Sunday, May 29, 2011

Side Cars: Viagra Fueled Harley's

IRBIT, Russia — This is the story of how a dying Soviet-era industry and an aging biker population in the United States met and found happiness together on the streets and highways of America.
Multimedia
Maxim Marmur for The New York Times
A Ural bike outside the factory town. Irbit sold only 20 bikes in Russia last year, but older sidecars are still put to use for cargo. More Photos »
Think of it as Easy Rider, the golden years.
It started as a matter of survival for the Irbit Motor Works, which for decades had churned out its signature Ural motorcycle with sidecar attachment, but which discovered that its business was sputtering into the Post-Communist sunset like so many other Soviet enterprises.
Irbit found salvation in an unlikely niche market: older American riders seeking utility, not thrills or spills. Suddenly the sidecar, a seemingly anachronistic product evoking a World War II newsreel, had a new life among the late middle-aged.

65 comments:

  1. This post Inspired by motorcycles, the Whiskey Rebellion and your given Second Amendment rights.

    ReplyDelete
  2. and for those outside the sidecar of thinking, how about some fascinating observations from Conrad Black:

    …"When Barack Obama took office, the official normal money supply of the United States was about $1.1-trillion. The $3-trillion in federal budget deficits that have been run up since then have largely, technically, escaped the money supply, though accretions have almost doubled the official total, an unheard of rate of growth (about 40% annualized) in a hard-currency country. About 70% of this debt has been paid by the issuance of bonds to the central bank of the United States, the Federal Reserve, a subsidiary of the United States government. Whatever the balance sheets say, this has produced the effect of a money-supply increase, which has brought pump-priming to a level of over-achievement not seen since Noah felt the compulsion to build an ark. And the annual trillion-dollar deluge is forecast to continue for a decade.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The world’s reserve currency, the fabled vehicle of the “faith and credit of the United States,” is now virtual money — a symbol for all the other massive problems afflicting the U.S. economy. The imported share of America’s oil consumption, for instance, has gone from 20% to 60%. Large suppliers like Iran and Venezuela have become hostile countries. Yet Americans remain neurotic about paying half the gas price of other oil-importing countries.

    The cost per capita of U.S. medical care is $7,000 compared to the average among Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom, of $3,000; 70% of the people have immensely generous plans that they love with passionate attachment and don’t pay for, either as contributors or as taxable benefits, and the political class won’t touch this. Unfortunately, much of the other 30%, 100 million Americans, get what amounts to emergency health care only, and much of it is uninsured and is billed to the recipient until the patient is out of money, and only then provided gratis. Most of the largest states are bust; Social Security, student loans, Medicare (for the elderly in the U.S.) are all, also, in desperate need of an utterly cacophonous national conversation.

    Unless the United States has the most spectacular cognitive awakening since Brunhilda, if not Lazarus, the laws of arithmetic are going to assert themselves in Zeus-like terms…

    ReplyDelete
  4. the interest on Greek government notes has risen from 20% to 26%.

    ReplyDelete
  5. …"The EU is in hot contention with the United States as the Sick Man of the Great World Economic Powers, because less than 40% of Eurozone citizens work and over 60% are on benefits of some sort. But not to be discounted in this gripping Olympic contest for total fiscal immolation is geriatric, debt-ridden, stagnating Japan, a great but terribly beleaguered and demoralized country.

    If there are signs of hope, the place we might look is Britain. …
    National Post

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  6. Sarah Palin couldn't scare the DC crowd more if she came in riding that motorcycle with a Machine Gun on the sidecar.

    Things the Government Does Not Want You To Have:

    1) A Rifle

    2) A Still

    3) Gold

    And, if the truth be told,

    4) An Internet Connection

    ReplyDelete
  7. A BMW replica from China w/sidecar for $3,500.

    They say it's road ready.

    Bet the gas mileage is better than my dually. Wonder if it'd fit in the bed of the truck?

    Wouldn't want to ride a Harley, that'd be to stereotypical of mid-life crisis.

    ReplyDelete
  8. A 1976 Honda 750 w/sidecar also priced at $3,500.

    Bet it'd be easier to find parts for.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Sarah Palin would be no different. She will be like the rest of the ruling class. I was amused to watch the US Congress, Republicans and Democrats delirious with the joy, showing fealty to good old Benjamin Netanyahu, who stopped by to tell them who was their daddy.

