February 10, 2006

There is no God but Lambeau and Lombardi is his Prophet

Another series of cartoon riots have erupted. This time, it's regional:

Follow the story here.

Tip of the Wisconsin hat to the Superintendent.

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Oh Say Can You See...

...a hat with the logo of the New York Yankees?

Rich Lowry suggests that this might change the so-called "cartoon riots" from "threat to our civilization" to the "natural exuberance of Yankee fans."

Perhaps they're burning that particular banner as a Bronx tribute to the arrival of Judas Johnny Damon, I'm not sure that---wait, what am I saying? These guys are making the Yankees look bad. Hey you, on the right, get closer to the camera. Yeah, take out that American flag the nice secret police officer gave you earlier. Make sure that the interlocking 'NY' is visible right when you light the next flag, OK? America's team, indeed.

I'd suggest it as the typical boorishness and nekulturniy behavior associated with the City of New York and the fans of one of its baseball clubs. (What's that about Bernie Williams and a Boston fan last season? Can't hear you.)

Yes, this is a cheap shot against the Yankees, but hey, what're blogs for if not for cheap shots? And no, I'm still not fully recovered from one of these nasty little 48-72 hour bugs, so my response to Grim and the Webb backers is still pending.

UPDATE: And yes, Lowry's post has been noticed over at Soxaholix. Bravo, h.b.

---

Or, an alternative perspective:

Official 2005 Red Sox Nation membership card: $5
Unloading Johnny Damon to the Yankees: ~$52M over four years
The NYY logo displayed by Islamic extremists: Priceless

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February 09, 2006

Eh, Four Years Behind Ain't Bad

I don't know how I missed this one, but it appears that U.S. Cellular uses Joan Cusack in their television commercials. Apparently, they've been a national campaign since some time in 2003, but darned if I've ever seen one.

The one I saw was mocking the Verizon Wireless "Can you hear me now?" guy, and sort of effectively. It was far more amusing than most of the Super Bowl commercials.

Go figure.

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February 08, 2006

Curtailment of Service

Your correspondent is under the weather and posting will suspended until such time---hopefully tomorrow morning---as he recovers.

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With Regards to Rogers Pass

I've noticed that people come here from time to time with regards to Maple Leaf Tracks' Rogers Pass.

Sooner or later, I'll get around to owning this route and providing some insight, along with some screenshots perhaps, of it. In the meantime, sate your curiosity with this, the documentation kit for the route.

If you don't need any further advice, click here to buy the route by download or CD through the Canadian postal service.

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George Allen, Meet James Webb

The field of Democrat(s) hoping to challenge the Commonwealth's junior Federal senator has expanded by one with the entry of James Webb into the race.

Formerly a Republican, Mr. Webb has a history of interaction with the Commonwealth's politics. In 1994, he endorsed Senator Charles S. Robb over challenger Oliver L. North. At that time, Mr. Webb called Mr. North a "chronic liar". In 2000, Mr. Webb endorsed former Governor George F. Allen, Jr., to replace Senator Robb. Mr. Webb's endorsement of Mr. Allen came because he believed Mr. Allen was superior to Mr. Robb on questions of national security.

Mr. Webb, a Marine who was decorated for his service in the Vietnam war, ultimately served as Secretary of the Navy under President Ronald Reagan. His term would end in 1987 with his resignation due to conflicts with Secretary of Defense Frank C. Carlucci.

He will face (at the moment) Harris Miller, former head of the lobbying group Information Technology Association of America.

---

I have read some of Mr. Webb's opinion pieces in this century, and although I do not necessarily agree with them all, I've never considered it wasted time. Of course, one wishes him the best, but that is not going to be enough. I believe that he will be eventually overcome by a two-pronged problem.

PROBLEM NO. 1: Mr. Webb has been a Republican, has served President Reagan, and is a military man.

Whatever regular readers I have will probably ask, "What's wrong with any of those?" My answer is a firm nothing, but myself and my regular readers are not the ones who vote in Democrat primaries. Many Democrat primary voters have cars with those stupid FCNL "War is not the answer" bumper stickers, or some variation on the "Bake sale to buy a bomber" theme. Moreover, this subset of voters considers a soldier to be morally suspect; that this one served with distinction in Vietnam and then served Emperor Palpatine Ronald Reagan would only enrage them further.

