferson stated:

"[A despotic] government always keeps a standing army of newswriters who, without any regard to truth [invent] and put into the papers whatever might serve the ministers. This suffices with the mass of the people who have no means of distinguishing the false from the true in a newspaper.” Read more of Jefferson's insightful observations of the media here.

Formal control over what news we're fed came much later than Jefferson's presidency. J.P Morgan commissioned a study in 1915 to find out exactly how many newspapers he needed to buy to control the general consensus of knowledge in America. It turns out that only 25 of the largest were needed. So he bought them, installed his own editors, and made sure to promote the policies that pushed for war and presented financial elites in a positive light. 

Morgan had more than 1,000 journalists on the payroll in New England alone. In other cases, Morgan (and Rockefeller) controlled the media by their gigantic advertising budgets and direct payments to reporters. This is described very well in congressional testimony from 1917 here (the official archive of Congress goes back to 1925).

It worked well enough that America agreed to send thousands upon thousands of people to die in Europe in WWI after voting for Woodrow Wilson because he insisted we'd stay out of the war. This book of newspaper clippings from 1915-1917 via a Villanova archive documents the media's move towards war. The same media control also helped FDR convince America to send many thousands more to die in WWII despite running for president insisting he would keep America out of Europe's

war.

At the close of WWII, Voice of America became the conduit for the American government to disseminate news to the world. The question was raised whether we have the right to flood the world with propaganda during peace time and whether the American people may be exposed to what was known to be slanted and/or false information. The Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 established boundaries that effectively barred the federal government from knowingly lying to the American people. Text of the Act here.

That same year, the CIA established its now famous Operation Mockingbird, which involved secretly bribing and/or extorting journalists to publish CIA-produced news, per congressional testimony in 1975. The CIA reportedly spent $1 billion a year on under-the-table bribes to hundreds of American journalists who in return published fake stories. CIA-recruited journalists worked in most major news organizations, including CBS News, Time, Life, Newsweek and The New York Times, just to name a few. In-depth description here.

For decades, American post-war media pushed the idea of objective journalism and the people believed it wholeheartedly. Their falsehoods, when caught, were met with great scandal. The sacking of famous TV newsmen like Dan Rather and Brian Williams are two fine examples, though many more including Rachel Maddow, Mika Brzezinski, and Bill O'Reilly also admitted to lying on air. And there's the awful 1992 scandal where NBC Dateline was caught putting a rocket on a GM pickup truck to fake an explosion intended to damage General Motors. There's no shortage of more recent examples.

But all of that was addressed in 2013 when the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 blocking the government from lying to America was nullified by the National Defense Authorization Act. This allowed the federal government to legally expose the American people to any information as desired regardless of facts, truth, or political agenda. Text of the Act here. Yes, it is now legal for federal agencies and the military to knowingly lie to the American people through the news media, or by any other method. And it has been legal for almost 10 years. Has anything happened in the last decade that, looking back, might seem now like we weren't getting the whole story?

As head of the CIA, Mike Pompeo bragged about lying, cheating, and stealing as standard procedure. See his interview here. It's no surprise. People insist most politicians are liars, crooks, and thieves then bow down to their every word as soon as they get scared of whatever they're told to fear.

Even if none of this were true and the government had no influence on the media then remember that many of the same evil corporations that Americans hate, boycott, and try to cancel actually own the news media. In fact, nearly all network and cable news sources are owned by the same tiny handful of corporations. These hated corporations are also the biggest advertisers. Yet many of the people who hate these big corporations actually trust their every word - as long as the words come from a TV...so how much of the news can you believe?

A fine rundown of corporate media control here.

Follow @PaulEntin

Covid 19 Information Repository

In this annual report published in Sept. 2019 called "A World at Risk," co-authors the UN, World Health

Organization and World Bank address global pandemic preparedness. The report states this is an indicator of progress that is to be implemented by Sept. 2020:

"The United Nations (including WHO) conducts at least two system-wide training and simulation exercises, including one for covering the deliberate release of a lethal respiratory pathogen."

 Download the pdf here, see pg. 39. 

 

 

Pandemic Exercise Event 201

Johns Hopkins, the World Economic Forum and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation hosted the Event 201 Pandemic Simulation Exercise in October, 2019. Is this the launch of the exercise scheduled in the A World at Risk report above? The official videos from Johns Hopkins start here:

The planned exercise as detailed in the official video series appears quite similar to what has transpired so far in 2020 and 2021.

Live Exercise

In this press conference, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo explains to reporters that "We're in a live exercise here." His previous job was head of the CIA, btw. President Trump can be heard saying under his breath, "You should've told us." 

