Quotations from "Leaving Orbit" - Notes from the Last Days of American Spaceflight by Margaret Lazarus Dean
"Together the five orbiters Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour have flown a total of 133 successful missions, an unequaled accomplishment of engineering, management, and political savvy. But it's the two disasters that people remember, that most shape the shuttle's story."
"Hugely wasteful; hugely grand. Adjust the focus of your eyes and the same project goes from being the greatest accomplishment of humankind to a pointless show of misspent wealth."
"In reality, the most shuttle launches NASA ever accomplished in a single calendar year was nine, in 1985 - far short of the magic number of twenty-five."
"In all, twenty-four missions launched and landed successfully between April 1981 and January 1986."
"The space shuttle project never did get us any closer to Mars, but it deployed more than half the cargo ever carried to space and sent three hundred fifty-five people into orbit."
"The orbiting laboratory has been occupied non-stop since November 2, 2000 ..."
"Eleven crewed missions, including six successful trips to the lunar surface"
"December 1968: First trip to lunar orbit on Apollo 8"
"December 1972: Final moon landing Apollo 17"
"Ongoing Access to Low-Earth Orbit":
"April 1981: First test flight of space shuttle Columbia"
"July 2011: Final flight of the space shuttle program{Atlantis}
Wednesday, December 9, 2015
Friday, December 4, 2015
Experimental Blog # 196
Quotations and comments from "The Great Surge" - The Ascent of the Developing World by Steven Radelet
"In 1993 almost 2 billion people around the world lived in extreme poverty < > Then, for the first time in history, the number began to fall < > in just eighteen years the number was cut by almost half: by 2011, it was down to just over 1 billion < > The proportion of the population of developing countries < > in extreme poverty {was} 42 percent in 1993 to < > 17 percent in 2011."
"In 1983 seventeen developing countries were democracies; by 2013, the number had more than tripled to fifty-six ..."
"The unprecedented progress in the world's poorest countries is ultimately good for the richest countries, and for the whole world."
" ... development helps spread and deepen shared values of openness, prosperity, and freedom."
"China accounts for about 60 percent of the decline in extreme poverty between 1993 and 2011, or about 560 million of the < > 955 million people. What about the other 395 million?" "In India, the number of extreme poor peaked in 2002 at 476 million; nine years later{!}, it had fallen < > to 300 million." The author lists about 33 other countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe that make up the rest of the decline in extreme world poverty.
"...the end of the Cold War meant the fall of dozens of dictators - on both the right and the left < > and new economic opportunities in dozens of developing countries around the world."
"Communism, totalitarianism, and strong forms of state control lost credibility."
The author emphasizes how important government and foreign aid, properly given, in education, infrastructure, and health care are vital to the economic development of the whole country.
"In 1993 almost 2 billion people around the world lived in extreme poverty < > Then, for the first time in history, the number began to fall < > in just eighteen years the number was cut by almost half: by 2011, it was down to just over 1 billion < > The proportion of the population of developing countries < > in extreme poverty {was} 42 percent in 1993 to < > 17 percent in 2011."
"In 1983 seventeen developing countries were democracies; by 2013, the number had more than tripled to fifty-six ..."
"The unprecedented progress in the world's poorest countries is ultimately good for the richest countries, and for the whole world."
" ... development helps spread and deepen shared values of openness, prosperity, and freedom."
"China accounts for about 60 percent of the decline in extreme poverty between 1993 and 2011, or about 560 million of the < > 955 million people. What about the other 395 million?" "In India, the number of extreme poor peaked in 2002 at 476 million; nine years later{!}, it had fallen < > to 300 million." The author lists about 33 other countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe that make up the rest of the decline in extreme world poverty.
"...the end of the Cold War meant the fall of dozens of dictators - on both the right and the left < > and new economic opportunities in dozens of developing countries around the world."
"Communism, totalitarianism, and strong forms of state control lost credibility."
