1 First!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! suck it ace!!!!!!!!!!

2 The man committed suicide due to untreated depression. That's it.

3 Old times.  To think a whole generation now has no idea what those times were like.. the mindset... the prevailing wisdom that we were locked in a morally equal struggle and it would stay that way....   Man, the democrats have never gotten over Reagan helping to undo the USSR.   Love it.

4 I'm 56, so in one way or another much of my life was framed by the "Wall". My kids, and many younger Americans, have no idea what Freedom really means.

5 I hate commies. And it drives me crazy to see so much of organized religion leaning towards communism with their social justice crap. They seem to have forgotten how many of them were executed by the communists, the socialists, the anarchists, the Bolshevists, etc.

6 i know i'm old but i wasn't even born in 1961....not even before then either.....and for the record....iljlpfe

7 I went to East Berlin in 1972.  Checkpoint Charlie and all that.  It was as depressing as you might imagine, although there is a great Russian Military cemetery with that mammoth heroic statuary they liked so much on that side.  Very impressive.

8 Does the site still seems a little hinkey to anyone else?

9

Netflix has One, Two, Three streaming.

Cuz it's totally historical 'n stuff.

10 George Will had a great column about this last week.

JFK was as big a stuttering clusterfuck of a miserable failure in much of his foreign policy as Petey is.

11 Does the site still seems a little hinkey to anyone else? Posted by: Tami at August 20, 2011 07:14 PM (X6akg) Shit no until yo mentioned it. G-D damn it!

12 I do have to add that after the war there were too many former nazis including war criminals running free and in the government. The commies were very good at trying and executing those creeps. The west -- not so much. How anyone could give the commandants of Treblinka a life sentence and then release them makes me want to hurl. Anyway, I don't think the commies and radical youth were a response to that though they claim to be. They were just commies supported by the GDR.

13 Funny how the left always wants open borders, but has no problem with Communist countries having closed borders and executing their own people for trying to leave.

Reagan liberated more people than FDR and yet I doubt the assholes writing typical public school history books will ever be as kind to the man for it.

14

East German soldier Conrad Schumann tosses aside his rifle and leaps over the barbed wire to escape to the west. Almost ten years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, suffering from depression and unreconciled differences with family and former comrades, Schumann committed suicide by hanging himself.

I really hate to be picky, but what's that hanging from his shoulder?

15 Odd how they need a fence to keep people from leaving Utopia.

16 toby928™: All that red marble they used is from the ruins of the Chancellery.

17 Good post, Dave. I've also read that FDR regarded Stalin as just another politician who could be charmed.

18 Wasn't born then either, but he was a start.  as well ilmitfe

19 The Wall will be standing in 50 and even in 100 years.

20 And it drives me crazy to see so much of organized religion leaning towards communism with their social justice crap.

Unfortunately most churches and synagogs have been taken over by leftists since the 1960s. No different than what's happened to schools and the media. The bastards made it a priority to march through all the institutions of society in order to be able to inject their political ideals in EVERYTHING.

21

Does the site still seems a little hinkey to anyone else?

All of Pixy's hamsters have yet to be corralled, by all appearances. Took me forever to accesss this place, been trying for an hour.

But, now that we're here, um, let's do, uh, something!

22
Shit no until yo mentioned it. G-D damn it!

Posted by: nevergiveup at August 20, 2011 07:16 PM (7wmOW)

Ok...it's better now.  Sorry...sometimes I forget my powers.

23 really hate to be picky, but what's that hanging from his shoulder?

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at August 20, 2011 07:16 PM (d0Tfm)

A rifle

They go "boom"

24 JFK was as big a stuttering clusterfuck of a miserable failure in much of his foreign policy as Petey is. Posted by: beedubya at August 20, 2011 07:14 PM (AnTyA) Nah. He may have had many faults, but I still think he loved his country. A country he did fight and almost die for.

25 if you really want to see an abomination in architecture, look at the "gift to the Polish People from the freedom loving soviet people" the russkies dumped in the middle of Warsaw. Huge, oppressive, and ugly as shit.

26 14 Funny how the left always wants open borders, but has no problem with Communist countries having closed borders and executing their own people for trying to leave.

Reagan liberated more people than FDR and yet I doubt the assholes writing typical public school history books will ever be as kind to the man for it.

Posted by: Blue Falcon in Boston training for the ONT mudwrestling match at August 20, 2011 07:16 PM (ijjAe)

They have no problems with any other countries having closed borders.  You don't here them bitching about how Mexico handles its southern border afterall.  Hell most of the world has stricter methods on dealing with illegals than anything we have.

27 To think a whole generation now has no idea what those times were like.. the mindset... the prevailing wisdom that we were locked in a morally equal struggle and it would stay that way....  

I have tried to explain to my kids that that is one of the reasons we were so crazy then.  That we fully, in our hearts, expected to have an atomic war with the Soviets and that we would probably lose, but that it was better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.

I've always admired those guys stationed in the Fulda Gap, where, allegedly, the life expectancy for a tanker in a full on Soviet assault was 45 minutes/

When the Soviet Union fell, it took me a few years to real accept that had actually happened.

All hail Ronauldus Maximus, East Victor.

28 When I was in Berlin last fall the souvenir shops all had postcards and books and videos of JFK's visit and speech, but not a damn thing about Reagan.  (I should have caused a ruckus, but I was weak from bronchitis.)

29

Does the site still seems a little hinkey to anyone else?

No.

A little bit, no. Lots and lots of hinkey hamsters.

30 4 I'm 56, so in one way or another much of my life was framed by the "Wall". My kids, and many younger Americans, have no idea what Freedom really means.

Posted by: nevergiveup at August 20, 2011 07:12 PM (7wmOW)

True dat! My kids certainly don't have a clue. I know plenty of people our age who never had a clue and still don't.

I saw it up close and personal from the mid-70's until the early '80s. Went back a year after the wall came down -- wife's German, so we go back every other year or so. To me, things on the former East Berlin side looked as though the war had ended only a year or to before. It reminded my wife of how she remembered the '50s and early '60s in West Germany.

31 'Checkpoint Charlie' was only for Allied military personnel.  Civilians crossed over on the S-Bahn to the station at FriedrichStrasse.  You went over Die Mauer rather than through it--near the Reichstag.

When I first went to Berlin, in 1965, The Wall was effective but crude.  By the 80s it was a death strip cutting through the entire city.

32 Nah. He may have had many faults, but I still think he loved his country. A country he did fight and almost die for.

Posted by: nevergiveup at August 20, 2011 07:21 PM (7wmOW)

Didn't say he didn't love his country. I said he was a major fuck up on foreign policy

33 Kennedy said, "I am a popsicle"

34 Didn't say he didn't love his country. I said he was a major fuck up on foreign policy Posted by: beedubya at August 20, 2011 07:25 PM (AnTyA) no where near as bad as obama. not even close. The Soviets withdrew missiles from Cuba. Under obama our enemies are advancing every where and laughing at us while they do it

35 All that red marble they used is from the ruins of the Chancellery.

I did not know that.  The morons are a wealth of information.

36 JFK was as big a stuttering clusterfuck of a miserable failure in much of his foreign policy as Petey is.
Posted by: beedubya at August 20, 2011 07:14 PM (AnTyA)

Are you kidding me? In 2011 JFK would be considered a right wing warmonger and would be approximately 45 degrees to the right of even Rick Perry. Truman would be a reactionary and the NY Slimes would call for his assasination.

37 The United States has more soldiers on other countries borders than we do our own.  It is funny, but not even the dems question our soldiers protecting other countries.

38 Just when I was over being banned, I discover I wasn't banned after all.  Viva la Revolution!

39 34 Kennedy said, "I am a popsicle"

Posted by: Roger Ebert's colon at August 20, 2011 07:26 PM (UqKQV)

Actually, he said "I am a doughnut"

40 Wasn't the Soviet Coup 20 years ago this weekend? That was exciting. Boris Yeltsin was a drunken asshole in a lot of ways, but he was no fucking coward. Honorary moronship for him?

41 From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia, all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and, in many cases, increasing measure of control from Moscow. Athens alone — Greece with its immortal glories — is free to decide its future at an election under British, American and French observation. The Russian-dominated Polish Government has been encouraged to make enormous and wrongful inroads upon Germany, and mass expulsions of millions of Germans on a scale grievous and undreamed-of are now taking place. The Communist parties, which were very small in all these Eastern States of Europe, have been raised to preeminence and power far beyond their numbers and are seeking everywhere to obtain totalitarian control. Police governments are prevailing in nearly every case, and so far, except in Czechoslovakia, there is no true democracy. Turkey and Persia are both profoundly alarmed and disturbed at the claims which are being made upon them and at the pressure being exerted by the Moscow Government. An attempt is being made by the Russians in Berlin to build up a quasi-Communist party in their zone of Occupied Germany by showing special favors to groups of left-wing German leaders. At the end of the fighting last June, the American and British Armies withdrew westwards, in accordance with an earlier agreement, to a depth at some points of 150 miles upon a front of nearly four hundred miles, in order to allow our Russian allies to occupy this vast expanse of territory which the Western Democracies had conquered.