You Can Take the Mask Off?

After this press conference, reporter tells a colleague he can take off the mask since the case fatality rate is actually vastly less and vastly less dangerous than the messaging presented seconds earlier at the podium.

See Through How the Media Boosts Covid Numbers

If not for the ever-increasing Coronavirus numbers, how would the media keep our attention? How would the people in government justify the lockdowns and destruction of the economy? 

1. Initial news reports raised the alarm by touting the potential number of deaths as estimated by a computer model, such as here. 

2. Then came the death toll reports, such as here.

3. Then people realized that every death - from heart attack to hit by a car - was being labeled Coronavirus, such as here.

4. Gradually, Covid death counts were replaced by confirmed case counts, such as here.

5. Confirmed cases were gradually replaced by cases, such as here and here to keep the numbers as alarmingly high as possible. By Thanksgiving, every test administered was being counted as a case in some places, even when the results were negative. 

Johns Hopkins study here documents nearly all deaths are being called Covid.

Has the Coronavirus Covid 19 Been Isolated?

Researchers in a lab in Canada isolated the virus in March, 2020, according to this article. The article also states the CDC isolated the virus even earlier, which is odd since the CDC document, "CDC 2019-Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Real-Time RT-PCR Diagnostic Panel - Instructions for Use" states the CDC didn't have any isolated virus as late as July, 13, 2020:

"Since no quantified virus isolates of the 2019-nCoV are currently available, assays designed for detection of the 2019-nCoV RNA were tested with stocks of in vitro transcribed full length RNA"

Another oddity is the Canadians said they couldn't get their version of the isolated virus to cause harm or damage to an animal host:

"Dr. Mubareka said that for the Ontario-based team, the process of isolating the virus began with a relatively standard procedure that did not work the first time. Hurdles along the way had to be surmounted with some additional scientific tricks. The group ultimately succeeded in getting the virus to reproduce in animal cells that were engineered to have no immune response and specially treated to enhance the likelihood of infection."

If it hasn't then what are the tests even testing? If it has then why the pretty Covid illustrations and no actual electron microscope images filling the media?

UPDATE 8/29/21 In Alberta, Canada, a man was fined $1,200.00 for violating a coronavirus rule. He challenged in court and sent a subpoena to the Chief Medical Officer of Health, Alberta, Ms. Deena Hinshaw, and Alberta Health Services, demanding she show proof of ‘isolation’ of SARS-COV2 virus - proof that it actually exists. Deena Hinshaw’s lawyer spoke up and said “Well your honor, Mr. King is requesting evidence we cannot get. Chief Medical Officer Hinshaw has no material evidence...to provide Mr. King." "You don’t have material evidence for this?" - “No.” More details here.

Covid Vaccine Information

1. Do you know what's in a vaccine? See here

2. Fauci says the covid vaccine does NOT prevent you from getting covid, and does not prevent you from transmitting it if you have it -  see here. It's only intended to reduce the severity of some symptoms if you get it.

3. List of published vaccination studies here.

4. FDA comments on vaccines and cancer link click here. 

5. What doctors say about covid in this video, scroll to bottom of https://www.americasfrontlinedoctors.com/

6. Supreme Court ruling vaccines are "unavoidably unsafe" when used properly as intended see https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/09-152.ZD.html

7. The New York nursing home article: https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/24-dead-and-137-infected-at-ny-nursing-home-after-being-given-covid-vaccine/ a week after covid vaccine, they started dropping like flies.

8. Vaccinated healthcare workers dropping like flies after mrna shots, see here.

9. Pfizer vaccine kills, listen to these doctors here. 

10. How many dead from the vaccines? See VAERS federal database here.

Facemasks

This is the journal article co-authored by Dr. Fauci concluding the vast majority of deaths in the 1918 pandemic were due to bacterial pneumonia, not by influenza. Wearing a facemasks traps bacteria in a warm, moist environment that promotes bacterial growth. Then the wearer re-breathes the bacteria and contracts bacterial pneumonia. Article here. 

It's likely very accurate since Snopes and mainstream media quickly posted stories claiming it's not true. 

Here's a list of journal articles about dangers of masks as curated by a doctor.

CDC Numbers

The CDC released a study comparing covid cases, deaths and hospitalizations among the fully vaccinated, partially vaccinated and unvaccinated. The headlines in the media citing this study shouted that the unvaccinated make up a huge majority of these cases, deaths, and hospitalizations. But these "journalists" didn't actually read the study (read it here), which defines unvaccinated as:

"Persons were considered unvaccinated as <14 days after receipt of the first dose of a 2-dose series or 1 dose of the single-dose vaccine or if no CAIR2 vaccination data were available."

