Lad!

[BoSoxGal]

Thank you, Gob.

I know you think I have a blind spot about rubato, but I honestly don't think he intended to be shitty. I'm confident in saying this because I think it's pretty clear that when he intends to be shitty, he's not very subtle about it.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Oh, and still waiting on where you saw this:

the part where Gob comes back and admits he was 100% wrong, inaccurate, incorrect, mistaken and generally totally off-beam?

Ah, Jim lad. Me bucko. See that was sarcasm; aaar lad! Gob hadn't done any of those things. But he's made amends in the meantime (of a sort), quite graciously considering. But your good self? Nah!

... that double post in a post thing was most annoying. I was forced to use my wife's laptop and for some reason when I type on it, things pop all over the place - they vanish - the screen goes to some other thread - and I got really frustrated. Even in Word, the cursor has a mind of its own. When I thought it was OK I just zapped the bloody thing without review.

[Lord Jim]

But your good self? Nah!

"Amends" for what?

For believing that when I heard the sound of hoof beats I thought "here comes a stampede of horses" rather than "here comes a stampede of zebras"?

For coming to the most obvious and logical conclusion about rube's intent, based on his entire posting history?

I didn't insult anyone in this discussion, nor did derail this thread...(by the time I posted, this thread was already well off the tracks and hurtling down the ravine...)

All I did was assert my firm belief, (and like Strop I continue to believe it, based on his record) that rube's intent was to belittle British contributions to the WW II war effort, (his after-the-fact claims to the contrary not withstanding) and explain the reasoning for why I reached this conclusion...

I see no reason whatsoever for why any "amends" on my part would be in order...

[BoSoxGal]

Basically you and Gob admit that you will always see the worst possible interpretation of anything rubato posts, regardless of what is seen by other posters or what rubato declares is his intent.

eta: and just so we are clear, you believe you are justified in finding him always guilty without opportunity even to prove his innocence because sometimes he has posted insults?

I'm glad you're not on my jury.

[Lord Jim]

Basically you and Gob admit that you will always see the worst possible interpretation of anything rubato posts

No, that's incorrect...

I see the most realistic interpretation of what rube posts, based on the voluminous evidence provided by his own posts, over a very long period of time...

I'll stipulate that a realistic interpretation of rube's posts tends to put him in a bad light, but that's because a "bad light" is the interpretation he has invited with the record he has created with his own words and behavior...

Rube's record is not something that I, or Strop, or anybody else cooked up; that's all on him...

If he doesn't like the reputation he's earned by his behavior, he can begin to establish a new record by changing his behavior.

Making amends by acknowledging his bad behavior would be a very good start on his part.

[rubato]

but since others have brought up the question of national contributions to the war effort I offer a scorecard:

Europe, winning the war:



Russia there is no argument here. Russia suffered the most and did the most to destroy the German army. W/O Russia it is unlikely that the allies win at all.

U.S.

U.K.

The Field

Europe, Winning the peace:


U.S.

The field

We got it right, with thanks to George Catlett Marshall.


Pacific, winning the war:

U.S.

The field


Pacific, winning the peace:

U.S.

No one else.


yrs,
rubato

[Gob]

As if by magic, his true intent comes out.

Luckily there was only one person dumb enough to fall for his tale.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Not so, grasshopper. Everyone except two did not rush to judgment and then concoct reasons for doing so.

And what he wrote above is true. A yank got on a bus in Ireland and teased the (female) conductor: "How about a free ride for one of the guys who won the war?" She looked at him and replied: "'Tis funny. You don't look like a Rooshian."

[Gob]

"Concoct" reasons? Cheeky fucker!

You doubt my sincerity?

I wouldn't trust rubato further than I could piss a buffalo..

[Lord Jim]

Luckily there was only one person dumb enough to fall for his tale.

I think your math may be off Strop; it looks like two people fell for it...Everyone except for two did not rush in embracing a completely unrealistic interpretation of rube's intent.

concoct reasons

Gosh Meade, that's disappointing...

You'd think a man as language obsessed as you would know the difference between "concocted" and "bleeding obvious"...

And Gen'l, you can stop kissing rube's ass to get his and BSG's votes in the Person Of The Year contest now; you've already won...

[Sue U]

And Gen'l, you can stop kissing rube's ass to get his and BSG's votes in the Person Of The Year contest now; you've already won...

Don't be so sure; results haven't been announced yet, and the judging is, shall we say, unpredictable.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Votes don't matter because it's me? I might have known. After all, one can't complain. I have my friends. Somebody PM'd me only last month. And was it last week or the week before that Gob emailed me and said ' '? The Social Round. Always something going on.

