Smith & Wesson Model 469, 12+1 rounds of 9x19mm, made in 1983
.
.
Books. Bikes. Boomsticks.
“I only regret that I have but one face to palm for my country.”
"The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has just published in its latest English-language magazine Dabiq what it claims is an "interview" with the Jordanian pilot captured in Syria."ISIS published in its what now?
"Is that food you have? I, too, am interested in food." |
"Take my love, take my land
Give me a gun I cannot stand,
I don't care, hear me sing
You can't make me shoot this thing."
Nikon Df, image from Wikipedia. |
Canon 20D top controls |
Aperture ring on Nikon 43-86mm F/3.5 AI |
Film speed setting on Canon AE-1 Program |
Shutter speed dial on Leicaflex SL |
'Way back in the summer of aught-aught, when I was recovering from all the surgery they had to do to stick me together after my motorcycle accident, I had a double occupancy room at the Big City Public Hospital.
My roommate was an African-American woman who I thought of as "middle aged" at the time, but looking back, she seems to have gotten much younger; I mean, she probably wasn't much over thirty-five. Funny how that works. Anyhow, she was recovering from a gunshot wound in the arm.
She had friends and relatives in and out of the room nearly constantly, which should have annoyed me, except that I was curled up with an on-demand morphine drip and was consequently pretty much out of my head on opiates for most of our joint tenancy. During one of my more lucid periods, I asked her story, and received the following amazing tale in response...
Our heroine was standing at the bus stop, minding her own business. (This, as everyone knows, is one of the most dangerous things you can do in the 'hood.) The bus stop was slightly elevated from street level by a low stone retaining wall. All of a sudden and for no reason, as these things so often go down, the man in the house across the street emerged with his girlfriend, started shouting death threats at her, and the pair proceeded to hop in his car and try to run her down.
They were unable to reach her with the car due to the retaining wall, so the crazy guy leapt out of the car, leaving his girlfriend at the helm to continue playing Death Race 2000, while he shouted that he was going back across the street to fetch his gun and come back and shoot her.
"...and so he did," said my hospital roommate.
"Wait," I replied, confused, "you saw him run into his house, come back out with a gun, come back across the street, and shoot you, and you just stood there?"
"If I'd'a ran, he'd'a shot me!" she retorted, looking at me as though I had a screw loose.
"Looks like standing still didn't work so hot, either," I said, returning to the joys of the electrically-dispensed poppy.
To avoid the legal nets
That entangled Bernie Goetz
Just yell "Help! Help! Police!"
Like Kitty Genovese.
They turn the Soldiers' & Sailors' Monument into a giant Christmas tree. |
Kodak EasyShare V1073 |
Nikon Coolpix S6500 |
Nikon Coolpix S6500 |
Samsung Galaxy SII |
"In 2013, 25% of all of these images made were taken with smartphones, presumably by folks who don’t think of themselves as “photographers.” As a result of this image explosion and the technological advances making it possible, photography is no longer a specialist language. it is now a universal language, spoken via social media, most of it inconsequential chatter. We have entered the fast food era of photography."...I had to wonder where he was when I was spending those Monday mornings after a big concert weekend, printing roll after roll of images consisting of a row of sharply-focused badly-overexposed heads seen from behind, with something going on only dimly glimpsed in the murky background far beyond them. I guess he was hanging out with photographers. Lucky bastard.
"Martin said her son turned 18 in September. He had been expelled from school but was trying to get his life back together, she said..."If your plan for getting your life back together includes pointing guns at the cops, I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that it's not all that hot of a plan.
Canon AE-1 Program and Nikon EM |
"The accordion player stopped at the grocery store and ran in to get a few things. While he was browsing the deli counter, he realized that he'd left his accordion in plain view in the back seat. He ran into the parking lot in a panic, but it was too late; the rear passenger window was smashed and now there were two accordions in there."
"I would like to point out in regards to the "Black Muslim" angle advanced earlier, that despite this 4th quarter rally, "Libertarian-ish Cracker Gun Nuts" still have a 3-2 lead on the cowardly back-shooting of LEOs scoreboard for 2014, if I've been filling my scorecard out correctly."But, I mean, they weren't true Libertarian-ish Cracker Gun Nuts.
