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Post by RobertGraves on Jan 29, 2005 18:31:52 GMT -5
Democractic processes, when one is looking down the barrell of many different guns, is problematic to say the least.
I see that Edward Kennedy is pushing troop withdrawal rhetoric at the moment, as casualty lists lengthen, which will be popular but how good for Iraq?
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Post by RobertGraves on Jan 30, 2005 0:29:12 GMT -5
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Post by RobertGraves on Jan 30, 2005 13:23:14 GMT -5
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Post by Tenarke on Jan 30, 2005 18:49:34 GMT -5
It may be chauvinistic on my part, but this does seem typical of Teutonic anal retentativeness:
“Whatever is not forbidden is mandatory.”<br>
To hell with the distributed middle; leave that to the “girly boys” like Frenchmen and Californians.
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Post by Wyndham on Jan 31, 2005 15:27:30 GMT -5
Note the Madame's name too -- Ulyanova. Wonder if she's some sort of great-grand niece of Lenin's? That would be just to Leninish: taking a decent principle and stretching it all to hell and back.
Too like the Germans too to force a woman into a brothel because, well, that's what the rules say. Just thinking of Stalin's joke. There can never be a revolution in Germany because there are 'keep off the grass' signs in front of the Reichstag. Apparently Konrad Adenauer agreed, that the German character actually worked that way: if a rule was written down, they'd obey it. If it wasn't, well, the sky was the limit. Apparently the German constitution runs into many, many, volumes of legalese. Vol. III, Chapter 6, subschedule Y, item 154: the police are NOT, under any circumstance, to shoot people out of hand. German cop: Gott in Himmel! Guess I'll just have to give you a ticket . . . watch your speed, OK?
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wordswordswords
Full Member
"There's no harm in hoping." - Voltaire
Posts: 178
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Post by wordswordswords on Jan 31, 2005 21:37:59 GMT -5
Interesting thought about the madam's name (Ulyanova). Unfortunately for the thought, Ulyanov(a) is a very common Russian name, and so there's probably no connection with Lenin. That was a JOKE by Stalin?  I didn't know he had any sense of humor. I liked the joke. Does that make me a fellow-traveler or a closet Stalinist or what? |
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Post by RobertGraves on Feb 2, 2005 14:38:20 GMT -5
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Post by RobertGraves on Feb 4, 2005 16:23:20 GMT -5
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Post by RobertGraves on Feb 12, 2005 2:51:07 GMT -5
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wordswordswords
Full Member
"There's no harm in hoping." - Voltaire
Posts: 178
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Post by wordswordswords on Feb 12, 2005 12:18:45 GMT -5
Robert, do you happen to know anything about the author of that article on "Condy"? I notice a bit of detail about him (d*ck Morris) at the end of it, and it sounds as if he left the Clinton camp and has gone into attack mode against it--? Maybe this explains the slanted tone of the article.... P.S. I just checked to see how this post looked when posted. I'm not responsible for what happened to the author's first name.  |
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Nulla
Junior Member
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Post by Nulla on Feb 12, 2005 14:28:09 GMT -5
d*ck Morris defected (does that make him a defective?) from the Clinton camp some years ago and became a born-again conservative in a big way.... as expiation for his former "sins", he has published numerous diatribes against anything vaguely liberal (Clinton in particular).... nothing worse than a reformed anything, eh?.... here's someone who doesn't like him at all!!!..... [d**n!... I just loooooove our in-house censor!... ;D] |
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wordswordswords
Full Member
"There's no harm in hoping." - Voltaire
Posts: 178
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Post by wordswordswords on Feb 12, 2005 20:25:53 GMT -5
Nulla, thanks for the background on d*ck Morris. I had lost track of him completely, had no idea he'd suffered this change.
Well, the censor is certainly vigilant! Good thing this isn't primarily a book discussion site. Might be problems discussing d*ckens or Emily d*ckinson, for instance.
(Good heavens! People might think I meant "Duckens" and "Duckinson.")
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Post by Tenarke on Feb 15, 2005 19:53:17 GMT -5
I see what appears to be an odd shift in dynamics with the new harder nosed, Condi Rice, foreign policy. Ms. Rice seems to have taken the baton from Rumsfeld and crew in her dealings both with North Korea and now Syria. “Do what we tell you to do; or else!” Rumsfeld, on the other hand, is now getting all vague and fuzzy. When asked recently about North Korea’s admission that they not only had a nuclear weapons capability, but the weapons themselves and a medium range missile system with which to deliver them; Rumsfeld’s answer was that we didn’t really have any real proof; maybe they were just bluffing.
I guess he’s going to let Condi do the heavy lifting for a while.
Lord, what a combination.
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Post by Wyndham on Feb 15, 2005 22:57:41 GMT -5
Yes, I've noted the shift in Rice. Last week, if I remember correctly, she read the UN the riot act. It was the job of the US and not of the UN to enforce the peace etc. Now, to my mind, the UN might be an ineffective sherriff, but it does have the badge. I think Tenarke's probably right. She's doing the lifting for a bit, leaving the rest of the crew to look soulful.
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Post by RobertGraves on Feb 16, 2005 1:16:17 GMT -5
'Soulful'...I doubt if that can be pulled off!
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I didn't know he had any sense of humor. I liked the joke. Does that make me a fellow-traveler or a closet Stalinist or what?