By now, everyone's probably heard of what went on in the UK.

It appears that the Islamists have managed to muff this one as well, courtesy of incompetence in their personnel and bravery on the part of English police. It goes without saying that thanks to Almighty God will be said in the evening prayer tonight. We may have thrown off the Empire over two hundred years ago, but that doesn't mean that I retain considerable sentiment and favor towards them.

After all, the British Isles may be a 'shadow front' in the war on Islamist violence. Better luck next time, you ignorant cretins! No virgins for you!

Posted by: Country Pundit at 10:58 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Be still my beating heart, for Nicole Kidman's doing Nintendo ads!

The entire aesthetic of it makes me think that she's in the employ of M.C. Briggs, III. Haven't seen that much white since, well, the last episode of Airwolf where Archangel and Marella showed up to yell at Hawke & Santini. I wonder if she can fly a helicopter, run computer analyses, or testify in a meaningful manner before Congress.

The game Mrs. Urban's playing is Nintendo's Brain Age on the Nintendo DS system.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 08:17 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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It's been a while since anyone made a cabview for the Pennsylvania Railroad's GG1s. In fact, the one that's probably in widespread use for MSTS is the one that came with the NALW set released in 2002. However, the prolific freeware cabview creator, Dwight Mitchell, has seen fit to make a modern GG1 cabview that is capable of dealing with the MSTSbin upgrade. It's available from Train-Sim, so go on over and get yourself a new GG1 cabview.

Filename: gg1cab.zip

EDIT: Resize your browser window as appropriate. I'm used to having a huge resolution by way of a widescreen laptop, so this may look really out of place for the viewing public.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 11:34 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Three-time ace Brigadier General Robin Olds, USAF (ret) has died at his home in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

General Olds served in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam and was credited with 16 kills over the course of that period. He is also given credit for the success of Operation BOLO, wherein the USAF exercised some sleight-of-hand to make North Vietnamese interceptors attack a formation of F-4C/D Phantom IIs instead of their usual targets, F-105D Thunderchiefs. If I understand it correctly, the F-4s flew together in a formation usually reserved for the F-105s and acted like the Republic monsters.

The North Vietnamese, hoping to disrupt the inbound strike, swarmed up in their Soviet-supplied fighters. Much to their dismay, Robin Olds' 8th TFW was waiting on them. According to the Air Force, 7 MiG-21 Fishbed interceptors were destroyed. Tough luck, Charlie.

General Olds was famous for his handlebar mustache, described somewhere as being of the Otto von Bismarck variety.

Thank you for your service, General.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 06:01 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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And now, page 2.

If you're ever out in Virginia's peanut country (i.e. southeast of Petersburg and the like), I suggest that you go to Wakefield. It's not named for knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, but it's still a wonderful place. Why's that?

The Wakefield Peanut Company.

I had a bag of peanuts brought to me by a friend who had been out that way, and they were utterly delicious. Despite the fact that I knew I was adding on to my waistline by gobbling these things down, I couldn't resist the allure of a well-prepared salted in the shell peanut. Meh, couple more hours on the bike or working in the (currently boiling Virginia) sun.

Write, telephone, or surf to them at:

Wakefield Peanut Company
P.O. Box 538
Wakefield, Virginia 23888
(757) 899-5481
www.wakefieldpeanutco.com

Posted by: Country Pundit at 11:59 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Robert Hall 'Racehorse' Smith, President of the Norfolk and Western Railway Company between 1946 and 1958, died on this date in 1960 at the age of 72.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 01:07 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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It appears that former Senator F.D. Thompson (R-TN) is is in the UK for a bit of foreign policy work which includes a meeting with Baroness Thatcher. The topic of his speech is, "Strengthening the Transatlantic Alliance" and will be/has been delivered to the Policy Exchange, a think tank that Wikipedia defines as "centre right".¹

Your correspondent is intrigued.

Given that I can look up on a bookshelf and see three or four hardcover books written by Baroness Thatcher---and two of which have been read---I would consider myself at least favorably inclined to the old Iron Lady. Although she and I would probably differ on the nitty gritty of economic theories, I think that we would get along, and therefore anything favorable that she has to say about F.D. Thompson would be well received.

