somedaybitch

yup... that was the dawning time in my interest in international affairs... just a punk 15 year old in Taos... :grin: read through 1980

It was very much a year of the slow turning of wheels...

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Wow, AD, you're just a pup!

I read through parts of 1980 and remember alot of it: Mount St. Helens, Zimbabwe gaining independence and Robert Mugabe (the scum) becoming Pres. I remember the Poles, but not as well.

wg, this bit was on the side of the article you referenced and struck me deeply.

"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." --Samuel Adams

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I remember Lech Walensa, though, because I thought he was so brave to stand up to the Communists who I had always thought were very cruel to anyone who defied them. In the early 60's we Americans feared the Communist Russians who might bomb us with atomic warheads at any minute. We never had a bomb shelter, but I worried about it alot (I remain a worrier, just not about Russian bombs). My parents assured me we could live in the basement, if necessary. St. Louis was a defense manufacturing headquarters then; I reckon we would have been atomized or at least reduced to shadows on the walls.

Sometimes I type in train-of-thought. Sorry.

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i always type train of thought. it's kind of a pain in the ass, really. :D and yeah, i remember that. we always joked at SDSU that we didn't have much to worry about cuz we'd get dusted on the first go. but i remember in elementary school doing nuke drills, and i remember in high school being so very proud that we basically stood up and shouted at the Soviets to pick on somebody their own size.

also? kickass icon.

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Regarding the icon: it's an A-6 Intruder on the USS Enterprise making a practice shot off the cat, probably at Pax, MD. My favorite author is Stephen Coonts, who wrote a long series of military thrillers. He flew A-6s over 'Nam and identified the pic for me.

Thanks!

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niiiiiiiiice.

wasn't their nickname slow ugly fuckers?

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yeah, nuke drills... from '69 to '74 we lived on the west side of Colorado Springs then in Denver till 79, if anyone would have been slagged first it would have been us, since NORAD was 5 miles away. But I don't remeber disaster drills... I'd have to bet it was because there wasn't a spot on the front range that was survivable, so what's the point in worrying? NORAD on the south, Titan missile production in littleton, and silos to the north. High value hard targets all...

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Sam was a wise man. and apparently a fine brewer. :D

this bit most: "the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom"

yes. the animating contest of freedom. they've been lulled into thinking it's somehow no longer work.

i love the generosity inherent in his tone as well; he wishes them no harm, but rather to politely go be stupid elsewhere and good luck to them.

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yup, just a pup, like wg...

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arf!

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Day before yesterday I turned 61. OMG how did I get so old. At least it sounds old. I still act fairly young, when my knees allow. I do think first before I do stuff, though, which is a change from my yout'. And I used to drive really fast, too.

Didn't intend to insult you or wg, by calling you a pup.

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none taken, sugar. i took it as a term of affection.

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heh, me neither, woof...

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