Must be Nice to Have so Many Friends

Is it just me, or is the press doing its best to keep Alec Baldwin from being arrested?

When you see a celebrity in the news, you should never assume it just happened. It doesn’t work that way. Celebrities have publicity agents who call news outlets to plant stories. News outlets are constantly looking for content, and they don’t have the money or manpower to find enough on their own, so much of what you see comes to you via publicity agents.

Seems like every time I look at the news online, I see another story about Liz Hurley, a faded actress, putting on a bikini and posing provocatively. These stories aren’t news. Other celebrities put on bikinis every day, and we don’t see all of them on the web, because no one cares. Hurley’s career is just about over, so she is paying someone to send her photos around. Either that, or she does it herself.

Today I looked at Yahoo News and found 12 stories about actresses who were exposing themselves or drawing attention to their bodies. Journalists aren’t following these women around, hoping they’ll undress. The actresses start the ball rolling, and the journalists are contacted later.

What did we see in legitimate news stories right after Alec Baldwin shot his coworkers? Claims that he said he didn’t know the gun was loaded. Fair enough, but since then, a large number of stories that look very similar to each other have come out, saying he didn’t know the gun contained live ammunition.

A suspicious person would say media organizations called his publicist, or his publicist called them, and they ran with what the publicist told them.

We’re also seeing the phrase “prop gun” used over and over, as though a bullet had miraculously emerged from the barrel of a toy firearm. You can’t run someone through or cut them with a prop sword, because they’re blunt and dull; many are actually made from soft aluminum. You can’t shoot someone with a true prop gun, because they’re non-functional. Some are solid plastic. Baldwin didn’t use a “prop gun.” He used a plain old revolver that had been called into service as a prop. It’s remarkable that so many different copywriters are using the harmless-sounding phrase, “prop gun.” It can’t be coincidental.

It’s not a prop gun. It’s a gun that was used as a prop, or it’s a prop which is a gun. If Vin Diesel drove a Ferrari in a movie, no reporter would call it a “prop Ferrari.”

It’s actually quite weird that there is no such thing as a true, blank-firing prop gun. It would be simple to rechamber a gun so it wouldn’t accept SAAMI loads and then have a reloader make special blanks to fit it. Given the huge budget of a typical movie, spending a few grand per reusable firearm seem like a bargain. If a movie has a budget of 20 million dollars, doesn’t it make sense to spend, say, $10,000 modifying three pistols?

I don’t run Hollywood, though.

I think Baldwin is mounting a publicity drive, just as he surely has in the past to compete for awards and roles. I think he is under the mistaken impression that telling the world he didn’t know the gun was loaded will influence the police and prosecutor, who are not likely to care.

I think our liberal press wants to protect Baldwin, because he’s a zealous anti-Second-Amendment agitator, so they’re only too happy to take dictation.

Lay people have the idea that it’s smart to say things in your own defense after you commit a questionable act, but it’s not, because lay people generally don’t know whether they’re guilty or not. It’s completely possible to craft an excuse which is really a confession. Baldwin should be quiet and stop airing his excuses. He’s not helping himself, except possibly in the court of public opinion, which does not have the power to acquit him or protect him from civil liability.

It’s true that his efforts might serve to taint the body of potential jurors, but if a criminal case goes to court, the prosecutor will make a good effort to find people who aren’t contaminated, and he and the judge will make sure the jurors have good instructions which render Baldwin’s blame-shifting useless.

It’s sad to see big-time organizations publishing legal opinions from lawyers who don’t shoot or who are way out on the left. One paper quoted Ron Kuby, a famous far-left defense attorney who practices in New York City and used to be the partner of William Kunstler. Kuby backed Baldwin up. What would you expect? If you asked a young, clear-witted Rudy Giuliani the same questions, you would probably get a different answer. If Donald Trump shot someone accidentally, you might get a different answer from Kuby.

It’s this simple: the last person to touch the gun is the killer.

The last person to touch the gun is the killer.

The armor may be guilty of something. The assistant director may be guilty of something. Their guilt has no mitigating effect on Baldwin’s culpability.

