Several years ago (October 2005, actually), on a now-defunct blog I started called "Letters from Desolation Row", I declared war on the country of Iceland.

At the time of my declaration of war, I was virtually alone in standing against the Scandi Menace. My only overt allies in the Icelandic-war effort were LauraW and Sobek Pundit. Even Ace, who later came around to publicly decry the Nordic Scourge, stood silent.

In the fog of war, I had a moment of clarity. I understood what it was to be Churchill in a blogosphere of Chamberlains.

Why did I declare war on Iceland? I had numerous reasons, but this was on the bill of particulars:

"Third, they are just going out of their way to make it easy to dislike them. Look who their biggest national hero, and newly minted citizen is: noted anti-semitic loon Bobby Fischer, a man who openly advocates the destruction of the United States.

It's rhetoric like this that earns you Icelandic citizenship, apparently:

Here is a taste of the real Bobby Fischer, as profiled by Rene Chun in The Atlantic in 2002: 'The Jews are a 'filthy, lying bastard people,' bent on world domination through such insidious schemes as the Holocaust ('a money-making invention'), the mass murder of Christian children ('their blood is used for black-magic ceremonies'), and junk food (William Rosenberg, the founder of Dunkin' Donuts, is singled out as a culprit)."

Here is an excerpt from a radio interview with Fischer broadcast in the Philippines, hailing the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001: ''This is all wonderful news," Fischer announced. ''I applaud the act. The US and Israel have been slaughtering the Palestinians, just slaughtering them for years. Robbing them and slaughtering them. Nobody gave a [expletive]. Now it's coming back to the US. [Expletive] the US. I want to see the US wiped out."

You've shown your cards, Iceland. Now it's Jack's turn to play. Trust me...it will be easier on you if you just act like France and surrender to me now. The reach of the 'Tower is long. The footsoldiers are legion. And Reykjavik is poised to fall."

And now Bobby Fischer is dead. You will see eulogies to him in the press. You might read obituaries that swoon over his one golden moment in the sun: the 1972 defeat of Boris Spassky. I read one this morning that essentially compared Fischer's victory to the 1980 USA Hockey Team, while merely glossing over the man's vehement anti-semitism and anti-Americanism as "eccentricities."

Please.

I doubt you'll see much more than oblique references to the other side of Bobby Fischer. For all his chess genius, this man was no hero. He was a vile, inhuman, America hating douche. And when no one else in the world would harbor him from American justice, Iceland did so gleefully and triumphantly.

I certainly hope that Fischer was asked to make an accounting for himself today. And I really hope that the last thing his eternal soul heard was God saying "checkmate".

As for Iceland? They can now retreat back into the obscurity from which they emerged.

At least until another chess-playing, jew-hating, anti-american douchetool re-emerges on the scene. In which case, I have no doubt this land of herring-munching, ice-pricks will be more than happy to claim him as a native son.

Oh..and just as an after-thought to upset the Paultards: Apparently Fischer and Ron Paul share the same belief in "America had 9/11 coming blowback". Interesting, that.

Posted by: Jack M. at 08:25 AM | Comments (40)
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You've probably seen them. I don't really know what all the fuss is about, except to confirm Tom Cruise is goofy and probably being drained of a lot of his money by the Scientologists in exchange for promotions to Deputy Xenu Buster No. 1.

Here's "Tom Cruise on Tom Cruise, Scientologist." And below he accepts a shiny medal for Valorous Service In The Defense of the Earth Against Xenu, or something.

Posted by: Ace at 08:21 AM | Comments (32)
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Check out this map.

Almost a year after announcing the "surge", Al-Q has been pushed out of urban areas and their areas of operation significantly reduced.

Iraqi and US forces have also discovered 351 weapons caches and four tunnel complexes, Odierno said. Iraqi and US forces have also discovered three car bomb and improvised explosive device [IED] factories and 410 IEDs, including 18 car bombs and 25 homes rigged with explosives. Also found were "numerous torture chambers, an underground medical clinic, several closed schools, and a large foreign fighter camp with intricate tunnel complexes," said [USArmy Lt. Gen. Ray] Odierno.

Since Jan. 8 they've also killed 121 AQ, and detained over a thousand suspects. Baghdad's a lot quieter too.

