
(Detailed! Hand Painted!)
Books. Bikes. Boomsticks.
“I only regret that I have but one face to palm for my country.”
So what else is GM other than a car maker and lender of money?
Its value IS to be "bailed out". I say this in all seriousness.
It's a huge interface with millions of voters- and their livelihoods, savings, pensions, debts, mobility, their health...
The only thing that makes GM valuable at this price is that it is a ready made conduit, all set up. What for?
Delivering loyalty payments from "the government" to reliable voters.
The GSh-18 also apparently utilizes double-column magazine that transitions to single-column feed at the top for more reliable feeding, just like the P7 M13 mag.No, no, no, no.
“…and then he tried to convince me that it’s pronounced ‘ver-sai,’ when it’s clearly ‘versallies!’ I mean, what kind of dumbasses do they hire to teach here, anyways? There’s, like, L’s in the middle of the freaking WORD!”I am daily reminded that a bachelor's degree these days doesn't even certify the ability to color inside the lines.
Temporary Mayor Michael Brown made the off-the-cuff suggestion Friday in response to a question at a Rotary Club of Flint luncheon about the thousands of empty houses in Flint.Can two taxpayers on a block pay for enough cop cars to protect them from the vagrants and crackheads using the other ten houses as temporary hideouts; places to steal pipe, or hit on one? What about when somebody drops their lighter while crackin' down in one of those abandoned houses? Can the two taxpayers left on the block cover the tab for the fire department?
Brown said that as more people abandon homes, eating away at the city's tax base and creating more blight, the city might need to examine "shutting down quadrants of the city where we (wouldn't) provide services."
He did not define what that could mean -- bulldozing abandoned areas, simply leaving the vacant homes to rot or some other idea entirely.Really, what do you do when the people go away and don't come back?
Here’s a little primer to tell if a statement about women and guns (or any gender-based statement, really) is sexist: flip the gender in the statement to match your own, and then see if the notion bothers you when applied to yourself. If it makes you even a little angry, uncomfortable, or puzzled, then it’s probably sexist. -The Munchkin Wrangler
"...as long as you're not
Dumb enough to actually try it." -The Clash
Let me just tell you, Congressional/Executive Branch Scumbag, Esq., if you do this... if you take this turn... I won't even think twice. I will move my firm to Switzerland, or to London before the year is out. Those employees who do not follow me, I will have to fire. The corporate taxes I pay will no longer be yours. Instead, they will go to something useful, like a nice tunnel through a mountain for high speed trains that actually work. Further, I will dedicate a substantial portion of my personal time, effort and capital to frustrating your every attempt to collect personal taxes on me thereafter- given your draconian anti-expatriation laws. But that's not all. My job is to make money for my clients, in whatever way I can. I will short your flagging financial firms mercilessly and remorselessly. I will buy QGRI puts to bet against any firm that took bailout money. I will buy credit default swaps on every firm you put your greasy paws on, because I know your fingerprints are laced with poison. For every boneheaded centralist move you make, I will be there, profiting from your lunacy. I will never again take a client who pays taxes in the United States. I will not permit any capital or profit to be diverted to any such. I will do this because in the same way you believe it your divine right to punish "greed," I consider it my duty to punish the stupidity and arrogance that is central planning, and because I believe in economic freedom. I will divert as many of your resources to my new home and its relative economic freedoms as I can. I will promote free markets in this way, and I will never look back. You will have made it clear that you are my enemy, and I do not forget such declarations.
The Obama administration is considering asking Congress to give the Treasury secretary unprecedented powers to initiate the seizure of non-bank financial companies, such as large insurers, investment firms and hedge funds, whose collapse would damage the broader economy, according to an administration document.You show me in the Constitution where the Treasury secretary has the power to "seize" anything other than his own trouser snake. As a matter of fact, you show me in the Constitution where there's even mention of a Treasury secretary. (Hint: there isn't.)
"It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace — but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
If this is what you are looking for at a gun show, then you are probably going to be disappointed.
For a collector, on the other hand, there is probably no place more exciting. Comparing a gun show to, say, your local gun store or an internet auction site is like comparing an African safari to a canned hunt over a baited field. At the gun show, you never know what you’re going to find.
This time around, I had a specific mission. A local dealer was going to be set up, and he was holding a gun back for me. It was a 1955-vintage K-22 Combat Masterpiece. I needed a shootable medium-frame .22 Smith with a 4” barrel to use as a trainer for my fighting K-frames, and I had a military-marked Remington 12 gauge that was gathering dust; the trade should be fairly straightforward.
