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#81
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(Doug Carter) wrote in message . com...
"Rufio" wrote in message news:7R6kd.246522$a85.209030@fed1read04... France has also fought in, kept the peace in, or evacuated civilians from - The French stayed out of Iraq because their corrupt government officials were bought and paid for with Iraq "oil for food" money, *not* because the French people are cowards. FYI: Government corruption rating scores are given at http://www.icgg.org/ (http://www.icgg.org/downloads/Univer...Release_04.pdf) for different countries. France 2004 corruption index is 22 - down from 21 in 2000. For USA it is 17 - down from 14 in 2000. The best score it given to Finland at 1. The worst possible score is 145 for Bangladesh tied with Haiti. |
#82
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And this has what to do with ballooning? Hang-gliding? Homebuilt? IFR?
"Many ages ago our fathers were living in dens and caves. Their bodies, their low foreheads, were covered with hair. They were eating berries, roots, bark and vermin. They were fond of snakes and raw fish. They discovered fire and, probably by accident, learned how to cause it by friction. They found how to warm themselves --- to fight the frost and storm. They fashioned clubs and rude weapons of stone with which they killed the larger beasts and now and then each other. Slowly, painfully, almost imperceptibly they advanced. They crawled and stumbled, staggered and struggled toward the light. To them the world was unknown. On every hand was the mysterious, the sinister, the hurtful. The forests were filled with monsters, and the darkness was crowded with ghosts, devils, and fiendish gods. These poor wretches were the slaves of fear, the sport of dreams. Now and then, one rose a little above his fellows -- used his senses -- the little reason that he had -- found something new -- some better way. Then the people killed him and afterward knelt with reverence at his grave. Then another thinker gave his thought -- was murdered -- another tomb became sacred -- another step was taken in advance. And so through countless years of ignorance and cruelty -- of thought and crime -- of murder and worship, of heroism, suffering, and self-denial, the race has reached the heights where now we stand. Looking back over the long and devious roads that lie between the barbarism of the past and the civilization of to-day, thinking of the centuries that rolled like waves between these distant shores, we can form some idea of what our fathers suffered -- of the mistakes they made -- some idea of their ignorance, their stupidity -- and some idea of their sense, their goodness, their heroism. It is a long road from the savage to the scientist -- from a den to a mansion -- from leaves to clothes -- from a flickering rush to the arc-light -- from a hammer of stone to the modern mill -- a long distance from the pipe of Pan to the violin -- to the orchestra -- from a floating log to the steamship -- from a sickle to a reaper -- from a hand loom to a Jacquard, a Jacquard that weaves fair forms and wondrous flowers beyond Arachne's utmost dream -- from a few hieroglyphics on the skins of beasts, on bricks of clay -- to a printing press, to a library -- a long distance from the messenger, traveling on foot, to the electric spark -- from knives and tools of stone to those of steel -- a long distance from sand to telescopes -- from echo to the phonograph -- a long way from the trumpet to the telephone -- from the dried sinews of beasts to the cables of steel -- from the oar to the propeller -- a long distance from slavery to freedom --from appearance to fact -- from fear to reason. And yet this distance has been traveled by the human race. Whom, what, should we thank? ...Knowing something of the history of man --- here on this day that has been set apart for thanksgiving, I most reverently thank the good men, the good women of the past, I thank the kind fathers, the loving mothers of the savage days. I thank the father who spoke the first gentle word, the mother who first smiled upon her babe. I thank the first true friend. I thank the savages who hunted and fished that they and their babes might live. I thank those who cultivated the ground and changed the forests into farms -- those who built rude homes and watched the faces of their happy children in the glow of fireside flames -- those who domesticated horses, cattle and sheep -- those who invented wheels and looms and taught us to spin and weave -- those who by cultivation changed wild grasses into wheat and corn, changed bitter things to fruit, and worthless weeds to flowers, that sowed within our souls the seeds of art. I thank the poets of the dawn -- the tellers of legends -- the makers of myths -- the singers of joy and grief, of hope and love. I thank the artists who chiseled forms in stone and wrought with light and shade the face of man. I thank the philosophers, the thinkers, who taught us how to use our minds in the great search for truth. I thank the astronomers who explored the heavens, told us the secrets of the stars, the glories of the constellations -- the geologists who found the story of the world in fossil forms, in memoranda kept in ancient rocks, in lines written by waves, by frost and fire -- the anatomists who sought in muscle, nerve and bone for all the mysteries of life -- the chemists who unraveled Nature's work that they might learn her