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I received a wonderful gift. A t-shirt bearing this famous photograph, taken on 21 August 1968 at Šafárikovo námestie, Bratislava, Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, during the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia:

by Ladislav Bielik, 21 August 1968, Bratislava, Czechoslovakia

On the back of the shirt: приглашение

Pictured in the background, the headquarters of Comenius University in Bratislava.

[3:39:44 AM] Mike Gogulski says: imagine this scenario
[3:39:59 AM] Mike Gogulski says: a flat earth, all resources distributed evenly
[3:40:04 AM] Mike Gogulski says: identical climate everywhere
[3:40:14 AM] Mike Gogulski says: all environmental conditions the same everyplace
[3:40:19 AM] Mike Gogulski says: no subsidy of history
[3:40:29 AM] Mike Gogulski says: every person starts with an equal land and resource claim
[3:40:50 AM] Mike Gogulski says: 25% of the population subscribes to anarcho-communism and organize with their mind-fellows
[3:41:12 AM] Mike Gogulski says: 25% are anarcho-syndicalists
[3:41:15 AM] Mike Gogulski says: 25% are mutualists
[3:41:16 AM] Mike Gogulski says: 25% are ancaps
[3:41:30 AM] Mike Gogulski says: everyone starts equal, then let the simulation run
[3:41:33 AM] Mike Gogulski says: 2 questions:
[3:41:58 AM] Mike Gogulski says: 1: what system(s) of law (dispute resolution) arise(s) among the 4 philosophical communities?
[3:42:25 AM] Mike Gogulski says: 2: which community, over time, grows numerically dominant as members of other communities defect to its model?
[3:42:40 AM] Mike Gogulski says: 3,000 words, by Monday. Dismissed!

Why?

Dunno. It occurred to me. I used to have this “friend”, see, who in between loading the three-foot “weed eater” for the next bong hit would occasionally belt this one out. An odd thing, perhaps, for a Jew to sing.

And no, we really didn’t have any good friends who just happened to be black… or communists… or Christians.

Let’s hope he got it from someplace… someplace pure. Someplace like The Doctor Demento Show, for instance.

Anyone know who wrote this piece of Ameri-horror-cana?

Speaking of random thoughts which crawl out of the depths of one’s mind late at night… anyone remember the scene from Airplane! where the well-dressed, polite boy comes to sit next to the well-dressed, aristocratic little girl on the plane, bearing a tray of beverages?

“Coffee?”

“Yes, please.”

“Milk?”

“No, thank you. I take it black. Like my men.”

Yeah, I thought you did.

Stand up and be counted, show the world that you’re a man
Stand up and be counted, go with the Ku Klux Klan

We are a sacred brotherhood, who love our country true
We always can be counted on, when there’s a job to do
We serve our homeland day and night, to keep it always free
And proudly wear our robes of white, protecting liberty.

Stand up and be counted, show the world that you’re a man
Stand up and be counted, go with the Ku Klux Klan

[trumpet solo]

The Bible, cross, Old Glory, too, our symbols of a man
A sword and water, robe and hood portray our noble Klan
In search of peace and liberty, we pledge our hearts and hands
We must defeat the communists to save our Christian land

Stand up and be counted, show the world that you’re a man
Stand up and be counted, go with the Ku Klux Klan

Stand up and be counted, show the world that you’re a man
Stand up and be counted, go with the Ku Klux Klan

Imperialist running-dog lackeys we can believe in

Give up!