The Howard Dean types---corrosive to the Republic, I believe---will probably treat this man with derision and scorn. They are very insular and punish deviations from their orthodoxy harshly, unless you're Paul Hackett. Mr. Webb has already commented that he does not "[wear] a bridle well." I do not see him wearing the bridle of "Bush lied!" and "Chimpy McHitler" well. This will be problematic for him.

PROBLEM NO. 2: Mr. Webb is a complicated man.

Democrat primary voters, especially those in the foul warrens of Northern Virginia, are probably apt to being swayed by the simplistic Howard Dean-style message of "BUSH LIED! BUSHITLER EATS CHILDREN FOR BREAKFAST! YEEEEARGH!" After all, Northern Democrats were reportely the reason that Leslie Byrne won the Democratic nomination for Lieutenant Governor. Despite their press, these types don't do "nuance".

In contrast, James Webb seems to exist on nuance, along with the fact that he's not one of the appeaseniki who protest any and all military actions undertaken by the United States of America. There is a great gulf between "BUSH LIED!" and "My warning before we went in was basically that it was a strategic mousetrap on three different levels."1 I do not believe that the Democrat primary voters will be able or capable of bridging that gulf.


I am of course for the re-election of Senator Allen, and for his raising to the highest office in the land on 20th January 2009. I am also for Mr. Webb, in an abstract way, against this Miller fellow. I would prefer that the Commonwealth be led by decorated warriors instead of Internet geeks.

It is a shame that Mr. Webb is not a Republican; I would otherwise eagerly vote for him. Nevertheless, I will be watching Mr. Webb as I have in the past.

---

1 See here for full citation.

Tip of the Wisconsin hat to Kate O'Beirne.

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February 07, 2006

Yee Haw

'Rock the Vote' is in trouble, and I couldn't be happier.

Comes now this report from Gary of Ex-Donkey, quoting the Los Angeles Times. (Italicization and link omitted for snide reasons.) Among the salient points of problem:

-Spending has outstripped earnings to the tune of $700,000.
-Two serious suits (from a fundraising organization and the County of Los Angeles) have been filed inside of a year.
-Executive turmoil.
-Conflicting goals and culture between Rock the Vote and the music industry.

We are not supposed to laugh at the misfortunes of our enemies, but how can you not? This pretentiously arrogant group purporting to speak for all "youth" voters---bah, they're unreliable and emotional---lashed itself to the mast of the Democrat Party years ago and haven't ever seen fit to change. The curmudgeonly side of me grumbles, "Stupid kids come straight to the organization believing that they can change the whole world by running a couple of ads and having some idiot 'artist' tell me to 'Vote or Die'? Rubbish." I do not believe them to be good for the country, and I will 'note without sorrow' their passing, as Tom Clancy put it.

Hopefully, this is 'good riddance'. Not that I am particularly influenced by MTV; the last time I ever gave it a look was during the heyday of Aeon Flux and Beavis and Butt-head, which is getting to be a while back. Before and after that, Viacom's precious jewel has been completely irrelevant to my personal experience. Having said that, it is pleasant to wipe the smirk off their sneering faces.

I just wish it had happened in time for Tabitha Soren to get her comeuppance. Where have you gone, Serena Altschul?

Tip of the Wisconsin hat to Llama Butchers.

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McCain Calls Obama Out

The whole "reform" process bores me to distraction; for whatever reason, it's just not pinging high on the scale of personal interest.

With that being said, here's an amusing story from the folks at The Hotline:

It appears that Senator John S. McCain, III, has had a falling out with Senator Barack Obama over the question of preferred ethics reform methods. Apparently, Senator McCain believes that Senator Obama has told him a fib.

I don't know the truth of it, but I know that I don't like Obama---oleaginous Obama, perhaps---and that it will be amusing to see how this pans out. See here for the full text of a letter released by Senator McCain's office yesterday. With the sarcasm and snide remarks so prevalent, I really wish I'd been a fly on the wall for all the relevant conversation.

You've got to love Johnny Mack when his blood is up.

