Oscar Jr. Was Here

Blogs around the U.S.A. Update V

Here's the long-promised update to the Blogs around the U.S.A. project.

Via Dustbury, for the Sooner State, I've added Okiedoke. Also for the Sooner State, see OkiePundit.

Via mtpolitics, for the Treasure State, I've added billingsblog.

From the Empire State blogs Insignificant Thoughts.

Thanks to the recommendation of James Rummel, I've added, for the Buckeye State, Musings from the Imperial Senate, Spiced Sass and Biscuits and Gravy.

For the Pelican State, I've added Ei Baa Hashne'.

From the Aloha State blogs Sgt. Hook.

For the Hoosier State, I've added Greeblie Blog 2K3.

From the Sunflower State blogs Wichi Dude.

Here's another Golden State blog, The Lopsided Poopdeck.

For the Silver State, I've added Notorious B.L.O.G.

For the Garden State, I've added Parkway Rest Stop.

From the Grand Canyon State blogs El Gringo.

Finally, for the Bluegrass State, I've added Limestone Make Horse Blood Strong!.

As always, if you have or know of a reasonable weblog that occasionally posts on state and/or local news, suggestions are eagerly sought. Happy reading.

Friday VDH

Victor Davis Hanson is even better than usual (and the usual, of course, is excellent) in today's essay, Hoping We Fail. Excerpt:

All this hysteria and unrest should come as no surprise given the ambition of our endeavor, which is no less than a war of civilization to end both terrorism and the culture and politics that foster it. Still, let us ignore the self-interest of contemporary parties and reflect on the very scope of American audacity. In little more than three weeks, and coming on the heels of an amazing victory in Afghanistan, the American military defeated the worst fascist in the Middle East. Surrounded by enemies, and forced simultaneously to conduct the war against terrorism in dozens of countries and restore calm on the West Bank, the United States nevertheless sought to create consensual government and order under legal auspices in weeks — rather than the decades that were necessary in Japan and Germany, where elections took years and soldiers remain posted still. The real story is not that the news from Iraq is sometimes discouraging and depressing, but that it so often not — and that after two major-theater wars we have lost fewer people than on that disastrous day in Beirut 20 years ago, and less than 10 percent of the number that perished on September 11.

"You Have Angered Allah"

This is very amusing! Have a look and a laugh.

"Flying with Happiness"

Via Chuck Simmins, 100 Liberation Quotes. Excerpt:

"Why call us occupied? We are liberated."

Mohammed Hanash Abbas, co-owner of Iqra'a bookstore in Baghdad, Associated Press, 6/17/03

Read them all.

Oscar Jr., Visionary Philosopher

Emode says:

Oscar, you are a Visionary Philosopher.

This means you are highly intelligent and have a powerful mix of skills and insight that can be applied in a variety of different ways.

Do you believe Emode?

More on Iraq

Via InstaPundit, David Warren also has some very cogent thoughts on Iraq. Excerpt:

Returning from four weeks of holiday, in which I did my best to avoid all news, I find myself again somewhat shocked by the sheer malice of the mainstream media. The journalists themselves are overwhelmingly "liberal". In the U.S., for instance, they have been shown to vote as a class for Democrats over Republicans by margins of more than ten-to-one; and further, that they tend to identify with the left wing of that Democrat Party. They want to bring down President Bush, at all costs; and if Iraq is turned back into a Saddamite killing field, or Al Qaeda is given a new lease on life, they don't particularly care. For they smell Republican blood.

Turning to Iraq itself, the situation continues to improve. It was never going to be a rose garden, but it is clear to impartial observers within the country that Iraqis themselves are co-operating -- the overwhelming majority within each of its religious and ethnic groups, including even the Sunnis, co-operating with each other and with the U.S. military to hunt down Ba' athists and insurgents, and rebuild the country both physically and institutionally, even through the baking summer heat. It is the most promising event in post-colonial Arab history.

The Importance of Iraq

On NRO, Jed Babbin writes, in Only Half Done, "Iraq is the stage upon which the future of the Middle East is being fought out." Excerpt:

None of the despotisms that are among Iraq's neighbors — Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Syria — can continue if freedom blossoms in Iraq. So those governments are actively involved in funding, supplying, and reinforcing the terrorists and remnants of Saddam's regime fighting us in Iraq. Iraq cannot be free, and its people finally liberated, unless and until we end the interference of those governments.

It's well worth reading.

Quote of the Day

“In the decisive battle between good and evil, there is no place for neutrality and no room for stragglers. Those who even just sympathize with terrorists are themselves terrorists, and they will receive their just punishment.”

Now, who said it?

(via VodkaPundit.)

Hiatus Hiatus

I hereby interrupt my unplanned, unannounced and lamented blogging hiatus to wish Michele, the prolific, wonderful and alleged zionazi jewpropgandist, a happy birthday and anniversary.

Back to the grind... I hope to return soon.

