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[Christians4LessGvt]

"gated communities in China".

Michael my brother just moved into a beautiful gated community.
He leaves his garage door up worry free for hours at a time. He
doesn't need an alarm system. You see quite young children out
riding their bikes. No Pink Flamingos in the yards. No boats in driveways.
It's one of my goals, not sure I'll make it....but I be a trying!

"The Americans, in contrast to Cuba, have lots of toilet paper for all 300,000,000 ass-holes,
but cannot be said to provide either free health care or free education equally to all of them"

Can not? Or does not?
And in my opinion should not.
And by the way healthcare any where is not "free".
Money grows on trees is a leftist fanatsy.
Good and services are not "free", they cost even if the funds
to pay for them are stolen from others.

"Which system is the more advanced?  You figure it out"

Yeah...lets "figure it out" with a vote....a vote with feet.
Yeah I am sure if we put it to a vote tons of people going to US
Public Clinics would surely vote to move to the "workers paradise" in Cuba!  
And I am sure tons of Cubans would stay in Cuba if given the choice! lol

[Christians4LessGvt]

Fidel stepped down and Raul took his place. CU4 is making crap up.

Yeah sure XO.....i'm just making up crap while you live in a fantasy land
of moral relativism....sure it be the same....lol....Fidel steps down his brother
steps in and if anyone tries to run for the same office he winds up in prison or dead.
Yep....just the same as President Bush shaking Obama's hand when the
transition took place after a free and open election. Your ability to make
excuses for tyrants is quite lame, but I realize you are a prosecutor on
most things American and a defense attorney for everything not American.

[Xavier_Onassis]

I was simply pointing out that the old crap about how one Communist leader assumes power and shoots the former leader is simply untrue. Stalin did not execute Lenin, though he did have Trotsy assassinated. But that was a long time ago.

You might as well claim that the English had this bloodthirsty tradition, since Cromwell did have Charles beheaded.

The fact is that China's leaders seem to be pretty good at economic development. Better than Juniorbush, for sure. And they have engaged in fewer wars than the US. After Korea, there was a brief spat or two with India, and some minor fiddling with the Vietnamese, but by and large, they have focused on development, and have been demonstrably good at it. They learned how NOT to run China from Mao, who was a disaster: the Great Leap Forward was a leap backward, and the Cultural Revolution was a similar bad call. But Mao ois dead, so they put his face on all the money, and let anyone who wishes admire him as a great leader. Just as they now admire Confucious, Buddha, Lao-Tse and others, as revered ancients.

Personally, I would not want to live in China or Cuba, but then again I am neither Chinese nor Cuban. Every country and every culture has its pluses and minuses.

[Michael Tee]

<<But Mao ois dead, so they put his face on all the money, and let anyone who wishes admire him as a great leader. Just as they now admire Confucious, Buddha, Lao-Tse and others, as revered ancients.>>

Mao is revered as the leader of the Long March and the Triumph of the Revolution.  He brought the Revolution to victory over Japanese and then KMT forces that tried, with U.S. help, to crush it.  In the Sixties, Mao was faced with the problem that faces all successful Communist revolutions, how the Party can weed out the opportunists and careerists from the True Believers once the Revolution had triumphed.  IMHO, this is one problem that Communism has never solved.  Mao's solution, Revolution Within the Revolution, obviously did not work and caused a lot of chaos.  I don't fault him for trying where others just ducked the problem.  I believe that the failure to solve this problem, more than any other reason, was the ultimate cause behind the downfall of Communism in the U.S.S.R., even though the proximate cause may well have been Western subversion and/or sabotage.  I believe Mao must have been fully aware of the pitfalls awaiting him, but may have figured, overestimating his own considerable leadership skills, that with proper leadership, Revolution Within the Revolution  had a reasonable chance of success, whereas by simply doing nothing to resolve the problem, the CP would have been signing the death warrant of Chinese Communism.  I still have a lot of love, admiration and respect for Chairman Mao and don't hold it against him that his experiment went wrong.  He at least dared to experiment.  He at least recognized the problem.  Also I don't buy into the bullshit about him and young virgins, the same kind of crap was circulated about Gandhi.  That kind of perversion is unfortunately  all too real among the low-life scum that make up the USMC, it is pure fantasy when applied to world leaders such as Gandhi and Mao.

