Jack Klugman also died.

But Durning lived a life especially worth noting:

He was among the first wave of U.S. soldiers to land at Normandy during the D-Day invasion and the only member of his Army unit to survive. He killed several Germans and was wounded in the leg. Later he was bayoneted by a young German soldier whom he killed with a rock. He was captured in the Battle of the Bulge and survived a massacre of prisoners.

In later years, he refused to discuss the military service for which he was awarded the Silver Star and three Purple Hearts.

“Too many bad memories,” he told an interviewer in 1997. “I don’t want you to see me crying.”

An old episode of Dinner for Five featured Durning (and Burt Reynolds, and Dom DeLuisie). Durning wouldn't talk about his WWII experience, but Reynolds did a little bit. Durning went to Normandy on the gliders, and overshot the beach, and had to fight his way back to the beach just to take part in the main battle. Starts at about 11:50, lasts until Reynolds finishes speaking. more...

Posted by: Ace at 12:07 PM | Comments (102)
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As Rodney Dangerfield said, "He really cares. About what I have no idea."

So he took a 10-hour flight from DC to Hawaii last week, then heÂ’ll take another back to DC Thursday. Once they pretend to make a deal, heÂ’ll hop back on AF1 to resume playing golf, then will return in a couple of week for his lavish inaugural.

Once all this flying is done thatÂ’ll be around 40 hours travel at a cost of at least $180,000 an hour for a tab of $7.2 million. And thatÂ’s just to fly AF1, never mind all the other ancillary costs, which probably boosts the tab to a tidy $10 million or so.

Plus, as JWF notes, there's the additional cost for Michelle in Hawaii.

Posted by: Ace at 11:30 AM | Comments (159)
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One guy who the Administration claimed "resigned" did no such thing; he simply switched desks. (Technically I suppose he "resigned" from one position and was reassigned to another, but the Administration implied he had resigned from duty completely.)

The other three are just on "administrative leave," which just means they got a vacation as a punishment.

They'll be back to work soon. And that'll show 'em!

This Administration sure lies a lot. Someone should tell the Media.

Posted by: Ace at 10:10 AM | Comments (129)
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Millions of gun owners, who use their guns for perfectly law-abiding and peaceable purposes and yet live under similar threat of arrest for noncompliance with this or that obscure law, certainly can understand Kurtz's sentiment.

Except they're probably wondering why David Gregory has the Status to avoid prosecution for breaking the law, whereas they themselves do not.

Was the moderator of Meet the Press caught on tape, armed and dangerous, liberating a few Slurpees from a 7-Eleven? No, he waved a high-capacity ammunition clip on the air while interviewing Wayne LaPierre, asking it shouldnÂ’t be banned.

Was it a stunt? Yep, and an eye-catching one. Was Gregory being aggressive with the NRA chief, or seeming to push gun control in a confrontational interview? All that is up for debate.

But a police probe over what I assume was an empty ammo clip is a total waste of time. What it demonstrates above all is that journalists are getting ensnared in the political war over gun control.

This is stupidity on a truly breathtaking level. Bans of things like high-capacity magazines do not simply ban the thing when used in the commission of a crime. There are also such laws, which the NRA and most everyone supports, by the way, but the instant argument is entirely about whether or not certain things should be banned even when used in a perfectly lawful manner. An outright ban, a strict-liability ban (that is, it doesn't matter how you use it or what your intent is), a per se ban.

David Gregory broke the very type of law that Gregory and Kurtz want more of, want not just in DC, but across the country, for a lot of different guns or gun accessories, and Kurtz says, "Well that's not really a crime, because it's David Gregory and he didn't do anything wrong."

When should the average citizen know when it's permissible for he himself to break the stated law? If he only uses his magazine for legal target-shooting, should he likewise consider himself to be immune from prosecution? Would law enforcement agree?

Or is it just that David Gregory's High Status gives him a general license to break certain minor laws without consequence?

