Gunfighter: A Modern Warrior's Life

Book Review: Come On, People!

It won’t shock anyone to know that I am one of Bill Cosby’s loudest cheerleaders regarding social issue that confront the black communities of 21st century America. Indeed, more than a cheerleader, I must best describe my self as a devotee of many of the things that Mr. Cosby espouses when it comes to the rebirth and renewal of our communities and the tough love that it will require.

In this latest publication, Bill Cosby, and his longtime collaborator, Dr, Alvin Poussaint, discuss the breadth of the pathological behavior that has rent our communities since the days of reconstruction and Jim Crow.

Cosby doesn’t spare anyone here. He calls out the people that need to be called out. He tells some home truths that we should have been telling the community-at-large for at least three generations.

I could give you all of the details of the book, but I don’t think that I need to. Suffice it to say that I believe that Cosby (and Poussaint) are strong black men that understand the truths that we must confront as a people.

It isn’t enough that there is public assistance for the poor, we must insure that public assistance is a temporary thing. The best way that we can do that is to build up the two-parent nuclear family. In addition to that, we must ALL be responsible for the extended family. Whether that kid is your blood kin or not, you, black man, must provide the example. You have to show that boy or girl that a man… a real man behaves a certain way. That he cares for his children, and feeds, clothes, nurtures and educates that child, and that he is responsible for that child’s spiritual and religious training.

It isn’t enough for me, or for my coworkers to be good husbands and fathers in our suburban homes… we have to teach our brethren who don’t know this life, that there is life outside of the ‘hood, or the projects, or the prisons.

We have a lot of work to do brothers… we’d best be about it if we want the best for our children, and their children, and their children.

We have to start now.

Right now.

Today.

What will YOU do, for the future of our people?

Happy New Year, people!

Book Review: Opening Atlantis

OK, so I put out this list of books that I wanted to read, remember?

Well, one of those books, I got for my birthday, a few weeks ago. I got another one for Christmas!

Awwwww yeah! Harry Turtledove, baby! Alternate history geeks in the hizouse!

The year is 1452, and Englishman, Edward Radcliffe, intervenes in a barroom argument between Basque and Breton fishermen about what year it really is. The winners of the argument agree to buy him drinks and a meal, which leads to the revelation of a secret that will change the world.

The English fisherman is told about a fishing bank where the cod are larger and more plentiful than any place ever was, and when he sees this for himself, he realizes that the srtange birds that land on his boat while he and his sons are hauling the catch are land bird, not gulls, terns or frigate birds. Edward Radcliffe looks to the western cloud banks and knows that land is near.

Thus is Atlantis discovered. No. Not the Atlantis of fabled civilization. The Atlantis that Harry Turtledove has conjured in this alternate history, is none other than the east coast of what, in our timeline (OTL, in geekspeak), would eventually be the United States and parts of eastern Canada.

In this world, Atlantis essentially consists of what is now the easternmost part of Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, The Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, and Alabama. There is a wide gulf between that land mass and the rest of the North American continent, which is called Terranova in this world.

Atlantis is devoid of human life… there are no aboriginal peoples, like in our world who would be dubbed “Indians”.

Radcliffe quickly decides to settle Atlantis, and does so a few years before the Bretons (later the French) and Basques (Spanish) do.

The novel spans approximately 300 years of Atlantis settlement, from the first landing, through the war between France and England which would have coincided with our French and Indian war. During this part, Turtledove introduces to us, two historical figures, Major General Edward Braddock, and Lieutenant Colonel Charles Cornwallis.

By the end of the Novel, Atlantis is mostly in English hands, and one can begin to see the paths that Atlantis might take.

This novel was a fast read, and I enjoyed it immensely. If you are a fellow devotee of the genre, I encourage you to read this book. Dr. Turtledove does important work here, showing us what could have been, and as always, shows the reader a good time!

Gunfighter gives this novel full marks for detail, historical accuracy and well-written prose that never gets boring.

Read it. You’ll be happy that you did.

Oh, and don't foret! We aren't blogging on January 10th! Get the word out!

Shoot 'em up Friday!

Well, I was saving this for New Year's Eve, but I decided to share it with you now, just because it's Friday... and you know how much we like to end our week with gunfire.