[Xavier_Onassis]

Mao was a military genius. He was not an adequate administrator. The Cultural Revolution was a disaster and the Great Leap Forward in the opposite direction. I would say that China has succeeded more at Communism than the Soviets because China is a much more homogenous country: most people are Han Chinese, with just four main languages, and one dominant language (Mandarin) that was already accepted as the official one. The USSR was a hodgepodge of different ethnicities, many with deep and ancestral hatred of one another. The heavily populated region of China is rather more compact than the comparable areas of the USSR, which is much larger and much less thickly populated.

It hardly matters whether Mao (or Gandhi) enjoyed "young virgins" or not. Ataturk was blond, tall, homosexual and alcoholic to boot. But he was a great military AND a great political leader despite all his eccentricities. And Turkey was also quite homogenous.

Exceptional leaders tend to be, well exceptional in more than just one way. I suppose we lucked off with George Washington, as his only apparent diversion was bad teeth and owning slaves, or more specifically, his wife owning slaves. Lincoln had fits of depression, FDR was a cripple and a apparently a philanderer, Jefferson had Sally Hemmings, and no one claims that he mistreated her, and so what? All of them were superior to other presidents like Coolidge, Harrison, Hayes and Polk who seemed to be a lot more run of the mill.

 

[Plane]

Did Mao fight the Japaneese?


I didn't know that.

[Michael Tee]

<<Michael my brother just moved into a beautiful gated community.
He leaves his garage door up worry free for hours at a time. He
doesn't need an alarm system. You see quite young children out
riding their bikes. No Pink Flamingos in the yards. No boats in driveways.
It's one of my goals, not sure I'll make it....but I be a trying!>>

You just described the neighbourhood I live in, CU4, only without the gates.  No pink flamingos or boats in the drives, but one guy had a giant RV - - does that count?  I've only got one beef and that's with the emblems on my wife's SAAB, they keep getting stolen off the car.  The cops caught one kid once who had a big shopping bag full of them but catching the kid didn't change the situation, it's like the Taliban, they keep replenishing themselves from the bottom.  Maybe I should start catching the little bastards and waterboarding them.

Anyway, I thought you already reached your ideal - - didn't you post a photo of a dream house on some rustic lot out in the country?

[Christians4LessGvt]

"You just described the neighbourhood I live in, CU4, only without the gates"

Good for you...I am assuming the Liberal lives in a "Lily White" community as most do?

"No pink flamingos or boats in the drives, but one guy had a giant RV - - does that count?"

Hell no RV's....no fricking boats in the driveway either.
He told me they dont even allow pickup trucks in driveways over-night...only in garage.
Dont like the rules? Then dont move in!
I love HOA's.
Hate bozos that move in and say "oh I love this neighborhood...so nice...so pretty"
Then they proceed to break all the rules that made it the place they wanted to be!
Read the rules before you buy...dont like the rules...then dont buy and then bitch.

it's like the Taliban, they keep replenishing themselves from the bottom.
Maybe I should start catching the little bastards and waterboarding them.

Or maybe since when we catch murderer and we know there will be more murderers
we should throw our hands up and just pretend they dont exist?

"Anyway, I thought you already reached your ideal - -
didn't you post a photo of a dream house on some rustic lot out in the country?"

Well I bought the 3 acre lot, but have not built a house yet.
Obama'sEconomy has me scared to start a 2nd house project.
It's my "dream house" in the country, but it's still a dream.
I could do it...but it would be half debt....dont want any debt at this time.

[Plane]

Did Mao fight the Japaneese?


