You've got to love the Angry Left. They stick to their narrative of America bad, (anywhere else) great, no matter what the circumstances may be, and they're not really worried about letting things like facts get in the way.

George Will has penned an acid column knocking the recently-elected Nicolas Sarkozy for something. It's early in the morning and I'm not firing on all cylinders anyways, but the gist of it seems to be that Sarkozy may act in the perceived interests of France, as opposed to the EU or the US. The horror!

I don't know the truth of it at this point, and I really don't care. France will do what France will do, and we can only sit back and watch, kind of like Edmund Burke reportedly did when Robespierre & Co. were trashing the capital.

What's worth reading in the column is some of the reactions. As of 0945 here in the East, none of them extend beyond standard Kossack fare, whining about a Bush-Cheney boondoggle or how great the Fifth Republic is while simultaneously damning America. Yawn.

I had to laugh at the last pair of remarks by a chap who calls himself 'Gatsby1':

I wouldn't exactly go out on a limb claiming that the current French political system is far older and inherently more complex than that of the United States. Last time I checked, we're still under a system agreed to in the 18th century. The government that sent Comte de Grasse to the Virginia Capes---thank you very much, Louis XVI; wish we'd been able to help you in your time of need---had been annihilated prior to 1800 courtesy of the aforementioned Robespierre & Co., so Mr. Gatsby1's claims are somewhat fallacious.

If you want to get mean about it, the current system governing France hasn't even gotten to 50 years of age yet, with the Fifth Republic being instituted by President Charles de Galle in 1958.

My interest remains 'officially piqued' at whatever reforms that President Sarkozy may or may not make while he is at the helm of the Fifth Republic. I hope our nation and theirs are able to cooperate on questions of economy and security to a higher degree than was previously possible with the government of Mr. Chirac. Perhaps we can talk them into giving us some pointers on operating a high-speed rail network?

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UPDATE: After another bowl of cereal and reflection, one of Mr. Sarkozy's crimes per Mr. Will is as followsL "Sarkozy has, however, said, "I don't wake up every morning asking what Hayek or Adam Smith would have done.""

As I said before, the horror. Asking what Adam Smith would have done could be almost as maddening as asking what would Jesus do, only with less guidance. Not asking what Hayek would have done is, well, something that commends Mr. Sarkozy to me.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 09:07 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Breaking news via CNN: Some sort of noise has been heard in the Utah mine where six men are trapped.

See here for more.

Your correspondent is offering prayers for their successful rescue at this point in time.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 09:08 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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This morning's trip around the blogroll unearthed a piece by Nikolas Gvosdev in The Washington Realist about the Georgian missile thing from last week.

Mr. Gvosdev, editor of The National Interest, lays out three possibilities for the event in question:

If we rule out that the missile launch and its subsequent impact in Georgia was some sort of accident, we have three main possibilities.

One possibility--and an explanation embraced by some circles in Russia--is that the government of President Mikheil Saakashvili manufactured this incident.

[T]his was an operation conceived of and given the blessing of senior figures in the Kremlin--maybe not President Putin himself, but done in a Henry II style--"rid me of this troublesome priest".

Finally, what appears to be the most likely--but no less troubling--local "frontier" elements working with South Ossetians. There is of course precedent in Russian history for commanders on the borders to act with no instructions (or in defiance of instructions) from the center, but this isn't 1783.

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Naturally, you should read the whole thing; I've only excerpted parts of the story. One wonders just what's going on out there.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 01:34 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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According to the AFP/France24, the wreck of HMAS Sydney may have been found.

Searchers equipped with a grappling hook and an underwater camera found a previously undiscovered wreck off of Cape Inscription. Their observations of various details of the wreck lead them to believe that it is the light cruiser in question.

The Sydney was lost with all hands after a 19 November 1941 battle against the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran. Six hundred and forty-five men were aboard.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 10:06 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Stolen shamelessly from Sheila O'Malley:

GRYFFINDOR:
[x] You've never done drugs.
[ ] You have a lot of friends.
[ ] You get along with everyone.
[ ] You love football.
[x] You love baseball.
[ ] You're into writing and art
[ ] One of your favourite music genre is rock.
[ ] You believe in "innocent until proven guilty" theory.
[ ] One of your favourite colors is red or gold.
[ ] Good grades at school.
[ ] One of the worst things you can do is lie.
[x] You plan on going to college.
TOTAL: 3

HUFFLEPUFF:
[ ]You're content with mostly everything in your life right now.
[ ] You laugh a lot.
[ ] You like to follow trends.
[ ] Politics suck.
[ ] You love to swim
[ ] Water polo is awesome.
[ ] Pink is one of your favourite colours.
[ ] Black is morbid & depressing.
[ ] You're an optimist.
[ ] You're very emotional.
[ ] You believe in going steady at a young age.
[ ] You haven't made fun of anyone this month.
[x] Loyalty is the MOST important thing in a relationship.
TOTAL: 1