If now the Soviet Government tries, by separate action, to build up a pro-Communist Germany in their areas, this will cause new serious difficulties in the British and American zones, and will give the defeated Germans the power of putting themselves up to auction between the Soviets and the Western Democracies. Whatever conclusions may be drawn from these facts — and facts they are — this is certainly not the Liberated Europe we fought to build up. Nor is it one which contains the essentials of permanent peace.
[March 5, 1946]

42 Great post Dave. I'll never forget hearing Reagan's speech at the Brandenburg Gate and understanding what a Holy Shit! moment that was. I was watching an interview a few years ago with a gentleman on Reagan's speechwriting team (sorry, I forget his name) who worked on that speech. He had the unenviable task of coming back to Big Ron and telling him how much State, SecDef and the rest of the cabinet hated that line. Then he did an impersonation of Reagan giving his response: "Well ... I guess we should leave it in, then." "Leading from behind" is for pussies.

43 If the left could get away with bricking us in and sending us to re-education camps I really think they would do it.

44 The  bastards assassinated Patton !

45 you did an "actually" on me?  Popsicle, doughnut, whatever.

He should have said, "Ich bin Berlinner" -- no "ein".    Okay?

46 How hard is it for the fkn left to figure out that when you brick your people in and won't let them out it's bad? Oh, and those hikers who hated America so much just got sentenced to 8 years in prison in Iran.

47 If the left could get away with bricking us in and sending us to re-education camps I really think they would do it.

I'm pretty sure they'd rather shoot us.

48 Are you kidding me? In 2011 JFK would be considered a right wing warmonger and would be approximately 45 degrees to the right of even Rick Perry. Truman would be a reactionary and the NY Slimes would call for his assasination.

Posted by: Samuel Adams at August 20, 2011 07:28 PM (ulPNQ)

Right wing....left wing....it doesn't matter. He was a fuck up....of monumental proportions

49 15 Odd how they need a fence to keep people from leaving Utopia. Spot on and succinct. Bears reposting.

50 Kennedy was a dickhead.  Just ask the Cuban's he let die at the Bay of Pigs because he wouldn't use his aircraft carrier.

Presidents fuck up at times. Doesn't mean they are bad presidents. Reagan had some 280 odd Marines in one building in Lebanon that wasn't properly secured. He later admitted that that was his biggest regret. Kennedy admitted his fuck-up.

51 >>"Leading from behind" is for pussies.
Posted by: Andy at August 20, 2011 07:31 PM (veZ9n)

Thank God I've never met any chicks fitting that description, but maybe that's just one more thing about SCOAMF we just didn't know because of improper "vetting" _{or something like that anyway.}

52 Odd how they need a fence to keep people from leaving Utopia.
Just like it's odd that Haitian boat people don't head to Cuba.

53 JFK was banging Marilyn, I'll give him that.

54 There's a 3 part doc on communism floating around. One of the episodes was the collapse of communism in Romania. The people they interviewed stressed how important it was to for them to see the tapes of the Ceaușescus being executed. I saw this at the time OBL was killed and it certainly struck a chord.

55 JFK was banging Marilyn, I'll give him that.

Yeah, but I was the only one who could get her off. They were dickless pussies.

56 no where near as bad as obama. not even close. The Soviets withdrew missiles from Cuba. Under obama our enemies are advancing every where and laughing at us while they do it

Posted by: nevergiveup at August 20, 2011 07:28 PM (7wmOW)

JFK got punk'd by Kruschev. There were never any missiles in Cuba. They may have been on their way...but they were never there.

The whole aim of the charade was to get the bumbling buck-toothed buffoon to pull our missiles out of Turkey.

...which he did

57 >>>Odd how they need a fence to keep people from leaving Utopia. >>>Spot on and succinct. Bears reposting. The reasoning they used was to keep the fascists out. LOL

58

The fence to keep them in, that was the beginning of their downfall.

 

Even Ulbricht knew it was a temporary win.

59 ...which he did

Yeah, K-shev got the best of him, but he admitted he fucked up in the Bay of Pigs. O-numbnuts won't admit shit.

60 Presidents fuck up at times. Doesn't mean they are bad presidents. Reagan had some 280 odd Marines in one building in Lebanon that wasn't properly secured. He later admitted that that was his biggest regret. Kennedy admitted his fuck-up.

Posted by: Samuel Adams at August 20, 2011 07:36 PM (ulPNQ)

The drug-addicted drunk was warned time and time again by the CIA and military advisers that an invasion like the one at the Bay of Pigs would never work; that it would be a suicide mission. He believed in his own genius just like Petey does.

After they got bogged down he refused air support, sealing the fate of the Cubans

61

>>I remember Reagan's challenge. And I remember I thought he was wrong, the world could not change just because he called them out.

He was right, and I was so wrong.

Yeah, I was in college at that time and thought the nukes were surely going to fly...
Reagan had them sized up though.  

62

I got new tires last weekend. 

The feller who put my tires on was on duty when the wall came down.  They were expecting violence, so he stood post with his rifle.  No need for the rifle that day.  Folks were crying, kissing, and embracing as the wall came down.

63 JFK got punk'd by Kruschev. There were never any missiles in Cuba. They may have been on their way...but they were never there. The whole aim of the charade was to get the bumbling buck-toothed buffoon to pull our missiles out of Turkey. ...which he did Posted by: beedubya at August 20, 2011 07:39 PM (AnTyA) A) that's utter bullshit B) The missiles in Turkey were old and obsolete

64 Deutsche Welle has some stuff up here.

65 tonite on syfy:  MEGASHARK VS. CROCOSAURAS.  just sayin.

66

I remember hearing the radio and TV reports when the wall went up as a kid.

It wasn't considered a good thing at the time.

67 I lived in divided Berlin for a while, and lived in Germany when the wall fell. Those were awesome and heavy times. Sorry we pissed everything away, Ronnie, but some of us remember and hope to regroup.

68 He never even tried to get the prisoners out of Cuba. I say again, a TOTAL spoiled rotten drug addict dickhead. Posted by: Billy Bob, the guy who drinks in SC at August 20, 2011 07:46 PM (hXJOG) That's inaccurate: About 1,202 Brigade 2506 members were captured, of which nine died from asphyxiation during transfer to Havana in a closed truck. In May 1961, Fidel Castro proposed to exchange the surviving Brigade prisoners for 500 large farm tractors, valued at $28 million (US).[16]:713 On 8 September 1961, 14 Brigade prisoners were convicted of torture, murder and other major crimes committed in Cuba before the invasion, five being executed and nine jailed for 30 years.[3] Three confirmed as executed were Ramon Calvino, Emilio Soler Puig ('el Muerte') and Jorge King Yun ('el Chino').[12][18] On 29 March 1962, 1,179 men were put on trial for treason. On 7 April 1962, all were convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison. On 14 April 1962, 60 wounded and sick prisoners were freed and transported to the US.[3] On December 21, 1962, Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro and James B. Donovan, a US lawyer, signed an agreement to exchange 1,113 prisoners for US$53 million in food and medicine, sourced from private donations and from companies expecting tax concessions. On 24 December 1962, some prisoners were flown to Miami, others following on the ship African Pilot, plus about 1,000 family members also allowed to leave Cuba. On 29 December 1962, President Kennedy attended a 'welcome back' ceremony for Brigade 2506 veterans at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida.[18] [edit]

69 80sBaby, the Vopo is in the process of discarding his weapon / doughnut

The photographer saw The Entirety of the process, hence the choice of verb

70 We caved and took our missiles out of Turkey, then, wow, the Russians removed their missiles. Great fucking leadership. It's call appeasement. Posted by: Billy Bob, the guy who drinks in SC at August 20, 2011 07:48 PM (hXJOG) Again inaccurate: The Soviets removed all their missiles from Cuba a good 6 months before we started removing the obsolete missiles from Turkey

71

To Kennedy's eternal shame, he considered the Wall to be a "blessing" of a sort, it defused the international tension building to that point.

 

Bottling up a few East Germans for 40 years was preferable to standing up to the Soviets.

 

Khrushchev played him like a fool.

72 JFK was the last dem my parents voted for.  In talking to my dad years and years later, he told me he regretted his vote.  The Kennedy's were/are a family of charlatans.   

Couldn't get on the site all day.  Glad it's been fixed. 

73

'Checkpoint Charlie' was only for Allied military personnel.  Civilians crossed over on the S-Bahn to the station at FriedrichStrasse.  You went over Die Mauer rather than through it--near the Reichstag.

In 1988 we crossed at Checkpoint Charlie.

East Berlin was really depressing, it looked like World War 2 had just ended. The chocolate ice cream tasted funny, the "RC cola" was horrific, and the toilet paper was 1 step up from cardboard.