Every gun person knows the person holding the gun has 100% responsibility for everything that happens. He’s responsible for checking to see if it’s loaded. He’s responsible for keeping it pointed in a safe direction. He’s responsible for keeping his finger off the trigger until he has to shoot. If there is a safety, he’s responsible for engaging it. You can’t blame the person who handed the gun to you. That person may bear some responsibility for his negligence, but if you shoot someone, you and only you are guilty of manslaughter or murder, and you’re guilty of the full-blown charge. Not murder lite. There is no such thing.

Here is the New Mexico Supreme Court’s statement of the elements of involuntary manslaughter; I stole it from another site:

All that it is necessary to establish for involuntary manslaughter by the use of a loaded firearm is that a defendant had in his hands a gun which at some time had been loaded and that he handled it, whether drunk, drinking or sober, without due caution and circumspection and that death resulted.

It’s not a hard offense to commit.

Yesterday, I listed a bunch of factors that make things look bad for Baldwin. Today, there is a new one in the news: people on the set used the revolver for shooting practice before Baldwin killed his cinematographer.

What possible reason could anyone on a movie set have for possessing live ammunition? It’s like they were hoping someone would get shot. And using the same gun for shooting and playing make-believe in a room full of vulnerable people on the same day…it beggars comprehension.

The news says Baldwin was practicing drawing the gun. That means he drew the gun, pointed it at the victim, and pulled the trigger. The gun is said to be a single-action revolver. If that’s true, he also had to pull back the hammer, because otherwise, the gun wouldn’t have been fired. The hammer is the safety.

To sum up, he accepted a loaded gun and didn’t check it. He pointed it at two people who should not have been in front of him. He cocked it. He put his finger on the trigger. He fired.

You can blame the armorer and assistant director all day, but Baldwin did at least 5 negligent things after they were out of the picture. If he knew the gun had been fired on the set, his negligence is even worse. It means he knew the likelihood there was ammunition in it was higher.

It looks like this to me:

1. The people who used the gun for target practice were negligent because they brought ammunition to a movie set and put it in a gun that was supposed to be used as a prop.

2. The armorer was negligent because she put a loaded gun on a cart she knew would be used to hold it for Baldwin.

3. The assistant director was negligent because he didn’t check the gun when he held it, and because he announced that it was safe.

4. Baldwin was negligent, for reasons mentioned above.

It will be a remarkable thing if no one is charged with a crime. Everyone on the location was depending on the armorer, the assistant director, and Baldwin to protect their lives, and all three of them appear to have failed.

It takes less than two seconds to open a revolver’s cylinder and look for cartridges. A revolver’s barrel has no chamber where an additional round can hide, and it has no box magazine to push new rounds in front of the firing pin.

I don’t want to see anyone charged, but it’s still irritating to see the obvious spin. I do believe it’s spin. I think it’s contrived and dishonest. I don’t think it’s just happening on its own.

The world is extremely unfair, and the press’s treatment of Baldwin seems like a great visual aid to prove it. You can’t trust human beings as far as you can throw them, and Satan looks after people who serve him, at least temporarily.

I’ve been praying for Baldwin to avoid conviction, largely because he’s not a likable person, and I think it’s important for me to pray for people I don’t like. Doesn’t mean I think someone else is to blame for what he did.

The worst things that can happen to Baldwin on the criminal side are an 18-month sentence and a $5000 fine, which make New Mexico sound like a fortunate place to have a tragic accident. I’m assuming there will be no separate charge for shooting the director, but if there were, the punishment would be less severe. A conviction won’t put Baldwin away for good or destroy his golden years, so at least there is that.

The thoughts I’ve had regarding the case seem to be in line with what many actual criminal lawyers say, so I feel relieved. I don’t think I’ve made a complete fool of myself by opining outside of my former fields or choosing not to do in-depth research.

Time to shift gears.

Yesterday I had some interesting experiences. I spent a lot of time with my parrot Marvin. Sometimes strange bird instincts can make him aloof or crabby, but yesterday he was very affectionate.

He loves it when I go to his cage and make the toys move. He likes to entertain at home, and he seems to enjoy thinking I like his toys as much as he does. I swung them around and let him attack them and wrestle with them and so on. I’m making a point of doing this daily.

Throughout the day, he kept demanding attention, so I spent a lot of time in front of the TV, rubbing his feathers. He shook and coughed up half-digested food. That’s how African greys show they’re overcome with emotion.

