On Monday, January 14, 2019 at 2:30:21 PM UTC-8, Andre Jute wrote:
On Monday, January 14, 2019 at 1:18:35 AM UTC, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Sun, 13 Jan 2019 14:24:53 -0800 (PST), Tom wrote:

On Sunday, January 13, 2019 at 7:56:50 AM UTC-8, AMuzi wrote:
On 1/12/2019 5:07 PM, jbeattie wrote:
On Saturday, January 12, 2019 at 2:51:32 PM UTC-8, Andre Jute wrote:
On Saturday, January 12, 2019 at 3:54:04 PM UTC, jbeattie wrote:
On Saturday, January 12, 2019 at 4:17:07 AM UTC-8, Andre Jute wrote:
On Saturday, January 12, 2019 at 5:31:24 AM UTC, news18 wrote:

So, effectively, the USA surrendered [in Vietnam].

Oh, it's worse than that. In The Devil's Pleasure Palace, Michael Walsh made the case that the US wanted to lose that war. Other historians and philosophers have made the point that stopping the 20th century's wars, and into this century, too soon just guaranteed that one unfinished war would be the flash-point for the next one. Iraq and Afghanistan are the recent examples commonly cited. Paul Johnson wrote of the deplorable effects of Americans' small-town morality when real politik was required. Walsh fixes the blame for this defeatist inability to conduct wars to their necessary conclusion on the Frankfurt School and its Critical Theory. I've been calling them commiepinkofellowtravellers since the 1960's and their theory the stinking detritus of resentful Germans who didn't know how to behave as guests in someone else's house. The little Antifa fascists are their children, and the modern Democratic Party is driven by Critical Theory's foolish fallacies. Their whole thing
is
cultural Marxism and, like other sorts of Marxism, it is a suicide cult in which limp-dick defeatism pigeonholes nicely into the their huge cupboard full of omnidirectional hate for Western civilisation. You're a representative example of what Critical Theory has done to two generations now.

Well that explains everything! Meanwhile, North Vietnam did not surrender.

-- Jay Beattie.

What's your problem, Jay? I didn't say North Vietnam surrendered.

Just wanted to recap after the winding ride though commie-pinkos, Antifa, Germans who are poor house guests, omni-directional hate for Western civilization, cats and dogs, living together, etc. I think we're all in agreement that North Vietnam didn't surrender. Just trying to establish some common ground in these divisive times.

Such a wonderful group of guys, too:
https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP6.HTM

kumbaya indeed.


--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

The trouble with socialist economies is that you cannot advance. Hence corruption is everywhere and is assumed to be just another part of life. Sort of the same view as the Democrat Party. Only a sucker wouldn't get his share.

What "cannot advance"?

Ho Chi Minh advanced from a kitchen helper to (effectively) King of
Vietnam. Võ Nguyên Giáp went from a school teacher to chief of the
Vietnamese military. Mao Zedong helped on his father's farm and ended
as the chairman of the Chinese communist party. Even Stalin was a
meteorologist at a Tiflis observatory and ended up as the Dictator of
Russia.

Tom, you ought not to talk about things about which you appear to know
nothing.


Cheers,
John B.

You are either a very obtuse little man, Slow Johnny, or you are mindlessly arguing against anything and everything Tom says because it is Tom saying it. It is one characteristic of the sadistic bullies on the net, like you and Krygowski, that, once they get their teeth into someone, they do not let go. And this is a fine example of that tendency.

Even you should be able to distinguish, say, the United States where anyone can rise into the middle classes at any time regardless of who else has risen previously, from the Soviet Union and its Asian workalikes where, as soon as the one man you name rose to a commanding position, all other avenues were violently closed. They killed the doctors and school teachers and journalists, in short the intellectuals, so that there should be no other leadership, and not higher class for anyone else to rise to. Here, for instance, is Martyn Latsis, speaking -- to members of what would later be known in the West as the KGB -- for Feliks Dzerzhinsk who had a throat infection (if you don't know who they are, you shouldn't be writing about Stalin), explaining Cheka extermination policy:
****
"‘We are not carrying out a war against individuals. We are exterminating the bourgeoisie as a class. We aren’t looking for evidence or witnesses to reveal deeds or words against Soviet power. The first question we ask is—to what class does he belong, what are his origins, upbringing, education, profession? These questions define the fate of the accused. This is the essence of Red Terror.’

Luki told Larissa, ‘Under that definition the first one to be shot would be Lenin.‘"
****
The above is an extract from my novel TERRORS but the quotation is letter-perfectly correct, referenced in umpteen primary and secondary sources.

If you can't distinguish a zero-sum game with one's life as the penalty for even trying from opportunities permanently open to all the talents, you shouldn't pretend even to a blunt workman's wisdom. But yet you do. Since you do, you must be malicious when you pull a silly stunt like this one.

Andre Jute
Telling it like it is

I can have my hands on my sides and backhand someone with an open hand so hard that it knocks them down and so fast that even I can't see it coming. It is a totally automatic reflex for dealing with bullies. So I can assure you that these little cowards hiding behind the written word would never say anything like they do here more than once to anyone's face.

Some guy was mouthing off like leftists do here in California now and I told him what I thought of him as I was leaving. He jumped up. He had me by 2" and half again my weight so he made the mistake of thinking he was tough. He took three swings at me. I backed off the first two and warned him away. The third swing had the proprietor calling for an ambulance. And there was nothing that they could do to me since I had tried to avoid a fight. I only hit him once. And every time I went into that place all the normal people would say hi because they didn't have to put up with the likes of him anymore.

Jay is reasonable because he knows the limits of the law. But that doesn't stop him from disagreeing simply because he can. But then lawyers have to develop a sense of discord in order to become lawyers. My brother-in-law was the world's biggest asshole but in the courtroom there was no one more competent or knowledgeable so I expect Jay to be the same sort.

Frank has something wrong with him. He can't weigh stuff in a bag somehow. Two 16 oz CO2 cartridges, the filler tool, two normal tubes, superlight tire levers, a small quick patch kit (peel and stick) and a multitool weight the same the world over. Apparently he doesn't count the weight of his handlebar bag. Everyone of the rides I go on carries bags like this and they all weight more or less the same. A lot of the people don't use those plastic levers but bring along steel levers. How is it that they people have the same weight in kits as I do but Frank only carries a couple of oz?

You and Joerg are the only real riders that I can see. Perhaps Jay does but then getting a straight answer you could trust out of him would be like my brother-in-law who died because he couldn't tell the truth even to his own doctor.