The author emphasizes how important government and foreign aid, properly given, in education, infrastructure, and health care are vital to the economic development of the whole country.
Thursday, May 14, 2015
Experimental Blog # 195
Quotations and comments from "1999 - Victory without War" by Richard Nixon
"In its two-hundred-year history the United States has lost a total of 650,000 lives in war. Therefore, in the minds of Americans, no rational leader could contemplate starting a war that would kill tens of millions of people."
But the leaders of the Soviet Union, which has lost over 100 million lives in civil war, two world wars, purges, and famines in this century, have a different perspective. < > While the Soviet Union has been a victim in war, its government has made victims of millions of its own people. < > they do know it can be survived."
"Our loss in Vietnam, followed by the spread of Soviet power throughout Indochina, was a devastating strategic blow to China, which suffered twenty thousand casualties in a 1979 war with Soviet-backed Vietnam that would not have occurred if South Vietnam had not been defeated by the communist North."
" .. in Hangzhou in 1972 < > we planted a three-foot-high sequoia that I had brought with me < > In October 1987 < > the tree {was} ninety feet tall. Even more significant, they said that forty thousand saplings from the tree were thriving in seven Chinese provinces."
Chapter three, "How to Deter Moscow", reveals Richard Nixon's astonishing grasp of the details of nuclear deterrence in regard to the Soviet Union. It also calls to mind Richard Nixon's reputation as a skilled poker player as a young man, and why this skill provided a significant amount of money for him at times.
Richard Nixon finished this book on January 9, 1988, his 75th birthday. By this time he had been to the Soviet Union 6 times, 3 times as a private citizen. In the next 6 years he would visit 4 more times.
"1999" refers to the end of the twentieth century. "Victory without War" might be a deliberately ambiguous statement that could apply to either the Soviet Union or to America.
"For the balance of this century and the beginning of the next, the dominant players on the world stage will be the United States and the Soviet Union." Richard Nixon repeatedly expresses this assumption and that Mikhail Gorbachev will be the Soviet leader for years into the twenty-first century.
However, only two years after Richard Nixon had finished this book, the Berlin Wall had come down and all the countries of Eastern Europe were throwing off their communist governments. In the next 2 years, by 1992, the Soviet Union itself would be falling apart and collapsing with surprisingly little violence. It is quite possible to believe that Richard Nixon's thought provoking, and unexpected, series of 4 or 5 books had something to do with this historical outcome.
It might be that the concept of geopolitical history and international relationships, that was being constantly advanced by Henry Kissinger and his likely student, Richard Nixon, was a challenge and a rebuttal to the more old-fashioned ideas of Marxist-Leninist historical determinism. Neither Henry Kissinger nor Richard Nixon seems to have explained geopolitical history very clearly; but, perhaps geo refers to particular places on earth and political refers to the people who live in those places and everything about them. This way of looking at the world is far more complicated than Marxist-Leninist determinism. And Richard Nixon excelled at details.
"The search for meaning in life has gone on since the beginning of civilization. It will never end, because the final answer will always elude us. < > Of this we can be sure: Meaning cannot be found in sheer materialism, whether communist or capitalist. < > It is because they addressed spiritual values and fulfillment that the world's great religions - Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism - have inspired people for centuries." This is the first of 3 times that Richard Nixon refers to the world's great religions in his books, but for some reason does not include Hinduism.
"In its two-hundred-year history the United States has lost a total of 650,000 lives in war. Therefore, in the minds of Americans, no rational leader could contemplate starting a war that would kill tens of millions of people."
But the leaders of the Soviet Union, which has lost over 100 million lives in civil war, two world wars, purges, and famines in this century, have a different perspective. < > While the Soviet Union has been a victim in war, its government has made victims of millions of its own people. < > they do know it can be survived."
"Our loss in Vietnam, followed by the spread of Soviet power throughout Indochina, was a devastating strategic blow to China, which suffered twenty thousand casualties in a 1979 war with Soviet-backed Vietnam that would not have occurred if South Vietnam had not been defeated by the communist North."