Bite-Sized IMAO

I think Frank J.'s Bite-Sized Wisdom posts are almost as funny as his In My World posts (of which this is my current favorite). Excerpts:

* I ended up getting that Zatoichi sword. I didn't play with it much yesterday since I wasn't feeling well, but I found out that if you're practicing throwing something in the air and cutting it in two, an orange is too messy... especially in the living room (I had to clean orange juice off the miniblinds). I think I'll stick to apples. BTW, if there is a slowdown in blogging, it's probably from a loss of fingers.

and

* To all military readers of this site: get off your damn asses and kill some terrorists. What are you doing surfing the net when there are still people out there in need of killing! Hey, my tax dollars pay your measly salary, so get to it!

Feel better soon, Frank J.!

Warblogs at War

An InstaBlogSon has declared war on The Great InstaPundit?

Bachelor Housekeeping Tip #3

Microwaved frozen corn is really, really lousy.

On the other hand, microwaved macaroni and cheese is quite good, and you don't even have to use a strainer.

Bachelor Housekeeping Tip #2

If you're going to eat chips and salsa in bed, it's not a bad idea to wear a really colorful Brazilian tee shirt.

Yes, it's been a bad day for clothes at Casa Oscar Jr.

Bachelor Housekeeping Tip

If you're going to accidentally put a black ink pen in the clothes dryer, it's better to accidentally do so with your dark-colored clothes rather than your whites.

I may have to scan some of the more interesting patterns. Ah, well... My LGF tee shirt will be even more intriguing now:

If you see someone wandering the streets of Philadelphia with doodles on his clothes, well, that may just be me.

Gone Fishin'

Not really, but life got busier all of a sudden. I should be back at blogging this weekend with the very tardy update to the Blogs around the U.S.A. project and, if I can make sense of the results, a new Quantifying the Blogosphere post.

If anyone's still reading this thing by then...

Post of the Day

Misha posts a caustic letter from the front in Iraq. Brief excerpt:

There are many Iraqis who are doing their best to pick up the pieces and make their land a better place, and they are doing the best job they can with what little is left after more than two decades of Ba’ath Party squandering. They aren’t waiting for State handouts, they’re seizing the initiative and accomplishing far more than many people here have in well over 20 years. I’m talking about policemen, former soldiers, doctors, and shopkeepers; the very Bourgeoisie the radical left despises, the hardworking, enterprising men and women who have been the very foundation and lifeblood of prosperous democracies throughout history. They’re all over the place here, and they will ultimately be this land’s political and economic salvation.

It's very much worth reading.

Update: A thoughtful post on Power Line on military casualties in Iraq makes the same point as one made in this letter. Power Line:

So all I ask is that American newspapers start applying fair and objective news judgment to what is, in fact, a remarkably low casualty rate, under the circumstances. And stop giving aid and comfort to the enemy.

Misha's correspondent:

THEY ARE PROVIDING AID AND COMFORT TO OUR ENEMIES. I need to hit the books and look it up, but I am pretty damned sure that that makes them TRAITORS. By unleashing a tidal wave of coverage on each and every attack, they encourage our enemies to hit again and again, confident in their own minds that the constant screeching and bleating in the press will unnerve and worry our families to no end, and little by little dent our national resolve to keep up the fight. At which point they hope internal pressures will cause us to pull our presence out and let a reconstituted Ba’ath flood back into the vacuum, much like the endgame in Vietnam.

A Blogs around the World Sampler

Whistling Thorns is a place literally in the middle of nowhere. But, you get pretty good pizzas there.

It lies on the pipeline road that connects the highway to Tanzania with the road to lake magadi. Kinda like connecting two points without a name on the map with a straight line. With the workhorse Pug 504 loaded up we made good speed. While a bitch in city traffic, the Pug is a master of the Kenyan highway. This arrow straight-road passes through savannah of the Tsavo eco-system. There aren't many people living here, traffic on the road is practically non-existent.

@Unganisha.org

We were discussing Naadam and she confessed that she finds Mongolian wrestling boring. I admitted that I'm not too crazy about cricket, my beloved country's national sport, which is as much of an acquired taste as Mongolian wrestling. I think it would take as long to understand the rules of cricket as it would to understand those of Mongol wrestling. Then we got onto the Mongolian diet. She started explaining how eating mutton and fat and dough in winter, and yoghurt and curd and milk in summer, leads to a long life, it being a perfectly balanced diet.

@chris in mongolia

One old tradition in Ukraine is to greet guests w/ an elaborate loaf of bread with pretty decorations on top and salt, both of which the guests eat. We were entertained by the musical stylings of one of the host mothers who performs Ukrainian folk songs with a group while wearing traditional embroidered dress. I kept thinking how we had traveled so far and how we were now, I don't know, rewarded for our efforts. Not so much by the food and music, but rather from all the effort that these people make for us. It is so hard still to fathom that these people take us in as strangers and treat us as honored guests, all on no merit of our own. I am humbled every day to be here, to be treated as I am. We are tremendously privileged to have this opportunity and I thank especially the American taxpayers for supporting us.