What's Criminal Intent Got To Do With It? Part of the logic of absolute bans (without regard to criminal intent) is that a crazy person might just steal them from you, as happened in the Newtown shooting.

So what does it matter if Gregory's intent was non-criminal? It is the very existence of these things that causes death and mayhem, we're told. How could he have been sure his high capacity magazine wouldn't be stolen and used for a crime?

Thanks to Michael Babbit for pointing that out.

Posted by: Ace at 09:17 AM | Comments (205)
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It's amazing how much information is out there on the Internet for someone who wants to dig it up.

On the one hand, if you're a criminal in New York, a local paper has done a great job of casing houses for you and directing you to those where the owner doesn't have a gun permit. Granted, they may still have a gun in the house, but your odds went up when you eliminated these high probability households.

On the other hand, not everyone appreciates details that may technically be "public" but are nonetheless pretty difficult to get at, like ... say ... the government's records of gun permit holders, being shouted from the rooftops. And in the 21st century, where it seems nothing is truly private, a few mouse clicks coupled with righteous anger can be quite productive.

Reader “Jeff” sends along a link to the latest article in the White Plains tabloid, Journal-News, reporting on the hornets nest occasioned by their publication of an interactive map showing the identity and address of all registered gun owners in Westchester County and surrounding areas.

Editor Cyndee Royle defends her decision and in fact sounds quite smug about it. LetÂ’s keep those cards and letters (and telephone calls, of course) coming.

EDITOR:

Miss RoyleÂ’s married name is Lambert. She lives in White Plains and here is her Facebook page complete with pictures of her and her kids. Hello Sanctimony.
...

There's more at the link. Lots and lots more, and I don't want to steal their thunder by posting it here. Go over and pay those guys a visit and check out the database they've compiled of the paper's staff. Maybe some of you Morons could even drop them a line and let them know how much you appreciate their work.

Posted by: andy at 10:43 AM | Comments (225)
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As you know (it's mentioned down-blog), Gregory waved around a high-capacity magazine -- illegal in DC -- in a segment on his show demanding to know why we didn't have laws against high-capacity magazines.

He sought permission to brandish the horrible illegal contraband-- and was refused a permit for it.

A channel 8 news reporter is claiming that NBC was denied permission by the MPD to use a high capacity magazine as a prop on a Sunday news show that was grandstanding on the gun control issue. Gregory and NBC went on the air with the high capacity mag anyway, disregarding the law and disregarding the orders from the police.

But he did it anyway.

As I was just saying: Before we pass any new laws we should have a national discussion about whether all these laws are actually aimed at actions, or if they are are simply aimed at harassing those the Media-Government Establishment have decided are of lesser status.

David Gregory previously scoffed at Wayne LaPierre's suggestion that schools should have armed guards -- asking him if that suggestion was merely a "dodge." But Gregory's kids, of course, go to a school in which they are protected by armed guards.

Certain people just seem to have more rights, and lives more worthy of defending, eh?

Posted by: Ace at 08:50 AM | Comments (270)
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Did I say "fire?" I meant "will announce their resignations, but welcome them back to the office in a few weeks after enjoying a bit of vacation time." Via HotAir and a commenter, really:

The highest-ranking official caught up in the scandal, Assistant Secretary of State Eric Boswell, has not “resigned” from government service, as officials said last week. He is just switching desks. And the other three are simply on administrative leave and are expected back.

The four were made out to be sacrificial lambs in the wake of a scathing report issued last week that found that the US compound in Benghazi, Libya, was left vulnerable to attack because of “grossly inadequate” security.

C'mon, now, you expected this, right? We just got through finding out the Accountability Review Board didn't have the authority to hold anyone accountable for anything. Resignations in this business had to mean something along the lines of "we're resigned to ride this out until the public forgets about it and we can get back to being hopelessly oblivious to the danger the President's pursuit of a second Nobel Peace Prize put our diplomats in."

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 08:24 AM | Comments (75)
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Wait, wait, wait. You mean to tell me that this peace-loving people wants to return to suicide bombing as an official policy? Why, one could almost think that they're not very peace-loving at all.