Most surreal experience was riding a ferris wheel at a fair on the West Berlin side and at the top looking at the contrast between West Berlin and East Berlin at night.

74 osted by: beedubya at August 20, 2011 07:39 PM (AnTyA)
A) that's utter bullshit
B) The missiles in Turkey were old and obsolete

Posted by: nevergiveup at August 20, 2011 07:45 PM (7wmOW)

Oh, you must mean the Jupiter IRBMs which weren't even begun being produced until '58 or '58

..those old and obsolete missiles?

75 you did an "actually" on me? Popsicle, doughnut, whatever. Well, then, to really piss you off, he said he was a jelly doughnut- not that people didn't know what he meant.

76 Wonder if any of the released Cubans ended up as Watergate burglars?

77

 The Berlin Wall coming down was ...well, it really can't be explained. Imagine the sun rising in the west, or the moon disappearing from the night sky. Then, describe an eastern sunrise or a full moon to someone who has never seen them. Words, simply, fail.

 

 

78 http://tinyurl.com/3py9dfr

Here he admits his failures.

79

Kennedy admitted his fuck-up.

I swam for help!

80 Sorry about the downtime folks - had a disk failure, which isn't supposed to kill the server but always does anyway - and then a networking problem when we were coming back up.

All good now.

81 well then, 'doughnut' was an incorrect correction.  An incomplete correction...

some people need a hobby........

82 And that delay there was me checking the database.  I'll stop doing that...

83 The Berlin Wall coming down was ...well, it really can't be explained. Imagine the sun rising in the west, or the moon disappearing from the night sky. Then, describe an eastern sunrise or a full moon to someone who has never seen them. Words, simply, fail.

84

Back in college (in the '70's) one of my ROTC instructors had been a troop commander in 2ACR. I remember he showed us a slide show of pictures he'd shot on the border with Czechoslovakia, iirc. You could see where the fence on the Soviet side was angled inward, i.e., angled towards the Czech side. This would make it that much harder for somebody escaping from there to climb it - imagine trying to climb a fence that is angled towards you. Conversely, that angle would make it easier for an attacker to go over it. Which showed you which threat the Soviets were really trying to protect against. This, in a single picture summed up all you needed to know about the fucking communists. They would expend more effort keeping people in than keeping us out.

And all the while, while we were patrolling the borders to keep the Soviets at bay, our own home-grown communists were inflitrating all our institutions here back home. And now we have one of them as our CinC. We were patrolling in the wrong direction. Go figure.

85 To Kennedy's eternal shame And to West Germany's eternal shame they were paying Honecker 500 million marks a year for 'road maintenance'. They were not big fans of reunification, even at the very beginning. They just saw their long-lost brethren as a huge financial burden.

86 I hate commies. Some of the commies inn the satellite countries were awful. I'm thinking of Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Show trials, antisemitism, etc. After the Red Army liberated Birkenau they then began raping the jewish women prisoners and killing some of them while doing so.

87 Oh, you must mean the Jupiter IRBMs which weren't even begun being produced until '58 or '58 ..those old and obsolete missiles? Posted by: beedubya at August 20, 2011 07:53 PM (AnTyA) We could hit Russia from the continental US and from our bases in Europe.

88 neverg, shhh they're rolling...

89 Had a friend who came to the United States from Hamburg back in the 1960s and became a US citizen.  She was watching the coverage of the Berlin wall coming down on TV and happened to note a cousin of hers near the wall.  He was a West Berliner.  She was pretty excited. 

90 #92 Sorry, I only run mu.nu, badly formatted links posted to tinyurl.com are out of my hands.

91 As a guy who lived in the Federal Republic of Germany from 1982-1985, the wall was not the most talked about issue simply because it had gone up 20 some years before. What was talked about was the fact that the West Germans were more than proud and at times arrogant that they were the ones who were free. From the ones I talked to, the East didn't mean shit to them unless they wanted to flaunt how better they had it.

92 how did mee.nu become mu.nu ??  

93 Right before the Wall came down, the East Germans began mobilizing their forces. They also did what totalitarians always do: They showed their soldiers footage of what they claimed was terrorists killing East German soldiers. The Germans came within a hair's breadth of doing a Tiananmen Square on the protestors.

This is why I don't worry that our own cops and troops will turn their guns on us in a big way. A free exchange of information prevents that. The East German and Red Chinese troops got all their information from the government. Our cops and troops don't.

94 Mmm. Berliner.

95
If someone pastes one scintilla of dumbass into tinyurl it cannot over come that amount of dumbass.

96 the West Germans were more than proud and at times arrogant that they were the ones who were free. From the ones I talked to, the East didn't mean shit to them unless they wanted to flaunt how better they had it. Posted by: Samuel Adams at August 20, 2011 08:00 PM (ulPNQ) Building the Wall was an admission of the failure of Communism.

97 http://tinyurl.com/3uf3433

Sorry, I fucked up my url post.

98 In the mid to late 50s, both the US and USSR began developing intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that could hit the opposing country after being fired from the home country's own soil. But our Atlas ICBM experienced delays and teething pains, so as a stopgap measure, shorter-range missiles (intermediate range ballistic missiles, or IRBMs) were developed. It was reasoned that, being smaller and simpler, they could be deployed before the Atlas was ready. Having shorter range meant that they would have to be forward deployed closer to the USSR. The Thor missiles were based in England and the Jupiter in Turkey and Italy. By 1962 the first Atlas and Titan squadrons were on alert in the continental US, making the IRBMs unnecessary. I don't recall the exact timeline off the top of my head, but I think the Thors had already been removed from England by that time. I'm not sure when the Jupiters were removed from Italy. The ironic part is that throughout this period, it was widely assumed that the Soviets had the lead in ICBMs based on the fact that they were able to orbit heavier satellites than we could. That turned out not to be the case, and in fact our ICBMs were more reliable and more numerous than theirs. That may have had something to do with the Soviets putting shorter-range missiles close to the US, just as we had done earlier. In any event, the upshot of the Cuban Missile Crisis is that both countries got rid of their shorter-range missiles based close to the enemy country. By the mid 60s we both had plenty of long-range nukes.

99 I find it interesting how time makes heros out of villains and villains out of heros. If you have late elementary or middle school students, there is a great book called the wall, by Peter Sis. Simple and uncomplicated, but powerful.

100 Book: One Minute to Midnight..  by Micheal Dobbs

Kennedy and the Cuban Missle Crisis...

yeah... I bought it... but it sits here...haven't read it yet.. I spend all my spare time watching the Texas Rangers and reading Ace...

101 I swear, if I hear another "news" report about the stuttering clusterfuck of miserable failure receiving "regular updates" and / or "briefings" on current events whilst on vacation, I'm gonna do something rash-ish.

102 If someone pastes one scintilla of dumbass into tinyurl it cannot over come that amount of dumbass.

Damnit!

103 And I really hate Illinois nazis.

104 Didja see the Brewers mets game? The crew is looking good this year.

105 The former East Germany is still a mess.  It is pretty much the German equivalent to Detroit. 

106 Didja see the Brewers mets game? The crew is looking good this year. Posted by: Oldsailor's poet at August 20, 2011 08:05 PM (ZDUD4) Just remember they were ONLY playing the Mets today

107 Pixy was out banging commie chicks. That's why the blog went down.

108 Thanks Debbie Downer.

109

>I swear, if I hear another "news" report about the stuttering clusterfuck of miserable failure receiving "regular updates" and / or "briefings" on current events whilst on vacation, I'm gonna do something rash-ish.

 

 

I get these too, but I just call it 'watching TV'

110 How many foreign leaders has jugears hosted?  Anyone feel like its less than Bush did?

111

 Didja see the Brewers mets game? The crew is looking good this year.

 

That was a crazy basebal game.

112 How many foreign leaders has jugears hosted?

He threw a state dinner for the Chi-Coms.

The menu did not conform to FKOTUS' million-dollar "what you should be allowed to eat" graphic.

113 Soooo,,....   How am I doing?   Sweeeet.  oh, and btw, it's not my fault.. I ran yes, but I inherented the worstest economy EVER and I was promised candy rainbows... daily. 

114
109 I swear, if I hear another "news" report about the stuttering clusterfuck of miserable failure receiving "regular updates" and / or "briefings" on current events

SCFOMF: How are we polling there Daley?
Daley: All is well Mr. President
SCFOMF: Cool, watch this drive......hand me one of your balls Daley.
Daley: You already have all my balls Mr. President

115 We was a weak indecisive leader, who liked to blame other people, sound familiar?

Posted by: Billy Bob, the guy who drinks in SC at August 20, 2011 08:08 PM (hXJOG)

Look, I ain't sucking his zombie dick. I was 2 months old when  he got his head shot off in Dallas. All I was meaning is that he knew he fucked up and I was also intimating that as bad as you thought he was, in the past 50 years he was the second most conservative president we've had.

116

17Good post, Dave.