---

UPDATE: Reading through the comments on the Hotline post, I noticed the following from a chap named Wiley:

Can anyone imagine such a snide, sarcastic person being president? I'm a Republican, but I'd pull out the proverbial threat to move to Canada if McCain ever had a serious chance of winning. What a spoiled brat!

I wonder what it means when two people use the same adjectives in describing a guy, but have completely different underlying intents? I was cheering the Arizona senator, for I relish watching someone verbally take Obama to the woodshed. He seems like a lot of New Frontier rhetoric and no underlying action, which wouldn't surprise me. Meanwhile, Wiley doesn't like that, and I don't know why. Senator McCain's takedown of Senator Obama was highly amusing and worth a laugh early in the morning.

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Grim Gets Me Uneasy

I'll be honest: Grim Beorn is one of the bloggers who can raise the hairs on the back of my neck. His piece on heroic epic warfighting was the first thing I'd seen of his, and it was a doozy.

With that in mind, comes now his latest piece, Knights of the White Cross. It concerns the issue of Denmark and the recent efforts against it in the Arab-Islamic world. There are those amongst the blogging community who have taken up the banner of Denmark due to the publication of cartoon images deemed blasphemous (or something) by Islamic peoples. Grim himself describes it as a "cause I am bound by my heart to support".1

That isn't all that Grim says, though, and it's here that the first hairs stand up, the lips draw tightly, and I sort of look away from the screen:

It won't be forever before the wrathful of the Muslim world notice this. Fate has brought us to where we thought we would not go: we now openly ride under a Crusader's flag.

This is an unpleasant realization. I can cavalierly quip about how this ought to be considered the sequel to "La Reconquista" and so forth, but that's all it is, cavalier quips. Not quite whistling past the graveyard, but not a serious response. I would, in fact, prefer that the billion plus Islamics not think we're on the Next Crusade, because that would play into the propaganda paradigm that I've heard about, where the (Christian) West looks with ravenous eyes upon the holy lands of Islam, or something like that. Such could, theoretically, energize new legions of devotees willing to give their lives in latter-day kamikaze attacks.

Grim also asks if perhaps Deus vult? I don't know how to answer that. Part of me says "I hope not"; what another part of me says is uncertain. He is comfortable to characterize the current struggle in a manner which I am distinctly not. For my part, I am most at ease seeing this struggle through the lens of a cold-eyed exercise in state power and simple theory. "You wish us dead and have taken actions towards that end. Witness the reaction, the response of the most powerful nation on the planet." Nothing more, nothing less.

Grim continues:

I suggest you all prepare for what Fate has brought us. We remain free to choose what we will do with the legacy that this flag will bind to our cause. If we are to be Crusaders, let us take the Cross in righteousness.

It's things like this that make me want to listen for the Hans Zimmer score playing in the background. You know, "Patres!" "Maximus!" "Three weeks from now, I will be harvesting my crops..." The problem is that if I buy into his theory that this is a fated circumstance, my response is not righteousness. Rather, it is ruthlessness, moderated only by the notions of some day being required to explain myself to God and an ends-oriented analysis that asks, "Does this serve our interests in victory, or not?"

Perhaps it is because I am most decidedly not a warrior, either in the figurative or literal sense. Perhaps Grim speaks a language I do not understand, and it would not surprise me if he did. He speaks of a peace between warriors, that of Richard and Saladin. I think of an irreversible, unquestionable victory for the United States and their allies. At some level, my viewpoint may be influenced by what Walter Russell Mead calls the Jacksonian tradition.

Further analysis and reflection largely fail me at this point, because I'm remarkably incapable of putting further words to electrons on this subject. Suffice it to say that I decidedly don't like the idea of taking up the Crusaders' flag. Something seems wrong with it, and I can't articulate why. I definitely am not some weak post-modern cosmopolitan secularist afraid of making value judgments, so it isn't that, but I wonder what it is. Reader response is, as always, welcome.

ADDENDUM: I think I may have thought of a preliminary reason why I am uncomfortable with taking up the flag of the Crusaders. It is simple, and perhaps even at odds with my prior statement of endorsing ruthlessness. I am reminded of the awful things that were done by "our" people---the sacking of Constantinople and the massacre in Jerusalem---and would prefer not to be associated with that. We have enough baggage of our own without having to deal with the historical excesses of eight hundred years ago.

