What in the Name of Hell IS an Assault Rifle Anyway? Part 2 – From WW2 to the AR15

| January 22, 2013

Yesterday we looked at how lessons learned in the course of World War 2, the ingenuity of German military weapon designers, and the whims of Adolf Hitler gave birth to the first “assault rifle”. In bestowing the name, Hitler was referring to the concept of “assault” in the military meaning. As in assaulting an enemy […]

What in the Name of Hell IS an Assault Rifle Anyway? Part 1 – Origins

| January 21, 2013

In our ongoing quest to disinfect the world of misused, and sometimes even meaningless, firearms terminology, today I’m going to focus on one that’s particularly topical at the moment if the combined brain trust of news media and facebook are any indication. That most dreaded thing in existence today (besides “Pit Bull type” Dogs) – […]

Living by the Sword and Sleeping With the Elephant

| January 20, 2013

On compromising principles and the justification of cheating: “If there really is a principle involved, things are either black or white. There are no grey areas. You can’t be “a little bit” dead or “sort of” pregnant.  A ship is not seaworthy merely because the total area of its hull exceeds the total area of […]

A Long Winter’s Night – All’s Well That Ends Well

| December 31, 2012

The dreaded year 2012 ends tonight, and tomorrow begins 2013 with the traditional and annually recurring 90 day festival of getting cheques in the mail that were stale dated a year at the very moment they were written. Traditions are a wonderful thing. To all of you who have spent time with us here, and […]

A Long Winter’s Night – The Village

| December 30, 2012

Nearly two years ago I wrote about a wonderful piece of work by Solomon Simon called The Wise Men of Helm & Their Merry Tales. I recommend you go there now and watch the hilarious film adaptation made by the National Film Board of Canada under the title Village of Idiots. The lore is full […]

A Long Winter’s Night – Snow Day

| December 29, 2012

Word is that the first major snow storm of the season is set to land on our region overnight tonight. Many rail at the injustice of it all when this inevitability descends, and every year people suffer consequences up to and including death from ill conceived attempts to defy Nature. Here at the LFM camp, […]

A Long Winter’s Night – The Tomte

| December 28, 2012

Deep in the grip of the midwinter cold The stars glitter and sparkle. All are asleep on this lonely farm, Deep in the winter night. The pale white moon is a wanderer, snow gleams white on pine and fir, snow gleams white on the roofs. The tomte alone is awake. I will never understand the […]

A Long Winter’s Night – A Song of Winter

| December 25, 2012

There’s a dark, joyful lustiness to this time of year that, for Mrs. LFM and me, begins as September yields the field to October, and doesn’t really end until the glorious din of another Spring supplants it. Here’s our gift of the day to you all. A Song of Winter By LFM The equinox of […]

A Long Winter’s Night – What’s a Sibling For?

| December 24, 2012

This is a tale from a Christmas Eve long, long ago. I grew up with a younger sibling – a sister three years younger than me. As the oldest child, and a son at that, I was raised to be responsible, respectful, steadfast, and true; and it took. My sister, on the other hand, was […]

A Long Winter’s Night – Of Partridges and Men

| December 23, 2012

My late Esteemed Friend Michael Baker came from a long line of shotgunners – men who lived for the hunting of waterfowl and upland game. In Lunenburg County, where we both grew up, there lies an island connected to the mainland by a short causeway, and the name of that place is Herman’s Island. The […]