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Commodus, son of one of history's wisest, most revered leaders, gathered all of Rome's disabled people as emperor and had them fight to the death in the Colosseum. How did a man like Marcus Aurelius give birth to such an evil...
In the 1870 Paraguayan War, Paraguay's losses amounted to 70%... Of their entire male population (civilian AND military). Women weren't exempt either... They just fared slightly better. Overall population loss was about 60%.
It took several decades before they were considered to have "recovered."
That at the same time the U.S. Civil war was going on, which killed about 600,000 people and served as probably our greatest national tragedy, China was in the throes of the Taiping Rebellion. The Taiping Rebellion is the largest civil conflict in human history, and best estimates put the death toll somewhere north of 20,000,000. Really reminds you of just how many more people live in Asia.
The number of aircraft destroyed during WWII is greater than the number of aircraft that currently exist in the entire world today.
After being shot during a duel, Andrew Jackson lived with a bullet next to his heart for 39 years.
That the Romans and the Chinese knew about each other, and actually communicated semi-regularly.
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Hillary Clinton lost on November 8.
Actually 'blows my mind' is not exactly correct, more like 'fills me with glee and makes me happy' every time I think about it.
Stalin murdered 53 million people, Tojo about 30, and Mao 66 mil, but Hitler, who accounted for 14 million is considered the personification of EEEEE-VIL
ed, are you really going to defend Hitler as not so bad?
I concur Stalin, Mao and Tojo were horrible monsters. I get your point in not forgetting Communist and Japanese militant murderers (and Japanese sadism was completely out of control in Asia during WWII), but what makes Hilter unique is how he managed to take a modern, western, civilized country and send it down a road of insane madness. It was not just murdering Jews, but pretty much anyone who got in his way. BTW, that 53 million tally for Stalin has a lot of cross over with the Nazis inflicted losses too. I guess you could make the point Tojo did the same with Japan (they just substituted everyone not Japanese for Jews), but after a few million murdered dead I think it is fair to call someone evil.
They were all really really bad.
According to Paul Johnson (I think), at the time of Hitler's rise to power Germany was the most educated country in the history of the world.
Evi L. Bloggerlady said...
ed, are you really going to defend Hitler as not so bad?
You miss the point. You've also been listening to nd too much.
Tojo is left off the hook because we dropped the bomb on Japan, which shows how bad we are, and because the Nips are people of color while Stalin and Mao skate because they're Commies. You can make the point Dolf was a piker compared to the rest.
It was not just murdering Jews, but pretty much anyone who got in his way.
Not as much as you'd think. Yeah, Himmler didn't like the gypsies (ironic because they're Indo-Aryans) and homosexuals (he wanted all the Aryan men nailing the young Aryan women and making lots of little Aryans) and the usual mix of Communists, union slugs, etc., but, beyond that, you had to go out of your way to get their attention and even then it was hit or miss. When the Jewish husbands of Gentile wives were going to be sent to the camps, the women showed up at PrinzAlbrechtStrasse and raised Hell about it. The whole thing was dropped, no repercussions.
On the flip side, most of the top Narzis (but not Dolf) were all hot to do to the Catholics what they were doing to the Jews, once they'd won the war.
that 53 million tally for Stalin has a lot of cross over with the Nazis inflicted losses
Wrongaroonies. Uncle Joe killed 38 mil before the first shots of WWII were ever fired and about 10 mil after V-J Day. Only about 5 mil went to the Gulag (or were just shot) during Great Patriotic War.
Stalin was even going to finish what the Narzis had started regarding the Jews. It was called the Doctors' plot.
Ed, 20 million Russians died in WWII. Yes, Stalin killed millions through insane economic polices that led to mass starvation. Hell, the Germans would have beaten the Russians (the Ukrainians were joining the Nazis in droves) but Nazi leadership fucked that up and managed to drive most Russians back to Stalin.
The problem is you state something like Richard Spencer would. I know you are not a racist, but your point was hardly clear. Now I know what you meant because I have been around your posts for a long time. I know you are pointing out how bad the Imperial Japanese and Communists were. And yes, I certainly recognize not all Germans were monsters.
But Hitler was an evil bastard. No defense of Stalin in saying that, he was just as bad.
Evi L. Bloggerlady said...
Ed, 20 million Russians died in WWII. Yes, Stalin killed millions through insane economic polices that led to mass starvation
When people were starving in Leningrad for 2 1/2 years and Uncle Joe said send in more ammo rather than food, he was asked how he could justify it and he said, "That many fewer mouths to feed" (same, of course, for Stalingrad).
One other thing. The Krauts were deranged is the judgment of history.
The Commies weren't.
OK, let me put it this way.
If the Commies were in their right minds when they did what they did and just did it out of a cold, calculated equation, I'd say that makes them worse than the Narzis.