After a little confusion, I found his table and, after a brief flurry of paperwork, for me the show was over. Now I was just going to be following BobbiX and Shootin’ Buddy around, putting noseprints on showcases and drooling over guns I couldn’t afford.
I ran into Frank W. James and we chatted a bit (this was especially cool because Shootin’ Buddy had just picked up Farmer Frank’s book Effective Handgun Defense and let me borrow it; I was planning on reading it when I got home…) Then we bumped into Caleb and wandered through the rest of the show as a group.
When we finally got to the far end of the huge 1500-table show, we made our final plans. Bobbi was out front, examining the Sistema she’d just picked up. Caleb and I would loiter at the end of one aisle while Shootin’ Buddy completed a personal errand, then he would pick up a half-case of .22LR and we’d rendezvous with BobbiX and split.
While Caleb and I were waiting for Shootin’ Buddy to return, my Smith Sense (closely related to Spider Sense) caused me to glance down at a handgun a guy was carrying past.
Huh. A nickel taper-barrel 4” Smith.
With fixed sights.
And a shrouded ejector rod.
Cue heartbeat: (Thump… thump… thump…)
What kind of Smith has a tapered barrel and a shrouded ejector rod?
It’s not an M&P… or a Model 13… Damn those wretched plastic faux stag grips. Is that an N-frame? It’s hard to tell; the guy’s paw is huge. It looks like a medium frame, but…
“Excuse me sir, what do you have there?”
(ThumpThumpThump…)
“Oh, this? It’s a S&W Model 21 in .44 Special…”
(THUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMP)
“...it was my dad’s. He was a probation officer. He bought it off a retired cop.”
I tried not to gulp visibly. “Uhhh… Shame it’s been re-nickeled. How much were you needing to get out of it?”
“Oh, I know it’s a little ugly, but it sure shoots good. reckon I need $350.”
(TH--THUMP!)
Oh jeez. Oh jeezojeezojeez. I don’t have a dime to my name, but they will never let me into the SWCA if I let this go by… Please gawd let Shootin’ Buddy still have some cash on him…
“My friend should be back in a minute and… uh… he might be interested.”
“Okay. You know, this is a neat old police gun. It’s got the guy’s badge number engraved on the back…”
Shootin’ Buddy got back. I passed the gun to him, and as the guy was telling him how much he wanted for it, I turned my back to the dude and tried to flash subtle hand signs at my friend, hoping he’d realize I was indicating the gun was worth at least five bills and not signaling for a curveball low and away.
The deal was closed.
I knew I had in my hand, at the very least, an ultra-rare and elusive Smith Model 21. Perhaps a Model of 1950 .44 Special Military Model.
When I got home, I broke out the Standard Catalog of Smith & Wesson and got to deciphering…
Wait a minute… It has a mushroom-head ejector rod… And no “S”-prefix on the serial number… This is a pre-war gun. With a shrouded ejector rod, but not a Triple Lock…
It’s a .44 Hand Ejector 3rd Model; aka the “Wolf & Klar” model, so named for the distributor that ordered them. With what appears to be “something.P.D.” and a badge number factory-stamped on the backstrap. 300 four-inch .44 HE’s were shipped to the Providence, Rhode Island PD in the 1930’s, and this gun’s serial number falls into that date range…
I need to get a Roy Jinks letter on this gun.
Maybe you didn’t get a good price on a Kel-Tec 9mm at the gun show this weekend, but you can’t tell me that good deals can’t be found there.
Because you’d be wrong.
"Have gun, will travel
Read the blog of the man
A retired operator
In a savage land..."
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Jack Cafferty.Boy, howdy. I don't think I swooned like that over Val Kilmer when I was a teenager. You got something on your chin, there, Jack...
As the country frets about extricating itself from the financial mess, there is one group of Americans to whom the rest of us owe the most sincere words of apology. That group consists of the oldest of our fellow citizens -- the men and women who went through the Great Depression when they were young...As Tonto famously said, "What do you mean 'we', paleface?" Some of us actually listened to grandma and grandpa while growing up, and believed all those silly things like "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without," and "If you can't pay cash, you can't afford it," and "Never pay interest on something that depreciates." They weren't talking just to hear their heads roar, you know.
I called the NRA-ILA (INSTITUTE FOR LEGISLATIVE ACTION). I spoke with a guy named Eric and he put me on hold for a few minutes till he could get the latest info on this subject.
