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Gun control advocates keep claiming that guns are only used to kill people and that people should just rely on the police to protect them.

But gun controllers actions keep showing that they dont believe that. When it comes to their safety, they understand that guns save lives. Guns are for them, not the untrusted, unwashed masses.

Over the weekend, Womens March leaders, such as co-president Linda Sarsour, were walking around with private armed security.

After all, the police were just yards away, not a phone call and an eight to 10minutes' wait for officersto arrive.

Of course, Michael Bloomberg and the executives at his Everytown for Gun Safety dont go anywhere without their security details.

The Womens March participants carried signs such as Real men dont need guns or Loaded guns under beds are bad, but their actions presumably imply that at least women need guns for protection when they are out in public.

The media gives extensive negative news coverage to conservatives who are caught engaging in extramarital affairs because of the family values hypocrisy angle. The hypocrisy is said to be what makes the story newsworthy, but one will search in vain to see any of the mainstream media pointing to this hypocrisy by gun control advocates.

This hypocrisy is nothing new.

Gun control advocates from politicians such as former Chicago Mayor Richard Daley to Media Matterss David Brock to celebrities such as Rosie ODonnell have all criticized gun ownership for others while they have guns being used to protect themselves.

It is understandable that gun control advocates want to protect themselves, but they arent the people really at risk.

And, thankfully, being a gun control advocate isnt a particularly risky occupation. After all, it isnt like being a poor black living in cities like Chicago or Washington, D.C.

Even after his retirement, ChicagoMayorRichard Daleysurrounded himself with round-the-clock armed police officers for protection, at the cost of $40,000 per month.

Yet, he supported banning handgun licenses for people to keep a gun in their home, even in the most dangerous parts of the city.

At the time, Chicago had the highest murder rate of any large city in the United States, but Daley had no problem imposing large penalties on Chicago taxi drivers who refused certain fares over fears of crime.

David Brock, the founder of Media Matters, had a personal assistant illegally publicly carry a concealed handgun in the District of Columbia in order "to protect Brock from threats.

Few organizations have declared their opposition to gun ownership or concealed carry laws as strongly as Media Matters.

Brocks actions were arguably much worse than the hypocrisy of others as carrying a concealed handgun in Washington, D.C., in 2012 was completely illegal.

Remember comedian Rosie ODonnell, who in 2000 emceed the so-called Million Mom March for gun control?

She claimed: I also think you should not buy a gun anywhere. It created quite a ruckus when her bodyguards applied for permits to carry concealed handguns.

But the media blackout on the hypocrisy over using guns for protection wasnt the only media bias shown in their coverage.

In January, the Womens March reportedly involved 2.6 million participants.

The Womens March in front of the NRA headquarters managed to draw something in the low hundreds.

Yet, none of the media coverage pointed out how few people Michael Bloombergs Everytown and the Womens March could muster between their two groups.

All too often gun control advocates really do understand the safety benefits of gun ownership when it comes to their protecting their own personal safety. Remember that the next time you hear them calling for gun-free zones as a way to protect people.

John Lott is the president of the Crime Prevention Research Center and the author more recently of The War on Guns (Regnery, 2016).

The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.

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Media shows its true colors on guns at women's march | TheHill - The Hill (blog)

For a year, the big question of Russiagate has boiled down to this: Did Donald Trumps campaign collude with the Russians in hacking the DNC?

And until last week, the answer was no.

As ex-CIA director Mike Morell said in March, On the question of the Trump campaign conspiring with the Russians there is smoke, but there is no fire, at all. Theres no little campfire, theres no little candle, theres no spark.

Well, last week, it appeared there had been a fire in Trump Tower. On June 9, 2016, Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort met with Russians in anticipation of promised dirt on Hillary Clintons campaign.

While not a crime, this was a blunder. For Donald Jr. had long insisted there had been no collusion with the Russians. Caught in flagrante, he went full Pinocchio for four days.

