Where?

Zaphod:

I just re-viewed “The Third Man” a few weeks ago and even looked up Welles’ famous cuckoo clock speech. He added it to Graham Greene’s script and took a flack because the cuckoo clock is more German than Swiss.
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The lines became lodged in the mind because they encapsulated an uncomfortable and at the same time compelling idea. His history may not have been factually accurate – the Swiss were a major military power in Renaissance times and the cuckoo clock originated some time later in Bavaria – but the idea that culture thrives in conditions of war and tyranny has an undeniable basis in fact.

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-19202527
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The challenge of our current discussion is that it’s not a binary choice, but where does a society draw the line and how, when it comes to creativity, dissent and chaos. Not simple.

BTW, the Harry Lime villain was sufficiently popular with audiences that Welles did a radio show in which the episodes were prequels to “The Third Man.” I listened to a couple dozen of them with enjoyment during Covid.

https://www.oldradioworld.com/shows/Lives_of_Harry_Lime.php

I think the myth of barefoot and pregnant women chained to a stove is overblown, at least in America’s past. Truly bold and adventurous women had outlets and American history is full of them and their stories. My own mother was no shrinking violet. She always worked and even ran her own business for awhile. She graduated High School in 1955, the very pinnacle of the ’50s that are so often caricatured as forcing folks into boxes.

There were almost always wars, so a lot of women lacked suitors when they reached maturity. Some went to the frontier as schoolmarms. Some went to the big city to work in industry. Madam C.J. Walker, a black, American woman born in 1867, made millions founding her own cosmetics company.

Well, recapitulating what the moderatrix has said, the complaint is that NATO is a cartel inhibiting VP from bullying Europe’s small countries one-by-one.

Note, from 1902 to 1934, the U.S. government had treaties with Cuba and Panama the provisions of which included a promise by the governments of each to refrain from ratifying treaties with other countries absent the approval of the U.S. government. One of the Roosevelt Administration’s policy initiatives was abrogating these treaties. You’ll notice that VP is asserting the Russian government has similar authority over comparatively populous and affluent countries over which it has never heretofore had such discretion. We can check the text of the Treaty of Co-operation that Finland concluded with Soviet Russia in 1948; it may have had some similar provisions or it may not have. The effrontery is rather arresting. (I’m going to wager the Chinese autocrat will be making similar demands in the Far East).

One other thing you likely won’t hear from Geoffrey Britain or MBunge is that the number of American troops deployed abroad has since 1963 declined by 75%. We have about 60,000 troops in Europe. Putin’s objection is to the presence of tripwire forces.

As reported earlier by Tim Pool here is a link to Vlad’s threats against Finland and Sweden:

https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2022/02/25/russia-threatens-two-more-countries-with-military-and-political-consequences-n528213

There seems to be a common denominator in these situations and it ain’t NATO. Finland mentioned something about being a sovereign nation in it’s negative response to Vlad. Funny that, eh, Bunge and Z.

Here’s a link for you about the Russians killed trying to invade Ukraine:

https://redstate.com/bonchie/2022/02/25/ukraine-scores-a-major-hit-proves-a-big-putin-claim-false-n528153

Sucks to be a soldier for Vlad.

And Z you must remember this incident

https://www.benzinga.com/news/22/02/25798721/airlines-advised-to-not-fly-over-all-of-ukraine-over-extreme-risk-russia-shuts-down-eastern-ukrainia

But for Z, Senator Rubio must be denigrated and debased, after all, he questioned Vlad. The shill for despots knows his spin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cydkTy6GmFA

“Careful. Us creative types might like that…”

I can only take so many Cuckoo Clocks, too. There’s an optimal balance between Cuckoo Clocks and Cuckoos in one’s nest. Hard to get right. Maybe impossible… but usually quite apparent when the pendulum has swung too far either way.

It’s gotta be real and not virtual. Otherwise no better than Wokesters LARPing that they’re the Real Dissidents fighting the Big Scary Fascist Man.

“Lucky Russian poets!”

How they ever got by without grants and creative writing programs, we’ll never know.

Zaphod:

Careful. Us creative types might like that…

I remember some poet in the 70s (Robert Bly?) complain that in America no one cares one way or another about poetry.

But in Russia, poets are feared and persecuted.

Lucky Russian poets!