My sister has traveled all over the world and likes to bring me the little totems/icons/whatevers that the truck drivers there use as good-luck charms. She said that she didn't think these were good-luck charms as wards against really bad government-inflicted bad-luck. Every taxi and truck in China had one (like the scented pine-tree in U.S. repo's) hanging from the rear-view, and this one rode for years in a buddies '72 Datsun 510 SW. When we/he sold it I ripped it of the mirror, and now use it when my car get's crotchety, which seems to happen more often the older we get.
@MushyHeirloom: Oddly enough when people say "ROFLMAO" my first thought isn't off "lol" but of the 40,000,000,000 Chinese who died starving under the Red Revolution's push for industrializing China from a farming based community.
Every time I go to a firearm auction I always see all this creepy Nazi stuff... Luger pistols, helmet's with the pointy shit on top, SS daggers, etc etc. I never understood who would want this stuff, let alone pay top dollar. Even touching them gives me douche chills. Riding in this? Yikes!
@jodark: I am with you there but I like the Allied stuff for some reason. A M1 Garand with 50 notches carved in the buttstock is more fascinating to me.
@VeeArrrSix: As owner of some of such creepy stuff, and in no way a Nazi supporter, it's because it will be worth a whole lot more the longer I hold on to it.
Also, my grandfather, whom fought in the war against the Nazi's has a small collection himself.
P161911 probably shoudn't have promoted this comment
Edited by Shamoononon: I shave my legs. at 10/06/09 3:15 PM
Shamoononon: I shave my legs. was starred
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@VeeArrrSix: Well its all in the style of the materiel. Frankly, I find the equipement of both sides to be very fascinating. Both sides had some amazing equipment for the time. The MG42 is still one of the all time coolest MGs ever designed. And the M2 hasn't much changed in design since it was adopted in WWI. Also, the German helmets were the best designed helmets for years to come until the K-Pot was adopted by the USA in the mid-80s. It has a similar design with just a different profile and angles to make it look different.
@VeeArrrSix: Some of the stuff I can see, especially the Lugers and Mauser rifles. The pointy helmets are usually WWI/pre-Nazi stuff. The whole fascination with SS and Death's Head stuff is creepy though, especially the non-technical periphenalia. I understand it from the whole rarity standpoint, but I don't really have a desire for it myself. Oddly enough a lot of the Nazi hardware (Mausers, Me-109s, etc.) was used to equip the Israeli armed forces in 1948. It was good, cheap, and available.
Strangely most of this really creepy stuff came back to the US with GIs as war trophys.
@P161911 probably shoudn't have: Some of that stuff is certainly creepy and I probably wouldn't enjoy having it in my closet ... but I think it may be important for remembering and thinking, "Never again..."
@VeeArrrSix: I have one piece of Nazi memorabilia. It's a Walther PPK with the original leather holster. There is a small eagle-swastika (Crest of the 3rd reich) stamped into the metal of the slide and reciever, and it is also tooled into the leather of the holster. Will I ever take it to a gun range? Nope. Will I ever sell it? Nope. Will I ever "show it off"? Nope. My grandfather brought back one thing from WW2, and it was this. It's a part of history, and I am just it's caretaker.
Chinese Communism: Joyously celebrating sixty years of slaughter, terror, and subjugation, starvation, indoctrination, destroying people’s hopes and dreams, and making them wear little Mao suits.
@Flathead Smith Prefers the Days of Danger: I'm big on the moo shu chicken - in some places, you can even order it glazed with the blood of Tibetian monks and paper-tiger Imperialists.
@Flathead Smith Prefers the Days of Danger:
Oh yeah so my point is, yeah most Chinese people would actually rather celebrate even the worst times under the commies than the years before that. Pretty much everyone in China is still sad about the crappy stuff that happened, it's not like people actually liked the cultural revolution, but on the whole they just think of it as what got them to this point where the last thing they're afraid of is the Japanese.
@tekdemon: The Chinese population is still not free. The destruction by others in the past against China is inexcusable, but the Chinese communist were even worse, with an estimated 75 million dead (possibly even 100 million). There are still around seven million people that are thought to be in the secretive Laogai prison system, and a very high percentage of that population is there simply because of political or religious beliefs.
England did an excellent job administering Hong Kong, even better, by an order of magnitude, than with its own country, with an almost Laissez-faire economic model.
10/06/09
My sister has traveled all over the world and likes to bring me the little totems/icons/whatevers that the truck drivers there use as good-luck charms. She said that she didn't think these were good-luck charms as wards against really bad government-inflicted bad-luck. Every taxi and truck in China had one (like the scented pine-tree in U.S. repo's) hanging from the rear-view, and this one rode for years in a buddies '72 Datsun 510 SW. When we/he sold it I ripped it of the mirror, and now use it when my car get's crotchety, which seems to happen more often the older we get.
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Oh, all right, sorry.
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Mao, not the limousine.
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Citroen had an advertisement for the C4 in Spain. It was withdrawn after complaints from Chinese who couldn't take a joke about the Communist leader.
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Dear Sir,
Please stop knocking the stuff we love.
Sincerely,
History Channel Programming Dept.
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Also, my grandfather, whom fought in the war against the Nazi's has a small collection himself.
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Strangely most of this really creepy stuff came back to the US with GIs as war trophys.
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Oh yeah so my point is, yeah most Chinese people would actually rather celebrate even the worst times under the commies than the years before that. Pretty much everyone in China is still sad about the crappy stuff that happened, it's not like people actually liked the cultural revolution, but on the whole they just think of it as what got them to this point where the last thing they're afraid of is the Japanese.
10/02/09
England did an excellent job administering Hong Kong, even better, by an order of magnitude, than with its own country, with an almost Laissez-faire economic model.