And as the details of that June 9 meeting spilled out, Trump defenders were left with egg on their faces, while anti-Trump media were able to keep the spotlight laser-focused on where they want it Russiagate.

This reality underscores a truth of our time. In the 19th century, power meant control of the means of production; today, power lies in control of the means of communication.

Who controls the media spotlight controls what people talk about and think about. And mainstream media are determined to keep that spotlight on Trump-Russia, and as far away as possible from their agenda breaking the Trump presidency and bringing him down.

Almost daily, there are leaks from the investigative and security arms of the U.S. government designed to damage this president.

Just days into Trumps presidency, a rifle-shot intel community leak of a December meeting between Trump national security adviser Gen. Michael Flynn and Russias ambassador forced the firing of Flynn.

An Oval Office meeting with the Russian foreign minister in which Trump disclosed that Israeli intelligence had ferreted out evidence that ISIS was developing computer bombs to explode on airliners was leaked. This alerted ISIS, damaged the president and imperiled Israeli intelligence sources and methods.

Some of the leaks from national security and investigative agencies are felonies, not only violations of the leakers solemn oath to protect secrets, but of federal law.

Yet the press is happy to collude with these leakers and to pay them in the coin they seek. First, by publishing the secrets the leakers want revealed. Second, by protecting them from exposure to arrest and prosecution for the crimes they are committing.

The mutual agendas of the deep-state leakers and the mainstream media mesh perfectly.

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Consider the original Russiagate offense.

Confidential emails of the DNC and John Podesta were hacked, i.e., stolen by Russian intelligence and given to WikiLeaks. And who was the third and indispensable party in this Tinker to Evers to Chance double-play combination?

The media itself. While deploring Russian hacking as an act of war against our democracy, the media published the fruits of the hacking. It was the media that revealed what Podesta wrote and how the DNC tilted the tables against Bernie Sanders.

Like the reporting you see here? Sign up for free news alerts from WND.com, Americas independent news network.

If the media believed Russian hacking was a crime against our democracy, why did they publish the fruits of that crime?

Is it not monumental hypocrisy to denounce Russias hacking of the computers of Democratic political leaders and institutions, while splashing the contents of the theft all over Page 1?

Not only do our Beltway media traffic in stolen secrets and stolen goods, but the knowledge that they will publish secrets and protect those who leak them is an incentive for bureaucratic disloyalty and criminality.

Our mainstream media are like the fellow who avoids the risk of stealing cars, but wants to fence them once stolen and repainted.

Some journalists know exactly who is leaking against Trump, but they are as protective of their colleagues sources as of their own. Thus, the public is left in the dark as to what the real agenda is here, and who is sabotaging a president in whom they placed so much hope.

And thus does democracy die in darkness.

Do the American people not have a right to know who are the leakers within the government who are daily spilling secrets to destroy their president? Are the identities of the saboteurs not a legitimate subject of investigation? Ought they not be exposed and rooted out?

Where is the special prosecutor to investigate the collusion between bureaucrats and members of the press who traffic in the stolen secrets of the republic?

Bottom line: Trump is facing a stacked deck.

People inside the executive branch are daily providing fresh meat to feed the scandal. Anti-Trump media are transfixed by it. It is the Watergate of their generation. They can smell the blood in the water. The Pulitzers are calling. And they love it, for they loathe Donald Trump both for who he is and what he stands for.

It is hard to see when this ends, or how it ends well for the country.

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The real crime: Collusion between media, leakers - WND.com

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Kingston is on a roll with its HyperX gaming brand. What started with high-performance memory 15 years ago has recently branched out to peripherals, with great success. Its headphones and gaming mice are lauded for delivering a lot of bang for the buck, and its Cloud II headset is our hands-down favorite for the price.

Now, the company has expanded its keyboard line with its latest model, the HyperX Alloy Elite (See it on Amazon). It's similar to the Alloy FPS and addresses most of that model's annoyances in a less-portable footprint. If your keyboard stays attached to your gaming PC all the time, the improvements in the Elite are easily worth the measly $10 price hike.