Follow @PaulEntin

Comparing actual science to government-backed science:

 

Follow @PaulEntin

Eat Garlic Mustard for Virus Protection?

Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) grows at the edge of woodlands, around gardens and anywhere the forest has been disturbed nearly all over the USA. Arborists, gardeners and others concerned about maintaining existing ecosystems consider garlic mustard dangerously invasive, fearing it will take over and push out native plants. They're not wrong to sound the alarm. In fact, recent research suggests that garlic mustard even hijacks the underground mycorrhizal fungi system to suit its needs at the expense of other plants. Pulling these weeds would be a service to the environment, some say.

After the first year, garlic mustard grows taller. The flowers, seeds,
leaves, stems and roots are all edible.

But before you remove garlic mustard from the yard, consider that it has a nutritional and medicinal track record spanning centuries. The entire plant may be eaten, leaves, stems, flowers, seeds, even the roots. The leaves taste very much like garlic with quite a bite of flavor and a familiar sulfurous, mustardy aroma. When cooking, garlic mustard works as a substitute when garlic cloves are in short supply or as a supplement to real garlic cloves. The whole plant can be put into a crock pot for seasoning beef, lamb and chicken. Or cut the fresh leaves and stems for a salad, or pesto, throw them in the juicer or use the dehydrator to make your own garlic mustard powder. Tear the leaves first to unleash the flavor on your palette - young leaves taste better.

Nutritionally, garlic mustard delivers Vitamin A, Vitamin C, omega-3 fatty acids and other nutrients, and helps promote blood flow. As a staple in herbal medicine, garlic mustard gets the nod for natural treatment of respiratory conditions like asthma and skin irritations like eczema. It is known for its anti-bacterial abilities and as an anti-viral, may also offer protection against the corona virus, according to Dr. Eugene Zampieron, ND of Restorative Formulations.

If you get stuck in a government-imposed quarantine and vegetables get hard to find, or if you'd feel better with natural antiseptic support, take a stroll around the yard foraging for garlic mustard. The native plants may thank you, too.
Follow @PaulEntin

Fox News, MSNBC Biased Yesterday, Must Be Accurate Today, Insist Americans

I find it fascinating that half of Americans scoff at Fox News as a source for slanted, distorted news and outright lies while the other half of Americans scoff at MSNBC as a source of slanted, distorted

Each half of America is sure the other half of America has it wrong.
Courtesy Hard Rock Libertarians.

news and outright lies. Yet the half of Americans that yesterday scoffed at Fox News today believes its coverage of the alleged mail bombs to be basically accurate, correct and reported with some newly found journalistic integrity. And the half of Americans that yesterday scoffed at MSNBC today believes its coverage of the alleged mail bombs to be basically accurate, correct and reported with some newly found journalistic integrity. The only real difference is in how they assign blame to one side or the other side. 

Why the sudden acceptance that what's shown on TV today must now be the truth when just hours earlier people were so sure the TV news was feeding them almost nothing but outright lies?

UPDATE: Squirrel Hill

And now the Squirrel Hill shooting. This story is so emotionally disturbing that the media must be reporting it truthfully. The media may be slanting, distorting and lying about almost everything else - but not this story. The reporting on Squirrel Hill synagogue must be accurate...and the mail bombs - accurate. It's everything else that is slanted, distorted or a lie. And Pulse Nightclub. The reporting on Squirrel Hill, the mail bombs and Pulse Nightclub is 100% accurate. Except for those stories, all other news coverage is slanted, distorted or a lie. Oh, and except for the Las Vegas shooting - there were no holes in the reporting for the Vegas shooting. And the migrant caravans - biased news coverage. Except for those stories, everything else shown on the TV news must be accurate, correct and reported with journalistic integrity...

Follow @PaulEntin

Commissioner Rob Manfred - Just Stop! There's Nothing Wrong with Baseball

Not only is there nothing wrong with baseball -

- but we’re enjoying one of the most interesting, exciting times in the modern era. Some people complain that the rise of the home run and the loss of the stolen base have resulted in a decline of strategic thinking and on-field tactical moves. Others complain that the shift turns hits into outs. Duh. That’s the idea. It’s the whole point of playing defense.

So it’s a wise move to shift the infield to double play depth, it's a wise move to shift the corner infielders toward the lines to guard against doubles in late innings, and it's a wise move to shift the infield in for a play at home but to move one infielder from the left side to the right is a blasphemous affront to the game? Ridiculous.