" .. in Hangzhou in 1972 < > we planted a three-foot-high sequoia that I had brought with me < > In October 1987 < > the tree {was} ninety feet tall. Even more significant, they said that forty thousand saplings from the tree were thriving in seven Chinese provinces."
Chapter three, "How to Deter Moscow", reveals Richard Nixon's astonishing grasp of the details of nuclear deterrence in regard to the Soviet Union. It also calls to mind Richard Nixon's reputation as a skilled poker player as a young man, and why this skill provided a significant amount of money for him at times.
Richard Nixon finished this book on January 9, 1988, his 75th birthday. By this time he had been to the Soviet Union 6 times, 3 times as a private citizen. In the next 6 years he would visit 4 more times.
"1999" refers to the end of the twentieth century. "Victory without War" might be a deliberately ambiguous statement that could apply to either the Soviet Union or to America.
"For the balance of this century and the beginning of the next, the dominant players on the world stage will be the United States and the Soviet Union." Richard Nixon repeatedly expresses this assumption and that Mikhail Gorbachev will be the Soviet leader for years into the twenty-first century.
However, only two years after Richard Nixon had finished this book, the Berlin Wall had come down and all the countries of Eastern Europe were throwing off their communist governments. In the next 2 years, by 1992, the Soviet Union itself would be falling apart and collapsing with surprisingly little violence. It is quite possible to believe that Richard Nixon's thought provoking, and unexpected, series of 4 or 5 books had something to do with this historical outcome.
It might be that the concept of geopolitical history and international relationships, that was being constantly advanced by Henry Kissinger and his likely student, Richard Nixon, was a challenge and a rebuttal to the more old-fashioned ideas of Marxist-Leninist historical determinism. Neither Henry Kissinger nor Richard Nixon seems to have explained geopolitical history very clearly; but, perhaps geo refers to particular places on earth and political refers to the people who live in those places and everything about them. This way of looking at the world is far more complicated than Marxist-Leninist determinism. And Richard Nixon excelled at details.
"The search for meaning in life has gone on since the beginning of civilization. It will never end, because the final answer will always elude us. < > Of this we can be sure: Meaning cannot be found in sheer materialism, whether communist or capitalist. < > It is because they addressed spiritual values and fulfillment that the world's great religions - Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism - have inspired people for centuries." This is the first of 3 times that Richard Nixon refers to the world's great religions in his books, but for some reason does not include Hinduism.
Monday, May 11, 2015
Experimental Blog # 194
Brief comments on 6 more of Richard Nixon's books:
About four years after Richard Nixon resigned from the American presidency in August of 1974 he completed his rather massive memoir, "RN - The Memoirs of Richard Nixon". His book is well over 1000 pages. Although it is difficult to imagine that very many people today would carefully read the entire book, it seems to be a very good source book for many conversations and other events of Richard Nixon's presidency. However, there is no mention of Elvis Presley. It is well known, and it can be easily verified, that Elvis Presley visited President Nixon at the White House and brought him a present of a 45 caliber colt revolver!
About two years after his memoir was completed, Richard Nixon, in 1980, published his third book entitled "The Real War". He later wrote that he wrote this book because he was afraid that America was losing the Cold War.
Richard Nixon's fourth book came out in 1982 and is entitled "Leaders - Profiles and Reminiscences of Men Who Have Shaped the Modern World". In the third paragraph of this book Richard Nixon writes. "For the last thirty-five years I have had the exceptional opportunity, during an extraordinary period of history, to study the world's leaders firsthand. Of the major leaders of the post-World War II period, I knew all except Stalin.". Some of Richard Nixon's best writing is in this book as he describes his encounters, conversations, and sometimes friendships with at least 23 world leaders.
Towards the end of this book Richard Nixon writes, " < > I believe that before the end of the century we will probably elect a woman to the vice presidency and possibly to the presidency." A prediction that obviously did not come true. Otherwise, the book ends somewhat tediously.
