What Book Am I?

I've been notoriously bereft of reporting quiz results in the last little while, mostly because it's a pain to deal with the graphic results. Nevertheless, here's a non-triumphant return to the copious posting of tests:

You're The Mists of Avalon!

by Marion Zimmer Bradley

You're obsessed with Camelot in all its forms, from Arthurian legend to the Kennedy administration. Your favorite movie from childhood was The Sword in the Stone. But more than tales of wizardry and Cuban missiles, you've focused on women. You know that they truly hold all the power. You always wished you could meet Jackie Kennedy.

Take the Book Quiz at the Blue Pyramid.

Kennedy. Kennedy?! !@#$% You know, of course, that this means war. More dreadful an insult could not have been made! I'd be a faithful husband, I don't drink and drive, and I'm not a little dirtbag who dilly-dallies with Marilyn Monroe. (She's a bit dead, which tends to simplify things. Drop her in your lap while wearing that diamond dress and cooing 'Happy birthday, Mr. Country Pundit' and we'll see what tune you're whistling. --Ed.) What could I possibly have in common with the Kennedy family? Oh yes, living on this planet.

Tip of the Wisconsin hat to Deuddersun.

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I Wish I Was in Dixie

Over at Free Market Fairy Tales, Mr Free Market has posted the results of his answers to the Yankee or Dixie? quiz.

Your humble correspondent, being interested in his accent, took it. The answer?

81% (Dixie). Did you have any Confederate ancestors?

Yes, I did. Both sides of my family served Virginia during the war, and the ones that I know of survived. I don't know if we had anyone who fought for the Federals, though. Hee hee.

Tip of my J.E.B. Stuart plumed hat to Mr Free Market.

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Which Federal Rule of Civil Procedure Are You?

YOU ARE RULE 11!

You were designed to make sure that attorneys in
federal cases make reasonable inquiries into
fact or law before submitting pleadings,
motions, or other papers. You were a real
hardass in 1983, when you snuffed out all legal
creativity from federal proceedings and
embarassed well-meaning but overzealous
attorneys. You loosened up a bit in 1993, when
you began allowing plaintiffs to make
allegations in their complaints that are likely
to have evidenciary support after discovery,
and when you allowed a 21 day period for the
erring attorney to withdraw the errant motion.
Sure, you keep everything running on the up and
up, but it's clear that things would be a lot
more fun without you around.


Which Federal Rule of Civil Procedure Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Tip of the Wisconsin hat to Jed at Boots and Sabers.

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Christian Theologian Quiz

The visual presentation of this quiz result has been altered by me in order to avoid causing retinal burns.

"Sin is incurable by the strength of man, nor does free will have any validity here, so that even the saints say: 'The evil which I do not wish, this I do.' 'You are not doing the things which you wish.' 'Since my loins are filled with illusions,' etc."

You are Martin Luther! Yeah, you have a way of letting everyone know how you feel, usually with Bible quotes attached, and will think your way through the issues, although sometimes you make no sense! You aren't always sure of yourself, and you can change your mind about things, something you actually consider a strength. You can take solitude, especially with some music.

What theologian are you?

A creation of Henderson

I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. I generally do not get involved in the high-level muckity muck that goes on in the blogosphere in terms of religious issues, primarily because I do not understand them. As a happy-go-lucky Methodist, I think I should probably be happy that I got Martin Luther, unless John Wesley was an option. Then I'd be embarrassed for not getting him.

Tip of the Wisconsin hat to the team over at Evangelical Outpost for posting this.

UPDATE: John Wesley is indeed an option. Oh, too bad.

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Am I Austrian or Not?

Preliminary Disclaimer: The Country Pundit's degree is in Political Science, and he only had one economics class in college. Although I received a high mark, it was not that I was so good but rather that everyone else in the class had to be reminded to breath at times, when they came to class. Therefore, these great "theories" of economics are largely alien to me.

That being said, I recently took a test to indicate whether or not I was an Austrian in terms of personal economic belief. After half an hour or more of working on the thing, I still made at least one mistake in marking it. Some of the questions are so abstract that I didn't understand them very well, and my personal answers occasionally ran to the "For pete's sake, who cares about the details? The point is is that it happened..." school of thought best espoused by Smith in The Matrix: Reloaded right before he (and his clones) attack Mr. Anderson.

Anyways, the score I got was (more or less) 55. That places you as a Chicago-school devotee, and this was refreshing. Why's that? Well, it shows I've learned something at law school, and I'm happy to identify with the "law and economics" concept that Judge Richard Posner (and a lot of other really intelligent people) fall within. Admittedly, I defaulted to liking any answer where there was a positive suggestion of the merging of law and the economy (must've been that inherent Randian [yuck!] self-interest at work) and so maybe I didn't take the thing in an "honest" frame.

Why am I writing all this? Because it's important to know from what angle some of the next few posts may be about. Broadly, they're about people who would probably fit within the little-l libertarian political sphere. They consider themselves "Austrian" economists, under the lineal descent of Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich A. Hayek.

