Water Bottles: Dingy, Tired Old Bottles Edition

Maybe I'm just an elitist snob, but this Geico commercial with James Lipton, from Inside the Ac-Tors' Studio, made me fall out of my chair the first time I saw it. James Lipton is really funny when he's being serious - I think he knows that he's sort of a self-parody, when he gets all serious and grave to interview the ultimate un-serious people, actors, on his wonderfully funny show on the Arts & Entertainment Network. (No, that's not slang for the Spice Channel, there really is an Arts & Entertainment Network on cable TV. I was as shocked as you.)





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Glenn Reynolds, that ol' right / libertarian Instapundit guy, has a good discussion today regarding this sweet, sweet M2A2 Machine Gun, Caliber .50, which can be yours (with extra barrels and accessories, plus lotsa ammo, you gotta have lotsa ammo) for just $24k. So instead of getting the Calfee with gold inlays, why not get the M2?

One of his readers, a chap named Jonathan Gewirtz, notes that for the same money, you can get the ultimate High Definition television setup. Now that's a real poser if you have $24,000 laying around, salvaged from your $350,000 investment in Citibank stock, and you aren't sure what to do with it.

So what do you get - the M2, or The Ultimate HDTV setup? I've operated both an HDTV and an M2, and I think you have to carefully consider the upside and the downside when you're considering taking a crew-served weapon instead of an HDTV.

Ma Deuce: I highly recommend it, if you have the means.

On the one hand, Mormon pacifist John Browning's* design is timeless and efficient, a true masterpiece of the armorer's art. Ma Deuce never goes out of style - if we ever have to zap Klingons or giant bugs or even small asteroids, somebody will want to mount ol' momma on a lunar lander and go git some. It's very effective - you can use a spotter and hit remarkably small targets at ridiculously long range by tapping off single shots and using the windage & elevation adjustments on the tripod, if properly sandbagged down. Moreover, not even AT&T knows how to reach out, reach out and touch someone, the way the .50 cal does. It is a wonderful kinetic solution to many of life's little (and medium size, up to moderately-armored) problems.

On the other hand, the M2 with tripod has to run well over a hundred and twenty-five pounds, and it is a little bit finicky about headspace, timing, and ensuring the barrel is properly mounted. Worse yet, you *still* can't see the hockey puck with it, so the HDTV comes out way ahead there. And finally, while your buddies may be happy to come over to see you and the M2, and watch when you 'turn it on' in the den, there's no way your wife is going to let you do that in the house every Sunday afternoon between September and January 30th.

It's a tough call.

[In all seriousness, my Dad basically owed his life to a good functioning bank of M2's in Korea. I wouldn't be here if not for the M2. My experiences with it weren't as dramatic but I was still impressed & grateful to have a chance to dance with momma - dugdugdugdugdugdugdug].

* John Browning's excellent and amazing weapons designs have formed the backbone of modern small arms design for roughly the last 100 years. The old pacifist's weapons and his patented advances in the art, are the tools used by various moral actors, to dispatch literally millions of our fellow man. I, for one, am glad that he wasn't a warmongering bastard instead of an avowed pacifist. Had he been a warmongering bastard, there's no telling what the carnage would have been like.
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Sandbaggers - have you considered selling your sandbag points on Ebay? These guys have. Money shot - "enough points for you, and three of your friends to upgrade to Cat II." Nice.

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Let's welcome local racer Mark F to the blogroll, with his excellent ShenCycling blog - good race tales from a chronic master B racer.