All of Richard Nixon's books, except #s 5 and 6, have extensive indexes. "Real Peace" is only 107 pages, and in this book Richard Nixon repeatedly emphasizes the impossibility of war between the "superpowers", that is, America and the Soviet Union. The book came out in 1984.
"No More Vietnams" is perhaps Richard Nixon's most controversial book; maybe sometimes the worst and sometimes the best. He writes, "The Vietnam War began when World War II ended." "France had ruled all of Indochina - Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam - for over half a century." Some people might say that the Vietnam War began in 1887, when France declared Indochina to be a part of the French empire.
"In January 1969, the United States had 542,000 troops in Vietnam. By July 1970, as our operations in Cambodia came to an end, our troop level was down to 404,000. < > By July 1972, we would have only 45,600 troops stationed in South Vietnam."
"On April 30, 1975, with Soviet-built tanks rolling through the streets of Saigon, South Vietnam surrendered. Communist Khmer Rouge guerrillas had conquered Cambodia thirteen days before. Hanoi-backed Pathet Lao forces took over Laos a few days later. All the dominoes in Indochina had fallen."
Richard Nixon's ninth book, "Seize the Moment - America's Challenge in a One-Superpower World", was published in 1992. In the late 1980s and the early 1990s Richard Nixon was, in spite of his age, going to Russia every year. As the communists lost control, Russia almost seemed to have become Richard Nixon's favorite country, after America, of course.
About four years after Richard Nixon resigned from the American presidency in August of 1974 he completed his rather massive memoir, "RN - The Memoirs of Richard Nixon". His book is well over 1000 pages. Although it is difficult to imagine that very many people today would carefully read the entire book, it seems to be a very good source book for many conversations and other events of Richard Nixon's presidency. However, there is no mention of Elvis Presley. It is well known, and it can be easily verified, that Elvis Presley visited President Nixon at the White House and brought him a present of a 45 caliber colt revolver!
About two years after his memoir was completed, Richard Nixon, in 1980, published his third book entitled "The Real War". He later wrote that he wrote this book because he was afraid that America was losing the Cold War.
Richard Nixon's fourth book came out in 1982 and is entitled "Leaders - Profiles and Reminiscences of Men Who Have Shaped the Modern World". In the third paragraph of this book Richard Nixon writes. "For the last thirty-five years I have had the exceptional opportunity, during an extraordinary period of history, to study the world's leaders firsthand. Of the major leaders of the post-World War II period, I knew all except Stalin.". Some of Richard Nixon's best writing is in this book as he describes his encounters, conversations, and sometimes friendships with at least 23 world leaders.
Towards the end of this book Richard Nixon writes, " < > I believe that before the end of the century we will probably elect a woman to the vice presidency and possibly to the presidency." A prediction that obviously did not come true. Otherwise, the book ends somewhat tediously.
All of Richard Nixon's books, except #s 5 and 6, have extensive indexes. "Real Peace" is only 107 pages, and in this book Richard Nixon repeatedly emphasizes the impossibility of war between the "superpowers", that is, America and the Soviet Union. The book came out in 1984.
"No More Vietnams" is perhaps Richard Nixon's most controversial book; maybe sometimes the worst and sometimes the best. He writes, "The Vietnam War began when World War II ended." "France had ruled all of Indochina - Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam - for over half a century." Some people might say that the Vietnam War began in 1887, when France declared Indochina to be a part of the French empire.
"In January 1969, the United States had 542,000 troops in Vietnam. By July 1970, as our operations in Cambodia came to an end, our troop level was down to 404,000. < > By July 1972, we would have only 45,600 troops stationed in South Vietnam."
"On April 30, 1975, with Soviet-built tanks rolling through the streets of Saigon, South Vietnam surrendered. Communist Khmer Rouge guerrillas had conquered Cambodia thirteen days before. Hanoi-backed Pathet Lao forces took over Laos a few days later. All the dominoes in Indochina had fallen."