---
1 My own preliminary thoughts---not yet a position---on this is fuzzy with competing objectives and interests; suffice it to say that I have not yet endorsed the action taken by the Danish newspaper.

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February 06, 2006

Deep, Man

In case you were like me and had gone MEGO during various points in last night's telecast, you probably only vaguely remember the Burger King ad. I wasn't particularly viable--but not persistently vegetative---at that point, and so most of it reflected on my glasses and went no further.

I remember the girls stacking up, thinking that this could be construed very filthily, snickering at mayonnaise, and I recall someone oohing over Brooke Burke. Oh, and the King off to the side. www.whopperettes.com (Take that, Diet Pepsi ads and Jay Bore Mohr.)

Anyways, if you want a much deeper analysis of the BK ad, visit Soxaholix.

Doug and Mike break down the deep meaning of the commercial utilizing Doug's years of Catholic school education and ultimately come to a strange conclusion regarding the holiness of the Whoppah.

On the other hand, I've noticed something: Strangely absent from any discussion is that terrifying Harrison Ford/Dr. Seuss collaboration. How far has Han Solo fallen when he appears, replete with beard and earring, to pitch...something as if he were an infomercial veteran? Oh, the places you'll go and the depths to which you've sunk.

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My Eyes! My Eyes!

I went to the Llama Butchers and what did I see?

A meaty, wooly, and snippy Don Johnson & Philip Michael Thomas staring back at me. To wit, in period clothing and with era-appropriate livery. Actual quote: "I wonder if they've posted...oh my."

All this is in honor of the big four-oh for Steve-o, so happy birthday, many happy returns, may the cockatiel perched on your arm not peck you or otherwise defecate on your teal suit, etc., etc. I suppose now would be a good time to break out the Jan Hammer, wouldn't it?

phin tries to comfort Steve-o by suggesting that some day the 'lenin' suit might be back in. I figure it's one of those Freudian slips; those llamas have always seemed rather totalitarian. What with their drive to dominate Google by means of Mme. Theuriau and renting Roto-Tillers in San Antonio.

P.S. Some day I need to talk someone into helping me implement this theme-switching stuff; I had a couple on paper a while back that might've looked rather good.

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February 05, 2006

Announcement of Service

I have an article coming in response to this. It will be finished and posted after a certain sporting event occurring tonight.

Inasmuch as I am loyal to the Pennsylvania Railroad and its domain--which includes Virginia and a one-third stake in the Norfolk and Western---I am honor bound to support the Pittsburgh Steelers. Despite the fact that the Milwaukee Road, the Northern Pacific Railway, and the Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway all served Seattle, and despite it once being the headquarters for Boeing, this is East side versus West side, and I'm firmly in the Eastern establishment.

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February 04, 2006

Twenty Millimeter Sparrows

The Confederate Yankee, in the words of Jonah Goldberg, "debunks" some story about a plan to sucker Saddam Hussein into (ostensibly) an overtly aggressive act towards, variously, the UN, 1991 Gulf War coalition states, or someone. This would then, I suppose, be used to supply a casus belli.

According to British author Phillipe Sands, President G.W. Bush had told British Prime Minister Blair that the United States were prepared to fly a U-2S reconnaisance aircraft in UN colors to attract surface-to-air missile fire. Apparently, firing on a UN-flagged aircraft would constitute a breach of UN resolutions and thus supply a reason to launch the invasion of Iraq. Mr. Sands' account is based upon a memorandum he claims to have been shown.

My first response is to say that we are prepared to do a great many things. Whether we do them or not is something else. From what I hear, the Second Reich of Kaiser Wilhelm II had plans for the amphibious invasion of the United States of America, using somewhere around the City of New York as their beachhead. That doesn't necessarily prove that the Kaiser's people were nefarious and or evil neo-conservatives planning to rule the world.

Anyways, the Confederate Yankee responds, adamantly saying that:

One problem with that theory: U2 high altitude surveillance aircraft typically operate near their operational ceiling of 70,000 feet, or more than 13 miles in the air. The aircraft simply cannot be seen from the ground, regardless of what paint scheme it manifests, whether it is United Nations blue, or pink with green stripes. The very concept is preposterous.

