OT: Soviet Re-Birth

[Atrocities]

Looks like the old boss is the new boss. Russia acting old school.

Love those T90 battle tanks and those heavy howitzers.. Wonder how they will do against our Abrams? After all, it was our money for their old nukes that helped to fund the development of those things. Glad we could re-arm our old/new enemy.

Posters proclaiming the holiday throughout the city include the hammer-and-sickle insignia, which is also seen on the banners and period uniforms used by some of the regiments, which goose-stepped across the 6-acre (2.5-hectare) square under clear skies.

How nice.

[dmm]

Smartest things U.S.A. ever did:

Two-term limit on the president. I wish we would do something similar for Congress.

No prime minister, so no one could pull the switcheroo that Putin just did to get around Russia's term limits.

Clear separation of powers among the 3 branches (at all levels of gov't).

Clear subordination of the military and law enforcement to the civilian authorities (at all levels of gov't).

Clear separation between military and law enforcement.

[Atrocities]

Greatest things the USA ever did:

Establish our nation as a republic. (Democracy is fine but it can best be summed up as two starving wolves and a sheep deciding whats for dinner.)

Ratifying our Constitution and the Bill of rights. Secured by the fact that our nation is a republic and not a democracy.

Our rights cannot be arbitrarily taken away from us... not counting the Patriot Act which puts too much power in the wrong hands IMHO, and desperately needs to be revisited and tone way the hell down.

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same. - Ronald Reagan

Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have. - Ronald Reagan

Where have all of our intelligent patriots gone?

[bearclaw]

I'm a Canadian and I must say that I agree with you guys 100%. Though most 'claim' otherwise, I know that if it wasn't for the greatness of the USA, Canada would not be the way we are. I'm constantly in awe of American patriotism. We don't have NEARLY the level of proud Canadians as you have proud Americans.

dmm said:
Two-term limit on the president.

Something that I found out is that in the USA there is no restriction on how many terms someone can run for president. FDR was president for 3 terms. It's an unofficial tradition. Apparently, it comes from George Washington. When his second term was up, he was asked to run for a third but said that the purpose of creating the US was for the leadership to change, to allow others to take the lead. Since then, it's been the tradition that no one would run more than twice. In FDR's case, it was because we (you) were in the middle of WWII that caused him to run for a 3rd term.

Though it is true that no one has ever Completed 3 full terms.

Not to split hairs, this is just an interesting point of trivia.

[mrscrogg]

I think that's wrong - after FDR it was written into law that president can only serve 2 elected full terms , but can still serve more if he/she got into thru illness , assasination originally

[Fyron]

bearclaw said:
"We don't have NEARLY the level of proud Canadians as you have proud Americans."

I dunno... "patriotism" has transformed into a cudgel wielded by wanna-be autocrats to bash everyone else into complying with their anti-constitutional leanings these days. If you don't immediately support such measures, you're patriotism is immediately called into question, and you may even be called a terrorist or terrorist-sympathizer... We are living in the McCarthian 1950s again, sadly. The tactics have become more subtle and sophisticated, but its disgusting nonetheless.

mrscrogg said:
"I think that's wrong - after FDR it was written into law that president can only serve 2 elected full terms , but can still serve more if he/she got into thru illness , assasination originally"

But only if they serve less than 2 years of the remaining term due to death of the elected president. Otherwise it counts as a full term.

No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

'If you're against us, you're evil' is a common tactic in debates to avoid actual debate.

For example, there was a recent article in the Vancouver Province newspaper warning of potential terrorism at the upcoming Vancouver olympic games - Due to 17 incidences this year - egg-throwing, graffiti and similar (To the best of my memory).

Or, right back to the Romans, 'Barbarian'.

[Renegade 13]

bearclaw said:
We don't have NEARLY the level of proud Canadians as you have proud Americans.

<<===== Proud Canadian!

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Given that my history lessons in school were about first, the US, second Canada and third, the rest of the world...

...I live in Canada. Shouldn't Canadian history be a priority???!

[AgentZero]

Well patriotism is nothing more than love and pride in one's country. There seems to be a rather widespread belief however, that being proud of your country means you cannot, nay, must not acknowledge it's faults.

I love my country (as much as one can love an inanimate object, at least), and I'm proud of all the good it's done, but the economy is borked, health care is a mess, the east-middle-west balance is fuxored, and Stephen Harper is a tit. See? Not so hard.

Unfortunately, in an awful lot of cases, American patriotism tends to lean towards the, "America is the greatest place in the world and the best at everything and everything American is better than everything else and everything America does is good and America never does anything bad and people who don't like us are jealous and people who say America does bad things sometimes must just be really evil so they think good things are actually bad because America is perfect and incapable of wrong because America is the greatest place in the world" vein of patriotism.

And people accept this as patriotism, but at the same time any man who held such opinions about his significant other would probably be considered unstable/deranged/probably a threat to her safety.

And the sorts of things people get riled up about in the States rather confuses me as well. I remember a while back there was some big "controversy" over Barack Obama not wearing an American flag pin/Placing his hand over his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance, and after he responded to initial criticisms by saying that he believed one's patriotism should be shown by real actions, and not just meaningless symbolism. And all sorts of people went to town on him over it. I remember thinking to myself, "Would these people actually prefer to have a president who is "patriotic" because he runs around saluting flags, puts his hand in the right place at the right time, wears little pins and keeps telling people how great America is, while he simultaneously ruins the country and violates the very principles on which the nation was founded?"

Then I remembered the results of the last two elections, and realized the answer was yes.