    Netanyahu began by declaring that "America has no better friend than Israel." Congress seized the moment, thrilled and rose in unison to applaud and holler amen.

    Israel is our best friend ever.

    How could we possibly survive without Israel there to guide and inspire us?

    Too bad the TSA could not protect the USS Liberty from our best friend ever, but these things happen amongst the best of friends.

    Had Sarah Palin been there, her joy would have been uncontrollable.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Her Base is heavily Evangelistic. Support for Israel is probably higher among that group than among the U.S. Jewish population.

    Just how "Evangelistic" is she, and to what extent is she pandering to her Base? We don't know. I suspect, more of the latter, but, again, who can be sure?

    She's, supposedly, big-time "pro-business," but she sure jerked knots in the tails of the oil companies in Alaska. She strikes me as being a total pragmatist whose ass the Zionists haven't been able to 'money-snag,' yet.

    ReplyDelete
  11. If I kind of root for Palin, this year, it will be more of a distraction, kind of like rooting for the '69 Mets. An entertainment.

    Because, the truth is, we're in a real, helluva jam; and we won't be getting out of it anytime soon. I hate to use an overused prhrase, but we really are in the middle of a "Perfect Shitstorm."

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  12. Simply put, the moneyed elites picked the worst possible time to get drunk, and stupid, and wreck the economy on the shoals of the most arrogant, inane, corrupt, reckless, criminal Housing Scam in the History of the Republic.

    With competition from ultra-low wage Asian Labor, and Exploding Productivity, Joe, and Jane are in one hell of a mess. Add to that: Skyrocketing Gasoline/Heating Oil/Propane/Diesel Prices and the Dear Kids don't know where to turn next.

    They really need a break, and the sad truth is, the Next President will not be able to give it to them. No more than this one can.

    There are a few things that can be done, but the fact is: They, and their advisors, don't have the technical knowledge to know what those mitigations are.

    We are, I'm afraid, Well and Truly shagged for the foreseeable future.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Our little 5% correction in gasoline prices has just about run its course. After, maybe, another penny, or two, they will start rising again. And, when they do, I doubt if the $4.00 "Ceiling" will hold them.

    By the Fall of the year I expect the Economy to be in complete Stall, and by December I think we'll find that it's moving backwards again.

    And, the sad fact is, Not One Candidate, yet, has put forth any kind of a reasonable "Assessment" of the problem, much less a workable solution.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Should we be borrowing money from China to turn around and give it to the Muslim Brotherhood?



    Given that we are running massive deficits and are drowning in more than $14 trillion in debt, and despite not knowing who will rule Egypt until its election this fall, this strange strategy may be the end result given President Obama’s announcement that he is committing $2 billion to Egypt’s “new government.”


    From Sarah Palin's Facebook Page

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  15. I understand that Pennsylvania has enough natural gas where it could supply a significant part of the US with natural gas for vehicles. Perhaps if foreigners are still foolish enough to loan us money, we should borrow it and develop Pennsylvania natural gas. There are not enough environmental activists to stop the PA industrial unions from supporting infrastructure including refineries being developed in the central part of the state, close to the gas fields.

    A good start to incentivize the transfer to natural gas vehicles would be to take away 50% of the deductibility for petroleum based fuel costs on commercial vehicles and give 125% deductibility to natural gas vehicles costs.

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  16. Deuce, it's not my favorite solution (partly due to the fact that we still import approx. 10% of our Nat Gas,) but it IS "something."

    ReplyDelete
  17. As you know, I really want to see a cellulosic ethanol refinery/power plant in Every Pa. County.

    We could put a couple of hundred thousand unemployed steel workers, pipefitters, carpenters, concrete workers, plumbers, equipment operators to work building those refineries, close to a hundred thousand people operating those refineries/power plants, and allow Pennsylvanians to keep a sizable portion of their money at home in Pa, and not have to see it go to Saudi Arabia, and Nigeria.

    ReplyDelete
  18. so I ended up at MD's for a large Mcflurry

    Now I've read everything there is to read.

    Well. I'm for Sarah, though I was Tea Party for one afternoon.