Much merriment, toasting and drinking of homemade wine and vodka ensued, from which I already have a headache (the wine, not the merriment per se). There may have also been dancing to loud Ukrainian traditional songs translated to pop music and a poor rendition sung of "America the Beautiful" but I will never tell our cluster's secrets.

@Peace Corps || Ukraine

To write with such casualness is not to condone such behaviour. Nor is it to condemn it. It is simply to acknowledge a particular national trait, birthed in our colonial past. It is a phenomenon at once both simple and complex, one that still holds strong, even in this anodyne, politically correct age. In essence it has to do with the harsh colonial mentality of not allowing anyone else dignity, of seeing everyone as being in the same leaky boat as yourself. Since no one was exempt from being lampooned - not even the white masters - the result was that, in the main, and once you weren't being genuinely offensive, no one's pride was damaged. In any case, there was no such thing as racial pride to be damaged. No solid notion of racial consciousness had as yet been formed.

Of course, now we're up to our ears in racial pride - almost exclusively African and Indian - which has more to do with politics than it does with any genuine concern for ancestral heritage. But peel away that flimsy layer and beneath is the true Trinidadian, who, regardless of his race, and whether he wishes to admit it, or even if he doesn't realise it, is the same as everyone else: a Creole.

@Notes from a small island

Last night Norbert made his return in spectacular fashion. For those of you who might not remember or didn't read my email about the critters in my house, Norbert is the foot-long green gecko that lives in my fale.

So last night, while I was struggling to get to sleep in the middle of the night about 3am or so, I heard this huge crashing sound in the kitchen. I get up, walk over 10 feet to the kitchen and turn on the lights.

What do I see?

The first thing is the glass top of my stock pot, which is on the floor. Fortunately it's in one piece. Then I see my kittens. Mak is on the screen door and Filemu is on top of the fridge. They're looking up in the corner. Up in the corner is, of course, Norbert.

@American Idle

My point being...get over yourselves already! Not everything that happens in Latin America is the result of some plot hatched in a smoky room at the State Dept., y'know? Learn to deal: there was going to be a coup in Chile anyway - because whatever the CIA might have been up to, a huge swathe of Chilean society and almost all of the military supported it. CIA connnivance sure didn't hurt, but for the love of christ, what kind of catatonically self-involved view of the world puts a little CIA logistical and financial help at the center of the analysis, while showing no interest at all in the psychology of rampant fear that took over the Chilean middle class, its order and progress ideology, its deep catholic roots, and its cultural ascendancy over the military? Is it really that difficult, or boring, for you to stop thinking about your own damn country for five minutes and consider the internal dynamics of the societies you're purportedly interested in? Because, you see, these kinds of questions strongly suggest that you're not actually interested in Latin America at all! You're just using Latin America as a screen on which to project your little ideological anti-US-imperialism circle jerk. Enough!

@Caracas Chronicles

Blogs around the World Update IX

Here's the long-overdue update to the Blogs around the World project:

For Africa, I've added the Zombyboy-sponsored, and new, AfricaBlog. It's a must-read.

For Norway, on the recommendation of Beth, I've added Secular Blasphemy.

For Samoa, I've added Andrew Hecht's American Idle. Andrew also provides a handy list of other Peace Corps workers' websites.

From his list, I've added two sites for Nepal: Happenings in the Life and Times of Nathan Blom and The Peace Corps Experience of Scott Allan Wallick.

At the suggestion of Policomm, I've added (for Cyprus, obviously) Cyprus News.

For Finland, I've added Rye Beer (mmm, beer).

For Europe, I've added the Europundit (not to be confused with the EuroPundits).

For Germany, I've added Tobias Schwarz's Almost a diary.

Via The Flying Penguin, I've added, for Bahrain, Mahmood's Den.

For Kenya, I've added Unganisha.org. Lots of interesting stuff inside this site.

For Israel, I've added Israellycool.

For Afghanistan, I've added a link to the Afghanistan Online Forum and Michael Ubaldi's
uBlog Afghan Watch.

For Iraq, I've added Ishtar talking and Juan Cole *Informed Comment*.

For South Korea, I've added Kathreb.

For the Czech Republic, I've added Nicmoc blog.

For Egypt, I've added Willblog.

For Bangladesh, I've added The 3rd World View.

Finally, for the United Arab Emirates, I've added Desertdame.

Please note that not all of these bloggers, and not all of the other bloggers on the list, are physically located in the region to which I've assigned them. For countries or continents that are under-represented, I've included sites that choose to focus on them from afar. Distant attention is better than none.

I hope any readers will take some time to visit these newly-added sites. As always, additional suggestions are sought via comment or email. For anyone interested, I should have an update to the Blogs around the U.S.A. project ready soon, too. Happy reading!