After returning to the phone he gave me a bunch of info. The NRA is definitely aware of the problem and have heard from some reloaded ammo companies and individuals. Eric rattled off all the DOD agencies invlolved and apparently this may have been "somewhat of a mistake" The ranking DOD agency has heard our concerns and condsiders them VALID!!
Right now, the word is from DOD to the NRA that they hope to have a WAIVER put into place within a two or three weeks which will CORRECT this situation and return once fired brass, .50 caliber and below to the sales policies previously used!!!
Eric said it might be helpful to call our Congressmen just in case and make them aware of the impact on the DOD budget, police training, and inidividual rights.
In the remains of the house, investigators found dozens of soot-covered DVDs on how to commit acts of violence, including how to shoot into a moving car and building a homemade gun silencer. McAliley said they appeared to be serious, not a joke.Hey, you know who publishes a lot of great books on violence and mayhem? The U.S. Department of Defense.
That John Galt thing is the first constructive idea I’ve heard from Republicans during this crisis. If they all start working less, it will open up jobs for others, and jobs with good pay too. Bring it on!I had to respond:
Does it hurt when you try to think?So, "persimmon", which gap are you going to step in and fill? Going to try out that career in neurosurgery you've always wanted? Criminal law, maybe? Some of those greedy rich people are going to be opening up good paying jobs for you!The people that make $250,000+/yr are the kind of people who own businesses that employ other, less-skilled or -qualified, workers. When the doctor or lawyer cuts back, they lay people off. The cashier from Piggly-Wiggly is not going to step up and start performing cardiac catheterizations or doing patent attorney work to fill that “open job”.
Worse, if the Piggly-Wiggly cashier has been going to night school to become a medical receptionist or a paralegal, she’s screwed now, because there are fewer job openings and more unemployed paralegals and medical receptionists competing for them.
Considering that the national Girl Scout Cookie Program bills itself as the largest program to teach entrepreneurship to young girls, this e-commerce strategy seems especially savvy. But some families in the community felt threatened by the Freeborn's unconventional efforts, likely because various prizes (including camp vouchers, stuffed animals and apparel) are given out by local councils to girls who sell a certain amount of boxes. "If you have an individual girl that creates a Web presence, she can suck the opportunity from other girls," says Matthew Markie, a parent who remains involved in Girl Scouts even though his three daughters are well into their 20s.
Do the recent shooting rampages highlight the need for more gun control?
You people are pawns. Where are you gonna put all that ammo? Your garage is already full of duct tape and plastic sheeting. Did your dad build a bomb shelter when you were a kid? Some cement block mold incubator that you all sat in for five minutes eating crackers and trying to tune in Civil Defense Radio on the transistor? Think that would have helped? Did you duck and cover in grade school?Y'know, maybe I'm just buying it to shoot at paper targets, Cletus, but in an inflationary environment with a cratering stock market, long-storage consumables like ammunition and canned food are some of the best investments there are. It's called "spend your money while it's still worth something." It makes me smile to take some target-grade .22LR to the range that is still wearing price tags lower than what you'd pay for cheapie plinkin'-grade stuff today.
The country had had a bellyful of George Bush, Dick Cheney, and the rest of the messengers of darkness in Washington who had sold out the principles of the Republican Party in favor of huge deficits, a doubling of the national debt, and a growing intrusion of the federal government into people's private lives.
But instead of getting on board the change train...
"There's no shame in the world, and without shame, you cannot have honor. Our world is ruled by consensus now. There is no sense of honor." -John Milius
Only 5 weeks removed and boy, do I miss the fiscal restraint of the Bush administration. - Brian, at Six Meat Buffet.
"Tell them..." cli-click... BANG! "...not to rush on my account."Discharging a firearm in city limits will probably get someone there faster anyway. I guess I have lived in the country too long.
I think it's the ammo manufacturers taking advantage of a demand side spike to run up prices when they could just as well pump out twice as much ammo and we could all get ammo at the same price we did last year at this time.
"From the streets of tacky tourist traps,
To the scenic beachfront bars..."
In January, a federal judge ordered a mental evaluation of Hussein, saying "there is reasonable cause to believe [Hussein] may ... be suffering from a mental disease or defect rendering him mentally incompetent..."Well, let's see what we have here: Setting fires in the middle of Chicago intersections while screaming "Allahu Akhbar!" and not leaving until you get pig-piled by the Five-Oh. Slicing your finger open to dribble some biohazard on your fan mail to the President-elect. Putting what appears to be... Tang? ...in the letter to, uh, correct Barack's vitamin C deficiency or something.