I didn't know that.

Anyone know where the important battles between the CCP and the imperial Japaneese occured?
I can't find much.

During World War II Mao did not fight the Japanese, but planned to divide China with Japan. http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/mao.htm

At the urging of the Soviet Union, the CCP joins the Guomindang in a second united front against the Japanese, although their uneasy alliance begins to break down late in 1938. Mao sees the alliance as an excellent opportunity for the development of the party. "Our determined policy is 70% self-development, 20% compromise, and 10% fight the Japanese," he states. .............
Following the defeat of the Japanese, hostilities between the Guomindang and CCP resume. The communists now have an advantage, having occupied vast areas formerly held by the Japanese and seized large quantities of surrendered Japanese arms. The communist army, which now numbers about one million troops, also receives supplies from the Soviet Union.

http://www.moreorless.au.com/killers/mao.html

In the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japan Memorial near the Marco Polo Bridge and in mainland Chinese textbooks, the People's Republic of China (PRC) claims that the Nationalists mostly avoided fighting the Japanese to preserve its strength for a final showdown with the Communist Party of China (CCP or CPC), while the Communists was the main military force in the Chinese resistance efforts against the Japanese invasion.[51] Recently, however, with a change in the political climate, the CCP has admitted that certain Nationalist generals made important contributions in resisting the Japanese. The official history in mainland China now states that the KMT fought a bloody, yet indecisive, frontal war against Japan, while the CCP engaged the Japanese forces in far greater numbers behind enemy lines. For the sake of Chinese reunification and appeasing the Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan, the PRC has begun to "acknowledge" the Nationalists and the Communists as "equal" contributors, because the victory over Japan belonged to the Chinese people, rather than to any political party.[52]

Other scholars documented quite a different view. Such studies found evidence that the Communists actually played a minuscule role in the war against the Japanese compared to the Nationalists, and preserved its strength for a final showdown with the Kuomintang (KMT).[53] This view point gives the KMT credit for the brunt of the fighting, which is confirmed by Communists leader Zhou Enlai's secret report to Joseph Stalin in January 1940. This report stated that out of more than one million Chinese soldiers killed or wounded since the war began in 1937, only 40,000 were from the Communists Eighth Route Army and New Fourth Army. In other words, by the CCP's own account, the Communists had suffered a mere three percent of total casualties half way into the war.[54] This is because the Communists were not the main participants in any of the 22 major battles between China and Japan (involving more than 100,000 troops on both sides) and usually avoided open warfare (the Hundred Regiments Offensive and the Battle of Pingxingguan are notable exceptions), preferring to fight in small squads to harass the Japanese supply lines. In comparison, right from the beginning of the war the Nationalists committed their best troops (including the 36th, 87th, 88th divisions, the crack divisions of Chiang's Central Army) to defend Shanghai from the Japanese, and continue to deploy most of their forces to fight the Japanese even as the Communists changed their strategy to engage mainly in a political offensive against the Japanese and declared that the CCP should "save and preserve our strength and wait for favorable timing" by the end of 1941.[55] The Japanese considered the KMT rather than the Communists as their main enemy[56] and bombed the Nationalist wartime capital of Chongqing to the point that it was the most heavily bombed city in the world to date.[57]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Sino-Japanese_War

[Plane]

"...even though the proximate cause may well have been Western subversion and/or sabotage. .........................."

How was the west more resistant to subversion than the east was?

[Xavier_Onassis]

How was the west more resistant to subversion than the east was?

China was in a state of almost permanent chaos, war and invasion from the early 1900's until the final triumph of Mao in 1949.

49 years of chaos makes subversion easier than only a few years, I imagine.

[Plane]

How was the west more resistant to subversion than the east was?

China was in a state of almost permanent chaos, war and invasion from the early 1900's until the final triumph of Mao in 1949.

49 years of chaos makes subversion easier than only a few years, I imagine.

Doesn't match the facts I know.