Design and Features

The Alloy Elite shares much in common with the Alloy FPS, design-wise. Both are heavyweight, durable keyboards with a steel frame and a thick braided USB cable. Its got a nice charcoal black finish with matching keys, and Kingston throws in a set of textured, colored keycaps for the W-A-S-D and 1-2-3-4 keys. Those are red on the FPS; theyre silver on the Elite.

The keyboard is available with your choice of three different Cherry MX switches: Blue (clicky), Brown (tactile bump but not clicky), or Red (smooth linear motion). Of these, gamers tend to prefer the Brown or Red variants. Hardcore typers like the old-style audible click and firmer action of the Blue switches. My test unit came with Red switches.

In terms of how the Alloy Elite differs from its predecessor, first you must understand that there are three essential issues with the Alloy FPS model: There are no individual buttons for the lighting and media controls (you have to use Function keys), the USB port is for charging only, and there is no wrist rest. The Alloy Elite addresses all of these.

Though the keyboard offers only a red backlight, there are six lighting modes, the same as those found on the Alloy FPS: Always on, breathing (pulsing), wave (a left-to-right motion), trigger (keys light up as you press them, then slowly fade), and explosion (tapping key creates ripples of light). The sixth mode is programmable, so you can select which keys you want illuminated (it defaults to W-A-S-D, CTRL, Space, and 1-2-3-4). My favorite by far is the trigger mode. The slick fade effect looks awesome as youre furiously typing away.

Though I would prefer RGB lighting the red backlight looks great with the black keyboard and fits the HyperX branding. While the Alloy FPS has five lighting levels, the Alloy Elite has just four: off, low, medium, and high. Frankly, theres no practical need to have more.

You get dedicated media controls too: mute, play/pause, forward, back, and a slick volume wheel. And of course theres a gaming mode button, which disables the Windows key so you dont accidentally pop open the Start menu in the middle of a heated match. Thats par for the course with all gaming keyboards.

But while the Alloy FPS puts lighting and media controls on the Fn keys to save space, the Alloy Elite adds a bar up above the keys, dedicated to the lighting and media controls. This makes them drastically more user-friendly. I especially love the wide, vertically-rolling analog volume wheel. The control area is separated from the keys by a thin line that follows the lighting pattern and adds a touch of style to an otherwise workmanlike design.

The USB cable is permanently attached to the keyboard rather than detachable as it is on the Alloy FPS, a clear sign that this is not meant to be tossed in a bag to travel with you. But Kingston did correct the FPSs annoying charge only USB port, upgrading it to full USB 2.0 pass-through on the Elite. Now its good for more than charging your phone; its a handy place to plug in a USB headset or wireless controller dongle.

Finally, typists who want a comfortable wrist angle usually opt for a keyboard with a wrist wrest, and the Alloy FPS doesnt include one. The Alloy Elite does, and while its plastic, it feels sturdy and nicely matches the soft black finish of the metal keyboard deck.

These are all great features, but the Alloy Elite is a little spartan compared to fancier (and pricier) keyboards due to its lowish $109.99 price tag. For example, there are no programmable macros, no headphone jack, no full-color RGB lighting. You can get these sorts of features from other keyboards, but youll usually pay more for it. Kingstons approach has one stand-out benefit: its 100% driverless. Theres no software to install; just plug it in and play.

Gaming Performance

Theres no doubting the build quality of this thing. Its built like a tank. The heavy steel frame is apparent the moment you pick it up, and that extra heft really keeps the keyboard in place. It doesnt slide around at all.

Then you have the genuine Cherry MX switches. Some other budget mechanical keyboards opt for cheaper switches, like those from Outemu or Kailh. And Logitech and Razer have their own custom mechanical switches, which have met with mixed reviews. But Cherry MX endures because of its consistent and reliable performance. Theres a whole internet subculture devoted to mechanical keyboards, and Cherry MX are so popular that a cottage industry has sprung up to provide replacement switches, custom keycaps, and mods like O-ring switch dampeners.

