This is my little personal protection revolver. She’s a Smith and Wesson 442 .38 special J-frame revolver. The rosewood grips were added after I got the gun. I placed the five rounds of Speer Gold-Dot .38+P around the trigger guard to take this gun-pr0n image. Click image to enlarge.
This is one of this year’s Easter lilies lighted from behind by sunlight from the window above. Click on the image to enlarge.
. . . and I guess we should jump on the bandwagon.
Jack Sparrobama channels pirates and blames Bush:
The past eight years have shown a failure to appreciate the historic role of these noble seafarers. Instead of celebrating their entreprenuerial spirit and seeking to partner with them to meet common challenges, there have been times where America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive.
Some of us wonder if our current Overseas Contingency Operation would even be needed had the last administration not been so quick to label Pirates as “thieves,” “terrorists” and worse. Such swashbucklaphobia can lead to tragic results, as we have seen this week.
These are in my Mom’s garden. This bromeliad currently has clusters of these unusual multi-colored flowers hanging from stalks. I don’t know the proper or nickname for this variety, but it sure is pretty. Click image to enlarge.
According to Wikipedia:
Bromeliads are one of the more recent plant groups to have emerged, presumed to have evolved at the close of the Cretaceous, over 65 million years ago. Fossilized bromeliads have been dated back to roughly 30 million years ago. The greatest number of primitive species reside in the Andean highlands of South America suggesting a beginning there. The west African species Pitcairnia feliciana is the only bromeliad not endemic to the Americas, and is thought to have reached Africa via long-distance dispersal approximately 12 million years ago.
. . . it’s usually due to faulty logic.
This is from James Taranto who writes for the Wall Street Journal’s “Best of the Web Today:”
Chris Ayres of London’s Times is puzzled by what seems to him a paradox:
If anything, the recent shootings have inspired more Americans to buy guns, recession or no recession. In fact, all over the country they are stocking up on as many pistols, rifles, and shotguns as possible before the Obama Administration bans or taxes them.
According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the FBI carried out more than 4.2 million background checks on behalf of gundealers from November to January (a check is required with every sale), up 31 per cent on the same period in the previous year.
Interestingly, however, violent crime rates have at the same time been falling in Los Angeles, New York and other big American cities. The experts are at loss as to explain why this should be happening.
Hmm, could it be because the prospect of armed victims acts as a deterrent? This doesn’t occur to Ayres, but he does offer a theory of his own:
People are buying so many guns that the criminals are simply running out of bullets. Or as one firing instructor explained to the Columbus Dispatch newspaper: “The ammo is being snapped up as soon as it comes in. People are in a frenzy. It’s kind of like that run on Elmo dolls.”
We think our explanation is more likely–but if Ayres’s is true too, so much the better.
Taranto, who does not typically write about guns, gets it. Chris Ayres, writing in the London Times, needs a clue.
UPDATE: Nicki takes Ayres to the woodshed.
I was at Mom’s today enjoying a nice spring day outside in her yard. She has a lantana bush that attracts bees and butterflies. Eventually, a butterfly came and browsed Mom’s bush for nectar. It fluttered off for a few moments and came back for more.
I took a lot of pictures while the butterfly visited the flowers. This (IMHO) is the best of the lot. Click the image to enlarge.
I just LOVE springtime!
And my Warthog.
These are three of Damsel’s handguns, which she calls ‘the girls’ – the fourth ‘girl gun,’ which was on her hip at the time she took this photo, is her S&W 442 .38 special. On the left is the S&W 908s 9mm, above is the Warthog .45ACP and below is the S&W 686 .357 revolver. All of them are about to be cleaned up, so some of the ‘range residue’ is still visible. You better believe she makes ’em sparkle when she’s done, though.