Since your correspondent remains a quasi-nostalgic Atlanticist, he considers cooperation between ourselves and the United Kingdom as a good thing. l'd like to read a transcript of the speech, but this thing may be a not-for-attribution event. A buddy of mine in law school said those things are not uncommon in politics, so go figure. If I do manage to run across a transcript, I'll provide it, along with miscellaneous commentary from me. In the interim, don't bother with the comments posted at the end of that Politico article. Between the Pauloids and the random unassociated ramblings of other commenters, it's a good way to induce either a frenzy of self-mutilation or catatonia, the latter not being the late Welsh band with Cerys Matthews.

The only thing F.D. Thompson needs to do now is figure out how to throw the Bush family and its hangers-on away, and I'd like him a lot more. It says something about the state of my dissatisfaction with our leading candidates that even with Thompson's close ties to the Bush effort, I'm still more in favor of him than I am the so-called 'Rudy McRomney'.

Meanwhile, I appear to have scooped the Llama Butchers. Your orgle is right here, son.

---
¹ Admittedly, that sort of language on Wikipedia could mean that their policies put them slightly to the right of Pol Pot or Mao Tse-tung, but it seems to be accurate.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 12:54 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Gary has the latest installment of Gratuitous Buck Blogging over at Llamabutchers. This episode: Ep. 1.20 “A Dream Of Jennifer” (2/14/80), with special guest star Anne Lockhart.

Gary goes into detail praising Ms. Lockhart by stating, "Cast as Jennifer/Leila is Anne Lockhart, who most of the young male audience (yours truly included) had already formed an attachment to from her role as Lt. Sheba on "Battlestar Galactica" the year before."

Yeah yeah, whatever. Where the Galactica is concerned, Lieutenant Sheba can finish no better than tied for third with Laurette Spang's Cassiopeia. Locked in an eternal battle for first place are Jane Seymour's Serina and Maren Jensen's Athena, both from the early days of the first season.

Anyways. I can finally keep up with Gary now, 'cause I got my own copy of BR25C recently, and woo hoo---Wilma's even better in DVD clarity. I also found the second season of Airwolf, so my backlog of television programs I spent hours of my youth on is being whittled down. Next up? CHiPs. Y'know, 'cause cars always explode when they roll down an embankment.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 07:58 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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TO ALL CONCERNED:

Account SENATOR ROBERT F. KENNEDY FUNERAL & PARTY, operate extra train from New York, no stops, to Washington, on SATURDAY JUNE 8th, 1968.

CONSIST
1 Baggage car #7534
6 "Congo" coaches
1 Diner #4484
4 "Congo" coaches
2 Diners-twin uni #4608-4609
4 "Congo" coaches
1 Parlor 7-DR #7146
1 Biz car #30 (Kitchen end to rear)
1 Biz car #120 (Obs to rear)
21 cars.

SCHEDULE
PLACE TRAIN ON TRACK #12 AT NEW YORK.
Leave New York 12.30pm
Pass Newark 12.45pm
" New Brunswick 1.05pm
" Trenton 1.30pm
" North Phila 1.55pm
" 30th St Phila 2.05pm
" Chester 2.20pm
" Wilmington 2.35pm
" Perryville 3.00pm
" Aberdeen 3.05pm
" Baltimore 3.40pm
Arrive Washn Terml Trk 16. 4.20pm more...

Posted by: Country Pundit at 10:13 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Victor Davis Hanson has a nice article up at NRO about Operation OVERLORD. It is worth reading, in my opinion.

A valuable quote:

Nevertheless, the Normandy campaign reminds us that war is by nature horrific, fraught with foolish error — and only won by the side that commits the least number of mistakes. Our grandfathers knew that. So they pressed on as best they could, convinced that they needn’t be perfect, only good enough, to win.

Worth remembering in the current contest.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 11:45 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I gave up a while back trying to understand the exact corporate structure of the entity formerly known as Guilford Transportation Industries, i.e. the Guilford Rail System, whose holdings included the Boston & Maine, Maine Central, and Springfield Terminal railroads. Their recent change in branding to "Pan Am Railways" didn't help either.¹

I don't know anyone who sings the praises of this company, but a lot of complaints usually tend to be railfan insults: "The paint job's boring!" "They don't run this locomotive or that! They didn't give me unrestricted access to roam around the Waterville or North Billerica facilities!" Y'know, meaningless complaints.²

However, the Superintendent over at the Cold Spring Shops has dug up an article detailing the latest misdeeds of the company. For more information, read his snarky rejoinder here.

