After basking in the afterglow of the absolute best day that I've ever had in terms of traffic, I figured I'd continue with the Red Sox postings. It's not like I have a lot of other material banging on the doors to get out.

I always like to look for hindsight coincidences, because either I'm good at constructing them, or there really are odd things where events arrange themselves to lead to an interesting conclusion. Some time last week, and prior to the completion of the ALCS comeback, a card arrived in the mail from Best Buy. It was addressed to me, and announced that I was now a subscriber to Sports Illustrated. OK, I said. That's nice. It'll join Computer Gaming World on the list of "Magazines I Don't Subscribe To But Which Come Anyways".

Fast forward to two days ago. The Red Sox win the World Series, and I start trying to preserve the newspaper coverage of the event. (Yes, I'm going to call the Boston Globe and ask them about buying a copy of the celebratory paper; surely to God they'll have extras printed.) I go to the mailbox yesterday, and pick up the contents, idly leafing through them. Lo and behold, an issue of Sports Illustrated had arrived, and it was the mid-point of the World Series issue. Boston's Mark Bellhorn is flying over top of St. Louis' Mike Matheny in Game Two on the cover, and I'll probably try to have the thing framed.

It simply happened that way. I never lifted a finger to subscribe, and this near-perfect condition magazine arrives in my mailbox the day after the victory, free of charge. How's that for strange?

On top of all that, Curt Schilling had something nice to say about the re-election of the President. This is, of course, a good thing, even if it's a complete surprise to me. (Come off it. Schilling pitched in Philadelphia, home of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Children for years were taught to pray for the Republican Party, the Girard Bank, and the PRR. Are you really surprised? --Ed.) John Kerry's team, my foot. Hopefully, Massachusetts has used up all its fall luck, and the Senator will be sent home to ponder the folly of his run.

(Meanwhile, registration is still closed at the fora of Red Sox Nation.)

Posted by: Country Pundit at 02:05 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The Lopez-Lowry Axis is apparently exerting its editorial powers, because Yankee Kathy has banned Shannen Coffin from posting in The Corner for the time being.

I'd give her a Bronx cheer---if I knew what that was---but then again, it might inspire her to further acts of Boston hatred. Bah! You're not going to sell any subscriptions like that, Ms. Lopez.

UPDATE: Er, go out of the area for several hours and look what happens. Eh, heh heh...er, it's all in good fun and I'm really glad I'm underground in an undisclosed location at the moment. Wow, the power of the blogosphere.

Howdy to all visitors from The Corner; I hope there's something worth viewing here for y'all. I'm, er, in a rebuilding phase, but come on in and browse about. If anyone's got something they'd like to see or hear about, well, I've got my e-mail account operational.

Three thousand hits in less than four hours. That's only a hundred times the daily average. Lord, I hope my host's bill is paid.

UPDATE II: It has occurred to me that, since Ms. Lopez has been gracious enough to give me in four hours what took six months to get (in terms of traffic), I ought to give them something. To muddle something from W.S. Churchill about magnanimity in victory, let me suggest the following: Click here and subscribe to the print version of National Review. Ms. Lopez, once I scrape together enough money, I'll be subscribing; I seem to have spent my immediately surplus reserves of capital on the very hat that I'm wearing.

UPDATE III: Mr. Coffin posted a rather touching and heartfelt missive on the subject, and there will be no celebratory column. That's all right; it is easy even for me to understand that eighty-six years of emotions---as Chris Myers put it, "generations"---are difficult to air in a web column.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 12:11 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Eighty-six years swept away. Curse? Reversed. Annihilated.

Hooray.

Thank you God.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 11:52 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Methinks I detect a whiff of sour grapes emanating from the confines of the Lopez-Lowry Axis. Sayeth K-Lo at 0555: COME ON, CARDINALS!!

Yankee Kathy (c.f. "Axis Sully", although solely in jest; Axis Sully is a nuisance whereas Yankee Kathy is endearing in her support) had been silent for a while---and Lowry seems to have been out of sight since---but she comes roaring striking back, with a little swipe by way of hyperlink.

The article she was linking to is here. It's just your basic "Sox win!" with some treacly stuff about Pedro Martinez and a description of St. Louis pitcher Jeff Suppan's base-running error, which allowed the Red Sox to escape a bases loaded situation by the Cardinals. The little I've learned about baseball in the time I've been watching had me worried (albeit in a rather uninformed way) and so when Mr. Suppan made his mistake, I let out a cheer , immediately followed by a 'Thank you, God!'