I won't go farther, primarily because I'd have to expend more neurons now than I'm willing to. Future posts on this will be forthcoming, because it seems that the "Rothbardians" (devotees of one Murray N. Rothbard, an economist of this "Austrian" school) don't like fighting Islamists. Of course they'll howl about this not representing their positions and so forth, but when I try and slice through their turgid and abstract prose, I don't always see clear-and-cut support for American victory over the Islamists.

TCP's favorite Rothbardian stance: National defense should be handled by private companies. No word on whether or not these chaps have read the Constitution.

Anyways, this whole trend may be over, but I'm not sure. We shall see; perhaps long-term investigation of things is something I might be good at.

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The Country Pundit's Place in Middle Earth

I've actually got substantive content for today, but I'm clearing a backlog of quiz results that piled up over the weekend. Here's today's:

Numenorean

To which race of Middle Earth do you belong?
brought to you by Quizilla

Bother. I'd prefer to be one of the folks hanging out in Lothlorien amid Liz Fraser vocals, softly filtered camera lenses lit by eerie amounts of white light, lots of snotty people with bows and arrows, and a barefoot Cate Blanchett.¹ Of course, having a fanboy's attraction to Lothlorien means that I've got like zero scenes of interest in the last two Lord of the Rings movies. They're just not as cool as the first one, for whatever reason. Of course, if the rumors of the return of the ringwraiths are true, then that'll be cool.

Anyways, this test comes, one or two steps removed, courtesy of Julie Neidlinger, and she gets the tip of the Wisconsin hat.

¹ Be still, my beating heart. True story: I was in the theater watching FOTR with an early-in-the-release-date crowd, and of course there were the obligatory fanboys, who made noise throughout the flick like "That's not the Balrog!!!!" and who probably had a heart attack when Liv Tyler (Look, in twenty years she'll look like daddy. Talk about coyote ugly!) came onscreen. Luckily for me, they shut up (for whatever reason) when Miss Blanchett drifted onto the screen, and let me sit there, watching in rapt attention watching Galadriel do the whole "witch of the woods" thing. Call it the Reeves-Skywalker Response: "Whoah. She's beautiful." Celeborn, you lucky devil.

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A Lousy Emperor and a Rat Pack

It's a slow day, and thus quiz results will be posted en masse.

First up:

Which Historical Lunatic Are You?
Rum and Monkey.

See the Extended Entry for further details, some of which are quite shocking, and aren't me at all. This one came courtesy of DiVERSiONZ.

Next up, a retro-identity question:

I forgot where that one came from.

There are some other ones to be posted shortly, hopefully with attribution. If anyone knows where the Rat Pack one came from, I'd appreciate a holler. more...

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Wasting Time at spacefem.com

I no longer know where these came from, unfortunately.

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The X-Quiz Result

Spurred on by John of Argghhh!!!'s post on the subject, I went and partook of Quizilla's bandwidth yet again. The result?

You are Professor Charles Xavier.

You are a very effective teacher, and you are very committed to those who learn from you. You put your all into everything you do, to some extent because you fear failure more than anything else. You are always seeking self-improvement, even in areas where there is nothing you can do to improve.


Which X-Men character are you most like?

Tip of the Wisconsin hat to John of Argghhh!!!, even if I have mysteriously disappeared from his blogroll.

NB: John, the Fonda-Clinton thing you've got is inaccurate at one level: Thirty-five years ago, Jane Fonda was close to being a babe. Hillary Clinton has never been a babe. She's always been, from the evidence I've seen, in the "If she were the last woman on Earth, the human race will shortly be extinct" category. Even thirty years ago, at the height of the left-wing feeding frenzy called 'Watergate', she was something to write home about as being a horror you've seen.

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The Matrix: Examinations

This test comes courtesy of John of Arrgghh!, who got Mr. Anderson when taking this test. I, being one of the folks who likes the series, was drawn to taking it. Here's the result:

You are Persephone, from "The Matrix: Reloaded."
Tough cookie, you are, yet there are strains of
sadness and desire that lie beneath you- of
course, you wouldn't want anyone to know.
You're too busy putting up a facade.

What Matrix Persona Are You?

I don't disagree with some of this, but at the same time, I would rather have gotten Agent Smith. You can't go wrong with a Desert Eagle of some mark, a black suit, and dark sunglasses.

Tip of the Wisconsin hat to the crew at the Imperial Arsenal of Doom.

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Do You Believe in Miracles? Yes!

Once again, the Country Pundit endeavours to bring you, the gentle reader, the results of his laborious undertaking of an examination into the world of Internet-based tests.

Today's test asked, "Which member of the Bush Administration are you?" As Wreck-Gar said in Transformers: The Movie so many years ago, "...and the answer is..."

You're the warlike Rumsfeld! So simple, so
subtle, so darned...cute. God bless you, Donny!

Which member of the Bush Administration are you?
This hasn't exactly made my evening (not with several hours of Federal income taxation classwork staring me in the face) but nonetheless, it's lightened the tone.

Tip of the Wisconsin hat to elgato at Swanky Conservative for pointing me in the direction to find this.