Er, actually, no. It's not preposterous at all, thank you. People regularly observe satellites and the Enterprise-class space shuttles in orbit, and the orbiters are dimensionally smaller than the U-2S. Granted, they're looking for points of light, but the fact remains that they can be seen.

Seeing a U-2S with a good pair of binoculars probably isn't inconceivable if you know where to look. A good air search radar would help in that regards. I imagine that it'd go something like this: "Abdul, train your binoculars to 270 and look up. Waaaay up." Anyways, seeing the thing is irrelevant.

I also believe that he misses the point of "UN colors". What would UN colors for an American aerial surveillance platform be? Probably a UN flag slapped on the tail, a magnet like we see decorating the flanks of many personal automobiles here in America. Where once we had a USAF U-2S strategic reconnaisance platform, we now have a United Nations peace-monitoring platform. I'd also throw in some stencils of "U.N." and that globe-in-a-wreath logo of theirs. Make it right conspicuous, I would.

The Confederate Yankee focuses upon the idea of the aircraft being actually painted a different color. I don't know a whole lot about the U-2S program, but I'm willing to bet that the black paint the things are in is some sort of radar-absorbent material, a compound concoction that isn't black just for the aesthetic value.

Therefore, I believe that his focus upon the actual paint scheme of the aircraft is incorrect.

Secondly, if this was some sort of sly attempt to create a pretext for war, the objective isn't for the Iraqis to see the thing from the ground and decide that "Yeah, it's got a UN livery, so blow it to pieces". To be honest, I doubt the Iraqis would be that stupid. The point of the effort would be to do one of two things, assuming a missile engagement:

1. If the aircraft is lost, make certain that cameramen get lots of footage of the wreckage. Special attention to the aforementioned UN decal and stencils, understand? Linger on them, yeah. Even better if they're slightly charred. Get some kids to hold up wreckage and dance with it.

2. If the aircraft returns to base, sequester the pilot and allow some access by journalists to the aircraft, especially after you remove any sensor packages that you don't want seen by Aviation Week & Space Technology or the Red Chinese. Make sure all pictures are posed to include the UN lettering and any damage done to the aircraft. Have people on hand to talk about that, too.

Either way, announce to the world that Saddam Hussein has flagrantly broken the cease-fire agreement or other subsequent UN resolutions, and then go in. "Lookie here what you've done shot at", in other words. Is this really complicated? I wouldn't think so.

The Yankee also goes to some effort in detailing the engagements between coalition (ostensibly USAF/USMC/USN, RAF, and perhaps the French Armée de l'Air) and Iraqi air defense sites. He notes the following:

Blair and Bush did not have to manufacture these kinds of incidents to justify a war when Saddam was already breaching the ceasefire on his own.

Was he now? The Iraqis had been firing at coalition aircraft from time to time for quite some time, and nothing had been really done about it. If a SAM site firing off a round or two every so often at our military aircraft were breaches of whatever terms and conditions then in force, then we probably could/should have been going in some time prior to 2003. My guess is that the use of a "UN" aircraft would provide perhaps moral and legal justification for the major military response, whereas firing at our aircraft didn't count under whatever was defining the conduct out there.1

That, or perhaps it was thought in Washington that third parties would get excited about an attack on UN aircraft as opposed to attacks on Anglo-American aircraft. A tipping point, if you will, to convince foreign diplomats that the Baathist regime was firing on peaceful UN people.

At any rate, I think it's a decent, if somewhat transparent, idea to sucker the Baathist regime into a no-win scenario. If I were in the Oval Office, I'd look for a better plan, but this one's not so bad. I like it better than reports of dumping kids from incubators. Anyways, it's supposed to snow in Virginia, and that's a good thing.

---

The title for this entry is inspired by a line from the Kevin Costner vehicle, Thirteen Days.

1 There is something absurd about attacking coalition aircraft not being enough of a provocation for war, but go figure; diplomacy and international relations often are a theater of the absurd.

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February 03, 2006

"Sir, Patronage Has Increased"

I am pleased to see this:

According to Rip the MofW guy, the patronage of various passenger rail systems throughout the country posted increases from 2004 to 2005. The first part of Rip's data covers---I assume---"heavy rail" (i.e. things we think of as traditional trains) as opposed to "light rail", which is usually trolleys, trams, and the like.

