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Thanks, skiguy.Living in Florida and having experienced hurricanes -- and earthquakes when I grew up and lived in California -- I have often wondered if the Mayans especially were sophisticated regarding weather predictions, and if not to what degree they might have been hammered by a surprise hurricane with the destructive power of an Andrew.
I am not a specialist in “New World” empires, but does anyone here know the current information about how long the Inca, Olmec, Mayan, and Aztec Empires lasted, how vast they were, and if any would qualify?
I suppose the ideal Nazi physical type for escaping justice was Martin Bormann who had a face so ordinary he could hide in plain sight.
Interesting story Donroc. George Orwell tells a story about a Communist who was in the lavatory when a party line changed, and returned to a conference to find himself a heretic.
e.e.cummings wrote a poem about communists jumping to Moscow's tune/pipes. Some American intellectuals left the U.S. CP at the time they were ordered by the USSR to tone down or stop the anti-Nazi agitation.To digress, cummings wrote my favorite political poem. If I may from memory:red rag and pink flagblack shirt and brownstrutmince and stinkbraghave all come to town.Some like them shotsome like them hungsome like them in the t**tnine months young.
A few months after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, my 5th grade class in San Francisco received new Social Studies books. The previous one included Stalin with Hitler and Mussolini as evil dictators. The new book praised the USSR as a democracy for its constitution of 1936. I remember clearly because my politically astute father lost his temper when he read .The U.S. CP did an earlier about face after the USSR was attacked by its non-aggression pact ally, Nazi Germany. On orders from Moscow of course. They had been told to tone down anti-Nazi rhetoric and such after Molotov signed the non-aggression pace with Germany.
I guess it is part of the lingering Western European prejudices towards Slavs and Hungarians as “orientals.” The Balkans used to be known as the Near East. Even the Russian foreign minister back in 1876 called inhabitants of the Balkans “Christianized Turks with funny names.”Chamberlain referred to Czechoslovakia as "third drawer" in 1938, and in 1968 Presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy essentially said it was not worth defending. Same regarding the Hungarians in 1956 by the Eisenhower Administration. U.S. and its allies decided Containment not All-out Liberation was the best way to deal with the USSR and avoid WWIII.Small nations are often sacrificed for the perceived "greater good" of the major powers, usually short-term thinking.
Some theories include plagues contributing to the downfall of Rome, and survivors afflicted with lethargy.
I understand your bitterness. Believe me, I would have liked nothing better than to roll with our tanks into Czechslovakia and Hungary to support the anti-reds. Patton made it to Pisek during WWII before being ordered to turn over the area to the Soviets — Yalta and all that. Horrifying rapes and atrocities took place as our GIs were leaving — they could do nothing.
I remember as a child how much we rooted for the Finns in that war and admired their white combat outfits.Ironically, the French, who were passive behind their Maginot Line 1939-40, seriously considered sending combat troops to aid the Finns
People want to forget for nationalistic and/or political reasons. We saved Western Europe from Nazi conquest and immediately after through the Marshall Plan, which stopped communists from winning elections in Italy and France, and NATO, which prevented Western Europe from a Soviet rollover. I served in Germany 1955-56, and if the "red balloon" went up, we were to grab our weapons and head east to engage. Imagine if we had been 100% neutral from 1939 on -- no foreign aid to the Brits or the USSR. And remember, our domestic communist party took orders from Moscow aided by "fellow travelers" and "useful idiots," as Lenin called them.I like to think that although we never saw combat, our presence in Germany as a trip-wire prevented it. A pity when the Cold War ended, Bush One did not thank all draftees for the two years they gave up.By the way, people also forget that we ended the draft in 1946, reinstated Universal Military Training for a year in '47 when the Iron Curtain fell, and had no draft from '48-'50 until North Korea attacked the South.
Where a religion is not supreme, -isms replace them with dogma. No God to worship, no big deal. There's always the cult of the personality.Our country was indeed founded on general Judeo-Christian (biblical) principles along with influences by Locke and others, but never a dogmatic theocracy.
Was Jamestown the first English town on American continent?
Jamestown was the first permanent English town, but there was an attempt to colonize Roanoke earlier, which had the first English child born in North America named Virginia Dare. Many theories exist about what happened to them. Murdered by Indians, death by starvation, sudden hurricane, etc.