Richard Nixon's ninth book, "Seize the Moment - America's Challenge in a One-Superpower World", was published in 1992. In the late 1980s and the early 1990s Richard Nixon was, in spite of his age, going to Russia every year. As the communists lost control, Russia almost seemed to have become Richard Nixon's favorite country, after America, of course.
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
Experimental Blog # 193
Quotations, notes, and comments from "Beyond Peace" by Richard Nixon
"Rampant private enterprise, totally unrestrained by enlightened but limited government, would have a heart full of capital and an empty soul."
"Those on the right and left pursue their extreme convictions too uncompromisingly. But the most disappointing group of political leaders are the mushy moderates. They compromise and temporize < > until they stand for nothing." Richard Nixon writes very well and these immoderate and contradictory sentiments might even be a little bit amusing, but at other times in this book he is not so funny.
"The popular idea that the United Nations can play a larger role in resolving international conflicts is illusory."
"We should enlist U.N. support for our policies but not put the U.N. in charge of them."
"In 1994, for the first time in ten visits to Moscow in thirty-five years, I was able to meet with all the leading opposition leaders." Apparently, in Richard Nixon's annual visits to Russia in 1993 and 1994 he met and talked with at least 14 government and other political people including: Gorbachev, Yeltsin, Zhirinovsky, Rutskoi, Yavlinski, Shahrai, Shokhin, Chernomydrin, Kozyrev, Grachev, Gaidar, Lobov, Zyuganov, and Stankevich. Besides them he met and talked with; Kravchuk, in Ukraine; Gorbunous, in Latvia; Walesa, in Poland; and Havel, in the Czech Republic.
"The grisly history of the twentieth century demonstrates the evil that can be done by governments that try to change human nature. < > Though these attempts ultimately failed, they inflicted death on more than 160 million people through deliberate and "politically motivated carnage.""
"Religious beliefs also help to inoculate Americans against the "idea of the infinite perfectibility of man," to which, Tocqueville observed, democracies are especially prone." Again Richard Nixon refers to "the world's great religions - Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism - {which} have inspired people for centuries." This is not the only time that Richard Nixon has omitted Hinduism in his list of "the world's great religions." Although Hinduism is often referred to as the world's oldest religion, besides having hundreds of millions of followers, he never gives any explanation.
"Beyond Peace is my tenth book, and my ninth since resigning the Presidency twenty years ago this year. After completing my first, Six Crises, in 1962, I vowed that I would never write another. Since then, I have learned to make less Sherman-like promises. This volume completes a six-volume series with an emphasis on East-West relations that I began in 1979 with The Real War..."
Richard Nixon completed Beyond Peace on March 30, 1994. Nineteen days later, on April 18, Richard Nixon "suffered a severe stroke" and died four days later on April 22, 1994.
"Rampant private enterprise, totally unrestrained by enlightened but limited government, would have a heart full of capital and an empty soul."
"Those on the right and left pursue their extreme convictions too uncompromisingly. But the most disappointing group of political leaders are the mushy moderates. They compromise and temporize < > until they stand for nothing." Richard Nixon writes very well and these immoderate and contradictory sentiments might even be a little bit amusing, but at other times in this book he is not so funny.
"The popular idea that the United Nations can play a larger role in resolving international conflicts is illusory."
"We should enlist U.N. support for our policies but not put the U.N. in charge of them."
"In 1994, for the first time in ten visits to Moscow in thirty-five years, I was able to meet with all the leading opposition leaders." Apparently, in Richard Nixon's annual visits to Russia in 1993 and 1994 he met and talked with at least 14 government and other political people including: Gorbachev, Yeltsin, Zhirinovsky, Rutskoi, Yavlinski, Shahrai, Shokhin, Chernomydrin, Kozyrev, Grachev, Gaidar, Lobov, Zyuganov, and Stankevich. Besides them he met and talked with; Kravchuk, in Ukraine; Gorbunous, in Latvia; Walesa, in Poland; and Havel, in the Czech Republic.
