The fact that they are also good for dealing with bad people,

They are also good for dealing with good people…btw

I wasn’t running a business in the Yeltsin period.

Obviously, since you are still alive or not in jail.

I was. But I’m alive and free. But I would be fool to say it was good time. Well it was good for Khodorkovsky…

Obviously, since you are still alive or not in jail.

I wasn’t running a business in the Yeltsin period, so I don’t know the record either. But I do know that the way in which the tax laws are changed here and applied retrospectively only to certain companies is akin to a banana republic and not a supposedly economically mature country.

I was asked to contrast what Palin did with what Putin did, not idly speculate about what Palin might do given the power which Putin wields.

Palin is Mao ‘ s Dragon Lady that spurs the uneducated from the fields to run to the city and burn the books and attempt to humiliate the professors.

NOOO! The center does not hold! Time is out of joint! There is a great disturbance in the Force!!!

IIRC about half of agriculture in the late USSR was private (small-scale farming). Collectivized agriculture doesn’t seem to work very well historically speaking.

I will say this, for those that may not be aware, the God and guns comment was in response to a comment Obama made to a group in San Francisco a few months back that basically said people in small towns cling to God and guns because they are frustrated. As someone from said demographic, it’s not about frustration, is about what makes life at least somewhat fulfilling, even if it is all false consciousness or what not.

I won’t even touch the God thing, but firearms are the most fun gadgets devised by man. Those who don’t like them think it’s all about the violence but are missing the big picture. It’s about the wonder of physics, and the mental discipline it takes to make a little bit of lead hit a target some distance away. The fact that they are also good for dealing with bad people, thereby relieving one of their dependence on the state, is just gravy. I think one of the reasons firearm ownership is more valued in the US is due to the fact that Americans generally have enough disposable income to make firearms a hobby instead of simply tools. And believe me, it takes a fair amount of money to feed these things, especially now with the cost of copper and lead.

Chris, now that I think of it, I think I was sort of mixing up my terms between collectivism and nationalization. I was thinking of Stalin’s first 5-year plan, which should have been called nationalization of agriculture. If discussing nationalization, then it is my understanding that it never really was all that successful in the USSR with respect to agriculture like it was with industry. This all means that we might possibly agree about something, which is really quite discomforting when you think about it.

Thanks for the explanation. I didn’t mean to say that Sarah was using Putin’s methods, but rather needed help to understand what Putin’s methods she didn’t use.

P.S. Sarah Palin is a lady, Putin is a cockroach and ‘ivanov’ is a fool.

I didnt notice that, but I’m not suprised you did ivanov. To their credit, Russians are extraordinarily careful with children and its no coincidence you copped that one quickly. That was clearly a cheap vote-getting exercise, turning up with an infant at something like that. Its really pathetic actually.

”PS. looks to me that her husband learned this “take-no-prisoners” rule”

Yes. He’s totally whipped I’d say. You can see it in her eyes actually, she’d bury anyone who got in her way.

PS. looks to me that her husband learned this “take-no-prisoners” rule