The Vikings : Should They Be Forgiven?

[Forty Two]

I never even hinted that my inner forum's court followed anything like what you deem due process. charges were brought along with evidence, and a decision was rendered. So yeah, pretty much star chamber style.

That's mighty French of you.

will you have a croissant with that?

Vile viennoiserie.

[Animavore]

I think I get my anti-Christian gene from a Viking ancestor somewhere.

[Brian Peacock]

What have the Vikings ever done for us?

[Svartalf]

explored Mars?

[Hermit]

explored Mars?

[Hermit]

...if there is one way everyone describes French colonial rule it's "benign, enlightened, compassionate good government."

You're mistaking France for Belgium. "Hands" Leopold II was the epitome of the enlightened and benign colonial ruler. The US internalised benign colonial governance was conducted within the nation itself, and it came close to being the Congolese Shangri La. Four million happy Uncle Bens can't be wrong.

[JimC]

Harp Song of the Dane Women

BY RUDYARD KIPLING
Connected to “The Knights of the Joyous Venture”—Puck of Pook’s Hill

What is a woman that you forsake her,
And the hearth-fire and the home-acre,
To go with the old grey Widow-maker?

She has no house to lay a guest in—
But one chill bed for all to rest in,
That the pale suns and the stray bergs nest in.

She has no strong white arms to fold you,
But the ten-times-fingering weed to hold you—
Out on the rocks where the tide has rolled you.

Yet, when the signs of summer thicken,
And the ice breaks, and the birch-buds quicken,
Yearly you turn from our side, and sicken—

Sicken again for the shouts and the slaughters.
You steal away to the lapping waters,
And look at your ship in her winter-quarters.

You forget our mirth, and talk at the tables,
The kine in the shed and the horse in the stables—
To pitch her sides and go over her cables.

Then you drive out where the storm-clouds swallow,
And the sound of your oar-blades, falling hollow,
Is all we have left through the months to follow.

Ah, what is Woman that you forsake her,
And the hearth-fire and the home-acre,
To go with the old grey Widow-maker ?

[pErvinalia]

explored Mars?

[Brian Peacock]

[piscator]

...if there is one way everyone describes French colonial rule it's "benign, enlightened, compassionate good government."

You're mistaking France for Belgium. "Hands" Leopold II was the epitome of the enlightened and benign colonial ruler. The US internalised benign colonial governance was conducted within the nation itself, and it came close to being the Congolese Shangri La. Four million happy Uncle Bens can't be wrong.

The only real colony America ever really had was/is the Philippines, which is like having a couple hundred colonies anyway.
We've colonized Britain, and have outposts on the Welsh frontier, but I don't know if that really counts until we start dictating poli...whoops, sorry...

[Hermit]

...if there is one way everyone describes French colonial rule it's "benign, enlightened, compassionate good government."

You're mistaking France for Belgium. "Hands" Leopold II was the epitome of the enlightened and benign colonial ruler. The US internalised benign colonial governance was conducted within the nation itself, and it came close to being the Congolese Shangri La. Four million happy Uncle Bens can't be wrong.

The only real colony America ever really had was/is the Philippines, which is like having a couple hundred colonies anyway.
We've colonized Britain, and have outposts on the Welsh frontier, but I don't know if that really counts until we start dictating poli...whoops, sorry...

The imported colonies that four million slaves worked on seemed real enough. The chief difference between them and conventional colonies was that the land did not need to be conquered, which made the use of armies unnecessary, though armed force was used - albeit in outsourced form - to bring the workforce in.

These days colonialism is stronger and more expansive than ever. It is not recognised as such because the colonial powers use CEOs as generals and corporations - along with instrumentalities as the IMF and the World Bank - as their regiments, divisions and army groups.

[Forty Two]

What have the Vikings ever done for us?

Raped and pillaged?

[Forty Two]

...if there is one way everyone describes French colonial rule it's "benign, enlightened, compassionate good government."

You're mistaking France for Belgium. "Hands" Leopold II was the epitome of the enlightened and benign colonial ruler. The US internalised benign colonial governance was conducted within the nation itself, and it came close to being the Congolese Shangri La. Four million happy Uncle Bens can't be wrong.

The only real colony America ever really had was/is the Philippines, which is like having a couple hundred colonies anyway.
We've colonized Britain, and have outposts on the Welsh frontier, but I don't know if that really counts until we start dictating poli...whoops, sorry...

You could say Hawaii was a colony. The US first wanted to keep the European colonial powers out of Hawaii. But, once the Hawaiian sugar growers were undercut by mainland American sugar producers, they staged a coup and deposed the Hawaiian queen. Some American marines lent a hand.... to his credit, President Grover Cleveland withdrew the proposed annexation, believing that annexing Hawaii was imperialist, and therefore antiAmerican, and he started an investigation into American wrongdoing. In 1898, though, the Spanish-American War broke out, and the strategic importance of Hawaii was clear, so, President McKinley got the annexation accomplished and 60 years later, wallah, statehood.

The Philippines is the big example of American colonialism, of course, outside of islands like Guam, the Marianas, and American Virgin Islands. But, the Phillies were already a Spanish colony. And, governance went to Merka when Spain lost the war.

[JimC]

A bit like Oz taking over colonial rule of Papua New Guinea from the Germans after the first world war...

[Forty Two]

Maybe the Vikings should be forgiven. After all, Progressive archaeology has revealed that 1/2 of viking warriors were women, so, the Vikings were into equality way before it was cool. http://www.inquisitr.com/1467097/improv ... re-female/ and http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/hal ... e20331819/