Didn't the CCP acheive a very good controll of the Nation and a very tough seal of the border?

When was it harder to infiltrate the US than infiltrate China?

[Michael Tee]

<<Good for you...I am assuming the Liberal lives in a "Lily White" community as most do?>>

Going from the corner house to the one two houses away in the other direction, you have:  Persian, Jewish, Jewish (us), Persian, Italian.  The only other people in the block that I know are:   WASP, Italian, Jewish, Chinese all the way to the other corner.  Lots that I don't know.  No blacks but plenty of Asians, mostly Chinese.  Possibly now the Chinese kids outnumber the white kids.   It certainly isn't "lily white," even the whites seem to be mostly Jews, Persians and Italians.  We only know one really Anglo-Saxon couple in the whole block, although the house next door that's Jewish now had two successive Anglo-Saxon families before the Jewish couple moved in.  We all get along fine.  Across the road are three Anglo-Saxon families in a row, then a mixed Jewish-Japanese couple, then Jewish, then Mormon (of mixed German, South African and Scottish background.)  

I don't know why you think liberals live in "Lily White" communities - - we relish and cherish diversity.  There are blacks in the same subdivision but they live seven or eight blocks away from us, in subsidized housing.  The street is roughly two-thirds white and one-third black.

<<Hell no RV's....no fricking boats in the driveway either.
<<He told me they dont even allow pickup trucks in driveways over-night...only in garage.>>

I'm absolutely amazed.  I don't think there's a community in all of Canada where there is that much control over how people can use their own homes!!!  I was in Dallas, Texas about thirty years ago looking into some housing developments there and I was totally amazed at the lack of controls even then - - a guy could open up a full-service garage in his own home, even if it was in the middle of a residential block and none of the neighbours could do a God-damn thing to stop him.  I always figured that Americans were a lot freer than Canadians in how they could use their own properties, because we had some pretty restrictive zoning by-laws in Toronto but absolutely nothing like what you are telling me now.

<<Dont like the rules? Then dont move in!
<<I love HOA's.>>

HOA's? ? ? ? ?

<<Hate bozos that move in and say "oh I love this neighborhood...so nice...so pretty"
<<Then they proceed to break all the rules that made it the place they wanted to be!
<<Read the rules before you buy...dont like the rules...then dont buy and then bitch.>>

Well, I don't think my neighbour should be able to open up an autobody shop in my block, or even a bakery, but I don't see anything wrong with a boat in the drive or even pink flamingos on the lawn if that's what the guy likes.  I can't imagine any of my neighbours putting up pink flamingos, but if that's what they want in their own front yard, God bless 'em.

<<Or maybe since when we catch murderer and we know there will be more murderers
we should throw our hands up and just pretend they dont exist?>>

I think the first thing you've got to realize is that you've got plenty of hit teams and death squads doing just the same as they are.  The essence of the dispute is political, so the sooner you realize that and move towards a political solution, the faster the conflict will resolve.  They aren't any more "murderers" than you are, so I'd say lose the self-righteous attitude and get down to brass tacks.  Don't forget, they think that you guys are the "murderers" and so if you each pursue a goal of catching the "murderers" and "punishing" them for their alleged misdeeds, this conflict will never end.

<<Well I bought the 3 acre lot, but have not built a house yet.
<<Obama'sEconomy has me scared to start a 2nd house project.
<<It's my "dream house" in the country, but it's still a dream.
<<I could do it...but it would be half debt....dont want any debt at this time.>>

Tough decision.  The Americans I talk to don't think the housing market's bottomed out yet, but who the hell knows?  I think it's more important to keep your eye on the local real estate market because it could be way off the national averages.  Best of luck, whichever way you decide to go.

[Plane]

Home Owners Associations.

Take dues and enforce the covenant.

Sometimes run by the worst sort of petty tyrant.

[BT]

Home Owners Associations.

Busybody Barnie Fife's with a bullet. And they have foreclosure powers.