    You should be happy my computer is sent for repairs, cause I found the long quote from Frye about William Blake and the imagination being creative, which I mentioned to someone, somewhere, sometime, can't recall.
    But when the Toshita gets back, watch out. And you may have a quote from J. Campbell coming too.

    My daughter made a truly great break through in understanding yesterday, a real epiphany, a transcendental understanding.

    She said: How in hell do I manage to collect so much junk.

    Heh, this is progress.

    If she had the money she'd have as many shoes as Emelda Marcos.

    She is now seeing if she can fix it up so she can suck for free with the internet, like is being done with the cable tv. Cable company never sends a bill.

    Last I saw of Bigmex, he was out in the parking lot, having a smoke and talking on the cell phone. I've learned there is a daughter up there too.

    As to solitude, it can be wonderful, if everything else is going along ok.

    Good dance video there Melody.

    Hit the Golden Nugget, gag, one of the oldies downtown. Still there, last I checked.

    dwr

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  19. According to Dr. Bill we burn off enough natural gas up there in Alaska to power the lower 48.

    dwr

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  20. Sarah Palin would be no different.

    Then you might as well give up all hope.

    Lest she's nice to look at.

    Chris Christie isn't even a Republican, barely.

    Would be a contest between thin 'n tall, and short 'n fat.

    dwr

    ReplyDelete
  21. Duece: Too bad the TSA could not protect the USS Liberty from our best friend ever, but these things happen amongst the best of friends.

    Had Sarah Palin been there, her joy would have been uncontrollable.



    Spoken like a turd...

    ReplyDelete
  22. The Liberty story proves the point.

    Israel is equivalent to North Korea, North Vietnam and Libya.

    All of which attacked the US Navy on the high seas. What was not equivalent, the US reaction to the piracy.

    The Israeli received a pass, the other pirates, not.

    That is what stinks, like a turd.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Benjamin Netanyahu is no friend of mine or the majority of Americans. He is no friend of American interests. I heard good old Bibi speak in Philadelphia. He made a clumsy analogy to Israeli casualty losses and said losing one Israeli was the equivalent of the US losing 15 soldiers. He was called on the analogy, went on to use it on "Meet The Press," was criticised again and I have not seen him use it since, but his agenda lives on.

    Netanyahu and other Israeli politicians keep talking the talk about US vital interests being tied to israel, but it is nonsense and he or they never state what those interests are.

    Please feel free to name the interests.

    There are vague suggestions about Israel being a vanguard of democracy and sharing our values. Most of israeli values are anathema to American legal values. Israel is a religious state, Religion dictates over everything else.

    Israel being a Jewish State by law is good for Israel but bad for fifty US states. Which US State should be Baptist by law? Name it.

    Name me country number two where the US interests are that it remain a particular religion. Is it Italy or Spain. Is it India or Brazil?

    There are none because it is nonsense that US interest are tied to Israel. US politicians are tied to Israel because no other country meddles in US domestic affairs to the same degree as Israel does.

    If state number two exists, name it.

    Israel has killed more American servicemen than the US has killed Israelis. If that not true, name the incident and educate us.

    There are suburbs of Mexico City that have a greater population than Israel. What happens in Mexico is far more important to the US than what happens in Israel, but Israeli politicians have been successful at intimidating American politicians.

    Israeli interests are simple, they want the US to do their bidding, fight their wars and pay for them.

    If what I say is not truth , expose the lie, If you can't do it, think about it and try harder.

    ReplyDelete
  24. AQAP's growing strength in Abyan is attributed to an unlikely alliance it has forged with southern secessionists, whose Marxist and secular heritage would make them ideological enemies in ordinary circumstances.

    The pact was allegedly forged by a powerful local kingpin, Tariq al-Fadhli, a veteran of Afghanistan who was once close to the president until they fell out in 2009.

    Mr Fadhli has been declared one of country's chief outlaws, but in an another example that things are not always as they seem in Yemen, the Daily Telegraph found him living openly in Zinjibar when it visited the town last year.


    Yemen Town

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  25. The lack of US response allowed the Israeli a pass, to commit piracy later.
    Against civilian shipping in the Mediterranean, targeting Turkish flagged ships, killing a US citizen in the process.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Israel can take care of her own affairs. I would be happy to see them do just that. They determine what they are and they do it. Keep us out of it. Spare us the bullshit about Israel being our greatest best friend ever!