I carry a gun a lot. I have a nice leather holster for my Springfield XD .45 Compact, which isn’t really a small gun.It’s not nearly as big as the full size government model 1911,but it isn’t tiny either. You’d think (if you never carried) that it’d be easy to spot, even under clothing. This must explain why many concealed carriers seem to think that they must carry tiny guns.I can identify with that. I carry a full-size service pistol all the time and don't think it's any kind of burden on my lifestyle.
Saturday night I was over at a friend’s house for gaming night. Yes, dear friends, in addition to dressing funny and attending medieval re-enactments, I play the dreaded role playing game Dungeons and Dragons. Now that I have confessed my utter nerdiness to you all, I guess I must die of shame.I can identify with that. I played tabletop RPGs from middle school until well into my 30s and the only reason I don't now is because I don't know anybody locally who does. If I did, I'd be all about getting together on Tuesday nights or whenever to play some nerd poker. In the meantime, I make do with World of Warcrack. Don't judge.
Well, we were in the middle of gaming, and we got a knock at the door. When he answered the door, the owner found a young girl (18-25?) standing on his porch. She had a story about her cell phone not working and asked to use his phone. He invited her in...*sound of needle sliding across the record* He did what? Dude, I can't identify with that. THAT is weird and alien to me.
"The news media" wants to do one thing: Sell commercials. They sell commercials by delivering eyeballs. They deliver eyeballs by delivering the most titillating news as dramatically as possible, with the catchiest music and the most eye-catching graphics and prettiest/most handsome talking heads...What's the fix? That's a damn good question.
And we sit here on a forum posting and clicking on the links to NY Daily News, Baltimore Sun, CNN, and more, shaking our heads and clucking our tongues like this is being done by some media "Them" to "Those Other People".
In this respect, it’s not really useful, or possible, to specify a break point where the money game ends and the ideological one begins. They are two facets of the same coin—where the con selling 23-cent miracle cures for heart disease inches inexorably into the one selling miniscule marginal tax rates as the miracle cure for the nation itself. The proof is in the pitches—the come-ons in which the ideological and the transactional share the exact same vocabulary, moral claims, and cast of heroes and villains.Perfectly devoid of self awareness, the writer goes on at length about how Conservatives have an unthinking hate reflex for caricatured Liberals... (His own hate reflex for caricatured Conservatives is, of course, nuanced and reasoned and originates somewhere in the classy neighborhood of the frontal lobes, rather than the trailer park of the medulla oblongata.)
It’s lost. It’s gone. A different country. And maybe someday it really should be. I’ll save that for another column. Until that day comes, the Democratic Party shouldn’t bother trying. If they get no votes from the region, they will in turn owe it nothing, and in time the South, which is the biggest welfare moocher in the world in terms of the largesse it gets from the more advanced and innovative states, will be on its own, which is what Southerners always say they want anyway.I'll just go ahead and drop this Billy Beck quote yet again...
"All politics in this country now is just dress rehearsal for civil war."What's dismaying is how many seem to be eagerly champing at the bit for it.
A Rossen Reports investigation found that some garments from major retailers billed as faux fur actually contained the fur of real animals, including rabbit, coyote and raccoon dog (a species of wild dog).
A media organization accepting censorship from foreign tinpot dictators will not think twice about accepting it from our own government.
— Marko Kloos (@markokloos) December 18, 2014
It is good to have a home security system, but imagine using it to watch someone breaking into your home in real-time.There's video at the link. See if you come to the same conclusion I did.
Tuesday morning, Nick Essling watched LIVE from his cell phone as three men broke into his Broad Ripple home.
#LATFH: An iPad, a Leica film camera, and a Fountain Square Brewing Co. Count Nibula chocolate milk stout at Twenty Tap in SoBro. |
"Where'd you get that sucker, Savannah Guthrie?"
"Oh, some masked bad man dropped it. Stealing from the candy store is bad don't you think? Here, he dropped a bunch; I have another one in my purse. Want it?"
