First the annoying Gavin Newsom and his followers, and now this.

I've got nothing to say other than, "Rick Santorum was right." There are days when the country's civilization just can't win.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 02:22 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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In a prior post, I mentioned that I'd found Marni Soupcoff again. I dismissed The Iconoclast in the manner of Neville Chamberlain and Czechoslovakia, and so history repeats itself. Chamberlain was cast into war, and I get to eat some crow. The Iconoclast is a joint production of the father-daughter duo of Murray and Marni Soupcoff.

As Jeff Greenfield once said, "Oh waiter! One order of crow."

Ms. Soupcoff's columns for Tech Central Station are archived here.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 02:13 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Jen Martinez points the way to an analysis of Arabist/Islamist warfighting doctrine /theory appearing in the Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute's March 2003 issue.

The article, entitled "The New Arab Way of War" is authored by Captain Peter Layton, of the Royal Australian Air Force. The piece is short, and brutal in several ways. On the other hand, it draws upon history and recent Western (particularly NATO) experience to suggest a way forward. more...

Posted by: Country Pundit at 11:30 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I've been kicking around the idea of signing up with Technorati, but I'm somewhat hesitant to do so. What I don't see is the tremendous value of signing up; from what I can tell, I get some sort of faster indexing, and I'm not sure that it's all that important.

As you can see, I'm quite in the dark on this one, and would appreciate some clarification, please.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 10:53 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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According to the little day-by-day calender in my carrel, today is the birthday for Mr. George Takei.

George Takei, when not appearing as a South Vietnamese officer or North Vietnam's Le Duc Tho (nearly 30 years apart), also had a role in Star Trek, as Hikaru Sulu. Mr. Sulu started as a science type in his earliest appearances and then moved to Enterprise's helm for the next twenty years. Sulu finished his broadcast & motion picture run as commander of NCC 2000, USS Excelsior in 1991's Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

Takei also took a dip into politics, with an unsuccessful run for Los Angeles City Council in 1973. For more on this guy, who's been working hard since 1956, see his official biography.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 07:34 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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1 I've met him a couple times, and heard him sing "Waltzing Matilda". He's a nice guy

Posted by: Ith at April 20, 2004 07:48 PM (Q8zt1)

2 Heh! I'm glad to hear he's a nice guy. I'd be amused at hearing an American of Japanese extraction sing the national anthem (de facto if not de jure) of Australia. Talk about your culture clash! I'd hoped (vaguely; never got involved with anything) that he'd get to anchor the next Star Trek series before "Enterprise" was announced, as captain of Excelsior. Alas, no such luck.

Posted by: The Country Pundit at April 20, 2004 07:59 PM (QUo4+)

3 I'd hoped the same thing.

Posted by: Ith at April 20, 2004 09:00 PM (Q8zt1)

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We have heard much recently about the need for Bush to seek a closer link between the United States' overseas operations and the United Nations.

The United Nations, in its wisdom and benevolence, has taken the first step towards making this closer relationship a reality. Also, it has agreed with Bush that the time is right for a global war on a problem that threatens all countries around the world. Finally, the two parties have been reconciled.

For more details on this significant breakthrough in internationalist affairs, click that little link that says "Continue reading"... more...

Posted by: Country Pundit at 02:19 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Well, now this is amazing. I was on a downward spiral from my "Flappy Bird" status of late last week, but a quick check of the Ecosystem shows that I'm actually up to #1503, classified as an Adorable Little Rodent.

This is really cool. However, it wouldn't be possible without each and every blogger who's been kind enough to link to me. I appreciate your courtesy.

I don't use BlogRolling, so each and every link you see here has been manually added by me. That means if you've got a blog that manually links to me, and you don't see yourself on my blogroll, let me know.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 11:33 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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1 Go you!! I'm actually devolving since my URL changed. With the auto redirect, a lot of people just don't change their link [pout]. Oh well. I used to handcode my blogroll too, then I just couldn't keep up with it anymore so I switched to blogrolling.

Posted by: Ith at April 20, 2004 07:50 PM (Q8zt1)

2 I'm wondering when _that_ will start collapsing, actually. Did you change your blog details at the Ecosystem site? That _might_ help. Can you fix anything at blogrolling.com in order to work with that? Much of this blogging thing is alien to me. I just _write_.

