Chuckle....sometimes it's hard for us to remember

Post #71,761 by Simon_Jester 12/31/02 1:51:03 PM Reply	Chuckle....sometimes it's hard for us to remember that American's were NOT the first ones into Space.
Post #71,782 by Ashton 12/31/02 6:57:34 PM Reply	Had that 'Energia' not suffered a Murican-style blow-up (fortunately under test and not full of people - sent up via a Corporate decision to dissemble) - the first folks on the moon just might have broadcast back ~ Tui grosnya kapitalistichiskaya svinyas !! While our Redstones were immolating on the pads, Tsiolkovsky's folks had been thinking of these matters well before Herr von Braun and the other V-2 imports were given a free pass to the Land of Opportunism. Russ just didn't apportion funds until - way late. Muricans typ. have No Clue how many Russ were slaughtered in WW-II, a mere 12 years before (leaving aside too, the handicap of living under a Stalin). I too recall tuning in the beep -- beeep -- beep of Sputnik. Not much ordinary Lab-work got done those few days in '57. Laika - first dog in 'space' yada yada. Calculations all around re the probable thrust, energy needed to accomplish these feats. Belittling those - is the work of pipsqueaks who don't know shit and are constitutionally averse to ever knowing other than highly-filtered Shit. Marlowe's 'history' is assembled from the same selected clips as every other Jingoist, cast from the same mold as my Gramma (and it's always from somebody Else's careful cut&paste elisions of the embarrassing and expansions on to hubris.) Just like Wagg-Ed. Oh well, Ashton When the rich assemble to concern themselves with the business of the poor, it is called Charity. When the poor assemble to concern themselves with the business of the rich, it is called Anarchy. -Paul Richards
Post #71,802 by dmarker 12/31/02 9:02:45 PM Reply	Merlin/Marlowe/Whoever - brings to mind 'Cool Hand Luke' [link\|http://www.filmsite.org/cool.html\|Cool Hand Luke] An extract edited meanly by DSM <grin> "The Marlowe man .. and the ideas that simply do not conform to normalacy." With this vivid film, director Stuart Rosenberg made one of the key films of the 1960s, a decade in which protest against logic, rational debate & accepted wisdom was a key theme. One line of the film's dialogue from Strother Martin is often quoted: "What we have here is...failure to communicate." What really amused me is that like a cornered rat - Merlin (sorry Marlowe) when faced with overwhelming up-to-date evidence (vs any aged flawed historical gumpf) did his classic switch & bait tactic - switched the thrust from his being caught out red handedly wrong to focus on some previously unmentioned & thus undebated theme (that the "Shanghai miracle" was actually only achieved because of US). Thus Merlin (sorry again - Marlowe) tries to avoid having to stand before his peers here & admit "Yes I was wrong, the "Shanghi miracle is real". And, yes I am flawed when I claim my arguments are based on published fact. So as I commented on in earlier post. 'Marlowe' I know how to judge you based on your 'facts' and your 'logic' and your debating style - and my judgement is not nice. Cheers Doug Marker

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