Dear Norway, We Are So Sorry

First I completely forgot to mark the anniversary of the April 9, 1940 Battle of Drøbak Sound when a couple old coots found it their duty to stop the Nazi invasion of Norway with some antique artillery and raw recruits, sank the most modern ship in the German Navy, saved the Norwegian King and government from being taken captive and pulled Churchill's fat out of the fire-keeping the path open for him to assume the premiership of Britain and thus save Western Civilization.
I forgot to post the story.
Sorry.

And now it appears the nominee to be the U.S. Ambassador to Norway is a moron.*
Warning: this is  truly cringeworthy.
From National Public Radio:

...Tsunis' January Senate confirmation hearing started innocuously enough. "I am both honored and humbled to appear before you today as President Obama's nominee to be the ambassador to the Kingdom of Norway," he told the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee. But almost right away, the wealthy New York businessman started flailing.

It turns out the man who wants to be the next ambassador to Norway has never even been to Norway.

And anyone who's been called on in class when he wasn't prepared can probably sympathize with this moment:

"There are a lot of markets that will continue to open up. Uh ..." said Tsunis, trailing off amid a statement about U.S.-Norwegian trade.

"Let me just ask, as ambassador, how you promote those trade cooperations?" interjected Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican.

"Thank you for that save, Sen. Johnson," Tsunis said.
Then it went even further downhill.

Tsunis said Norway has a president. It doesn't — the country has a king and a prime minister.

Tsunis then described one of Norway's major political parties — a member of the current coalition government — as a "fringe element" that "spewed hatred."
Arizona Republican John McCain was unimpressed.

"The government has denounced them?" McCain said. "They're part of the coalition of the government."
"You know what? I stand corrected," an embarrassed Tsunis responded.

In response to the hearing, Sorensen and other Scandinavian-American leaders in Minnesota got together and organized. They wrote newspaper op-eds, put out petitions and got in touch with their elected representatives....MORE

*The English language version of Dr. Binet's scale:
Normal —–-- IQ 85-115
Deficient — IQ 71-84
Moron ——- IQ 51-70
Imbecile —- IQ 26-50
Idiot ——–-- IQ 0-25

The two old guys at Oscarsborg that evening were Colonel Birger Eriksen, commander of the fortress, age 64 and Andreas Anderssen, a 60 year old Kommandørkaptein but retired and living in the town who Eriksen probably enticed to come out to the fort with offers of coffee and brown cheese.

As the German armada approached, Eriksen aware his rookies had started their national service just days earlier and wouldn't be able to reload the old cannons, Moses and Aron, knew he'd only get one chance so he waited and waited for the Nazis to get closer.

At around a mile he disobeys general orders to fire a warning shot, says "Either I will be decorated or I will be court martialled, Fire!" and shoots at the heavy cruiser Blücher which had only been completed in September 1939.

With the artillery now pretty much useless, Eriksen tells Anderssen to fire a couple obsolete land-based torpedoes. Anderssen does, missing the mark with the first, adjusting his aim and:

The rest of the flotilla including the pocket-battleship Lützow turned tail and ran back down the fjord, not quite sure what had hit them.
A pretty good English language version of the story is at:
Making do with what you have...
One of these days I'll get around to explaining why Churchill almost wasn't going to become PM but for now, sorry Norway.