I've also read that FDR regarded Stalin as just another politician who could be charmed

----------------------

From Conservapedia

Shortly before Hopkins arrival Molotov informed Mikoyan, Vassilensky, Trainin, and Bogolepov that "A man at the very highest level of the Roosevelt administration," notified the Soviet espionage officers "Mr. Hopkins will demand no concessions whatever. The sole wish of Mr. Hopkins," Molotov assured the tovarisches, "is to ask nothing and give everything. What he wants is to keep us in the fighting—and that is all. Mr. Hopkins is completely on our side and may be trusted absolutely." Hopkins said of Stalin, "It is ridiculous to think of Stalin as a Communist. He is a Russian nationalist."

Despite the protests of military officials, Hopkins demanded that the American government give the Soviet Union a large amount of uranium as part of the Lend Lease program. On a diplomatic trip to the Soviet Union in 1945, he shunned the American position of free elections for Poland and told Stalin that AmericaÂ’s goal was actually to have a post-war Poland that the Soviet Union was comfortable with. Earlier, when a Soviet government official defected, Hopkins unsuccessfully urged Roosevelt to return the man to the USSR even though he knew that it would mean the manÂ’s certain death.

117 >How many foreign leaders has jugears hosted?  Anyone feel like its less than Bush did?

Posted by: buzzion at August 20, 2011 08:09 PM (GULKT)

 

Imagine you're a head of state from somewhere: would you want to be photographed with SCOAMFOTUS?

118 The short but powerful term of JFK gave America hope and joy. Our royalty, the Handsome War Hero and the classy and worldly Jacqueline, gave America role models for a new generation. With their personal and political leadership we conquered self doubt and outer space.

119 Didja see the Brewers mets game? The crew is looking good this year.

Plushdamentals, baby.

120 We could hit Russia from the continental US and from our bases in Europe.

Really?...in 1961?? What with?

121 HeatherRadish at August 20, 2011 08:16 He's great isn't he? You can be all the flake you want to be as long as you perform.

122
129 Really?...in 1961?? What with?


B-52s baby, B-52s

123

Basically what I remember reading was that FDR's envoy  Harry Hopkins who was a socialist himself and an admirer or Stalin pushed FDR into giving the Soviets whatever they wanted. Stalin learned from Molotov that Hopkins had FDR's ear and that getting Hopkins into Stalin's pocket was a successful ploy that the Soviets did to the US during WWII.

 Churchill warned FDR about Stalin but Hopkins told FDR that Stalin was a man to be trusted.

124 I'm just pissed off that the MFM is trying to paint this as a "working vacation" for the stuttering clusterfuck of miserable failure. that fucker has never worked a day in his life, yet he's had more swank vacations this year than most people take in a lifetime

125 Prolly' ought to change my sock. I'm not a dumbass all the time.

126

Heh, that idiot Fareed Zakaria is saying that if we had a parlimentary system we wouldn't have gotten a downgrade. For once I think that goofly little fuck is right, not for the reason he stated though.

If we had a parlimentary system we would be living under Prime Minister John Boehner right now and Obama would be unemployed.

127 134 I was beginning to worry

128 We could hit Russia from the continental US and from our bases in Europe. Really?...in 1961?? What with? Posted by: beedubya at August 20, 2011 08:16 PM (AnTyA) The LGM-30A Minuteman-I was first test-fired on 1 February 1961,[5] and entered into the Strategic Air CommandÂ’s arsenal in 1962, at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana;

129 I've been reading this book called "Kremlin Wives." What a sorry lot! Several of them were young girls of 15 or 16 and were simply raped by these high level officials who were in their 40s and then later forced to marry them. The wives were routinely arrested and convicted and occasionally executed for nothing. The husbands would just divorce them and get new wives. Stalin and co. truly emasculated men in that country.

130 Oldsailor's poet--Yeah, he's a lot of fun. Loved his walk-off sac last Sunday.  I also really like John Axford. He's nuts, but it's a good nuts.

131 time for another Tanqueray n Tonic.... you know.... because our Prince President is a stuttering clumsy leftist commie clusterfuck... 

132 time for another Tanqueray n Tonic.... you know.... because our Prince President is a stuttering clumsy leftist commie clusterfuck... 

Posted by: Yip in Texas at August 20, 2011 08:22 PM (SyLEU)

oh wow that sounds good, almost good enough to make me go out and buy some gin. It's hot here today.

133

If we had a parlimentary system we would be living under Prime Minister John Boehner right now and Obama would be unemployed.

Exactly - I'm guessing that FZ doesn't realize that in a parlimentary system, the PM is selected by Parliament, not by the voters directly.  He's a fool, and not as bright as he thinks he is. 

134 On a happier note, off to the AV Fairgrounds tonight to see Trac Atkins in concert. Woot, Woot.

135 The LGM-30A Minuteman-I was first test-fired on 1 February 1961,[5] and entered into the Strategic Air CommandÂ’s arsenal in 1962, at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana;

Posted by: nevergiveup at August 20, 2011 08:21 PM (7wmOW)

You do realize 1962 came after 1961...right??

136 I remember when the wall went up.  I was in 8th grade,  and it was horrifying.  Pictures of people in East Berlin crying,  walled up windows, barbed wire, people shot,  etc. 

Then when I was a young Air Force wife,  I lived there from 1967-69.  My son was born in the US Army Hospital.  Although I wasn't allowed to travel to East berlin (husband was a Russian linguist for the Security Squadron) I did get to ride the Duty Train through East Germany to West Germany.  I will never forget seeing a man in East Germany plowing his small field,  and his wife was pulling the plow.

Those were frightening times.   People born later have no idea .  To me,  the fall of the Berlin Wall was like a miracle.  I even bought a piece of it for my son.

137

You do realize 1962 came after 1961...right??

Posted by: beedubya at August 20, 2011 08:31 PM (AnTyA)

No math!

138

It's hot here today.

It is hot here today, what's that about?

139 I've been reading this book called "Kremlin Wives."

You might also find "Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar" by Simon Montefiore to be interesting.

140 You do realize 1962 came after 1961...right?? Posted by: beedubya at August 20, 2011 08:31 PM (AnTyA) The Cuban Missile Crisis (known as the October Crisis in Cuba or Caribbean Crisis (Russ: Kарибский кризис in the USSR) was a confrontation among the Soviet Union, Cuba and the United States in October 1962, during the Cold War.

141 JFK was as big a stuttering clusterfuck of a miserable failure in much of his foreign policy as Petey is.

Posted by: beedubya at August 20, 2011 07:14 PM (AnTyA)

Sean Hannity has a periodic segment on his TV show called "Great Moments in Liberal Foreign Policy." As in "Great Moments of Failure in Liberal Foreign Policy."

142

It is hot here today, what's that about?

Posted by: ParanoidStillAGirlInSeattle at August 20, 2011 08:33 PM (RZ8pf)

I don't know, I helped my son in law dig a giant spreader bush out of his yard and I thought I was going pass out.

143 I remember riding the train through East Germany to get to West Berlin and how there were guard towers built over the tracks with soldiers holding machine guns standing there and twice the train was stopped and the East German soldiers boarded and examined everyone's passports. And they had German Shepards with them. It was like a movie.

144 This could ruin your whole day.

145 My neighbor is cleaning my other neighbor's gutters. I was like "it is the hottest day of the year here why are you outside working?" He told me it was also the driest day so it seemed like a good idea at the time.

146 Hot...   like hades hot ...   though we didn't break the record for today.. we tied it... 106.  Tomorrow:  107.   yes!

147 154, Call Jackie Chiles.

148 My neighbor is cleaning my other neighbor's gutters. I was like "it is the hottest day of the year here why are you outside working?" He told me it was also the driest day so it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Posted by: ParanoidStillAGirlInSeattle at August 20, 2011 08:40 PM (RZ8pf)

Yeah I told my son in law that he picked a great day for this little project.

149 So mu.nu is down for over three hours and no explanation? 

150 I was in Berlin when the wall came down.  Interesting times.

151 @153...  come on.. say it right...

those were EAST German shepards... ha ha 

seriously... that HAD to suck BIGTIME!

152 13

East German soldier Conrad Schumann tosses aside his rifle and leaps over the barbed wire to escape to the west. Almost ten years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, suffering from depression and unreconciled differences with family and former comrades, Schumann committed suicide by hanging himself.

I really hate to be picky, but what's that hanging from his shoulder?

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at August 20, 2011 07:16 PM (d0Tfm)

I love to be picky.  I don't think the soldier in the first pic is tossing aside his rifle on his run to freedom.  It looks like he's just holding it tight against his side while leaping and the strap seems to be running under his epaulet making dropping it impossible.  Journalists were just as bad at captioning photos back then as they are today.

I doubt the Democratic People's Republic of Germany* military training was great but they probably didn't teach you to throw your weapon away in a dangerous situation.

* Commies always named their countries like this so that you wouldn't notice that their countries looked like prison camps.

