The Democrats are in trouble. Obamacare is tanking, and the economy is “growing” at a pace that would have been considered a disaster were Barack Obama, the vessel of the left’s hopes and dreams, not President.
And despite a concerted media attempt to black out the bad news, people are starting to talk.
And so the left is doing its best to get people to talk about…other things.
Any other things.
So when my Twitter feed (actually a tweet from one-time SITD commenter “TimInStP”, one of the most incisive liberal minds ever to comment in this space) screamed “The GOP Just Named its Hot New Innovation Lab After a Nazi Pistol”, I figured it was worth looking into.
It wasn’t. I mean, it was from Gawker, which is to national liberal media what Minnesota Progressive Project is to Minnesota; ergo, not worth the time it took, to look into.
But as a view into the lengths the deranged left will go to to try to slander dissenters, it’s instructive anyway:
The Republican National Committee today excitedly announced the launch of a new startup lab to bring techies and creatives together, Silicon Valley-style, to get Republicans elected. Oh, and they named it for a Nazi gun, a type of ammo, and a philosophy that puts war before peace.
Welcome to Para Bellum Labs, America!
Para Bellum? Why, I took enough Latin to know that means “prepare for war!”.
And Gawker got that part right. Sorta.
In fact, it’s part of an old Roman cliche, “Si vis pacem, para bellum”—if you seek peace, prepare for war. That’s been quite an inspiring little phrase through history, at least to militarists. It was especially inspiring to Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken, the German government’s arms manufacturer from the late imperial era to World War II.
DWM started using the “parabellum” phrase as a name for its signature guns—first, the light machine gun used by the Kaiser’s best during World War I, and then its most iconic gun: the Parabellum Pistole, or the Luger pistol…Yep, Nazi parabellum!
So let me get this straight: Because the Republican startup used a phrase that was also used by, among hundreds or thousands of others, a German company (in corrupted form) in 1908 to describe a pistol that was used, 30 years later, by a regime that wouldn’t even start to form for fifteen years, the GOP “named its lab after a Nazi gun?”
Oh, it gets better.
The gun was so popular in the Third Reich that its ammunition—one of the first to use a slug that was 9 millimeters in diameter—became known as “9 mm parabellum,” which you can find now at your local gun store.
It was nowhere near “one of the first” 9mm rounds (and if you walk into your gun store and ask for “9mm Parabellum”, the clerk will know you learned everything you know about guns from video games; it’s “9mm Luger”, or “9×19”). And the “Parabellum” pistol (usually called a “Luger”, or a “P-08” in German) was so popular among the Nazis that they phased it out of production in favor of the Walther P-38, which was simpler to produce and easier to maintain in the field…
But wait! P-38 was the same designation as the plane flown by America’s top fighter ace, Superior Wisconsin’s own Richard Bong!
Richard Bong was a Nazi!
(Calms down).
Oh, yeah – most police in America today carry 9mm pistols. Are they also Nazi sympathizers?
Gawker is like a lobotomy that you don’t have to pay for.
Still, far too many left wing nuts are so stuck on stupid with their failed ideology that they still haven’t got a clue.
Just imagine what idiots like dimitted Tim would do if they ever visited Asia, especially Korea, and went into their shrines. (facapalm)
The odds of any “gun control” advocate being correct on any fact relating to guns are smaller than the odds of Obama being convicted on articles of impeachment.
There was a time long, long ago (late 60s, early 70s) when the 9mm was rare enough that “parabellum” was occasionally used by folks peripherally connected to the gun scene to refer to the ammo for the Luger. These days there are many 9mm guns out there, so parabellum has disappeared from use.
It’s well known that Hitler was a vegetarian. So by Gawker’s logic, it follows that vegetarians are Nazis!
Hey, Mitch, the P38 is also a can opener put in the cases of K-Rations and C-Rations (Combat Rations, for more warlike phrases), up to the introduction of the MRE (Meals Ready to Eat – or Meals Rejected by Ethiopians – take your pick). From Wikipedia, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-38_can_opener:
Official military designations for the P-38 include “US ARMY POCKET CAN OPENER” and “OPENER, CAN, HAND, FOLDING, TYPE I”. As with some other military terms, e.g., “jeep”, the origin of the term is not known with certainty; the P-38 opener coincidentally shares a designation with the Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter plane, which could allude to its fast performance. However, the P-51 can opener, while larger and easier to use than the P-38 can opener, also has a fighter plane namesake in the North American P-51 Mustang. One technical explanation for the origin of the name is that the P-38 is approximately 38 mm (1.5 in) long. This explanation also holds for the P-51, which measures approximately 51 mm (2.0 in) in length. However, use of the metric system in the US was not widespread at this point, and United States Army sources indicate that the origin of the name is rooted in the 38 punctures around the circumference of a C-ration can required for opening.