At least Cliff Claven drank beer, had a sense of humor, and a few social skills.
Evi, Bill Burr does a funny bit on this very topic. Well..funny if you have a sense of humor.
ndspinelli said...
At least Cliff Claven drank beer, had a sense of humor, and a few social skills.
I don't try to snow people that marijuana is harmless.
IOW I'm not a liar.
ed, I was not trying to stir the pot with you and nick. But the Nazis were monsters and AH was evil. Since I believe in God and Satan, I think Satan works his way through individuals like Hitler, Stalin, Tojo, and Mao (or Idi Amin, Pol Pot, even minor players like Charles Manson). Of course, free will comes to play and psychology.
When you suggested Indians and Spanish were not people the other day, I took that as a joke (albeit an awkward one). I assume you do not really believe that.
You are correct. The point has always been, though, that, until the Americans showed up, the place was always a howling wilderness and even the Indians couldn't build any kind of culture, let alone the Spaniards.
PS If you want to know how evil the ideology the Krauts promoted could get, read about the Dirlewanger Brigade.
I have no illusions, but, if you're looking for the penultimate in evil, the Krauts were the minor leagues because they were so irrational.
I mention beer, our Cliff Claven goes into cannabis. An obsessive compulsive if ever there was one. I don't discuss cannabis w/ him anymore, he is a zealot and fed propaganda by his LPN wife who doesn't know shit from shinola. And, our Cliff Claven is a big govt. supporter of pain med legislation sponsored by Kristen Gillibrand and McCain. That's my current beef w/ the idiot. He keeps coming back to cannabis because he's ashamed to admit he's a Gillibrand/McCain bitch. He ridiculed my pain, and all chronic pain sufferers on a pain med post last week and he's trying to divert and deflect just how wrong, uncaring, and asshole he was. He's a big govt. controlling tax man and a Hillibrand/McCain supporter.
Such drivel.
Our pants-on-fire addict has yet to explain why I happily left government employ at the first opportunity.
He also doesn't wish to address his mendacity.
Understandable.
The whole Joan of Arc episode. What God would give a rat's ass as to who ruled France. One of the men she fought with, Gilles des Rais. was a serial killer of dozens to possibly hundreds of children. She also wasn't canonized until 1920, I assume because the church thought a cross-dressing,voice hearing entity was an embarrassment but by 1920 it was politically expedient to do so.
Also on the same day of the Chicago Fire,where 300 died, Between 1200 to 2500 people died and over a million and a half acres of land burned around Peshtigo Wisconsin. It was the worst in American history and generally went unnoticed.
Ed, Spanish California was hardly a howling wilderness. But you just have to spout to spout... And while the gold rush years were a bit hectic, California was built on a variety of settlers.
Too bad it completely went to shit from the late sixties on. The howling wilderness you speak of is led by Jerry Brown now.
ed, You are a pussy whipped asshole, big govt. tax man, hypocrite and Gillibrand/McCain supporter. Your old man was an abusive alcoholic/addict, you got the bad gene, you white knuckle it through life an unhappy, friendless, loser, calling people "addicts" that you know nothing about. You are a dry drunk, Cliff. At best, people here tolerate you. The smart move would be to not address me. But, like Cliff Claven, you are dumb as a bag of hammers.
Evi, Just ignore the loser.
amper, Good comment that stands out even more next to a vapid Cliff Claven one. You'll be happy to know many Wisconsin history teachers include the Peshtigo Fire in their curriculum. But you're correct, the vast majority of people never heard about it.
Evi L. Bloggerlady said...
Ed, Spanish California was hardly a howling wilderness.
Wrong again.
Spanish California was a small enclave along the coast with settlements from San Francisco Bay to Monterey and Santa Barbara to San Diego. Spanish soldiers were afraid to go past the Coastal Range and the only civilization in the interior was made by John Sutter, who ran his ranch like a concentration camp.
Why do you think so few of the place names in the interior of California are Hispanic?
This what makes all the Reconquista claims such a joke. CA, AZ, NM, and TX were barely settled when the Gringos came in. CA only had about 5000 Spanish speakers in 1848 and TX only about 3500 in 1836.
Why do you think Mexico had to solicit Americans to settle in TX? Why did John Sutter need to recruit Americans to come all the way across the continent when Mexico was so much closer?
ndspinelli said...
Evi, Just ignore the loser.
Anybody who smokes dope is the loser.
ed, the Spanish speaking population of California was low in the early 1840s, but was around 10,000. The Indian population was higher, but still pretty sparse. But your "joke" was they were not people. I guess that gets laughs with some, but to me it seemed odd comment.
As far a howling wilderness, there were missions and ranches from San Francisco down the coast. Granted it was sparsely populated but there was civilization.
Now you are switching gears, going off about the Reconquista. Yes, those claims by La Raza are nuts--they always have been.