This old computer monitor provides a nice platform to demonstrate.... well, alright, who is kidding whom? This monitor was fun to shoot up... so I shot it up.

Enjoy.



Have a nice weekend!

GF

ADDENDUM: The weapon used in today's recreation demonstration, was this:



The FN P-90. This weapon was designed and manufactured in Belgium, for military use for vehicle crewman, medics, messengers etc... the 5.7x28 millimeter round fired from this weapon was specifically designed to defeat Warsaw Pact military body armor.

The P-90 is used in many countries by law enforcement and military special forces units... it first entered service in the United States in the late 1990's, and is used by a variety of state, local, and federal agencies. In the Unites States, it is particularly popular with SWAT teams.

You Want Funny?

I got your funny, right here!

Early in the day, on Christmas eve, Mrs Gunfighter needed to have me and Soccer Girl out of the house for a while... no worries, there are lots of ways to kill time, aren't there?

One stop that we made was a trip to Target. I had to return a DVD that I had bought (The Bourne Ultimatum)... which turned out to be a Christmas gift that SG planned to give me the next day... so back it went!

Anyway, after making the return, We were in the electronics section, when I heard a woman ask the employee: "Where do you keep the Wii systems?"

Baaaaaaahahahahahahahaha! was the emloyee's reply, which was echoed by all of the people who were standing around.

Yeah, like, you're going to score a Wii on Christmas eve!

Something in Common

Do you know what all of the people pictured below have in common with me?

Go ahead, give them a close look... I'll see you at the bottom of the page.

















Have you figured it out yet?

Well, I let you in on it... all of those people (with the exception of the old lady) have the same name as me.

According to any number of statistical sites, my first and last name rank among the top 5 most common names in the United States.

Posted by Gunfighter at 10:36 AM 10 comments

The Polar Express

A week or so ago, I mentioned our new family tradition of going to see The Polar Express the day/night before Christmas eve (the day I refer to as Christmas Eve eve. Well this past Sunday was our night!

We had spent a long morning at the church getting the kids ready for the Christmas presentation (I'll blog about that tomorrow), and by the time it was done, we were ready to go have lunch before heading home. While we were having our lunch, I remembered that it was Polar Express night, and so informed Mrs. Gunfighter, who, like me, had momentarily forgotten about it. I looked at my watch and it was 1p.m., and our ticket time for the movie was at eight. No worries... plenty of time, right? We went home and had a little down time before our planned departure time.

We figured that we would leave at about 4, allowing for traffic (unpredictable at best), time for dinner, some time to browse through the exhibits (soccergirl loves that museum), and the museum shops before the movie. Great.

We left on time, and traffic, which had been horrific on Saturday, was nearly non-existent on Sunday (go figure)! We parked right in front of the museum (literally) and went inside. "This is going to be great!", I thought to myself

As we went up to the doors on the Constitution avenue side of the building, we noticed that people were streaming out of the museum! This was a bad sign. After entering, Mrs GF suggested that we go eat first... and we found that the Atrium Cafe was closed! Bummer... OK, let's go and ask one of the guards what time the place was closing... 5:30 according to the guard. Five thirty? They were open later than that last year! (and then I remembered that it was SUNDAY!), ok, let's go to the other cafe to eat.... we got there, through the mammal exhibit, and it was packed!

**NOTE: I never thought of Washington, DC as a tourist destination at this time of year... but this particular museum was packed with visitors form the Indian subcontinent, and China!**

We squeezed our way through, and got a bite to eat... to the tune of $40 (yeah you heard me), and ate it standing up.

I was not amused.

Once finished, we went to the Imax and changed our tickets so that we could go to the show starting at 6, instead of sitting around until 8.

We got our tickets switched, spent some time in the museum shops, and headed for the theater... and that's when things got REALLY.... good. Uh huh, that's right, things got good.

Have you ever seen the Polar Express? If you haven't, you should give it a try... you'll really like it. The story is interesting, and the visuals are very nice. Take nice visuals, a great score, good voice characterizations (Tom Hanks does several of the characters) and combine them with a 60' by 33' (or something) screen, 3-D production, and an incredible audio system, and you have a really spectacular 90 minutes.

By the time the movie was over, my grumpiness had disappeared (what? you didn't think I could be grumpy?). I was once again full of Christmas spirit (which is rather easy for a jolly fat man like me). We went home happy, and had some quiet time together before SG went to bed.

