The Wandering Minstrel

Oldies but goodies. Another good take-your-mind-off-of-Monday flick to watch some Sunday evening.

Miller’s Crossing, made in 1990, is a flick starring Gabriel Byrne, Albert Finney and Marcia Gay Harden. It’s about two rival gangs fueding, where Byrne’s character plays both sides off each other and gets his ass kicked a lot - really a lot, but survives to get his ass kicked even more.

In 2005, Time magazine chose Miller’s Crossing as one of the 100 greatest movies ever made since the inception of the magazine. I’m not so sure it was that good, but the 1920’s costumes, decor and scenery were outstanding.

Here’s some of the plot (Wikipedia):

Tom Reagan (Byrne) is the long-time advisor and confidant of Leo O’Bannon (Finney), a gangster political boss who runs his Prohibition-era city. When Leo’s Italian rival Johnny Caspar announces his intentions to kill the crooked bookie Bernie Bernbaum, Leo goes against Tom’s advice and extends his protection to Bernie. Bernie is the brother of Verna Bernbaum (Harden), an opportunistic gun moll who shares a longtime relationship with Leo as well as a secret affair with Tom. Leo goes to war with Johnny to appease Verna.

Tom tries everything he can to convince Verna and Leo to give Bernie up to Johnny to end the war, but neither will budge. After an assassination attempt on Leo, Tom reveals his affair with Verna, causing Leo to beat him viciously and turn his back on both of them.

With no other alternative, Tom goes to work for Johnny, and is immediately commanded to kill Bernie at Miller’s Crossing to prove his loyalty. Bernie pleads with Tom to spare him, and Tom allows him to escape. The gang war goes well for Johnny and he quickly assumes Leo’s position as boss of the city. However, Tom begins sowing discord between Johnny and Eddie Dane, his most trusted enforcer. At the same time, Bernie returns and tries to blackmail Tom into killing Johnny.

I gotta say one thing about that assination attempt on Leo; one of the assasins gets killed by Leo who then gets the assasin’s Tommy Gun. Then, by some miracle, the magic 1,000 round magazine kicks in. Leo squeezes off at least 600 rounds in the scene where he offs all the other bad guys and one Ford Flivver. Amazing and fun stuff.

I couldn’t find Miller’s Crossing in the IMFDB, so I can’t give a gunography, even though there were guns aplenty.

Any body know where can I get one of those 1,000 round magazine Tommy Guns?

Went to the range today and put up a target for the ‘two to the heart, one to the head’ drill. I managed to do pretty well with all of the rounds generally hitting where I aimed. The target was at seven yards in the indoor range. All rounds were discharged in groups of three at one-second intervals with a pause of a second longer between groups. I aimed the tenth round in the magazine back at the chest.

What would Jesus drive?

At the heart of American Liberty is patriotism, and the willingness to defend our country against enemies, both internal and external. The means to defend is given to us by the Second Amendment.

Five of the nine SCOTUS justices affirmed those rights yesterday.

Only five.

Imagine the next challenge to the Second Amendment taking place at a time at which the next two Supreme Court justices were to have been appointed by Barack (insert middle name of your choice here) Obama.

I shudder at the thought, and bitterly cling to my guns and religion.

The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm. Justice Scalia wrote the opinion. Justice Breyer dissented, joined by Justices Stevens, Souter and Ginsburg. The vote is along idealogical lines, left and right.

The usual liberals voted to overturn but the issue has been affirmed on a vote of 5-4.

I see that there is a sale on the Ruger KP345PR .45 ACP pistol at a local firearms outlet. I browsed through some on-line forums and the gun seems to be getting a fairly warm reception among owners. However, the forum talk by itself didn’t make me want to run out and take advantage of the bargain price. I will probably go to the range (I think they have a KP345 for rent) and put some rounds through it to see how it handles before the sale ends, to see if I’m interested or not.

Imminently, so I’m told, the opinions for the Heller vs. DC case will be rendered by the Supreme Court. No matter how it turns out, we cannot say that there has not been considerable deliberation. That is a good thing, because there is a lot at stake.

From a Huntsville Times Editorial

The high court keeps America waiting a few more days

A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.

What do those words really mean? What did they mean when they were ratified as the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution? What do they mean today?

. . .

On Monday, a ruling in D.C. v. Heller was expected, but it didn’t come. Because the justices usually decide cases shortly after they are argued (this one was argued in March), the delay may well have to do with language - the language of the majority, the language of the minority, or both. If ever there was a case where words mattered, it’s this one.

UPDATE: No decision today (6/25) on Heller. Tomorrow for sure, since it is the last SCOTUS session. Follow the proceedings on www.scotusblog.com or live blog.

After cleaning my Glock 30 yesterday, I paused to admire the simplicity and structure of this reliable firearm. I sure like my Glocks . . .