A tear for WTC victims falls from distant Russia

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Great story by the way.

Funny picture

Polish butcher's store in communist times (approx.1985)

No wonder Polish women who didn't have family reponsibilities or those who had children who were grown came in mini-waves, legally (I think they got temporary visas) to do jobs most Americans wouldn't do, care for our elderly in their homes for those who had the means to spend their last days in familiar surroundings. Yanina, Hania, Vanda, Maria; I can't remember all the names of the few of them I knew and probably spelled them incorrectly.

That picture really makes you think. It's sobering and there's nothing funny about it (you probably didn't mean that literally). I always marvelled at the patience of repressed peoples while anger and resentment must have simmered beneath the surface.

Americans wouldn't tolerate such a thing. I don't know what they would do if they were shot down in the streets by machine guns for rioting. And the young, strong, and ammoral would run down those old ladies in that store and taken all of what was left . . .

No wonder Polish women who didn't have family reponsibilities or those who had children who were grown came in mini-waves, legally (I think they got temporary visas) to do jobs most Americans wouldn't do,

Most of the communist countries didn’t allowed their citizens to visit western countries. Average citizen could visit only other countries of the “communist bloc”. Beside American authorities would never give them a visa. Well even now US bureaucrats are main problem-makers. I think that we don’t need any visas to other non-third world countries and in the EU we don’t need even passports.

That picture really makes you think. It's sobering and there's nothing funny about it (you probably didn't mean that literally).

Believe me that from some perspective of time, I may consider this picture as a “funny”. Of course at that time it was not funny but frustrating.

Americans wouldn't tolerate such a thing.

In similar circumstances as the Poles, Americans would not have any choice.

It was a Walmart thread and you had pictures of ruined businesses.

I don't want to get into Wal Mart again, but I wanted to clarify that when I posted those pictures, I didn't necessarily blame Wal Mart for those businesses closing. There must be more economic shift involved than just Wal Mart.

Where I live, we are bound to the south by a river, and there is massive expansion to the north, and businesses and home and condo building are moving northward accordingly, including Wal Mart.

The reason I posted the pictures is that I am saddened that I did so much business there and still can't see any good reason for it because it is still in a rather busy affluent area, a little island in the midst of other building up and a completely rebuilt mall with all new tenants just across the street.

I try to remain as objective about things as I can. Sometimes families own businesses and just decide it's time to get out because they are getting older and things have gotten too troublesome to keep running them with the public the way they have become, targets for robbery, all sorts of reasons. I think the store closed because of competition not just from Wal Mart and the family who owned it got tired and wanted to get out while they were ahead. I don't know why the gas station closed, and I don't know why my favorite cafeteria wasn't rebuilt nearby as there is still one of the same chain (started locally) in a shopping mall across the river (which draws more trouble than the area of the pictures I posted).

As of this writing, the two large stores are still empty along with the huge parking lot, but something has gone in the gas station building, and Walgreens has replaced where the cafeteria was.

There's some irony in the fact that our formerly longtime enemy knows more about constructing a memorial than our own leftist citizens, who were fellow travellers with that enemy.

The world's full of enough irony to make you rethink your prejudices. The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the French.

Most of the communist countries didn’t allowed their citizens to visit western countries. Average citizen could visit only other countries of the “communist bloc”. Beside American authorities would never give them a visa. Well even now US bureaucrats are main problem-makers. I think that we don’t need any visas to other non-third world countries and in the EU we don’t need even passports.

I know that is true, and I wonder why both sides relaxed things a little at the time about which I wrote. It was in 1989.

In similar circumstances as the Poles, Americans would not have any choice.

But many Americans are armed, would not turn in their guns, and would shoot back, at least initially. In the end, they would probably lose because the government has overwhelming force. I don't think all Americans would submit like docile sheep in similar circumstances, but I could be wrong, and there is the hard-core criminal element who could cause havoc in lots of ways. I think they would try to steal what they wanted until they were shot. We don't have enough jails or manpower to contain them all right now. That's why so many are loose on the streets.