Bringing back the old Soviet Empire

[Bill_Thompson]

I am wondering if anyone would be interested in bringing back the Old Soviet Empire.

I just wrote my first working "Hello World" in ASP.NET to strike fear in the hearts of the imperialist dogs.

[Enzo]

We are working hard to bring back the USSR.

When I was growing up in the 1950s (I don't recall the late 1940s part, sorry) we all learned to hate the USSR. "Better dead than red," we'd chant. When bumper stickers came along, that's what it said on them.

Why should we hate them?

They were sending their armies out into the world to spread their form of political and governmental systems. Hungary in 1956 was a big deal. And then when they went into Afghanistan, well there we were to support the poor Afghanis against them.

They set up military bases in other countries around the world to protect themselves against outside threats.

They covertly supported our enemies.

They suppressed the rights of their citizens, hauling people out in the night and whisking them away to horrid prisons.

They used torture and other wicked means to extract information and "confessions" from political prisoners.

They denied any form of due process for these political prisoners. No charges, no courts, no attorneys

They had citizens spying on one another, and no one was immune from the watching eye, phones were tapped, mail read.

Their secret agents infiltrated other coutries to meddle in the governance thereof, even to the point of assasinations and kidnapping of leaders.

and so on.


And eventually the Soviet Union collapsed under its own weight.

ANd now?

Now the USA is doing ALL these things. We are becoming the new USSR.

[KLA2]

Enzo, there is a lot in American policy that currently needs correcting. Your comparisons are perceptive, accurate and depressing.

I hate to see a neighbor reduced to kicking his old uncle (Sam) in the ass, however, so I will comment.

Ask yourself, where would you rather live, in Russia then / now, or in the US now? I would be surprised at anyone who does not choose the latter. (Including most Russians then / now.)

I am increasingly coming to the uncomfortable conclusion that war is not nice, or wise. Particularly not stupid wars for (perceived) short term political gain. Once involved, however, you are not going to win by sticking flowers into the barrels of your enemies guns.

Aside from the obvious ethical issues, overt and gratuitous torture / arrest / imprisonment is even stupider than telling the (real or perceived) enemy they will be shot on surrender. Smart choice, letting them know surrender is worse than fighting to the death.

Hard to know when to engage in war. Chamberlain has been vilified for his policy of appeasement, but had this avoided WWII, he would be a brilliant and honored statesman. (At least in some countries.)

In America, unlike the USSR, you live in a democracy, with a fairly free press. Ultimately you have the power to shine a light into those dark corners and to set things right. (If you can outvote or educate the right wing raving religious loonies, that is.)

Democracy is like driving a car. You cannot just “set it and forget it’; you have to constantly make corrections or it veers off course and out of control.

Hate to see you scrap the car instead. :P

Just a Canadian’s two cents worth. :?

[KLA2]

I am wondering if anyone would be interested in bringing back the Old Soviet Empire.

I just wrote my first working "Hello World" in ASP.NET to strike fear in the hearts of the imperialist dogs.

Bill, I assume this is sarcasm.

If you expect a response, a link would be helpful. :wink:

[Enzo]

KLA2, I am kicking my fellow voter in the ass, not Uncle Sam.

"All it takes is for free men to do nothing..."

Ask yourself, where would you rather live, in Russia then / now, or in the US now? I would be surprised at anyone who does not choose the latter. (Including most Russians then / now.)

This is a false dichotomy. The question is not what is here now, but what we are on the road to becoming. SHould cattle on the way to the slaughterhouse delight in the scenery on the way? Thank the buthcer as he greets them and ushers them in?

The point is that as we slide down the slippery slope, as they listen to our phone calls and read our emails, as they lie to us about oh just everything, as they subvert all that we stand for, we find ourselves more and more already in that old USSR world.

All my life, I hear that America meant something. We stood for democracy, freedom, accountability, human rights, etc. Now we find increasingly that those are only slogans to chant, while the reality is moving somewhere else.

We think due process is a fundamental part of our way, yet the government does such things as kidnap people and whisk them out of the places they are and move them to places where our laws do not apply. And we do that for no other reason that to skirt our own laws. Clearly the people in charge don't believe in the constitution, it is just something to wave around. I want our country to indeed stand for something - that original something I grew up with.

KLA2, you response focused mainly on the war, and my USSR rant looks at the present war as only another item on the list. The NSA listening to calls predates the war by a long while. The USA sending forces into other countries, kidnapping their leader does as well, remember Manuel Noriega? Our CIA was ACTIVELY seeking to assainate Fidel Castro for a long time. Of course when the Soviets assassinated someone we were oh so apalled.

Once involved, however, you are not going to win by sticking flowers into the barrels of your enemies guns.