I like the smooth motion of the Cherry MX Red switches our test unit came with. The activation point is right around 2mm with the reset point just a shade above that, which is great for fast-paced key tapping. Cherry MX Brown are very similar, but with a noticeable bump as you press down for a tactile feel. Cherry MX Blue have that tactile bump and an audible click, which remind you of old IBM keyboards from the early PC days. But theyre less suitable for gaming, as the activation point is beyond 2mm and the reset point is around 1.5mm. This means you must press the key down further to make it register, and let it go back up further before it can register again.

Game Tests

In addition to using the Alloy Elite to type thousands of words over the past couple weeks, I also used it with a variety of games, from intense FPS titles like PlayerUnknowns Battlegrounds and Overwatch to more sedate fare like Planet Coaster and Stardew Valley. I couldnt have asked for better performanceno keypress ever went unregistered, I never felt like response was anything other than instant, and even my most heated moments didnt cause the keyboard to slide on my smooth desk. Just to confirm Kingstons n-key rollover claim, I fired up Aqua Key Test and, sure enough, you can press as many keys at once as you want without any of them failing to register.

I can also appreciate that the keys are raised up above the key deck. If youre the type to enjoy a few snacks while gaming, youll appreciate that its easy to get under and around the keys to clean everything off.

Purchasing Guide

The HyperX Alloy Elite has an MSRP of $109.99 and is available for pre-order today on Amazon:

See the HyperX Alloy Elite on Amazon

The Verdict

At $109.99, the HyperX Alloy Elite is a steal. Thats only $10 more than the Alloy FPS, and for that minor difference in price and a little less portability, you get some nice quality-of-life improvements. There are dedicated controls for lighting and media, including an excellent analog volume wheel, a wrist rest, and full-powered USB pass-through. You dont get fancy programmable macro buttons or RGB lighting, but you also dont ever have to mess with drivers or software. It didn't blow us away with amazing new innovations, but if you want a well-made mechanical gaming keyboard at a fair price, you'll love the Alloy Elite.

Read more here:
Kingston HyperX Alloy Elite Review - IGN

Associated Press

Thursday, July 13, 2017

AP

British and Irish singers perform on stage at the Live Aid concert at Wembley Stadium, London, England, July 13, 1985. From left are George Michael of Wham!, Bob Geldolf, Bono of U2, Freddie Mercury of Queen, Andrew Ridgley of Wham! and Howard Jones. (AP Photo)

Today is Thursday, July 13, the 194th day of 2017. There are 171 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On July 13, 1977, a blackout hit New York City in the mid-evening as lightning strikes on electrical equipment caused power to fail; widespread looting broke out. (The electricity was restored about 25 hours later.)

On this date:

In 1787, the Congress of the Confederation adopted the Northwest Ordinance, which established a government in the Northwest Territory, an area corresponding to the eastern half of the present-day Midwest.

In 1793, French revolutionary writer Jean-Paul Marat was stabbed to death in his bath by Charlotte Corday, who was executed four days later.

In 1863, deadly rioting against the Civil War military draft erupted in New York City. (The insurrection was put down three days later.)

In 1939, Frank Sinatra made his first commercial recording, "From the Bottom of My Heart" and "Melancholy Mood," with Harry James and his Orchestra for the Brunswick label.

In 1955, Britain hanged Ruth Ellis, a 28-year-old former model convicted of killing her boyfriend, David Blakely (to date, Ellis is the last woman to be executed in the United Kingdom).

In 1960, John F. Kennedy won the Democratic presidential nomination on the first ballot at his party's convention in Los Angeles.

In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated Thurgood Marshall to be U.S. Solicitor General; Marshall became the first black jurist appointed to the post. (Two years later, Johnson nominated Marshall to the U.S. Supreme Court.)