"The grisly history of the twentieth century demonstrates the evil that can be done by governments that try to change human nature. < > Though these attempts ultimately failed, they inflicted death on more than 160 million people through deliberate and "politically motivated carnage.""
"Religious beliefs also help to inoculate Americans against the "idea of the infinite perfectibility of man," to which, Tocqueville observed, democracies are especially prone." Again Richard Nixon refers to "the world's great religions - Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism - {which} have inspired people for centuries." This is not the only time that Richard Nixon has omitted Hinduism in his list of "the world's great religions." Although Hinduism is often referred to as the world's oldest religion, besides having hundreds of millions of followers, he never gives any explanation.
"Beyond Peace is my tenth book, and my ninth since resigning the Presidency twenty years ago this year. After completing my first, Six Crises, in 1962, I vowed that I would never write another. Since then, I have learned to make less Sherman-like promises. This volume completes a six-volume series with an emphasis on East-West relations that I began in 1979 with The Real War..."
Richard Nixon completed Beyond Peace on March 30, 1994. Nineteen days later, on April 18, Richard Nixon "suffered a severe stroke" and died four days later on April 22, 1994.
Saturday, April 4, 2015
Experimental Blog # 192
Quotations, comments, and notes from "In the Arena" - A Memoir of Victory, Defeat and Renewal by Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon writes in very great detail about at least eleven "myths", or falsehoods, that are associated with the whole "Watergate" episode that ended his presidency.
"The most preposterous myth was that I or < > White House staff erased eighteen and one-half minutes of incriminating conversation from one of the White House tapes. < >They ignored the perfectly plausible explanation that, given the design of the tape recorder < > it was possible to erase a tape accidentally. They overlooked the fact that < > complete notes of the meeting, which were turned over to the courts, contained nothing out of the ordinary. Moreover, it begs credulity to believe that I or my staff would erase this one segment of tape and yet leave untouched dozens of hours of < > conversations that I clearly would have preferred not to see made public."
"From an intellectual standpoint, the decade between 1978 and 1988 was the most creative period of my life." "My travels during those ten years were extensive." A list of 26 countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa follows. "In most of these countries I met with heads of government."
Besides "Six Crises", which was written in 1962, and "RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon", Richard Nixon writes about 5 other books that he wrote. Five of these seven books, he says, "were < > international bestsellers, {but} a serious non-fiction best seller at best reaches only about a hundred thousand people."
In his chapter entitled "Religion" Richard Nixon says, "I do not share the views of some well-intentioned anti-Communists that students should not be exposed to courses on Marxism." And, "In the end, it all comes down to whether the individual believes in something greater than himself." And in another chapter; "A student should know the rudiments < > and understand the tenets of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and the world's other great religion, Marxism-Leninism."
"I was not a good athlete. I went out for football, basketball, baseball, and track, and never made a letter. But I learned more about life from sitting on the bench with Chief Newman than I did getting As in philosophy courses."
"Marx believed that those who have capital exploit those who don't and that the solution was to give all capital to the state." "Capitalism, unlike communism, is not a religion; it is a morally neutral set of economic principles. It is a tool, not an end in itself, and it can be put to bad uses as well as good ones."
"I am reputed to have a pretty good memory for people's names. In fact, when I was in the House and even in the Senate, I could almost unerringly remember the names of hundreds of county chairmen, city chairmen, precinct chairman, volunteer workers, newspaper reporters and publishers, and prominent business people. As President < > whenever I knew I was going to meet people at a reception, a dinner, or other function, I thought that the least I could do was to remember guests' names, occupations, family backgrounds, and hometowns."
The above is very remarkable. However:
"After eight years of a popular President{Ronald Reagan} in the White House and three Republican Presidential landslides..." And, "In 1952, when Eisenhower was elected by a landslide..." The elections of 1952, 1980, and 1988 were not generally considered to be landslides according to the popular vote.
