The Man!

Shield update:

Last night's episode of "The Shield" was the best of the year so far. Vic, who for some reason has his way with ANY police dog trainer in America, convinced a dude to let his K9 spend an "extra" couple of minutes with a rapist, helping to insure that he'll never rape again.

Again, we see the Vic Mackey paradox play out -- police captains chastize him for being overly rough, brutal, and tending to "cut corners," yet as soon as that high-profile case drops, leaving them with a shitstorm of bad publicity, they tell Vic he's moving too slowly, and then tell him to "be creative" or "solve this case any way you can." Then, when the Strike Team delivers, they yell at them again for being too rough.

A quasi-expert on the Shield message boards says that Vic carries a nickel-plated .45 caliber semi-auto Smith and Wesson with the high-capacity magazine. I will take his word for it -- I was almost sure it was a .45, but did not know the brand. Personally, if I was a cop in L.A., I'd roll with a Glock, Sig, or Beretta before I went to a S & W. The last great gun S & W made was being carried by Murtaugh in Lethal Weapon.