LAST EDITED ON Sep-19-17 AT 11:52 AM (EDT)
 
It's nice that they're keeping the traditional forms of slightly ridiculous over-the-top Russian military symbology alive. From the Guardian:

A statue of Mikhail Kalashnikov, the inventor of the AK-47 assault rifle, has been unveiled in central Moscow in a controversial ceremony that merged military pomp with religious ritual.

The nine-metre (30ft) monument depicts Kalashnikov clutching his eponymous automatic weapon. Tuesday’s event was attended by high-ranking Russian officials including Vladimir Medinsky, the culture minister, and Petr Biryukov, Moscow’s deputy mayor.

“This is Russia’s cultural brand,” said Medinsky, before a Russian Orthodox priest blessed the statue.

... “Our weapon is a holy weapon,’ Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, the former spokesman for the Russian Orthodox Church, wrote on Facebook.

I guess we can use AKs to kill vampires now? Or maybe only fascist vampires and/or Russian vampires?

-Merc
Keep Rat

The current Russian government *is* fascist, so no.

Frankly, a statement like that from the Russian Orthodox Church is more apt to be taken as a blessing to use it to kill Muslims and LGBTQ+ people with it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/14/world/europe/russia-orthodox-church.html

The BBC website has an article about that and how they "cut out" the artwork. They did a rather crude job of it in my opinion. What a world....

Michael C. Fortner
"Maxim 37: There is no such thing as "overkill".
There is only "open fire" and "I need to reload".

They're now saying part of the statue "erroneously" depicted an StG 44 and not an AK, but I suspect the sculptor knew exactly what he was doing.

--G.
plagiarize! let no one else's work evade your eyes! remember why the good Lord made your eyes, so don't shade your eyes, but plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize! only be sure always to call it please "research".
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

LAST EDITED ON Sep-23-17 AT 01:39 AM (EDT)
 
The designer's wehrabouts will soon be unknown.

>The designer's wehrabouts will soon be unknown.

I can't decide whether I see what you did there, or it's just a typo. :)

Anyway, probably not; the current regime doesn't seem to be into disappearing people as much as the old one was. They seem to prefer just acing their opponents in broad daylight and then blaming organized crime or "extremists".

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>>The designer's wehrabouts will soon be unknown.
>
>I can't decide whether I see what you did there, or it's just a typo.
>:)

Oh, pun emphatically intended :D

Well, more holy wars have been fought on the internet over which is the better rifle, the AK-47, the M-16, or the M-1, so I guess you could call it a holy weapon. :D

Michael

Michael C. Fortner
"Maxim 37: There is no such thing as "overkill".
There is only "open fire" and "I need to reload".

>Well, more holy wars have been fought on the internet over which is
>the better rifle, the AK-47, the M-16, or the M-1, so I guess you
>could call it a holy weapon. :D

The people plumping for the M1—and I say this as a member of the Garand Collectors Association—are presumably time travelers from 1944 who have become admirably at home with the newfangled communications technologies they've encountered. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

My brother is almost 4 years younger than I am (he's 47) and a big gun nut aficionado and he will argue with anybody until he's blue in the face that the M-16 is a piece of crap and the M-1 came down with Moses from Mount Sinai with the 10 Commandments. (OK, a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much). So some people younger than The Greatest Generation hold the M-1 in high regard and/or the M-16 in disdain. ;D

Michael

Michael C. Fortner
"Maxim 37: There is no such thing as "overkill".
There is only "open fire" and "I need to reload".

>My brother is almost 4 years younger than I am (he's 47) and a big gun
>nut aficionado and he will argue with anybody until he's blue
>in the face that the M-16 is a piece of crap and the M-1 came down
>with Moses from Mount Sinai with the 10 Commandments.

Get him to carry one for 20 or 30 miles and see if he still feels that way. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

LAST EDITED ON Sep-26-17 AT 09:25 PM (EDT)
 
>Get him to carry one for 20 or 30 miles and see if he still feels that
>way. :)

He'd still feel that way. He's a "true believer". :D

Michael

Michael C. Fortner
"Maxim 37: There is no such thing as "overkill".
There is only "open fire" and "I need to reload".

>My brother is almost 4 years younger than I am (he's 47) and a big gun
>he will argue with anybody until he's blue
>in the face that the M-16 is a piece of crap and the M-1 came down
>with Moses from Mount Sinai with the 10 Commandments.

https://imgur.com/gallery/agX4s in which there is just that, from the other direction.

...!
Stoke Mandeville, Esq & The Victorian Ballsmiths
"Nobody Want Verdigris-Covered Balls!"

Oh, those are great. Dumb customer stories are always entertaining!
--------------
Lime2K
The One True Evil Overlord