rljy
Joined 14 years ago
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Comment · 9 years ago
Comment · 9 years ago
"La Marseillaise" is the French national anthem. Here are the words in English:
"Arise, children of the Fatherland, The day of glory has arrived! Against us tyranny's Bloody banner is raised, (repeat) Do you hear, in the countryside, The roar of those ferocious soldiers? They're coming right into your arms To cut the throats of your sons, your women!
To arms, citizens, Form your battalions, Let's march, let's march! Lest an impure blood Soak our fields!
What does this horde of slaves, Of traitors and conspiratorial kings want? For whom are these vile chains, These long-prepared irons? (repeat) Frenchmen, for us, ah! What outrage What fury it must arouse! It is us they dare plan To return to the old slavery!
To arms, citizens...
What! Foreign cohorts Would make the law in our homes! What! These mercenary phalanxes Would strike down our proud warriors! (repeat) Great God! By chained hands Our brows would yield under the yoke Vile despots would have themselves The masters of our destinies!
To arms, citizens...
Tremble, tyrants and you traitors The shame of all parties, Tremble! Your parricidal schemes Will finally receive their reward! (repeat) Everyone is a soldier to combat you If they fall, our young heroes, The earth will produce new ones, Ready to fight against you!
To arms, citizens...
Frenchmen, as magnanimous warriors, Bear or hold back your blows! Spare those sorry victims, Who arm against us with regret. (repeat) But not these bloodthirsty despots, These accomplices of Bouillé, All these tigers who, mercilessly, Rip their mother's breast!
To arms, citizens...
Sacred love of the Fatherland, Lead, support our avenging arms Liberty, cherished Liberty, Fight with thy defenders! (repeat) Under our flags, may victory Hurry to thy manly accents, May thy expiring enemies, See thy triumph and our glory!
To arms, citizens..."
It is a patriotic military song about defending France from attackers. It's not fundamentally different from many other such verses in the anthems and patriotic texts of competing nations. The Quran contains similar wording when describing calls for Jihad to defend the fatherland.
While the Nazi's were evil, that does not mean we should be brought to tears by any nation which stood against them. Stalin's propagandists also wrote hymns which brought tears to many a Russian's eyes during and after the war.
And France was far from perfect at the time of WWII. Hitler is still admired by a large minority of Arabs because the Nazi's helped "liberate" former French colonies! [1] I'm not picking on the French here though. My point is, that we shouldn't be confused in our passions into worshiping "something anything so long as it's against the Nazis". While it is not true that "the enemy of your enemy is your friend". In a broader sense, it is not true that every ally is your friend. And you should not equate a champion with their cause.
Flawed reasoning: "Communism is the main force against capitalism, therefore if I want to fight capitalism I should become a communist."
More flawed reasoning: "Russia has the most troops fighting against Hitler. Therefore, if I want to fight Nazism I should become a Russian."
More flawed reasoning: "Hitler attacked France, therefore, if I lived in France and feel harmed by Nazism, I should love France." (Remember, France was all for getting rid of the Jews [2]. They just didn't like being invaded... )
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relations_between_Nazi_Germany... [2] "The evacuation of European Jewry to the island of Madagascar was not a new concept. Henry Hamilton Beamish, Arnold Leese, Lord Moyne, German scholar Paul de Lagarde and the British, French, and Polish governments had all contemplated the idea." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proposals_for_a_Jewish_state#M...
Comment · 9 years ago
$200K?
"On May 22, 2010, the yellow stamp was auctioned once again by David Feldman in Geneva, Switzerland. It sold "for at least the $2.3 million price [that] it set a record for in 1996"." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treskilling_Yellow
Comment · 9 years ago
I don't agree that this is a breakthrough. Type 2 diabetes has existed for a long time. What we're seeing here is a new type of diabetes, type "obese with bad diet and constant inflow of blood sugar either from fat or from food" diabetes. This new type is obviously treatable. Real type 2 diabetes is neither an insufficiency of insulin nor is it an excess of incoming blood sugar. It is insulin tolerance developed within the cells and it is barely treatable by any method.
Comment · 9 years ago
Nothing like some good old black and white, two sided European nationalism to bring tears to the eyes, is there?
Comment · 9 years ago
Would it be so terrible to end sactions against North Korea? Trade should rise the middle class North Koreans up, and the last thing a wealthy middle class wants is war. A well fed and housed middle class seems the best insurance against war possible.
Comment · 9 years ago
why would they need money? Why would they need to trade with anyone? It is not like North Korea is infinitely small and the earth infinitely big. The earth is a small globe, and NK is a region of that globe, one which almost certainly can be an autarky.
Comment · 9 years ago
How do you determine which party an appointee belongs to? Why didn't Obama appoint someone from the green party?
Comment · 9 years ago
How do you know which sites sell product placement? Are you %100 sure that NYTimes does not? What about theoutline.com? Do you KNOW that they don't?
I happen to be familiar with the book publishing industry in my country, and I know that many journalists will publish an article on a book written by a publishing houses PR manager, just to save themselves the effort of writing an article themselves. And these are the biggest newspapers in the country.
Comment · 9 years ago
Oops. I was trying to dam it, not damn it.
Comment · 9 years ago
As much as the obvious reflex is to think that "oh we should move BACK to a more austere, toy-less environment." It is important to remember, that children that grow up in nature are surrounded by thousands of "toys". I remember camping by creaks as a child, and finding there far more "toys" than in my play box. Rocks, sticks, bushes, leaves, mud, bugs, animals. Somehow, I still managed to focus for hours trying to damn the creak. So I don't really believe that more toys = shorter attention span. It must be something about the nature of these artificially created toys that makes them less engaging.
Comment · 9 years ago
Why did you take the box away then?
Comment · 9 years ago
Comment · 9 years ago
For those wondering, here is a link to underhanded c http://www.underhanded-c.org/_page_id_2.html
I don't really see the problem with the second comment though, or how it is going "full Hitler". Godwin's law doesn't apply to discussions that are literally about WWII. Yes, it may be negative, but is negativity wrong in of itself it if my negativity is backed up by rational discussion?