153 Those were frightening times.   People born later have no idea .  To me,  the fall of the Berlin Wall was like a miracle.

You never know what will jolt a kid. I remember a neighbor's kid, who would gladly have done without school, describing his teacher showing him his tatoo, and telling him why he had it - courtesy of the German concentration camps of WWII. Suddenly it wasn't stuff they teach in school for the kid, it was real.

154 158, An SIL not afraid of physical labor? That's a plus.

155 Hot...   like hades hot ...   though we didn't break the record for today.. we tied it... 106.  Tomorrow:  107.   yes!

Posted by: Yip in Texas at August 20, 2011 08:40 PM (SyLEU)

ha, not that bad here, it's 85, but it feels like 85!

156 Ynot... I was thinking the same.. thing.  Hmmmm... what was going this afternoon?

157

So mu.nu is down for over three hours and no explanation? 

Pixy explained earlier in this thread. I had just written a nice answer to your question about Buddy, that never posted. Upshot, Buddy is doing great, he's really calming down and the boy has taught him to shake hands and to do a high five it is adorable.

158 147 You do realize 1962 came after 1961...right?? Your modern mathematical ways confuse and frighten me...

159 Hey, that's great PGiS!


My theory re the blog going down is a cyber attack from NYC via MIT. 

160 156 Hot...   like hades hot ...   though we didn't break the record for today.. we tied it... 106.  Tomorrow:  107.   yes!

It's going to become more insufferable once the EPA shuts down a number of Texan coal-fired plants, unless some enterprising soul can come up with a way of powering an air-conditioner by exercising on a bike or running on a treadmilll. 

161 You do realize 1962 came after 1961...right?? Not if it's BC, smartypants.

162

My theory re the blog going down is a cyber attack from NYC via MIT. 

I had the exact same thought, I figured we'd finally tripped the MIT switch.

163 So mu.nu is down for over three hours and no explanation?

How long have you been having these blackouts?

164 So mu.nu is down for over three hours and no explanation? 

Posted by: Y-not at August 20, 2011 08:42 PM (5H6zj)

See #86

165 The Berlin Wall was built to ward off Tea Party aggression, and it was a success! The Soviets WON the Cold War!

166 I also thought that maybe someone in NYC, or who says they're from NYC, had something to do with the site being down today.  That was my first thought when I couldn't get on.   

167 #163 Retread,  my German teacher in high school was Lithuanian.  She lost all of her family in the labor camps.

Only time I ever saw her angry was when she caught a kid doodling a swastika.  She flew into a rage,  asked him if he understood what it meant,  and sent him to the office.

And when Kennedy was shot,  the radio got piped into the loudspeaker.  When Cronkite said he was dead,  she ran from the room in tears.  I imagine it was because she thought the bad times were returning.

This was southside Indianapolis,  which had zero Jewish people,  so she was the closest I ever got to someone really hurt during the war.

168 scoamfuck

169 It is making us paranoid. Well, I was already paranoid so I guess that's not really true.

170 Is the moron who was in Austin on this thread?  I was curious how Perry's event went (or what s/he saw of it).


I was going to post the upcoming events (which included one or two in SC, iirc), but I just checked the campaign website and their Events section say "no upcoming events."  Weird 'cause there were several listed yesterday. 

171 158, An SIL not afraid of physical labor? That's a plus.

Posted by: Oldsailor's poet at August 20, 2011 08:42 PM (ZDUD4)

He's a good kid, we put a new water valve in his refer too. He did all the work and I got to sit and drink suntea and supervise.

172 You do realize 1962 came after 1961...right?? Your modern mathematical ways confuse and frighten me... Posted by: CoolCzech at August 20, 2011 08:44 PM (kUaEF) He also doesn't seem to know when the Cuban Missile Crisis happened or is confusing it with the Berlin Wall going up

173 My theory re the blog going down is a cyber attack from NYC via MIT.

Cat hackers?  The bastids!

174 The Cuban Missile Crisis (known as the October Crisis in Cuba or Caribbean Crisis (Russ: Kарибский кризис in the USSR) was a confrontation among the Soviet Union, Cuba and the United States in October 1962, during the Cold War.

Posted by: nevergiveup at August 20, 2011 08:35 PM (7wmOW)

Umm..yeah??

The point was made that missiles we did not have , and that the Russians, did not know we were even planning, were supposed to be some sort of deterrent to them??

OK..sure.

The planning for the missile bases in Cuba was done by the Russians in 1961, or even before. At that time we had IRBMs in the UK, Italy and Turkey...the ones in Turkey to stop Soviet further expansionism is eastern Europe

175

Disney Channel is trying to help rehabilitate Cuba's image with their little PSA nonsense. They have a kid sending stuff to her relatives in Cuba with no explanation of why "things we have here in America are sometimes more difficult to get there." Or why her mom's family fled Cuba in the first place.

They also have another family tree where the grandma was a child in Berlin and there's a picture of her standing with a family member in an SS uniform. The PSA is supposed to gin up sympathy for the grandma because she had to stay in a bomb shelter and when she came out Berlin had been bombed. Again, no explanation as to why it happened.

Give the liberals in Hollywood enough time and they'll erase history.

176 Posted by: nevergiveup

ya know, maybe there are just some times when you should

177 Darn those low-information, East German voters.  If only our messaging was better crafted and more effectively delivered, they wouldn't always try to beat feet over the wall.  Really!  It's there for their own good.

178 Shoot us! You know those sharpened hoes arent for an ACORN/OFA 4H project.

179 I know for a fact that the Wall falling had a lot to do with the fact that I'm sitting here watching Maria Sharapova play tennis on ESPN. Maria is wearing a VERY short black skirt. Thank God that Wall came down!

180

Give the liberals in Hollywood enough time and they'll erase history.

Posted by: ParanoidStillAGirlInSeattle at August 20, 2011 08:52 PM (RZ8pf)

Read The Forgotten Man by Amity Shlayes sometime and compare it to what you hear liberals say about the great depression.

181 The planning for the missile bases in Cuba was done by the Russians in 1961, or even before. At that time we had IRBMs in the UK, Italy and Turkey...the ones in Turkey to stop Soviet further expansionism is eastern Europe Posted by: beedubya at August 20, 2011 08:50 PM (AnTyA) What the Soviets planed, and when, has little relation to how Kennedy reacted to finding out they stationed offensive nuclear weapons 90 miles off our shores. It is how he reacted and how he chose to get rid of those weapons that is the point and the topic of discussion

182 Oh Oh... FOX NEWS ALERT! Christine O'Donnell is apparently Slut Walking through CNN Studios holding up a sign that reads, "Hey, Piers Morgan! Am I Asking For It?

183 sharpened hoes

Tell me more

184 I am counting on Texas telling the EPA to pound sand until after the election...I wish they would  ...  Let's get Perry in there .   I would really LOVE to have the EPA disbanded.  I would Perry to campaign on regulatory hobo slashing if he's elected... and then follow up with it.  Slash and kill...

185 ya know, maybe there are just some times when you should Posted by: beedubya at August 20, 2011 08:52 PM (AnTyA) When I should what?

186 192, And Shep is holding up a sign asking for it.

187 The communists still haven't *admitted* failure, but they have come up with some truly byzantine rationalizations about why they never succeed. It was always a pack of lies anyway, a convoluted cover for feudal totalitarianism. *Theoretical* communism was just universal tribalism with a veneer of 19th-century modernism, *actual* communism was lords and serfs in uniforms.

188 And when Kennedy was shot,  the radio got piped into the loudspeaker.  When Cronkite said he was dead,  she ran from the room in tears.

They didn't pipe the radio over the loudspeakers in my school but they did announce Kennedy had been shot, and a little while later that he had died. I remember my teacher trying not to cry and leading us in the Rosary after the first announcement. They sent us home soon after the second announcement and my mother refused to believe us until she turned on the TV. (Why else would we be home early, mom?) IIRC, TV had nothing but news coverage until after the funeral, and no ads.

189 East Germany is our future if Ear Leader has his way.

190 When Ted Kennedy died, there was an announcement made at the local bar. We were devastated. We flew the toilet paper at half mast for a week.

191 I was only 9 months old when JFK was shot and even then, I KNEW it was going to turn into a big conspiracy thing...  I remember telling my ma that as i switched from right tit to left tit..

192 193 sharpened hoes Tell me more Posted by: cherry π at August 20, 2011 08:55 PM (OhYCU) ...sharpened to a V-Tip gals appreciate!

193 What a brave thing this git did...*rolls eyes*

Egyptian protester Ahmed Shehata #flagman climbs Israel embassy, swaps flag; world follows on Twitter

Try doing that to Iran and then get back to me about how "brave" you were, asshole.