Posted by: The Country Pundit at April 20, 2004 11:26 PM (QUo4+)

3 I did change my info, but all it looks at, from what I can tell, is an actual link to a specific URL. So for me, it's almost like starting out fresh. But my traffic is up, so I'm not complaining really

Posted by: Ith at April 21, 2004 04:45 PM (Q8zt1)

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Comrade Commissar, fresh from the Lubyanka where he's been ignoring corruption in the local soviets, has set his Dragunov's sights on the United Nations food for oil program in Iraq, and the resultant growing scandal(s) surrounding the administration thereof. The abuse of this program is an odious thing, and may go to explain why certain individuals and governments were less than enthusiastic about overthrowing the Baathist regime.

Correspondingly, please visit Friends of Saddam for further information on the despicable circumstances coming to light. I don't hate the UN as an idea, but I'm certainly disgusted with the goings on at this point.

UPDATE: I want to make clear that Friends of Saddam is not a tongue-in-cheek enterprise on the order of The Politburo Diktat. It is a straight news blog, and will serve as a resource for information on the issue.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 11:09 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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1 TCP, Thanks for the kind words. Very funny, wise guy. 'Friends of Saddam' will be straight reporting. "Just the facts, Ma'am." Any interest?

Posted by: The Commissar at April 20, 2004 11:34 AM (VpkLq)

2 Hey, glad to be of assistance. You've been a great help in creating traffic, and I appreciate your efforts. I may not have gotten the 'Joe Friday' focus of the new blog across in my posting, so I'll append that shortly. I appreciate the request, and I may take you up on it eventually. The problem is that I've got to slog through exams and preparation for the bar in the near future, so I'll probably be stretched for time just keeping this blog current. That's my stance at this point, and may change in the future. The basic problem is that I don't know a whole lot about the thing, and would have to dive deeply into lots of fact-intensive things to post intelligently.

Posted by: The Country Pundit at April 20, 2004 11:49 AM (QUo4+)

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Suppose I were to tell you the following story:

A black couple and a white couple, both from out of State, were traveling together in the State of Alabama. They decided to stop at a motel somewhere inside the Yellowhammer State, and asked for two rooms. The manager of the hotel comes by later, saying, "We don't want you [the black couple] here."

The black couple protested, but the manger stood firm, citing a policy of not allowing blacks to stay on the property. The manager said that he had to appeal to the majority and the majority wouldn't want blacks to stay at the hotel. The manager decides to let the blacks stay one night, but had to leave the next morning and would not be compensated for the inconvenience.

Off the top of my head, that's a Federal civil rights case. The motel, in doing business with out-of-State customers, is a participant in interstate commerce. The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled previously that since there is an action in interstate commerce, Federal laws will apply and trump any State interest. Under the previously-settled jurisprudence, the motel cannot prevent the black couple from staying there.

Remember: Although the State may have a law which allows a business to discriminate in terms of who it serves, if the business trafficks in interstate commerce, Federal pre-emption overrides the State statute. After all, we won't stand for discrimination of any kind, right? Well, there's a bit more to it than that. more...

Posted by: Country Pundit at 05:21 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Via Ipse Dixit comes this new meme:

1. Grab the nearest book.

2. Open the book to page 23.

3. Find the fifth sentence.

4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

The nearest book is New York Central Railroad by Brian Solomon with Mike Schafer in the "Railroad Color History" series. The fifth sentence of page 23 is, "Vanderbilt had the sense and resources to improve his property, which clearly set him apart from many of his contemporaries in the financial world."

In keeping with Dodd Harris' example, the context is a discussion of the effects of Cornelius ("The Commodore") Vanderbilt's creation and control of several New York State railroads under the banner of the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad. This particular 'road was created in 1869 by Vanderbilt's merger of the New York Central Railroad and the Hudson River Railroad, along with the lease of the New York & Harlem to the NYC&HRR.

Tip of the Wisconsin hat to Ipse Dixit, who got it from Long Story, Short Pier.

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Here's a joke that was reportedly going 'round in late 1980 and early 1981:

"What's flat as a pancake and glows in the dark? Iran after Reagan becomes president."

Yes, nuclear annhilation of an entire country is A Bad Thing and shouldn't be done, but it can be laughed about, especially when President Reagan is concerned. After all, anyone who makes that supposed gaffe of "Bombing begins in five minutes" can't be all bad. This'll be your most recent dose---meeting FDA requirements, mind you---of black and/or gallows humor.