"In Marxist-Leninist theory, the Communist Party has a unique understanding of the inevitable processes of history and has the right to rule society without the consent of the people ..."
"To operate optimally, capitalism requires that all enjoy equality before the law and equality of opportunity. < > No society, including our own, has fully succeeded in establishing full equality in either sense."
"In the West, the non-socialist welfare state is committed to the proposition that the poor or unemployed will not become destitute."
" ...600,000 South Vietnamese perished in the South China Sea as they fled their country in anything that would float." According to other sources the number of people who died, although still very high, was somewhere between 50,000 to 200,000.
" ... no one had the power or the courage to tell him{Mao Tse-tung} to retire until the grim reaper called him to meet Marx a few months later."
Richard Nixon writes in very great detail about at least eleven "myths", or falsehoods, that are associated with the whole "Watergate" episode that ended his presidency.
"The most preposterous myth was that I or < > White House staff erased eighteen and one-half minutes of incriminating conversation from one of the White House tapes. < >They ignored the perfectly plausible explanation that, given the design of the tape recorder < > it was possible to erase a tape accidentally. They overlooked the fact that < > complete notes of the meeting, which were turned over to the courts, contained nothing out of the ordinary. Moreover, it begs credulity to believe that I or my staff would erase this one segment of tape and yet leave untouched dozens of hours of < > conversations that I clearly would have preferred not to see made public."
"From an intellectual standpoint, the decade between 1978 and 1988 was the most creative period of my life." "My travels during those ten years were extensive." A list of 26 countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa follows. "In most of these countries I met with heads of government."
Besides "Six Crises", which was written in 1962, and "RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon", Richard Nixon writes about 5 other books that he wrote. Five of these seven books, he says, "were < > international bestsellers, {but} a serious non-fiction best seller at best reaches only about a hundred thousand people."
In his chapter entitled "Religion" Richard Nixon says, "I do not share the views of some well-intentioned anti-Communists that students should not be exposed to courses on Marxism." And, "In the end, it all comes down to whether the individual believes in something greater than himself." And in another chapter; "A student should know the rudiments < > and understand the tenets of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and the world's other great religion, Marxism-Leninism."
"I was not a good athlete. I went out for football, basketball, baseball, and track, and never made a letter. But I learned more about life from sitting on the bench with Chief Newman than I did getting As in philosophy courses."
"Marx believed that those who have capital exploit those who don't and that the solution was to give all capital to the state." "Capitalism, unlike communism, is not a religion; it is a morally neutral set of economic principles. It is a tool, not an end in itself, and it can be put to bad uses as well as good ones."
"I am reputed to have a pretty good memory for people's names. In fact, when I was in the House and even in the Senate, I could almost unerringly remember the names of hundreds of county chairmen, city chairmen, precinct chairman, volunteer workers, newspaper reporters and publishers, and prominent business people. As President < > whenever I knew I was going to meet people at a reception, a dinner, or other function, I thought that the least I could do was to remember guests' names, occupations, family backgrounds, and hometowns."
The above is very remarkable. However:
"After eight years of a popular President{Ronald Reagan} in the White House and three Republican Presidential landslides..." And, "In 1952, when Eisenhower was elected by a landslide..." The elections of 1952, 1980, and 1988 were not generally considered to be landslides according to the popular vote.
"In Marxist-Leninist theory, the Communist Party has a unique understanding of the inevitable processes of history and has the right to rule society without the consent of the people ..."
"To operate optimally, capitalism requires that all enjoy equality before the law and equality of opportunity. < > No society, including our own, has fully succeeded in establishing full equality in either sense."
"In the West, the non-socialist welfare state is committed to the proposition that the poor or unemployed will not become destitute."
" ...600,000 South Vietnamese perished in the South China Sea as they fled their country in anything that would float." According to other sources the number of people who died, although still very high, was somewhere between 50,000 to 200,000.
" ... no one had the power or the courage to tell him{Mao Tse-tung} to retire until the grim reaper called him to meet Marx a few months later."