TIL that back in the Before Times, they made #Lomography cameras that you could focus! pic.twitter.com/bf7FUGWszn
— Tamara K. (@TamSlick) December 15, 2014
"A carbon monoxide leak at a Wisconsin ice rink left 81 people hospitalized -- and a Zamboni could be to blame."Carbon monoxide leak? Well, that doesn't work to "Yakety Sax" at all. Hopes: Dashed.
How was the Yen holding up under sanctions in Q3 of '41? @steve_hanke
— Tamara K. (@TamSlick) December 15, 2014
Tango down! Everybody rhumba!
— Tamara K. (@TamSlick) December 15, 2014
"Chilling images from Australian media on Monday showed people, believed to be hostages, with their hands pressed against the cafe's windows. They were holding up a black flag with Arabic writing on it reading, "There is no God but God and Mohammed is the prophet of God.""Another case of Sudden Jihadi Syndrome, apparently. This stuff has proved deadlier than Ebola in the Western world, but do you see any fundraisers being done to stomp it out? No. Because that's racist or something.
Because at least @SenRandPaul knows it's all about that base, 'bout that base, @instapundit.
— Tamara K. (@TamSlick) December 14, 2014
"Yeah it's pretty clear, I ain't no RINO
But I can vote NO, vote NO like I'm supposed to do
'Cause I got that obstruction Tea Partiers chase
All the right NOPE in all the right places..."
"All about that base, 'bout that base..." |
1969 Dodge Charger R/T |
"Hey, mister! That thing got a Hemi in it?" Unlikely, but it's plenty cool nonetheless. |
So... you say that violent senseless murderers are perverting Islam, and when a guy draws a cartoon saying that senseless murderers are perverting Islam, you try and get him thrown in prison? Do I have that right?Mr. Meidyatama was quoted in The Post on Friday as saying he was “amazed” at the suggestion of blasphemy because the cartoon was meant to criticize deviant Islam.
“What we produced was a journalistic piece that criticized the ISIS movement, which has carried out violence in the name of religion,” he was quoted as saying, referring to the Islamic State militant group.
"Court documents say both men were at a party when Saye suggested trying Russian roulette after a game of beer pong. Authorities said Saye put a handgun, loaded with five rounds, to White’s head and pulled the trigger, killing him. Court documents say other party-goers warned Saye that a semi-automatic pistol would not work for the game."You have got to be $#!++ing me. Nobody can be that dumb and not starve from forgetting which end of the spoon goes in their mouth. That's not even bright enough to make it as a sessile filter-feeder; when you're that dim, you could get outwitted by plankton. That's barely smart enough to sneak up on grass.
"Lee-Enfields are issued to Rangers primarily for self-defence, he stresses. The Rangers are trained to kill only if clearly threatened.
But if one of these primal, snorting predators happens to attack or target you, Rittwage says, a reliable rifle is requisite.
...
“Polar bears will stalk the Rangers. And although polar bears are a protected animal, if you’re faced with life and limb, if that polar bear is out to kill you, you’re going to have to take its life. And that .303 has the stopping power to do that.”"
Tore off a mattress tag just now. SWAT team never even showed up. #CrimingWhileWhite
— Tamara K. (@TamSlick) December 9, 2014
Q: "How many magazines should you have?"For instance, consider full-size M&P 9 magazines. I have the one in my gun, the spare, eight more in the range bag that I use for range magazines, and then there are a further three or five still in factory packaging, unopened, in the safe. Should one of the ones in the range bag go wonky, I'm going to toss it and replace it with one of those.
A: "More."
"You’re a scared white person, almost certainly male. You do not live in a major city, or near a university or intellectual hub of any note, nor have you ever traveled very far from your home town, much less out of state or anywhere further than, say, Mexico. Once. And that was enough.Let's see... Wrong-ish, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong, and wrong.
You do not read complicated books. You do not like new or weird things. You watch lots of TV, mostly Fox News, which rejoices in showing you endless images of angry foreigners and minorities in pain: tear gas explosions, fights in the streets, looting, this time involving sad, small-town black people in Ferguson, all of them protesting the acquittal of that murderous white cop."
Bigotry. |
Bigotry. |
Incisive, nuanced political commentary. |