    ReplyDelete
  27. The gales that swept Scotland last week, with gusts of over 80mph, were the worst in the month of May for almost 50 years. The power to almost 30,000 homes was temporarily cut and two people died.

    ...

    The Atlantic jet stream brings warm, wet weather to the UK and Europe from the south-west. If it is “blocked” as a result of changes in solar activity, cold air flows across Britain from the east.

    One such period of prolonged blocking of the jet stream is thought to have occurred between 1645 and 1715, when Britain experienced a mini ice age, yet also spells of hot, dry summer weather.


    'Running Out Of Wind'

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  28. While on an official visit to China in 1986 he told a group of British exchange students staying in the city of Xian: “If you stay here much longer you’ll all be slitty-eyed.”

    Duke of Edinburgh

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  29. Mr Hayward, who left his job at BP following the accident, now works as a non-executive for Glencore and a BP representative on the board of its Russia venture TNK-BP.

    During the much-anticipated litigation, BP will argue that it is not guilty of any negligence, while Transocean is expected to plead that its liability cannot exceed the $26m value of its vessel.

    BP has managed to avoid a bulk of litigation by having agreed to set up the $20bn fund to fast-track compensation.


    Court Case

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  30. This being the European Union, nomenclature is extremely important. Of course it won’t be called a default – I doubt it will be called anything beginning with “de”.

    ...

    This is why the “when” issue is so important. The current approach is to try to stave off the event until things get better.

    ...

    So even though the markets cannot cause the euro to break up by exchange rate pressure, they can cause an internal financial crisis worse than any currency panic. The prospect, or the reality, of such a crisis could yet cause some European leaders to precipitate the end of the euro as we know it.


    Running Out Of Time

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  31. I watched another combat mission recording of an RAF Tornado firing a Brimstone missile at a pick-up truck from which pro-Gaddafi forces had been attacking Libyan rebels in Misurata. After firing the weapons, they drove the truck under a line of trees to avoid detection.

    But their movements were being tracked by a Typhoon's surveillance equipment, thereby enabling the Tornado to destroy the vehicle.

    One minute Gaddafi's fighters were terrorising the population of Misurata: the next, their guns had fallen silent for ever. It is chastening to watch men lose their lives, but that is the nature of war in the 21st century – and in this case one that, under the terms of the UN resolution, must be waged from the air.


    Wing and a Prayer

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  32. For now, Republicans appear to have calculated that they need to stick to the Ryan plan and explain it better, even in the face of Democratic scare tactics.

    That’s a serious approach to politics that rises above all the razzmatazz of Palin’s bus tour and even the rhetoric of Obama – who has no proposal for what to do with Medicare – that left some editorial writers of Europe swooning in his path last week.

    Ryan’s plan might end up damaging Republicans next November – conventional wisdom is that it is political suicide to mess with entitlement programmes. But the congressman’s new prominence could be a sign that the really important contest has begun – not the shenanigans of Palin, whose policy pronouncements remain vague and unformed, but a serious battle of ideas.


    Ryan Main Act

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  33. WiO,

    You are wasting your time.

    ReplyDelete
  34. American politicians of both parties rose and applauded Netanyahu 55 times. Netanyahu must have laughed himself to sleep.

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  35. You should feel triumphant Allen. Your side won.

    Netanyahu to his credit stood up for Israeli interests. He forced an American President to his knees and got the US Congress to their feet 55 times. It was reminiscent of the old Soviet Politburo.

    By some astounding coincidence, Israeli political interests and US interests are indivisible. Bibi says jump and the US Congress does it 55 times. He knows who is bitches are. Rejoice Allen.

    ReplyDelete
  36. The other panelist, Timothy Brook, a China expert and author of such books as 'Troubled Empire', took the opportunity to criticize the recent arrest of controversial Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, the creator of the Tate Modern’s Sunflower Seeds exhibition.

    ...

    He also said that China’s biggest problem was tackling its environmental issues and corruption. Brook said were there to be an ‘China spring’ like there had been in the Middle East, it would have to tackle corruption levels in China.

    “There is so much corruption in China. You can't move an inch without encountering it.”