Monday, January 5, 2015
Experimental Blog # 191
Quotations and comments from "Word for Word - A Translator's Memoir of Literature, Politics, and Survival in Soviet Russia" by Liliana Lungina as told to Oleg Dorman - translated from the Russian by Polly Gannon, assisted by A. Moore
"The entire sum of happy, trying, unhappy, bright, and bland moments you live through is the essence of life."
"From 1936 to 1938, during the worst of the terror, daily life seemed to improve, however strange it may seem."
"Suddenly, after Stalin uttered the words "Life has become happier," everything changed. The people obeyed."
"He never appeared to the people. He was invisible, like God. < > Ordinary people < > could only see him two or three times a year .."
In the summer of 1939 "On the front pages of all the newspapers there was a picture of Stalin shaking Ribbentrop's hand. Underneath was a caption that read: I know how the German people love their Fuhrer, and I drink to his health."
"Now its common knowledge, {but} less than two months prior to the outbreak of war{June 1941}, Stalin had destroyed the remaining top military commanders of the country. One of my friends lived in Lefortovo, next to the prison. < > for two nights in the beginning of May 1941 < > Rounds of rifle fire rang out all night long. They were executing those who had been imprisoned, for the most part, in 1937 .." An example of Stalinist eugenics?
"For the first time{when the author was with her mother in evacuation near Kazan in 1941} I saw a convoy of prisoners, they were women. Accompanied by guards on horseback, exhausted, bedraggled figures, almost all of them barefoot. Their feet swaddled in rags, carrying satchels of some kind, surrounded by packs of dogs. I felt I was watching some sort of horror film. It was hard to believe that I was seeing this in real life .."
"Svetlana Alliueva, Stalin's daughter, relates in her memoirs that she heard her father talking over the phone about a murder, and ordering that the death be made to look like an accident." This relates to the death of a member of the Jewish Antifascist Committee that Stalin had initiated.
This is a very vivid and informative book. It is also interesting that, in spite of how much they sometimes allowed the author to travel outside the Soviet Union in Western Europe, Liliana Lungina never seems to have gone to America, or even Britain.
"The entire sum of happy, trying, unhappy, bright, and bland moments you live through is the essence of life."
"From 1936 to 1938, during the worst of the terror, daily life seemed to improve, however strange it may seem."
"Suddenly, after Stalin uttered the words "Life has become happier," everything changed. The people obeyed."
"He never appeared to the people. He was invisible, like God. < > Ordinary people < > could only see him two or three times a year .."
In the summer of 1939 "On the front pages of all the newspapers there was a picture of Stalin shaking Ribbentrop's hand. Underneath was a caption that read: I know how the German people love their Fuhrer, and I drink to his health."
"Now its common knowledge, {but} less than two months prior to the outbreak of war{June 1941}, Stalin had destroyed the remaining top military commanders of the country. One of my friends lived in Lefortovo, next to the prison. < > for two nights in the beginning of May 1941 < > Rounds of rifle fire rang out all night long. They were executing those who had been imprisoned, for the most part, in 1937 .." An example of Stalinist eugenics?
"For the first time{when the author was with her mother in evacuation near Kazan in 1941} I saw a convoy of prisoners, they were women. Accompanied by guards on horseback, exhausted, bedraggled figures, almost all of them barefoot. Their feet swaddled in rags, carrying satchels of some kind, surrounded by packs of dogs. I felt I was watching some sort of horror film. It was hard to believe that I was seeing this in real life .."
"Svetlana Alliueva, Stalin's daughter, relates in her memoirs that she heard her father talking over the phone about a murder, and ordering that the death be made to look like an accident." This relates to the death of a member of the Jewish Antifascist Committee that Stalin had initiated.
This is a very vivid and informative book. It is also interesting that, in spite of how much they sometimes allowed the author to travel outside the Soviet Union in Western Europe, Liliana Lungina never seems to have gone to America, or even Britain.
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