Last week I noted American Rifle: A Biography by Alexander Rose. Now The Ten Ring has a review up.

Sold a BlogAd over at Murdoc Online for this book: American Rifle: A Biography by Alexander Rose. Don’t know much about it, but it looks like it could be interesting:

Given the title, American Rifle is a book that many potential readers might dismiss without a thought. Don’t do it: Alexander Rose’s peculiar “biography” is not written for gun enthusiasts–though they’ll certainly enjoy it–but for anyone interested American history from George Washington to the Wild West to Iraq. Drawing on original sources ranging from Samuel Colt to the soldiers who depend on the weapon the most, this book is an exhaustive history of the rifle’s place in American culture, not only as an instrument of war, but also as a driver of technological innovation and advances in mass production that helped propel the United States into its role as both a military and economic superpower. Once you start, American Rifle will have to be pried from your cold, dead hands before you put it down.

I don’t watch Boston Legal or whatever this is from, but someone at work was telling me about it. Now Breda posted the video:

Breda adds:

shoulda been center mass, center mass, center mass but yeah Denny Crane never fails to crack me up

Just got The Lions of Iwo Jima by Fred Haynes and James A. Warren and read nearly half of it while flying today. Great read so far.

The Lions of Iwo Jima tells the full story of one of the greatest units fielded in the history of the U.S. Marines. Combat Team 28, 4500 men strong, trained for a full year, landed on the black sands of Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945, and raised the flag atop Mount Suribachi after four days of ferocious combat. Major General Fred Haynes USMC (Ret’d), then a young captain, is the last surviving officer in CT28 intimately involved in planning and coordinating all phases of the Team’s fight on Iwo Jima. Drawing on a wealth of previously untapped documents, personal narratives, and letters, in addition to more than 100 interviews with survivors, Haynes and Warren recapture in riveting detail what the Marines of Combat Team 28 experienced, placing particular emphasis on the Team’s ferocious struggle to break through the main belt of the Japanese defenses to the north, and reduce the final pocket of resistance on the island in Bloody Gorge.

The Lions of Iwo Jima offers fresh interpretations of the fight for Suribachi, the iconic flag raising photo, and the nature of the campaign as a whole, and helps to answer the essential questions: Who were these men? What accounts for their extraordinary performance in battle?

The first (smaller) flag was just raised when I left off. If the second half of the book is anything like the first, this is a real winner.

I will have a lot more on this in the near future.

Apparently, Red Dawn embodies conservative nutterdom.

So now are we all just clinging to our guns, bibles, and Red Dawn Collector’s Edition DVDs?

Because Red Dawn is a movie about gun control. At least to a great extent.

Something I wrote about it in 2003:

In all reality the film wasn’t too bad. Good stuff for teenagers, and if it’s got a little “rah-rah America” it’s better than a little of the dark cynicism to prevelant in most movies.

Not coincidentally, the Gotham City of the two most recent Batman films is based on Chicago, not New York City. This makes some sense, because Chicago residents are severely restricted in their methods of self defense. Masked vigilantes might be the only answer.

Eric at Classical Values has a good post up on Armed America: Portraits of Gun Owners in Their Homes

He points out a “favorable” new review by Natalie Pompilio of the Philadelphia Inquirer and adds:

I don’t know what Natalie Pompilio’s position is on gun control, and right now I don’t care, because I am always delighted to see fair coverage of this issue — especially the simple acknowledgement that gun owners can be regular human beings.

Like, who knew?

The Ministry of Minor Perfidy has a picture that appears to have been taken at the same event as the photo of the Iraqi police woman with an AK I posted earlier.

Go check it out.

I think the delivery of the Dirty Harry line would suffer from the layers of clothing masking the woman’s expression during the delivery.

Incidentally, I’ve been revisiting the Dirty Harry movies recently. I plan to watch The Enforcer tonight. I haven’t seen that in at least 20 years.

Legions Fate has another excellent rundown with screen captures.

A PPSh makes an appearance.

Via Rummell.

Legions Fate with the rundown of weaponry in Michael Mann’s film ‘Heat.’

Good stuff and definitely worth a look.

Via Rummell.