art.... I thank the great inventors -- those who gave us movable type and the press, by means of which great thoughts and all discovered facts are made immortal -- the inventors of engines, of the great ships, of the railways, the cables and telegraphs. I thank the great mechanics, the workers in iron and steel, in wood and stone. I thank the inventors and makers of the numberless things of use and luxury. I thank the industrious men, the loving mothers, the useful women. They are the benefactors of our race. I thank the honest men and women who have expressed their sincere thoughts, who have been true to themselves and have preserved the veracity of their souls. I thank the thinkers of Greece and Rome, Zeno and Epicurus, Cicero and Lucretius. I thank Bruno, the bravest, and Spinoza, the subtlest of men. I thank Voltaire, whose thought lighted a flame in the brain of man, unlocked the doors of superstition's cells and gave liberty to many millions of his fellow-men. Voltaire -- a name that sheds light. Voltaire -- a star that superstition's darkness cannot quench. I thank the great poets -- the dramatists. I thank Homer and Aeschylus, and I thank Shakespeare above them all. I thank Burns for the heart- throbs he changed into songs, for his lyrics of flame. I thank Shelley for this Skylark, Keats for his Grecian Urn and Byron for his Prisoner of Chillon. I thank the great novelists. I thank the great sculptors. I thank the unknown man who moulded and chiseled the Venus de Milo. I thank the great painters. I thank Rembrandt and Corot. I thank all who have adorned, enriched and ennobled life -- all who have created the great, the noble, the heroic and artistic ideals. I thank the statesmen who have preserved the rights of man. I thank Thomas Paine whose genius sowed the seeds of independence in the hearts of '76. I thank the founders, the defenders, the saviors of the Republic. I thank Ericsson, the greatest mechanic of his century, for the monitor. I thank Lincoln for the Proclamation. I thank them all -- the living and the dead. I thank the great scientists -- those who have reached the foundation, the bed-rock -- who have built upon facts. The scientists never persecuted, never imprisoned their fellow-men. They forged no chains, built no dungeons, erected no scaffolds -- tore no flesh with red hot pincers -- dislocated no joints on racks -- crushed no bones in iron boots -- extinguished no eyes -- tore out no tongues and lighted no fagots. They were only intelligent and honest men. They did not appeal to force or fear. They did not regard men as slaves to be ruled by torture, by lash and chain, nor as children to be cheated with illusions, rocked in the cradle of an idiot creed and soothed by a lullaby of lies. They did not wound -- they healed. They did not kill -- they lengthened life. They did not enslave -- they broke the chains and made men free. They sowed the seeds of knowledge, and many millions have reaped, are reaping, and will reap, the harvest of joy. I thank Humboldt and Helmholtz and Haeckel and Buchner. I thank Lamarck and Darwin -- Darwin who revolutionized the thought of the intellectual world. I thank Huxley and Spencer. I thank the scientists one and all. I thank the heroes, the destroyers of prejudice and fear -- the dethroners of savage gods -- the extinguishers of hate's eternal fire -- the heroes, the breakers of chains -- the heroes who fought and fell on countless fields -- the heroes whose dungeons became shrines -- the heroes whose blood made scaffolds sacred -- the heroes, the apostles of reason, the disciples of truth, the soldiers of freedom -- the heroes who held high the holy torch and filled the world with light. With all my heart I thank them all." --- ROBERT G INGERSOLL, 1897 [Excerpted from Volume IV of the 12-Volume Dresden Edition of Robert Ingersoll's writings, The Dresden Publishing Company, New York, 1902.] |
#83
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"Paul Lee" wrote in message om... FYI: Government corruption rating scores are given at http://www.icgg.org/ (http://www.icgg.org/downloads/Univer...Release_04.pdf) for different countries. France 2004 corruption index is 22 - down from 21 in 2000. For USA it is 17 - down from 14 in 2000. The best score it given to Finland at 1. The worst possible score is 145 for Bangladesh tied with Haiti. Tell ma again where this has a rec.aviation balloon content? Tex |
#84
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"Mark Jones" wrote in message ... And this has what to do with ballooning? Hang-gliding? Homebuilt? IFR? Damned nonsense and OFF TOPIC, I agree. Tex |
#85
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"Tex Houston" wrote in message ...
"Paul Lee" wrote in message om... FYI: Government corruption rating scores are given at http://www.icgg.org/ (http://www.icgg.org/downloads/Univer...Release_04.pdf) for different countries. France 2004 corruption index is 22 - down from 21 in 2000. For USA it is 17 - down from 14 in 2000. The best score it given to Finland at 1. The worst possible score is 145 for Bangladesh tied with Haiti. Tell ma again where this has a rec.aviation balloon content? Tex You are right. These threads should not be in these groups. I just reacted to unfair ethnic bashing. That was my first posting in the thread and I did not start this thread. So why pick on me? However, if I was you, I would not get my baloon parts from Bangladesh or Haiti. |
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