Win? Forget the place name, but one city the Britich army was holding down recently had a huge drop in bombings and other such activities. How did the British army achieve this? They pulled their troops out of the city.

When your only tool is a gun, pretty soon all your problems start to look like targets.

(If you can outvote or educate the right wing raving religious loonies, that is.)

ANd when they are running the show?

I don't want to scrap the car either, I want to align the front end so it doesn't pull so hard to the right. I want to paint it to the rust wont dissolve it while I drive. I want to replace the fuel filter so it runs smoothly. And I want a new muffler so the roar it makes doesn't drown out the peaceful life around it.

[Halcyon Dayz, FCD]

I doubt Putin wants the old Soviet empire back.

He is working on something new.

[KLA2]

I wish I could refute you, Enzo. I bet we both do. :(

Truth, justice and democracy must always be fought for. Hope you folks still have the fight left in you, because if it dies in America, I fear it dies in the world.

[Arneb]

Although I am equally fuming at the current evil gubmint of the USA, I am not quite as pessimistic as you. In the US, you do have a critical press, an uncensored internet, congress committees, unruly media etc.

In Soviet and current Russia, you wouldn't even know of Abu Ghraib or Gunatánamo. You would only know enough so that you wouldn't want to do or say anything that might get you there. Becuase it very well could.

The Abu Ghraib torturers received prison sentences. Maybe not all of them, maybe not enough, and certainly only the underlings. But they did. In other parts of the world, they'd receive medals.

It's the Eternal Vigilance thingy....

[Мастер]

Here is the Freedom House 2007 report on the US:

http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cf ... &year=2007

The on-line reports only go back to 2002, so they don't have one for the CCCP.

[Enzo]

congress committees

Problem is this president seems to feel he can ignore them at will. He is famous for his signing statements that basically say, "OK, I will sign this into law, but I reserve myself the right to ignore this law."

The press is unfettered, mostly, NOW, but the slope is slippery.

[troubleagain]

And constantly being greased.

[Bill_Thompson]

I am wondering if anyone would be interested in bringing back the Old Soviet Empire.

I just wrote my first working "Hello World" in ASP.NET to strike fear in the hearts of the imperialist dogs.

Bill, I assume this is sarcasm.

If you expect a response, a link would be helpful. :wink:

Yikes!!

I was merely overjoyed for writing my very first ASP.NET program and I was expressing my elation by "I just wrote my first working "Hello World" in ASP.NET to strike fear in the hearts of the imperialist dogs." I could have just as easily had said "...to strike fear in the hearts of the klingon empire".

No need to threaten me with banning. If that is what that note tag is all about.

The comment "strike fear in the hearts of the imperialist dogs" just sounds funny to me. After I wrote the program I turned to my Russian co-worker and told him (in a Russian accent), "look at this, tah-vah-dish (comrade in Russian) this will strike fear in the hearts of the imperialist dogs, eh?" We had a good laugh about it. I wanted to share. Perhaps it is too much of an in-side joke.

[KLA2]

Bill_Thompson wrote:

I was merely overjoyed for writing my very first ASP.NET program and I was expressing my elation by "I just wrote my first working "Hello World" in ASP.NET to strike fear in the hearts of the imperialist dogs." I could have just as easily had said "...to strike fear in the hearts of the klingon empire".

No need to threaten me with banning. If that is what that note tag is all about.

All I did was ask for a link so I could understand what you were saying. :? As is sometimes the case with you, this is right over my head. I guess I could Google it, but, oh well.

Bill, I can not ban anyone. A little paranoid? :P

On the other hand, just because you are paranoid, does not mean people are not out to get you. :wink: {That's an old joke, Bill. }

[vonmazur]

Bill: I miss the good old days...being called; "Stepyiyi Psii udaryenyii bezumptyi Oligargia Valstryetyom" and answering back to the Russkii; "Oopokoinumu Illichu v Zhopa Salniyu Svechu!!"

The USSR had a really good national anthem too...."The Olympic Victory Song-Better living thru chemistry..."

Now I have to learn Arabic to have fun...

Dale

[Dragon Star]

Hey, good to see you post Dale. :)

[Halcyon Dayz, FCD]

The USSR had a really good national anthem too...."The Olympic Victory Song-Better living thru chemistry..."

They brought it back in 2000. With new lyrics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Anthem_of_Russia

[vonmazur]

Business has been fairly good, and I am busy a lot lately....but, I wanted to check in with this wonderful site....

I suppose the official song is "Rama Llama ding dong" ??

There are Llamas down the road from me, and some Alpacas too...The same guy has some Ostriches also, they get loose and run up and down the road...Some kind of plot I think..

Dale