The figures he has show gains in the three Amtrak California services, with a nearly double digit gain in one of them. Of course, Trains magazine has said in the past that the State of California and her citizens have made deliberate policy choices that improved service and attracted riders, so it is not necessarily unexpected to see growth in California passenger operations. At the same time, it's not unwelcome, either. The more people that get used to taking trains, the better, because that may allow policy-makers to do something other than "add another HOV lane". Hopefully such thinking will spread to the Commonwealth of Virginia. Hint hint, Interstate 81.

He also points out excellent growth in "transit" patronage in various urban markets. I don't know exactly what "transit" means---it is a term of art---so I'll have to reserve commentary on this. I further suggest that you go to his site and read the entire post for what appears to be a majority of good results.

It is also pleasing to see that Metro-North posts increases. They incorporate part of the old New Haven Railroad, and everyone in the East should love the New Haven.

Also worth noting are data from Amtrak, courtesy of the February 2006 issue of Trains. The specifics are rather detailed and I don't have a single figure for how many percent of increase there was, but Amtrak did post a record patronage figure for the third year in a row. For the fiscal year ending 30 September 2005, Amtrak hauled 25,374,998 passengers to points all over the country, from the Northeast Corridor to the route of the California Zephyr.

This, even while certain political figures in Washington, D.C. try to zero in on the final annihilation of the alternate to Southwest Airlines known as Amtrak. (With apologies to Glen A. Larson.)

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The Cloudy Pundit

(No, this is not some abstract reference to your correspondent's prose, apt though it may be.)

I'm not entirely sure how this thing works, but after being inspired to it by a meaty, wooly & snippy blog-to-be-named-later, here it is:

I would have liked it better had the thing mentioned "Central" in there to make up "Penn Central", but we don't always get what we want. Of course, these T-shirts are going to be so famous that they choke out the Ugg boot and lots of other things. Perhaps the celebrity world will beat a path to my rural doorstep in search of them, yes?

"Sir, the former Mrs. Pitt has---"
"No. We're saving them for viable commercial entities, Higgin."
"Very good sir. Away with the riff-raff."

Tip of the Wisconsin hat to Robbo at---where else?---Llama Butchers. Add a yip for the Carly Simon reference.

ADDENDUM: Ith and the Superintendent have also posted their cloud things.

I am uncomfortable saying "cloud things"; perhaps this is some latent reaction to V'ger and the cinematic misfire known as Star Trek: The Motion Picture?

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February 02, 2006

A New Mayor for Chocolate City?

So I missed the news cycle again. What, this surprises you?

Your humble correspondent was perusing the blogroll tonight when he found a post over at Cabal of Doom saying that the brother of Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) would be running against incumbent New Orleans Ray Nagin. Mitch Landrieu, the current Lieutenant Governor of Lousiana, is expected to announce his candidacy some time this week.

Back when the hurricane thing was happening, I watched Nagin with a bit of morbid fascination, sort of a Guide of What Not to Do when Disaster Strikes. I always came away from seeing him thinking, "There's a man who has collapsed under the hand he's been dealt". Not that I particularly blamed him for the chaos of the city; no point in that. I was just looking for some sign that the guy had gotten back on his feet and was responding intelligently to the situation that had presented itself.

I never really saw that sign. And then he went and made his "chocolate speech", which didn't make a whole lot of sense. Maybe it's just because I'm a white guy in rural Virginia---praise be upon our hallowed Commonwealth---or perhaps I'm bad at metaphors, but enh. At any rate, it will be interesting to see how that race turns out. The joke that went around amongst some of my colleagues was "If nobody's moving back to New Orleans, then Mary Landrieu's just lost her base."

P&C to Joey: Stop being a relativist and take the beer goggles off. Just because Senator Landrieu isn't Dianne Feinstein or Barbara Boxer doesn't mean she's automatically desirable. On the other hand, she's ahead of every national Democrat in elective office that I can think of. Then again, that's not saying much.

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I Didn't Need to Know That

My all-time favorite National Review writer has gone and told us something that I think I'd just rather not know.