194 The Day Communism Admitted Its Complete and Total Failure.Don't worry.  We can make it work.  No problem.

195 Excellent post. 

I'm 65 and clearly remember events of the cold war.  I grew up in D.C. and, in 1962, my mother who worked for the U.S. Treasury came home from work and told us that we were about to enter a nuclear war with Russia over Cuba.  At that time, everyone in the D.C. area was advised to keep at least half a tank of gasoline in their cars as well as to maintain a store of food and water in the basement for exactly this possibility.  Though traffic was far less than today, there was still no likelihood that anyone could have made it out of the danger zone with or without a half a tank of gas.

In 1984 I went to East Berlin.  Even then, the difference between east and west Berlin was dramatic, as others have written above.  I realized then that communism was dead.  Unfortunately, however, Marxism was not.

196 What a brave thing this git did...*rolls eyes* Egyptian protester Ahmed Shehata #flagman climbs Israel embassy, swaps flag; world follows on Twitter Try doing that to Iran and then get back to me about how "brave" you were, asshole. Posted by: Kratos (Ghost of Sparta) at August 20, 2011 09:00 PM (c0A3e) I hope Israel has only a bare bones staff there. I only see this heading in one direction

197 I'm so confused. Quote from the sidebar article about Chris Christie: "In vetoing a bill (S2946) that would have required New Jersey to stay in a regional program intended to curb greenhouse gases — a program Christie plans to leave by the end of the year — the governor said “climate change is real.”' So are we supposed to be happy that he vetoed the idiotic greenie bill or unhappy that he said climate change is real? Since actions typically speak louder than words, I think the veto is a better representation of his views than the statement. Or has my reading comprehension failed me?

198 Ad at NRO: Picture of Ron Paul with the heading "Support the Aug 20th money bomb"

Make sure to pay your dealers!

199 I was in 3rd grade when JFK was shot.  The classrooms at my school had little black and white TVs up in a corner of the room and we watched the announcement.  My teacher didn't cry, but she sure looked like she was going to.   

200 Hey, Kratos, wanna help organize a Moron Slut Walk? We can hold up signs as we walk in front of the cam with our bellies bulging over the waistbands of our Fruit of The Looms, holding up signs that read, "YES, Moronettes!! We are Begging For It!"

201 The last civil conversation my Dad and I had was about JFK Jr. People were having fits because he got a burial at Sea with a Navy warship. We both agreed that was least the country could do for the son of an assasinated President.

202 210 You know why Hitler gave up gin? It made him mean. Posted by: Billy Bob, the guy who drinks in SC at August 20, 2011 09:03 PM (hXJOG) I heard he gave it up right after he gave up shooting himself in the mouth.

203 So are we supposed to be happy that he vetoed the idiotic greenie bill or unhappy that he said climate change is real? Since actions typically speak louder than words, I think the veto is a better representation of his views than the statement. Or has my reading comprehension failed me? Posted by: Mindy at August 20, 2011 09:02 PM (Elg/R) He said he thinks humans do have some impact on global warming. He did NOT say we have to take immediate actions that can ruin our economy. Seems like a rather balanced thoughtful approach to me

204 Appropriate that Obama and the Berlin Wall were born within days of one another.

205

Growing up 5 miles dues east of the DC line, I remember asking my Dad one time why didn't we have an underground nuke-u-ler shelter.  "Son," he said, putting a fatherly arm across my shoulders, "the guidance system on those Rooskie rockets are so bad that any overflight will drop the bomb right on our house."

Vivid dreams for many a night after that.  Thanks, Dad!

206 I remember all of this. I remember hearing about people who strapped themselves to the underside of vehicles or systematically starved themselves so they could fit into suitcases to escape. I have a small piece of the Berlin Wall... I will never forget. Thanks, Dave.

207 Retread,  you are correct about the coverage.  No commercials and a lot of live coverage,  first time ever there was something like that on TV.

My dad grew up in the Rio grande valley.  We were sitting there watching on our black and white TV when they brought Oswald out.  My dad said "They better watch it or someone's going to shoot him."  And about a minute later,  Ruby stepped out and did so. 

208 @207
Yes, Christie is pulling NJ out of that carbon trading scheme.  The bill he vetoed would have made NJ stay in it based on my reading of the bill. 

Yes, he also threw a rhetorical bone at the climate changers. 

My interpretation is that as long as NJ's economic situation is bad, he will not participate in cap & trade.  That's probably an ok position because the evidence will continue to mount that the science is flawed in the meantime. 

209

Growing up 5 miles dues east of the DC line,

Deep in the heart of Waldorf?

210 We both agreed that was least the country could do for the son of an assasinated President.

Posted by: Oldsailor's poet at August 20, 2011 09:04 PM (ZDUD4)

Yeah I don't have a problem with that as much as I do the Obama's taking his and hers jets to Marthas Vineyard within 4 hours of each other. I mean what the fuck, can't they just pretend they care a little bit?

211 oh doG, Fox New Radio just was all gushy about the stuttering clusterfuck of miserable failure getting another "briefing" on the situation in Lybia.

212 159 So mu.nu is down for over three hours and no explanation?
_____________

try this

213 Or what nevergiveup said at 214.

214 I mean what the fuck, can't they just pretend they care a little bit? Posted by: robtr at August 20, 2011 09:07 PM (MtwBb) Obamacares!!

215 oh doG, Fox New Radio just was all gushy about the stuttering clusterfuck of miserable failure getting another "briefing" on the situation in Lybia. Posted by: AltonJackson knows a stuttering clusterfuck of miserable failure when he sees one at August 20, 2011 09:08 PM (JMmQ9) Well he is gonna want to know when AL Quada takes over Libya

216 Yes, he also threw a rhetorical bone at the climate changers. That's the way I read it. But Truman North sounds awfully disappointed in him.

217 Forget the vacation crap.  What really pisses me off is what a non-story the SEAL team deaths are being treated as. 

Obama is the worst CiC in recent memory, but the media continues to polish his knob. 

218
#218 I remember watching Oswald get shot, and I remember my mom rushing over to turn off the TV.  Back in 1963 there wasn't a lot of violence shown on TV.   

219 221, Those two are like a welfare couple that get their checks on the 1st and the money is gone by the 3rd. They have found a world with a bottomless pit of cash and clout. That was the dream. It was never about the country.

220

Growing up 5 miles dues east of the DC line,

Deep in the heart of Waldorf?

Posted by: Osama bin Truck Monkey, TEArrorist at August 20, 2011 09:07 PM (jucos)

Not the salad place, but New Carrollton, which is just inside the Capital Beltway at Route 450.

221 But Truman North sounds awfully disappointed in him.

Did TN ever like him? 

222 Is there a generation amongst us who hasn't viewed at least one extraordinary fight for freedom?

For me, the falling of the wall and Tiananman Square are two.

Despite threat of violence and death, humans will continue to fight. Those in North Korea are just too damned starved to pick up a stick. Hell, they may have eaten all the sticks by now. But, across that line, there are people longing to be free.

Then again, there might be one exception. To the best I can tell, many in the M.E. are fighting for their freedom....the freedom to enslave others.

Damnit. In just a few sentences I'm gone from teary-eyed pride in the human race to sneering rage.

_Shit.

223 I remember watching Oswald get shot, and I remember my mom rushing over to turn off the TV. Back in 1963 there wasn't a lot of violence shown on TV. Posted by: Theresa D., TPT (FREE GGE!!) at August 20, 2011 09:10 PM (Zgfnd) I was in 4th grade. I saw Oswald getting shot so many times I have no idea if I saw it live or not.

224 @159  convenient excuse, no?  hmmmm..  Hard drive failure, shmard drive failure...  NOTHING at that link talked about what a clustering stammering marxisting preening clusterfuck on vacation is. 

Why pick on Gin?  Gin is... sweet.

225 Obama is the worst CiC in recent memory, but the media continues to polish his knob. 

Posted by: Y-not at August 20, 2011 09:10 PM (5H6zj)

Can you imagine the 24 hour loop on CNN and MSNBC if W and Laura would have taken two seperat jets 4 hours apart to Crawford? We would still be hearing about it.

226

Posted by: CoolCzech at August 20, 2011 09:03 PM (kUaEF)

Nobody deserves the torture of seeing me in Fruit of the Looms.  Nobody...

227 Oh, I'm sooooo glad it wasn't just me.  I was very upset when I couldn't get on the HQ earlier.  My week from hell has continued, had to rush my babygirl kitteh to the vet this morning, she was wheezing like she was about to leave me.  The confirmed what I already knew, she has asthma, gave her a shot and she's doing better, but I was a nervous mommy, for sure.

228 W and Laura would have taken two seperat jets 4 hours apart to Crawford? We would still be hearing about it. Posted by: robtr at August 20, 2011 09:13 PM (MtwBb) Well to be honest W and Laura probably like each other

229 232 Y-not, I haven't particularly noticed. I'm not convinced that Christie would be our absolute best choice for a presidential candidate, but I sure love watching him do his thing.

230 #205  I was a freshman during the Cuban Missile Crisis.  We all had to practice going to the sub-basement of my school (where there were tinned fallout shelter supplies stored) in case of nuclear attack.

