Ugly gun progress

So my buddy and his son came for coffee, bearing surprise gifts. Not one, but two, arched GI mainspring housings for the 1911A1 which is being carbinized. I needed only one spare to butcher, reserving the original  to put the old Colt back into GI shape.

The ensemble includes one mainspring but no caps, plungers nor pins. The latter I'll make, but I suppose I should get cracking on a search for the caps and plungers. Yeah, I could make them too, but it's awkward when the best lathe I own is a Makita 3/8 electrical drill.

Buddy's son claims they were mine in the first place, that I gave him a box of 1911 parts more than 20 years ago. I don't remember it, but maybe so. Military junk was cheap at the time. Heck, in the 70s you'd sometimes find a GI hammer in a dollar grab bag at the shows. But I hereby publicly thank you anyway, J. 

I'm still trying to find out who built the walnut  stock and 16 1/4-inch barrel.  Decent-enough quality, but no ID marks.

This is going to be one fearsome looking piece when finished, mostly a gawker.  I like that in lethal weaponry; like a Texas debutante with several pounds of hair and three ounces of eye shadow. I'm still trying to figure out a practical use for it. The gun, I mean. 

 

Quadrenniel Imperative

Of course all TMR readers can ace this (short-answer) pop quiz in a heartbeat, but you might want to spread it around  among your buddies addicted to X-Boxes or still wondering who really shot J.R. 

On January 20, 2009, Barack Obama will pledge to defend something. What is it?

Miffed

Ten little words  buried in the AP report of Obama' choice to boss the CIA reveal about 90 per cent of the necessary information about government:

"... despite Panetta's strong history of bipartisan goodwill, news of his selection struck sour chords not only among predictable Republican skeptics but even among a longtime friend and fellow Californian, incoming Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Sen. Dianne Feinstein. She complained about Panetta's lack of intelligence experience and Obama's failure to consult with her on the decision."

Argue the merits of Leon as Spy King all you want. The real lesson is that a congressional ego is  size-small condom inflated with about three cubic feet of air.

Linguistic Genocide

We need a better term for this war to the death against language and the thought processes it accommodates. Linguicide? Logicide?  Thanks to Roberta:

A writer for The Nation  says Israel's retaliation against the Quassad rockets from Gaza G.W.  Bush's "last and final war crime."

That's like PETA yapping "atrocity" when you swat a fly. 

All Bush did was refuse to stand in Israel's way and remark that the Gazoids swung first. If that's war crime I'll kiss your butts on the Capitol steps Jan. 20,  soon as Obama draws the crowd.

It's a good illustration of  jihad against reasoned use of language. Israel may be accused of folly, cruelty, undue machoism, and other sins without leaving the realm of reason, and the same applies to folks who care to substitute terms like wisdom and forebearance. You can reasonably debate any of that.

But if we let nitwits con us into accepting "war crime" to denominate Bush's  Gaza response, what sort of term do we have in reserve for, say,  Bataan, Nanking, Manilla, Dachau?

Examples abound. For instance, I hear every new offering from bands  grownups never heard of called "awesome."   If so, what adjective might be used to describe the Second Coming?

And that's why I didn't call The Nation writer a lame-brained idiotic  slug.  Gotta hold something back for writing about Pelosi and Limbaugh.