Tip of the Wisconsin hat to Ed Moltzen at Late Final.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 10:13 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Well, these aren't results---yet---but I figured I'd pass the URL along for starters:

Four-Axis Political Test

Referred to me via e-mail. I'm off to take it now, and results will be reported in this space.

UPDATE: After taking 179-odd questions, here's my four-axis score:
Conservative: 148
Liberal: 7
Libertarian: 8
Communist: 16

It looks like I've been hanging around The Politburo Diktat a bit too much. Heh heh heh.

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One of the more interesting things to do during the period of open hostilities with the Baathist regimes was to watch TV news for updates. Me, I found Fox News useful for one thing alone, namely Jennifer Eccleston.

Sure enough, I'd use Fox's Web-based correspondent archive to catch up on what the gal entitled "Miss Shock and Awe" or "The Desert Fox" (with apologies to Rommel) had to say. Silly? Probably. Amusing? You betcha. A solid use of bandwidth that otherwise would have been taken by undergrads downloading MP3s from a then-functional peer-to-peer network.

Anyways. With the fall of the Saddam Hussein statue, I once again ignored television news and gradually forgot about the gal I once referred to as "Jenny Ec". An off-hand search through Google today led me back to the largest Eccleston fansite that I know of, jennifer-eccleston.com.

There, it's revealed that Eccleston is now working for the NBC News group, and she's still overseas. I don't know when she left FNC, but she's been with NBC News since some time in late March, it would appear. If NBC's websites weren't tied up in the horrific mess that constitutes msn.com, I'd go around and dig up the official page, if any, for her. The last known report filed by my favorite foreign correspondent was on 11 April 2004 from the Vatican, in the nine o'clock hour on NBC's Today program.

Hooray for her employment.

Today's blogging has been weak due to the fact that I've been tied up with academic responsibilities, which even I can't get around to shirking. In related news, I'm slipping back in the Ecosystem rankings. Bother!

Posted by: Country Pundit at 08:54 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Back in the earlier part of the century, I was occasionally fond of reading the work of one Marni Soupcoff, who got published in the Web-based magazine of the American Enterprise Institute. Fast forwarding to the present day, I remembered her after browsing some Canadian blog that I'd run across.

After an "Oh yeah, her" sequence, I hopped over to the AEI's website and found nothing, no mention or anything. I hit Google, and found that she was published on Iconoclast, some website of which I know little and will probably learn less. Somehow---no thanks to Google---I managed to find Marni's public site, and I am happy for it. Yes, I'm easily amused. At 0200 hours when you're hunting an author's website, little things grow in importance.

marnisoupcoff.com is the site, and although it's difficult to navigate at times, I thought I'd pass it along.

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On the issue of the death of the now-former leader of the Palestinian terror group Hamas, The Country Pundit has this to say:

"I note without sorrow the death of Abdelaziz Rantisi. I imagine that he is now explaining his misdeeds to Allah."

The preceding quotes were inspired by Tom Clancy's writings, specifically Executive Orders and The Sum of All Fears.

I am, as are others in the blogosphere, amused by the reports of Palestinians swarming into the streets and swearing vengeance while firing Kalashnikovs into the air. (Come to think of it, I'd like to do that some time.) Nota bene: If you (i.e. the Palestinians) persist in supporting leaders who speak of war and authorize asymmetric warfare against a nation with a standing defense establishment, then you run the risk of there being a military response. Had the Israelis zapped a Palestinian Gandhi, then I would not be so cavalier in dismissing the cries for revenge. However, they killed a man who advocated death to Israel and who was at the helm of an organization which regularly put advocacy into practice. Borrowing from what Valentin Zhukovsky said in Goldeneye, "He was a ruthless man. He got what he deserved."

Getting what he deserved seems to be Israeli policy at this point, according to the Washington Post:

"We are preventing terrorist attacks, and part of the prevention is to go after terrorists like Rantisi," said Gideon Meir, deputy director general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry. "Anyone who will replace him and will continue this business of terrorism against Israel is a legitimate target."

I approve of the Israeli policy, for what it's worth. This is what you call a protective reaction strike, and better for Rantisi to die than for innocent Jews and brainwashed Palestinians to be killed as result of Rantisi's odious leadership.

On the day Rantisi took over as the Gaza leader of Hamas, he told thousands of supporters at the city soccer stadium that his organization would strike Israel wherever possible.

"We will chase them everywhere," he told the crowd. "We will teach them lessons in confrontation."

It would appear that the Israelis have learned, Mr. Rantisi.