At any rate, Game 4 is tonight in St. Louis, broadcast on Fox. Someone please hand Jeanne Zelasko a picture of herself back when she was doing NASCAR Winston Cup coverage in the pits, and remind her that once upon a time, she was good looking. Bloody Fox makeup crews could mess up if Helen of Troy (preferably Diane Kruger or Sienna Guillory) was their subject.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 11:49 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Life is good. Two reasons:

1. The Boston Red Sox moved to 3-0 in the World Series, defeating the St. Louis Cardinals. The page will tell you the score and everything else that you need to know. On the side, I'm trying to figure out how best to extend this recent interest in the Red Sox past whatever outcome results.

I could try to go back and read George F. Will's book on baseball, and make a concerted effort to get to more of the local farm club's home games, which is actually on a 'to-do list'.

Oddly enough, I was speaking recently with a fixture in the local Republican Party, and I got asked who I was backing in the Series. I replied that I was for the Red Sox. Several seconds of quiet ensued on the telephone line, and then the caller said, "But that's John Kerry's team."

At this point, I had to think fast. Luckily, I'd come up with some lines earlier in the day about what I should say when something like the "Kerry's team" bit came up. Thanks to Jonah Goldberg, I was able to reference things like this, wherein Senator Kerry managed to bungle the score of the team he should know best. Although I am a fan of subtlety and nuance ("Knife in the kidney, or silenced pistol to the back of the head? No need to make much of a mess, and so forth...") I'm not entirely sure how one can nuance one's way through getting the wrong score. That is, if you're a dedicated long-time fan. Me, I have an excuse; numbers aren't my strength to begin with.

But not Senator Kerry. Must be too busy working on his plan to declare victory before all the votes are cast. At any rate, the individual on the other end of the conversation wasn't convinced by that and other justifications I trotted out. Gonna have to do some damage control, or something. Maybe if I burn a large "W '04" into the yard with fertilizer, I'll be able to escape suspicion.

2. While on the way home from watching the game, I also heard a Liz Phair song on the radio. It was one of her last singles, "Extraordinary", but nevertheless, it was Liz Phair on the radio, which is not something one hears every day.

She's a babe, eh.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 01:30 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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It appears that I managed to miss my one-year anniversary (technically) of blogging. Way back on 25 October 2003, I shambled into the blogosphere with nary a clue about what I was doing, but a bit of eagerness to get in on this blog thing.

Well, I'm still here, the traffic's still low, and I spent months away from the thing. Enh. In the manner of Eeyore, happy birthday to my blog!

And yes, comments are off until I figure out a way to deal with 800+ comments for some kind of poker and a lot of other worthless stuff that I'd like to send jack-booted thugs to deal with.

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Several things have been happening in the absence, which I assure you was related to various things that were beyond my control yet which required my oversight and participation.

1. Much in the manner of a small Latin American country declaring war on National Socialist Germany in late March of 1945, I actually got around to buying a Boston Red Sox hat. I had to search all over the local mall and its three sporting goods stores to find one; the options usually ranged between gas station-quality hats---no thanks---to fitted players' hats with the usual problems that entails, i.e. cutting the backing out of the front, bending the bill, having a hat that looks brand new and the like. I settled for a 100% cotton one-size-fits-all model with a pre-bent bill and pre-washed appearance, sporting a red 'B' and a small pair of red socks on a tag in the back. Come to think of it, it looks more or less like a hat that I wore throughout law school, but which is now too damaged to wear.

2. This blog is number one on Google for the search terms of "Doris Kearns Goodwin Curt Schilling". I am, of course, happy. I don't know why anyone would pair those two, but it has been done and people are searching for the phrase. On a side note, I went and got the relevant book by Hunter S. Thompson which had her picture in it. If you're following along at home. the book is Fear and Loathing in America: The Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist - The Gonzo Letters, Volume II, 1968-1976. If you're in the trade paperback version, go to ~p. 568 and look at the photos. They're from Thompson's Elko, Nevada, conference in February 1974 of "the best liberal thinkers from the staffs of the 1968 and 1972 presidential campaigns of Robert F. Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy, and George McGovern". HST managed to put Jann Wenner, the head honcho at Rolling Stone, up to the task of funding the thing, with the aim of "[hashing] (no pun intended?) out an issues agenda for America's future, which Straight Arrow would publish in book form and distribute to the nation's decision-makers."

I've forgotten how it went, but it's really irrelevant other than to note that Doris Kearns---no Goodwin yet, apparently---and Samuel L. Berger were in attendance. Anyways, yes, Ms. Kearns wasn't exactly a shining light of beautiful American womanhood then, and certainly isn't now.