In 1972, George McGovern received the Democratic presidential nomination at the party's convention in Miami Beach.

In 1978, Lee Iacocca was fired as president of Ford Motor Co. by chairman Henry Ford II.

In 1985, "Live Aid," an international rock concert in London, Philadelphia, Moscow and Sydney, took place to raise money for Africa's starving people.

In 1999, Angel Maturino Resendiz, suspected of being the "Railroad Killer," surrendered in El Paso, Texas. (Resendiz was executed in 2006.)

In 2013, a jury in Sanford, Florida, acquitted neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman of all charges in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager; news of the verdict prompted Alicia Garza, an African-American activist in Oakland, California, to declare on Facebook that "black lives matter," a phrase that gave rise to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Ten years ago: Former media mogul Conrad Black was convicted in Chicago of swindling the Hollinger International newspaper empire out of millions of dollars. (Black was sentenced to 6 years in federal prison, but had his sentence reduced to three years; he was freed in May 2012.) Family prayer services and a huge public outpouring in Austin, Texas, ushered in three days of memorial ceremonies honoring the late Lady Bird Johnson.

Five years ago: His credibility under attack, Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney insisted he had "no role whatsoever in the management" of Bain Capital, a private equity firm, after early 1999, and demanded that President Barack Obama apologize for campaign aides who persisted in alleging otherwise. JPMorgan Chase said its traders may have tried to conceal the losses from a soured investment bet that embarrassed the bank and cost it almost $6 billion far more than its chief executive first suggested. Movie producer Richard Zanuck, 77, died in Beverly Hills, California.

One year ago: With emotions running raw, President Barack Obama met privately at the White House with elected officials, law enforcement leaders and members of the Black Lives Matter movement with the goal of getting them to work together to curb violence and build trust. Theresa May entered No. 10 Downing Street as Britain's new prime minister following a bittersweet exit by David Cameron, who resigned after voters rejected his appeal to stay in the European Union.

Today's Birthdays: Game show announcer Johnny Gilbert (TV: "Jeopardy!") is 93. Actor Patrick Stewart is 77. Actor Robert Forster is 76. Actor Harrison Ford is 75. Singer-guitarist Roger McGuinn (The Byrds) is 75. Actor-comedian Cheech Marin is 71. Actress Daphne Maxwell Reid is 69. Actress Didi Conn is 66. Singer Louise Mandrell is 63. Rock musician Mark "The Animal" Mendoza (Twisted Sister) is 61. Actor-director Cameron Crowe is 60. Tennis player Anders Jarryd is 56. Rock musician Gonzalo Martinez De La Cotera (Marcy Playground) is 55. Comedian Tom Kenny is 55. Country singer-songwriter Victoria Shaw is 55. Bluegrass singer Rhonda Vincent is 55. Actor Kenny Johnson is 54. Roots singer/songwriter Paul Thorn is 53. Country singer Neil Thrasher is 52. Actor Ken Jeong is 48. Bluegrass musician Mike Barber (The Gibson Brothers) is 47. Singer Deborah Cox is 44. Actress Ashley Scott is 40. Rock musician Will Champion (Coldplay) is 39. Actor Fran Kranz is 36. Actress Aya Cash is 35. Actor Colton Haynes is 29. Actor Steven R. McQueen is 29. Soul singer Leon Bridges is 28. Actor Kyle Harrison Breitkopf is 12.

Thought for Today: "Individuality is freedom lived." John Dos Passos, American author (1896-1970).

Last updated: 8:12 am Thursday, July 13, 2017

2017 GazetteXtra, a division of Bliss Communications, Inc.

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Today in History: July 13 - Janesville Gazette

Teenagers in Britain are fortunate to have access to computers, laptops and smartphones from an early age. A child in the UK receives a smartphone at around the age of 12 among the earliest in Europe. The natural consequence of this is that children spend a significant amount of their time on the internet. Nearly 20 years or so since the first social networks appeared on the internet, there has been considerable research into their psychological, societal, and health effects. While these have often been seen as largely negative over the years, there is plenty of evidence to the contrary.

