The Obama Apology Tour Continues Apace

Our President continues his rather shameless abasement tour, traveling the world on the taxpayer's dime and busily and embarrassingly apologizing for all non-leftist activity undertaken by the USA while hanging out and doing the wave with left-wing human rights abusers.

Recently Cuba.

Now, Argentina.

The Detroit News: Obama: U.S. slow to speak out for rights in Argentina

Obama went on to apologize on behalf of the US, for the US failing, in the late 70s, to criticize a right-wing regime in Argentina fighting a communist insurgency with lots of atrocities on both sides and resulting in the defeat of the Communists in Argentina.

Is there any anti-American regime he has yet to abase himself before and issue an apology in America's name?

What's next, traveling to Russia and apologizing for winning the Cold War?

We'll note he's conspicuously failed to criticize current and past left-wing regimes on human rights even as he scrapes and bows low before them now.

Oh, the Dauntless is the power in these waters, true enough.

The Telegraph reports that HMS Dauntless is heading to the Falkland Islands.

The Navy’s most sophisticated warship is being sent to the South Atlantic in a move that will send a powerful message to Argentina.

Dauntless will set sail for the Falkland Islands in the coming weeks armed with a battery of missiles that could "take out all of South America's fighter aircraft let alone Argentina's," according to one Navy source.

Although Mr Hague played down the deployment he said the ship was a "formidable vessel".

The HMS Dauntless, a Type 45 Air Defense Destroyer is being sent to answer the recent Argentine saber-rattling over the Falkland Islands.

Replacing the less capable frigate HMS Montrose with an Air Defense Destroyer that can allegedly knock the entire Argentine Air Force out of the sky on its own sends a rather deterring message to potential Latin-American adventurism.

Sore Losers For 29 Years And Counting

The Argentinians are rather upset about the announced deployment of a certain Royal Air Force helicopter pilot to the Falklands.

The Toronto Star: Prince William's deployment to Falklands draws diplomatic outrage

Search and rescue may be his job, but there is no saving Prince William from the diplomatic cesspool that has been spawned by the announcement of his posting to the Falkland Islands.

Argentina, which disputes Britain’s sovereignty over the Islands off its coast, calls it a “provocative act.”

This sabre-rattling by the South American nation has been going on since Britain’s reign over the Islands began in 1833.

With William set for a six-week stint there, the tension between the two nations has only intensified.

"It is one more provocative act that shows Britain's military presence in a zone of peace where there is no armed conflict," said Sebastian Brugo Marco, an Argentine official with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The British diplomatically answered this complaint in the finest of British style:

“For the life of me, I cannot understand why this is provocative,” Tory MP Patrick Mercer told the Daily Mail. “It is certainly not as provocative as invading the Falkland Islands in 1982.”

For those of you who don't remember, Argentina invaded and occupied the Falklands in 1982 and was defeated by the British rather handily.

At least there's one Royal who's an excellent representation of the best of Britain. Being a search and rescue helicopter pilot is no easy job and Prince William seems to be developing have the qualities and character that will serve him well as king one day.

It is also rumored that in response to this Argentinian outrage, Catherine Middleton was overheard singing "Don't cry for me Argentina..."

Happy 1911 Day!

On this day in history, one of the finest handguns even designed was adopted as the sidearm of the US Military.

Designed by John Moses Browning (firearms genius par excellence), it is a design that has endured over a hundred years and stood the test of time.

Since many a fine blogger is showing off their 1911s today, I figured better late evening than never.

My oldest 1911: A Colt Model 1927:

This Colt, a Model 1927 is one of 10,000 Model 1911A1s Colt manufactured for the Argentine Army. It bears the Argentine Army's inscription: Ejercito Argentino.

Argentina later manufactured their own Model 1927s under license from Colt:

This one a Sistema Colt 1927 was manufactured by DGFM-FMAP (Direccion General de Fabricaciones Militares-Fabrica Militar de Armas Portatiles) in Argentina for the Argentine Air Force and so marked. Please pardon the very non-standard grips which came with it which shall be changed back to their original grips as soon as a set are found to restore this pistol properly.

I should note I had a ridiculous time when I bought this pistol. The seller resided in New York and the New York gun dealers claimed this could not be a Curio and Relic pistol because it looked too nice. Seriously that was the reason he was given. As always gun dealers don't always know their regs. So in the face of stupid refusal, I had to have it shipped to my friendly FFL rather than my own C&R license.

You'll note that the Argentinians went metric: 11.25 mm doesn't have quite the same ring as .45 ACP, but its still a beauty.

Finally there's my go-to .45:

This 1911A1 is an Essex Arms frame and slide with a mix of Wilson Combat, Colt, and Sistema parts. Long story, but when I moved from Toronto to Michigan I wasn't allowed to import my beautiful 1927 Ejercito Argentino (Argentine Army marked) Sistema as it was "military" due to the Ejercito marking. A Sistema that was police marked or unmarked would have been just fine, go figure. Never-mind that I was allowed to import my S&W Model 29 which is certainly a far more powerful handgun but so it went. I had to strip the poor gun down, turn in the stripped receiver in Toronto and was then able to legally import the parts. Yes, I'm still annoyed all these years later.

This gun was then built by gunsmith Alan Tillman as a serviceable carry / competition gun for someone on a very meager student budget at the time, and it reflects some cosmetic compromises in exchange for more attention to accuracy and reliability. Mr. Tillman did an excellent job indeed.

I've used it in Massad Ayoob's LFI I and LFI II classes to excellent effect and it is one of my favorite carry guns. It now needs some new night sites as the current ones have dimmed down to standard irons. It could probably also use a refinishing, but it is still a rock-solid and reliable firearm.

I still need an Argentine Navy marked Sistema to round out the Argentine armed forces 1927 collection, and really would like a WWII US 1911A1, but that will take some time to save up for.

So, Happy 1911 Day and enjoy the enduring legacy of the 1911 series of pistols.

There's at least one out there to meet everyone's need and budget and no firearms collection is complete without at least one example of this excellent pistol.

Don't Cry For Me Argentina

A Very Cool Map replacing the names of United State's individual state names with countries that have GDPs equivalent to those states.

As you guessed from the title of this post by now, Michigan is tied with a certain South American country whose name begins with A.

Another coincidence, both have had less than stellar female leaders who were wildly popular with some.

It could have been worse, with the way the economy is going down here we could have been listed as Zimbabwe.