Tag: Cold War

Fuckin' Idiots, Government and Politics, November 2014, Photogenius

Where Were You When…?

by Francesca2 Comments on Where Were You When…?

I feel like the fact it’s both Remembrance Sunday and 25 years since the Berlin Wall came down is monumental, but I don’t really feel qualified to write huge political essays on the foolishness of war and European politics since I didn’t exist 25 years ago, let alone during World War I.

Poppies August Bank Holiday 2014

Looks kind of half-arsed compared to the finished product, huh.

I’m reading Child 44 at the moment (I typed it as Child $$, which should be a band) and it’s one of those books that’s best described as cold. Not in terms of the writing – it’s very good – but its story thoroughly depressing. When and where is it set?

That would be 1950s Soviet Russia.

For god’s sake, humanity, get your shit together and quit killing people! You’re only going to regret it!

I’m torn between yelling at the sky in exasperation and breaking down in noisy tears.

Still, today is a big deal for Europe history wise, which got me thinking about where I was when XYZ happened. I seem to remember being told about 9/11 on the way home from school, and I saw that Margaret Thatcher had died when I flicked the news on during crap TV ads. I think my mum was in Germany when Elvis died, and I missed the actual moment William and Catherine got married because I was trying to ask my nan why she thought I shouldn’t marry a Greek (someone had mentioned the Duke of Edinburgh).

So does anyone have any interesting anecdotes about where they were when? Please note I will probably be telling everyone I know your stories.

Happy Sunday!

Internet, June 2011, School *choke*, THE WORLD *head in hands*

“For You Ze War Ist Ovahh.” Wait, Wrong Moustached Dictator.

by Francesca9 Comments on “For You Ze War Ist Ovahh.” Wait, Wrong Moustached Dictator.

Francesca’s List of Ways to Revise the Cold War

  • Go and see the new X-Men film, which I’m told is about the Cuban Missile Crisis.
  • Read Watchmen. Alternate reality, psh. It involves American paranoia.
  • Watch Rocky IV. I think that’s the one with the blatant propaganda… And, sadly, Sylvester Stallone has more obvious surgery in this one. I miss his old face.
  • Hit the BBC Bitesize website’s Cold War videos. Ah, they are funny. Really.

What of the above list have I actually done? Technically, none of them. I’m up to the Berlin Wall on Bitesize, I forgot to get Watchmen out the library and I only thought of Rocky today.

  You’re welcome.

Ellen, people are giving me grief about those photos (this is the only way to reach you because I’m not on Facebook). Apparently Straightened Hair and Made Over Frank is, well, cooler than Everyday Dragged Through a Hedge Frank.

Complaints, Music, My Chemical Romance (get a category), Photogenius, School *choke*, THE WORLD *head in hands*

Politics, Preachers and Pansy

by Francesca6 Comments on Politics, Preachers and Pansy

  Today I got asked, while playing my guitar, if I played the guitar.

  No. Of course not.

  Here is a snippet of said guitar:

  I put on the Stig sticker to cover a chip, but there are quite a few scratches on her (him? It?) so I was thinking I’d buy some shiny letter stickers and print something cool on it (or him, or her). Like Frank and his first love, Pansy:

  If any of you have any ideas for what I could call my aforementioned instrument, or what I could plaster on it with stickers, comment. Actually, comment anyway.

  I’ve been doing some thinking and have decided to buy ‘Indifferent Ignorance’ as a domain name from WordPress. Which would make the url http://www.indifferentignorance.com. Which would be very cool indeed… Isobel agrees with me, but is ten dollars a year a waste of time and exchange rate? Let me know before I buy it for Christmas.

  In other news, school is still quite new so the lessons are interesting. For example, Ruby’s citizenship class prompted her to find this. I highly recommend it to anyone who isn’t sure who Hitler or Stalin were, or what democracy means.

  In History we’re doing the Cold War, and we had a debate today about whether it was America’s fault more or Russia’s. I sided with the USSR, because I don’t much like Yanks. The opposition pointed out that Stalin rigged the Eastern European elections to get the commies in… I pointed out that elections get rigged all the time, and that even in The Head of Democracy, the USA, people are bribed and threatened to vote for certain parties. Look at the Red Shirts in North and South Carolina after the civil war.

  I won the argument hands down, but apparently it wasn’t a very moral one. Good thing we all know truth isn’t always moral, eh?

  Another thing I thought was quite amusing today: Religious Studies. I like RS. I don’t believe in God so it’s all a good story from where I’m standing. We recovered prejudice and discrimination and there was a textbook question saying, “Many Christians have worked to end prejudice. What reasons do you think they would give for their involvement in such campaigns?” My initial reaction was Catholic guilt. If you believe the Bible word for word, you’re a homophobic sexist. But you also have to treat your neighbour as you would want to be treated. So helping disabled people get car parking spaces eases the hypocrisy a bit.