What President Trumps REALLY needs to add to the White House

There has been much wailing and gnashing of teeth this past week about the latest antics of President Donald Trump.  The East Wing of the White House has been effectively destroyed, to make way for a new ball room.

Here's the way the White House complex looked prior to the demolition of the East Wing:

The East Wing only dates back to the 1940s.  It really hasn't done too terribly much, to be honest.  It's become more or less the province of the first lady, though that's never been a designated official capacity.  The East Wing can't honestly be said to be part of the truly historic and traditional White House grounds.  And the White House has never been a static location anyway.  It's been added to, remodeled and renovated almost since its beginnings more than two centuries ago.  America has grown and evolved (ideally for the better) and the White House has evolved with it.  And it probably always will be, for as long as America is a republic (if we can keep that).

The East Room of the White House has always been a relatively small setting for formal and especially diplomatic functions.  A spacious environment for such affairs is something that pretty much every other modern state has.  The United States does not.  We've had to do with the tiny East Room.  And I'm wondering what Ronald Reagan would have done about adding a ball room.  He would have probably been all for it, though I think that at that moment in American history he would have been more fixated on ending the Cold War.  Still, a ball room for state occasions would have been right up his alley.  It would have been quite an elegant and versatile addition to the White House.  One that would doubtless bear witness to much history for generations to come.

So count me as someone who believes there's nothing inordinately inappropriate about what Trump is doing with the East Wing.  The plans were already announced months ago that this would be happening.  It's not like this is suddenly out of nowhere.

But personally, I think that President Trump isn't going far enough in his design for the presidential residence...

One of the things that was demolished this past week, along with the rest of the East Wing, was the White House movie theater.  Originally a cloak room that was converted on Franklin Roosevelt's orders in 1942, the movie theater has since been enjoyed by every president and his family .  Reagan was particularly fond of it.  I've heard from a few sources that the White House will sooner than later have a new movie theater, one that's much more modern and high-tech.

Well, here's my idea: if Trump wants to go all out for the White House, it can't get much bigger than installing its own IMAX screen:

For less than a million dollars IMAX will install your own private movie screen.  That's less than peanuts to a man like Donald Trump.  Or he can really make his mark on the Washington D.C. landscape by constructing an adjoining IMAX building like the one in Branson, Missouri.  Heh-heh... can you imagine the sight of something like THAT next to the core White House mansion?  It could have the big IMAX logo and everything.

I'm only trying to think a little forward, is all!

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Gun control lunacy: Feinstein would take YOUR weapon but keep hers, and the modern cost of saving a life

Senator Dianne Feinstein - a person who exemplifies the absolute worst that an elected official could possibly be - is trying to ram through another gun control bill on Capitol Hill. It would take away dang nearly every firearm that We The People have as articulated in the Second Amendment... EXCEPT for her own and those of other government officials.

So lemme get this straight: Feinstein, who owns a pistol or two herself, wants legislation that will prohibit the "little people" from having guns but also wants to keep her own.

I am trying to be a man of polite society so I will refrain from using the word that many will be tempted to use in describing Feinstein. I can at least say with no small degree of accuracy "rank hypocrisy".

And then from the D.C. area there is the story of a man who several days ago came across a pack of pit bulls trying to maul a little boy to death.

The man fired his handgun at the dogs, saving his young neighbor's life.

And for his valiant act of courage the man is now facing an "illegal weapon" charge because of Washington D.C.'s insane gun control laws. He faces a year in prison and $1000 in fines.

Let's get this straight: the D.C. prosecutors would rather this guy not have a gun at the cost of a dead eleven-year old. Am I getting that right?

If a jury convicts this dude, I will have lost most of the hope that's still there for America.

But not all hope, if more local sheriffs vow to refuse to comply with federal gun laws that would deprive citizens of their Second Amendment rights. Read the new piece by Chuck Baldwin at the link for the encouraging words from people across the fruited plain to those inside the Beltway.

And the words are: "Hell no."

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"We'll never be caught..."

"We're on a mission from God."

The New Blues Brothers! Chris (AKA me) and Ken (AKA my girlfriend's dad) hanging out before a wedding reception this past weekend.

It was pretty cool: the reception was in the ballroom of a hotel across the Potomac River from Washington D.C., so in the background we could see the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, the top of the Capitol off in the distance, and on the other side of the room it looked across Georgetown to the National Cathedral.

But I have to admit: ever since playing Fallout 3 I just couldn't look over that landscape without seeing the Capital Wasteland strewn out before me. Too bad my car radio couldn't pick up Three Dog...

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Latest stories of law enforcement gone bonkers

As I shouldn't have to state every time I post something about this: I do believe that most of those who choose to serve in law enforcement are doing so honorably. But I also must point out that a virtue like trust does not come automatically with a badge and a uniform. Trust must be earned and kept. And it is inherent to a free and peaceable society that all citizens be vigilant in the upholding of liberty.

So it is that The Knight Shift now presents more of the sadly seemingly-escalating chronicles of cops gone screwy.

The first comes from Philadelphia, where police officer Alberto Lopez Sr. publicly bullied civilian Agnes Lawless in a convenience store because Lawless was involved in a minor fender-bender with Lopez's son a short time earlier. At one point Lopez shoved his service pistol into Lawless's face. Here is the footage from the Lukoil's security camera...

The next story comes from Wyoming, where Franklin Joseph Ryle Jr., formerly of that state's Highway Patrol, plead guilty in federal court to charges of depriving a man of his constitutional right to be free from unreasonable seizures by kidnapping him. Earlier this year and while on duty as a Wyoming Highway Patrol trooper, Ryle "stopped a Wal-Mart truck with the intent to murder its driver and stage an accident with the truck that would either injure Ryle or kill his wife, allowing him to seek a monetary settlement from Wal-Mart."

And rounding out this report, Washington D.C. chief of police Cathy Lanier is blasting iPhone users as "cowardly". What has Lanier so honked-off is Trapster: a new iPhone app that tells you when you are approaching a red-light camera, speed trap and other safe-driving revenue-enhancing schemes. I say: things like the red-light cameras are a cowardly tactic on the part of government agencies... and if citizens want to strike back at them, more power to them!

(I wonder how many iPhone users have bought Trapster all because of Cathy Lanier making such a fuss about it? Bet that app's creator is now enjoying some profit on account of the free publicity! :-)

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VIDEO: Citizens arrested in D.C. for reading the Constitution

I was going to preface this with some commentary. Then I decided that this is something that would be better for you to watch and decide for yourself whether this is right or wrong.

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