The Palestinians, he added, should resort to various methods of resistance, first and foremost “martyrdom operations in the heart of Israel.”

He urged Palestinians to “ignite a third intifada to save the Aksa Mosque and Jerusalem.”

The “enemy is waging a fierce onslaught on Jerusalem and accelerating plans to Judaize the city geographically and demographically,” he told reporters in Gaza City.

Recall how, during the fighting earlier this fall, Celebrated Journalists questioned whether Iron Dome was actually a good thing since (paraphrasing) "it will make the Israelis less likely to agree to Palestinian demands if they aren't dying from missile strikes all the time." Problem solved, eh, Celebrated Journalists?

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 07:10 AM | Comments (177)
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After all, gun laws are for the little people and prosecution of Celebrated Journalist David Gregory would be "a total waste of time."

Was the moderator of Meet the Press caught on tape, armed and dangerous, liberating a few Slurpees from a 7-Eleven? No, he waved a high-capacity ammunition clip on the air while interviewing Wayne LaPierre, asking it [sic] shouldnÂ’t be banned.

[...]

But a police probe over what I assume was an empty ammo clip is a total waste of time. What it demonstrates above all is that journalists are getting ensnared in the political war over gun control.

Do tell. What other laws does Kurtz propose to ignore because they are stupid wastes of time?

And journalists ensnared in politics? Do. Tell.

What planet is Kurtz on that he can so casually imply that journalists are unwilling participants in the gun control debate? Have they not taken every opportunity to insert themselves into the argument, usually by framing their interviewees as crazy people, clinging to their guns and gun fantasies?

Does Kurtz not have access to television?

More notable are the ostensibly straight-news journalists who have come down on the side of stronger gun control. For example, when a Republican congressman, Georgia's Jack Kingston, argued on MSNBC recently that tough gun control laws haven't prevented mass shootings in some European countries, the network's anchor, Thomas Roberts, responded, "So, we need to just be complacent in the fact that we can send our children to school to be assassinated?"

Earlier, while reporting from Connecticut, a CNN anchor, Don Lemon, burst into an impromptu appeal for action. "We need to get guns and bullets and automatic weapons off the streets," Lemon said. "They should only be available to police officers and to hunt al-Qaeda and the Taliban and not hunt elementary school children."

Also on CNN, anchor Soledad O'Brien sought a promise from Florida Republican Gov. Rick Scott to take action on guns. When Scott declined, a clearly frustrated O'Brien said she hoped the gun conversation would become "meaningful" before she was forced to "cover another tragedy." A few days before, when a conservative academic told O'Brien he believes having more guns among law-abiding citizens would reduce crime, she responded, "I just have to say, your position completely boggles me, honestly."

If journalists didn't want to be "ensnared" in the gun grabber debate, they could just shut their pie holes and report the news. Instead, they're sweating over guns in video games on the front page of the NYTimes. They're busy clucking about "gun show loopholes" that haven't existed since the mid-1990s on the radio. They're actually publishing the names and addresses of lawful gun owners.

The gun grabbers -- including so many journalists -- are doing what they usually do when the topic comes up. They are, in every medium available, calling a hundred million Americans complete lunatics. Next they're going to act all surprised when a hundred million people are pissed off about their unprofessional behavior.

Do you know what it's really about when someone starts calling something a "distraction" or, as Kurtz calls it, "a sideshow"? It's a concession that they have utterly lost the argument. The gun grabbers made monkeys of themselves. Now they'd like everyone else to just shut up about the whole thing.

You see, Howard Kurtz and other Celebrated Journalists are having a Very Important Discussion about gun control and they don't have time for any of your retrograde carrying on about your rights.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 06:30 AM | Comments (186)
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Happy Wednesday.

Not much news out there. I see stuff about the weather, local traffic, and, well, this unfortunate item. They found a body in the firefighter shooter's home.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:52 AM | Comments (334)
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