I thought about what we were doing, and I realized how important it was, even though he was just a bird.

Years ago, God told me he had created the universe for love. This is clearly true, because Jesus said the most important commandments were to love God and to love other people as we love ourselves. Love, not work, raising families, or obeying rules, is supposed to be the center of our lives.

My wife is 8,000 miles away. I don’t have kids. Right now, the only living being I can show love to in person is a bird. I have to make the most of that. If you don’t demonstrate affection often enough, you can get rusty and blocked. You can also forget your purpose.

I was aware of these things already. Before my other bird, Maynard, died, I was trying to show both birds that I loved them. It was important to me that they feel it. It wasn’t enough to just clean cages and serve food. I had to spend a lot of time touching them.

I knew love was important before yesterday, but now I have a fresh appreciation, and I am grateful for it.

Thinking about love and how I have felt it pour from God during his visits, I thought about the state of the world. Churches don’t teach love. They talk about it and fill the air with empty gas, but they’re more excited about money, obedience, appearances, and control.

The world at large is full of hate now. Hate is the red horseman of the apocalypse. A powerful spirit is at work in the world, driving us to detest each other, and it’s working.

Yesterday I learned that Facebook drives hate on purpose. That surprised me. I knew Facebook was evil, but I didn’t know how deep it ran.

I found out that Facebook promotes irritating material more strongly than other content. Facebook has little buttons accompanying content, and you can click and say you liked something or that it made you mad. Facebook gives content points based on clicks, and the more points something gets, the more people Facebook shows it to.

It turns out an angry click produces five points, but a “like” click only generates one.

Someone wanted it that way. Someone at Facebook sat down and decided it should be company policy to provoke people. A machine didn’t do it.

Facebook has devoured the world. It must have addicts in the billions. Imagine the evil influence its point system is exerting.

Facebook is just one part of the apparatus. People are tearing at each other all over the web, and they’re foaming at the mouth at protests.

The protest mentality is vile. Henry David Thoreau, leftist hero, has not helped humanity; he has helped it on its way to self-destruction. He advocated civil disobedience, and it has become so popular, people think it’s always okay to protest and break the law. It’s not. If you absolutely have to do things like that, it should be for a good reason. Your hurt feelings over people using pronouns you don’t like is not a good reason. Your non-articulated rage at undefined, usually imaginary fascism is not a good reason.

We protest over everything now, and many of us have decided “protest” means “riot,” which is like saying, “Bactine” is just like “amputation.” Leftists now openly say, “Rioting works.” No, it doesn’t. Getting in the habit of rioting is like buying a rabid dog to attack your neighbors. Sooner or later, it will do the same thing to you. You can achieve a short-term goal through rioting, but you will end up causing more harm than good. Young people aren’t smart enough to understand this, so rioting will probably increase and consume the world soon.

As Revelation 6 predicts, we live in a world of hate, lack, and pestilence. It’s fatiguing.

A lot of new rapture-dream videos are appearing on Youtube and Tiktok. I’ll tell you what people say in their dreams when they think they’ve left the earth for good. They don’t say, “Oh, no! I’ll never finish barber school!” They don’t say, “Send me back! Give me one more chance!” They thank God. They’re delirious with joy. They don’t want to come back. I understand. I can’t wait to go.

The world is now full of temptation, more than ever. Provocation is temptation. Sexualizing society is temptation. International tension is temptation. Coronavirus is a gold mine of temptation. People are beating each other in the streets over it.

People love it when they think they’ve left Earth, because they think they’re finally done with temptation. One of the big draws of the Messianic age is that Satan and his imps will be locked away, so there will be no army of demons tempting people. Imagine what that will be like.

It will be like the difference between my life in Miami and my life in Ocala, multiplied manyfold.

Why are people forced to live in a world packed with evil? Because God wants us to be tempted. It sounds awful, and we know God himself doesn’t tempt, but it’s true. Everyone has to face temptation. Jesus saw to it that he faced it.

In order for there to be judgment and salvation, there has to be temptation. This is why Satan will be released at the end of the Messianic age. The Bible says so. People who are born during the Messianic age won’t know what temptation is until Satan is released from his septic tank.