Negativland, “Christianity is Stupid”, 1987

One Robert Lindsay, who claims an IQ of 147, responding to some comments of mine at his blog challenging his ridiculous assertion that anarchists and libertarians are racists, writes:

We Commies and socialists are the world’s greatest humanitarians. Stalin set a world record by doubling life expectancy in a country in the shortest period of time, a record that was unbroken until Mao broke it. Stalin and Mao are two of the greatest humanitarians that ever lived. They are life-savers. What kills is capitalism. [emphasis mine]

to which I reply:

Try telling that to the millions they murdered.

and

Yeah, people died under Stalin and Mao, but they both dramatically reduced the death rate. The death rate under Czarism was fully 3 times higher than under Stalin. Anyway, Stalin killed 1.6 million, not 110 million or whatever. Mao also dramatically reduced the death rate. There’s lots of ways to kill people, and the previous capitalist and feudalist regimes were killing far more than Stalin and Mao. These guys were the two greatest lifesavers that ever lived.

to which I responded:

Ah, the shades of evil. Even if we respect the anti-revisionist Stalin/Mao death counts here, to say that Stalin is somehow “better” than the Czarist monarchs for killing “only” 1.6 million people is to fall victim to false choice and forced options, or to adopt a utilitarian position which reduces human lives to mere numbers. Are we to say that Jeffrey Dahmer was “better” than Ted Bundy because he killed fewer people? Hardly. We rightly call both of them monsters. To call Stalin or Mao “humanitarians” for killing fewer millions than those who might have otherwise been in power is not only to twist words beyond all recognition of meaning but also to stand ready to defend the next tyrant intent on launching the next “great leap forward” up the side of a great mountain made of bloody, broken human corpses.

And Mr. Lindsay winds things up:

Wait a minute. You don’t get it. Stalin and Mao saved lives. They probably saved more lives than anyone in history. Lowering the death rate in your country is very important. They did this not be “killing fewer people” but by actually saving millions of lives though higher standard of living, improved diet, sanitation, health care, etc. Indian capitalism killed 170 million since 1949 by not going with the Chinese model of Communism. We’re not talking about “killing fewer people”. We’re talking about saving lives and giving the gift of life – time.

[...]

And some of those people Stalin killed got what they deserved! And a lot of those killed by Mao were the big landlords, and they were almost all horrible criminals. Mao didn’t kill them anyway, he just said that the villagers could put them on trial. The peasants hated them so much that they put many of them on trial, and in many cases, voted to convict and to execute them. Then the party carried out the peoples’ wishes. It’s pure people’s democracy – it’s not beaurocratic state murder or any of that.

Well, neat-o! I guess if the people wish it, that makes it okay, right? Yay, democracy!

For the sake of brevity, and in line with my inherent laziness, I’ll close simply with an observation that Mr. Lindsay reacted to by threatening expulsion from his blog-o-land. Politeness in the face of evil be damned.

(ignorance + flawed assumptions + ludicrous beliefs) x (your vaunted 147 IQ) = rank insanity

From The New York Times:

Argentina Pays Belated Homage to “Che” Guevara

14 June 2008

ROSARIO, Argentina (Reuters) – A towering bronze statue of Ernesto “Che” Guevara will be unveiled on Saturday in the Argentine city where he was born exactly 80 years ago, the first such monument to the revolutionary icon in his homeland.

Che Guevara was a murderer and your t-shirt is not cool

[...]

But for Che’s childhood friends, the 2.7 tonne, 12-foot (4-metre) statue made out of thousands of melted-down keys, marks a welcome turning point in attitudes.

Skeptics suggest Rosario’s leaders just want to cash in on the lucrative Che brand by attracting tourists to the city in which he did not grow up. Guevara spent most of his childhood in neighboring Cordoba province.

And many Argentines say Guevara did nothing for his country, leaving at an early age to fight battles elsewhere and eventually becoming a citizen of Cuba.

For some, he remains a threatening figure.

“He was a terrorist. There are a lot of other people who deserve to have statues. It’s not right to give killers monuments,” said taxi driver Diego Benitez. “To cap it off they use public money. We all pay whether we like it or not.”

There’s a Facebook group to join called “Che Guevara was a murderer and your t-shirt is not cool“. Check it out. Good collection of articles there.

Hat tip to The Freedom Channel