We’re witnessing a time when age-old traditions of baseball are being challenged by modern analytics and we get to see how different teams embrace, reject and integrate different elements of the new with the dogmatic axioms of old. Some organizations continue to steal bases, even in situations once considered to be too dangerous to risk being called out. Other organizations shun steals, or, rather, shun being caught stealing. Some sacrifice bunt, others look condescendingly at giving up a precious out.

Some organizations have had to take a fresh look at the pitching rotation. Cash-starved Tampa has been starting relievers instead of waiting for a closing opportunity that may never come. The Angels, upon signing Shohei Ohtani, had to rethink the structure of the starting rotation to accommodate the Japanese phenom. The Yankees invested in what is probably the most dominating bullpen in the history of baseball rather than invest in one of barely a handful of starting pitchers who can throw more than seven innings every fifth day.

In the infield, we see how seemingly minor rules changes quickly impact the game. With runners now essentially barred from breaking up the double play, middle infielders need no longer be lean and little like Bucky Dent, Ozzie Smith or Freddie Patek to leap over runners sliding spikes first. Now, organizations are free to let bigger guys play middle infield positions and reap their bigger power numbers. It’s getting more and more difficult for teams to field a shortstop who doesn’t hit 20+ home runs every year. Yet, when a fleet-footed shortstop turns an RBI single into an inning-ending double play with a dive into short center field and a backhand flip to the second baseman, it’s easy to remember that defense still wins games. Listen to the roar of the crowd (or the groan when it's the opposing team) when a stellar defensive play is made and it’s clear that fans appreciate elite level defense as much as or more than yet another home run.

Interleague Play, DH Highlight Differences

Interleague play has clearly shown the differences between the American League and National League games – and the National League, with its pinch hitting, its pitchers hitting and myriad managerial decisions to be made - is simply a better game. There’s just more going on and more strategy to consider. At the same time, American League organizations have taken different approaches with the DH. In Seattle, Nelson Cruz plays every day just like Edgar Martinez used to do. In New York, the Yankees, by necessity, began using the DH as a rest day for aging veterans rather than play the same power hitter every day, like Don Baylor in the 1980s. This approach has spread as fewer teams can find a David Ortiz, Nelson Cruz or Edgar Martinez capable of hitting consistently against right- and left-handed pitching, and as the cost of injuries increases.

Has there ever been a time when so many MLB teams are experimenting with so many different long-term strategies and in-game tactics at the same time? Will the teams consumed by launch angles be able to win in the playoffs against elite pitching? Will the expensive bullpens implode from exhaustion in the run for the playoffs? Will game seven of the World Series be won on a ground ball down the 3rd baseline when the third baseman is standing in short right field? What an exciting time as a baseball fan!

And this excitement can only be derailed by misguided meddling from the commissioner’s office.

Is there a decline in attendance? Sure, it’s become insanely expensive to take a family to the game. Yet families continue to go - only they’re going to more reasonably priced minor league games where attendance has been on the rise for years. It takes about three hours to watch trailers followed by a movie, Mr. Commissioner, so please don't think fans aren't willing to spend three hours at the ballpark.

NFL Football Attendance and Rules Changes

The NFL offers a fine example for Commissioner Manfred to review before implementing pitch clocks and absurdities like putting runners in scoring position in extra innings. Consider how the 1990s was one of the more interesting times to watch football. The 49ers West Coast offense was still at its peak. The Oilers introduced the run and shoot with four wide receivers, one-upping the Broncos Three Amigos three-wide receiver sets. The Falcons red gun copied the Oilers. Dan Marino threw almost every down for the Dolphins. The Lions ran a one-back offense on the legs of Barry Sanders. The Chiefs and Steelers pounded defenses with Christian Okoye and Barry Foster, respectively, nearly afraid to let their QBs throw the ball. The Cowboys ran a balanced attack with Emmitt Smith running behind fullback Daryl Johnston all the way to three Super Bowl victories. Which strategy would win out over time? We’ll never know because the commissioner started tweaking the rules.

The commissioner’s office and the competition committee thought fans would like the game more if every team threw the ball for a touchdown on nearly every down. They changed the rules and made it easier for receivers and more difficult for the defense. The role of the running back has been diminished to the point that barely a few teams even intend to field a feature back or roster a fullback. New rules made almost everything a penalty. And though scoring did increase, NFL ratings decreased. The controversy over the national anthem may be a factor but now that the game has changed due to the rules changes, and with the majority of organizations running the same type of pass-happy offense, it’s just less interesting, less strategy – less fun.

Let the decline of the NFL be a lesson to you, Commissioner Manfred. High scoring doesn’t necessarily mean a better game. Leave the game of baseball alone. It’s fine. Let the analytics, the shift and the power surge play out. Hitters just gotta’ hit ‘em where they ain’t. And organizations, at some point, will figure out how to adjust pricing to fill their stadiums.

