Targeted Action

…so to speak.  Tribe Reader Brad sends me this little example of governmental initiative:

LOS ANGELES — The largest city in California took a step closer to establishing an Office of Unarmed Response to develop alternative responses to some emergency calls, KNBC reports. 

Los Angeles City Council approved a motion Tuesday that has the framework of what the Office of Unarmed Response will look like. The framework outlines the scope of funding, staffing, work and determining primary objectives.

The motion required the chief administrative officer to create a program within 120 days for performance management and evaluation of the city’s Unarmed Model of Crisis Response Pilot. The data collected from this study will be utilized to inform the development of the Office of Unarmed Response.

The council also directed the Los Angeles Police Department to provide a report within 90 days, listing the 911 calls that can be appropriately redirected to alternative response models instead of involving armed police officers.

Now before we all start falling about with laughter, let’s consider this one seriously for a moment.

As much as I’m a supporter of the “Kill ’em all, let God figure it out”  school of law enforcement, I will allow that some situations absolutely do not require an armed cop on the scene.  A good example of this is when the Heavy Boot Of Officialdom is applied to the neck of, say, a child running an unlicensed lemonade stand on the public street, someone littering in a park, or someone playing loud music in their apartment, or “domestic disturbances” — you know, when a man and a woman can no longer deal with each other’s shit and start yelling and screaming.

Likewise, someone breaking the speed limit or driving without current vehicle registration does definitely not require an armed cop to enforce what are, after all, simple misdemeanors.

What all the above situations require is a cool head, a counselor if you will, to speak kindly to the miscreants and persuade them of the folly of their ways.

I see nothing but satisfactory outcomes.

And I think the City of Angels is the perfect laboratory in which to test this laudable initiative.

Monday Funnies

And off we go, trying to alleviate the horror…

And speaking of Eve and her descendants:

Little strong?  Okay, maybe something still old-fashioned, but a little less Biblical…

 

And away you go, into the rest of the week.

Classic Beauty: Mary Astor

One hundred and nine movies, forty-five years in show business:  that would be Mary Astor, who started in silent movies, almost never made it to talkies (because of her deep, “masculine” voice), and was an accomplished classical pianist.  She also loved men, and her private (and very explicit) diary nearly caused an explosion in Hollywood when it came to light.

But none of that’s important.  This is:

And then later with the ugly hairstyles of the era, but still exquisitely beautiful:

No wonder they all fell for her.

Bygone Broads 6

The latest in this series features the Ferrari F110 Testarossa:

…and one of their likely accompaniments on the wall, the All-American Cheryl Tiegs:

And of course:

Little skinny for my taste, but millions of teenage boys working their bedtime pup-tents would probably disagree with me.

Mae’s Top 10

Some while back, I linked to C&Rsenal’s wonderful series on WWI guns, but then I spotted a little addendum, namely Mae’s Top 10 Rifles.

Now, as the lady in question has fired almost all WWI-era rifles — and certainly more of them than I’ve fired — I think it behooves us all to pay the show a visit.  Here are her top ten WWI rifles, in no specific order (so as not to spoil the surprise at the end):

Mauser K98 TZ (8x57mm)

 

SMLE No.1 MkIII* (.303 Enfield)

 

Mannlicher-Schoenauer 1903 Carbine (6.5x54mm)

 

Ross Rifle MkIII (.303 Enfield)

 

Arisaka Type 38 Carbine (6.5x50mm)

 

Ottoman Mauser 1903 (7.65x53mm)

 

Springfield ’03 (.30-06 Spfld)

 

Serbian Mauser 1908 Carbine (7x57mm)

 

Carcano Moschetto 91 (6.5x52mm Mannlicher)

 

Enfield 1917 (.303 Enfield / .30-06 Spfld)

Some of Mae’s choices are seriously, shall we say, eclectic nay even controversial, but all of them are very well supported (and Othias’s reactions to them are alone worth the price of admission).  Have fun as you pick your way through her arguments.

For the record, I have absolutely no quibble about the composition of her list — I’d shoot any of them without a qualm, and carry any of them off to war.

And by the way:  I actually agree wholeheartedly with her #1.  It is unquestionably one of the rifles I most regret having to sell during Great Poverty Era I.


For those who haven’t seen my own (and I think vastly inferior) take on the topic, see Great War Rifles.