    America as Threat

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  37. Deuce said...
    You should feel triumphant Allen. Your side won.

    Hardly!

    Have you forgotten Lebanon so soon? Your side won: thanks to Condi and Co, Hez has tens-of-thousands of rockets/missiles in hardened shelters waiting the word from Iran. There is the very real chance that by year's end, many of my family and friends will be dead. Congrats!

    ReplyDelete
  38. “If we let you down, it was not for lack of trying to hold you up,” Rice said. “The United States is not able always immediately to push events in the direction we would want to go.”

    She said they tried to give Egyptians the tools they would need to speak out for freedom, adding, “There’s a reason Hosni Mubarak never came back to the U.S. after 2004. ... It had to do with how we were dealing with the Egyptian revolution.”

    About 10 protestors stood outside of the university’s gates as the conference began, with signs that included one reading, “Greed Kills.”


    Arab Uprisings

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  39. He was getting old and paunchy and his hair was falling fast,
    And he sat around the Legion, telling stories of the past,
    Of a war that he had fought in and the deeds that he had done
    In his exploits with his buddies; they were heroes, every one.

    And tho' sometimes, to his neighbors, his tales became a joke,
    All his Legion buddies listened, for they knew whereof he spoke.
    But we'll hear his tales no longer for old Bill has passed away,
    And the world's a little poorer, for a soldier died today.

    He will not be mourned by many, just his children and his wife,
    For he lived an ordinary and quite uneventful life,
    Held a job and raised a family, quietly going on his way
    And the world won't note his passing, though a soldier died today.

    When politicians leave this earth, their bodies lie in state,
    While thousands note their passing and proclaim that they were great.
    Papers tell their whole life stories from the time that they were young,
    But the passing of a soldier goes unnoticed and unsung.

    Is the greatest contribution to the welfare of our land,
    Some guy who breaks his promises and cons his fellow man?
    Or the ordinary fellow, who in times of war and strife,
    Goes off to serve his Country and offers up his life?

    A politician's stipend and the style in which he lives
    Are sometimes disproportionate to the service that he gives,
    While the ordinary soldier, who offered up his all,
    Is paid off with a medal and, perhaps, a pension small.

    It's so easy to forget them for it was so long ago
    That the old Bills of our Country went to battle, but we know
    It was not the politicians, with their compromise and ploys,
    Who won for us the freedom that our Country now enjoys.

    Should you find yourself in danger, with your enemies at hand,
    Would you want a politician with his ever-shifting stand?
    Or would you prefer a soldier who has sworn to defend
    His home, his kin and Country and would fight until the end?

    He was just a common soldier and his ranks are growing thin,
    But his presence should remind us we may need his like again,
    For when countries are in conflict, then we find the soldier's part
    Is to clean up all the troubles that the politicians start.

    If we cannot do him honor while he's here to hear the praise,
    Then at least let's give him homage at the ending of his days.
    Perhaps just a simple headline in the paper that would say,
    "Our Country is in mourning, for a soldier died today."


    Saw this over at PlanetE85, and thought I'd pass it along.

    ReplyDelete
  40. allen said...
    WiO,

    You are wasting your time.




    yep...

    notice my lack of any real attempts at rational discourse?

    deuce has joined rat in the pool........

    nothing to argue or discuss...

    amazing how such minds are destroyed by hatred.

    ReplyDelete
  41. The Story of "o" speaks of hatred, a field in which he is expert.


    His hatred of the United States is legend.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Hatred? You cannot answer a rational question.

    Tell me which US State should be the Baptist State?

    Would the US Congress be jumping to their feet to cheer the declaration that Alabama should always remain Baptist?

    Would they applaud wildly to hear that New Orleans should always remain Catholic?

    Which Latin American countries should remain Catholic States and be so pronounced by the US President?

    Which part of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware should be returned to the Lenape Indians? Are the claims of the descendants of the Lenape tribes less ancient and less worthy than those of a Middle Eastern religious cult?

    Which warring tribes and religious cults of the ancient Iroquois and Mohicans have an inferior standing to the ancient warring religious sects of the Middle East?

    They do their rain dances and you do yours. They wail to the sky and you to the wall. Some have worry beads and other holy rosaries. All of you talk to dead people and are all chosen by heavenly lords and gods. You are all vassals and slaves to your own chosen group of mythical masters.