A recent report from the Education Policy Institute, for example, studied childrens use of the internet and their mental health. The report found that teenagers value social networks as a way of connecting with friends and family, maintaining their networks of friends, and long distance connections. Teenagers see social networking as a comfortable medium for sharing their issues and finding solutions to problems such as social isolation and loneliness. They are also more likely to seek help in areas such as health advice, unknown experiences, and help with exams and study techniques.

Social networks afford the opportunity to find people with similar interests, or to support teamwork in school projects. In unsettled economic and political times, teenagers use social networks as a means to be heard and to get involved in political activism, as well as volunteering and charitable activities.

Teenagers also leverage social networks to engage with creative projects, and many young artists are first noticed through the exposure offered by the rich networking opportunities of social media, such as musicians on MySpace or photographers on image sharing sites Flickr or Behance. Teenagers looking to pursue careers in art or other creative industries turn to social platforms in order to create their portfolios as well as to create with others.

These opportunities have a positive impact on adolescent character formation and the development of their individual identity, and helps them toward choosing a career path. These choices are made at an early age and to this end social networks are enriching young peoples lives.

On the other hand the report was able to list a substantial list of negative influences stemming from social media use, ranging from time wasting and addictive, compulsive use, to cyber-bullying, radicalisation, stress and sexual grooming to name just a few.

Unsurprisingly governments are concerned with the impact of social networking on the vulnerable. Concern over the uncontrolled nature of social networking has prompted action from parents and politicians. The issue of children roaming freely on social networks became an issue in the recent UK general election, and was mentioned in the Conservative party manifesto, which made a key pledge of safety for children online, and new rights to require social media companies to delete information about young people as they turn 18. This is a tall order, as it would require erasing tens of millions of teenagers profiles on around 20 different social platforms, hosted in different countries worldwide.

The Conservatives also suggested the party would create a power in law for government to introduce an industry-wide levy from social media companies and communication service providers to support awareness and preventative activity to counter internet harms. Awareness-raising is an important step towards encouraging conscious social media use among the young. But despite continuing efforts to educate youngsters about the dangers (and, to be fair, the benefits) of using social media, many are wary of the impact technology may have on overly-social teenagers once outside parental control.

It has been shown that teenagers increasingly use social networks in private, leaving parents outside environments where children are exposed to real-time content and largely unguarded instant communications. The concern raised in the report that responses to protect, and build resilience in, young people are inadequate and often outdated is timely. While schools are tasked with educating teenagers about the risks of social media, very few parents are able to effectively introduce controls on the content their children access and monitor the evolving threats that operate online.

A recent study of compulsive social media use showed that it is not the users age that matters, but their individual motivations. In fact users who are highly sociable and driven by friends towards compulsive social media use suffer physically and socially. On the other hand when users are driven by hedonic (fun-seeking) motivations, their physical health and sociability improves. This explains why teenagers in the UK see social networking as a positive phenomenon that enriches their social life. There is clearly potential to harness these positives.

While the tech giants that run the social networks with billions of users must play their part to ensure the safety of their youngest users, it is also parents role to talk openly with their children about their use of social networks and demand expected standards of use. Teenagers have questions about life and are looking for answers to their problems as they go through a challenging time of life. With the prime minister naming mental health as a key priority schools, parents, politicians and social networking platforms should help teenagers to build resilience to what they encounter online and how it makes them feel, rather than adopting only a safeguarding approach. Its interesting to note that 78% of young people who contact the organisation Childline now do so online: teachers, family and friends providing support should make the most of a medium which todays children and teenagers are comfortable with.

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Social media genie won't go back in the bottle, so we must teach youngsters to use it wisely - The Conversation UK