RAVENCLAW:
[ ] You're depressed to a certain extent.
[x] You love to read.
[x] You appreciate theatre & arts.
[ ] Sports suck.
[ ] Hate is completely unneeded.
[x] Indie is one of your favourite genre of music.
[x] Every once in a while you have little anger outbursts.
[x] Lying is sometimes okay.
[x] Blue is one of your favourite colours.
[x] Knowledge is the key to power
[x] Sarcasm is the best kind of humour
[x] People should know what they're talking about before they talk.
TOTAL: 9

SLYTHERIN:
[x]There's at least one person you hate.
[ ] Basketball is a good sport.
[ ] Football is amazing.
[x] Black is a cool color.
[ ] You've lied about something serious
[x] You're a very deep person
[ ] You are not very loyal.
[ ] You like heavy metal.
[ ] You make school seem more important than it is.
[x] You're scared to grow up.
[x] Anger is one of your primary feelings.
[x] You have trust issues.
[ ] Guilty until proven innocent.
Total: 6

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Very interesting. The automated tests usually stick me with some degree of Hufflepuff, but this one didn't. I'm kind of amazed that I did so poorly with the House of Potter, but very well. At least I'm not marching in Voldemort's ranks, which never really seemed like all that good of a bargain to begin with. "Serve me and die!" "Oh yes, where do I sign up for that?"

Posted by: Country Pundit at 08:48 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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If you'll look over on the sidebar, you'll notice that there's a little bit of activity, namely a clock from ClockLink. This particular one was chosen because it reminds me of the clocks that I saw when I was a little kid, and hey, isn't adult life all about a journey back to childhood?

No? Oops.

All credit for finding this, and inspiring me to place one of my own, goes to Not Exactly Rocket Science, another Mu.Nu. joint.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 08:59 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The Yangtze River dolphin is extinct.

Everyone stand up and applaud those great stewards of the environment, the Red Chinese. As usual, George W. Bush, the Republican Party, and conservatives everywhere are truly to blame.

Tip of the ol' Wisconsin hat to Jonah Goldberg.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 12:25 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The AFP/France 24 report that the president of ex-Soviet Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, has accused the Russian Federation of launching guided ordnance into the former Soviet SSR in an attempt to influence Georgian policies.

Reuters quoted the Georgian Minister of the Interior, Vano Merabishvili, as saying "Our radars show that these jets flew from Russia and then flew back in the same direction that they had come from". The Interior Ministry had previously reported a 700-kilogram bomb as being dropped.

Reuters also pointed out that the Russians provide "moral and financial support" for rebels in the Abkhazian and South Ossetian regions, while accusing the Georgians of "anti-Russian" policies.

It is not the first time that the Georgian government has accused Moscow of aerial intrusions; former president Eduard Shevardnadze claimed aerial incursions in 2002. Then, as now, Russian officials denied the Georgian claims.

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I have no opinion as to the truth of the current allegations, but at the same time I wouldn't rule anything out where Putin is concerned. The Russians have a demonstrated history of playing rough with nations who don't toe its line---see their spat with Ukraine over natural gas---and there's relatively little risk to them for lobbing a round into Georgia. At worst, they admit a navigational error and go about their merry way while a somewhat impotent Georgia shakes its fist. At best, the Georgian electorate quavers in its boots and Russia gains some influence.

A now-missing comment at France 24 suggested that the Russians were interested in complicating Georgia's circumstances due to that regime's ties to the United States and the West. One wonders.

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EDIT: The originally linked story has been deleted, to be replaced by Georgia accuses Russia of bombing raid. In that story, the Georgians say they recovered a Kh-58/AS-11 Kilter ARM, reportedly fired from a Sukhoi Su-24 Fencer.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 07:05 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I was looking up the Austro-Hungarian Empire this morning after reading about the Russian efforts in that vicinity during the Great War, and I came across the name of Miklós Horthy. I'd been familiar with Admiral Horthy's name through my reading on the Second World War, but I knew virtually nothing about the man. (In truth, I believe I simply thought "Hey, cool, an admiral running a country" when I was much younger and went from there.)

A quick jaunt over to the Wikipedia gave me Miklós Horthy, and after skimming it, took a look at the links. Therein, I found an annotated copy of Admiral Horthy's memoirs, prepared by a Professor Andrew L. Simon, emeritus of the University of Akron.

His Serene Highness the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary Admiral Horthy, c. 1921

It's over three hundred pages, so I won't finish it any time soon, but I'm very interested in reading about the old chap---he seems to have been on the front lines of containing Communism on Western Europe's borders, so it's got to be interesting. One wonders how it will measure up to say Doenitz or Raeder.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 02:25 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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On this date in 1970, trains 41 and 42, the N&W/SOU Pelican between New York, NY and New Orleans, LA ran for the last time.

According to William Warden and Kenneth Miller's Norfolk and Western Passenger Service 1946-1971, the Pelican would be combined with the Birmingham Special (previously trains 17 and 1 into a Bristol TN/VA-Washington, D.C. train which lasted until the coming of Amtrak in May of 1971.

Based upon the images in the book, these trains carried anything from J-class steam locomotives or passenger-equipped GP9s to Southern E-units or FP7s.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 08:53 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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