On This Date in 1901...

It's a great day for America, ladies and gents.
First off, how about some humor to lighten the mood?
"What has 20,000 legs and an IQ of 70?"
Having thus warmed-up the crowd, I'll introduce my new wall-hanger.
It's an Iver-Johnson, Safety Automatic, chambered in .32SW.

It's pedigree reads as follows:

Model 2, Second Model, second variation,
Double top latch, 150,000 items were manufactured in 1897 and 1898, serial number with C or G letter prefix.
Ser# G45487

The next pic shows what it looked like new (minus the nickel plating - tacky).
Notice that the original, hard-rubber, owl-head grips have been replaced with a one-piece, homemade unit of black walnut.
It resulted in the grip being about 3/4" longer and, in my opinion, clumsy.
Numrich has replacement grips for $20 but I suspicion that they're latter day, black plastic.

Now, back to the top photo; the rather unhappy young man, pictured on the document, was one Leon F. Czolgosz.
Leon's fifteen minutes of fame began a few weeks earlier, Sept. 6, '01 when he famously shot President William McKinley.
With an Iver Johnson, Safety Automatic.
He'd paid $4.50 for it, just like in the ad ($110.76 in 2007. Why don't we have affordable guns like that now?)
Obviously, the .32 SW lacks some stopping power so, even though Leon was quite workmanlike in his execution - two rounds point-blank - it still took the Pres. until the 14th of the month to die, 108 years ago today.
Leon was 28 - the same age as this asshole, below:
Psychiatric folks later determined that, by modern standards, he wouldn't have been allowed to stand trial. He was nuts.
So, we need to be understanding about Chris Broughton and his fellow "activists".
Seems to me that Chris may have few toys in the attic. He's certainly compliant - "What we need is a non-offensive, young black man to "show the flag" for our cause. Oh, and dress nice."
In response, Chris is all; "Anything you say, Boss".

He'd likely have had the top of his head blown-off from a nearby rooftop during the Bush watch so he may not be a total dummy.
And check out the spare magazine in his pocket.
What an asshole.
But, the seriously scary part of the whole deal is the preachings of Chris' father-in-the-Lord.

Personally, I don't care who Steve wants to pray to death.
It doesn't matter.
Deciding who gets to stick around and who doesn't ain't in his job description in any case.
What he does need to do is to quit saying it - especially from the pulpit or he's going to trigger something he won't be happy discussing with his God at the great white throne.
Steve tends to see the old guy as pretty strict.

PS All mean-spirited photo-shopping was done because there just aren't any pictures making fun of these guys - and there need to be.
God forbid they should be taken seriously.