That gun got donated to the Texas Rangers Hall of Fame.

H. B. “Butch” Purvis of Mertzon, Texas, has donated an important artifact used by Texas Ranger Captain Hardy B. Purvis and Texas Ranger L. Hardy Purvis.
The Texas Ranger Hall of Fame is very grateful to Mr. Purvis for giving this one of a kind artifact – an 1928 Thompson Submachine Gun with accessories and Police case — to future generations.

I’m such a redneck that there is no way, no how I’d have given that hardware away to anybody but family. However, the sentimentalist in me notes that Butch probably considers the Rangers family.

I hope he kept the inheritable rights to shoot it whenever he wants, though…full-auto Thompsons shouldn’t get locked behind glass just to stare at.

Digression time: last week, I went to have a samwich for lunch, and there was a table of Rangers there. Every one carried a 1911 in what I’ve come to call the Ranger rig…beautifully tooled scabbard on one side and a double-mag carrier on the other, on a standard 2″ belt. Two of them had standard grips, one had nice zebrawoods, and the last had a Ranger star embedded in his. Pretty impressive to a gun-nut. It still bums me that open-carry isn’t legal no mo’.

Thanks to Big Dick Stanley for prompting this spurious posting…

So, is Sean Hannity a certified journalist reporter type? That is to say, does anybody out there turn on Sean Hannity’s radio show (or teevee show, or internet tubes junction) in order to find out how Hurricane Dean went, how much pork bellies rose or fell today, how the coal-mine rescue is going, if West Nile virus is ravaging your neighborhood, if the shuttle made it home safely or not?

Or would you turn on Sean Hannity to get some high-dudgeon conservative red-meat aural filler?

Or would you turn on Sean Hannity because commercial radio sucks, and you can’t find a CD you’ve not listened to 1 gajillion times already?

In other words, is anybody out there as confused as Tom about Sean Hannity’s (and his Limbaugh-spawned cohorts) role is in whatever you want to call the public space these days?

I’m kinda interested in hearing not about dogma or press bias or other such red herrings…mainly, do you understand that there are entertainers and there are “just the facts, maam” reporters? Do you know the difference between the two? Is that distinction something that exists purely in my Podunk, Texas mind?