3. It is fun to watch baseball, for once. I'll be doing so tonight; that could either go well or not. Too bad I haven't arranged a gig with some friends to watch this. Apparently, no one in the area cares. Might have to wander down to the local sports bar or something. ("We don't serve your kind here!" "Huh?" "Your hat. It'll have to wait outside!")

At any rate, I'm still hoping for a) a World Series victory for the Boston Red Sox and b) a victory in November by President George W. Bush in the manner of a brutal FSU-over-ACC teams in the early 1990s, so that the Democratic strategy of 'proclaim victory and litigate until it is so' won't even have a chance at viability.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 11:51 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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1941: Class J locomotive, #600, departs the N&W's Roanoke Shops establishment. The locomotive, using the 4-8-4 ("Northern") wheel arrangement, was the first of fourteen to be built, from 1941-1950. They would see service in the N&W's passenger service, pulling the railway's Powhatan Arrow, Pocahontas, the N&W-Southern Tennessean, and other passenger trains throughout the then-small N&W system.

The locomotives would serve from 1941 until 24 October, 1959, when #611's last run was made. By this point, the Norfolk and Western's new management. i.e. Stuart T. Saunders, had committed to a program of diesel locomotives, thus obviating the need for steam locomotives. Locomotive #600 had been retired at Lambert's Point on 16 June 1959.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 11:20 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The subject of the post is, perhaps, obvious: The Boston Red Sox have triumphed again over the New York Yankees, thus forcing a seventh game for the American League Championship Series.

At first, this whole Yankees-Red Sox rivalry had the appeal of watching the People's Liberation Army fight the Red Army across the Sino-Soviet border in the 1960s. One hopes for a mutually disastrous outcome to two hated parties. I despised the City of New York for a variety of reasons, and Boston is the home base for, among others, Tip O'Neill and John Kerry.

Then, the Northeasterners at National Review managed to go and infest The Corner with their peculiar brand of Yankee triumphalism, along with a lot of other self-important tripe about how great Steinbrenner's loathsome creation was.¹ At this point, I figured that it was about time to take sides in the great debate, and I chose oddly. Despite my lack of regard for Massachusetts and its politicians---except for Henry Cabot Lodge, of course; Nixon/Lodge '60 for life, yo---I decided that I might as well choose the team that , when the going got tough, didn't just cut another check.

At any rate, I realized that this decision put me in the ranks along with the noted plagarizer, Doris Kearns Goodwin.² Politics sure make for strange bedfellows, as do the politics of a Southerner choosing sides in a cultural divide. Well, if the supporters of Islamist terror groups can march side by side with militant homosexualists against the United States and get away with it, I suppose I can get away with backing the Red Sox. Fast forward through God only knows how much time and a lot of other crap, to the present day.

Keeping score with Shannen Coffin's conservative Red Sox fans, count me as #23. It is always good to see professional sports teams from the vile City of New York be beaten.³ It was even better for the country to see boorish New Yawkers require a police presence on the field simply to keep the fans from costing their team a game. Admittedly, I don't envy being Joe Torre or anyone in the Yankees organization at that point. What do you do, walk out with a bullhorn and tell people to knock it off?

At any rate, thanks for this victory will be included as a line item in the evening/morning prayer, as will a request for continued Red Sox success. I realize that in the great Manichean struggle between good and evil, the Almighty's got better things to do than pay attention to a baseball series, but at the same time, there might be a "baseball desk" staffed by a bored heavenly bureaucrat who could be influenced by a simple and humble request.

Good luck and Godspeed, Boston.

UPDATE: M.T. Owens has weighed in with his view of the situation, thus hopefully rubbing things in the face of the Lopez-Lowry axis.

UPDATE II: It appears that someone in the National Review office is a good sport. Recently posted is a piece from Shannen Coffin about the heroics of Boston pitcher Curt Schilling. Mr. Schilling, a veteran with some fame to his credit, pitched several innings in last night's game with a dislocated tendon in his leg. Ouch! more...

Posted by: Country Pundit at 01:57 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The forces of evil have been thwarted for another day! The Boston Red Sox have triumphed in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series, scoring the winning run in the 14th inning. The series is now 3-2 in favor of the New York Yankees, and the series returns to the City of New York for the remaining 1 or 2 games scheduled.

Some guy named David Ortiz got what appears to have been a base hit, which allowed a fellow named Johnny Damon to score from second base.

Hooray.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 12:49 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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According to a report from CNN, Russian leader Vladimir Putin has endorsed President Bush's re-election. Call me crazy, but I read this story and I didn't get a specific statement by Mr. Putin saying "vote for Bush". Yet, the tagline is, "Putin urges voters to back Bush".