[wesw]

the russains had immense help from the US and Britain, at great cost, both human and material.

so did the Russians....

and I assumed the best and was rewarded, briefly

[rubato]

Today's episode features the Welsh and some group called "Scottish borderers".


http://ww2today.com/


yrs,
rubato

[rubato]

Today's lesson was from the eastern front where the Germans are having a very bad time of it and the Russians are sweeping across Poland &c.

http://ww2today.com/

It was 14 January 1945, I think, when we saw some German soldiers driving wagons loaded down with suitcases and bags. Trudging behind the wagons came the German officers – dirty, without their belts, with drooping heads and downcast eyes, which they would only lift now and then to see what lay ahead. We didn’t know what it meant; we thought some German unit was intending to put up here.

We were worried; the idea of having Germans right under our noses was no cause for joy. All of a sudden there was a knock at the door. I opened and two officers stepped in, as dirty as the others, with no weapons or any insignia. They sat down and asked for some coffee. Katarzyna lit a fire. They asked me if I was from Warsaw. I nodded my head.

They offered me a little roll of candy drops. The idea of taking anything from them disgusted me, so I placed the candy on the stove behind the pots, and there it sat until it melted into a smoking red magma that seemed to me a kind of symbol for the bloody martyrdom of the jewish nation.

I looked those two representatives of German culture right in the eye; I studied them closely and could not fathom how these people, who were created in the likeness of other people on earth, could commit the kind of bestial deeds we all knew so well, of which the mere recollection causes us to shudder.

One of them was a real chatterbox. He started to tell me he had walked all the way from Stalingrad, where the Germans had disgraced themselves by losing the battle. Now he was probably going to continue escaping on foot all the way to Berlin, because Ivan (the Soviet army) was already in Nowe Miasto.

That bit of news took me completely aback. I stared at him so wide-eyed I must have looked half crazed, because he tugged his comrade by the sleeve and said, “Look at the impression my bit of news has made on this woman, Is she scared or what?”

Impression? Who knows how it feels to be condemned to death and placed in front of the firing squad when suddenly a messenger comes racing up at the last moment carrying a pardon? Truly the Germans words were like a pardon for those of us who had been condemned to die. Now I no longer cared about him. I understood what the wagons loaded with suitcases meant: They were running away, they had been beaten. For us this meant the first spark of freedom.

Freedom! The word had lost all meaning for me. I turned away from the German and joined my husband and son in the corner. Their faces, too, showed unbounded astonishment and joy that the long-awaited moment had finally arrived – and calmly with no more slaughter or battles or similar horrors.

The Germans left. I was overcome by a nervous trembling; I was shivering as with fever. Maybe the moment wasn’t so close after all. Maybe something unexpected would happen. Maybe tragic moments were still in store for us.

Should we go to Nowe Miasto? Or were the Germans killing people on the road? Maybe they’re going to burn down the village without letting anybody out. What should we do? How should we proceed? It was too much for me to handle, I just kept going in circles doing nothing.

Meanwhile my son and husband were laughing, and saying that the Germans wouldn’t hurt us; they just wanted to get away as quickly as possible. We were crazy, utterly intoxicated with the news, to the point of being delirious. Nobody gave a thought to peat or potatoes, although we didn’t have anything; we just stood by the window and watched the fleeing Germans.
- See more at: http://ww2today.com/#sthash.iotGBBe7.dpuf

For those who actually care about this other than as an excuse to act like assholes.


yrs,
rubato

[rubato]

It's been busy lately so I missed this one. Some doughty Scots doing good service in bad conditions on Jan 12th 1945.


http://ww2today.com/12-january-1945-bat ... f-the-year

Those Scots are tough.

yrs,
rubato

[BoSoxGal]

Why are you always tearing down the UK's contributions to the WWII effort, rubato???

[rubato]

Just relating what the website says:


Today it is an account by someone called a "Highlander" about the death march of the POWs. The kind of thing that might lead to residual bad feelings towards Germans overall, cause resentment, bitterness even.

http://ww2today.com/


But in the intervening 70 years we have learned that it is not being German ( or Japanese ) that is the problem. Perhaps in 70 years we will figure out that it is not being Muslim that is the problem; if we live that long.


yrs,
rubato

[Lord Jim]

For those who actually care about this other than as an excuse to act like assholes.


yrs,
rubato

Gee rube, nobody's posted anything here for nearly a week, and then you post this...

You couldn't possibly be trying to stir up shit again, could you rube?

Nah, a guy with your centered belief in his place in this world and universe would never do a thing like that...

[rubato]

An account of Norvegian acts of bravery against the Nazi menace.

http://ww2today.com/


yrs,
rubato