Follow @PaulEntin

Little League Baseball: Why "Just Have Fun" Is Just Lame

Winning is fun, and it's a worthwhile goal, especially when it results from practicing
 and playing hard. And it's always fun getting your name on the back. Photo courtesy epr Marketing.

I was waiting to get an x-ray in the doctor's office and started talking with someone else who was waiting for an x-ray. Then my son started talking about baseball and little league and how excited he was about playing and getting his name on the back of his uniform. That's when the nice lady said to him, "Just have fun." I haven't stopped thinking about that. That's the standard line among people who are afraid that either their kids might take winning too seriously or the parents might take winning too seriously.

I remember what it was like playing little league and I know that it's more fun to win than to lose. It's more fun to catch the ball and have your teammates run over and give you high fives than it is to drop the ball. It's more fun to hit the ball and help the team win than it is to strikeout. In fact, striking out, dropping fly balls and throwing the ball away are no fun at all and kids know it’s no fun. There’s no reason to tell them it doesn’t matter if they caught the ball or not – it matters to the kids - even to the ones counting dandelions in the outfield.

Hitting, catching and throwing well, especially well enough to do it in a game situation,
require practice. This is the part the "Just have fun" crowd has trouble grasping. Of course, parents should not be overly pushy about practice, but kids who like and want to play baseball (or any sport) will have fun practicing if practice time is designed to be fun. And they will enjoy upgrading their skills, they will enjoy the process of improvement and take pride in their achievements as they catch better, throw farther and straighter and hit the ball farther and more often. That's what makes it fun. And it's that internal reward for hard work that feels even more fun than winning, yet it also contributes to winning the game.

Kids who want to excel and win aren’t being helped when adults belittle their hard work and commitment to playing their best by suggesting that just having fun is somehow a more worthy goal than playing hard and winning - as if winning is unworthy of their efforts. In fact, there may be nothing more fun in sports than when you practice, play hard and win - and nothing more important than learning that sometimes you practice, play hard and lose anyway.

Follow @PaulEntin

Parkland School Shooting Demands We Ask the Right Questions of Police, FBI

Following the Parkland school mass shooting, people seem very comfortable with the idea of a world where the only people entrusted with the right to use firearms are police officers. Everyone else would be disarmed and largely defenseless. It's an idea

worth exploring. Remember that many of these police officers are the same people who

• steal our property without any due process and call it civil asset forfeiture
• murder unarmed kids then plant toy guns on the bodies to call them accidental, justified shootings
• shoot the family dog and claim they felt threatened
• plant bags of coke in the homes and cars of innocent people to create crimes where there were none
• murder unarmed, defenseless people with their hands raised above their heads
• tackle old ladies and beat them with a club
• kill innocent Americans in their homes in no-knock raids then realize - oops, wrong house

If everyone is to be unarmed in this world except the police, then are these really the people we want to entrust with firearms? And, btw, the police aren't even legally responsible to protect anyone from anything per these court cases.

Then who is legally responsible for protecting our families? We are. Statistics suggest it's folly to think protection is at the other end of a 9-1-1 call. The average response time is 10 minutes (one hour in several cities). That's just enough time for the burglars to kill everyone, load up the truck with the new flatscreen, have a beer and get away unnoticed and unharmed. In other incidents, police officers responding to 9-1-1 calls arrived on the scene only to shoot the innocent people who called 9-1-1 in the first place.

We all have a natural right to protect ourselves in nearly any way we deem necessary along with a Constitutional right to own firearms. If the idea of a gun-free world relies on the police for safety and protection, and the seemingly incompetent FBI to catch the crooks after the fact, then I'll keep my right to bear arms, thank you.

From a review of a number of police interactions with ordinary American citizens, it's clear that many of today's police officers operate as hostile aggressors as standard procedure. In fact, police officers murder about 1,000 people in America per year with their firearms, and they shoot another 3,000 or so more people per year who survive the shooting. Then there are the growing number of cases where police officers rape women at ordinary traffic stops.

And these police officers are largely unaccountable. Of cases where police officers were charged with a crime, nearly every one of them has been acquitted. It's easy to demand that people with mental illness need to be barred from owning firearms but maybe we need to ask if it's really the police officers who need to be disarmed. In exploring a world where police officers are to be given a legalized monopoly on firearms when they already enjoy nearly 100% immunity from the law, what mechanism would check their increasingly brutal abuse against ordinary Americans from becoming standard procedure?
Follow @PaulEntin