While doing a little homeowners insurance inventory this morning, one of my photography endeavors evolved into a steamy gun-pornography shoot. Ok, not really… I just got my Springfield Champion 1911 back from its Bobtailing operation, and I’m silly about it. The job was done by Woodie from Hyatt Guns in Charlotte. He did a very nice job and the price was right. They’re fully CNC enabled, and are one of the largest gunsmiths in the South. It would have cost a good bit more to send to Ed Brown (1911 guru who invented the modification, and where you can purchase the bobtail mainspring housing) or Springfield, plus I avoided all the messy shipping overhead.

Here she is.

I’ve not yet taken the Champion to the range, but I will in the next few days. I much prefer the bobtail both ergonomically and aesthetically. I honestly think J.M. Browning would’ve approved of this weight saving, concealment enhancing modification to his masterpiece.

These ridiculous debates… what do they actually think they are tricking people into seeing or believing? None of these charlatans actually say anything with meaning. They dance around with words trying to say as little as possible.

The clumsy ninjas of deliberate vagueness.

The entire game has evolved into a contest to see who can make the voters hate them the least. Each of them posturing to say what they think voters need. Each equally afraid to indicate any semblance of reducing GovCo. handouts to the mass of entitlement monkeys this country has become.

We’ve regressed to the point where the former bastion of individual liberty and economic prosperity, America, determines who’s at the helm by a facaduous pageant of corruption.

As long as we’re stuck in this socialist plurality of vote buyers referred to as the “two-party system”, I refuse to play their sick little game. On one side you’ve got slick-talking, collectivist panderers whose continual ignorance and trampling of the constitution has lost even its comic appeal. On the other, you’ve those who blatantly regard as rights, what are really plunderously cultivated assaults on other individuals. Which side is which? One side sees no problem with forking out tax dollars to companies, the other gives freely to individuals. Neither is supported constitutionally. Both sides nitpick the other about “reforms” for this entitlement program, or “revisions” to this encroachment on property rights - arguing about the color of shingles for a house that should never have been built. There isn’t a single candidate on either side who’s not a mixed economy advocate.

Other than the ‘R’ and the ‘D’ beside their names they’re virtually indistinguishable. ‘Socialism Lite’ and ‘Socialism Low-Carb’… either way, we lose.

Unfortunately, I allowed myself to endure 10 of the abhorrent 60 Minutes broadcast last night. The segment was on the NY “Health Commissioner” Thomas Frieden’s crusade to further trample property rights by forcing restaurants who provide publicly visible menu boards to also display caloric content of their menu items. The “official” reason for singling out chains is that most, if not all of these companies have already done the research into their caloric offerings and have them published either on websites or posters. I suspect the real reason that in general, the demographics of chain restaurant customers correlate with lower-income, potentially obese segments of the population - you know, the serfs that need the most nanny-state coddling. I’d also guess that big-wig bureaucrats are also less likely to frequent these chains and thus would not be subject to the price increases that would result from a mandated expenditure.

Frieden is the same thug who’s spearheaded both the smoking and trans-fat bans in NY. This is just the next step in his efforts to “protect” consumers.

Unsurprisingly, the philosophic diffusion of this ridiculous mandate - that GovCo. has no right to meddle in the affairs of a private entity - was never even hinted at. Also, predictably absent is any discussion of the fact that a consumer can simply decide not to eat from a venue that doesn’t adequately inform him of the nutritional info of their menu. Or, the free market concept that if one chain voluntarily did this as a selling point, the market would drive others to follow suit if consumers actually found value in it.

During one interview, the CBS automaton Lesley Stahl, accusingly asked a selected PR fluffer from Wendy’s “Aren’t you truly afraid that by listing the calories you’re going to lose money?” This would’ve been an opportune time to quickly dismantle the interrogation, but obviously Wendy’s would never want to be perceived as caring more about their bottom line than the “public interest” - so the accusation was dishonestly denied.

The entire glob of tripe can be found here:

My entire kernel is being remade. On November 2nd, clearly the most moving and sentimental event of my life occurred. Samuel Kemp Harper pronounced his existence with just a bit of air and small, unused vocal chords.

Just the thought of that sound inspires more emotion in me than I can ever remember. Every passing conscious thought of fatherhood since I was a child came crashing back in that moment. The beginnings of every unspoken bond that we feel for our parents sparked with his first breath of air - like our own little private big-bang.

My friends and family all advised similar notions - that everything would change. Sure enough, it has. The thought of Sam now runs as a high-priority background process in my mind. He’s already brought my wife and me to a new level of intimacy, and more joy than would could’ve ever imagined. Until it happens, you think you have an idea of its potential impact, but it’s so much bigger - at least for me it is.

Watching him progress from complete sensory overload to curious concept integration is marvelous. He arrived with a fresh, clean slate which immediately began its progression into the amazing database that is our consciousness. Every day he’s more alert, intuitive and perceptive. This is so much fun.