Wrong Side of the Tracks

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wrong side of the tracks

my way of getting even -- a blog by jack rich

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11.17.2005 | Kazakhs

With a tip o' the fedora to yesterday's WSJ Best of the Web, we find some wizard, minister, imam, or whatever from Kazakhistan whining that his "nation" is being made sport of. I couldn't find a picture of this minister, so I used a reasonable approximation, with no offence meant towards the Elbonians.

Appears that the Kazakhs (sounds like hocking a loogy, you ask me) were offended by a Saturday Night-Live type of skit sending up their nation. From this untrustworthy MSM source:

Sacha Baron Cohen, who portrays a spoof Kazakh television presenter Borat in his "Da Ali G Show," has won fame ridiculing Kazakhstan, the world's ninth largest country yet still little known to many in the West, on British and U.S. channels.

Cohen appears to have drawn official Kazakh ire after he hosted the annual MTV Europe Music Awards show in Lisbon earlier this month as Borat, who arrived in an Air Kazakh propeller plane controlled by a one-eyed pilot clutching a vodka bottle.

Go, Sacha. As for the Kazakhs, they were not amused:

"We do not rule out that Mr. Cohen is serving someone's political order designed to present Kazakhstan and its people in a derogatory way," Kazakh Foreign Ministry spokesman Yerzhan Ashykbayev told a news briefing.

"We reserve the right to any legal action to prevent new pranks of the kind."

Ooh, be scared, Sacha. If the Kazakhs can gather enough shekels or pigs snouts or whatever they use for currency, who knows, they might show up in London. England, if they get lucky. Ontario, Canada, if they don't.

Seriously, Kazakhs: we in the West call it freedom of speech. Try it, you might like it.

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: Name: Jack Rich; Location: Arlington, Virginia, United States

I grew up in the Bronx, New York, on the wrong side of the tracks. This is my way of getting even. A blog on things great and small, religion, politics, culture, national security, you name it.

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about this blog

El tracks in the Bronx I was born, grew up, and went to school in the Bronx, New York -- on the wrong side of the tracks. Got the chance to go to college, so instead of joining the NYPD (the obvious career choice at that time and place), I became an engineer. Spent some years designing things that go boom (or things that take things that go boom to their destinations...), principally for our military. Also took an interesting career turn and for some years was in charge of counter-terrorism for my agency...so I learned something about guns. And when to use them.

I am a believer, in God. Christian. My opinion of most denominations is that they seem to be more concerned with the collection plate and devising intricate rules as to who is in and who is out.

My politics are a mix of conservative and libertarian, as in live and let live. With one exception, I favor small government, maximum personal freedom, coupled with personal responsibility and accountability for one's actions. I also know that there are, and have always been, things that are true, and things that are not. Two problems: Being smart enough to know which is which, and having the guts to act on it. I make no claims...

The exception to small government? I favor a robust national defense, against enemies foreign, and domestic. Or, as Teddy Roosevelt should have said, "speak softly and carry a whole bunch of armored divisions."

This blog will focus on politics, culture, religion, national security. That's pretty much the same territory as the New York Times. Just that I will never label my opinions as "news."