    I hate none of you. You are all equally ridiculous to me. Choose to waste your lives on such nonsense, kill and be killed but keep it to yourselves and your own imperious follies. fight your own battles, defend your own land and get off your sanctimonious self important pedestals of piety.

    ReplyDelete
  43. My daughter had Fang, a little toy cat, which she still has, and Fang put her to sleep many a night. One time she dropped Fang into the lake from the high point of the boat boardwalk at the resort, and I, heroic, swan dived the 20 feet, entering like an Osprey, and have been in good graces ever since, a feat that lives in family memory.


    Please feel free to name the interests.


    They are a first line of defense, so to speak.

    You may not want to admit it but we are in a cultural war, of some 1400 years duration, and counting.

    The idea we can just retreat beyond the oceans - ? - haven't we tried that before? Iran is looking to place missiles in Venezuela.

    Besides there is a common heritage, look at the Supreme Court Building. Moses is a prophet of American too, though we are fast forgetting.

    Now I am beginning to see it's not Whit keeping WiO off the big billboard, as he always has supported Israel, but the
    Boss.

    I simply do not understand this. It sticks out like a sore thumb, so to say.

    Finally some sunshine today. But rain forecast. Some of this land here isn't going to get planted, first time in long as I can remember.

    Sarah is making a big hit back east today. I was for Sarah before I knew she was so pro-Israel.

    dwr

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  44. My ancestors were Vikings and had nothing to do with Moses.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Since when are Americans expected to support any foreign power?

    ReplyDelete
  46. I have only served under one flag.

    ReplyDelete
  47. Blackbeard's Anchor Found!!!

    heh


    So were mine, but we were both brought up Christian. Vikings are swell, but they were a little rough round the edges.

    A lot of people who claim they have Irish blood actually are Vikings too. You can often tell.

    I gotta go Cd'A again, and I'm not up to an argument anyway.

    Have a good day, everyone.

    dwr

    ReplyDelete
  48. A lot of my ancestors were Cherokee. All they ever got out of the "Moses" crowd was smallpox, and the "Trail of Tears."

    ReplyDelete
  49. My family name came from a Dane ancestor. Where's the "State of Thor?"

    Piss on Religious zealots. Of all stripes, and colors.

    All they've ever accomplished is "getting people killed."

    ReplyDelete
  50. And, do I think "Reservations" are an idiotic anachronism? You bet I do.

    ReplyDelete
  51. My biggest argument is that we are squandering our National Treasure in the Mideast. Not just the Wars, and "Aid," but, also, on the oil.

    We're wasting our wealth, and heritage, and I don't like it.

    ReplyDelete
  52. desert rat said...
    The Story of "o" speaks of hatred, a field in which he is expert.


    His hatred of the United States is legend.




    A self confessed murderer throws rocks at me?

    Go fuck yourself rat. We all KNOW that you are beneath judgement. Go tell it to your friends in Hamas...

    Rat? you are fecal matter...

    Burn in Hell, or better yet? Move to Gaza you fucktard.

    ReplyDelete
  53. Jerusalem Arabs ask Israel to remain in control

    Monday, May 30, 2011 | Ryan Jones

    Print Version

    Share |

    Jerusalem Arabs ask Israel to remain in control

    The Israeli Knesset's Interior Committee met on Monday to discuss future control of Jerusalem as pressure mounts for Israel to surrender the city's eastern half to the Palestinian Authority.

    Among those slated to address the committee were Arab residents of eastern Jerusalem who want to continue living under Israeli sovereignty.

    That these Arabs would risk their lives to come forward and request to remain part of Israel debunks the international misconception most recently enunciated by US President Barack Obama that the Palestinian Arabs cannot reach their full potential or live dignified lives while under "Israeli occupation."

    It also provides further evidence for the conclusion of Israel Today's recent cover story revealing that many Palestinian Arabs do not want an independent state, and already live in peace and prosperity with their Jewish neighbors.

    Monday's Knesset gathering was called by lawmakers who are growing increasingly concerned over how parts of eastern Jerusalem are slowly falling under the de facto control of the Palestinian regime.