Can you imagine?  My DIL kept the news channels off for months so my grandson wouldn't be traumatized by the events of 9/11.  A generation earlier,  we were matter-of-factly being drilled on nuclear war.

231 This is a nice thread you've got here... be a shame if something happened to it...   Where's the open Saturday evening ed?

232 #222

They (the MFM in general) are really over doing it on 'he isn't really on vacation' coverage. I get that it is August and that usually means not much news but I wonder how much of this nonsense is so they don't have to spend too much time on the campaigning of Repub candidates.

233 Nobody deserves the torture of seeing me in Fruit of the Looms.  Nobody...

C'mon, Kratos, surely people are curious.  

234 " I know for a fact that the Wall falling had a lot to do with the fact that I'm sitting here watching Maria Sharapova play tennis on ESPN. Maria is wearing a VERY short black skirt. Thank God that Wall came down!" Uh, because the wall came down, Maria Sharapova is actually female and not some weird XY chromosome freak shot up with female hormones.

235 A generation earlier, we were matter-of-factly being drilled on nuclear war. Posted by: Miss Marple at August 20, 2011 09:14 PM (Fo83G) Yeah sometimes I could catch a glimpse of the panties of the girl in front of me when we practiced ducking and covering under our desks. Good times.

236 @241
Me too.

I could be enthusiastic about a Christie run someday, but not now.  Especially not now that Perry is running. 

237 #228  Bush would have had a memorial service for the Seals.  You know he would have.

TERRIBLE CIC.  Worst in my entire lifetime,  and that includes Carter and Lyndon Johnson!

238 Posted by: Peaches at August 20, 2011 09:13 PM

Gee, gal, you are having a terrible run of luck.  I'm glad your little friend was treatable at least. 

239 Conrad did (eventually) toss his firearm while jumping over the barbed wire.

240 Christie for Dept of Labor.. or Commerce...  Until he talks like Perry on global warming.. I'm not impressed...  I'm scared he's a union-hating RINO.

241 Peaches sorry about your kitteh, I hope she is doing better soon.

242 Maria Sharapova is actually female and not some weird XY chromosome freak shot up with female hormones. BLASPHEMER !!!!!!!!!!!

243 Conrad did (eventually) toss his firearm while jumping over the barbed wire. Posted by: andycanuck at August 20, 2011 09:18 PM (oUG6f) How old is he now. The NY Jets could use another running back

244 249 #228  Bush would have had a memorial service for the Seals.  You know he would have.

Yep. 

Face it.  Bush would have probably gone to any of the families' private services for the SEALs had they requested it. 

I know Bush messed up on domestic issues, although so much of that imho was because he saw himself as a war time president so he went squishy on some things, but he was a terrific CiC.  And he always seemed like a good man. 

245 And he always seemed like a good man. Posted by: Y-not at August 20, 2011 09:19 PM (5H6zj) Amen

246 Uh, because the wall came down, Maria Sharapova is actually female and not some weird XY chromosome freak shot up with female hormones.

Maria is all woman, trust us.

247 Chris Christie is a human who's certainly responsible for a change in my climate!  My dew point is positively dewy!

248

Posted by: Peaches at August 20, 2011 09:15 PM (7S1x+)

There is a common saying about curiosity, but given the problems your "baby" is currently experiencing, it would be in poor taste to relay it now.

Trust me, nobody wants to be curious about this.

/I hate that word now, thanks to someone..grrr....

249 Obama is worse than Chester Arthur.  I should know.  He smelled of flop sweat and scotch, and he was a very selfish lover.

250 >>I'm thinking of Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Show trials, antisemitism, etc.

That may be coming back in Hungary. Just not commie-stuff this time around. Latest article was in Der Speigel, don't have a link @present

251 257, Agreed. He is having some sort of interview on NAT GEO where he breaks down the events of 9/11. Should be intresting.

252 What the Soviets planed, and when, has little relation to how Kennedy reacted to finding out they stationed offensive nuclear weapons 90 miles off our shores. It is how he reacted and how he chose to get rid of those weapons that is the point and the topic of discussion
Posted by: nevergiveup at August 20, 2011 08:54 PM (7wmOW)

Again...there are times when you just ought to.

Take the conversation in it's entirety. We gave up viable, operational deterrent weaponry in eastern Europe for what?

Maybe the Russians had missiles with dubious functionality were sending missiles to Cuba?

JFK got played by Kruschev...again.

You made the statement that we had ICBMs and IRBMs here and in Europe that could reach Moscow at the time, and therefore the point of having missiles in Turkey was superfluous to the intent. we had no ICBM. We did have Thors in the UK and Jupiters in both Italy and Turkey. The Thors and Jupiters in Italy could theoretically hit the weatern boundaries of Russia, but the weapons in Turkey easily had Moscow in range..and points further east.

 These were the ones Kruschev was concerned about.

...and he pwned JFK

253 TERRIBLE CIC.  Worst in my entire lifetime,  and that includes Carter and Lyndon Johnson!

Posted by: Miss Marple at August 20, 2011 09:16 PM (Fo83G)

I don't know, I served under Nixon and I always thought he was trying to get us killed with his troop drawdown. The war was the same, we still fought it every damn day, just wil less and less people.

254 Posted by: Ann Coulter, Losing All Reason Lately For Some Reason at August 20, 2011 09:21 PM (uaEZS)

Losing reason for supporting Christie I can explain just because I'm a woman. My face suddenly starting to look like a cow patty I'm having some issues with.

255

I remember watching Oswald get shot, and I remember my mom rushing over to turn off the TV.  Back in 1963 there wasn't a lot of violence shown on TV.

I remember Dick Van Dyke saying he needed to choke a bitch and actually throttling Mary Tyler Moore in an episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show. Anyone else remember this episode?

As for Sharapova, she won her match and is being interviewed on ESPN. I'm praying I get to do an interview with her...in my bedroom. Or in my pants. Either one works for me at this point.

256 261, No shit, AoS has a new "C" word.

257

On the blog downlink, we had been running a unique script to aggregate the blog and the aggregation software was unfamiliar with binary code so we had to ask helpdesk for reference which led to rerouting to an AS400 temporarily until which time we could locate a suitable patch.

For a brief moment with were interlinking with intramural site sharing with LGFootballs.  

So we would recommend a full rinse and reset and reboot and heavy washing of the unmentionables.  

258 it would be in poor taste to relay it now.

Yeah, I was just fuckin' with ya, Kratos.  But I do hope that poor taste doesn't go out of style, particularly on teh blog.  In fact, it's one of my favorite aspects of this place!

259 Peaches, glad the kitteh is doing better!
happy kitteh dance

260 I remember Dick Van Dyke saying he needed to choke a bitch and actually throttling Mary Tyler Moore in an episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show.

You know, as dumb as I pretended to be, I hit that like a freight train and a V/W. I slapped that ass ten times more than Dick Van Dyke did.

261 Appropriate that Obama and the Berlin Wall were born within days of one another. He was the backup plan.

262 JFK got played by Kruschev...again. You made the statement that we had ICBMs and IRBMs here and in Europe that could reach Moscow at the time, and therefore the point of having missiles in Turkey was superfluous to the intent. we had no ICBM. We did have Thors in the UK and Jupiters in both Italy and Turkey. The Thors and Jupiters in Italy could theoretically hit the weatern boundaries of Russia, but the weapons in Turkey easily had Moscow in range..and points further east. These were the ones Kruschev was concerned about. ...and he pwned JFK Posted by: beedubya at August 20, 2011 09:21 PM (AnTyA) If JFK got played so bad by Khrushchev. If Khrushchev won and had such a great tactical victory, then why was he out on his ass within 2 years? The fact is the Cuban Missile Crisis was not a victory of anyone really. But for Khrushchev it was actually a tremendous defeat and lead directly to his downfall

263
273

lol, chemjeff!! 

So, did you use Oldsailor's poet's excellent suggestion for your match title?  It was really non pareil, imo.

264 Something I never understood about Berlin: as they described it in high school, it was like a big circle divided in two like a black-and-white cookie, and that the west side was technically West Germany, that if you got there, you could fly to anywhere else in West Germany and be free, but the wall was between the two halves. OK, but what was to stop people from going around and entering from the round side of the cookie? They'd be all, "Nein, nein, I am just going to visit my cousin who lives here in East Germany, right on the outskirts of West Berlin, but not in it!"

265 Posted by: nevergiveup at August 20, 2011 09:28 PM (7wmOW)

I left that one alone cuz' I knew the JFK haters would have jumped on me. You're right, Kruschev got his ass handed to him according to his people, and that's all that matters.

266 Ha, check out comment #109 on the SCOAMF thread just below.  Made me LOL.

Dack, I think back when the Dick Van Dyke show was on the phrase would have been "to da moon!" 

267 the wall went all the way 'round

268 OT: PETA to launch porn site so they cremate more animals

269 Posted by: Ted Baxter at August 20, 2011 09:31 PM (ulPNQ)

Damn sock!

