Sunday digest

- Greetings from separatist-free, terrorist-free, socialist-free, God-fearing South Carolina, where the taxes are low, the sun never stops shining, and the Yuengling flows like honey.

Without further ado, it's quiz time again.

Who recently referred to President Bush as a "coward" and "the most stupid President" in history while referring to the Democrats as "something reasonable"?

1. Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks
2. Rosie O'Donnell, panellist on "The View"
3. The New York Times editorial board
4. Abu Hamza al-Muhajir of al-Qaeda

Answer here.

- Things in Washington seem to be proceeding apace. First, we have a man who is an all-around nice guy but also had his face embossed on Richard Nixon's toilet paper at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, counterculture icon George McGovern, being brought in to give advice on military strategy. This doesn't bode well for those who are hoping for a return to Democratic traditions of the past. Then, we have the always-classy Bill Maher exposing the most private of details concerning various Republicans' personal lives. So much for civility.

Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose, non?

I have one word of advice for Democrats: discipline. If we're going to treat Iraq like a game of "Survivor", inviting the terrorists to outwit, outlast, and outplay us, let's do it with a little panache instead of lowering ourselves to the level of the smart-ass Angry Left.

The view from Down Under, here.

- A doctoral thesis waiting to be written: Donald Rumsfeld as a prisoner of the bureaucracy and a victim of resistance to both change and political direction. The man himself weighs in here.

- A little political science from William F. Buckley, here.

- According to this columnist, more people watched The Daily Show than CNN for election night coverage. Good for Jon Stewart, but he's a comedian who admittedly shows no pretense whatsoever towards calling it down the middle, nor should he. Although I'm not sure this is the sign of an informed populace, I guess it's better than not taking any interest in the future of society at all, as three in five American voters decided to do this past Tuesday.

- So nice, we'll do it twice ... quiz time again! Who recently said that the US congressional election "marks the failure of the war-mongering policies of Bush worldwide"?

A: Former US President Jimmy Carter
B: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reporter Neil Macdonald
C: Mohamed El-Masry, President of the Canadian Islamic Congress
D: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of Iran

Answer here, analysis here.

- Yesterday was Veteran's Day in the US and Remembrance Day in Canada, when both countries pause to reflect on the sacrifices made by our troops over history to give us the freedoms we enjoy. At the top of that list is the ability to good-naturedly jawjack with each other in forums like this without fear of reprisal, along with other liberties like the right to choose our own livelihoods, worship as we see fit, and hang out with whoever we want to. What separates us from "them" are those very things. Here's to the veterans of not only Canada and the US but all Western countries who have fought to guarantee us those freedoms against Nazis, Communists and Islamo-fascists.