Comments on: And Then There Was Nunn

by: Ken S, Fifth String on the Banjo of Life

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 19:17:10 +0000

This does strike me as a pretty weak gaffe to mock. It might be more mockable if the name was completely different (like calling Bosnia “Czechoslovakia”) but it’s be a pretty easy “mis-speak” when the first syllable is still the same as the name you used for more than half your life.

by: checkmate

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 13:59:18 +0000

Hokie - you’re absolutely right about what would have happened had McCain said it.

Uh, Kelly, the name *did* change. Your logic is really great: the fact that the country split somehow precludes the fact that the name changed.

Letalis - An Obamabot. My friends would ROTFL at the notion. I came to this site on a link from Insta, after reading my opening page, Drudge, and then going to my routine look at Roger L Simon, Real Clear Politics and Hot Air (the single nugget of veracity in your disingenuous post was the “relentelessly surfing the net” part). But if dismissing someone’s comment by baselessly decreeing that “almost certainly” he is not what he says and has ulterior motive is your idea of compelling rebuttal, go for it. I hope the rest of our team can do better.

by: Assistant Village Idiot

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:19:18 +0000

Even a badly senile Sam Nunn would be better than an alert Barack Obama on foreign policy. In his dotage, and not recognising the countries they came from, Nunn would dimly recall that you don’t meet with our enemies without preconditions.

by: Ben

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 18:52:22 +0000

davod,

Well, you’re wrong. In fact, most common Burmese actually consider it an insult for “enlightened” Westerners to insist on using the name adopted by the military junta now running that benighted country.

by: davod

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:22:11 +0000

“Burma is still the recognized name by most countries around the world. So, its use is ok.”

I don’t think so.

by: Rob Mandel

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:08:18 +0000

well, he could have said Bohemia and Moravia, or even worse, Sudetenland. By the way, did he mention Memel or Danzig?

by: Pat

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:49:23 +0000

“Maybe this is because John McCain is the GOP presidential candidate, and Sam Nun is some guy that a few people in the media have talked about as a possible Obama VP choice?”

The technical term for this sort of thing is “double standard”.

by: Pat

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:44:59 +0000

Yes, William is absolutely right. We must determine what the most important thing in the world is, and discuss ONLY that until we have completely resolved the issue. Only then can we move on to the second most important topic, and then the third, and so in IN ORDER. This business of having multiple discussions of different topics in different places will cease IMMEDIATELY. That is all.

by: william

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:29:23 +0000

Isn’t there something more important to discuss, such as Obama is going to recover all the nuclear material floating around in the world.

by: richard mcenroe

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:07:34 +0000

Heck, the Democrats already made the Ottoman blunder with their “rag on Turkey’ resolution pandering to their Armenian donor base. Nunn’s right in the mainstream of Democratic thought. Good to see the old cracker’s still got it.

by: Zyke

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 14:19:10 +0000

Yes, of course any serious missile would contain evasive measures, any serious missile built by a serious country such as the United States, but the missiles we are worried about are missiles more in the vein of scuds, which are pretty much very dangerous bottle rockets, those have no evasion technology on them and a missile defense shield would work perfectly against them.

Since my knowledge on ballistic missiles isn’t perfect, what sort of evasion technology are you talking about? Redirection? Deployable Countermeasures? I would assume that whatever any of these potential aggressors have is far inferior to what we can deploy against them.

by: RTG

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:52:51 +0000

“checkmate….i think the larger issue is that mccain makes the mistake = HUGE gaffe…he’s a senile old man. nunn makes the same mistake = crickets chirping.”

Maybe this is because John McCain is the GOP presidential candidate, and Sam Nun is some guy that a few people in the media have talked about as a possible Obama VP choice?

by: Larry Shapiro

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:48:16 +0000

Missile defense opens up a huge business oportunity for the defense industry and has no practical application since any serious missile will contain evasion measures that will render the system useless. Defense is big business and that’s what the Bush administration is all about.

by: Letalis Maximus, Esq.

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:48:06 +0000

Actually, it is much more likely that our friend checkmate is actually an Obamabot. Relentlessly surfing the internet in order to be the first to comment, negatively of course, on any blog postings that say anything negative about Obama, his supporters, or his campaign. So, checkmate is almost certainly not ignorant, but almost certainly does have an ulterior motive.

by: rrr

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:37:19 +0000

Way to go, checkmate! Why not type, “I’m ignorant and anything I’m ignorant about doesn’t matter in my world.” Same thing, just clearer and shorter.

by: arky

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:21:07 +0000

And, Czechoslovakia didn’t just change names. It split into the two countries of Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Maybe Sam Nunn fears pissing off the USSR?

by: Kelly

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:20:36 +0000

“Do you think that Sam Nunn doesn’t know that the name changed a few years back?”

Um, Checkmate, the name didn’t change. Chechoslovakia split into two independent countries, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Calling the Czech Republic by the name of Czechoslovakia would be like referring to Russia as the Soviet Union.

by: Steve

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:13:36 +0000

Burma is still the recognized name by most countries around the world. So, its use is ok.

by: Hokie Dean

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:04:21 +0000

checkmate….i think the larger issue is that mccain makes the mistake = HUGE gaffe…he’s a senile old man. nunn makes the same mistake = crickets chirping.

as for burma / myanmar goes. there are more than a few who refuse to refer to it as myanmar because in doing so gives legitimacy to the ruling junta.

and lastly, for me….it’s still bombay. that’s what the gin says, and it’s never steered me wrong. except that one time……

by: Ben

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:03:46 +0000

Checkmate,

If you say “Czechoslavakia” even though you know better, then you are lazy and deserve to be mocked, too.