I rechecked what I wrote. Molotov was foreign minister, not chief of staff, something I should have remembered from the notorious Ribbentrop-Molotov pact, and apparently the appellation for the cocktail was dubbed by the Finns, not the Russians (though indeed styled after that particular individual).
You have to remember that Russia is mostly empty space. Russia has vast natural resources basically untapped (or very inefficiently) because of political disarray and lack of transit. Capturing Moscow, St Petersburg (aka Leningrad/Petrograd) and the Chelyabinsk industrial region is all an invader needs to do to win. Napoleon had the massive disadvantage of making his attempt before the invention of electricity and petrol.
On my way back to my erstwhile home in Boston, currently in dc waiting on a stopover. I traveled through WV next to this former Navy MP. Wore a slovenly hooded sweater, weighed a good 220 lbs, ate almond MnMs straight from a 1L bag, chuggexd Mountain Dew and apple juice the entire time. He slept with his legs wide, snoring, smacking his lips and twitching. But when he was awake we chanced to have a series of interesting conversations. Reminded me a lot of Jubber and some other people. Uneducated but intelligent and had quite some common sense. Identified many of the problem of this great country and its people. Just goes to show you can learn things from anyone, everyone can contribute their bit to the world. Though it is outrageous this guy can spend most of his life as a pensioner because of military welfare.
Traveling through WV was depressing. WV is clearly a state with tremendous natural beauty and resources that these creatures do not respect or deserve. I see that not for nothing are WVers considered vermin. Their homes are hovels with piles of crap everywhere, positioned totally at random on massive plots of otherwise very nice land. Because they do not plan their building, their hovels are a fire hazard, and for that reason I can visually see they do not do controlled burns of their forests. Stagnant detritus and no vegetation is everywhere. We passed by some coal mines gouged totally at random and storage flats presumably built on top of the filled in areas. The rivers are visibly polluted; the water is stagnant and shines green with cupric oxides.
Poverty is no excuse. These people have tremendous land to garden, to build, to at least take care of what they have, clean up their hovels. I couldn't help but think of the irony of people like Churchill who said that the native Americans were forced from this land for a better race of people. Never have there been those who had so much, deserved it so little, and squandered it so utterly.
I think it boils down to...easy come, easy go.
I could not help but think that in the short to intermediate term future, there are probably abundant stocks of white trash women I could use pick a concubine from, and in the longer term, this would be an interesting region to come back to one day, invest in, uplift these people and make money doing it. Build some good buildings, give these people jobs and order, educate them, etc. Colonize WV, as it were.
As far as the live-in project goes, I did research on the white trash communities and was led to the discovery of online mugshots and arrest records. It is my intent to recruit a dead-ender girl in her early 20s, one with a marginal but not dangerous history, make her an offer she cant refuse then fix her up a bit. I have already narrowed my search to a number of specific candidates by name. The next step is to outfit the second bedroom with suppression devices (e.g., widescreen TV, overstuffed plush comforters, water/beer dispensers, a closet, an abundance of excessively bright colored plushies, a stationary cycle so she can exercise, that sort of thing) and buy a suit and some business cards. I also intend to use the suit and business cards as tools in some other plans I have, which will be seen in good time.
The trip by Amtrak was fortuitous. The inn check-out was at noon, but the train was at 3am, so I had to loiter in the train station for the next 15 hrs. I read more of the Federalist Papers while playing Pokemon Platinum. I came across the headshot for all Second Amendment arguments, which ill copy down when i get back to my PC.
Oh, here it is:
Alexander Hamilton wrote:
The project of disciplining all the militia of the United States...to acquire the degree of perfection which would entitle them to the character of a well-regulated militia, would be a real grievance to the people, and a serious public inconvenience and loss.
...It would form an annual deduction from the productive labor of the country..and the experiment, if made, could not succeed, because it would not long be endured...
...But though the scheme of disciplining the whole nation must be abandoned as mischievous or impracticable; yet it is a matter of the utmost importance that a well-digested plan should, as soon as possible, be adopted for the proper establishment of the militia. The attention of the government ought particularly to be directed to the formation of a select corps of moderate extent, upon such principles as will really fit them for service in case of need. By thus circumscribing the plan, it will be possible to have an excellent body of well-trained militia, ready to take the field whenever the defense of the State shall require it. This will not only lessen the call for military establishments, but if circumstances should at any time oblige the government to form an army of any magnitude that army can never be formidable to the liberties of the people while there is a large body of citizens, little, if at all, inferior to them in discipline and the use of arms, who stand ready to defend their own rights and those of their fellow-citizens. This appears to me the only substitute that can be devised for a standing army, and the best possible security against it, if it should exist.
Bam. From the horse's very mouth. When the FFs wrote the Second Amendment, they didn't mean "you get to pack heat under your bed so you can shoot crooks and government bureaucrats," they meant "you can join a
well-regulated local militia, train up regularly, so that we don't have to pay for a standing army that will inevitably threaten the democracy."
So if people want to keep believing that the Second Amendment means the right to pack heat, whatever, those people are ignorant and wrong. As if they can be convinced.
Whatever.
I struck up a convo with the ticket man who was apparently a big history buff. We talked about trains and the art deco, aka "Gotham City", architectural style, about civil planning, etc. Interestingly, Amtrak looks set for a period of growth due to rising fuel prices and people getting tired of TSA gropefests. And there is increasing political mandate for more infrastructure.
Digression: I have come to believe that within the next 30 years, socialism may well become a mainstream political force in America, largely because of the influence of
SimCity and
Civilization.
Libertarianism has no place in those games. The entire premise of the SimCity/Civ strategy genre is that you CAN'T just tell your people "go and solve your own problems". If you want your people to build a great nation, you have to direct them, give them the means: lay roads, dig aqueducts and mines, plant forests and farms, aggressively tax-and-spend.
I think many of the up-and-coming generation will come to take that attitude into real life without even realizing it.
Also see: 2Fast2Furious.
Anyway, so it happened a young man we were speaking of showed up at this odd hour - a Reform Ashkenazi Jew about my age who might almost be my other life. He wore a fedora and deco style shoes. Instead of Hasidic style earlocks or a Gentile clean-cut, he trimmed his hair long around the ears, something it had honestly never occurred to me to do. I will be doing that from now on. Not to mention it looks super manly. Like, so manly you might need to consider getting a second circumcision. I mean, Protestants can be born again, or virgins again, right?
The convo was kind of disjointed due to mutual surprise and the odd hour, but we exchanged emails. I intend to become socially active here in Cinn. I have learned the need to interact with others, make friends and extend my horizons.
His parents gave him money to invest in some business ventures - buying foreclosed homes and fixing them up. this made me very angry and jealous because I know I could do that at least as well, but for all their self-serving blather about how much they care, believe in me, support me, etc, my parents just suck and hate me.
I have come to realize my "mother" is a piece of barrio trash who has no idea how to be a Jewish mother, but likes to take on the affectation to flatter herself - an attitude I've come to realize she developed when she was a young girl living in Queens looking jealously across the island at the nice Jewish families on the other side. This is also why she understands Spanish well enough to translate Italian movies in real-time, but refuses to speak or read or translate the language in daily life and pretends she can't. My father is just spoiled and self-indulgent. Regardless, I have every intention of doing better. I truly want life in Cinn to be a new beginning in so many ways.
EDIT: So I just tried my laptop, and, apparently, there's wireless service at the Barnes and Noble I am a few meters from. lol.
Incidentally, I encourage everyone tired of my petty spiteful ranting to write their own posts.
