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Electronic Newsgathering, the FAA and Drones

NJ Governor Chris Christie captured by an  exclusive drone photo by, NJ Advance Media Los Angeles, CA —The FAA is over-regulating while moving at a snail’s pace as drone technology is advancing at supersonic speed.   Right now camera drones manufactured by DJI are totally safe and virtually crash proof. Despite claims of potential airline crashes and total mayhem there is not a single death, serious injury or significant property damage from our modern camera drones.  They've been around for years now.  TV news is spending millions that they really don’t have on $1,500.00 to $2,000.00 per hour news choppers.   Drones operate at a tiny fraction of the cost of news helicopters and they are much safer.   There are already million of drones out there in the hands of Americans of every description. Noisy helicopters are a serious distraction to first responders even at the 500-foot altitude they are required to maintain.    T...

13 MINUTES, A Crimefile News Film Review

  Political assassination is a sensitive subject especially for those that believe in their government and support their leaders. Hindsight can make heroes or villains out of those who take the law into their own hands to end evil regimes.   13 Minutes is about an assassin that saw his absolute social responsibility to kill a very popular politician, Adolf Hitler. It was November of 1939 when carpenter and metal worker, Georg Elser , 36 undertook the killing of the most protected man in the world.   Elser had associated with Communists and had joined a workers union.   Elser considered Hitler both a criminal and a Gypsy.   He felt the ambitious dictator was dangerous for humanity. Elser hatched a clever plot to plant a bomb behind the speaker’s platform at the popular Burgerbraukeller Hall where Hitler gave an annual longwinded speech.   Elser was able to sneak into the venue at night spending two months rebuilding a wood and plaster column co...

More great Drone Videos With Kick Ass Sound!

Three Fun Drone videos for you with great music!

FAA Drone Regulation, Is It Time For Mass Civil Disobedience?

Let me begin by saying my views on this subject are my own and doing what I suggest could result in prosecution. The risk however is very low… Being an avid photographer for most of my life, the amazing drone technology has become an exciting addiction.   Ive been flying them for over four years now getting images I could only dream about before.   Placing great musical soundtracks on my videos has been pure joy.   I fly really safe having never once damaged property or caused injury. I follow sound advice like staying away from other aircraft, flying well below 400 feet (flying higher does not aid in capturing great images).  I fly sober and watchful and accordingly I have never needed crash repairs. I won’t ever ask permission to flyover or photograph private property.  That’s constitutionally protected activity that fixed wing and helicopters have enjoyed for years and there is plenty of settled appellate law that guides me.   As for th...

A great video showing Pacific Palisades along Pacific Coast Highway at Sunset Blvd.

Enjoy Jeffrey Osborn singing, On the Wings of Love, available on iTunes.

Immigration, Trump and The Reality of a Political Power Grab.

Washington, DC --For the most part our Congress has been ruled by Democrats for the last 100 years.   Our Immigration laws that the executive Branch's elected officials and their appointed bureaucrats are sworn to enforce have not changed. The votes to change our immigration laws are just insufficient even with a Liberal majority. So the open borders loving politicians can't get the law changed so they do the next best thing.   That's to obstruct, de-fund and denounce our border law enforcement efforts and employees.   When the political Left (including Liberals like the father and son Bush team) owns the Whitehouse, educated, self-reliant and law abiding Europeans are turned away in favor of economic refugees that bring, ignorance, poverty, total dependence, crime and drugs from Mexico and regions South.  Trump has merely said he'd enforce existing laws. Keeping his immigration promises has caused Liberal heads to explode.  I'm appalled that ...

It’s The Liberals That Are The True Fascists!

Los Angeles, CA— I can never understand how the Liberals always accuse Conservatives of being Fascists.   It’s the liberals that will do anything to force their will on Conservatives.   Liberals demand that Conservatives pay for the illegal aliens, their medical care and anchor babies.   It’s the Liberals that want to force the Conservatives to pay for their abortions. It’s the Liberals that want to curb free speech calling anything they don’t like hate speech.   It’s the Liberals that want to take the Constitutional protected gun rights of Conservatives by force and violence (Yes, arrest and imprisonment is force and violence).   It’s the Liberals that want to force Conservatives to pay special interest extortionists for their Climate Change Theory.   Conservatives simply want Liberals to leave their rights, religion and property alone.   Liberals insist on using the full force of the police powers against Conservatives, never the other way...

The Current State of Drones, Laws, Regulations, Fear and Loathing.

Washington, DC- -it's a painfully slow process for politicians and FAA bureaucrats to accept the need, legitimacy and relative safety of those little civilian drones.   There was the initial hysteria of passenger jets crashing, mass privacy invasion because of those little drones.     The panic reaction was bolstered with thousands mistaken or deliberately false reports of sightings claiming drone misbehavior.     Thankfully as the number of drones in civilian hands increased by leaps and bounds, the bogus reports quietly subsided considerably.  Very recently progress has been made in allowing the commercial use of drones under a somewhat loosened set of rules and guidelines.    Along with the more realistic drone rules the FAA created the Part 107 licensing exemption with a written test for commercial drone pilots.   They have allowed for considerable expansion of drone use in urban areas for news gathering, filmmakin...

A Review of a Film I Love! Toni Erdmann Rocks!

Los Angeles, CA—I love German films because they helped me learn the German language when I was a young Army medical corpsman serving in that great nation.  Today German films and TV series are simply terrific!   Toni Erdmann is a favorite and the shoe-in for the Best Foreign Film Oscar Award. It's in German, Romanian and English.   Of course The film is sub-titled in English.   I had to see what the major film festival's buzz was all about. I won’t spoil it for you but will tell you it’s about a somewhat lonely old curmudgeon, Winfried Conradi aka Toni Erdmann (Peter Simonischeck) who refused to grow up.   Our aging protagonist is never at a loss for a prank or joke and he longs to bring his successful and beautiful role model daughter, Ines Conradi, (Sandra Huller) back into his life.  Our hero invades his daughter’s life as she is working hard on an Important business trip to Romania.  Needless to say the complications pile up in ...

The Unintended Consequences of Meryl Streep’s Emotional Golden Globes Rant

Hollywood, CA —Tinseltown was once ruled by some over-emotional Conservatives.   There was a group of Communist artists here that included Lucille Ball that were considered by others as both dangerous and un-American.   The result of that misguided political activism was a purge that destroyed promising careers in the form of Blacklisting. Today the shoe is on the other foot and the seeming majority Hollywood’s elite are Socialists. They pour millions into Leftist political campaign coffers.   Today’s Hollywood power structure has little tolerance for Conservative artists.  The industry’s accepted screenwriters bend over backwards making films that display African-American heroism and legitimize the Gay lifestyle. I guess it might be called, Affirmative Action Filmmaking .   I don’t want criticize anyone’s artistic products no matter their message.  Saying that, I’m a solid and unyielding believer in Freedom of Speech and Thought.  ...