Brad Nelson
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עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jul 29, 2022 8:09:38 GMT -8
Yep. Great article by Ann.
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Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Jul 29, 2022 8:32:08 GMT -8
You have certainly explained in the past how yours was one of the typical military families. It's one thing to know that and another to experience it. Thus when I have said in the past "A parent would have to be crazy to encourage their child to join today's military," that's somewhat detached rhetoric, but I believed it to be sound.
And you are exactly the test case that proves that at least I wasn't crazy or detached, if perhaps ahead of my time. (That is usually normal here for all of us.)
This guy is extremely well-spoken. We are left to divine whether this junk is being forwarded because military officials are just perpetuating a bureaucracy, have "forgotten this imperative," or (more likely) are pajama-boy assholes dressed up in shiny medals.
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Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Aug 3, 2022 6:55:52 GMT -8
Thomas Sowell: The Point of No ReturnThat may be so. But I don't see any Republicans running on that point. I think we're at the stage where we need to got back to where we started: Only property-owning men can vote.
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Post by artraveler on Aug 3, 2022 14:00:34 GMT -8
We are not going to be a free or decent society otherwise. With apologies to DR. Sowell. I think that ship has left the dock. The freedoms we took for granted 50 years ago have been all but completely erased by the "new normal". It is not only economic opportunity but also personal freedoms that have been curtailed by the progressive/communist agenda. There were those who saw this coming. The John Birch Society is the most active and there are a good many Regan republicans who talk the same. I suppose JBS is still around but their political influence has waned. And the Reagan republican is dying at record numbers. It is not that I have a problem with progress and I'm not any kind of a Luddite but a lot of what is considered progress is just filling in the communist/progressive agenda. I don't advocate slavery, sexism, ageism or any of the other ism's our culture has found to be upsetting. I do advocate for justice for every individual on an equal and impartial basis. I expect to be able to gather the rewards for work well done and suffer the consequences for failure. And I expect the same of every other person. I won't be judged because of what my father did, or did not do and I will apply the same standard to others. In our civilization it should never matter if your name is Joe Dokes or John Kennedy the standards, such as they can be applied by humans, exist for all. There used to be a time, not that long ago, when almost everyone would agree.
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Brad Nelson
Administrator
עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Aug 4, 2022 6:28:39 GMT -8
I pretty much agree with every brilliant word you said. (That was a Gold Star being handed out.) And when I read Sowell's article, I had the same opinion about the ship leaving the dock.
There seems to be a disconnect – even amongst the conservative elite – between what they think will happen and what has already happened.
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Post by kungfuzu on Sept 21, 2022 17:51:51 GMT -8
We had supper at a local vegetarian restaurant, which serves genuine Indian cuisine. It is not fancy, but it is good. The present owner bought it about a year ago, and we have spoken to him a couple of times while there were no other customers in the place.
Tonight it came up that Mrs. Flu was from Singapore and he mentioned that the best Indian food was in Singapore. I then mentioned that the best food in the U.K. was Indian and Italian. Somehow this line went on and changed somewhat and the man said something like, "India would be nothing today without the British." This is not the first time I have heard this statement from an Indian so I wasn't surprised. He basically said that the Brits brought education, medical care, a legal system, communications and infrastructure i.e. civilization, to the Subcontinent, without which, India would be very backward. He agreed with me that they were good colonialists.
The man is a Christian from Kerala and while discussing changes he was going to make to the restaurant he mentioned that some Indians did not like the idea of a Christian Indian owning an Indian-food restaurant. I can understand this, as, unlike most clueless Westerners, I am under no illusions as regards racism and other bias among Indians. There are numerous castes and religions in India which makes for a good amount of friction. On the other hand, they are smart enough to understand that many Westerners have some type of guilt complex about colonialism and Indians know how to take advantage of this.
The only group to ever give up their power freely is white males.
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Post by artraveler on Sept 22, 2022 5:13:25 GMT -8
India would be nothing today without the British. In 1948 David Ben Gurion, on the eve of the British Mandate expiring said, "If one must have a master the British are the very best. But why have a master at all?" A point of view that I think Gandhi would approve.
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Brad Nelson
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עַבְדְּךָ֔ אֶת־ הַתְּשׁוּעָ֥ה הַגְּדֹלָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את
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Post by Brad Nelson on Sept 22, 2022 7:37:03 GMT -8
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Post by kungfuzu on Sept 22, 2022 10:30:54 GMT -8
A nice aphorism, but it doesn't deal with how things actually are and is a good example of what I was talking about a couple of days back, i.e. one-liners and their like are generally not very clear and they can be misleading. If they are meant to get people thinking further about a problem fine.
We all have masters of some sort or other. If anyone thinks that the present criminal government in D.C. is not your present master and trying to become your permanent master then I advise you to wake up.
What I suppose Ben Gurion meant was "why have a foreign non-Jewish master," or "it is better to choose your own master." Perhaps he was just trying to get people to think.
As regards India specifically, It should also be pointed out that the masters in India, before the Brits came, were often significantly worse than the Brits. So I do not find it surprising to hear Indians express their admiration for the Raj.
If anyone has doubts about the improvement in governance under the Brit, please read some history on the Subcontinent. As an aside, there was really no such thing as India when the Brits arrived on the Subcontinent. There was a disintegrated Mughal Empire where a minority of Muslims ruled over the majority Hindus. From this empire numerous smaller states arouse and fought each other. It was the British Raj which formed and brought the Subcontinent into a larger political group under its control. Once the Brits left, the place split apart and probably a million or so people were killed in the process of separating Pakistan from India.
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