It was a really pleasant evening.

If you live in the DC area, or if you have an Imax thater nearby that presents this film (especially in 3-D) I recommend that you take the time to see it. You'll love it... and so will your kids.

Cheers,

GF

This article is (or soon will be) cross-posted at DC Metro Moms

Photos

With my elf.


My new surfboard


Commissioned Rosary I just finished for a colleague of Mrs. Gunfighter


I still love my shotguns!


SG and the autumn leaves.


We always have at least one Azalea that blooms in November. This one bloomed on the Marine Corps Birthday.


Gunfighter & Mrs Gunfighter @ Disney World


Four of these are at the National Cathedral now... if they haven't sold yet.


Still


Effing idiot.

CD Review - One Wintry Night: A David Phelps Christmas

This is THE holiday CD of the year at Castle Gunfighter!

This guy has a great voice, and sings with range and power.  He sings with joy.  The harmonies are tight, the songs are mostly uptempo.  You'll enjoy it.

Until this CD came home, I had never heard of David Phelps.  He is a singer of Christian contemporary music... and if that really isn't your thing, don't let it put you off.  This is a great CD.  Go here for audio samples... I recommend track number three and number fifteen to start with, but they are all good!

Mrs Gunfighter brought this CD home without having heard it first, and she really scored with it.

Woo Hoo!

Book Review: The Monks of War

If the ongoing carnage in the middle east occupies any part of your brain, you really ought to learn a bit about The Crusades, Christendom's thousand-year struggle for The Holy Land.

If you want to learn about the Crusades, you need to learn about the history of of the Christian military orders. With this book, you'll learn a lot.

Most of you saw or read "The DaVinci Code", which makes a great many references to the secrets and mysteries of the Knights Templar... these mysteries make for great fiction, but the truth is that the Templars were a monastic military order, and they weren't the only one.

In his book, author Desmond Seward, has crafted what many people call the definitive history of The Order of The Temple (Knights Templar), The Knights of Saint John (The Hospitallers), The Teutonic Knights, The Knights of Santiago, and some smaller orders as well.

These fighting monks were "noblemen vowed to poverty, chastity and obedience, living a monastic life in convents which were at the same time barracks, waging war on the enemies of the Cross"

The military orders fought against Islam (and intrigued amongst themselves) from their inception in the 12th century through the 17th century, but that's not all they did. They also fought on the fringes of "barbarian" Europe, in what are commonly referred to as "The Northern, or Baltic Crusades". Perhaps the most famous battle of the orders came in 1565, with the Knights of Saint John, withstanding and then defeating the Turks at the Siege of Malta.

Seward not only discusses the military campaigns of the orders, he also goes on in-depth about the history of the Christian Kingdoms in "Latin Syria" and the involvement of European monarchs in the battle for primacy in the Holy Land.

The Crusades are important to the modern world. It isn't just fascinating history. Things done and left undone during the Crusades are the stuff of the evening news, here in the west. We only have to look to the Balkans, Iraq, The Philippines, the Horn of Africa, and Israel to see the conflict being played out. We can't understand today without learning something about yesterday.

Since we can factually say that the Crusades are important, than it must be said that the military orders of the day are equally important, for they stand at the very center.

If you want to learn anything about the military orders, here is the best place to start.

January 10th... don't forget!

Michael Vick

Michael Vick has been sentenced to 23 months in prison for his role in crimes relating to dogfighting.

Good.

I think justice has been served. Federal sentencing guidelines for Vick's particular crime say 18 to 24 months imprisonment, so sending Vick to prison for a 23 month stretch seems reasonable, right?

I think so, too... so why are we now hearing the bleating from various quarters that his sentence was unduly harsh? It makes me tired.

Michael Vick is a liar. Michael Vick uses illicit drugs. Michael Vick murders (yes, murders) dogs. Michael Vick is a criminal.

He deserves every minute of the sentence.

I do not know, nor do I care about, what the National Felony League (NFL) will do with Vick after he serves his time... that isn't any of my concern. His employers may do as they please. All I know is that his sentence was not unreasonable. It was well-deserved.

No excuses for athletes.

No excuses for politicians.

No excuses for celebrities.

No excuses.