Full disclosure: I don't generally waste my time reading the Daily Kos any more. I know that the readership there hates me for no particular good reason, and does so in a frothing mania. Very well. To steal a line from F.D. Roosevelt, I welcome their hatred.

Some poster there dubbed 'edencho' decided to dump an angry anti-Southern screed on the internet, and I got wind of it. I must confess that I chuckled at it after a while; the old notion of removing logs in one's own eye before pointing out the speck in another's rings very true on a regular basis. Sometimes, it's comical.

I decided to sit down and take a spin through the edencho bill of indictment and see just how I measured up to being a peckerwood. The only problem with such a thing is that the source document is long and a bit rambling, so I eventually gave up; the effort to produce a somewhat serious or snarky rejoinder greatly outweighed the actual humor or utility thereof. Besides, Edencho hates me without ever having met me, and so what can I do about that?

Well, I could quote Frank Oz from ~1979, 'cause that's what went through my head after reading this little screed:

"That...is why you fail."

Anyways, I like fried okra, corn dogs, and going to NASCAR Nextel Cup races. The local county fair is fun to go to as well, 'cause I enjoy simple pleasures like that. I'm not ashamed of the people I live with.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 05:28 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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To steal a piece of construction from C-3P0, "I'm afraid the Superintendent has gone and done something enviable." That is to say, he's gotten an excursion ride aboard a train powered by Milwaukee Road 261. This locomotive, a 4-8-4 Northern steam locomotive originally built for the Milwaukee Road, was built by the American Locomotive Company in 1944 and was restored to operational service in 1993 by volunteers in a for-profit capacity.

His entry has lots of useful pictures and is a good read; go on and check it out. We in western Virginia haven't had this kind of opportunity in some years, so it's a fun thing to read about a museum piece's successful operation. Love that Skytop lounge!

Posted by: Country Pundit at 09:20 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Courtesy of the Superintendent of the Cold Spring Shops, I've received word of the Roundhouse Roundup. In the words of its organizer:

Come celebrate that innocent joy with the Roundhouse Roundup, a blog carnival for model train engineers of every kind--from Thomas and his wooden railroad to all the scales of not-toy railroads up to and including ride-on trains. All are invited to climb aboard! You may not come away from the Roundhouse looking like this, but then again, you may get inspired!

Since I've got only a handful of HO-scale railcars, I don't count as your average model railroader, but nonetheless I reckon I qualify. Why's that, you ask? 'cause I'm an avid fan of Microsoft's Train Simulator software, released back in 2001 or so. My railroad runs on electrons, if you will. I've got until tomorrow to figure out a post---probably roster shots of some of the queens of the electronic fleet---but I fully intend to participate in this one.

I'm not usually one for the blog carnival thing, mostly because I'm usually too self-conscious to submit. Luckily, this one seems to be perfect for me. Rip, you oughta get in on this one too.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 06:36 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Inbetween dodging service outages reportedly caused by Turkish nationals hacked off at a fellow Munuvian, I bring you this:

The Honorable Norman Y. Mineta, Secretary of Transportation, has announced his intention to resign effective 07 July 2006.

I read this and instantly thought of Rip, who doesn't like Mr. Mineta. A quick trip to his site confirmed it; he was just about equal to the Corner in posting speed.

This might be a good thing for supporters of the current National Railroad Passenger Corporation, or it might not be. Mr. Mineta definitely seems to have had it in for Amtrak in its present incarnation, and may or may not have been entirely fair in the process. His departure presents an opportunity for things with regards to Amtrak to get better, and it also presents an opportunity things to get worse. That is, the appointment of someone with the same axe to grind against the system, but with more skill and persistence.¹

Nonetheless, I would like to thank Mr. Mineta for his service and wish him well in his future endeavors.

---

¹ I realize there's more to being Secretary of Transportation than sitting on the Amtrak board of directors, but that's what I chose to remark upon.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 08:53 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Sayeth JohnL: [L]et's have us a "Girls Aloud" poll. I concur.

A bit of brave research farmed out to a friend in the United Kingdom was first necessary, in order to establish the identities of these young women, all of whom seem to have been born after me. Based upon the gallant sacrifice of my British contact, I can confirm the following data:

Sarah Harding - white dress
Nicola Roberts - blue dress
Kimberley Walsh - pink dress
Nadine Coyle - yellow dress
Cheryl Tweedy - green dress

John wants us to express a preference, and that can be done. Sarah Harding fails for looking like Kate Hudson's less intelligent---if that's possible---younger sister who's acting in pornography, despite the fact that blond hair, blue eyes, and pale skin generally place one on the fast track to my approval. (See Blanchett, Cate.) Nicola Roberts never registers, except when I think she's drunk. Sorry, luv. Miss Walsh looks unwashed, and that's a fatal minus. This leaves our last two, Miss Coyle and Miss Tweedy.

