Repeat after me: real life is not Rainbow Six.

Sure, lots of guns have features of debatable utility that are somehow supposed to make them "tactical." That doesn't mean you need them. Nor should those be the basis for the selection of a self-defense firearm.

Essentially, the list of priorities should read as follows:

Reliability
Controllability
Reliability
Accuracy
Reliability
Ergonomics
Reliability
Caliber
Reliability
Capacity
Reliability

See the pattern? The most important factors boil down to this: get a gun that works and that you can shoot well. Everything else is peripheral.

Tonight marks the release of Halo 3. I'll risk the possible lynching by a crowd of angry, pitchfork-toting fanboys and say it: I never really got what the hype was about.

Sure, it's a competent first-person shooter, and the online capabilities are excellent, but c'mon, it's pulpy space opera with guns. It's good, but it's not exactly the reinvention of the wheel or anything.

Anyhow, Master Chief's back, riding a wave of advertising hype and testosterone into the videogame equivalent of Return of the Jedi. And, of course, Jack Thompson's back as well.

I think it was Sartre who once wrote something along the lines of, "walking away in disgust is not the same thing as surrender." Or maybe it was Camus. I'm pretty sure it was one of those Existentialists. Or maybe Absurdists. Probably just a little crazy, too.

In any case, insanity is defined as the practice of repeating the same action over and over again, expecting different results. That's kind of my relation with Internet Explorer.

Everyone's got a friend who's "into guns," just like everyone's got a friend who's "good with tools." I wouldn't trust anyone but a certified mechanic to service my brakes, so why would I entrust firearms training to someone who's only a casual enthusiast?

Between 260 and 300 million people were killed by their own governments in the 20th century.

The tally of battlefield fatalities in both World Wars, Korea and Vietnam only comes to ~34 million.

Today's the 6th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Take a moment to thank a soldier.

The 2nd Amendment isn't about hunting. We're all part of the Arsenal of Democracy.

Thanks to Oleg Volk for the photograph.

Oh, get over it.

Oh, I know I'm going to hear about this one.

Hey, it's got a kitten. And people like kittens, right? Right?