I believed (wrongly, as it turns out) the war would be a major campaign issue. But not one of the serious Dem candidates for President would commit to ending it in five years. Sure, it was a "read my lips" moment, but they all knew it and knew what they had to say. Or rather couldn't say.

Posted by: Dave In Texas at 06:09 AM | Comments (17)
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I mean, consider your audience.

William R. Farr was pretending to read telegrams congratulating this year's award recipient, University of Colorado President Hank Brown, when he pulled out a piece of paper and said, "I have a telegram from the White House."

Then he added, "They're going to have to change the name of that building if Obama's elected."

Witnesses said they could hear people gasp in the ballroom of the Adam's Mark Hotel.

"I gasped," said Gov. Bill Ritter, who was sitting at the table with Farr.

Oversensitive much? Full story is here.

Okay, so the joke was bad. But it left people gasping? I gasp when I see a child run into a busy street. I gasp when someone jumps out of the bushes at me while I'm running in the morning (long story). I don't gasp when someone says something stupid in a public.

To gasp in that situation makes me think the gaspers are not gasping out of any sudden shock or fright, but just to let anyone sitting nearby know how "with it" they are. Look how eager Governor Ritter is to tell the Rocky Mountain News that he was among the people gasping. We get it, Governor, you're "sensitive."

I, however, am not. Would someone with a better racial barometer explain to me what, in the words of Senator Ken Salazar, was so "uncalled for and atrocious" about this? 'Cause I don't get it.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 12:35 AM | Comments (44)
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This may be old news to you guys, but I just discovered it today.

If you've watched TV at all during the past year, or even visited a movie theatre in the early fall, you've seen the Levi's jeans commercial where a guy is standing in his apartment, pulling on a pair of jeans. As he does so, an entire city street comes crashing up through the floor, including a woman in a phone booth. The two exchange looks and walk off together and we all run to the store to buy a pair of jeans that calls come-hither women from the earth.

Have you seen this version?

This one plays on the gay channels and Bravo (but I repeat myself). Levi's has apparently abandoned its plan to start running it on the major networks this winter.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 12:04 AM | Comments (22)
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And you people told me that no one cares about the Confederate Battle Flag anymore. Mike Huckabee is trying to use it against his major competitor in South Carolina, John McCain:

“You don’t like people from outside the state coming in and telling you what to do with your flag,” Mr. Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas, told supporters in Myrtle Beach, according to The Associated Press.

“In fact,” he said, “if somebody came to Arkansas and told us what to do with our flag, we’d tell them what to do with the pole; that’s what we’d do.”

[...]

And a radio advertisement paid for by an independent group used the flag issue to attack Mr. McCain, of Arizona, and praise Mr. Huckabee. “John McCain assaults our values,” it said. “Mike Huckabee understands the value of heritage.”

It was a bigger issue in 2000 when the South Carolina legislature caught national attention over its debate removing the flag from the statehouse dome and placing it on a nearby monument. Obviously, it's still an issue for some folks. It is amusing to see Huckabee faking an interest in federalism as he searches furiously for issues with which to connect to the electorate. (For example, he reversed his stance on a national smoking ban earlier this week.)

Meanwhile, McCain, unlike in 2000, isn't ambiguous about what he thinks on the topic:

Asked about the flag at an event on Wednesday in Spartanburg, Mr. McCain said, “My answer, sir, is that I could not be more proud that the overwhelming majority of the people of this state joined together taking that flag off the top of the....” And his answer was drowned out by the cheers of supporters.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 11:34 PM | Comments (20)
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A pic from Messenger. Aptly named.

This stuff still fascinates me.

Posted by: Dave In Texas at 06:03 PM | Comments (51)
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Well blow me over with a white feather!

It's jaw-dropping. Politico reports that anti-war groups have decided it's not politically wise to oppose funding the troops, and have sent out the word that they'll set their sights on the lesser goal of preventing Bush from signing any long-term deals with the Iraqi government.

And guess what the NYT endorses today?

Talking points straight from the DNC and Soros front groups, hot off the presses! Get everyone onto the new message, now!

Who do I mean by everyone?

Via Hot Air's headlines.