Given the praise I've seen sent his way in the past, ol' PBM might actually be an improvement on Dave Fink. From what I understand, a railroad under McGinnis couldn't pay its bills. Pan Am, on the other hand, won't pay its bills. They've supposedly got the money.

---
¹ Wikipedia's Pan Am Railways article suggests that GTI=Pan Am Systems now, which owns the B&M, MEC, and ST. Go figure.

² For the record, I don't hate PAR; I just don't understand their mindset. Last I heard, they had ex-N&W/SOU motive power running around up there, along with some GP7/GP9s; that counts for something. I do like the two liveries they've used so far. My only complaint is that their ownership of the Delaware & Hudson didn't turn out so great, but the Canadian Pacific seems to have done all right with it.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 02:14 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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No, not DiMaggio, but Scarborough.

By now, you've probably heard of the shot the MSNBC columnist took at former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson's wife, Jeri. If you haven't, see here from America's litter box liner of record. If you want to see it, you know the drill:

A reporter from WFAN in NYC was on just before that and mentioned that she used a pole of some sort as a means of training. Mr. Scarborough then wondered aloud if Mrs. Thompson "works the pole", potentially a reference to er, exotic dancing. On the one hand, yeah, that's a potentially valid reference, to the prior segment, but given Joe's wiseacre attitude and the context of the conversation, I'd suggest a less favorable interpretation just out of pure spite for Scarborough. Perhaps if I liked him more---or if the Red Sox had beaten Oakland last night---I'd be more charitable, but I don't, they didn't, and so I'm not.

Meh, it's not like I watch Scarborough anyways. MSNBC has been dead to me for years anways, and their canning of Imus torched the corpse. To quote a movie, "You dirtbags have been in third place for five years." (Note: I have no idea of what the actual ratings are, nor do I care.)

Anyways, if Fred runs and wins, we'll be guaranteed a good-looking First Lady. Of course, that's not the only reason to support Senator Thompson's candidacy. He does seem, on the basis of what I've read, to have some sense about him when it comes to illegal aliens. Furthermore, he may see clearly on the question of the future course of our strategic policy vis a vis the Islamists, and he doesn't have any of the negatives (to my mind) that Giuliani, McCain, and Romney bring to the table.

Hooray for Fred.

---

This posting has been somewhat overtaken by events. I saw the story here and Mr. Orr has an extended statement here that explains the thing. What's 48 hours behind the rest of the news cycle? Nothing, especially if you're like me who is apparently the Frank Vitchard of the blogging world.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 10:37 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Oops, I missed it. I plead being tired from mowing the lawn in the pleasant Virginia heat.

Fred Thompson wasn't there, so I probably didn't miss much anyways.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 09:43 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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What kind of subsim skipper are you?

CASUAL SUBSIM SKIPPER
You fell in love with Aces of the Deep. Your playing style is relaxed, more for fun than historical accuracy. You always play Sub Command or Dangerous Waters from the NavMap (rightclick is your friend), if you ever ventured to play them at all. Probably you prefer WWII subsims like Silent Hunter 3, SH4 and Aces. You may try the manual TDC, but you prefer to leave the auto map contacts on, (blank maps scare you). Even though you know submarine skippers missed targets occasionally in real life, you cannot resist reloading a mission to take another shot at a 10,000-tonne troopship that got away. One ship, one torpedo, finished off with the deck gun--that's the creed you live by.

Found at Subsim.com.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 09:36 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Shamelessly stolen from Lawrence Auster, where a correspondent of his writes:

How many times do they have to listen to Republican functionaries with names like Gonzalez, Gutierrez and Martinez telling them how good a deal the border sellout is for "Americans" before they realize the fix is in for real Americans?

Ha ha. "But it's good for 'murica if it is like Mexico, because if 'murica is like Mexico, then it is good."

Viva Jorge Busheron.

(Yeah, I'm not exactly enthusiastic about the prospect of amnesty for all the illegal aliens in this country. Y'couldn't tell, could you?)

Also in this vein:

Tee hee.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 12:17 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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No, I didn't watch. I had better things to do, like, er, nothing.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 10:51 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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