It's about that time, another post on that enormously-uninteresting-to-whatever-readership-I-may-have topic of firearms. Well, at least first I'll make a comment on British comedy and other television entertainment...

First off, Hugh Laurie has become a favourite actor of mine...I'm not terribly keen on the general genre of "House", for which he is most famous currently, but his manic, darkly comic acting makes it much more entertaining than it could be. My favourite stuff of his, though, has always been with Stephen Fry, starting with Black Adder III and IV. As Prince/Lieutenant George he was crazy, foppish, innocent, and wholeheartedly daft. The sort of person who said, bally-ho, chaps, and advocated sunny optimism in total obliviousness to the utter crappiness of his circumstances...much to the chagrin of the more intelligent and cynical Blackadder (played by Rowan Atkinson, before he became the Bean). In Jeeves and Wooster, he plays the upper-class twit perfectly, and his interactions with Stephen Fry (as Jeeves) make what should be a very boring series (of the sort you'd see on PBS Masterpiece Theatre) into a quite funny and engrossing little show. And lastly, "A Bit of Fry and Laurie" ends up being my favourite, as a sort of reincarnation of Pythonian sketch comedy. Very, very funny and diverse stuff, and it highlights their talents as writers. Most people are surprised to learn that "House" isn't American, much less that he is principally a comedy actor.

"The Path to 9/11" was an exceptionally good TV movie. I've not seen a made-for-TV movie as good as that one, and it was highly engrossing, in a "24" sort of fashion. Although I really didn't trust Condi Rice when she was played by the actress who played the back-stabbing Sherri Palmer on "24". And Patricia Heaton? What a typecast role, hehe...you could almost hear her grating voice going "Ray.....get your parents out of the Embassy THIS INSTANT!". She ought to try to land some roles where she isn't...how shall I put this delicately...eternally bitchy. If she keeps these roles up she'll never be allowed to smile on film again. But on the whole, an excellent, well rounded film. Why in the world did the Clintons and the Democrats get their undies in a wad over this? Quite lame of them, I'd say. The film hands out blame in small dosages to BOTH administrations but reserves the greatest quantities for those that deserve it the most...the Islamist terrorist wankers themselves. It does a good job as well of not stereotyping...with the Massoud character, the Paki colonel, and the two informants...you don't walk away equating Muslim with terrorist at all! In fact, I was enormously saddened at the reenactment of Massoud's assassination (yes that actually happened), as he was one of the heroes of the film, and probably was equally as admirable in real life. Though perhaps the Russian Spetznaz didn't think so highly of him...

Finally, I'm digging myself into an ammo hole. Why is it that I can never buy two guns that share a caliber? It would save on ammo. Each firearm I own is of a different caliber which means I have to keep on hand a box of each for taking to the range. Right now I've got a new automatic coming, which will be my wife's gun. It's a fine pistol, a Bersa Thunder 380, which is an Argie gun loosely patterned after the Walther PPK. Small, compact, and comfortable to shoot. Fires the 9mm Kurz (short) 380ACP round, 9X17mm. My next gun (which will be for me, this time) is the on-order Kel-Tec PF9. Half the weight of the Bersa and more power (9mm parabellum)...not as comfortable to shoot for that reason, but very, very small and powerful. So those two will take me up to seven calibers to keep in stock (.22LR, .223 Remington, .303 British, .380 ACP, 9mm Parabellum, .38 Special, .45 ACP). Oh well! All the more fun to take to the range.

There's also a great website about women and concealed carry:

http://www.corneredcat.com

It has some fantastic articles on Christianity and pacifism:

http://corneredcat.com/TOC/TOC.htm#EthicalReligious

Very good reading. Even if you are not a woman...