270 Hey! What did some weird XY chromosome freak shot up with female hormones ever do to YOU??

271 Ha, check out comment #109 on the SCOAMF thread just below. Made me LOL. priceless

272 Hey! What did some weird XY chromosome freak shot up with female hormones ever do to YOU??

Posted by: Martina Navratilova at August 20, 2011 09:32 PM (kUaEF)

We Russians munch many carpet, unlike you Czech pig dog.

273 We Russians munch many carpet, unlike you Czech pig dog.

We don't have carpet anymore, it's all hardwood floors now, commie scum.

274 >> Posted by: Pixy Misa at August 20, 2011 07:55 PM (2yngH) Thanks, Pixy. You da man.

275 Paul at August 20, 2011 09:30 PM (7SryP) The wall, which was actually a fenced and armed corridor in most places, went all the way around West Berlin. There were little quirks, too. You could take the S-Bahn thru East Berlin, see machine gun guards on old 1930's stops, until it came back to West Berlin. A little town called Steinstuecken was surrounded by the wall except for a little alley getting you back to West Berlin proper.

276 Karl Marx was a stuttering clusterfuck of a miserable failure. Obama aspires to Karl's level.

277 I'm pretty sure carpet is racist. I mean, when was the last time you saw black carpet?

278 Heh, at least Karl wrote his own damn books, eh?

279 Karl Marx was a stuttering clusterfuck of a miserable failure. Obama aspires to Karl's level. Posted by: Warthog at August 20, 2011 09:38 PM (WDySP) And Marx wrote better books. Well barely

280 #278  The border around West Berlin (with fence and security) had been there for a number of years.  East Germans used to go visit relatives in East Berlin,cross to West Berlin,   then get on a plane and fly out to West Germany.  The Wall was the attempt to stop this exodus.

 It wasn't that they worried about the people of East Berlin getting to West Berlin.

They were worried about half of East Germany using East Berlin/West Berlin  as a jumping off point to move to the West.

Hope this helps you understand.

281 Posted by: Peaches at August 20, 2011 09:39 PM (7S1x+) I like the way you think

282 278 Checkpoints

283

We Russians munch many carpet, unlike you Czech pig dog.

In Soviet Russia, Carpet munch you.

284 In mine field scene of Kelly's Heroes (which is on the Military Channel right now), why in hell don't the Americans toss grenades at the Germans while they (the Germs) are still in their vehicles?  They would've gotten a helluva lot more of them at one shot that way. 

Always frustrates me. 

285 No carpet? Hardwood only? Don't the guys get slivers???

286 I am definitely bookmarking this page and sharing it with my friends.

287 If JFK got played so bad by Khrushchev. If Khrushchev won and had such a great tactical victory, then why was he out on his ass within 2 years? The fact is the Cuban Missile Crisis was not a victory of anyone really. But for Khrushchev it was actually a tremendous defeat and lead directly to his downfall

Posted by: nevergiveup at August 20, 2011 09:28 PM (7wmOW)

I'm sure you wiki'd for this. It's just part of the charade to make JFK look good.

Kruschev was kicked to the curb by Brezhnev because of Kruschev' s domestic policy disasters. The peasants were ready to revolt because of food shortages

288

It's funny how brainwashed we are about JFK. Even today, otherwise rational people still hold him up like he was the Right Hand of God.

The only reason there was a Cuban Missile Crisis in the first place was because he came across like a pussy to the Russians. They were certain they could get away with it. They wouldn't have even tried with Nixon or Ike running the show.

Thankfully for all of us the Russians blinked.

289 Without a doubt, the collapse of Communism and the fall of the Berlin Wall are the "Whoever would have thunk it?" events of my life thus far. We have failed to communicate to those too young to remember or who were born after those events how profound a change that was and how truly evil Communist regimes were. It's almost like we need to have a "tell" similar to that which occurs at the end of "Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome" in which those of us alive during the Cold War convey what was what and how Barky's purely evil attempt to implement socialism here is doomed to fail to deliver against it's pie-in-the-sky promises.

290 I mean, when was the last time you saw black carpet?
I avoid black carpet. You should know that by now, Eric.

291 digitalbrownshirt,  you are right about brainwashing.

As a kid,  Kennedy to me was like a hero.  He was a democrat president (my family were yellow dogs) and young and had glamorous friends like Sinatra and such.  When he was assassinated,  I was grief-stricken.

Now,  all these years later,  I know how pathetic a president and man he really was.  But you know what?

When I see pictures of him and Jackie and their children,  I still smile and get nostalgic.

Weird,  huh?

292 And Marx wrote better books. Well barely

Posted by: nevergiveup at August 20, 2011 09:40 PM (7wmOW)

And Marx, that stuttering clusterfuck of a miserable failure, actually wrote his books!

293 I remember in third grade this girl from Germany-- she was only going to be with us for a few weeks-- and we found out that Frank (this boy in my class from second grade to fifth grade, when I had to move away) was from Germany, and his family had escaped from East Berlin before there was a wall-- he was a baby at that time, but we had NO idea he could speak German!!  I wonder even today, after all these years, what happened to the girl.. our teacher taught us songs in German, and we learned quite a lot before and during her stay in our class.

Nowadays, the schedule is so controlled... I wish I was more like that third grade teacher I had back in 1963/1964.... I guess I fail.

294 Interesting the world celebrates Berlin being united but adamant Jerusalem be divided.

295

I still meet leftwingnuts who claim Reagan was a senile ,old idiot.  I always reply that this nation needs more senile old idiots of the same caliber if we are to beat our enemies without firing a shot and bringing unimagined prosperity to the nation.   Our "brillant" presidents usually bring scandal, shame, and dishonor, as well as destroy the work of the "senile."

 

It shuts them up so fast, they don't have a chance to drool into their shoes.

296 I'm late to this party, but I just want to comment on the 1948 airlift campaign.

Like most operations, it didn't start off as well as it could have.  However, at its peak, the Americans had a plane landing every 30 seconds.  Think about this, back in 1948, without the use of computers, we had a plane coming in with full cargo every half minute.  That's fucking American spirit right there, that's why we rule.

You can read more about this at your local library, or just follow this link.

297 I was stationed in then-West Berlin in the late 80s.  Loved it. And the contrast with the East was stark. 

Saw Mr. Reagan exhort Mr. Gorbachev to "tear down this Wall." Thanks for this post.

298 74 80sBaby, the Vopo is in the process of discarding his weapon / doughnut

The photographer saw The Entirety of the process, hence the choice of verb

I didn't post the comment.

299 Fascinating post about something which I could only study in school and college.

300

@316: "Fascinating post about something which I could only study in school and college."

Not to worry, sweetie.  You'll get to study it up close and in person soon enough.  Communism is alive and quite well here.

301 This was the month, 50 years ago, that communism had to admit its complete and total failure, so much so they penned in their people behind a wall, and enslave them.


Communism a complete failure. Someone should tell Barry that.

302 The only downside of the wall's destruction was that the East Germans lacked the will to lynch the Soviet soldiers and mount the heads on pikes. And it's annoying that after all these years, we still have apologists for the wall and the system it protected.

303

Netflix has One, Two, Three streaming.

Cuz it's totally historical 'n stuff.

Posted by: Mama AJ

Watch The Way Back instead.  Pre-wall 1940's gulag escape.  Very well done.  Not action packed but very good movie with a very strong anti-commie message.

The escape museum at Checkpoint Charlie was great.  Hope it's still there. 

304 I have old film of myself when I was 3 years old at the Berlin wall trying to throw snow balls at the soldiers...my dad was an air force pilot stationed in Weisbaden. Years later, I have photos of the wall being torn down and the party that we had for days as I was stationed in Europe and took leave to party in Germany.....interesting times.

305

I didn't realize the "tossing aside his rifle" comment was remotely controversial.  He was in the process of yanking it free, and he did in fact discard it.

 

Sheesh.  It's an iconic photo, the photographer surmised what was about to happen and waited for the moment.  Nice capture.

306 Obama is a stuttering clusterfuck of a miserable failure.

307 "He was right, and I was so wrong."

Even though I'm very late here I had to comment on this, Dave.  That is *exactly* what began my journey to the right from the lazy leftism of my youth.  I had the usual knee-jerk reaction to Reagan "bumbling old B-movie actor etc." but when he (along with Thatcher and Pope JPII) got Eastern Europe to kick the commies to the curb I began to see how wrong I had been.

308 I don't remember the wall going up, but I do remember ducking and covering in first grade.  I visited Berlin in 1980 (crossed via Checkpoint Charlie) and got a traffic ticket from the Vopos for crossing the street in the wrong place (still have it somewhere).  Obviously the West tried to make West Berlin a showcase, but that was my first taste of the real differences between Western-style freedom and communism.  I spent a year in the Soviet Union soon after.  Funny, how all my knee-jerk liberal upbringing just seemed to fade away during that time and now I'm a raving right-wing extremist racist hater.