Mr. Putin does, however, say that the recent spate of attacks in Iraq are not so much aimed at the coalition forces there, but rather are aimed at causing political damage to the re-election of President Bush. Interestingly enough, Mr. Putin said that this was understood by "any unbiased observer". Geez. when the Kremlin's doing fairness doctrine and talking about unbiased analysis, you know something's out of whack.

Speaking at the Central Asian Cooperation Organization, Mr. Putin went on to say that, "If [terror groups] succeed in [defeating President Bush] , they will celebrate a victory over America and over the entire anti-terror coalition." He also predicted that such an outcome could theoretically lead to a broader range of terror attacks on new fronts.

However, all isn't sunshine between George and Vlad; Putin also noted that Russian views on Iraq differ from that of the President.

Well, for what it's worth, I don't care that views differ. That is, to my opinion, irrelevant. I'm also unconcerned that the Russians were dealing under the table with Saddam Hussein. Big deal; the more important issue is to keep them more or less on our side. And big deal if Putin decides to bring the hurt in Chechnya in retaliation for Beslan, although I am curious as to how much tougher the Russians could actually be. Isn't there an upward limit to how many troops, how many stricter policies and the like, can be brought forward? Of course I'm not on the ground over there, but when you've got an existing policy of "kill 'em all", I don't know how much more one can ratchet it up.

Meanwhile, I think a brutal Russian effort serves our purposes. Since I am unencumbered by the baggage of wanting to democratize the Middle East or to teach them peace, love, tolerance, and a lot of other rot, I can sit back and think about varied applications of force. This means that there's a place for Russia in my ideal anti-terror policy. What place is that, you ask? The place of "bad---or worse---cop".

However, that's another post for another day.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 11:16 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Land of Hope and Glory time, people! Because God's in His Heaven and all's right with the world, Erin Gray's Colonel Wilma Deering has triumphed in the TexasBestGrok weekly poll.

The final results are posted at the link above; 75 voters chose Colonel Deering for 53%, while 67 voters and 47% chose Princess Ardala. You latter folk line up over here; the NKVD assassins will be by later to deal with you.

The new poll is dealing with the women of Space: 1999. I've seen some of this series, but I'm willing to bet that a lot of people haven't. If you feel like voting, however, I'm recommending the gal who I think hung out with that ersatz Alphan porn star-wannabe, Paul Morrow: Tanya Alexandria. She's in second, as of this writing.

UPDATE: The Space: 1999 poll is closed, and Tanya Alexandria remained in second, finishing behind some nominally Asian gal. Tanya was able to edge out the second-season addition, Catherine Schell's Maya, while also leaving Barbara Bain's Dr. Helena Russell, M.D., in the dust. Hooray.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 10:39 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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P.J. O'Rourke has some remarks on things that Bush should say/have said in the debate of last night. Much thanks to The Weekly Standard for running a piece by P.J.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 04:44 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Friends and neighbors, there comes a time when a man has to take a stand for something, a cause for which all must be sacrificed and nothing short of absolute victory accepted. I'm not talking about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness which is understood to mean the private ownership of property, but the victory of Erin Gray's Colonel Wilma Deering over Pamela Hensley's Princess Ardala.

These two actresses, and their characters, hailed from the late 1970s/early 1980s NBC camp sci-fi program, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. Both had the regrettable duty of playing love interests to the dimwitted Gil Gerard, who hammed his way through the title role. I'd post pictures, but something's afuzz with my FTP access, and I can't do that right now.

Anyways. Wilma's a babe in Lycra, and she's one leg of the Holy Trinity of 1970ish Sci-Fi Television. Just punch that name into Google, and see what you get. She's far better looking than the evil Princess Ardala, and could use your support. Head on over to TexasBestGrok, and look on the left, where you can cast a vote, once per day, for this beautiful gal. See here for the post on the poll. Yours truly has already signalled his support for Wilma.

Enthusiastic waving of the Wisconsin hat to The Llama Butchers, where a campaign for Wilma's victory began and continues. To steal from a bumper sticker I see regularly, vote "W" in '04, whether it be W. the President or Wilma the Colonel.

A prior positive reference to Colonel Deering appeared here.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 11:42 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I shamelessly stole this from Mark Steyn's website. Entitled 'President Gollum', it's sort of a hobbit viewpoint of the election. In a manner of speaking.

Since I don't know how long it might be accessible there, the whole thing's reproduced in the extended entry. more...