Temptation is getting to be more than we can take, and that’s a clue to where we are on God’s timeline. God says the tribulation will be “the hour of temptation that shall come upon all the world.” Things aren’t going great now, but they will be much worse in the near future. Suffering will increase, and people will be told the mark of the beast is the only relief.

China is having a covid outbreak. That’s a big deal. I wondered why China had been spared, given the horrible things that are done in China, routinely. Now I think it may be because China supplies so many things. If China had fallen apart in 2020, the supply chain would probably have gone down almost completely, and there would have been greater suffering than God wanted to permit at that time. Maybe he held China’s outbreak back until he was ready. Maybe we’re about to find out what empty shelves really look like.

Personally, I would like to see the pimple burst sooner than later. I am ready to leave, and I am tired of seeing ignorant, base, deluded people receive power to libel and harm people like me. I don’t want to be here when they rule over us the way they came to rule in places like Cuba and Cambodia.

I saw something in passing the other day. I saw depression characterized as “catastrophizing.” The idea is that you tell yourself things are going to be much worse than they really will be, and you get depressed. I thought that was interesting. I don’t get depressed on behalf of myself, but I expect catastrophic things for the world as a whole. I’m cheerful and full of energy, and I think my future is inexpressibly bright, but at the same time, my hopes for the world are destroyed. It’s like being depressed by proxy, only without the down feelings.

Some texts call the angels “watchers.” They have to stand by and witness the true catastrophes human beings bring on themselves. I feel like a watcher.

When you’re depressed, your expectations of catastrophe are delusional. When you’re a prophecy-believing Christian, they’re much more solid.

One interesting thing about showing Marv unrestrained love is that it makes him vulnerable. If we were a little reserved, he wouldn’t have very high expectations. The more we let loose, the more he gives in and trusts me, and the more he will expect from me every day.

Sometimes we hold back from involving ourselves with others because we don’t think we can follow through. Life is uncertain, and one person may have many creatures who are attached to him and expect him to keep coming through. Nobody wants to adopt a puppy a month before starting military service. No one with cancer would want to adopt a desperate orphan. Once you engage with someone, you have to accept the commitment. It’s intimidating.

I have wondered if I made my pets love me too much. I tried to do the right thing by engaging with them, but maybe I made them miss me more when I wasn’t available. Birds pull their feathers out when they’re lonely, and Maynard sometimes pulled his feathers more when I was giving him more attention.

I try to make my wife feel as loved as possible, and I won’t stop out of fear, but I’m aware that the more passionately we love each other, the more pain we will suffer if one of us is taken away.

One of the nice things about heaven is that no one will die or move away. Commitment in heaven won’t put anyone at risk.

I watched a couple of movies this week. They are part of a series. They’re about a divorced police chief.

In the first movie, he moves across the country, and his old dog starts refusing food. Soon, the cop finds out the dog is sick and has to be put down. In other installments, there are other dogs.

We’re supposed to feel sorry for the cop because he’s a stand-up guy who cares about others and goes above and beyond the call of duty to help them. We’re supposed to feel bad when his dog dies. He puts off euthanasia because he can’t face it. His love for the dog is too intense.

The thing that made me marvel is this: throughout the series, he barely touches the dogs. You never see moments of shared happiness or affection. What dog lover keeps a distance? That’s for cat people. Cat owners get cats in order to avoid intimacy. Dogs are effusive with their love.

I enjoyed the movies a lot, but I don’t see why the protagonist was so reserved. It makes no sense to me. It was a strange way to portray love. The dogs were miserable. The owner was miserable. They lived in the same house. There was nothing to prevent them from being close, but the man sat in a chair, and the dog lay on the floor across the room, and that was about it.

I guess I’m rambling, but I look forward to heaven. This place is getting disgusting.

MORE

It’s amazing how no one listens to me. A story just came out, and here is what the DA looking at Baldwin’s case says:

Ms. Carmack-Altwies took issue with descriptions of the firearm used in the incident as “prop-gun,” saying that the terminology, which is used in some of the court documents related to the case, could give the misleading impression that it was not a real gun.

“It was a legit gun,” she said, without naming specifically what kind of firearm was used. “It was an antique-era appropriate gun.”

Sound familiar? Scroll up.

Not good new for Baldwin, but nothing is settled yet.