My "Go To" Gun

A Taurus Pt-92 9mm, loaded with Remington Golden Saber hollowpoints.


All right, I can hear the comments: I have written before that the 1911 Colt is the gold standard of handguns and the .45ACP is the gold standard of cartridges. How then can I, in all good conscience, opt for a different handgun firing an inferior cartridge? The FBI, after all, ditched the 9mm for .40s.

All true. But the PT-92 has one feature that the 1911 lacks: The ability to be fired in double-action for the first shot. This means that I can keep the weapon fully loaded, with a round chambered. I do not need to work any safeties or anything other than the trigger, just point at a target and fire. Then the weapon shifts into SA mode, which I have a fair amount of familiarity with, and the controls on the weapon function in the same way as a 1911's do.

Add to that is the fact that this particular gun has never jammed or failed to feed on me. So, to my mind, I have a handgun that has reasonable power, a considerable ammunition load, reliability and ease of operation.

So when there is a reason to reach for a pistol, it's the PT-92 for me.

(Your mileage may vary.)

Sixteen years later: The gun is long gone, after two moves, the last one to a high-cap ban state. I sold it before the move, along with other non-compliant guns that I didn't see a need to keep.

Blaming Others for Failure

Buried in this story about Hillary Clinton's appearance on Saturday Night Live last night, was this nugget of blame-shifting:

"Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who dropped out of the Republican presidential race in January, appeared later on the “Weekend Update” segment. Giuliani blamed his campaign’s failure on a 1997 episode of the show, in which he dressed in drag for one sketch."

You can click on the second link and see for yourself. I don't know if he is just playing along or if he is serious about that. I suspect that, to some degree, that's just what he thinks.

The Sheer Vindictiveness of the Chimperor's Administration

The Persecution Justice Department brought their usual bullshit terrorism charges. They lost the case.

Now they are trying to deport the guy, who is here on a green card (legal permanent resident).

This is not justice, but only fools expect anything remotely close to justice from these guys. This is nothing more than sheer bureaucratic mean-spirited vengeance, which is just what we have all come to expect from the Bush Administration.

The attorneys involved in this continuing fiasco at the Justice Department should be flogged, since that probably isn't considered to be torture by their bosses.

It Happens Every Four Years, Dumbasses

February 29th seems to have come as a surprise to United Airlines.

Do Not Watch This Video

You will hate me for it.



I told you not to watch it. But noooooo......

Caturday

George, trying to get some coffee.


This was Teddy, a friend's cat:

Teddy had some setbacks in his life. He suffered from a propensity to grow crystals in his bladder. He had three surgeries to try and correct it. He was on a special diet. For the last year or so of his life, he was hydrated subcutaneously twice a week. Through it all, he was a good-natured cat; he usually cooperated with the hydrations and he was not overly feisty when it came to medications.

Teddy had a game he liked to play: I would open up and lay a section of newspaper on the floor. I would then put a second section on top of the first, held at an angle. Through the gap between the two sections, I would stick out a feather and move it around. I would draw back the feather out of his sight, move it around and then stick it our from a different spot. He'd watch the feather and then he'd lunge at it.

Teddy had another relapse. Both the vet and my friend concluded that this was happening too often and that it was time to let Teddy go to the Rainbow Bridge.

That was a year ago this month. The photo may not have been the best one I ever took of him. But it was the last one.

Rest in peace, Teddy.

We Are All Ornery Bastards

Or Bitches, as the case may be.

For the Ornery Bastard speaketh. And you should pay attention.

News for the Clueless

Attorney General Mukasey has ordered that the Justice Department not investigate whether officials of the Bush Administration has committed the crime of contempt of Congress.

Yeah. I'm sure he deliberated about that for maybe all of a yoctosecond. That's like asking Frank Nitti to investigate whether Al Capone had anything to do with the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

On one hand, I have a degree of sympathy for Mukasey. He went from being a widely respected federal judge to being a political hack in a very short time. If "the 100 Yard Transition to Bush Lackey" were an Olympic event, he'd be a medal contender. He destroyed a lifetime's reputation in a matter of months. That is a tragedy worthy of a modern-day Shakespearian play.

On the other hand, he had to know what he was getting into. In the words of the theme song to the old "Super Chicken" cartoons, he knew the job was like this when he took it.

Yeah, no sympathy here for Mukasey, who is going to go down in the history of the Bush Administration as "Alberto the Second."

Another Round of War Crimes by the Bush Administration

They have approved the use of riot-control chemical agents in combat. Which is a violation of the Chemical Warfare Convention.

If the officials of the Bush Administration ever make it into the dock at The Hague, look for this to be one of the specifications listed in the charging documents.

As an aside, let me take this moment to express my gratitude to Julius Baer Bank. If they hadn't foolishly tried to shut down Wikileaks, I, among others, would not have heard of that site. There is a virtual treasure trove of blogging material on that site.

For instance, a list of the military equipment in use in Iraq.

Found on Wikileaks: Pedophilia Code

Wikileaks has a copy of an FBI report on the symbols used by pedophiles.

"Pedophile". What a nice clinical term for "rapist of children" or, more crudely, "child-fucker."