No Shorts Allowed !!!

A person's character says more about him/her than anything else, including political prowess. The ends never justify the means where poor character is involved. Why would anyone be proud to have voted for a scum bag?

Originally posted by hooked-on-swimming Only half the German soldiers survived the Soviet onslaught and Hitler was handed his first defeat of the war by the Soviets in the winter of 1943. The heroic battle of Stalingrad proved to be a turning point in the Allied war against the ***. No one denies that the communist victory over the *** was important but, come on, what difference would it have made if the US wasn't involved, zippo? Oh yeah, we also had to fight the Japanese, not put up token resistence to them like the USSR did. Then, to celebrate the communist victory the Ruskies enslaved half of Europe for the next 40+ years and killed millions of their own citizens. How's that for a testament to the courage of the peoples revolution? Let's face facts, the US was the reason WWII was won. The British and the Russians made noble stands on their own but it all came down to us getting involved.

Mr. Moose can't drink Tequila....because it makes him really strange....heck, the last time we were in beautiful Mexico...tanning on a sun swept beech, drinking Tequila..... Mr. Moose got to thinking he was a person....he actually wore his Speedo around the beautiful ladies taking in the sun.... Of coarse, they all were nuts over Mr. Moose.....so they took him into town for a night out....."The Moose was loose......." Pun intended....:)

All right, tomorrow night I will have a Tequila (with some non-swimming friends) for all of you Swimmers of the World. What about talking about what we like of other countries, I like to go to Pensylvania (Pittsburg) and watch the Steelers playing agains Baltimore, I also like to go to Belgium and visit Brussells and going to Brazil and visit the Panema Beach, I also like to travel in the JApanese train system. Alex

I've been to Greece and LOVED it! DAM coach Rick took a group of us for two weeks and we competed in Athens and Crete; two swim meets and one open water swim. Heck - we trained in the Agean! It was awesome. Then my husband and I traveled around with backpacks for another 2 weeks, taking buses and seeing lots of Greece Here's what I loved about Greece: the fact that people closed shop for 2-3 hours of the day to rest and spend time with their families. Late dinners Ouzo and gossip and the "taverna" Greek coffee Amazing, beautiful culture the Acropolis the hospitality of the people and how kind they were with my botched up attempts at speaking Greek Greek coffee Ouzo Raki (traditional drink - kind of like whisky but stronger) (ooopss - mentioned that already) The blue, blue water the fact that people get out at night and socialize - they are not stuck at home watch reality TV watching groups of old men drink coffee and play "tavli" - backgammon the beaches sailing the food and the open market the music the islands

Kari, did you taste a dish they have that is something like a big fluor tortilla with pork on it. Just wonderfull....

And their wine is also very good.

I might be poking fun a lot but not on this. Comparing Stalin to Bush, or any US president, is ludicrous. No US president has killed millions of his own countrymen, or comrades in your terms, to consolidate his own personal power. There was nothing allied about communist participation in WWII, it was a marriage of convenience. When free people won it, the communists marched into western Europe and brutalized those same people who had just gone through the whole Nazi fiasco. And, then they did it for 40 more years just for fun. Let me also point out to you that in America we have an all voluteer army so those brave men and women who fight for freedom aren't sent anywhere but go on their own accord. That's another difference between the greatest country on the planet and Russia. Communism lasted 40+ years post WWII, check the facts. Reagan finished the business up so you could be free.

Alex - no, I missed that one! I had a lot of lamb and potato dishes; stuffed tomatoes, pastiso (kind of like a lasagne), mousaka, beefteki (spicy hamburgers - much better than ours), fish soup with lots of lemon, bread, honey and yogurt for breakfast, I became totally addicted to Greek coffee, spanikopita, tiropita, cabbage salad (can't remember Greek name), feta and psomi (bread)....when you go to a taverna and order Ouzo, they automatically bring bread, tomatoes, and cheese; sometimes sliced apples and nuts. I never drank without food. And I drank every day, but never got drunk once. That's another thing about Greece - people drink but not like here. Stuffed grape leaves too, and the honey based desserts were so good I felt like crying. One of the interesting things about Greek restaurants is that once your order, the waiter brings your check right away and then they never come back to the table. It's up to you to flag them down if you want something else, and it's totally appropriate to do that - in fact, you can spend hours in a restaurant ordering dish after dish. You can even ask to see the dishes before you other them. I had something called "bakalau" -a very stinky, dried and heavily salted fish I saw in the open market. But when I had it and dressed it with fresh lemon, it was one of the best things I'd ever eaten. It came with potatoes. We also had some great Retsina, which I learned to love. Just like anything else, there's bad Retsina and good Retsina, and we had both. Funny story: we were looking for a place to eat in Crete and we were really hungy and we came upon this tiny hole in the wall that only served filo dough with baked feta cheese - it was kind of like a take out service - this woman had these huge cheese pies and her son kept boxing them up to be delivered. So she welcomed us in for a slice of her pie and this was again one of the best things I've ever tasted. We asked for Retsina and she said...in broken english..."I honor you with traditional drink!" Of course you can't say no, so we drank what she gave us: a small shot glass of Raki, which was some of the smoothest stuff I'd ever had - and I'm not a big whisky drinker, unless it's watered down with diet colke! (big whimp, I know). And this stuff was clear as water. Anyway - a few weeks later, and after eating that this one particular restaurant day after day in Crete (once you find a place that's good, you really want to stick with it!). My husband speaks fluent Greek and really hit it off with the owner. But before that, we had had some really rotten Raki - tasted like lighter fluid! But we had to drink it, because it would have been insulting not to. Anyway, so fast forward to this little restaurant where the owner comes over and says...."I honor you with traditional drink!!" We looked at each other like, "uh oh" - we better down this stuff because we didn't want to insult the man. We all three had a shot and once again, it was some of the smoothest booze I had ever had! We actually bought a flask and asked him it fill it for us!! It now sits in our freezer...haven't felt like drinking it yet but we know it's high quality stuff! Raki is made from the residue of the process of making Retsina.

Originally posted by Alex I guess Mexico is may be number 47 or so, but I am happy. Hmmm, talking about "happy". The list posted by george was rated according to "living conditions". But you know what, I thought there was a list that came out recently that shows who are the happiest people on earth and it shows countries very different from that list provided by U.N. It makes you think that the "richest" countries don't necessarily have the happiest people. (Ah yes, another digression from the shorts thread).