Dear Blanche,

You must be smarter than that, having a BA and all, so we assume  you think Joe Bob is too dumb to understand how earmarks work and will vote for you because you got Washington to pretend it was giving New Hope free money -- $13,811 for a nice new police car.

Heaven hep y'all  if Joe Bob figures out that somebody had to send that $13,811  to President Obama and Senator Lincoln before they could send it to  New Hope.

And the guys who paid will be humping to get it back from their Sen. Santa Claus.  So if Joe Bob does get that job over at the turpentine plant, the feds will be nicking his paycheck, dime by dime, week by week, piling up some more free money to buy a new cruiser for Barney over there in Mayberry.

Senator, why don't  y'all  just stick  it in your earmark?

BAD Geek. Bad. Go to your Kennel!

Eschewing scatology is noble, but some things demand strong language.

First the USNA decides American naval officers don't need to practice celestial navigation. Then Morse Code is declared a quaint historical relic. But the OED?

This shit has got to stop.
.

Otherwise at the loophole...

A buddy got a fine deal on a Marlin Model 92 offered as a "parts" gun. It was missing only the butt plate, and you make a mistake to underestimate this man's stock-making and general restoration skills.

I was less lucky and settled for a good Lyman 358495 mold (147 -grain wadcutters), a GI . 1911 magazine, and a funky old .22 gun belt,  solid, but  missing its buscadero style holster. It  looks keen hanging next to the spurs.

---

If I ever decide  to reload 9mm Eurowimp,  the  Lyman bullets will let me enter the caliber wars about whether 9mm Parabellum  using 147 grainers is a "good defense load." I will undoubtedly  straddle the fence and prove it is OK in Europe, but not here. Then I'll get to quote Colonel Cooper again. "If you shoot a European he will sit down on the curb and cry. If you shoot an American he will shoot back."

Adrenalin Rush

A guy I know fondly  went to a loophole today where a serious collector of arms of the American Revolution inspected an oddball  $130 flintlock pistol  my pal  had sloppily hung on a wall for five or six years.  Just another neat-looking old gun.

Gee, he never noticed that Schuylkill Arsenal mark on the wood and had forgotten that arsenal  got out of the small arms business in 1812  after assembling and staging the possibles that  Captain Lewis and Captain Clark requisitioned for their march on behalf of early U.S.imperialism. 

A direct L and C connection all but certainly doesn't exist. For one thing, it is a sea service design.  On the other hand,  a connection to the  era and place is all but a lock, and the Schuylkill mark, if validated, would also prove U.S. martial/naval connection. 

Just before swooning he confided to me that the old .69 smooth bore beater goes directly to the vault while he makes enquiries of  those auction houses where the auctioneer wears a dinner jacket.  

Last thing he said before hitting the fainting couch was, "Hey Jim, Go over there and ask them girls what color cars they want."

Even the remote possibility is fun.

He said.