Miss Coyle reminds me of Sandra Bullock, which really doesn't score her any points. She's obviously the focal point of the video, but I'm not really sure that she deserves it.

Miss Tweedy, on the other hand, is hard to catch a glimpse of. Perhaps I betray my age by stating that I'm simply not fast enough in the eyes to cope with the quick cuts that the director of the video relies upon. Shades of blipverts, ladies and gentlemen. That being said, I can't help but be reminded of the Tweedy farm from Chicken Run whenever this girl is mentioned. "Nobody escapes from Tweedy's farm!"

---

I was all set to award my vote to Miss Tweedy for a variety of reasons, but in the course of personal research, I found something that irrevocably tipped the vote in Miss Coyle's direction. Miss Tweedy has made the poor choice of being photographed while wearing a hat emblazoned with the seal of the hated New York Yankees. She is therefore by definition consorting with the enemy, and is permanently disqualified from any favorable consideration.

Nadine Coyle, ye of the yellow dress, you win.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 10:50 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I'm watching the [i]NBC Nightly News[/i] and they report that our missing soldiers have been murdered by the al-Qaeda forces in Iraq. An Iraqi general reports that these two men were "brutally tortured". If I understand the CNN story properly, the remains of our men were damaged such that DNA testing will be necessary to confirm the identifications. Meanwhile, some worthless Islamist group named 'the Mujahedeen Shura Council' has claimed responsibility. I do not know who this group is, but I suppose they were acting to try and get back on the scoreboard after our success against al-Zarqawi.

NBC News suggested that the work of the MSC may have been the responsibility of a new man to lead the al-Qaeda forces. I didn't catch his name, but it really doesn't matter; hopefully we'll send him to join al-Zarqawi soon enough.

I regret the loss of two American soldiers to the bestial savages of the anti-coalition forces. If all goes well, perhaps we will avenge their deaths.

UPDATE: K.J. Lopez has provided us with an article that provides some background on the new man, courtesy of N.K. Gvosdev and a guest poster. Abu Ayyub al-Masri, I hope we've already got an LGB with your name on it.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 05:49 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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OK, so my text-based impersonation of Arte Johnson may or may not be convincing, but no matter. James Webb has won the Democratic nomination to run against Senator G.F. Allen, Jr., in November. A former Secretary of the Navy in the Reagan Administration, Mr. Webb defeated Democratic activist Harris Miller 53-47 with about 3% turnout among registered Virginians. This was a surprise to me, inasmuch as I figured that Northern Virginia would elect a more Howard Dean-esque figure, which I determined Mr. Miller to be.

According to the Roanoke paper, Mr. Webb's victory came from Western Virginia and portions of Northern Virginia. This included Mr. Webb's wins in the 6th and 9th Congressional districts. Also, Mr. Miller was able to win in "some far Southwest Virginia localities". I'd like to know which those were, but the State Board of Elections website does not have that information available, it seems.

I did not have the opportunity to observe either of these men on the campaign trail. I am therefore largely uneducated on their merits. I did, however, think fondly of Mr. Webb. See here. I of course did not vote in the Democratic primary; my choice is Senator Allen.

Nevertheless, I'll have something interesting to watch, along with the Red Sox, as the year drags on.

UPDATE: After a bit of poking, I found the results I was griping about. See here. Miller won Bland 60-40, Buchanan 71-29, Giles 53-47, Lee 77-23, and Wise 64-36. However, Webb won the other counties that I off-the-cuff identify as Southwest Virginia. Interesting.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 08:38 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Gah, four months since my last post. That's really great performance, TCP. Penn Central service, indeed. If anyone's still out there, I simply haven't had a lot to say, due to a variety of circumstances.

Blast and bother, America lost to the Czech Republic in FIFA World Cup competition. I kept seeing the Gelsenkirchen banner throughout the match and couldn't help but to substitute Geilenkirchen. I plead too many readings of Red Storm Rising or something.

In other news, it's trackwork time in the Norfolk Southern Virginia Division, so I've been seeing lots of MOW stuff go by.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 09:50 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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