Not switching gears, the thing is one piece.
And I'm right on the numbers. Even New Mexico only stretched from Taos to Albuquerque and was the most successful with about 17,000 Spanish speakers.
What you miss is that the Americans wasted no time going into the interior and settling it, regardless of the challenges. You're trying very hard to be a good little multi-culti about all this, but a few sparsely populated ranchos doesn't translate to much more than outposts, rather than a flourishing society.
ed, I posted a humorous piece about Fake News and some crazy claims that Neaderthals were in California 100,000 years ago. You made some odd joke that Spanish and Indians in California were not "people." I assume you really do not believe that is the case (am I correct in that assumption). Rather than just say it was a joke, now you are doubling down to justify your stupid joke.
I doubt you are right on the numbers, but really, does it fucking matter? You know I do not support Reconquista, but you want to change the subject.
It does matter and you do have to watch what site you use for numbers. And, yes, the numbers matter because they tell who improved the land and who didn't.
80 years after the Spaniards first got to CA, little had changed. 80 years after the Americans came in, it was the envy of the world (granted, the Republicans ran the state in them thar days) with thriving agriculture and industry.
And, again, I'm not changing the subject, just making the point that Americans made CA.
You really have to stop listening to nd.
"You're trying very hard to be a good little multi-culti about all this, but a few sparsely populated ranchos doesn't translate to much more than outposts, rather than a flourishing society."
ed, you have a gift for alienating people who could be your allies. Okay, granted I am a cow, but...
I get and agree that American settlers mostly built California. You throw that tidbit out there as if it was being debated. It wasn't. I just questioned your comment that that made anyone in California before that not "people"
Of course some of the decedents of those people are doing everything they can do destroy that legacy.
And those decedents destroying California are mostly the Anglo ones.
They are?
Take a good long look at the Democrat party in CA. Many are Hispanics who were raised on the La Raza myths - Cruz Bustamante, Antonio Villagairosa, Hilda Solis, Xavier Becerra, Eric Garcetti.
you have a gift for alienating people who could be your allies.
I think you said that last year when I supported Trump.
ed, most of the students at Berkeley are not La Raza (although they are symathetic to the general sentiment of screwing up the state and country), they are children of privileged (mostly white) who are fucking things up. Last time I checked Jerry Brown and the folks in Sacramento have a lot of white privileged people too (the same for the Hollywood crowd). But yeah, there are Latinos in the mix as you point out, no doubt about that.
About your gift of alienation, I said it back during the election not because you supported Trump, but because you went out of your way to attack anyone who did not agree 100% with you. You would also mischaracterize things I said. Then after the election you accused me of supporting Hillary. You tend to be a bit...liberal...with your memory and the facts.
There are also a lot of Hispanics in Sacto.
you're trying to be charitable and losing the discussion.
ed, I was trying to be charitable in saying you were not racist. Yes, I know there are plenty of people of Democrat background in Sacramento state government who are also Hispanic. I also know plenty of people of Latino background, who are conservatives and patriots. I know plenty of Anglos who are leftist lunatic nut jobs. You seem obsessed with the racial profile of Californians, maybe you have bought in to that Richard Spencer stuff? I am more concerned with the ideological profile of Californians, although I do want to stem the tide of uncontrolled immigration to California and the rest of the United States (since we both recognize the left is pro immigration to bring in new voters it can bribe with state benefits at the expense of middle class tax payers).
Evi, You should just slam your head into the wall several times. Same thing, less aggravating and time consuming. Always remember, you never get your time back that you spend trying to reason w/ a retarded, obsessive, loser.
California is 163,000 square miles, in 1847 there were very few people outside of few coastal areas, and it was mostly missions and Indians. Mexico had no valid title to the land, having only "owned" California since 1821. The only people who had title were Indians. It should also be noted that plenty of "Native" Californians supported the USA takeover, and did quite well off it.
We were, in fact, very nice to Mexico, since even though they started the war, and we PAID them FMV for the Southwest.
rcocean, yep illegal immigration killed California, not doubt of that. But it was Democrats (who were mostly white) who ushered that illegal immigration in. It was intentional.
Many of the Spanish Californians supported the US immigration back in the day and ultimately statehood, because they did not want to be part of Mexico.
The biggest mistake we made with Mexico? Not taking more of it.
This debate with ed was really not about that. It was more about ed just being ed.
rcocean: I am not arguing for more immigration. But that 20 or 30% conservative is a very important number. Provided there is assimilation (and lots of Latino marry outside), that 20 to 30% diminishes the political power of the Democrats now, will grow over time. But the key to assimilation is cutting off the spigot of illegal immigration. California is a mess (and will have to live with the mess the Democrats created). But we do not want this spreading to Texas and the rest of the Country.
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