Tip of the Wisconsin hat to The Politburo Diktat.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 11:56 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I've been thinking the last week or so that we need to just flat out kill Moqtada al-Sadr and quit wasting time. What I didn't figure out, however, was how to get around the consequences of that, i.e. a period of increased violence and the likely creation of yet another "martyr of Islam".

My bright idea was to endorse letting the guy off the hook for the time being. He would get to save some face by backing off from his current uprising and show humility to this Sistani fellow, followed by an "isn't-that-awful" car accident or something a few months later that just happens to claim his life. Darn. Funny how that happens, ain't it?

Anyways, I found a better solution that brings an evil Calvin grin:

You can't give al-Sadr his own zone (for obvious reasons), but you can promise it to Sadr's successor. Some greedy underling will betray him in a short period of time, or Sadr will be too busy watching his back to lead any kind of rebellion.

All we need to do is have Bremer or the CPA spokesman make some casual remark that while we have nothing to say to al-Sadr, we are interested in discussions with the man who succeeds him. This can be done shortly, because we've put a whipping on al-Sadr, enough for him to say 'no mas' to some extent. If luck holds, he's got some disgusted subordinates who want to take his place, some of whom might be able to try. This works on the "colonels shoot the generals" notion that Tom Clancy used in Executive Orders and the like, so it's at least plausible in this instance.

I don't know if this would work, but I'm really fond of it. It's a pleasant way to get al-Sadr's attention in a way that turns him inward, and which basically amounts to tossing a bundle of dynamite over the fence into a hostile neighbor's back yard, with a detonator that will go off, if at all, when it feels like it. And best of all, we could repeat the thing if necessary, assuming we honor the initial promise, which I don't categorically suggest.

The obvious problem is replacing the devil we know with the devil we don't, and I'm not entirely convinced that such a course of action is called for here. Had al-Sadr gotten more backing from non-subordinate forces, then maybe we could consider him skilled and crafty, in need of the bundle of dynamite. As it is, he's not the greatest operator in the world, and apparently couldn't talk anyone else into helping him. It may be better to have the bumbler you know. Still, it'd be funny if nothing else.

Heh heh heh.

This is part of a message board for the blog of a guy named TMLutas, who I found through den Beste.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 09:03 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Those hard-working chaps at the Politburo Diktat have come up with a new product for the weekend, part of the continuing Communist plot to dominate the blogosphere. (As an aside, are there any Communist blogs? I've been absent the daily infusion of Marxist humor-posing-as-political-thought for the last several years.)

Comes now the War Bloggers' Yellow Pages, from uh, Soverizon. Or something.

Due to the Commissar's good graces, this blog has been included in the listings as one of the "Thinkers", and with some pretty lofty company:

Andrew Sullivan

Belmont Club

BuzzMachine

Captain's Quarters

Daniel Drezner

HobbsOnline

Hugh Hewitt

Insults Unpunished

Michael J. Totten

The Country Pundit

USS Clueless

You Big Mouth, You!

To be honest, I'm humbled and flattered. Much thanks to Comrade Commissar.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 06:42 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Does anyone know anything good about the 1996 Julia Roberts vehicle Mary Reilly? It got recommended to me by Amazon the other night, and I'm debating as to whether I ought to go and look for the thing.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 04:13 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Recently, Jonah Goldberg or someone at the The Corner wrote a post noting that Canadians were starting to flock to the political blogosphere. Since I've got more than a passing interest in the Dominion, can anyone point me in the direction of some Canadian Alliance-influenced blogs?

Yes, I know Harper united the right, but I was distinctly uncomfortable with the whole "Progressive Conservative" platform, and so I'd rather read some stuff from one of the two chunks of Canada that I'd like to have in the United States. Hee hee.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 02:08 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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We are told in today's entry to pick one from the past and go for it. Thus, the first Friday Five:

1. Where were you born (city or state or just country)?

American by fate, Southern by birth, and Virginian by the grace of God.

2. What is your favorite number?

Uh, 42?

3. Vanilla or chocolate?

Vanilla.

4. What section of a bookstore would I find you in?

The transportation or history section, trying to decide what to buy.

5. What kind of mattress do you have on your bed? soft? firm? water?

Er, a softish firm one that's just right. The only problem with is that Nicole Kidman's not there right now. Ha! I kill me. Meanwhile, the adventures of Gordon Shumway continue...

Posted by: Country Pundit at 01:26 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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