    "Signs of Israeli sovereignty are disappearing in parts of Jerusalem that are behind the partition fence and their place is being taken by hostile elements," wrote the lawmakers. "This, despite the lack of any decision by the Knesset or the government on the matter."

    They warned that this "impotence leads to the de facto division of Jerusalem."


    dwr

    ReplyDelete
  54. We all want to be at least part Native American now, Rufus, get in on all the casino cash.

    My aunt thought there would be nothing better than 1/2 Native American and 1/2 Swede. You are close, with the Danish, lucky dog.

    One thousand Swedes,
    Crawlin' through the weeds, Advancin' on Copenhagen.


    :)

    dwr

    ReplyDelete
  55. And there are, indeed, a lot of skeletons in a lot of closets - from a wiki article on Cherokees and slavery -

    History
    [edit] Slavery among the Cherokee

    Slavery was a component of Cherokee society prior to European contact.[10] In oral tradition, Cherokees saw slavery as the result of individuals' failure in warfare and as a temporary status pending the slave's adoption or release.[11] In early colonial times, the British took Cherokee slaves during the Indian Slave Trade.

    From the 1830s to 1860s, some Cherokee began to hold a more British view of slavery [12]. In the early 19th century, Cherokee plantation owners in the American South enslaved African captives.[13] Of the Five Civilized Tribes, the Cherokee held captive the greatest number of enslaved Africans of any of the groups in Indian Territory.[14] The 1809 Meigs Census counted 583 "Negro slaves" of Cherokee captors,[15] while in 1835 that number was 1,592, with 7.4% of families holding Africans captive.[16] Enslaving Africans was less common among full-blood than mixed-race Cherokee.[17]

    The nature of enslavement in Cherokee society often mirrored that of white slave-owning society with little difference between the two.[18] Cherokee law barred intermarriage of Cherokees and Africans, whether the latter were enslaved or free. Africans who aided enslaved Africans were punished with one hundred lashes on the back. In Cherokee society, Africans were barred from holding office, bearing arms, and owning property. It was illegal for anyone to teach Africans to read and write.[19][20]

    Revolts attested to the Africans' desire for freedom. In the Cherokee Slave Revolt of 1842, 25 Cherokee-enslaved Africans held captive by Joseph Vann rebelled and tried to escape to Mexico, but were captured. During the American Civil War, the Cherokee Nation, represented by Chief John Ross, was largely conflicted between the north and the south.[11] On June 25, 1863, mirroring the Emancipation Proclamation, the Cherokee National Council emancipated all enslaved Africans within the limits of the Cherokee Nation.[21]


    dwr

    ReplyDelete
  56. If you have the choice between being a serf or a slave, always choose serf. If you have the choice between being a serf, and a small landowner, always be a small landowner. If you are born the youngest son to a small landowner in Sweden, without prospects or prospects of an education, go to Stockholm, sweep the streets for two years to earn passage, go through Ellis Island, head to Illinois, work for a farmer, then head out this way, and become a big landowner.

    In due time, you may have a grandson singing your eternal praises.

    dwr

    ReplyDelete
  57. Anybody up for a little explication of William Blake and the creativity of the imagination?

    My wife has left me in this motel room with nothing to do.

    I'm gonna take a nap.

    dwr

    ReplyDelete
  58. By the way, I think slavery in ancient Israel was the least severe in all the ancient world.

    If you have the choice between being a slave to the Cherokee, or a slave to the Israelite, always choose to be a slave to the Israelite.

    dwr

    ReplyDelete
  59. The author said he had no simple formula for change. But companies could "start sending a signal that's it's OK to be disconnected sometimes, it's OK if you don't respond to every email within 45 seconds or whatever".

    Employers, governments and schools could also start rewarding and encouraging people to switch off.


    "I think as a society we're choosing information overload: we're choosing to sacrifice the more meditative and contemplative aspects of our minds."

    dwr

    ReplyDelete
  60. even the physical make-up of their brains.


    dwr

    ReplyDelete
  61. It keeps spitting out the main part of the article and I'm not trying a third time so --

    Here

    Read for yourself how the internet is really really messing with your mind.

    dwr

    ReplyDelete
  62. I thought that someone maybe did a bogus edit of Wikipedia, but it's apparently true. I took a screenshot, all the same: fa det har

    ReplyDelete
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