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The Fictional Country Pundit

Yes, there is substantive content---stop laughing---in this blog. However, this post isn't one of them. As stated before, I like taking anything that tells you something about yourself. Sometimes those results aren't pretty. This entry revolves around the author whose fiction I most resemble, or something thereabouts:

Anne Rice is writing your life. Go you goth girl, go.

Which Author's Fiction are You?

Picture omitted because I'd prefer not to get billed for the costs of replacing a lot of keyboards ruined by vomit. Viewing all possible results, I think I would like to have gotten either William Faulkner or Robert A. Heinlein. I could understand maybe Tom Wolfe or Hunter S. Thompson, but Anne Rice?! I mean, I've seen & read Interview with the Vampire, enjoying them both, but darned if I'm some morbid black-wearing pansy who mopes about writing stupid poetry about the sweet embrace of death. (You're a khaki-and-blue-wearing wiseacre who lays about, writing stupid blog entries. -Ed.)

Anyways. I promise (and hold me to this!) that I won't do more than one of the test-result entries per day at most. I'm sure the readers would rather hear my ruminations on why Rumsfeld rules or something, and I'm also sure that in the grand scheme of things, nobody cares.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 06:44 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Revolution-Era Poll, Round Two

After a slight error in entering a URL, I found a different, less noble quiz at the Founding Fathers site. I duly punched in the answers as they came to me, and I came up with the answer to the question of which Revolutionary War er, hole I most resemble:

Hee hee. Having watched Disney's The Swamp Fox as a kid, I'm generally acquainted with Colonel Banastre Tarleton, but General John Burgoyne will do. Americans ought to like him since he surrendered his army to Major General Horatio Gates after the Saratoga campaign, on 17 October 1777.

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Which Founding Father?

The Country Pundit enjoys celebrity personality tests on the Internet. They're fun, meaningless, and involve precious little in the way of resources. They're also a way to boost one's ego if the results come out right.

To wit: This quiz asks which Founding Father you are. I took the test back in November of 2002 and took it again today. The results, rather shockingly, were the same:

Back then, I took the thing again and got the following:

I can see where me clicks with this variant of John Adams. I think I've said before that I'm not particularly interested in being liked but would rather be the one that people ask "What's the answer?" That being said, I also liked John Adams in a stage performance of 1776, so Adams isn't too far away from a facet of my personality. ("Cool Considerate Men" is arguably my favorite song---y'think?---followed closely by Richard Henry Lee's song-and-dance routine. Absolute-Lee.)

This one's actually too bloody close for comfort. I'm told (by suitably enlightened people!) I've got a great sense of humor and it usually works, but when it doesn't, hoo boy. I'm also reportedly pretty amusing to hear on a live rant. At any rate, I'm working on the mover and shaker part. "Wait'll they get a load of me..." From what I gather out of a French Revolution Time Machine book, Paine collected the death sentence on twelve star systems from Robespierre's government, and that's a bad thing. He did, however, escape, due to the fact (I think) that Messrs. Robespierre et al got marched to Mme. Defarge's salon before Mr. Paine did.¹

In the final analysis, it is good to know that I am like one of the most famous Virginians. The fact that we both have sideburns determines that we will both be President, muahahaha. You know, Internet quizzes being so reliable in predicting anything other than that people will waste time at them.

1. Ed Burke was right and that revolution was bad. The more I think about it, one of the last things that the French did right was to help us out in 1789; after that, it was all downhill. Sigh. You'd think the land of Jeanne d'Arc, Laetitia Casta (broadly), and the TGV might be able to come up with something other than knee-jerk opposition to America. Hope springs eternal, I suppose.

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The Country Pundit Visits the Gender Genie(!)

Some people get taken to see the Oracle. Others have to make do with visiting the Gender Genie. I'm one of the latter. I took all of the entries below this one that are currently displayed on the page, and entered them.

Lo and behold, the software was able to confirm (broadly) what I could have told anyone after a quick check of various attributes and so forth: The Country Pundit is a man. Under Gender Genie (heh heh heh) analysis, the score is 'male' by more than 2:1, on results of a "male score" of 16209 versus a "female score" of 7726.

Of course, this thing also called Virginia Postrel a man, so I'm not entirely sure that it works all that well. However, VP does point out that the thing's underlying theorems are supposed to work on fiction as opposed to non-fiction, so it's going to be a little out of whack on non-fiction.

I've got an irreverent question at this point: Has a Turing test been given at some level? If the Turing test requires Human A to be incapable of distinguishing between the responses given by Human B or Computer C in a blind test, then perhaps the Gender Genie has failed an ersatz Turing test. I had a theoretical construct of how this was minutely significant somehow in the development of computer intelligence, but the heat of the room in which I'm composing it caused me to forget or otherwise bungle the theory. My law school's too bloody cheap to turn off the heating when the temperatures creep above 70 in the city. Their excuse is something about coolant and so forth, and all this may be true and objectively problematic. That doesn't change the fact that I'm subjectively sweltering in here.

Ende.

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