John Derbyshire's "January Diary" includes a mention of some chap named Razib Khan. Mr. Khan has something to do with nematodes, creatures which in some instances can be hermaphrodites. OK, so Derb's talking to a science guy. That's great. MEGO.

But then Derb includes the following passage: "Razib: “Some of these species have been having sex with themselves for millions of years.” Hey, that’s what my adolescence felt like."

John, I understand the need for humor in writing; would that the legal profession's so-called greatest minds would figure this out as well. But what you said isn't something we needed to know, and it's not cause for laughter at this particular station.

Pardon me while I try not to wince and shift about uncomfortably. I'm not really sure what else was in the Derb Diary for January, 'cause I was too busy choking back a touch of bile.

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February 01, 2006

Happy Birthday!

Y'all thought your correspondent might have overlooked a very important anniversary that happened today. No, it's not my birthday, but it is a birthday nonetheless.

01 FEBRUARY 1968 - The Penn Central Transportation Company is born from the merger of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central System.

This was not a merger that created new efficiencies, improved service, cut costs, or took advantage of synergies between the two (and later three) railroads that comprised it. Rather, it was a last ditch effort undertaken by two ancient rival corporations whose economic fortunes had turned bad and were headed towards worse at Run 8 speeds.

The two main leaders of the new company, Stuart T. Saunders from the PRR and Alfred E. Perlman of the NYCS, didn't get along. The railroads didn't have a lot of good connections between their separate lines. But wait, there's more:

The bankrupt and hapless New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad successfully sued for inclusion into the merger, and became a part of the Penn Central system on 01 January 1969. Where there had been two ailing railroads floundering towards a hoped-and-prayed-for success, there were now three.

Deteriorated physical plants, hopeless administrative snarls, questionable diversifications, a weak economy, lethargic-if-not-lethal Federal regulations and even hostile weather combined to form a lethal cocktail that would send the giant railroad into bankruptcy on 21 June 1970, a mere 872 days after its creation.

This bankruptcy was the largest in American history at that point, with the Penn Central losing in the neighborhood of a million dollars (in 1970s value) per day for at least a year, with previous daily losses being in the neighborhood of $300,000 to $500,000.

It is a vast and complicated story to tell, and I don't understand all of it. For you, the reader, know that the death of the Penn Central gave us Amtrak, Conrail, railroad deregulation, and the vast array of commuter agencies that line the Northeast Corridor to this day. For a variety of reasons, the Penn Central Transportation Company is my favorite fallen flag---I stubbornly refuse to admit that the flag of the N&W has fallen---and I celebrate the anniversary of its birth.

Too bad I never got to ride the Twenty Cent Broad.

If you're interested in the Penn Central, I invite you to visit two of my favorite PC websites:

Penn Central Railroad Online
Penn Central Railroad Historical Society

Posted by: Country Pundit at 11:47 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The Fed Sox, Perhaps?

This also bears notice:

A regular poster at Soxaholix points out that the new Chairman of the Federal Reserve System, Ben S. Bernanke, is/was a fan of the Boston Red Sox.

I didn't know this until this morning, but then again, I was busy doing other things when the man's name was announced, and monetary policy generally operates above my educational grade. A quick check of Google notes less than eight hundred mentions of it, so maybe it's not super-widespread knowledge.

At any rate, I do not necessarily share in "Mr. Silverstein's" analysis, but it is interesting to note. Anyone who'd cut class at MIT to watch the Red Sox can't be all bad. I just wonder if he has abandoned them for the Washington Nationals, or if it's a two-team thing that I'm remarkably familiar with.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 01:31 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Something Old, Something New

Interesting. Courtesy of the Llama Butchers, I was over at a place named 7 Deadly Sins, reading Sinner's take on the President's State of the Union speech. After I finished it, I saw a post dubbed "Sloth: Classic Battlestar". The permanent link doesn't work; make of it what you will. I hopped up to the top level and saw a little banner proclaiming the Sinner to be "Pro-Victory". I clicked on it, and wound up here.

As they say in the NFL, "After review, the tenets are agreed with. The group is joined, et cetera."

Well, perhaps they don't say that in the NFL, but you get where I'm going with this. If not, it's not for you. (Inspired by Penny Arcade, to be certain.)

Posted by: Country Pundit at 01:18 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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