Posted by: Ace at 02:42 PM | Comments (40)
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Coulter endorses Romney, which surprises me, as I got the feeling from her earlier she was a Giuliani girl but didn't want to admit it.

Meanwhile, Rush says women who support Romney are "Mittens" who support him due to his capacity to sexually arouse them.

Silly. Mitt's handsome but in that nonthreatening, uninteresting way. He may play well with women (actually, he doesn't, but whatever), but I really doubt it's because so many women want to get with him.

As Allah says (and I've said myself before), you're going to say silly stuff when you have three hours to fill. You just can't afford an internal editor.

Bonus: Huckabee's Latest Misstep: I'm sure he doesn't really mean this; he just said it without thinking about it. But that's a frequent problem with the Huckster -- he plainly hasn't thought about very much at all so many of his statements are just first-time-I-even-considered-this gibberish.

Confronted with the fact that his supporters are push-polling, he says he wants to outlaw all negative campaigning against candidates, unless the candidate being criticized approves of the negative ad.

What?

Again, I don't think he means it. I don't think he's thought about this long enough to mean it.

But just like with his tax-hiking ways, he seeks to immunize himself by being more Catholic than the pope on taxes and promising to abolish the IRS; stung by criticisms that he's soft on illegals, he plagiarizes most of Mark Krikorian's plan for immigration.

And now, confronted with his supporters engaging in illegal and sleazy push-polling, he suddenly endorses making all negative ads illegal.

Whenever something unsavory or undesirable about him pops up, he lurches suddenly and wildly in the exact opposite direction, sometimes with comical results (he still wants to reform the INS, which doesn't actually exist anymore) and sometimes frightening ones (pass a law making it illegal to criticize politicians without their express written consent).

This guy is seriously not ready for prime time.

After every debate people say "Well, he really answered the religion question well." Well, no friggin' duh. He's a preacher. But how about his answers regarding actual policy?

Clarification: Prarie Wind explains what Huck almost certainly meant:

What he meant is others should not be allowed to do negative campaigning on behalf of a candidate unless that candidate approves. I guess he means "official" approval.

I know it doesn't help what he said much but there is a slight distinction. I wonder if Huck Boy has ever read the Bill of Rights. I know most of the Democrats haven't but I expect better from Republicans.

Well there's a big distinction, and that does make sense... in broad outline. The problem is that it couldn't be implemented, because a group would just claim "We don't support the candidate we obviously support, we just don't like the rest of these guys," etc. These groups would just claim to be nonpartisan.

Admittedly, though, this interpretation makes his remarks non-crazy.

But still not terribly well thought through. Still off-the-cuff, first-time-this-occurred-to-me crap.

Posted by: Ace at 02:30 PM | Comments (53)
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Legacy media was in full shit-eating grin mode in November and December when the talk was about the crack-up of the Reagan coalition. But we're going on two weeks now where the rifts in the Democratic party have been showing. Whereas Republicans divided themselves according to political philosophy, with social cons, fiscal cons, and foreign policy cons fighting over which direction to take the party, the Democrats are dividing themselves up according to race and privilege.

That's a generalization, but an accurate one. The Michigan primary showed for the first time just how fragmented the party can get. And the Nevada teachers' union just made things worse. They failed in their suit to prevent caucus locations from opening on the Vegas Strip in order to allow strip employees to participate.

The state teachers union, which has ties to Clinton, brought the suit against the special precincts shortly after local 226 of the Culinary Workers Union endorsed Obama for the Democratic nomination. The union is the largest in Nevada, with 60,000 members. The Clinton campaign said it was not involved in the suit.

The suit contended party rules allowing the precincts gave too much power to the casino workers and violated federal equal protection guarantees.

The polls have Clinton and Obama in a dead heat, but the last reliable poll was conducted over the weekend, before this got pretty nasty:

"While the Clinton camp clearly believed the voices of workers should be silenced in service of their perceived political interest, they enjoyed a 25-point lead two months ago and have much of the party establishment in their camp. So, despite their inherent advantages we are pleased this should be a close and competitive contest Saturday," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.

I'm calling Nevada for Obama.

More: And, of course, once the Clintons lose the media, they'll have lost the race.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 01:27 PM | Comments (21)
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