Posted by: Country Pundit at 04:29 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I'm not much for baseball, unless it's our local farm club team, which I've been known to go and watch in the summers.They play in a ratty stadium, and they're not too good, but that's not what going to the game's about. Of course, if the Washington Senators arise from the mists of history, I might start caring about the majors again, but until then, this'll have to do.

Meanwhile, I'm subjected to the fanatical devotions of the NRO crowd to the New York Yankees. Rich Lowry, I'm talking to you. Yeah, I'm not big on baseball, but I loathe the Yankees. Why? Is it because they're from the city of New York? Possibly. Is it because they're named Yankees? Very good chance. Or is it because, like the Atlanta Braves or the Dallas Cowboys in the 1990s, you're being told that a team whose home is a single city, is somehow "America's Team"? We have a winner, folks. I really resent being instructed as to who "my" team is.

As a result, the application of Nixonian geopolitical principles to something other than geopolitics leads to a whacked-out result. In this case, I'm in the ranks with Doris Kearns Goodwin and a lot of other noxious liberal types, by liking, for sheer spite on the part of Lowry and others, the Boston Red Sox.

Shannen Coffin, an NRO contributor, is somewhat in the same bucket, although he's an authentic Boston fan. Read his article, the piece that spurred me to write this vituperative jag, by clicking here.

Shannen, another East Coast conservative stands beside you. Even if he has to be told what's going on on the field.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 11:37 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Grumbling about the importance of the debates to "undecided" voters, Cliff May at National Review Online had this to say"

"I don?t think we know squat about the dynamics of opinion formation among that segment of the public that has little interest in politics, AKA undecided voters."

I tend to agree with Mr. May on this, and I think it's probably a weakness of the amateur political blogging community as a whole. Anyone who runs a political blog is probably politically savvy and active to one extent or the other. From The Corner to the newest Blogspot Democrat, I can guarantee you that the authors(s) of the blog probably have a better picture, more or less, of the election than the "undecided voter".

I've been kicking this notion around for a bit, and Mr. May's remarks helped me coalesce my thinking. I'm not sure any of "us", i.e. the pundit-bloggers, are capable of fathoming the undecided. We watch the debates and cheer, clap, laugh, point, shout, and throw things at the screen when Bush & Cheney, or Kerry & Edwards say things. We keep score. We also can't imagine anyone not doing the same.

I can sit back in my old government surplus desk chair and sneer at the undecideds, but when the time comes to figure out their logic, I haven't a clue. Does anyone out there? These people are more alien to my way of thinking than, I would think, an Islamic in Saudi Arabia; we do know to some extent what metrics a devotee of the Koran uses.

Originally contrived at 002648 on 11 October, but delayed in posting due to illness.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 11:13 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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...to loathe Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

It's been a while back, but apparently the driver of the #8 Budweiser Chevrolet Monte Carlo said, "Hey, it'll be a good bonding experience no matter what your political belief. It's a good thing as an American to go [Fahrenheit 9/11]." This information comes from a blogger's re-posting of a letter from the disingenuous filmmaker himself, so I doubt it's admissible under the Federal Rules of Evidence, but hey, nobody said due process applies in giving the shiv to DEI's star driver.

Irate tip of the Wisconsin hat to Moolies.

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Someone sent the Libertarian Party's silly little political quiz across the Blogs for Bush mailing list last night or this morning, and I decided to amuse myself by taking it to see just how non-Libertarian I am. Read on, and enjoy! more...

Posted by: Country Pundit at 02:53 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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TO: K. Rove, Bush-Cheney 2004
FM: The Country Pundit

RE: Presidential Slogans

Sir:

I have not been paying attention to the President's campaign speeches, as my requests to be named 'Railroad Czar' by the President in the second term went unacknowledged, as did my requests that the Federal government formally apologize for the passage of the Interstate Highway Act, all post-WWII aviation subsidies, and for otherwise failing to fully fund Amtrak.

Nonetheless, I have observed snippets of the President's speeches on cable television. One newly-introduced phrase has brought itself to my notice, but in an unfavorable way. I saw, while otherwise ogling CNN's Rudi Bakhtiar, the President make a speech in which he twice claimed re: Senator Kerry that, "He can run, but he can't hide."

This was done twice by the President in short succession, and I can only say this: Every time the President does this, somewhere a kitten dies. Baby Jesus cries when this phrase is invoked. Needless to say, there's been a river flowing.

Please advise the President to discontinue the use of this trite and annoying phrase post-haste, or else the great tide of victory that Republicans are hoping for will be dashed upon the rocks of smarmy phraseology and bad slogans.

Sincerely,
The Country Pundit

P.S. Where's my mansion on the Main Line, you bum?

Posted by: Country Pundit at 03:42 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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